 In Judæa
sanctórum Hábacuc et Michǽæ Prophetárum,
quorum corpora, sub Theodósio senióre, divína
revelatióne sunt repérta.
In Judea, the holy prophets Habakkuk
and Micah, whose bodies were found by
divine revelation in the days of Theodosius the Elder.
|
250
St. Secundina Martyred virgin
Anágniæ sanctæ Secundínæ,
Vírginis et Mártyris; quæ sub Décio
Imperatóre passa est.
At Anagni, St. Secundina, virgin and
martyr, who suffered under Emperor Decius.
She was a maiden flogged to death during the
persecution under Emperor Trajanus
Decius in Rome. |
250 St.
Maximus of
Nola Bishop suffered greatly
Nolæ, in Campánia, sancti Máximi
Epíscopi.
At Nola in Campania, St. Maximus, bishop.
of Nola, Italy, who ordained St. Felix
of Nola. During the Roman persecutions, Maximus fled to the
mountains where he suffered greatly. He died at Nola from the
sufferings he endured. |
 303
St. Ephysius martyr revered on Sardinia
Cárali, in Sardínia, sancti Ephísii
Mártyris, qui, in persecutióne Diocletiáni, sub
Flaviáno Júdice, plúrimis torméntis
divína virtúte superátis, demum, abscíssis
cervícibus, victor migrávit in cælum.
At Cagliari in Sardinia, St. Ephisius,
martyr, who, in the persecution of Diocletian and under the judge
Flavian, having, by the assistance of God, overcome many torments, was
beheaded and ascended to heaven.
Italy. He was martyred on that
island. |
 342
St. Paul the Hermit
Sancti Pauli, primi Eremítæ, Confessóris; qui
quarto Idus Januárii inter beatórum ágmina
translátus fuit.
St. Paul,
the first hermit, who was carried to the home of the blessed on the
tenth of this month.
342 ST PAUL THE HERMIT
ELIAS and St John the Baptist sanctified the desert, and Jesus Christ
Himself was a model of the eremitical state during His forty days' fast
in the wilderness. But while we cannot doubt that the saint of this day
was guided by the Holy Ghost to live in solitude far from the haunts of
men, we must recognize that this was a special vocation, and not an
example to be rashly imitated. Speaking generally, this manner of life
is beset with many dangers, and ought only to be embraced by those
already well-grounded in virtue and familiar with the practice of
contemplative prayer.
St Paul was a native of the lower Thebaid in Egypt, and
lost both his parents when he was fifteen. He was proficient in
Greek and Egyptian learning, gentle and modest, and feared God from his
earliest youth. The cruel persecution of Decius disturbed the peace of
the Church in 250; and Satan by his ministers sought not so much to
kill the bodies, as by subtle artifices to destroy the souls of men.
During these times of danger Paul kept himself concealed in the house
of a friend; but finding that a brother-in-law coveting his estate was
inclined to betray him, he fled into the desert. There he found certain
caverns said to have been the retreat of money-coiners in the days of
Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. He chose for his dwelling a cave in this
place, near which were a palm tree and a clear spring; the former by
its leaves furnished him with raiment, and by its fruit with food; and
the latter supplied him with water to drink. Paul was twenty-two when
he entered the desert. His first intention was to enjoy liberty in
serving God till the persecution should cease; but relishing the sweets
of solitude and heavenly contemplation, he resolved to return no more
and never to concern himself with the things of the world; it was
enough for him to know that there was a world, and to pray that it
might grow better. He lived on the fruit of his tree till he was
forty-three, and from that time till his death, like Elias, he was
miraculously fed with bread brought him every day by a raven. His
method of life, and what he did in this place during ninety years, is
hidden from us; but God was pleased to make His servant known a little
before his death.
The great St Antony, who was then ninety years
of age, was tempted to vanity, thinking that no one had served God so
long in the wilderness as he had done, since he believed himself to be
the first to adopt this unusual way of life; but the contrary was made
known to him in a dream, and the saint was at the same time commanded
by Almighty God to set out forthwith in quest of a solitary more
perfect than himself. The old man started the next morning. St Jerome
relates that he met a centaur, or creature with something of the mixed
shape of man and horse, and that this monster or phantom of the devil
(St Jerome does not profess to determine which it was), upon his making
the sign of the cross, fled away, after having pointed out the road.
Our author adds that St Antony soon after met also a satyr, who gave
him to understand that he dwelt here in the desert, and was one of
those beings whom the deluded gentiles worshipped.* {*Educated pagans
were no less credulous than their Christian contemporaries. Plutarch,
in his life of Sylla, says that a satyr was brought to that general at
Athens and St Jerome tells us that one was shown alive at Alexandria,
and after its death was embalmed, and sent to Antioch that Constantine
the Great might see it. Pliny and others assure us that centaurs have
been seen.}
St Antony, after two days and a night spent in the search, discovered
the saint’s abode by a light that shone from it and guided his steps.
Having begged admittance at the door of the cell, St Paul at last
opened it with a smile; they embraced, and called each other by their
names, which they knew by revelation. St Paul then inquired whether
idolatry still reigned in the world. While they were discoursing
together, a raven flew towards them, and dropped a loaf of bread before
them. Upon which St Paul said, “Our good God has sent us a dinner. In
this manner have I received half a loaf every day these sixty years
past; now you have come to see me, Christ has doubled His provision for
His servants.” Having given thanks to God, they both sat down by the
spring. But a little contest arose between them as to who should break
the bread; St Antony alleged St Paul’s greater age, and St Paul pleaded
that Antony was the stranger: both agreed at last to take up their
parts together. Having refreshed themselves at the spring, they spent
the night in prayer.
