St. Cyriacus.The Departure of; brought to Abba Peter, Bishop of Corinth,
his cousin,;
he ordained him reader. Cyriacus read continually searched
interpretations of Holy Scriptures surpassed many in
it; went to Jerusalem, met
bishop Abba Cyril; sent to
Euthymius (Otimus) Palestine;
lived virtuous life much asceticism humility,
godliness devoutness; God bestowed the gift of healing; He
healed all who came to the monastery all kinds of sicknesses
or infirmities; His virtues and holiness spread everywhere
On this day, the holy father, St. Cyriacus, departed.
This striver was brought up in the city of Corinth in Greece. He was
the son of Orthodox Christian parents, who taught him the church
subjects. They brought him to Abba Peter, Bishop of Corinth, who was
his cousin, and he ordained him a reader. Cyriacus read continually and
searched in the interpretations of the Holy Scriptures until he
surpassed many in it. Abba Peter appointed him to read to the people in
the church and to him in his cell, and he was pleased with him.
When he was 18 years old, his parents asked him if he wished to marry,
but he refused. He asked them for permission to visit one of the
monasteries in order to be blessed by the saints therein. He continued
to visit the monastery from time to time and he longed for the monastic
garb. He went to the Holy city, Jerusalem, and met its bishop, Abba
Cyril. He presented to him his wish to become a monk. Abba Cyril
approved his wish and prophesied of him saying that he would become a
great father, would have many accomplishments, and many souls would be
enlightened by his teachings. He blessed him and sent him to the great
father Euthymius (Otimus), the father of the monks of Palestine.
Father Euthymius accepted him with joy and put the garb of the monk on
him. He handed him to one of the elders of the monastery who taught him
the ways of worship and revealed to him the artifices of Satan. Abba
Cyriacus lived a virtuous life with much asceticism besides humility,
godliness and devoutness. God bestowed upon him the gift of healing. He
healed all those who came to the monastery with all kinds of sicknesses
or infirmities. His virtues and his holiness spread everywhere.
This holy man accompanied Abba Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, to the
Ecumenical council of the hundred and fifty that gathered at
Constantinople because of Macedonius, the enemy of the Holy Spirit.
Abba Cyriacus opposed his arguments and vanquished him by evidences and
proofs. He departed at a good old age. The Lord made manifest from his
body after his departure, many signs and miracles. His body still rests
in one of the monasteries of the city of Jerusalem, without any change
or corruption, to the extent that anyone who sees him today would think
that he just died only a short time ago. More than 700 years have
passed from the time of his departure till the writing of his
biography. He lived at the time of Theodosius the Great in the later
part of the fourth Christian century.
His intercession be for us.
Amen.
St. Athanasius and
His Sister, Irene. Departure of
On this day also, St. Athanasius and his sister, Irene, departed. They
suffered many tortures at the hands of Maximianus. When he failed to
turn them away from their faith in Christ, he ordered to cast them into
an empty pit, and to shut over them, wherein they departed.
|
150 St.
Patiens
Patron saint of Metz, France fourth diocesecan bishop
|
2nd v.
Aurelius and
Publius bishops who wrote against the Montanists or Cata-Phrygians BM
(RM)
In Asia pássio sanctórum Aurélii et Públii
Episcopórum.
In Asia, the martyrdom of the holy bishops Aurelius
and Publius.
Aurelius and Publius were bishops who
wrote against the
Montanists or Cata-Phrygians. They were martyred, probably in Asia,
though others place the site in North Africa (Benedictines).
|
200 St. Rufus and Avignon first bishop of
Avignon France
Avenióne sancti Rufi, qui éxstitit primus ejúsdem
civitátis Epíscopus.
At Avignon, St. Rufus, the first bishop of that city.
It is certain that he did live, although biographies
written about him
are considered unreliable.
|
430
St. Nilus
the
Elder
Bishop and friend of St. John Chrysostom
Constantinópoli sancti Nili Abbátis, qui, sub
Theodósio junióre, ex Præfécto
ejúsdem civitátis factus Mónachus, doctrína
et sanctitáte cláruit.
At Constantinople, St. Nilus, abbot, who resigned as
prefect of the city to become a monk, and during the reign of
Theodosius the Younger became distinguished for his learning and
sanctity.
He was reputedly a member of the
imperial court at Constantinople,
modern Istanbul, who gave up his family and, with his son, Theodulus,
took up the life of a monk on Mount Sinai. Theodulus was kidnapped by
Arab raiders, and Nilus set out to find him. They were reunited, and
both were ordained by a bishop at Eleusa. They then returned to Sinai.
Nilus also became the bishop of Ancyra and was the reputed author of
ascetical treatises and many letters. There is a possibility that he
may be confused with the monk of Ancyra  called
“the Wise,” who wrote
the various treatises.
Saint Nilus the Faster of Sinai, a native of Constantinople. He lived
during the fifth century and was a disciple of St John Chrysostom.
Having received a fine education, the saint was appointed to the
important post of prefect of the capital while still a young man.
During this period, Nilus was married and had children, but the pomp of
courtly life bothered the couple. St John Chrysostom exerted a
tremendous influence upon their lives and their strivings. The spouses
decided to separate and devote themselves to the monastic life.
<Nilus and John
The wife and daughter of Nilus went to one of the women's
monasteries
in Egypt, and St Nilus and his son Theodulus went to Sinai, where they
settled in a cave dug out by their own hands. For forty years this cave
served as the dwelling of St Nilus. By fasting, prayer and works, the
monk attained a high degree of spiritual perfection. People began to
come to him from every occupation and social rank from the emperor down
to the farmer, and each found counsel and comfort from the saint.
At Sinai, St Nilus wrote many soul-profiting works to guide Christians
on the path of salvation. In one of his letters there is an angry
denunciation of the emperor Arcadius, who had exiled St John
Chrysostom. The ascetic works of the venerable Nilus are widely known:
they are perfectly executed in form, profoundly Orthodox in content,
and are clear and lucid in expression. His Ascetic Discourse is found
in Volume I of the English PHILOKALIA.
St Nilus suffered many misfortunes in the wilderness. Once, Saracens
captured his son Theodulus, whom they intended to offer as a sacrifice
to their pagan gods. Through the prayers of the saint the Lord saved
Theodulus, and his father found him with the Bishop of Emessa, who had
ransomed the young man from the barbarians. This bishop ordained both
of them as presbyters. After ordination they returned to Sinai, where
they lived as ascetics together until the death of St Nilus.
430 ST NILUS THE ELDER
AMONG the disciples of St John Chrysostom was a certain
Nilus, who was an official at Constantinople and is said even to have
been prefect of the city. He was married and had two children,
some years after the birth of whom Nilus was seized by a
great craving after solitude. He eventually agreed with his
wife that they should withdraw from the world, he taking
his son Theodulus with him.
They went to reside with the monks of Mount Sinai,
from whence Nilus wrote two letters of protest and rebuke
to the Emperor Arcadius after the banishment of Chrysostom from
Constantinople. After a few years the monastery suffered a raid
from Arabs, when many monks were slaughtered and the young
Theodulus was carried off. His father followed up
the raiders with the intention of ransoming the boy, and at
last traced him to Eleusa, south of Beersheba, where Theodulus had been
bought by the local bishop out of charity and given
employment in the church. Before sending them back to
Sinai this bishop ordained both Nilus and his son priests.
By the letters and other writings
attributed to him Nilus was well known as a writer,
theological, Biblical and especially ascetic. In his treatise on prayer
he recommends that we beg of God in the first place the
gift of prayer, and entreat the Holy Ghost to form in our hearts those
desires which He has promised always to hear, and continually to ask of
God that His will maybe done in the most perfect manner. To
persons in the world he inculcates temperance, meditation on death and
the obligation of giving alms, and he was always ready to communicate
to others his spiritual science.
What proficiency he had attained in an interior life and in the
study of the Holy Scriptures, and how much he was consulted by persons
of all ranks, appear from the number of his letters which are still in
existence. One of these was in reply to the prefect Olympiodorus,
who had built a church and wanted to know if he might adorn its walls
with mosaics not only of sacred subjects but also of hunting scenes,
birds, beasts and the like. St Nilus makes short work of this
suggestion, and then says that the walls should be painted with scenes
from the Old and New Testaments for the instruction of those who could
not read, but only one cross should be displayed, and that in the
sanctuary.
St Nilus wrote a special treatise to show the life
of hermits to be preferable to that of religious who live in
communities in cities, but that hermits have their particular
difficulties and trials. These he himself had experienced
by violent temptations, troubles of mind and assaults of evil
spirits. To a certain monk living on a pillar he writes
that his lofty position is due to pride: Every one that
exalteth himself shall be humbled."
It would seem, however, that the story of St Nilus,
accepted by Tillemont and Alban Butler on the authority of the
Narrationes (printed in Migne, PG., vol. lxxix, pp. 583-694), is open
to the gravest doubt. We have no reason to believe that Nilus was a
high court official, that he was married, betook himself to Sinai and
underwent alarming experiences in the search for his captive son.This
is, no doubt, the tale perpetuated in synaxaries, but it cannot be
made to agree with the data furnished in Nilus's authentic
letters. Nilus the writer would appear to have been
another person, a monk of Ancyra in Galatia (modern Ankara), and the
two contemporaries seem to have been confused into one.
See the reference in Migne,
PG., given above; K. Heussi, Untersuchungen
zu Nilus dem Asketen in
Texte und Untersuchungen (1917); F. Degenhart, Des hl. Nilus Sinaita (1925) and Neue Beitrage zur Nilusforschung
(1918); and also DTC., vol. xi (1931), cc. 661-674, which includes a
full bibliography.
|
422 St.
Renatus First bishop of Angers, France, and Sorrento, Italy
also listed as Rend. Owing to the unlikelihood of his having held both
positions, scholars Believe that there are actually two bishops who
have been placed under the same name.
|
6th v. Machar of Iona B (AC)
(also known as Macharius
or Mochumma of Iona or Aberdeen) An Irishman
by birth, he was baptized by Saint Colman {676} and became a disciple
of Saint Columba {Born in Garton, County Donegal, Ireland, c. 521; died
June 9, 597} at Iona. Afterwards he was sent with 12 disciples to
convert the Picts, and fixed his episcopal residence at Old Aberdeen,
of which he is said to have been the first bishop. The water from his
well was at one time used for baptisms in Aberdeen cathedral
(Benedictines, Montague).
|
560 Saint Evodius
Bishop of Le Puy B (AC)
Bishop of Le Puy, France (Benedictines).
|
574 St. Emilian
Cucullatus shepherd hermit priest patron saint of Spain favoured with many miracles
Turiasóne, in
Hispánia Tarraconénsi, beáti Æmiliáni
Presbyteri, qui innúmeris miráculis cláruit; cujus
admirábilem vitam sanctus Bráulio,
Cæsaraugustánus Epíscopus, descrípsit.
At Tarazona in Aragon, blessed Emilian, a priest
favoured with many miracles. His admirable life was recorded by
St. Braulio, bishop of Saragossa.
ST EMILIAN CUCULLATUS, ABBOT
<>THIS St Emilian, under the
name of San Millán de la Cogolla, i.e. "with the Hood ", was a
famous early saint of Spain and is regarded as a patron of that
country. The Roman Martyrology refers to the fact that his life
was written by St Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa, about fifty years after
his death. Emilian's birthplace has for centuries been a matter in
dispute between Aragon and Castile.
As a youth he was a shepherd. At the age of twenty he
heard a call from God to His direct service and for a time he attached
himself to a hermit. Then he returned to his home, but so many
people importuned him that he wandered off into the mountains above
Burgos. He lived there for forty years-according to tradition on
the mountain where the abbey of San Milldn was afterwards built--till
the bishop of Tarazona insisted on his receiving holy orders and
becoming a parish priest.
But the heroic virtues that the hermit had learned in the wilderness
were not understood by his fellow clergy, and he was accused to the
bishop of wasting the goods of the church, which he had given away in
charity. He was therefore deprived of his cure, and with some
disciples returned to solitude and contemplation, and so spent the rest
of his life. St Emilian is sometimes called the first Spanish
Benedictine, but the
monastery of La Cogolla, of course, did not have Benedictine Rule till
long after his time.
The Latin biography by
Braulio is printed by Mabillon, vol. i,
pp. 198-207. In Florea, España
Sagrada, vol. I, will also be found an account of the saint's
translation and of the miracles wrought at his shrine. See
further T. Minguella, S. Millan de
La Cogolla, estudios historicos (1883), and V. de Ia Fuente, San Millian, presbitero secular (1883). A new
critical edition of the vita,
ed. L. Vazquez de Parga, was published at Madrid in 1943.
