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1st v. St. Epaphroditus
Apostle sent by St. Paul to the Phillipians
Tarracínæ,
in Campánia, sancti Epaphrodíti, Apostolórum discípuli,
qui a beáto Petro Apóstolo Epíscopus illíus
civitátis ordinátus fuit.
At Terracina, St. Epaphroditus, a disciple of the apostles, who was
consecrated bishop of that city by the blessed apostle Peter.
He is believed to be the
first bishop of Philippi, Macedonia, Andriacia, in Lycia, and Terracina,
Italy.
Three saints of that name are
recorded in the earliest lists, all among the seventy-two disciples of Christ.
Blessed Epaphroditus B
(RM)
Epaphroditus is mentioned
with affection and esteem by Saint Paul (Phil. 2:25-30): "With regard
to Epaphroditus, my brother and co-worker and fellow soldier, your messenger
and minister in my need, I consider it necessary to send him to you.
For he has been longing for all of you and was distressed because you
heard that he was ill. He was indeed ill, close to death; but God had mercy
on him, not just on him but also on me, so that I might not have sorrow
upon sorrow. I send him therefore with the greater eagerness, so that, on
seeing him, you may rejoice again, and I may have less anxiety. Welcome
him then in the Lord with all joy and hold such people in esteem, because
for the sake of the work of Christ he came close to death, risking his life
to make up for those services to me that you could not perform (NAB)."
He is traditionally considered
the first bishop of Philippi, Macedonia. Both Andriacia in Lycia and Terracina
in Italy also list an Epaphroditus as their first bishop. These three
are said to have been among the 72 disciples commissioned by Christ (Luke
10).
More likely, there is
one saint named Epaphroditus venerated in 3 different locations (Benedictines,
Delaney).
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250 St. Callinica
& Basilissa Martyrs of Galatia bringing aid to the imprisoned Christians
In Galátia natális sanctárum Mártyrum
Callinícæ et Basilíssæ. In Galatia, birthday
of holy martyrs Callinica and Basilissa.
Wealthy matrons, Callinica
and Basilissa spent their fortunes bringing aid to the imprisoned Christians
in their area.
They were arrested for their generosity
and slain.
Callinica
and Basilissa MM (RM). Rich ladies of Galatia (Turkey), Asia Minor, who
comforted imprisoned Christians and were martyred for doing so (Benedictines,
Encyclopedia).
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St. Saturninus mattyrs
put to death during the Roman persecutions in Africa
In Africa sanctórum Mártyrum Saturníni
et aliórum novem. In Africa, the holy
martyrs Saturninus and nine others.
One of a group of mattyrs put to death during the Roman persecutions
in Africa.
Saturninus and Companions MM (RM)
Date unknown. A group of ten martyred in northwest Africa (Benedictines).
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264 Departure of Abba
Dionysius the Fourteenth Pope of Alexandria.
On this day (March 8th, 264 A.D.) the great father Abba Dionysius,
the fourteenth Pope of Alexandria, departed. His parents were stare worshippers
of the Sun (Sabians) and they put emphasis on teaching him all the knowledge
of that sect.
One day a Christian old woman passed by him, who had with her
some pages of a book containing an Epistle of St. Paul the apostle and
offered it to him to buy it. When he read it he found in it strange sayings
and unusual knowledge. He asked her: "For how much will you sell it?"
She said: "For one dinar of gold." He gave her three dinars and asked her
to find the rest of the pages of the book and he was willing to pay her
double. She went and brought him more pages. Having read them through he
found the book to be still incomplete, he asked her to search for the rest
of the book. She told him: "I found these quires among my father's books.
If you want to acquire the complete book, go to the church and there you
can find it."
He went and asked one of the priests to show him what is called
the Epistles of Paul. He gave it to him, read it, and memorized it.
Then he went to St. Demetrius the twelfth Pope, who taught and instructed
him in the facts of the Christian faith then baptized him. He became well
rehearsed in the doctrine and knowledge of the church, and Anba Demetrius
appointed him a teacher for the people.
When Anba Demetrius departed and Anba Heraclas (Yaroklas) was
enthroned, he appointed him as a deputy to judge among the believers
and entrusted him to administer the affairs of the patriarchate.
When St. Heraclas departed, all the people agreed
to appoint this father Patriarch. He was enthroned on the first of Tubah
(December 28th, 246 A.D.) during the reign of Emperor Philip who was a
lover of the Christians, and he shepherded his flock with the best of care,
nevertheless, he suffered much tribulations. When Decius rose up against
Philip and killed him, and reigned in his place, he incited persecution
against the Christians. Decius slew many of the patriarchs, bishops, and
believers. This father endured much suffering during that time. Decius died
and Gallus reigned after him, and persecution quieted down during his reign.
When Gallus died and Valerian reigned in his place, he renewed
the persecution severely against the Christians, and his men seized Abba
Dionysius and imprisoned him. They asked him to worship the idols but
he refused saying: "We worship God the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ,
and the Holy Spirit the One God." They threatened him, killed few men in
front of him to terrify him but he was not afraid. They banished him and
shortly after, they brought him back and told him: "We have been informed
that you consecrate the offering secretly by yourself." He replied: "We
do not forsake our prayers day or night" then he turned to the people present
around him and told them: "Go and pray and if I am away from you in the
body, I shall be with you in spirit." The governor became raged and returned
him to exile.
When Sapor king of Persia overcame Emperor Valerian and seized
him, his son Gallienus, who was wise and gentle, took over the empire.
He released all the believers who were in prison and brought back those
who were in exile. He wrote to the Patriarch and the bishops a letter to
assure their safety in opening the churches.
In the days of this father, certain people arose in the Arabian
countries saying: "That the soul dies with the body, and on the day
of Resurrection, it shall be raised up with it." He gathered against
them a council and anathematized them. When Paul of Samosata denied the
Son, a Council assembled against him in Antioch, this Saint was not able
to attend for his age. He wrote a letter to the council, rich with wisdom,
explained in it the corruptive opinion of this heretic, and stated the
true Orthodox belief. He finished his good strife, and departed in a good
old age on (March 8th, 264 A.D.), having sat on the Apostolic Throne seventeen
years, two month and ten days.
May his prayers be with us.
Amen.
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264 Return of the Great
Sts. Anba Macarius the Great and Anba Macarius of Alexandria, from Exile.
On this day also is the commemoration of the return of the Great
Sts. Anba Macarius the Great and Anba Macarius of Alexandria, from exile
on an island in Upper Egypt. Emperor Valens the arian had exiled them to
this island.
The natives of this island worshipped idols, and according to
the orders of Valens the two Saints were tortured severely for three
years. It came to pass one day that satan entered the daughter of the
pagan priest of this island and tortured her. St. Macarius the great
came forward and prayed over her and the Lord healed her and subsequently
the priest and the people of the island believed on the Lord Christ. The
Saints taught them the facts of the Christian faith and baptized them on
the eve of the feast of Epiphany, 11th. of Tubah, changed the temple into
a church, and with a revelation from the Lord Christ they ordained priests
and deacons for them.
When they wished to return they did not know the way, so the angel
of the Lord appeared to them, guided them walking, until they reached
Alexandria. From there they went to the wilderness of Sheahat (Scetis).
The monks of the wilderness came out to meat them, and they were at that
time about fifty thousand monks among them were Anba John the short and
Anba Bishoy, and they all rejoiced to meat their fathers.
The prayers of these Saints be with us. Amen.
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Martyrdom of the Forty
Martyrs of Sebastia.
On this day also the holy forty martyrs of the city of Sebastia
were martyred. Emperor Constantine the great had appointed his friend
Lecius ruler for the east and commanded him to treat the Christians well.
When he arrived to his headquarter, he ordered his subordinate to worship
the idols but they refused and cursed his idols. That night some of the
soldiers and their children, from the city of Sebastia, made an agreement
among themselves to go to the governor confessing their faith. While
they were sleeping the angel of the Lord appeared to them, strengthened
them and comforted their hearts.
In the morning they stood before the Governor and confessed their
faith in the Lord christ, he threatened them but they were not afraid.
He commanded his men to stone them, but the stones came back upon those
who stoned them. He ordered to throw them in a nearby lake, which was
icy. Their organs were severed because of the excessive cold. One of them
whose strength was weakened, went out of the icy water and entered the
bath house nearby the lake. The heat in the bath house melted the ice that
was on him but he died quickly, and lost his reward.
One of the guards saw angels descending from the heaven and in
their hands crowns, they placed them over the heads of the thirty nine
martyrs and remained one crown in the hand of the angel. The guard went
down into the lake shouting "I am christian...I am christian." He took
the crown that was in the hand of the angel and was counted among the martyrs.
