Mevania, now called Bevagna, is a small town in Umbria, and here this James was born in the year 1220, of the family of the Bianconi. His future holiness was foreshadowed in his childhood, and a reconciliation of the Bianconi to the Alberti, with whom they had quarrelled, was attributed to his youthful prayers. When he was sixteen, two Dominicans came to Bevagna to preach during Lent, and the boy was attracted by what he heard of the life of the preachers and by their discourses; he considered the matter over and over and when, after his communion on Maundy Thursday, he was saying Psalm 118, the appositeness of the thirty-third verse struck him, "Set before me for a law the way of thy justifications, 0 Lord, and I will always seek after it." He went to one of the friars and opened his mind, and was recommended to watch all that night before the Blessed Sacrament in the Easter sepulchre, asking for light, and to await the will of God. This he did, and as he slept on the eve of Holy Saturday St Dominic appeared to him and said, "Do it! According to God's will I choose you, and will be ever with you".
When the friars returned to their house at Spoleto James went with them. In due course he was given permission to establish a house of his order at Bevagna, of which he became prior. The neighbourhood gave ample scope for the labours of the friars, and after the town had been sacked by the Emperor Frederick II in 1248 Bd James more than ever endeared himself to the people by his solicitude for them in their misfortunes. This was a time of recrudescence of Manichean errors, and a particularly pestilential sect of antinomians was active in Umbria; James set out to combat it with great energy, and succeeded in inducing one of its leaders to make a public repudiation of his heresy at Orte. Bd James was very strict in his observance of his vow of poverty, and when his mother gave him some money to buy a new habit, which he badly needed, he got permission from his superior to buy a crucifix for his cell instead. When his mother saw the worn-out habit again, she remonstrated with him, but he answered with a smile, "I have done as you wished. St Paul tells us to 'put on the Lord Jesus`, and that is the habit I have bought." But that crucifix was to clothe him in a way he never thought of, for praying before it one day in great dryness and fear of spirit, almost despairing of his salvation, it is said that a spurt of blood miraculously sprang from the image over his face, and he heard a voice saying, "Behold the sign of your salvation". Another marvel, reported at his death, is recounted in the notice of Bd Joan of Orvieto, under July 23. Pope Boniface IX approved the cultus of Bd James of Bevagna.
The Bollandists in giving an
account of this beatus (August,
vol. iv) deplore, and not without reason, the lack of any early
biography. The narrative of Father Taigi is certainly full of
legendary matter neither can one feel any more confidence in the Vita del B. Giacomo Bianconi by
Father Piergili (1729) or in that compiled by F. Becchetti or in the
summary given in Procter, Lives of
Dominican Saints. For a fuller bibliography see Taurisano, pp.
23-24.
14th
v. Silvanus (Silouan) of the Kiev CavesThe Holy Schemamonk, zealously
preserved purity of both soul and body; subdued his flesh with fasting
and vigils, and he cleansed his soul with prayer and meditation on
God: Lord granted him an abundance of spiritual gifts: a
prayerful
boldness towards God, constant joy in the Lord, clairvoyance and
wonderworking
The monk lived at the end of the thirteenth and beginning of
the
fourteenth centuries. His relics rest in the Cavescultus approved by Pope Pius IX in 1854. Very little is known about these two Dominican preachers. Their legend tells us that they evangelized the mountainous Somontano region of Moorish Spain near Barbastro, Aragon. One day they were caught in a storm as they travelled from one village to another. The storm loosed the rocks of the cave in which they had sought shelter and they were buried in a landslide. The bells of Perarúa rang out of their own accord, indicating that something remarkable was afoot, and villagers, who ventured out after the storm, found the cave surrounded by lights and angelic music. Digging into the rubble, they found the two Dominicans crushed to death. Miracles surrounded their burials and their tombs at Besians in the diocese of Barbastro, where pilgrims came to pray, especially against the danger from storms. Formerly on Rogation days, and in times of drought, their relics were carried in procession (Benedictines, Dorcy).
1304
Blessed Benedict XI, OP Pope he had "a vast store of knowledge, a
prodigious memory, a penetrating
genius, and (that) everything about him endeared him to all." In 1295,
he received the degree of master of theology As papal legate Nicholas
travelled to Hungary to try to settle a civil war there He worked to
reconcile warring parties in Europe and the Church and to
increase spirituality. His reign, short though it was, was noted for
its leniency and kindness Many miracles were performed at his tomb, and
there were several cures even before his burial (RM)
Born in Treviso, Italy, 1240; died in Perugia, Italy, April 25, 1304; beatified by Pope Clement XII in 1736. Nicholas Boccasini was born into a poor family of which we know little else, though there are several different traditions concerning it. One claims that his father was a poor shepherd. Another that he was an impoverished nobleman. Whichever he was, he died when Nicholas was very small, and the little boy was put in the care of an uncle, a priest at Treviso.
The child proved to be very intelligent, so his uncle had him trained in Latin and other clerical subjects. When Nicholas was ten, his uncle got him a position as tutor to some noble children. He followed this vocation until he was old enough to enter the Dominican community at Venice in 1254. Here, and in various parts of Italy, Nicholas spent the next 14 years, completing his education. It is quite probable that he had Saint Thomas Aquinas for one of his teachers.
Nicholas was pre-eminently a teacher at Venice and Bologna. He did his work well according to several sources, including a testimonial from Saint Antoninus, who said that he had "a vast store of knowledge, a prodigious memory, a penetrating genius, and (that) everything about him endeared him to all." In 1295, he received the degree of master of theology.
The administrative career of Nicholas Boccasini began with
his election
as prior general of Lombardy and then as the ninth master general of
the Order of Preachers in 1296. His work in this office came to the
notice of the pope, who, after Nicholas had completed a delicate piece
of diplomacy in Flanders, appointed him cardinal in 1298.Born in Treviso, Italy, 1240; died in Perugia, Italy, April 25, 1304; beatified by Pope Clement XII in 1736. Nicholas Boccasini was born into a poor family of which we know little else, though there are several different traditions concerning it. One claims that his father was a poor shepherd. Another that he was an impoverished nobleman. Whichever he was, he died when Nicholas was very small, and the little boy was put in the care of an uncle, a priest at Treviso.
The child proved to be very intelligent, so his uncle had him trained in Latin and other clerical subjects. When Nicholas was ten, his uncle got him a position as tutor to some noble children. He followed this vocation until he was old enough to enter the Dominican community at Venice in 1254. Here, and in various parts of Italy, Nicholas spent the next 14 years, completing his education. It is quite probable that he had Saint Thomas Aquinas for one of his teachers.
Nicholas was pre-eminently a teacher at Venice and Bologna. He did his work well according to several sources, including a testimonial from Saint Antoninus, who said that he had "a vast store of knowledge, a prodigious memory, a penetrating genius, and (that) everything about him endeared him to all." In 1295, he received the degree of master of theology.
The Dominicans hurried to Rome to protest that he should not be given the dignity of a cardinal, only to receive from the pope the mystifying prophecy that God had reserved an even heavier burden for Nicholas. As papal legate Nicholas travelled to Hungary to try to settle a civil war there.
Boniface VIII did not always agree with the man he had appointed cardinal-bishop of Ostia and dean of the sacred college. But they respected one another, and in the tragic affair that was shaping up with Philip the Fair of France, Cardinal Boccasini was to be one of only two cardinals who defended the Holy Father, even to the point of offering his life.
Philip the Fair, like
several other monarchs, discovered that his
interests clashed with those of the papacy.
His action was particularly
odious in an age when the papal power had not yet been separated
completely from temporal concerns. The French monarch, who
bitterly hated Boniface, besieged
the pope in
the Castle of Anagni, where he had taken refuge, and demanded that he
resign the papacy. His soldiers even broke into the house and were met
by the pope, dressed in full pontifical vestments and attended by two
cardinals, one of whom was Cardinal Boccasini. For a short time it
looked as though the soldiers, led by Philip's councilor William
Nogaret, might kill all three of them, but they refrained from such a
terrible crime and finally withdrew after Nicholas rallied the papal
forces and rescued Boniface from Anagni.
Cardinal Boccasini set about the difficult task of swinging public opinion to the favor of the pope. Successful at this, he stood sorrowfully by when the pontiff died, broken-hearted by his treatment at the hands of the French soldiers. On October 22, 1303, at the conclave following the death of Boniface, the prophesied burden fell upon the shoulders of the cardinal-bishop of Ostia, who took the name Benedict XI.
The reign of Benedict XI was too short to give him time to work out any of his excellent plans for settling the troubles of the Church. Most of his reign was taken up with undoing the damage done by Philip the Fair. He lifted the interdict on the French people that had been laid down by his predecessor and made an uneasy peace with Philip.
He worked to reconcile
warring
parties
in Europe and the Church and to increase spirituality. His reign, short
though it was, was noted for its leniency and kindness.Cardinal Boccasini set about the difficult task of swinging public opinion to the favor of the pope. Successful at this, he stood sorrowfully by when the pontiff died, broken-hearted by his treatment at the hands of the French soldiers. On October 22, 1303, at the conclave following the death of Boniface, the prophesied burden fell upon the shoulders of the cardinal-bishop of Ostia, who took the name Benedict XI.
The reign of Benedict XI was too short to give him time to work out any of his excellent plans for settling the troubles of the Church. Most of his reign was taken up with undoing the damage done by Philip the Fair. He lifted the interdict on the French people that had been laid down by his predecessor and made an uneasy peace with Philip.
There are few personal
anecdotes regarding Benedict, but at
least one
worth telling. Once, during his pontificate, his mother came to the
papal court to see him. The court attendants decided that she was too
poorly dressed to appear in the presence of the Holy Father, so they
dressed her up in unaccustomed finery before allowing her to see her
son. Benedict, sensing what had happened, told them he did not
recognize this wealthy woman, and he asked them where was the little
widow, pious and poorly dressed, whom he loved so dearly.
Benedict XI died suddenly in 1304. He had continued to the end with his religious observances and penances. Some people believed that he had been poisoned, but there has never been any evidence that this was the case. Many miracles were performed at his tomb, and there were several cures even before his burial (Benedictines, Delaney, Dorcy).
Benedict XI died suddenly in 1304. He had continued to the end with his religious observances and penances. Some people believed that he had been poisoned, but there has never been any evidence that this was the case. Many miracles were performed at his tomb, and there were several cures even before his burial (Benedictines, Delaney, Dorcy).
In art, Pope Benedict wears
a
Dominican habit and papal tiara, while holding the keys. He is
venerated in Perugia (Roeder).
INFORMATION is lacking
about the details of the life of this early Franciscan beatus. He was born at
Arezzo, of the Mariani family, and gave up a secular career to join the
Friars Minor. He was a companion of Bd Benedict of Arezzo, who
had been received into the order by St Francis
himself. Miracles were attributed to Bd Rainerius
during his life, and immediately after his death, at Borgo San Sepoicro
on November I, 1304, the municipality of the town had
an altar set up in his honour and record kept of his
miracles. His cultus was confirmed in i8oz.
Bd Rainerius is dealt with
by the Bollandists on
November 1. They found no record of his life beyond such
brief notices as were supplied by Wadding and other annalists, but they
print from manuscript sources a record of miracles worked at his
tomb. See further Mazzara, Leggendario Francescano (1680),
vol. iii, pp. 295-296 and Leon Aureole
Seraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. iv, pp. 34-35.
1305 Saint Nicholas
of Tolentino Patron of Holy Souls in Purgatory, and, with St. Joseph,
Patron of the Universal Church hundreds of miracles. Born,
1245
Italian Augustinian
monk with visions of Purgatory, miracle-worker,
resurrected over 100 children, Patron of Holy Souls in Purgatory, and,
with St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church. The two arms incorrupt.
His middle-aged parents, were childless until a prayerful visit to a shrine of the original Saint Nicholas at Bari, Italy. In gratitude, they named their son Nicholas.
Italian Augustinian
monk with visions of Purgatory, miracle-worker,
resurrected over 100 children, Patron of Holy Souls in Purgatory, and,
with St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church. The two arms incorrupt.His middle-aged parents, were childless until a prayerful visit to a shrine of the original Saint Nicholas at Bari, Italy. In gratitude, they named their son Nicholas.
Augustinian Friar at age
18, and a student with
Blessed Angelus de Scarpetti. Monk at Recanati and Macerata. Ordained
at age 25. Canon of Saint Saviour's. Had visions of angels reciting "to
Tolentino"; he took this as a sign to move to that city in 1274, where
he lived the rest of his life.
Three hundred and one miracles were recognized during the process.
His tomb has become renowned by many more, despite the fact that his relics have been lost, save for the two arms from which blood still exudes when the Church is menaced by a great danger. This occurred, for example, when the island of Cyprus was taken over by infidels in 1570.
Like Saint Joseph, virginal father of Jesus, has
been declared a Patron of the Universal Church. Worked as a
peacemaker in Tolentino, a city torn by
civil war.
Preached every day, wonder-worker and healer, and visited prisoners. He
always told those he helped, "Say nothing of this." Received visions,
including images of Purgatory, which friends ascribed to his lengthy
fasts. Had a great devotion to the recently dead, praying for the souls
in Purgatory as he traveled around his parish, and often late into the
night.
The "Seven Tolentine Masses" come after an apparition of Virgin Mary who told him to offer them for the Souls of Purgatory. In the first Mass he had a vision of thousands of people in Purgatory suffering horrible torments. In the the seventh Mass he had the same vision but the thousands of people were in Heaven, very joyful singing the glories of God
Once, when severely ill, he had a vision of Mary, Augustine and Monica. They told him to eat a certain type of roll that had been dipped in water. Cured, he began healing others by administering bread over which he recited Marian prayers. The rolls became known as Saint Nicholas Bread, and are still distributed at his shrine.
Holy Mass and Purgatory
Reported to have resurrected over one hundred dead children, including several who had drowned together. Legend says that the devil once beat Nicholas with a stick; the stick was displayed for years in the his church. A vegetarian, Nicholas was once served a roasted fowl; he made the sign of the cross over it, and it flew out a window. Nine passengers on ship going down at sea once asked Nicholas' aid; he appeared in the sky, wearing the black Augustinian habit, radiating golden light, holding a lily in his left hand; with his right hand he quelled the storm. An apparition of the saint once saved the burning palace of the Doge of Venice by throwing a piece of blessed bread on the flames.
The "Seven Tolentine Masses" come after an apparition of Virgin Mary who told him to offer them for the Souls of Purgatory. In the first Mass he had a vision of thousands of people in Purgatory suffering horrible torments. In the the seventh Mass he had the same vision but the thousands of people were in Heaven, very joyful singing the glories of God
Once, when severely ill, he had a vision of Mary, Augustine and Monica. They told him to eat a certain type of roll that had been dipped in water. Cured, he began healing others by administering bread over which he recited Marian prayers. The rolls became known as Saint Nicholas Bread, and are still distributed at his shrine.
Holy Mass and Purgatory
Reported to have resurrected over one hundred dead children, including several who had drowned together. Legend says that the devil once beat Nicholas with a stick; the stick was displayed for years in the his church. A vegetarian, Nicholas was once served a roasted fowl; he made the sign of the cross over it, and it flew out a window. Nine passengers on ship going down at sea once asked Nicholas' aid; he appeared in the sky, wearing the black Augustinian habit, radiating golden light, holding a lily in his left hand; with his right hand he quelled the storm. An apparition of the saint once saved the burning palace of the Doge of Venice by throwing a piece of blessed bread on the flames.
Three hundred and one miracles were recognized during the process.
His tomb has become renowned by many more, despite the fact that his relics have been lost, save for the two arms from which blood still exudes when the Church is menaced by a great danger. This occurred, for example, when the island of Cyprus was taken over by infidels in 1570.
Messanæ, in Sicília, sancti Alberti Confessóris, ex Ordine Carmelitárum, miráculis clari.
At Messina in Sicily, St. Albert, confessor of the Carmelite Order, renowned for miracles.
He was born in Trapani, Sicily, joined the Carmelite Order. After ordination, he was sent to nearby Messina, where he gathered thousands with his preaching and miracles. After serving as a missionary, Albert entered a monastic hermitage near Messina where he successfully devoted himself to the conversion of the Jews (Benedictines).
He remained there until his death.
Albert of Trapani, OC (RM) Born in Trapani, Sicily; died 1306; cultus confirmed in 1454. At a very young age, Saint Albert enter the Carmelite monastery of his hometown. After his priestly ordination, he was transferred to the house at Messina, where he successfully devoted himself to the conversion of the Jews (Benedictines).
1307 Bd Joan Of Signa, Virgin
A Number of
miracles are related of this
Franciscan tertiary, but very
few particulars of her life are available. Signa is a village on the
Arno, near
Florence, and Joan was born there about the year 1245. Her parents were
very
poor peasants, and at an early age she was sent out to look after sheep
and
goats. She would collect other herdsfolk round her and talk to them of
the
truths of faith, and urge them to live a Christian life, to which her
own
example was an even better inducement than her simple heart-felt words.
Her
ability to keep dry in wet weather was much talked of, but this seems
to have
been due to the simple expedient of sheltering under a large and thick
tree
when it rained. At the age of twenty-three Bd Joan, possibly inspired
by the
tales she had heard of St Verdiana of Castelfiorentino, who died about
the time
Joan was born, became a solitary in a cell on the banks of the Arno,
not far
from her native place. Here she lived for forty years.
Her reputation for miracles was great, and people came from all the surrounding country to consult her and bring their sick and afflicted. Immediately after her death on November 9, 1307, a cultus sprang up, which was greatly enhanced in 1348 by the attribution of a sudden cessation of an epidemic to her intercession. This cultus was confirmed in 1798.
An anonymous Latin
life is in existence that must have been written about the year 1390. It has been printed by Fr Mencherini in
the Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, vol.
x (1917), pp. 367—386, and also in the Acta Sanctorum, November, vol. iv. Two other
accounts of later date in Italian verse add nothing to our knowledge.
Not only
the Franciscans, but also Vallombrosan monks, the Carmelites and
the
Augustinians have claimed that the recluse was attached to their
respective
orders. On the Vallombrosan case see F. Soldani, Ragguaglio
istorico della B. Giovanna do Signa (1741). The
Franciscan claim can be gathered from Mencherini as above, who supplies
a
bibliography. In the opinion of the Bollandists evidence is lacking
that the
recluse had a definite connection with any order. An account of Bd Joan
is
given by Leon, Aureole Séraphique (Eng.
trans.), vol. iv, pp. 160—164.
Profile
Shepherdess
in her youth. Tertiary, though records
disagree if Franciscan or Vallumbrosan. Born at Segna,
Italy Beatified 1798 (cultus confirmed)
Her tomb is in the church
of St. Francis in
Foligno. Many miracles have been recorded there.
