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.
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6th v. St. Liewellyn & Gwrnerth Welsh monks of Welshpool and Bardsey,
Wales
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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
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.