Among the martyrs, were young men, whose mothers
encouraged and strengthened them. Because they remained in the lake for
a long time and they did not die, the Governor wished to break their legs,
but the Lord took their souls and reposed them. He ordered to burn their
bodies and to cast them after that into the sea. As they were carrying
them out of the lake, they found a young man alive, so they left him. His
mother took him and tried to threw him on the wagon with his mates but they
put him off the wagon again for he was still alive. His mother took him and
he died in her bosom so she put him back on the wagon. They took them outside
the city and cast them into the fire which did not harm them, then they
casted them into the river.
On the third day those holy martyrs appeared to the Bishop of
Sebastia in a vision and told him: "Go to the river and take our bodies."
He went with the priests, deacons and the people to the river and found
the bodies. They carried the bodies with great honor and placed them in
a beautiful shrine, and their strife was heard in all the countries.
May their prayers be with us and Glory be to God forever. Amen
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250 - 290 St. Paul of Narbonne
priest notable missionary to Gaul with Sts. Saturninus and Dionysius; performed miracles
Narbóne, in
Gállia, natális sancti Pauli Epíscopi, Apostolórum
discípuli, quem tradunt fuísse Sérgium Paulum Procónsulem.
Hic, a beáto Apóstolo Paulo baptizátus, et ab eo,
cum in Hispániam pérgeret, apud Narbónem relíctus,
ibídem Episcopáli dignitáte donátus est;
ibíque, prædicatiónis offício non ségniter
expléto, clarus miráculis migrávit in cælum.
At Narbonne in France, the birthday of the bishop St. Paul, a disciple
of the apostles. He is said to have been the proconsul Sergius
Paulus, who was baptized by the blessed apostle Paul, and left at Narbonne,
where he was raised to the episcopal dignity when the apostle went to
Spain. Having zealously discharged the office of preaching and
having performed miracles, he departed to heaven.
who is known principally
because of reports made of him by St.
Gregory of Tours. According to Gregory,
Paul was ordained at Rome and, with other missionaries including Sts.
Saturninus and Dionysius, he was assigned to Gaul to preach the Gospel.
He enjoyed considerable success in the region around Narbonne, founding
several churches there.
He is also mentioned in various
legends.
290 ST PAUL OF NARBONNE
WE learn from St Gregory of
Tours that St Paul of Narbonne was sent from Rome with several other
missionaries to plant the faith in Gaul. Two of the band, St Saturninus
of Toulouse and St Dionysius of Paris, received the crown of martyrdom,
but St Paul of Narbonne, St Trophimus of Aries, St Martial of Limoges
and St Gatian of Tours, after passing through many dangers and founding
churches in the places now connected with their names, finally died in
peace. Prudentius says that the name of Paul shed lustre on the city of Narbonne. No attention need be paid to an extravagant legend which
has identified St Paul of Narbonne with the Sergius Paulus who was proconsul
at Cyprus when the apostle St Paul withstood the magician Elymas.
See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. iii, and Duchesse, Fastes
Épiscopaux, vol. i, p. 303.
Paul of Narbonne and Companions
MM (RM) Died after 250 (c. 290?). Saint
Gregory of Tours informs us (Hist. Franc.
I, 30), that Saint Paul was consecrated priest at Rome from where he
was sent with other preachers to plant the faith in Gaul. There Saints
Saturninus of Toulouse and Dionysius of Paris were crowned with martyrdom.
Saints Paul of Narbonne,
Trophimus of Arles, Martial of Limoges, and Gatian of Tours survived,
established churches in their respective sees amidst many dangers, and
died in peace. Prudentius says, that Paul's association with the city
of Narbonne had made it famous. A much later legend identifies Paul with
the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus, who was converted by Saint
Paul the Apostle (Acts 13) (Attwater2,
Benedictines, Husenbeth).
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362 St. Basil of Ancyra
priest in Galatia (now Ankara) Martyr for the faith opponent of Arianism
God Healed him after torture
Ancyræ,
in Galátia, sancti Basilíi, Presbyteri et Mártyris,
qui sub Juliáno Apóstata, gravíssimis cruciátibus
afféctus, ánimam Deo réddidit.
At Ancyra, under Julian the Apostate, St. Basil, priest and martyr,
who gave up his soul to God after having endured grievous torments.
Basilius von Ankyra Orthodoxe und Katholische Kirche: 22. März
Basilius war im 4. Jahrhundert Presbyter in Ankyra
in Galatien (Ankara). Er galt als gemäßigter Arianer, wandte
sich dann aber gegen die Ultra-Arianer um Valens, die auf einer Synode
in Mailand 355 das "eines Wesens" (homousios) aus dem nicänischen Glaubensbekenntnis
gestrichen und durch ein "im Wesen ähnlich" ersetzt hatten. Basilius
wurde von einem arianisch bestimmten Konzil in Ankyra abgesetzt. Er wurde
dann aber von einem Bischofskonzil wieder in sein Amt eingesetzt und Athanasius
wollte ihn in seinen Kampf gegen die Arianer einspannen. Dann kam aber
Julian (361-363) auf den Kaiserthron, der dem Arianismus anhing. Basilius
wurde gefangengesetzt vor Julian gebracht und in Caesarea mehrere Tage gefoltert.
Er starb an den schweren Folterungen am 29. Juni 362. Weil sein Sterbetag
auf das Fest der Apostel Peter und Paul fällt, wurde sein Festtag
auf den 22. März verschoben.
Basil, a priest of Ancyra,
in Galatia defended Bishop Marcellus there when the prelate was deposed
by the Arians. Basil was then caught up in the persecution of Emperor
Julian the Apostate. He was tortured and slain for preaching to the people.
Basil of Ancyra M (RM)
Died June 29, 362. Saint Basil suffered and died for his confession of
the true faith in opposition to the Arians, who denied the divinity of
Jesus. He was a priest of Ancyra, Galatia (now Ankara, Turkey), who loyally
supported his Catholic bishop, Marcellus, against the heretics, even after
the latter's banishment in 336 by Emperor Constantius.
In 360, the Arians tried
to stop Saint Basil even from leading Christian worship; but he despised
the unjust order; and boldly defended the Catholic faith before Constantius
himself. Basil's refusal to give way to the Arians (and the fact that he
was running through the streets urging Christians to remain steadfast),
under severe threats, led the authorities to claim that he was unfaithful
to the emperor Julian the Apostate. He was captured, tried, and tortured
at Ancyra. At Caesarea in Palestine he was hung up, first by the wrists,
and then upside down from his ankles. His body was torn with rakes and finally
he was slaughtered. His acta appear to be authentic.
This is the longer version
of what they say: Julian the Apostate was
travelling from Constantinople to Antioch in preparation for his Persian
expedition. He stopped en route at the famous temple of Cibele in Galatia
to offer sacrifice.
"When Julian arrived at
Ancyra, Basil was presented before him, and the crafty emperor, putting on
an air of compassion, said to him: 'I myself am well skilled in your mysteries;
and I can inform you, that Christ, in whom you place your trust, died
under Pilate, and remains among the dead.'
"The martyr answered:
'You are deceived; you have renounced Christ at a time when he conferred
on you the empire. But he will deprive you of it, together with your life.
As you have thrown down his altars, so will he overturn your throne: and
as you have violated his holy law, which you had so often announced to the
people [Julian had been a reader in the church], and have trodden it under
your feet, your body shall be cast forth without the honor of a burial,
and shall be trampled upon by men.'
"Julian replied: 'I intended
to let you go, but your impudent manner of rejecting my advice...force
me to do you ill. It is therefore my command, that every day your skin
be torn off in seven different places, till you have no more left,..."
Julian went on his way;
Basil endured the torture several days then asked to speak to the emperor.
Julian ordered that the two should meet in the temple of Esculapius. Julian
"pressed him to join him sacrifices. But the martyr replied that he could
never adore blind and deaf idols. And taking a piece of his flesh which
had been cut out of his body that day, and still hung to it by a bit of
skin, he threw it upon Julian. The emperor went out in great indignation:
and count Frumentinus, fearing his displeasure, studied how to revenge
an insult...He therefore mounted his tribunal, and ordered the torments
of the martyr to be redoubled; and so deep were the incisions made in his
flesh, that his bowels were exposed to view, and the spectators wept for
compassion. The martyr prayed aloud all the time, and at evening was carried
back to prison.
"Next morning Julian set
out for Antioch, and would not see Frumentinus. The count resolved to repair
his disgrace, or at least to discharge his resentment by exerting his rage
upon the servant of Christ. But to his thundering threats Basil answered:
'You know how many pieces of flesh have been torn from my body: yet look
on my shoulders and sides; see if any wounds appear? Now that Jesus Christ
this night hath healed me. Send this news to your master Julian, that he
may know the power of God whom he has forsaken. He has overturned his altars,
who was himself concealed under them when he was sought by Constantius to
be put to death. But God hath discovered me that his tyranny shall be shortly
extinguished with his life.'
"Frumentinus seemed no
longer able to contain his rage, and Frumentinus commanded the saint to
be laid upon his belly, and his back to be pierced with red-hot iron spikes.
