 44
Apostle James son of Zebedee brother of St John the Theologian one of
the Twelve Apostles 1st Apostles died as a martyr
He and his brother, St John, were called to be Apostles by our Lord
Jesus Christ, Who called them the "Sons of Thunder" (Mark 3:17).
It was this James, with John and Peter, who witnessed the Raising of
the Daughter of Jairus, the Lord's Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, and
His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.
St James, after the Descent of the Holy Spirit, preached in Spain and
in other lands, and then he returned to Jerusalem. He openly and boldly
preached Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, and he denounced the
Pharisees and the Scribes with the words of Holy Scripture, reproaching
them for their malice of heart and unbelief.
The Jews could not prevail against St James, and so they hired the
sorcerer Hermogenes to dispute with the apostle and refute his
arguments that Christ was the promised Messiah Who had come into the
world. The sorcerer sent to the apostle his pupil Philip, who was
converted to belief in ChriSt Then Germogenes himself became persuaded
of the power of God, he burned his books of magic, accepted holy
Baptism and became a true follower of Christ.
The Jews persuaded Herod Agrippa (40-44) to arrest the Apostle James
and sentence him to death (Acts 12:1-2). Eusebius provides some of the
details of the saint's execution (CHURCH HISTORY II, 9). St James
calmly heard the death sentence and continued to bear witness to
Christ. One of the false witnesses, whose name was Josiah, was struck
by the courage of St James. He came to believe in Jesus Christ as the
Messiah. When they led the apostle forth to execution, Josiah fell at
his feet, repenting of his sin and asking forgiveness. The apostle
embraced him, gave him a kiss and said, "Peace and forgiveness to you."
Then Josiah confessed his faith in Christ before everyone, and he was
beheaded with St James in the year 44 at Jerusalem.
St James was the first of the
Apostles to die as a martyr.
Apostel Jakobus Zebedäus (der
Ältere) Orthodoxe Kirche: 30. April Katholische, Anglikanische und
Evangelische Kirche: 25. Juli
 Jakobus Major
Jakobus der Ältere
Ikonenzentrum Saweljew
Das Neue Testament nennt mehrere Apostel des Namens Jakobus und die
orthodoxe Kirche unterscheidet Jakobus den Jüngeren und Jakobus
den Herrenbruder. Aber auch Jakobus der Jüngere und Jakobus der
Ältere werden hier und da verwechselt.
Jakobus Zebedäus, der Bruder des Johannes und Sohn des
Zebedäus und der Salome gehörte zu den Jüngern, die
Jesus als erste am Galiläischen Meer berief (Mt. 4, 18 ff.). Da er
vor Jakobus Alphäus berufen wurde, wird er der Ältere (major)
genannt. Diese Bezeichnung sagt also nichts über das Alter des
Jakobus aus. Er geörte zu den vier Jüngern des innersten
Kreises um Jesus. Nach der Himmelfahrt wirkte er wohl in Jerusalem und
erlitt als erster der Apostel 44 den Märtyrertod (Apg. 12). Einige
Legenden berichten, er habe in Spanien das Evangelium verkündet.
Vielleicht soll so untermauert werden, daß sich seine Gebeine in
Santiago di Compostella befinden. Hierher wurden die Gebeine im 7.
Jahrhundert gebracht, als Araber Jerusaelm erobert hatten.
Ursprünglich hatten Jakobus und Johannes ihren gemeinsamen Festtag
am 27. Dezember. Später feierte die katholische Kirche seinen Tag
am 1. Mai. Im 6. Jahrhundert wurde der Tag dann auf den 25. Juli gelegt
(vgl. Jakobus den Jüngeren).
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Icon of the Mother of God
"Of the Passion" angels with the Cross lance and the sponge.
The icon received its name because on either side of the Mother of God
are two angels with the implements of the Lord's suffering: the Cross,
the lance, and the sponge.
There was a certain pious woman, Katherine, who began to suffer
seizures and madness after her marriage. She ran off into the forest
and attempted suicide more than once.
In a moment of clarity she prayed to the Mother of God and vowed that
if she were healed, she would enter a monastery. After recovering her
health, she only remembered her vow after a long time. Afraid and
mentally afflicted, she took to her bed. Three times the Most Holy
Theotokos appeared to her, commanding the sick woman to go to
Nizhni-Novgorod and to buy Her icon from the iconographer Gregory.
After she had done this, Katherine received healing. From that time on,
miracles have occurred from this icon. The Feast day of this icon is on
August 13, commemorating its transfer from the village of Palitsa to
Moscow in 1641. A church was built at the place where it was met at the
Tver gates, and in 1654, the Strastna monastery was built.
The icon is also commemorated on April 30, and on the sixth Sunday
after Pascha (the Sunday of the Blind Man) in memory of the miracles
which occurred on this day. Other "Passion" icons of the Mother of God
have been glorified in the Moscow church of the Conception of St. Anna,
and also in the village of Enkaeva in Tambov diocese.
|
 Eutropius sent by
Pope Saint Clement (100) as
first bishop in Saintes evangelized inhabitants BM (RM)
Apud
Sántonas, in Gállia, beáti Eutrópii,
Epíscopi et Mártyris, qui, a sancto Cleménte Papa,
órdinis pontificális grátia consecrátus, in
Gálliam diréctus est, ibíque, perácta diu
prædicatióne, tandem, ob Christi testimónium,
collíso cápite, victor occúbuit
At Saintes in France,
blessed Eutropius, bishop and martyr, who was consecrated bishop and
sent to France by St. Clement. After preaching for many years, he
had his skull crushed for bearing testimony to Christ, and thus gained
victory by his death.
3rd v. ST EUTROPIUS,
BISHOP OP SAINTES, MARTYR
The
town of Saintes in south-west France honours as its first bishop St
Eutropius, who was sent from Rome in the third century to evangelize
the inhabitants and who suffered martyrdom either at their hands or by
order of the Roman authorities. The story locally told is that St
Eutropius accompanied St Denis to France to share his apostolic
labours. The people of Saintes, to whom he preached, expelled him from
their city, and he went to live in a cell on a neighbouring rock where
he gave himself to prayer and to instructing those who would listen.
Amongst others he converted and baptized the Roman governor’s daughter,
Eustella. When the girl’s father discovered that she was a Christian he
drove her from his house, and charged the butchers of Saintes to slay
Eutropius. Eustella found him dead with his skull split by an axe, and
she buried his remains in his cell.
In the Acta
Sanctorum, April, vol. iii, will be found what purports to be an
early
Latin life of St Eutropius, but no reliance can be placed upon it. St
Gregory
of Tours, however, in his Gloria
Martyrum, ch. 55, bears witness to the translation of the saint’s
relics in
the sixth century, as does Venantius Fortunatus. Cf. Duchesne,
Fastes
Épiscopaux, vol. ii, p. 538; and Analecta
Bollandiana, vol. lxix (1951), pp. 55—66. Both Gregory and
Venantius seem
to have written the name “Eutropis”.
Eutropius is honored as the first bishop of Saintes, in
southwest France. He was sent by Pope
Saint Clement(100) to evangelized the inhabitants. Aides of the
Roman governor split his head open with an axe. He was
buried by Eustella, the governor's daughter. Alleged to have
accompanied Saint Dionysius
(Bishop
of Corinth about 170) to
Paris. Since these dates are widely separated only one could possibly
be true (Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
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130 Qurinus von Neuss ein
Tribun Quirinius sei mit seiner Tochter Balbina von Papst Alexander
getauft
Katholische Kirche: 30. März und 30. April (Köln translatio)
Das römische Martyrologium berichtet, ein Tribun Quirinius sei mit
seiner Tochter Balbina von Papst Alexander getauft und unter Kaiser
Hadrian (um 130) hingerichtet worden. Mit anderen Märtyrern wurde
er in der Praetextatuskatakombe bestattet. Seine Gebeine wurden (um
1000 ?) in das Benediktinerinnenstift in Neuß übertragen.
Quirinus ist einer der vier Marschälle und Patron der Stadt Neuss
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St. Aphrodisius An
Egyptian
priest martyr of Alexandria with thirty members of his parish
Alexandríæ
sanctórum Mártyrum Aphrodísii Presbyteri, et
aliórum trigínta.
At Alexandria, the holy martyrs
Aphrodisius, a priest, and thirty martyrs.
Aphrodisius was a priest who was arrested for being a Christian. He
died with thirty members of his parish.
Aphrodisius and Companions MM (RM). Aphrodisius, an
Egyptian priest, was martyred at Alexandria with thirty members of his
flock (Benedictines).
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 250 St.
Maximus Martyr in
Ephesus ordered sacrifice to goddess Diana refused
Ephesi sancti Máximi Mártyris, qui in persecutióne
Décii coronátus est.
At Ephesus, the martyr St. Maximus, who received his crown
during the persecution of Decius.
in Asia Minor, modern Turkey. When the edict condemning Christians was
announced by the Emperor Trajanus
Decius, Maximus, a local merchant, presented himself to the
local judge. Ordered to sacrifice to the goddess Diana, Maximus refused
and was tortured and stoned to death on May 14. His Acta are still
extant.
Maximus of Ephesus M (RM) Died May 14, c. 251. Maximus, a citizen of
Ephesus, was a merchant by profession. On the publication of the edict
of Decius against the Christians in 250, he presented himself to
Proconsul Optimus as a Christian and was martyred. His proconsular Acta
are still state that when Optimus asked his name and state in life,
Maximus responded: "I am born free, but am the slave of Jesus Christ."
Optimus: "What is your profession?"
Maximus: "I am a plebeian, and live by my dealings."
Optimus: "Are you a Christian?"
Maximus: "Yes, I am, though a sinner."
Optimus: "Have not you been informed of the edicts that are lately
arrived?"
Maximus: "What edicts, and what are their contents?"
Optimus: "That all the Christians forsake their superstition,
acknowledge the true prince whom all obey, and adore his gods."
Maximus: "I have been told of that impious edict, and it is the
occasion of my appearing abroad."
Optimus: "As then you are apprised of the edicts, sacrifice to the
gods."
Maximus: "I sacrifice to none but that God to whom alone I have
sacrificed from my youth, the remembrance of which affords me great
comfort."
Optimus: "Sacrifice as you value your life: if you refuse to obey, you
shall expire in torments."
Maximus: "This has ever been the object of my desires: it was on this
very account that I appeared in public, to have an opportunity offered
me of being speedily delivered out of this miserable life, to possess
that which is eternal."
Then the proconsul commanded him to be beaten, and in the meantime said
to him, "Sacrifice, Maximus, and you shall be no longer tormented."
Maximus: "Sufferings for the name of Christ are not torments, but
comfortable unctions; but if I depart from his precepts contained in
the Gospel, then real and eternal torments would be my portion."
Next, Optimus ordered him to be stretched on the rack, and while he was
tortured, said to him, "Renounce, wretch, your obstinate folly, and
sacrifice to save your life."
Maximus: "I shall save it if I do not sacrifice; I shall lose it if I
do. Neither your clubs, nor your our iron hooks, nor your fire, give me
any pain, because the grace of Jesus Christ dwells in me, which will
deliver me out of your hands to put me in possession of the happiness
of the saints, who have already, in this same conflict, triumphed over
your cruelty. It is by their prayers I obtain this courage and strength
which you see in me."
Optimus: "I command that Maximus, for refusing to obey the sacred
edicts, be stoned to death, to serve for an example of error to all
Christians."
Saint Maximus was immediately seized by the executioners and carried
outside the city walls, where they stoned him to death.
The Greeks
honor him on May 14; the Roman Martyrology today (Benedictines,
Husenbeth).
The Holy Martyr Maximus suffered for his faith in Christ, and was run
through with a sword. {oca}
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250 Sophia of Fermo
maiden
venerated there in the cathedral VM (RM)
Firmi, in Picéno, sanctæ Sophíæ,
Vírginis et Mártyris.
