- 500 b.c. The Holy Prophet
Haggai prophesied the Messiah would appear in this Temple; persuaded people
build 2nd Jerusalem Temple
The tenth
of the Twelve Minor Prophets. He was of the Tribe of Levi and he prophesied
during the times of the Persian emperor Darius Hystaspis (prior to 500 B.C.).
Upon the return of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity, he persuaded the
people tbuild the Second Temple at Jerusalem, and he proclaimed that the Messiah
would appear in this Temple in the last times.
Haggai
The last, the post-exilic, period of prophecy opens with Haggai.
The change is striking. Before the Exile the watchword of the prophets was
Punishment. During the Exile it became Consolation. Now it is Restoration.
Haggai appears at a critical moment in the development of Judaism; the birth
of the new Palestinian community. His short exhortations are precisely dated,
August and September of 520. The first Jews to return from Babylonia to rebuild
the Temple were quickly discouraged. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah stirred
them to new efforts and urged Zerubbabel the governor and the High Priest
Joshua to resume work on the Temple; this was done in September, 520, 1:15;
cf. Ezr 5:1.
The four brief discourses composing this book are entirely
concerned with this. Since the Temple is still in ruins Yahweh has destroyed
the harvests; its rebuilding will usher in an age of prosperity. However unimposing,
this new Temple will dim the glory of the old; and power is promised to Zerubbabel,
the chosen of God. This Temple, therefore, and this descendant of David become
the focus of a messianic hope that will be more clearly expressed in Zechariah.
It is believed that Haggai
was buried with the priests at Jerusalem, since he was descended from Aaron.
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Sunday of the
Holy Forefathers ancestors of Christ according
to the flesh, who lived before the Law and under the Law, especially the Patriarch
Abraham, to whom God said "In thy seed shall all
of the nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:3, 22:18).
The
Sunday that falls between December 11-17
These are
the ancestors of Christ according to the flesh, who lived before the Law
and under the Law, especially the Patriarch Abraham, to whom God said, "In
thy seed shall all of the nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:3, 22:18).
Gazæ, in Palæstína,
sancti Ireniónis Epíscopi.
At Gaza in Palestine, St. Irenion, bishop.
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250 St. Albina Martyr at
a tender age a young witness for Christ
Fórmiis, in Campánia, sanctæ Albínæ,
Vírginis et Mártyris, sub Décio Imperatóre.
At Mola di Gaeta in Campania, St. Albina, virgin
and martyr, under Emperor Decius.
Albina was born in Caesarea
and
was martyred there, or perhaps in Formiae. She was caught up in the persecutions
conducted under Emperor Trajanus Decius of Rome.
Albina is
listed in the Roman Martyrology. Little is known of her before her martyrdom.
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305 St. Valentine Martyr
with group including Navalis Concordius Agricola
Ravénnæ sanctórum Mártyrum Valentíni,
magístri mílitum, ejúsque fílii Concórdii,
atque Navális et Agrícolæ; qui, in persecutióne
Maximiáni, pro Christo passi sunt.
At Ravenna, the holy martyrs Valentine, an officer
of the army, Concordius, his son, Navalis, and Agricola, who suffered for
Christ in the persecution of Maximian.
at Ravenna, Italy. There
is some question as to whether they were actually martyred in that city (as
St. Peter Chrysologus wrote that St. Apollinaris was the only person martyred
at Ravenna); It is also possible that they can be considered synonymous with
Valentine martyrs of that same era also declared to have died in Ravenna.
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3rd v. The Martyr Marinus soldier
Caesarea of Palestine refused to swear the
customary oath invoking the pagan gods, or to offer sacrifice to idols
a soldier
who suffered in Caesarea of Palestine in the third century.
When he was
about to be promoted to centurion, he refused to swear the customary oath
invoking the pagan gods, or to offer sacrifice to idols.
St Marinus
was beheaded after cruel tortures, and buried by St Asterius (August 7).
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371 ST EUSEBIUS,
BISHOP OF VERCELLI united the monastic discipline with the
clerical
Sancti Eusébii, Epíscopi Vercellénsis et Mártyris;
cujus dies natális Kaléndis Augústi, et Ordinátio
décimo octávo Kaléndas Januárii refértur.
St. Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli and martyr.
His birthday is commemorated on the 1st of August and his ordination on the
15th of December.