The martyr expired under these torments" (Attwater2, Benedictines, Bentley,
Encyclopedia, Husenbeth). Saint Basil is depicted in art with a lioness
by his side, sometimes he is torn by the lioness (Roeder).
Julian the
Apostate {Julian was the last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire
and it was his desire to bring the empire back to its ancient Roman values
in order to save it from "dissolution". He purged the top-heavy
state bureaucracy and attempted to revive traditional Roman religious
practices at the cost of Christianity. His rejection of Christianity
in favour of Neoplatonic paganism caused him to be called Julian the Apostate
by the church, as Edward Gibbon wrote: " The triumph of the party which
he deserted and opposed has fixed a stain of infamy on the name of Julian;
and the unsuccessful apostate has been overwhelmed with a torrent of pious
invectives, of which the signal was given by the sonorous trumpet of Gregory
Nazianzen."– Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire.
In 363, after a reign of only 19 months as absolute ruler of the
Roman Empire, Julian was killed in Persia during a campaign against the
Sassanid Empire.
362 ST BASIL OF ANCYRA,
MARTYR
IN the middle of the
fourth century when Arians and semi-Arians were propagating their heresies,
Basil was a priest of Ancyra, a holy man who had been trained by the saintly
Bishop Marcellus in the full doctrine of the Catholic Church. After Marcellus
had been banished by the Emperor Constantius, and a semi-Arian, another
Basil, intruded into his see, the priest Basil never ceased exhorting
his people to remain staunch to the orthodox faith. In 360 the extreme Arians
obtained the upper hand, and not only deposed the semi-Arian bishop, but
ordered the degradation of St Basil, whom they forbade to hold religious
assemblies. He, however, disregarding their orders, supported his own
flock, won over many who had been led astray, and boldly defended the
faith in the presence of Constantius himself.
When
Julian came to the throne, open
persecution of Christians almost ceased for a time, as the emperor trusted
to subtler means of undermining their faith. In some cases, however,
he grew impatient, and permitted—if he did not actually urge—the
punishment of well-known Christian leaders. Basil, who had continued to
do his utmost to thwart the imperial policy in Ancyra, was arrested and
accused of sedition, of overturning altars, of inciting the people against
the gods and of speaking irreverently against the emperor and his religion.
He made a bold confession, and after being suspended by his wrists and
ankles and having his flesh torn with rakes, he was cast into prison, and
eventually put to death. This martyred presbyter must not be confused
with his opponent, the better-known Bishop Basil of Ancyra.
There is a
fantastic account, upon which no reliance can be placed, of the torments
endured by St Basil. See his so-called acts, a short Greek romance which
appears to have been written in the tenth century by John, a monk of the
monastery of St Elias. This was critically edited by M. Krascheninnikov
in 1907, and it will be found also in the Acta Sanctorum, March,
vol. iii. But there can be no reasonable doubt that Basil did suffer martyrdom,
for Sozomen speaks of him in his Eccles. His.,
v, 11.
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383 Isaak vom Dalmatus-Kloster
stammte aus Syrien Athanasianer verfolgt Saturninus und Viktor
Orthodoxe Kirche: 30. Mai (auch 22. März und 3. August)
Katholische Kirche: 27. März (auch 30. Mai und 3. August)
Isaak stammte aus Syrien und lebte im 4. Jahrhundert als Einsiedler.
Unter Kaiser Valentius (364-378), der den Arianern anhing, wurden die
Athanasianer verfolgt und ihre Kirchen geschlossen oder zerstört.
Als Isaak von der Verfolgung erfuhr, verließ er seine Einsiedelei
und ging nach Konstantinopel, um hier die Gemeinden zu unterstützen.
Als die Goten Thrakien eroberten und auf Konstantinopel vorrückten,
beschwor Isaak dreimal den Kaiser, die Kirchen der Athanasianer wieder zu
öffnen, sonst würde er keine Hilfe von Gott erhalten. Der Kaiser
ließ Isaak daraufhin in einen Sumpf werfen, aber Isaak kam unversehrt
wieder aus dem Sumpf hervor und prophezeite dem Kaiser, er werde im Feuer
umkommen, wenn er nicht die Kirchen öffne. Valentius übergab Isaak
den Gefängnisaufsehern Saturninus und Viktor und zog gegen die Goten.
Er wurde mit seinen Generälen von den Goten in einer Scheune, in die
er sich geflüchtet hatte, verbrannt. Isaak wurde daraufhin freigelassen
und als Prophet verehrt. Der neue Kaiser Theodosius (379-395) öffnete
die Kirchen der Athanasianer und verbannte die Arianer aus Konstantinopel.
Isaak ließ sich auf Wunsch von Saturninus und Viktor nahe Konstantinopel
nieder. Aus seiner Einsiedelei entstand ein Kloster, in dem er 383 starb.
Das Kloster wurde später nach seinem Gefährten und Nachfolger
Dalmatus benannt.
Das
Gedächtnis Isaaks wird auch am 22. März und am 3. August (mit
Dalmatus und Faustus) begangen.
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384 St. Lea devout widow
nun Superior community of Saint Marcella exchanged her rich attire for
sackcloth
Romæ sanctæ
Leæ Víduæ, cujus virtútes et tránsitum
ad Deum sanctus Hierónymus scribit.
At Rome, the widow St. Lea, whose virtues and happy death are related by
St. Jerome.
A letter which St.
Jerome wrote to St. Marcella
provides the only information we have about St. Lea, a devout fourth century
widow.
Upon death of her husband,
she retired to a Roman monastery and ultimately became its Superior. Since
his correspondence was acquainted with the details of St. Lea's life,
St. Jerome omitted these in his letter. He concentrated instead on the
fate of St. Lea in comparison with that of a consul who had recently died.
"Who will praise the
blessed Lea as she deserves? She renounced painting her face and adorning
her head with shining pearls. She exchanged her rich attire for sackcloth,
and ceased to command others in order to obey all. She dwelt in a corner
with a few bits of furniture; she spent her nights in prayer, and instructed
her companions through her example rather than through protests and speeches.
And she looked forward to her arrival in heaven in order to receive her
recompense for the virtues which she practiced on earth.
"So it is that thence
forth she enjoyed perfect happiness. From Abraham's bosom, where she resides
with Lazarus, she sees our consul who was once decked out in purple, now
vested in a shameful robe, vainly begging for a drop of water to quench
his thirst. Although he went up to the capital to the plaudits of the people,
and his death occasioned widespread grief, it is futile for the wife to
assert that he has gone to heaven and possesses a great mansion there. The
fact is that he is plunged into the darkness outside, whereas Lea who was
willing to be considered a fool on earth, has been received into the house
of the Father, at the wedding feast of the Lamb.
"Hence, I tearfully
beg you to refrain from seeking the favors of the world and to renounce
all that is carnal. It is impossible to follow both the world and Jesus.
Let us live a life of renunciation, for our bodies will soon be dust and
nothing else will last any longer."
Lea of Rome, Widow (RM).
Roman lady who on becoming a widow entered the community of Saint Marcella,
of which she later became the superior. She was noted for the austerity
of her life and her extreme penances. Saint Jerome (Ep. 20 to Marcella)
wrote a panegyric in her honor (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
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5th v. St. Trien disciple
of St. Patrick missionary abbot.
He served as a missionary and then as abbot of Killelga Monastery,
Ireland.
Trien of Killelga, Abbot (AC) (also known as Trienan). Saint Trien,
abbot of Killelga monastery, was on of Saint Patrick's disciples (Benedictines)
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5th v. St. Darerca
sister of St. Patrick; sons became bishops throughout Ireland.
She was reported to have borne fifteen sons, ten of whom became
bishops throughout Ireland.
Darerca, Widow (AC) Her name is derived from the Irish Diar-Sheare,
which means constant and firm love. Alleged sister of Saint Patrick
of Ireland and the mother of fifteen sons, some of which became saints.
(Benedictines, Montague).
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457 St. Deogratius Bishop
of Carthage ransomed captives fed them gave them room in church
Carthágine
sancti Deográtias, Epíscopi Carthaginénsis, qui
plúrimos, a Wándalis captívos ex Urbe ductos, redémit,
aliísque sanctis opéribus célebris quiévit
in Dómino.
At Carthage, St. Deogratias, bishop of Carthage, who ransomed many captives
taken from that city by the Vandals, and who performed many other good
works, after which he went to rest in the Lord.
457 ST DEOGRATIAS, Bishop
OF CARTHAGE
WHEN Carthage was seized
by the Vandals in 439, the Arian barbarians expelled Bishop Quodvultdeus
and set him adrift with most of his clergy in a water-logged hulk, which,
however, managed eventually to reach Naples. After fourteen years, during
which Carthage remained without a chief pastor, Genseric, at the request
of Valentinian, allowed the consecration of another bishop. He was a priest
of the name of Deogratias, who by his example and teaching strengthened
the faith of his people and succeeded in winning the respect of pagans and
Arians alike.
