40 Days for Life
Today begins a 40-day journey of prayer, fasting, vigil and outreach in
238 locations around North America ... and beyond.
As we start, I recall the first 40 Days for Life effort six years ago
in Bryan/College Station, Texas. As we prayed for God's guidance on
what to do about the evil of abortion in our community, we were
reminded of how God has used 40-day periods of time in order to bring
about transformation and conversion. We were reminded of Noah and
40 days in the flood, of Moses on the mountain, of Jesus and in the
desert. When God repeats himself, He does so for a reason.
The message of 40 days is simple, yet profound.
I'd like to share some of the online comments I've read, from people
just like you, who are speaking from their hearts about the mission
that begins today:
* "I got involved in the movement last fall, following the example of
an online friend. I had heard about it before but was uncertain,
and a little scared... However, as I discovered it is a
beautiful way to do something positive, and help save lives."
* "I have committed to standing in front of our local Planned
Parenthood office for one hour each week for the 40 days... I will ask
you, my friends, to pray for the end of abortion, and for me, as I step
out of my comfort zone, and get involved in a cause I believe in, the
end of abortion."
* "Please consider helping out with this effort. It is an amazing
ministry that has produced real results in our community and across the
country."
If you have a few minutes, listen to this audio clip from our local
leaders. It will remind you of what's at stake and why it's important
for YOU to pray and act. It features local campaign leaders,
representing these 40 Days for Life locations:
* Charlotte, North Carolina * Toledo,
Ohio * Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada *
Adelaide, Australia * Columbia, Missouri *
Shreveport, Louisiana * Indianapolis, Indiana
Click here to listen: http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=1018
Be sure to listen to the entire 13 minutes. You'll be rewarded by
hearing the story of the "wrong number" phone call that saved a baby's
life!
As we begin this 40 Days for Life, I'll be stopping today in Green Bay,
Appleton and Madison, Wisconsin. If you're able to come out
to the vigil today -- in Wisconsin or WHEREVER you are -- you'll be
blessed abundantly.
Here's today's devotional from David Brandao, the communications
director for 40 Days for Life...
DAY 1 INTENTION
That we may use these 40 Days for Life to plead for God's mercy and
grace upon all those involved in the sin of abortion.
SCRIPTURE
Blow the trumpet in Zion! Proclaim a fast, call an assembly. Gather the
people, notify the congregation. Assemble the elders; gather the
children and the
infants at the breast... Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord,
weep and say, "Spare, O Lord, your people." -- Joel 2:15-17
REFLECTION by David Brandao, 40 Days for Life
The toll of abortion cannot be measured. We hear estimates of almost 50
million innocent victims, but that's only one aspect of the harm that
has unfolded
in abortion's wake. There are also the mothers and fathers of these
millions, as well as the grandparents, brothers and sisters, aunts,
uncles, cousins. Unborn lives destroyed. Lives of the living shattered.
It's overwhelming and depressing, but even in the midst of such
unfathomable darkness, the church teaches us to have hope. Yes, it was
indeed Calvary that followed Christ's 40 days in the desert, but
without Calvary there would have been no Resurrection -- His victory
over death that opened the gates of
heaven to those who believe in and follow Him.
The psalmist encourages us to go humbly before God as we seek His will:
"A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew
within me...Give me back the joy of your salvation and a willing spirit
sustain in me... O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall proclaim your
praise" (Psalm 51:12, 14, 17).
We are called to be God's messengers; or as the Apostle Paul told the
Corinthians: "We are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing
through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God"
(2 Corinthians 5:20).
That is the true message to all we encounter at the abortion centers
and in our communities who have been deceived by the Culture of Death.
We don't bring condemnation; we bring God's good news.
PRAYER
Lord, we ask for the strength, courage, wisdom, determination and
stamina to carry out this mission according to Your will. Guide
us, we pray, as we go forth and proclaim Your truth, always doing so
with a spirit of love and compassion, as was demonstrated to us by Your
Son, Jesus Christ. In His name we pray, Amen.
PRINTABLE DEVOTIONAL
To download today's devotional as a formatted, printable PDF to share
with friends: http://40daysforlife.com/docs/fall2010day01print.pdf
For Life, Shawn Carney Campaign Director 40 Days for Life
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3rd
v. St. Jonas
martyred Companion of St. Denis of Paris
Apud pagum Castrénsium sancti Jonæ, Presbyteri et
Mártyris; qui, cum sancto Dionysio proféctus in
Gálliam, ibídem, Juliáni Præfécti
jussu verbéribus cæsus, gládio martyrium
consummávit.
At Arpajon, near Paris, St. Jonas, priest and
martyr, who went to France along with St. Denis. After he was
scourged by the order of the prefect Julian, his martyrdom was ended by
the sword.
sometimes listed as Yon. He was martyred in
Paris.
|
259 St.
Digna
&
Emerita Roman maidens martyred in the Eternal City
Romæ pássio sanctárum Vírginum et
Mártyrum Dignæ et Eméritæ, sub
Valeriáno et Gallieno; quarum relíquiæ in
Ecclésia sancti Marcélli asservántur.
At Rome, the martyrdom of the holy virgins and
martyrs Digna and Emerita, under Valerian and Gallienus. Their
relics are kept in the church of St. Marcellus.
They both died while praying
before their
judges. Their relics are in
St. Marcellus Church in Rome.
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287
St.
Maurice was an officer of the Theban Legion
Sedúni,
in Gállia, in loco Agáuno, natális
sanctórum Mártyrum Thebæórum
Maurítii, Exsupérii, Cándidi, Victóris,
Innocéntii et Vitális, cum Sóciis ejúsdem
legiónis; qui, sub Maximiáno, pro Christo necáti,
gloriósa passióne mundum illustrárunt.
At St. Maurice, near Sion in Switzerland, the
birthday of the holy Theban martyrs Maurice, Exuperius, Candidus,
Victor, Innocent, and Vitalis, with their companions of the same
legion, whose martyrdom for the faith during the time of Maximian
filled the world with the glory of their sufferings.
of
Emperor
Maximian Herculius'
army, which was composed of
Christians from Upper Egypt. He and his fellow legionnaires
refused to sacrifice to the gods as ordered by the Emperor to insure
victory over rebelling Bagaudae. When they refused to obey repeated
orders to do so and withdrew from the army encamped at Octodurum
(Martigny) near Lake Geneva to Agaunum (St. Maurice-en-Valais),
Maximian had a decimation first and then the entire Legion of over six
thousand men put to death.? To the end they were encouraged in their
constancy by Maurice and two fellow officers, Exuperius
and Candidus.
Also executed was Victor (October
10th), who refused to accept any of the belongings of the dead
soldiers. In a follow-up action, other Christians put to death were Ursus and another Victor at Solothurin (September
30th); Alexander at Bergamo; Octavius, Innocent, Adventor, and Solutar at Turin; and Gereon (October 10th) at Cologne.
Their story was told by St. Eucherius,
who became Bishop of Lyons about 434, but scholars doubt
that an entire Legion was massacred; but there is no doubt that
Maurice and some of his comrades did suffer martyrdom at Agaunum.
veteran
named Victor
refused to join in. At this the soldiers inquired if he was also a
Christian.
He answered that he was, upon which they fell upon him and slew him.
Ursus and
another Victor, two straggling soldiers of this legion, were found at
Solothurn
and there killed, and according to local legends many others elsewhere,
such as
St Alexander at Bergamo, SS. Octavius, Adventor and Solutor at Turin,
and St
Gereon at Cologne. The Roman Martyrology mentions Vitalis and Innocent,
as well
as the above three and Victor, today, 55. Ursus and Victor on September
30, and St Antoninus at
Piacenza, wrongly associated with the
Theban Legion, on
the same date. St Eucherius, speaking of their relics preserved at
Agaunum in
his time, says, “Many come from divers provinces devoutly to honour
these
saints, and offer presents of gold, silver and other things. I humbly
present
this monument of my pen, begging intercession for the pardon of my
sins, and
the perpetual protection of my patrons.” He mentions many miracles to
have been
performed at their shrine and says of a certain woman who had been
cured of a
palsy by them “ Now she carries her own miracle about with her.”
