<![CDATA[The Catacombs

<![CDATA[The Catacombs - December]]> https://thecatacombs.org/ Sat, 02 May 2026 03:40:56 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[December 31st - St. Sylvester]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=670 Thu, 31 Dec 2020 03:06:35 +0000 Elizabeth]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=670 [Image: sly1.jpg]

Saint Sylvester
Pope and Confessor
(280-335)

Saint Sylvester was born in Rome. When he reached the age to dispose of his fortune, he took pleasure in giving hospitality to Christians passing through the city. He would take them with him, wash their feet, serve them at table, and in sum give them in the name of Christ, all the care that the most sincere charity inspired. One day Timothy of Antioch, an illustrious confessor of the Faith, arrived in Rome. No one dared receive him, but Sylvester considered it an honor. For a year Timothy, preaching Jesus Christ with unflagging zeal, received at Sylvester's dwelling the most generous hospitality. When this heroic man had won the palm of martyrdom, Sylvester took up his precious remains and buried them during the night. But he himself was soon denounced to the prefect and accused of having hidden the martyr's treasures. He replied, Timothy left to me only the heritage of his faith and courage. The governor threatened him with death and had him imprisoned, but Sylvester said to him, Senseless one, this very night it is you who will render an account to God. And the persecutor that evening swallowed a fish bone, and died in fact that night.

Fear of heavenly chastisements softened the guardians, and the brave young man was set at liberty. Sylvester's courageous acts became known to Saint Melchiad, Pope, who elevated him to the diaconate. He was a young priest when persecution of the Christians grew worse under the tyrant Diocletian. Idols were erected at the street corners, in the market-places, and over the public fountains, so that it was scarcely possible for a Christian to go abroad without being put to the test of offering sacrifice, with the alternative of apostasy or death. During this fiery trial, Sylvester strengthened the confessors and martyrs, and God preserved his life from many dangers. It was indeed he who was destined to succeed the Pope who had recognized his virtues.

His long pontificate of twenty-one years, famous for several reasons, is remembered in particular for the Council of Nicea, the Baptism of Constantine, and the triumph of the Church. Some authors would place Constantine's Baptism later, but there are numerous and serious testimonies which fix the emperor's reception into the Church under the reign of Saint Sylvester, and the Roman Breviary confirms that opinion. Constantine, while still pagan and little concerned for the Christians, whose doctrine was entirely unknown to him, was attacked by a kind of leprosy which soon covered his entire body. One night Saint Peter and Saint Paul, shining with light, appeared to him and commanded him to call for Pope Sylvester, who would cure him by giving him Baptism. In effect, the Pope instructed the royal neophyte and baptized him. Thus began the social reign of Jesus Christ: Constantine's conversion, culminating in the Edict of Milan in 313, had as its happy consequence that of the known world.]]> [Image: sly1.jpg]

Saint Sylvester
Pope and Confessor
(280-335)

Saint Sabinus and his Companions
Bishop of Spoleto and his Companions
Martyrs
(† 303)

When the cruel edicts of Diocletian and Maximin Hercules were published against the Christians in the year 303, it required more than ordinary force in the bishops and clergy, to encourage the people to undergo martyrdom rather than apostatize. All were forbidden even to draw water or grind wheat, if they would not first incense idols placed for that purpose in the markets and on street corners.

Saint Sabinus, Bishop of Spoleto, with Marcellus and Exuperantius, his deacons, and several other members of his clergy who were worthy of their sacred mandate, were apprehended in Assisi for revolt and thrown into prison by Venustianus, Governor of Etruria and Umbria. He summoned them before him a few days later and required that they adore his idol of Jupiter, richly adorned with gold. The holy bishop took up the idol and threw it down, breaking it in pieces. The prefect, furious, had his hands cut off and his deacons tortured on the rack and burnt with torches until they expired.

Saint Sabinus was put back into prison for a time. He was aided there by a Christian widow of rank, who brought her blind nephew to him there to be cured. Fifteen prisoners who witnessed this splendid miracle were converted to the Faith. The prefect left the bishop in peace for a month, because he himself was suffering from a painful eye ailment. He heard of the miracle and came to the bishop in prison with his wife and two sons, to ask him for help in his affliction. Saint Sabinus answered that if Venustianus would believe in Jesus Christ and be baptized with his wife and children, he would obtain that grace for him. The officer consented, they were baptized, and he threw into the river the pieces of his broken statue. Soon all the new converts gave their lives for having confessed the Gospel, sentenced by Lucius, whom Maximus Hercules sent to Spoleto after hearing of their decision, to judge and condemn them.

As for Saint Sabinus, he was beaten so cruelly that on December 7, 303, he expired under the blows. The charitable widow, Serena, after seeing to his honorable burial near the city, was also crowned with martyrdom. A basilica was later built at the site of the bishop's tomb, and a number of monasteries in Italy were consecrated under his illustrious name.]]>

Saint Sabinus and his Companions
Bishop of Spoleto and his Companions
Martyrs
(† 303)

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Saint Thomas Becket
Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr
(1117-1170)

Saint Thomas, son of an English nobleman, Gilbert Becket, was born on the day consecrated to the memory of Saint Thomas the Apostle, December 21, 1117, in Southwark, England. He was endowed by both nature and grace with gifts recommending him to his fellow men; and his father, certain he would one day be a great servant of Christ, confided his education to a monastery. His first employment was in the government of the London police. There he was obliged to learn the various rights of the Church and of the secular arm, but already he saw so many injustices imposed upon the clergy that he preferred to leave that employment rather than to participate in iniquity. He was perfectly chaste and truthful, and no snares could cause to waver his hatred for any form of covert action.

He was employed then by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who sent him on missions to Rome and permitted him to study civil law at the University of Bologna (Italy) for an entire year. After a few years, witnessing his perfect service, he made him his Archdeacon and endowed him with several benefices. The young cleric's virtue and force soon recommended him also to the king, who made of him his Lord Chancellor. In that high office, while inflexible in the rendition of justice, he was generous and solicitous for the relief of misery. He was severe towards himself, spending the better part of every night in prayer. He often employed a discipline, to be less subject to the revolts of the flesh against the spirit. In a war with France he won the respect of his enemies, including that of the young king Louis VII. To Saint Thomas, his own sovereign, Henry II, confided the education of the crown prince. Of the formation of the future king and the young lords who composed his suite, the Chancellor took extreme care, knowing well that the strength of a State depends largely on the early impressions received by the elite of its youth.

When Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury died, the king insisted on the consecration of Saint Thomas in his stead. Saint Thomas at first declined, warning the king that from that hour their friendship would be threatened by his own obligations to uphold the rights of the Church against infringement by the sovereign, whose tendencies were not different from those of his predecessors. In the end he was obliged by obedience to yield. The inevitable conflict was not long in coming. Saint Thomas resisted when the king's courtiers drew up a list of royal customs at Clarendon, where the parliament of the king was assembled, and Henry obliged all the bishops as well as the lords to sign a promise to uphold these without permitting any restrictions whatsoever. Many of these pretended customs violated the liberties of the Church, and some were even invented for the occasion. Saint Thomas, obliged in conscience to resist, was soon the object of persecution, not only from the irritated king but by all who had sworn loyalty to his nefarious doings.

Saint Thomas took refuge in France under the protection of the generous Louis VII, who resisted successfully the repeated efforts of Henry to turn away his favor from the Archbishop. The Pope at that time was in France, and he, too, was besieged by Henry's emissaries, but knew well how to pacify minds and protect the defender of the Church. Thomas retired to a Benedictine monastery for two years, and when Henry wrote a threatening letter to its abbot, moved to another. After six years, his office restored as the Pope's apostolic legate, a title which Henry had wrested from him for a time, he returned to England, to preach again and enforce order in his see. He knew well that it was to martyrdom that he was destined; it is related that the Mother of God appeared to him in France to foretell it to him, and that She presented him for that intention with a red chasuble. By this time the persecuted Archbishop's case was known to all of Christian Europe, which sympathized with him and elicited from king Henry an appearance of conciliation.

A few words which the capricious Henry spoke to certain courtiers who hated Thomas, sufficed for the latter to decide to do away with the prelate who contravened all their unchristian doings. They violated a monastic cloister and chapel to enter there while he was assisting at Vespers; the Saint himself prevented the monks from resisting the assassins at the door. Refusing to flee the church as the assassins summoned him to do, he was slain before the altar, by cruel and murderous repeated blows on the head. He died, saying: I die willingly, for the name of Jesus and for the defense of the Church.

The actions of the Pope in this conflict make clear what all of history teaches: the lives of the Church's Saints themselves comprise the history of the world. The humility of Thomas had prompted him, after a moment of weakness he had manifested in a difficult situation, to judge himself unfit for his office and offer his resignation as Archbishop. The Pope did not hesitate a moment in refusing his resignation. He judged with apostolic wisdom that if Thomas should be deprived of his rank for having opposed the unjust pretensions of the English royalty, no bishop would ever dare oppose the impingements of iniquity on the Church's rights, and the Spouse of Christ would be no longer sustained by marble columns, but by reeds bending in the wind.

The martyred Archbishop was canonized by Pope Alexander III on Ash Wednesday, 1173, not yet three years after his death on December 29, 1170, to the edification of the entire Church.]]> [Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3...%3DApi&f=1]

Saint Thomas Becket
Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr
(1117-1170)

Saint Thomas, son of an English nobleman, Gilbert Becket, was born on the day consecrated to the memory of Saint Thomas the Apostle, December 21, 1117, in Southwark, England. He was endowed by both nature and grace with gifts recommending him to his fellow men; and his father, certain he would one day be a great servant of Christ, confided his education to a monastery. His first employment was in the government of the London police. There he was obliged to learn the various rights of the Church and of the secular arm, but already he saw so many injustices imposed upon the clergy that he preferred to leave that employment rather than to participate in iniquity. He was perfectly chaste and truthful, and no snares could cause to waver his hatred for any form of covert action.

He was employed then by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who sent him on missions to Rome and permitted him to study civil law at the University of Bologna (Italy) for an entire year. After a few years, witnessing his perfect service, he made him his Archdeacon and endowed him with several benefices. The young cleric's virtue and force soon recommended him also to the king, who made of him his Lord Chancellor. In that high office, while inflexible in the rendition of justice, he was generous and solicitous for the relief of misery. He was severe towards himself, spending the better part of every night in prayer. He often employed a discipline, to be less subject to the revolts of the flesh against the spirit. In a war with France he won the respect of his enemies, including that of the young king Louis VII. To Saint Thomas, his own sovereign, Henry II, confided the education of the crown prince. Of the formation of the future king and the young lords who composed his suite, the Chancellor took extreme care, knowing well that the strength of a State depends largely on the early impressions received by the elite of its youth.

When Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury died, the king insisted on the consecration of Saint Thomas in his stead. Saint Thomas at first declined, warning the king that from that hour their friendship would be threatened by his own obligations to uphold the rights of the Church against infringement by the sovereign, whose tendencies were not different from those of his predecessors. In the end he was obliged by obedience to yield. The inevitable conflict was not long in coming. Saint Thomas resisted when the king's courtiers drew up a list of royal customs at Clarendon, where the parliament of the king was assembled, and Henry obliged all the bishops as well as the lords to sign a promise to uphold these without permitting any restrictions whatsoever. Many of these pretended customs violated the liberties of the Church, and some were even invented for the occasion. Saint Thomas, obliged in conscience to resist, was soon the object of persecution, not only from the irritated king but by all who had sworn loyalty to his nefarious doings.

Saint Thomas took refuge in France under the protection of the generous Louis VII, who resisted successfully the repeated efforts of Henry to turn away his favor from the Archbishop. The Pope at that time was in France, and he, too, was besieged by Henry's emissaries, but knew well how to pacify minds and protect the defender of the Church. Thomas retired to a Benedictine monastery for two years, and when Henry wrote a threatening letter to its abbot, moved to another. After six years, his office restored as the Pope's apostolic legate, a title which Henry had wrested from him for a time, he returned to England, to preach again and enforce order in his see. He knew well that it was to martyrdom that he was destined; it is related that the Mother of God appeared to him in France to foretell it to him, and that She presented him for that intention with a red chasuble. By this time the persecuted Archbishop's case was known to all of Christian Europe, which sympathized with him and elicited from king Henry an appearance of conciliation.

A few words which the capricious Henry spoke to certain courtiers who hated Thomas, sufficed for the latter to decide to do away with the prelate who contravened all their unchristian doings. They violated a monastic cloister and chapel to enter there while he was assisting at Vespers; the Saint himself prevented the monks from resisting the assassins at the door. Refusing to flee the church as the assassins summoned him to do, he was slain before the altar, by cruel and murderous repeated blows on the head. He died, saying: I die willingly, for the name of Jesus and for the defense of the Church.

The actions of the Pope in this conflict make clear what all of history teaches: the lives of the Church's Saints themselves comprise the history of the world. The humility of Thomas had prompted him, after a moment of weakness he had manifested in a difficult situation, to judge himself unfit for his office and offer his resignation as Archbishop. The Pope did not hesitate a moment in refusing his resignation. He judged with apostolic wisdom that if Thomas should be deprived of his rank for having opposed the unjust pretensions of the English royalty, no bishop would ever dare oppose the impingements of iniquity on the Church's rights, and the Spouse of Christ would be no longer sustained by marble columns, but by reeds bending in the wind.

