Synaxis der 12 Apostel
Orthodoxe Kirche: 30. Juni - Synaxis der 12 Apostel Katholische Kirche:
15. Juli - Tag der Apostelteilung
Das griechische Wort Synaxis
(russisch sobor) wird oft als Versammlung übersetzt. Gemeint ist aber
bei diesen Heiligenfesten eine Zusammenschau, also eine Kommemoration mehrerer
Heiliger oder nach großen Festtagen eine Betrachtung einzelner Heiliger
im Zusammenhang mit ihrer Bedeutung für diese Feste. In unserem ökumenischen
Kalender finden Sie: Synaxis der 70 Apostel (4.1.) Synaxis des Propheten und
Vorläufers Johannes des Täufers (7.1.) Synaxis des Erzengels Gabriel
(25.3.) Synaxis von Anna und Joachim (9.9.) Synaxis der Erzengel Michael
und Gabriel und aller Engel (8.11.) Synaxis der Allerheiligsten Gottesgebärerin
(Theotokos) (26.12.) und die Synaxis der 12 Apostel.
Während die katholische Kirche am 15.7. des Tages gedenkt,
an dem sich die Apostel voneinander trennten, um das Evangelium in alle Welt
zu bringen, schließt sich der 30. Juni an den Festtag der beiden größten
Apostel Peter und Paul an, um an diesem Tag aller Apostel zu gedenken. Kurzbiographien
finden Sie bei den Gedenktagen der einzelnen Apostel:
Andreas Bartholomäus
Jakobus Alphäus Jakobus Zebedäus Johannes
Judas Thaddäus Matthäus Matthias Petrus
Philippus Simon Zelotes Thomas
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Commemoration of
the Holy Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils.
In the Ninth Article of the Nicea-Constantinople Symbol of Faith
proclaimed by the holy Fathers of the First and Second Ecumenical Councils,
we confess our faith in
"One, Holy, Catholic,
and Apostolic Church."
By virtue of the catholic nature
of the Church, an Ecumenical Council is the Church's supreme authority, and
possesses the competence to resolve major questions of church life. An Ecumenical
Council is comprised of archpastors and pastors of the Church, and representatives
of all the local Churches, from every land of the "oikumene" (i.e. from
the whole inhabited world).
The Orthodox Church acknowledges Seven Holy Ecumenical Councils:
The First Ecumenical Council (Nicea I) (May 29, and also on
seventh Sunday after Pascha) was convened in the year 325 against the heresy of Arius, in the
city of Nicea in Bithynia under StConstantine the Great, Equal of the Apostles.
The Second Ecumenical
Council (Constantinople I) (May 22) was convened in the year 381 against the heresy of Macedonias, by
the emperor Theodosius the Great.
The Third Ecumenical Council (Ephesus) (September 9) was convened
in the year 431 against the heresy
of Nestorius, in the city of Ephesus by the emperor Theodosius the Younger.
The Fourth Ecumenical Council (Chalcedon) (July 16) was convened
in the year 451, against the Monophysite
heresy, in the city of Chalcedon under the emperor Marcian.
The Fifth Ecumenical Council (Constnatinople II) (July 25) "Concerning the Three Chapters,"
was convened in the year 553, under
the emperor Justinian the Great.
The Sixth Ecumenical Council (Constantinople III) (January 23)
met during the years 680-681, to
fight the Monothelite heresy, under the emperor Constantine Pogonatos.
The fact that the Seventh Ecumenical Council (Nicea II) is not
commemorated today testifies to the antiquity of today's celebration. The
Seventh Council, commemorated on the Sunday nearest to October 11, was convened
at Nicea in the year 787 against
the Iconoclast heresy, under the emperor Constantine and his mother Irene.
The Church venerates the Holy Fathers of the Ecumenical
Councils because Christ has established them as "lights upon the earth,"
guiding us to the true Faith. "Adorned with the robe of truth," the doctrine
of the Fathers, based upon the preaching of the Apostles, has established
one faith for the Church. The Ecumenical Councils, are the highest authority
in the Church.
Such Councils, guided by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and accepted
by the Church, are infallible.
The Orthodox Church's conciliar
definitions of dogma have the highest authority, and such definitions always
begin with the Apostolic formula: "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to
us..." (Acts 15: 28).
The Ecumenical Councils were always convened for a specific reason: to combat false opinions and
heresies, and to clarify the Orthodox Church's teaching.
But the Holy Spirit has thus
seen fit, that the dogmas, the truths of faith, immutable in their content
and scope, constantly and consequently are revealed by the conciliar mind
of the Church, and are given precision by the holy Fathers within theological
concepts and terms in exactly such measure as is needed by the Church itself
for its economy of salvation. The Church, in expounding its dogmas, is dealing
with the concerns of a given historical moment, "not revealing
everything in haste and thoughtlessly, nor indeed, ultimately hiding something"
(St Gregory the Theologian).
A brief summary of the dogmatic theology of the First
Six Ecumenical Councils is formulated and contained in the First Canon of
the Council of Trullo (also known as Quinisext), held in the year 692.
The 318 Holy Fathers of the First
Ecumenical Council are spoken of in this Canon I of Trullo as having: "with unanimity of faith revealed and declared
to us the consubstantiality of the three Persons of the Divine nature and,
... instructing the faithful to adore the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with
one worship, they cast down and dispelled the false teaching about different
degrees of Divinity."
The 150 Holy Fathers
of the Second Ecumenical Council left their mark on the theology of the Church
concerning the Holy Spirit,
"repudiating the teaching of Macedonius, as one
who wished to divide the inseparable Unity,
so that there might be no perfect mystery of our hope."
The 200 God-bearing Fathers of the Third Ecumenical Council
expounded the teaching that
"Christ, the Incarnate Son of God is One." They
also confessed that
"she who bore Him without seed was the spotless Ever-Virgin, glorifying
her as truly the Mother of God.
The 630 Holy Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council decreed
that
"the One Christ, the Son of God... must be glorified
in two natures."
The 165 God-bearing Holy Fathers of the Fifth Ecumenical Council
"in
synod anathematized and repudiated Theodore of Mopsuestia (the teacher of
Nestorius),
and Origen, and Didymus, and Evagrius,
renovators of the Hellenic teaching about the transmigration of souls and
the transmutation of bodies and the impieties they raised against the resurrection
of the dead."
The 170 Holy Fathers of the Sixth Ecumenical Council
"taught that we ought to confess two natural
volitions, or two wills [trans. note: one divine, and the other human],
and two natural operations (energies)
in Him Who was incarnate for our salvation, Jesus Christ, our true God."
In decisive moments of Church history, the holy Ecumenical Councils
promulgated their dogmatic definitions, as trustworthy delimitations in
the spiritual battle for the purity of Orthodoxy, which will last until such
time, as "all shall come into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of
the Son of God" (Eph. 4: 13).
In the struggle with new heresies, the Church does not abandon its former
dogmatic concepts nor replace them with some sort of new formulations.
The dogmatic formulae of the Holy Ecumenical Councils need never be superseded,
they remain always contemporary to the living Tradition of the Church. Therefore
the Church proclaims:
"The faith
of all in the Church of God hath been glorified by men, which were luminaries
in the world, cleaving to the Word of Life, so that it be observed firmly,
and that it dwell unshakably until the end of the ages, conjointly with their
God-bestown writings and dogmas. We reject and we anathematize all whom they
have rejected and anathematized, as being enemies of Truth. And if anyone
does not cleave to nor admit the aforementioned pious dogmas, and does not
teach or preach accordingly, let him be anathema" (Canon I of the Council
of Trullo).
In addition to their dogmatic definitions,
the Holy Fathers of the Ecumenical Councils exerted great efforts towards
the strengthening of church discipline.
Local Councils promulgated their disciplinary canons according
to the circumstances of the time and place, frequently differing among themselves
in various particulars.
All Saints of Pskov on the Third Sunday after
Pentecost The Russian Orthodox Church commemorates
The universal unity of the Orthodox Church required unity also
in canonical practice, i.e. a conciliar deliberation and affirmation of the
most important canonical norms by the Fathers of the Ecumenical Councils.
Thus, according to conciliar judgment, the Church has accepted:
20 Canons from the First, 7 Canons from the Second, 8 Canons from the Third,
and 30 Canons from the Fourth Ecumenical Synods.
The Fifth and the Sixth Councils
concerned themselves only with resolving dogmatic questions, and did not leave
behind any disciplinary canons.
The need to establish in codified form the customary practices
during the years 451-680, and ultimately to compile a canonical codex for
the Orthodox Church, occasioned the convening of a special Council, which
was wholly devoted to the general application of churchly rules. This was
convened in the year 692.
The Council "in the Imperial Palace" or "Under
the Arches" (in Greek "en trullo"), came to be called the Council in Trullo.
Also called the "Quinisext" [meaning the "fifth and sixth"], because it is
considered to have completed the activities of the Fifth and Sixth Councils,
simply a direct continuation of the Sixth Ecumenical Council itself, separated
by just a few years.
The Council
in Trullo, with its 102 Canons (more than of all the Ecumenical Synods combined),
had a tremendous significance in the history of the canonical theology of
the Orthodox Church.
It might be said that the Fathers of this Council produced a
complete compilation of the basic codex from the relevant sources for the
Orthodox Church's canons.
Listing through in chronological
order, and having been accepted by the Church the Canons of the Holy Apostles,
and the Canons of the Holy Ecumenical and the Local Councils and of the holy
Fathers, the Trullo Council declared:
"Let no one be permitted to alter or to annul
the aforementioned canons, nor in place of these put forth,
or to accept others, made of spurious inscription" (2nd Canon of the Council
in Trullo).
Church canons, sanctified by
the authority of the first Six Ecumenical Councils (including the rules of
the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787, and the Constantinople Councils of
861 and 879, which were added later under the holy Patriarch Photius), form
the basis of THE RUDDER, or KORMCHAYA KNIGA (a canon law codex known as "Syntagma"
or "Nomokanon" in 14 titles).
In its repository of grace is
expressed a canonical norm, a connection to every era,
and a guide for all the local Orthodox Churches in churchly practice.
New historical conditions can
lead to the change of some particular external aspect of the life of the Church.
This makes creative canonical activity necessary in the conciliar reasoning
of the Church, in order to reconcile the external norms of churchly life
with historical circumstances. The details of canonical regulation are not
fully developed for the various eras of churchly organization at all once.
With every push to either forsake the literal meaning of a canon, or to fulfill
and develop it, the Church again and again turns for reasoning and guidance
to the eternal legacy of the Holy Ecumenical Councils, to the inexhaustable
treasury of dogmatic and canonical truths.
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273 Eutropius, Zosima
& Nonosa Martyrs of Porto near Rome under Aurelian (Benedictines). MM
(RM)
In
Portu Románo natális sanctórum Mártyrum Eutrópii,
atque Zósimæ et Bonósæ sorórum.
At Porto, the birthday
of the holy martyrs Eutropius, and the sisters Zosima and Bonosa.
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3rd
v. Antiochus and Cyriacus "At Sebaste the passion of Saint Antiochus the
physician who was beheaded under the governor Hadrian; and when milk flowed
forth from the severed head in place of blood, Cyriacus, the executioner,
was converted to Christ, and himself also suffered martyrdom" MM (RM)
<>
Sebáste, in Arménia,
sancti Antíochi médici, qui, sub Hadriáno Præside,
cápite obtruncátus est; cumque ex eo lac pro sánguine
manáret, Cyríacus cárnifex, convérsus ad Christum,
et ipse martyrium súbiit.
At Sebaste in Armenia, St. Antiochus,
a physician, who was beheaded under the governor Adrian. On seeing milk
flowing from his wounds instead of blood, Cyriacus, his executioner, was
converted to Christ and endured martyrdom.
The laus in the Roman Martyrology reads: "At Sebaste the passion of Saint
Antiochus the physician who was beheaded under the governor Hadrian; and when
milk flowed forth from the severed head in place of blood, Cyriacus, the
executioner, was converted to Christ, and himself also suffered martyrdom"
(Benedictines).
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Cyricus and
Julitta The Holy Martyrs lived in the city of Iconium in the province of Lykaoneia
in Asia Minor. St Julitta was
descended from an illustrious family and was a Christian.
Widowed early on, she raised
her three-year old-son Cyricus (Quiricus). During emperor Diocletian's persecution
of Christians, St Julitta departed the city with her son and two trustworthy
servants, leaving behind her home, property, and servants. Concealing
her noble rank, she hid out first at Seleucia, and then at Tarsus. There
around the year 305 she was recognized, arrested and brought to trial before
the governor, Alexander. Strengthened by the Lord, she fearlessly answered
the judge's questions, and firmly confessed her faith in Christ.
The governor gave orders to beat the saint with rods. During
her torments St Julitta kept repeating, "I am a Christian, and will not
offer sacrifice to demons."
The little boy Cyricus cried, seeing his mother being tortured,
and wanted to go to her. The governor Alexander tried to sit him on his lap,
but the boy broke free and shouted, "Let me go to my mother, I am a Christian."
The governor threw the boy down from the high tribunal and kicked him down
the stone steps. The boy struck his head on the sharp edges and died.
St Julitta, seeing her lacerated son, gave thanks to God that
He had permitted her child to be perfected before her, and to receive the
unfading crown of martyrdom. After many cruel tortures St Julitta was beheaded
with a sword.
The relics of Sts Cyricus and Julitta were uncovered during
the reign of St Constantine the Great (May 21). A monastery was built near
Constantinople in honor of these holy martyrs, and a church was built not
far from Jerusalem.
We pray to Sts Cyricus and Julitta for family happiness, and
the restoration of sick children to health.
Orthodoxe Kirche: 15. Juli Katholische
Kirche: 16. Juni
Julitta und KyriakosJulitta, eine Christin und Witwe, lebte
in Ikonium (Kleinasien). Als die Christenverfolgungen unter Kaiser Diokletian
begannen, floh sie um 305 mit ihrem dreijährigen Sohn Cyricus (Kyriakos=dem
Herrn geweihter) nach Tarsus. Hier wurde sie festgenommen und vor Gericht
gestellt. Als sie gefoltert wurde, erklärte ihr Kind, es wolle zu seiner
Mutter und es sei Christ. Der Richter warf Cyricus daraufhin auf den Boden
und das Kind starb. Julitta wurde dann enthauptet. Ihr Kult breitete sich
weit aus, die Lebensgeschichte dürfte aber legendär sein
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355 Barhadbesaba (Barhadbesciabas),
a zealous deacon of Arbela (Adiabene), Persia, was beheaded in the 15th year
of the persecutions under Shapur II.M (AC)
Died July 20, Saint Barhadbesaba, a zealous deacon of Arbela
(Adiabene), Persia, was beheaded in the 15th year of the persecutions under
Shapur II. He was apprehended by the troops of Sapor Tamsapor, governor of
Arbela, and put on the rack.
