 1st v. The Hieromartyr
Cornelius the Centurion
Soon after the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross and His
Ascension into Heaven, a centurion by the name of Cornelius settled at
Caesarea in Palestine. He had lived previously in Thracian Italy.
Although he was a pagan, he distinguished himself by deep piety and
good deeds, as the holy Evangelist Luke says (Acts 10:1). The Lord did
not disdain his virtuous life, and so led him to the knowledge of truth
and to faith in Christ.
Once, Cornelius was praying in his home. An angel of God appeared to
him and said that his prayer had been heard and accepted by God. The
angel commanded him to send people to Joppa to find Simon, also called
Peter. Cornelius immediately fulfilled the command.
While those people were on their way to Joppa, the Apostle Peter was at
prayer, and he had a vision: three times a great sheet was lowered down
to him, filled with all kinds of beasts and fowl. He heard a voice from
Heaven commanding him to eat everything. When the apostle refused to
eat food which Jewish Law regarded as unclean, the voice said: "What
God hath cleansed, you must not call common" (Acts 10:15).
Through this vision the Lord commanded the Apostle Peter to preach the
Word of God to the pagans. When the Apostle Peter arrived at the house
of Cornelius in the company of those sent to meet him, he was received
with great joy and respect by the host together with his kinsmen and
comrades. Cornelius fell down at the feet of the apostle and
requested to be taught the way of salvation. St Peter talked about the
earthly life of Jesus Christ, and spoke of the miracles and signs
worked by the Savior, and of His teachings about the Kingdom of Heaven.
Then St Peter told him of the Lord's death on the Cross, His
Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven. By the grace of the Holy
Spirit, Cornelius believed in Christ and was baptized with all his
family. He was the first pagan to receive Baptism.
He retired from the world and went preaching the Gospel together with
the Apostle Peter, who made him a bishop. When the Apostle Peter,
together with his helpers Sts Timothy and Cornelius, was in the city of
Ephesus, he learned of a particularly vigorous idol-worship in the city
of Skepsis. Lots were drawn to see who would go there, and St Cornelius
was chosen. In the city lived a prince by the name of Demetrius,
learned in the ancient Greek philosophy, hating Christianity and
venerating the pagan gods, in particular Apollo and Zeus. Learning
about the arrival of St Cornelius in the city, he immediately summoned
him and asked him the reason for his coming. St Cornelius answered that
he came to free him from the darkness of ignorance and lead him to
knowledge of the True Light. The prince, not comprehending the
meaning of what was said, became angry and demanded that he answer each
of his questions. When St Cornelius explained that he served the Lord
and that the reason for his coming was to announce the Truth, the
prince became enraged and demanded that Cornelius offer sacrifice to
the idols. The saint asked to be shown the gods. When he entered
the pagan temple, Cornelius turned towards the east and uttered a
prayer to the Lord. There was an earthquake, and the temple of Zeus and
the idols situated in it were destroyed. All the populace, seeing what
had happened, were terrified.
The prince was even more vexed and began to take counsel together with
those approaching him, about how to destroy Cornelius. They bound the
saint and took him to prison for the night. At this point, one of his
servants informed the prince that his wife and child had perished
beneath the rubble of the destroyed temple. After a certain
while, one of the pagan priests, by the name of Barbates, reported that
he heard the voice of the wife and son somewhere in the ruins and that
they were praising the God of the Christians. The pagan priest asked
that the imprisoned one be released, in gratitude for the miracle
worked by St Cornelius, and the wife and son of the prince remained
alive. The joyful prince hastened to the prison in the company of
those about him, declaring that he believed in Christ and asking him to
bring his wife and son out of the ruins of the temple. St Cornelius
went to the destroyed temple, and through prayer the suffering were
freed.
After this the prince Demetrius, and all his relatives and comrades
accepted holy Baptism. St Cornelius lived for a long time in this city,
converted all the pagan inhabitants to Christ, and made Eunomios a
presbyter in service to the Lord. St Cornelius died in old age and was
buried not far from the pagan temple he destroyed.
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St. Macrobius a
Cappadocian, who died at Tomis, on the Black Sea & Julian Martyrs
Julian, a priest, died in Galatia suffered under co-Emperor
Licinius.
Item sanctórum
Mártyrum Macróbii et Juliáni, qui sub
Licínio passi sunt.
Also, the
holy martyrs Macrobius and Julian, who suffered under Licinius.
Saint Macrobius was from Paphlagonia, and suffered martyrdom with Sts
Gordian, Elias, Zoticus, Lucian and Valerian.
Gordian and Macrobian served in the imperial court, and
they enjoyed the particular favor of the emperor. When he found out
that they were Christians, he sent them to Scythia. There they met
Zoticus, Lucian and Elias, who were also courageous confessors of
Christ. First Sts Gordian and Macrobius suffered. After this Sts Elias,
Zoticus, Lucian and Valerian were tortured and then beheaded in the
city of Tomis in Scythia (Tomis, Romania). They suffered at Paphlagonia
(Asia Minor) at the beginning of the fourth century during the reign of
the Roman emperor Licinius (311-324).
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Alexandríæ natális
beáti Philíppi, patris sanctæ Eugéniæ
Vírginis. Hic, dignitátem
Præfectúræ Ægypti déserens,
Baptísmatis grátiam assecútus est; quem, in
oratióne constitútum, jussit Teréntius
Præféctus, ejus succéssor, gládio
jugulári.
At Alexandria,
the birthday of blessed Philip, father of the virgin St. Eugenia.
Resigning the dignity of prefect of Egypt, he received the grace of
baptism. His successor, the prefect Terentius, had him pierced
through the throat with a sword while he was praying.
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3rd v. The Holy
Martyr Chronides with Sts
Stratonicus, Serapion, Leontius and Seleucus
Suffered for the Christian Faith in the third century with
Sts Stratonicus, Serapion, Leontius and Seleucus. StsChronides,
Leontius, and Serapion were from Egypt. After fierce torments for their
confession of faith in Christ, the holy martyrs were savagely killed.
Sts Chronides, Leontius and Serapion were bound hand and foot and cast
into the sea. Their bodies were carried to shore by the waves, where
Christians gave them burial.
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St. Ligorius
unknown
Eastern martyr whose relics are venerated in Venice, Italy
Eódem die sancti Ligórii Mártyris, qui a
Gentílibus, in erémo degens, ob Christi fidem
necátus est.
On the same day, St. Ligorius, martyr. While
living in the desert, he was murdered by heathens for faith of Christ.
He was put to death by a pagan mob.
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 313 Commemoration
of the Founding of the Church of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulchre) at
Jerusalem
Commemorated on September 13
The Dedication of the Temple of the Resurrection of Christ at Jerusalem
celebrates the dedication of the Church of the Resurrection, built by
St Constantine the Great and his mother, the empress Helen.
After the voluntary Passion and Death on the Cross of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, the holy place of His suffering was long trampled
on by pagans. When the Roman emperor Titus conquered Jerusalem in the
year 70, he razed the city and destroyed the Temple of Solomon on Mount
Moriah, leaving there not a stone upon a stone, as even the Savior
foretold (Mt.13:1-2).
