<![CDATA[The Catacombs - September ]]>

<![CDATA[The Catacombs - September ]]> https://thecatacombs.org/ Tue, 07 Apr 2026 19:06:17 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[September 30th – St Jerome, Priest Confessor and Doctor of the Church]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2632 Fri, 01 Oct 2021 11:20:38 +0000 Stone]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2632 September 30 – St Jerome, Priest Confessor and Doctor of the Church

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

[Image: 14-1.jpg?resize=768%2C672&ssl=1]

“I know not Vitalis, I reject Meletius, I pass by Paulinus; he that cleaveth to the Chair of Peter, he is mine.” Thus, about the year 376, when the whole East was disturbed by the competitions for the episcopal See of Antioch, wrote an unknown monk to Pope St. Damasus. It was St. Jerome, a native of Dalmatia, who implored “light for his soul redeemed by the Blood of our Lord.”

Far from Stridonium, his semi-barbarous native place, whose austerity and vigor he never lost; far from Rome, where the study of literature and philosophy had not had sufficient ascendency to withhold him from the seductions of pleasure—the fear of God’s judgments had led him into the desert of Chalcia. There, under a burning sky, in the company of wild beasts, he for four years tormented his body with fearful macerations; and then, as a yet more efficacious remedy, and certainly a more meritorious mortification for one passionately fond of classical beauties, he sacrificed his ciceronian tastes to the study of the Hebrew language. Such an undertaking was far more laborious then than in our days of lexicons and grammars and scientific works of every description. Many a time was Jerome discouraged and almost in despair. But he had learned the truth of the maxim he afterwards inculcated to others: “Love the science of the Scriptures, and you will not love the vices of the flesh.” So he took up his Hebrew alphabet again, and continued to spell those hissing and panting syllables until he had so mastered them as even to spoil his pronunciation of Latin. For the rest of his life, all the energy of his spirited nature was spent upon this labor.

God amply repaid the homage thus rendered to his sacred word: Jerome hoped to obtain by his toil the cure of his moral sickness; he moreover attained the lofty holiness that we now admire in him. Other heroes of the desert remain unknown: Jerome was one of those to whom it is said: You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world; and God willed that in due time that light should be set upon a candlestick that it might shine to all that are in the house.

The once brilliant student returned to Rome an altered man; for his holiness, learning, and humility, he was declared by all to be worthy of the episcopal dignity. Pope Damasus, the virgin Doctor of the Virgin Church, commissioned him to answer, in his name, the consultations sent from East and West; and caused him to begin, by the revision of the Latin New Testament upon the original Greek text, those great Scriptural works which have immortalized his name and entitled him to the undying gratitude of the Christian world. Meanwhile Helvidius dared to call into question the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God: Jerome’s refutation revealed that talent for polemics, of which Jovinian, Vigilantius, Pelagius, and others were also to feel the force. Mary rewarded him for thus avenging her honor by bringing to him a number of holy souls whom he was able to lead in the paths of virtue, and instruct in the mysteries of holy Scripture.

Here was a phenomenon inexplicable to the infidel historian: at the very time when Rome of the Cæsars was perishing, suddenly around this Dalmatian were gathered the fairest names of ancient Rome. They were thought to have died out when the lower classes made themselves supreme; but at the critical moment, when Rome was to rise again purified from the flames kindled by the Barbarians, they reappeared to claim their birthright and refound the City for its true eternal destiny. The combat was of a new kind; but they were at the head fo the army that was to save the world. Four centuries earlier, the Apostle had said there were not many wise and powerful and noble; Jerome declared that, in his day, they were numerous, numerous among the monks.

The monastic army in the West was, at its origin, chiefly recruited from the patricians, whose character of ancient grandeur it ever afterwards retained; its ranks included noble virgins and widows; and sometimes husband and wife would enlist together. Marcella was the first to inaugurate the monastic life at Rome, in her palace on the Aventine. She obtained St. Jerome’s direction for her privileged community; but after his departure, she herself was consulted by all, as an oracle, on the difficulties of holy Scripture. She was joined in her retreat by Furia, Fabiola, and Paula, worthyp descendants of Camillus, of the Fabii, and of the Scipios. But the old enemy could ill brook such losses to his power: Jerome must be forced to leave Rome.

A pretext was soon found for raising a storm. The Treatise on Virginity, addressed to St. Paula’s daughter Eustochium, and written in Jerome’s fearless and pointed style, evoked the animosity of false monks, foolish virgins, and unworthy clerics. In vain did the prudent Marcella predict the tempest: Jerome would make bold to write what others dared to practice. But he had not reckoned on the death of Pope Damasus at that very juncture; an event for which the ignorant and the envious had been waiting, in order to give full vent to their stifled hatred. Driven away by the storm, the lover of justice returned to the desert; not this time to Chalcis, but to the peaceful Bethlehem, whither the sweet recollections of our Savior’s infancy attracted the strong athlete. Paula and her daughter soon followed him, in order not to forego the lessons they prized above all else in the world; their presence was a consolation to him in his exile, and an encouragement to continue his labors. All honor to these valiant women! To their fidelity, their thirst for knowledge, their pious importunities, the world is indebted for a priceless treasure, viz: the authentic translation of the Sacred Books, which was necessitated by the imperfections of the old Italic Version and its numberless variations, as also by the fact that the Jews were accusing the Church of falsifying the Scripture.

“Paula and Eustochium, may the labors of my poor life be pleasing to you, useful to the Church, and worthy of posterity; as for contemporaries, I care but little for their judgment.” So said the holy solitary; yet he felt the envious attacks of his bitter enemies more keenly than he would own to himself. “Handmaids of Christ,” he said, “shield me with the buckler of your prayers from those who malign me.” Every book he translated brought upon him fresh criticisms, and those not only from enemies. There were the timid, who were alarmed for the authority of the Septuagint, so sacred both to the Synagogue and to the Church; there were the possessors of precious manuscripts, written on purple vellum and adorned with splendid uncials, and with letters of silver and gold, all which would now lose their value. “Well, let them keep their precious metal, and leave us our poor papers,” cried Jerome, exasperated. “And yet, it is you,” he said to the fair inspirers of his works, “who force me to endure all this folly and all these injuries; to put an end to the evil, it were better you enjoined silence on me.” But neither the mother nor the daughter would hear of such a thing, and Jerome yielded to constraint. Finding that the text of his first revision of the Psalter upon the Greek Septuagint had become corrupted through careless transcriptions, they induced him to undertake a second. This version is inserted in our present Vulgate, together With his translation of the other Books of the Old Testament from Hebrew or Chaldaic. In all these works the Saint appealed to Paula and Eustochium as guarantees of his exactitude, and begged them to collate his translations word for word with the original.

All his old friends in Rome took part in this learned intercourse. Jerome refused to none the light of his knowledge, and pleasantly excused himself for giving one half of the human race a preference over the other: “Principia, my daughter in Jesus Christ, I know that some find fault with me for writing to women; let me say, then, to these detractors: If men questioned me on the Scriptures, they should receive my answers.”

There was great joy in the monasteries at Bethlehem when news arrived that another Paula was born in Rome. Eustochium brother had married Læta, the Christian daughter of the pagan pontiff Albinus. They had vowed their child to God before her birth; and now they rejoiced to hear her lisp into the ear of the priest of Jupiter the Christian Alleluia. On hearing of her grandmother beyond the seas, and of her aunt consecrated to God, the little one would beg to go and join them. “Send her,” wrote Jerome delightedly. “I will be her master and foster-father; I will carry her on my old shoulders; I will help her lisping lips to form her words; and I shall be prouder than Aristotle; for her indeed educated a king at Macedon, but I shall be preparing for Christ a handmaid, a bride, a queen predestined to a throne in heaven.” The child was, in fact, sent to Bethlehem, where she was destined to solace the last hours of the aged Saint, and to assume, while yet very young, the responsibility of carrying on the work of her holy relatives.

But Jerome had still more to suffer, before leaving this world. The elder Paula was the first to be called away, singing: I have chosen to be an abject in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners. So great a languor then took possession of St. Jerome that it seemed his end was approaching. Eustochium, though broken-hearted, repressed her tears, and implored him to live and fulfill his promises to her mother. He therefore aroused himself, finished his translations, and took up again his commentaries on the text. He had completed Isaias, and was engaged upon Ezechiel, when the most awful calamity of those times came upon the world: “Rome is fallen; the light of the earth is extinguished; in that one City the whole universe has perished. What can we do, but hold our peace and think upon the dead?”

He had, however, to think about the living also, for numberless fugitives, destitute of all things, made their way to the holy Places; and the uncompromising wrestler was all tenderness to these unfortunates. Loving the practice of the Holy Scripture no less than its teaching, he spent his days in discharging the duties of hospitality. In spite of his failing sight, he gave the night hours to his dear studies, wherein he forgot the troubles of the day, and rejoined to fulfill the desires of the spiritual daughter God had given him. The prefaces to his fourteen books on Ezechiel bear witness to the share taken by the virgin of Christ in this work undertaken despite the misfortunes of the times, his own infirmities, and his last controversies with heretics.

Heresy seemed indeed to be profiting of the troubled state of the world, to rise up with renewed audacity. The Pelagians, supported by Bishop John of Jerusalem, assembled one night with torches and swords, and set fire to the monastery of St. Jerome, and to that of the sacred virgins then governed by Eustochium. Manfully seconded by her niece Paula the younger, the Saint rallied her terrified daughters, and they escaped together through the midst of the flames. But the anxiety of that terrible night was too much for her already exhausted strength. Jerome laid her to rest beside her mother, near the Crib of the Infant God; and leaving his commentary on Jeremias unfinished, he prepared himself to die.

The following is the Liturgical account of his life.

Quote:Jerome, son of Eusebius, was born at Stridonium in Dalmatia, during the reign of the emperor Constantine. He was baptized while still young at Rome, and was instructed in the liberal arts by Donatus and other learned men. His love of knowledge led him to travel to Gaul, where he made the acquaintance of several pious men learned in divinity, and copied many sacred books with his own hand. He then proceeded to Greece, to study eloquence and philosophy. Here he won the friendship of some great theologians; in particular of Gregory Nazianzen, under whom he studied at Constantinople, and whom he calls his master in sacred learning. Drawn by religious motives, he visited the Crib of Christ our Lord, and the whole of Palestine: and he tells us that this pilgrimage, made in the company of some learned Jews, was of the greatest service to him for the understanding of holy Scripture.

After this Jerome retired into the lonely desert of Syria, where he spent four years in reading the holy Scripture, and in the contemplation of heavenly beatitude, afflicting his body by abstinence, weeping, and every kind of penance. He was ordained priest by Paulinus, bishop of Antioch; in whose company and that of Epiphanius, he came to Rome, to settle the disputes that had arisen between certain bishops. Here Pope Damasus engaged him to assist in writing his ecclesiastical letters. But yearning for his former solitude, he returned to Palestine, and settled at Bethlehem in a monastery built by the Roman lady Paula, near our Lord’s Crib. Here he led a heavenly life; and though much afflicted with sickness and sufferings, he devoted himself, in spite of his bodily weakness, to works of piety and to ceaseless study and writing.

From all parts of the world he was referred to as an oracle for the decision of questions concerning the sacred Scriptures. Pope Damasus and St. Augustine often consulted him on difficult passages of Holy Writ, on account of his remarkable learning and his knowledge not only of Latin and Greek but also of Hebrew and Chaldaic. According to St. Augustine, he had read almost every author. In his writings he severely censured heretics; but always lent his support to faithful Catholics. He translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew; and at the command of Pope Damasus, revised the New Testament, collating it with the Greek; he also commented the greater part of holy Scripture. Besides this, he translated into Latin the writings of many learned men, and enriched Christian science with other works from his own pen. At length, having reached extreme old age, and being renowned for learning and holiness, he passed to heaven in the reign of Honorius. His body was buried at Bethlehem; but was afterwards translated to Rome and laid in the Basilica of St. Mary ad Præsepe.

Thou completest, O illustrious Saint, the brilliant constellation of Doctors in the heavens of holy Church. The latest stars are now rising on the sacred Cycle; the dawn of the eternal Day is at hand; the Sun of Justice will soon shine down upon the Valley of Judgment. O model of penance, teach us that holy fear which restrains from sin, or repairs its ravages; guide us along the rugged path of expiation. Historian of great monks, (Life of St Paul the Hermit, Life of S. Hilarion, Life of Malchus, the Captive Monk) thyself a monk and father of the solitaries attracted like these to Bethlehem by the sweetness of the divine Infant, keep up the spirit of labor and prayer in the monastic Order, of which several families have adopted thy name. Scourge of heretics, attach us firmly to the Roman faith. Watchful guardian of Christ’s flock, protect us against wolves, and preserve us from hirelings. Avenger of Mary’s honor, obtain for our sinful world that the angelic virtue may flourish more and more.

O Jerome, thy special glory is a participation in the power of the Lamb to open the mysterious Book; the key of David was given to thee to unclose the many seals of holy Scripture, and to show us Jesus concealed beneath the letter. (Letter 53 to Paulinus) The Church, therefore, sings thy praises today and presents thee to her children as the official interpreter of the inspired writings which guide her to her eternal destiny. Accept her homage and the gratitude of her sons. May our Lord, by thy intercession, renew in us the respect and love due to his divine word. May thy merits obtain for the world other holy doctors and learned interpreters of the sacred Books. But let them bear in mind the spirit of reverence and prayer with which they must hear the voice of God in order to understand. God will have his word obeyed, not discussed; although, among the various interpretations of which that divine word is susceptible, it is lawful, under the guidance of the Church, to seek out the true one; and it is praiseworthy to be ever sounding the depths of beauty hidden in that august doctrine. Happy is he who follows thy footsteps in these holy studies! Thou didst say: “To live in the midst of such treasures, to be wholly engrossed in them, to know and to seek nothing else, is it not to dwell already more in heaven than on earth? Let us learn in time that science which will endure forever.” (Ibid.)]]> September 30 – St Jerome, Priest Confessor and Doctor of the Church

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

[Image: 14-1.jpg?resize=768%2C672&ssl=1]

Quote:Jerome, son of Eusebius, was born at Stridonium in Dalmatia, during the reign of the emperor Constantine. He was baptized while still young at Rome, and was instructed in the liberal arts by Donatus and other learned men. His love of knowledge led him to travel to Gaul, where he made the acquaintance of several pious men learned in divinity, and copied many sacred books with his own hand. He then proceeded to Greece, to study eloquence and philosophy. Here he won the friendship of some great theologians; in particular of Gregory Nazianzen, under whom he studied at Constantinople, and whom he calls his master in sacred learning. Drawn by religious motives, he visited the Crib of Christ our Lord, and the whole of Palestine: and he tells us that this pilgrimage, made in the company of some learned Jews, was of the greatest service to him for the understanding of holy Scripture.

After this Jerome retired into the lonely desert of Syria, where he spent four years in reading the holy Scripture, and in the contemplation of heavenly beatitude, afflicting his body by abstinence, weeping, and every kind of penance. He was ordained priest by Paulinus, bishop of Antioch; in whose company and that of Epiphanius, he came to Rome, to settle the disputes that had arisen between certain bishops. Here Pope Damasus engaged him to assist in writing his ecclesiastical letters. But yearning for his former solitude, he returned to Palestine, and settled at Bethlehem in a monastery built by the Roman lady Paula, near our Lord’s Crib. Here he led a heavenly life; and though much afflicted with sickness and sufferings, he devoted himself, in spite of his bodily weakness, to works of piety and to ceaseless study and writing.

From all parts of the world he was referred to as an oracle for the decision of questions concerning the sacred Scriptures. Pope Damasus and St. Augustine often consulted him on difficult passages of Holy Writ, on account of his remarkable learning and his knowledge not only of Latin and Greek but also of Hebrew and Chaldaic. According to St. Augustine, he had read almost every author. In his writings he severely censured heretics; but always lent his support to faithful Catholics. He translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew; and at the command of Pope Damasus, revised the New Testament, collating it with the Greek; he also commented the greater part of holy Scripture. Besides this, he translated into Latin the writings of many learned men, and enriched Christian science with other works from his own pen. At length, having reached extreme old age, and being renowned for learning and holiness, he passed to heaven in the reign of Honorius. His body was buried at Bethlehem; but was afterwards translated to Rome and laid in the Basilica of St. Mary ad Præsepe.

