Commemoration of Archangel
Michael {Coptic}
On this day, the church celebrates the commemoration of the honorable
Archangel Michael, intercessor of the human race.
The one who appeared to Joshua the son of Nun, encouraged him,
and told him, "Nay, but as captain of the hosts of the Lord am I now come."
He made the city of Jericho to fall into his hands, and he stopped
the sun for him.
135 Departure of St. Justus,
the Sixth Pope of the See of St. Mark.
On this day also, of the year 135 A.D., St. Justus, the Sixth
Pope of the See of St. Mark, departed. This saint was an honorable and learned
man before his ordination. He was baptized by St. Mark the Apostle, along
with his father, his mother and others. St. Anianus, the second pope, ordained
him a deacon, then a priest, and appointed him to preach, and teach the people.
He was chosen for the papacy to succeed Pope Primus. He shepherded his people
with the best of care for ten years. He departed at a pleasing good old age.
May his prayers be with us. Amen.
1092 Departure of St. Kyrillos
the Second, the 67th Pope of Alexandria.
On this day also, the twelfth of Baounah, 808 A.M. (June 6th,
1092 A.D.), the great Pope, St. Kyrillos the Second, the 67th Pope of Alexandria,
departed. He became a monk in Sawma'et (Cell) of Singar. Because of his knowledge
and righteousness, they chose him a Patriarch, a successor to St. Christodolus,
the 66th Pope. His enthronement was on 22nd of Baramhat, 794 A.M. (March
18th, 1078 A.D.).
Some of the bishops disobeyed the Pope and decided to depose him.
They assembled a council from forty-seven bishops for this purpose. When
the Fatimid governor knew of this dissension, he called the bishops to his
orchard. He harshly talked to them with words God had put in his mouth. The
overseer of the orchard (Yaseeb) sided with those who opposed the Pope. Peter,
the pope's disciple, reproved him and an exchange of words took place between
them while the Pope was coming out of the meeting. The Pope told the overseer,
"If the Governor has authority, Christ has authority over the heaven and
earth." The Pope dismounted his horse, and made a matonia before him, which
was on Saturday the 23rd of Misra, 802 A.M. On the next Saturday, the governor
became enraged with the overseer of his orchard. He went there and ordered
the beheading of the overseer. That was in the same place where the Pope
had made the matonia to him and in the same hour.
The Governor told the dissenting bishops, "You all should be in
accordance, and obey your Archbishop." Thus, they all were reconciled, and
went to the church of St. Marcurius. They celebrated the Divine liturgy on
Saturday and Sunday and then went to their parishes rejoicing. This Pope
remained on the Chair 14 years, two month, and thirteen days, then departed
in peace. May his prayers be with us. Amen.
Departure of St. Euphemia.
This day also, marks the martyrdom of St. Euphemia. She was the
wife of a man who feared God, and gave much alms. He kept three festivals
each month: the commemoration of the angel Michael, on the twelfth day(1);
(1) The pagans
in Alexandria worshipped the idol Zuhal, who had a statue and a temple, that
was built by Cleopatra on the twelfth day of the month of Baounah.
During the reign of Emperor Constantine, Pope Alexandros preached to the
people, explaining to them the error of worshipping the idols that do not
move or reason, which are made by human hands, and the error of offering
sacrifices to them. He changed the temple of this idol to a church in the
name of Michael the Archangel, and destroyed that statue. He asked them to
distribute these sacrifices to the poor that Christ had called His brothers,
to receive the intercession of the angel Michael. This church was called,
at that time, the church of El-Kaisariah.
It was
said also that this feast was taken after the Ancient Egyptians. They believed
that the flood of the Nile started on the eve of the twelfth of the month
of Baounah by "the coming down of the drop." That is to say, the tear of
"Isis," the goddess of fertility and motherhood. The tear that she shed grieving
for her husband "Osiris," the god of agriculture and abundance, who was killed
by "Typhon" the god of evil.
This feast
was replaced in Christianity by the feast of Michael the Archangel (Tareekh
El-Omah El-koptiah).
He kept three festivals each month: the commemoration of the angel
Michael, on the twelfth day(1); the commemoration of the Mother of God (Theotokos),
on the twenty-first day; and the commemoration of the Nativity of our Lord,
on the twenty-ninth day of each month. When the day of his departure drew
near, he commanded his wife, to keep this custom, to not stop the giving
of alms, and to do the acts of charity especially on these three festivals.
He painted a picture of the honorable angel Michael and gave it to her.
After the departure of her husband, she continued to fulfill his
will. Satan was jealous of her, and he came to her disguised as a monk, who
talked to her expressing his pity for her. He advised her to get married,
to bring forth children, and to refrain from doing charitable deeds lest
she finish her money. He told her also that her husband had received the
Kingdom and he had no need of the alms giving. She answered saying, "I have
vowed not to consort with another man after my husband." She went on saying,
"If birds as the doves and the ravens do not take second mates, how then
can men who are created in the form and likeness of God do this?" The devil
left her angry.
When the feast of the Angel
had come, and she had prepared all what she needed as her custom, Satan appeared
to her in the form of an angel and said to her, "Peace be to you, the angel
Michael has sent me to you, commanding you to cease from these alms, and
to marry a believing man." Then he told her, "A woman without a man is like
a ship without a captain," and he began to bring her proofs out of the Holy
Bible in regard of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and others like them who
married wives and pleased God. She replied saying, "If you are an angel of
God, where is the Cross, the symbol of your military service? For the soldier
of the King never goes to any place without this symbol with him." When Satan
heard these words from her, he returned to his original form, and jumped
on her to choke her. She cried for the angel Michael, whose feast she was
celebrating, and he delivered her immediately from him. The angel Michael
told her, "Go and arrange your affairs, for you shall depart from this world
today. And behold the Lord has prepared for you what eye has not seen, and
ear has not heard, nor has it occurred to the heart of man," then he gave
her the greeting of peace, and went up into heaven.
After, St. Euphemia had celebrated the feast of the angel Michael,
she sent for the father the bishop and the priests. She gave them all her
money to give to the poor and the needy. Then, she took the Picture of the
honorable angel Michael and prayed before it. She laid it upon her face and
breast, then departed in peace. May his intercession be with us and
Glory be to God forever. Amen.
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67 Saint
Ursicinus physician in Ravenna condemned for being a Christian
Ravénnæ sancti Ursicíni Mártyris, qui, sub Paulíno
Júdice, post plúrima torménta, in Dómini confessióne
pérmanens immóbilis, cápitis abscissióne martyrium
complévit.
At Ravenna, St. Ursicinus, martyr, who remained constant
through many torments in the confession of martyrdom by being beheaded.
Martyred physician in Ravenna condemned for being a Christian
during the persecution of Emperor Nero. His faith began to waver, but he
found new strength through the encouragement of Saint Vitalis and met his death with resolve.
Ursicinus of Ravenna M (RM) Saint Ursicinus is said to have been a physician
in Ravenna who, on being sentenced to death for the faith, wavered, but was
encouraged by the soldier Saint Vitalis and accepted martyrdom. In art, Ursicinus
is an early Christian bishop in an alb, chasuble and stole, with a book in
his hand and a lamp hanging over him (Roeder) .
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80 Jude, one of 12 apostles of Christ, descended
from King David and Solomon, son of Righteous Joseph the Betrothed (Sunday
after the Nativity of the Lord) by his first wife.
The Holy Apostle John the Theologian
writes in his Gospel, "... neither did his brethren believe in Him" (John.
7:5).
Apostel Judas Thaddäus Orthodoxe
Kirche: 19. Juni - Apostel Judas der Herrenbruder Katholische, Anglikanische
und Evangelische Kirche: 28. Oktober Apostel Judas Thaddäus
St Theophylact, Archbishop of
Bulgaria, explains this passage. He says that at the beginning of the Lord
Jesus Christ's earthly ministry, Joseph's sons, Jude among them, did not
believe in His divine nature. Tradition says that when St Joseph returned
from Egypt, he began to divide his possessions among his sons. He wanted
to allot a share to Christ the Savior, born miraculously and incorruptibly
from the All-Pure Virgin Mary.
The brothers were opposed to this
because Jesus was born of another mother.
Only James, later called "The Brother of God," offered to share his portion
with Him.
Jude came to believe in Christ
the Savior as the awaited Messiah, and he followed Him and was chosen as
one of the twelve Apostles.
Mindful of his sin, the Apostle Jude considered himself unworthy
to be called the Lord's brother, and in his Epistle he calls himself merely
the brother of James.
The Holy Apostle Jude also had other names: the Evangelist Matthew
terms him "Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddeus" (Mt. 10:3).
The Holy Evangelist Mark also calls him Thaddeus (Mark 3:18), and in the
Acts of the Holy Apostles he is called Barsabas (Acts 15: 22). This was customary
at that time.
After the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, St Jude traveled
about preaching the Gospel.
He propagated the faith in Christ at first in Judea, Galilee,
Samaria and Idumaia, and later in the lands of Arabia, Syria and Mesopotamia.
Finally, he went to the city of Edessa. Here he finished the work that was
not completed by his predecessor, St Thaddeus, Apostle of the Seventy (August
21).
There is a tradition that St Jude went to Persia, where he wrote
his catholic Epistle in Greek. In the Epistle much profound truth was expressed
in a few words.
St Jude's Epistle speaks about the Holy Trinity, about the Incarnation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, about the good and bad angels, and about the dread
Last Judgment. The Apostle urges believers to guard themselves against fleshly
impurity, to be diligent in prayer, faith and love, to convert the lost to
the path of salvation, and to guard themselves from the teachings of heretics.
He also says that it is not enough just to be converted to Christianity,
but faith must be demonstrated by good works. He cites the rebellious angels
and men punished by God (verses 6 ff.) to support this.
The Holy Apostle Jude died as
a martyr around the year 80 near Mt. Ararat in Armenia, where he was crucified
and pierced by arrows.
Apostel Judas Thaddäus Orthodoxe
Kirche: 19. Juni - Apostel Judas der Herrenbruder Katholische, Anglikanische
und Evangelische Kirche: 28. Oktober Apostel Judas Thaddäus
Das Neue Testament nennt - neben
Judas Iskariot - Judas, den Bruder Jesu (Matth. 13, 55/Mark. 6, 3), den Apostel
Judas Jakobus (Luk. 6, 16/Apg. 1, 13) sowie Judas Barsabbas (Sohn des Sabbas)
(Apg. 15, 22 ff.). Die orthodoxe Tradition sieht in diesen drei Nennungen
eine Person, den Apostel Judas, den Herrenbruder. Neuere Forschungen gehen
dagegen davon aus, dass Judas der Bruder des Herrn und der Apostel Judas
zwei unterschiedliche Personen sind. Die orthodoxe Tradition beruht auf der
Interpretation der Nennungen bei Lukas und in der Apostelgeschichte als 'Judas
Bruder des Jakobus'. Schon von Tertullian und Origines werden die Worte des
griechischen Textes 'Judas des Jakobus' zu 'Judas, Bruder des Jakobus' ergänzt.
