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In the monastery of Moutier-en-Der in Gaul,
St. Becharius, abbot and martyr.
In Africa, two hundred and seventy holy martyrs, crowned together.
In the same country, SS. Martinian and Saturian with their two brothers.
In
the Vandal persecution under the Arian King Genseric, they were the servants
of a certain Vandal and were converted to the Catholic faith by their fellow-servant,
St. Maxima, virgin. For their constancy in the Catholic faith, their master
beat them with knobbed clubs even to the bones. They endured these beatings
for many days but always appeared on the next day unhurt. They were then
driven into exile where they converted many barbarians to the faith of Christ.
They obtained from the Roman Pontiff a priest and other ministers to baptize
them. Eventually, their feet were fastened to the back of chariots and they
were dragged through thorny places in the woods until they died. Maxima,
however, after triumphing in several contests, was delivered by a miracle,
and ended her days quietly in a monastery where she was the spiritual mother
of numerous consecrated virgins.
SS. Saturninus, Nereus, and 365
martyrs. At Cologne, St. Eliphius, martyr, at the time of Julian the Apostate.
St. Ambrose, Bishop of Cahors In the territory of Bourges.
St. Lullus, bishop and confessor
At Mainz .
At Treves, St. Florentinus, bishop.
Near Arbon in Germany, St. Gall, abbot, who was a disciple of Blessed
Columban.
At Muro in Lucania (Italy),
St. Gerard Majella, confessor and professed lay-brother of the Congregation
of the Most Holy Redeemer. Renowned for miracles, he was added to the list
of saints by the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius X. |
Longinus the Centurion,
a Roman soldier, The Holy Martyr
served in Judea under the command of the Governor, Pontius Pilate. When
our Savior Jesus Christ was crucified, it was the detachment of soldiers
under the command of Longinus which stood watch on Golgotha, at the very
foot of the holy Cross. Longinus and his soldiers were eyewitnesses of the
final moments of the earthly life of the Lord, and of the great and awesome
portents that appeared at His death. These events shook the centurion's soul.
Longinus believed in Christ and confessed before everyone, "Truly this was
the Son of God" (Mt. 27:54).
According to Church Tradition, Longinus was the soldier who pierced the
side of the Crucified Savior with a spear, and received healing from an eye
affliction when blood and water poured forth from the wound.
After the Crucifixion and Burial of the Savior, Longinus stood watch with
his company at the Sepulchre of the Lord. These soldiers were present at
the All-Radiant Resurrection of Christ. The Jews bribed them to lie and say
that His disciples had stolen away the Body of Christ, but Longinus and two
of his comrades refused to be seduced by the Jewish gold. They also refused
to remain silent about the miracle of the Resurrection.
Having come to believe in the Savior, the soldiers received Baptism from
the apostles and decided to leave military service. St Longinus left Judea
to preach about Jesus Christ the Son of God in his native land (Cappadocia),
and his two comrades followed him.
The fiery words of those who had actually participated in the great events
in Judea swayed the hearts and minds of the Cappadocians; Christianity began
quickly to spread throughout the city and the surrounding villages. When
they learned of this, the Jewish elders persuaded Pilate to send a company
of soldiers to Cappadocia to kill Longinus and his comrades. When the soldiers
arrived at Longinus's village, the former centurion himself came out to
meet the soldiers and took them to his home. After a meal, the soldiers
revealed the purpose of their visit, not knowing that the master of the
house was the very man whom they were seeking. Then Longinus and his friends
identified themselves and told the startled soldiers to carry out their
duty.
The soldiers wanted to let the saints go and advised them to flee, but
they refused to do this, showing their firm intention to suffer for Christ.
The holy martyrs were beheaded, and their bodies were buried at the place
where the saints were martyred. The head of St Longinus, however, was sent
to Pilate.
Pilate gave orders to cast the martyr's head on a trash-heap outside the
city walls. After a while a certain blind widow from Cappadocia arrived
in Jerusalem with her son to pray at the holy places, and to ask that her
sight be restored. After becoming blind, she had sought the help of physicians
to cure her, but all their efforts were in vain.
The woman's son became ill shortly after reaching Jerusalem, and he died
a few days later. The widow grieved for the loss of her son, who had served
as her guide.
St Longinus appeared to her in a dream and comforted her. He told her
that she would see her son in heavenly glory, and also receive her sight.
He told her to go outside the city walls and there she would find his head
in a great pile of refuse. Guides led the blind woman to the rubbish heap,
and she began to dig with her hands. As soon as she touched the martyr's
head, the woman received her sight, and she glorified God and St Longinus.
Taking up the head, she brought it to the place she was staying and washed
it. The next night, St Longinus appeared to her again, this time with her
son. They were surrounded by a bright light, and St Longinus said, Woman,
behold the son for whom you grieve. See what glory and honor are his now,
and be consoled. God has numbered him with those in His heavenly Kingdom.
Now take my head and your son's body, and bury them in the same casket.
Do not weep for your son, for he will rejoice forever in great glory and
happiness."
The woman carried out the saint's instructions and returned to her home
in Cappadocia. There she buried her son and the head of St Longinus. Once,
she had been overcome by grief for her son, but her weeping was transformed
into joy when she saw him with St Longinus. She had sought healing for her
eyes, and also received healing of her soul.
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| 4th v. St. Florentinus of Trier Bishop of Trier
Germany the successor
of St. Severianus or Severinus.
Tréviris sancti Florentíni Epíscopi.
At Treves, St. Florentinus, bishop.
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St.
Maxima Africa slaves
Martinian, his brother Saturian and their two brothers were slaves in
Africa at the time of Arian King
Jenseric's persecution of Catholics. They were converted to Christianity
by another slave, Maxima. When their master insisted that Martinian marry
Maxima, who had taken a vow of virginity, they fled to a monastery but were
brought back and beaten for their attempt to escape. When their master died,
his widow gave them to a Vandal, who freed Maxima (she later entered a monastery)
and sold the men to a Berber chief. They converted many, petitioned the
Pope to send them a priest, and were then tortured and dragged to their deaths
by horses for their Faith.
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St. Magnobodus
Bishop of Angers France
sometimes listed as Mainboeuf or Maimbod. A noble Frank, he was appointed
bishop because of popular acclaim.
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362 St.
Eliphius Irish or Scottish martyr also called Eloff. He was martyred in Toul, France.
His relics were enshrined in Cologne, Germany, in the tenth century.
Colóniæ
Agrippínæ sancti Elíphii Mártyris, sub Juliáno
Apóstata.
At Cologne, under Julian the Apostate, the martyr St.
Eliphius.
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450
St. Dulcidius Successor to St. Phoebadius bishopric of Agen
France. He is also listed
as Dulcet and Doucis .
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450
St. Saturninus & Companions 365 martyrs including Nereus
Ibídem
sanctórum Martiniáni et Saturiáni, cum duóbus
eórum frátribus; qui, témpore Wandálicæ
persecutiónis, sub Rege Ariáno Genseríco, cum servi
essent cujúsdam Wándali, et a sancta Máxima Vírgine,
ipsórum consérva, ad Christi fidem convérsi fuíssent,
omnes ab hærético illórum dómino, pro constántia
fídei cathólicæ, primum nodósis fústibus
cæsi sunt et usque ad ossa laniáti. Sed, cum tália
multo témpore pateréntur, et sequénti die nihilóminus
redderéntur semper incólumes, exsílio tandem relegántur;
ubi, cum multos barbarórum ad Christi convertíssent fidem,
et a Románo Pontífice Presbyterum aliósque minístros,
qui eos baptizárent, obtinuíssent, novíssime, vinctis
pédibus post terga curréntium quadrigárum, inter spinósa
loca silvárum jussi sunt páriter interíre. Máxima
vero, post multos superátos agónes divínitus liberáta,
in monastério, multárum Vírginum Mater, sancto fine
quiévit.
Likewise, the Saints Martinian and Saturnian, with their two brothers.
While the persecution of the Vandals was raging in the reign of the Arian
king Genseric, they were slaves to a man of that race. They were converted
to the faith of Christ by Maxima, a slave like themselves, and they manifested
their attachment to the truth with such courage that they were beaten with
rough clubs and lacerated in all parts of their bodies to the very bones.
Although this barbarous treatment was continued for a considerable period,
their wounds were each time healed overnight. They were at length
sent into exile where they converted many barbarians to the faith, and obtained
from the Roman Pontiff a priest and other ministers to baptize them.
Finally there were condemned to die by having their feet tied behind running
chariots and being dragged through thorns. Maxima, after enduring
many tribulations, was miraculously delivered and became the superior of
a large monastery of virgins, where she ended her days in peace.
In Africa sanctórum Mártyrum
ducentórum septuagínta, páriter coronatórum.
In Africa, two hundred and seventy holy martyrs, crowned together.