The next morning St Paul told his guest that the
time of his death approached, and that he had been sent to bury him,
adding, “Go and fetch the cloak given you by Athanasius, Bishop of
Alexandria, in which I desire you to wrap my body.” This he probably
said that he might be left alone in prayer, while expecting to be
called out of this world as also that he might testify his veneration
for St Athanasius, and his high regard for the faith and communion of
the Catholic Church, on account of which that holy bishop was then a
great sufferer.
St Antony was surprised to hear him mention the cloak, of
which he could only have known by revelation. Whatever was his motive
for desiring to be buried in it, St Antony acquiesced in what was asked
of him, and he hastened to his monastery to comply with St Paul’s
request. He told his monks that he, a sinner, falsely bore the name of
a servant of God; but that he had seen Elias and John the Baptist in
the wilderness, even Paul in Paradise. Having taken the cloak, he
returned with it in all haste, fearing lest the hermit might be dead;
as, in fact, it happened. Whilst on the road he saw his soul carried up
to Heaven, attended by choirs of angels, prophets and apostles. St
Antony, though he rejoiced on St Paul’s account, could not help
lamenting on his own, for having lost a treasure so lately discovered.
He arose, pursued his journey, and came to the cave.
Going in he found the body kneeling, and the hands
stretched out. Full of joy, and supposing him yet alive, he knelt down
to pray with him, but by his silence soon perceived Paul was dead.
Whilst he stood perplexed how to dig a grave, two lions came up
quietly, and as it were mourning; and, tearing up the ground, made a
hole large enough. St Antony then buried the body, singing psalms
according to the rite then usual in the Church. After this he returned
home praising God, and related to his monks what he had seen and done.
He always kept as a great treasure, and wore himself on great
festivals, the garment of St Paul, of palm-tree leaves patched
together. St Paul died in the year 342, the hundred and thirteenth of
his age, and the ninetieth of his solitude, and is usually called the
First Hermit “, to distinguish him from others of that name. He is
commemorated in the canon of the Mass according to the Coptic and
Armenian rites.
The summary
which
Alban Butler has here given of the life of the First Hermit is taken
from the
short biography edited in Latin by St Jerome, and afterwards widely
circulated
in the West. It seems possible, though this has been much disputed,
that St
Jerome himself did little more than translate a Greek text of which we
have versions
in Syriac, Arabic and Coptic, and which contained a good deal of
fabulous
matter. Jerome, however, undoubtedly regarded the life as in substance
historical. The Greek original seems to have been written as a
supplement, and
in some measure a correction, to the Life of St Antony by St
Athanasius.
See on
the whole question F. Nau in Analecta
Bollandiana, vol. xx (1901), pp. 121—157. The two principal Greek
texts have been edited by J. Bidez (1900), the Syriac
and Coptic by Pereira (1904). Cf. also
J. de Decker, Contribution à l’etude
des vies de Paul de Thebes (1905) ; Plenkers in Der
Katholik (1905), vol. ii, pp. 294—300; Schiwietz, Das
morgenländische Monchturn (1904), pp. 49—51; Cheneau
d’Orleans, Les
Saints d’Egypte (1923), vol. i, pp. 76—86.
For a French translation of Jerome’s
Life of Paul, see R. Draguet, Les Pères
du desert (1949); and cf. H.
Waddell, The Desert Fathers (1936), pp. 35—53.
Also known as Paul the First Hermit and Paul of Thebes, an
Egyptian
hermit and friend of St. Jerome.
Born 229 in Lower The baid, Egypt, he was left an orphan at about the
age
of fifteen and hid during the persecution of the Church under Emperor
Trajanus Decius. At the age of twenty two he went to the desert to
circumvent a planned effort by his brother in law to report him to
authorities as a Christian and thereby gain control of his property.
Paul soon found that the eremitical life was much to his personal
taste, and so remained in a desert cave for the rest of his reportedly
very long life.
His contemplative existence was disturbed by St.
Anthony, who visited the aged Paul. Anthony also buried Paul,
supposedly wrapping him in a cloak that had been given to Anthony by
St. Athanasius. According to
legend, two lions assisted Anthony in
digging the grave. While there is little doubt that Paul lived, the
only source for details on his life are found in the Vita Pauli written
by St. Jerome and preserved
in both Latin and Greek versions.
345 St. Paul the Hermit
It is unclear what we really know of Paul's life, how much
is fable,
how much fact.
Paul was reportedly born 233 in
Egypt, where he was orphaned by age 15. He
was also a learned and devout young man. During the persecution of
Decius in Egypt in the year 250, Paul was forced to hide in the home of
a friend. Fearing a brother-in-law would betray him, he fled in a cave
in the desert. His plan was to return once the persecution ended, but
the sweetness of solitude and heavenly contemplation convinced him to
stay.
He went on to live in that cave for the next 90 years. A
nearby spring
gave him drink, a palm tree furnished him clothing and
nourishment. After 21 years of solitude a bird began bringing him
half of a loaf of
bread each day. Without knowing what was happening in the world, Paul
prayed that the world would become a better place.