At Ferno in Piceno, St. Sophia, virgin and martyr.
Sophia, a maiden of Fermo in central Italy, was martyred
under Decius.
She is still
venerated there, where her head is displayed in a rich reliquary in the
cathedral (Benedictines, Husenbeth).
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259 St. Marianus lector
Martyr
of Lambesa Numidia with James deacon & companions strengthened by a
dream of his triumphant martyrdom to come
Lambésæ, in Numídia, natális
sanctórum Mártyrum Mariáni Lectóris, et
Jacóbi Diáconi. Horum prior, cum
infestatiónes jamprídem Deciánæ
persecutiónis in confessióne Christi vicísset,
íterum cum claríssimo colléga tentus est; et ambo,
post dira et exquisíta supplícia, mirabíliter
divínis revelatiónibus secúndo confortáti,
novíssime, cum multis áliis, gládio
consummáti sunt.
At Lambesa in Numidia, the birthday of the
holy martyrs Marian, a lector, and James, a deacon. The former,
after having successfully endured many trials for the confession of
Christ in the persecution of Decius, was again arrested with his noble
companions, and both were subjected to severe and cruel torments,
during which they were twice miraculously comforted by heaven, but
finally fell by the sword along with many others.
259 SS. MARIAN and
JAMES, Martyrs
These two
martyrs suffered during the persecution of Valerian at Lambesa in
Numidia. Marian (Marianus) was a reader, James a deacon, and they were
arrested at Cirta (modern Constantine in Algeria) and put to torture.
Marian was treated with special savagery, apparently because he was
suspected of being a deacon too. He told the writer of his acta that,
falling asleep after his torments, he had a dream in which he was
invited up to the scaffold by St Cyprian, who had suffered at Carthage
in the previous year. James also had a vision of his approaching
triumph.
After
being interviewed by the governor they were sent to Lambesa, some
eighty miles away, where they were sentenced to death. The scene of
their martyrdom was a hollow in a river valley, where “the high ground
on either side served for seats as in a theatre”. So many others were
put to death at the same time that they were drawn up in rows for
execution, so that “the blade of the impious murderer might behead the
faithful, one after another, in a rush of fury”. Before his turn came,
Marian spoke with the voice of prophecy of the avenging misfortunes
that would come upon the slaughterers of the righteous; and his dead
body was embraced and kissed by his mother, “rightly named Mary,
blessed both in son and name.” The Passion of SS. Marian and James and
their fellows is an authentic document of great interest, written by
one who shared their imprisonment. The ancient Calendar of Carthage
commemorates them on May 6, but the Roman Martyrology, following the
“Hieronymianum”, names them on April 30; other martyrs mentioned in the
passio, e.g. SS. Agapius and Secundinus, are named on the previous day.
The cathedral of Gubbio in Umbria is dedicated in honour of SS. Marian
and James, and claims to have their relics.
The
passio is printed by Ruinart in his Acta
sincere and by Gebhardt in Acta
martyrum selecta; see also P. Franchi de Cavalieri in Studi e Testi (1900). There is an
English translation in H. C. H. Owen, Some
Authentic Acts of the Early Martyrs (1927).
The Acta of their martyrdom are extant.
Marian, James & Companions MM (RM) Died in Africa, May 6, 259.
Marian, a lector, and James, a deacon, were thrown into prison at Cirta
(Constantine in Algeria) during the persecution of Valerian. They were
savagely tortured to persuade them to apostatize, but each was
strengthened by a dream of his triumphant martyrdom to come.
They were put to death at the military town of Lambaesis (Lambesa) in
Numidia, with others victims so numerous that they were drawn up in
rows and the executioner passed down the ranks striking off heads, 'in
a rush of fury.' Marian and James are known from an authentic, touching
account written by a man who shared their imprisonment but was later
released (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia). In art,
Marian is shown hung up by his thumbs with weights on this feet
(Roeder).
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Departure of St. Isaac
(Ishaq), of Hourin. (Coptic)
On this day the holy father Anba Isaac (Ishaq) departed. He was born in
the city of Hourin - Shabas, from unblemished parents. His father's
name was Abraham, and his mother's name was Susannah. His mother
departed when he was a child, and his father, shortly after, married
another wife. In those days there was a famine, and his step-mother
hated him. She only gave him a little bread, which he gave to the
shepherds that he worked with. He fasted until sunset, although he was
only five years old. When his father knew that, he went to see him to
inquire into that. Knowing the matter, before his father came to him,
he tied up three pieces of mud in his cloak, so that his father might
think when he saw them from far that they were bread. When his father
came and unrolled the cloak, he found three pieces of bread. The
shepherds who were present testified that the boy had given them all
what he had of bread, and others saw him tieing the pieces of mud in
his cloak. His father marvelled and glorified God.
When Isaac grew up, he went and became a monk with a righteous man
whose name was Elias, and he lived with him for many years. After the
departure of Anba Elias, he went to the mount of Barnug and lived with
an old man whose name was Anba Zacharias. His father went about
everywhere trying to find him. When he found his son living with St.
Zacharias, he asked him to return with him. His teacher Anba Zacharias
advised him to obey his father and return with him.
He returned and stayed until his father's departure. He distributed all
what his father left him to the poor and needy. He then built for
himself a place out side the city, where he dwelt there alone. He went
on asceticism and worship until he departed in peace.
They buried him in his place of worship, and the place was forgotten.
After many years, God willed to reveal his body, and a great light
appeared above his grave, which was seen by reapers for three
consecutive days. The believers came, took his body, laid it on a
camel, and journeyed with it until they came to a place between Horein
and Nashrat. The camel stopped, knelt down, and would not get up again.
They knew that this was the Lord's Will and they built a church for him
in that place where they placed the body with great honor. His
prayers be with us. Amen.
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 320 Basil, Bishop of
Amasea Hieromartyr encouraged and comforted the Christians suffering
persecution by the pagans
Lived at the beginning of the fourth century in the Pontine city of
Amasea. He encouraged and comforted the Christians suffering
persecution by the pagans.
During this time the Eastern part of the Roman Empire was ruled by
Licinius (311-324),
brother-in-law of the holy emperor Constantine the Great (May 21).
Licinius deceitfully signed St Constantine's Edict of Milan (313),
which granted religious toleration to Christians, but he hated them and
continued to persecute them.
328 Departure
of St. Alexander I, 19th Pope of the See of St. Mark.
On this day also of the year 44 A.M. (April 17th., 328 A.D.) the holy
father Pope Alexander (Alexandros), 19th Pope of the See of St. Mark,
departed.
This Pope was born in the city of Alexandria from Christian parents,
and he grew up in serving the church. Pope Maximus ordained him a
reader, Pope Theonas ordained him a deacon. Pope Peter (Petros the Seal
of the Martyrs) ordained him a priest, and he was virgin and chaste.
When the time of Pope Petros (Peter) martyrdom drew near, Alexander and
father Archelaus, who became Patriarch before him, went to him in
prison, and asked him to lift the excommunication from Arius. Anba
Petros excommunicated Arius again in their presence, and informed them
that the Lord Christ had appeared to him and ordered him not to receive
him again and that father Archelaus will be Patriarch after him and
after Abba Archelaus, Pope Alexander will be ordained. He commanded
that to the priests of Alexandria and ordered them not to accept Arius,
and to have no fellowship with him.
When Pope Archelaus sat on the Chair and received Arius, he only lived
for six months and died. When Pope Alexandros sat, the lay leaders came
and asked him to receive Arius, but he refused and added curses to what
were already upon him. He told them: "Pope Petros had commanded Pope
Archelaus and myself to do that, and when Pope Archelaus had received
Arius, God speedily removed him from his office."
Pope Alexander expelled Arius from the country. Arius went to Emperor
Constantine and complained of the unjust treatment of this Pope.
Emperor Constantine assembled the Ecumenical Council of the Three
Hundred and Eighteen in the city of Nicea. The council was presided by
Pope Alexander. He debated with Arius and revealed his denial of
Christ, then excommunicated him and those who follow his belief.
Alexander, along with the rest of the fathers, uttered the Creed, and
drew up the Canon, the Law, and the Statutes that are still in the
hands of Christians until this day. After he put down regulations for
Lent and the feast of Easter, he returned to his Chair, victorious and
triumphant. He shepherded his flock with the best of
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387
St. Donatus
Bishop of
Euraea in Epirus sanctity praised by Greek writers miracle of the water healer
Evóreæ, in Epíro, sancti Donáti
Epíscopi, qui, témpore Theodósii
Imperatóris, exímia sanctitáte refúlsit.
At Evorea in Epirus, St. Donatus, a bishop, who was
eminent for sanctity in the time of Emperor Theodosius.
Donatos Orthodoxe Kirche: 30. April
Donatos lebte während der Herrschaft von Kaiser Theodosius dem
Großen
(370-397) und war Bischof von Eureia. In der Nähe der Stadt befand
sich
eine Quelle mit giftigem Wasser. Donatos reinigte die Quelle, indem er
eine große Schlange, die in ihr lebte, tötete. Donatos
vollbrachte
weitere Wunder, unter anderem heilte er die Tochter des Kaisers. Er
starb um 387.
Donatus of Euraea B (RM) Late 4th century. The sanctity
of Bishop
Donatus of Euraea, Epirus (Albania), was recorded by Sozomen and other
Greek writers (Benedictines).
Saint Donatus lived during the reign of the holy Emperor Theodosius the
Great (379-397) and was bishop of the city of Euroea (in Albania). Not
far from this city, in the vicinity of Soreia, was a brackish spring of
water. When the saint learned of this, he went with clergy to the
spring and cast out a monstrous serpent, which died. The saint prayed,
he blessed the spring and drank the water without harm. Seeing this
miracle, the people glorified God.
Another time, St Donatus prayed and brought forth water from a dry and
rocky place, and during a drought he entreated the Lord to send rain to
the parched land.
The daughter of the holy Emperor Theodosius fell terribly ill and was
afflicted by an unclean spirit. St Donatus came to the palace, and as
soon as he arrived the devil left and the sick woman was healed.
A certain man, shortly before his death, repaid a loan to a
money-lender. The creditor tried to extort the money a second time from
the dead man's widow. The saint resurrected the dead man, who told
where and when the loan had been repaid. After obtaining a receipt from
the creditor, the man fell asleep in the Lord.
St Donatus reposed in peace about the year 387. |
397 St. Lawrence of
Novara
Martyred priest aided St. Gaudentius bishop of Novara, Italy
Nováriæ sancti Lauréntii Presbyteri, et
puerórum Mártyrum, quos ille suscéperat
educándos.
At Novara, the martyrdom of the holy priest
Laurence, and some boys whom he was teaching.
He was martyred with a group of children whom he was
instructing in the
faith.
Laurence of Novara & Companions MM (RM) Laurence came from the
west, either from Spain or France. He is said to have assisted Bishop Saint Gaudentius of Novara (418)
in the Piedmont. He was put to death with a group of children whom he
was catechizing (Benedictines).
|
5th v. Hoilde "A
virgin who was
blotted out of existence and found again" (Hou)
5th century. "A virgin who was blotted out of existence and found
again" (Encyclopedia).
|
536 St. Pomponius Bishop
of
Naples steadfast in opposition to the Arian creed
Neápoli, in Campánia, sancti Pompónii
Epíscopi.
At Naples in Campania, St. Pomponius, bishop.
During the reign of the powerful Ostrogothic king
Theodoric the Great
who dominated Italy. As Theodoric was a devoted Arian, Pomponius faced
some pressure from the Goths but was steadfast in his opposition to the
Arian creed.
Pomponius of Naples B (RM) Pomponius was bishop of Naples from 508 to
536. He was a strong opponent of Arianism, then under the patronage of
the Gothic king Theodoric (Benedictines).
|
569 St. Desideratus
Hermit at
Gourdon revered in the region eremetical life
near Chalon-sur-Saone, in France. Details of his eremetical life are
not known, but he was revered in the region.
