9 SEPTEMBER – SAINT GORGONIUS (Martyr)

Dorotheus and Gorgonius, two freedmen were executed at Nicomedia on this day. The greatest honours had been conferred on them by the emperor Diocletian, but as they detested the cruelty which he exercised against the Christians, they were by his order suspended in his presence, and lacerated with whips. Then, their skin being torn from their bodies, and vinegar with salt poured over them, they were burned on a gridiron and finally strangled. After some time, the body of blessed Gorgonius was brought to Rome and deposited on the Via Latina. Then it was transferred to the Basilica of St. Peter.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Cartagena in South America, St. Peter Claver, confessor of the Society of Jesus, who laboured with wonderful self-abnegation and great charity among the negro slaves for more than forty years and baptised personally almost thirty thousand of them. He was canonised by order of Pope Leo XIII.

Among the Sabines, thirty miles from Rome, the holy martyrs Hyacinthus, Alexander and Tiburtius.

At Sebaste, St. Severian, a soldier of the emperor Licinius. For frequently visiting the Forty Martyrs while they were in prison, he was suspended in the air with a stone tied to his feet by order of the governor Lysias, and being scourged and torn with whips, yielded up his soul in the midst of torments.

The same day, St. Straton, who ended his martyrdom for Christ by being tied to two trees and torn to pieces.

Also the holy martyrs Rufinus and Rufinian, brothers.

At Rome, St. Sergius, pope and confessor.

In the territory of Tréouanne, St. Omer, bishop.

In Ireland, St. Kieran, abbot.

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

Thanks be to God.

8 SEPTEMBER – THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

“Let us celebrate the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. Let us adore her Son, Christ our Lord.” Such is the invitation addressed to us today by the Church. Let us hearken to her call. Let us enter into her overflowing joy. The Bridegroom is at hand, for His throne is now set up on Earth. Yet a little while, and He will appear in the diadem of our human nature with which His Mother is to crown Him on the day of the joy of His heart, and of ours. Today, as on the glorious Assumption, the sacred Canticle is heard, but this time it belongs more to Earth than to Heaven.

Truly a better paradise than the first is given us at this hour. Eden, fear no more that man will endeavour to enter you: your Cherubim may leave the gates and return to Heaven. What are your beautiful fruits to us since we cannot touch them without dying? Death is now for those who will not eat of the fruit so soon to appear amid the flowers of the virgin earth to which our God has led us. Hail, new world, far surpassing in magnificence the first creation! Hail blessed haven where we find a calm after so many storms! Aurora dawns. The rainbow glitters in the heavens. The dove comes forth. The ark rests upon the Earth, offering new destinies to the world. The haven, the aurora, the rainbow, the dove, the ark of salvation, the paradise of the heavenly Adam, the creation of which the former was but a shadow: all this are you, sweet infant, in whom already dwell all grace, all truth, all life.

You are the little cloud which the father of prophets in the suppliant anguish of his soul awaited, and you bring refreshment to the parched earth. Under the weakness of your fragile form appears the Mother of fair love and of holy hope. You are that other light cloud of exquisite fragrance, which our desert sends up to Heaven. In the incomparable humility of your soul, which knows not itself, the angels, standing like armed warriors around your cradle, recognise their Queen. O Tower of the true David, citadel withstanding the first shock of Satan’s attack and breaking all his power! True Sion founded on the holy mountains, the highest summits of virtue. Temple and palace feebly foreshadowed by those of Solomon. House built by eternal Wisdom for herself: the faultless lines of your fair architecture were planned from all eternity. Together with Emmanuel who predestined you for His home of delights, you are yourself, O blessed child, the crowning point of creation, the divine ideal fully realised on Earth!