1314
Blessed Emily
Bicchieri frequent ecstasies visions miracles
Born at Vercelli in 1238, and having lost her mother at an early age, put herself under the special protection of the all-holy Mother of God. She refused her father's plans for her to marry and convinced him to build a convent, the first of Dominican regular tertiaries, of which she became abbess when twenty. Having been elected prioress against her will, Blessed Emily governed with tact and ability, and was careful to tell no one to do what she would not do herself. She was noted for her frequent communions (uncommon in those days), her ecstasies and visions, and the miracles attributed to her. She died on her birthday, May 3, at the age of seventy-six, and her cult was approved in 1769
Born at Vercelli in 1238, and having lost her mother at an early age, put herself under the special protection of the all-holy Mother of God. She refused her father's plans for her to marry and convinced him to build a convent, the first of Dominican regular tertiaries, of which she became abbess when twenty. Having been elected prioress against her will, Blessed Emily governed with tact and ability, and was careful to tell no one to do what she would not do herself. She was noted for her frequent communions (uncommon in those days), her ecstasies and visions, and the miracles attributed to her. She died on her birthday, May 3, at the age of seventy-six, and her cult was approved in 1769
1315 Bd Andrew of Borgo San Sepolcro
Andrew D0tri was born at
Borgo San Sepolcro in Tuscany about the year
1250. His family was distinguished (Andrew's brother was a
captain in the bodyguard of King Philip the Fair), and the young man
was brought up accordingly, with no thought of the religious
life. When he was seventeen he became a secular tertiary of the
Servites, and when, a few years afterwards, a general chapter of that
order was held at Borgo San Sepolcro, Andrew naturally went to hear the
prior genetal, St Philip Benizi, preach. His text was, "Every one
of you that doth not renounce all that he possesseth cannot be my
disciple", and his eloquence and fire touched Andrew's heart; he
offered himself to St Philip, was accepted, and became a Servite
friar. After he was ordained he was attached to a monastery
governed by St Gerard Sostegni, one of seven founders of the order,
and from thence he preached with success throughout the surrounding
country and accompanied St Philip Benizi on several of his missionary
journeys. Bd Andrew prepared a number of hermits who were living a
rather go-as-you-please life at Vallucola to affiliate themselves to
the Servites and submit to their discipline, and over these he was
appointed superior, until his services were again required for
preaching and as prior of various houses. In 1310 he was present
at the death of St Alexis Falconieri, the principal founder of the
Servites, at Monte Senario, and so great was the impression made on him
that he asked permission to retire to a hermitage and prepare for his
own end, though he was barely sixty.
Bd Andrew lived with great penance and was the recipient of many visions, including a forewarning of his own death; when the day came he was apparently in good health, and he went out to a certain rock where he was wont to give conferences to his brethren. When they assembled there they found their beloved father kneeling motionless on the rock apparently in ecstasy; but he was dead. He was buried in the church at Borgo San Sepolcro, where the popular veneration for his holiness was confirmed by miracles, and in 1806 Pope Pius VII approved the ancient cultus.
Bd Andrew lived with great penance and was the recipient of many visions, including a forewarning of his own death; when the day came he was apparently in good health, and he went out to a certain rock where he was wont to give conferences to his brethren. When they assembled there they found their beloved father kneeling motionless on the rock apparently in ecstasy; but he was dead. He was buried in the church at Borgo San Sepolcro, where the popular veneration for his holiness was confirmed by miracles, and in 1806 Pope Pius VII approved the ancient cultus.
A full account is given in
A. Giani, Annales Ordinis Servorum
B.V.M.,
vol. i, especially pp. 230-231; see also DHG., vol. ii, c.
1663; and P. Battini, Vita del b.
Andrea Dotti (1808).
Companion of St. Philip Benizi He was born in San
Sepolcro,
Tuscany, Italy, to a noble
family, becoming a
Servite religious at the age of seventeen and later one of the Seven
Founders of the congregation of St. Gerard Sostengi Monastery. He also
accompanied St. Philip Benizi on his monastery journeys. Andrew served
as a superior of several Servite monasteries but retired in 1310 to a
hermitage at Montevecchio. He was a mystic and was granted visions
. 1317 St. Agnes of
Montepulciano
Nun foundress in Tuscany noted for her visions (of Christ the Blessed
Virgin and angels) levitations performed miracles for the faithful
(1435 - incorrupt)
In
Monte Politiáno,
in Túscia, sanctæ
Agnétis Vírginis, ex Ordine sancti Domínici,
miráculis claræ. At Monte Pulciano, St. Agnes, a virgin of
the Order of St. Dominic, celebrated for her miracles.
She was born circa
1268 and at the age of nine entered the
monastery of
Montepulciano, near her home in Gracchiano-Vecchio. Four years later
she was commissioned by Pope Nicholas IV to assist in the foundation of
a new convent in Procena. At fifteen she became the head of the nuns
there. About 1300, the people of Montepulciano built a new convent in
order to lure Agnes back to them. She established a convent under the
Dominican rule and governed there until her death in 1317. Agnes was noted for her visions. She held the infant Christ in her arms and received Holy Communion from an angel. She experienced levitations and she performed miracles for the faithful of the region. She is still revered in Tuscany.
Agnes of Montepulciano,
OP V
(RM) Born in Gracchiano-Vecchio, Tuscany,
Italy, in 1268; died at Montepulciano, Tuscany, on April 20, 1317;
canonized by Benedict XIII in 1726.
Agnes was not a child martyr like her Roman patroness but she exhibited the same simplicity, and some of her best-known legends concern her childhood. Her birth into the wealthy de Segni family was announced by great lights surrounding the house where she was born. From her infancy she was especially marked for dedication to God: she would spend hours reciting Pater Nosters and Ave Marias on her knees in the corner of some room. By the time Agnes was six, she was already urging her parents to let her enter the convent. When they assured her that she was much too young, she begged them to move to nearby Montepulciano, so she could make frequent visits to the convent.
Agnes was not a child martyr like her Roman patroness but she exhibited the same simplicity, and some of her best-known legends concern her childhood. Her birth into the wealthy de Segni family was announced by great lights surrounding the house where she was born. From her infancy she was especially marked for dedication to God: she would spend hours reciting Pater Nosters and Ave Marias on her knees in the corner of some room. By the time Agnes was six, she was already urging her parents to let her enter the convent. When they assured her that she was much too young, she begged them to move to nearby Montepulciano, so she could make frequent visits to the convent.
Because of the local
political
instability, her father was unwilling to move from his safe haven but
did allow his little girl to visit with the sisters occasionally.
On one of these visits an event occurred that all the chroniclers record as being prophetic. Little Agnes was traveling in Montepulciano with her mother and the women of the household, and, as they passed a hill on which stood a bordello, a flock of crows swooped down and attacked the girl. Screaming and plunging, they managed to scratch and frighten her badly before the women drove them away. Upset by the incident, but devoutly sure of themselves, the women said that the birds must have been devils, and that they resented the purity and goodness of little Agnes, who would one day drive them from that hilltop.
During this time Agnes reached a high degree of contemplative prayer and was favored with many visions. One of the loveliest is the one for which her legend is best known: the occasion of a visit from the Blessed Virgin. Our Lady came with the Holy Infant in her arms, and allowed Agnes to hold Him and caress Him. Unwilling to let Him go, Agnes hung on when Our Lady reached to take Him back. When she awakened from the ecstasy, Our Lady and her Holy Child were gone, but Agnes was still clutching tightly the little gold cross He had worn on a chain about His neck. She kept it as a precious treasure.
Another time, Our Lady gave her three small stones and told her that she should use them to build a convent some day. Agnes was not at the moment even thinking about going elsewhere, and said so, but Our Lady told her to keep the stones--three, in honor of the Blessed Trinity--and one day she would need them.
On one of these visits an event occurred that all the chroniclers record as being prophetic. Little Agnes was traveling in Montepulciano with her mother and the women of the household, and, as they passed a hill on which stood a bordello, a flock of crows swooped down and attacked the girl. Screaming and plunging, they managed to scratch and frighten her badly before the women drove them away. Upset by the incident, but devoutly sure of themselves, the women said that the birds must have been devils, and that they resented the purity and goodness of little Agnes, who would one day drive them from that hilltop.
Agnes did, in fact, build a
convent there in later years.
When she was nine, Agnes
insisted that the time had come to enter the
convent del Sacco. She was allowed to go to a group of Franciscans in
Montepulciano, whose dress was the ultimate in primitive simplicity:
they were known, from the cut of the garment, as the Sacchine or
'sisters of the sack.' The high-born daughter of the Segni was not at
all appalled at the crude simplicity with which they followed their
Father Francis; she rejoiced in it. Her religious formation was
entrusted to an experienced older sister named Margaret, and Agnes soon
edified the whole house by her exceptional progress. For five years she
enjoyed the only complete peace she would ever have; she was appointed
bursar at the age of 14, and she never again was without some
responsibility to others.During this time Agnes reached a high degree of contemplative prayer and was favored with many visions. One of the loveliest is the one for which her legend is best known: the occasion of a visit from the Blessed Virgin. Our Lady came with the Holy Infant in her arms, and allowed Agnes to hold Him and caress Him. Unwilling to let Him go, Agnes hung on when Our Lady reached to take Him back. When she awakened from the ecstasy, Our Lady and her Holy Child were gone, but Agnes was still clutching tightly the little gold cross He had worn on a chain about His neck. She kept it as a precious treasure.
Another time, Our Lady gave her three small stones and told her that she should use them to build a convent some day. Agnes was not at the moment even thinking about going elsewhere, and said so, but Our Lady told her to keep the stones--three, in honor of the Blessed Trinity--and one day she would need them.
Some time after this, a
new Franciscan convent opened in Procena, near
Orvieto, and the sisters there asked the ones of Montepulciano to send
them a mother superior. Sister Margaret was selected, but stipulated
that Agnes must be allowed to come to help her in the foundation of the
new community. There Agnes served as housekeeper -- a highly
responsible position for a 14-year-old! Soon many other girls joined
the convent at Procena simply became they knew that Agnes was there.
To the distress of young Agnes, she was elected abbess. Since she was only 15, a special dispensation was needed--and provided by Pope Nicholas IV--to allow her to take the office. On the day when she was consecrated abbess, great showers of tiny white crosses fluttered down on the chapel and the people in it. It seemed to show the favor of heaven on this somewhat extraordinary situation.
For 20 years, Agnes lived in Procena, happy in her retreat and privileged to penetrate the secrets of God in her prayer. She was a careful superior, as well as a mystic; several times she worked miracles to increase the house food supply when it was low. The nun's self-discipline was legendary. She lived on bread and water for fifteen years. She slept on the floor with a stone for a pillow. It is said that in her visions angels gave her Holy Communion.
Once her visions of Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and angels had become known, the citizens of Montepulciano called her back for a short stay. She went willingly enough, though she hated leaving the peace of her cloister for the confusion of travelling. She had just settled down, on her return, with the hope that she had made her last move and could now stay where she was, when obedience again called her back to Montepulciano--this time to build a new convent. A revelation had told her that she was to leave the Franciscans, among whom she had been very happy, and that she and her future sisters should become Dominicans.
In 1306, Agnes returned to Montepulciano to put the Lord's request into action: she was to build a convent on the former site of the brothels. All she had for the building of the convent were the three little stones given her by the Blessed Virgin, and Agnes--who had been bursar and knew something about money--realized that she was going to have to rely heavily on the support of heaven in her building project.
After a long quarrel with the inhabitants of the hilltop she wanted for her foundation, the land was finally secured, and the Servite prior laid the first stone, leaving her to worry about from where the rest of the stones would come. Agnes saw the project to its completion. The church and convent of Santa Maria Novella were ready for dedication in record time, and a growing collection of aspirants pleaded for admittance to the new convent.
To the distress of young Agnes, she was elected abbess. Since she was only 15, a special dispensation was needed--and provided by Pope Nicholas IV--to allow her to take the office. On the day when she was consecrated abbess, great showers of tiny white crosses fluttered down on the chapel and the people in it. It seemed to show the favor of heaven on this somewhat extraordinary situation.
For 20 years, Agnes lived in Procena, happy in her retreat and privileged to penetrate the secrets of God in her prayer. She was a careful superior, as well as a mystic; several times she worked miracles to increase the house food supply when it was low. The nun's self-discipline was legendary. She lived on bread and water for fifteen years. She slept on the floor with a stone for a pillow. It is said that in her visions angels gave her Holy Communion.
Once her visions of Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and angels had become known, the citizens of Montepulciano called her back for a short stay. She went willingly enough, though she hated leaving the peace of her cloister for the confusion of travelling. She had just settled down, on her return, with the hope that she had made her last move and could now stay where she was, when obedience again called her back to Montepulciano--this time to build a new convent. A revelation had told her that she was to leave the Franciscans, among whom she had been very happy, and that she and her future sisters should become Dominicans.
In 1306, Agnes returned to Montepulciano to put the Lord's request into action: she was to build a convent on the former site of the brothels. All she had for the building of the convent were the three little stones given her by the Blessed Virgin, and Agnes--who had been bursar and knew something about money--realized that she was going to have to rely heavily on the support of heaven in her building project.
After a long quarrel with the inhabitants of the hilltop she wanted for her foundation, the land was finally secured, and the Servite prior laid the first stone, leaving her to worry about from where the rest of the stones would come. Agnes saw the project to its completion. The church and convent of Santa Maria Novella were ready for dedication in record time, and a growing collection of aspirants pleaded for admittance to the new convent.
Agnes had become convinced
that the community must be anchored in an
established Rule in order to attain permanence. She explained that the
rule was to be Dominican, not Franciscan. All the necessary
arrangements were made, she was established as prioress, the Dominicans
agreed to provide chaplains and direction, and the new community
settled down. They had barely established the regular life when one of
the walls of the new building collapsed. It was discovered that the
builders had cheated, and that the whole convent was in danger of
falling on top of them. Agnes met the new problem with poise. She had
many friends in Montepulciano by this time, and they rallied to rebuild
the house.
When the convent was once again completed, and had become, as hoped, a dynamo of prayer and penance, Agnes decided to go to Rome on pilgrimage. It is interesting to note that Second Order convents of the 14th century were so flexible in the matter of enclosure. She made the trip to Rome and visited the shrines of the martyrs. The pope was at Avignon, so she did not have the happiness of talking to him. But she returned to Montepulciano full of happiness for having seen the holy places of Rome.
At the age of 49, Agnes's health began to fail rapidly. She was taken for treatment to the baths at Chianciano--accompanied, as it says in the rule, by 'two or three sisters'--but the baths did her no good. She did perform a miracle while there, restoring to life a child who had fallen into the baths and drowned.
Agnes returned to Montepulciano to die in the night. When she knew she was dying after a long and painful illness, Agnes told her grieving nuns that they should rejoice, for, she said, "You will discover that I have not abandoned you. You will possess me for ever." The children of the city wakened and cried out, "Holy Sister Agnes is dead!" She was buried in Montepulciano, where her tomb soon became a place of pilgrimage.
One of the most famous pilgrims to visit her tomb was Saint Catherine of Siena, who went to venerate the saint and also, probably, to visit her niece, Eugenia, who was a nun in the convent there. As she bent over the body of Saint Agnes to kiss the foot, she was amazed to see Agnes raise her foot so that Catherine did not have to stoop so far!
In 1435, her incorrupt body was translated to the Dominican church at Orvieto, where it remains today. Clement VIII approved her office for the use of the order of St. Dominic, and inserted her name in the Roman Martyrology (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Dorcy, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth, Walsh).
In art, Saint Agnes is a Dominican abbess (white habit, black mantle) with a lamb, lily, and book. She might also be portrayed (1) gazing at the Cross, a lily at her feet, (2) with the Virgin and Child appearing to her; (3) with the sick healed at her tomb (Roeder); (4) with Saint Catherine of Siena; or (5) as patroness of Montepulciano, of which she holds a model in her hand. Tiepolo presents Agnes as one of the saints surrounding the Blessed Virgin in the Jesuit church at Venice, Italy (Farmer). She is venerated at Montepulciano (Roeder).
When the convent was once again completed, and had become, as hoped, a dynamo of prayer and penance, Agnes decided to go to Rome on pilgrimage. It is interesting to note that Second Order convents of the 14th century were so flexible in the matter of enclosure. She made the trip to Rome and visited the shrines of the martyrs. The pope was at Avignon, so she did not have the happiness of talking to him. But she returned to Montepulciano full of happiness for having seen the holy places of Rome.
At the age of 49, Agnes's health began to fail rapidly. She was taken for treatment to the baths at Chianciano--accompanied, as it says in the rule, by 'two or three sisters'--but the baths did her no good. She did perform a miracle while there, restoring to life a child who had fallen into the baths and drowned.
Agnes returned to Montepulciano to die in the night. When she knew she was dying after a long and painful illness, Agnes told her grieving nuns that they should rejoice, for, she said, "You will discover that I have not abandoned you. You will possess me for ever." The children of the city wakened and cried out, "Holy Sister Agnes is dead!" She was buried in Montepulciano, where her tomb soon became a place of pilgrimage.
One of the most famous pilgrims to visit her tomb was Saint Catherine of Siena, who went to venerate the saint and also, probably, to visit her niece, Eugenia, who was a nun in the convent there. As she bent over the body of Saint Agnes to kiss the foot, she was amazed to see Agnes raise her foot so that Catherine did not have to stoop so far!
In 1435, her incorrupt body was translated to the Dominican church at Orvieto, where it remains today. Clement VIII approved her office for the use of the order of St. Dominic, and inserted her name in the Roman Martyrology (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Dorcy, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth, Walsh).
In art, Saint Agnes is a Dominican abbess (white habit, black mantle) with a lamb, lily, and book. She might also be portrayed (1) gazing at the Cross, a lily at her feet, (2) with the Virgin and Child appearing to her; (3) with the sick healed at her tomb (Roeder); (4) with Saint Catherine of Siena; or (5) as patroness of Montepulciano, of which she holds a model in her hand. Tiepolo presents Agnes as one of the saints surrounding the Blessed Virgin in the Jesuit church at Venice, Italy (Farmer). She is venerated at Montepulciano (Roeder).
1319 Blessed
Simon
Ballachi Dominican lay-brother at age 27 visitors came to him in
the silence of the night: Saint Catherine of
Alexandria, to whom he had a special devotion, Saint Dominic and Saint
Peter Martyr, and sometimes the Blessed Virgin herself. His little cell
was radiant with heavenly lights, and sometimes angelic voices could be
heard within OP (AC)
1319 BD SIMON OF RIMINI
SIMON BALLACHI at the age of twenty-seven offered himself to God as a lay-brother in the Dominican friary of Rimini, his native place. Not content with this humble position he still further mortified himself by volunteering to do all the lowliest tasks, and he disciplined his body with an iron chain, offering his pain for the conversion of sinners. He is said to have suffered greatly from diabolical visitations. Simon was principally employed in the garden, but he was also entrusted with the cultivation of young human plants, and would go through the streets with a cross in his hand calling the children to catechism. When he was fifty-seven he was stricken with blindness, and so lived for twelve years, during the last few of which he had to keep to his bed entirely. Bd Simon bore these afflictions with courage and cheerfulness, and was rewarded with the gift of miracles, so that from the day of his death he was venerated as a saint. This cultus was confirmed in 1821.