Desideratus of Gourdon, Hermit (AC) A French solitary who lived at
Gourdon, near Châlon-sur-Saîne (Benedictines).
|
6th v. St. Cynwl
hermit noted
for his austere life 6th century
A hermit, the brother of St. Deinoil,
noted for his austere life in
southern Wales. Several churches in the region were dedicated to Cynwl.
Cynwl of Wales, Hermit (AC) 6th century. Cynwl, the brother of Saint Deiniol (Daniel), was the
first bishop of Bangor. He lived an austere life in northern Wales.
Many churches have been dedicated to his honor (Benedictines).
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686-693 Erconwald of
London
bishop miracles at grave were reported (until the 16th century)
miracles recorded touching his couch OSB B (RM)
Londíni, in Anglia, sancti Erconváldi Epíscopi,
qui multis miráculis cláruit.
At London in England, St. Erkenwald, a bishop
celebrated for many miracles.
(also known as Erkenwald) Born in East Anglia; died at
Barking, April
30, c. 686-693; second feast day on May 13.
Erconwald is reputed to have been of royal blood, son of Annas or Offa.
In 675, Saint Theodore of Canterbury
appointed Erconwald bishop of the East Saxons with his see in London
and extending over Essex and Middlesex. His episcopate was the most
important in that diocese between that of Saint Mellitus(624) and Saint Dunstan(909- 988).
His shrine in Saint Paul's Cathedral was a much visited pilgrimage site
during the Middle Ages, where miracles were reported until the 16th
century, but little is known of his life except that he founded a
monastery at Chertsey in Surrey, which he governed, and a convent at
Barking in Essex to which he appointed as abbess his sister, Ethelburga(647).
Erconwald took some
part in the reconciliation of Saint
Theodore with Saint Wilfrid
(634-709).
In Saint Bede's (673-735)
time,
miracles were recorded as a result of touching the couch used by
Erconwald in his later years. At his death, Erconwald's relics were
claimed by Barking, Chertsey, and London; he was finally buried in
Saint Paul's Cathedral in London, which he had enlarged. The relics
escaped the fire of 1087 and were placed in the crypt. November 14,
1148, they were translated to a new shrine behind the high altar, from
where they were again moved on February 1, 1326 (Attwater,
Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer)
Erconwald is portrayed in art as a bishop in a small 'chariot' (the
Saxon equivalent of a bath chair) in which he travelled because of his
gout. Sometimes there is a woman touching it or he may be shown with
Saint Ethelburga of Barking (Roeder).
Erconwald is invoked
against gout
(Roeder).
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783 Blessed
Hildegard aid to
religious patroness of the
sick Empress (AC)
783
BD HILDEGARD, MATRON
HISTORY has but
little to tell us about Bd Hildegard, the girl of seventeen whom
Charlemagne married after his repudiation of the Lombard princess
Hermengard. Even her parentage is uncertain, although she was
probably connected with the dukes of Swabia. She is said to have been
extremely beautiful, and as good as she was fair. Of her nine children,
one became Louis the Debonair and three preceded her. Hildegard was
very friendly with St Boniface’s kinswoman, the abbess St Lioba. She
died in 783 at Thionville (Diedenhofen) on the Moselle, and her relics
were subsequently translated to the abbey of Kempten in Swabia, of
which she had been a benefactress. Hildegard was greatly revered during
her lifetime, and her shrine was a place of pilgrimage.
The
legendary or fictitious element is very conspicuous in the life of
Hildegard printed in the Acta
Sanctorum, April, vol. iii, and the story cannot be trusted
wherever it goes beyond the data furnished in the chronicles and other
sources. Hildegard, of course, figures to some extent in all the modern
lives of Charlemagne.
Died in Thionville (Diedenhofen), France, in 783. Said to have been the
daughter of the duke of Swabia, Hildegard was known for her aid to
religious and was much venerated at the time of her death. She was just
17 when Charlemagne put Hermengard aside and made her his second wife
in 771. She had nine children during their 12- year marriage. She is
said to have had a special fondness for Saint Lioba(742-814). Her tomb is at
Kempten Abbey, of which she is considered the foundress (Benedictines,
Delaney, Encyclopedia). Hildegard, who is generally shown with
Charlemagne or as an empress tending the sick, is the patroness of the
sick (Roeder).
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807 Swithbert the
Younger
missionaries in Germany bishop B (AC)
Born in England; Swithbert may have been a Benedictine monk. He joined
the missionaries in Germany and eventually became bishop of Werden in
Westphalia (Benedictines).
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819 Departure
of St. Mark 11, 49th Pope of the See of St. Mark.
On this day also, of the year 535 A.M. (April 17th., 819 A.D.), the
blessed father Pope Mark (Marcus), 49th Pope of the See of St. Mark,
departed.
This Pope was from Alexandria, and he a was chaste, learned, and
honorable man. Pope John ordained him a deacon, and he was an eloquent
speaker. His voice was sweet and all those who heard him rejoiced in
him. The Pope handed him the administration of the papal place, and he
did nothing without his advice. When Pope John put on him the garb of
monks in the monastery, one of the elder monks shouted saying: "This
deacon whose name is Mark shall, rightly and fittingly sit upon the
throne of his father Mark, the Evangelist."
When pope John departed, the bishops unanimously agreed to choose him
Patriarch. He fled to the desert, but they caught up with him, brought
him back, and enthroned him Patriarch on the 2nd day of Amshir, 515
A.M. (January 26th., 799 A.D.).
He tended to the churches needs, and restored those that were in a
ruinous state. He returned many of the heretics to the Orthodox faith,
healed many of the sick, and cast out, of many of them, devils. He told
them: "What had happened to you was because you dared to partake of the
Holy Mysteries with irreverence, so keep yourselves henceforward from
the evil words that come out of your mouth."
In his days, the Muslim Arabs conquered the Greek Isles, captured many
of their women and children, brought them to Alexandria, and started to
sell them. The Pope gathered money from the believers, and beside the
funds of the monasteries that he had, he was able to pay three thousand
Dinars to save and free them. He wrote for them bills of manumission
and set them free. He provided those who wished to return to their
country with whatever they needed, and those who wished to stay, he
gave them in marriage and protected them. He took thought for the
church of the Redeemer in Alexandria and restored it, but some evil men
burned it, so he restored it again.
When the Lord willed to give him rest, he became sick. He prayed the
Divine Liturgy and partook of the Holy Mysteries. He bade the bishops
that were present farewell and departed in peace after staying on the
Chair 20 years, 2 months and 21 days.
His prayers be with us. Amen.
|
851 Departure of St.
Michael 11, 53rd Pope of the See of St. Mark.
On this day also, of the year 567 A.M. (April 17th., 851 A.D.), the
holy father Pope Michael (Khail), 53rd Pope of Alexandria, departed.
This father was a righteous monk, and he was ordained hegumen for the
monastery of the saint Abba John. Because of his good conduct, they
chose him Patriarch, and he was enthroned in the 24th day of Hatour 566
A.M. (November 20th., 849 A.D.).
When the Holy Fast came, he went to the desert of Scetis to keep the
fast there. He remembered his earlier life in the wilderness, so he
asked God with tears and supplication saying: "O God, you know how much
I love solitary life and I have no aptitude for the position that I am
in." The Lord accepted his petition and he departed in peace after the
feast of Passover. He stayed on the Chair one year, four months and
twenty-eight days.
His prayers be with us and Glory be to our God forever. Amen.
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855 Amator priest
(Amateur),
Peter monk & Louis lay friend preachers martyred by Saracens MM (RM)
Córdubæ, in Hispánia, sanctórum
Mártyrum Amatóris Presbyteri, Petri Mónachi, et
Ludovíci.
At Cordova in Spain, the holy martyrs Amator, a
priest, Peter, a monk, and Louis.
Amator was born at Martos near Cordova, where he studied
and was
ordained a priest. He together with Peter, a monk, and Louis, their lay
friend, were preachers who were arrested by the Saracens in a clean
sweep of evangelists in Cordova (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
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982 St. Forannan Irish
bishop of
Domhnach-Mor went to Belgium in response to a dream
982 ST FORANNAN,
ABBOT
THE
abbey of Waulsort on the Meuse must have been closely connected with
Ireland in its early days, for several of its abbots came to it from
that country, including St Maccallan, St Cadroe and St Forannan, who
occupied for a time the Irish bishopric of Domhnach-Mor, a diocese or
monastery which has not hitherto been identified. He is said to have
been led to abandon his native land by a dream, in which an angel
showed him a beautiful valley that was to be his home. With twelve
companions he left Ireland and made his way to the mouth of the river
Meuse, up which he sailed as far as Waulsort. In this beautiful spot,
which charms the tourist who takes the river trip between Namur and
Givet, the saint recognized the Vallis Decora of his vision. He was
hospitably received by the monks there.
He
appears to have been appointed abbot of Waulsort in 962. Business
connected with his monastery afterwards took him to Rome, and on his
way back he stayed for a time at the abbey of Gorze in Lorraine. His
object appears to have been to obtain training for himself and his
companions in the Rule of St Benedict, with a view to reforming the
discipline of Waulsort, which had become relaxed. St Forannan raised
his abbey to great sanctity and glory, and obtained from the Christian
princes the privilege of the Truce of God, which gave security of life
and limb to all bona-fide pilgrims to Waulsort on the annual festival
and during its octave.
There is
quite a lengthy life printed both by
Mabillon and in the Acta Sanctorum, April,
vol. iii. See also O’Hanlon, LIS., vol. iv, pp. 552 seq., and
Gougaud, Gaelic
Pioneers of Christianity, pp. 37,
83—84, and Les saints irlandais hors d
‘Irlande, p. 103.
Ireland, no longer listed as a diocese. With twelve companions he went
to Belgium and founded an abbey at Waulsort, on the Meuse River,
becoming abbot in 962. Forannan introduced the Benedictine rule to
Waulsort. Forannan went to Belgium in response to a dream.
Forannan, Abbot (AC) died 982. A Benedictine bishop, Saint Forannan
followed a dream and left Ireland to join a community at the abbey of
Waulsort on the Meuse in Belgium.
The year of his arrival (962), he was elected its abbot, perhaps
because Otto I of Germany had chartered it as an Irish abbey over which
an Irish monk was to rule in perpetuity as long as there was one in the
community. He spent some time at Gorze studying the monastic observance
established by Saint John in
order to introduce it at Waulsort, which he did most successfully. The
community attracted so many postulants that Forannan had to negotiate
the annexation of the neighboring Hastiers Abbey. Waulsort became a
sanctuary for pilgrims (Attwater2, Benedictines, D'Arcy, Gougaud,
Encyclopedia, O'Hanlon).
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1100 Genistus of
Beaulieu killed by his nephew OSB M (AC)
The Benedictine monk Genistus of Beaulieu, Limousin, diocese of
Limoges, was killed by his nephew at Aynac-en-Quercy. He is venerated
as a martyr and as patron of Aynac (Benedictines).
|
 1109 Saint Nikita
former Recluse of the Kiev Caves healing of many people
Fell
asleep in the Lord in 1109, after serving as Bishop of Novgorod
for thirteen years.
Bishop
Nikita was glorified as a saint during the reign of Tsar Ivan
Vasilievich, and his holy relics, dressed in full vestments, were
uncovered on April 30, 1558. That day was marked by the healing of many
people. His relics now rest in the cathedral of the holy Apostle Philip
in Novgorod.
St Nikita of
Novgorod is also
commemorated on January 31, the day of his repose, and on May 14.