Two years after the bishop’s
consecration, Genseric sacked Rome and returned to Africa with a multitude
of captives. These unfortunate people were distributed between the Vandals
and the Moors, regardless of natural ties, husbands being separated
from wives and parents from their children. To buy them back, Deogratias
sold the gold and silver vessels and ornaments of the altar, and thus
redeemed a great number of families. As there were not enough houses in
Carthage available for their accommodation, the bishop gave over two
of the largest churches which he filled with bedding, and organized a
daily distribution of food. Some of the baser spirits among the Arians,
resenting his activity, lay in wait to kill him, but the project failed.
Worn out by his efforts, however, Deogratias died after an episcopate
of little over three years, and was deeply mourned by his own flock and
by the exiles who had found in him their great protector. The Carthaginians
would have torn his body to pieces to obtain relics, but his corpse was
secretly buried while the public prayers were being chanted, and was thus
preserved from dismemberment.
Victor, Bishop
of Vita, in his Historia Persecutionis Vandalicae, is
the principal authority for what we know of St Deogratias. See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. iii.
Bishop of Carthage in 454, succeeding St.
Quodvultdeus. The Vandal king, Geiseric,
brought many Italian captives to Carthage, and Deogratius ransomed them.
He was reportedly slain by Arian heretics.
Deogratias of Carthage B (RM);
the ancient calendar of Carthage places his feast on January 5.
In 439,
Arian Vandals seized Carthage and threw out its bishop, Saint Quodvultdeus.
For 14 years the city
was without a chief pastor. Then the Arian leader Genseric relented and allowed
the Christians there to make a priest named Deogratias their bishop
in 456. Two years later Genseric took Rome and removed from the city
hundreds of captives.
Genseric and his dejected
captives returned to Africa, where whole Christian families were split
up and given to Vandals and Moors as slaves.
Deogratias determined
to free them. The only possible method was to ransom them. For this purpose
the bishop sold everything he possibly could, including the rich gold and
silver plate of the church and many precious ornaments. He managed to ransom
so many families that there were not enough rooms in Carthage to house
them. Undeterred, Bishop Deogratias gave them rooms inside his churches.
Each day he made sure that they were properly fed, until they could once
again look after themselves.
And, although he was decrepit with
age, each day he visited the sick to comfort them.
Many Arians resented the
saint's work and a number tried--and failed--to kill him. Nonetheless
he died, worn out by his enormous labors, after only one year as a bishop
(Attwater2, Benedictines, Bentley, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
|
484 St. Octavian Martyr
of the Vandals under Hunneric.
Carthágine sancti Octaviáni Archidiáconi,
et multórum míllium Mártyrum, qui, ob fidem cathólicam,
a Wándalis cæsi sunt.
At Carthage, the archdeacon St.
Octavian, and many thousands of martyrs, who were slain by the Vandals
for the Catholic faith.
He was an archdeacon
in the Church in Carthage who was executed, along with supposedly thousands
of other Christians, by the Arian Vandals at the command of King Hunneric.
Octavianus and Companions MM (RM). Octavian archdeacon of Carthage
who, with his companions, said to number several thousand, were martyred
by the Arian king Hunneric (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
|
680 Failbhe of Iona brother
of Saint Finan of Rath Abbot (AC).
Born in Ireland; Saint
Failbhe, abbot of Iona and brother of Saint Finan of Rath, is one of about
20 saints of the same name commemorated in Irish and Scottish menologies
(Benedictines).
|
752 Pope St. Zachary At Rome, the birthday of Pope St. Zachary, who
governed the Church of God with vigilance, and at last, renowned for
miracles, rested in peace.
Romæ sancti Zacharíæ
Papæ, qui Dei Ecclésiam summa vigilántia gubernávit,
et clarus méritis quiévit in pace.
(ZACHARIAS.)
Reigned
741-52. Year of birth unknown; died in March, 752. Zachary sprang from
a Greek family living in Calabria; his father, according to the "Liber Pontificalis", was called
Polichronius. Most
probably he was a deacon of the Roman Church and as such signed the decrees
of the Roman council of 732. After the burial of his predecessor Pope
Gregory III on 29 November, 741, he was immediately and unanimously
elected pope and consecrated and enthroned on 5 December. His biographer
in the "Liber Pontificalis" describes him as a man of gentle and conciliatory
character who was charitable towards the clergy and people. As a fact the
new pope always showed himself to be shrewd and conciliatory in his actions
and thus his undertakings were very successful.
Soon
after his elevation he notified Constantinople of his election; it is
noticeable that his synodica
(letter) was not addressed to the iconoclastic Patriarch Anastasius
but to the Church of Constantinople. The envoys of the pope also brought
a letter for the emperor.
After
the death of Leo III (18 June, 741) his successor was his son Constantine
V, Copronymus. However, in 742 Constantine's brother-in-law Artabasdus
raised a revolt against the new emperor and established himself in Constantinople;
thus when the papal envoys reached Constantinople they found Artabasdus
the ruler there. As late as 743 the papal letters were dated from the
year of the reign of Constantine V; in 744, however, they are dated form
the year of the reign of Artabasdus. Still the papal envoys do not seem
to have come into close relations with the usurper at Constantinople,
although the latter re-established the worship of images.
After Constantine V had overthrown
his rival, the envoys of the pope presented to him the papal letter
in which Zachary exhorted the emperor to restore the doctrine and practice
of the Church in respect to the worship of images. The emperor received
the envoys in a friendly manner and presented the Roman Church with the
villages of Nympha and Normia (Norba) in Italy, which with their territories
extended to the sea.
When
Zachary ascended the throne the position of the city and Duchy of Rome
was a very serious one. Luitprand, King of the Lomabards, was preparing
a new incursion into Roman territory. Duke Trasamund of Spoleto, with
whom Pope Gregory III had formed an alliance against Luitprand, did not
keep his promise to aid the Romans in regaining the cities taken by the
Lombards. Consequently Zachary abandoned the alliance with Trasamund and
sought to protect the interests of Rome and Roman territory by personal influence
over Luitprand. The pope went to Terni to see the Lombard king who received
him with every mark of honour. Zachary was able to obtain from Luitprand
that the four cities of Ameria, Horta, Polimartium, and Blera should be
returned to the Romans, and that all the patrimonies of the Roman Church
that the Lombards had taken from it within the last thirty years, should
be given back; he was also able to conclude a truce for twenty years between
the Roman Duchy and the Lombards. A chapel to the Saviour was built in the
Church of St. Peter at Rome in the name of Luitprand, in which the deeds
respecting this return of property were placed. After the pope's return, the
Roman people went in solemn procession to St. Peter's to thank God for the
fortunate result of the pope's efforts. Throughout the entire affair the
pope appears as the secular ruler of Rome and the Roman territory. In the
next year Luitprand made ready to attack the territory of Ravenna. The Byzantine
exarch of Ravenna and the archbishop begged Pope Zachary to intervene. The
latter first sent envoys to the Lombard king, and when these were unsuccessful
he went himself to Ravenna and from there to Pavia to see Luitprand. The
pope reached Pavia on the eve of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. He celebrated
the vigil and the feast of the princes of the Apostles at Pavia, and was
able to induce the king to abandon the attack on Ravenna and to restore the
territory belonging to the city itself. Luitprand died shortly after than
and after his first successor Hildebrand was overthrown, Ratchis became King
of the Lombards. The pope was on the best of terms with him. In 749 the new
king confirmed the treaty of peace with the Roman Duchy. The same year Ratchis
abdicated, with his wife and daughter took the monastic vows before the pope,
and all three entered the monastic life.
In 743 Pope Zachary held a synod
at Rome which was attended by sixty bishops. This synod issued fourteen
canons on various matters of church discipline. On this occasion the
pope took up the question of the impediments to marriage of relationship
in the fourth degree, in regard to which the Germans claimed to have obtained
a dispensation from Pope Gregory II. The year previous Zachary had written
on this point to the bishops and kings of that province. An active correspondence
was kept up between Zachary and St. Boniface. The latter in his zealous
labours had organized the Church in the German territories, and while
doing this had kept in close connection with the Papal See. Early in 742,
soon after his elevation, Zachary received a letter from Boniface in which
the saint expressed his full submission to the possessor of the Chair of
Peter and requested then confirmation of the three newly established Bishoprics
of Wurzburg, Buraburg, and Erfurt; Boniface also sought authority to hold
a synod in France and to suppress abuses in the lives of the clergy. The
pope confirmed the three dioceses and commissioned Boniface to attend, as
papal legate, the Frankish synod which Karlmann wished to hold. In a later
letter Zachary confirmed the metropolitans of Rouen, Reims, and Sens appointed
by Boniface, and also confirmed the condemnation of the two heretics Adelbert
and Clement. Various questions in which the pope and Boniface disagreed
were discussed in letters. In 745 was held the general synod for the Frankish
kingdom called by Pepin and Carloman. Here decrees were passed against
unworthy ecclesiastics, and the two heretics, Adelbert and Clement, were
again condemned. Boniface sent a Frankish priest to Rome to make a report
to the pope, and the latter held on 25 October, 745, a synod at the Lateran
at which, after exhaustive investigation, an anathema was pronounced against
the two heretics. Zachary forwarded the acts of the synod with a letter
to Boniface. Pepin and the Frankish bishops sent a list of questions respecting
the discipline of the clergy and of the Christian population to Pope Zachary,
and the latter answered in a letter of 746 in which decisions respecting
the various points are given. These decisions were communicated to Boniface
so that he might make them generally known at a Frankish synod. The following
year, 747, Carloman resigned his authority and the world, went to Rome,
and was received by Pope Zachary into a monastic order. At first he lived
in the monastery on the Soracte, later at Monte Cassino. Thanks to the efforts
of St. Boniface all the Frankish bishops were now agreed in submission to
the See of St. Peter. Zachary sent still other letters to the bishops of
Gaul and Germany, and also to Boniface as the papal legate for the Church
of this region.
