151 St. Novatus Confessor
son of St. Pudens and Claudia Rufina brother of Sts. Pudentiana and Praxedes
paternal grandfather Quintus Cornelius Pudens Roman senator with his wife
Priscilla among St. Peter's earliest converts in Rome in whose house the
Apostle dwelt while in that city
Romæ deposítio sancti Nováti, qui fuit fílius
beáti Pudéntis Senatóris, et frater sancti Timóthei
Presbyteri et sanctárum Christi Vírginum Pudentiánæ
et Praxédis, qui ab Apóstolis erudíti sunt in fide.
Ipsórum vero domus, in Ecclésiam commutáta, Pastóris
Títulus appellátur.
At Rome, the death of St. Novatius, son of the blessed
senator Pudens, and brother of the saintly priest Timothy and the holy virgins
of Christ, Pudentiana and Praxedes, who had been instructed in the faith
by the apostles. Their house was converted into a church, and bore
the title of the Shepherd.
St. Novatus, who is mentioned on 20 June with his brother, the martyr Timotheus,
was the son of St. Pudens and Claudia Rufina, and the brother of Sts. Pudentiana
and Praxedes. His paternal grandfather was Quintus Cornelius Pudens, the
Roman senator, who with his wife, Priscilla, was among St. Peter's earliest
converts in Rome and in whose house the Apostle dwelt while in that city.
A portion of the superstructure of the modern church of St. Pudentiana (Via
Urbana) is thought to be part of the senatorial palace or of the baths built
by Novatus.
Novatus of Rome (RM). Novatus was reputed to have been the son of Pudens
and brother of Saint Praxedes and Saint Pudentiana (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
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303 St Alban, a Roman
soldier The first martyr to die for the Faith he arrested and then was converted
by a priest who he allowed to escape; Alban refused to renounce his new faith
Early Christianity In England
The Christian Gospel first came to Celtic Britain in Roman times,
in the second century, probably with the soldiers and associated civilians.
St Bede says that a British King, Lucius, wrote to Eleutherius,
head of the Roman Church, in the year 156 of our Lord's Incarnation asking
to be made a Christian.
The first martyr to die for the Faith was St Alban, a Roman soldier,
c.303 AD.
In Lancashire the principal Roman camps and settlements were at
Coccium (Wigan), Mamucium (Manchester) and Bremetannicum (Ribchester).
Later, Celtic saints like St Kentigern, St Asaph and St Ninian
preached along the north-west coasts of Lancashire, Cumbria, North Wales
and Strathclyde.
The oldest evidence for the presence of Christianity in these
regions is a word-puzzle, found etched in plaster in a cellar near Castlefields,
the Roman fort in Manchester, and dated tentatively to 100-200 AD.
S A T O R
A R E P OT E N E T
O P E R A R O T A S
The component letters can be re-arranged into a cross which reads
PATER NOSTER, with two "O"s and two "A"s left over, symbolising Christ, the
Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. The
same cryptogram has been found in the ruins of Pompeii, showing that it was
current before the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Roman Britain collapsed after 410 AD when the Roman army
was withdrawn, leaving the Celtic Britons to fend for themselves.
From 449 AD onwards, waves of pagan Angles, Saxons and Jutes
flooded across the North Sea, and invaded Britain.
They drove the Celts westwards
into Wales, Cumbria and Cornwall. From the north, the Scots and the Picts
attacked and made inroads into northern England.
The civilised and partly Christianised Romano-British society
collapsed before the wild Teutonic invaders. Within a century a new evangelisation
was urgently necessary.
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312 Methodius The Hieromartyr
, Bishop of Patara (Lycia in Asia Minor), distinguished for his genuine monastic
humility
Calmly and with mildness he instructed his flock, but he firmly defended
the purity of Orthodoxy and he energetically contended against heresies,
especially the widespread heresy of the Origenists. He left behind him a
rich literary legacy: works in defense of Christianity against paganism,
explications of Orthodox dogmas against the heresy of Origen, moral discourses,
and explanations of Holy Scripture.
St Methodius was arrested by the pagans, steadfastly confessed before them
his faith in Christ, and he was sentenced to death by beheading in the year
312.
Methodius von Patara Orthodoxe Kirche: 20. Juni
Methodius war Bischof von Patara. Er verfaßte zahlreiche Schriften
und bekämpfte die Häresien von Origenes. Er wurde verhaftet und
312 getötet.
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350 Bishop
Macarius of Petra opposed the Arians at the Council of Sardica B (RM)
Petræ, in Palæstína, sancti Macárii Epíscopi,
qui, ab Ariánis passus multa et in Africa relegátus, Conféssor
quiévit in Dómino.
At Petra in Palestine, St. Macarius, a bishop, who suffered
many things from the Arians, and was banished to Africa where he rested in
the Lord.
Bishop Macarius of Petra, in the Holy Land,
strongly opposed the Arians at the Council of Sardica. As a result they orchestrated
his deposition and banishment to Africa, where he died. His original name
was Arius, but he changed it to distance himself from the arch-heretic (Benedictines,
Encyclopedia).
|
431
St. Paulinus of Nola [see June 22] austerity charity giving away their Spanish
property correspondent /friend of Augustine, Jerome, Melania, Martin, Gregory
and Ambrose last years saddened by Huns invasion
b. 354? Anyone who is praised in the letters of six or seven saints undoubtedly
must be of extraordinary character. Such a person was Paulinus of Nola, correspondent
and friend of Augustine, Jerome, Melania, Martin, Gregory and Ambrose.
Born near Bordeaux, he was the son
of the Roman prefect of Gaul, who had extensive property in both Gaul and
Italy. Paulinus became a distinguished lawyer, holding several public offices
in the Empire. With his Spanish wife, Therasia, he retired at an early age
to a life of cultured leisure.
The two were baptized by the saintly bishop of Bordeaux and moved to Therasia’s
estate in Spain. After many childless years, they had a son who died a week
after birth. This occasioned their beginning a life of great austerity and
charity, giving away most of their Spanish property. Possibly as a result
of this great example, Paulinus was rather unexpectedly ordained a priest
at Christmas by the bishop of Barcelona.
He and his wife then moved to Nola, near Naples. He had a great love for
St. Felix of Nola, and spent much effort in promoting devotion to this saint.
Paulinus gave away most of his remaining property (to the consternation of
his relatives) and continued his work for the poor. Supporting a host of
debtors, tramps and other needy people, he lived a monastic life in another
part of his home. By popular demand he was made bishop of Nola and guided
that diocese for 21 years.
His last years were saddened by the invasion of the Huns. Among his few writings
is the earliest extant Christian wedding song.
Comment: Many of us are
tempted to "retire" early in life, after an initial burst of energy. Devotion
to Christ and his work is waiting to be done all around us. Paulinus's life
had scarcely begun when he thought it was over, as he took his ease on that
estate in Spain. "Man proposes, but God disposes."
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St. Paul and Cyriacus
2 Benedictines martyrs martyred in Lower Moesia at Tomis in Pontus Black
Sea
Tomis,
in Ponto, sanctórum Mártyrum Pauli et Cyríaci.
At Tomis in Pontus, the holy martyrs Paul and Cyriacus.
during the Roman persecutions. Their martyrdoms and any other
details of their lives are unknown.
Paul and Cyriacus MM (RM) D. Martyrs who suffered at Tomi, Lower Moesia
(on the Black Sea) (Benedictines).
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537 Silverius
Pope son of Pope Saint Hormisdas died a martyr's death after less than two
years in office M (RM)
In ínsula Póntia natális sancti Silvérii, Papæ
et Mártyris, qui, cum Anthimum, Epíscopum hæréticum,
a suo prædecessóre Agapíto depósitum, restitúere
noluísset, a Belisário, agénte ímpia Theodóra
Augústa, in exsílium pulsus est, et ibídem, pro fide
cathólica multis ærúmnis conféctus, defécit.
On the island of Pontia, the birthday of St. Silverius,
pope and martyr. For refusing to reinstate the heretical bishop Anthimus
who had been deposed by his predecessor Agapitus, he was banished to the
isle of Pontia by Belisarius, prompted by the wicked empress Theodora.
He died there, consumed by many tribulations for the Catholic faith.
ST SILVERIUS, POPE AND MARTYR 537
SILVERIUS, the son of Pope St Hormisdas, was only a subdeacon
when, on the death of Pope St Agapitus I at Constantinople on April 22, 536,
he was forced as bishop on the Roman church by the Ostrogothic king of Italy,
Theodehad, who foresaw the appearance of a Byzantine candidate; however,
after Silverius had been consecrated the clergy of Rome agreed to accept
him. The Empress Theodora wrote asking him to recognize as patriarchs the
monophysites Anthimus at Constantinople and Severus at Antioch; Silverius
replied politely with what was in effect a refusal, and he is said to have
remarked as he did so that he was signing his own death warrant. He was right;
Theodora was a woman who would tolerate no opposition: but she could afford
to wait.
After the devastation of suburban Rome by the Ostrogothic general Vitiges,
the pope and the senate willingly opened the gates of the City to his Byzantine
opponent Belisarius-and Theodora had her chance. An attempt to entrap Silverius
by means of a forged letter in a charge of treasonable conspiracy with the
Goths having apparently failed, he was kidnapped and carried away to Patara
in Lycia in Asia Minor; and the next day Belisarius-who was acting under
pressure from his wife Antonina-proclaimed as pope in his stead the Empress
Theodora's nominee, the deacon Vigilius. A very bad episode in the history
of the papacy had begun.
