292
St. Vincent of Agen Martyr deacon in Agen, Gaul (modern France)
tortured beheaded after disturbing
a pagan ceremony
Agénni in Gállia, pássio sancti Vincéntii,
Levítæ et Mártyris, qui, ob Christi fidem,
verbéribus diríssime cæsus et gládio
decollátus est.
At Agen in France, the passion of St. Vincent,
deacon and martyr. For the faith of Christ, he was cruelly
scourged and then beheaded.
300? ST VINCENT OF AGEN, MARTYR
ST VINCENT was a deacon who lived in Gascony, probably towards the end
of the third century. Apparently because he interrupted a pagan
ceremony, which may have been a druidical feast, he was arrested at
Agen and brought before the governor. He was laid flat with his limbs
extended, fixed to the ground by four stakes. In that position he was
cruelly scourged and then beheaded. His relics were buried at Mas
d'Agenais; St Gregory of Tours and Fortunatus of Poitiers testify that
in the sixth and seventh centuries many flocked from all parts of
Europe in pilgrimage to his tomb.
The facts regarding the martyrdom are quite uncertain, and Father
Delehaye is not satisfied that the alleged tragedy at Agen ever
occurred. He thinks it possible that the story was elaborated out of
some special cult of the great Spanish martyr St Vincent, the nature
and origin of which was forgotten. Still the references to the martyr
in St Gregory of Tours and Venantius Fortunatus are relatively early.
The matter is too intricate to be discussed here.
There are several texts of
the passio, for which see the
Acta Sanctorum, June,
vol. ii; and the BHL., nn. 8621-8625. See for fuller details Delehaye's
CMH., p. 312; L. Saltet, “Etude critique de la Passio S. Vincentii
Aginensis", in the Revue de Gascogne,
1901, pp. 97-113; Duchesne, Fastes
Épiscopaux, vol. ii, pp. 142-144; and the Marchioness de
Maillé, Vincent d'Agen et
Vincent de Saragosse (1949). See especially Fr B. de Gaiffier in
Analecta Bollandiana,
vol. lxx (1952), pp. 160-181.
Vincent of Agen, Deacon M (RM) Deacon Saint Vincent
preached the
faith in Gascony in Gaul. When he interrupted a Druid feast, he seized
at Agen and condemned by the governor. His fate was to be stretched
flat on the floor, fixed to the ground by four stakes. In that exposed
position he was scourged and then beheaded. Saint Gregory of Tours in
the 6th century and Fortunatus of Poitiers in the 7th century recorded
that many flocked to Agen from throughout Europe to visit Vincent's
tomb (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
|
 297 Primus
and
Felician Roman patricians who had converted to Christianity relieving
poor visiting prisoners refusing to sacrifice to the public gods MM
first martyrs bodies later reburied within walls of Rome (RM)
Noménti in
Sabínis, natális sanctórum
Mártyrum Primi et Feliciáni fratrum, sub
Diocletiáno et Maximiáno Imperatóribus. Hi
gloriósi Mártyres, cum longævam in Dómino
vitam duxíssent, et nunc simul pária, nunc
singillátim divérsa et exquisíta
pertulíssent torménta, ambo tandem felícis
pugnæ cursum, a Nomentáno Præside Promóto
animadvérsi gládio, consummavérunt.
Ipsórum autem Mártyrum córpora, póstea
Romam transláta, in Ecclésia sancti Stéphani
Protomártyris, in monte Cælio, honorífice
collocáta sunt.
At
Nomento in the Sabine Hills, the birthday of the
holy martyrs Primus and Felician, under the emperors Diocletian and
Maximian. These glorious martyrs lived long in the service of the
Lord, and endured sometimes together, sometimes separately, various
cruel torments. They were finally beheaded by Promotus, governor
of Nomento, and thus happily ended their trial. Their bodies were
afterwards translated to Rome and honorably buried in the Church of St.
Stephen the Protomartyr on the Cælian Hill.
297 SS. PRIMUS
AND FELlClAN, MARTYRS
THE brothers Primus and Felician were Roman patricians who embraced
Christianity and devoted themselves to works of charity, especially to
visiting the confessors in prison. In spite of their zeal they escaped
persecution for many years, but about the year 297, in the reign of
Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, they were arrested. They refused to
sacrifice, were imprisoned, and scourged. Afterwards they were conveyed
to Nomentum, a town twelve miles from Rome, where they were tried by a
magistrate named Promotus. As they remained steadfast they were again
tortured. Both were then sentenced to be beheaded. After Primus, who
was eighty years of age, had been executed, the judge tried to overcome
the constancy of Felician by pretending that his brother had yielded.
The confessor, however, was not to be deceived and cheerfully faced
death on the same day. Over the burial-place of the two martyrs in the
Via Nomentana a church was afterwards built. In 640 Pope Theodore
caused their relics to be brought to San Stefano Rotondo, and this
translation is said to have been the first instance of the removal of
the bodies of martyrs from a church dedicated to them outside the walls
of Rome to a basilica within the city.
The passio of these martyrs,
printed in the Acta Sanctorum,
June, vol. ii, is of the usual legendary character, but they were
unquestionably put to death, and buried by their fellow Christians in
the place indicated. Their feast is honoured in the earliest text of
the Gelasian Sacramentary. When the bodies were translated to Rome by
Pope Theodore, a representation of the two saints in mosaic, which is
still in existence, was set up behind the spot where their relics were
venerated. See CMH., p. 311, and also J. P. Kirsch, Der Stadtrömische christliche
Festkalender (1924), pp. 59-60.
The untrustworthy
acta of Felician and his 80- year-old brother Primus
relate that they were Roman patricians who had converted to
Christianity. They devoted themselves to relieving the poor and
visiting prisoners. They were arrested. Upon refusing to sacrifice to
the public gods, the brothers were imprisoned and scourged. They were
brought singly before the judge, Promotus, who tried to convince each
that the other had apostatized. After they had been tortured, the
brothers were beheaded under Diocletian at Nomentum (12 miles from
Rome) A church was built over their tombs on the Via Nomentana. They
are of particular interest because they are the first martyrs of whom
it is recorded that their bodies were later reburied within the walls
of Rome; in 640, Pope Theodore I had the relics taken to the church now
called San Stefano Rotondo (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney,
Encyclopedia, Farmer). In art, these brothers are portrayed at their
martyrdom. Felician is nailed to a tree and Primus is forced to swallow
molten lead (Roeder).
Primus and Felician were two brothers who were accused
of Christianity during the persecution by Diocletian and Maximian, and
thrown into irons, which an angel broke, and so freed their
limbs. In the presence of the governor they most earnestly clave
to the profession of their faith, and were immediately parted one from
the other. Felician's was the steadfastness which was first tried
in divers ways. They, however, that strove to argue him into sin,
when they found that words availed nothing, fastened his hands and feet
to a post, and left him to hang there three days without food or
drink. On the fourth day the governor called Primus before him,
and said to him : Seest thou how much thy brother is wiser than
thou? He hath obeyed the Emperors, and they have made him
honourable. Thou hast only to follow his example to be made
partaker of his honours and favours. Primus answered him : What
hath befallen my brother I know, for an angel hath told me. God
grant that, seeing I have the same will that he hath, I may not be
divided from him in uplifting of testimony. These words raised
the wrath of the governor, and to the torments which he had already
inflicted on Primus, he added this also, that he had boiling lead put
into his mouth, compelling his brother Felician to be present and see
it done. After that, he had them led into the theatre and two
lions let loose upon them, in the presence of about twelve thousand
people who were gathered together to see the show. The lions only
fawned upon the knees of the Saints, making friends with them with
motions of their heads and tails. This exhibition turned five
hundred persons and their households to Christ. The governor,
then, moved beyond all endurance by what had passed, caused Primus and
Felician to be beheaded.
Primus et
Feliciánus fratres, in persecutióne Diocletiáni et
Maximiáni accusáti christiánæ
religiónis, in víncula conjiciúntur ; quibus
solúti, inde eripiúntur ab Angelo. Mox ad
prætórem addúcti, cum christiánam fidem
acérrime tueréntur, alter ab áltero
distrácti sunt ; ac primum várie tentáta est
constántia Feliciáni. Sed, cum suasóres
impietátis se posse quidquam verbis profícere
desperárent, affíxis stípiti mánibus ejus
et pédibus, ipsum sine cibo et potu inde tríduum
pendéntem reliquérunt. Postrídie ejus
diéi, prætor vocátum ad se Primum sic
affátur : Vides quanto sit prudéntior, quam tu, frater
tuus, qui obsecútus imperatóribus, apud ipsos est
honorátus? Quem si tu quoque imitári
volúeris, párticeps eris ejus honóris et
gratiæ. Cui Primus : Qui factum sit fratri meo,
cognóvi ex Angelo. Utinam, quemádmodum sum cum eo
voluntáte conjunctíssimus, sic ab eódem ne
martyrio disjúngar. Quo dicto excánduit
prætor, et ad céteros cruciátus, quibus Primum
affécit, præsénte jam Feliciáno,
liquátum igne plumbum in os ejus jussit infúndi.
Mox utrúmque perdúci ímperat in theátrum,
in eósque immítti duos leónis ; qui,
prostráti ad eórum génua, cápite et cauda
ipsis blandiebántur. Ad id spectáculum cum
ámplius duódecim míllia hóminum
conveníssent, quingénti cum suis famíliis
christiánam religiónem suscepérunt. Quibus
rebus permótus prætor, eos secúri pércuti
jussit.
|
311
St. Pelagia of Antioch
Roman martyred virgin.
She was a disciple of St. Lucian of
Antioch
Apud Antiochíam sanctæ Pelágiæ,
Vírginis et Mártyris, quam sancti Ambrósius et
Joánnes Chrysóstomus magnis éfferunt
láudibus.
At Antioch, St. Pelagia, virgin and martyr, who has
been eulogized by St. Ambrose and St. John Chrysostom.
311 ST PELAGIA OF ANTIOCH,
VIRGIN AND MARTYR
THE name of St Pelagia stands in the canon of the Ambrosian Mass of
Milan, and her praises have been sung by St Ambrose and by St John
Chrysostom, who made her the subject of one, or possibly two, of his
homilies. Pelagia was a young Christian girl of fifteen, a native of
Antioch and probably a disciple of St Lucian. She was alone in the
house when it was surrounded by soldiers sent to arrest her. Well aware
that her ultimate fate-whatever it might be-would be preceded by
dishonour, she asked leave to withdraw for a little, in order to put on
suitable clothing. The permission having been granted, she went
upstairs and threw herself from the top of the house. She was killed on
the spot; but she had preserved her chastity, which she valued more
than her life. St John Chrysostom asserts that she acted under the
inspiration of our Lord within her, exhorting her, strengthening her,
and casting out her fear.
This is the historical St
Pelagia, whose name has been borrowed by later hagiographers, or more
truly romance-writers, to graft upon it two entirely different stories.
Upon this, see Delehaye, Légendes
Hagiographiques (ed. 1927), pp. 186-195. The reality of
Pelagia's fate is attested not only by the homily of St John
Chrysostom, but also by an entry in the early Syriac Breviarium under October 8. It is
on this day also that Pelagia is commemorated in the Hieronymianum, on which consult
Delehaye's commentary, p. 546. A second homily on St Pelagia has been
attributed to St John Chrysostom, but this is probably not his genuine
work; see Franchi de' Cavalieri in Studi
e Testi, vol. lxv, pp. 281-303, who has edited the text.
Fifteen when Roman soldiers came
to her house to
arrest her for
being a Christian. Rather than be arrested and risk losing her
virginity, she hurled herself from the roof and died. She was greatly
praised by St. John Chrysostom,
and her name is included in the
Eucharistic Prayer in the Ambrosian Mass.
The more historical version tells of Pelagia being a disciple of Saint
Lucian. When soldiers were sent to arrest her, asked to be allowed to
change her clothes. She went upstairs on that pretext and threw herself
from her rooftop in an attempt to escape and avoid defilement.
Unfortunately, she died in the process. Saint John Chrysostom, a native
of Antioch, wrote two homilies in honor of Pelagia that praised her
courage, which he attributes to divine inspiration. She is also
remembered in the Ambrosian Canon (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney,
Encyclopedia, Farmer, White).
Saint Pelagia is generally portrayed being baptized by Saint Nonnus.
She may, however, be shown (1) praying before a crucifix in her cell or
a cave; (2) as she is discovered by the monks at her death to be a
woman; (3) as her body is brought in procession to Jerusalem; or (4)
listening to Saint Nonnus preaching (Roeder). Pelagia is the
patroness of actresses and penitents (Roeder).
Pelagia of Antioch VM (RM) (also known as Margarita, Marina)
feast day formerly on October 8, when it is celebrated in
the East. There are six saints named Pelagia (which means 'of the sea'
as does Marina) entered on the Roman calendar. Some of them may be
legendary; others perhaps not. Today's Saint Pelagia was a 15-year-old
martyred at Antioch. The stories told of her are pious fiction, which
gave rise to a whole series of later tales about Marina, Margaret,
Euphrosyne, Eugenia, and others.
The most popular story told about the fictional Pelagia of October 8,
nicknamed Margarito or Margaret because of the fineness of her pearls,
relates that she was a notoriously licentious dancing-girl or actress
at Antioch. During a synod there, she passed Bishop Saint Nonnus of
Edessa and caught his attention. He reputedly said, "This girl is a
lesson to us bishops. She takes more trouble over her beauty than we do
about our souls and our flocks." The next day she went to hear
him preach. His sermon moved her to
repentance and baptism. She gave her wealth to Nonnus to distribute to
the poor and left Antioch for Jerusalem disguised as a man. She lived
as a hermitess in a cave on the Mount of Olives, under the name
Pelagius. For the balance of her life she lived in austerity and
performed penances. Known as 'the beardless monk,' her sex was not
discovered until her death some years later .
|
 346 The Holy Women
Martyrs Thekla, Martha and Mary were beheaded with a sword during the
reign of the Persian emperor Sapor II 
|
370
St. Julian Christian
sold into slavery in
Syria monk under St. Ephraem
Edéssæ,
in Syria, sancti Juliáni Mónachi,
cujus præclára gesta sanctus Ephræm Diáconus
scripsit.
At
Edessa in Syria, St. Julian, a monk whose
memorable deeds have been related by the deacon St. Ephraem.