Boniface was constantly in intercourse
with Rome both by letters and envoys and sent important questions to
the pope for decision. An important proof of the recognition by the Franks
of the high moral power of the papacy is shown by the appeal to papal
authority on the occasion of the overthrow of the Merovingian dynasty.
Pepin's ambassadors, Bishop Burkard of Wurzburg and Chaplain Folrad
of St. Denis, laid the question before Zachary: whether it seemed right
to him that one should be king who did not really possess the royal power.
The pope declared that this did not appear good to him, and on the authority
of the pope Pepin considered himself justified in having himself proclaimed
King of the Franks (cf. SAINT BONIFACE; and PEPIN THE
SHORT). The ecclesiastical activity of the pope also extended
to England. Through his efforts the Synod of Cloveshove was held in 747
for the reform of church discipline in accordance with the advice given
by the pope and in imitation of the Roman Church.
Zachary
was very zealous in the restoration of the churches of Rome to which
he made costly gifts. He also restored the Lateran palace and established
several large domains as the settled landed possessions (domus cultoe)
of the Roman Church. The pope translated to the Church of St. George in
Velabro the head of the martyr St. George which was found during the repairs
of the decayed Lateran Palace. He was very benevolent to the poor, to whom
alms were given regularly from the papal palace.
When merchants from Venice bought slaves at Rome in order to sell
them again to the Saracens in Africa, the pope bought all the slaves,
so that Christians should not become the property of heathens. Thus in
a troubled era Zachary proved himself to be an excellent, capable, vigorous,
and charitable successor of Peter. He also carried on theological studies
and made a translation of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great into Greek,
which was largely circulated in the East. After his death Zachary was buried
in St. Peters.
|
1244 Blessed Isnard(o)
de Chiampo distinguished preacher miracles OP (AC)
Born in Chiampo (near
Vicenza), Italy; cultus confirmed in 1919. From the springtime
of the Dominicans in Bologna, Italy, comes the story of Blessed Isnard.
He was born into a wealthy family but little else is known of his boyhood.
In 1219, as a student at the University of Bologna, he met Saint
Dominic and decided to join
his new order. Soon after completing his novitiate in Bologna, Isnard distinguished
himself as a preacher. His first assignment was in Pavia, where his work
of founding and ruling the priory was complicated by the war between
the pope and the emperor.
Blessed Isnard plunged
courageously into the work. He knew that he was risking death in doing
so, and a less stout-hearted man might have found some excuse for going
to a more peaceful place. Blessed Isnard insisted on meeting the situation
head-on.
One of his first encounters
was with the forces of evil, quite undisguised. A possessed man had become
the mouthpiece of the devil and was being used by heretics to discredit
the preaching of the friar who had so recently come to Pavia to preach
the faith.
The devil, speaking through the lips of the possessed man, issued a challenge
to the friar: "If you are from God, cast me out and cure this man."
Isnard realized that one
does not lightly take up open battle with the powers of wickedness. The condition
of the poor man, whose name was Martin, was enough to strike terror into
any heart. The challenge came when Isnard was in the pulpit preaching. The
possessed man was brought into the church, screaming, and in convulsions.
The preacher realized that he must cure him or lose the interest of his
audience in the cause of Christ.
Stepping down from the
pulpit, he approached the possessed man, put his arms around him and,
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, demanded that the evil spirits depart.
Martin was freed from his tormentor, and he ended his days, according to
legend, as a lay brother in the local monastery.
At another time when Isnard
was preaching, a hardened heretic refused to listen to him and called out
loudly, "I shall believe in the sanctity of this man only if he makes that
barrel on the corner of the square come loose and strike me." Immediately,
the barrel jumped from its place and struck the scoffer, breaking his
leg.
Isnard spent his life
preaching and working in Pavia, regardless of the fact that in spite of
his life of self-mortification "he was excessively fat and people used
to ridicule him about it when he was preaching." At his death, it presented
a quite different appearance from the godless and strife-ridden city it
was when he had arrived (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Dorcy).
1244 BD
ISNARDO OF CHIAMPO
CHIAMPO, where Bd Isnardo
was born, is a village near Vicenza. As a youth he seems to have fallen
under the spell of St Dominic’s eloquence, and joining the Order of Preachers
he received the habit from the holy founder himself about the year 1219,
along with Bd Guala Romanoni. Isnardo, we are told, in spite of the fact
that he led an extremely ascetic life, was very stout, and physical exertion
of any kind was a matter of much difficulty to him. Nevertheless nothing
could daunt his energy as a preacher, and his persuasiveness and learning
were such that he made many conversions. On one occasion a scoffer ridiculing
the speaker’s corpulence shouted out, “I could no more believe in the
holiness of an old porpoise like Brother Isnardo than I could believe
that that barrel there would jump up of itself and break my leg”. Whereupon,
we are told, the barrel did fall upon his leg and crush it. Isnardo was one
of the first Dominicans to preach in Pavia, and when a house of the Order
was founded there he was elected prior in 1240. In this house he passed away
in 1244, being credited with many miracles both before and after his death.
His cultus
was
confirmed in 1919.
See C. M.
Pio, Delle vite degli huomini illustri
di S. Domenico (1607), pp. 205—206 the decree confirming
the cultus in Acta
Apostolicae Sedis, vol. xi (1919), pp. 184—186 and K. Majocchi,
B. Isnardo da Vicenza
(191 o). On this last
cf.
Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxiii (1914),
pp. 100—101.
|
1282 St. Benvenutus Scotivoli
Franciscan archdeacon bishop
Auximi, in Picéno,
sancti Benvenúti Epíscopi.
At Osimo, in Piceno, the bishop
St. Benvenuto.
1282 ST BENVENUTO, BISHOP OF Osimo
ST BENVENUTO
Scotivoli was born at Ancona and intended for the law, which he studied
at Bologna, but feeling that God called him to labour for souls he was
ordained to the priesthood. By Pope Alexander IV he was appointed
archdeacon of Ancona, besides being made administrator of the diocese
of Osimo.
The seat of the bishopric had been removed from that
town to Recanati, because the people of Osimo had espoused the cause of
the Emperor Frederick II against the Holy See,
but Benvenuto succeeded in the difficult task of reconciling the city with
the papacy. The episcopal chair was then restored to Osimo, of which in
1264 he was nominated bishop by Alexander’s successor, Urban, and he was
also appointed governor of the Marches of Ancona.
Before his consecration Benvenuto was admitted into the Franciscan
Order, and during the remaining eighteen years of his life he continued
to wear his Minorite habit, which was long preserved at Osimo with his
relics. It had ever been his earnest desire to imitate St Francis,. and
as he felt death approaching, he
asked to be carried into the church and laid on the bare ground that he might
die like the Seraphic Father. Whilst the psalms were being intoned by the
clergy round him, he passed away to his eternal rest.
See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. iii, and Léon, Auréole
Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. i, pp. 517—519. It is stated that Benvenuto
was canonized by Pope Martin IV, and consequently less than four
years after his death.
He was born in Ancona, Italy, and studied law in Bologna,
a fellow student of St.
Sylvester. Appointed archdeacon
of Ancona, he went on to become the bishop of Osimo, Italy. Before his
episcopal ordination, Benvenutus became a Franciscan. He was canonized
by Pope Martin IV.
Benvenuto Scotivoli,
OFM B (RM) (also known as Benvenutus of Osimo)
Born at Ancona, Italy;
died 1282; canonized by Martin IV. Benevenuto studied law at Bologna, where
he was a fellow-student of Saint Sylvester Gozzolini. He joined the Franciscans
at Ancona. He was appointed archdeacon of Ancona, and finally bishop
of Osimo in 1264 (Attwater2, Benedictines).
|
1470 Blessed Hugolinus
Zefferini Augustinian hermit OSA (AC)
(also known as Blessed
Hugolinus of Cortona); cultus confirmed in 1804. The little available
information on this Augustinian hermit, indicates that he lived either
at Cortona or Mantua, Italy (Attwater2, Benedictines).