This
St Eucherius is the
principal witness for the story which has just been related. He was
bishop of Lyons
during the first half of the fifth century, and wrote down for a Bishop
Salvius
an account of these martyrs of Agaunum, in whose honour a basilica had
been
built there towards the end of the previous century, in consequence of
a vision
of their place of burial vouchsafed to the then bishop of Octodurum,
Theodore.
Eucherius says he had the story from informants of Isaac, Bishop of
Geneva,
who, Eucherius thought, was told it by Theodore. It will be noticed
that, as
related above, the legionaries in their manifesto speak of refusing to
spill
the blood of innocent Christians. This protest was doubtless composed
by St
Eucherius himself, who states that they were killed for refusing to
undertake
the massacre of Christians and does not mention the revolting Bagaudae;
other
accounts of the martyrs say they suffered for not sacrificing. St
Maurice and
his companions have been the subject of much discussion. That a whole
legion
was put to death is highly improbable Roman imperial generals were not
incapable of such a wholesale slaughter, but the circumstances of the
time and
the lack of early evidence of an entirely satisfactory sort are all
against it.
Alban Butler notes with pain that “ the truth of this history is
attacked by
some Protestant historians “, but it has been questioned by Catholic
scholars
as well, and some have even gone so far as to reject the whole of it as
a
fabrication. But it seems clear that the martyrdom at Agaunum of St
Maurice and
his companions is an historical fact what was the number of men
involved is
another matter in the course of time a squad could easily be
exaggerated into a
legion.
The
church built at Agaunum
by St Theodore of Octodurum later became the centre of an abbey, which
was the
first in the West to maintain the Divine Office continually by day and
by night
by means of a cycle of choirs. This monastery came into the hands of
the canons
regular, and is now an abbey-nullius. Relics
of the martyrs are preserved here in a sixth-century reliquary, but
veneration
of the Theban Legion has spread with other relics far beyond the
borders of Switzerland.
They are commemorated in the liturgy of the whole Western church, and
St
Maurice is patron of Savoy and Sardinia and of several towns, as well
as of
infantry soldiers, sword-smiths, and weavers and dyers.
MGH., Scriptores
Merov., vol. iii, pp. 32—41, is
of first importance. On the whole
question of the martyrdom the volume of M. Bessoo, Monasterium
Acaunense (1913), is perhaps the
most sober and reliable. He dissents from the
extreme views
of Krusch, though he is in some matters himself open to criticism (cf. the Analecta Bollandiana, vol.
xxxiii, pp. 243-245). The
subject
is also treated at great length by H. Leclercq in DAC, vol. x
(1932), cc. 2699-2729. The bibliography which he supplies
extends to four closely-printed columns, and shows impressively the
ioterest
which the controversy has excited. See 0. Lauterburg and R.
Marti-Wehren, Martyrium von sankt Mauritiur Die Legende (1945).
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 300
St. Irais, priests,
deacons, virgins, and all others
martyred for the faith
Antinoópoli, in
Ægypto, sanctæ Iráidis, Vírginis
Alexandrínæ, et Sociórum Mártyrum.
Ipsa Virgo, cum esset ad hauriéndam e próximo fonte aquam
egréssa, et navim vidísset Confessóribus Christi
onústam, prótinus, relícta hydria, se illis
adjúnxit, ac, simul cum iis in urbem ducta, prima ómnium,
post multa supplícia, cápite cæsa est;
deínde Presbyteri, Diáconi, et Vírgines,
aliíque omnes eódem mortis génere consúmpti
sunt.
At Antinopolis in Egypt, the holy martyrs Irais, an
Alexandrian virgin, and her companions. Having gone out to draw
water at a near-by fountain, and seeing a boat loaded with Christian
confessors, she immediately left her vessel and joined them. She
was conducted to the city with them, and after many torments she was
the first to have her head struck off. After her, priests,
deacons, virgins, and all others underwent the same kind of death.
Also Rhais, an Egyptian martyr. She was put to death at
Alexandria or at Antinoe, Egypt, during the persecutions of Emperor
Diocletian .
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300
St. Phocas martyred gardener from Sinope, Paphlagonia Black
Sea
performed his duties with care and purpose; gave food and
lodging to
any to any stranger in need; lived as an anchorite pursuing prayer and
contemplation; suffered martyrdom for being a Christian; beheaded by
soldiers who were given orders to look for Phocas in order to try him
for his faith; inadvertently, the soldiers stayed at Phocas when they
asked him for a place to sleep; when they told Phocas their mission and
asked his whereabouts, he prepared himself for death by digging his own
grave; in the morning, he admitted to the soldiers that he himself was
Phocas and calmly faced his death. Gardener by trade, Phocas led a life
of simplicity, oneness with nature, and a purity recalling God's
creation of the first human gardeners, Adam and Eve
THE STORY OF a unique archaeological find, dubbed 'the
unluckiest
church in the world', has been pieced together by an archaeologist at
the University of Warwick. Intriguing fragments of mosaic began washing
ashore on the Black Sea coast in the early 1990s, and were brought to
the attention of the museum at Sinop in Turkey. The source of the
fragments was discovered to be at the edge of a cliff top, where Dr
Stephen Hill began work on a project to halt the erosion that
threatened to destroy the site.
Hill and his team soon found themselves, however, embroiled
in
something more complex than the rescue mission they had embarked upon.
Expecting to find Roman architecture from the 2nd century, the
archaeologists instead discovered the remains of a Christian church
from the 4th century, an extremely early find, given that Christianity
had only just emerged as a tolerated religion at that date. After
working on the project for more than eleven years, Hill is amazed
at how the research has come together in its latter stages: “It was
only towards the end of the excavation process and into the
post-excavation analysis that the complexity of the successive problems
became apparent – so the whole story unfolded somewhat like a detective
story.”
One of the most surprising revelations was the discovery of
a baptismal
font. Fonts served a specific purpose for the Christian community, and
to find one in such a remote location posed an absorbing question. The
worshippers at this secluded church would most likely have been monks,
already baptised and with no need of a font – so why was one built
there?
Researchers believe the answer may be connected to the story
of Phocas,
patron saint of gardeners and mariners.
Popular stories of this man
tend to concentrate on the peculiar, not to say lurid, circumstances of
his death.
Legend has it that Phocas
led a simple life in obedience to God, some
time in the third or fourth century. He spent his days helping those in
need, growing flowers in his garden and praying – all of which,
apparently, did little to endear him to the Roman authorities, who
ordered his assassination as part of their persecution of Christians.
Two soldiers were dispatched for Sinop on the Black sea coast with
instructions to kill Phocas on sight. However, the executioners
had trouble finding anywhere to stay as night
fell, and without knowing it they turned up outside their victim's
residence. As befitted his character, Phocas offered them shelter and
food for the night, but over supper learned of his killers' intentions.
Without revealing himself, he offered to show them the way to their
target in the morning. Once they had gone to sleep, Phocas went
into his garden and dug a
grave for himself, before spending the rest of the night in prayer.
When the soldiers arose the next day, their host told them that Phocas
was now at their disposal, and revealed his true identity to them.
The would-be assassins were thrown into turmoil, appalled by
the
thought that they must kill the man who had shown them such kindness.
