1500 B.C. The Righteous Phineas, grandson of the High Priest Aaron (also
commemorated today) and son of the High Priest Eleazar, was also a priest
and zealous in his service.
When the Israelites, after the holy Prophet Moses
(September 4) led them out of Egypt, were already near the Promised
Land, their neighbors the Moabites and Midianites were overcome by fear
and envy. Not trusting in their own strength, they summoned the magician
Balaam to put a curse on the Israelites. The Lord revealed
His will to Balaam, and Balaam refused to curse the People of God, seeing
that God was pleased to bless them (Num. 24:1). Then the Moabites drew the Israelites
into the worship of Baal-Peor. God punished the Jews for their apostasy,
and they died by the thousands from a plague. Many,
beholding the wrath of God, came to their senses and repented.
At this time a certain man named
Zimri, of the tribe of the Simeon, "brought his brother a Midianite
woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation
of the children of Israel, and they wept at the door of the tabernacle
of witness" (Num. 25:6). Phineas, filled with wrath, went into Zimri's
tent and killed both him and the Midianite woman with a spear.
"And the Lord said to Moses, 'Phineas... has caused
My wrath against the children of Israel to cease, when I was exceedingly
jealous among them.... Behold, I give him a covenant of peace, and he and
his descendants shall have a perpetual covenant of priesthood, because
he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel'"
(Num. 25:10-13).
After this, at the command of God, Phineas went
at the head of the Israelite army against the Moabites and brought
chastisement upon them for their impiety and treachery. After the death
of the High Priest Eleazar, St Phineas was unanimously chosen as High
Priest.
The high priesthood, in accord with God's promise,
continued also with his posterity. St Phineas died at an advanced age
around 1500 B.C. |
The wonder-working
Lydda Icon; Apostles Peter and John were preaching in Lydda built
a church dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos divine power icon of the
Virgin imprinted in color on the wall of the church (some sources say
the image was on a pillar)
Mentioned in the service for the
Kazan Icon (July 8 & October 22) in the third Ode of the Canon.
According to Tradition, the Apostles Peter and John
were preaching in Lydda (later called Diospolis) near Jerusalem. There
they built a church dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos, then went
to Jerusalem and asked her to come and sanctify the church by her presence.
She sent them back to Lydda and said, "Go in peace, and I shall be there
with you."
Arriving at Lydda, they found an icon of the Virgin imprinted
in color on the wall of the church (some sources say the image was on
a pillar). Then the Mother of God appeared and rejoiced at the number
of people who had gathered there. She blessed the icon and gave it the
power to work miracles. This icon was not made by the hand of man, but by
a divine power.
Julian the Apostate (reigned 361-363) heard about the icon
and tried to eradicate it. Masons with sharp tools chipped away at
the image, but the paint and lines just seemed to penetrate deeper into
the stone. Those whom the emperor had sent were unable to destroy the
icon. As word of this miracle spread, millions of people came to venerate
the icon.
In the eighth century, St Germanus, the future Patriarch of
Constantinople (May 12) passed through Lydda. He had a copy of the icon
made, and sent it to Rome during the iconoclastic controversy. It was
placed in the church of St Peter, and was the source of many healings.
In 842, the reproduction was returned to Constantinople and was known
as the Roman Icon (June 26).
The oldest sources of information for the Lydda Icon are a
document attributed to St Andrew of Crete in 726, a letter written
by three eastern Patriarchs to the iconoclast emperor Theophilus in
839, and a work of George the Monk in 886.
The icon still existed as late as the ninth century.
|
295
St. Maximilian Martyr refused to enter the Roman army because of his
Christian beliefs
Item
Romæ sancti Mamiliáni Mártyris.
Also at Rome [erroneus], St. Mamilian, martyr somewhere near Carthage.
Sometimes listed as Mamilian. The son of Fabius
Victor, he refused to enter the Roman army because of his Christian
beliefs and was beheaded at Thebaste in modem Algeria.
295 ST MAXIMILIAN, MARTYR
THE passio of St Maximilian is one of that small collection
of precious documents that is an authentic, contemporary and practically
unembroidered account of the trial and death of an early martyr. It
runs as follows: In the consulate of Tuscus and Anulinus, on March 1;
at Theveste in Numidia,* [* Now Tebessa in Algeria. It is suggested
that this is a copyist’s mistake, and that the martyrdom was really somewhere
near Carthage. Cf. the penultimate paragraph.]
Fabius Victor was brought before the court, together with Maximilian.
The public prosecutor, Pompeian, opened the case, and said, “Fabius
Victor is here with Caesar’s commissary, Valerian Quintian. I demand
that Maximilian, son of Victor, a conscript suitable for service, be
measured.” The proconsul Dion asked the young man his name, and he answered,
“What is the good of replying? I cannot enlist, for I am a Christian”;
and added when the proconsul told the usher to take his height, “I cannot
serve, I cannot do evil. I am a Christian.” The proconsul repeated his order,
and the usher reported that Maximilian measured five feet ten inches. Then
the proconsul said he was to be given the military badge, but Maximilian
persisted, “Never!—I cannot be a soldier.”
Dion: You must serve or die.
MAXIMILIAN: I will never serve. You can cut off my head, but
I will not be a soldier of this world, for I am a soldier of Christ.+
[+ It was this insistence of the early Christians on being soldiers
of Christ that gave us our word “pagan”: paganus a civilian. Cf. Shorter
Oxford Dictionary, edition of 1936.]
DI0N: What has put these ideas into your
head?
MAXIMILIAN: My conscience and He who has called me.
DI0N (to Fabius Victor): Put your son right.
VICTOR: He knows what he believes, and he will not change.
DI0N (to Maximilian): Be a soldier and accept the emperor’s
badge.{++A leaden seal (bulla), worn round the neck. Cf. the modern identity
disc.}
MAXIMILIAN: Not at all. I carry the mark of Christ my God already.
DI0N: I shall send you to your Christ at
once.
MAXIMILIAN: I ask nothing better. Do it quickly, for there
is my glory.
DI0N (to the recruiting-officer): Give him his badge.
MAXIMILIAN: I will not take the badge. If you insist, I will
deface it. I am a Christian, and I am not allowed to wear that leaden
seal round my neck. For I already carry the sacred sign of the Christ,
the Son of the living God, whom you know not, the Christ who suffered
for our salvation, whom God gave to die for our sins. It is He whom
all we Christians serve, it is He whom we follow, for He is the Lord
of life, the Author of our salvation.
DION: Join the service and accept the seal,
or else you will perish miserably.
MAXIMILIAN: I shall not perish: my name is even now before
God. I refuse to serve,
DION: You are a young man and the profession
of arms befits your years. Be a soldier.
MAXIMILIAN: My army is the army of God, and I cannot fight
for this world. I tell you, I am a Christian.
DI0N: There are Christian soldiers serving
our rulers Diocletian and Maximian, Constantius and Galerius.
MAXIMILIAN: That is their business. I also am a Christian,
and I cannot serve.
DI0N: But what harm do soldiers do?
MAXIMILIAN; You know well enough.
DI0N: If you will not do your service I shall
condemn you to death for contempt of the army.
MAXIMILIAN: I shall not die. If I go from this earth my soul
will live with Christ my Lord.
DI0N: Write his name down. . . . Your impiety
makes you refuse military service, and you shall be punished accordingly
as a warning to others.
He then read the sentence: “Maximilian has refused the military
oath through impiety. He is to be beheaded.”
MAXIMILIAN: God liveth!
Maximilian’s age was twenty-one years, three months and eighteen
days. On his way to death he said to the assembled Christians, “Beloved
brethren, make haste to attain the vision of God and to deserve a crown
like mine with all your strength and with the deepest longing.” He was
radiant; and, turning to his father, he said, “That cloak you got ready
for when I was a soldier, give it to the lictor. The fruits of this good
work will be multiplied an hundredfold. May I welcome you in Heaven and
glorify God with you!”
Almost at once his head was cut off.
A matron named Pompeiana obtained Maximilian’s body and had
it carried in her litter to Carthage, where she buried it close to the
holy Cyprian, not far from the palace.
Victor went home joyfully, thanking God for having allowed
him to send such a gift to Heaved, whither he was not long in following
his son. Amen.
The text of
the passio is in Acta Sanctorum, March,
vol. ii, and Ruinart, Acta sincera. See Allard, Histoire des Persecutions, vol. iv; Delehaye, Les
Passions des martyrs pp. 104—110. In the third century the
Roman army was’ recruited chiefly from volunteers, but the sons of veterans
were under obligation to serve. St Maximilian’s rejection of this obligation
has been the occasion of needless embarrassment to some writers (e.g. Paul Allard); the conflicting views on soldiering
current in the early Church can be conveniently examined (without
necessarily accepting all his conclusions) in the work of a Protestant scholar,
Dr C. J. Cadoux, The Early Christian Attitude to War.
Cf. St Victricius (August 7) and St Martin of Tours (November
11). In the Roman Martyrology, St Maximilian is called Mamilianus, and
the place of his martyrdom is erroneously given as Rome.
Maximilian of Theveste M (RM) (also known
as Maximilian of Tebessa)
Died 296. In the African churches of the late Roman
Empire, it was not uncommon for liturgies to include readings from
the acta and passios of martyrs. The one often included for Saint Maximilian
is the authentic record of his trial in Numidia (now Algeria) and execution
for refusing to be conscripted into the Roman army. Maximilian resisted
because he didn't want to be tainted by the idolatry of wearing the
emperor's image around his neck.
Maximilian also refused because he was a pacifist,
perhaps one of the earliest conscientious objectors. There has long
been a debate within the Church concerning the radical pacifism advocated
by Our Lord and the less stringent, but more practical, position allowing
self-defense and just war. Prior to the Edict of Milan and the toleration
of Christianity, Christians believed that bearing arms contradicted
the Gospel. Tertullian, for example, prohibited military service. Saint
Hippolytus said that it was impossible to be a soldier and a catechumen--as
contradictory as being a prostitute and catechumen (at least part of his
reasoning dealt with the association of soldiers with pagan gods and sacrifices).
The Church moderated its position. The Council of Arles (314) said that
soldiers who left the army during peacetime would be excommunicated.
About 295, the proconsul Dion went to Theveste to
recruit soldiers for the third Augustan legion stationed there. At
this time the Roman army was mainly volunteers, but sons of veterans
were obliged to serve. Maximilian, the 21-year-old son of the Roman army
veteran Fabius Victor, was presented to the recruiting agent. The advocatus
Pompeianus, seeing that Maximilian would make an excellent recruit, asked
for him to be measured: he was 5'10" tall. The ensuing dialogue between
the proconsul Dion and Maximilian has been preserved to this day.
When asked his name, Maximilian replied, "Why do
you wish to know my name? I cannot serve because I am a Christian." Nevertheless,
orders were given for him to be given the military seal. He answered,
"I cannot do it: I cannot be a soldier." When told he must serve or die,
he said, "You may cut off my head, but I will not serve. My army is the
army of God, and I cannot fight for this world," it was pointed out to
him that there were Christians serving as bodyguards for the emperors Diocletian
and Maximian. To this he replied, "That is their business. I am a Christian,
too, and I cannot serve." Dion then told Victor to correct his son. Victor,
who had become a Christian like his son, said, "He knows what he believes,
and he won't change his mind."