The martyred Archbishop was canonized by Pope Alexander III on Ash Wednesday, 1173, not yet three years after his death on December 29, 1170, to the edification of the entire Church.]]> <![CDATA[December 28th - The Holy Innocents]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=651 Mon, 28 Dec 2020 02:39:33 +0000 Elizabeth]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=651 [Image: ?u=http%3A%2F%2Fd2aic5im1if5n2.cloudfron...46948521e0]

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The Holy Innocents
Martyrs at the time of the Nativity of Our Lord
(†1 A.D.)

The wily king Herod, who was reigning in Judea at the time of the birth of Our Saviour, learned from three Wise Men from the East that they had come to Jerusalem, advised by a star in the heavens, in search of the newborn King of the Jews. Herod's superstitious fear of losing his throne was awakened, and he grew troubled. He called together the chief priests, questioned them, and learned from them that the awaited Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, the city of David. He said to the strangers: When you have found Him, bring me word, that I too may go and adore Him.

The star which had guided the Magi re-appeared over Bethlehem, and they found the Infant and adored Him, and offered Him their royal gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, recognizing by these His perfect Divinity, His royalty, and His prophesied sufferings. God warned them in a dream afterwards not to go back to Herod, and they returned to their lands, rejoicing, by a different route. Saint Joseph, too, was warned during his sleep by an Angel to take the Child and His Mother and flee into Egypt, for Herod will seek the life of the Infant.

When Herod realized that the Wise Men would not return, he was furious, and in his rage ordered that every male child in Bethlehem and its vicinity, of the age of two years or less, be slain. These innocent victims were the flowers and first-fruits of the Saviour's legions of martyrs; they triumphed over the world without having ever known it or experienced its dangers.]]> [Image: ?u=http%3A%2F%2Fd2aic5im1if5n2.cloudfron...46948521e0]

The Holy Innocents
Martyrs at the time of the Nativity of Our Lord
(†1 A.D.)

The wily king Herod, who was reigning in Judea at the time of the birth of Our Saviour, learned from three Wise Men from the East that they had come to Jerusalem, advised by a star in the heavens, in search of the newborn King of the Jews. Herod's superstitious fear of losing his throne was awakened, and he grew troubled. He called together the chief priests, questioned them, and learned from them that the awaited Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, the city of David. He said to the strangers: When you have found Him, bring me word, that I too may go and adore Him.

The star which had guided the Magi re-appeared over Bethlehem, and they found the Infant and adored Him, and offered Him their royal gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, recognizing by these His perfect Divinity, His royalty, and His prophesied sufferings. God warned them in a dream afterwards not to go back to Herod, and they returned to their lands, rejoicing, by a different route. Saint Joseph, too, was warned during his sleep by an Angel to take the Child and His Mother and flee into Egypt, for Herod will seek the life of the Infant.

When Herod realized that the Wise Men would not return, he was furious, and in his rage ordered that every male child in Bethlehem and its vicinity, of the age of two years or less, be slain. These innocent victims were the flowers and first-fruits of the Saviour's legions of martyrs; they triumphed over the world without having ever known it or experienced its dangers.]]> <![CDATA[December 27th: St. John Evangelist]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=641 Sun, 27 Dec 2020 14:24:46 +0000 Stone]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=641 DECEMBER 27
SAINT JOHN, APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

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Nearest to Jesus’ Crib, after Stephen, stands John, the Apostle and Evangelist. It was only right, that the first place should be assigned to him, who so loved his God, that he shed his blood in his service; for, as this God himself declares, greater love than this hath no man, that he lay down his life for his friends [1 John, 15:13] and Martyrdom has ever been counted, by the Church, as the greatest act of love, and as having, consequently, the power of remitting sins, like a second Baptism. But, next to the sacrifice of Blood, the noblest, the bravest, and which most wins the heart of Him who is the Spouse of souls, is the sacrifice of Virginity. Now, just as St. Stephen is looked upon as the type of Martyrs, St. John is honoured as the Prince of Virgins. Martyrdom won for Stephen the Crown and palm; Virginity merited for John most singular prerogatives, which, while they show how dear to God is holy Chastity, put this Disciple among those, who, by their dignity and influence, are above the rest of men.

St. John was of the family of David, as was our Blessed Lady. He was, consequently, a relation of Jesus. This same honour belonged to St. James the Greater, his Brother; as also to St. James the Less, and St Jude, both Sons of Alpheus. When our Saint was in the prime of his youth, he left, not only his boat and nets, not only has lather Zebedee, but even his betrothed, when everything was prepared for the marriage. He followed Jesus, and never once looked back. Hence, the special love which our Lord bore him. Others were Disciples or Apostles, John was the Friend, of Jesus. The cause of this our Lord’s partiality, was, as the Church tells us in the Liturgy, that John had offered his Virginity to the Man-God. Let us, on this his Feast, enumerate the graces and privileges that came to St. John from his being The Disciple whom Jesus loved.

This very expression of the Gospel, which the Evangelist repeats several times – The Disciple whom Jesus loved [John, 13:23, 19:26, 21:7, 21:20] – says more than any commentary could do. St. Peter, it is true was chosen by our Divine Lord, to be the Head of the Apostolic College, and the Rock whereon the Church was to be built: he, then, was honoured most; but St. John was loved most. Peter was bid to love more than the rest loved, and he was able to say, in answer to Jesus’ thrice repeated question, that he did love him in this highest way: and yet, notwithstanding, John was more loved by Jesus than was Peter himself, because his Virginity deserved this special mark of honour.

Chastity of soul and body brings him who possesses it into a sacred nearness and intimacy with God. Hence it was, that at the Last Supper – that Supper, which was to be renewed on our Altars, to the end of the world, in order to cure our spiritual infirmities, and give life to our souls – John was placed near to Jesus, nay, was permitted, as the tenderly loved Disciple, to lean his head upon the Breast of the Man-God. Then it was, that he was filled, and from their very Fountain, with Light and Love: it was both a recompense and a favour, and became the source of two signal graces, which make St. John an object of special reverence to the whole Church.

Divine wisdom wishing to make known to the world the Mystery of the Word, and commit to Scripture those profound secrets, ‘which, so far, no pen of mortal had been permitted to write – the task was put upon John. Peter had been crucified, Paul had been beheaded, and the rest of the Apostles had laid down their lives in testimony of the Truths they had been sent to preach to the world; John was the only one left in the Church. Heresy had already begun its blasphemies against the Apostolic Teach ings; it refused to admit the Incarnate Word as the Son of God, Consubstantial to the Father. John was asked by the Churches to speak, and he did so in language heavenly above measure. His Divine Master had reserved to this his Virgin-Disciple the honour of writing those sublime Mysteries, which the other Apostles had been commissioned only to teach – THE WORD WAS GOD, and this WORD WAS MADE FLESH for the salvation of mankind.

Thus did our Evangelist soar, like the Eagle, up to the Divine Sun, and gaze upon Him with undazzled eye, because his heart and senses were pure, and there fore fitted for such vision of the uncreated Light. If Moses, after having conversed with God in the cloud, came from the divine interview with rays of miraculous light encircling his head: – how radiant must have been the face of St. John, which had rested on the very Heart of Jesus, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge! [Col. 2:3] how sublime his writings! how divine his teaching! Hence, the symbol of the Eagle, shown to the Prophet Ezechiel, [Ezechiel 1:10, 10:14] and to St. John himself in his Revelations, [Apoc. 4:7] has been assigned to him by the Church: and to this title of The Eagle has been added, by universal tradition, the other beautiful name of Theologian, This was the first recompense given by Jesus to his Beloved John a profound penetration into divine Mysteries. The second was the imparting to him a most ardent charity, which was equally a grace consequent upon his angelic purity, for purity unburdens the soul from grovelling egotistic affections, and raises it to a chaste and generous love. John had treasured up in his heart the Discourses of his Master: he made them known to the Church, and especially that divine one of the Last Supper, wherein Jesus had poured forth his whole Soul to his own, whom he had always tenderly loved, but most so at the end [John, 13:1]. He wrote his Epistles, and Charity is his subject: God is Charity – he that loveth not, knoweth not God – perfect Charity casteth out fear – and so on throughout, always on Love.

During the rest of his fife, even when so enfeebled by old age as not to be able to walk, he was for ever insisting upon all men loving each other, after the example of God, who had loved them and so loved them! Thus, he that had announced more clearly than the rest of the Apostles the divinity of the Incarnate Word, was by excellence the Apostle of that divine Charity, which Jesus came to enkindle upon the earth.

But, our Lord had a further gift to bestow, and it was sweetly appropriate to the Virgin-Disciple. When dying on his cross, Jesus left Mary upon this earth. Joseph had been dead now some years. Who, then, shall watch over his Mother? who is there worthy of the charge? Will Jesus send his Angels to protect and console her? – for, surely, what man could ever merit to be to her as a second Joseph? Looking down, he sees the Virgin-Disciple standing at the foot of the Cross: we know the rest, John is to be Mary’s Son – Mary is to be John’s Mother. Oh! wonderful Chastity, that wins from Jesus such an inheritance as this! Peter, says St. Peter Damian, shall have left to him the Church, the Mother of men; but John, shall receive Mary, the Mother of God, whom he will love as his own dearest Treasure, and to whom he will stand in Jesus’ stead; whilst Mary will tenderly love John, her Jesus’ Friend, as her Son.

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Can we be surprised after this, that St John is looked upon by the Church as one of her greatest glories? He is a Relative of Jesus in the flesh; he is an Apostle, a Virgin, the Friend of the Divine Spouse, the Eagle, the Theologian, the Son of Mary; he is an Evangelist, by the history he has given of the Life of his Divine Master and Friend; he is a Sacred Writer, by the three Epistles he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; he is a Prophet, by his mysterious Apocalypse, wherein are treasured the secrets of time and eternity. But, is he a Martyr? Yes, for if he did not complete his sacrifice, he drank the Chalice of Jesus [Matt. 20:22], when, after being cruelly scourged, he was thrown into a caldron of boiling oil, before the Latin Gate, at Rome. He was, therefore, a Martyr in desire and intention, though not in fact. If our Lord, wishing to prolong a life so dear to the Church, as well as to show how he loves and honours Virginity, – miraculously stayed the effects of the frightful punishment, St John had, on his part, unreservedly accepted Martyrdom.

Such is the companion of Stephen at the Crib, wherein lies our Infant Jesus. If the Protomartyr dazzles us with the robes he wears of the bright scarlet of his own blood – is not the virginal whiteness of John’s vestment fairer than the untrod snow? The spotless beauty of the Lilies of Mary’s adopted Son, and the bright vermilion of Stephen’s Roses – what is there more lovely than their union? Glory, then, be to our New-Born King, whose court is tapestried with such heaven-made colours as these! Yes, Bethlehem’s Stable is a very heaven on earth, and we have seen its transformation. First, we saw Mary and Joseph alone there – they were adoring Jesus in his Crib; then, immediately, there descended a heavenly host of Angels singing the wonderful Hymn; the Shepherds soon followed, the humble simple-hearted Shepherds; after these, entered Stephen the Crowned, and John the Beloved Disciple; and, even before there enters the pageant of the devout Magi, we shall have others coming in, and there will be, each day, grander glory in the Cave, and gladder joy in our hearts. Oh! this Birth of our Jesus! Humble as it seems, yet, how divine! What King or Emperor ever received, in his gilded cradle, honours like these shown to the Babe of Bethlehem? Let us unite our homage with that given him by these the favoured inmates of his court. Yesterday, the sight of the Palm in Stephen’s hand animated us, and we offered to our Jesus the promise of a stronger Faith: to-day, the Wreath, that decks the brow of the Beloved Disciple, breathes upon the Church the heavenly fragrance of Virginity – an intenser love of Purity must be our resolution, and our tribute to the Lamb.

MASS

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The Church commences her chants of the holy Sacrifice with words taken from the Book of Ecclesiasticus, which she applies to St. John. Our Lord has proclaimed his mysteries to the Church, by the teaching of his Beloved Disciple. He favored him with his divine intimacy, which filled him with the spirit of wisdom. He clad him with a robe of glory in reward for his virginal purity.

Introit

In medio Ecclesiæ aperuit os ejus; et implevit eum Dominus Spiritu sapientiæ et intellectus; stolam gloriæ induit eum.
Ps. Bonum est confiteri Domino, et psallere nomini tuo, Altissime.
℣. Gloria. In medio.

He opened his mouth in the midst of the Church, and the Lord filled him with the spirit of wisdom: he clad him with a robe of glory.
Ps. It is good to give praise to the Lord, and to sing to thy name, O Most High.
℣. Glory, &c. He opened.

In the Collect, the Church asks for the Light, that is, for the Word of God, of whom St. John was the propagator by his sublime writings. She aspires to the eternal possession of this Emmanuel, who is come to enlighten the world, and who has revealed to his Beloved Disciple the secrets of heaven.

