29 APRIL – SAINT PETER OF VERONA (Martyr)

Peter was born at Verona of parents who were infected with the heresy of the Manichees. But he himself, almost from his very infancy, fought against heresies. When he was seven years old he was one day asked by an uncle, who was a heretic, what they taught him at the school he went to. He answered that they taught him the Symbol of the Christian Faith. His father and uncle did all they could, both by promises and threats, to shake the firmness of his faith, but all to no purpose. When old enough, he went to Bologna in order to prosecute his studies. While there he was called by the Holy Ghost to a life of perfection, and obeyed the call by entering into the Order of Saint Dominic. Great were his virtues as a religious man. So careful was he to keep both body and soul from whatever could sully their purity, that his conscience never accused him of committing a mortal sin.

He mortified his body by fasting and watching, and applied his mind to the contemplation of heavenly things. He laboured incessantly for the salvation of souls and was gifted with a special grace for refuting heretics. He was so earnest when preaching that people used to go in crowds to hear him and numerous were the conversions that ensued. The ardour of his faith was such that he wished he might die for it, and earnestly begged that favour from God. His death, which he foretold a short time before in one of his sermons, was inflicted on him by the heretics. While returning from Como to Milan in the discharge of the duties of the holy Inquisition, he was attacked by a wicked assassin who struck him twice on the head with a sword. The Symbol of Faith which he had confessed with manly courage when but a child, he now began to recite with his dying lips, and having received another wound in his side, he went to receive a martyr’s palm in Heaven in 1252. Numerous miracles attested his sanctity. He was canonised by Pope Innocent IV in 1253.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The hero deputed this day by the Church to greet our Risen Lord was so valiant in the Good Fight that martyrdom is part of his name. He is known as Peter the Martyr, so that we cannot speak of him without raising the echo of victory. He was put to death by heretics and is the grand tribute paid to our Redeemer by the thirteenth century. Never was there a triumph hailed with greater enthusiasm than this. The martyrdom of Saint Thomas of Canterbury excited the admiration of the faithful of the preceding century, for nothing was so dear to our forefathers as the Liberty of the Church. The martyrdom of Saint Peter was celebrated with a like intensity of praise and joy. Let us hearken to the fervid eloquence of the great Pontiff, Innocent IV, who thus begins the Bull of the martyr’s canonisation:

“The truth of the Christian Faith, manifested, as it has been, by great and frequent miracles, is now beautified by the new merit of a new Saint. Lo! a combatant of these our own times comes, bringing us new and great and triumphant signs. The voice of his blood shed (for Christ) is heard, and the fame of his martyrdom is trumpeted through the world. The land is not silent that sweats with his blood. The country that produced so noble warrior resounds with his praise. Yes, the very sword that did the deed of parricide proclaims his glory... Mother Church has great reason to rejoice, and abundant matter for gladness. She has cause to sing a new canticle to the Lord, and a hymn of fervent praise to her God: the Christian people has cause to give forth devout songs to its Creator. A sweet fruit, gathered in the garden of Faith, has been set upon the table of the Eternal King: a grape-bunch, taken from the vineyard of the Church, has filled the royal cup with new wine... The flourishing Order of Preachers has produced a red rose whose sweetness is most grateful to the King, and from the Church here on Earth there has been taken a stone which, after being cut and polished, has deserved a place of honour in the temple of Heaven.”

Such was the language wherewith the supreme Pontiff spoke of the new martyr, and the people responded by celebrating his feast with extraordinary devotion. It was kept as were the ancient festivals, that is, all servile work was forbidden upon it. The Churches served by the Fathers of the Dominican Order were crowded on his feast, and the faithful took little branches with them that they might be blessed in memory of the Triumph of Peter the Martyr. This custom is still observed, and the branches blessed by the Dominicans on this day are venerated as being a protection to the houses where they are kept.