A
Christian sold into slavery in
Syria. He gained his freedom and became a monk under St. Ephraem
Julian of Syria (RM) Saint Julian was a Christian from
the West who was
sold into slavery in Syria. After he regained his freedom, he became a
monk under Saint Ephraem in
Mesopotamia (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
|
373 St. Ephrem
the
only Syrian recognized as a doctor of the Church left us
hundreds of hymns
and poems on
the faith that inflamed and inspired the whole Church Poet,
teacher, orator and defender of
the faith
Edéssæ,
in Syria, sancti Juliáni Mónachi, cujus
præclára gesta sanctus Ephræm Diáconus
scripsit.
At Edessa in
Syria, St. Julian, a monk whose memorable deeds have been related by
the deacon St. Ephraem.
 Mor
Ephrem the Syrian, the great poet saint of the Syriac Church, was
born in c. A.D. 306 in Nisibis (North-west of Mosul, Iraq). While some
late sources claim that his father was a heathen priest who worshiped
an idol called Abnil, his own writings affirm that he was raised in a
Christian family. (Adv. Haereses, XXVI. "I was born in the way of
truth: though my boyhood understood not the greatness of the benefit, I
knew it when trial came." Again more explicitly, if we may trust a
Confession which is extant only in Greek, "I had been early taught
about Christ by my parents; they who begat me after the flesh, had
trained me in the fear of the Lord... My parents were confessors before
the judge: yea, I am the kindred of martyrs.")
He was ordained deacon in c. A.D. 338 and served the
Bishop of Nisibis,
Mor Ya`qub, who participated in the Synod of Nicaea (AD 325). He lived
as a solitary and apparently never entered into priesthood. After the
cession of Nisibis to Persia in AD 363, Ephrem withdrew into the Roman
Empire and settled at Edessa where he composed the hymns that survive
to this day. Though in the ecclesiastical hirearchy he was just a
deacon, he is remembered as a great doctor of the universal Church.
Ephrem wrote exclusively in Syriac, the
Edessene
dialect of Aramaic,
but his works were translated into Armenian and Greek, and via the
latter into Latin and Slavonic. Many works in these languages
attributed to him are, however, not genuine. Much of Ephrem's
exegetical, dogmatic and ascetic works are in verse form. He wrote
several polemical works refuting the heresies of Marcion, Bardaisan,
Mani, the Arians and the Anomoeans. He wrote widely regarded biblical
commentaries on Genesis and the Diatesseron. His writings extensively
employ typology and symbolism. Over 500 genuine hymns survive, of great
beauty and insight. His poetry is in two genres: madrãshe
(hymns) and memre (verse homilies). After his death, the hymns were
arranged into hymn cycles, the most famous of which are those on Faith
(including the five 'On the Pearl'), on Paradise and on Nisibis (the
second half of which is on the Descent of Christ into Hell). His
liturgical poetry had a great influence on Syriac and Greek
hymnography. Syriac churches honor him as 'the lyre of the Holy
Spirit'.
Mor Ephrem departed
to his heavenly abode on 9th of June, A.D. 373. His memory is
commemorated in the Syriac Orthodox Church on the first Saturday of the
Great Lent.
"I
was born in the way of truth: though
my childhood was unaware of the
greatness of the benefit, I knew it when trial came."
Ephrem (or Eprhaim) the Syrian left us
hundreds of hymns
and poems on
the faith that inflamed and inspired the whole Church, but few facts
about his own inspiring life.
Poet,
teacher, orator and defender of the faith, Ephrem is the
only Syrian recognized as a doctor of the Church. He took upon himself
the special task of opposing the many false doctrines rampant at his
time, always remaining a true and forceful defender of the Catholic
Church.
Born in Nisibis, Mesopotamia, he was
baptized as a young man and became
famous as a teacher in his native city. When the Christian emperor had
to cede Nisibis to the Persians, Ephrem, along with many Christians,
fled as a refugee to Edessa. He is credited with attracting great glory
to the biblical school there. He was ordained a deacon but declined
becoming a priest (and was said to have avoided episcopal consecration
by feigning madness!).
He had a prolific pen and his writings
best illumine his holiness.
Although he was not a man of great scholarship, his works reflect deep
insight and knowledge of the Scriptures. In writing about the mysteries
of humanity’s redemption, Ephrem reveals a realistic and humanly
sympathetic spirit and a great devotion to the humanity of Jesus. It is
said that his poetic account of the Last Judgment inspired Dante.
It is surprising to read that he wrote
hymns against the
heretics of
his day. He would take the popular songs of the heretical groups and,
using their melodies, compose beautiful hymns embodying orthodox
doctrine. Ephrem became one of the first to introduce song into the
Church’s public worship as a means of instruction for the faithful. His
many hymns have earned him the title “Harp of the Holy Spirit.”
He preferred a simple, austere life,
living in a small cave overlooking
the city of Edessa. It was here he died around 373.
Comment: Many Catholics
still find singing in church
a
problem, probably because of the rather individualistic piety that they
inherited. Yet singing has been a tradition of both the Old and the New
Testament. It is an excellent way of expressing and creating a
community spirit of unity as well as joy. Ephrem's hymns, an ancient
historian testifies, "lent luster to the Christian assemblies." We need
some modern Ephrems—and cooperating singers—to do the same for our
Christian assemblies today.
Quote: Lay
me not with sweet spices, For this honor avails me
not, Nor yet use incense and
perfumes, For the honor befits me not.
Burn yet the incense in the holy place; As for me,
escort me only with your prayers, Give ye your
incense to God,
And over me send up hymns.
Instead of perfumes and spices, Be mindful of me in
your intercessions.
(From The
Testament of St.
Ephrem)
Most
historians infer from the lines quoted
above that
Ephrem was born
into a Christian family -- although not baptized until an adult (the
trial or furnace), which was common at the time. Other than that little
is known about his birth and youth although many guess he was born in
the early fourth century in Mesopotamia, possibly in Nisibis where he
spent most of his adult life.
"He
Who created two great lights, chose for Himself these three Lights,
and set them in the three dark seasons of siege that have been."
Ephrem
served as teacher, and possibly deacon, under four
bishops of
Nisibis, Jacob, Babu, Vologeses, and Abraham. The first three he
describes in the hymn quoted above written while Vologeses was still
alive. As the verse states, Ephrem did not live in easy times in
Nisibis.
"I have
chanced upon weeds, my brothers, That wear the color of wheat,
To choke the good seed."
According
to tradition, Ephrem began to write hymns in order to
counteract the heresies rampant at that time. For those who
think of hymns simply as the song at the end of Mass that
keeps us from
leaving the church early, it may come as a surprise that Ephrem and
others recognized and developed the power of music to get their points
across.
Tradition
tells us Ephrem heard heretical ideas put
into song first and in order to counteract them made up his own hymns.
In the one below, his target is a Syrian heretic Bardesan who denied
the truth of the Resurrection:
"How he blasphemes justice, And grace her
fellow-worker.
For if the
body was not raised, This is a great insult against grace, To say grace
created the body for decay;
And this is slander
against justice, to say
justice sends the body to destruction."
The originality,
imagery, and skill of his hymns captured
hearts of
Christians so well, that Ephrem is given credit for awakening the
Church to the important of music and poetry in spreading and fortifying
the faith.
Ephrem's home was in physical as
well as spiritual danger. Nisibis, a
target of Shapur II, the King of Persia, was besieged by him three
times. During the third siege in in 350, Shapur's engineers turned the
river out of its course in order to flood the city as Ephrem describes
(speaking as Nisibis):
"All kinds of storms
trouble me -- and you have been
kinder to the Ark:
only waves surrounded it,
but ramps and weapons and waves surround
me... O Helmsman of the Ark, be my pilot on dry land!
You gave the Ark
rest on the haven of a mountain, give me rest in the haven of my walls."
The flood, however, turned the tide against Shapur.
When he tried to
invade he found his army obstructed by the very waters and ruin he had
caused. The defenders of the city, including Ephrem, took advantage of
the chaos to ambush the invaders and drive them out.
"He has saved us
without wall, and taught us that He is our wall:
He
has saved us without king and made us know that is our king:
He has
saved us, in each and all, and showed us that He is All."
In the end, however,
Nisibis lost. When Shapur defeated
the Roman
emperor Jovian, he demanded the city as part of the treaty. Jovian not
only gave him the city but agreed to force the Christians to leave
Nisibis. Probably in his fifties or sixties at that time, Ephrem was
one of the refugees who fled the city in 363.
Sometime in 364 he settled as a solitary ascetic on
Mount Edessa, at
Edessa (what is now Urfa) 100 miles east of his home.
"The soul is your
bride, the body is your bridal chamber..."
In the time before monks and monasteries, many devout
Christians drawn
to a religious life dedicated themselves as ihidaya (single and
single-minded followers of Christ). As one of these Eprhem lived an
ascetic, celibate life for his last years.
"The doors of her homes Edessa Left open when
she went
forth With the
pastor to the grave, to die, And not depart from her faith. Let the
city and fort and building And houses be yielded to the king; Our goods
and our gold let us leave; So we part not from our faith!"
Tradition tells us
that during the famine that hit
Edessa in 372,
Ephrem was horrified to learn that some citizens were hoarding food.
When he confronted them, he received the age-old excuse that they
couldn't find a fair way or honest person to distribute the food.
Ephrem immediately volunteered himself and it is a sign of how
respected he was that no one was able to argue with this choice. He and
his helpers worked diligently to get food to the needy in the city and
the surrounding area.
The famine ended in a year of abundant harvest the
following year and
Ephrem died shortly thereafter, as we are told, at an advanced age. We
do not know the exact date or year of his death but June 9, 373 is
accepted by many. Ephrem relates in his dying testament a childhood
vision of his life that he gloriousl fulfilled:
"There
grew a vine-shoot on my tongue: and increased and reached unto
heaven, And it yielded fruit without measure: leaves likewise without
number. It spread, it stretched wide, it bore fruit: all creation drew
near, And the more they were that gathered: the more its clusters
abounded. These clusters were the Homilies; and these leaves the Hymns.
God was the giver of them: glory to Him for His grace! For He gave to
me of His good pleasure: from the storehouse of His treasures." In His
Footsteps:
Has a
song ever moved you so much that it
changed or
challenged your
faith or lifestyle -- for good or bad? How do you feel about the music
you sing during liturgy? Put your whole heart and soul into the hymns
you sing next. Listen to the words and let them speak to you. Prayer:
Saint Ephrem, sometimes we treat the power
of song lightly. Help us to
open our hearts and souls to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit given
us through music. Amen .
Heresy and danger followed him to Edessa.
The Arian Emperor Valens
camped outside of Edessa threatening to kill all the Christian
inhabitants if they did not submit. But Valens was the one forced to
give up in the face of the courage and steadfastness of the Edessans
(fortified by Ephrem's hymns):
Ephrem of Edessa, Deacon, Doctor (RM)
(also known as Ephraem, Ephraim)
Born c. 306 in Nisibis (Syria), Mesopotamia; died at Edessa (Iraq) on
June 9, 373; declared Doctor of the Church in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV;
feast day formerly June 18 and February 1. Ephrem passed his
entire life in his native Mesopotamia (Syria). He was
long thought to be the son of a pagan priest, but it is now believed
his parents were Christians. He was baptized at eighteen, served under
Saint James of Nisibis, became head of his school, and probably
accompanied him to the Council of Nicaea in 325.
Syrian sources attribute the deliverance
of Nisibis from the Persians
in 350 to his prayers, but when in 363 Nisibis was ceded to the
Persians by Emperor Jovian, he took residence in a cave near Edessa in
Roman territory. Edessa (Urfa in Iraq), the site of a famous
theological school, was where he did most of his writing.
Tradition says he visited Saint Basil at
Caesarea in 370 and on his
return helped alleviate the rigors of the famine of winter 372-73 by
distributing food and money to the stricken and helping the poor (one
of the jobs of deacons).
Ephraem's fame rests on his writings,
above all on his
metrical
homilies, to be read aloud, and his hymns. The latter in particular
were designed for popular use and were didactic in character, often
directed against various current heresies (Attwater). He is largely
responsible for introducing hymns into public worship. Particularly
outstanding are his Nisibeian hymns and the canticles for the seasons.
Some of these works can be found at the New Advent Super Site:
Nisibene
Hymns Hymns on the
Nativity of Christ in the Flesh Hymns for the Feast
of the Epiphany The Pearl (Seven Hymns on the
Faith) Homily on Our Lord Homily on
Admonition and Repentance Homily on the Sinful Woman
Compositions attributed to him are still
much used in the Syrian
churches, and his reputation spread to the Greek-speaking world before
his death. The English hymns 'Receive, O Lord, in Heaven above/Our
prayers' and 'Virgin, wholly marvelous' are translated from Saint
Ephraem's Syriac.
He wrote commentaries on a considerable
number of books of the Bible,
and a personal 'Testament' which seems to have been added to by a later
hand. He countered the heretics--especially the Arians and the
Gnostics--and wrote on the Last Judgment.
All Saint Ephraem's work is elevated in
style, flowery in expression,
and full of imagery: even as a theologian he wrote as a poet. He has
always been regarded as a great teacher in the Syrian churches and many
of his works were early translated into Greek, Armenian, and Latin.
Ephraem was devoted to the Blessed Virgin.
He is often invoked as a
witness to the Immaculate Conception because of his absolute certainty
about Mary's sinlessness. He is quoted by other authors but we lack a
critical edition, which has prevented further examination.
He was called 'the Harp of the Holy
Spirit,' and proclaimed a doctor of
the Church, the only Syrian so honored. He is especially venerated in
the Eastern Church (Attwater, Delaney).
In art, Saint Ephraem is a hermit sitting
on a column. There may be
fiery pillars in heaven above him. He might also by shown (1) in a cave
with a book, (2) with a cross on his brow, pointing upwards, or (3) his
eyes cast up, full of tears (Roeder).
On St. Ephrem the Syrian "Scepter of the Holy
Spirit"
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 28, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the
address Benedict XVI delivered today at the general audience in Paul VI
Hall. The reflection focused on the figure of St. Ephrem the Syrian,
fourth-century theologian, poet and musician.
Dear
brothers and sisters!