ST EUSEBIUS was born in the isle of Sardinia, where his father is said to
have died in chains for the faith. His mother, when left a widow, took him
and a daughter, both in their infancy, to Rome, where Eusebius was brought
up and ordained lector. He was called to Vercelli, in Piedmont, and served
that church with such distinction that he was chosen to govern it by the clergy
and people.
He is the first bishop
of Vercelli whose name we know. St Ambrose
assures us that he was the first who in the West united the monastic discipline
with the clerical, living himself with some of his clergy a common life in
community. For this reason St Eusebius of Vercelli is specially venerated
by the canons regular. He saw that the best and first means to labour effectually
for the sanctification of his people was to form under his own eyes a clergy
on whose virtue, piety and zeal he could depend. In this he succeeded so well
that other churches demanded his disciples for their bishops, and a number
of prelates came out of his school who were shining lamps in the Church of
God.
He was at the same time very careful personally to instruct
his flock, and, moved by the force of the truth which he preached and persuaded
by the sweetness and charity of his conduct, many sinners were encouraged
to change their lives. But in 354 he was called to the public work of the
Church at large, and for ten years following was a distinguished and persecuted
confessor of the faith.
In 354 Pope Liberius deputed
St Eusebius, with Lucifer of Cagliari, to beg the Emperor Constantius to assemble
a council to try and end the trouble between Catholics and Arians. Constantius
agreed, and a council met at Milan in 355. Eusebius, seeing things would
be carried by force through the power of the Arians, though the Catholic prelates
were more numerous, refused to go to it till he was pressed by Constantius
himself.
When the bishops were called on to sign a condemnation of
St Athanasius that had been drawn up, Eusebius refused, and instead laid
the Nicene creed on the table and insisted on all signing that before the
case of St Athanasius should be considered.
Great tumult and confusion followed. Eventually the emperor
sent for St Eusebius, St Dionysius of Milan and Lucifer of Cagliari, and pressed
them to condemn Athanasius. They insisted upon his innocence and that he
could not be condemned without being heard, and urged that secular force
might not be used to influence ecclesiastical decisions. The emperor stormed
and threatened to put them to death, but was content to banish them. The
first place of exile of St Eusebius was Scythopolis (Beisan) in Palestine,
where he was put in charge of the Arian bishop, Patrophilus.
He was lodged at first with St Joseph of Palestine (the
only orthodox household in the town), and was comforted by the visits of St
Epiphanius and others, and by the arrival of the deputies of his church of
Vercelli with money for his subsistence. But his patience was to be exercised
by great trials. Count Joseph died, and the Arians insulted the bishop, dragged
him through the streets half naked, and shut him up in a little room, where
he was pestered for four days with all manner of annoyances to make him conform.
They forbade his deacons and other fellow confessors to be admitted to see
him, so he sent a letter to Bishop Patrophilus addressed, “ Eusebius, the
servant of God, with the other servants of God who suffer with him for the
faith, to Patrophilus the jailer, and to his officers “. After a short account
of what he had suffered, he asked that his deacons might be allowed to come
to him. Eusebius undertook a sort of” hunger-strike “, and after he had remained
four days without food the Arians sent him back to his lodging.
Three weeks afterwards they came again, broke into the house,
and dragged him away. They rifled his goods, plundered his provisions, and
drove away his attendants. St Eusebius found means to write a letter to his
flock, in which he mentions these particulars.
Later he was removed from Scythopolis into Cappadocia, and
some time afterwards into the Upper Thebaid in Egypt. We have a letter which
he wrote from this place to Gregory, Bishop of Elvira, praising him for his
constancy against those who had forsaken the faith of the Church. The undaunted
confessor expresses a desire to end his life in suffering for the kingdom
of God.
When Constantius died towards the end of the year 361, Julian
gave leave to the banished prelates to return to their sees, and St Eusebius
came to Alexandria to concert measures with St Athanasius for applying proper
remedies to the evils of the Church. He took part in a council there, and
then went on to Antioch to put into effect the wish of the council that St
Meletius should there be recognized as bishop and the Eustathian schism healed.
But he found it widened by Lucifer of Cagliari, who had blown on the coals
afresh by ordaining Paulinus bishop for the Eustathians. Eusebius remonstrated
with him for this rash act but the hasty Lucifer resented this, and broke
off communion with him and with all who, with the Council of Alexandria,
received the ex-Arian bishops.
This was the origin of
the schism of Lucifer, who by pride lost the fruit of his former zeal and
sufferings.
Unable to do any good at Antioch, St Eusebius travelled over the East and
through Illyricum, confirming in the faith those who were wavering and bringing
back many that were gone astray.