Collect

Ecclesiam tuam, Domine, benignus illustra: ut beati Joannis, Apostoli tui et Evangelistæ, illuminata doctrinis, ad dona perveniat sempiterna. Per Dominum.

Mercifully, O Lord, enlighten thy Church: that being taught by blessed John, thine Apostle and Evangelist, she may come to thy eternal rewards. Through, &c.

Commemoration of Christmas Day

Concede, quæsumus, omnipotens Deus, ut nos Unigeniti tui nova per carnem nativitas ilberet, quos sub peccati jugo vetusta servitus tenet.

Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that we who groan under the old captivity of sin, may be freed therefrom by the new Birth of thine Only Begotten Son.

Commemoration of St. Stephen

Da nobis, quæsumus, Domine, imitari quod colimus: ut discamus et inimicos diligere, quia ejus natalitia celebramus, qui novit etiam pro persecutoribus exorare Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum. Qui tecum.

Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that we may imitate him whose memory we celebrate, so as to learn to love even our enemies, because we now solemnize his martyrdom who knew how to pray, even for his persecutors, to our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son. Who liveth, &c.

Epistle

Lesson from the Book of Wisdom. Ecclus ch. xv.

He that feareth God, will do good: and he that possesseth justice, shall lay hold on her, And she will meet him as an honourable mother, and will receive him as a wife married of a virgin. With the bread of life and understanding, she shall feed him, and give him the water of wholesome wisdom to drink: and she shall be made strong in him, and he shall not be moved: And she shall hold him fast, and he shall not be confounded: and she shall exalt him among his neighbours. And in the midst of the church she shall open his mouth, and shall fill him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and shall clothe him with a robe of glory. She shall heap upon him a treasure of joy and gladness, and shall cause him to inherit an everlasting name.

Quote:The Wisdom here spoken of, is Jesus the Eternal Word, who came to St. John and called him to the Apostolate. The Bread of life wherewith she fed him is the divine Bread of the Last Supper, the Body and Blood of Jesus; the wholesome Water is that promised by our Savior to the Samaritan Woman, and of which St. John drank so abundantly from its very source, when he rested his head on the Heart of Jesus. The immovable Strength is the Saint’s close and resolute custody of the treasure of his Virginity, and the courageous profession of the religion of Christ before the Proconsuls of Domitian. The Treasure which Wisdom heaped upon him is the magnificence of the prerogatives granted to him. Lastly, the everlasting Name is that glorious title given him of John the Beloved Disciple.

Gradual

Exiit sermo inter fratres, quod disciplus ille non moriter; et non dixit Jesus: Non moritur;
℣. Sed: Sic eu ovlo manere, donec veniam; tu me sequere.

A report was spread among the brethren, that that Disciple should not die; but Jesus said not: He should not die;
℣. But: So I will have him remain till I come; follow thou me.

Alleluia, alleluia.
℣. Hic est discipulus ille, qui testimonium perhibet de his; et scimus quia verum est testimonium ejus. Alleluia.

Alleluia, alleluia.
℣. This is the Disciple that beareth testimony of these things; and we know his testimony is true. Alleluia.

Gospel

Sequel of the holy Gospel according to St. John. Ch. xxi.

At that time: Jesus said to Peter: Follow me. Peter turning about, saw that disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also leaned on his breast at supper, and said: Lord, who is he that shall betray thee? Him therefore when Peter had seen, he saith to Jesus: Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith to him: So I will have him to remain till I come, what is it to thee? follow thou me. This saying therefore went abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die. And Jesus did not say to him: He should not die; but, So I will have him to remain till I come, what is it to thee? This is that disciple who giveth testimony of these things, and hath written these things; and we know that his testimony is true.

Quote:This passage of the holy Gospel has been much commented upon. Some of the Fathers and Commentators interpret it as signifying that St. John was to be exempt from death, and that he is still living in the flesh, awaiting the coming of the Judge of the living and the dead. It is certain that this opinion regarding our Apostle has been entertained; and one of the arguments in its favor was this passage. But the general opinion of the Holy Fathers is that nothing further is implied by it than the difference between the two vocations of St. Peter and St. John. The former shall follow his divine Master by dying, like him, on the cross; the latter shall remain—he shall live to a venerable old age—and at length, Jesus shall come and take him out of this world by sending him a sweet and peaceful death.

During the Offertory, the Church makes a remembrance of the flourishing Palms which grew up around the Beloved Disciple; she tells us of the all the spiritual children he had trained, and of the Churches he had founded; all which, like young cedars round the venerable parent-tree on Libanus, multiplied under the fostering care of their Father.

Offertory

Justus ut palma florebit; sicut cedrus, quæ in Libano est muliplicabitur.

The just shall flourish, like the palm tree; he shall grow up like the cedar of Libanus.

Secret

Suscipe, Domine, munera quæ in ejus tibi solemnitate deferimus, cujus nos confidimus patrocinio liberari. Per Dominum.

Receive, O Lord, the offerings we make to thee, on this feast, by whose intercession we hope to be delivered. Through, &c.

Commemoration of Christmas Day

Oblata, Domine, munera, nova Unigeniti tui nativitate sanctifica: nosque a peccatorum nostrorum maculis emunda.

Sanctify, O Lord, our offerings by the new Birth of thine Only Begotten Son, and cleanse us from the stains of our sins.

Commemoration of St. Stephen

Suscipe, Domine, munera, pro tuorum commemoratione Sanctorum; ut sicut illos passio gloriosos effecit, ita nos devotio reddat innocuos. Per Dominum.

Receive, O Lord, these offerings in memory of thy Saint; and as their sufferings have made them glorious, so may our devotion render us free from sin. Through, &c.

The Preface, as in “Season of Christmas”: but on the Octave Day it is as below:

Preface

For the Octave Day

Vere dignum et justum est æquum et salutare, te Domine suppliciter exorare, ut gregem tuum, Pastor æterne, non deseras, sed per beatos Apostolos tuos continua protections custodias. Ut iisdem rectoribus gubernetur, quos operis tui vicarios eidem contulisti præesse Pastores. Et ideo cum Angelis et Archangelis, cum Thronis et Dominationibus, cumque omni militia cœlestis exercitus, hymnum gloriæ tuæ canimus, sine fine dicentes: Sanctus, &c.

It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, humbly to beseech thee, that thou, O Lord, our eternal Shepherd, wouldst not forsake thy flock, but keep it under thy continual protection, by thy blessed Apostles. That it may be governed by those whom thou hast appointed its vicars and pastors. And therefore with the Angels and Archangels, with the Thrones and Dominations, and with all the heavenly host, we sing an everlasting hymn to thy glory, saying: Holy, &c.

The mysterious words of the Gospel are repeated in the Communion, that is, at the moment when Priest and people have partaken of the Victim of salvation, they convey this teaching—that he who eats of this Bread, though he must die the death of the body, will yet live for the coming of the supreme Judge and Rewarder.

Communion

Exiit sermo inter fratres quod disciplus ille non moritur. Et non dixit Jesus: Non moritur; sed: Sic eum volo manere donec veniam.

A report was spread among the brethren, that that disciple should not die. But Jesus said not: He should not die; but: So will I that he remain till I come.

Postcommunion

Refecti cibo potuque cœlesti, Deus noster, te supplices deprecamur; ut in cujus hæc commemoratione percepimus, ejus muniamur et precibus. Per Dominum.

Being refreshed, O Lord, with this heavenly meat and drink, we humbly beseech thee, that we may be assisted by his prayers, on whose feast we have received these sacred mysteries. Through, &c.

Commemoration of Christmas Day

Præsta, quæsumus, omnipotens Deus: ut natus hodie Salvator mundi, sicut divinæ nobis generationis est auctor, ita et immortalitatis sit ipse largitor.

Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that as the Savior of the world, who was born this day, procured for us a divine birth, he may, also, bestow on us immortality.

Commemoration of St. Stephen

Auxilientur nobis, Domine, sumpta mysteria; et intercedente beato Stephano, Martyre tuo, sempiterna protectione confirment. Per Dominum.

May the mysteries we have received, O Lord, be a help to us; and, by the intercession of the blessed Martyr Stephen, strengthen us with thy perpetual protection. Through, &c.

† † †

VESPERS

The Antiphons and Psalms are sung as yesterday, the Feast of St. Stephen: they are given in page 234. After the last Psalm, the Office of St. John is resumed, commencing as follows:

CAPITULUM
(Ecclus. XV.)

Qui timet Deum, faciet bona: et qui continens est justitiae, apprehendet illam, et obviabit illi quasi mater honorificata.

He that feareth God, will do good: and he that possesseth justice, shall lay hold on her, and she shall meet him as an honourable mother.

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HYMN

Let the earth exult with joy: let the heavens re-echo with praise: the glory of the Apostles is sung by both earth and heaven.

O ye, the Judges of the world, and the true Lights of the earth! we pray to you with all earnestness of heart: hear the prayers of your clients.

’Tis ye that have power, by your word, to shut and open the gates of heaven: we beseech you, loosen us from the bonds of sin.

Sickness and health promptly do your bidding; on! heal our languid souls, bring us growth in virtue;

That so, when Jesus, our judge, shall come again at the end of the world, he may grant us to be partakers of never-ending bliss.

Glory be to thee, O Jesus, that wast born of the Virgin! and to the Father, and to the Spirit of love, for everlasting ages. Amen.

℣. Valde honorandus est beatus Joannes.
℟. Qui supra pectus Domini in coena recubuit.

℣. Most worthy of honour is the blessed John.
℟. Who leaned upon the Lord’s breast at the supper.

ANTIPHON OF THE MAGNIFICAT

Ant. Exiit sermo inter fratres, quod discipulus ille non moritur: et non dixit Jesus: Non moritur; sed: Sic eum volo manere donec veniam.

OREMUS.

Ecclesiam tuam, Domine, benignus illustra, ut beati Joannis Apostoli tui et Evangelistae illuminata doctrinis, ad dona perveniat sempiterna. Per Dominum.

Ant. There went abroad among the brethren this saying, that that disciple should not die: and Jesus did not say to him: He should not die; but: So I will have him to remain till I come.

LET US PRAY

Mercifully, O Lord, enlighten thy Church: that being taught by blessed John, thine Apostle and Evangelist, she may come to thy eternal rewards. Through,& c.

Commemoration of the Holy Innocents

Ant. Hi sunt, qui cum mulieribus non sunt coinquinati: virgines enim sunt, et sequuntur Agnum quocumque ierit.
℣. Herodes iratus occidit multos pueros.
℟. In Bethlehem Judae, civitate David.
OREMUS.
Deus cujus hodierna die praeconium Innocentes martyres non loquendo, sed moriendo confessi sunt, omnia in nobis vitiorum mala mortifica: ut fidem tuam, quam lingua nostra loquitur, etiam moribus vita fateatur.

Ant. These are they who were not defiled with women: for they are virgins, and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.

℣. Herod, being angry, killed many children.
℟. In Bethlehem of Juda, the city of David.

LET US PRAY.
O God, whose praise the holy Martyrs, the Innocents, published this day, not by speaking, but by dying; mortify in us all our vicious inclinations: that we may show forth in our actions, thy faith,
which we profess with our lips.

Commemoration of Christmas Day

Ant. Hodie Christus natus est: hodie Salvator apparuit: hodie in terra canunt Angeli, laetantur Archangeli: hodie exsultant justi, dicentes: Gloria in excelsis Deo. Alleluia.

℣. Notum fecit Dominus, alleluia.
℟. Salutare suum, alleluia.
OREMUS.
Concede, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus, ut nos Unigeniti tui nova per carnem Nativitas liberet, quos sub peccati jugo vetusta servitus tenet.

Ant. This day, Christ is born; this day, the Saviour hath appeared; this day, the Angels sing on earth; the Archangels rejoice; this day, the just exult, saying: Glory be to God in the highest, alleluia.

℣. The Lord hath made known, alleluia.
℟. His salvation, alleluia.

LET US PRAY.
Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that we who groan under the old captivity of sin, maybe freed therefrom by the new Birth of thine Only Begotten Son.

Commemoration of St Stephen

Ant. Sepelierunt Stephanum viri timorati, et fecerunt planctum magnum super eum.
℣. Stephanus vidit coelos apertos.
℟. Vidit et introivit: beatus homo cui coeli patebant.
OREMUS.
Da nobis, quaesumus. Domine imitari quod colimus, ut discamus et inimicos diligere: quia ejus natalitia celebramus, qui novit etiam pro persecutoribus exorare Dominum nostrum Jesum
Christum, Filium tuum, Qui tecum.

Ant. Devout men buried Stephen, and made great mourning over him.
℣. Stephen saw the heavens opened.
℟. He saw and entered: blessed man, to whom the heavens opened.
LET US PRAY.
Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that we may imitate him whose memory we celebrate, so as to learn to love even our enemies, because we now solemnise his martyrdom who knew how to pray, even for his enemies, to our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, Who liveth, &c.

† † †

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Now let us listen to the several Churches, proclaiming, in their liturgical praises, the glory of St, John. We begin with the Church of Rome, from which we take this beautiful Preface of the
Leonian Sacramentary.