458 SS. MARTINIAN AND OTHER
MARTYRS, AND MAXIMA
AFTER referring to the passion of 270 martyrs who suffered together in
Africa, the Roman Martyrology records the martyrdom in the same country of
SS. Martinian and Saturian and their two brothers, “who, in the time of the
Vandal persecution under the Arian King Genseric, were slaves of a certain
Vandal and were converted to the faith of Christ by their fellow slave, the
holy maiden Maxima. For their constancy in the Catholic faith they were first
beaten with knotted whips, which bit to their very bones, by their heretical
master. Then, when they had suffered such things for a long time and always
appeared unhurt on the next day, they were forced into exile, where they converted
many barbarians to the faith of Christ and obtained from the Roman pontiff
a priest and other ministers who baptized them. Then lastly they were made
to pass over thorny places in the woods, with their feet tied to the backs
of moving chariots. Maxima, however, after triumphing in several contests,
was set free by the power of God and made a good and peaceful end in a monastery,
the mother of many virgins.”
Victor
of Vita in his history of the Vandal persecution gives an account of these
confessors. Martinian, he says, was an armourer, and his master wanted to
marry him to Maxima. She dared not refuse, though she had made a vow of
virginity, but Martinian respected her vow and they all ran away to a monastery,
from whence they were brought back and savagely beaten because they would
not receive Arian baptism. On the death of their master they were given by
his widow to another Vandal, who released Maxima and sent the three men to
a Berber chief. It was here that they made converts and sent for a priest,
and in consequence Genseric ordered them to be dragged to death.
This group of martyrs is dealt with in the Acta Sanctorum for October, vol. vii, Pt 2. The
only evidence of value is that of Victor of Vita.
A group who were put to death
in Africa during the persecution
of the Church by the Arian Vandals who had conquered the region under their
king, Geiseric. It
is considered possible that they are to be identified with the martyrs who
died under the leadership of Sts. Martinian
and Saturian
. Item sanctórum Saturníni,
Nérei et aliórum trecentórum sexagínta quinque
Mártyrum.
Also, the
Saints Saturninus, Nereus, and three hundred and sixty-five other martyrs.
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5th v.St. Junian Hermit at Sainte-Junien Haute Vienne
France
He was revered as an eremite of extreme piety and compassion.
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460
St. Conogon Bishop in Brittany
France, also called Gwen or Albinus. He was the successor of St. Corentin in the see of Tuimper.
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680
St. Baldwin Martyr son of St. Salaberga
He was also the brother of St. Anstrude.
Baldwin was the archdeacon of León, Spain. His murder led to his status
as a martyr for the faith.
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680 St. Kiara
Irish virgin disciple of St. Fintan Munnu
Kiara, who is also listed as Chier, lived near Nenagh, in Tipperary, Ireland.
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686 St. Mummolinus
Benedictine bishop called Mommolenus
In monastério Dervénsi, in Gállia, sancti Berchárii,
Abbátis et Mártyris.
In the monastery of Moutier-en-Der, in France, St.
Bercharius, abbot and martyr.
686 ST MOMMOLINUS, Bishop of NOYON
HE was a native of the territory of Coutances, and became a monk at Luxeuil.
He was sent with SS. Bertram and Bertinus to St Omer among the Morini in
Artois, and was appointed superior whilst they lived in their first habitation,
called the Old Monastery (now Saint-Momelin). Here he laboured tirelessly
with his brethren for the conversion of the heathen, and removed with them
to the New Monastery, St Peter’s, at Sithiu. Upon the death of St Eligius
in 660 he was consecrated bishop of Noyon, and constituted Bertram abbot
of the monastery of Saint-Quentin, which he erected in that town. This abbey
afterwards became a famous collegiate church. St Mommolinus governed his
extensive see for twenty-six years; his name occurs in the subscriptions
to the Testament of St Amand and to several charters of that age.
There are
two short Latin lives of this saint, the more important of the two being
printed in the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. vii, Pt 2. See also Van der Essen, Etude
critique sur les Vitae des saints merov. (1907), pp. 375—384.
Mommolinus. Born in Constance, Switzerland, he resided at Luxeuil, St.
Omer, and Saint-Mommolin. He then went to Sithin, founded by St. Bertimus.
In 660, Mummolinus was consecrated the bishop of Noyon-Tournai .
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7th v.St. Balderic Abbot prince
brother of St. Bova. Balderie,
or Baundry, and his sister were the children of Sigebert II, King of Austrasia.
He became the abbot-founder of a convent at Reims and Montfaucon Abbey in
France.
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7th v. St. Gall
Apud Arbónam, in Germánia, sancti Galli Abbátis,
qui fuit discípulus beáti Columbáni.
At Arbon in Germany, St. Gall, abbot, a disciple of
blessed Columban.
(GALLUS; in the most ancient manuscript he is
called GALLO, GALLONUS, GALLUNUS, and sometimes also CALLO, CHELLEH, GILLIANUS,
etc.).
635 ST GALL
AMONG the eminent
disciples which St Columban left to be imitators of his heroic life, none
seems to have been more famous than this St Gall. He was born in Ireland
and educated in the great monastery of Bangor under the direction of the
holy abbot Comgall and of Columban. Studies, especially of sacred learning,
flourished in this house, and St Gall was well versed in grammar, poetry
and the Holy Scriptures, and was ordained priest there, according to some
accounts. When St Columban left Ireland St Gall was one of those twelve who
accompanied him into France, where they founded the monastery of Annegray
and two years afterwards that of Luxeuil. St Gall lived here for twenty
years, but the only incident recorded of that period is that, being sent
to fish in one river, he went to another. On his return with an empty basket
he was reproved for his disobedience, whereupon he went to the right
river and made a big catch. When Columban was driven thence in 610 St Gall
shared his exile and, after they had in vain tried to return to Ireland,
they eventually found themselves in Austrasia, and preached around Tuggen,
on Lake Zurich. The people did not receive their new teachers gladly, and
they soon left “that stiff-necked and thankless crowd, lest in trying to
fertilize their sterile hearts they should waste efforts that might be beneficial
to well-disposed minds”, as St Gall’s biographer says. Then one Willimar, priest
of Arbon near the lake of Constance, afforded them a retreat. The servants
of God built themselves cells near Bregenz, converted many idolaters, and
at the end of one of his sermons Gall broke their brazen statues and threw
them into the lake. The bold action made as many enemies as it did converts,
but they stayed there for two years, made a garden and planted fruit, and
St Gall, who was evidently a keen fisherman, occupied his spare time in knotting
nets and fishing the lake. But the people who remained obstinate persecuted
the monks and slew two of them; and on his opponent King Theoderic becoming
master of Austrasia St Columban decided to retire into Italy, about 612.
St Gall was unwilling to be separated from him, but was prevented from bearing
him company by sickness. St Columban, however, says one legend, did not
believe Gall was so ill as all that and thought he was malingering, wherefore
he imposed on him never again to celebrate Mass during his (Columban’s) lifetime.
This unjust sentence St Gall obeyed. After his master and brethren had departed,
Gall packed up his nets and went off by boat to stay with Willimar at Arbon,
where he soon recovered his health. Then, directed by the deacon Hiltibod,
he selected a suitable spot by the river Steinach (that it had a good fishing-pool
is expressly mentioned; also that they had trouble with water-sprites therein),
and settled down there to be a hermit. He soon had disciples, who lived
under his direction according to the Rule of St Columban, and the fame of
Gall’s holiness continued to grow year by year until his death, between
627 and 645, at Arbon, whither he had gone to preach.
St Gall’s
biographers give several more particulars of his life, some of doubtful
authenticity, others certainty mistaken. The week after he established himself
with the deacon Hiltibod he had to go, very unwillingly, to the duke Gunzo,
whose demoniac daughter had been exorcized in vain by two bishops. Gall
was successful, and the evil spirit went out of the girl in the form of
a black bird issuing from her mouth. King Sigebert, the betrothed of this
Fridiburga, offered Gall a bishopric in thankfulness, but he refused it and
moreover induced Fridiburga to become a nun at Metz instead of marrying the
king. However, this did not abate Sigebert’s goodwill,* and it was afterwards
claimed, erroneously, by the abbey of Saint-Gall that the king had given
their land to Gall’s community and exempted it from the jurisdiction of
the bishop of Constance. This see was again offered to the saint, who again
refused but nominated one of his own disciples, the deacon John, at whose
consecration he preached. St Gall learned in a vision of the death of St
Columban at Bobbio, whose monks at his direction sent Gall their dead abbot’s
pastoral staff as a token of his forgiveness for not accompanying his master
into Italy. At the death of St Eustace, whom Columban had left abbot of Luxeuil,
the monks chose St Gall; but that house was then grown rich in lands and
possessions, and the humble servant of God understood too well the advantages
of poverty in a penitential life to suffer himself to be robbed of it. Instead
he continued to be taken up in the apostolic labours of the ministry.
He only left his cell to preach and instruct, chiefly the wildest and most
abandoned among the inhabitants in the mountainous parts of the country:
and returning to his hermitage he there often spent whole nights and days
in prayer and contemplation before God.