As he was tormented, the officers continually cried out, "Worship
water and fire, and eat the blood of beasts, and you shall be set free immediately."
Barhadbesaba's interior peace was so strong that he remained cheerful throughout.
He often said to the judge, "Neither you nor your king, nor any torment shall
ever separate me from the love of Jesus; Him alone have I served from my infancy
to this old age."
Unable to persuade him to apostatize, Tamsapor condemned him
to be decapitated by Aghaeus, an apostate Christian nobleman. The saint was
filled with joyful anticipation of his martyrdom, but Aghaeus trembled so
badly that he was unable to give the blow. He struck the martyr's neck seven
times without finishing the deed; therefore, he ran his sword into the saint's
bowels.
Although the judge set guards
over the holy relics, two priests carried them off at night and buried them
in the Roman fashion (Benedictines, Husenbeth).
Barhadbesaba In the year 340 the
Church in Persia began to undergo one of the most intense persecutions that
any body of Christians has suffered. In the fifteenth year
of the persecution, by the command of Sapor Tamsapor, governor of Adiabene,
Barhadbesaba, deacon of the city of Arbela, was apprehended and put on the
rack. Whilst he was tormented, the officers continually cried out
to him, "Worship fire and water, and eat the blood of beasts, and you shall
be set at liberty ". But the deacon said to the judge, " Neither you nor your
king nor any manner of suffering shall ever be able to separate me from the
love of Jesus: Him alone have I served from my childhood to this old age."
The tyrant
condemned him to be beheaded, and commanded Aggai, an apostate Christian,
to be his executioner. Barhadbesaba
stood bound, waiting with joy for the moment which was to
associate him with the angels; but Aggai trembled so as not to be able
to give the blow. He struck, however, seven times at the martyr's neck,
and not being able to sever his head from his body, ran his sword into him.
The judge set guards to watch the body, but two clerks carried it off in the
night, and buried it.
See Assemani, Acta martyrum orientalium, pp. 129-130; and P. Peeters
in Anelecta Bolliandiana, vol. xxvii
(1908), p. 188, and xliii (1925), pp. 276, 279, 281. This martyr seems to
be mentioned in the ancient Syriac martyrology under the form Barsabas, though
he is by error included among the priests .
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4th
v. St. Secundinus, Agrippinus, Maximus, Fortunatus, &
Martialis A group of martyrs who were put
to death in the Roman province of Pannonia.
Catulinus (Cartholinus), Januarius, Florentius, Julia & Justa MM (RM)
The bodies of these Carthaginian martyrs are enshrined in the basilica
of Fausta at Carthage. Saint Augustine preached a panegyric on Deacon Saint
Catulinus, which is still extant. (Benedictines).
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338 St. Jacob of
Nisibis First bishop of
Nisibis
Nísibi, in Mesopotámia, natális sancti
Jacóbi, ejúsdem urbis Epíscopi, magnæ sanctitátis
viri. Hic, miráculis et eruditióne clarus, unus fuit,
sub persecutióne Galérii Maximiáni, ex número
Confessórum, qui in Nicæna deínde Synodo perversitátem
Aríi, Homoúsii oppositióne, damnárunt; cujus
et sancti Alexándri Epíscopi oratióne ipse Aríus
condígnam suæ iniquitátis mercédem, effúsis
viscéribus, Constantinópoli recépit.
At Nisibis in Mesopotamia, the birthday of St. James, bishop
of that city, a man celebrated for great holiness, miracles and learning.
He was one of those who confessed the faith during the persecution of Galerius
Maximian, and later condemned the perverse heresy of Arius in the Council
of Nicaea by opposing to the doctrine of consubstantiality. It was also
owing to his prayers, and those of the bishop Alexander, that Arius received
at Constantinople the suitable punishment of his iniquity, his bowels gushing
out.
Also listed as James. He took part in the Council of Nicaea and is traditionally
credited with praying for the death of the heresiarch Arius. He was renowned
in the Syriac Church for his learning and holiness and for building a basilica
and founding the theological school of Nisibis. Jacob died at Nisibis.
James of Nisibis B (RM) Died at Nisibis, c. 338-340. A Syrian, James became
a monk and about 308 was named the first bishop of Nisibis (Nusaybin), Mesopotamia.
He built a basilica there and founded the theological school of Nisibis, which
became famous. He was a teacher of Saint Ephraem but his memory is highly
honored in the East, especially in Syrian churches, and legends coalesced
around his name. A fierce opponent of Arianism at the Council of Nicaea in
325 (according to the legend repeated in the Roman Martyrology, the prayers
of James and Alexander of Constantinople were responsible for the death of
Arius and his "bowels gushing out"), he was renowned for his exceptional
holiness, learning, and miracles. A number of writings were formerly attributed
to him in error (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney).
This is one of the cases in which all Alban Butler's diligence and learning
could not save him from error, for it was not till long after his time that
the life of St James of Nisibis received the critical study that it demanded;
accordingly he accorded several pages to an account of a saint about whom
very little is in fact known. That James was an important figure, venerated
throughout the East from early times, is quite certain; he is recognized
liturgically in practically every Eastern church, and he is mentioned in the
Hieronymian martymlogy. He became the first bishop of Nisibis in Mesopotamia
about the year 308, and St Ephraem, his disciple, refers to the importance
of his services to that church, for which he built a great basilica and perhaps
inaugurated its famous theological school.
He was present at the Council of Nicaea in 325, and St Athanasius,
the historian Theodoret and others record that he was an outstanding opponent
of Arianism. (The Roman Martyrology refers to the fable that St James's prayers
contributed to bring Anus to a shocking end at Constantinople.) When the Persian
king, Sapor II, made his first attack on Nisibis in 338, the bishop was still
alive, but there is good evidence that he died in the same year.
Butler remarks that St James's learning and writings have
procured him a rank next to St Ephraem among the doctors of the Syrian church,
and that the Armenians too honour him as a doctor; but it is now known
that the writings formerly attributed to him are not his. He is named in the
canon of the Syrian and Maronite Mass, and in the festal litany of the Chaldean.
It is only of recent years that the Bollandist, Father Paul Peeters, after
a critical examination of all the sources, Greek, Latin and, more especially.
Syriac and Armenian, has shown that the traditional story recounted in the
original Butler's Lives is for the most part no better than a work of fiction,
compiled out of elements borrowed from other hagiographical legends, particularly
the Syriac Life of St Ephraem.
To give details would be impossible
here, but the whole case is made clear in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxviii (1920),
pp. 285-373. See also DTC., t. viii, cc. 292-295 .
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4th v. St. Abudimus
Greek martyr born on the island
of Tenedos in the Aegean
In ínsula Ténedo
sancti Abudémii Mártyris, qui sub Diocletiáno passus
est.
In the island of Tenedos, St. Abudemius, martyr, who suffered
under Diocletian.
Also called Abudemius.
He was born on the island of Tenedos in the Aegean. When Emperor Diocletian
enforced a persecution, Abudimus was tortured and put to death. Abudimus (Abudemius)
of Tenedos M (RM) 4th century. A native of the island of Tenedos in the Aegean,
who was martyred under Diocletian (Benedictines).
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5th, 6th v St. Apronia (Evronie) nun and sister of St. Aprus.
Born near Trier, Germany, Apronia was received into a convent by her brother,
who was a bishop
She is recorded as dying in a convent in Troyes, France. In some lists
she is called Evronie.
Apronia (Evronie) of Troyes V (AC) 5th or 6th century. Saint Apronia, born
near Trier (Trèves), Germany, was the sister of Bishop Saint Aprus
(Evre) of Toul, from whom she received the veil. Apronia died at Troyes (Benedictines).
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660 Eternus of Évreux
The ninth bishop of Évreux, France (Benedictines) .B (AC)
Died after 660.
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716 St. Donald lived at
Ogilvy in Forfarshire ubiquity of the sons of Somerled of the Isles, clan
Donald
All that is recorded of this saint, whose name is so common
in Scotland, is that he lived at Ogilvy in Forfarshire in the eighth century,
that his wife bore him nine daughters, and that on her death they formed a
sort of community who led the religious life under his direction. But if no
more is known of him, he has nevertheless left his mark otherwise, for the
often found natural features, wells, hills, and so on, which are known as
the "Nine Maidens", are so called in memory of his daughters. They are said
to have afterwards entered a monastery founded by St. Darlugdach and St.
Brigid at Abernethy, and were commemorated on July 18. The popularity of
the name in Scotland must be attributed, not to veneration for the saint,
but to the ubiquity of the sons of Somerled of the Isles, clan Donald.
Donald of Ogilvy (AC) (also known as Donivald, Domhnall) Died
early 8th century. Donald, a resident of Ogilvy in Forfarshire, Scotland,
formed a religious group with his nine daughters (the "Nine Maidens") on the
death of his wife. They entered a monastery in Abernathy after his death (Benedictines,
Delaney, Farmer).
All that is recorded of this saint, whose name is so common
in Scotland, is that he lived at Ogilvy in Forfarshire in the eighth century,
that his wife bore him nine daughters, and that on her death they formed a
sort of community who led the religious life under his direction.
But if no more is known of him, he has nevertheless left his mark otherwise,
for the often found natural features, wells, hills, and so on, which are known
as the "Nine Maidens", are so called in memory of his daughters. They
are said to have afterwards entered a monastery founded by St Darlugdach and
St Brigid at Abernethy, and were commemorated on July 18. The popularity
of the name in Scotland must be attributed, not to veneration for the saint,
but to the ubiquity of the sons of Somerled of the Isles, Clan Donald.
See Forbes, KSS., pp. 324-325;
and cf. what is said ibid. of St Mazota, pp. 395-396
.
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775 St. Plechelm
A Benedictine priest companion to St. Wiro. Plecheim was from Northumbria,
England, an ordained priest. He traveled with St. Wiro to establish a monastery
at Odilienburg
Plechelm of Guelderland
B (RM) Born in Northumberland; Plechelm was ordained a priest. He went to
Rome with another Northumbrian priest, Saint Wiro, and a deacon named Otger.
In Rome, Wiro and Plechelm were consecrated regionary bishops. After doing
missionary work in Northumbria, they went to the Friesland area of the Netherlands,
where they evangelized the inhabitants of the lower Meuse Valley under Saint
Willibrord or Saint Swithbert, and built a church and cells at Odilienberg
on land granted to them by Blessed Pepin of Herstal. They were martyred while
preaching the Gospel (Benedictines, Delaney).
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820 St. Benedict The
bishop of Angers, France, in the reign of Emperor Louis the Pious, the son
of Charlemagne.
Benedict of Angers
B (AC) Benedict was bishop of Angers during the reign of Louis the
Pious (Benedictines).
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824 Adalard the
Younger a monk of Corbie Abbey under Abbot Saint Adalard. He was only 20
years old when he died , OSB (PC)
Saint Adalard was a monk of Corbie Abbey under Abbot Saint Adalard. He
was only 20 years old when he died (Benedictines).
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830 Saint Haruch of
Werden, Abbot; Saint Haruch was regionary bishop in Werden (Benedictines).,
OSB B (AC)
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862 St. Swithun educated
at old monastery, Winchester, where ordained; became chaplain to King Egbert
of the West Saxons appointed him tutor of son, Ethelwulf; one of the King's
counselors; built several churches and was known for his humility and his
aid to the poor and need Malmesbury affirms that a great number of miraculous
cures of all kinds were wrought on occasion relics translation
Wintóniæ, in Anglia, sancti Swithúni
Epíscopi, cujus sánctitas miráculis effúlsit.
At Winchester
in England, St. Swithin, bishop, whose sanctity was verified by the gift of
miracles.
Swithun "Swithin", also spelled Swithin, was born in Wessex,
England and was educated at the old monastery, Winchester, where he was
ordained. He became chaplain to King Egbert of the West Saxons, who appointed
him tutor of his son, Ethelwulf, and was one of the King's counselors. Swithun
was named bishop of Winchester in 852 when Ethelwulf succeeded his father
as king.
Swithun built several churches and was known for his humility
and his aid to the poor and needy. He died on July 2. A long-held superstition
declares it will rain for forty days if it rains on his feast day of July
15, but the reason for and origin of this belief are unknown.
St. Seduinus English saint possibly identical to St. Swithin
or Sithian.
Swithun (Swithin) of Winchester, OSB B (RM) Born in Wessex,
England; died at Winchester, England, July 2, 862. Saint Swithun was educated
at the Old Abbey, Winchester, and was ordained (it is uncertain whether or
not he was a monk). He became chaplain to King Egbert of the West Saxons,
who appointed him tutor of his son Ethelwulf, and was one of the king's counselors.
Swithun was named bishop of Winchester in 852 when Ethelwulf succeeded his
father as king. Swithun built several churches and was known for his humility
and his aid to the poor and needy. His veneration as a saint appears to date
from the removal of his bones from the churchyard into the cathedral a century
after his death.
Swithun was born in Wessex at
the end of the eighth century or beginning of the ninth, and passed his youth
in the study of grammar, philosophy and the Holy Scriptures at the Old Monastery
in Winchester, of which, however, he was probably never a member. Being ordained
priest, his learning, piety and prudence moved Egbert, King of the West
Saxons, to make him his chaplain, under which title the saint subscribed
a charter granted to the abbey of Croyland in 833. That prince also committed
to his care the education of his son Ethelwulf, and made use of his counsels
in the government of his kingdom. On the death of Egbert, Ethelwulf
succeeded, and he governed his kingdom by the prudent advice of Aelfstan,
Bishop of Sherborne, in temporal affairs, and of St Swithun in ecclesiastical
matters, especially those which concerned his own soul. Bearing always the
greatest reverence to Swithun, he procured him, upon the death of Helmstan,
to be chosen bishop of Winchester, to which see he was consecrated by Ceolnoth,
Archbishop of Canterbury, in 852. William of Malmesbury says that this good
bishop was a treasury of all virtues, and those in which he took most delight
were humility and charity to the poor; in the discharge of his episcopal
functions he omitted nothing belonging to a true pastor. He built several
churches and repaired others; and when he had to dedicate any church, he
used to go barefoot to the place. He died on July 2, 862, and at his
own request was buried in the churchyard, where his grave might be trodden
by passers-by and the rain fail upon it.
