In Judæa
sancti Malachíæ Prophétæ.
In Judea, St. Malachy, prophet.
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The Leavetaking of the Feast of Theophany
takes place on January 14. The entire office of the Feast is repeated except
for the Entrance, festal readings, Litya, Blessing of Loaves at Vespers,
and the Polyeleos and festal Gospel at Matins. The festal Antiphons are not
sung at Liturgy, and the Epistle and Gospel of the day are read.
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255 St. Felix of Nola Bishop distributed inheritance
to the poor assistant
to St. Maximus of Nola tomb famous for miracles
Nolæ, in Campánia, natális sancti
Felícis Presbyteri, qui (ut sanctus Paulínus Epíscopus
scribit), cum a persecutóribus post torménta in cárcerem
missus esset, et cóchleis ac téstulis vinctus superpósitus
jacéret, nocte ab Angelo solútus atque edúctus
fuit; póstmodum vero, cessánte persecutióne, ibídem,
cum multos ad Christi fidem exémplo vitæ ac doctrína
convertísset, clarus miráculis quiévit in pace.
At Nola in Campania, the
birthday of St. Felix, priest, who (as is related by bishop St. Paulinus),
after being subjected to torments by the persecutors, was cast into
prison, bound hand and foot, and extended on shells and broken earthenware.
In the night, however, his bonds were loosened and he was delivered by
an angel. The persecution over, he brought many to the faith of Christ
by his exemplary life and teaching, and, renowned for miracles, rested
in peace.
260 ST
FELIX OF NOLA
IT must be remembered that St Paulinus
of Nola, who is our ultimate authority for the life of St Felix, lived
more than a century after his time, and that it is probable that legendary
accretions had already attached themselves to the tradition handed
down. The story told by St Paulinus runs as follows:
St Felix was a native of Nola,
a Roman colony in Campania, fourteen miles from Naples, where his father
Hermias, who was by birth a Syrian and had served in the army, had
purchased an estate and settled down. He had two sons, Felix and Hermias,
to whom at his death he left his patrimony. The younger sought preferment
in the world by following the profession of arms. Felix, to become in
effect what his name in Latin imported, that is “happy”, resolved to follow
no other standard than that of the King of kings, Jesus Christ. For this
purpose he distributed most of his possessions among the poor, and was
ordained priest by St Maximus, Bishop of Nola, who, charmed with his virtue
and prudence, made him his right hand in those times of trouble, and looked
upon him as his destined successor.
In the year 250 the Emperor Decius began a cruel persecution
against the Church. Maximus, seeing himself marked out as a victim,
retired into the desert, not through the fear of death but rather to
preserve himself for the service of his flock. The persecutors, not finding
him, seized on Felix, who in his absence was very zealous in the discharge
of pastoral duties. The governor caused him to be scourged, then loaded
with chains and cast into a dungeon, in which, as Prudentius informs us,
the floor was spread all over with potsherds and pieces of broken glass,
so that there was no place free from them on which the saint could either
stand or lie. One night an angel appearing filled the prison with a bright
light, and bade St Felix go to the aid of his bishop, who was in great
distress. The confessor, seeing his chains fall off and the doors open,
followed his guide, and was conducted to the place where Maximus lay
in hunger and cold, speechless and unconscious: for,
through anxiety for his flock and the hardships of his solitary retreat,
he had suffered more than a martyrdom. Felix, not being able to bring
him to himself, had recourse to prayer; and discovering thereupon a bunch
of grapes within reach, he squeezed some of the juice into his mouth, which
had the desired effect. The good bishop, as soon as he beheld his friend
Felix, begged to be conveyed back to his church. The saint, taking him
on his shoulders, carried him to his home in the city before day appeared,
where a devoted old woman took care of him.
Felix kept himself concealed,
praying for the Church without ceasing, till the death of Decius in
the year 251. He no sooner appeared again in public than his zeal so
exasperated the pagans that they came to apprehend him; but though they
met him, they did not recognize him. They even asked him where Felix was,
a question to which he returned an evasive answer. The persecutors, going
a little further, perceived their mistake, and returned; but Felix in
the meantime had stepped a little out of the way, and crept through a
hole in a ruinous wall, which was instantly closed up by spiders’ webs.
His enemies, never imagining anything could have lately passed where they
saw so dense a web, after a fruitless search elsewhere returned without
their prey. Felix, finding among the ruins, between two houses, an old well
half dry, hid himself there for six months, and obtained during that time
wherewithal to subsist by means of a devout Christian woman.
Peace being restored to the Church,
he quitted his retreat, and was received in the city with joy.
St Maximus died soon after, and all were unanimous in electing
Felix bishop but he persuaded the people to make choice of Quintus,
his senior in the priesthood. The remainder of the saint’s estate having
been confiscated in the persecution, he was advised to press his legal
claim, as others had done, who thereby recovered what had been taken
from them. His answer was that in poverty he should be the more secure
of possessing Christ. He could not even be prevailed upon to accept
what the rich offered him. He rented a little spot of land, not exceeding
three acres, which he tilled with his own hands to supply his own needs
and to have something left for alms. Whatever was bestowed on him he
gave immediately to the poor. If he had two coats he was sure to give
them the better, and often exchanged his only one for the rags of some
beggar. He died in a good old age, on January 14, on which day he is commemorated in the martyrologies.
More than a century had elapsed
after the death of Felix when Paulinus, a distinguished Roman senator,
settled in Nola and was elected bishop there. He testifies that crowds
of pilgrims came from Rome and more distant places to visit the shrine
of the saint on his festival. He adds that all brought some present or
other to his church, such as candles to burn at his tomb and the like;
but that for his own part he offered him the homage of his tongue and himself,
though an unworthy gift. He expresses his devotion in the warmest terms,
and believes that all the graces he received from Heaven were conferred
on him through the intercession of St Felix. He describes at large
the pictures of the whole history of the Old Testament in the church of
St Felix, which were as so many books that instructed the ignorant. The
holy bishop’s enthusiasm is reflected in his verses. He relates a number
of miracles which were wrought at the tomb, as of persons cured of diseases
and delivered from dangers by the saint’s intercession, in several of
which cases he was an eye-witness. He testifies that he himself by having
recourse to Felix had been speedily succored. St Augustine also has given
an account of miracles performed at the shrine. It was not formerly allowed
to bury any corpse within the walls of cities, and as the church of St Felix
stood outside the walls of Nola many Christians sought to be buried in it,
that their faith and devotion might recommend them after death to the patronage
of this holy confessor. On this matter St Paulinus consulted St Augustine,
who answered him by his book On the Care for the Dead,
in which he shows that the faith and devotion of such persons
would serve them well after death, as the suifrages and good works of the
living in behalf of the faithful departed are profitable to the latter.
As
already stated, the poems of St Paulinus constitute our main authority
for the life of St Felix. Of these poems Bede wrote a summary in prose,
which is printed, with other documents, in the Acta Sanctorum
for January 14. In the Analecta
Bollandiana, vol. xvi (1897), pp. 22 seq., may
be found a curious illustration of the confusion introduced by the martyrologist
Ado, and other hagiographers, through their invention of a “St Felix
in Pincis”. This confusion was probably due to the existence of a church
on the Pincio at Rome dedicated to St Felix of Nola. Pope St Damasus
pays a tribute in verse to Felix for a cure he himself had received.
Cf. Quentin, Les Martyrologes historiques, pp. 518—522.
Son of Hermias a Syrian Roman soldier born on
his father's estate at Nola near Naples, Italy. On the death of his
father, Felix distributed his inheritance to the poor, was ordained
by Bishop St. Maximus of Nola, and became his assistant.
When Maximus fled to the mountains to escape the
persecution of Decius, Felix was arrested and beaten for his faith instead.
Legend says he was freed by an angel so he could help his sick bishop.
Felix hid Maximus from soldiers in a vacant building. When the two were
safely inside, a spider quickly spun a web over the door, fooling the
imperial forces into thinking it was long abandoned, and they left without
finding the Christians. The two managed to hide from authorities until
the persecution ended with the death of Decius in 251.
Even after Decius' death in 251, Felix was a hunted
man but kept well hidden until the persecution ended. When Maximus
died, the people unanimously selected Felix as their Bishop, but he
declined the honor in favor of Quintus, a senior priest. Felix spent
the rest of his life on a small piece of land sharing what he had with
the poor, and died there on January 14.
His tomb soon became famous for the miracles reported
there, and when St. Paulinus became bishop of Nola almost a century
later (410), he wrote about his predecessor, the source of our information
about him, adding legendary material that had grown up about Felix in
the intervening century.
happy ( = Felix)
Patronage against eye disease; against eye trouble;
against false witness; against lies; against perjury; domestic animals;
eyes
Representation cobweb; deacon in prison; spiderweb;
young priest carrying an old man (Maximus) on his shoulders; young
priest chained in prison with a pitcher and potsherds near him; young
priest with a bunch of grapes (symbolizes his care of the aged Maximus);
young priest with a spider; young priest with an angel removing his chains
St. Felix of Nola lived in Italy in the days of
the Roman persecutions. He survived, however, and went on to
earn his crown as one of the early Christian ascetics.
What we know about him comes
mostly from St. Paulinus of Nola, bishop of the diocese of Nola a
century later, who wrote many poems in praise of Felix. Some
of the biographical details may well be folkloric, but here is the
basic outline of his priestly career.
A native
of Nola, near Naples, Felix was the second son of a Syrian-born father.
His brother joined the imperial army. Felix, however, found his
joy (the name "Felix" means "happy") in the service of the Lord.
Having given his belongings to the poor, he was ordained a priest by
St. Maximus, the then bishop of Nola.
Now, in the year 250,
Roman Emperor Decius launched a thorough persecution of Christians.
Bishop Maximus, knowing that he was marked for death, followed the scriptural
admonition and went into hiding, entrusting the diocesan administration
to Felix. The Roman constables, failing to discover the bishop,
took out their frustration on his administrator. They scourged
Felix viciously and then jailed him in a cell that was in itself an instrument
of torture.
One night, however, an
angel appeared to Father Felix and commanded him to go to his bishop,
since he was gravely ill. Thereupon the priest's shackles fell
off and the door of his prison came unlocked. Hastening to Maximus's
side, Felix decided to carry him off on his shoulders to his home in
Nola, where at the moment he could apparently escape detection.
There a kindly old woman nursed him back to health.
Felix himself then had
to take to flight, now to one hideout, now to another, ever pursued
by government agents. One day as they drew near, he managed to
crawl into a hole in a ruined wall. There he was protected by
spiders much as Jesus was during the flight into Egypt, according to
the old legend. No sooner had he entered the hiding place when
the spiders quickly wove a screen of cobwebs across the opening.
The pursuers saw the hole, but passed on. Nobody could be inside,
they concluded, because the web was intact.
The priest of Nola was
living in a dry well when Decius' persecution was called off.
Maximus died soon afterward, and his flock agreed as one man that Felix
should succeed him as bishop. Felix declined the office, however,
and persuaded the people to accept Quintus, a senior priest of the diocese.
He could now have pressed the government to restore his personal property
that it had confiscated, yet he did not take that step, because it
contradicted his ideal of poverty. Retaining only a small plot
of land, he set up a sort of hermitage, cultivating the land and sharing
its produce with the needy. His constant practice was to give
to the poor anything extra. When a friend made him a present
of a second coat, for instance, he would give away the better garment
and retain the inferior one. Sometimes, indeed, he gave a pauper
his own good suit and donned the pauper's rags. Having thus led
a life of joyous self-denial, he was hailed at his death as unquestionably
a saint.
The
tomb of Felix at Nola became the focus of international pilgrimage.
When Paulinus was installed as bishop of Nola many decades later, miracles
were still being wrought at the saint's shrine. Some of the
wonders he recorded in his writings he himself had witnessed.
Many Christians chose to be buried close to Felix's tomb, hoping that
they might have a better chance of mounting to heaven if they were near
him at the resurrection.
