4th v. St. Nicander
and Marcian Martyrs, possibly of Durostorum, Bulgaria; members of the imperial
army in the region of the Balkans and were martyred in the region that eventually
became Romania, perhaps
in the late second century. Tradition reports that they were slain in front
of their wives and families.
Apud Venáfrum, in Campánia, sanctórum Mártyrum
Nicándri et Marciáni, qui, in persecutióne Maximiáni,
cápite cæsi sunt.
At Venafro in Campania, the holy martyrs Nicander and
Marcian, who were beheaded in the persecution of Maximian.
Alban Butler, putting his trust in Ruinart,
accepted without question the “acts”
of these saints as a genuine document. The narrative certainly cannot claim
to be regarded as authentic history, but it is a favorable specimen of the
art of the hagiographer who made it his business to embellish a kernel of
fact with fictional details. Following more or less closely Butler’s presentment
the story runs thus:
Nicander and Marcian had served some time in the Roman army, but when the
edicts were published against Christians they gave up their military career.
This was made a crime in them, and they were impeached before Maximus, governor
of the province. The judge informed them of the imperial order that all were
commanded to sacrifice to the gods. Nicander replied that the order could
not be binding on Christians who looked upon it as unlawful to abandon the
immortal God in order to worship wood and stone. Dana, the wife of Nicander,
was present and encouraged her husband. Maximus, interrupting her, said,
“You wicked woman; why do you want your husband to die?” “I do not wish for
his death, she said,” “but that he live in God, so
as never to die.” Maximus insinuated that she desired his death because she
wanted another husband. “ If you suspect that” said
she, “put me to death first.”
Maximus, turning again to Nicander, said, “Take a little time and deliberate
with yourself whether you will decide to die or to live”.
Nicander answered, “I have already made up my mind that my own safety must
come first.” The judge took it that he meant that he would save his life
by sacrificing to the idols. But Nicander soon undeceived him, for he prayed
aloud, expressing his joy that he was to be delivered from the dangers and
temptations of the world. “How is this”, asked the
governor, “you but just now desired to live, and now you ask to die?” Nicander
replied, “I desire that life which is immortal, not the fleeting life of
this world. To you I willingly yield up my body; do with it what you please:
I am a Christian.” “And what is your view, Marcian?” asked the judge, addressing
himself to the other. He declared that it was the same as that of his fellow
prisoner. Maximus then gave orders that they should be both confined in a
dungeon, where they lay twenty days.
After this they were again brought before the governor, who asked them if
they would at length obey the edicts of the emperor. Marcian replied, “All
you can say will never make us abandon our religion or deny God. By faith
we behold Him present and know whither He calls us. Do not, we beseech you,
detain us, but send us quickly to Him that was crucified, whom you fear not
to blaspheme, but whom we honour and worship.” The governor, excusing himself
by the necessity he was under of complying with his orders, condemned them
both to be beheaded. The martyrs expressed their gratitude and said, “May
peace be with you, most kind judge”.
They walked to the place of execution joyful, and praising God as they went.
Nicander was followed by his wife, Dana, with his child whom Papinian, brother
to the martyr St Pasicrates, carried in his arms. Marcian’s wife followed
him too, but weeping and making an outcry. She did all in her power to overcome
his resolution, drawing his attention to their little child. At the place
of execution Marcian kissed his son, and looking up to Heaven said, “Lord,
all-powerful God, do thou take this child under thy protection”.
Then with a rebuke to his wife for her faint-heartedness, he bade her go
away in peace, because she would not have the courage to see him die. The
wife of Nicander continued by his side, exhorting him to constancy and joy.
“Be of good heart, master”, said she. “Ten years have
I lived at home away from you, never ceasing to pray that I might see you
again. Now I have that comfort, and I behold you going to glory and myself
the wife of a martyr. Give to God that testimony you owe to His holy truth,
that you may also deliver me from eternal death”; meaning that by his sufferings
and prayers he might obtain mercy for her. The executioner having bound their
eyes with handkerchiefs struck off their heads, the day assigned in this
version of the passio being June 17.
It may seem a wanton piece of iconoclasm to discredit this very natural and
relatively sober tale, but the difficulty is that among a number of differing
accounts there is no agreement as to the place where the martyrdom took place,
the names of the group of martyrs, for Nicander and Marcian are often grouped
with several others, or, what is perhaps most suspicious of all, the date
of the celebration. No one has ever doubted that the “acts” have some historical
foundation and that Nicander and Marcian really existed as martyrs. But four
distinct regions in different countries claim to have been the scene of their
passion: Durostorum, in Moesia or Bulgaria; Tomi, or Constanta, in what is
now Rumania; Alexandria in Egypt; and Venafro in Italy, where their reputed
relics are still venerated. The Bollandist Father Dehehaye, however, inclined
to the belief that they suffered at Durostorum. In his opinion, Italy merely
imported their cultus, whilst with
regard to the inclusion of their names in a list of Egyptian martyrs in the
Hieronymianum, he suggests
that a careless copyist, seeing the name of Marcian, may quite possibly have
interpolated that of Nicander through associating in his mind the two martyrs
of Durostorum.
As well as Nicander and Marcian, “at Venafro”, today,
the Roman Martyrology on June 5 commemorates SS. Marcian, Nicanor and others,
“in Egypt”.
The passio from which Alban Butler took his
account is printed in Ruinart’s Acta Sincera.
There is another version, in Latin and Greek, in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. iv, and another
in vol. i For other texts, consult BHL., nn. 5260, 6070-6074,
and supplement, and BHG., nn. 1194 and 1330; with B. Latysev, Menologii
byzantini saeculi X quae supersunt, vol. ii, pp. 16-17 and 27-30. See
also Delehaye in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxi (1912), pp. 268-272
and vol. xl (1922), pp. 54-60; his Origines du Culte des Martyrs,
pp. 249-250, etc.; and his CMH., pp. 305 and 323; and P. Franchi de' Cavalieri
in Studi e Testi, vol. xxiv (1912), pp. 141-,157 .
|
265
St. Antidius Bishop and martyr; disciple of St. Fironinus in the See
of Besançon in France.
Vesontióne, in Gálliis, sancti Antídii, Epíscopi
et Mártyris, qui, ob Christi fidem, a Wándalis occísus
fuit.
At Besançon in France, St. Antidius, bishop and
martyr, who was slain by the Vandals for the faith of Christ.
Sometimes called Tude, Antidius succeeded St. Fironinus
as bishop but was martyred by a band of German or barbarian marauders. |
300 St. Montanus
Martyred soldier on the island of Ponza, off the Italian coast. Thrown into
the sea with a stone tied to his neck, Montanus drowned. His relics were
enshrined at Gaeta.
Apollóniæ, in Macedónia, sanctórum Mártyrum
Atheniénsium Isáuri Diáconi, Innocéntii, Felícis,
Jeremíæ et Peregríni, qui, a Tripóntio Tribúno
várie torti, cápite obtruncáti sunt.
At Apollonia in Macedonia, the holy martyrs Isaurus, a
deacon, Innocent, Felix, Jeremias, and Peregrínus, all of them Athenians
who were tortured in various ways by the tribune Tripontius, and beheaded.
|
4th v. St Bessarion
a native of Egypt; having heard the call to perfection he went into the wilderness;
disciple first of St Antony and then of St Macarius; neighborly charity led
him to a height of perfection; manifested by miracles: made salt water fresh,
several times brought rain during drought, walked on the Nile admirers compared
him with Moses, Joshua, Elias and John the Baptist
Item
sancti Bessariónis Anachorétæ. Also,
St. Bessarion, anchoret.
Orthodoxe Kirche: 20. Februar
und 06. Juni Katholische Kirche: 17. Juni
4th v. ST BESSARION
BESSARION is greatly venerated in the East, where his name in various forms
is sometimes given in baptism; e.g. Joseph Stalin's father was called Vissarion.
He was a native of Egypt, and having heard the call to perfection he went
into the wilderness, where he was a disciple first of St Antony and then
of St Macarius. We are told that rather than live under a roof he wandered
about like a bird, observing silence and subduing his flesh by mighty fasting;
he is said to have once gone forty days without food, standing in prayer
amid brambles. His neighbourly charity led him to a height of perfection
that was manifested by miracles: he made salt water fresh, he several times
brought rain during drought, he walked on the Nile, he overcame demons. Like
so many other desert fathers, St Bessarion lived to a great age; and he was
compared by his admirers with Moses, Joshua, Elias and John the Baptist.
St Bessarion is named in the Roman Martyrology to-day, but his usual date
in the East is June 6.
The above particulars are taken
from a panegyric of his namesake written by the great Cardinal Bessarion,
the text of which was printed, with an introduction by Peter Joannou, in
Analecta Bollandiana, vol.
lxv (1947), pp. 107-138. The cardinal's sources were the pertinent Greek
synaxaries. See also the Acta Sanctorum,
June, vol. iii. The three Bessarions in DHG., t. viii, cc. 1180-1181, are
apparently all the same person.