St. Anthony attests
to his
holy life and death. Tempted by the thought that no one had served God
in the wilderness longer than he, Anthony was led by God to find Paul
and acknowledge him as a man more perfect than himself. The raven that
day brought a whole loaf of bread instead of the usual half. As Paul
predicted, Anthony would return to bury his new friend.
Thought to have been about 112 when he died, Paul is known as the
"First Hermit." His feast day is celebrated in the East; he is also
commemorated in the Coptic and Armenian rites of the Mass.
Comment:
The will
and direction of God are seen in the
circumstances of our lives. Led by the grace of God, we are free to
respond with choices that bring us closer to and make us more dependent
upon the God who created us. Those choices might at times seem to lead
us away from our neighbor. But ultimately they lead us back both in
prayer and in fellowship to one another.
|
4th
v. St.
Maura & Britta Virgins
Virgins whose relics were discovered by St. Euphronius. St. Gregory of
Tours related the discovery. |
 390 St.
Macarius the
Great Egyptian hermit enemy of Arianism
In
Ægypto sancti Macárii Abbátis, qui fuit
discípulus beáti Antónii, ac vita et
miráculis celebérrimus éxstitit.
In Egypt, St. Macarius, abbot, disciple
of St. Anthony, very celebrated for his life and miracles.
390 ST MACARIUS THE ELDER
THIS Macarius was born in Upper Egypt, about the year 300, and spent
his youth in tending cattle. By a powerful call of divine grace he
retired from the world at an early age and, dwelling in a little cell,
made mats, in continual prayer and the practice of great austerities. A
woman falsely accused him of having offered her violence, for which
supposed crime he was dragged through the streets, beaten and insulted,
as a base hypocrite under the garb of a monk. He suffered all with
patience, and sent the woman what he earned by his work, saying to
himself, “Well, Macarius! having now another to provide for, thou must
work the harder”.
But God made his innocence
known; for the woman falling in labour, lay in extreme anguish, and
could not be delivered till she had named the true father of her child.
The fury of the people turned into admiration for the saint’s humility
and patience. To escape the esteem of men he fled to the vast and
melancholy desert of Skete, being then about thirty. In this solitude
he lived sixty years, and became the spiritual parent of innumerable
holy persons who put themselves under his direction and were governed
by the rules he laid down for them; but all occupied separate
hermitages. St Macarius admitted only one disciple to dwell with him,
whose duty it was to receive strangers. He was compelled by an Egyptian
bishop to receive the priesthood that he might celebrate the divine
mysteries for the convenience of this colony. When the desert became
better peopled, there were four churches built in it, which were served
by so many priests.
The austerities of St
Macarius were excessive; he usually ate but once a week. Evagrius, his
disciple, once asked him leave, when tortured with thirst, to drink a
little water; but Macarius bade him content himself with reposing
awhile in the shade, saying, “For these twenty years I have never once
eaten, drunk or slept as much as nature required”. His face was very
pale, and his body feeble and shrivelled. To go against his own
inclinations he did not refuse to drink a little wine when others
desired him; but then he would punish himself for this indulgence by
abstaining two or three days from all manner of drink; and it was for
this reason that his disciple besought strangers never to offer him
wine. He delivered his instructions in few words, and recommended
silence, retirement and continual prayer, especially the last, to all
sorts of people. He used to say, “In prayer you need not use many or
lofty words. You can often repeat with a sincere heart, ‘Lord, show me
mercy as thou knowest best.’ Or, ‘0 God, come to my assistance.’” His
mildness and patience were invincible, and wrought the conversion of a
heathen priest and many others.
A young man applying to St
Macarius for spiritual advice, he directed him to go to a burying-place
and upbraid the dead; and after that to go and flatter them. When he
returned the saint asked him what answer the dead had made. “None at
all”, said the other, “either to reproaches or praises.” “Then”,
replied Macarius, “go and learn neither to be moved by abuse nor by
flattery. If you die to the world and to yourself, you will begin to
live to Christ.”
He said to
another,
“Receive from the hand of God poverty as cheerfully as riches, hunger
and want as readily as plenty; then you will conquer the Devil, and
subdue your passions.” A certain monk complained to him that in
solitude he was always tempted to break his fast, whereas in the
monastery he could fast the whole week cheerfully. “Vain-glory is the
reason”, replied the saint; “Fasting pleases when men see you; but
seems intolerable when the craving for esteem is not gratified.”
One came to
consult him
who was molested with temptations to impurity; the saint examining into
the source, convinced himself the trouble was due to indolence.
Accordingly, he advised him never to eat before sunset, to meditate
fervently at his work, and to labour vigorously without slackening the
whole day. The other faithfully complied, and was freed from his
torment.
God revealed to St Macarius that he had not attained to the
perfection of two married women, who lived in a certain town. The saint
thereupon paid them a visit, and learned the means by which they
sanctified themselves. They were careful never to speak idle or rash
words they lived in humility, patience, charity and conformity to the
humours of their husbands; and they sanctified all their actions by
prayer, consecrating to the divine glory all the powers of their soul
and body.
A heretic of the sect of
the Hieracites, called so from Hierax, who denied the resurrection of
the dead, had caused some to be unsettled in their faith. St Macarius,
to confirm them in the truth, raised a dead man to life, as Socrates,
Sozomen, Palladius and Rufinus relate. Cassian says that he only made a
dead body to speak for that purpose; then bade it rest till the
resurrection.