Thou completest, O illustrious Saint, the brilliant constellation of Doctors in the heavens of holy Church. The latest stars are now rising on the sacred Cycle; the dawn of the eternal Day is at hand; the Sun of Justice will soon shine down upon the Valley of Judgment. O model of penance, teach us that holy fear which restrains from sin, or repairs its ravages; guide us along the rugged path of expiation. Historian of great monks, (Life of St Paul the Hermit, Life of S. Hilarion, Life of Malchus, the Captive Monk) thyself a monk and father of the solitaries attracted like these to Bethlehem by the sweetness of the divine Infant, keep up the spirit of labor and prayer in the monastic Order, of which several families have adopted thy name. Scourge of heretics, attach us firmly to the Roman faith. Watchful guardian of Christ’s flock, protect us against wolves, and preserve us from hirelings. Avenger of Mary’s honor, obtain for our sinful world that the angelic virtue may flourish more and more.

O Jerome, thy special glory is a participation in the power of the Lamb to open the mysterious Book; the key of David was given to thee to unclose the many seals of holy Scripture, and to show us Jesus concealed beneath the letter. (Letter 53 to Paulinus) The Church, therefore, sings thy praises today and presents thee to her children as the official interpreter of the inspired writings which guide her to her eternal destiny. Accept her homage and the gratitude of her sons. May our Lord, by thy intercession, renew in us the respect and love due to his divine word. May thy merits obtain for the world other holy doctors and learned interpreters of the sacred Books. But let them bear in mind the spirit of reverence and prayer with which they must hear the voice of God in order to understand. God will have his word obeyed, not discussed; although, among the various interpretations of which that divine word is susceptible, it is lawful, under the guidance of the Church, to seek out the true one; and it is praiseworthy to be ever sounding the depths of beauty hidden in that august doctrine. Happy is he who follows thy footsteps in these holy studies! Thou didst say: “To live in the midst of such treasures, to be wholly engrossed in them, to know and to seek nothing else, is it not to dwell already more in heaven than on earth? Let us learn in time that science which will endure forever.” (Ibid.)]]> <![CDATA[September 29th – Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2621 Wed, 29 Sep 2021 12:11:55 +0000 Stone]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2621 September 29 – Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel

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

[Image: Michael-at-Mt-Gargano.jpg?w=640&ssl=1]

The glorious Archangel appears today at the head of the heavenly army: There was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels. In the sixth century, the dedication of the churches of St. Michael on Monte Gargano and in the Roman Circus increased the celebrity of this day, which had however been long before consecrated by Rome to the memory of all the heavenly Virtues.

The east commemorates on the sixth of September an apparition of the victorious Prince at Chone (ancient Collossæ) in Phrygia; while the eighth of November is the solemnity of the angels, corresponding to our feast of today, and bearing the title: “Synaxis of Saint Michael prince of the heavenly host, and of the other spiritual Powers.” Although the term synaxis is usually applied only to religious assemblies here on earth, we are informed that in this instance it also signifies the gathering of the faithful angels at the cry of their chief, and their union eternally sealed by their victory.

Who, then, are these heavenly Powers, whose mysterious combat heads the first page of history? Their existence is attested by the traditions of all nations as well as by the authority of holy Scripture. If we consult the Church, she teaches us that in the beginning God created simultaneously two natures, the spiritual and the corporal, and afterwards man who is composed of both. The scale of nature descends by gradation from beings made to the likeness of God, to the very confines of nothingness; and by the same degrees the creature mounts upwards to his Creator. God is infinite being, infinite intelligence, infinite love. The creature is forever finite: but man, endowed with a reasoning intellect, and the angel, with an intuitive grasp of truth, are ever, by a continual process of purification, widening the bounds of their imperfect nature, in order to reach, by increase of light, the perfection of greater love.

God alone is simple with that unchangeable productive simplicity, which is absolute perfection excluding the possibility of progress; He is pure Act, in whom substance, power, and operation are one thing. The angel, though entirely independent of matter, is yet subject to the natural weakness necessary to a created being; he is not absolutely simple, for in him action is distinct from power, and power of essence. How much greater is the weakness of man’s composite nature, unable to carry on the operations of the intellect without the aid of the senses!

“Compared with ours,” says one of the most enlightened brethren of the angelic doctor, “how calm and how luminous is the knowledge of pure spirits! They are not doomed to the intricate discoursings of our reason, which runs after the truth, composes and analyzes, and laboriously draws conclusions from premises. They instantaneously apprehend the whole compass of primary truths. Their intuition is so prompt, so lively, so penetrating, that it is impossible for them to be surprised, as we are, into error. If they deceive themselves, it must be of their own will. The perfection of their will is equal to the perfection of their intellect. They know not what it is to be disturbed by the violence of appetites. Their love is without emotion; and their hatred of evil is as calm and as wisely tempered as their love. A will so free can know no perplexity as to its aims, no inconstancy in its resolutions. Whereas with us long and anxious meditation is necessary before we make a decision, it is the property of the angels to determine by a single act the object of their choice. God proposed to them, as He does to us, infinite beatitude in the vision of His own Essence; and to fit them for so great an end, He endowed them with grace at the same time as He gave them being. In one instant they said Yes or No; in one instant they freely and deliberately decided their own fate.”

Let us not be envious. By nature the angel is superior to us; but, to which of the angels hath He said at any time, “Thou art My Son?” (Hebrews 1:5, Psalm 2:7) The only-begotten Son of God did not take to Himself the angelic nature. When on earth, He acknowledged the temporary subordination of humanity to those pure spirits, and deigned to receive from them, even as do His brethren in the flesh, and announcements of the divine will, (Dionys. Areop. De cælesti hierarchia, 4:4; Matthew 2:13-15) and help and strength. (Luke 22:43) But “God hath not subjected unto angels the world to come,” says the apostle. (Hebrews 2:5) How can we understand this attraction of God towards what is feeblest? We can only worship it in humble, loving faith. It was Lucifer’s stumbling-block on the day of the great battle in heaven. But the faithful angels prostrated themselves in joyous adoration at the feet of the Infant-God foreshown to them enthroned on Mary’s knee, and then rose up to sing: “Glory to God in the highest, an don earth peace to men of good will.”

O Christ, my Christ, as St. Denis calls Thee, (Dionys. De cælesti hierarchia, 2:5) the Church today delightedly proclaims Thee the beauty of the holy angels. (Hymn of Lauds) Then, the God-Man, art the lofty height whence purity, light, and love flow down upon the triple hierarchy of the nine choirs. Thou art the supreme Hierarch, the center of worlds, controller of the deifying mysteries at the eternal feast.

Flaming Seraphim, glittering Cherubim, steadfast Thrones, court of honor to the Most High, and possessed of the noblest inheritance: according to the Areopagite, ye receive your justice, your splendor, and your burning love by direct communication from our Lord: (Dionys. ubi supra, 7:2) and through you, all grace overflows from Him upon the holy city.

Dominations, Virtues, and Powers; sovereign disposers, prime movers, and rulers of the universe: in whose name do ye govern the world? Doubtless in His whose inheritance it is; in the name of the King of glory, the Man-God, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord of hosts.

Angels, Archangels, and Principalities; heaven’s messengers, ambassadors, and overseers here below: are ye not also, as the apostle says, ministers of the salvation wrought on earth by Jesus, the heavenly High Priest?

We also, through this same Jesus, O most holy Trinity, glorify Thee, together with the three princely hierarchies, which surround Thy Majesty with their nine immaterial rings as with a man-circled rampart. To tend to Thee, and to draw all things to Thee, is their common law. Purification, illumination, union: by these three ways in succession, or simultaneously, are these noble beings attracted to God, and by the same they attract those who strive to emulate them. Sublime spirits, it is with your gaze ever fixed on high that ye influence those below and around you. Draw plentifully, both for yourselves and for us, from the central fires of the Divinity; purify us from more than the involuntary infirmities of nature; enlighten us; kindle us with your heavenly flames. For the same reason that satan hates us, ye love us: protect the race of the Word made Flesh against the common enemy. So guard us, that we may hereafter be worthy to occupy among you the places left vacant by the victims of pride.

Adam of St. Victor thus sings the fullness of today’s mystery.

Sequence

Laus erumpat ex affectu,
Psallat chorus in conspectu
Supernorum civium:
Laus jocunda, laus decora,
Quando laudi concanora
Puritas est cordium.

Let love break forth into praise; let our choir sing in presence of the heavenly citizens: our praise will be pleasing and beautiful, if the purity of our hearts be in accord therewith.

Michaelem cuncti laudent,
Nec ab hujus se defraudent Diei lætitia:
Felix dies qua sanctorum
Recensetur angelorum
Solemnis victoria.

Let all praise Michael; let none deprive himself of this day’s joy. O happy day! whereon the solemn victory of the holy angels is recorded.

Draco vetus exturbatur
Et draconis effugatur
Inimica legio:
Exturbatus est turbator
Et projectus accusatur
A cœli fastigio.

The old dragon is cast out, and all his hostile legions put to flight: the disturber is himself disturbed, the accuser is hurled down from the height of heaven.

Sub tutela Michaelis
Pax in terra, pax in cœlis,
Laus in jubilatio:
Cum sit potens hic virtute,
Pro communi stans salute,
Triumphant in prælio.

Under Michael’s protection there is peace on earth, peace in heaven, praise and exsultation; for he, mighty and valorous, stands for the safety of all and triumphs in the battle.

Suggestor sceleris,
Pulsus a superia,
Per juhus seris
Oberrat spatia:
Dolis invigilat,
Virus insibilat,
Sed hunc annihilat
Præsens custodia.

Banished from heaven, the originator of sin wanders through the air: he watches to lay his snares, and insinuates his poison; but the guardian band of angels reduces his power to nought.

Træ distinctæ hierarchiæ
Jugi vacant theoriæ
Jugique psallentio:
Nec obsistit theoria
Sive jugis harmonia
Jugi ministerio.

The three distinct hierarchies are ever occupied in contemplation and unending song; nor does their contemplation nor their ceaseless harmony interrupt their continual ministry.

O quam miræ caritatis
Est supernæ civitatis
Ter terna distinctio:
Quæ nos amat et tuetur,
Ut ex nobis restauretur
Ejus diminutio.

Oh! in the heavenly city how wondrous is the charity of the three tripled choirs; they love us and defend us, and hope to see their ranks filled up by thee.

Sicut sunt hominum
Divisæ gratiæ,
Sic erunt ordinum
Distinctæ gloriæ
Justis in præmio:
Solis est alia
Quam lunæ dignitas,
Stellarum varia
Relucit claritas:
Sic resurrectio.

As among men there are divers graces upon earth, so in the heavenly reward the just will receive divers degrees of glory; other is the excellence of the sun, other that of the moon, and various the brightness of the stars; so shall be the resurrection.

Vetus homo novitati,
Se terrenus puritati
Conformet cœlestium:
Coæqualis his futurus,
Licet nondum plene purus,
Spe præsumat præmium.

Let the old man be brought into conformity with the new, the earthly to the purity of the heavenly citizens; he is one day to be equal to them, and though not yet wholly pure, let him in hope look forward to the prize.

Ut ab ipsis adjuvemur,
Hos devote veneremur
Instantes obsequio:
Deo nos conciliat
Angelisque sociat
Sincera devotio.

That we may be assisted by these blessed spirits, let us devoutly venerate them and be untiring in our homage; sincere devotion reconciles to God and unites us with the angels.

De secretis reticentes
Interim cœlestibus,
Erigamus puras mentes
In cœlum cum manibus:

Meanwhile let us be silent as to the secrets of heaven, and lift up pure minds and spotless hands on high:

Ut superna nos dignetur
Cohæredes curia,
Et divina collaudetur
Ab utrisque gratia.

Thus may the most high senate recognize us as coheirs: and may the divine grace be praised alike by angels and men.

Capiti sit gloria
Membrisque concordia. Amen.

To our divine Head be glory and among his members union. Amen.]]> September 29 – Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel

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

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Adam of St. Victor thus sings the fullness of today’s mystery.

Sequence

Laus erumpat ex affectu,
Psallat chorus in conspectu
Supernorum civium:
Laus jocunda, laus decora,
Quando laudi concanora
Puritas est cordium.

Let love break forth into praise; let our choir sing in presence of the heavenly citizens: our praise will be pleasing and beautiful, if the purity of our hearts be in accord therewith.

Michaelem cuncti laudent,
Nec ab hujus se defraudent Diei lætitia:
Felix dies qua sanctorum
Recensetur angelorum
Solemnis victoria.

Let all praise Michael; let none deprive himself of this day’s joy. O happy day! whereon the solemn victory of the holy angels is recorded.

Draco vetus exturbatur
Et draconis effugatur
Inimica legio:
Exturbatus est turbator
Et projectus accusatur
A cœli fastigio.

The old dragon is cast out, and all his hostile legions put to flight: the disturber is himself disturbed, the accuser is hurled down from the height of heaven.

Sub tutela Michaelis
Pax in terra, pax in cœlis,
Laus in jubilatio:
Cum sit potens hic virtute,
Pro communi stans salute,
Triumphant in prælio.

Under Michael’s protection there is peace on earth, peace in heaven, praise and exsultation; for he, mighty and valorous, stands for the safety of all and triumphs in the battle.

Suggestor sceleris,
Pulsus a superia,
Per juhus seris
Oberrat spatia:
Dolis invigilat,
Virus insibilat,
Sed hunc annihilat
Præsens custodia.

Banished from heaven, the originator of sin wanders through the air: he watches to lay his snares, and insinuates his poison; but the guardian band of angels reduces his power to nought.

Træ distinctæ hierarchiæ
Jugi vacant theoriæ
Jugique psallentio:
Nec obsistit theoria
Sive jugis harmonia
Jugi ministerio.

The three distinct hierarchies are ever occupied in contemplation and unending song; nor does their contemplation nor their ceaseless harmony interrupt their continual ministry.

O quam miræ caritatis
Est supernæ civitatis
Ter terna distinctio:
Quæ nos amat et tuetur,
Ut ex nobis restauretur
Ejus diminutio.

Oh! in the heavenly city how wondrous is the charity of the three tripled choirs; they love us and defend us, and hope to see their ranks filled up by thee.

Sicut sunt hominum
Divisæ gratiæ,
Sic erunt ordinum
Distinctæ gloriæ
Justis in præmio:
Solis est alia
Quam lunæ dignitas,
Stellarum varia
Relucit claritas:
Sic resurrectio.

As among men there are divers graces upon earth, so in the heavenly reward the just will receive divers degrees of glory; other is the excellence of the sun, other that of the moon, and various the brightness of the stars; so shall be the resurrection.

Vetus homo novitati,
Se terrenus puritati
Conformet cœlestium:
Coæqualis his futurus,
Licet nondum plene purus,
Spe præsumat præmium.

Let the old man be brought into conformity with the new, the earthly to the purity of the heavenly citizens; he is one day to be equal to them, and though not yet wholly pure, let him in hope look forward to the prize.

Ut ab ipsis adjuvemur,
Hos devote veneremur
Instantes obsequio:
Deo nos conciliat
Angelisque sociat
Sincera devotio.

That we may be assisted by these blessed spirits, let us devoutly venerate them and be untiring in our homage; sincere devotion reconciles to God and unites us with the angels.

De secretis reticentes
Interim cœlestibus,
Erigamus puras mentes
In cœlum cum manibus:

Meanwhile let us be silent as to the secrets of heaven, and lift up pure minds and spotless hands on high:

Ut superna nos dignetur
Cohæredes curia,
Et divina collaudetur
Ab utrisque gratia.

Thus may the most high senate recognize us as coheirs: and may the divine grace be praised alike by angels and men.

Capiti sit gloria
Membrisque concordia. Amen.