In heutigen Bibelübersetzungen findet sich die der üblichen Namensgebung
entsprechende Deutung Judas, Sohn des Jakobus. Der Herrenbruder Judas war
nach orthodoxer Überlieferung ein Sohn des Josef aus erster Ehe, nach
katholischer Tradition ein Sohn des Kleopas.
Origines vereinheitlichte die unterschiedlichen Apostellisten
der Evangelisten so, daß er Judas des Jakobus (bei Lukas) und Thaddaios
(der Mutige) (bei Matthäus und Markus) zu dem Apostel Judas Thaddäus
verband. In der Kirchengeschichte wurde der Apostel Judas dann nicht nur
mit dem Herrenbruder Judas gleichgesetzt bzw. verwechselt, sondern auch mit
dem Verräter Judas Iskariot oder dem Apostel Simon und Thaddäus
aus der Schar der 70 Jünger. Judas soll in verschiedenen Ländern
Vorderasiens missioniert haben. Er ging schließlich mit Simon nach
Persien, wo beide den Märtyrertod erlitten. Nach anderer Überlieferung
wurde Judas im Jahr 80 in Armenien gekreuzigt.
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2nd v. Gervase
and Protase twin sons of Saints Vitalis and Valeria, suffered beheading for
the faith martyrs themselves appeared to Saint Ambrose in an apparition MM
(RM)
Medioláni sanctórum
Mártyrum Gervásii et Protásii fratrum, ex quibus priórem
támdiu jussit Astásius Judex plumbátis cædi, quoúsque
ille spíritum exhaláret; posteriórem vero, fústibus
cæsum, cápite truncári. Horum córpora, Dómino
revelánte, beátus Ambrósius sánguine conspérsa
et ita incorrúpta réperit, ac si eo die ipsi fuíssent
interémpti; in quorum translatióne cæcus, féretri
tactu, lumen recépit, et plúrimi, vexáti a dæmónibus,
liberáti sunt.
At Milan,
the holy martyrs Gervase and Protase, brothers. The former, by order
of the judge Astasius, was scourged with leaded whips for so long that he
expired. The latter, after being scourged with rods, was beheaded.
Through divine revelation their bodies were found by St. Ambrose. They
were partly covered with blood, and as free from corruption as if they had
been put to death that very day. When the translation took place, a
blind man recovered his sight by touching their relics, and many persons
possessed by demons were delivered.
Nazarius, Celsius, Gervasius
und Protasius
Orthodoxe Kirche: Nazarius, Celsius, Gervasius und Protasius -
14. Oktober Katholische Kirche: Gervasius und Protasius - 19. Juni
SS. GERVASE AND PROTASE, MARTYRS
IN a letter addressed to his sister, Marcellina, St Ambrose describes the
circumstances which led to the finding of the relics of SS. Gervase and Protase,
who from that time to the present day have been venerated as the first martyrs
of Milan. He tells her that he had completed the famous basilica which bears
his name, and was preparing for the dedication, when he was asked by some
of his people to solemnize it with all the ceremonial that had dignified
his recent consecration of a Roman church dedicated in honour of the Apostles
and enshrining some of their relics. "I will do so", he had replied, "if
I can find the necessary relics." In order to fulfil his promise-St Augustine
says it was as the result of information imparted to him in a vision-he caused
excavations to be made in the cemetery church of SS. Nabor and Felix. They
revealed the remains of two very tall men buried in close proximity. The
heads were severed from the bodies, but the skeletons were otherwise entire.
These were identified as being the bones of SS. Gervase and Protase, of whom
nothing was remembered except their names and a vague tradition of their
martyrdom. The relics were borne on litters, first to the basilica of Faustus,
where they were venerated by a great concourse of people, then to the Ambrosian
church amid the rejoicings of the whole city. A number of miracles reported
as having taken place during the translation were regarded as attesting the
genuineness of the relics. St Ambrose, his secretary Paulinus, and
St Augustine, who were all three in Milan at the time, particularly mention
the case of a blind butcher, Severus, who regained his sight upon touching
the fringe of the ornaments that covered the remains. The man made a vow
to continue in the service of the church of the saints and was still a servant
there in 411, when Paulinus was writing the life of St Ambrose.
No credence can be attached to the so-called acts
of these two saints, based as they are on a letter purporting to have emanated
from St Ambrose, but now universally admitted to be spurious. They represent
Gervase and Protase as the twin sons of the two martyrs, Vitalis and Valeria,
and as having suffered in the days of Nero, ten years after the death of
their father. Gervase is said to have been beaten to death with leaded whips;
Protase was beheaded.
Much controversy has arisen over these two martyrs. Dr J. Rendel
Harris has boldly attempted to identify them with the pagan deities Castor
and Pollux, whilst others have contented themselves with denying their existence.
The majority of modern hagiographers, however, regard them as genuine martyrs
whose history has perished, but who belonged to the reign of the Emperor
Antoninus or even to an earlier period. The mortal remains of St Ambrose
were laid, at his own wish, beside those of St Gervase and St Protase, and
one of his successors in the see of Milan, Angilbert II, in the ninth century,
placed the three bodies in a porphyry sarcophagus. It was for some time believed
that the bones were removed by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, to be subsequently
parcelled out to various churches in Germany and France; but this is quite
untrue. Actually they remained undisturbed under the high altar of Sant'
Ambrogio, where they were rediscovered in 1864. A crypt has since been constructed
accessible to worshippers, and there the relics can be viewed behind a panel
of glass. From an early date almost all calendars and martyrologies contain
an entry commemorating SS. Gervase and Protase on this day, June 19.
The relevant passages of St Ambrose,
St Augustine, Paulinus, etc., will be found quoted in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. iv, as also
the pseudo-Ambrosian letter which professes to narrate the history of the
martyrs. For a general discussion of St Ambrose's discovery of the bodies,
see F. Savio, Gli antichi Vescovi d'Italia,
Milano, pp. 788-810; F. Lanzoni, Diocesi d'Italia, vol. ii, pp. 1000-1007;
and CMH., pp. 325-326. There is a certain difficulty in reconciling the statements
of St Ambrose and St Augustine regarding the date and day of the week on
which the bodies were found and transferred to Sant' Ambrogio; on this, Delehaye
has written in some detail in the Analecta
Bollandiana, vol. xlix (1931), pp. 30-34. The attempted identification
of Gervase and Protase with the Dioscuri has been dealt with by P. Franchi
de' Cavalieri in the Nuovo Bullettino di
archeologia cristiana, vol. ix (1903), pp. 109-126, and cf. Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxiii (1904),
pp. 427-432.
Nazarius war ein Römer. Er war von Linus getauft worden.
Nazarius zog als Wanderprediger durch Italien und kam nach Mailand. Hier
traf er Gervasius und Protasius, die Söhne von Vitalis und Valeria.
Ihre Eltern hatten bereits den Märtyrertod gefunden. Nazarius kümmerte
sich um die Waisen, wurde aber vertrieben und wanderte weiter nach Gallien.
Hier konnte er viele Menschen bekehren und taufen. Unter ihnen war auch Celsius,
der Nazarius auf seinen weiteren Reisen begleitete. Beide wurden ergriffen
und wilden Tieren vorgworfen. Als diese sie nicht anrührten, sollten
sie ertränkt werden. Auch dies mißlang und die Folterer bekehrten
sich zu Christus und ließen die beiden frei. Nazarius und Celsius kehrten
nach Mailand zurück und besuchten Gervasius und Protasius. Sie wurden
hier gefangengesetzt und vor Nero gerbacht, der sie köpfen ließ.
Auch Gervasius und Protasius wurden hingerichtet. Ihre Gebeine wurden am
17.6.386 von Bischof Ambrosius (nach himmlischen Hinweisen) feierlich erhoben.
Es ist das erste bekannte Beispiel einer Auffindung (inventio) von Märtyrerreliquien.
Ihre Reliquien befinden sich heute unter dem Hochaltar von S. Ambrogio in
Mailand sowie im Breisacher Münster.
2nd century. Tradition relates that Gervase and his twin brother
Protase, the sons of Saints Vitalis and Valeria, suffered beheading for the
faith. Gervase was said to have been beaten to death with a lead-tipped whip,
and Protase was beheaded. They are considered the first martyrs of Milan
ever since Saint Ambrose, guided
by a vision, unearthed their remains in 386 (see Saint Augustine's City of
God, 22).
Saint Paulinus of Nola
in his Life of Saint Ambrose says that the martyrs themselves appeared to
Saint Ambrose in an apparition.
Ambrose was about to dedicate
a new church, which was later called Saint Ambrose the Great, and the people
wanted him to do it with the same solemnity as he had at the church dedicated
to the holy Apostles. He, however, had no relics for the basilican church.
After the vision Ambrose caused the area inside the rails enclosing the tomb
of SS. Nabor and Felix to be dug
up. There he found the bodies of two very big men, with their bones entire,
and in their natural position, but the heads separated from their bodies,
with a large quantity of blood, and all the marks which could be desired
to ascertain the relics.
Even at the time the relics were discovered by Ambrose nothing
was remembered about them except their names and that they were martyrs in
an early persecution, perhaps under Nero.
These saints are pictures as
youths holding the palm of martyrs. At times one may be holding a scourge
loaded with lead and the other a sword, or they may hold stones and be shown
with their father, Saint Vitalis. These martyrs are venerated in Milan (Roeder).
150 St. Gervase; tradition has Gervase and his twin brother,
Protase, the sons of Vitalis and Valeria, who suffered martyrdom for their
Faith. Both children were also martyred for their Faith; Gervase was beaten
to death with a lead tipped whip and Protase was beheaded. They are considered
the first martyrs of Milan ever since St. Ambrose, guided by a vision, unearthed
their remains there 386 .
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110 St. Zosimus Martyr at Spoleto, Umbria,
Italy
Sozópoli, in Pisídia,
sancti Zósimi Mártyris, qui, in persecutióne Trajáni,
sub Domitiáno Præside, post acérbos cruciátus,
cápite amputáto, victor migrávit ad Dóminum.
At Sozopolis,
under the governor Domitian, during the persecution of Trajan, St. Zosimus,
martyr, who suffered bitter tortures, was beheaded, and thus triumphantly
went to heaven.