According to general opinion, Christianity
is a European religion that
has exported the culture of this Continent to other countries. The
reality, though, is a lot more complex, as the root of the Christian
religion is found in the Old Testament, and therefore in Jerusalem and
the Semitic world. Christianity has always nourished itself from its
roots in the Old Testament. Also, its expansion during the first
centuries was both westward -- toward the Greek-Latin world, where it
then inspired the European culture -- and eastward to Persia and India,
thus contributing to stimulate a specific culture, in Semitic
languages, with its own identity. To show the cultural diversity of the
early Christian faith, during last Wednesday's catechesis I talked
about a representative of this Christianity, Aphraates the Persian
sage, almost unknown to us. Along the same lines I would like to speak
today of St. Ephrem the Syrian, born in Nisibis around 306 into a
Christian family.
He was the most important
representative
of Syriac Christianity, and
succeeded in a unique way to reconcile the vocation of the theologian
with that of the poet. He was brought up with James, bishop of Nisibis
(303-338), and with him he founded the theological school of his town.
Once deacon, he completely immersed himself in the life of the local
Christian community until 363, the year in which Nisibis fell under
Persian rule. Ephrem fled to Edessa, where he continued his activities
as a preacher. He died there in 373, after being infected with the
plague while attending to the sick.
It is not known with certainty whether he
was a monk, but in any case
it is certain that he remained a deacon all his life and that he
embraced celibacy and poverty. In this way, according to the specific
character of his culture, the common and fundamental Christian identity
can be seen: faith, hope -- the hope that allows you to live a chaste
and simple life putting your faith in the Lord -- and charity, even to
the point of giving one's own life to care for the victims of the
plague. St. Ephrem left us a large written theological
inheritance. His considerable writings can be grouped into four
categories: works written in ordinary prose (his polemical works, or
biblical commentaries); works in poetic prose; sermons in verses; and
finally the hymns -- undoubtedly Ephrem's most extensive work.
He is a rich and captivating author for
many reasons, but particularly
because of his theological profile. The specific character of his work
is that theology meets poetry. If we want to get closer to his
doctrine, we need to acknowledge that he studied theology through
poetry. Poetry allowed him to deepen his theological reflections
through paradoxes and images. His theology became both liturgy and
music at the same time: he was indeed a great composer and musician.
Theology, reflection on faith, poetry,
chanting and the praising of God
all complement one another. It is actually from this liturgical
character that the divine truth appeared with clarity in Ephrem's
theology. During his search for God and in his theology, he followed
the path of paradox and symbol. His preference was to use opposing
images, because they serve to underline the mystery of God.
I cannot quote much
of his work, partly because poetry is difficult to translate, but just
to give an idea of his poetic theology I would like to quote parts of
two different hymns. First of all, as Advent is almost here, I would
like to show you some wonderful images taken from the hymns "On
Christ's Nativity." In an inspired tone Ephrem expressed his wonder of
the figure of the Virgin Mary:
"The
Lord came to her to make himself a servant. The Word came to her
to keep silence in her womb. The lightning came to her to not make any
noise. "The shepherd came to her and the Lamb is born, who humbly
cries. Because Mary's womb has reversed the roles: The one who created
all things wasn't born rich, but poor. "The Almighty came to her
(Mary), but he came humbly. Splendor came to her, but dressed in humble
clothes. The One who gives us all things met hunger.
"The One who gives water to everyone met
thirst. Naked and unclothed he
came from her, he who dresses all things (with beauty)." (Hymn "De
Nativitate" 11, 6-8).
To express the mystery of Christ, Ephrem
uses a large variety of
topics, expressions and images. In one of his hymns he connects Adam
(in paradise) with Christ (in the Eucharist) in an effective way:
"It was the cherub's sword, that closed
the path to the tree
of life. "But for the people, the Lord of this tree gave himself like
food at the (Eucharistic) offering. "Eden's trees were given as
nourishment to the first Adam. "For us, the gardener of the garden has
made himself food for our souls. "In fact we all left Paradise together
with Adam, who left it all behind. "Now that the sword has been
removed, from there (on the cross) by the lance we are able to return."
(Hymn 49,9-11).
Ephrem uses two images to speak about the
Eucharist: the charcoal or
the hot coal, and the pearl. The theme of the hot coal is taken from
the prophet Isaiah (cf. 6:6). It is the image of the seraph who takes
the hot coal with tongs and simply grazes the lips of the prophet to
purify them; the Christian, instead, takes and consumes the hot coal,
that is, Christ himself:
"In your
bread hides the Spirit that
cannot be consumed; In your wine
is the fire that cannot be drunk.
"The Spirit in your bread, the fire in
your wine: Here is a
wonder welcomed by our lips.
"The seraph could not get his fingers
close to the hot coal, that could
only approach Isaiah's mouth; neither did the fingers take it, nor the
lips swallow it; But the Lord granted us the ability to do both things.
"The fire rained down with anger to
destroy the sinners, But the fire
of grace comes down on the bread and remains there. Instead of the fire
destroying man, we ate the fire in the bread and we were revived."
(Hymn "De Fide" 10,8-10).
Here is
another example of St. Ephrem's hymns, where he writes of the
pearl as a symbol of the richness and beauty of faith:
"My brothers, I put (the pearl) to the
palm of my hand, to be able to
look at it closely. "I observed it from one side and then the other: It
had one only appearance from all sides. "(Such) is the search for the
Son, inscrutable, for he is luminous. "In its clarity, I saw the clear
one, that does not become opaque; and in its purity, I saw the great
symbol of our Lord's body, That is pure. "In its indivisibility, I saw
the truth, which is indivisible." (Hymn "On The Pearl" 1, 2-3) .
The figure of Ephrem is still very relevant for the life of the various
Christian Churches. In the first place we discover him as a theologian,
who began from sacred Scripture and poetically reflected upon the
mystery of the redemption of man by Christ, the embodiment of the Word
of God.
His theological
reflection is expressed with images and symbols taken from nature, from
daily life and from the Bible. Ephrem conferred an educational and
catechetical character to his poetry and to the hymns for the liturgy;
these are theological hymns suitable for performance or liturgical
songs. Ephrem uses such hymns to spread the doctrine of the Church at
liturgical festivals. Over time the hymns proved to be an extremely
effective catechetical instrument for the Christian community.
It is important to underline Ephrem's reflection on
the God of creation: Nothing in creation is isolated, and the world is,
with sacred Scripture, a Bible of God. By using his freedom wrongly,
man overturns the order of the cosmos.
To Ephrem the role of the woman is a relevant one.
The way he wrote about women was always prompted by sensibility and
respect: The fact that Jesus dwelt in the womb of Mary has enormously
raised the woman's dignity. For Ephrem there is no redemption without
Jesus, just as there could be no incarnation without Mary. The divine
and human dimensions of the mystery of our redemption can already be
found in Ephrem's texts; in a poetic way and with scriptural images, he
anticipated the theological background and in some ways the language
itself of the great Christological definitions from the fifth-century
councils.
Honored by the
Christian tradition as "scepter of the
Holy Spirit," Ephrem opted to be a deacon of his Church for his entire
life. It was a decisive and emblematic choice: He was deacon, that is
to say, a servant, in the ministry of the liturgy, in his love for
Christ -- which was radical -- that he sung of in an unparalleled way,
and in charity toward his brothers, whom he taught with rare mastery
the knowledge of divine revelation. [Translation by Laura
Leoncini]
[After praying the
Angelus, the Holy Father greeted
pilgrims in six languages. In English, he said:]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In this week's catechesis we turn to Saint Ephrem,
the greatest of the Syriac Fathers and the most renowned poet of the
patristic age. Saint Ephrem's theology, deeply grounded in the
Scriptures and profoundly orthodox in content, was expressed in poetic
language marked by striking paradoxes and vivid imagery.
Through his mastery of poetic symbolism, Ephrem
sought to communicate, especially in his Hymns, the mystery of the
trinitarian God, the incarnation of the eternal Son born of the Virgin
Mary, and the spiritual treasures contained in the Eucharist. His
poetry and hymns not only enriched the liturgy; they also proved an
important means of catechesis for the Christian community in the fourth
century.
Particularly significant is Ephrem's teaching on our
redemption by Christ: his poetic descriptions of the interplay of the
divine and human aspects of this great mystery foreshadowed the
theology and, to some extent, even the language of the great
Christological definitions of the councils of the next century. In his
life-long service to the Church as a deacon, Saint Ephrem was an
example of fidelity to the liturgy, meditation on the mystery of Christ
and charitable service to his brothers and sisters.
I am pleased to greet the English-speaking visitors
present at today's Audience, especially those from Australia, Canada
and the United States. I offer a special welcome to the students from
the University of Sunbury, Melbourne; and to the students and staff of
the University of Dallas, Texas. I also greet the members of the
pilgrimage from the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, led by thei r
Archbishop. Upon all of you I cordially invoke an abundance of joy and
peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.
[After greeting the pilgrims, he said in Italian:]
December marks World AIDS Day. I remain spiritually
close to everyone suffering from this terrible sickness, and to their
families, especially those who have lost a loved one. To everyone I
give assurances of my prayers.
Furthermore, I wish to exhort all people of
good will
to increase their efforts to halt the spread of the HIV virus, to
combat the disdain which is often directed towards people who are
affected by it, and to care for the sick, especially those who are
still children. © Copyright 2007 -- Libreria
Editrice Vaticana
|
  444
Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria, a distinguished champion of
Orthodoxy and a great teacher of the Church
He came from an illustrious and pious Christian
family. He studied the
secular sciences, including philosophy, but most of all he strove to
acquire knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and the truths of the
Christian Faith. In his youth Cyril entered the monastery of Macarius
in the Nitreia hills, where he stayed for six years. Theophilus
(385-412), the Patriarch of Alexandria, ordained him as a deacon,
numbered him among the clergy and entrusted him to preach.
Upon the death of Patriarch Theophilus, Cyril was
unanimously chosen to
the patriarchal throne of the Alexandrian Church. He led the struggle
against the spread of the Novatian heresy in Alexandria, which taught
that any Christian who had fallen away from the Church during a time of
persecution, could not be received back into it.
Cyril, seeing the
futility of admonishing the heretics, sought their
expulsion from Alexandria. The Jews appeared a greater danger for the
Church, repeatedly causing riots, accompanied by the brutal killing of
Christians. The saint long contended with them. In order to wipe out
the remnants of paganism, the saint cast out devils from an ancient
pagan temple and built a church on the spot, and the relics of the Holy
Unmercenaries Cyrus and John were transferred into it. A more difficult
struggle awaited the saint with the emergence of the Nestorian heresy.
Nestorius, a presbyter of the Antiochian Church, was
chosen in 428 to
the see of Constantinople and there he was able to spread his heretical
teaching against the dogma about the uncommingled union of two natures
in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nestorius called the Mother of
God not the Theotokos, but rather Christotokos or "Birth-giver of
Christ," implying that she gave birth not to God, but only to the man
Christ. The holy Patriarch Cyril repeatedly wrote to Nestorius and
pointed out his error, but Nestorius continued to persevere in it. Then
the saint sent out epistles against Nestorianism to the clergy of
Constantinople and to the holy emperor Theodosius the Younger
(408-450), denuncing the heresy. Cyril wrote also to other Churches, to
Pope Celestine and to the other Patriarchs, and even to monks of
several monasteries, warning ofthe emergence of a dangerous heresy.
Nestorius started an open persecution against the
Orthodox. In his
presence one of his partisans, Bishop Dorotheus, pronounced an anathema
against anyone who would call the Most Holy Virgin Mary the Theotokos.
Nestorius hated Cyril and brought out against him
every kind of slander
and fabrication, calling him a heretic. The saint continued to defend
Orthodoxy with all his powers. The situation became so aggravated, that
it became necessary to call an Ecumenical Council, which convened in
the city of Ephesus in the year 431. At the Council 200 bishops arrived
from all the Christian Churches. Nestorius, awaiting the arrival of
Bishop John of Antioch and other Syrian bishops, did not agree to the
opening of the Council. But the Fathers of the Council began the
sessions with Cyril presiding. Having examined the teaching of
Nestorius, the Council condemned him as a heretic. Nestorius did not
submit to the Council, and Bishop John opened a "robber council", which
decreed Cyril a heretic. The unrest increased.
By order of the emperor,
Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria and Archbishop Memnon of Ephesus were
locked in prison, and Nestorius was deposed.
Soon Sts Cyril and
Memnon were freed, and the sessions of the Council
continued. Nestorius, not submitting himself to the determinations of
the Council, was deprived of priestly rank. By order of the emperor he
was sent to the faraway place Sasim in the Libyan wilderness, where he
died in grievous torments. His tongue, having blasphemed the Mother of
God, was overtaken by punishment -- in it there developed worms. Even
Bishop John of Antioch and the remaining Syrian bishops signed the
decrees of the Council of Ephesus.
Cyril guided the
Alexandrian Church for 32 years, and towards the end
of his life the flock was cleansed of heretics. Gently and cautiously
Cyril approached anyone, who by their own simpleness and lack of
knowledge, fell into false wisdom. There was a certain Elder, an
ascetic of profound life, who incorrectly considered the Old Testament
Priest Melchizedek to be the Son of God. Cyril prayed for the Lord to
reveal to the Elder the correct way to view the righteous one. After
three days the Elder came to Cyril and said that the Lord had revealed
to him that Melchizedek was a mere man.
Cyril learned to overcome his prejudice against the
memory of the great
John Chrysostom (November 13). Theophilus, the Patriarch of Alexandria,
and uncle of Cyril, was an antagonist of John, and presided in a
council in judgment of him. Cyril thus found himself in a circle
antagonistic to John Chrysostom, and involuntarily acquired a prejudice
against him. Isidore of Pelusium (February 4) repeatedly wrote to Cyril
and urged him to include the name of the great Father of the Church
into the diptychs of the saints, but Cyril would not agree.
Once in a dream he saw a wondrous temple, in which the
Mother of God
was surrounded by a host of angels and saints, in whose number was John
Chrysostom. When Cyril wanted to approach the All-Holy Lady and
venerate her, John Chrysostom would not let him. The Theotokos asked
John to forgive Cyril for having sinned against him through ignorance.
Seeing that John hesitated, the Mother of God said, "Forgive him for my
sake, since he has labored much for my honor, and has glorified me
among the people calling me Theotokos." John answered, "By your
intercession, Lady, I do forgive him," and then he embraced Cyril with
love.
