7 JULY – SAINTS CYRIL AND METHODIUS (Bishops and Confessors)

Cyril (baptised Constantine) and Methodius were brothers born in Thessalonica to a man of rank in 827 and 826 respectively. In 851 they retired to a monastery on Mt. Olympus to live a secluded life of self-discipline. However, in 858 they were sought out and commissioned to instruct the Hunnish Khazars in the Christian faith. After completing this task they retired to the Crimea to make a Slavonic translation of the Bible. There they discovered the relics of Pope Saint Clement I.

In 862 the emperor Michael sent the brothers to minister to the people of Pannonia, Rostislav, Svaetopolk and Kotel. On their way Methodius converted King Boris of the Bulgarians before proceeding to Moravia where they continued to work on their translation of the Bible for several years. In 868 Pope Nicolas I summoned them to Rome after German princes complained of their use of the Slavonic language in the liturgy. They were received by his successor Pope Adrian II who sanctioned the use of the Slavonic liturgy and ordained two of their disciples as bishops.

In the following year Cyril died in Rome on 14 February and Methodius returned to Moravia until, in 878, when Pope John VIII forbade the use of Salvonic in the liturgy and summoned Methodius to Rome. After his appearance the Pope was satisfied of Methodius' orthodoxy and confirmed his position and authority over the Moravian Church. Methodius converted Duke Borivoi of Bohemia and introduced Christianity into the lands under his rule. In Prague he founded a church dedicated to Our Lady, and another dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul. He died on 6 April 885.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Twin stars this day arise on the heavens of holy Church, illumining by the radiant beams of their apostolate immense tracts of country. Seeing that they start from Byzantium, one is at first led to suppose that their evolution is going to be performed independently of the laws which Rome has the right to dictate for the movements of the heavens, of which it is said that “they will declare the glory of God and the works of His hand” (Psalm xviii. 2). But the auspicious influence of Saint Clement I, as we will see, through his sacred relics diverts their course towards the Mistress of the world. And presently they can be descried gravitating with matchless splendour in Peter’s orbit, manifesting once more to the whole Earth that all true light in the order of salvation radiates solely from the Vicar of the Man-God. Then once again is realised that word of the Psalmist, that “there are no speeches nor languages where the voices of the messengers of light are not heard” (Psalm xviii. 4).

To the sudden and splendid outburst of the good tidings that marked the first centuries of our era, had succeeded the labours of the second Apostolate where to the Holy Ghost entrusted the gathering in of those new nations called by Divine Wisdom to replace the ancient world. Already, under that mysterious influence of the Eternal City by which she assimilated to herself even her very conquerors, another Latin race had been formed out of those very barbarians whose invasion seemed like a deluge to have submerged the whole Empire. Scarce was this marvellous transformation effected by the baptism of the Franks, the conversion from Arianism of the Goths and of their variously named brethren in arms, than the Anglo Saxons, the Germans, and lastly the Scandinavians, conducted respectively by an Augustine, a Boniface, or an Anscharius, all three monks, came in turn to knock for admission, at the gates of Holy Church. At the creative voice of these new Apostles, Europe appeared, issuing from the waters of the sacred Font.

Meanwhile, the constant movement of the great migration of nations had, by degrees, brought as far as the banks of the Danube, a people whose name began, in the ninth century, to attract universal attention. Betwixt East and West, the Slavs, profiting on the one side of the weakness of Charlemagne’s descendants, and of the revolutions of the Byzantine court on the other, were aiming at erecting their various tribes into principalities, independent alike of both empires. Thus was now the hour chosen by Providence to win over to Christianity and to civilisation a race until then without a history. The Spirit of Pentecost rested on the head of the two holy brethren whom we are today celebrating. Prepared by the monastic life for every devotedness and every suffering, they brought to this people struggling to issue from the shades of ignorance, the first elements of letters, and tidings of the noble destiny to which God, our Saviour, invites men and nations.

Thus was the Slav race fitted to complete the great European family, and God ceded to it a larger territory than He had bestowed on any other in this Europe of ours, so evidently the object of Eternal Predilection. Happy this nation had she but continued ever attached to that Rome which had lent her such valuable assistance in the midst of the early struggles that disputed her existence! Nothing, indeed, so strongly seconded her aspirations for independence as the favour of having a peculiar language in the sacred rites, a favour obtained for her from the See of Peter by her two Apostles. The outcries uttered, at that very time, by those who would fain hold her fast bound under their own laws, showed clearly enough, even then, the political bearing of a concession, as unparalleled as it was decisive, in sealing the existence in those regions of a new people distinct at once from both Germans and Greeks.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

At Rome, the holy martyrs Claudius, notary, Meostratus, assistant prefect, Castorius, Victorinus and Symphorian, who were brought to the faith of Christ by St. Sebastian, and baptised by the blessed priest Polycarp. While they were engaged in searching for the bodies of the holy martyrs, the judge Fabian had them arrested, and for ten days he tried by threats and caresses to shake their constancy, but being utterly unable to succeed, he ordered them to be thrice tortured and then precipitated into the sea.

At Durazzo in Macedonia, the holy martyrs Peregrinus, Lucian, Pompeius, Hesychius, Papius, Saturninus and Germanus, natives of Italy. In the persecution of Trajan they took refuge in the town of Durazzo, where seeing the saintly bishop Astius hanging on a cross for the faith of Christ, they publicly declared themselves to be Christians, when, by order of the governor, they were arrested and cast into the sea.

At Perugia, blessed Pope Benedict XI, a native of Treviso, of the Order of Preachers, who in the brief space of his pontificate greatly promoted the peace of the Church, the restoration of discipline and the spread of religion.

At Alexandria, the birthday of St. Pantaenus, an apostolic man, filled with wisdom. He had such an affection and love for the word of God, and was so inflamed with the ardour of faith and devotion, that he set out to preach the Gospel of Christ to the Gentiles inhabiting the farthest recesses of the East. At length returning to Alexandria, he rested in peace under Antoninus Caracalla.

At Brescia, St. Apollonius, bishop and confessor.

In Saxony, St. Willibald, first bishop of Eichstadt, who laboured with St. Boniface in preaching the Gospel and converted many nations to Christ.

At Clermont in Auvergne, St. Illidius, bishop.

At Urgel in Spain, St. Odo, bishop.

In England, St. Hedda, bishop of the West-Saxons.

At Gray in Burgundy, blessed Peter Fourier, Canon Regular of the most Holy Saviour, renowned for virtues and miracles.

In England, St. Edelburga, virgin, daughter of an English king.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.

6 JULY – SAINT MARIA GORETTI (Virgin and Martyr)

Maria Teresa Goretti was born in northern Italy in 1890, the third of six children of Luigi Goretti and Assunta Carlini. After her father died in 1899, her mother and siblings worked as farm labourers while she kept house. They they moved to Lazio and shared a farmhouse with another family of farm labourers. On July 5th 1902 a young farmhand called Alessandro tried to rape Maria. She pleaded with him to stop, telling him that it was a sin and she would rather die than submit to him. Alessandro then tried to choke her and stabbed her many times. Her family took her to hospital but twenty hours later she died of her injuries while gazing at an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary and holding a cross against her chest. Alessandro escaped the death penalty because of his age and served 30 years in prison. After his release he begged Maria's mother’s forgiveness. She forgave him and they attended Mass together the next day, receiving Holy Communion side-by-side. Alessandro reportedly prayed every day to Maria Goretti and called her “my little saint.” Maria Goretti was canonised by Venerable Pope Pius XII in 1950. Alessandro became a lay-brother of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin until his death in 1970.

Saint Maria Goretti, who strengthened by God's grace did not hesitate even at the age of twelve to shed your blood and sacrifice life itself to defend your virginal purity, look graciously on the unhappy human race which has strayed far from the path of eternal salvation. Teach us all, and especially youth, with what courage and promptitude we should flee for the love of Jesus anything that could offend Him or stain our souls with sin. Obtain for us from our Lord victory in temptation, comfort in the sorrows of life, and the grace which we earnestly beg of you (here insert intention), and may we one day enjoy with you the imperishable glory of Heaven. Amen.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

In Judea, the holy prophet Isaiah. In the reign of king Manasses he was put to death by being sawed in two and was buried beneath the oak Rogel, near a running stream.

At Rome, the birthday of St. Tranquillinus, martyr, father of the Saints Mark and Marcellian, who were converted to Christ by the preaching of the martyr St. Sebastian. Baptised by the blessed priest Polycarp, he was ordained priest by Pope St. Caius. He was arrested while praying at the tomb of the blessed Apostle St. Paul on the Octave of the Apostles and stoned to death by the pagans, and thus consummated his martyrdom.

At Fiesoli in Tuscany, St. Romulus, bishop and martyr, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Peter, who commissioned him to preach the Gospel. After announcing Christ in many parts of Italy, he returned to Fiesoli and was crowned with martyrdom with other Christians in the reign of Domitian.

In Campania, St. Dominica, virgin and martyr, in the time of the emperor Diocletian. For having destroyed idols, she was condemned to the beasts, but being uninjured by them, she was beheaded and departed for heaven. Her body is kept with great veneration at Tropea in Calabria.