Lucius, the Arian usurper
of the see of Alexandria, sent troops into the desert to disperse the
zealous monks, several of whom sealed their faith with their blood. The
leading ascetics, namely the two Macariuses, Isidore, Pambo and some
others were banished to a little island in the Nile delta, surrounded
with marshes. The inhabitants, who were pagans, were all converted by
the example and preaching of these holy men. In the end Lucius suffered
them to return to their cells. Macarius, knowing that his end drew
near, paid a visit to the monks of Nitria, and exhorted them in such
moving terms that they all fell weeping at his feet. “Let us weep,
brethren”, said he, “and let our eyes pour forth
floods of tears
before we go hence, lest we fall into that place where tears will only
feed the flames in which we shall burn.” He went to receive the reward
of his labours at the age of ninety, after having spent sixty years in
Skete. Macarius seems to have been, as Cassian asserts, the first
anchoret who inhabited this vast wilderness. Some style him a disciple
of St Antony; but it appears that he could not have lived under the
direction of Antony before he retired to Skete. It seems, however, that
later on he paid a visit, if not several, to that holy patriarch of
monks, whose dwelling was fifteen days’ journey distant. Macarius
is
commemorated in the canon of the Mass according to the Coptic and
Armenian rites.
See Palladius, Historia
Lausiaca, c. 19 seq.
Acta Sanctorum, January
15 Schiwietz, Morgenländ. Mönchtum, vol.
i, pp. 97 seq. Bardenhewer, Patrology (Eng. ed), pp. 266—267 Gore in Journ. of Theol. Stud., vol.
viii, pp.
85—90; Cheneau d’Onleans, Les saints
d’Egypte (1923), vol. i, pp. 117—138
Also called "Macarius of Egypt” or “the Elder.” He was born
in Upper Egypt, and went to
the desert of
Skete, where he was falsely accused of assaulting a woman, but was
proven innocent. He was ordained and served as a counselor for
thousands. An enemy of Arianism, Macarius was
exiled to a small island
in the Nile with Macarius the Younger by Lucius
of Alexandria. a heretic
of the era. Eventually he returned to the desert, and Macarius
,
considered the pioneering hermit, spent six decades in the wilderness. |
404 ST ISIDORE OF
ALEXANDRIA governor of the great
hospital at Alexandria
Alexandríæ beáti Isidóri,
sanctitáte vitæ, fide et miráculis clari.
At Alexandria, blessed Isidore,
renowned for holiness of life, faith, and miracles.
IN early life Isidore,
after distributing his large fortune to the poor, became an ascetic in
the Nitrian desert. Afterwards he fell under the influence of St
Athanasius, who ordained him and took him to Rome in 341. The greater
part of his life, however, seems to have been passed as governor of the
great hospital at Alexandria. When Palladius, the author of the Lausiac
History, came to Egypt to adopt an ascetic life, he addressed himself
first to Isidore, who advised him simply to practise austerity and
self-denial, and then to return for further instruction. During his
last days the saint, when over eighty years of age, was overwhelmed
with persecutions, misrepresentations and troubles of every
description. St Jerome denounced him in violent terms for his supposed
Origenist sympathies, and his own bishop, Theophilus, who had once been
his friend, excommunicated him, so that Isidore was driven to take
refuge in the Nitrian desert, where he had spent his youth. In the end
he fled to Constantinople to seek the protection of St John Chrysostom,
and there shortly afterwards he died at the age of eighty-five.
See
Palladius, Historia Lausiaca, and Dialogus
de vita
Chrysostomi; and Acta Sanctorum, January 15.
|
 450 St. John
Calabytes
Hermit (at 12) lived unknown in a small hut famous for prayers penances
He sanctified his soul by wonderful patience, meekness and prayer
Constantinópoli sancti Joánnis
Calybítæ, qui aliquándiu in ángulo domus
patérnæ, deínde in tugúrio, ignótus
paréntibus, habitávit; a quibus in morte ágnitus,
miráculis cláruit. Ipsíus corpus
póstea Romam translátum, et in Insulæ
Tiberínæ Ecclésia, in ejus honórem
erécta, collocátum est.
At Constantinople, St. John
Calybita. For some time living unknown to his parents in a corner
of their house, and later in a hut on an island in the Tiber, he was
recognized by them only at his death. Being renowned for
miracles, his body was afterwards taken to Rome and buried on the
Island in the Tiber, where a church was subsequently erected in his
honour.
ST JOHN CALYBITES
IT was at Gomon on the Bosphorus, among the “sleepless “ monks founded
by St Alexander Akimetes, that St John sought seclusion, leaving his
father and a large fortune. After six years he returned disguised in
the rags of a beggar, and lived unrecognized upon the charity afforded
him by his parents, close to their door in a little hut (καλνβη)
whence he is known as “Calybites”.
He sanctified his soul by wonderful patience,
meekness and prayer. When at the point of death he is said to have
revealed his identity to his mother, producing in proof the book of the
gospels, bound in gold, which he had used as a boy. He asked to be
buried under the hut he had occupied, and this was granted, but a
church was built over it, and his relics were at a later date
translated to Rome. The legend of Calybites has either originated from,
or been confused with, those of St Alexis, St Onesimus, and one or two
others in which the same idea recurs of a disguise long persisted in.