1127 Gualfardus a
saddler those
around him regarded him as a saint hermit in the Camaldolese priory of
San Salvatore OSB (AC)
1127
ST GUALFARDUS or WOLFHARD
ABOUT the
year 1096 there arrived at Verona, in the train of a party of German
merchants, a saddler from Augsburg called Gualfardus (Wolfhard), who
took up his abode in the city. All that he earned by his trade, apart
from what was necessary for bare subsistence, he gave to the poor, and
he led so holy a life that he was regarded with veneration. Shocked to
find himself treated as a saint, he secretly left Verona to seek a spot
where he could serve God unobserved by men. In a forest on the river
Adige he lived as a hermit for years, until he was recognized by some
boatmen whose vessel ran aground near his hut. The Veronese induced him
to return into their midst and he eventually became a hermit-monk of
the Camaldolese priory of the Holy Redeemer. There he spent the last
ten years of his life. Famous for miracles during his life, St
Gualfardus became even more famous for them after his death.
No other source of
information seems available beside the short Latin life printed in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. iii.
(also
known as Wolfhard) Born in Augsburg, Germany; feast day formerly
on May 11. Saint Gualfardus was a saddler, who plied his trade in
Verona, Italy, until those around him began to regard him as a saint.
Then he retired to live as a hermit in the Camaldolese priory of San
Salvatore near Verona (Benedictines). In art, Gualfardus is a
Benedictine hermit with a stone coffin near him (Roeder). He is
venerated in Augsburg, Germany, and Verona, Italy, and, because of his
profession, is the patron of saddlers (Roeder).
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1131 St. Adjutor
distinguished
himself in the First Crusade; abbey of Tiron confessor recluse
A Norman lord, master of Vernonsur-Seine, who distinguished himself in
the First Crusade. He was captured by the Muslims during the campaign
but managed to escape from slavery. He returned to France and entered
the abbey of Tiron. There he became a recluse, remaining recollected
until his death of April 30.
St. Ajutre or Adjoutr, confessor. He was a Norman gentleman, who, upon
motives of holy zeal and piety, followed the Christian standards in the
holy war in the East. Being taken by the Saracens he suffered great
hardships and torments, but nothing shook his constancy in the
confession of his faith, or in the exercises of his religious duties.
Having recovered his liberty, he returned home, whereupon, having
consecrated himself and his estate to God, he led an anchoretical life
at Vernon upon the Seine, in the assiduous practices of penance and
fervent prayer. He consummated his sacrifice by a happy death on the
30th of April, in 1131, and is commemorated on this day in the new
accurate Martyrology of Evreux, and in the calendars of many other
churches in Normandy.
Adjutor of Vernon, OSB Hermit (AC) (also known as Ajutre, Adjoutr,
Ayutre) Died at Tiron, France, on April 30, 1131. Adjutor, a Norman
knight and lord of Vernon-sur-Seine, participated in the First Crusade
in 1095, was captured by the Islamics. While in prison he suffered many
hardships and torments because he refused to abandon the faith.
Finally, he escaped from prison. Consecrating himself and his estate to
God upon his return to France, he became a monk at Tiron Abbey, where
he led the life of a recluse during his final years (Benedictines,
Delaney, Husenbeth). In art, Saint Adjutor is a crusader recluse with a
chain or bird near him. Sometimes he may be shown throwing part of his
chain over a precipice (Roeder). He is venerated in Vernon-sur-Seine.
He is the patron of swimmers and invoked against drowning (Roeder).
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1173 St. Aimo monk
mystical
experiences charitable kindness nursed victims of plagues with
limitless devotion
born near Rennes, France, in a turbulent era. Aimo entered the
Benedictine monastery of Savigny, in the modern region of Normandy.
There he took care of two monks of the community afflicted with
leprosy. Perhaps because of his fearless charity in nursing these
unfortunates, Aimo was thought to be a leper as well. He served as a
lay brother in the community until his superiors realized that he did
not have the dreaded disease. He was then chosen for the priesthood and
ordained. Aimo is remembered not only for his charitable kindness but
for his recorded mystical experiences.
Aimo of Savigny, OSB (AC) (also known as Aymon, Aimon, Hamon) Born in
the diocese of Rennes; died 1173. Aimo joined the abbey of Savigny
(Avranches), Normandy, and was falsely suspected of having leprosy. In
order to avoid being sent away, he offered to serve two religious who
were actually lepers. Afterwards he was professed, ordained, and
appointed to various offices. He nursed the victims of plagues with
limitless devotion, perhaps because of the trials he had undergone.
Aimo was also favored with mystical experiences (Benedictines,
Encyclopedia).
|
 Sanctæ
Catharínæ Senénsis Vírginis, ex
tértio Ordine sancti Domínici, quæ ad
cæléstem Sponsum transívit prídie hujus
diéi.
St. Catherine
of Siena, virgin of the Third Order of
St. Dominic, who on the previous day went to her heavenly Spouse.
1380 ST
CATHERINE OF SIENA, VIRGIN
ST Catherine was born in Siena on the feast of the Annunciation 1347,
she and a twin sister who did not long survive her birth being the
youngest of twenty-five children. Their father, Giacomo Benincasa, a
well-to-do dyer, lived with his wife Lapa, daughter of a now forgotten
poet, in the spacious house which the piety of the Sienese has
preserved almost intact to the present day. Catherine as a little girl
is described as having been very merry, and sometimes on her way up or
downstairs she used to kneel on every step to repeat a Hail Mary. She
was only six years old when she had the remarkable mystical experience
which may be said to have sealed her vocation. In the company of her
brother Stephen she was returning from a visit to her married sister
Bonaventura when she suddenly came to a dead stop, standing as though
spellbound in the road, with her eyes gazing up into the sky, utterly
oblivious to the repeated calls of the boy who, having walked on ahead,
had turned round to find that she was not following. Only after he had
gone back and had seized her by the hand did she wake up as from a
dream. “Oh!” she cried, “if you had seen what I saw you would not have
done that!” Then she burst into tears because the vision had faded—a
vision in which she had beheld our Lord seated in glory with St Peter,
St Paul and St John. The Saviour had smiled upon the child: He had
extended His hand to bless her . . . and from that moment Catherine was
entirely His. In vain did her shrewish mother seek to inspire her with
the interests common to girls of her age: she cared but for prayer and
solitude, only mingling with other children in order to lead them to
share her own devotion.
When she had reached the age of twelve, her parents urged her to devote
more care to her personal appearance. In order to please her mother and
Bonaventura she submitted for a time to have her hair dressed and to be
decked out in the fashion, but she soon repented of her concession.
Uncompromisingly she now declared that she would never marry, and as
her parents still persisted in trying to find her a husband she cut off
her golden-brown hair—her chief beauty. The family, roused to
indignation, tried to overcome her resolution by petty persecution. She
was harried and scolded from morning to night, set to do all the menial
work of the house, and because she was known to love privacy she was
never allowed to be alone, even her little bedroom being taken from
her. All these trials she bore with patience which nothing could ever
ruffle.
Long afterwards, in her treatise on divine Providence, more commonly
known as “The Dialogue”, she said that God had taught her to build in
her soul a refuge in which she could dwell so peacefully that no storm
or tribulation could ever really disturb her. At last her father
realized that further opposition was useless, and Catherine was allowed
to lead the life to which she felt called. In the small room now ceded
for her use, a cell-like apartment which she kept shuttered and dimly
lighted, she gave herself up to prayer and fasting, took the discipline
and slept upon boards. With some difficulty she obtained what she had
ardently desired—permission to receive the habit of a Dominican
tertiary, and after her admission she still further increased her
mortifications, in accordance with the spirit of that then rigorously
penitential rule.
Sometimes now Catherine was favoured by celestial visions and
consolations, but often she was subjected to fierce trials. Loathsome
forms and enticing figures presented themselves to her imagination,
whilst the most degrading temptations assailed her. She passed through
long intervals of desolation, during which God would appear to have
abandoned her altogether. “Oh Lord, where wert thou when my heart was
so sorely vexed with foul and hateful temptations?” she asked our Lord,
as He manifested himself once more to her after a series of such trials.
“Daughter”, He replied, “I was in thy heart, fortifying thee by my
grace”; and He assured her that He would from thenceforth be with her
more openly, because the time of her probation was drawing to a close.
On Shrove Tuesday, 1366, while Siena was keeping carnival, she was
praying in her room when the Saviour appeared to her again, accompanied
by His blessed Mother and a crowd of the heavenly host. Taking the
girl’s hand, our Lady held it up to her Son who placed a ring upon it
and espoused Catherine to Himself, bidding her to be of good courage,
for she was now armed with faith to overcome the assaults of the enemy.
The ring remained visible to her though invisible to others. This
spiritual betrothal marked the end of the years of solitude and
preparation. Very shortly afterwards, it was revealed to Catherine that
she must now go forth into the world to promote the salvation of her
neighbour, and she began gradually to mix again with her fellow
creatures. Like the other tertiaries she undertook to nurse in the
hospitals, and she always chose for preference the cases from which
they were apt to shrink. Amongst these was a woman afflicted with a
repulsive form of cancer and a leper called Tecca— both of whom
rewarded her loving care by ingratitude, abusing her to
her face and spreading scandal about her behind her back. In the end,
however, they were won by her devotion.
“I desire to become more closely united to thee through charity towards
thy neighbour”, our Lord had said, and Catherine's public life in no
way interfered with her union with Him. Bd Raymund of Capua tells us
that the only difference it made was that “God began from that time to
manifest Himself to her, not merely when she was alone, as formerly,
but when she was in public”. Often in the family circle, oftener still
in church after she had made her communion, she was rapt in prolonged
ecstasy, and whilst at prayer she was seen by many persons upraised
from the ground. Gradually there gathered round her a band of friends
and disciples-her Fellowship or Family, all of whom called her “Mamma”.
Prominent amongst them were her Dominican confessors, Thomas delia
Fonte and Bartholomew Dominici, the Augustinian Father Tantucci,
Matthew Cenni, rector of the Misericordia hospital, Andrew Vanni, the
artist to whom posterity is indebted for the loveliest of all the
pictures of the saint, the aristocratic young poet Neri di Landoccio
dei Pagliaresi, her own sister-in-law Lisa Colombini, the noble widow
Alessia Saracini, the English William Flete, an Austin hermit, and the
aged recluse Father Santi, popularly known as “the Saint”, who
frequently left his solitude to be near Catherine because, to quote his
own words, he found greater peace of mind and perseverance in virtue by
following her than he had ever found in his cell. The tenderest
affection bound the holy woman to those whom she regarded as her
spiritual family-children given to her by God that she might lead them
to perfection. She not only read their thoughts, but she frequently
knew their temptations when they were absent, and it was to keep in
touch with them that she seems to have dictated her earliest letters.
As may be readily supposed, public opinion in Siena was sharply divided
about Catherine, especially at this period. Although many acclaimed her
as a saint, some dubbed her a fanatic, whilst others loudly denounced
her as a hypocrite, even some of her own order. 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
afterwards the new lector to Siena, Bd Raymund of Capua, was appointed
her confessor. Their association was a happy one for both. The learned
Dominican became not only her director but in a great measure her
disciple, whilst she obtained through him the support of the order. In
later life he was to be the master general of the Dominicans and the
biographer of his spiritual daughter.
Catherine's return to Siena almost coincided with the outbreak of a
terrible epidemic of plague, during the course of which she devoted
herself to relieving the sufferers, as did also the rest of her circle.
“Never did she appear more admirable than at this time”, wrote Thomas
Caffarini, who had known her from her early girlhood. “She was always
with the plague-stricken: she prepared them for death; she buried them
with her own hands. I myself witnessed the joy with which she nursed
them and the wonderful efficacy of her words, which wrought many
conversions.” Amongst those who owed their recovery to her were Bd
Raymund himself, Matthew Cenni, Father Santi and Father Bartholomew,
all of whom had contracted the disease through tending others. But
Catherine's care for the dying was not confined to the sick. She made
it a regular practice to visit in prison those condemned to execution,
in order that she might lead them to make their peace with God. A
young Perugian knight, Nicholas di Toldo, sentenced to death for
speaking lightly of the Sienese government, was the best-known example,
vividly related in the best-known of the saint's letters. At her
persuasion he made his confession, assisted at Mass and received the
Lord's Body. The night before execution Catherine comforted and
encouraged him as he leaned his head upon her breast. And on the morrow
she was at the scaffold; and Nicholas, seeing her pray for him, laughed
with joy, and as he murmured “Jesus and Catherine” she received his
severed head into her hands. “Then I saw God-and-man, as one sees
the brightness of the sun, receiving that soul in the fire of His
divine love.”