Walafrid
Strabo adds to his life of the saint a second book, of nearly equal length,
relating the miracles which took place in connection with his tomb and relics.
The same writer remarks that St Gall had “ plenty of practical sense” and
he was certainly a principal missionary of Switzerland (his feast is kept
there as well as in Ireland), but his own fame has been exceeded by that
of the monastery bearing his name which grew up on the site of his hermitage
on the Steinach, where is now the town of Saint-Gall in the canton
of the same name. In the eighth century it was organized by Otmar,
and during the middle ages it rendered incalculable service to learning,
literature, music and other arts; its library and scriptorium
were among the most famous of western Europe. It was secularized
after the Revolution, but happily a large part of the library remains,
adjoining the rebuilt abbey church, now the cathedral of the diocese of Saint-Gall.
Much painstaking
research has been spent upon the history of St Gall. Apart from the casual
references which occur in the Life of St Columban by Jonas, we have three
main documents dealing with Gall in particular. The first, unfortunately
preserved only in a fragmentary state, was written about a century after
the saint’s death, the second by Abbot Wetting dates from the early years
of the ninth century, and the third by Walafrid Strabo must be another twenty
years or so later. All three have been edited by B. Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. iv, pp. 231—337. There is also a metrical life by Notker. See further 3. F. Kenney, The Sources for the Early History
of Ireland, vol. i, pp. 206—208; Gougaud, Christianity in
Celtic Lands (‘932), pp. 140—144, and
Les saints irlandais hors d’Irlande (1936), pp. 114—119; and M. Joynt, The Life
of St Gall (1927).
* When he
had himself handed his bride over to be the bride of Christ, he “went out
of the church”, says Walafrid
Strabo, “and wept secretly for his beloved.”
An Irishman by birth, he was one of the twelve disciples who
accompanied St. Columbanus to Gaul, and established themselves with him at
Luxeuil. Gall again followed his magister, in 610, on his voyage on the Rhine
to Bregenz; but he separated from him in 612, when Columbanus left for Italy;
and he remained in Swabia, where, with several companions, he led the life
of a hermit, in a desert to the west of Bregenz, near the source of the river
Steinach. There, after his death, was erected an "ecelesia Sancti Galluni"
governed by a “presbyter et pastor”. Before the middle of the eighth century
this church became a real monastery, the first abbot of which was St. Otmar.
The monastery was the property of the Diocese of Constance, and it was only
in 818 that it obtained from the Emperor Louis the Pious the right to be
numbered among the royal monasteries. and to enjoy the privilege of immunity.
At last, in 854, it was freed from all obligation whatever towards the See
of Constance, and henceforth was attached only by ties of canonical dependence.
Called "Abbey of St. Gall”, not
from the name of its founder and first abbot, but of the saint who had lived
in this place and whose relics were honoured there, the monastery played an
illustrious part in history for more than a thousand years .
Apart from this authentic history,
there exists another version or tradition furnished by the Lives of St.
Gall, the most ancient of which does not antedate the end of the eighth
century. A portion of the incidents related in these Lives is perhaps true;
but another part is certainly legendary, and in formal contradiction to
the most ancient charters of the abbey itself. According to these biographies,
Gall was ordained a priest in Ireland before his departure for the Continent,
therefore before 590. Having reached Bregenz with Columbanus, he laboured
in the country as a missionary, and actively combated the pagan superstitions.
Prevented by illness from following Columbanus to Italy, he was placed under
interdict by the displeased Columbanus, and in consequence could not celebrate
Mass until several years later, after the death of his old master. Gall
delivered from the demon by which she was possessed Fridiburga, the daughter
of Cunzo and the betrothed of Sigebert, King of the Franks; the latter,
through gratitude, granted to the saint an estate near Arbon, which belonged
to the royal treasury, that he might found a monastery there. Naturally
the monastery was exempt from all dependence on the Bishop of Constance;
moreover, Gall twice refused the episcopal see of that city, which was offered
to him, and having been instrumental in securing the election of a secular
cleric, the deacon John, the latter and his successors placed themselves
in every way at the service of the abbey. Gall also declined the abbatial
dignity of Luxeuil, which was offered him by the monks of the monastery
after the death of St. Eustace. Shortly afterwards he died, at the age of
ninety-five, at Arbon, during a visit; but his body was brought back to the
monastery, and God revealed the sanctity of his servant by numerous miracles.
His feast is celebrated on 16 October, the day ascribed to him in some very
ancient martyrologies, while Adon, it is not known for what reason, makes
it occur on 20 February. The saint is ordinarily represented with a bear;
for a legend, recorded in the Lives, relates that one night, at the command
of the saint, one of these animals brought wood to feed the fire which Gall
and his companions had kindled in the desert.
The most ancient Life, of which only fragments have been discovered
till the present date, but otherwise very important, has been remodelled
and put in the better style of the ninth century by two monks of Reichenau:
in 816-24 by the celebrated Wettinus, and about 833-34 by Walafrid Strabo,
who also revised a book of the miracles of the saint, written somewhat earlier
by Gozbert the Younger, monk of St. Gall. In 850 an anonymous monk of the
same abbey wrote, in verse, a Life which he published under the name of
Walafrid; and others after him further celebrated the holy patron in prose
and verse.
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696 St. Bercharius
Benedictine abbot founder
In monastério Dervénsi, in Gállia, sancti Berchárii,
Abbátis et Mártyris.
In the monastery of Moutier-en-Der, in France, St.
Bercharius, abbot and martyr.
696
ST BERCHARIUS, ABBOT
WHEN St Nivard, Bishop of Rheims, was travelling in Aquitaine, some time
just before the middle of the seventh century, he made the acquaintance
of the parents of young Bercharius and, much impressed by the boy’s openness
and promise, urged them to do their best to have him educated for the priesthood.
This they did, and in due course he was ordained and became a monk at Luxeuil.
When St Nivard founded the monastery of Hautvillers St Bercharius was its
first abbot. From it he established in the forest of Der a new monastery
called thence Montier-en-Der, and he also founded a convent of women,
known as Puellemontier, of which the first six nuns are said to have been
slaves whom the abbot had ransomed. There was
in his monastery a young monk named Daguin, who was by no means a satisfactory
religious. For some misdemeanour the abbot imposed a sharp penance on
this Daguin who, furious at the continual reproofs that he brought on himself,
slipped into the cell of Bercharius and stabbed him while he slept. Seized
with remorse and immediately after, he rushed to the church and rang the bell, which brought
the community running to the abbot’s cell, where they found him dying. Daguin
was found and miserably confessed his guilt. He was brought before Bercharius,
who freely forgave him St Bercharius lingered for two days and died on March
26, Easter day, in 685 or 696.
He is sometimes represented in art with a barrel. This has reference to
a story told at Luxeuil, that, being called by the abbot while he was drawing
wine or beer, Bercharius hurried off obediently but without turning off the
tap. When he returned the liquid had not overflowed but was standing up
in a column above the jug.
A Latin life
of this “martyr” was written by Abbot Adso a hundred years after his death.
It has been printed both by Mabillon and in the Acta Sanctorum,
October, vol. vii, Pt 2.
Martyred
at Moutier-en-Der, France. He was
a native of Aquitaine who became a monk at Luxeuil and was ordained. Bercharius
became the first abbot at Hautvilliers, founded by St. Nivard. He also founded
the monastery at Moutier-en-Der and a convent at Puellemontier. Bercharius
was stabbed by Dagnin, a deranged monk whom he had disciplined, died two
days later on March 26.
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740
St. Vitalis Benedictine hermit
An Anglo-Saxon by descent, he became a Benedictine monk at Noirmoutier,
France, later embracing the eremitical life on Mont Scobrit, near the Loire
River.
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752 St. Ambrose
Bishop of Cahors, in France
In
território Bituricénsi sancti Ambrósii, Epíscopi
Caturcénsis. Near Bourges, St. Ambrose, bishop of
Cahors.
He resigned
his office and made a pilgrimage to Rome. Living as a hermit, Ambrose died
in Saint-Ambroisesur-Arnon, once called Ernotrum, in Berry.
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787 St.
Lull Benedictine bishop relative of St. Boniface
Mogúntiæ
sancti Lulli, Epíscopi et Confessóris. At
Mainz, St. Lullus, bishop and confessor.
786 ST LULL, BISHOP OP MAINZ
LULL was an Englishman,
doubtless a native of the kingdom of the West Saxons. The foundation of his
education was laid in the monastery of Malmesbury, where he remained as
a young man and was ordained deacon. Hearing the call of the foreign missions
when he was about twenty years old, he passed into Germany, and was received
with joy by St Boniface, who is thought to have been related to him. From
this time Lull shared with that great saint the labours of his apostleship,
and the persecutions which were raised against him. St Boniface promoted
him to priest’s orders and in 751 sent
him to Rome to consult Pope St Zachary on certain matters which he did not
care to commit to writing. Upon his return, St Boniface selected him for
his successor he was consecrated as coadjutor, and when Boniface departed
on his last missionary journey into Frisia St Lull took over the see of Mama.