Apparently the Emperor Justinian had been kept in ignorance of what was going
on; and when he was told by the bishop of Patara of what had happened, he
ordered that Silverius be sent back to Rome and an inquiry instituted. But
when the pope landed in Italy the supporters of Vigilius intercepted and
captured him; and Antonina, eager to gratify Theodora, prevailed on her husband
to let them deal with him as they chose. Accordingly Silverius was taken
under escort to the island of Palmarola in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off Naples.
There, or perhaps in the neighbouring island of Ponza, he ended his days
soon afterwards, as the result of the ill-treatment he received. According
to Liberatus, who wrote from hearsay, he died of hunger; but his contemporary,
Procopius, states that he was murdered at the instigation of Antonina, by
one of her servants. In any case the feast of St Silverius is kept as that
of a martyr.
It is not at all clear how the appointment of Vigil ius to the papal see
came to be regularized; but once he was recognized as pope his patroness
Theodora experienced disappointment, for he ceased to support her intrigues
on behalf of Monophysism and stood forward as the upholder of orthodoxy-which
after all is what is expected of a pope.
See the Liber Pontificalis (ed. Duchesne), vol.
i, pp. 290-295. Duchesne, in his introduction (pp. xxxvi-xxxviii), points
out that there is a curious difference of tone between the earlier and later
part of this notice. He concludes that it was compiled by two different writers,
the former hostile, the latter friendly to Silverius. The remaining jejune,
but, for lack of better material, not negligible, sources are the Breviarium of Liberatus; Procopius, De Bello Gothico; and the documents of
Vigilius in Mansi, Concilia, vol.
ix. See also Grisar, Geschichte Roms
und der Päpste, vol. i, pp. 502-504; Leveque, Etude sur le Pape Vigilius; DCB., vol.
iv, pp. 670-675; and E. Amann in DTC., s.v.
Silvère. Benedict XIV's commission proposed to remove the feast of
St Silverius from the general calendar.
Born in Frosinone, Campania, Italy; died December 2, c. 537. Saint
Silverius's story clearly illustrates the harm that can be done to the Church
by those who seek to exploit it for their own selfish purposes or political
advancement. The subdeacon Saint Silverius was son of Pope Saint Hormisdas, who had been married before his consecration
and whose Formulation of Hormisdas helped to end the Monophysite schism of
Acacius.
In the rivalry between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantine Empire,
the papacy was an important factor in the balance of power. Because Agapitus
had died in Constantinople, the Ostrogoth King Theodehad of Italy knew that
the emperor would name his candidate for the see without delay. To circumvent
the imposition of the emperor's candidate, Theodehad named Silverius pope
in April 356. Soon after Theodehad compelled the Roman clergy to elect (or
acquiesce to) Silverius to succeed Pope Saint Agapitus. Thus, he was ordained
bishop of Rome on June 1 or 8, 536.
The Byzantines naturally supposed that Silverius was a puppet
of the Goths; an opinion that was reinforced when he denied Empress Theodora's
request to acknowledge the Monophysites Anthimus as patriarch of Constantinople
and Severus apatriarch of Antioch. Thus, he exposed himself to the bitter
enmity of Theodora, who was a domineering woman and did not hesitate to act
without the knowledge of Emperor Justinian. Indeed, the consequences were
so predictable that Silverius is said to have remarked that by signing the
letter of refusal to the request of the empress, he was also signing his
on death warrant. He was right; Theodora was a woman who would tolerate no
opposition.
A few months later, in an attempt to save Rome from the destruction
the Ostrogoth General Vitiges visited upon the suburbs, Silverius and the
senate opened Rome's gates to the lesser evil, Belisaurus, the commander
of the Byzantine armies in Italy. A forged letter accusing Silverius of being
responsible for Vitiges' devastation proved unsuccessful in implicating Silverius.
Nevertheless, like Justinian, Belisaurus had an intriguing wife, Antonina,
and it was largely at her prompting that he deposed Silverius on the false
accusation of conspiring with the Goths and the next day replaced him with
Theodora's protege, Deacon Vigilius.
Silverius was kidnapped and
taken to Patara in Lycia, Asia Minor. All this was done without the knowledge
of Emperor Justinian. When he received a message from the bishop of Patara
telling him what had happened, he immediately gave orders that Silverius
be reinstated in the Holy See and an investigation instituted. Shortly after
his return to Italy, he was captured by Vigilius's supporters and imprisoned
on Palmarola in the Tyrrhenian Sea near Naples. Antonina, eager to ingratiate
Theodora, prevailed on her husband to let them deal with Silverius as they
chose. He did not survive long in prison. Either left to die of starvation
or was murdered by Antonina's hired assassin, Silverius died a martyr's death
after less than two years in office.
It is uncertain how Vigilius's appointment to the papal see was
regularized. Nevertheless, Silverius was vindicated in one way-- after his
death Pope Vigilius ceased to support Theodora and held firm in defense of
orthodoxy (Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Walsh, White).
Pope Saint Silverius is generally portrayed as a pilgrim pope
with a small piece of bread on a plate. He might also be shown with a paten
or while armed men approach as he sits by a table on which is a scroll, Justentor
pane tribulationi et aqua angustie (Roeder). He may be depicted holding a
church (White).
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670
St. Goban Hermit missionary to evangelize East Anglia
ST GOBAN, OR GOBAIN, MARTYR (c. A.D. 670)
AN Irishman by birth, and a disciple of St Fursey, St Goban accompanied his
master to East Anglia, and with St Ultan afterwards passed over to Gaul.
After a short stay at Corbie, where as yet there was no abbey, St Goban went
to Laon. From thence he made his way to the great forest near the Oise, and
constructed a cell near La Fère and Prémontré; then
he built a church dedicated to St Peter, later known as Saint-Gobain. Eventually
he fell a victim to barbarians from Germany, who were plundering the district.
They cut off his head, either out of hatred for the Christian faith or because
they found no treasure in the hermit's cell. The town of Saint-Gobain, famous
for its glass-works, stands on the Mont d'Ermitage where the saint is said
to have lived and died.
Though the short medieval life
of uncertain date which is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. v, lacks independent
confirmation, there can be no doubt of St Goban's real existence. He is mentioned
by Bede in book III, chapter xix of his Ecclesiastical History, but the matter
of this chapter was borrowed by Bede from a still older Life of Fursey. As
C. Plummer remarks, in a note to this passage of Bede, Goban was a common
Irish name; there are no less than seven Gobans commemorated in the Félire of Gorman. Cf. also L.
Gougaud, Les Saints irlandais hors d'Irlande
(1936), p. 112, who mentions Goban, but evidently attaches no weight whatever
to the account of his doings in Gaul.
He lived on a cliff at St. Govan’s Head, Dyfed, Wales disciple
of St. Ailbhe In some lists is called Cofen or Gonen.
Goban (Gobain, Govan), OSB M (AC) Born in Ireland; Goban was ordained priest
in his native land. Then he became a monk under and disciple of Saint Fursey
at Burgh Castle in Suffolk. He accompanied his abbot on his mission to evangelize
East Anglia. Both saints then crossed to France. For a short time Goban lived
at Corbeny, before the abbey was built, and later they settled together as
hermits at Laon. From there they withdrew into the forest on the Oise. There
Goban founded a stately church dedicated to Saint Peter, now called Saint
Gobain, on land given to him by King Clotaire III. Here Goban was beheaded
by thieves at a place now called Saint-Gobain and previously known as Le Mont
d'Hermitage. His relics were lost during the Thirty Years War, except for
his head which is still in his church (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer,
Husenbeth). In art, Saint Goban is a Benedictine in Mass vestments holding
a book and a sword (Roeder). He is venerated in Burgh (Suffolk) and Saint
Goban (Oise) (Roeder).
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636 Saint Florentina
Spanish abbess sister of Saints Leander, Isidore, and Fulgentius
Híspali, in Hispánia, sanctæ Florentínæ
Vírginis, soróris sanctórum Leándri et Isidóri
Episcopórum.
At Seville in Spain, the holy virgin Florentina, sister
of the sainted bishops Leander and Isidore.
She was born in Cartagena, Spain, and was the sister of Saints Leander,
Isidore, and Fulgentius. Leander raised Florentina and founded a convent
for her, where she became abbess.
Florentina (Florence) of Carthagena, Abbess (RM) Born in Carthagena, Spain;
Florentina was the only sister of Saints Leander, Fulgentius, and Isidore.
When their parents died while Florentina was still young, she was placed
in the care of Leander. Later she enter the convent whose rule Leander wrote,
and eventually she became its abbess (Benedictines).
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7th v. Edburga of
Caistor sisters were saints but father a Christ-hating pagan OSB V (AC)
(also known as Idaberga, Edburge, Eadburh) Died late 7th century
It is odd that a pagan, King Penda of Mercia, should have born so much fruit
for the Kingdom of God. He was a staunch opponent of Christ, yet four of
his daughters, including Edburga, rank among those in the heavenly court.
Her sisters by blood and faith were Saints Kyneburga (wife of King Alfred of Northumberland),
and Kyneswide and Chinesdre,
who consecrated their virginity to God when they entered the convent
of Dormundcastor or Caistor in Northamptonshire.
Edburga also seems to have made her vows and was buried there. When her brother
Wulhere finished Peterborough, her relics with those of her three sisters
were translated to the new foundation. About 1040, the monk Balger carried
all their relics and some of those of Saint Oswald to Berg Saint Winnoc in Flanders, probably by
the authority of King Hardecanute of England, son of Emma, who had lived
in Flanders in his youth. The relics of Saints Oswald, Edburga, and Lewin
were lost in a great fire at the abbey in 1558. Yet an inscription there
informs us that some of their dust still remains in the tomb (Benedictines,Husenbeth).
There are several Edburga's who lived about the same time. Different sources
make various of them the daughter of Penda, but each has a different history
beyond that point.