Such things as these, coupled with her reputation for holiness and
wonders, had by this time won for her a unique place in the estimation
of her fellow citizens, many of whom proudly called her “La Beata
Popolana” and resorted to her in their various difficulties. So
numerous were the cases of conscience with which she dealt that three
Dominicans were specially charged to hear the confessions of those who
were induced by her to amend their lives. Moreover, because of her
success in healing feuds, she was constantly being called upon to
arbitrate at a time when every man's hand seemed to be against his
neighbour. It was partly no doubt with a view to turning the
belligerent energies of Christendom from fratricidal struggles that
Catherine was moved to throw herself energetically into Pope Gregory
Xl's appeal for another crusade to wrest the Holy Sepulchre from the
Turks. Her efforts in this direction brought her into direct
correspondence with the pontiff himself.
In February 1375 she accepted an invitation to visit Pisa, where she
was welcomed with enthusiasm and where her very presence brought about
a· religious revival. She had only been in the city a few days
when she had another of those great spiritual experiences which appear
to have preluded new developments in her career. After making her
communion in the little church of St Christina, she had been looking at
the crucifix, rapt in meditation, when suddenly there seemed to come
from it five blood-red rays which pierced her hands, feet and heart,
causing such acute pain that she swooned. The wounds remained as
stigmata, apparent to herself alone during her life, but clearly
visible after her death.
She was still at Pisa when she received word that the people of
Florence and Perugia had entered into a league against the Holy See and
its French legates; and Bologna, Viterbo, Ancona, together with other
cities, not without provocation from the mismanagement of papal
officials, promptly rallied to the insurgents. That Lucca as well as
Pisa and Siena held back for a time was largely due to the untiring
efforts of Catherine, who paid a special visit to Lucca besides writing
numerous letters of exhortation to all three towns. From Avignon, after
an unsuccessful appeal to the Florentines, Pope Gregory despatched his
legate Cardinal Robert of Geneva with an army, and laid Florence under
an interdict.* [* In this unhappy business the pope hired the services
and force of the English freebooter, John Hawkwood. ]
This ban soon entailed such serious effects upon the city that
its rulers in alarm sent to Siena, to accept Catherine's offer to
become their mediatrix with the Holy See. Always ready to act as
peacemaker, she promptly set out for Florence. The magistrates promised
she should be followed to Avignon by their ambassadors, but these
gentlemen set out only after a protracted delay. Catherine arrived at
Avignon on June 18, 1376, and soon had a conference with Pope Gregory,
to whom she had already written six times, " in an intolerably
dictatorial tone, a little sweetened with expressions of her perfect
Christian deference.” But the Florentines proved fickle and insincere;
their ambassadors disclaimed Catherine, and the pope's peace terms were
so severe that nothing could be done.
Although the immediate purpose of her visit to Avignon had thus failed,
Catherine's efforts in another direction were crowned with success.
Many of the religious, social and political troubles under which Europe
was groaning were to a great degree attributable to the fact that for
seventy-four years the popes had been absent from Rome, living in
Avignon, where the curia had become almost entirely French. It was a
state of things deplored by all earnest Christians outside France, and
the greatest men of the age had remonstrated against it in vain.
Gregory XI had indeed himself proposed to transfer his residence to the
Holy City, but had been deterred by the opposition of his French
cardinals. Since Catherine in her previous letters had urged his return
to Rome, it was only natural that the pope should talk with her on the
subject when they came face to face. “Fulfil what you have promised”,
was her reply-recalling to him, it is said, a vow which he had never
disclosed to any human being. Gregory decided to act without loss of
time. On September 13, 1376, he started from Avignon to travel by water
to Rome, Catherine and her friends leaving the city on the same day to
return overland to Siena. The two parties met again, almost
accidentally, in Genoa, where Catherine was detained by the illness of
two of her secretaries, Neri di Landoccio and Stephen Maconi, a young
Sienese nobleman whom she had converted and who had become the most
ardent of her followers, and perhaps the most beloved except Alessia.
It was a month before she was back in Siena, from whence she continued
to write to Pope Gregory, exhorting him to contribute by all means
possible to the peace of Italy. By his special desire she went again to
Florence, still rent by factions and obstinate in its disobedience.
There she remained for some time, amidst daily murders and
confiscations, in danger of her life but ever undaunted, even when
swords were drawn against her. Finally she did indeed establish peace
with the Holy See, although not during Gregory's reign, but in that of
his successor.
After this memorable reconciliation the saint returned to Siena where,
as Raymund of Capua tells us, " she occupied herself actively in the
composition of a book which she dictated under the inspiration of the
Holy Ghost". This was the very celebrated mystical work, written in
four treatises, known as the" Dialogue of St Catherine". That she was
favoured with some infused knowledge had indeed already been made clear
on several occasions-in Siena, at Avignon and in Genoa-when learned
theologians had plied her with hard questions, and had retired
disconcerted with the wisdom of her replies. Her health had long since
become so seriously impaired that she was never free from pain: yet her
emaciated face habitually bore a happy and even smiling expression, and
her personal charm
was as winning as ever.
But within two years of the ending of the papal “captivity” at Avignon
began the scandal of the great schism which followed the death of
Gregory XI in 1378, when Urban VI was chosen in Rome and a rival pope
was set up in Avignon by certain cardinals who declared Urban's
election illegal. Christendom was divided into two camps, and Catherine
wore herself out in her efforts to obtain for Urban the recognition
which was his due. Letter after letter she addressed to the princes and
leaders of the various European countries. To Urban himself she
continued to write, sometimes to urge him to bear up under his trials,
sometimes admonishing
him to abate a harshness which was alienating even his supporters. Far
from resenting her reproof, the pope told her to come to Rome that he
might profit by her advice and assistance. In obedience to the call she
took up her residence in the City, labouring indefatigably by her
prayers, exhortations and letters to gain fresh adherents to the true
pontiff. Her life, however, was almost ended. Early in 1380 she had a
strange seizure, when a visible presentment of the ship of the Church
seemed to crush her to the earth and she offered herself a victim for
it. After this she never really recovered. On April 21 there supervened
a paralytic stroke which disabled her from the waist downwards, and
eight days later, at the age of thirty-three, St Catherine of Siena
passed away in the arms of Alessia Saracini.*[* The date of Catherine's
birth, and therefore her age, was questioned by Robert Fawtier. On this
point, see Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xl (1922), pp. 365-411].
Besides the Dialogue mentioned above, about 400 of St Catherine's
letters are still extant, many of them of great interest and historical
value, and all of them remarkable for the beauty of their diction; they
are addressed to popes and princes, priests and soldiers, religious and
men and women in the world, and are indeed “the most complete
expression, of Catherine's many-sided personality”. Those, especially,
addressed to Gregory XI show a remarkable combination of deep respect,
outspokenness and familiarity- “my sweet babbo” she calls the pontiff.
Catherine has been called “the greatest woman in Christendom”, and her
spiritual significance can hardly be overrated; but it is perhaps open
to question whether she had as much political and social influence as
is sometimes attributed to her. As Father B. de Gaiffier has written:
“It is Catherine's devotion to the cause of Christ's Church that makes
her such a noble figure”. That Church canonized her in 1461.
Nearly all the more
painstaking English biographers of St Catherine-for
example, Mother Frances Raphael Drane (1887), Professor E. G. Gardner
(1907), and Alice Curtayne -discuss the question of sources in some
detail. The most important materials for her life are supplied by the
Legenda Major of Bd Raymund of Capua, her confessor; the Supplementum
by Thomas Caffarini; the Legenda Minor, which is also Caffarini's; the
Processus Contestationum super sanctitatem et doctrinam Catharinae de
Senis; and the Miracoli. There is also, of course, the great collection
of Catherine's letters, with regard to which both the dating and the
determination of the primitive text is often a matter of great
difficulty, as well as many other documents of considerable, if minor,
importance. Some little commotion was caused by the extremely drastic
criticism to which these sources were subjected by Dr Robert Fawtier.
Many of his strictures appeared in the form of articles or
contributions to the proceedings of learned societies, and he himself
re-edited some of the less familiar texts, e.g. the Legenda Minor, but
the most notable points of attack are set out in two larger volumes
under the common title, Sainte Catherine de Sienne: Essai de critique
des sources. The earlier volume deals with the Sources hagiographiques
(1921), the later with Les reuvres de Ste Catherine (1930). Criticisms
of Dr Fawtier's many useful comments will be found in the appendix to
Alice Curtayne's Saint Catherine of Siena (1929), an excellent book,
where an essay of Fr Taurisano is reprinted in the original Italian.
Cf. also the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xlix (1930), pp. «8-451.
Other useful contributions are those of J. Joergensen, Sainte Catherine
de Sienne (Eng. trans., 1938); E. de Santis Rosmini, Santa Caterina da
Siena (1930); and F. Valli, L'injanzia e la puerizia di S. Caterina
(1931). Among more recent books must be mentioned N. M. Denis-Boulet,
La carrière politique de ste Catherine de Sienne (1939); M. de
la Bedoyère, Catherine, Saint of Siena (1946); and a full
popular life in Italian by Fr Taurisano (1948). La double experience de
Catherine Benincasa (1948), by R. Fawtier and L. Canet, is a full
statement from a different approach. Canon J. Leclercq's Ste Catherine
de Sienne (1922) still retains its worth. There is an English edition
of the Dialogue by Algar Thorold. There is an excellent concise account
of
certain problems connected with St Catherine's life, by Fr M. H.
Laurent, in
DHG., vol. xi, cc. 1517-1521. For the sources of the Dialogue,
consult
A. Grion, Santa Caterina da Siena: Dottrina efonti (1953). For other
recent works,
see Analecta
Bollandiana, vol. lxix (1951),
pp.
182-191.
|
1429 St. Louis von
Bruck
Martyred boy example of the pervasive anti-Semitism of the medieval
period
sometimes listed as Ludwig. He was born in Ravensburg, Germany, to
Swiss parents. Louis was reportedly murdered on Easter by Jews of the
region. This account is considered an example of the pervasive
anti-Semitism of the medieval period.
Louis von Bruck M (AC) (also known as Ludwig) Born in Ravensburg,
Swabia, Germany; Ludwig is another of the boy martyrs claimed to have
been martyred by Jews at Easter (Benedictines).
|
1572 St. Pius V, Pope
from 1566-1572
Catholic Reformation leader taught theology philosophy 16 years
excessive zeal as grand inquisitor wholeheartedly devoted to the
religious life published Roman Catechism revised Roman Breviary and
Roman Missal organized Battle of Lepanto commission to revise the
Vulgate new edition of Thomas Aquinas Lepanto pope had knowledge
of the victory through miraculous means
One of the foremost leaders of the Catholic Reformation. Born
Antonio Ghislieri in Bosco, Italy, to a poor family, he labored as a
shepherd until the age of fourteen and then joined the Dominicans,
being ordained in 1528. Called Brother Michele, he studied at Bologna
and Genoa, and then
taught theology and philosophy for sixteen years before holding the
posts of master of novices and prior for several Dominican houses.
Named inquisitor for Como and Bergamo, he was so capable in the
fulfillment of his office that by 1551, and at the urging of the
powerful Cardinal Carafa, he was named by Pope Julius III commissary
general of the Inquisition. In 1555, Carafa was elected Pope Paul IV
and was responsible for Ghislieri’s swift rise as a bishop of Nepi and
Sutri in 1556, cardinal in 1557, and grand inquisitor in 1558.