Let us, then, understand the Church when, even on this day, she proclaims your divine maternity and unites in her chants of praise the birth of Emmanuel and your own. He who, being Son of God by essence, willed to be also Son of man, had, before all other designs, decreed that He would have a Mother. Such, consequently, was the primordial, absolute character of that title of mother that, in the eternal decree, it was one with the very being of the chosen creature, the motive and cause of her existence, as well as the source of all her perfections natural and supernatural. We too, then, must recognise you as Mother, even from your very cradle, and must celebrate your birthday by adoring your Son our Lord. Inasmuch as it embraces all the brethren of the Man-God, your blessed maternity sheds its rays upon all time, both before and after this happy day. “God is our king before ages: He has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth” (Psalm lxxiii. 12). “The midst of the earth,” says the Abbot of Clairvaux, “admirably represents Mary. Mary is the centre of the universe, the ark of God, the cause of creation, the business of ages. Towards her turn the inhabitants of Heaven and the dwellers in the place of expiation, the men that have gone before us, and we that are now living, those who are to follow us, our children’s children and their descendants. Those in Heaven look to her to have their ranks filled up. Those in Purgatory look for their deliverance. The men of the first ages, that they may be found faithful prophets. Those who come after, that they may obtain eternal happiness. Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, Sovereign of the world, all generations will call you blessed, for you have brought forth life and glory for all. In you the angels ever find their joy, the just find grace, sinners pardon. In you, and by you, and from you, the merciful hand of the Almighty has reformed the first creation.”

Andrew of Crete calls this day a solemnity of entrance, a feast of beginning whose end is the union of the Word with our flesh, a virginal feast, full of joy and confidence for all. “All ye nations, come here,” cries Saint John Damascene, “come every race and every tongue, every age and every dignity, let us joyfully celebrate the birthday of the world’s gladness.” “It is the beginning of salvation, the origin of every feast,” says Saint Peter Damian, “for behold! the Mother of the Bridegroom is born. With good reason does the whole world rejoice today, and the Church, beside herself, bids her choirs sing wedding songs.”

Not only do the Doctors of East and West use similar language in praise of Mary’s birth, but moreover the Latin and Greek Churches sing, each in its own tongue, the same beautiful formula to close the office of the feast: “Your birth, O Virgin Mother of God, brought joy to the whole world: for out of you arose the Sun of Justice, Christ our God: who, taking on the curse has bestowed blessing, and defeating death has given us life everlasting.”

This union of Rome and Byzantium in the celebration of today’s festival dates back as far as the seventh century at least. Beyond that we cannot speak with anything like certitude, nor is it known when the feast was first instituted. It is supposed to have originated at Angers, towards the year 430, by an apparition of our Lady to the holy bishop Maurillus in the fields of Marillais. And hence the name of Notre Dame Angemne often given to the feast. In the eleventh century Chartres, the city of Mary, claims for its own Fulbert, together with Robert the Pious, a principal share in the spreading of the glorious solemnity throughout France. It is well known how intimate the bishop was with the king, and how the latter himself set to music the three admirable responsories composed by Fulbert in which he celebrates the rising of the mysterious star that was to give birth to the Sun: the branch springing from the rod of Jesse, and producing the divine Flower on which the holy Spirit was to rest, and the merciful power which caused Mary to blossom in Judah like the rose on the thorn.

In the year 1245, in the third session of the first Council of Lyons (the same session which deposed Frederick II from the empire), Innocent IV established for the whole Church, not the feast which was already kept everywhere, but the Octave of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin Mary. It was the accomplishment of a vow made by him and the other Cardinals during the Church’s widowhood, which through the intrigues of the crafty emperor, lasted 19 months after the death of Celestine IV, and which was brought to a close by the election of Sinibaldo Fieschi under the name of Innocent. In 1377, the great Pope Gregory XI, who broke the chains of captivity in Avignon, wished to add a vigil to the solemnity of our Lady’s birthday. But whether he merely expressed a desire to this effect, as did his successor Urban VI with regard to a fast on the eve of the Visitation, or whether for some other reason, the intentions of the holy Pope were carried out for only a very short time during the years of trouble that followed his death.