Dion insisted, "Agree to serve and receive the military
seal." "I already have the seal of Christ, my God . . . I will not
accept the seal of this world; if you give it to me, I will break it
for it is worthless. I cannot wear a piece of lead around my neck after
I have received the saving sign of Jesus Christ, my Lord, the son of
the living God. You do not know Him; yet He suffered for our salvation:
God delivered Him up for our sins. He is the one whom all Christians
serve; we follow Him as the Prince of Life and Author of Salvation."
Again Dion stated that there
are other Christians who are soldiers. Maximilian answered, "They know
what is best for them. I am a Christian and I cannot do what is wrong."
Dion continued, "What wrong do those commit who serve in the army?" Maximilian
answered, "You know very well what they do."
Threatened with death if he remained obstinate,
Maximilian answered, "This is the greatest thing that I desire. Dispatch
me quickly. Therein lies my glory." Then he added, "I shall not die.
When I leave this earth, I shall live with Christ, my Lord." He was sentenced
accordingly: "Whereas Maximilian has disloyally refused the military
oath, he is sentenced to die by the sword."
Just before his execution, Maximilian encouraged
his companions to persevere and asked his father to give his new clothes
to the executioner. We are told that Fabius Victor "went home happily,
thanking God for having allowed him to send such a gift to heaven."
The place of Maximilian's death is given as Theveste
(Tebessa) in Numidia, but it may have been nearer Carthage, where his
body was taken for burial by a devout woman named Pompeiana. It was buried
close to the relics of Saint Cyprian.
As a side note, in 295, Diocletian issued an edict
linking pagan religious practice to marriage and children. In 300, all
soldiers were required to sacrifice to the civic gods (Attwater, Benedictines,
Bentley, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth, Markus). In art, St. Maximilian
is a warrior with a banner that says In hoc vinces (Roeder).
|
303 St. Peter of Nicomedia
Martyr 1st victims of last persecution by Roman Empire
Ibídem pássio sancti Petri Mártyris,
qui, cum esset cubiculárius Diocletiáni Imperatóris,
et libérius de imménsis Mártyrum supplíciis
quererétur, proptérea, jubénte eódem, in
médium addúcitur, ac primo suspénsus, diutíssime
flagris torquétur, deínde acéto ac sale perfúsus,
ad últimum in cratícula lento igne assátur, sicque
vere Petri éxstitit et fídei heres et nóminis.
In the same city, the passion of the martyr
St. Peter, chamberlain to Emperor Diocletian. For openly complaining
of the atrocious torments inflicted upon the martyrs, he was, by order
of the emperor, first suspended and for a long time scourged, then had
salt and vinegar poured on his wounds, and finally was burned on a grate
over a slow fire. Thus did he become a true heir of St. Peter's
name and faith.
303 SS. PETER, GORGONIUS AND DOROTHEUS, Martyrs
WHEN the Emperor Diocletian was in residence at Nicomedia in
Asia Minor it was reported to him that there were Christians in his
own household. He accordingly caused images of the gods to be set up
and ordered that all suspected persons should offer sacrifice to them.
The Christians boldly refused, and the first to incur his vengeance was
Peter, his major-domo. We read in Eusebius and elsewhere of the terrible
tortures he had to endure. Stripped naked,. he was suspended in the air
while he was scourged until his bones were laid bare; vinegar mixed with
salt was poured over the quivering flesh. Upon seeing this, Dorotheus,
who was set over the imperial bedchamber, and Gorgonius, another high
official, exclaimed,
"Sire, why do you punish Peter for sentiments in which we all
share? His faith, his opinion and his religion are ours also. Hitherto
we have fought for you: from henceforth we will serve God whose creatures
we are.” They and another official named Migdonius were thereupon tortured
and then put to death. Peter, whose spirit was undaunted, was cut down
and trampled underfoot and finally slowly roasted like meat on a spit,
pieces of flesh being cut off from time to time. In themidst of his agony he uttered no cry of pain, but exclaimed
exultingly, “The gods of the heathen are but devils : it is the Lord who
made the heavens”.
We know practically
nothing of these martyrs except what is found in the Ecclesiastical
history of Eusebius, bk viii, ch. 6. But it is noteworthy
that the Syriac Calendar or Breviarium of the end of the
fourth century mentions on this day the names of martyrs who suffered
at Nicomedia, and amongst these we find those of Peter and Dorotheus,
to whom Eusebius gives prominence. It is probable that the “Egdunus and
seven others at Nicomedia” commemorated in the Roman Martyrology all belong
to the same group. The “Migdonius” mentioned above and the “Egdunus” of
the martyrology are probably mere miswritings of the same name. Cf. note to St Gorgonius on September 9.
According
to tradition, he was a chamberlain at the court of Emperor Diocletian
at Nicomedia. Arrested for being a Christian when the last great persecution
of the Church was launched at Diocletian’s command, Peter was cruelly tortured
by having the flesh stripped from his body and salt and vinegar poured
and rubbed into the wounds. Finally, he was roasted to death over a fire.
He is ranked as one of the first victims of the last persecution by the
Roman Empire.
Peter of Nicomedia M (RM) Saint Peter was Diocletian's valet
(cubicularius) at Nicomedia. He had great pity for the Christian martyrs
and shared their fate as one of the first victims of the last great
persecution. The flesh was raked from his bones, salt and vinegar poured
into the wounds, and finally he was roasted to death over a slow fire.
The new calendar associates Peter of Nicomedia with Saints Gorgonius and
Dorotheus, who were killed in the same persecution and who have their own
feast day as well (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
|
303 St. Egdunus
Martyr with 7 companions in Nicomedia
Nicomedíæ
sanctórum Egdúni Presbyteri, et aliórum septem;
qui singuli diébus suffocáti sunt, ut céteris metus
incuterétur.
At Nicomedia, St. Egdunus, priest, and seven others,
who, one by one, on successive days, were strangled in order to terrify
those who remained.
Egdunus was suspended head downwards over a fire. Egdunus &
Companions MM (RM) Died 303. Eight Christians were suspended upside-down
over a fire in Nicomedia until they were suffocated by the smoke (Benedictines).
|
573 St. Paul Aurelian Welsh bishop able
to perform miracles exorbitant nature
573 ST PAUL AURELIAN, BISHOP
OF LÉON
THE Bretons are fortunate in having a life of one of the fathers
of Christianity in their country written before the wholesale destructions
by the Northmen, with some authentic particulars of its author. He was
a monk of Landévennec, named Wrmonoc, who knew the Léon
country well; he based his work, he tells us, on an earlier life, and
finished it. The following is a summary of this document.
Paul Aurelian (afterwards known
as St Pol de Léon), was the son of Perphius, a British chief,
and was born in Penychen (or elsewhere) in South Wales. At the monastic school
to which he had asked to be sent he had as his fellows St David, St Samson
and St Gildas: this was at Ynys Byr under St Illtyd, and Paul
was present at the well-known miracle of the enlargement of that island.
When he was sixteen his master allowed him to withdraw to a lonely
spot elsewhere (Llanddeusant in Carmarthenshire?), where he built some
cells and a chapel. There he lived for years a life of prayer, praise and
study, and there after he had been raised to the priesthood he gathered
round him twelve companions who lived in cells near his own. From this
retreat he was recalled to a troubled world by a king called Mark, who besought
him to come to “Villa Bannheddos” and evangelize his people. This he did
so successfully that they wished to make him their bishop. He was reluctant
to consent, and while casting about in his mind what to do an angel appeared
to him, who told him that his vocation lay beyond the sea. King Mark was
loath to let him go, and churlishly refused his request for a parting present
in the shape of a little bell—one of seven which were rung before meals.
The holy man with his twelve
companions took ship and arrived at the coast of Armorica or Brittany.
But before setting sail from British soil he touched at a bay (in Cornwall?)
where his sister lived a solitary life with a few other nuns.*[ * Her
name is given as Sitofolla, and attempts have been made to identify her
with that mysterious person St Sativola—Sidwell—who was venerated at Exeter.
Cf. Fr P. Grosjean in Analecta Bollandians,
vol. liii (1935), pp. 359—365.]
She
prevailed upon him to stay some days, and on the eve of his departure
besought him with tears to obtain for her a favour from God. The place,
though convenient for their purpose, was too confined and close to “tiresome
relatives”. “It is easy for you to obtain what I want if you will but
pray to God for it: ask that the sea may be forced into a stationary
bed and that the land may be a little extended.” Then St Paul and his
sister knelt down on the shore in prayer, having first put two rows of
stones along low-water mark; and immediately the sea receded and left dry
ground behind. And the stones grew up into mighty pillars which acted as
a dyke and kept out the sea.
St Paul and his disciples came
to the island of Ushant, where they landed at the place which is now called
Porz-Pol. There they built cells and lived happily for some time, until the
angel St Paul had seen before appeared again and told him to move further.
Coming to the mainland they
went inland and made a settlement at Ploudalmézeau. Then Paul,
again urged on by the angel, made his way to the lord of the district,
a good Christian named Withur, who befriended them and gave them the island
of Batz, where St Paul settled down and built a monastery. Wonderful tales
are told about the benefits the saint conferred. He killed a dragon that
had done untold mischief, he taught the people how to get honey by gathering
a swarm of wild bees and setting them in a hive, and he tamed a wild
sow whose descendants remained at Léon for many generations.
When Paul was talking one day
to Withur, a fisherman came to show them a fish he had caught. In its head
was embedded a bell which—curiously enough— turned out to be the very bell
which King Mark had refused to give St Paul. (In proof of the authenticity
of this incident the peasants of Léon point to an ancient hand-bell
which is preserved in their cathedral, made of red copper mingled with
silver. Miraculous properties were attributed to it.)
The people who had profited
so much from the teaching and miracles of St Paul now began to clamour
to have him as their bishop. Withur was equally anxious, but he knew
how unwilling the holy man would be to accept such a dignity and therefore
he had recourse to a stratagem. He gave him a letter which he asked him
to deliver personally to King Childebert in Paris, as it contained matter
of great importance. It actually contained a request that St Paul should
be appointed bishop. He protested with tears, but the king had him consecrated
and then sent him back to Léon, where he was received with acclamation.
The name of the oppidum where his seat was fixed was changed
to St-Pol-de-Léon in memory of him. He continued to live the same
austere life as before, his only food being bread and water except on
great festivals, when he took a little fish. It seems that Withur had given
him his own house on the island of Batz as a monastery for his monks,
and thither the holy bishop loved to retire at intervals for prayer and
contemplation.
He lived to extreme old age,
but had resigned office for some years before his death. After having
outlived two of his followers whom he had ordained to succeed him in
his episcopacy, he died in his monastery at Batz. St Paul was endowed
with the gift of prophecy and foretold the incursions of the Marcomanni
(North-men), says Wrmonoc, and he recounts the saint’s last moments very
simply and movingly.