Paulinus meanwhile became
a bit worried about the theology of the intercessory power of the saints.
How could they know, he asked St. Augustine, that we on earth were
praying to them? The great theologian calmed his fears.
God, he says, reveals to them that we are asking their intercession.
Then they turn to God to pray on our behalf.
Whether we pray, then,
to St. Felix or to any others who live in God's presence, we may be
sure that the message gets through!
--Father Robert F. McNamara
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340 St.
Macrina the Elder Grandmother of Sts. Basil and Gregory of Nyssa
Neocæsaréæ, in Ponto, sanctæ
Macrínæ, discípulæ beáti Gregórii
Thaumatúrgi, et áviæ sancti Basilíi, quæ
eúndem Basilíum educávit in fide.
At Neocaesarea in Pontus,
St. Macrina, disciple of St. Gregory the Wonder-Worker, and grandmother
of St. Basil, whom she educated in the Christian faith.
340 ST MACRINA THE ELDER,
WIDOW
IN more than one
of his letters St Basil the Great refers to his father’s mother, Macrina,
by whom he was apparently brought up, and to whose care in giving
him sound religious instruction he attributes the fact that he never
imbibed any heterodox opinions which he had afterwards to modify.
During
the persecution of Galerius and Maximinus, Macrina and her husband
had much to suffer. They were forced to quit their home and to hide
themselves from the persecutors among the hill forests of Pontus for
seven years. They often suffered hunger, and St Gregory Nazianzen declares
that at times they had to depend for their food upon the wild creatures
which, as he believed, by some miraculous interposition of Providence
suffered themselves to be caught and killed. Even after this danger had
passed, another persecution broke out in which their goods were confiscated,
and it would seem that they were honoured by a formal recognition of their
title to be reckoned among the confessors of the faith. Macrina survived
her husband, but the exact date of her death is not recorded. In the Roman
Martyrology St Macrina is described as a disciple of St Gregory Thaumaturgus,
but this can hardly mean more than that she was an earnest student of
his writings.
See Acta Sanctorum for January 14 and DCB., vol. iii, p. 779.
She was trained in the faith by St. Gregory Thaumaturgis. During the persecution
instituted by Emperor Diocletian,
Macrina and her husband had to flee Neocaesarea, in Pontus. They lived
on the shores of the Black Sea.
Macrina the Elder, Widow (RM) Died at Neocaesarea, c. 340.
Saint Macrina was mother to Saint Basil the Elder and grandmother
of Saint Basil, Saint Macrina the Younger, Saint Gregory of Nyssa,
and Saint Peter of Sebastea. During her youth her spiritual director
was Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus.
As if this isn't enough to qualify anyone to be a saint,
Macrina was known for her great sense of justice and the faith with
which she and her husband endured their sufferings during the persecutions
under Galerius. During the persecution of Diocletian she and her husband
were forced to remain in hiding in Pontus on the shores of the Black
Sea for six or more years. They had much to suffer--hunger, deprivation,
loss of property--then and under later persecutions. Nevertheless, they
succeeded in rearing up one of the most saintly families in Cappadocia
and, perhaps, in Christendom (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia,
Farmer).
In art, Saint Macrina is portrayed
as a recluse with two stags near her or with two hinds (Roeder).
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309 Martyrs Monks of Mount Sinai slain by Bedouins.
In monte Sina sanctórum trigínta octo
Monachórum, a Saracénis ob Christi fidem interfectórum.
On Mount Sinai, thirty-eight
holy monks killed by the Saracens for the faith of Christ.
THE MARTYRS OF MOUNT SINAI
THIRTY-EIGHT solitaries on Mount
Sinai were put to death by a troop of Arabians, and many other hermits
in the desert of Raithu, two days’ journey from Sinai, near the Red
Sea, were similarly massacred by the Blemmyes. Also many anchorets on
Mount Sinai were martyred by a band of desert marauders at the close
of the fourth century. A boy of fourteen years of age led among them an
ascetic life of great perfection. The raiders threatened to kill him if
he did not discover where the older monks had concealed themselves. He
answered that death did not terrify him, and that he could not ransom his
life by a sin in betraying his fathers. The barbarians, enraged at this
answer, fell on him with all their weapons at once, and the youth died by
as many martyrdoms as he had executioners. St Nilus (cf.
November 12) left an account of this massacre: at that time he led
an eremitical life in that wilderness.
These holy
solitaries are commemorated together on this day in the Eastern church,
and are mentioned in the Roman Martyrology. See Martynov, Annus Ecclesiasticus Graeco-Slavicus, pp. 41 seq.; Nilles, Kalendarium Manuale (1896—1897),
vol. i. The narratives of St Nilus are in Migne, PG., vol. lxxix, pp.
590—694. On the authorship of these narratives see Analecta
Bollandiana, vol. xxxviii (1920), pp. 420 seq.; and
cf. Delehaye, Synax. Const.,
pp. 389—391.
Monks on Mt. Sinai who were slain by Bedouins. A second group,
slain by Bedouins in the nearby Raithu Desert, is also commemorated.
Isaias, Sabas & Companions MM (RM). Thirty-eight monks
on Mount Sinai massacred by pagan Arabs. These massacre was followed
by several others in the neighborhood of the Red Sea (Benedictines).
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335
Saint Nino, Enlightener of Georgia and Equal of the Apostles
Born around the year 280 in the city of Kolastra
in Cappadocia. Her father Zabulon was related to the holy Great Martyr
George (April 23). He came from an illustrious family, and pious parents,
and he was highly regarded by the emperor Maximian (284-305). Zabulon,
a Christian, served in the military under the emperor, and he took part
in the liberation of Christian captives from Gaul (modern France). St
Nino's mother, Susanna, was a sister of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. [Translator's
note: In 1996, the parents of St Nino were numbered among the Saints.The
commemoration of Sts Zabulon and Susanna is May 20].
When she was twelve years old, St Nino went to
Jerusalem with her parents, who had only this one daughter. By their
mutual consent and with the blessing of the Patriarch, Zabulon devoted
his life to the service of God at the Jordan, and Susanna was made a deaconness
in the church of the Holy Resurrection. The upbringing of St Nino was entrusted
to the pious Eldress, Nianphora. St Nino displayed diligence and obedience
for two years. By the grace of God, she got into the firm habit of fulfilling
the rule of prayer, and reading the Holy Scriptures.
Once, while tearfully reading the Gospel passages
describing the Crucifixion of Christ the Savior, she wondered about
the fate of the Chiton (Tunic) of the Lord (John 19:23-24). When St
Nino asked where the Lord's Chiton (Tunic) had gone (October 1), the
Eldress Nianphora declared that the Lord's incorrupt Chiton had been
carried off by the Rabbi Eleazar of Mtskhet and taken back with him to
a place named Iberia (Georgia), and called the appanage (i.e., the "allotted
portion") of the Mother of God.
During Her earthly life, the All-Pure Virgin
had received Georgia as her allotted portion, but an angel of the Lord appeared
to Her and foretold that Georgia would become Her earthly portion only after
Her Repose. She was told that Mt. Athos (also called the portion of the Mother
of God) would be given to Her by God.
The Elderess Nianphora told her that Georgia
had not yet been enlightened by the light of Christianity, St Nino
entreated the Most Holy Theotokos to grant that she would see Georgia
converted to Christ, and might also enable her to find the Tunic of
the Lord.
The Queen of Heaven heard the prayer of the young
righteous one. Once, when St Nino was resting after long prayer, the
All-Pure Virgin appeared to her in a dream, and entrusting her with
a cross plaited from sprigs, She said, "Take this cross, for it will
be for you a shield and protection against all enemies both visible and
invisible. Go to the land of Iberia, proclaim there the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ and spread forth His grace, and I will be your Protectress."
Awakening, St Nino saw the cross
(now preserved in a special reliquary in the Tbilisi Zion cathedral
church) in her hand. Rejoicing in spirit, she went to her uncle, the
Patriarch of Jerusalem, and told him about her vision. The Patriarch
then blessed the young virgin in her deed of Apostolic service.
On the way to Georgia, St Nino escaped martyrdom,
which however befell her companions: the emperor's daughter Ripsimia,
her guide Gaiania and thirty-five virgins (September 30), who had
fled to Armenia from Rome to escape persecution under the emperor
Diocletian (284-305). Bolstered in spirit by visions of an angel of
the Lord, who appeared the first time holding a censer, and a scroll
the second time, St Nino continued on her way and arrived in Georgia
in the year 319. News of her soon spread through the area of Mtskhet,
where she lived in asceticism. Numerous miracles accompanied her preaching.
On the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, as pagan priests offered
sacrifice in the presence of the emperor Mirian and a multitude of the
people, the idols Armaz, Gatsi, and Gaim were toppled from a high mountain
through the prayers of St Nino. This was accompanied by a strong storm.
Entering Mtskhet, the ancient capital of Georgia,
St Nino found shelter in the household of a childless imperial official,
whose wife Anastasia was delivered from infertility through the prayers
of St Nino, and she came to believe in Christ.
St Nino healed the Georgian empress Nana from
a grievous infirmity. After her Baptism, she ceased to worship idols
and became a zealous Christian instead (October 1). In spite of the miraculous
healing of his wife, the emperor Mirian (265-342), in view of the complaints
of the pagans, prepared to subject St Nino to fierce tortures. "At that
very moment, when they plotted to execute the righteous one, the sun darkened
and an impenetrable mist covered the place where the emperor was."
The emperor suddenly fell blind, and seized by
terror, his retainers began to beg their pagan idols for the light
to return. "But Armaz, Gaim and Gatsi were deaf, and the darkness only
intensified. Then with one voice they cried out to the God of Nino. Instantly,
the darkness was lifted, and the sun shone in all its radiance." This
event occurred on May 6, 319.
Emperor Mirian, healed from his blindness
by St Nino, was baptized with all his retainers.
By 324, Christianity had established itself in Georgia.
The Chronicles relate that through her prayers,
the location of the Lord's Chiton was revealed to St Nino.
At this place the first Christian church was built in Georgia (at first
a wooden church, but then a stone cathedral, in honor of the Twelve Holy
Apostles, the "Svetitskhoveli").
At the request of the emperor
Mirian, and with the cooperation of the Byzantine emperor St Constantine
(306-337), Bishop Eustathius of Antioch was sent to Georgia
with two priests and three deacons. Christianity took a definite hold
upon the land. The mountain regions of Georgia, however, remained without
enlightenment.
St Nino traveled with the presbyter James and
one of the deacons, to the upper regions of the Aragva and Iori Rivers,
where she preached the Gospel to the people. Many of them came to believe
in Christ and received holy Baptism. Then St Nino proceeded to Kakhetia
(Eastern Georgia) and settled in the village of Bodbe, in a small tent
beside a mountain. Here she led an ascetic life of constant prayer, and
converting the local inhabitants to Christ. Amidst all these was the empress
of Kakhetia, named Sodzha [Sophia], who accepted Baptism with all her
court and a multitude of the people.
Having completed her apostolic service in
Georgia, St Nino had a revelation from God of her impending end.
In a letter to the emperor Mirian, she requested him to send
Bishop John, so that he might prepare her for her final journey. Not
only Bishop John did come, but also the emperor with all the clergy
went to Bodbe, where many healings took place at the deathbed of St Nino.
For the edification of the people who had come, and at the request of
her disciples, St Nino told them of her life. This narration, written
down by Solomia of Udzharm, has served as the basis of the Life of St
Nino.
Having received the Holy Mysteries, St Nino instructed
that her body be buried at Bodbe, and then she peacefully departed to
the Lord in the year 335 (according to other sources, in the year 347,
at the age of sixty-seven, after 35 years of apostolic labor).
The emperor, the clergy and the people, grieving
over the death of St Nino, wished to transfer her relics to the Mtskhet
cathedral church, but they were not able to remove the coffin of the
ascetic from her chosen place of rest. The emperor Mirian laid the foundations
of a church on this site in 342, and his son the emperor Bakur (342-364)
completed and dedicated the church in the name of St Nino's relative,
the holy Great Martyr George.