How are we to account for all this fervent devotion of the people towards Saint Peter? It was because he died in defence of the Faith, and nothing was so dear to the Christians of those days as Faith. Peter had received the charge to take up all the heretics who, at that time, were causing great disturbance and scandal in the country round about Milan. They were called Cathari but in reality were Manicheans. Their teachings were detestable, and their lives of the most immoral kind. Peter fulfilled his duty with a firmness and equity which soon secured him the hatred of the heretics, and when he fell a victim to his holy courage a cry of admiration and gratitude was heard throughout Christendom. Nothing could be more devoid of truth than the accusations brought by the enemies of the Church and their indiscreet abettors, against the measures formerly decreed by the public law of Catholic nations, in order to foil the efforts made by evil-minded men to injure the true Faith. In those times no tribunal was so popular as that whose office it was to protect theFaith, and to put down all them that attacked it.

It was to the Order of Saint Dominic that this office was mainly entrusted, and well may they be proud of the honour of having so long held one so beneficial to the salvation of mankind. How many of its members have met with a glorious death in the exercise of their stern duty! Saint Peter is the first of the martyrs given by the Order for this holy cause: his name, however, heads a long list of others who were his brethren in religion, his successors in the defence of the Faith, and his followers to martyrdom. The coercive measures that were once, and successfully, used to defend the Faithful from heretical teachers have long since ceased to be used. But for us Catholics, our judge ent of them must surely be that of the Church. She bids us today honour as a martyr one of her Saints who was put to death while resisting the wolves that threatened the sheep of Christ’s fold. Should we not be guilty of disrespect to our Mother if we dared to condemn what she so highly approves? Far, then, be from us that cowardly truckling to the spirit of the age which would make us ashamed of the courageous efforts made by our forefathers for the preservation of the Faith! Far from us that childish readiness to believe the calumnies of Protestants against an institution which they naturally detest! Far from us that deplorable confusion of ideas which puts truth and error on an equality and, from the fact that error can have no rights, concludes that truth can claim none!

* * * * *

The victory was yours, Peter, and your zeal for the defence of holy Faith was rewarded. You ardently desired to shed your blood for the holiest of causes and by such a sacrifice to confirm the faithful of Christ in their religion. Our Lord satisfied your desire. He would even have your martyrdom be in the festive season of the Resurrection of our Divine Lamb that His glory might add lustre to the beauty of your holocaust. When the death-blow fell upon your venerable head and your generous blood was flowing from the wounds, you wrote on the ground the first words of the Creed for whose holy truth you were giving your life.

Protector of the Christian people, what other motive had you, in all your labours, but charity? What else but a desire to defend the weak from danger induced you not only to preach against error, but to drive its teachers from the flock? How many simple souls who were receiving divine truth from the teaching of the Church have been deceived by the lying sophistry of heretical doctrine, and have lost the Faith? Surely the Church would do her utmost to ward off such dangers from her children: she would do all she could to defend them from enemies who were bent on destroying the glorious inheritance which had been handed down to them by millions of martyrs! She knew the strange tendency that often exists in the heart of fallen man to love error, whereas Truth, though of itself unchanging, is not sure of its remaining firmly in the mind, unless it be defended by learning or by faith. As to learning, there are but few who possess it. And as to faith, error is ever conspiring against and, of course, with the appearance of truth. In the Christian Ages it would have been deemed not only criminal, but absurd, to grant to error the liberty which is due only to truth. And they that were in authority considered it a duty to keep the weak from danger by removing from them all occasions of a fall — just as the father of a family keeps his children from coming in contact with wicked companions who could easily impose on their inexperience and lead them to evil under the name of good.