Later on the zealous pagan emperor Hadrian (117-138) built on the site
of the Jerusalem destroyed by Titus a new city named Aelia Capitolina
for him (Hadrian Aelius). It was forbidden to call the city by its
former name. He gave orders to cover the Holy Tomb of the Lord with
earth and stones, and on that spot to set up an idol. On Golgotha,
where the Savior was crucified, he constructed a pagan temple dedicated
to the goddess Venus in 119.
Before the statues they offered sacrifice to demons and performed pagan
rites, accompanied by wanton acts.
In Bethlehem, at the place the Savior was born of the All-Pure Virgin,
the impious emperor set up an idol of Adonis. He did all this
intentionally, so that people would forget completely about Christ the
Savior and that they would no loner remember the places where He lived,
taught, suffered and arose in glory.
At the beinning of the reign of St Constantine the Great (306-337), the
first of the Roman emperors to recognize the Christian religion, he and
his pious mother the empress Helen decided to rebuild the city of
Jerusalem. They also planned to build a church on the site of the
Lord's suffering and Resurrection, in order to reconsecrate and purify
the places connected with memory of the Savior from the taint of foul
pagan cults.
The empress Helen journeyed to Jerusalem with a large quantity of gold,
and St Constantine the Great wrote a letter to Patriarch Macarius I
(313-323), requesting him to assist her in every possible way with her
task of the renewing the Christian holy places.
After her arrival in Jerusalem, the holy empress Helen destroyed all
the pagan temples and reconsecrated the places desecrated by the
pagans. She was zealous to find the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
she ordered the excavation of the place where the temple of Venus
stood. There they discovered the Sepulchre of the Lord and Golgotha,
and they also found three crosses and some nails.
In order to determine upon which of the three crosses the Savior was
crucified, Patriarch Macarius gave orders to place a dead person, who
was being carried to a place of burial, upon each cross in turn. When
the dead person was placed on the Cross of Christ, he immediately came
alive. With the greatest of joy the empress Helen and Patriarch
Macarius raised up the Life-Creating Cross and displayed it to all the
people standing about.
The holy empress quickly began the construction of a large church which
enclosed within its walls Golgotha, the place of the Crucifixion of the
Savior, and the Sepulchre of the Lord, located near each other. The
holy Apostle and Evangelist John wrote about this: "Now in the place
where He was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new
tomb, in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore they laid Jesus
there because of the Jewish preparation day, for the tomb was nearby"
(John 19:41-42). The Church of the Resurrection was ten years in
building, and the holy empress Helen did not survive to see its
completion. She returned to Constantinople, and reposed in the year
327. After her arrival in Jerusalem, the holy empress built churches in
Bethlehem, on the Mount of Olives, at Gethsemane and in many other
places connected with the life of the Savior and events in the New
Testament.
The construction of the church of the Resurrection, called "Martyrion"
in memory of the sufferings of the Savior, was completed in the same
year as the Council of Tyre, and in the thirtieth year of the reign of
St Constantine the Great. Therefore, at the assembly of September 13,
335, the consecration of the temple was particularly solemn. Hierarchs
of Christian Churches in many lands: Bythnia, Thrace, Cilicia,
Cappadocia, Syria, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Arabia, Palestine, and
Egypt, participated in the consecration of the church. The bishops who
participated in the Council of Tyre, and many others, went to the
consecration in Jerusalem. On this day all the city of Jerusalem was
consecrated. The Fathers of the Church established September 13 as the
commemoration of this remarkable event.
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397 St.
Nectarius
Bishop of Autun friend of St. Germanus of Paris succeeded by St. John
Chrysostom.
Nectarius (Nechtarios), Patriarch of Constantinople, (381-397), died 27
Sept, 397, eleventh bishop of that city since Metrophanes, and may be
counted its first patriarch.
He came frorn Tarsus of a senatorial family and was praetor at
Constantinople at the time of the second general council (381). When St. Gregory Nazianzen resigned his
occupation of that see the people called for Nectarius to succeed him
and their choice as ratified by the Council (Socrates, "H.E.", V),
before August, 381.
Sozomen (H.E., VII, 8) adds that Nectorius, about to return to Tarsus,
asked Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus, if he could carry any letters for
him. Diodorus, who saw that his visitor was the most suitable person to
become Bishop of Constantinoble, persuaded Meletius, Bishop of Antioch,
to add his name to the list of candidates presented by the council to
the emperor.
The emperor then to every one's surprise, chose Nectarius, who was not
yet baptized, and in neophyte's robe he was consecrated bishop.
Tillemont (Mémoires, IX, 486) doubts this story.
Soon after Nectarius' election the Council passed the famous third
canon giving Constantinople rank immediately after Rome. A man of no
very great power, Nectarius had an uneventful reign with which St. Gregory was not altogether
pleased ("Ep." 88, 91, 151, etc; Tillemont, op. cit., IX, 488).
Suspected of concessions to the Novarians (Socrates, V, 10; Sozomen,
VII, I2), he made none to the Arians, who in 388 burnt his house
(Socrates, V, 13).
Palsamon says that in 394 he held a synod at Constantinople which
decreed that no bishop should be deposed without the consent of several
other bishops of the same province (Harduin, I, 955). The most
important event, however, is that, according to Socrates (V, 19) and
Sozomen (VII, 16), as a result of a public scandal Nectarius abolished
the discipline of public penance and the office of penitentiary
hitherto held by a priest of his diocese.
The incident is important for the history of Penance. Nectarius
preached a sermon about the martyr Theodore still extant (P.G. XXXIX,
1821-40, Nilles "Kalendarium manuale", II, 96-100). He was succeeded by
St. John Chrysostom and appears as St. Nectarius in the Orthodox
Menaion for 11 October (Nilles, op. cit. I, 300; "Acta SS". May, II,
421).
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407 St. John
Chrysostom "golden-mouthed" When it came to justice and charity, John
acknowledged no double standards.
The ambiguity and intrigue surrounding John, the great preacher (his
name means "golden-mouthed") from Antioch, are characteristic of the
life of any great man in a capital city. Brought to Constantinople
after a dozen years of priestly service in Syria, John found himself
the reluctant victim of an imperial ruse to make him bishop in the
greatest city of the empire. Ascetic, unimposing but dignified, and
troubled by stomach ailments from his desert days as a monk, John began
his episcopate under the cloud of imperial politics. If his body
was weak, his tongue was powerful. The content of his sermons, his
exegesis of Scripture, were never without a point. Sometimes the point
stung the high and mighty. Some sermons lasted up to two hours.
His life-style at the imperial court was not appreciated by some
courtiers. He offered a modest table to episcopal sycophants hanging
around for imperial and ecclesiastical favors. John deplored the court
protocol that accorded him precedence before the highest state
officials. He would not be a kept man.
His zeal led him to decisive action. Bishops who bribed their way into
their office were deposed. Many of his sermons called for concrete
steps to share wealth with the poor. The rich did not appreciate
hearing from John that private property existed because of Adam's fall
from grace any more than married men liked to hear that they were bound
to marital fidelity just as much as their wives. When it came to
justice and charity, John acknowledged no double standards.
Aloof, energetic, outspoken, especially when he became excited in the
pulpit, John was a sure target for criticism and personal trouble. He
was accused of gorging himself secretly on rich wines and fine foods.