For discussion of this narrative—which
must by no means be taken at its face value—the reader may be referred
to the works mentioned below. It may be added that there are considerable
traces of St Paul Aurelian in Wales, and in Cornwall at Paul, close to
the western shore of Mount’s Bay. If his sister’s little monastery was
in fact close by, on Gwavas Lake (as Charles Henderson thought), it is
an interesting coincidence that, when driven out by the French Revolution,
the last bishop of Léon, John Francis de la Marche, landed in Mount’s
Bay in 179I, nine days before St Paul’s feast. That feast is now observed
in the diocese of Quimper and at the monastery on Caldey.
The
earliest manuscript (tenth century) of Wrmonoc’s Life of St Paul Aurelian
was printed by C. Cuissard in the Revue Celtique, vol.
v (1883), pp. 417—458; a later manuscript (eleventh-twelfth century) is
printed in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. i (1882),
pp. 209—258. See also vol.
ii, pp. 191-194. The fullest and best discussion of the subject is by
Canon G. H. Doble, St Paul of Léon
(1941), where the more important parts of
the Wrmonoc vita are translated; cf. the
same writer’s article, “St Paulinus of Wales”, in Laudate,
July 1941. See also LBS., vol. iv, pp. 75—86 and F. Duine,
Sources hagiographiques ... de Bretagne, pp. 58—61.
Probably of Roman-Welsh descent, he was the son
of a local Welsh chieftain. He studied under St. Illtyd at the
Ynys Byr monastery and, according to tradition, was granted permission
to become a hermit. Ordained, he nevertheless gathered around himself
a group of followers and acquired such a reputation for goodness that a
king in Brittany asked him to preach the Christian faith to his subjects.
Paul sailed to Caldey Island in Brittany soon after and founded a monastery
at PorzPol on the island of Quessant. Later he established himself and his
followers at Ouismor. There, over his objections, he was made a bishop, although
he was finally permitted to resign after several years and retire to Batz.
He was reputed to be able to perform miracles.
|
604
Saint Gregory Dialogus granted a vision of the Lord Himself Pope of
Rome used inheritance to establish 6 monasteries
Romæ
sancti Gregórii Primi, Papæ, Confessóris et Ecclésiæ
Doctóris exímii; qui, ob res præcláræ
gestas atque Anglos ad Christi fidem convérsos, Magnus est dictus
et Anglórum Apóstolus appellátus.
At Rome, St. Gregory, pope and eminent doctor of the Church, who on
account of his illustrious deeds and the conversion of the English to
the faith of Christ, was surnamed the Great, and called the Apostle of
England.
Born in
Rome around the year 540. His grandfather was Pope Felix, and his mother Sylvia (November 4) and aunts Tarsilla and Emiliana were also
numbered among the saints by the Roman Church. Having received
a most excellent secular education, he attained high government positions.
604 ST GREGORY THE GREAT, POPE,
DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH
POPE GREGORY I, most justly called “the Great”,
and the first pope who had been a monk, was elected to the apostolic
chair when Italy was in a terrible condition after the struggle between
the Ostrogoths and the Emperor Justinian, which ended with the defeat
and death of Totila in 562. The state of Rome itself was deplorable: it
had been sacked four times within a century and a half, and conquered
four times in twenty years, but no one restored the damage done by pillage,
fire and earthquake. St Gregory, writing about 593, says: “We see what
has become of her who once appeared the mistress of the world. She is broken
by all she has suffered from immense and manifold misfortunes. . . . Ruins
upon ruins everywhere! . . . Where is the senate? Where are the people?
We, the few who are left, are menaced every day
by the sword and innumerable trials…Deserted Rome is in flames: her
buildings also.”
The saint’s family, one of the few patrician families
left in the city, was distinguished also for its piety, having given
to the Church two popes, Agapitus I and Felix III, Gregory’s great-great-grandfather.
Little is known of Gordian, Gregory’s father except that he was a regionarius—whatever
that might be—and that he owned large estates in Sicily as well as a
house on the Coelian Hill; his wife Silvia is named as
a saint in the Roman Martyrology.
Gregory appears to have received the best education obtainable at
that time in Rome, and to have taken up the career of a public official.
In 568 a fresh calamity fell upon Italy in the form of the first Lombard
invasion, and three years later the barbarian horde came alarmingly near
Rome. At that time of panic Gregory probably showed something of the wisdom
and energy which distinguished him later, for at the age of about thirty
we find him exercising the highest civil office in Rome—that of prefect
of the city. In that capacity he gained the respect arid esteem of the
Romans and developed an appreciation of order in the administration of
affairs which he retained throughout his life.
Faithfully and honourably though
Gregory fulfilled his duties, he had long been feeling the call to a
higher vocation, and at length he resolved to retire from the world and
to devote himself to the service of God alone. He was one of the richest
men in Rome, but he gave up all, retiring into his own house on the Clivus
Scauri, which he turned into a monastery and which he placed under the
patronage of St Andrew and in the charge of a monk called Valentius, of
whom Gregory writes that he was “the superior of my monastery and of myself”.
The few years the saint spent in this seclusion were the happiest of
his life—although his excessive fasting brought on gastric troubles and
sowed the seeds of the painful infirmity which tormented him for the rest
of his life.
It was not likely that a man
of St Gregory’s talents and prestige would be left long in obscurity
at such a time, and we find him ordained seventh deacon of the Roman church,
and then sent as papal apocrisiarius or ambassador at the Byzantine court.
The contrast between the magnificence of Constantinople and the miserable
condition of Rome could not fail to impress the saint, but he found the
etiquette of the court wearisome and the intrigues revolting. He had the
great disadvantage of knowing no Greek, and more and more he lived a
monastic life with several of the monks of St Andrew’s who had accompanied
him. In Constantinople he met St Leander, Bishop of Seville, with
whom he formed a lifelong friendship, and at whose request he began
a commentary on the Book of Job which he afterwards finished at Rome
and which is generally known as his Moralia. Most of the dates
in St Gregory’s life are uncertain, but it was probably about the beginning
of the year 586 that he was recalled to Rome by Pelagius II. He immediately
settled down again, deacon of Rome though he was, in his monastery of
St Andrew, of which he soon became abbot; and it seems that it is to this
period we must refer the celebrated story told by the Venerable
Bede on the strength of an old English tradition.
St Gregory, it appears, was one day walking through
the market when he noticed three golden-haired, fair-complexioned boys
exposed for sale and inquired their nationality. “They are Angles or
Angli”, was the reply. “They are well named,” said the saint, “for they
have angelic faces and it becomes such to be companions with the angels
in heaven.” Learning that they were pagans, he asked what province they
came from. “Deira.”—“De ira!” exclaimed St Gregory. “Yes, verily they shall
be saved from God’s ire and called to the mercy of Christ. What is the name
of the king of that country?”—“Aella.”—“Then must Alleluia be sung in Aella’s
land.” So greatly was he impressed by their beauty and by pity for their
ignorance of Christ that he resolved to preach the gospel himself in Britain,
and started off with several of his monks. However, when the people of
Rome heard of their departure they raised such an outcry that Pope Pelagius
sent envoys to recall them to Rome.
The whole episode has been declared apocryphal
by modern historians on the ground of the flimsiness of the evidence.
They also point out that Gregory never alludes to the incident, and
moreover that even in his most informal writings he never indulges in
puns. On the other hand, the first part of the story—the scene in the
market-place—may easily be true: men sometimes pun in familiar conversation
who would abstain from the practice when writing. Also it might plausibly
be urged that St Gregory’s admiration for the fair complexion and hair
of the English lads, while natural enough in an Italian, is not the sort
of trait which it would have occurred to a northern scribe to invent; while
finally there can be no dispute that Gregory later on was deeply interested
in St Augustine’s mission, however it came about.
The trental of Masses or Gregorian Masses for the
Dead are also connected in origin with this period.
Justus, one of his monks, being ill, acknowledged to having three
golden crowns hidden away, and the abbot sternly forbade the brethren
to have any communication with him or to visit him on his death-bed.
Upon his death he was excluded from the monks’ burial ground and was
interred under a dunghill, the pieces of gold being buried with him.
Nevertheless, as he died penitent, the abbot ordered that Mass should
be offered for thirty days for the repose of his soul, and we have St Gregory’s
own testimony that at the close of that time the dead man’s soul appeared
to Copiosus, his natural brother, assuring him that he had been in torments
but was now released.
A terrible inundation of the Tiber was followed by another
and an exceptionally severe outbreak of the plague: Rome was again
decimated, and in January 590 Pelagius died of the dread disease. The
people unanimously chose Gregory as the new pope, and to obtain by penitence
the cessation of the plague he ordered a great processional litany through
the streets of Rome. From seven churches in the city proceeded seven
columns of people, who met at St Mary Major. St Gregory of Tours, after
the report of one who was present, describes it: “The procession ordered
for Wednesday took place on three successive days the columns proceeded
through the streets chanting ‘Kyrie eleison’ while the plague was still
raging; and as they walked people were seen falling and dying about them.
Gregory inspired these poor people with courage, for he did not cease preaching
and wished that prayer should be made continually.”
The faith of the people was rewarded by the speedy diminution
and cessation of the plague, as we learn from contemporary writers,
but no early historian mentions the appearance of the Archangel Michael
sheathing his sword on the summit of Hadrian’s mausoleum during the passing
of the procession. This legend, which subsequently gained great credence,
accounts for the figure of the angel which now surmounts the ancient pile
and for the name of Sant’ Angelo which the castle has borne since the
tenth century. Although St Gregory had thus been publicly devoting himself
to the help of his fellow-citizens, his inclinations still lay in the
direction of the contemplative life, and he had no intention of becoming
pope if he could avoid it: he had written to the Emperor Maurice, begging
him not to confirm the election; but, as we are told by Gregory of Tours,
“while he was preparing to run away and hide himself; he was seized and carried
off to the basilica of St Peter, and there, having been consecrated to the
pontifical office, was given as pope to the city”. This took place on September
3, 590.
A correspondence with John, Archbishop of Ravenna, who had
modestly censured him for trying to avoid office, led to Gregory’s
writing the Regula Pastoralis, a book on the office of
a bishop. In it he regards the bishop as first and foremost a physician
of souls whose chief duties are preaching and the enforcement of discipline.
The work met with immediate success, and the Emperor Maurice had it translated
into Greek by Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch. Later St Augustine took
it to England, where 300 years later it was translated by King Alfred, and
at the councils summoned by Charlemagne the study of the book was enjoined
on all bishops, who were to have a copy delivered to them at their consecration.
For hundreds of years Gregory’s ideals were those of the clergy
of the West and “formed the bishops who have made modern nations”.
To the twofold duty of enforcing discipline and of preaching the pope
set himself vigorously from the moment of his assuming office. He promptly
and publicly deposed the Archdeacon Laurence, the most important ecclesiastic
in Rome, “on account of his pride and misdemeanors, about which we think
it our duty to keep silence”, says an old chronicle; he appointed a vice-dominus
to look after the secular affairs of the papal household, he enacted that
only clerics should be attached to the service of the pope, he forbade
the exaction of fees for burial in churches, for ordinations, or for the
conferring of the pallium, and he prohibited deacons from conducting the
sung part of the Mass lest they should be chosen for their voices rather
than for their character. In the matter of preaching, St Gregory was no
less zealous: it was the great work he did for the churches of Rome. He
liked to preach during Mass and preferred to choose as his subject the gospel
for the day. We still possess a number of these homilies, which are popular
and eloquent they always end with a moral lesson which each one is to
apply to himself.