PREFACE

Vere dignum et justum est, aequum et salutare, nos tibi gratias agere. Pater omnipotens, beati Apostoli tui Joannis Evangelistae natalitia venerantes. Qui Domini nostri Jesu Christi Filii tui vocatione suscepta, terrenum respuit patrem, ut posset invenire coelestem: retia saeculi, quibus implicabatur, abjecit, ut aeternitatis dona mente libera sectaretur: nutantem fluctibus navem reliquit, ut in ecclesiasticae gubernationis tranquilliate consisteret: a piscium captione cessavit, ut animas mundanis gurgitibus immersas, calamo doctrinae salutaris abstraheret: destitit pelagi profundari mari, secretorum scrutator redditus divinorum. Eo usque procedens, ut et in coenae mysticae sacrosancto convivio in ipsius recumberet pectore Salvatoris; et eum in cruce Dominus constitutus, vicarium sui, Matri Virgini Filium subrogaret, et in principio Verbum, quod Deus erat apud Deum, prae caeteris ostenderet praedicandum.

It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that we should give thanks to thee, O Almighty Father! now that we are celebrating the Feast of thy blessed Apostle, John the Evangelist. Having received the vocation of our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, he left his earthly father, that he might find one in heaven. He threw down the nets of this world, wherein he was entangled, that he might, with a free soul, pursue the goods that are eternal He abandoned his boat, which was ever tossing on the waves, that he might calmly steer a spiritual bark in the Church. He gave up his trade of fishing, that, by the hook of saving doctrine, he might draw out souls ingulfed in the surges of the world. He ceased his searching in the deep waters of the sea, that he might be made worthy to penetrate into secrets divine. Even thus was he favoured – he leaned his head on the Saviour’s breast, in the most holy banquet of the mystic supper; our Lord, when hanging on the cross, gave him to the Virgin-Mother to be her Son in His own stead; and it was he, above all others, that showed how this was to be preached: In the beginning was the Word, who was God with God.

The Church of Milan, in her Ambrosian Missal, thus sings forth the praises of the Beloved Disciple:

Vere dignum et justum est, aequum et salutare, nos tibi gratias agere, aeterne Deus: beati Joannis Evangelistae merita recolentes, quem Dominus Jesus Christus non solum peculiari semper decore ornavit; sed et in cruce positus, tamquam haereditario munere prosecutus, vicarium pro se Matri Filium clementer attribuit. Quem ad eum usque dignitatis gradum divina benignitas evexit, ut et fac tus ex piscatore Discipulus, et humanae dispensationis modum excedens, ipsam Verbi tui sine initio Deitatem prae caeteris et mente conspiceret, et voce perferret.

It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation , that we should give thanks to thee, O Eternal God! whilst celebrating the merits of blessed John the Evangelist, whom our Lord Jesus Christ not only adorned with every peculiar grace, but to whom also, he, when fastened to the cross, lovingly granted, as though it were the gift of inheritance, to take his own place and be the Son of Mary. Even unto this grade of honour did thy divine goodness raise him, that being changed from a fisher man into a Disciple, and, in the dispensing thy Truth, going beyond the measure of other men – he, above all others, both saw and preached the very Divinity of thy Eternal Word.

The Mozarabic Missal has the following prayer to our holy Apostle and Evangelist:

PRAYER

O Son of God! Begotten of the Unbegotten infinite God! who didst open the sacred treasury of thy Breast to thine Apostle, when he, reclining on thy Bosom, merited to drink in, from the very fountain of thy Heart, the streams of his own Gospel: look upon us with an eye of pity, that so, by thee, we may know thy mysteries, and do the good thou hast manifested unto us. Reveal unto us the hidden things of thy Heart, whereby we may be taught both the weakness of our own nature, and the Divinity which is thine. Show us thyself, that we may love thee; show us in ourselves what we must correct. That thus, by the prayers of thy beloved Disciple, our evil ways being converted, pestilence may flee from us, sickness disappear, and the sword be sheathed. May all that is adverse to Christian faith perish; may all that prospers it, be strengthened. May famines cease, may dissensions be appeased, may the upholders of heresy be confounded. May the earth be pregnant with fruits, our souls he clad with virtues, and all good things come unto us all. That thus, faithfully serving thee our God, we may both use these gifts without sin, and, hereafter, enjoy the bliss of possessing thee for eternity. Amen.

The following Hymn, which we have taken from the Milan Liturgy, is attributed to St. Ambrose; it certainly bears a resemblance to his style – sublime thoughts, majestically told.

HYMN

John – the honoured loved- one of Jesus, and named by Him the Son of Thunder – revealed in sacred words, the hidden things of God.He was a fisherman, and supported his aged parent by his toil:

whilst sailing on the troubled waves, he received the faith, and firmly did he hold to it.
He throws his hook into the deep, and takes the Word of God; he lets down his nets into the waters, he draws in Him who is the Light of the world.

His fervent Faith is the good Fish which swam through the briny flood of this world; it rested on the Breast of Christ, and thus spoke in the Holy Spirit:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.”

“All things were made by Him.” Then, let us sing the praises of this Disciple, and since he bears the laurels of the Spirit, let his writings be his crown.

Martyrdom has been granted to many, and this shedding of their own blood purifies them from every sin; our John did what was better than Martyrdom – he taught to the world that which made the Martyrs.

Yet we are told, that he was bound by wicked men, and plunged into boiling oil; it did but cleanse him from this world’s dust, and give him victory over the enemy.

Glory be to thee, O Lord, that wast born of the Virgin! and to the Father, and to the Holy Ghost, for everlasting ages. Amen.

We will now give a few stanzas from the Hymns which the Greek Church, in her accustomed pomp of language, sings in honour of St. John. She keeps his Feast on the 26th September.

(XXVI. Septembris, in magno Vespertino, et passim.)

Come, ye Faithful, let us this day crown with sacred hymns the glorious and Beloved John, an abyss of wisdom, and the writer of orthodox dogmas: for it was he that uttered. In the beginning was the Word. Therefore did he appear as with the voice of thunder, enlightening the world with his Gospel – he the exceeding wise and world-wide famed Disciple.Thou wast truly and manifestly the great bosom-friend of Jesus thy Master; for thou didst recline upon his Breast, imbibing thence the dogmas of wisdom, wherewith, as God’s sublime herald, thou enrichest the earth’s circuit, and which the glad Church of Christ, now possessing it, exultingly honours.

Rejoice, thou true Theologian! rejoice, thou most amiable Son of our Lord’s Mother! for, when standing nigh the Cross of Jesus, thou didst hear his divine voice saying unto thee: Behold now thy Mother. Therefore do we all bless thee, as the great and Beloved Apostle of Christ.

The contemplator of ineffable revelations, the interpreter of God’s most high mysteries, the son of Zebedee, wrote us the Gospel of Christ, and thereby taught us how to speak theologically of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

This heaven-hymned Harp attuned by God, this mystic writer, this mouth that speaks divine things, is now sweetly- singing the Canticle of Canticles, and prays for our salvation.

Let us, O ye mortals! proclaim his many praises:- John, the Son of thunder – the source of divine language – the Prince of Theology – the first preacher of true wisdom’s dogmas – the Beloved and Virgin-Disciple.

The streams of Theology gushed from thy venerable lips, O Apostle! the Church of God has drunk them in, O teacher of truth! and adores the consubstantial Trinity. O holy Theologian John! now pray that our souls may be unwavering and saved.

The flower of purity, the fragrant perfume, breathes upon this day’s feast; let us, therefore, pray to him: Blessed Apostle John! who didst recline upon Jesus’ Breast! who didst pour out The Word upon the earth; who didst guard the Virgin as the apple of thine eye! Oh! ask Jesus to show his great mercy unto us.

Come, ye faithful! let us bless the most renowned John, the exalted one among the Apostles, the trumpet of theology, the spiritual guide – he that brought the world into subjection to God – he that was raised above the earth, not taken away from it, and is living and awaiting the dread second coming of our Lord. O thou the mystic Friend of Christ, that didst lovingly lean upon his Breast, help us, who celebrate thy memory, help us by thy prayers to present ourselves guiltless before our judge.

As usual, we will close these liturgical praises of our dear Saint, by a Prose of the Western Churches in the Middle-Ages, which we have taken from the collection of the Monastery of Saint Gal. It was composed by the Blessed Notker, and was for centuries in the Roman-French Missals.

SEQUENCE

O John! the dearly Beloved Virgin-Disciple of Jesus!
For love of Him, thou didst leave thy father Zebedee and his boat.

Thou didst disdain the caresses of thy young betrothed, and didst follow the Messias,
That thou mightest merit to drink at the sacred fount of his Heart.

Thou, too, when on this earth, didst behold the transfiguration of the Son of God,
Which vision, as we are taught, is not granted save to the Saints in life eternal.

Jesus, when conquering on his cross, entrusted his Mother to thy keeping;
That thou, a Virgin, mightest protect and care for the Virgin, in His stead.

Imprisoned and torn by scourges, thou didst rejoice – for it was thy bearing testimony to Christ.
Thou, too, raisest the dead to life, and, in the name of Jesus, breakest the poison’s power.

To thee, above the rest; the Almighty Father reveals his own embosomed Word.
Do thou ever commend us all to God, by unwearied intercession, O John, Disciple dear to Christ!
Amen.

† † †

Beloved Disciple of the Babe of Bethlehem! – how great is thy happiness! how wonderful is the reward given to thy love and thy purity! In thee was fulfilled that word of thy Master: Blessed are the dean of heart; for they shall see God. Not only didst thou see this God-Man – thou wast his Friend, and on his Bosom didst rest thy head. John the Baptist trembles at having to bend the head of Jesus under the water of Jordan; Magdalene, though assured by his own lips that her pardon was perfect as her love, yet dares not raise her head, but keeps clinging to his feet; Thomas scarce presumes to obey him when he bids him put his finger into his wounded Side; – and thou, in the presence of all the Apostles, sittest close to Him, leaning thy head upon his Breast! Nor is it only Jesus in his Humanity that thou seest and possessest; but, because thy heart is pure, thou soarest, like an eagle, up to the Sun of Justice, and fixest thine eye upon him in the light inaccessible, wherein he dwelleth eternally with the Father and the Holy Ghost.

Thus was rewarded the fidelity wherewith thou didst keep intact for Jesus the precious treasure of thy Purity. And now, O worthy favourite of the great King! forget not us poor sinners. We believe and confess the Divinity of the Incarnate Word, whom thou hast evangelised unto us; but we desire to draw nigh to him during this holy season, now that he shows himself so desirous of our company, so humble, so full of love, so dear a Child, and so poor! Alas! our sins keep us back; our heart is not pure like thine; we have need of a Patron to introduce us to our Master’s Crib! [Isai. 1:3] Thou, O Beloved Disciple of the Emmanuel! thou must procure us this happiness. Thou hast shown us the Divinity of the Word in the bosom of the Eternal Father; lead us now to this same Word made flesh. Under thy patronage, Jesus will permit us to enter into the Stable, to stand near his Crib, to see with our eyes, and touch with our hands [1 John 1:1], this sweet Fruit of eternal Life. May it be granted us to contemplate the sweet Face of Him, that is our Saviour and thy Friend; to feel the throbs of that Heart, which loves both thee and us – and which thou didst see wounded by the Spear, on Calvary. It is good for us to fix ourselves here near the Crib of our Jesus, and share in the graces he there lavishes, and learn, as thou didst, the grand lesson of this Child’s simplicity; – thy prayers must get us all this.

Then too, as Son and Guardian of Mary, thou hast to present us to thine own and our Mother. Ask her to give us somewhat of the tender love wherewith she watches over the Crib of her Divine Son; to see in us the Brothers of that Child she bore; and to admit us to a share of the maternal affection she had for thee, the favoured confidant of the secrets of her Jesus.

We also pray to thee, O holy Apostle! for the Church of God. She was planted and watered by thy labours, embalmed with the celestial fragrance of thy virtues, and illumined by thy sublime teachings; – pray now, that these graces may bring forth their fruit, and that, to the end of her pilgrimage, faith may be firm, the love of Jesus fervent, and christian morals pure and holy. Thou tellest us, in thy Gospel, of a saying of thy Divine Master: I will not now call you my Servants, but my Friends [John 15:15]: pray, dear Saint, that there may come to this, from our hearts and lips, a response of love and courage, telling our Emmanuel, that, like thyself, we will follow him whithersoever he leads us.

Let us, on this second day after our Divine Infant’s Birth, meditate upon the Sleep he deigns to take. Let us consider how this God of all goodness, who has come down from heaven to invite his creature man to come to him and seek rest for his soul – seeks rest himself in our earthly home, and sanctifies, by his own divine Sleep, that rest, which to us is a necessity. We have just been dwelling, with delighted devotion, on the thought of his offering his Breast as a resting-place for the Beloved Disciple, and for all souls that imitate John in their love and devotedness: now, let us look at this our God, sweetly sleeping in his humble Crib, or on his Mother’s lap.