1470 BD HUGOLINO OF CORTONA
VERY little seems to
be known of the Augustinian hermit Hugolino Zefferini of Cortona. When
Father Papebroch the Bollandist wrote to a high authority of the Augustinian
Order to obtain information, a courteous reply was returned to the effect
that the archives of their house in Cortona had unfortunately perished
in a conflagration, and that a manuscript life of the holy man which they
had once possessed had either been lost or stolen. All they could send was
a seventeenth-century engraving which contained representations of a certain
number of miracles alleged to have been wrought in connection with the
relics of the beatus.
One
of the most surprising of these had reference to a lily which, growing
out of the corpse of the deceased thirty years after his burial, effected
the cure of a woman who was blind. Other traditions stated that when the
first lily had been thoughtlessly plucked, two other lilies grew out of the
wounds of the hermit’s incorrupt body. From the conflicting accounts given
it is not even clear whether Bd Hugolino belonged to Cortona or to Mantua,
and whether he lived in the fourteenth century or in the fifteenth. It seems,
however, to be certain that his relics were preserved and venerated at Cortona,
and the cultus
paid
to him there was approved by Pope Pius VII in 1804.
See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. iii. Two short Italian biographies
are also cited, one by F. Baldelli (1704), the other by N. Fabbrini
(1891).
|
1487 Nicholas of Flüe,
Hermit fighting "with a sword in one hand, and a rosary in the other!"
often rapt in ecstatic prayer, experiencing visions and revelations as
a hermit in almost perpetual prayer for 21.5 yrs, he took no food for
the body; patron saint of Switzerland. (RM)
<NICHOLAS VON FLUE (“Bruder
Klaus”) occupies a unique place in the estimation of his countrymen.
Ecclesiastics, patriots, politicians, historians and poets of all creeds
have sung his praises, and it may safely be asserted that no religious
figure in the history of Switzerland has given rise to so varied and voluminous
a body of literature. The holy man, who was born near Sachseln in Unterwalden in 1417,
belonged to a much respected family of small farmers, owners of the
Kluster Alp or pasture in the Melchthal and of the estate of Flüeli
on the Sachsterberg, from which they derived their surname. His father
Henry also held a civil post in the cantonal service, whilst his mother,
Emma Robert, was a native of Wolfenschiessen. She was a deeply religious
woman who brought up her two sons, Nicholas and Peter, to belong as she
did to the brotherhood of the Friends of God (Gottesfreunde).
The members of this society were scattered over Germany,
Switzerland and the Netherlands, and were drawn from both sexes and
all classes. Adhering loyally to the Catholic Church, they sought by strictness
of life as well as by constant meditation on the passion of our Lord and
similar devotions, to enter, as their name implied, into specially close
relationship with God. Some of them lived in their own families, others
formed small communities, and a few retired from the world altogether to
lead an eremitic life. Nicholas was specially responsive to the training
he received, and was remarkable from childhood for his piety, his love
of peace and his sound judgement.
At the age of twenty-two,
and in spite of his peace-loving disposition, Nicholas fought in the
ranks in the war with Zurich. Fourteen years later, on the occasion of
the occupation of the Thurgau, he again took up arms, but this time he
was captain of a company. The high esteem in which he was held caused him
to be appointed magistrate and judge and to be sent on various occasions
as deputy for Obwalden to councils and meetings, where his clear-sighted
wisdom carried great weight. He was repeatedly offered the highest post
of all, that of landamman,
or
governor, but he could never be induced to accept it. He had married a
religious-minded girl called Dorothea Wissling, and their union had been
a happy one. Of their ten children, John, the eldest son, became landamman
during
his father’s lifetime, and the youngest studied at the University of
Bale, and was afterwards for many years parish-priest of Sachseln.
Throughout the years of his married life, Nicholas had continued
the devout practices of his youth. To quote the testimony of his eldest
son: “My father always retired to rest at the same time as his children
and servants; but every night I saw him get up again, and heard him praying
in his room until morning. Often too he would go in the silence of the
night to the old church of St Nicholas or to other holy places.” In obedience
to what seemed to him a supernatural call to contemplation, for he had
many visions and revelations, he used at times to withdraw into solitude
in the valley of the Melch, but when he was about fifty he felt irresistibly
drawn to abandon the world altogether and to spend the rest of his days
far from home as a hermit. His wife did not oppose him, for the Friends
of God recognized such vocations as sent from on high. Nicholas resigned
his offices, took leave of his wife, his father and his children in the
early autumn of 1467 and set forth barefoot and bareheaded, clad in a grey-brown
habit and carrying his rosary and his staff.
His destination appears
to have been Strasbourg, in the neighbourhood of which was a settlement
of the brethren, Alsace having been their headquarters. Before crossing
the frontier, however, he received hospitality from a peasant whom he discovered
to be also a Friend of God, and in the course of conversation his host
sought to deter him from leaving the country, assuring him that the Swiss
were unpopular in Alsace and elsewhere abroad on account of their rough
manners, and that he might fail to find the peaceful retreat he sought.
That night there was a terrific thunderstorm, and as Nicholas looked at
the little town of Liechstall beyond the frontier, the flashes of lightning
made it appear to be in flames. He took this to be a sign which confirmed
the advice he had received, and immediately retraced his steps. One evening
during the homeward journey, as he lay under a tree, he was seized with such
violent gastric spasms that he thought his last hour had come: the
pain passed off, but from that time he lost all desire for ordinary food
or drink, and became in fact incapable of taking either. Later that autumn,
hunters who had been looking for game in the Melchthal brought home news
that they had come across Nicholas on his pasture land of the Klüster,
where he had made himself a shelter of boughs under a larch tree. His brother
Peter and other friends went to beseech him not to remain there to die of
exposure, and he was persuaded to move to Ranft, another part of the valley,
where the people of Obwalden soon built him a little cell with a chapel attached.
In this spot, which was situated above a narrow gorge, the loneliness
of which was emphasized by the roar of the mountain torrent in the valley
below, St Nicholas spent nineteen peaceful
years. The hours from midnight to midday were passed in prayer and contemplation,
but in the afternoon he would interview those who found their way to
his hermitage to seek his advice on spiritual or even on temporal matters.
God had given him the spirit of counsel, as he one admitted to his friend
Henry Imgrund, and he continued to exercise it as he had done in the past.
Strangers also were attracted by the fame of this remarkable man, who
was reported to live without eating and drinking. Never very talkative,
he was particularly sparing of his words to those who came out of mere
curiosity. So also, when questioned as to his abstention from food, he
would only reply, “God knows”. That no one brought him provisions the cantonal
magistrates proved by having all approaches to his cell watched for a
month, and unprejudiced foreigners, such as Archduke Sigismund’s physician
and envoys from the Emperor Frederick III, satisfied themselves of the
truth of the report and were profoundly impressed by the hermit’s sincerity.
Once a year Nicholas
took part in the great Musegger procession in Lucerne, but otherwise
he only left his retreat to attend divine service and occasionally to
visit Einsiedeln. The gifts of the faithful enabled him in his later years
to found a chantry for a priest in connection with his own little chapel,
and he was thus able to assist at Mass daily and to communicate often.
At this epoch the Swiss
Confederation had just passed through the most glorious phase in its
history. Within six years, in the three battles of Grandson, Morat and
Nancy, the sturdy mountain folk had vindicated their independence and
had routed the hitherto unconquered Charles the Bold, master of the two
Burgundies and nearly the whole of Belgium: their reputation was so great
that every prince in Europe sought their alliance. The hour of their most
signal triumph proved nevertheless to be the hour of their greatest danger,
for internal dissensions threatened to undo the success which their arms
had won. Quarrels arose over the division of booty and between the country
party and the towns. Another source of contention was, the proposal to include
Fribourg and Soleure (or Solothurn) in the confederation. At length agreement
was reached on most points and was embodied in a document known as the Edict
of Stans.
On the subject of the
inclusion of Fribourg and Soleure, however, no accommodation could be reached,
and feeling ran so high that it seemed that the question would have to be
settled by arms. The meeting was breaking up in disorder when the parish-priest
of Stans suggested seeking a final opinion from Nicholas von Flue. The deputies
gave their consent and he set out to seek the hermit. His suggestion
was no casual or sudden inspiration. As we know from the protocols of
the Council of Lucerne, that city, which occupied an ambiguous position
between the two parties, had, at an early stage of the strife, sent delegates
to Brother Nicholas to obtain his advice, and it is quite possible that
other districts had done the same. It has been even suggested that the
Edict of Stans, a most statesmanlike charter, may have been drafted in the
hermit’s cell.
