The
Vigil of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.
Vigília
Nativitátis sancti Joánnis Baptístæ.
The Vigil of St. John Baptist.
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Departure
of St. Abba Nofer the Anchorite.
On this day, the ascetic father, Abba Nofer the Anchorite, departed at a
good old age, and of a glorious memory, in the desert of Upper Egypt. The
grace of God had moved St. Paphnoute (Paphnutius), and he longed to see the
servants of God, the Anchorites. He saw many of them, among them St. Abba
Nofer, and wrote their biographies.
He said that once he went into the desert and found a well of water and a
palm tree. Then he saw the saint coming to him, naked, and the hair of his
head and beard covered his body. When St. Paphnutius saw him, he was afraid
and thought that he was a spirit. Saint Abba Nofer encouraged him, made the
sign of the cross, and prayed the Lord's prayer, then said to him, "Welcome
O Paphnoute." When he called him by his name, St. Paphnutius calmed down.
They prayed together, then sat, and talked about the greatness and goodness
of God.
St. Paphnutius asked Abba Nofer to tell him about his life and how he came
to that place. Abba Nofer replied, "I was in a monastery wherein lived holy
and righteous monks. I heard them talking about the greatness of those anchorites
who dwelled in the desert and their good virtues. I said to them, 'Are there
any who are better than you?' They said to me, 'Yes, those anchorites who
dwell in the wilderness. We live near the world, if we are sorrowful or sad,
we find someone to console us; if we are sick, we find someone to visit and
treat us; if we are naked, we find someone to clothe us. Those who live in
the wilderness lack all these things.' When I heard that from them, my heart
became anxious.
"When the night came, I took a little bread and I went out from the monastery.
Then I prayed to the Lord Christ and asked Him to guide me to the place where
I was to live. The Lord facilitated my way and I found a holy and righteous
man. I dwelt with him, and he taught me all about the life and the ways of
the hermits and the anchorites. After I came to this place, I found a palm
tree, and a well. The tree bore twelve clusters of dates each year. One cluster
of dates is enough food for me for a month, and I drink water from this well.
I have lived here for sixty years during which I have never seen the face
of a man except yours."
While they were talking together the angel of the Lord came down, and told
St. Abba Nofer that his departure was near. Straightway, his color changed
and became like fire, then he bowed his knees and worshipped God. After he
embraced St. Paphnutius, he delivered up his pure soul. St. Paphnutius wrapped
him, and buried him in his cave. St. Paphnutius wished to live in the place
of Abba Nofer. But after he had buried him, the palm tree dried and fell
down and the water of the well dried up. That happened by the Will of God,
so St. Paphnoute would return to the world and tell us about the holy hermits
that he had seen.
May their prayers be with us
and Glory be to god forever. Amen.
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Nicomedíæ commemorátio plurimórum
sanctórum Mártyrum, qui, témpore Diocletiáni,
in móntibus et spelúncis laténtes, pro Christi nómine
martyrium læto ánimo subiérunt.
Commemoration of many
holy martyrs who concealed themselves in mountains and caverns, but joyfully
underwent martyrdom for the name of Christ: At Nicomedia, in the time of Diocletian.
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257 Saint
Felix was a priest in Tuscany, who was scourged to death under emperors Valerian
and Gallienus (Benedictines).
Sútrii, in Túscia, sancti Felícis Presbyteri, cujus
os támdiu jussit Túrcius Præféctus lápide
contúndi, donec ipse Felix emítteret spíritum.
St.
Felix, priest At Sutri in Tuscany.
By the command of the prefect Turcius, he was struck on the mouth with a
stone until he breathed no more.
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262 Saint
Agrippina martyr, whose shrine is venerated as a site of miracles
Item Romæ sanctæ
Agrippínæ, Vírginis et Mártyris, quæ sub
Valeriáno Imperatóre martyrium consummávit. Ipsíus
autem corpus, in Sicíliam translátum ac Menis cónditum,
multis miráculis corúscat.
Also at Rome,
St. Agrippina, virgin and martyr, under the emperor Valerian. Her body
was taken to Sicily, where it works many miracles.
ST AGRIPPINA, VIRGIN
AND MARTYR (A.D. 262 ?)
ST AGRIPPINA is a virgin martyr greatly honoured in Sicily and,
to a lesser degree, in Greece. Nothing is known of her true history, her
reputed acts in the Greek Menaia are quite unreliable and no evidence is
forthcoming of any cultus of early date. She is believed to have been a maiden
of high degree who was beheaded or scourged to death in Rome during the reign
of Valerian or in the persecution under Diocletian. Three women, Bassa, Paula
and Agathonice, afterwards conveyed her body to Mineo, in Sicily, for burial.
Through it many miracles were wrought, including the cure of sick persons
and demoniacs. The Greeks claim that the saint's relics were translated from
Sicily to Constantinople-presumably to save them from profanation by the
infidels. St Agrippina is invoked against evil spirits, leprosy and thunderstorms.
The account in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. v, furnishes
little beyond some extracts from the Menaia,
with a suspicious narrative in Latin of the translation to Sicily. The Annus Graeco-Slavicus of Martynov bears
testimony to her later Cultus, and
there is a short story of her martyrdom in the Synaxary of Constantinople;
see Delehaye's edition, ce. 704-706. From this we learn that she was honoured
on June 23, on which day also she is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology.
Agrippina is believed to have
come from a good Roman family. She was caught up in the persecutions instituted
by Emperor Valerian or Diocletian and was beheaded or scourged. Her body
was taken to Mineo, Sicily, by three devout Christian women. The gravesite
became a popular pilgrimage destination, noted for miracles through Agrippina's
intercession.
The Holy Martyr Agrippina, was by birth a Roman. She did not wish
to enter into marriage, and totally dedicated her life to God. During the
time of persecution against Christians under the emperor Valerian (253-259)
the saint went before the court and bravely confessed her faith in Christ,
for which she was given over to torture. They beat the holy virgin with sticks
so severely that her bones broke. Afterwards they put St Agrippina in chains,
but an angel freed her from her bonds.
The holy confessor died from the tortures she endured. The Christians
Bassa, Paula and Agathonike secretly took the body of the holy martyr and
transported it to Sicily, where many miracles were worked at her grave. In
the eleventh century the relics of the holy Martyr Agrippina were transferred
to Constantinople.
Agrippina (von Mineo) Orthodoxe Kirche: 23. Juni
Agrippina von RomAgrippina lebte im 3. Jahrhundert in Rom. In
Viten wird sie als schöne blonde Prinzessin beschrieben. Unter Kaiser
Valerian wurde sie verhaftet und gefoltert. Da sie standhaft blieb und von
Christus nicht lassen wollte, wurde sie weiter gefoltert und starb an den
Torturen. Als Todesjahr werden 256 und 262 angegeben.
Drei Freundinnen - Bassa, Paula und Agathonike (Gedenktag 10.8.)
- brachten den Leichnam Agrippinas von Rom nach Mineo (Sizilien). Während
der Reise sollen sich zahlreiche Wunder ereignet haben. Agrippina wurde Patronin
von Mineo und 310 wurde eine erste Kirche mit ihrem Namen errichtet. In Mineo
und anderen Gemeinden wird ihrer Anfang August gedacht. Ihre Freundinnen
erlitten später das Martyrium in Karthago.
The Holy Martyr Agrippina (June 23) SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
St Agrippina was born and brought up in Rome.
She trained herself from childhood to live by the Gospel, expelling the stench
of the passions from her heart with the sweet-smelling perfume of purity
and chastity. She was betrothed to Christ the Lord, and suffered as a bride
of Christ in the reign of the Emperor Valerian. She endured beating with
staves until her bones were crushed. An angel of the Lord appeared to her
to strengthen her, until she surrendered her soul to God under fresh tortures.
Her friends, Vassa, Paula and Agathonica, took her relics to the island of
Sicily and buried them there. A church was later built there in her name,
where countless miracles were wrought over her relics. She entered into eternal
rest and was crowned with glory in the year 275.
300 Eustochius
a convert, In the city of Lystra St Eustochius converted his nephew Gaius
and all his household, among which included the children Probus, Lollias
and Urban. The Holy Martyrs suffered s did not deny Christ during
the time of a persecution under the emperor Maximian (286-310).
St Eustochius was a pagan priest, but seeing the unyielding courage
of the Christian martyrs, and the miracles worked by them, he converted to
Christ. He went to Bishop Eudoxius of Antioch, was baptized by him, and was
ordained to the priesthood. In the city of Lystra St Eustochius converted
his nephew Gaius and all his household, among which included the children
Probus, Lollias and Urban. Soldiers of the emperor arrested St Eustochius
and took him for trial, but tortures could not turn Eustochius from his faith.
They then sent the saint to the governor Agrippinus in the Galatian city
of Ancyra. The newly-converted Gaius was also sent with him with his household.
All of them, even the women and children, underwent fierce torture, but the
martyrs did not deny Christ and so were beheaded.
The Holy Martyrs Eustochius and Gains, and those with them
(June 23) SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
Eustochius was a pagan priest in the time of
the Emperor Maximian, but, seeing the heroism of the Christian martyrs, he
cast off his paganism and was baptised by Eudoxius, Bishop of Antioch. Gradually
Eustochius brought his kinsfolk to the Christian faith, and his kinsman Gains
was baptised together with his three children: Probus, Lollias and Urban.
All these, and some others with them, were brought before the judge, tortured
and beheaded in Lystra for the sake of their faith in Christ the Lord, and
thus their souls entered into His immortal Kingdom.
Philadelphíæ, in Arábia, sanctórum Mártyrum
Zenónis, ejúsque servi Zenæ. Hic dómini
sui vincti caténas exósculans, eúmque rogans ut se in
torméntis partícipem dignarétur habére, a milítibus
tentus est, et cum ipso dómino parem martyrii corónam accépit.
304 Zeno and his slave ZenasAt Philadelphia in Arabia, the holy martyrs.
When the latter kissed the chains of his master, begging to be a partner
in his torments, he was arrested by the soldiers, and received the crown
of martyrdom with him.
