96 Saint Flavius
Clemens Roman martyr, the brother of Emperor Vespasian and uncle of
Emperors Titus and Domitian
Item Romæ Translátio sancti Flávii Cleméntis,
viri Consuláris et Mártyris; qui, sanctæ Plautíllæ
frater ac beátæ Vírginis et Mártyris Fláviæ
Domitíllæ avúnculus, a Domitiáno Imperatóre,
quocum Consulátum gésserat, ob Christi fidem interémptus
est. Ipsíus porro corpus, in Basílica sancti Cleméntis
Papæ invéntum, ibídem solémni pompa recónditum
est.
Likewise at Rome, the translation of St. Flavius
Clemens, exconsul and martyr, brother of St. Plautilla and uncle of St.
Flavia Domitilla, virgin and martyr. He was put to death for the
faith of Christ by Emperor Domitian. His body was found in the Basilica
of Pope St. Clement, and buried there with great pomp.
He was married to Flavia Domitilla. The year before
his martyrdom, Flavius held the post of consul with Domitian, who beheaded
him for being a Christian.
Flavius Clemens M (RM) Saint Flavius Clemens was the
brother of Emperor Vespasian and uncle of Titus and Domitian, whose niece,
Flavia Domitilla, he married. In 95 AD, he held the consular office together
with Domitian. The following year Domitian had him beheaded as a Christian
(Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
|
304 Zenon und Zenas
Orthodoxe Kirche: 22. Juni
Zenon, ein reicher Einwohner von Philadelphia, wurde Christ,
verteilte seine Habe an die Armen und klagte mit seinem Diener Zenas
den Gouverneur der Stadt an, weil er Götzen verehre. Beide wurdend
araufhin gefoltert und, als sie die Folterungen überlebten, geköpft.
Sie erlitten ihr Martyrium im Jahr 304.
The Holy Martyrs Zeno and Zenas (June 22) SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
St Zeno was a Roman officer in the Arabian
city of Philadelphia, and Zenas was his servant. When a persecution of
Christians began during the reign of the Emperor Maximian, St Zeno stepped
boldly before the governor, Maximus, and confessed his faith in the one,
living God, counselling Maximus to give up dead idols and accept the one,
true Faith. The governor was outraged and threw Zeno into prison. When
the faithful Zenas visited his master in the prison, he too was seized
and imprisoned. The two were thereupon tortured for Christ and finally
thrown into the flames, which the pagans brought to a great heat with oil.
Their souls were crowned in the Kingdom of Christ while their mortal remains
were buried in the Church of St George at a place called Cyparisson.
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304
Saint Alban first martyr of England soldier who was
to kill the Saint was converted himself, and he too, became a martyr
his own country (homeland).
Verolámii,
in Británnia, sancti Albáni Mártyris, qui, témpore
Diocletiáni, pro Clérico hóspite, quem domi excéperat
et a quo Christiánæ fídei præceptiónibus
imbútus fúerat, seípsum, commutáta veste,
trádidit; et hanc ob causam, post vérbera et acérba
torménta, cápite plexus est. Passus est étiam
cum illo unus de milítibus, qui, dum eum dúceret ad supplícium,
in via convérsus est ad Christum, et mox, gládio decollátus,
próprio sánguine méruit baptizári. Hoc
autem nóbile sancti Albáni ac Sócii durátum
pro Deo certámen sanctus Beda Venerábilis descrípsit.
At Verulam in England, in the time of Diocletian, St. Alban, martyr,
who gave himself up in order to save a cleric whom he had harboured.
After being scourged and subjected to bitter torments, he was sentenced
to capital punishment. With him also suffered one of the soldiers
who led him to execution, for he was converted to Christ on the way and
merited to be baptized in his own blood. St. Venerable Bede has left
an account of the noble combat of St. Alban and his companion.
Alban (von England) Katholische
und Anglikanische Kirche: 22. Juni
ST ALBAN, MARTYR
ST ALBAN is venerated as the proto- or first martyr
of the Island of Britain, and his feast is kept throughout England and
Wales on this day (but in the diocese of Brentwood to-morrow). His story,
or legend, as it is set forth in Bede's Ecclesiastical History, may be epitomized
as follows: Alban was a native, and apparently a prominent citizen of
Verulamium, now St Albans in Hertfordshire. Although he was a pagan, yet,
when the persecution broke out under Diocletian and Maximian, he gave shelter
to a Christian priest who had sought refuge with him. So profoundly impressed
was he by his guest that he became a convert to Christianity and received
baptism. In the meantime the governor had been informed that the preacher
of the Christian religion after whom inquiry had been made lay concealed
at Alban's house. Soldiers were accordingly sent to make search, but the
priest was no longer there. To facilitate his escape Alban had exchanged
clothes with him, and it was Alban, wrapped in his guest's long cloak,
or caracalla, that the soldiers conveyed bound to the judge, who was then
standing beside an altar, engaged in offering sacrifice to the gods.
When the cloak which covered the prisoner's head was
removed and his identity was established the magistrate was very angry.
Ordering the confessor to be dragged before the images he said, "Since
you have chosen to conceal a sacrilegious person and a blasphemer whom
you ought to have handed over to the guard whom I despatched, the punishment
due to him shall be meted out to you unless you comply with the worship
of our religion." The saint boldly declared that he would do so no more.
Asked by the judge to what family he belonged, Alban exclaimed, "Why do
you want to know about my family? If you wish to know my religion -I am a
Christian." He was then asked his name. "I am called Alban by my parents",
he replied, "and I worship and serve the living and true God who created
all things." The magistrate impatiently urged him to waste no more time,
but to offer sacrifice forthwith. Alban retorted, "Your sacrifices are offered
to demons who can neither give help nor grant petitions: whoever offers
sacrifices to these idols shall receive as his recompense the eternal punishments
of Hell."
The judge, still further incensed at these defiant words, caused
the prisoner to be scourged: then, seeing that he bore the lashes not
merely with resignation but with joy, he sentenced him to be beheaded.
The whole population went forth to witness the execution, the judge remaining
alone in the city. Now the river which they had to cross was in that part
rapid, and if Alban had waited to follow in the wake of the crowds who
were thronging the bridge he could scarcely have passed over that evening.
So, going down to the water's edge, he upraised his eyes to Heaven and
immediately the stream was miraculously divided, the river bed drying up
so as to afford an easy passage not only to the martyr, but to a thousand
other persons. This marvel brought about the instant conversion of the
executioner, who threw down his sword at St Alban's feet and begged to
be allowed to die with him or instead of him. The procession then made its
way up a pleasant grassy slope, gay with flowers. At the summit, in response
to the martyr's prayers, there gushed up beside him a fountain of clear
water with which he was able to quench his thirst. [This description of
the place of martyrdom on Holmhurst Hill is perhaps part of the early tradition.
Except that the river Ver is neither deep nor rapid the topographical particulars
fit correctly. There was a spring of water (now covered in) near the foot
of Holmhurst (cf. Holywell Hill
to-day).]
Another executioner carried out the sentence, but, as St Alban's
head rolled from the block, the headsman's eyes fell out and lay beside
it on the ground. As for the soldier who had been so recently converted,
he also was beheaded, thus receiving the baptism of blood.
It is impossible to decide how much truth underlies this story:
there is considerable difference of opinion on the subject. Mainly on
the ground that the decrees of Diocletian against the Christians were
not enforced in Britain, some scholars have been disposed to conclude
that no such person as St Alban ever existed. On the other hand, he may
well have been the victim of some local persecution; and the prevalence
of an early and widespread cultus creates a strong presumption-in the
view of many, convincing evidence-of his real existence and of his fate.
The earliest known reference to St Alban is by Constantius of Lyons who,
in his life of St Germanus of Auxerre, written in the fifth century, states
that when on a visit to Britain Germanus visited the tomb of St Alban
(he does not say where), and declares that "the intercession of the blessed
martyr St Alban procured a smooth passage" for him and his companions
on their return to Gaul".
Gildas and Bede relied for their accounts on a passio Albani of the earlier part of the
sixth century. How popular the story was may be inferred from the number of
variants catalogued in Hardy's Materials for British History (vol. i, pp.
3-30). It was considerably developed after the translation of the martyr's
relics to a new shrine in 1129. A passio
of St Amphibalus was then composed, a purely fictitious
martyr, at least as regards the name, which is derived from Geoffrey of
Monmouth's misinterpretation of the word amphibalus, which means a cloak.
Amphibalus was represented to have been the preacher originally sought
for, and to have been afterwards caught and stoned to death at Redbourn,
four miles from St Albans. At the same time his "relics" were very conveniently
discovered in a heathen Saxon burying-ground at the same place.
We know from Constantius that there was a church and tomb of
St Alban in 429; Gildas, writing c. 540, connects Alban with Verulamium;
and there was a newer church and shrine there in Bede's time (731).
The tradition is that Offa of Mercia in 793 built a new church and founded
a monastery, which developed into the great Benedictine abbey of St Alban,
and the tradition may well be right.
In recent years the Rev. A. W. Wade-Evans has sought to localize
the martyrdom of St Alban in the neighbourhood of Caerleon in Monmouthshire,
with St Julius and St Aaron (July 3). This hypothesis has received more
attention on the continent than in England, and Father P. Grosjean, Bollandist,
considers that the passion of these three martyrs at Caerleon "is not
without some appearance of probability" (Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lvii
(1939), pp. 160-161). But Wilhelm Levison firmly rejects the theory:
the martyrdom of St Alban, he says, "can be ascribed without hesitation
to Verulamium and St Albans, as far as certainty or probability is at
all applicable in such traditions".
The whole subject is fully dealt
with by W. Levison, "St Alban and Saint Albans", in Antiquity, vol. xv (1941), pp. 337-359.
Bede's account is in the Ecclesiastical
History, bk. I, cap. vii (see also caps. xviii and xx, and Plummer's
notes); Gildas in De excidio Britanniae,
cap. x, says he conjectures that Alban was put to death under Diocletian.
For A. W. Wade-Evans's theory, see his Welsh Christian Origins (1934), pp. 16-19,
and his translation of Nennius (1938), pp. 131-132. St Alban's fame was
not confined to Britain, for Venantius Fortunatus, towards the close of
the sixth century, commemorates him in the line, Albanum egregium fecunda Britannia profert
("Fruitful Britain vaunts great Alban's name"), and a mention of him
is found in the Hieronymianum; on which see Delehaye's Commentary. Although
certain details occurring in Constantius's Life of St Germanus in its later
interpolated form do not belong to the original, as Levison (MGH.,
Scriptores Merov., vol.
vii) has shown, still there is every reason to believe that Germanus did
bring back with him to Auxerre relics of this martyr, and built a basilica
there in his honour, as Heiricus, the author of the metrical Life of St
Germanus, records. See also W. Meyer in the Abhandlungen of the Gottingen
Scientific Society, vol. viii (1904), no. I, for the Passio Albani; E. P. Baker, "The Cult
of St Alban at Cologne", in the Archaeological
Journal, vol. xciv (1938), pp. 207-256; M. R. James et al., Illustrations to the Life of
St Alban (1924); and H. Delehaye, Les Passions
des martyrs (192 I), pp. 403-407.
During a persecution of
Christians, Alban, though a pagan, hid a priest in his house. The priest
made such a great impression on him that Alban received instructions
and became a Christian himself.
Alban sheltered him, and after some days, moved by
his example, himself received baptism.
In the meantime, the governor had been told that the
priest was hiding in Alban's house, and he sent his soldiers to capture
him. But Alban changed clothes with his guest, and gave himself up in
his stead. The judge was furious when he found out that the priest had
escaped and he said to Alban, "You shall get the punishment he was to get
unless you worship the gods." The Saint answered that he would never worship
those false gods again. "To what family do you belong?" demanded the judge.
"That does not concern you," said Alban. "If you want to know my religion,
I am a Christian." Angrily the judge commanded him again to sacrifice to
the gods at once. "Your sacrifices are offered to devils," answered the Saint.
"They cannot help you or answer your requests. The reward for such sacrifices
is the everlasting punishment of Hell."
Since he was getting nowhere, the judge had Alban
whipped. Then he commanded him to be beheaded. On the way to the place
of execution, the soldier who was to kill the Saint was converted himself,
and he too, became a martyr.
Alban of Great Britain M (RM)
3rd or 4th century. There were probably already Christians in the British
Isles in the first century. In fact, by the end of the second century
a great many of the inhabitants of southern England were Christians. However,
Alban is the first recorded Christian martyr of the island. The traditional
date of his death is 304, during the persecution under the Emperor Diocletian; but many scholars
now date it as early as 209, during the persecution under the Emperor
Septimus Severus. This date was derived from a study of the Turin manuscript
of a Passio Albani.
The first known reference to him, outside the Turin
manuscript, is in the 5th century life of Saint Germanus of Auxerre.
Gildas, writing c. 540, gives the core of the tradition. Saint Bede gives an amplified account,
which includes a lively description of the beheading and more details
of signs from heaven.
Alban was a pagan, supposed to have been a Roman soldier,
who, during the persecution of Diocletian, took pity on a fleeing Christian
priest and sheltered him in his own home. When he saw that the priest
spent day and night in prayer, he was moved by the grace of God. They
spent several days talking together and Alban was so impressed by the
priest's sanctity and devotion that he became a Christian and wanted to
imitate the piety and faith of his guest. Encouraged and instructed by the
priest, Alban renounced his idol worship and embraced Christ with his whole
heart.
He was a leading citizen in the old Roman city of
Verulamium (Verulam), Hertfordshire, England, now called Saint Albans.
The town was originally a collection of huts of wattle and daub that
stretched along Watling Street, and later destroyed by the army of Boadicea,
the warrior queen.
The story continues that the
Roman governor of the city, hearing a rumor that a priest was hiding
in the house of Alban, sent a search party of soldiers to find him. Seeing
them approach, Alban took the priest's cloak and put it over his own head
and shoulders, and helped him to escape. Thus disguised, Alban opened the
door to the soldiers and was arrested in mistake for the priest. He was
bound in fetters and brought before the governor, who was attending a sacrifice
to the pagan gods. When the cloak was removed and his true identity was
discovered, the governor was furious. He then declared himself to be a
Christian, whereupon the governor angrily ordered him to be taken before
the altar. He was threatened with all the tortures that had been prepared
for the priest if he did not recant.
Alban faced his anger calmly and, ignoring his threats,
declared that he could not sacrifice to the gods. Upon Alban's refusal
to deny his faith, the governor enquired of what family and race he
was. "How can it concern you to know of what stock I am?" answered Alban.
"If you want to know my religion, I will tell you--I am a Christian, and
am bound by Christian obligations." When asked his name, he replied: "I
am called Alban by my parents, and I worship and adore the true and living
God, who created all things." He was then commanded to sacrifice to the
Roman gods, but he refused and was cruelly scourged. Alban bore the punishment
with resignation, even joy. When it was seen that he could not be prevailed
upon to retract, he was sentenced to decapitation.
On the way to his execution on Holmhurst Hill, the
crowds that gathered to honor his heroism were so great that his passage
was delayed because they could not reach the bridge over the river. Alban,
who seemed to fear that any delay might deprive him of the martyr's crown,
decided to cross at another point, and going down to the water's edge
he prayed to God and stepped into the river which he then forded without
difficulty. Both Gildas and Bede have accepted the tradition that this
was a miracle and that the waters dried up completely in answer to the saint's
prayer.
They add that a thousand other people crossed over
with him, while the waters piled up on either side, and that this miracle
converted the appointed executioner. Still accompanied by a huge throng
of people, Alban climbed the hill to the place of execution. But, on
his arrival there, the executioner threw down his sword and refused to
perform his office. He said that if he were not allowed to take Alban's
place then he would share his martyrdom. Confessing himself to be a Christian,
the soldier was replaced by another. Then he took his stand beside Alban,
and they faced death together. Alban was beheaded first, then the soldier
was baptized in his own blood to share the glory of martyrdom. The third
martyr was the priest, who when he learned that Alban had been arrested
in his place, hurried to the court in the hope of saving Alban by turning
himself in.
According to Bede, the governor
was so impressed by the miracles that followed Alban's martyrdom that
he immediately ended the persecutions, and Bede states that these miracles
were still occurring in his lifetime at the intercession of England's protomartyr.