One of the patron saints
of Spain, called La Cogalla, “the Cowled.” A
shepherd from La Rioja, in Navarre, Spain, he was ordained a priest
after many years as a hermit. He was made pastor of the parish in
Berceo but became a hermit again. In time so many joined him that he
founded a hermitage that became the Benedictine Abbey of La Cogalla. Emilian
Cucullatus, Abbot (RM) (also known as Aemilian,
Emilianus or
Millan of Cucullatus or La Cogolla or de la Gogolla). A
shepherd at La Rioja, Navarre, Spain, he became
a hermit
when 20. After a brief stay at home, he spent the next 40 years in
extreme solitude as a hermit in the mountains around Burgos when at the
insistence of the bishop of Tarazona, he was ordained. He
became a parish priest at Berceo but because of his
excessive
charity was forced to leave and with several disciples resumed his
eremitical life. He died at the age of 100. Tradition says the mountain
hermitage he occupied near Burgos became the site of the Benedictine
monastery of La Cogolla. He is a minor patron of Spain, where he is
known as San Millan de la Cogolla--the cowled Saint Emilian
(Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia).
Saint Millan is
represented as a monk on horseback fighting
the Moors,
and sometimes as a Benedictine on horseback holding a banner and sword.
Abbot of La Cogolla, Tarazona. Minor patron saint of Spain (Roeder).
|
6th v. St. Machar
founder of Aberdeen, Scotland companion of St. Columba
ST MACHAL BISHOP
THE diocese of Aberdeen today keeps the feast of St Machar (Mochumma),
but nothing certain is known about him except that he was an Irish
missionary who came to Scotland with St
Columba. He is said to have evangelized the
isle of Mull, and been consecrated bishop before being sent to
preach to the Picts in what is now Aberdeenshire. It is likely
that he was a missionary in that neighbourhood, and the establishment
of what became the see of Aberdeen is attributed to him. Water
from St Machar's well at Old Aberdeen used always to be used for
baptisms in the cathedral.
Little is known of St Machar
beyond what we find in the Aberdeen
Breviary. Forbes in KSS., treats of him (pp. 393-394) under
the heading" Mauritius, Macbar or Mocumnia In the Aberdeen Martyrology
he is described as "Archbishop of Tours". We are further told
that "Mr Bradshaw has discovered in the University Library at Cambridge
a metrical Life of this saint, which he supposes to have been composed
by Barbour in his extreme old age". This metrical life, written
about 1390, has since been printed by Horstmann in his Altenglische Legenden (1881). And
cf. an article by Professor A. S. Ferguson in Scottish Gaelic Studies, vol. vi,
pp. 58 seq.
Also called Macharius and Mochuemna, he was baptized by St.
Colman and
joined Columba on lona. Machar evangelized the island of Mull.
Consecrated a bishop, he became the Apostle to the Picts in the
Aberdeenshire region.
|
610 Imerius of
Immertal monk-hermit and a missionary in the district of the Swiss
Jura Abbot (AC)
(also known as Himerius,
Imier) A monk-hermit and a missionary in the
district of the Swiss Jura, now called after him Immertal,
Val-Saint-Imier (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). In art Imerius is
depicted as an old hermit among twigs or branches. Venerated at
Immertal, Switzerland (Roeder).
|
 616-620
Saint John the Merciful, monk, Patriarch of Alexandria His spiritual exploits won him
honor among men, even the emperor; charitable to all; ransomed
prisoners, Wed & Fri he
received
everyone in need; settled quarrels, helped the wronged, distributed
alms. 3x's times a week visited the sick-houses, rendered assistance to
the suffering.
His spiritual exploits won
him honor among men, and even the emperor revered him. When the
Patriarchal throne of Alexandria fell vacant, the emperor Heraclius and
all the clergy begged St John to occupy the Patriarchal throne.
The saint worthily assumed his archpastoral service,
concerning himself with the moral and dogmatic welfare of his flock. As
patriarch he denounced every soul-destroying heresy, and drove out from
Alexandria the Monophysite Phyllonos of Antioch.
He considered his chief task to be charitable and to give
help all those in need. At the beginning of his patriarchal service he
ordered his stewards to compile a list of all the poor and downtrodden
in Alexandria, which turned out to be over seven thousand men. The
saint ordered that all of these unfortunates be provided for each day
out of the church's treasury.
Twice during the week, on Wednesdays and Fridays, he emerged
from the doors of the patriarchal cathedral, and sitting on the church
portico, he received everyone in need. He settled quarrels, helped the
wronged, and distributed alms. Three times a week he visited the
sick-houses, and rendered assistance to the suffering. It was during
this period that the emperor Heraclius led a tremendous army against
the Persian emperor Chosroes II. The Persians ravaged and burned
Jerusalem, taking a multitude of captives. The holy Patriarch John gave
a large portion of the church treasury for their ransom.
The saint never refused
suppliants. One day, when the saint was visiting the sick, he met a
beggar and commanded that he be given six silver coins. The beggar
changed his clothes, ran on ahead of the Patriarch, and again asked for
alms. St John gave him six more silver coins. When, however, the beggar
sought charity a third time, and the servants began to chase the fellow
away, the Patriarch ordered that he be given twelve pieces of silver,
saying, "Perhaps he is Christ putting me to the test." Twice the saint
gave money to a merchant that had suffered shipwreck, and a third time
gave him a ship belonging to the Patriarchate and filled with grain,
with which the merchant had a successful journey and repaid his
obligations.
St John the Merciful was known for his gentle attitude
towards people. Once, the saint was compelled to excommunicate two
clergymen for a certain time because of some offense. One of them
repented, but the other fellow became angry with the Patriarch and fell
into greater sins. The saint wanted to summon him and calm him with
kind words, but it slipped his mind. When he was celebrating the Divine
Liturgy, the saint was suddenly reminded by the words of the Gospel: if
you bring your gift to the altar and remember that your brother has
something against you, leave your gift before the altar ... first, be
reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift (Mt.
5:23-24). The saint came out of the altar, called the offending
clergyman to him, and falling down on his knees before him in front of
all the people he asked forgiveness. The cleric, filled with remorse,
repented of his sin, corrected himself, and afterwards was found worthy
to be ordained to the priesthood.
There was a time when a certain citizen insulted George, the
Patriarch's nephew. George asked the saint to avenge the wrong. The
saint promised to deal with the offender so that all of Alexandria
would marvel at what he had done. This calmed George, and St John began
to instruct him, speaking of the necessity for meekness and humility.
Then he summoned the man who insulted George. When St John learned that
the man lived in a house owned by the church, he declared that he would
excuse him from paying rent for an entire year. Alexandria indeed was
amazed by such a "revenge," and George learned from his uncle how to
forgive offenses and to bear insults for God's sake.
St John, a strict ascetic and man of prayer, was always
mindful of his soul, and of death. He ordered a coffin for himself, but
told the craftsmen not to finish it. Instead, he would have them come
each feastday and ask if it was time to finish the work.
St John was persuaded to
accompany the governor Nicetas on a visit to the emperor in
Constantinople. While on his way to visit the earthly king, he dreamed
of a resplendent man who said to him, "The King of Kings summons you."
He sailed to his native
island of Cyprus, and died at Amanthos, the saint peacefully fell
asleep in the Lord (616-620).
|
 633
Cunibert
of
Trèves untiring builder of churches and monasteries B (RM)
Colóniæ
Agrippínæ deposítio sancti Cunibérti
Epíscopi At Cologne, the death of St. Cunibert,
bishop.
663 ST CUNIBERT, BISHOP OF COLOGNE
THE fine church of St Cunibert at Cologne was founded by this bishop,
who dedicated it in honour of St Clement ; when his own relics were
enshrined therein it was renamed after its founder.
He was undoubtedly a great and holy prelate, but the authorities for
details of his life are not very reliable or full. He is
said to have been brought up at the court of Clotaire II, received holy
orders, and was made archdeacon of the church of Trier.
About 625 he was advanced to the bishopric of
Cologne, and wielded such influence that he is commonly referred to as
archbishop, though there was no actual metropolitan of that city till
thc end of the eighth century. He was a royal counsellor and
assisted at several important synods, and when Dagobert I made his
four-year-old son Sigebert king of Austrasia, Cunibert was appointed
one of his two guardians.
St Cunibert was concerned for the evangelization of
the Frisians, as we learn from a letter of St Boniface and in his later
years he left the court to devote himself entirely to his
diocese. He died in an uncertain year, leaving a great
reputation for holiness.
Medieval lives of St
Cunibert are numerous, belonging to two
different types. Fr M. Coens in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xlvii
(1929), pp. 338-367, has discussed the whole question very thoroughly,
and published one particular text, adding abundant references to the
more recent literature of the subject. On the church of St
Cunibert see the Festschrijt Anton
Ditges gewidmet (1911), and also P. Clemen in Kunstdenkmahler der Rheinprovinz,
vol. vi, pt 4(1916), pp. 231-313; relics of The Two Ewalds
(October 3) are preserved there.
Cunibert, a Frankish courtier, was successively archdeacon
of
Trèves (Trier) and archbishop of Cologne. He filled the office
of chief minister during the minority of King Sigebert of Austrasia. He
was an untiring builder of churches and monasteries (Benedictines,
Encyclopedia). Saint Cunibert is always shown with a dove on his head
or at his ear. Sometimes he holds Cologne Cathedral (Roeder).
|
650 St.
Livinus
Martyred Irish bishop
IEschæ, in Bélgio, sancti Livíni, Epíscopi
et Mártyris; qui, cum plúrimos ad Christi fidem
convertísset, a Pagánis necátus est.
Ipsíus vero corpus ad Portum Gandæ póstea
translátum fuit.
At Eschen in Belgium, St. Livinus, bishop and
martyr. After converting many to the faith he was slain by
heathens. His body, however, was afterwards translated to Ghent.
ordained by St. Augustine of
Canterbury, England {D. 607?}.
ST LIVINUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR
THE Church in Ireland today keeps the feast of St Livinus, who is
mentioned in the Roman Martyrology as having been martyred in Belgium
and who, like several other Irish missionaries on the continent, is
credited with having been bishop in Dublin. His medieval life states
that he was the son of a noble Scottish father and a royal Irish
mother, and that he was baptized by St Augustine of Canterbury, who
also ordained him. He later became a bishop and with
three companions left Ireland for Flanders, where they were received by
the abbot St Floribert at Ghent. Then he went preaching among the
heathen in Brabant, was hospitably received by a lady, and eventually
killed by pagans, who cut off his head at Eschen, near Alost. His
relics finally found a resting-place at the abbey of St Peter in Ghent.
The Life of St Livinus professes to have been written from
information received from his personal disciples, but it is not heard
of before the eleventh century, and the resemblance of the above story
to that of St Lebuin (see below) is obvious. It is now generally
received among scholars that this bishop had no independent existence,
that the St Livinus commemorated in the Roman Martyrology, in Ireland
and at Ghent is the same as the St Lebuin who was certainly a
missionary in Holland and is venerated in that country.
A medieval life, purporting
to have been written by a certain "
Bonifacius peccator and at one time ascribed to the great St Boniface,
is printed in Mabillon, vol. ii, pp. 449-461. Its worthlessness has
been demonstrated by 0. Holder-Egger in Historische Aufsatze an G. Waltz gewidmet
(1886), pp. 622-665. J. Kenney, Sources
for the Early History of Ireland, says, p. 509 "It is
probable that Livinus is a doublet of the English St Liafwin or Lebuin
of Deventer in Holland" on which cf.
Analecta Eollandiana, vol. lxx (1952), pp. 285-308.
He was the son of a Scottish noble and an
Irish
princess. Livinus and three companions went to Flanders, Belgium, where
they evangelized the area. He was martyred near Clost, in Brabant. Also
called Lebwin, he is identified by some scholars with St.
Lebuinus.
Livinus of Alost BM (RM)
(also known as Lebwin). An Irishman by birth,
he was ordained a priest by Saint Augustine of Canterbury, and sailed
to Flanders, where for some years he preached the gospel with great
success. At some time during this period he is said to have been
consecrated bishop in Ireland. He was martyred with several companions
near Alost, Brabant, Belgium. His relics are enshrined and venerated at
Ghent. He is perhaps to be identified with as Saint Lebuinus
(Benedictines, Montague). Saint Lebwin is shown as a bishop holding his
tongue with a pair of tongs (because it was plucked out). Venerated at
Alost (Roeder).
|
655 Pope St. Martin I
defender of the faith; buried
in
the church of Our Lady, called Blachernæ, near Cherson,
many miracles are related wrought by St Martin in life and after
death
Martyr, born at Todi on the Tiber, son of Fabricius; elected
Pope at Rome, 21 July, 649, to succeed Theodore I; died at Cherson in
the present peninsulas of Krym, 16 Sept., 655, after a reign of 6
years, one month and twenty six days, having ordained eleven priests,
five deacons and thirty-three bishops. 5 July is the date commonly
given for his election, but 21 July (given by Lobkowitz, "Statistik der
Papste" Freiburg, 1905) seems to correspond better with the date of his
death and reign (Duchesne "Lib. Pont.", I, 336); his feast is on 12
November.The Greeks honor him on 13 April and 15 September, the
Muscovites on 14 April. In the hymns of the Office the Greeks style him
infallibilis fidei magister because he was the successor of St. Peter
in the See of Rome (Nilles, "Calendarium Manuale", Innsbruck, 1896, I,
336).
Martin, one of the noblest figures in a long line of Roman pontiffs
(Hodgkin, "Italy", VI, 268) was, according to his biographer Theodore
(Mai, "Spicil. Rom.", IV 293) of noble birth, a great student, of
commanding intelligence, of profound learning, and of great charity to
the poor. Piazza, II 45 7 states that he belonged to the order of St.