The Martyr Zosimus lived in
the city of Apollona (Thrace) during the reign of Trajan (89-117), the persecutor
of Christians. The saint was consumed with the desire to become a Christian.
When he heard about the start of a persecution of Christians, he left military
service, was baptized, and devoted himself to prayer and good deeds.
It was reported to the prefect Domitianus of Antioch that Zosimus
had betrayed the emperor by taking off his military insignia and attaching
himself to Christians. At the trial, St Zosimus confessed his faith in Christ
and refused to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. He was subjected to fierce
torments but, strengthened by the grace of God, he did not feel the pain.
The prefect gave orders to heat a copper bed red-hot and to put the saint
on it. The martyr made the Sign of the Cross, laid down on the bed, but remained
unharmed.
Departing the city, Domitianus gave orders to place iron sandals
with sharp nails in the soles on the martyr's feet, and to have Zosimus follow
after him. The Lord gave St Zosimus the strength to follow after the horses.
The martyr was locked in prison, where they tormented him with hunger and
thirst, but an angel of the Lord fortified him with bread and water. St Zosimus
still refused to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. Finally, he was beheaded,
and surrendered his soul to God.
Zosimus (d. 110) + Martyr.
He was executed in Umbria, Italy,
during the reign of Emperor Trajan (r. 98-117).
Zosimus of Spoleto M (RM)
Martyr at Spoleto, Umbria, Italy, under Emperor Trajan (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
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364 Saint Gaudentius Bishop
his deacon Culmatius his wife, children, and 53 companions martyred
MM (RM)
Arétii, in Túscia,
sanctórum Mártyrum Gaudéntii Epíscopi, et Culmátii
Diáconi, qui, témpore Valentiniáni, furóre Gentílium
cæsi sunt.
At Arezzo
in Tuscany, the holy martyrs Gaudentius, bishop, and Culmatius, deacon, who
were murdered by the furious heathen, during the reign of Valentinian.
Died at Arezzo, Tuscany,
Italy, 364. Bishop Gaudentius and his deacon Culmatius are said to have been
martyred under Valentinian I.
A layman, named Andrew, his wife,
children, and 53 companions suffered with them (Benedictines).
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400 St Paisius
the Great lived in Egypt. His parents, Christians, distributed generous alms
to all the needy.
The youth Paisius loved monastic
life and spent his time in one of the Egyptian sketes. Renouncing his own
will, he lived under the spiritual guidance of St Pambo (July 18), finishing
all the tasks assigned him. The Elder said that a new monk in particular
needs to preserve his sight, in order to guard his senses from temptation.
Paisius, heeding the instruction, went for three years with his eyes cast
downwards. The saintly ascetic read spiritual books, and he was known for
his ascetic fasting and prayer. At first he did not eat any food for a week,
then two weeks. Sometimes, after partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ,
he survived without food for seventy days.
St Paisius went into the Nitrian desert in search of solitude.
There he lived in a cave carved out by his own hands. The saint was granted
a wondrous vision: the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to him that through his
labors the Nitrian wilderness would become inhabited by ascetics. He asked
the Lord where the monks would obtain the necessities of life in the desert.
The Lord said that if they would fulfill all His commandments, He Himself
would provide all their necessities, and would deliver them from demonic
temptations and cunning.
In time, a number of monks and laymen gathered around St Paisius,
and a monastery was established. The most important rule of St Paisius was
that no one would do anything by his own will, but in all things would fulfill
the will of his elders.
Since his tranquility was being disturbed by so many people, the
saint withdrew to another cave farther away. Once, he was transported to
a paradisical monastery and partook of the immaterial divine food. After his
ascetic labors for salvation, the Lord granted His saint the gift of prescience
and healing the souls of men.
One of his disciples,
with the saint's blessing, went to sell his handicrafts in Egypt. On the
way he encountered a Jew, who told the simple-minded monk that Christ the
Savior is not the Messiah, and that another Messiah will come. Confused,
the monk said, "Maybe what you say is true," but he did not attribute any
particular significance to his words. When he returned, he saw that St Paisius
would not acknowledge his arrival, and he asked the reason for his anger.
The saint said, "My disciple was a Christian. You are not a Christian, for
the grace of Baptism has departed from you." The monk repented with tears,
and begged to have his sin forgiven. Only then did the holy Elder pray and
ask the Lord to forgive the monk.
A certain monk on his own initiative left the desert and moved
near a city. There he had encounters with a woman, who hated and blasphemed
Christ the Savior. Under her influence, he not only left the monastery, but
also scorned faith in Christ, and finally he reached a state of total disbelief.
Once, through the blessed Providence of God, Nitrian
monks came by his home. Seeing them, the sinner remembered his own former
life and he asked the monks to ask St Paisius to pray for him to the Lord.
On hearing the request, the saint prayed fervently, and his prayer was heard.
The Lord, appearing to His saint, promised to forgive the sinner. Soon the
seduced monk's woman companion died, and he returned to the desert where,
weeping and distressed for his sins, he began to labor at deeds of repentance.
St Paisius distinguished himself by his great humility,
and performed ascetic deeds of fasting and prayer, but he concealed them
from others as far as possible. When the monks asked which virtue is the
highest of all, the saint replied, "Those which are done in secret, and about
which no one knows."
St Paisius died in the fifth century at a great old age, and he
was buried by the monks. After some time his relics were transferred by St
Isidore of Pelusium (February 4) to his own monastery and placed beside the
relics of his friend St Paul, with whom St Paisius was particularly close
during his life.
Paisius der Große Orthodoxe
Kirche: 19. Juni
Paisius der GroßePaisius lebte in Ägypten. Nach einigen
Jahren als Mönch in einer Skete ging er auf der Suche nach tieferer
Einsamkeit in die Nitriawüste. Hier lebte er in einer selbstgegrabenen
Höhle. In einer Vision enthüllte ihm Christus, dass die Nitriawüste
Heimstätte vieler Einsiedler sein werde. Um die Höhle von Paisius
entstand ein Kloster und Paisius zog sich weiter zurück. Auch um seine
neue Einsiedlei entstand ein Kloster. Paisius starb in hohem Alter im 5.
Jahrhundert.
Our Holy Father Paisius the
Great SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
He was an Egyptian by birth and by language.
After a vision in a dream, his mother dedicated him to the service of God,
and he went to St Pambo while still a youth. Pambo accepted him as a disciple,
and he was a fellow-disciple there of St John the Dwarf, who wrote Paisius's
life. To the joy of his spiritual father, Paisius piled labour upon labour,
one ascetic feat upon another. The Prophet Jeremiah, whom he especially revered
and read frequently, appeared to him often, and also the Lord Christ. `Peace
be to thee, My beloved in whom 1 am well-pleased!', the Lord said to him.
By God's great grace, Paisius had the particular gift of being able to abstain
completely from food. He would often not eat bread for a fortnight, even
more often for a week, and once, according to the testimony of John the Dwarf,
he went for seventy days without tasting a thing. He waged a tremendous war
against evil spirits, that sometimes appeared to him in their own form and
sometimes as angels of light. But God's servant, filled with grace, never
once let himself be deceived and led astray. He was a seer and a wonderworker
famed throughout the whole of Egypt. He went to the Lord in the year 400.
Isidore of Pelusium took his relics to his own monastery and buried them
there.
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449 Arsenius
der Große Kaiser Theodosius (379-395) hörte von der Gelehrsamkeit
des Arsenius und bat ihn, die Erziehung seiner Söhne Arcadius und Honorius
zu übernehmen; Eines Tages hörte er eine Stimme, die ihm sagte:
"Arsenius, flieh die Menschen und du wirst gerettet"
Orthodoxe Kirche: 8. Mai Katholische Kirche: 19. Juni
Arsenius der GrosseArsenius wurde 354 in Rom geboren. Er erwarb sich ein
umfangreiches Wissen, wollte aber lieber Gott dienen und wurde Diakon an
einer römischen Stadtkirche. Kaiser Theodosius (379-395) hörte
von der Gelehrsamkeit des Arsenius und bat ihn, die Erziehung seiner Söhne
Arcadius und Honorius zu übernehmen. Arsenius lehnte diese Aufgabe ab,
wurde aber von Papst Dymas 383 nach Konstantinopel entsandt. Arsenius flehte
ständig zu Gott, ihm zu zeigen, wie er sein Heil finden könne.
Eines Tages hörte er eine Stimme, die ihm sagte: "Arsenius, flieh die
Menschen und du wirst gerettet". Daraufhin verließ er heimlich Konstantinopel
und ging in ein ägyptisches Skete-Kloster. Hier hörte er nach einiger
Zeit wiederum eine Stimme, die ihm sagte: "Arsenius, flieh die Menschen und
bleibe in der Stille". Arsenius ging daraufhin aus dem Kloster und lebte
in einer Einsiedelei. Einem Mönch, der ihn fragte, warum er sich von
den Menschen fernhielte, erwiderte Arsenius "Ich liebe alle, aber ich kann
nicht gleichzeitig mit Gott und Menschen zusammen sein. Ich kann aber Gott
nicht im Stich lassen, um mit den Menschen zu leben". Arsenius gab den Mönchen,
die zu ihm kamen, kurze aber treffende Antworten auf ihre Fragen. Als ihn
immer mehr Menschen aufsuchten, zog er in eine andere Einsiedelei. Mehrmals
ging Arsenius in eine neue Einsiedelei, weil ihm zu viele Menschen seinen
Rat und seinen Segen suchten. Arsenius gehört zu den großen "Wüstenvätern"
Er starb in hohem Alter 449 oder 450.
559 Saint Innocent
Bishop of Le Mans for over 40 years B (AC)
Bishop Innocent governed the see of Le Mans for over 40 years (Benedictines)
.
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586 Saint John the Hermit
an ascetic in Palestine; passed his days in fasting and prayer in a cave
near Jerusalem. The uncovetous ascetic had only an icon of the Most Holy
Theotokos, before which a lampada was always lit.
The holy Elder often visited the holy places of Jerusalem, and
Mount Sinai, and he went to pray at the graves of the holy martyrs and ascetics.
Whenever he went out, the saint left the lampada burning before the icon
of the Queen of Heaven and he asked Her blessing for the journey. When he
returned after a month, or even after six months, the Elder found the lampada
burning and filled with oil.
Once, he happened to go on a narrow trail, with two sides so overgrown
with bushes, that it was impossible for two people on foot to pass each other.
Suddenly, the saint saw a lion coming toward him. The beast stood up on its
hind legs and cleared the way for the saint.
Another time , a monk came to the cave to visit St John. Since
he did not notice even the bare necessities, he asked Abba John why he lived
in such poverty. The holy Elder said that his cave contained spiritual riches
greater than any earthly treasures.