While out of favor for a time under Pope Pius IV who disliked his
reputation for excessive zeal, Ghislieri was unanimously elected a pope
in succession to Pius on January 7, 1566.
As pope, Pius saw his main objective as the continuation of the massive
program of reform for the Church, in particular the full implementation
of the decrees of the Council of Trent. He published the Roman
Catechism, the revised Roman Breviary, and the
Roman Missal; he also declared Thomas
Aquinas a Doctor of the Church,
commanded a new edition of the works of Thomas Aquinas, and created a
commission to revise the Vulgate.
The decrees of Trent were published throughout all Catholic lands,
including Europe, Asia, Africa, and the New World, and the pontiff
insisted on their strict adherence. In 1571, Pius created the
Congregation of the Index to give strength to the Church’s resistance
to Protestant and heretical writings, and he used the Inquisition to
prevent any Protestant ideas from gaining a foot hold in Italy.
In dealing with the threat of the Ottoman Turks who were advancing
steadily across the Mediterranean, Pius organized a formidable alliance
between Venice and Spain, culminating in the Battle of Lepanto, which
was a complete and shattering triumph over the Turks. The day of the
victory was declared the Feast Day of Our Lady of Victory in
recognition of Our Lady’s intercession in answer to the saying of the
Rosary all over Catholic Europe.
Pius also spurred the reforms of
the Church by example.
He insisted
upon wearing his coarse Dominican
robes, even beneath the magnificent
vestments worn by the popes, and was wholeheartedly devoted to the
religious life. His reign was blemished only by the continuing
oppression of the Inquisition; the often brutal treatment of the Jews
of Rome; and the ill advised decision to excommunicate Queen Elizabeth
I of England in February 1570, an act which also declared her deposed
and which only worsened the plight of English Catholics. These were
overshadowed in the view of later generations by his contributions to
the Catholic Reformation. Pope Clement beatified him on May 1, 1672,
and Pope Clement XI canonized him on May 22, 1712.
Pius V, OP Pope (RM) (also known as Michael Ghislieri) Born in Bosco
(near Alessandria), Italy, on January 17, 1504; died May 1, 1572;
canonized in 1712; feast day formerly on May 5. People who know nothing
else about Pius V are quite apt to remember him as the Pope of the
Rosary, recalling his remarkable connection with the Battle of Lepanto.
Antonio Michael was born into the distinguished but impoverished
Ghisleri. His parents could not afford to educate their alert little
boy, who seemed far too talented to be a shepherd. One day, as he was
minding his father's small flock, two Dominicans came along the road
and fell into conversation with him. Recognizing immediately that he
was both virtuous and intelligent, they obtained permission from his
parents to take the child with them and educate him. He left home at
age 12 and did not return until his ordination many years later. After
a preliminary course of studies, he received the Dominican habit
at the priory of Voghera at age 14 and, as a novice, was sent to
Lombardy. Here, for the first time, he met the well-organized forces of
heresy which he was to combat so successfully in later years. After his
ordination in 1528, he went home to say his first Mass, and
he found that Bosco had been razed by the French. There was nothing
left to tell him if his parents were alive or dead. He finally found
them, however, in a nearby town. After he said Mass, he returned to a
career that would keep him far from home for the rest of his life. He
began as a lector in theology and philosophy for 16 years.
Then he served as novice-master, than as prior of several convents,
Michael proved to be a wise and charitable administrator. He was made
inquisitor at Como, Italy, where many of his religious brethren had
died as martyrs to the heretics. By the time of Michael's appointment
there, the heretics' chief weapon was the printed word; they smuggled
books in from Switzerland, causing untold harm by spreading them in
northern Italy. The new inquisitor set himself to fight this wicked
traffic, and it was not the fault of the heretics that he did not
follow his brethren to martyrdom. They ambushed him several times and
laid a number of complicated plots to kill him, but only succeeded in
making him determined to explain the situation more fully to the pope
in Rome.
He arrived in Rome on Christmas Eve, tired, cold, and hungry, and here
it was not the heretics that caused him pain, but his own brothers in
Christ. The prior of Santa Sabina saw fit to be sarcastic and
inhospitable to the unimportant looking friar, who said he was from
Lombardy. The pope knew very well who he was, however, and immediately
gave him the commission of working with the heretics in the Roman
prisons.
He was a true father to these unfortunates, and he brought many of them
back to the faith. One of his most appealing converts was a young
Franciscan, a converted Jew of a wealthy family, who had lapsed into
heresy through pride in his writing. Michael proceeded to straighten
out his thinking, to give him the Dominican habit, and to assure him of
his personal patronage, thus securing for the Church a splendid
Scripture scholar and writer.
In 1556, Michael was chosen bishop of Nepi and Sutri. The next year he
was named inquisitor general against the Protestants in Italy and Spain
and was appointed cardinal, in order, as he said, that irons should be
riveted to his feet to prevent him from creeping back into the peace of
the cloister. In 1559, Pope Pius IV made him bishop of the war-depleted
Piedmont see of Mondovi, to which he soon brought order. Insofar as
possible, Michael continued to adhere to the Dominican Rule.
He constantly opposed nepotism. Michael opposed Pius IV's attempt to
make 13-year-old Ferdinand de'Medici a cardinal, and defeated the
attempt of Emperor Maximilian II of Germany to abolish clerical
celibacy.
January 7, 1565, when the papal chair was vacant following the death of
Pius IV, the cardinals, chiefly through the influence of Saint Charles Borromeo(1538-1584)
elected Cardinal Ghislieri pope. With great grief, he accepted the
office and chose the name Pius V. Charles Borromeo had backed Michael
during the election, trusting that he would act as a much-needed
reformer.
 His judgment proved true: on Pius's coronation, the money
usually distributed to the crowds was given to the hospitals and the
poor, and money for a banquet for the cardinals and other dignitaries
was given to poor convents. When someone criticized this, he observed
that God would judge us more on our charity to the poor than on our
good manners to the rich. Such an attitude was bound to make enemies in
high places, but it endeared him to the poor, and it gave
right-thinking men the hope that here was a man of integrity, and one
who could help to reform the clergy and make a firm stand against the
Lutheran heresy.
Pope Saint Pius V
There were massive problems of immediate urgency during the brief reign
of Pius V. From within, the peace of the Church was disturbed by the
several heresies of Luther, Calvin, and the Lombards, and by the need
for clerical reform. In addition, England was tottering on the brink of
a break with Rome. The Netherlands were trying to break away from Spain
and had embraced Protestantism. The missions across the sea needed
attention. And all through the Mediterranean countries, the Turkish
were ravaging Christian cities, creeping closer to world conquest. In
the six years of his reign, Pope Pius V had to deal with all these
questions--any one of which was enough to occupy his entire time.
One of Pius's first actions was to demand that bishops should live in
their dioceses and parish priests in their parishes. His efforts at
regulating his see embraced issues ranging from the abolition of
bullfighting, bear-baiting and prostitution, to cleaning out the Roman
curia and eliminating nepotism, to cutting down the activities of
bandits. He insisted that Sunday must be hallowed. Once a month he held
a special court for anyone who felt they had been treated unjustly. He
also brought in shipments of corn during a famine at his own expense.
In his personal life he continued to be a devout mendicant friar; as
pope he set himself to enforce the decrees of the Council of Trent with
energy and effect. The catechism ordered by the Council of Trent was
completed during his rule (1566), and he ordered translations made. The
breviary reformed (1568) and missal (1570). He also commissioned the
best edition to date of the writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas(1159); it was
he who made Thomas a Doctor of the Church in 1567.
His was a rigorous character; he made full use of the Inquisition and
his methods of combatting Protestantism were ruthless. Pius had hoped
to convert Queen Elizabeth of England. The unfortunate Mary Queen of
Scots enjoyed his sympathy and encouragement. He sent reassuring
letters to her, and once, at a time when no priest was allowed to go
near her, he granted her special permission to receive Holy Communion
by sending her a tiny pyx that contained consecrated Hosts. It was he
who finally had to pronounce excommunication on Elizabeth of England in
1570, after he had given her every possible chance of repentance.
Pius V had a high estimate of papal power in secular matters, though
sometimes showing little talent for dealing with them. When he
excommunicated Elizabeth I, he absolved her subjects of the allegiance
to her as queen. This served only to endanger the Catholics in her
realm, however, and many were accused of treason and martyred. (It is
interesting to note that Elizabeth II visited Pope John XXIII at the
Vatican on Pius V's original feast day, May 5, nearly four centuries
later.) That he also came into conflict with Philip II of Spain shows
with what consistency he applied his principles.
He encouraged the new society founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
and established the Jesuits in the Gregorian University. He consecrated
three Jesuit bishops for India, gave Saint
Francis Borgia(1510-1572) his greatest cooperation, and helped
to finance missionaries to China and Japan. He built the church of Our
Lady of the Angels for the Franciscans and helped Saint Philip Neri(1515-1595) in his
establishment of the Oratory. Probably the act for which he will be
longest remembered in his leadership at the time of the Battle of
Lepanto.
In 1565, the Knights of Saint John defended Malta against a tremendous
attack by the Turkish fleet and lost nearly every fighting man in the
fortress. It was the pope who sent encouragement and money with which
to rebuild their battered city. The pope called for a crusade among the
Christian nations and appointed a leader who would be acceptable to
all. He ordered the Forty Hours Devotion to be held in Rome, and he
encouraged all to say the Rosary.
When the Christian fleet sailed out to meet the enemy, every man on
board had received the sacraments, and all were saying the Rosary. The
fleet was small, and numerically it was no match for the Turkish fleet,
which so far had never met defeat. They met in the Bay of Lepanto on
Sunday morning, October 7, 1565. After a day of bitter fighting, and,
on the part of the Christians, miraculous help, the Turkish fleet--what
was left of it--fled in disgrace, broken and defeated, its power
crushed forever.
Before the victorious fleet returned to Rome, the pope had knowledge of
the victory through miraculous means. He proclaimed a period of
thanksgiving; he placed the invocation, "Mary, Help of Christians" in
the Litany of Loreto and established the feast in commemoration of the
victory. It was almost the last act of his momentous career for he fell
victim to a painful illness that killed him in less than a year. He was
attempting to form an alliance of the Italian cities, France, Poland,
and other Christian nations of Europe to march against the Turks when
he died. He is enshrined at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
Although he was criticized for 'wanting to turn Rome into a monastery,'
Saint Pius had the respect of the Roman people, who knew his personal
goodness and concern for everybody's welfare. He gave large sums to the
poor, lived a life of austerity and piety, and personally visited the
sick in hospitals. Pius V is remembered as one of the most important
popes of the Counter-Reformation (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley,
Delaney, Dorcy, White).
In art, he is shown reciting a rosary; or with a fleet in the distance;
or with the feet of a crucifix withdrawn as he tried to kiss them
(White).
April 30, 2007 St. Pius V (1504-1572)
This is the pope whose job was to implement the historic Council of
Trent. If we think recent popes have had difficulties in implementing
Vatican Council II, Pius V had even greater problems after that
historic council more than four centuries ago.
During his papacy (1566-1572), Pius V was faced with the almost
overwhelming responsibility of getting a shattered and scattered Church
back on its feet. The family of God had been shaken by corruption, by
the Reformation, by the constant threat of Turkish invasion and by the
bloody bickering of the young nation-states. In 1545 a previous pope
convened the Council of Trent in an attempt to deal with all these
pressing problems. Off and on over 18 years, the Church Fathers
discussed, condemned, affirmed and decided upon a course of action. The
Council closed in 1563.
Pius V was elected in 1566 and was charged with the task of
implementing the sweeping reforms called for by the Council. He ordered
the founding of seminaries for the proper training of priests. He
published a new missal, a new breviary, a new catechism and established
the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) classes for the young.