Basil. He governed the Church at a time when the leaders of the
Monothelite heresy, supported by the emperor, were making most
strenuous efforts to spread their tenets in the East and West. Pope
Theodore had sent Martin as apocrysiary to Constantinople to make
arrangements for canonical deposition of the heretical patriarch,
Pyrrhus. After his election, Martin had himself consecrated without
waiting for the imperial confirmation, and soon called a council in the
Lateran at which one hundred and five bishops met. Five sessions were
held on 5, 8, 17, 119 and 31 Oct., 649 (Hefele, "Conciliengeschichte",
III, 190). The "Ecthesis" of Heraclius and the "Typus" of Constans II
were rejected; nominal excommunication was passed against Sergius,
Pyrrus, and Paul of Constantinople, Cyrus of Alexandria and Theodore of
Phran in Arabia; twenty canons were enacted defining the Catholic
doctrine on the two wills of Christ. The decrees signed by the pope and
the assembled bishops were sent to the other bishops and the faithful
of the world together with an encyclical of Martin. The Acts with a
Greek translation were also sent to the Emperor Constans II.
The pope appointed John,
Bishop of Philadelphia, as his vicar in the East with necessary
instructions and full authority . Bishop Paul of Thessalonica refused
to recall his heretical letters previously sent to Rome and added
others,—he was, therefore, formally excommunicated and deposed. The
Patriarch of Constantinople, Paul, had urged the emperor to use drastic
means to force the pope and the Western Bishops at least to subscribe
to the "Typus". The emperor sent Olympius as exarch to Italy, where he
arrived while the council was still in session. Olympius tried to
create a faction among the fathers to favor the views of the emperor,
but without success. Then upon pretense of reconciliation he wished to
receive Holy Communion from the hands of the pontiff with the intention
of slaying him. But Divine Providence protected the pope, and Olympius
left Rome to fight against the Saracens in Sicily and died there.
Constans II thwarted in his plans, sent as exarch Theodore Calliopas
with orders to bring Martin to Constantinople. Calliopas arrived in
Rome, 15 June, 653, and, entering the Lateran Basilica two days later,
informed the clergy that Martin had been deposed as an unworthy
intruder, that he must be brought to Constantinople and that another
was to be chosen in his place. The pope, wishing to avoid the shedding
of human blood, forbade resistance and declared himself willing to be
brought before the emperor. The saintly prisoner, accompanied by only a
few attendants, and suffering much from bodily ailments and privations,
arrived at Constantinople on 17 Sept., 653 or 654, having landed
nowhere except the island of Naxos. The letters of the pope seem to
indicate he was kept at Naxos for a year. Jaffe, n. 1608, and Ewald, n
2079, consider the annum fecimus an interpolation and would allow only
a very short stop at Naxos, which granted the pope an opportunity to
enjoy a bath. Duchesne, "Lib. Pont.", I, 336 can see no reason for
abandoning the original account; Hefele,"Conciliengeschichte" III, 212,
held the same view (see "Zeitschr. für Kath. Theol.", 1892, XVI,
375).
From Abydos messengers were sent to the imperial city to
announce the arrival of the prisoner who was branded as a heretic and
rebel, an enemy of God and of the State. Upon his arrival in
Constantinople Martin was left for several hours on deck exposed to the
jests and insults of a curious crowd of spectators. Towards evening he
was brought to a prison called Prandearia and kept in close and cruel
confinement for ninety-three days, suffering from hunger, cold and
thirst. All this did not break his energy and on 19 December he was
brought before the assembled senate where the imperial treasurer acted
as judge. Various political charges were made, but the true and only
charge was the pope's refusal to sign the "Typus". He was then carried
to an open space in full view of the emperor and of a large crowd of
people. These were asked to pass anathema upon the pope to which but
few responded. Numberless indignities were heaped upon him, he was
stripped of nearly all his clothing, loaded with chains, dragged
through the streets of the city and then again thrown into the prison
of Diomede, where he remained for eighty five days. Perhaps influenced
by the death of Paul, Patriarch of Constantinople, Constans did not
sentence the pope to death, but to exile. He was put on board a ship,
26 March, 654 (655) and arrived at his destination on 15 May. Cherson
was at the time suffering from a great famine. The venerable pontiff
here passed the remaining days of his life. He was buried in the church
of Our Lady, called Blachernæ, near Cherson, and many miracles
are related as wrought by St Martin in life and after death. The
greater part of his relics are said to have been transferred to Rome,
where they repose in the church of San Martino ai Monti. Of his letters
seventeen are extant in P.L., LXXXVII, 119.
656 ST MARTIN I, POPE AND MARTYR
ST MARTIN was a native of Todi in Umbria, renowned among the clergy of
Rome for his learning and holiness. Whilst he was deacon he was sent by
Pope Theodore I as apocrisiarius or nuncio to Constantinople, and upon
the death of Theodore Martin himself was elected pope in July
649. In the October following he held a council at the Lateran
against Monothelism (the denial that Christ had a human will), in which
the orthodox doctrine of the two wills was affirmed and the leaders of
the heresy anathematized. Two imperial edicts, the "Ekthesis" of
Heraclius and the "Typos" of Constans, were likewise censured: the
first because it contained an exposition of faith entirely favourable
to the monothelites, the second because it was a formulary by which
silence was imposed on both parties and it was forbidden to mention
either one or two wills and energies in Christ. "The Lord", said
the Lateran fathers, has commanded us to shun evil and do
good, but not to reject the good with the evil. We are not to deny at
the same time both error and truth"-which sounds like a
reference to Pope Honorius I, though he is not mentioned. These decrees
were published throughout the West, Martin invoking the energy of the
bishops of Africa, Spain and England for the putting down of
Monothelism, and in the East he appointed a vicar to enforce the
synodal decisions in the patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem.
The emperor, Constans II, was infuriated. He had already sent an
exarch to Rome who had failed in his mission of sowing dissension among
the bishops at the synod, and he now sent another, Theodore Kalliopes,
with orders to bring the pope to Constantinople. Martin,
who was sick, took refuge in the Lateran basilica, where he was lying
on a couch in front of the altar when Kalliopes and his soldiers broke
in; he refused to make any resistance, and was taken secretly out of
Rome to be put on board ship at Porto. The voyage was long and
Martin suffered greatly from dysentery. He arrived in
Constantinople in the autumn of 653 and was there left in jail for
three months; he wrote in a letter : "I have not been allowed to
wash, even in cold water, for forty-seven days. I am wasted away
and frozen through, and have had no respite from dysentery...The food
that is given me makes me feel sick. I hope that God, who knows
all things, will bring my persecutors to repentance after He will have
taken me out of this world ".
The pope was eventually arraigned before the senate
on a charge of treason and condemned unheard (His real offence, as St
Martin pointed out to his accusers, was his refusal to sign the
theological "Typos "); then, after shameful public indignities and
ill-treatment, which aroused indignation of the people, he was
returned to prison for another three months. His
life, however, was spared (at the intercession of the dying patriarch
Paul) and in April 654 he was taken into exile at Kherson in the
Crimea. From there St Martin wrote an account of the famine, his own
difficulty in getting food, the barbarism of the inhabitants, and the
neglect with which he was treated.
I am surprised at the indifference of all
those who, though they once knew me, have now so entirely forgotten me
that they do not even seem to know whether I am in the world. I
wonder still more at those who belong to the church of St Peter for the
little concern they show for one of their body.
If that church has no money, it wants not corn, oil or other
provisions out of which they might send us a small
supply. What fear has seized all these men that it
hinders them from fulfilling the commands of God in relieving the
distressed? Have I
appeared such an enemy to the whole Church, or to them in particular ?
However, I pray God, by the intercession of St Peter, to
preserve them steadfast and immovable in the orthodox faith.
As to this wretched body, God will have care of it.
He is at hand; why should I trouble myself? I hope in His mercy that He
will not prolong my course.
St Martin was not disappointed in his hope, for he died
perhaps about two years later, the last of the popes so far to be
venerated as a martyr. His feast is celebrated in the West
on November 12 and in the East on various dates, the Byzantine liturgy
acclaiming him as a glorious defender of the true faith "and an
ornament of the divine see of Peter". A contemporary wrote of Pope St
Martin I as being a man of great intelligence, learning and charity.
For sources we have in this
case the letters of the pope, though
these have not always come to us in a very satisfactory form. There is
also a contemporary account in the Liber
Pontificalis-see Duchesne's edition, vol. i, pp. 336 seq. with his admirable notes-and
the Commemoratio, a narrative
written by an ecclesiastic who had accompanied St Martin In his exile.
This, with the letters, maybe found in Migne, PL., vols, lxxxvii and
cxxix. The Life of St Eligius by St Ouen, and the Greek biography of St
Maximus the Confessor, supply some further details. From
these materials Mgr Mann compiled a tolerably complete history of the
pontificate Lives of the Popes,
vol. i. pt 1, pp. 385-405. But since he wrote in 1902 other
valuable contributions have been made to the subject, notably the
publication by Fr P. Peeters in the Anaecta Bollandiana vol. 1i
(1933), pp. 225-262, of a previously unknown Greek life of St Martin.
See also R. Devreesse, "La Vie de St Maxime le Confesseur", in Analecta
Bollandiana, vol. xlvi (1928), pp. 5-49, and in vol. liii (1935), pp.
49 seq. W. Peita in the
Historischesjahrbuch, vol. xxxviii (1917), pp. 213-236 and 428-458
Duchesne, LEglise au VIeme siècle (1925), pp. 445-453;
E. Amann in DTC,, vol. x, cc. 182-194, etc.
|
665 St.
Cummian Fada
Irish monastic founder defender of Roman liturgical customs
665 ST CUMIAN, ABBOT
CUIMINE FOTA, that is to
say "the Tall ", was born about the year 590, a son of Fiachna, King of
West Munster. While he was young he became a monk, and later presided
over the school and district of Clonfert, whcre he is said to have been
bishop. He is often identified with the Cumian who
founded a house at Kilcummin in Offaly, where he introduced
the Roman computation of Easter.
This gave offence in many quarters and
the abbot of lona rebuked Cumian for abandoning the Celtic
computation, which had been hallowed by the observance of St Columcille.
Cumian replied in a letter known as the Paschal Epistle, in which he
learnedly defends the Roman reckoning, citing synods,
Western fathers and the paschal cycles of antiquity.
This epistle, as Alban Butler remarks, alone suffices to give us
a high idea of the learning, eloquence and virtue of the writer.
But the eloquence and learning of St Cumian
had no effect on the intransigent monks of Jona. He also
wrote a hymn, the last three stanzas of which are found as part of a
liturgical office in the Book of Mulling in Trinity
College, Dublin.
There seems to be no proper
life of St Cumian
in either Latin or Irish. The Felire
of Oengus, however, under November 12 has the
entry: "There has been given with wisdom, science
and much prudence, to my Cumian of beautiful warfare, the fair tall
(Fota) son of Fiachna". See especially Kenney, Sources for the Early History of Ireland,
vol. i, pp. 220-221, and 324-325. Whether this Cumian was
the author of a penitential sometimes attributed to him
seems very doubtful. On this consult J. T. McNeill in the Revue Celtique for 1922
and 1923, and other authorities referred to by L. Gougaud, Christianity in Celtic Lands, p. 285 and passim. Forbes in his
KSS. states (p. 317) that Fort Augustus is in the
vulgar language called Kilichuimin ", i.e. the church of Cumian"
but Cumians were numerous and their identities are very
tangled.
The son of the king of West Munster, Ireland, he entered
Clonfert
Monastery and headed the school there. He later became abbot of
Kilcummin Monastery, which he founded. Cummian was a stout defender of
the Roman liturgy against the Celtic school. His Paschal Epistle is
still extant. Called “Fada,” Cummian received the name “tall” because
of his height.
Cumian the Fada, Abbot
(AC) (also known as Cummian, Cummin) Born in
Ireland, c. 590; died c. 665. Son of King Fiachna of West Munster,
Ireland, Cumian became a monk and was placed in charge of the abbey
school at Clonfert. Later he was the abbot-founder of Kilcummin
Monastery. He was noted for his learning and ably defended the Roman
liturgical practices against the abbot of Iona, who was a stalwart
defender of the Celtic practices. Cumian's defense is still available,
the Paschal Epistle, and he also wrote a hymn, some of which is still
extant. The surname Fada or Fota means "the tall" (Benedictines,
Delaney, Encyclopedia).
|
689
St. Cadwallader king of Saxon peoples
He is also called Cadwalla and Ceadwalla. Born circa 659, Cadwallader
became king of the West Saxons in 685 or 686. He expanded his kingdom
to Sussex, Surrey, as well as Kent, In 668, he resigned and went to
Rome, where he was baptized on Faster eve, by Pope Sergius I. He died a
few days later and was entombed in St. Peter's.