To our divine Head be glory and among his members union. Amen.]]> <![CDATA[September 28th – St. Wenceslas, Duke and Martyr]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2614 Tue, 28 Sep 2021 09:58:58 +0000 Stone]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2614 September 28 – St. Wenceslas, Duke and Martyr

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

[Image: death.jpg?w=350&ssl=1]

Wenceslas recalls to us the entrance into the Church of a warlike nation, the Czechs, the most indomitable of the Slavonic tribes, which had penetrated into the very midst of Germany. It is well known with what bitterness and active energy this nation upholds its social claims, as though its struggle for existence in the early days of its history had made it proof against every trial. The faith of its apostles and martyrs, the Roman faith, will be the safeguard as it is the bond of union of the countries subject to the crown of St. Wenceslas. Heresy, whether it be the native Hussite or the Reform, imported from Germany can but lead the people to eternal ruin; may they never yield to the advances and seductions of schism! Wenceslas, the martyr grandson of the holy martyr Ludmilla, and great uncle of the monk bishop and martyr Adalbert, invites his faithful subjects to follow him in the only path where they may find honour and security both for this world and the next.

Let us now read the Legend of holy Church. The conversion of Bohemia dates from the latter part of the ninth century, when St. Methodius baptized St. Ludmilla and her husband Borziwoi, the first Christian Duke of the line of Premislas. The pagan reaction, during which St. Wenceslas gained the palm of martyrdom, was but short lived.

Quote:Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia, was born of a Christian father, Wratislas, and a pagan mother, Drahomira. Brought up in piety by the holy woman Ludmilla his grandmother, he was adorned with every virtue, and with the utmost care preserved his virginity unspotted throughout his life. His mother, having murdered Ludmilla, seized the reins of government; but her wicked life, and that of her younger son Boleslas, excited the indignation of the nobles. These, wearied of a tyrannical and impious rule, threw off the yoke of both mother and son and proclaimed Wenceslas king at Prague.

He ruled his kingdom rather by kindness than by authority. He succored orphans, widows, and all the poor with the greatest charity, sometimes even carrying wood on his shoulders, by night, to those in need of it. He frequently assisted at the funerals of poor citizens, liberated captives, and often visited the prisoners during the night, assisting them with gifts and advice. It caused great sorrow to his tender heart to condemn even the guilty to death. He had the greatest reverence for priests; and with his own hands he would sow the corn and prepare the wine to be used in the sacrifice of the Mass. At night he used to go the round of the churches barefoot, through ice and snow, while his bloodstained footprints warmed the ground.

The Angels formed his body-guard. In order to spare the lives of his soldiers, he undertook to fight in single combat with Radislas, Duke of Gurima; but when the latter saw Angels arming Wenceslas, and heard them forbidding him to strike, he was terrified and fell at the Saint’s feet begging his forgiveness. On one occasion, when he had gone to Germany, the emperor, at his approach, saw two Angels adorning him with a golden cross; whereupon, rising from his throne, he embraced the Saint, bestowed on him the regal insignia, and presented him with the arm of St. Vitus. Nevertheless, instigated by their mother, his wicked brother invited him to a banquet, and then, together with some accomplices, killed him as he was praying in the church, aware of the death that awaited him. His blood is still to be seen sprinkled on the walls. God avenged his Saint: the earth swallowed up the inhuman mother, and the murderers perished miserably in various ways.

Thou didst win thy crown, O holy martyr, in the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian, whither their feast had attracted thee [Christian de Scala, son of the fratricide Boleslas the cruel, and nephew of the saint; he became a monk, and wrote the lives of St. Wenceslas and St. Ludmilla.]. As thou didst honor them, we now in turn honor thee. We are also hailing the approach of that other solemnity, which thou didst greet with thy last words at the fratricidal banquet: “In honor of the Archangel Michael let us drink this cup, and let us beseech him to lead our souls into the peace of eternal happiness.” (Ibid.) What a sublime pledge, when thou wast already grasping the chalice of blood! O Wenceslas, fire us with that intrepid valor, which is ever humble and gentle, simple as God to whom it tends, calm as the Angels on whom it relies. Succor the Church in these unfortunate times; the whole Church honors thee, she has a right to expect thy assistance. But especially cherish for her the nation of which thou art the honor; as long as it remains faithful to thy blessed memory, and looks to thy patronage in its earthly combats, its wanderings from the truth will not be without return.]]> September 28 – St. Wenceslas, Duke and Martyr

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

[Image: death.jpg?w=350&ssl=1]

Quote:Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia, was born of a Christian father, Wratislas, and a pagan mother, Drahomira. Brought up in piety by the holy woman Ludmilla his grandmother, he was adorned with every virtue, and with the utmost care preserved his virginity unspotted throughout his life. His mother, having murdered Ludmilla, seized the reins of government; but her wicked life, and that of her younger son Boleslas, excited the indignation of the nobles. These, wearied of a tyrannical and impious rule, threw off the yoke of both mother and son and proclaimed Wenceslas king at Prague.

He ruled his kingdom rather by kindness than by authority. He succored orphans, widows, and all the poor with the greatest charity, sometimes even carrying wood on his shoulders, by night, to those in need of it. He frequently assisted at the funerals of poor citizens, liberated captives, and often visited the prisoners during the night, assisting them with gifts and advice. It caused great sorrow to his tender heart to condemn even the guilty to death. He had the greatest reverence for priests; and with his own hands he would sow the corn and prepare the wine to be used in the sacrifice of the Mass. At night he used to go the round of the churches barefoot, through ice and snow, while his bloodstained footprints warmed the ground.

The Angels formed his body-guard. In order to spare the lives of his soldiers, he undertook to fight in single combat with Radislas, Duke of Gurima; but when the latter saw Angels arming Wenceslas, and heard them forbidding him to strike, he was terrified and fell at the Saint’s feet begging his forgiveness. On one occasion, when he had gone to Germany, the emperor, at his approach, saw two Angels adorning him with a golden cross; whereupon, rising from his throne, he embraced the Saint, bestowed on him the regal insignia, and presented him with the arm of St. Vitus. Nevertheless, instigated by their mother, his wicked brother invited him to a banquet, and then, together with some accomplices, killed him as he was praying in the church, aware of the death that awaited him. His blood is still to be seen sprinkled on the walls. God avenged his Saint: the earth swallowed up the inhuman mother, and the murderers perished miserably in various ways.

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

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Honor the physician for the need thou hast of him: for the most High hath created him. For all healing is from God, and he shall receive gifts of the king. The skill of the physician shall lift up his head, and in the sight of great men he shall be praised. The most High hath created medicines out of the earth, and a wise man will not abhor them. Was not bitter water made sweet with wood? The virtue of these things is come to the knowledge of hem, and the most High hath given knowledge to men, that he may be honored in his wonders. By these he shall cure and shall allay their pains, and of these the apothecary shall make sweet confections, and shall make up ointments of health, and of his works there shall be no end. For the peace of God is over the face of the earth. My son, in thy sickness neglect not thyself, but pray to the Lord, and he shall heal thee. Turn away from sin and order thy hands aright, and cleanse thy heart from all offense. Give a sweet savor, and a memorial of fine flour, and make a fat offering, and then give place to the physician. For the Lord created him: and let him not depart from thee, for his works are necessary. For there is a time when thou must fall into their hands: and they shall beseech the Lord, that he would prosper what they give for ease and remedy, for their conversation. These words of the Wise Man are appropriate for this feast. The Church, obeying the inspired injunction, honors the medical profession in the persons of Cosmas and Damian, who not only, like many others (Dom A. M. Fournier, Notices sur les saints médecins), sanctified themselves in that career; but far beyond all others, demonstrated to the world how grand a part the physician may play in Christian society.

Cosmas and Damian had been Christians from their childhood. The study of Hippocrates and Galen developed their love of God, whose invisible perfections they admired reflected in the magnificences of creation, and especially in the human body his palace and his temple. To them, science was a hymn of praise to their Creator, and the exercise of their art a sacred ministry; they served God in his suffering members, and watched over his human sanctuary, to preserve it from injury or to repair its ruins. Such a life of religious charity was fittingly crowned by the perfect sacrifice of martyrdom.

East and West vied with each other in paying homage to the Anargyres, as our Saints were called on account of their receiving no fees for their services. Numerous churches were dedicated to them. The emperor Justinian embellished and fortified the obscure town of Cyrus out of reverence for their sacred relics there preserved; and about the same time, Pope Felix IV built a church in their honor in the Roman Forum, thus substituting the memory of the twin martyrs for that of the less happy brothers Romulus and Remus. Not long before this, St. Benedict had dedicated to Saints Cosmas and Damian his first monastery at Subiaco, now known as St. Scholastica’s. But Rome rendered the highest of all honors to the holy Arabian brethren, by placing their names, in preference to so many thousands of her own heroes, in the solemn litanies and on the sacred diptychs of the Mass.

In the middle ages, the physicians and surgeons banded together into confraternities, whose object was the sanctification of the members by common prayer, charity towards the destitute, and the accomplishment of all the duties of their important vocation for the greater glory of God and the greater good of suffering humanity. The Society of Sts. Luke, Cosmas and Damian has now undertaken in France the renewal of these happy traditions.

The following is the Church’s account of the two brothers.

Quote:The brothers Cosmas and Damian were Arabians of noble extraction, born in the town of Ægæ. They were physicians; and during the reign of Diocletian and Maximian, healed even incurable maladies no less by Christ’s assistance than by their knowledge of medicine. The prefect Lysias, being informed of their religion, ordered them to be brought before him, and questioned them on their faith and their manner of life. They openly declared that they were Christians, and that the Christian faith is necessary to salvation; whereupon Lysias commanded them to adore the gods, threatening them, if they refused, with torture and a cruel death.

But as the prefect saw his threats were in vain: “Bind their hands and feet,” he cried, “and torture them with the utmost cruelty.” His commands were executed, but Cosmas and Damian remained firm. They were then thrown, chained as they were, into the sea, but came out safe and loosed from their bonds. The prefect attributing this to magical acts ordered them to prison. The next day, he commanded them to be led forth and thrown on a burning pile, but the flame refused to touch them. Finally, after several other cruel tortures, they were beheaded; and thus confessing Jesus Christ, they won the palm of martyrdom.

In you, O illustrious brethren, was fulfilled this saying of the Wise Man: The skill of the physician shall lift up his head, and in the sight of great men he shall be praised. The great ones, in whose sight you are exalted, are the princes of the heavenly hierarchies, witnessing today the homage paid to you by the Church militant. The glory that surrounds your heads is the glory of God himself, of that bountiful king, who rewards your former disinterestedness by bestowing upon you his own blessed life.

In the bosom of divine love, your charity cannot wax cold; help us, then, and heal the sick who confidently implore your assistance. Preserve the health of God’s children so that they may fulfill their obligations to the world, may courageously bear the light yoke of the Church’s precepts. Bless those physicians who are faithful to their baptism, and who seek your aid; and increase the number of such.

See how the study of medicine now so often leads astray into the paths of materialism and fatalism, to the great detriment of science and humanity. It is false to assert that simple nature is the explanation of suffering and death; and unfortunate are those whose physicians regard them as mere flesh and blood. Even the pagan school took a loftier view than that; and it was surely a higher ideal that inspired you to exercise your art with such religious reverence. By the virtue of your glorious death, O witnesses to the Lord, obtain for our sickly society a return to the faith, to the remembrance of God, and to that piety which is profitable to all things and all men, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.]]> September 27 – St Cosmas and Damien, Martyrs

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

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Quote:The brothers Cosmas and Damian were Arabians of noble extraction, born in the town of Ægæ. They were physicians; and during the reign of Diocletian and Maximian, healed even incurable maladies no less by Christ’s assistance than by their knowledge of medicine. The prefect Lysias, being informed of their religion, ordered them to be brought before him, and questioned them on their faith and their manner of life. They openly declared that they were Christians, and that the Christian faith is necessary to salvation; whereupon Lysias commanded them to adore the gods, threatening them, if they refused, with torture and a cruel death.

But as the prefect saw his threats were in vain: “Bind their hands and feet,” he cried, “and torture them with the utmost cruelty.” His commands were executed, but Cosmas and Damian remained firm. They were then thrown, chained as they were, into the sea, but came out safe and loosed from their bonds. The prefect attributing this to magical acts ordered them to prison. The next day, he commanded them to be led forth and thrown on a burning pile, but the flame refused to touch them. Finally, after several other cruel tortures, they were beheaded; and thus confessing Jesus Christ, they won the palm of martyrdom.

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“Whosoever ye be that are seduced by the mysteries of the demons, none of you can equal the zeal I once had for these false gods, nor my researches into their secrets, nor the vain power they had communicated to me, to me Cyprian, who from my infancy was given up to the service of the dragon in the citadel of Minerva. Learn from me the deceitfulness of their illusions. A virgin has proved to me that their power is but smoke. The king of the demons was arrested at the door of a mere child, and could not cross the threshold. He who promises so much is a liar. A woman makes sport of the boaster who vaunted he could shake heaven and earth. The roaring lion becomes a startled gnat before the Christian virgin Justina.”

Quote:Cyprian, who was first a magician and afterwards a martyr, attempted, by charms and spells, to make Justina, a Christian virgin, consent to the passion of a certain young man. He consulted the devil as to the best way to succeed, and was told in reply that no art would be of any service to him against the true disciples of Christ. This answer made so great an impression on Cyprian, that, grieving bitterly over his former manner of life, he abandoned his magical arts, and was completely converted to the faith of Christ our Lord. Accused of being a Christian, he was seized together with the virgin Justina, and they were both severely scourged. They were then thrown into prison to see if they would change their mind; but on being taken out, as they remained firm in the Christian religion, they were cast into a cauldron of boiling pitch, fat, and wax. Finally they were beheaded at Nicomedia. Their bodies were left six days unburied; after which some sailors carried them secretly by night to their ship, and conveyed them to Rome. They were first buried on the estate of a noble lady named Rufina, but afterwards were translated into the City and laid in Constantine’s basilica, near the baptistery.

He who sought to ruin thee is now, O virgin, thy trophy of victory; and for thee, O Cyprian, the path of crime turned aside in to the way of salvation. May you together triumph over Satan in this age, when spirit-dealing is seducing so many faltering, faithless souls. Teach Christians, after your example, to arm themselves against this and every other danger with the sign of the Cross; then will the enemy be forced to say again: “I saw a terrible sign and I trembled; I beheld the sign of the Crucified, and my strength melted like wax.”]]> September 26 – St Cyprian, Martyr and St Justina, Virgin & Martyr
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger (1841-1875)

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Quote:Cyprian, who was first a magician and afterwards a martyr, attempted, by charms and spells, to make Justina, a Christian virgin, consent to the passion of a certain young man. He consulted the devil as to the best way to succeed, and was told in reply that no art would be of any service to him against the true disciples of Christ. This answer made so great an impression on Cyprian, that, grieving bitterly over his former manner of life, he abandoned his magical arts, and was completely converted to the faith of Christ our Lord. Accused of being a Christian, he was seized together with the virgin Justina, and they were both severely scourged. They were then thrown into prison to see if they would change their mind; but on being taken out, as they remained firm in the Christian religion, they were cast into a cauldron of boiling pitch, fat, and wax. Finally they were beheaded at Nicomedia. Their bodies were left six days unburied; after which some sailors carried them secretly by night to their ship, and conveyed them to Rome. They were first buried on the estate of a noble lady named Rufina, but afterwards were translated into the City and laid in Constantine’s basilica, near the baptistery.

He who sought to ruin thee is now, O virgin, thy trophy of victory; and for thee, O Cyprian, the path of crime turned aside in to the way of salvation. May you together triumph over Satan in this age, when spirit-dealing is seducing so many faltering, faithless souls. Teach Christians, after your example, to arm themselves against this and every other danger with the sign of the Cross; then will the enemy be forced to say again: “I saw a terrible sign and I trembled; I beheld the sign of the Crucified, and my strength melted like wax.”]]> <![CDATA[September 26th - Feast of St. Isaac Jogues and Companions [North American Martyrs]]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2603 Sun, 26 Sep 2021 11:51:38 +0000 Stone]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2603 St. Isaac Jogues

Taken from the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia

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French missionary, born at Orléans, France, 10 January, 1607; martyred at Ossernenon, in the present State of New York, 18 October, 1646. He was the first Catholic priest who ever came to Manhattan Island (New York). He entered the Society of Jesus in 1624 and, after having been professor of literature at Rouen, was sent as a missionary to Canada in 1636. He came out with Montmagny, the immediate successor of Champlain. From Quebec he went to the regions around the great lakes where the illustrious Father de Brébeuf and others were labouring. There he spent six years in constant danger. Though a daring missionary, his character was of the most practical nature, his purpose always being to fix his people in permanent habitations. He was with Garnier among the Petuns, and he and Raymbault penetrated as far as Sault Ste Marie, and "were the first missionaries", says Bancroft (VII, 790, London, 1853), "to preach the gospel a thousand miles in the interior, five years before John Eliot addressed the Indians six miles from Boston Harbour". There is little doubt that they were not only the first apostles but also the first white men to reach this outlet of Lake Superior. No documentary proof is adduced by the best-known historians that Nicholet, the discoverer of Lake Michigan, ever visited the Sault. Jogues proposed not only to convert the Indians of Lake Superior, but the Sioux who lived at the head waters of the Mississippi.