Zeno and Zenas MM (RM) Martyrs beheaded under Diocletian. Zeno
was a rich citizen of Philadelphia near the Dead Sea; Zenas was one of the
slaves who he had emancipated, but who had remained with Zeno. He had renounced
all his possessions, including his slaves whom he freed (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
306 Aristokles, Demetrius
der Diakon und Athanasius der Lektor Orthodoxe Kirche: 23. Juni oder 20.
Juni
Aristokles war Presbyter in Zypern während der Verfolgungen
unter Kaiser Diokletian. Er missionierte in den Bergen Kretas und sammelte
die zerstreut lebenden Christen. Als die Verfolgungen zunahmen, verbarg er
sich. In einer Vision forderte Gott ihn auf nach Salamina zu gehen und dort
das Wort zu verkünden. Aristokles traf in der Kirche St. Barnabas den
Diakon Demetrius und den Lektor Athanasius. Er berichtete ihnen von seiner
Vision und beide beschlossen, mit Aristokles zusammen ds Evangelium zu verkünden.
Nach einer Quelle konnten die drei wieder Gottesdienste in St. Barnabas abhalten
und unter der heidnischen Bevölkerung missionieren und Menschen für
den christlichen Glauben gewinnen. Letztlich führte aber ihr offenes
Auftreten zur Verhaftung und Hinrichtung (um 306).
362 Saint John of
Rome The Roman priest beheaded during the persecution of Julian the Apostate.
His head has been enshrined in San Silvestro in Capita, and his martyrdom
was recorded in several legends that include miracles and prophecy.
Romæ sancti Joánnis
Presbyteri, qui, sub Juliáno Apóstata, via Salária véteri,
ante simulácrum Solis decollátus est, et corpus ejus a beáto
Concórdio Presbytero juxta Mártyrum Concília sepúltum.
At Rome, in
the reign of Julian the Apostate, St. John, a priest who was beheaded on
the old Salarian Way before an idol of the sun. His body was buried
near those of other martyrs by the blessed priest Concordius.
John of Rome M (RM). The Roman priest John was beheaded during
the persecution of Julian the Apostate. The relic venerated as the head of
Saint John the Baptist at San Silvestro in Capite (the English church in
Rome) is more likely belongs to this priest (Benedictines).
435 Johannes Cassian Er wurde Mönch in einem
Kloster bei Bethlehem, reiste dann 390 mit seinem Gefährten Germanus
nach Ägypten, wo er sieben Jahre bei den Einsiedlern und Asketen der
Nitriawüste undin der Skete-Wüste lebte gegen die Nestorianer gegen
die Pelagianer
Orthodoxe Kirche: 29. (28.) Februar Katholische Kirche:
23. Juni
Johannes Cassian wurde wohl
in Scythia minor (Rumänien) geboren (andere Quellen geben Südfrankreich
an). Er wurde Mönch in einem Kloster bei Bethlehem, reiste dann 390
mit seinem Gefährten Germanus nach Ägypten, wo er sieben Jahre
bei den Einsiedlern und Asketen der Nitriawüste undin der Skete-Wüste
lebte. 397 kehrte er nach Bethlehem zurück und lebte hier drei Jahre
als Einsiedler. Dann ging er nach Konstantinopel, wo Johannes Chrysostomus
ihn zum Diakon weihte. Er ging dann nach Rom und, nachdem er zum Priester
geweiht worden war, nach Gallien. Bei Massilia (Marseille) gründete
er ein Mönchskloster (St. Viktor) und ein Nonnenkloster. Auf Bitten
des Bischofs schrieb Johannes mehrere Bücher über das mönchische
Leben, ausgehend von den Erfahrungen der orthodoxen Einsiedler und Mönche.
Er prägte damit maßgebend die Entwicklung des anbendländischen
Mönchtums. 431 schrieb Johannes auf Wunsch des späteren Papstes
Leo des Großen ein großes Werk gegen die Nestorianer. Nachdem
Prosper von Aquitanien ihn als Pelagianer verdächtigte, schrieb Johannes
Cassian kurz vor seinem Tode auch noch eine Schrift gegen die Pelagianer.
Er starb 435.
493 St. Moelray Abbot of
Nendrum Monastery, baptized by St.
Patrick. A native of Ireland, Moelray, also called Moeliai, instructed Sts.
Finian and Colman.
Moeliai (Moelray) of Nendrum, Abbot (AC) Born in Ireland; died
c. 493. Saint Moeliai was baptized by Saint Patrick, who appointed him abbot
over Nendrum, where he had Saints Finian and Colman among his disciples (Benedictines).
538 Saint Theophilus
the Penitent or Theophilus of Adana
An Orthodox cleric in the sixth century Church who is said to
have made a deal with the devil to gain an ecclesiastical position. His story
is significant as it is the oldest story of a pact with the Devil and was
an inspiration for the Faust legend. His feast day is February 4. Eutyches,
who claimed to be an eyewitness of the events, is the first to record Theophilus's
story. Although Theophilus is considered to be an historical personage, the
tale associated with him
The Tale of Theophilus's Repentance (June 23) SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
Consumed with envy towards his bishop, this
man gave his soul to the devil and set down in writing his rejection of Christ
and of His holy Mother. He then repented of his deed and wept bitterly, imploring
the Mother of God for forgiveness. After forty days of fasting and tearful
prayer, he received back the paper on which he had written his denial, and
which he had given to the devil. He went to the church and openly confessed
his sin to the bishop and the people. When the bishop had spoken the words
of forgiveness and given him Communion, Theophilus's face shone like the
sun. Here is an example of how the merciful Lord not only forgives the sins
of all those who repent, but also makes them into saints. is of an apocryphal
nature.
679 Saint
Ethedlreda (Audrey) heaven sent seven day high tide founded the great abbey
of Ely, where she lived an austere life body was found incorrupt
In monastério Elyénsi,
in Británnia, sanctæ Ediltrúdis, Regínæ
et Vírginis, quæ sanctitáte et miráculis clara
migrávit ad Dóminum. Ipsíus autem corpus, úndecim
post annis, invéntum est incorrúptum.
In England,
in the monastery of Ely, St. Etheldreda, queen and virgin, who departed for
heaven with a great renown for sanctity and miracles. Her body was
found without corruption eleven years afterwards. {and 500 years later still
incorrupt}
Etheldreda von Ely Orthodoxe,
Katholische und Anglikanische Kirche: 23. Juni
ST ETHELDREDA, OR AUDREY, ABBESS OF ELY,
WIDOW (A.D. 679)
To judge from the great number of churches dedicated in her honour in England,
St Etheldreda (Aethelthryth), otherwise called Audrey, must have been the
most popular of all the Anglo-Saxon women saints. She was the daughter of
Anna, king of the East Angles, and the sister of St Sexburga, St Ethelburga
and St Withburga. The place of her birth was Exning in Suffolk. In compliance
with the wishes of her parents she married one Tonbert, with whom, it is
said, she lived in perpetual continence. Three years after her marriage she
lost her husband. She seems then to have retired to the island of Ely, which
she had received as her marriage gift. There, for five years, she led a secluded
life of prayer. But her hand was again sought in marriage, and again she yielded
to the representations of her relatives. Her second bridegroom was Egfrid,
the younger son of Oswy, king of Northumbria. He was a mere boy at the time
and seems to have been quite content that they should live as brother and
sister. But with the passage of years, when Egfrid was grown to manhood and
had become a powerful monarch, he became dissatisfied, and urged that Etheldreda
should become his wife in more than name.
She refused, because she had long since vowed her virginity to God. Both
parties appealed to St Wilfrid of York, Egfrid going so far as to offer him
presents if he would persuade Etheldreda to fall in with his wishes. St Wilfrid,
however, was on her side, and by his advice she withdrew to the convent of
Coldingham, where she received the veil from Egfrid's aunt, St Ebba. A year
later she retired to Ely; and there, about the year 672 she founded a double
monastery, over which she ruled until her death. Her manner of life was very
austere: except on great festivals, or when she was ill, she ate only once
a day: and instead of the linen worn by women of high degree she dressed
in rough woollen clothing. After Matins, which were sung at midnight, she
did not retire like the other nuns, but remained in church in prayer until
the morning. Endowed with the gift of prophecy, she not only foretold the
pestilence of which she was to die, but also the exact number of her religious
who would be carried off by it. Etheldreda herself, died on June 23, 679,
and in accordance with her own instructions she was buried in a simple wooden
coffin. Sixteen years later her body was found to be incorrupt.
The shrine of St Etheldreda became a great centre of devotion on account
of the many miracles reported to have been wrought by her relics and by linen
cloths which had rested on her coffin. Her remains have long since perished,
but the empty shrine is still shown in Ely cathedral. The word tawdry, a
corruption of St Audrey, was originally applied to the cheap necklaces and
other trumpery exposed for sale at St Audrey's great annual fair. Her feast
is still observed in several English dioceses.
Most of the references made to
St Etheldreda in Bede, and by Thomas of Ely in the Liber Eliensis,
etc., have been printed in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. v. There
are difficulties about the chronology, for which see C. Plummer's notes to
his edition of Bede, vol. ii, pp. 234-240. Full accounts are also given in
DNB., vol. xviii, pp. 19-21, and in DCB., vol. ii, pp. 220-222.
Around 640, there was an English princess named
Ethelreda, but she was known
as Audrey. She married once, but
was widowed after three years, and it was said that the marriage was never
consummated. She had taken a perpetual vow of virginity, but married again,
this time for reasons of state. Her young husband soon grew tired of living
as brother and sister and began to make advances on her. She continually
refused. He eventually attempted to bribe the local bishop, Saint Wilfrid
of York, to release Audrey from her vows.
Saint Wilfrid refused, and helped Audrey escape.