Cadwallador, King (AC). A chieftain in Wales of ancient British race,
not to be confused with the Anglo-Saxon Saint Ceadwalla, who is also
known as Cadwallader. Both are on the Roman calendar. Even Delaney has
confused the two (Benedictines).
|
726 St.
Paternus
Benedictine monk of Saint Pierre le Vif
Apud óppidum Sergíniam, in território
Senonénsi, sancti Patérni, Mónachi et
Mártyris; qui, dum eídem occurréntes in
ipsíus óppidi silva latrónes ad emendándam
vitam incitáret, ab illis trucidátus est.
In the neighbourhood of Sens, St. Paternus, monk and
martyr. He had met some robbers in a nearby forest, and for
attempting to persuade them to amend their lives, they slew him.
near Sens, France. He was slain
by evildoers whom he severely
chastised.
|
773 St.
Lebuin
Benedictine called Leaf Wine in his native England
who worked with St. Boniface.
He was a monk at Ripon, England, who went to Germany in 754. There he
worked with St. Marchelm among
the Frisians. Lebuin went to a pagan
gathering at Marklo, where he won the respect of the Westphalian
Saxons.
ST LEBUIN, OR LIAFWINE
THIS saint was by birth an Englishman, called in his own tongue
Liafwine, and became a monk in the monastery of Ripon where he was
promoted to priest's orders. That he might employ his talent for
the salvation of souls, he went over into lower Germany sometime after
754 where several English missionaries were planting the gospel, and he
addressed himself to St Gregory, vicar at Utrecht for that
diocese. This holy man received him with joy, and sent him with
St Marchelm (Marculf) to carry the gospel into the country now called
Overyssel. St Lebuin was joyfully received by a lady named
Ahachilda and, many being converted, they built a chapel on the west
bank of the river near Deventer ; later a church and residence were
built on the other bank, at Deventer itself.
But many shut their ears to the
truth, from whom the saint had much to suffer he seemed to gather
greater courage from persecutions and continued his work until his
enemies allied themselves with the Westphalian Saxons, burned down his
church, and scattered his Frisian converts.
These Saxons used
to hold a yearly assembly at Marklo, upon the river Weser, to
deliberate on the affairs of their nation, and St Lebuin determined to
brave them thereat. Clothed in his priestly
vestments, he entered the assemhly, holding a cross and a
gospel-book. And he cried out to them with a loud voice,
saying, Hear me, all of you Listen to God
who speaks to you by my mouth. Know that the Lord, the
Maker of the heavens, the earth and all things, is the only true God."
They stopped to listen, and he went on, affirming that their gods were powerless
dead things and that he had been sent by the Lord of Heaven to promise them
His peace and His salvation if they would acknowledge Him and receive baptism.
But if they refused he threatened (perhaps a little tactlessly) that
they should he speedily destroyed by a prince whom God in
His wrath would raise up against them.
Whereupon many of the Saxons ran to the hedges and plucked up sharp
stakes to murder him, But one in authority cried out that
they had often received with respect ambassadors from men
much more ought they to honour an ambassador from a god who
was so powerful that his messenger had escaped from their
hands, as Lebuin had done. This impressed the barbarians and it was agreed
that he should be permitted to travel and preach where he pleased.
St Lebuin after
this heroic venture returned to Deventer and continued his work till he
died.
The paper contributed in
1916 by Hofmeister to the
volume Geschichtliche Studien Albert
Hauck
dargebracht, pp. 85-107, is of special importance. Besides the
life by Hucbald of Enone (in Migne, PL., vol. cxxxii, cc.
877-894) see that edited by Hofmeister in MGH., Scriptores, vol. xxx, pt 2, pp.
789-795. This had been previously printed by Fr M. Coens in
the Analecta Bollandiana,
vol. xxxix (1921), pp. 306-330. There is an account by F. Hesterman,
Der hl. Lebuin (1935).
The second life mentioned above is translated by C. H. Talbot
in Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany (1954).
Lebuin of Deventer, OSB (AC) (also known as Lebwin,
Leafwine, Liafwine,
Livinius). An English Benedictine monk of Ripon, who crossed over to
the Netherlands and partook of the missionary work inaugurated by Saint
Boniface{680}; died at Dokkum, Friesland, in 755. He worked with Saint
Marchelm{D. 762} under Saint Gregory of Utrecht(780} and established
the first church of Deventer. From there he preached to the Saxons and
Frisians (Attwater, Benedictines). Sometimes he is shown with Saint
Marchelm (Roeder). He is the patron of Daventer (Husenbeth).
Medieval Sourcebook: The Life of Lebuin, 10th Century
[Talbot Introduction]
Though the life of St.
Lebuin written by Hucbald of St.
Amand is better known and was considered for a long time to be the
first, M. J. A Moltzer showed in 1909 that it was based on an older
biography, which is here translated. Hucbald was born about A.D. 840
and became monk of Elnone on the Scarpe. He went to Auxerre, where he
followed the lectures of Heiric, a disciple of John Scotus Eriugena.
Later he passed to St. Bertin, where he was placed in charge of the
schools. The successor of Hincmar of Rheims, Fulques (881-900),
invited him to reorgamze the schools in the cathedral city, and after
doing so he returned to St. Amand, where he died, 20 June, probably in
the year 931. Among a number of other lives of Saints, he wrote a
biography of St. Lebuin at the request of Baldric, the restorer of the
diocese of Utrecht (91876), but as he merely pads out the facts
without making any original contribution it has seemed better to
present the original and earlier text to the reader.
Sources:
The Life of St. Lebuin was first
published by Surius, vol. vi, pp 277-86, but this was the text written
by Hucbald of St. Amand. A translation of this appeared in Serenus
Cressy's Church History of Brittany, vol. xxivv, 7. The
present text is, however, based on the Vita Lebuini Antiqua, edited
by A. Hofmeister, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores (x926-34),
vol. xxx, 2, pp. 789-95.
THE LIFE OF ST. LEBUIN
[229] THE LAND of England
which was converted to the faith
of Christ by the intervention of the blessed Pope Gregory has always
been most steadfast in its religion. And just as it is prolific in all
kinds of animals, so also is it productive of holy men. There one finds
laymen devoted to the service of God, virgins of exceptional virtue and
monks of outstanding generosity spurning the world for the love of
Christ. Very many of these have forsaken their country for the Lord's
sake, either to expiate their sins or benefit pagans and Christians by
their teaching.
The Lord Himself
admonished St. Lebuin to forsake his
country and to preach to the Saxons across the sea and told him to
instruct the people who dwelt in the lands of the Franks and Saxons
near the river Isel. After receiving this command, not once but a
second and a third time, he embarked on a ship and came to the priest
Gregory, who at that time was in charge of the church at Utrecht, which
in olden times was called Wiltenburg. Though Gregory was only a priest,
he was fulfilling the duties of a bishop. This man, who was the scion
of a noble Frankish family, had been brought up in the service of St.
Boniface since he was a boy and first joined him when at God's command
he went to preach to the people of Hesse and Thuringia. Boniface had
come from England at the time of Charles and became so renowned for his
wisdom and holiness in the days of that king's two sons, Carloman and
Pippin, that he was able to effect reforms both in religion and belief
throughout the whole Frankish kingdoms. Though he set out as a poor
pilgrim, such was his eloquence and prudence that he was chosen by the
kings and the people to be Bishop of Mainz, and when he went to Rome to
be consecrated archbishop by Pope Gregory the third his name was
changed from Wynfrith to Boniface because of his good deeds [bona
facta]. But after this blessed master was slain by the sword vrith
fiftytwo companions whilst he [230] was preaching in Frisia, St.
Gregory spent the rest of his life ministering to the young Chistian
community which St. Willibrord and other disciples of the Lord had
baptized in Frisia and in the districts round about.
St. Lebuin, therefore,
told St. Gregory what the Lord had
comrnanded him and asked to be conducted to the spot in his diocese
which the Lord had pointed out and commended to his care. After blessed
Gregory had listened to him, congratulated him and welcomed this
visitation from the Lord, he directed him to the place he had mentioned
and gave him as a companion the servant of God, Marchelmus, who had
been one of Willibrord's disciples Then he was received into the house
of a widow named Abarhilda and enjoyed her hospitality for some days.
When many had accepted his
teaching, the Christians who
lived there built an oratory for him near the western bank of the river
Isel at a place called Wilp, and not long afterwards they built a
church and a dwellingplace on the eastern bank of the same river,
where the man of God remained intent on the work of God. From time to
time he went into Saxony to see if he could gain souls to God, and he
persuaded many to accept the faith of Christ. Among his friends and
acquaintances were people of the nobility, one of whom was a rich man
named Folcbert who lived in the village of Suderg.
But as it were not
possible for him who bore the light of
Christ to remain concealed for long, nor for the seed of Christ to grow
without persecution, complaints arose among those who did not believe
and they began to threaten the man of God because some of their number
had abandoned the ancient worship and had turned to new ways. "Why do
we not get hold of this fanatic," they said," and give him what he
deserves for gadding about the province and jabbering his incantations
and sending people out of their minds?" And so they banded together in
a mob, burned down his church and drove out the Christians from their
midst.
In olden times the Saxons
had no king but appointed rulers
over each village; and their custom was to hold a general meeting once
a year in the centre of Saxony near the river Yser at a place called
Marklo. There all the leaders used to gather together and they [231]
were joined by twelve noblemen from each village with as many freedmen
and serfs. There they confirmed the laws, gave judgment on outstanding
cases and by common consent drew up plans for the coming year on which
they could act either in peace or war.
Folcbert, whom we have
already mentioned, had a son named
Helco, who was to set out with the other youths for the meeting. One
morning, whilst he was speaking to his son, he said, among other
things: " I feel anxious about Wine" - for this is what he used to call
Lebuin - "and I am afraid that if he meets with those who hate him they
will either kill him or drag him to the meeting place and have him
killed there." Whilst he was still speaking, the dogs began barking in
the hall and growling at someone coming in. The young man Helco went to
the door to see who it was and there he found Lebuin trying to ward off
the dogs with his stick. He ran up to him and, driving the dogs away,
brought him vwith joy to his father. After they had greeted each other
and sat down, Folcbert said to the man of God: "You have just come at
the right time, my dear Wine, for I was wanting to see you and have a
few words with you. Where do you intend to go now?" The man of God
said: "I am going to the meeting of the Saxons." Folcbert said: "You
are on friendly terms with many of us, dear Wine, and what you say
gives pleasure even to me. But I hear that there are many insolent
young fellows who insult and threaten you. Listen to me and be on your
guard against them. Do not go to the meeting, but return home to your
friend Davo. For once the meeting is over you may go about with less
danger and then you can come here in safety and we shall listen to your
words with very great pleasure." The man of God replied: " I must not
fail to be present at this meeting, for Christ himself has commanded me
to make known his words to the Saxons." Folcbert said: " You will not
get away." He answered: " I shall escape easily enough, for He who sent
me will be my aid."
Since he could not
persuade him, he sent him away.
When the day of the
meeting came round, all the leaders were
present, as were others whose duty it was to attend. Then, when they
had gathered together, they first offered up prayers to their gods, as
is their custom, asking them to protect their country and [232] to
guide them in making decrees both useful to themselves and pleasing to
the gods. Then when a circle had been formed they began the discussions.
Suddenly Lebuin appeared
in the middle of the circle,
clothed in his priestly garments, bearing a aoss in his hands and a
copy of the Gospels in the crook of his arm. Raising his voice, he
aied: "Listen to me, listen. I am the messenger of Almighty God and to
you Saxons I bring his command." Astonished at his words and at his
unusual appearance, a hush fell upon the assembly. The man of God then
followed up his announcement with these words: " The God of heaven and
Ruler of the world and His Son, Jesus Christ, commands me to tell you
that if you are willing to be and to do what His senants tell you He
will confer benefits upon you such as you have never heard of before."
Then he added: "As you have never had a king over you before this time,
so no king will prevail against you and subject you to his domination.
But if you are unwilling to accept God's commands, a king has been
prepared nearby who will invade your lands, spoil and lay them waste
and sap away your strength in war; he will lead you into exile, deprive
you of your inheritance, slay you with the sword, and hand over your
possessions to whom he has a mind: and afterwards you will be slaves
both to him and his successors."
At this they could no
longer hold their tongue and cried out
in a loud voice: "This is the wandering charlatan who goes about the
country preaching wild, fantastic nonsense. Catch him and stone him to
death." In spite of the efforts of the wiser among them to prevent it,
the mob ran to the fence close by, wrenched stakes from it, pared and
sharpened them and threw them, trying to transfix him. But suddenly he
was no longer there. Then, all of them, both those who had been put to
confusion and those who had tried to control them, condemned their
action as unjust, and one of them in particular, a speaker named Buto,
climbed on to the trunk of a tree and addressed them as follows: "All
you who have any sense of justice, listen to what I have to say. When
the Normans, Slavs and Frisians or any other people send messengers to
us we receive them peacefully and listen with courtesy [233] to what
they have to say. But now, when a messenger of God comes to us, look at
the insults we pour upon him! The ease with which he escaped from our
hands ought to prove to you that he spoke the truth and that the
threats he uttered will not be long in happening."
Moved by regret at what
they had done, they decided that the
messenger of God should go unharmed if he appeared again and that he
should be allowed to travel wheresoever he pleased. Then, after this
decision had been reached, they continued with the business they had in
hand.