Phocas himself resolved their dilemma, by explaining that to die for
his faith would be the highest honour. He entreated them to carry out
their duties, which they eventually did. The kindly gardener was
beheaded and buried in the grave of his own making.
A cult surrounding the martyrdom of St Phocas grew up, and
his grave
may have become a place of pilgrimage. If so, then the church built in
his memory was probably built on the site of his death, and designed to
accommodate the needs of these early pilgrims. One of these needs was
baptism, hence the font. Analysis of the archaeological findings by
Hill and his team has
revealed that the troubles of Phocas's putative church bear comparison
with those of the man himself. It appears that the church would
originally have been situated in a valley floor, subject to melt-water
flooding and landslides, and an unwise place to build at all.
Before its completion in the fourth century, an earthquake
struck the
region and severely damaged much of the church's structure. A whole
section of the new building was abandoned, with the builders sealing up
the doors and windows and reinforcing the remaining walls. The
setbacks continued. The intricate floor mosaic, which first alerted
archaeologists to the site, was completed by the builders but
subsequently abandoned when a flood deposited a thick layer of sediment
over it. Then as the main part of the church was being fitted with
decorative sculptures and embellishments, a second earthquake hit.
Archaeological evidence for this comes from the remains of the
sculptures, which would have been fitted to the building before being
finely carved on site.
The unfinished works of art
mark
the abandonment
of attempts to ever complete the church as a place of worship.
The remaining part of the
church was subsequently used as a pottery,
although it was later subject to another landslide. The porch of the
church survived for some time, and appears to have been used by opium
smokers, who left behind poppy seeds and part of a pipe some time in
the middle ages.
The site now lies at the very edge of a cliff overlooking
the Black
Sea, which has already claimed chunks of the precious mosaic. Hill
reports that sea defences he has applied appear to have reversed the
erosion, and the sea is now depositing material to protect the cliff,
but Turkey's seismological disturbances present another threat to the
site – and a quandary for archaeologists.
To dig or not to dig? Further parts of the structure
currently lie
under a thick deposit of topsoil, which acts as good protection from
future earthquakes in the region. Hill is concerned that investigating
this area could place it in greater jeopardy, as large cracks have
recently appeared in the uncovered mosaic. Utter annihilation could
prove the final ignominy for this most unfortunate of churches.
Funding for the project has come from the British Institute of
Archaeology in Ankara, and Dr Hill is now seeking further support to
continue his work. He can be contacted by e-mail:
Stephen.Hill@warwick.ac.uk
ST PHOCAS THE GARDENER, MARTYR
ST PHOCAS
dwelt near the gate of Sinope, a city of
Paphlagonia on the Black Sea, and lived by cultivating a garden. In his
humble
profession he imitated the virtue of the most holy anchorites, and
seemed in
part restored to the happy condition of our first parents in Eden. To
prune the
garden without labour and toil was their sweet employment and pleasure.
Since
their sin, the earth yields not its fruit but by the sweat of our brow.
But
still, no labour is more useful or necessary or more natural to man,
and better
adapted to maintain in him vigour of mind and health of body, than that
of tillage;
nor does any other part of the universe rival the charms which a garden
presents to our senses, by the fragrance of its flowers and the
sweetness and
variety of its fruits; by the melody of its musicians, by the worlds of
wonders
which every stem, leaf, and fibre exhibit to the attention of the
inquisitive
philosopher, and by that beauty and variegated lustre of colours which
clothe the numberless tribes of
its smallest inhabitants and adorn its shining landscapes, vying with
the
brightest splendour of the heavens and in a single lily surpassing the
lustre
with which Solomon was surrounded on his throne in the midst of all his
glory. And
what a field for contemplation does a garden offer to our view, raising
our
souls to God in love and praise, stimulating us to fervour by the
fruitfulness
with which it repays our labour and multiplies the seed it receives,
and
exciting us to tears of compunction for our insensibility to God by the
barrenness with which it is changed into a desert unless subdued by
ceaseless
toil. St Phocas, joining prayer with his labour, found in his garden an
instructive book and an inexhaustible fund of meditation. His house was
open to
strangers and travellers who had no lodging in the place and after
having for
many years liberally bestow-ed the fruit of his labour on the
poor, he was
found worthy also to give his life for Christ.
When
a cruel persecution
was suddenly raised against the Church, Phocas was impeached as a
Christian,
the formality of a trial was dispensed with, and soldiers were
dispatched with
an order to kill him wherever they should find him. Arriving near
Sinope, they
could not enter the town, but stopping at his house without knowing it,
at his
invitation they took up their lodging with him. They at supper
disclosed to him
the errand upon which they were sent, and desired him to inform them
‘where
this Phocas could be found. He told them he was well acquainted with
the man,
and would give them news of him next morning. After they had retired to
bed he
dug a grave, prepared everything for his burial, and spent the night in
disposing his soul for his last hour. When it was day he went to his
guests,
and told them Phocas was found and in their power whenever they pleased
to
apprehend him. They inquired where he was. “He is here,” said the
martyr. “I
myself am the man.” Struck by his undaunted resolution and composure
they did
not at first know what to do with this man who had so generously
entertained
them he, seeing their trouble, told them that he looked upon such a
death as
the greatest of favours and his highest advantage. At length,
recovering from
their surprise and scruples, they struck off his head. The Christians
of that
city afterwards built a stately church which bore his name. St
Asterius,
Bishop of Amasea, about the year 400
pronounced the panegyric of this
martyr on his festival in a church which possessed a small part of his
relics,
and said that Phocas from the time of his death has become a pillar and
support
of the churches on earth. He draws all men to his house ; the highways
are
filled with persons resorting from every country to this place of
prayer. The
magnificent church which is possessed of his body is the comfort and
ease of
the afflicted, the health of the sick, the storehouse plentifully
supplying
the wants of the poor. If in any other place, as in this, some small
portion of
his relics be found, it also becomes admirable and most desired by
Christians.”
He adds that the sailors in the Euxine, Aegean and Adriatic seas, and
in the
ocean, sing hymns in his honour, and that the martyr has often succored
and
preserved them.
Alban
Butler’s account of St Phocas has been set out
above, with some verbal alterations and omissions, because it will
touch the
heart of all gardeners. But it must be added that all that can be
safely said
of Phocas of Sinope is that he lived, was martyred, and was widely
venerated.
Much false and allusive matter has accrued to his story, and the name
Phocas
figures in calendars on various dates. In the Roman Martyrology St
Phocas,
martyr at Antioch on March 5, and St Phocas, Bishop of Sinope and
martyr under
Trajan, on July 14, are
probably both derivatives of
Phocas the Gardener. His relics, or parts of them, were claimed by
Antioch,
Vienne in France and other places
The
panegyric of St Asterius is printed in the Acta Sanctorum,
September, vol. vi, and in Migne, PG., vol. xl, cc. 300—313. St Phocas has been much
discussed by students of fnlldore anxious to elucidate his popularity
with
sea-faring people the explanation is perhaps to be found in the
resemblance of
his name to the word  meaning a seal.
See Radermacher in Archivf.
Religionswissensc/zaft, vol.
vii (1904), pp. 445—452. On
the other hand E. Maas, 0. Kern, and Jaisle suggest quite untenable
solutions.
St Phocas has a full notice in the Synaxarium
Goustantinopolitanum (ed. Delehaye), cc. 67—68, under
September 22; and see CMH, pp. 128, 374—375.
|
 Marytrs
of the
Theban Legion members of a Roman legion
Sedúni, in Gállia, in loco Agáuno, natális
sanctórum Mártyrum Thebæórum
Maurítii, Exsupérii, Cándidi, Victóris,
Innocéntii et Vitális, cum Sóciis ejúsdem
legiónis; qui, sub Maximiáno, pro Christo necáti,
gloriósa passióne mundum illustrárunt.