In Italy St Hilary of Poitiers and St Eusebius met, and were
employed together in opposing the arianizing Auxentius of Milan. Vercelli,
on the return of its bishop after so long an absence, “laid aside her garments
of mourning “, as St Jerome puts it, but of the last years of St Eusebius
nothing is known. He died on August 1, on which day his eulogy occurs in the
Roman Martyrology. He is therein referred to as a martyr, but the Breviary
makes it clear that he was so by his sufferings and not by his death.
In the cathedral of Vercelli is shown a manuscript copy of
the gospels said to be written by St Eusebius: it was almost worn out
with age nearly a thousand years ago when King Berengariuscaused it to be
covered with plates of silver. This manuscript is the earliest codex of the Old
Latin version in existence, St Eusebius is among the several persons
to whom the composition of the Athanasian Creed “ has been attributed.
The fathers who by their zeal and learning maintained the
true faith made humility the foundation of their labours. Conscious that
they were liable to be mistaken, they said with St Augustine, “I may err,
but I will never be a heretic". This humility and caution is necessary in
profane no less than in religious studies. Many pursue their speculations
so far as to lose touch with common sense, and by too close an application
to things beyond their abilities spoil their own understanding. Cicero justly
remarks that nothing can be invented so absurd that some philosopher has
not said it. So true it is, as the Apostle tells us, that knowledge puffeth
up”: not of itself, but through the propensity of the human heart to pride
the most ignorant are usually the more apt to overrate their knowledge and
abilities.
In the absence of any proper biography of
St Eusebius-—that printed by Ughelli is of late date and little value—we are
dependent upon the bishop’s own letters, upon a notice in the Viri illustres of St Jerome, and upon the controversial literature
of the times. But the main incidents of his life have to do with general ecclesiastical
history. See, for example, Hefele-Leclercq, Histoire des
Conciles, vol. i, pp. 872 seq. and 961 seq. Duchesne,
Hist. ancienne
de l'Eglise, vol. ii, pp. 341-350; Bardenhewer,
Gescchichte der altkirchlichen Literatur, vol. iii,
pp. 486—487 and especially Savio, Gli antichi vescovi d’Italia, vol. i, pp. 412—420, and 514—544.
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389 St. Irenion of Gaza (Palestinian,
bishop first church built in Gaza
Gazæ, in Palæstína, sancti Ireniónis Epíscopi.
At Gaza in Palestine, St. Irenion, bishop.
The first church built in Gaza itself was the
work of St. Irenion (d. 393) whose feast is 16 December.
He was succeeded by Aeneas, and later by St. Porphyry (395-420), the true
restorer of Christianity in Gaza. This holy bishop first sent Marcus, his
deacon and historian, to Constantinople to obtain an order to close the pagan
temples. The Christians then scarcely numbered 200 in Gaza; though the rest
of the empire was gradually abandoning its idols, Gaza was stubborn in its
opposition to Christianity. The decree was granted by the emperor, and the
temples closed, with the exception of the Marneion, the temple sacred to Zeus
Marnas, which had replaced that of Dagon. There was no great change, however,
in the sentiments of the people; so St. Porphyry decided to strike a decisive
blow. He went himself toConstantinople during the winter of 401-402 and obtained
from Arcadius a decree for the destruction of the pagan temples, which Cynegius,
a special imperial envoy, executed in May, 402. Eight temples, those of Aphrodite,
Hecate, the Sun, Apollo, Core, Fortune, the Heroeion, and even the Marneion,
were either pulled down or burnt. Simultaneously soldiers visited every house,
seizing and burning the idols and books of magic. On the ruins of the Marneion
was erected, at the expense of the empress, a large church called the Eudoxiana
in her honour, and dedicated 14 April, 407. Paganism had thus ceased to exist
officially.
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Sanctórum Trium Puerórum, id est Ananíæ,
Azaríæ et Misaélis; quorum córpora apud Babylóniam,
sub quodam specu, sunt pósita.
Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, The
three young men, whose bodies are buried in a cave near Babylon.
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5th-6th v. St. Beoc Irish
monastic founder
also called
Beanus, Dabeoc, Mobeoc, and Moboac. He is credited with founding a monastery
in Lough Derg, in Donegal.
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In Africa pássio plurimárum sanctárum
Vírginum, quæ, in persecutióne Wandálica, sub Ariáno
Rege Hunneríco, suspéndia, póndera laminásque
ignítas perpéssæ, martyrii agónem felíciter
consummárunt.
many
holy virgins In Africa, who reached a happy end of their martyrdom
in the persecution of the Vandals under the Arian king Hunneric by having
heavy weights tied to them and burning plates of metal applied to their bodies.
