December 1st - St. Eligius or Eloy

[Elizabeth]

Saint Eligius or Eloy
Bishop of Noyon
(† 665)

Eligius, born near Limoges in the late sixth century, was in his childhood so skilled in manual arts, that his father decided to place him as an apprentice under a silversmith of Limoges. In a few years he had no rival in the art of metalworking. His piety and virtues recommended him still more highly than his talents; his frankness, prudence, gentleness and charity were admired by all.

The king of France, Clotaire II, heard of him, sent for him, and commanded him to make a golden throne adorned with jewels. For that purpose the king provided a large quantity of gold and precious stones, and with the materials given him Eligius made not one, but two magnificent thrones. Struck by the craftsman's rare honesty and ability, as well as by the overpowering beauty of his work, the king appointed him royal goldsmith for his kingdom, and kept him in his palace. Until then, the Saint had liked luxurious surroundings, but now, touched by a particular grace, he began to live in the midst of riches as a poor disciple of Jesus Christ. His greatest pleasure was to make beautiful reliquaries for the Saints. But best of all he loved the poor, and the treasures which passed from his hands into those of the indigent could scarcely be counted. When strangers asked to see him, they were told to go to a certain street and stop at the house in front of which a crowd of beggars was waiting; that would be his house. He would wash their feet, serve them with his own hands, take the last place at table, and eat only their leftovers. When Saint Eligius had no more money, he would give away his furnishings and his very cincture, his cloak and shoes.

The friendship of the Saint with King Dagobert, successor to Clotaire II, has become legendary. One day Eligius came to the king and said to him, My prince, I have come to ask a favor of you: give me the terrain of Solignac, that I may make a ladder by which you and I can both ascend to heaven. The king willingly consented, and the Saint built a monastery. Neither one became a monk, but Saint Eligius loved to visit the religious and spend a few days with them from time to time, to be edified by their regularity.

Saint Eligius was finally obliged to accept a nomination to the episcopal see of Noyon. His life as a bishop was the continuation of his good works. He possessed the gift of miracles; he cast out demons and cured the sick by a simple word or the touch of his hand. By a special gift of God, he found the bodies of Saints long honored, but whose burial places were unknown. It is he who found the sacred remains of Saint Quentin, the illustrious martyr, those of Saint Piat at Seclin, and of Saint Lucian at Beauvais; for all of these he himself made beautiful reliquaries. He died in 665, regretted by all.

[Stone]

First Day of December

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

The Church of Rome does not keep this day as a feast of any Saint. She simply recites the Office of the Feria unless it happen that the first Sunday of Advent fall on this first day of the month, in which case, the Office of that Sunday is celebrated. But should this first day of December be a simple Feria of Advent, we will do well to begin at once our considerations upon the preparations which were made for the merciful Coming of the Saviour of the world. Four thousand years of expectation preceded that Coming, and they are expressed by the four weeks of Advent, which we must spend before we come to the glorious festivity of our Lord’s Nativity. Let us reflect upon the holy impatience of the Saints of the Old Testament, and how they handed down, from age to age, the grand hope which was to be but hope to them since they were not to see it realized.

Let us follow, in thought, the long succession of the witnesses of the promise: Adam, and the first Patriarchs, who lived before the deluge. Then, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the twelve Patriarchs of the Hebrew people. Then Moses, Samuel, David and Solomon. Then, the Prophets and the Maccabees and, at last, John the Baptist and his disciples. These are the holy ancestors of whom the book of Ecclesiasticus speaks,where it says: “Let us praise men of renown, and our fathers in their generation” (Ecclesiasticus 44:1), and of whom the Apostle thus speaks to the Hebrews: “All these being approved by the testimony of faith, received not the promise. God providing some better thing for us, that they should not be perfected without us:” their faith was tried and approved, and yet they received not the object of the promises made to them. It was for us that God had reserved the stupendous gift, and therefore did not permit them to attain the object of their desires (Hebrews 11:39-40).

Let us honour them for their faith. Let us honour them as our veritable fathers, since it was in reward of their faith that our Lord remembered and fulfilled His merciful promise. Let us honour them, too, as the ancestors of the Messiah in the flesh. We may imagine each of them saying, as he lay on his dying bed, this solemn prayer to Him who alone could conquer death: “I will look for your salvation, O Lord!” It was the exclamation of Jacob, at his last hour, when he was pronouncing his prophetic blessings on his children: “and then,” says the Scripture, “he drew up his feet upon his bed, and died, and he was gathered to his people” (Genesis 49:32).

Thus did all these holy men, in quitting this life, go to await, far from the abode of eternal light, Him who was to come in due time and re-open the gate of Heaven. Let us contemplate them in this place of expectation, and give our grateful thanks to God who has brought us to His admirable Light without requiring us to pass through a Limbo of darkness. It is our duty to pray ardently for the Coming of the Deliverer who will break down by His Cross the gates of the prison, and will fill it with the brightness of His glory. During this holy season the Church is continually borrowing the fervent expressions of these Fathers of the Christian people, making them her own prayer for the Messiah to come. Let us turn to those great Saints and beg of them to pray that our work of preparation for Jesus’ coming to our hearts may be blessed by God.

We will make use, for this end, of the beautiful hymn wherein the Greek Church celebrates the memory of all the Saints of the Old Testament, on the Sunday immediately preceding the Feast of Christmas.

HYMN FOR THE FEAST OF THE HOLY FATHERS
(Taken from the Menæa of the Greeks)

Celebrating, O ye faithful, on this day, the memory of the ancient Fathers, let us sing a new hymn to our Redeemer Christ, who magnified them in all nations, and worked incredible things in them by faith, for he is “the strong and mighty Lord. By them did he manifest to us the sceptre of his power, the unparalleled Virgin-Mother of God, the chaste Mary, from whom came the Flower that buds forth life and eternal salvation to all.