The same day, St. Lucia, martyr, a native of Campania. Being arrested and severely tortured by the lieutenant-governor Rictiovarus, she converted him to Christ. To them were added Antoninus, Severinus, Diodorus, Dion and seventeen others who shared their sufferings and their crowns.

In the vicinity of Treves, St. Goar, priest and confessor.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.

6 JULY – FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

 

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The fourth Sunday after Pentecost was called for a long period in the West the Sunday of Mercy because, formerly, there was read upon it the passage from Saint Luke beginning with the words: “Be merciful, as your Father is merciful.” But this Gospel having been since assigned to the Mass of the first Sunday after Pentecost, the Gospel of the fifth Sunday was made that of the fourth, the Gospel of the sixth became that of the fifth, and so on up to the twenty-third. The change we speak of was, however, not introduced into many Churches till a very late period, and it was not universally received till the sixteenth century.

While the Gospels were thus brought forward a week — in almost the whole series of these Sundays, the Epistles, Prayers and the other sung portions of the ancient Masses were, with a few exceptions, left as originally drawn up. The connection which the liturgists of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries had fancied they found between the Gospel and the rest of the Liturgy for these Sundays was broken. Thus the Church spared not those favourite views of explanations which were at times far-fetched, and yet she did not intend by that to condemn those writers, nor to discourage her children from perusing their treatises, for, as the holy reflections they contained were frequently suggested by the authority of the ancient Liturgies, such reading would edify and instruct. e are quite at liberty, then, to turn their labours to profit. Let us only keep this continually before us — that the chief connection existing between the several portions of the proper of each Mass for the Sundays after Pentecost consists in the unity of the Sacrifice itself.

In the Greek Church, there is even less pretension to anything approaching methodical arrangement in the Liturgy of these Sundays. On the morrow of Pentecost they begin the reading of the Gospel of Saint Matthew and continue it, chapter after chapter, up to the feast of the Exaltation of the holy Cross in September. Saint Luke follows Saint Matthew, and is read in the same way. The weeks and Sundays of this Season are simply named according to the Gospel of each day, or they take the name of the Evangelist whose text is being read: thus, our first Sunday after Pentecost is called by them the first Sunday of Saint Matthew. The one we are now keeping is their fourth of Saint Matthew.

In a former volume we have spoken of the importance of the eighth day as the Christian substitute for the seventh of the Jewish Sabbath, and as the holy day of the new people of God. The Synagogue, by God’s command, kept holy the Saturday, or the Sabbath —and this in honour of God’s resting after the six days of the creation. But the Church, the Bride of Jesus, is commanded to honour the work of her Spouse. She allows the Saturday to pass — it is the day of her Lord’s rest in the sepulchre: but now that she is illumined with the brightness of the Resurrection, she devotes to the contemplation of His work the first day of the week, the Sunday: it is the day of Light, for on it He called forth material Light (which was the first manifestation of order amid chaos) and, on the same day, He that is the Brightness of the Father (Hebrews i. 3) and the Light of the world (John viii. 12) rose from the darkness of the tomb.

So important, indeed, is the Sunday’s liturgy which every week is entrusted to honour such profound mysteries, that for a long time the Roman Pontiffs kept down the number of Feasts which were above the rank of semi-doubles, that thus the Sunday, which is a semi-double, might not be disturbed. It was not till the second half of the seventeenth century that this discipline of reserve was relaxed. Then it was that it had to give way in order thereby to meet the attacks made by the Protestants and their allies the Jansenists, against the cult of the Saints. Need was of reminding the Faithful that the honour paid to the servants of God detracts not from the glory of their Master, that the cult of the Saints, the Members of Christ, is but the consequence and development of that which is due to Christ their Head. The Church owed it to her Spouse to make a protest against the narrow views of these innovators who were really aiming at lessening the glory of the Incarnation by thus denying its grandest consequences. It was, therefore, by a special inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the Apostolic See then permitted several feasts, both old and new, to be ranked as of a double rite. To strengthen the solemn condemnation she had pronounced against the heretics of that period, she wisely adopted the course of, from time to time, allowing the Feasts of Saints to be kept on Sundays, although these latter were considered as being especially reserved for the celebration of the leading mysteries of our Catholic faith, and for the obligatory attendance of the people.

The Sunday, or Dominical, Liturgy was not, however, altogether displaced by the celebration of any particular feast on the Lord’s Day. For no matter however solemn that feast, falling on a Sunday, may be, a commemoration must always he made of the Sunday by adding its Prayers to those of the occurring Feast, and by reading its proper Gospel, instead of that of Saint John at the end of Mass. Neither let us forget that after the assisting at the solemn Mass and the Canonical Hours, one of the best means for observing the precept of keeping holy the Sabbath day is our own private meditation on the Epistle and Gospel appointed by the Church for each Sunday.

Epistle – Romans viii. 18‒23

Brethren, the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared to the glory to come that will be revealed in us. For the expectation of the creature waits for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him that made it subject, in hope: because the creature also itself will be delivered from the servitude of corruption, to the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that every creature groans and travails in pain even till now. And not only it, but ourselves also, who have the first, fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God; the redemption of our body.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The first fruits of the Spirit are the grace and virtues which He has put into our souls as the earnest of salvation and the germ of future glory. Our faith confirms our possession of these divine pledges and regenerate human nature, even amid all the trials of this life, is consoled at the very thought of the noble destiny to which it is called. Satan may use his fiercest efforts to regain his lost ground, and the soul may have many and frequent battles to fight for the holding what was once under the dominion of the enemy, but Christian hope is an armour of Heaven’s own making. Hope enters in even within the veil (Hebrews vi. 19), and then she comes telling the combatant about the disproportion here mentioned by the Apostle between the fatigues of the march here below, and the bliss which is to reward our fidelity in the happy land above. He has the promises of God, and the marvellous dealings of the Paraclete in his regard, both in the past and now — all justifying his expectations of the future glory that will then be revealed, be realised, in him. The very Earth he dwells on, which now so often tyrannises over him and deceives his senses — yes, this very Earth urges him to fix his heart on something far better than herself. She even seems to share in his hopes. Saint Paul tells us so in today’s Epistle: the wild upheavings, the restless changes of material creation, are so many voices clamouring for the destruction of sin, and for the final and total triumph over the corruption which followed sin.

The present condition of this world, therefore, furnishes a special and most telling motive inviting us to the holy virtue of hope. Only they can find anything strange in such teaching who have no idea of how man’s being raised up to the supernatural order was, from the beginning, a real ennobling of the world which was made for man’s service. Men of this stamp have each their own way of explaining God’s creation, but the truth which explains everything both on Earth and in Heaven — the divine axiom which is the principle and reason of everything that has been made — is this: that God, who, of necessity, does everything for His own glory, has, of His own free choice, appointed that the perfection of this His glory will consist in the triumph of His love by the ineffable mystery of divine union realised in His creature. To bring this divine union about is, consequently, by God’s gracious will, not only the one sole end, but, moreover, is the one only law, the vital and constitutive law, of creation.

When the Spirit moved over chaos He adapted the informal matter to the designs of infinite love. Thereby the various elements, and the countless atoms, of the world that was in preparation, really derived from this infinite love the principle of their future development and power. They received it as their one single mission to co-operate, each in its own way, with the Holy Spirit: that is, co-operate in leading man, the creature chosen by Eternal Wisdom, to the proposed glorious end — union with God. Sin broke the alliance and would have destroyed the world from the very fact of sin’s taking from it the purpose of its existence, had it not been for the incomprehensible patience of the God it outraged, and the marvellous renovations of the original plan achieved by the Spirit of love. A violent state, the state of struggle and expiation has now been substituted for what, in the primal design of the Creator, was to be the effortless advance of the king of creation to His grand destiny, the spontaneous growth of, what some one has called man, the god in the bud. Divine union is still offered to the world but, at what a cost of trouble and travail!

We may still enjoy the eternal music of triumph and all the joys of the divine nuptial banquet but what a long prelude of sighs and sobs must precede! Men, who recognise no other law than that of the flesh, may be as deaf and as indifferent as they please to the teachings of positive revelation, but mere matter will go on ever condemning their materialism. Nature, which they pretend to acknowledge as their only authority, will continue to preach the supernatural with her thousand mouths, and will preach it in every nook of the earth. And creation, disturbed though it be, and turned astray by the Fall of Adam, will still keep proclaiming all the louder because it is in suffering — that the fallen king whom it was intended to serve has a destiny far beyond all finite things. You mysterious sufferings of creatures, which the Apostle here calls your groanings, may we not name you, as one of the poets (Aeneas) did, and speak of you as the tears of things? Truly, you are like the soul of music of this land of trial. We have but to listen to your sweet plaintive sounds, and let you speak your eloquence, and you lead us to Him who is the source of all beauty and love. The pagan world heard your voice, but its philosophers would have it that you meant pantheism! The Holy Ghost had not yet begun His reign. He alone could explain to us the strange language of nature, and her vehement aspirations, all of which had been put into her by Himself. All is now made clear to us: the Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole earth (Wisdom i. 7), the divine Witness who giveth us assurance that we are the sons of God (Romans vii. 16) has carried His precious testimony to the furthest limits of creation, for all creation thrills with expectancy, impatient to see the coming of that glorious day which is to be the revelation of the glory that belongs to these sons of God. It is on their account that they too have had to suffer. Together with them they will be set free, and will share in the brightness of their coronation day. Saint John Chrysostom compares the Earth to “the nurse who has brought up the king’s son. When he succeeds to his father’s kingdom, she too is made all the better off... It is much the same with all men: when a son of theirs is to appear in the splendour of some new dignity, they let his very servants wear richer suits. So will God vest in incorruption every creature when the day of the deliverance and glory of His children will come.”