She fled south, with her husband following. They reached a promontory known
as Colbert's Head, where a heaven sent seven day high tide separated the
two. Eventually, Audrey's husband left and married someone more willing, while
Audrey took the veil, and founded the great abbey of Ely, where she lived
an austere life. She eventually died of an enormous and unsightly tumor on
her neck, which she gratefully accepted as Divine retribution for all the
necklaces she had worn in her early years. Throughout the Middle Ages, a
festival, "Saint Audrey's Fair", was held at Ely on her feast day. The exceptional
shodiness of the merchandise, especially the neckerchiefs, contributed to
the English language the word "tawdry", a corruption of "Saint Audrey: "
she died of the plague.
According the Saint Bede, when her tomb was opened
by her sister Saint Sexburga, her successor as abbess at Ely Abbey, ten (or
16) years after her death, her body was found incorrupt and the tumor had
healed
Etheldreda von Ely Orthodoxe, Katholische und Anglikanische Kirche:
23. Juni
Etheldreda (Edeltraud) war eine Tochter des Königs Anna von
Mercia. Sie war mit einem schottischen Fürsten verheirtatet, lebte aber
mit ihm in einer jSoefsehe und zog sich nach seinem Tod auf die Insel Ely
(bei Cambridge) zurück. Sie wurde mit König Egfrid von Northumberland
verheiratet. lebte 12 Jahre mit ihm in Enthaltsamkeit und wurde dann Nonne
in Coldingham. 673 gründete sie in Essex das Kloster Ely, dessen erste
Äbtissin sie auch wurde. Sie starb am 23.6.679 an der Pest. Ihr Leichnam
wurde 695 unversehrt gefunden und in der Klosterkirche von Ely beigesetzt.
707 Saint Hiduiphus
Monastic founder and husband of Saint Aye When Saint Aye entered a convent,
Hidulphus became a monk at Lobbes Abbey, Belgium, which he had co-founded.
Also called Hidulf. He was the count of Hainault, in Belgium,
and a courtier in the royal household of Austrasia. When Saint Aye entered
a convent, Hidulphus became a monk at Lobbes Abbey, Belgium, which he had
co-founded.
Hidulphus (Hydulphus) of Lobbes, OSB (AC). Count Hidulphus of
Hainault was a courtier of the Austrasian king and husband of Saint Agia.
By mutual agreement they separated to lead religious lives and
Hidulphus entered the Lobbes monastery, which he had previously helped to
found (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
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769 Saint James Bishop
of Toul, France, from 756 died in Dijon while praying before the tomb of
Saint Benignus, after making a pilgrimage to Rome.
Bishop of Toul, France, from 756. Prior to his elevation
to the episcopacy in 756, Bishop James of Toul was a monk of Hornbach Abbey
in the diocese of Metz. He did much to further the work of the Benedictines.
He is believed to have been born in Haute Marne. James died in Dijon while
praying before the tomb of Saint Benignus, after making a pilgrimage to Rome.
James of Toul B (AC) Born at Bertigny, Haute Marne, France; died at Dijon,
769. Prior to his elevation to the episcopacy in 756, Bishop James of Toul
was a monk of Hornbach Abbey in the diocese of Metz. He did much to further
the work of the Benedictines before his death while praying in front of the
tomb of Saint Benignus on his return from a pilgrimage to Rome (Benedictines,
Encyclopedia).
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1076 Lietbertus; a noble
who became bishop in 1051-founder of Cambrai, France built the church
and monastery of the Holy Sepulcher
ST LIETBERTUS, OR LIBERT, BISHOP OF CAMBRAI (A.D.
1076)
ST LIETBERTUS, Liebert or Liebert came of a noble Brabantine family and was
the nephew of Gerard, bishop of Cambrai, by whom he was educated and under
whom he afterwards served as archdeacon, provost, and in other capacities.
Upon the death of his uncle in 1051, he was elected his successor by the
clergy and people. The nomination having been ratified by the Emperor St
Henry, Lietbertus was ordained priest at Chalon and consecrated bishop by
his metropolitan at Rheims. He proved a true father to his people, not only
labouring with untiring zeal for their spiritual welfare, but also defending
them from the extortions and oppression of the castellan of Cambrai.
In 1054 Lietbertus set forth on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, accompanied by
a number of people. They had reached Laodicea when they learnt to their dismay
that the Saracens had closed the Holy Sepulchre to Christians and that it
was dangerous for them to travel in Palestine. Many of the pilgrims accordingly
returned home, but St Lietbertus and others resolved to persevere. Contrary
winds, however, drove their ship to Cyprus, and the sailors, who were afraid
of falling into the hands of pirates, brought them back to Laodicea. Other
difficulties supervening, the pilgrims were compelled to abandon the enterprise
without having set eyes on the Holy Land. After his return to Cambrai, St
Lietbertus consoled himself by building a monastery and church to which he
gave the name of the Holy Sepulchre. To Rodulphus, a monk of that monastery,
we owe an almost contemporary history of the founder. The bishop from thenceforth
devoted his days to his pastoral duties, and often at night went barefoot
to the churches to pray for his people. His virtues won for him the admiration
of every man of goodwill, but his strenuous opposition to evil made him some
bitter enemies. On one occasion he was seized and carried off to a prison
in the Castle of Oisy by the castellan of Cambrai, Hugh, whom he had excommunicated
for his outrageous conduct. He was rescued by Arnulf, count of Flanders,
and shortly afterwards Hugh was driven out of Cambrai, to the great relief
of the citizens. One last service St Lietbertus is said to have rendered
at the very close of his twenty years' episcopate. The town was about to
be attacked by raiders when the bishop, who was already, very ill, caused
himself to be carried in a litter into the enemy's camp, and by his impressive
appearance and his eloquence-and his threatssucceeded in inducing the invaders
to retire without striking a blow. St Lietbertus died on June 23, 1076.
The monk Rodulphus has elaborated
a biography of St Libert from the Gesta
episcoporum Cameracensium, adding fresh materials of his own. The
texts are published in the Acta Sanctorum,
June, vol. v, and in Pertz, MGH., Scriptores,
vol. vii, pp. 489-497 and 528-538.
Sometimes called Liébert or Libert. He was a noble who became bishop
in 1051. In 1054, he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, discovering that the
holy city was in the hands of Saracens. Returning to Cambrai, Libert built
the church and monastery of the Holy Sepulcher. He was exiled by the nobleman
Hugh of Cambrai and cruelly persecuted.
Lietbertus of Cambrai B (AC) (also known as Libert, Liberat). Saint Libert,
a Brabançon nobleman, was raised to the see of Cambrai in 1051 and
held that position until his death. He took some of his flock on a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land, but failed to reach it. On his return he built Holy Sepulchre
Abbey and other religious foundations. He excommunicated the lord of Cambrai
and for that reason was brutally persecuted (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
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1113 Blessed Felix
of Cîteaux, OSB Cist. (PC). Felix is named in the Cistercian menologies
as a beatus (Benedictines).
|
1136 St. Peter of Juilly Benedictine monk and
preacher; originally from England, a friend of St. Stephen Harding and was
his companion at Molesme.
BD PETER OF JULLY (A.D. 1136)
ALTHOUGH he was English by birth and by descent, this Peter is always associated
with Jully in Champagne, where his last years were spent. A pious lad of
good family, he studied theology in his native land until the death of his
parents. He then went to France, probably to continue his studies in Paris,
or in one of the great provincial schools. There he became intimate with
another young Englishman, St Stephen Harding, who shared his spiritual aspirations.
They both wished to dedicate themselves to the service of God, and, in order
to discover His will concerning them, they made a pilgrimage to Rome together.
On the return journey, as they passed through Burgundy, they stayed at the
Cistercian abbey of Molesme, at that time in its primitive simplicity and
austerity. Stephen was so impressed by what he saw that he decided to remain
at Molesme, but Peter proceeded on his way. After a time, however, he returned,
and received the habit and at a later date presumably-holy orders. He led
a most edifying life, acquiring great local fame as a preacher and wonder-worker.
Not far from the monastery, at Juilly, or Jully-les-Nonnains, there was a
convent which was subject to Molesme, which had as its prioress St Bernard's
sister, Bd Humbelina. When their chaplain died the nuns asked if they might
have Peter in his place, and the abbot consented. Under his spiritual direction
and Humbelina's care the community made rapid progress in the path of perfection.
Bd Peter supported Humbelina during her last illness and was beside her when
she died. He did not long survive her.
In the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. v, the Bollandists
have published the Latin biography of Bd Peter, which seems to have been
written about a century after his death.
Later, he was named confessor and chaplain to the nuns of Juilly
les Nonnais who were under the care of St. Humbeline, sister of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
Peter of Juilly, OSB (AC) Born in England; died at Juilly, 1136.
Saint Peter was a friend of Saint Stephen Harding at Molesme. He was chaplain
and confessor to the Benedictine nuns of Juilly-les- Nonnais, which was subject
to Molesme. Here Saint Bernard's sister, Saint Humbeline, was abbess. Peter
is described as a wonder-worker and great preacher (Benedictines).
Peter also possessed a reputation
for being a brilliant preacher and a miracle worker
|
1184 Benedict the Bridge-Builder
shepherd Eighteen miracles took place body found incorrupt 500 yrs
(AC)
(also known as Bénezet, Benet, Benoît)
Born at Hermillon, Savoy (or in the Ardenne), France, c. 1163;
The children's song "Sur le pont d'Avignon" concerns the bridge
built by Bénezet, a local shepherd boy, a bridge rebuilt in the 14th
and 17th centuries. The legend still dances on the arches that collapsed
so suddenly. From the broken fragment of the original bridge over the raging
waters, people still throw a shower of flowers into the river during the
Rhône festivals. For Avignon retains a tender love for its broken bridge
and Bénezet. Bénezet, shepherd over the waves, as Fréderic
Mistral says, built this magnificent bridge by the order of God in a vision;
after 700 years, his memory still stands guard over the arches which live
on, albeit half-dead.
According to a legend, the bridge was built without
difficulties, at least not of a financial character. In fact, while still
a child, Bénezet once saw a poor Jewish woman who was being tormented
by a flea which the hump on her back prevented her from reaching and some
street urchins who were laughing at her contortions. Bénezet ran to
her assistance. After scattering the boys, he found and crushed the offending
flea.
