Dom Prosper Guéranger:
“A great mystery” says Saint John Chrysostom, “is accomplished in our dead. A mystery of praise and of joy, when, summoned by the King of kings, the soul goes to meet her Lord, accompanied by Angels sent from Heaven for the purpose! And you lament? When the bridegroom, to whom you have given your daughter, carries her to a far country, you do not complain, provided he makes her happy. Although her absence is a grief to you, the sadness is tempered. And now, because it is not a man, a fellow-slave, but the Lord Himself that claims one of your family, is your grief to be without measure? I do not forbid you to shed a tear. Weep, but be not disconsolate even as others who have no hope (1 Thessalonians iv. 12) And be ready also to return thanks as is meet, honouring thereby your dead, as well as glorifying God, and thus giving them magnificent obsequies.”
With such sentiments were our fathers inspired, in those farewells of the primitive liturgy, which contrasted so strangely with the sad pomp of pagans and which made the funeral train resemble a bridal procession. First, loving hands respectfully washed the body, which had been sanctified by the waters of Baptism and the holy oil, and so often honoured by the visit of our Lord in his blessed Sacrament. It was then clothed in the robes of honour in which it had served its divine Spouse, and, like Him in the tomb, it was surrounded with fragrant spices. Often the sacred Host itself was laid upon the breast after the holy sacrifice of thanksgiving and propitiation. Thus, during an admirable succession of prayers and triumphant chants, amid clouds of incense and numberless torches, the body was carried to the place of rest where Christian burial was to associate it to the last mystery of our Saviour’s mortal career. There, as over the garden of Golgotha on the great Saturday, the naked Cross, despoiled of its divine Burden, looked down upon the graves where the Man-God in His mystic members still awaited the hour of resurrection.
On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Padua, the demise of St. Prosdocimus, first bishop of that city, who was ordained bishop by the blessed Apostle St. Peter, and sent there to preach the word of God, where, celebrated for many virtues and prodigies, he happily ended his life.
At Perugia, St. Herculanus, bishop and martyr.
The same day, St. Amaranthus, martyr, who was buried in the city of Albi, after the termination of combats faithfully sustained, but lives in eternal glory.
At Melitine in Armenia, the martyrdom of the Saints Hieron, Meander, Hesychius and thirty others, who were crowned in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Lysias.
At Amphipolis in Macedonia, the holy martyrs Auctus, Taurio and Thessalonica.
At Ancyra, the passion of the Saints Melasippus, Anthony and Carina, under Julian the Apostate.
At Cologne, St. Engelbertus, bishop, who did not hesitate to suffer martyrdom in defence of ecclesiastical liberties, and for obedience to the Roman Church.
At Alexandria, blessed Achillas, a bishop renowned for erudition, faith and purity of life.
In Friesland, the decease of St. Willibrord, bishop of Utrecht, who was consecrated bishop by the blessed Pope Sergius, and preached the Gospel in Friesland and Denmark.
At Metz, St. Eufus, bishop and confessor.
At Strasburg, St. Florentius, bishop.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