At St. Maurice, near Sion in Switzerland, the
birthday of the holy Theban martyrs Maurice, Exuperius, Candidus,
Victor, Innocent, and Vitalis, with their companions of the same
legion, whose martyrdom for the faith during the time of Maximian
filled the world with the glory of their sufferings.
composed largely of Egyptians
and serving in the army of
co-Emperor
Maximian, colleague of the famed hater of Christians, Emperor
Diocletian. While serving in France, the legion marched to Agaunum,
where it encamped for pagan rituals. Maurice, a commander, and
Exuperius, Candidus, Innocent, Vitalis, two Victors, and the men of the
legion refused to worship pagan deities, or possibly refused to
massacre the local innocent populace. They were supposed to be
pressured to obey by witnessing the beheading of some of their
officers, but refused to offer sacrifices to the Roman gods.
Reportedly, Maximian brought in another legion to slay the 6,600
Christians. A basilica, St. Maurice-en-Valais, was built from about
369-391 to commemorate this remarkable martyrdom. This cult is now
confined to local calendars.
SS. MAURICE AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS OF THE THEBAN
LEGION (c. A.D. 287?)
A NUMBER of
the Gauls,
called Bagaudae, having risen in revolt, the Augustus Maximian
Herculius marched against them with an army, of
which one unit was the Theban Legion. This had been recruited in Upper
Egypt
and was composed entirely of Christians. When he arrived at Octodurum
(Martigny), on the Rhone above the lake of Geneva, Maximian issued an
order
that the whole army should join in offering sacrifice to the gods for
the success
of their expedition. The Theban Legion hereupon withdrew itself,
encamped near
Agaunum (now called St Mauriceen-Valais), and refused to take any
part in
these rites. Maximian repeatedly commanded them to obey orders, and
upon their
constant and unanimous refusal sentenced them to be decimated. Thus
every tenth
man was put to death, according as the lot fell. After the first
decimation, a
second was commanded, unless the soldiers obeyed the orders given; but
they
cried out that they would rather suffer all penalties than do anything
contrary
to their religion. They were principally encouraged by three of their
officers,
Maurice, Exuperius and Candidus, referred to respectively as the primicerius, the campiductor and the senator
militum. Maximian warned the remainder that it was of no use for
them to
trust to their numbers, for if they persisted in their disobedience not
a man
among them should escape death. The legion answered him by a respectful
remonstrance “We are your soldiers, but
are also servants of the true
God. We
owe you military service and obedience; but we cannot renounce Him who
is our
Creator and Master, and also yours even though you reject Him. In all
things
which are not against His law we most willingly obey you, as we have
done hitherto.
We readily oppose all your enemies, whoever they are; but we cannot
dip our
hands into the blood of innocent persons. We have taken an oath to God
before
we took one to you: you can place no confidence in our second oath if
we
violate the first. You command us to punish the Christians; behold, we
are
such. We confess God the Father, author of all things, and His Son,
Jesus
Christ. We have seen our companions slain without lamenting them,
and we
rejoice at their honour. Neither this nor any other provocation has
tempted us
to revolt. We have arms in our hands, but we do not resist because we
would
rather die innocent than live by any sin.”
This
legion consisted of
about six thousand six hundred men, and Maximian, having no hopes of
overcoming
their constancy, commanded the rest of his army to surround them and
cut them
to pieces. They made no resistance but suffered themselves to be
butchered like
sheep, so that the ground was covered with their dead bodies, and
streams of
blood flowed on every side. Maximian gave the spoils of the slain to
his
soldiers for their booty, and they were sharing it out when a veteran
named Victor refused to join in. At this the soldiers inquired if he
was also a Christian. He answered that he was upon which
they fell upon him and slew him.
Ursus and
another Victor two straggling soldiers of this legion were
found at Solothurn and there killed and according to local legends many
others elsewhere such as St Alexander at Bergamo SS.
Octavius Adventor and Solutor at Turin and St Gereon at Cologne. The
Roman Martyrology mentions Vitalis and Innocent as well as the above
three and Victor today SS. Ursus and Victor on September 30and St
.ABtoninus at Piacenza wrongly associated with the Theban Legion on the
same date. St Eucherius speaking of their relics preserved at Agaunum
in his time says “Many come from divers
provinces devoutly
to honour these saints and offer
presents of gold silver and other things. I humbly present this
monument of my pen begging intercession for the pardon of my sins and
the perpetual protection of my patrons.” He mentions many miracles to
have been performed at their shrine and says of a certain woman who had
been cured of a palsy by them: “Now she carries her own miracle about
with her.” This St Eucherius is the principal witness for the
story which has just been related. He was bishop of Lyons during the
first half of the fifth century and wrote down for a Bishop Salvius an
account of these martyrs of Agaunum in whose
honour a basilica had been built there towards the end of the previous
century in consequence of a vision of their place of burial vouchsafed
to the then bishop of Octodurum Theodore. Eucherius says he had the
story from informants of Isaac Bishop of Geneva who
Eucherius thought was told it by Theodore. It will be noticed that as
related above the legionaries in their manifesto speak of refusing to
spill the blood of innocent Christians. This protest was doubtless
composed by St Eucherius himself who states that they were killed for
refusing to undertake the massacre of Christians and does not mention
the revolting Bagaudae; other accounts of the martyrs say they suffered
for not sacrificing.
St Maurice
and his companions have been the subject of much discussion.
That a whole legion was put to death is highly improbable; Roman
imperial generals were not incapable of such a wholesale slaughter but
the circumstances of the time and the lack of early evidence of an
entirely satisfactory sort are all against it. Alban Butler notes with
pain that the truth of this history is attacked by some “Protestant
historians”
but it has been questioned by Catholic
scholars as well and some have
even gone so far as tq reject the whole of it as a fabrication. But it
seems clear that the martyrdom at Agaunum of St Maurice and his
companions is an historical fact: what was the number of men involved
is another matter; in the course of time a squad could easily be
exaggerated into a legion.
The church built at
Agaunum by St Theodore of
Octodurum later became the centre of an abbey which was the first in
the West to maintain the Divine Office continually by day and by night
by means of a cycle of choirs. This monastery came into the hands of
the canons regular and is now an abbey-nullius. Relics of the martyrs
are preserved here in a sixth-century reliquary but veneration of the
Theban Legion has spread with other relics far beyond the borders
of Switzerland. They are commemorated in the liturgy of the whole
Western church and St Maurice is patron of Savoy and Sardinia and of
several towns as well as of infantry soldiers. sword-smiths and weavers
and dyers.
The
text
of St Eucherius which has suffered many interpolations will be
found in Ruinart, and in
the Acta
Sanctorum, September, vol. vi; but the critical edition by B.
Krusch in MGH., Sriptores Merov.,
vol. iii, pp. 32—41, is
of first
importance. On the whole question of the martyrdom the volume of M.
Besson, Monasterium Acaunense
(1913), is perhaps the most sober
and reliable. He dissents from the extreme views of Krusch, though he
is in some matters himself open to criticism (Cf. the Analecta
Bollandiana,
vol. xxxiii, pp. 243—245).
The subject is also
treated at great length by H. Leclercq in DAC., vol. X (1932), cc.
2699—2729. The bibliography which he supplies extends to four
closely-printed columns, and shows impressively the interest which the
controversy has excited. See also 0. Lauterburg and R. Marti-Wehren, Martyrium von sankt Mauritius...Die Legende 1945.
|
3rd
v. blessed Sanctinus,
bishop, a disciple
of St. Denis the Areopagite, by whom he was consecrated bishop of that
city, and was the first to preach the Gospel there
Diocese of Verdun (VIRODUNENSIS.)
