St John on this day The Church
commemorates because of the annual pilgrimage to his grave miiracle of red
dust 
When St John was more than one hundred years old, he took seven
of his disciples and went to a spot outside the city of Ephesus.
There he told them to dig a grave in the form of a cross. Then
he climbed into the grave and told his disciples to cover him with earth.
Later, the grave was opened and the saint's body was not there.
Each year on May 8 a red dust would arise from the grave which
the faithful collected in order to be healed of their illnesses.
St John's main Feast is on September 26.
Orthodoxe Kirche: 8. Mai
Orthodoxe Kirche: 26.
September - Niederlegung der Gebeine
Orthodoxe Kirche: 20.
Juni - Übertragung der Gebeine und Kleider (in die Apostelkirche in Konstantinopel)
Katholische, Anglikanische
und Evangelische Kirche: 27. Dezember
Das Neue Testament berichtet
uns, dass Johannes und sein Bruder Jakobus Söhne
des Zebedäus und der Salome waren und mit ihrem Vater als Fischer am
See Genezareth arbeiteten. Nach außerbiblischer Überlieferung soll
Salome eine Verwandte Marias gewesen sein und Jakobus soll der älteste,
Johannes dagegen der jüngste Jünger Jesu gewesen sein. Johannes
war wie Andreas
wohl ein Schüler Johannes des Täufers.
Johannes, der Lieblingsjünger Jesu ist neben Petrus sicher der wichtigste
Apostel. Beide sind die Führer der Jerusalemer Gemeinde nach der Himmelfahrt
Jesu. nach dem Apostelkonzil verläßt auch Johannes Jerusalem.
Er ist wohl nach Kleinasien gegangen und hat von Ephesus aus die neu entstandenen
Gemeinden geleitet, insbesondere jene sieben Gemeinden, die in der Offenbarung
genannt sind. Vielleicht hat er auch in Persien unter den Parthern missioniert.
Unter Diokletian wurde Johannes nach Patmos verbannt. Eine alte Legende berichtet,
er sei vorher in Rom zum Tode verurteilt und in einen Kessel mit siedenden
Öl geworfen worden, sei aber unversehrt geblieben (Gedenktag 6.5.).
Unter Kaiser Nero soll Johannes nach Ephesus zurückgekehrt sein und
Nachfolger des Bischofs Timotheus
geworden sein. Her schrieb er nun sein Evangelium und die drei überlieferten
Briefe. Johannes starb in hohem Alter um 100. In der theologischen Wissenschaft
ist (und bleibt vielleicht) ungeklärt, ob Johannes der (alleinige) Verfasser
des Evangeliums, der Briefe und der Offenbarung war.
The Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian occupies
an unique place in the ranks of the chosen disciples of Christ the Saviour.
Often in iconography the Apostle John is depicted as a gentle, majestic and
spiritual elder, with features of innocent tenderness, with the imprint of
complete calm upon his forehead and the deep look of a contemplator of unuttered
revelations. Another main trait of the spiritual countenance of the Apostle
John is revealed through his teaching about love, for which the title "Apostle
of Love" is preeminently designated to him. Actually, all his writings are
permeated by love, the basic concept of which leads to the comprehension,
that God in His Being is Love (1 Jn. 4: 8). In his writings, Saint John dwells
especially upon the manifestations of the inexpressible love of God for the
world and for mankind, the love of his Divine Teacher. He constantly exhorts
his disciples to mutual love one for another.
The service of Love -- was the entire pathway of life of the
Apostle John the Theologian.
The qualities of calmness
and profound contemplation were in him combined with an ardent fidelity, tender
and boundless love with intensity and even a certain abruptness. From the
brief indications of the Evangelists it is apparent, that he was endowed in
the highest degree with an ardent nature, and his hearty passionateness sometimes
reached such a stormy zealousness, that Jesus Christ was compelled to give
the admonishment, that it was discordant with the spirit of the new teaching
(Mk. 9: 38-40; Lk. 9: 49-50, 54?56) and He called the Apostle John and his
brother by birth the Apostle James "Sons of Thunder" ("Boanerges"). During
this while Saint John shows scant modesty, and besides his particular position
among the Apostles as "the disciple whom Jesus loved", he did not stand out
among the other disciples of the Saviour. The distinguishing features of
his character were the observance and sensitivity to events, permeated by
a keen sense of obedience to the Will of God. Impressions received from without
rarely showed up in his word or actions, but they penetrated deeply and powerfully
into the inner life of the holy Apostle John. Always sensitive to others,
his heart ached for the perishing. The Apostle John with pious tremulation
was attentive to the Divinely-inspired teaching of his Master, to the fulness
of grace and truth, in pure and sublime comprehending the Glory of the Son
of God. No feature of the earthly life of Christ the Saviour slipped past
the penetrating gaze of the Apostle John, nor did any event occur, that did
not leave a deep impression on his memory, since in him was concentrated
all the fulness and wholeness of the human person. The thoughts also of the
Apostle John the Theologian are imbued with suchlike an integral wholeness.
The dichotomy of person did not exist for him. In accord with his precepts,
where there is not full devotion, there is nothing. Having chosen the path
to service to Christ, to the end of his life he fulfilled it with complete
and undivided devotion. The Apostle John speaks about wholistic a devotion
to Christ, about the fulness of life in Him, wherefore also sin is considered
by him not as a weakness and injury of human nature, but as evil, as a negative
principle, which is completely set in opposition to the good (Jn. 8: 34;
1 Jn. 3: 4, 8-9). In his perspective, it is necessary to belong either to
Christ or to the devil, it is not possible to be of a mediocre lukewarm,
undecided condition (1 Jn. 2: 22, 4: 3; Rev. 3: 15-16). Therefore he served
the Lord with undivided love and self-denial, having repudiated everything
that appertains to the ancient enemy of mankind, the enemy of truth and the
father of lies (1 Jn. 2: 21-22). Just as strongly as he loves Christ, just
as strongly he contemns the Anti-Christ; just as intensely he loves truth,
with an equal intensity does he contemn falsehood, -- for light doth expel
darkness (Jn. 8: 12; 12: 35-36). By the manifestation of the inner fire of
love he witnesses with the unique power of spirit about the Divinity of
Jesus Christ (Jn. 1: 1-18; 1 Jn. 5: 1-12).
To the Apostle John was given to express the last word of the
Divine Revelation (i.e. the final book of the Holy Scripture), ushering in
the most treasured mysteries of the Divine inner life, known only to the
eternal Word of God, the Only-Begotten Son.
Truth is reflected in his
mind and in his words, wherein he senses and grasps it in his heart. He has
comprehension of eternal Truth, and as he sees it, he transmits it to his
beloved spiritual children. The Apostle John with simplicity affirms or denies
and speaks always with absolute precision (1 Jn. 1: 1). He hears the voice
of the Lord, revealing to him what He Himself hears from the Father.
The theology of the Apostle
John abolishes the borderline between the present and the future. Looking
at the present time, he does not halt at it, but transports his gaze to the
eternal in the past time and to the eternal in the future time. And therefore
he, exhorting for holiness in life, solemnly proclaims, that "all, born of
God, sin not" (1 Jn. 5: 18; 3: 9). In communion with God the true Christian
partakes of life Divine, whereby the future of mankind is accomplished already
on earth. In his explanation and disclosing of the teaching about the Economia
of salvation, the Apostle John crosses over into the area of the eternal present,
in which Heaven would co-incide with earth and the earth would be enlightened
with the Light of Heavenly Glory.
Thus did the Galilean fisherman,
this son of Zebedee, become Theologian proclaiming through Revelation the
mystery of world-existence and the fate of mankind.
The celebration on 8 May
of the holy Apostle John the Theologian was established by the Church in
remembrance of the annual drawing forth on this day at the place of his burial
of fine rose ashes, which believers gathered for healing from various maladies.
The account about the life of the holy Evangelist John the Theologian is
situated under 26 September, the day of his repose.
The Holy Apostle and
Evangelist John SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
The main
commemoration of this great Apostle and Evangelist is on September 26th,
but on May 8th is commemorated a wonderful revelation about his grave. When
St John was more than a hundred years old, he took seven of his disciples,
went outside the city of Ephesus and told the disciples to dig a grave in
the form of a cross. Then the old man went down alive into the grave and
was buried. When the faithful later opened John's grave, they did not find
the body in it.
And on May 8th each year
a dust arose from the grave, from which those suffering from many diseases
were healed.
Martyrdom of the Great Saint Mark, the Apostle The Evangelist
of the Land of Egypt. {COPTIC CHURCH}
On this day, which coincided with the 26th. of April 68 A.D.,
the great apostle St. Mark, the evangelist of the land of Egypt, was martyred.
He was the first Pope of Alexandria and one of the Seventy Apostles.
His name was John, as the
Holy Bible says: "He came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname
was Mark, where many were gathered together praying" (Acts 12:12). He was
the one that the Lord Christ, to Whom is the glory, meant when He said: "Go
into the city to a certain man, and say to him, The Teacher says, My time
is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples" (Matthew
26:18).
His house was the first
Christian church, where they ate the Passover, hid after the death of the
Lord Christ, and in its upper room the Holy Spirit came upon them.
This Saint was born in Cyrene
(One of the Five Western cities, Pentapolis - in North Africa). His father's
name was Aristopolus and his mother's name was Mary. They were Jewish in faith,
rich and of great honor. They educated him with the Greek and Hebrew cultures.
He was called Mark after they emigrated to Jerusalem, where St. Peter had
become a disciple to the Lord Christ. St. Peter was married to the cousin
of Aristopolus. Mark visited St. Peter's house often, and from him he learned
the Christian teachings.
Once Aristopolus and his
son Mark were walking near the Jordan river, close by the desert, they encountered
a raving lion and a lioness. It was evident to Aristopolus that it would be
his end and the end of his Son, Mark. His compassion for his son compelled
him to order him to escape to save himself. Mark answered, "Christ, in whose
hands our lives are committed, will not let them prey on us." Saying this,
he prayed, "O, Christ, Son of God protect us from the evil of these two beasts
and terminate their offspring from this wilderness." Immediately, God granted
this prayer, and the two beasts fell dead. His father marvelled and asked
his son to tell him about the Lord Christ. He believed in the Lord Christ
at the hands of his son who baptized him.
After the ascension of the
Lord Christ, he accompanied Paul and Barnabas to preach the Gospel in Antioch,
Seleucia, Cyprus, Salamis, and Perga Pamphylia where he left them and returned
to Jerusalem. After the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem, he went with Barnabas
to Cyprus.
After the departure of Barnabas,
with the order of the Lord Christ, St. Mark went to Afrikia, Berka, and the
Five Western cities. He preached the Gospel in these parts, and believed on
his hands most of its people. From there, he went to Alexandria in the 1st.
of Bashans 61 A.D.
When he entered the city,
his shoe was torn because of the much walking in preaching and evangelism.
He went to a cobbler in the city, called Anianus, to repair it. While he was
repairing it the awl pierced his finger. Anianus shouted in Greek saying "EIS
THEOS" which means "O, ONE GOD". When St. Mark heard these words his heart
rejoiced exceedingly. He found it suitable to talk to him about the One God.
The Apostle took some clay, spat on it and applied it to Anianus' finger,
saying in the Name of Jesus Christ the Son of God, and the wound healed immediately,
as if nothing happened to it.Moses, who brought the children of Israel out
of Egypt, and gave them the Law, the captivity of the children of Israel
to Babylon, and the prophecies that foretold the coming of Christ.
Anianus invited him to go to his house and brought to him his
children. The Saint preached and baptized them in the Name of the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit.
When the believers in the
Name of Christ increased and the pagan people of the city heard that, they
were raged with anger and thought of slaying St. Mark. The faithful advised
him to get away for a short while for the sake of the safety of the church
and its care. St. Mark ordained St. Anianus a Bishop for Alexandria, three
priests and seven deacons. He went to the Five Western Cities, remained there
for two years preaching, and ordained bishops, priests, and deacons.
He returned to Alexandria
where he found the believers had increased in number, and built a church for
them in the place known as Bokalia (The place of cows), east of Alexandria
on the sea shore.
It came to pass, when he
was celebrating the feast of the Resurrection on the 29th day of Baramudah,
year 68 A.D., the same day coincided with the great pagan Celebration for
the feast of the god Syrabis, a multitude of them assembled and attacked
the church at Bokalia and forced their way in. They seized St. Mark, bound
him with a thick rope and dragged him in the roads and streets crying, "Drag
the dragon to the place of Cows." They continued dragging him with severe
cruelty. His flesh was torn and scattered everywhere, and the ground of the
city was covered with his blood. They cast him that night into a dark prison.
The angel of the Lord appeared
to him and told him: "O Mark, the good servant, rejoice for your name has
been written in the book of life, and you have been counted among the congregation
of the saints." The angel disappeared, then the Lord Christ appeared to him,
and gave him peace. His soul rejoiced and was glad.
The next morning (30th of
Baramudah), the pagans took St. Mark from the prison. They tied his neck with
a thick rope and did the same as the day before, dragging him over the rocks
and stones. Finally, St. Mark delivered up his pure soul in the hand of God,
and received the crown of martyrdom, the apostolic crown, the crown of evangelism,
and the crown of virginity.
Nevertheless, St. Mark's
death did not satisfy the rage of the pagans and their hatred. They gathered
much firewood and prepared an inferno to burn him. A severe storm blew and
heavy rains fell. The pagans became frightened, and they fled away in fear.
The believers came and took the holy body, carried it to the church they built
at Bokalia, wrapped it up, prayed over him and place it in a coffin. They
laid it in a secret place in this church. The prayers of this great
Saint and honorable Evangelist be with us and Glory be to our God forever.
Amen.
|
193 St. Dionysius Bishop of Vienne, in Dauphine,
France, successor of St. Justus one
of the ten missionaries sent with St. Peregrinus to Gaul, by Pope St. Sixtus
I.
Viénnæ, in Gállia, sancti Dionysii, Epíscopi
et Confessóris. At Vienne in France, St. Denis,
bishop and confessor.