Gospel – Luke v. 1‒11

At that time, when the crowd pressed upon Jesus to hear the word of God, He stood by the Lake of Genesareth. And He saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets; and going up into one of the ships that was Simon’s, He desired him to draw back a little from the land: and sitting, He taught the multitudes out of the ship. Now when He had ceased to speak, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.” And Simon, answering, said to Him, “Master, we have laboured all night and have taken nothing, but at your word I will let down the net.” And when they had done this they enclosed a very great multitude of fishes and their net broke, and they beckoned to their partners that were in the other ship to come and help them; and they came and filled both the ships, so that they were almost sinking. Which, when Simon Peter saw, he fell down at Jesus’s knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he was wholly astonished, and all who were with him, at the draught of fishes they had taken; and so were also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. And Jesus said to Simon, “Fear not: from now on you will catch men.” And having brought their ships to land, leaving all things, they followed Him.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The prophecy and promise made by Jesus to Simon the son of John is now fulfilled. We were in amazement on the day when the Holy Ghost came down at the success which attended Peter’s first fishing for men. He cast in his nets, and it was the choicest of the sons of Israel that he took and offered them to the Lord Jesus. But the barque of Peter was not to be long confined within Jewish waters. Insignificant as it seems to human views, the ship is now sailing on the high seas. It rides on the deep waters, which are, so Saint John tells us, peoples and nations (Apocalypse xvii. 15). The boisterous wind, the surging billows, the storm, no longer terrifies the boat-man of Lake Tiberias, for he knows that he has on board Him who is the Master of the waves, Him, that is, who has given the deep as a garment to clothe the earth (Psalms ciii. 6). Endued with power from on high (Luke xxiv. 49), Peter has cast his net, the apostolic preaching, all over the great ocean: for it is large as is the world, and is to bring the sons of the great fish the divine ICTHUS to the eternal shore. Grand indeed is the work assigned to Peter. Though fellow-labourers have been joined to him in his divine enterprise, yet does he preside over them all as their undisputed head, as master of the ship where Jesus commands in person and directs all the operations to be done for the world’s salvation. Today’s Gospel very opportunely prepares us for and sums up the teachings included in the Feast of the Prince of the Apostles, which always comes close on the fourth Sunday after Pentecost. For that very reason, we leave for the Feast the detailed enumeration of the glories inherent in the Vicar of Christ and limit ourselves, for the present, to the consideration of the other mysteries contained in the text before us.

The Evangelists have left us the account of two miraculous fishings made by the Apostles in presence of their divine Lord: one of these is related by Saint Luke, and the Church proposes it to our considerations for this Sunday. The other, with its exquisite symbolism, was put before us by the Beloved Disciple on Easter Wednesday. The former of these, which took place while our Lord was still in the days of His mortal life, merely describes that the net was cast into the water just as it served the fishermen’s purpose. That it broke with the multitude of the draught, but no notice is taken, by the Evangelist, as to either the number or kind of the fish. in the second it is our Risen Lord who tells the fishermen, His disciples, that it is to be on the right side of their boat that the net must be let down. It catches, and without breaking, a hundred-and-fifty great fishes. These are brought to the shore where Jesus was waiting for them that He might join them with the mysterious bread and fish that He Himself had already got ready for His labourers (John xxi. 1-13).

The Fathers are unanimous in the interpretation of these two fishings — they represent the Church, first of all, the Church as she now is, and next, as she is to be in eternity. As she now is, the Church is the multitude without distinction between good and bad. But afterwards, that is, after the Resurrection, the good alone will compose the Church, and their number will be forever fixed. “The kingdom of Heaven,” says our Lord, “is like a net cast into the sea, and gathering together of all kind of fishes; which, when it was filled, they drew out, they chose out the good into vessels, but the bad they cast forth” (Matthew xiii. 47, 48).

To speak with Saint Augustine, the fishers of men have cast forth their nets. They have taken the multitude of Christians which we see in wonderment. They have filled the two ships with them, the two peoples, Jew and Gentile. But what is this we are told? The multitude weighs down the ships, even to the risk of sinking them. It is what we witness now, the pressing and mingled crowd of the Baptised is a burden to the Church. Many Christians there are who live badly: they are a trouble to, and keep back, the good. Worse than these, there are those who tear the nets by their schisms or their heresies: they are fish which are impatient of the yoke of unity and will not come to the banquet of Christ. They are pleased with themselves. Under pretext that they cannot live with the bad, they break the net which kept them in the apostolic track and they die far off the shore. In how many countries have they not thus broken the great net of salvation? The Donatists in Africa, the Arians in Egypt, Montanus in Phrygia, Manes in Persia. And since their times, how many others have excelled in the work of rupture! Let us not imitate their folly. If grace have made us holy, let us be patient with the bad while living in this world’s waters. Let the sight of them drive us neither to live as they do, nor to leave the Church. The shore is not far off, where those on the right, or the good, will alone be permitted to land, and from which the wicked will be repulsed, and cast into the abyss.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Besançon in France, the holy martyrs Ferreol, priest, and Ferrution, deacon, who were sent by the blessed bishop Irenaeus to preach the word of God, and after being exposed to various torments under the judge Claudius, were put to the sword.

At Tarsus in Cilicia, in the reign of the emperor Diocletian, the holy martyrs Quiricus, and Julitta, his mother. Quiricus, a child of three years, seeing his mother cruelly scourged in the presence of the governor Alexander, and crying bitterly, was killed by being dashed against the steps of the tribunal. Julitta, after being subjected to severe stripes and grievous torments, closed the career of her martyrdom by decapitation.

At Mayence, the passion of the Saints Aurens, and Justina, his sister, and other martyrs, who, being at Mass in church, were massacred by the Huns then devastating Germany.

At Amathonte in Cyprus, St. Tychon, a bishop in the time of Theodosius the Younger.

At Lyons, the demise of blessed Aurelian, bishop of Arles.

At Nantes in Brittany, St. Similian, bishop and confessor.

At Meissen in Germany, St. Benno, bishop.

In the village of La Louvesc, formerly of the diocese of Vienne in Dauphiny, the decease of St. John Francis Regis, confessor, of the Society of Jesus, distinguished by his zeal for the salvation of souls, and by his patience. He was placed on the list of saints by Pope Clement XII.

In Brabant, St. Lutgard, virgin.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.

5 JULY – SAINT ANTHONY MARIA ZACCARIA (Confessor)

Anthony was born in Cremona, Lombardy, to noble parents in 1502. When he was two years old his father died. He was raised as an only child by his mother. At an early age he took a private vow of chastity. He studied philosophy and medicine and practised as a doctor for three years. He began studies for the priesthood in 1527 and was ordained in the following year. After working in hospitals and institutions for the poor he became the spiritual advisor of Countess Torelli of Guastalla and followed her to Milan where he founded three religious orders: the Clerics Regular of St Paul (commonly known as the Barnabites), the Angelic Sisters of St. Paul, and the Laity of Saint Paul (or Oblates of Saint Paul) for lay married people.

Anthony was twice investigated for heresy but was acquitted both times. In 1536 he went to Vincenza where he reformed two convents, founded the second house of the Barnabites and promoted the Forty Hours' devotion. He also revived the custom of ringing church bells at 3 pm on Fridays in memory of the crucifixion. While on a mission to Guastalla he caught a fever and died on 5 July 1539. He was buried in the convent of the Angelics of Saint Paul and 27 years after his death his body was found to be incorrupt. He was beatified in 1890 and was canonised in 1897 by Pope Leo XIII. 

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

At Rome, St. Zoe, martyr, wife of the blessed martyr Nicostratus. While praying at the tomb of the blessed Apostle St. Peter during the time of Diocletian, she was seized by the persecutors and cast into a dark dungeon. Then being suspended on a tree by her neck and hair, and suffocated by a loathsome smoke, she yielded up her soul in the confession of the Lord.

In Syria, the birthday of St. Domitius, martyr, who by his miracles confers many favours on the people of that country. 

At Cyrene in Lybia, St. Cyrilla, a martyr, in the persecution of Diocletian. For a long while she held on her hand burning coals with incense, lest by shaking off the coals she should seem to offer incense to the idols. She was afterwards cruelly scourged and went to her spouse adorned with her own blood.
At Jerusalem, St. Athanasius, a deacon, who was apprehended by the heretics for defending the Council of Chalcedon, and after experiencing all kinds of torments was put to the sword.