Bessarion is greatly venerated in the East, where his name in
various forms is sometimes given in baptism; e.g. Joseph Stalin’s father
was called Vissarion. He was a native of Egypt, and having heard the call
to perfection he went into the wilderness, where he was a disciple first
of St Antony and then of St Macanus. We are told that rather than live under
a roof he wandered about like a bird, observing silence and subduing his
flesh by mighty fasting; he is said to have once gone forty days without
food, standing in prayer amid brambles. His neighborly charity led him to
a height of perfection that was manifested by miracles: he made salt water
fresh, he several times brought rain during drought, he walked on the Nile,
he overcame demons. Like so many other desert fathers, St Bessarion lived
to a great age; admirers compared him with Moses, Joshua, Elias and John
the Baptist.
St Bessarion is named in the Roman Martyrology today, but his
usual date in the East is June 6.
The above particulars are taken
from a panegyric of his namesake written by the great Cardinal Bessarion,
the text of which was printed, with an introduction by Peter Joannou, in
Analecta Bollandiana, vol.
lxv (1947), pp. 107—138. The cardinal’s sources were the pertinent Greek
synaxaries. See also the Acta Sanctorum,
June, vol. iii. The three Bessarions in DHG., t. viii, cc. 1180—1181, are
apparently all the same person.
4th v. Bessarion von Ägypten
Orthodoxe Kirche: 20. Februar und 06. Juni Katholische Kirche:
17. Juni
Bessarion lebte im 4. Jahrhundert. Er wollte Einsiedler werden
und unternahm eine Pilgerreise um verschiedene Einsiedler kennenzulernen.
Er besuchte Gerasimos in Jerusalem und wurde Schüler von Isidor von
Pelusium (nach anderen Berichten von Antonius). Er lebte in der Wüste
und trug unter seinem Arm immer eine Abschrift der vier Evangelien. Sein
einziges Kleidungsstück verschenkte er an einen Bettler. Eine Überlieferung
berichtet, er habe schließlich sogar sein Buch verkauft, um das Geld
an Arme zu verteilen.
In der russisch-orthodoxen Kirche wird Bessarion am 20.02. gefeiert,
in der griechisch-orthodoxen Kirche am 06.06.
|
363 St.
Manuel Sabel and Ismael
Persian Christians martyred
by Emperor Julian the Apostate at Chalcedon; legates from Persia sent to
negotiate peace who were slain when it was discovered they were Christians.
A church was dedicated to them by Emperor Theodosius the Great.
Chalcédone sanctórum Mártyrum Manuélis, Sabélis
et Ismaélis, qui, pacis causa apud Juliánum Apóstatam
pro Persárum Rege legatióne fungéntes, ab ipso Imperatóre,
cum idóla venerári compelleréntur idque constánti
ánimo recusárent, gládio feríri jubéntur.
At Chalcedon, the holy martyrs Manuel, Sabel, and Ismael,
whom the king of Persia sent as ambassadors to Julian the Apostate to obtain
peace. Having firmly refused to worship idols when commanded by the
emperor, they were put to the sword.
The Holy
Martyrs Manuel, Sabel and Ismael, brothers by birth, were descended from
an illustrious Persian family. Their father was a pagan, but their mother
was a Christian, who baptized the children and raised them with firm faith
in Christ the Savior. When they reached adulthood, the brothers entered
military service. Speaking on behalf of the Persian emperor Alamundar, they
were his emissaries in concluding a peace treaty with the emperor Julian
the Apostate (361-363). Julian received them with due honor and showed them
his favor. But when the brothers refused to take part in a pagan sacrifice,
Julian became angry. He annulled the treaty and incarcerated the ambassadors
of a foreign country like common criminals. At the interrogation he told
them that if they scorned the gods he worshipped, it would be impossible
to reach any peace or accord between the two sides. The holy brothers answered
that they were sent as emissaries of their emperor on matters of state, and
not to argue about "gods." Seeing their firmness of faith, the emperor ordered
the brothers to be tortured. They beat the holy martyrs, then nailed
their hands and feet to trees. Later, they drove iron spikes into their heads,
and wedged sharp splinters under their fingernails and toenails. During this
time of torment the saints glorified God and prayed as if they did not feel
the tortures. Finally, the holy martyrs were beheaded.
Julian ordered their bodies to be burned, and suddenly there
was an earthquake. The ground opened up and the bodies of the holy martyrs
disappeared into the abyss. After two days of fervent prayer by the Christians,
the earth returned the bodies of the holy brothers, from which a sweet fragrance
issued forth. Many pagans, witnessing the miracle, came to believe in Christ
and were baptized. Christians reverently buried the bodies of the holy martyrs
Manuel, Sabel and Ismael in the year 362. Since that time the relics of the
holy passion-bearers have been glorified with miracles. When he heard about
the murder of his emissaries, and that Julian was marching against him with
a vast army, the Persian emperor Alamundar mustered his army and started
off toward the border of his domain. The Persians vanquished the Greeks in
a great battle, and Julian the Apostate was killed by the holy Great Martyr
Mercurius (November 24).
Thirty years later the pious emperor Theodosius the Great (+ 397)
built at Constantinople a church in honor of the holy martyrs, and
St Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople
(May 12), then still a hieromonk, wrote a Canon in memory and in praise of
the holy brothers.
Manuel, Sabel und Ismael Orthodoxe
Kirche: 17. Juni
Manuel, Sabel und Ismael lebten in Persien. Sie waren von ihrer
Mutter christlich erzogen worden und dienten im kaiserlichen Heer. Der persische
Kaiser schickte sie als Gesandte nach Konstantinopel, um mit Kaiser Julian
Apostates einen Friedensvertrag abzuschliessen. Als die drei Brüder
sich weigerten, heidnischen Göttern zu opfern, ließ Julian Apostates
sie foltern und hinrichten. Sie starben 362. Der persische Kaiser erklärte
daraufhin Julian den Krieg und Julian wurde im Kampf von Merkurios erschlagen.
An den Gräbern der drei Märtyrer ereigneten sich zahlreiche
Wunder und Kaiser Theodosius ließ 30 Jahre nach ihrem Tod eine Kirche
zu ihren Ehren errichten.
|
466 St. Hypatius
Hermit, called “the Scholar of Christ.” vision that sent him to Thrace where he became
a hermit foe of Nestorianism, he sheltered St. Alexander Akimetes and others
at his hermitage near Chalcedon when their lives were threatened by the heretics
known for miracles and prophecies.
In Phrygia sancti Hypátii Confessóris.
In Phrygia, St. Hypatius, confessor.
He was born in 366
Phrygia, and became a monk.
Hypatius had a vision that sent him to Thrace where he became a hermit with
a man named Jonas. The two then went to Constantinople and Chalcedon. A foe
of Nestorianism, he sheltered St. Alexander Akimetes and others at his hermitage
near Chalcedon when their lives were threatened by the heretics. Hypatius
is credited with halting a revival of the Olympic games because of their
pagan origins. He died at the age of eighty and was known for miracles and
prophecies.
In the suburb of Chalcedon that gave its name—The Oak—to the infamous pseudo-synod
by which St John Chrysostom was condemned, a certain consular official called
Rufinus built a church dedicated under the names of St Peter and St Paul,
together with a monastery alongside to serve it. The community flourished
for a time, but after the founder’s death the monks dispersed and the derelict
fabric soon acquired an unsavory reputation as the haunt of evil spirits.
The building remained unoccupied until a holy ascetic named Hypatius, attended
by two companions, Timotheus and Moschion, came upon it in their wanderings
through Bithynia in search of a suitable retreat, and took up their residence
in the ruins. Disciples gathered round them and a great community was formed
over which Hypatius ruled for many years. After his death the monastery was
known by his name.
The life of St Hypatius has come down to us in the shape of a biography written
by Callinicus, one of his monks, who in his desire to glorify his master
sometimes lets his imagination or his credulity run away with him. According
to him St Hypatius was born in Phrygia and was educated by his father, a
learned scholar who intended that his son should follow in his steps. Hypatius
himself, however, always desired monastic life. At the age of eighteen, having
been cruelly beaten by his father, he ran away from home, and in obedience
to a supernatural admonition proceeded to Thrace. There for a considerable
time he acted as a shepherd. A priest who heard him singing to his flock
taught him the Psalter and the chant. Hypatius then joined a solitary, an
ex-soldier named Jonas, with whom he led a most austere life, abstaining,
it is said, from drink of any kind sometimes for forty consecutive days.
His father discovered Hypatius, and reconciliation took place.