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875 Beatus Ado of Vienne;
Benedictine archbishop
Viénnæ, in Gállia, beáti Adónis,
Epíscopi et Confessóris. At Vienne
in France, blessed Ado, bishop and confessor.
Ado came of a good family
of the Gatinais and was educated in the abbey of Ferrières, near Sens,
under the celebrated Lupus Servatus. Refusing all inducements to return to
the world he became a monk there, and soon had an established reputation for
holiness and learning. He was still young when Markward, abbot of Prum, begged
of Abbot Sigulf that Ado might teach the sacred sciences in his monastery,
and the request was not refused. Ado so taught as to make all that were under
his care truly servants of God but difficulties and disagreements arose,
and he had to leave Prum.
Eventually he came to Lyons, and St Remigius, archbishop of
the city, kept him there and gave him charge of the parish church of St Romanus.
His former master, Lupus, who had been chosen abbot of Ferrières, became
his advocate, and, the see of Vienne falling vacant, Ado was chosen archbishop
and consecrated in 859.
He was indefatigable in preaching the truths of salvation.
He usually began his sermons with the words: "Hear the eternal truth
which speaks to you in the gospel", or “Hear Jesus Christ, who says to you",
or a similar expression. He was an altogether admirable bishop, and an implacable
opponent of Lothair II of Lorraine in the matrimonial affairs that came before
Pope St Nicholas I. King Charles the Bald sent him to Rome to present the
case of the wronged Theutberga, and he was the legate sent by the pope with
letters imperatively annulling the infamous proceedings of the Synod of Metz.
Bd Ado was the author of several written works, of which the
best known is the martyrology that bears his name, of which the first version
was prepared at Saint-Romain between 855 and 860. Dom Leclercq says of it
that “It has contributed in a considerable measure to mislead the traditions
of martyrologists and its unfortunate influence is found at work in almost
all [pertinent] questions that have embarrassed historians". Through the Martyrology
of Usuard, which was an abridgement of it, and its use in later revisions,
it has had a strong and regrettable influence on the official Roman Martyrology,
Among the works which Ado used in its preparation was one known as the Martyrologium
Romanum Parvum, purporting to be an ancient martyrology of the Roman church.
He tells us that when he was at Ravenna he saw a manuscript of this, which
had been sent by one of the popes to Aquileia, and he accordingly made a
copy of it for his own use. It is now known that the Parvum was spurious,
a document contemporary with Ado himself. It has even been suggested that
it was Ado who fabricated it. This need cause no surprise, for it was not
till long after his time that the forgery or "doctoring" of documents began
to be seen as a practice deserving the reprobation that is now properly given
to it. Even in our own time it is not uncommon to find continued currency
given to pious lekends and hagiological stories, without expressed advertence
to their being only doubtfully true or even certainly false as records of
historical fact.
Bd Ado also wrote Lives of St Desiderius (Didier) and
St Theuderius (Chef), and a Universal Chronicle of the Six Ages of the World,
from the Creation to A.D. 869. It was considered desirable that Vienne, like
other episcopal cities in southern Gaul (see, e.g. Aries, under St Trophimus
on the 29th of this month, and Lazarus at Marseilles on the 17th), should
have had an apostolic origin; and it seems that Ado was responsible for the
tradition that Crescens was sent by St Paul not into Galatia but into Gaul
(2 Timothy iv 10): his solemn commemoration at Vienne as its first bishop
is still recorded in the Roman Martyrology on December 29, and referred to
in the entry of his martyrdom in Galatia on June 27. Ado died at Vienne on
December 16, 875. He is often accorded the title of Saint, but the Roman Martyrology
refers to him as Beatus only.
There is a life of Ado
printed in Mabillon, vol. iv, Pt 2, PP. 262—275, but its value as an historical
source is questionable. Ado’s connection with the see of Vienne is discussed
by Duchesne, Fastes Episcopaux, vol.
i, PP. 147, 162, 210. The whole matter of his relation to the martyrology
called by his name has been very thoroughly investigated by Dom Quentin in
his Martyrologes historiques (1908).
See also DAC., vol. i, cc. 535—539 and DHG., vol. i, cc. 585-586.
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894 The Holy Empress Theophano
the Sunday after Pentecost be dedicated to All Saints
first
wife of Emperor Leo VI the Wise (886-911).