Cyril repented that he had maintained anger against
the great saint of
God. Having convened all the Egyptian bishops, he celebrated a solemn
feast in honor of John Chrysostom.
Cyril died in the year 444, leaving behind many works.
In particular,
the following ought to be mentioned: commentaries On the Gospel of
Luke, On the Gospel of John, On the Epistles of the Apostle Paul to the
Corinthians and to the Hebrews; also an Apologia in Defense of
Christianity against the Emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363). Of vast
significance are his Five Books against Nestorius; a work on the Most
Holy Trinity under the title Thesaurus, written against Arius and
Eunomios. Also two dogmatic compositions on the Most Holy Trinity,
distinguished by a precise exposition of the Orthodox teaching on the
Procession of the Holy Spirit. Cyril wrote Against Anthropomorphism for
several Egyptians, who through ignorance depicted God in human form.
Among Cyril's works are also the Discussions, among which is the moving
and edifying Discourse on the Exodus of the Soul, inserted in the
Slavonic "Following Psalter".
Today we commemorate the repose
of this great Father of the Church. He is also remembered on January
18, the date of his flight from Alexandria.
|
594 St.
Maximian
of Syracuse Benedictine bihop,
monk trained by St. Gregory I the Great at St. Andrew’s Abbey in Rome
Aposcrisarius apostolic delegate in Sicily
Syracúsis, in Sicília, sancti Maximiáni
Epíscopi, cujus sanctus Gregórius Papa sæpius
méminit.
At Syracuse in Sicily, Bishop St. Maximian, who is
frequently mentioned by Pope St. Gregory.
Benedictine
bishop,
trained by St. Gregory I the Great at St. Andrew’s Abbey in Rome. He
was born on the island of Sicily and
went to Rome. There he served as apocrisarius, or ambassador, to
Constantinople for Popes Pelagius and St. Gregory. He became the bishop
of Syracuse and delegate to Sicily, where he died.
Maximian of Syracuse, OSB B (RM) Born in Sicily; died in Syracuse, 594.
Maximian was a monk at Saint Andrew's Abbey on the Coelian Hill in Rome
under Saint Gregory the Great. Maximian served as Aposcrisarius in
Constantinople to both Pope Pelagius and Gregory the Great. Gregory
recalled him to Rome to serve him as minister and, in 591, appointed
him bishop of Syracuse and apostolic delegate in Sicily (Benedictines)
.
|
 597
St. Columba royal
descent fifteen years
preaching setting up foundations built monastery became world famous
island of Iona off the coast of Scotland developed a
monastic rule poet
In the island of Iona in Scotland, St. Columba, priest and confessor.
Born 521 probaly in Donegal Ireland
of royal descent he studied at Moville under St. Finnian then in
Leinster at the monastery of Clonard under another St. Finnian. He was
ordained before he was twenty-five and spent the next fifteen years
preaching and setting up foundations at Derry, Durrow, and Kells.
Possibly because of a family feud which resulted in the death of 3000
and for which he considered himself partly responsible he left Ireland
at 42 and landed on the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland. There
he built the monastery which was to become world famous. With SS Canice
and Comgall he spread the gospel to the Picts; he also developed a
monastic rule which many followed until the introduction of St.
Benedicts. He died on Iona and is also known as Colm, Colum and
Columcille.
Columba (RM) (also known as Colum, Columbus, Combs,
Columkill,
Columcille, Colmcille) Born in Garton, County Donegal, Ireland, c. 521;
died June 9, 597.
"Alone
with none but Thee, my God, I journey on my
way; What need I fear when Thou art
near, Oh King of night and day?
More safe am I within Thy hand Than if a host did
round me stand." --Attributed to Saint Columba.
"We
know for certain that Columba left successors distinguished for
their purity of life, their love of God, and their loyalty to the rules
of the monastic life." --The
Venerable
Bede.
Ireland has many
saints and three
great ones: Patrick, Brigid, and Columba.
Columba outshines the
others for his pure Irishness. He loved Ireland with all his might and
hated to leave it for Scotland. But he did leave it and laid the
groundwork for the conversion of Britain. He had a quick temper but was
very kind, especially to animals and children. He was a poet and an
artist who did illumination, perhaps some of those in the Book of Kells
itself. His skill as a scribe can be seen in the Cathach of Columba at
the Irish Academy, which is the oldest surviving example of Irish
majuscule writing. It was latter enshrined in silver and bronze and
venerated in churches.
About the time that Patrick was taken to Ireland as a
slave, Columba
was born. He came from a race of kings who had ruled in Ireland for six
centuries, directly descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, and was
himself in close succession to the throne. From an early age he was
destined for the priesthood; he was given in fosterage to a priest.
After studying at Moville under Saint Finnian and then at Clonard with
another Saint Finnian, he surrendered his princely claims, he became a
monk at Glasnevin under Mobhi and was ordained.
He spent the next 15 years preaching and teaching in
Ireland. As was
the custom in those days, he combined study and prayer with manual
labor. By his own natural gifts as well as by the good fortune of his
birth, he soon gained ascendancy as a monk of unusual distinction. By
the time he was 25, he had founded no less than 27 Irish monasteries,
including those at Derry (546), Durrow (c. 556), and probably Kells, as
well as some 40 churches.
Columba was a poet, who had learned Irish history and
poetry from a
bard named Gemman. He is believed to have penned the Latin poem Altus
Prosator and two other extant poems. He also loved fine books and
manuscripts. One of the famous books associated with Columbia is the
Psaltair, which was traditionally the Battle Book of the O'Donnells,
his kinsmen, who carried it into battle. The Psaltair is the basis for
one of the most famous legends of Saint Columba.
It is said that on one occasion, so anxious was
Columba to have a copy
of the Psalter that he shut himself up for a whole night in the church
that contained it, transcribing it laboriously by hand. He was
discovered by a monk who watched him through the keyhole and reported
it to his superior, Finnian of Moville. The Scriptures were so scarce
in those days that the abbot claimed the copy, refusing to allow it to
leave the monastery. Columba refused to surrender it, until he was
obliged to do so, under protest, on the abbot's appeal to the High King
Diarmaid, who said: "Le gach buin a laogh" or "To every cow her own
calf," meaning to every book its copy.
An unfortunate
period followed, during which, owing to Columba's
protection of a refugee and his impassioned denunciation of an
injustice by King Diarmaid, war broke out between the clans of Ireland,
and Columba became an exile of his own accord. Filled with remorse on
account of those who had been slain in the battle of Cooldrevne, and
condemned by many of his own friends, he experienced a profound
conversion and an irresistible call to preach to the heathen. Although
there are questions regarding Columba's real motivation, in 563, at the
age of 42, he crossed the Irish Sea with 12 companions in a coracle and
landed on a desert island now known as Iona (Holy Island) on Whitsun
Eve. Here on this desolate rock, only three miles long and two miles
wide, in the grey northern sea off the southwest corner of Mull, he
began his work; and, like Lindisfarne, Iona became a center of
Christian enterprise. It was the heart of Celtic Christianity and the
most potent factor in the conversion of the Picts, Scots, and Northern
English.
Columba built a monastery consisting of huts with
roofs of branches set
upon wooden props. It was a rough and primitive settlement. For over 30
years he slept on the hard ground with no pillow but a stone. But the
work spread and soon the island was too small to contain it. From Iona
numerous other settlements were founded, and Columba himself penetrated
the wildest glens of Scotland and the farthest Hebrides, and
established the Caledonian Church. It is reputed that he anointed King
Aidan of Argyll upon the famous stone of Scone, which is now in
Westminster Abbey. The Pictish King Brude and his people were also
converted by Columba's many miracles, including driving away a water
"monster" from the River Ness with the Sign of the Cross. Columba is
said to have built two churches at Inverness.
Just one year before Columba's migration to Iona,
Saint Moluag
established his mission at Lismore on the west coast of Scotland. There
are constant references to a rivalry between the two saints over
spheres of influence, which are probably without foundation. Columba
was primarily interested in Gaelic life in Scotland, while Moluag was
drawn to the conversion of the Picts.
While leading the
Irish in Scotland, Columba appears to have retained
some sort of overlordship over his monasteries in Ireland. About 580,
he participated in the assembly of Druim-Cetta in Ulster, where he
mediated about the obligations of the Irish in Scotland to those in
Ireland. It was decided that they should furnish a fleet, but not an
army, for the Irish high-king. During the same assembly, Columba, who
was a bard himself, intervened to effectively swing the nation away
from its declared intention of suppressing the Bardic Order. Columba
persuaded them that the whole future of Gaelic culture demanded that
the scholarship of the bards be preserved. His prestige was such that
his views prevailed and assured the presence of educated laity in Irish
Christian society.
He is personally described as "A man well-formed, with
powerful frame;
his skin was white, his face broad and fair and radiant, lit up with
large, gray, luminous eyes..." (Curtayne). Saint Adamnan, his
biographer wrote of him: "He had the face of an angel; he was of an
excellent nature, polished in speech, holy in deed, great in
counsel...loving unto all." It is clear that Columba's temperament
changed
dramatically during his life. In his early years he was intemperate and
probably inclined to violence. He was extremely stern and harsh with
his monks, but towards the end he seems to have softened. Columba had
great qualities and was gay and lovable, but his chief virtue lay in
the conquest of his own passionate nature and in the love and sympathy
that flowed from his eager and radiant spirit.
On June 8, 597, Columba was copying out the psalms
once again. At the
verse, "They that love the Lord shall lack no good thing," he stopped,
and said that his cousin, Saint Baithin must do the rest. Columba died
the next day at the foot of the altar. He was first buried at Iona, but
200 years later the Danes destroyed the monastery.
His relics were
translated to Dunkeld in 849, where they were visited by pilgrims,
including Anglo-Saxons of the 11th century.
Columba died was the
same year in which Saint Gregory the
Great sent Saint Augustine of Canterbury to convert England.
Perhaps
because the Roman party gained ascendancy at the Synod of Whitby, much
of the credit that belongs to Saint Columba and his followers for the
conversion of Britain has been attributed to Augustine. It should not
be forgotten that both saints played important roles.
Saint Columba is also
important as patron of the Knights of Saint
Columba,
known in the United States as the Knights of Columbus
and by
other names in various parts of the world.
Like Saint Malachy, whose
apocryphal prophecies concerning the succession of popes are
universally known, Saint Columba left a series of predictions about the
future of Ireland. These were published in 1969 by Peter Blander under
the title, The Prophecies of Saint Malachy and Saint Columbkille (4th
ed. 1979, Colin Smythe, Gerrards Cross Buckshire).
Unsurprisingly, devotion to Columba is especially
strong in Derry. On
April 13, the king signed the Catholic Emancipation Act in London. On
that same day in Derry, the statue of a Protestant leader of the siege
of Derry, which stood on the city walls was smashed apart of its own
accord. The destruction of this symbol of dominion was attributed to
the intercession of Saint Columba (Anderson, Attwater, Benedictines,
Bentley, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Gill, Menzies, Montague, Simpson).
The following
legends about Saint Columba are the gentlest things
recorded about the heroic and tempestuous abbot who founded Iona. The
countryside where he was fathered is Gartan in Donegal, at the ingoing
of the mountains and the great lake; a gentle countryside, and more apt
a birthplace for the bird than the saint. The life written about 690 by
Saint Adamnan, himself an Irishman and an abbot of Iona, is a rugged
piece of work: but the deathdays of Saint Columba, and the crowding
torches that discovered him dying in the dark before the high altar at
midnight on June 9, are one of the tidemarks in medieval prose. The
work itself owes much to Adamnan's imagination and more to unreliable
sources, but it is a primarily a narrative of the miracles worked
through Columba.
In the first story Columba bids his brother monk to go
in three days to
a far hilltop and wait, "'For when the third hour before sunset is
past, there shall come flying from the northern coasts of Ireland a
stranger guest, a crane, wind tossed and driven far from her course in
the high air; tired out and weary she will fall upon the beach at thy
feet and lie there, her strength nigh gone. Tenderly lift her and carry
her to the steading near by; make her welcome there and cherish her
with all care for three days and nights; and when the three days are
ended, refreshed and loath to tarry longer with us in our exile, she
shall take flight again towards that old sweet land of Ireland whence
she came, in pride of strength once more. And if I commend her so
earnestly to thy charge, it is that in the countryside where thou and I
were reared, she too was nested.'"
The brother obeyed and all happened as Columba had
foretold. "And on
his return that evening to the monastery the Saint spoke to him, not as
one questioning but as one speaks of a thing past. 'May God bless thee,
my son,' said he, 'for thy kind tending of this pilgrim guest; that
shall make no long stay in her exile, but when three suns have set
shall turn back to her own land.'" And so it happened (Adamnan; also in
Curtayne).
The second story recalls how Columba's heart would be
touched when he
saw a sad child. From time to time he would leave Iona to preach to the
Picts of Scotland. "Once he visited a Pictish ruler who was also a
druid, or pagan priest. When he was there he noticed a thin little girl
with a face like a ghost. He asked who she was and was told that she
was just a slave from Ireland. The way it was said seemed to mean: 'Why
do you ask such silly questions? Who cares who she is, as long as she
brushes and scrubs and does what she is told?'
"Columcille was troubled; he could see plainly that
the little girl was
miserable. So he asked the druid to give her freedom and he would get
her home to Ireland. The druid refused. Columcille went away with a
picture of an unhappy little girl in his mind.
"Shortly afterward, the important druid became ill;
there was nobody
near to tell him what to do to get well so he sent for the Abbot of
Iona, who had a great reputation for curing people. Columcille did not
leave Iona but sent a message back that he would cure the druid if he
let the little girl free.
"The druid was angry and again refused. 'What on earth
is he troubling
himself for about that little bit of a good-for-nothing?' grumbled the
druid as he tossed about in bed. But the messenger had hardly left for
Iona with the refusal when the druid got worse; he had much pain and he
thought he would die. So he sent off another message to Columcille:
'Yes, you can have the slave-girl, only come and do something for me. I
am very bad and will die if you don't come soon.'"
Columcille, however,
did not trust the priest, so he sent two of his monks to bring the girl
back. When the girl was safe, Columcille set out for the druid's house
and cured him of his sickness (Curtayne).