Later, a women's monastery dedicated to St Nino
was founded at this place. The relics of the saint, concealed beneath
a crypt at her command, were glorified by many miracles and healings.
The Georgian Orthodox Church, with the consent of the Patriarchate of
Antioch, designated St Nino the Enlightener of Georgia as Equal of the
Apostles. She was numbered among the Saints, and her Feast was established
as January 14, the day of her blessed repose.
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346 St. Barbasymas
bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon Martyr of Persia with 16 companions
346 SS. BARBASYMAS AND HIS
COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
ST BARBASYMAS (Barbashemin) succeeded his brother St Sadoth
in the metro-political see of Seleucia and Ctesiphon in 342. Being
accused as an enemy to the Persian religion, he was apprehended with
sixteen of his clergy by order of King Sapor II. The king, seeing that
his threats made no impression, confined him in a loathsome dungeon, in
which he was often tortured with scourgings and other atrocities, besides
the continual discomfort of stench, filth, hunger and thirst. After eleven
months the prisoners were again brought before the king. Their bodies were
disfigured and their faces hardly recognizable. Sapor held out to the
bishop a golden cup in which were a thousand gold coins, and besides this
he promised him a governorship if he would suffer himself to be initiated
in the rites of the sun. The saint replied that he could not answer the reproaches
of Christ at the last day if he should prefer gold, or a whole empire, to
His holy law; and that he was ready to die. He received his crown by the
sword, with his companions, on January 14, 346 at Ledan in Huzistan.
St Maruthas, Bishop of Maiferkat,
supposed to be the author of his acts, adds that Sapor, resolving to
extinguish the Christian name in his empire, published a new edict,
whereby he commanded everyone to be tortured and put to death who should
refuse to worship the sun, fire and water, and to feed on the blood of
living creatures. The see of Seleucia remained vacant twenty years, and
innumerable martyrs watered Persia with their blood. St Maruthas was not
able to recover their names, but has left us a lengthy panegyric of their
heroic deeds, very devotional in tone, in which he prays to be speedily
united with them in glory.
See
Assemani, Acta martyrum orientalium, vol. i, pp.
111—116; but the Syriac text has been more correctly edited by Bedjan,
Acta martyrum et sanctorum, vol. ii, pp. 296—303 Sozomen,
Hist. Eccles., bk ii, c. 13; BHO., n. 33.
He was the bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon in
342. In that year he was arrested and tortured with sixteen of his priests
in the persecution of Sassanid King Shapur II.
He was offered a cup filled with gold coins if he would worship
the Persian god and refused. All of these martyrs were beheaded.
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368
Sancti Hilárii, Epíscopi Pictaviénsis, Confessóris
et Ecclésiæ Doctóris; qui prídie hujus diéi
evolávit in cælum.
St. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers,
confessor and doctor of the Church, who entered heaven on the thirteenth
day of this month.
368 ST HILARY, BISHOP OF POITIERS, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH
ST AUGUSTINE,
who often urges the authority of St Hilary against the
Pelagians,
styles him “the illustrious doctor of the churches”. St Jerome says
that he was a “most eloquent
man, and the trumpet of the Latins against the Arians” and in another
place, that “in St Cyprian and St Hilary, God had transplanted two fair
cedars out of the world into His Church
St
Hilary was born at Poitiers, and his family was illustrious in Gaul.
He himself testifies that he was brought up in idolatry, and gives
us a detailed account of the steps by which God conducted him to a knowledge
of the faith, He considered, by the light of reason, that man,
a moral and free agent, is placed in this world for the exercise of patience,
temperance, and other virtues, which he saw must receive a recompense
after this life. He ardently set about learning what God is, and quickly
discovered the absurdity of polytheism, or a plurality of gods he was
convinced that there can be only one God, and that He must be eternal,
unchangeable, all-powerful, the first cause and author of all things. Full
of these reflections, he met with the Christian scriptures, and was deeply
impressed by that sublime description Moses gives of God in those words,
so expressive of us self-existence, I AM
WHO AM: and was no less struck with the idea of His supreme dominion,
illustrated by the inspired language of the prophets. The reading of the
New Testament completed his inquiries; and he learned from the first chapter
of St John that the Divine Word, God the Son, is coeternal and consubstantial
with the Father. Being thus brought to the knowledge of the faith, he
received baptism when somewhat advanced in years.
Hilary
had been married before his conversion, and his wife, by whom he
had a daughter named Apra, was yet living when he was chosen bishop
of Poitiers, about the year 350. He did all in his
power to escape this promotion; but his humility only made the people
more earnest in their choice; and, indeed, their expectations were not
disappointed, for his eminent qualities shone forth so brilliantly as
to attract the attention not only of Gaul, but of the whole Church. Soon
after he was raised to the episcopal dignity he composed, before his exile,
a commentary on the Gospel of St Matthew, which is still extant. That on
the psalms he compiled after his banishment. From that time the Arian controversy
chiefly employed his pen. He was an orator and poet. His style is lofty
and noble, with much rhetorical ornament, somewhat studied and the length
of his periods renders him sometimes obscure: St Jerome complains of his
long and involved sentences and tragic manner—the old rhetorical tradition
was not yet dead. St Hilary solemnly appeals to God that he accounted it
the great work of his life to employ all his faculties to announce Him to
the world, and to excite all men to the love of Him. He earnestly recommends
beginning every action and discourse by prayer. He breathes a sincere and
ardent desire of martyrdom, and discovers a soul fearless of death. He
had the greatest veneration for truth, sparing no pains in its pursuit
and dreading no dangers in its defence.
The Emperor Constantius and a synod at Milan in 355 required all
bishops to sign the condemnation of St Athanasius. Such as refused
to comply were banished, among whom were St Eusebius of Vercelli, Lucifer
of Cagliari and St Dionysius of Milan. St Hilary wrote on that occasion
his First Book to Constantius “, in which he entreated him to restore
peace to the Church. He separated himself from the three Arian bishops
in the West, Ursacius, Valens and Saturninus, and the emperor sent an
order to Julian, surnamed afterwards the Apostate, who at that time commanded
in Gaul, to enforce St Hilary’s immediate banishment into Phrygia. St Hilary
went into exile about the middle of the year 356, as cheerfully as another
would take a pleasure trip, and recked nothing of hardships, dangers or
enemies, having a soul above the smiles and frowns of the world and his
thoughts fixed only on God. He remained in exile for some three years, which
time he employed in composing several learned works. The principal and most
esteemed of these is that On the Trinity.
The earliest Latin hymn-writing is associated with the name of
Hillary of Poitiers.
The
emperor, again interfering in the affairs of the Church, assembled
a council of Arians, at Seleucia in Isauria, to neutralize the decrees
of the Council of Nicaea. St Hilary, who had then passed three years
in Phrygia, was invited thither by the semi-Arians, who hoped that he
would be useful to their party in crushing those who adhered strictly
to the doctrine of Anus. But no human considerations could daunt his courage.
He boldly defended the decrees of Nicaea, till at last, tired out with
controversy, he withdrew to Constantinople and presented to the emperor
a request, called his Second Book to Constantius “, begging permission
to hold a public disputation about religion with Saturninus, the author
of his banishment. The issue of this challenge was that the Arians, dreading
such a trial, persuaded the emperor to rid the East of a man who never
ceased to disturb its peace. Constantius accordingly sent him back
into Gaul in 360.
St
Hilary returned through Illyricum and Italy to confirm the weak.
He was received at Poitiers with great demonstrations of joy, and there
his old disciple, St Martin, ere long rejoined him. A synod in Gaul, convoked
at the instance of Hilary, condemned that of Rimini in 359; and Saturninus,
proving obstinate, was excommunicated and desposed. Scandals were removed,
discipline, peace and purity of faith were restored. The death of Constantius
in 361 put an end to the Arian persecution. St Hilary was by nature the
gentlest of men, full of courtesy and friendliness to all: yet seeing
this behaviour ineffectual, he composed an invective against Constantius
in which he employed the severest language, probably for good reasons
not now known to us. This piece was not circulated till after the death
of the emperor. Hilary undertook a journey to Milan in 364 to confute Auxentius,
the Arian usurper of that see, and in a public disputation obliged him
to confess Christ to be the true God, of the same substance and divinity
with the Father. St Hilary, indeed, saw through his hypocrisy; but Auxentius
so far imposed on the Emperor Valentinian as to pass for orthodox. Hilary
died at Poitiers, probably in the year 368, but neither the year nor the
day of the month can be determined with certainty. The Roman Martyrology
names his feast on January 14. St Hilary was proclaimed a doctor of the
Church by Pope Pius IX in 1851.
A great deal has been written
about St Hilary in recent years, but nothing has come to light which
would gainsay the substantial accuracy of Alban Butler’s account, given
above in a shortened form. The most important discovery, now generally
accepted, is that of A. Wilmart (Revue Bénédictine,
vol. xxiv (1908), pp. 159 seq. and
293 seq.). He shows that the text
printed in “The First Book to Constantius” is miscalled and incomplete.
It consists in reality, partly of a section of the letter addressed
to the emperors by the Council of Sardica, partly of extracts from Hilary’s
work written in 356, just before his exile, under the title of “A First Book against Valens and Ursacius”
(the Arian bishops). It also seems clear that a work of Hillary’s,
Liber or Tractatus Mysteriorum,
supposed to be lost, has not completely perished. A large
part of it was found, along with some poems or hymns of the saint, in
a manuscript at Arezzo in 1887. This Tractatus has nothing
to do with the liturgy, as was previously conjectured, but is identical
with a supposed Liber Officiorum otherwise attributed
to him (see Wilmart in Revue Bénédictine,
vol. xxvii (1910), pp. 12 seq.). A full
statement and bibliography of these new developments will be found in
Fr Le Bachelet’s article on St Hilary in DTC., vol. vi, cc. 2388
seq. Other valuable contributions to the subject
have been made by A. Feder in the Sitzungsberichte
of the Vienna Academy, Phil.-Histor. Xl., clxii, no. 4,
and in the texts he edited for the Corpus Scrip. Eccles.
Lat. So far as regards the life of St Hillary we have a biography
and collection of miracles by Venantius Fortunatus printed in the Acta Sanctorum for January 13 (cf. BHL., nn. .580—582) see also
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400 Saint Theodulus
was the son of St Nilus the Faster Lord saved the boy through the
prayers of his father.
(November 12), and he recorded the slaughter of the holy
Fathers at Raithu in the fifth century. While still a child, St Theodulus
left the world and went to Mount Sinai with his father.
During a barbarian assault on
the desert dwellers, the saint fell into the hands of brigands, who
decided to offer the youth as a sacrifice to the morning dawn, which
they worshipped in place of God. But the Lord saved the boy through
the prayers of his father, St Nilus. The barbarians slept past sunrise,
and giving up on the idea of making him a sacrificial offering, they took
the youth with them.
Brought by the brigands to the city of Eluza, St Theodulus
was ransomed by the local bishop, in whose house he was later found
by his grateful father. Blessed by the bishop and presbyters, Sts Theodulus
and Nilus returned to Mount Sinai, where they served the Lord until
the end of their days. Their incorrupt relics were transferred to Constantinople
under Emperor Justin the Younger (565-578) and placed in the church
of the holy Apostles at Orphanotrophia.
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552
St. Datius Bishop of Milan, Italy , exiled by the Arian Ostrogoths probably from 530
Medioláni
sancti Dátii, Epíscopi et Confessóris; cujus
méminit beátus Gregórius Papa.
At Milan, St. Datius, bishop
and confessor, mentioned by pope St. Gregory.