His plan was thwarted by his capture near Three Rivers returning from Quebec. He was taken prisoner on 3 August, 1642, and after being cruelly tortured was carried to the Indian village of Ossernenon, now Auriesville, on the Mohawk, about forty miles above the present city of Albany. There he remained for thirteen months in slavery, suffering apparently beyond the power of natural endurance. The Dutch Calvinists at Fort Orange (Albany) made constant efforts to free him, and at last, when he was about to be burnt to death, induced him to take refuge in a sailing vessel which carried him to New Amsterdam (New York). His description of the colony as it was at that time has since been incorporated in the Documentary History of the State. From New York he was sent; in mid-winter, across the ocean on a lugger of only fifty tons burden and after a voyage of two months, landed Christmas morning, 1643, on the coast of Brittany, in a state of absolute destitution. Thence he found his way to the nearest college of the Society. He was received with great honour at the court of the Queen Regent, the mother of Louis XIV, and was allowed by Pope Urban VII the very exceptional privilege of celebrating Mass, which the mutilated condition of his hands had made canonically impossible; several of his fingers having been eaten or burned off. He was called a martyr of Christ by the pontiff. No similar concession, up to that, is known to have been granted.

In early spring of 1644 he returned to Canada, and in 1646 was sent to negotiate peace with the Iroquois. He followed the same route over which he had been carried as a captive. It was on this occasion that he gave the name of Lake of the Blessed Sacrament to the body of water called by the Indians Horicon, now known as Lake George. He reached Ossernenon on 5 June, after a three weeks' journey from the St. Lawrence. He was well received by his former captors and the treaty of peace was made. He started for Quebec on 16 June and arrived there 3 July. He immediately asked to be sent back to the Iroquois as a missionary, but only after much hesitation his superiors acceded to his request. On 27 September he began his third and last journey to the Mohawk. In the interim sickness had broken out in the tribe and a blight had fallen on the crops. This double calamity was ascribed to Jogues whom the Indians always regarded as a sorcerer. They were determined to wreak vengence on him for the spell he had cast on the place, and warriors were sent out to capture him. The news of this change of sentiment spread rapidly, and though fully aware of the danger Jogues continued on his way to Ossernenon, though all the Hurons and others who were with him fled except Lalande. The Iroquois met him near Lake George, stripped him naked, slashed him with their knives, beat him and then led him to the village. On 18 October, 1646, when entering a cabin he was struck with a tomahawk and afterwards decapitated. The head was fixed on the Palisades and the body thrown into the Mohawk.

In view of his possible canonization a preliminary court was established in Quebec by the ecclesiastical authorities to receive testimony as to his sanctity and the cause of his death.

[Note: Isaac Jogues was canonized by Pope Pius XI on June 29, 1930, with seven other North American martyrs. Their collective feast day is October 19.]

✠ ✠ ✠

Isaac Jogues / 16O7 - 1646
by ANGUS MACDOUGALL

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Even among martyrs Isaac Jogues is somewhat unique, for he under-went one long drawn-out martyrdom years before he actually met his death from the blow of a tomahawk. In a sense, we could say that Jogues' martyrdom lasted from 1642 to 1646. This is why the story of his life is such a moving and memorable one.

The true greatness of Jogues emerged only under the stress of cap-ture and incredible suffering. It was as if his brethren had never really known the depth of his faith and love until these were literally tested in the fire of Iroquois torture and captivity. That occurred in 1642 when Jogues was taken prisoner near modern Sorel on the St. Lawrence.

THE MAN FROM ORLEANS

Isaac Jogues, born in Orleans, January 10, 1607, was the fifth of nine children. From the age of ten he attended Jesuit schools, and, when he was seventeen, decided to become a Jesuit. Once accepted, he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Rouen and had the privilege of being directed by Father Louis Lalemant, a master of the religious and spiri-tual life and a relative of the three Lalemants who served the mission of New France.

After two years of novitiate Jogues pursued his studies at the College of La Fle che and then, in 1629, began to teach the humanities to young French boys at Rouen. He was a successful teacher, for he was a gifted humanist himself with a remarkable grasp of language and expression. Four years later he turned to the study of theology at Clermont in Paris, and, after three years, he was ordained a priest in the chapel at Clermont.

This was 1636, and Jogues was deemed ready for missionary work in New France, an apostolate he had yearned for.

His Jesuit brethren had launched the mission in New France in 1625 while Jogues was still a novice. In 1626, they had sent the famous Jean de Brebeuf to open up another mission among the Hurons, 900 miles inland. This was a very difficult and demanding apostolate, yet Jogues aspired to it.

Of Jogues' early years as a Jesuit, Father Jacques Buteux, a friend, said: "he was loved by Ours as being most gentle and as being very observant of our way of life."

The young Jesuit priest sailed from Dieppe, April 8, 1636 and eight weeks later his ship dropped anchor in the Baie des Chaleurs. He reached Quebec only several weeks later on July 2nd.

Paul le Jeune, the superior at Quebec, noted in the Relation for 1636, written that August, "On the second of the same month (July) Father Jogues and Father du Marche came to add to our great joy, which we felt all the more deeply, as our Lord had brought them to us in good health."

UP TO HURONIA

In a letter to his mother, dated August 20,1636 and sent from Three Rivers, Jogues described his arrival, state of health and initial impres-sions. He also added a brief but significant postscript: "I have just received orders to get ready to go to the mission of the Hurons in two or three days."
On August 24th, Jogues embarked in a canoe with five Hurons who had come to trade and were now returning to the upper country. It would be quite a trip for a new missionary unfamiliar with the Huron language. Indeed, this first trip up must have been one of the memor-able events in the lives of all the blackrobes and any others who eventually voyaged to the land of the Hurons. Jogues has left us some of his impressions of the trip.

He mentioned that their only food for the journey was Indian corn, crushed between two stones and boiled in water without any seasoning whatever; that sleep overcame them perched on high cliffs bordering the Ottawa river, out in the open and under the gaze of the moon; the awkwardness of travelling in a crowded canoe, unable to change posi-tion or relieve cramped muscles; the enforced silence because one could not speak a word of Huron; and the strange and brusque ways of one's Indian companions.

There were also the interminable portages around rapids and water-falls so plentiful on the Ottawa river. And yet, despite all the usual hazards of the trip, Jogues' group made excellent time. They took only nineteen days to cover a distance that normally took twenty-five to thirty. Jogues disembarked from his canoe at Ihonatiria on September 11th.

1636-1642

After an early bout of sickness that nearly killed him, Jogues applied himself to learning the Huron language and then did his missionary apprenticeship under older Jesuits like Brebeuf and Le Mercier. Called by the Hurons "Ondessonk" (bird of prey) he labored mainly among the Tobacco Indians, the friendly neighbors of the Hurons to the west, and later in and around Sainte-Marie, the important centre of the whole mission begun under Jerome Lalemant's direction in 1639.

The apostolate with Charles Garnier among the Tobacco Indians was, in human terms, a completely unrewarding one. Despite all their good will, generosity and patience, they encountered nothing except hostility and minor persecution. The Tobaccos, victims of infectious diseases, blamed the blackrobes and shrank from them as from death itself. As Jerome Lalemant remarked so well, "These missionaries see themselves the abomination of those whose salvation they seek, at the peril of their own lives."

After Jogues left the Tobacco country, he ministered to the Hurons around Sainte-Marie. He also directed some of the new building at the rapidly developing mission centre.

Then, in 1641, at the request of his superior Jerome Lalemant, he joined Father Charles Raymbaut on a hurried trip to a distant Indian nation called the inhabitants of the Sault. These Indian visitors to Huronia lived mainly where modern Sault Ste. Marie stands today at the juncture of Lake Huron and Lake Superior.

The party started from Sainte-Marie about the end of September and took seventeen days to reach their destination. The missionaries were warmly welcomed. They calculated that 2,000 Indians lived in the area. From their hosts they learned that other Indian nations, who spoke neither Algonkian nor Huron, lived in good numbers to the west and northwest. The apostolic possibilities were intriguing.

The two missionaries, however, because of the lateness of the season did not linger very long at the Sault. With their Huron companions they paddled back to Sainte-Marie, arriving probably in early November.

When the following summer had restored the good weather, Jogues was assigned to make the trip to Three Rivers and Quebec. Supplies were urgently needed, and it was clear that Raymbaut, now critically ill, needed someone to accompany him on the long journey to Quebec.

They set out in the middle of June, and little did Jogues realize that this would be the last he would see of his beloved Huronia. Dark and dramatic days lay ahead.

AMBUSH AND CAPTURE!

The trip to Quebec was made without mishap. On August 1st, Jogues' group, forty in number, laden with goods and supplies for the hard pressed mission, left on the return trip to Huronia. They did not get very far. On the following day they were ambushed by the waiting Iroquois. Most of the Hurons fled, a few were killed or captured, and Jogues and two donne's Rene' Goupil and Guillaume Couture were taken prisoner. Among the captured Hurons was Ahatsistari, the greatest of their warriors, and several other prominent Christians. What a blow to the Huron mission!
As soon as the engagement was over, the nightmare of torture began. The enemy fell upon their captives in a great rage, ripping out their finger nails, chewing their fingers and beating them with clubs. They then hustled off their victims to Mohawk country south of the St. Lawrence. En route the poor captives were "caressed" by 200 Iroquois setting out on the warpath. All, except a few small children, were savagely beaten and mutilated.

And yet there was still so much more to come.

On the 18th day, weak from lack of food, loss of blood and the agonizing pain of their bruised, broken and mutilated members, the prisoners arrived in the first Iroquois village. Here again the same ordeal had to be faced: running the gauntlet, beating, cutting, whip-ping, burning, scratching. It was an incredible experience to be under-gone again in two other villages. One wonders how the captives could survive such brutal and inhuman treatment.

Jogues seemed to be singled out for the refinement of this cruelty since the Iroquois considered him a kind of leader. They hacked off his left thumb; and yet he was grateful they had spared the right thumb so he could write to his brethren! He also received some terrible blows to his body, especially with a big lump of iron attached to a rope, and, as he said, "the only thing that kept me from fainting and that sustained my strength and courage was the fear that my tormentor would hit me with it a second time."

And even at night there was no respite for the poor victims. It was then the turn of the adolescents and children who delighted in throwing hot coals and burning cinders on their tortured flesh, in tearing open their wounds and in inflicting other senseless barbarities. And as Jogues himself remarked, "patience was our physician."

Although the Iroquois had vowed to end their lives by fire, a deliberation of the elders decided on sparing the lives of the French and of all the Hurons except three - Ahatsistari, Paul Ononhoraton and Etienne Totiri. These were burned alive in the Mohawk villages.

THE PRISONER

On September 7th, a leading member of the neighboring Dutch colony came with two others to arrange for the freedom of the French cap-tives. Although the Dutch offered a handsome ransom, the Iroquois flatly refused to surrender Jogues, Goupil and Couture.

The days of captivity slipped by, but always the threat of death lay over the heads of Jogues and Goupil now separated from Couture. Mohawk hotheads longed to finish them off. Finally on September 29th, Jogues and Goupil, out for a walk and some seclusion, were intercepted by two young Iroquois just outside of the village of Osser-nenon. Sensing something sinister, both commended themselves to God's mercy. As they entered the village the young men struck Goupil with their hatchets and killed him. Jogues, fully expecting the worst for himself, knelt for a death blow that never came. He was left to mourn the death of this valiant Christian to whom he had become so attached.

Autumn gave way to winter and Jogues, treated like a slave, some-how or other eked out a miserable existence among this inhospitable throng. No one seemed to care about him. However, about mid winter, living conditions improved slightly, and some of the elders even listened for a time to his teaching about christianity. Having thus gained a measure of freedom, he visited the sick, comforted captive Hurons and even succeeded in baptizing some dying Iroquois.

ESCAPE

With the arrival of summer Jogues was often taken on various fishing expeditions by his Mohawk captors. In August, 1643, the group to which he was attached had to pass through a Dutch village in order to do some trading. The Dutch commander of the settlement, Arendt van Corlaer, managed to draw him aside and urged him to take this oppor-tunity to escape. There was a boat at anchor in the Hudson waiting to carry him downstream to safety. Jogues, only anxious to follow God's will in everything, asked for the night to pray over the decision. In his prayer he weighed all the reasons for fleeing and for staying, and he finally decided that it was God's will for him that he now escape. He had done all he could for his French companions and the christian Hurons among the Iroquois.

And so with the connivance of the Dutch, Jogues, that night, gave his Iroquois escort the slip and found a hiding place on the boat at anchor in the river. The Dutch for Several days had to brave the fury of the outraged Iroquois, incensed at being robbed of their prey. It was touch and go for a while whether the Mohawks would turn on the Dutch themselves, and Jogues, aware of the commotion, was ready to give himself up. However, the Dutch rode out this storm and finally pacified the Indians with various gifts.

Once the crisis had passed and the Iroquois had moved away, the Dutch sent Jogues downstream to their main colony, that of New Am-sterdam (New York). From there, after excellent hospitality, Jogues obtained passage on a Dutch vessel bound for La Rochelle, France.

Freedom was his now once again, but he bore on his body and in his countenance the unmistakable marks of incredible tortures.

BACK IN FRANCE

Jogues arrived in Lower Brittany on Christmas Day, 1643. Through the kindness of a merchant from Rennes he reached that city early in the morning of January 5, 1644, and presented himself at the Jesuit residence there, asking to see the Rector.

As we might expect, the porter, at that early hour, rather put off by his miserable and strange appearance, demurred a good deal, until finally Jogues appealed to him to say to the Rector that a poor man from Canada was asking for him. The porter thought it wise to deliver this message. The Rector who was vested to say Mass came at once to see this poor person, believing him to be someone in dire need.

he Rector welcomed the stranger with kindness and, while extend-ing hospitality, plied him with questions about the New World and about various Jesuits there. Finally, he asked him about Father Isaac Jogues; there had been some dreadful rumors. Was he alive? or had he been put to death, or . . .? Jogues quietly answered: "He is at liberty and it is he, Reverend Father, who speaks to you."

We can well imagine the Rector's astonishment at this revelation and the consternation of the Jesuit community as the news rapidly spread. Jogues alive and right here in our house in Rennes? One can almost hear the Gallic "Impossible!" As one of these Rennes Jesuits wrote later, all the brethren regarded Jogues as a Lazarus raised from the dead.

Naturally, Jogues' presence had a profound effect on all he met. His Jesuit brethren were deeply moved at the sight of him. One recorded his impressions of the man in this fashion: "He is as cheerful as if he had suffered nothing; and as zealous to return among the Hurons, amid all those dangers, as if perils were to him securities. He certainly expects to cross the ocean once again, in order to succor these poor people, and to finish the sacrifice already begun."

Jogues, the living victim, created a sensation in France. Everyone from the Queen down wished to meet and talk with him. For a man so conscious of his own shortcomings and indebtedness to God, all this proved extremely mortifying. He simply longed to return to New France and his beloved Hurons. His superiors, recognizing the true situation, readily concurred in this design, and a happy Jogues sailed off to New France in that spring of 1644.

BACK TO NEW FRANCE

Strangely enough, his brethren in Canada learned of his escape from the Iroquois only when he re-appeared on the St. Lawrence that June of 1644! In those days communications left something to be desired.

Mere Marie de l'Incarnation, "mother of the Canadian Church" and good friend of Jogues, wrote to her son Claude in France to say that "God has restored to us a true living martyr." She also mentioned that she had questioned Jogues about his experiences and was struck by his "wondrous simplicity, which shows his great saintliness."

Although he was back in Canada, Jogues would never see the land of Huronia again. His superiors assigned him to ministry at the young colony of Montreal and employed him in various dealings with the Iroquois, at that time a bit more tractable. The French were then more hopeful of arranging some kind of lasting peace with their bitter foe and needed the services of a man like Jogues so well versed in the language and ways of these Iroquois.