She
and Leo were locked up in prison for three years, because Leo was falsely
accused of intending to assassinate his father, Emperor Basil the Macedonian.
After receiving her freedom, she spent her life in prayer and fasting, earnestly
struggling for her salvation.
Living
in the world, she renounced everything worldly. She was a benefactor to
the poor, and was generous toward monasteries. She was a true mother to her
subjects, caring for widows and orphans, and consoling the sorrowful. St
Theophano died in 893 or 894.
Even
before her death her husband started to build a church, intending to dedicate
it to Theophano, but she forbade him to do so. It was this emperor who decreed
that the Sunday after Pentecost be dedicated to All Saints. Believing that
his wife was one of the righteous, he knew that she would also be honored
whenever the Feast of All Saints was celebrated.
Her holy relics are preserved
in Constantinople.
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999 ST
ADELAIDE, WIDOW; regent Throughout her life she had shown herself generous
and forgiving to enemies, and amenable to the wise guidance in turn of St
Adalbert of Magdeburg, St Majolus and St Odilo of Cluny, who called her “a
marvel of beauty and grace”. She founded and restored monasteries of monks
and nuns, and was urgent for the conversion of the Slavs, whose movements
on the eastern frontier troubled her closing years before she finally returned
to Burgundy.
WHEN in the year 933 Rudolf
II of Upper Burgundy concluded a treaty with Hugh of Provence in their struggle
for the crown of Italy (Lombardy), one of the terms was that Rudolf’s daughter,
Adelaide, then a baby of two, should marry Hugh’s son, Lothair. Fourteen years
later her brother, Conrad of Burgundy, saw to the fulfilling of this contract,
Lothair being by then nominally king of Italy, but actually in the power
of Berengarius of Ivrea.
One child was born of the marriage, Emma (she eventually married
Lothair II of France), and in 950 Lothair of Italy died, not without strong
suspicion of having been poisoned by Berengarius, who succeeded him. Berengarius
then tried to make Adelaide marry his son, and on her refusal treated her
with brutality and indignity, and shut her up in a castle on Lake Garda.
At this time the German king, Otto the Great, was leading an army into Italy
to try to reduce the north to order. He defeated Berengarius and released
Adelaide; or, as it is said, she escaped from her prison and joined him.
To consolidate his authority in Italy, Otto married Adelaide,
who was twenty years his junior, on Christmas day 951, at Pavia. Of this union
five children were born. Ludolf, Otto’s son by his first wife (sister of
Athelstan of England), was jealous of the influence of his stepmother and
her children and became a centre of discontentand rebellion, but to the German
people the gentle and gracious Adelaide soon endeared herself. In 962 Otto
was crowned emperor at Rome. Nothing is heard of Adelaide for the next ten
years, till in 973 her husband died and their eldest son succeeded.
Otto II was a good and spirited prince, but hasty and self-sufficient,
and on his accession to power he soon estranged his mother and allowed himself
to be turned against her by his wife, the Byzantine Theophano, and other counsellors.
Adelaide left the court and went to her brother, Conrad, at Vienne. She appealed
to St Majolus, abbot of Cluny, whom she had wanted to see made pope when
Benedict VI was murdered in 974, and he eventually succeeded in bringing
about a reconciliation; mother and son met at Pavia, and Otto asked pardon
on his knees for his unkindness. She sent gifts to the shrine of St Martin
at Tours, including Otto’s best cloak, and asking for her son the saint’s
prayers—“you who had the glory of covering with your own cloak Christ the
Lord in the person of a beggar”.
But similar trouble came when Otto died in 983. Otto III was
a baby and his mother, Theophano, became regent. She had the flair for politics
of the great Byzantine princesses and in this respect was more capable than
her mother-in-law. Adelaide again left the court, but Theophano died suddenly
in 991 and the old empress came back to be herself regent, a task now beyond
her strength and peace-loving nature, though she had the assistance of St
Willigis of Mainz.
Throughout her life she had shown herself generous and forgiving
to enemies, and amenable to the wise guidance in turn of St Adalbert of Magdeburg,
St Majolus and St Odilo of Cluny, who called her “a marvel of beauty and grace”. She founded and restored
monasteries of monks and nuns, and was urgent for the conversion of the Slavs,
whose movements on the eastern frontier troubled her closing years before
she finally returned to Burgundy. Death overtook her at a monastery of her
foundation at Seltz, on the Rhine near Strasburg, on December 16, 999. St
Adelaide was canonized c. 1097.