Together with the Church, let us ask, as the fruit of this sweet feast, for that peace which seems to flee ever further and further from our unhappy times. Our Lady was born during the second of the three periods of universal peace with which the reign of Augustus was blessed, the last of which ushered in the Prince of peace Himself. The temple of Janus is closed. In the Eternal City a mysterious fountain of oil has sprung up from the spot where the first sanctuary of the Mother of God is one day to be built. Signs and portents are multiplied. The whole world is in expectation. The poet has sung: “Behold the last age, foretold by the Sybil, is at hand. Behold the great series of new worlds is beginning. Behold the Virgin!”

In Judaea, the sceptre has been taken away from Judah, but the usurper of his power, Herod the Idumaean, is hastening to complete the splendid restoration which will enable the second temple worthily to receive within its walls the Ark of the new Covenant. It is the sabbatical month, the first of the civil year, the seventh of the sacred cycle; the month of Tisri which begins the repose of each seventh year, and in which is announced the holy year of Jubilee: the most joyous of months, with its solemn Neomenia celebrated with trumpets and singing, its feast of tabernacles, and the commemoration of the completion of Solomon’s temple. In the heavens, the sun, in his passage through the zodiac, has left the sign of Leo and entered that of Virgo. On Earth, two obscure descendants of David, Joachim and Anne, are thanking God for having blessed their long-barren union.

Epistle – Proverbs viii. 22‒35

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything from the beginning. I was set up from eternity, and of old before the earth was made. The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived: neither had the fountains of waters as yet sprung out; the mountains with their huge bulk had not as yet been established: before the hills I was brought forth. He had not yet made the earth, nor the rivers, nor the poles of the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was present; when with a certain law and compass He enclosed the deep: when He established the sky above, and poised the fountains of waters: when He compassed the sea with its bounds, and set a law to the waters, that they should not pass their limits: when he balanced the foundations of the earth: I was with Him forming all things: and was delighted every day, playing before Him at all times, playing in the world: and my delights were to be with the children of men. New, therefore, ye children, hear me. Blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that hears me, and that watches daily at my gates, and waits at the posts of my doors. He that will find me, will find life, and will have salvation from the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

When princes are born, we pre-nosticate their future greatness by recalling the glory of their ancestors. The Church does in like manner today. The Gospel will recount the temporal genealogy of the Messiah which is also the genealogy of her who was born for the very purpose of giving birth to Him. But first, this passage from the Book of Proverbs sets before us the divine origin of the Son and of the Mother. It is of both that eternal Wisdom says: “Before the hills I was brought forth: when He prepared the heavens, I was present.” Our weak human nature, subject to time, can conceive of things only according to the series of their progressive evolutions, but God sees them independently of time, which He rules with His eternity. He sees them in the order of mutual dependence in which He has placed them with a view to the manifestation of His glory. With God, the beginning and the principle of every work is the purpose for which it is done. Now the Most High acts outside Himself solely to reveal Himself, by His Word made Flesh and become the Son of a created Mother as He is the Son of the Creator. The God-Man as end, Mary as the means: such is the object of the eternal decrees, the purpose of the world’s existence, the fundamental conception with regard to which all else is but accessory and dependent.

O Lady, who deigns to call us also your children, it is well for us that your goodness is equal to your greatness! Happy is the human race for having waited and watched for you during so many long ages, and for having found you at length: for with you is salvation and life.