In May 1646, Jogues went as an ambassador of peace to the Mohawks, his erstwhile captors. It was not a long affair and he re-turned to Quebec by early July.

All that summer an uneasy truce continued, but in September the French believed it necessary to make further overtures for peace, and so once again they proposed sending Jogues among the Iroquois. He, for his part, was most willing to go, even though he felt a premonition of impending death. While awaiting confirmation of his appointment he penned a few lines to a fellow Jesuit and ended with: "My heart tells me that, if I am the one to be sent on this mission, I shall go but I shall not return. But I would be happy if our Lord wished to complete the sacrifice where he began it. Farewell, dear Father. Pray that God unite me to himself inseparably."

Jogues, accompanied by a young donne' Jean de la Lande and a few Hurons, left Three Rivers on this embassy September 27th or 28th. At first all went smoothly. But some Iroquois they met on the way advised them that all was not well. Certain malcontents were all for breaking the truce and attacking the French. At this news all Jogues' Huron companions but one left him. Jogues, however, felt he must push on, and de Ia Lande stayed with him.

Whether they sensed it or not - and possibly they did - they were heading for death, but the death of martyrs.

NEWS OF JOGUES' DEATH

No news of their fate reached Quebec until June 1647. Letters from the Dutch governor Kieft and Jan Labatie, an interpreter at Fort Orange (Albany), announced the deaths of Jogues and de la Lande. Both had been beaten and tomahawked to death by certain Mohawks angry with the French and full of hate for Jogues whom they blamed for so many recent misfortunes. It was a sad but not unexpected message.

Jerome Lalemant, in the Relation for 1647, refers to Jogues as a true martyr. He then paid a warm tribute to his fellow missionary. One can detect in Lalemant's words his deep appreciation and love of this heroic brother. He praises his rare humility, his strict poverty, his great purity of heart, and his love of the Cross.

Never, says Lalemant, did Jogues condone in himself the slightest aversion towards his persecutors, and, even though by nature endowed with a hasty temper, he controlled it admirably. True, he spoke out boldly when any of the Iroquois mocked the faith, but that was only because God meant everything to him and he could not brook any seeming slight to the divine majesty.
Jogues' obedience, extraordinary prayerfulness and deep attachment to the Blessed Sacrament were bywords with his fellow Jesuits. Father Buteux described him as a soul glued to the Blessed Sacrament.

Nor must we forget his remarkable sensitivity, his deep concern for others, his tormentors included, and his love so full of tenderness. All this he manifested so strikingly in his dealings with Goupil, the Hurons and the Iroquois themselves. Parkman, that begrudging admirer of the early blackrobes, was profoundly impressed by the life of Jogues. In him he saw "one of the purest examples of Roman Catholic virtue."

It is rare for any man to suffer two martyrdoms in a single lifetime. This was Jogues' holy fate. "Our Lord prolonged his life," wrote Lale-mant, "that he might come and present it to him another time, as a burnt offering, at the place where he had already begun his sacrifice." Jogues' accomplishment, then, is, in a dramatic and unforgettable manner, that of any man or woman who unswervingly loves God with the whole heart and the whole mind and the whole strength, and the neighbor as oneself, even if this must lead to unspeakable suffering and death.

It would take three centuries before the Church officially recognized what Jogues' fellow Jesuits and friends, what so many Hurons and Algonkins, and Iroquois too, simply took for granted. On June 29, 1930, at Rome, in the pontificate of Pope Pius XI, Isaac Jogues, along with Jean de Brebeuf, Rene Goupil, Jean de la Lande and four others of New France, was declared a martyr and saint.

]]> St. Isaac Jogues

Taken from the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia

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✠ ✠ ✠

Isaac Jogues / 16O7 - 1646
by ANGUS MACDOUGALL

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]]> <![CDATA[September 24th - Feast of Our Lady of Ransom]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2592 Fri, 24 Sep 2021 17:20:40 +0000 Stone]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2592 September 24th – Feast of Our Lady of Ransom

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

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The Office of the Time gives us, at the close of September, the Books of Judith and Esther. These heroic women were figures of Mary, whose birthday is the honor of this month, and who comes at once to bring assistance to the world.

“Adonai, Lord God, great and admirable, who hast wrought salvation by the hand of a woman:” the Church thus introduces the history of the heroine who delivered Bethulia by the sword, whereas Mardochai’s niece rescued her people from death by her winsomeness and her intercession. The Queen of heaven, in her peerless perfection, outshines them both, in gentleness, in valor, and in beauty. Today’s feast is a memorial of the strength she puts forth for the deliverance of her people.

Finding their power crushed in Spain and in the East, checked by the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, the Saracens, in the twelfth century, became wholesale pirates, and scoured the seas to obtain slaves for the African markets. We shudder to think of the numberless victims of every age, sex, and condition, suddenly carried off from the coasts of Christian lands, or captured on the high seas and condemned to the disgrace of the harem or the miseries of the bagnio. Here, nevertheless, in many an obscure prison, were enacted scenes of heroism worthy to compare with those witnessed in the early persecutions; here was a new field for Christian charity; new horizons opened out for heroic self-devotion. Is not the spiritual good thence arising a sufficient reason for the permission of temporal ills? Without this permission, heaven would have forever lacked a portion of its beauty.

When in 1695 Innocent XII extended this feast to the whole Church, he afforded the world an opportunity of expressing its gratitude by a testimony as universal as the benefit received.

Differing from the Order of Holy Trinity, which had been already twenty years in existence, the Order of Mercy was founded as it were in the very face of the Moors; and hence it originally numbered more knights than clerks among its members. It was called the royal, military, and religious Order of our Lady of Mercy for the redemption of captives. The clerics were charged with the celebration of the Divine Office in the commanderies; the knights guarded the coasts, and undertook the perilous enterprise of ransoming Christian captives. St. Peter Nolasco was the first Commander or Grand Master of the Order; when his relics were discovered, he was found armed with sword and cuirass.

In the following lines the Church gives us her thoughts upon facts which we have already learned.

Quote:At the time when the Sacracen yoke oppressed the larger and more fertile part of Spain, and great numbers of the faithful were detained in cruel servitude, at the great risk of denying the Christian faith and losing their eternal salvation, the most blessed Queen of heaven graciously came to remedy all these great evils, and showed her exceeding charity in redeeming her children. She appeared with beaming countenance to Peter Nolasco, a man conspicuous for wealth and piety, who in his holy meditations was ever striving to devise some means of helping the innumerable Christians living in misery as captives of the Moors. She told him it would be very pleasing to her and her only-begotten Son, if a religious Order were instituted in her honor, whose members should devote themselves to delivering captives from Turkish tyranny. Animated by this heavenly vision, the man of God was inflamed with burning love, having but one desire at heart, viz: that both he and the Order he was to found, might be devoted to the exercise of that highest charity, the laying down of life for one’s friends and neighbors.

That same night, the most holy Virgin appeared also to blessed Raymund of Pegnafort, and to James, king of Aragon, telling them of her wish to have the Order instituted, and exhorting them to lend their aid to so great an undertaking. Meanwhile Peter hastened to relate the whole matter to Raymund, who was his confessor; and finding it had been already revealed to him from heaven, submitted humbly to his direction. King James next arrived, fully resolved to carry out the instruction she also had received from the blessed Virgin. Having therefore taken counsel together and being all of one mind, they set about instituting an Order in honor of the Virgin Mother under the invocation of Our Lady of Mercy for the Redemption of captives.

On the tenth of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand two hundred and eighteen, king James put into execution what the two holy men had planned. The members of the Order bound themselves by a fourth Vow to remain, when necessary, as securities in the power of the pagans, in order to deliver Christians. The king granted them license to bear his royal arms upon their breast, and obtained from Gregory IX the confirmation of this religious institute distinguished by such eminent brotherly charity. God himself gave increase to the work, through his Virgin Mother; so that the Order spread rapidly and prosperously over the whole world. It soon reckoned many holy men remarkable for their charity and piety, who collected alms from Christ’s faithful, to be spent in redeeming their brethren; and sometimes gave themselves up as ransom for many others. In order that due thanks might be rendered to God and his Virgin Mother for the benefit of such an institution, the Apostolic See allowed this special Feast and Office to be celebrated, and also granted innumerable other privileges to the Order.

Blessed be thou, O Mary, the honor and the joy of thy people! On the day of thy glorious Assumption, thou didst take possession of thy queenly dignity for our sake; and the annals of the human race are a record of thy merciful interventions. The captives whose chains thou hast broken, and whom thou hast set free from the degrading yoke of the Saracens, may be reckoned by millions. We are still rejoicing in the recollection of thy dear birthday; and thy smile is sufficient to dry our tears and chase away the clouds of grief. And yet, what sorrows there are still upon the earth, where thou thyself didst drink such long draughts from the cup of suffering! Sorrows are sanctifying and beneficial to some; but there are other and unprofitable griefs, springing from social injustice: the drudgery of the factory, or the tyranny of the strong over the weak, may be worse than slavery in Algiers or Tunis. Thou alone, O Mary, canst break the inextricable chains in which the cunning prince of darkness entangles the dupes he has deceived by the high-sounding names of equality and liberty. Show thyself a Queen, by coming to the rescue. The whole earth, the entire human race, cries out to thee, in the words of Mardochai: Speak to the king for us, and deliver us from death!

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]]> September 24th – Feast of Our Lady of Ransom

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

Quote:At the time when the Sacracen yoke oppressed the larger and more fertile part of Spain, and great numbers of the faithful were detained in cruel servitude, at the great risk of denying the Christian faith and losing their eternal salvation, the most blessed Queen of heaven graciously came to remedy all these great evils, and showed her exceeding charity in redeeming her children. She appeared with beaming countenance to Peter Nolasco, a man conspicuous for wealth and piety, who in his holy meditations was ever striving to devise some means of helping the innumerable Christians living in misery as captives of the Moors. She told him it would be very pleasing to her and her only-begotten Son, if a religious Order were instituted in her honor, whose members should devote themselves to delivering captives from Turkish tyranny. Animated by this heavenly vision, the man of God was inflamed with burning love, having but one desire at heart, viz: that both he and the Order he was to found, might be devoted to the exercise of that highest charity, the laying down of life for one’s friends and neighbors.

That same night, the most holy Virgin appeared also to blessed Raymund of Pegnafort, and to James, king of Aragon, telling them of her wish to have the Order instituted, and exhorting them to lend their aid to so great an undertaking. Meanwhile Peter hastened to relate the whole matter to Raymund, who was his confessor; and finding it had been already revealed to him from heaven, submitted humbly to his direction. King James next arrived, fully resolved to carry out the instruction she also had received from the blessed Virgin. Having therefore taken counsel together and being all of one mind, they set about instituting an Order in honor of the Virgin Mother under the invocation of Our Lady of Mercy for the Redemption of captives.

On the tenth of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand two hundred and eighteen, king James put into execution what the two holy men had planned. The members of the Order bound themselves by a fourth Vow to remain, when necessary, as securities in the power of the pagans, in order to deliver Christians. The king granted them license to bear his royal arms upon their breast, and obtained from Gregory IX the confirmation of this religious institute distinguished by such eminent brotherly charity. God himself gave increase to the work, through his Virgin Mother; so that the Order spread rapidly and prosperously over the whole world. It soon reckoned many holy men remarkable for their charity and piety, who collected alms from Christ’s faithful, to be spent in redeeming their brethren; and sometimes gave themselves up as ransom for many others. In order that due thanks might be rendered to God and his Virgin Mother for the benefit of such an institution, the Apostolic See allowed this special Feast and Office to be celebrated, and also granted innumerable other privileges to the Order.

]]> <![CDATA[September 23rd – St Linus, Pope & Martyr; St. Thecla, Virgin & Martyr]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2586 Thu, 23 Sep 2021 12:29:05 +0000 Stone]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2586 September 23 – St Linus, Pope & Martyr; St. Thecla, Virgin & Martyr

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

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The lives of the first Vicars of Christ are buried in a mysterious obscurity; just as the foundations of a monument built to defy the ravages of time are concealed from view. To be the supports of the everlasting Church is a sufficient glory: sufficient to justify our confidence in them, and to awaken our gratitude. Let us leave the learned to discuss certain points in the following short Legend; as for ourselves, we will rejoice with the Church on this feast, and pay our loving veneration to the humble and gentle Pontiff, who was the first laid to rest beside St. Peter in the Vatican crypts.

Quote:Pope Linus was born at Volterra in Tuscany, and was the first to succeed St. Peter in the government of the Church. His faith and holiness were so great, that he not only cast out devils, but even raised the dead to life. He wrote the acts of blessed Peter, and in particular what he had done against Simon Magus. He decreed that no woman should enter a church with her head uncovered. On account of his constancy in confessing the Christian faith, this Pontiff was beheaded by command of Saturninus, a wicked and ungrateful ex-consul, whose daughter he had delivered from the tyranny of the devils. He was buried on the Vatican, near the sepulcher of the Prince of the Apostles, on the ninth of Kalends of October. He governed the Church eleven years, two months, and twenty-three days. In two ordinations in the month of December he consecrated fifteen bishops and eighteen priests.
Simon Bar-Jona was invested with the sovereign Pontificate by our Lord in person, and openly before all; thou, O blessed Pontiff, didst receive in secret, yet nonetheless directly from Jesus, the keys of the kingdom of heaven. In thy person began the reign of pure faith; henceforth the Bride, though she hears not the Man-God repeat his injunction to Peter: feed my lambs, nevertheless acknowledges the continuance of his authority in the lawfully appointed representative of her Divine Spouse. Obtain by thy prayers, that the shadows of earth may never cause us to waver in our obedience; and that hereafter we may merit, with thee, to contemplate our Divine Head in the light of eternal day.

While honoring the first successor of St. Peter, Rome commemorates the protomartyr of the female sex. Together with holy Church, then, let us unite in the concert of praise unanimously lavished upon Thecla by the Fathers of East and West. When the martyr pontiff Methodius gave his “Banquet of Virgins” to the Church, about the end of the third century, it is on the brow of the virgin of Iconium that he placed the fairest of the crowns distributed at the banquet of the Spouse. And justly so; for had not Thecla been trained by Paul, who had made her more learned in the Gospel than she was before in philosophy and every science? Heroism in her kept pace with knowledge; her magnanimity of purpose was equaled by her courage; while, strong in the virginal purity of her soul and body, she triumphed over fire, wild beasts, and sea monsters, and won the glory of a triple martyrdom.

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A fresh triumph is hers at the mysterious “Banquet”. Wisdom has taken possession of her and, like a divine harp, makes music in her soul, which is echoed on her lips in words of wondrous eloquence and sublime poetry. When the feast is over and the virgins rise to give thanks to the Lord, Thecla leads the chorus, singing:

“For thee, O Bridegroom, I keep myself pure; and with burning lamp I come to meet thee.

“I have fled from the bitter pleasures of mortals, and the luxurious delights of life and its live; under thy life-giving arms I desire to be protected, and to gaze forever on thy beauty, O blessed One.

“For thee, O Bridegroom, I keep myself pure; and with burning lamp I come to meet thee.

“I have contemned union with mortal man; I have left my golden home for thee, O King; I have come in undefiled robes, that I may enter with thee into thy happy bridal chamber.

“For thee, O Bridegroom, I keep myself pure; and with burning lamp I come to meet thee.

“Having escaped the enchanting wiles of the serpent, and triumphed over the flaming fire and the attacks of wild beasts, I await thee from heaven.

“For thee, O Bridegroom, I keep myself pure; and with burning lamp I come to meet thee.

“Through love of thee, O Word, I have forgotten the land of my birth; I have forgotten the virgins my companions, and even the desire of mother and of kindred; for thou, O Christ, art all things to me.

“For thee, O Bridegroom, I keep myself pure; and with burning lamp I come to meet thee.”

