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 the 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 M (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 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 
Christian
council
held
at
Among
the
most
important
titles
we have
in the
Catholic
Church
for
the Blessed
Virgin
Mary
are Our
Lady
of Victory
and Our
Lady of
the
Rosary.
These
titles
can
be traced
back
to one of
the most
decisive
times
in the
history
of the world
and Christendom.
The Battle
of Lepanto
took place
on October
7 (date of
feast of
Our Lady
of Rosary),
1571.
This
proved
to be the most
crucial
battle
for the Christian
forces
against
the radical
Muslim
navy
of Turkey.
Pope
Pius
V led a procession
around
St. Peter’s
Square
in
Vatican City
praying
the Rosary.
He
showed true
pastoral
leadership
in
recognizing
the danger
posed
to Christendom
by the
radical
Muslim
forces,
and in using
the means
necessary
to
defeat it.
Spiritual
battles
require
spiritual
weapons,
and
this more
than anything
was a
battle that
had
its origins
in the spiritual
order—a
true battle
between
good and evil.