552 ST DATIUS, BISHOP OF
MILAN
THE life of St Datius was spent
in stormy times. During the greater part of his episcopate—which lasted
at least from 530 to 552—he
was engaged in strife, sometimes in defence of temporal, more
often in championing spiritual, interests. To save his city of Milan
from the Goths he had allied himself with Belisarius. Unfortunately
he was disappointed in his hopes. Before help could come from Belisarius,
Milan was invested and eventually sacked. It is possible that Datius
himself was taken prisoner, and afterwards liberated through the influence
of his friend Cassiodorus. Driven from Milan the bishop betook himself
to Constantinople, where, in 545,
he boldly supported Pope Vigilius against Justinian
in the controversy concerning the “Three Chapters”. He seems to have died
in 552, while still at Constantinople, whence his remains were at a later
date translated to his episcopal city of Milan. Pope St Gregory
the Great in his Dialogues recounts a curious
story of a haunted house from which the devil used to frighten all intending
occupants, by producing the most alarming and discordant howlings of beasts.
St Datius, however, showed no fear, but put the aggressor to shame and restored
perfect quiet.
See the Acta Sanctorum for January 14; DCB., vol. i, p. 789; and L.
Duchesne, L’Eglise au Vie siècle, pp. 197—199.
When Milan was attacked by the Goths, General
Belisarius of Constantinople, failed to aid the city. It is believed
Datius was taken prisoner for a time but was freed by his friend Cassiodorus.
He went to Constantinople to support Pope Vigilius against Emperor Justinian
in the Three Chapter Controversy of 545 . He probably died there.
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610
Saint Kentigern (meaning "head chief") of Glasgow B "Mungo" (meaning "dear one") (AC)
(also known as Mungo)
Died c. 603-612; Farmer lists
feast day as January 13. Most of what we know about Saint Kentigern
mixes fact and fiction, because the only sources date from the 11th
and 12th centuries. Many of the folkloric elements predate the written
documents.
603 ST KENTIGERN, OR MUNGO,
BISHOP IN STRATHCLYDE
IF we may trust
our sources, St Kentigern’s mother, Thaney (Thenew, Tenoi; cf.
“St Enoch’s” station at Glasgow) was of royal birth and, being
discovered to be with child, of which the father was unknown, was sentenced
to be hurled from the top of a precipitous hill (Traprain Law in Haddingtonshire).
She escaped, however, without injury, and was then put into a coracle and
cast adrift at the mouth of the Firth of Forth. The tide eventually
carried her to Culross, on the opposite shore of the estuary, where she
brought forth her child, and where St Serf took both mother and babe under
his protection. The boy became very dear to him, and was given the pet name
Mungo (= darling). When he had grown up, Kentigern felt himself drawn to
a life of solitude and self-denial, and he accordingly retired to a place
called “Glasghu”, now Glasgow. There after a while a community gathered
round him, and the fame of his virtues spread, so that in the end the clergy
and people of that district would have no other for their bishop; and he
was consecrated by a bishop from Ireland. St Kentigern travelled everywhere
on foot, preaching the gospel to his people; he practised the severest
austerities, and recited the whole psalter every day, often standing
immersed the while in the water of some ice-cold stream. During Lent
he always withdrew from the company of his fellow-men, and in some desert
spot gave himself up entirely to penance and prayer. This apostolic way
of life was blessed, we are told, by many miracles.
The political conditions of
this great tract of country, which was later known as Strathclyde and
stretched southwards as far as the Ribble, were terribly unstable. The
chieftains were constantly engaged in feuds among themselves, and although
they recognized some sort of “king”, or supreme authority, plots and
cabals were constantly being formed against him. The sequence of events,
with such slender and contradictory data as we possess, is impossible
to determine, but it is said that Kentigern was eventually driven into
exile or flight. He made his way into Wales, where he is said to have stayed
for a time with St David at Menevia, till Cadwallon, a chieftain in Denbighshire,
bestowed on him the land near the meeting of the rivers Elwy and Clwyd,
on which he built a monastery, called from the former of the two rivers
Llanelwy, where a number of disciples and scholars put themselves under
his direction, among them St Asaph. It is to be noted, however, that some
Welsh historians deny that Kentigern founded this abbey, now represented
by the cathedral church of Saint Asaph, or even that he was ever there; and,
indeed, while Asaph’s name is common in the toponymy of the district, that
of Kentigern is unknown.
Later he returned to the north,
and when he again reached Strathclyde Kentigern for a while settled
at Hoddam in Dumfriesshire, but before long took up his abode at Glasgow
as before. His austerity of life and zeal for the spread of the Gospel
continued unabated, and his biographer tells us that on one occasion
a meeting took place between him and that other great apostle of Scotland,
St Columba, with whom he exchanged croziers. Many extravagant miracles
are recounted of Kentigern, one of which is especially famous, as the
memory of it is perpetuated by the ring and the fish seen in the arms of
the city of Glasgow. King Rydderch found a ring, which he had given to
his queen as a love-token, upon the finger of a sleeping knight whom she
favoured. He removed it without awakening the sleeper, threw it into the
sea, and then asked his wife to produce the ring he had given her. In
her distress she applied to St Kentigern, and he sent a monk out to fish,
who caught a salmon which had swallowed the ring. A curious description
of the death of the saint in the act of taking a hot bath on the octave
of the Epiphany, “on which day he had been accustomed to baptize a multitude
of people”, seems certainly to point to some more primitive source which
the biographer had before him. The date of
his death seems to have been 603, when Kentigern will have been eighty-five——not,
as his biographer states, 185—years old.
His feast is kept throughout
Scotland as the first bishop of Glasgow, and also in the dioceses of
Liverpool, Salford, Lancaster and Menevia.
See A. P. Forbes,
Lives of St Ninian and St Kentigern (1874), who prints
the text of Joscelyn of Furness and of the incomplete anonymous life; also
his Kalendars of Scottish Saints (1872), pp. 362 seq.; Skene, Celtic Scotland, vol. ii, pp.
179 seq. Cf. also the Acta Sanctorum,
January 13; and A. W. Wade-Evans, Life of Saint David
(1923), pp. 109 seq. Forbes’s KSS. is the
most useful reference for the little that is known of the lesser Scottish
saints in whose honour Catholic churches are still dedicated, e.g. Cumin (at Morar), Quivox (Prestwick), Triduana
(Edinburgh), Machan (Lennoxtown). But see also M. Barrett, A Calendar of Scottish Saints (1904). D. D. C. Pochin Mould’s
Scotland of the Saints (1952) is useful for
Scottish saints in general.
Kentigern is said to have been a native of Lothian,
the son of Saint Thenaw (Thaney, Thenog, Theneva), a British princess,
and the grandson of, perhaps, Prince Urien. When it was learned that
she was pregnant by an unknown man, she was hurled from a cliff (in a
cart at times) and, when discovered alive at the foot of the cliff, set
adrift in a boat (or barrel) on the Firth of Forth. She reached Culross,
was sheltered by Saint Serf, and gave birth to a child to whom Serf gave
the name Mungo (darling). The legend continues that Kentigern was raised
by the saint, became a hermit at Glasghu (Glasgow) and was so renowned
for his holiness that he was consecrated bishop of Strathclyde about
540 by an Irish bishop. There is reason to believe that he actually began
his missionary efforts at Cathures on the Clyde, thus founding the church
at Glasgow, and continued his missionary activities in Cumbria generally.
He was, indeed, the first bishop of Strathclyde. During his bishopric,
he revived the cultus of Saint Ninian and restored his church in Glasgow.
His mother gave her name to Saint Enoch's Square and Railway Station in
that city.
It is further related that political disorder
drove him into exile in Carlisle and then into Wales, where he is
said to have stayed with Saint David at Menevia. Reputedly he also
founded the monastery of Llanelwy, being succeeded as abbot there by
Saint Asaph when he was recalled to the north by the Christian King
Rederech around 553; but the evidence for these particulars is altogether
insufficient. In the north again he is said to have lived at Hoddam (Dumfries)
and Glasgow, where the saint died while taking a bath (an odd bit of
trivia). He was buried in Glasgow cathedral.
Mungo (Munghu) is a Celtic nickname commonly used
for Kentigern; it is usually explained as meaning 'darling' or 'most
dear,' but this is questionable. Montague states that Kentigern was
probably Irish because "his nickname Mungo is compounded with the prefix
'Mo,' a purely Irish custom."
The ring and fish displayed on
the heraldic arms of the city of Glasgow refer to a legend about Saint Kentigern,
in which he miraculously saves an unfaithful wife from the anger of her royal
husband. The queen had given her husband's ring to her lover. The king discovered
it, threw it into the sea and told his wife she must find it again in three
days. Kentigern told her not to worry: One of his monks had extracted the
ring from a salmon he caught.
There are several Scottish and nine English, mainly
Cumbrian, dedications to the saint under his moniker, Mungo. Although
it is unlikely that Kentigern founded the 1,000-monk monastery in
northern Wales, the story may be true that he traded pastoral staffs
with Saint Columba near the end of Columba's life (Attwater, Benedictines,
Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Montague).
In art Saint Kentigern is represented as an enthroned
bishop with a monk at his feet presenting a salmon with a ring in
its mouth; a queen with a ring and a king with a sword are near him.
At times he may be portrayed meeting Saint Columba with a column of fire
above him; or holding a mulberry leaf (Roeder).
Saint Kentigern is venerated at Carlisle and Saint
Asaph. Together with his mother, Kentigern is the patron of Glasgow
(Roeder).
Saint Kentigern was from Lothian (in Scotland),
and may have been of royal blood. He left home at an early age and
was brought up by a hermit named Servan (July 1) on the Firth of Forth.
It was St Servan who gave him the name Mungo (or dear friend).
St Kentigern Mungo labored in Strathclyde, and founded a monastery where
the city of Glasgow stands today. He was made a bishop, taking Glasgow
for his See. Driven from Scotland by the enmity of a local ruler,
St Kentigern went to Wales and founded the monastery of St Asaph. Eventually,
he returned to Scotland and resumed his missionary work, baptizing many
people.
In 584 he met St Columba (June
9), and exchanged croziers with him. St Kentigern was a strict ascetic
who traveled everywhere on foot. It is believed that he died in Glasgow
around 612 at the age of eighty-five. A Gothic cathedral was built over
his shrine in the thirteenth century.
(518c.-603 A.D.)
The cathedral of Glasgow, in western
Scotland, no longer in Catholic hands but begun in the 12th century,
bears the odd-sounding name of "St. Mungo". Actually, this saint's name
was Kentigern (meaning "head chief"). "Mungo" (meaning "dear one") was
a nickname given to him when he was young, and it stuck as an alternative.
St. Kentigern/Mungo was the first bishop of Glasgow on the River Clyde.
Today it is a large bustling city.
Although Kentigern was definitely
the first prelate to rule the Glasgow district, his biography is a
mixture of few facts and much legend. Considering that he was contemporary
with the legendary King Arthur of Wales, it should be no surprise that
Mungo, too, was a somewhat fabulous figure.
Kentigern was born, it is said,
in the county of Fife, above Edinburgh, in eastern Scotland. The tale
goes that his mother was of royal blood, but having been discovered
to be with child by an unknown father, she was condemned to be thrown
off a precipice. Having survived that supposedly lethal ordeal, she was
put into a skin-covered coracle and set afloat in the Firth of Forth.
Providentially, again, she landed safely at Culross, where her son was
born. A saint called Serf who lived at Culross, took the mother and child
under his protection.
On growing up, Kentigern/Mungo decided
to become a hermit. He settled in a solitude called "Glasgu" on the
banks of the River Clyde. As happened so often in history, other hermits
joined him there so he founded a monastery. Soon layfolk came to build
their homes around the monastery. Thus Mungo really can be said to have
founded Glasgow. When the time had come for them to have a bishop, all
the inhabitants of Glasgu insisted that he be the man.
Mungo was an apostolic bishop, though
still a hermit monk in spirit. (He was true to the harsh Celtic penitential
tradition. It is said, for instance, that he would recite all the psalms
every day, often as he stood chest-high in the waters of a cold stream.)