Gospel – Matthew i. 1‒16

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac; and Isaac begot Jacob; and Jacob begot Judas and his brethren; and Judas begot Phares and Zaraof Thamar; and Phares begot Esron; and Esron begot Aram; and Aram begot Aminadab; and Aminadab begot Naasson; and Naasson begot Salmon; and Salmon begot Booz of Rahab; and Booz begot Obed of Ruth; and Obed begot Jesse; and Jesse begot David the king. And David the king begot Solomon, of her who had been the wife of Urias; and Solomon begot Roboam; and Roboam begot Abia; and Abia begot Asa; and Asa begot Josaphat; and Josaphat begot Joram; and Joram begot Ozias; and Ozias begot Joatham; and Joatham begot Achaz; and Achaz begot Ezechias; and Ezechias begot Manasses; and Manasses begot Amon; and Amon begot Josias; and Josias begot Jechonias and his brethren in the transmigration of Babylon. And after the transmigration of Babylon Jechonias begot Salathiel; and Salathiel begot Zorobabel; and Zorobabel begot Abiud; and Abiud begot Eliacim; and Eliacim begot Azor; and Azor begot Sadoc; and Sadoc begot Achim; and Achim begot Eliud; and Eliud begot Eleazar; and Eleazar begot Mathan; and Mathan bogot Jacob; and Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Mary “of whom was born Jesus”: these words contain the whole mystery of our Lady, the title which expresses her whole being according to both nature and grace. For, Jesus, who was to be born of Mary, to be made of a woman (Galatians iv. 4), was from the beginning the hidden reason of all creation, to be manifested in the fullness of time. This was God’s great work of which the prophet said in ecstasy: “O Lord, your work... in the midst of the years you will make it known... the holy One will come from the shady mountain... The hills of the world were bowed down by the journeys of His eternity” (Habacuc iii. 2‒6). This mountain from where the holy One, the Eternal, the Ruler of the world, is to come, is the blessed Virgin Mary whom the power of the Most High will overshadow and who, at her very birth, is set far above all the heights of Earth and of Heaven.

The days, then, are accomplished. Ever since the hour when the eternal Trinity came forth from their repose to create Heaven and Earth, all the generations of Heaven and Earth have been in labour to bring forth the day which is to give a Mother to the Son of God. Parallel with the direct line from Abraham and David to the Messiah, all human genealogies have been preparing for Mary the generation of adoptive sons whom Jesus is to make His brethren. With the Church, let us congratulate our Lady on this her sublime maternity which embraces all creatures together with the Creator.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

At Nicomedia, St. Adrian, with twenty-three other martyrs, who ended their martyrdom on the fourth of March by having their limbs crushed after enduring many torments under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Their remains were carried to Byzantium by Christians and buried with due honours. Afterwards the body of St. Adrian was taken to Rome on this day on which his festival is celebrated.

At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Ammon, Theophilus, Neoterius, and twenty-two others.

At Antioch, the Saints Timothy and Faustus, martyrs.

At Gaza in Palestine, the holy martyrs Eusebius, Nestabus and Zeno, brothers, who were cut to pieces by a multitude of pagans that rushed upon them in the time of Julian the Apostate.

In the same place, and under the same Julian, St. Nestor, martyr, who, being most cruelly tortured by the same furious Gentiles, breathed his last.

At Valencia in Spain, St. Thomas of Villanova, archbishop, distinguished by his ardent charity for the poor. He was inscribed among the saints by Pope Alexander VII, and his feast is celebrated on the twenty-second of this month.

At Freisingen, St. Corbinian, first bishop of that city. Being consecrated by Pope Gregory II, and sent to preach the Gospel, he reaped an abundant harvest in France and Germany, and finally renowned for virtues and miracles, rested in peace.

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

Thanks be to God.

7 SEPTEMBER – THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Dominical series, formerly counted from the feast of Saint Peter or the Apostles, never went beyond this Sunday. The feast of Saint Laurence gave its name to those which follow, though that name began with even the ninth Sunday for the years when Easter was nearest the Spring equinox. When, on the contrary, that Solemnity was kept at its almost latest date, the weeks began from today to be counted as the Weeks of the seventh month (September). The Ember Days of the Autumn quarter sometimes occur even this week, while in other years they may be as late as the eighteenth. We will speak of them when we come to the Seventeenth Sunday, for it is in the week following that that the Roman Missal inserts them. In the Western Church the Thirteenth Sunday takes its name from the Gospel of the Ten Lepers which is read in the Mass: the Greeks, who count it as the Thirteenth of Saint Matthew, read on it the parable of the vineyard, whose labourers, though called at different hours of the day, all receive the same pay (Matthew xx.).

