Father Corapi's Biography

The custom of offering the Holy Sacrifice for an individual deceased person on a particular day was, of course, firmly established long before a special day was set aside for the memorial of all the dead in general. The first formal testimony to a collective day of the dead is found in the first half of the ninth century, when it was the custom in monasteries to commemorate their own dead and their benefactors all together on one day, the date varying. The earliest definite suggestion of a connection between the feast of All Saints and a commemoration of All Souls seems to be supplied by Amalarius early in the ninth century. In his De ordine anti­phonarii he writes, “After the office of the Saints I have inserted the office for the dead for many pass out of this world without at once being admitted into the company of the blessed.” It is quite possible that this passage may have been before the mind of St Odilo of Cluny two hundred years later, when he directed the congregation of which he was supreme head to observe November a as a day of commemoration of all the faithful departed, on which the office of the dead was to he said and Masses of requiem celebrated.

   In any case, as stated above, the idea of a collective memory of the departed was already familiar. For example, in the year 800 a compact was drawn up between the monasteries of Saint Gall and Reichenau concerning their mutual suffrages for each other’s deceased members. Besides praying for every monk when his death was announced, both communities agreed to observe November 14 in every year as a day of commemoration of the religious who had passed away in either abbey. On that occasion each priest would offer Mass three times and the rest recite the whole psalter for the souls of the departed of both houses. It is noteworthy that November 14 was the beginning of what was known in Ireland as the “Moses Lent” in preparation for Christmas and Saint Gall was, of course, an Irish foundation.

   For the rather extravagant story of the hermit who had heard the cries of rage of the demons complaining that the prayers said at Cluny rescued the souls of those whom they were torturing from them, we have the contemporary authority of Ralph Glaber and of others later. We are told that St Odilo, on this being reported to him, was moved to issue his famous decree. But the text of the ordinance says nothing of this tale of the hermit it merely states that, “as the feast of all the blessed saints was already celebrated throughout the Church of God, so it seemed desirable that at Cluny they should also keep with joyous affection the memory of all the faithful departed who have lived from the beginning of the world until the end”. We have a detailed account of how in St Odilo’s own lifetime this observance was carried out at the monastery of Farfa, near Spoleto, in Italy. It seems to have spread widely and rather rapidly, though there is no trace of any papal enactment extending it to the Church in general. On the other hand two or three centuries passed before we find the entry Commemoratio animarum com­monly occurring under November 2 in calendars or martyrologies. A striking illustration of this may be noted at Canterbury.

 Somewhere about 1075 the archbishop, Lanfranc, promulgated certain decrees for the Benedictine monks. In these much is made of the high Mass for the dead on November 2 before which on the eve, all the bells were to be rung and other solemnities observed. None the less, though we have four or five Canterbury calendars of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, no one of them at that date makes mention of any such celebration. There is, however, a definite mention of All Souls’ Day in the so-called Protadius martyrology, compiled at Besançon in the middle of the eleventh century.

It seems clear that the privilege long enjoyed only in Spain and its dominions permitting priests to celebrate Mass thrice on All Souls’ day originated in the practice of the Dominican priory at Valencia, where it can be traced to the early fifteenth century. The number of influential people buried there in and around the church was considerable, and so many demands were made for special Masses on November a that these claims could only be satisfied by allowing friars of that community to offer two or even three Masses each on that day. This irreg­ularity was apparently tolerated by local authority and grew into an established custom. It was eventually sanctioned and extended to the whole kingdom by Pope Benedict XIV in 1748, and during the first world war, in 1915, Pope Benedict XV further extended the privilege to the whole Western church. With a certain nice appropriateness the Armenians make a special commemoration of the dead on Easter Monday.

On the general question of observance of the Connmemoratio omnium fidelium defunctorum, consult Cabrol in DAC., vol. v, cc. 1419-1420; and Leclercq in the same, vol. iv, cc. 427- 456, with vol. xii, CC. 34-38; also Kellner, Heortology, pp. 326-328; Schuster, The Sacra­mentary, vol. v, pp. 213-231 and H. Thurston, The Memory of our Dead, pp. 501-534 and 224-241. For further illustrations of folk-lore customs cf. Bächtold-Stäubli, Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, vol. i, pp. 267-273; for the Canterbury calendars, E. Bishop, The Bosworth Psalter, pp; 68-69, 113; and for Spain. Villanueva, Viage literario, vol ii pp 5 seq. For the “Moses Lent”, see Analecta Bollandiana vol lix (1941), p 234, n. 3; and J. Ryan, Irish Monasticism (1931). pp. 392-393.

ST Jerome speaks well of this early exegete and tells us, in the words of Alban Butler, “that his works were sublime in sense though the Latin style was low, the author being by birth a Grecian”. From being a rhetorician he became bishop at Pettau in Upper Pannonia and he wrote commentaries on a number of books of the Old and New Testaments. St Jerome quotes from these, but he sometimes qualifies his good opinion of the bishop. Victorinus opposed certain heresies of his time but was himself reputed to be inclined to Millenarianism, i.e. expectation of a temporal reign of Christ on earth for a thousand years. St Victorinus is believed to have died a martyr in the persecution under Diocletian. He was at one time supposed to have been the first bishop of Poitiers, owing to an erroneous latinization of the name of his see.