On the hill where these martyrdoms took place a church
was later erected, and, 400 years later, Offa, the king of Mercia, founded
on the same site the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Albans. According to Constantius
of Lyons, Saint Germanus of Auxerre, at the end of a mission to England
to combat the Pelagian heresy, chose the Church of Saint Alban as the
place in which to thank God for the success of his mission. He brought
back from England a handful of earth from the place where Alban, the soldier,
and the priest were martyred (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia,
Gill, Morris).
The Proto-Martyr of England is portrayed in art as
a warrior with a cross and shield. He may be depicted (1) crowned with
laurel; (2) with a peer's coronet, holding a crossing; (3) with his head
cut off; (4) with his head in a holly bush; (5) spreading his cloak under
the sun; or (6) as his executioner's eye drops out (Roeder). Alban is especially
venerated in Saint Albans and Angers (Roeder).
Alban (von England) Katholische und Anglikanische
Kirche: 22. Juni
Alban war Soldat der römischen Armee in England.
Während einer Christenverfolgung nahm er einen flüchtigen
Priester bei sich auf, der ihn taufte. Als Soldaten das Haus nach dem
Priester durchsuchten, zog Alban seine Kleider an und ließ sich
festnehmen. Er wurde vor ein Militärgericht gebracht, ausgepeitscht
und (um 305) hingerichtet. Er gilt als erster christlicher Märtyrer
Englands. Sein Geburtsort soll Verulamium gewesen sein, das in St. Albans
umbenannt wurde. Auf der Hinrichtungsstätte wurde die Kathedrale St.
Albans errichtet.
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304 Saint Aaron & Julius native of Britain hermit Abbot
attracted numerous disciples, among them St. Malo of Wales
He went to Brittany, where he became a hermit on Cesabre
(St. Malo) island. He attracted numerous disciples, among them St. Malo of Wales, and became their Abbot.
Aaron & Julius were executed during the religious
persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian in AD 304, traditionally on 1st
July. The earliest authority for their existence is
Gildas. In his De Excidio Britanniae, he says,
"God…..in the…..time of persecution…..lest Britain should
be completely enveloped in the thick darkness of black night, kindled
for us bright lamps of holy martyrs…
I speak of Saint Alban of Verulamium, Aaron and Julius,
citizens of Caerleon, and the rest of both sexes in different places,
who stood firm with lofty nobleness of mind in Christ's battle." There
appears to have been a tradition of these latter two men at Caerleon,
perhaps as early as the sixth century, for the Book of Llandaff mentions
'Merthir Iun (Iulii) et Aaron.' Merthyr denoting a 'place of martyr (or
martyrs)' - that is a church, or Martyrium, built in memory of a martyr,
generally over his grave.
In the reign of the 7th century King
Meurig of Glywysing and Gwent, Bishop Nudd of Llandaff was, apparently,
made a grant of all the territory of the martyrs, Julius and Aaron, which
had formerly belonged to Saint Dubricius.
Giraldus Cambrensis
mentions two churches, with their convent and society of canons, at
Caerleon, dedicated to Aaron and Julius. Bede paraphrases the words of
Gildas, but, not understanding that his "Urbs Legionum" was Caerleon-on-Usk,
mistakenly transferred their martyrdom to Chester.
According
to Bishop Godwin (1595-1601), there existed, in the recollection of
the generation preceding that in which he wrote, two chapels called after
Aaron and Julius, on the east and west sides of the town of Caerleon, about
two miles distant from each other. There are a number of legends concerning
the religious communities which supposedly lived at these two places.
"St. Julian's," now a farmhouse, but once a mansion - the residence of
Lord Herbert of Cherbury - probably occupies the site of S. Julius's Church.
The reputed site of St. Aaron's Chapel is near the Roman camp of Penrhos,
between the Afon Lwyd and the Sor Brook that flows into the Usk above Caerleon.
Here stone coffins have been found, showing that it was a place of interment,
possibly Christian.
Soon after the
Norman Conquest, there was a church in Caerleon itself dedicated to SS.
Julius and Aaron, which was granted, by Robert de Chandos, to the Priory
of Goldcliff, founded by him in 1113. Though the very ancient parish church
remembers St. Cadfrod (now St. Cadog). There is a Cae Aron (his field) near
Caerleon and a Cwm Aron (his dingle) in the parish of Llanfrechfa, in the
neighbourhood.
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303 Saint Acacius & Martyrs of Ararat Ten thousand Roman soldiers,
led by St. Acacius, reportedly massacred on Mount Ararat, in modern
Turkey.
Samaríæ,
in Palæstína, sanctórum mille quadringentórum
octogínta Mártyrum, qui, sub Rege Persárum Chósroa,
pro Christi fide interfécti sunt.
At Samaria in Palestine, fourteen hundred
and eighty holy martyrs, under Chosroes, king of Persia.
This cult was suppressed
in 1969.
On two days is a group of ten thousand martyrs mentioned
in the Roman Martyrology. On 18 March: "At Nicomedia ten thousand holy
martyrs who were put to the sword for the confession of Christ", and on
22 June:"On Mount Ararat the martyrdom of ten thousand holy martyrs who
were crucified." The first entry, found in an old Greek martyrology, translated
by Cardinal Sirleto and published by H.Canisius, probably notes the veneration
of a number of those who gave their lives for Christ at the beginning of
the prosecution of Diocletian, in 303 (Acta SS., March, II, 616).
That the number is not an exaggeration is evident
from Eusebius ("Hist. Eccl.", VIII, vi), Lactantius ("De morte prosecut.",
xv). The entry of 22 June is based upon a legend (Acta SS., June, V, 151)
said to have been translated from a Greek original (which cannot, however,
be found) by Anastasius Bibliothecarius (who died in 886), and dedicated
to Peter, Bishop of Sabina (? d. 1221)
The legend reads: The emperors Adrian and Anoninus
marched at the head of a large army to surpress the revolt of the Gadarenes
and the people of the Euphrates region. Finding too strong an opponent,
all fled except nine thousand soldiers. After these had been converted to Christ by
the voice of an angel they turned upon the enemy and completely routed them.
They were then brought to the top of
Mount Ararat and instructed in the faith. When the emperors heard
of the victory they sent for the converts to join in sacrifices of thanksgiving
to the gods. They refused, and the emperors applied to five tributary
kings for aid against the rebels. The kings reponded to the call, bringing
an immense army. The Christians were asked to deny their faith, and, on
refusal, were stoned. But the stones rebounded against the assailants,
and at this miracle a thousand soldiers joined the confessors. Hereupon
the emperors ordered all to be crucified.
Acacius (Achatius) and Companions MM (RM) The story
of a martyrdom of Saint Acacius and 10,000 Roman soldiers under his
command on Mount Ararat, which had great popularity in the later Middle
Ages, is now discarded as pure romance. The cultus seems to have arisen
in Armenia in the 12th century and their popularity from the time of the
crusades. Their acta closely follow that of Saint Maurice and the Theban Legion.
The story includes a scene in which Acacius prays to God just before their
death by crucifixion that anyone who venerates their memory would enjoy
health of mind and body; for this reason Acacius was included among the
popular Fourteen Holy Helpers. Relics are claimed by Cologne and Prague
(Benedictines, Farmer, Sheppard).
In art, Saint Acacius is depicted as a warrior
carrying a large cross. He may also be shown (1) crucified with his legionaries
on Mount Ararat, (2) impaled on trees or thorns (Roeder), or wearing
a crown of thorns (Sheppard). The story is captured in several notable
works of art from the 13th to the 16th centuries, including a 15th- century
stained-glass window in Berne, which provides a complete pictorial record
of the martyrdom (Farmer). Acacius is greatly venerated in Germany (Roeder)
and Switzerland (Farmer), and invoked against headache (Sheppard).
|
372 Saint Nicetas close friend of St. Paulinus of Nola
bishop of Remesiana in Dacia (modern Romania and Yugoslavia) noted for
successful missionary activities especially among Bessi race of marauders
miracles and healings began to be performed from the relics
Eódem die sancti Nicétæ, Romantiánæ
civitátis Epíscopi, doctrína sanctísque
móribus clari.
The same day, St. Nicaeas, bishop of the town
of Romatia, celebrated for his learning and holy life.
St. Paulinus commemorates that
in a poem.
ST NICETAS, BISHOP OF REMESIANA (c. A.D. 414)
THE Roman Martyrology under January 7 has an entry: "In Dacia
of St Nicetas, Bishop, who by his preaching made nations mild and gentle
that before were barbarous and savage." This undoubtedly describes Nicetas
of Remesiana, though Baronius, owing to his erroneous identification of
this Nicetas with Nicetas, or Niceas, of Aquileia, transferred the commemoration,
when he revised the martyrology, from June 22 to January 7. Nicetas of
Remesiana was a close friend of St Paulinus of Nola, and it is principally
from him that we learn of Nicetas's marvellous success in taming the wild
peoples among whom he resided. The Bessi, in particular, were a race of
marauders, as Strabo testifies, but Paulinus congratulates his friend in
a poem on having brought them like sheep within Christ's peaceful fold:
Nam simul terris animisque duri
Et sua Bessi nive duriores,
Nunc oves facti, duce te gregantur Pacis in aulam.
Remesiana has been identified with a place called
Bela Palenka, in Serbia. We know little of Nicetas himself beyond the
fact that on at least two occasions he made his way from a country which
Paulinus regarded as a wild region of snow and ice to visit his friend
at Nola in Campania. St Jerome also speaks very appreciatively of his
work in converting the people of Dacia, but of the details of his missionary
expeditions, the manner of his promotion to the episcopate, or the date
of his death, we know nothing.
On the other hand much interest has centred in Nicetas on account
of his writings, some of which, previously attributed to Nicetas of Aquileia
or others, have now on fuller investigation been restored to their true
author. Dom Germain Morin has been prominent in drawing attention to
the importance of his literary work and in particular has gone far to prove
that it is to Nicetas, and not to St Ambrose, that we owe the composition
of the great hymn of thanksgiving, the Te Deum. This view has not found universal
acceptance, but it has many adherents among competent scholars.
The Bollandists have twice given
some account of Nicetas, so far as information was then available, viz.
in the Acta Sanctorum, January.
vol. i, and June, vol. v. But a newer and fuller investigation will be
found in A. G. Burn's volume, Niceta
of Remesiana, His Life and Works (1905), which re-edits the text
of his remains. Further, Dr Burn has published a booklet, The Hymn "Te Deum" and Its Authors (1926).
Dom Morin's articles have appeared principally in the Revue Benedictine, vol. vii (1890),
pp. 151 seq.; vol. xi (1894), p. 49, and vol. xv (1898), p. 99. See, further,
W. A. Patin, Niceta Bischof von Remesiana
als Schriftsteller und Theolog (1909), and consult DTC., vol. xi,
cc. 477-479. Two of Nicetas's more important dissertations have also
been edited and made more intelligible by the care of Professor C. H.
Turner: the texts have been rearranged and annotated by him in the
Journal of Theological Studies,
vol. xxii (1921), pp. 305-320; and vol. xxiv (1923), pp. 225-252. A volume
of translations of Nicetas's writings by Fr G. G. Walsh was published in
New York in 1950.
Nicetas wrote several dissertations on faith, the
creed, the Trinity, and liturgical singing, and is believed by some
scholars to be the author of Te Deum. We know little of Nicetas himself
beyond the fact that on at least two occasions, he made his way from a
country which Paulinus regarded as a wild region of snow and ice to visit
his friend at Nola in Campania.
St. Jerome also
speaks very appreciatively of his work in converting the people of Dacia,
but of the details of his missionary expeditions, the manner of his promotion
to the episcopate.
A friend of Nicetas searched out his holy remains
at night and transferred them to Cilicia.
From that time, miracles and healings began to be performed from
the relics of the holy Martyr Nicetas. A particle of the
relics of the Great-martyr Nicetas is found in the monastery of Vysokie
Dechany in Serbia.
414
Nicetas bishop of Remesiana (Bela Palanka in Serbia) in Dacia B (RM)
Born c. 335; feast day formerly on January 7. Saint Nicetas was
a close friend of my hero, Saint Paulinus of Nola. He was made
bishop of Remesiana (Bela Palanka in Serbia) in Dacia c. 370. Little is
known about him except that he was noted for his successful missionary
activities, especially among the Goths, Dacians, and Bessi, which Paulinus
commemorates in a poem. Nicetas twice visited Paulinus in Italy. Paulinus
writes highly of him as a poet and evangelist among the rude inhabitants
of a frozen land.
Nicetas wrote an important exposition on the Apostles' Creed,
dissertations on faith, the Trinity, and the value of psalm- singing.
He makes some excellent remarks about the people's singing in church:
"Sing wisely, that is, understandingly, thinking of what you are singing.
. . . Tunes should be in keeping with the sacredness of religion . . .,
not savoring of the theater. . . . Sing together, and do not show off";
and he adds, "Neither must we give thought to what people like, for everything
in our worship must be done in God's sight, not to please men."
Nicetas is believed by some scholars to be
the author or redactor of the Te Deum (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney)
.
|
375
Eusebius Bischof von Samosata Orthodoxe Kirche: 22. Juni Katholische
Kirche: 21. Juni
Eusebius war Bischof von Samosata. Er hielt an den Beschlüssen
des Konzils von Nicaea gegen die Arianer fest und wurde deshalb von mehreren
Kaisern verbannt. Eusebius zog während seiner Verbannung verkleidet
durch Syrien und Phönizien und stärkte die Gemeinden in ihrem
Widerstand gegen die Arianer. Als er 375 aus dem Exil zurückkehren
konnte, baute er mit Patriarch Meletius die orthodoxen Gemeinden wieder
auf. Bei dieser Arbeit wurde er 380 von einer Anhängerin der Arianer
mit einem Dachziegel erschlagen.
379 Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata The Hieromartyr (June
22) SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
He was a major opponent of Arianism. When
the patriarchal throne of Antioch became vacant, Meletius was elected
Patriarch. This Meletius was a shining light in the Church, and deserved
the great eulogy given by St John Chrysostom at his death. But the Arians
soon drove Meletius from Antioch. When Constantius, Constan-tine's evil
son, died, he was followed by Julian the Apostate, a man even worse than
he, as ruler of the Empire. During Julian's persecution of Christians,
St Eusebius took off his cassock, clad himself in soldier's garb and travelled
around the persecuted churches of Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine, strengthening
the Orthodox faith everywhere and creating the necessary priests, deacons
and other clergy and raising some to the episcopate. After the news of
Julian's death, St Eusebius advised Meletius to summon a Council of the
Church in Antioch. This took place in 363, and the twenty-seven hierarchs
present denounced Arianism once again and proclaimed the Orthodox faith
as it was expressed at the First Ecumenical Council. Besides Meletius and
Eusebius, St Pelagius of Laodicea, a man of great asceticism and chastity,
made a great impact at this Council, which took place during the reign of
the devout Emperor Jovian. But he died soon after, and the evil Valens took
the throne, and the persecution of Orthodoxy began afresh. St Meletius was
banished to Armenia, Eusebius to Thrace and Pelagius to Arabia. After Valens,
the Emperor Gratian came to the throne and restored freedom to the Church,
returning the exiled bishops to their rightful places: Meletius to Antioch,
Eusebius to Samosata and Pelagius to Laodicea. Many dioceses were vacant
at that time and Eusebius was quick to find canonical pastors for the people.
But when he arrived at the city of Doliche with the newly-chosen bishop,
Marinus, to install him as bishop and denounce the Arian heresy (which was
strong in that city), a certain fanatical heretic threw a tile from the
roof and gave him a mortal wound. This great zealot for Orthodoxy, this
saint and martyr, died and entered into eternal life in the blessedness
of Paradise in the year 379 .
|
431 Saint
Paulinus Bishop of Nola writer poet; gave away property vast fortune to poor
and Church and pursued life of deep austerity / mortifications
Apud Nolam, Campániæ urbem, natális beáti
Paulíni, Epíscopi et Confessóris, qui ex nobilíssimo
et opulentíssimo factus est pro Christo pauper et húmilis,
et, quod supérerat, seípsum pro rediméndo víduæ
fílio, quem Wándali, Campánia devastáta,
captívum in Africam abdúxerant, in servitútem dedit.
Cláruit autem non solum eruditióne et copiósa vitæ
sanctitáte, sed étiam poténtia advérsus dæmones;
ejúsque præcláras laudes sancti Ambrósius,
Hierónymus, Augustínus et Gregórius Papa scriptis
suis celebrárunt. Ipsíus corpus, póstea Benevéntum
et inde Romam translátum, tandem, Summi Pontíficis Pii
Décimi jussu, Nolæ restitútum fuit.