Obtain for us, O holy Martyr, a keen appreciation of the precious gift of Faith — that element which keeps us in the way of salvation. May we zealously do everything that lies in our power to preserve it, both in ourselves and in them that are under our care. The love of this holy Faith has grown cold in so many hearts, and frequent intercourse with heretics or free-thinkers has made them think and speak of matters of Faith in a very loose way. Pray for them, O Peter, that they may recover that fearless love of the Truths of Religion which should be one of the chief traits of the Christian character. If they be living in a country where the modern system is introduced of treating all religions alike, that is, of giving equal rights to error and to truth, let them be all the more courageous in professing the truth and detesting the errors opposed to the truth. Pray for us, O holy Martyr, that there may be kindled within us an ardent love of that Faith without which, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews xi. 6). Pray that we may become all earnestness in this duty which is of vital importance to salvation, that thus our Faith may daily gain strength within us, till at length we will merit to see in Heaven what we have believed unhesitatingly on Earth.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Paphos in Cyprus, St. Tychicus, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Paul, who called him in his epistles most dear brother, faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord.

At Cirtha in Numidia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Agapius and Secundinus, bishops, who, after a long exile in that city, added to the glory of their priesthood the crown of martyrdom. They suffered in the persecution of Valerian during which the enraged Gentiles made every effort to shake the faith of the just. In their company suffered Æmilian, soldier, Tertulla and Antonia, consecrated virgins, and a woman with her twin children.

The same day, seven robbers, who, being converted to Christ by St. Jason, attained to eternal life by martyrdom.

At Brescia, St. Paulinus, bishop and confessor.

In the monastery of Cluny, the abbot St. Hugh.

In the monastery of Molesmes, St. Robert, first abbot of the Cistercians.

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

Thanks be to God.

4 APRIL – SAINT ISIDORE OF SEVILLE (Bishop and Doctor of the Church)

Isidore, by birth a Spaniard, was an illustrious Doctor of the Church. He was born at Carthagena and his father Severianus was governor of that part of the country. He was solidly trained to piety and learning by his two brothers, Leander, Bishop of Seville, and Fulgentius, Bishop of Carthagena. He was taught Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He was put through a course of canon and civil law, and there was no science or virtue in which he did not excel. While yet a youth, he so courageously combated the Arian heresy which had long before infested the Goths who had entered Spain, that he with difficulty escaped being put to death by the heretics. After the death of Leander, he was, in spite of himself, raised to the episcopal See of Seville by the influence of king Eeccared, and with unanimous consent of both clergy and people. His election was not only confirmed by Apostolic authority, but Saint Gregory the Great, when sending him as usual, the Pallium, is said to have appointed him his own vicar, and that of the Apostolic See throughout all Spain.

It would be impossible to describe the virtues of Isidore as Bishop: how firm, humble, patient and merciful; how zealously he laboured for the restoration of Christian morals and ecclesiastical discipline, and how untiring he was in his efforts, both by word and writing, to establish them among his people; and, finally, how he excelled in every virtue. He was a fervent promoter of the monastic life in Spain and built several monasteries. He also built colleges in which he himself applied himself to the teaching the sacred sciences to the many disciples that flocked to him, among whom may be mentioned those two glorious Pontiffs, Ildephonsus Bishop of Toledo, and Braulio Bishop of Saragossa. In a Council held at Seville, he spoke with such power and eloquence that he may be said to have destroyed the heresy of the Acephali who were threatening to destroy the true faith in Spain. So great, indeed, was the universal reputation he had gained for piety and learning, that he had scarcely been dead sixteen years when, in a Council held at Toledo at which 52 bishops were present, Saint Ildephonsus himself among them, he was called the Illustrious Doctor, the new Glory of the Catholic Church, the most learned man who had been seen in those ages, and one whose name should never be mentioned but with great respect.

Saint Braulio not only compared him to Saint Gregory the Great, but said that he looked on him as having been sent by Heaven as a second Saint James the Apostle, to instruct the people of Spain. Isidore wrote a book On Etymologies, and another On Ecclesiastical Offices, and several others of such importance to Christian and ecclesial discipline that Pope Saint Leo IV hesitated not to say, in a letter addressed to the Bishops of Britain, that one ought to adhere to the words of Isidore with that same respect as is shown to those of Jerome and Augustine, as often as a difficult case should arise which could not be settled by Canon Law. Several sentences of his works have been inserted into the body of the Canon Law. He presided over the Fourth Council of Toledo, which is the most celebrated of all those that have been held in Spain. At length, after having driven the Arian heresy out of Spain, he publicly foretold the day of his death, and the devastation of the country by the Saracens. And having governed his See for about forty years, he died at Seville in 636. His body was first buried, as himself had requested, between those of his brother and sister, Leander and Florentina.