See
the Acta
Sanctorum, November, vol ii, where a brief account has been
compiled from
the very slender materials available and cf. Procter,
Liver of Dominican Saints, pp. 306-309.
Born at Sant'Arcangelo
near Rimini, Italy, 1250; died November 3, 1319;
declared blessed in 1817 (cultus confirmed in 1821?).The son of Count Ballachi, nephew of two archbishops of Rimini, and brother of a priest, Simon Ballachi became a Dominican lay-brother at age 27. His family was none too happy about this decision because he was supposed to administer the family property and had been trained as a soldier. They couldn't understand why he would abandon the many opportunities life had provided for him. Not only was he throwing away a prestigious position in society, he was not even becoming a priest, which would provide him with a chance for ecclesiastical preferences.
Oblivious to the criticism of his family, Simon readily undertook the life of a lay brother. His principal work, to his great delight, was tending the garden. Having been preoccupied with military training, Simon may never have seen a garden prior to entering the Dominicans. He probably had to learn all the details of the art by trial and error.
But while he tended the friary garden, he continued to plant prayers for his soul. He was adept at seeing God in everything. It is written that he meditated on every act, "so that, while his hands cultivated the herbs and flowers of the earth, his heart might be a paradise of sweet-smelling flowers in the sight of God." He tried to find in everything he handled in the garden some lesson it could teach him about the spiritual life. When the weather was too bad for him to work outside, he swept and cleaned the monastery. Wherever his work took him, he tried to do it well and to efface himself completely, so that no one would even notice that he was there.
Under the placid exterior
of a gardener, Simon concealed a spiritual
life of extraordinary austerity and prayer. He worked hard during the
day yet he never excused himself from rising for the night office, nor
from severe penance. For 20 years he wore an iron chain around his
waist. In Lent, he lived on bread and water. He found extra time for
prayer by foregoing sleep. Like Saint Dominic, he scourged himself
every night. Of course, all this growth in holiness attracted the
devil, who would attempt to distract Simon.
Other visitors came to him in the silence of the night: Saint Catherine of Alexandria, to whom he had a special devotion, Saint Dominic and Saint Peter Martyr, and sometimes the Blessed Virgin herself. His little cell was radiant with heavenly lights, and sometimes angelic voices could be heard within.
Simon was blinded at age 57 and became helpless for the last years of his life, yet he never despaired (Benedictines, Dorcy).
Other visitors came to him in the silence of the night: Saint Catherine of Alexandria, to whom he had a special devotion, Saint Dominic and Saint Peter Martyr, and sometimes the Blessed Virgin herself. His little cell was radiant with heavenly lights, and sometimes angelic voices could be heard within.
Simon was blinded at age 57 and became helpless for the last years of his life, yet he never despaired (Benedictines, Dorcy).
(also known as Blessed
Francuccia) Born at Arezzo, Italy; cultus
confirmed in 1890. At the age of 13, Francuccia entered the Benedictine
monastery of Saint Mark in her hometown and took the name Justina.
After a time she moved to All Saints Convent. For a time she lived as a
recluse at Civitella before returning to the community at All Saints
(Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
1319 BD JUSTINA OF AREZZO, VIRGIN Diseases and sufferings of many kinds were cured through the prayers of Bd Justina, and still more wonderful miracles of healing were wrought after her death
JUSTINA OF Arezzo, whose name in the world appears to have been Francuccia Bizzoli, was only thirteen years old when she entered the Benedictine convent of St Mark in Arezzo. When the nuns overflowed into the convent of All Saints she accompanied them and continued to live there for many years, ever advancing in the paths of holiness. Then she left the convent with the permission of her superiors and made her way to a cell near Civitella, where she joined a holy anchoress called Lucia. This cell was so narrow and low that they could not both stand upright in it. When Lucia fell ill, Justina nursed her day and night for over a year without giving up any of her devotions and austerities. After Lucia’s death Justina remained all alone in the cell, in spite of the wolves that howled around and leaped on to the roof, until she developed a painful affection of the eyes which ended in total blindness. She was then taken from the hermitage back to Arezzo, where she and several other sisters lived in great self-abnegation and from midnight to midday served God in unbroken prayer. Diseases and sufferings of many kinds were cured through the prayers of Bd Justina, and still more wonderful miracles of healing were wrought after her death. She died in 1319 and her cultus was approved in 1890.
1319 BD JUSTINA OF AREZZO, VIRGIN Diseases and sufferings of many kinds were cured through the prayers of Bd Justina, and still more wonderful miracles of healing were wrought after her death
JUSTINA OF Arezzo, whose name in the world appears to have been Francuccia Bizzoli, was only thirteen years old when she entered the Benedictine convent of St Mark in Arezzo. When the nuns overflowed into the convent of All Saints she accompanied them and continued to live there for many years, ever advancing in the paths of holiness. Then she left the convent with the permission of her superiors and made her way to a cell near Civitella, where she joined a holy anchoress called Lucia. This cell was so narrow and low that they could not both stand upright in it. When Lucia fell ill, Justina nursed her day and night for over a year without giving up any of her devotions and austerities. After Lucia’s death Justina remained all alone in the cell, in spite of the wolves that howled around and leaped on to the roof, until she developed a painful affection of the eyes which ended in total blindness. She was then taken from the hermitage back to Arezzo, where she and several other sisters lived in great self-abnegation and from midnight to midday served God in unbroken prayer. Diseases and sufferings of many kinds were cured through the prayers of Bd Justina, and still more wonderful miracles of healing were wrought after her death. She died in 1319 and her cultus was approved in 1890.
All that we know of Bd
Justina is contained in the short life printed in the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii.
also known as Margaret of Metola) Born in at Meldola (or Metola, diocese of S. Angelo), Umbria, Italy, in 1287; cultus approved in 1609.
Margaret was born blind
into a
poor, mountain family, who were
embittered by her affliction. When she was five years old, they made a
pilgrimage to the tomb of a holy Franciscan at Castello to pray for a
cure. The miracle failing, they abandoned their daughter in the church
of Città-di-Castello and returned to their home.
Margaret was passed from family to family until she was
adopted by a
kindly peasant woman named Grigia, who had a large family of her own. Margaret's natural
sweetness and goodness soon made themselves felt,
and she more than repaid the family for their kindness to her. She was
an influence for good in any group of children. She stopped their
quarrels, heard their catechism, told them stories, taught them Psalms
and prayers. Busy neighbors were soon borrowing her to soothe a sick
child or to establish peace in the house.
Her reputation for holiness was so great that a community of sisters in the town asked for her to become one of them. Margaret went happily to join them, but, unfortunately, there was little fervor in the house. The little girl who was so prayerful and penitential was a reproach to their lax lives, so Margaret returned to Grigia, who gladly welcomed her home.
Later, Margaret was received as a Dominican Tertiary and clothed with the religious habit. Grigia's home became the rendezvous site of troubled souls seeking Margaret's prayers. She said the Office of the Blessed Virgin and the entire Psalter by heart, and her prayers had the effect of restoring peace of mind to the troubled.
Denied earthly sight, Margaret was favored with heavenly visions. "Oh, if you only knew what I have in my heart!" she often said. The mysteries of the rosary, particularly the joyful mysteries, were so vivid to her that her whole person would light up when she described the scene. She was often in ecstasy, and, despite great joys and favors in prayer, she was often called upon to suffer desolation and interior trials of frightening sorts. The devil tormented her severely at times, but she triumphed over these sufferings.
A number of miracles were performed by Blessed Margaret. On one occasion, while she was praying in an upper room, Grigia's house caught fire, and she called to Margaret to come down. The blessed, however, called to her to throw her cloak on the flames. This she did, and the blaze died out. At another time, she cured a sister who was losing her eyesight.
Beloved by her adopted family and by her neighbors and friends, Margaret died at the early age of 33. From the time of her death, her tomb in the Dominican church was a place of pilgrimage. Her body, even to this day, is incorrupt.
After her death, the fathers received permission to have her heart opened. In it were three pearls, having holy figures carved upon them. They recalled the saying so often on the lips of Margaret: "If you only knew what I have in my heart!" (Attwater2, Benedictines, Dorcy).
In art, Margaret is pictured as Dominican tertiary holding a
cross,
lily, heart with 2 flames offered to the crucifix (Roeder).Her reputation for holiness was so great that a community of sisters in the town asked for her to become one of them. Margaret went happily to join them, but, unfortunately, there was little fervor in the house. The little girl who was so prayerful and penitential was a reproach to their lax lives, so Margaret returned to Grigia, who gladly welcomed her home.
Later, Margaret was received as a Dominican Tertiary and clothed with the religious habit. Grigia's home became the rendezvous site of troubled souls seeking Margaret's prayers. She said the Office of the Blessed Virgin and the entire Psalter by heart, and her prayers had the effect of restoring peace of mind to the troubled.
Denied earthly sight, Margaret was favored with heavenly visions. "Oh, if you only knew what I have in my heart!" she often said. The mysteries of the rosary, particularly the joyful mysteries, were so vivid to her that her whole person would light up when she described the scene. She was often in ecstasy, and, despite great joys and favors in prayer, she was often called upon to suffer desolation and interior trials of frightening sorts. The devil tormented her severely at times, but she triumphed over these sufferings.
A number of miracles were performed by Blessed Margaret. On one occasion, while she was praying in an upper room, Grigia's house caught fire, and she called to Margaret to come down. The blessed, however, called to her to throw her cloak on the flames. This she did, and the blaze died out. At another time, she cured a sister who was losing her eyesight.
Beloved by her adopted family and by her neighbors and friends, Margaret died at the early age of 33. From the time of her death, her tomb in the Dominican church was a place of pilgrimage. Her body, even to this day, is incorrupt.
After her death, the fathers received permission to have her heart opened. In it were three pearls, having holy figures carved upon them. They recalled the saying so often on the lips of Margaret: "If you only knew what I have in my heart!" (Attwater2, Benedictines, Dorcy).
Especially noteworthy is this, that in the year 1319 he translated into the Slavonic language and ordered into use in Serbia the Typikon (Ustav) of Saint Sava the Sanctified, of Jerusalem. Sainted Nikodim died in the year 1325.
St Nicodemus, Archbishop
of Pec (May 11)
SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
This great hierarch was a Serb by birth. He lived in asceticism on the Holy Mountain, and was abbot of Hilandar. After the death of Sava the Third, he was chosen as archbishop of `all the Serbian lands and those bordering the sea', in 1317. He crowned King Milutin in 1321. He also translated the Jerusalem Typikon* into Serbian. In the Preface of this book he says: `Almighty God, who knows our weak-nesses, will give us spiritual strength, but only if we first make an effort.' He sincerely loved the ascetic life, and laboured to deepen it in the land of Serbia. He laboured tirelessly to uproot the Bogomil heresy and confirm the Orthodox faith. He entered into rest in the Lord in 1325 and his wonderworking relics are preserved in the monastery at Pec.
*A Typikon is a book of rubrics for the ordering of church services and of monastic life -Translator.
SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
* From "The Prologue from Ochrid", by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic - Lazarica Press - Birmingham 1985 Four Book Edition - Translated by Mother Maria - Dates based on old church calendar
This great hierarch was a Serb by birth. He lived in asceticism on the Holy Mountain, and was abbot of Hilandar. After the death of Sava the Third, he was chosen as archbishop of `all the Serbian lands and those bordering the sea', in 1317. He crowned King Milutin in 1321. He also translated the Jerusalem Typikon* into Serbian. In the Preface of this book he says: `Almighty God, who knows our weak-nesses, will give us spiritual strength, but only if we first make an effort.' He sincerely loved the ascetic life, and laboured to deepen it in the land of Serbia. He laboured tirelessly to uproot the Bogomil heresy and confirm the Orthodox faith. He entered into rest in the Lord in 1325 and his wonderworking relics are preserved in the monastery at Pec.
*A Typikon is a book of rubrics for the ordering of church services and of monastic life -Translator.
SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
* From "The Prologue from Ochrid", by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic - Lazarica Press - Birmingham 1985 Four Book Edition - Translated by Mother Maria - Dates based on old church calendar
1331
BD ODORIC OF PORDENONE IT would not be easy to find in secular
literature a more adventurous career than that of the Franciscan Friar
Odoric of Pordenone. Miracle worker
IT would not be easy to find
in secular literature a more adventurous career than that of the
Franciscan
Friar Odoric of Pordenone. He was a native of Friuli, and his family
name is
said to have been Mattiussi. About the year 1300, when he was fifteen,
he
received the habit of St Francis at Udine, and his later biographers
expatiate
upon the extreme fervour with which he gave himself to prayer, poverty
and
penance. After a while he felt called to serve God in solitude, and he
obtained
the permission to lead the life of a hermit in a remote cell. We are
not told
how long he spent in this close communion with God, but he seems to
have been
guided to return to Udine and to take up apostolic work in the
surrounding
districts. Great success followed his preaching, and crowds gathered
from afar
to hear him. But about 1317, when he was a little over thirty, there
came to
him an inspiration of a somewhat different kind, and it is difficult
from the
documents before us to decide how far he was influenced in his
subsequent
career by a simple spirit of adventure and how far by the burning
desire of the
missionary to extend God’s kingdom and to save souls. We shall probably
not be
wrong in assuming that there was a mixture of both.It
is not easy to give
precise dates, but according to Yule and Cordier he was in western
India soon
after 1322, he must have spent three of the years between 1322 and 1328
in
northern China, and he certainly died at home among his brethren at
Udine in
January 1331.
With
regard to the route he
followed in his wanderings we are better informed. His first objective
was
Constantinople, and from thence he passed on to Trebizond, Erzerum,
Tabriz and
Soltania. There were houses of the order in most of these cities, and
he
probably made a considerable stay in each, so that this part of his
journey may
well have occupied three years. From Soltania he seems to have wandered
about
very irregularly, but eventually he came south through Baghdad to
Hormuz at the
entrance of the Persian Gulf, where he took ship and sailed to
Salsette. At
Tana, or possibly Surat, he gathered up the bones of his four brethren
who had
been martyred there shortly before, in 1321, and carried them with him
on his
voyage eastward. He went on to Malabar and Ceylon, and then probably
rested for
a while at the shrine of St Thomas at Mailapur, by the modern Madras.
Here he
again took ship for Sumatra and Java, possibly also visiting southern
and
eastern Borneo.
China
was his next goal.
Starting from Canton, he travelled to the great ports of Fo-kien, and
from
Fu-chau he proceeded across the mountains to Hang-chau, then
famous under the
name of Quinsai as the greatest city of the world, and Nan-king. Taking
to the
water again upon the great canal at Yang-chau, he made his way to
Khanbaliq, or
Peking, and there remained for three years, attached apparently to one
of the
churches founded by Archbishop John of Montecorvino, another heroic
Franciscan
missionary, now in extreme old age. There Odoric turned his face
homewards,
passing through Shen-si to Tibet and its capital, Lhasa, but we have no
further
record of the course by which he ultimately reached his native province
in
safety. It is interesting to note that during the latter part at least
of these
long journeys Odoric had for his companion an Irish friar of the same
order,
one Brother James. The fact is known to us from a record preserved in
the
archives of Udine, which tells us that after Odoric’s death a present
of two
marks was made “for the love of God and the blessed Brother Odoric” to
Brother
James, the Irishman, who had been his companion on his journey.
The
account which has been
left us of Odoric’s travels, which unfortunately was not written down
by
himself at the time but dictated to one of his brethren after his
return, says
practically nothing of any missionary labours on his part. It is,
therefore,
not certain how far we may credit the wonderful stories which were
current in
later times regarding the success which attended his preaching. Luke
Wadding,
the annalist, declares that he converted and baptized 2o,ooo Saracens,
but he
gives us no idea of the source of his information. It is also stated
that
Odoric’s purpose in leaving China and returning to Europe was to obtain
fresh
supplies of missionaries and to conduct them himself to the Far East.
At Pisa,
however, St Francis appeared to him and bade him return to Udine,
declaring
that he himself would look after those distant missions about which
Odoric was
anxious. On his deathbed the worn-out apostle said that God had made
known to
him that his sins were pardoned, but that he wished, like a humble
child, to
submit himself to the keys of the Church and to receive the last
sacraments.
He died
on January 14, 1331.
Many miracles are said to have been wrought after his death, and in one
of
these we hear again of Brother James the Irishman, for a certain
Franciscan who
was a preacher and doctor of theology at Venice, and had suffered
cruelly from
a painful malady of the throat, asked Brother James to recommend him to
his
late fellow traveller, and was immediately cured. The cultus
long paid to him was approved in 1755.
The
narrative of his journeys, as dictated in Latin by
Bd Odoric, will be found printed in the Acta
Sanctorum for January 14, but the fullest account, with
translation and
notes, will be found in Yule-Cordier, Cathay
and the Way Thither (1913), vol. ii. See also Wadding, Annales,
sa. 1331 ; M. Komroff, Contemporaries
of Marco Polo (1928) ; and H. Matrod, L’itinéraire
. . . du b. Odoric de Pordenone (1936).
There is a fifteenth-century Welsh version of the voyages, ed. S. J.
Williams, Ffordd y Brawd Odrig (1929). Fuller
bibliographies in Yule and in U. Chevalier, Bio-Bibliographie.
(also known as Blessed Maurice of Hungary)
Maurice, Prince of
Hungary, was persecuted by his father-in-law for his
desire to remain in the Dominican Order. He was born into the royal
house of Hungary. There had been many heavenly signs before his birth
that he was to be an unusual favorite of God, but for the first few
years of his life he was so sickly that no one believed he would
survive. By the time he was five, he was a delicate, dreamy child who
played at saying Mass and leading family prayers. The little chapel in
his father's castle was his favorite haunt, and he was always to be
found there between sessions in the schoolroom.
When he was still quite small, an old Dominican came one day to visit his parents, and took a great fancy to the handsome little boy. He told the child the story of Saint Alexis, which greatly impressed him. When Maurice knelt to ask the old priest's blessing, the Dominican said prophetically, "This child will one day enter our holy Order and will be one of its joys."
In spite of the several indications that God had designs on Maurice, circumstances conspired against him. His parents died when he was still quite young, leaving him immensely wealthy and solely in charge of his father's estates. A brother, who had entered the Dominican novitiate, died very young. Relatives prevailed upon Maurice to marry. Against all his wishes, he did so.