At Nola in Campania, the birthday of blessed
Paulinus, bishop and confessor, who, although a noble and wealthy man,
made himself poor and humble for Christ; and what is still more admirable,
became a slave to liberate a widow's son who had been carried to Africa
by the Vandals when they devastated Campania. He was celebrated,
not only for his learning and great holiness of life, but also for his
power over demons. His great merit has been extolled by Saints Ambrose,
Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory in their writings. His body was translated
to Benevento, and later to Rome, but was taken back to Nola by the order
of Pope Pius X.
ST PAULINUS, BISHOP OF NOLA (A.D. 431)
ST PAULINUS, more formally designated Pontius Meropius Anicius
Paulinus, was one of the most remarkable men of his age, and we find
him eulogized in terms of warm appreciation by St Martin, St Sulpicius
Severus, St Ambrose, St Augustine, St Jerome, St Eucherius, St Gregory
of Tours, Apollinaris, Cassiodorus and other writers. His father, who
was prefect of Gaul, had lands in Italy, Aquitaine and Spain, and Paulinus
was born at or near Bordeaux. He had for his master in poetry and rhetoric
the famous poet Ausonius. Trained under such a teacher, Paulinus more than
fulfilled the high hopes that had been entertained of him, and while still
quite young made a name for himself at the bar. "Everyone", says St Jerome,
"admired the purity and elegance of his diction, the delicacy and loftiness
of his sentiments, the strength and sweetness of his style and the vividness
of his imagination." He was entrusted with various public offices, the
exact nature of which we do not know, but there is some ground for surmising
that he held an appointment in Campania and had also been prefect of New
Epirus. His duties, whatever they were, required or permitted him to travel
extensively, and during the course of his public life he made many friends
in Italy, Gaul and Spain.
He married a Spanish lady called Therasia, and after some years
he resigned his offices and retired to lead a life of cultured leisure
in Aquitaine. He now came into relations with St Delphinus, bishop of Bordeaux,
through whose ministrations Paulinus and his brother were brought to receive
baptism. Then, about the year 390, he went with his wife to live on her
estate in Spain where, after years of childlessness, a son was born to them;
but the boy died at the end of a week. They now determined to live more
austerely and charitably, and proceeded to dispossess themselves of much
property for the benefit of the needy. This liberality had a result which
appears to have come upon them as a surprise. On Christmas day, about 393,
in response to a sudden outcry on the part of the people, the bishop of
Barcelona in his cathedral conferred upon Paulinus the orders of a priest,
although he had not previously been a deacon. [It should not be supposed
that this conferring of sacred orders in deference to popular c1amour is
altogether without a parallel. Apart from the well-known case of the raising
of St Ambrose to the episcopate, we have a very similar incident occurring
to the husband of St Melania the Younger (December 31). Melania and Pinian
were not only the contemporaries, but the personal friends of St Paulinus,
and like him they had divested themselves of large sums of money to give
away in charity.]
If the citizens had hoped thereby to retain Paulinus amongst
them, they were disappointed. He had already decided to settle at Nola,
a small town near Naples, where he had property. As soon as his intentions
became known and he attempted to deal with his possessions in Aquitaine,
as he had done with those of Therasia in Spain, he found he had to encounter
the remonstrances of his friends and the opposition of his relatives.
However, he did not allow himself to be deterred, and successfully carried
his purpose into effect. He proceeded to Italy, where St Ambrose and other
friends gave him a warm welcome. In Rome, on the other hand, he met with
a chilly reception from Pope St Siricius and his clergy, who possibly
resented the uncanonical nature of his ordination. His stay in the City
was accordingly a short one, and he passed on to Nola with his wife. There
he took up his residence in a long, two-storied building outside the walls,
close to the tomb of St Felix. Although he had parted with so much he was
still possessed of considerable means-presumably his Italian property.
This he gradually disposed of to further religious and philanthropic
schemes.
Thus he built a church for Fondi, gave Nola a much-needed aqueduct,
and supported a host of poor debtors, tramps and other necessitous persons,
many of whom he lodged in the lower part of his own house. He himself,
with a few friends, occupied the upper story, living under semi-monastic
rule and reciting the daily office in common; Therasia presumably was the
housekeeper for this establishment. Adjacent was a building with a garden
which served as a guest-house for visitors. Amongst those who enjoyed
his hospitality may be mentioned St Melania the Elder and the missionary
bishop St Nicetas of Remesiana, who stayed with him on two occasions.
Very striking is the account preserved in the Life of the younger Melania,
which describes the coming to Nola of herself and her husband with other
devoted Christians. When St Paulinus went to settle at Nola, there
were already three little basilicas and a chapel grouped about the tomb
of the former presbyter there, St Felix; to these he added another,
which he caused to be adorned with mosaics of which he has left a description
in verse. Three of these churches shared a common outside entrance, and
they were probably connected in much the same way as the seven old basilicas
which constitute San Stefano in Bologna. Every year for the festival of
St Felix, Paulinus rendered him what he described as a tribute of his voluntary
service, in the shape of a birthday poem in his honour. Fourteen or fifteen
of these poems are still extant.
Upon the death of the bishop of Nola, about the year 409, St
Paulinus was chosen as obviously the right person to fill his place.
He occupied the episcopal chair until his death. Beyond the fact that
he ruled with wisdom and liberality, we have no reliable information about
his career as a shepherd of souls. Once a year he went to Rome for the feast
of St Peter and St Paul: otherwise he never left Nola. But he was a great
letter-writer and kept in touch by correspondence with the leading churchmen
of his day-notably with St Jerome and St Augustine, whom he
consulted on many subjects, often on the meaning of obscure passages of
the Bible. It was in response to a query of his that St Augustine wrote
his book On the Care of the Dead, in which he emphasizes that
pompous funerals and similar honours are only comforts to surviving friends,
and of no use to the dead.
St Paulinus survived until the year 431, and the closing scenes
of his life are described in the letter of an eye-witness named Uranius.
Three days before his death he was visited by two bishops, Symmachus
and Acyndinus, with whom at his bedside he celebrated the Divine Mysteries.
Then the priest Postumian came to tell him that forty
pieces of silver were owing for clothes for the poor. The dying saint replied
with a smile that someone would pay the debt of the poor; and almost immediately
afterwards there arrived a messenger bearing a gift of fifty silver
pieces.
On the last day, at the hour for Vespers, when the lamps
were being lighted in the church, the bishop roused himself from a prolonged
silence, and, stretching out his hand, said in a low voice, "I have prepared
a lamp for my Christ." Some hours later the watchers felt a sudden tremor,
as of a slight earthquake, and at that moment St Paulinus yielded up his
soul to God. He was buried in the church he had built in honour of St Felix;
and his relics having been translated to Rome, they were restored to Nola
by order of St Pius X in 1909.
Of the writings of St Paulinus, which seem to have been numerous,
only thirty-two poems, fifty-one letters, and a few short fragments have
come down to us. But he is esteemed the best Christian poet of his time
after Prudentius, and his epithalamium for Julian, bishop of Eclanum and
Nola, is one of the earliest Christian wedding poems that has survived.
There is no proper life of St Paulinus
of early date, but we have a letter of Uranius describing his death and a
short notice by St Gregory of Tours. But in Paulinus's own correspondence
and in the references of contemporaries we have a good deal of biographical
material which has been used in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. v. Another
source which has only become available in comparatively recent times
is the Life of Melania the Younger, preserved both in a Greek and a Latin
text, which may be best consulted in the edition of Cardinal Rampolla,
Santa Melania Giuniore
(1905). There are modern biographies by A. Buse, F. Lagrange and A. Baudrillart,
and a good article in DCB., vol. iv, pp. 234-245, as well as in DTC., vol.
xii, cc. 68-7J. See, further, G. Boissier, La Fin du Paganisme, vol. ii, pp. 49-103;
F. de Labriolle, La Correspondance d'Ausone
et de Paulin (1910); C. Weyman, Beiträge zur Geschichte de, christ.-Latein.
Poesie (1926), pp. 92-103; P. Fabre, S. Paulin et l'amitie chrétienne
(1947); and P. de Labriolle, Histoire
de la littérature chrétienne (1947), p. 877.
Apud Nolam, Campániæ urbem, natális beáti
Paulíni, Epíscopi et Confessóris, qui ex nobilíssimo
et opulentíssimo factus est pro Christo pauper et húmilis,
et, quod supérerat, seípsum pro rediméndo víduæ
fílio, quem Wándali, Campánia devastáta,
captívum in Africam abdúxerant, in servitútem dedit.
Cláruit autem non solum eruditióne et copiósa vitæ
sanctitáte, sed étiam poténtia advérsus dæmones;
ejúsque præcláras laudes sancti Ambrósius,
Hierónymus, Augustínus et Gregórius Papa scriptis
suis celebrárunt. Ipsíus corpus, póstea Benevéntum
et inde Romam translátum, tandem, Summi Pontíficis Pii
Décimi jussu, Nolæ restitútum fuit.
At Nola in Campania, the birthday
of blessed Paulinus, bishop and confessor, who, although a noble and
wealthy man, made himself poor and humble for Christ; and what is still
more admirable, became a slave to liberate a widow's son who had been carried
to Africa by the Vandals when they devastated Campania. He was celebrated,
not only for his learning and great holiness of life, but also for his power
over demons. His great merit has been extolled by Saints Ambrose,
Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory in their writings. His body was translated
to Benevento, and later to Rome, but was taken back to Nola by the order
of Pope Pius X.
Pontius Meropius Anicius Paulinus was born
354 to a wealthy Roman family at
Bordeaux, in Gaul. His father was
the praetorian prefect of Gaul who made certain that his son received a
sound education. Paulinus studied rhetoric and poetry and learned from the
famed poet Ausonius.
He subsequently became a well known lawyer.
He became the prefect of Rome, married
a Spanish noble lady, Therasia, and led a luxury filled life.
Following the death of his son a week
after his birth in 390, Paulinus retreated from the world and came to
be baptized a Christian by St. Delphinus
in Aquitaine. With Therasia, he gave away their property
and vast fortune to the poor and to the Church, and they pursued a life
of deep austerity and mortifications.
About 393, he was forcibly ordained a
priest by the bishop of Barcelona. Soon after, he moved to
an estate near the tomb of St. Nola near Naples, Italy There, he and
his wife practiced rigorous asceticism and helped to establish a community
of monks. To the consternation of his other relatives, he sold all of
their estates in Gaul and gave the money to the poor. He also helped to
build a church at Fondi, a basilica near the tomb of St. Felix, a hospital for travelers,
and an aqueduct.
Many of the poor and sick he brought into
his own house, and he lived as a hermit with several of his friends.
In 409, he was elected bishop of Nola, serving in this office with great
distinction until his death. He was a friend and correspondent
of virtually all of the leading figures of his era, including Sts. Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, Martin of Tours,
and Pope Anastasius I. Paulinus was also
a gifted poet, earning the distinction of being one of the foremost Christian
Latin poets of the Patristic period, an honor he shares with Prudentius.
Paulinus retained much of the style of the old classical poets, and composed
most of the poems in honor of the feast of St. Felix. He is the author
of a body of extant works including fifty one letters, thirty two poems,
and several prose pieces.
Paulinus of Nola
B (RM) Born in Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France, c. 354; died 431. Saint Paulinus
of Nola (and Thomas More below) is one of the few male saints with whom
I feel an absolute affinity, even though there are others that I admire.
Pontius Meropius Anicius Paulinus, was
the son of a Roman patrician who was the praetorian prefect in Gaul at
the time of Paulinus's birth. The family owned extensive lands in both
Aquitaine and Italy. He was taught by the poet Ausonius until he was 15,
when he went to the University of Bordeaux to study Roman law, poetry,
eloquence, science, and Platonic philosophy. He became a successful and
prominent lawyer.
He was not attracted to the pious life.
His father died when Paulinus was 24, but he continued to live a restrained
life even though he inherited great wealth. At age 25, Emperor Gratian
nominated him a Roman senator to fill an unexpired term as a consul of
Rome. At age 26, he was made governor of Campania and took up residence
in Nola in the mountains east of Naples. Paulinus was apparently devoid
of vanity and cared little for honors.
His first year in Nola was decisive. On
the Feast of Saint Felix, patron of Campania, he saw several sick people
healed at the tomb of the saint--disturbing to a pagan philosopher. This
was the time of his initial conversion to Christianity. He sacrificed
his first beard to Saint Felix, resigned his post as governor, and returned
to his awaiting mother.
He travelled to Spain and brought back
his strong-willed wife Teresa, who was almost as wealthy as he. At age
36, the rich, erudite pagan philosopher was baptized by Saint Delphinus,
bishop of Bordeaux, after the witness of his wife Theresa's life. (His
brother was baptized at the same time.) He later wrote that by marrying
her, God gained two souls, ". . . by the merits of the woman, Thou didst
compensate for the hesitations of the man."
Many men, who afterwards became saints,
were the instruments through which the grace of God operated on him:
Martin of Tours, Ambrose, Augustine, Victricius of Rouen, Jerome,
Amadeus of Bordeaux, and Sulpicius Severus.
Saint Martin of Tours miraculously cured
his eye affliction. He had religious talks with Saint Victricius and Saint
Amadeus, and with his friend Sulpicius Severus, who converted at about
the same time. Above all, Saint Ambrose's sermons finally led him to place
himself under instruction. Possibly Augustine's conversion and baptism
two years before his own helped move his stubborn will. His wife Theresa's
prayers and merits were also not without effect.
Paulinus and Theresa sold their estates
in Gaul and divided the money among the poor and their slaves. His ancient
tutor tried to dissuade him from doing this. His pagan friends saw it as
a desertion of the Empire at a critical time. Theresa approved and showed
it by selling her own lands when they got to Spain and using the proceeds
to redeem captives and free debtors.
Then they had a son who died soon after
baptism at 8 days old. Paulinus thought this might be because of Theresa's
physical condition and that it would be an act of charity to relinquish
his rights as a husband. They both took vows of chastity and lived together
as siblings for the rest of their lives.
Three years after
his baptism, the populace of Barcelona physically carried him off to
the bishop and begged that he be ordained to the priesthood, to which the
bishop and Paulinus--under the condition that he not be tied to a parish
or diocese--agreed.
The year following his ordination they
were the guests of Saint Ambrose, who instructed Paulinus in priestly
duties. Then they visited Rome, where they received a cold reception.
(Eight years previously, in a letter to Bishop Himerius of Taragona, Pope
Siricius laid down seven regulations against married priests (cf. Denzinger's
Enchiridion Symbolorum, page 89).) From Rome they retired to Nola to live
a severely ascetic life near the tomb of his beloved Saint Felix.
In 394, Saint Augustine wrote to them
with admiration for the example of Theresa. Saint Ambrose, in his 30th
Epistle to Sabinus, wrote in praise of their actions.
Paulinus could see the Empire was falling
apart from within and without, and that the Catholic Church was the
only institution that possessed any vitality. He chose to attach himself
to the invincible kingdom of Christ. Paulinus and Theresa made their
home at Nola in a hospice for the poor and sick, which they had founded
when they sold their estates. Theresa lived on the first floor and acted
as matron.
The second floor was a monastery, where Paulinus and
other hermits established one of the first monastic centers in the West--a
century before Saint Benedict.
The monastery had strict rules
of silence and fasting, a diet consisting mostly of vegetables, shaved
heads, wore hair-cloth with a rope girdle, slept on the floor, and self-mortification.
Paulinus often ill, but philosophically said "the weakness of the body
is advantageous to the spirit, which rejoices in the losses of the flesh."
Paulinus lived 78 years. He found that to live according to faith required
much more than avoiding sin.
Saint Paulinus was an active apostle for justice and
charity through his oral teaching and letters. He ransomed many captives
and fed those left without possessions during the invasions of Alaric
the Goth.
In 410, shortly before Theresa's death, the people
of Nola chose him for their bishop.
He proved to be
one of the best prelates of his time. Paulinus continued to live in the
monastery. He built an aqueduct for Nola, basilicas at Fondi and Nola.
Msgr. Baudrillart, a modern biographer, said, "to instruct one another,
to edify, to assist in the exercise of charity--such were in his eyes the
true fruits of Christian friendship." He was a friend of both Saint Jerome
and Saint Rufinus, but would not take sides in their dispute.