† † †

St. Alphonsus Liguori, in one of his delicious Canticles, thus describes the Sleep of Jesus and the enraptured love of the Mother (Translation by the Very Rev. R.A. Coffin.):

Mary sings – the ravish’d heavens
Hush the music of their spheres;
Soft her voice, her beauty fairer
Than the glancing stars appears:
While to Jesus slumbering nigh.

Thus she sings her lullaby.
Sleep my Babe! my God! my Treasure!

Gently sleep: but ah! the sight
With its beauty so transports me,
I am dying of delight:
Thou canst not thy Mother see,
Yet thou breathest flames to me.

If within your lids unfolded,
Slumbering eyes! you seem so fair;
When upon my gaze you open,
How shall I your beauty bear?

Ah! I tremble when you wake,
Lest my heart with love should break.
Cheeks than sweetest roses sweeter.
Mouth where lurks a smile divine –
Though the kiss my Babe should waken,
I must press those lips to mine.

Pardon, Dearest, if I say,
Mother’s love will take no nay.
As she ceased, the gentle Virgin
Clasped the Infant to her breast.

And upon his radiant forehead
Many a loving kiss impress’d:
Jesus woke, and on her face
Fixed a look of heavenly grace.

Ah! that look, those eyes, that beauty.
How they pierce the Mother’s heart;
Shafts of love from every feature
Through her gentle bosom dart
Heart of stone! can I behold
Mary’s love, and still be cold?

Where, my soul! thy sense, thy reason?
When will these delays be o’er?
All things else, how fair so ever.
Are but smoke:- resist no more!

Yes! ’tis done! I yield my arms
Captive to those double charms.
If, alas, O heavenly beauty!

Now so late those charms I learn.
Now at least, and ever, ever,
With thy love my heart will burn
For the Mother and the Child,
Rose and Lily undefiled.

Plant and fruit, and fruit and blossom,
I am theirs, and they are mine;
For no other prize I labour,
For no other bliss I pine;
Love can every pain requite,
Love alone is full delight.

Let us, then, adore the Divine Babe in this state of Sleep, to which he voluntarily subjects himself, and contrast it with the cruel fatigue, which are one day to be His when he is grown up, and come to the age of manhood, he will go through every toil and suffering in search of us his Lost Sheep. But these first slumbers shall not be troubled by any- thing of ours, which could pain this losing wakeful Heart; and the Blessed Mother shall not be disturbed in the blissful contemplation of her Sleeping Child, over whom she is, at a future time, to shed such bitter tears. The day is not far distant, when he will say: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head [Matt. 8:20].

Quote:
“Christ has had three resting-places,” says Peter of Celles. “The first was in the Bosom of his Eternal Father. He says: I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? [John, 14:11]. What repose could be compared to this, of the Father’s complacency in the Son, and the Son’s complacency in the Father? It is a mutual and ineffable love, and they are happy in the union. But, whilst maintaining this place of his eternal rest, the Son of God has sought a second, in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He overshadowed her with the Holy Ghost, and slept a long sleep in her chaste womb, whilst his Body was there being formed. The holy Virgin troubled not the sleep of her Child: she kept all the powers of her soul in a silence like that of heaven; and, rapt in self-contemplation, she heard mysteries which it is not permitted to man to utter. The third resting-place of Christ is in man. Jesus dwells in a heart that is purified by faith, enlarged by charity, raised above Earth by contemplation, and is renewed by the Holy Ghost. Such a heart as this offers to Jesus not an earthly but a heavenly dwelling; and the Child, who is born unto us, will not refuse to enter it, and take his rest within it.” [Fourth Sermon On our Lord’s Nativity.]

To this Eternal Word, made Flesh for our salvation, let us offer up this Hymn of our great ecclesiastical Poet, Prudentius.

HYMN

Born from the bosom of the Father before the world began, his name is Alpha and Omega. He is the beginning and end of all things present, past, and future.He commanded and they were created, he spoke and they were made: earth, heaven, and sea – the triple kingdom – and all things that are in them, under the sun and moon.

He clothes himself with a frail Body, and with members subject to death; lest the human race, the offspring of Adam, should perish together with their first Parent, whom a terrible sentence had condemned to the depth of hell.

O that happy Birth, when a Virgin-Mother, having conceived of the Holy Ghost, brought forth the Child that was our salvation ‘, and the Babe, the Redeemer of the world, showed unto us his divine Face!
Let high heaven sing, and sing all ye Angels! Let every living creature sing to the praise of God! Let every tongue proclaim it, and every voice join in the hymn of praise.

Behold the Promised Messias, of whom sang the Seers in the ancient times, and whom the Prophets foretold in their truthful oracles! Praise be to him from every creature.

May the aged, and the young, and children, mothers, and virgins, and innocent maidens, sing to thee, O Jesus! and with concordant voice chastely hymn thy praise!
May the flowing river and the sea-shore wave, rain and heat, snow and frost forest and zephyr, day and night, for ever and for ever give thee praise. Amen.

† † †

Let us now honour and invoke the ever Blessed and most Merciful Mother of our God, and use the words of this beautiful Hymn of the ancient Roman-French Missals:

HYMN

Rejoice, O Virgin-Mother! in thy joy-giving delivery, for thy chaste womb was made fruitful of the very Son of God.O wondrous sight – Jesus feeding from the Lily of Purity! Yea, most pure Virgin, thou feedest at thy breasts his infant life.

The Only Begotten of the Father, by whom he made this world, is dwelling here the Babe of a poor Mother. There, be is feeding the holy Angels with joy:- here, he is in hanger and thirst, from his cradle.

There, he holds all things in subjection:- here, he is in subjection to a Mother. There, le commands:- here, he obeys his Handmaid.

There, he is seated on the throne of highest majesty:- here, he is lying swathed and weeping in a manger.

Think on this, O man! and to thy memory recall these stupendous works of God’s mercy.

And though thy sins be great, yet canst thou not despair, for the proofs thou seest here of Jesus’ love speak but of pardon.

Thou wouldst have pardon? fly to the Mother for protection, for she holds on her lap the Infinite Fountain of Mercy.

Often bend thy knee before her, and, with hopeful love, salute her thus: hail! full of grace!
As thou, of old, didst feed thy Jesus, and stay his infant tears; so now, dear Mother, appease him angered by our sins.

Hear, O Jesus! thy sweet Mother’s prayers, and, with an eye of pity, look upon us sinners! Correct and change us, and make us worthy to be citizens of heaven. Amen.]]> DECEMBER 27
SAINT JOHN, APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

MASS

Introit

Collect

Commemoration of Christmas Day

Commemoration of St. Stephen

Epistle

Lesson from the Book of Wisdom. Ecclus ch. xv.

Quote:The Wisdom here spoken of, is Jesus the Eternal Word, who came to St. John and called him to the Apostolate. The Bread of life wherewith she fed him is the divine Bread of the Last Supper, the Body and Blood of Jesus; the wholesome Water is that promised by our Savior to the Samaritan Woman, and of which St. John drank so abundantly from its very source, when he rested his head on the Heart of Jesus. The immovable Strength is the Saint’s close and resolute custody of the treasure of his Virginity, and the courageous profession of the religion of Christ before the Proconsuls of Domitian. The Treasure which Wisdom heaped upon him is the magnificence of the prerogatives granted to him. Lastly, the everlasting Name is that glorious title given him of John the Beloved Disciple.

Gradual

Gospel

Sequel of the holy Gospel according to St. John. Ch. xxi.

Quote:This passage of the holy Gospel has been much commented upon. Some of the Fathers and Commentators interpret it as signifying that St. John was to be exempt from death, and that he is still living in the flesh, awaiting the coming of the Judge of the living and the dead. It is certain that this opinion regarding our Apostle has been entertained; and one of the arguments in its favor was this passage. But the general opinion of the Holy Fathers is that nothing further is implied by it than the difference between the two vocations of St. Peter and St. John. The former shall follow his divine Master by dying, like him, on the cross; the latter shall remain—he shall live to a venerable old age—and at length, Jesus shall come and take him out of this world by sending him a sweet and peaceful death.

Offertory

Justus ut palma florebit; sicut cedrus, quæ in Libano est muliplicabitur.

The just shall flourish, like the palm tree; he shall grow up like the cedar of Libanus.

Secret

Commemoration of Christmas Day

Commemoration of St. Stephen

Preface

For the Octave Day

Communion

Postcommunion

Commemoration of Christmas Day

Commemoration of St. Stephen

† † †

VESPERS

The Antiphons and Psalms are sung as yesterday, the Feast of St. Stephen: they are given in page 234. After the last Psalm, the Office of St. John is resumed, commencing as follows:

CAPITULUM
(Ecclus. XV.)

HYMN

ANTIPHON OF THE MAGNIFICAT

Commemoration of the Holy Innocents

Commemoration of Christmas Day

Commemoration of St Stephen

† † †

PREFACE

PRAYER

HYMN

(XXVI. Septembris, in magno Vespertino, et passim.)

SEQUENCE

† † †

Quote:
“Christ has had three resting-places,” says Peter of Celles. “The first was in the Bosom of his Eternal Father. He says: I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? [John, 14:11]. What repose could be compared to this, of the Father’s complacency in the Son, and the Son’s complacency in the Father? It is a mutual and ineffable love, and they are happy in the union. But, whilst maintaining this place of his eternal rest, the Son of God has sought a second, in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He overshadowed her with the Holy Ghost, and slept a long sleep in her chaste womb, whilst his Body was there being formed. The holy Virgin troubled not the sleep of her Child: she kept all the powers of her soul in a silence like that of heaven; and, rapt in self-contemplation, she heard mysteries which it is not permitted to man to utter. The third resting-place of Christ is in man. Jesus dwells in a heart that is purified by faith, enlarged by charity, raised above Earth by contemplation, and is renewed by the Holy Ghost. Such a heart as this offers to Jesus not an earthly but a heavenly dwelling; and the Child, who is born unto us, will not refuse to enter it, and take his rest within it.” [Fourth Sermon On our Lord’s Nativity.]

To this Eternal Word, made Flesh for our salvation, let us offer up this Hymn of our great ecclesiastical Poet, Prudentius.

HYMN

† † †

Let us now honour and invoke the ever Blessed and most Merciful Mother of our God, and use the words of this beautiful Hymn of the ancient Roman-French Missals:

HYMN

Rejoice, O Virgin-Mother! in thy joy-giving delivery, for thy chaste womb was made fruitful of the very Son of God.O wondrous sight – Jesus feeding from the Lily of Purity! Yea, most pure Virgin, thou feedest at thy breasts his infant life.

The Only Begotten of the Father, by whom he made this world, is dwelling here the Babe of a poor Mother. There, be is feeding the holy Angels with joy:- here, he is in hanger and thirst, from his cradle.

There, he holds all things in subjection:- here, he is in subjection to a Mother. There, le commands:- here, he obeys his Handmaid.

There, he is seated on the throne of highest majesty:- here, he is lying swathed and weeping in a manger.

Think on this, O man! and to thy memory recall these stupendous works of God’s mercy.

And though thy sins be great, yet canst thou not despair, for the proofs thou seest here of Jesus’ love speak but of pardon.

Thou wouldst have pardon? fly to the Mother for protection, for she holds on her lap the Infinite Fountain of Mercy.

Often bend thy knee before her, and, with hopeful love, salute her thus: hail! full of grace!
As thou, of old, didst feed thy Jesus, and stay his infant tears; so now, dear Mother, appease him angered by our sins.

Hear, O Jesus! thy sweet Mother’s prayers, and, with an eye of pity, look upon us sinners! Correct and change us, and make us worthy to be citizens of heaven. Amen.]]> <![CDATA[December 26th - St. Stephen]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=626 Sat, 26 Dec 2020 04:42:32 +0000 Elizabeth]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=626 [Image: ststephen.jpg]

Saint Stephen
First Martyr
(† 35)

The Jewish origin of Saint Stephen is universally acknowledged; he is known and loved everywhere as the first follower of Christ to give to his martyred God love for love, blood for blood. It is not certain whether he was among the seventy-two disciples of Jesus; some believe he was of the Greek tongue and not a native of Palestine. He studied with Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas under the famous Doctor of the Law, Gamaliel, who, being a member of the Sanhedrin, attempted to stop the persecution of the Apostles. (Acts of the Apostles 5:34-40) What is certain, however, is that he distinguished himself among his brethren as an admirable Christian, replete with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. To his great beauty and angelic chastity were joined humility, patience, gentleness and charity, so perfect that they drew from all the faithful great admiration and esteem for him.