He trudged through all the Strathclyde area preaching the Gospel to both
baptized and pagans.
Unfortunately, the story continues,
the bishop had to take flight into Wales for a while because of the
feuds between the chieftains of Strathclyde. He finally worked his way
back to Glasgow around 581. It is said that on one occasion he met with
the great Irish apostle of Scotland, St. Columba. Before taking leave
of each other, the two holy men exchanged crosiers as a sign of friendship.
St. Kentigern all along had a reputation
for miracle-working. One of the miracles recorded by popular tradition
was that of the ring. King Rydderch, says the legend, had given a very
special ring to his wife, but one time he found it on the finger of a
sleeping knight. Suspecting his queen of infidelity, he took off the ring
without disturbing its slumbering wearer, threw it into the sea, and
then (like an early Othello) demanded that his wife show him his gift.
The queen turned for help to St. Kentigern. Impressed by her claim of
innocence, the bishop ordered one of his monks to go out and fish. This
monk returned with a salmon; then when the fish was opened, lo and behold,
the ring was found in its belly. Thus the queen was able to show it to
her husband. Whether this tale is fact or fancy, it suggested the incorporation
of a ring in the medieval coat-of-arms of the city of Glasgow.
For all the romantic fantasy that
clouds his true life-story, it is certain that St. Mungo was a strict
ascetic, a devoted bishop, and a man well loved of God. That is why
he is still honored in Glasgow, in the Welsh diocese of Menevia, and in
the English dioceses of Salford and Lancaster, and is co-patron saint of
the Archdiocese of Liverpool.--Father Robert F. McNamara
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664
St. Deusdedit first
Anglo-Saxon primate of England Benedictine archbishop of Canterbury
Benedictine archbishop of Canterbury, England. He was a Southern
Saxon, originally called Freithona. In 653, Deusdedit succeeded Honorius,
becoming the first Anglo-Saxon primate of England. He died, probably
on October 28, during a plague.
|
8th v. Saint Stephen
Impressed by the lives of the great asceticss glorious departure
into Heaven with the angels
he made the rounds of many monasteries
in Palestine, and in the wilderness visited also the great Fathers
Euthymius the Great (January 20), Sava the Sanctified (December 5) and
Theodosius the Great (January 11). Tonsured into monasticism, St Stephen
founded his own monastery in Bithynia, near Mount Oxos near Chalcedon.
Many monks gathered at the monastery near Moudania in Asia Minor, which
was called "chenolakkos" ["by the goose-pond"].
The holy ascetic foresaw his own death, and certain
of the brethren were granted to behold his glorious departure into
Heaven with the angels.
|
St. Euphrasius
A bishop martyred by the Vandals
or possibly a bishop who corresponded with St. Cyprian.
|
St. Felix A Roman
priest
|
1180 Saint Lawrence
O'Toole descendant of Irish petty kings
love of one's native land is one phase of the love of neighbor that
Jesus enjoined on us all
b. 1128
Lawrence
O'Toole (Lorcan O'Tuathail) was a descendant of Irish petty kings.
When he was young, Dermot McMurrough, the maverick king of Leinster,
raided Lawrence's father's lands and demanded the youth as a hostage.
Only two years later was his father able to force Dermot to hand the son
over to the bishop of Glendalough. The father, Murtagh, also asked the
bishop to choose by lots one of his four sons, whom he intended to assign
to a church career. Lawrence laughed. "No need for lots," he said, "It
is my desire to have for my inheritance the service of God in the Church."
Lawrence, slim, princely and attractive,
did have a true vocation, and he became a model monk at the famous
monastery of Glendalough. Indeed, he was chosen its abbot when only
25. He was even invited to become bishop of Glendalough in 1157, but
he pointed out that he had not reached the proper age. In 1162, however,
he did accept the miter as archbishop of Dublin. He was in for a stormy
career.
Dublin was a turbulent place in
those days. It was practically under the control of half-pagan Danish
settlers. Archbishop Lawrence was a staunch reformer, which
won him few friends. He established a rule of life for the clergy of
his cathedral, and followed it strictly himself. At several local church
councils he upheld the rights of the Church. He also went to Rome to
take part in the reformist Third Council of the Lateran (1179). When
he passed through England, King Henry II asked him to swear that while
at Rome he would do nothing to infringe on the regal "rights" over the
church in England and Ireland. Nevertheless, Lawrence was able to obtain
from Pope Alexander II papal protection for the dioceses of the
Dublin Province. The pope also named him papal legate to Ireland.
This King Henry was, of course,
the same whose encroachments on church rights had resulted in the martyrdom
of St. 'Thomas Becket in 1170. Pope Adrian IV had granted him the right,
in 1156, to hereditary possession of Ireland. In 1170-71 the king's Anglo-Norman
aides invaded Ireland. Thus began the "Irish Question" which troubles
Ireland to this day.
Because of his talent and position,
Archbishop O'Toole was involved in obtaining a treaty between Henry
II and Rory O'Conor, the High King of Ireland. While in England, he
made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket, Canterbury, canonized
1173. As he prayed, a madman, who thought it would be nice to make another
martyr, fractured his skull with a club, but did not kill him. The king
wanted the assailant executed, but Lawrence begged him not to do so. But
in 1180, when the Archhbishop came to ask Henry for further concessions
to King Rory, he was refused. Henry even forbade him to return to Ireland,
feeling that he was too strong in his defense of Irish liberties. The archbishop
followed Henry to France, hoping he might still persuade him. Henry did
withdraw his command not to return to Ireland, but the archbishop died in
Normandy on November 14, 1180. He left no will, for, as he explained, "I
have not one penny under the sun to dispose of." His remains became an object
of pilgrimage; and after many miracles had been reported there, he was
canonized in 1226.
St. Lawrence O'Toole, like St. Thomas
of Canterbury, was a staunch defender of the rights of the Church.
He was also opposed to the introduction into Ireland (through the treason
of his old captor, King Dermot McMurrough) of an alien government and
culture. This holy archbishop understood clearly that love of one's
native land is one phase of the love of neighbor that Jesus enjoined
on us all.
-Father Robert F. McNamara
|
1200 BD ODO
OF NOVARA
He worked many miracles both during life and after death, but it horrified
him to think that people should attribute to him any supernatural power.
BD Odo, a Carthusian monk of the
twelfth century, stands out from among some of his saintly contemporaries
by the fact that we have good first-hand evidence concerning his manner
of life. Pope Gregory IX ordered an inquiry to be made with
a view to his canonization, and the depositions of the witnesses are still
preserved. One or two extracts will serve to sketch his portrait better
than a narrative.
“Master
Richard, Bishop of Trivento, having been adjured in the name of the
Holy Ghost, the holy Gospels lying open before him, affirmed that he
had seen the blessed Odo and knew him to be a God-fearing man, modest
and chaste, given up night and day to watching and prayer, clad only in
rough garments of wool, living in a tiny cell, which he hardly ever quitted
except to pray in the church, obeying always the sound of the bell when
it called him to office. Without ceasing, he poured forth his soul in sighs
and tears; there was no one he came across to whom he did not give new
courage in the service of God; he constantly read the divine Scriptures,
and in spite of his advanced age, as long as he stayed in his cell, he
laboured with his hands as best he could that he might not fall a prey
to idleness.”
The bishop then goes on to
give a brief sketch of Odo’s life, noting that after he became a Carthusian
he had been appointed prior in the recently founded monastery of Geyrach
in Slavonia, but had there been so cruelly persecuted by the bishop
of the diocese, Dietrich, that, being forced to leave his community, he
had travelled to Rome to obtain the pope’s permission to resign his office.
He had then been given hospitality by the aged abbess of a nunnery at
Tagliacozzo, who, struck by his holiness, got leave to retain him as chaplain
to the community. Numerous other witnesses, who had been the spectators
of Odo’s edifying life, spoke of his austerities, his charity and his humble
self-effacement.
One of these, the Archpriest
Oderisius, deposes that he was present when Odo breathed his last,
and that “as he lay upon the ground in his hair-shirt in the
aforesaid little cell, he began to say, when at the point of death, ‘Wait
for me, Lord, wait for me, I am coming to thee’; and when they asked
him to whom he was speaking, he answered, ‘It is my King, whom now I
see, I am standing in His presence.’ And when the blessed Odo spoke
these words, just as if someone were offering him his hand, he stood
straight up from the ground, and so, with his hands stretched out heavenwards,
he passed away to our Lord.”
This happened on January 14
in the year 1200, when Odo was believed to be nearly a hundred years
old. He worked many miracles both during life and after death, but it
horrified him to think that people should attribute to him any supernatural
power. “Brother”, he
said to one who asked his aid, “why
dost thou make game of me, a wretched sinner, a bag of putrid flesh ? Leave
me in peace; it is for Christ, the Son of the living God, to heal thee”;
and as he said this he burst into tears. But the man went away permanently
cured of an infirmity which, as the witness who recounts this attests
from personal knowledge, had tortured him for many years. The cultus of Bd Odo was confirmed in 1859.
See Le Couteulx,
Annales Ordinis Cartusiensis (1888), vol. iii,
pp. 263—271. In vol. iv, pp. 59—72, the editor prints a selection of
the depositions of the witnesses to the miracles which were wrought at
the tomb of Bd Odo. As the evidence was all given within a year of the
occurrences related, it forms one of the best collections of medieval miracles
preserved to us. The documents have been edited entire in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. i (1882), pp. 323—354.
Cf. also Le Vasseur, Ephemerides,
vol. i, pp. 60—68.
|
1225 St. Sava patron
of Serbia monk founded several monasteries translated religious works
into Serbian.
1237 ST SAVA,
ARCHBISHOP OF THE SERBS
THE public ecclesiastical life and politics of St Sava (i.e. Sabas) were to a great extent conditioned by
political considerations, a circumstance common to many churchmen in
history, and nowhere more acute than in the Balkans, at the junction
of great civil and ecclesiastical powers and the meeting-place of diverse
cultures.
Sava, born in 1174, was the
youngest of the three sons of Stephen I, founder of the dynasty of
the Nemanydes and of the independent Serbian state. At the age of seventeen
he became a monk on the Greek peninsula of Mount Athos, where he was
joined by his father when that prince abdicated in 1196. Together they
established a monastery for Serbian monks, with the name of Khilandari,
which is still in existence as one of the seventeen “ruling monasteries”
of the Holy Mountain. As abbot, Sava was noted for his light and effective
touch in training young monks; it was remarked, too, that his influence
was always on the side of gentleness and leniency. He began the work of
translating books into the Serbian language, and there are still treasured
at Khilandari a psalter and ritual written out by himself, and signed, “I,
the unworthy lazy monk Sava”.
In the meanwhile his brothers,
Stephen II and Vulkan, had fallen out over their inheritance, and in
1207 St Sava returned home. Religiously as well as civilly he found
his country in a bad way. The Serbs had been Christians for some time,
but much of it was a nominal Christianity, quite uninstructed and mixed
up with heathenism. The clergy were few and mostly uneducated, for the
church had been ruled from Constantinople or Okhrida in Bulgaria, whose
hierarchs had shown little care or sympathy for those whom they regarded
as barbarians. So St Sava, following the example of the Benedictines in
the West and the earlier Russian monks, utilized the monks who had accompanied
him from Khilandari for pastoral and missionary work. He established himself
at the monastery of Studenitsa, from whence he founded a number of small
monasteries in places convenient for travelling around and getting to the
people. But this did not mean that the former Athonite had changed his
mind about the necessity of solitude and contemplation: there may still
be seen in the Studenitsa valley, high and away above the monastery, the
rocky hermitage to which St Sava himself used to retire.
What happened, and the order
of what happened, subsequently is more difficult to assess, but the
following represents a recent reading of the rather contradictory evidence.