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710 St. Bagne Benedictine
monk Bishop missionary disciple of St. Wandrille
ST BAGNUS, OR BAIN, BISHOP OF THEROUANNE (c. A.D. 710)
FEW outstanding events seem to have marked the career of the saint who is
the principal patron of the town of Calais. Bagnus, or Bain as the French
call him, was a monk in the abbey of Fontenelle, and one of the most ardent
of the disciples of St Wandregisilus. About the year 689 he was raised to
the bishopric of Thérouanne, a see which owed its foundation to St
Audomarus and comprised what is now known as the Pas de Calais. He did much
to evangelize those parts of the diocese which bordered upon the Channel,
and was particularly successful in the neighbourhood of Calais. From a visit
to Pope St Sergius I in Rome he returned with many gifts, including the reputed
relics of St Silas, the companion of St Paul, which he placed in his cathedral
church. He buried the bodies of SS. Luglius and Luglian, two Irish pilgrims
who were murdered by robbers as they were on their way back from the Holy
Land. When he had ruled for twelve years he resigned his office, and went
back to live as a simple monk at Fontenelle. Three years later, however,
he was obliged to accept the post of abbot. The date of St Bain's death is
contested: it probably took place in 710. He has given his name to the village
of Bainghien, with which he is believed to have been connected.
A short account of St Bagnus is
furnished in the Acta Sanctorum,
June, vol. v. It is derived mainly from the Gesta Abbatum Fontanellensium. See also
Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux,
vol. iii, p. 134.; and Lohier and Laporte, Gesta sanctorum patrum Fontanellensis coenobii
(1936), pp. 14-21.
called Bain or Bagnus in some lists. He was a Benedictine monk at Fontenelle Abbey in
France in 689 when he was named
a bishop. Bagne served as a missionary in the area of modern Calais, in France.
After twelve years he resigned his see and returned to Fontenelle where he
was elected abbot in 704. He also governed Fleury Abbey.
Bagnus of Calais, OSB B (AC) (also known as Bain or Bainus of Thérouanne)
Saint Bagnus was a monk at Fontenelle under Saint Wandrille. In 685, he became
the fifth bishop of Thérouanne, which then included Calais. Because
Merville, where Saint Mauront had built Breuil monastery, was in the diocese
of Thérouanne, Saint Bain translated the body of Saint Amatus to Mauront's newest church
at Douai. When SS. Luglius and Luglianns,
two Irish hermits, were murdered by highwaymen in his diocese, Saint Bain
buried them with great honor in the chapel of his castle at Lilleres, where
they are honored as patrons of the town.
After shepherding his flock for 12 years, Saint Bagnus resigned his bishopric
and retired again to Fontenelle. Three years later, he was again its abbot.
Out of his great devotion to the relics of the saints, he translated the
bodies of Saints Wandrille, Ansbert, and Wulfram, from the chapel of Saint
Paul, built by Wandrille as the burial-place, into the great church of Saint
Peter, in which the monks celebrated the divine mysteries.
Towards the end of his life Pepin placed Bagnus in charge of the newly restored
Fleury Abbey (now Saint Benet's) on the Loire near Orléans, while
he still governed Fontenelle. He is the principal patron of Calais (Benedictines,
Husenbeth).
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750 St. Helena Benedictine
abbess of Ohren Abbey in Trier Germany
also called Heliada.
Helia (Heliada) of Öhren, OSB Abbess (AC) Died c. 750. Saint Helia was
abbess of the Benedictine convent of Öhren in Trier, Germany (Benedictines).
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981 St. Adalbert
of Magdeburg Apostle of the Slavs archbishop German Benedictine monk
ST ADALBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF MAGDEBURG (A.D. 981)
MAGDEBURG, the capital of Prussian Saxony, owes its foundation as a town
and as an archiepiscopal seat to the Emperor Otto the Great. Recognizing
the strategic value of the site, he began the construction of a strongly
fortified city calculated to overawe the neighbouring Slavs; and to serve
as a centre for Christian missions amongst them he in 937 founded a monastery,
with the active co-operation of his first wife, the English princess Edith
(she was a sister of King Athelstan and a granddaughter of Alfred the Great).
They dedicated the abbey in the names of the apostles St Peter and St Paul,
and St Maurice. Political and religious motives combined to make Otto an
ardent advocate of the evangelization of the Slavs, the Magyars, and other
pagans of eastern Europe. Consequently, when the Russian princess St Olga,
after her conversion at Constantinople at the age of seventy, asked him to
provide missionaries to evangelize her Russian subjects he willingly acceded
to her request. The leader chosen for the little band was Adalbert, a monk
of St Maximin at Trier, of whose antecedents nothing is now known, but he
would seem even then to have been a man of mark.
In 961 the missionaries went forth, but directly they set foot in Russia
they found their mission was futile as Olga had had to hand over her authority
to her heathen son Svyatoslav at Kiev. Some of the missionaries lost their
lives, but Adalbert managed to escape and to return to his own country. For
four years he remained at the imperial court at Mainz, and then he was made
abbot of the abbey of Weissenburg. There he did much to foster learning.
He also continued, or caused one of his monks to continue, the chronicle
of Reginald von Prüm which covers the years between 907 and 967. By
this time Magdeburg had become an important city, and Otto greatly desired,
for various reasons, to see it raised to archiepiscopal rank. After much
opposition from the archbishop of Mainz and others, his request received
papal sanction in 962, and Adalbert was nominated the first archbishop of
Magdeburg, with a general jurisdiction over the Slavs. A true apostle, he
laboured indefatigably for the extension of Christianity amongst the Wends
on the opposite bank of the river Elbe, and was strict in enforcing discipline
in religious houses. When Otto the Great died, in 973, St Adalbert buried
him beside his first wife, Edith, in the church of St Maurice, which had
now become the cathedral. The holy archbishop was taken ill and died eight
years later, when making a visitation in the diocese of Merseburg.
Our knowledge of the facts of
Adalbert's career is mainly derived from Thietmar's Chronicle and from the
Gesta Episcoporum Magdeburgensium.
These can best be consulted in Pertz, MGH., Scriptores, vol. i, pp. 613-629; and
vol. xiv, pp. 381-386. There is a notice of St Adalbert in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. v. See also
Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands,
vol. iii; and F. Dvornik, The Making of
Central and Eastern Europe (1949), pp. 60 and 68-70.
Monastery of St. Maximin in Tréves, he was consecrated a bishop and
sent to Russia in 961. Princess Olga of that land had asked Emperor Otto
I the Great to provide her with a missionary. The son of Princess Olga took
her crown from her soon after Adalbert arrived in Russia, and his mission
companions were slain. He barely escaped with his own life and made his way
to Maniz, where he spent four years. He was then named abbot of Weissenburg
in Alsace and bishop of Magdeburg in Saxony. This was a diocese created to
provide missionary programs for the Slavs. There, Adalbert was made metropolitan
of the Slavs and established the dioceses of Naumberg, Neissen, Merseb.
Adalbert of Magdeburg, OSB B (RM) At the age of 70, Princess Saint Olga of
Kiev was baptized in Constantinople. The last woman to rule Russia for may
centuries, this remarkable lady asked Emperor Otto the Great to send a missionary
from Germany to convert her subjects. Adalbert, a monk of the Benedictine
Saint Maximin's at Trier (Trèves), was sent by Otto with a small group
to evangelize Russia. They had just begun their work when Princess Olga's
pagan son Svyatoslav deposed his mother in 961. The missionaries were forced
to flee, and many of Adalbert's companions were killed by the heathen near
Kiev. He escaped with difficulty and returned to Mainz, Germany, where he
served at the imperial court for four years.
Otto appointed Adalbert abbot of an important monastery at Weissenberg, where
he became known as a patron of learning. He held that part of a monk's duty
was to record the history of God's world, and so we still possess a chronicle
of Adalbert's time, written by his brothers at Weissenberg.
Many of Otto's subjects were ready to revolt whenever they thought insurrection
might succeed. Otto therefore decided to found a new, fortified city, Magdeburg,
to dominate Saxony. He wanted it to become a Christian center as well as
a fortress so he founded a new abbey and persuaded the pope to create a new
see. In 968, Adalbert was given the office of archbishop of Magdeburg with
jurisdiction over the Slavs beyond the Elbe together with the Wends. He spent
the balance of his life trying to evangelize the Wends, reform religious
communities in his diocese, and establish three new dioceses. After ruling
the see for 13 years, he died while on a visit to Merseburg (Attwater, Benedictines,
Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer).
|
1139
John of Matera; Benedictine monastery; reputation for austerity, honoured
by all for his wisdom, his miracles and his prophetical gifts popular preacher
at Bari OSB Abbot (AC)
ST JOHN OF MATERA, ABBOT OF PULSANO (A.D. 1139)
THE founder of the Benedictine congregation of Pulsano was born at Matera,
a town in the Basilicata, part of the kingdom of Naples. While yet a boy
John longed to be a hermit, and on reaching manhood he left his father's
house and made his way to an island off Taranto, where he joined a monastery
in the capacity of shepherd. His austerity, however, and his refusal to join
his brethren in any form of recreation, made him unpopular, so he left them
and went, first to Calabria, then on to Sicily. Afterwards, in obedience
to what he regarded as a divine admonition, he returned to the mainland,
and at Ginosa for two and a half years he maintained unbroken silence, without
making his presence known to his parents, whom war had compelled to take
refuge in the vicinity. He now had a vision of St Peter, who bade him rebuild
a ruined church dedicated in his honour about a mile from Ginosa. This task
he successfully accomplished with the help of a few companions who rallied
round him. But then he was accused of having discovered and appropriated
hidden treasure, and was brought up before the governor of the province,
by whom he was committed to prison. He managed to escape-liberated, it is
said, by an angel-and reached Capua.