When he was still quite small, an old Dominican came one day to visit his parents, and took a great fancy to the handsome little boy. He told the child the story of Saint Alexis, which greatly impressed him. When Maurice knelt to ask the old priest's blessing, the Dominican said prophetically, "This child will one day enter our holy Order and will be one of its joys."
In spite of the several indications that God had designs on Maurice, circumstances conspired against him. His parents died when he was still quite young, leaving him immensely wealthy and solely in charge of his father's estates. A brother, who had entered the Dominican novitiate, died very young. Relatives prevailed upon Maurice to marry. Against all his wishes, he did so.
However, he and his young
wife, the daughter of the Count of Palatine,
made a vow of continence, and both resolved to became Dominicans as
soon as it was possible to dispose of the estates. When his wife fled
to the Isle of Margaret in the Danube, and took the veil in Saint
Margaret's convent, her father was furious. He went in search of the
young husband and found that he, too, had gone to the Dominicans. He
settled the matter in the forthright fashion of the times by kidnapping
Maurice and locking him in a tower. Here, like another Thomas Aquinas, the young novice
settled down to wait until someone tired of the arrangement.
After three months of unfruitful punishment, Maurice was released as incorrigible, and his relatives devoted their attention to getting hold of his estates instead. He went happily off to Bologna to complete his studies, where he remained for three years.
For 32 years, Maurice ignored the throne and the luxuries of the world to live in obscurity and poverty. The picture of him left us by the chroniclers is an engaging one: an earnest, pious priest who made no effort to capitalize on his birth or social graces; a zealous addict of poverty, who managed, by a series of sagacious trades, to have the oldest habit in the house and the dreariest cell. He is said to have said the whole Psalter daily, plus the Penitential Psalms, and the Litany of the Saints.
A number of curious stories are told about him. Once, when he was staying with a Benedictine friend, the friend noticed that he went in and out of locked doors with no trouble at all, and that the rooms lighted up by themselves when he entered. Maurice is supposed to have had the gift of prophecy. A relative of his had cheated the sisters out of some property that Maurice had left them. Maurice told him that the goods would be taken away from him, and that another man, more generous, would give it back to the sisters. The man died shortly thereafter, and the prophecy was fulfilled.
After Maurice's death at least two miracles of healing were reported at his grave: one was a cure from fever, another from blindness. Butler's Lives of the Saints lists him as "Blessed Maurice" and he is still venerated in Hungary, although his cultus has never been formally approved (Attwater2, Benedictines, Dorcy).
After three months of unfruitful punishment, Maurice was released as incorrigible, and his relatives devoted their attention to getting hold of his estates instead. He went happily off to Bologna to complete his studies, where he remained for three years.
For 32 years, Maurice ignored the throne and the luxuries of the world to live in obscurity and poverty. The picture of him left us by the chroniclers is an engaging one: an earnest, pious priest who made no effort to capitalize on his birth or social graces; a zealous addict of poverty, who managed, by a series of sagacious trades, to have the oldest habit in the house and the dreariest cell. He is said to have said the whole Psalter daily, plus the Penitential Psalms, and the Litany of the Saints.
A number of curious stories are told about him. Once, when he was staying with a Benedictine friend, the friend noticed that he went in and out of locked doors with no trouble at all, and that the rooms lighted up by themselves when he entered. Maurice is supposed to have had the gift of prophecy. A relative of his had cheated the sisters out of some property that Maurice had left them. Maurice told him that the goods would be taken away from him, and that another man, more generous, would give it back to the sisters. The man died shortly thereafter, and the prophecy was fulfilled.
After Maurice's death at least two miracles of healing were reported at his grave: one was a cure from fever, another from blindness. Butler's Lives of the Saints lists him as "Blessed Maurice" and he is still venerated in Hungary, although his cultus has never been formally approved (Attwater2, Benedictines, Dorcy).
1338 Saint Daniel
of
Serbia gift of wonderworking and healing built
Ascension
of the
Lord at Dechani the finest
Christian monuments
in SerbiaThe only son of rich and
renowned parents, was a close
associate of the
Serbian king Stephan Urosh Milutin. Having renounced a secular career,
he received monastic tonsure from the igumen of the St Nicholas
monastery at Konchul near the River Ibar. St Daniel's ascetic life was
an example for all the brethren.
Archbishop
Eustathius of Serbia ordained
him presbyter and took him
into his cell. When it was time to choose the igumen for the Hilandar
monastery on Mount Athos, St Daniel received the appointment. The saint
was igumen at a most difficult time for the Holy Mountain. After the
Crusaders were expelled from Palestine, they joined with the Arabs to
plunder and loot the Athonite monasteries, "not sparing anything
sacred."
St Daniel remained at the Hilandar monastery, enduring siege and hunger. When peace came to the Holy Mountain, the saint resigned as igumen and withdrew into complete silence in the cell of St Sava of Serbia (at Karyes). During the internecine war of Kings Milutin and Dragutin and Stephen of Dechani (November 11), the ascetic was summoned to Serbia, where he reconciled the adversaries.
In his native land Daniel was made Bishop of Banja and head of the renowned monastery of St Stephen, a royal treasury. After completing the construction of a cathedral church at Banja in honor of the holy Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen, St Daniel returned to his monastic labors on the Holy Mountain.
The saint was summoned from Athos again in 1325, when he was elected Archbishop of Serbia. He was consecrated on the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross of the Lord. The Protos ["head"] of the Holy Mountain, Garbasios, and other Athonite Elders took part in the solemnities.
Archbishop Daniel was a model of piety, and a wise archpastor. His tenure as archbishop was marked by complete non-covetousness, concern and toil for the needs of the Church and the flock, and the building of churches. In 1335 the saint built a church at Dechani in honor of the Ascension of the Lord, one of the finest Christian monuments in Serbia. He collected accounts about the Serbian past, and compiled the "Rodoslov" [Account about the homeland], writing about the lives of Serbian rulers and Serbian archpastors.
St Daniel remained at the Hilandar monastery, enduring siege and hunger. When peace came to the Holy Mountain, the saint resigned as igumen and withdrew into complete silence in the cell of St Sava of Serbia (at Karyes). During the internecine war of Kings Milutin and Dragutin and Stephen of Dechani (November 11), the ascetic was summoned to Serbia, where he reconciled the adversaries.
In his native land Daniel was made Bishop of Banja and head of the renowned monastery of St Stephen, a royal treasury. After completing the construction of a cathedral church at Banja in honor of the holy Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen, St Daniel returned to his monastic labors on the Holy Mountain.
The saint was summoned from Athos again in 1325, when he was elected Archbishop of Serbia. He was consecrated on the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross of the Lord. The Protos ["head"] of the Holy Mountain, Garbasios, and other Athonite Elders took part in the solemnities.
Archbishop Daniel was a model of piety, and a wise archpastor. His tenure as archbishop was marked by complete non-covetousness, concern and toil for the needs of the Church and the flock, and the building of churches. In 1335 the saint built a church at Dechani in honor of the Ascension of the Lord, one of the finest Christian monuments in Serbia. He collected accounts about the Serbian past, and compiled the "Rodoslov" [Account about the homeland], writing about the lives of Serbian rulers and Serbian archpastors.
Even during his lifetime St Daniel was granted the gift of wonderworking and healing. After 14 years archbishop, St Daniel departed to the Lord on December 19, 1338.
1342 Antony (Kukley)
Eustace (Nizilon) and John (Milhey) martyred for their faith
relics were found to be incorrupt MM
(AC)The Holy Martyrs Anthony,
John, and Eustathius were brothers who
suffered for Christ under the Lithuanian Great Prince Olgerd
(1345-1377). The prince was married to the Orthodox princess Maria
Yaroslavna (+ 1346). He was baptized and during his wife's lifetime he
allowed the preaching of Christianity. Two brothers, Nezhilo and
Kumets, received holy Baptism from the priest Nestor, and they received
the names Anthony and John. And at the request of Maria Yaroslavna an
Orthodox church was built at Vilnius (Vilna). After the death of
his spouse, Prince Olgerd began to support the pagan priests of the
fire-worshippers, who started a persecution against Christians. Sts
John and Anthony endeavored not to flaunt their Christianity, but they
did not observe pagan customs. They did not cut their hair as the
pagans did, and on fastdays they did not eat forbidden foods.
The prince soon became suspicious of the brothers, so he interrogated them and they confessed themselves Christians. Then he demanded that they eat meat (it was a fast day). The holy brothers refused, and the prince locked them up in prison. The brothers spent an entire year behind bars. John took fright at the impending tortures and declared that he would obey all the demands of the Great Prince. The delighted Olgerd released the brothers and brought them to himself.
But Anthony did not betray Christ. When he refused to eat meat on a fast day, the prince again locked him up in prison and subjected him to brutal tortures. The other brother remained free, but both Christians and pagans regarded him as a traitor and would not associate with him. Repenting of his sin, John went to the priest Nestor and entreated him to ask his brother to forgive him. "When he openly confesses Christ, we will be reconciled," Anthony replied. Once, while serving the prince at the bath, St John spoke privately with him about his reconciliation with the Church. Olgerd did not display any anger and said that he could believe in Christ, but must conduct himself like all the pagans. Then St John confessed himself a Christian in the presence of numerous courtiers. They beat him fiercely with rods and sent him to his brother in prison. The martyrs met with joy, and received the Holy Mysteries that same day.
The prince soon became suspicious of the brothers, so he interrogated them and they confessed themselves Christians. Then he demanded that they eat meat (it was a fast day). The holy brothers refused, and the prince locked them up in prison. The brothers spent an entire year behind bars. John took fright at the impending tortures and declared that he would obey all the demands of the Great Prince. The delighted Olgerd released the brothers and brought them to himself.
But Anthony did not betray Christ. When he refused to eat meat on a fast day, the prince again locked him up in prison and subjected him to brutal tortures. The other brother remained free, but both Christians and pagans regarded him as a traitor and would not associate with him. Repenting of his sin, John went to the priest Nestor and entreated him to ask his brother to forgive him. "When he openly confesses Christ, we will be reconciled," Anthony replied. Once, while serving the prince at the bath, St John spoke privately with him about his reconciliation with the Church. Olgerd did not display any anger and said that he could believe in Christ, but must conduct himself like all the pagans. Then St John confessed himself a Christian in the presence of numerous courtiers. They beat him fiercely with rods and sent him to his brother in prison. The martyrs met with joy, and received the Holy Mysteries that same day.
Many people went to the
prison to see the new confessor. The brothers
converted many to Christ by their preaching. The prison was transformed
into a Christian school. The frightened pagan priests demanded the
execution of the brothers, but they did not fear death.
On the morning of April 14, 1347 the Martyr Anthony was hanged on a tree after receiving the Holy Mysteries. This oak, which the pagans considered sacred, became truly sacred for Orthodox Christians. The pagan priests who hoped that Christian preaching would stop with the death of St Anthony, were disappointed. A multitude of the people gathered before the walls of the prison where St John was being held. On April 24, 1347 they strangled him and hanged his dead body upon the same oak. The venerable bodies of both martyrs were buried by Christians in the church of St Nicholas the Wonderworker.
A third sufferer for Christ
was
their relative Kruglets. On the morning of April 14, 1347 the Martyr Anthony was hanged on a tree after receiving the Holy Mysteries. This oak, which the pagans considered sacred, became truly sacred for Orthodox Christians. The pagan priests who hoped that Christian preaching would stop with the death of St Anthony, were disappointed. A multitude of the people gathered before the walls of the prison where St John was being held. On April 24, 1347 they strangled him and hanged his dead body upon the same oak. The venerable bodies of both martyrs were buried by Christians in the church of St Nicholas the Wonderworker.
The martyr Eustathius was sentenced to death and hanged on the same oak where Sts John and Anthony received a martyr's death (December 13, 1347).
For three days no one
was permitted to take down the body of
the
martyr, and a column of cloud protected it from birds and beasts of
prey. A church was later built on the hill where the holy martyrs
suffered. The trinity of venerable passion bearers glorified the true
God worshipped in the Holy Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit. The
church was dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity. The altar table was
built on the stump of the sacred oak on which the martyrs died.
Soon their relics were found to be incorrupt. In 1364 Patriarch Philotheus of Constantinople (1354-1355, 1364-1376) sent a cross with the relics of the holy martyrs to St Sergius of Radonezh (September 25). The Church established the celebration of all three martyrs on April 14. The holy martyrs were of immense significance for all the Western frontier. Vilnius's monastery of the Holy Trinity, where the holy relics are kept, became a stronghold of Orthodoxy on this frontier. In 1915 during the invasion of the Germans, these relics were taken to Moscow.
The relics of the holy passion-bearers were returned to the Vilnius Holy Spirit monastery in 1946. The commemoration of their return (July 13) is solemnly observed at the monastery each year.
Died at Vilna, Lithuania This trio was comprised of young Lithuanian noblemen who were chamberlains at the court of the grand Duke Olgierd, the father of Jagello.
John and Antony were brothers, heathen worshippers of fire, whom a travelling missionary priest, named Nestorius, converted to the Christian faith. They refused to eat meat on an day of abstinence.
Since their new ways conflicted with the customs of the court, they were hung from an oak tree in Vilna. John, the eldest, was martyred on April 24 and his brother Antony on June 14. Upon witnessing their heroic fortitude, Eustace converted and martyred for the faith on December 13.
These patrons of Vilna were buried in Holy Trinity Russian- Greek Church, which is now united with the Roman Catholic Church and served by Basilian monks. Their heads were translated to the cathedral of Vilna. The tree on which they were executed had long been used for that purpose; however, the Christians obtained a grant of it from the prince and built a church on the spot. Their feast on April 14 was established by Patriarch Alexius of Kiow (Benedictines, Coulson, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
Soon their relics were found to be incorrupt. In 1364 Patriarch Philotheus of Constantinople (1354-1355, 1364-1376) sent a cross with the relics of the holy martyrs to St Sergius of Radonezh (September 25). The Church established the celebration of all three martyrs on April 14. The holy martyrs were of immense significance for all the Western frontier. Vilnius's monastery of the Holy Trinity, where the holy relics are kept, became a stronghold of Orthodoxy on this frontier. In 1915 during the invasion of the Germans, these relics were taken to Moscow.
The relics of the holy passion-bearers were returned to the Vilnius Holy Spirit monastery in 1946. The commemoration of their return (July 13) is solemnly observed at the monastery each year.
Died at Vilna, Lithuania This trio was comprised of young Lithuanian noblemen who were chamberlains at the court of the grand Duke Olgierd, the father of Jagello.
John and Antony were brothers, heathen worshippers of fire, whom a travelling missionary priest, named Nestorius, converted to the Christian faith. They refused to eat meat on an day of abstinence.
Since their new ways conflicted with the customs of the court, they were hung from an oak tree in Vilna. John, the eldest, was martyred on April 24 and his brother Antony on June 14. Upon witnessing their heroic fortitude, Eustace converted and martyred for the faith on December 13.
These patrons of Vilna were buried in Holy Trinity Russian- Greek Church, which is now united with the Roman Catholic Church and served by Basilian monks. Their heads were translated to the cathedral of Vilna. The tree on which they were executed had long been used for that purpose; however, the Christians obtained a grant of it from the prince and built a church on the spot. Their feast on April 14 was established by Patriarch Alexius of Kiow (Benedictines, Coulson, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
Born at Orvieto, Italy; beatified in 1768. Thomas Corsini was a Servite lay-brother, who spent his live collecting alms for the abbey. He was favored by many visions (Benedictines).
1345
Peregrine Laziosi received a vision of Our Lady who told him to go to
Siena, Italy, and there to join the Servites healed by Jesus incorrupt
fervant preacher, excellent orator, and gentle confessorAlso known as Peregrinus
Born wealthy, he spent a worldly youth, and became involved in politics. Peregrine was initially strongly anti-Catholic. During a popular revolt, he struck the papal peace negotiator, Saint Philip Benizi, across the face. Saint Philip calmly turned the other cheek, prayed for the youth, and Peregine converted.
He received a vision of Our Lady who told him to go to Siena, Italy, and there to join the Servites. After training and ordination, they assigned him to his home town. He lived and worked, as much as possible, in complete silence, in solitude, and without sitting down for 30 years in an attempt to do penance for his early life. When he did speak, he was known as a fervant preacher, excellent orator, and gentle confessor. Founded a Servite house at Forli.
A victim of a spreading cancer in his foot, Peregrine was scheduled for an amputation. The night before the operation, he spent in prayer; that night received a vision of Christ who healed him with a touch. The next morning, Peregrine found his cancer completely healed.
Born 1260 at Forli, Italy
Died 1345 at Forli, Italy of natural causes;
body incorrupt
St. Peregrine Laziosi
1345 Peregrine Laziosi was born
of a
wealthy family at Forli, Italy, in 1260. As a youth he was active in
politics as a member of the anti-papal party. During one uprising,
which the Pope sent St. Philip Benizi to mediate, Philip was struck in
the face by Peregrine. When Philip offered the other cheek, Peregrine
was so overcome that he repented and converted to Catholicism.
Following the instructions of the Virgin Mary received in a vision,
Peregrine went to Siena and joined the Servites. It is believed that he
never allowed himself to sit down for thirty years, while as far as
possible, observing silence and solitude. Sometime later, Peregrine was
sent to Forli to found a new house of the Servite Order. An ideal
priest, he had a reputation for fervent preaching and being a good
confessor. When he was afflicted with cancer of the foot and amputation
had been decided upon, he spent the night before the operation, in
prayer. The following morning he was completely cured. This miracle
caused his reputation to become widespread. He died in 1345 at the age
of eighty-five, and he was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726. St.
Peregrine, like St. Paul, was in open defiance of the Church as a
youth. Once given the grace of conversion he became one of the great
saints of his time. His great fervor and qualities as a confessor
brought many back to the true Faith. Afflicted with cancer, Peregrine
turned to God and was richly rewarded for his Faith, enabling him over
many years to lead others to the truth. He is the patron of cancer
patients.
The cult which from time immemorial has been paid at Palermo and elsewhere to this follower of St Francis was confirmed in 1908. Gerard, born about 1270, was the only son of noble parents in the north of Italy. He lost his father at the age of ten, and his mother not many years afterwards.
Resisting the persuasions of his relatives to marry, he distributed his goods to the poor and led, until he was forty, the life of a pilgrim and hermit, spending most of his time in the wilder parts of Sicily. In the early years of the fourteenth century, the holiness and miracles of St Louis of Anjou, who though heir to a throne had become a Franciscan, were much talked about. Gerard took him for his patron, and about the year 1310 ended by joining the same order.
While he discharged
duties of a lay-brother, his simplicity and
devotion were the admiration of all. On one great feast-day, when he
was acting as cook, being absorbed in prayer, he seemed to have
forgotten all about the dinner; when, late in the morning, the father
guardian, apprised that even the fire had not yet been lighted,
remonstrated with the brother on his neglect.