St John the Hermit reposed in
the sixth century in extreme old age, and was numbered with the saints.
Our Holy Father John the Solitary SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
He lived the ascetic life near Jerusalem in the sixth century. His asceticism
brought him to a high degree of purity and spiritual power, so that the wild
beasts were obedient to him. He entered into rest in the Lord in 586, at
a great age.
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679 Saint Deodatus Bishop of Nevers, France,
from about 655, and a hermit. He was abbot-founder of Ebersheimmunster, near
Strasbourg, France. Deodatus is also cited with founding Jointures Abbey.
ST DEODATUS, OR DIE, BISHOP OF NEVERS (A.D. 679?)
KNOWN in his native land as Dié and Didier, St Deodatus was formerly
widely venerated in France and no less than nine translations of his relics
are recorded between 1003 and 1851. He became bishop of Nevers about 655,
and in 657 he attended the Synod of Sens, together with St Amandus of Maestricht,
St Eligius of Noyon, St Ouen of Rouen, St Palladius of Auxerre and St Faro
of Meaux. After occupying the episcopal chair for several years he resigned,
retiring into the Vosges to lead the solitary life. His story during the
ensuing period is largely based on uncertain tradition, and we find his name
linked with that of several holy men, not all of whom seem to have been even
his contemporaries. According to his biographers he was driven from his retreat
by the enmity of the people of the surrounding country and withdrew to an
island near Strasbourg, where a few solitaries were already leading a common
life. St Deodatus became their leader, and with the help of King Childeric
built a church.
The growing community was the nucleus from which the abbey of Ebersheim was
afterwards to develop. Finding his temporal duties incompatible with the
contemplative life, Deodatus left and sought elsewhere a place where he could
serve God undisturbed. Everywhere, however, he found himself opposed or persecuted.
Eventually he returned to the Vosges, and there, in what he called the Vale
of Galilee, now the Vale of Saint-Dié, he settled down. Disciples
soon gathered round, and for them was founded a monastery, which was called
Jointures because it stood at the junction of the Rothbach and the Meurthe.
The rule followed was that of St Columban. Not far from Jointures (now Saint-Dié)
was Moyenmoutier, where another retired bishop, St Hidulf of Trier, was ruling
another community of hermits. The two saints became close friends, periodically
exchanging visits, and it was to St Hidulf, who came to administer the last
sacraments to him, that St Deodatus commended his monastery. He was then
extremely old, but had retained the direction of the community whilst spending
the greater part of his time in a cell near at hand.
The long life written in the tenth
century and printed in the Acta Sanctorum,
June, vol. iv, is of little or no historical value. The part of Deodatus
in the founding of Jointures is doubtful. See also Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. ii, p.
484.
Deodatus of Jointures, OSB B (AC) (also known as Didier, Dié)
Born in western France; died June 19, c. 680. Another bishop of Nevers, France,
Deodatus took the cathedra in 655. He filled all his episcopal duties with
great fear and trembling. About 664, he resigned, lived as a hermit for a
time, and then founded the abbey of Jointures (Val-de-Galilée), which
he placed under the Rule of Saint Columban,
and later changed to that of Saint Benedict. Fearing the responsibility for
other souls, he continued to live in a little cell nearby. He died in the
arms of Saint Hidulphus.
The town of Saint- Dié grew up around his monastery (Benedictines,
Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
679 St. Didier bishop of Nevers attended
the synod of Sens in 657 hermit invoked for rain and against thunderstorm,
evil spirits, and plague
Deodatus
was a native of Gaul and known in
France as Die' and Didier. He became bishop
of Nevers about 655, attended the synod of Sens in 657, and
several years later resigned his See to become a hermit, at first in the
Vosges, and when driven out by the inhabitants, on an island near Strasbourg,
which later developed into the famous monastery of Ebersheim.
He founded and became abbot of the monastery of Ebersheimmünster near
Strasburg (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). In art, Saint Deodatus's hand stretches
to thunder clouds or he is shown exorcising a woman (Roeder).
He is invoked for rain, and against thunderstorm, evil spirits, and plague
(Roeder).
He later returned to the Vosges and founded a monastery, Jointures, of which
he became abbot and remained there till his death.
Deodatus of Nevers B (AC) (also known as Dié, Didier, Dieudonné,
Adéodat) Bishop Deodatus of Nevers resigned his see to live as a hermit
in the Vosges. He founded and became abbot of the monastery of Ebersheimmünster
near Strasburg (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). In art, Saint Deodatus's hand
stretches to thunder clouds or he is shown exorcising a woman (Roeder).
He is invoked for rain, and against thunderstorm, evil spirits, and plague
(Roeder).
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827 Saint Hildegrin
missions to the Saxons bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne retired to Werden
as monk
Bishop of Chalons sur Marne , France, and younger brother of Saint Ludger.
It is believed that Hildegrin retired to become a Benedictine abbot at Werden.
Hildegrin of Châlons-sur-Marne B (AC) Hildegrin was the younger brother
of Saint Ludger whom he accompanied in his missions to the Saxons. About
802, he became bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne, but is believed to have
retired to Werden and ended his life as a monk (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
|
1009 Saint Bruno (Boniface)
of Querfurt received the habit of a Camaldolese monk from the founder Saint
Romuald missionary to Germany "the Second Apostle of the Prussians"OSB
Cam. BM (RM)
Eódem die sancti Bonifátii,
Epíscopi et Mártyris; qui fuit beáti Romuáldi
discípulus. Hic, a Gregório Quinto, Románo Pontífice,
ad prædicándum Evangélium in Rússiam missus, ibi,
cum per ignem transísset illæsus, Regémque ac pópulum
baptizásset, a furénte Regis fratre necátus est, atque
sic optátam martyrii corónam accépit.
Also, St.
Boniface, martyr, a disciple of blessed Romuald, who was sent by the Roman
Pontiff, Gregory V, to preach the Gospel in Russia. Having passed through
fire uninjured, and baptized the king and his people, he was killed by the
enraged brother of the king, and thus gained the palm of martyrdom which
he ardently desired.
Bruno von Querfurt Orthodoxe Kirche:
19. Juni Katholische und Evangelische Kirche: 9. März
ST BRUNO, OR BONIFACE, OF QUERFURT,
BISHOP AND MARTYR (A.D. 1009)
THIS missionary monk was born about the year 974 of a noble Saxon
family at Querfurt, and was baptized Bruno. He was educated in St Adalbert's
city of Magdeburg, from whence he went to the court of Otto III, who regarded
him with much confidence and affection and made him a court chaplain. When
Otto went to Italy in 998, Bruno accompanied him and, like his master, came
under the influence of St Romuald. With the memory of St Adalbert of Prague
fresh in mind (who had been martyred the previous year) he received the monastic
habit at the abbey of SS. Boniface and Alexis in Rome, and about 1000 he
joined St Romuald. In the following year the emperor founded a monastery
for them at Pereum, near Ravenna.
It was here that there came to Boniface (as he was now named)
the call to carry
the Christian message to the Veletians and Prussians and thus
to continue the work of St Adalbert, whose life he had set himself to write.
This scheme met with imperial approval, and two monks were sent in advance
to Poland to learn Slavonic, while Boniface went to Rome for a papal commission;
but these two, Benedict and John, with three others, were murdered by robbers
on November 10, 1003, at Kazimierz, near Gniezno, before he could join them.
These were the Five Martyred Brothers, whose biography Boniface subsequently
wrote. With the authorization of Pope Silvester II duly granted, he set out
for Germany in the depth of a winter so severe that his boots sometimes froze
tight to the stirrups. After interviewing the new emperor, St Henry II, at
Regensburg, he was consecrated a missionary bishop by the archbishop of Magdeburg
at Merseburg-perhaps "missionary archbishop" would be more accurate, for
he had received a pallium from the pope, which has given rise to the suggestion
that Boniface was in fact meant to be a metropolitan for eastern Poland.
But owing to political difficulties he had to work for a time among the Magyars
around the lower Danube; here he had no great success, and he went on to
Kiev where, under the protection of St Vladimir, he preached Christ's gospel
among the Pechenegs.
Eventually Boniface made another attempt to reach the Prussians
from the Polish territories of Boleslaus the Brave, after writing an eloquent
but fruitless letter to the Emperor St Henry, imploring him not to ally himself
with the heathen against the Christian Boleslaus. While much is uncertain
in his career we can accept without hesitation the statement made by the
chronicler Thietmar, bishop of Merseburg, who was related to Boniface. He
tells us that his kinsman encountered violent opposition in his efforts to
evangelize the borderland people in eastern Masovia; and that when he persisted
in disregarding their warnings he was cruelly slain with eighteen companions
on March 14, 1009. The saint's body was purchased by Boleslaus, who removed
it to Poland; and the Prussians afterwards honoured his memory by giving
his name to the town of Braunsberg, on the reputed site of his martyrdom.
St Boniface was a missionary of large ideas, including the evangelization
of the Swedes, to whom he sent two of his helpers, perhaps from Kiev; but
his achievements were, humanly speaking, disappointing.
Because he was sometimes called Bruno and sometimes Boniface, several later
historians, including Cardinal Baronius in the Roman Martyrology (June 19
and October 15), have made the mistake of regarding Boniface and Bruno of
Querfurt as different persons.
Sources for this life are not
copious. There is a passage in the chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg, another
in St Peter Damian's Life of St Romuald,
a short passio attributed to Wibert,
who claimed to be a companion of the martyr, and a set of legendae in the Halberstadt Breviary.
A rather tantalizing document has been published by H. G. Voigt, which, though
preserved in a manuscript of very late date, has some pretensions to retain
traces of a much older biography. It was first edited in the periodical Sachsen und Anhalt, vol. iii (1917),
pp. 87-134; but it has since been included in Pertz, MGH., Scriptores, vol. xxx, part II. See also
H. G. Voigt, Bruno von Querfurt
... (1907) and Bruno als Missionar der
Ostens (1909); the Historisches
Jahrbuch, vol. xiii (1891), 493-500; the Stimmen aus MariaLaach, vol. liii (1897),
pp. 266 seq.; F. Dvornik, The Making of
Central and Eastern Europe (1949), pp. 196-204 and passim; and the Cambridge History of Poland, vol. i (1950),
pp. 66-67.
Born at Querfurt, Germany, in
974; died at Braunsberg, Germany, on February 14, 1009; the Roman Martyrology
also shows his feast as Bruno on October 15. Born into a noble Saxon family,
Saint Bruno studied at the cathedral school of Magdeburg. He joined the court
of Otto III, was made court chaplain, an accompanied the emperor to Rome
c. 998. Near Ravenna, he received the habit of a Camaldolese monk from the
founder Saint Romuald and the name
Boniface.