He was not permitted to remain there. An inward voice bade him return to
his own land, and he entered the community of St William of Vercelli on Monte
Laceno. John stayed with them until their dwellings were destroyed by fire.
The rest then moved to Monte Cagno, but John went to Bari, where he preached
to the people with wonderful effect. His very success seems to have aroused
jealousy and he found himself once more under accusation-this time on a charge
of heresy. He was able, however, to clear himself triumphantly. He then returned
to Ginosa, where he was welcomed by his former disciples, and he conducted
in St Peter's church what appears to have been a very fruitful mission. His
wanderings were now nearly at an end. Still directed by the voice which had
led him in the past, he betook himself to Monte Gargano, and at Pulsano,
three miles from the spot hallowed by the appearance of St Michael, he built
a monastery. Disciples flocked to join his community, which soon numbered
sixty monks, over whom he ruled until his death. Honoured by all for his
wisdom, his miracles and his prophetical gifts, he passed to his reward on
June 20, 1139. Other religious houses were afterwards affiliated to his,
and the congregation of Monte Pulsano was at one time a recognized part of
the great Benedictine family. It has long since disappeared.
There is a Latin life in tolerably
full detail, which seems to have been written before the end of the twelfth
century. It is printed in the Acta Sanctorum,
June, vol. v. A metrical account, of which the Bollandists have only extracted
a specimen, may be read in full in G. Giordano, Chroniche de Monte Vergine (1640), pp.
520-527. A life has been published in more recent times (1930-) by M. Morelli,
and see Analecta Bollandiana, vol.
lvii (1939), pp. 174-176.
(also known as John of Mathera or Pulsano) Born at Matera in the
Basilicata; died at Pulsano, Italy, 1139. Early in his life John entered
a Benedictine monastery, where he earned a reputation for austerity. For
a while he joined Saint William at Monte Vergine, but left him to become
a popular preacher at Bari. Later founded a community at Pulsano near Monte
Gargano, the first of a series of foundations that coalesced into a new Benedictine
congregation (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). In art, Saint John is an abbot
driving away the devil with a rod (Roeder).
|
13 v. St. Benignus Cistercian martyr of Breslau,
in Silesia, Poland
Tartars of the region invaded his monastery, and Benignus and other monks
were slain defending blessed property.
Benignus of Breslau, OSB Cist. M (PC). Saint Benignus was a Cistercian monk
martyred by the Tartars in Breslau, Silesia, with many other members of his
abbey. His feast is commemorated by the Cistercians (Benedictines).
|
1356
Blessed Michelina Metelli Franciscan tertiary OFM Tert. Widow (AC)
BD MICHELINA OF PESARO, WIDOW (A.D. 1356)
THE town of Pesaro on the east coast of Italy has a special devotion to this
holy widow, who was one of its own citizens. Born of wealthy and distinguished
parents, Michelina Metelli married at the age of twelve a member of the Malatesta
family of Rimini. The union was a happy one, but when the death of her husband
left her a widow at twenty, with one little son, she seems to have been by
no means disconsolate. She had always been fond of pleasure, and she continued
for some time to lead the same life as before, giving little or no thought
to religion. There was staying in Pesaro at that period a Franciscan tertiary
of unknown origin and antecedents who went by the name of Syriaca. She lived
on alms, spent most of her time in prayer, and depended for shelter at night
on the casual hospitality of the charitable. Michelina, who was one of those
who opened their doors to the stranger, gradually came under her influence.
An intimacy sprang up between them which ended in Michelina's complete conversion.
Only her boy now bound her to the world, and when he fell a victim to some
childish complaint she determined to renounce all things. By Syriaca's advice
she took the Franciscan tertiary habit, distributed her possessions to the
poor, and begged her bread from door to door. It was by no means a simple
thing for one who had always lived in ease and comfort to accustom herself
to rejected scraps. Once, in the early days of her new life, she acknowledged
to a former associate that she longed for a taste of freshly roasted pork.
Eager to give her that small gratification her friend promptly invited her
to dinner. But when the joint was dished up and the savoury smell assailed
her nostrils, Michelina suddenly recollected herself. Refusing to sit down
to table, she withdrew from the company and beat herself with an iron chain
until the blood flowed. As each blow fell she apostrophized herself bitterly,
exclaiming: "Do you still want pork, Michelina? Do you want still more?"
Many other trials she had to bear from within and without. Her relations
took strong objection to her conduct and at one time went the length of shutting
her up as a lunatic. Her patience and gentleness, however, disarmed them:
they concluded that though deluded she was quite harmless and they liberated
her. The rest of her life was spent in self-abnegation and good works. She
nursed lepers and others afflicted with loathsome diseases, performing for
them the most menial offices; and she is said to have cured several of them
by kissing their sores. Towards the close of her life Michelina made a pilgrimage
to Rome. There on one occasion she was allowed a mystical participation in
the sufferings of our Lord. She died on Trinity Sunday, 1356, at an age which
is given as fifty-six. From the moment of her death she was venerated by
her fellow citizens who kept a lamp burning day and night before her tomb
in the Franciscan church. In 1580 the house she had once occupied at Pesaro
was converted into a church, and in 1737 her cultus was approved.
There is a short account in the
Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. iv, and in Wadding, Annales Ordinis Minorum, vol.
viii, pp. 140-143; several lives were also printed in the eighteenth century
by Bonucci, Matthaei, Ermanno, Bagnocavallo and others. See also Leon, Aureole
Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. ii, pp. 422-426.
(also known as Michelina of Pesaro) Born at Pesaro, Urbino, Italy,
in 1300; cultus confirmed in 1737.
Michelina was born into the family of the counts of Pardi. When she was 12,
she married Duke Malatesta, who left her a widow at the age of 20. Upon the
death of her only child, she determined to change her life, but her parents,
thinking that she was mad, locked her up. At last they gave her liberty.
She then renounced her inheritance, became a Franciscan tertiary, and lived
as one until her death (Benedictines). In art, Michelina is a young Franciscan
tertiary kneeling in ecstasy in the midst of a storm with a pilgrim's hat
and staff by her (Roeder).
|
1505 BD OSANNA OF MANTUA, VIRGIN Professor R. W. Chambers described as "that beloved
and saintly scholar ... Edmund Gardner", to quote somewhat at length from
a privately printed essay of his entitled: "A Mystic of the Renaissance: Osanna
Andreasi of Mantua". Speaking of the vision vouchsafed to her in her childhood,
Professor Gardner tells how, in her own words, "she feared greatly because
of the vision she had had, knowing herself not to be a true and perfect lover
of God as she needs must be", and how her aspirations after this perfect
state took articulate form in her simple prayer for divine guidance along
the way of love.
WHEN we study the internal history of the Italian states in the
late middle ages we cannot fail to notice the important part played by certain
holy women living in their midst, whose advice and prayers are sought by
rulers and people, and who come to be regarded even during their lifetime
as the protectors of the community and as mediators with God and man. One
such woman was Bd Osanna. Born on January 17, 1449, at Mantua, she was the
daughter of Nicholas Andreasi and of Louisa Gonzaga, whose name shows her
to have been in some way related to the reigning dukes. Osanna was the eldest
of a numerous family, some members of which were to be her almost constant
care all her life. She was five when she had her first religious experience.
As she was wandering one day beside the river Po at Carbonarola, she heard
a voice which said, gently but distinctly, "Child, life and death consist
in loving God." Immediately she fell into an ecstasy and was led by an angel
to Paradise. There he showed her all creatures praising God after their fashion,
and explained that this praise, which will be our chief function in eternity,
ought to be our preoccupation and our happiness even in this life. It was
a wonderful revelation to be disclosed to a little child; but she responded
by the surrender of her whole being to God.
From that time she began to spend long hours in prayer and penance.
She often fell into ecstasies--to the great concern of her parents, who at
first attributed her trances to epilepsy. Eager to learn more about her religion,
she asked to be taught to read, but her father refused, on the plea that
learning was dangerous to women. That she did learn to read and write, her
biographers attribute to the direct intervention of our Lady: in view, however,
of the ease with which an intelligent girl can assimilate the lessons given
to her brothers, a purely natural explanation may be preferred. When she
was fourteen she sought permission to join the third order of St Dominic,
but again she met with opposition, because her father wished her to marry.
He allowed her, nevertheless, a little later on to assume the Dominican habit
temporarily as a thanksgiving for recovery from a serious illness; and when,
at the close of the prescribed period, she announced that she had committed
herself for life, although he was angry he did not insist.
Strange as it seems, she did not make her profession as a tertiary for another
thirty-seven years, remaining a novice and always taking the lowest place
at all tertiary gatherings. The reason for the delay is obscure: probably
she felt that the obligations entailed were incompatible in some way with
the duties in the world which God required her to discharge. She was still
young when both her parents died, and she continued to reside in the Andreasi
palace, devoting herself to her brothers and their families, never seeking
her own will, but serving all as though she were their humblest domestic.
Her austerities and devotions were practised as privately as possible.
At the age of eighteen Osanna received another signal favour from on high.
In a vision our Lady espoused her to our Lord, and He placed a ring on her
finger: she could always feel it, though it remained invisible to others.
About this time she seems to have encountered some measure of persecution.
In her letters she is reticent and disposed to blame herself, but she appears
to have been misjudged by her fellow tertiaries, who questioned her sincerity
and the genuineness of the spiritual manifestations which, in spite of her
efforts, she could not always conceal. They went so far as to denounce her
to the duke and to threaten her with expulsion from the order. It was some
time before the agitation completely died down. Between 1476 and 1481 she
had a series of experiences in which she was permitted to participate physically
in the mysteries of the Passion-first the crown of thorns, then the wound
in the side, and finally the wounds in the hands and feet. They were not
apparent, but they caused her intense suffering.