Now that she is in possession of the promises so long waited for by the world — the Church loves to repeat the words with which the just men of the Old Law used to express their sentiments. Those just men were living during the gloomy period when the human race was seated in the shadow of death. We are under incomparably happier circumstances. We are blessed with graces in abundance. Eternal Wisdom has spared us the trials our forefathers had to contend with by giving us to live in the period which has been enriched by all the mysteries of salvation being fulfilled. There is a danger, however, and our Mother the Church does her utmost to avert us from falling into it. It is the danger of forgetting all these blessings of ours. Ingratitude is the necessary outcome of forgetfulness, and today’s Gospel justly condemns it. On this account, the Epistle remind us of the time when man had nothing to cheer him but hope: a promise had, indeed, been made to him of a sublime covenant which was, at some distant future, to be realised. But, meanwhile, he was very poor, was a prey to the wiles of Satan, his cause was to be tried by divine justice, and yet he prayed for loving mercy.

Epistle – Galatian iii. 16‒22

Brethren, to Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed. He said not, And to his seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ. Now this I say, that the testament which was confirmed by God, the law which was made after four hundred and thirty years does not dis-annul to make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. Why, then, was the law? It was set because of transgressions, until the seed should come to whom He made the promise: being ordained by Angels in the hands of a mediator. Now a mediator is not of one: but God is one. Was the law, then, against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given which could give life, verily justice should have been by the law. But the scriptures has concluded all under sin that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“Look up to heaven, and number the stars, if you can! So will your seed be! (Genesis xv. 5) Abraham was almost 100 years old (Romans iv. 19) and Sarah’s barrenness deprived him of all natural hope of posterity when these words were spoken to him by God. Abraham, nevertheless, believed God, says the Scripture, “and it was reputed to him unto justice” (Genesis xv. 6). And when later on that same faith (Hebrews xi. 17‒19) would have led him to sacrifice on the mount that son of the promise, his one only hope, God renewed his promise and added: “In your seed will all the nations of the Earth be blessed” (Genesis xii. 18).

It is now that the promise is fulfilled. The event justifies Abraham’s faith. He believed against all hope, trusting to that God who “quickens the dead and calls those things that are not, as those that are and” (Romans iv. 17, 18) according to the expression of John the Baptist, from the very stones of the Gentile world there rise up in all places children to Abraham (Matthew iii. 9). His faith, firm and at the same time so simple, gave to God the glory (Romans iv. 20) which He looks for from His creatures. Man can add nothing to the divine perfections, but — agreeably to God’s own words — though he sees them not directly here below, he acknowledges those perfections by adoring and loving them. He makes his faith tell upon his whole life and this use which he freely makes of his faculties, this voluntary devotedness of an intelligent being, magnifies God by adding to His extrinsic glory.

Following in Abraham’s steps (Romans iv. 12) there have come those multitudes born for that Heaven of faith which he showed to the whole Earth. They live by faith (Romans i. 17) and thereby in all their acts they give to God the homage of confession and praise through His Son Christ Jesus. And like Abraham they receive in return a blessing, a benediction, of an ever increasing justice (Romans iv. 23, 24; Galatians iii. 9). The magnificent development of the Church which gives this new posterity to Abraham is greater and more visible since the fall of Israel. In countries the remotest, in the midst of cities that once were all pagan, we see crowds of men, women and children imitating Abraham (Genesis xii. 1): that is, at Heaven’s call, leaving, if not their country, at least everything that once made Earth dear to them: and like him, trusting in the fidelity and power of God to fulfil His promises (Romans iv. 20, 21), they live as strangers amidst their neighbours, yea, and in their very homes, using this world as though they did not use it (1 Corinthians vii. 31). In the tumult of cities as in the desert, in the midst of the vain pleasures of the world, whose fashion and figure passes away (1 Corinthians viii. 31) — they have no other thought than that of the unseen realities (Hebrews xi. 1): no other care than that of pleasing God (1 Corinthians vii. 32). They take to themselves the word that was spoken to their father: “Walk before me and be perfect!” (Genesis xvii. 1) and in truth it was to all of them that it was spoken. It was the condition in the alliance concluded by God with those His faithful servants of all ages in the person of the grand Patriarch who was not only their progenitor, but their model too. And God responds also to their faith, either by private manifestations or by the still surer voice of His Scriptures (2 Peter i. 19), saying: “Fear not! I am your protector and your reward exceeding great! (Genesis xv. 1).