Afterwards Hypatius and Jonas made their way to Constantinople, where Jonas
seems to have remained. Hypatius crossed the straits into Asia Minor again,
and revived religious life in the ruins of the old Rufinian monastery. As
head of a great body of monks he stood forth as a powerful champion of orthodoxy.
Even before the Church had denounced the errors of Nestorius, he ordered
removal of that hierarch’s name from the office books of his church, paying
no heed to the remonstrances of Bishop Eulalius of Chalcedon. He protected
and hospitably entertained St Alexander Akimetes and his monks who had fled
from Constantinople to Bithynia; and when a proposal to revive the Olympic
games it Chalcedon had met with no opposition from Eulalius, Hypatius defeated
the project by the vehemence with which he protested that he and his monks
would die rather than permit any such restoration of pagan practices.
Critical commentators, it must be said, discredit the historical accuracy
of these stories. They question the very existence of Eulalius: no other
record can be found of any such bishop of Chalcedon; his name appears neither
amongst signatories of the Council of Ephesus in 431, nor amongst those of
the Latrocinium in 449. On the other hand, it is certain that a certain Eleutherius
was bishop of Chalcedon in 451.
St Hypatius, “the scholar of Christ”, became famous
for his reputed miracles and prophecies. He is said to have died about the
middle of the fifth century at the age of eighty. His name is entered on
this day in the Roman Martyrology as belonging to Phrygia.
The long Greek life by Callinicus
is printed in the Acta Sanctorum,
June, vol. iv, but the text is unfortunately incomplete. It has since been
edited critically (1895) from another manuscript which contains the whole,
by the pupils of H. Usener. Sec also II. Mertel, Die biograph. Form der griech. Heiligenlegenden (1909).
Hypatius seems to have brrn especially invoked in the Greek Church as a protector
against harmful beasts; see Franz,
Kirchlichen Benediktionen,
vol. ii, p. 143.
|
510 St. Nectan one of the
most celebrated saints in the West of England; tended to the needs of the
poor throughout Devon, Cornwall and even Brittany, where churches dedicated
to him may be found miracles after death
St Nectan was born in
Wales and lived in the sixth century, but we know few details about his life.
He was the oldest of the twenty-four children of St Brychan of Brecknock
(April 6). While he was still living in Wales, God inspired him to imitate
the example of St Anthony (January 17) and other ascetics, and to embrace
the monastic life.
6th V. St Nectan
The tomb of St Nectan at Hartland in Devonshire was the centre of a cultus which seems to have been fostered in the middle
ages by the Augustinian canons, who were the custodians of his tomb. He was
also venerated in Cornwall, especially at Launceston, where a fair is still
held on his feast-day, June 17. In the neighbourhood of Lostwithiel
and Newlyn chapels were dedicated in his honour under the name of St Nighton,
and perhaps also at Tintagel, not far from which famous resort “St Nighton’s
Kieve” (i.e. vat) is still shown. William of Worcester and
some later writers, such as Nicholas Roscarrock, describe the saint as having
been the eldest of the twenty-four children of the Welsh king, Brychan, who
gave his name to Brecknock. The saint may possibly have been an Irish missionary
who came to England and founded churches in Devon and Cornwall. Actually
nothing is known of his true history. All that Worcester is able to tell
us about him is this: “And the venerable man Nectan, while he was making
his way through certain woody districts in order to explore the country, was
found by robbers in the place which to this day is called New Town (i.e. New Stoke), and there a church is built to his honour.
On the fifteenth day before the kalends of July he was beheaded, and he took
up his head in his own hands and carried it about a distance of half a stadium,
as far as the fountain where he lived, and there laid it down, besmeared
with his blood and sweat, on a certain stone, and blood-stained traces of
this murder and miracle still remain on that same stone.” This is a quotation
from the saint’s Life.
The twelfth-century life of
St Nectan, which came to light in the Gotha MS. I. 81 in 1937 and was translated
by Canon Doble (see note below), adds little of interest about the saint,
though it gives interesting particulars about his shrine and sidelights
on life at Hartland in the middle ages.
By far the
best attempt in English to cope with the incoherencies of the materials is
that of Canon Doble in no. 25 of his “Cornish Saints” series, St Nectan and the Children of Brychan (1930); his translation
of the vita appeared in A Book of Hartland
(1940), ed. by Miss I. D. Thornley,
and was reprinted separately in the same year. See also DCB., vol. iv, pp.
10—11, and LBS., vol. iv, pp. 1—2. But consult especially Analecta
Bollandiana, vol. lxxi (1953).
Seeking greater solitude, St Nectan and his companions left Wales,
intending to settle wherever their boat happened to land. Divine providence
brought them to the northern coast of Devonshire at Hartland, where they
lived for several years in a dense forest. The saint's family would visit
him there on the last day of the year. Later, he relocated to a remote valley
with a spring.
Once, St Nectan found a stray pig and returned it to its owner.
In gratitude, the swineherd gave St Nectan two cows. The saint accepted the
gift, but the cows were soon stolen by two robbers. St Nectan found the thieves
who took the animals, and tried to preach to them about Christ. They became
angry and cut off his head. Then the saint picked up his head and carried
it for half a mile, laying it down near the spring by his cell. Seeing this,
the man who killed St Nectan went out of his mind, but the other thief buried
him. From that time, miracles began to take place at St Nectan's tomb.
In 937 St Nectan appeared on the eve of the Battle of Brunanburgh
to a young man from Hartland who was in a tent near King Athelstan's pavilion.
Suddenly, he felt himself afflicted with the plague which was then destroying
the English army. The young man wept and called upon God and St Nectan to
help him. His cries were so loud that he woke the king and others around
him. St Nectan came to the young man just after midnight and touched
the afflicted area of his body, healing him. In the morning, he was brought
before the king and admitted that it was he who had disturbed Athelstan's
sleep. The king asked gently why he had been crying out during the night.
The young man explained that he felt himself stricken with the plague, and
was afraid that he would die. Therefore, he entreated God and St Nectan to
help him, and his prayer was answered. Athelstan asked for more information
about the life and martyrdom of St Nectan, which the young man provided.
He also urged the king to turn to St Nectan with faith, promising that he
would be victorious in battle if he did so. The king promised to honor
God and St Nectan, and so his faith was rewarded. Not only did he win the
battle, but the plague disappeared and his soldiers recovered. The first
time that King Athelstan visited Hartland in Devonshire, he donated property
to the saint's church. For the rest of his life, the king placed great confidence
in the intercession of St Nectan.
St Nectan is the patron of Hartland,
Devonshire. The fullest surviving Life dates from the twelfth century (See
Vol. 5 of THE SAINTS OF CORNWALL by G. H. Doble for an English
translation).
There is an Orthodox house chapel (Russian diocese of Sourozh)
dedicated to St Simeon and St Anna at Combe Martin, N. Devon where St Nectan
is venerated.
(c.AD 468-510) (Welsh-Nudd,
Latin-Natanus, English-Nathan), although details from his life-story are
rather sparse. He is chief amongst the Cornish list of children of King Brychan
Brycheiniog, usually said to have been the eldest. Nectan sailed south from
Wales and landed on the Corno-Devon border at Hartland Point. He found a
beautiful valley there, at Stoke St. Nectan near Hartland, with a never-failing
spring. He built a little church and a hermitage, forty paces away and lived
there many years. He tended to the needs of the poor throughout Devon, Cornwall
and even Brittany, where churches dedicated to him may be found. He once
helped a swineherd find his lost pigs and, in return, was given two cows
who provided his daily comestible needs. Most of Nectan's siblings followed
him from Wales and were instrumental in evangelising the south-west. They
saw Nectan as their leader and gathered every New Year's Eve at Hartland
to talk with him.
Eventually, Nectan's two cows were stolen by bandits. He tracked
them to New Stoke, took them back and tried to convert his persecutors to
Christianity. For all his hard work, they struck off his head! Legend says
Nectan picked up the severed object and returned, with it, to his chapel
at Stoke. This occurred on 17th June AD 510. His body was translated to a
more fitting shrine in the 1030s and later looked after by the Austin Canons
who built an Abbey nearby.
Little historical credit is given to the Cornish lists of the
children of Brychan and many scholars believe they only indicate that the
named persons originated in South Wales. Nechtan's name is Pictish and some
think he has been confused with Noethon ap Gildas who is known to have come
from the North. Prof. Charles Thomas, meanwhile, believes that Nectan is,
in fact, a corruption of the name Brychan itself: father and son being one
and the same. He identifies Lundy Island as Brychan's mysterious burial place,
Ynys Brychan, from where his body was removed to Stoke in the 7th century.
|
530 St. Avitus Abbot who
tried to save St. Sigismund and his family; a monk of Men at in Auvergne, France, elected abbot against his will. He
tried to halt the execution of St. Sigismund and his wife and sons, by King
Clodomir, but was not successful.
Aureliánis, in Gállia, sancti Avíti,
Presbyteri et Confessóris.