Apud civitátem
Meldénsem beáti Sanctíni Epíscopi, qui fuit
discípulus sancti Dionysii Areopaíitæ; et
ejúsdem civitátis Epíscopus ab eo
consecrátus, primus illic Evangélium
prædicávit.
At Meaux,
blessed Sanctinus, bishop, a disciple of St. Denis the Areopagite, by
whom he was consecrated bishop of that city, and was the first to
preach the Gospel there.
Comprises the Department of the Meuse. Suppressed by the Concordat of
1802, and subsequently united to the Diocese of Nancy, Verdun was
re-established by the Bull of 27 July, 1817, and by the Royal Decree of
31 October, 1822. It was formed practically of the entire ancient
Diocese of Verdun, portions of the ancient Dioceses of Trier,
Châlons, Toul, Metz, and Reims, and became suffragan of the
Archdiocese of Besançon. For the late tradition attributing the
foundation of the Church of Verdun to St. Sanctinus, disciple of St.
Denis the Areopagite, after he had founded the Church of Meaux, see
MEAUX. Certain local traditions state that Sts. Maurus, Salvinus, and
Arator were bishops of Verdun after St. Sanctinus, but the first bishop
known to history is St. Polychronius (Pulchrone) who lived in the fifth
century and was a relative and disciple of St. Lupus de Troyes .
|
4th v. St.
Sylvanus,
confessor lived in time of St Cyril
In óppido cui
Leprósii nomen, in território Bituricénsi, sancti
Silváni Confessóris.
In the
territory of Bourges, St. Sylvanus, confessor.
Maximus, bishop of Jerusalem, ordained Cyril priest about
the year 345 ,
|
5th century St.
Florentius Hermit
and disciple of St. Martin of Tours France
In território Constantiénsi,
in Gállia, sancti Lautónis Epíscopi.
In the
territory of Coutances, St. Lauto, bishop.
A Bavarian, Florentius was ordained by St. Martin of Tours
and
sent to Poitou, France, as a missionary. He became a hermit on Mount
Glonne in Anjou, and attracted so many disciples that he had to erect
an abbey for them, now called St. Florent le Vieux.
|
|
 530 ST
FELIX III (IV), POPE revered in
his day as a man of great simplicity, humility and kindness to the poor
Romæ
sancti Felícis Papæ Quarti, qui pro fide cathólica
plúrimum laborávit.
At Rome, Pope St. Felix IV, who laboured exceedingly for the Catholic
faith.
UPON
his return from his
visit to Constantinople in the year 526, Pope St John I was imprisoned
by the
Gothic king Theodoric at Ravenna, and died very shortly afterwards.
When
therefore Theodoric caused the priest Felix to be nominated as his
successor,
the clergy and people at Rome were relieved that the royal choice had
fallen
upon so blameless and otherwise suitable a person and that they could
without
hesitation proceed to elect him. The new pope used his favour with the
court to
promote the interests of the Church, and obtained a decree imposing a
fine on
those who should disregard the ancient custom that a layman should cite
a
cleric only before the pope or his delegates. Fines levied for this
offence
were to be at the disposal of the Holy See for distribution among the
poor. St
Felix approved the writings of St Caesarius of Aries on grace and free
will
against St Faustus of Riez, and sent to the second Synod of Orange in
529 a number
of propositions about grace drawn from the works of St Augustine, and
so led up
to the condemnation of Semi-Pelagianism by the council. Having been
given two
ancient buildings in the Roman Forum, Felix built on their site the
basilica of
SS. Cosmas and Damian the mosaics to be seen today in the apse and on
the triumphal
arch of that church are those made at his direction.
After he
had occupied the
apostolic chair for four years St Felix died in 530. He was revered in
his day as a man of great simplicity, humility and kindness to the poor.
Though
described in the Roman Martyrology as
Felix IV, it is
now decided that he is properly Felix III, a previous antipope having
no right
to figure to the numbering see Felix “ II” herein on July 29. A short account of his
pontificate is given by the
Bollandists under
January 30. See also the Liber Pontificalis (Duchesne), vol. i, pp. 270 seq. Grisar, Geschichte Roms and der
Päpste, vol. i, pp. 183 seq., and
495 seq.
|
| 568 St.
Lauto
Bishop
of Constance in Normandy France
In território
Constantiénsi, in Gállia, sancti Lautónis
Epíscopi.
In the territory of Coutances, St. Lauto, bishop.
His family estate became the village of Saint Lo. He is
sometimes listed as Lo, Laudo, or Laudus, and he was bishop for forty
years.
|
 665 St.
Salaberga
{Sadalberga }Abbess and founder cured of blindness
while still a child by St.
Eustace of
Lisieux
Laudúni,
in Gállia,
sanctæ Salabérgæ
Abbatíssæ. At Laon in France, St.
Salaberga, abbess.
She was twice
married, first to a man who died after
two months and then a nobleman, St. Blandinus, by whom she had five
children, including two saints. After some years, they agreed mutually
to separate and assume contemplative lives. He became a hermit and she
went into a nunnery at Poulangey; Salaberga was subsequently foundress
of the convent of St. John the Baptist at Laon. She died there.
ST SALABERGA, MATRON,
AND ST BOBO, Bishop (c. AD. 665 and 670)
ST EUSTACE of Luxeuil, traveling
from Bavaria back to his monastery, was entertained in a household
where one
of the children, a small girl called Salaberga, was blind. He took oil,
blessed
it, and anointed her sightless eyes. Then he prayed over her, and her
sight was
restored. When she grew up Salaberga was married to a young man, who,
however,
died two months after the wedding. She took this to be a sign that she
was
called to serve God in a monastery, but her parents thought otherwise
and she
married again, a nobleman called Blandinus. By him she had five
children, of
whom two, Bauduin and Anstrudis, are venerated as saints. Salaberga had
endowed
a convent at Poulangey, and when they had lived in happy wedlock for a
number
of years she and her husband agreed both to withdraw from the world.
Blandinus
became a hermit and is venerated as a saint in the diocese of Meaux.
Salaberga went to
Poulangey first, and then, by the advice of St Walbert, abbot of
Luxeuil,
founded a new monastery at Laon about the year 650. This abbey was a
very
extensive establishment and had provision for both monks and nuns.
St Salaberga
had a married brother named Bodo, and him she persuaded to become a
monk, his
wife joining the community at Laon. He was made bishop of Toul, and
founded
three monasteries, of one of which his own daughter was the first
abbess. St
Bodo’s feast is observed on the rith of this month. During the last two
years
of her life St Salaberga suffered continually from very great pain
which she
bore with corresponding courage and patience after her death her
daughter St
Anstrudis took up the government of the community. St Salaberga was
buried at
the abbey, and St Bodo’s body was later exhumed at Toul and brought to
be laid
beside that of his sister.
A life,
previously printed in the Acta Sanctorum, September,
vol. vi, has been critically edited by
B. Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol.
v, pp. 40—66. He shows that the correct form of the name is Sadalberga
but,
what is more important, that the life, which professes to have been
written by
a contemporary, is really a compilation of the beginning of the ninth
century.
Certain references made to Sadalberga by Jonas, Abbot of Bobbio, in his
Life of
St Columban, are, however, more trustworthy. For Bodo (Leudin) see the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. iii,
|
690 St.
Emmeramus
Benedictine Bishop martyr native of Poitiers
Ratisbónæ,
in Bavária, sancti Emmerámi,
Epíscopi et Mártyris; qui, ut álios
liberáret, mortem sævíssimam, Christi causa,
patiénter súbiit.
At Ratisbon in Bavaria, St. Emmeramus, bishop and
martyr, who patiently endured a most cruel death for the sake of our
Lord, in order to set others free.