His faithfulness as spiritual director to the rich widow, Olympia,
provoked much gossip attempting to prove him a hypocrite where wealth
and chastity were concerned. His action taken against unworthy bishops
in Asia Minor was viewed by other ecclesiastics as a greedy,
uncanonical extension of his authority.
Two prominent personages who personally undertook to discredit John
were Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria, and Empress Eudoxia.
Theophilus feared the growth in importance of the Bishop of
Constantinople and took occasion to charge John with fostering heresy.
Theophilus and other angered bishops were supported by Eudoxia. The
empress resented his sermons contrasting gospel values with the
excesses of imperial court life. Whether intended or not, sermons
mentioning the lurid Jezebel and impious Herodias were associated with
the empress, who finally did manage to have John exiled. He died in
exile in 407.
Comment: John Chrysostom's
preaching, by word and example, exemplifies
the role of the prophet to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the
comfortable. For his honesty and courage he paid the price of a
turbulent ministry as bishop, personal vilification and exile.
Quote: Bishops "should
set forth the ways by which are to be
solved very grave questions concerning the ownership, increase and just
distribution of material goods, peace and war, and brotherly relations
among all people" (Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops,
12).
407 Transfer of the
relics of St John Chrysostom condemned by Eudoxia
Sancti Joánnis Chrysóstomi, Epíscopi
Constantinopolitáni, Confessóris et Ecclésiæ
Doctóris, cæléstis Oratórum sacrórum
Patróni; qui décimo octávo Kaléndas
Octóbris obdormívit in Dómino. Ejus sacrum
corpus, sub Theodósio junióre, hac die
Constantinópolim, inde póstea Romam translátum
fuit, et in Basílica Príncipis Apostolórum
cónditum.
St. John Chrysostom, Bishop of
Constantinople, confessor and doctor of the Church, and the heavenly
patron of preachers, who fell asleep in the Lord on the 14th of
September. His holy body was brought to Constantinople on this
day in the reign of Theodosius the younger; it was afterwards taken to
Rome and placed in the basilica of the Prince of the Apostles.
407
St John Chrysostom, Archbishop Of Constantinople And Doctor Of The
Church
This incomparable teacher, on account of the fluency and sweetness of
his eloquence, obtained after his death the surname of Chrysostom, or
Golden Mouth. But his piety and his undaunted courage are titles far
more glorious, by which he may claim to be ranked among the greatest
pastors of the Church. He was born about the year 347 at Antioch in
Syria, the only son of Secundus, commander of the imperial troops. His
mother, Anthusa, left a widow at twenty, divided her time between the
care of her family and her exercises of devotion. Her example made such
an impression on our saint’s master, a celebrated pagan sophist, that
he could not forbear crying out, “What wonderful women are found among
the Christians!”
Anthusa provided for her son the ablest masters that the empire at that
time afforded. Eloquence was esteemed the highest accomplishment, and
John studied that art under Libanius, the most famous orator of the
age; and such was his proficiency that even in his youth he excelled
his masters. Libanius being asked on his deathbed who ought to succeed
him in his school, “John”, said he, “would have been my choice, had not
the Christians stolen him from us.”
According to a common custom of those days young John was not baptized
till he was over twenty years old, being at the time a law student.
Soon after, together with his friends Basil, Theodore (afterwards
bishop of Mopsuestia) and others, he attended a sort of school for
monks, where they studied under Diodorus of Tarsus; and in 374 he
joined one of the loosely knit communities of hermits among the
mountains south of Antioch. He afterwards wrote a vivid account of
their austerities and trials. He passed four years under the direction
of a veteran Syrian monk, and afterwards two years in a cave as a
solitary. The dampness of this abode brought on a dangerous illness,
and for the recovery of his health he was obliged to return into the
city in 381. He was ordained deacon by St Meletius that very year, and
received the priesthood from Bishop Flavian in 386, who at the same
time constituted him his preacher, John being then about forty. He
discharged the duties of the office for twelve years, supporting during
that time a heavy load of responsibility as the aged bishop’s deputy.
The instruction and care of the poor he regarded as the first
obligation of all, and he never ceased in his sermons to recommend
their cause and to impress on the people the duty of almsgiving.
Antioch, he supposes, contained at that time one hundred thousand
Christian souls and as many pagans; these he fed with the word of God,
preaching several days in the week, and frequently several times on the
same day.
The Emperor Theodosius I, finding himself obliged to levy a new tax on
his subjects because of his war with Magnus Maximus, the Antiochenes
rioted and vented their discontent on the emperor’s statue, and those
of his father, Sons and late consort, breaking them to pieces. The
magistrates were helpless. But as soon as the fury was over and they
began to reflect on the probable consequences of their outburst, the
people were seized with terror and their fears were heightened by the
arrival of two officers from Constantinople to carry out the emperor’s
orders for punishment. In spite of his age, Bishop Flavian set out in
the worst weather of the year to implore the imperial clemency for his
flock, and Theodosius was touched by his appeal an amnesty was accorded
to the delinquent citizens of Antioch. Meanwhile St John had been
delivering perhaps the most memorable series of sermons, which marked
his oratorical career, the famous twenty-one homilies “On the
Statutes”. They manifest in a wonderful way the sympathy between the
preacher and his audience, and also his own consciousness of the power
that he wielded for good. There can be no question that the Lent of
387, during which these discourses were delivered, marked a
turning-point in Chrysostom’s career, and that from that time forward
his oratory became, even politically, one of the great forces by which
the Eastern empire was swayed. After the storm he continued his labours
with unabated energy, but before very long God was pleased to call him
to glorify His name upon a new stage, where He prepared for his virtue
other trials and other crowns.
Nectarius, Archbishop of Constantinople, dying in 397, the Emperor
Arcadius, at the suggestion of Eutropius, his chamberlain, resolved to
procure the election of John to the see of that city. He therefore
despatched an order to the count of the East, enjoining him to send
John to Constantinople, but to do so without making the news public,
lest his intended removal should cause sedition. The count repaired to
Antioch, and desiring the saint to accompany him out of the city to the
tombs of the martyrs, he there delivered him to an officer who, taking
him into his chariot, conveyed him with all possible speed to the
imperial city. Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria, a man of proud and
turbulent spirit, had come thither to recommend a nominee of his own
for the vacancy; but he had to desist from his intrigues, and he
consecrated John on February 26 in 398.
When regulating his domestic concerns, the saint cut down the expenses
which his predecessors had considered necessary to maintain their
dignity, and these sums he applied to the relief of the poor and
supported many hospitals. His own household being settled in good
order, the next thing he took in hand was the reformation of his
clergy. This he forwarded by zealous exhortations and by disciplinary
enactments, which, while very necessary, seem in their severity to have
been lacking in tact. But to give these his endeavours their due force,
he lived himself as an exact model of what he inculcated on others. The
immodesty of women in their dress in that gay capital aroused him to
indignation, and he showed how false and absurd was their excuse in
saying that they meant no harm. Thus by his zeal and eloquence St John
tamed many sinners, converting, moreover, many idolaters and heretics.
His mildness towards sinners was censured by the Novatians; for he
invited them to repentance with the compassion of a most tender father,
and was accustomed to cry out, “If you have fallen a second time, or
even a thousand times into sin, come to me, and you shall be healed”.