But his feast is observed in the dioceses of Portsmouth
and Southwark on July 15, on which date, over a hundred years after, his
relics were taken up and translated into the church, which legend says was
done in accordance with a vision of the saint granted to a poor labourer.
Malmesbury affirms that a great number of miraculous cures of all kinds were
wrought on this occasion. In the reign of William the Conqueror, Walkelin,
Bishop of Winchester, laid the foundation of a new cathedral church, and
on July 15, 1093, the shrine of St Swithun was translated from the old to
the new church.
Swithun is still in the memory
of the English people by reason of the superstition that if it rains on his
feast-day it will rain for forty days after, and the opposite. Many ingenious
attempts have been made to explain this belief, but no one of them is convincing.
Other saints elsewhere have the same story attaching to their day, for example,
SS. Gervase and Protase, and St Medard in France and St Cewydd in Wales.
The scanty sources
available for the life of St Swithun have been printed by the Bollandists
in the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol.
i, and in the Analecta Bollandiana,
vol. iv, pp. 367-410, vol. vii, pp.373-380, and vol. lviii, pp. 187-196.
There are also some fragments in Anglo-Saxon, for which see Earle, Glousester Fragments, vol. i (1861), and
G. H. Gerould in the periodical Angus,
vol. xx, pp. 347-357. Most of this material, particularly the account by
Santfrid and the long Latin poem by Wolstan (ed. Alistair Campbell, 1951),
deals only with the translation and miracles of the saint. For the
little we know concerning his life we are indebted mainly to William
of Malmesbury and Simeon of Durham. That a genuine cultus of Swithun existed in England is
shown by the fact that, in contrast to many others commonly styled "saints",
his feast and translation day are entered in many of our native calendars.
Churches were dedicated in his honour even in Scandinavia .
|
872 St. Athanasius
Bishop and victim of political turmoil suffered during the Saracen occupation.
He also ransomed Christians from Islamic captors; attended the Lateran Council
of 863
Neápoli, in Campánia,
sancti Athanásii, ejúsdem civitátis Epíscopi,
qui, ab ímpio nepóte Sérgio multa passus ac sede pulsus,
tandem Vérulis, in Hérnicis, conféctus ærúmnis,
migrávit in cælum, témpore Cároli Calvi.
At Naples in Campania, St. Athanasius, bishop of that city,
who suffered a great deal from his wicked nephew Sergius, by whom he was driven
from his diocese. Overcome with afflictions, he departed for heaven
at Veroli, in the time of Charles the Bald.
He was born about 830, the son of the duke of Naples, and he spent his younger years
repairing the city, which had suffered during the Saracen occupation. He also
ransomed Christians from Islamic captors. In 850, Athanasius was named the
bishop of Naples, Italy, at the age of twenty. He attended the Lateran Council
of 863.
Denouncing his nephew Duke Sergius II of Naples for immorality,
Athanasius was imprisoned. The people of Naples demanded and secured his release,
and he went to the Island of the Savior nearby. Duke Sergius almost imprisoned
Athanasius again because he refused to resign from his see. Emperor Louis
II intervened and protected him, but Duke Surges started attacking Athanasius
allies and looting the episcopal treasury. Pope Adrian II excommunicated Sergius,
and Louis II started a campaign to punish the noble. Athanasius, exhausted
by ill treatment, died at Veroli, near Monte Cassino, Italy, on July 15.
Athanasius of Naples B (RM). Saint Athanasius, son of the duke
of Naples, became bishop of that city when he was just 18 years old. After
he had governed it for 20 years, he began to suffer from the exactions of
his relatives, who held the civil authority of Naples. Unwilling to concede
ecclesial power to them, he was imprisoned, then exiled. He died at Veroli
and was buried at Monte Cassino. His relics were later translated to Naples
(Benedictines).
St. Athanasius Bishop This Athanasius became
bishop of Naples about the year 850, when he was not yet twenty years old.
He was a native of the city, of which his father had been dux, and took much trouble both for its
material and moral improvement; he repaired or built anew the buildings
overset and despoiled by the Saracens, founded a hospice for pilgrims and
the aged, and set on foot a scheme for the ransom of Christians captured by
the Mohanimedans.
In 863 be took part in the council at the Lateran, summoned by Pope St Nicholas I, where St Ignatius was
declared to be lawful patriarch of Constantinople. But St Athanasius,
having thus assisted the Father of Christendom to vindicate justice on behalf
of a bishop oppressed by the civil power, became himself victim of a similar
oppression. The dukedom of Naples had come into the hands of Sergius
II, an ambitious and troublesome tyrant, whose private life was as unscrupulous
as his public politics. On every count he was no friend of the good
Athanasius, and his enmity was aggravated by the fact that the bishop was
his uncle and so had personal as well as official right to call him to order:
and he was not afraid to do so, but sharply rebuked his nephew for simoniacal
dealings and other disorders.
Thereupon, instigated by his wife, Sergius clapped Athanasius into
jail at Sorrento. The indignation of the Neapolitans frightened him into setting
him at liberty again, but he continued to pursue the bishop with threats
and hampered his work in every possible way, so that in 871 Athanasius left
Naples and installed himself on the Island of the Saviour nearby.
Here Sergius promised him peace and `freedom from persecution
if he would resign his see. When Athanasius refused he sent troops to bring
him back by force, which they were prevented from doing by the intervention
of the Western emperor, Louis II, who had the bishop taken in safety to Benevento
by the duke of Amalfi. Sergius retorted by plundering the episcopal
treasury at Naples and venting his anger on the bishop's supporters with such
violence that the pope, Adrian II, excommunicated him. The Emperor Louis
again took up the bishop's cause and was about to restore him to his see
by the force of the imperial authority and strength, when death overtook
St Athanasius at Veroli, near Monte Cassino, on July 15, 872.
Most of the relevant material may
be found in the Acta Sanctorum, July,
vol. iv, and also in MGH., Scriptores rerum
Langobardicarum. It does not seem to be true that the expanded
Life (BHL. 736) is a fabrication by Peter the Deacon of Monte Caasino, as
has been maintained by E. Caspar in his monograph on Peter the Deacon's forgeries;
see on this the Analecta Boilandiana,
vol. xxix (1910), p. 169
|
937 St. Edith of
Polesworth Sister of King Athelstan of England; married viking king Sihtric
at York in 925, he died next year, she became a Benedictine nun at Polesworth,
Warwickshire, where she was noted for her holiness and may have become Abbess.
She may also have been the sister of King Edgar and aunt of St. Edith of
Wilton; or possibly these were two different woman of Polesworth.
Edith of Polesworth, OSB Widow (AC) Died 925? The identity of
Saint Edith was definitely the widow of a king of Northumbria and died
as a nun, perhaps the abbess, of Polesworth in Warwickshire. Some identify
her as the sister of King Athelstan of England and wife of the Viking king,
Sihtric. When Sihtric died the year after their marriage (926), she took the
veil.
Others believe she was sister of King Edgar the Peaceful and
aunt of Saint Edith of Wilton. There is a possibility there are 2 women named
Edith of Polesworth (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia).
FROM the conflicting references to St Edith of Polesworth it
has sometimes been supposed that there were several English women thus styled,
one of whom is mentioned in the lives of St Modwenna (July 6). Goscelin
in his Life of St Edith of Wilton speaks of her holy aunt, Edith of Polesworth,
sister of King Edgar; while another suggestion is that she is that sister
of King Athelatan, said to have been called Edith, who in 925 married Sihtric;
the Viking king at York. He died in the following year; and his
widow, who seems to have had the repute of holiness, was eventually buried
at Tamworth, only a few miles from Polesworth. On the whole she
may be regarded as probably the one and only St Edith called "of Polesworth
".
These perplexities are set out
in some detail by Stanton in his Menology,
pp. 337-338. But cf. Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lvi (1938),
p. 53, n. 4, and vol. lxv (1947), p. 315.
|
1015
St. Vladimir I, notorious for his barbarism and immorality. After conquest
of Kherson in Crimea (988) became impressed by progrers of Christianity approached
Eastern Emperor Basil II about marrying emperor's daughter Ann; converted,
reformed his life, and married Anne
Born 956 Grandson of St. Olga
and illegitimate son of Sviastoslav, grand duke of Kiev, and his mistress,
Malushka, he was given Novgorod to rule by his father. Civil war broke out
between his half-brothers Yaropolk and Oleg; Yaropolk made himself ruler by
defeating and killing Oleg, and when he captured Novgorod, Vladimir was forced
to flee to Scandinavia in 977. Vladimir returned with an army and captured
Novgorod and defeated and slew Yaropolk at Rodno in 980; Vladimir was now
sole ruler of Russia, notorious for his barbarism and immorality. After his
conquest of Kherson in the Crimea in 988, he became impressed by the progrers
of Christianity and approached Eastern Emperor Basil II about marrying the
emperor's daughter Ann. He was converted, reformed his life and married Anne.
On his return to Kiev, he invited Greek missionaries to Russia, led his people
to Christianity, borrowed canonical features from the West and built schools
and churches. His later years were troubled by rebellions led by the sons
of his first marriages, although two sons by Anne, SS Romanus and David became
martyrs. In 1014 he was obliged to march against his rebellious son Yaroslav
in Novgorod, fell ill on the way and died at Beresyx, Russia. He is patron
of Russian Catholics.
Vladimir of Kiev, King (AC) (also
known as Vladimir of Russia) Born c. 955; died at Beresyx, Russia, 1015.
Vladimir was the grandson of Saint Olga, an early convert to Christianity
among the Scandinavian rulers of the province of Kiev, and the illegitimate
son of Grand Duke Sviastoslav and his mistress, Malushka. He was given Novgorod
to rule by Sviastoslav. When Sviastoslav died in 972, the three sons fought
for the crown. Forced to flee to Scandinavia in 977 when his half brother
Yaropolk defeated and killed another half brother, Oleg, and captured Novgorod.
Vladimir returned with a Viking army, recaptured Novgorod, and captured and
killed Yaropolk at Rodno in 980.
Notorious for his cruelty and barbarity, Vladimir was now ruler
of Russia. He conquered Kherson in the Crimea in 988. That same year he proposed
a military alliance with the Byzantine Emperor Basil II. After a good deal
of hesitation, Vladimir was baptized in 989 in order to marry Anne, the Christian
sister of the emperor. His conversion marked the beginning of Christianity
in Russia.
Vladimir took his new religion very seriously and indeed sought
to impose it by force on his people, not all of whom were willing to accept
it. He reformed his own life (putting aside his five former wives), built
schools and churches, destroyed idols, brought Greek and German missionaries
to his realms, exchanged ambassadors with Rome, abolished or grated restricted
capital punishment, gave lavish alms to the poor, and aided Saint Boniface
in his mission to the Pechangs. In his later years he was troubled by rebellions
led by the sons of his earlier marriages, but two of his sons by Anne, Romanus
(Boris) and David (Gleb), became saints.
Vladimir died while leading an expedition against his rebellious
son Yaroslav in Novgorod. Vladimir reportedly gave all his possessions to
his friends and to the poor on his deathbed. His utter conversion resulted
in a picture of him that caused later generations to look on Saint Vladimir
as the first-born of the new Christian people of Russia and her borderland.
He was esteemed as a saint and the subject of a cycle of folklore and heroic
poems. A descendant of his, Vladimir Monomakh, married Gytha, the daughter
of King Harold of England. Vladimir is the patron saint of Russian Catholics
(Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia).
St. Vladimir I,
This earliest saints of Russia, princes and monks, were connected
with Kiev in the south-west, "the God-protected mother of Russian cities ",
now the capital of what we call The Ukraine and in those days centre of a
principality whose Finnish-Slav people were ruled by princes of Scandinavian
origin, Varangians, who as pirates and traders had penetrated into Russia
by its waterways.
During the last quarter
of the tenth century the grand-prince of Kiev was Vladimir, a man not only
reared in idolatry but one who freely indulged in the barbarous excesses
that were available to one in his position: he was brutal and bloodthirsty,
and a contemporary Arabian chronicler, ibn-Foslan, comments on his five wives
and numerous female slaves, which supports the statement of the Chronicle
of Nestor
that Vladimir's "desire for women was too much for him ".
Circumstances of this prince's
conversion to Christianity have been and still are much debated, but converted
he was, probably in the year 989, when he was about thirty-two; and he then
received in marriage Anne, daughter of the emperor Basil II at Constantinople-the
two events were closely connected.
And the conversion of the Russian people is dated
from then.
The fact that pious writers have attributed perfect
purity of motive to Vladimir, when undoubtedly he was moved in great measure
by the prospect of political and economic advantages from an alliance with
the Byzantines and the Christian Church, must not be allowed to obscure that,
once having accepted Christianity, he is said to have been wholehearted in
his adherence to it. He put away his former wives and mistresses
and amended his life; he had idols publicly thrown down and destroyed; and
he supported the Greek missionaries with energy and enthusiasm-indeed, with
an excess of energy, for at times he did not stop short of "conversion" by
force: to refuse baptism was to incur penalties.
But quite apart from that sort of thing, the speed with
which the Russians became Christian has been much exaggerated, and during
the reign of Vladimir the new religion probably did not penetrate far beyond
the Kievan nobility and wealthy merchants. Nor was its subsequent spreading
so fast as has been represented: paganism gave ground but slowly.
Nevertheless he was revered in after years not only because he was a sinner
who repented but because he brought about the reconciliation of the Russian
people with God, he was the Apostle of Russia, chosen from on high for that
end.
The Devil was overcome by fools and madmen", says
the Chronicle of Nestor, and emphasizes that St Vladimir received God's grace
and forgiveness, while "many righteous and godly men strayed from the path
of uprightness and perished". And it would seem that his repentance
and understanding of his new obligations were of that simple, straightforward
kind which will forever remain at the heart of the most developed and complex
Christianity: "When he had in a moment of passion fallen into sin he at
once sought to make up for it by penitence and almsgiving", says a chronicler.
It is said that he even had scruples whether, now that he was a Christian,
he was entitled to punish robbers or even murderers by putting them to death.
Such ideas astonished the sophisticated Greek ecclesiastics,
who appealed to examples in the Old Testament and Roman history to show that
punishment of the wicked was the duty of a Christian prince. Vladimir seemed
only half convinced.
The circumstances of Vladimir's conversion brought
his people within the Byzantine patriarchate, but he was not particularist.
He exchanged ambassadors with the apostolic court of Rome; he helped
the German bishop St Boniface (Bruno) of Querfurt in his mission to the Pechenegs;
and he even borrowed certain canonical features from the West, notably the
institution of tithes, which were unknown to the Byzantines.