Pius zealously enforced legislation against abuses in the Church. He
patiently served the sick and the poor by building hospitals, providing
food for the hungry and giving money customarily used for the papal
banquets to poor Roman converts. His decision to keep wearing his
Dominican habit led to the custom of the pope wearing a white cassock.
In striving to reform both Church and state, Pius encountered vehement
opposition from England's Queen Elizabeth and the Roman Emperor
Maximilian II. Problems in France and in the Netherlands also hindered
Pius's hopes for a Europe united against the Turks. Only at the last
minute was he able to organize a fleet which won a decisive victory in
the Gulf of Lepanto, off Greece, on October 7, 1571.
Pius's ceaseless papal quest for a renewal of the Church was grounded
in his personal life as a Dominican friar. He spent long hours with his
God in prayer, fasted rigorously, deprived himself of many customary
papal luxuries and faithfully observed the Dominican Rule and its
spirit.
Comment: In their personal
lives and in their actions as popes,
Pius V and Paul VI (d. 1978) both led the family of God in the process
of interiorizing and implementing the new birth called for by the
Spirit in major Councils. With zeal and patience, Pius and Paul pursued
the changes urged by the Council Fathers. Like Pius and Paul, we too
are called to constant change of heart and life.
Quote: "In this
universal assembly, in this privileged point of time
and space, there converge together the past, the present, and the
future. The past: for here, gathered in this spot, we have the Church
of Christ with her tradition, her history, her Councils, her doctors,
her saints; the present: we are taking leave of one another to go out
toward the world of today with its miseries, its sufferings, its sins,
but also with its prodigious accomplishments, values, and virtues; and
the future is here in the urgent appeal of the peoples of the world for
more justice, in their will for peace, in their conscious or
unconscious thirst for a higher life, that life precisely which the
Church of Christ can give and wishes to give to them" (from Pope Paul's
closing message at Vatican II).
|
1590 Bl. Miles
Gerard Martyr of
England
Born near Wigan, England, he studied for the priesthood at Reims
and was ordained in 1583 . Miles was martyred at Rochester and was
beatified in 1929.
|
1590 Bl. Francis
Dickenson
English convert martyr
He was born in Yorkshire, England, and was a convert to the Church.
After being ordained at Reims, France, in 1589, he returned to England
and was promptly arrested. Francis was hanged, drawn, and quartered at
Rochester. He was beatified in 1929.
|
1590 St. Gerard
Miles Martyr of
England with Blessed Francis Dickinson
1590 BB. FRANCIS
DICKENSON AND MILES GERARD, MARTYRS
NATIVES
respectively of Yorkshire and of Lancashire, Francis Dickenson and
Miles Gerard crossed over to France to be educated for the priesthood
in the Douai college at Rheims. In 1589, six years after Gerard’s
ordination, they were despatched on the English mission, but the ship
on which they embarked was wrecked, passengers as well as crew being
cast up on the Kentish coast. Either on suspicion or on information,
Dickenson and Gerard were promptly arrested and cast into prison.
Brought up for trial, they were condemned to death as traitors for the
offence of coming to England as priests. They suffered martyrdom
together at Rochester, on April 13 or 30, 1590.
See
Challoner, MMP., p. 162. There is further
interesting information in the state papers which preserve a record of
the
examinations of these two martyrs. See Catholic Record Society Publications, vol. v, pp. 171—173 and
cf. Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs, pp.
314--315.
He was born in Lancashire, England, and went to Douai and Reims where
he was ordained in 1583. Returning from England, he was arrested when
the ship that he and Francis were using wrecked at Kent. They were
arrested and hanged, drawn, and quartered at Rochester in April. They
were beatified in 1929.
Blesseds Francis Dickenson and Miles Gerard MM (AC) Died at Rochester,
England, 1590; beatified 1929. Francis Dickenson was born in Yorkshire
and converted to Catholicism. He was educated for the priesthood at
Rheims, France, ordained in 1589, and sent to the English mission,
where he was martyred the following year at Rochester together with
Father Gerard.
Miles Gerard served as a priest for a few years more than did Fr.
Dickenson, perhaps because he used an alias, William Richardson. He was
born near Wigan and taught school before studying for the priesthood
and being ordained at Rheims in 1583 (Attwater2, Benedictines).
|
1618 Bl. Mary of the
Incarnation
contemplative prayer frequent ecstasies often saying "The Kingdom of
God is within you"received the stigmata reserved regarding mystical
illuminations and always very humble responsible for at least 10,000
conversions first Carmel established in Paris OCD Widow (AC)
(also known as Madame Barbé Acarie) Born in Paris, France, in
1566; died 1618; feast day formerly April 18; beatified in 1791.
Some people wonder why God does not intervene more in the affairs of
our troubled world. Perhaps He would, if there were more men and women
who responded to their vocations to be saints. Nevertheless, it is
wondrously amusing to see how Almighty God will insist on getting
things done His way, through all sorts of individuals who unknowingly
aid in the completion of his design. Barbara Avrillot, generally called
Barbe, was born for a particular work to be done. Her mother, doctors
and some clergy tried to put obstacles in her way, but God overcame
them all.
This saintly French woman was born to well-bred Catholic parents. In
fact, her father became a priest after her mother's death. Due to
politics, her father lost his property. Her mother was harsh and often
violent to her, so she became a timid, frightened child. Barbe was
educated in a convent and wanted to be a nun, but her mother insisted
on her marriage at age 16 to Pierre Acarie, formerly a King's
Councillor; thus, history generally remembers Barbe as the beautiful
Madame Acarie.
Pierre was a hot-headed adventurer, indolent, and critical. He censored
his wife's reading and asked her confessor for a supply of books she
should read on the spiritual life. This worked on behalf of God's plan
by opening a new world of mystical reality to her. She was especially
impressed with one sentence, "Too greedy is he for whom God does not
suffice." These words transformed her whole being at age 22. She became
gayer, more decisive and efficient in the management of her household.
At once she reached the heights of contemplative prayer and had
frequent ecstasies. These ecstasies did not sap her strength or ruin
her health, nor did they interfere with her bearing six children.
Madame Acarie found it impossible to read spiritual and mystical books
without immediately falling into ecstasy, so she had someone read them
to her. The presence of another person generally kept her on the
natural plane. As she advanced toward perfection, she gained better
control over her inner life and ecstatic seizures became more
infrequent. She also received the stigmata.
Her mystical life was passive, rather than active; God seized her
without effort on her part. Vocal prayer, like reading, was difficult.
She was very reserved regarding her mystical illuminations and always
very humble.
Pierre Acarie, perhaps chagrined at his wife's spiritual progress and
renown as a mystic, began studying pious books. Part II of God's plan.
He had the writings of Blessed Angela
de Foligno(1260-1309) translated into French for his wife, but
she refused to read them. His pride hurt, he tried to make life
uncomfortable for her at home and to malign her to the priests.
She never neglected her household duties. Her husband's recklessness
soon reduced the family to poverty. He was always prey to get rich
quick schemes. For political reasons, he was exiled (comfortably) for
four years by Henry IV. Barbe used these years of independence to save
her house and rehabilitate her husband's reputation. She acted on his
behalf as an attorney in a legal suit and he was exonerated.
Barbe took a deep interest in her children's education, and personally
trained their characters. She hated falsehood. She also did her best to
combat vanity in her children. She taught her three daughters to carry
themselves well and dress fashionably, for she did not want to force
them into a convent. All three girls became Carmelites, and two of her
sons became priests.
The grace she drew from contemplation directed and guided her in all
her manifold beneficent activities and in raising her children. Her
second daughter, known in religion as Marguerite
du Saint- Sacrement, is regarded by the Abbé
Brémond as the ideal
Carmelite.
Mssr Gauthier, Councillor of State, and an intimate friend, during her
canonization process said she was responsible for at least 10,000
conversions. "All who approached her were impressed by her genuine
spirituality, and felt that in talking with her they were coming very
close to God Himself." Therefore, she "liberated grace" in countless
men and women, including many priests.
While her husband was in exile, she inspired women who often gathered
in her home to form the Congrégation de Sainte- Geneviève
to enable them to live a holy life in common and instruct little girls.
This congregation prepared France for its first Carmelite and Ursuline
houses, as most of its members joined these two new orders.
Barbe was led to write to Saint
Teresa of Ávila(1515-1582) because of a vision she had of
her, who told Barbe in the vision to confer with the proper authorities
for the needed permission to bring the order to France. A second vision
of Saint Teresa told her later
to now proceed without delay. Barbe summoned her group and was joined
by the visiting Saint Francis de
Sales(1567-1622) who also fell under the spell of her sanctity.
The first Carmel was established in Paris in 1606; within nine years,
six more were established around France.
While she was still living with her husband, Barbe personally selected
and trained many women who became Carmelites. She even counselled
Carmelite superiors--ordinarily women religious do not willingly defer
to a married woman; however, she had a high degree of discernment of
spirits. Her home became a center for religious activity. Her husband
was a troublesome interloper, and vented his irritation (probably
jealousy).
Pierre Acarie died in 1613; then Barbe joined the Carmelites, but only
as a lay sister, taking the name of Marie of the Incarnation. She lived
in the convent of Amiens, then in Pontoise, where she died. Barbe
radiated with God's love and often said, "The Kingdom of God is within
you" (Benedictines, S. Delany).
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1625 Blessed
Benedict of Urbino
lawyer Capuchin effective preacher OFM Cap. (AC)
1625 BD BENEDICT OF
URBINO
THE
father of Benedict of Urbino was a member of the princely family of the
Passionei, and his mother was Magdalen Cibó. The little boy,
Martin by name, lost both his parents before he was seven, but he was
left in charge of guardians who brought him up carefully. In the
University of Perugia, where he studied philosophy, as well as at
Padua, where he graduated in jurisprudence, he was known as a young man
of exemplary conduct. After taking his doctor’s degree he went to Rome,
but finding no satisfaction in the legal career which he had chosen he
decided to seek admission to the Capuchin friary at Fossombrone. This
was not readily conceded on account of the opposition of his relations,
but the habit was bestowed upon him at Fano in 1584. It was then that
he took the name of Benedict. Even then his difficulties were by no
means ended. During his novitiate he became so ill that it seemed as
though he would have to leave, and although he made a good recovery it
was thought that he was too delicate to be professed. That he was
eventually allowed to take the vows was due entirely to the
novice-master, who emphasized the extraordinary piety of the young
neophyte.
Friar
Benedict was for three years specially attached to the vicar general,
St Laurence of Brindisi, to accompany him on his visitations in Austria
and Bohemia. The missionary sermons which Benedict preached at that
time brought about many conversions amongst heretics and lax Catholics.
He had a great zeal for the care of God’s house, and would sometimes,
even when he was a superior, take a broom and sweep out the church. He
frequently preached on the passion of our Lord, upon which he meditated
daily for an hour, lying on the ground with his face to the earth, and
his most ardent desire was that every heart should be consumed with the
fire of love which Christ came on earth to kindle. In the year 1625 he
set forth in very severe weather to preach the Lenten sermons at
Sassocorbaro, although he was in very poor health. He began his course
on Ash Wednesday, but was too ill to proceed. He was therefore
taken back to Fossombrone, where he died on April 30.
One of Bd Benedict’s favourite sayings was: “He that hopes and trusts
in God can never be lost”. He was beatified in 1867.
More
than one account
of his life was published in 1867, e.g. those
by Eusebio a Montesanto and Pellegrino da Forli; a later book is
that of
Eugenio de Potenza (1920). Cf. also
Ernest-Marie de Beaulieu, Liber Memorialis O.M.Cap. (1928), pp.
258—260; and Leon, Aureole Séraphique (Eng.
trans.), vol. ii,
pp. 147--150.