In Sicily, the holy martyrs Agatho and Triphina.

At Tomis in Scythia, the holy martyrs Marinus, Theodotus, and Sedopha.

At Treves, St. Numerian, bishop and confessor. St. Michael of the Saints, whose death is mentioned on the tenth of April.

At San Severino in the Marches of Ancona, St. Philomena, virgin.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.

4 JULY – OUR LADY OF CONSOLATION

Our Lady of Consolation is one of the oldest titles of honour given to the Blessed Virgin Mary, dating back to the second century. In the seventeenth century Mary was invoked by this title by Catholics in Luxembourg which was then ravaged by the plague, and as a result, many miraculous cures and healing were attributed to her. In 1652 Pope Innocent X encouraged devotion to Our Lady of Consolation by establishing a confraternity. In the Litany of Loreto Our Lady of Consolation is supplicated as the “Comforter of the afflicted.”

O Mother of God, Mother of Consolation, and my most dear Mother who is sensible of my miseries and infirmities, my poverty and distress, my mourning and sighs, look on me, and have compassion on me.And as now, having a distaste for the bitter waters of this sea of tears, I am endeavouring to pass through the thorny passage of this tiresome pilgrimage to the reviving spring of divine grace. Deign, therefore, O heavenly Consolatrix, to refresh me who, like a famished hart, seeking to alleviate its thirst at some limpid stream, make my blessings. Wherefore, most gracious Queen, I make you an offering of my whole heart, confessing that it is through you that I receive the many favours which God is pleased to confer on me, and I beseech you that, through the charity with which you love your Divine Son, Jesus, and through that love which moved you to enroll me as your servant, however of that favour, to obtain for me the full remission of my sins, an increase of faith, hope and charity, the perfect accomplishment of God’s will in all that concerns me, and finally a happy death, at which period let the light of your sweet countenance shine on me and protect me from my inveterate foe, and the rigours of Divine Justice, that under your guidance I may arrive at the fountain of everlasting life, the country of eternal brightness, and the vision of the Divine presence and glory, to sing forever in your company the everlasting praises of my God, and love Him without end. Amen.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

The prophets Osee and Aggseus.

In Africa, the birthday of St. Jucundian, a martyr who was drowned in the sea for Christ.

In the diocese of Bourges, St. Laurian, bishop of Seville and martyr, whose head was taken to Seville in Spain.

At Sirmium, Saints Innocent and Sebastia, with thirty other martyrs.

At Madaurus in Africa, the martyr Namphanion and his companions, who he strengthened for the combat and led to the crown of martyrdom.

At Cyrene in Lybia, the holy bishop Theodore. In the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Dignian, he was scourged with leaded whips and had his tongue cut out. Finally, however, he died a confessor.

The same day, the birthday of the Saints Flavian II, bishop of Antioch, and Elijah, bishop of Jerusalem, who were driven into exile by the emperor Anastasius in defence of the Council of Chalcedon and went victoriously to God.

At Augsburg in Bavaria, St. Uldaric, a bishop illustrious for extraordinary abstinence, liberality, vigilance and the gift of miracles.

At Lisbon, St. Elizabeth, widow, queen of Portugal, whose festival is celebrated on the eighth of this month by order of Pope Innocent XII.

At Tours, the translation of St. Martin, bishop and confessor, and the Dedication of his Basilica, which took place on the anniversary of his elevation to the episcopate some years previously.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.

3 JULY – SAINT IRENAEUS OF LYONS (Bishop and Martyr)

Irenaeus was born in proconsular Asia, not far from Smyrna. From his childhood he had entered the school of Polycarp, tbe disciple of Saint John the Evangelist and Bishop of Smyrna. Under Polycarp he made progress in the science of religion and in the practice of Christian virtue. He was inflamed with desire to learn the doctrines which had been received as a deposit by all the disciples of the Apostles. Although already a master in Sacred Letters when Polycarp was martyred, Irenaeus undertook to visit as many as ever he could of these ancients, memorising whatever they spoke to him. Thus was he afterwards able, to oppose these their words with great advantage against the heresies. For indeed, daily more and more, heresy spread to the great detriment of the Christian people, and therefore he thought to make a careful and ample refutation of it. In Gaul he was attached as priest to the Church of Lyons by Saint Pothinus, its Bishop. Labouring in the discharge of which office, both by word and doctrine he showed himself to be a true “zelator of the Testament of Christ,” as the holy martyrs expressed it, who in the time of Marcas Aurelius were strenuously combating for the true religion.

For these same martyrs, together with the clergy of Lyons, thought they could not put into better hands than those of Irenaeus the pacification of the Churches of Asia that had been troubled by the heresy of Montanus. For this cause, so dear to their heart, they chose therefore Irenaeus among all others as the most worthy, and sent him to Pope Eleutherius to implore him to condemn these new heretics and put an end to the dissensions. The Bishop Pothinus had died a martyr. Irenaeus having succeeded him, so happy was his episcopacy, owing to his wisdom, prayer and example, that soon not only the city of Lyons, but even a great number of the inhabitants of other cities in Gaul, renounced the error of their superstitions and gave their names to be enlisted in the army of Christ. Meanwhile, a contest arose on the subject of the exact day on which Easter should be celebrated. The bishops of Asia were in disagreement with nearly all their colleagues, and the Roman Pontiff Victor had already cut them off from the communion of Saints, or was on the point of so doing, when Irenaeus appeared before him as a seeker of peace and most respectfully admonishing him, induced him, after the example of the Pontiffs his predecessors, not to suffer so many Churches to be torn away from Catholic unity on account only of a rite which they said they had received from their fathers.

Irenaeus wrote many works mentioned by Eusebius of Caesarea and Saint Jerome, a great part of which have perished through the ravages of time. There are extant, however, five books of his against heresies written in about 180 AD while Eleutherius was governing the Church. In the third Book, the man of God, instructed by those who, as it is certain, had been disciples of the Apostles, renders to the Roman Church and to the succession of her Bishops a testimony surpassing all others in weight and brilliancy. And he says that the Roman Church is the faithful, perpetual and most assured guardian of divine tradition. Moreover he says that it is with this Church that every other Church must agree, because she has a principality superior to all others. At length, he was crowned by martyrdom, together with an almost countless multitude whom he had himself brought over to the knowledge and practice of the true faith. He passed away in 272 AD at which time when Septimus Severus had ordered that all those who persisted in the practice of the Christian religion should be condemned to most cruel torments and to death.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Although the feast of Saint Leo II were sufficient in itself to complete this day’s teachings, the Church of Lyons presents likewise to the admiration of the whole world her own great Doctor, the valiant and pacific Irenaeus who, quitting the shores of brilliant Ionia, travelled as far as the Celtic coasts, there to shine as “the light of the West.” But while contemplating him today confirming with his blood the doctrine he had preached, let us hearken to his words bearing testimony to Holy Mother Church: words of world-wide celebrity, at once confounding Hell and closing the mouth of heresy.

May we not say, that it was in order to afford us instruction so appropriate for tomorrow’s festival that Eternal Wisdom made choice of this particular day for His martyr’s triumph? Let us hearken then to this zealous pupil of Polycarp and of the first disciples of the Apostles. Let us hearken to him who for this very reason is considered to be the most authentic witness to the Faith in all the Churches of the second century, all which Churches (these are his own words when Bishop of Lyons) bow down before Rome, as to their Mistress and Mother.

“For,” he continues, “it behoves all the rest, because of her superior Principality, to agree with her. In her do all the Faithful of whatever place preserve ever pure the Faith once preached to them. Great and venerable above all others because of her antiquity, known to all, founded by Peter and Paul the two most glorious of the Apostles, her Bishops are by their succession the channel by which Apostolic tradition is transmitted to us in all its integrity in such sort, that whoever differs from her in his belief, by this fact alone stands confounded.”

The rock on which the Church is built stood all unmoved at that early age, as now, against the efforts of false science. Yet not without peril was the attack then made by the Gnostics with that multiplex heresy of theirs and all its guileful plots put into strange concurrence by powers of evil otherwise the most opposed one to the other. It would almost seem as though Christ had wished to prove the strength of the foundations He had laid, by thus permitting Hell to direct against the Church a simultaneous assault of all the errors to which the world then was or ever would become a prey. Simon the Magician already ensnared by Satan in the nets of the occult sciences was chosen by the prince of darkness as his lieutenant in the enterprise. Unmasked at Samaria by the Vicar of the Man-God, he had commenced against Simon Peter a jealous struggle that would by no means end with the tragic death of the father of heresies, but which in the following century was to be continued more desperately than ever through disciples formed by him.