The following year he entered a monastery at Pereum founded by
Otto. When two of its monks, Benedict and John, and three companions (the
Five Martyred Brothers whose story he wrote) were martyred in 1003 at Kazimierz,
near Gniezno, Romuald sent Boniface as a missionary to Germany. He was appointed
missionary archbishop, preached to the Magyars with considerable success,
and then went to Kiev to preach to the Pechenegs. He eventually worked to
evangelize the Prussians, and on February 14, he and 18 companions were massacred
on the Russian border near Braunsberg, Poland.
He is often called "the Second
Apostle of the Prussians" (Benedictines, Delaney).
Bruno von Querfurt Orthodoxe
Kirche: 19. Juni Katholische und Evangelische Kirche: 9. März
Bruno, Sohn des Grafen von Querfurt, wurde 974 geboren. Er wurde an der Domschule
in Magdeburg ausgebildet und zum Priester geweiht. Nach seinem Vorbild Adalbert
von Prag beschloß Bruno, Missionar zu werden und ging in ein Kloster
nach Rom. Mit den Benediktinern Benedikt und Johannes gründete er eine
Einsiedelei bei Ravenna. Von hier gingen Benedikt und Johannes zur Mission
nach Polen. Bruno wollte ihnen folgen. Der Papst ernannte ihn 1002 zum Leiter
dieser Mission, die vom polnischen König Boleslaw erbeten worden war.
Heinrich II., ein Verwandter Brunos, sicherte ihm die Unterstützung
des deutschen Reiches zu. Bruno ging aber nicht nach Polen, das inzwischen
im Krieg mit Heinrich lag, sondern nach Ungarn und Siebenbürgen. Seine
Mitbrüder wurden in ihrer Einsiedelei von Räubern ermordet. 1004
suchte Bruno Heinrich II. auf. Er wurde zum Missionserzbischof geweiht und
stiftete die Burgkirche in Quedlinburg. Bruno ging dann gegen den Willen
des Kaisers wieder nach Siebenbürgen und dann 1008 nach Kiew. Hier wirkte
er als Missionar unter den Petschenegen. Obwohl sich der polnische König
wegen seiner Auseinandersetzungen mit Heinrich II. nicht in der Lage sah,
die Mission in Preußen zu unterstützen, ging Bruno 1009 nach Preußen,
um hier zu missionieren. Schon nach kurzer Zeit wurde er (am 14.2. oder 9.3.
1009) am Braunsberg mit seinen 18 Gefährten von den Preußen erschlagen.
Bruno wird auch 2. Apostel der Preußen und - da er als Mönch den
Namen Bonifatius angenommen hatte - Bonifatius des Ostens genannt.
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1027 St. Romuald early life wasted in service
of the worldly pleasures abbot Like all
the saints fought lifelong battle against assaults of devils and men old
age, he increased his austerities; the founder of the Camaldolese monks
In monastério Vallis Castri,
in Picéno, natális sancti Romuáldi Ravennatis, Anachorétæ
et Monachórum Camaldulénsium Patris; qui collápsam in
Itália eremíticam disciplínam restítuit ac mirífice
propagávit. Ejus tamen festívitas recólitur séptimo
Idus Februárii, quo die sacræ ipsíus relíquiæ
Fabriánum sunt translátæ.
At the monastery
in the valley of Castro in Piceno, the birthday of St. Romuald, anchoret,
a native of Ravenna. He was the founder of the Camaldolese monks, and
he restored and greatly extended monastic discipline, which was much relaxed
in Italy. His feast is observed on the 7th of February, on which day
his sacred relics were transferred to Fabriano.
[Note: By the Apostolic Constitution
Calendarium Romanum, promulgated in 1969, the feast of St. Romuald
was assigned, as an "Optional Memorial," to 19 June, the day of his death.]
ST ROMUALD, ABBOT,
FOUNDER OF THE CAMALDOLESE BENEDICTINES (A.D. 1027)
ST ROMUALD, of the family of the Onesti, Dukes of Ravenna, was
probably born about the year 950. The statement of his biographer, St Peter
Damian, that he lived to the age of 120 years is now universally rejected.
Though he grew up a worldly youth and a slave to his passions, yet he occasionally
experienced aspirations after higher ideals. His father, whose name was Sergius,
had agreed to decide by duel a dispute he had with a relation over some property,
and Romuald was an unwilling spectator of the encounter. Sergius slew his
adversary and Romuald, horrorstricken, fled to the monastery of Sant' Apollinare-in-Classe
near by. In this house he passed three years in such fervour and austerity
that his observance became a standing reproach to certain lax and unfaithful
monks, who were yet more exasperated when he reproved their conduct. So,
with the abbot's consent, he left the monastery and, retiring to the neighhourhood
of Venice, placed himself under the direction of a hermit named Marinus. Under
him Romuald made great advance in the way of perfection. Romuald and Marinus
are said to have been concerned in the retirement of the doge of Venice,
St Peter Orseolo, to Cuxa, and to have lived there for a time as solitaries.
The example of St Romuald had such an influence on his father Sergius that
to atone for his sins he entered the monastery of San Severo, near Ravenna.
After a time he was tempted to return to the world, whereupon his son went
thither to dissuade him from that infirmity of purpose. He succeeded in this,
and Sergius stayed in the monastery for the rest of his life.
Romuald seems to have spent the next thirty years wandering about Italy,
founding hermitages and monasteries. He stayed three years in a cell near
that house which he had founded at Parenzo. Here he laboured for a time under
great spiritual dryness, but suddenly, one day, as he was reciting the words
of the Psalmist, "I will give thee understanding and will instruct thee"
he was visited by God with an extraordinary light and a spirit of compunction
which from that time never left him. He wrote an exposition of the Psalms
full of admirable thoughts, he often foretold things to come, and he gave
counsel inspired by heavenly wisdom to all who came to consult him. He had
always "longed for martyrdom, and at last obtained the pope's licence to
preach the gospel in Hungary; but he was stricken with a grievous illness
as soon as he set foot in the country, and as the malady returned each time
he attempted to proceed, he concluded it was a plain indication of God's will
in the matter and he accordingly returned to Italy, though some of his associates
went on and preached the faith to the Magyars.
Subsequently he made a long stay at Monte di Sitrio, but whilst there he
was accused of a scandalous crime by a young nobleman whom he had reprimanded
for his dissipated life. Extraordinary as it seems, the monks believed the
tale, enjoined on him a severe penance, forbade him to celebrate Mass, and
excommunicated him. He bore all in silence for six months, but was then admonished
by God to submit no longer to so unjust a sentence, pronounced without authority
and without a shadow of foundation. He passed six years in Sitrio, observing
strict silence, and, in spite of old age, increasing rather than relaxing
his austerities. Romuald had some significance in missions to the Slavs and
Prussians through the monastery founded for him and St Bruno of Querfurt
at Pereum near Ravenna, by Otto III in 1001. A son of Duke Boleslaus I of
Poland was a monk in this monastery, and on behalf of his father presented
Romuald with a fine horse. He exchanged it for a donkey, declaring that he
felt closer to Jesus Christ when astride such a mount.
The most famous of all St Romuald's monasteries is that of Camaldoli, near
Arezzo in Tuscany, founded by him about the year 1012. It lies beyond a mountain,
the descent from which on the farther side is almost a sheer precipice looking
down upon a pleasant valley, which then belonged to a lord called Maldolo,
who gave it the saint, and from him it retained the name Camaldoli (Campus
Maldoli). In this place St Romuald built a monastery, and by the several
observances he added to St Benedict's rule he gave birth to that new congregation
called the Camaldolese, in which he united the cenobitic and eremitical life.
After their benefactor had seen in a vision monks climbing a ladder to heaven
all dressed in white garments, Romuald changed the habit from black to white.
The hermitage is two short miles distant from the monastery. It is on the
mountain-side overshaded by a dark wood of fir trees. In it are seven clear
springs of water. The very sight of this solitude
in the midst of the forest helps to fill the mind with compunction and a
love of contemplation. On the left side of the church is the cell in which
St Romuald lived when he first established these hermits. Their cells, built
of stone, have each a little garden walled round, and each cell has a chapel
in which the occupant may celebrate Mass.
After some years at Camaldoli Romuald returned to his travels, and eventually
died, alone in his cell, at the monastery of Val-di-Castro, on June 19, 1027.
A quarter of a century before he had prophesied that death would come to
him in that place and in that manner. His chief feast is kept today because
it was on February 7, 1481 that his incorrupt body was translated to Fabriano:
it was so fixed when Pope Clement VIII added his name to the general calendar
in 1595.
The principal source of information
for the life of St Romuald is the biography written by St Peter Damian, which
has been printed in the Acta Sanctorum,
February, vol. ii, and in many other collections. See BHL., n. 7324. But
much subsidiary material is also available in the Life or St Peter Orseolo,
the Chronicon Venetum, and the two
Lives of St Bononius of Lucedio. A valuable preliminary study of these sources
has been made by W. Franke, Quellen und
Chronologie zur Geschichte Romualds von Camaldoli und seiner Einsiedlergenossenschaften
im Zeitalter Ottos III (1910). See Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxi (1912),
pp. 376-377; and also W. Franke in Hist. Studien, vol. cvii (1913). Two Italian
lives were published in 1927, by A. Pagnani and C. Ciampelli; and cf. A.
Giabbini, L'eremo (1945).
Born at Ravenna, probably about 950; died at Val-di-Castro, 19
June, 1027. St. Peter Damian, his first biographer, and almost all the Camaldolese
writers assert that St. Romuald's age at his death was one hundred and twenty,
and that therefore he was born about 907. This is disputed by most modern
writers. Such a date not only results in a series of improbabilities with
regard to events in the saint's life, but is also irreconcilable with known
dates, and probably was determined from some mistaken inference by St. Peter
Damian. In his youth Romuald indulged in the usual thoughtless and even vicious
life of the tenth-century noble, yet felt greatly drawn to the eremetical
life. At the age of twenty, struck with horror because his father had killed
an enemy in a duel, he fled to the Abbey of San Apollinare-in-Classe and
after some hesitation entered religion. San Apollinare had recently been
reformed by St. Maieul of Cluny, but still was not strict enough in its observance
to satisfy Romuald. His injudicious correction of the less zealous aroused
such enmity against him that he applied for, and was readily granted, permission
to retire to Venice, where he placed himself under the direction of a hermit
named Marinus and lived a life of extraordinary severity. About 978, Pietro
Orseolo I, Doge of Venice, who had obtained his office by acquiescence in
the murder of his predecessor, began to suffer remorse for his crime. On
the advice of Guarinus, Abbot of San Miguel-de-Cuxa, in Catalonia, and of
Marinus and Romuald, he abandoned his office and relations, and fled to Cuxa,
where he took the habit of St. Benedict, while Romuald and Marinus erected
a hermitage close to the monastery. For five years the saint lived a life
of great austerity, gathering round him a band of disciples. Then, hearing
that his father, Sergius, who had become a monk, was tormented with doubts
as to his vocation, he returned in haste to Italy, subjected Sergius to severe
discipline, and so resolved his doubts. For the next thirty years St. Romuald
seems to have wandered about Italy, founding many monasteries and hermitages.