Anther story occurs
in May, when Columba set out in a cart to visit the
brethren at their work. He found them busy in the western fields and
said, 'I had a great longing on me this April just now past, in the
high days of the Easter feast, to go to the Lord Christ; and it was
granted me by Him, if I so willed. But I would not have the joy of your
feast turned into mourning, and so I willed to put off the day of my
going from the world a little longer.' The monks were saddened to hear
this and Columba tried to cheer them. He blessed the island and
islanders and returned in his cart to the monastery.
On that Saturday, the venerable old saint and his
faithful Diarmid went
to bless a barn and two heaps of grain stored therein. Then with a
gesture of thanksgiving, he spoke, 'Truly, I give my brethren at home
joy that this year, if so be I might have to go somewhere away from
you, you will have what provision will last you the year.'
Diarmid was grieved to hear this again and the saint
promised to share
his secret. "'In the Holy Book this day is called the Sabbath, which
is, being interpreted, rest. And truly is this day my Sabbath, for it
is the last day for me of this present toilsome life, when from all
weariness of travail I shall take my rest, and at midnight of this
Lord's Day that draws n, I shall, as the Scripture saith, go the way of
my fathers. For now my Lord Jesus Christ hath deigned to invite me; and
to Him, I say, at this very midnight and at His own desiring, I shall
go. For so it was revealed to me by the Lord Himself.' At this sad
hearing his man began bitterly to weep, and the Saint tried to comfort
him as best he might.
"And so the Saint left the barn, and took the road
back to the
monastery; and halfway there sat down to rest. Afterwards on that spot
they set a cross, planted upon a millstone, and it is to be seen by the
roadside to this day. And as the Saint sat there, a tired old man
taking his rest awhile, up runs the white horse, his faithful servitor
that used to carry the milk pails, and coming up to the Saint he leaned
his head against his breast and began to mourn, knowing as I believe
from God Himself--for to God every animal is wise in the instinct his
Maker hath given him--that his master was soon to go from him, and that
he would see his face no more. And his tears ran down as a man's might
into the lap of the Saint, and he foamed as he wept.
"Seeing it, Diarmid would have driven the sorrowing
creature away, but
the Saint prevented him, saying, 'Let be, let be, suffer this lover of
mine to shed on my breast the tears of his most bitter weeping. Behold,
you that are a man and have a reasonable soul could in no way have
known of my departing if I had not but now told you; yet to this dumb
and irrational beast, his Creator in such fashion as pleased Him has
revealed that his master is to go from him.' And so saying, he blessed
the sad horse that had served him, and it turned again to its way"
(Adamnan; also in Curtayne).
In art, Saint Columba is depicted with a basket of
bread and an orb of
the world in a ray of light. He might also be pictured with an old,
white horse (Roeder). He is venerated in Dunkeld and as the Apostle of
Scotland (Roeder) .
THE most famous of Scottish saints, Columba, was
actually an Irishman of the UI Néill of the North and was born,
probably about the year 521, at Gartan in County Donegal. On both sides
he was of royal lineage, for his father Fedhlimidh, or Phelim, was
great-grandson to Niall of the Nine Hostages, overlord of Ireland,
whilst his mother Eithne, besides being related to the princes of
Scottish Dalriada, was herself descended from a king of Leinster. At
his baptism, which was administered by his foster father the priest
Cruithnechan, the little boy received the name of Coim, Colum or
Columba. In later life he was commonly called Colmcille—a designation
which Bede derives from cella et
Columba, and be his home for the rest of his life and which was
to be famous throughout western Christendom for centuries. His kinsman
Conall, king of Scottish Dairiada, at whose invitation he may have come
to Scotland, made over the land to him. Situated opposite the border
between the Picts of the north and the Scots of the south, Iona formed
an ideal centre for missions to both peoples. At first Columba appears
to have devoted his missionary effort to teaching the imperfectly
instructed Christians of Dalriada—most of whom were of Irish
descent—but after about two years he turned his attention to the
evangelization of the Scotland Picts. Accompanied by St Comgall and St
Canice he made his way to the castle of the redoubtable King Brude at
Inverness.
That pagan monarch had given orders that they were not to be admitted,
but when St Columba upraised his arm to make the sign of the cross,
bolts were withdrawn, gates fell open, and the strangers entered
unhindered. Impressed by their supernatural powers the king listened to
their words and ever afterwards held Columba in high honour. He also,
as overlord, confirmed him in the possession of Iona. We know from St
Adamnan that two or three times the saint crossed the mountain range
which divides the west of Scotland from the east and that his
missionary zeal took him to Ardnamurchan, to Skye, to Kintyre, to Loch
Ness and to Lochaber, and perhaps to Morven. He is commonly credited,
furthermore, with having planted the Church in Aberdeenshire and with
having evangelized practically the whole of Pictland, but this has been
contested on various grounds. When the descendants of the Dalriada
kings became the rulers of Scotland they were naturally eager to
magnify St Columba and a tendency may well have arisen to bestow upon
him the laurels won by other missionaries from Iona and elsewhere.
Columba never lost touch with Ireland. In 575 he attended the synod of
Drumceat in Meath in company with Conall’s successor Aidan, and there
he was successful in defending the status and privileges of his
Dalriada kinsfolk, in vetoing the proposed abolition of the order of
bards, and in securing for women exemption from all military service.
He was in Ireland again ten years later, and in 587 he seems to have
been regarded as in some way responsible for another battle—this time
at Cuil Feda, near Clonard. When not engaged on missionary or
diplomatic expeditions his headquarters continued to be at Iona, where
he was visited by persons of all conditions, some desiring spiritual or
bodily help, some attracted by his reputation for sanctity, his
miracles and his prophecies. His manner of life was most austere; and
in his earlier life he was apt to be no less hard with others.
Montalembert remarked that, “Of all qualities, gentleness was precisely
the one in which Columba failed the most”.. But with the passage of
time his character mellowed and the picture painted by St Adamnan of
his serene old age shows him in a singularly attractive light, a lover
of man and beast. Four years before his death he had an illness which
threatened to prove fatal, but his life was prolonged in answer to the
prayers of the community. As his strength began to fail he spent much
time transcribing books. On the day before his death he was copying the
Psalter, and had written, “They that love the Lord shall lack no good
thing”, when he paused and said, “ Here I must stop let Baithin do the
rest”.. Baithin was his cousin whom he had nominated as his successor.
That night when the monks came to the church for Matins, they found
their beloved abbot outstretched helpless and dying before the altar.
As his faithful attendant Diarmaid gently upraised him he made a feeble
effort to bless his brethren and then immediately breathed his last.
Columba was indeed dead, but his influence lasted on, extended
until it came to dominate the churches of Scotland, Ireland and
Northumbria. For three-quarters of a century and more, Celtic
Christians in those lands upheld Columban traditions in certain matters
of order and ritual in opposition to those of Rome itself, and the rule
Columba had drawn up for his monks was followed in many of the
monasteries of western Europe until it was superseded by the milder
ordinances of St Benedict.
Adamnan, St Columba’s biographer, had not personally known him, for he
was born at least thirty years after his death, but as his kinsman by
blood and a successor in the office of abbot at Iona itself, he must
have been steeped in the traditions which such a personality could not
fail to have created for those who followed in his footsteps. The
portrait of Columba left by Adamnan in any case deserves to be quoted.
“He had the face of an angel; he was of an excellent nature, polished
in speech, holy in deed, great in counsel. He never let a single hour
pass without engaging in prayer or reading or writing or some other
occupation. He endured the hardships of fasting and vigils without
intermission by day and night, the burden of a single one of his
labours would seem beyond the powers of man. And, in the midst of all
his toils, he appeared loving unto all, serene and holy, rejoicing in
the joy of the Holy Spirit in his inmost heart.” And Columba’s
prophetical last blessing of the Isle of Iona came true: “ Unto this
place, small and mean though it be, great homage shall yet be paid, not
only by the kings and peoples of the Scots, but by the rulers of
barbarous and distant nations with their peoples. The saints, also, of
other churches shall regard it with no common reverence.”
The most important source,
but not nearest in point of time, is
undoubtedly Adamnan. J. T. Fowler’s revised edition of 1920
supplies the best text, but
Reeves’s text and notes are also valuable, and there is a translation
by Wentworth Huyshe (1939). Two Latin lives of Irish origin, neither of
them complete, are in the Codex
Salmanticensis. They have been printed by the Bollandists, and
besides these there are three Irish lives, all of which are described
with references by C. Plummer, in Miscellanea
Hagiographica Hibernica. Another valuable source is the Ecclesiastical History of Bede. But
for a general view of the materials J. F. Kenney’s Sources for the Early History of Ireland should
above all be consulted, and also his article in the Catholic Historical Review
(Washington, D.C., 1926), pp. 636—644. A notable increase in the number
of books and articles devoted to St Columba was no doubt due to the
writings of Dr W. D. Simpson (notably The
Historical St Columba, 1927, and The Celtic Church in Scotland,
1935), who threw doubt upon the claim made for Columba that he was the
true apostle of the north of Scotland. Dr Simpson’s views roused active
opposition, on which see P. Grosjean ia the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xlvi
(1928), pp. 197—199 and vol. liv (1936), pp. 408—412; L. Gougaud in Scottish Gaelic Studies, vol. ii
(1927), pp. 106—108, and J. Ryan in The
Month, October, 1927, pp. 314—320. Cf. Leclercq under "Iona" in DAC.,
vol. vii, cc. 1425 seq. and Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lv
(1937), pp. 96—108; and for how the name I, Y or Hi, became Iooa, see
Plummer’s Bede, vol. ii,
p. 127.
|
598 St. Baithin
Abbot
cousin of St.
Columba
Also listed as Comm or Cominus in some lists. Baithin was
abbot of Tiree Abbey in Ireland, succeeding St. Columba as abbot of
lona in Scotland in 597. He
wrote about his saintly cousin and is said to have died on the
anniversary of St. Columba's death.
Baithin of Iona, Abbot (AC) (also known as Comin, Cominus) Saint
Baithin, first cousin of Saint Columba, succeeded Columba as abbot of
Iona. He is said to have died on the anniversary of his cousin's death
(Benedictines, Encyclopedia) .
|
717 St.
Cummian 8th
century Benedictine bishop of
Ireland, also called Cumian or Cummin. He traveled to Bobbio, in Italy,
and remained there as a monk.
8th v. Saint Cumian of
Bobbio Irish bishop monk ardent advocate of the Roman observances
OSB B (AC)
(also known as Cummian, Cummin) Died early 8th century. Saint Cumian
was an Irish bishop who in his wanderings through Italy visited and
remained in Bobbio as a monk. By this time Bobbio was already a
Benedictine abbey; Cumian himself was an ardent advocate of the Roman
observances (Benedictines) .
|
1196 St. Richard
of
Andria Bishop of Andria, Italy
and
patron of that see known for miracles and his extraordinary sanctity
Andriæ,
in Apúlia, sancti Richárdi, qui fuit primus
ejúsdem civitátis Epíscopus, et miráculis
cláruit.
At
Andria in Apulia, St. Richard, first bishop of
that city, who is famed for his miracles.
12th
v. ST RICHARD, BISHOP OF ANDRIA
ALL the records agree that the St Richard who is commemorated on June 9
was an Englishman and that he was the first bishop of Andria in Apulia.
His reputed "acts", however, are spurious and the very period at which
he flourished is uncertain. Local tradition asserts that he came from
Rome to Andria in 453, when Attila was ravaging Italy, that he was
elected bishop and that he was one of the three prelates commissioned
by Pope St Gelasius I to dedicate the sanctuary on Monte Gargano after
the famous vision of St Michael. On the other hand, there is no
evidence of the existence of a bishopric at Andria before 1118 and it
is certain that the English (Britons?) were still, for the most part,
heathen in the fifth century. It seems more reasonable to identify
to-day's saint with the Bishop Richard of Andria who attended the third
Council of the Lateran in 1179 and who translated the relics of SS.
Erasmus and Pontian from Civitella to Andria in 1196. He may possibly
have owed his elevation to the episcopate to Pope Adrian IV, himself an
Englishman. The remains of St Richard, which had been long lost, were
discovered in 1434 with documents testifying to his ancient cultus, and
Eugenius IV consented to its revival and continuance. St Richard, or
Riccardo, is the principal patron of Andria.
The so-called life of St
Richard has been printed by Ughelli, ltalia Sacra, vol. vii, cc.
1248-1255; and see also the Acta
Sanctorum, June, vol. ii. In comparatively recent years the
whole subject has been soberly discussed by R. Zagaria, San Ricardo
nella legenda, nella storia. (1929); and cf. the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. I
(1932), pp. 206-207.
He is believed to have been an Englishman appointed
to Andria by Pope Adrian IV, who was likewise from England. He attended
the third
general council of the Lateran in 1719. There was also a
legend about an Englishman named Richard who became the first bishop of
Andria, appointed by Pope St. Gelasius II.
Richard of Andria B (RM) Born in England; died after 1196. The English
Saint Richard became bishop of Andria in Italy. He was known for
miracles and his extraordinary sanctity. The date of his life is often
erroneously given as 5th century; however, no bishop is recorded in
that see prior to the 8th century and the English were not converted
before the 7th century (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth) .
|
1222 Bl. Diana
family found a Dominican convent in 1222 for
her, staffed with Diana four companions four nuns brought from
Rome, two - Cecilia and Amata
1236 1290 BB. DIANA, CECILIA AND AMATA, VIRGINS
WHEN St Dominic sought a wider field for the activities of his order in
Italy, he made special choice of Bologna because he foresaw that its
famous university would provide him with the kind of recruits he
desired. A suitable site for a priory was found, but strong opposition
was encountered from the powerful d'Andalo family who owned the land.
Eventually they yielded to the earnest entreaties of Andalo's only
daughter Diana, who from the first coming of the friars had listened
eagerly to their preaching. St Dominic privately received her vow of
virginity, together with an undertaking that she would enter the
religious life as soon as possible. For some time she continued to live
at home, rising very early for her devotions and practising penance.
She had anticipated being able to persuade her family to found a
convent for Dominican nuns which she could enter, but when she broached
the subject her father absolutely refused to consider it or to allow
her to become a religious. She then took the law into her own hands. On
the pretext of paying them a visit she went to the Augustinian
canonesses at Roxana and induced them to give her the veil.