In any case, it is greatly to the credit of the deputies
that, in the heat of their quarrel, they should have been willing to refer
the matter to him. The chronicler Diebold Schilling, who represented his
father at the council, tells us that the priest Imgrund arrived back in
Stans streaming with perspiration, and that, seeking out the deputies in
their lodgings, he besought them with tears to reassemble immediately to
hear the message which he must impart to them alone. Schilling does not
record the words of that message, but he informs us that within an hour
the council had arrived at a unanimous agreement. Fribourg and Soleure were
to be admitted into the Swiss Confederation, but upon certain conditions,
which were accepted for them by Hans von Stall, the delegate of Soleure.
The date was December 22, 1481.
That Christmas was a specially
joyful one throughout Switzerland, and the Stans Council expressed in
laudatory terms its gratitude to Nicholas for his services. Letters of
thanks from Berne and Soleure to the holy man are still extant, as well
as a letter written on his behalf by his son John, thanking Berne for
a gift which would be expended upon the Church. (He himself could neither
read nor write, but used a special seal by way of a signature.) Several
of the hermit’s visitors have left accounts of their interviews with him,
and that written by Albert von Bonstetten, dean of the monastery of
Einsiedeln, is particularly interesting. He describes the recluse as tall,
brown and wrinkled, with thin grizzled locks and a short beard. His eyes
were bright, his teeth white and well preserved, and his nose shapely. He
adds, “He praises and recommends obedience and peace. As he exhorted the
Confederates to maintain peace, so does he exhort all who come to him to
do the same.” The dean held him in great veneration, but with regard to the
prophetical gifts ascribed to Nicholas in some quarters, he says cautiously
that he had received no evidence of them from trustworthy sources. Six years
after the Council of Stans, Nicholas was seized with his
last illness, which lasted only eight days, but caused him intense suffering.
He bore it with perfect resignation and died peacefully in his
cell, on his birthday, having attained the age of seventy. Immediately
his death became known he was honoured in all Switzerland both as a patriot
and as a saint, though it was only in 1669 that his cultus was formally sanctioned:
he was canonized in 1947. His skeleton lies in a shrine under a black
marble canopied altar which stands close to the entrance to the choir
of the present church of Sachseln, and the habit in which he died is preserved
in a cupboard in the south apse. The two “Flue houses” at Flüeli
date back to the days of St Nicholas, and although they have been greatly
modernized one room in his dwelling-house remains intact.
In 1917 the
fifth centenary of the birth of “ Bruder Klaus” was celebrated throughout
Switzerland with quite remarkable enthusiasm. Perhaps the most valuable
result of the interest thus awakened was the publication of a great historical
monograph by Robert Durrer, a scholar with an unrivalled knowledge of
the archives of his country. In these two quarto volumes, entitled Bruder Klaus, which together total some 1350 pages,
will be found all the available material bearing on the life of Nicholas
von Flue. The collection includes two early sketches of the career of
Bruder Klaus, one by Albrecht von Bonstetten, the other by Heinrich von
Gundelfingen, but these are supplemented by a mass of documentary evidence
derived from ancient records and other sources. A comprehensive nineteenth
century biography is that of J. Ming, Der selige
Bruder Nikolaus von Flue, and others have since been written
by A. Baumberger, F. X. Wetzel and J. T. de Belloc, in Italian by F. Andina
(1945), and in French by A. Andrey (1941) and C. Journet (1947). See also
the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. iii, and the
Kirchenlexikon, vol. ix, pp. 316-319.
(also known as Bruder
Klaus)
Born at Flüeli
near Sachseln, Obwalden (Unterwalden), Switzerland, March 21, 1417; died
at Ranft, Switzerland, March 21, 1487; cultus approved in
1669; canonized 1947; feast day formerly March 21; feast day in Switzerland
is September 25.
"My Lord and my God,
remove from me all that may keep me from you. My Lord and my God, give
me all that I need to bring me to you. My Lord and my God, take me from
myself and give me to yourself." --Nicholas von Flüe.
Nicholas was born into
a family of prosperous farmers, who owned the Kluster Alp and the estate
of Flüeli on the Sachsterberg (near Lucerne), from which their surname
derives. At various times Saint Nicholas was a soldier, peasant, patriot,
and judge in Switzerland. His father held a civil post; his mother was
very devout and raised her sons to belong to the brotherhood of the Friends
of God (Gottesfreunde). The society sought to live a strict life, to meditate
on the passion of the Lord, and to seek a close relationship with God.
They lived with their families in small communities or as hermits. Thus,
Nicholas was pious from childhood. He was also illiterate.
In his youth Nicholas
fought in defense of Swiss Confederation liberties, especially against
the Hapsburgs. After the siege of Zurich in 1439, he was commissioned in
the army. He defended women and children and the Church, fighting "with
a sword in one hand, and a rosary in the other!"
He loved solitude and
prayer, but, by 1447, he married pious and comely Dorothea Wysling, daughter
of one of the chief families of Sachseln. In the 30 years of their marriage,
he had 10 children: John, Rudolph, Walter, Henry, Nicholas, Dorothea,
Marguerite, Katherine, Veronica, and another girl who died in infancy. John
was elected Landmann of Unterwald. Nicholas (the youngest) studied at the
University of Basle and became a priest; another became a governor of the
province. Dorothea's piety led her to be called "the consolation of the
Church."
Nicholas would rise
at dawn to tend the flocks, eat at 9:00 a.m. with his family and servants
at the same table, and again at the end of the day they would gather for
Vesperbrod and end the evening with family prayers. While working in the
fields, he was often rapt in ecstatic prayer, experiencing visions and
revelations. He continued the devout practices of his youth, fasted frequently,
and often spent the night in prayer.
In 1460, Thurgau was
invaded by Austria and Nicholas commanded 100 men. During this campaign
at Katharinental the Swiss troops were faced with a situation that anticipated
in miniature that at Monte Cassino in 1944: When the Swiss succeeded in
capturing the village of Diesenhofer, many Austrian soldiers sought refuge
in the church of the Dominican Convent of Saint Catherine. The Swiss command
was going to burn the church, but Nicholas prayed for divine guidance
before the crucifix in the cloister, then he asked the command to revoke
its order stressing the moral gravity of the act. The order was canceled.
Nicholas was awarded a gold medal when peace was declared, in thanks for
his services.
Fellow-citizens wanted
him to accept the office of Landmann (governor), but he twice refused.
He was appointed magistrate, served as judge for the canton, and was sent
as a deputy for Obwalden to councils. When, in 1465, a powerful family
appealed his fair decision and was rendered an unjust one against a humble
peasant, he resigned. "Later he testified that he could see and feel flames
of fire, of a disgusting odor, issuing from the mouths of the judges
as they pronounced their unjust sentence; and he knew that they already
had a foretaste of hell within themselves." Though the elite turned against
him and spoke calumnies of him, Nicholas was still sought out by his
neighbors and people from the adjoining cantons to settle disputes.
In 1467 (age 50), fourteen
months after the birth of the tenth child, Nicholas heard God's command
to live as a hermit and told his wife immediately. He resigned his offices
and, with his devout wife's permission, left his family to live for the
next 20 years as a hermit in almost perpetual prayer. Dorothea was overcome
by the news but put no obstacles in his way because she recognized the
call. "She wept as she made the supreme sacrifice" of allowing her husband
to leave. His relatives and neighbors, however, were full of indignation,
which he disregarded. Nicholas and his wife drew up an agreement and told
the family and servants that Dorothea was thenceforth head of the family.
He left barefoot and
bareheaded, wearing a drab habit and carrying a rosary and a staff. Thus
clad as a pilgrim, Nicholas became known as Brother Klaus. He appears to
have been headed for Strasbourg, France, where the headquarters of the
Gottesfreunde lay, looking for a hermitage in which to spend his final
years. On his way, however, he wandered toward Basle, where he was put up
by a peasant who was a Friend of God, who told him that the Swiss were unpopular
in Alsace and that he might not find there the life that he sought.
That night during a
violent thunderstorm, Nicholas looked at a little town beyond the frontier
and saw that lightning made it appear to be in flames. He took this as
a divine confirmation of the peasant's advice and turned back. When Brother
Klaus decided to follow the peasant's suggestion, he felt a violent pain
in his intestines and was surrounded by light. Thereafter, he "never felt
the need of human food or drink, and have never used them." Hunters brought
back to his family the news that they had seen him living on his pastureland
in a shelter of boughs. Family members went to beg him not to stay there
and fall prey to exposure.
So, he finally moved
to Ranft, where the people of Obwalden built him a cell and a small chapel.
He lived many years in this lonely place above a narrow gorge within earshot
of the mountain stream spending most of his time in prayer. He prayed and
meditated from midnight to midday, attended Mass in Sachseln every Sunday,
and paid an annual visit to Lucerne for the Musegger procession. He never
ate or drank anything except the Blessed Sacrament.