Dionysius of Vienne B (RM) Died after 193. Saint Dionysius
is said to have been one of the ten missionaries sent into Gaul with Saint
Peregrinus by Pope Sixtus I in the early 2nd century. He succeeded Saint
Justus as bishop of Vienne in the Dauphiné. Some have erroneously
described him as a martyr (Benedictines).
|
303 St. Victor the Moor (
from Mauretania, Africa) praetorian guard Martyr
Medioláni item natális sancti Victóris Mártyris,
qui, natióne Maurus et a primæva ætate Christiánus,
a Maximiáno, cum esset in castris imperiálibus miles, compúlsus
ut idólis sacrificáret, et in confessióne Dómini
fortíssime persevérans, ideo, primum gráviter fústibus
cæsus, sed, Deo protegénte, dolóris expers; deínde
liquénti plumbo perfúsus, sed nihil pénitus læsus;
novíssime gloriósi martyrii cursum, cápite abscíssus,
implévit.
At Milan, the birthday of the holy martyr Victor, a
Moor. He became a Christian in his youth and served in the imperial
army. When Maximian wished to force him to offer sacrifice to idols,
he persevered with the greatest fortitude in the confession of the Lord.
He was first beaten with rods, but by God's protection without feeling any
pain. Following this, melted lead was poured over him, which did him
no injury whatever. The career of his glorious martyrdom was finally
ended by his being beheaded.
also listed as Victor Maurus. He was labeled "the Moor" because
he came from Mauretania, Africa. He was a member of the praetorian guard when
a young man. He was in his old age when he was tortured and then beheaded
at Milan, Italy, during the persecutions of co-Emperor Maximian.
303? ST VICTOR MAURUS, MARTYR
ST AMBROSE says of St Victor that he was one
of the patrons of Milan, and as such he is associated with St Felix and St
Nabor. According to tradition, he was a native of Mauretania, and was called
Maurus to distinguish him from other confessors of the name of Victor.
He is stated to have been a soldier in the Praetorian guard, a Christian
from his youth, and to have been arrested for the faith when quite an old
man. After enduring severe tortures, he suffered martyrdom by decapitation
under Maximian in Milan about the year 303. His body was buried by order
of the bishop, St Maternus, beside a little wood, and a church was afterwards
built over his remains. St Gregory of Tours tells us that God honoured his
tomb by many miracles. St Charles Borromeo caused the relics to be translated
in 1576 to the new church in Milan which had then been recently built by
the Olivetan monks and which still bears St Victor’s name.
In the passio of this martyr we have the usual fantastic accumulation
of torments. He is said, for example, to have been basted with molten lead,
which instantaneously cooled on touching his flesh, and did him no sort of
harm. Nevertheless, the fact of his martyrdom and early veneration at Milan
is beyond doubt. There is quite a considerable literature
concerning St Victor the Moor, for which see CMH., p. 238. Consult especially
F. Savio, .I santi Martiri di Milano (1906), pp.
3—24 and 59-65. The passio is printed in the Acta
Sanctorum, May, vol. ii.
Called Maurus to distinguish him from other confessors
named Victor. He is believed to have been a soldier in the Praetorian guard.
Victor was a Christian from his youth, but it was not until he was an elderly
man that he was arrested for the Faith. After severe tortures, including being
basted with molten lead, he was decapitated under Maximian in Milan around
the year 303. Later a church was erected over his grave. According to St.
Gregory of Tours, many miracles occurred at the shrine. In 1576, at the request
of St. Charles of Borromeo, Victor's relics were transferred to a new church
in Milan established by the Olivetan monks. The church still bears St. Victor's
name today. After a life of adherence to the Faith during perilous times,
St. Victor Maurus was taken prisoner and tortured as an old man. Despite
age, infirmity, and declining health, he remained steadfast in the Faith,
gladly giving up his life for the Kingdom. His generous response to the call
to martyrdom stands as a solemn sign to the modern church of the folly of
the things of this world.
Victor Maurus M (RM) (also known as Victor the Moor)
Born in Mauritania, North Africa; died in Milan, Italy, in 303. Saint Victor
was a soldier in the Praetorian Guard who is associated by Saint Ambrose,
bishop of Milan from 374 to 397, with the martyrs SS. Nabor and Felix. He
was martyred under Maximian. Many churches, especially in Milan, are dedicated
to his honor. His cultus spread readily as far as England. Although little
is known of his life, hagiographers have not hesitated to add details to
the little information that is available (Benedictines, Farmer). In art,
Saint Victor is depicted as a Moorish soldier trampling on a broken altar.
He might also be portrayed as being roasted in an oven or a brazen bull,
or thrown into a furnace. He is venerated in Milan (Roeder).
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303 Acacius of Byzantium
Cappadocian centurion in the Roman army stationed in Thrace body was afterwards miraculously brought to the
shore of Squillace in CalabriaM (RM)
Constantinópoli sancti Agáthii Centuriónis, qui, in
persecutióne Diocletiáni et Maximiáni, a Firmo Tribúno
delátus quod Christiánus esset, et a Júdice Perínthi
Bibiáno sævíssime tortus, Byzántii demum a Procónsule
Flaccíno cápitis damnátus est. Ipsíus corpus
ad Scyllácium littus, in Calábria, divínitus póstea
delátum est, atque ibi honorífice asservátum.
At Constantinople, St. Acathius, who, being denounced
as a Christian by the tribune Firmus, and cruelly tortured at Perinthus by
the judge Bibian, was finally condemned to death at Byzantium by the procunsul
Flaccinus. His body was afterwards miraculously brought to the shore
of Squillace in Calabria, where it is preserved with honour.
(also known as Agathus, Agario, Acato)
303 OR 305 ST ACACIUS, OR AGATHUS,
MARTYR
WITH the exception of St Mucius, St Acacius, or Agathus, is the only
genuine ancient martyr of Byzantium. He was a Cappadocian, a centurion in
the imperial army, who perished for the faith during the persecution under
Diocletian and Maximian. He suffered alone, and the seventy-seven companions
who are commonly associated with him must be referred elsewhere. According
to his so-called “acts”, which, however, are not trustworthy, he was denounced
by the tribune Firmus at Perinthus in Thrace, where he was cruelly tortured
under the judge Bibienus. He was then taken to Byzantium, publicly scourged
and finally beheaded.
Constantinople contained two, if not three,
churches dedicated in honour of St Acacius, one of which was built by Constantine
the Great. It was nicknamed “the Walnut”, because built into its structure
was the walnut tree upon which the saint was said to have been suspended for
his flagellation.
The Greek text
of the Acts of Acacius is printed in the Acta Sanctorum,
May, vol. ii, and there is also an ancient Syriac version edited by
P. Bedjan. See what has been written concerning this martyr by Delehaye in
the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxi (1912), p. 228, as well
as in his Origines du Culte des Martyrs, pp. 233—236, and
in his CMH., p. 239. This martyr’s name is found both in the ancient Syriac
Breviarium of c. 412, and in the Spanish
calendar of Carmona. Cf. also Salaville, “Les Églises
de St Acace” in Échos d’Orient, vol. xi, pp. 105
seq.
Saint Acacius was a Cappadocian centurion in the Roman army
stationed in Thrace, who was tortured and beheaded at Byzantium under Diocletian.
Constantine the Great built a church in his honor (Benedictines). In art,
Saint Acacius is a centurion with a bunch of thorns. He may also be shown
(1) in armor with a standard and shield, or (2) in Byzantine art, with Saint
Theodore Tyro (Roeder). He is venerated as San Acato in Avila and Cuenca
(Spain) and as Saint Agario in Squillace (Calabria, Italy) (Roeder).
St. Acacius Martyr centurian in
the imperial army
Acacius was a Cappadocian by birth, also known as Agathus.
He was a enturian in the imperial army, was arrested for his faith on charges
by Tribune Firmus in Perinthus, Thrace, tortured and then brought to Byzantium
(Constantinople), where he was scourged and beheaded.
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306 THE FOUR CROWNED ONES, MARTYRS see also Nov 08
Ibídem, via Lavicána, natális sanctórum Quátuor
Coronatórum fratrum, id est Sevéri, Severiáni, Carpóphori
et Victoríni; qui, sub eódem Imperatóre, íctibus
plumbatárum usque ad mortem cæsi sunt. Horum autem nómina,
quæ póstea, interjéctis annis, Dómino revelánte,
osténsa sunt, cum mínime reperíri tunc potuíssent,
statútum fuit ut anniversária dies ipsórum, una cum illis
quinque, sub nómine sanctórum Quátuor Coronatórum
recolerétur; qui mos, étiam postquam reveláta sunt,
in Ecclésia perseverávit.
Also, on the Lavican Way, the birthday of the saintly
brothers, Severus, Severian, Carpophorus, and Victorinus, called the Four
Crowned, who were scourged to death with leaded whips, during the reign of
the same emperor. Because their names, known some years afterwards by
revelation, could not then be ascertained, it was ordered that their anniversary
should be commemorated with the preceding five, under the name of the Four
Saints Crowned. This custom was retained by the Church, even after their
names had been revealed.
Romæ, via Lavicána, tértio
ab Urbe milliário, pássio sanctórum Mártyrum Cláudii,
Nicóstrati, Symphoriáni, Castórii et Simplícii,
qui, primo in cárcerem missi, deínde scorpiónibus gravíssime
cæsi, tandem, cum ex fide Christi dimovéri non possent, a Diocletiáno
jussi sunt in flúvium præcípites dari.
At Rome, on the Lavican Way, three miles from the city, the martyrdom of
the Saints Claudius, Nicostratus, Symphorian, Castorius, and Simplicius.
They were first sent to prison, then scourged with whips set with metal, but
since they could not be made to forsake the faith of Christ, Diocletian ordered
them to be thrown into the river.
THE Roman Martyrology
has to-day: “At Rome, three miles from the City on the Via Lavicana, the passion
of the holy martyrs Claudius, Nicostratus, Symphorian, Castorius and
Simplicius, who were first cast into prison, then terribly beaten with loaded
whips, and finally, since they could not be turned from Christ’s faith, thrown
headlong into the river by order of Diocletian. Likewise on the Via Lavicana
the birthday of the four holy crowned brothers, namely, Severus, Severian,
Carpophorus and Victorinus, who, under the same emperor, were beaten to
death with blows from leaden scourges. Since their names, which in after
years were made known by divine revelation, could not be discovered it was
appointed that their anniversary, together with that of the other five,
should be kept under the name of the Four Holy Crowned Ones; and this has
continued to be done in the Church even after their names were revealed.”
These two entries
and the passio upon which they are founded provide a puzzle
which has not yet been solved with complete certainty. Severus, Severian,
Carpophorus and Victorinus, names which the Roman Martyrology and Breviary
say were revealed as those of the Four Crowned Martyrs, were borrowed from
the martyrology of the
diocese of Albano, where their feast is kept on August 8. On the other hand,
the Four Crowned Martyrs were sometimes referred to as Claudius, Nicostratus,
Symphorian and Castorius. These, with the addition of Simplicius, so far
from being the names of Roman martyrs (as stated above), belonged to five
martyrs under Diocletian in Pannonia.
The
legend falls into two distinct parts, the conventional and vague “Roman
passio”, preceded by the vivid and interesting “Pannonian
passio” wherein, as Father Delehaye points out, we
have a striking picture of the imperial quarries and workshops at Sirmium
(Mitrovica in Yugoslavia), and Diocletian appears not simply as a commonplace
blood-stained monster but as the emperor of rather unstable temperament with
a passion for building. His attention is drawn by the work of four specially
skilled carvers, Claudius, Nicostratus, Simpronian and Castorius, all Christians,
and a fifth, Simplicius, who also has become a Christian, because it seems
to him that the skill of the others is due to their religion. Diocletian
orders them to do a number of carvings, which are duly executed with the
exception of a statue of Aesculapius, which they will not make because they
are Christians (though their other commissions have already included a large
statue of the Sun-god). “If their religion enables them to do such good work,
all the better”, says the emperor, and confides Aesculapius to some heathen
workmen.
But
public opinion was aroused against Claudius and his comrades, and they were
jailed for refusing to sacrifice to the gods. Both Diocletian and his officer
Lampadius treated them with moderation at first; but Lampadius dying suddenly,
his relatives furiously blamed the five Christians, and the emperor was
induced to order their death. Thereupon each was enclosed in a leaden box,
and thrown into the river to drown. Three weeks later the bodies were retrieved
by one Nicodemus.
A
year later Diocletian was in Rome, where he built a temple to Aesculapius
in the baths of Trajan, and ordered all his troops to sacrifice to the god.
Four cornicularii refused: whereupon they were beaten to death
with leaded scourges and their bodies cast into the common sewer. They were
taken up and buried on the Via Lavicana by St Sebastian *[*
The names Claudius, Nicostratus, Symphorian and Castorius, with Victorinus,
also occur in the legend of St Sebastian, among the converts of St Polycarp
the Priest who were cast into the sea, and have as such separate mention
in the Roman Martyrology on July 7] and Pope Miltiades, who later directed,
their names having been forgotten, that they should be commemorated under
the names of Claudius, Nicostratus, Simpronian and Castorius.
A
basilica was built and dedicated in honour of the Four Crowned Ones on the
Coelian hill at Rome, probably during the first half of the fifth century:
it became, and its successor still is, one of the titular churches of the
cardinal-priests of the City. There is evidence that those thus commemorated
were four of the Pannonian martyrs (why Simplicius was omitted does not appear),
and that their relics were later translated to Rome. Then, it has been suggested,
their names and history became known, and there emerged the difficulty that
they were five, not four; and accordingly a hagiographer produced the second
story outlined above, showing that the Quatuor Coronati were
four Romans, not five Pannonians, and soldiers, not stone-masons. Of which
convenient fiction Father Delehaye remarks that it is “ l’opprobre de l’hagiographie”.
It was natural that in the
medieval organizations of” operative” masonry the Four Crowned Ones should
be held in great honour. A poem of the early fifteenth century setting out
the articles of one of these stone-mason gilds is preserved in MS. Royal
XVII. A. i at the British Museum. It
has a section headed Ars quatuor coronatorum, beginning:
Pray we now to God almyght
And to hys moder Mary bryght;
and it then goes on to tell briefly the story
“of these martyres fowre, that in thys craft were of gret honoure”. It is
stated that those who want to know more about them may find—
In the legent of
sanctorum
[i.e.
the book Legenda Sanctorum]
The names of quatuor coronatorum.
Their fest wol be, withoute nay,
After Alle Halwen the eyght day.