Not till the Mongol invasions was Christian
Russia cut off from the West. St Vladimir died in 1015, after,
as is said, giving away all his personal belongings to his friends and to
the poor. His feast is solemnly celebrated by the Russians, Ukrainians and
others.
The original
Russian sources are indicated in some detail in the bibliography of vol.
iv of the Cambridge Medieval History,
pp. 819-821. The Chronicle of Nestor has been translated by S. H. Cross, The
Russian Primary Chronicle (1930).
See N. de Baumgarten, Orientalia Christiana,
vol. xxiv, no. I, 1931 (Olaf Tryggwison...) and vol. xxvii, no. i, 1932 (St Vladimir..); G. Fedotov,"Le baptême
de St. Vladimir..." in Irénikon, t. xv (1938), pp. 417
seq. M. Jugie, "Les origines romaines de l'Eglise russe" in
Echos d'Orient, no. 187 (1937).
Summaries in Fliche and Martin, Histoire
de l'Eglise, vol. vii, pp. 444-451, and DTC., s.v. Russie. For Christians
before Vladimir, see also M. de Taube, Rome
et la Russie..vol. i (1947). And see F. Dvornik, The Making of Central and Eastern Europe (1949),
pp. 170 Seq.
The Holy Great Prince Vladimir,
Equal of the Apostles
Few names in the
annals of history can compare in significance with the name of St Vladimir,
the Baptizer of Rus, who stands at the beginning of the spiritual destiny
of the Russian Church and the Russian Orthodox people. Vladimir was the grandson
of St Olga, and he was the son of Svyatoslav (+ 972). His mother, Malusha
(+ 1001) was the daughter of Malk Liubechanin, whom historians identify with
Mal, prince of the Drevlyani. Having subdued an uprising of the Drevlyani
and conquered their cities, Princess Olga gave orders to execute Prince Mal
for his attempt to marry her after he murdered her husband Igor, and she took
to herself Mal's children, Dobrynya and Malusha. Dobrynya grew up to be a
valiant brave warrior, endowed with a mind for state affairs, and he was
later on an excellent help to his nephew Vladimir in matters of military and
state administration.
The "capable girl" Malusha became a Christian (together
with Great Princess Olga at Constantinople), but she preserved in herself
a bit of the mysterious darkness of the pagan Drevlyani forests. Thus she
fell in love with the austere warrior Svyatoslav, who against the will of
his mother Olga made her his wife. The enraged Olga, regarding as unseemly
the marriage of her "housekeeper" and captive servant to her son Svyatoslav,
heir to the Great Kiev principality, sent Malusha away to her own native region
not far from Vybut. And there in about the year 960 was born the boy with
the Russian pagan name Volodimir, meaning peaceful ruler, ruling with a special
talent for peace.
In the year 970 Svyatoslav set out on a campaign from
which he was fated not to return. He had divided the Russian Land among his
three sons. At Kiev Yaropolk was prince; at Ovrucha, the center of the Drevlyani
lands, was Oleg; at Novgorod was Vladimir. In his first years as prince, we
see Vladimir as a fierce pagan. He headed a campaign, in which the whole of
pagan Rus is sympathetic to him, against Yaropolk the Christian, or in any
case, according to the chronicles, "having given great freedom to the Christians",
on July 11, 978 he entered into Kiev, having become the "sole ruler" of the
Kiev realm," having subdued the surrounding lands, some by peaceful means,
and the unsubmissive ones by the sword."
Though Vladimir indulged himself in a wild, sensuous
life, he was far from the libertine that they sometimes portray him as being.
He "shepherded his land with truth, valor and reason", as a good and diligent
master, of necessity he extended and defended its boundaries by force of arms,
and in returning from military campaigns, he made for his companions and
for all Kiev liberal and merry feasts.
But the Lord prepared him for
another task.
Where sin increases,
there, in the words of the Apostle, grace abounds (Rom. 5: 20). "And upon
him came visitation of the Most High, and the All-Merciful eye of the Good
God gazed upon him, and shone forth the thought in his heart, of understanding
the vanity of idolous delusion, and of appealing to the One God, Creator of
all things both visible and invisible." The matter of accepting Baptism was
facilitated through external circumstances. The Byzantine Empire was in upheaval
under the blows of the mutinous regiments of Bardas Skliros and Bardas Phocas,
each of whom sought to gain the imperial throne. In these difficult circumstances
the emperors, the coregent brothers Basil the Bulgar-Slayer and Constantine,
turned for help to Vladimir.
Events unfolded quickly. In August 987 Bardas Phocas
proclaimed himself Emperor and moved against Constantinople, and in autumn
of that same year the emissaries of Emperor Basil were at Kiev. "And having
exhausted his (Basil's) wealth, it compelled him to enter into an alliance
with the Emperor of the Russians. They were his enemies, "but he besought
their help," writes one of the Arab chronicles of events in the 980s. "And
the Emperor of the Russians consented to this, and made common cause with
him."
As a reward for his military help, Vladimir asked
for the hand of the emperors' sister Anna, which for the Byzantines was an
unheard of audacity. Princesses of the imperial lineage did not marry "barbarian"
rulers, even if they were Christians. At the same time the emperor Otto
the Great was seeking the hand of Anna for his son, and he was refused. However,
in Vladimir's case Constantinople was obliged to consent.
An agreement was concluded, according to which
Vladimir had to send the emperors six thousand Varangians, and to accept
holy Baptism. Under these conditions he would receive the hand of the imperial
daughter Anna. Thus in the strife of human events the will of God directed
the entering of Rus into the grace-filled bosom of the Ecumenical Church.
Great Prince Vladimir accepted Baptism and sent the military assistance to
Byzantium. With the aid of the Russians, the mutineers were destroyed and
Bardas Phocas killed. But the Greeks, gladdened by their unexpected deliverance,
were in no hurry to fulfill their part of the bargain.
Vexed at the Greek
duplicity, Prince Vladimir "hastened to collect his forces" and he moved
"against Korsun, the Greek city," the ancient Chersonessos. The "impenetrable"
rampart of the Byzantine realm on the Black Sea fell. It was one of the vitally
important hubs of the economic and mercantile links of the empire. This blow
was so much felt, that its echo resounded throughout all the regions of Byzantium.
Vladimir again had the upper hand. His emissaries,
the commanders Oleg and Sjbern soon arrived in Constantinople for the imperial
daughter. Eight days passed in Anna's preparation, during which time her brothers
consoled her, stressing the significance of the opportunity before her: to
enable the enlightening of the Russian realm and its lands, and to make
them forever friends of the Byzantine realm. At Taurida St Vladimir awaited
her, and to his titles there was added a new one: Caesar (Tsar). The haughty
rulers of Constantinople had to accede also in this, to bestow upon their
new brother-in-law the imperial insignia. In certain of the Greek historians,
St Vladimir is termed from these times as a "mighty basileios-king", he coins
money in the Byzantine style and is depicted on it with the symbols of imperial
might: in imperial attire, and on his head the imperial crown, and in his
right hand the sceptre with cross.
Together with the empress Anna, there arrived for
the Russian See Metropolitan Michael ordained by holy Patriarch Nicholas II
Chrysoberges. He came with his retinue and clergy, and many holy relics and
other holy things. In ancient Chersonessos, where each stone brings to mind
St Andrew the First-Called, there took place the marriage-crowning of St
Vladimir and Blessed Anna, both reminiscent and likewise affirming the oneness
of the Gospel of Christ in Rus and in Byzantium. Korsun, the "empress's dowry",
was returned to Byzantium. In the spring of 988 the Great Prince and his
wife set out through the Crimea, Taman and the Azov lands, which had come
into the complexion of his vast realm on the return trip to Kiev. Leading
the princely cortege with frequent Services of Thanksgiving and incessant
priestly singing they carried crosses, icons and holy relics. It seemed, that
the Ecumenical Holy Church was moving into the spacious Russian land, and
renewed in the font of Baptism, Holy Rus came forth to meet Christ and His
Church.
Then followed an unforgettable and quite singular event
in Russian history: the morning of the Baptism of the Kievans in the waters
of the River Dneipr. On the evening before, St Vladimir declared throughout
the city: "If anyone does not go into the river tomorrow, be they rich or
poor, beggar or slave, that one shall be my enemy." The sacred
wish of the holy Prince was fulfilled without a murmur: "all our land glorified
Christ with the Father and the Holy Spirit at the same time."
It is difficult
to overestimate the deep spiritual transformation of the Russian people effected
by the prayers of St Vladimir, in every aspect of its life and world-view.
In the pure Kievan waters, as in a "bath of regeneration", there was realized
a sacramental transfiguration of the Russian spiritual element, the spiritual
birth of the nation, called by God to unforeseen deeds of Christian service
to mankind.
"Then did the darkness of the
idols begin to lift from us,
and the dawn of Orthodoxy appear, and the Sun of the Gospel
illumined our land."
In memory of this sacred event, the regeneration of Rus
by water and the Spirit, the Russian Church established the custom of an annual
church procession "to the water" on August 1. Later, the Feast of the Procession
of the Honorable Wood of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord, which Russia
celebrated with the Greek Church, was combined with the Feast of the All-Merciful
Savior and the Most Holy Theotokos (established by St Andrew Bogoliubsky
in the year 1164). In this combination of feasts there is found a precise
expression of the Russian theological consciousness, for which both Baptism
and the Cross are inseparable.
Everywhere throughout Holy Rus, from the ancient
cities to the far outposts, St Vladimir gave orders to destroy the pagan sanctuaries,
to flog the idols, and in their place to clear land in the hilly woods for
churches, in which altars would be consecrated for the Bloodless Sacrifice.
Churches of God grew up along the face of the earth, at high elevated places,
and at the bends of the rivers, along the ancient trail "from the Variangians
to the Greeks" figuratively as road signs and lamps of national holiness.
Concerning the famed church-building activity of St Vladimir, the Metropolitan
of Kiev St Hilarion (author of the "Word on Law and Grace") exclaimed: "They
demolished the pagan temples, and built up churches, they destroyed the idols
and produced holy icons, the demons have fled, and the Cross has sanctified
the cities."
From the early centuries of Christianity it was
the custom to raise up churches upon the ruins of pagan sanctuaries or upon
the blood of the holy martyrs. Following this practice, St Vladimir built
the church of St Basil the Great upon a hill, where a sanctuary of Perun
had been located, and he built the stone church of the Dormition of the Most
Holy Theotokos (Desyatinnaya) on the place of the martyrdom of the holy Varangian
Martyrs (July 12). The magnificent temple was intended to become the cathedral
for the Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus, and thus the primal altar of the
Russian Church. It was built in five years, and was richly adorned with frescoes,
crosses, icons and sacred vessels, brought from Korsun. The day of the consecration
of the church of the Most Holy Theotokos, May 12 (in some manuscripts May
11), was ordered by St Vladimir to be inserted into the Church calendar as
an annual celebration. This event was linked with other events celebrated
on May 11, and it provided the new Church a twofold sense of continuity. Under
this day in the calendar is noted the churchly Founding of Constantinople
"dedicated by the holy emperor St Constantine as the new capital of the Roman
Empire, the city of Constantine is dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos (330).
On this same day of May 11, the church of Sophia, the Wisdom of God was consecrated
at Kiev (in the year 960 under St Olga). St Vladimir, having had the cathedral
church consecrated to the Most Holy Theotokos, followed the example of St
Constantine in dedicating the capital city of the Russian Land (Kiev) to
the Queen of Heaven.
Then a tithe or tenth was bestown on the Church;
and since this church had become the center of the All-Russian collection
of churchly tithes, they called it the Tithe church. The most ancient text
of the grant, or church rule by holy Prince Vladimir spoke thus: "For I do
bestow on this church of the Holy Mother of God a tenth of all my principality,
and also throughout all the Russian Land from all the princely jurisdiction
a tithe of squirrel-pelts, and from the merchant, a tithe of the week, and
from households each year, a tenth of every herd and every livelihood, to
the wondrous Mother of God and the wondrous Savior." The grant also specified
"church people" as being free from the jurisdictional power of the prince
and his "tiuni" (officials) and placed them under the jurisdiction of the
Metropolitan.
The chronicle has
preserved a prayer of St Vladimir, with which he turned to the Almighty at
the consecration of the Dormition Tithe church: "O Lord God, look down from
Heaven and behold, and visit Your vineyard, which Your right hand has planted.
And make this new people, whom You have converted in heart and mind to know
You, the True God. And look down upon this Your church, which Your unworthy
servant has built in the name of the Mother Who gave birth to Thee, the Ever-Virgin
Theotokos. And whoever prays in this church, let his prayer be heard, through
the prayers of the All-Pure Mother of God."
With the Tithe church and Bishop Anastasius, certain
historians have made a connection with the beginnings of Russian chronicle
writing. At it were compiled the Life of St Olga and the account of the Varangian
Martyrs in their original form, and likewise the "Account, How in the Taking
of Korsun, Vladimir came to be Baptized." Here also originated the early Greek
redaction of the Lives of the Holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb.
During the time of St Vladimir, the Kiev Metropolitan
See was occupied successively by the Metropolitan St Michael (September 30),
Metropolitan Theophylactus, who transferred to Kiev from the See of Armenian
Sebaste (991-997), Metropolitan Leontius (997-1008), and Metropolitan John
I (1008-1037). Through their efforts the first dioceses of the Russian Church
were opened: at Novgorod (its first representative was St Joachim of Korsun
(+ 1030), compiler of the Joachimov Chronicle), Vladimir-Volyn (opened May
11, 992), Chernigov, Pereslavl, Belgorod, and Rostov. "And thus throughout
all the cities and villages there were set up churches and monasteries, and
the clergy increased, and the Orthodox Faith blossomed forth and shone like
the sun."
To advance the Faith among the newly enlightened
people, learned people and schools were needed to help prepare them. Therefore,
St Vladimir and the holy Metropolitan Michael "commanded fathers and mothers
to take their young children and send them to schools to learn reading and
writing." St Joachim of Korsun set up such a school at Novgorod, and they
did the same in other cities. "And there were a multitude of schools of scholars,
and of these were there a multitude of philosophers."
With a firm hand St Vladimir held in check enemies at the frontiers,
and he built fortified cities. He was the first in Russian history to set
up a "notched boundary," a line of defensive points against nomadic peoples.