France,
Emmeramus went to
Bavaria, Germany, at the request of Duke Theodo. He became a
Benedictine and abbot of Regensburg Monastery and then bishop of that
city. On a pilgrimage to Rome, he was attacked by hired assassins at
Kleinhelfendorf, near Munich, Germany Duke Theodo appears to have been
the source of the assassination. Emmeramus is venerated as a martyr in
Regensburg, where his relics are enshrined.
7th
v. ST EMMERAMUS, BISHOP
This holy missionary preached the gospel
with indefatigable
zeal around Poitiers, of which city he is often stated to have been
bishop; but
his name does not appear in the episcopal lists of that or any other
see. After
having laboured thus several years, St Emmeramus was so touched with
compassion
for the unhappy state of so many thousands of idolaters in Germany and
beyond
the Danube that he went to preach the gospel in Bavaria. Duke Theodo
detained
him at Regensburg, as he was later to try to detain St Corbinian, to
minister
to his subjects. Emmeramus, after having preached there three years and
gained
to God a number of infidels and sinners, undertook a pilgrimage to
Rome. He set
out on his journey south but when he had reached Kleinhelfendorf,
between
Munich and Tirol, he was overtaken by, apparently, some representatives
of Duke
Theodo, who brutally mishandled him. The saint managed to reach
Feldkirchen,
but there died of the injuries he had received. His body was shortly
afterwards
translated to Regensburg. It is not known that he was ever bishop of
that city
or founder of the monastery there that bore his name.
The motive
and circumstances of the murder
of St Emmeramus
are a mystery (the Roman Martyrology says oracularly “that he
patiently
suffered
a most cruel death for Christ’s sake that he might set others free”).
Less
than a century after, his life was written by Aribo, Bishop of
Freising, who
gives an account of it that is a characteristic example of
hagiographical invention,
exaggeration, embroidery, or all three, for the sake of popular
edification. We
are told that before St Emmeramus left for Italy the daughter of Duke
Theodo,
Oda, confided to him that she was with child by a nobleman of her
father’s
court, and she feared the duke’s anger both for herself and her lover.
Emmeramus authorized her to state that he himself was the partner of
her guilt.
The pious Aribo expects the reader to admire the magnanimity and
self-sacrifice
of Emmeramus, but, quite apart from the fact that he was recommending a
lie,
and a lie that would cause great scandal, it is difficult to see what
would he
gained by it except protection for the guilty man. However, the lady
Oda acted
accordingly when her secret was discovered, and her brother Lantbert
and his
men set off in pursuit of Emmeramus. When they came up with him at
Kleinhelfendorf they tied him to a ladder, tore out his eyes and
tongue, cut
off his members, and left him to die amid an outbreak of supernatural
marvels.
St Emmeramus was at once acclaimed a martyr by the people.
Much has
been written about St Emmeram
(perhaps more
correctly spelt “Haimbrammus”).
There are lives by Bishop Arbeo or
Aribo (in
two recensions), another by Meginfrid of Magdeburg, and a third by
Arnold, who
belonged to the monastery called by the name of the saint himself. In
the
critical edition of Arbeo prepared for MGH., Scriptores Merov.,
vol. iv, pp. 452—520, B. Krusch has shown that the text printed by the
Bollandists (Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. vi) represents
substantially Arbeo’s genuine work and that it was written about the
year 772.
But even in its authentic form the data provided by Arbeo’s life are
not
trustworthy. See also A. Bigelmair, Die Anfange des Christentums in
Bayern.’ in
Festgabe A. Knopfler (1907), and J. A. Endres in the Romische
Quartalschrift
for 1895 and 1903. The genuine tomb of the saint is believed to have
been
discovered in 1894; on this see especially J. A. Endres, Beitrage zur
Geschichte des M. A. Regenburgs (1924).
|
781
St. Lioba Benedictine abbess relative of St. Boniface
Born in Wessex, England, she was trained by St. Tetta, and became a nun
at Wimboume Monastery in Dorsetshire. Lioba, short for Liobgetha, was
sent with twenty-nine companions to become abbess of Bischofheim
Monastery in Mainz, Germany She founded other houses as well and served
as abbess for twenty-eight years. She was a friend of St. Hildegard,
Charlemagne's wife.
|
9th v. St. Lanto,
bishop In
the territory of Coutances
In
território Constantiénsi, in Gállia, sancti
Lautónis Epíscopi. In the
territory of Coutances, St. Lanto,
bishop.
|
1034
St. Lolanus Scottish bishop
whose life is Unknown because fifth-century legends obscure the
historically accurate accounts of his labors.
|
 1555
St. Thomas of Villanueva Augustinian bishop from Fuentellana, Castile Spain; Many examples are recorded of St
Thomas’s supernatural gifts, such as his power of healing the sick and
of multiplying food, and numerous miracles were attributed to his
intercession both before and after his death.
Sancti Thomæ a Villa Nova, ex Eremitárum sancti
Augustíni Ordine, Epíscopi Valentíni et
Confessóris; cujus dies natális recólitur sexto
Idus Septémbris.
St. Thomas of Villanova, of the Order of Hermits of
St. Augustine, archbishop of Valencia and confessor, whose birthday is
the 8th of September.
He
was the son of
a miller; studied at the University of Alcala, earned a licentiate
in theology, and became a professor there at the age of twenty-six. He
declined the chair of philosophy at the university of Salamanca and
instead entered the Augustinian Canons in Salamanca in 1516. Ordained
in 1520, he served as prior of several houses in Salamanca, Burgos, and
Valladolid, as provincial of Andalusia and Castile, and then court
chaplain to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (r. 1519-1556). During his
time as provincial of Castile, he dispatched the first Augustinian
missionaries to the New World. They subsequently helped evangelize the
area of modern Mexico. He was offered but declined the see of Granada,
but accepted appointment as archbishop of Valencia in 1544. As the see
had been vacant for nearly a century, Thomas devoted much effort to
restoring the spiritual and material life of the archdiocese. He was
also deeply committed to the needs of the poor. He held the post of
grand almoner of the poor, founded colleges for the children of new
converts and the poor, organized priests for service among the Moors,
and was renowned for his personal saintliness and austerities. While he
did not attend the sessions of the Council of Trent, he was an ardent
promoter of the Tridentine reforms throughout Spain.
ST THOMAS OF VILLANOVA, ARCHBISHOP OF VALENCIA (A.D. 1555)
ST THOMAS, a
glory of the Church of Spain, born at Fuentellana in
Castile in 1488, but received his surname from Villanueva de los
Infantes, a town where he was brought up. His parents were also
originally of Villanueva; the father was a miller; their state was not
affluent, but solid, and their charitable disposition was the most
valuable part of their son's inheritance. At sixteen he was
sent to the University of Alcalá, and pursued studies
there with success. He became master of arts and licentiate in
theology
and, after ten years at Alcalá, was made professor of philosophy
in that city, being then twenty-six. Among those who attended
his lectures was the famous Dominic Soto.
In 1516 Thomas joined the
Augustinian friars at Salamanca, and his behaviour in the novitiate
showed he had been long inured to austerities, to renouncing his own
will, and to the exercise of contemplation. In 1518 he was promoted to
priestly orders and employed in preaching and taught a course of
divinity in his convent. His textbooks were Peter Lombard and
Aquinas. Students from the university soon sought permission to
attend his
lectures. He was exceptionally clear-headed, with a firm and solid
judgement, but always had to cope with absent
mindedness and a poor
memory. He was afterwards prior in several places, and particularly
solicitous for those friars who were sick. He would often tell
his
religious that the infirmary was like the bush of Moses, where he who
devotes himself to the sick will assuredly find God among the thorns
with which he is surrounded.