He was head of the seven disciples whom the Apostles named as deacons, to execute the works of charity which their mandate to preach did not permit them to carry out. Stephen manifested all the qualities one could wish for in a minister of charity and of the Gospel. He knew Scripture to perfection and was steeped in its divine spirit; he was endowed with invincible force because he feared nothing in the service of God. Everywhere in Jerusalem, he was proving Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah, and working great prodigies to confirm the truths he taught. Some believe he was the cousin of Saul, later Saint Paul; in any case, the latter, still a fire-breathing Pharisee, took offense at his boldness and presided at the scene of his martyrdom by stoning. The fervent deacon, insensible to his own fate, defended Christ before the Jerusalem tribunal with a perfection which enraged the proud authorities of Jerusalem, unwilling to recognize a humble carpenter of Nazareth for their Saviour. He boldly upbraided the chief priests with their hard-hearted resistance to the Holy Spirit. And when he accused them of putting to death, just as their forebears had treated the prophets who foretold Him, the long-awaited Just One announced by Moses, they stoned him without further delay. (Acts of the Apostles, chapter 7)

Saint Stephen died, beholding his Lord standing at the right hand of God. He imitated Him in death; crying out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! He concluded on his knees, Lord, do not impute to them this sin! And then he fell asleep, the narrative says.

His mortal remains were left outdoors to be devoured by beasts, but were protected by God; and Gamaliel, the Doctor of the Law, took the body of the martyr to his own country home, a few leagues from the city, where he buried him. His tomb was discovered miraculously in the fifth century, by the intervention of Gamaliel himself in a priest's dream. The greater part of his relics are still conserved in the Basilica of Saint Lawrence and Saint Stephen in Rome. His death was the signal for a great persecution of the Christians in Jerusalem, spurred on by Saul, who had approved his death. But Saint John Chrysostom remarks that because Stephen prayed, we have Saint Paul, whose conversion miraculously came about soon afterwards.]]> [Image: ststephen.jpg]

Saint Stephen
First Martyr
(† 35)

[Image: manger-scene-holy-family-300x187.jpg?w=584]

The Nativity of Our Lord

Noel! Noel! This was the cry of our fathers when the Faith prevailed, ardent and lively in the bosom of families, institutions, and all of society. That cry has grown very weak in our day, for the naivete of simple faith has tended to disappear. Nevertheless, of all the Christian feasts, Christmas is perhaps the most beloved and the most popular.

God used the most apparently indifferent events to reach His ends. Mary lived in Nazareth, and the prophets predicted that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. But an edict of Caesar Augustus ordered all the inhabitants of Judea to go at a certain time to enroll in their native city. Bethlehem was the birthplace of Joseph, so that is where the holy spouses went; and that is where, in conformity to the predictions of the prophets, Jesus was to come into the world.

What a birth for a God! Joseph looked for an inn, but there was none for such poor people; rejected and scorned, they were obliged to seek refuge in an isolated stable. And that is where, in the middle of the night, Mary miraculously gave birth to Jesus; that is where the most meek Saviour received the first adorations, where He received the first kisses and caresses, where He shed His first tears! Mary took the Infant in Her arms, covered Him with poor swaddling clothes and laid Him softly in a cold manger. O first moments which Mary and Joseph spent at the feet of Jesus, how precious you were for them, how full of charm! We will taste a little of this joy and these charms on going to our church to pay a visit to the manger scene that represents such a great mystery. Earthly joys are deceitful, but the joy of God's service are lasting and true.

Jesus was born, and behold, the heavens rang out in hymns of joy as the Angels sang the canticle of triumph, Glory to God in the highest! and the canticle of peace, Peace on earth to men of good will! Jesus was born, and at once the poor shepherds, informed by the Angels, came to adore the Redeemer of Israel in that little Infant. Jesus was born, and soon the princes of the East, led by a Star, laid their homages at His feet. Let us hail Christmas, the dawn of peace and salvation.]]> [Image: manger-scene-holy-family-300x187.jpg?w=584]

The Nativity of Our Lord

Noel! Noel! This was the cry of our fathers when the Faith prevailed, ardent and lively in the bosom of families, institutions, and all of society. That cry has grown very weak in our day, for the naivete of simple faith has tended to disappear. Nevertheless, of all the Christian feasts, Christmas is perhaps the most beloved and the most popular.

God used the most apparently indifferent events to reach His ends. Mary lived in Nazareth, and the prophets predicted that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. But an edict of Caesar Augustus ordered all the inhabitants of Judea to go at a certain time to enroll in their native city. Bethlehem was the birthplace of Joseph, so that is where the holy spouses went; and that is where, in conformity to the predictions of the prophets, Jesus was to come into the world.

What a birth for a God! Joseph looked for an inn, but there was none for such poor people; rejected and scorned, they were obliged to seek refuge in an isolated stable. And that is where, in the middle of the night, Mary miraculously gave birth to Jesus; that is where the most meek Saviour received the first adorations, where He received the first kisses and caresses, where He shed His first tears! Mary took the Infant in Her arms, covered Him with poor swaddling clothes and laid Him softly in a cold manger. O first moments which Mary and Joseph spent at the feet of Jesus, how precious you were for them, how full of charm! We will taste a little of this joy and these charms on going to our church to pay a visit to the manger scene that represents such a great mystery. Earthly joys are deceitful, but the joy of God's service are lasting and true.

Jesus was born, and behold, the heavens rang out in hymns of joy as the Angels sang the canticle of triumph, Glory to God in the highest! and the canticle of peace, Peace on earth to men of good will! Jesus was born, and at once the poor shepherds, informed by the Angels, came to adore the Redeemer of Israel in that little Infant. Jesus was born, and soon the princes of the East, led by a Star, laid their homages at His feet. Let us hail Christmas, the dawn of peace and salvation.]]> <![CDATA[December 24th - St. Charbel Makhlouf, Sts. Tarsila and Emiliana, and St. Delphinus]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=610 Thu, 24 Dec 2020 05:06:33 +0000 Elizabeth]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=610 [Image: IMG_8093-1.jpg]

Saint Charbel Makhlouf
Maronite Priest and Hermit
(1828-1898)

Saint Charbel Makhlouf, the modest monk of Lebanon whose perfectly conserved mortal remains exude a miraculous sanguinolent liquid, has become known to many in the past half century, because of the extraordinary miracles which have drawn thousands to visit his tomb.

Youssef Makhlouf was born in 1828 in Bika'Kafra, the highest village of Lebanon, near the grove of the still-conserved famous cedars of Lebanon. The youngest of five children, he became a little shepherd. Their pious mother lived almost as a religious in her family home. She would pray with outstretched arms, telling her family to allow no one to see her at those moments. The children's father also possessed the genuine piety which recommends a Christian to his brethren, but the little Youssef never knew him, for he died when the youngest son was only two years old. An uncle took upon himself the support of the family, which was thereby maintained intact. The child was profoundly affected by the example of two other maternal uncles, who were monks of the Maronite Lebanese Order, living in a hermitage only three miles away, and whom he often visited, at first with his mother, later on his own. They would say to him: All here below is nothing, the world is vanity, life is short. The true beauty is God, near Him there is true happiness. Wisdom is to not find oneself with empty hands at the supreme hour.
By the time he was sixteen, he had completed his basic schooling under an oak in the village churchyard, where he was taught by the priest with the other village boys. The Christian spirit of the entire village was remarkable; the men regarded it as a great privilege to ring the church bells for Sunday Mass. Youssef during his days on the hillside with his little flock, often retired to a grotto to pray, for solitude was his joy, and prayer the breath of his soul. He was serving Mass every morning, and in that function he discovered the true purpose of his existence: to be, like his Saviour, a victim to be offered, with Christ, to His Father.

At the age of twenty-three he left home silently one morning, and made his way to a monastery a day's journey away. Only one thing mattered to him — to obey the voice of the One who summons: Come, follow Me. When his uncle and tutor, Tanios, tried to persuade him to return, he could not succeed; and his mother, who had accompanied her brother, taking his hand in hers, and shaking it energetically, said to him: Well then, if you should not become a good religious, return with me to the house! He received the habit one week after entering the monastery, and chose the name of Charbel, a martyr of the Antioch church in the year 107.

There followed two years of a severe novitiate, completed in the monastery of Annaya, which on its mountaintop seemed to breathe the stars, then the young monk was sent to prepare for the priesthood farther away, at Saint Cyprian of Kfifan, where he was ordained six years later at the age of 31. He returned to Annaya afterwards, where for sixteen years he was in every way a model of perfection, until in 1875, at forty-seven years of age, he retired to its nearby hermitage, where he would remain until his death. He was offering Mass a week before Christmas, when paralysis struck him as he elevated the host. His sorrowing companion, during a week's time, heard him repeating as long as he had voice, the prayers of his uncompleted Mass: O Father of truth, behold Your Son, victim to please You; condescend to approve [this offering], because for me He endured death, to give me life... Saint Charbel died quietly on the 24th of December, attended by three monks.

The events of his life are not often extraordinary save by their heroic virtue, which indeed exceeds description. He endured the extreme cold of his hermitage each winter, without ever adding additional garments to his ordinary very simple ones; this alone sufficed to astonish all who knew of it. The monks who trembled with cold during the night when they kept vigil at his coffin before his funeral, said: See how we find ourselves unable to endure for a single night, the rude cold of this chapel! How could this priest live here for twenty-three years, on his knees, like a statue before the altar, every night from midnight until eleven in the morning, when he rose to say his Mass? Blessed is he, for he undoubtedly receives at present his reward with God! We can nonetheless relate with the biographer whom we cite here, that one day he completely cured a dangerously violent insane man, whom several others had difficulty to make enter the monastery, but who went to its chapel when the Saint commanded him to do so; and there, when Saint Charbel placed a Gospel on his head and prayed, he became calm and silent, remaining thereafter entirely cured. On another occasion, while the monks were outdoors working to harvest their grapes, a huge venomous serpent emerged from beneath a bush, in a threatening attitude. Saint Charbel told the others who had already armed themselves not to touch it, and commanded it to depart, which it did in peace.

After his death a great many miracles occurred. Sick and infirm people of all kinds have been healed: deaf, dumb, blind, paralytic, those with cancer, mental illness, etc. They are also of every religion and every country. God worked these wonders either when people touched the body of His servant of were anointed with the oily liquid that sweated miraculously from his precious remains, or when they touched cloths either impregnated with this liquid or which had belonged to him.

The divine power that strengthens and heals does not limit itself to the needs of the body. It especially cures wounds of the soul in every form — sin, indifference, unbelief, error. Indeed, it is the healing of souls that occurs most often amid the cures that take place at Annaya. Since the death of Saint Charbel, thousands of cases of miraculous healings have been recorded.
Saint Charbel was one of those souls which, in a life of silence, mortification, deprivation and total gift of self, was able to detach itself from everything except the adorable Face of the Lord. Nothing mattered more for him than the redemption and salvation of souls, for whom he wanted to give his life in union with Christ on the cross. He applied these words of Saint Paul in their totality: I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the Passion of Christ for His body, which is the Church. (Colossians 1:24)

[Image: img-Pictorial-Saints-Thrasilla-and-Emili....jpg?w=840]

Saints Tarsilla and Emiliana
Virgins
(Sixth Century)

Tarsilla and Emiliana were two paternal aunts of Saint Gregory the Great, and it is this holy Pope who narrates their touching story. They renounced the world together, together consecrated their virginity to God and remained in their house as if in a convent, far removed from the conversation of the world. Encouraging one another to virtue by discourse and example, the two sisters soon made considerable progress in spiritual life.

They had a sister named Gordiana, who had taken the same engagements, but little by little fell back into affection for the world, to the great grief of Tarsilla and Emiliana. With gentleness they reproached her, but the inconstant spirit of Gordiana soon forgot their charitable lessons. One day Tarsilla had a vision, in which Pope Saint Felix, her uncle, appeared to her and showed her a palace of marvelous beauty, saying to her: Come; I will receive you into this habitation of light. She fell ill with a fever the next day, which rapidly grew worse. While in her agony, with her eyes lifted to heaven, she cried out to those surrounding her, Make way! Jesus is coming! Soon after speaking these words, as she gazed at the vision, her soul was delivered from the bonds of the flesh. It was December 24th. The fragrance with which the room was filled confirmed the vision the virgin had had before dying.

A few days afterwards she appeared to her sister Emiliana, saying: My sister, come! I did not celebrate with you the birth of the Lord, but together we will celebrate the feast of the Epiphany. If you call only me, Emiliana replied, what will become of our sister Gordiana? Come, Tarsilla answered sadly; Gordiana has decided to remain with the worldlings. And after that vision, Emiliana fell ill and joined her sister for the feast day.

[Image: st-paulinus-of-nola.jpg?w=340&h=593]

Saint Delphinus
Bishop of Bordeaux
(† 403)

Little is known of the origins of Saint Delphinus; it is after his elevation to the episcopate that he became famous among the bishops of his time as a vigilant protector of the truth. We have written evidence, however, that his piety and learning made him so celebrated that the saintliest bishops of the Church were honored to be his friends and to correspond with him.
He was present at the Council of Saragossa in 380, at which the Priscillian heretics were condemned. Later he assembled a Council in Bordeaux, his episcopal city, which the heretics had entered and where they were working havoc; this assembly condemned once again the same propagators of error. The bishop's force and preaching so reduced their influence that they abandoned the region entirely and fled to Italy.