At Orleans in France, St. Avitus,
priest and confessor.
Soon after, he retired to a hermitage near Maine,
in Perche province, France. There he built a new monastery and church with
the patronage of King Clotaire.
At the close of a scholarly article upon St Avitus and the Saints
of Micy in the Analecta Bollandiana,
the late Father Albert Poncelet, s.j., urged his readers to convince themselves
that a wide difference exists between evidence of cultus and hagiographical narratives.
“The former“, i.e. evidence of cultus, “attests the actual existence
of the saint and the fact that devotion has been paid to him from early times.
It is a very different matter when we have to deal with lives compiled two
or three hundred years after the hero’s death, and seldom embodying a wholly
reliable collection of traditions. For the honour of the saints and in the
interest of sane hagiography one cannot be too careful not to be led astray
by those who, not satisfied with venerating the saints, imagine that respect
for them entails a sort of canonization of the stories whereby posterity
has sought to enhance their glory, in the compilation of which knowledge
of the facts has unfortunately not always been on a level with the piety
of the author.”
That St Avitus was a real person is unquestionable. St Gregory
of Tours informs us that he was an abbot in that part of France which formed
the ancient province of Perche, that he pleaded unsuccessfully with King Clodomir
to spare the lives of St Sigismund of Burgundy, his wife and his sons, whom
Clodomir had captured, and that he was buried near Orleans, where he was
held in great honour. St Gregory had visited the church which was dedicated
under his name, and adds, as an instance of his miraculous powers, that a
citizen of Orleans, who refused to observe his
festival because he wanted to work in his vineyard was punished by a painful
affliction from which he was not freed until he visited the saint’s church
and paid him the respect which was his due. This is all that is known about
St Avitus—despite his so-called biographies, none of which are earlier than
the ninth century. They form part of an attempt made, when the abbey of Micy
had taken on a new lease of life under Benedictine rule, to shed lustre on
an obscure and inglorious phase of its past history by assigning to it as
former abbots a number of saints honoured in the neighbourhood of Orleans
and Le Mans, but of whom very little indeed was known.
The
legend of St Avitus, which appears with variations in these so-called biographies,
represents him as having entered the abbey of Micy as a lay-brother. His ignorance
and simplicity caused him to be despised by all except the abbot, St Maximinus,
who recognized his sanctity and made him cellarer. Avitus, however, left
the abbey and retired into solitude. After the death of Maximinus the monks
made search for Avitus and elected him abbot. Again, after a short stay at
Micy, he escaped, this time with St Calais (Carilefus), and lived as a recluse
on the frontiers of Perche. Others joining them, St Calais withdrew into
a forest in Maine; but King Clotaire built a church and monastery for St Avitus
and his companions at the place which is now Châteaudun. There he died
in the year 530 (?).
For one text
of the life of St Avitus see the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol.
iv; another has been printed entire by the Bollandists in their catalogue
of the hagiographical manuscripts of the Brussels Library, vol. i, pp. 57—63.
B. Krusch has re-edited portions of this in MGH., Scriptores Merov.,
vol. iii, pp. 380—385. The article of Albert Poncelet referred
to above is in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxiv (1905),
pp. 5—97.
|
6th v. St. Gundulphus
Bishop of France who recorded as dying in Bourges.
In
pago Bituricénsi, sancti Gundúlphi Epíscopi.
In the territory of Bourges, St. Gundulphus, bishop.
|
560 St. Himerius Bishop
of Amelia, in Umbria, Italy. Himerius’ relics were translated to Cremona
in 995, where he is a patron of the region.
Amériæ, in Umbria, sancti Himérii Epíscopi, cujus
corpus Cremónam, in Insúbria, translátum est.
At Amelia in Umbria, Bishop St. Himerius, whose body was
translated to Cremona.
|
575 St. Harvey blind
abbot of Plouvien; later he transferred his community to Lanhourneau, where
he passed the rest of his days and was famous for miracles Hervaeus,
Herve or Harvey (after a sixth-century Breton monk).
6th V. St Hervé, or Harvey, Abbot
St Hervé is one of the most popular saints
in Brittany, and figures largely in the folklore and ballads of the country.
At one period his feast was a holiday of obligation in the diocese of Leon.
His cultus, which originally centred in Lanhouarneau,
Le Menez-Bré and Porzay, was propagated by a distribution of his relics
in 1002, and is general throughout Brittany. No name, with the exception
of Yves, is more commonly given to Breton boys than that of Hervé.
Solemn oaths were taken over his relics until the year 1610, when the parlement made it obligatory for legal declarations to be made
only upon the Gospels. In the absence of any reliable records it is unfortunately
impossible to reconstruct St Hervé’s true history, but the legend,
as set forth in a late medieval Latin manuscript, may be summarized as follows
In the early years of the
reign of King Childebert, there came to the court of Paris a British bard
named Hyvarnion, who had been driven from his country by the Saxons. He charmed
all who heard him by his music, but worldly applause had no attraction for
him. After two or three years he retired to Brittany, where he married a girl
called Rivanon, and became the father of a little blind boy, who received
the name of Hervé. The child, bereft in infancy of his father, was
brought up until he was seven by his mother. She then confided him to the
care of a holy man called Arthian, and afterwards he joined his uncle, who
had founded a little monastic school at Plouvien, and helped him with his
farm and his pupils. One day, as Hervé was working in the fields,
a wolf came and devoured the ass which was drawing the plough; a young child,
who was the saint’s guide, uttered cries of distress, but in answer to Hervé’s
prayers the wolf meekly passed his head into the ass’s collar and finished
his work. During these years his mother Rivanon had been living in the heart
of a dense forest, seeing no human face except that of her niece, who waited
on her. Now the hour of departure was at hand, and Hervé sought her
out in time to receive her last blessing and to close her eyes.
Soon afterwards
he was entrusted with the care of the community of Plouvien by his uncle,
and the monastery continued to flourish; but after three years he was inspired
to establish it elsewhere. Surrounded by a band of monks and scholars he
went forth, directing his steps first to Leon. There he was cordially received
by the bishop, who would have conferred the priesthood on him if the saint’s
humility had not precluded him from accepting any higher order than that
of exorcist. From Leon they made their way westward, and beside the road
to Lesneven may still be seen the fountain of St Hervé, which he caused
to spring forth to quench the thirst of his companions. They reached their
final destination at the place now known as Lanhouarneau, where St Hervé
founded a monastery which became famous throughout the country. It was his
home for the rest of his life, although he sometimes left it in order to preach
to the people and to exercise the duties of an exorcist, in which capacity
some of his most outstanding miracles were worked. Venerated by all for his
sanctity and for his miracles, the blind abbot lived on for many years; his
monks, as they watched beside his death-bed, heard the music of the celestial
choirs welcoming the saint to Heaven.
St Hervé is usually represented with the wolf, and with Guiharan,
his child guide. He is invoked for eye-trouble of all sorts, and his wolf
serves Breton mothers as a bugbear with which to threaten troublesome children.
The so-called
life of St Hervé, which in the very competent judgement of A. de la
Borderie cannot have been written (at any rate in the form in which it has
been preserved to us) earlier than the thirteenth century, was published
for the first time by the same distinguished scholar in 1892 in the Memoires
de la Soc. d'Émulation des Cotes-du-Nord, vol. xxix, pp. 251-304.
There is an account in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. iv, mainly based
on Albert Le Grand. See, further, LBS., vol. iii, pp. 270 seq., but Canon
Doble affirms strongly that there is no ground for connecting Hervé
in any way with either Cornwall or Wales; he had no cult in Britain. Cf. Duine,
Memento, p. 91.
St.
Harvey was blind, but became abbot of Plouvien; later he transferred his
community to Lanhourneau, where he passed the rest of his days and was famous
for miracles. Sixth Century. Especially after St. Harvey's relics were
distributed throughout Brittany in 1002, this monk-saint became intensely
popular. Indeed, up to 1610 when the local court ordered that all official
oaths be taken on the bible only, the Bretons took solemn oaths on the relics
of St. Herve. His feast was also for some time listed as one of the
holydays of obligation in the Breton diocese of Leon.
Abbot Harvey is often mentioned in the tales and songs of Brittany.
Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to discern what is told of him as
fact or folklore. The traditional legend of Herve is nevertheless charming
enough to be related here.
Around the year 520, we are told, a Celtic bard (folk singer/historian) driven
out of Britain by the Anglo-Saxon invaders, came to the court of Childebert
I, the Frankish king of Paris. The bard's name was Hyvarnion.
Although Hyvarnion delighted the royal court with his songs, he was too earnest
a man to desire to be a mere court musician. A couple of years later,
therefore, he moved to Brittany to be in the company of his exiled fellow
countrymen.The story goes that a young British bard named Hyvarnion, a pupil
of Saint Cadoc, lived at the court of Childebert, king of the Franks.