Abbot Oswald Isner wrote:
"When Nicholas had abstained for 11 days from taking natural food, he sent
for me and asked me secretly whether he should take some food or continue
to fast. He had always desired to live without eating, the better to separate
himself from the world. I touched the parts of his body where little flesh
was left; all was dried up; his cheeks were hollow and his lips were very
thin.
"When I had seen and
understood that it could come only from divine love, I advised brother
Nicholas to continue to this test as long as he could stand it without
the danger of death. That is what brother Nicholas did; from that moment
until his death, that is for about twenty-one and a half years, he continued
to take no food for the body.
"Since the holy brother
was more familiar with me than with anyone else, I asked him many times
how he managed to do it. One day in his cell he told me, in great secrecy,
that when the priest celebrated communion he received the strength which
alone permitted him to live without eating or drinking."
When those seeking his
counsel asked him about eating nothing, Nicholas would reply, "God knows."
Cantonal magistrates had his cell watched for a month to ensure themselves
of the fact that no one brought him food.
Nevertheless, Nicholas
held that "holy obedience is the highest virtue." When Bishop Thomas visited
him and commanded him to eat bread and a little wine after 18 months of
nothing, Nicholas hesitated to obey. When he did try to eat a tiny fragment
of a morsel, he almost choked to death and the bishop finally believed.
Until he had a chaplain,
he attended Sunday Mass and Holy Days at the parish church of Sachseln.
Nicholas founded a chantry for a priest with donations and thus was enabled
to assist at Mass daily. In 1470, Pope Paul II granted the first indulgence
to the sanctuary at Ranft and it became a place of pilgrimage. Occasionally
Klaus would make a pilgrimage to Engleburg or Einsiedeln.
He received the great
(including Emperor Frederick III), the humble, and children. Many pilgrims
came for counsel. He could speak with authority to married people and children.
His wife and children also attended Mass in his chapel and listened to
his spiritual counsel.
In 1481, the Swiss Confederation
had gained its independence from Charles the Bold of Burgundy, the rulers
of Europe sought its alliance, and it was on the verge of breaking apart
over how to divide the spoils gained during the conquests. Internal disputes
threatened its solidarity, but an agreement was reached and put forth in
the Compromise of Stans. Still unresolved, however, was the issue of
the inclusion of Fribourg and Soleure, and it caused such controversy
that in 1481 civil war was feared. A parish priest of Stans recommended
seeking a final opinion from the 64- year-old Nicholas. This was agreed to,
and he went to Nicholas, whose counsel had been sought at various stages
of the drafting of the edict, and it has even been said that it was drawn
up in his cell. After the priest's return to Stans, the council arrived at
a unanimous decision within an hour and maintained the unity of the land.
Despite his lack of
education and experience with the world, his mediation led to permanent
national unity for Switzerland. He could not even write; he used a special
seal as a signature. Letters of thanks to him from Berne and Soleure still
survive.
Six years later, he became
ill for the last time. He suffered greatly for eight days, received Holy
Viaticum, then died peacefully in his cell with his wife and children by
his bed. Nicholas was buried at Sachseln and the Flüe family still
survives in Switzerland.
His wife and children
were probably none the worse for his becoming a hermit. It may be that
his prayers and spiritual counsel did more for his family than his remaining
with them would have. We do not blame explorers and soldiers for leaving
their families, why blame a saint?
His canonization was
delayed because a fire destroyed the documents relating to it. Nevertheless,
he is the patron saint of Switzerland.
Several accounts survive
of visitors' memories of Bruder Klaus: one described him as tall, brown,
and wrinkled with then grizzled locks and a short beard, bright eyes, white
teeth, and a shapely nose. This corresponds well with a Fribourg portrait
of him done in 1492 (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Bentley, J. Delaney,
S. Delany, Encyclopedia, Farmer, White).
Saint Nicholas is portrayed
as a hermit being thrown into a thorn bush by the devil. At other times
he may be shown praying in a mountainous landscape or entering a house while
carrying a staff tipped with a cross. Nicholas is greatly venerated in Switzerland
(Roeder).
|
1606 St. Nicholas Owen
"Little John," 20 yrs build secret hiding places for priests as a lay person
Nicholas,
familiarly known as "Little John," was small in stature but big in the
esteem of his fellow Jesuits.
Born
at Oxford, this humble artisan saved the lives of many priests and laypersons
in England during the penal times (1559-1829), when a series of statutes
punished Catholics for the practice of their faith.
Over
a period of about 20 years he used his skills to build secret hiding places
for priests throughout the country. His work, which he did completely
by himself as both architect and builder, was so good that time and time
again priests in hiding were undetected by raiding parties. He was a genius
at finding, and creating, places of safety: subterranean passages, small
spaces between walls, impenetrable recesses. At one point he was even able
to mastermind the escape of two Jesuits from the Tower of London.
Whenever
Nicholas set out to design such hiding places, he began by receiving the
Holy Eucharist, and he would turn to God in prayer throughout the long,
dangerous construction process.
After
many years at his unusual task, he entered the Society of Jesus and served
as a lay brother, although—for very good reasons—his connection with the
Jesuits was kept secret.
After
a number of narrow escapes, he himself was finally caught in 1594. Despite
protracted torture, he refused to disclose the names of other Catholics.
After being released following the payment of a ransom, "Little John"
went back to his work. He was arrested again in 1606. This time he was
subjected to horrible tortures, suffering an agonizing death. The jailers
tried suggesting that he had confessed and committed suicide, but his
heroism and sufferings soon were widely known.
He
was canonized in 1970 as one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
Comment: Nicholas was a
clever builder and architect who used his skills to protect endangered
priests. Without his help, hundreds of English Catholics would have been
deprived of the sacraments. His gift for spotting unlikely places to hide
priests was impressive, but more impressive was his habit of seeking support
for his work in prayer and the Eucharist. If we follow his example, we
may also discover surprising ways to put our skills to God’s service.
Nicholas
Owen M (RM) Born in Oxford, England; died in the Tower of London, 1606;
beatified in 1929; canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of the
Forty Martyrs of England and Wales; feast day formerly March 12.
Saint
Nicholas was probably the most important person in the preservation
of Catholicism in England during the period of the penal laws against
the faith. He was a carpenter or builder, who saved the lives of countless
Jesuit priests in England for two decades by constructing hiding places
for them in mansions throughout the country. He became a Jesuit lay brother
in 1580, was arrested in 1594 with Father John Gerard, and despite prolonged
torture would not give the names of any of his Catholic colleagues; he
was released on the payment of a ransom by a wealthy Catholic.
Brother
Nicholas is believed to have been responsible for Father Gerard's dramatic
escape from the Tower of London in 1597.
Nicholas
was arrested a third time in 1606 with Father Henry Garnet, whom he
had served 18 years, Father Edward Oldcorne, and Father Oldcorne's servant,
Brother Ralph Ashley. He refused to give any information concerning the
Gunpowder Plot. They were imprisoned in the Tower of London. Nicholas
was subjected to such vicious torture, which literally tore his body to
pieces, that he died of it.
Nicholas
was also known as Little John and Little Michael and used the aliases
of Andrewes and Draper (Attwater2, Benedictines, Delaney).
|
1929
Blessed Dina Bélanger Sisters of Jesus-Marie in Rome accomplished
pianist woman of infectious joy despite illness (AC)
(also known as Marie Sainte-Cecile of Rome) Born in Québec,
Canada, 1897; beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1993. When Dina
joined the Sisters of Jesus-Marie in Rome (founded by Saint Claudine
Thevenet), she took the name Marie Sainte-Cecile of Rome to honor the
patron of musicians because she was herself an accomplished pianist.
During the course of her life as a sister, her devotion to the Blessed
Sacrament transformed her into a woman of infectious joy despite illness.
Her autobiography was published in Québec in 1984 (Catholic World
News, May 1, 1997).
|
|
2023
Pope Zacharias_Zachary Pope Zachary was a peace-maker and judged
no man without a hearing. 
Christian
council
held
at
Among
the
most important
titles
we have
in the
Catholic
Church
for
the
Blessed
Virgin
Mary
are Our
Lady
of Victory
and Our
Lady of
the Rosary.
These
titles
can be
traced
back to one
of the
most decisive
times
in the history
of the
world
and Christendom.
The
Battle
of Lepanto
took
place on October
7 (date
of feast of
Our Lady
of Rosary),
1571.
This
proved to
be the most
crucial
battle
for
the Christian
forces
against
the
radical
Muslim navy
of Turkey.
Pope
Pius
V led a procession
around
St. Peter’s
Square
in Vatican
City
praying
the Rosary.
He showed
true
pastoral
leadership
in recognizing
the danger
posed
to Christendom
by
the radical
Muslim
forces,
and in using
the
means necessary
to
defeat it.
Spiritual
battles
require
spiritual
weapons,
and this
more than
anything
was a battle
that
had its
origins in
the spiritual
order—a true
battle between
good
and evil.