For some time he made Pereum his favourite resting place. In 1005 he went
to Val-di- Castro for about two years, and left it, prophesying that he would
return to die there alone and unaided. Again he wandered about Italy; then
attempted to go to Hungary, but was prevented by persistent illness. In 1012
he appeared at Vallombrosa, whence he moved into the Diocese of Arezzo. Here,
according to the legend, a certain Maldolus, who had seen a vision of monks
in white garments ascending into Heaven, gave him some land, afterwards known
as the Campus Maldoli, or Camaldoli. St. Romuald built on this land five
cells for hermits, which, with the monastery at Fontebuono, built two years
later, became the famous mother-house of the Camaldolese Order. In 1013 he
retired to Monte-Sitria. In 1021 he went to Bifolco. Five years later he
returned to Val-di-Castro where he died, as he had prophesied, alone in his
cell. Many miracles were wrought at his tomb, over which an altar was allowed
to be erected in 1032. In 1466 his body was found still incorrupt; it was
translated to Fabriano in 1481. In 1595 Clement VIII fixed his feast on 7
Feb., the day of the translation of his relics, and extended its celebration
to the whole Church. He is represented in art pointing to a ladder on which
are monks ascending to Heaven.
[Note: By the Apostolic Constitution Calendarium Romanum, promulgated in
1969, the feast of St. Romuald was assigned, as an "Optional Memorial," to
19 June, the day of his death.]
St. Romuald was born at Ravenna
about the year 956. In spite of an infinite desire for virtue
and sanctity, his early life was wasted in the service of the world and its
pleasures. Then one day, obliged by his father, Sergius, to be present at
a duel fought by him, he beheld him slay his adversary. The crime made such
an impression upon him that he determined to expiate it for forty days, as
though it were entirely his own. For this purpose he retired to a Benedictine
monastery of St. Apollinare, near Ravenna, where he became Abbot. After founding
several monasteries, he laid the foundations of the austere Order of Camaldoli
in Tuscany. Like all the saints, he fought a lifelong battle against the
assaults of devils and men. In the beginning of his spiritual life he was
strongly assailed by numerous temptations, which he conquered by vigilance
and prayer. More than one attempt was made on his life, but Divine Providence
enabled him to escape from the danger. Like many servants of God, he also
became the victim of calumny, which he bore in patience and silence. In his
old age, he increased his austerities instead of diminishing them. After
a long life of merit, he died in the monastery of Castro, which he founded
in Marquisate of Ancona. His death occurred on June 19, about the year 1027.
Romuald, OSB, Abbot Founder
(RM) Born at Ravenna, Italy; died Val di Castro, Piceno, Italy, on February
7 (or June 19?), 1027; he has a second (local) feast day on February 7. Today
celebrates the anniversary of the translation of his relics from Val di Castro,
near Camaldoli to Fabriano.
Born into the Honesti (or Onesti) family, son of Serge, duke of
Ravenna, Romuald had an uneventful childhood and was an unremarkable youth.
One day he witnessed his hot-tempered father kill a relative in a duel over
some land. Romuald, his father's second in the duel, is shaken at the wages
of avarice. It is said that while Romuald was hunting in the forest one day,
he stopped, began to pray, and resolved to atone for this crime. Whether
the incident is true or not, at age 20, Romuald retired to Sant'Apollinare
Monastery in Classe (about a mile from Ravenna) for 40 days to expiate his
father's sin and his own complicity.
He would have returned to his normally loose lifestyle had he
not made the friendship of a holy lay-brother and experienced conversion.
Instead of returning home, Romuald requested the Benedictine habit. At first
the abbot feared Serge's anger over his son's becoming a monk, but the archbishop
of Ravenna, another Onesti, intervened and Romuald entered the order. After
three years at that monastery, he left in quest of a more austere life and
became a disciple of the hermit Marinus near Venice.
Romuald's early experience in his family made him very stern against
those who pursued their public careers violently. About 978, Marinus and
Romuald, together with Abbot Guarinus (Guerin) of Cuxa in Catalonia persuaded
Peter Orseolo, doge of Venice, to resign (he had become doge by murdering
or acquiescing to the murder of his predecessor).
Peter accompanied Marinus and Romuald back to Cuxa and became
a Benedictine there, while Romuald and Marinus built a hermitage near the
monastery and lived as hermits. Romuald returned to Italy ten years later
to help his father, Serge, who had become a monk at Saint-Severin, resolve
his doubts about his vocation. (His father died a short time later.)
Emperor Otto III appointed Romuald
abbot of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, the place Romuald first sought refuge,
but he left after two years to live as a hermit near Pereum (Piseno). He
then set out to evangelize the Magyars in Hungary but was forced to turn
back because of illness and probably by his age. Romuald spent the rest of
his life founding monasteries and hermitages in northern and central Italy,
notably at Vallombrosa in 1012, and in 1023 at Camaldoli near Arezzo. The
five hermitages he built at Camaldoli developed into the mother house of
the Camaldolese Order, which combined the cenobitic tradition of the West
and the Eastern type of eremitical life under a modified Benedictine rule
that Romuald drew up. The order was approved in 1072--about 45 years after
its founder's death (Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia).
Saint Romuald can be identified as a White Benedictine (Camaldolese)
abbot pointing to a ladder by which monks ascend--two by two--to heaven.
Sometimes he may be shown (1) experiencing this vision without a ladder;
(2) old and bearded with a hermit's tau-staff; (3) enthroned with a long
candle, surrounded by votaries, also with candles, as he points to Christ
above; or (4) enthroned with a book and a model of the monastery (Roeder).
Saint Fra Angelico painted a picture of Saint Romuald. He is venerated
at Camaldoli and Fabriano (Roeder).
June 19, 2010 St. Romuald (950?-1027)
After a wasted youth, Romuald saw his father kill a relative in a duel over
property. In horror he fled to a monastery near Ravenna in Italy. After three
years some of the monks found him to be uncomfortably holy and eased him
out. He spent the next 30 years going about Italy, founding monasteries
and hermitages. He longed to give his life to Christ in martyrdom, and got
the pope’s permission to preach the gospel in Hungary. But he was struck
with illness as soon as he arrived, and the illness recurred as often as
he tried to proceed. During another period of his life, he suffered
great spiritual dryness. One day as he was praying Psalm 31 (“I will give
you understanding and I will instruct you”), he was given an extraordinary
light and spirit which never left him.
At the next monastery where he stayed, he was accused of a scandalous crime
by a young nobleman he had rebuked for a dissolute life. Amazingly, his fellow
monks believed the accusation. He was given a severe penance, forbidden to
offer Mass and excommunicated, an unjust sentence he endured in silence for
six months. The most famous of the monasteries he founded was that
of the Camaldoli (Campus Maldoli, name of the owner) in Tuscany. Here he
founded the Order of the Camaldolese Benedictines, uniting a monastic and
hermit life.
His father later became a monk,
wavered and was kept faithful by the encouragement of his son.
Comment:
Christ is a gentle leader, but he calls us to total holiness. Now and then
men and women are raised up to challenge us by the absoluteness of their
dedication, the vigor of their spirit, the depth of their conversion. The
fact that we cannot duplicate their lives does not change the call to us
to be totally open to God in our own particular circumstances.
Romuald Katholische Kirche: 19. Juni
Romuald wurde um 925 in Ravenna geboren. Er wurd zunächst
Benediktinermönch, verließ aber 975 das Kloster und lebte an verschiedenen
Orten als Einsiedler. 978 grüdete er in den Pyrenäen eine Einsiedlergemeinschaft.
998 ernannte ihn Otto III. zum Abt von St. Apollinare, aber Romuald legte
das Amt nach wenigen Monaten nieder und zog weiter druch Italien, reformierte
Klöster und gründete Einsiedlergemeinschaften. Er starb am 19.6.1027
in seiner Klause in der Nähe des Klosters Val di Castro. Seine Gebeine
befinden sich in Fabriano. Zu den Gründungen Romualds gehört auch
das Kloster Camaldoli bei Arezzo, das er um 1012 erichtete. Dieses Kloster
wurde Mutterhaus der Kamaldulenser, eines Reformzweiges der Benediktiner
.
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1113 Blessed Odo of Cambrai
founded a community of Benedictines; one of the most erudite scholars of
his time OSB B (AC)
Born at Orléans, France; Saint Odo was the headmaster of the cathedral
school of Tournai. About 1090, his heart was converted by reading Saint Augustine on free will. He then
founded a community of Benedictines in the abandoned abbey of Saint Martin
at Tournai. In 1105, he was promoted to bishop of Cambrai, but, on refusing
to receive secular investiture, he was exiled to the abbey of Anchin, where
he died. Odo was one of the most erudite scholars of his time (Benedictines)
.
BD ODO, BISHOP OF CAMBRAI (A.D. 11I3)
OF the distinguished scholars who taught in the great French schools
of the eleventh century one of the most learned and influential was Odo,
afterwards bishop of Cambrai. Where he was educated is not known, but he
was a native of Orleans and, while still young, wrote a poem on the Trojan
War which obtained considerable popularity. He had been teaching for several
years at Toul when the canons of Tournai gave him the post of scholasticus-actually
director-in their cathedral school. There he soon evinced a genius for teaching
and a skill in disputation which, combined with a powerful and attractive
personality, drew to him young men not only from the neighbouring towns,
but also from Normandy, Saxony and Italy. A follower of Boethius and an exponent
of realistic philosophy, he contended so successfully against the nominalism
taught by Raimbert of Lille that he ended by winning over most of Raimbert's
followers. Besides philosophy, rhetoric, and dialectics he also taught astronomy,
and was often to be seen seated on the cathedral steps on a starry night
demonstrating to his pupils the position of the constellations and the movement
of the planets.