Born at Urbino, Italy; died at Fossombrone, Italy, 1625; beatified in
1867. Born into the de'Passionei family, Benedict was a lawyer in his
home town before joining the Capuchins at Fano in 1584. His previous
training, complemented by his faith, made him an effective preacher. He
was the companion of Saint Laurence
of Brindisi(1559- 1619) whom he followed to Austria and Bohemia
(Attwater2, Benedictines).
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1672 Blessed Marie of
the
Incarnation Martin, OSU (AC)
Born in Tours, France, on October 28, 1599; died in Quebec, Canada, on
April 30, 1672; beatified in 1980 by John Paul II. If you're not
confused, I am. There appears to be two beatae of the same name on this
day. This Marie of the Incarnation had a very different beginning than
did Mme Acarie, though she also had her roots in France.
Marie Guyard was the daughter of a baker and married a silk
manufacturer named Claude Martin when she was 17. The couple had one
son before Claude died two years later. Marie became a bookkeeper for
her brother-in-law.
In 1629, Marie joined the Ursulines at Tours and took the name Marie of
the Incarnation. Ten years later she was sent to Canada, where she laid
the foundation for the first Ursuline convent in Quebec in 1641. She
rebuilt the convent after fire destroyed it in 1650. As part of her
apostolate, she compiled dictionaries in Algonquin and Iroquois and
taught the Indians until her death.
Like Mme Acarie, Marie experienced mystical visions. She also suffered
periods of spiritual aridity about which she wrote. Her letters give a
valuable account of life in Quebec in 1639-71 (Delaney).
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1721 Argyra The
holy New Martyr lived in Proussa, Bithynia jailed for her Christianity
17 years tortured endured all with great courage and patience
She came from a pious family. She was a beautiful and virtuous woman.
When she was eighteen, she married a pious Christian, and they moved
into a neighborhood inhabited by many Moslems.
After only a few days, she was approached by a Turkish neighbor, the
son of the Cadi (magistrate). He boldly declared his love for her, and
tried to convert her to his religion. She rejected his advances, saying
that she would rather die than be married to a Moslem. She did not tell
her husband, fearing that he would go after the Turk and then be
punished for it.
The Moslem brought her to trial and testified that she had assented to
his advances, but then had laughed and said she was only joking. His
lies were corroborated by false witnesses, and Argyra was sent to
prison.
The saint's husband, hoping to get her a fair trial, appealed to
Constantinople. There the accuser repeated his lies before the judge.
St Argyra said that she was a Christian, and that she would never deny
Christ. The judge ordered her to be flogged, then sentenced her to life
in prison.
She was often taken from her cell, interrogated, beaten, then returned
to prison. This continued for seventeen years. The saint was also
insulted and tormented by the Moslem women who were incarcerated for
their evil deeds. The Evil One incited them to annoy St Argyra with
these torments and afflictions, but she endured all these things with
great courage and patience.
According to the testimony of many Christian women who were in prison
with her, she humbled her body through fasting. Her heart was filled
with such love for Christ that she regarded her hardships as comforts.
A pious Christian named Manolis Kiourtzibasis sent her word that he
would try to have her released, but St Argyra would not consent to
this. She completed her earthly pilgrimage in the prison, receiving the
crown of martyrdom on April 5, 1721.
After a few years her body was exhumed, and was found to be whole and
incorrupt, emitting an ineffable fragrance. Pious priests and laymen
took her body to the church of St Paraskeve on April 30, 1735 with the
permission of Patriarch Paisius II.
Her relics remain there to this day, where they are venerated by
Orthodox Christians from all walks of life, to the glory of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
St Argyra's name comes from the Greek word for silver (argyre). THE NEW
MARTYR ARGYRA 1688-1721 by P. Philippidou (which also contains a
Service to the saint) was published in Constantinople in 1912.
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1842 St. Joseph
Cottolengo opened home/hospital for sick
poor Piccola Casa became a great medical
institution founded Daughters of Compassion Daughters of the Good
Shepherd
Hermits of the Holy Rosary Priests of the Holy Trinity
Chérii, apud Augústam Taurinórum, sancti
Joséphi Benedícti Cottoléngo, Confessóris,
Parvæ Domus a Divína Providéntia Fundatóris,
summa in Deum confidéntia et caritáte in páuperes
insígnis, quem Pius Papa Undécimus Sanctórum
fastis adscrípsit.
At Chieri, near Turin, St. Joseph Cottolengo,
confessor, founder of the Little House of Divine Providence, full of
trust in God and remarkable for his charity toward the poor, whom Pope
Pius XI enrolled among the saints.
Joseph was born at Bra, near Turin, Italy. He was ordained and engaged
in pastoral work. When a woman he attended died from lack of medical
facilities for the poor in Turin, he opened a small home for the sick
poor. When it began to expand, he organized the volunteers who had been
manning it into the Brothers of St. Vincent and the Daughters of St.
Vincent (Vincentian Sisters).
When cholera broke out in 1831, the
hospital was closed, but he moved it just outside the city at Valdocco
and continued ministering to the stricken. The hospital grew and he
expanded his activities to helping the aged, the deaf, blind, crippled,
insane, and wayward girls until his Piccola Casa became a great medical
institution. To minister to these unfortunates, he founded the
Daughters of Compassion, the Daughters of the Good Shepherd, the
Hermits of the Holy Rosary, and the Priests of the Holy Trinity.
Weakened by typhoid he had contracted, he died at Chieri, Italy, and
was canonized in 1934.
(1786-1842)
One day in 1827 Father Joseph Cottolengo was
called upon to give the last sacraments to a young Frenchwoman who had
taken ill in the city of Turin, Italy, while en route back to France
with her family. Amazed at the fact that this foreign woman was dying
uncared for in a slum - the only place in which she could find lodging
- Cottolengo learned that there was no institution in the whole city
where emergency medical care could be obtained.
Father Joseph was a great devotee of the needy
of any sort. Whenever he saw that aid was necessary, he dropped
everything else until provision had been made. In this case, he at once
rented five rooms in a house to serve as an emergency hospital. A good
local woman supplied some beds, a doctor and a pharmacist offered their
services, and soon he had five patients under care. What proved the
need of such an institution was the way that the hospital grew. As more
rooms were added, Father Cottolengo gathered and organized a permanent
nursing staff of men and women. He called the men the Brothers of St.
Vincent. The women he formed into a nursing order of nuns, the
Vincentian Sisters.
This “Volta Rossa” hospital suffered a brief
setback in 1831. A cholera epidemic broke out, and the city
authorities, fearing that the hospital would become a breeding ground
for the disease, shut it down. Canon Cottolengo kept his cool, and
simply planned to move the hospital to other quarters. Meanwhile, his
nurses took care of the cholera victims in their own homes.
The place to which the hospital was moved in
1832 was Valdocco, suburban to Turin. Not only did the transplanted
emergency hospital thrive in its new locale; there soon sprang up
alongside it a number of auxiliary institutions called into being by
additional human needs. There was a nursing school, a building for
epileptics, and others for deaf-mutes, the blind, orphans, homeless
kids, prostitutes, the aged, and the mentally retarded (“My good boys
and girls”, he affectionately termed his retarded children.) In the
end, he had a vast complex of charitable homes.
The most remarkable part of this “Little House
of Divine Providence” is that the founder actually did leave the
management completely in God's hands. He kept no books, no accounts.
What he got he forthwith spent, never investing it as a cautionary or
prudential measure. He even refused to put his center under royal
patronage as a security, and would allow no endowments. Whenever a need
arose, therefore, he trusted that the God who had allowed it to arise
would provide funds to deal with it.
Some would think it a folly to start and
maintain institutions without knowing where the funds were coming from.
But St. Joseph Cottolengo did know where they were coming from. If he
had no source of money, he had a battery of people praying for it -
various organizations and religious orders that he had founded
especially to storm heaven for aid. His center was not called the
Little House of Divine Providence in vain. He really did challenge God
to provide for the good works. And God never failed him.
Most of this saint's institutions continue to
flourish today. That says something, doesn't it, about the wisdom of
trusting in a heavenly Father? Remember, it was He who once said to His
people through Isaiah: “Can a mother forget her infant be without
tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget I will
never forget you!” (49: 15).
St. Joseph Cottolengo, pray that we may always trust bravely in God's
assistance!-- Father Robert F. McNamara
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1922 Pandita Mary
Ramabai i ihr Werk leiten und den elenden Frauen Indiens helfen
Anglikanische Kirche: 30. April Evangelische Kirche: 5. April
Ramabai Sarasvati, Tochter eines gelehrten Brahmanen, wurde 1858 im
Distrikt Mangalur geboren. Ihr Vater stand einer Frau das gleiche Recht
zur geistigen Bildung zu wie einem Mann und lehrte sie die indische
Weisheit und die Philosophie der Veden. Mit 16 Jahren war sie gegen
alle herrschende Sitte noch unverheiratet, als ihre Eltern bei der
großen Hungersnot alle Habe verloren und an Hungertyphus starben.
Pandita Ramabais Bruder fand in Kalkutta eine Stellung als Lehrer und
Pandita Ramabai wurde zur Vorkämpferin der indischen
Frauenbewegung. Sie wies in Vorträgen aus den heiligen
Büchern nach, daß die übliche Kinderheirat und das
Elend der Witwen nicht im Einklang mit der alten Weisheitslehre
stünden. Die gelehrten Brahmanen Kalkuttas verliehen ihr den Titel
Pandita (Professor). Sie heiratete einen Juristen, der nach kurzer Ehe
starb. Um ihre Aufgabe besser durchführen zu können, ging sie
mit ihrer Tochter nach England und hielt hier Vorträge über
das Elend der indischen Frauen und schrieb ein Buch 'Die Hindufrau
höherer Kasten'. In Fulham lernte sie die Schwestern vom Kreuz
kennen und beschloß, Jesus nachzufolgen. Michaelis 1883
ließ sie sich und ihre Tochter taufen. Die zahlreichen Spenden
aus Europa und Amerika ermöglichten es ihr, in Puna ein Waisenheim
für Kinderwitwen einzurichten, in dem sie mit 40 bis 60 Witwen
zusammenlebte. Als 1897 eine Hungersnot ausbrach, die auch die Mittel
des Staates überforderte, half Pandita Ramabai, wo sie konnte.
Zweihundert Mädchen und Frauen, die sie vor dem Hungertod bewahren
konnte, siedelte sie auf ihrem Land in Kelagon an. In den drei Jahren
der Hungersnot sammelte sie insgesamt 1.200 Menschen ein, die in dem
Dorf 'Mukti' (Stätte der Rettung) eine neue Heimat fanden. Das
Dorf hatte schließlich fast 2.000 Bewohner, die in handwerklichen
und landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben arbeiten konnten. Ihre Tochter
arbeitete als Lehrerin in ihrem Haus in Puna. Die von Pandita Ramabai
ausgebildeten Lehrerinnen und Krankenpflegerinnen waren in Indien sehr
angesehen und begehrt. 1904 gründete sie außerdem eine
Bibelschule um Missionarinnen auszubilden. 1905 kam es zu einer
Erweckung unter den Bewohnern, über 1.000 von ihnen ließen
sich taufen. Bis zu ihrem Tod am 5.4.1922 konnte Pandita Ramabai ihr
Werk leiten und den elenden Frauen Indiens helfen.
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Saint of the April Day 30 Prídie
Kaléndas Maji 
1566-1572 St Pius V 
Quote: Pope
Paul
VI’s 1969 
Benedict XVI
met with Aram I Catholicos of Cilicia,
the highest authority of the Orthodox Church. The
Pope remembered the martyrs of the Armenian Church and the Armenian
genocide, without explicitly mentioning it, and denounced the
persecution of Christians in modern times. Benedict
XVI
As
we watch the
spectacle of the world
seeming to self-destruct before our eyes, we can’t help but be saddened
and even frightened by so much evil run rampant. Iraq, Lebanon,
Afghanistan, Somalia, North Korea—It is all a disaster of epic
proportions displayed in living color on our television screens.