After four years, desiring to return to his native land, he set off through
Brittany, where one day, riding through a wood, he heard a young girl singing.
The sweetness of her voice made him curious and, dismounting from his horse,
he made his way through the trees to where in a sunny glade he found a maiden
gathering herbs. He asked her what they were for. "This herb," she replied,
"drives away sadness, that one banishes blindness, and I look for the herb
of life that drives away death." Hyvarnion, forgetting his homeward journey,
in that hour loved her, and later he married her.
A girl named Rivanon bore him a son baptized Hervaeus. Unfortunately,
the child was born functionally blind.
His father died soon after his birth. Rivanon raised her child until
he was seven. Then she entrusted him to the care of Arthian, a holy
man. Later Herve joined his uncle, a monk who had launched a little
school in his monastery in Plouvien. Despite his poor sight, young
Harvey was able to help the uncle with the children and the farm tasks of
the monastery. Eventually he became a monk of the Plouvien community.
One
day, we are told, while he was plowing in the fields, a wolf attacked the
donkey that was drawing his plow. Guiharan, a small child who was assisting
the monk, cried out in panic. But Harvey, already a devout young man,
simply prayed for divine help. The response, says the legend, was miraculous.
The wolf, repenting, shouldered the dead donkey's harness and meekly pulled
the plow himself until the task was finished!
Harvey's mother had meanwhile been living far away in the depths of a forest,
with only a niece to keep her company and do her service in her declining
years. Learning of her grave illness, the future saint traveled back
to see her. She gave him her last blessing, and he closed her eyes
in death.
Not long after Herve returned to Plouvien, his uncle put him in charge of
the little monastery. Three years later, he decided to move the whole
establishment elsewhere. Accompanied by all his monks and students,
he set out for western Brittany. At Leon, the bishop cordially greeted
the travelers. He offered to ordain their superior a priest; but Herve,
out of humility, would accept only the minor order of exorcist. Eventually
his community reached the present Lanhouarneau. There he established
a new monastery that was to become famous throughout Brittany.
Abbot Hervaeus spent the rest of his life at Lanhouarneau, although from
time to time he was called forth to preach to the people of the area and
to exercise his office of exorcist. It was in the latter capacities
that he performed many of the miracles attributed to him. (Once, it is said,
noisy frogs that interfered with his sermon stopped their croaking at his
command.) The older he grew, the more revered he became for his holiness.
Fr. Harvey lived a long life. When
he was breathing his last, says the legend, the monks at his bedside heard
angel choirs singing him a song of welcome.
St. Hervaeus is identified in pictures and statues by a wolf, with or without
his child-guide. Sometimes he is also shown as a preacher quieting
frogs. The Bretons invoke his aid against diseases of the eye, and
cite his wolf as a warning to disobedient children
|
680 St. Adulf Bishop
and missionary, venerated with his brother, Butulf nobles of Saxon or Irish lineage who became monks; went as missionaries
to Germany. There Adulf was made the bishop of Utrecht. Butulf returned to
England and founded a religious house in 654, becoming widely respected for
his holiness.
680 ST BOTULF, OR BOTOLPH, ABBOT, AND ST ADULF
No less than seventy English
churches-sixteen of them in Norfolk-are dedicated in honour of St Botulf,
but though he seems to have been held in great veneration in Anglo-Saxon
England little is actually known of his history. According to a life written
by Folcard, abbot of Thorney, in 1068, he and his brother Adulf were the
sons of noble Saxon parents and were born early in the seventh century. In
the Slesvig Breviary, however, he is said to have been a "Scot", i.e. an
Irishman. Brought up Christians, they were sent to complete their education
in Germany or in Belgian Gaul, where they received the monastic habit. Adulf
is said to have been raised to the episcopate, either at Utrecht or Maestricht.
If this statement is correct, he was probably a regionary bishop, for his
name does not appear in the list of prelates of either diocese. Botulf in
the course of time returned to England, and was favourably received by Ethelmund,
a king of the southern Angles, whose sisters he had met abroad.
At his request, Ethelmund (of
whom no other record exists) granted him a barren spot, almost surrounded
by water, on which to build a monastery. It was called Icanhoh, and is usually
identified with Boston, i.e. Botulf's stone, in Lincolnshire, but it may
have been Iken in Suffolk, or elsewhere. He began to build his abbey in 654,
as we learn from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and soon gathered round him a
band of disciples. We read that they suffered molestation from the evil spirits
who had formerly haunted the district. Otherwise, St Botulf, except for two
recorded journeys, appears to have led a peaceful, uneventful life amongst
his brethren until his death in 680. It is related of St Ceolfrid, abbot
of Wearmouth, that he "once journeyed to the East Angles that he might see
the foundation of Abbot Botulf, whom fame had proclaimed far and wide as
a man of remarkable life and learning, full of the grace of the Holy Spirit"
and that "after having been instructed as far as possible in a short time,
he returned home so well grounded that no one could be found better versed
than he, either in ecclesiastical or in monastic traditions."
Although Icanhoh and its church
were destroyed in one of the Danish invasions, the remains of St Botulf were
saved, as well as those of St Adulf, who had been buried with him. In the
reign of King Edgar the relics were distributed to the abbeys of Thomey and
Ely. The feast of St Botulf is now kept in the dioceses of Brentwood, Northampton
and Nottingham.
In the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. iv, the Bollandists
have printed such information regarding St Botulf as was accessible to them
at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Not very much has been added
since; but it is worth while to consult the notes to Plummer's edition of
the Ecclesiastical History of Bede,
and also the article in the Dictionary of Christian Biography vol. i, p.
332. Edmund Bishop's notes on the English calendars in Stanton's Menology point to the fact that
the observance of some feast in commemoration of St Botulf was widespread
in this country. By far the most thorough account which has been written
of Botulf is that contributed in 1922 to the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural
History (pp. 29-52) by F. S. Stevenson.
|
697
St. Moling Bishop of Ferns; successor of St. Aidan. Born in Wexford, Ireland
He is also listed as Dairchilla, Molignus, Moling, or Myllin. Moling was
a monk at Glendalough and then founded an abbey at Achad Cainigh, which became
Teghmollin, or Tech Molin, St. Mullins. He was buried there.
THE cultus of St Moling (Mulling,
Molingus, Daircheall) goes back to a very early date and has been widespread
over Ireland. Giraldus Cambrensis states that the books of SS. Patrick, Columba,
Moling and Broccan, whom he characterizes as the four prophets of Ireland,
were extant in his time in the Irish language. Unfortunately no accurate
record of the history of St Moling, nor any of his writings, have been preserved
to us, and we can only arrive at a conjectural outline of his career based
on a late tradition. He is said to have been born in the district of Kinsellagh
in County Wexford, of a family related to the kings of Leinster. After spending
some years at Glendalough, where he received the monastic habit, he founded
an abbey at Achad Cainigb, which derived so much glory from his wisdom and
example that it was named Tech Moling in his honour. He is said to have lived
for a time in a hollow tree, and to have fasted every day during all his
later life, except when he was entertaining guests. He succeeded St Aidan
as bishop at Ferns, and induced King Finacta, in 693, to remit for the kingdom
of Leinster the heavy tribute of oxen, called the Cattle tribute, that had
been imposed by King Tuathal Techtmar and had been the cause of many wars.
The holy bishop resigned his see several years before his death, which occurred
in 697. He was interred in his own monastery of Tech Moling, a site now covered
by the town of St Mullins, in County Carlow.
The Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. iv, have printed
a Latin life from the Codex Salmanticensis,
and another has been edited by C. Plummer in VSH., vol. ii, pp. 190-205.
There is also an Irish life, which has been printed by Whitley Stokes in
the Revue Celtique, vol. xxviii
(1906), pp. 256-312. See further Kenney, The Sources for the Early History of Ireland,
vol. i. What is believed to be St Moling's book shrine is preserved as a
notable work of art.
|
| St. Briavel patron
of a parish in Dean Forest, Gloucestershire, England. |
| 1001 St. Rainbold
Benedictine abbot also called Rainnold. He was a monk of St Maximinus at
Trier, Germany, and became abbot of St. Emmeram. St. Wolfgang appointed him
to the post. He was reputedly extremely long lived, reportedly dying at the
age of one hundred. |
1160 St. Raynerius
Hermit and Benedictine monk led a dissolute life until undergoing a
conversion after pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Returning home, he entered the
Benedictine abbey of St. Andrew at Pisa where he lived as a conventual oblate;
His great reputation is primarily due to the numerous cures which were worked
by him during his life and after his death. From the use he made of holy
water in his miracles of healing he received the nickname of De Aqua,
Pisis,
in Túscia, sancti Rainérii Confessóris.
At Pisa in Tuscany, St. Rainerius, confessor.