Afterwards, Ferdinand I, King of Castille and Leon, purchased it, for a large sum of money from Enetus, the Saracen governor of Seville, and had it translated to Leon. Here, a Church was built in his honour, and the miracles that are wrought by his intercession, have led the people to honour him with great devotion.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church presents to us today, for our devout admiration, the memory of one of the holiest of her Bishops — Isidore, the Bishop of Seville, the most learned man of his age and, what is a still greater praise, the most zealous patriot and friend of his noble country. Let us study his virtues and confide in his patronage: both will help us to fervour during this holy Season.

Among Christian lands, there is one that has gained for herself the glorious name of the Catholic Kingdom. Towards the close of the seventh century Divine Providence subjected her to a most severe trial by permitting the Saracen hordes to invade her, so that her heroic children had to struggle for eight hundred years for the recovery of their country. Contemporaneously with Spain, Asia, also, and Africa fell under the Mussulman yoke, and have continued in their slavery up to the present day. Whence comes it that Spain has triumphed over her oppressors and that tyranny has never been able to make her children degenerate? The answer is easily given: Spain, at the period of her invasion, was Catholic, and Catholicity was the very spirit of the land: whereas those other nations that yielded themselves slaves to the Saracens were already separated from the Christian Church by heresy or schism. God abandoned them because they had rejected both the truth of Faith, and unity with the Church. They fell an easy prey to the infidel conqueror.

Nevertheless, Spain had incurred an immense risk. The race of the Goths, by their long invasion of her territory, had sowed the seeds of heresy: Arianism had set up its sacrilegious altars in Iberia. But God did not permit this privileged country to be long under the yoke of error. Before the Saracens came upon her, she had been reconciled to the Church, and God had chosen one family to be the glorious instrument in the completion of this great work. Even to this day, the traveller through Andalusia will find the squares of its cities adorned with four statues: they are those of three brothers and a sister: Saint Leander, Bishop of Seville; Saint Isidore, whose feast we are keeping today; Saint Fulgentius, Bishop of Carthagena; and their sister, Saint Florentina, a nun. It was by the zeal and eloquence of Saint Leander that King Reccared and his Goths were converted from Arianism to the Catholic Faith in 589. The learning and piety of our glorious Isidore consolidated the great work. Fulgentius gave it stability by his virtues and erudition, and Florentina co-operated in it by her life of sacrifice and prayer.

Let us unite with the Catholic Kingdom in honouring this family of Saints, and today in a special manner, let us pay the tribute of our devotion to Saint Isidore.

*****

Faithful Pastor! The Christian people honour your virtues and your services. They rejoice in the recompense with which God has crowned your merits. Hear the prayers that are offered to you during these the days of salvation. When on Earth your vigilance over the flock entrusted to thy care was untiring. Consider us as a part of it, and defend us from the ravenous wolves that cease not to seek our destruction. May your prayers obtain for us that fullness of graces needed for our worthily completing the holy Season which is so near its close. Keep up our courage. Incite us to fervour. Prepare us for the great mysteries we are about to celebrate. We have bewailed our sins, and though feebly, we have done penance for them. The work of our conversion has, therefore, made progress, and now we must perfect it by the contemplation of the Passion and Death of our Redeemer. Assist us, his faithful and loving Servant! Do thou, whose life was ever pure, take sinners under your care, and hear the prayers offered to you on this day by the Church. Look down from Heaven on your beloved Spain which honours thee with such earnest devotion. Revive her ancient ardour of Faith. Restore to her the vigour of Christian morality. Remove from her the tares that have sprung up among the good seed. The whole Church reveres your noble country for her staunch adhesion to the truths of Faith. Pray for her that she may come unhurt from the ordeal she is now being put through, and ever prove herself worthy of that glorious title of The Catholic Kingdom, which you helped her to gain.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Thessalonica, in the time of the emperor Maximian and the governor Faustinus, the holy martyrs Agathopodes, a deacon, and Theodulus, a lector, who, for the confession of the Christian faith, were thrown into the sea with stones tied to their necks.