Gerard, quite unperturbed, took to the kitchen, where, assisted, it is said, by an unknown youth of radiant beauty, he produced, punctually to the moment, a more delicious meal than the community had ever before eaten.
Many miracles were attributed to the intercession of the holy brother. For example, it was said that, finding a child crying because it had dropped and broken the glass beaker it was carrying home to its mother, he collected the fragments, blessed them and restored the vessel to the child as sound as it had been before. His miracles of healing were commonly performed by anointing the sick with the oil which burned in a lamp before a little shrine of his patron St Louis. His diet was bread and water, he slept upon a plank, he scourged himself to blood, and there were many stories told of ecstasies in which he was seen surrounded with light and raised from the ground. He died on December 30, 1345.
Gerard, quite unperturbed, took to the kitchen, where, assisted, it is said, by an unknown youth of radiant beauty, he produced, punctually to the moment, a more delicious meal than the community had ever before eaten.
Many miracles were attributed to the intercession of the holy brother. For example, it was said that, finding a child crying because it had dropped and broken the glass beaker it was carrying home to its mother, he collected the fragments, blessed them and restored the vessel to the child as sound as it had been before. His miracles of healing were commonly performed by anointing the sick with the oil which burned in a lamp before a little shrine of his patron St Louis. His diet was bread and water, he slept upon a plank, he scourged himself to blood, and there were many stories told of ecstasies in which he was seen surrounded with light and raised from the ground. He died on December 30, 1345.
See the
decree of the Congregation of Rites in Analecta Ecclesiastica
(1908), vol. xvi, pp. 293—295 B. Mazzara, Leggendario Francescano (1680),
vol. iii, pp. 767—773; and Analecta
Franciscana (1897), vol.
ii, pp. 489-497.
1350 Bd John Of
Rieti joined the Hermits of St Augustine (Austin friars) at
Rieti. He was
ever at the service of his neighbour, especially the sick and
strangers, and delighted to wait on guests who came to the
monastery;
he spent long hours in contemplation and especially valued the
opportunities provided by serving Mass in the friary church for loving
converse with God. He had the gift of tears, not only for
his own
faults but for those of others; when walking in the garden he would
say, "How can one not weep? his holy life and the miracles taking place
at his tomb were the cause of a cultus which persisted
John Bufalari was born about the beginning of the fourteenth century at Castel Porziano in Umbria, brother to Bd Lucy of Amelia. Little is known of his life, except that it was uneventful, but none the less significant in that he grew daily in grace and virtue. He early determined to leave the world and joined the Hermits of St Augustine (Austin friars) at Rieti. He was ever at the service of his neighbour, especially the sick and strangers, and delighted to wait on guests who came to the monastery; he spent long hours in contemplation and especially valued the opportunities provided by serving Mass in the friary church for loving converse with God. He had the gift of tears, not only for his own faults but for those of others; when walking in the garden he would say, "How can one not weep? For we see all around us trees and grass and flowers and plants germinating, growing, producing their fruit, and dying back again into the earth in accordance with the laws of their Creator: while men, to whom God has given a reasoning intelligence and the promise of a transcendent reward, continually oppose His will." A simple reflection whose force, if rightly understood, is not lessened by the consideration that the vegetable creation could not do otherwise if it would. The exact date of the death of Bd John is not known, but his holy life and the miracles taking place at his tomb were the cause of a cultus which persisted and was formally confirmed in 1832.
John Bufalari was born about the beginning of the fourteenth century at Castel Porziano in Umbria, brother to Bd Lucy of Amelia. Little is known of his life, except that it was uneventful, but none the less significant in that he grew daily in grace and virtue. He early determined to leave the world and joined the Hermits of St Augustine (Austin friars) at Rieti. He was ever at the service of his neighbour, especially the sick and strangers, and delighted to wait on guests who came to the monastery; he spent long hours in contemplation and especially valued the opportunities provided by serving Mass in the friary church for loving converse with God. He had the gift of tears, not only for his own faults but for those of others; when walking in the garden he would say, "How can one not weep? For we see all around us trees and grass and flowers and plants germinating, growing, producing their fruit, and dying back again into the earth in accordance with the laws of their Creator: while men, to whom God has given a reasoning intelligence and the promise of a transcendent reward, continually oppose His will." A simple reflection whose force, if rightly understood, is not lessened by the consideration that the vegetable creation could not do otherwise if it would. The exact date of the death of Bd John is not known, but his holy life and the miracles taking place at his tomb were the cause of a cultus which persisted and was formally confirmed in 1832.
See Torelli, Secoli
Agostiniani, vol. ii, and P. Seeböck, Die Herrlichkeit day Katholischen Kirche
(1900), pp. 299-300.
1350 Chukhloma
Icon of the Mother of God of Galich appeared in the year 1350 to St
Abraham of Galich, who came there from the north for ascetical labors
with the blessing of St Sergius of Radonezh. The icon is also
commemorated on
May 28, July 4, and August 15.
On the wild shores of the
Galich lake near the large
mountain, hidden
in the dense forest, he turned with prayer to the Mother of God, asking
Her blessing for his endeavors. After completing his prayer the saint
sat down to rest, and suddenly a bright light appeared on the nearby
mountainside and he heard a voice: "Abraham, come up the mountain,
where there is an icon of My Mother."
The monk went up the mountain where the light shone, and indeed found an icon of the Mother of God with the Infant on a tree. With tenderness and in gratitude to God, the holy ascetic took the revealed icon and, strengthened by prayers to the Most Holy Theotokos, he built a chapel at that place, in which he put the icon.
After a certain time the Galich prince Demetrius Feodorovich, learned about the Elder's trip, and asked him to bring the icon. St Abraham rowed across the Galich lake in a boat and, accompanied by clergy and a throng of people, he took the wonderworking icon to the cathedral church of the city of Galich.
On this day a large number of the sick were healed by this icon. When St Abraham told about the appearance of the icon, the Prince offered money to build a monastery. Soon a church was built in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, around which a monastery grew. St Abraham founded several more monasteries, the last being founded was the Chukhloma, not far from the city of Chukhloma, from the name of this monastery the ascetic was named "of Chukhloma," and the wonderworking icon became known as the Chukhloma Icon of Galich.
The monk went up the mountain where the light shone, and indeed found an icon of the Mother of God with the Infant on a tree. With tenderness and in gratitude to God, the holy ascetic took the revealed icon and, strengthened by prayers to the Most Holy Theotokos, he built a chapel at that place, in which he put the icon.
After a certain time the Galich prince Demetrius Feodorovich, learned about the Elder's trip, and asked him to bring the icon. St Abraham rowed across the Galich lake in a boat and, accompanied by clergy and a throng of people, he took the wonderworking icon to the cathedral church of the city of Galich.
On this day a large number of the sick were healed by this icon. When St Abraham told about the appearance of the icon, the Prince offered money to build a monastery. Soon a church was built in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, around which a monastery grew. St Abraham founded several more monasteries, the last being founded was the Chukhloma, not far from the city of Chukhloma, from the name of this monastery the ascetic was named "of Chukhloma," and the wonderworking icon became known as the Chukhloma Icon of Galich.
He lived in a community and was known for his holiness. He founded the Confraternity of Mercy, a hospice, and was a miracle worker. Pope Pius IX confirmed his cult.
Born at Balinge near Uppsala, Sweden, in 1290; died May 22, 1366. After studying theology in Paris, France, Hemming became a canon of Abo cathedral in Helsinki, Finland, and, in 1339, its bishop. Hemming was involved in the border disputes with Uppsala, from where Saint Henry of Finland evangelized Finland. He is also associated with Saint Bridget of Sweden, whom he accompanied to France. Saint Bridget and Hemming worked together to bring peace to the Hundred Years War between England and France and to end the Avignon papacy.
In 1352, Hemming convened a diocesan synod in which he demonstrated his zeal for proper celebrations of the feasts of the Church and the local saints of Scandinavia. He was also concerned with the custody of the Eucharist, the administration of Church property, and releasing poor people from the payment of stipends for dispensations or for funerals.
Saint Hemming was buried in his cathedral, where miracles were reported at his tomb. In 1514, his relics were translated and enshrined. A surviving, embroidered altar frontal survives which depicts Saints Hemming and Bridget together as an angel holds the mitre over the bishop's head (Farmer) .
1367 Bd Roger Le Fort,
Archbishop Of Bourges immediately
after death tomb a place of pilgrimage many miracles worked.
Roger Le For finds recognition in the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum on this day, though his cult has never been formally approved. He is said to have owed his elevation to the bishopric of Orleans to a jest. On the day of the election he had been criticizing the unseemly eagerness of the canons in pushing their claims without any thought of the responsibilities and difficulties involved in such a dignity. In mock earnest he said to one of those who were entering the chapter-house, " I hope the electors will think of me on the present occasion, for I too should like to be a bishop!" The canon, taking the words seriously, informed the rest, and the whole gathering acclaimed the name of the new candidate. The presiding prelate then rose and said, " Brethren, Heaven and earth are witnesses that you have made choice of Messire Roger for your bishop. Concurring as I do with your judgement, I declare that he upon whom your votes have fallen is the preordained pontiff of this city, for he is a man of eminent sanctity and wisdom. Assuredly this is the decision of the Holy Spirit, whom we cannot resist without guilt." Thereupon Roger was unanimously elected. It was in vain that he protested that he had only spoken in jest and that he had neither the desire nor the ability to undertake such a charge: the voice of the people came to ratify the choice of the clergy, and he was compelled to submit. On his entry into Orleans at his consecration an ancient custom was revived and all the prisoners in the city prison were released.
Roger was afterwards translated to Limoges, and in 1343 he became archbishop of Bourges. He is perhaps best remembered in connection with the feast of the Conception of our Lady, which he established in his diocese and which he did much to popularize. When he died, at the age of ninety, it was found that he had left all his possessions to enable poor boys to receive a good education. The archbishop's unsullied reputation and piety had caused him to be greatly venerated during his life, and immediately after his death his tomb became a place of pilgrimage where many miracles were said to be worked.
Roger Le For finds recognition in the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum on this day, though his cult has never been formally approved. He is said to have owed his elevation to the bishopric of Orleans to a jest. On the day of the election he had been criticizing the unseemly eagerness of the canons in pushing their claims without any thought of the responsibilities and difficulties involved in such a dignity. In mock earnest he said to one of those who were entering the chapter-house, " I hope the electors will think of me on the present occasion, for I too should like to be a bishop!" The canon, taking the words seriously, informed the rest, and the whole gathering acclaimed the name of the new candidate. The presiding prelate then rose and said, " Brethren, Heaven and earth are witnesses that you have made choice of Messire Roger for your bishop. Concurring as I do with your judgement, I declare that he upon whom your votes have fallen is the preordained pontiff of this city, for he is a man of eminent sanctity and wisdom. Assuredly this is the decision of the Holy Spirit, whom we cannot resist without guilt." Thereupon Roger was unanimously elected. It was in vain that he protested that he had only spoken in jest and that he had neither the desire nor the ability to undertake such a charge: the voice of the people came to ratify the choice of the clergy, and he was compelled to submit. On his entry into Orleans at his consecration an ancient custom was revived and all the prisoners in the city prison were released.
Roger was afterwards translated to Limoges, and in 1343 he became archbishop of Bourges. He is perhaps best remembered in connection with the feast of the Conception of our Lady, which he established in his diocese and which he did much to popularize. When he died, at the age of ninety, it was found that he had left all his possessions to enable poor boys to receive a good education. The archbishop's unsullied reputation and piety had caused him to be greatly venerated during his life, and immediately after his death his tomb became a place of pilgrimage where many miracles were said to be worked.
See
the Acta
Sanctorum, March, vol. i, and Cochard, Saints de
l'É glise
d'Orléans, pp.
487-495.
1373
St. Andrew
Corsini regarded as a
prophet and a thaumaturgus miracles were so
multiplied at his death that Eugenius IV permitted a public cult
immediately His feast is kept
on 4 February. Floréntiæ natális sancti Andréæ Corsíni, civis Florentíni, ex Ordine Carmelitárum, Epíscopi Fæsuláni et Confessóris; quem, miráculis clarum, Urbánus Papa Octávus in Sanctórum númerum rétulit. Ejus autem festívitas recólitur prídie nonas Februárii.
At Florence, St. Andrew Corsini, a Florentine Carmelite and bishop of Fiesole. Being celebrated for miracles, he was ranked among the saints by Urban VIII. His festival is kept on the 4th of February.
He was born in Florence on November 30, 1302, a member of the powerful Corsini family. Wild in his youth, Andrew was converted to a holy life by his mother and became a Carmelite monk. He studied in Paris and Avignon, France, returning to his birthplace. There he became known as the Apostle of Florence. He was called a prophet and miracle worker. Named as the bishop of Fiesole in 1349, Andrew fled the honor but was forced to accept the office, which he held for twelve years. He was sent by Pope Urban V to Bologna to settle disputes between the nobles and commoners, a mission he performed well. Andrew died in Fiesole on January 6, 1373. So many miracles took place at his death that Pope Eugenius IV permitted the immediate opening of his cause.
1373 ST ANDREW CORSINI, BISHOP OF FIESOLE
THIS saint was called Andrew after the apostle of that name, upon whose festival he was born in Florence in 1302. He came of the distinguished family of the Corsini, and we are told that his parents dedicated him to God before his birth; but in spite of all their care the first part of his youth was spent in vice and extravagance, amongst bad companions.
His mother never ceased praying for his conversion, and one day in the bitterness of her grief she said, “I see you are indeed the wolf I saw in my sleep,” and explained that before he was born she dreamt she had given birth to a wolf which ran into a church and was changed into a lamb. She added that she and his father had devoted him to the service of God under the protection of the Blessed Virgin, and that they expected of him a very different sort of life from that which he was leading.
These
rebukes made a very deep impression. Overwhelmed
with shame,
Andrew next day went to the church of the Carmelite friars, and after
having prayed fervently before the altar of our Lady he was so touched
by God’s grace that he resolved to embrace the religious life in that
convent. All the artifices of his former companions, and the
solicitations of an uncle who tried to draw him back into the world,
were powerless to change his purpose: he never fell away from the first
fervour of his conversion.
In the year 1328
Andrew was ordained; but to escape the feasting and
music which his family had prepared according to custom for the day on
which he should celebrate his first Mass, he withdrew to a little
convent seven miles out of the town, and there, unknown and with
wonderful devotion, he offered to Almighty God the first fruits of his
priesthood.
After some time employed in preaching in Florence he was sent to Paris, where he attended the schools for three years. He continued his studies for a while at Avignon with his uncle, Cardinal Corsini, and in 1332, when he returned to Florence, he was chosen prior of his convent.
God honoured his virtue with the gift of prophecy, and miracles of healing were also ascribed to him. Amongst miracles in the moral order and conquests of hardened souls, the conversion of his cousin John Corsini, a confirmed gambler, was especially remarkable.
When the bishop of Fiesole died in 1349 the chapter unanimously chose Andrew Corsini to fill the vacant see. As soon, however, as he was informed of what was going on, he hid himself with the Carthusians at Enna: the canons, despairing of finding him, were about to proceed to a second election when his hiding-place was revealed by a child.
After his consecration as bishop he redoubled his former austerities. Daily he gave himself a severe discipline whilst he recited the litany, and his bed was of vine branches strewed on the floor. Meditation and reading the Holy Scriptures he called recreation from his labours. He avoided talking with women as much as possible, and refused to listen to flatterers or informers. His tenderness and care for the poor were extreme, and he was particularly solicitous in seeking out those who were ashamed to make known their distress: these he helped with all possible secrecy. St Andrew had, too, a talent for appeasing quarrels, and he was often successful in restoring order where popular disturbances had broken out. For this reason Bd Urban V sent him to Bologna, where the nobility and the people were miserably divided. He pacified them after suffering much humiliation, and they remained at peace during the rest of his life. Every Thursday he used to wash the feet of the poor, and never turned any beggar away without alms.
After some time employed in preaching in Florence he was sent to Paris, where he attended the schools for three years. He continued his studies for a while at Avignon with his uncle, Cardinal Corsini, and in 1332, when he returned to Florence, he was chosen prior of his convent.
God honoured his virtue with the gift of prophecy, and miracles of healing were also ascribed to him. Amongst miracles in the moral order and conquests of hardened souls, the conversion of his cousin John Corsini, a confirmed gambler, was especially remarkable.
When the bishop of Fiesole died in 1349 the chapter unanimously chose Andrew Corsini to fill the vacant see. As soon, however, as he was informed of what was going on, he hid himself with the Carthusians at Enna: the canons, despairing of finding him, were about to proceed to a second election when his hiding-place was revealed by a child.
After his consecration as bishop he redoubled his former austerities. Daily he gave himself a severe discipline whilst he recited the litany, and his bed was of vine branches strewed on the floor. Meditation and reading the Holy Scriptures he called recreation from his labours. He avoided talking with women as much as possible, and refused to listen to flatterers or informers. His tenderness and care for the poor were extreme, and he was particularly solicitous in seeking out those who were ashamed to make known their distress: these he helped with all possible secrecy. St Andrew had, too, a talent for appeasing quarrels, and he was often successful in restoring order where popular disturbances had broken out. For this reason Bd Urban V sent him to Bologna, where the nobility and the people were miserably divided. He pacified them after suffering much humiliation, and they remained at peace during the rest of his life. Every Thursday he used to wash the feet of the poor, and never turned any beggar away without alms.
St Andrew
was taken
ill whilst singing Mass on Christmas night in 1373 and died on the
following Epiphany at the age of seventy-one. He was immediately
proclaimed a
saint by the voice of the people, and Pope Urban VIII formally
canonized him in
1629. Andrew was buried in the Carmelite church at Florence; and Pope
Clement
XII, who belonged to the Corsini family, built and endowed a chapel in
honour
of his kinsman in the Lateran basilica. The architect of this chapel,
in which
Clement himself was buried, was Alexander Galilei, who lived for some
years in
England. The same pope added St Andrew Corsini to the general calendar
of the
Western church, in 1737.
The two
principal
Latin lives of St Andrew are printed in the Acta
Sanctorum, January, vol. ii. See also S. Mattei, Vita
di S. Andrea Corsini (1872), and the biography by P. Caioli (1929), who makes use of certain
unpublished Florentine documents.
Blessed Villana was the
daughter of Andrew de'Botti, a Florentine
merchant, and was born in 1332. When she was thirteen she ran away from
home to enter a convent but her attempts were unsuccessful and she was
forced to return. To prevent any repetition of her flight, her father
shortly afterwards gave her in marriage to Rosso di Piero. After her
marriage she appeared completely changed; she gave herself up to
pleasure and dissipation and lived a wholly idle and worldly life. One
day, as she was about to start for an entertainment clad in a gorgeous
dress adorned with pearls and precious stones, she looked at herself in
a mirror. To her dismay, the reflection that met her eyes was that of a
hideous demon. A second and a third mirror showed the same ugly form.