It is
generally believed that the mission of St Lull to the Holy See had been to
obtain exemption from episcopal jurisdiction for St Boniface’s abbey of Fulda
(where, in accordance with his wish, St Lull buried the body of the martyr,
to the discontent of Mainz and Utrecht). A long dispute now began concerning
this exemption between Lull, as bishop of Mainz, and St Sturmi, abbot of
Fulda, in the course of which the abbot was deposed in favour of a nominee
of the bishop. But King Pepin intervened and recognized the independence
of Fulda, whereupon Sturmi was restored and St Lull refounded the monastery
of Hersfeld. He was a most energetic pastor, and during the space of thirty
years that he governed the diocese of Mama he assisted at several councils
in France and elsewhere.
It appears
by the letters which were addressed to him from Rome, France and England
that St Lull had a reputation for learning. His answers to these are lost,
and only nine of his letters are published, among those of St Boniface. The
contents are interesting. In the fourth, we notice his zeal to procure good
books from foreign countries, and in the others we meet with examples of
his firm attachment to his friends, his pastoral vigilance, and his zeal
for the observance of the canons. One is an episcopal mandate to order prayers,
fasts, and Masses, “those which are prescribed to be said against tempests”, to obtain
of God that the rains might cease which were then ruining the harvest. St
Lull announces in the same the death of the pope, for whom he orders the
accustomed prayers to be said. Cuthbert,
abbot of Wearmouth, in a letter to St Lull mentions that he had ordered ninety
Masses to be offered for their deceased brethren in Germany, for they sent
to each other the names of those that died among them, as also appears from
several letters of St Boniface, e.g. in one to the abbot
& Monte Cassino and several to his brethren in England. Towards the end
of his life St Lull retired to his abbey at Hersfeld, where he died.
The main authority
for the history of St Lull is the life by Lambert, Abbot of Hersfeld, though
this, written two centuries after the death of Lull, is not very reliable.
This document is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, October,
vol. vii, pt 2, but the best text is that edited among
the works of Lambert by Holder-Egger (1894), pp. 307-340. The letters of Lull should be consulted in the edition of
M. Tangl, Bonifatiusbriefe 1915
See also H. Hahn, Bonifaz und Lul (1883) Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, vols. i and ii; and M. Stimming,
Mainzer Urkundenbuch (1923), vol. i.
He
was a native of England and was educated at Malmesbury. He joined St. Boniface
in Germany but was sent to Rome in 751. When St. Boniface died, Lull succeeded
him as bishop of Mainz, Germany, although he never achieved the fame of
his relative.
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1085 St. Anastasius
Hermit papal legate
1085 ST ANASTASIUS OF CLUNY
This Anastasius was a native of Venice and a man of considerable learning
who, by the middle of the eleventh century, was a monk at Mont-Saint-Michel.
The abbot there was not a satisfactory person—he was accused of simony—and
Anastasius eventually left the monastery in order to live as a hermit
on Tombelaine off Normandy. About the year 1066 St Hugh of Cluny induced
him to join the community at Cluny. After seven years there he was ordered
by Pope St Gregory VII to go into Spain, perhaps to help in inducing the
Spaniards to give up their Mozarabic liturgy for the Roman, an undertaking
begun by Cardinal Hugh of Remiremont (rather inappropriately called Candidus), who was then legate in France and Spain. St
Anastasius was soon back at Cluny, where he lived quietly for another seven
years, and then went to be a hermit in the neighbourhood of Toulouse. Here
he preached to the people of the countryside (and is said to have shared
his solitude with Hugh of Remiremont, who had been deposed and excommunicated
for repeated acts of simony) and lived in contemplation until he was recalled
to his monastery in 1085. On his way he died and was buried at Doydes.
His life by
a certain Galterius is printed by Mabillon and in the Acta Sanctorum,
October, vol. vii, pt a. He may have been the author of an “Epistle
to Geraldus” on the Real
Presence see DTC., vol. i, c. 1,66.
Anastasius was born in Venice
about 1020. He became a monk in Mont St. Michel, in France, but
then moved to a hermitage on the island of Tombelaine, off the coast of Normandy.
In 1066, Anastasius was invited to enter Cluny Monastery by St. Hugh. Seven
years later, known for his sanctity, Anastasius was commissioned by Pope
St. Gregory VII to undertake a special mission in Spain. Anastasius returned
to Cluny and remained there for seven years before becoming a hermit again
near Toulouse. He was returning to Cluny when he died in 1085.
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1123 St. Bertrand
of Comminges Bishop A number of miracles are related of St Bertrand
1123
ST BERTRAND, Bishop of COMMINGES
IN its more
than a thousand years of existence before it was suppressed the see of Comminges
(now included in Toulouse) was governed by several men well known in history,
but no one of them is more famed locally than St Bertrand, who was bishop
for fifty years in the eleventh—twelfth century. At first he had no other
aim than to be a military lord like his father, but he soon turned to the
ecclesiastical state, received a canonry at Toulouse, and became archdeacon:
it was remarked that he owed his dignities neither to requests nor bribes.
About 1075 he was called to govern
the diocese of Comminges, and having rebuilt both the temporal and spiritual
fortifications of his episcopal city he proceeded to a thorough reformation
of the whole diocese, living with his canons under the Rule of St Augustine
as an example for the secular clergy. His zeal was not always acceptable.
When he went to preach in the
Val d’Azun he met with a very hostile
reception, and it required all his efforts to calm the people. However, they
afterwards were so sorry for the way they had received their bishop that
they promised to give in perpetuity to the see of Comminges all the butter
that was made in Azun every year during the week before Whitsunday. This
tribute was rendered, not always willingly, up to the time of the Revolution.
St
Bertrand several times had to face violent opposition even out of his own
territory: in 1100 he was at the synod at Poitiers when King
Philip I was excommunicated and the synodal fathers were stoned, and at the
consecration of the cemetery of St Mary at Auch, when the aggrieved monks
of Saint-Orens tried to set fire to the church.
A number of miracles are related of St Bertrand, one of which
gave rise to the “Great Pardon” at his church in Comminges. In a feud between
the counts of Comminges and Bigorre, Bertrand’s diocese was overrun by the
troops of Sans Parra of Oltia, who carried off all the cattle they could
lay their hands on. To save his people from ruin the bishop implored their
leader to restore the booty, but he refused unless he was paid its value.
“All right”,
said St Bertrand. “Bring them back. I’ll pay you before you are dead.” Some
time after Bertrand himself was dead, Sans Parra was captured by the Moors
in Spain. One night he had a dream in his dungeon of Bertrand, who said he
had come to redeem his promise and led him out of prison to a spot near his
home. This happening is commemorated locally on May 2 every year, and Pope Clement
V, who had been bishop of Comminges, granted a plenary indulgence
to be gained at the then cathedral church of St Bertrand every year that
the feast of the finding of the Holy Cross falls on a Friday. St Bertrand
was canonized some time before 1309, probably
by Pope Honorius III.
In the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. vii, Pt 2, is printed a life
said to be the work of Vitalis, a notary of Auch, who was a contemporary.
See also P. Bedin, St Bertrand de Comminges (1912).
Bishop
of Comminges in the diocese of Toulouse, France. The son of a military officer,
he became a canon in Toulouse. About 1075, he became bishop of Comminges,
a role he would have for almost half a century. He managed the affairs of
the faithful and was known for miracles. It is believed that he was canonized
before 1309.
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1243 St. Hedwig
Duchess widow Cistercain patroness of Silesia Miracles 
Cracóviæ, in Polónia, natális sanctæ
Hedwígis Víduæ, Polonórum Ducíssæ,
quæ, páuperum obséquio dédita, étiam miráculis
cláruit; et a Cleménte Quarto, Pontífice Máximo,
Sanctórum número adscrípta est.
At Cracow in Poland, St. Hedwig, duchess of Poland,
who devoted herself to the service of the poor, and was renowned for miracles.
She was inscribed among the saints by Pope Clement IV.
1243 ST HEDWIG, WIDOW
HEDWIG (Jadwiga)
was a daughter of Berthold, Count of Andechs, and was born at Andechs in
Bavaria about the year 1174; through
her sister Gertrude she was aunt to St Elizabeth of Hungary. She was placed
when very young in the monastery of Kitzingen in Franconia, and taken thence
when twelve years old to marry Henry, Duke of Silesia, who was then eighteen.