Saint Delphinus baptized Saint Paulinus, later Bishop of Nola, in 388, and inspired in him the desire to live a life of perfection. He, in several letters, speaks of Saint Delphinus as his father and his master. Saint Delphinus died on the 24th of December, at the beginning of the fifth century.]]> [Image: IMG_8093-1.jpg]

Saint Charbel Makhlouf
Maronite Priest and Hermit
(1828-1898)

Saints Tarsilla and Emiliana
Virgins
(Sixth Century)

Saint Delphinus
Bishop of Bordeaux
(† 403)

Saint Margaret d'Youville
Foundress of the Sisters of Charity, called Grey Nuns
(1701-1771)

The oldest of six children, at seven years of age Mary Margaret Dufrost, born at Varennes near Montreal, had already lost her courageous soldier-father. After receiving only two years of excellent education in Quebec City with the Ursuline nuns, she was obliged to return to Varennes before her twelfth birthday, to assist her mother to bring up her five younger brothers and sisters. The Sisters had foreseen the heavy responsibilities which would come upon her, and under their tutelage, as they later testified, she had redoubled her activity and application to all her duties. By means of a subsidy granted by the king of France to the families of his deceased military officers, the little family was able to remain together.

One day, some sixty years later, Mother Margaret d'Youville, Foundress of a Congregation of Sisters of Charity, would be known to the people of Quebec as the Providence of Montreal. It became proverbial among the Church's authorities, even before she died, when there was a charitable work to do, to ask the Grey Nuns; they never refuse a mission. This was indeed an honorable reputation; but in 1730 the twenty-six year-old widow of Francis d'Youville, seigneur of La Découverte, alone with two sons to bring up, could not have imagined such honor, nor what Providence was holding in store for her already strong and experienced charity.

Saint Margaret was living in Montreal with her two sons at the death of Mr. d'Youville. It was soon evident that the pious widow would seek no distraction amid the world's frivolities. She took in sewing and opened a little business, thus becoming known in the city; half of her earnings were always dedicated to her children's Christian instruction. Both of her sons would later become priests. These occupations were not enough, however, to occupy her time; she visited prisoners, cared for the dying, brought peace to many troubled households, and even aided the poor financially. Her work with the unfortunate soon brought to her three apostolic young hearts, to offer their assistance. The four young women put their savings in common, and kneeling before a little statue of the Blessed Virgin, vowed their lives to the care of the poor. They rented a house, and soon received five suffering members of the Mystical Body of Christ as their charges.

The young missionaries did not escape the harsh opinions which always test the perseverance of those who desire to serve God in the person of the unfortunate. Undisciplined tongues accused them of bootlegging alcohol and even of making abundant use of it themselves. Mother d'Youville prayed to the Eternal Father, to whom she would always have an outstanding devotion, that she might not, during her trials, lose her good spiritual director who was ill; she already had lost her closest companion by death. The director was cured, but the little hospital burnt down in January of 1745. The misery of the little group won sympathy for them, and soon lodging, clothes and food were offered them.

Their destitution drew the attention of city authorities, who at that time were wondering what to do about the city hospital, overburdened with large debts and without sufficient personnel to staff it. When Mother d'Youville offered to take on both the debts and the labors, they were very happy indeed to accept her offer. With five companions, nine indigents and two lady-boarders, she entered the hospital in 1747. There a new difficulty for the foundress would soon make its appearance; the work still had enemies, and in 1750 plans were made, without consulting her, to merge it with another of similar nature, staffed by the nursing nuns of Quebec City. Finally an appeal made by the Foundress to the king of France, Louis XV, elicited his command that the decision of the local authorities be canceled, and she was authorized in 1752 to keep the hospital and to found a Community.

It was not only the sick who were the object of Saint Margaret d'Youville's loving care. Foundling children, prisoners, orphans, the handicapped, the aged, were soon the cherished beneficiaries of the Grey Nuns' indefatigable solicitude. Their foundress passed to her reward in 1771; and that night a large luminous cross appeared in the Montreal skies, attesting the death of a Saint. But her community continued and has been richly blessed, not only by the poor it has strengthened for the combats of life, but by the Father of the Poor Himself, who in 150 years gave it extension to fifteen dioceses of North America. The Grey Nuns have labored in the most difficult missions of the extreme north of Canada, as well as in a dozen cities of the more southerly provinces and the United States. Their self-effacement, their missionary spirit, their hardy courage in the face of the rudest living conditions, have earned the admiration of all who know them.

Saint Servulus of Rome
Invalid and Beggar
(† 670)

Saint Servulus was a perfect model of submission to the divine Will; it would be difficult to offer a more consoling example to persons afflicted by poverty, illnesses and the other miseries of life. It is Saint Gregory the Great who narrates for us his edifying story:

We have seen under the portico of the Church of Saint Clement, a poor man named Servulus, who is known to all the people of Rome as to Us. He was deprived of all the goods of this world; a long illness had reduced him to a pitiful state. From his youth he was paralyzed in all his members. Not only could he not stand up, but he was unable to rise from his bed; he could neither sit down nor turn himself from one side to the other, nor bring his hand to his mouth. Nothing in him was sound except his eyes, ears, tongue, stomach and entrails.

This unfortunate man, who had learned the mysteries of religion, meditated unceasingly on the sufferings of the Saviour, and never did he complain. He was surrounded by the loving care of his mother and brother. Neither the mother nor the children had ever studied, yet the paralytic had pious books bought for himself, in particular the Psalms and the Holy Gospels, and he would ask the religious who came to visit him on his cot to read from them to him. In this way he learned these books by heart; he spent days and part of the nights in singing or reciting them, and meditating them, and he constantly thanked the Lord for having taken him to be a victim associated with the pains and sufferings of Jesus Christ.

Many alms came to the little house of the paralytic, to such an extent that he became rich in his poverty. After having taken from these what was necessary for his subsistence and that of his mother, he gave the rest to the indigent, who often assembled around him to be edified by his words and his virtues. His bed of pain was a pulpit of preaching, from which he converted souls.

When the time came which was decreed by God to reward his patience and put an end to his painful life, Servulus felt the paralysis spreading to the vital parts of his body, and he prepared for death. At the final moment, he asked those in attendance to recite Psalms with him. Suddenly he cried out: Ah! Don't you hear that melody resounding in heaven?' At that moment his soul escaped from his body, which until his burial gave forth a marvelous fragrance.]]> [Image: Marguerite_dYouville-web.jpg]

Saint Margaret d'Youville
Foundress of the Sisters of Charity, called Grey Nuns
(1701-1771)

Saint Servulus of Rome
Invalid and Beggar
(† 670)

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
Foundress
(1850-1917)

Dear to the hearts of American Catholics in many regions of the United States, Saint Frances Cabrini, foundress of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, patroness of immigrants, was the first citizen of the United States to be canonized. Born in Lombardy, Italy, the youngest of thirteen children, she was fired with missionary zeal as a little girl, through family reading of the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith. She gave up sweets because she would also be without them in China, where she aspired to go.

She earned a teacher's certificate and applied to two Orders having missionary houses, but was rejected for reasons of health. Reluctantly, at the request of her bishop, she tried to save an orphanage and make of its staff a religious community, but after six hard years the work collapsed. And Frances, by then thirty years old, initiated her own missionary community with seven of her associates from the orphanage. Bishop Scalabrini suggested they work with Italian immigrants, especially in the United States, as the Congregation of Saint Charles which he had founded was doing; but Mother Cabrini's heart was set on China. She asked counsel of Pope Leo XIII. Go not to the East, he told her, but to the West.

Founding schools, hospitals and charitable works of every kind, she would cross the ocean thirty times, bringing bands of young Italian Sisters to North and South America. Her amusing community letter, during her second trip to New York, gives a typical picture of these missionary voyages: This morning all the Sisters woke up very ill. Some of them thought they were going to die... Those who trusted my words rose and tried to eat, and presently were looking quite well. The others who thought death was at hand stayed in their rooms awaiting it...

Her letters are filled with the practical motherly instruction of a foundress who knew she was loved and imitated by her Sisters. When you are corrected do not justify yourself. Remain silent and practice virtue, whether you are right or wrong, otherwise we may dream of perfection but will never attain it. (Oct. 17-20, 1892) Love is not loved, my daughters! Love is not loved! (Aug. 21, 1890) Renounce yourselves entirely if you wish to enjoy peace... She who is not holy will make no one holy. (Oct. 17, 1892)

Explaining why she did not accompany some Sisters on a boat excursion she wrote, I admit my weakness, I am afraid of the sea. And if there is no very holy motive in view, I have no courage to go where I fear danger, unless sent by obedience. For then, of course, one's movements are blessed by God.

Mother Cabrini died at sixty-seven, suddenly and alone in one of her Chicago hospitals, while preparing Christmas presents for 500 children.

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Saint Ischyrion
Martyr in Alexandria
(† 250)

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
Foundress
(1850-1917)

Saint Ischyrion
Martyr in Alexandria
(† 250)

Ischyrion was a subordinate officer serving under a magistrate in Egypt. His master commanded him to offer sacrifice to the idols, and because he refused to commit that sacrilege, reproached him in the most abusive and threatening language. Giving way to passion and superstition, the commanding officer at length worked himself up to such a degree of frenzy as to run a stake into the entrails of the meek servant of Christ, who by his patient constancy attained to the glory of martyrdom.]]> <![CDATA[December 21st - St. Thomas the Apostle]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=585 Mon, 21 Dec 2020 11:48:28 +0000 Stone]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=585 December 21 – Saint Thomas, Apostle
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

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The Church announces to us today, in her Office of Lauds, these solemn words:

Nolite timere: quinta enim die veniet ad vos Dominus noster.
Fear not: for on the fifth day, our Lord will come to you.

This is the last Feast the Church keeps before the great one of the Nativity of her Lord and Spouse. She interrupts the Greater Ferias in order to pay her tribute of honor to Thomas, the Apostle of Christ, whose glorious martyrdom has consecrated this twenty-first day of December, and has procured for the Christian people a powerful patron that will introduce them to the divine Babe of Bethlehem. To none of the Apostles could this day have been so fittingly assigned as to St. Thomas. It was St. Thomas whom we needed; St. Thomas, whose festal patronage would aid us to believe and hope in that God whom we see not, and who comes to us in silence and humility in order to try our Faith. St. Thomas was once guilty of doubting, when he ought to have believed; and only learned the necessity of Faith by the sad experience of incredulity: he comes then most appropriately to defend us, by the power of his example and prayers, against the temptations which proud human reason might excite within us. Let us pray to him with confidence. In that heaven of Light and Vision, where his repentance and love have placed him, he will intercede for us and gain for us that docility of mind and heart which will enable us to see and recognize Him who is the Expected of Nations and who, though the King of the world, will give no other signs of his majesty than the swaddling clothes and tears of a Babe. But let us first read the Acts of our holy Apostle. The Church has deemed it prudent to give us them in an exceedingly abridged form, which contains only the most reliable facts, gathered from authentic sources; and thus, she excludes all those details which have no historic authority.

Quote:Thomas the Apostle, who was also named Didymus, was a Galilean. After he had received the Holy Ghost, he travelled through many provinces, preaching the Gospel of Christ. He taught the principles of Christian faith and practice to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hircanians, and Bactrians. He finally went to the Indies, and instructed the inhabitants of those countries in the Christian religion. Up to the last, he gained for himself the esteem of all men by the holiness of his life and teaching, and by the wonderful miracles he wrought. He stirred up, also, in their hearts, the love of Jesus Christ. The King of those parts, a worshipper of idols, was, on the contrary, only the more irritated by all these things. He condemned the Saint to be pierced to death by javelins: which punishment was inflicted at Calamina, and gave Thomas the highest honour of his Apostolate, the crown of martyrdom.

The Great Antiphon of St. Thomas

O Thoma! Didyme! qui Christum meruisti cernere; te precibus rogamus altisonis, succurre nobis miseris; ne damnemur cum impiis, in Adventu Judicis.
Oremus.
Da nobis, quæsumus, Domine, beati Apostoli tui Thomæ solemnitatibus gloriari: ut ejus semper et patrociniis sublevemur, et Fidem congrua devotione sectemur. Per Dominum, &c. Amen.

O Thomas! Didymus! who didst merit to see Christ; we beseech thee, by most earnest supplication, help us miserable sinners, lest we be condemned with the ungodly, at the Coming of the Judge.
Let Us Pray.
Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that we may rejoice on the solemnity of thy blessed Apostle, Thomas; to the end that we may always have the assistance of his prayers, and zealously profess the faith he taught. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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The following Prayer is from the Matins of the Gothic, or Mozarabic, Breviary.
Domine Jesu Christe, qui posuisti in capite Martyris tui Thomae Apostoli coronam de lapide pretioso, fundamento fundatam; ut non confundatur, quia te credidit; coronetur, quia pro te animam posuit: sit ergo intercessionibus ejus in nobis famulis tuis fides vera, qua te etiam coram persecutoribus promptissima devotione confiteamur: quatenus interveniente tanto martyre, coram te et Angelis tuis minime confundamur. Amen.

O Lord Jesus Christ, who hast placed on the head of thy Martyr, Thomas the Apostle, a crown made of that precious stone, that is founded in the foundation; that so he might not be confounded, because he believed in thee; nor be uncrowned, because he laid down his life for thee; may there be, by his intercession, in us thy servants, that true Faith, whereby we may confess thee with most ready hearts before persecutors: that thus, by the same great Martyr’s intercession, we may not be confounded before thee and thy Angels. Amen.