Thoroughly alarmed and recognizing in the reflection the image of
herself sin-stained soul, she tore off her fine attire and, clad in the
simplest clothes she could find, she betook herself weeping to the
Dominican Fathers at Santa Maria Novella to make a full confession and
to ask absolution and help. This proved the turning point of her life,
and she never again fell away.
Before long Villana was
admitted
to the Third Order of St. Dominic,
and
after this she advanced rapidly in the spiritual life. Fulfilling all
her duties as a married woman, she spent all her available time in
prayer and reading. She particularly loved to read St. Paul's Epistles
and the lives of the saints. At one time, in a self-abasement and in
her love for the poor, she would have gone begging for them from door
to door had not her husband and parents interposed. So completely did
she give herself up to God that she was often rapt in ecstacy,
particularly during Mass or at spiritual conferences; but she had to
pass through a period of persecution when she was cruelly calumniated
and her honor was assailed.
Her soul was also purified
by
strong pains
and by great bodily weakness.
However, she passed unscathed through all
these trials and was rewarded by wonderful visions and olloquies with
our Lady and other saints. Occasionally the room in which she dwelt was
filled with supernatural light, and she was also endowed with the gift
of prophecy. As she lay on her
deathbed, she asked that the Passion should be read
to her, and at the words "He bowed His head and gave up the ghost", she
crossed her hands on her breast and passed away. Her body was taken to
Santa Maria Novella, where it became such an object of veneration that
for over a month it was impossible to proceed with the funeral. People
struggled to obtain shreds of her clothing, and she was honored as a
saint from the day of her death. Her bereaved husband use to say that,
when he felt discouraged and depressed, he found strength by visiting
the room in which his beloved wife had died. Blessed Villana's cultus
was confirmed in 1824.
1367 Blessed Sibyllina Biscossi blind (at 12) but saw Saint Dominic in ecstasy worked MANY GOOD miracles as an anchorite for 67 years OP Tert. (AC)
(also known as Sybillina) Born in Pavia, Italy, in 1287; cultus approved in 1853; beatified in 1854.
"All things work for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). How many of us would have the faith to trust in God's providence as did this holy woman? As Mother Angelica has witnessed, true faith is knowing that when the Lord asks you to walk into the void, He will place a rock beneath your feet. True faith is to be able to praise God in all things; to say with Job, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21).
Sybillina's parents died when she was tiny and as soon as she was old enough to be of use to anyone, the neighbors, who had taken her in at the time she was orphaned, put her out to work. She must have been very young when she started to work, because at the age of 12, when she became blind and could not work any more, she already had several years of work behind her.
The cause of her blindness is unknown, but the child was left doubly destitute with the loss of her sight. The local chapter of the Dominican tertiary sisters took compassion on the child and brought her home to live with them. After a little while of experiencing their kind help, she wanted to join them. They accepted her, young though she was, more out of pity than in any hope of her being able to carry on their busy and varied apostolate.
They were soon agreeably surprised to find out how much she could do. She learned to chant the Office quickly and sweetly, and to absorb their teaching about mental prayer as though she had been born for it. She imposed great obligations of prayer on herself, since she could not help them in other ways. Her greatest devotion was to Saint Dominic, and it was to him she addressed herself when she finally became convinced that she simply must have her sight back so that she could help the sisters with their work.
1367 Blessed Sibyllina Biscossi blind (at 12) but saw Saint Dominic in ecstasy worked MANY GOOD miracles as an anchorite for 67 years OP Tert. (AC)
(also known as Sybillina) Born in Pavia, Italy, in 1287; cultus approved in 1853; beatified in 1854.
"All things work for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). How many of us would have the faith to trust in God's providence as did this holy woman? As Mother Angelica has witnessed, true faith is knowing that when the Lord asks you to walk into the void, He will place a rock beneath your feet. True faith is to be able to praise God in all things; to say with Job, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21).
Sybillina's parents died when she was tiny and as soon as she was old enough to be of use to anyone, the neighbors, who had taken her in at the time she was orphaned, put her out to work. She must have been very young when she started to work, because at the age of 12, when she became blind and could not work any more, she already had several years of work behind her.
The cause of her blindness is unknown, but the child was left doubly destitute with the loss of her sight. The local chapter of the Dominican tertiary sisters took compassion on the child and brought her home to live with them. After a little while of experiencing their kind help, she wanted to join them. They accepted her, young though she was, more out of pity than in any hope of her being able to carry on their busy and varied apostolate.
They were soon agreeably surprised to find out how much she could do. She learned to chant the Office quickly and sweetly, and to absorb their teaching about mental prayer as though she had been born for it. She imposed great obligations of prayer on herself, since she could not help them in other ways. Her greatest devotion was to Saint Dominic, and it was to him she addressed herself when she finally became convinced that she simply must have her sight back so that she could help the sisters with their work.
Praying earnestly for this
intention, Sybillina waited
for his feast
day. Then, she was certain, he would cure her. Matins came and went
with no miracle; little hours, Vespers--and she was still blind. With a
sinking heart, Sybillina knelt before Saint Dominic's statue and begged
him to help her. Kneeling there, she was rapt in ecstasy, and she saw
him come out of the darkness and take her by the hand.
He took her to a dark tunnel entrance, and she went into the blackness at his word. Terrified, but still clinging to his hand, she advanced past invisible horrors, still guided and protected by his presence. Dawn came gradually, and then light, then a blaze of glory. "In eternity, dear child," he said. "Here, you must suffer darkness so that you may one day behold eternal light."
Sybillina, the eager child, was replaced by a mature and thoughtful Sybillina who knew that there would be no cure for her, that she must work her way to heaven through the darkness. She decided to become a anchorite, and obtained the necessary permission. In 1302, at the age of 15, she was sealed into a tiny cell next to the Dominican church at Pavia. At first she had a companion, but her fellow recluse soon gave up the life. Sybillina remained, now alone, as well as blind.
He took her to a dark tunnel entrance, and she went into the blackness at his word. Terrified, but still clinging to his hand, she advanced past invisible horrors, still guided and protected by his presence. Dawn came gradually, and then light, then a blaze of glory. "In eternity, dear child," he said. "Here, you must suffer darkness so that you may one day behold eternal light."
Sybillina, the eager child, was replaced by a mature and thoughtful Sybillina who knew that there would be no cure for her, that she must work her way to heaven through the darkness. She decided to become a anchorite, and obtained the necessary permission. In 1302, at the age of 15, she was sealed into a tiny cell next to the Dominican church at Pavia. At first she had a companion, but her fellow recluse soon gave up the life. Sybillina remained, now alone, as well as blind.
The first seven years were
the worst, she later admitted. The cold was
intense, and she never permitted herself a fire. The church, of course,
was not heated, and she wore the same clothes winter and summer. In the
winter there was only one way to keep from freezing--keep moving--so
she genuflected, and gave herself the discipline. She slept on a board
and ate practically nothing. To the tiny window, that was her only
communication with the outside world, came the troubled and the sinful
and the sick, all begging for her help. She prayed for all of them, and
worked many miracles in the lives of the people of Pavia.
One of the more amusing requests came from a woman who was terrified of the dark. Sybillina was praying for her when she saw her in a vision, and observed that the woman--who thought she was hearing things--put on a fur hood to shut out the noise. The next day the woman came to see her, and Sybillina laughed gaily. "You were really scared last night, weren't you?" she asked. "I laughed when I saw you pull that hood over your ears." The legend reports that the woman was never frightened again.
Sybillina had a lively sense of the Real Presence and a deep devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. One day a priest was going past her window with Viaticum for the sick; she knew that the host was not consecrated, and told him so. He investigated, and found he had indeed taken a host from the wrong container.
Sybillina lived as a
recluse for 67 years. She
followed all the Masses
and Offices in the church, spending what few spare minutes she had
working with her hands to earn a few alms for the poor (Attwater2,
Benedictines, Dorcy).
1370
Blessed Pope Urban V deeply spiritual Benedictine monk canon lawyer
reformer Avenióne beáti Urbáni Papæ Quinti, qui, Sede Apostólica Romæ restitúta, Græcórum cum Latínis conjunctióne perfécta, infidélibus coércitis, de Ecclésia óptime méritus est. Ejus cultum pervetústum Pius Nonus, Póntifex Máximus, ratum hábuit et confirmávit.
At Avignon, blessed Urban V, who deserved well of the Church by restoring the Apostolic See to Rome, by bringing about a reunion of the Latins and the Greeks, and by suppressing heretics. Pius IX approved and confirmed the veneration which had long been paid to him.
1370 BD URBAN V, POPE
WILLIAM DE GRIMOARD was born at Grisac in Languedoc in 1310, his father being a local nobleman and his mother a sister of St Elzear de Sabran. He was educated in the universities of Montpellier and Toulouse and became a Benedictine after his ordination he returned to his old universities and then went on to Paris and Avignon to study for his doctor’s degree. He taught in those places, and was appointed abbot of St Germain’s at Auxerre in 1352. At this time the popes were residing at Avignon and for the next ten years Abbot William was constantly called on to undertake diplomatic missions for Pope Innocent VI, who in 1361 made him abbot of St Victor’s at Marseilles and sent him to Naples as legate to Queen Joanna. While he was there he heard that Innocent was dead and that he had been elected in his place. He returned at once to Avignon, where he was consecrated and crowned, and took the name of Urban because “all the popes called Urban had been saints”. He was the best of the Avignon popes, though like most of them he was too much of a “nationalist” (as we should say now) to be a really satisfactory pontiff of the Universal Church, and the abuses by which he was surrounded were beyond his strength to eradicate.
The great event of his
pontificate was his attempt, abortive though it was, to restore the
papacy to
Rome. In 1366, ignoring the opposition of the French king and the
French
cardinals, he informed the emperor of his intention to return to the
City, and
in April of the following year he set out. At Carneto he was met by a
host of
envoys, ecclesiastical and lay, by a Roman embassy bearing the keys of
Sant’
Angelo, and by Bd John
Columbini and his Gesuati waving
palms and singing hymns. Four months later he entered Rome in state,
the first
pope it had seen for over half a century, and when he looked upon the
state of
the City he wept.
The great churches, even
the Lateran, St Peter’s and St Paul’s, were almost in ruins, and he at
once set
to work to restore them and to make the papal residences habitable.
Immediate
steps were taken to revive the discipline of the clergy and the fervour
of the
people, work was soon found for all, and food was distributed freely to
the
destitute.
In the following year Urban
met the Emperor Charles IV, a new alliance was made between the empire
and the
Church, and Charles entered Rome leading the mule on which the pope
rode.
Twelve months later the emperor of the East, John V Palaeologus, also
came,
disclaiming schism and seeking help against the Turks. Urban received
him on
the steps of St Peter’s, but he could give him no help: it was more
than he
could do to maintain his own position. He had failed to crush the condottieri, Perugia had revolted, France
was at war with England, his French court was restless and
discontented, his
health was failing: Urban prepared to go back to France. The Romans
implored
him to stay; Petrarch made himself the mouthpiece of Italy to keep him
in Rome,
St Bridget of Sweden rode out to Montefiascone on her white mule to
warn him
that if he left Italy his death would swiftly follow. But it was all to
no
purpose. In June 1370 he declared to the Romans that he was leaving
them for
the good of the Church and to help France; on September 5,
“sorrowful, suffering and deeply moved”, he embarked at
Carneto;
and on December 19 he was dead. Petrarch wrote, “Urban would have been
reckoned
among the most glorious of men if he had caused his dying bed to be
laid before
the altar of St Peter’s and had there fallen asleep with a good
conscience,
calling God and the world to witness that if ever the pope had left
this spot
it was not his fault but that of the originators of so shameful a
flight.” But
this one weakness was forgiven him, and a chronicler of Mainz sums up
contemporary opinion: “He was a light of the world and a way of truth;
a lover
of righteousness, flying from wickedness and fearing.”
Urban V was entirely free
from the prevailing vices of his age and worked hard for the reform of
the
clergy, beginning with his own court, where the venality of the
officials was
notorious.* He maintained many poor students and encouraged learning by
his
support of universities, e.g. Oxford,
and his encouragement of the foundation of new ones, e.g. at
Cracow and Vienna. He awarded the custody of the relics of
St Thomas Aquinas to the Dominicans of Toulouse, and instructed the
university
of that city that: “We will and enjoin on you that you follow the
teaching of
the blessed Thomas as true and Catholic teaching, and promote it to the
utmost
of your power.” Pilgrims came to Urban’s tomb in the abbey church of St
Victor
at Marseilles, his canonization was asked for and Pope Gregory XI
promised the
King of Denmark that it should be undertaken. The times were too
troubled; but
the cultus continued, and in 1870 it
was confirmed by Pope Pius IX, the feast of Bd Urban being added to the
calendar of Rome and of several French dioceses.
From the
point of view of
this pontiff’s personal holiness the most important sources will be
found
collected in the volume of J. H. Albanes and U. Chevalier, Actes
ancient et documents concernant le B. Urbain V (1897). This
includes the ancient lives, of which there are several, and the
evidence,
reports of miracles, etc., presented in view of his canonization as early as 1390. There is
besides this a very considerable literature, of which an excellent
bibliography
is provided in G. Mollat, Las popes d’Avignon (1912),
pp. 102-103. See further G.
Schmidt in Sdralek’s Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen, vol.
iii, pp. 157—173, and E. Hocedez in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxvi (1907), PP. 305—316. There is a life by L. Chaillan (1911) in the series “Les Saints”, but
the best account is that of G. Mollat in his work mentioned above.
* Among the cardinals he
made was Simon Langham, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was promptly
turned out
of his see by King Edward III because he had not asked the king’s leave
to
accept the honour.
The new Pope Urban V proved a wise choice.
A Benedictine monk and canon lawyer, he was deeply spiritual and brilliant. He lived simply and modestly, which did not always earn him friends among clergymen who had become used to comfort and privilege. Still, he pressed for reform and saw to the restoration of churches and monasteries.
Except for a brief period he spent most of his eight years as pope living away from Rome at Avignon, seat of the papacy from 1309 until shortly after his death.
He came close but was not able to achieve one of his biggest goals—reuniting the Eastern and Western churches.
As pope, Urban continued to follow the Benedictine Rule. Shortly before his death in 1370 he asked to be moved from the papal palace to the nearby home of his brother so he could say goodbye to the ordinary people he had so often helped.
Blessed Urban V OSB, Pope (RM) Born in Grisac, Languedoc, France, 1310; died in Avignon, France, December 19, 1370; cultus confirmed by Pope Pius IX on March 10, 1870.
William (Guillaume) de Grimoard, later Pope Urban V, was born in a chateau and given his name by his godfather Elzear de Sabran. His mother, Amphelise de Montferrand, remarked: "My son, I don't understand you!...But God does."
William had a most distinguished academic career, both studying philosophy, letters and law at Montpellier and Toulouse, and teaching canon law at four universities: Montpellier, Toulouse, Avignon, and Paris. The Benedictines pleased him. He entered the Chirac abbey and followed his vocation, which included ordination as a priest. His serious smile won all hearts; his diplomas opened doors. He was vicar general at Clermont and Uzés. Pope Clement VI appointed him abbot of St. Germain, Auxerre, in 1352, and nine years later Pope Innocent VI appointed him abbot of St. Victor, Marseilles, and legate to Queen Joanna of Naples. He retained such fond memories of St. Victor's that he asked to be buried there.
Popes Clement VI and Innocent VI used his services as a diplomat. The latter sent him all over as papal legate to obtain the submission of the Italian cities and the little republics that had so clamorously broken loose and, in the disorder of temporal authority, more and more contested the authority of the Holy See.
William succeeded, not by
the ruses of diplomats or severity, but by
negotiations and candor. He had no enemies. On September 28, 1362, he
was on a papal mission to Naples when he learned that Innocent VI had
died and that he himself had been elected pope, though he was not a
cardinal. Together with his new name Urban, he took on his new mission
without any pomp for he had a horror of all display. He prayed the way
everyone prayed. He ate and died as the common folk.
He immediately began to reform the Church. Because his studies had served him well, he came to the aid of students with all his might, creating thousands of scholarships, reforming or creating new universities. He said, "The first sin of Christians is their ignorance." He restored churches and monasteries that had fallen into disorder. He made peace with Barnabo Visconti in 1364, though he was unsuccessful in his attempts to suppress the marauding condottieri in France and Italy. Through Peter de Lusignan, Urban temporarily occupied Alexandria in 1365, but his crusade against the Turks did not succeed.
He immediately began to reform the Church. Because his studies had served him well, he came to the aid of students with all his might, creating thousands of scholarships, reforming or creating new universities. He said, "The first sin of Christians is their ignorance." He restored churches and monasteries that had fallen into disorder. He made peace with Barnabo Visconti in 1364, though he was unsuccessful in his attempts to suppress the marauding condottieri in France and Italy. Through Peter de Lusignan, Urban temporarily occupied Alexandria in 1365, but his crusade against the Turks did not succeed.
For 50 years the papacy had been based at Avignon but in 1366 Urban decided to bring back the papacy to Rome. Unfortunately, the French court and cardinals opposed this move. Once in Rome, he set about restoring the dilapidated city, tightening clerical discipline, and reviving religion. The Emperor Charles IV was won over to a new treaty with the papacy. After Urban crowned Charles' consort German Empress, Charles agreed to respect the rights of the Church in Germany.
Because the split church seemed to him a permanent injury to Jesus Christ, he made advances to the Christians of the East. Even the Greek emperor, John V Palaeologus, was reconciled to Rome, in an attempt to heal the deep rift between the Eastern and Western Church. It is sad that the emperor was unable to win over the hearts of his people to reconcile with Rome.
But many princes remained hostile. Because he knew how to live modestly, Urban demanded the same of his entourage. Because he did not value money, he made no economies and condemned the clergy who made profit and business from their positions. If the goodness of Pope Urban has any defect, it is that he didn't hide it under his hat. He did everything in all innocence. Though he was pope, he remained a monk and continued to follow the Benedictine Rule.
The condottieri, led by Barnabo Visconti, were once again his implacable enemies. The Perugians rose against him. The leaders of France threatened the stability of the Church. Sadly, Urban left Rome on September 5, 1370, and returned to Avignon, despite the prediction of Saint Bridget that he would die an early death if he left Rome. He died less than four months later.
On Tuesday Urban had a premonition that he would not finish his mission and that he was not the man to reconcile the French and the British. He made them remove him from the Papal Palace at Avignon to his brother's house at the foot of the hill. He did not want to die in fine sheets. He had all the door to the street opened, for many of the people whom he used to help wanted to say goodbye to him (Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia).