St. Lebuin, therefore,
went about wherever the Spirit of God
led him, persevering in the work of God until he gave back his soul to
its Creator. He was buried after his death in the church which had
formerly been burned down and rebuilt. But after his death the wicked
Saxons laid waste that place and set the church on fire and for three
days tried without success to find his body. At the same time Abbot
Gregory also died and his diocese was taken over by his nephew
Albricus, who loved Liutger [l] with a deep affection. He said to him:
" Because you are now my dearest brother, I beg you to carry out my
wishes. For the place in which St. Lebuin carried out his work until
his death and where he is now buried has been laid waste. I want you to
restore that place and to rebuild the church over his body."
[1] The St. Liutger
mentioned in this
biography was
the first Bishop of Munster in Westphalia. Born at Zuilen near Utrecht
about 774 (d. 26 March 809), he was sent to the school of Gregory at
Utrecht and from there went to York with Alubert, who was consecrated
bishop At York Llutger studhed under Alcuin and contracted a friendship
with him that lasted throughout hus hfe. It was in 775 that he was
despatched to Deventer to restore the chapel destroyed by the Saxons
and to find the relics of St. Lebuin, after which he spent some time
teaching at the school of Utrecht. In 777 he was ordained at Cologne
and put in charge of the Eastern part of Friesland, with Dokkum, the
scene of St. Boniface's martyrdom, as his centre. After seven years he
was drlven out by the rlsians, instigated by Widukind, leader of the
Saxons, and in 785 vlsited Rome, where he was received by Pope Adrian.
For the next two years he stayed at Monte Cassino, and there, on the
arrival of Charlemagne, was appointed musslonary to the five districts
at the mouth of the river Ems. In 793 Charlemagne wlshed to make him
Bishop of Trier, but he declined the honour and proposed instead to
evangelize the Saxons. He built a monastery m the place, later called
Munster, and lived there under the Rule of St. Chrodegang of Metz,
whlch a few years before had been imposed in all Frankish territories.
Someume between 80z and 803 he was consecrated Bishop of Munster and
died on Passion Sunday 809. His body rests at Werden, the Benedictine
monastery begun by hlm in 799 and completed in 804.
[234] Therefore the
servant of God Liutger, in obedience to
the commands of his master, looked for the body of the saint in the
place just mentioned but was unable to f nd it. He began to raise a
church, however, in the part where he thought it ought to be. When he
had laid the foundations and was trying to erect the walls St. Lebuin
appeared to him in a dream and said: " Dearest brother Liutger, you
have done well in restoring the church of God which the heathens
destroyed so long ago: my body, which you were looking for, will be
found buried under the south wall which you have built." On the
following morning, after saying his prayers, Liutger found the body in
the place described to him in the dream, and, gathering together a
large band of men, he had the foundations moved to the south part of
the building so that the tomb of the saint could be enclosed within the
church. It is in this place that God works many miracles through his
servant Lebuin even to the present day.
Source:
C. H. Talbot, The
Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany,
Being the Lives of SS. Willibrord, Boniface, Leoba and Lebuin together
with the Hodoepericon of St. Willibald and a selection from the
correspondence of St. Boniface, (London and New York: Sheed and
Ward, 1954)
The copyright status of this text has been checked
carefully. The situation is complicated, but in sum is as follows. The
book was published in 1954 by Sheed & Ward, apparently
simultaneously, in both London and New York. The American-printed
edition simply gave 'New York' as place of publication, the
British-printed edition gave 'London and New York'. Copyright was not
renewed in 1982 or 1983, as required by US Law. The recent GATT treaty
(1995?) restored copyright to foreign publications which had entered US
public domain simply because copyright had not be renewed in accordance
with US law. This GATT provision does not seem to apply to this text
because it was published simultaneously in the US and Britain by a
publisher operating in both countries (a situation specifically
addressed in the GATT regulations). Thus, while still under copyright
protection in much of the world, the text remains in the US public
domain.
Some years ago, a
collection of such hagiographical texts,
including some texts from Talbot, was published:-
Thomas F.X. Noble and
Thomas Head, Soldiers of Christ:
Saint and Saints' Lives from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages,
(University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995).
Soldiers of Christ
uses, among others, the Talbot
translated texts, but is much improved by additional notes by the two
editors, and by new translations of some parts. Readers from outside
the US should consult this volume, and readers in the US would find it
profitable to do so.
This text is part of the Internet Medieval
Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and
copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history.
Unless otherwise indicated
the specific electronic form of
the document is copyright. Permission is granted for electronic
copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and
personal use. If you do reduplicate the document, indicate the source.
No permission is granted for commercial use.
|
800 St.
Namphasius
Hermit monk Soldier and friend of Charlemagne
also known as Nauphary, Namphrase, and Namphisius.
A one-time Soldier and friend of Charlemagne {742-814}, he embraced the
life of a
recluse at Marcillac, France.
Namphasius, OSB (AC) (also
known as Namphisius, Namphosius, Nauphary,
Namphrase). A friend of Charlemagne, and fought against Saracens in
southern France. He afterwards became a
monk-recluse near Marcillac (Lot) (Benedictines).
|
830 St. Ymar
Benedictine martyred by marauding Danes of England
Ymar (d.c. 830) +. A monk in Reculver Abbey, Kent, England, he was put
to death by marauding Danes.
|
1005 St.
Benedict
Companions Italian Benedictine martyrs
Apud Casimíriam, in Polónia, sanctórum
Mártyrum Eremitárum Benedícti, Joánnis,
Matthæi, Isaac et Christiáni; qui a
prædónibus, divíno inténti servítio,
dire vexáti sunt et gládiis occísi.
At Gnesen in Poland, the holy hermits and martyrs
Benedict, John, Matthew, Isaac, and Christian. They were savagely
attacked by robbers and slain by the sword while there were at prayer.
SS. BENEDICT AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
ST BENEDICT of Benevento was a friend of St Bruno of Querfurt, they
having shared a cell at a monastery near Ravenna, under the direction
of St Romuald. When the Emperor Otto III wished to evangelize the Slays
of Pomerania, Benedict and other monks were sent to engage in the
work. They first went into western Poland, where they were
well received at the court of Duke Boleslaus I and teachers were
appointed to instruct them in the Slavonic speech.
The monks established themselves at Kazimierz, near Gniezno,
where on November 11, 1003, St Benedict and four others were murdered
by pagan robbers.
They were venerated as martyrs, their relics solemnly translated
to Olomuc, and their names added to the Roman Martyrology: " the holy
martyred hermits Benedict, John, Matthew, Isaac and Christian who,
intent upon the service of God, were grievously troubled by robbers and
by them slain with the sword ", as their notice now runs. These
martyrs, who are venerated in Poland as the Five Polish Brothers,
although they were neither Poles nor (apart from Matthew and Isaac),
other than spiritually, brothers, are accounted to the glory of the
Camaldolese Order, though in fact they were dead some years before St
Romuald founded Camaldoli. When St Bruno of Querfurt
learned of the fate of his friend Benedict and his four fellows, he
collected evidence from Poland and wrote down an account of what had
happened.
There are two main sources
for the history of these
martyrs. The first is the narrative of St Bruno of Querfurt, of
which the text may be read in MGH., Scriptores,
vol. xv, pp. 716-738, and in the German annotated translation of H. G.
Voigt, Bruno von Querfurt (1907). The second
account, of later date, is that of Cosmas of Prague. It is
printed in Migne, PL., vol. clxvi, cc. 109-113. See also the Neues Archiv, vol. viii, pp. 365 seq.
Benedict, with John, Matthew, Isaac, and
Christinus, went
with St.
Adalbert of Prague to a mission among the Slavic peoples. Robbers
attacked their monastery near Gnesen and slew them. Pope Julius II
canonized them. They are revered in Poland as "the Five Polish
Brothers;' although they were not Poles and not related.
Benedict, John, Matthew, Isaac, & Christinus, OSB MM
(RM);
canonized by Pope Julius II. Italian Benedictines who followed Saint
Adalbert of Prague in the mission among Slavs; massacred
by robbers at their monastery near Gnesen (Benedictines).
Benedict of Benevento & Companions MM (RM) This may be
the Benedict
of the group of martyrs above.
|
1040 St. Anastasius XIX
first Archbishop of Hungary companion of St. Stephen
ST ASTRIK, OR ANASTASIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF THE HUNGARIANS
IT is agreed that the
first archbishop in Hungary was called Astrik, but there is a great
deal of uncertainty about his identity. There are three
candidates ", all associated with St Adalbert of Pragud :
viz. Anastasius, the first abbot of Brevnov in Bohemia,
Astericus, one of Adalbert's clergy, and Radla, Adalbert's fellow student
at Magdeburg and his close friend. The first two of these
may be reallyone person. On the whole it
seems likely to have been Radla, a Czech or Croat from Bohemia who
is known to have been a monk in Hungary.
He probably received the
habit at Brevnov, taking the name of Anastasius, of which
Astrik seems to be an equivalent. Then, when St
Adalbert failed to consolidate his position in Bohemia, and
left Prague, Astrik Radla went to help the missionaries among the
Magyars.
He is known to have been in the service of the wife of Duke
Geza in 997; and he was almost certainly the first abbot of
St Martin's (Pannonhalma), the first ecclesiastical
institution of Hungary, founded by Geza. On the duke's death and the accession
of his son St Stephen I the evangelization of the Magyars was taken seriously
in hand, and St Astrik was active in the work of preaching the gospel and
establishing an ecclesiastical organization. In connection
with this Stephen sent him to Rome to confer with Pope
Silvester II, and soon after his return the sovereign was
crowned with a royal crown, granted no doubt at the instance of the Emperor
Otto III, in soox. There is a good case for Radla being the
Astrik who was now promoted tO be archbishop of the new
Hungarian church.
When Astrik attended a synod at Frankfurt in
iooó he was styled simply Ungarorum epicopus, and it seems
that his seat was not at Esztergom, which before long
became the primatial see; Vesprem is the first Hungarian diocese for
which there is documentary evidence, but Astrik's see may
have been at Kalocsa. Throughout the remainder of his
long life he worked hand in hand with King St Stephen for
the proper settlement of the Church in his dominions and for the
conversion of the fierce Magyars to the faith of Christ. He died
soon after his royal master, about the year 1040.
Of the personality and personal life of St Astrik nothing is
known; but it is significant that St Adalbert of Prague had so much
affection for and trust in him Adalbert wrote to Geza's wife asking her
to send "his master" back to him in Poland; and to Astrik Radla
himself he wrote saying that if the duchess would not release him, he
should slip away secretly and rejoin "your Adalbert". But to Astrik
his duty was clear that he must stay among the Magyars.
The best examination of the
problem is doubtless that of F.
Dvornik in his Making of Central and
Eastern Europe (1949), pp. 159-166, which shows clearly how
confused and uncertain is the history of the conversion of Hungary,
even for scholars who are natives of eastern Europe. Cf. C. Kadlec in the Cambridge Medieval History, vol.
iv, p. 214. See also St Bruno's Life of St Adalbert in Fontes rerum Bohemicarum (1871),
vol. i the Life of St Stephen in MGH., Scriptores, vol. xi, and cf vol. iv, pp. 547, 563 and
Lexikon fur Theologie und Kirche,
vol. i (1930), c. 394.
The archbishop, he started
as a monk originally named Radla. In 997, he
served as a missionary among the Magyars, becoming abbot of the abbey
founded by the duke and duchess of Geza in Hungary. St. Stephen was the
son and heir of the duke. He succeeded his father and aided Anastasius
in missionary efforts among the Magyars. Pope Sylvester II recognized
Stephen as king of the Hungarians and sent him a crown through
Anastasius. The archbishop supported Stephen's enlightened rule, dying
two years after the king's passing. Astrik of
Pannonhalma, OSB B (AC) (also known as Anastasius,
Astericus,
Ascrick, Astricus) Born in Bohemia; died c. 1030-1040.
Radla, probably a Croat
or a Czech
from Bohemia, took the name Anastasius when became a monk of SS
Boniface and Alexius at Rome. He accompanied Saint Adalbert to the Bohemian
mission. He became the first abbot of Brevnov, but had to flee to
Hungary. There he engaged in missionary work among the
Magyars, was
in the
service of the wife of Duke Geza in 997, and was named first abbot of
Saint Martin's in Pannonhalma, the first monastery in Hungary, which
was founded by the duke. When Saint Stephen succeeded his
father Geza as duke,
Anastasius set up
a hierarchy, renewed his evangelization efforts among the Magyars, to
which he devoted the rest of his life, and was appointed the first
archbishop of the Hungarian Church with his see probably at Kalocsa. Anastasius
was the king's ambassador, sent to negotiate the
recognition
of the new Hungarian kingdom by the Pope Sylvester II. This trip
probably was responsible for Stephen receiving papal recognition as
King of the Hungarians and his crowning by Emperor Otto III in 1001
with a crown sent by the Pope to him through Anastasius. He worked
closely with Stephen the rest of his life and died two years after him
(Benedictines, Delaney).
|
1035 St.
Astericus
Benedictine bishop ambassador to King Stephen Hungary
the one who brought the Holy Crown to St. Stephen. Astericus was born
in Bohemia. After becoming a Benedictine, he accompanied St. Adalbert
to the missions. Appointed the first abbot of Brevnov, he was also
named abbot of Pannonhalma in Hungary. As the king's ambassador, he
went to Rome to negotiate the recognition of Hungary by Pope Sylvester
II. In some lists he is called Anastasius.
Astericus (Astricus, Ascrick) Nov 12 + c 1035. Born in Czechia, he
became a monk and accompanied St
Adalbert in the Czech mission. He became the first Abbot of
Brevnov but had to flee to Hungary where he became the first Abbot of
Pannonhalma, recently founded by King Stephen, and Archbishop of
Kalocsa.