It remained desirable (and politically advantageous also) that the Serbs
should have their own bishops. So Stephen II sent his brother to Nicaea,
where the Eastern emperor and patriarch had taken refuge from the Frankish
intruders at Constantinople. Sava won over the emperor, Theodore II Laskaris
(who was related to the Nemanya family), and he designated Sava as the
first metropolitan of the new hierarchy. The patriarch, Manuel I, was
unwilling, but in the circumstances dared not oppose obstinately,
and himself ordained Sava bishop, in 1219. Sava returned by way of Mount
Athos, bringing with him more monks and many books that had been translated
at Khilandari, and straightway set about the organization of his
church. It seems that already Stephen II, “the First-Crowned”, had asked
to be recognized as king by Pope Honorius III and had been duly
crowned by a papal legate in 1217.
But in 1222 he was again crowned, by his brother as archbishop,
and one source asserts that it was on this occasion that Honorius sent
a crown, in response to a request from Sava, who had informed the Holy
See of his own episcopal ordination.
Thus the retiring young prince,
who had left home as a youth to be a monk, succeeded before he was
fifty years of age in consolidating the state founded by his father by
reforming the religious life of the people, giving them bishops of their
own race, and sealing the sovereign dignity of his brother. St Sava is
regarded as the patron-saint of Serbia and, with him as with others, the
people’s gratitude attributes benefits for which he was very doubtfully
responsible: in this case, how to turn a plow across the head-land instead
of dragging it back to the starting point, and how to make windows instead
of admitting air and light by the door (cf. the men of
the Sussex coast who said that St Wilfrid taught them how to catch fish).
The later years of St Sava’s
life were marked externally by two voyages to Palestine and the Near
East; the first seems to have been a pilgrimage of devotion, the second
an ecclesiastical mission. On his way back from this last he was taken
ill at Tirnovo in Bulgaria and there he died, with a smile on his face,
on January 14, 1237. In the following
year his body was translated to the monastery of Milochevo in Serbia,
where it rested until 1594 when, during civil disturbances, the relics
were deliberately burned by a Turkish pasha who was an Italian renegade.
The Orthodox of Serbia look
on St Sava not only as the founder of their national church but also
as the conscious father of their separation from Rome. And indeed it
would seem this might be so—if events are looked at from the position in
later times. But the position in those days was quite different. Behind
the ecclesiastical authorities of Rome and Nicaea-Byzantium and Okhrida
were corresponding civil powers, all of them a threat to the nascent
Serbian state. Among these King Stephen II and his archbishop had to
move warily; and in any case schism between Rome and the Byzantine East
was hardly definitive; Southern Slavs, and for that matter many “Franks”,
did not yet know any hard-and-fast division into Catholic and Orthodox.
In fact, St Sava Prosvtitely, “the Enlightener”, figures in several Latin
calendars and his feast is also kept in the Catholic Byzantine diocese
of Krizevtsy in Croatia.
A
life of St Sava was written by his disciple Domitian about
1250, but it has not survived in its original form: it was edited during
the fourteenth century, with “an obvious tendenciousness in a
certain ecclesiastical direction” (i.e. in favour
of the Orthodox) says Shafarik, who cannot be suspected of partiality
for the Catholic Church. Other sources are the letters of Stephen II
and the history of Salona by the contemporary Latin archdeacon of Spalato,
Thomas. See Acta Sanctorum, January 14; J. Martynov,
Trifolium Serbicum; J. Matl, “Der hI. Sava als Begründer
der serbischen Nationalkirche”, in Kyrios, vol.
ii (1937), pp. 23—37; V. Yanich and C. P. Hankey in Lives of
the Serbian Saints; and a useful conference on Sava given in
Belgrade by P. Bélard, printed in L’Unité de
l’Eglise, no. 78 (1936). A seventeenth-century Latin bishop in
Bosnia, I. T. Mrnavich, wrote a biography of St Sava, and the Franciscan
poet Andrew Kachich devoted one of his best poems to him.
Sava was the son of Stephen I, founder of the
Nemanydes dynasty, and also known as Sabas. He became a monk on Mount
Athos in Greece when he was seventeen. With his father, who abdicated
in 1196, he founded Khilandrai Monastery on Mount Athos for Serbian
monks and became Abbot. He returned home in 1207 when his brothers, Stephen
II and Vulkan, began to quarrel, and civil war broke out. Sava brought
many of his monks with him, and from the headquarters he established at
Studenitsa Monastery, he founded several monasteries and began the reformation
and education of the country, where religion and education had fallen to
a low estate. He was named metropolitan of a new Serbian hierarchy by Emperor
Theodore II Laskaris at Nicaea; was consecrated, though for political reasons
unwillingly, by Patriarch Manuel I in 1219; returned home bringing more
monks from Mount Athos; and in 1222 crowned his brother Stephen II King
of Serbia. Through his efforts, he finished the uniting of his people that
had been begun by his father, translated religious works into Serbian,
and gave his people a native clergy and hierarchy. He made a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land, was later sent on a second visit there on an ecclesiastical
mission, and died on the way back at Tirnovo, Bulgaria, on January 14.
He is the patron of Serbia.
(1174-1237)
These lines were written when
the Balkan states, which we had come to call Yugoslavia, were engaged
in an anguished military struggle for political independence. War was
not news for the Balkans. They seem to have been in constant strife, religious
and political, from the Middle Ages on. The odd thing is that the majority
of the Balkan peoples, whether Croatians or Serbs or Montenegrins, or
even Albanians, whether Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox or Moslems, are
Slavs who moved into the Balkan area from the Ukraine area in the seventh
century.
One of the largest of these Slavic groups is the Serbs. Although
originally they were converted to Christianity by Italians, they were
brought into the Byzantine rite and into Greek Orthodoxy through later
contacts with Constantinople. A leading figure in their Christian organization
was St. Sava, whom they acknowledge as their patron saint.
Sava was highborn, the third son of Stephen I, founder of
the independent state of Serbia. Though a scion of a political family
(and never quite able to escape political involvement), he nevertheless
declared, at age 17, that he intended to become a monk. He went to the
Byzantine monastic center on Mount Athos in Greece, and there was clothed
in the monastic habit. Indeed, when his father Stephen abdicated his
princedom five years later, he, too, joined his son in monastic life
as a “second career”. Father and son then established on Mt. Athos a
new monastery called Khilandari. It was for Serbian monks, and it still
functions. Sava, made abbot of Khilandari, was not only a diligent translator
of spiritual books into Serbian; he was also an able disciplinarian
of his monks, noted for what he could achieve by gentleness and leniency.
Meanwhile, his brothers, Stephen II and Vulkan, had gotten
into a fight over their inheritance. In 1207, therefore, Sava returned
to Serbia. He found the Serbian morale low, spiritually as well as socially.
He therefore decided to stay home and evangelize his countrymen, who were
only nominally Christian. Choosing the monastery of Studenitsa as his
center, he employed the services of the other monks who had traveled back
to Khilandari with him to engage in pastoral and missionary work. To facilitate
their labors, he established a number of smaller monasteries strategically
located. Meantime, despite his more active career, the princely monk built
for himself in the Studenitsa neighborhood a hermitage to which he could
retire from time to time for a little monastic peace.
Sava's efforts succeeded in stabilizing the country politically.
Rehabilitation also resulted in important religious developments.
The Serbs set up their own church hierarchy, and through the influence
of the Eastern emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Sava was
consecrated archbishop of Serbia. He supervised the Serbian church until
his death thirty years later.
Because the Eastern Orthodox finally declared their independence
of Rome, the Orthodox Serbs consider St. Sava not only the founder
of their national church but the one who separated it from the Holy
See. But the division of Eastern and Western Christianity was not yet
fully accomplished in his day, at least in the Balkans. So St. Sava is
venerated not only by the Serbian Orthodox but also by the Catholic diocese
of the Greek Rite in Croatia, and by the local Latin Rite churches as well.
May prayers of St. Sava of Studenitsa obtain peace
in his country & the reunion of the Churches east and west!--Father
Robert F. McNamara
|
1237 BD ROGER
OF TODI received the habit of the Friars Minor from the hands of the
Seraphic Father himself in 1216, that he was appointed by St Francis
to act as spiritual director to the community founded and governed by
Bd Philippa Mareri at Rieti in Umbria under the rule of St Clare, that
he assisted Philippa on her deathbed in 1236, and that he died himself at
Todi shortly afterwards on January 5, 1237.
NOT much is recorded concerning
Bd Roger (Ruggiero) da Todi, and in the little which is told us there
seems to be a certain amount of confusion. What can be affirmed with
confidence is that he received the habit of the Friars Minor from the
hands of the Seraphic Father himself in 1216, that he was appointed by
St Francis to act as spiritual director to the community founded and governed
by Bd Philippa Mareri at Rieti in Umbria under the rule of St Clare, that
he assisted Philippa on her deathbed in 1236, and that he died himself at
Todi shortly afterwards on January 5, 1237. Pope Gregory
IX, who had known him personally, permitted the town of Todi, where
his remains were enshrined, to keep a feast in his honour, and Benedict
XIV confirmed the cultus for the whole Franciscan
Order.
See Mazzara,
Leggendario Francescano (1676), vol. i, pp. 29—31; Leon, Aureole
Séraphique (English trans.), vol. i, pp. 442—443.
|
1331 BD ODORIC OF PORDENONE
IT would not be easy to find in secular literature a more adventurous
career than that of the Franciscan Friar Odoric of Pordenone. Miracle
worker.
IT would not be
easy to find in secular literature a more adventurous career than that
of the Franciscan Friar Odoric of Pordenone. He was a native of Friuli,
and his family name is said to have been Mattiussi. About the year 1300,
when he was fifteen, he received the habit of St Francis at Udine, and
his later biographers expatiate upon the extreme fervour with which he
gave himself to prayer, poverty and penance. After a while he felt called
to serve God in solitude, and he obtained the permission to lead the life
of a hermit in a remote cell. We are not told how long he spent in this
close communion with God, but he seems to have been guided to return to Udine
and to take up apostolic work in the surrounding districts. Great success
followed his preaching, and crowds gathered from afar to hear him. But about
1317, when he was a little over thirty, there came to him an inspiration
of a somewhat different kind, and it is difficult from the documents before
us to decide how far he was influenced in his subsequent career by a simple
spirit of adventure and how far by the burning desire of the missionary
to extend God’s kingdom and to save souls. We shall probably not be wrong
in assuming that there was a mixture of both.
It is
not easy to give precise dates, but according to Yule and Cordier he
was in western India soon after 1322, he must have spent three of the
years between 1322 and 1328 in northern China, and he certainly died at
home among his brethren at Udine in January 1331.
With regard
to the route he followed in his wanderings we are better informed.
His first objective was Constantinople, and from thence he passed on
to Trebizond, Erzerum, Tabriz and Soltania. There were houses of the
order in most of these cities, and he probably made a considerable stay
in each, so that this part of his journey may well have occupied three years.
From Soltania he seems to have wandered about very irregularly, but eventually
he came south through Baghdad to Hormuz at the entrance of the Persian
Gulf, where he took ship and sailed to Salsette. At Tana, or possibly Surat,
he gathered up the bones of his four brethren who had been martyred there
shortly before, in 1321, and carried them with him on his voyage eastward.
He went on to Malabar and Ceylon, and then probably rested for a while
at the shrine of St Thomas at Mailapur, by the modern Madras. Here he again
took ship for Sumatra and Java, possibly also visiting southern and eastern
Borneo.
China
was his next goal. Starting from Canton, he travelled to the great
ports of Fo-kien, and from Fu-chau he proceeded across the mountains
to Hang-chau, then famous under the name of Quinsai as the greatest
city of the world, and Nan-king. Taking to the water again upon the great
canal at Yang-chau, he made his way to Khanbaliq, or Peking, and there
remained for three years, attached apparently to one of the churches founded
by Archbishop John of Montecorvino, another heroic Franciscan missionary,
now in extreme old age. There Odoric turned his face homewards, passing
through Shen-si to Tibet and its capital, Lhasa, but we have no further
record of the course by which he ultimately reached his native province in
safety. It is interesting to note that during the latter part at least of
these long journeys Odoric had for his companion an Irish friar of the same
order, one Brother James. The fact is known to us from a record preserved
in the archives of Udine, which tells us that after Odoric’s death a present
of two marks was made “for the love of God and the blessed Brother Odoric”
to Brother James, the Irishman, who had been his companion on his journey.