Paulinus integrated head and heart. His
letters show humility, an affectionate disposition, cheerful humor,
charity, self-discipline, and contemplation. Most of his poems and a
number of his letters still exist. They show him to have been a Christian
poet of distinction as well as a fluent writer of prose. Some of his poetry
can be found in Medieval Latin Lyrics translated by Helen Waddell (Benedictines,
S. Delany, Encyclopedia).
Paulinus von Nola
Orthodoxe Kirche: 23. Januar Katholische und Evangelische Kirche: 22.
Juni
Paulinus wurde um 353 in Bordeaux geboren.
Vermutlich 381 wurde er Statthalter in Kampanien (Süditalien). Mehrere
Leiderfahrungen, insbesondere der Tod seines Sohnes, bestimmten ihn,
sein Leben nach dem Vorbild Martins auszurichten. Er beendete seine politische
Laufbahn. ließ sich in Barcelona zum Priester weihen und ging mit
seiner Frau nach Nola in Kampanien. Hier lebte er am Grab des hl. Felix
(Gedenktag 14.1.) wie ein Mönch in einer asketischen Priestergemeinschaft
und verwendete seinen Besitz zum Bau eines Hospitals, einer Wasserleitung
und einer Kirche. Um 409 wurde er zum Bischof von Nola ernannt. Der Durchzug
der Goten unter Alarich bewog ihn, alles zu geben, was er hatte. Schließlich
bot er sich selbst als Lösegeld an, um einen Kriegsgefangenen auszulösen.
Alarich erfuhr, wer Paulinus war und schenkte allen Gefangenen aus seinem
Bistum die Freiheit. Paulinus wurde schon zu Lebzeiten wie ein Heiliger
verehrt. Er starb am 22.6.431 in Nola. Sein Leichnam kam später nach
Benevent, dann nach Rom, wurde aber 1908 wieder nach Nola überführt.
Von dem Briefwechsel mit großen Christen seiner Zeit sind 49 Briefe
erhalten, ebenso 33 Gedichte.
In art, Saint Paulinus is a bishop, with
a shovel (his emblem), giving alms. He may also be shown preaching to
the poor or writing (Roeder).
|
Samaríæ, in Palæstína,
sanctórum mille quadringentórum octogínta Mártyrum,
qui, sub Rege Persárum Chósroa, pro Christi fide interfécti
sunt.
At Samaria in Palestine, fourteen hundred and
eighty holy martyrs, under Chosroes, king of Persia.
In Monte Ararath pássio sanctórum
Mártyrum decem míllium, crucifixórum.
On Mt. Ararat, the martyrdom
of ten thousand holy martyrs, who were crucified.
|
5th v. Saint John
I bishop of Naples translated the body of Saint Januarius from
Puteoli to Naples, "whom blessed Paulinus, bishop of Nola, called to
the heavenly kingdom" B (RM)
Neápoli, in Campánia, sancti Joánnis Epíscopi,
quem beátus Paulínus, Epíscopus Nolánus,
ad cæléstia regna vocávit.
At Naples in Campania, St. John, bishop, who
was called to the kingdom of heaven by blessed Paulinus, bishop of Nola.
Saint John was the bishop of Naples
who translated the body of Saint Januarius
from Puteoli to Naples, "whom blessed Paulinus, bishop of Nola, called
to the heavenly kingdom" according to the Roman Martyrology (Benedictines,
Encyclopedia).
|
552 Saint Aaron
of Brittany hermit Abbot joined by a group of disciples Among them Saint
Malo (AC)
The Briton Saint Aaron crossed into Armorica (Brittany) and lived
as a hermit on the island of Cesambre, called Saint Aaron until 1150 and
now Saint Malo. The island was separated from Aleth by an arm of the
sea, which the tide at low water left dry twice daily. Eventually Aaron
was joined by a group of disciples and became their abbot. Among the disciples
was Saint Malo, who arrived from
Wales about the middle of the 6th century and was warmly welcomed. A parish
church in the diocese of Saint Brieuc bears Aaron's name (Benedictines,
Husenbeth).
|
570 Saint Consortia Foundress of a convent endowed by King
Clotaire I of Soissons and the Franks miraculously healed his dying daughter
In
monastério Cluniacénsi, in Gállia, deposítio
sanctæ Consórtiæ Vírginis.
In the monastery of Cluny, St. Consortia,
virgin.
Consortia reportedly cured Clotaire’s
daughter of a mortal illness. She has long been venerated at Cluny, in
France, but nothing is known of her life.
Consortia V (RM) Saint Consortia is said to have been the foundress
of a convent generously endowed by King Clotaire out of gratitude for
her having miraculously healed his dying daughter. She was venerated at
Cluny, but nothing certain is known about her (Benedictines).
|
835
John IV bishop of Naples San Giovanni d'Acquarola, or "the Peacemaker,"
B (AC)
Locally known as San Giovanni d'Acquarola, or "the Peacemaker,"
Saint John was the bishop of Naples, where he is now venerated as one
of the patrons of the city (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
|
869 Saint Rotrudis
of Saint-Omer either daughter or sister of Blessed Charlemagne V (AC)
The relics of Saint Rotrudis were enshrined at the Benedictine
abbey of Saint-Bertin at Saint-Omer. According to popular belief she
was a daughter or sister of Blessed Charlemagne (Benedictines).
|
1125 Blessed Lambert
Saint-Bertin 40th abbot introduced the Cluniac observances OSB Abbot
(AC)
From childhood Lambert was trained in the monastic life at the
Benedictine abbey of Saint-Bertin, of which he eventually became the
40th abbot. He finished the abbey church and introduced the Cluniac observances
[ independent of all but papal jurisdiction] (Benedictines).
|
1164 Saint Eberhard
(Everard) bishop of Salzburg greatest supporter of pope in Germany
during investiture controversy OSB B (AC)
ST EBERHARD, ARCHBISHOP OF SALZBURG (A.D.
1164)
ST EBERHARD was the son of a very religious mother of noble family,
and was born at Nuremberg between the years 1088 and 1090. After being
educated by the Benedictines, he received a canonry in Bamberg cathedral,
which he soon resigned to enter the local abbey of Mount St Michael. The
chapter, however, would not allow him to remain there, and the dean insisted
upon sending him to Paris to study for a master's degree. He completed the
course with distinction and then returned home with his desire for the religious
life as strong as ever. Further opposition being useless, Bishop Otto
and the canons consented to his entering the monastery of Prüfening,
near Regensburg. There he found a spiritual guide after his own heart
in the person of Abbot Erbo, whom his contemporaries modestly described
as a second Elias and John the Baptist. From Prüfening Eberhard was
called to become the superior of a new abbey which his two brothers and
his sister had founded at Biburg, between Ingoldstein and Regensburg.
Under his wise rule the young community increased rapidly in
numbers and developed a fervent spiritual life. His virtues and ability
were so generally recognized that when in 1146 the see of Salzburg fell
vacant, he was chosen to fill the archiepiscopal chair. Eberhard began
his episcopate by settling a dispute between the chapter and two abbeys,
and in the following years he was constantly acting as mediator between
contending parties. But the main object to which he devoted his energies
was the moral improvement of his people, clergy as well as laity, and
in particular he spared no effort to bring about the abolition of certain
abuses which had become widespread in the archdiocese. He was so successful
that the Emperor Conrad III, when passing through Salzburg, publicly
congratulated him upon the result of his reforming ordinances.
The saint held two synods, at one of which he gave expression
to his devotion to the Mother of God by enacting that her greater festivals
should be honoured with octaves. In the struggle which took place between
Frederick Barbarossa and Pope Alexander III, St Eberhard was one of
the very few German dignitaries who refused to recognize the antipope
"Victor IV". Frederick was annoyed at his attitude, but so great was
the prestige of the holy archbishop that he made no attempt to coerce
him or interfere with him in any way.
The last of St Eberhard's recorded acts was to undertake a journey as
peacemaker between two quarrelsome noblemen.
He accomplished his object, but his strength gave out as he was travelling
home, and he died at the Cistercian monastery of Rein. It was in the
year 1164.
A life of Eberhard was written
about the year 1180. It is more accurately edited in Pertz, MGH., Scriptores , vol. xi, pp. 78-84, but it
is also in the Acta Sanctorum, June,
vol. v. St Eberhard was an important figure in the political world of his
day, and in consequence he figures prominently in the pages of those who
discuss the situation created by the anti-papal campaigns of Frederick Barbarossa.
See, for example, Hauck, Kirchengeschichte
Deutschlands, vol. iv, and]. Engel, Schisma Barbarossas im Bisthum Freising
(1930). It is worth noticing that there is no foundation for the statement
that St Eberhard was the author of the tract, Oratio de Hildebrandi antichristiano Imperio.
The cause of Eberhard's canonization was urgently pressed by Archbishop
Burkhard in 1469, but no formal pronouncement was ever reached.
Born at Nuremberg, Germany, 1085; died in Salzburg,
Austria, June 11, 1164.
Saint Eberhard was educated by the monks of Michelberg at Bamberg.
He obtained a canonry at Bamberg, which, however, he gave up in order
to become a Benedictine at Prüfening in 1125. In 1133, he was made
abbot of Biburg, and in 1147 consecrated bishop of Salzburg.
Eberhard was the greatest supporter of the pope in Germany during
the investiture controversy. In the early Middle Ages, an emperor or
other lay prince invested an abbot or bishop-elect with the ring and staff
and received homage before consecration. Pope Nicholas II condemned the
practice in 1059. In 1075, all lay investiture was forbidden by Pope Gregory
VII (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
In art, Saint Eberhard serves the poor at table with his miter
and crozier at his feet. He is venerated in Bamberg and Salzburg (Roeder).
Born to a noble family of Nuremberg, Germany, he was ordained
and became a Benedictine in
1125 at Pruffening, Germany. As abbot of Biburg near Regensburg, he renewed
the community. He became archbishop of Salzburg in 1146. When Pope Alexander
III was faced with the “Investiture Controversy,” led by Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa and antipope Victor IV, Eberhard mediated the situation.
He died returning from one peacemaking mission.
|
1277
Peter of Tarentaise -a simple, humble friar Blessed Pope Innocent V masterly
tutelage of Saint Albert the Great visited on foot all Dominican houses
under his care sent to Paris to replace Thomas Aquinas at the University
of Paris succeeded solving questions of Greek schism establishing short-lived
truce OP Pope (RM)
Romæ beáti
Innocéntii Papæ Quinti, ex Ordine Prædicatórum,
Confessóris, qui ad tuéndam Ecclésiæ libertátem
et Christianórum concórdiam suávi prudéntia
adlaborávit. Cultum autem, ei exhíbitum, Leo Décimus
tértius, Póntifex Máximus, ratum hábuit et
confirmávit.
At Rome, blessed Pope Innocent V, who laboured with mildness and prudence
to maintain liberty for the Church and harmony among the Christians.
The veneration paid to him was approved and confirmed by Pope Leo XIII.
BD INNOCENT
V, POPE (A.D. 1277)
THE first Dominican pope, Innocent V, was baptized
Peter, and until his elevation to the papacy was commonly known as Peter
of Tarentaise, from the name of his birthplace, Tarentaise-en-Forez (Loire).·
[He must not be confused with the Cistercian abbot and bishop, St Peter
of Tarentaise (May 8).]
When still very young he received the Dominican habit from Bd
Jordan of Saxony; and he became one of the most eminent theologians
of his age. After he had taken his master's degree, he was given a chair
in the University of Paris, although, like his friend and fellow lecturer
St Thomas Aquinas, he had not yet entered upon his thirtieth year;
and in 1259 he was associated with St Albertus Magnus, St Thomas
and two other members of the order in drawing up a curriculum of study
for the schools, which still remains the basis of Dominican teaching. Besides
lecturing orally to his students Peter wrote books: some of them-notably
his commentaries on the Pauline Epistles and on the Sentences of Peter
Lombard-were as highly esteemed by his contemporaries as the writings
of the Angelic Doctor himself.
Scholar though he was, Peter of Tarentaise was endowed with remarkable
practical qualities which qualified him to be a ruler of men, and at
the age of thirty-seven he was appointed prior provincial for France.
Visitations of the fifty houses under his control entailed much travelling,
all of which he did on foot; and in every priory he strove, generally
with success, to maintain the discipline of the rule. In the meantime
requests were so continually being made for his return to Paris (where
he had been involved in difficulties) that, when St Thomas was summoned
to Rome by the pope, the general chapter sent Peter to replace him in
the University of Paris. In 1272 he was appointed archbishop
of Lyons by Pope Gregory X, who had formerly attended his lectures
in Paris and who held him in great esteem; and in the very next year Peter
was promoted to the cardinal bishopric of Ostia, but with the duty of
administering Lyons, which city the pope had chosen as the meeting-place
for the ecumenical council he was about to summon for the purpose of healing
the Greek schism.
From the opening of the first session, in May, 1274, Cardinal
Peter took a prominent part in its deliberations. Twice he preached to
the delegates, and it was largely through his clear and scholarly enunciation
of Catholic dogma that the Greek envoys were led to give their adhesion
and assent. The council broke up amid general rejoicings at its success
(which was very short-lived), marred only by the death of St Bonaventure.
His panegyric was preached by Peter of Tarentaise, who chose as his text
the words, "I grieve for thee, my brother Jonathan", and who spoke of the
great Franciscan in such affecting terms that many of those present were
moved to tears. With the appointment of a new archbishop Peter's work at
Lyons ended, and he was free to return to Italy with the pope and the other
cardinals.
Consequently, he was with Bd Gregory
X when he died, shortly after their arrival at Arezzo in January, 1276.
In the election which ensued immediately no candidate
seems to have been seriously considered but Peter of Tarentaise, and
he was thus unanimously chosen. He took the name of Innocent V. His short
pontificate was chiefly remarkable for his efforts to establish peace
among the Italian states which were rent by internal and external dissensions,
and to implement the reunion with the Byzantines. He was arranging to
send envoys to Constantinople to obtain from the Emperor Michael Palaeologus
his confirmation of the pact agreed to at Lyons, but the delegates never
left Italy. With tragic suddenness all the high hopes which centred in
the new pope were dashed to the ground. Though a man of splendid physique
and of a constitution so robust that neither austerities nor hard work
had ever impaired it, he was struck down by a malignant fever which carried
him off in a few days. He died on June 22, 1277, at the age of fifty-one,
after having been pope for only five months. The cultus of Bd
Innocent was confirmed in 1898, and his name added to the Roman Martyrology
as one who "laboured for concord among Christians".
A very full account with indication
of sources is supplied by Mgr Mann in his History of the Popes, .vol. xvi, pp. 1-22.
See also Mortier, Histoire des Maîtres
Generaux O.P., vols. i and ii. There are modern lives by J. P.
Mothon (1896), Turinaz (1901), and Bourgeois (1899). But the definitive
study is by M. H. Laurent, Le b. Innocent
V et son temps (1947), in the series "Studi e testi" of the Vatican
Library.
Born in Tarentaise-en-Forez, Burgundy, France, in
1245; died in Rome, June 22, 1277; cultus confirmed by Pope Leo XIII
in 1898. Peter of Tarentaise was barely 10 years old when he was admitted
to the Dominican Order by Blessed Jordan
of Saxony as a boy-novice and sent to Paris to study. Like
Saint Thomas Aquinas, Blessed Ambrose of Siena, and other luminaries
of the 13th century, he fell under the masterly tutelage of Saint Albert the Great.
He received his master's degree in theology in 1259,
then he taught for some years in Paris, where he contributed a great deal
to the order's reputation for learning. He wrote a number of commentaries
on Scripture and the Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, but
he devoted most of his time to the classroom. He soon became famous as
a preacher and theologian, and in 1259, with a committee including his
friend Thomas Aquinas, composed a plan of study that is still the basis
of Dominican teaching.
At age 37, Peter began the long years of responsibility
in the various offices he was to hold in his lifetime as prior provincial
of France. He visited on foot all Dominican houses under his care, and
was then sent to Paris to replace Saint
Thomas Aquinas at the
University of Paris. Twice provincial, he was chosen archbishop of Lyons
in 1272 and administered the affairs of the diocese for some time, though
he was never actually consecrated for that see.
The next year Peter
was appointed cardinal-archbishop of Ostia, Italy, while still administering
the see of Lyons. With the great Franciscan, Saint Bonaventure, assumed much of the
labor of the Council of Lyons to which Saint Thomas was hastening at the time
of his death. To the problems of clerical reform and the healing of the
Greek schism the two gifted friars devoted their finest talents.