Anastasius was the King's ambassador and brought the holy crown of
Hungary to St Stephen.
|
1304 BD RAINERIUS OF AREZZO town had an altar set up in his honour and record
kept of attributed Miracles
INFORMATION is lacking
about the details of the life of this early Franciscan beatus. He was born at
Arezzo, of the Mariani family, and gave up a secular career to join the
Friars Minor. He was a companion of Bd Benedict of Arezzo, who
had been received into the order by St Francis
himself. Miracles were attributed to Bd Rainerius
during his life, and immediately after his death, at Borgo San Sepoicro
on November I, 1304, the municipality of the town had
an altar set up in his honour and record kept of his
miracles. His cultus was confirmed in i8oz.
Bd Rainerius is dealt with by the Bollandists on
November 1. They found no record of his life beyond such
brief notices as were supplied by Wadding and other annalists, but they
print from manuscript sources a record of miracles worked at his
tomb. See further Mazzara, Leggendario Francescano (1680),
vol. iii, pp. 295-296 and Leon Aureole
Seraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. iv, pp. 34-35.
|
1332 BD JOHN DELLA PACE founder of the
Fraticelli delta Penitenza at Pisa was at one time a hermit
A confirmatio cultus may, or at any rate used, in former days, to be
accorded with very little knowledge of the life of the servant of God
to whom honour was paid. When Pope Pius IX in i8~6 approved the
celebration of this feast for the Franciscan Order, it was supposed
that Bd John died in the first half of the fifteenth century.
Since then it has come to light, through the indefatigable researches
of the archivist S. Earsotti, that there were two Johns at Pisa who
have become confused. He who died in 1433 was a furrier who
lived in matrimony all his days; but the founder of the Fraticelli
delta Penitenza at Pisa was at one time a hermit, and his death took
place about 1332.
See the two books of S.
flarsotti, Pro memoria sul B.
Giovanni della Pace
(1901) and Un muovo fiore serafico
(1906) and the notice of the confirmation of cult in the Analecta Juris Pontificii, vol. iii
(1858), cc. 378-380. The confusion has been perpetuated in other
works, e.g. Leon, Aureole
Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. iv, p. 60.
|
1433 Blessed John
Cini
"della Pace," bred to arms. In 1396 he became a Franciscan tertiary and
founded
several charitable organizations and a confraternity of flagellants OFM
Tert. (AC)
Born in Pisa, Italy; cultus approved in 1856. Surnamed 'the Soldier' or
'Stipendario,' or from his domicile, 'de Porta pacis,' 'della pace.'
John Cini was bred to arms. In 1396 he became a Franciscan tertiary and
founded several charitable organizations and a confraternity of
flagellants (Benedictines).
|
1456 Blessed
Gabriel Ferretti the scion of the counts Ferretti OFM (AC)
BD GABRIEL OF ANCONA
ST JAMES DELLA Marca, whose feast is kept on the 28th of this month,
was instructed by Pope Callistus III to draw up an account of the life
of this holy Franciscan. Unfortunately the document could not be found
when his cultus came up for confirmation in 1753, and particulars of
his career are few. He belonged to the Ferretti of Ancona and
became a friar minor of the Observance when he was eighteen. He
was a missioner for fifteen years in the March of Ancona, where he was
conspicuous by his holiness and miracles, and was then appointed
guardian of the Observants in his native town, It is said that he
greatly encouraged among his young friars the use of the devotion
called the Franciscan or Seraphic Crown, a rosary in honour of the joys
of our Lady, and that her approval of this was marvelously demonstrated.
On one occasion Bd Gabriel was reported to St James
for some small dereliction of duty. St James, looking
rather to the quality of the doer than the smallness of the fault,
ordered him to accuse and discipline himself before his
community. This Gabriel did cheerfully, and sent a sugar-loaf and
a carpet for his church to St James as a token of goodwill. He
died at Ancona on November 12, 1456. Pope Pius IX
(Mastai-Ferretti) belonged to another branch of Bd Gabriel's family.
Most of the older
collections of Franciscan lives provide some
account of Bd Gabriel for example, we find a tolerably full notice in
Mazzara, Leggendarlo Francescano
(1680), vol. ii, pt 2, pp.
425-427. In particular a certain authority attaches to the
information furnished by Wadding, Annales
Ordinis Minoruin, vol. xii,
nn. 206-214. Short sketches were published separately by V.
M. Ferretti in and by S. Melchiori in 1846. See
also Leon, Aureole Seraphique
(Eng. trans.), vol. iv, pp. 61-66.
Born in Ancona, Italy, 1385; cultus confirmed in 1753.
Gabriel was the
scion of the counts Ferretti. He became a Friar Minor at Ancona, and
eventually provincial of Piceno in the Marches (Benedictines). Blessed
Gabriel is represented as a Franciscan with a book on the ground before
him, and a pool containing ducks. The Virgin and Child in glory appear
in the heavens. Venerated at Ancona and the Marches (Roeder).
|
1500 Blessed
Christopher of Portugal beheaded for the faith by the Islamic prince of
Ceylon M (PC)
Christopher, a Portuguese knight of the Order of Christ (under the
Cistercian Rule), was beheaded for the faith by the Islamic prince of
Ceylon (Sri Lanka) (Benedictines). |
 1580
Blessed John the Merciful of Rostov (also known as "the Hairy") Living in humility, patience and unceasing
prayer, he spiritually nourished many people
Struggled at Rostov in the exploit of holy foolishness,
enduring
much deprivation and sorrow. He did not have a permanent shelter, and
at times took his rest at the house of his spiritual Father, a priest
at the church of the All-Holy, or with one of the aged widows.
Living in humility, patience and unceasing prayer, he spiritually
nourished many people, among them St Irenarchus, Hermit of Rostov
(January 13). After a long life of pursuing asceticism, he died on
September 3, 1580 and was buried, according to his final wishes, beside
the church of St Blaise beyond the altar.
He had "hair upon his head abundantly," therefore he was called
"Hairy." The title "Merciful" was given to Blessed John because of the
many healings that occurred at his grave, and also in connection with
the memory of the holy Patriarch John the Merciful (November 12), whose
name he shared. |
1623 St.
Josaphat of
Polotsk an Eastern Rite bishop martyr to church unity because he died trying to
bring part of the
Orthodox Church into union with Rome
Vitépsci, in Polónia, pássio sancti
Jósaphat, e sancti Basilíi Ordine, Epíscopi
Polocénsis et Mártyris; qui a schismáticis, in
ódium cathólicæ unitátis et
veritátis, crudéliter interféctus est, et a Pio
Papa Nono inter sanctos Mártyres adscríptus. Ejus
tamen festívitas recólitur décimo octávo
Kaléndas Decémbris.
At Witebsk in Poland, the martyrdom of St. Josaphat,
of the Order of St. Basil, a Polish archbishop and martyr, who was
cruelly slain by schismatics through hatred of Catholic unity and
truth. He was canonized by Pope Pius IX, and his feast is
observed on the 16th of November.
In
1054, a formal split called a schism took place between the Eastern
Church centered in Constantinople and the Western Church centered in
Rome. Trouble between the two had been brewing for centuries
because of
cultural, political, and theological differences. In 1054 Cardinal
Humbert was sent to Constantinople to try and reconcile the latest
flare up and wound up excommunicating the patriarch.
The immediate
problems included an insistence on the Byzantine rite, married clergy,
disagreement on whether the Holy Spirit proceeded from the
Father and the Son.
The split only grew worse from there, centering
mostly on whether to except the authority of the Pope and Rome.
 More than five
centuries later, in what is now known as Byelorussia and the Ukraine
but what was then part of Poland-Lithuania, an Orthodox metropolitan of
Kiev and five Orthodox bishops decided to commit the millions of
Christians under their pastoral care to reunion with Rome.
Josaphat
Kunsevich who was born in 1580 or 1584 was still a young boy when the Synod of Brest Litovsk took place
in 1595-96, but he was witness to the results both positive and
negative.
Many of the millions of Christians did not agree with the
bishops
decision to return to communion with the Catholic Church and both sides
tried to resolve this disagreement unfortunately not only with words
but with violence. Martyrs died on both sides. Josaphat was a voice of
Christian peace in this dissent.
After an apprenticeship to a merchant, Josaphat turned down
a
partnership in the business and a marriage to enter the monastery of
the Holy Trinity at Vilna in 1604. As a teenager he had found
encouragement in his vocation from two Jesuits and a rector who
understood his heart. And in the monastery he found another soulmate in
Joseph Benjamin Rutsky. Rutsky who had joined the Byzantine Rite under
orders of Pope Clement VIII after converting from Calvinism shared the
young Josaphat's passion to work for reunion with Rome. The two friends
spent long hours making plans on how they could bring about that
communion and reform monastic life.
The careers of the two friends parted physically when
Josaphat was sent
to found new houses in Rome and Rutsky was first made abbot at Vilna.
Josaphat replaced Rutsky as abbot when Rutsky became metropolitan of
Kiev. Josaphat immediately put into practice his early plans of reform.
Because his plans tended to reflect his own extremely austere ascetic
tendencies, he was not always met with joy. One community threatened to
throw him into the river until his general compassion and his
convincing words won them over to a few changes.
Josaphat faced even more problems when he became first
bishop of
Vitebsk and then Polotsk in 1617. The church there was literally and
figuratively in ruins with buildings falling apart, clergy marrying two
or three times, and monks and clergy everywhere not really interested
in pastoral care or model Christian living. Within three years,
Josaphat had rebuilt the church by holding synods, publishing a
catechism to be used all over, and enforcing rules of conduct for
clergy. But his most compelling argument was his own life which he
spent preaching, instructing others in the faith, visiting the needy of
the towns.
But despite all his work and the respect he had, the
Orthodox
separatists found fertile ground with they set up their own bishops in
the exact same area. Meletius Smotritsky was named his rival archbishop
of Polotsk. It must have hurt Josaphat to see the people he had served
so faithfully break into riots when the King of Poland declared
Josaphat the only legitimate archbishop. His former diocese of Vitebsk
turned completely against the reunion and him along with two other
cities.
But what probably hurt even more was that the very Catholics
he looked
to for communion opposed him as well. Catholics who should have been
his support didn't like the way he insisted on the use of the Byzantine
rite instead of the Roman rite. Out of fear or ignorance, Leo Sapiah,
chancellor of Lithuania, chose to believe stories that Josaphat was
inciting the people to violence and instead of coming to his aid,
condemned him. Actually his only act of force was when the separatists
took over the church at Mogilev and he asked the civil power to help
him return it to his authority.
In October 1623, Josaphat decided to return to Vitebsk to
try to calm
the troubles himself. He was completely aware of the danger but said,
"If I am counted worthy of martyrdom, then I am not afraid to die."
The separatists saw their chance to get rid of Josaphat and
discredit
him if they could only stir Josaphat's party to strike the first blow.
Then they would have an excuse to strike back. Their threats were so
public that Josaphat preached on the gospel verse John 16:2, "Indeed,
an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so
they are offering worship to God." He told the people, "You people want
to kill me. You wait in ambush for me in the streets, on the bridges,
on the highways, in the marketplace, everywhere. Here I am; I came to
you as a shepherd. You know I would be happy to give my life for you. I
am ready to die for union of the Church under St. Peter and his
successor the Pope."
But aside from words, Josaphat insisted that his party not
react in
anyway that did not show patience and forbearance. When the separatists
saw that they were not getting the violent response they had hoped for
they decided to wear Josaphat and the others down as they plotted more
direct action. A priest named Elias went to the house where everyone
was staying and shouted insults and threats to everyone he saw,
focusing on calumniating Josaphat and the Church of Rome.
Josaphat knew of the plot against him and spent his day in
prayer. In
the evening he had a long conversation with a beggar he had invited in
off the streets.
When Elias was back the next morning of November 12, the
servants were
at their wits' ends and begged Josaphat's permission to do something.
Before he went off to say his office he told them they could lock Elias
away if he caused trouble again. When he returned to the house he found
that the servants had done just that and Josaphat let Elias out of the
room.
But it was too late. The mistake had been made. Elias had
not been hurt
in anyway but as soon as the mob saw that Elias had been locked up they
rejoiced in the excuse they had been waiting for. Bells were rung and
mobs descended on the house. By the time they reached the house, Elias
had been released but the mob didn't care; they wanted the blood they
had been denied for so long.
Josaphat came out in the courtyard to see the mob beating
and trampling
his friends and servants. He cried out, "My children what are you doing
with my servants? If you have anything against me, here I am, but leave
them alone!" With shouts of "Kill the papist" Josaphat was hit with a
stick, then an axe, and finally shot through the head. His bloody body
was dragged to the river and thrown in, along with the body of a dog
who had tried to protect him.