Saturninus, Basilides, Valentine, all these did but apply the premises of the master, diversifying them according to the instincts bred at the time, by the then existing forms of corruption of mind and heart. A proceeding all the more avowed, inasmuch as the aim of Magun had been nothing less than the sealing of an alliance betwixt philosophies, religions and aspirations the most contradictory. There was no aberration, from Persian dualism or Hindoo idealism, to Jewish cabals or Greek polytheism, that did not mutually proffer the hand of friendship in this reserved sanctuary of the Gnosis: they already were the heterodox conceptions of Arius and Eutyches being formulated: there, taking movement and life, in advance, were to be recognised in a strange pantheistic romance, the wildest oddities of the hollow dreams of German metaphysics. God, an abyss, rolling from fall to fall, till at last reaching matter, there to become conscious of Himself in human nature and to return then by annihilation into eternal silence. This is the sum total of Gnostic dogma, engendering, for its morality, a mixture of transcendent mysticism and impure practices, for its political form laying the basis of Communism and modern Nihilism.

Such a spectacle as this of the Gnostic Babel, piling up its incoherent materials on the waters of pride and impure passions, was indeed well calculated to bring out in bold relief the admirable unity of the City of God so rapidly advancing, though but in her commencement. Saint Irenaeus, chosen by God to oppose to the Gnosis arguments of his own powerful logic and to re-establish, in opposition to it the true sense of holy Scripture, excelled most of all when, in face of a thousand sects bearing on their brow the visible mark of the father of discord and lies, he pointed to the Church maintaining as sacred, throughout the universe, the whole of tradition just as received from the Apostles. Faith in the great truth that the world is wholly governed by the Holy Trinity Whose work it is, faith in the Mystery of Justice and Mercy, which leaving the Angels in their fall, did yet raise up this flesh of ours, in Jesus, the Well-Beloved, the Son of Mary, our God, our Saviour and our King — such was the deposit confided to Earth by Peter and Paul, by the Apostles and by their disciples.

“The Church, therefore,” so argues Saint Irenaeus with all his enthusiastic piety and learning, “the Church having received Faith, guards the same with all diligence, making the whole world in which she lives dispersed to become but one single House: collected in unity, she believes with one soul, with one heart. With one voice she preaches, teaches, transmits doctrine, as having but one mouth. For, although there be in the world divers languages, that by no means prevents tradition remaining one in its sap. The Churches founded in Germany, or amid the Iberians, or the Celts, believe not otherwise, teach not otherwise, than do the Churches of the East, of Egypt, of Lybia, or of those established in the centre of the world. But even as the sun, God’s creature, is ever the same and remains one in the whole world, so too does the teaching of Truth shine resplendent, illumining every man who is willing to come to the knowledge of the Truth. Even though the chief men in the Churches be unequal in the art of speaking well, tradition is not thereby impaired: he who explains eloquently, cannot possibly give it increase. He who speaks with less abundance, cannot thereby diminish it.”

O Sacred Unity, O precious Faith deposited like a source of eternal youthfulness in our hearts! They indeed know you not, who turn themselves away from Holy Church! Afar from her, they must needs lose also Jesus and all His gifts. “For where the Church is, there likewise is the Spirit of God. And where the Spirit of God is, there likewise is the Church, there all grace. Woe to them who alienate themselves from her! They suck not in life from the nourishing breasts to which their Mother invites them, they slake not their thirst at the limpid Fount of the Lord’s Body: but, afar from the rock of unity, they drink the muddy waters of cisterns dug in fetid slime where there is not a drop of the water of truth.” What will their vain science avail to sophists with all their empty foolish formulae?

“Oh!” cries out the Bishop of Lyons, elsewhere, in accents which seem to have been borrowed, later on, by the author of the Imitation, “Oh how far better is it to be ignorant, or a man of little learning, and to draw near to God by love! What use is there in knowing much, in passing off for having grasped much, if one be an enemy to his Lord? Wherefore, Paul does thus exclaim: ‘knowledge puffs up, but charity builds up’ (1 Corinthians viii. 1). Not that he reproved the true science of God, for if so he had condemned himself in the first place, but he saw that there were some who, exalting themselves under pretext of knowledge, knew not any longer, how to love. Yes, verily, better were it to know nothing at all, to be ignorant of the meaning of everything, and yet to believe in God and to be possessed of charity. Let us avoid vain puffing up which would make us fall away from love, the life of the soul. Let Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified for us, be our only science.”

Rather than here bring forward the genius of the eminent Controvertialist of the second century, it is a pleasure to cite from his Treatises such passages as give an insight into his great soul, and reveal traits of a sanctity so loving and so sweet. “When, at last, the Spouse comes,” says he, speaking of those unfortunate men he would fain reclaim, “their science will not keep their lamp lighted, and they will find themselves excluded from the nuptial chamber.” In numberless places, in the midst of closely strung arguments, he who may be styled the grand-son of the Beloved Disciple, betrays his own heart. While following, for instance, the track of Abraham, he shows the path that leads to the Spouse: his mouth can then no longer cease to re-utter the name that fills his thoughts.

We cannot but recognise in these touching words of his the Apostle who had quitted country and home to advance the kingdom of God in the land of the Gauls: “Abraham did well to abandon his earthly relatives to follow the Word of God, to exile himself together with the Word, so as to live with Him. The Apostles did well too, in order to follow the Word of God, to quit their barque and their father. We likewise, who have the same faith as Abraham, we do well carrying our cross, as Isaac did the wood, to follow in his footsteps. In Abraham, man learnt that it is possible to follow the Word of God, and thus were his steps made firm in this blessed way. The Word, on His part, nevertheless, disposed man for the divine mysteries by figures throwing light on the future, Moses espoused an Ethiopian, who thus became a daughter of Israel: and by these nuptials of Moses, those of the Word were pointed out, for by this Ethiopian was signified the Church that has come forth from the gentiles, while awaiting the day in which the Word Himself will come to wash away, with His own hands, the defilements of the daughter of Sion at the Banquet of the Last Supper. For fitting it is that the temple be pure in which the Bridegroom and Bride are to taste of the delights of the Spirit of God. And even as it beseems not the Bride to come forward herself to take a Spouse, but she must needs wait till she be sought out, so this flesh of ours cannot of itself rise to the majesty of the Throne Divine. But when the Spouse comes, oh! Then He will raise her up, and she will not so much possess Him, but will rather be possessed by Him. The Word made Flesh will assimilate her wholly to Himself in all fullness, and will render her precious in the eyes of the Father by reason of this her conformity to His visible Word. Then will the union with God in love be consummated. Divine union is life and light. It imparts the enjoyment of all the good things of God. It is eternal of its very nature, just as these good things themselves likewise are. Woe to those who withdraw themselves from it. Their chastisement comes less from God than from themselves and from the free choice by which, turning from God, they have lost all the good things of God.”

The loss of faith being the most radical and the deepest of all causes of estrangement from God, it is not surprising to observe the horror which heresy inspired, in those days when union with God was the one treasure ambitioned by all conditions and ages of life. The name Irenaeus signifies “peace” and justifying this beautiful name, his condescending charity once led the Roman Pontiff himself to withhold the thunders he was on the point of hurling. The question at issue was one of no small importance: it was the celebration of Easter. Nevertheless Ireneeus himself relates with regard to his Master Polycarp how when being asked by the heretic Marcion if he knew him, he replied: “I know you to be the first-born of Satan.” He also gives us that fact concerning Saint John, who when hearing that Cerinthus was in the same public edifice into which he had just entered, fled precipitately for fear, as he said, that because of this enemy of Truth the walls of the building would crumble down on them all. “So great,”remarks the Bishop of Lyons, “was the fear the Apostles and their disciples had of communicating even by word, with any one of those who altered Truth.”

He who was styled by the companions of Saints Pothinus and Blandina, in their prison, the “zelator of the Testament of Christ,” was on this point, as on all others, the worthy heir of John and Polycarp. Far from becoming hardened by it, his heart, like that of his venerable masters, drew from this purity of mind that limitless tenderness of which he gave proof in regard to those erring ones whom he hoped to win back. What could be more touching than the letter written by Irenaeus to one of these unhappy men whom the mirage of novel doctrines had inveigled into the gulf of error: “Florinus, this teaching is not that transmitted to us by the ancients, the disciples of the Apostles. I used to behold you at the side of Polycarp. Though shining at court, you did nonetheless seek to be pleasing to him. I was then but a child, yet the things that happened at that time are more vivid in my recollection that those of yesterday, for indeed childhood’s memories form, as it were, a part of the very soul: they grow with her. I could point to the very spot where sat blessed Polycarp the while he conversed with us, I could describe exactly his bearing, his address, his manner of life, his every feature, and the discourses he made to the crowd. You needs must well remember how he used to tell us of his intercourse with John and the rest of those that had seen the Lord, and with what a faithful memory he repeated their words: what he had learnt from them respecting our Lord, His miracles, His doctrine. All these things Polycarp transmitted to us, as having himself received them from the very men that had be held with their eyes the Word of Life. Now all of what he told us was conformable to the Scriptures. What a grace from God were these conversations of his! I used to listen so eagerly, noting everything down, not on parchment, but on my heart. And now, by the grace of God, I still live on it all. Hence, I can attest before God: if the blessed apostolic old man had heard discourses such as yours, he would have uttered a piercing cry, and would have stopped his ears, saying as was his wont: ‘God most good, to what sort of times have you reserved us!’ Then would he have got up quickly and would have fled from that spot of blasphemy.”