The
English Freemasons of modern times have in a sense clung to the tradition,
and the most scholarly organ of the craft in this country has for many years
past been published under the name Ars Quatuor Coronatorum. Bede
refers to a church at Canterbury dedicated in honour of the Four Crowned Martyrs
so early as c. 620.
Any detailed
discussion of the problems outlined above would be out of place here. In the
Acta Sanctorum, November, vol. iii, Delehaye in 1910 devoted thirty-six folio pages to the question, editing
the text of the passio of the Pannonian group, written, it
is believed, by a certain Porphyry, and also the tenth-century recension of
the same, due to one Peter of Naples. The Depositio martyrum
of the fourth century, confirmed by the Leonine and other sacramentaries,
leaves no doubt that this group of martyrs was honoured in Rome at an early
date, and Delehaye, in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxii
(1913), pp. 63—71, as well as in his Les passions des martyrs
. . . (1921), pp. 328—344, his Etude sur le légendier
romain (1936), pp. 65—73, and the CMH., pp. 590—591, adheres firmly
to the view that there was only one group of martyrs, the stone-masons of
Pannonia, whose relics were brought to Rome and interred in the catacomb
on the Via Labicana. Other theories, however, have been propounded, notably
by Mgr Duchesne in Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire,
vol. xxxi (1911), pp. 231—246; by P. Franchi de’ Cavalieri in Studi e Testi, vol. xxiv (1912), pp. 57—66; and J. P. Kirsch
in the Historisches Jahrbuch, vol. xxxviii (1917), pp. 72—97.
|
350 Nikolaus von
Myra Bischof von Myra in Lykien (heute Demre/Türkei) condemned Arianism
Alle Kirchen: 6. Dezember Orthodoxe Kirche auch 9. Mai
(Übertragung der Gebeine) Katholische Kirche auch 8. Mai (Übertragung
der Gebeine)
Nikolaus von Myra
Legende, Brauchtum und Geschichte lassen sich bei der auch heute
bekannten und beliebten Gestalt des Nikolaus kaum trennen. Der Nikolaus,
den wir heute verehren, ist aber wahrscheinlich aus zwei historischen Personen
entstanden, nämlich dem Bischof Nikolaus von Myra und dem Abt Nikolaus
von Sion, der Bischof von Pinora war und am 10.12.564 in Lykien starb. Die
nachfolgende Lebensgeschichte des Nikolaus von Myra entstand im 6. Jahrhundert.
Sie konnte bisher historisch nicht belegt werden: Nikolaus wurde demnach um
300 Bischof von Myra in Lykien (heute Demre/Türkei). Während der
bald darauf einsetzenden Verfolgungen wurde er um 310 gefangengenommen und
im Kerker gefoltert. Unter Konstantin kam er dann frei und konnte sein Bischofsamt
wieder wahrnehmen. 325 nahm er an dem Konzil in Nicäa teil. Er starb
am 6. Dezember um 350 (342/343).
St. Nicholas, called "of Bari", Bishop of Myra (Fourth Century)
6 Dec. Feast day. The great veneration with which this saint has been honored
for many ages and the number of altars and churches which have been everywhere
dedicated in his memory are testimonials to his holiness and of the glory
which he enjoys with God. He is said to have been born at Patara in Lycia,
a province of Asia Minor. Myra, the capital, not far from the sea, was an
episcopal see, and this church falling vacant, the holy Nicholas was chosen
bishop, and in that station became famous by his extraordinary piety and zeal
and many astonishing miracles. The Greek histories of his life agree that
he suffered imprisonment of the faith and made a glorious confession in the
latter part of the persecution raised by Dioletian, and that he was present
at the Council of Nicaea and there condemned Arianism. The silence of other
authors makes many justly suspect these circumstances. He died at Myra, and
was buried in his cathedral.
Der Kult um Nikolaus entwickelte sich etwa 200 Jahre später
in Griechenland und kam dann zunächst in die slawischen Länder
(Nikolaus ist der Nationalheilige Rußlands). Nachdem Nikolaus im 9.
Jahrhundert bereits der am meisten verehrte Heilige der Ostkirche nach der
Gottesmutter war, wurden am 8. Mai 1087 seine Gebeine von Myra nach Bari
übertragen (ob sie in Myra von Seeleuten geraubt wurden oder von Kaufleuten
vor anrückenden Muslimen in Sicherheit gebracht wurden, ist unklar).
Sein Fest wurde nun auch in der Westkirche begangen.
Eine Legende von Nikolaus berichtet,
er habe drei Töchter einer armen Familie vor dem Bordell bewahrt, indem
er durch das Fenster ihres Hauses drei Beutel mit Gold warf. Diese Legende
dürfte ein Ursprung unseres Brauchtums am Nikolaustag sein. Eine andere
ostkirchliche Legende berichtet von drei Hauptleuten, die der Kaiser aufgrund
falscher Anklagen verurteilt und in einen Turm gesperrt hatte. Die drei riefen
Nikolaus um Hilfe an und wurden wunderbar befreit. Anscheinend wurde der Turm
auf ostkirchlichen Ikonen im Westen als Pökelfaß interpretiert
und so entstand vielleicht die Legende von den fahrenden Scholaren, die von
einem Metzger eingepökelt und von Nikolaus wieder zum Leben erweckt wurden.
In einigen Gegenden wird Nikolaus auch als einer der 14 Nothelfer verehrt.
The greatest popularity of St. Nicholas is found neither in
the eastern Mediterranean nor north-western Europe, great as that was, but
in Russia. With St. Andred the Apostle he is patron of the nation, and the
Russian Orthodox Church even observes the feast of his translation; so many
Russian pilgrims came to Bari before the revolution that their government
supported a church, hospital and hospice there. He is a patron saint also
of Greece, Apulia, Sicily and Loraine, and of many cities and dioceses (including
Galway) and churches innumerable. At Rome the basilica of St. Nicholas in
the Jail of Tully (in Carcere) was founded between the end of the sixth and
the beginning of the seventh centuries. He is named in the preparation of
the Byzantine Mass.
|
375 St Emilia
mother of St Basil the Great Gregory of Nyssa, Peter of Sebaste, Macrina
and Theosevia founded a monastery in her old age
She was the mother of St Basil the Great. In her youth, she desired to
remain a life-long virgin, but was forced to marry. She bore nine children,
and so endowed each of them with a Christian spirit that five of them became
Christian saints: Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Peter of Sebaste, Macrina
and Theosevia.
She founded a monastery in her old age, where she lived with her daughter
Macrina, and where she entered into rest in the Lord on May 8th, 375. SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net |
387 St. Helladius
of Auxerre Bishop of Auxerre, France, for three decades. He converted his
successor, St. Amator, to the religious life
Antisiodóri
sancti Helládii Epíscopi. At Auxerre, St.
Helladius, bishop.
Helladius of Auxerre
B (RM) Helladius was bishop of Auxerre, France, for 30 years. He converted
his own successor, Saint Amator, to a devout life (Benedictines).
|
450 Saint Arsenius
the Great; deacon, Sketis monastery in the midst of the desert standing at
prayer, surrounded by a flame
Arsenius der Große Orthodoxe
Kirche: 8. Mai Katholische Kirche: 19. Juni
Born in the year 354 at Rome
into a pious Christian family, which provided him a fine education and upbringing.
He studied rhetoric and philosophy, and mastered the Latin and Greek languages.
St Arsenius gave up philosophy and the vanity of worldly life, seeking instead
the true wisdom praised by St James "pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to
be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits" (Jas. 3:17). He entered the
ranks of the clergy as a deacon in one of the Roman churches, dedicating himself
to the service of God.
The emperor Theodosius (379-395), who ruled the eastern half
of the Roman Empire, heard about his erudition and piety, and he wished to
entrust Arsenius with the education of his sons Arcadius and Honorius. Arsenius,
however, protested that he had given up secular studies in order to serve
God. Against his will, but in obedience to the will of Pope Damasus (December
11), St Arsenius agreed to teach the imperial children, hoping to teach them
Christian piety as well. When he arrived at Constantinople, Arsenius
was received with great honor by the emperor Theodosius, who charged him to
educate his sons not only in wisdom, but also in piety, guarding them from
the temptations of youth.
"Forget that they are the emperor's sons," said Theodosius,
"for I want them to submit to you in all things, as to their father and teacher."
With fervor the saint devoted
himself to the education of the youths, but the high esteem in which he was
held troubled his spirit, which yearned for the quietude of monastic life.
St Arsenius entreated the Lord to show him the way to salvation. The Lord
heard his prayer and one time he heard a voice telling him,
"Arsenius,
flee from men, and you shall be saved."
And then, removing his rich clothing
and replacing it with old and tattered garments, he secretly left the palace,
boarded a ship for Alexandria, and he made his way to Sketis, a monastery
in the midst of the desert. Arriving at the church, he asked the priests
to accept him into the monastic brotherhood, calling himself a wretched wanderer,
though his very manner betrayed him as a cultivated man. The brethren led
him to Abba John the Dwarf
St Arsenius zealously passed through his obediences and soon
he surpassed many of the desert Fathers in asceticism. The saint again heard
the Voice while he was praying, (November 9), famed for his holiness of life.
He, wishing to test the newcomer's humility, did not seat Arsenius with the
monks for the trapeza meal. He threw him a piece of dry bread saying, "Eat
if you wish." St Arsenius got down on his hands and knees, and picked up the
bread with his mouth. Then he crawled off into a corner and ate it. Seeing
this, Elder John said, "He will be a great ascetic!" Then accepting Arsenius
with love, he tonsured him into monasticism.
"Arsenius,
hide from people and dwell in silence, this is the root of virtue."
From that moment St Arsenius
settled in a solitary cell deep in the desert.
Having taken on the struggle of silence he seldom left his seclusion.
He came to church only on Sundays and Feast days, observing complete silence
and conversing with no one. When Abba Moses asked him why he hid himself from
people, St Arsenius replied, "God knows that I love you, but I cannot remain
with God and with men at the same time. The Heavenly Powers all have one
will and praise God together. On earth, however, there are many human wills,
and each man has his own thoughts. I cannot leave God in order to live with
people."
Though absorbed in constant prayer, the saint did not refuse
visiting monks his counsel and guidance, giving short, but perceptive answers
to their questions. Once, a monk from Sketis saw the great Elder through
a window standing at prayer, surrounded by a flame.
The handicraft of St Arsenius was to weave baskets, for which
he used the fronds of date palms soaked in water. For a whole year St Arsenius
did not change the water in the container, but merely added a little water
to it from time to time. This caused his cell to be permeated with a foul
stench. When asked why he did this, the saint replied that it was fitting
for him to humble himself in this way, because in the world he had used incense
and fragrant oils. He prayed that after death he would not experience the
stench of hell.
The fame of the great ascetic spread far, and many wanted to
see him, and they disturbed his tranquility. As a result, the saint was forced
to move around from place to place. But those thirsting to receive his guidance
and blessing still found him. St Arsenius taught that many take upon
themselves great deeds of repentance, fasting, and vigil, but it is rare for
someone to guard his soul from pride, greed, jealousy, hatred of one's brother,
remembrance of wrongs, and judgment. In this they resemble graves which are
decorated outwardly, but filled with stinking bones.
A certain monk once asked St Arsenius what he should do when
he read the Holy Scriptures and did not comprehend their meaning. The Elder
answered, "My child, you must study and learn the Holy Scriptures constantly,
even if you do not understand their power... For when we have the words of
the Holy Scriptures on our lips, the demons hear them and are terrified.
Then they flee from us, unable to bear the words of the Holy Spirit Who speaks
through His apostles and prophets."
The monks heard how the saint often urged himself on in his
efforts with the words, "Rouse yourself, Arsenius, work! Do not remain idle!
You have not come here to rest, but to labor." He also said, "I have often
regretted the words I have spoken, but I have never regretted my silence."
The great ascetic and keeper of silence was given the gift of
tears with which his eyes were constantly filled. He spent fifty-five years
at monastic labors and struggles. He spent forty years at Sketis, and ten
years on the mountain of Troe near Memphis. Then he spent three years at Canopus,
and two more years at Troe, where he fell asleep in the Lord. Our holy,
God-bearing Father Arsenius reposed when he was nearly one hundred years
old, in the year 449 or 450. His only disciples seem to have been Alexander,
Zoilos, and Daniel (June 7).
Arsenius der Große Orthodoxe
Kirche: 8. Mai Katholische Kirche: 19. Juni
Arsenius der GrosseArsenius
wurde 354 in Rom geboren. Er erwarb sich ein umfangreiches Wissen, wollte
aber lieber Gott dienen und wurde Diakon an einer römischen Stadtkirche.
Kaiser Theodosius (379-395) hörte von der Gelehrsamkeit des Arsenius
und bat ihn, die Erziehung seiner Söhne Arcadius und Honorius zu übernehmen.
Arsenius lehnte diese Aufgabe ab, wurde aber von Papst Dymas 383 nach Konstantinopel
entsandt. Arsenius flehte ständig zu Gott, ihm zu zeigen, wie er sein
Heil finden könne. Eines Tages hörte er eine Stimme, die ihm sagte:
"Arsenius, flieh die Menschen und du wirst gerettet". Daraufhin verließ
er heimlich Konstantinopel und ging in ein ägyptisches Skete-Kloster.
Hier hörte er nach einiger Zeit wiederum eine Stimme, die ihm sagte:
"Arsenius, flieh die Menschen und bleibe in der Stille". Arsenius ging daraufhin
aus dem Kloster und lebte in einer Einsiedelei. Einem Mönch, der ihn
fragte, warum er sich von den Menschen fernhielte, erwiderte Arsenius "Ich
liebe alle, aber ich kann nicht gleichzeitig mit Gott und Menschen zusammen
sein. Ich kann aber Gott nicht im Stich lassen, um mit den Menschen zu leben".
Arsenius gab den Mönchen, die zu ihm kamen, kurze aber treffende Antworten
auf ihre Fragen. Als ihn immer mehr Menschen aufsuchten, zog er in eine andere
Einsiedelei. Mehrmals ging Arsenius in eine neue Einsiedelei, weil ihm zu
viele Menschen seinen Rat und seinen Segen suchten. Arsenius gehört zu
den großen "Wüstenvätern" Er starb in hohem Alter 449 oder
450.