"Volodimir began to set up cities along the Desna, along the Vystra, along
the Trubezha, along the Sula and along the Stugna. And he settled them with
the Novgorodians, the Smolyani, the Chuds and the Vyatichi. He made war against
the Pechenegs and defeated them." But the real reason for his success was
the peaceful Christian preaching among the pagans of the steppes.
In the Nikol'sk
Chronicles under the year 990 was written: "And in that same year there came
to Volodimir at Kiev four princes from the Bulgars and they were illumined
with Divine Baptism." In the following year "the Pecheneg prince Kuchug came
and accepted the Greek faith, and he was baptized in the Name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and served Vladimir with a pure heart."
Under the influence of the holy prince several apparent foreigners were also
baptized. For example, the Norwegian "koenig" (king) Olaf Trueggvason (+ 1000)
who lived several years at Kiev, and also the renowned Torvald the Wanderer,
founder of a monastery of St John the Forerunner along the Dneipr near Polotsk,
among others. In faraway Iceland the poet-skalds called God the "Protector
of the Greeks and Russians."
In addition to the Christian
preaching, there were the renowned feasts of St Vladimir. After Liturgy on
Sundays and Church Feasts there were put out abundant feasting tables for
the Kievans, they rang the bells, choirs sang praise, the "transported infirm"
sang bylini-ballads and spiritual verses. On May 12, 996, for example, on
the occasion of the consecration of the Tithe church, the prince "made a bright
feast." He distributed goods "to many of the poor, and destitute and wanderers,
and through the churches and the monasteries. To the sick and the needy he
delivered through the streets casks and barrels of mead, and bread, and meat,
and fish, and cheese, desiring that all might come and eat, glorifying God".
Feasts were likewise celebrated in honor of the victories of Kievan warriors,
and the regiments of Vladimir's retinue: of Dobrynya, Alexander Popovich,
Rogda the Bold.
In the year 1007 St Vladimir transferred the relics of St Olga
to the Tithe church. Four years later, in 1011, his spouse and companion in
many of his undertakings, the Blessed Empress Anna, was also buried there.
After her death the prince entered into a new marriage with the young daughter
of the German Graf Kuno von Enningen, granddaughter of the emperor Otto the
Great.
The era of St Vladimir was a
crucial period for the formation of Orthodox Rus. The unification of the Slavic
lands and the formation of state boundaries under the domain of the Rurikovichi
resulted from a strenuous spiritual and political struggle with neighboring
tribes and states. The Baptism of Rus by Orthodox Byzantium was a most important
step in its self-definition as a state. The chief enemy of Vladimir became
Boleslav the Brave, whose plans included the extensive unification of the
West Slavic and East Slavic tribes under the aegis of Catholic Poland. This
rivalry arose back when Vladimir was still a pagan: "In the year 6489 (981).
Volodimir went against the Lakhs and took their cities, Peremyshl, Cherven,
and other cities, which be under Rus." The final years of the tenth century
are likewise filled with the wars of Vladimir and Boleslav.
After a brief lull (the first decade of the eleventh
century), the "great stand-off" entered into a new phase: in the year 1013
a conspiracy against St Vladimir was discovered at Kiev. Svyatopolk the Accursed,
who was married to a daughter of Boleslav, yearned for power. The instigator
of the conspiracy was Boleslav's cleric, the Kolobzheg Catholic bishop Reibern.
The conspiracy of Svyatopolk and Reibern was an all-out threat
to the historical existence of the Russian state and the Russian Church. St
Vladimir took decisive measures. All the three involved were arrested, and
Reibern soon died in prison. St Vladimir did not take revenge on those that
"opposed and hated" him. Under pretense of feigned repentance, Svyatopolk
was set free.
A new misfortune erupted in the North, at Novgorod.
Yaroslav, not yet "the Wise," as he was later to be known, in the year 1010
having become ruler of Novgorod, decided to defect from his father the Great
Prince of Kiev. He formed his own separate army, moving on Kiev to demand
the customary tribute and tithe. The unity of the Russian land, for which
St Vladimir had struggled all his life, was threatened with ruin. In both
anger and in sorrow St Vladimir gave orders to "secure the dams and set the
bridges," and to prepare for a campaign against Novgorod. His powers were
on the decline. In the preparations for his final campaign, happily not undertaken,
the Baptizer of Rus fell grievously ill and surrendered his soul to the Lord
in the village of Spas-Berestov on July 15, 1015. He had ruled the Russian
realm for thirty-seven years (978-1015), twenty-eight of these years after
his Baptism.
Preparing for a new struggle for power and hoping for
Polish assistance, and to play for time, Svyatopolk attempted to conceal
the death of his father. But patriotically inclined Kievan nobles, by night,
secretly removed the body of the deceased sovereign from the Berestov court,
where Svyatopolk's people were guarding it, and they conveyed the body to
Kiev. At theTithe church the coffin with the relics of St Vladimir was met
by Kievan clergy with Metropolitan John at the head of the procession. The
holy relics were placed in a marble crypt, set within the St Clement chapel
of the Dormition church beside the marble crypt of Empress Anna.
The name and deeds of the holy Equal of the Apostles
St Vladimir, whom the people called the Splendid Sun, is interwoven with
all the successive history of the Russian Church. "Through him we too have
come to worship and to know Christ, the True Life," testified St Hilarion.
His deeds were continued by his sons, and grandsons and descendants, rulers
of the Russian land for almost six centuries, from Yaroslav the Wise, who
took the first steps towards the independent existence of the Russian Church,
down to the last of the Rurikovichi, Tsar Theodore Ioannovich, under whom
(in 1589) the Russian Orthodox Church became the fifth independent Patriarchate
in the dyptichs of Orthodox Autocephalous Churches.
The festal celebration of the
holy Equal of the Apostles Vladimir was established under St Alexander Nevsky,
in memory of the intercession of St Vladimir on May 15, 1240, for his help
in gaining the renowned victory by Nevsky over Swedish crusaders.
The first veneration of the holy prince began in Rus rather
earlier. The Metropolitan of Kiev St Hilarion (+1053), in his "Word on Law
and Grace," spoken on the day of memory of St Vladimir at the saint's crypt
in the Tithe church, calls him "an apostolic sovereign", like St Constantine,
and he compares his apostolic evangelisation of the Russian Land to the evangelisation
by the holy Apostles.
|
1024 St Henry The
Emperor; by prayer maintained in his heart the necessary spirit of humility
and fear, and was able without being spoiled to bear the tide of prosperity
and honour; founded the see of Bamberg and built a great cathedral
there; miraculously cured at the intercession of St Benedict at Monte Cassino
Sancti
Henríci Primi, Imperatóris Romanórum et Confessóris,
cujus dies natális tértio Idus mensis hujus recensétur.
St. Henry I, Roman emperor and confessor,
whose birthday was noted on the 13th of this month.
St Henry II was son of Henry, Duke of Bavaria, and Gisela of
Burgundy, and was born in 972. He was educated by St Wolfgang, Bishop of Ratisbon, and in
995 succeeded his father in the duchy of Bavaria; in 1002, upon the death
of his cousin Otto III, he was chosen emperor. He had always before
his eyes the dangers to which those who move in places of power are exposed.
He studied the extent and importance of the obligations which attended his
dignity, and by prayer maintained in his heart the necessary spirit of humility
and fear, and was able without being spoiled to bear the tide of prosperity
and honour. He knew the end for which alone he was exalted by
God to the highest temporal dignity, and worked his hardest to promote the
peace and happiness of his realm. Nevertheless, Henry at times
made use of the Church for political ends, in accordance with the imperial
policy of his predecessor Otto the Great. He refused his
support to ecclesiastical aggrandizement in temporal concerns, while maintaining
the Church's proper authority; but some of his politics look equivocal when
examined from the point of view of the welfare of Christendom.
He had to engage in numerous wars for the defence
and consolidation of the empire, as for example in Italy, before he could
receive that crown; Arduin of Ivrea had had himself crowned king at Milan,
so the emperor crossed the Alps and drove him out. In 1014 he
went in triumph to Rome, where he was crowned emperor by Pope Benedict VIII.
Henry munificently repaired and restored the episcopal sees of Hildesheim,
Magdeburg, Strasburg and Meersburg, and made benefaction to the churches
of Aachen, Basle and others. It is sometimes mistakenly asserted that
he brought about the conversion of St Stephen, King of Hungary, who in fact
was born of Christian parents; but he promoted his endeavours for the
conversion of his people. In 1006 Henry founded the see of Bamberg and built
a great cathedral there, in order to solidify German power among the Wends.
In this he was opposed by the bishops of Wurzburg and Eichstätt, whose
dioceses were thus dismembered, but Pope John XIX approved, and Benedict
VIII consecrated the cathedral in 1020.
Henry also built and endowed a monastery at Bamberg, and made
foundations in several other places, that the divine honour and the relief
of the poor might be provided for to the end of time. In 1021 the emperor
again came to Italy, on an expedition against the Greeks in Apulia; on his
way back he was taken ill at Monte Cassino, where he was said to have
been miraculously cured at the intercession of St Benedict, but he contracted
a lameness which never left him.
Henry was attentive to the smallest affairs
amidst the multiplicity of business which attends the government of the state,
and whilst he was most active and vigilant in every duty which he owed to
the public, he did not forget that the government of himself was his first
obligation. He identified himself in time with those ideas of ecclesiastical
reform which radiated from the great monastery of Cluny, and in support of
them he even opposed himself to his kinsman, friend, and former chaplain,
Aribo, whom he had appointed archbishop of Mainz and who in synod had condemned
appeals to Rome without episcopal permission.
It is a well-known story of Henry that, wishing to become
a monk, he promised obedience to the abbot of Saint-Vanne at Verdun, whereupon
the abbot put him under obedience to continue the administration of the empire.
This and similar accounts of his ascetic practices do not entirely accord
with what is known of his character and life; Henry was one of the great rulers
of the Holy Roman Empire, and triumphed precisely as a Christian statesman
and soldier, whose ways were, in the nature of things, not those of the cloister.
Edifying legends were invented about hint by the Bambergers, and such a work
as Adalbert's life of the emperor does not give us the real Henry. What
we know of him is mostly a matter of general history; unlike St Louis of
France, St Henry II did not have a Joinville. He dearly promoted ecclesiastical
reform, taking great care about episcopal appointments and supporting such
great monks as St Odilo of Cluny and Richard of Saint-Vanne.
St Henry
was canonized by Bd Eugenius III in
1146, and St Pius X declared hint
the patron of Benedictine oblates.
As the most Important ruler in
Europe at the beginning of the eleventh century, Henry was bound to fill a
great place in the chronicles of the time, e.g. those of Raoul Glaber and
Thietmar. But there are also two Latin biographies, attributed respectively
to Adalbold, Bishop of Utrecht, and Adalbert, a deacon of Bamberg. These
will be found in the Acta Sanctorum,
July, vol. iii, and in MGH., Scriptores,
vol. iv. The best life of St Henry from a religious point of view is that
of H. Gunter, Kaiser Heinrici, der Heilige
(1904). For the part he took in secular history, Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, vol. iii,
and the Cambridge Medieval History,
vol. iii, may be consulted; see also F. Dvornilc, The Making of Central and Eastern Europe (1949),
pp. 185-222. On St Henry's alleged "celibate marriage", see the notice
of St Cunegund, his wife, herein under March 3, and the bibliographical note
thereto.
|
1080 St. David of Sweden
Benedictine bishop; went as missionary to Sweden aid Bishop Sigfrid
of Vaxio, who had lost his three missionary nephews. Sigfrid sent David to
Vastmanland, and there David founded a monastery at Munktorp or Monkentorp;
ruled that monastery as abbot until becoming the bishop of Vastera Miracles
were reported at his tomb
David of Munkentorp, born in England ,
OSB B (AC) (also known as David of Sweden); the feast of his translation
is June 25 on some calendars. Tradition names David an English Benedictine,
who had a passionate desire to give his life to Christ through martyrdom.
When he heard of the death of Saint Sigfrid's three nephews--Winaman, Unaman,
and Sunaman--he offered himself to the saint and was sent to Sinenga in Vastmanland.
Eventually he founded a Benedictine abbey (Monkentorp or Munkthorp), which
he governed as abbot. He is said to have been the first bishop of Västeräss
(Vasteras). David worked strenuously to evangelize the region and died peacefully
in old age. Miracles were reported at his tomb (Benedictines, Farmer).
David is said to have been an English monk who had a passionate desire
to give his life for Christ by martyrdom. When he heard of the death
at the hands of the heathen of St Sigfrid's three nephews, he offered himself
to the English mission in Sweden which was trying to rebuild the spoiled work
of St Anskar. He came to St Sigfrid,
who was bishop at Växiö, and was sent to Västmanland; here
he laboured for the conversion of the people, and to help in the work established
a monastery, whence the place was afterwards known as Munktorp. He
gave himself whole-heartedly to his mission, with great success; he received
the gift of miracles and the even more valuable gift of tears-but the grace
of martyrdom for which he longed was denied him. He lived instead to
a considerable age and died peacefully, his sanctity being again confirmed
by miracles at his tomb. David is commonly said to have been the first
bishop of Västeras, and is one of the saints of whom it was told that
he hung a garment on a sunbeam- in this case, his gloves. Davis, where he
lived for a time, gets its name from St David.
There is a short life printed in
the Scriptores rerum Suecicarum,
vol. ii, pt. r, pp. 408-411. See also C. J. A. Oppermann, English Missionaries in Sweden (1937),
pp. 112-117; and cf the note to St
Sigfrid, under February 15 herein .
|
1122
St. Egino Camaldolese abbot involved in the many disputes of his era
He was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany, and was placed in the abbey of
Sts. Ulric and Afra as a child. He became abbot of the abbey but was expelled
when he supported Pope Callistus II against Emperor Henry V in a dispute.
Residing in St. Blaise Abbey, he retumed to Augsburg in 1106, resuming his
office of abbot in 1109.
In 1120, Egino fled to Rome because of his opposition to Bishop
Hermann, who practiced simony. Retuming to Augsburg two years later, he died
in Pisa.