They had seven children, of whom only one, Gertrude, survived her mother,
and she became abbess of Trebnitz. Her husband succeeded to his father’s
dukedom in 1202, and he at once at Hedwig’s persuasion founded the great
monastery of Cistercian nuns at Trebnitz, three miles from Breslau. To construct
the building it is said that all malefactors in Silesia, instead of other
punishments, were condemned to work at it. This was the first convent
of women in Silesia,*{* It was
suppressed and secularized in 1810, and the estate came to Prince Blucher
after Waterloo.} and the first of a large
number of monastic establishments by the foundation of which the duke and
duchess both aided the religious life of their people and spread a Germanic
culture over their territories. Among them were houses of Augustinian canons,
Cistercian monks, Dominican and Franciscan friars. Henry established the
hospital of the Holy Ghost in Breslau and Hedwig one for female lepers at
Neumarkt, in which they took a close personal interest. After the birth of
her last child in 1209 Hedwig engaged
her husband to agree to a mutual vow of continence, from which time they
lived to a considerable extent in different places. Her husband, we are told,
for the thirty years that he lived afterwards, never wore gold, silver or
purple, and never shaved his beard, from which he was named Henry the Bearded.
Their
children were the occasions of a good deal of trouble for them. For example,
in 1212 Duke Henry made a partition
of his estates between his sons Henry and Conrad, but on terms dissatisfying
to them. The two brothers with their factions came to an open rupture, and,
notwithstanding their mother’s efforts to reconcile them, a battle was fought,
in which Henry routed his younger brother’s army. This was one of those
crosses by which the duchess learned more bitterly to deplore the miseries
and blindness of the world, and more perfectly to disengage her heart from
its slavery. After 1209 she made her
principal residence near Trebnitz monastery, often retiring into that austere
house, where she slept in the dormitory and complied with all the exercises
of the community. She wore the same cloak and tunic summer and winter, and
underneath them a hair-shift, with sleeves of white serge that it might not
be seen. With going to church barefoot over ice and snow her feet were often
blistered and chilblained, but she carried shoes under her arm, to put on
if she met anyone. An abbot once gave her a new pair, insisting that she
should wear them, which she promised to do. When he met her some time after
she was still unshod, and he asked what had become of them. Hedwig produced
them from under her cloak, brand-new. “I always wear them there“, she said.
In
1227 Duke Henry and Duke Ladislaus
of Sandomir met to plan defence against Swatopluk of Pomerania. They were
unexpectedly attacked by Swatopluk, and Henry was surprised in his bath,
barely escaping with his life. St Hedwig hurried to nurse him, but he was
soon in the field again, fighting with Conrad of Masovia for the territories
of Ladislaus, who had been killed. Henry was successful and established himself
at Cracow, but he was again surprised, this time while at Mass, and was carried
off by Conrad to Plock. The faithful Hedwig followed, and induced the two
dukes to come to terms, her two grand-daughters being promised in marriage
to Conrad’s sons. Thus the intervention of Henry’s forces was rendered unnecessary,
to the great joy of St Hedwig, who could never hear of bloodshed without
doing all in her power to prevent it. In 1238 her husband died, and was succeeded
by his son Henry, called “the Good”. When the news was brought, the nuns at Trebnitz shed many
tears. Hedwig was the only person with dry eyes, and comforted the rest:
“Would you oppose the will of God? Our lives are His. Our will is whatever
He is pleased to ordain, whether our own death or that of our friends.” From
that time she put on the religious habit at Trebnitz, but she did not take
the corresponding vows, in order that she might be free to administer her
own property in her own way for the relief of the suffering. Hedwig once
got to know a poor old woman who could not say the Lord’s Prayer, and was
very slow at learning it. Hedwig went on patiently teaching her for ten weeks,
and even had her into her own room to sleep, so that at every spare moment
they could go through it together, until the woman could both repeat and
understand it.
In
1240 the Mongol Tartars swept
through the Ukraine and Poland. Duke Henry II led his army against them and
a battle was fought near Wahlstadt, in which, it is said, the Tartars used
a sort of poison-gas, for “a thick and nauseating smoke, issuing from long
copper tubes shaped like serpents, stupefied the Polish forces”. Henry was killed, and
his death was known to St Hedwig three days before the news was brought to
her. “I have lost my son”, she told her companion Dermudis. “He has gone from me like
a bird in flight, and I shall never see him again in this life.” When the
messenger arrived, it was she, the old woman, who comforted the younger
ones, Henry’s wife Anne and his sister Gertrude. The example of her faith
and hope was honoured by God with the gift of miracles. A nun who was blind
recovered her sight by the blessing of the saint with the sign of the cross,
and her biographer gives an account of several other miraculous cures wrought
by her and of several predictions, especially of her own death. In her last
sickness she insisted on being anointed before any others could be persuaded
that she was in danger. She died in October 1243, and was buried at Trebnitz. St Hedwig was canonized in 1267,
and her feast added to the general Western calendar in 1706.
There is a Latin life or legend of St Hedwig which seems to have
been compiled towards the close of the thirteenth century by an unknown
writer who claims to have based his narrative in the main upon memoirs provided
by a Cistercian, Engelbert of Leubus. There is a shorter as well as a longer
form of the story, which is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, October,
vol. viii, as well as elsewhere. A manuscript copy written in 1353 and preserved at Schlackenwert is of
great interest on account of the miniatures with which it is decorated they have often been reproduced, as for example
in the book of H. Riesch, Die hi. Hedwig (1926). There are
several lives in German, e.g. by F. H. Gorlich (1854), F.
Becker (1872), E. Fromnitz (1926), K.
and F. Metzger (1927), and a few in
French, notably that by G. Bazin (1886). See also G. Morin in the Revue Bénédictine, vol. vii (1890), pp. 465—469;
and H. Quillus, Konigen Hedwig von Polen (1938).
There is a popular American account of St Hedwig, with a fancy title, The Glowing Lily, by E. Markowa (1946).
Silesia a region of eastern
Europe. Also called Jadwiga in some lists, she died in a Cistercain convent,
having taken vows. Hedwig was born in Andechs, Bavaria, Germany, the daughter
of the Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia. She was the aunt of St. Elizabeth of
Hungary. At the age of twelve, Hedwig was marrie to Duke Henry of Silesia,
the head of the Polish Royal family. She bore him seven children, and they
had a happy marriage. Henry founded a Cistercain convent at Trebnitz, as
well as hospitals and monasteries. Henry died in 1238 and Hedwig became a
Cistercain at Trebnitz. She had to leave her prayers to make peace among
her offspring, and she buried a child who was killed fighting against the
Mongols. She died in the convent on October 15.Many miracles were reported
after her death, and she was canonized in 1266.
(1174?-1243) We have a right
to expect noble deeds from a member of the nobility. This does not always
happen, to say the least. But St. Hedwig (in Polish, Jadwiga) was
not only of noble blood, she was outstanding for her noble deeds.
Hedwig was of Bavarian origin,
the daughter of the Count of A-ndechs, and the aunt of St. Elizabeth of
Hungary. Having received her elementary training as a boarding student
at the Monastery of Kitzingen, she was wedded at the age of twelve to the
18-year-old aristocrat Henry, who shortly fell heir to the dukedom of Silesia,
an area then and today part of western Poland.
Duke Henry I and Duchess Hedwig
proved to be ideally matched. He was an earnest ruler and she an admirable
counselor. Through her influence Church life in the duchy was promoted.
On her recommendation, for instance, Henry, in one of his first official
acts, founded the great Cistercian monastery of Trzebnica (Trebnitz) near
Wroclaw (Breslau), the pioneer convent for woman in Silesia. Through
her persuasion also, other religious houses were founded or supported, and
the new mendicant religious orders, the Dominicans and Franciscans, and other
religious communities were encouraged to establish themselves in the country.
Henry opened a hospital in Wroclaw; she, a lazaretto for women lepers in
Neumarkt.
Nor was this beneficence a mere show. Both Hedwig and Henry
were themselves devout Christians. After the birth of their seventh child
in 1208, the couple took a solemn vow of continence. After that, she engaged
even more actively in penitential practices; and it is said of him that he
never shaved thereafter nor wore gold, silver or purple.
Hedwig's children caused her grief at one point. In 1212,
the duke divided his estates between their sons Henry and Conrad.
The sons, disappointed at the amount of land, declared war on each other.
Despite their mother's efforts at reconciliation, young Henry defeated Conrad;
but the quarrel only further convinced Hedwig of the evils of the world's
way.
Later on, her efforts as a peacemaker were more successful.
When her husband, engaged in armed conflict with Duke Conrad of Masovia,
was taken captive, she followed him to his place of detention and persuaded
him and Conrad to come to terms. The agreement included a pledge to
allow two of Hedwig's granddaughters to marry the sons of the Duke of Masovia.
Henry I died in 1238. All mourned him. But his
widow's eyes were dry. “Would you oppose the will
of God?” she asked. "Our
lives are His. Our will is whatever He is pleased to ordain, whether
our own death or that of our friends.”
After that, Duchess Jadwiga spent even more time than before
at the Cistercian monastery of Trzebnica. She followed its rule.
She wore the habit of its nuns. But she did not take vows, since that
would have deprived her of the right to administer her own property for
the benefit of those in need.