The account
which has been left us of Odoric’s travels, which unfortunately was
not written down by himself at the time but dictated to one of his
brethren after his return, says practically nothing of any missionary
labours on his part. It is, therefore, not certain how far we may credit
the wonderful stories which were current in later times regarding the
success which attended his preaching. Luke Wadding, the annalist, declares
that he converted and baptized 2o,ooo Saracens, but he gives us no idea
of the source of his information. It is also stated that Odoric’s purpose
in leaving China and returning to Europe was to obtain fresh supplies
of missionaries and to conduct them himself to the Far East. At Pisa,
however, St Francis appeared to him and bade him return to Udine, declaring
that he himself would look after those distant missions about which Odoric
was anxious. On his deathbed the worn-out apostle said that God had made
known to him that his sins were pardoned, but that he wished, like a
humble child, to submit himself to the keys of the Church and to receive
the last sacraments.
He died on
January 14, 1331. Many miracles are said to have been wrought after
his death, and in one of these we hear again of Brother James the Irishman,
for a certain Franciscan who was a preacher and doctor of theology at
Venice, and had suffered cruelly from a painful malady of the throat,
asked Brother James to recommend him to his late fellow traveller, and
was immediately cured. The cultus long paid to him
was approved in 1755.
The narrative
of his journeys, as dictated in Latin by Bd Odoric, will be found printed
in the Acta Sanctorum for January 14, but the fullest
account, with translation and notes, will be found in Yule-Cordier,
Cathay and the Way Thither (1913), vol. ii. See also
Wadding, Annales, sa. 1331 ; M. Komroff,
Contemporaries of Marco Polo (1928) ; and H. Matrod,
L’itinéraire . . . du b.
Odoric de Pordenone (1936). There is a fifteenth-century Welsh version
of the voyages, ed. S. J. Williams, Ffordd y Brawd
Odrig (1929). Fuller bibliographies in Yule and in U.
Chevalier, Bio-Bibliographie.
|
1501 Servant of God John the Gardener; " as John insisted, forgiveness is the loveliest
thing in God’s eyes."
John was born of poor parents in Portugal. Orphaned early
in life, he spent some years begging from door to door. After finding
work in Spain as a shepherd, he shared the little he earned with those
even more needy than himself.
One day two Franciscans encountered him on a journey. Engaging
him in conversation, they took a liking to the simple man and invited
him to come and work at their friary in Salamanca. He readily accepted
and was assigned to the task of assisting the brother with gardening duties.
A short time later John himself entered the Franciscan Order and lived
a life of prayer and meditation, fasting constantly, spending the nights
in prayer, still helping the poor. Because of his work in the garden and
the flowers he produced for the altar, he became known as "the gardener."
God favored John with the gift of prophecy and the ability
to read hearts. Important persons, including princes, came to the humble,
ever-obedient friar for advice. He was so loving towards all that he
never wanted to take offense at anything. His advice was that to forgive
offenses is an act of penance most pleasing to God.
He predicted the day of his own
death: January 11, 1501.
Comment: A monastery
garden was tended well to feed the community, not to make the grounds
pretty. John saw to it that the refectory table was well supplied. But
he also added a bit of beauty, growing flowers to enhance the chapel.
God is surely pleased when we add a bit of beauty to the world—especially
when we warm it with an act of forgiveness. For, as John insisted, forgiveness
is the loveliest thing in God’s eyes.
|
1518 BD GILES OF LORENZANA
his ecstatic
prayer and gift of prophecy were renowned far and wide. In particular
he is said to have been frequently seen raised from the ground and to
have been physically assaulted by the Evil One.
THE published lives of this Giles tell us that
he was born about 1443 at Lorenzana in what was once the kingdom of
Naples. His parents were a devout couple of the working class, and the
boy was not hindered in the religious practices which he adopted from
early youth, more especially after he came under the influence of the
Franciscan friars, who made a foundation in his native town. In time
he decided to serve God in solitude, settling
near a little shrine of our Lady. Here he spent most of his time absorbed
in prayer, the birds and beasts becoming his familiar companions. But
the news of the miracles he was believed to work gradually attracted
visitors, and being forced to seek refuge elsewhere, he next took service
with a farmer near Lorenzana. Of this stage of his life it is said
that, though he spent most of his time in church, his work, God so disposing,
did not suffer from his absence. Eventually he was received into the
Franciscan community as a lay-brother, and being given the care
of the garden, he was allowed to build himself a little hut there, where
he lived as in a kind of hermitage. He was still the friend of the birds
and all living creatures, and his miraculous cures, his ecstatic prayer
and gift of prophecy were renowned far and wide. In particular he is said
to have been frequently seen raised from the ground and to have been physically
assaulted by the Evil One. He died on January 10, 1518. The statement
made that six years after his death his incorrupt body, though it had
been laid in the tomb in the ordinary way, was found kneeling, rosary
in hand, and the face turned towards the Blessed Sacrament, can hardly
be considered to rest upon evidence sufficient to establish so strange
a marvel. The cult of Bd Giles was confirmed in 1880.
See Leon,
Aureole Séraphique (English trans.), January 10
Antony da Vicenza, Vita e miracoli del B. Egidio (1880).
|
Saint Moses was one of
the Holy Monastic Fathers Slain at Sinai and
Raithu
In Rhaíthi regióne, in Ægypto,
sanctórum quadragínta trium Monachórum, qui,
pro Christiána religióne, a Blémmiis occísi
sunt.
In Egypt, in the district
of Raithy, forty-three holy monks, who were put to death by the Blemmians
for the Christian religion.
There were two occasions when
the monks and hermits were murdered by the barbarians. The first took
place in the fourth century when forty Fathers were killed at Mt. Sinai,
and thirty-nine were slain at Raithu on the same day.
Mount Sinai, where the Ten Commandments had been given to
Moses, was also the site of another miracle. Ammonios, an Egyptian monk,
witnessed the murder of the forty holy Fathers at Sinai. He tells of
how the Saracens attacked the monastery and would have killed them all,
if God had not intervened. A fire appeared on the summit of the peak,
and the whole mountain smoked. The barbarians were terrified, and fled,
while the surviving monks thanked God for sparing them.
That day, the Blemmyes (an Arab tribe) killed
thirty-nine Fathers at Raithu (on the shores of the Red Sea). Igumen
Paul of Raithu exhorted his monks to endure their suffering with courage
and a pure heart.
The second massacres occurred nearly a hundred years later,
and was also recorded by an eyewitness who miraculously escaped: St
Nilus the Faster (November 12). The Arabs permitted some of the monks
run for their lives. They crossed the valley and climbed up a mountain.
From this vantage point, they saw the bedouin kill the monks and ransack
their cells.
The Sinai and Raithu ascetics lived a particularly strict
life: they spent the whole week at prayer in their cells. On Saturday
they gathered for the all-night Vigil, and on Sunday they received the
Holy Mysteries. Their only food was dates and water. Many of the ascetics
of the desert were glorified by the gift of wonderworking: the Elders Moses,
Joseph and others. Mentioned in the service to these monastic Fathers are:
Isaiah, Sava, Moses and his disciple Moses, Jeremiah, Paul, Adam, Sergius,
Domnus, Proclus, Hypatius, Isaac, Macarius, Mark, Benjamin, Eusebius and
Elias.
|
Marytrs of
Raithu Forty-three hermits in the Raithu Desert
In monte Sina sanctórum trigínta octo
Monachórum, a Saracénis ob Christi fidem interfectórum.
On Mount Sinai, thirty-eight
holy monks killed by the Saracens for the faith of Chris
near Mt. Sinai, in
Palestine, close to the Red Sea. They were slain either by Saracens
or by invading Ethiopians called Bedouins in old records.
The Holy Monastic Fathers Slain at Sinai and Raithu. There
were two occasions when the monks and hermits were murdered by the
barbarians. The first took place in the fourth century when forty Fathers
were killed at Mt. Sinai, and thirty-nine were slain at Raithu on the
same day.
Mount Sinai, where the Ten Commandments had been given to
Moses, was also the site of another miracle. Ammonios, an Egyptian monk,
witnessed the murder of the forty holy Fathers at Sinai. He tells of
how the Saracens attacked the monastery and would have killed them all,
if God had not intervened. A fire appeared on the summit of the peak,
and the whole mountain smoked. The barbarians were terrified, and fled,
while the surviving monks thanked God for sparing them.
That day, the Blemmyes (an Arab tribe) killed thirty-nine
Fathers at Raithu (on the shores of the Red Sea). Igumen Paul of Raithu
exhorted his monks to endure their suffering with courage and a pure
heart.
The second massacres occurred nearly a hundred years later,
and was also recorded by an eyewitness who miraculously escaped: St
Nilus the Faster (November 12). The Arabs permitted some of the monks
run for their lives. They crossed the valley and climbed up a mountain.
From this vantage point, they saw the bedouin kill the monks and ransack
their cells.
The Sinai and Raithu ascetics lived a particularly strict
life: they spent the whole week at prayer in their cells. On Saturday
they gathered for the all-night Vigil, and on Sunday they received the
Holy Mysteries. Their only food was dates and water. Many of the ascetics
of the desert were glorified by the gift of wonderworking: the Elders Moses,
Joseph and others. Mentioned in the service to these monastic Fathers are:
Isaiah, Sava, Moses and his disciple Moses, Jeremiah, Paul, Adam, Sergius,
Domnus, Proclus, Hypatius, Isaac, Macarius, Mark, Benjamin, Eusebius and
Elias.
|
1811 St. Joseph
Pignatelli, as Pope Pius XI said, served as "the chief link between the Society
of Jesus that had been and the Society that was to be."
b.1737
When St. Ignatius of Loyola established
the Society of Jesus in the 16th century, he placed its members at the disposal
of the popes. The Jesuit order thus became one of the chief agencies
used by the bishops of Rome in their worldwide governance of the Church.
It was therefore ironic that a pope in 1773 suppressed the order! Not until
1814 was the Society completely restored. Then St. Joseph Pignatelli,
as Pope Pius XI said, served as "the chief link between the Society that
had been and the Society that was to be."
Joseph Mary Pignatelli belonged to the Spanish branch of
a princely Italian family. Born in Saragossa, Spain, he entered
the Jesuits at 16. After his ordination he worked in his native
city. There he became noted for his care of prisoners condemned
to death.
In the late 18th century, the Jesuits entered troublous times.
The Bourbon family, which ruled several European nations, was increasingly
antagonistic towards the papacy, and saw in the pro-papal Jesuit order
an enemy that it was necessary to liquidate. Following an agreed
strategy, the several Bourbon rulers disbanded the Jesuit order in one
country after another, and then coerced the pope into decreeing its worldwide
suppression.
Father Pignatelli, though plagued for years with tuberculosis,
was a natural leader. The duty fell upon him to take care of
the throngs of dispersed and homeless Jesuit priests and brothers.
First Portugal, then France, abolished the local Jesuit order and exiled
its members. Abolition of the Spanish Jesuits came next. In
1767 riots broke out in Saragossa. Father Joseph successfully persuaded
its citizens to stop their arson and looting, and even won the thanks
of the king for so doing. But then the government deceitfully accused
Pignatelli of having started the riot, and on that basis exiled, in one
day, some 600 Spanish Jesuits and Jesuit students. Joseph took charge
of the Spanish exiles, and when their ships could not secure admission to
the port of Rome, he took them to Corsica, where he managed somehow to provide
for them. However, France soon assumed control of Corsica, so Pignatelli
had to move his charges once again to Ferrara, Italy, where they joined
other Jesuits from Peru and Mexico. This community was broken up in
1773, when Pope Clement XIV issued his letter suppressing the Jesuits throughout
the world. Thus 23,000 men suddenly found themselves ousted from
their order and left without provisions.