Egino (Egon) of Augsburg, OSB Abbot (PC) Born at Augsburg, Germany;
died at Pisa, Italy. Saint Egino was received at the Abbey of Saints Ulric
and Afra in Augsburg as a child-oblate. Egino sided with the pope during the
investiture controversy. For this reason, he was expelled by his abbot, but
welcomed into Saint Blasien Abbey. In 1106, he was recalled to Augsburg and
appointed abbot in 1109. He suffered a great deal at the hands of the simoniacal
bishop Hermann and was forced to flee to Rome in 1120. On his return home,
he died at Pisa in the monastery of his Camaldolese brethren (Benedictines).
|
1140 Baldwin of Rieti
became a monk at Clairvaux under Saint Bernard and one of the most beloved
disciples of the holy founder. He was sent back to his native Italy as abbot
of San Pastore in the diocese of Rieti, of which he is the principal patron
saint, OSB Cist. Abbot (AC)
Saint Baldwin became a monk at
Clairvaux under Saint Bernard and one of the most beloved disciples of the
holy founder. He was sent back to his native Italy as abbot of San Pastore
in the diocese of Rieti, of which he is the principal patron saint (Benedictines).
1140 St. Baldwin Benedictine abbot and disciple of St. Bernard
of Clairvaux. An Italian, Baldwin entered Clairvaux Monastery in France.
He was assigned to Italy as abbot of San Pastore, near Rieti. He is patron
saint of Rieti. |
1274 St. Bonaventure Franciscan, theologian, doctor of the Church,
was both learned and holy; contemporary of Saint Thomas Aquinas and
Saint Albert the Great
Lugdúni, in Gállia, deposítio sancti Bonaventúræ,
Cardinális et Epíscopi Albanénsis, Confessóris
et Ecclésiæ Doctóris, ex Ordine Minórum, doctrína
et vitæ sanctitáte celebérrimi. Ipsíus tamen
festívitas prídie hujus diéi recólitur.
At Lyons in France,
the death of St. Bonaventure, cardinal and bishop of Albano, confessor and
doctor of the Church, of the Order of Friars Minor, who is famed for his
learning and the sanctity of his life. His feast is celebrated on the
previous day.
Katholische, Anglikanische und Evangelische Kirche: 15. Juli
Born 1221. Bonaventure, Franciscan, theologian, doctor of the Church,
was both learned and holy. Because of the spirit that filled him and his
writings, he was at first called the Devout Doctor; but in more recent centuries
he has been known as the Seraphic Doctor after the “Seraphic Father” Francis
because of the truly Franciscan spirit he possessed.
Born in Bagnoregio, a town in central Italy, he was cured of a serious illness
as a boy through the prayers of Francis of Assisi. Later, he studied the liberal
arts in Paris. Inspired by Francis and the example of the friars, especially
of his master in theology, Alexander of Hales, he entered the Franciscan
Order, and became in turn a teacher of theology in the university. Chosen
as minister general of the Order in 1257, he was God’s instrument in bringing
it back to a deeper love of the way of St. Francis, both through the life
of Francis which he wrote at the behest of the brothers and through other
works which defended the Order or explained its ideals and way of life.
Comment: Bonaventure so united holiness and theological
knowledge that he rose to the heights of mysticism while yet remaining a very
active preacher and teacher, one beloved by all who met him. To know him
was to love him; to read him is still for us today to meet a true Franciscan
and a gentleman.
Bonaventure, OFM B Doctor (RM) Born in Bagnorea near Viterbo,
Italy, in 1221; died at Lyons, France, in 1274; canonized in 1482; declared
a Doctor (the "Seraphic Doctor") of the Church in 1587 by Sixtus V; feast
day formerly on July 14.
"Look not to the light but rather to the raging fire that carries
the soul to God with intense fervor and glowing love." -- Bonaventure.
"Thorns and
cross and nails and lance, Wounds, our rich inheritance...May these all our
spirits fill, And with love's devotion thrill...Christ, by coward hands
betrayed, Christ, for us a captive made,
Christ upon the bitter
tree, Slain for man--all praise to thee." --Saint Bonaventure
"In beautiful things Saint Francis
saw Beauty itself, and through His vestiges imprinted on creation he followed
his Beloved everywhere, making from all things a ladder by which he could
climb up and embrace Him who is utterly desirable." --Bonaventure
"Since happiness is nothing but
the enjoyment of the Supreme Good, and since the Supreme Good is above us,
we cannot be happy unless we rise beyond ourselves. Since we cannot reach
above ourselves in our own strength, we must be helped by supernatural strength,
lifted up by a higher power that stoops to raise us. However much we structure
our inner lives and make progress, it does us no good unless our efforts
are accompanied by help from on high. Divine aid is available for those who
seek it with a devout and humble heart; this is done by fervent prayer.
"Prayer is, therefore, the source and origin of every upward
journey toward God. Let us each, then, turn to prayer and say to our Lord
God: 'Lead me, O Lord, on your path, that I may walk in your truth.'"
"Meditation on Christ in His humanity is corporeal in deed,
in fact, but spiritual in mind...By adopting this habit, you will steady
your mind, be trained to virtues, and receive strength of soul...Let meditation
of Christ's life be your one and only aim, your rest, your food, your desire,
your study."
"From contemplation of the Passion the soul will receive a new
compassion, a new love, new consolations, and consequently, as it were,
a new state of soul, which seems to be a presage and share of eternal glory."
--Saint Bonaventure.
Born Giovanni (John) di Fidanza,
an untrustworthy legend says that his name was changed to Bonaventure ("good
fortune") by Saint Francis of Assisi, who miraculously cured him of a dangerous
illness during his childhood and exclaimed: O buona ventura!
A contemporary of Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Albert the
Great, he went to the University of Paris when he was 14. There he studied
theology under the English Franciscan, Alexander of Hales (the "Unanswerable
Doctor"); and it was perhaps the influence of this teacher that induced him
to enter the order when he was 20.
By 1248, he was a bachelor of Scripture; two years later he
became a bachelor of theology; and three years after that he became a master
of theology and was appointed to the professorial chair of the Friars Minor.
He taught theology and Scripture, and preached in Paris for many years (1248-1255),
concentrating on the elucidation of some of the problems that especially exercised
men's minds in his day. His teaching was curtailed by the opposition
of secular professors, who were jealous of the new mendicants' success and
were perhaps made uncomfortable by their austere lives when compared unfavorably
with their own. Apparently, their disdain for the Franciscans, led the university
to delay granting him a doctorate in theology, yet this did not embitter
Bonaventure. With Aquinas he defended the mendicant friars against their
opponents.
When the secular leader William of Saint-Armour wrote The perils
of the last times, Bonaventure responded by publishing Concerning the poverty
of Christ, a treatise on holy poverty. Pope Alexander IV denounced Saint-Armour,
had his book burned, and ordered a halt to the attack on the mendicants. Thus,
vindicated, the mendicant orders were re-established at Paris and Bonaventure
and Aquina received their doctorates in theology in 1257.
That same year, when he was only 36, Bonaventure was elected
minister general of the Franciscans. In this position he was faced with
a difficult task, for though Saint Francis had established an incomparable
spiritual ideal for his order, his organization was weak and since his death
a number of different groups had arisen. At the general chapter of
Narbonne in 1260, Bonaventure designed a set of constitutions as a rule,
which had a lasting effect on the order, and for which he is called the second
founder of the Franciscans. It has, however, been claimed that he also weakened
the spirit of Saint Francis; the Life that he wrote of him, in order to promote
unity among the brothers, was accurate but incomplete, and he modified the
rule that forbade the brothers to accept money or own property.
The severe-interpretation Spirituals valued poverty above all
else, including learning. Bonaventure strongly supported the importance of
study to the order and the need for the order to provide books and buildings.
He confirmed the practice of monks teaching and studying at universities,
believing that the Franciscans could better fulfill the need for preaching
and spiritual guidance to compensate for other poorly educated clergy.
In addition to theological and philosophical works, Saint Bonaventure
has left us sundry ascetical treatises, some of which have been translated
into English including the Journey of the soul to God. The hymn In the Lord's
atoning grief is a translation from Bonaventure. Among his works are Commentary
on the sentences of Peter Lombard (which covers the whole field of scholastic
theology), the mystical works Breviloquium, Itinerarium mentis ad Deum, De
reductione artium ad theologium, Perfection of life (written for Blessed Isabella,
sister of Saint Louis IX, and her convent of Poor Clares), Soliloquy, The
three-fold way, biblical commentaries, and sermons.
Bonaventure was nominated as
archbishop of York in 1265, but refused the honor. In 1273, much against his
will, Bonaventure was made cardinal and bishop of Albano by Pope Gregory X.
His personal simplicity is illustrated by the story that when his cardinal's
hat was brought to him at the friary in Mugello (near Florence), he told the
legates to hang it on a nearby tree, as he was washing the dishes and his
hands were wet and greasy. The following year, Pope Gregory called him
to draw up the agenda for the 14th general council at Lyons to discuss the
reunion of Rome with the churches of the East. Saint Thomas Aquinas died en
route to the council. Bonaventure was the leading figure in the success of
the council that effected the brief reunion, and led his last general chapter
of the order between the third and fourth sessions. Bonaventure died while
the Council of Lyons was still in session and was buried in Lyons.
Saint Bonaventure's reputation is based on his personal goodness
and his skill as a theologian. "In him it seemed as though Adam had not sinned,"
wrote Alexander of Hales, and when he died the official record of the Council
of Lyons stated: "In the morning died Brother Bonaventure of famous memory,
a man outstanding in sanctity, kind, affable, pious and merciful, full of
virtues, beloved of God and man...God gave him the grace that whoever saw
him conceived a great and heartfelt love for him."
The saint was known for his accessibility to any and all who
wished to consult him, and once explained his urgency in making himself available
to a simple lay brother by saying, "I am at the same time both prelate and
master, and that poor brother is both my brother and my master."
Though Bonaventure and Aquinas were friends in their lifetime,
the two men had strongly opposed each other on the question of the neo- Aristotelianism
that was being introduced into theology, for Saint Bonaventure feared that
as a result philosophy would be elevated above theology and that reason would
be made more important than revelation.
Saint Bonaventure was a man of the highest intellectual attainments,
but he would emphasize that a fool's love and knowledge of God may be greater
than that of a humanly wise man. To reach God, he said, "little attention
must be given to reason and great attention to grace, little to books and
everything to the gift of God, which is the Holy Spirit." Above all he emphasized
charity: "For in truth, a poor and unlearned old woman can love God better
than a Doctor of Theology."
Bonaventure believed that the created world gave us a sign of
God. But faith was needed, honed by reason, to lead to contemplation of the
divine. When his friend Aquinas asked where Bonaventure gained his own great
knowledge, Bonaventure pointed to a crucifix. "I study only the crucified
one, Jesus Christ," he replied. Philosophy in itself was only
an instrument, and unless it was modified in the light of revelation would
lead into error, or into an arid preoccupation with intellectual arguments
for their own sake.
In his opposition to Aristotelian philosophy, Saint Bonaventure
no doubt went too far, and the synthesis achieved by Saint Thomas has had
none of the disastrous effects that he feared.
Yet in taking his stand on the primacy of theology, he was aligning
himself with the greatest of all Christian thinkers, Saint Augustine, and
in stressing the supremacy of grace, he was following in the footsteps of
the founder of his order, Saint Francis (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley,
Costelloe, Encyclopedia, Gilson, White).
Other documents on Saint Bonaventure:
Sixtus IV's Superna caelestis (1482) (On the Canonization of St. Bonaventure);
In art, Saint Bonaventure is a cardinal in a Franciscan habit reading or
writing. At times he may be shown (1) with the Tree of Life (i.e., Christ
crucified in a tree); (2) with a rod blossoming into a crucifix; (3) with
a bishop's crozier and mitre as well as a cardinal's hat; (4) holding a pyx;
(5) receiving the Eucharist from an angel; (6) with an angel near him listening
to his prayers; (7) with a papal tiara on a table before him; (8) in a library
with Saint Thomas Aquinas, to whom he points out the crucifix; (9) as a cardinal
presiding at the Council of Lyons; or, as in this painting by Francisco de
Zurbarán, (10) with the pope and emperor attending his funeral (Roeder).
Johannes Bonaventura
Katholische, Anglikanische und Evangelische Kirche: 15. Juli
Giovanni Fidanza wurde um 1221 in der Nähe von Viterbo
(Latium/Italien) geboren. Franziskus von Assisi soll dem fünfjährigen
den Namen Bonaventura (glückliches Ereignis) gegeben haben. Vielleicht
als Jugendlicher, vielleicht auch erst 1243 trat Bonaventura in den Orden
der Franziskaner ein. Er studierte von 1236 bis 1242 an der Pariser Hochschule,
wurde 1256 Doktor und 1257 gemeinsam mit Thomas von Aquin Professor an der
Pariser Sorbonne. Bonaventura setzte sich mit der auf Aristoteles basierenden
Scholastik auseinander, der herrschenden Lehrmeinung seiner Zeit. Anders
als die Scholastiker versuchte er aber nicht, Gott allein mit dem Verstand
zu erfassen und zu beweisen, sondern auch das gottsuchende Gemüt anzusprechen.
So lehrte er, daß die Philosophie nur auf den unteren Stufen der Leiter
zu Gott helfen könne. Gott nahe komme man nur durch die Betrachtung
der heiligen Schrift.
1257 wurde Bonaventura General des Franziskanerordens. Er leitete
den Orden 17 Jahre lang von Paris aus. Es gelang ihm die drohende Spaltung
des Ordens - ausgelöst durch die Frage, wie streng die Armutsverpflichtung
zu befolgen sei - zu verhindern. 1273 bereitete er das Konzil von Lyon vor,
dem er auch vorstand. Kurz vor Ende des Konzils starb er am 15.7.1274. Er
ist der letzte Kirchenlehrer der alten Kirche und steht als 'Doctor seraphicus'
zwischen dem 'Doctor angelicus' Thomas von Aquin und dem 'Pater seraphicus'
Franz von Assisi. Die Spaltung der Franziskaner wurde 1517 durch Papst Leo
X. vollzogen. Heute gibt es drei franziskanische Orden - neben die Franziskanern
und den Minoriten die aus diesen hervorgegangenen Kapuziner .
|
1435
Blessed Angelina of Marsciano founded a convent of regular tertiaries of
Saint Francis of Foligno, which was finished in 1397 with 135 convents, OFM
Tert. Widow (AC)
Born at Montegiove, Umbria, in 1377; cultus confirmed in 1825. Angelina
married at age 15 and was widowed by the time she was 17. Thereafter, Angelina
founded a convent of regular tertiaries of Saint Francis of Foligno, which
was finished in 1397. By the time that she died, there were no fewer than
135 such houses under her direction as superior general (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
|
1458 Blessed Bernard
of Baden renounced his worldly power and possessions in order to organize
a Crusade to the Holy Land died without having met his goal (AC)
Born in 1428; cultus confirmed in 1481 and again in 1769. Bernard was the
margrave of Baden, who renounced his worldly power and possessions in order
to organize a Crusade to the Holy Land. While his brother took on Bernard's
former secular rule, God's man offered himself to several European courts
to undertake a crusade against the Turks. He died without having met his goal
(Benedictines).