Prayer

Da, quæsumus omnipotens Deus: ut qui beatæ Theclæ Virginis et Martyris tuæ natalitia colimus, et annua solemnitate lætemur, et tantæ fidei proficiamus exemplo. Per Dominum.
Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that we, who celebrate the festival of blessed Thecla, thy virgin and martyr, may rejoice in her annual solemnity, and make progress by the example of such great faith. Through our Lord.]]> September 23 – St Linus, Pope & Martyr; St. Thecla, Virgin & Martyr

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

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Quote:Pope Linus was born at Volterra in Tuscany, and was the first to succeed St. Peter in the government of the Church. His faith and holiness were so great, that he not only cast out devils, but even raised the dead to life. He wrote the acts of blessed Peter, and in particular what he had done against Simon Magus. He decreed that no woman should enter a church with her head uncovered. On account of his constancy in confessing the Christian faith, this Pontiff was beheaded by command of Saturninus, a wicked and ungrateful ex-consul, whose daughter he had delivered from the tyranny of the devils. He was buried on the Vatican, near the sepulcher of the Prince of the Apostles, on the ninth of Kalends of October. He governed the Church eleven years, two months, and twenty-three days. In two ordinations in the month of December he consecrated fifteen bishops and eighteen priests.
Simon Bar-Jona was invested with the sovereign Pontificate by our Lord in person, and openly before all; thou, O blessed Pontiff, didst receive in secret, yet nonetheless directly from Jesus, the keys of the kingdom of heaven. In thy person began the reign of pure faith; henceforth the Bride, though she hears not the Man-God repeat his injunction to Peter: feed my lambs, nevertheless acknowledges the continuance of his authority in the lawfully appointed representative of her Divine Spouse. Obtain by thy prayers, that the shadows of earth may never cause us to waver in our obedience; and that hereafter we may merit, with thee, to contemplate our Divine Head in the light of eternal day.

A fresh triumph is hers at the mysterious “Banquet”. Wisdom has taken possession of her and, like a divine harp, makes music in her soul, which is echoed on her lips in words of wondrous eloquence and sublime poetry. When the feast is over and the virgins rise to give thanks to the Lord, Thecla leads the chorus, singing:

“For thee, O Bridegroom, I keep myself pure; and with burning lamp I come to meet thee.

“I have fled from the bitter pleasures of mortals, and the luxurious delights of life and its live; under thy life-giving arms I desire to be protected, and to gaze forever on thy beauty, O blessed One.

“For thee, O Bridegroom, I keep myself pure; and with burning lamp I come to meet thee.

“I have contemned union with mortal man; I have left my golden home for thee, O King; I have come in undefiled robes, that I may enter with thee into thy happy bridal chamber.

“For thee, O Bridegroom, I keep myself pure; and with burning lamp I come to meet thee.

“Having escaped the enchanting wiles of the serpent, and triumphed over the flaming fire and the attacks of wild beasts, I await thee from heaven.

“For thee, O Bridegroom, I keep myself pure; and with burning lamp I come to meet thee.

“Through love of thee, O Word, I have forgotten the land of my birth; I have forgotten the virgins my companions, and even the desire of mother and of kindred; for thou, O Christ, art all things to me.

“For thee, O Bridegroom, I keep myself pure; and with burning lamp I come to meet thee.”

Prayer

Da, quæsumus omnipotens Deus: ut qui beatæ Theclæ Virginis et Martyris tuæ natalitia colimus, et annua solemnitate lætemur, et tantæ fidei proficiamus exemplo. Per Dominum.
Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that we, who celebrate the festival of blessed Thecla, thy virgin and martyr, may rejoice in her annual solemnity, and make progress by the example of such great faith. Through our Lord.]]> <![CDATA[September 22nd – St. Thomas of Villanova, Bishop & Confessor & Comm. of St Maurice & Companion]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2580 Wed, 22 Sep 2021 10:43:17 +0000 Stone]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2580 September 22 – St. Thomas of Villanova, Bishop & Confessor & Commemoration of St Maurice & Companions

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

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In 1517 a cruel blow fell upon the great Augustinian family; Luther, one of its members, raised the cry of revolt which was to be echoed for centuries by every passion. But the illustrious Order, which had unwittingly nurtured this child of evil, was none the less acceptable to God; and He deigned, before long, to demonstrate this, for the consolation of institutes whose very excellence exposes unworthy subjects to more dangerous falls. It was at the First Vespers of All Saints that Luther broached, at Wittenburg, his famous theses against indulgences and the authority of the Roman Pontiff; within a month, on November 25 of the same year, Thomas of Villanova pronounced his vows at Salamanca, and filled up the place left vacant by the heresiarch. Amid the storms of social disorder, and the noise of the world’s disturbances, the glory rendered by one saint to the ever-tranquil Trinity, outweighs all the insults and blasphemies of hell.

Let us bear all this in mind as we read the following lessons.

Quote:Thomas was born at Fuenllana, a town in the diocese of Toledo in Spain, in the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred and eighty eight. From his earliest youth, his excellent parents instilled into him piety and extraordinary charity to the poor. Of this virtue he gave, while still a child, many proofs, among the most remarkable of which was his more than once taking off his own garments to clothe the naked. As a youth, he was sent to Alcala to study humanities in the great college of St. Ildephonsus. He was recalled home by the death of his father; whereupon he devoted his whole fortune to the support of destitute virgins, and then returned to Alcala. Having completed his course of theology, he was promoted for his eminent learning to a chair in the University, and taught philosophy and theology with wonderful success. Meanwhile he besought God, with assiduous prayers, to teach him the science of the saints, and a virtuous rule of life and conduct. He was therefore divinely inspired to embrace the institute of the hermits of St. Augustine.

After his profession, he excelled in all virtues which should adorn a religious man: humility, patience, continency; but he was especially remarkable for ardent charity. In the midst of his many and varied labors, his unconquered spirit was ever intent on prayer and meditation of divine things. On account of his reputation for learning and holiness, he was commanded to undertake the duty of preaching, and, by the assistance of heavenly grace, he led countless souls from the mire of vice to the way of salvation. In the government of the brethren, to which he was next appointed, he so united prudence, equity, and sweetness, to zeal and severity, that in many places he restored or confirmed the ancient discipline of his Order.

When elected to the archbishopric of Granada, he rejected that high dignity with wonderful firmness and humility. But not long after, he was obliged by his superiors to undertake the government of the Church of Valentia, which he ruled for about eleven years as a most holy and vigilant pastor. He changed nothing of his former manner of life; but gave free scope to his insatiable charity, and distributed the rich revenues of his church among the needy, keeping not so much as a bed for himself. for the bed on which he was lying when called to heaven, was lent to him by the person to whom he had shortly before given it in alms. He fell asleep in our Lord on the sixth of the Ides of September, at the age of sixty-eight. God was pleased to bear witness to his servant’s holiness by miracles both during life and after death. A barn which was almost empty, the corn having been distributed to the poor, was by his intercession suddenly filled; and a dead child was restored to life at his tomb. These and many other miracles having rendered his name illustrious, Pope Alexander VII enrolled him among the saints, and commanded his feast to be celebrated on the fourteenth of the Kalends of October.

Thy name, as well as thy justice, shall remain for ever, O Thomas, because thou hast distributed and given to the poor; all the church of the saints shall declare thy alms. Teach us to show mercy to our brethren, so that, by thy prayers, we may obtain for ourselves the mercy of God. Thou hast great power with the Queen of heaven, whose praises thou didst love to celebrate, and whose birthday on earth was thy birthday in heaven. Give us an ever increasing knowledge of her, and an ever growing love.

Thou art the glory of Spain; watch over thy country, over thy church of Valencia, and over the Order adorned with such saints as Nicholas of Tolentino, John of San Facundo, and thyself. Bless the religious women who have inherited thy charity, and who, for well-nigh three centuries, have caused thy name, and that of thy father St. Augustine, to be held in veneration. May the preachers of the divine word throughout the world profit by the writings thou hast fortunately left us, monuments of that eloquence which made thee the oracle of princes, the light of the poor, and the mouth-piece of the Holy Ghost.

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At Sion in Valais, at a place called Agaunum, the birthday of the holy martyrs Maurice, Exuperius, Candidus, Victor, Innocent, and Vitalis, with their companions of the Theban legion, who was massacred under Maximian for the name of Christ, and filled the whole world with the renown of their martyrdom. Let us unite with Rome in paying honor to these valiant soldiers, the glorious patrons of Christian armies as well as of numerous churches. “Emperor,” said they, “we are thy soldiers, but we are also the servants of God. To Him we took our first oaths; if we break them, how canst thou trust us to keep our oaths to thee?” No command, no discipline can overrule our baptismal engagements. Every soldier is bound, in honor and in conscience, to obey the Lord of hosts rather than all human commanders, who are but His subalterns.

Prayer

Annue, quæsumus, omnipotens Deus: ut sanctorum martyrum tuorum Mauritii et sociorum ejus nos laætificet festiva solemnitas; ut quorum suffragiis nitimur, eorum natalitiis gloriemur. Per Dominum.
Grant, we beseech thee, almighty God, that the festive solemnity of thy holy martyrs, Maurice and his companions, may give us joy, that we may glory in their festival on whose help we rely. Through our Lord.]]> September 22 – St. Thomas of Villanova, Bishop & Confessor & Commemoration of St Maurice & Companions

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

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Quote:Thomas was born at Fuenllana, a town in the diocese of Toledo in Spain, in the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred and eighty eight. From his earliest youth, his excellent parents instilled into him piety and extraordinary charity to the poor. Of this virtue he gave, while still a child, many proofs, among the most remarkable of which was his more than once taking off his own garments to clothe the naked. As a youth, he was sent to Alcala to study humanities in the great college of St. Ildephonsus. He was recalled home by the death of his father; whereupon he devoted his whole fortune to the support of destitute virgins, and then returned to Alcala. Having completed his course of theology, he was promoted for his eminent learning to a chair in the University, and taught philosophy and theology with wonderful success. Meanwhile he besought God, with assiduous prayers, to teach him the science of the saints, and a virtuous rule of life and conduct. He was therefore divinely inspired to embrace the institute of the hermits of St. Augustine.

After his profession, he excelled in all virtues which should adorn a religious man: humility, patience, continency; but he was especially remarkable for ardent charity. In the midst of his many and varied labors, his unconquered spirit was ever intent on prayer and meditation of divine things. On account of his reputation for learning and holiness, he was commanded to undertake the duty of preaching, and, by the assistance of heavenly grace, he led countless souls from the mire of vice to the way of salvation. In the government of the brethren, to which he was next appointed, he so united prudence, equity, and sweetness, to zeal and severity, that in many places he restored or confirmed the ancient discipline of his Order.

When elected to the archbishopric of Granada, he rejected that high dignity with wonderful firmness and humility. But not long after, he was obliged by his superiors to undertake the government of the Church of Valentia, which he ruled for about eleven years as a most holy and vigilant pastor. He changed nothing of his former manner of life; but gave free scope to his insatiable charity, and distributed the rich revenues of his church among the needy, keeping not so much as a bed for himself. for the bed on which he was lying when called to heaven, was lent to him by the person to whom he had shortly before given it in alms. He fell asleep in our Lord on the sixth of the Ides of September, at the age of sixty-eight. God was pleased to bear witness to his servant’s holiness by miracles both during life and after death. A barn which was almost empty, the corn having been distributed to the poor, was by his intercession suddenly filled; and a dead child was restored to life at his tomb. These and many other miracles having rendered his name illustrious, Pope Alexander VII enrolled him among the saints, and commanded his feast to be celebrated on the fourteenth of the Kalends of October.

At Sion in Valais, at a place called Agaunum, the birthday of the holy martyrs Maurice, Exuperius, Candidus, Victor, Innocent, and Vitalis, with their companions of the Theban legion, who was massacred under Maximian for the name of Christ, and filled the whole world with the renown of their martyrdom. Let us unite with Rome in paying honor to these valiant soldiers, the glorious patrons of Christian armies as well as of numerous churches. “Emperor,” said they, “we are thy soldiers, but we are also the servants of God. To Him we took our first oaths; if we break them, how canst thou trust us to keep our oaths to thee?” No command, no discipline can overrule our baptismal engagements. Every soldier is bound, in honor and in conscience, to obey the Lord of hosts rather than all human commanders, who are but His subalterns.

Prayer

Annue, quæsumus, omnipotens Deus: ut sanctorum martyrum tuorum Mauritii et sociorum ejus nos laætificet festiva solemnitas; ut quorum suffragiis nitimur, eorum natalitiis gloriemur. Per Dominum.
Grant, we beseech thee, almighty God, that the festive solemnity of thy holy martyrs, Maurice and his companions, may give us joy, that we may glory in their festival on whose help we rely. Through our Lord.]]> <![CDATA[September 21st – St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2576 Tue, 21 Sep 2021 12:00:46 +0000 Stone]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2576 September 21 – St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

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

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The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham. The Eagle and the Lion have already risen in the heavens of the holy Liturgy; today we salute the Man; and next month the Ox will appear, to complete the number of the four living creatures who draw the chariot of God through the world and surround his throne in heaven. These mysterious beings, with their six seraph-wings, are ever gazing with their innumerable eyes upon the Lamb who stands upon the throne as it were slain; and they rest not day and night, saying: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come. St. John beheld them giving to the elect the signal to praise their Creator and Redeemer; and when all created beings in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, have adoringly proclaimed that the Lamb, who was slain, is worthy of power and divinity and glory and empire forever, it is they that add to the world’s homage the seal of their testimony, saying: Amen, so it is!

Great and singular, then, is the glory of the Evangelists. The name of Matthew signifies one who is given. He gave himself when, at the word of Jesus “follow me,” he rose up and followed him; but far greater was the gift he received from God in return. The Most High, who looks down from heaven upon the low things of earth, loves to choose the humble for the princes of his people. Levi, occupied in a profession that was hated by the Jews and despised by the Gentiles, belonged to the lowest rank of society; but still more humble was he in heart when, laying aside the delicate reserve shown in his regard by the other Evangelists, he openly placed his former ignominious title beside the glorious one of Apostle. By so doing, he published the magnificent mercy of him who had come to heal the sick not the healthy, and to call not the just but sinners. For thus exalting the abundance of God’s grace, he merited its superabundance: Matthew was called to be the first Evangelist. Under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost he wrote, with that inimitable simplicity which speaks straight to the heart, the Gospel of the Messias expected by Israel, and announced by the prophets—of the Messias the teach and Savior of his people, the descendant of its kings, and himself the King of the daughter of Sion—of the Messias who had come not to destroy the Law, but to bring it to its full completion in an everlasting, universal covenant.

In his simple-hearted gratitude, Levi made a feast for his divine Benefactor. It was at this banquet that Jesus, defending his disciple as well as himself, replied to those who pretended to be scandalized: Can the children of the Bridegroom mourn, as long as the Bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast. Clement of Alexandria bears witness to the Apostle’s subsequent austerity; assuring us that he lived o nnothing but vegetables and wild fruits. The legend will tell us moreover of his zeal for the Master who had so sweetly touched his heart, and of his fidelity in preserving for him souls inebriated with the wine springing forth virgins. This fidelity, indeed, cost him his life: his martyrdom was in defense and confirmation of the duties and rights of holy virginity. To the end of time the Church in consecrating her virgins will make use of the beautiful blessing pronounced by him over the Ethiopian princess, which the blood of the Apostle and Evangelist has imbued with a peculiar virtue (Pontificale Romanum, De Benedictione et Consecratione Virginum: “Deus, plasmator corporum, afflator animarum.”).

The Church gives us this short account of a life better known to God than to men.

Quote:Matthew, also named Levi, was an Apostle and Evangelist. He was sitting in the custom-house at Capharnaum when called by Christ, whom he immediately followed; and then made a feast for him and his disciples. After the resurrection of Christ, and before setting out for the province which it was his lot to evangelize, Matthew was the first to write the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He wrote it in Hebrew, for the sake of those of the circumcision, who had been converted. Soon after, he went into Ethiopia, where he preached the Gospel, and confirmed his teaching by many miracles.

One of the greatest of these was his raising to life the king’s daughter, whereby he converted the king and his wife, and the whole country. After the king’s death, his daughter Iphigenia was demanded in marriage by his successor Hirtacus, who, finding that through Matthew’s exhortation she had vowed her virginity to God and now persevered in her holy resolution, ordered the Apostle to be put to death, as he was celebrating the holy mysteries at the altar. Thus on the eleventh of the Kalends of October, he crowned his apostolate with the glory of martyrdom. His body was translated to Salerno; and in the time of Pope Gregory VII it was laid in a Church dedicated in his name, where it is piously honored by a great concourse of people.