* * * * *

O what a crown is yours, most noble Pontiff! Man must needs confess himself utterly unable to count the pearls with which it is adorned. For in the arena where you won it a whole people were your fellow combatants. And as each martyr, one by one, ascended to his throne in Heaven, he proclaimed your glory, for he owed his crown to you. Before this, full five and twenty years, the blood of Blandina and her companions had been shed and, thanks to you, had produced a hundredfold. Your toilsome care had brought that fruitful seed to germinate from out the purpled soil that had received it in the early days of Christianity, and now the once small colony of the Faithful scattered in its midst had become the very City itself. Erstwhile, the amphitheatre was spacious enough for the effusion of the martyrs’ blood, but now, the sacred stream must flow in torrents along the streets and squares. O glad day that made Lyons become Rome’s rival and the Holy City of the Gauls!

The sons of those that died with you have ever remained faithful to Jesus Christ. Together with Mary whose position and dignity you so admirably expounded to their fathers, and with the Precursor of the Man-God who so fully shares their love, protect them against every scourge whether of body or of soul. Spare France. Drive far from he, this second time, the invasion of a false philosophy which is attempting nowadays to revive the aberrations of Gnosticism. Cause truth once more to shine on the eyes of so many whom heresy, under these multiform disguises, holds in separation from the one Fold. Irenaeus, maintain Christians in that peace which alone deserves the name: keep ever pure the minds and hearts of those whom error as yet has not sullied. Prepare us now to celebrate befittingly the two glorious Apostles Peter and Paul and the powerful Principality of the Mother of all the Churches!

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Tuscany, Irenaeus and Mustiola, martyrs. Irenaeus was the deacon of the priest Felix who was arrested and beaten with stones until he died, on the ninth of the calends of July (June 23) in 273 AD. Irenaeus buried his body outside the walls of their city, Falisca (Civita Castellana) in Tuscany. For this he was brought before the governor Turcius who had him imprisoned. A rich Christian lady called Mustiola, who was a relative of the emperor Claudius II, ministered to Irenaeus and other Christian prisoners by bringing them food, washing their feet and anointing their wounds. Turcius ordered Irenaeus to be placed on the little horse, and his sides to be torn with rakes, and scorched with fire. After Irenaeus died on the rack Mustiola cried out against Turcius and was herself martyred.

At Alexandria, St. Tryphon, and twelve other martyrs.

At Constantinople, the holy martyrs Eulogius and his companions.

At Caesarea in Cappadocia, St. Hyacinthus, chamberlain of the emperor Trajan. Accused of being a Christian, he was scourged and thrown into prison where, consumed with hunger, he breathed his last.

The same day, the holy martyrs Mark and Mucian, who were put to the sword for Christ. As a small boy cried out to them not to sacrifice to idols, he was whipped, but confessing Christ all the more vigorously, he was killed with a man named Paul who had also exhorted the martyrs.

At Laodicea in Syria, St. Anatolius, a bishop, whose writings were admired not only by religious men, but even by philosophers.

At Altino, St. Heliodorus, a bishop distinguished for holiness and learning.

At Ravenna, St. Dathus, bishop and confessor.

At Edessa in Mesopotamia, the translation of the apostle St. Thomas from India. His relics were afterwards taken to Tortona.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.

2 JULY – THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Our Lady’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth already engaged our attention while we were preparing for the Christmas Festival. But it is only fitting to return again to an event so important in our Lady’s life. The mere commemoration of this mystery made on Ember Friday in Advent would be insufficient to bring forward all it contains of deep teaching and holy joy. Since in the course of centuries, the Holy Liturgy has been gaining more and more completeness, it is but natural that this precious mine should come to be further opened in honour of the Virgin Mother. The Order of Saint Francis, it would seem, as well as certain particular Churches such as Rheims and Paris, for example, had already taken the initiative when Urban VI, in 1389, instituted today’s solemnity. The Pope counselled a fast on the vigil of the feast and ordered that it should be followed by an octave. He granted for its celebration the same indulgences as Urban IV had in the previous century attached to the festival of Corpus Christi. The Bull of promulgation stopped by the Pontiff’s death was again taken up and published by Boniface IX, his successor on the Chair of Peter.

We learn from the Lessons of the Office formerly composed for this feast that the end of its institution was, as Urban conceived it, to obtain the cessation of the Schism then desolating the Church. The Papacy exiled from Rome for seventy years had barely re-entered it when Hell, infuriated at a return which crossed all its plans ever opposed to those of Christ, had taken revenge by ranging under two leaders the Flock of the one Sheepfold. So deep was the obscurity with which miserable intrigues contrived to cover the authority of the legitimate Shepherd that numbers of Churches, in all good faith, began to hesitate and ended at last in preferring the deceptive staff of a hireling. Thicker yet was the darkness to grow till night should be so dense that for a moment the conflicting mandates of three Popes would simultaneously spread through the world, while the Faithful, struck with stupor, would be at utter loss to discern accurately which was the true Voice of Christ’s Vicar. Never had the Bride of the Son of God been in a more piteous situation. But Our Lady, to whom the true Pontiff had turned at the first rising of the storm, deceived not the Church’s confidence. During all those years while the unfathomable Justice of the Most High let the powers of Hell hold sway, She stood for the defence of Holy Church, trampling the head of the old serpent so thoroughly under Her victorious foot, that despite the terrific confusion he had stirred up, his filthy spume could not sully the faith of the people. Their attachment was steadfast to the unity of the Roman See whoever might be, in the midst of their uncertainty, its veritable occupant. Thus the West, divided in fact but, in principle ever one and undivided, spontaneously, as it were, re-united herself as soon as God’s moment came for the return of light.

However, the hour having arrived for the Queen of Saints to assume the offensive. She would not content Herself with merely re-establishing at its former post the army of the Elect. Hell now must expiate his audacity by being forced to yield back to Holy Church those conquests which for centuries had seemed his forever. The tail of the dragon had not yet ceased to whisk at Basle when Florence already beheld the heads of the Greek schism — the Armenians and Ethiopians, the cavillers of Jerusalem, of Syria, and of Mesopotamia, all compensating by their unhoped for adhesion to the Roman Pontiff for the anguish just suffered in the West. It was now to be shown that such a return of nations, in the very midst even of the tempest, was indeed the work of Her who had been called on by the Pilot half a century before to succour the Barque of Peter. Even they of the factious assembly of Basle gave proof of this in a way which has unfortunately been too much overlooked by historians who undervalue the high importance that liturgical facts hold in the history of Christendom. When about to separate, these last abettors of the schism devoted the forty-third session of their pretended Council to the promulgation of this very feast of the Visitation in the first establishment of which Urban VI had, from the outset, placed all his hopes. Notwithstanding the resistance of some of the more obstinate, the schism may, from that hour, be said to have ended: the storm was subsiding. The name of Mary, invoked thus by both sides, shone resplendent as the sign of peace amidst the clouds (Genesis ix. 12-17) even as the rainbow in its sweet radiance unites both extremities of the horizon. “Look upon it,” says the Holy Ghost, “and bless Him that made it: it is very beautiful in its brightness. It encompasses the heaven about, with the circle of its glory, the Hands of the Most High have displayed it” (Ecclesiasticus xliii. 12-13).

But, it may be asked, why was the feast of the Visitation specially chosen, more than any other, as the monument of restored peace? The answer seems to be suggested in the very nature of the mystery itself and in the manner of its accomplishment. Here more particularly does Mary appear as the Ark of the Covenant, bearing within her the Emmanuel, the living Testimony of a more true reconciliation — of an alliance more sublime between Earth and Heaven than that limited compact of servitude entered into between Jehovah and the Jews amid the roar of thunder. By her means, far better than through Adam, all men are now brethren, for He whom she hides within her is to be the first-born of the great family of the sons of God. Scarce is He conceived than there begins for Him the mighty work of universal propitiation. Arise, then Lord, into your resting place, you and the Ark which you have hast sanctified, from which your own sanctity will pour down upon our Earth! (Psalms cxxxi. 8). During the whole of her rapid passage from Nazareth to the mountains of Judea, she will be protected by wings of Cherabim jealously eager to contemplate her glory. Amid his truest warriors, amidst Israel’s choirs of singing men, David conducted the figurative Ark from the house of Abinadab to that of Obed-Edom (2 Kings vi.), but better far, the escort deputed by the Eternal Father for this sacred Ark of the New Covenant, troops of the noblest princes of the heavenly phalanx.

Favoured with benediction was that Levite’s house while for three months it sheltered the Most High hidden on the golden Propitiatory. More favoured still, the home of the Priest Zachary harbouring for the same lapse of time Eternal Wisdom enshrined in the virginal womb in which that union, so ambitioned by His Love, had just been accomplished. Yet beneath Zachary’s roof, blessed as it was, the enemy of God and man was still holding one captive: the angelic embassy that had announced John’s miraculous conception and birth could not exempt him from the shameful tribute that every son of Adam must pay to the prince of deaths on entering into this life. As formerly at Azotus, so now, Darjon may not remain standing erect in face of the Ark (1 Kings v.) Mary appears and Satan at once overturned, is subjected to utter defeat in John’s soul, a defeat that is not to be his last, for the Ark of the Covenant will not stay its victories till the reconciliation of the last of the Elect be effected.