Before the council was over,
Bonaventure died, and Peter of Tarentaise preached
the funeral panegyric.
In January 1276, Peter was with Blessed Pope Gregory X when the latter
died at Arezzo. The conclave was held in the following month. On January
21, 1276, Peter of Tarentaise received every vote except his own. With
a sad heart, he left the seclusion of his religious home to ascend the Fisherman's
Throne as Pope Innocent V.
The reign of the new pope, which promised so much
to a harassed people, was to be very brief. But, imbued with the spirit
of the early apostles, he crowded a lifetime into the short space given
him.
He instigated a new crusade against the Saracens and
began reforms in the matter of regular observance. He actually succeeded
in solving many of the questions of the Greek schism and in establishing
a short-lived truce. He struggled to reconcile the Guelphs and Ghibellines,
restored peace between Pisa and Lucca, and acted as mediator between Rudolph
of Hapsburg and Charles of Anjou. He restored the custom of personally
assisting at choral functions with the canons of the Lateran, and he inspired
all with the love that animated his heart.
Had the measures
begun by Innocent V had time to be fully realized, he might have accomplished
great good for the Church; he did at least open the way for those who
were to follow him. Death stopped the hand of the zealous pope when he
had reigned only five months. Like his friends Saint Thomas and Saint Bonaventure, he was untouched
by the honors and dignity with which he had been favored, and death found
him exactly what he had been for more than 40 years--a simple, humble
friar (Benedictines, Delaney, Dorcy).
Pope Bl. Innocent V (PETRUS A
TARENTASIA)
Born in Tarentaise, towards 1225; elected at Arezzo,
21 January, 1276; died at Rome, 22 June, 1276. Tarentaise on the upper
Isère in south-eastern France was certainly his native province,
and the town of Champagny was in all probability his birthplace. At the
age of sixteen he joined the Dominican Order. After completing his education,
at the University of Paris, where he graduated as master in sacred theology
in 1259, he won distinction as a professor in that institution, and is
known as "the most famous doctor", "Doctor famosissimus" For some time
provincial of his order in France, he became Archbishop of Lyons in 1272
and Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia in 1273. He played a prominent part at the
Second Ecumenical Council of Lyons (1274), in which he delivered two discourses
to the assembled fathers and also pronounced the funeral oration on St.
Bonaventure. Elected as successor to Gregory X, whose intimate adviser
he was, he assumed the name of Innocent V and was the first Dominican pope.
His policy was peaceable. He sought to reconcile Guelphs and Ghibellines
in Italy, restored peace between Pisa and Lucca, and mediated between Rudolph
of Hapsburg and Charles of Anjou. He likewise endeavoured to consolidate
the union of the Greeks with Rome concluded at the Council of Lyons. He is
the author of several works dealing with philosophy, theology and canon law,
some of which are still unpublished. The principal among them is his "Commentary
on the Sentences of Peter Lombard" (Toulouse, 1652). Four philosophical treatises:
"De unitate formæ", "De materia caeligli", "De æternitate mundi",
"De intellectu et voluntate", are also due to his pen. A commentary on the
Pauline Epistles frequently published under the name of Nicholas of Gorran
(Cologne, 1478) is claimed for him by some critics.
|
1535
St. John Fisher confessor to Lady Margaret Beaufort mother of Henry VII
also tutored Prince Henry who became Henry VIII refused to render allegiance to the King as the
Head of the Church of England
Londíni in Anglia, sancti Joánnis Fisher, Epíscopi
Roffénsis et Cardinális, qui pro fide cathólica
et Románi Pontificis primátu, jubénte Henríco
Octávo Rege, decollátus est.
At London in England, on Tower Hill, St. John
Fisher, bishop of Rochester and cardinal of the Holy Roman Church.
For the defence of the Catholic faith and the primacy of the Roman Pontiff
he was beheaded by order of King Henry VIII.
ST JOHN FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER
AND CARDINAL, MARTYR (A.D. 1535)
BEVERLEY, in Yorkshire, from which one St John, in
the eighth century, derived his surname, was the native place nearly
eight hundred years later of another and perhaps a greater, viz. St John
Fisher, bishop, cardinal and martyr. Born in 1469, the son of a small mercer
who died when his children were very young, John Fisher was sent to Cambridge
University at the age of fourteen. There he distinguished himself greatly
in his studies, was elected a fellow of Michaelhouse (since merged into
Trinity), and was ordained priest by special permission when he was only
twenty-two. He became successively senior proctor, doctor of divinity,
master of Michaelhouse, and vice-chancellor of the university. In 1502
he resigned his mastership to become the chaplain of the king's mother,
Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby. She appears first
to have made his acquaintance seven years earlier, when as senior proctor
he had visited the court at Greenwich on business; and, like everyone else
who knew him, she WdS deeply impressed by his scholarship and by his sanctity.
She was herself a capable and learned woman of great wealth, who, during
the lifetime of three husbands, had been involved in many political intrigues:
now finally a widow, she vowed to dedicate her remaining years to God under
the direction of Dr Fisher.
Under his guidance she made a noble use of her fortune.
By founding Christ's College and St John's College, Cambridge, to supersede
earlier and decadent institutions; by establishing there, as well as
at Oxford, a Lady Margaret divinity chair, and by other princely gifts,
she has come to be regarded-and justly so-as the greatest benefactress
Cambridge has ever known. The university's debt to St John Fisher is not
so universally recognized. When he went to Cambridge its scholarship
had sunk to a low ebb: no Greek or Hebrew was taught, and the library
had been reduced to 300 volumes. Not only did all the administrative work
in connection with Lady Margaret's benefactions fall upon his shoulders
during her life and after her death, but he did much, entirely on his own
initiative, to foster learning in the university. He endowed scholarships,
he re-introduced Greek and Hebrew into the curriculum, and he brought Erasmus
over to teach and to lecture.
In 1504 he was elected chancellor of the University
of Cambridge-a post which he continued to hold until his death. Later
in that same year King Henry VII nominated him to the bishopric of Rochester,
although he was only thirty-five years of age. He accepted with reluctance
an office which added the cares of a diocese to his work for Cambridge.
Nevertheless, he carried out his pastoral duties with a zeal and thoroughness
exceptional in those days. He held visitations, administered confirmation,
disciplined his clergy, visited the sick poor in their hovels, distributed
alms with his own hands, and exercised generous hospitality. Moreover,
he found time to write books and to continue his studies. He was forty-eight
when he began to learn Greek, and fifty-one when he started upon Hebrew.
The sermons he preached in 1509 for the funerals of Henry VII and of
Lady Margaret Beaufort have been preserved to us. Both of them are recognized
as English classics of the period; that on the king is particularly remarkable
as a noble and sincere tribute to the memory of a sovereign, with little
trace of the exaggerated and adulatory language almost universally employed
in such circumstances. St John Fisher's private life was most austere:
he limited his sleep to four hours, used the discipline freely and, though
his fare was of the scantiest, he kept a skull before him at meal-times
to remind himself of death. Books were his one earthly pleasure: and, with
a view to bequeathing his books to Cambridge, he formed a library which
was among the finest in Europe.
Personal ambition he had none and, when offered preferment
in the shape of wealthier sees, he refused them, saying that “he would
not leave his poor old wife for the richest widow in England". Because
of his learning and eloquence, he was specially selected to preach against
Lutheranism when it was found to be making headway-particularly in London
and in the universities. He also wrote four weighty volumes against Luther
which can claim the distinction of being the first books to be published
in refutation of the new doctrines. These and other literary works helped
to spread his fame abroad as well as at home. But when a Carthusian monk
afterwards congratulated him on the service he had thus rendered to the
Church, he expressed his regret that the time he had devoted to writing
had not been spent in prayer: prayer, he thought, would have done more
good and was of greater merit. Such was the man whom the Emperor Charles
V's ambassador described as "the paragon of Christian bishops for learning
and holiness", concerning whom young King Henry VIII was wont to boast
that no other prince or kingdom had so distinguished a prelate. With unclouded
vision John Fisher apprehended the evils of the time and the dangers that
threatened the Church of God. He was himself a reformer, but of abuses
and evils, not a deformer of religious truth. At a synod called by Cardinal
Wolsey in 1518 he boldly protested against the worldliness, the laxity
and the vanity of the higher clergy, the greater part of whom had won their
preferments through secular service to the state or by private interest.
Because, unlike them, he was not trying to serve two masters, he had no
hesitation, some nine years later, in upholding the validity of King Henry's
marriage to Catherine of Aragon when other men in high office were temporizing
or yielding.
He was chosen to be one of the queen's counsellors
in the nullity suit begun before Cardinal Campeggio at Blackfriars in
1529, and he proved to be her ablest champion. In an eloquent speech
before the court he demonstrated that the marriage was valid and that
it could be dissolved by no power, human or divine, winding up with the
reminder that the Baptist of old had died in defence of the marriage tie.
To his arguments, embodied in literary form and presented to the king,
Henry sent a furious reply, which with Fisher's marginal comments may still
be seen at the Record Office. Shortly afterwards the case was recalled to
Rome and Fisher's immediate connection with it ceased. He had upheld the
sanctity of marriage: he now became the champion of the rights of the Church
and the supremacy of the Pope. As a member of the House of Lords he denounced
the measures against the clergy which were being forced through the Commons:
"With them", he exclaimed, "is nothing but Down with the Church! ,,, He
uttered another great protest in Convocation when that assembly was called
upon to agree that Henry VIII was head of the Church in England. To him it
was due that the words "So far as the law of Christ allows" were added to
the form of assent that was eventually signed, but he regarded even that as
too much in the nature of a compromise.
The warnings of friends and the threats of his enemies
were not necessary to bring home to Bishop Fisher the danger he now
ran by his opposition to the ruling powers. Twice already he had suffered
short terms of imprisonment, at least one attempt was made to poison
him, and on another occasion a shot fired from across the river penetrated
his library window. Then came an unsuccessful effort on the part of Thomas
Cromwell to connect him with the affair of Elizabeth Barton, the "Holy
Maid of Kent". Eventually the passage into law of the bill of succession
provided his enemies with the means of securing his downfall. He was summoned
to Lambeth to subscribe to it, although he was so ill that he fainted on
the road between Rochester and London. To the actual succession he would
have been willing to agree, but he absolutely refused to take the oath in
the form presented because it was so worded as to make it practically an
oath of supremacy. "Not that I condemn any other men's conscience", he had
written to Cromwell. "Their conscience may save them, and mine must save
me." For the other bishops took the oath. John of Rochester was immediately
arrested and conveyed to the Tower.
An act of attainder of misprision
of treason was then passed against the prisoner; he was declared to be
degraded from his office and his see was pronounced vacant. He was sixty-six
years of age, but so reduced by physical ill-health, by his austerities,
and by all he had gone through that he looked more like a man of eighty-six.
His wasted body, we are told, could scarcely bear the weight of his
clothes. Three years earlier Cardinal Pole had reckoned him a dying man,
and he afterwards expressed his wonder that Fisher should have survived
the ordeal of a ten-months' imprisonment in the Bell Tower. In November
1534, a second act of attainder was passed upon him, but he still lingered
on in prison. By sending him the cardinal's hat, six months later, Pope
Paul III infuriated Henry VIII and hastened the end. "Let the pope
send him a hat", the king exclaimed, "I will so provide that whensoever
it cometh he shall wear it on his shoulders, for head he shall have
none to set it on." After that the result of his so-called trial was a
foregone conclusion, for the king's will was law. Though some of the judges
wept when the sentence was declared, John Fisher was condemned to death
on June 17, 1535.
Five days later, at five in the morning, he was roused
with the intelligence that he was to be executed that day. He asked
to be allowed to rest a little longer and he slept soundly for two hours.
He then dressed, putting on a fur tippet "to keep me warm for the while
until the very time of execution"; then he took his little New Testament,
and, with great difficulty owing to his excessive weakness, went down
the steps to the entrance from whence he was conveyed in a chair to the
Tower gate. There, as he leant against a wall before proceeding to the
place of execution, he opened his book with a prayer for some word of comfort.
The first words he saw were, it is said, those spoken by our Lord before
His passion; "This is life everlasting that they may know thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee upon
the earth; I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do." Thus fortified,
he walked up Tower Hill, mounted the scaffold unassisted, and in the customary
terms pardoned his executioner. As he stood up to address the crowd his
tall emaciated figure made him appear like a living skeleton. With a clear
voice he said that he was dying for the faith of Christ's holy Catholic
Church, and he asked the people to pray that he might be steadfast to the
end. After he had recited the Te Deum and the psalm In te Domine speravi,
he was blindfolded, and with one blow from the axe his head was severed from
his body. Henry's vindictive spirit pursued the martyr even beyond his death.
His body, after lying exposed all day, was thrust without shroud or rites
into a hole in All Hallows Barking churchyard, and his head was impaled
for fourteen days on London Bridge with the heads of the Carthusian martyrs,
seeming "as though it had been alive, looking upon the people coming into
London". A fortnight later it was thrown into the river, to make room for
St Thomas More's.
In May 1935, almost exactly four hundred years after
his death, John Fisher was solemnly numbered among the saints, together
with his friend and fellow martyr, Sir Thomas More; and on July 9 the
feast of these two martyrs is kept together throughout England and Wales,
and in the Scottish diocese of Dunkeld.
It might be said that to a very
large extent the Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign
of Henry VIII, published by the Record Office, supply the best materials
for the life of St John Fisher, but there is also an important biography
written by one who was in part a contemporary. In 1891-93 an accurate
edition of it, based upon a collation of the available manuscripts and of
the Latin translation, was produced by the Bollandist, Fr van Ortroy, and
printed in the Analecta Bollandiana,
vol. x and vol. xii. Another text was printed in 1915 by the Early English
Text Society. Both these preserved the original spelling, but in 1935 an
edition for popular perusal with modernized spelling was brought out, together
with an excellent introduction and occasional notes, by Fr Philip Hughes.
The author of this biography was not, as was for a long time supposed, Richard
Hall, though it was he who made the Latin version, but, most probably, Dr
John Young, vice-chancellor of Cambridge in Mary's reign. It seems to have
been written some time after 1567. But nearly all the materials available
for Fisher's life have been utilized in the great work of Fr T. Bridgett;
his Life of john Fisher (3rd ed.,
1902) is extremely thorough, discerning and spiritual, altogether a model
biography. See also the admirable lecture of E. A. Benians, entitled John Fisher (1935); N. M. Wilby's popular
sketch (1929); R. L. Smith, John Fisher
and Thomas More (1935). The E.E.T.S. has published Bishop Fisher's English Works (pt. i,
ed. J. E. B. Mayor, 1876; pt. ii, ed. R. Bayne, 1915).
St. John Fisher was born 1459 in Beverly, Yorkshire,
in 1459, and educated at Cambridge, from which he received his Master
of Arts degree in 1491. He occupied the vicarage of Northallerton, 1491-1494;
then he became proctor of Cambridge University. In 1497, he was appointed
confessor to Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, and became closely
associated in her endowments to Cambridge; he created scholarships, introduced
Greek and Hebrew into the curriculum, and brought in the world famous
Erasmus as professor of Divinity and Greek. In 1504, he became Bishop of
Rochester and Chancellor of Cambridge, in which capacity he also tutored
Prince Henry who was to become Henry VIII.
St. John was dedicated to the welfare of his diocese
and his university. From 1527, this humble servant of God actively opposed
the King's divorce proceedings against Catherine, his wife in the sight
of God, and steadfastly resisted the encroachment of Henry on the Church.
Unlike the other Bishops of the realm, St. John refused to take the oath
of succession which acknowledged the issue of Henry and Anne as the legitimate
heir to the throne, and he was imprisoned in the tower in April 1534. The
next year he was made a Cardinal by Paul III and Henry retaliated by having
him beheaded within a month. A half hour before his execution, this dedicated
scholar and churchman opened his New Testament for the last time and his
eyes fell on the following words from St. John's Gospel: "Eternal life is
this: to know You, the only true God, and Him Whom You have sent, Jesus Christ.
I have given You glory on earth by finishing the work You gave me to do.
Do You now, Father, give me glory at Your side". Closing the book, he observed:
"There is enough learning in that to last me the rest of my life."
John Fisher of Rochester BM (RM)
Born at Beverley, Yorkshire, England, 1469; died on Tower Hill, London,
on June 22, 1535; canonized in 1935; feast day formerly on June 13 (Roman
calendar) and July 9 (locally).