Our Holy Father
Arsenius the Great SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
This famous
saint was born of a patrician family in Rome, and was well-educated both in
secular learning and philosophy and in spiritual wisdom. Abandoning all secular
studies, he gave himself to the service of the Church and was deacon in a
large church in Rome. Unmarried, retiring, silent and prayerful, Arsenius
thought that he would spend his whole life in that way. But, by the providence
of God, his life was directed in a different way. The Emperor Theodosius summoned
him to bring up and educate his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, and made
him a senator, surrounding him with wealth, honour and luxury. But this was
a greater burden than pleasure to the heart of Arsenius. It happened at one
time that Arcadius was at fault, and Arsenius punished him for it. The insulted
Arcadius thought up a harsh revenge on his teacher, and, when Arsenius discovered
this, he dressed himself in simple clothing, went to the coast, got into
a boat and sailed off to Egypt. When he arrived at the famous Scetis, he
became a disciple of John the Dwarf and gave himself to asceticism. He considered
himself as one dead, and, when he was informed that a rich kinsman had died
and left him all his goods, he replied: `I died before he did. How, then,
can I be his heirT He retired to a cell in the desert as into a grave, and
there he spent his days weaving baskets from palm-leaves and his nights in
prayer. He fled from men and from every conversation with men. Only on feast-days
did he leave his cell and come to the church for Communion. In order not
to become idle, he often put this question to himself: `Arsenius, why did
you come into the desert?' He spent thirty-five years as a hermit, and all
that time he was an example to the monks and the glory of monasticism. In
all, he lived a hundred years and departed this life peacefully in 448, after
long labours and trials voluntarily taken on himself. He went to the Kingdom
of Christ the Lord, whom he had loved with all his heart and soul.
|
492- 496 Archangel
Saint Michael appeared on Mount Gargano in Apulia, South Italy, in the days
of Pope Gelasius
sancti Michaélis
Archángeli In monte Gargáno
Apparítio , quem Pius Papa Duodécimus Radiólogis et Radiumtherapéuticis
Patrónum et Protectórum constítuit.
On Mount Gargano {San Giovanni Rotondo
is there}, the apparition of St. Michael
Archangel, whom Pope Pius XII named the patron and protector of radiologists
and radiotherapists.
492? THE APPEARING OF ST MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL
WHEN people had become familiar with the idea that Michael the Archangel
was not only the captain of the heavenly host and the great protector, but
also the arbiter of man’s destinies on the threshold of the world to come
(cf. his feast on September 29), some public and
external manifestation of the appeals made to this beneficent influence in
private could not long be delayed. Any nucleus provided by an alleged miraculous
happening would awaken ready response and would suffice to crystallize into
one determined form the latent devotion of the crowd.
There are indications of an
early cult of St Michael, connecting him with the wonders wrought by the hot
springs of Phrygia, notably at Hierapolis, and it seems certain that already
in the fourth century a church was dedicated under his name near Constantinople,
possibly in the lifetime of the first Christian emperor, Constantine. This
impulse came from the East, though there is evidence that a basilica in honour
of St Michael was constructed near Rome at the sixth milestone along the
Via Salaria at an early date. Several Masses, apparently connected
with this shrine, or possibly with others bearing the same dedication within
the city, are provided in the earliest Roman Mass-book, the so-called Leonianum,
and are assigned to the end of September.
Whether the
dedication on Mount Garganus, in Apulia, where Greek influences were dominant,
is older than this cannot be easily determined. According to the written legend,
still summarized in the Breviary, it occurred in the time of Pope Gelasius
(492-496). A bull which had strayed from the herd of a certain rich land-owner
found its way into a cave near the summit of the eminence called Mount Garganus.
In the search which was made for it portents occurred by which the archangel
manifested his desire that this spot should be consecrated in his honour.
Numberless miracles were believed to have been wrought in the cave or crypt,
where a spring trickled which was accredited with healing virtue. That the
fame of this shrine soon spread all over the West is manifested by the fact
that Mount Garganus is mentioned in one of the oldest manuscripts of the
Hieronymianum in connection with the feast of St Michael
on September 29. Even in England the Anglo-Saxon collection of sermons
called the Blickling Homilies, written before the end of the tenth century,
supplied an account of Mount Garganus and its crypt chapel, from which, to
quote a modern
English version, we may learn that: “There was also from the same stone
of the church roof, at the north side of the altar, a very pleasant and clear
stream issuing, used by those who still dwell in that place. Beside this piece
of water was a glass vessel hung on a silver chain, which received this joy-giving
tide, and it was the custom of this people when they had been houselled (i.e. had received holy communion) that they by steps should
ascend to the glass vessel and there take and taste the heavenly fluid.”
This is an interesting piece of evidence for the fact that long before communion
under both kinds was abolished for the laity, it was customary to take a
draught of water after receiving the Precious Blood, or more probably, under
Greek influences, after receiving the dipped Host, which is still the usual
manner of administering the sacrament of the Eucharist in the East.
In
a Motu Proprio of John XXIII dated July 25, 1960, this feast was dropped
from the Roman Calendar.The full text
of the legend is printed in Ughelli, vol. vii, cc. 1107—1111, and in the
Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. viii; on which cf Ebert, Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters,
vol. ii, p. 358. See also K. A. Kellner, Heortology
(1908), pp. 328—332, and H. Leclercq in DAC., vol. xi, cc. 903—907.
There has been confusion between this feast and that of St Michael on September
29, and Pope Benedict XIV proposed to suppress to-day’s observance, which
has in fact now been done in the Benedictine calendar. There can be little
doubt that the story of the foundation of Saint-Michel au Peril de Mer, the
famous Mont-Saint-Michel near Avranches, which is traditionally dated
709, was based on the legend of Monte Gargano. At what date St Michael’s Mount
at Marazion in Cornwall received its name is not certainly known; but it
may have been before Robert of Mortain presented the Mount to the monks of
St Michael in Periculo Maris (Mont-Saint-Michel) c. 1086, if that charter be genuine: see T. Taylor, The Celtic Christianity of Cornwall (1916), pp. 141-168. See
also Taylor’s St Michael’s Mount (1932); and J. R. Fletcher,
Short History of St Michael’s Mount (1951).
Several
apparitions of the Archangel Michael have been reported during the Christian
centuries. One of the most outstanding of all such apparitions is the one
which is commemorated in the universal Church on May 8. The Archangel Saint
Michael appeared on Mount Gargano in Apulia, South Italy, in the days of Pope
Gelasius (492- 496).
A shrine was erected in the cave of the apparition and it became the goal
of devout pilgrimages in subsequent centuries.
The Apparition of St. Michael the Archangel (RM)
Today's feast commemorates the appearance of the archangel Michael (meaning
"Who is like God?) on Mount Gargano near Manfredonia in southern Italy in
the 6th century. In this apparition to the bishop of Siponto, the archangel
requested that a church be built in his honor at the site. When the emperor
Otho III reneged on his word not to kill the rebellious Roman senator Creseentius,
he was overcome with remorse. Saint Romuald assigned him the penance of a
barefoot pilgrimage to Saint Michael's on Mount Gargano (Benedictines, Husenbeth).
The grotto of St. Michael on Mount
Gargano in Italy.
|
5v St. Odrian
One of the first bishops of Waterford, Ireland. Waterford was part of an ancient deanery system
at the time, ruled by abbot bishops. Odrian was a prelate.
Odrian of Waterford B (AC). Odrian is one of the early bishops of
Waterford, Ireland (Benedictines, Husenbeth). |
515 Saint Abran
Hermit many miracles reported at his tomb, especially the healing of
blindness his brothers and sisters were all declared saints
also called Gibrian.
555 ST GIBRIAN
TOWARDS the end of the fifth century—so we are
told—there arrived in Brittany from Ireland a family consisting of seven brothers
and three sisters, all of whom had abandoned their native land that they
might serve God more freely in a strange country. The men were St Gibrian,
St Helan, St Tressan, St German, St Veran, St Abran and St Petran, and the
women’s names were Francla, Pomptia and Posemna. St Gibrian, who was the eldest
and a priest, was their leader. They eventually settled as solitaries in
the forest land near the Marne, living alone, but not so far apart that they
could not visit each other from time to time. Gibrian’s hermitage was at
the junction of the Coole and the Marne. He died in his retreat after a life
of prayer and austerity, and a chapel was erected over his tomb. To preserve
his relics from the ravages of the Normans they were afterwards removed to
the abbey of St Remigius at Rheims, where they remained until the French
Revolution, when they were scattered and lost.
The Bollandists
deal with this alleged family of saints in the Acta Sanctorum,
May, vol. ii, printing what purports to be their story from a medieval
manuscript at Rheims. A collection of reputed miracles at the shrine after
the translation to Rheims is to be found in an appendix to the seventh volume
for May. Dom Gougaud, in his Gaelic Pioneers of Christianity,
p. 4, seems to be right in treating the account as legendary, but
these saints are still liturgically commemorated in some French dioceses,
notably at Rheims itself. See also O’Hanlon, LIS., vol. v, p. 129.
From Ireland, Abran, the eldest of five brothers and three sisters,
sailed to Brittany with his siblings. There all of them continued their hermitages
and greatly influenced the people of the area. Abran and his brothers and
sisters were all declared saints.
Gibrian (AC) The Irish hermit Saint Gibrian was the eldest of nine (or
eight) siblings, all of whom migrated to Brittany where they became saints.
They include his brothers Tressan (Trasain, a priest), Helan(us) (priest),
Germanus, Abran (seems to be Gibrian himself), Petran, and sisters Franca,
Promptia, Possenna. Gibrian labored near Rheims and was buried at a place
now called after him Saint Gibrian. His cultus spread because of the many
miracles reported at his tomb, especially the healing of blindness. His relics
were translated to the basilica of Saint Remigius in Rheims (Benedictines,
Montague).
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6th v. St. Desideratus is also known as Desire and brother
of Desiderius and Deodatus miracles condemned Nestorianism and Eutychianism
550 ST DESIDERATUS, BISHOP
OF BOURGES
ST DESIDERATUS (Désiré) was one of a holy trio, his two brothers,
Desiderius and Deodatus, being locally venerated as saints, although there
is no mention of any one of the three in the Roman Martyrology. They were
the sons, we are told, of a worthy couple of Soissons, who not only devoted
their time and possessions to relieving the poor, but practically turned their
house into a hospital. Desideratus attached himself to the court of King
Clotaire, to whom he became a sort of secretary of state, and over whom
he exercised a most salutary influence. In the midst of the splendours by
which he was surrounded he lived a mortified life, and he used the great powers
with which he was entrusted to stamp out heresy and to punish simony. On
various occasions he expressed a desire to retire into a monastery, but the
proposal was always vetoed by the king, who declared that he ought rather
to consult the public weal than to indulge his own private inclinations. Upon
the death of St Arcadius in 541, Desideratus was chosen bishop of Bourges,
and during the nine years of his episcopate he acquired a great reputation
as a peacemaker and wonder-worker. The holy bishop took part in various synods—notably
the fifth Council of Orleans and the second of Auvergne, both of which dealt
with the errors of Nestorius and Eutyches, besides providing for the restoration
of ecclesiastical discipline. In his old age St Desideratus obtained as vicar
a young priest named Flavian, whose untimely death hastened his own end. He
died on May 8, probably in the year 550.
The narrative
printed in the Acta Sanctorum,, May, vol. ii, is of late
date and unreliable; but there can be no question of the historical existence
and pious activity of St Desideratus. See Duchesne, Faustus Épiscopaux,
vol. ii, p. 28.
He became a courtier at the court of king Clotaire,
was active in combating heresy and simony, and in 541, was made bishop of
Bourgues. He attended several councils that
condemned Nestorianism and Eutychianism, was reputed to have performed miracles
and was known for his peace making abilities
Desideratus of Bourges B (AC) Desideratus succeeded Saint Arcadius as bishop
of Bourges (Benedictines).
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6th v. ST
CYBI, on CUBY, ABBOT
see also Nov 08
OF the numerous Celtic saints
whose feasts occur this month Cybi was probably one of the most important,
but information about him is dependent chiefly on a very unreliable Latin
vita of the thirteenth century and whatever can be gleaned
from the evidence of place-names and local traditions. He was born in Cornwall,
we are told, the son of Selyf (“St Levan”), and two old churches in his native county are dedicated in
his honour, at Duloe, near Liskeard, and at Cuby, in Tregony. The life says
he learned to read at seven, and twenty years later, after the common imaginary
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, became a disciple of St Hilary, by whom he was made
bishop at Poitiers. This is chronologically impossible. Cybi is supposed to
have left Cornwall because he would not consent to be king there, and gone
into what is now Monmouthshire; there is a place there called Llangibby, on
the Usk. Then, by way of St David’s Menevia, he visited Ireland and spent
four years on Aranmore with St Enda. He had to leave there because of a dispute
with another monk, called Fintan the Priest, about a straying co~, and he
went to the south of Meath where he founded a church. But Fintan followed him and turned him out and drove him eastward across Ireland
and over the sea. The crossing was made in a coracle which had the usual framework,
but no hides to cover it.
There
is no necessity to suppose that St Cybi was ever in Ireland, for probably
the writer of his life knew the traditions about St Enda, and by a confusion
of names took Cybi to Aran and associated him with various incidents in the
life of Enda. But when St Cybi lands in Anglesey we are on more solid ground,
for this island was the chief centre of his cultus. Here
he founded a monastery, and around that monastery rose the town called in
English Holyhead but in Welsh Caer Gybi (“Cybi’s Fort”), as the smaller island
on which it stands, Holy Island, is called Ynys Gybi. From it Cybi evangelized
the neighbourhood, where his name appears in places and local legends, as
elsewhere in Wales; and there he died and was buried, and his shrine was
a place of pilgrimage. Throughout the middle ages his monastic community
was represented by a college of secular canons, and on a gable of the fifteenth-century
church of Holyhead may still be read the invocation, Sancte
Kebie, ora pro nobis.
It
is probable that St Cybi, like so many other Celtic saints, journeyed by
water whenever he could; all the chief places bearing his name are on or near
the sea. An old Welsh proverb is attributed to him, in conversation with
“the son of Gwrgi”—“There is no misfortune like wickedness.” November 8 for
his feast is taken from the Latin life; Welsh calendars and other sources
give several other dates.