The high regard in which Bd Osanna was held by Duke Frederick of Mantua was
evinced in a striking manner in 1478. On the eve of starting to conduct a
campaign in Tuscany he sent for her and asked her not only to look after
the duchess and their six children, but practically to supply his place in
his absence. Osanna at first demurred, pleading her inexperience and her
youth, for she was not yet thirty. However, he insisted, and she consented
with the simplicity and trust in God that characterized her throughout her
life. Though she never ceased to live at home, she now spent a great deal
of her time at the palace, dealing so wisely with the various matters that
came before her that even after his return Frederick continued to consult
her. Indeed, when a visit she had paid to Milan under pressure from her Dominican
superiors had been, as he thought, unduly prolonged, he wrote to implore
her to return. The whole of his family regarded her as their dearest friend,
and when Francis II succeeded his father, he and his young bride, Isabella
d'Este, carried on the tradition. In letters which are still extant we find
her trusting in their friendship to intercede for every kind of distressed
person-sometimes demanding justice for some unfortunate victim, sometimes
asking mercy for a prisoner, even at the risk, she on occasion acknowledges,
of seeming importunate. In 1501 she at last made her full profession as a
tertiary, and during the four remaining years of her life, when she was in
failing health, she seemed hardly to belong to this world. She died at the
age of fifty-six on June 20, 1505. The duke and Isabella d'Este, who were
with her at the end, accorded her a magnificent funeral and exempted the
Andreasi family from all taxes for twenty years.
It will not be out of place, if only as a tribute to the memory of a man
whom Professor R. W. Chambers described as "that beloved and saintly scholar
... Edmund Gardner", to quote somewhat at length from a privately printed
essay of his entitled: "A Mystic of the Renaissance: Osanna Andreasi of Mantua".
Speaking of the vision vouchsafed to her in her childhood, Professor Gardner
tells how, in her own words, "she feared greatly because of the vision she
had had, knowing herself not to be a true and perfect lover of God as she
needs must be", and how her aspirations after this perfect state took articulate
form in her simple prayer for divine guidance along the way of love.
This prayer, with other writings and letters, has been preserved to us by
a monk friend whose relations with Osanna remind us much of those of the
Dominican Peter of Dacia, more than two centuries earlier, with the stigmatisee
Christina of Stommeln. Professor Gardner refers to this curiously interesting
feature of her spiritual development in the following passage:
A peculiar
element in Osanna's mystical life is the part played therein by the intense,
purely spiritual bond of love of friendship that bound her to a man ten years
younger than herself, Girolamo da Monte Oliveto. He tells us how, when a
youth of fifteen on his way to attend a lecture, he entered a church and
there saw her rapt in contemplation, and ever after had her image impressed
upon his heart. So moved was he that he abandoned the world, took the Olivetan
habit, and, after much entreaty, prevailed upon her to accept him as a spiritual
son. The "spiritual colloquies", which he published after her death, are
the records of the conversations they held together-speaking heart to heart,
"with only God between us", as he says. "0 goodness of God", he cries in
one place, "our two hearts were bound together in one will in His sight,
such was the innate love between us that I cannot tell it without tears.
The virgin loved her beloved son in Christ as her own soul, and he loved
his only mother almost more than his sou!. 0 great charity of God, surely
inserted into our hearts before there was ever any spiritual conversation
between us or we ever knew each other!" In her visions of the divine union
one sees his soul with hers in the presence of God, and her letters to him,
when the duties of his order take him from Mantua, have the form of spiritualized
love-letters. "I have received a sweet and gentle letter of yours; and I
cannot express in words how delightful it has been to me, and what great
consolation it has brought..." "My soul rejoices at every consolation of
yours, as though we were one single soul and one same heart, as indeed we
are, through the bond and effect of the charity of sweet Jesus."
Or, again, when she hears that
her caro amante in Cristo has returned to Mantua: "I leave you to think how,
when I heard, I was almost bereft of spirit through my great joy and gladness.
Father and my only son, conceived in the great fountain of the Divine Goodness,
if you had seen your unworthy mother become transformed in colour:
where is so much cordial love? I answer that it is only found in the sacred
side of our Saviour. And this spiritual love has grown so strong that I believe,
with the divine aid, that neither angel nor archangel nor demon nor any creature
will be able to sever it; but, by means of the grace of God, it will come
to perfection in our blessed and eternal country ."
As for Osanna's relations with the outside world, corrupt as society was
for the most part in her day and permeated with the semi-paganism of the
Renaissance, Professor Gardner held that her thought during her later years
was profoundly coloured by the influence of Savonarola. It is true that the
great reformer's name occurs nowhere in her letters or conversations, but
"I am convinced", says Gardner, "that this was due to deliberate suppression
on the part of her two contemporary biographers."
It is recorded that she pored over the Triumph of the Cross
(Savonarola's most important work) in the watches of the night. It was entirely
in his spirit that she had visions of the horror in store for Italy and that
she prayed that the thunderbolt of the divine wrath might not fall upon the
land. "Again and again", says Professor Gardner, " we find her foretelling
the scourge overhanging Italy for the sins of her people, unless they repent;
and more particularly in the opening years of the sixteenth century following
with agonized apprehension the career of the pope, realizing ever more and
more the awful corruption of the Church. Girolamo tells us that 'she feared
greatly for the Church', and it is clear that prudential motives prevented
him from recording more than the safer portions of her utterances on the
subject." On the other hand, Osanna, while evidently believing in the imminent
damnation of vast numbers of unrepentant souls, invariably sees individuals
as saved-and, very frequently, their immediate passing into Paradise.
There is only one exception, and
that is the sovereign pontiff, Alexander VI. In one of her revelations she
tells Girolamo that she has prayed three times for the salvation of the pope.
The first two times God seemed disposed to show mercy to him, the third time
she received no reply. "And, my soul persevering in the demand, there appeared
our Lady, the holy Mother of God, and standing before her Son she began to
pray, and to help my soul that she might be consoled by the salvation of
the pope, and by the renovation of Holy Church. And thereafter came all the
Apostles, standing round the divine presence, and all prayed that mercy might
be shown him. Alas, wretched sinner that I am! God ever kept motionless, with
aspect and countenance of wrath; and He gave no reply to anyone who prayed;
not to the Madonna, nor to the Apostles, nor to my sou!"
Finally Professor Gardner insists that Osanna was not one of those mystics
who so turn their backs on the world that they are entirely absorbed in their
own spiritual development and progress in perfection.
She was never happy, Girolamo
tells us, on any day when she had done no temporal act of mercy, by visiting
the sick, giving alms to the poor, nursing and consoling the afflicted. We
find her ever protecting the weak and oppressed from the rigour of the law,
using her influence to remedy injustice. High and low alike thronged to her
house for advice and comfort, and we have many amusing passages in Girolamo's
book in which their spiritual colloquies are interrupted by the sudden arrival
of Browning's "certain people of importance". Her spirit of detachment does
not prevent her from caring for the interests of her brothers,
in the court and in the camp, and a charming little letter has been preserved
in which on the occasion of a nephew of hers singing his first Mass, she
tells the Marquis of Mantua that she is entertaining the friars afterwards,
and invites him to form one of the party.
A Latin biography of Bd Osanna, written by her confessor
Francis Silvestri, was printed a few months after her death. The Olivetan
monk, Dom Girolamo referred to above, published his notes of their colloquies
and of her letters in an Italian volume in 1507. But by far the most satisfactory
materials for her history are to be found in the book of G. Bagolini and
L. Ferretti, La Beata Osanna Andreasi da
Mantova (1905); this incorporates the earlier materials just spoken
of and adds a considerable collection of her original letters. See also M.
C. de Ganay, Les bienheureuses Dominicaines
(1924), pp. 369-412.
|
1626 Bl. John Baptist
Zola Martyred Jesuit of Japan 1606-14 Born in Brescia, Italy sent to India
in 1602
He became a Jesuit and was sent to India
in 1602. Four years later he entered Japan, only to be banished in 1614.
Upon returning to Japan, he was arrested and burned alive at
Nagasaki. He was beatified in 1867.
|
1626 Bl. John
Kinsako Martyr of Japan, a novice of the Jesuits
He was burned alive at Nagasaki. |
1626 Bl. Peter Rinshei native Japanese
martyr entered the Jesuit college at Arima, Japan
Assisted Blessed Francis Pacheco
as his catechist. Arrested
by the Japanese authorities, he was imprisoned with Blessed Francis, who
admitted him to the Jesuits just before Peter was burned alive at Nagasaki.
1589
|
1626 St. Vincent Kaun
Martyr of Japan. A native
of Korea, he was brought to Japan in 1591 as a prisoner of war and was subsequently
converted to Christianity. Entering the Jesuits, he studied at the Jesuit
seminary of Arima and worked for three decades as a catechist in both Japan
and China.
Seized during the persecution of the Church, he was burned alive at Nagasaki
with Blessed Francis Pacheco. He was beatified in 1867.
|
1626 Bl. Francis Pacheco
sent to Macao Jesuit martyr in Japan Fireworkster returning native of Ponte
da Lima, Portugual
Pacheco entered the Society of Jesus in 1584 and was subsequently
sent to Macao. There he was ordained and concentrated his efforts on missionary
work on the island. He then went to Japan, the main focus of his labors.
After a brief first visit, he left the islands but returned with Bishop Louis
Cerquiera as vicar general to the recently constituted diocese, of which
Cerquiera was head. The bishop died in 1614 and Pacheco was forced to leave
Japan following the formal expulsion of all foreign clergy. Under the risk
of penalty, Pacheco returned to Japan in a disguise and served for a short
time before receiving appointment as episcopal administrator. He held the
post briefly, as he was soon arrested and burned alive with eight other Christians
at Nagasaki. He was beatified in 1867.