"Had you but tasted one drop of
the sweetness which inebriates the souls of those religious from their
worship of this Sacrament, you would never have written as you have, nor
have apostatized from the faith that you formerly professed. --John Fisher,
writing to the bishop of Winchester
The son of a textile merchant who died while John
was still a boy, Saint John Fisher was a Catholic of high ideals. He
was equally distinguished as a humanistic scholar, a fosterer of sound
learning in others, and a faithful bishop. Educated at Michaelhouse at
Cambridge (since merged into Trinity) from age 14, forever afterwards he
was connected with the life of the university. Fisher was ordained a priest
under a special dispensation at the age of 22. He became a doctor of divinity,
master of Michaelhouse, and vice chancellor.
In 1502, he resigned his mastership to become the
chaplain of the king's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, countess of Richmond
and Derby. Under his direction, Lady Margaret founded Christ's College
and Saint John's College at Cambridge, and established there and at Oxford
a Lady Margaret divinity chair. Because of this and other princely gifts,
she has come to be regarded as Cambridge's greatest benefactress.
Fisher's contributions have not been as readily recognized.
He was the first to fill the divinity chair at Cambridge. But more important
than that, he himself endowed scholarships, provided for Greek and Hebrew
in the curriculum, and engaged his friend, the famous humanist, Erasmus
as a professor of divinity and Greek at a time was the school's scholarship
was at its lowest ebb. Before that no Greek or Hebrew was taught, and
the library had been reduced to 300 volumes. In 1504, Fisher was elected
chancellor of the university. As such he did much to further the growth
and progress of his alma mater, of which he may justly be considered the
second founder.
John Fisher lived in the last days of Catholic England
and reached high office under Henry VII. After serving as chaplain to
his patron Margaret Beaufort, he was appointed bishop of Rochester in
1504. He was only 35 years old, young to be a bishop. He accepted the office
warily, as it added greatly to his responsibilities (he was still university
chancellor until his death). It was the smallest and poorest diocese in
England, but so great was his love for it that, later, he refused the richer
sees of Ely and Lincoln, saying he "would not leave his poor old wife for
the richest widow in England." The climate was so damp and the state of
his palace so ruinous that Erasmus, when staying with him, was appalled;
yet for 30 years Fisher chose to remain there and was one of the most faithful
of the English bishops of the period.
Fisher was
a zealous and thorough pastor. He regularly made visitations, administered
confirmation, disciplined his clergy, visited the sick poor, and distributed
alms with his own hands. His personal life was strict and simple. "He
kept a good table for every one but himself." He was such an articulate
preacher that when King Henry VII died in 1509, he preached the funeral
sermon, as he did for Lady Margaret in her turn.
He discharged his public offices
with dignity and courage. His reputation both at home and abroad was
that of a great and distinguished figure. In the words of Erasmus: "There
is not in the nation a more learned man nor a holier bishop." Henry VIII,
before Fisher had roused his vindictive rage, openly gloried "that no
other prince or kingdom had so distinguished a prelate."
During this time, he continued
to write books and pursue his own studies, beginning to learn Greek
at age 48, and Hebrew at 51. Fisher lived austerely, sleeping and eating
little, and he kept a skull in front of him at meals to remind himself
of his mortality. He formed one of the most exceptional libraries in Europe
with the intention of bequeathing it to the university.
Fisher fully realized the urgent need of reform in
the church, from popes and bishops downwards, but was opposed to Lutheran
ideas of reform and wrote four weighty volumes against them. He preached
at Paul's Cross in defense of Christian doctrine when Luther's books were
banned and burned. Yet he preferred prayer and example before controversy.
With the utmost boldness
and not without justification, Fisher censured the clergy at a synod
in the presence of Cardinal Wolsey himself for their corruption, vanity,
laxity, and love of gain. Most of the higher clergy had won their preferments
through secular service to the state or by private interest. As a member
of the House of Lords, Fisher vigorously opposed the government's policy
of war and criticized the measures against the clergy that were being forced
through the Commons. He uttered another great protest in convocation when
that assembly was called upon to agree that Henry VIII was the head of
the Church of England. He did suggest adding to the oath the words, "So
far as the law of Christ allows" which smoothed the path of many who signed.
But boldest of all was his uncompromising attitude to the scandalous divorce
of Catherine of Aragon by Henry.
As Queen Catherine's confessor, he appeared
on her behalf before the commissioners at Blackfriars in 1529 and also
spoke and wrote vigorously against it. This infuriated the king and when,
later, Fisher refused to take the Oath of Supremacy acknowledging the
king to be head of the English Church, he was deprived of his bishopric and
committed to the Tower.
The warnings of friends and the
threats of his enemies were not necessary to bring home to Fisher the
danger he now ran by his opposition to the ruling powers. Despite being
imprisoned for two short periods, and being the object of poisoning and
a shooting attempt, Fisher persisted in espousing his views. Thomas Cromwell
unsuccessfully tried to link him with Elizabeth Barton, the 'Holy Maid
of Kent,' a nun who had trances and made personal attacks upon Henry for
trying to divorce the queen.
He was summoned to Lambeth,
despite being so ill that he fainted on the road between Rochester and
London, to sign the oath of the bill of succession. He refused, because
it was in essence an oath of supremacy. He was at Rochester at the time
he was arrested, and from the country round people flocked into the city
to bid him farewell. After settling his affairs and making gifts to the
poor, he rode bareheaded through the streets giving his blessing to the crowd.
On his arrival in London, when
confronted with the Oath he replied: "My answer is that forasmuch as
mine own conscience cannot be satisfied, I do absolutely refuse the
Oath. I do not condemn any other men's consciences. Their consciences
may save them, and mine must save me."
In April 1534, the 66-year-old prelate began a 15-
month imprisonment in the Tower of London, his property was confiscated,
and he was stripped of his offices. A confidential messenger from Henry
asked him to declare, for the king's ears alone, his opinion on royal
supremacy. His negative opinion sealed his conviction.
During this time Pope Paul III
named him a cardinal. King Henry was furious, and within a month Fisher
was brought to trial in Westminster Hall, charged with treason in that
he had denied the king's ecclesiastical supremacy and found guilty. Some
of the judges cried as "the most holy and learned prelate in Christendom"
was sentenced to death on June 17, 1535.
On a June morning a few days later, John was awakened
at 5:00 a.m. and told that he was to be executed that day. He asked
to rest a little longer and slept for two hours. So frail and emaciated
by illness that he could barely stand, Fisher was carried in a chair from
the Tower to the place of execution.
He courteously thanked his guards for their attentive
trouble and pains. Saying that he was dying for he faith, he asked the
people to pray that he might have courage. He carried his little New
Testament, and at Tower Gate opened it at the words: "This is life eternal,
that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou
hast sent. I have glorified Thee upon the earth, I have finished the work
which Thou gavest me to do" (John 17:3- 5).
Closing the book, he said: "Here is learning enough
for me to my life's end." As he mounted the scaffold, facing the morning
sun, he lifted his hands and cried: "They had an eye unto Him, and were
lightened; and their faces were not ashamed." Then kneeling in prayer,
he repeated Psalm 31, In Thee, O Lord, have I put my trust (others say
that he died with the words of the Te Deum on his lips), and was beheaded
with an axe.
His friend Thomas More wrote of Saint John of Rochester:
"I reckon in this realm no one man, in wisdom, learning, and long approved
virtue together, meet to be matched and compared with him."
John Fisher was buried in the churchyard of All Hallows,
Barking, without rites or a shroud. His head was exhibited on London
Bridge for two weeks, then was thrown into the Thames (Attwater, Benedictines,
Bentley, Gill, Hughes, Reynolds, Surtz, Walsh, White).
In art, Saint John Fisher shown robed as cardinal,
with haggard ascetic features, or with an axe or his hat at his feet
(White.)
|
1535
St. Thomas More Martyr (Patron of Lawyers) 1516 wrote "Utopia" refused
to render allegiance to the King as the Head of the Church of England
Londíni in
Anglia, sancti Joánnis Fisher, Epíscopi Roffénsis
et Cardinális, qui pro fide cathólica et Románi
Pontificis primátu, jubénte Henríco Octávo
Rege, decollátus est.
At London in England, on Tower Hill, St. John Fisher, bishop of Rochester
and cardinal of the Holy Roman Church. For the defence of the Catholic
faith and the primacy of the Roman Pontiff he was beheaded by order
of King Henry VIII.
ST THOMAS MORE, MARTYR (A.D. 1535)
AT either end of the medieval
monarchy in England stands the figure of a great martyr: one gave his
life to make the Church in this country safe from royal aggression for
three hundred and fifty years, the other in a vain effort to save it from
the like aggression; each was named Thomas, each was chancellor of the realm,
each was a royal favourite who loved God more than his king; the coincidence
is remarkable, though on closer examination the resemblance seems suddenly
to end: yet the contrast is after all largely one of difference in timebetween
the late twelfth century and the full tide of the Renaissance-and in
status; Thomas Becket was a churchman, Thomas More a layman.
More's father was Sir John More,
barrister-at-Iaw and judge, and he was born of his first wife Agnes,
daughter of Thomas Grainger, in Milk Street, Cheapside, on February 6,
1478. He was sent as a child to St Antony's School in Threadneedle Street,
and at thirteen was received into the household of Morton, Archbishop of
Canterbury, who had sufficient opinion of his promise to send him to Oxford,
where he was entered at Canterbury College (afterwards absorbed into Christ
Church). Sir John was strict with his son, allowed him money only against
bills for necessaries, and with nothing for himself; if young Thomas grumbled
about this (and no doubt he did), he afterwards saw the sense of it: it
had kept him out of mischief and he was not tempted away from the studies
which he loved. But his father called him home when he had been only two
years at the university. In February 1496, being now eighteen, he was admitted
a student of Lincoln's Inn; he was called to the bar in 1501, and in 1504
he entered Parliament. He was already bosom friends with Erasmus, Dean Colet
was his confessor, he made Latin epigrams from the Greek Anthology with
William Lilly, lectured on St Augustine's de Civitate Dei at St Lawrence
Jewry. He was a brilliant and successful young man and popular.
On the other hand, he was for
a time very seriously perturbed about his vocation in life. For four
years he lived at the London Charterhouse, and was indubitably drawn to
the Carthusian life; alternatively, the possibility of becoming a Friar
Minor engaged his attention. But he could find no assurance of his calling
either to the monastic life or the secular priesthood; to be an unworthy
priest was the last thing he wanted; and so in the early part of 1505 he
married. Nevertheless, though a man of the world in the good sense of that
expression, he had none of that contempt for asceticism which characterized
so many at the Renaissance: from somewhere about his eighteenth year he
wore a hair-shirt (to the amusement of his daughter-in-law, Anne Cresacre),
and used the discipline on Fridays and vigils; he assisted at Mass every
day and daily recited the Little Office. "I never saw anyone", says Erasmus,
"so indifferent about food....Otherwise, he has no aversion from what gives
harmless pleasure to the body."
Thomas More's first wife, "uxorcula
Mori", as he called her, was Jane, the eldest daughter of John Colt of
Nether-hall in Essex. We learn from his son-inlaw, William Roper, that
More's mind "most served him to the second daughter, for that he thought
her the fairest and best favoured, yet when he considered that it would
be both great grief and some shame also to the eldest to see her younger
sister preferred before her in marriage, he then, of a certain pity, framed
his fancy toward her, and soon after married her". That, surely, was an
act of pietas rather than pity and is worth recording both for what it tells
about More and also as an instructive example of the shifting standards
of what may be required of an English gentleman. They were happy together,
and they had four children, Margaret, Elizabeth, Cecilia and John. More's
household was a seat of learning and accomplishment which, from its lack
of dilettantism, would today be dubbed "highbrow"; he was all for educating
women, not from any doctrinaire feminism, but as a reasonable thing, recommended
by the prudent and holy ancients, such as St Jerome and St Augustine, "not
to speak of the rest". All the family and servants met together for night-prayers,
and at meals a pericope from the Scriptures, with a short commentary,
was read aloud by one of the children: this done, discussion and jesting
followed; but cards and dicing he forbade in his house. He endowed a chapel
in his parish church of Chelsea, and even when chancellor would sing in
the choir, dressed in a surplice. "More was used, whenever in his house
or in the village he lived in there was a woman in labour, to begin praying,
and so continue until news was brought him that the delivery had come happily
to pass....He used himself to go through the back lanes and inquire into
the state of poor families...He often invited to his table his poorer neighbours,
receiving them...familiarly and joyously; he rarely invited the rich,
and scarcely ever the nobility" (Stapleton, Tres Thomae). But if the rich and great
were rarely seen at his house, such men as Grocyn, Linacre, Colet, Lilly,
Fisher, the religious and learned, not only of London but from the continent
as well, were ever-welcome visitors, and no one was more frequent or more
welcome than Desiderius Erasmus. Attempts have been made to misrepresent
this friendship: some Protestants by maximizing the alleged unorthodoxy
of Erasmus, some Catholics by minimizing the warmth of the friendship.
There is no testimony better than More's own: "For had I found with Erasmus
my darling the shrewd intent and purpose that I find in Tyndale, Erasmus
my darling should be no more my darling. But I find in Erasmus my darling
that he detesteth and abhorreth the errors and heresies that Tyndale plainly
teacheth and abideth by, and therefore Erasmus my darling shall be my darling
still."
During his first period of married
life More lived in Bucklersbury, in the parish of St Peter Walbrook.
In 1509 Henry VII died. More had led the opposition in Parliament to this
king's monetary exactions, and his success had caused his father to be
imprisoned in the Tower and fined £100. The accession of Henry VIII
was to mean an accession of worldly fortune to the young lawyer, and in
the next year it was presaged by his being elected a reader of Lincoln's
Inn and appointed undersheriff of the City of London; but almost at the
same time the "little Utopia of his own" was abruptly shaken: his beloved
wife, Jane Colt, died. Within a few weeks he had married another, Alice
Middleton. Quite a lot of nonsense has been written about this second and
so quick marriage, but the position is clear. More was a man of sense as
well as of sensibility, and he had four young children on his hands: so he
married a widow, seven years older than himself, an experienced housewife,
talkative, kindly and full of unimaginative common sense. Some writers have
tried to see a double martyrdom for More: but it is no reproach to Mistress
Alice that she could not live up to her second husband; she was no Xanthippe,
and probably his only real complaint (ifhe can be imagined complaining) would
be that she did not appreciate his jokes-an undeniable trial of patience.
More now moved from Bucklersbury to Crosby Place, in what was then Bishopsgate
Street Within; he did not go to his new house in Chelsea until some twelve
years later.
In 1516 he finished writing
Utopia. This is not the place
to discuss the significance of that book; it is enough to say with Sir
Sidney Lee that, "More's practical opinion on religion and politics must
be sought elsewhere than in the Utopia". The king and Wolsey were now
determined to have More's services at court; if the idea was not repugnant
to him, he was at least unwilling: he knew too much about kings and courts,
and that the good life was not there. But he did not refuse, and he received
a rapid succession of preferments till he became, in October 1529, lord
chancellor, in succession to the disgraced Wolsey. Contemporary records enable
us to see Sir Thomas from two different sides at this period. Erasmus wrote:
"In serious matters no man's advice is more prized, while if the king wishes
to recreate himself, no man's conversation is gayer. Often there are deep
and intricate matters that demand a grave and prudent judge. More unravels
them in such a way that he satisfies both sides. No one, however, has ever
prevailed on him to receive a gift for his decision. Happy the commonwealth
where kings appoint such officials! His elevation has brought with it no
pride...You would say that he had been appointed the public guardian of all
those in need." From a yet more intimate knowledge, the Carthusian John Bouge
wrote in 1535 : "Item, as for Sir Thomas More, he was my parishioner at London...This
Mr More was my ghostly child; in his confession [he used] to be so pure,
so clean, with great study, deliberation and devotion, I never heard many
such. A gentleman of great learning both in law, art, and divinity...." Yet
Sir Thomas was as good a courtier as a Christian man and a saint can be,
and that does not mean to say he was not a very good one. Nor yet was the
friendship with Henry VIII one-sided: More retained
his master's familiar affection, and never failed in it-but he had no illusions
about him: "Son Roper, I may tell thee, I have no cause to be proud thereof,
for if my head would win him a castle in France, it should not fail to
go."