The passio of St. Victorinus having perished, we know little concerning him beyond what can be gleaned from casual references in the writings of St Jerome, Optatus of Milevis and Cassiodorus. See the Acta Sanctorum, November, vol. i. This Victorinus does not seem to have been commemorated in the Hieronymianum, but Florus of Lyons assumed that a St Victor, whose name does occur on November 2, referred to him. See Quentin, Martyrologes historiques, pp. 310 and 380; and Bardenhewer, Geschichte de, altkirchilchen Literatur, 2nd ed., vol. ii, pp. 657-663. 

THE city of Cyrrhus in Syria was the birthplace of St Marcian; his father was of a patrician family. Marcian himself left his friends and country and, that he might not do things by halves, retired into the desert of Chalcis, between Antioch and the Euphrates. He chose in it the most remote part and shut himself up in a small enclosure, wherein he built himself a cell so narrow and low that he could neither stand nor lie in it without bending his body. This solitude was to him a paradise, and his whole employment was to sing psalms, read, pray and work. Bread was all his food and this in a small quantity; but he never went a day without taking some, lest he should not have strength to do what God required of him.

   The supernatural light which he received in contemplation gave him a wonderful knowledge of the great truths and mysteries of faith; and notwithstanding his care to live unknown to men, the reputation of his holiness spread abroad and he was prevailed upon to admit two first disciples, Eusebius and Agapitus. In time St Marcian had a considerable body of followers, over whom he appointed Eusebius abbot. Once St Flavian, Patriarch of Antioch, and other bishops paid him a visit together, and begged he would give them a spiritual conference according to his custom. The dignity of this company alarmed Marcian and he stood some time silent. Being urged to speak, he said, “God speaks to us every day by His creatures and by this universe which we behold. He speaks to us by His gospel, wherein He teaches us what we ought to do both for others and ourselves. What more can Marcian say that can be of use?”

St Marcian wrought several miracles and was greatly humiliated by the reputa­tion of a wonderworker, which consequently attached to him. He would not listen to requests for any miraculous intercession, and when a certain hermit came on behalf of a man of Beroea to get some oil blessed for his sick daughter, St Marcian refused peremptorily. But at the same hour the girl recovered.

   Marcian lived to a considerable age, and during his last years was troubled by the indecent importunity of those who looked forward to having the custody of his dead body. Several people went so far as to build chapels in different places wherein to bury it, among them being his nephew Alipius. St Marcian therefore made Eusebius promise to bury him secretly. This accordingly was done and it was not till fifty years after the saint’s death that the place of burial was disclosed, when the relics were solemnly translated and became an object of pilgrimage.

We are entirely indebted to Theodoret’s Religious History for our knowledge of St Marcian. The Bollandists have reprinted his Greek text with Latin translations and com­ments in the Acta Sanctorum, November, vol. i.

THIS holy and learned man has enjoyed a certain local cultus in the Carmelite Order which has, however, not yet been formally confirmed by the Holy See. He was an Essex man, born at Saffron Walden about 1375, his family name being Netter. He joined the Carmelites in London, studied at Oxford, where he took his doctorate in theology, and was ordained priest about 1400. He made a name for himself as a professor, and in 1409 was sent to the Council of Pisa, where he is said to have supported the election of Pope Alexander V. On his return to England Friar Thomas entered whole-heartedly into the opposition to the Lollards and other followers of the errors of John Wyclif, and he is regarded as the most able of the controversialists against them and their brethren on the continent—“never was there such a netter of heretics”.

He took part in the trials of their leaders, notably Sir John Oldcastle, and his chief writings were directed against their errors, notably his Doctrinale fidei. At this time the Carmelites were popular among the nobility as confessors, and Thomas was appointed to that office for King Henry V, being at the same time prior provincial of his order in England, though probably not yet forty years old. He was among the English representatives at the Council of Constance, which condemned the teachings of Wyclif and Flits, and immediately after was a member of an embassy to Poland on behalf of the pope and the emperor. He is said to have established friaries of his order in Lithuania and Prussia.

Friar Thomas was with Henry V in France in 1422, and the king died in his arms at Vincennes. The guardians of the infant Henry VI later appointed Thomas to be his tutor, so that in some degree he may have been responsible for that king’s subsequent holiness. Though Thomas was engaged so much in conflict with stubborn and sometimes violent heretics, he was himself of a kindly disposition and affectionate in his relations with others. He went to France with the boy king in 1430, and died at Rouen on November 2, leaving a reputation of holiness, which was confirmed by miracles at his tomb. Friar Thomas’s numerous written works, which received the praise of Pope Martin V, earned for him the title of Doctor praestantissimus, “the Pre-eminent Teacher”, and Doctor authenticus, “the Authoritative Teacher”. His treatise De sacramentalibus includes a discussion of canonization, which is of much interest in the history of the subject.

Thomas Netter is not included by the Bollandists even among the praetermissi on this day. Neither is he mentioned in Stanton’s Menology, or in the martyrologies of Whitford or Wilson. The sources available have been indicated by B. Zimmerman in his Monumenta Historica Carmelitana (1907), pp. 442-482 and also by the same learned writer in the Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. x, pp. 764-765. cf. K. L. Hine, History of Hitchin (1927) vol. i, pp. 133-138 Netter was a young friar at Hitchin.