Blessed Francis Pacheco and Companions, SJ MM (AC) Born at Ponte da Lima,
Portugal in 1566; died in Nagasaki, Japan, 1626; beatified in 1867. Francis
entered the Society of Jesus in 1586 and in 1592 he was ordained priest.
He labored in Macao and Japan as rector, provincial, vicar general, and administrator
of the diocese. He was burned alive with two other European Jesuits, a Japanese
Jesuit, four Japanese laymen, and a Korean (Benedictines).
|
1626 Bl. Balthasar de
Torres martyr of Japan. A Jesuit, he
was born in Grenada, Spain, and entered the Society in 1579. He worked in India, at Goa, and Macao and went
to Japan in 1606.
When the persecution of Christians began, Balthasar was arrested and condemned.
lie was burned alive in Nagasaki and was beatified in 1867.
|
1626 Bl. Paul Shinsuki Japanese martyr. Born in Japan, he became a
Christian and entered the Jesuits. Among his notable students was Blessed
Paul Navarro.
Arrested by the Japanese officials, he was burned alive at Nagasaki. He
was beatified in 1867.
|
1626 Bl. Michael Tozo
Martyr of Japan. He was a native of Japan who became a catechist and aide
to Blessed Balthasar Torres.
Loyal to the faith, Michael was bumed alive at Nagasaki. He was beatified
in 1867 by Pope Pius IX. |
1678-1680 THE ENGLlSH
MARTYRS OF THE OATES PLOT
DURING the seventeen years which followed the Stuart Restoration in 1660,
the Catholics of England suffered little molestation: they had, in the past,
given abundant evidence of their loyalty, and King Charles II was known to
be well affected towards them. But in 1678 the pretended revelations of what
came to be known as the Popish Plot roused the fears and fury of the nation
to fever pitch and caused a renewal of persecution in its bitterest form.
The first victim of the Titus Oates" plot" was BD EDWARD COLEMAN, a gentleman
of Suffolk. He was the son of an Anglican parson, went to Peterhouse, Cambridge,
and after his conversion became secretary to the Duchess of York. He was
a man of considerable talent, and a controversy which he carried on with
the Anglican dignitaries Stillingfleet and Burnet led to the conversion of
Lady Tyrwhit. A contemporary Protestant chronicler refers to him as "A great
bigot in his religion, and of a busy head. This engaged him in many projects
for the restoring of Popery here, or at least procuring a liberty of conscience
for those of that profession. He had been engaged in a correspondence with
Pere la Chaise, the French king's confessor, since the year 1674, in the
course of which he was continually entertaining him with schemes and projects
for advancing the interest of the French king and the Church of Rome."
This and other foreign correspondence being opportunely discovered, Oates
made use of it to add further details to his fabricated papal conspiracy,
and Coleman was arrested along with Sir George Wakeman and many others. He
was brought to trial at the Old Bailey on November 28, 1678, charged with
consenting to a resolution for the assassination of the king and with invoking
the assistance of a foreign power to re-establish Catholicism. Oates's concocted
evidence on the first charge broke down, and Coleman pleaded that his correspondence
was intended only to raise money from abroad wherewith to prosecute his efforts
to further the cause of his religion by constitutional means. The Lord Chief
Justice (Scroggs) almost ignored the evidence of Oates and his accomplice
Bedloe, but construed the prisoner's admissions in such a way as to involve
the guilt of conspiring with a foreign power and compassing the king's death:
"though he might hope to bring in Popery by procuring a dissolution of the
Parliament and a toleration, it was to be supposed other methods would have
been taken if these had failed, by his confederates at least, if not by himself...
" et cetera. He was accordingly convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn,
and quartered. At Tyburn on December 3, having denied knowledge of any plot,
he declared that as a Catholic he repudiated the doctrine "that kings may
be murdered, and the like. I say I abominate it"; and maintained once more
that he was innocent of any illegal action against the state or individuals.
BD WILLIAM IRELAND (alias lronmonger) was born in Lincolnshire in 1636.
He was the eldest son of William Ireland, of Crofton Hall in Yorkshire, of
a strongly royalist family, kin to the Giffards and the Pendrells. William
junior was educated at the English college at Saint-Omer, was professed in
the Society of Jesus in 1673, and, after being for a time confessor to the
Poor Clares at Gravelines, was sent on the mission in 1677. In the following
year Titus Oates exploded his plot, and on September 28, Father Ireland was
arrested by Oates himself, at a house in London that lodged a number of Jesuits
as well as the Spanish ambassador. BD JOHN GROVE, nominal owner of the house,
but really manservant to the clergy there, was also taken up.
After nearly three months' brutal imprisonment in Newgate, these two were
brought to trial, together with BB. Thomas Whitebread and John Fenwick (below)
and THOMAS PICKERING. The last-named was a Benedictine lay-brother of St
Gregory's monastery at Douay, a man of about fifty-eight, who had been sent
over in 1665 as procurator to the seven Benedictines who served the chapel
of Charles II's queen, Catherine of Braganza, at Somerset House in The Strand;
when the monks were banished ten years later, he was allowed to remain.
These five-three Jesuit priests, a Benedictine lay-brother and a layman-were
charged with conspiring to assassinate the king. For lack of sufficient witnesses
Father Whitebread and Father Fenwick were put back for trial at another time
illegally, as their trial had already been begun, and they should have been
discharged. The conspiracy was alleged to have taken place in the rooms of
Bd William Harcourt (below), and Oates and Bedloe swore that Grove and Pickering
were to do the job, for which the first was to receive £1,500 and the
second 30,000 Masses. [Presumably stipends for Masses which, as Challoner
points out, "at a shilling a Mass amounts to the same sum". But as he was
not a priest, Brother Thomas could not celebrate Mass anyway. Or perhaps
the benefits of Masses celebrated for him was intended.]
Embroideries on this farrago were that the two accused had hung about
St James's Park with pistols, and that on three occasions only a mishap,
such as a loose pistol flint, had saved the king's life. Naturally the charge
was strenuously denied, Pickering declaring that he had never fired a pistol
in his life. Father Ireland had not been in London for a fortnight before
and three weeks after the date he was supposed to have assisted at devising
the conspiracy: he had been in the Midlands and North Wales all the time,
and could have produced fifty witnesses to prove it. But a woman swore away
his life, saying she had seen him in Fetter Lane at the pertinent date. All
three were brought in guilty.
Father Ireland and Grove were executed together at Tyburn on January 24,
1679. The priest spoke first from the scaffold, and the layman summed up
what he had said in one brief sentence. "We are innocent. We lose our lives
wrongfully. We pray God to forgive them that are the causers of it."
King Charles had made half-hearted attempts to save their lives, for he was
satisfied that the plot "was all a fiction, never believing one tittle of
it". Brother Thomas was in fact reprieved until May 9, when he too suffered
at Tyburn. Just as he was going to be turned off the cart he was called on
to confess his guilt by someone in the crowd. "Pulling up his cap and looking
towards them with an innocent, smiling countenance, "Is this", said he, "the
countenance of a man that dies under so gross a guilt?"...It was the face
of a man "of all men living the most unlikely and the most unfit for that
desperate undertaking of which he was accused".
Suspicion was particularly directed against members of the Society of Jesus,
and on June 20 of the same year, 1679, five of its priests were executed
at Tyburn, including the provincial superior, BD THOMAS WHITEBREAD. A man
of good birth, a native of Essex, he had studied abroad in the seminary of
St Omer and had entered the Jesuit novitiate at Watten in 1635. After he
had been raised to the priesthood, he was sent to England, where he laboured
with fervour and success for over thirty years, teaching by word of mouth
and through controversial pamphlets. A sermon he delivered to his brethren
at Liege, shortly before the outbreak of persecution, seemed to indicate
foreknowledge of his fate. He had taken for his text the words: "Can you
drink the chalice that I am to drink?" and after enumerating one by one the
trials which actually afterwards befell him he repeated several times most
solemnly: "Possumus-We can." He was apprehended on his return to England
and, though ill and very weak, was imprisoned loaded with chains. He languished
in gaol for several months before he, with four companions, was brought up
for trial at the Old Bailey, on June 13, 1679.
BD WILLIAM HARCOURT, or Waring-whose real name was Barrow-came from Lancashire.
He had entered the Society of Jesus at the age of twenty-three, had worked
in England for thirty-five years and had prayed daily for twenty years that
he might gain the crown of martyrdom: his petition was granted when he was
over seventy.
A north countryman from Durham, BD JOHN FENWICK-alias Caldwell-was the son
of Protestant parents who cast him off when he embraced the Catholic faith.
He went for his education to St Omer and joined the Society of Jesus in 1656,
when he was twenty-eight. In 1675 he was sent on the English mission. At
the time of his arrest a sore from which he suffered was so badly aggravated
by the weight of his fetters that amputation of his leg was seriously contemplated.
He was fifty years of age when he was condemned to death.
BD JOHN GAVAN, or Gawen, was London born. He was educated at St Omer, and
after being admitted to the order at the age of twenty, he continued his
studies at Liege and in Rome. He had been working in England for eight years
and had made a number of converts when he was apprehended.
Like Father Fenwick, BD ANTONY TURNER was a convert. He was born in Leicestershire,
where his father was a Protestant clergyman, and was educated at the University
of Cambridge. He became a Catholic after he had taken his B.A. degree and
passed on to the English College in Rome. At the age of twenty-four he entered
the Jesuit novitiate at Watten. When he had been ordained to the priesthood
he was sent to England, where he worked for eighteen years, making his headquarters
mainly at Worcester. He was an ardent and successful missioner. He had always
longed for martyrdom, and at the outbreak of persecution he gave himself
up to a magistrate in London, saying that he was a priest and a Jesuit.