As soon as this became known, her family went in force to fetch her, so
much violence being employed that one of her ribs was broken in the
scuffle. She was taken home and kept in close confinement, but after
she had recovered she managed to escape and to return to Roxana. No
further attempts seem to have been made to interfere with her. Indeed,
Bd Jordan of Saxony so completely won over Andalo and his sons that
they helped him to found a small convent for Dominican nuns; and there
in 1222, Diana and four companions were installed. As they were quite
inexperienced in the religious life, four nuns were obtained from the
convent of San Sisto in Rome. Two of these, Cecilia and Amata, are
always associated with Diana: they were buried in her tomb and were
beatified with her in 1891.
Nothing else is known of Amata, but Cecilia was a member of the noble
Roman family of the Cesarini and was a remarkable woman. When she was a
girl of seventeen in the convent at the Trastevere before its removal
to San Sisto, she had been the first of the nuns to respond to St
Dominic's efforts to reform them, and she it was who persuaded the
abbess and the other sisters to submit to his rule. Having been the
first woman-so, at least, it is said-to receive the Dominican habit,
she was well fitted to govern the convent of St Agnes at Bologna in its
early days. Bd Jordan had a special affection for the little community
and kept up an active correspondence with Diana. Frequently in his
letters he attributes the progress of the order in a great measure to
their prayers; his one apprehension is that they may be overtaxing
their strength by their austerities. Bd Diana died on January 9, 1236,
at about the age of thirty-five. Cecilia survived her by many years and
as an old woman dictated her reminiscences of St Dominic. They contain
a simple and graphic pen portrait of the holy founder himself.
There is a Latin biography
of Bd Diana which will be found printed in the volume of H. M. Cormier,
La bse Diane d'Andalo (1892). Bd Jordan's
letters were re-edited in 1925 by B. Altaner, Die Briefe Jordans von Sachsen, and
there is a French translation of the letters written to Bd Diana,
produced by M. Aron in 1924. See also M. C. de Ganay, Les Bienheureuses Dominicaines
(1913), pp. 23-48; Procter, Lives of
the Dominican Saints, pp. 168-170; and N. Georges, Bd Diana and Bd Jordan (1933).
A member of the d'Andalo family, Diana was born near Bologna Italy, and convinced her
father to withdraw his opposition to the founding of a Dominican priory on land he
owned in Bologna. Dominic received her vow of virginity, but she was
forced to remain at home by her family.
Later she joined the Augustinians at Roxana but was forcibly removed
from the convent by her family. She was injured in the struggle but
later escaped and returned to Roxana. Sometime later Blessed Jordan of
Saxony convinced the family to found a Dominican convent in 1222
for
her, staffed with Diana and four companions and four nuns brought from
Rome, two of them Cecilia and Amata. Diana died on January 9, and when
Cecilia and Amata died, they were buried with her. All three were
beatified in 1891. Feast day is June 9th . |
13 th v. Blessed
Diana, Caecilia, and Amata first members of
Saint Agnes
Dominican Convent in Bologna OP VV (AC)
Beatified in 1891. Diana, Caecilia, and
Amata were the first members of
Saint Agnes Dominican Convent in Bologna, Italy. They all knew Saint
Dominic personally. Little is known of Sister Amata except that she was
a good friend of Saint Dominic,
who, according to legend, gave her the name Amata ('beloved'). Dominic
either sent her to the reformed convent of Saint Sixtus when the nuns left
Saint Mary's across the Tiber during a time of drastic reform, or he
was instrumental in allowing her to stay there. There was an Amata from
whom Dominic cast out seven devils, but it was probably not this Amata.
Caecilia Caesarini was a high-spirited
young Roman of an ancient
family; she threw her considerable influence into the reform movement
at the time Saint Dominic was attempting to get the sisters into Saint
Sixtus and under a strict rule. When the saint came to speak to the
sisters at Saint Mary's, it was Caecilia (then 17) who urged the
prioress to support his cause. She was the first to throw herself at
Dominic's feet and beg for the habit and the rule he was advocating,
and her hand is evident in the eventual working out of the touchy
situation. In 1224, Caecilia and three other sisters from Saint Sixtus,
including Amata, went
to Saint Agnes in Bologna to help with the new foundation. Sister
Caecilia was the first prioress there and proved to be a very strict
one.
Caecilia is responsible for relating
nearly everything now known about
the personal appearance and habits of Saint Dominic. In her extreme old
age, she was asked by Theodore of Apoldia to give him all the details
of the saint's personality, and all that she could recall of the early
days of the order, so that he could record them for posterity. Though
nearly 90, her memory was keen and specific. She recalled how Dominic
used his hands, the precise shade of his hair, the exact line of his
tonsure. If she erred, there were still people alive who could have
corrected her, though there was probably no one with her descriptive
power left to tell the tale.
Through a woman's eyes, she saw the
founder from a different angle than
his fellow preachers were apt to see, and remarked on his gentleness
with the sisters, and the little touches of thoughtfulness so
characteristic of him. While the men who worked with him would recall
his great mind and his penances, and appreciate the structural beauty
of the order he had founded, Caecilia saw the glow of humanity that so
many historians miss.
The most colorful of the three was Sister
Diana, the spoiled and
beautiful daughter of the d'Andalo and Carbonesi families of Bologna,
who lost her heart to the ideal of the Dominicans when listening to
Reginald of Orléans preach. She espoused the cause of the
friars, who were new in Bologna, and begged her father until she
obtained from him the church of Saint Nicholas of the Vineyards, of
which he had the patronage.
Having
established the brethren, she wanted a convent of the Dominican
sisters in Bologna. When Saint Dominic came there on his last journey,
she talked with him, and all her worries departed. She knelt at his
feet and made a vow to enter the Dominicans as soon as it should be
possible to build a convent at Bologna. Saint Dominic, going away to
Venice on a trip from which he would only return to die, made sure
before leaving that the brethren understood about Diana. Four of the
fathers from the community of Saint Nichola were under obedience to see
that her convent was built.
In the meantime, Diana's father refused
her permission to enter the
convent. Stealing a leaf from the life of Saint Clare, she ran away to
the Augustinians outside the city. In full armor, her brothers came
after he, and Diana was returned, battered but unconvinced, to the
paternal home. She nursed a number of broken ribs and several explosive
ideas in silence.
The death of Saint Dominic was a great
grief to Diana, as she was still
living in a state of siege at home, waiting for some action on the
question of the new convent. However, she soon acquired a new friend,
who was to be her greatest joy in the years of her mortal life--Jordan
of Saxony, master general of the order following Dominic. Jordan, as
provincial of Lombardy, inherited the job of building the Bologna
convent, but his relations with Diana were not to be merely mundane.
Their friendship, of which we have the evidence in Jordan's letters, is
a tribute to the beauty of all friendship, and a pledge of its place in
religious life.
Diana was resourceful. She made another
attempt to elope to the
convent. This time her family gave up in despair. She remained
peacefully with the Augustinians until the new convent was built. In
1223, Diana and several other young women received the Dominican habit
from Jordan of Saxony. Diana was the prioress for a time, but perhaps
Jordan felt that she was too volatile for ruling others, because, as
soon as the sisters came from Saint Sixtus, he established Sister
Caecilia as prioress. Diana, who was used to being not only her own
boss, but the one who gave orders to others, seems to have made no
protest.
If we had the letters written by Diana, we
should possess a fascinating
picture of the early years of the order and the people who made it what
it is. We are indebted to Diana for what we do have of the
correspondence, for she carefully saved all of Jordan's letters. They
tell us of the progress made by the friars in various lands, and ask
her to remind the sisters to pray for the missionaries. Jordan counts
the successes when many good novices have come into the order, begging
her prayers in the low moments when promising novices leave.
More than this, these are letters of
spiritual direction, which should
give a pattern to all such correspondence, for they infer that Diana is
a willing and energetic Christian who will follow the advice she is
given, not simply keep the correspondence going for the joy of it.
Diana died in 1236. She was buried in the
convent of Saint Agnes. Her
remains were transferred when a new convent was built, and Sister
Caecilia--who died 60 years later--was buried near her, along with
Sister Amata. The relics were transferred several times, all three
together. The head of Blessed Diana was placed in a reliquary near the
tomb of Saint Dominic (Benedictines, Dorcy) .
|
13th v. St. John
of
Shavta The great Georgian hymnographer, philosopher, orator education
at Gelati Academy monk and labored at Vardzia Monastery
 queen Tamar
Vardzia Monastery Fresco from
He labored in the 12th and 13th centuries, during the
reign of the holy queen Tamar. Few details of his life have been
preserved, but we know that he received his education at Gelati
Academy, where he studied theology, ancient and Arabic history,
philosophy, and literature. He was later tonsured a monk and labored at
Vardzia Monastery.
When the Georgian army under the command of Queen
Tamar’s husband,
Davit Soslan, entered into battle (The Battle of Basiani (ca. 1203))
with the sultan Rukn al-Din, Queen Tamar journeyed to
Odzrkhe Monastery
to pray for help. Catholicos Tevdore of Kartli and many hierarchs and
monastics accompanied her there.
Among them, St. John
of Shavta
stood out as a wise theologian and philosopher and a brilliant
hymnographer.
During the Liturgy at Odzrkhe Monastery a miracle
occurred: endowed by
God with the gift of prophecy, St. Eulogius
the Fool for-Christ fell to his knees, lifted his
hands to
the heavens and cried out:
“Glory to God!
Almighty
Christ!…Do not fear the Persians, but rather depart in peace, for the
mercy of God has descended upon the house of Tamar!”
Eulogius’s words were clearly a divine revelation. St.
John of Shavta
turned to Queen Tamar, rejoicing,
“Your Highness! The Almighty has
made known to us our victory in the war from the lips of a
fool-for-Christ!”
 Eulogius
confided his secret to St. John: disguised as a fool, he had been
concealing his God-given gift. But now it seemed that the gift would
become apparent to all, so Eulogius quickly disappeared out of sight to
escape the people’s attention.
St. John of Shavta composed his “Hymns to the Theotokos
of Vardzia” in thanksgiving for Georgia’s victory in the Battle
of Basiani.
He is also recognized as the composer of “Abdul-Messiah,”
(Abdul-Messiah: servant of Christ.) a famous ode to the holy queen
Tamar.
Our Holy Father John of Shavta
lived to an advanced age and was canonized soon after his repose.
<1427 Saint
Cyril,
Igumen of White Lake
In the world Cosmas born in Moscow of pious parents.
In his youth he
was left an orphan and lived with his kinsman, the boyar (nobleman)
Timothy Vasil'evich Vel'yaminov, in the surroundings of the court of
the Great Prince Demetrius Donskoy (1363-1389). Secular life bored the
youth. At the request of Stephen of Makhra (July 14), Cosmas was
dismissed to the Simonov monastery, where he took vows under Theodore
(November 28) with the name Cyril.
Cyril fulfilled his monastic obediences under the
guidance of the Elder
Michael, who afterwards was Bishop of Smolensk. By night the Elder read
the Psalter, and Cyril bowed making prostrations, but at the first
ringing of the bell he went to Matins.
He asked the Elder permission to partake of food every
second or third
day. The experienced Elder did not allow this, but blessed him instead
to eat with the brethren, only not to the extent of satiety. Cyril
carried out his obedience in the bakery: he carried water, chopped
firewood, and distributed bread. When St Sergius of Radonezh came to
the Simonov monastery to see his nephew Theodore, he would seek Cyril
in the bakery and converse with him about spiritual matters before
seeing anyone else.
They transferred
Cyril from the bakery to the kitchen. He gazed into
the burning fire and told himself, "Beware, Cyril, lest you fall into
fire eternal". Cyril toiled for nine years in the kitchen and God
granted him such tender emotion, that he was not able to eat the bread
he baked without tears, blessing the Lord.
Fleeing the glory of man, he began to act as a
fool-for-Christ. As
punishment for transgressing against propriety, the Superior of the
monastery placed him on bread and water for forty days. Cyril underwent
this punishment with joy. But the saint could not conceal his
spirituality, and the experienced Elders understood him. Against his
will they compelled him to accept ordination to the priesthood. When he
was not serving in church, Cyril occupied himself with heavy work. When
Theodore was made Archbishop of Rostov, the brethren chose Cyril as
archimandrite of the monastery in 1388.
Rich and important people began to visit the monk to
hear his guidance.
This disturbed the humble spirit of the saint. Despite the entreaties
of the brethren, he would not remain as abbot, but secluded himself in
his former cell. Even here frequent visitors disturbed him, and he
crossed over to old Simonovo.
St Cyril's soul yearned for solitude, and he asked the
Mother of God to
show him a place conducive for salvation. One night he was reading an
Akathist in his cell before the Hodigitria icon of the Mother of God,
and had just reached the eighth Kontakion, "Seeing the strange
Nativity, let us become strangers to the world and transport our minds
to heaven." Then he heard a voice say, "Go to White Lake (Belozersk),
where I have prepared a place for you."
There at the desolate and sparsely populated White
Lake, he found the
place which he had seen in the vision. St Cyril and his companion St
Therapon of White Lake and Mozhaisk (May 27), set up a cross and dug a
cell in the ground near Mount Myaura at Siversk Lake.
St Therapon soon went to another
place, and St Cyril remained where he was. However, he was not able to
live in his underground cell for even one year.
Once Cyril, troubled
by a strange dream, lay down to sleep under a pine
tree, but just as he closed his eyes, he heard a voice cry, "Run,
Cyril!" Cyril only just managed to jump away as the pine tree came
crashing down. From this pine tree the ascetic made a cross.
Another time Cyril nearly perished from flames and
smoke when it
cleared away the forest, but God preserved His saint. A certain peasant
attempted to burn down the cell of the monk, but as much as he tried,
he did not succeed. Then having repented with tears, he confessed his
sin to Cyril, who tonsured him into monasticism.
Two monks Cyril
loved, Zebediah and Dionysius, came to him from Simonov
monastery, and then Nathanael, who afterwards was steward of the
monastery. Many began to come to the monk seeking to be tonsured. The
holy Elder perceived that his time of silence was ended. In the year
1397 he constructed a temple in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of
God.
When the number of brethren had multiplied, the monk
gave the monastery
a Rule of cenobitic life, which he sanctified by the example of his own
life. Thus, no one could talk in church, and no one could leave before
the end of services. They also came to venerate the Gospel according to
seniority. At meals they sat each at their own place, and there was
silence. From the trapeza, each went quietly to his own cell. No one
was able to receive either letters or gifts without having shown them
to Cyril, nor did anyone write a letter without his blessing.