But he was firm and severe in maintaining discipline, and to impenitent
sinners he was inflexible. One Good Friday many Christians went to the
races, and on Holy Saturday crowded to the games in the stadium. The
good bishop was pierced to the
quick, and on Easter Sunday he preached an impassioned sermon, “Against
the Games and Shows of the Theatre and Circus”. Indignation made him
not so much as mention the paschal solemnity, and his exordium was a
most moving appeal.
A large number of Chrysostom’s sermons still exist,
and they amply support the view of many that he was the greatest
preacher who ever lived. But it must be admitted that his language was
at times, especially in his later years, excessively violent and
provocative. As has been observed, he “sometimes almost shrieks at his
delinquent empresses” ; and one has a painful feeling that his
invective in face of undoubted provocation from many Jews must have
been partly responsible for the frequent bloody collisions between them
and Christians in Antioch. Not all Chrysostom’s opponents were
blameworthy men: there were undoubtedly good and earnest Christians
amongst those who disagreed with him—he who became St Cyril of
Alexandria among them.
Another good work, which absorbed a large share of the archbishop’s
activities, was the founding of new and fervent communities of devout
women. Among the holy widows who placed themselves under the direction
of this great master of saints, the most illustrious, perhaps, was the
truly noble St Olympias. Neither was his pastoral care confined to his
own flock; he extended it to remote countries. He sent a bishop to
instruct the wandering Scythians; another, an admirable man, to the
Goths. Palestine, Persia and many other distant provinces felt the
beneficent influence of his zeal. He was himself remarkable for an
eminent spirit of prayer, and he was particularly earnest in
inculcating this duty. He even exhorted the laity to rise for the
midnight office together with the clergy. “Many artisans”, said he,
“get up at night to labour, and soldiers keep vigil as sentries; cannot
you do as much to praise God?”
Great also was the tenderness with which he discoursed on the
divine love which is displayed in the holy Eucharist, and exhorted the
faithful to the frequent use of that heavenly sacrament. The public
concerns of the state often claimed a share in the interest and
intervention of St Chrysostom, as when the chamberlain and ex-slave
Eutropius fell from power in 399, on which occasion he preached a
famous sermon while the hated Eutropius cowered in sanctuary beneath
the altar in full view of the congregation. The bishop entreated the
people to forgive a culprit whom the emperor, the chief person injured,
was desirous to forgive; he asked them how they could beg of God the
forgiveness of their own sins if they did not forgive one who stood in
need of mercy and time for repentance.
It remained for St Chrysostom to glorify God by his sufferings, as he
had already done by his labours, and, if we contemplate the mystery of
the Cross with the eyes of faith, we shall find him greater in the
persecutions he sustained than in all the other occurrences of his
life. His principal ecclesiastical adversary was Archbishop Theophilus
of Alexandria, already mentioned, who had several grievances against
his brother of Constantinople. A no less dangerous enemy was the
empress Eudoxia. John was accused of referring to her as “Jezebel”, and
when he had preached a sermon against the profligacy and vanity of so
many women it was represented by some as an attack levelled at the
empress. Knowing the sense of grievance entertained by Theophilus,
Eudoxia, to be revenged for the supposed affront to herself, conspired
with him to bring about Chrysostom’s deposition. Theophilus landed at
Constantinople in June 403, with several Egyptian bishops; he refused
to see or lodge with John; and got together a cabal of thirty-six
bishops in a house at Chalcedon called The Oak. The main articles in
the impeachment were: that John had deposed a deacon for beating a
servant; that he had called several of his clergy reprobates; had
deposed bishops outside his own province; had sold things belonging to
the church; that nobody knew what became of his revenues; that he ate
alone; and that he gave holy communion to persons who were not
fasting—all which accusations were either false or frivolous. John held
a legal council of forty bishops in the city at the same time, and
refused to appear before that at The Oak. So the cabal proceeded to a
sentence of deposition against him, which they sent to the Emperor
Arcadius, accusing him at the same time of treason, apparently in
having called the empress “Jezebel “. Thereupon the emperor issued an
order for his banishment.
For three days Constantinople was in an uproar, and Chrysostom
delivered a vigorous manifesto from his pulpit.
“Violent storms
encompass me on all sides: yet I am without fear, because I stand
upon a rock. Though the sea roar
and the waves rise high, they cannot overwhelm the ship of Jesus
Christ. I fear not death, which is my gain; nor banishment, for the
whole earth is the Lord’s; nor the loss of goods, for I came naked into
the world, and I can carry nothing out of it.”
He
declared that he was
ready to lay down his life for his flock, and that if he suffered now,
it was only because he had neglected nothing that would help towards
the salvation of their souls. Then he surrendered himself, unknown to
the people, and an official conducted him to Praenetum in Bithynia. But
his first exile was short. The city was slightly shaken by an
earthquake. This terrified the superstitious Eudoxia, and she implored
Arcadius to recall John; she got leave to send a letter the same day,
asking him to return and protesting her own innocence of his
banishment. All the city went out to meet him, and the Bosphorus blazed
with torches. Theophilus and his party fled by night.
But the fair weather did not last long. A silver statue of the empress
having been erected before the great church of the Holy Wisdom, the
dedication of it was celebrated with public games which, besides
disturbing the liturgy, were an occasion of disorder, impropriety and
superstition. St Chrysostom had often preached against licentious
shows, and the very place rendered these the more inexcusable. And so,
fearing lest his silence should be construed as an approbation of the
abuse, he with his usual freedom and courage spoke loudly against it.
The vanity of the Empress Eudoxia made her take the affront to herself,
and his enemies were invited back. Theophilus dared not come, but he
sent three deputies. This second cabal appealed to certain canons of an
Arian council of Antioch, made to exclude St Athanasius, by which it
was ordained that no bishop who had been deposed by a synod should
return to his see till he was restored by another synod. Arcadius sent
John an order to withdraw. He refused to forsake a church committed to
him by God unless forcibly compelled to leave it. The emperor sent
troops to drive the people out of the churches on Holy Saturday, and
they were polluted with blood and all manner of outrages. The saint
wrote to Pope St Innocent I, begging him to invalidate all that had
been done, for the miscarriage of justice had been notorious. He also
wrote to beg the concurrence of other bishops of the West. The pope
wrote to Theophilus exhorting him to appear before a council, where
sentence should be given according to the canons of Nicaea. He also
addressed letters to Chrysostom, to his flock and several of his
friends, in the hope of redressing these evils by a new council, as did
also the Western emperor, Honorius. But Arcadius and Eudoxia found
means to prevent any such assembly, the mere prospect of which filled
Theophilus and other ringleaders of his faction with alarm.
Chrysostom was suffered to remain at Constantinople two months after
Easter. On Thursday in Whit-week the emperor sent an order for his
banishment. The holy man bade adieu to the faithful bishops, and took
his leave of St Olympias and the other deaconesses, who were
overwhelmed with grief. He then left the church by stealth to prevent
sedition, and was conducted into Bithynia, arriving at Nicaea on June
20, 404. After his departure a fire broke out and burnt down the great
church and the senate house. The cause of the conflagration was
unknown, and many of the saint’s supporters were put to the torture on
this account, but no discovery was ever made. The Emperor Arcadius
chose Cucusus, a little place in the Taurus Mountains of Armenia, for
St John’s exile. He set out from Nicaea in July, and suffered very
great hardships from the heat, fatigue and the brutality of his guards.