The Latin life
spoken of above has been printed in the Acta Sanctorum,
November, vol. iii, and the tangled story which it tells
has been discussed very completely by Canon Doble in his booklet St Cuby (1929), nn. 22, in his Cornish Saints Series.
See also A. W. Wade-Evans, The Life of St David (1923), pp.
98—500; and LBS., vol. ii, pp. 202—215. In his Vitae Sanctorum
Brittaniae (1944) Wade-Evans gives the text and translation of the two
versions of the Vita Kebii. Cf. E. G. Bowen, Settlements
of the Celtic Saints in Wales (1954), pp. 118-120.
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6th v. Antony du Rocher;
disciple of Saint Benedict and a companion of Saint Maurus during his mission
to France, OSB Abbot (AC)
Saint Antony was said to have been a disciple of Saint Benedict and a companion
of Saint Maurus during his mission to France. He was the founder and abbot
of Saint-Julian at Tours. His surname comes from his ending his days as a
recluse on a spot called le Rocher. Only Francophiles still accept the story
of Saint Maurus's French mission as factual (Benedictines).
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615
Boniface IV, Pope student under Gregory the Great converted Roman temple
of gods {Pantheon} into a Christian church dedicated to Our Lady and all saints
corresponded with Saint Columba (RM)
Romæ sancti Bonifátii Papæ Quarti, qui Pántheon
in honórem beátæ Maríæ ad Mártyres
dedicávit.
At Rome, Pope St. Boniface IV, who dedicated the Pantheon
to the honour of our Lady and the martyrs.
615 ST BONIFACE IV, POPE
NOT very much is known to us about the saintly pope who ruled the Church
for six years under the title of Boniface IV. He was the son of a physician
and a native of the “city” of Valeria in the Abruzzi. He is supposed to have
been a pupil of St Gregory the Great in Rome, and the Benedictines accordingly
claim him as a member of their order.
His reign was signalized by the conversion of the Pantheon—the
temple erected by Marcus Agrippa in honour of all the Roman deities—into a
Christian church, dedicated in honour of our Lady and All Martyrs. The building
was bestowed by the Emperor Phocas upon the Roman pontiff, who consecrated
it on May 13, 609, as recorded in the Roman Martyrology (the church is now
often called Santa Maria Rotonda from its shape). At a synod of Italian bishops,
summoned primarily for the restoration of discipline, St Boniface conferred
with St Mellitus, bishop of London, then on a visit to Rome, about
the affairs of the English church. Boniface IV was the recipient of a famous
and much-discussed letter from St Columban, which combines remarkable
expressions of devotion and loyalty to the Holy See with unwarrantable insinuations
of laxity in the matter of doctrine. This holy pope was buried in the portico
of St Peter’s, but his remains were afterwards transferred to the interior
of the basilica.
In the Acta Sanctorum Boniface is noticed on May 25 (May, vol. vi),
but a more up-to-date account of his pontificate will be found in Mann, The Lives of the Popes, vol. i, pp. 268--279.
Sec also. Duchesne, Liber Pontificalis, vol. i, pp. 317—318;
and Laux, Der hl. Kolumban (1919), or in an earlier English
form, The Life and Writings of St Columban (1914).
Born at Valeria, Abruzzi, Italy; Son of a doctor named John,
Boniface may have been a student under Gregory the Great. Boniface was possibly
a Benedictine monk of Saint Sebastian in Rome and became a dispensator when
he entered papal service. He was elected pope in 608, was responsible for
converting the Roman temple of the gods, the Pantheon in Rome, into a Christian
church dedicated to Our Lady and all the saints. Boniface corresponded with
Saint Columba (or Saint Columbanus?), who chided him for some of his theological
stances while expressing devotion and loyalty to him (Benedictines,
Delaney).
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618 ST
DEUSDEDIT, POPE see also Nov 08
Item Romæ sancti Deúsdedit Papæ Primi, qui tanti mériti
fuit, ut leprósum ósculo a lepra sanáverit.
Also at Rome, St. Deusdedit, pope, whose merit was so
great that he cured a leper by kissing him.
VERY little
is known of the life and three-year pontificate of Pope Deusdedit (Adeodatus
I), who was a Roman by birth and son of a subdeacon named Stephen. The times
were troubled by civil disorder, war, and by an epidemic of skin disease following
an earthquake; St Deusdedit was foremost in caring for the suffering (the
Roman Martyrology mentions the tradition of his having healed a “leper” by
a kiss), and encouraged his impoverished clergy to do the same. He is said
to have been the first pope to have used the leaden seals called bullae, from which papal “bulls” get their name: one such seal
dating from his time still exists. Pope St Deusdedit is called a Benedictine
in ancient Benedictine calendars, but there is no certain evidence for the
statement.
See Duchesne,
Liber Pontificalis, vol. i, pp. 319—320;
H. K. Mann, Lives of the Popes, vol. i, pp. 280—293.
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652
Blessed Ida of Nivelles built a double monastery at Nivelles OSB Widow (AC)
(also known as Itta, Iduberga) After the death of Blessed Pepin of Landen,
his wife Ida built a double monastery at Nivelles. She and her younger daughter,
Saint Gertrude entered the monastery, which was placed under the Benedictine
Rule and governed by Gertrude (Benedictines). Several art historians give
a stag with flaming horns as the emblem of Saint Ida of Nivelles, but it seems
likely that this is a confusion with Ida of Toggenburg, whose proper attribute
it is (Roeder). She is invoked against toothache and erysipelas (Roeder).
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685 Benedict II,
Pope Scripture scholar and an expert in sacred chants amended the process
to speed approval of papal elections by having the exarch of Ravenna confirm
Papal elections patron saint of Europe brought back to orthodoxy Macarius,
the ex-patriarch of Antioch, from his Monothelitism, restored several Roman
churches upheld the cause of Saint Wilfred of York (RM)
Item Romæ sancti Benedícti Secúndi,
Papæ et Confessóris. Also at Rome, St. Benedict
II, pope and confessor.
685 ST BENEDICT
II, POPE
POPE St Benedict II was brought up from infancy in the service of the Church
and became at an early age proficient in the Holy Scriptures, as also in ecclesiastical
chant, for which he was an enthusiast. A Roman by birth, he took part in
the government of the Church under Popes St Agatho and St Leo II.
After the death of the latter in 683, he was elected to the chair of St Peter,
his virtues, his liberality and his intellectual abilities marking him out
as specially suited to fill that sacred office.
In accordance with ancient custom, the popes were at that time
still chosen by the clergy and people of Rome, the consent of the Christian
emperor being also required. The embassies between Rome and Constantinople
necessary before this sanction could be obtained frequently entailed not only
inconvenience, but also delay, and nearly a year elapsed between the death
of Pope Leo and the consecration of Benedict II. One of the successful efforts
of the new pontiff was to induce the Emperor Constantine IV to issue a decree
enacting that, for the future, the suffrages of the clergy and people of
Rome should suffice for the election of the pope, the necessity for imperial
confirmation being abolished or else its delegation to the exarch in Italy
being allowed. But there were further examples of imperial ratification.
So great was the emperor’s regard for St Benedict that he sent him locks
of the hair of his two sons, Justinian and Heraclius—thus signifying to him,
according to the symbolism of the time, that they were the Holy Father’s spiritual
sons. St Benedict strove to win back to the true faith Macarius, Patriarch
of Antioch, who had been deposed for heresy, and in his short pontificate
(eleven months) he found time to restore several of the Roman churches. He
was also interested in the English church, upholding the cause of St Wilfrid
of York. St Benedict II died on May 8, 685, and was buried in St Peter’s.
The Acta Sanctorum treat Pope St Benedict II under May 7 (vol. ii).
The Liber Pontificalis (Duchesne, vol. i, pp. 363—365)
is our principal authority; but see also Muratori, Annales, ad.
ann. 684, and Hefele-Leclercq, Histoire des Conciles, vol.
iii, pp. 549 seq. Mgr Mann in his Lives of the Popes, vol. i, part a, pp. 54—63,
has gathered all the available information.
Born in Rome, Italy; died March 8, 685. Not much
is known of Saint Benedict's youth except that he was active in Church affairs.
He became a Scripture scholar and an expert in sacred chants. Elected to succeed
Leo II in 683, his consecration was delayed almost a year until June 26,
684, awaiting the emperor's confirmation. During his term, he amended the
process to speed approval of papal elections by having the exarch of Ravenna
confirm the election, rather than the emperor, thus eliminating long delays.
Benedict was greatly respected by Emperor Constantine the Bearded, who
sent him locks of his sons' hair, making them the pope's spiritual sons.
Benedict brought back to orthodoxy Macarius, the ex-patriarch of Antioch,
from his Monothelitism, and restored several Roman churches. He upheld the
cause of Saint Wilfred of York, who sought the return of his see from which
he had been deposed by Saint Theodore. Benedict ruled for only 11 months.
He is the patron saint of Europe (Benedictines, Delaney, White).
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7th v. St. Wiro A
holy Irish bishop, who traveled to Rome with St. Plechelm, and the deacon
Otger preached the faith of Christ to the pagans in the Low Countries
He afterwards preached the
faith of Christ to the pagans in the Low Countries.
Prince Pepin of Herstal was
a great admirer of his sanctity, and bestowed on him a lonely wood, called
the Mount of St. Peter, now of St. Odilia, near the river Roer, one league
from Ruremund; and repaired to him often barefoot to confess his sins. Broken
by austerities and old age, he departed to our Lord in the seventh century.
See
Mirebus, and his ancient life in the Bollandists, with a hymn, and several
other memoirs t. 2, Maij. p. 309.
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7th v. ST TYSILIO, OR SULIAU, ABBOT
ACCORDING to the Breton
account and the few surviving Welsh references, Tysilio was son of Brochwel
Ysgythrog, prince of Powys in North Wales. When a young man he ran away to
be a monk under the abbot Gwyddfarch at Meifod in Montgomeryshire. His father
sent to fetch him back, but Tysilio refused to go and fled for greater security
to an islet in the Menai Straits, Ynys Suliau. At the end of seven years
he came back to Meifod, where he found Gwyddfarch in spite of his great age
contemplating a pilgrimage to Rome. “I know what that means”, was Tysilio’s
comment. “You want to see the churches and palaces there. Dream about them,
instead of going all that way.” He took the old man a long walk over the
mountains and tired him out, and Tysilio did not fail to point out that Rome
was a much longer journey than they had been. Then they sat down and Gwyddfarch
went to sleep, and dreamed he saw all the glory of Rome, and he was satisfied.
When he died, Tysilio became abbot in his place.
When
his elder brother, the prince of Powys, died, his widow Haiarnwedd wished
to marry Tysilio and make him prince. To this he would not agree, for he had
no taste for war and secular pursuits or for marriage, least of all within
the prohibited degrees. His sister-in-law took this refusal as a personal
insult, drove him from Meifod, and he took refuge at Builth in Breconshire.
As her anger still pursued him, he left Wales altogether and sailed for Armorica
with some of his monks. They landed at the mouth of the Rance, established
contact with St Malo, and settled at the placc still called Saint-Suliac.
When Haiarnwedd died, a deputation came to fetch Tysilio back to Meifod;
he did not go, but sent a book of the gospels and his staff as an indication
of goodwill and blessing. He died and was buried in Brittany. As well as Ynys
Suliau, Tysilio’s name is associated with other places in Wales; it is an
element of the Anglesey (faked) place-name which has the distinction of having
twenty-four syllables in it. A twelfth-century bard, Cynddelw, wrote of Tysilio,
“the royal saint of Powys”:
A lord magnificent
A prince with princes holding intercourse.
Whoso loves cruelty he sorely hates,
Whilst all whose ends are loveable he loves;
To chastisement he charity prefers.
See LBS., vol. iv, pp. 296—305; the Myvyrian Archaiology
of Wales, vol. iii (1807) A.. W. Wade-Evans, Welsh Christian
Origins (1934), pp. 200-201; and especially G. H. Doble, St Sulian and St Tysilio (1936); they seem
to have been two (or three) different people, one
Breton and one Welsh. See E. G. Bowen, Settlements of the Celtic
Saints in Wales (1954).
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Saint Pimen, Faster of
the Caves, won fame by his exploit of fasting. The relics
of the saint rest in the Far Caves. He is also commemorated on August 28.
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753 St. Wiro Bishop
and missionary with Sts. Plechelm and Otger (sharing the same feast day) Boniface
named Wiro bishop of Utrecht, Netherlands
Apud Ruræmóndam,
in Géldria, sancti Wirónis, Epíscopi Scoti.
At Ruremonde in Holland, St. Wiro, bishop of Scotland.
8th v. SS. WIRO AND PLECHELM, BISHOPS, AND ST OTGER
With respect to the birthplace of St Wiro we can only say that it was somewhere
in the British Isles, for whereas Alcuin asserts that he was a Northumbrian,
certain other writers declare that he was a Scotsman and others that he was
a native of County Clare in Ireland. We read that from his earliest youth
he modelled himself upon St Patrick, St Cuthbert and St Columban. After his
ordination he went with another priest, St Plechelm (probably also a Northumbrian)
and a deacon, St Otger, to Rome, where he and St Plechelm are said to have
been consecrated to be regionary bishops. When they had laboured for some
time in their native land, the three friends—perhaps at the suggestions
of St Willibrord—passed over to the Netherlands, where they spent part of
their time evangelizing the lower valley of the Meuse, and the rest in retirement
and prayer. Pepin of Herstal gave them St Peter’s Hill, afterwards called
the Odilienberg, at a league’s distance from Roermond, and there they built
several cells and a church. Pepin is said to have held Wiro in such great
veneration that he appointed him his director and made it a rule to repair
to him barefoot every Lent, and at other times, to receive penance from him
or from St Plechelm.
A medieval
biography of St Wiro is printed in the Acta Sanctorum,
May, vol. ii, and of Plechelm in July, vol. iv, but they are late and unreliable.
See rather Van der Essen, Etude critique et littéraire
sur les vitae des saints merovingiens, pp. 105—109; J.
Snieders, “L’Influence de l’hagiographie irlandaise”, in the Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique, vol. xxiv (1928), pp.
849—850; and W. Levison, England and the Continent . . . (1946),
pp. 82—83.
Originally from Northumbria, England,
or perhaps Scotland He went with the priest Pleehelm (also from Northumbria)
and a deacon, Otger, to Rome where Wiro and Plechelm were consecrated bishops.