Amoung the descendants of Herman von Zahringen, who gave up the margravate
of Baden to become a Cluniac monk, was the Margrave James I, who was known
in his day as "the Solomon of Germany"; he married Catherine,
the daughter of Charles II of Lorraine and Margaret of Bavaria, and to them
was born a son Bernard, about the year 1429. He turned out a brilliant
young man, with a taste both for letters and for soldiering, but he refused
to betroth himself to the daughter of the King of France; and when his father
died in 1453 he turned his responsibilities and rights as margrave over to
his brother Charles and went from court to court of Europe trying to stir
up their sovereigns to a crusade against the Turks, who on May 29, 1453 had
captured Constantinople. Bernard set out for Rome to get the support
of Pope Callistus III, but just after leaving Turin he was attacked by the
plague and died in the Franciscan monastery at Moncalieri, being less than
thirty years old, On account of his great reputation for sanctity,
supported by miracles reported at his tomb, he was beatified in 1479 by
Pope Sixtus IV, in the presence of his mother and brothers.
There is some account in the
Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. iv;
and a fuller biography by 0. Ringholz (1892), who prints the contemporary
attestations of a number of miracles submitted in the process of beatification;
an abridgement of this appeared in 1907. Two, more popular, small lives
by J. Franck and H. Mohr were published in 1929, the fifth centenary of Bernard's
birth
|
1550
Bd. Ignatius Azevedo and His Companions, Martyrs Missionaries to Brazil;
martyred by Huguenot French privateer
Ignatius Azevdo came from a family of wealth and rank on both his father's
and mother's side; he was born at Oporto in 1528, and joined the Society of
Jesus when he was twenty. He proved to be a model novice, except that
his physical mortifications made him so thin that the Portuguese provincial
Father Simon Rodriguez had to remonstrate with him.. When he was still
only twenty-five he was made rector of the college of St Antony at Lisbon.
Here he did not confine himself to the strict limits of his official duties,
but was active in every good work; it is recorded that on one occasion he
personally tended three men in such advanced stages of some loathsome disease
that the ordinary hospitallers would not touch them: and by caring
for their bodies he converted their souls. With a brief interval as vice-provincial
of Portugal, Father Azevedo persevered in this office for ten years, and
was then removed to a similar post at the college in Braga founded by the
famous Dominican archbishop Bartholomew Fernandez ("a Martyribus").
All this time he had been beset by a desire-kindled by a Japanese
student at Lisbon-to preach the gospel to the heathen; and at length,
in 1566, he was appointed to go to Brazil as visitor, to inspect and advise
on the Jesuit missions there, He was away on this commission for two
years; the first missionaries had landed in Brazil only seventeen years previously,
but the Jesuits had already established residences among several of the cannibal
tribes of that huge country. On his return to Rome he recommended to St Francis
Borgia that more missionaries be sent out there, and the general ordered him
to select suitable subjects for the work from the Spanish and Portuguese provinces
and to go with them to Brazil as their superior. The band which
Father Azevedo enlisted set out on June 5,1570. The superior
and thirty-nine (at first forty-two) others of the party were on a merchant
vessel, the Santiago, and the others on one of a squadron of men-o'-war going
out under the command of Dom Luis Vasconcelos, governor of Brazil.
They reached Madeira, and here Vasconcelos decided to stop
for a time in order to get the advantage of more favourable winds;
the master of the Santiago, however, intended to continue the voyage to the
Canaries. This put Father Azevedo into a quandary. There was no room
for the rest of the Jesuits on the other warships; but if he went on he would
not have them under his care and there was very grave danger from pirates.
However, he decided to proceed with his ship, but seems to have had a premonition
of what would happen, for before leaving Madeira he delivered a stirring
address on the glory of martyrdom, and warned his own party of their danger.
When within a few miles of her destination the Santiago was overtaken
by a French privateer, commanded by James Soury, an implacable Huguenot, who
directly he heard of the convoy of Jesuits going to Brazil had set out in
chase from La Rochelle. The Santiago put up a good fight, and the missionaries
helped in every possible way, short of actually bearing anns and shedding
blood; after she was boarded there was a fierce hand-to-hand struggle, but
on the death of her captain she was constrained to strike her flag.
Thereupon Soury demonstrated his hatred of the Catholic religion by sparing
the remainder of the crew and passengers but ordering the death of the missionaries.
Bd Ignatius and his thirty-nine companions were then and there brutally massacred
in cold blood, meeting their death with heroism and joy; their leader was
thrown into the sea clasping a picture of our Lady given to him by Pope St Pius V. Of these martyrs nine
were Spanisrds and the rest Portuguese.
Several contemporary revelations of this massacre were reported, of which
the chief were to Bd Ignatius's brother, Don Jerome, in the East Indies, and
to St Teresa at Avila, whose kinsman, BD Francis GoDoy, was among the martyrs.
Their beatification took place in 1854.
A popular account may be found
in the small volume, by Father Cordara in Italian and by Father de Beauvais
in French in 1854. See also Astrain, Historia
de la Compañia de Jesus en la Aristencia de Espñia, vol. ii, p. 244; and J. Brodrick,
The Progress of the Jesuits
(1946) pp. 220-230. For bibliography, Dc Guilhermy, Ménologe de Portugal, vol. ii, pp. 39-43.
|
1570 Bl. John Fernandez
Jesuit martyr who
died with Blessed Ignatius de Azevedo and companions. Born at Braga, Portugal,
he entered the Jesuits and set out with the other Jesuits for the East Indies.
They were all slain When they were captured by Huguenot captain, pirates of the ship, near the Canary Islands.
Blessed Ignatius de
Azevedo and Companions, SJ MM (AC) Died 1570; beatified in 1854. A band of
40 Portuguese and Spanish Jesuit missionaries, who were put to death by the
Huguenot skipper, Jacques Sourie, near the Canary Islands, while on their
way to the West Indies. Ignatius was the superior and leader of the band.
He was born at Coimbra, where he joined the Society of Jesus in 1548. He was
a religious of outstanding ability, highly revered by his superiors. Among
the others are:
Alphonsus
de Vaena, born at Toledo, Spain, coadjutor.
Antony Correa
Antony Fernández
Antony Suarez Benedict de Castro, born in
Chacim, diocese of Miranda, Portugal. Dominic Fernández, born at Villa
Viciosa, Portugal, lay-brother. Francis Alvarez, born in Covilhao, Portugal,
lay-brother. Father
Francis Magallanes, born in Alcázar do Sal, Portugal.
Francis Perez Godoy, born in
Torrijos, diocese of Toledo, Spain, Jesuit novice.
Gregory Escrivano, born at
Logroño, Old Castile, Jesuit coadjutor. Father James Andrade, born at Pedrogao,
diocese of Coimbra, Portugal. John de Baeza, a Spaniard and temporal-
coadjutor. Father
John Fernández, born at Lisbon. John Fernández, born at Braga, Portugal,
temporal-coadjutor.
Father John of San Martin, born at Toledo, Spain. John de Mavorga, born in Aragon, temporal-
coadjutor. John de
Zafra, born at Toledo, Spain, temporal-coadjutor.
Father Louis Correa, born at Evora,
Portugal. Mark Caldeira,
born at Feira, diocese of Oporto, novice. Nicholas Dinnis, born in Braganza, Portugal,
novice. Father Peter
Nuñez, born in Fronteria, Portugal.
Peter Fontura, born at Braga,
Portugal, lay-brother. Simon Acosta, born at Oporto, Portugal,
lay-brother. Father
Simon Lopez, born at Ourem, Portugal, Stephen de Zudaira, born at Viscaya, Spain,
lay-brother (Benedictines).
|
| 1570 Bl. Joanninus
de San Juan Martyr with
Blessed Ignatius de Azevedo.
He was the nephew of the captain of the ship which carried Blessed Ignatius
de Azevedo and his companions. When they were captured by Huguenot pirates,
Joanninus volunteered to die with the Jesuits and was hurled into the sea
by the Calvinists. |
1583 Blessed Francis
Aranha went to Goa in southern India with his uncle served as a missionary
on the islet of Salsette, SJ Martyr (AC)
Born in Braga, Portugal; Francis went to Goa in southern India with his
uncle. There he joined the Society of Jesus in 1571 as a coadjutor. He served
as a missionary on the islet of Salsette, where he was martyred with Blessed
Rudolph Acquaviva (Benedictines).
|
1583 Bl. Peter Berna
Jesuit martyr in India. Originally from Ascona, on Lake Locarno, Ticino,
Switzerland, he studied at the German College and Rome and then entered the
Jesuits. Sent to India with Blessed Rudolf Acquaviva, he received ordination
at Goa and spent his remaining time working to convert the Indian population.
he was finally martyred with Blessed Rudolf by local opponents to Christian
missionaries.
Blessed Peter Berna, SJ M (AC) Born at Ascona, Ticino, Switzerland; died
in Goa in 1583. Peter studied at the German College in Rome and joined the
Jesuits. He went to India with Blessed Rudolf Acquaviva, where he was ordained
in Goa. After working as a missionary for many years he was martyred with
Rudolf (Benedictines) .
|
1583 Bl. Anthony
Francisco; Jesuit martyr with Rudolf Acquaviva. Born in Coimbra, Portugal,
Anthony was professed as a Jesuit in 1570. working in the missions of Salsette,
near Goa
He was sent to India and ordained there, working in the missions of Salsette,
near Goa. There he was also martyred for the faith with Rudolf and three other
companions. |
1710-1756
St. Pompeius Maria Pirotti a renowned teacher and preacher
Campi Salentinórum, in Apúlia,
sancti Pompílii Maríæ Pirrótti, Confessóris,
ex Ordine Clericórum Páuperum Matris Dei Scholárum Piárum,
vita apostólica præclári, a Pio Undécimo, Pontífice
Máximo, inter Sanctos reláti.
At Campo in Italy, the birthday of St. Pompilio Maria Pirrotti
of St. Nicholas, confessor, a member of the Congregation of Poor Clerks Regular
of Pious Schools of the Mother of God, who spent his entire life in safeguarding
the salvation of souls. He was registered among the saints by Pope Pius
XI.
Also Pompilio Pirotti, a renowned teacher and preacher. Born at Montecalvo,
Campania, Italy, in 1710, he joined the Piarist Fathers at Naples in 1727
and was professed the next year. He took the name Maria of St. Nicholas in
religious life. After his ordination, he taught school in Apulia, Italy, and
received appointment as a missioner apostolic in Emilia and Venetia. His
preaching in Naples was so brilliant and troublesome to many who were in
power that influential personages secured his banishment; however, the King
of Naples was forced to bring him back when public indignation proved overwhelming.
He died at the Piarist house at Campo, Lecce, Apulia, and was canonized in
1934.
Pompilio (Pompilius) Mary Pirotti, Sc. P. (RM) Born in Montecalvo, diocese
of Benevento, Italy, in 1710; died in Lecce in Apulia, 1756; canonized in
1934. Pompilio became a clerk regular of the Piarist fathers (Scolopi) at
Naples in 1727 and devoted his life to teaching. After being falsely accused,
he was imprisoned, but was later completely vindicated (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
Pompeius Maria Pirotti was
born in 1710 of a good family at Montecalvo in Campania. He had a
good education, and struck by the need of schools, especially among the poor,
he decided to give his life to teaching. He therefore joined the
clerks regular of the Religious Schools ("Piarists" or Scolopini), founded by St Joseph Calasanctius
for that work, and was professed in 1728, taking the name of Mary-of-St-Nicholas.
He was ordained, and taught for some yeaxs in Apulia,
and then on account of his sanctity and enthusiasm was appointed missioner
apostolic in Emilia and Venetia. At Naples his zeal got him into trouble,
and a campaign of slander and persecution was worked up against him by those
who feared his influence or were jealous of his success. He was expelled
from Naples, but such was the indignation of the people that the king had
to revoke the decree of banishment. St Pompillo continued his work
with a splendid patience, until his superiors recalled him to the house of
his order at Campo, near Lecce, where he died at the age of forty-six.
Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies, took a keen interest in the cause
of his beatification, which was achieved in 1890, and he was canonized in
1934.
See Seebock, Die Herrlichkeit der Katholischen Kirche ihren
Heiligen und Seilgen des 19 Jahrhunderts (1900), p. 431; Heimbucher,
Die Orden und Kongregationen,
vol. iii; and the Acta Apostolicae
Sedis, vol. xxvii (1935), pp.
223-234 .
|
1838 St. Peter Tuan
Vietnamese martyr native priest, he was arrested by Vietnamese authorities
suffered such grievous tortures in prison died before they could carry out
the order of execution by beheading. Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1988.
|
1851 Bl. Anne Jahouvey;
a vision of black children decided vocation to their needs; veil in Autun,
France, and Congregation of St. Joseph of Cluny was founded; founded houses
in Europe, South America, and Africa went to French Guyana educate six hundred
slaves to be liberated; founded houses in Tahiti and Madagascar
Foundress and missionary, the daughter of a wealthy
farmer in Jallanges, France. Anne entered several convents but left each
time, wanting to devote her life to educating the poor. In 1800, she had
a vision of black children and decided to adapt her vocation to their needs.
In 1807, Anne and eight other young women were given the veil in Autun, France,
and the Congregation of St. Joseph of Cluny was founded. Anne founded houses
in Europe, South America, and Africa. In 1828, she went to French Guyana
to educate six hundred slaves who were about to be liberated. Anne Javouhey
also founded houses in Tahiti and Madagascar. She died in Paris on July 15,
1851.
Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey (AC) (also known as Nanette) Born
at Jallanges, Burgundy, France, on November 10, 1779; died Paris, France,
July 15, 1851; beatified in 1950. Anne Marie was the fifth of ten children
of a wealthy farmer, Balthazar Javouhey, and his wife, Claudine. She grew
up during the terror of the French Revolution. She received her First Communion
about a week before the Constituent Assembly in Paris that moved to confiscate
all Church property and required that clergy swear an oath of allegiance to
the secular state. Practicing priests who refused to take the oath were considered
to be criminals; those who took it, including four of 135 bishops and about
half the priests, were excommunicated.
Throughout her teen years she became accustomed to hiding and
caring for persecuted priests. She would keep watch as they said Mass.
At an early age, she decided
that she wanted to devote her life to the poor and the education of children.