After a seventy days’ journey he arrived at Cucusus, where the good
bishop of the place vied with his people in showing him every mark of
kindness and respect. Some of the letters, which Chrysostom addressed
from exile to St Olympias and others, have survived, and it was to her
that he wrote his treatise on the theme “That no one can hurt him who
does not hurt himself”.
Meanwhile Pope Innocent and the Emperor Honorius sent five bishops to
Constantinople to arrange for a council, requiring that in the meantime
Chrysostom should be restored to his see. But the deputies were cast
into prison in Thrace, for the party of Theophilus (Eudoxia had died in
childbed in October) saw that if a council were held they would
inevitably be condemned. They also got an order from Arcadius that John
should be taken farther away, to Pityus at the eastern end of the Black
Sea, and two officers were sent to convey him thither. One of these was
not altogether destitute of humanity, but the other was a ruffian who
would not give his prisoner so much as a civil word. They often
travelled in scorching heat, from which the now aged Chrysostom
suffered intensely; and in the wettest weather they forced him out of
doors and on his way. When they reached Comana in Cappadocia he was
very ill, yet he was hurried a further five or six miles to the chapel
of St Basiliscus. During the night there this martyr seemed to appear
to John and said to him, “Courage, brother! To-morrow we shall be
together.” The next day, exhausted and ill, John begged that he might
stay there a little longer. No attention was paid; but when they had
gone four miles, seeing that he seemed to be dying, they brought him
back to the chapel. There the clergy changed his clothes, putting white
garments on him, and he received the Holy Mysteries. A few hours later
St John Chrysostom uttered his last words, “Glory be to God for all
things”, and gave up his soul to God. It was Holy Cross day, September
14, 407.
St John’s body was taken back to Constantinople in the year 438, the
Emperor Theodosius II and his sister St Pulcheria accompanying the
archbishop St Proclus in the procession, begging forgiveness of the
sins of their parents who had so blindly persecuted the servant of God.
It was laid in the church of the Apostles on January 27, on which day
Chrysostom is honoured in the West, but in the East his festival is
observed principally on November 13, but also on other dates. In the
Byzantine church he is the third of the Three Holy Hierarchs and
Universal Teachers, the other two being St Basil and St Gregory
Nazianzen, to whom the Western church adds St Athanasius to make the
four great Greek doctors; and in 1909 St Pius X declared him to be the
heavenly patron of preachers of the word of God. He is commemorated in
the Byzantine, Syrian, Chaldean and Maronite eucharistic liturgies, in
the great intercession or elsewhere.
Our
principal sources for the story of St John’s
life are the Dialogue of Palladius (whom Abbot Cuthbert Butler, with
the assent
of nearly all recent scholars, considers to be identical with the
author of the
Lausiac History), the autobiographical details which may be gleaned
from the
homilies and letters of the saint himself, the ecclesiastical histories
of
Socrates and Sozomen, and the panegyric attributed to a certain
Martyrius. The
literature of the subject is, of course, vast. No better general
account can be
recommended, especially in view of its admirable setting in a
background which
does justice to the circumstances of the times, than that provided by
Mgr
Duchesne in his Histoire ancienne de l’Eglise (English trans.),
vols. ii
and iii; but the definitive biography is by Dom C. Baur, Der hl.
Johannes
Chrysostomus und seine Zeit (2 vols., 1929—1930). An English
translation of
the Dialogue of Palladius was published in 1925, and the Greek
text, ed.
P. R. Coleman-Norton, in 1928. In English at the general level mention
may be
made of lives by W. R. W. Stephens (1883) and D. Attwater (1939), and
Dr A.
Fortescue’s lively sketch in The Greek Fathers (1908). A good
introduction
to the works is (Greek) Selections from St John Chrysostom
(1940), ed.
Cardinal D’Alton. See also Puech, St John Chrysostom
(English
trans.) in the series “Les Saints” the volume of essays brought out at
Rome in
1908, under the title XpveoTroaLKd, in honour of the fifteenth
centenary; the
article by Canon E. Venables in DCB., vol. i, pp. 518—535 and that by
G. Bardy
in DTC., vol viii, cc. 66o seq., where a full bibliography will be
found.
This
great ecumenical teacher and hierarch died in the city of Comana
in the year 407 on his way to a place of exile. He had been condemned
by the intrigues of the empress Eudoxia because of his daring
denunciation of the vices ruling over Constantinople. The transfer of
his venerable relics was made in the year 438, thirty years after the
death of the saint during the reign of Eudoxia's son emperor Theodosius
II (408-450).
St
John Chrysostom had the warm love and deep respect of the people,
and grief over his untimely death lived on in the hearts of Christians.
St John's disciple, St Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople (434-447),
during services in the Church of Hagia Sophia, preached a sermon
praising St John. He said, "O John, your life was filled with sorrow,
but your death was glorious. Your grave is blessed and reward is great,
by the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus ChriSt O graced one, having
conquered the bounds of time and place! Love has conquered space,
unforgetting memory has annihilated the limits, and place does not
hinder the miracles of the saint."
Those
who were present in church, deeply touched by the words of St
Proclus, did not allow him even to finish his sermon. With one accord
they began to entreat the Patriarch to intercede with the emperor, so
that the relics of St John might be brought back to Constantinople.
The
emperor, overwhelmed by St Proclus, gave his consent and gave the
order to transfer the relics of St John. But those he sent were unable
to lift the holy relics until the emperor realized that he had sent men
to take the saint's relics from Comana with an edict, instead of with a
prayer. He wrote a letter to St John, humbly asking him to forgive his
audacity, and to return to Constantinople. After the message was read
at the grave of St John, they easily took up the relics, carried them
onto a ship and arrived at Constantinople.
The
coffin with the relics was placed in the Church of Holy Peace
(Hagia Eirene). When Patriarch Proclus opened the coffin, the body of
St John was found to be incorrupt. The emperor approached the coffin
with tears, asking forgiveness for his mother, who had banished St
John. All day and night people did not leave the coffin.
In the morning the
coffin was brought to the Church of the Holy
Apostles. The people cried out, "Father, take up your throne." Then
Patriarch Proclus and the clergy standing by the relics saw St John
open his mouth and say, "Peace be to all." Many of the sick were healed
at his tomb.
The
celebration of the transfer of the relics of St John Chrysostom was
established in the ninth century.
|
426 Saint Maurilius; closely associated with France early church
history; Bishop of Angers; miracle worker
Andégavi, in Gállia, sancti Maurílii
Epíscopi, qui innúmeris miráculis cláruit.
At Angers in France, St. Maurilius, a bishop
renowned for numberless miracles.
(336-426)
Saint Maurilius, closely associated with the early history of the
church of France, was born near Milan, of an illustrious Christian
family, in the year 336. He was later drawn to Tours by the virtues of Saint Martin, who built a monastery
in Milan, where he undertook to form young men to virtue and sacred
studies. Maurilius was among them; but when the Arians drove Saint
Martin, a stranger in Italy, from the city, he lost his beloved master.
Maurilius remained for a
time as cantor for Saint Ambrose,
bishop of Milan, but after the death of his father, renounced his
patrimony and went to Tours to rejoin Saint Martin. There, the Apostle
of Gaul ordained him a priest.