In 1533, while provincial of Castile, he
sent the first band of Augustinians to the Americas, where they
established their order as missionaries in Mexico. Thomas fell into
frequent raptures at prayer, especially at Mass; and though he
endeavoured to hide such graces he was not able to do it: his face
after the holy Sacrifice shone, and as it were dazzled the eyes of
those that beheld him.
Preaching once in the
cathedral-church at Burgos, reproving the vices
and ingratitude of sinners, he held in his hand a crucifix and cried
out, “Christians,
look here” -and he was not
able to go on, being
ravished in an ecstasy. Once while addressing a community at the
clothing of a novice he was rapt and speechless for a quarter of an
hour. When he recovered himself he said: “Brethren, I beg your
pardon. I have a weak heart and I feel ashamed of being so often
overcome on these occasions. I will try to repair my fault.”
Whilst St Thomas was performing a
visitation
of his convents, he was nominated by the Emperor Charles V to the
archhishopric of Granada, and commanded to go to Toledo. He obeyed; but
undertook the journey with no other object than that of declining the
dignity, in which he succeeded. When, some years later, Don
George of
Austria resigned the archbishopric of Valencia, the emperor thought of
not offering St Thomas this see because he knew how grievous a trial it
would he to him. He therefore, it is said, ordered his secretary to
draw up a letter of nomination in favour of a certain religious of the
Order of St Jerome. Afterwards, finding that the secretary had put down
the name of Brother Thomas of Villanova, he asked the reason. The
secretary answered that he thought he had heard his name, but would
rectify the mistake. “By no means”,
said Charles. "This has happened
by a particular providence of God. Let us therefore follow His will.”
So he signed the appointment for St Thomas and it was forthwith sent to
Valladolid, where he was prior. The saint used all means possible to
excuse himself, but had to accept the appointment and was consecrated
at Valladolid. Thomas set out very early next morning for Valencia. His
mother, who had converted her house into a hospital for the use of the
poor and sick, had asked him to take Villanueva on the way; but Thomas
applied literally the words of the gospel, “a
man shall leave his
father and mother and shall cleave to his wife”,
and hastened direct
to the see with which he was now wedded, convinced that his office
obliged him to postpone all other considerations to that of going to
the flock committed to his care (later on he spent a month's holiday
with his mother at Liria).
He travelled on foot in his monastic habit
(which was very old) with the hat he had worn ever since his
profession, accompanied by one religious and two servants. Upon his
arrival at Valencia he retired to an Augustinian friary where he spent
several days in penance and prayer to beg the grace of God by which he
might be enabled worthily to acquit himself of his charge.
He took possession of his cathedral on the
first day of the year 1545 amidst the rejoicings of the people. The
chapter, in consideration of his poverty, made him a present of four
thousand crowns towards furnishing his house, which he accepted in a
humble manner and thanked them for their kindness, hut he immediately
sent the money to the great hospital with an order to lay it out in
repairing the house and for the use of the patients. He explained to
the canons that “our
Lord will be better served and glorified by your
money being spent on the poor in the hospital, who need it so much,
than if it had been used by me.
What does a poor
friar
like myself want with furniture.”
It is
often said that “Honours
change manners”,
but
St Thomas kept not only the same humility of heart but as much as
possible the same exterior marks of contempt of himself. He even kept
for some years the very habit which he brought from his monastery,
which he sometimes mended himself as he had been wont to do. One of his
canons, surprising him one day at this, said he wondered he could so
employ his time which a tailor would save him for a trifle.
The archbishop replied that
he
was still a friar and that that trifle would feed some poor man.
Ordinarily he wore
such clothes that his
canons and domestics were ashamed of him. When he was pressed by them
to put himself into a dress suitable to his dignity his answer was, “Gentlemen,
I am much obliged to you for the care you take of my
person,
but really I do not see how my dress as a religious interferes with my
dignity as archbishop. You know well enough that my position and duties
are quite independent of my clothes, and consist in taking care of the
souls committed to me.”
The canons eventually induced him to cast away
his cloth hat and wear one of silk. He used afterwards sometimes to
show this hat and say merrily, “Behold
my episcopal dignity. My masters
the canons judged it necessary that I should wear this silk hat that I
might be numbered among the archbishops.”
St Thomas
discharged all the duties of a good
pastor and visited the churches of his diocese, preaching everywhere in
the towns and villages with zeal and affection. His sermons were
followed by a wonderful change in the lives of men, so that one might
say he was a new apostle or prophet raised by God to reform the
people.
He assembled a provincial council (the first for many years) wherein
with the help of his fellow bishops he made ordinances to abolish the
abuses he had taken notice of in his visitation of his clergy. To
effect that of his own chapter cost him much difficulty and time. At
all times he had recourse to the tabernacle to learn the will of
God. He often spent long hours in his oratory and, perceiving
that his
servants were unwilling to disturb him at his devotions when persons
came to consult him, he gave them strict instructions that as soon as
anyone asked for him they should immediately call him, without making
the visitor wait.
There came to St Thomas's door every day
several hundred poor people, and each received an alms, which
was ordinarily a meal with a cup of wine and a piece of money. He took
destitute orphans under his particular care, and for the eleven years
that he was archbishop not one poor maiden was married who was not
helped by his charity. To his porters, to make them more keen in
finding children that were exposed by their parents, he gave a crown
for every foundling they brought him. When in 1550 pirates had
plundered a coast town in his diocese the archbishop immediately sent
four thousand ducats and cloth worth as much more to furnish the
inhabitants with necessaries and to ransom the captives.
Like many good
men before and since, St Thomas was remonstrated with because a number
of those whom he relieved were idle fellows who abused his kindness.
“If”,
he replied, “there
are vagabonds and work-shy people here it is
for the governor and the prefect of police to deal with them: that is
their duty. Mine is to assist and relieve those who come to my door.”
Nor was he only the support of the poor himself, but
he encouraged the
great lords and all that were rich to make their importance seen not in
their luxury and display but by becoming the protectors of their
vassals and by their liberality to the necessitous. He exhorted them to
be richer in mercy and charity than they were in earthly possessions. “Answer
me, sinner,”
he would say, “what
can you purchase with your
money better or more necessary than the redemption of your sins?”
At
other times: “If
you desire that God should hear your prayers, hear the
voice of the poor. If you desire that God should forestall your wants,
prevent those of the indigent without waiting for them to ask you.
Especially anticipate the necessities of those who are ashamed to beg;
to make these ask an alms is to make them buy it.”
St Thomas was always averse from using the
coercive weapons of the Church in bringing sinners to reason before
methods of appeal and persuasion had beentried to the utmost. Of a
theologian and canonist who objected to the archbishop’s delay in
taking threatened strong measures to put down concubinage, he said
“He
is
without doubt a good man, but one of those fervent ones mentioned
by St Paul as having zeal without knowledge. Is the good man aware of
the care and pains I have taken to correct those against whom he
fulminates?...Let him inquire whether St Augustine and St John
Chrysostom used anathemas and excommunication to stop the drunkenness
and blasphemy which were so common among the people under their care.
No! For they were too wise and prudent. They did not think it right to
exchange a little good for a great evil by inconsiderately using their
authority and so exciting the aversion of those whose good will they
wanted to gain in order to influence them for good.”
He invited a
canon, in whom he had long tried in vain to procure an amendment of
life, to come and stay in his own house under pretext of preparing to
go on an errand to Rome for the archbishop. Part of the preparation was
to consist of a good confession. At the end of one, of two, of three
months, the business for Rome was still not ready and all the time the
canon was having unobtrusively put before him the fruits and benefits
of penance. At the end of six months he left the saint’s house a
changed man, his friends all supposing he had just returned from Rome.
Another priest of irregular life upon being rebuked abused
St Thomas to
his face and left his presence in a rage. “Do not stop him,” said the
archbishop to his chaplains, “it is my fault. My remonstrances were a
little too rough.”