A touching and typical story about her solicitude for the poor
dates from this period. Hedwig got acquainted with an impoverished
old woman who did not know the Our Father, and was too slow of wit, it seems,
even to learn it. The duchess took on the task of teaching her the
prayer. For ten weeks she worked at it patiently. Indeed, she
had the woman sleep in her own room, so that they could spend every waking
hour praying it together. Finally this disciple was able to master
the Lord's Prayer.
Jadwiga's son Henry had succeeded
his father as Henry II of Silesia. He held the dukedom only two years,
for in 1240 he died in combat against the Tartar invaders. His mother
knew of his death three days before the tidings were brought to her.
Prophetically, she said to a companion, “He has gone from me like
a bird in flight, and I shall never see him again in this life." When the
news broke, it was she who comforted the others. Miracles as well as
prophecies were attributed to the Dowager Duchess during her lifetime.
Dying at Trzebnica on October 15, 1243, she was canonized in 1267.
She has continued to be one of Poland's favorite saints.
St. Hedwig, it seems to me, represents the ideal wife.
She was perfectly complementary to her husband in both private and public
life. He was the strong arm of the family; she was its heart.
--Father Robert F. McNamara
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1243 Saint Eupraxia, Princess of Pskov
In the world Euphrosyne, was the daughter of the Polotsk prince Rogvolod
Borisovich, and an aunt to the holy Prince Dovmont-Timothy (May 20).
She was the wife of the Pskov prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich. Prince Yaroslav
fled from Pskov to Livonia and there married a German. Together with the
Teutonic knights he made incursions several times upon the Russian lands,
and in 1231 he seized Izborsk. After the departure of her husband, Euphrosyne
turned to deeds of piety. In the year 1243, she built a monastery on the
banks of the River Velika named for St John the Forerunner, and became its
abbess.
Invited to Livonia for a meeting with her former husband in the city of
Odenpa (Bear's Head), she was murdered (May 8, 1243) by a stepson, more accurately,
the son of Yaroslav by his German wife. She was buried at the cathedral
of the monastery she founded. Ten days after the death of St Eupraxia, a
miracle occurred over her grave, when myrrh issued from an icon of the Savior.
The icon was called “The myrrh-bearing Savior”. The countenance of the righteous princess
was preserved on two icons. On the one she is depicted at prayer with St
John the Forerunner and the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. The other
icon with her likeness is beside the wonderworking icon of the Savior.
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1399 Queen St. Jadwiga of Poland cultural institutions
to both state and church Pope John Paul II canonized Blessed
Jadwiga
Sanctæ Hedwígis Víduæ, Polonórum Ducíssæ,
quæ prídie hujus diéi obdormívit in Dómino.
St. Hedwig, widow, duchess of Poland, who
went to her rest in the Lord on the day previous.
(1371-1399)
There are two Polish women of royal blood who have long been venerated
by Polish Catholics. Up to 1997 they were referred to as Saint Jadwiga
and Blessed Jadwiga. (Hedwig is the form of their name in German.)
Now both are called saints, for in June 1997, on a solemn visit to Krakow,
where he had formerly been archbishop, Pope John Paul II canonized Blessed
Jadwiga.
Jadwiga of Krakow was a ranking figure in the
history of Poland and Lithuania. She was the youngest daughter of King
Louis of Poland, the last member of the Piast dynasty. After Louis'
death in 1382, Jadwiga's counselors urged the thirteen-year-old princess to
accept the hand of Jagiello, Duke of Lithuania, who aspired to the Polish
throne. Jagiello was still a pagan; but he was ready not only to become
a Christian if Jadwiga would have him, but to bring all of Lithuania into
the Church.
The princess faced a crisis of conscience.
She would have preferred another suitor, yet this one presented great advantages
both to the Polish nation and the Church. In her dilemma, it is said
that she donned a black veil and walked to the cathedral of Krakow.
There she knelt for three hours in prayer before the crucifix in a side
chapel. Finally she decided to renounce her own will and accept the
offer; and rising, she draped the crucifix with her veil as a symbol of
her openness to God's will. Even today, we are told, the veil covers
“Jadwiga's Crucifix” in the cathedral
chapel.
Jagiello seems to have been sincere. He
was baptized with the Christian name Ladislaus, and the wedding was celebrated,
and he was crowned, thus beginning the Jagiellonian dynasty. He did
indeed see to the conversion of Lithuania, which was thereafter united with
Poland, extending its boundaries far to the east. The conversion of
the Lithuanians was also slowly but effectively accomplished.
Jadwiga was not a mere queen-consort. She wielded a moderating
influence on the governance of the turbulent double-kingdom, tempering her
husband's tendency to jealousy and extreme measures. The people found
in her a protector, and the nation and the Church a far-sighted benefactor.
She was a good wife to Ladislaus, who really loved her deeply but also looked
upon her with a certain awe. Her only fault seems to have been a lack
of prudence in penance and prayer.
Not content with expanding Poland and Christianizing
it, Ladislaus II and Jadwiga made Krakow a leading intellectual center by
refounding its university. The Jagiellonian University has since then
made Krakow “a bridge between the Christian West and
East.” So declared Pope
John Paul, one of its most distinguished alumni. At the canonization
he praised Jadwiga's appreciation of the value of cultural institutions
to both state and church.
The queen was long unable to bear a child to
her husband. When she finally did conceive, Ladislaus made enthusiastic
plans to surround the birthing with jewels and rich drapes. Jadwiga
took no stock in such splendor. She had long since renounced the pomps
of the world. Now she simply wanted to thank God for the gift of a
child by making His will her own. She now revisited the Jadwiga chapel
of the cathedral on the anniversary of her “great
renunciation” and was discovered
several hours later in an ecstasy or perhaps a swoon. The child, a
girl, was born shortly afterward, but lived only a few days. Its birth
also cost the Queen her life. However, her good influence on the King
continued even after her death.
Devotion to their model queen inspired crowds
to visit her tomb, and miracles were recorded through her intercession.
Although the process for her beatification foundered, she was popularly
referred to as “Blessed.” Pope John Paul II made her formal
beatification unnecessary by canonizing her. Poland has had few more
influential religious, political and cultural leaders.
|
1771 St. Marguerite
d'Youville Canada “Mother of Universal Charity.”
We learn compassion from allowing our lives to be influenced by compassionate
people, by seeing life from their perspective and reconsidering our own
values.
Born 1701 in Varennes, Canada, Marie Marguerite Dufrost de Lajemmerais
had to interrupt her schooling at the age of 12 to help her widowed mother.
Eight years later she married Francois d'Youville; they had six children,
four of whom died young. Despite the fact that her husband gambled, sold liquor
illegally to Native Americans and treated her indifferently, she cared for
him compassionately in the two years before his death in 1730.
Even though she was caring for two small children and running a store
to help pay off her husband's debts, Marguerite still helped the poor. Once
her children were grown, she and several companions rescued a Quebec hospital
which was in danger of failing. She called her community the Institute of
the Sisters of Charity of Montreal; the people called them the “Grey
Nuns” because of the color of
their habit. In time, a proverb arose among the poor people of Montreal,
“Go to the Grey Nuns; they
never refuse to serve.” In time,
five other religious communities traced their roots to the Grey Nuns.
The General Hospital in Montreal became known as the Hotel Dieu (House
of God) and set a standard for medical care and Christian compassion. When
the hospital was destroyed by fire in 1766, she knelt in the ashes, led the
Te Deum (a hymn to God's providence in all circumstances) and began the rebuilding
process. She fought the attempts of government officials to restrain her
charity and established the first foundling home in North America.
Pope John XXIII, who beatified her in 1959, called her “the
Mother of Universal Charity.” She was canonized in 1990.
Comment: Saints deal with plenty of discouragement,
plenty of reasons to say, “Life
isn't fair” and wonder where
God is in the rubble of their lives. We honor saints like Marguerite because
they show us that, with God's grace and their cooperation, suffering can
lead to compassion rather than to bitterness.
Quote: "More than once the work which Marguerite undertook was hindered
by nature or people. In order to work to bring that new world of justice
and love closer, she had to fight some hard and difficult battles" (John
Paul II, canonization homily) .
|
1755
St. Gerard Majella professed lay brother
Redemptorists patron of expectant
mothers gift of reading consciences
Muri, in Lucánia, sancti
Gerárdi Majélla, Confessóris, Láici proféssi
Congregatiónis a sanctíssimo Redemptóre nuncupátæ,
quem, miráculis clarum, Pius Décimus, Póntifex Máximus,
Sanctórum albo accénsuit.
At Muro
in Italy, St. Gerard Majella, confessor and professed lay brother of the Congregation
of the Most Holy Redeemer. Renowned for miracles, he was added to the
list of the saints by Pope Pius X.
1755 ST GERARD MAJELLA
GERARD, said Pope Pius IX, was a perfect
model for those of his own condition, lay brothers Leo XIII referred to
him as “one of those angelic youths whom God has given to the world as models
to men” and in his short life of twenty-nine years he became the most famous
wonder-worker of the eighteenth century. He was born at Muro, fifty miles
south of Naples, the son of a tailor.