How pleasing must thy humility have been to our Lord; that humility which has raised thee so high in the kingdom of heaven, and which made thee, on earth, the confidant of Incarnate Wisdom. The Son of God, who hides his secrets from the wise and prudent and reveals them to little ones, renovated thy soul by intimacy with himself and filled it with the new wine of his heavenly doctrine. So fully didst thou understand his love that he chose thee to be the first historian of his life on earth. The Man-God revealed himself through thee to the Church. She has inherited thy glorious teaching as she calls it in her Secret; for the Synagogue refused to understand both the Divine Master and the Prophets his heralds.

There is one teaching, indeed, which not all, even of the elect, can understand and receive; just as in heaven not all follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, nor can all sing the new canticle reserved to those whose love here on earth has been undivided. O Evangelist of holy virginity, and martyr for its sake! watch over the choicest portion of our Lord’s flock. Remember also, O Levi, all those for whom, as thou tellest us, the Emmanuel received his beautiful name of Savior. The whole redeemed world honors thee and implores thy assistance. Thou hast recorded for us the admirable Sermon on the mountain: by the path of virtue there traced out, lead us to that kingdom of heaven, which is the ever-recurring theme of thy inspired writing.

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]]> September 21 – St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

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

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Quote:Matthew, also named Levi, was an Apostle and Evangelist. He was sitting in the custom-house at Capharnaum when called by Christ, whom he immediately followed; and then made a feast for him and his disciples. After the resurrection of Christ, and before setting out for the province which it was his lot to evangelize, Matthew was the first to write the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He wrote it in Hebrew, for the sake of those of the circumcision, who had been converted. Soon after, he went into Ethiopia, where he preached the Gospel, and confirmed his teaching by many miracles.

One of the greatest of these was his raising to life the king’s daughter, whereby he converted the king and his wife, and the whole country. After the king’s death, his daughter Iphigenia was demanded in marriage by his successor Hirtacus, who, finding that through Matthew’s exhortation she had vowed her virginity to God and now persevered in her holy resolution, ordered the Apostle to be put to death, as he was celebrating the holy mysteries at the altar. Thus on the eleventh of the Kalends of October, he crowned his apostolate with the glory of martyrdom. His body was translated to Salerno; and in the time of Pope Gregory VII it was laid in a Church dedicated in his name, where it is piously honored by a great concourse of people.

]]> <![CDATA[September 20 – St Eustace and His Companions, Martyrs]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2568 Mon, 20 Sep 2021 11:37:56 +0000 Stone]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2568 September 20 – St Eustace and His Companions, Martyrs

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

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The twentieth of September marks one of the saddest events in history. At the height of her power, in the glorious days of Pepin and Charlemagne, the eldest daughter of the Church had crowned her mother; and the Church, in the person of her Head, reigned in reality, as well as by right until, a thousand years later, Satan took advantage of the fallen state of France, to despoil Peter of the patrimony which ensured his independence. The holy Cross is still shedding its rays upon us!

Today a group of martyrs, and this time a whole family—father, mother, and sons—take up their position around the standard of salvation. While the antiquity of their cultus in both East and West rests on the best authority, the details of their life are extremely vague. Could Placid the tribune, whose exploits are recorded by Josephus in his Wars of the Jews, be the same as the Eustace we are celebrating today? Does the genealogy of our saint connect him with the Octavia family from which Augustus sprang? Again are we to recognize as his direct descendant the noble Tertullus, who confided to St. Benedict his son Placid, the favorite child of the holy Patriarch, and the proto-martyr of the Benedictine Order? Subiaco long possessed the mountain designated by ancient tradition as the site of the apparition of the mysterious stag; Tertullus may have bequeathed it to the monastery as his son’s patrimony. But we have not space enough to do more than record the fact that these questions have been raised.

There could hardly be a more touching Legend than that of our martyrs.

Quote:Eustace, otherwise called Placid, was a Roman, illustrious for his birth, wealth, and military renown, so that under the emperor Trajan he became general of the army. Once while hunting, he was chasing a stag of remarkable size, which suddenly halted, and showed him between its horns a large and bright image of Christ our Lord hanging upon the Cross and inviting him to make everlasting life the object of his pursuit. Thereupon, together with his wife Theopista and his two little sons Agapitus and Theopistus, he entered the ranks of the Christian warfare.

Some time afterwards he returned to the place of the vision, in obedience to the command of our Lord, from whom he there heard how much he was to suffer for God’s glory. He underwent, with wonderful patience, such incredible losses that in a short time he was reduced to the utmost need, and was obliged to retire privately. On the way he had the unhappiness to see first his wife, and then his two sons taken from him. Overwhelmed by all these misfortunes, he lived for a long time unknown, in a distant country, as a farm bailiff; until at length a voice from heaven comforted him; and soon after, a fresh occasion of war arising, Trajan had him sought out and again placed at the head of the army.

During the expedition, he unexpectedly found his wife and children again. He returned to Rome in triumph amidst universal congratulations; but was soon commanded to offer sacrifice to the false gods in thanksgiving for his victory. On his firm refusal, every art was tried to make him renounce the faith of Christ, but in vain. He was then, with his wife and sons, thrown to the lions. But the beasts showed nothing but gentleness; whereupon the emperor, in a rage, commanded the martyrs to be shut up in a brazen bull heated by a fire underneath it. There, singing the praises of God, they consummated their sacrifice, and took their flight to eternal happiness on the twelfth of the kalends of October. Their bodies were found intact, and reverently buried by the faithful, but were afterwards translated with honor to a Church erected to their names.

Our trials are light compared with yours, O blessed martyrs! Obtain for us the grace not to betray the confidence of our Lord when he calls us to suffer for him in this world. It is thus we must win the glory of heaven. How can we triumph with the God of armies unless we have marched under his standard? Now, that standard is the Cross. The Church knows it, and therefore she is not troubled even by the greatest calamities. She knows, too, that her Spouse is watching over her, even when he seems to sleep; and she looks to the protection of such of her sons as are already glorified. And yet, O martyrs, for how many years has the sorrowful shadow of a sacrilegious invasion hung over the day of your triumph! Rome honored you with so much love! Take vengeance on the audacity of hell, and deliver the holy city!]]> September 20 – St Eustace and His Companions, Martyrs

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

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Quote:Eustace, otherwise called Placid, was a Roman, illustrious for his birth, wealth, and military renown, so that under the emperor Trajan he became general of the army. Once while hunting, he was chasing a stag of remarkable size, which suddenly halted, and showed him between its horns a large and bright image of Christ our Lord hanging upon the Cross and inviting him to make everlasting life the object of his pursuit. Thereupon, together with his wife Theopista and his two little sons Agapitus and Theopistus, he entered the ranks of the Christian warfare.

Some time afterwards he returned to the place of the vision, in obedience to the command of our Lord, from whom he there heard how much he was to suffer for God’s glory. He underwent, with wonderful patience, such incredible losses that in a short time he was reduced to the utmost need, and was obliged to retire privately. On the way he had the unhappiness to see first his wife, and then his two sons taken from him. Overwhelmed by all these misfortunes, he lived for a long time unknown, in a distant country, as a farm bailiff; until at length a voice from heaven comforted him; and soon after, a fresh occasion of war arising, Trajan had him sought out and again placed at the head of the army.

During the expedition, he unexpectedly found his wife and children again. He returned to Rome in triumph amidst universal congratulations; but was soon commanded to offer sacrifice to the false gods in thanksgiving for his victory. On his firm refusal, every art was tried to make him renounce the faith of Christ, but in vain. He was then, with his wife and sons, thrown to the lions. But the beasts showed nothing but gentleness; whereupon the emperor, in a rage, commanded the martyrs to be shut up in a brazen bull heated by a fire underneath it. There, singing the praises of God, they consummated their sacrifice, and took their flight to eternal happiness on the twelfth of the kalends of October. Their bodies were found intact, and reverently buried by the faithful, but were afterwards translated with honor to a Church erected to their names.

Our trials are light compared with yours, O blessed martyrs! Obtain for us the grace not to betray the confidence of our Lord when he calls us to suffer for him in this world. It is thus we must win the glory of heaven. How can we triumph with the God of armies unless we have marched under his standard? Now, that standard is the Cross. The Church knows it, and therefore she is not troubled even by the greatest calamities. She knows, too, that her Spouse is watching over her, even when he seems to sleep; and she looks to the protection of such of her sons as are already glorified. And yet, O martyrs, for how many years has the sorrowful shadow of a sacrilegious invasion hung over the day of your triumph! Rome honored you with so much love! Take vengeance on the audacity of hell, and deliver the holy city!]]> <![CDATA[September 19th – St Januarius, Bishop & Martyr; and His Companions, Martyrs]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2562 Sun, 19 Sep 2021 13:28:45 +0000 Stone]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2562 September 19 – St Januarius, Bishop & Martyr; and His Companions, Martyrs

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

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Januarius is ever preaching the Gospel to every creature; for his miraculous blood perpetuates the testimony he bore to Christ. Let those who say they cannot believe unless they see, go to Naples; there they will behold the martyr’s blood, when placed near his head which was cut off seventeen hundred years ago, to liquefy and boil as at the moment it escaped from his sacred veins. No; miracles are not lacking in the Church at the present day. True, God cannot subject himself to the fanciful requirements of those proud men who would dictate to him the conditions of the prodigies they must needs witness ere they will bow before his infinite Majesty. Nevertheless, his intervention in interrupting the laws of nature framed by him and by him alone to be suspended, has never yet failed the man of good faith in any period of history. At present there is less dearth than ever of such manifestations.

The following is the Legend concerning St. Januarius and the sharers in his glorious martyrdom.

Quote:During the persecution of the Christians under Diocletian and Maximian, Januarius, bishop of Beneventum, was brought before Timothy, President of Campania, at Nola, for the profession of the Christian faith. There his constancy was tried in various ways. He was cast into a burning furnace, but escaped unhurt, not even his garments nor a hair of his head being injured by the flames. This enraged the president, who commanded the martyr’s body to be so stretched that all his joints and nerves were displaced. Meanwhile Festus his deacon, and Desiderius a lector, were seized, loaded with chains, and dragged, together with the bishop, before the president’s chariot to Pozzuolo. There they were cast into a dungeon, where they found the deacons Sosius of Misenum and Proculus of Pozzuolo, with Eutyches and Acutius laymen all condemned to be thrown to wild beasts.

The following day they were all exposed in the amphitheater; but the beasts, forgetting their natural ferocity, crouched at the feet of Januarius. Timothy, attributing this to magical arts, condemned the martyrs of Christ to be beheaded; but as he was pronouncing the sentence, he was suddenly struck blind. However, at the prayer of Januarius he soon recovered his sight; on account of which miracle, about five thousand men embraced the Christian faith. The ungrateful judge was in no way softened by the benefit conferred upon him; on the contrary, he was enraged by so many conversions; and, fearing the emperor’s edicts, he ordered the holy bishop and his companions to be beheaded.

Eager to secure, each for itself, a patron before God among these holy martyrs, the neighboring towns provided burial places for their bodies. In obedience to a warning from heaven, the Neopolitans took the body of St. Januarius, and placed it first at Beneventum, then in the monastery of Monte Vergine, and finally in the principal church at Naples, where it became illustrious for many miracles. One of the most memorable of these was the extinction of a fiery eruption of Mount Vesuvius, when the terrible flames threatened with destruction not only the neighborhood but even distant parts. Another remarkable miracle is seen even to the present day, namely; when the martyr’s blood, which is preserved congealed in a glass vial, is brought in presence of his head, it liquefies and boils up in a wonderful manner, as if it had been but recently shed.

O holy martyrs, and thou especially, O Januarius, the leader no less by thy courage than by thy pontifical dignity, your present glory increased our longing for heaven; your past combats animate us to fight the good fight; your continual miracles confirm us in the faith. Praise and gratitude are therefore due to you on this day of your triumph; and we pay this our debt in the joy of our hearts. In return, extend to us the protection of which the fortunate cities placed under your powerful patronage are so justly proud. Defend those faithful towns against the assaults of the evil one. In compensation for the falling away of society at large, offer to Christ our King the growing faith of all who pay you honor.

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]]> September 19 – St Januarius, Bishop & Martyr; and His Companions, Martyrs

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

[Image: The_Martyrdom_of_St_Januarius_in_the_Amp...1024&ssl=1]

Quote:During the persecution of the Christians under Diocletian and Maximian, Januarius, bishop of Beneventum, was brought before Timothy, President of Campania, at Nola, for the profession of the Christian faith. There his constancy was tried in various ways. He was cast into a burning furnace, but escaped unhurt, not even his garments nor a hair of his head being injured by the flames. This enraged the president, who commanded the martyr’s body to be so stretched that all his joints and nerves were displaced. Meanwhile Festus his deacon, and Desiderius a lector, were seized, loaded with chains, and dragged, together with the bishop, before the president’s chariot to Pozzuolo. There they were cast into a dungeon, where they found the deacons Sosius of Misenum and Proculus of Pozzuolo, with Eutyches and Acutius laymen all condemned to be thrown to wild beasts.

The following day they were all exposed in the amphitheater; but the beasts, forgetting their natural ferocity, crouched at the feet of Januarius. Timothy, attributing this to magical arts, condemned the martyrs of Christ to be beheaded; but as he was pronouncing the sentence, he was suddenly struck blind. However, at the prayer of Januarius he soon recovered his sight; on account of which miracle, about five thousand men embraced the Christian faith. The ungrateful judge was in no way softened by the benefit conferred upon him; on the contrary, he was enraged by so many conversions; and, fearing the emperor’s edicts, he ordered the holy bishop and his companions to be beheaded.

Eager to secure, each for itself, a patron before God among these holy martyrs, the neighboring towns provided burial places for their bodies. In obedience to a warning from heaven, the Neopolitans took the body of St. Januarius, and placed it first at Beneventum, then in the monastery of Monte Vergine, and finally in the principal church at Naples, where it became illustrious for many miracles. One of the most memorable of these was the extinction of a fiery eruption of Mount Vesuvius, when the terrible flames threatened with destruction not only the neighborhood but even distant parts. Another remarkable miracle is seen even to the present day, namely; when the martyr’s blood, which is preserved congealed in a glass vial, is brought in presence of his head, it liquefies and boils up in a wonderful manner, as if it had been but recently shed.

]]> <![CDATA[September 18th – St. Joseph of Cupertino, Confessor]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2554 Sat, 18 Sep 2021 10:37:09 +0000 Stone]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2554 September 18 – St. Joseph of Cupertino, Confessor

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

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While, in France, the rising spirit of Jansenism was driving God from the hearts of the people, a humble son of St. Francis, in Southern Italy, was showing how easily love may span the distance between earth and heaven. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself, said Our Lord; and time has proved it to be the most universal of his prophecies. On the feast of the holy Cross, we witnessed its truth, even in the domain of social and political claims. We shall experience it in our very bodies on the great day, when we shall be taken up in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air. But Joseph of Cupertino had experience of it without waiting for the resurrection: innumerable witnesses have borne testimony to his life of continual ecstasies, wherein he was frequently seen raised high in the air. And these facts took place in what men are pleased to call the noonday of history.

Let us read the account of him given by holy Church.

Quote:Joseph was born of pious parents at Cupertino, a town of the Salentines in the diocese of Nardo, in the year of salvation one thousand six hundred and three. Prevented with the love of God, he spent his boyhood and youth in the greatest simplicity and innocence. The Virgin Mother of God delivered him from a long and painful malady, which he had borne with the greatest patience; whereupon he devoted himself entirely to works of piety and the practice of virtue. But God called him to something higher; and in order to attain to closer union with him, Joseph determined to enter the Seraphic Order. After several trials he obtained his desire, and was admitted among the Minor Conventuals in the convent called Grotella, first as a lay-brother, on account of his lack of learning; but afterwards, God so disposing, he was raised to the rank of a cleric. After making his solemn Vows he was ordained Priest, and began a new life of greater perfection. Utterly renouncing all earthly affections and everything of this world almost to the very necessaries of life, he afflicted his body with hairshirts, chains, disciplines, and every kind of austerity and penance; while he assiduously nourished his spirit with the sweetness of holy prayer, and the highest contemplation. By this means, the love of God, which had been poured out in his heart from his childhood, daily increased in a most wonderful manner.