Money was kept in the monastery treasury, and no one
had any personal
possessions. They went to the trapeza even to drink water. The cells
were not locked, and nothing was kept in them but icons and books. In
the final years of Cyril's life, the boyar (nobleman) Roman decided to
give the monastery a village and sent the deed. Cyril knew that if the
monastery came to possess a village, then the brethren would become
concerned about the land, settlements would disrupt the monastic
solitude, and so he refused the gift.
The Lord rewarded His saint with the gift of
clairvoyance and healing.
A certain Theodore desired to enter the monastery, but the Enemy of
mankind instilled in him such hatred for Cyril that he could not look
at the saint, nor listen to the sound of his voice. He approached
Cyril's cell and, seeing his grey hair, he was not able to say a word
from shame. The saint said to him, "Don't be sad, my brother, for all
are mistaken about me. You alone know the truth and my unworthiness. I
am actually a worthless sinner." Then Cyril blessed Theodore, promising
that he would not be troubled by such thoughts in the future. From that
time Theodore lived at peace in the monastery.
One time there was no wine for Divine Liturgy, and the
priest told the
saint about this. Cyril ordered a monk to bring him the empty wine
vessel, which he opened full of wine. During a time of famine Cyril
distributed bread to all the needy and he did not stop, even though the
normal reserves hardly sufficed for the brethren. Despite this, the
more bread was distributed, the more it increased. The monks then
realized that God would provide for their needs, through the prayers of
Cyril.
The saint calmed a storm on the lake which threatened
the fishermen. He
predicted that none of the brethren would die until after his death,
despite a plague that would rage. Then many would follow after him.
The saint served his
final Divine Liturgy on the day of PentecoHaving
giving final instructions to the brethren to preserve love among
themselves, Cyril reposed in the ninetieth year of his life on June 9,
1427 on the Feast day of his namesake Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria.
Within a year after the saint's death, more than thirty of the
fifty-three brethren died. The monk often appeared to the survivors in
dreams to offer advice and guidance.
Cyril loved spiritual enlightenment and he instilled
this love in his
disciples. In 1635 there were more than two thousand books in the
monastery, including sixteen "of the Wonderworker Cyril." Three letters
of the monk to Russian princes survive down to our time. They are
remarkable specimens of his spiritual instruction and guidance, love,
love of peace and consolation.
The veneration of the holy ascetic began not later
than 1447-1448. The
Life of Saint Cyril was commissioned by Metropolitan Theodosius and
Great Prince Basil the Dark. It was written by the Athonite monk
Pachomius the Logothete, who dwelt at the Cyrilov monastery in 1462 and
met with many eyewitnesses and disciples of Cyril. He learned the most
from Martinian (January 12), who had lived with the saint from his
youth.
The Monk Kirill (Cyril), Hegumen of Beloezersk, (in
the world Kosma)
was born in Moscow of pious parents. In his youthful years he was left
an orphan and lived with his kinsman, the boyar (nobleman) Timofei
Vasil'evich Vel'yaminov, in the surroundings of the court of the
GreatPrince Dimitrii Donskoi (1363-1389). Secular life bored the youth.
At the request of the Monk Stephan of Makhrisch (+ 1406, Comm. 14
July), Kosma was dismissed to the Simonov monastery, where he took vows
under Saint Theodore (+ 1395, Comm. 28 November) -- with the name
Kirill. The Monk Kirill fulfilled his monastic obediences under the
guidance of the starets (elder) Michael, who afterwards was Bishop of
Smolensk. By night the elder read the Psalter, and the Monk Kirill
bowed making poklons, but at the first clang of the bell he went to
matins. He asked the elder permission to partake of food every 2nd or
3rd day, but the experienced elder did not allow this, but blessed him
rather to eat with the brethren, only not to the extent of being full.
The Monk Kirill carried out his obedience in the bread-bakery: he
carried water, chopped firewood, and distributed bread. When the Monk
Sergei of Radonezh came to the Simonov monastery, he then before any
others visited and affectionately conversed with the Monk Kirill. They
transferred the Monk Kirill from the bread-bakery to the kitchen, and
the saint told himself, gazing at the burning fire: "Beware, Kirill,
lest thou fall into the fire eternal". The Monk Kirill toiled for nine
years in the kitchen and he attained to such tender emotion, that he
was not able to eat bread without tears, blessing the Lord. Fleeing the
glory of man, the monk at times began to be a fool-for-Christ. In
punishment for the transgressing of propriety, the monastery head
punished him on bread and water for 40 days; the Monk Kirill underwent
this punishment with joy. But the saint could not conceal his
spirituality, and the experienced elders understood him and against his
will they compelled him to accept the dignity of priest-monk. During
free time from services, the Monk Kirill took himself a turn as novice
and occupied himself with heavy work. When Saint Theodore was ordained
archbishop of Rostov, the brethren in 1390 chose the Monk Kirill as
archimandrite of the monastery.
Rich and important people began to visit the monk to
hear his guidance.
This disturbed the humble spirit of the saint, and he despite the
entreaty of the brethren would not remain head of the monastery, but
rather secluded himself in his former cell. But even here frequent
visitors troubled the monk, and he crossed over to old Simonovo. The
soul of the Monk Kirill yearned for quietude, and he prayed the Mother
of God to show him a place, conducive for salvation. One time at night,
reading as always an akathist before the Hodigetria icon of the Mother
of God, he heard a voice: "Go to Beloozero (White Lake), there is the
place for thee".
At the Beloezero
lakeside, then desolate and sparsely populated, he
long went in search of the place, which in the vision was destined for
his dwelling. In the surroundings of Mount Myaura at Siversk Lake, he
together with his companion the Monk Pherapont (Comm. 27 May), set up a
cross and dug up the ground.
The Monk Pherapont soon set off for another place, and
the Monk Kirill
pursued asceticism in his underground cell not even one year in
solitude. One time Saint Kirill, troubled by a strange dream, lay down
to sleep under a pine tree, but just hardly as he closed his eyes, he
heard a voice: "Run, Kirill!" The Monk Kirill only just managed to jump
away, as the pine tree came crashing down. From this pine tree the
ascetic made a cross. Another time the Monk Kirill nearly perished from
flames and smoke when it cleared away the forest, but God preserved His
saint. A certain peasant attempted to burn down the cell of the monk,
but as much as he tried, he did not succeed. Then having repented with
tears, he confessed his sin to the Monk Kirill, who vowed him into
monasticism.
To the monk there came from Simonov monastery the
monks Zevedei and
Dionysii, beloved by him, and then Nathanael, afterwards steward of the
monastery. Many began to come to the monk and asked to be deemed worthy
of monasticism. The holy elder perceived, that his time of silence was
ended. In the year 1397 he constructed a temple in honour of the
Uspenie (Dormition or Repose) of the Mother of God.
When the number of brethren had multiplied, the monk
gave for the
monastery an ustav (rule) of community-life, which he sanctified by the
example of his own life. Thus, in church no one should make
conversation, no one ought to leave from it before the end of services;
and to the Gospel they came according to the eldest. At refectory meals
they sat each at their own place, and in the refectory there was
silence. From the refectory each went quietly to his own cell. No one
was able to receive either letters or gifts, without having shown them
to the Monk Kirill; without his blessing they did not write a letter.
Money was kept in the monastery treasury, nor did anyone possess
anything personal. Even to drink water they went to the refectory. The
cells were not locked, and in them, besides icons and books, nothing
was kept. In the final years of the Monk Kirill's life, the boyar
(nobleman) Roman decided to gift the monastery with a village and sent
off the deed of gift. The Monk Kirill discerned, that if the monastery
came to possess a village, then for the brethren it would prompt
concerns about the land, settlements would emerge to shatter the
monastic quietude, and so he refused the gift.
The Lord rewarded His saint with the gift of
perspicacity and healing.
A certain Feodor, having entered into the monastery out of love for the
monk, and then so hated him, that he could not look at the saint, felt
impelled to leave the monastery. He approached the cell of the Monk
Kirill and, glancing at his grey hair, from shame he was not able to
say a word. The monk said to him: "Sorrow not, my brother, for all are
mistaken about me; thou alone knowest the truth and all my
unworthiness; I am actually a worthless sinner". Then the Monk Kirill
blessed Feodor, and added that he should no more be troubled by such
thought. From that time Feodor lived at peace in the monastery.
One time there was no wine for Divine Liturgy, and the
sexton told the
saint about this. The Monk Kirill gave commands to bring him the empty
vessel, which he opened full of wine. During a time of famine the Monk
Kirill distributed bread to all the needy, and he did not stop, despite
that the normal reserves hardly sufficed for the brethren.
The monk tamed a
storm on the lake, which threatened the fishermen, and
he predicted that none of the brethren would die until his end, despite
that a plague would rage, and afterwards many would follow after him.
The monk did his final Divine-services on the day of
the Holy Trinity.
Having giving final instructions to the brethren to preserve love
amongst themselves, the Monk Kirill blessedly reposed in the 90th year
of his life on 9 June 1427 -- on the same-name ("tezoimennie") day of
memory with him of Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria. In the first
year after the death of the monk -- from the 53 brethren 30 men died.
The monk often appeared to the remaining in dreams with advice and
guidance.
The Monk Kirill loved spiritual enlightenment and he
brought this love
to his disciples. Among the works at the monastery in 1635 there were
numbered more than two-thousand books, among them sixteen "of the
Wonderworker Kirill". Three letters of the monk to Russian princes,
existing down to our time, reveal remarkable specimens of his spiritual
instruction and guidance, love, love of peace and consolation.
The all-Russian veneration of the monk began not later
than 1447-1448.
The Life of Saint Kirill was written, commissioned by Metropolitan
Theodosii and GreatPrince Vasilii Vasil'evich, by the priest-monk
Pakhomii the Logothete, who dwelt at the Kirillov monastery in 1462 and
met with many of the eye-witnesses and disciples of the Monk Kirill, in
whose number was also the Monk Martinian (Comm. 12 January), at that
time guiding the Ferapontov monastery.
|
1348 Blessed
Silvester Ventura age of 40 he joined the Camaldolese at Santa Maria
degli Angeli at Florence as a lay brother cook favored with ecstasies
heavenly visions, angels were wont
to come and cook for him spiritual advice was in great demand, OSB Cam.
(AC)
1348 BD SILVESTER OF VALDISEVE
A CARDER and bleacher of wool by trade, Bd Silvester (whose baptismal
name was Ventura) was born near Florence. In middle life he came under
the influence of a certain Brother Jordan, and at the age of forty he
entered the Camaldolese monastery of St Mary in Florence as a
lay-brother. There he was cook. Although he was totally uneducated, he
was so liberally endowed with infused wisdom that he was often
consulted by learned men, notably by Bd Simon of Cascia, who stated
that he had been enlightened by him on at least one hundred abstruse
theological points. The prior would frequently seek his advice, as did
also the monks, who treasured up many of his wise sayings. He used to
dissuade them from undertaking extraordinary and prolonged penitential
exercises as tending to pride; the discipline, he declared, should be
taken with moderation, humility and devotion. When a monk told him that
he was troubled with carnal thoughts, the holy man made light of it and
remarked that it was only what was to be expected; but when another
brother acknowledged that he had been murmuring, Silvester took the
matter very seriously. He asked how he, a servant of Almighty God,
could do such a thing and entreated him to cure himself of that vice in
this life, that he might not have to atone for it in eternity. He never
learnt to read; but Silvester had so great a devotion to the Divine
Office-which he could hear-that he expressed wonder that the hearts of
men could remain unbroken at the sound of words so sweet and so
sublime. In accordance with his own prediction, the good lay-brother
passed away on the day that a beloved sister of the name of Paula died
in the neighbouring convent of St Margaret. He was seventy years of
age.
In the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. ii, will
be found a short life of Bd Silvester, translated from the Italian of
Fr Zenobius, and also an interesting poem in the original Italian,
recounting the more striking features of Bd Silvester's character and
history.
Born in Florence, Italy; Silvester was a carder and bleacher
of wool by
trade. At the age of 40 he joined the Camaldolese at Santa Maria degli
Angeli at Florence as a lay brother and served the community as cook.
He was favored with ecstasies and heavenly visions, and the angels were
wont to come and cook for him. His spiritual advice was in great demand
(Benedictines) |
 1439 Alexander,
Hegumen of Kushtsk, of Vologda, The Monk
Born about the year 1371 in Vologda, and in the world
he had the name
Alexei. He was vowed a monk at the Saviour-Stone (Spaso-Kamenni)
monastery by the hegumen Dionysii Svyatogorets (i. e. Dionysii "of the
Holy Mountain"), who brought the Athos ustav (rule) to the monastery.
Here the Monk Alexander underwent all the aspects of obedience and
strict fasting and was granted the dignity of priest-monk. He dwelt
constantly at work and prayer. The brethren looked upon him as upon an
Angel of God, and this troubled the Monk Alexander. He left the
monastery secretly by night and came to the River Syazhem, where there
was a thick forest and lake. Here he built himself a cell and lived
life in prayer and extreme abstinence. But little by little people
began to come to him. The Monk Alexander went from this place to the
shore of Lake Kuben, at the mouth of the Kushta rivulet. Here at this
time lived the Monk Evphymii (+ c. 1465, Comm. 11 April). Saint
Alexander offered him to exchange cells. Saint Evphymii was agreeable
and at parting left to the Monk Alexander his cross for blessing. The
quiet wilderness was very dear to the Monk Alexander. Going to the
lake, he immersed the cross in the water and prayed to God, that he
would collect here those zealous of the way of the cross. After some
time there came to the Monk Alexander a certain starets (elder), with
whom he dwelt for 5 years. When a third brother arrived, the Monk
Alexander decided to build a church in honour of the Uspenie
(Dormition) of the Most Holy Mother of God. The saint set off to Rostov
to Archbishop Dionysii (1418-1425), his former hegumen, who blessed the
construction of the temple. One time, in the absence of the Zaozersk
prince Dimitrii Vasil'evich the Tatars came, and five of them galloped
up to the Kushtsk monastery. The Monk Alexander calmly met them and
blessed with the cross. The Tatars fell down as though dead, and they
lay senseless for several hours, after which time the Monk Alexander
roused them from their numbness by the Name of the Life-Originating
Trinity.