In his instructions to his vicar in Sicily and to the overseers
of his patrimony generally, Gregory constantly urged liberal treatment
of his vassals and farmers and ordered that money should be advanced to
those in difficulties. He was indeed an ideal papal landlord; his tenants
were flourishing and content, and yet money flowed into the treasury. After
his death he was blamed for the empty coffers left to his successors, but
his huge charities—which took almost the form of state relief—must have
saved multitudes from starvation in that distressful period. Large sums
were spent in ransoming captives from the Lombards, and we find him commending
the bishop of Fano for breaking up and selling church plate for that object
and advising another prelate to do the same. In view of a threatened corn
shortage he filled the granaries of Rome, and a regular list was kept
of the poor to whom grants were periodically made. Cases of “decayed gentlewomen”
seem to have received special consideration.
St Gregory’s sense of justice showed itself also in
his enlightened treatment of the Jews, whom he would not allow to be
oppressed or deprived of their synagogues. He declared that they must
not be coerced but must be won by meekness, and charity, and when the
Jews of Cagliari in Sardinia complained that their synagogue had been
seized by a converted Jew who had turned it into a church, he ordered
the building to be restored to its former owners.
From the very outset of his pontificate the saint was called
upon to face the aggressions of the Lombards, who from Pavia, Spoleto
and Benevento made incursions into other parts of Italy. No help was
obtainable from Constantinople or from the exarch at Ravenna, and it fell
upon Gregory, the one strong man, not only to organize the defences of
Rome, but also to lend assistance to other cities. When in 593 Agilulf
with a Lombard army appeared before the walls of Rome and general panic
ensued, it was not the military or the civil prefect but the Vicar of Christ
who went out to interview the Lombard king. Quite as much by his personality
and prestige as by the promise of an annual tribute Gregory induced him
to withdraw his army and leave the city in peace. For nine years he strove
in vain to bring about a settlement between the Byzantine emperor and the
Lombards; Gregory then proceeded on his own account to negotiate a treaty
with King Agilulf, obtaining a special truce for Rome and the surrounding
districts. Anticipating a few years we may add that Gregory’s last days
were cheered by news of the re-establishment of peace.
It must have been a relief to the saint to turn his thoughts
sometimes from the busy world to his writings. Towards the end of 593
he published his celebrated Dialogues—one of the most popular
hooks of the middle ages. It is a collection of tales of visions, prophecies
and miracles gathered from oral tradition and designed to form a sort
of picture of Italian efforts after holiness. His stories were obtained
from people still living who, in many cases, claimed to be eye-witnesses
of the events recorded. St Gregory’s methods
were not critical, and the reader today must often feel misgivings as
to the trustworthiness of his informants.
Modern writers have wondered whether
the Dialogues could have been the work of anyone so well
balanced as St Gregory, but the evidence in favour of his authorship
seems conclusive; and we must remember that it was a credulous age and
that anything unusual was at once put down to supernatural agency.
Of all his religious work in
the West that which lay closest to Gregory’s heart was the conversion of
England, and the success which crowned his efforts in that direction was to
him—as it necessarily is to Englishmen—the greatest triumph of his life. Whatever
may be the truth of the Angles and Angels story, it seems most probable
that the first move in regard to the sending of a mission came from England
itself. This is the inference to be drawn from two letters of St Gregory
still preserved. Writing to the French Kings Thierry and Theodebert he
says:
News has reached us that
the nation of the Angli greatly desires to be converted to the faith,
but that the bishops in their vicinity pay no heed (to their pious wish)
and refuse to second it by sending preachers.” He writes to Brunhilda
in almost exactly the same terms. The bishops alluded to are most probably
the bishops of northern France—not the British (“Welsh”) or Scottish bishops.
In this difficulty the pope’s first action was to order the purchase of
some English slaves, boys of about seventeen or eighteen, in order to educate
them in a monastery for the service of God. Still, it was not to them
that he intended primarily to entrust the work of conversion. From his
own monastery of St Andrew he selected a band of forty missionaries whom
he sent forth under the leadership of Augustine. It is not necessary to
retell here the further history of that mission, already dealt with on
May 26. Well may we say with the Venerable Bede: “If Gregory be not an
apostle to others, he is one to us, for we are the seal of his apostleship
in the Lord.”
During nearly the whole of
his pontificate St Gregory was engaged in conflicts with Constantinople—sometimes
with the emperor, sometimes with the patriarch, occasionally with both.
He protested constantly against the exactions of Byzantine officials
whose pitiless extortions reduced the Italian country people to despair,
and remonstrated with the emperor against an imperial edict which prohibited
soldiers from becoming monks. With John the Faster, Patriarch of Constantinople,
he had an acrimonious correspondence over the title of Oecumenical or
Universal which that hierarch had assumed. It only meant the general or
superior authority of one archbishop over many, but the use of the title
Oecumenical Patriarch seemed to savour of arrogance, and Gregory resented
it. For his own part, though one of the most strenuous upholders of the
papal dignity, he preferred to call himself by the proudly humble title
of Servus servorum Dei—Servant
of the servants of God— a title still retained by his successors. In 602
the Emperor Maurice was dethroned by a military revolt under Phocas, who
murdered the old emperor and his whole family in the most brutal fashion.
The writing of a tardy but rather painfully diplomatic letter to this
cruel usurper is the only act which has exposed the pope to hostile criticism.
The letter consists mainly of hopes that peace is now assured; in the
interest of his defenceless people Gregory could not afford to
launch denunciations.
Into the thirteen years of
his pontificate Gregory had crowded the work of a lifetime. His deacon
Peter declared that he never rested, and he certainly did not spare himself,
though he suffered from chronic gastritis and was a martyr to gout.
He became reduced almost to a skeleton, and the sands of life were running
low, yet he dictated letters and looked after the affairs of the Church
to the very end.
Almost his last action was
to send a warm winter cloak to a poor bishop who suffered from the cold.
Gregory was buried in St Peter’s, and as the epitaph on his tomb expresses
it, “after having conformed all his actions to his doctrines, the great
consul of God went to enjoy eternal triumphs.”
St Gregory has been credited
with the compilation of the Antiphonary, the revision and reatrangement
of the system of church music, the foundation of the famous Roman schola cantorum, and the composition of several well-known hymns.
These claims have been contested, though he certainly had considerable effect
on the Roman liturgy. But his true work lies in other directions. He is venerated
as the fourth doctor of the Latin church, in which capacity he may be said
to have popularized St Augustine and to have given clear expression
to certain religious doctrines which had not previously been perfectly defined.
For several centuries his was the last word on theology, though he was a
popular preacher, catechist and moralist rather than a theologian. Perhaps
his chief work was in strengthening the position of the Roman see. As the
Anglican Milman writes in his History of Latin Christianity:
“It is impossible to conceive what would have been the confusion,
the lawlessness, the chaotic state of the middle ages without the medieval
papacy ; and of the medieval papacy, the real father is Gregory the Great.”
Not without reason did the Church bestow upon him that seldom granted
title of Magnus, “the Great”.
As stated above, King Alfred
the Great had a translation made of St Gregory’s Regula
Pastoralis, and presented a copy to each of his bishops. This
he equipped with both a preface and an epilogue written by himself, and
he also prefixed some Anglo-Saxon verses, of which the following prose
translation may give an idea:
This message Augustine brought
over the salt sea from the south to the islanders, as the pope of Rome,
the Lord’s champion, had formerly decreed it. The wise Gregory was versed
in many true doctrines through the wisdom of his mind, his hoard of
studious thoughts. For he gained over most of mankind to the guardian
of Heaven [St Peter], he the best of Romans, wisest of men, most gloriously
famous. Afterwards King Alfred translated every word of me into English
and sent me to his scribes south and north; ordered more such to be brought
to him after the exemplar, that he might send them to his bishops, for
some of them needed it who knew little Latin.
St Gregory’s
own letters and writings are the most reliable source of information
for the history of his life, but in addition to these we have a short
Latin biography by a monk of Whitby which probably dates from the early
years of the eighth century, another by Paul the Deacon late in
the same century, and a third by John the Deacon, between 872 and 882.
We have also valuable notices in Gregory of Tours, Bede and other
historians, and especially in the Liber Pontificalis. For
the letters of St Gregory the edition of P. Ewald and L. M. Hartmann in
MGH should of course be consulted. A valuable modern life in brief compass
is that of Mgr Batiffol in the series “Les Saints” (Eng. trans., 1929). See
also the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii; Mann,
Lives of the Popes vol. i; Snow, Life of St
Gregory the Great Niche and Martin, Histoire de l’Eglise,
vol. v (1938) and amongst Anglican writers the very careful work
of Dr J. H. Dudden, St Gregory the Great (1905) but the literature
of the subject is, of course, vast. See the bibliographies in DAC. and
DTC.
Leading a God-pleasing life, he yearned for monasticism with
all his soul. After the death of his father, St Gregory used his inheritance
to establish six monasteries. At Rome he founded a monastery dedicated
to the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, where he received monastic
tonsure.
Later, on a commission of Pope Pelagius II, St Gregory
lived for a while in Constantinople. There he wrote his Commentary on
the Book of Job.
After the death of Pope Pelagius,
St Gregory was chosen to the Roman See. For seven months he would not
consent to accept this service, considering himself unworthy.
He finally accepted consecration only after the
persistent entreaties of the clergy and flock.
Wisely leading the Church, St
Gregory worked tirelessly in propagating the Word of God. St Gregory
compiled the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts in the Latin language,
which before him was known only in the verbal tradition. Affirmed by
the Sixth Ecumenical Council, this liturgical service was accepted by
all the Orthodox Church.
He zealously struggled against the Donatist heresy;
he also converted the inhabitants of Brittany pagans and Goths, adhering
to the Arian heresy to the True Faith.
St Gregory has left behind numerous
written works. After the appearance of his book, DIALOGUES CONCERNING
THE LIFE AND MIRACLES OF THE ITALIAN FATHERS (DIALOGI DE VITA ET MIRACULIS
PATRUM ITALIORUM), the saint was called "Dialogus." His PASTORAL RULE
(or LIBER REGULAE PASTORALIS) was well-known. In this work, St Gregory
describes the model of the true pastor. His letters (848), dealing with
moral guidance, have also survived.
St Gregory headed the Church for thirteen years,
ministering to all the needs of his flock. He was characterized by an
extraordinary love of poverty, for which he was granted a vision of the
Lord Himself.
Pope St Gregory the Great, as
he is known, died in the year 604, and his relics rest in the cathedral
of the holy Apostle Peter in the Vatican.
Orthodoxe und Evangelische Kirche: 12. März Katholische
und Anglikanische Kirche: 3. September
Gregor von Rom
Ikonenzentrum Saweljew Gregor
wurde um 540 in einer sehr reichen, dem Hochadel angehörenden römischen
Familie geboren. Schon als junger Mann wurde er Präfekt von Rom.