They labored for a time in Northumbria and then journeyed
to Germany where he gave assistance to St. Boniface in his missionary enterprise.
Boniface named Wiro bishop of Utrecht, Netherlands, circa 741 and with two
companions Wiro founded a monastery at Odilienburg, in the lower Meuse River
valley of Belgium and France, on land donated by Pepin of Heristal (r. 687-714).
Wiro, Plechelm & Otger, OSB MM (RM) (Plechelm is also known
as Pleghelm & Otger as Odger or Oteger) Born in Northumbria; died c.
739 or 753 (the later date seems more probable). While Wiro is believed to
have been a native of Northumbria, he might possibly be from Ireland or Scotland--the
record is not clear. (The Roman Martyrology styles him Wiro, bishop of Scotiae.)
His biographer tells us that he was ordained a priest and with Plechelm (a
fellow Northumbrian and priest) and Otger (a deacon) went to Rome, where Wiro
and Plechelm were consecrated regionary bishops. Others say that Wiro was
consecrated bishop of Utrecht by Saint Boniface. He joined with Boniface in
his letter of correction to King Ethelbald of Mercia in 746.
After doing missionary work in Northumbria, they went to Friesland
in the Netherlands where they evangelized the inhabitants of the lower Meuse
Valley under the direction of either Saint Swithbert or Saint Willibrord.
They built a small church and monastery at Peterkloster (later Odilienberg)
on land granted them by Pepin of Herstal. Later they were martyred by the
Frieslanders while preaching the Gospel. The relics of Wiro and Plechelm were
translated to the church they built at Roermond, but Otger's remained at
their original burial place at Odilienberg (Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer).
Saint Wiro is portrayed as hearing
the confession of the king. He is venerated in Peterkloster (Odilienberg)
(Roeder).
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789 ST WILLEHAD, BISHOP OF BREMEN: see also Nov 08:
St
Anskar, seems to be responsible for the book of miracles attached to his
life
In vico Blexen, ad
Visúrgim flúvium, in Germánia, sancti Willehádi,
qui primus éxstitit Breménsis civitátis Epíscopus;
atque, una cum sancto Bonifátio, cujus discípulus fuit, in
Frísia et Saxónia Evangélium propagávit.
In the village of Plexem, on the Weser River in Germany,
St. Willehad, first bishop of Bremen, who, together with St. Boniface, whose
disciple he was, spread the Gospel in Friesland and Saxony.
WILLEHAD was an
Englishman, a native of Northumbria, and was educated probably at York, for
he became a friend of Alcuin. After his ordination the spiritual conquests
which many of his countrymen had made for Christ, with St Willibrord in
Friesland and St Boniface in Germany, seemed a reproach to him, and he also
desired to carry the saving knowledge of the true God to some of those barbarous
nations. He landed in Friesland about the year 766 and began his mission
at Dokkum, the place near which St Boniface and his companions had received
the crown of martyrdom in 754. (The Roman Martyrology mistakenly
calls St Willehad a disciple of St Boniface.) After baptizing some,
he made his way through the country now called Overyssel, preaching as he
went. In Humsterland the missionaries were all put in peril of their
lives, for the inhabitants cast lots whether he and his companions should
be put to death; Providence determined the lots for their preservation. Having
escaped out of their hands, St Willehad thought it prudent to go back to Drenthe, in the more favourable neighbourhood
of Utrecht. Here, in spite of the labours of St Willibrord and his successors,
there was still plenty of heathens to convert, but the promising field was
spoiled by imprudent zeal. Some of Willehad’s fellow missionaries venturing
to demolish the places dedicated to idolatry, the pagans were so angered that
they resolved to massacre them. One struck at St Willehad with such force
that the sword would have severed his head but that the force of the blow,
as his biographer assures us, was entirely broken by cutting a string about
the saint’s neck by which hung a little box of relics which he always carried
with him. The whole incident bears a suspicious resemblance to that recorded
of St Willibrord on the island of Waicheren.
Having
made so little progress among the Frisians St Willehad went to the court
of Charlemagne, who in 780 sent him to evangelize the Saxons, whom he had
recently subdued. The saint thence proceeded into the country where Bremen
now stands, and was the first missionary who passed the Weser; some of his
companions got beyond the Elbe. For a short time all went well, but
in 782 the Saxons rose in revolt against the Franks. They put to death all
missionaries that fell into their hands, and St Willehad escaped by sea into
Friesland, whence he took an opportunity of going to Rome and laying before
Pope Adrian I the state of his mission. He then passed two years in the monastery
of Echternach, founded by St Willibrord, and assembled his fellow labourers
whom the war had dispersed; here, too, he made a copy of the letters of St
Paul.
Charlemagne
put down the Saxon rebellion in ruthless fashion, and Willehad was able
to return to the country between the Weser and the Elbe.*[*
Charlemagne’s dealings with the barbarous Saxons were not such
as to make solid missionary work any easier.]
When the saint had founded many churches, Charlemagne
in 787 had him ordained bishop of the Saxons, and he fixed his see at Bremen,
which city seems to have been founded about that time. St Willehad redoubled
his zeal and his solicitude in preaching. His cathedral church he built of
wood and consecrated it on November I, 789, in honour
of St Peter. A few days later he was taken ill, and it was seen that he was
very bad. One of his disciples said to him, weeping, “Do not so soon forsake
your flock exposed to the fury of wolves”. He answered, “Withhold me not
from going to God. My sheep I recommend to Him who intrusted them to me and
whose mercy is able to protect them.” And so he died, and his successor buried
his body in the new stone church at Bremen. St Willehad was the last of the
great English missionaries of the eighth century.
Our knowledge
of St Willehad is almost entirely derived from a Latin life written about
the year 856 by some ecclesiastic of Bremen. It was formerly attributed to
the authorship of St Anskar, but this view has now been abandoned, though
Anskar seems to be responsible for the book of miracles attached to the life.
The best text of both is that edited by A. Poncelet in the Acta
Sanctorum, November, vol. iii ; but they have been printed several times
before, e.g. by Mabillon, and in Pertz, MGH., Scriptores, vol. ii. See also H. Timerding, Die
Christliche Frühzeit Deutschlands, vol. ii (1929); Louis Halphen,
Etudes critiques sur l’histoire de Charlemagne (1921);
and Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, vol. ii. Cf. W. Levison, England and the Continent
. . . (1946).
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1079 St. Stanislaus noted
for his preaching; Bishop of Cracow, feast day April 11th.; killed by excommunicated King
Sancti Stanislái, Epíscopi Cracoviénsis
et Mártyris, qui sequénti die, corónam martyrii consecútus
est.
St. Stanislas,
bishop of Cracow and martyr, who received the crown of martyrdom on the the previous
day.
Cracóviæ, in Polónia,
natális sancti Stanislái, Epíscopi et Mártyris,
qui a Bolesláo, ímpio Rege, necátus est. Ipsíus
autem festum prídie hujus diéi celebrátur.
At Cracow
in Poland, the birthday of St. Stanislas, bishop and martyr, who was slain
by the wicked King Boleslas. His feast is celebrated on this day.
Stanislaus was born of noble parents on July 26th at Szczepanow
near Cracow, Poland. He was educated at Gnesen and was ordained there. He
was given a canonry by Bishop Lampert Zula of Cracow, who made him his preacher,
and soon he became noted for his preaching. He became a much sought after
spiritual adviser. He was successful in his reforming efforts, and in 1072
was named Bishop of Cracow. He incurred the enmity of King Boleslaus the Bold
when he denounced the King's cruelties and injustices and especially his
kidnapping of the beautiful wife of a nobleman. When Stanislaus excommunicated
the King and stopped services at the Cathedral when Boleslaus entered, Boleslaus
himself killed Stanislaus while the Bishop was saying Mass in a chapel outside
the city on April 11.
Stanislaus has long been the symbol of Polish nationhood. He
was canonized by Pope Innocent IV in 1253 and is the principle patron of Cracow.
His feast day is April 11th.
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1115 ST GODFREY, Bishop OF AMIENS;
see also Nov 08
Suessíone, in Gálliis, sancti Godefrídi, Ambianénsis
Epíscopi, magnæ sanctitátis viri.
At Soissons in France, St. Godfrey, bishop of Amiens,
a man of great sanctity.
AT the age of five Godfrey was entrusted
to the care of the abbot of Mont-SaintQuentin and, having in due course
decided to become a monk, he was ordained priest. He was chosen abbot of Nogent,
in Champagne, a house whose community was reduced to half a dozen monks,
whose discipline was, like their buildings, neglected and dilapidated. Under
his direction this house began again to flourish; but when in consequence
of this the archbishop of Rheims and his council pressed the saint to take
upon him the government of the great abbey of Saint-Remi, he started up in
the assembly and alleged contrary canons with vehemence, adding, “God forbid
I should ever desert a poor bride by preferring a rich one!” Nevertheless,
in 1104 he was appointed bishop of
Amiens. His residence was truly the house of a disciple of Christ, for he
never allowed himself to forget that he was a monk. He lived in the simplest
fashion, and when he thought the cook was treating him too well he took the
best food from the kitchen and gave it away to the poor and sick.
But
in his episcopal capacity St Godfrey was unbending, severe, and inflexibly
just. One Christmas when singing Mass before the count of Artois at Saint-Omer
he refused to accept the offerings of the court until the nobles had modified
the ostentation of their dress and deportment; the abbess of St Michael’s
at Doullens had to go On foot to Amiens and back to receive a rebuke and warning
for her ill-treatment of a nun (she is said to have been kept there all day
looking for the missing nun, whom the bishop had concealed in his house);
and the claim of his see to jurisdiction over the abbey of Saint-Valery was
vigorously pursued. The refusal of the monks to allow him to bless altar-linen
for their church was the occasion of a long dispute. St Godfrey had a bitter
struggle in his own diocese against simony and for the celibacy of the clergy,
in the course of which it is said an attempt was made on his life by a disgruntled
woman. His rigid discipline made him very unpopular among the less worthy,
and he became so discouraged that he wanted to resign and join the Carthusians.
St Godfrey’s severity seems in some things to have been excessive, e.g. he forbade the eating of meat on Sundays in Lent.
He set out in November 1115 to discuss affairs with his metropolitan and died
on the way at Soissons, where he was buried.
What Guibert
of Nogent in his autobiography tells us concerning Godfrey is our most reliable
source of information. The Latin life by Nicholas, a monk of Soissons, is
much more detailed and in many respects valuable, but it is written in a tone
of undiscriminating panegyric, and certain statements made in it are demonstrably
incorrect. It was compiled about 1538, and it is printed, with the relevant
passages of Guibert and an illuminating introduction, by A. Poncelet in the
Acta Sanctorum, November, vol. iii. See also A. de
Calonne, Histoire de la ville d’Amiens (1899), vol. i, pp.
523—542; C. Brunel in Le moyen age, vol.
xxii (1909), pp. 176—196; and J. Corblet, Hagiographie d’Amiens
(1870), vol. ii, pp. 373—445.
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1175 St. Peter
of Tarantaise (not Pope Innocent V) Cistercian archbishop; reformer purging
clergy of corrupt & immoral members, aiding poor, promoting education,
Trusted advisor by popes and kings; The author of his life, who was his constant
companion at this period, testifies to numerous miracles which he wrought,
mainly in curing the sick and multiplying provisions in time of famine.
In monastério
Bellæ Vallis, in território Bisuntíno, sancti Petri, qui
ex Mónacho Cisterciénsi factus est Tarentasiénsis in
Sabáudia Epíscopus.
In the monastery of Bella Vallis, in the diocese of Besançon, St.
Peter, Cistercian monk, who was made bishop of Tarantaise in Savoy.
1175 ST PETER, ARCHBISHOP OF
TARENTAISE
ST PETER of Tarentaise, one of the glories of the Cistercian Order, was
born near Vienne in the French province of the Dauphiné. He early
displayed a remarkable memory, coupled with a great inclination for religious
studies, and at the age of twenty he entered the abbey of Bonnevaux. With
great zeal he embraced the austerities of the rule, edifying all who came
into contact with him by his charity, his humility and his modesty. After
a time, his father and the other two sons followed Peter to Bonnevaux, whilst
his mother, with the only daughter, entered a neighbouring Cistercian nunnery.
Besides these members of his own humble family, men of high rank were led
by the example of Peter to become monks at Bonnevaux.
He was not quite thirty when he was chosen superior of a new house built
at Tamié, in the desert mountains of Tarentaise. It overlooked the
pass which was then the chief route from Geneva to Savoy, and the monks were
able to be of great use to travellers. There, with the help of Amadeus III,
Count of Savoy, who held him in high esteem, he founded a hospice for the
sick and for strangers, in which he was wont to wait upon his guests with
his own hands.
In 1142 came his election to the archbishopric of Tarentaise, and Peter
was compelled by St Bernard and the general chapter of his order,
though much against the grain, to accept the office. He found the diocese
in a deplorable state, due mainly to mismanagement of his predecessor, an
unworthy man who had eventually to be deposed. Parish churches were in the
hands of laymen, the poor were neglected, and the clergy, who ought to have
stemmed the general tide of iniquity, too often promoted irregularity by
their evil example. In place of the cathedral clergy whom he found lax and
careless, St Peter substituted canons regular of St Augustine, and he soon
made his chapter a model of good order. He undertook the constant visitation
of his diocese; recovered property which had been alienated; appointed good
priests to various parishes; made excellent foundations for the education
of the young and the relief of the poor; and everywhere provided for the
due celebration of the services of the Church. The author of his life, who
was his constant companion at this period, testifies to numerous miracles
which he wrought, mainly in curing the sick and multiplying provisions in
time of famine.
Apprehension at finding himself honoured as a wonder-worker, and the natural
longing of a monk for solitude, turned his mind back to the cloister and in
1155, after he had administered the diocese for thirteen years, Peter suddenly
disappeared, leaving no trace behind. Actually he had made his way to a remote
Cistercian abbey in Switzerland, where, being yet unknown, he was accepted
as a lay-brother. Great was the dismay throughout the diocese of Tarentaise
when the departure of the archbishop became known, and diligent was the search
made for him throughout the religious houses of the neighbouring provinces.