The charge brought against them at their trial was that of conspiring to
murder the king, and the accusations rested entirely on the evidence of three
unprincipled men-Oates, Bedloe and Dugdale. A number of reliable witnesses
appeared for the defence, but the trial was a travesty of justice: its result
was a foregone conclusion. Nevertheless, Father Whitebread conducted the
defence with great spirit. He denounced the odious accusations levelled against
himself and his fellow Jesuits.
With regard to his accusers, he pointed out that Oates had been ignominiously
expelled from St Omer as a man of irregular life and was actuated by malice,
whilst Dugdale was equally disreputable. The third witness flatly contradicted
himself in court and was palpably guilty of perjury. As an onlooker was heard
to remark: "If there had been a jury of Turks the prisoners would have been
acquitted." Lord Chief Justice Scroggs, however, was so determined to convict
them that he practically dictated to the jury the verdict they were to return.
He then sentenced them to death as guilty of high treason. On the scaffold,
when the ropes were about their necks, they were offered a free pardon if
they would acknowledge the conspiracy and reveal what they knew about it.
In reply they thanked the king for his clemency, but disclaimed all knowledge
of any such plot. After they had been executed they were allowed to hang
until they were dead. Their bodies, which were then cut down and quartered,
were delivered to their friends who buried them in the churchyard of St Giles
in the Fields.
Among those denounced by Titus Oates as being privy and consenting to the
bogus plot to kill King Charles was a barrister of the Inner Temple, BD RICHARD
LANGHORNE. He came of good families in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and
had been called to the bar in 1654; he was reputed a lawyer of some distinction,
and an upright and religious man. He was under arrest for a time in 1667
after the Great Fire of London (this having of course been fathered on the
long-suffering Catholics); and when Oates hatched out his "plot" eleven years
later, Mr Langhorne was one of the first to be seized, at his house near
Temple Bar or his chambers in Middle Temple Lane, and lodged in Newgate.
He was kept in solitary confinement for eight months, and brought to trial
at the Old Bailey the day after Bd Thomas Whitebread and his companions.
Mr Langhorne had no difficulty in showing that Oates, Bedloe and the rest
were perjuring themselves, but that did not save him from being found guilty
and condemned to death. But his execution was put off, in order that he might
be persuaded by a promise of pardon to disclose particulars of property held
for the Jesuit missionaries and to make a false admission of his own guilt.
The first he did, and no doubt had been given authority to do so by his fellow
prisoner, Father Whitebread, who was the Jesuit provincial superior; but
the second he would not do. Instead he drew up a statement which he handed
to the sheriff for publication. In it he again declared his innocence and
his loyalty to the king, and said that it was clear to him that he had been
charged and condemned solely because of his religion; and he prayed that
his enemies, naming particularly Mr Oates and Mr Bedloe, might repent and
receive God's pardon.
Bd Richard Langhorne was executed at Tyburn on July 14, 1679. On the scaffold
he freely forgave his executioner, and his last words were, "Blessed Jesus,
into thy hands I recommend my soul and spirit; now at this instant take me
into paradise. I am desirous to be with my Jesus. [To the hangman] I am ready, and you need
stay no longer for me."
BD JOHN PLESINGTON (or William Pleasington, alias Scarisbrick) was a secular
priest who in the panic of the "plot" was condemned for his priesthood, and
executed at Chester. He was born at the Dimples, near Garstang in Lancashire,
and did his higher studies at the English College at Valladolid. Little else
is known of him, except that he ministered at Holywell in Flintshire. His
speech to the people from the scaffold is remarkable as a particularly clear
statement and denial in the face of death of the charges upon which he was
condemned: charges which even nowadays are sometimes made against the Catholic
martyrs of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and some of which, if
true, would make them not martyrs but common criminals. It also shows the
sort of witnesses which were brought against them. The speech, according
to a former custom which only went out with public executions, was printed
for circulation; this often enabled a prisoner to make more public than he
had time or permission to say aloud. Bd John Plesington's printed speech
has been preserved and may be read in Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests.
He declared that the course of his trial showed that he was condemned only
for his priesthood, and that it was not Catholic belief that "the pope hath
power to depose or give licence to murder princes"; and ended, "God bless
the king and the royal family, and grant his Majesty a prosperous reign here,
and a crown of glory hereafter. God grant peace to the subjects, and that
they live and die in true faith, hope and charity. That which remains is
that I recommend myself to the mercy of my Jesus, by whose merits I hope
for mercy. o Jesus, be to me a Jesus." Which having said, and recommended
his departing soul to God, he was turned off and executed. It was July 19,
1679.
Bn THOMAS THWING (or Thweng) was a kinsman of the Venerable Edward Thwing
(executed at Lancaster in 1600), who was uncle to George Thwing, of Kilton
Castle and Heworth Hall, Thomas's father by his wife Anne Gascoigne; he was
a sister of that stout Catholic, Sir Thomas Gascoigne, of Barnborough Hall.
Thomas was born at Heworth, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, in 1635, and
was sent to his own county as a priest from Douay when he was twenty-nine
years old. At first he was chaplain to his cousins, the Stapletons, at Carlton
Hall; then he conducted a school in the Stapleton dower-house, curiously
named "Quosque"; and finally, in 1677, he became chaplain to the nuns of
the Institute of Mary at Dolebank, Thwing, where three of his own sisters
belonged to the community.
At the time of the Oates "plot", two men who had been discharged from the
service of Sir Thomas Gascoigne, for dishonesty and "divers villainies",
by name Robert Bolron and Laurence Maybury, sought to get their own back
by implicating Sir Thomas in the alleged plot. They therefore laid an information
that Barnborough Hall had been used by Gascoigne, Sir Miles Stapleton, the
Lady Tempest and others as a meeting-place for forwarding the ends of the
plot; and all the persons named, and Mr Thomas Thwing who was not named,
were taken off to London for trial. All those accused were duly acquitted
(there was a limit to the credulity of juries, even in that mad time); but
Mr Thwing was kept in custody and sent back to York to stand his trial there.
In spite of his challenging of the panel, he failed to get an impartial jury,
and was found guilty on precisely the same evidence which had led to the
acquittal of the others. Out of consideration for his gentle birth he was
removed from the company of common criminals to hear his sentence, and he
replied to it with three words: "Innocens ego sum", I am innocent. But for
a remonstrance from the House of Commons, King Charles would have reprieved
him. And so Thomas Thwing was hanged, drawn and quartered at York on October
23, 1680. He was dragged on a hurdle to the scaffold past the house which
sheltered his sisters and the other nuns to whom he had ministered; and before
sentence was carried out he spoke to the assembled people, declaring that
he had the honour of being a priest and calling God to witness that he was
innocent of the charge made against him. "Though I know the affairs of the
kingdom are in a bad posture, yet I hope they will be cleared ere long, and
then the actors thereof will be more fully known," he concluded. His relatives
recovered his mutilated body, and buried it in St Mary's churchyard, Castlegate,
in the city of York. It is appropriate that certain relics of him are preserved
at The Bar convent of the Institute of Mary in the same city.
Thomas, Earl of Arundel (collector of the "Arundel Marbles"), son and heir
of Bd Philip Howard, conformed to the Established Church in 1615, shortly
after the birth of his fifth son. This William, though he was educated by
the Bishop of Norwich and at St John's College, Cambridge, was brought up
a Catholic. He was made a knight of the Bath, when he was fourteen, at the
coronation of Charles I, and in 1637 secretly married Mary Stafford, the
Catholic sister of the last Baron Stafford. Three years later Charles transferred
the barony to Sir William Howard and immediately after raised him to the
rank of viscount. Sir William was a trusty and loyal if not distinguished
servant of the king, and he was entrusted both by Charles and the Emperor
Ferdinand III with responsible commissions on the continent, where he was
able to indulge the taste, inherited from his father, for collecting works
of art. After the death of the earl in 1646, Lord Stafford was involved in
long and bitter disputes and litigation with his eldest surviving brother,
Earl Henry Frederick, and then with his nephews, in which, even when right
was on his side, he seems to have conducted himself with sufficient "unhandsomeness"
to account for the comment of Evelyn, "Lord Stafford was not a man beloved,
especially by his own family". He certainly appears to have been litigious-in
1655 he had lawsuits on hand at Douay, Brussels and Amsterdam; but Dom Maurus
Corker, his confessor in the Tower, says that he was "ever held to be of
a generous disposition, very charitable, devout, addicted to sobriety, inoffensive
in his words, and a lover of justice" . At the Restoration his sequestered
lands were restored to him, and "he lived in peace, plenty, and happiness,
being blessed with a most virtuous lady to his wife, and many pious and dutiful
children, in which state he remained till the sixty-sixth year of his age.[Stafford
County, in Virginia, testifies to his practical interest in colonization
by English Catholics.]