The unsung heroes of this horrible terrorism were the Jewish
people of
Vitebsk. Some of the Jewish people risked their own lives to rush into
the courtyard and rescue Josaphat's friends and servants from the
bloodthirsty mobs. Through their courage, lives were saved. These same
Jewish people were the only ones to publicly accuse the killers and
mourn the death of Josaphat while the Catholics of the city hid in fear
of their lives.
As usual violence had the opposite affect from that
intended. Regret
and horror at how far the violence had gone and the loss of their
archbishop swung public opinion over toward the Catholics and unity.
Eventually even Archbishop Meletius Smotritsky, Josaphat's rival, was
reconciled with Rome. And in 1867 Josaphat became the first saint of
the Eastern church to be formally canonized by Rome.
Josaphat of Poland BM (RM) (also known as Joseph Polotsk)
Born at
Vladimir, Volhynia, Poland, 1584; died at Vitebsk, 1623; canonized
1867; feast day formerly on November 14.
John Kunsevich was born at a time when the attempts of some
Christians
to bring about a reunion between Rome and the Russian Orthodox
Christians were causing deep dissension. Poland had annexed the
Ruthenian countries--Byelorussia and the Ukraine-- during the 14th
century. In 1595, with the approval of Clement VIII and the Polish
government, a synod at Brest-Litovsk, Lithuania, agreed on the
unification of the schismatic Greek bishops with the Latin bishops, and
on their joint union with Rome.
But the decisions of leaders in isolation from those
affected means
little. The union failed to take root in the hearts of the 10 million
Ruthenians and, instead of union between two churches, a third
arose--the Ruthenian Catholic Church that affiliated itself with Rome
but kept the oriental rites.
Of these three churches it was the Ruthenian Catholic Church
that,
being the most recent and therefore also the most revolutionary,
aroused the greatest anger on the part of those who, either from
principle or calculating interest, were conservatives. The familiar
cries arose of indignation, the same cries we hear even today from
those who are bound by routine. And, of course, there was the normal
squabble for power over appointments.
Only the blood of a martyr can overcome such differences by
converting
even the hardest of hearts. And so Ruthenia, which was just one example
of the eternal problem of minorities, was awaiting its martyr. A rare
sort of man was needed, one who was sufficiently dedicated to God not
to swear allegiance to anyone else, and sufficiently involved in events
to be able to change their course. Such a man was Josaphat, who was
baptized John.
Josaphat's father was a
Catholic burger of a good family. He sent young
John to the local school and then apprenticed him to a merchant at
Vilna. John wasn't terrible successful because his interests were in
the church. Instead of pursuing the trade, he learned church Slavonic,
the language of the Byzantine liturgy, so that he could assist more
ably at divine worship and recite some of the lengthy Byzantine office
each day. He refused a partnership in the business and marriage to his
master's daughter.
At this time he became acquainted with Peter Arcudius,
rector of the
Basilian college and Vilna, and two Jesuits, Valentine Fabricius and
Gregory Gruzevsky, who encouraged his liturgical studies. John soon
realized that the quarrel between the three churches was more in need
of good men than good arguments. Though inexperienced in life, John's
heart was devoted to God. His main idea was to reconcile the best of
both parties; the rest would follow naturally.
In 1604 John persuaded his friend Joseph Benjamin Rutsky (a
convert
from Calvinism who had been induced by Pope Clement VIII to join the
Byzantine rite against his personal wishes) to enter with him the Order
of Saint Basil at Holy Trinity monastery in Vilna. At this time John
took the name Josaphat. In 1609 he was ordained a priest and soon had a
reputation as a compelling preacher and a leading advocate for the
union of the Ukrainian Church with Rome. Together the two young monks
devised schemes for promoting union and reforming Ruthenian monastic
observance.
Josaphat lived simply and engaged in such extreme
mortifications that
he was chastised by even the most austere monks. The abbot held
separatist views, so Josaphat's studies were cut short and he was sent
to found new houses in Poland at Byten and Zyrowice.
His friend Joseph Rutsky became abbot of Holy Trinity, and
when Rutsky
was named metropolitan of Kiev in 1614, Josaphat returned to Holy
Trinity as abbot of the monastery. Josaphat accompanied Rutsky to his
new cathedral and visited the monastery of The Caves at Kiev. The monks
threatened to throw Josaphat, a reformer, into the river, because they
were content under their relaxed rule. He was unable to reform them,
but his character generated their goodwill.
In 1617 he was elected first bishop of Vitebsk, Russia, with
the right
of succession to Polotsk (in modern Lithuania or Byelorussia), and a
few months later became archbishop at age 39 when Archbishop Brolnitsky
(who favored the dissident Greeks) died.
He found the diocese in
deplorable condition--there was widespread
opposition to Rome, married clergy, lax discipline, churches in a
rundown state. The more religious people were inclined to schism
through fear of arbitrary Roman interference with their worship and
customs. To put into effect his reforms, Josaphat sent for some of his
brethren from Vilna to help him, called synods, wrote a catechism, set
down rules for his clergy, fought the interference of laymen in
ecclesiastical affairs, and preached and tended his flock as personally
as he could. By 1620 the reforms had some effect. Josaphat's virtues
and reasonableness gained him much support.
The dispute between East and West, however, was breaking his
see
asunder; there was much bitterness and violence on both sides. The
laity was confused. The secular rulers were causing havoc in church
affairs. Around 1620 Metetius Smotritsky was appointed archbishop of
Polotsk by a group of dissident bishops and began to sow the seeds of
dissension, claiming that Josaphat was really a Latin priest, declaring
that his people would be forced to become Latins, too, and that Roman
Catholicism was not the traditional Christianity of the Ruthenian
people.
Returning from Warsaw, Poland, Josaphat found that some of
his support
was becoming shaky; the monk Silvester had persuaded Vitebsk, Mogilev,
and Orcha to the side of Metetius. The nobility and many of the people,
especially those of the episcopal city who knew Josaphat well, adhered
strongly to the union. But Josaphat could do little with these three
cities.
Riots broke out and people chose sides, when the king of
Poland
proclaimed that Josaphat was the legitimate archbishop of Polotsk.
Josaphat was falsely accused of fomenting trouble and using force
against the dissidents by the chancellor of Lithuania, Leon Sapieha, a
Roman Catholic, thus stirring up further dissent. Leon was afraid of
the potential for political unrest due to these disturbances, and lent
to willing an ear to the heated charges of the dissidents outside of
Poland. In 1622, Sapieha wrote that Josaphat had caused the violence in
the maintenance of the union and put the kingdom in peril from the
Zaporozhsky Cossacks by stirring up discord among the people. The
accusations were made in general terms and demonstrated to be false by
contemporary testimony from both sides. Josaphat was, however, guilty
of invoking civil power to recover the church at Mogilev from the
dissidents.
Thus, Josaphat met opposition and misunderstanding on both
sides. He
was not given the support he should have received from the Latin
bishops of Poland because of his insistence on maintaining Byzantine
rites and customs, and accused by the Orthodox of being Roman. He
stoically held firm and determined to appear personally in Vitebsk, the
hotbed of opposition, in 1623 to meet it head on despite threats of
violence against him.
He declined a proffered military escort and strived instead
to bring
order knowing that some of his opponents hated him enough to kill him
if they could do so. He once addressed an angry mob with the words, "I,
your shepherd, am happy to die for you." On Nov. 12, 1623, this is
precisely what happened.
A priest named Elias, who had harassed Josaphat several
times
previously, was locked up by one of Josaphat's deacons when Elias again
abused the archbishop. A mob assembled demanding Elias's release, and
though Josaphat released Elias with a warning, they broke into his home
and beat Josaphat's attendants.
Saint Josaphat went
outside to beg them not to harm his servants and
was murdered by the mob crying 'Kill the papist!' He was beaten over
the head with a halberd and shot to death by the mob, and his body
thrown into the Dvina River at Vitebsk, Russia. Jesus had said that
this is how those who offended little children should be punished.
Josaphat had only offended little spirits. He wanted to make his
contemporaries see a world in which there were no longer Ruthenians,
Poles, Russians, Greeks, Latins, Schismatics, or Uniates but only
Christians, children of the same Father, belonging to the same faith.
Saint Josaphat was the first of the Oriental Catholics to be
formally
canonized in Rome (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney,
Encyclopedia, Walsh, White).
In art Saint Josaphat is
depicted as a Polish bishop with an axe
(Roeder), or with a chalice, crown, or as a winged deacon (White).
(1580-1620) Since many of the children of St.
Thomas the
Apostle parish have attended St. Josaphat School, one of our
parishioners has suggested that I devote a "Saints Alive" column to the
story of the Ukrainian archbishop and martyr. The older of
Rochester's two Catholic Ukrainian Churches is St. Josaphat's, on Ridge
Road East. This parish is rightly proud of its patron
saint. An archbishop of the Greek-Ruthenian Rite, he died in
defense of the union of his people with the Holy See.
Most American Catholics belong to
the Latin
Rite which follows the liturgy common in the church in western
Europe. But even before the Latin Rite was fully formed, there
were several Catholic churches in eastern Europe, Asia and Africa that
followed a somewhat different but still authentic way of offering Mass,
and used other languages than Latin.
One of the tragedies of Christian
history is
that certain of these great churches broke off their connection with
the pope during the Middle Ages. By now, there are Catholic
branches of each of these fragmented communities. The Catholic
branches continue their own Eastern liturgical practices, but
acknowledge the Holy Father as head of the total church. But most
of these Catholic branches are relatively small, and have often
suffered much to maintain their union with both the Holy See and the
Greek Rite.
That brings
us to St.
Josaphat. Christianity was introduced into Russia by St.
Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev, in 989. Since the missionaries to
Kiev came from Constantinople, the type of liturgy adopted was both
Greek and Slavonic. Constantinople and Ukraine at that time
acknowledged the pope. The Greek Rite, in the Old Slavonic
language, was used. After 1054, however, Constantinople, for
political as well as religious reasons, declared its independence of
the Holy See, and gradually the other Eastern Orthodox churches
followed suit, especially Moscow.
Efforts were not wanting on the
part of the
popes and some Eastern churchmen to reestablish union with the Holy
See. Thus, in 1595, the Orthodox bishop of Kiev and five other
Ukrainian bishops sought official reunion with Rome. However,
this partial reunion aroused great opposition on the part of the
Russian Orthodox majority of the country, and much violence followed.
John Kunsevich was born in 1580 to
a prominent
Catholic of the city of Vladimir. A thoughtful and devout young
man, John entered a monastery in 1604, taking the name Josaphat.
He became noted for his holiness as a monk, and for his ability as a
preacher. Since there was so much opposition to reunion with
Rome, Father Josaphat devoted much of his preaching to defending
Catholic unity. In 1617 he became archbishop of Polotsk.
Here he struggled manfully but successfully to bring about a reform
among his clergy and laity.
In 1620, however, the opponents of
union with
Rome set up a non-Roman archbishop of Polotsk to serve as a
rival. Soon they had won a number of Catholic Ukrainians away
from the pope.
As Josaphat battled to bring back
his straying
sheep, personal opposition against him became increasingly
intense. Surrounded one day by an angry mob, he said, "You people
of Vitebsk want to put me to death . . . I am ready to die for the holy
union, for the supremacy of St. Peter and of his successor, the Supreme
Pontiff."
Sometime later a gang entered his
church. Crying out, "Kill the papist," they shot the archbishop,
crushed his skull, and threw his body into the river.
St. Josephat's death served only to
encourage
the Ukrainians in their loyalty to the pope. In our own more
ecumenical days, the Catholic Church is striving to reestablish unity
with all the Orthodox churches through loving dialogue. To this
work of reconciliation, we may be sure, St. Josaphat is adding his own
powerful prayers.
Would we be ready to die like this for the supremacy of the
pope over
Christ's church? A frank question! --Father Robert F. McNamara
1623 ST JOSAPHAT,
ARCHBISHOP Of Polotsk, MARTYR
IN the month of
October 1595, at Brest-Litovsk in Lithuania (a town which three hundred
and
twenty-two years later again became talked of throughout Europe but in
a quite
different connection), the dissident Orthodox metropolitan of Kiev
and five
bishops, representing millions of Ruthenians (to-day called
Byelorussians and
Ukrainians), decided to seek communion with the Holy See of Rome. The
controversies which followed this event were disfigured by deplorable
excesses
and violence, and the great upholder of Christian unity whose feast is
kept
today was called on to shed his blood for the cause, whence he is
venerated as
the protomartyr of the reunion of Christendom.
At the time of the
Union of Brest he was still a boy, having been born at Vladimir in
Volhynia in 1580
or 1584, and baptized John. His father, a Catholic, was a burgess of a
good
family called Kunsevich, who sent John to school in his native town and
then
apprenticed him to a merchant of Vilna. John was not particularly
interested in
trade, and employed his spare time in mastering Church Slavonic in
order that
he might assist more intelligently at divine worship and recite some of
the
long Byzantine office every day; and he got to know Peter Arcudius, who
was
then rector of the oriental college at Vilna, and the two Jesuits,
Valentine
Fabricius and Gregory Gruzevsky, who took an interest in him and gave
him every
encouragement.