Let us then hymn this day with songs of gladness, for this Mystery contains the germ of every victory gained by the Church and her sons: henceforth the sacred Ark is borne at the head of every combat waged by the new Israel. Division between man and his God is at an end, between the Christian and his brethren! The ancient Ark was powerless to prevent the scission of the Tribes — henceforth if schism and heresy do hold out for a few short years against Mary, it will be but to evince more fully her glorious triumph, at last. In all ages, because of Her, even as today, under the very eyes of the enemy now put to confusion, little ones will rejoice. All, even the desolate, will be filled with benediction, and Pontiffs will be perfected. Let us join the tribute of our songs to John’s exulting gladness, to Elizabeth’s sudden exclamations, to Zachary’s canticle. Yes, therewith let all earth re-echo! Thus in by-gone days was the Ark hailed, as it entered the Hebrew camp. Hearing their shout the Philistines thereby learned that help had come from the Lord ; and seized with terror, they groaned aloud saying: “Woe to us, for there was no such great joy yesterday and the day before: Woe to us!” (1 Kings iv. 5-8). Verily this day the whole human race, together with John, leaps for joy and shouts with a great shout. Verily this day has the old enemy good reason to lament: the heel of the woman (Genesis iii. 15), as she stamps him down, makes his haughty head to wince for the first time: and John, set free, is hereby the precursor of us all. More happy are we, the new Israel, than was the old, for our glory will never be taken away. Never will be wrested from us that sacred Ark which has led us dry-shod across the River (Josue iii-iv) and has levelled fortresses to the dust at its approach (Josue vi.).

Justly then is this day on which an end is put to the series of defeats begun in Eden the day of new canticles for a new people! But who may intone the hymn of triumph save She to whom the victory belongs? “Arise, arise, Debbora, arise, arise and utter a canticle (Judith v. 12). The valiant men ceased and rested in Israel, until Mary arose, the true Debbora, until a Mother arose in Israel (Judith v. 7). ‘It is I, it is I,’ says she, ‘that will sing to the Lord, I will sing to the Lord, the God of Israel (Judith v. 3). O Magnify the Lord with me, as says my grand-sire David, and let us extol His Name together (Psalms xxxiii. 4). My heart has rejoiced, like that of Anna, in God my Saviour (1 Kings ii. 1). For even as in his handmaid Judith, by me He has fulfilled His mercy (Judith xiii. 18) so that my praise will not depart out of the mouth of men who will be mindful of the power of the Lord forever (Judith xiii. 25-31; xv. 11). For mighty is He that has done great things in me (Exodus xv. 2-3-11). There is none holy as He (1 Kings ii. 2). Even as by Esther, he has throughout all generations saved those who feared him (Esther ix. 28). In in the power of His arm (Judith ix. 11) He has turned against the impious one the projects of his own heart, driving proud a man out of his seat and uplifting the humble. The bow of the mighty is overcome, and the weak are girt with strength. The abundance of them that were rich has passed to the hungry and they are filled (1 Kings ii. 4-5). He has remembered His people and has had pity on His inheritance (Esther x. 12). Such indeed was the promise that Abraham received and our fathers have handed down to us: and He has done to them even as He had promised” (Esther xiii. 15; xiv. 5).

Daughters of Sion and all you who groan in the thraldom of Satan, the hymn of deliverance has sounded in our land! Following in Her train, who bears within her the Pledge of alliance, let us form into choirs, better than Mary, Aaron‘s sister, and by yet juster title, does she lead the concerts of Israel (Exodus xv. 20-21), So sings she on this day of triumph, and the burthen of her song gathers into one all the victorious chants which erstwhile, in the ages of expectation, preluded this divine canticle of hers. But the past victories of the elect people were but figures of that which is gained by our glorious Queen on this day of her manifestation. For she, beyond Deborah, Judith or Esther, has truly brought about the deliverance of her people. In her mouth the accents of her illustrious predecessors pass from the burning aspiration of the prophetic age to the calm ecstasy which denotes her being already in possession of the long expected God. A new era is meetly inaugurated by sacred chants: divine praise receives from Mary that character which henceforth it is never to lose, not even in eternity.

The preceding considerations have been suggested by the special motive which led the Church to institute this feast in the fourteenth century. Again, in our own day has Mary shown that this date is indeed for her a day of victory, for on the Second of July in 1849, Rome was restored to the exiled Pontiff Pius IX. But we should far exceed the limits of our present scope were we to strive to exhaust the teachings of this vast mystery, the Visitation.

Epistle – Canticles ii. 9‒15

Behold he comes, leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart. Behold he stands behind our wall; looking through the windows, looking through the lattices. Behold my beloved speak to me, Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come. For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come, the voice of the turtle is heard in our land: the fig-tree has put forth her green figs, the vines in flower yield their sweet smell. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come. My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow places of the wall, show me your face, let your voice sound in my ears, for your voice is sweet and your face comely.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church introduces us into the depth of the Mystery. What she has just been reading to us is but the explanation of that word of Elizabeth’s which sums up the whole of today’s feast: “When your voice sounded in my ear, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” Voice of Mary, voice of the turtle, putting winter to flight and announcing spring-tide, flowers and fragrance! At this sweet sound, John’s soul, a captive in the darkness of sin, casts off the badge of slavery and suddenly developing germs of highest virtues appears beauteous as a bride decked in nuptial array: and therefore, how Jesus hastes to this well-beloved soul! Between John and the Bridegroom, what ineffable out-pourings! What sublime dialogues pass between them, from womb to womb of Mary and Elizabeth! Admirable Mothers! Sons yet more admirable! In this happy meeting, the sight, the hearing, the voice of the Mothers belong less to themselves than to the blessed fruit each bears within her. Thus their senses are the lattices through which the Bridegroom and Friend of the Bridegroom see one another, understand one another, speak one to the other!

The animal man, it is true, understands not this language (1 Corinthians ii. 14) “Father,” the Son of God will soon exclaim: “1 give you thanks for that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to little ones” (Matthew xi. 25). “Let him, therefore, that has ears to hear, hear (Matthew xi. 15; xii. 9), but Amen, I say to you, unless you become as little children, you will not enter into the kingdom of Heaven (Matthew xviii. 3) nor know its mysteries (Matthew xiii. 11).” Wisdom will nevertheless be justified by her children, as the Gospel says (Matthew xi. 19). The simple-hearted in quest of light, with all the straightforwardness of humility, let pass unheeded those mocking flickers that sport across the marshes of this world. They know right well that the first ray of the Eternal Sun will disperse these thin phantoms, leaving sheer emptiness before those who run in pursuit of them. For their part, these wise little ones already feed on that which eye has not seen, nor ear heard (1 Corinthians ii. 9), having a foretaste, here below, of eternal delights.

Ineffably is John the Baptist experiencing all this. Accosted by the divine Friend who has been beforehand in seeking him, his soul at once awakens to full ecstasy. Jesus on His side, is now making His first conquest. For it is to John that is first addressed among all creatures (Mary of course excepted) the sacred Nuptial-song uttered in the Soul of the Word made Flesh, making His divine Heart throb with emotion. Yes, it is today (our Epistle tells us so), that in concert with the Magnificat, the divine Canticle of Canticles is likewise inaugurated in the entire acceptance that the Holy Ghost wishes to give it. Never more fully than on this happy day will the sacred ravishments of the Spouse be justified. Never will they find a more faithful response! Let us warm ourselves at these celestial fires. Let us join our enthusiasm to that of Eternal Wisdom who makes His first step, this day, in His royal progress towards mankind. Let us unite with our Jesus in imploring the Precursor at last to show himself. Were it not ordered otherwise from on High, his inebriation of love would verily have made him at once break down the wall that held him from appearing, then and there, to announce the Bridegroom. For well knows he that the sight of his countenance, preceding the Face of the Lord Himself, will excite the whole Earth to transports. He knows that sweet will his own voice be, when once it has become the organ of the Word calling the Bride to Him.

Gospel – Luke i. 39‒47

At that time, Mary rising up, went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah. And she entered into the house of Zachary, and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit; and she cried out with a loud voice, and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the Fruit of your womb. And whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, as soon as the voice of your salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed are you that have believed, because those things will be accomplished that were spoken to you by the Lord.” And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Mary, having learned from the Archangel that Elizabeth was about to become a mother, is pre-occupied with the thought of the services that will soon be needed by her cousin and the infant. She therefore starts at once on her journey across the mountains, amidst which stands the house of Zachary. Thus does the charity of Christ (2 Corinthians v. 14) act, thus does it press, when it is genuine. There is no state of soul in which, under pretext of more exalted perfection, the Christian may be allowed to forget his brethren. Mary had just contracted the highest union with God, and our imagination might perhaps be inclined to picture her, as it were, in a state of powerlessness, lost in ecstasy during these days in which the Word, taking Flesh of her flesh, is inundating her, in return, with the floods of His Divinity. The Gospel, however, is explicit on this subject: it particularly says that it was in those days (Luke i. 39) even, that the humble Virgin, hitherto quietly hid in the secret of the Lord’s face (Psalms xxx. 21) rose up to devote herself to all the bodily as well as the spiritual needs of a neighbour in such condition. Does that mean to say that works are superior to prayer, and that contemplation is not the better part? No, certainly not, for indeed never did Our Lady so directly and so fully adhere to God with her whole being as at this very time. But the creature when, he has attained the summits of the unitive life, is all the more apt and fitted for exterior works, inasmuch as no lending of himself thereunto can distract him from the immoveable centre in which he is fixed.