St Thomas
wished to extend the same sort of methods to the nuevos
Cristianos or Moriscos, Moors who were converted to Christianity but
whose conversion was often unreal or who lapsed into apostasy and so
were brought under the brutal jurisdiction of the Spanish Inquisition.
He was never able to achieve much for them in his large diocese, but he
induced the emperor to provide a fund to support special priests for
work among them and himself founded a college for the children of the
newly converted.
He also founded a college for poor scholars at his old
university at Alcalá, and then, having scruples at having
expended money outside his own diocese, he endowed another at Valencia.
His material charity was equalled by his charity of judgement.
Detraction he abhorred and he would always defend the cause of the
absent. “Sir”, he would say, “you do not look at
this from a right
point of view. You are wrong, because he may have had a good intention.
For myself, I believe that he had.”
Many examples are recorded of St
Thomas’s supernatural gifts, such as his power of healing the sick and
of multiplying food, and numerous miracles were attributed to his
intercession both before and after his death.
It is not known for certain why St
Thomas did not attend the Council of
Trent. He was represented there by the bishop of Huesca, and most
of
the Castilian bishops consulted with him before they left. He impressed
on them that it was at least as necessary for the council to legislate
for an internal reformation in the Church as against the Lutheran
heresy, and made two interesting
suggestions neither of which was in
fact acted upon. One was that
all
benefices having the cure of souls
should he filled by incumbents native of the place, so far as possible
and providing they were well qualified, especially in rural districts.
The other was that the
ancient canon which forbade the translation of a
bishop from one see to another should be re-enforced. The idea of the
union of a bishop with his see as with a bride was always present to
the saint, and he lived in perpetual concern for the proper discharge
of his own episcopal duties. “I was never so
much afraid”, he would say, “of being excluded
from the number of the elect as since I have
been a bishop.”
Several times he
petitioned for leave to resign, and God was pleased at
length to hear his prayer by calling him to Himself. He was seized by
angina pectoris in August. Having commanded all the money then in his
possession to be distributed among the poor, he ordered all goods to be
given to the rector of his college, except the bed on which he lay. He
gave this bed to the gaoler for the use of prisoners, but borrowed it
of him till such time as he should no longer require it.
On September 8 the end was at hand. He ordered Mass to be offered
in his presence, and after the consecration recited the psalm In te,
Domine, speravi after the priest’s communion he said that verse, “Into
thy hands, 0 Lord, I commend my spirit”, at which
words he rendered
his soul into the hands of God, in the sixty-seventh year of his age.
He was buried, according to his desire, in the church of the Austin
friars at Valencia and he was canonized in 1618. St Thomas of Villanova
was called in his lifetime “the pattern of bishops”
“the almsgiver the father of the poor”,
and nothing can be more vehement or more
tender than his exhortation to divine love. “Wonderful beneficence”
he cries, “God promises us Heaven for the recompense of His love. Is
not His love itself the greatest reward, the most desirable, the most
lovely, and the most sweet blessing Yet a further recompense, and so
immense a recompense, waits upon it. Wonderful goodness. Thou givest
thy love, and for this thy love thou bestowest on us Paradise.”
In
setting out the history
of St Thomas of Villanova (Acta
Sanctorum, September, vol. v)
the Bollandists translated the Spanish life by Miguel Salon, a
contemporary who, after a first biography published 1588, utilized
materials furnished by the canonization processes to produce a more
complete work in 1620. They also printed the memoir by his friend and
fellow Augustinian, Bishop Juan de Mufiatones. This had been prefixed
to an edition of St Thomas of Villanova’s sermons, etc., which
Munatones edited in 1581. Some other sources, including a summary of
the depositions in the Valencia and Castile processes, were also
available, and these are used in the Bollandist prolegomena and
annotations. The whole is supplemented by a notice of the saint’s
relics and miracles. Not much fresh biographical material seems to have
added to our knowledge since the Bollandists published their account in
1755. There is a brief sketch by Quevedo y Villegas, which was
translated into English through a French channel for the Oratorian
series in 1847. There is also a German life by Poesl (1860), and one in
French by Dabert (1878). The writings of St Thomas of Villanova,
however, have been collected and more carefully edited, and some
translated into other languages.
|
1637 St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions; Lorenzo: "That I will never do, because I
am a Christian, and I
shall die for God, and for him I will give many thousands of lives if I
had them. And so, do with me as you please."
(1600?-1637)
Lawrence (Lorenzo) was born in Manila of a Chinese father and a
Filipino mother, both Christians. Thus he learned Chinese and Tagalog
from them and Spanish from the Dominicans whom he served as altar boy
and sacristan. He became a professional calligrapher, transcribing
documents in beautiful penmanship. He was a full member of the
Confraternity of the Holy Rosary under Dominican auspices. He married
and had two sons and a daughter.
His life took an abrupt turn when he was accused of murder. Nothing
further is known except the statement of two Dominicans that “he
was
sought by the authorities on account of a homicide to which he was
present or which was attributed to him."
At that time three Dominican priests, Antonio Gonzalez, Guillermo
Courtet and Miguel de Aozaraza, were about to sail to Japan in spite of
a violent persecution there. With them was a Japanese priest, Vicente
Shiwozuka de la Cruz, and a layman named Lazaro, a leper. Lorenzo,
having taken asylum with them, was allowed to accompany them. But only
when they were at sea did he learn that they were going to Japan.
They landed at Okinawa. Lorenzo could have gone on to Formosa, but, he
reported, “I
decided to stay with the Fathers, because the Spaniards
would hang me there." In Japan they were soon found out, arrested and
taken to Nagasaki. The site of wholesale bloodshed when the atomic bomb
was dropped had known tragedy before.
The 50,000 Catholics who
once lived there were dispersed or killed by persecution.
They were subjected to an unspeakable kind of torture: After
huge quantities of water were forced down their throats, they were made
to lie down. Long boards were placed on their stomachs and guards then
stepped on the ends of the boards, forcing the water to spurt violently
from mouth, nose and ears.
The superior, Antonio, died after some days. Both the Japanese priest
and Lazaro broke under torture, which included the insertion of bamboo
needles under their fingernails. But both were brought back to courage
by their companions.
In Lorenzo's moment of crisis, he asked the interpreter, “I
would like
to know if, by apostatizing, they will spare my life.”
The interpreter
was noncommittal, but Lorenzo, in the ensuing hours, felt his faith
grow strong. He became bold, even audacious, with his interrogators.
The five were put to death by being hanged upside down in pits. Boards
fitted with semicircular holes were fitted around their waists and
stones put on top to increase the pressure. They were tightly bound, to
slow circulation and prevent a speedy death. They were allowed to hang
for three days. By that time Lorenzo and Lazaro were dead. The three
Dominican priests, still alive, were beheaded.
Pope John Paul II canonized these six and 10 others, Asians and
Europeans, men and women, who spread the faith in the Philippines,
Formosa and Japan. Lorenzo Ruiz is the first canonized Filipino martyr.
Comment: We ordinary
Christians of today—how would we stand up in the
circumstances these martyrs faced? We sympathize with the two who
temporarily denied the faith. We understand Lorenzo's terrible moment
of temptation. But we see also the courage—unexplainable in human
terms—which surged from their store of faith. Martyrdom, like ordinary
life, is a miracle of grace.
Quote: The Governors: “If
we grant you life, will you
renounce your faith?”
Lorenzo: “That
I will never do, because I am a
Christian, and I shall die for God, and for him I will give many
thousands of lives if I had them. And so, do with me as you please.”
|
Mary
the Mother of Jesus
Saints of Day 22September Décimo Kaléndas Octóbris
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.