He devoted himself to the salvation of souls; his zeal led him to a
site near Angers where, by his prayers, he brought down fire from
heaven on a pagan temple, and afterwards built a church of Jesus Christ
at the same site. Alongside it he had a monastery constructed, and soon
many souls came to dwell in the shadow of the cross, thus forming the
city of Chalonne. When the bishop of Angers died, Maurilius was chosen
by Saint Martin to succeed him. On the day of his consecration, a dove
entered the church and came to rest on his head.
453 St Maurilius, Bishop Of Angers
This Maurilius was a native of Milan who came into Tourajne and became
a disciple of St Martin, by whom he was ordained. He was a vigorous
missionary, who knew how to make the most of an opportunity. When a
pagan temple was struck by lightning he showed it to the people as an
indication of God’s anger, and at once set to work to build a church in
its place. He was made bishop of Angers and governed that see in virtue
and prudence for thirty years.
Later writers have embroidered his life with a number of
quite false tales, particularly one of a dying boy to whom he did not
go to minister till it was too late. Overcome with remorse he deserted
his see and made his way to the Breton coast. There, having written on
a rock the words, “I, Maurilius of Angers, passed this way”, he took
ship for Britain. In the Channel he accidentally dropped the key of his
cathedral into the sea. The people of Angers were stricken with grief
at the loss of their bishop, and eventually traced him to Brittany,
where the inscription on the rock was found. Some of them then passed
over into Britain to seek him there, and on the way a fish jumped into
the boat; in its belly was found the key of the cathedral of their
city. St Maurilius was presently found working as a gardener, and they
besought him to return. I cannot come back to Angers he said, without
the key of my church.” But when he was shown that they had the key he
gladly went with them, and when they had safely arrived he went to the
grave of the boy who by his fault had died unconfirmed and unhouseled,
and called him by his name. The boy rose from the grave and was
therefore given the name of Renatus (René), and lived to succeed
St Maurilius as bishop of Angers: he is venerated as a saint both there
and as bishop of Sorrento in Italy. The fable of an object recovered
from the belly of a fish is found in the legends of St Ambrose of
Cahors, St Kentigern, St Maglorius and others, as well as in several
non-Christian sources, particularly the story of the ring of
Polycrates. There is a tradition at Angers that St Maurilius introduced
the feast of the Birthday of our Lady into that diocese, in consequence
of a man having a vision of singing angels on the night of September 8
but it deserves no more credence than the other stories told about this
holy bishop.
On the 3rd of the
month is celebrated the feast of another ST MAURILIUS, a bishop of
Cahors who
died in the year 580.
Deliberate
fraud has
been associated with what at one time passed current as the Life of St
Maurilius. A certain deacon named Archanaldus in 905 rewrote
an earlier account of the saint, and pretended that it
had originally been compiled by Venantius Fortunatus and had afterwards
been
corrected by Gregory of Tours. The deception was exposed by Launoy in
1649, and
the whole matter will be found discussed in the Acta
Sanctorum, September, vol. iv. The genuine life by Magnobodus,
written c. 620, has also in part been edited by B. Krusch when writing
of
Venantius in MGH., Auctores Antiquissimi, vol. iv, Pt 2, pp.
84—101. See also the Analecta
Bollandiana, vol. xviii (1899), pp. 417—421, and J. Levron, Les saints du pays angevin (1943), pp. 53—64.
A few years later, a strange episode occurred. During the
consecration of a Mass celebrated by the bishop, a dying child was
brought in great haste to the church, to receive Confirmation. The
Saint waited for the end of the Holy Sacrifice, but during this time
the child died. Maurilius was so grieved by this that he fled without
advising anyone and embarked for England, where in great humility he
took employment as the gardener of a nobleman.
His diocesans at Angers were inconsolable, and sought him out so
well that they discovered his retreat. He refused, however, to return
as bishop, stating that he could not do so because during his voyage he
had lost at sea the keys to the cathedral, and had vowed not to return
until he found them. “But see,” said the messengers, “what we have
here; during our crossing a fish was cast up by a wave onto the deck of
the ship, and in its stomach we found these keys!” Maurilius obeyed the
Will of Heaven. When he returned he asked to be taken to the tomb of
the child, and with tears streaming from his eyes asked God to restore
him to life. The resurrected child was given the name of René
for this reason, which in French means reborn, and he became the
successor to Maurilius as bishop of Angers.
|
 7th v. Queen Ketevan of Georgia martyred in Persia: her holy relics were illumined with a
radiant light
The holy Queen Ketevan was the daughter of Ashotan
Mukhran-Batoni, a prominent ruler from the Bagrationi royal family. The
clever and pious Ketevan was married to Prince David, heir to the
throne of Kakheti. David’s father, King Alexander II (1574–1605), had
two other sons, George and Constantine, but according to the law the
throne belonged to David. Constantine was converted to Islam and raised
in the court of the Persian shah Abbas I.
Several years after David and Ketevan were married, King Alexander
stepped down from the throne and was tonsured a monk at Alaverdi. But
after four months, in the year 1602, the young king David died
suddenly. He was survived by his wife, Ketevan, and two children—a son,
Teimuraz, and a daughter, Elene—and his father ascended the throne once
more.
Upon hearing of David’s death and Alexander’s return to the royal
throne, Shah Abbas commanded Alexander’s youngest son,
Constantine-Mirza, to travel to Kakheti, murder his father and the
middle brother, George, and seize the throne of Kakheti. As instructed,
Constantine-Mirza beheaded his father and brother, then sent their
heads, like a precious gift, to Shah Abbas.
Their headless bodies he sent to Alaverdi. (Since the beginning of the
11th century, Alaverdi had been the resting place of the Kakhetian
kings.) The widowed Queen Ketevan was left to bury her father-in-law
and brother-in-law.
But Constantine-Mirza was still unsatisfied, and he proposed to take
Queen Ketevan as his wife.
Outraged at his proposition, the nobles of Kakheti rose up and killed
the young man who had committed patricide and profaned his Faith and
the throne. Having buried the wicked Constantine-Mirza with the honor
befitting his royal ancestry, Ketevan sent generous gifts to Shah Abbas
and requested that he proclaim her son, Teimuraz, the rightful heir to
the throne.
While she was awaiting his reply, Ketevan assumed personal
responsibility for the rule of Kakheti. Concerned that, if he denied
this request, Kakheti would forcibly separate from him and unite with
Kartli, Shah Abbas hastily sent Prince Teimuraz to Georgia, laden with
great wealth.
In 1614 Shah Abbas informed King Teimuraz that his son would be taken
hostage, and Teimuraz was forced to send his young son Alexander and
his mother Ketevan to Persia. As a final attempt to divide the royal
family of Kakheti, Shah Abbas demanded that the eldest prince, Levan,
be brought before him, and he finally summoned King Teimuraz himself.
The shah’s intentions were clear: to hold all of the royal family in
Persia and send his own viceroys to rule in Kakheti. He sought to
eliminate King Luarsab II of Kartli as well, but Teimuraz and Luarsab
agreed to attack the Persian army with joint forces and drive the enemy
out of Georgia.
Shah Abbas sent his hostages, Queen Ketevan and her grandsons, deep
into Persia, while he himself launched an attack on Kakheti.