A signal privilege is this, resulting from that division of the spirit and the soul (Hebrews iv. 12), to which all attain not, and which marks one of the most decisive steps in the spiritual life. For it supposes a purification of man’s entire being so perfect, that in very truth he is no other than one spirit with the Lord (1 Corinthians vi. 17). It entails so absolute a submission of the powers, that without clashing one with the other, they yield, each in its particular sphere, obedience simultaneously, to the Divine Breathing.

So long as the Christian has not yet crossed this last defile, defended with such obstinacy by nature to the last, so long as he has not yet won that holy liberty of the children of God (Romans viii. 21; 2 Corinthians iii. 17), he cannot possibly turn to man without in some way quitting God. Not that he ought, on that account, to neglect his duties towards his neighbour, in whom God wishes us to see no other than Himself. But, nevertheless, blessed is he who (like Mary,) loses nothing of the better part the while he attends to his obligations towards others! Yet how few are such privileged souls! And what an illusion it is to persuade ourselves to the contrary!

We will return to these thoughts on the day of Our Lady’s triumphant Assumption, but the Gospel to which we have just been listening makes it a duty for us, even now, to draw the attention of the reader to this point. Our Lady has especially on this feast a claim to be invoked as the model of those who devote themselves to works of mercy. And if to all it is by no means given to keep their spirit, at the same moment, more than ever immersed in God — all, nevertheless, ought constantly to strive to approach by the practice of recollection and divine praise to those luminous heights on which their Queen shows herself this day in all the plenitude of her ineffable perfections.

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries have hymned, in graceful compositions, the mystery of this day. The following one, by its warm expressions of tender piety towards the Mother of God, more particularly excited the rage of the pretended Reformers. What specially roused their spleen was the call to unity which it addresses to the erring. According to what we were saying above as to the motive which prompted Holy Church to establish this festival of the Visitation, Mary is in like manner invoked, in other formulae of this period, proper to the same feast, as the light which dissipates clouds, which puts an end to schisms.

“Come, sovereign Lady, Mary, visit us, illumine our sickly souls, by the example of your duties performed in life.

Come, Co-redemptrix of the world, take away the filth of sin, by visiting your people, remove their peril of chastisement.

Come, Queen of nations, extinguish the flames of the guilty, rectify whatever is wrong, give us to live innocently.

Come, and visit the sick, Mary, fortify the strong with the vigour of your holy impetuosity, so that brave courage droop not.

Come, Star, Light of the ocean waves, shed your ray of peace upon us; let the heart of John exult with joy before the Lord.

Come, Regal Sceptre, lead back the crowd of erring ones to the unity of the faith, in which the heavenly Citizens are saved.

Come, and right willingly implore for us the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that we may be directed aright, in the actions of this life.

Come, let us praise the Son, let us praise the Holy Spirit, let us praise the Father, One God, who gives us succour. Amen.”

Who is she that comes forth beautiful as the morning rising, terrible as an army set in array? (Canticles vi. 9) Mary, this is the day that your exquisite brightness for the first time gladdens our Earth. You bear within you the Sun of Justice, and His early beams striking first the mountain tops while the vales below are yet left in darkness, he at once illumines the Precursor, than whom a greater has not been born of woman. The divine Luminary, swift on his ascending course, will soon bathe the lowly valleys in his radiant fires. But how full of grace and beauty are these his first gleams peering through the veiling cloud! For you, Mary, are the light cloud, the hope of Earth, the terror of Hell (3 Kings xviii. 44; Isaias xix. 1): contemplating from afar, through its heavenly transparency, the mystery of this day, Elias the father of prophets, and Isaias their prince, did both of them descry the Lord. They beheld you speeding your way across the mountains, and they blessed God, “for,” says the Holy Ghost, “when winter has congealed the waters into crystal, withered the valleys, and consumed as with fire the green mountains, a present remedy to all is the speedy coming of a cloud” (Ecclesiasticus xliii. 21-24).

Hasten, then, Mary! Come to all of us, and let not the mountains alone enjoy your benign influence. Bend down to those lowly ignoble regions in which the greater part of mankind but vegetates, helpless to scale yonder mountain heights. Yes, let your kindly visit reach down even to the deepest abyss of human perversity well near bordering on the gulf of Hell — let the beams of saving light reach even there. Oh would that from the thraldom of sin, from the plain where the vulgar throng is swaying to and fro, we were drawn to follow in your train! How beauteous are your footsteps along these our humble pathways (Canticles vii. 1), how aromatic the perfumes with which you inebriate Earth this day! (Canticles i. 5). You were all unknown — no, you were even an enigma to yourself, you fairest among the daughters of Adam — until this your first going forth led you to our poor hovels (Canticles i. 7) and manifested your power. The desert, suddenly embalmed with heavenly fragrance, hails the passage, not of the figurative Ark, but of the “Litter of the true Solomon” in these days of the sublime Nuptials which He has vouchsafed to contract (Canticles iii. 6-11). What wonder then, if at rapid pace, you speed across the mountains, since you are bearing the Bridegroom who, as a giant, strides from peak to peak (Psalms xviii. 6-7).

Far different are you, Mary, from her who is portrayed in the Divine Canticle as hesitating, in spite of the heavenly call, to betake herself to active work, foolishly captivated by the sweets of mystic repose, in such way as to dream of finding it elsewhere than in the absolute good pleasure of the Beloved! You are not one, at the Voice of the Spouse, to make difficulties about cladding yourself again with the garment of toil, of exposing your feet, were it never so little, to be soiled with the dusty roads of earth (Canticles v. 2-6). No. rather: scarce has He given Himself to you immeasurably, as none else can know, than (ever on your guard against the mistake of remaining all absorbed in selfish enjoyment of His love) you yourself invites Him to begin at once the great work which brought Him down from Heaven to Earth: “Come, my Beloved, let us go forth into the fields, let us get up early to see if the vineyard flourish, to hasten the budding out of the fruits of salvation in souls. There, there it is that I wish to be all yours” (Canticles vii. 10-13). And, leaning on Him, no less than He upon you, without thereby losing anything of heavenly delights, you traverse our desert (Canticles viii. 5), and the Holy Trinity perceives between this Mother and her Son sympathies, harmonious agreements, unknown until then even to Her. And the friends of the Bridegroom, hearing your sweet voice (Canticles viii. 13) on their side also, comprehend His love and partake in your joy. With Him, with you, O Mary, age after age will behold souls innumerable who swift footed even as the mystic roe and the young hart, will flee away from the valleys and gain the mountain heights where, in the warm sunshine, Heaven’s aromatic spices are ever fragrant (Canticles viii. 14).

Bless, Mary, those whom the better part so sweetly attracts. Protect that Order whose glory is to honour in a special manner your Visitation. Faithful to the spirit of their illustrious founders, they still continue to justify their sweet title by perfuming the Church on Earth with the fragrance of that humility, gentleness, and hidden prayer, which made this day’s mystery so dear to the angels [two thousand] years ago. In fine, Lady, forget not the crowded ranks of those whom grace presses, more numerously than ever, nowadays, to tread in your footsteps, mercifully seeking out every object of misery. Teach them the way in which alone it is possible to devote themselves to their neighbour, without in any way quitting God: for the greater glory of God and the happiness of man, multiply such faithful copies of you. May all of us, having followed in the degree measured out to us by Him who divides His gifts to each one as He wills (1 Corinthians xii. 11) meet together in our Home yonder, to sing in one voice together with you an eternal Magnificat.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

At Rome, on the Via Aurelia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Processus and Martinian, who were baptised by the blessed Apostle St. Peter in the Mamertine Prison. After being struck on the mouth, racked, scourged with thongs and whips tipped with pieces of metal, and being beaten with rods and exposed to the flames, they were beheaded in the days of Nero, and thus obtained the crown of martyrdom.

Also at Rome, three holy soldiers, who were converted to Christ by the martyrdom of the blessed Apostle St. Paul, and with him merited to be made partakers of heavenly glory.

The same day, the holy martyrs Ariston, Crescentian, Eutychian, Urbanus, Vitalis, Justus, Felicissimus, Felix, Marcia and Symphorosa, who were all crowned with martyrdom when the persecution of the emperor Diocletian was raging.

At Winchester in England, St. Swithin, bishop, whose sanctity was illustrated by the gift of miracles.

At Bamberg, the holy bishop Otho, who preached the Gospel to the people of Pomerania and converted them to the faith.

At Tours, the demise of St. Monegundes, a pious woman.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.