It was thou, O Lord, that didst deliver the holy Children from the furnace, and Daniel from the mouth of the lions; that didst bless Abraham, and Isaac thy servant, and Jacob his son; that didst vouchsafe to be born among us from their seed, so to save our first parents who had fallen, and to be crucified and buried; that didst break the bonds of death, and gavest resurrection to all them who had died from the beginning, and who adored, O Christ, thy eternal kingdom.

And first let us venerate Adam, who was honoured by the Creator’s hand, and was the first father of us all: who now dwells in the heavenly tabernacles, and rests amidst the holy elect.

The God and the Lord of all things received Abel, who offered his gifts with a generous heart; and took him into the heavenly light as a divine Martyr, when he was slain by the murderer’s hand.

Seth is celebrated throughout the world for his ardour towards the Creator: who saved him for his irreproachable life and this holy disposition of mind; and now, in the region of the living, he sings: Holy art thou, O Lord!

Enos, prophetically called the admirable, for his words and voice and heart, hoped in spirit in the Lord of all, and after a life spent on earth in exceeding goodness, he departed full of glory.

Let us praise, in our sacred canticles and prayers, the blessed Henoch; who, when he had pleased God, was translated to glory, and, as became so faithful a servant of God, without being overcome by death, as it is written of him.

Let us give praise to God by celebrating, with our hymns, Noah, who was just: in all things, God honoured him with his divine commands, and he was well pleasing to Christ, to whom let us sing with faith: Glory be to thy power, Lord!

God seeing thy noble heart, and the sincerity of thy mind, and how in all things thou wast perfect, O Noah, he makes thee the Father of the second world, and bids thee save from the deluge a remnant of every species of animal.

Let us in our holy hymns praise Noah, who kept the law of God without reproof, and was found just in his generation, and who, by an admirable arrangement, saved, in the wooden ark, all the brute creation.

Thy memory, O blessed Noah, fills us with the wine of compunction, which gladdens our souls and hearts, whilst we devoutly extol thy holy life and thy divine manner of acting.

Sem is worthy of our praise, who brought forth plentiful fruit from his father’s blessing, and by his meekness found favour with God, and was numbered in the choir of the Fathers, and now rests in perfect joy in the land of the living.

Abraham merited, as the friend of God, to see the day of his Creator, and was filled with the joy promised to the Fathers: him, therefore, let us honour with sincere devotion, and let us all proclaim him the blessed Abraham, God’s faithful servant.

Thou didst see, as far as it is permitted man to see, the Trinity, and thou didst make it thy guest: wherefore thou receivedst the reward of thy hospitality, and wast made the Father, in the faith, of countless nations.

Most blessed Isaac, the divine wisdom made thee the type of Jesus in his Passion, when thy fathers sublime faith led thee to the sacrifice: therefore art thou blest, and loved of God as a most faithful friend, and seated on a throne with all the just.

Of all the servants of God Jacob was the most faithful: therefore was it that he wrestled with the Angel, seeing God in spirit, and his name was changed; and as he slept, he beheld the divine ladder, on which God was leaning; it was God, assuming to himself, in his mercy, human flesh.

Joseph, when he lovingly obeyed his father, was let down into a well and sold, and was the prototype of Him that was sacrificed, and thrown down into a pit. He gave corn to Egypt and saved it; he was wise and just, and a most true king over his passions.

Job lawfully endured the combat of ceaseless temptations, and deserves to be praised; he was God’s most true servant, he was meek, and a man without guile, upright, perfect, without reproof, ever saying: Blessed art thou, O God!

Let us faithfully honour Moses, and Aaron, and Hor: let us commemorate Josue, and the most holy Levi, and Gedeon, and Samson; and let us sing: Blessed art thou, O God of our Fathers! Let us celebrate the memory of that group of Fathers so loved of God, Baruch and Nathan and Eleazar; Josias, David, Jephte, and Samuel who had the vision of what had passed, and cried out: Let every creature bless the Lord!

Let our melodies praise God’s Prophets, celebrating Osee, Micheas, Sophonias, Habacuc, Zacharias, Jonas, Aggeus, Amos, Abdias, Malachias, Nahum, Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel, Daniel, Elias, and Eliseus.

By thy power, O Lord, virtuous exploits were achieved by those magnanimous women, our sisters, Anne, Judith, Debbora, Olda, Jahel, Esther, Sara, Mary, sister of Moses, Rachel, Rebecca and Ruth.

Come all ye people, let us, with faith, give praise to the Fathers who were before the Law; let us celebrate the festive memory of Abraham and them that are with him; let us give due honour to the tribe of Juda; let us celebrate the Children who quenched the fiery furnace in Babylon, the blessed Three, the type of the Trinity, and with them Daniel; let us hold fast to the oracles of the Prophets, and with Isaias sing with a loud voice: Lo ! a Virgin shall conceive in her womb and shall bring forth a Son, Emmanuel, that is, God with us.

A RESPONSORY OF ADVENT
(The Roman Breviary, First Sunday of Advent, at Matins.)

℟. Looking afar off, lo! I see the power of God coming and a cloud that covereth the whole earth: * Go ye out to meet him and say: * Tell us, if thou be he, *Who art to rule over the people of Israel.

℣. All ye that are earthborn and children of men, both rich and poor together,

* Go ye out to meet him, and say:

℣. Give ear, thou that rulest Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep,

* Tell us if thou be he?

℣. Lift up your gates, O ye princes; and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates: and the King of Glory shall enter in.

* Who art to rule over the people of Israel.