At Milan, the demise of St. Ambrose, bishop and confessor, through whose labours, learning and miracles almost all Italy returned to the Catholic faith at the time when the perfidious Arian heresy was widely diffused.

At Constantinople, St. Plato, a monk, who for many years combated with invincible courage the heretics that were breaking sacred images.

In Palestine, the anchoret St. Zozimus, who buried the remains of St. Mary of Egypt.

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

Thanks be to God.

3 APRIL – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Taormina in Sicily, the bishop St. Pancratius, who sealed with a martyr’s blood the Gospel of Christ which the blessed Apostle St. Peter had sent him there to preach.

At Tomis in Scythia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Evagrius and Benignus.

At Thessalonica, the martyrdom of the holy virgins Agape and Chionia, under the emperor Diocletian. As they would not deny Christ, they were first detained in prison, then cast into the fire, but being untouched by the flames, they gave up their souls to their Creator while praying to Him.

At Tyre, the martyr St. Vulpian, who was sewn up in a sack with a serpent and a dog and drowned in the sea during the persecution of Maximian Galerius.

In the monastery of Medicion, in the East, the abbot St. Nicetas, who suffered much for the worship of holy images in the time of Leo the Armenian.

In England, St. Richard, bishop of Chichester, celebrated for holiness and glorious miracles. In the same country, St. Burgundofora, abbess and virgin.

At Palermo, St. Benedict, of St. Philadelphus, confessor, surnamed the Black, on account of his colour. He was of the Order of Friars Minor, and rested in the Lord on the third of April, with a reputation for miracles. Pope Pius VII placed him in the number of the saints.

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

Thanks be to God.

2 APRIL – SAINT FRANCIS OF PAOLA (Confessor)

Francis was born at Paula in Calabria, Italy. His parents, who were for a long time without children, obtained him from Heaven after having made a vow and prayed to Saint Francis. Then very young, being inflamed with the love of God, Francis withdrew into a desert where for six years he led an austere life, but one that was sweetened by heavenly contemplations. The fame of his virtues having spread abroad, many persons went to him out of a desire to be trained in virtue. Out of a motive of fraternal charity, he left his solitude, built a Church near Paula and there laid the foundation of his Order. He had a wonderful gift of preaching. He observed virginity during his whole life. Such was his love for humility that he called himself the last of all men, and would have his disciples named Minims. His dress was of the coarsest kind. He always walked barefooted and his bed was the ground. His abstinence was extraordinary: he ate only once in the day and not until after sunset. His food consisted of bread and water to which he scarcely ever added those viands which are permitted even in Lent. And this practice he would have kept up by his Religious under the obligation of a fourth vow. God bore witness to the holiness of His servant by many miracles, of which this is the most celebrated: that when he was rejected by the sailors, he and his companion passed over the straits of Sicily on his cloak, which he spread out on the water. He also prophesied many future events. King Louis XI France had a great desire to see the Saint and treated him with great respect. Having reached his ninety-first year, he died at Tours in 1507. His body, which was unburied for eleven days, so far from becoming corrupt, yielded a sweet fragrance. He was canonised by Pope Leo X.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The founder of a Religious Order, whose distinguishing characteristics were humility and penance comes before us to-day: it is Francis of Paula. Let us study his virtues and beg his intercession. His whole life was one of great innocence, and yet we find him embracing, from his earliest youth, mortifications which nowadays, would not be expected from the very worst sinners. How was it that he could do so much? And we, who have so often sinned, do so little? The claims of Divine Justice are as strong now as ever they were, for God never changes, nor can the offence we have committed against Him by our sins be pardoned unless we make atonement. The Saints punished themselves with life-long and austere penances for the slightest sins, and the Church can scarcely induce us to observe the law of Lent, though it is now reduced to the lowest degree of severity.