Als er feststellte, daß ihn die umfangreiche Arbeit von seiner
Hingabe an Gott abhielt, legte er mit 35 Jahren sein Amt nieder und wandelte
seinen Grundbesitz in Klöster um. Aus dem Palast seines Vaters wurde
das Andreaskloster, in dem er selber mit Freunden nach der Regel Benedikts
lebte. Papst Pelagius II. ernannte ihn zum Gesandten in Byzanz. Nachdem
Pelagius 590 starb, wurde Gregor gegen seinen Willen zum Bischof von
Rom berufen. Gregor ordnete die Finanzen der Kirche neu. Die erzielten
Einnahmen retteten die Kirche und die Stadt in Zeiten des Hungers und
der Pest und ermöglichten Tributzahlungen an die Langobarden.
Gregor war sicher einer der größten Päpste
des ersten christlichen Jahrtausends. Er ordnete die Kirche und ihre
Finanzen und verschaffte ihr durch seine Diplomatie weltliches Ansehen.
Er erneuerte auch die Liturgie, übertrug die Kirchenmusik an geschulte
Chöre und bevorzugte den einstimmigen Gesang ohne Instrumente.
Hieraus entstand die Form des gregorianischen Chorals.
Die Zukunft der Kirche sah Gregor bei den im Norden lebenden
Völkern. 596 sandte er deshalb 36 Mönche mit ihrem Abt Augustinus
als Missionare nach England. Schon fünf Jahre später konnte
er zwei Bistümer einrichten. Gregor nannte sich auch als erster
Papst "Diener der Diener Gottes". Er starb am 12. März 604 in Rom.
Der Titel Dialogus, den Gregor in dere orthodoxen Kirche trägt,
entstand nach dem Erscheinen seines Werkes "Dialogi de vita et miraculis
patrum Italiorum"
1295 wurde ihm der Titel eines Kirchenlehrers verliehen. Wegen
seiner großen Gelehrsamkeit wurde er zum Patron des Schulwesens,
der Lehrer, Studenten und Schüler. In den Schulen wurde lange Zeit
am 12. März ein Schülerfesttag gefeiert, an dem die Rollen
der Schüler und Lehrer getauscht wurden. Dieser Tag wurde auch
in evangelischen Gebieten noch gefeiert. Bei der Kalenderreform wurde
sein Gedenktag in der katholischen Kirche aus der Fastenzeit auf den
Tag seiner Papstweihe verlegt.
|
Ibídem deposítio sancti Innocéntii
Primi, Papæ et Confessóris. Ipsíus autem festum
quinto Kaléndas Augústi celebrátur.
In the same place, the death
of St. Innocent I, pope and confessor. His feast is
celebrated on the 28th of July.
|
605
St. Peter the Deacon Papal secretary to Pope St. Gregory I the
Great
A Benedictine monk, he was a companion of Gregory and his faithful
secretary. The pontiff dictated the four books of the Dialogues to
Peter. He is also revered as the patron saint of Biella, Italy.
Peter the Deacon, OSB (AC) Peter, usually described as a Benedictine,
was the disciple, secretary, and companion of Saint Gregory the Great,
to whom the great pope dictated the four books of his Dialogues. Peter
is venerated as the patron of Salassola in the diocese of Biella near
Venice (Benedictines).
|
645 St. Mura McFeredach
Irish abbot disciple of St. Columba
He was named abbot of Fahan and is patron saint of Fahan in
County Derry. Also called Muran and Murames, he is remembered by one
of his crosses that remains standing at Fahan.
Mura McFeredach, Abbot (AC) (also known as Muran, Murames,
Muranus, Muru) Born in Donegal, Ireland; Saint Mura was appointed the
first abbot of Fahan (Innisowen, County Donegal) by Saint Columba,
whose staff and little bell still exist. The crozier can be found in
the Royal Irish Academy and the bell in the Wallace Collection in London.
His cross is also preserved at Fahan as a National Monument. He is the
special patron of the O'Neill clan and of Fahan (Benedictines, Encyclopedia,
Farmer).
|
712
St. Vindician Bishop of Arras-Cambrai.
Born at Bullecourt, France, in
632, he became a disciple of St. Eligius.
Named bishop of Cambrai about 669, he was a dedicated prelate who visited
parishes and promoted monasticism. He also courageously opposed the
actions of the Frankish king Thierry III (r. 670-687) and his mayor of
the palace, Ebroin, in executing Bishop St. Leodegarius of Autun, and
he secured reparations for the sin from the ruler.
He spent his final years at St. Vaast Monastery,
Arras, an institution that King Thierry supported. Vindician died while
on a visit to Brussels, Belgium.
|
818
St. Theophanes Abbot Confessor relics were honored by many miraculous
cures
Constantinópoli sancti Theóphanis, qui,
ex ditíssimo pauper Mónachus efféctus, ab ímpio
Leóne Arméno, pro cultu sacrárum Imáginum,
biénnio deténtus est in cárcere, et inde in Samothráciam
deportátus, ibídem, ærúmnis conféctus,
réddidit spíritum, multísque miráculis cláruit.
Constantinópoli sanctórum Theóphanis
et Sociórum.
At Constantinople, St. Theophanes,
who gave up great riches to embrace the poverty of the monastic state.
The impious Leo the Armenian kept him in prison for two years because
of his veneration of sacred images, and later sent him into Thrace in
exile. There, overwhelmed with afflictions, but famous for miracles,
death came upon him.
817 ST THEOPHANES THE CHRONICLER,
ABBOT
IT was at the court of the
Emperor Constantine V that St Theophanes grew up. His father had died
early, leaving him heir to a large estate and entrusting him to the guardianship
of the emperor. He was induced to marry, but by mutual agreement his
wife became a nun; Theophanes also retired from the world and seemingly
built two monasteries, the first of which was situated on Mount Sigriana,
near Cyzicus. When he established the second, on the island of Kalonymos,
which was part of his heritage, he made this his home, and there spent
six years. Eventually he returned to Mount Sigriana and remained
on as abbot. In 787 Theophanes was invited to take part in the Second
Council of Nicaea, which sanctioned the use and veneration of sacred images.
But Leo the Armenian in 814 reversed the policy of his predecessors, and
strove to suppress the cultus of images. Recognizing
how widespread was the authority and reputation of St Theophanes, he
attempted to win him over to his side by civilities and crafty letters.
But the holy man was well armed against all the devices which could be
used to ensnare him. At the age of fifty he had begun to be grievously
afflicted with the stone and with another painful internal disease; but,
called to Constantinople by the emperor, he obeyed the call, although
he was at the time tortured by these agonizing infirmities.
Leo
sent him a message that flattered and then threatened. To this Theophanes
replied: “Being now far advanced in years and much broken with pain
and the weakness of my body, I have neither relish nor inclination for
any of those things which I despised, for Christ’s sake, in my youth. As
to my monastery and my friends, I commend them to God. If you think to
frighten me into compliance by your threats, as a child is awed by the
rod, you are only losing your pains.” The emperor sent several emissaries
to argue with him, but he remained inflexible. He was condemned to be scourged
and imprisoned, and, after receiving 300 stripes, was confined for two
years in a close and stinking dungeon, where he was left almost without
the necessaries of life, although his malady was ever increasing. At last
he was removed from prison and banished to the island of Samothrace, where
he died March 12, 817, seventeen days after his arrival, as the result of
the treatment he had endured.
He
left a Chronography or short history of the world to the year 813, starting
from A.D. 284, the date which terminated an earlier history written by
his friend George Syncellus, secretary of the patriarch St Tarasius.
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ElAnt/V4N2/gillett.html
The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor:
Byzantine and Near Eastern History AD 284-813 (transl. Cyril Mango
and Roger Scott)
The importance of the work of St Theophanes as a chronicler of Byzantine
history has led to much attention being paid to his life. The complete
biography of the saint by Methodius was edited completely for the first
time by D. Spyridon in the periodical 
vol. xii (1913).
The lives previously known seem all to be dependent on this. Moreover,
we have a panegyric delivered by his fellow monk and disciple, St Theodore
Studites, which is to be found in the Analecta Bollandiana,
vol. xxxi (1912), pp. 11—25, as well as certain letters of the
same Theodore printed in Migne, PG., vol. xcix, cc. 1197 seq. Cf. BHG., nn. 1788—1792. The Chronographia
of Theophanes has been edited by Dc Boor (1885), with a valuable
introduction. See also Pargoire in
Jules Pargoire, Saint Theophane le Chronographe et ses rapports avec saint
Theodore studite," in VizVrem, ix. (St Petersburg, 1902). vol. ix (1902),
pp. 31—102; Krumbacher, Gesch. des Byz. Literatur, pp.
342—347; and Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxi (1912),
pp. 11—25, 148—156.
His father, who
was governor of the isles of the Archipelago, died when he was only
three years old, and left him heir to a very great estate, under the guardianship
of the Iconoclast emperor, Constantine Copronymus. Amidst the dangers of
such an education, a faithful pious servant instilled into his tender mind
the most generous sentiments of virtue and religion. Being arrived at
man's estate, he was compelled by his friends to take a wife; but on the
day of his marriage, he spoke in so moving a manner to his consort on the
shortness and uncertainty of this life, that they made a mutual vow of
perpetual chastity. She afterwards became a nun, and he for his part built
two monasteries in Mysia one of which, called Megal- Agre, near the Propontis,
he governed himself.
He lived, as it were, dead to the world and the flesh, in the
greatest purity of life, and in the exercises of continual mortification
and prayer. In 787, he assisted at the second council of Nice, where
all admired to see one, whom they had formerly known in so much worldly
grandeur, now so meanly clad, so modest, and so full of self-contempt as
he appeared to be.
He never laid aside
his hair shirt; his bed was a mat, and his pillow a stone; his sustenance
was hard coarse bread and water. At fifty years of age, he began to
be grievously afflicted with the stone and nephritic colic; but bore with
cheerfulness the most excruciating pains of his distemper. The emperor Leo,
the Armenian, in 814, renewed the persecution against the church, and abolished
the use of holy images, which had been restored under Constantine and Irene.
Knowing the great reputation and authority of Theophanes, he endeavored
to gain him by civilities and crafty letters. The saint discovered the
hook concealed under his alluring baits, which did not, however, hinder
him from obeying the emperor's summons to Constantinople, though at that
time under a violent: fit of the stone; which distemper, for the remaining
part of his life, allowed him very short intervals of ease. The emperor
sent him this message. "From your mild and obliging disposition, I flatter
myself you are come to confirm my sentiments on the point in question
with your suffrage, it your readiest way for obtaining my favor, and with
that the greatest riches and honors for yourself, your monastery, and relations,
which it is in the power of an emperor to bestow. But if you refuse to comply
with my desires in this affair, you will incur my highest displeasure, and
draw misery and disgrace on yourself and friends." The holy man returned
for answer: "Being now far advanced in years, and much broken with pains
and infirmities, I have neither relish nor inclination for any of these things
which I despised for Christ's sake in my youth, when I was in a condition
to enjoy the world. As to my monastery and my friends, I recommend them to
God. If you think to frighten me into a compliance by your threats, as a
child is awed by the rod, you only lose your labor. For though unable to walk,
and subject to many other corporeal infirmities, I trust in Christ that he
will enable me to undergo, in defense of his cause, the sharpest tortures
you can inflict on my weak body." The emperor employed several persons to
endeavor to overcome his resolution, but in vain: so seeing himself vanquished
by his constancy, he confined him two years in a close stinking dungeon,
where he suffered much from his distemper and want of necessaries. He was
also cruelly scourged. having received three hundred stripes. In 818, he
was removed out of his dungeon, and banished into the isle of Samothracia,
where he died in seventeen days after his arrival, on the 12th of March.