Blessed Pope Urban V (1310-1370)
In 1362, the man elected pope declined the office. When the cardinals could not find another person among them for that important office, they turned to a relative stranger: the holy person we honor today.
The new Pope Urban V proved a wise choice. A Benedictine monk and canon lawyer, he was deeply spiritual and brilliant. He lived simply and modestly, which did not always earn him friends among clergymen who had become used to comfort and privilege. Still, he pressed for reform and saw to the restoration of churches and monasteries. Except for a brief period he spent most of his eight years as pope living away from Rome at Avignon, seat of the papacy from 1309 until shortly after his death.
He came close but was not
able to achieve one of his biggest goals—reuniting the Eastern and
Western churches.
As pope, Urban continued to follow the Benedictine Rule.
Shortly before his death in 1370 he asked to be moved from the papal
palace to the nearby home of his brother so he could say goodbye to the
ordinary people he had so often helped.We find this servant of
God venerated in France and Jtaly during the
early fifteenth century, not very long after his death, but we have no
authentic history of his life. No doubt he was born at
Montpellier and nursed the sick during a plague in Italy, but that is
almost all that can be affirmed about him. His "
lives " are chiefly made up of popular legends, which may have a basis
in fact but cannot now be checked. According to the one written
by a Venetian, Francis Diedo, in 1478, Rock was son of the governor of
Montpellier, and upon being left an orphan at the age of twenty he went
on a pilgrimage to Rome. Finding Italy plague-stricken he visited
numerous centres of population, Acquapendente, Cesena, Rome, Rimini,
Novara, where he not only devoted himself to care of the sick but cured
large numbers simply by making the sign of the cross on
them. At Piacenza he was infected himself, and not wishing
to be a burden on any hospital he dragged himself out into the woods to
die. Here he was miraculously fed by a dog, whose master soon
found
Rock and looked after him when he was convalescent he returned to Piacetza and miraculously cured many more folk, as well as their sick cattle. At length he got back to Montpellier, where his surviving uncle failed to recognize him he was there imprisoned, and so he remained five years, till he died. When they came to examine his body it was recognized who he really was, the son of their former governor, by a cross-shaped birth-mark on his breast. He was therefore given a public funeral, and he performed as many miracles when dead as he had done when alive. Another biography, shorter, simpler and perhaps older, says that St Rock was arrested as a spy and died in captivity at Angera in Lombardy.
The popularity and rapid extension of the cultus of St Rock, a veneration by no means extinct today, was remarkable, and he soon became the saint par excellence to be invoked against pestilence. St Rock is named in the Roman Martyrology, and his feast is kept in many places there is no evidence that he was a Franciscan tertiary, but the Franciscans venerate him as such.
Rock and looked after him when he was convalescent he returned to Piacetza and miraculously cured many more folk, as well as their sick cattle. At length he got back to Montpellier, where his surviving uncle failed to recognize him he was there imprisoned, and so he remained five years, till he died. When they came to examine his body it was recognized who he really was, the son of their former governor, by a cross-shaped birth-mark on his breast. He was therefore given a public funeral, and he performed as many miracles when dead as he had done when alive. Another biography, shorter, simpler and perhaps older, says that St Rock was arrested as a spy and died in captivity at Angera in Lombardy.
The popularity and rapid extension of the cultus of St Rock, a veneration by no means extinct today, was remarkable, and he soon became the saint par excellence to be invoked against pestilence. St Rock is named in the Roman Martyrology, and his feast is kept in many places there is no evidence that he was a Franciscan tertiary, but the Franciscans venerate him as such.
See the Acta
Sanctorum,
August, vol. iii, and' Le probleme de S. Roch ", by A. Fiche, in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lxviii
(1950), pp. 343-361. The saint is very popular, as anyone may
learn who consults the long list of books and articles noted in the Bio-bibliographie of
Chevalier. A good modern work of general interest is that of C.
Ceroni, San Rocco nella vita,...
(1927); see also M. Bessodes, San
Rocco, storia e leggende (1937); and A. Maurino, San Rocco, confronti
storici (1936) (cf. Analecta
Bolandiana, vol. lv (1937), p. 193). It is curious that St
Rock seems even to have left traces of cultus in England. The
present St Roche's Hill in Sussex was St Rokeshill in 1579 and it is
said that the Glasgow parliamentary division of Saint Rollox had its
name from him. A short popular account of the saint may be found
in Leon, Aureole Seraphique
(Eng. trans.), vol. iii, pp. 11-21 .
THOUGH it has
been often said that St Thomas of Hereford was the last
English saint of the middle ages to be formally canonized (Osmund, in
1457, was a Norman), there is a bull of Pope Boniface IX that canonized
John of Bridlington in 1401 his feast is now celebrated in the diocese
of Middlesbrough and by the Canons Regular of the Lateran (on October
to). He was surnamed Thwing, from the place of his birth near
Bridlington, on the coast of Yorkshire, and the little which is known
of his life presents nothing of unusual interest. At about the age of
seventeen he went for two years to study at Oxford. When he returned
from the university he took the religious habit in the monastery of
regular canons of St Augustine at Bridlington. In this solitude he
advanced daily in victory over himself and in the experimental
knowledge of spiritual things. John was successively precentor,
cellarer, and prior of his monastery. This last charge he had averted
by his protests the first time he was chosen; but upon a second vacancy
his brethren obliged him to take up the office. His application to
prayer showed how much his conduct was regulated by the spirit of God,
and a great spiritual prudence, peace of mind and meekness of temper
were the fruits of his virtue. When he had been seventeen years prior
and had earned a universal esteem and reverence he was called to God on
October 10, 1379. Many
miracles wrought through his intercession are
mentioned by the author of his vita and by Thomas of Walsingham, who
testifies that by order of Pope Boniface IX, Richard Scrope, the
greatly venerated archbishop of York, assisted by the bishops of
Lincoln and Carlisle, translated his relics to a more worthy shrine.
This took place on March II, 1404. The shrine attracted many pilgrims,
among them King Henry V, who attributed his victory at Agincourt to the
intercession in Heaven of two English Johns, of Bridlington and of
Beverley. The nave of the priory church in which St John Thwing
presided is now the Anglican parish church of Bridlington.
See
the Acta
Sanctorum, October,
vol. v, where a
life by one Hugh, himself a canon regular, is printed. There is also a
shorter
summary by Capgrave in his Nova Legenda Angliae. But
most
important of aft is the article of Fr.
Paul Grosjean in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. liii (1935), pp. 101—129.
He has gathered up
much new material, while expressing his indebtedness to the book, St John of Bridlington (1924), and other
papers by J. S. Purvis. Mr Purvis published the text of the
canonization
document from the Lateran Regesta.
1392 Saint Demetrius of
Priluki, Wonderworker combined prayer and strict asceticism with
kindliness fed the poor
and hungry took in strangers conversed with those in need of
consolation gave counsel loved to pray in solitude Miracles from the
relics began in 1409Born into a rich merchant's family in Pereyaslavl-Zalessk. From his youth the saint was uncommonly handsome. Receiving monastic tonsure at one of the Pereyaslavl monasteries, the saint later founded the St Nicholas cenobitic monastery on the Sts Boris and Gleb Hill at the shore of Lake Plescheevo near the city, and became its igumen.
In 1534 St Demetrius first met with St Sergius of Radonezh, who had come to Pereyaslavl to see Metropolitan Athanasius. From that time, he frequently conversed with St Sergius and became close with him. The fame of the Pereyaslavl igumen was so widespread that he became godfather to the children of Great Prince Demetrius Ioannovich. Under the influence of the Radonezh wonderworker, St Demetrius decided to withdraw to a remote place, and went north with his disciple Pachomius.
In the Vologda forests, at the River Velika, near the Avnezh settlement, they built a church of the Resurrection of Christ and they prepared to lay the foundations for a monastery. The local inhabitants were fearful that if a monastery were built there, their village would become monastery property. They demanded that the monks leave their territory, and wishing to be a burden to no one, they moved farther away.
Not far from Vologda, at the bend of a river in an isolated spot, St Demetrius decided to form the first of the cenobitic monasteries of the Russian North. The people of Vologda and the surrounding gladly consented to help the saint. The owners of the land intended for the monastery, Elias and Isidore, even trampled down a grain field, so that a temple might be built immediately. In 1371 the wooden Savior cathedral was built, and brethren began to gather.
Many disciples of the monk
came there from Pereyaslavl. St Demetrius
combined prayer and strict asceticism with kindliness. He fed the poor
and hungry, he took in strangers, he conversed with those in need of
consolation, and he gave counsel. He loved to pray in solitude. His
Lenten food consisted of prosphora with warm water. Even on feastdays,
he would not partake of the wine and fish permitted by the Rule. Both
winter and summer he wore an old sheepskin coat, and even in his old
age he went with the brethren on common tasks. The saint accepted
contributions to the monastery cautiously, so that the welfare of the
monastery would not be detrimental to those living nearby.
The Lord granted His servant the gift of clairvoyance, and he attained a high degree of spiritual perfection. St Demetrius died at an advanced age on February 11, 1392. The brethren approaching found him as though asleep, and his cell was filled with a wondrous fragrance.
Miracles from the relics of St Demetrius began in the year 1409, and during the fifteenth century his veneration spread throughout all Rus. And no later than the year 1440, the Priluki monk Macarius recorded his Life (Great Reading Menaion, February 11) based on the narratives of St Demetrius's disciple Igumen Pachomius.
The Lord granted His servant the gift of clairvoyance, and he attained a high degree of spiritual perfection. St Demetrius died at an advanced age on February 11, 1392. The brethren approaching found him as though asleep, and his cell was filled with a wondrous fragrance.
Miracles from the relics of St Demetrius began in the year 1409, and during the fifteenth century his veneration spread throughout all Rus. And no later than the year 1440, the Priluki monk Macarius recorded his Life (Great Reading Menaion, February 11) based on the narratives of St Demetrius's disciple Igumen Pachomius.
1380 St. Catherine of
Siena illiterate one of the most brilliant theological minds of her day
mystical experiences when only 6 visions of Christ Mary and
the saints gift of healing Stigmata visible only after her death Doctor
of the Church
Romæ natális sanctæ Catharínæ Senénsis Vírginis, ex tértio Ordine sancti Domínici, vita et miráculis claræ, quam Pius Secúndus, Póntifex Máximus, sanctárum Vírginum número adscrípsit. Ipsíus tamen festum sequénti die celebrátur.
At Rome, the birthday of St. Catherine of Siena, virgin of the Third Order of St. Dominic, renowned for her holy life and her miracles. She was inscribed among the canonized virgins by Pope Pius II. Her feast, however, is celebrated on the following day.
Romæ natális sanctæ Catharínæ Senénsis Vírginis, ex tértio Ordine sancti Domínici, vita et miráculis claræ, quam Pius Secúndus, Póntifex Máximus, sanctárum Vírginum número adscrípsit. Ipsíus tamen festum sequénti die celebrátur.
At Rome, the birthday of St. Catherine of Siena, virgin of the Third Order of St. Dominic, renowned for her holy life and her miracles. She was inscribed among the canonized virgins by Pope Pius II. Her feast, however, is celebrated on the following day.
Patron Fire prevention 1347 - 1380
St. Catherine of
SienaThe 25th child of a wool dyer in northern Italy, St. Catherine started having mystical experiences when she was only 6, seeing guardian angels as clearly as the people they protected. She became a Dominican tertiary when she was 16, and continued to have visions of Christ, Mary, and the saints.
St. Catherine was one of
the most brilliant theological minds of her
day, although she never had any formal education. She persuaded the
Pope to go back to Rome from Avignon, in 1377, and when she died she
was endeavoring to heal the Great Western Schism.
In 1375 Our Lord give her the Stigmata, which was visible only after her death. Her spiritual director was Blessed Raymond of Capua. St, Catherine's letters, and a treatise called "a dialogue" are considered.Saint Catherine of Siena, Doctor (Memorial) April 29
Born in Siena, Italy, March 25, 1347, in Florence, Italy; died there on April 29, 1380; canonized in 1461; declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970.
Saint Catherine
cutting off her hair to convince her mother (seated) that she did not
want any earthly spouse.
Image by Boeri Boeri © 1997
"Those in union with God when aware of the sins of others live in this gentle light...Therefore they are always peaceful and calm, and nothing can scandalize them because they have done away with what causes them to take scandal, their self-will. . . . They find joy in everything.
"They do not sit in judgement on my servants or anyone else, but rejoice in every situation and every way of living they see. . . . Even when they see something that is clearly sinful, they do not pass judgement, but rather feel a holy and genuine compassion, praying for the sinner."
--Saint Catherine of Siena.
"Whenever you think God has shown you other people's faults, take care: your own judgment may well be at fault. Say nothing. And if you do attribute any vice to another person, immediately and humbly look for it in yourself also. Should the other person really possess that vice, he will correct himself so much the better when he sees how gently you understand him, and he will say to himself whatever you would have told him." --Saint Catherine.
In 1375 Our Lord give her the Stigmata, which was visible only after her death. Her spiritual director was Blessed Raymond of Capua. St, Catherine's letters, and a treatise called "a dialogue" are considered.Saint Catherine of Siena, Doctor (Memorial) April 29
Born in Siena, Italy, March 25, 1347, in Florence, Italy; died there on April 29, 1380; canonized in 1461; declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970.
Saint Catherine
cutting off her hair to convince her mother (seated) that she did not
want any earthly spouse. Image by Boeri Boeri © 1997
"Those in union with God when aware of the sins of others live in this gentle light...Therefore they are always peaceful and calm, and nothing can scandalize them because they have done away with what causes them to take scandal, their self-will. . . . They find joy in everything.
"They do not sit in judgement on my servants or anyone else, but rejoice in every situation and every way of living they see. . . . Even when they see something that is clearly sinful, they do not pass judgement, but rather feel a holy and genuine compassion, praying for the sinner."
--Saint Catherine of Siena.
"Whenever you think God has shown you other people's faults, take care: your own judgment may well be at fault. Say nothing. And if you do attribute any vice to another person, immediately and humbly look for it in yourself also. Should the other person really possess that vice, he will correct himself so much the better when he sees how gently you understand him, and he will say to himself whatever you would have told him." --Saint Catherine.
Fourteenth century Italy
was
desolated by plague, schism, and political
turmoil.
When we are tempted to
think that we live in the worst of
times, we should remember the life of Saint Catherine. Those days were
so black that many saints and scholars believed it heralded the end of
the world. The popes deserted Rome for Avignon in 1305. Rome itself was
in anarchy. Yet in the midst of confusion and dissent within the
Church, God raised up Catherine, one of many saints who prove that our
hope in the Lord is never in vain.among the most brilliant writings in
the history of the Catholic
Church. She died when she was only 33, and her body was found incorrupt
in 1430.
Siena had established itself as a military power by conquering Florence
in 1260. The city, which possessed a university with a school of
medicine and superb cathedral, was governed by the Governo dei Nove
(Government of Nine). Art was closely bound to life in Siena. Sienese
artists were the most faithful interpreters of the sentiments and ideas
of its great mystics. Legend says that Siena was founded by Romulus and
Remus or by Remus's sons Ascius and Senius, who created its black and
white flag.
Giacomo di Benincasa had a thriving cloth dying business on the Vicolo del Tiratoio (Street of the Dyers) with three of his sons: Bartolommeo, Orlando, and Stefano, plus two journeymen and two apprentices. The family lived upstairs. The also had a family farm.
When Benincasa's domineering and shrewish wife Lapa, daughter of a now forgotten poet, gave birth to twin daughters, Catherine and Giovanna, she already had 22 children. Lapa kept Catherine and breastfed her, but didn't have enough milk for her twin, who was given to another's care and eventually died. A 25th child was born and named Giovanna also, though she lived only a few years. Thirteen of the children lived to adulthood and all remained at home until they were married. Eventually eleven grandchildren were included in the household, which was big enough to include a foster son Tommaso della Fonte, whose parents died in the plague of 1348.
Though Catherine was not a pretty child, she was popular in the neighborhood because of her gaiety and wise little sayings. According to her first biographer Blessed Raymond of Capua she always had the ability to charm others. She was slight and pale, her features delicate, the texture of her skin exquisite, and her hair long, thick, lustrous, and golden. She was animated, cheerful, friendly, sensitive, and charming. All her movements were swift and graceful.
Prayer came naturally to her. At the age of five she would kneel on each step of the stairs of her home and say a prayer. She was only seven when she reported her first vision--of Jesus seated on a throne surrounded by saints, when returning with a younger brother from visiting one of her married sisters. The young child dragged at her hand, but she was lost in ecstasy. From that day she was consecrated to His service and engaged herself entirely in prayer, meditation, and acts of penance in which she encouraged her friends to join her.
Raymond of Capua, her confessor and biographer, wrote "... taught entirely by the Holy Spirit, she had come to know and value the lives and way of life of the holy Fathers of Egypt and the great deeds of other saints, especially Blessed Dominic, and had felt such a strong desire to do what they did that she had been unable to think about anything else."
The Benincasas owned a small farm out the outskirts of San Rocca a Pilli, 14 km from Siena, where Catherine spent time. She had a passion for flowers and wove them into little crosses for her early confessor Padre Tommaso. She often dreamed that angels descended from Heaven and crowned her with white lilies. Her parents wanted her to marry and encouraged her to enhance her looks. For a time she submitted to the ministrations of a hair dresser and to be decked out in fashionable clothes, but she soon repented of her concession meant to please her mother and sister Bonaventura. At age 16, when a real courtship was imminent, however, she told her mother she had taken a vow of perpetual virginity when she was seven. When her mother didn't take her seriously, she cut off her luxurious golden hair (Saint Rose of Lima did the same in a similar situation).
Giacomo di Benincasa had a thriving cloth dying business on the Vicolo del Tiratoio (Street of the Dyers) with three of his sons: Bartolommeo, Orlando, and Stefano, plus two journeymen and two apprentices. The family lived upstairs. The also had a family farm.
When Benincasa's domineering and shrewish wife Lapa, daughter of a now forgotten poet, gave birth to twin daughters, Catherine and Giovanna, she already had 22 children. Lapa kept Catherine and breastfed her, but didn't have enough milk for her twin, who was given to another's care and eventually died. A 25th child was born and named Giovanna also, though she lived only a few years. Thirteen of the children lived to adulthood and all remained at home until they were married. Eventually eleven grandchildren were included in the household, which was big enough to include a foster son Tommaso della Fonte, whose parents died in the plague of 1348.
Though Catherine was not a pretty child, she was popular in the neighborhood because of her gaiety and wise little sayings. According to her first biographer Blessed Raymond of Capua she always had the ability to charm others. She was slight and pale, her features delicate, the texture of her skin exquisite, and her hair long, thick, lustrous, and golden. She was animated, cheerful, friendly, sensitive, and charming. All her movements were swift and graceful.