His burning charity shone forth most remarkably in the sweet ecstasies which raised his soul to God, and the wonderful raptures he frequently experienced. Yet, marvelous to tell, however rapt he was in God, obedience would immediately recall him to the use of his senses. He was exceedingly zealous in the practice of obedience; and used to say that he was led by it like a blind man, and that he would rather die than disobey. He emulated the poverty of the seraphic patriarch to such a degree, that on his deathbed he could truthfully tell his superior he had nothing which, according to custom, he could relinquish. Thus dead to the world and to himself Joseph showed forth in his flesh the life of Jesus. While in others he perceived the vice of impurity by an evil odor, his own body exhaled a most sweet fragrance, a sign of the spotless purity which he preserved unsullied in spite of long and violent temptations from the devil. This victory he gained by strict custody of his senses, by continual mortification of the body, and especially by the protection of the most pure Virgin Mary, whom he called his Mother, and whom he venerated with tenderest affection as the sweetest of mothers, desiring to see her venerated by others, that they might, said he, together with her patronage, gain all good things.

Blessed Joseph’s solicitude in this respect sprang from his love for his neighbor, for he was consumed with zeal for souls, urging him to seek the salvation of all. His love embraced the poor, the sick, and all in affliction, whom he comforted as far as lay in his power, not excluding those who pursued him with reproaches and insults, and every kind of injury. He bore all this with the same patience, sweetness, and cheerfulness of countenance as were remarked in him when he was obliged frequently to change his residence, by the command of the Superiors of his Order, or of the holy Inquisition. People and princes admired his wonderful holiness and heavenly gifts; yet, such was his humility, that, thinking himself a great sinner, he earnestly besought God to remove from him his admirable gifts; while he begged men to cast his body after death in a place where his memory might utterly perish. But God, who exalts the humble, and who had richly adorned his servant during life with heavenly wisdom, prophecy, the reading of hearts, the grace of healing, and other gifts, also rendered his death precious and his sepulcher glorious. Joseph died at the place and time he had foretold, namely, at Osimo in Picenum, in the sixty-first year of his age. He was famous for miracles after his death; and was enrolled among the Blessed by Benedict XIV, and among the Saints by Clement XIII. Clement XIV, who was of the same Order, extended his Office and Mass to the universal Church.

While praising God for the marvelous gifts he bestowed on thee, we acknowledge that thy virtues were yet more wonderful. Otherwise thy ecstasies would be regarded with suspicion by the Church, who usually withholds her judgment until long after the world has begun to admire and applaud. Obedience, patience, and charity, increasing under trial, were incontestable guarantees for the divine authorship of these marvels, which the enemy is sometimes permitted to mimic to a certain extent. Satan may raise a Simon Magus into the air: he cannot make a humble man. O worthy son of the seraph of Assisi, may we, after thy example, be raised up, not into the air, but into those regions of true light, where far above the earth and its passions, our life, like thine, may be hidden with Christ in God!]]> September 18 – St. Joseph of Cupertino, Confessor

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

[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginal...f=1&nofb=1]

Quote:Joseph was born of pious parents at Cupertino, a town of the Salentines in the diocese of Nardo, in the year of salvation one thousand six hundred and three. Prevented with the love of God, he spent his boyhood and youth in the greatest simplicity and innocence. The Virgin Mother of God delivered him from a long and painful malady, which he had borne with the greatest patience; whereupon he devoted himself entirely to works of piety and the practice of virtue. But God called him to something higher; and in order to attain to closer union with him, Joseph determined to enter the Seraphic Order. After several trials he obtained his desire, and was admitted among the Minor Conventuals in the convent called Grotella, first as a lay-brother, on account of his lack of learning; but afterwards, God so disposing, he was raised to the rank of a cleric. After making his solemn Vows he was ordained Priest, and began a new life of greater perfection. Utterly renouncing all earthly affections and everything of this world almost to the very necessaries of life, he afflicted his body with hairshirts, chains, disciplines, and every kind of austerity and penance; while he assiduously nourished his spirit with the sweetness of holy prayer, and the highest contemplation. By this means, the love of God, which had been poured out in his heart from his childhood, daily increased in a most wonderful manner.

His burning charity shone forth most remarkably in the sweet ecstasies which raised his soul to God, and the wonderful raptures he frequently experienced. Yet, marvelous to tell, however rapt he was in God, obedience would immediately recall him to the use of his senses. He was exceedingly zealous in the practice of obedience; and used to say that he was led by it like a blind man, and that he would rather die than disobey. He emulated the poverty of the seraphic patriarch to such a degree, that on his deathbed he could truthfully tell his superior he had nothing which, according to custom, he could relinquish. Thus dead to the world and to himself Joseph showed forth in his flesh the life of Jesus. While in others he perceived the vice of impurity by an evil odor, his own body exhaled a most sweet fragrance, a sign of the spotless purity which he preserved unsullied in spite of long and violent temptations from the devil. This victory he gained by strict custody of his senses, by continual mortification of the body, and especially by the protection of the most pure Virgin Mary, whom he called his Mother, and whom he venerated with tenderest affection as the sweetest of mothers, desiring to see her venerated by others, that they might, said he, together with her patronage, gain all good things.

Blessed Joseph’s solicitude in this respect sprang from his love for his neighbor, for he was consumed with zeal for souls, urging him to seek the salvation of all. His love embraced the poor, the sick, and all in affliction, whom he comforted as far as lay in his power, not excluding those who pursued him with reproaches and insults, and every kind of injury. He bore all this with the same patience, sweetness, and cheerfulness of countenance as were remarked in him when he was obliged frequently to change his residence, by the command of the Superiors of his Order, or of the holy Inquisition. People and princes admired his wonderful holiness and heavenly gifts; yet, such was his humility, that, thinking himself a great sinner, he earnestly besought God to remove from him his admirable gifts; while he begged men to cast his body after death in a place where his memory might utterly perish. But God, who exalts the humble, and who had richly adorned his servant during life with heavenly wisdom, prophecy, the reading of hearts, the grace of healing, and other gifts, also rendered his death precious and his sepulcher glorious. Joseph died at the place and time he had foretold, namely, at Osimo in Picenum, in the sixty-first year of his age. He was famous for miracles after his death; and was enrolled among the Blessed by Benedict XIV, and among the Saints by Clement XIII. Clement XIV, who was of the same Order, extended his Office and Mass to the universal Church.

While praising God for the marvelous gifts he bestowed on thee, we acknowledge that thy virtues were yet more wonderful. Otherwise thy ecstasies would be regarded with suspicion by the Church, who usually withholds her judgment until long after the world has begun to admire and applaud. Obedience, patience, and charity, increasing under trial, were incontestable guarantees for the divine authorship of these marvels, which the enemy is sometimes permitted to mimic to a certain extent. Satan may raise a Simon Magus into the air: he cannot make a humble man. O worthy son of the seraph of Assisi, may we, after thy example, be raised up, not into the air, but into those regions of true light, where far above the earth and its passions, our life, like thine, may be hidden with Christ in God!]]> <![CDATA[September 17th – The Stigmata of St Francis]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2553 Sat, 18 Sep 2021 10:33:15 +0000 Stone]]> https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=2553 September 17 – The Stigmata of St Francis

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

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The great Patriarch of Assisi will soon appear a second time in the holy Liturgy, and we shall praise God for the marvels wrought in him by divine grace. The subject of today’s feast, while a personal glory to St. Francis, is of greater importance for its mystical signification.

The Man-God still lives in the Church by the continual reproduction of his mysteries in this his Bride, making her a faithful copy of himself. In the thirteenth century, while the charity of the many had grown cold (Collect of the feast), the divine fire burned with redoubled ardor in the hearts of a chosen few. It was the hour of the Church’s passion; the beginning of that series of social defections, with their train of denials, treasons and derisions, which ended in the proscription we now witness. The Cross had been exalted before the eyes of the world: the Bride was now to be nailed thereto with her divine Spouse, after having stood with him in the pretorium exposed to the insults and blows of the multitude.

Like an artist selecting a precious marble, the Holy Spirit chose the flesh of the Assisian seraph as the medium for the expression of his divine thought. He thereby manifested to the world the special direction he intended to give to the sanctity of souls; he offered to heaven a first and complete model of the new work he was meditating, viz: the perfect union, upon the very cross, of the mystical Body with its divine Head. Francis was the first to be chosen for this honor: but others were to follow; and henceforward, here and there through the world, the Stigmata of Our blessed Lord will ever be visible in the Church.

Let us read in this light the admirable history of the event, composed by the Seraphic Doctor in honor of his holy father St. Francis.

Quote:Two years before the faithful servant and minister of Christ, Francis, gave up his spirit to God, he retired alone into a high place, which is called Mount Alvernia, and began a forty-days’ fast in honor of the Archangel St. Michael. The sweetness of heavenly contemplation was poured out on him more abundantly than usual, till, turning with the flame of celestial desires, he began to feel an increasing overflow of these divine favors. While the seraphic ardor of his desires thus raised him up to God, and the tenderness of his love and compassion was transforming him into Christ the crucified Victim of excessive love; one morning, about the Feast of the Exaltation of holy Cross, as he was praying on the mountain-side, he saw what appeared to be a Seraph, with six shining and fiery wings, coming down from heaven. The vision flew swiftly through the air and approached the man of God, who then perceived that it was not only winged, but also crucified; for the hands and feet were stretched out and fastened to a cross; while the wings were arranged in a wondrous manner, two being raised above the head, two outstretched in flight, and the remaining two crossed over the veiling the whole body. As he gazed, Francis was much astonished, and his soul was filled with mingled joy and sorrow. The gracious aspect of him, who appeared in so wonderful and loving a manner, rejoiced him exceedingly, while the sight of his cruel crucifixion pierced his heart with a sword of sorrowing compassion.

He, who appeared outward to Francis, taught him inwardly that, although weakness and suffering are incompatible with the immortal life of a seraph, yet this vision had been shown to him to the end that he, Christ’s lover, might learn how his whole being was to be transformed into a living image of Christ crucified, not by martyrdom of the flesh, but by the burning ardor of his soul. After a mysterious and familiar colloquy, the vision disappeared, leaving the Saint’s mind burning with seraphic ardor, and his flesh impressed with an exact image of the Crucified, as though, after the melting power of that fire, it had next been stamped with a zeal. For immediately the marks of nails began to appear in his hands and feet, their heads showing in the palms of his hands and the upper part of his feet, and their points visible on the other side. There was also a red scar on his right side, as if it had been wounded by a lance, and from which blood often flowed, staining his tunic and underclothing.

Francis, now a new man, honored by this new and amazing miracle, and, by a hitherto unheard of privilege, adorned with the sacred stigmata, came down from the mountain bearing with the image of the Crucified, not carved in wood or stone by the hand of an artist, but engraved upon his flesh by the finger of the living God. The seraphic man well knew that it is good to hide the secret of the king: wherefore, having been thus admitted into his king’s confidence, he strove, as far as in him lay, to conceal the sacred marks. But it belongs to God to reveal the great things which he himself has done; and hence, after impressing these signs upon Francis in secret, he publicly worked miracles by means of them, revealing the hidden and wondrous power of the Stigmata by the signs wrought through them. Pope Benedict XI willed that this wonderful event, which is so well attested and in pontifical diplomas has been honored with the greatest praises and favors, should be celebrated by a yearly solemnity. Afterwards, Pope Paul V, wishing the hearts of all the faithful to be enkindled with the love of Christ crucified, extended the feast to the whole Church.

Standard-bearer of Christ and of his Church, we would fain, with the Apostle and with thee, glory in nothing save the Cross of Our Lord Jesus. We would fain bear in our souls the sacred Stigmata, which adorned thy holy body. To him whose whole ambition is to return love for love, every suffering is a gain, persecution has no terrors; for the effect of persecutions and sufferings is to assimilate him, together with his mother the Church, to Christ persecuted, scourged and crucified.

It is with our whole hearts that we pray, with the Church: “O Lord Jesus Christ, who, when the world was growing cold, didst renew the sacred marks of thy Passion in the flesh of the most blessed Francis, to inflame our hearts with the fire of thy love; mercifully grant that by his merits and prayers we may always carry the cross, and bring forth worthy fruits of penance. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.”]]> September 17 – The Stigmata of St Francis

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

[Image: stigmata.jpg20.jpg?w=700&ssl=1]

Quote:Two years before the faithful servant and minister of Christ, Francis, gave up his spirit to God, he retired alone into a high place, which is called Mount Alvernia, and began a forty-days’ fast in honor of the Archangel St. Michael. The sweetness of heavenly contemplation was poured out on him more abundantly than usual, till, turning with the flame of celestial desires, he began to feel an increasing overflow of these divine favors. While the seraphic ardor of his desires thus raised him up to God, and the tenderness of his love and compassion was transforming him into Christ the crucified Victim of excessive love; one morning, about the Feast of the Exaltation of holy Cross, as he was praying on the mountain-side, he saw what appeared to be a Seraph, with six shining and fiery wings, coming down from heaven. The vision flew swiftly through the air and approached the man of God, who then perceived that it was not only winged, but also crucified; for the hands and feet were stretched out and fastened to a cross; while the wings were arranged in a wondrous manner, two being raised above the head, two outstretched in flight, and the remaining two crossed over the veiling the whole body. As he gazed, Francis was much astonished, and his soul was filled with mingled joy and sorrow. The gracious aspect of him, who appeared in so wonderful and loving a manner, rejoiced him exceedingly, while the sight of his cruel crucifixion pierced his heart with a sword of sorrowing compassion.

He, who appeared outward to Francis, taught him inwardly that, although weakness and suffering are incompatible with the immortal life of a seraph, yet this vision had been shown to him to the end that he, Christ’s lover, might learn how his whole being was to be transformed into a living image of Christ crucified, not by martyrdom of the flesh, but by the burning ardor of his soul. After a mysterious and familiar colloquy, the vision disappeared, leaving the Saint’s mind burning with seraphic ardor, and his flesh impressed with an exact image of the Crucified, as though, after the melting power of that fire, it had next been stamped with a zeal. For immediately the marks of nails began to appear in his hands and feet, their heads showing in the palms of his hands and the upper part of his feet, and their points visible on the other side. There was also a red scar on his right side, as if it had been wounded by a lance, and from which blood often flowed, staining his tunic and underclothing.

Francis, now a new man, honored by this new and amazing miracle, and, by a hitherto unheard of privilege, adorned with the sacred stigmata, came down from the mountain bearing with the image of the Crucified, not carved in wood or stone by the hand of an artist, but engraved upon his flesh by the finger of the living God. The seraphic man well knew that it is good to hide the secret of the king: wherefore, having been thus admitted into his king’s confidence, he strove, as far as in him lay, to conceal the sacred marks. But it belongs to God to reveal the great things which he himself has done; and hence, after impressing these signs upon Francis in secret, he publicly worked miracles by means of them, revealing the hidden and wondrous power of the Stigmata by the signs wrought through them. Pope Benedict XI willed that this wonderful event, which is so well attested and in pontifical diplomas has been honored with the greatest praises and favors, should be celebrated by a yearly solemnity. Afterwards, Pope Paul V, wishing the hearts of all the faithful to be enkindled with the love of Christ crucified, extended the feast to the whole Church.

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

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At Bingen, in the diocese of Mayence, Saint Hildegarde, Virgin. Let us salute the “great prophetess of the New Testament.” What St. Bernard’s influence over his contemporaries was in the first half of the twelfth century, that in the second half was Hildegarde’s; when the humble virgin became the oracle of popes and emperors, of princes and prelates. Multitudes from far and near flocked to Mount St. Rupert, where the doubts of ordinary life were solved, and the questions of doctors answered. At length, by God’s command, Hildegarde went forth from her monastery to administer to all alike, monks, clerics, and laymen, the word of correction and salvation.

The Spirit indeed breatheth where he will. To the massy pillars that support his royal palace, God preferred the poor little feather floating in the air, and blown about, at his pleasure, hither and thither in the light. In spite of labors, sicknesses, and trials, the holy Abbess lived to the advanced age of eighty-two, in the shadow of the living light.

PRAYER
O God, who didst adorn thy blessed virgin Hidlegarde with heavenly gifts: grant, we beseech thee, that walking in her footsteps and according to her teachings, we may deserve to pass from the darkness of this world into thy lovely light. Through our Lord.]]> September 17 – St Hildegarde of Bingen, Virgin

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

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