In her gratitude the rheumy-eyed, hunch-backed old
woman blessed Bénezet and predicted that he would do great things
later in life. In order to help him realize them, she told him where the
cache containing the treasure of the Jews lay. Time passed. Bénezet,
the little shepherd, hardly thought about the treasure, nor did he indulge
in any ambitious dreams. He was simply a 15-year-old shepherd concerned about
his flock.
One day, the sun suddenly went into hiding:
a solar eclipse always frightens the flocks and their guardians. A voice
as sweet as honey spoke to him amid the darkness: "In the name of Christ,
Bénezet, go as far as the Rhône to Avignon and build a bridge
there," the voice bade him.
Now, it may sound strange that God would ask for
a bridge to be built or that it would be a reason for canonization. In the
Middle Ages, however, the construction and repair of bridges was regarded
as a work of mercy. Perhaps the child simply had pity for the many who drowned
in the rushing waters. I think it is more likely that he was indeed called
by God.
Responding to the voice, the child
objected that he could not leave his flocks unattended.
"I will watch over them," said the voice, "I'll send you an angel
for a guide."
Leaving his sheep,
Bénezet set out for the spot that had been designated to him--just
as other shepherds, one night, had trustingly set out for Bethlehem. Soon
he met the angel whom only he could see, and also arrived at the river Rhône.
He had to cross it. The Jewish ferryman picked Bénezet's pocket clean.
The lad only had three pennies to his name, but after cursing him, the ferryman
finally took him on board and the boat left. But where to? Bénezet
asked himself, while remaining utterly calm.
Finally, he arrived at the bishop's palace, where
he sought the prelate's blessing and help. Build a bridge? The bishop swelled
with indignation and sent little Bénezet to the magistrate promising
him that he would be flayed and his hands and feet chopped off as was done
to impostors in those days. But the angel, inside the young man's heart,
said: "Go!"
The magistrate took a dim view of the matter:
"You, the lowliest of the low, you who don't
own an acre in the sun, you want to build a bridge there where Saint Peter,
Saint Paul, and Charlemagne himself have been helpers? So be it! Do you see
this stone embedded in the palace courtyard? Well pull it out and carry it
there and I'll believe you! Call the people to watch this spectacle. But
if you fail..."
The invisible angel in Bénezet's heart
smiled. As calm and self-assured as ever, about 1177, the little shepherd
boy extracted this block of stone that weighed a hundred quintals and upon
laying it in the bed of the river, he said, "This will be the first stone
of the foundations!"
Delirium seized
the crowd of onlookers. There were shouts of "Miracle! Miracle!" Immediately,
in keeping with the rule, the blind again saw the light of day, the deaf
again heard hosannahs, the crippled suddenly walked straight and the hunch-backed
heard their vertebrae crack, stretch, and straighten out! Eighteen miracles
took place, according to the legend.
The magistrate, sobbing in remorse,
gave 300 sous for the building of the bridge, the crowd volunteered 5,000
more. The treasure of the Jews must have done the rest, because the bridge
soon rose, proudly, between the waters and the sky.
Alas! Bénezet
did not live to see the bridge finished. He died in 1184--because his mission
had been accomplished. The last stone was laid two years after his death.
The bridge was adorned with a chapel dedicated to Saint Nicholas, the patron of mariners, in which
Saint Benedict's relics were
enshrined until 1669 when a flood washed away part of the bridge.
His coffin was recovered and his body found to be incorrupt--500
years after his death--even the bowels were perfectly sound, and the color
of the eyes lively and sprightly, though, through the dampness of the situation,
the iron bars about it were much damaged with rust. It was translated to
Avignon cathedral and moved again to the Celestine church of Saint Didier.
Even now when coming down the
major water-way of the Rhône you will see the man at the prow and the
crew in the boats passing by the broken bridge where Saint Bénezet
wrought his miracle, salute the shepherd boy who became a saint and Saint Nicholas, the saint of long-standing.
After all, two saints are not too much for the taming of these waters among
the treacherous, and even for taming the sky overhead, where the mistral blows,
churning up powerful, angry waves.
Contemporary
sources record the principal episodes of Saint Benedict's life, and an episcopal
inquiry was conducted shortly after his death (1230) (Attwater2, Benedictines,
Coulson, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Gill, Husenbeth, Walsh).
In art, Saint Benedict is portrayed as a boy
carrying a large stone on his shoulder (Roeder). He is venerated as the patron
of Avignon (Coulson, Roeder).
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1194
Blessed Lanfranc Beccaria, OSB Vall. B (AC)
BD LANFRANC , BISHOP OF PAVIA (A.D. 1194)
LANFRANC was a member of the Beccaria family and a native of Grupello, a
village near Pavia, in Lombardy. Although by nature a man of peace, yet during
the greater part of his fifteen years' episcopate he was actively engaged
in resisting the attempts of the civil authorities to lay hands on the property
of the Church. On one occasion, in the thick of the fray, he disappeared
temporarily into the Vallombrosan monastery of San Sepolcro, there to seek
strength and guidance; and his return was followed by a cessation of hostilities.
The peace did not last long, for the city fathers soon put forward the demand
that a large proportion of ecclesiastical revenues should be ceded to them
for the strengthening of the fortifications of Pavia, and the bishop absolutely
refused. As they proved unable to overcome his resistance, they declared
it to be a penal offence for anyone to bake his bread or to supply him with
food. Thus faced with starvation he left the city and made his way to Rome,
where he laid his case before Pope Clement III, who threatened the rulers
of Pavia with his censure, but advised the bishop to return to his diocese.
This Bd Lanfranc was the more ready to do because a man of approved piety,
Saracen Salimbene, had recently become chief magistrate, and for a time ruler
of the city. The bishop re-entered Pavia amid general acclamations, and all
was peace and amity. When, however, the old claims were revived Lanfranc
felt himself unable to resume the struggle. He decided to resign and enter
the Vallombrosan Order, but before he could carry out his intentions he fell
ill and died. His feast is kept at Pavia, where Lanfranc of Canterbury also
was born.
His life was written by Bernard
Balbi, his successor in the see of Pavia, who was a famous canonist. See
the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. v,
where the life is printed in full.
Born near Pavia, Italy. In 1178, Lanfranc was elevated to bishop
of Pavia. His episcopate was troubled by heretics and rapacious civil magistrates.
He left the city and joined the monks of San Sepolcro, but was recalled.
At the time of his death he had determined to become a Vallumbrosian (Benedictines).
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1213 Blessed Mary (Marie)
d'Oignies turned their house into a leper hospital, and tended the sick miraculously
"see the Blessed Sacrament", Widow (AC) able to discern the past history
of relics (hierognosis, psychometry).
BD MARY OF D'OIGNIES, VIRGIN (A.D. 1213)
THE life of Mary of Oignies was written by Cardinal James de Vitry, who had
been her friend, her disciple, and probably at one time her confessor. It
was through her influence that he had been led to take holy orders; but,
when expatiating upon her virtues, he warns his readers that her example
is not one to be recommended for general imitation.
She was born of wealthy parents at Nivelles in Brabant, and, though all her
aspirations were directed towards the religious life, her parents as soon
as she was fourteen gave her in marriage to a worthy young man of good position.
If they anticipated that he would induce her to adopt a more conventional
outlook, they were soon disillusioned; for Mary, young as she was, acquired
a great ascendancy over her husband. At her persuasion he consented not only
that they should undertake to live in continency, but also that her house
should be turned into a hospital for lepers. The young couple nursed their
patients with their own hands, sometimes sitting up with them all night,
and distributed alms so lavishly and indiscriminately as to call forth the
remonstrances of relations on both sides. These activities did not prevent
Mary from practising great austerities. She used the discipline freely, wore
a rough rope-girdle next to her skin, and stinted herself of food and sleep.
We are told that throughout an exceptionally rigorous winter, from Martinmas
until Easter, she spent every night in a church, lying on the bare ground
without extra wraps of any kind, and that she never suffered as much as a
headache in consequence. In her home, when engaged in spinning or other sedentary
manual work, she did her best to avoid distractions by keeping before her
an open psalter, upon which she could cast her eyes from time to time. Her
biographer lays stress on her abnormal tearfulness, which he and others regarded
as a spiritual grace. Even if in these days we should be more disposed to
treat it as the physical reaction from the nervous strain to which she subjected
her body, it must not be forgotten that the gift of tears was deemed by many
to be a mark of true compunction of heart. To the present time a set of collects,
pro petitione lacrymarum, stands in the Roman Missal, and St Ignatius Loyola,
from a fragment still preserved of his spiritual diary, evidently regarded
the days on which he did not shed tears during Mass as a time of desolation
when God, so to speak, averted His face. Mary herself maintained that weeping
relieved and refreshed her.
The fame of the sanctity of the holy ascetic attracted many visitors, few
of whom left her without being edified and helped by her admonitions or counsels;
but a few years before her death she felt the call to retire into solitude.
With the consent of her husband she accordingly left Willambroux, and took
up her residence in a cell close beside the Austin canons' monastery at Oignies.
She had in the past had many visions and ecstasies; now she seemed to be
constantly surrounded by the denizens of Heaven. She died at the age of thirty-eight,
on June 23, 1213, after a long and painful illness, which she had long foreseen.
What is perhaps most remarkable about Mary of Oignies is the fact that she
and a group of mystics in the Netherlands, notably the Beguines, seem to
have anticipated by some few years that change in the spirit of Catholic
devotion which is commonly considered to date from the Franciscan movement.