Not until a year later was he discovered. His identity having been revealed
to his new superiors, Peter was obliged to leave and to return to his see,
where he was greeted with great joy. He took up his duties more zealously
than ever. The poor were ever his first consideration: twice in bitterly
cold weather he gave away his own habit at the risk of his life. He rebuilt
the hospice of the Little St Bernard and founded other similar refuges for
travellers in the Alps. He also inaugurated a practice, kept up until the
French Revolution—and even a little after—of making a free distribution of
bread and soup during, the months preceding the harvest, when food was scarce
in many parts of his hilly diocese. The dole came to be called “May bread”.
All his life he continued to dress and to live like a Cistercian, replacing
manual labour by the spiritual functions of his office.
Essentially a man of peace, St Peter had a singular gift for allaying seemingly
implacable enmities and on several occasions averted bloodshed by reconciling
contending parties. His chief political efforts, however, were directed to
supporting the cause of the true pope, Alexander III, against the pretensions
of the antipope, Victor, who had behind him the redoubtable Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa. At one time, indeed, it seemed as though the archbishop of Tarentaise
was the only subject of the empire who dared openly to oppose the pretender,
but it soon became apparent that he carried with him the whole of the great
Cistercian Order. To establish the claims of the true pontiff, St Peter preached
in Alsace, Lorraine, Burgundy and many parts of Italy, the effect of his words
being enhanced by miracles of healing. He also spoke out fearlessly in various
councils and even in the presence of the emperor himself, who was so far
impressed by his sanctity and courage as to permit in him a freedom of speech
he would endure from no one else.
It was not granted to the saint to die amongst his mountain flock. His
reputation as a peacemaker led Alexander III to send him in 1174 to try to
effect a reconciliation between King Louis VII of France and Henry II of
England. St Peter, though he was old, set out at once, preaching everywhere
on his way. As he approached Chaumont in the Vexin, where the French court
was being held, he was met by King Louis and by Prince Henry, the rebellious
heir to the English throne. The latter, alighting from his horse to receive
the archbishop’s blessing, asked for the saint’s old cloak, which he reverently
kissed. Both at Chaumont and at Gisors where he interviewed the English king,
St Peter was treated with utmost honour, but the reconciliation for which
he laboured did not take place until after his death. As he was returning
to his diocese he was taken ill on the road near Besançon, and died
as he was being carried into the abbey of Bellevaux. This St Peter was canonized
in 1191.
Our most copious
and trustworthy source of information is the life written by the Cistercian,
Geoffrey of Auxerre, Abbot of Hautecombe, in response to the request of Pope
Lucius III. It is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, and we know
that it was completed before 1185, that is, within ten years of the death
of the saint. But there are besides this many references to St Peter in the
correspondence, chronicles and hagiographical literature of the time. Even
a man like Walter Map, who was prone to write of the Cistercians with the
utmost bitterness, speaks with reverence of St Peter of Tarentaise. See
The Life of St Hugh of Lincoln (Quarterly Series),
pp. 625—626, and in the same work an account of the relations between St
Hugh, the Carthusian, and his Cistercian brother bishop (pp. 60—64, etc.).
Consult further Le Couteulx, Annales Ordinis Cartusiensis,
vol. ii passim; G. Muller, Leben des hl. Petrus von Tarentaise (1892); and the biographies
in French by Dom M. A. Dimier (1935) and H. Brultey (1945).
Peter was born 1102 near Vienne, in Dauphine, France, and joined
the Cistercian Order at Bonneveaux at the age of twenty with his two brothers
and father. Known for his piety, at age thirty he was sent to serve as the
first abbot of Tamie, in the Tarantaise Mountains, between Geneva and Savoy.
There he built a hospice for travelers. In 1142, he was named the archbishop
of Tarantaise against his wishes, and he devoted much energy to reforming
the diocese, purging the clergy of corrupt and immoral members, aiding the
poor, and promoting education.
He is also credited with starting
the custom of distributing bread and soup the so called May Bread just before
the harvest; a custom which endured throughout France until the French Revolution.
After thirteen years as bishop, Peter suddenly disappeared. Eventually he
was discovered serving as a lay brother in a Cistercian abbey in Switzerland
and was convinced to return to Tarantaise and resume his episcopal duties.
Trusted as an advisor by popes
and kings, he defended papal rights in France and was called upon to assist
in bringing about a reconciliation between King Louis VII of France and then
Prince Henry II of England. Peter was canonized in 1191. He should not be
confused with Peter of Tarantaise, who became Pope Innocent V.
Peter of Tarentaise, OSB Cist.
B (RM) Born at Saint-Maurice (near Vienne), Dauphiné, France, 1102;
died at Bellevaux, 1175; canonized in 1191. First, it should be noted that
there are two saints named Peter of Tarentaise: today's bishop and one who
became known as Pope Innocent V (born c. 1225).
Few
bishops have both been so successful as Peter of Tarentaise and so unwilling
to take up the office. His one true desire was to be a Cistercian monk. He
had entered a Cistercian monastery at Bonnevaux when he was 20 (12 according
to some sources), persuading his parents and brothers and sister to follow
him into the religious life. Before he was 30, he was chosen to be abbot of
a new Cistercian house at Tamié in the desolate Tarentaise hills, overlooking
the pass which was the chief route from Geneva to Savoy. Here he was
entirely happy. He struck up a fruitful friendship with Count Amadeus III
of Savoy. Together they built a hospital for the sick--a place which also
served as a guest house for strangers passing over the Little Saint Bernard
mountain pass. Peter like nothing better than to join in conversation with
those staying in this hospital, humbly waiting upon his guests with his own
hands.
But in 1142, he was elected
archbishop of Tarentaise. Saint Bernard and the general chapter of his order
compelled Peter to accept the office.
The whole Cistercian order decided that whatever
the saint wished, they must accept. Peter's predecessor had been so incompetent
and lax that he had been deposed. The diocese was in complete disorder. Reluctantly
Peter set about its renovation, refusing to let his personal feelings hamper
the work. Only once did he give way. He replaced the lax and careless
cathedral clergy with canons regular of the Order of Saint Augustine. He
regularly visited his entire diocese; recovered property that had been alienated;
appointed good priests to parishes; arranged for the education of the young;
made foundations to serve the poor; and made it possible to appropriately
celebrate the rites of the church everywhere. The author of his vita, who
was his constant companion throughout his episcopacy, recounts many miracles
wrought by Saint Peter, including physical healings and the multiplication
of provisions during famines.
After 13 years as archbishop,
he ran off and secretly offered himself as a lay member of a Cistercian house
in a remote area of Switzerland. Of course, he was found concealing himself
under the guise of a novice lay brother, but not until a year had elapsed.
The reluctant archbishop was forced to return to his see by his new superiors.
He was greeted with joy at his homecoming. Again, he set to work with a will,
founding travellers' refuges on the Alpine passes. He also endowed a charity
for the free distribution of soup and bread for the hill-farmers during the
lean spring months; this came to be known as pain de mai, May-bread, and
continued until the French Revolution.
Peter was not completely happy
outside a monastery. He often visited the Grande Chartreuse, where he was
attended by a young monk later to be known as Saint Hugh of Lincoln.
Uncompromisingly Peter supported
the true pope, Alexander III, against his false rivals--even though the antipope
Victor was supported by no less than the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Though
it seemed that he was the only subject who dared to openly oppose the pretender,
Saint Peter preached in Alsace, Lorraine, Burgundy, and parts of Italy in
an attempt to establish the claims of the true pontiff. He spoke out fearlessly
in various councils and even in the presence of the emperor himself, who was
so impressed by his sanctity and courage that he permitted him to speak freely.
Such
an honest man could be trusted to intercede between the warring kings of England
and France. In 1174, Pope Alexander III requested that he meet with King
Louis VII of France and Henry II of England. Though he was old, he set out
at once and stopped to preach everywhere en route. He met both sovereigns
near Chaumont in the Vexin, where the French court was being held, but did
not succeed in reconciling them.
On
returning to Tarentaise from this mission of peace, he became ill near Besançon
and died as he was being carried into the abbey of Bellevaux (Attwater,
Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Walsh).
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1292 Blessed Amatus
Ronconi lay-brother at San Giuliano Abbey near Rimini, OSB (AC)
Born in Rimini, Italy; Amatus made four pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostella
before becoming a lay-brother at San Giuliano Abbey near Rimini (Benedictines).
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14th v. Saint
Arsenius the Lover of Labor e gift of wonderworking
He lived during the fourteenth century.
This ascetic was distinguished by his love for toil, and living
in asceticism in the Kiev Caves monastery of the Dormition of the Most Holy
Theotokos, he knew no rest.
He prayed constantly and partook of food only at the setting
of the sun.
For his humility and love of labor the Lord gave him the gift
of wonderworking.
His memory is also celebrated together with the Saints of the
Far Caves on August 28.
15th v 16 th v The Monks Zosima
and Adrian of Volokolamsk, founders of the Sestrinsk monastery on the banks
of the River Sestra
pursued asceticism during the XV-XVI Centuries.
Their remains were buried in the Uspenie-Dormition church of
the monastery founded by them.
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1416 Julian von Norwich
'Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love' niederschrieb
Anglikanische Kirche: 08. Mai Catholische Kirche May 13
HERE 1423 Bl. Juliana
of Norwich Benedictine English mystic anchorite In 1373 experienced sixteen
revelations. Her book,
Revelations of Divine Love - a work on the love
of God, the Incarnation, redemption, and divine consolation.
Among English mystics none is greater
Julian von Norwich, auch Juliana genannt, wurde wohl 1342 geboren.
Sie war Reklusin im Kirchgarten von St. Julian in Norwich. Hier hatte sie
im Mai 1373 während einer schweren Erkrankung sechzehn Gesichte, die
sie nach 1390 in den 'Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love' niederschrieb. Es
gibt zwei Fassungen ihres Werkes, wobei sie in der späteren Fassung ihre
Schau auch theologisch interpretiert und in anschauliche Bilder umsetzt. Wohl
am bekanntesten ist ihr Bild von der Mutterschaft Gottes. Juliana starb vermutlich
nach 1416.
Dame Julian of Norwich, Contemplative 8 May 1417
The Lady Juliana was born about 1342, and when she was thirty
years old, she became gravely ill and was expected to die. Then, on the seventh
day, the medical crisis passed, and she had a series of fifteen visions, or
"showings," in which she was led to contemplate the Passion of Christ. These
brought her great peace and joy. She became an anchoress, living in a small
hut near to the church in Norwich, where she devoted the rest of her life
to prayer and contemplation of the meaning of her visions. The results of
her meditations she wrote in a book called Revelations of Divine Love, available
in modern English in a Penguin Paperback edition. During her lifetime, she
became known as a counselor, whose advice combined spiritual insight with
common sense, and many persons came to speak with her. Since her death, many
more have found help in her writings. The precise date of her death
is uncertain.
Her book is a tender meditation on God's eternal and all-embracing
love, as expressed to us in the Passion of Christ.
She describes seeing God holding
a tiny thing in his hand, like a small brown nut, which seemed so fragile
and insignificant that she wondered why it did not crumble before her eyes.
She understood that the thing was the entire created universe, which is as
nothing compared to its Creator, and she was told, "God made it, God loves
it, God keeps it."
She was concerned that sometimes when we are faced wiith a difficult
moral decision, it seems that no matter which way we decide, we will have
acted from motives that are less then completely pure, so that neither decision
is defensible. She finally wrote: "It is enough to be sure of the deed. Our
courteous Lord will deign to redeem the motive."
A matter that greatly troubled her was the fate of those who
through no fault of their own had never heard the Gospel. She never received
a direct answer to her questions about them, except to be told that whatever
God does is done in Love, and therefore "that all shall be well, and all
shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."
Speaking of her visions of heaven
and hell, she said, "To me was shown no harder hell than sin."
Of our response to the sins of
others, she said (ch. 76): "The soul that would preserve its peace, when another's
sin is brought to mind, must fly from it as from the pains of hell, looking
to God for help against it. To consider the sins of other people will produce
a thick film over the eyes of our soul, and prevent us for the time being
from seeing the 'fair beauty of the Lord'-- unless, that is, we look at them
contrite along with the sinner, being sorry with and for him, and yearning
over him for God. Without this it can only harm, disturb, and hinder the
soul who considers them. I gathered all this from the revelation about compassion...This
blessed friend is Jesus; it is his will and plan that we hang on to him,
and hold tight always, in whatever circumstances; for whether we are filthy
or clean is all the same to his love."
"Glad and merry and sweet is the blessed
and lovely demeanour of our Lord towards our souls, for he saw us always
living in love-longing, and he wants our souls to be gladly disposed toward
him . . . by his grace he lifts up and will draw our outer disposition to
our inward, and will make us all at unity with him, and each of us with
others in the true, lasting joy which is Jesus." -- Julian of Norwich
The following was translated by Liz Broadwell.
And from the time that [the vision] was shown,
I desired often to know what our Lord's meaning was. And fifteen years and
more afterward I was answered in my spiritual understanding, thus: 'Would
you know your Lord's meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was his meaning.
Who showed it to you? Love. What did he show you? Love. Why did he show it?
For love. Keep yourself therein and you shall know and understand more in
the same. But you shall never know nor understand any other thing, forever.'
Thus I was taught that love was our Lord's
meaning. And I saw quite clearly in this and in all, that before God made
us, he loved us, which love was never slaked nor ever shall be. And in this
love he has done all his work, and in this love he has made all things profitable
to us. And in this love our life is everlasting. In our creation we had a
beginning. But the love wherein he made us was in him with no beginning. And
all this shall be seen in God without end ...
"A reader has sent the following
message, which I reproduce slightly edited."
The (Anglican)
Order of Julian of Norwich was founded in Norwich, Connecticut, by the Revd
John (Julian) Swanson. It is an order for both men and women, with an emphasis
on the Divine Office and work and contemplation. It seems to be holding its
own in terms of new members arriving and remaining. Their Ordo includes the
lessons for every day of the Year for the Daily Office, and the Mass for
every day of the year with three lessons each day!. It sells for $6.00, is
very useful and may be obtained by writing: The Order of Julian of Norwich,
S10 W26392 Summit Avenue, Waukesha Wisconsin 53188. I would add that they
are new, they are committed to poverty and thus do not and will not have endowments;
and if, at this season of giving you can spare a bit, please send it to them.
There was a time a year ago, I understand, when monastic poverty was not
only not owning things, but nearly not eating anything either. We are fortunate
to have them in the Church. John Julian has produced an annotated translation
of Julian's works for devotional reading (Lesson of Love), which is stupendous.