His relics were honored by many miraculous cures. He has left us his Chronographia,
or short history from the year 824, the first of Dioclesian, where George
Syncellus left off, to the year 813. His imprisonment did not allow him
leisure to polish the style.
Theophanes the Chronicler, Abbot
(RM) (also known as Theophanes of Mt. Sigriana) Born in Constantinople;
died in Samothrace, March 12, 818. Saint Theophanes went from possessing
great wealth in his youth to great poverty. While he was still quite
young, his father died and left him a huge fortune. He was raised in the
court of Emperor Constantine V, married, but by mutual consent, he and
his wife separated so that she could become a nun and he a monk. Theophanes
built monasteries on Mount Sigriana and on the island of Kalonymos; after
six years at the latter, he became abbot of Mount Sigriana. He attended the
Council of Nicaea in 787 and when he supported the decrees of the council
approving the veneration of sacred images, he came into conflict with
Emperor Leo the Armenian, who supported iconoclasm. When Theophanes refused
to accede to the emperor's demands, he was scourged, imprisoned for two
years, and then banished to Samothrace, where he died in exile soon after
his arrival from the injuries he received in prison. He has the appellation
"the Chronicler" because he wrote a history covering the years 284-813
entitled Chronographia (Delaney, Encyclopedia).
Saint Theophanes the Confessor was born in 759 at
Constantinople into a pious and renowned family. His father was a relative
of the Byzantine emperor Leo the Isaurian (717-741). Three years after
Theophanes was born, his father died, leaving his family under the care
of the emperor himself.
Theophanes grew up at the court and
became a dignitary under the emperor Leo IV the Khazar (775-780). His
position obliged him to enter into marriage, but he persuaded his bride
to live with him in virginity.
After the death of his parents, Theophanes and his
wife visited monasteries in the Sygrian district (Asia Minor), Theophanes
met the Elder Gregory Stratitios, who predicted to Theophanes' wife
that her husband would earn the crown of martyrdom.
Later the wife of Theophanes
was tonsured a nun in one of the monasteries in Bithynia, and Theophanes
went to a monastery in the Cyzicus region. With the blessing of his Elder,
Theophanes founded the Kalonymon monastery on an island in the Sea of
Marmara and secluded himself in his cell, transcribing books. Theophanes
attained a high degree of skill in this occupation.
Later, St Theophanes founded
another monastery in Sygria, at a place called the "Big Settlement",
and became its igumen. He participated in all the work of the monastery,
and was an example to all in his love for work and ascetical effort.
He received from the Lord the gift of wonderworking, healing the sick,
and casting out demons.
The Seventh Ecumenical Council met in Nicea in 787,
which condemned the heresy of Iconoclasm. St Theophanes was also invited
to the Council. He arrived dressed in his tattered garments, but he revealed
his wisdom in affirming the veneration of the holy icons.
At the age of fifty, St Theophanes
fell grievously ill and he suffered terribly until the day he died.
Even on his deathbed, the saint continued to work. He wrote his CHRONOGRAPHIA,
a history of the Christian Church covering the years 285-813. This work
has remained an invaluable source for the history of the Church.
During the reign of the emperor Leo
the Armenian (813-820), when the saint was advanced in age, the Iconoclast
heresy returned. They demanded that St Theophanes accept the heresy,
but he firmly refused and was locked up in prison. His "Big Settlement"
monastery was put to the torch. The holy confessor died in 818 after twenty-three
days in prison.
After the death of the impious emperor Leo the Armenian,
the "Big Settlement" monastery was restored and the relics of the holy
confessor were transferred there.
|
951 ST ALPHEGE, BISHOP OF
WINCHESTER chiefly remembered
for his indirect part in the restoration of monasticism in England by
encouraging his kinsman St Dunstan to become a monk
ST ALPHEGE the Elder, or the Bald, as he is called
to distinguish him from one of his successors, St Alphege the Martyr,
is now chiefly remembered for his indirect part in the restoration of
monasticism in England by encouraging his kinsman St Dunstan to become
a monk. No doubt the bishop’s arguments sank into his mind, but it required
a dangerous illness to decide him. St Alphege, on hearing of his purpose,
was greatly rejoiced and lost no time in investing him with the habit,
and later had the joy of raising him to the priesthood. Two others were
ordained on that occasion, St Ethelwold and another monk named Ethelstan.
The spirit of prophecy came upon St Alphege, and addressing the new priests
he is reported to have said, “To-day, before God, I have laid my hands
upon three men, of whom two will attain to the grace of the episcopal order—one
in the city of Winchester and then at Canterbury, and the other will also
occupy my seat in legitimate succession later on. The third, after doing
much evil and wallowing in sensual pleasures, will come to a miserable
end.” His words were fulfilled in every particular. The good bishop’s life
was one of great holiness and he was famous for his prophetical gifts.
The Life of Dunstan by “B”, together
with the histories of William of Malmesbury and Simeon of Durham, are
the principal sources for the little we know of St Alphege, whose name
figures in two or three medieval calendars.
951 St. Alphege
Bishop prophet monk credited with helping to restore monasticism
to England called "the Elder" or "the Bald."
Also known as Elphege, he was the bishop of Winchester, England. There he
ordained St. Dunstan. A holy prophet, Alphege is credited with helping to
restore monasticism to England.
Alphege of Winchester, OSB B (RM) (also known as Elphege the
Elder or Elphege the Bald) feast day formerly April 19. Before he was
raised to the dignity of bishop of Winchester in 935, Alphege was a
monk or hermit. He persuaded many others to enter monastic life, including
his kinsman Saint Dunstan and Saint Ethelwold, both of whom he ordained
to the priesthood on the same day.
His feast is still kept at Winchester and Saint Albans (Benedictines,
Farmer).
|
1022
Simeon the New Theologian abbot successor to Saint John the Evangelist
and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus
Born in Paphlagonia, died at Constantinople, 1022.
Saint Simeon is venerated by the Orthodox Church at Constantinople,
where he was raised. He was a monk of the Studius who migrated to St.
Mamas Monastery in such of a more austere life. He become its abbot and
ruled for 25 years.
His strictness was met with animosity, so he organized
a new community. In Saint Simeon, Byzantine mysticism reached its peak;
he followed the spiritual tradition of Saint John Climacus and Saint Maximus the Confessor. Recently
his writings have generated interest among Western students (samples
can be found in E. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer's Writings from the
Philokalia (1951)). Simeon is called the "new" theologian to indicate
his place in the Orthodox Church as a successor to Saint John the Evangelist
and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (Attwater).
SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN: DIVINE LOVE OPENS US TO OTHERS
VATICAN CITY, 16 SEP 2009 (VIS) - In today's general audience,
which was held in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope focused his attention on
Symeon the New Theologian, "an Eastern monk from Asia Minor whose writings
exercised an important influence on theology and spirituality in the
East, especially as regards the experience of mystical union with God".
The Holy Father explained how Symeon was born in Galatai,
Asia Minor. He began a civilian career in the imperial service but
abandoned it in order "to follow the path of union with God" under the
guidance of Symeon the Pious in a monastery in Constantinople. He died
in the year 1022.
"Symeon focused his reflections on the presence of the
Holy Spirit in the baptised and on the awareness they must have of this
spiritual truth. Christian life, he insists, is intimate and personal
communion with God. ... True knowledge of God ... stems from a journey
of inner purification". This journey must pass through "profound penitence
and sincere suffering for ones sins in order to achieve union with Christ,
the source of joy and peace".
"This saintly Oriental monk reminds everyone to pay
great attention to spiritual life. If, in fact, we are rightly concerned
with tending to our physical, human and intellectual development, it
is even more important not to overlook our inner development which consists
in knowledge of God and communion with Him, so as to experience His help
at all times and in all circumstances".
Symeon the New Theologian "had certain proof that the
source of Christ's presence and action in a person's soul is love",
said Benedict XVI. "The love of God grows within us if we remain united
to Him through prayer and listening to His Word. Only divine love makes
us open our hearts to others and renders us sensitive to their needs,
bringing us to consider everyone as our brothers and sisters and inviting
us to respond to hatred with love and to offence with forgiveness".
Recalling then how, as a young man, Symeon "found a
spiritual director who helped him greatly and for whom he always maintained
great respect", the Pope told his audience: "This remains valid even
today, as everyone - priests, consecrated persons, lay people and especially
the young - is invited to seek the counsel of a good spiritual father,
one capable of accompanying each individual in a profound knowledge of self
and leading him or her to intimate union with the Lord, that their lives
may be increasingly moulded to the Gospel".
"To advance towards the Lord we always have need of
a guide, of some form of dialogue; we cannot do it just with our own
reflections. And finding this guide is part of the ecclesial nature
of our faith".
AG/SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN/...
VIS 090916 (480)
Saint Simeon the New Theologian was born in the
year 949 in the city of Galatea (Paphlagonia), and he was educated at
Constantinople. His father prepared him for a career at court, and
for a certain while the youth occupied a high position at the imperial
court. When he was fourteen, he met the renowned Elder Simeon the Pious
at the Studion Monastery, who would be a major influence in his spiritual
development. He remained in the world for several years preparing himself
for the monastic life under the Elder's guidance, and finally entered the
monastery at the age of twenty-seven.
St Simeon the Pious recommended
to the young man the writings of St Mark the Ascetic (March 5) and other
spiritual writers. He read these books attentively and tried to put
into practice what he read. Three points made by St Mark in his work "On
the Spiritual Law" (see Vol. I of the English PHILOKALIA) particularly
impressed him. First, you should listen to your conscience and do what
it tells you if you wish your soul to be healed (PHILOKALIA, p. 115).
Second, only by fulfilling the commandments can one obtain the activity
of the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, one who prays only with the body and without
spiritual knowledge is like the blind man who cried out, "Son of David,
have mercy upon me (Luke 18:38) (PHILOKALIA, p. 111). When the blind man
received his sight, however, he called Christ the Son of God (John 9:38).
St Simeon was wounded with a love for spiritual
beauty, and tried to acquire it. In addition to the Rule given him
by his Elder, his conscience told him to add a few more Psalms and prostrations,
and to repeat constantly, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me." Naturally,
he heeded his conscience.
During the day, he cared for the needs of people
living in the palace of Patricius. At night, his prayers grew longer
and he remained praying until midnight. Once, as he was praying in this
way, a most brilliant divine radiance descended upon him and filled the
room. He saw nothing but light all around him, and he was not even aware
of the ground beneath his feet. It seemed to him that he himself
became light. Then his mind rose upward to the heavens, and he saw a second
light brighter than the light which surrounded him. Then, on the edge of
this second light, he seemed to see St Simeon the Pious, who had given him
St Mark the Ascetic to read.