With fire and the sword the godless ruler plundered all of Georgia. The
royal palace was razed, churches and monasteries were destroyed, and
entire villages were abandoned. By order of the shah, more than three
hundred thousand Georgians were exiled to Persia, and their homes were
occupied by Turkic tribes from Central Asia. Hunger and violence
reigned over Georgia.
The defeated Georgian kings Teimuraz and Luarsab sought refuge with
King George III of Imereti.
After they had spent five years exiled in Shiraz (Persia), the princes
Alexander and Levan were separated from Ketevan and castrated in
Isfahan. Alexander could not endure the suffering and died, while Levan
went mad.
St. Ketevan, meanwhile, remained a prisoner of the ruler of
southeastern Persia, the ethnic Georgian imam Quli-Khan Undiladze, who
regarded the widowed Queen of Kakheti with great respect. According to
his command, Ketevan was not to discover the fate of her grandsons.
Queen Ketevan spent ten years in prison, praying for her motherland and
loved ones with all her might and adhering to a strict ascetic regime.
Constant fasting, prayer and a stone bed exhausted her previously
pampered body, but in spirit she was courageous and full of vitality.
She looked after those assigned to her care and instructed them in the
spiritual life.
After some time Abbas resolved to convert Ketevan to Islam, and he
announced his intention to marry her. He asked that his proposal be
conveyed to her the same day she was informed of the fate of her
grandsons. As a condition of their marriage, Abbas insisted that
Ketevan renounce the Christian Faith and convert to Islam. In the case
of her acquiescence, Imam Quli-Khan was to respect and honor her as a
queen, and in the case of her refusal, to subject her to public torture.
The alarmed imam begged the queen to submit to the shah’s will and save
herself, but the queen firmly refused and began to prepare for her
martyrdom. (According to one foreign observer, her steadfastness
delayed the Islamization of the Georgians in Persia: “In the course of
a conversation at the court of Shah Abbas, where a young and recently
converted Georgian was present, the question arose as to why it was
that, while all young Georgians were forced to embrace Islam, their
mothers were not. The explanation given by one of those present was
that since the Queen would not change her faith Georgian mothers
likewise refused.” (Z. Avalishvili, “Teimuraz I and His Poem ‘The
Martyrdom of Queen Ketevan,’” Georgica [vol I, no. 4/5, 1937] pp. 22.)
Queen Ketevan was robed in festive attire and led out to a crowded
square. Her persecutors subjected her to indescribable torment: they
placed a red-hot copper cauldron on her head, tore at her chest with
heated tongs, pierced her body with glowing spears, tore off her
fingernails, nailed a board to her spine, and finally split her
forehead with a red-hot spade.
St. Ketevan’s soul departed from her body, and the executioners cast
her mutilated body to the beasts. But the Lord God sent a miracle: her
holy relics were illumined with a radiant light.
A group of French Augustinian missionary fathers, who had witnessed the
inhuman tortures, wrapped Queen Ketevan’s body in linens scented with
myrrh and incense and buried it in a Catholic monastery.
Some time later the holy relics of Great-martyr Ketevan were delivered
to her son, Teimuraz, King of Kakheti.
Teimuraz wept bitterly for his mother and sons and buried the relics
with great honor in the Alaverdi Cathedral of St. George.
|
607 St
Eulogius, Patriarch Of Alexandria celebrated for
learning and sanctity
Alexandríæ sancti
Eulógii Epíscopi, doctrína et sanctitáte
célebris.
At Alexandria, St. Eulogius, a bishop celebrated for
learning and sanctity.
St
Eulogius was a
Syrian by birth and while young became a monk,
and at
length abbot of his monastery of the Mother of God at Antioch. Amongst
the
evils with which the Church was then afflicted, the disorder and
confusion into
which the monophysites had thrown the church of Alexandria called for
strong
measures, and an able pastor endowed with prudence and vigour to apply
them.
Upon death of patriarch John, in 579 St Eulogius was raised to
that
dignity.
Two or three years later Eulogius was obliged to make a
journey to
Constantinople on the affairs of his church, and there he met St
Gregory the
Great, who was at that time the papal representative (apocrisiarius)
at the Byzantine court. Between the two a
friendship soon sprang up, and there are extant a number of letters
which in
after years Gregory addressed to Eulogius. In one of these letters St
Gregory,
now pope, refers to the success of the monk Augustine among the pagan
Angli,
“living in an angle of the world”, stating that on the preceding
Christmas-eve
ten thousand of them had been baptized he goes on to use this as an
encouragement for Eulogius in his efforts against the monophysites. One
passage
almost seems to imply that St Eulogius had something to do with
originating St
Augustine’s mission to England. St Gregory, who had already had to
rebuke the
patriarch of Constantinople, John IV the Faster, for assuming the
pompous title
of “Ecumenical
Patriarch” and had thenceforward in protest signed
himself “Servant
of the Servants of God”, likewise reproved St Eulogius for addressing
him as
“Ecumenical
Pope”. “I
do not wish to be exalted in words but ia virtue”, he wrote. “Away with
these
words which puff up pride and offend charity.”
Of the numerous writings
of St
Eulogius, chiefly against heresies, only a sermon and a few fragments
remain
one treatise was submitted to St Gregory before publication, and
he approved
it with the words, “I find nothing in your writings but what is
admirable”. St
Eulogius did not long survive his friend, dying at Alexandria about the
year
607.
Besides
the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. iv, an
account of Eulogius will be found in Bardenhewer’s Patrology
(Eng. trans.), pp. 575—576, and in DCB., vol. ii, p. 283.
His works are printed in Migne, PG., vol. lxxxvi. See also the Theologische Quartalschrift, vol.
lxxviii, pp. 353—401. Pope Gregory I’s letter about the English mission
is in lib.
viii, ind. i, no. 30 of his Epistolae.
|
630 St. Amatus
Benedictine monk hermit founded a double monastery in 620
Benedictine abbot and hermit, also called Ame. He was born into a noble
family of Grenoble, France, and placed into St. Maurice Abbey as a
small child. After becoming a Benedictine monk, Amatus lived as a
hermit, going to Luxueil Monastery in 614. St. Eustace, one of his
mentors, advised this assignment. While in Luxueil, Amatus converted a
Merovingian noble named Romaric. This convert founded a double
monastery in 620, and Amatus became its first abbot.
630 St Amatus, or Ame, Abbot
The first in time of the two saints of this name commemorated today was
born of a Gallo-Roman family at Grenoble. While still a child he was
taken to the abbey of Agaunum where he passed over thirty years of his
life, first as a schoolboy, then as a religious in the community, and
finally as a hermit in a cell on the cliff behind the monastery. There
he lived alone, supporting himself by the cultivation of a small patch
of land, helped therein, it was said in after ages, by divine
intervention. Persevering and improving in every grace and virtue, he
in the year 614 attracted the attention of St Eustace, when he visited
Agaunum on his way back from a visit to Italy. He induced Amatus to
return with him to Luxeuil and become a monk in that monastery.