What is the cause of this want of the spirit of expiation and penance? It is that our Faith is weak, and our love of God is cold because our thoughts and affections are so set upon this present life that we seldom if ever consider things in the light of eternity? How many of us are like the King of France, who having obtained permission from the Pope that Saint Francis of Paula should come and live near him, threw himself at the Saint’s feet and besought him to obtain of God that he, the King, might have a long life! Louis XI had led a most wicked life, but his anxiety was, not to do penance for his sins, but to obtain, by the Saint’s prayers, a prolongation of a career which had been little better than a storing up wrath for the day of wrath. We, too, love this present life. We love it to excess. The laws of Fasting and Abstinence are broken not because the obeying them would endanger life or even seriously injure health, for where either of these is to be feared, the Church does not enforce her Lenten penances: but people dispense themselves from Fasting and Abstinence because the spirit of immortification renders every privation intolerable, and every interruption of an easy comfortable life insupportable. They have strength enough for any fatigue that business or pleasure calls for, but the moment there is question of observing those laws which the Church has instituted for the interest of the body as well as of the soul, all seems impossible. The conscience gets accustomed to these annual transgressions and ends by persuading the sinner that he may be saved without doing penance.

*****

Apostle of penance! Your life was always that of a Saint and we are sinners: yet do we presume during these days to beg your powerful intercession in order to obtain of God that this holy Season may not pass without having produced within us a true spirit of penance which may give us a reasonable hope of receiving His pardon. We admire the wondrous works which filled your life — a life that resembled in duration that of the Patriarchs, and prolonged the privilege the world enjoyed of having such a Saint to teach and edify it. Now that you are enjoying in Heaven the fruits of your labours on Earth, think upon us and hearken to the prayers addressed to you by the faithful. Get us the spirit of compunction which will add earnestness to our works of penance. Bless and preserve the Order you have founded. Your holy relics have been destroyed by the fury of heretics. Avenge the injury thus offered to your name by praying for the conversion of heretics and sinners, and drawing down upon the world those heavenly graces which will revive among us the fervour of the Ages of Faith.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Caesarea in Palestine, during the persecution of Galerius Maximian, the birthday of the martyr St. Amphian, who, because he reproved the governor Urban for sacrificing to idols, was cruelly lacerated and, with his feet wrapped in a cloth saturated with oil, was set on fire. After these painful tortures, he was plunged into the sea. Thus through fire and water he reached everlasting repose.

In the same city, the passion of St. Theodosia, a virgin of Tyre, who, in the same persecution, for having publicly saluted the holy confessors as they stood before the tribunal and begged of them to remember her when they should be with God, was arrested and led to the governor Urban. By his order, her sides and breasts were lacerated to the very vitals and she was thrown into the sea.

At Lyons, St. Nizier, bishop of that city, renowned for his saintly life and miracles.

At Como, St. Abundius, bishop and confessor.

At Langres, St. Urban, bishop.

In Palestine, the decease of St. Mary of Egypt, surnamed the Sinner.

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

Thanks be to God.

1 APRIL – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, the passion of St. Theodora, sister of the illustrious martyr Hermes, who underwent martyrdom in the time of the emperor Hadrian under the judge Aurelian, and was buried by the side of her brother, on the Via Salaria, a short distance from the city.

The same day, St. Venantius, bishop and martyr.

In Egypt, the holy martyrs Victor and Stephen.

In Armenia, the holy martyrs Quinctian and Irenaeus.

At Constantinople, under the emperor Leo, St. Macarius, confessor, who ended his life in exile for the defence of the honour paid to sacred images.

At Grenoble, the bishop St. Hugh, who spent many years of his life in solitude and departed for heaven with a reputation for miracles.

At Amiens, the abbot St. Valery, whose tomb is made illustrious by frequent miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.