Seven years after this vision, St Simeon entered
the monastery. There he increased his fasting and vigilance, and learned
to renounce his own will.
The Enemy of our salvation stirred
up the brethren of the monastery against St Simeon, who was indifferent
to the praises or reproaches of others. Because of the increased discontent
in the monastery, St Simeon was sent to the Monastery of St Mamas in
Constantinople. There he was tonsured into the monastic schema,
and increased his spiritual struggles. He attained to a high spiritual
level, and increased his knowledge of spiritual things through reading
the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers, as well as in conversation
with holy Elders.
Around the year 980, St Simeon was made igumen of
the monastery of St Mamas and continued in this office for twenty-five
years. He repaired and restored the monastery, which had suffered
from neglect, and also brought order to the life of the monks.
The strict monastic discipline, for which St Simeon strove, led to great
dissatisfaction among the brethren. Once, after Liturgy, some of the
monks attacked him and nearly killed him. When the Patriarch of Constantinople
expelled them from the monastery and wanted to hand them over to the
civil authorities, St Simeon asked that they be treated with leniency
and be permitted to live in the world.
About the year 1005, St Simeon resigned his position
as igumen in favor of Arsenius, while he himself settled near the monastery
in peace.
There he composed his theological works, portions
of which appear in the PHILOKALIA.
The chief theme of his works
is the hidden activity of spiritual perfection, and the struggle against
the passions and sinful thoughts. He wrote instructions for monks: "Theological
and Practical Chapters," "A Treatise on the Three Methods of Prayer,"
(in Vol. IV of the English PHILOKALIA) and "A Treatise
on Faith." Moreover, St Simeon was an outstanding church poet. He also
wrote "Hymns of Divine Love," about seventy poems filled with profound
prayerful meditations.
The sublime teachings of St Simeon about the mysteries
of mental prayer and spiritual struggle have earned him the title "the
New Theologian." These teachings were not the invention of St Simeon,
but they had merely been forgotten over time. Some of these teachings
seemed unacceptable and strange to his contemporaries. This led to conflict
with Constantinople's church authorities, and St Simeon was banished from
the city. He withdrew across the Bosphorus and settled in the ancient monastery
of St Makrina.
The saint peacefully fell asleep in the Lord in
the year 1021. During his life he received the gift of working miracles.
Numerous miracles also took place after his death; one of them was the
miraculous discovery of his icon. His Life was written by his
cell-attendant and disciple, St Nicetas Stethatos.
Since March 12 falls during Great Lent, St Simeon's
Feast is transfered to October 12.
|
1092 Blessed Rusticus
of Vallumbrosa OSB Vall., Abbot (AC)
Rusticus was elected third abbot general of the Vallumbrosans
in 1076. His relics were elevated in 1200 (Benedictines).
|
1109 St. Bernard of
Carinola Bishop patron saint of Carinola died in extreme old age also
called Bernard of Capua.
Cápuæ
sancti Bernárdi, Epíscopi et Confessóris.
At Capua, St. Bernard, bishop and confessor.
He was the confessor of Duke Richard II of Capua
until appointed the bishop of Forum Claudii in 1087 by Pope Victor
III. He transferred the see to Carinola in 1100.
1109
ST BERNARD OF CAPUA, BISHOP OF CALENO
ST BERNARD OF CAPUA, of whose antecedents and early life no
records are available, became chaplain and adviser to Duke Richard II,
son of Prince Jordan of Capua. He gained the confidence of his patron so
entirely that it was said that Richard would undertake nothing without first
consulting his confessor. When the see of Foro-Claudio was vacant he
was appointed by Pope Victor III, and he soon began to consider removing
his episcopal seat. Foro-Claudio was in an exposed place— not easily defended—on
the high-road between Rome and Naples, whereas at a short distance off,
in a far better position, stood Caleno. The change was accordingly made.
On Monte Massico hard [probably “nearby”] by lay the body of the hermit
St Marcius (Martin), mention of whom is made in the Dialogues of St Gregory;
and Arachis, Duke of Benevento, came with a great retinue intending to
remove the body and to take it to Benevento. Mass was celebrated for them
in the presence of the relics, but suddenly there came an earthquake, and
the duke, interpreting this as a warning that it was not God’s will that
the body should leave the neighbourhood, returned home. Then St Bernard
and his priests went up to the mountain, and having brought the precious
treasure to their new cathedral enclosed it in the altar.
The account of this saint in the Acta Sanctorum, March,
vol. ii, is based upon certain breviary lessons cited by Ughelli and
by Michael Monachus in his Sanctuarium
Capuanum. The authority is not very satisfactory, but there
can be no doubt of St Bernard’s historical existence.
Bernard of Carinola B (RM) (also known as Bernard of Capua)
Born in Capua, Italy; died 1109. Bernard was appointed bishop of Forum
Claudii in 1087 by Pope Saint Victor III. In 1100, he transferred the
see to Carinola, Campania, Italy. He died in extreme old age and is
now venerated as the principal patron of Carinola (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
|
1253
St. Fina "Seraphina"Virgin; many miracles through her intercession
Gregory appeared to her and said, "Dear child on my festival God will
give you rest"
1253 ST FINA, OR SERAPHINA, VIRGIN
THE old town of San Geminiano in Tuscany treasures with special
veneration the memory of Santa Fina, a young girl whose claim to be
recognized as a saint lay in the perfect resignation with which she accepted
bodily suffering. She was born of parents who had seen better days but
had fallen into poverty. The child was pretty and attractive. Poor as
she was, she always kept half her food to give to those who were worse
off than herself. As far as possible she lived the life of a recluse at
home, sewing indeed and spinning during the day, but spending much of
the night in prayer. Her father seems to have died when she was still young,
and about the same time Fina was attacked by a sudden complication of
diseases. Her head, hands, eyes, feet and internal organs were affected
and paralysis supervened. She lost her good looks and became a miserable
object. Desiring to be like our Lord on the cross, for six years she lay
on a plank in one position, unable to turn or to move. Her mother had to
leave her for hours while she went out to work or to beg, but Fina never
complained. Although in terrible pain she always maintained serenity, and,
with her eyes fixed upon the crucifix, she kept on repeating, “It is not
my wounds but thine, 0 Christ, that hurt me”.
Fresh trouble befell her. Her mother died suddenly, and Fina
was left utterly destitute. Except for one devoted friend, Beldia,
she was now so neglected that it was clear she could not live long—dependent
on the casual attentions of poor neighbours who shrank from contact
with her loathsome sores. Someone had told her about St Gregory the
Great and his sufferings, and she had conceived a special veneration
for him. She used to pray that he, who was so much tried by disease,
would intercede with God that she might have patience in her affliction.
Eight days before her death, as she lay alone and untended, Gregory appeared
to her, and said, “Dear child, on my festival God will give you rest”.
And it came to pass as he had said: on March 12, 1253, she died; and the
neighbours declared that when her body was removed from the board on which
it had rested, the rotten wood was found to be covered with white violets.
All the city attended the funeral, and many miracles were reported as having
been wrought through her intercession. In particular she is said, as she
lay dead, to have raised her hand and to have clasped and healed the injured
arm of her friend Beldia. The peasants of San Geminiano still give the
name of Santa Fina’s flowers to the white violets which bloom about the
season of her feast day.
The story of St Fina is preserved
to us in the short Latin life written by the Dominican John of Geminiano,
seemingly about fifty years after the saint’s death. It is printed by
the Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum,
March, vol. ii. There is also a contemporary Italian text which may
be the original. See also A. B. C. Dunbar, Dictionary of Saintly Women, vol. i,
p.317. The obsequies of Santa Fina form the subject of one of Ghirlandajo’s
most famous pictures.
She was
known for her self denial and acts of penance as a young girl. A mysterious
illness left this beautiful girl unattractive; her eyes, feet, and hands
became deformed and eventually Seraphina was paralyzed. Her mother and
father both died while she was young. She was devoted to St. Gregory the
Great. She died on the feast of St. Gregory, exactly as she had been warned
by Gregory in a dream. Seraphina was a very helpful child around the family
home. She did many of the chores and helped her mother spin and sew.
St. Fina or Seraphina,
The old town of San Geminiano in Tuscany treasures with special veneration
the memory of Santa Fina, a young girl whose claim to be recognized
as a saint lay in the perfect resignation with which she accepted bodily
suffering. She was born of parents who had seen better days but had fallen
into poverty. The child was pretty and attractive. Poor as she was she
always kept half her food to give to those who were worse off than herself.
As far as possible she lived the life of a recluse at home, sewing indeed
and spinning during the day, ;but spending much of the night in prayer.
Her father seems to have died when she was still young and
about the same time Fina was attacked by a sudden complication of diseases.
Her head, hands, eyes, feet and internal organs were affected and paralysis
supervened. She lost her good looks and became a miserable object.
Desiring to be like our Lord on the cross, for six years she lay on
a plank in one position, unable to turn or to move. Her mother had to
leave her for hours while she went to work or beg, but Fina never complained.
Although in terrible pain she always maintained serenity and with her
eyes fixed upon the crucifix she kept on repeating,"It is not my wounds
but thine, O Christ, that hurt me".
Fresh trouble befell her. Her mother died suddenly and Fina
was left utterly destitute. Except for one devoted friend Beldia she
was now so neglected that it was clear she could not live long, dependent
on the casual attentions of poor neighbors who shrank from contact with
her loathsome sores.
Someone had told her about St. Gregory the Great and his sufferings,
and she had conceived a special veneration for him. She used to pray
that he, who was so much tried by disease would intercede with God that
she might have patience in her affliction. Eight days before her death
as she lay alone and untended, Gregory appeared to her and said, "Dear
child on my festival God will give you rest". And it came to pass when
her body was removed from the board on which it had rested, the rotten wood
was found to be covered with white violets. All the city attended the funeral
and many miracles were reported as having been wrought through her intercession.
In particular she is said as she lay dead, to have raised her hand and to
have clasped and healed the injured arm of her friend Beldia. The peasants
of San Geminiano still give the name of Santa Fina's flowers to the white
violets which bloom about the season of her feast day of March 12th.
|
1319 Blessed Justina
Bezzoli Diseases and sufferings of many kinds were cured through the
prayers of Bd Justina, and still more wonderful miracles of healing
were wrought after her death
(also known as Blessed Francuccia)
Born at Arezzo, Italy; cultus confirmed in 1890. At the age of
13, Francuccia entered the Benedictine monastery of Saint Mark in her
hometown and took the name Justina. After a time she moved to All Saints
Convent. For a time she lived as a recluse at Civitella before returning
to the community at All Saints (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
1319 BD JUSTINA OF AREZZO, VIRGIN Diseases and sufferings of
many kinds were cured through the prayers of Bd Justina, and still more
wonderful miracles of healing were wrought after her death
JUSTINA OF Arezzo, whose name in the world appears to have
been Francuccia Bizzoli, was only thirteen years old when she entered
the Benedictine convent of St Mark in Arezzo. When the nuns overflowed
into the convent of All Saints she accompanied them and continued to live
there for many years, ever advancing in the paths of holiness. Then she
left the convent with the permission of her superiors and made her way to
a cell near Civitella, where she joined a holy anchoress called Lucia.