At the time when he was appointed
lord chancellor, Sir Thomas More was engaged in writing against Protestantism,
and particularly in opposition to Tyndale. Though some complained at
the time that his controversial writing was insufficiently solemn, and
others have complained since that it was insufficiently refined, his tone
was much more moderate than was usual in the sixteenth centruy; "integrity
and uprightness" characterized his polemics, and he always preferred ridicule
to denunciation when sober and pitiless argument would not serve. But
if More had the best of the argument, Tyndale was the better writer: More
could not match his clear, terse English and perfect phrasing; he took
six pages to say what Tyndale could say in one. Statements to the contrary
notwithstanding, there is no doubt that More's attitude towards heretics
was one of scrupulous fairness and notable moderation. It was to heresy
and not the persons of heretics that he was opposed and "of all that ever
came in my hand for heresy, as help me God, saving (as I said) the sure keeping
of them...had never any of them any stripe or stroke given them, so much
as a fillip on the forehead."
It is interesting, too, to read his view of the then
acute question of free circulation of vernacular Bibles.
He advocated the dissemination
of certain books thereof, but the reading of others should be at the
discretion of each individual's ordinary, who would probably "suffer
some to read the Acts of the Apostles, whom he would not suffer to meddle
with the Apocalypse": just as "a father doth by his discretion appoint
which of his children may for his sadness [i.e. seriousness] keep a knife
to cut his meat, and which shall for his wantonness have his knife taken
from him for cutting of his fingers. And thus am I bold, without prejudice
of other men's judgement, to show you my mind in this matter, how the Scripture
might without great peril, and not without great profit, be brought into
our tongue and taken to lay men and women both, not yet meaning thereby
but that the whole Bible might for my mind be suffered to be spread abroad
in English...Among [the clergy] I have perceived some of the greatest
and of the best of their own minds well inclinable thereto."
When King Henry VIII imposed
on the clergy the acknowledgement of himself as "Protector and Supreme
Head of the Church of England", to which Convocation managed to add, "so
far as the law of Christ allows", More, according to Chapuys, the ambassador
of the emperor, wished to resign his office, but was persuaded to retain
it and also to give his attention to Henry's" great matter". This was the
petition for a declaration of nullity ab initio of his marriage with Catherine
of Aragon, commonly called in English history the king's " divorce". The
matter was involved, both as to the facts and the law, and was one in which
men of good-will might well disagree; More upheld the validity of the marriage,
but was allowed at his own wish to stand aside from the controversy.
When in March 1531 he had to announce the then state of the case to the
Houses of Parliament, he was asked for and refused to give his own opinion.
But the position was fast becoming impossible. In 1532 the king proposed
to forbid the clergy to prosecute heretics or to hold any meeting without
his permission, and in May a parliamentary bill was introduced to withhold
from the Holy See the firstfruits of bishoprics (annates); Sir Thomas opposed
all these measures openly, and the king was greatly angered. On May 16
he accepted his chancellor's resignation, after he had held office for less
than three years.
The loss of his official salary
reduced More to little better than poverty; he had drastically to reduce
his household and state, and gathering his family around him he explained
the position to them in a good-humoured statement, ending up, "then may
we yet with bags and wallets go a-begging together, and hoping that for
pity some good folk will give us their charity, at every man's door to
sing Salve regin " and so still keep company and be merry together". For
eighteen months he lived very quietly, engaging himself in writing, and
he refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn. His enemies missed no
opportunity to harass him, as when they implicated him in the case of Elizabeth
Barton, the "Holy Maid of Kent", and caused his name to be included in
her bill of attainder, for misprision of treason; but the Lords wished to
hear him in his own defence, which did not suit the king and he withdrew
the charge. But the time was soon at hand. On March 30, 1534, the Act of
Succession provided for the taking of an oath by the king's subjects recognizing
succession to the throne in the offspring of Henry and Anne Boleyn; to which
were later added particulars that his union with Catherine of Aragon had
been no true marriage, that his union with Anne Boleyn was a true marriage,
and repudiating the authority of "any foreign authority, prince or potentate".
To oppose the act was high treason, and only a week before Pope Clement
VII had pronounced the marriage of Henry and Catherine to be valid.
Many Catholics took the oath with the reservation "so far as it be not contrary
to the law of God". On April 13 Sir Thomas More and John Fisher, Bishop
of Rochester, were tendered the oath before the commission at Lambeth; they
refused it. Thomas was committed to the custody of the Abbot of Westminster.
Cranmer advised the king to compromise, but he would not; so the oath was
again tendered and again refused, and More was imprisoned in the Tower-in
itself an illegal proceeding on the part of the commissioners, for the proffered
oath did not agree with the statute.
During the fifteen months that
Thomas was in the Tower two things stand out, his quiet serenity under
so unjust a captivity and his tender love for his eldest daughter, Margaret.
The two are seen together in his letters to and recorded conversations
with her there, as in the beautiful passage quoted by Roper, ending, "I
find no cause, I thank God, Meg, to reckon myself in worse case here than
at home, for methinks God maketh me a wanton and setteth me on His lap
and dandleth me". The efforts of his family to induce him to come to terms
with the king were fruitless; his custody was made more rigorous and visitors
forbidden, so he began to write the Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation,
the best of his spiritual works, in which a French writer, the Abbe Bremond,
sees a forerunner of St Francis de Sales, and an Englishman, the late W.
H. Hutton, of Jeremy Taylor. In November he was attainted of misprision
of treason and, but for a small pension from the Order of St John of Jerusalem,
rendered penniless by forfeiture of the lands formerly granted by the Crown;
Lady More had to sell her clothes to buy necessaries for him, and twice
in vain petitioned the king for his release, pleading his sickness and poverty.
On February I, 1535, the Acts of Supremacy came into operation, which gave
the title of "only supreme head of the Church of England" to the king and
made it treason to deny it. In April Cromwell came to ask More his opinion
of this bill, but he would not give one. On May 4 his daughter visited
him for the last time, and together they watched the first three Carthusian
monks and their companions go to martyrdom: "Lo I dost thou not see, Meg,
that these blessed fathers be now as cheerfully going to their deaths as
bridegrooms to their marriage?...Whereas thy silly father, Meg, that like
a most wicked caitiff hath passed forth the whole course of his miserable
life most sinfully, God, thinking him not so worthy so soon to come to
that eternal felicity, leaveth him here yet still in the world further
to be plagued and turmoiled with misery." When a few days later Cromwell
and others again examined him on the statute and taunted him for his silence,
he replied: "1 have not been a man of such holy living as I might be bold
to offer myself to death, lest God for my presumption might suffer me to
fall."
On June 19 the second three
Carthusians suffered, and on the 22nd, the feast of St Alban, protomartyr
of Britain, St John Fisher was beheaded on Tower Hill. Nine days later St
Thomas More was indicted and tried in Westminster Hall; he was very weak
from illness and long captivity, and was permitted to sit during the proceedings.
The charge was that he had in divers ways opposed the Act of Supremacy in
conversation with the members of the council who had visited him in prison
and in an alleged conversation with Rich, the solicitor general. St Thomas
maintained that he had always kept silence on the subject and that Rich was
swearing falsely; and he reminded the jury that, "Ye must understand that,
in things touching conscience, every true and good subject is more bound
to have respect to his said conscience and to his soul than to any other
thing in all the world beside...". He was found guilty and condemned to death.
Then at last he spoke, categorically denying that "a temporal lord could
or ought to be head of the spirituality", and ending that, as St Paul had
persecuted St Stephen "and yet be they now both twain holy saints in Heaven,
and shall continue there friends for ever, so I verily trust, and shall therefore
right heartily pray, that though your lordships have now here on earth been
judges of my condemnation, we may yet hereafter in Heaven merrily all meet
together to everlasting salvation". On his way back to the Tower he said
farewell to his son and daughter, most movingly described by Roper, and the
martyr referred to it four days later in a last letter which he sent to
her with his hair-shirt (most of which relic is now in the care of the Austin
canonesses at Newton Abbot, founded at Louvain by the daughter of More's
adopted child, Margaret Clement): "I love when daughterly love and dear charity
hath no desire to look to worldly courtesy."
Early on Tuesday, July 6, Sir
Thomas Pope came to warn him that he was to die that day at nine o'clock
(the king had commuted the sentence from hanging and quartering to beheading);
whereupon St Thomas thanked him, said he would pray for the king, and
comforted his weeping friend. He then put on his best clothes, walked
quietly to Tower Hill, speaking to sundry persons on the way, and mounted
the scaffold, with a jest for the lieutenant. He invoked the prayers of
the people, protested that he died for the Holy Catholic Church and was
"the king's good servant-but God's first", and said the psalm Miserere; he kissed and encouraged
the headsman, covered his own eyes and adjusted his beard, and so was beheaded
at one stroke. He was fifty-seven years old.
His body was buried somewhere
in the church of St Peter ad Vincula within the Tower; his head, after
being exposed on London Bridge, was begged by Margaret Roper and laid
in the Roper vault in the church of St Dunstan, outside the West Gate of
Canterbury, beneath the floor at the east end of the south aisle.
More was equivalently beatified
with other English martyrs in 1886, and canonized in 1935. But, as
has been pointed out more than once, had he never met his death as he
did he would have been a good candidate for canonization as a confessor.
Some saints have attained their honours by redeeming an indifferent or
even sinful life by martyrdom; not so Thomas More. He was from first to
last a holy man, living in the spirit of his own prayer: "Give me, good
Lord, a longing to be with thee: not for the avoiding of the calamities
of this wicked world, nor so much for the avoiding of the pains of Purgatory,
nor of the pains of Hell neither, nor so much for the attaining of the
joys of Heaven in respect of mine own commodity, as even for a very love
of thee." And this when his ways were cast, not in the cloister, but in
the ordinary places of the world-home and family, among scholars and lawyers,
in tribunals, council-chambers, and royal courts.
The earliest formal biography of
St Thomas More, that by Nicholas Harpsfield, has been edited by E. V. Hitchcock
and R. W. Chambers (1932), and that by his son-in-law, Wm. Roper, by E. V.
Hitchcock (1935), both published by the E.E.T.S. The first printed life was
Thomas Stapleton's in Tres Thomae
(1588; Eng. trans., 1928). The very valuable life by "Ro: Ba:"
(c. 1599) was edited by Miss Hitchcock, Mgr Hallett and Prof. A. W. Reed
in 1950 (E.E.T.S.). A fourth life, by his great-grandson, Cresacre More,
appeared before 1631. An edition of his English Works, ed. W. E. Campbell and
others, is in progress ; The Dialogue...concerning
Tyndale (with valuable supplementary matter) and the Early Works are issued. A. Taft edited
the Apologye for the E.E.T.S.
(1930); it contains in text and notes much useful detail bearing on
More's dealings with heretics. Father Bridgett's Life of Sir Thomas More (1891), with his
supplementary booklets, still remain the fullest source of information for
the reader who is not a specialist; but the best general life of all is R.
W. Chambers's Thomas More (1935)
j cf. review in Analecta Bollandiana,
vol. liv (1936), p. 245. There are shorter recent biographies by J.
Clayton, C. Hollis, D. Sargent, T. Maynard and others; and an excellent
work by E. E. Reynolds (1953). More's Correspondence has been edited
by E. F. Rogers (Princeton, 1947). But the bibliography of More is very
long.
St. Thomas More was born at London in 1478. After a
thorough grounding in religion and the classics, he entered Oxford to study
law. Upon leaving the university he embarked on a legal career which took
him to Parliament. In 1505, he married his beloved Jane Colt who bore him
four children, and when she died at a young age, he married a widow, Alice
Middleton, to be a mother for his young children. A wit and a reformer,
this learned man numbered Bishops and scholars among his friends, and by 1516
wrote his world-famous book "Utopia".
He attracted the attention of Henry
VIII who appointed him to a succession of high posts and missions, and
finally made him Lord Chancellor in 1529. However, he resigned in 1532,
at the height of his career and reputation, when Henry persisted in holding
his own opinions regarding marriage and the supremacy of the Pope. The
rest of his life was spent in writing mostly in defense of the Church.
In 1534, with his close friend,
St. John Fisher, he refused to render allegiance to the King as the Head
of the Church of England and was confined to the Tower. Fifteen months
later, and nine days after St. John Fisher's execution, he was tried and
convicted of treason. He told the court that he could not go against his
conscience and wished his judges that "we may yet hereafter in heaven merrily
all meet together to everlasting salvation." And on the scaffold, he told
the crowd of spectators that he was dying as "the King's good servant-but
God's first." He was beheaded on July 6, 1535.
Thomas More M (RM) Born in London, England, 1478;
died there in 1535; canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935 as the "Martyr
of the Papacy"; feast day formerly on July 6.
"If I am distracted, Holy Communion
helps me become recollected. If opportunities are offered by each day
to offend my God, I arm myself anew each day for the combat by reception
of the Eucharist.
If I am in need of special light and prudence in order to discharge
my burdensome duties,
I draw nigh to my Savior and seek counsel and light from Him."
--Saint Thomas More
"These things, good Lord, that we pray for, give us
Thy grace to labor for." --Saint Thomas More.
"It is a shorter thing and sooner done, to write heresies,
than to answer them." --Saint Thomas More.
Thomas More studied at Canterbury
Hall, Oxford, and read law at the Inns of Court, being called to the
bar in 1501. Thomas was happiest in the bosom of his family--three generations
living under one roof in Chelsea, and the congenial group of poets, scientists,
and humanists that often gathered in his home, rather than at court.
Henry VIII was a man of rare personal magnetism; even
Sir Thomas yielded to his charm. Thomas's daughter Margaret married
Roper, who writes of More's friendship with Henry VIII: when the king
had finished his devotions on holy days, he would talk to More about diverse
matters, often far into the night. More often dined with the king and
queen. Thomas would try to get two days per month to spend with his family,
but he would be recalled to court. So Thomas tried to change his disposition
before the king to be less likable, until the king started to come to Chelsea
with Thomas and to be merry there. He recognized early that Henry's whims
might prove dangerous to Thomas's health and life.
More had considered the priesthood
in his youth, and of joining the Franciscans, but his confessor advised
against it. In 1505, he married Jane Colt, though it is said he preferred
her younger sister. She bore him four children: Margaret (married Roper);
Elizabeth, Cecily, and John. In the evening, Jane would study for an
hour or two because Thomas wished her to be a scholar, or she would sing
or play the clavichord. Jane died in 1510.
Soon after Jane's death, he married Alice Middleton,
an older woman. Margaret, the eldest child, was five. Alice was unlearned,
but had a great sense of humor. Thomas scolded her for her vanity and
she reproached him for his lack of ambition. More cared strongly
for his children and their education, especially for Margaret. His home
was a menagerie of birds, monkeys, foxes, ferrets, weasels, etc.
More rose rapidly in public life despite
his lack of ambition. He was a renowned lawyer and elected to Parliament
in 1504 (at age 22). In 1510, he was appointed Undersheriff of London;
1518, Secretary to Henry VIII; 1521, he was knighted; 1523, chosen Speaker
of Parliament; 1529, Lord Chancellor in succession to Cardinal Wolsey.
Nevertheless, he continued to read, study, and write, and is known more
as a scholar than as a jurist. Yet he was realistic and wrote in Utopia
(1516), "philosophy had no place among kings....it is not possible for
all things to be well, unless all men were good, which I think will not
be this good many years."
He had a horror of luxury and
worldly pomp. He found the lies and flatteries of court nauseating. It
wearied him to be constantly at the King's command. He felt the scholars
life was conducive to a virtuous life of piety toward God and service
of his neighbor.
Virtue and religion were the supreme concerns of his
life. He considered pride the chief danger of education. Education should
inculcate a spirit of detachment from riches and earthly possessions,
along with a spirit of gentleness.
During Henry's reign, 12,000 people were put to death
for theft. Thomas as Chancellor was hesitant to apply the death
penalty to heretics.
More was a leader of the humanists,
champion of the study of Greek and Latin classics, sympathetic to the
Renaissance, and an advocate of needed Church reform; yet he was grounded
in the Catholic tradition of the Middle Ages. He was also a friend of
Erasmus. In 1527,
Erasmus wrote in a letter, "I
wrote the Praise of Folly in times of peace;
I should never have written it if I had foreseen this tempest"
of the Reformation.
Again, Erasmus in a letter to
a monk about to leave his monastery, "...I see no one becoming better,
every one becoming worse, so that I am deeply grieved that in my writings
I once preached the liberty of the spirit....What I desired then was that
the abatement of external ceremonies might much redound to the increase
of true piety. But as it is, the ceremonies have been so destroyed that
in place of them we have not the liberty of the spirit but the unbridled
license of the flesh....What liberty is that which forbids us to say our
prayers, and forbids us the sacrifice of the Mass?"