Upon the death of prince Dimitrii, his widow princess
Maria, -- who
quite revered the Monk Alexander, offered in remembrance of her husband
a village for the aid of the monastery. One time she came to the
monastery and went into the church, where the Monk Alexander, with a
bare chest whereon insects made attack, read the Psalter. The monk
seemed distressed by her visit and said: "It does not become thee,
princess, to look upon our poverty". The princess humbly asked pardon.
The monk blessed her, but said: "Nourish thy poverty at home". Having
returned, the princess fell sick and came to ask prayers for recovery
of health. But the Monk Alexander foresaw her end and said: "Be
prepared for this life". Princess Maria died 20 days later.
Upon the monastery floor was gathered wheat. A certain
peasant decided
to steal a sack, but he was not able to lift it. The monk came upon him
and said: "My son, thou dost lift in vain". The surprised thief threw
himself at the feet of the saint, asking forgiveness, but the Monk
Alexander ordered him to put in more wheat, and having admonished him
in future not to take away from others, he blessed him to take the sack
and go with God. The forgiven peasant easily shouldered the blessed
burden, thanking the magnanimous elder.
Having sensed the
nearness of his end, the Monk Alexander said to those
dwelling with him: "I weaken, but do ye endure in this place,
preserving humility and mutual love". On Sunday he made the Divine
Liturgy, and communed the Holy Mysteries. Then on his knees he prayed
for himself and for his monastery, and at age 68 he peacefully gave up
his spirit to the Lord on 9 June 1439.
According to the last-will instructions of the Monk
Alexander, his body
was placed at the mid-day side of the altar. A year afterwards there
grew over his grave a rowen-berry tree. One time on the feastday of the
Uspenie (Dormition) of the MostHoly Mother of God, a peasant child
broke off a branch from this tree and suddenly his hand began to hurt.
His parents with prayers led their son to the grave of the monk, and he
was healed. From that time people began to pick berries from this tree
for healing. His disciples built over the grave of the Monk Alexander a
warm church in honour of Saint Nicholas and dedicated it on the day of
memory of the Monk Alexander. Many of the sick, which they brought to
the church, saw the Monk Alexander together with Saint Nicholas,
praying together or censing the temple. The sick received healing at
the grave of the Monk Alexander of Kushtsk.
|
1666 BD HENRY THE SHOEMAKER he formed a religious society for his
fellow tradesmen under the traditional patronage of SS. Crispin and
Crispinian.
HENRY MICHAEL BUCHE- “Good Henry" -has never been beatified
nor apparently the object of cultus,
but he is commonly referred to as Blessed or Saint. He was a shoemaker
by trade at Arlon in Luxembourg, where he formed a religious society
for his fellow tradesmen under the traditional patronage of SS. Crispin
and Crispinian.
Afterwards, in 1645, when he had migrated to Paris, Henry formed there
a similar association the members of which were known as the
"Frères Cordonniers". Baron de Renty, who took great interest in
it, obtained for him the rights of citizenship and recognition as a
master-shoemaker in order that he might be able to accept apprentices
and journeymen who wished to follow his rule. It was a strict one. The
members rose at five, had prayer in common at stated hours, attended
Mass daily, visited prisons and hospitals, and attended an annual
retreat. The association grew and prospered: branches were started in
other cities, and the tailors established a society for themselves on
parallel lines. It would be difficult to overestimate the influence
Henry was thus able to exert, both directly and indirectly, over people
for whom comparatively little had been done in the past. He died in
Paris, on June 9, 1666, and was buried in the cemetery attached to the
Hospital of St Gervais in which he had often tended the patients.
The best available account
will be found in Hélyot, Histoire
des Ordres Monastiques (ed. 1721), vol. viii, pp. 175-184, which
quotes an earlier work, J. A. Le Vachet, L'Artisan chrétien, ou la Vie du bon Henri (1670).
There is also a notice of Henri Buche in the Biographie nationale (Brussels,
1872), vol. iii, pp. 143-144. It would seem that the Baron de Renty had
much to do with drafting the rules of the association which Henry
founded.
|
1837 Anne Mary
Taigi, Trinitarian
tertiary:
Endowed
with the gift of prophecy, she read
thoughts and described distant events Christ revealed to her, "The
humble are
always patient, and the patient sanctify themselves. Patience is the
best of all penances, and he who is truly patient possesses all earthly
treasure, and will receive a heavenly crown."
1837 BD ANNE MARY TAIGI, MATRON
THERE can have been no more remarkable woman in the Rome of the early
nineteenth century than Anne Mary Taigi, the hard-working wife of a
domestic servant and the exemplary mother of a large family, who was
honoured by three successive popes with their special esteem and whose
humble home was the resort of some of the highest personages in church
and state--desirous to enlist her intercession, to obtain her advice or
to seek enlightenment in the things of God. Anne Mary Antonia Gesualda
was born on May 29, 1769, at Siena, where her father carried on
business as an apothecary. Reduced to poverty, the family migrated to
Rome, and Anne's parents entered private domestic service, whilst she
herself was sent to a community of women who undertook the education of
poor children. At the age of thirteen the little girl also became a
breadwinner. After working for a short time in silk factories, she
became a housemaid in the palace of a noble lady. As she grew to
womanhood she developed a love of dress and a thirst for admiration
which occasionally led her into peril; that she did not fall into grave
sin was due to her good upbringing, and to her marriage in 1790 to
Dominic Taigi, a servant in the Chigi palace. Even then the things of
the world continued to engross her, but gradually grace began to stir
in her heart, she felt the pricks of conscience, and was moved to make
a general confession. Her first attempt to open her heart to a priest
met with a severe rebuff; but a second was more successful.
She found the spiritual guide she needed in a Servite friar, Father
Angelo, who was to continue to be her confessor for many years. He
realized from the first that he 'was dealing with an elect soul, and
she on her part always regarded the hour she first met him as the date
of her conversion. From that time she renounced all vanities,
contenting herself with the plainest of clothes, and took no part in
worldly amusements unless by her husband's special desire. In prayer
she found her chief solace, and her generous desire for external
mortifications had to be limited by her confessor to such as were
compatible with her duties in life. Her husband was a good man, but
narrow and rather cantankerous, and whilst he fully appreciated his
wife's good qualities, as far as they affected him and the family, he
never understood her heroic efforts to reach a high ideal of
renunciation or the divine graces with which they were rewarded. His
testimony to her fulfilment of everyday duties is therefore all the
more convincing.
Referring to the time when she was already well known Dominic said: "It
often happened that upon my return home I found the house full of
people. At once she would leave anyone who was there-a great lady,
maybe, or a prelate-and would hasten to wait upon me affectionately and
attentively. One could see that she did it with all her heart: she
would have taken off my shoes if I would have allowed it. In short, she
was my comfort and the consolation of all .... Through her wonderful
tact she was able to maintain a heavenly peace though we were a great
houseful and of very different temperaments--especially when my eldest
son Camillus was living with us in his early married days. My
daughter-in-law was a disturbing element and always wanted to play the
mistress, but the servant of God knew how to keep everyone in his place
and she did it with a graciousness that I cannot describe. I often came
home tired, moody and cross, but she always succeeded in soothing and
cheering me." The family Anne had to look after consisted of her seven
children, five of whom lived to grow up, and also of her parents. Every
morning she gathered them all together for prayers; those who could do
so attended Mass, and in the evening all met together again for
spiritual reading and for night prayers. She took extraordinary care
over the upbringing of her children.
Bd Anne also worked with her needle, sometimes to supplement her
husband's earnings, sometimes to be able to assist those poorer than
herself, for she was always exceedingly generous and she trained her
children to be generous too. It might seem as though domestic cares
such as those mentioned above would monopolize the energies of any
woman; and yet her family duties did not preclude absorption in
mystical experiences of a very high order. Some idea of these can be
gleaned from a memoir written after her death by Cardinal Pedicini, to
whom she had originally been introduced by her confessor, and who
shared with him the responsibility of her spiritual direction for
thirty years. It was probably also through him that her virtues and
supernatural gifts became known, even during her lifetime. From the
time of her conversion God gave her wonderful intimations about His
intentions with regard to the dangers that threatened the Church, about
future events, and about the hidden things of the faith. They were
revealed to her in a "mystical sun", which hovered before her eyes and
in which she also saw the iniquity man was continually committing
against God: she felt it to be her task to make satisfaction for it and
to offer herself as a victim.
Anne would endure agonies of mind and body when wrestling in prayer for
the conversion of some hardened sinner. She often read the thoughts and
motives of those who visited her, and was thus able to help them in
what appeared to be a supernatural way. Amongst others with whom she
was in touch may be mentioned St Vincent Strambi, the date of whose
death she foretold. In the early years after her conversion Bd Anne
Mary had many spiritual consolations and ecstasies, but later, and
especially during her last years, she suffered much from the assaults
of Satan and spiritual desolation. All these trials, as well as
ill-health and calumny, she bore with cheerfulness. She died on June 9,
1837, after seven months of acute suffering, at the age of sixty-eight;
and she was beatified in 1920. Her shrine is in the church of St
Chrysogonus of the Trinitarians, of which order she was a tertiary
member.
The depositions of the
witnesses in the process of beatification--of whom her ninety-two year
old husband was one--are particularly interesting and valuable as
biographical material. Biographies are numerous. One of the earliest
was that by Luquet (1854); that written by Fr Callistus (Eng. trans.
1875) was widely circulated, as also was another French life by Fr G.
Bouffier. Perhaps the fullest and most satisfactory is that published
in Italian by Mgr C. Salotti in 1922, and since translated into German;
A. Bessières's French biography, Eng. tr., Wife, Mother and Mystic (1953), is
exaggerated and without discrimination. It may be noticed that the
prophecies attributed to Anne Mary by earlier writers, particularly
that regarding "the three days' darkness" which was to come upon the
world, seem to rest upon very insufficient evidence.
Born 1769 at Siena,
daughter
of a
druggist
named Giannetti, whose business failed, she was brought to Rome
and
worked for a time as a domestic servant. In 1790 she married
Dominic
Taigi, a butler of the Chigi family in Rome, and lived the normal life
of a married woman of the working class. In the discharge of these
humble duties and in the bringing up of her seven children she attained
a high degree of holiness. Endowed
with the gift of prophecy, she read
thoughts and described distant events. Her home became the
rendezvous
of cardinals and other dignitaries who sought her counsel. She was
beatified in 1920.
Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, Matron (AC) Born in Siena,
Italy, May 29,
1769; died 1837; beatified in 1920.
Although she was the wife of a Roman working man, Anna
Maria was
consulted by royalty because she could read souls. Anna Maria Gianetti
was the daughter of a druggist, who was soon impoverished and moved his
family to Rome, where he was employed as a house servant. She left
school at about 13 and learned the trade of wool-winding. Then she
became a housemaid to a noble family. In 1970, she married Domenico
Taigi, the butler of the nearby Chigi Palace, and began to live the
normal life of a married woman of the working class. It was in the
discharge of these humble duties that she attained a high degree of
holiness, but not without a detour.
After her marriage she began to dress gaily, and then
fell into grave
sin--adultery with an older man. It was a momentary sin but her
conscience tormented her. Worldly distractions brought her no peace.
Shortly, she changed her whole life. Walking through
Saint Peter's
Square with her husband, Padre Angelo (a Servite Father) gave her a
piercing look, which she took as a warning of impending judgment. It is
said he had a revelation that a woman would come to him to be directed
in the way of sanctity and he knew the woman was Anna Maria when she
passed him.
She fell on her knees over Saint Peter's tomb, then
sought out a
confessional, but the priest sent her away, telling her she was not one
of his usual penitents. A few days later she was led to Padre Angelo's
confessional and he greeted her, "So you have come at last! Be of good
cheer, my child; God loves you and he asks for your whole heart in
return." This was the hour of her total conversion to God. Immense joy
filled her.
She put away her trinkets and became a tertiary of the
Order of the
Most Blessed Trinity (with her husband's permission). The day she was
accepted, she heard Christ's voice saying she was chosen to convert
sinners and console sufferers.
In 14 years, she bore four sons and three daughters.
Three children
died young. Anna Maria trusted always in the abundance of God. She
instructed her children in the Catholic religion and tried to form them
according to the divine Model. She was strict but merciful. She
went to daily, early morning Mass and worked far into the night.
She took in sewing and washing to provide for her household and the
poor. Her house was spotless; her children, well-tended. Rarely did she
accept charity. In short, she was a model housewife and mother.
Domenico was not a saint, but a moderately good
husband.
He was
ill-tempered, but after her death, said, "It is due to her that I
corrected some of my faults." He always found his wife up and waiting
for him when he returned from work, sometimes at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. "She
was glad of an excuse to spend the quiet hours in prayer." Obedient to
her husband, she honored him as the head of the household.
Anna Maria's parents spent their last years in her
crowded home. Her
father was an invalid, her mother irritable. Domenico testified, "It
almost seems that God had given her such parents in order to try her
virtue."
She was a good story-teller, merry, easy going, and
her husband praised
her for her virtues. She rarely dined, but rather served her family.
She fasted on Saturday to honor Mary, and on Wednesday for Joseph. She
practiced great mortifications on Fridays, in Lent, and on Ember fasts.
Humility and meekness were her favorite virtues. She
rejoiced in
humiliation and contempt, loved those who hated and spoke ill of her.
She was oblivious to praise. Christ revealed to her, "The humble are
always patient, and the patient sanctify themselves. Patience is the
best of all penances, and he who is truly patient possesses all earthly
treasure, and will receive a heavenly crown." This kind of patience
entails a gentle forbearance and uncomplaining acceptance of trials.
Her mystical experiences were extraordinary:
revelations, visions,
rapture, and ecstasies. She had these experiences because she was a
saint and not vice versa; because she tried in everything to act in
conformity to God's will. Ecstasies often came at inconvenient times.
Once while doing housework: "O Lord, leave me in peace! Withdraw
thyself and let me get on with my work. Keep the treasures of thy love
for consecrated virgins; I am only a poor wife and mother."
She saw thoughts and distant events in a symbolic,
miniature sun, in
which the hearts of others were revealed. Three popes and innumerable
royalty sought her counsel. She also foretold many political and
temporal events (Benedictines, S. Delany)
|
Saint of the Day June 09 
chinese_martyrs_orthodox
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.