At first his master
was not favourably disposed towards John’s religious preoccupations,
but he did
his work so well that eventually the merchant offered him a partnership
and one
of his daughters in marriage. Both offers were refused, for John had
decided to
be a monk and in 1604 he entered the monastery of the Holy Trinity at
Vilna. He
induced to join him there Joseph Benjamin Rutsky, a learned convert
from
Calvinism who had been ordered by Pope Clement VIII to
join the
Byzantine rite against his personal wishes, and together the two young
monks
concerted schemes for promoting union and reforming Ruthenian monastic
observance.
John Kunsevich, who had now taken the
name
of Josaphat, was ordained deacon and priest and speedily had a great
reputation
as a preacher, especially on behalf of reunion with Rome. He led a most
austere
personal life and added to a careful observance of the austerities of
eastern
monastic life such extreme voluntary mortifications that he was often
remonstrated with by the most ascetic. At his beatification the
burgomaster of
Vilna testified that, “there was not a better religious in the town
than Father
Josaphat”. Meanwhile, the abbot of Holy Trinity having developed
separatist
views, Rutsky was promoted in his place and the monastery was soon full, so
Father Josaphat was taken away from his study of the Eastern fathers to
help in
the foundation of new houses in Poland. In 1614 Rutsky was made
metropolitan of
Kiev and Josaphat succeeded him as abbot at Vilna. When the new
metropolitan
went to take possession of his cathedral Josaphat accompanied him and
took the
opportunity of visiting the great monastery of The Caves at Kiev. The
community
of two hundred monks was relaxed, and they threatened to throw the
Catholic
reformer into the river Dnieper. He was not successful in his efforts
to bring
them to unity, but his personality and exhortations brought about a
somewhat
changed attitude and a notable increase of good-will.
The
archbishop of
Polotsk at this time was a very old man and a favourer of the
dissidents, and
in 1617 Abbot Josaphat was
ordained bishop of Vitebsk with right of
succession to Polotsk. A few months later the old archbishop died and
Josaphat
was confronted with an eparchy, which was as large in extent as it was
degraded
in life. The more religious people were inclined to schism through fear
of
arbitrary Roman interference with their worship and customs; churches
were in
ruins and benefices in the hands of laymen; many of the secular clergy
had been
married two and three times and the monks were decadent. *{*Though
according to
Eastern Canon law a married man may be ordained to the priesthood, if
his wife
dies he cannot marry another and if ordained a bachelor he must remain
single.}
Josaphat
sent for some of his brethren from
Vilna to help him and got to work. He held synods in the central towns,
published a catechism and imposed its use, issued rules of conduct for
the
clergy, and fought the interference of the “squires” in the affairs of
the
local churches. At the same time setting a personal example of
assiduous
instructing and preaching, administration of the sacraments and
visiting of the
poor, the sick, prisoners and the most remote hamlets. By i
6w the eparchy was practically solidly Catholic, order had
been
restored, and the example of a few good men had brought about a real
concern
for Christian life. But in that year a dissident hierarchy of bishops
was set
up in the territory affected by the Union of Brest, side by side with
the
Catholic one; and one Meletius Smotritsky was sent as archbishop to
Polotsk,
who began with great vigour to undo the work of the Catholic
archbishop. He
zealously spread a report that St Josaphat had “turned Latin “, that
all his
flock would have to do the same, and that Catholicism was not the
traditional
Christianity of the Ruthenian people. St Josaphat was at Warsaw when
this began
and on his return he found that, though his episcopal city was firm for
him,
some other parts of the eparchy had begun to waver; a monk called
Silvester had
managed to draw nearly all the people of Vitebsk, Mogilev and Orcha to
the side
of Smotritsky. The nobility and many of the people adhered strongly to
the
union, but St Josaphat could do little with these three towns; and not
only at
Yitebsk but even at Vilna, when the proclamation of the King of Poland
that
Josaphat was the only legitimate archbishop of Polotsk was publicly
read in his
presence, there were riots and the life of St Josaphat was threatened.
Leo
Sapieha, the
chancellor of Lithuania and a Catholic, was fearful of the possible
political
results of the general unrest, and lent too willing an ear to the
heated
charges of dissidents outside of Poland that Josaphat had caused it by
his
policy. Accordingly in 1622 Sapieha wrote accusing him of violence in
the
maintenance of the union, of putting the kingdom in peril from the
Zaporozhsky
Cossacks by making discord among the people, of forcibly shutting-up
non-Catholic churches, and so on. These and similar accusations were
made in
general terms, and their unjustifiability was amply demonstrated
by contemporary ad hoc testimony from both sides the only actual fact
of the sort is the admitted one that Josaphat invoked the aid of the
civil power to recover the church at Mogilev from the dissidents. Thus
the archbishop had to face misunderstanding, misrepresentation and
opposition from Catholics as well.
There is no doubt that some of the easy reversion to
schism was due to the firm discipline and reform of morals that had
been inaugurated under Catholic auspices, and St Josaphat did not
receive the support he was entitled to from the Latin bishops of Poland
because of the uncompromising way in which he maintained the right of
the Byzantine clergy and customs to equal treatment with those of Rome.
He continued doggedly and fearlessly on his way and, Vitebsk continuing
to be a hotbed of trouble, he determined in October 1623 to go there in
person again. He could neither be dissuaded nor would he take a
military escort. “If I am accounted so worthy as to deserve martyrdom,
then I am not afraid to die”, he said. He went accordingly, and for a
fortnight preached in the churches and visited the houses of all
without distinction. He was continually threatened in the streets, and
his opponents tried to pick quarrels with his attendants in order that
he might be killed in the ensuing fracas. On the feast of St Demetrius
the Martyr he was surrounded by an angry mob, and exclaimed: “You
people of Vitebsk want to put me to death. You make ambushes for me
everywhere, in the streets, on the bridges, on the highways, in the
market place. I am here among you as your shepherd and you ought to
know that I should be happy to give my life for you. I am ready to die
for the holy union, for the supremacy of St Peter and of his successor
the Supreme Pontiff.”
Smotritsky was fomenting this agitation, his object doubtless being no
worse than to drive his rival from the diocese. But his followers got
out of hand, and a plot was laid to murder St Josaphat on November 12,
if he could not be induced to give excuse for violence before then. A
priest named Elias was put up to go into the courtyard of the
archbishop’s house and to use insulting words to his servants about
their master and their religion, and after several complaints St
Josaphat gave permission for him to be seized if it happened again. On
the morning of the 12th, as the archbishop came to the church for the
office of Daybreak, he was met by Elias, who began to abuse him to his
face he therefore allowed his deacon to have the man taken and shut up
in a room of the house. This was just what his enemies were waiting
for: the bells of the town hall were rung and a mob assembled,
demanding the release of Elias and the punishment of the archbishop.
After office St Josaphat returned to his house unharmed, and let Elias
go with a warning, but the people broke in, calling for their victim
and striking his attendants. St Josaphat went out to them. “My
children”, he asked, “what are you doing with my servants? If you have
anything against me, here I am: but leave them alone”—words
remarkably reminiscent of those of another archbishop, St Thomas
Becket, on a similar occasion. Amid cries of “Kill the papist!”
he was brained with a halberd and pierced by a bullet. The mangled body
was dragged out and contemptuously cast into the river Dvina.
St Josaphat Kunsevich was canonized in 1867, the first saint of the
Eastern churches to be formally canonized after process in the
Congregation of Sacred Rites. Fifteen years later Pope Leo XIII gave
his feast to the whole Western church for this date the Ukrainians and
others keep it on November 12, or the ‘Sunday following, according to
the Julian calendar. An immediate result of themartyrdom was a
revulsion in favour of Catholicity and unity but the controversy
continued to be carried on with an unholy bitterness, and the
dissidents too had their martyr, Abbot Athanasius of Brest, who was put
to death in 1648. On the other hand, Archbishop Meletius Smotritsky
himself eventually was reconciled with the Holy See, and the great
Ruthenian reunion persisted, with varying fortunes, until after the
partition of Poland. The Russian sovereigns forcibly aggregated a
majority of the Ruthenian Catholics to the Orthodox Church of Russia.
To the afflictions with which a repetition of history has visited the
remainder in our own time Pope Pius XII bore sufficient witness, in his
encyclical letter "Orientales omnes" issued at the 350th anniversary of
the Union of Brest in 1946.
In 1874
Dom Alphonse Guépin published
two stout octavo volumes, amounting altogether to more than a thousand
pages, under
the title Saint Josaphat, archevéque
martyr, et l’Église Grecque unie en Pologne. In the preface
he speaks of
the sources upon which his work is based. He thanks Father J. Martynov
in
particular for placing at his disposition a copy of the beatification
process
and a number of other papers transcribed from the Roman archives. He
also makes
appeal to a vast collection of documents formed by the Basilian
hieromonk Paul
Szymansky, and to another great manuscript library of similar
character, which
Bishop Naruszewicz had accumulated, with a view to his own work as a
historian.
All these had been entrusted to Dom Guépin, and they were put to
such good use
that most of the Western writers who have since then touched upon the
subject
have been largely dependent upon his researches. Attention should,
however, be
called to the very useful little books of Father G. Hofmann, nos. 6 and
12 of
the series “Orientalia Christiana”. When St Josaphat was put to death
the news
spread quickly throughout Europe, and the British Museum possesses a
copy of a
tract, Relacion verdadera de la Muerte y
Martirio de… Josafat; it was printed at Seville in 1625. See also
0.
Kozanewyc, Leben des hl. Josaphat (1931);
and the periodical Roma e l’Orient, vol.
x (1920), pp. 27—34. The
background of the events narrated
above may be read in the Cambridge
History of Poland, vol. i (1950), pp. 507 seq. St
Josaphat and the Metropolitan Rutsky were the initiators of
that movement in Ruthenian monasticism, which eventually became the
organized
Order of St Basil, and accordingly these monks have been officially
known since
1932 as the Basilians of St Josaphat. In 1952 they published at Rome the first volume
of the Latin text of the beatification documents of St Josaphat.
|
1651 Saint Nilus
the Myrrh-Gusher of Mt Athos predicted telephone, airplanesubmarine
warned that people's minds would be clouded by carnal passions, "and
dishonor and lawlessness will grow stronger." Men would not be
distinguishable from women because of their "shamelessness of dress and
style of hair." St Nilus lamented that Christian pastors, bishops and
priests, would become vain men, and that the morals and traditions of
the Church would change. Few pious and God-fearing pastors would
remain, and many people would stray from the right path because no one
would instruct them.
Born in Greece, in a
village named for St Peter, in the Zakoneia diocese. He was raised by
his uncle, the hieromonk Macarius. Having attained the age of maturity,
he received monastic tonsure and was found worthy of ordination to
hierodeacon, and then to hieromonk.
 The desire for greater monastic
struggles brought uncle and nephew to Mt Athos, where Macarius and
Nilus lived in asceticism at a place called the Holy Rocks. Upon the
repose of St Macarius, the venerable Nilus, aflame with zeal for even
more intense spiritual efforts, found an isolated place almost
inaccessible for any living thing. Upon his departure to the Lord in
1651, St Nilus was glorified by an abundant flow of curative myrrh, for
which Christians journeyed from the most distant lands of the East.
St Nilus has left a remarkably accurate prophecy concerning
the state of the Church in the mid-twentieth century, and a description
of the people of that time. Among the inventions he predicted are the
telephone, airplane, and submarine. He also warned that people's minds
would be clouded by carnal passions, "and dishonor and lawlessness will
grow stronger." Men would not be distinguishable from women because of
their "shamelessness of dress and style of hair." St Nilus lamented
that Christian pastors, bishops and priests, would become vain men, and
that the morals and traditions of the Church would change. Few pious
and God-fearing pastors would remain, and many people would stray from
the right path because no one would instruct them.
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The All-Merciful Kykko Icon of the Mother of God: 
649-655 Pope
St. Martin I
defender of the faith; buried
in
the church of Our Lady, called Blachernæ, near Cherson
Quote: Pope
Paul
VI’s 1969 Instruction
on the Contemplative Life includes this passage: 
Benedict
XVI receives Orthodox Archbishop Hilarion n September 18th, Pope
Benedict XVI; Archbishop Hilarion, president of the Department
for
External Church Affairs of the Patriarchate of Moscow.
Meeting of the
Saints walis (saints of Allah)
To
Save A Life is Earthly; Saving A Soul is Eternal
Donation by mail,
please send check or money order to:
Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament
Colombia was among the
countries Mother Angelica
visited. In Bogotá, a Salesian priest -
Father Juan Pablo Rodriguez brought Mother and the nuns to the
Sanctuary of the Divine Infant Jesus
to attend Mass. After Mass, Father Juan Pablo took them into a
small Shrine which housed the miraculous statue of the Child Jesus.
Mother Angelica stood praying at the side of the statue when suddenly
the miraculous image came alive and turned towards her. Then the
Child Jesus spoke with the voice of a young boy: 
Monsignor
Reardon P.A.
BASILICA OF SAINT MARY Minneapolis
MN
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.