Immersed in secular studies Odo had little or no time to spare for theology
or the writings of the fathers. He had been at Tournai five years when some
lectures he was giving on Boethius led him to consult for the first time
St Augustine's book on free will. Almost from the beginning it riveted his
attention, and as he read on he was reduced to tears and overwhelmed with
a sense of the futility of his past career. It was a case of sudden and complete
conversion. At once he restricted his times for instruction, gave away all
his money to the poor, began to spend long
hours in church, and embarked upon such severe mortifications that he soon
resembled a walking skeleton. Obviously, he would not remain satisfied with
a secular life, and the bishop and citizens of Tournai, anxious to retain
him in their midst, bestowed upon him the disused abbey of St Martin. At
first he and a number of his former pupils lived there as canons, but after
three years, by the advice of his friend Aimeric, abbot of Anchin, he gave
them the Benedictine rule.
Odo had been abbot of St Martin's for thirteen years when, in 1105, he was
chosen bishop of Cambrai in the place of Gaucher, whom Pope Paschal II had
excommunicated and deposed for simony and for having accepted investiture
from Henry IV. The emperor's party, however, was in the ascendant at Cambrai,
and not until his death a year later could Odo obtain possession of his see.
Even then he was unable to retain it. Within a very short time he was driven
into exile because he refused to accept the ring and the cross from Henry
V. He found a refuge with Aimeric at Anchin, where he occupied himself in
writing books. He appears to have returned to Cambrai for a brief period
towards the close of his life, but he died and was buried at Anchin. Amongst
his numerous writings may be mentioned an exposition of the canon of the Mass,
a treatise on original sin, another on the coming of the Messias, harmony
of the gospels and a polyglot psalter in four languages.
Although no lengthy biography
of early date is available we have a letter of Amand de Castello, prior of
Anchin, which gives a sketch of Odo's career, and another account attributed
to Herman of Tournai. These have been printed in Pertz, MGH., Scriptores, vol. xv, pp. 942-945, and
vol. xiv, pp. 210-221, and cf. pp. 274-318. See especially Histoire littéraire de la France,
vol. viii, pp. 399-400; Berlière, Monasticon BeIge, vol. i, pp. 273-275;
Auger, Etudes sur les Mystiques des Pays'
Bas, pp. 66-71, and three articles by Labis in the Revue Catholique de Louvain, vol. xiv
(1856).
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1340 Juliana
Falconieri birth answer to prayers of old childless couple they built magnificent
church Annunciation at Florence founded Third Order of Servites; Austere.
zealous. charitable. sympathetic to all, OSM V (RM)
Floréntiæ sanctæ
Juliánæ Falconériæ Vírginis, quæ Sorórum
Ordinis Servórum beátæ Maríæ Vírginis
fuit Institútrix, et a Cleménte Duodécimo, Pontífice
Máximo, in sanctárum Vírginum númerum reláta
est.
At Florence,
St. Juliana Falconieri, virgin, foundress of the Sisters of the Order of
the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was placed among the holy virgins
by the Sovereign Pontiff, Clement XII.
1341 ST JULIANA FALCONIERI, VIRGIN, FOUNDRESS
OF THE SERVITE NUNS
ST JULIANA was one of the two glories of the noble family of the Falconieri,
the other being her uncle, St Alexis, one of the Seven Holy Founders of the
Servite Order. Her father, Chiarissimo, and her mother, Riguardata, were
a devout couple of great wealth who had built at their own cost the magnificent
church of the Annunziata in Florence. They were childless and already well
advanced in age when, in 1270, Juliana was born-the answer to prayer. After
the death of her father, which occurred while she was still quite young,
her uncle Alexis shared with Riguardata the direction of her upbringing.
She never cared for the amusements and occupations which interested other
girls, but loved to spend her time in prayer and in church. Sometimes, indeed,
her mother would tell her that if she continually neglected her needle and
spinning-wheel she would never find a husband. The threat, however, had no
terror for Juliana, and when she found that her relations were trying to
arrange a suitable match for her she expressed her determination to consecrate
herself to God and to renounce the world. She was then fifteen. After being
carefully instructed by her uncle Alexis, she was invested with the Servite
habit by St Philip Benizi in the church of the Annunziata, and a year later
she was professed a tertiary of the order.
The ritual employed on this occasion appears to have been identical with
that used in the profession of a Servite brother. Juliana continued to live
at home, and Riguardata, who had originally opposed her profession, ended
by placing herself under her daughter's direction. Bereft of her mother in
1304, when she was thirty-four, Juliana moved to another house, where she
led a community life with a number of women who devoted themselves to prayer
and works of mercy. Their habit resembled that of the men of the Servite
Order, but to facilitate their work they wore short sleeves, which caused
them to be nicknamed "Mantellate", a term subsequently applied to women tertiaries
in general. With great reluctance Juliana accepted the post of superior at
the urgent desire of her companions. For them she drew up a code of regulations
which was formally confirmed 120 years later for their successors by Pope
Martin V. Just as the Order of the Servants of Mary is commonly ascribed
to St Philip Benizi because he framed their constitutions, so also for the
same reason St Juliana is honoured as a foundress by all the women religious
of the Servite Order, although she was not the first to be admitted into
its ranks.
Those who were her contemporaries and were privileged to live under her guidance
testified that she outstripped them all in her zeal, her charity and her
austerities. Her sympathies extended to all with whom she came into contact,
nor did she ever let slip an opportunity of helping others, especially when
it was a question of reconciling enemies, of reclaiming sinners and of relieving
the sick. Her mortifications seriously impaired her health, and towards the
close of her life she suffered much from gastric derangement. She had been
in the habit of making her communion three times a week, and it was a source
of deep sorrow to her in her last illness that her frequent attacks of sickness
precluded her from receiving the sacrament of the altar. Juliana died in
1341, in her seventy-first year, and she was canonized in 1737.
In the collect appointed for St Juliana's feast reference is made to the
eucharistic miracle by which she is said to have been comforted in her last
moments. In memory of this also the members of her order wear upon the left
breast of their habit the device of a Host surrounded with rays. It is stated
that a document is still in existence which claims to have been drawn up
and witnessed eighteen days later by those who were present at her death-bed.
The original is in Latin, but it may be translated as follows:
"He hath made
a memorial of His wonderful works" [ps. cx 4]. Let it be placed on record
how eighteen days ago our Sister Juliana died and flew to heaven with her
spouse Jesus; and it was in this manner.
Being more than seventy years
old her stomach had become so weakened from her voluntary sharp penances,
from fasts, from chains, from an iron girdle, disciplines, nightly vigils
and spare diet, that she was no longer able to take or retain food. When
she knew that because of this she must be deprived of the viaticum of the
most sacred Body of Christ, no one could believe how much she grieved and
wept, so much so that they were afraid she would die from the vehemence of
her sorrow.
She, therefore, most humbly begged
Father James de Campo Reggio that at least he would bring the most holy sacrament
in a pyx and set it before her, and this was done. But when the priest appeared
carrying the Body of our Lord, she straightway prostrated herself upon the
ground in the form of a cross and adored her Master.
Then her face became like the
face of an angel. She desired, since she was not allowed to unite herself
to Jesus, at least to kiss Him, but this the priest refused. She then begged
piteously that over the burning furnace of her breast they would spread a
veil upon which they might put the Host. This was granted her. But-O wonderful
prodigy!-scarcely had the Host touched this loving heart than it was lost
to sight and never more was found. Then Juliana, when the Host had disappeared,
with a tender and joyous face, as if she were rapt in ecstasy, died in the
kiss of her Lord, to the amazement and admiration of those who were present-to
wit, of Sister Joanna, Sister Mary, Sister Elizabeth, Father James and others
of the house.
The Sister Joanna whose name is appended to this is the Bd Joan Soderini
(September I) who succeeded the foundress in her office of superior general.
What strikes one as curious is the fact that no mention is made of the discovery
on St Juliana's left breast of a mark resembling the impression upon the
Host, as was averred later. No earlier authority has been adduced for this
prodigy than a sentence occurring in a manuscript entitled Giornale e Ricordi,
written by the Servite Nicholas Mati about the year 1384. In this volume,
when he has occasion to refer to Joan Soderini, he remarks: "She was the
happy disciple who, sooner than Sister Elizabeth or the others, discovered
upon the breast of St Juliana that astounding marvel of the figure of Christ
nailed to the cross impressed upon her flesh within a circle like a Host."
It must be admitted, however, that Father Mati speaks of the prodigy as a
thing which was in his time generally known.
The information obtainable about
the life of St Juliana is very scanty. The promoters of the cause of her
beatification seem to have contented themselves with producing proof of an
immemorial cultus and of miracles
worked by her relics. The Bollandists had to be satisfied with printing in
the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. iv,
a short life translated from the Italian of Father Archangelo Giani. There
is an English life (1898) translated from the French of Fr Soulier, another
in French by Cardinal Lépicier, and in Italian by Poletti (1903),
Barbagallo (1912), and Panichelli (1928); a popular life in English was published
in 1951, by M. Conrayville. A copy of the Latin original of the statement
above is printed by Father V. de Buck in the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. xii, pp.
403-404, in a notice he compiled of the life of Bd Joan Soderini.
Born at Florence, Italy, 1270; died there in 1340; canonized in 1737. Saint
Juliana was born into the noble Falconieri family and niece of Saint Alexis (the only one of the Seven
Founders of the Servites to remain a lay brother). She seems destined for
Christian glory. Her father, Chiarissimo, and her mother, Riguardata, were
both devout. At their own expense they built the magnificent church of the
Annunciation at Florence, Italy. Juliana's birth was an answer to the prayers
of this older, childless couple.
After her father's death while she was still very young, her uncle
Alexis shared in her upbringing. She never cared for the amusements that
interested other girls, and when she learned, at age 15, that her relatives
were trying to arrange her marriage, she told them that she wanted to consecrate
her life to God. After being carefully instructed by her uncle, Juliana was
given the Servite habit by Saint Philip
Benizi in the Church of the Annunciation. A year later she was professed
as a tertiary, which permitted her to continue to live at home for the next
18 years.
Although Riguardata originally opposed Juliana's chosen vocation,
she eventually placed herself under her daughter's direction. When Riguardata
died in 1304, Juliana moved to another house, where she founded the Third
Order of Servites. At that house a number of women lived in community and
devoted themselves to a life of prayer and ministry to the sick. Their habit
resembled that of the male Servites, but to facilitate that work, they wore
short sleeves, which caused them to be nicknamed "Mantellate," a term later
used for women tertiaries in general.
Reluctantly, Juliana acquiesced to her community's request for
her to become their general. She drew up a code of regulations that were formally
confirmed 120 years later for their successors by Pope Martin V. Juliana is considered
the founder of the order because she framed their constitutions, although
she was not the first to be admitted into its ranks.
The rest of her life was spent
in Florence where, like her spiritual benefactor, Philip Benizi, she was
particularly active in reconciling enemies--this was a time when the quarrels
between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines were sowing discord in almost every
town in Italy. Austere and zealous, she was also charitable and sympathetic
to all.