Born in Pisa, Italy, he led
a dissolute life until undergoing a conversion after pilgrimages to
Jerusalem. Returning home, he entered the Benedictine abbey of St. Andrew
at Pisa where he lived as a conventual oblate. He died at the Pisan abbey
of San Vito. Raynerius was credited with various miracles during his lifetime,
earning the name “de Aqua” for his use of holy water in healing.
ST RAINERIUS OF PISA (A.D. 1160)
THE relics of the saint who
is Pisa's principal patron lie in the chapel of St Rainerius, or Raniero,
at the end of the south transept of the cathedral, and eight scenes from
his life and some of his miracles are amongst the celebrated fourteenth-century
frescoes which adorn the walls of the ancient Campo Santo. His life was written
soon after his death by Canon Benincasa, a personal friend who regarded himself
as a disciple. Rainerius, sprung from a good Pisan family, frittered away
his early manhood in frivolity and dissipation. Through the influence of
an aunt or cousin, however, he came into contact with Alberto Leccapecore,
a religious from the monastery of San Vito, who made him realize the error
of his ways. So over- whelming was his penitence for his sinful life that
he refused to eat, and wept unceasingly-to the scornful amusement of his
former associates and to the distress of his parents, who thought he was
going out of his mind. At the end of three days he could weep no longer:
he was blind. His mother was in despair, but God restored sight to his body,
besides enlightening his soul.
Business as a merchant soon afterwards took him to Palestine,
and as he followed in the footsteps of our Lord his spiritual life developed.
Then one day he seemed to see his jewelled money-pouch filled, not with coins,
but with pitch and sulphur. It suddenly caught fire and he was unable to
extinguish the flames until he had sprinkled it with water from a vessel
which he found himself holding in his hand. The meaning of the vision was
explained by a voice which said: "The purse is your body: fire, pitch and
sulphur are inordinate desires which water alone can wash away." He had purged
himself from past sin by penitential tears, but from that time forth he redoubled
his austerities, going barefoot and begging his way, and was rewarded with
the gift of miracles. We read that on the road to Mount Tabor he tamed wild
beasts by making the sign of the cross, that he multiplied the bread a charitable
woman was distributing to the poor, and that he wrought many other wonders.
Upon his return to Pisa Rainerius made his home for a time with
the canons of Santa Maria. Afterwards, though he never joined an order, he
lived a more or less cloistered life, first in the abbey of St Andrew, and
later in the monastery of St Vitus, where he died in 1160. Because he seems
sometimes to have preached, it has been inferred that he must have received
holy orders, but this is doubtful. His great reputation is primarily due
to the numerous cures which were worked by him during his life and after
his death. From the use he made of holy water in his miracles of healing
he received the nickname of De Aqua, and his name was inserted in the Roman
Martyrology by Cardinal Baronius.
The long biography of Rainerius,
much of it taken up with miracles attributed to him before and after his
death, seems really to have been compiled by a contemporary. It is printed
in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol.
iv. The devotion of the people of Pisa to St Rainerius is attested by the
considerable number of books which have been printed there to do him honour.
See particularly G. M. Sanminiatelli, Vita
di St Ranieri first published in 1704, but followed by other editions;
and G. Sainati, Vita di S. Ranieri Scacceri
(1890).
|
1245 Saint Shalva
of Akhaltsikhe was a brilliant military commander in the army of Queen Tamar
and the prince of Akhaltsikhe
After his victory at Shamkori in the Ganja region, Shalva carried with him
the flag of the caliph, as a sign of the invincibility of the Christian Faith,
and conferred it, along with the wealth he had won, as an offering to the
Khakhuli Icon of the Theotokos. For his selfless service, Queen Tamar honored
him with the rank of commander-in-chief of the Georgian army.
During the reign of Queen Tamar’s daughter Rusudan (1222–1245), the armies
of Sultan Jalal al-Din stormed into Georgia. Rusudan rallied the Georgian
forces and appointed a new commander-in-chief by the name of John Atabeg.
Six thousand Georgians confronted a Muslim army of two hundred thousand near
the village of Garnisi. Command of the advance guard was entrusted to the
brave and valorous brothers Shalva and John of Akhaltsikhe, while John Atabeg
remained with the main body of the army for the decisive battle. The advance
guard fought fearlessly, though the enemy’s army greatly surpassed it in
number. The brothers fought with great devotion, hoping for support from
the commander-in-chief, but John Atabeg was seized with envy—rather than
fear—and never offered them his help. “O envy, source of every evil!” wrote
one chronicler of the incident. The enemy devastated the Georgian army, killing
four thousand of its most valiant soldiers. Among them was John of Akhaltsikhe,
whose brother Shalva was captured and delivered as a slave to Jalal al-Din.
Jalal al-Din was overjoyed to have the famed soldier and military leader
brought before him. He received him with proper honor, offered him cities
of great wealth, and promised him more if he agreed to convert to Islam. Jalal
al-Din sought with great persistence to convert Shalva to Islam, but his
efforts were in vain—Shalva would not be converted, and nothing in the world
would change his mind. So the sultan ordered that he be tortured to death.
After hours of torment failed to kill him, Jalal al-Din’s servants cast the
half-dead martyr in prison, where he later reposed.
|
1250 St. Teresa of
Portugal the eldest daughter of King Sancho I of Portugal and sister of SS.
Mafalda and Sanchia; married her cousin, King Alfonso IX of Leon & had
several children; the marriage was declared invalid because of consanguinity,
she returned to Portugal and founded a Benedictine monastery on her estate
at Lorvao. She replaced the monks with nuns following the Cistercian Rule,
accounts of miracles are attributed
to Teresa's intercession. She expanded
a monastery to accommodate three hundred nuns, and lived there. In about 1231,
at the request of Alfonso's second wife and widow, Berengaria, she settled
a dispute among their children over the succession of the throne of Leon,
and on her return to Lorvao, she probably became a nun.
Her cult, with that of her sister
Sanchia, was approved by Pope Clement XI in 1705.
SS. TERESA AND SANCHIA OF PORTUGAL
(A.D. 1250 AND 1229)
SANCHO I, King of Portugal, had three daughters, Teresa, Sanchia
and Mafalda, all of whom are honoured by the Church. Teresa, the eldest,
became the wife of her cousin, Alfonso IX, King of Léon, by whom she
had several children. The marriage, however, was after some years pronounced
invalid, because it had been contracted within prohibited degrees without
dispensation. Teresa was attached to her husband and loth to leave him, but
eventually they agreed to part. Teresa returned to Portugal, and at Lorvâo
she found on her estate an abbey of Benedictine monks now fallen low in numbers
and observance. These she ejected and replaced by a community of women pledged
to the Cistercian rule. She rebuilt the church, besides restoring and extending
the buildings to accommodate 300 nuns. Although she made her home with them,
taking full part in their life, yet she retained the direction of her affairs,
the disposal of her property, and the right to come and go as she pleased.
Teresa's sister, Sanchia, who never married, had lived since their father's
death on her estates at Alenquer, where she devoted herself to good works.
She welcomed the Franciscan and Dominican friars into Portugal, and founded
the convent of Cellas, for women under the Augustinian rule. But during a
visit to her sister she was so impressed by the life led by the community
at Lorvao that she afterwards converted Cellas into a Cistercian abbey, and
herself took the veil there. Sanchia died in 1229, at the age of forty-seven;
Teresa surreptitiously smuggled her sister's body out of the choir at Cellas,
where it lay on a bier, and conveyed it to Lorvao, where it was buried. The
last public appearance of Teresa occurred two or three years later. It was
made in response to an earnest entreaty from Berengaria, the widow of her
former husband, that she would intervene to settle the quarrels between their
respective children over the succession to the kingdom of Léon. Teresa
went, and through her mediation an equitable arrangement was arrived at and
peace was restored. Her work in the world, she felt, was now done and she
determined never again to leave the convent. It was probably at this time
that she actually received the veil. She survived until 1250, and at her
death was buried beside St Sanchia. Their cultus was approved in 1705.
The life of Teresa by Francis
Macedo, though written in the seventeenth century, purports to be based on
authentic materials, especially those collected in view of her expected canonization.
This biography has been reprinted in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. iv, and the
Bollandists have added certain documents also drawn from the process of canonization,
with accounts of miracles attributed to Teresa's intercession. Henriquez
in his Lilia Cistercii (1633), vol.
ii, pp. 131-144, also recounts her history in some detail. J. P. Bayao in
his Portugal glorioso e illustrado
(1727) gives an account of both sisters and of St Mafalda (May 2).
|
1435 BD PETER OF PISA Many miracles were ascribed to him;
THE founder of the Hermits, or Poor Brothers, of St Jerome was
born in 1355 at Pisa, while his father, Peter Gambacorta, whose name he bore,
was ruling that republic. At the age of twenty-five he secretly left the
court in the disguise of a penitent, and retired to the Umbrian solitude
of Monte Bello. There he subsisted on alms, which he collected in the nearest
village. In 1380 he found means to build an oratory and cells for a dozen
companions who had joined him (according to popular tradition they were highwaymen
whom he had converted). He prescribed for his community a rule supplemented
by certain constitutions gathered from the works of St Jerome, whom he chose
as patron of the new congregation. His monks kept four Lents in the year,
fasted on all Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and continued in prayer every
night for two hours after Matins. As for himself, his whole time was spent
in prayer or in penitential exercises. Many miracles were ascribed to him.