See the Acta Sanctorum for January 15 and Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xv
(1896), pp. 256 -267, Cf.
also Synaxarium Cp. (ed. Delehaye) p. 393
He
was born in Constantinople to
a wealthy family at Gomon on the Bosporus and became a
hermit at the age of twelve. After six years at Gomon he returned to
his family’s estate as a beggar. Given a small calybe, he became famous
for his prayers and penances, residing there until his death when his
identity was at last revealed to his mother.
|
510 Saint Maurus
was the first disciple of St. Benedict of Nursia
From the time
of
Bollandus and of Mabillon (who in his Acta
Sanctorum, 0.S.B., vol. i, pp. 275—298 printed the Life of St
Maurus by
pseudo-Faustus as an authentic document) down to the present day a
lively
controversy has raged over the question of St Maurus’s connection with
Glanfeuil. Bruno Krusch (Neues Archiv, vol.
xxxi, pp. 245—247) considers that we
have no reason to affirm the existence of any such monk as Maurus, or
any abbey
at Glanfeuil in Merovingian times. Without going quite so far as this,
Fr
Poncelet, in many notes in the Analecta
Bollandiana (e.g. vol. xv, pp. 355—356), and U. Berlière in
the Revue Bénédictine (vol. xxii, pp. 541—542) are agreed that the life
by Faustus “is quite
untrustworthy. An
admirable review of the whole discussion, summing it up in the same
sense, has
been published by H. Leclercq in DAC., S.T’. “Glanfeuil”
(vol. vi, cc. 1283—1319). See also J. McCann, St Benedict (1938),
pp. 274—281.
 584 ST MAURUS, ABBOT
In território Andegavénsi beáti Mauri
Abbátis, qui fuit discípulus sancti Benedícti; et,
hujus disciplínis usque ab infántia erudítus,
quantum in eis profécerit, inter ália quæ apud eum
pósitus gessit (res nova et post Petrum fere inusitáti),
pédibus super aquas incédens patefécit. In
Gállias inde ab ipso Benedícto diréctus, ibi,
constrúcto célebri monastério, cui
quadragínta annis præfuit, miraculórum
glória clarus, in pace quiévit.
In the diocese of Angers, blessed
Maurus, abbot and disciple of St. Benedict. Beginning his
discipline in infancy, he made great progress with so able a master,
for while he was still under the saint's instruction he miraculously
walked upon the water, a prodigy unheard of since the days of St.
Peter. Sent later to France by St. Benedict, he built a famous
monastery, which he governed for forty years, and after performing
striking miracles, he rested in peace.
AMONG other noblemen
who placed their sons under the care of St Benedict to be brought up in
piety
and learning a certain Equitius left his son Maurus, then but twelve
years old;
and when he was grown up St Benedict made him his assistant in the
government
of Subiaco. The boy Placid, going one day to fetch water, fell into the
lake
and was carried the distance of a bow-shot from the bank. St Benedict
saw this
in spirit in his cell, and bade Maurus run and draw him out. Maurus
obeyed,
walked unknowingly upon the water, and dragged out Placid by the hair.
He
attributed the miracle to the prayers of St Benedict; but the abbot
declared
that God had rewarded the obedience of the disciple. Not long after,
the holy
patriarch retired to Monte Cassino, and St Maurus may have become
superior at
Subiaco.
This, which we learn
from St Gregory the Great, is all that can be told with any probability
regarding the life of St Maurus. It is, however, stated upon the
authority of a
pretended biography by pseudo-Faustus—i.e. Abbot Odo of Glanfeuil—that
St
Maurus, coming to France, founded by the liberality of King Theodebert
the
great abbey of Glanfeuil, afterwards called Saint-Maur-sur-Loire,
which he
governed until his seventieth year. Maurus then resigned the abbacy,
and passed
the remainder of his life in solitude to prepare himself for his
passage to
eternity. After two years he fell sick, and died on January 15 in the
year 584.
He was buried on the right side of the altar in the church of St
Martin, and on
a roll of parchment laid in his tomb was inscribed this epitaph
“Maurus, a monk and
deacon, who came into France in the days of King Theodebert, and died
the
eighteenth day before the month of February.” That this parchment was
really
found in the middle of the ninth century is probable enough; but there
is no
reliable evidence to establish the fact that the Maurus so described is
identical with the Maurus who was the disciple of St Benedict.
He is mentioned in St. Gregory the Great's biography of
the latter as the first oblate; offered to the monastery by his noble
Roman parents as a young boy to be brought up in the monastic life.
Four stories involving Maurus recounted by Gregory formed a pattern for
the ideal formation of a Benedictine monk. The most famous of these
involved St. Maurus's rescue of Saint Placidus, a younger boy offered
to St. Benedict at the same time as St. Maurus. The incident has been
reproduced in many medieval and Renaissance paintings.
Saints Maurus and Placidus
are venerated together on 5 October.
In território Andegavénsi beáti
Mauri Abbátis, qui fuit discípulus sancti
Benedícti; et, hujus disciplínis usque ab infántia
erudítus, quantum in eis profécerit, inter ália
quæ apud eum pósitus gessit (res nova et post Petrum fere
inusitáti), pédibus super aquas incédens
patefécit. In Gállias inde ab ipso Benedícto
diréctus, ibi, constrúcto célebri
monastério, cui quadragínta annis præfuit,
miraculórum glória clarus, in pace quiévit.
In the diocese of Angers, blessed
Maurus, abbot and disciple of St. Benedict. Beginning his
discipline in infancy, he made great progress with so able a master,
for while he was still under the saint's instruction he miraculously
walked upon the water, a prodigy unheard of since the days of St.