This cell was so narrow and low that they could not both stand upright
in it. When Lucia fell ill, Justina nursed her day and night for over a
year without giving up any of her devotions and austerities. After Lucia’s
death Justina remained all alone in the cell, in spite of the wolves that
howled around and leaped on to the roof, until she developed a painful affection
of the eyes which ended in total blindness. She was then taken from the hermitage
back to Arezzo, where she and several other sisters lived in great self-abnegation
and from midnight to midday served God in unbroken prayer. Diseases and sufferings
of many kinds were cured through the prayers of Bd Justina, and still more
wonderful miracles of healing were wrought after her death. She died in 1319
and her cultus was approved in 1890 (Leo XIII 1878-1903).
All that we know of Bd Justina
is contained in the short life printed in the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii.
|
1471 Blessed Dionysius
the Carthusian a mystical writer O. Cart. (PC)
Born at Ryckel (near Loos), Flanders; At
the age of 22, Dionysius earned his doctorate at the University of Cologne.
In 1423, he entered the Carthusian Order. He excelled as a mystical
writer and on this account has been honored with the title Doctor Ecstaticus.
Though he has never been officially beatified, he is commemorated as
such in several martyrologies (Benedictines).
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1815 Bl. Joseph Tshang-ta-Pong
Martyr of China a catechist put to death for the faith He
was beatified in 1909.
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1606 BD NICHOLAS OWEN,
MARTYR saved the lives of many priests by his extraordinary
skill in devising hiding-places for them Father Garnet admitted
him to the Society of Jesus, before 1580, and he was amongst the first
English lay-brothers
PERHAPS no single person contributed more to the
preservation of the Catholic religion in England during the penal times
than a humble artisan called Nicholas Owen, who in the reign of James
I saved the lives of many priests by his extraordinary skill in devising
hiding-places for them. Nothing is known of his antecedents or early life,
but it is thought that he may have been a builder by trade. Familiarly
known as “Little John” and “Little Michael”, he also passed under the names
of Andrewes and Draper. Summarizing contemporary records Father Tanner
says of him: “A great servant of God in a diminutive body, Nicholas Odoenus,
otherwise Owen, spent eighteen years with Fathers Henri Garnet and John
Gerard in the capacity of a faithful and most useful servant.
Born in England in an age of licence, he lived a singularly innocent
life, untainted by the allurements of the world; his confessor, who
had known his conscience from his earliest childhood, solemnly asserts
that he preserved his baptismal innocence unsullied until death. With
incomparable skill he knew how to devise a place of safety for priests
in subterranean passages, to hide them between walls, and to bury them
in impenetrable recesses. But what was much more difficult of accomplishment,
he so disguised the entrances to these as to make them most unlike what
they really were. Moreover he kept these places so close a secret with
himself, that he would never disclose their existence to anyone else. He
alone was both their architect and their builder, working at them with
inexhaustible industry and labour, for generally the thickest walls had
to be broken into and large stones excavated, requiring stronger arms than
were attached to a body so diminutive as to give him the nickname of ‘Little
John’.
And by his skill many priests were preserved from the fury
of the persecutors, nor is it easy to find anyone who had not often been
indebted for his life to Owen’s hiding-places—a benefit redounding to all
Catholics, whose progress in virtue and whose access to the sacraments were
thus due to him. His unwonted success in constructing these hiding-places
would seem to have been a reward from Heaven for his remarkable piety;
for when he was about to design one, he commenced the work by receiving
the most holy Eucharist, sought to aid its progress by continual prayer,
and offered the completion of it to God alone, accepting of no other reward
for his toil than the merit of charity and the consolation of labouring
for the good of Catholics.”
When he had worked for some years in this way, Father Garnet
admitted him to the Society of Jesus, before 1580, and he was amongst
the first English lay-brothers—although, for good reasons, his connection
with the order was kept secret. He was with Father John Gerard when
they were betrayed by an unsuspected traitor and apprehended together
on St George’s day, 1594. He was imprisoned in the Counter and was subjected
to terrible tortures to force him to disclose the names of other Catholics.
He and Brother Richard Fulwood were hung up
for three hours together, with their arms fixed into iron rings, and their
bodies hanging in the air, and Owen’s suffering was increased by heavy
weights which were attached to his feet. This was the notorious “Topcliffe”
rack, which was also applied to Father Southwell. No information could
be obtained from either of the prisoners, and Nicholas was released for
a sum of money which a Catholic gentleman paid, because, as Father Gerard
testified, his services in contriving priests’ hiding-places were
indispensable to them and many others
He soon proved that he could
do more than conceal them: he could deliver them from prison. The wonderful
escape of Father Gerard from the Tower was almost certainly planned
by Owen, although it was carried out by Brothers Fulwood and Lilly, who
were less well-known to the prison authorities. Owen himself was waiting
at a fixed spot with horses. Father Gerard in his narrative says: “After
we landed… I with Richard Fulwood went to a house which Father Garnet had
in the suburbs, and there I and Little John shortly before daylight mounted
our horses which he had ready there for the purpose, and rode straight
off to Father Garnet who was then living a short distance in the country.”
Father Gerard also mentions
a narrow escape which Owen had when he had been lent by Garnet to construct
hiding-places in a new house which Gerard had taken and was about to
occupy. Suspicion had been aroused and the house was surrounded, “but
the house was so large that although they had a numerous body of followers,
they were not able to surround it entirely, nor to watch all the outlets
so narrowly but what Little John managed to make off safely”.
At length, after a faithful
service of twenty years, Owen fell once more into the hands of his enemies
together with Father Garnet and Father Oldcorne. He came voluntarily
out of the hiding-place in which he had carefully concealed them, in order
that he might be captured and, by passing for a priest, save the lives
of the fathers as more useful to the Church. He was apprehended with
Brother Ralph Ashley, the servant of Father Oldcorne. At first a “free
custody” was allowed in order that those who visited him might be watched,
but Owen’s prudence baulked the intentions of his captors. He was then
removed from the Marshalsea to the Tower of London, the keeper of which,
Wade, was possessed by a fanatical hatred of the Catholic faith. He kept
his victim suspended day after day, sometimes for six hours together,
although he was ill and suffering from a hernia, which was girt with an
iron band. Owen consistently refused to answer Wade’s questions and would
speak to God alone, invoking the aid of Jesus and Mary. In the end the
prolonged strain so extended the martyr’s body that his bowels broke in
a terrible way, the iron band assisting to tear and enlarge the wound, and
in the midst of terrible anguish Brother Nicholas passed to his eternal
reward.
Attempts were made to vilify
his memory and to attribute his death to suicide, but his courage was
too well known and the lie obtained little credence. A piece of evidence
which has only been made available of recent years is contained in a
despatch of the Venetian ambassador, Giustiniani, who on March 13, 1606,
wrote to his government as follows (the portion in square brackets is in
cypher):
I ought to
add that while the king (James) was talking to me he let fall that last night
one of the Jesuits, conscience-stricken for his sins, stabbed himself deeply
in the body twice with a knife. When the warders ran up at the noise they
found him still alive. He confessed to having taken a share in the plot at
the suggestion of his provincial (Garnet), and now, recognizing his crime, he had resolved to kill himself, and so escape the terrible
death that overhung him, as he deserved. [Public opinion, however, holds
that he died of the tortures inflicted on him, which were so severe that
they deprived him not only of his strength, but of the power to move
any part of his body, and so they think it unlikely that he should have
been able to stab himself in the body, especially with a blunt knife, as
they allege. It is thought that as he confessed nothing and is dead, they
have hoodwinked the king himself by publishing this account] in order to
rouse him and everybody to greater animosity against the Catholics and to
make the ease blacker against his companion the provincial.
King James’s statement that
Brother Owen in his dying agony “confessed to having taken a share in
the plot at the suggestion of his provincial”, is not only supremely
improbable in itself, but is refuted by the fact that not the least use
was made of this alleged confession at Garnet’s trial.
Father Gerard wrote of Brother
Owen: “I verily think no man can be said to have done more good of all
those who laboured in the English vineyard. For, first, he was the immediate
occasion of saving the lives of many hundreds of persons, both ecclesiastical
and secular, and of the estates also of these seculars, which had been
lost and forfeited many times over if the priests had been taken in their
houses of which some have escaped, not once but many times, in several
searches that have come to the same house, and sometimes five or six priests
together at the same time. Myself have been one of the seven that have
escaped that danger at one time in a secret place of his making. How many
priests then may we think this man did save by his endeavours in the space
of seventeen years in all shires and in the chiefest Catholic houses of
England!”
The most reliable
information we possess concerning Bd Nicholas Owen is to be found in
the writings of his companion and contemporary, Father John Gerard, which
are printed in The Condition of Catholics under James I,
by Fr John Morris; and see the translation of his autobiography
by Fr P. Caraman (1951). See also REPSJ., vol. iv, pp. 245—267. Giustiniani’s
despatch, which alone enables us to fix the exact date of the death of
Bd Nicholas, is printed in the Calendar of State Papers, Venetian,
vol. x, pp. 327—328.
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1922 Blessed Angela
Salawa served Christ and Christ’s little ones with all her strength
b. 1881 Angela Born in Siepraw, near Kraków, Poland,
she was the 11th child of Bartlomiej and Ewa Salawa. In 1897, she moved
to Kraków where her older sister Therese lived. Angela immediately
began to gather together and instruct young women domestic workers. During
World War I, she helped prisoners of war without regard for their nationality
or religion. The writings of Teresa of
Avila and John of the Cross
were a great comfort to her.
Angela gave great service in caring for soldiers wounded in
World War I. After 1918 her health did not permit her to exercise her
customary apostolate. Addressing herself to Christ, she wrote in her
diary, "I want you to be adored as much as you were destroyed." In another
place, she wrote, "Lord, I live by your will. I shall die when you desire;
save me because you can."
At her 1991 beatification in Kraków, Pope John Paul
II said: "It is in this city that she worked, that she suffered and
that her holiness came to maturity. While connected to the spirituality
of St. Francis, she showed an extraordinary responsiveness to the action
of the Holy Spirit" (L'Osservatore Romano, volume 34, number 4, 1991).
Comment: Humility should
never be mistaken for lack of conviction, insight or energy. Angela
brought the Good News and material assistance to some of Christ’s "least
ones." Her self-sacrifice inspired others to do the same.
Quote: Henri de Lubac, S.J.,
wrote: "The best Christians and the most vital are by no means to be
found either inevitably or even generally among the wise or the clever,
the intelligentsia or the politically-minded, or those of social consequence.
And consequently what they say does not make the headlines; what they
do does not come to the public eye. Their lives are hidden from the eyes
of the world, and if they do come to some degree of notoriety, that is
usually late in the day, and exceptional, and always attended by the risk
of distortion" (The Splendor of the Church, p. 187).
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1940 Bl. Luigi Orine
apostle of Mercy servant of poor founder
He founded the Sons of Divine Providence, the Little Missionary
Sisters of Charity, the Blind Sacramentive Sisters, and the Hermits of
St.Albert. In 1936, Don Orione, as he was called, opened a House of
Providence in Cardiff. Wales. He died at San Remo, Italy, on March 12,
and was beatified in 1980.
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2023
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.