Thomas More did not think his Utopia, which is written
in Latin, could be safely read by the multitude.
"Doubtless Christ could have
caused the apostles not to sleep at all, but to stay awake, if that had
been what He wished in an absolute and unqualified sense. But actually
His wish was qualified by a condition -- namely that they themselves wish
to do so, and wish it so effectually that each of them do his very best
to comply with the outward command Christ Himself gave and to cooperate
with the promptings of His inward assistance. In this way He also wishes
for all men to be saved and for no one to suffer eternal torment, that is,
always provided that we conform to His most loving will and do not set ourselves
against it through our own willful malice. If someone stubbornly insists
on doing this, God does not want to waft him off to heaven against his will,
as if He were in need of our services there and could not continue His
glorious reign without our support. Indeed, if He could not reign without
us, He would immediately punish many offenses which now, out of consideration
for us, He tolerates and overlooks for a long time to see if His kindness
and patience will bring us to repent. But we meanwhile abuse this great mercy
of His by adding sins to sins, thus heaping up for ourselves (as the apostle
says) a treasure of wrath on the day of wrath (Rom 2:5).
"Nevertheless, such is God's
kindness that even when we are negligent and slumbering on the pillow
of our sins, He disturbs us from time to time, shakes us, strikes us, and
does His best to wake us up by means of tribulations. But still, even though
He thus proves Himself to be most loving even in His anger, most of us
in our gross human stupidity misinterpret His action and imagine that such
a great benefit is an injury, whereas actually (if we have any sense) we
should feel bound to pray frequently and fervently that whenever we wander
away from Him He may use blows to drive us back to the right way, even though
we are unwilling and struggle against Him.
"Thus we must first pray that we may see the way and
with the Church we must say to God, "From blindness of heart, deliver
us, O Lord." And with the prophet we must say, "Teach me to do your will"
and "Show me your ways and teach me your paths." Then we must intensely
desire to run after you eagerly, O God, in the odor of your ointments, in
the most sweet scent of your Spirit. But if we grow weary along the way
(as we almost always do) and lag so far behind that we barely manage to
follow at a distance, let us immediately say to God, "Take my right hand"
and "Lead me along your path."
"Then if we are so overcome by weariness that we no
longer have the heart to go on, if we are so soft and lazy that we are
about to stop altogether, let us beg God to drag us along even as we struggle
not to go. Finally, if we resist when He draws on us gently, and are stiff-necked
against the will of God, against our own salvation, utterly irrational
like horses and mules which have no intellects, we ought to beseech God
humbly in the most fitting words of the prophet: "Hold my jaws hard, O
God, with a bridle and bit when I do not draw near to you" (Ps 32:9)." --Saint
Thomas More in The Sadness of Christ
|
1968 Relics of the
Great St. Mark the Apostle by the hand of Pope Paul the Sixth, Pope
of Rome. opening of the new St. Mark Cathedral
On this day, of the year 1684 A.M., that coincided
with Saturday the 22nd of June, 1968 A.D., and in the tenth year of the
papacy of Pope Kyrillos the sixth, 116th Pope of Alexandria, the official
delegation of the Pope of Alexandria received the relics of the great St.
Mark the Apostle, the evangelist of the Egyptian land and the first Patriarch
of the See of St. Mark from the hand of Pope Paul the Sixth, Pope of Rome,
in the Papal palace, Vatican City.
The delegation consisted of ten metropolitans and
bishops, seven of them were Coptic and three Ethiopians, and three lay
leaders. The Alexandrian papal delegation left Cairo on Thursday the
23rd day of Baounah, 1684 A.M. (June 20th, 1968 A.D.) on a special plane
accompanied by 90 of the Coptic personalities, among them, seven priests.
They were received by a delegation of cardinals and priests delegated
by Pope Paul the Sixth, and the ambassador of Egypt to the Vatican, at
the airport in Rome.
Twelve o'clock, the morning of Saturday the 15th of
Baounah (June 22nd), was the appointed time for the Alexandrian Papal
delegation to meet the Pope of Rome and receive the relics of St. Mark
the Apostle. At the appointed time, the delegation went in headed by
Anba Marcus, metropolitan of Abu-Teeg and Tahta, and were received by
Pope Paul VI in his private office. Pope Paul greeted the delegation,
commending Pope Kyrillos the sixth, and the church of Alexandria. He congratulated
the delegation on the opening of the new St. Mark Cathedral and the receiving
of the relics of St. Mark. Anba Marcus, the head of the delegation, replied
with a short speech, in which he carried the greetings of his brother,
the Pope of Alexandria. Then he handed him a letter from Pope Kyrillos
the sixth, thanking him and introducing the members of the delegation.
Pope of Rome, along with the
head of the Alexandrian delegation, then carried the box that contained
the relics of St. Mark. They all walked in a procession to a grand room,
which was prepared to receive the Copts, accompanied by the official delegates
to witness this historical and joyful moment. The box containing the
relics was placed on a special table. The Roman Pontiff came forward and
knelt before the box and kissed it. He was followed by Anba Marcus, the
head of the Alexandrian Papal delegation, who was followed by the members
of the delegation. During the veneration of the relics of St. Mark the Apostle,
the Coptic priests and deacons present chanted appropriate ecclesiastical
hymns. Joy filled the hearts of everyone, Egyptian and foreign. An atmosphere
of spirituality and holiness filled the room.
The Roman Pope then sat on his throne, and Anba Gregorius,
bishop of higher studies and scientific research, gave a speech in English,
representing the delegation. He expressed in it the greetings of Pope
Kyrillos the Sixth, and the joy of the Christians of Egypt and Ethiopia
for the return of the relics of St. Mark the Apostle after eleven centuries.
During which the body of St. Mark was absent from the country in which
he was martyred.
Pope of Rome, replied in an official speech in French,
that he read while sitting on the throne. In it he exalted the history
of the Alexandrian church, and its long struggle in the field of dogma.
He also praised its heros, and its learned people such as Athanasius the apostolic,
Kyrillos (Cyril) the Pillar of Faith, Pantaenus and Clement. He hoped that
the celebration of the day would be a sign of love and a bond between the
church of Alexandria and the church of Rome. The Roman Pope asked in his
speech also from the head, Cardinal Doval, and members of the Roman Papal
delegation to carry his greetings, admiration, and appreciation to Pope Kyrillos
the Sixth, the clergy of the church of Alexandria, Egypt and its people.
Afterwards, the Pope and Anba Marcus, the head of
the delegation, rose up to exchange the commemorative gifts. Anba Marcus
gave the Pope the presents which were sent by H.H. Pope Kyrillos. Pope
of Rome admired the precious gifts and asked Anba Marcus to convey his
thanks to H.H. Pope Kyrillos. The Pope in return gave the members of the
delegation commemorative presents.
The Roman Pope, then gave Anba Marcus, the head of
the Alexandrian Papal delegation, an official document dated May 28th,
1968 A.D. testifying that the relics were authentic and belonged to St.
Mark the Apostle, and were taken from their original place with veneration.
The document was signed by Cardinal Porfeer, the deputy of Vatican City.
Thus, the official celebration of handing over the relics of St. Mark
the Apostle ended, and the delegation went back to their hotel. May
the blessings of St. Mark be with us all. Amen.
4th v. Consecration
of the Church of Mari Mina at Maryut.
On this day also, is the commemoration of the appearance
of the body of the honorable saint, and great martyr Mari Mina, and the
consecration of his church at Maryut (Mareotis).
Now, the body of this saint was
hidden, and the Lord wished to reveal it. It came to pass that there was
a shepherd, who pastured his sheep near the place where the body of the saint
was buried. One day, one of his sheep, which was sick of a skin disease (mangy),
dipped itself in the water of a pond which was near that place. It then went
out of the water, and rolled itself in the sand of that place, and it was
healed straightway. When the shepherd saw this wonder, he marvelled, and
took the sand of that place and mixed it with the water of the pond. He smeared
every mangy sheep, or any that had a deformity, and they were healed immediately.
The report of this shepherd became widespread in all
the regions of the empire, until the emperor of Constantinople heard
of it. He had an only daughter who was leprous.
Her father sent her there. She
questioned the shepherd about how she could get rid of her illness, and
he told her. She took some of that sand and mixed it with the water. She
retired to her quarters and smeared her body with the mixture and slept
that night in that place. She saw in a dream St. Mina and he told her,
"Rise up early and dig in this place and you
shall find my body."
When she woke up from her sleep,
she found herself healed. She dug in that place, and she found the holy
body.
She sent to her father to inform him about what happened. He rejoiced
exceedingly, thanked God praised His Holy Name. He sent men and money
and built a church in that place which was consecrated on this day.
When Arcadius and Honorius reigned they ordered a
city to be built there which was called Maryut. The masses came to this
church interceding with the blessed Mari Mina. God had honored him by
the miracles and wonders(1) that were manifested from his pure body,
until the Moslems occupied the city and destroyed it.
The biography of this saint is
mentioned under the 15th day of Hatour. May his intercession be with
us and Glory be to God forever. Amen.
1. The Martyrdom of Saint Mari-Mina, the Wonder Worker
On this day St. Mina, who is
called the blessed faithful, was martyred. His father, Eudoxius, was
a native of the city of Nakiyos (Nikiu) and was its Governor. His brother
was envious of him and he brought charges against him before the Emperor.
The Emperor transferred him to Afrikia and appointed him Governor over
it. The people were pleased with him because he was merciful and God-fearing.
His mother Euphemia had no children. One day she went
to church on the feast of our Lady, the Virgin, the Mother of God, at
Attribes. She saw the children in the church wearing their beautiful
clothes with their parents. She heaved a sigh and wept before the icon
of Our Lady St. Mary, entreating her to intercede for her before her beloved
Son, in order that He would give her a son. A voice came from the icon
saying, "Amen." She rejoiced in what she had heard and realized that the
Lord had heard her prayers. When she returned to her home and told her husband
about it, he replied, "May God's Will be done."
The Lord gave them this saint and they called him
Mina, according to the voice that his mother heard. When he grew, his
parents taught him reading and writing and they reared him in a Christian
manner. When he was eleven years old, his father departed at a good
old age. Then his mother departed three years later. St. Mina devoted
his life to fasting, praying and to living a Christian life. Because of
everyone's love towards him and his father, they placed him in his father's
position. In spite of that, he did not forsake his worshipping.
When Diocletian had reneged Christianity and issued
his orders to worship idols, many were martyred for the Name of the
Lord Christ. St. Mina left his position and went to the desert, where
he stayed many days worshipping God with all his heart.
One day he saw the heavens open and the martyrs crowned
with beautiful crowns. He heard a voice saying, "He who toils for the
Name of the Lord Christ shall receive these crowns." He returned to the
city over which he was Governor and confessed the Name of the Lord Christ.
Knowing that he belonged to a noble family, they tried to dissuade him
from his faith and promised him honors and precious gifts. When he did
not change his mind, they threatened him and the Governor ordered him
to be tortured. When the Governor failed to turn him away from his faith
in the Lord Christ, he sent him to his brother so that he might influence
him but he failed also. Finally, he ordered his head to be cut off with
the sword, his body to be cast in the fire and his ashes to be scattered
in the wind. The body remained in the fire for three days and three nights,
but it was not harmed.
His sister came and gave the soldiers a lot of money
and they let her take the body. She put it in a sack made of fronds and
decided to go to Alexandria, as her brother had previously advised her.
She embarked with her brother's body on one of the ships to Alexandria.
During their trip, sea beasts came out of the water
and attacked the passengers aboard the ship. They were frightened and
screamed with fear. The Saint's sister prayed to the Lord and asked
for the intercession of her brother. While the passengers were in fear,
fire went forth from her brother's body and burned the faces of the beasts.
They dived immediately into the water and as they reappeared, the fire
burned them again. They finally dived and did not reappear.
When the ship arrived at the
city of Alexandria, most of the people went out with the father, the
Patriarch. They carried the holy body with reverence and honor and entered
the city with a venerable celebration and placed it in the church, after
they shrouded it in expensive shrouds.
When the time of persecution ended, the angel of the Lord appeared
to the honorable Patriarch, Anba Athanasius, the Apostolic. The angel
informed him of the Lord's command which was to place the body of St.
Mina on a camel and to take it out of the city without letting anyone
lead it, but to follow it from a distance until it stopped at a place that
the Lord had designated. They walked behind the camel until they arrived
at a place called Lake Bayad, in the district of Marriot. There they heard
a voice saying, "This is the place where the Lord wishes the body of his
beloved Mina to be placed." They lowered the body and placed it in a coffin,
then they situated it in a beautiful garden and many miracles happened
through the body.
Later on, the people of Pentapolis (the five cities)
rose against the cities around Alexandria. The people were getting ready
to face the Berbers, and the Governor decided to take the body of St. Mina
with him to be his deliverer and his strong protector. He took the body
secretly and through the blessings of this saint, he overcame the Berbers
and returned victorious.
The Governor decided not to return the body of the
Saint to its original place and wanted to take it to Alexandria. On the
way back, they passed by Lake Bayad, St. Mina's original place. The camel
carrying the body knelt down and would not move in spite of frequent beatings.
They moved the body over another camel, but again this second camel did
not move from its place. The Governor finally realized that this was the
Lord's command. He made a coffin from decay-resistant wood and placed
the silver coffin in it. He then returned it to its place and invoked St.
Mina's blessings, then returned to his city.
When the Lord wanted to disclose the location
of St. Mina's holy body, He did it in this manner.
There was a shepherd in the desert. One day a sheep with
mange slipped down into the water of a well near the place of the saint's
body. The sheep then came out of the water and rolled over in the sand
of that place, and instantly the sheep was healed. When the shepherd saw
this miracle, he was amazed. He took some of the sand and mixed it with
water and smeared it over every sheep with mange, as well as on those with
other infirmities, and immediately they were healed.
The news of these miracles spread in all
the countries until the Emperor of Constantinople heard of them.
He had an only daughter and she was leprous. Her father sent
her to the place where the saint's body was and she inquired from the
shepherd how these miracles were happening. She took some of the sand,
moistened it with water, smeared it on her body and slept the night in
that place. In her sleep she saw St. Mina saying to her, "Arise early and
dig in this place, and you will find my body." When she woke up, she found
herself cured. She began digging as she was told and she found the holy
body. She sent word to her father, informing him of the news. The Emperor
rejoiced exceedingly, thanked the Lord and glorified His Name. He then
sent men and money and built a church in that place and it was consecrated
on the fifteenth day of the Month of Baounah.
When Arcadius and Honorius reigned, they ordered
a city to be built there.
Multitudes of people came to that church asking for the intercession
of the blessed St. Mina. The Lord had honored him with many signs
and wonders that appeared from his pure body. When the Arabs came to Egypt,
some of them attacked the city and the church was destroyed, only ruins
remained.
When His Grace, the late Pope Abba Kyrillos the Sixth was ordained
Patriarch over the See of St. Mark, he took interest in building a large
monastery in this area (Marriot) in the name of St. Mina. He spent
a great deal of money in establishing it. There are now many churches
in the monastery, visited by many Orthodox worshippers who go there to
receive blessings and to pray. He also bought one hundred acres of land
and built a fence around it. He ordained a number of monks who had a high
degree of scientific and religious education.
The intercession of Mari-Mina be with us and
Glory be to our God forever. Amen.
|
Mary Mother of GOD
2023
Christian
council
held
at
Among
the
most
important
titles
we
have in
the Catholic
Church
for
the Blessed
Virgin
Mary are
Our
Lady
of Victory
and
Our Lady
of
the Rosary.
These
titles
can
be traced
back to one
of the
most decisive
times
in the history
of
the world
and Christendom.
The
Battle
of Lepanto
took
place
on October
7 (date
of feast
of Our
Lady of
Rosary),
1571.
This proved
to be
the most crucial
battle
for the
Christian
forces
against
the
radical
Muslim navy
of Turkey.
Pope Pius
V led a procession
around
St.
Peter’s
Square
in Vatican
City praying
the
Rosary.
He showed
true pastoral
leadership
in recognizing
the
danger posed
to Christendom
by the
radical
Muslim forces,
and in using
the means
necessary
to defeat
it. Spiritual
battles
require spiritual
weapons,
and this more
than anything
was a battle
that had
its origins
in the spiritual
order—a
true battle
between
good and
evil.