December 20th - St. Dominic of Silos and St. Philogonius

[Elizabeth]

Saint Dominic of Silos
Abbot
(† 1073)

Saint Dominic, a Saint of the eleventh century, was given the surname of Silos because of his long sojourn in the monastery of that name. He was of the line of the ancient kings of Navarre. He undertook on his own to study his religion, having virtually no teacher but the Holy Spirit. Ordained a priest, he entered a monastery of the Order of Saint Benedict, where his sanctity soon placed him in the first ranks as its Abbot.

The monastery of Silos had greatly declined from its former glory and fervor. The monk Licinian, who was deploring this situation, was offering Holy Mass on the day when Dominic entered the church. By a special permission of God, when the priest turned towards the people at the Offertory to chant: Dominus vobiscum, he said instead: Behold, the restorer cometh! and the choir responded: It is the Lord who has sent him! The oracle was soon to be visibly fulfilled. The charity of the Saint was not concentrated only in his monastery, but was extended to all who suffered afflictions. His gift of miracles drew to the convent the blind, the sick, and the lame; and it was by the hundreds that he cured them, as is still evident today from the ex-votos of the chapel where his relics are conserved. The balls-and-chains, iron handcuffs and the like, which are seen suspended from the vault there, attest also to his special charity for the poor Christians held captive by the Spanish Moors. He often went to console them and pay their ransom, thus preluding the works of the Order of Our Lady of Ransom, founded in 1218, 145 years after his death.

After many years of good works, Dominic felt the moment of the recompense approaching, and was advised of it by the Blessed Virgin. I spent the night near the Queen of Angels, he said one day to his religious. She has invited me to come in three days where She is; therefore I am soon going to the celestial banquet to which She invites me. In effect, he fell ill for three days, and then his brethren saw his soul rise in glory to heaven.

At his tomb Saint Joan of Aza, mother of Saint Dominic of Guzman, Founder of the Order which bears his name, later obtained the birth of her son, baptized under the name of his holy patron.

Saint Philogonius
Bishop of Antioch
(† 322)

Saint Philogonius, born in Antioch in the third century, was educated for the law and appeared at the bar with great success. He was admired for his eloquence, but still more for his integrity and the sanctity of his life. This was considered a sufficient motive for dispensing with the canons which require that time be spent as a priest, before a layman can be placed in the higher echelons of the Church's hierarchy. By this dispensation Saint Philogonius was chosen to be placed at the head of the see of Antioch, following the death of its bishop in 318.

When Arius introduced his blasphemies in Alexandria in that same year of 318, Saint Alexander, Patriarch of Alexandria, condemned him and communicated the sentence in a synodal letter to Philogonius. Afterwards the bishop of Antioch strenuously defended the Catholic faith before the assembly of the Council of Nicea. In the storms which raged against the Church, caused first by the Roman emperor Maximin II and the Oriental emperor Licinius, Saint Philogonius earned the title of Confessor by his sufferings. He died in the year 322, the fifth of his episcopal dignity. We possess an excellent panegyric in his honor, composed by Saint John Chrysostom.