Prayer came naturally to her. At the age of five she would kneel on each step of the stairs of her home and say a prayer. She was only seven when she reported her first vision--of Jesus seated on a throne surrounded by saints, when returning with a younger brother from visiting one of her married sisters. The young child dragged at her hand, but she was lost in ecstasy. From that day she was consecrated to His service and engaged herself entirely in prayer, meditation, and acts of penance in which she encouraged her friends to join her.
Raymond of Capua, her confessor and biographer, wrote "... taught entirely by the Holy Spirit, she had come to know and value the lives and way of life of the holy Fathers of Egypt and the great deeds of other saints, especially Blessed Dominic, and had felt such a strong desire to do what they did that she had been unable to think about anything else."
The Benincasas owned a small farm out the outskirts of San Rocca a Pilli, 14 km from Siena, where Catherine spent time. She had a passion for flowers and wove them into little crosses for her early confessor Padre Tommaso. She often dreamed that angels descended from Heaven and crowned her with white lilies. Her parents wanted her to marry and encouraged her to enhance her looks. For a time she submitted to the ministrations of a hair dresser and to be decked out in fashionable clothes, but she soon repented of her concession meant to please her mother and sister Bonaventura. At age 16, when a real courtship was imminent, however, she told her mother she had taken a vow of perpetual virginity when she was seven. When her mother didn't take her seriously, she cut off her luxurious golden hair (Saint Rose of Lima did the same in a similar situation).
Her mother was enraged,
discharged their maid, and decided Catherine
should dress like a servant and perform a servant's tasks. Catherine
accepted her tasks cheerfully and performed them capably. The men of
the family objected but were overruled by Lapa; however, her father
promised her that she would not be forced into marriage and he insisted
that she be given a room to herself and time to pray because he had
seen a white dove hovering above her head.
She dreamed that she encountered Saint Dominic and was overcome with a desire to enter the Third Order of the Dominican Sisters of Penance. At that time there were about 100 devout older women and spinsters in Siena who were known as Mantellates, because of the black capes they wore over their white habits.
Still unpersuaded that her daughter would not marry, Lapa took her to the spa at Vignone hoping to fatten her up in preparation for marriage. A week later they returned. Catherine had scalded herself at the source of the hot springs in order to disfigure herself. She had also contracted smallpox. During her illness she extracted a promise from Lapa to ask the sisters to accept her daughter. The Mother Superior said Catherine was too young (pleasing Lapa) but Catherine insisted that the order had no rule about it. Lapa assured her that Catherine had cut off her hair, scalded herself, and now had smallpox, so that she would no longer be attractive. Then the Mother agreed to visit Catherine. Several weeks later Catherine received the mantle and habit.
For three years she left her bare room only to attend Mass, broke her silence only for confession or to meet an emergency, ate sparingly and alone, and recited the Divine Office during the hours when she knew that the Dominican friars slept.
She underwent periods of aridity, but was never subject to temptation. On Shrove Tuesday, 1367, she prayed for the "fullness of faith" and had a vision in which she saw Jesus, Mary, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Paul, and Saint Dominic, the founder of her order. During this vision, the Blessed Virgin presented her to Jesus, who espoused Himself to her. He placed on her finger a gold ring with four pearls set in a circle in it and a wonderful diamond in the middle, saying to her, "receive this ring as a pledge and testimony that you are mine and will be mine for ever." No one else could see the ring but it was always before her eyes.
She had many marvelous
religious
experiences. She dreamed that she encountered Saint Dominic and was overcome with a desire to enter the Third Order of the Dominican Sisters of Penance. At that time there were about 100 devout older women and spinsters in Siena who were known as Mantellates, because of the black capes they wore over their white habits.
Still unpersuaded that her daughter would not marry, Lapa took her to the spa at Vignone hoping to fatten her up in preparation for marriage. A week later they returned. Catherine had scalded herself at the source of the hot springs in order to disfigure herself. She had also contracted smallpox. During her illness she extracted a promise from Lapa to ask the sisters to accept her daughter. The Mother Superior said Catherine was too young (pleasing Lapa) but Catherine insisted that the order had no rule about it. Lapa assured her that Catherine had cut off her hair, scalded herself, and now had smallpox, so that she would no longer be attractive. Then the Mother agreed to visit Catherine. Several weeks later Catherine received the mantle and habit.
For three years she left her bare room only to attend Mass, broke her silence only for confession or to meet an emergency, ate sparingly and alone, and recited the Divine Office during the hours when she knew that the Dominican friars slept.
She underwent periods of aridity, but was never subject to temptation. On Shrove Tuesday, 1367, she prayed for the "fullness of faith" and had a vision in which she saw Jesus, Mary, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Paul, and Saint Dominic, the founder of her order. During this vision, the Blessed Virgin presented her to Jesus, who espoused Himself to her. He placed on her finger a gold ring with four pearls set in a circle in it and a wonderful diamond in the middle, saying to her, "receive this ring as a pledge and testimony that you are mine and will be mine for ever." No one else could see the ring but it was always before her eyes.
At the age of 26, she
first felt the pain of Christ's suffering in her own body. Two years
later during a visit to Pisa, she received Communion in the little
church of Santa Christina. As she meditated in thanksgiving upon the
crucifix, five blood-red rays seemed to come from it which pierced her
hands, feet, and heart. Thus, she received the five visible wounds of
His suffering--the stigmata. It caused such acute pain that she
swooned. Unable or unwilling to eat, Catherine went for eight years
without food or liquid other than the Blessed Sacrament. She prayed
that the marks not be conspicuous, though they are traceable on her
incorruptible body by a transparency in the tissues.
Oftentimes she was seen
levitated in the air during her prayer. Once,
as she was being given Holy Communion, the priest felt the Host become
agitated and fly, as if of its own volition, from his fingers into her
mouth. In the Life of Saint Catherine, Mother Francis Raphael relates
that the saint was immune to fire. She tells of a time that Catherine
fell forward into a fire in the kitchen during a religious ecstasy. The
fire was large and fierce, but when Catherine was pulled out of the
smoking embers neither she nor her clothes were damaged.
But none of these divine favors would have meant much to a needy world
if Catherine had remained hidden in her home. In 1370, she heard a
divine voice that commanded her to leave the cell and enter His service
in the world to promote the salvation of her neighbors. Thousands came
to see her, to hear her, and to be converted by her. A mystical circle
of members of religious orders, secular priests, and lay people
gathered around her.
Of course, public opinion in Siena was sharply divided about Catherine. It may have been in consequence of accusations made against her that she was summoned to Florence to appear before the chapter general of the Dominicans. If any charges were made, they were certainly disproved, and shortly thereafter the new lector of Siena, Blessed Raymond, was appointed as her confessor.
The core of her teaching was: Man, whether in the cloister or in the world, must live in a cell of self-knowledge, which is the stall in which the pilgrim must be reborn from time to eternity. The press of the repentant was so great that the three priests of her neighborhood, who had been provided by the pope to hear the confessions of those who were induced by her to amend their lives, could hardly cope with it.
She dispatched letters that often had been dictated in ecstasy, to men and women of all ranks, entered into correspondence with kings and princes and with the Italian city-states. She took part also in public affairs, and Catherine welcomed all who came to call--the curious, the seeking, the devout. She collected information from them all.
Even the pope relied upon her good judgment. At this time the papacy was tragically weakened by contested papal elections, pope and antipope denouncing each other. Catherine supported the true Pope Urban VI against his opponents; but he was a somewhat graceless man, and her letters to him never hesitated to reprove the pope for this fault, while remaining entirely loyal to him.
Twice at least she successfully intervened in matters of high politics. Catherine made peace between cities torn by factional strife: she made peace between the pope and the city of Florence. On June 18, 1376, Catherine arrived in Avignon as unofficial ambassadress, and induced the pope to return to Italy, and--this was the greatest work of her life--brought to an end the Babylonian captivity of the popes. Thus, on September 13, 1376, Pope Gregory XI started from Avignon to travel by water to Rome
Of course, public opinion in Siena was sharply divided about Catherine. It may have been in consequence of accusations made against her that she was summoned to Florence to appear before the chapter general of the Dominicans. If any charges were made, they were certainly disproved, and shortly thereafter the new lector of Siena, Blessed Raymond, was appointed as her confessor.
The core of her teaching was: Man, whether in the cloister or in the world, must live in a cell of self-knowledge, which is the stall in which the pilgrim must be reborn from time to eternity. The press of the repentant was so great that the three priests of her neighborhood, who had been provided by the pope to hear the confessions of those who were induced by her to amend their lives, could hardly cope with it.
She dispatched letters that often had been dictated in ecstasy, to men and women of all ranks, entered into correspondence with kings and princes and with the Italian city-states. She took part also in public affairs, and Catherine welcomed all who came to call--the curious, the seeking, the devout. She collected information from them all.
Even the pope relied upon her good judgment. At this time the papacy was tragically weakened by contested papal elections, pope and antipope denouncing each other. Catherine supported the true Pope Urban VI against his opponents; but he was a somewhat graceless man, and her letters to him never hesitated to reprove the pope for this fault, while remaining entirely loyal to him.
Twice at least she successfully intervened in matters of high politics. Catherine made peace between cities torn by factional strife: she made peace between the pope and the city of Florence. On June 18, 1376, Catherine arrived in Avignon as unofficial ambassadress, and induced the pope to return to Italy, and--this was the greatest work of her life--brought to an end the Babylonian captivity of the popes. Thus, on September 13, 1376, Pope Gregory XI started from Avignon to travel by water to Rome
Choosing Thorns
Image by Boeri Boeri © 1997It was a month before
Catherine arrived back in Siena, from where she
continued to exhort the pope to contribute to the peace of Italy. By
his special request, she went again to Florence, still rent by factions
and obstinate in its disobedience and under interdict. There she
remained for some time amid daily murders and confiscations, in danger
of her life but never daunted, even when swords were drawn against her.
Finally, she established peace between Florence and the Holy See.
Catherine dictated from
memory
The Dialogue in five days before she
left Siena forever. It is her account of her
visions. She was
clairaudient and clairvoyant, also awareness of communion with Jesus.
She was illiterate, but yearning to be able to read the breviary, when
suddenly she could read--either through the help of Father Tommaso
della Fonte or Alessia Saracini (her friend), or through a miracle.
Her foster brother Tommaso
della
Fonte became a priest and her
confessor during the time of her novitiate. He provided her with
other
books, such as a short history of the Church, lives of the saints, the
Psalms and other portions of the Bible. She later astonished learned
ecclesiastics with her grasp of these subjects.She loved music and to
sing, was passionately fond of children. She
began to make friends again, first among the Mantellate and Dominicans,
then among the priests and physicians at the Hospital of Santa Maria
della Scala, where she began her nursing career, then among the
intelligentsia. She had the gift of healing. Much of what she did was
met with ingratitude.
Catherine loved working
amongst
the sick. Unlike most other
volunteers,
she would care for those with the most repulsive diseases, such as
leprosy, which was then virtually incurable. She gathered round her
many friends, and when a fearful plague broke out in Siena, she led
them boldly among those who had caught it sometimes even digging graves
and burying the dead herself.
Catherine also suffered
moral temptations, and often it seemed that God
had deserted her. Was it for this that she had forsaken all to follow
Him? A woman suffering from cancer, to whom she had given devoted care,
pursued her with a vicious tongue and poured out upon her all the
irritability and despair which were provoked by her hopeless condition,
but Catherine remained incredibly patient and forbearing; her visions
returned and her heart was strengthened. "O my Savior, my Lord," she
cried, "why did You forsake me?" "My child," came the answer, "I have
been with you through all. I was in your heart all the while."
This composite picture shows the mature Catherine choosing the Crown of Thorns. The lower left image of the saint is a detail of a larger work showing the young Catherine at the time her father saw a dove hovering over her head as she prayed.
She gave freely from her
father's resources to the poor beggars, some
of whom she claimed were saintly visitors in disguise. This composite picture shows the mature Catherine choosing the Crown of Thorns. The lower left image of the saint is a detail of a larger work showing the young Catherine at the time her father saw a dove hovering over her head as she prayed.
Through all her arduous
life she remained gentle and
forgiving, serving
Christ in the lives of the poor, following Him into mean streets and
crowded hovels, taking upon herself the burden of pain and sin that she
met with, nourished and sustained by her frequent visions. Our Lord
appeared to her holding in one hand a crown of gold and in the other a
crown of thorns, and asked which she would choose. Without hesitation
she reached out her hand for the crown of thorns.
Francesco di Vanni Malavolti, a famous philanderer, so desired Catherine's friendship that he went immediately to confession. They had an spontaneous and lasting friendship because of their mental harmony. After the death of his wife, he entered the monastery and spent the remainder of his days in prayer and contemplation.
Andrea Vanni was a friend
whose
portrait of her remains in the Church
of San Domenico in Siena. He and Catherine's brother Bartolo led the
revolution that toppled the government.Francesco di Vanni Malavolti, a famous philanderer, so desired Catherine's friendship that he went immediately to confession. They had an spontaneous and lasting friendship because of their mental harmony. After the death of his wife, he entered the monastery and spent the remainder of his days in prayer and contemplation.
For thirty years this
brave and devoted soul showed how
there is a
Power that transcends our earthly life, and awakened many, by
conversion, to a sense of the Eternal. "Her prayers," we are told by an
eyewitness, "were of such intensity, that one hour of prayer more
consumed that poor little body than two days upon the rack would have
done another."
When the great Western schism broke out following the death of Pope Gregory in 1378, the new pope, Urban VI, called her to Rome. A rival pope was established at Avignon by some cardinals who declared Urban's election was illegal.
When the great Western schism broke out following the death of Pope Gregory in 1378, the new pope, Urban VI, called her to Rome. A rival pope was established at Avignon by some cardinals who declared Urban's election was illegal.
Christendom was divided
into two camps. She spoke to the cardinals in
open consistory, wrote to the chief sponsors of the schism, to foreign
princes, and through her influence, helped to overcome the French
anti-pope in Italy. She also continued to write to Urban, sometimes
urging him to remain patient in trials and other times admonishing him
to abate his harshness that was alienating even his supporters.
Instead of resenting her reproofs, Urban invited her to come to Rome to
advise and assist him. In obedience, she left Siena forever and took up
residence in the Eternal City. There she labored indefatigably by her
prayers and exhortations to gain new adherents to the true pontiff.
After she had offered her life as a sacrifice to God, and had seen and felt in a vision the Almighty God pressing out her heart as a balm over the Church, she fell mortally ill and died in the arms of Alessia Saracini after eight weeks of most acute suffering at the age of 33--the age at which her Master had died. And when she died, she was merry and joyful.
Catherine is one of the greatest mystics of all time. In her, the extraordinary mystical states that are the preparation for true sanctifying graces and the counterpart of the burdens of sainthood, became particularly evident. The history of literature gives the saint a place of honor beside Dante and Petrarch (Bentley, Gill, Harrison, Keyes, Schamoni, Walsh).
In art, Saint Catherine is always portrayed as a Dominican tertiary (white habit, black mantle, white veil) with a stigmata, lily, and book. Sometimes she is portrayed (1) with a crown of thorns and a crucifix; (2) with her heart on a book; (3) with her heart at her feet and a scourge or skull, book, and lily; (4) with the devil under her feet; (5) crowned by angels with three crowns; (6) celebrating her mystic marriage with Christ; (7) giving clothes to a beggar, who is really Christ (Roeder). Catherine is the patron of Italy together with Saint Francis of Assisi (Roeder).
After she had offered her life as a sacrifice to God, and had seen and felt in a vision the Almighty God pressing out her heart as a balm over the Church, she fell mortally ill and died in the arms of Alessia Saracini after eight weeks of most acute suffering at the age of 33--the age at which her Master had died. And when she died, she was merry and joyful.
Catherine is one of the greatest mystics of all time. In her, the extraordinary mystical states that are the preparation for true sanctifying graces and the counterpart of the burdens of sainthood, became particularly evident. The history of literature gives the saint a place of honor beside Dante and Petrarch (Bentley, Gill, Harrison, Keyes, Schamoni, Walsh).
In art, Saint Catherine is always portrayed as a Dominican tertiary (white habit, black mantle, white veil) with a stigmata, lily, and book. Sometimes she is portrayed (1) with a crown of thorns and a crucifix; (2) with her heart on a book; (3) with her heart at her feet and a scourge or skull, book, and lily; (4) with the devil under her feet; (5) crowned by angels with three crowns; (6) celebrating her mystic marriage with Christ; (7) giving clothes to a beggar, who is really Christ (Roeder). Catherine is the patron of Italy together with Saint Francis of Assisi (Roeder).
1392 Blessed Nicholas
Konchanov, Novgorod Fool-for-Christ ; The Lord glorified Blessed
Nicholas with the gift of miracles and clairvoyance.
Born at Novgorod into a rich and illustrious family. From his youthful years he loved piety, he went to church faithfully, and loved fasting and prayer. Seeing his virtuous life, people began to praise him. Blessed Nicholas, disdaining glory from men, began the difficult exploit of folly for the Lord's sake. He ran about the city in the bitter cold dressed in rags, enduring beatings, insults and mockery. Blessed Nicholas and another Novgorod fool, Blessed Theodore (January 19), pretended to be irreconcilable foes, and graphically demonstrated to the people of Novgorod the pernicious character of their internecine strife.
Once, having overcome his sham opponent, Blessed Nicholas went along the Volkhov as if on dry land, and threw a head of cabbage at Blessed Theodore, therefore he was called "Konchanov" (i.e. "cabbage-head"). The Lord glorified Blessed Nicholas with the gift of miracles and clairvoyance.
Once, after being turned away by
servants from a feast to which he had been invited, he left.
Immediately, the wine disappeared from the barrel. Only upon the return
of the fool, and through his prayer, did it reappear again. When he
died, Blessed Nicholas was buried at the end of the cemetery by the
Yakovlev cathedral.Born at Novgorod into a rich and illustrious family. From his youthful years he loved piety, he went to church faithfully, and loved fasting and prayer. Seeing his virtuous life, people began to praise him. Blessed Nicholas, disdaining glory from men, began the difficult exploit of folly for the Lord's sake. He ran about the city in the bitter cold dressed in rags, enduring beatings, insults and mockery. Blessed Nicholas and another Novgorod fool, Blessed Theodore (January 19), pretended to be irreconcilable foes, and graphically demonstrated to the people of Novgorod the pernicious character of their internecine strife.
Once, having overcome his sham opponent, Blessed Nicholas went along the Volkhov as if on dry land, and threw a head of cabbage at Blessed Theodore, therefore he was called "Konchanov" (i.e. "cabbage-head"). The Lord glorified Blessed Nicholas with the gift of miracles and clairvoyance.