The most reliable source
of information regarding St Adelaide is the “Epitaphium” of St Odilo of Cluny.
It is printed in MGH., Scriptores,
vol. iv, pp. 635—649, and in Migne, PL., vol. cxlii CC. 967—992. But a good
deal may also be gleaned from the chroniclers of the period. There is a German
life by F. P. Wimmer, Kaiserin Adelheid
(1897). See also DHG., vol. i, cc. 516—517.
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1000 + St. Nicholas Chrysoberges
Patriarch of Constantinople
modern Istanbul,
Turkey, from 983. He lived in a turbulent historical era, rife with imperial
disputes and schisms.
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1012 In Hibérnia
sancti Beáni Epíscopi. In Ireland,
St. Bean, bishop.
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1151 Bl. Raynald de Bar
Cistercian abbot 1st collection Cistercian statutes
A monk of
Clairvaux, France, Raynald held various
posts until receiving appointment in 1133 as abbot of the famed abbey of Citeaux.
His chief achievement was the compilation of the first collection of Cistercian
statutes.
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1496 BD SEBASTIAN OF BRESCIA
DURING
the thirteenth century the family of the Maggi was one of the most powerful
in Brescia and at the head of the party of the Guelfs; at the time of the
birth of Bd Sebastian, early in the fifteenth century, it had declined from
its former estate, but the
name was still held in honour. Sebastian entered the Order of Preachers when
he was fifteen, and his ministry was attended with much success: large numbers
were brought to repentance, quarrelling families and communes were reconciled,
and the work of his order strengthened; but few particulars are 
known
of his busy life. He was a powerful preacher and an admirable superior in
the many friaries that he governed. He recognized the genius and virtues of
Jerome Savonarola, whose confessor for a time he was, and at the age of twenty-nine,
when Father Jerome had been professed only six years, he made him master
of the novices at Bologna. Bd Sebastian was a strict upholder of monastic
observance, and worked doggedly at the reform of several houses, especially
that of Lodi, where he set the example of begging from door to
door for the support of the community. As a superior he wished to be treated
with the openness of a father, and was then gentle and indulgent; but when
his brethren regarded him merely as a master, he was accordingly severe.
When suffering from sickness Bd Sebastian insisted on carrying out a
visitation of his province, but when he reached the priory of Santa Maria
di Castello at Genoa he could go no further; this, he said to his companions,
was to be the place of his rest for ever. He died there on December 16, 1496,
and all Genoa came to his tomb, whereat many miracles were reported. The
cultus
of Bd Sebastian
Maggi was confirmed in 1760.
Mortier in his Histoire des mattres généraux
OP., vol. iv,
pp. 548—550, speaks in some
detail of Bd Sebastian, and he figures in nearly all the lives of Savonarola
see, for example, Herbert Lucas, Fra Girolamo Savonarola
(1906),
pp. 10, 191 seq., etc. A short account is
also given by Procter, Lives of Dominican Saints,
pp. 339—342. For a fuller bibliography
see Taurisano, Catalogus Hagiographicus
OP
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1542 Saint Sophia "the
holy Righteous Princess Sophia the Nun, the wonderworker, who dwelt at the
Protection monastery." several miraculous healings at her grave
in the world
Solomonia, a Great Princess, daughter of the noble Yuri Saburov.
In the year
1505 she was chosen as bride by the heir to the throne, the future Great Prince
Basil. Their marriage was unhappy, because Solomonia remained childless, so
he divorced her. In order to have an heir, Great Prince Basil decided to
wed a second time (to Elena Glinsky) and on November 25,
1525 he ordered
Solomonia to become a nun. Forcibly tonsured with the name Sophia, Solomonia
was sent under guard to the Suzdal Protection convent, where by ascetic deeds
she banished from her heart worldly thoughts, and totally dedicated herself
to God.
Prince Kurbsky
calls the blessed princess "a Monastic Martyr." In the manuscript Lives of
the Saints she is called "the holy Righteous Princess Sophia the Nun, the
wonderworker, who dwelt at the Protection monastery." Under Tsar Theodore
they revered her as a saint. Tsaritsa Irene sent to Suzdal, "to the Great
Princess Solomonia, also called Sophia, a velvet veil with depiction of the
Savior and other saints." Patriarch Joseph wrote to Archbishop Serapion of
Suzdal about serving Panikhidas and Moliebens for Sophia. St Sophia departed
to God in the year 1542.
The Suzdal sacristan Ananias
speaks of several miraculous healings at her grave.