Peter. Sent later to France by St. Benedict, he built a famous
monastery, which he governed for forty years, and after performing
striking miracles, he rested in peace.
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511
St. Eugyppius African priest of Rome companion of St. Severinus of
Noricum
a companion of St. Severinus of Noricum, on the Danube. He wrote the
life of St. Severinus.
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hermit at the
Benedictine Abbey
of Manglieu at Clermont, and died at Lyons while returning from his
pilgrimage to Rome.
|
6th
v. St.
Liewellyn & Gwrnerth Welsh monks of Welshpool and Bardsey, Wales
|
570 St. Ita
virgin
founded a community of women dedicated to God extravagant miracles
attributed
570 ST ITA, VIRGIN
AMONG the women saints of
Ireland, St Ita (also called Ida and Mida, with other variant
spellings) holds the foremost place after St Brigid. Although her life
has been overlaid with a multitude of mythical and extravagant
miracles, there is no reason to doubt her historical existence. She is
said to have been of royal descent, to have been born in one of the
baronies of Decies, near Drum, Co. Waterford, and to have been
originally called Deirdre. A noble suitor presented himself, but by
fasting and praying for three days Ita, with angelic help, won her
father’s consent to her leading a life of virginity. She accordingly
migrated to Hy Conaill, in the western part of the present county of
Limerick, There at Killeedy she gathered round her a community of
maidens and there, after long years given to the service of God and her
neighbour, she eventually died, probably in the year 570. We are told
that at first she often went without food for three or four days at a
time, An angel appeared and counselled her to have more regard for her
health, and when she demurred, he told her that in future God would
provide for her needs. From that time forth she lived entirely on food
sent her from Heaven. A religious maiden, a pilgrim from afar, asked
her one day, “Why is it that God loves thee so much? Thou art fed by
Him miraculously, thou healest all manner of diseases, thou prophesiest
regarding the past and the future, the angels converse with thee daily,
and thou never ceasest to keep thy thoughts fixed upon the divine
mysteries.” Then Ita gave her to understand that it was this very
practice of continual meditation, in which she had trained herself from
childhood, which was the source of all the rest. Ita is said to have
been sought out and consulted by the most saintly of her countrymen.
It appears
that St Ita conducted a school for small boys, and we are told that the
bishop St Erc committed to her care one who was afterwards destined to
be famous as abbot and missionary, the child Brendan, who for five
years was trained by her. One day the boy asked her to tell him three
things which God specially loved. She answered: “True faith in God with
a pure heart, a simple life with a religious spirit, openhandedness
inspired by charity—these three things God specially loves.” “And
what”, continued the boy, “are the three things which God most
abhors?” “A face”, she said, “which scowls upon all mankind,
obstinacy in wrong-doing, and an overweening confidence in the power of
money; these are three things which are hateful in God’s sight.”
Not a few of
the miracles attributed to St Ita are very preposterous, as, for
example, the story that a skilful craftsman whose services she had
retained, and to whom she gave her sister as wife, promising that he
should become the father of a famous and holy son, went out to battle
against a party of raiders and had his head cut off. On making a search
for him, they found the trunk, but the head had been carried away by
the victors. Then Ita, because her promise was still unfulfilled, set
to work to pray; whereupon the head, by the power of God, flew back
through the air to unite itself to the body, and an hour later the man,
standing up alive, returned with them to the convent. Afterwards he had
a son who was known as St Mochoemog (hypocoristic for Coemgen), the
future abbot of Liath-mor or Leagh, in Tipperary. It was St Ita who had
care of him, and gave him his name, which means “ my beautiful little
one sometimes latinized as Pulcherius. St Ita’s feast is celebrated
throughout Ireland.
The life
of St. Ita has been critically edited
by C. Plummer in VSH. vol.
ii, pp. 116-130. See also the Acta
Sanctorum, January 15; J. Colgan, Acta
Sanctorum Hiberniae LIS., vol. i,
p. 200; J. Ryan, Irish Monasticism (1931), pp, 138—140 and J. Begley, Diocese
of Limerick, Ancient and Modern (1906), ch. iv.
Ita was reputedly of royal lineage. She was born at Decies,
Waterford,
Ireland, refused to be married, and secured her father's permission to
live a virginal life. She moved to Killeedy, Limerick, and founded a
community of women dedicated to God. She also founded a school for
boys, and one of her pupils was St. Brendan. Many extravagant miracles
were attributed to her (in one of them she is reputed to have reunited
the head and body of a man who had been beheaded; in another she lived
entirely on food from heaven), and she is widely venerated in Ireland.
She is also known as Deirdre and Mida.