The most important external achievement of St Amatus was the conversion
of Romaric, a Merovingian nobleman who had a castle at Habendum, on the
Moselle. This conversion was begun when one day St Amatus was dining at
the table of Romaric, who asked the question of another certain ruler:
“What shall I do to possess everlasting life?” Amatus pointed out a
silver dish as representing the possessions to which his questioner was
enslaved, and added the words of our Lord: “Sell all whatever thou hast
and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven. And come,
follow me.” Romaric took these words to heart and was given the grace
to interpret them literally: he manumitted his serfs, gave most of his
goods, except Habendum, to the poor and the Church, and became a monk
at Luxeuil. Then, about the year 620, the converted nobleman himself
founded a double monastery wider the Columbanian rule, St Amatus being
appointed its first abbot. This monastery was on his estate at
Habendum, and was afterwards called after the founder Remiremont
(Romarici Mans). Its early days are said darkened by a sad quarrel
between Amatus and Romaric on the one hand and Eustace on the other, in
which a monk of Luxeuil, named Agrestius, was deeply implicated. But
that unhappy man came to a bad end; he was murdered (it is said by a
wronged husband) and after his death peace was gradually restored. St
Amatus died about the year 630, in love and charity with St Eustace and
the monks of Luxeuil.
During his last years he reverted to the solitary life of
his earlier ones, living in a cell apart, cultivating his garden and
looking after their bees for the nuns, and coming to choir only on
Sundays and great feasts. His friend and convert Romaric took over the
direction of the two communities, and in due course he too was
venerated as a saint.
The
Latin life, which was formerly accepted (e.g. in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. iv) as written by a monk
of
Remiremont who was practically a contemporary of the saint, has been
reedited
by B. Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol.
iv, pp. 215—221. Krusch arrives at the
conclusion the document is quite untrustworthy and fabricated in the
ninth
century. The matter is not altogether clear, though the life must in
any case
have been written as much as fifty years after the death of St Amatus.
As
against Krusch, see Besson in the Zeitschrift
für Schweitzerische Kirchengeschichte, vol. (1907), pp.
20-51, and cf. the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxvi, pp.
342—343.
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680 St.
Columbinus
Benedictine abbot, the successor of St. Deicola at Lure, in the Vosges,
France.
|
690 St. Amatus
Benedictine bishop abbot of Agaune monastery in Switzerland
Amatus was the abbot of Agaune monastery in Switzerland. He became the
bishop of Sion diocese in the Swiss canton of Valais but was accused
falsely by enemies and banished to Peronne and then Breuil, France,
where he died as a monk.
690 St Amatus, or Âme, Bishop Of Sion In Valais
This other Amatus became bishop of Sion (Sitten), in what is now
Switzerland, about the year 66o. We hear little of him till some
sixteen years later when, for reasons unknown, King Thierry III of
Austrasia banished him to the monastery at Péronne, where St
Ultan, brother of its founder St Fursey, was then abbot. After the
death of St Ultan, St Amatus was in 686 given into the care of St
Maurontus at his newly founded abbey at Breuil in Flanders. On his way
thither the bishop, while vesting himself in the church at Cambrai,
emulated St Goar and other saints by hanging his cloak not on a beam
but on a sun-beam. But it was the holiness of St Amatus and the
injustice of his position, rather than this imaginary incident, that
caused St Maurontus to kneel at his feet and apologize for being his
guardian. At Breuil St Amatus both by words and example excited the
monks to fervour and humility. He himself lived in a cell near the
church, and occupied his soul in heavenly contemplation. Thus he lived
some years with these monks, and only left them to become an
intercessor with Christ in His glory for them about the year 690.
The Roman Martyrology implies that St Amatus was bishop of Sens, as
indeed he is generally called there has been confusion between
Senonensis and Sedunensis, and his name was interpolated in the
episcopal lists of that see during the tenth century. Nevertheless his
attribution to Sion in Valais is not without its difficulties.
There
are two Latin lives of the saint, the one
printed in the Acta Sanctorum, September,
vol. iv, the other in the Catalogue of the Hagiographical MSS. of
Brussels, ii,
pp 44-55. The Bollandists formerly described him as bishop of Sens, not
Sion,
and this view has been supported in modern
times by H. Bouvier, Histoire de l‘Eglise de Sens, vol. i (1906), pp. 457—460.
On the other side see Besson, Monasterium
Agaunense (1913), p. 171. Cf. also
Duchesne, Fastes Episcopaux, vol. i, p. 246, and ii,
p. 239.
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7th v. St.
Venerius
Hermit abbot island of Tino, in the Gulf of Genoa
He lived as a hermit on the island of Tino, in the Gulf of Genoa,
Italy, and eventually became an abbot over a monastic community on the
island. |
8th
v. Saint Peter from Atroe was dedicated to God from childhood
He spent his whole life in exploits of fasting and unceasing prayer. He
pursued asceticism in the city of Atroe, near Asian Olympos. A
distinctive feature of the holy ascetic was his extreme temperance.
During his lifetime, the saint worked many miracles and peacefully
reposed in the time of Patriarch Tarasius of Constantinople (784-806).
|
 16th
v. Saint John monk of the
Prislop Monastery in southwestern Romania; lead a solitary ascetical life, struggling
against the assaults of the demons
was a monk of the Prislop Monastery in southwestern Romania
at the turn of the sixteenth century. After several years in that
place, he went into the mountains to lead a solitary ascetical life,
struggling against the assaults of the demons.
One day, while St John was making a window in his cell, he was shot and
killed by a hunter on the other side of the creek, who mistook him for
a wild animal. St John's holy relics were later brought to
Wallachia (southern Romania).
He was glorified by the
Orthodox Church of Romania in 1992.
|
1745 Saint Hierotheus received the monastic tonsure at the Iveron monastery; Many sick and afflicted with bodily
suffering were healed by prayers to the saint.
Born in 1686 in Greece. Desiring to comprehend Divine wisdom
as it is in the sciences and also as it is in monastic life, the pious
youth, displaying great ability and diligence, studied Latin and Greek
philosophy.
After the death of his parents, and wanting to continue his education,
St Hierotheus first of all visited Mount Athos, which was famous for
its many male teachers. At first he was the disciple of a certain
hermit near the cell of St Artemius (October 20), and then he joined
the brethren of the Iveron monastery, where he received the monastic
tonsure.
St Hierotheus soon journeyed to Constantinople on monastery business,
and from there to Valachia, where the Lord directed him to continue his
interrupted education. Having been instructed by a certain Cypriot
monk, St Hierotheus by his good manners merited the favor of
Metropolitan Auxentius of Sofia, and was ordained deacon.
After completing his education in Venice, St Hierotheus returned to the
Holy Mountain. He settled near the Iveron monastery in the Khaga
wilderness. According to the testimony of his contemporaries, he led a
very strict hermit's life; with the constant Jesus Prayer the monk
discovered deep love for neighbor and joy-creating sorrow. On the
intercession of the igumen of the Iveron monastery St Hierotheus was
ordained to the priesthood by Metropolitan James of Neocaesarea, who
lived there in retirement.
At the request of the inhabitants of Skopelo, who had no priest, the
self-denying ascetic forsook his solitude. He celebrated the services
and preached for eight years, together with his Athonite disciples the
hieromonk Meletius and the monks Joasaph and Simeon.
Foreseeing his own impending end, St Hierotheus with three disciples
withdrew to the island of Yura, where those banished for life were
usually sent. There after a short illness he departed to the Lord in
the year 1745. His disciples buried him on that island, and after three
years his venerable head was transferred to the Iveron monastery. Many
sick and those afflicted with bodily suffering were healed by prayers
to the saint.
|
Mary Mother of GOD 
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.