When the persecution had ended, she took the veil. At a convent in Besançon
in 1800, she had a vision of Negro children, which was to influence her later
life. After failing to adjust to life in several convents, she and eight companions
founded the Institute of Saint Joseph of Cluny at Cabillon in 1805.
They were clothed by the bishop of Autun in 1807. Seven years later (1812),
they purchased a friary and moved the congregation to Cluny. The Sisters of
Saint Joseph gained renown for their successful teaching methods. Fired with
apostolic zeal, she sent her nuns to work in far distant regions. She heroically
labored for several years (1828-1832) in French Guyana. In 1834, she was
again sent their, this time by the French government to educate 600 Guyanan
slaves who were to be emancipated. She finally left French Guyana in 1843
and spent her remaining years establishing new house in Tahiti, Madagascar,
and elsewhere (Benedictines, Delaney).
Bd Anne Mary Javouhey, Virgini,
Foundress Of The Congregation Of St Joseph Of Cluny
Of the many remarkable women beatified or canonized during the
second quarter of the twentieth century one of the most outstanding was Anne
Mary Javouhey. She was born in 1779 at Jallanges in Burgundy, where her
father was a well-to-do farmer, and she early showed the forcefulness of
her character: though the fifth of a large family she dominated
the rest of the children. Another characteristic that soon showed itself
was courage, and during the revolution she often helped clergy and others
at no little risk. It was at a Mass celebrated secretly in the
house in 1798 that Nanette (as she was commonly called) made a vow of celibacy,
together with a promise to devote her life to the education of children and
help of the poor.
When religious communities were again allowed in
France Nanette joined the Sisters of Charity at Besançon.
But she had no vocation there. She went to the Cistercian nuns at
Val-Sainte in Switzerland, with a like result. But here she was
directed by a well-known monk, Dom Augustine
Lestrange (he introduced the Cistercians into the United States),
who told her that her vocation was to found a new congregation. Nanette
had told him of her vision at Besançon of a room full of coloured
boys and girls, and the voice which said to her,
"These are the children
God gives you. I am Teresa, and I will look after your congregation."
So she returned to France, and Javouhey
pere, who alternated between
opposition and a generous help of his daughter, set her up with rooms at
Chamblanc where she and her three sisters could start a school. When
Pope Pius VII passed through
Chalon in 1805 he received the four young women and gave them every encouragement.
Two years later Anne, her sisters and five others were clothed in a blue
and black habit by the Bishop of Autun. Other schools and establishments were
soon in demand.In 1812 Mr Javouhey bought a former Franciscan friary at Cluny
to be the novitiate and mother-house.
A school was opened in Paris, where Mother Javouhey's
educational methods excited comment, favourable and other, and brought her
to the notice of the government.* The governor of the island of Bourbon
(now Reunion, east of Madagascar) asked her to send some sisters there, and
in September 1817 their first missionary school for coloured children ths
begun. This led to similar requests from elsewhere, and
Mother Javouhey herself spent two years in Senegal, extending her work to
Gambia and Sierra Leone to take over hospitals for the British authorities.
She supervised the inauguration of a large plantation for Africans up the
Senegal river, and carried through a scheme for educating Senegalese in France
for the priesthood.
This last undertaking had eventually to be abandoned,
and it was said with reference to it that "Mother Javouhey was before her
time". The truth is just the opposite. Establishment of a "native
clergy" is no new policy of twentieth-century popes, but a return to the
earlier and normal practice of the Church in mission lands.
With the passing
of time Nanette's youthful forcefulness became inflexible determination, and
a girl's pluck became adult fortitude in an heroic degree. To these
were added a clear and receptive mind and intellectual ability. Those
qualities have their dangers, even for a fervent religious. She owed
something to the work of Joseph Lancaster (d. 1838), one of the founders of
the British and Foreign School Society.
But they were balanced by a simplicity and
humility in her dealings with men and women no less than towards God.
This can be clearly seen from her simple charity combined with firmness when
things went wrong: the period of "schism" among the sisters in Bourbon,
the long and bitter disagreement with Bishop d'Héricourt of Autun,
and, partly as a consequence of this, the extraordinary behaviour of the
prefect
apostolic in Guiana, who for two years deprived Anne of the
sacraments. "The Cross is found wherever there are servants of God,
and I rejoice to be reckoned among them," she said; but to the priest who
refused her the sacraments as she left Guiana on her last voyage to Europe
she spoke out: "Very well. But if anything goes wrong,
you will answer to God for it."
If she received a heavy cross in French Guiana,
there also was the field of Mother Javouhey's most striking achievements.
Her congregation already had establishments in Guadaloupe, Martinique, Saint-Pierre,
Pondicherry-hospitals, schools, workshops-and at Cayenne and New Angouleme
in Guiana, when in 1828 the government asked her to undertake a task in which
men had already failed badly-the colonization of the Mana district there.
With thirty-six sisters, a number of French artisans and prospective colonists,
and fifty Negro labourers she set to work according to a plan she had drawn
up for the approval of the authorities. Those four years were
doubtless temporally the four hardest years she ever knew, planting not simply
civilization but a Christian civilization in the forests of South America;
and, as her success became apparent, doing it in the teeth of the jealousy
of those in Guiana who had failed, and of lack of support from the government
after the abdication of King Charles X in 1830. She was tireless as
well as intrepid, and would buy up a score of runaway slaves to save them
from the lash, or establish a village for lepers, as it were " in passing
".
Mother Javouhey had not been back in France two
years when an even more surprising service was asked of her.
Much to the indignation of some of the Europeans there, several hundred
Negro slaves in Guiana were to be emancipated they were a rough lot, and
their sudden freedom might lead to grave difficulties. Would Mother
Javouhey, during the time before their liberation, train them in the ways
of true religion and civilized society? After much thought and more
prayer she replied that, with God's help, she would do her best. Nothing
in her life amused more general interest than this, and there was adverse
criticism too. Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Lamennais all came to her defence.
And King Louis-Philippe made the remark, "Madame Javouhey is a great
man!"
Back she went to
Mana, and the Negroes were brought along in instalments as she was ready for
them-not under armed guard, as was proposed, but in charge of a nun.
There were 200 men, 200 women and 111 children, afterwards increased to a
round 600. Their day was mapped out almost like that of a religious
community; the greatest domestic difficulty was their disinclination to work,
but Mother Javouhey took on herself to be foreman, as well as guide, philosopher,
friend and magistrate. She was clearly going to justify in practice
the abstract arguments in favour of emancipation, and the hostility of the
French planters increased. They even bribed a Negro to upset a boat
and drown the nun in the river. Mother Javouhey was warned of this, but she
would not defer the journey nor change the crew. Nothing happened.
And on May 21, 1838 the first 185 Negro slaves were solemnly and publicly
freed. For each family a cottage, a piece of land and a sum of money
were waiting- Mother Javouhey had looked after that. And also,
at their own earnest request, a pair of white-man's boots: but never
having worn such things before they were quite unable to walk in them.
Mother Javouhey was now sixty-four. In 1843
she left Guiana, and spent the last eight years of her life supervising her
now large congregation, and arranging new foundations in Tahiti, Madagascar
and elsewhere and the admission of Indian postulants in India. There
was, too, ecclesiastical opposition to be met. She hoped to go to Rome
to lay her work at the feet of the Father of Christendom; but she learned
that "I have a different journey in front of me, and I must make it alone".
Anne Mary Javouhey died on July 15, 1851. She was beatified ninety-nine
years later, when the congregation she had founded had spread to thirty-two
countries and colonies of the world.
Among the biographies in French
are those of P. Kieffer (2 vols., 1915); V. Caillard (1909); G. Goyau (1934);
and G. Bernoville (1942). Father Plus studies her "physionomie
morale "in Una passionnie de la Volonte de Dieu (1950). In English,
see J. A. Mullins, In Journeys Often;
and C. C. Martindale, Mère Anne-Marie Javouhey (1953).
|
| 1855 St. Andrew Nam-Thuong
Martyr Vietnamese mayor of a village and a Catholic, Andrew served as a catechist
until his arrest in a persecution. He died on a march into exile at Mi-Tho,
Vietnam. Andrew was canonized in 1988. |
St. Piroou and St. Athom
Martyrdom of St. Balanah, the Priest. The Martyrdom of St. Epime (Pimanon).
The Departure of Cyrus (Karas), brother of Emperor Theodosius. {Coptic}
On this day also, St. Piroou and St. Athom were martyred. These
two Saints were born in the city of "Sonbat", of Christian parents who were
righteous, loving works of righteousness and charitable deeds. Their father's
name was John and their mother's was Mary. St. Piroou was blond with curled
hair, tall in stature, with blue eyes. St. Athom was tall in stature with
white complexion, dark eyes and black beard. When Piroou was thirty years
old, and Athom was twenty-seven, they attended church consistently during
masses, and continued to give alms and provide shelter for strangers.
When persecution was incited against the Christians, they took
some goods and went to the town of El-Farma to trade there. They found the
body of a Saint called "Noua" with some of the soldiers. They bought the
body from them with silver, placed the body in a marbled sarcophagus in their
own home. They hung an oil lamb before it, and many miracles appeared from
the body. The two saints reflected upon the vanity of the world, and the blessings
of paradise. They distributed their money among the poor, went to Alexandria
and confessed Christ before the Governor. He tortured them by beating and
whipping them until their blood poured out on the ground. They hanged them
and put fire under them. The Angel of the Lord came and brought them down
and healed their wounds. Then, the Governor sent them to El-Farma. When the
Governor of El-Farma saw their courage and the beauty of their appearance,
he offered them the worship of the idols. When they refused, he pulled out
the nails of their hands and feet. Then he put them on iron rods and lit
fire under them.
During this, the wife of the Governor died, and
he asked the two Saints to forgive him for what he had done to them. They
prayed to God for her and God raised her from the dead. The Governor and
every one with him believed. He released the two Saints and they returned
to their town "Sonbat". They gave the poor whatever was left of their money.
They gave the body of St. Noua to a righteous man called Sarabamon. They
asked him to hang an oil lamp before it at all times.
Then, they went to the Governor and confessed
Christ. He ordered them beaten and dragged in the city until their blood poured
out on the ground. A deaf and dumb woman took some of the blood and anointed
her ears and tongue with it. Instantly she was healed. She glorified the
Lord Christ and confessed Him. The Governor ordered them all to be beheaded.
They all received the crown of martyrdom. The righteous Sarabamon, and some
people from Sonbat were present. They took the bodies of the two Saints, shrouded
them, and took them to their town. A church was built for them, where their
bodies and the body of St. Noua were placed. It was said that their bodies
are now located in the church of St. Barbara in Old Cairo. May their
prayers be with us, Amen.
The Martyrdom of St. Balanah,
the Priest.
On this day also, St. Balanah the priest, was martyred.
He was from the city of Bara, of the diocese of Sakha. When he heard of the
persecution of the faithful and the slaying of the saints, he distributed
all his money to the poor and the needy. He then went to "Antinoe" (Ansena),
and confessed the Lord Christ before the governor. He tortured St. Balanah
much with different kinds of tortures until he delivered up his soul in the
hands of the Lord.
May his prayers be with us, Amen.
The Martyrdom of St. Epime (Pimanon).
This day also, marks the martyrdom of St. Epime
(Pimanon) (Bima). He was the chief of the village of "Panokleus" of the district
of El-Bahnasa. He was rich and merciful to the poor. The Lord Christ appeared
to him in a vision and told him, "Arise, go to the Governor and confess My
Name, for there you have a crown prepared for you." When he awoke from his
sleep, he distributed all his money to the poor and the needy. Then he prayed,
and went to El-Bahnasa, and confessed the Lord Christ. When he confessed that
he was the chief of the village, the Governor asked him about the vessels
of the church in his town, and offered him the worship of the idols. St. Bima
answered him saying, "I will not give you the vessels, and as for worshipping
the idols, I only worship my Lord Jesus Christ." The Governor ordered his
tongue cut off, and torture by the press and by burning. But the Lord saved
and healed him.
The Governor then, sent him to Alexandria, where
he was imprisoned. Julius El-Akfahsi (the writer of the biographies of the
saints) had a sister possessed with an evil spirit. This Saint prayed for
her and she was healed. The report of this miracle spread out and many believed.
The Governor became furious and he tortured the Saint with the press and
by pulling out his nails. The Lord strengthened him and healed him. When the
Governor became weary of torturing him, he sent him to Upper Egypt. There
he was beheaded, and he received the crown of martyrdom. The servants of Julius
El-Akfahsi carried his body to his town.
May his prayers be with us, Amen .
The Departure of Cyrus (Karas),
brother of Emperor Theodosius.
Today also, St. Cyrus (Karas) departed. He was the brother of
Emperor Theodosius the Great. This saint knew well the vanity of the world
and its temporal nature. He left all his possessions and went out wandering
without a destination. God guided him to the inner Western Wilderness, where
he lived for many years alone, without seeing man or beast.
There was in the wilderness of Shiheet (Scete)
a holy priest called Bamwa (Pimwah) who shrouded the body of St. Hilaria.
This father longed to see one of the servants of Christ, the hermits. The
Lord helped him until he came to the inner wilderness, and he saw many of
the saints. Everyone of them told him about his name, and the reason he came
to the wilderness. But St. Pimwah asked each of them, "Is there is anyone
who lives further in the inner desert?" They answered him, "Yes." He continued
to walk until he finally arrived at St. Karas, the last one of them. St. Karas
called him from inside his cell, "Welcome, Anba Pimwah, the priest of Shiheet."
Anba Pimwah entered his cell, and after the greetings, St. Karas asked him
about the news of the world, the governors and the faithful. At night, St.
Karas prayed for a long time, then he knelt to the ground and delivered up
his soul in the hands of the Lord. Anba Pimwah buried him in his cloak, then
he returned glorifying God, telling everyone about the Saint and his strife.
May his prayers be with us and Glory be to God forever, Amen.
|
Mary
Mother of GOD
Saint of the Day July 15 Idibus Júlii
Quote:
Pope Paul VI’s 1969 
Benedict
XVI met with Aram I Catholicos of Cilicia, the highest
authority of the Orthodox Church. The
Pope remembered the martyrs of the Armenian Church and
the Armenian genocide, without explicitly mentioning
it, and denounced the persecution of Christians in modern times.
Benedict XVI
As we watch
the spectacle of the world seeming to self-destruct
before our eyes, we can’t help but be saddened and even
frightened by so much evil run rampant. Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan,
Somalia, North Korea—It is all a disaster of epic proportions
displayed in living color on our television screens.