When his father and brothers were assassinated in 1393 by Giacomo Appiano,
he was sorely tempted to leave his retreat to punish the perpetrator of the
outrage; but he overcame the temptation and, following the example of his
sister, Bd Clare Gambacorta (April 17) he freely forgave the murderer. His
congregation, approved by Pope Martin V in 1421, soon established itself
elsewhere in Italy. Bd Peter survived until 1435, dying in Venice at the
age of eighty, and was beatified in 1693. At one time there were forty-six
houses of Poor Brothers in the provinces of Ancona and Treviso. Small groups
of hermits and tertiaries became affiliated to them, and in 1668 Pope Clement
IX united the community of St Jerome of Fiesole, which had been founded by
Charles Montegranelli, to Bd Peter's order. But by 1933 its members had become
so few that it was suppressed by the Holy See.
An account, founded on rather
late materials, is given in the Acta Sanctorum,
June, vol. iv; but see further the Kirchenlexikon,
vol. v, cc. 2016-2017; SajaneIlo, Hist.
Mon. Ord. S. Hieron. Congo S. Petri
de Pisis, vol. i, pp. 100 seq.; and Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen, vol. i, pp.
592-596. The brief of suppression is in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. xxv (1933), pp. 147-149.
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1697 St Gregory Barbarigo,
Bishop Of Padua And Cardinal charities were enormous kind to all, especially
to those in trouble or distress founded a college, and also a seminary for
young priests
BORN at Venice in 1625 of an ancient and noble house, Gregory Luigi Barbarigo
was educated in his native city. While still in his early twenties he was
chosen by the Venetian government to accompany its ambassador, Luigi Contarini,
to the famous Congress of Münster, where on October 24, 1648, the plenipotentiaries
of Germany, France and Sweden signed the Treaty of Westphalia, and thus brought
to an end the Thirty Years’ War.
At Münster Barbarigo became acquainted with the apostolic nuncio, Fabio Chigi, who was so favourably impressed
with him that, after he had been raised to the papal throne as Alexander VII, he showed the young Venetian
many tokens of his esteem and became his strong Supporter. In 1657 he nominated
him to the bishopric of Bergamo, in 1660 he created him a cardinal, and in
1664 he transferred him to the bishopric of Padua.
The zeal with which Blessed Gregory carried out his pastoral duties caused
him to be hailed as a second Charles Borromeo. He was indeed exemplary in
every relation of life. His charities were enormous, and he is known to have
distributed in alms eight hundred thousand crowns. Severe only with himself,
he was kind to all, especially to those in trouble or distress. In the interest
of learning he founded a college, and also a seminary for young priests which
attained great renown. He gave it a printing press of its own, and also a
fine library particularly well furnished with the writings of the fathers
and with works dealing with the Holy Scriptures. He died a peaceful death
on June 15, 1697, and was beatified in 1761.
A life of Bd Gregory was written
in Latin by A. Ricchini, which was also translated into Italian. His unpublished
writings were edited by P. Uccelli in 1877, and the account of his pastoral
visitations by A. Coi in 1907. His earnest efforts to bring about a union
with the Greeks are described by G. Poletto in three articles in Bessarione for 1901-1902. See also
the references to him in Pastor, Geschichte
der Päpste, vol. xiv; and in P. Bergamaschi's life of his namesake,
Marc' Antonio Barbarigo (1919). Nine studies for the biography of Bd Gregory
were published by Prof. S. Serena, of Venice, between 1929 and 1940.
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1737
Bl. Emmanuel d'Abreu Martyr of China, a Portuguese Jesuit. He entered the
Order in 1724 and was stationed in China. In 1736, he was arrested in Tonkin
and was martyred the following year with three companions.
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1856 St. Emily de
Vialar Virgin, Foundress of the Sisters of St. Joseph "of the Apparition"
Massíliæ, in Gállia, sanctæ
Æmíliæ de Vialár, Vírginis, Fundatrícis
Institúti Sorórum a sancto Joseph ab Apparitióne, fortitúdine,
patiéntia et caritáte insígnis, quam Pius Duodécimus,
Póntifex Máximus, in Sanctárum númerum rétulit.
At Marseilles
in France, St. Emily de Vialar, virgin, foundress of the Congregation of
the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Apparition. A shining example of
fortitude, patience and charity, the Sovereign Pontiff Pius XII added her
to the number of the saints.
Their work was to be the care
of the needy, especially the sick, and the education of children. In 1835,
she made her profession with seventeen other sisters, and received formal
approval for the rule of the Congregation.
ST EMILY DE VIALAR, VIRGIN,
FOUNDRESS OF THE SISTERS OF ST JOSEPH" OF THE APPARITION"
(A.D, 1856)
ANNE MARGUERITE ADELAIDE EMILY DE VIALAR was the eldest child and only daughter
of Baron James Augustine de Vialar and his wife Antoinette, daughter of that
Baron de Portal who was physician-in-ordinary to Louis XVIII and Charles
X of France. She was born at Gaillac in Languedoc in 1797. At the age of
fifteen she was removed from school in Paris to be companion to her father,
now a widower, at Gaillac; but unhappily differences arose between them because
of Emily's refusal to consider a suitable marriage. On one occasion M. de
Vialar threw a decanter at his daughter's head, and she was relegated to
a place of no importance in the household. Moreover, things were made more
difficult for her by there being no priest or other suitable person in the
place to advise and guide her; "God became my director", she said in after
years: but even so it is not always easy to be certain what is the voice
of God and what the voice of self. Of Emily de Vialar's religious experiences
at this time a vision of our Lord, His body showing the wounds of His passion,
made so deep an impression on her that it is still commemorated daily in
the congregation she founded.
Then in 1818, when she was twenty-one, a young curate (afterwards rector),
the abbé Mercier, came to Gaillac, and in him Emily found a friend
who understood and appreciated her. He set himself to test her religious
vocation, and in the meantime she devoted herself to the care of children
neglected by their parents and to the help of the poor generally; this led
to further difficulties with her father, who objected to the use of the terrace
of his house as a sort of out-patients' department for the sick, the destitute
and the sad. For fifteen years Emily was the good angel of Gaillac; and then,
in 1832, occurred the event which decided both her and the abbé Mercier
that the time had come for her to launch out on her own: her maternal grandfather,
the Baron de Portal, died, and Emily's share of his estate was a quite considerable
fortune.
She at once bought a large house at Gaillac, and at Christmas took possession
of it with three companions, Victoria Teyssonnière, Rose Mongis and
Pauline Gineste. Others joined them, and three months later the archbishop
of Albi authorized the abbé Mercier to clothe twelve postulants with
the religious habit. They called themselves the Congregation of Sisters of
St Joseph of the Apparition, the epithet referring to the appearing (apparitio)
of the angel to Joseph to reveal the divine incarnation (Matthew i 18-21);
and their work was to be the care of the needy, especially the sick, and
the education of children. They looked not only to France but also to foreign
countries and the missions; and in fact they developed as a primarily missionary
congregation. The sisters encountered the usual initial opposition and criticism,[*
A less usual trial was a threat of extirpation by a band of brigands, who
were said to have threatened to strangle everyone of the sisters.]
Details of which found a lively chronicler in Eugenie de Guérin: postulants
too young and pretty to be exposed to the air, a too-becoming head-dress,
"A new order? It's a disorder! "That Vialar girl ... ". But Miss de
Guérin opined that Sister Emily would do great things, and the discerning
archbishop of Albi, Mgr de Gualy, agreed: in 1835 he received her profession,
with that of seventeen other sisters, and gave formal approval to the rule
of the congregation.
In the previous year the second foundation was made, at Algiers, whither
the sisters were invited at the instance of Emily's brother Augustine, one
of the municipal councillors, to take charge of a hospital. A correspondent
of Eugenie de Guerin speaks of "Emily de Vialar's conquest of Algeria"-but
it proved to be only a temporary occupation. From the big establishment at
Algiers another foundation was made at Bône, which in turn gave birth
to convents in Constantine and Tunis; Tunis had a filiation in Malta, and
from there sprang the houses of the Balkans and the Near East. The Sisters
of St Joseph were the first Catholic nuns in modem times to be established
in Jerusalem, whither they were invited by the Franciscan Guardian of the
Holy Land; and when Mgr Dupuch, the first bishop of Algiers, celebrated the
Holy Mysteries on the hill of St Augustine's Hippo, Mother Emily and some
of her sisters were there. Unfortunately her relations with this prelate
were spoiled by a long disagreement about jurisdiction; Rome decided in her
favour, but Mgr Dupuch had the support of the civil power and the sisters
had to give up the Algerian establishments, at great temporal loss to themselves.