When Titus Oates "revealed" the details of the "Popish Plot" before the House
of Commons, in the army which was to invade England in the interests of the
pope Lord Stafford had been cast for the part of paymaster general, and warrants
were at once issued against him and four other peers. When he heard it, Stafford,
who was out of town, immediately returned to London, to be arrested on October
25 and lodged in the King's Bench prison, from whence he was transferred
with others to the Tower. Not until two years later, November 30, 1680, was
he brought to trial (a clause had been inserted in the Habeas Corpus Act of
the previous year making it not retrospective), and then he was the first
of the five lords to be dealt with. The trial occupied a week before the
House of Lords assembled in Westminster Hall, Lord Chancellor Finch presiding
as lord high steward. A dozen legal "managers of the evidence" produced as
witnesses such scoundrels as Dugdale, the Irish ex-Dominican Dennis, the
apostate priest Smith, Turberville, and Oates himself, and Stafford was too
deaf properly to hear all that was said by these perjurers: he had the benefit
of counsel only on points of law. Nevertheless, though, as Sir John Reresby
wrote in his memoirs, "he was deemed to be weaker than the other lords in
the Tower and was purposely brought on first, he deceived them so far as
to plead his cause to a miracle". But it was all to no purpose. Had the Lords
acquitted, it would have been open acknowledgement that the plot was a sham,
and when they gave their votes, "upon their honour", thirty-one said not
guilty and fifty-five guilty. After a speech full of abuse and calumny of
Catholics, the lord high steward sentenced the aged prisoner to be hanged,
drawn and quartered. The king disapproved both of the verdict and the sentence,
but the most he could do was to alter the manner of execution to beheading.
The three weeks that elapsed before the execution were mostly passed, wrote
Dom Maurus Corker, who was able to see Lord Stafford, "in serious reflection
and fervent prayers, wherein he seemed to find a daily increase of courage
and of comfort, as if the Divine Goodness intended to ripen him for martyrdom
and give him a foretaste of Heaven". He wrote his testament, of which the
seven drafts are extant, wherein he says: "I hold the murder of one's sovereign
a greater sin than anything since the passion of our Saviour", and expresses
in moving terms his cheerful willingness to leave his "most deserving wife
and most dutiful children" at the call of God: "Receive, therefore, most
dear Jesus, this voluntary oblation". He wrote brief messages to all his
children and on St Stephen's day a most loving letter to his wife, and again
to her before he dressed on his last morning, December 29, 1680. A guinea
was being given for seats in a very bad position to see this man die on Tower
Hill. At the scaffold he protested his innocence and gave it as his considered
opinion that he was charged because of his religion; then, having prayed
aloud in Latin with his friends around him, he said to the crowd, "God bless
you all, gentlemen! God preserve his Majesty! He is as good a prince as ever
governed you. Obey him as faithfully as I have done." And many shouted, "We
believe you! God bless you, my Lord!" He took off his wig and replaced it
by a blue silk cap, made the sign of the cross, and his head was struck off.
The executioner was a hangman, not used to the axe, and he raised and lowered
it twice before delivering the stroke. His name was Jack Ketch.
It is not known where the body of BD WILLIAM HOWARD lies buried. The attainder
that he had incurred was reversed in 1824 in favour of Sir George William
Stafford Jerningham, who then became eighth Baron Stafford.
All the above martyrs were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929. Others who
suffered in the Oates plot, and were beatified at the same time with so many
others, will be found under the dates July 11, 22, and August 22, 27. Those
noticed above are collected under this date of June 20 as that of the largest
group, BB. Thomas Whitebread and his fellows.
For Coleman our information is
mainly derived from the printed reports of the trials, from contemporary
letters and from the martyr's dying speech. See Challoner, MMP., pp. 515-518;
Gillow, Biog. Dict., s.v.; and two articles by Fr J. H. Pollen in The Tablet, September 2 and 9, 1922;
M. V. Hay's book (below) gives some curious glimpses of his political activity.
For Ireland and his companions the sources are The Tryals of William Ireland …1678);
An Exact Abridgment of all the Trials ... relating to the Popish ...Plots
(1690); Keynes's Florus Anglo-Bavaricus.
See MMP., pp. 519-525; Foley, REPSJ., vol. v; Gillow, Biog. Dict., s.v. ; Oliver's Collections and B. Camm's Nine Martyr Monks (for Pickering). A
summary of the history of Whitebread and his companions is given in MMP.,
pp. 525-537; see further REPSJ., vol. v; and Cobbett's State Trials, vol. vii. For Langhorne,
Challoner's account in MMP. is taken from the printed trial and dying speech
(the statement referred to above) and Baker's Chronicle; see also Gillow, Biog. Dict., s.v. For Plesington, see
MMP., pp. 541-543. The government indictment is printed in the documents
of the beatification process, and Plesington is mentioned in the Valladolid
College Register (C.R.S. Publications, vol. xxx, p. 169)· For Thwing,
see Cobbett's State Trials, vol.
vii; MMP., pp. 566-568; Dodd's Church History,
vol. iii ; and in the Downside Review
for July 1909 there is an article on Quosque Hall. An excellent Life of Sir
William Howard, Lord Stafford, was published in 1929 by S.N.D.; it is based
largely upon family papers and is illustrated by interesting portraits. See
also DNB vol. xxviii, pp. 81-83 (with a copious bibliography); Causton, The Howard Papers; MMP., pp. 569-574;
and Durrant, Flemish Mystics and English
Martyrs, pp. 264-265. Sir John Pollock's The Popish Plot, which aimed at substantiating
belief in the reality of some sort of conspiracy by Catholics, was answered
by Alfred Marks, Who Killed Sir Edmund
Berry Godfrey? (1905); and Sir John replied in the Law Quarterly Review, October 1906. Sir
John's book was reissued in 1944, with a new preface in which he refers to
Marks's book and gives further references. On this subject see further J.
G. Muddiman in The Month for July
and October 1921, pp. 31-37 and 327-333. Consult also Arthur Bryant, The Life of Samuel Pepys, vol. ii, and
M. V. Hay, The Jesuits and the Popish Plot
(1934). The character of Oates, Bedloe and Dugdale is thoroughly exposed
in the separate notices accorded to them in DNB.; for Oates, see further
Jane Lane's Titus Oates (1949),
and for Bedloe, in M. Petherick's Restoration
Rogues (1951).
|
1679 Bl. John Fenwick &
John Gavan Jesuit Martyrs of England Titus Qates Plot hysteria, falsely charged with
complicity
John Fenwick was born in Durham and educated at Saint-Omer. He
became a Jesuit in 1656. John Gavan was born in London and entered the Jesuits
in 1660. They were involved in the Titus Qates Plot hysteria, falsely charged
with complicity, and put to death at Tyburn with three Jesuit companions.
|
1679 Bl. William
Harcourt Jesuit martyr of England also called William Barrows Catholic mission
for more than 30 years
Born in Lancashire in 1609, he studied at St. Omer, France, where
in 1632 he became a Jesuit. Returning to England in 1645, he labored in London
on behalf of the Catholic mission for more than thirty years. Condemned falsely
for complicity in the so-called Popish Plot, he was executed at Tyburn with
five other Jesuits, He was beatified in 1929.
|
1679
Bl. Anthony Turner Martyr of England Jesuits son of a Protestant minister
He was born in Leicestershire and educated at Cambridge. A convert
to Catholicism, Anthony went to Rome and joined the Jesuits in Flanders and
was ordained in 1661. He returned to England and labored in Worcester until
he was arrested in the so-called Titus Oates affair. Convicted on perjured
evidence, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn on June 20. Anthony
was beatified in 1929.
|
1679 Bl. Thomas
Whitbread English Jesuit and martyr native of Essex England alias Thomas
Harcourt served as provincial of the Jesuit mission
He studied at St. Omer, France, and entered the Jesuits in 1635. Back
in England and using the alias Thomas Harcourt, he served as provincial of
the Jesuit mission until his arrest on the entirely false charges of complicity
in the Popish Plot. Thomas was tried for sheltering the plotters and was convicted
of the charge of attempting to murder the king. He was hanged, drawn, and
quartered at Tyburn.
Blessed Thomas Whitbread & Comp., SJ MM (AC) Born in Essex, England;
beatified in 1929. Thomas was educated at Saint Omer and joined the Society
of Jesus in 1635. He was provincial of the English mission and at the time
of the Popish Plot was convicted with four other Jesuit priests on a false
charge of conspiring to murder Charles II. For this he was hanged at Tyburn
(Benedictines).
|
1774 Gleb of Vladimir
Holy Prince rew up with a deep faith, and from twelve years of age he led
a solitary spiritual life incorrupt relics were preserved and glorified by
miracles
George in holy Baptism, a younger son of the holy Prince Andrew
Bogoliubsky (July 4). Under the influence of his pious parents he grew up
with a deep faith, and from twelve years of age he led a solitary spiritual
life. The parents did not hinder their son and even assisted him in spiritual
growth. The prince especially loved the reading of holy books, he esteemed
the clergy and he was charitable to all.
Despite his young age, he chose for himself the exploit of strict
fasting and prayerful vigilance. Prince Gleb died in the year 1174, at age
nineteen.
His incorrupt relics were preserved
and glorified by miracles. In the year 1238, during the time of the incursion
of Batu upon the Russian Land, the Tatars burned the cathedral at Vladimir.
In this conflagration perished Bishop Metrophanes, Great-princess Agatha,
wife of Great-prince George Vsevolodovich (+ 1238), and many inhabitants
of the city of Vladimir, who were locked in the cathedral church. The fire,
however, did not even touch the tomb of St Gleb. Years later, in July 1410,
Tatars again descended upon Vladimir. In plundering the city, they began
to sack the cathedral church treasury, having murdered the door-keeper Patrick.
Supposing that treasure was hidden in the saint's tomb, they set about to
break it open. Just as the Tatars touched the stone crypt of St Gleb, flames
shot forth from it, and the Tatars fled the city in terror.
Through the prayers of the holy prince the city was saved from
an incursion of Polish-Lithuanian plunderers in 1613.
The celebration of St Gleb was
established in the year 1702, and then also a service was written to him,
and somewhat later, a Life. His relics rest in the Dormition cathedral in
Vladimir.
In the year 1774 the south chapel of the cathedral was dedicated
to him. Prince Gleb is revered as the special patron and defender of the
city of Vladimir.
|
Mary Mother of GOD
Saint of the Day June 20 DuoDécimo
octávo 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.