The Greek Church celebrates, with her usual solemnity, the Feast of St. Thomas; but she keeps it on the sixth of October. We extract the following stanzas from her Hymns.

HYMN OF ST. THOMAS

{Taken from the Menoea of the Greeks,)

Domini palpato latere, bonorum assecutus es summitatem; nam velut spongia hinc hausisti latices, fontem bonorum, aeternamque potasti vitam, mentibus expellens ignorantiam, divinaque Dei cognitionis dogmata scaturire faciens.Tua incredulitate et tua fide stabilisti tentatos, nunciare incipiens omni creaturae Deum ac Dominum, carne pro nobis in terris indutum, crucem mortemque subeuntem, clavis perforatum, cujus lancea latus apertum, ex quo vitam haurimus.

Indorum omnem terram fulgere fecisti, sacratissime, ac Deum videns Apostole! Quum enim illuminasses filios luminis et diei, horum, in Spiritu, sapiens, idolica evertisti templa, et sublimasti os in charitate Dei, ad laudem et gloriam Ecclesiae, beate intercessor pro animabus nostris.

Divina videns, Christi Sapientiae spiritualis demonstratus es crater mysticus, O Thoma Apostole, in quem fidelium animae laetantur, et Spiritus sagena populos eruisti ex abysso ignorantiae: unde ex Sion sicut fluvius devenisti charitatis, tua divina scaturire faciens dogmata in omnem creaturam. Christi passionis imitatus, latere pro ipso perforatus, induisti immortalitatem: illum deprecare misereri animabus nostris.

When thy hand touched Jesus’ side, thou didst find the perfection of good things; for, as a mystic sponge, thou didst thence imbibe the water of life, the fount of all that is good, and didst drink in everlasting life; whereby thou didst cleanse men’s minds from ignorance, giving them to drink of the divine dogmas of the knowledge of God.Thou didst, by thine own incredulity and thy after-faith, confirm such as were tempted: for thou didst proclaim to all men, how He, that is thy Lord and thy God, became incarnate on this earth for us, was nailed to the Cross and suffered death, and had his side opened with a spear, whence we draw life.

Thou didst make all the Indies shine with much light, O most holy Apostle, thou contemplator of the Divinity! For after thou hadst enlightened these people, and made them to be children of the light and day, thou, by the Spirit of God, didst wisely overthrow the temples of their idols, and didst elevate the people to the love of God, making them an honour and a glory to the Church, O thou that helpest us by thy intercession!

By the vision thou hadst of divine things, thou becamest, O Apostle Thomas! the mystic cup of the Wisdom of Christ, which gives joy to the souls of the faithful. Thou wast the spiritual net, drawing men from the sea of ignorance. Hence is it, that thou camest from Sion as a stream of charity, watering the world with the divine dogmas. Thou didst imitate the passion of Jesus, thou wast pierced in thy side, thou hast put on immortality. Pray to God, that he have mercy on our souls.

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O glorious Apostle Thomas! who didst lead to Christ so many unbelieving nations, hear now the prayers of the faithful, who beseech thee to lead them to that same Jesus, who, in five days, will have shown himself to his Church. That we may merit to appear in his divine presence, we need, before all other graces, the light which leads to him. That light is Faith; then, pray that we may have Faith. Heretofore, our Saviour had compassion on thy weakness, and deigned to remove from thee the doubt of his having risen from the grave; pray to him for us, that he will mercifully come to our assistance, and make himself felt by our heart. We ask not, O holy Apostle, to see him with the eyes of our body, but with those of our faith, for he said to thee, when he showed himself to thee: Blessed are they who have not seen, and have believed! Of this happy number, we desire to be. We beseech thee, therefore, pray that we may obtain the Faith of the heart and will, that so, when we behold the divine Infant wrapped in swaddling-clothes and laid in a manger, we may cry out: My Lord! and my God! Pray, O holy Apostle, for the nations thou didst evangelise, but which have fallen back again into the shades of death. May the day soon come, when the Sun of Justice will once more shine upon them. Bless the efforts of those apostolic men, who have devoted their labours and their very lives to the work of the Missions; pray that the days of darkness may be shortened, and that the countries, which were watered by thy blood, may at length see that kingdom of God established amongst them, which thou didst preach to them, and for which we also are in waiting.

]]> December 21 – Saint Thomas, Apostle
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)

Quote:Thomas the Apostle, who was also named Didymus, was a Galilean. After he had received the Holy Ghost, he travelled through many provinces, preaching the Gospel of Christ. He taught the principles of Christian faith and practice to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hircanians, and Bactrians. He finally went to the Indies, and instructed the inhabitants of those countries in the Christian religion. Up to the last, he gained for himself the esteem of all men by the holiness of his life and teaching, and by the wonderful miracles he wrought. He stirred up, also, in their hearts, the love of Jesus Christ. The King of those parts, a worshipper of idols, was, on the contrary, only the more irritated by all these things. He condemned the Saint to be pierced to death by javelins: which punishment was inflicted at Calamina, and gave Thomas the highest honour of his Apostolate, the crown of martyrdom.

The Great Antiphon of St. Thomas

HYMN OF ST. THOMAS

{Taken from the Menoea of the Greeks,)

]]> <![CDATA[December 20th - St. Dominic of Silos and St. Philogonius]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=547 Sun, 20 Dec 2020 03:24:23 +0000 Elizabeth]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=547 [Image: 522d75a187779583531493c4a5a8d97b--cathol...urches.jpg]

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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.

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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.]]> [Image: 522d75a187779583531493c4a5a8d97b--cathol...urches.jpg]

Saint Dominic of Silos
Abbot
(† 1073)

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.]]> <![CDATA[December 19th - Blessed Urban V and St. Nemesion of Alexandria and other Christans]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=542 Sat, 19 Dec 2020 04:45:10 +0000 Elizabeth]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=542 [Image: Bienheureux-Urbain-V-Pape.jpg]

Blessed Urban V

Pope

(† 1370)

Blessed Urban V, whose family name was William de Grimoard, was born in Mende, on a mountain of the Cevenne hills. He rapidly mastered the various disciplines of literature and the sciences. It was religious life which then appeared to him as the ideal which could best respond to the propensities of his mind and the needs of his heart. He went to knock at the door of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Victor near Marseille, and there, in the peaceful shadows of the cloister, he advanced day by day in all the virtues. He was remarked in particular for his tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

Religious profession had augmented his ardor for learning, and his Superiors soon judged the humble monk capable of teaching. In effect, his illustrious voice brought honor to the professorial chairs confided to him in Montpellier, Paris, Avignon and Toulouse. A few years later, after serving for a short time as Abbot of Saint Germain d'Auxerre, he was sent to Italy by Pope Clement VI as his legate. This, unbeknown to himself, was to be a step toward the highest existing dignity. He was elected Pope in October of 1362 and took the name of Urban V, because all the popes who had borne that name had ennobled it by the sanctity of their lives.

It is he who added to the papal tiara a third crown, not out of pride, but to symbolize the triple royalty of the pope over the faithful, the bishops, and the Roman States. When he mounted the throne of Saint Peter at that time in Avignon, he envisioned three great projects — the return of the Papacy from Avignon to Rome, the reformation of morals, and the propagation of the Catholic faith in distant lands. His return to Rome, which had not seen a Pope for sixty years, was a triumph. Nonetheless, the morals of Rome had undergone a sad decline.

Urban lived as a Saint during the days of his great works, fasting like a monk and directing all glory to God. At his death, he asked that the people be allowed to circulate around his bed: The people must see, he said, how Popes die.

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Saint Nemesion of Alexandria
and other Christians of the same Persecution
Martyrs
(† 253)

During the persecution of Decius, Nemesion, an Egyptian, was apprehended at Alexandria upon an indictment for theft. The servant of Christ easily cleared himself of that charge before the judge Emilianus, but was immediately accused of being a Christian. He was twice delivered up to torture, and after being scourged and tormented more than were the true thieves, was sentenced to be burnt with them and other malefactors, in the year 253.

There stood at the same time, near the prefect's tribunal, four soldiers and another person who, being Christians, boldly encouraged a confessor attached to the rack. They were taken before the judge, who condemned them to be beheaded. The prefect was astonished, seeing the joy with which they walked to the place of execution.

Three others, named Heron, Ater and Isidore, all Egyptians, were arraigned at Alexandria with Dioscorus, a youth only fifteen years old, during the same persecution. After enduring the most cruel rending and disjointing of their limbs, they were burnt alive, with the exception of Dioscorus, whom the judge dismissed because of his tender age.]]> [Image: Bienheureux-Urbain-V-Pape.jpg]

Blessed Urban V

Pope

(† 1370)

Saint Nemesion of Alexandria
and other Christians of the same Persecution
Martyrs
(† 253)

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Saint Gatian

First Bishop of Tours

(† First Century)

Saint Gatian, a disciple of the Apostles and the first bishop of Tours, was sent to that city at the same time as Saint Denys to Paris, Saint Trophimus to Arles, Saint Martial to Limoges, Saint Saturninus to Toulouse, Saint Sergius Paulus to Narbonne, and Saint Austremoine into Auvergne. The Gauls in that region were addicted to the worship of their ancient idols, to which they had added the divinities of Rome. He found them enslaved to their various superstitions, and began to teach them the vanity of idols and the impossibility of a plurality of gods. After dispersing the false ideas and fears they had conceived concerning the gods of the empire, he presented to them the faith of the Gospel and the true God. He showed them the necessity of the Redemption and spoke of the Second Coming of the Saviour as Judge, when He will reward the virtue of those who have done good, and exile evildoers to a lamentable eternity.

The Saint was often interrupted in his instructions by harassers, and when denounced to the magistrates, was mistreated and threatened with death; but no contradictions or sufferings were able to discourage or daunt this apostle. By his perseverance he gained several to Christ. He left the city, however, and established a sort of headquarters in a rude grotto surrounded by thorn bushes. There he celebrated the divine mysteries. His splendid virtues, until then unknown to this untaught populace, won many to recognition of the truth of the religion he taught. He traveled in the area, accompanied by his faithful disciples, to preach and to exercise mercy. There were, it seems, no illnesses which he did not cure, nor demons which he did not drive away with the sign of the Cross. The pagan altars began to be abandoned, and it was permitted to establish small oratories where the faithful could assemble. The people learned to sing the praises of the true God, and clerics were formed to officiate. Saint Gatian established outside the city, a cemetery for the burial of Christians.

The holy bishop Gatian died at an advanced age, having seen Our Lord Jesus Christ come to him during his last illness to awake him from sleep and give him Holy Communion in Viaticum; he died seven days later. The Cathedral of Tours still possesses a few fragments of his relics, which Saint Martin had placed in that principal church, but which wars and persecutions scattered and destroyed in large part.]]> [Image: 2jS7JL_0NcCU79G00?type=thumbnail_512x288]

Saint Gatian

First Bishop of Tours

(† First Century)

Saint Olympia of Constantinople

Widow and Deaconess

(† 440)

Saint Olympia, the glory of the widows in the Eastern Church, was born of a noble and illustrious family. Left an orphan at a tender age, she was brought up by Theodosia, sister of Saint Amphilochius, a virtuous and prudent woman. At the age of eighteen, Olympias was regarded as a model of Christian virtues. It was then that she was married to Nebridius, a young man worthy of her; the new spouses promised one another to live in perfect continence. After less than two years of this angelic union, Nebridius went to receive in heaven the reward of his virtues.

The Emperor would have engaged her in a second marriage, but she replied: If God had destined me to live in the married state, He would not have taken my first spouse. The event which has broken my bonds shows me the way Providence has traced for me. She had resolved to consecrate her life to prayer and penance, and to devote her fortune to the poor. She liberated all her slaves, who nonetheless wished to continue to serve her, and she administered her fortune as a trustee for the poor. The farthest cities, islands, deserts and poor churches found themselves blessed through her liberality.

Nectarius, Archbishop of Constantinople, had a high esteem for the saintly widow and made her a deaconess of his church. The duties of deaconesses were to prepare the altar linens and instruct the catechumens of their sex; they aided the priests in works of charity, and they made a vow of perpetual chastity. When Saint John Chrysostom succeeded Nectarius, he had for Olympias no less respect than his predecessor, and through her aid he built a hospital for the sick and refuges for the elderly and orphans. When he was exiled in the year 404, he continued to encourage her in her good works by his letters, and she assisted him to ransom some of his fellow captives.

Saint Olympia, as one of his supporters, was persecuted. When she refused to deal with the usurper of the episcopal see, she was mistreated and calumniated, and her goods were sold at a public auction. Finally she, too, was banished with the entire community of nuns which she governed in Constantinople. Her illnesses added to her sufferings, but she never ceased her good works until her death in the year 410. She outlived the exiled Patriarch by about two or three years.]]> [Image: Sainte-Olympiade-Veuve.jpg]

Saint Olympia of Constantinople

Widow and Deaconess

(† 440)