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1717 BD MARY OF TURIN, VIRGIN
miraculous abbess “Obedience wills what
God wills"
There
lived at Turin during the seventeenth century a count of Santena named John
Donato Fontanella. He was a religious and well-loved man and married an
equally good wife, Mary Tana, whose father was cousin-German to St Aloysius
Gonzaga.
They had eleven children, of whom the ninth, Marianna, was
a girl of particular intelligence and promise. When a child of six, emulating
St Teresa, she concocted a scheme with her little brother to run away and
live “ in the desert” but they spoiled it by oversleeping on the morning intended
for their departure. Two years later, when making recovery from a serious
illness, she experienced her first vision, and from that time began to show
a strongly ascetic disposition; in the following year she made her first
communion. A deep impression had been made on her mind by contemplation of
the blow in the face given to our Lord by the servant of Caiaphas, and a
strange incident is related in that connection. One evening, when Marianna
was kneeling at Benediction with one of her sisters, a strange man on her
other side turned suddenly and violently slapped her cheek. The man escaped
in the ensuing confusion and was never seen again. When she was something
over twelve, Marianna, by a not very creditable ruse in concert with the nuns
to evade her mother, joined the Cistercians at Saluzzo to live among their
alumnae; but she was not happy there and, on the death of her father, went
home to keep house for her mother. She became ever more drawn to the religious
life and in 1676, after some difficulties with her family, was admitted in
her sixteenth year to the Carmel of Santa Cristina. Here her first experience
was one of great home-sickness; following that, an intense distaste for her
new life and dislike of the novice-mistress. But she persevered and was in
due course professed.
After seven years in the convent Sister Mary-of-the-Angels,
as she was now called, was visited by a long and severe “dark night”, during
which she was tormented by numerous diabolical assaults and manifestations.
She was guided through this by a very able director, Father Laurence-Mary,
o.c.d., and at the end of three years began to come into more peaceful ways
and to attain higher states of prayer. In 1690 she wrote to Father Laurence
an account of a mystical experience which marked the end of her violent struggles.
That Sister Mary herself was of a vehement disposition her own physical penances
show. At one time she was scourging herself to blood daily, compressing her
tongue with an iron ring, dropping molten wax on her skin, even suspending
herself cross-wise by ropes from a beam in her cell. Of such practices we
may borrow from the words of Father George O’Neill, s.j., her Irish biographer:
“ No one is asked to imitate, no one is bound to admire them.” When she was
thirty she was appointed novice-mistress, and three years later prioress,
offices which she took up with deep reluctance and discharged with an equally
marked ability. At the suggestion of Bd Sebastian Valfré she undertook
a new foundation with a small house and inadequate endowment at Moncaglieri;
and having overcome opposition from both ecclesiastical and civil authorities
she was able to establish the nucleus of a community there in 1703, and the
convent is still in being. Sister Mary herself wished to go there, but the
people of Turin would not suffer it; all, from the members of the ducal family
of Savoy downwards, were accustomed to go and ask the advice and prayers of
the prioress of Santa Cristina, especially during the war with the French.
During the last twenty years of her life Bd Mary continued to have remarkable
experiences and gifts, among them what appeared to be a literal “odour of
sanctity”. This scent emanated from her person, and was communicated to her
clothes and even to things that she touched, from which it was sometimes difficult
to eradicate. From about 1702 this phenomenon was permanent, and among the
witnesses to it was Father Costanzo, afterwards archbishop of Sassari in
Sardinia. He characterized it as “neither natural nor artificial, nor like
flowers or aromatic drugs or any mixture of perfumes, but only to be called
an ‘odour of sanctity’”.
It is stated that certain secondary relics of the beata at
Moncaglieri still retain this fragrance. At the same time Bd Mary, like so
many other mystics, was also notably proficient and careful in the practical
matters, keeping accounts, looking after workmen, and so on, which fell to
her lot as prioress. At the end of the priorate of Mother Teresa-Felix in
1717 the nuns of Santa Cristina wished to elect Bd Mary for a fifth term
of office. She thought that her physical weakness would prevent her from
giving a proper example of observance, and appealed to her confessor and
to the prior provincial, but they both refused to interfere. Whereupon she
set herself to pray that, if it were God’s will, she might shortly die; and
within three weeks she was very ill.
Punctilious obedience to superiors had been so marked in her
life that the nuns now implored them to “give her an obedience” to recover.