His mother
testified after his death: “My
child’s only happiness was in church, on his knees before the Blessed Sacrament.
He would stop there till he forgot it was dinner-time. In the house he prayed
all day. He was born for Heaven.”
At the age
of ten he was allowed to receive holy communion every other day, which a
time when the influence of Jansenism was yet not purged away argues that
his confessor was sensible of what manner of child Gerard was. When his father
died he was taken away from school and apprenticed to a tailor, Martin Pannuto,
a man who understood and respected his apprentice. Not so his journeyman,
a rough fellow who ill-treated young Gerard and was only exasperated by the
boy’s patience. When he had learned his trade, which he did very efficiently,
he offered himself to the local Capuchins, of whom his uncle was a member,
but they refused him as too young and delicate. He then became a servant
in the household of the Bishop of Lacedogna. Humanly speaking this was an
unfortunate experience, for this prelate
was a man of ungovernable temper who treated Gerard with a great lack of
consideration and unkindness. Nevertheless he served him faithfully and uncomplainingly
till the bishop died in 1745, when he returned home to Muro and set up as
a tailor on his own. He lived with his mother and three sisters, and one-third
of his earnings he handed over to her, another third was given in alms to
the poor, and the rest in stipends for Masses for the souls in Purgatory.
He had already begun to discipline himself with severity and several hours
of the night were passed in prayer in the cathedral.
When
Gerard was twenty-three a mission was given in Muro by some fathers of the
newly-founded Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. He offered himself
to them as a lay-brother, but again his delicate appearance was against
him and his mother and sisters were not at all anxious to let him go. But
he persisted, and at length Father Cafaro sent him to the house of which
he was rector at Deliceto, with the written message: “I send you a useless
brother.” When Father Cafaro returned thither he found he had been mistaken
in his judgement, and at once admitted Gerard to the habit. Working first
in the garden and then in the sacristy he was so industrious, punctual and
self-effacing that it was said of him, “Either he is a fool or a great saint”. St Alphonsus Liguori, founder
of the Redemptorists, knew which he was and deliberately shortened his novitiate
for him. Brother Gerard was professed in 1752, adding to the usual vows one always to do that which should
seem the more pleasing to God. Father Tannoia, who wrote the lives both
of St Gerard and of St Alphonsus and who was healed by Gerard’s intercession
after his death, tells us that when Gerard was a novice he one day saw him
praying before the tabernacle. Suddenly he cried aloud, “Lord, let me go,
I pray thee I have work that I must do.” Surely one of the
most moving stories in the whole of hagiology.
During
his three years as a professed lay-brother Gerard was engaged as the community
tailor and infirmarian, in begging for the house, and in accompanying the
fathers on their missions and retreats because of his gift of reading souls.
There are over twenty examples of his having brought secret sinners to repentance
by revealing their own wickedness to themselves. This was the period, too,
of the principal supernatural phenomena: ecstatic flight (he is said to
have been carried through the air a distance of half a mile), “bilocation”, and power over inanimate
nature and the lower animals are recorded of him, as well as prophecy and
infused knowledge. In his ecstasies an appeal to his obedience was the only
force that could recall him to his surroundings before the appointed time.
At Naples he knew of the murder of the Archpriest of Muro at the time it
happened fifty miles away, and on several occasions he was apprised of and
correctly acted on the mental wishes of persons at a distance. He read the
bad conscience of the secretary of the Archbishop of Conza with such accuracy
that the man completely changed his life and was reconciled to his wife,
so that all Rome was talking of it. But it is for the phenomenon called bilocation
that St Gerard is most famous in this connection. He was alleged to have
been with a sick man in a cottage at Caposele at the same time as he talked
with a friend in the monastery at the same place. Father Tannoia states,
among other examples, that he was seen at Muro on a day when he certainly
did not leave Caposele. Once the rector looked for him in his cell and he
was apparently not there, so when he saw him in the church he asked where
he had been. “In my cell”, was the reply. “What do you mean?” asked the rector, I have been there twice to look for you”. Pressed, Gerard explained
that as he was in retreat he had asked God to make
him invisible, lest he be disturbed. “I forgive you this time”, said the rector. “But
don’t make such prayers again.”*{* Examples of bilocation, when proved,
are usually explained either by the imagination of the beholder being impressed
by the image of a person not physically present, or by the production by
God of a real external image of an absent person, or by the person being seen
through all the intervening space as though he were present.}
It is not, however,
for these marvels that St Gerard Majella is canonized and revered they were
simply an effect of his surpassing holiness which God in His wisdom could
have withheld, without abating thereby one jot of that goodness, charity
and devotion which made him that model which Pius and Leo declared him to
be. One of the most surprising results of his reputation was that he was
allowed to be, in effect, the spiritual director of several communities
of nuns—an activity not usually associated with lay-brothers. He interviewed
individuals and gave community conferences at the grille, and
wrote letters of advice to superiors, religious and priests. Some of these
are extant. There is nothing remarkable in them plain, straightforward statements
of a Christian’s duty in whatever state it has pleased God to call him; urging
gentleness to a prioress, vigilance to a novice, tranquility to a parish
priest, conformity with the divine will to all.
In 1753 the young divines at Deliceto went on an expedition
to the shrine of St Michael at Monte Gargano. They had the equivalent of
twelve shillings all told to cover their expenses, but they also had St Gerard
with them, and he saw to it that they wanted nothing the whole time; their
nine days’ holiday was a succession of marvels. But just a year later he
was brought under suspicion, and underwent a terrible trial. A young woman
whom he had befriended, Neria Caggiano, who was of wanton conduct, accused
Gerard of lechery and St Alphonsus at Nocera sent him for. Believing it to
be in accordance with his vow to do the more perfect thing, he did not deny
the charge, and thereby placed his superior in a quandary, for it was difficult
to believe that Gerard was really guilty. So he was forbidden to receive
Holy Communion or to have any dealings with the outside world. “There is
a God in Heaven. He will provide”, said Gerard. For some weeks suspicion rested on him, and then
Neria and her accomplice voluntarily confessed that they had lied and trumped-up
the charge. St Alphonsus asked St Gerard why he had not protested his innocence.
“Father”, he replied, “does not our rule forbid us to excuse ourselves?” A provision which, of course,
was never intended to apply to circumstances such as these. Soon after this
St Gerard was sent with Father Margotta to Naples, where his reputation
and miracles caused the Redemptorist house to be beset day and night
by people who wanted to see him; so at the end of four months he was removed
to the house at Caposele and made porter there.
This was a job after
his own heart, and “our house at this time”, wrote Father Tannoia, “was besieged with beggars.” Brother Gerard had the
same concern for their good that a mother has for her children. He had the
knack of always sending them away satisfied, and neither their unreasonableness
nor cunning dodges ever made him lose patience. During the hard winter
of that year two hundred men, women and children came daily to the door
and received food, clothes and firing; nobody but the porter knew where
it all came from. In the spring he went again to Naples where, and at Calitri,
Father Margotta’s home, several miracles of healing were attributed to him.
On returning to Caposele he was put in charge of the new buildings, and
one Friday when there was not a penny in the house wherewith to pay the
workmen, his prayers brought an unexpected sum of money sufficient for their immediate needs. He spent the summer questing for funds for
these buildings, but the effort in the south Italian heat was too much
for him, and in July and August his consumption made rapid advance. He was
a week in bed at Oliveto, where he cured (or as he put it, “gave effect
to obedience“) a lay-brother who had been sent to look after him and was
himself taken ill, and then dragged himself back to Caposele. He was able
to get up from bed again only for a few days in September, and his last
weeks were a compound of physical suffering and spiritual ecstasy, in which
his gifts of infused knowledge and prevision seemed more powerful than ever
before. He died on the day and at the hour he had foretold, just before
the midnight of October 15—16, in the year 1755. St Gerard Majella was canonized
in 1904.
The best authority
for the story of St Gerard is the biography by Father Tannoia. This was
translated into English for the Oratorian Series and was printed in the
volume Lives of the Companions of St Alphonsus (1849), pp.
243—453. Besides this we have
in English: 0. Vassall-Phillips, Life of St Gerard Majella (1914) Saint-Omer, Life, Virtues and Miracles of St Gerard Majella (1907); and J. Carr, To
Heaven Through a Window (1946). The best German biography is that by
Father Dilgskron (1923).
He was born at Muro {meaning
wall outside the town}, Italy, in 1726 and joined the Redemptorists at the
age of 23, becoming a professed lay brother in 1752. He served as sacristan,
gardener, porter, infirmarian, and tailor. However, because of his great
piety, extraordinary wisdom, and his gift of reading consciences, he was
permitted to counsel communities of religious women.
Gerard brought tasty bread
to his mother for three days in a row saying it came from his friend.
At this time he was a child. His mother sent his older sister on the
third day to follow Gerard and see who was this friend with the tasty bread.