Father Joseph himself went to Bologna, Italy, where he and
his brother, also a Jesuit, lived for the next few years. Forbidden
to exercise his priestly office, Joseph Pignatelli spent the months
of exile at prayer and study, meanwhile doing his best to secure employment
and sustenance for all he could of the many ex-Jesuits.
Naturally the former Jesuits hoped that their order would
eventually be rehabilitated, for it had been dissolved without just
cause.
Now, in White Russia the papal suppression was never carried
out because the Russian Czarina Catherine II would not permit it.
When Father Joseph learned of this, he got permission from Pope Pius
VI to affiliate with the Russian Jesuit province. Recurrent illness
prevented him from going to White Russia. However, in 1788 Duke
Ferdinand of Parma, Italy, with the approval of the pope and the encouragement
of Fr. Pignatelli, allowed a vice-province of the Russian Jesuits to be
set up in his duchy. Grave problems continued, and the revival suffered
many setbacks. But in 1803 Father Joseph was named provincial for
Italy. Able now to return to Rome, he quietly continued the administration
of the Society of Jesus in anticipation of its total restoration.
St. Joseph Pignatelli did not
live to see the end of the 41-year suppression. In a dying condition
in 1811, he had himself carried to the bedside of the aged Father Aloisi
Panizzoni, who was also supposed to be in his last hours of life.
You will not die, Joseph assured Panizzoni, but succeed me as provincial
and participate in the order's rebirth!
The prophecy came true; Fr. Panizzoni was elected provincial,
and on August 7, 1814, when aged over 90, he had the joy of receiving
the papal brief of restoration from Pope Pius VII.
Joseph Mary Pignatelli had been
a symbol and summary of the acute sufferings of the Jesuit order.
His total dedication to his brothers won for him the title "blessed"
in 1933 and the rank of sainthood in 1954.
- -Father Robert F. McNamara
|
1833 Seraphim von Sarow
Orthodoxe und Anglikanische Kirche: 2. Januar Katholische
Kirche: 14. Januar
Seraphim von Sarow
Ikonenzentrum Saweljew Prochor Moschnin wurde am 19.7.1759
in Kursk geboren. Sein Vater, ein Kaufmann, starb früh. Schon als
Jugendlicher beschloß er, Mönch zu werden und pilgerte nach
Kiew. Von hier sandte ihn der Mönch Dosiphei nach Sarow. Am 20.11.1778
kam Seraphim in das Sarower Kloster, daas von Abt Pachomius geführt
wurde. Hier lebte er 8 Jahre als Novize, hatte zahlreiche Visionen, besonders
von der Gottesmutter Maria und genas mit ihrer Hilfe von lebensbedrohlicher
Krankheit. 1786 legte er die Mönchsgelübde ab. Er wurde im
gleichen Jahr zum Diakon geweiht und erhielt den Namen Seraphim. 1793
wurde er zum Priester geweiht. Nach dem Tod von Abt Pachomius ging Serpahim
1795 in die Wildnis, die das Kloster damals umgab und lebte hier als Einsiedler.
Zur sonntäglichen Liturgie kehrte er in das Kloster zurück. In
seiner Einsiedelei las Seraphim die Bibel und Schriften der Väter und
lernte Kirchenlieder auswendig, um sie während der Arbeit singen zu
können. Er führte ein streng asketisches Leben und versenkte sich
oft in das Herzensgebet.
Als Seraphim zunehmend von Ratsuchenden aufgesucht
wurde, bat er seinen Abt, daß ihn besonders Frauen nicht mehr besuchen
sollten. Seine Klause wurde daraufhin von einem Walddickicht so verborgen,
daß er nur noch mit den wilden Tieren zusammen lebte. Zeitweise
war Seraphim so in das immerwährende Gebet vertieft, daß er
sein Kloster nicht mehr aufsuchte. Am 12.11.1804 wurde er von zwei Räubern
überfallen und haltot geschlagen. Er konnte sich in das Kloster
schleppen, seine Wunden schienen aber dem Arzt tödlich zu sein.
Er hatte aber wiederum eine Vision von Maria, die ihm mit Petrus und Johannes
erschien und ihn heilte. Seraphim ging, obwohl er einen Stock beim Gehen
benutzen mußte, in die Wildnis zurück. Schließlich baten
ihn 1810 die Mönche und der Bischof, in das Kloster zurückzukehren.
Hier schloß er sich am 9. Mai 1810 in seine Zelle ein. Er verbrachte
sein Leben in der kargen Zelle in Gebet, Meditation und Schweigen. Am 25.11.1825
verließ er seine Zelle. Maria war ihm erneut erschienen und hatte ihn
aufgefordert, als Starez (geistlicher Vater) unter die Menschen zu gehen.
Seraphim, der sich bisher von Frauen ferngehalten hatte, betreute nunmehr
die Nonnen des Diwejew-Klosters bei Sarow. Er nahm sich in Liebe aller Menschen,
die ihn aufsuchten, an, heilte Kranke, prophezeite und lehrte beonders die
Askese der Frauen. Er war aber auch gegenüber den Menschen, die Vollkommenheit
suchten, sehr streng. So verlangte er einmal von einer Nonne, an Stelle
ihres Bruders zu sterben. Viele seiner Prophezeiungen weisen auf die Oktoberrevolution
und die antichristliche Zeit des Bolschewismus hin. Weit über Rußland
hinaus bekannt wurde er durch die Aufzeichnungen des Richters Nikolai
Alexandrowitsch Motowilow, der die Gespräche mit Seraphim unter dem
Titel "Die Unterweisungen des Seraphim von Sarow" als Buch herausgab. Seraphim
empfing am 1. Januar 1833 die Sakramente und verabschiedete sich von den
Brüdern. Am Morgen des 2. Januar fanden ihn die Mönche kniend
vor der Muttergottesikone mit dem Namen "Freude aller Freuden". Er war
"vor Gott getreten". Nach dem gregorianischen Kalender war der 14. Januar
sein Todestag, deshalb liegt der Gedenktag in der katholischen Kirche am
14. Januar.
|
1872
Wilhelm Löhe
Evangelische Kirche: 2. Januar
Wilhelm Löhe wurde am 21.2.1808 als Kaufmannsohn in
Fürth geboren. Schon als Kind wollte er Pfarrer werden. Nach dem
Theologiestudium wurde er 1831 in Ansbach ordiniert. 1837 kam er als
Pfarrer nach Neuendettelsau. Sein weiteres Leben blieb er in dem kleinen
Dorf, das unter seiner Leitung zu einem Zentrum der lutherischen Kirche
wurde. Er war auf vielen Gebieten tätig und erneuerte manches in
der Kirche. Hervorzuheben ist zum einen sein Einsatz für ein klares
Bekenntnis und für eine reichhaltige Liturgie. Er setzte sich auch
für die deutschsprachigen Lutheraner in Nordamerika ein und bildete
Diakone aus, um ihnen die deutsche Sprache zu erhalten. Aus diesem Arbeitszweig
ist später die Neuendettelsauer Mission entstanden. Löhe sah
auch deutlich, daß ein Glaube ohne Werke tot ist und setzte sich deshalb
für die Liebeswerke der evangelischen Kirche ein. 1854 eröffnete
er die Neuendettelsauer Diakonissenanstalt, die sich zu einem großen
und segensreichen Werk entwickelte. Er schrieb mehrere Bücher, von
denen er selbst das "Haus-, Schul- und Kirchenbuch für Christen lutherischen
Bekenntnisses" als Frucht seines Lebens und Wirkens bezeichnete. Er starb
am 2.1.1872 in Neuendettelsau.
Trotz seiner großen Bedeutung für die bayrische
evangelisch-lutherische Kirche und für die Innere und Äußere
Mission wird die Theologie Wilhelm Löhe heute kaum beachtet; dabei
können etwa seine liturgischen Arbeiten auch heute manche Anregung
geben.
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|
1892 ST ANTONY PUCCI a member of a religious order,
the Servants of Mary, spent most of his life and achieved holiness
as a parish priest and
miracles of healing took place at his grave
THIS saint, though a member
of a religious order, the Servants of Mary, spent most of his life
and achieved holiness as a parish priest. He was born of peasant stock
at Poggiole, near Pistoia, in 1819; he was the second of seven children
and was christened Eustace. As a boy his kind and gentle disposition was
noticeable, as was his industry and willingness to help, especially in
his parish church, of which his father was sacristan. Nevertheless, when
Eustace’s inclination to become a Servite had been finally confirmed during
a pilgrimage to the shrine of our Lady at Bocca, Pucci senior and his
wife opposed their son’s resolution (he was their eldest boy), and it
was not till he was eighteen, in 1837, that he entered the Servite priory
of the Annunciation at Florence. He took the names of Antony Mary.
During his early years as a
religious Brother Antony showed those qualities of frankness and of steadiness
in face of difficulties that were to distinguish him all his life.
Prayer and obedience were his first concern, and after them study. He
was ordained in 1843, and less than a year later was appointed curate
of St Andrew’s church in Viareggio. In 1847, when still only 28, he became
parish priest there. Viareggio is a seaside town—a fishing-port with
a ship-building yard, but chiefly a holiday resort—and here Father Antony
remained for the rest of his days.
Father Antony’s flock called
him “II curatino”, which can’t be translated into English; but it means
that he was “a grand little man”, who was equally loved and respected. It has been said of
him that he was before his time in recognizing the need for organization,
and organizations, in a parish. But he never forgot that these things
are but means to an end, and that end the life of divine charity; and
that the living example of love must come from the father of the flock.
He was the father and therefore the servant of all: the sick, the aged,
the poor, all in trouble or distress, came to him, and he served them
without stint. This selflessness was never more apparent than when Viareggio
was visited by two bad epidemics, in 1854 and in 1866; and one of
the fruits of Father Antony’s love for the young was his inauguration of
a seaside nursing-home for children—something quite new in those days.
To the religious instruction of children he devoted much thought and work,
emphasizing that what is done in church and school must be begun and finished
in the home. Nor were his concerns bounded by the limits of his parish:
in his enthusiasm for the conversion of the heathen Father Antony was one
of the pioneers in Italy of the work of the A.P.F. and of the Holy Childhood
Society.
St
Antony Pucci died on January 14,
1892 at the age of 73; his passing was greeted with an outburst
of grief in Viareggio, and miracles of healing took place at his grave.
He was beatified in 1952,
and canonized in 1962 during the Second Vatican Council. See
the decree of beatification in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis,
vol. xliv (1952) ; and Un apostolo della Carità (1920), by a Servite.
|
Et
álibi
aliórum
plurimórum sanctórum
Mártyrum
et Confessórum,
atque sanctárum
Vírginum.
2024
Christian
council
held
at
Among
the
most
important
titles
we
have in
the Catholic
Church
for
the
Blessed
Virgin
Mary
are
Our
Lady
of Victory
and Our
Lady
of the
Rosary.
These
titles
can be
traced
back to one
of the
most decisive
times
in the
history
of the world
and
Christendom.
The
Battle
of Lepanto
took place
on October
7
(date of
feast
of Our Lady
of Rosary),
1571.
This proved
to be
the most crucial
battle
for the
Christian
forces
against
the radical
Muslim
navy of
Turkey.
Pope
Pius
V led a procession
around
St. Peter’s
Square
in Vatican
City
praying
the Rosary.
He showed
true
pastoral
leadership
in
recognizing
the
danger
posed
to Christendom
by the radical
Muslim forces,
and in using
the means
necessary
to
defeat it.
Spiritual
battles
require
spiritual
weapons,
and this more
than
anything
was a battle
that
had
its origins
in the spiritual
order—a
true battle
between
good and
evil.