Truly then the benediction of Abraham has been poured forth on the Gentiles (Galatians iii. 18). Christ Jesus, the true Son of the promise, the only seed of salvation, has by faith in His Resurrection (Romans iv. 24) assembled from every nation (Galatians iii. 28) them that are of goodwill (Luke ii. 14), making them all one in Him, making them, like Himself, children of Abraham (Galatians iii. 29), and what is better still, children of God (Galatians iv. 5‒7). For the benediction that was promised at the beginning of the alliance was the Holy Ghost Himself (Galatians iii. 14), the spirit of adoption of children that came down into our hearts to make us all heirs of God and joint-heirs of Christ (Romans viii. 15‒17). O mighty power of Faith, which breaks down the former walls of division, unites nations together (Ephesians ii. 14‒18) and substitutes the love and freedom of children of the Most High for the law of bondage and fear (Romans viii. 2)!

And yet, grand as was this spectacle of the Gentiles becoming incorporated into the chosen race and being made sharers in Christ of the holy promises (Ephesians iii. 6) — it did not please all people. The carnal Jew who boasts of having Abraham for his father though he cares little about imitating his works (John viii. 39) — the Circumcised who vaunts the bearing in his flesh the sign of a Faith which dwells not in his heart (Romans iv. 11) — these men who have rejected Christ now reject His members and would fain destroy His Church or at least trammel it. They are enraged at seeing crowding in, from every portion of the globe (Luke xiii. 29), that immense concourse which their vile jealousy has vainly sought to keep back. While their wounded pride kept them from going in (Luke xv. 28), the Gentiles were sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the Prophets at the banquet of God’s kingdom (Luke xiii. 28): the last became the first (Luke xiii. 30). Even to the end of time Israel — who, by his own obstinacy, has forfeited his ancient glory — will continue to be the enemy of this spiritual posterity of Abraham which has supplanted him (Genesis xxvii. 36), but his persecutions against the children of the promise and of the lawful Bride will but result in showing that he is, as Saint Paul says, the son of Agar, the son of the bond-woman who, together with her child, is excluded from the inheritance and kingdom (Galatians iv. 22‒31).

He prefers to refuse the liberty offered him by the Lord rather than acknowledge the definitive abrogation his now dead Law. Be it so. His hatred will not induce the children of the Church (who are prefigured by Sarah the free-woman) to reject the grace of their God for the sake of pleasing their enemy. It will not induce them to abandon the justice of Faith and the riches of the Spirit, and the life in Christ, in order to go back again to the yoke of slavery (Galatians v. 1) which, let the Jew do what he will, was broken into pieces by the Cross he himself set up on Calvary (Galatians ii. 19‒21). Up to the last the true Jerusalem, the free city, our mother — she that was once the barren woman but now is so glad a Bride with her children around her — yes, she will meet the superannuated, yet ever busy, pretensions of the Synagogue by reading to her assembled sons and daughters the Epistle we are having today. Up to the last, Saint Paul, in her name —speaking of the law of Sinai, which was made known to its subjects through the mediation of Moses and the Angels — will prove its inferiority as compared to the covenant made by Abraham directly with God. Each year, as emphatically as on the day he wrote his Epistle, Paul will declare the transient character of that legislation which came 430 years after a promise which could not be changed. Neither was such legislation to continue when the time should come for that Son of Abraham to appear, from whom the world was waiting to receive the promised benediction.