It was at this time that Mother Emily turned her attention to Tunisia and
then Malta, on which island she landed from a wrecked ship, as St Paul did.
Her friend and helper the abbé Mercier had died in 1845, and on her
return to Gaillac in the following year the foundress found her headquarters
in a state of confusion, and its finances in a chronic mess owing to the
rashness-if not worse-of a trustee. Consequent lawsuits did nothing to improve
matters; and the upshot was that the mother house was moved to Toulouse,
after several of the senior nuns had left the congregation and its very existence
was threatened. "I've had my lesson", wrote Mother Emily. "A quiet trust
in God is better than trying to safeguard material advantages." Then she
set out for Greece, and founded a convent on the island of Syra.
The visit to Greece was the last of Mother Emily's longer journeys (these
fatiguing undertakings provoked un favourable comments from some highly-placed
ecclesiastics); but during her lifetime foundations were made much farther
away. In 1847 a call from Burma was answered by the dispatch of six sisters
thither, and in 1854 the bishop of Perth in Australia visited Mother Emily
to ask for help. Accordingly a contingent was sent to Freemantle. The foundress
thus in the course of twenty-two years saw her congregation grow from one
to some forty houses, many of which she had founded in person. Two years
before, the mother house had again been moved, this time to Marseilles (where
it still is). Here Mother Emily was warmly welcomed by the famous bishop Mgr
de Mazenod, himself the founder of a missionary congregation, the Oblates
of Mary Immaculate.
St Emily de Vialar was by nature shrewd, exact, lively but well-balanced,
qualities that showed themselves in her face no less than in her life, and
her intelligence was controlled and directed by a will of exceptional strength.
Not otherwise could she have done the work that she did, beginning only when
she was already thirty-five, and meeting with considerable opposition in
the preparatory stages and serious set-backs from time to time afterwards.
She was particularly immovable when the constitutional or canonical integrity
of her congregation seemed to be threatened: it was that which led to the
breach with Mgr Dupuch, and to the abandonment of Toulouse as headquarters
after only five years there. Such difficulties, and the troubles at Gaillac
in 1846, seemed not to discourage her; but her letters show what interior
trials and uncertainties she underwent. St Emily's correspondence was necessarily
voluminous, and her writing is marked by a vigorous and appealing style,
especially when some moral implication added a touch of high eloquence to
her pen; this is well illustrated in the memorial she addressed to Field-Marshal
Soult after the Algerian disaster.
St Emily deliberately chose the way of Martha, but she was not excluded from
the way of Mary. From the account written at the direction of her confessor
we know in how close a state of union with God she lived, and there is as
well the testimony of her daughters in religion as to how far she progressed
in the path of contemplation. "I have plenty of trials, but God is always
there to support me", she wrote. "How often is the Lord with me in the long
night watches. The outpouring of His love is all about me, and I try to follow
Him always, even though some new tribulation will come upon me .... But as
troubles increase, so does my trust in Him...." It has been well said that"
Civilization is a matter of the spirit"; and the spirit of St Emily, inspired
by a love that Cardinal Granito di Belmonte characterized as "wise, understanding
and most considerate", has through the congregation that she founded "done
more in the past hundred years for civilization in Africa, Asia and Australia
than conquerors and colonizers could ever do".
The physical energy and achievements of St Emily de Vialar are the more remarkable
in that from her youth she was troubled by hernia, contracted characteristically
in doing a deed of charity. From 1850 this became more and more serious,
and it hastened her end, which came on August 24, 1856. The burden of her
last testament to her daughters was "Love one another". Her canonization
took place in 1951, and her feast is kept on this day.
The standard biography is La vie militante de la Bse Mere Emilie de Vialar,
by Canon Testas, reissued in 1939. The author made an Histoire abrégée from this
in 1938. The letters of Eugenie de Guerin (1805-48), to her brother Maurice,
referred to above, were published at Paris in the sixties of last century;
a fresh English translation of this "journal", by Naomi Royde Smith, appeared
in The Idol and the Shrine (1949).
Like Bd Emily, Miss de Guerin was a native of Languedoc. See also G. Bernoville,
Emilie de Vialar (1953).
Anne Marguerite Adelaide Emily de Vialar was the eldest child
and only daughter of Baron James Augustine de Vialar and his wife Antoinette,
daughter of that Baron de Portal who was physician-in-ordinary to Louis XVIII
and Charles X of France. She was born at Gaillac in Languedoc in 1797. At
the age of fifteen she was removed from school in Paris to be companion to
her father, now a widower, at Gaillac; but unhappily, differences arose between
them because of Emily's refusal to consider a suitable marriage.
For fifteen years, Emily was the good angel of Gaillac, devoting
herself to the care of children neglected by their parents and to the help
of the poor generally. In 1832, her maternal grandfather died, leaving her
a share of his estate which was a quite considerable fortune. She bought
a large house at Gaillac and took possession of it with three companions.
Others joined them and three months later, the archbishop authorized the
Abbe to clothe twelve postulants with the religious habit. They called themselves
the Congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition. Their work was
to be the care of the needy, especially the sick, and the education of children.
In 1835, she made her profession with seventeen other sisters, and received
formal approval for the rule of the Congregation.
The foundress, in the course
of twenty-two years, saw her Congregation grow from one to some forty houses,
many of which she had founded in person. The physical energy and achievements
of St. Emily de Vialar are the more remarkable in that from her youth she
was troubled by hernia, contracted characteristically in doing a deed of
charity. From 1850 this became more and more serious, and it hastened her
end, which came on August 24, 1856. The burden of her last testament to her
daughters was "Love one another". Her canonization took place in 1951;
her feast is June 17th.
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1860 St. Joseph Cafasso
assigned to a seminary in Turin After ordination there he worked especially
against the spirit of Jansenism, an excessive preoccupation with sin and
damnation; St. John Bosco was one of Joseph’s pupils. Joseph urged John Bosco
to establish the Salesians to work with the youth of Turin
Even as a young man, Joseph loved to attend Mass and was known for his humility
and fervor in prayer. After his ordination he was assigned to a seminary
in Turin. There he worked especially against the spirit of Jansenism, an
excessive preoccupation with sin and damnation. Joseph used the works of
St. Francis de Sales and St. Alphonsus Liguori to moderate rigorism popular
at the seminary.
Joseph recommended membership in the Secular Franciscan Order to priests.
He urged devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and encouraged daily Communion.
In addition to his teaching duties, Joseph was an excellent preacher, confessor
and retreat master. Noted for his work with condemned prisoners, Joseph helped
many of them die at peace with God.
St. John Bosco was one of Joseph’s pupils. Joseph urged John Bosco to establish
the Salesians to work with the youth of Turin. Joseph was canonized in 1947.
Comment: Devotion to the Eucharist gave energy to all Joseph's other
activities. Long prayer before the Blessed Sacrament has been characteristic
of many Catholics who have lived out the gospel well, St. Francis, Bishop
Sheen, Cardinal Bernardin and Mother Teresa among them.
Quote: “O admirable heights and
sublime lowliness! O sublime humility! O humble sublimity! That the Lord
of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles Himself that for our
salvation He hides Himself under the little form of bread! Look, brothers,
at the humility of God and pour out your hearts before Him! Humble yourselves,
as well, that you may be exalted by Him. Therefore, hold back nothing of
yourselves for yourselves so that He Who gives Himself totally to you may
receive you totally” (Saint Francis, Letter to the Entire Order).
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Mary Mother of GOD
Saint of the Day June 17 Quintodécimo Kaléndas Júlii 
On the one hand there is the specter of great
promise; but on the other, the fear of failure and hardships. Today, he said,
"many desire to stop time for fear of a future in emptiness." His advice
to his audience was to make a fundamental choice for God, revealed in the
Son Jesus Christ. The Pontiff added: "Those who have chosen God still have
before them in old age a future without end and without threats. It is therefore
vital to choose well, not to destroy the future."
Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 
Benedict XVI met with Aram I Catholicos
of Cilicia, the highest authority of the Orthodox Church.
The Pope remembered the martyrs of the Armenian
Church and the Armenian genocide, without explicitly mentioning
it, and denounced the persecution of Christians in modern times.
Benedict XVI
As we watch the spectacle of the world
seeming to self-destruct before our eyes, we can’t help but be
saddened and even frightened by so much evil run rampant. Iraq, Lebanon,
Afghanistan, Somalia, North Korea—It is all a disaster of epic proportions
displayed in living color on our television screens.