His sister followed him into the church and saw him crawl through the communion
railing and began playing on the floor with another child his age and size.
After a while they quit playing and his friend gave bread went back up to
the statue of Mary and reposed into her arms.
He decided to become a Capuchin and left his home through his
bedroom window leaving a note to his mother about his calling to God.
They rejected him. Then he came back home and became a tailor.
One day the Redemptorists came to his town. These were “Giants who walked the earth”,
hearing confessions and great preaching. A current day Redemptorist described
Gerard, “...visuzlize this as
Gerard looking like death warmed-over riding a bicycle.” They too rejected
him at first, but relented upon his insistance and sent him to a friary
with a note, “here comes a poor
soul who wishes to join us.”
While working in the chapel a sacristan came into the room
quite upset about losing the church's key down the nearby well. Worried
he would occur the rath of the pastor he went to Gerard and told him the
problem. Gerard said, “take
the Jesus child statue by the front door and lets go to the well.” Of course, that also worried the
sacristan, but did as Gerard said. Together they lowered the statue
down the well, waited a few minutes and pulled the statue back up.
Gripped firmly in little Jesus's hand was the key.
This humble servant of God also had the faculties of levitation
and bi-location associated with certain mystics. His charity, obedience,
and selfless service as well as his ceaseless mortification for Christ, made
him the perfect model of lay brothers. He was afflicted with tuberculosis
and died in 1755 at the age of twenty-nine.
This great saint is invoked as a patron of expectant mothers
as a result of a miracle effected through his prayers for a woman in labor.
This is still happening as evidenced by any search on the internet of people
who prayed to Gerard and received children.
Prayer: O Great Saint Gerard,
beloved servant of Jesus Christ, perfect imitator of your meek and humble
Savior, and devoted Child of the Mother of God: enkindle within my heart
one spark of that heavenly fire of charity which glowed in your heart and
made you an angel of love. O glorious Saint Gerard, because when falsely
accused of crime, you did bear, like your Divine master, without murmur or
complaint, the calumnies of wicked men, you have been raised up by God as
the Patron and Protector of expectant mothers. Preserve me from danger and
from the excessive pains accompanying childbirth, and shield the child which
I now carry, that it may see the light of day and receive the lustral waters
of baptism through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(1726-1755) Gerard Majella came
to be invoked particularly as patron saint of pregnant women, for reasons
hard to discern. He was only a humble Redemptorist lay brother.
Yet he did have a strong spiritual influence on women as well as men, something
unusual for one who was not a priest.
Gerard was born at Muro Lucano in southern Italy. He
grew up a very pious child. Perhaps because of his goodness he was
often ill-treated by the fellow craftsmen with whom he studied tailoring,
and even by the choleric Bishop of Lacedogna, in whose service he spent some
time.
Actually, Majella aspired to join a religious order, but when
the Capuchins rejected him as too young and of too uncertain health, he
returned to his fatherless family and set up on his own as a tailor.
Meanwhile, he devoted an increasing amount of time to prayer and self-denial.
He earned enough, but two thirds of his earnings went to the poor or to Masses
for the souls in purgatory.
Around 1749, when he was 23, the young tailor was deeply impressed
by a mission preached by priests of a new religious order, the Redemptorists.
He asked that community if he might join them as a lay brother. The
Redemptorists, too, hesitated because of his poor health, but finally they
accepted him. The founder of the Redemptorists, St. Alphonsus de Liguori,
was impressed by the young man, and shortened the required novitiate.
Gerard made his profession as a lay brother in 1752, adding to the three
usual vows one that bound him always to do what seemed most pleasing to God.
His career as a lay brother was brief but brisk. For
the first three years his chief tasks were tailoring and working in the
infirmary. But he also became noted for the spiritual contacts that
he made while he accompanied the missionary fathers on their rounds.
It seems that he had unusual charismatic abilities. Thus he could
read the hearts of people, and brought a score of them back to God through
this insight. He had the gift of prophecy. He had the gift of
levitation as well: he could be lifted into the air in the midst of ecstatic
prayer. Most extraordinary of these gifts, however, were his “bilocations”.
He could be, or seem to be, in two places at the same time.
Not only did the Redemptorist superiors recognize Brother Gerard's
singular gifts, they even named him spiritual director to several communities
of nuns - an appointment seldom given to a non-priest. He also carried
on correspondence with priests and religious superiors, giving them sound
advice. Furthermore, he won a reputation for working miracles.
When the crowds seeking cures became too great at one house where he was
stationed, he had to be transferred to another house. There he was
appointed to tend the door, but soon he was feeding and clothing countless
beggars. Nobody knew where the food and clothing came from, except
him.
We have mentioned Brother Gerard's
illness that had twice deferred his admission to a religious order. It was
tuberculosis, and it overtook him after only three years as a Redemptorist.
He announced that he would die on the night of October 15-16, 1755, and
he did precisely that.
Pope Pius IX would call him “a
perfect model for… lay brothers.”
In 1904 Pope St. Pius X canonized this “most
famous wonderworker of the 18th century.”
It was shortly after his death that St. Gerard became the popular
patron of the pregnant. A story is told that suggests why this patronage
may have developed.
On one occasion a young woman named Neria Caggiano, whom Gerard
had befriended but who was of wanton disposition, accused him of immoral
behavior. St. Alphonsus, incredulous, summoned Brother Gerard to Nocera
for questioning. In keeping with his vow to do the more perfect thing,
the Brother neither affirmed nor denied the charge. St. Alphonsus, therefore,
punished him by forbidding him to receive Holy Communion and to have further
dealings with outsiders.
This situation went on for several weeks. Then Neria
confessed that she and her accomplice had lied in preferring the charge.
“Why didn't you protest your
innocence?” Liguori then asked
Brother Gerard. “Father,
Gerard replied, “doesn't our
rule forbid us to excuse ourselves?”
St. Gerard Majella Catholic Encyclopedia
Born in Muro, about fifty miles
south of Naples, in April, 1726; died 16 October, 1755; beatified by Leo
XIII, 29 January, 1893, and canonized by Pius X, 11 December, 1904. His only
ambition was to be like Jesus Christ in his sufferings and humiliations.
His father, Dominic Majella, died while Gerard was a child. His pious mother,
owing to poverty, was obliged to apprentice him to a tailor. His master loved
him, but the foreman treated him cruelly. His reverence for the priesthood
and his love of suffering led him to take service in the house of a prelate,
who was very hard to please. On the latter's death Gerard returned to his
trade, working first as a journeyman and then on his own account. His earnings
he divided between his mother and the poor, and in offerings for the souls
in purgatory. After futile attempts first to become a Franciscan and then
a hermit, he entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer in 1749.
Two years later he made his profession, and to the usual vows he added one
by which he bound himself to do always that which seemed to him more perfect.
St. Alphonsus considered him
a miracle of obedience.
He not only obeyed the orders of superiors when present, but
also when absent knew and obeyed their desires. Although weak in body, he
did the work of three, and his great charity earned for him the title of
Father of the Poor. He was a model of every virtue, and so drawn to Our Lord
in the tabernacle that he had to do violence to himself to keep away. An
angel in purity, he was accused of a shameful crime; but he bore the calumny
with such patience that St. Alphonsus said: “Brother
Gerard is a saint”. He was favoured
with infused knowledge of the highest order, ecstatsies, prophecy, discernment
of spirits, and penetration of hearts, bilocation, and with what seemed
an unlimited power over nature, sickness, and the devils. When he accompanied
the Fathers on missions, or was sent out on business, he converted more
souls than many missionaries. He predicted the day and hour of his death.
A wonderworker during his life, he has continued to be the same since his
death.
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Mary
the Mother of Jesus Mary Mother of GOD
Saints of October 16 Décimo séptimo
Kaléndas Novémbris.
Longinus the Centurion, a Roman soldier, The Holy Martyr served in Judea under the command
of the Governor, Pontius Pilate. When our Savior Jesus Christ was crucified,
it was the detachment of soldiers under the command of Longinus which stood
watch on Golgotha, at the very foot of the holy Cross. Longinus and his
soldiers were eyewitnesses of the final moments of the earthly life of the
Lord, and of the great and awesome portents that appeared at His death.
These events shook the centurion's soul. Longinus believed in Christ and
confessed before everyone, "Truly this was the Son of God" (Mt. 27:54).
Quote:
Pope Paul VI’s 1969 
Benedict
XVI met with Aram I Catholicos of Cilicia,
the highest authority of the Orthodox Church.
The Pope remembered
the martyrs of the Armenian Church and the
Armenian genocide, without explicitly mentioning
it, and denounced the persecution of Christians in
modern times. Benedict
XVI
As we
watch the spectacle of the world seeming
to self-destruct before our eyes, we can’t
help but be saddened and even frightened by so
much evil run rampant. Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan,
Somalia, North Korea—It is all a disaster of epic
proportions displayed in living color on our television
screens.