Cardinal James de Vitry, in his preface to the Life of Bd Mary, appeals to
Bishop Fulk of Toulouse, who had himself been an eye-witness of the extraordinary
wave of affective piety of which Belgium was then the nucleus. He undoubtedly
had Mary of Oignies most prominently in mind when he addressed Bishop Fulk
in these terms:
I well remember your speaking
to me of having left the Egypt of your own diocese, and after passing over
a weary desert, of your finding in the country of Liege the promised land....You
found, too, as I have heard you say with joy, many holy women amongst us,
who mourned more over one venial sin than the people of your own country
would have done over a thousand mortal ones ...You saw large bands of these
holy women, despising earthly delights and the riches of this world through
their longing desire after a heavenly kingdom, and clinging to the Eternal
Spouse by the bands of poverty and humility. You found them earning a poor
subsistence by the work of their hands, and though their parents abounded
in wealth, yet preferring to forget their own people and their father's house,
and endure the straits of poverty, rather than enjoy ill-gotten affluence.
A tender devotion to the passion of our Lord was specially characteristic
of the movement, and it must be remembered that when Mary wept so copiously
that, as Vitry says, "her steps might be traced in the church she was walking
in by her tears on the pavement", these tears, so he goes on to tell us,
"were poured forth from the wine-press of the Passion", and that “from this
time she could not for a long while either look at a crucifix, or speak of
the Passion, or even hear others speak of it, without fainting".
Equally remarkable was that anticipation of devotion to our Lord's real presence
in the Blessed Sacrament of which, up to this date, there is little trace
in the devotional literature. But of Mary of Oignies James de Vitry says:
"Sometimes she was permitted to take rest in her cell; but at other times,
especially when some great festival was approaching, she could find no rest
except in the presence of Christ in the church."
Further, any doubt which might be felt as to the meaning of the words, "in
the presence of Christ in the church", seems to be dispelled by an examination
of that other brief account of Mary of Oignies, written by Thomas of Cantimpré,
which the Bollandists have printed as an appendix to James de Vitry's biography.
In this other narrative reference is made to a very wealthy man who was in
some sense a convert of Mary's. She told him, we learn, at a time when he
was in great spiritual distress, "to go into the church near by"; whereupon
he obeyed, and "falling on his knees before the holy altar, directed his mental
gaze intently upon the pyx containing the Body of Christ, which hung above
it". It then seemed to him in a sort of vision that the pyx three times over
moved from its place, came through the air in his direction where he knelt
praying, and remained stationary close in front of him. When this happened
for the third time, he was rapt out of his senses and held secret communion
with God.
The following passage, bearing in mind the date to which it belongs, is in
many ways interesting :
Mary's comfort and great delight,
till she arrived at the land of promise, was the manna of life which comes
down from Heaven. The sacred Bread strengthened her heart, and the heavenly
Wine inebriated and gladdened her soul. She was filled with the holy food
of Christ's flesh, and His life-giving blood cleansed and purified her. This
was the only comfort she could not endure to be without. To receive Christ's
body was the same thing with her as to live, and to die was, in her mind,
to be separated from her Lord by not partaking of his Blessed Sacrament....
The saying, "Unless a man eat the Flesh...", so far from being a hard one
to her, as it was to the Jews, was most sweet and comforting; since she experienced
not only all interior delight and consolation from receiving Him, but even
a sensible sweetness in her mouth, like the taste of honey....And as her
thirst for the life-giving Blood of her Lord was so great that she could
not bear it, she sometimes entreated that, at least, the bare chalice might
be left on the altar after Mass, that she might feast her sight with it.
Mary was also one of the earliest mystics of whom are recorded,
in some detail, examples of what we should now be tempted to call psychic
gifts. She is said to have known, in certain cases, what was taking place
at a distance, she had strange premonitions about the future, and she was
believed to be able to discern the past history of relics (hierognosis, psychometry).
James de Vitry was undoubtedly speaking of himself when he related her inexplicable
knowledge of the details of what passed when "a friend of hers" was ordained
in Paris.
It is important to remember that James de Vitry is a most reliable witness.
Not only had he spent some five years, from 1208 to her death in 1213, in
Mary's company, but his whole career and his writings prove him to have been
a man of scrupulous integrity and of sober judgement. He always regarded
Mary as his spiritual mother, and considered himself to have been highly
honoured by the fact that she looked upon him as her special “preacher" and
identified herself with his apostolic work. The biography of Mary seems to
have been written shortly after her death and before James became a cardinal,
but he retained his devotion to her and to Oignies until the end of his days.
She always declared that he had been given to her in answer to her prayers
that since she, on account of her sex, could not teach the faithful and draw
them to God, she might do it by deputy. There was certainly a great bond between
them, and during her last sickness she prayed for him continually, begging
first of all that God would so preserve him that when he came to die she
might offer up his soul as one which God had entrusted to her and which she
restored with usury. She mentioned all the trials and temptations and even
the sins of "her preacher", which he had formerly been guilty of, and then
prayed God to keep him from such for the time to come. The prior, who knew
his conscience from hearing his confessions, heard her repeat all this; so
he went to him and asked him whether he had told the saint all his sins,
for, he added, in the course of her singing she has related all that you
have done, just as if she had read it out of a book. "Singing" refers to
the extraordinary rapture of Mary's last days when she spoke in Romance rhythmical
prose, or possibly verse.
Even the physical conditions under which she lived were extraordinary. Thus
we are told that “in the depth of winter she needed no material fire to keep
off the cold, but even when the frost was so severe as to turn all the water
into ice, she, wonderful to say, burned so in spirit that her body partook
of the warmth of her soul, especially in time of prayer; so that sometimes
she even perspired, and her clothes were scented with a sweet aromatic fragrance.
Oftentimes also the smell of her clothes was like the smell of incense, while
prayers were ascending from the thurible of her heart."
One would suspect such statements, if they depended merely on tradition.
But James de Vitry was there himself, and he was undoubtedly a devout and
honest man, who told the truth fearlessly.
Practically speaking all that
is known of the life of Mary of Oignies will be found in the Acta Sanctorum,
June, vol. v. To the text of the biography by Cardinal James de Vitry the
Bollandists have appended a certain supplementary notice by Thomas de Cantimpré.
There is an excellent translation of Vitry printed in the Oratorian series
of Lives of the Saints: it is included in the second volume of the Life of
St Jane Frances de Chantal (1852). See also P. Funk Jakob van Vitry (1909),
pp. 113-130; and on Oignies, U. Berlière, Monasticon BeIge, vol. i,
pp. 451-452. Further, there is an article in The Month, June, 1922, pp. 526-537,
by Fr Thurston, from which much of what is written above has been borrowed.
An important study of Mary by R. Hanon de Louvet was reviewed in Analecta
Bollandiana, vol. lxxi (1953), pp. 481-485. Bd Mary had influence on the
founding of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross (Crosiers) by Theodore of
Celles, at Clair-Lieu, near Huy, in 1211.
Born at Nivelles, Belgium, c. 1177; died in Oignies, Belgium, in 1213. Marie
d'Oignies was only 14 when she married, but she persuaded her husband not
to consummate the marriage. They lived together as brother and sister. They
then turned their house into a leper hospital, and tended the sick there.
Finally, Marie became a recluse in a cell near the church of Oignies, where
she was favored by supernatural charismata. In a near contemporary biography,
Marie d'Oignes, is said to have had a similar intense contemplation of the
Passion 12 years before that of St. Francis. Wounds were detected on her
body when it was washed at her death; however, it is not possible to know
whether these were self- inflicted or of mystical origin. Marie could miraculously
"see the Blessed Sacrament"
Marie's relics were placed in a silver shrine behind the altar
at Oignies, a monastery of canons regular in the diocese of Namur. He vita
was written by Cardinal James of Vitry, once a canon regular in that monastery,
afterwards bishop of Acon in Palestine, and later of Tusculum. Her name is
inserted in the calendars of several churches in Flanders, in some of which
she has been honored with an office (Benedictines, Harrison, Martindale).
In art, Blessed Marie is pictured as a recluse visited by an angel.
She may sometimes be shown (1) with an angel by her side; (2) spinning or
praying in her cell; (3) interceding for the souls in purgatory; or (4) as
the Virgin spreads her mantle over her to protect her from rain (Roeder).
She is invoked by women in childbirth and against fever (Roeder).
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13th v. Saint Walhere
Martyred a parish priest in the Walloon district of Belgium killed
by a profligate priest whom he was exhorting to reform his life
He was serving as a priest when murdered by a fellow
cleric over the latter's failures in the religious life. He is renowned in
Dinant. Saint Walhere was a parish priest in the Walloon district
of Belgium. While crossing a river in a boat, he was attacked and killed
by a profligate priest whom he was exhorting to reform his life. He is venerated
primarily at Dinant (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
Walhere of Dinant M (AC)
13th century? Saint Walhere was a parish priest in the Walloon district of
Belgium. While crossing a river in a boat, he was attacked and killed by
a profligate priest whom he was exhorting to reform his life. He is venerated
primarily at Dinant (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
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1343 Blessed Thomas
Corsini a Servite lay-brother, who spent his live collecting alms for the
abbey. He was favored by many visions (Benedictines), OSM (AC)
BD THOMAS CORSINI (A.D. 1345)
THERE is little to record about Bd Thomas Corsini: his life was as uneventful
as it was edifying. A native of Orvieto, and a man of education, he was led
to join the Servants of Mary by a vision in which he beheld the Mother of
God and was invited by her to fight under her banner. At first he hesitated-doubting
whether he might not be the victim of a mere hallucination-but when the vision
was repeated he concluded that a call had come to him from on high. He promptly
obeyed by seeking for admission into the local Servite community. Out of humility
he took the habit of a lay-brother, and out of humility he subsequently refused
to qualify himself for the priesthood. He chose for himself the office of
begging for alms or of attendant upon the brother questor in his daily mendicant
rounds. Bd Thomas was endowed with many spiritual graces and gifts, and many
miracles were attributed to him. The best-known of these is that when a poor
woman was expecting her confinement and expressed to him a longing for some
fresh figs, he, though the month was January, went into the garden and found
on a tree three ripe figs in perfect condition which he plucked and took
to her. Bd Thomas died in 1345, and was beatified in 1768.
See A. Giani, Annales Ord. Servorum B.M.V., vol. i,
pp. 281-282; and also Spörr, Lebensbilder
aus dem Serviten Orden (1892).