Saint Ita, called the "Brigid of Munster"; b. in the present County of
Waterford, about 475; d. 15 January, 570. She became a nun, settling
down at Cluain Credhail, a place-name that has ever since been known as
Killeedy--that is, "Church of St. Ita"--in County Limerick. Her
austerities are told by St. Cuimin of Down, and numerous miracles are
recorded of her. She was also endowed with the gift of prophecy and was
held in great veneration by a large number of contemporary saints, men
as well as women. When she felt her end approaching she sent for her
community of nuns, and invoked the blessing of heaven on the clergy and
laity of the district around Killeedy. Not alone was St. Ita a saint,
but she was the foster-mother of many saints, including St. Brendan the
Voyager, St. Pulcherius (Mochoemog), and St. Cummian Fada. At the
request of Bishop Butler of Limerick, Pope Pius IX granted a special
Office and Mass for the feast of St. Ita, which is kept on 15 January. |
600
St. Tarsicia Virgin hermit granddaughter of the Frankish king Clotaire I
spending most ofher life living as a hermit near Rodez, France.Tarsicia was the sister of
St. Ferrolus of Uzes.
|
7th v. St. Malard Bishop
of Chartres, in France
All that is known of him definitely is that he attended the Council of
Chalons-sur-saone in 650.
|
700 St.
Bonitus
resigned the See Bishop of Clermont in 689 doubts of election
Arvérnis, in Gállia, sancti Boníti,
Epíscopi et Confessóris.
In Auvergne in France, St. Bonitus,
bishop and confessor.
706 ST BONITUS, OR
BONET, BISHOP OF CLERMONT
ST
BONITUS was referendary or chancellor to St
Sigebert III, king of Austrasia and by his zeal, religion and justice
flourished in that kingdom under four kings. In 677 Thierry III made
him
governor of Marseilles, an office he carried out with distinction and
liberality. His elder brother, St Avitus II, Bishop of Clermont in
Auvergne,
having recommended him for his successor, died in 689, and Bonet was
consecrated. But after having governed that see some years with
exemplary
piety, he had a scruple whether his election had been perfectly
canonical; and
having consulted St Tillo, then leading an eremitical life at Solignac,
resigned his dignity, led a most penitential life in the abbey of
Manglieu, and
after having made a pilgrimage to Rome died at Lyons in 706. The
colloquial
form of this saint’s name is Bont.
See his
life, written by a monk of Sommon in Auvergne,
published in the Acta Sanctorum, January
15 MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. vi;
and CMH., pp. 37-38.
Also known as Bonet, Bonitus was born in Auvergne, France.
He became
chancellor of Sigebert III of Austrasia, was appointed governor of
Marseilles by Thierry III in 667, and was named Bishop of Clermont in
689. He resigned the See because of doubts about the validity of his
election, led a life of holiness as a |
710 St.
Emebert bishop
of Cambrai, in Flanders
Belgium. He was a brother of Sts. Gudula
and Reineldis.
|
764 St.
Ceolwulf King
of Northumbria patron of St. Bede
760? ST CEOLWULF
IT is difficult to
find any trace of late medieval cultus of
this Northumbrian king, but he was held in high honour after his death,
his
body in 830 being translated to Norham, and the head to Durham.
Bede speaks
enthusiastically of his virtues and his zeal, and dedicated to him his Ecclesiastical History, which he
submitted to the king’s criticism. Ceolwulf ended his days as a monk at
Lindisfarne, and it is recorded that through his influence the
community, who
previously had drunk nothing but water or milk, were allowed to take
beer, and
even wine. His relics were said to work many miracles. Simeon of Durham
assigns
his death to 764, but in the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle the date given is 760.
Practically
all available information will be found
collected in Plummer’s edition of Bede, especially vol. ii, p. 340.
England, and patron of St. Bede. He resigned in 738 and
became a monk
at Lindisfame. St. Bede dedicated his Ecclesiastical History to “the
most gracious King Ceolwulf.”
|
823
St. Blaithmaic Irish abbot who sought martyrdom among the Danes
he went to England encountered Danes and murdered on the altar steps of
the abbey church at Iona.
|
6th v. St.
Lleudadd Welsh
abbot, companion of St. Cadfan to Brittany
France, also listed as
Laudatus. He was formerly the abbot of Bardsey, in Gwynedd, Wales.
|
6th v.
St. Sawl Welsh
chieftain and the father of St. Asaph
the great Welsh saint.
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St.
Teath may also be St. Ita
Possibly a daughter of Brychan of Brecknock in Wales. A Cornwall
church bears her name. She may also be St. Ita.
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1208 Bl.
Peter of
Castelnau Martyred Cistercian papal legate and inquisitor
<>1208 BD PETER OF CASTELNAU,
MARTYR
This Cistercian monk was born near Montpellier, and in 1199 we hear of
him as archdeacon of Maguelone, but he entered the Cistercian Order a
year or
two later. To him, aided by another of his religious brethren, Pope
Innocent III in 1203 confided the
mission of taking action as apostolic delegate and
inquisitor against the Albigensian heretics, a duty which Peter
discharged
with much zeal, but little success. The opposition against him, which
was
fanned by Raymund VI, Count of Toulouse, ended in his assassination on
January 55, 1209, not far from the abbey of
Saint-Gilles. Pierced through the body by a lance, Bd Peter cried to
his
murderer, “May God forgive thee as fully as I forgive thee”. His
relics were
enshrined and venerated in the abbey church of Saint-Gilles.
See Acta Sanctorum, March 5; Hurter in Kirchenlexikon,
vol. ii, cc. 2031-2035 ; H.
Nickerson, The Inquisition, pp. 77—95.
Peter was born near Montpellier and served as archdeacon of
Maguelone
before entering the Cistercians at Fontfroide, circa 1202. Known for
his devout nature and his intelligence, in 1203 he was appointed by
Pope
Innocent III to the post of papal legate and inquisitor with the task
of returning the heretic Albigensians to the Church. Among those who
took part in his campaign was St. Dominic.