Her mortifications seriously impaired her health, and towards
the end of her life she suffered from gastric problems. She had been in the
habit of receiving Communion three times weekly, which made these stomach
ailments all the more sorrowful. When she was dying and could not receive
Communion, the corporal and host were laid on her breast. Almost as soon
as It touched her, the Host disappeared, miraculously incorporated into her
body. A mark of the host was found on her breast after death. This image
of a host emanating rays of light is now worn on the left breast of Servite
nuns (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Martindale,
Walsh) .
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1535 Bl. Sebastian
Newdigate Carthusian martyr of England priest after wife passed on
Born at Harefield, Middlesex,
England, he studied at Cambridge and was married. His wife died in 1524 and he became a priest. Before entering the Carthusians
in the London Charterhouse, he also served as King Henry VIII’s privy counselor.
When Sebastian and fellow monks refused to accept the declaration of King
Henry VIII’s Supremacy over the Church of England, they were arrested. Sebastian
was executed at Tyburn on June 19 with Blesseds Humphrey Middlemore and William
Exmew.
|
1535 Bl. William
Exmew Carthusian martyr Englishman, he was educated at Cambridge and entered
the Carthusians, eventually becoming sub-prior of the London Charterhouse
Owing to their refesal to accept the reforms of King Hemy VIII (r. 1509-1547),
William was executed with Blesseds Sebastian Newdigate and Humphrey Middlemore.
They were beatified in 1886. |
1573 Bl. Thomas Woodhouse
ordination as a secular priest incarceration 12 years Society of Jesus English
martyr
BD THOMAS WOODHOUSE, MARTYR (A.D. 1573)
THE second priest to suffer martyrdom under Elizabeth was Thomas Woodhouse.
Ordained in the days of Queen Mary and appointed rector of a small Lincolnshire
parish, he was obliged at the outbreak of persecution after her death to
resign the living he had only held for a year and afterwards a post as tutor
in Wales. In 1561 he was arrested in the act of saying Mass and was committed
to the Fleet: he was destined to remain a prisoner for twelve years. During
the early part of his captivity he was allowed considerable freedom: he said
his office daily, celebrated Mass in his cell, and even tried to make converts
by discussions with his fellow prisoners and by writings which he attached
to stones and threw out of the window. When plague broke out in London in
1563, he and other prisoners for religion were removed to the country house
of Tyrrell, the warden of the Fleet, who was sympathetic to the Catholics.
About the year 1572, after negotiations had been secretly carried on with
the provincial in Paris, he was admitted by letter into membership of the
Society of Jesus-and in the first fervour of his reception he wrote a letter
to Lord Burleigh, in which he urged him to persuade Queen Elizabeth to submit
to Pope Pius V, by whose decree, he pointed out, she was already de jure
deposed. In a personal interview with Burleigh, and under examination before
the Council, he was still more outspoken, his fearlessness causing him to
be classed as a dangerous fanatic. At his final trial in the Guildhall, in
April, 1573, he challenged not only the authority of the judges, but also
the right of a secular court to try a priest. He was found guilty of high
treason. As he stood on the scaffold he was told to ask pardon of God, the
queen and the country. He replied: "Nay, on the part of God I demand of you
and of the queen that ye ask pardon of God and of holy mother Church because,
contrary to the truth, ye have resisted Christ the Lord, and His vicar upon
earth, the pope."
See Camm, LEM., vol. ii, pp. 187-203;
Foley, REPS]., vol. viii; and DNB., vol. lxii, P·403.
A resident of Lincolnshire, he received ordination as a secular priest and
took up a post there. Forced to resign from this post, he became a tutor
in Wales. He was arrested in 1561 for celebrating a Mass and was sent to
Fleet Prison. During the period of his incarceration, which lasted twelve
years, he entered the Society of Jesus Thomas was tried in 1570. He was hanged
at Tyburn.
Blessed Thomas Woodhouse, SJ M (AC) beatified in 1886. During the persecutions
in England, Father Woodhouse lived in Lincolnshire and worked as a private
tutor in Wales. In 1561, he was taken to Fleet prison where he remained until
his death. During this time, he was admitted by letter to the Society of
Jesus. He was hanged at Tyburn (Benedictines) .
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1607 Saint Job;
first Patriarch of Moscow Many incorrupt and fragrant relics became
the source of healing for many who were afflicted by physical and mental illnesses
at his grave
Born into the family of pious tradesmen in Staritsa near Tver
in the 1530s. His baptismal name was John. After his death in 1607,
the relics of Patriarch Job were buried by the western doors of the Dormition
Church of the monastery in Staritsa. Many miracles took place at his grave.
In 1652, on the recommendation of Metropolitan Nikon of Novgorod, Tsar Alexei
ordered that the relics of St Job and St Philip (January 9) be transferred
to Moscow.
Metropolitan Barlaam of Rostov presided at the uncovering of St
Job's relics in Staritsa. The Patriarch's incorrupt and fragrant relics became
the source of healing for many who were afflicted by physical and mental
illnesses.
On March 27 a procession set off for Moscow with the relics. On
Monday of the sixth week of Lent (April 5), the relics of Patriarch Job were
brought to the Passions Monastery. From there, the procession proceeded to
the Kremlin, and the relics of the saint were placed in the Dormition cathedral.
A few days later, Patriarch Joseph died and was buried next to St Job.
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18th v. Saint Paisius
of Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos wrote The History of the Slavo-Bulgarians,
a book upholding the Christian Faith and awakening the national self-awareness
of the subjugated Bulgarian nation.
Born in 1722 in Bansko into a pious family. One of his brothers, Laurence,
was igumen of Hilandar Monastery, and another was noted as a generous benefactor
of Orthodox temples and monasteries. St Paisius himself went through his
obedience at Rila Monastery.
In 1745 at age twenty-three, St Paisius went to his brother in the Hilandar
Monastery on Mount Athos, where he received monastic tonsure. The ascetic
matured spiritually on the Holy Mountain. He studied Holy Scripture and he
was found worthy of ordination to the holy priesthood.
In the year 1762 St Paisius wrote The History of the Slavo-Bulgarians, a
book upholding the Christian Faith and awakening the national self-awareness
of the subjugated Bulgarian nation.
Amid the darkness of foreign oppression the saint rekindled the lamp of Orthodoxy,
lit formerly by Sts Cyril and Methodius (May 11). The time and place of the
saint's blessed end is unknown.
On June 26, 1962 the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church under the
presidency of His Holiness Patriarch Cyril, and with the participation of
all the Metropolitans, expressed the indebtedness of the Church and country
to St Paisius. They decreed that Paisius of Hilandar and Bulgaria be glorified
as a saint, and directed that his memory be celebrated on June 19, "when,
according to the Orthodox calendar, St Paisius the Great is commemorated."
The name of St Paisius is borne by a state university in Plovdiv, and by
many institutes and schools in other cities and villages of Bulgaria. This
testifies to the deep veneration of the saint by the Bulgarian nation
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1884 Ludwig Richter
war zwar katholisch, fühlte sich aber auch der evangelischen Kirche
zugehörig
Evangelische Kirche: 19. Juni
Ludwig Richter wurde am 28.9.1803 als Sohn eines Zeichners und Kupferstechers
in Dresden geboren. Er ging bei seinem Vater in die Lehre, entwickelte sich
aber zu einem Zeichner und Maler, der in tiefer inner Gläubigkeit vor
allem das Leben des Volkes und der Familie darstellte. Seine Illustrationen
zu den Bechsteinschen Märchen oder den Geschichten Johann Peter Hebels
sind auch heute noch bekannt. Richter war zwar katholisch, fühlte sich
aber auch der evangelischen Kirche zugehörig. In seinen letzten Lebensjahren
war er mit Christoph Blumhardt und Johann Christoph Blumhardt eng befreundet.
Er starb am 19.6.1884 in Dresden.
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1929 Sundar
Singh Von Kind an religiös interessiert, studierte er den Koran, meditierte
und erlernte Yoga; Er fand aber keinen inneren Frieden englischen Missionsschule
und wandte sich hier vehement gegen das Christentum Theologiestudium in den
USA Seine mystische Ausrichtung führte ihn wieder zurück nach Indien
Anglikanische Kirche: 19. Juni Evangelische Kirche: 16. April
Sundar Singh wurde 1889 geboren. Von Kind an religiös interessiert,
studierte er den Koran, meditierte und erlernte Yoga. Er fand aber keinen
inneren Frieden. Er lernte an einer englischen Missionsschule und wandte
sich hier vehement gegen das Christentum. Als 15jähriger verbrannte
er am 18.12.1904 die Bibel und beschloß, sich zu töten, wenn er
in dieser Nacht nicht den Weg zum Frieden finde. Am Morgen hatte er eine
Christusvision, die sein weiteres Leben prägte. Seine Familie verstieß
ihn und versuchte ihn zu töten. Ein Mordanschlag mißlang und Sundar
Singh wurde am 3.9.1905 getauft. Nach seiner Taufe wanderte er durch Indien
und verkündete das Evangelium. 1909 begann er ein zweijähriges
Theologiestudium in den USA, wandte sich aber von dem theologischen Intellektualismus
ab. Er wurde Diakon der anglikanischen Kirche, legte sein Amt aber wieder
nieder, um ganz für Christus frei zu sein. Auf Reisen durch ganz Indien
wurde er aus mancher Gefahr und Verfolgung wunderbar errettet. Seine Berichte
über das Wirken Gottes in seinem Leben haben große Aufmerksamkeit
in Europa und Amerika erfahren. Sundar Singh reiste 1922 nach Europa und
konnte hier Verständnis für den indischen Weg des Christentums
wecken. Er empfand Europa als ein zutiefst heidnisches Land mit wenigen wahren
Christen. Seine mystische Ausrichtung führte ihn wieder zurück
nach Indien. Von einer Predigtwanderung nach Tibet 1929 kehrte er nicht zurück;
es ist nicht bekannt, ob er den Märtyrertod erlitt oder als Einsiedler
im Himalaya weiterlebte.
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Mary Mother of GOD
Saint of the Day June 19 Tertiodécimo Kaléndas Júlii 
Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 
Benedict XVI met with Aram I Catholicos
of Cilicia, the highest authority of the Orthodox Church.
The Pope remembered the martyrs of the Armenian
Church and the Armenian genocide, without explicitly mentioning
it, and denounced the persecution of Christians in modern times.
Benedict XVI
As we watch the spectacle of the world
seeming to self-destruct before our eyes, we can’t help but be
saddened and even frightened by so much evil run rampant. Iraq, Lebanon,
Afghanistan, Somalia, North Korea—It is all a disaster of epic
proportions displayed in living color on our television screens.