Born at Orvieto, Italy; beatified in 1768. Thomas Corsini was
a Servite lay-brother, who spent his live collecting alms for the abbey.
He was favored by many visions (Benedictines).
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Vladimir_Theotokos_Saving_Moscow_from_Khan_Achmed
1480 Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God Today
the church celebrates the miracle which led to the saving of Moscow from
the invasion of Khan Achmed in 1480.
The Vladimir Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos is also commemorated on May
21 and August 26.
Commemoration of the Vladimir Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God (June 23)
SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
When the Tartar king, Ahmet, lay siege to Moscow, Prince
Ivan Vasillievitch came with troops to defend the city. Although this prince's
forces were smaller in number and weaker than the Tartar army, they yet emerged
victorious, for an indescribable terror fell on the Tartars and they ran
off in confusion in all directions. All attributed this unexpected success
to the icon of the most holy Mother of God, for the whole people had begged
her aid for deliverance from the Tartars. This day, June 23rd, is set aside
in the land of Russia for the commemoration of this miracle.
1496 Blessed Peter James
of Pesaro, OSA (AC) cultus approved by Pope Pius IX. Peter James was
an Augustinian friar in Saint Nicholas's at Pesaro (Benedictines).
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1535 St. John Fisher is
usually associated with Erasmus, Thomas More and other Renaissance humanists.
His life, therefore, did not have the external simplicity found in the lives
of some saints. Rather, he was a man of learning, associated with the intellectuals
and political leaders of his day. He was interested in the contemporary culture
and eventually became chancellor at Cambridge
John Fisher Katholische Kirche:
22. Juni Anglikanische Kirche: 6. Juli
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 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).
John Fisher is usually associated with Erasmus, Thomas More
and other Renaissance humanists. His life, therefore, did not have the external
simplicity found in the lives of some saints. Rather, he was a man of learning,
associated with the intellectuals and political leaders of his day. He was
interested in the contemporary culture and eventually became chancellor at
Cambridge. He had been made a bishop at 35, and one of his interests was
raising the standard of preaching in England. Fisher himself was an accomplished
preacher and writer. His sermons on the penitential psalms were reprinted
seven times before his death. With the coming of Lutheranism, he was drawn
into controversy. His eight books against heresy gave him a leading position
among European theologians.
b. 1469
In 1521 he was asked to study the problem of Henry VIII’s marriage.
He incurred Henry’s anger by defending the validity of the king’s marriage
with Catherine and later by rejecting Henry’s claim to be the supreme head
of the Church of England.
In an attempt to be rid of him, Henry first had him accused of
not reporting all the “revelations” of the nun of Kent, Elizabeth Barton.
John was summoned, in feeble health, to take the oath to the new Act of Succession.
He and Thomas More refused because the Act presumed the legality of Henry’s
divorce and his claim to be head of the English Church. They were sent to
the Tower of London, where Fisher remained 14 months without trial. They
were finally sentenced to life imprisonment and loss of goods .
When the two were called to
further interrogations, they remained silent. Fisher was tricked, on the
supposition he was speaking privately as a priest, and declared again that
the king was not supreme head. The king, further angered that the pope had
made John Fisher a cardinal, had him brought to trial on the charge of high
treason. He was condemned and executed, his body left to lie all day on the
scaffold and his head hung on London Bridge. More was executed two weeks
later.
Comment: Today many questions
are raised about Christians' and priests' active involvement in social issues.
John Fisher remained faithful to his calling as a bishop. He strongly upheld
the teachings of the Church; the very cause of his martyrdom was his loyalty
to Rome. He was involved in the cultural enrichment circles as well as in
the political struggles of his time. This involvement caused him to question
the moral conduct of the leadership of his country. "The Church has the right,
indeed the duty, to proclaim justice on the social, national and international
level, and to denounce instances of injustice, when the fundamental rights
of man and his very salvation demand it" (Justice in the World, 1971 Synod
of Bishops).
Quote: Erasmus said of John
Fisher: "He is the one man at this time who is incomparable for uprightness
of life, for learning and for greatness of soul."
John Fisher Katholische Kirche: 22. Juni Anglikanische Kirche:
6. Juli
John Fisher wurde um 1469 in Beverley geboren. Er studierte in
Cambridge, wurde zum Priester geweiht und 1503 Professor der Theologie und
1504 Kanzler der Universität. Ebenfalls 1504 wurde er zum Bischof von
Rochester ernannt. Seine antireformatorischen Schriften wurden auf dem Konzil
von Trient gerne genutzt. Als Fisher die Ehescheidung von Heinrich VIII.
öffentlich verurteilte, zog er den Haß des Königs auf sich.
Als er den Sukzessionseid verweigerte, wurde er des Hochverrats angeklagt
und 1534 eingekerkert. 1535 wurde er zum Kardinal ernannt und einen Monat
später am 22.6.1535 enthauptet .
|
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
|
1545 Artemius
of Verkola Holy Righteous a light over the place where the incorrupt body
holy relics were shown to be a source of numerous healings
Born in the village of Dvina Verkola around the year 1532. The son of pious
parents, Artemius was a child who was courageous, meek and diligent for every
good deed. On June 23, 1545 the twelve-year-old Artemius and his father were
taken by surprise in a field by a thunderstorm. A clap of thunder broke right
over their heads, and the child Artemius fell dead. People thought that this
was a sign of God's judgment, therefore they left the body in a pine forest
without a funeral, and without burial.
Some years later, the village reader beheld a light over the place where
the incorrupt body of the Righteous Artemius lay. Taken to the church of
St Nicholas in 1577, the holy relics were shown to be a source of numerous
healings. In this village a monastery was later built, called the Verkola.
In 1918, the impious Soviets chopped the holy relics into pieces and threw
them into a well. The memory of St Artemius is also celebrated on October
20 . |
1588 The Zaonikievsk
Icon of the Mother of God was found in the year 1588 by the Vologda peasant
Ilarion -- the future Monk Joseph of Zaonikievsk. The
icon was glorified by numerous healings.
After long prayers for the restoration of his lost health, there
appeared to Ilarion the Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian, and they promised
him healing.
Having gone to the place bidden to him by the saints, Ilarion
suddenly saw amidst an extraordinary light an icon of the Mother of God.
Bowing down before it, he was healed, then accepted monasticism
with the name Joseph and founded on this spot the Zaonikievsk monastery.
The icon was glorified by numerous healings.
The Monk Joseph of Zaonikievsk, was in the world Ilarion, a pious
peasant from the village of Obukhovo Kubensk in the region of the Vologda
gubernia. For a long time he suffered an illness of eyesight and he fervently
prayed for the help of the Lord, to the MostHoly Mother of God and to the
Saints, in particular the holy Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian.
His prayer was heard, and in 1588, by revelation of Saint Cosmas,
the Monk Joseph went into the forest into a swampy place, to an icon of the
Mother of God, from which he received healing. In gratitude the monk cleared
a forest thicket at the place of the appearance of the wonderworking icon
and built a chapel, in which he put the icon. He himself settled close by,
taking the monastic form with the name of Joseph. Afterwards, with the blessing
of Sainted Antonii, Bishop of Vologda, on the place of Joseph's ascetic exploits
emerged the Zaonikiev monastery, called such from the name of the brigand
Aniki who once dwelt in this forest. When the monastery expanded and the
number of monks grew, upon the advice of the Monk Joseph, Antonii was chosen
as hegumen. Joseph himself out of humility did not accept the leadership
and, having concealed from the others his own strict exploits, he was perceived
as a fool-for-Christ, -- he stood on his feet at prayer in his chapel, and
in the fierce cold he went about barefoot.
The Monk Joseph reposed on 21 September 1612 at age 83, and was
buried in the monastery founded by him.
|
1581 The Pskov Caves
Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God, named the "Tenderness" (1542), is famous
particularly for the defense of Pskov and the Pskov Caves monastery from
the army of Stephen Bathory in 1581.
Its celebration is also on May 21, August 26 and October 7.
The Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God of the Pskov Lavra of the Caves
is of the Eleousa (Umilenie) type . |
1608 Saint Thomas
Garnet English Jesuit martyr nephew of the Jesuit Henry Garnet studied for
the priesthood at Saint Omer, France, and Valladolid, Spain. Initially ordained
as a secular priest, hejoined the Jesuits in 1604 and worked to advance the
Catholic cause in Warwick until his arrest in 1606. He was exiled after months
of torture but returned in 1607 and was soon arrested refused to take the
Oath of Supremacy
BD THOMAS GARNET, MARTYR (A.D. 1608)
THOMAS GARNET was the nephew of the famous Jesuit, Father Henry Garnet, and
the son of Mr Richard Garnet, a faithful Catholic who had been a distinguished
fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. His early education Thomas received at
Horsham Grammar School, but at the age of sixteen or seventeen he was sent
across the Channel to the newly opened College of St Omer. In January 1595
he and several of the other students set sail for Spain, but not till fourteen
months later, after many adventures which included a term of imprisonment
in England, did he succeed in reaching his destination-the English Jesuit
college at Valladolid. There, at the close of his theological course, he
was ordained priest. He was then sent on the English Mission with Bd Mark
Barkworth. His manner of life for the next six years he described in a few
words in his evidence when on trial: "I wandered from place to place to recover
souls which had gone astray and were in error as to the knowledge of the
true Catholic Church."
He was arrested near Warwick shortly after the discovery of the Gunpowder
Plot, and was imprisoned first in the Gatehouse and then at Newgate. Because
he had been staying in the house of Mr Ambrose Rookwood, who was implicated
in the conspiracy, and because he was so closely related to Father Henry
Garnet, it was hoped that important information could be extracted from him,
but neither threats of the rack nor the strictest cross-examination could
elicit any incriminating admission. After eight or nine months spent in a
damp' cell with no better bed than the bare ground, he was deported to Flanders
with some forty-six other priests. While still in England Bd Thomas had been
admitted to the Society of Jesus by his uncle, and he now proceeded to Louvain
for his novitiate. The following year, in September, he returned to England.
Six weeks later he was betrayed by an apostate priest and rearrested.
At the Old Bailey he was charged with high treason on the ground that he
had been made a priest by authority derived from Rome and that he had returned
to England in defiance of the law. His priesthood he neither admitted nor
denied, but he firmly refused to take the new oath of supremacy. On the evidence
of three witnesses who declared that when he was in the Tower he had signed
himself Thomas Garnet, Priest, he was declared guilty and was condemned to
death. On the scaffold he proclaimed himself a priest and a Jesuit, explaining
that he had not acknowledged this at his trial lest he should be his own
accuser or oblige his judges to condemn him- against their consciences. The
Earl of Essex and others tried up to the last to persuade him to save his
life by taking the oath, and when the end came and the cart was drawn away
they would not allow him to be cut down until it was certain that he was
quite dead.
Plenty of information regarding
Bd Thomas Garnet is available in Foley, REPSJ., vol. ii, PP. 475-505. See
also Challoner, MMP., pp. 296-299; Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs, p. 176; and
Testore, Il Primato spirituale di Pietro
(1929), pp. 328-332.
He was born in Southwark, England, and studied for the priesthood
at Saint Omer, France, and Valladolid, Spain. Initially ordained as a secular
priest, hejoined the Jesuits in 1604 and worked to advance the Catholic cause
in Warwick until his arrest in 1606. He was exiled after months of torture
but returned in 1607 and was soon arrested.
At the Old Bailey he was charged with high treason on the grounds
that he had been made a priest by authority derived from Rome and that he
had returned to England in defiance of the law. His priesthood he neither
admitted nor denied, but he firmly refused to take the Oath of Supremacy.
On the evidence of three witnesses who declared that when he was in the Tower
he had signed himself Thomas Garnet, Priest, he was declared guilty and was
condemned to death.
He was hanged at Tyburn. Beatified in 1929, he was canonized
in 1970 and is included among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
Thomas Garnet, SJ Priest M (AC)
Born at Southwark; died 1608; beatified 1929; canonized in 1970 by Pope Paul
VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Born into a distinguished
Catholic family, Thomas Garnet was the nephew of the famous Jesuit, Father
Henry Garnet, and the son of Richard Garnet, a faithful Catholic who had
been a distinguished fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. His early education
was at Horsham Grammar School, but at the age of 16 or 17, he was sent to
the newly opened College of Saint Omer in France. In January 1595, he and
several of the other students set sail for Spain, but not until 14 months
later, after many adventures which included a term of imprisonment in England,
did he succeed in reaching Spain and the English Jesuit College at Valladolid.
There, at the close of his theological course, he was ordained a priest.
He was then sent on the English mission with Blessed Mark Barkworth in 1599.
His manner of life for the next six years he described in a few words in
his evidence when on trial: "I wandered from place to place to recover souls
which had gone astray and were in error as to the knowledge of the true Catholic
Church."
In 1606, the year he uncle was executed, Father Thomas Garnet
was arrested near Warwick shortly after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot.
First he was imprisoned in the Gatehouse and then moved to Newgate. Because
he had been staying in the house of Mr. Ambrose Rookwood, who was implicated
in the conspiracy, and because he was so closely connected to Father Henry
Garnet, it was hoped that important information could be extracted from him,
but neither threats nor the strictest cross-examination could elicit any
incriminating admission. After eight or nine months spent in a damp cell
with no better bed than the bare ground, he was deported to Flanders with
46 other priests. While still in England Saint Thomas had been admitted to
the Society of Jesus by his uncle, who was superior of the Jesuits in England,
and he now proceeded to Louvain for his novitiate. The following year, in
September, he returned to England. Six weeks later he was betrayed by an
apostate priest and arrested again.
At the Old Bailey he was charged with high treason on the grounds
that he had been made a priest by authority derived from Rome and that he
had returned to England in defiance of the law. His priesthood he neither
admitted nor denied, but he firmly refused to take the Oath of Supremacy.
On the evidence of three witnesses who declared that when he was in the Tower
he had signed himself Thomas Garnet, Priest, he was declared guilty and was
condemned to death.
On the scaffold he proclaimed himself a priest and a Jesuit, explaining
that he had not acknowledged this at his trial lest he should be his own
accuser or oblige the judges to condemn him against their consciences. The
Earl of Essex and others tried up to the last moment to persuade him to save
his life by taking the oath, and when the end came and the cart was drawn
away they would not allow him to be cut down until it was certain he was
quite dead (Benedictines, Delaney, Walsh) .
|
1714 Saint Herman,
Archbishop of Kazan
Today we commemorate the second
translation of the relics of .
St Herman is also commemorated on
November 6 (his repose) and on September 25 (transfer of his relics in 1595).
|
1860 Saint Joseph Cafasso
Augústæ Taurinórum sancti Joséphi Cafásso,
Sacerdótis, qui levítis pietáte et sciéntiæ
augéndis atque damnátis cápite Deo conciliándis
fuit illústris, et a Pio Papa Duodécimo inter sanctos Cælites
adscríptus est.
At Turin, St. Joseph Cafasso, priest, renowned for his
piety and learning, and for his work with prisoners, reconciling to God those
who were preparing for execution. He was added to the number of the
Saints by Pope Pius XII.
"We are born to love, we live
to love, and we will die to love still more." --Joseph Cafasso
Saint
Joseph Cafasso a brilliant lecturer in moral theology at the Institute of
Saint Franics; a popular teacher, actively opposed Jansenism, and fought
state intrusion into Church affairs; made a deep impression on his young priest
students with his holiness and insistence on discipline and high standards
ministered to prisoners, working to improve their terrible conditions. He
met Don Bosco in 1827 and the two became close friends. It was through Joseph's
encouragement that Bosco decided his vocation was working with boys. Joseph
was his adviser, worked closely with him in his foundations, and convinced
others to fund and found religious institutes and charitable organizations;
His funeral was preached by Saint John Bosco.
Augústæ Taurinórum
sancti Joséphi Cafásso, Sacerdótis, qui levítis
pietáte et sciéntiæ augéndis atque damnátis
cápite Deo conciliándis fuit illústris, et a Pio Papa
Duodécimo inter sanctos Cælites adscríptus est.
At Turin, St. Joseph
Cafasso, priest, renowned for his piety and learning, and for his work with
prisoners, reconciling to God those who were preparing for execution.
He was added to the number of the Saints by Pope Pius XII.
ST JOSEPH CAFASSO (A.D. 1860)
IT is common for St Joseph Cafasso to be referred to as a saint of the Salesian
Congregation, and this is understandable, for he was a close friend and spiritual
director of St John Bosco. Nevertheless it is a mistake: St Joseph Cafasso
was a secular priest, and his full and noble life was in general as deficient
in external incident as is the usual lot of the pastoral clergy of the Church.
His birthplace was that of St John Bosco and of several other remarkable
ecclesiastics, the small country town of Castelnuovo d' Asti in the Piedmont,
where he was born in 1811. His parents, John Cafasso and Ursula Beltramo,
were peasants in good circumstances, and he was the third of four children,
of whom the last born, Mary Anne, was to be the mother of Canon Joseph Allamano,
founder of the missionary priests of the Consolata of Turin. As a boy Joseph
Cafasso made his mark at the local school, and he was always willing to help
others with their lessons: years afterwards one of his mates said that there
was a debt of two blackbirds still unpaid from him to Joseph for such services.
His father sent him at the age of thirteen to the school at Chieri, from
whence he proceeded to the seminary newly opened in the same place by the
archbishop of Turin. He was the best student of his time, became prefect
of the establishment during his last year, and was ordained priest in 1833,
by dispensation on account of his youth.
After his ordination, together with his friend and fellow student John Allamano,
Joseph Cafasso took very modest lodgings in Turin in order to pursue further
theological studies. He soon became dissatisfied with the metropolitan seminary
and with the university, and found his true spiritual home at the institute
(convitto) attached to the church of St Francis of Assisi, founded for young
priests some years before by its rector, the theologian Luigi Guala. After
three years of study here Don Cafasso passed the diocesan examination with
great distinction, and was straightway engaged as a lecturer at the institute
by Don Guala.
When Guala asked his assistant whom to have as lecturer, the reply had been,
“Take the little one", meaning Cafasso. And that he was undersized and somewhat
deformed by a twist of the spine was what was first noticed about his appearance.
But his features were fine and regular, his eyes dark and clear, his hair
thick and black, and from his mouth, generally lit up by a half smile, came
a voice of unusual sonorousness and quality. In spite of his littleness and
stoop, Don Cafasso's appearance was striking, almost majestic. His contemporaries
frequently refer to St Philip Neri and St Francis de Sales when speaking
of him, and they indeed seem to have been his exemplars; a serene gaiety
and kindness distinguished him, and St John Bosco among others remarks on
his “undisturbed tranquillity". And so it soon became talked about that the
Institute of St Francis at Turin had a new lecturer who was little in body
but very big in soul. His subject was moral theology, and he was not content
to instruct without educating: he aimed not only to "teach things", but by
enlightening and directing the understanding to enlighten and direct the
heart, to present knowledge not as an abstraction but as a living flame to
give life to the spirit.
Don Cafasso was also soon well known as a preacher. He was no rhetorician,
for all that words came easily to him: "Jesus Christ, the Infinite Wisdom",
he said to Don Bosco, "used the words and idioms that were in use among those
whom He addressed. Do you the same". And there were not wanting tendencies
and teachings to be fought in colloquial words to the multitude as well as
in more technical terms to the young clergy. Don Cafasso was outstanding
among those who destroyed the remnants of Jansenism in northern Italy, encouraging
hope and humble confidence in the love and mercy of God, and fighting a morality
that looked on the slightest fault as a grave sin. "When we hear confessions",
he wrote, "our Lord wants us to be loving and pitiful, to be fatherly towards
all who come to us, without reference to who they are or what they have done.
If we repel anybody, if any soul is lost through our fault, we shall be held
to account: his blood will be required at our hands." And Don Cafasso had
a big part in bringing up a generation of clergy who should at all points
combat and refuse to compromise with civil authorities whose idea of the
church-state relationship was one of domination and interference.·
[• As an exercise in abuse, Gioberti's views on the Turin institute at this
time are worth quoting: "The Institute of St Francis is difficult to define.
It is a college, a seminary, a monastery, a presbytery, a chapter, a penitentiary,
a church, a nuisance (cura) and a court (curia), a tribunal, an academy,
a bogus council, a political gang, a seditious conventicle, a business office,
a police-station, a laboratory of casuistry, a seed-bed of error, a school
of ignorance, a factory of lies, a web of intrigue, a nest of cheats, a warehouse
of gossip, a dispensary of trifles, a selling-place of favours .... " etc.,
etc.]
In 1848 Don Guala died, and Don Cafasso was appointed to succeed him as rector
of St Francis's church and the annexed institute. He proved no less a good
superior than subordinate; and the position was not an easy one, for there
were some sixty young priests, from several dioceses, of varied education
and culture, and, what was important at that time and place, of differing
political views. Don Cafasso made of them a single body, with one heart and
mind, and if a strong hand and rigid discipline played its part in this achievement,
the holiness of the new rector and his high standards did more. His love
and care for young priests and inexperienced curates, and his insistence
that their worst enemy was a spirit of worldliness, had a marked influence
on the clergy of Piedmont, nor was his care confined to them: nuns and sisters
and lay people, especially the young, all shared in his interest and solicitude.
He had a remarkable intuition in dealing with penitents, and people of all
kinds, high and lowly, clerical and lay, flocked to his confessional; the
archdeacon of Ivrea, Mgr Francis Favero, was among those who gave personal
testimony to the power of healing the broken spirit that Don Cafasso exercised.
His activities, whether in preaching and ministering to all and sundry, or
in guiding and educating the young clergy, were not confined to St Francis's
and the institute, and foremost among the places where he was well known
was the sanctuary of St Ignatius away in the hills at Lanzo. At the suppression
of the Society of Jesus, this sanctuary came into the hands of the archdiocese
of Turin, and in due course Don Luigi Guala was appointed its administrator,
to be succeeded at his death by Don Cafasso. He continued his predecessor's
work there of preaching to pilgrims and conducting retreats for both clergy
and laity, enlarging the accommodation and finishing the highway to it that
Guala had begun. But of all the activities of Don Cafasso none struck the
imagination of the general public more than his work for prisoners and convicts.
The prisons of Turin in those days were horrible institutions, whose inmates
were herded together in barbarous conditions likely still more to degrade
those who suffered them. This was a challenge to Don Cafasso, and one which
he accepted with both hands. The best known of his converts in these unpromising
circumstances was Peter Mottino, a deserter from the army who had become
the leader of a particularly notorious band of brigands. Executions took
place in public, and Don Cafasso accompanied over sixty men to the scaffold
in various places, no one of whom died impenitent: he called them his "hanged
saints", and asked them to pray for him. Among them was General Jerome Ramorino,
who had been an ordnance officer of Napoleon I and then a revolutionary soldier-of-fortune
in Spain, Poland and Italy. He was condemned to death for disobedience to
orders at the battle of Mortara, and when invited to make his confession
on the eve of execution, replied, "My condition is not such that I am in
need of that humiliation". Don Cafasso knew better and persevered and Ramorino
met his death as a good Christian should.
John Bosco and Joseph Cafasso first met on a Sunday in the fall of 1827,
when the first was still a lively boy and the second already tonsured. "I've
seen him! I've talked to him!" announced John, when he got home. "Seen who?"
asked his mother. "Joseph Cafasso. And I tell you, he's a saint." Fourteen
years later Don Bosco celebrated his first Mass at the church of St Francis
in Turin, and afterwards joined the institute, studying under Cafasso and
sharing many of his undertakings, especially the religious instruction of
boys. It was Don Cafasso who persuaded him that work for boys was his vocation.
And so it came about that a Salesian, John Cagliero, could write, "We love
and reverence our dear father and founder Don Bosco, but we love Joseph Cafasso
no less, for he was Don Bosco's master, adviser and guide in spiritual things
and in his undertakings for over twenty years; and I venture to say that
the goodness, the achievement and the wisdom of Don Bosco are Don Cafasso's
glory. It was through him that Don Bosco settled in Turin, through him that
boys were brought together in the first Salesian oratory; the obedience,
love and wisdom that he taught have borne fruit in the thousands of youngsters
in Europe and Asia and Africa and America who today are being well educated
for life in God's Church and in human society." Nor was St John Bosco the
only beneficiary in this way. Inspiration and encouragement, help and direction,
were found in St Joseph Cafasso by the Marchioness Juliet Falletti di Barolo,
who founded a dozen charitable institutions, by Don John Cocchi, who devoted
his life to establishing a college for artisans and other good works in Turin,
by the priests Dominic Sartoris, who began the Daughters of St Clare, and
Peter Merla, who cared for delinquent children, by the founders of the Sisters
of the Nativity and the Daughters of St Joseph, Francis Bono and Clement
Marchisio respectively, by Laurence Prinotti, who set up an institute for
necessitous deaf-mutes, and by Caspar Saccarelli, who organized an establishment
for the education of poor girls. All these also may be said to have contributed
to the glory of St Joseph Cafasso.
In the spring of 1860 Don Cafasso foretold that death would take him during
the year. He drew up a spiritual testament, enlarging on the means of preparation
for a good death that he had so often expounded to retreatants at St Ignatius's,
namely, a godly and upright life, detachment from the world, and love for
Christ crucified. And he made a will disposing of his property, the residuary
legatee of which was the rector of the Little House of Divine Providence
at Turin, the foundation of St Joseph Cottolengo. Among the other legatees
was St John Bosco, who received a sum of money and some land and buildings
adjoining the Salesian oratory at Turin. Don Bosco was at this time having
difficulties with the civil governor of Piedmont, which was a cause of worry
to Don Cafasso and adversely affected his health. After hearing confessions
on June 11 he retired to bed, worn out and ill. Pneumonia developed, and
he died on Saturday, June 23, 1860, at the hour of the morning angelus.
Enormous crowds attended the funeral, at St Francis's and the parish church
of the Holy Martyrs, where, as was fitting, St John Bosco preached. Thirty-five
years later the cause of Don Cafasso was introduced in the diocesan court
of Turin; and in 1947 he was canonized.
This is a case where the life
of a saint has been written by a saint: Biografia del sacerdote Giuseppe
Cafasso, by Don Bosco, but the standard biography is Vita del Ven.
G. Cafasso, in two volumes, by Luigi Nicolis di Robilant. Adequate for
all ordinary purposes is Cardinal Salotti's La Perla del Clero Italiano
(1947); but it is rather verbose for English taste. There is also
Canon Colombero's Vita del Servo di Dio Don Giuseppe Cafasso. See also
books on St John Bosco. There still seems to be nothing in English about
St Joseph Cafasso except a short reference in Hughes's Maria Mazzarello;
but there is a German life by D. W. Mut (Munich, 1925).
Joseph Cafasso was born at Castelnuovo d'Asti in the Piedmont, Italy, of peasant parents. He studied
at the seminary at Turin, and was ordained in 1833. He continued his theological
studies at the seminary and university at Turin and then at the Institute
of Saint Franics, and despite a deformed spine, became a brilliant lecturer
in moral theology there. He was a popular teacher, actively opposed Jansenism,
and fought state intrusion into Church affairs. He succeeded Luigi Guala
as rector of the Institute in 1848 and made a deep impression on his young
priest students with his holiness and insistence on discipline and high standards.
He was a sought-after confessor and spiritual adviser, and ministered to
prisoners, working to improve their terrible conditions. He met Don Bosco
in 1827 and the two became close friends. It was through Joseph's encouragement
that Bosco decided his vocation was working with boys. Joseph was his adviser,
worked closely with him in his foundations, and convinced others to fund
and found religious institutes and charitable organizations. Joseph died
on June 23 at Turin and was canonized in 1947.
Joseph Cafasso (RM) Born at Castelnuova d'Asti, Piedmont, Italy, in 1811;
died 1860; beatified in 1925; canonized in 1947; feast day formerly January
23.
Saint Joseph was born into a wealthy peasant family and educated in the seminary
of Chieri. The life of Joseph Cafasso, who was ordained a priest in 1833,
was written by Saint John Bosco, to whom Joseph served as teacher, adviser,
and spiritual director for over twenty years. Three years later after his
ordination, Cafasso was appointed professor of moral theology at the ecclesiastical
college Saint Francis in Turin, which housed 60 young priests from different
dioceses and of diverse political orientations. Ten years later he was appointed
superior of the college, and he remained in that position until his death.
He also directed a retreat house at Lanzo, but his special apostolate was
to prisoners and convicts, especially those preparing for execution. Like
Saint Robert Bellarmine, Father Cafasso was undersized and called "the little
one," but he made his mark both as a spiritual director and a preacher. He
led a very penitential life and was renowned for his devotion to the Blessed
Sacrament and as a confessor.
From 1827, he directed John Bosco into an apostolate for boys, helped him
to settle in Turin, introduced him to wealthy patrons, and came to be regarded
as the second founder of the Salesians. In 1860, when he was ill with pneumonia,
he made a will bequeathing his goods to Saint Joseph Cottolengo and John
Bosco. His funeral, at which Bosco preached, was attended by huge crowds
(Attwater, Benedictines, Farmer) .
|
Mary Mother of GOD
Saint of the Day June 23 Nono Kaléndas Júlii
Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 
Benedict XVI met with Aram I Catholicos
of Cilicia, the highest authority of the Orthodox Church.
The Pope remembered the martyrs of the Armenian
Church and the Armenian genocide, without explicitly mentioning
it, and denounced the persecution of Christians in modern times.
Benedict XVI
As we watch the spectacle of the
world seeming to self-destruct before our eyes, we can’t help
but be saddened and even frightened by so much evil run rampant.
Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Somalia, North Korea—It is all a
disaster of epic proportions displayed in living color on our television
screens.