Prayer (traditional language)
Lord God, who in thy compassion didst grant
to the Lady Julian many revelations of thy nurturing and sustaining love:
Move our hearts, like hers, to seek thee above all things, for in giving us
thyself thou givest us all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and
reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Prayer (contemporary language)
Lord God, who in your compassion granted
to the Lady Julian many revelations of your nurturing and sustaining love:
Move our hearts, like hers, to seek you above all things, for in giving us
yourself you give us all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Psalm 27:5-11 or 103:1-4,13-18 Hebrews 10:19-24 John 4:23-26
(Ep)
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1458
Blessed Angelus of Masaccio martyred by the Fraticelli or Bertolani heretics
because of his preaching in defense of the Catholic faith , OSB Cam. M (AC)
Angelus spent his life at the Camaldolese monastery of Santa Maria di Serra
in the Marches of Ancona. He was martyred by the Fraticelli or Bertolani heretics
because of his vehement preaching in defense of the Catholic faith (Benedictines).
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1785
The Monk Arsenii of Novgorod, Fool-for-Christ transfer of his relics and
with the "Saints-name-in-common" ("tezoimenitstvo") of this day
reposed in the year 1570, (the account about him is located under
12 July, -- the day of his repose).
The celebration was established on 8 May in connection with the transfer
of his relics in 1785, and with the "Saints-name-in-common" ("tezoimenitstvo")
of this day.
Our Holy Father Arsenius the Lover of Labour
A monk of Kiev, he never gave himself any rest, but worked with-out pause.
He ate only once a day, at sunset. He lived in asceticism and died in the
14th century. SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
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1835 St. Maria Magdalen of Canossa;
Foundress of the Daughters of
Charity at Verona, Italy saw the Blessed Mother surrounded by six religious
dressed in brown: She herself tended the poorest and dirtiest children witnesses
observed her rapt in ecstasy, and once she was seen levitating
1835 BD MAGDALEN DI CANOSSA,
VIRGIN, FOUNDRESS OF THE CANOSSIAN DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY: spent her time giving
religious instruction, working in hospitals and looking after children.
IN the foothills of the Appenine mountains, some eighteen miles from Parma,
stand the few remains of the once mighty castle of Canossa. It was here,
while the guest of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, in the winter of 1076-77,
that Pope St Gregory VII received that ostensible submission of Henry
IV of Germany whose circumstances have been so much exaggerated and significance
misunderstood. And it was the family of this Countess Matilda that seven
hundred years later produced Magdalen Gabriela, Marchioness of Canossa, a
"valiant woman" of a somewhat different stamp.
Her parents were the Marquis Ottavio and his wife Teresa Szlukhe, and her
birth was at Verona, in 1774. There is still in existence a portrait of Magdalen
at the age of four, an attractive, rather imperious-looking child, with strongly
marked features, dressed in the complicated clothes of a grown woman as was
the eighteenth-century (and later) way with children. After looking at it,
one is not surprised to learn that little Magdalen, while frank and straightforward,
was also stubborn, wilful and quick-tempered. Her nurse remarked in later
years, "It's a marvel to me how that naughty little thing has changed. I didn't
think she would ever be tamed."
A boy and two more girls were born to Magdalen's parents and then, when he
was only thirty-nine, her father died. This was a sad blow to Magdalen, and
it was followed two years later by another: her mother married again and
went to live with her new husband, the Marquis Zanetti, in Mantua, leaving
her children to the care of their uncles. Magdalen, who was now eight, with
her elder sister Laura, was put in charge of a governess, a woman who "took
out" on Magdalen a spite she had for someone who had criticized her inadequate
religious instruction of the children. It was six years before Uncle Jerome
found out how badly his second niece was being treated, and dismissed the
governess. Apparently Magdalen had never said a word, and would not let her
sisters do so. Perhaps these years of domestic tyranny had something to do
with the period of painful sickness that followed them, during which Magdalen
"took stock" with herself: she was definite that she did not wish to marry,
but was not sure that she wanted to be a nun, which in those days still generally
meant joining an enclosed order. She did eventually go into the Carmelite
convent at Conegliano, but it was soon recognized that she had no vocation
for that life, and she returned home again.
During the revolutionary wars the Canossas went to Venice for a time, and
after they had returned they were visited by Napoleon Bonaparte at their
mansion in Verona. Napoleon showed respect and indeed admiration for the
marchioness, and she felt encouraged to ask a favour of him: it was that
he would assign to her the empty convent of St Joseph in Verona, as a centre
for work for poor people and neglected children, whose sad state she set
vividly before him. And he granted the request.
The reason for this action went back to the time when she was in Venice.
There Magdalen had had a vision, or a dream as she herself called it, in
which she saw our Lady surrounded by six religious in a brown dress; it then
seemed to her that our Lady took the religious two by two to a church filled
with girls and women, to a hospital, and to a hall full of ragged children,
telling them to work there, but especially in the third. Magdalen at once
took this as a divinely appointed programme, and henceforward spent her time
giving religious instruction, working in hospitals and looking after children.
She was soon joined by other young women; but she saw that if the work was
to go on and be made permanent by means of a congregation it was necessary
to have a proper house for the purpose. And at a time when he was turning
monks and nuns out of their convents, Napoleon made this possible by his
own gift.
Magdalen was now thirty-four years old, and it was not easy for her to leave
the Canossa household, where among other responsibilities was an orphaned
baby cousin. Her family looked on her projects as rather undignified for
one of her birth. Pope Pius XI seems to have been glancing sideways at this
when, in his address at the reading of the decree which declared Magdalen
di Canossa's virtues to have been heroic, he quoted the great man "who was
humble enough to serve the poor at table with his own hands, but not quite
humble enough to sit at table with them". A remark which, as his Holiness
added, "suggests a lot of things and goes a long way". Magdalen's brother
Boniface was especially sad that she should leave them. But it was done,
and on May 8, 1808 Magdalen and her few companions opened the doors of their
house to the poor girls of the San Zeno quarter, Verona's "east end". They
began by teaching them the simplest prayers and the elements of the Christian
faith, with a little reading, writing and sewing, and within a few months
the effects of this centre of goodness and decency were seen in the quarter.
Good news spreads no less than bad, and before long Venice asked for a centre
like Verona's. By this time other associates had joined Sister Magdalen and,
after some hesitation, she extended the work accordingly. Over a period of
twenty-five years other foundations followed, at Milan, Bergamo, Trent and
elsewhere in northern Italy and, especially in the early days, the sisters
were often too few for the work; it was the foundress herself who would come
to the rescue, working in the scullery or anywhere with what she called her
two servants-by which must be understood her own two hands. She had a predilection
for the dirtiest and most troublesome children, and would look after them
from the combing of their hair to the brushing of their minds, so that to
this day a specially difficult child is known in the congregation as "One
of our holy foundress's".
In amplifying his words quoted above Pope Pius XI said that "Many are charitable
enough to help and even to serve the poor, but few are able deliberately
to become poor with the poor", and that that is exactly what Bd Magdalen
did. Such a life can only grow from a rooted interior humility, and it was
through no will of hers that others came to know how she had to struggle
with her quick imagination and keen senses-to say nothing of unavoidable
external distractions- to attain the degree of religious recollection that
was hers. In fact she reached a high state of contemplation: on several known
occasions she was rapt in ecstasy and at least once was seen to be lifted
from the ground. Such an intense life of the soul was not inconsistent (only
through misunderstanding could it be supposed to be) with a life of daily
cares in which it was possible, for example, for her to be held up at pistol-point
in the parlour. This actually happened. Mother Magdalen found a refuge for
a penitent girl who had been seduced. The young man concerned threatened
her with a pistol to disclose the girl's whereabouts. "If you want to kill
me, here I am", she replied. "But are you really brave enough?" He slunk
away, leaving the weapon behind, and before long he too had answered the
call to repentance.
Bd Magdalen told her Daughters of Charity that their mission on earth was
to make Jesus Christ known to little children, and they primarily concerned
themselves with those who were poor and neglected. But she also opened high-schools
and colleges, made special provision for the deaf-and-dumb, and organized
closed retreats for women and girls. After her death the congregation also
undertook work on the foreign missions. At Venice in 1831 Bd Magdalen even
launched a small congregation of men, which carries on similar work among
boys.
At the end of 1834 Bd Magdalen was taken ill at Bergamo; she struggled back
to the mother house at Verona, and by passion-week in the following year
she knew she was dying. Nobody else, neither her religious nor her medical
advisers, thought so; but she asked for the last sacraments, and having received
them the end came suddenly. For some years Mother Magdalen had been bent
almost double and could sleep only in a sitting position. On the evening
of April 10, 1835 she asked to be helped to her knees while she joined in
her daughters' prayers, and thus, with an exclamation of joy, she died, leaning
on the arms of Mother Annetta.* [* As a little girl Annetta had declared
she would rather burn down the convent than be a nun. Whereupon Mother Magdalen
had foretold, "One day you will be one of us. And you will be there to help
me when I die."]
She was beatified in 1941.
There are several biographies in Italian, but the above account relies on
A Short Life of the Venerable Servant
of God Magdalen, Marchioness of Canossa, written by a sister of her
congregation and published at Bangalore in India in 1933. It includes translations
of the decree of 1927 pronouncing the heroism of Mother Magdalen's virtues
and of the address given by Pope Pius XI to the Canossian Daughters
of Charity to mark that occasion.
Born in 1774, she was the daughter of the Marquis of Canossa, who died when
Maria Magdalen was three. Her mother abandoned the family, and Maria Magdalen
managed her father’s estate until she was thirty-three, then founding her
institute. When she died, her Daughters of Charity were widespread. She was
canonized in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.
Magdalen of Canossa, Founder (RM) Born in Verona, Italy,
March 1, 1774; died there on April 10, 1835; declared venerable on January
6, 1927; beatified December 7, 1941, by Pope Pius XII; canonized by Pope
John Paul II on October 2, 1988; feast day formerly on May 14.
Saint Magdalen was only five years old when her father, the
marquis of Canossa, died. Two years later her mother remarried and abandoned
her four children to the care of their uncles. Although they treated the
children well enough, their French governess was harsh. Perhaps as a result
of this ill-treatment, Magdalen suffered a painful illness when she was fifteen.
Upon her recovery, she was determined to become a nun. In October 1791, she
enter the Carmel for a short time before returning home to manage her father's
estate until she was 33.
During the Napoleonic wars, her family took refuge in Venice.
There she had a dream in which she saw the Blessed Mother surrounded by six
religious dressed in brown. Our Lady led them two by two into a church filled
with women and girls, into a hospital, and into a hall filled with bedraggled
children. She admonished the religious to serve all three, but especially
to help the poor children. Almost immediately she began tending the sick in
the city's hospitals and working with children.. The family returned to Verona,
where they were visited by Napoleon himself. Magdalen requested from him
the empty convent of Saint Joseph, which she intended to use for the poor.
Several women had already joined her in her charitable work and with the
gift of the convent, they opened the first house of her institute, the Daughters
of Charity. Its mission followed her vision: the education of poor girls,
the service of the sick in hospitals, and the teaching of the catechism in
parishes.
The doors of the house in the San Zeno district was opened to
poor girls on May 8, 1808. Thereafter, community prospered and its fame spread.
The Canossians were invited to open a house in Venice, then in Milan, Bergamo,
Trent, and elsewhere in northern Italy. Since Saint Magdalen's death, well
over 400 have been established throughout the world.
Saint Magdalen drew up the rule in Venice. The congregation
received formal papal approval from Pope Pius VII in 1816 and definitive
approval from Pope Leo XII in an apostolic brief dated December 23, 1828.
When she was declared venerable by Pope Pius XI in 1927, he wrote that "many
are charitable enough to help and even to serve the poor, but few are able
deliberately to become poor with the poor."
But that is exactly what the marchioness did. She herself tended
the poorest and dirtiest children. Although the congregation's primary concern
was poor and neglected children, she also founded high schools and colleges,
especially for the deaf and dumb. Magdalen organized closed retreats for females.
In Venice, she even launched a small congregation of men to carry on similar
work with boys. Following her death, the Daughters of Charity entered the
mission field.
Despite, or perhaps because of,
the hectic pace of her life, Saint Magdalen developed enormous powers of
recollection and prayer. She attained remarkable levels of contemplation.
On several occasions, witnesses observed her rapt in ecstasy, and once she
was seen levitating.
Towards the end of her life, Magdalen was bent almost double
and could sleep only in a sitting position. She became seriously ill in Bergamo
at the end of 1834 and was taken back to the mother house in Verona. By
Holy Week 1835, she knew she was dying, though none of her doctors agree
with her. She asked for the last rites, then died suddenly (Benedictines,
Walsh).
Complete
Revelations of
Divine Love - Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Excerpts
The Motherhood
of God - Order of Julian
The Joy of God
in Us - Order of Julian
Choosing
Jesus: Christ our Heaven in Well and Woe - Order of Julian
No Wrath
in God - Order of Julian
Mercy
Healing Our Wrath - Order of Julian
Julian on "God
our Mother" - Elizabeth G. Melillo
Julian on Sin
- Elizabeth G. Melillo
Excerpts from
the Westminster Manuscript of Showings - Julia Bolton Holloway,
et al.
An Excerpt
from Showings: Chapter 59 - John F. Tinkler, Towson University
Julian | Life | Works | Bibliography |
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Saints of this Day May 08 Octávo Idus Maji
127 Sixtus
I 115-125
, Pope survived as pope
for about 10 years before being killed by the Roman authorities M (RM)
496 Pope
St. Gelasius I feast Nov 21 conspicuous
for his spirit of prayer, penance, and study. He took great delight in the
company of monks, and was a true father to the poor
608-615 Boniface IV, Pope
student under Gregory the Great converted Roman temple of gods {Pantheon}
into a Christian church dedicated to Our Lady and all saints corresponded
with Saint Columba (RM)
Quote: Pope
Paul VI’s 1969 
Benedict
XVI met with Aram
I Catholicos of Cilicia,
the highest authority
of the Orthodox Church.
The
Pope remembered the martyrs
of the Armenian Church and the
Armenian genocide, without
explicitly mentioning it,
and denounced the persecution
of Christians in modern times.
Benedict
XVI
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.