The Albigensians were ill
disposed to heed his call, and a group of overzealous heretics murdered
Peter near Saint Gilles Abbey, probably at the connivance of Raymond
VI, count of Toulouse, who harbored political ambitions and hoped to
manipulate the crisis of the Albigensians to advantage. According to
tradition, Peter’s dying words were: “May God forgive thee, brother, as
I fully forgive thee.”
His murder was the spark
that launched the Albigensian
Crusade
against the heretics in Southern France.
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1648 Bl.
Frances de
Capillas The Proto martyr of China Dominican missionary
He was born in Old Castile, Spain, in 1608 and entered the Domini cans
at Valladolid. Sent to China, Francis was successful in Fukien, China,
until he was arrested as a spy by the local authorities. He was
martyred as a result. Francis was beatified in 1909.
<>1648 BD
FRANCIS DE CAPILLAS, MARTYR
THE Dominicans
followed the Jesuits to China early in the seventeenth century, and to
the
Order of Preachers belongs the honour of having produced the first
native
Chinese priest and bishop, Gregory La (1616—1691), and the first
beatified
martyr in China, Francis Ferdinand de Capillas. He was born of humble
stock in
the province of Valladolid, and joined the Preachers when he was
seventeen.
He volunteered for
the mission in the Philippines, and received the priesthood at Manila
in 1631.
For ten years he laboured under a tropical sun in the Cagayan district
of
Luzon, regarding this apostolic field as a sort of training-ground for
the
still more arduous mission to which he felt himself destined. Here it
was,
accordingly, that he already practised great austerities, lying, for
example,
upon a wooden cross during the short hours he gave to sleep, and
deliberately
exposing his body to the bites of the insects which infest these
regions. At
last, in 1642, he was chosen to accompany the pioneer missionary,
Father
Francis Diaz, o.p., who was returning by way of Formosa to take up
again the
apostolate he had already begun in the Chinese province of Fokien.
After
learning the language an immense success is said to have attended the
labours
of Father de Capillas, and in Fogan, Moyan, Tingteu and other towns, he
made.
many converts.
Unfortunately it was
just at this epoch that great revolutionary disturbances shook the
whole
Chinese empire. The Ming dynasty came to an end, and the Manchu Tatars
were
called in to help to quell one party of the rebels, with the result
that they
themselves eventually became masters of the country. In Fokien a stout
resistance was offered to the Tatars, and although they occupied Fogan
they
were besieged there by the armies of the Chinese viceroy. It would seem
that
while the town was thus invested Father de Capillas entered it by
stealth to
render spiritual assistance to some of his converts. The mandarins of
the old
administration had been tolerant and often friendly to the
Christians. The new
masters were bitterly hostile to the religion of the foreigner. Father
de
Capillas was caught, cruelly tortured, tried as a spy who was believed
to be
conveying information to the besiegers, and in the end put to death by
having
his head cut off, on January 15, 1648.
In view of the question raised in the case of some of our English
martyrs as to
whether they really died for the faith, or were only put to death as
political
offenders, it is interesting to note that although Fathers Ferrando and
Fonseca
in their Spanish History of the
Dominicans in the Philippines admit that sedition (rebeldia)
was the formal charge upon which Father de Capillas was
sentenced to death, the Holy See has pronounced him to be a true martyr.
In reference to this
same holy Dominican, a quotation may not be out of place from Sir
Robert K.
Douglas:
“Why
do you so much
trouble yourselves”, the emperor [K’anghsi] asked on one occasion of a
missionary, “about a world which you have never yet entered?” and
adopting the,
to him, canonical view, he expressed his opinion that it would be much
wiser if
they thought less of the world to come and more of the present life. It
is
possible that when he said this he may have had in his mind the dying
word of
Ferdinand de Capillas, who suffered martyrdom in 1648: “I have had no
home but
the world”, said this priest, as he faced his last earthly judge, “no
bed but
the ground, no food but what Providence sent me from day to day, and no
other
object but to do and suffer for the glory of Jesus Christ and for the
eternal
happiness of those who believe in His name.”
See
Touron, Histoire des hommes illustres O.P., vol.
vi, pp. 732—735; but especially Juan
Ferrando and Joaquin Fonseca, Historia de
los PP. Dominicos en las Islas Filipinas, vol. ii, pp. 569—587. Cf. R. K. Douglas, China, in the Story
of the Nations series, pp. 61—62. For other
martyrs in China see herein under February 17, May 26, July 9 and
September 11.
Bd Francis de Capillas was beatified in 1909.
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1909 Bl.
Arnold
Jansen Founder of the Society of the Divine Word
Born in Goch, Germany, on
November 5, 1837, Arnold studied at Gaesdonck, Munster, and Bonn. He
was ordained in 1861 and served as a parish priest. He also served as a
chaplain at an Ursuline convent at Kempen. In 1875, he founded the
Society of the Divine Word in a mission house in Steyl, Holland. This
society was designed to provide priests and lay brothers for the
missions. The congregation was approved in 1901. Arnold also founded
the Servant Sisters of the Holy Ghost for the missions in 1889. He died
in Steyl on January 5, 1909, and was beatified in 1975 by Pope Paul VI.
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Mary Mother of GOD
Philomena.html HERE
Saints of this Day January 15 Décimo octávo Kaléndas
Februárii.
Among the most important titles we have in
the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory
and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of
the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom.
The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our
Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for
the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope
Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City
praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing
the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in
using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require
spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had
its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.