They demurred, and Mary said, “ Obedience wills what God wills, and therefore
I will what obedience wills. Were the impossible possible I would do as you
ask but I have so stormed the heart of Jesus to get my desire that He has
granted it. It cannot be changed now.”
She blessed all her sisters, and Father Costanzo asked, without
saying who she was, for a last word for “another daughter”, who was in fact
the young Princess di Carignano who had hurried to the convent when she heard
that Mother Mary was dying. “May our Lord bless her”, she murmured, “and give
her real detachment from the world—for everything here comes to an end.” Bd
Mary-of-the-Angels died on December 16, 1717, and seven years later her cause
was introduced at the instance of Victor Amadeus II of Savoy; but she was
not officially declared blessed until 1865.
A full account of this
Carmelite mystic will be found in the book of Father G. O’Neill, Bd Mary
of the Angels (1909). It is based upon a life written in Italian by Father
Elias-of St-Teresa who had known the beata personally and was able to utilize
what survived of an autobiography which she wrote by command of her superiors.
A later Italian account is by Father Benedetto (1934).
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1916 Blessed Honoratus Kozminski;
received Capuchin habit
and new name; 4 years later he was ordained; 1855 helped Blessed Mary Angela
Truszkowska establish the Felician Sisters;
He was born 1825 in Biala Podlaska (Siedlce,
Poland) and studied architecture at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw. When
Wenceslaus was almost sixteen, his father died. Suspected of participating
in a rebellious conspiracy, the young man was imprisoned from April 1846 until
the following March. In 1848 he received the Capuchin habit and a new name.
Four years later he was ordained. In 1855 he helped Blessed Mary Angela Truszkowska
establish the Felician Sisters.
Honoratus served as guardian in a Warsaw friary already in 1860. He dedicated
his energies to preaching, to giving spiritual direction and to hearing confessions.
He worked tirelessly with the Secular Franciscan Order.
The failed 1864 revolt against Czar Alexander III led to the suppression
of all religious Orders in Poland. The Capuchins were expelled from Warsaw
and forced to live in Zakroczym, where Honoratus continued his ministry and
began founding twenty-six male and female religious congregations, whose members
took vows but wore no religious habit and did not live in community. They
operated much as today’s secular institutes do. Seventeen of these groups
still exist as religious congregations.
The writings of Father Honoratus are extensive: forty-two volumes of sermons,
21 volumes of letters as well as 52 printed works on ascetical theology, Marian
devotion, historical writings, pastoral writings — not counting his many
writings for the religious congregations he founded.
In 1906, various bishops sought the reorganization of these groups under
their authority; Honoratus defended their independence but was removed from
their direction in 1908. He promptly urged the members of these congregations
to obey the Church’s decisions regarding their future.
He “always walked with God,” said a contemporary. In 1895 he was appointed
Commissary General of the Capuchins in Poland. Three years before he had come
to Nowe Miasto, where he died and was buried. He was beatified in 1988.
Comment: The story is told
that Francis and Brother Leo, his secretary, were once on a journey and Francis
volunteered to tell Leo what perfect joy is. Francis began by saying what
it was not: news that the kings of France, England, as well as all the world’s
bishops and many university professors had decided to become friars, news
that the friars had received the gift of tongues and miracles, or news that
the friars had converted all the non-Christians in the world. No, perfect
joy for them would be to arrive cold and hungry at St. Mary of the Angels,
Francis’ headquarters outside Assisi, and be mistaken by the porter for thieves
and beaten by the same porter and driven back into the cold and rain. Francis
said that if, for the love of God, he and Leo could endure such treatment
without losing their patience and charity, that would be perfect joy (cited
in Regis Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap., and Ignatius Brady, O.F.M., Francis and
Clare: The Complete Works, pages 165-166).
Honoratus
worked very zealously to serve the Church, partly by establishing a great
variety of religious congregations adapted to the special circumstances of
Poland in those years. He could have retreated into bitterness and self-pity
when the direction of those congregations was taken away from him; that was
certainly a “perfect joy” experience. He urged the members of these groups
to obey willingly and gladly, placing their gifts at the service of the Good
News of Jesus Christ.
Quote: When the Church
removed Honoratus from the direction of his religious congregations and changed
their character, he wrote: “Christ’s Vicar himself has revealed God’s will
to us, and I carry out this order with greatest faith.... Remember, dear brothers
and sisters, that you are being given the opportunity to show heroic obedience
to the holy Church.”
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Nine
First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart 
Saints December 16 Décimo séptimo Kaléndas Januárii
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
June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: