First Church
for
The Virgin Mary in the city of Philippi. Commemoration of
On this day, the church celebrates the commemoration of the first
church to be built in the name of the Virgin Lady, the All pure St.
Mary, the Theotokos (Mother of God), through whom the salvation of Adam
and his posterity was fulfilled. When the two apostles Paul and Silas
preached among the gentiles, many believed of them in the city of
Philippi. They built a church there in the name of the Virgin, the
Mother of God, and its consecration was on that day. It is meet for us
to celebrate for her a spiritual festival, for she has borne the Savior
of the world. May her intercession be with us. Amen.
|
95 Departure
of
St. Cedron (Kardonos), the Fourth Patriarch of Alexandria This father
was baptized by the hand of St. Mark the apostle, and the evangelist of
the land of Egypt
This day also (June 15th, 16 A.D.) marks the departure of St. Cedron
(Kardonos), the Fourth Patriarch of Alexandria. This father was
baptized by the hand of St. Mark the apostle, and the evangelist of the
land of Egypt. He learned the doctrines and the books of the Church.
After the departure of Pope Melius, he was ordained a Pope for the See
of St. Mark in the 7th day of Tute (September 5th, 95 A.D.). He
shepherded his people with the best of care, by preaching, teaching,
and instructing them for eleven years, one month, and twelve days, then
departed in peace. May his prayers be with us and Glory be to God
forever. Amen.
|
Martyrdom of St.
Timothy of Memphis (El-Masry).
On this day also, St. Timothy of Memphis (El-Masry) was martyred. He
was one of the soldiers of Arianus, governor of the city of Ansena.
When he read the Edict of the Emperor Diocletian, which commanded the
worship of idols, this soldier rose up in the middle of the people,
seized the Edict, and tore it up saying, "There is no God except Jesus
Christ the Son of the Living God." The Governor became enraged. He
seized Timothy by the hair of his head, and cast him down on the
ground. He commanded him to be beaten until his flesh was mangled. The
Saint cried out, saying, "O my Lord Jesus Christ, help me for there is
no God but You." God considered his endurance, and sent His angel, who
healed his wounds. The Saint returned to the Governor crying, "There is
no God except Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God." The Governor
tortured him severely again, and finally he cut off his head and thus
St. Timothy received the crown of martyrdom. May his prayers be
with us. Amen.
|
202 Saint
Plutarch Martyr of Alexandria, Egypt With brother,
Heraclides, and group of fellow students Marcella and her daughter
Potamioena; soldier Bailides
Alexandríæ,
in persecutióne Sevéri, sanctórum Mártyrum
Plutárchi, Seréni, Heraclídis catechúmeni,
Herónis neóphyti, et altérius Seréni,
Rháidis catechúmenæ, et Potamiœnæ cum
ipsíus matre Marcélla; inter quos præcípue
enítuit Potamiœna Virgo, quæ, primo imménsos
innumerósque agónes pro virginitáte
desudávit, deínde étiam exquisíta et
inaudíta torménta pro fide sustínuit, ad
últimum, simul cum matre, igne consúmpta est.
At Alexandria, in the persecution of Severus, the
holy martyrs Plutarch, Serenus, Heraclides, catechumen, Heron, a
neophyte, another Serenus, Rhais, a catechumen, Potamioena and Marcella
her mother. Among them the virgin Potamioena is particularly
distinguished. She first endured many painful trials for the
preservation of her virginity, and then cruel and unheard-of torments
for the faith, after which both she and her mother were consumed with
fire.
SS.
PLUTARCH, POTAMIAENA AND THEIR COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
(c. A.D. 202)
THE catechetical school of Origen at Alexandria was a training ground
in virtue: for the master, not content with lecturing on the sciences,
made a great point of inculcating upon his pupils the loftiest
principles of Christian perfection. The school furnished some
illustrious martyrs in the persecution of Severus which raged with
great fury from 202-the year before Origen was appointed
catechist-until the death of the emperor in 211.
The first to suffer was St Plutarch, brother of St Heraclas, afterwards
bishop of Alexandria. The two brothers had been converted to the faith
together, through listening to the lectures of Origen. Being a
prominent personage Plutarch was arrested at an early stage of the
persecution. He was visited and encouraged in prison by Origen, who
accompanied him to the place of execution and who was nearly lynched by
the mob because they held him responsible for Plutarch's death.
Serenus, another of the master's disciples, was burnt alive;
Heraclides, a catechumen, and Hero, a neophyte, were beheaded. A second
confessor of the name of Serenus was also decapitated after undergoing
torture. Women as well as men attended the catechetical school, and
three of them suffered martyrdom. Herais, a maiden who was still a
catechumen, was baptized by fire-to quote Origen's own words.
The other two, Marcella and Potamiaena, were mother and daughter.
Attempts were made to induce Potamiaena to purchase her freedom at the
expense of her chastity, for she was young, accomplished and beautiful,
but she rejected the proposals with scorn. She was then condemned to be
stripped and cast into a cauldron of boiling pitch. Upon hearing her
sentence, she said to the judge, "I beg of you, by the life of the
emperor whom you honour, not to oblige me to appear unclothed; rather
suffer me to be slowly lowered into the cauldron fully dressed, that
you may see the patience which Jesus Christ, whom you know not, bestows
upon those who trust Him." The magistrate granted her request and
charged Basilides, one of the guards, to lead her to execution. The man
treated her with respect, protecting her from the insults and pressure
of the crowd. She thanked him for his courtesy and told him that after
her death she would obtain his salvation from God. The cruel sentence
was then carried out. Her mother suffered at the same time.
Shortly afterwards Basilides surprised his fellow soldiers by refusing
to take an oath when called upon to do so: he was a Christian, he said,
and could not swear by false gods. At first they thought he was joking,
but when he persisted they took him to the prefect, who consigned him
to prison. In reply to the inquiries of Christians who came to visit
him in gaol, he told them that Potamiaena had appeared to him after her
martyrdom and had placed on his head a crown which she said she had won
for him by her prayers. He received baptism in prison and, having made
a glorious confession of faith before the magistrate, was beheaded.
Several other persons in Alexandria are said to have been converted to
Christianity as the result of visitations from St Potamiaena who came
to them in their dreams.
The authority for this
narrative is the Ecclesiastical
History of Eusebius, bk vi, ch. 5· See also Delehaye, in
the Analecta Bollandiana,
vol. xl (1922), pp. 9, 23, 89; and Augar, in Texte und Untersuchungen, N.F.,
vol. xiii, part 4 (1905), pp. 17 seq.
Plutarch
studied in the
famed Catechetical School of Alexandria. Like his brother, he was
converted to Christianity by Origen and was arrested by Roman
officials during the persecution
launched by Emperor Septimius Severus. Plutarch, along with the
others, was executed. The two women, Marcella and her daughter
Potamioena, also died; the latter was lowered into a cauldron of
boiling pitch. According to custom, the soldier Bailides, who had led
Potamioena
to her execution, was converted through a vision of the girl and was
baptized in prison just before his beheading.
|
 202
Saint
Irenaeus writings of
Saint Irenaeus entitle him to a
high place among
the fathers of the Church, for they not only laid the foundations of
Christian theology but, by exposing and refuting the errors of the
gnostics, they delivered the Catholic Faith from the real danger of the
doctrines of those heretics: He was most influenced by Saint
Polycarp who had known the
apostles or their immediate disciples
Lugdúni, in
Gállia, sancti Irenæi, Epíscopi
et Mártyris; qui (ut scribit sanctus Hierónymus)
beáti Polycárpi, Smyrnénsis Epíscopi,
discípulus fuit, et Apostolicórum témporum
vicínis. Is, cum advérsus hæréticos
verbis ac scriptis plúrimum decertásset, tandem, in
persecutióne Sevéri, cum omni fere civitátis
suæ pópulo, coronátus est glorióso martyrio.
At Lyons
in France, St. Irenæus, bishop and
martyr. St. Jerome relates that he was the disciple of blessed
Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, and lived near the time of the
apostles. After having strenuously opposed the heretics by word
and by writing, he was crowned with a glorious martyrdom along with
almost all the people of his city, during the persecution of Severus.
ST IRENAEUS, BISHOP OF LYONS (c. A.D. 203)
July 25, 1960, this feast was In a Motu Proprio of John XXIII dated
transferred to 3 July.
THE writings of St Irenaeus entitle him to a high place amongst the
fathers of the Church, for they not only laid the foundations of
Christian theology but, by exposing and refuting the errors of the
gnostics, they delivered the Catholic faith from the real danger it ran
of being leavened by the insidious doctrines of those heretics. Of his
parentage nothing is recorded. He was born, probably about the year
125, in one of those maritime provinces of Asia Minor where the memory
of the Apostles was still cherished and where Christians were numerous.
He received what must have been an exceptionally liberal education, for
it gave him a thorough knowledge of the text of Holy Scripture and a
good general acquaintance with Greek philosophy and literature.
Moreover, he had the inestimable privilege of sitting at the feet of
men who had known the Apostles or their immediate disciples. Of these
the one who influenced him the most was St Polycarp. So profound indeed
was the impression made upon him by the holy bishop of Smyrna that
throughout his after life, as he told a friend, he could recall every
detail of St Polycarp's appearance, the sound of his voice, and the
very words he used when describing his intercourse with the evangelist
St John, and others who had seen the Lord, or when he was expounding
the doctrine he had learnt from them. St Gregory of Tours asserts that
it was St Polycarp who sent Irenaeus as a missionary to Gaul, but there
is no evidence to support this statement.
Commercial relations had existed from early times between the ports of
Asia Minor and Marseilles, and in the second century of our era
Levantine traders were regularly conveying their wares up the Rhone as
far as Lyons, which became in consequence the chief mart of western
Europe and the most populous city in Gaul. In the train of the
Asiatics, many of whom settled in Lyons, came their priests and
missionaries who brought the Gospel to the pagan Gauls and founded a
vigorous local church. To this church of Lyons Irenaeus came to serve
as a priest under its first bishop, St Pothinus, an oriental like
himself; to it he was to remain permanently attached. The high opinion
held of him by his brother clergy was evinced in the year 177, when he
was dispatched on a somewhat delicate mission to Rome. It was after the
outbreak of the terrible persecution, which is dealt with at some
length under June 2 in this volume [Butlers Lives of the Saints], and
already some of the leaders of the church of Lyons were in prison.
Their captivity, however, did not prevent them from continuing to take
a deep interest in their fellow Christians in Asia Minor. Conscious of
the sympathetic hearing to which they were entitled as confessors in
imminent peril of death, they sent to Pope St Eleutherius, by the hands
of Irenaeus, what is described by Eusebius as "a most religious and
most orthodox" letter, in which they appealed to him-in the interest of
the peace and unity of the Church to deal leniently with their
Montanist brethren in Phrygia. They commended the bearer of the letter
to his notice as a priest" filled with zeal for the testament of
Christ", and as one who was, as his name implied, a lover of peace.
This mission, entailing as it did absence from Lyons, explains how it
was that Irenaeus was not called upon to share the martyrdom of St
Pothinus and his fellowsufferers, and does not seem to have witnessed
it. How long he remained in Rome we do not know, but when he returned
to Lyons it was to occupy its vacant bishopric. By that time the
persecution was over and the twenty or more years of his episcopate
were years of relative peace. Information about his activities is
scanty, but it is clear that in addition to his purely pastoral duties
he did much to evangelize the neighbouring lands. He is said to have
sent SS. Felix, Fortunatus and Achilleus as missionaries to Valence,
and SS. Ferrutius and Ferreolus to Besançon. A small indication
of the extent to which he identified himself with his flock is supplied
by the fact that he habitually spoke the Celtic language instead of his
native Greek. It was the spread of Gnosticism in Gaul, and the ravages
it was making amongst the Christians of his diocese, that inspired him
to undertake the task of exposing its errors. He began by mastering its
tenets-no easy matter, since each gnostic master was inclined to
introduce variations of his own. Fortunately for Irenaeus he was,
Tertullian tells us, “a curious explorer of all kinds of learning", and
he found the work not uncongenial. He then produced a treatise in five
books in which he sets forth fully the inner doctrines of the various
sects, and afterwards contrasts them with the teaching of the Apostles
and the text of Holy Scripture.
A good example of his method is provided by his treatment of the
gnostic doctrine that the visible world has been created, preserved and
governed by angelic beings and not by God, who remains unconnected with
it, aloof, indifferent, and incapable of activity in the Pleroma (the
invisible spiritual world). Irenaeus states the theory, develops it to
its logical conclusion, and by an effective reductio ad absurdum
proceeds to demonstrate its fallacy. The true Christian doctrine of the
close relationship between God and the world He has created Irenaeus
sets forth in the following terms: "The Father is above all, and He is
the head of Christ, but the Word is through all things and He is
Himself the head of the Church, whilst the Spirit is in us all; and His
is the living water which the Lord gave to those who believe in Him and
love Him and know that there is one Father above all things and through
all things and in all things." Concerned as he is to convert rather
than to confound, Irenaeus writes with studied moderation and courtesy,
but now and then humorous comments escape him. Referring, for instance,
to the attitude of the newly “initiated" he says: "As soon as a man has
been won over to their way of salvation he becomes so puffed up with
conceit and self-importance that he imagines himself to be no longer in
Heaven or on earth, but to have already passed into the Pleroma, and
with the majestic air of a cock he goes strutting about-as if he had
already embraced his ange1." Irenaeus was firmly convinced that a great
part of the attractiveness of Gnosticism lay in the veil of secrecy
with which it surrounded itself, and he was determined to "strip the
fox", as he expressed it. The event proved him to have been right. His
work, written in Greek but quickly translated into Latin, was widely
circulated and succeeded in dealing to second century Gnosticism what
appears to have been its death-blow. At any rate, from that time
onwards, it ceased to offer a serious menace to the Catholic faith.
Thirteen or fourteen years after his mission to Pope Eleutherius,
Irenaeus again acted as mediator between a pope and a body of
Christians in Asia Minor. Because the Quartodecimans refused to keep
Easter in accordance with the Western use they had been excommunicated
by Victor III, and there was in consequence a real danger of schism.
Irenaeus intervened on their behalf. In a singularly beautiful letter
addressed to the pope he pleaded with him to raise the ban, pointing
out that they were only following their old tradition, and that a
difference of opinion on that very point had not prevented Pope
Anicetus and St Polycarp from remaining in communion. The outcome of
his representations was the restoration of good relations between the
two parties and a peace which proved permanent. After the Council of
Nicaea in 325, the Quartodecimans voluntarily conformed to the Roman
usage without any pressure from the Holy See.
The date of the death of St Irenaeus is not known: it is usually
assigned approximately to the year 202. According to a later tradition
he suffered martyrdom, but this is highly improbable. The treatise
against the gnostics has come down to us, entire in its Latin version;
and an Armenian translation of an exposition of apostolic preaching has
comparatively lately been discovered. Though the rest of his writings
have perished, in these two works alone may be found all the elements
of a complete system of Christian theology.
The bodily remains of St Irenaeus, as we learn from Gregory of Tours,
were buried in a crypt under the altar of what was then called the
church of St John, but what was later known by the name of St Irenaeus
himself. This tomb or shrine was destroyed by the Calvinists in 1562,
and all trace of his relics seems to have perished. It is remarkable
that though the feast of St Irenaeus has long been observed in the East
(on August 23), it has been general in the Western church only since
1922.
We possess nothing in the
nature of an early biography of St Irenaeus, but there is a vast
literature dealing with his importance as a witness to early
traditions, and as a teacher of orthodox belief. The evidence for and
against the supposition that he suffered martyrdom is briefly but
clearly summarized by Fr Delehaye in his CMH., pp. 341-342. Much
interest was roused in 1904 by the discovery of an Armenian version of
a work of which little more than the name was previously known, viz.,
"Proof of the Apostolic Preaching". It is mainly an appeal to the
prophecies of the Old Testament, and not much fresh information
regarding the mind and thought of the author is to be derived from it.
A fuller discussion of the theology of Irenaeus would be out of place
here; see the very complete article of F. Vernet (nearly 150 columns)
in DTC., vol. vii (1922), cc. 2394-2533, with copious bibliography.
There are also good articles in Bardenhewer, and DCB. The originality
of St Irenaeus was called in question by T. Loofs in Texte und Untersuchungen, vol.
xlvi, part II (1932). A convenient little study of St Irenaeus is that
of A. Dufourcq in the series “Les Saints"; and see F. R. M. Hitchcock, Irenaeus of Lugdunum (1914).
St. Irenaeus (130?-220)
The Church is fortunate that Irenaeus was involved in many of its
controversies in the second century. He was a student, well trained, no
doubt, with great patience in investigating, tremendously protective of
apostolic teaching, but prompted more by a desire to win over his
opponents than to prove them in error.
As bishop of Lyons he was especially concerned with the Gnostics, who
took their name from the Greek word for “knowledge.” Claiming access to
secret knowledge imparted by Jesus to only a few disciples, their
teaching was attracting and confusing many Christians. After thoroughly
investigating the various Gnostic sects and their “secret,” Irenaeus
showed to what logical conclusions their tenets led. These he
contrasted with the teaching of the apostles and the text of Holy
Scripture, giving us, in five books, a system of theology of great
importance to subsequent times. Moreover, his work, widely used and
translated into Latin and Armenian, gradually ended the influence of
the Gnostics.
The circumstances and
details about his death, like those of his birth and early life in Asia
Minor, are not at all clear.
Comment: A
deep and genuine concern for
other people will remind us that the discovery of truth is not to be a
victory for some and a defeat for others. Unless all can claim a share
in that victory, truth itself will continue to be rejected by the
losers, because it will be regarded as inseparable from the yoke of
defeat. And so, confrontation, controversy and the like might yield to
a genuine united search for God's truth and how it can best be served.
He was probably born
about the year 125, in one of those maritime
provinces of Asia Minor where
the memory of the apostles was still cherished and where Christians
were numerous.
Many Asian priests and missionaries brought the gospel to
the pagan Gauls and founded a
local church.
To this church of Lyon,
Irenaeus came to serve as a priest under
its first bishop, Saint Pothinus,
an oriental like himself. In the year 177, Irenaeus was sent to Rome.
This mission explains how it was that he was not called upon to share
in the martyrdom of St Pothinus during the terrible persecution in
Lyons. When he returned to Lyons it was to occupy the vacant bishopric.
By this time, the persecution was over.
It was the spread of gnosticism in Gaul, and the ravages it
was making
among the Christians of his diocese, that inspired him to undertake the
task of exposing its errors. He produced a treatise in five books in
which he sets forth fully the inner doctrines of the various sects, and
afterwards contrasts them with the teaching of the Apostles and the
text of the Holy Scripture. His work, written in Greek but
quickly translated to Latin, was widely circulated and succeeded in
dealing a death-blow to gnosticism. At any rate, from that time
onwards, it ceased to offer a serious menace to the Catholic faith.
The date of death of Saint Irenaeus is not known, but it is
believed to
be in the year 202. The bodily remains of Saint Irenaeus were buried in
a crypt under the altar of what was then called the church of Saint
John, but was later known by the name of Saint Irenaeus himself. This
tomb or shrine was destroyed by the Calvinists in 1562, and all trace
of his relics seems to have perished. |
Eódem
die sancti Pápii Mártyris, qui, in persecutióne
Diocletiáni Imperatóris, flagris cæsus, atque in
lebétem, óleo et ádipe fervénti plenum,
immíssus, áliaque horrénda supplícia
perpéssus, demum, datis cervícibus, coronátur.
St. Papius, martyr, Also during the persecution of Diocletian,
who was scourged with knotted cords, cast into a cauldron of seething
oil and grease, and after other horrible torments was beheaded, and
thus won an eternal crown.
|
 412 Cyrus and John
from
the city of Konopa, near Alexandria Transfer of the Relics of the Holy
Martyrs, Unmercenaries and Wonderworkers many miracles,
healings of the sick and infirm
(where they suffered in the year 311) to the nearby village
of
Manuphin, took place in the year 412. This Egyptian village prompted
fear in everyone, since in a former time there was a pagan temple
inhabited by evil spirits. Patriarch Theophilus (385-412) wanted to
cleanse this place of demons, but he died. His wish was fulfilled by
his successor in the See of Alexandria, the holy Patriarch Cyril
(412-444). He prayed fervently in carrying out this project. An angel
of the Lord appeared in a vision to the hierarch and commanded the
venerable relics of Sts Cyrus and John be transferred to Manuphin. His
Holiness Patriarch Cyril did the angel's bidding and built a church at
Manuphin in the name of the holy martyrs.
From that time this place was purified of the Enemy's
influence, and by
the prayers of the holy Martyrs Cyrus and John there began to occur
many miracles, healings of the sick and infirm. An account Sts Cyrus
and John is located under January 31.
Orthodoxe und
Katholische
Kirche: Cyrus und Johannes - Übertragung der Gebeine - 28. Juni
<>Cyrus wurde in Alexandria
geboren. Er war Arzt und Christ und
behandelte alle Armen unentgeltlich an Leib und Seele. Er konnte durch
sein Bekenntnis zu Christus viele heiden bekehren. Während der
diokletianischen Verfolgung floh er in die arabische Wüste. Auch
hier wirkte er weiter als Arzt und Heiler, wobei er auch viele Kranke
durch Gebet und Handauflegung heilen konnte.
Johannes war ein Soldat und lebte in Edessa. Auf einer
Pilgerreise nach
Jerusalem hörte er von Cyrus, ging zu ihm in die Wüste und
wurde sein Schüler. Beide gingen nach der Legende dann nach
Canopis in Ägypten, um Athanasia und ihren Töchtern
Theoktista, Theodotia und Eudoxia, die verhaftet worden waren,
beizustehen. Cyril und Johannes wurden ebenfalls verhaftet und
hingerichtet. Beide werden zu den heiligen Ärzten gezählt. Im
5. Jahrhundert wurden ihre Reliquien von Cyrill von Alexandria nach
Menuthis übertragen (Festtag 28. Juni). Cyrill wollte dem Kult der
Isis, die als heilende Göttin verehrt wurde, begegnen. Am Grab der
Märtyrer sollen sich nach dem Bericht des Patriarchen Sophronios
über 79 Wunderheilungen ereignet haben. Da über Cyrus und
Johannes nichts weiter bekannt ist, könnte ihre Lebensgeschichte
auch eine Legendenbildung zur Begründung der Heilkraft ihrer
Reliquien sein. |
5th v. Saint
Crummine Bishop and disciple of
Saint Patrick of Ireland.
Saint Patrick placed Crummine over the church in Lachan County,
Westmeath. |
6th
v. Saint
Austell Confessor and disciple
of Saint Newman of Cornwall, England.
Modern scholars believe that Austell was a woman named Hoystill, a daughter of
Brychan of Wales. |
6th century
Saint
Benignus Bishop and martyr. He is
mentioned in Pope Pelagius II's decretal concerning his resignation
from his see. Benignus retired to Utrecht, in the Netherlands. He is
listed in the Roman Martyrology, and his relics were found in Utrecht,
in 996.
Trajécti
sancti Benígni, Epíscopi et
Mártyris. At Utrecht, St. Benignus, bishop and
martyr.
|
| 660 Saint
Theodichildis She served as the first abbess of the Benedictine house
of
Jouarre, Meaux, France. In some lists she is called
Telchildis. |
683 SAINT LEO II Pope
he accomplished good works which have caused his name to be blessed by
all succeeding generations
"Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you shall receive it, and
it shall come to you. St. Mark 11:24"
 The pontificate of
this great Pope was very brief but very fruitful, since in the ten
months of his reign he accomplished good works which have caused his
name to be blessed by all succeeding generations. Born in the seventh
century in Sicily, he had been a Canon Regular, that is, an
ecclesiastical dignitary who resided in his bishop’s palace, was
charged with recitation of the Office in the cathedral, and was relied
upon to serve as the auxiliary of the Ordinary. Saint Leo was a devout
student of Holy Scripture, and was well versed in the Greek as well as
the Latin language.
In his day grave difficulties frequently arose between the Holy See and
the emperors of Constantinople, whose representatives at Ravenna tried
to control the bishops of that see; the latter had been striving to
become autonomous. Saint Leo published a decree ordering that in the
future no bishop of Ravenna could enter into function before being
consecrated for that office at Rome, by the Roman Pontiff.
He built three churches in Rome, to honor Saint Paul the Apostle, Saint
Sebastian, and Saint George. Saint Leo was highly gifted in the domain
of music, and he renovated the Gregorian literature or library, then in
a state of confusion; he also composed new hymns, still conserved by
the Church. He took special care of widows and orphans and the poor in
general, relieving their sufferings with a truly apostolic charity.
Saint Leo confirmed the Acts of the Sixth Ecumenical Council which his
predecessor had convoked at Constantinople against the Monothelite
heresy, and translated its acts into Latin for the benefit of the
Occidentals. When he died in July of 683, his death was deeply
regretted by all the faithful. He was interred according to established
custom in the church of Saint Peter. He is ordinarily pictured
embracing a beggar or holding a book of music. Source: Les Petits
Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et
Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 7 |
767
Saint Paul I, Pope {Pope from 757-767}. The brother of Pope Stephen II
and a Roman, he was
educated in the Lateran Palace, became a deacon under Pope Zachary, and
wielded considerable influence in his brother’s administration. Elected
to succeed Stephen, he took as his primary concern the threat posed to
Rome and the Papal States by the Lombards.
Romæ
sancti Pauli Primi, Papæ et Confessóris.
At Rome, Pope St. Paul I, confessor.
ST PAUL
I, POPE (A.D. 767)
THE immediate successor of Pope Stephen III in the chair of St Peter
was his younger brother Paul. They had been educated together at the
Lateran school, they had been made deacons together by Pope St Zachary,
and Paul remained closely associated with his brother, whom he tenderly
nursed in his last illness and whose policy he continued to pursue. A
contemporary, writing in the Liber
Pontificalis, pays an eloquent tribute to Paul's personal
character, emphasizing his kindness, his clemency and his magnanimity.
He was always ready to help those in distress and never did he return
evil for evil. Often, under cover of the night, he would visit the sick
poor in their homes or in hospitals. Sometimes he would enter the
prisons and redeem poor debtors: occasionally he would release
prisoners under sentence of death. If he erred, it was always on the
side of leniency.
Paul's pontificate of ten years was relatively peaceful abroad, owing
to his good relations with King Pepin, and peaceful at home owing to
his own firm government: "firm" is hardly a strong enough word-the
severity of Paul's administration is in marked contrast with the
kindness of character attributed to him by the Liber Pontificalis. At the same
time the record of his pontificate is chiefly one long tale of
political diplomacy; in the words of Monsignor Mann: "By unceasing
diplomatic effort Paul prevented the Lombards on the one hand and the
Greeks on the other from effecting anything of moment against the newly
acquired temporal power of the supreme pontiff; he caused great events
never to get beyond the eve of happening." He kept on the best of terms
with Pepin, sending him exceedingly polite letters, presents (including
an organ) and relics of the martyrs. In Rome itself the pope's
activities took a more concrete form. From catacombs, reduced to ruin
by the ravages of time or of the barbarians, he transferred the relics
of many saints to churches in the City. Amongst others the remains of
St Petronilla, the supposed daughter of St Peter, were brought to a
restored mausoleum which became known as the Chapel of the Kings of
France. He built or rebuilt a church of SS. Peter and Paul; he also
erected in St Peter's an oratory in honour of our Lady. In his paternal
mansion, which he converted into a monastery under the dedication of
the popes St Stephen I and St Silvester, he placed Greek monks,
refugees from the iconoclast persecution. The adjoining church,
entirely rebuilt by him for them, received the name of San Silvestro in
Capite, from the head, reputed to be that of St John Baptist, which the
monks had brought from the East. Eleven hundred years later that same
church (but long since again rebuilt) was given by Pope Leo XIII to the
Catholics of England.
Pope Paul was staying at St Paul's outside the Walls, whither he had
gone to escape the summer heat in Rome, when he was seized with a fever
which proved fatal. He died on June 28, 767.
The Liber Pontificalis, in Duchesne's
edition (vol. i, pp. 463-467), is the most reliable source for an
estimate of the pope's personal character. The letters of Paul I may be
studied in MGH., Epistolae,
vol. iii, in the edition of Gundlach. For English readers, the
painstaking account given in Mgr Mann's Lives of the Popes (vol. i, part
II, pp. 331-360) is the most satisfactory, and easily accessible. See
also the Acta Sanctorum,
June; vol. vii; Duchesne, Les
premiers temps de l’État Pontifical (1904), pp. 79-94; M.
Baumont in Mélanges
d’archéologie et d'histoire, 1930, pp. 7-24; F. H.
Seppelt, Das Papsttum im
Früh-Mittelalter (1934), pp. 137-146; Fliche and Martin, Histoire de l'Église, t. vi
(1937), pp. 17-31.
Paul secured an alliance
with the Frankish king Pepin the Short, thereby cementing the
relationship between the Holy See and the Frankish Empire which
culminated with the historically significant alliance between Pope Leo
III and Charlemagne. Paul also opposed the Iconoclast policies of the
Byzantine emperor Constantine V, thereby exacerbating further the
deteriorating relationship between the papacy and the Byzantine Empire.
He died on June 28 at Saint Paul’s Outside the Walls, in Rome. |
9th v.St. John
of
Damascus "Of the Three Hands" The Icon of the Mother of God, Mary
reattached his hand John placed on the icon a hand fashioned of silver,
from which the icon received its name
In the ninth century during the time of the Iconoclasts, St. John of
Damascus (December 4) was zealous in his veneration of holy icons.
Because of this, he was slandered by the emperor and iconoclast Leo III
the Isaurian (717-740), who informed the Damascus caliph that St. John
was committing treasonous acts against him. The caliph gave orders to
cut off the hand of the monk and take it to the marketplace. Towards
evening St. John, having asked the caliph for the cut-off hand, put it
to its joint and fell to the ground before the icon of the Mother of
God. The monk begged Our Lady to heal the hand, which had written in
defense of Orthodoxy. After long prayer he fell asleep and saw in a
dream that the All-Pure Mother of God had turned to him promising him
quick healing.
Before this the Mother of God bid him toil without fail with this hand.
Having awakened from sleep, St. John saw that his hand was unharmed. In
thankfulness for this healing St. John placed on the icon a hand
fashioned of silver, from which the icon received its name "Of Three
Hands." (Some iconographers, in their ignorance, have mistakenly
depicted the Most Holy Theotokos with three arms and three hands.)
According to Tradition, St. John wrote a hymn of thanksgiving to the
Mother of God: "All of creation rejoices in You, O Full of Grace,"
which appears in place of the hymn "It is Truly Meet" in the Liturgy of
St. Basil the Great.
St. John Damascene accepted monasticism at the monastery of St. Sava
the Sanctified and there bestowed his wonderworking icon. The Lavra
presented the icon "Of Three Hands" in blessing to St. Sava, Archbishop
of Serbia (+ 1237, January 12). During the time of an invasion of
Serbia by the Turks, some Christians who wanted to protect the icon,
entrusted it to the safekeeping of the Mother of God Herself. They
placed it upon a donkey, which without a driver proceeded to Athos and
stopped in front of the Hilandar monastery. The monks put the icon in
the monastery's cathedral church (katholikon). During a time of discord
over the choice of igumen, the Mother of God deigned to head the
monastery Herself, and from that time Her holy icon has occupied the
igumen's place in the temple. At the Hilandar monastery there is chosen
only a vicar, and from the holy icon the monks take a blessing for
every obedience .
|
858
Saint Argymirus Martyr of Spain, native of Cabra, Spain, he held a high
position in
one of the Islamic domains in the peninsula. Fired because of his
Christian faith, Argymirus became a monk. He made a public statement of
his beliefs and was beheaded.
Córdubæ, in
Hispánia, sancti Argymíri, Mónachi et
Mártyris, qui in persecutióne Arábica, pro Christi
fide, in equúleo pósitus et ense transfóssus est.
At Cordova in Spain, St. Argymirus, monk
and martyr, slain for faith of Christ during the
persecution by Arabs.
|
875
Saint Egilo abbot of Prum, near Trier, Germany founder, also
called Egilo and Eigil. He was abbot of Prum, near Trier, Germany.
There he gave the habit to
Saint Humphrey. In 860, he was directed by Emperor Charles the Bald to
restore Flavigny Abbey in Dijon, France. He then founded the abbey of
Corbigny, in Yonne.
|
976 Gero von
Köln
971 holte Gero die byzantinische Prinzessin Theophanu als Braut
für Oto
II. nach Deutschland. Dabei brachte er auch Reliquien von Pantaleon
nach Köln mit
Orthodoxe Kirche und Katholische Kirche: 28. Juni
Gero, Sohn des thüringischen Markgrafen Christian war Kaplan von
Kaiser Otto I.. Als er 969 zum Erzbischof von Köln gewählt
wurde, widersetzte sich Otto der Ernennung. 971 holte Gero die
byzantinische Prinzessin Theophanu als Braut für Oto II. nach
Deutschland. Dabei brachte er auch Reliquien von Pantaleon nach
Köln mit. Gero gründete die Abteien Dammersfeld und Gladbach.
Er starb am 28.6.976 .
|
1019
Saint Heimrad Benedictine hermit and
pilgrim. He was a monk at various abbeys before beginning his ceaseless
pilgrimages to Rome and
Jerusalem. He was considered a lunatic by many until he setteld
as a hermit at Wolfhagen, Hesse Nassau. His tomb there drew many
pilgrims.
ST HEIMRAD (A.D. 1019)
THE cultus of St Heimrad is a purely
popular one; it has never received any official sanction. It arose from
reports of miraculous happenings at his tomb, which accordingly became
a place of pilgrimage. His career casts a curious light upon social
conditions of the age in which he lived. His parents were serfs,
attached to a great estate in Swabia; but Heimrad himself was trained
for the priesthood, and appointed chaplain to the great lady on whose
property he had been born. The post proving to be one for which he was
quite unfitted, he was released at his own request. He then went on
pilgrimages, first to Rome and then to Jerusalem, begging his bread as
he went, and sharing with other wayfarers whatever he received from
charity. After his return, he took to a life of vagrancy, and wandered
about, mainly in Thuringia, Hesse and Westphalia. At one time, indeed,
he seemed disposed to settle down in the abbey of Hersfeld, where he
was allowed to stay on, though he refused to take the habit or to
submit to the rule. Before long, however, the old restlessness
returned. One day, when the community were at chapter, he flung himself
down dramatically in their midst and asked leave to depart. He was
sure, he declared, that he could never find his salvation there. Far
from wishing to detain him, the abbot seems to have been glad to be
relieved of his presence, and the malcontent was rather unceremoniously
turned out of the monastery.
Heimrad was, or pretended to be, aggrieved, and bewailed aloud the
treatment that had been meted out to him. It was very wrong, he
declared, of the abbot and monks to subject him, an emperor's brother,
to such indignity. His biographer insinuates, let us note, that he only
meant that he, like the rest of mankind, was a brother of Jesus Christ.
The preposterous claim however, highly amused the bystanders, but the
abbot, when he heard of it, took the matter more seriously, and
directed that Heimrad should be whipped. While a kindly brother was
administering a not too severe castigation, the victim, we are told,
recited the first half of the Miserere. Afterwards he resumed his nomad
existence, and in the course of his peregrinations came to Kirchberg
and to Detmold in Westphalia. Here the parish priest allowed him to
take over a disused church, but soon had reason to regret the
concession. For he found himself abandoned by his congregation, who
preferred the ministrations of the newcomer, whose abnegation and
eccentric ways they, rightly or wrongly, took for sanctity, and
transferred to him their customary offerings. Insult seemed to be added
to injury when Heimrad refused a gift from the priest's wife-this was
before the strict enforcement of celibacy in the West on the ground
that she was living an immoral life. This was too much for the
incumbent; he set the dogs at his rival, and hounded him out of the
place.
Wherever Heimrad went, his gaunt form, emaciated countenance and
strange utterances could not fail to attract notice; but whilst in some
quarters he was honoured as a saint, in others he was treated as an
impostor or a demoniac. St Cunegund, when she came to Paderborn with
the Emperor St Henry, sentenced him to a flogging, and he fared no
better at the hands of St Meinwerk, Bishop of Paderborn, before whom he
subsequently appeared. For the prelate, recognizing him at once, began
the proceedings by treating him as an energumen, and inquiring where
that demoniac had sprung from now. Then, when Heimrad asserted that he
had not a devil, but was a priest and had offered Mass that day,
Meinwerk told him to produce the books he had used. Heimrad obeyed; but
their dirty and dilapidated condition so scandalized the bishop that he
consigned them to the flames, and condemned their owner to be beaten.
Heimrad's wanderings came to an end before long-possibly as the result
of advancing years and increasing infirmities. He made a retreat for
himself in a wood near the modern town of Wolfhagen in Hesse-Nassau,
and there leading an existence of great austerity and destitution, he
remained unmolested until his death in the year 1019. Many miracles are
said to have followed, and half a century later, in fulfilment, it is
stated, of one of his prophecies, a monastery was erected over his last
resting-place, which was dedicated under the names of SS. Peter and
Paul and St Heimrad.
The
medieval life which relates this strange story was written, seemingly,
not much more than fifty years after Heimrad's death, by Egbert, a monk
of Hersfeld. The author claims to have learnt details from his own
father, and from others who had known the recluse personally. The life
is printed in the Acta Sanctorum,
June, vol. vii, and also in MGH., Scriptores,
vol. x, pp. 598-607. Egbert seems to suggest that many of the
extravagant things recorded of Heimrad were deliberately done by him to
draw contempt upon himself. We must remember that a similar purpose at
times animated St Francis of Assisi and his first companions, and may
probably be recognized in St Benedict Joseph Labre, who was a sort of
professional vagrant nearer our own day, while such a form of ascesis
is almost a commonplace in Eastern hagiology.
|
Saint Paul the
Physician, from the city of Corinth, in his youth took monastic tonsure
at one of the monasteries. Here the saint toiled much and became an
experienced ascetic.
Once Paul, through demonic malice, was slandered by a woman. She came
to the monastery with a newborn infant and said, that St. Paul was the
father. The Elder with humility and joy endured the slander, he did not
deny it and he took the infant, as though it were his own son. When
they began to reproach the saint for breaking his monastic vows, St.
Paul said, "Brethren, let us ask the infant who his father is!" The
newborn, pointing his hand at the blacksmith, said, "Here is my father
and not the monk Paul." Seeing this miracle, people bowed down to the
Elder, asking forgiveness. From this time St. Paul received from God
the gift of healing the sick, whereby he received the name physician.
St. Paul died at age 70 .
|
SS. SERGIUS AND GERMANUS OF
VALAAM, ABBOTS
SS. SERGIUS and GERMANUS (Herman) are venerated as Greek monks who
founded the great Russian monastery of Valaam (Valamo), on the island
of that name in the huge lake called Ladoga in the south-eastern corner
of Finland, from whence they evangelized the heathen Karelians on its
shores. This event is commonly put between the years 973 and 992, at
the time when the evangelization of the Russians was beginning around
Kiev, but there is no solid ground for accepting so early a date. The
monastery was certainly founded before the fifteenth century and it was
re-established by the Tsar Peter the Great in 1718; but before then it
had been an unoccupied ruin for a century, because of the wars between
Sweden and Russia. Accordingly both written and oral tradition has been
broken, and there are only uncertain or obviously mistaken suppositions
about the foundation of the house.
A more likely date than 992 is 1329, when Russian monasteries were
being planted in the Ladoga region as part of a political consolidation
against the Swedes in western Karelia. There is a story that at this
time St Sergius took up his abode in the Vaaga cave, an old site of
heathen worship: he was a stranger, from Novgorod or from Byzantium,
and according to one version he had been at the head of the powerful
trading community in the first-named city. From his cave he tended the
souls and bodies of the people, and for his living and recreation he
carved in stone. As well as becoming head of a monastic community, he
was looked on as head-man of the neighbourhood in civil affairs.
There is a legend that St Sergius baptized a Karelian called Munga, who
became his successor under the name of Germanus. It seems that this
legend has arisen from confusion with a seventeenth-century Hans Munck,
who was a local Swedish governor and a Lutheran, and certainly did not
end his days in a monastery. All that is known about Germanus is that
he was a contemporary of St Sergius and his collaborator. At any rate
until the war of 1939, the shrines of the two saints were venerated in
the katholikon of the Valaam
monastery.
SS. Sergius and Germanus are
among the Russian saints mentioned under St Sergius of Radonezh on
September 25. Their history is extremely elusive, and for the above
notes the writer is principally indebted to Mr Ragnar Rosén,
formerly director of the Finnish state archives at Viborg and now
director of the municipal archives at Helsinki. The Valaam monastery of
the Russian Orthodox Church is one of those recognized by the Soviet
authorities since 1943. For an account of it before World War II, see
an article by Father S. M. Quandalle, in Russie et Chrétienté,
no. 1 (1938); see also C. F. L. St George in Eastern Churches Quarterly, vol.
iii, no. 3 (1938).
|
1262 Saint
Xenophon of Robeika a student of St. Barlaam of Khutyn head of the
Khutyn monastery after the igumen Isidore founded the Trinity Monastery
on the banks of the Robeika River (not far from Novgorod)
St. Barlaam of Khutyn (+ 1192, November 6). He was the head of the
Khutyn monastery after the igumen Isidore (+1243). Resigning as igumen,
St. Xenophon founded the Trinity Monastery on the banks of the Robeika
River (not far from Novgorod). Here he reposed blessedly on June 28,
1262.
|
1270 Saint Almus Cistercian abbot monk at
Melrose when he was elected abbot of Scotland's Balmerino monastery,
founded by Ermengardis, the
widow of William I of Scotland.
Also
called
Alme and Alanus. He was a monk in the English Cistercian monastery at
Melrose when he was elected abbot of Scotland's Balmerino monastery,
founded by Ermengardis, the
widow of William I of Scotland.
|
 1353 Saints
Sergius
and Herman settled on the island of Valaam in 1329. The brethren
gathered by them spread the light of Orthodoxy in this frontier
land. The Karelian people began to regard Christianity with renewed
suspicion, with its authority in the fourteenth century being
undermined by the Swedes, who sought to spread Catholicism by means of
the sword.
Sts Sergius and Herman died about the year 1353.
They are also commemorated on September 11 (The translation
of their
holy relics).
Many scholars consider Rublev's Trinity the most perfect of
all Russian
icons and perhaps the most perfect of all the icons ever painted. The
work was created for the abbot of the Trinity Monastery, Nikon of
Radonezh, a disciple of the famous Sergius, one of the leaders of the
monastic revival in the 14th-century Russia. Asking Rublev to paint the
icon of the Holy Trinity, Nikon wanted to commemorate Sergius as a man
whose life and deeds embodied the most progressive processes in the
late 14th-century Russia.
From the earliest times,
the idea of the Trinity was controversial and
difficult to understand, especially for the uneducated masses. Even
though Christianity replaced the pagan polytheism, it gave the
believers a monotheistic religion with a difficult concept of one God
in three hypostases -- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit. Not only the uneducated population but many theologians had
difficulties with the concept of the triune God; from time to time, a
heretical movement, like Arianism, questioned the doctrine, causing
long debates, violent persecutions, and even greater general confusion.
Trying to portray the Trinity, but always aware of the Biblical
prohibition against depicting God, icon painters turned to the story of
the hospitality of Abraham who was visited by three wanderers. In their
compositions, icon painters included many details -- the figures of
Abraham and Sarah, a servant killing a calf in preparation for the
feast, the rock, the tree of Mamre, and the house (tent) -- trying to
render as faithfully as possible the events described in the text:
Rublev's Trinity the most
perfect of all Russian icons
 "And the Lord
appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre:
and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his
eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them,
he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the
ground, And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight,
pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: Let a little water, I
pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the
tree: And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts;
after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant.
And they said, So do, as thou hast said. And Abraham hastened into the
tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine
meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham ran unto
the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young
man; and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter, and milk, and the
calf that he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them
under the tree, and they did eat" (KJV, Genesis, 18: 1-8 and passim).
Very few artists before Rublev dared to eliminate all the
narrative
elements from the story, leaving only the three angels; usually those
who did so had to deal with limited space. The results of their efforts
did not find general acceptance or many copyists. Rublev was the first
to make a conscious decision not to include in his composition the
figures of Abraham and Sarah because he did not set out to illustrate
the story of the hospitality of Abraham, as did many painters before
him, but to convey through his image the idea of the unity and
indivisibility of the three persons of the Trinity.
The doctrine of the
Trinity, difficult to explain logically, found
various interpretations. Some thought that the Trinity consisted of God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Others believed that
it was just God and two angels. In the 14th and 15th-century Russia, in
the period of many heretical movements, the idea of the Trinity was
often questioned. The heretics in Novgorod claimed that it is not
permissible to paint the Trinity on icons because Abraham did not see
the Trinity but only God and two angels. Other heretics rejected the
idea of the three hypostases of God altogether. The church fought the
heresies with all the means it had -- usually with polemical treaties,
but also with force, if necessary. Russian icon painters before
Rublev subscribed to the same point of view that Abraham was visited by
God (in Christ's image) and two angels. Hence, Christ was represented
in icons of the Trinity as the middle angel and was symbolically set
apart either by a halo with a cross, by a considerable enlargement of
his figure, by widely spread wings or by a scroll in His hand.
|
1654 Saint John
Southworth became a priest in 1619
in Douai One of the Forty Martyrs of England
and Wales relics are in
Westminster Cathedral in London, discovered there in 1927. Pope Paul VI
canonized
him in 1970.
BD JOHN SOUTHWORTH, MARTYR 1654)
INTEREST in Bd John Southworth was quickened by the discovery of his
remains at Douai in 1927, and by their enshrining in the chapel of St
George and the English Martyrs in Westminster cathedral. The
Southworths were a Lancashire family which remained staunch to the
Catholic faith throughout the penal days, although it suffered much
persecution and became greatly impoverished by heavy fines. John, a
member of the younger branch of the house, was sent to Douai College in
1613 at the age of twenty-one to be trained for the priesthood. After
his ordination five years later he tried his vocation for a short time
with the Benedictines, but finding that he was not called to the
monastic life he decided to remain a secular priest. On December 13,
1619, he was sent on the English mission. All that is known of his
whereabouts and activities during the next few years is that he was
living in or near London in 1623. The following year he was back in
Belgium, first at Douai and then in Brussels, where he was confessor to
the Benedictine nuns. Before long, however, he returned to England-this
time to his native Lancashire. He laboured there until 1627, when he
was arrested and tried on the charge of being a priest and of
exercising his sacerdotal functions on English soil. Though condemned
to death he was reprieved, and from the window of his cell in Lancaster
castle he was able to give absolution to Bd Edmund Arrowsmith as that
martyr was being carried to execution.
After three years Mr Southworth was transferred to London and there
released, together with some fifteen other priests, at the instance of
Queen Henrietta Maria. All of them were ordered to leave the country.
Whether Bd John obeyed the injunction is doubtful. He was certainly
living in England soon afterwards, and in 1632 he was a prisoner in the
Clink. We learn, however, from a complaint made by the Puritan, Prynne,
that “he had full liberty to walk abroad at his pleasure as most
priests had during their imprisonment". Of that licence he made full
use during a virulent outbreak of plague in 1636. Relief granted to
poor sufferers through parish officials was withheld from households
known to be Catholic, and their fate would indeed have been tragic had
it not been for the devotion of John Southworth and of his fellow
martyr, Bd Henry Morse. The two priests visited daily the stricken
houses of the Westminster area, distributing the alms provided by the
queen and other charitable persons, besides administering the
consolations of religion. Some four hundred families were thus
assisted. When Morse fell a victim to the prevailing epidemic
Southworth carried on alone, until he found himself strictly confined
within the prison walls as the result of representations made by the
curate of St Margaret's, who had seen him emerge from an infected house
and who asserted that he was seducing the people and had recently
reconciled two dying men to the Catholic faith. However, an appeal made
to the queen led to a restoration of his former privileges; and not
long afterwards, through her influence and that of Windebank, the
secretary of state, he was released from captivity.
"Any other particulars relating to Mr Southworth's missionary labours I
have not been able to find", writes Bishop Challoner, "for want of
proper memoirs, or any more of him till his final apprehension in 1654
when, upon information of one Jefferies, a pursuivant...he was taken
out of bed at night by Colonel Worsley, and upon his own confession of
having exercised his functions since his reprieve, he was condemned and
dragged to Tyburn upon a sledge, between two coiners. "Efforts had been
made to save him by the foreign ambassadors and even by his judges, who
urged him to plead “not guilty"; but he would not appear to disavow his
priesthood, and they had no option but to pass upon him the sentence of
death. His martyrdom took place on the eve of the feast of SS. Peter
and Paul, 1654, when he was sixty-two years of age. His body was bought
by the Spanish ambassador and transported to the chapel of the English
College at Douai, where it remained until the confiscation of the
establishment by the revolutionary authorities in 1793. To save the
martyr's relics from profanation his coffin was secretly removed by
four of the students and buried inside the building. In 1927 it was
discovered by a workman when he was excavating the foundations of what
had once been the college. The contents were identified and Bd John
Southworth's partly desiccated remains were brought back to England to
rest at St Edmund's College, near Ware, which carries on the work of
the old Douai seminary. Four months after the 1929 beatification of
English martyrs it was removed to Westminster, and on May I, 1930, it
was solemnly translated to its present place in the cathedral.
Everything that is known
concerning Bd John seems to have been brought together in the volume
published in 1930 by Fr A. B. Purdie, The
Life of Bd John Southworth. See also Challoner, MMP., pp.
504-510.
He was born in Lancashire and became a priest in 1619
in Douai. Sent to England that same year, he was arrested but released
through the intercession of Queen Henrietta Maria. He joined Saint
Henry Morse, subsequently working diligently during the plague of 1636.
Arrested again, he was martyred by being hanged, drawn, and quartered
at Tybum. His relics are in
Westminster Cathedral in London, discovered there in 1927. Pope Paul VI canonized
him in 1970. |
 1847
Saint Vincenza Gerosa Co-foundress of the Sisters of Charity native of
Lovere, Italy gave her life to aiding the poor
Lúere, in diœcési Brixiénsi, sanctæ
Vincéntiæ Gerósa Vírginis, Institúti
Sorórum a Caritáte una cum sancta Bartholomǽa
Capitánio Fundatrícis, quam Pius Papa Duodécimus
albo sanctárum Vírginum accénsuit.
At Lovere, in the diocese of Brescia, St. Vincenza
Gerosa, virgin, who co-founded the Institute of the Sisters of Charity
with St. Bartolomea Capitanio, and whom Pope Pius XII added to the list
of holy virgins.
Originally named Catherine, orphaned in her youth and ever
after gave her life to aiding the poor. About 1824, she and Saint
Bartolomea Capitanio founded the Sisters of Charity of Lovere to help
the poor and sick and educate children, Following the passing of
Bartolomea in 1833, Vincenza assumed the directorship of the Order and
expanded its efforts until her death after a long illness on June 29.
She was canonized in 1975 by Pope Paul VI (r. 1963-1978). |
Mary Mother of GOD
Saint of the Day June 28 Quarto Kaléndas
Júlii
Et
álibi
aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et
Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
The Constitutional Convention deadlocked over how
large and small states could be represented equally.
Among the most important titles we have in
the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory
and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of
the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom.
The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our
Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for
the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope
Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City
praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing
the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in
using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require
spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had
its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.