But what is to be said of the incapability of the Mosaic ministration to give man strength and enable him to rise up from his fall? The Gospel, on which we were meditating eight days back, and which formerly was assigned to this present Sunday, gave a symbolical and striking commentary on the uselessness of the Old Law in regard to this. At the same time it showed us the remedial power which resided in Christ, and was by Him transmitted to the ministers of the New Law. “Every portion of the Office of the thirteenth Sunday,” says Abbot Rupert, “bears on the history of that Samaritan whose name signifies keeper. It is our Lord Jesus Christ who, by His Incarnation, comes to the rescue of the man whom the Old Law was not able to keep from harm. And when this Jesus leaves the world, He consigns the poor sufferer to the care of the Apostles and apostolic men in the house of the Church. The intentional selection of this Gospel for today throws a great light on our Epistle, as also on the whole Letter to the Galatians, from which it is taken. Thus, the Priest and the Levite of the Parable are a figure of the Law and their passing by the half-dead man, seeing him indeed, but without making an attempt to heal him, is expressive of what that Law did. True, it did not go counter to God’s promises, but of itself it could justify no man. A physician who does not himself intend to visit a patient will sometimes send a servant who is expert in the knowledge of the causes of the malady, yet who has not the skill needed for mixing the remedy required, but can merely tell the sick man what diet and what drinks he must avoid if he would prevent his ailment from causing death. Such was the Law, set, as the Epistle tells us, because of transgressions, as a simple safeguard until such time as there should come the good Samaritan, the heavenly Physician. Having from his very first coming into this world fallen among robbers, Man is stripped of his supernatural goods and is covered with the wounds inflicted on him by original sin. If he do not abstain from actual sins, from those transgressions against which the Law was set as a monitor, he runs the risk of dying altogether.”

Gospel – Luke xvii. 11‒19

At that time, as Jesus was going to Jerusalem, He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as He entered into a certain town, there met Him ten then that were lepers, who stood afar off and lifted up their voice saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Whom, when He saw, He said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And it came to pass that as they went, they were made clean. And one of them, when he saw that he was made clean, went back with a loud voice glorifying God: and he fell on his face before his feet, giving thanks: and this was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering, said, “Were not ten made clean? And where are the nine? There is no one found to return, and give glory to God, but this stranger.” And he said to Him, “Arise, go your way, for your faith has made you whole.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Samaritan Leper, cured of that hideous malady which is an apt figure of sin, in company with nine lepers of Jewish nationality, represents the despised race of Gentiles who were at first admitted by stealth, so to say, and by extraordinary privilege, into a share of the graces belonging to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew xv. 24). The conduct of these ten men on occasion of their miraculous cure is in keeping with the attitude assumed by the two people they typify, regarding the salvation offered to the world by the Son of God. It is a fresh demonstration of what the Apostle says: “All are not Israelites, that are of Israel. Neither are all they who are the seed of Abraham, children.” “But,” says the Scripture (Genesis xxi. 12), “in Isaac will your seed be called,” that is to say, not they who are the children of the flesh, are the children of God: but they that are the children of the promise are counted for the seed (Romans ix. 6‒8).

They are born of the faith of Abraham and are, in the eyes of the Lord, His true progeny. Our holy Mother the Church is never tired of this subject, the comparison of the Two Testaments and the contrast there is between the two people. We deem it our duty, before proceeding further, to explain how this is, for there are many persons who cannot understand what benefit can come to us Christians from hearing this subject preached to us.

The kind of spirituality which, with many of us, has nowadays been substituted for the liturgical life so thoroughly lived in, and so precious, to our Catholic ancestors, gives a certain dis-relish for the ideas which the Church so perseveringly brings before them during so many of her Sundays. They have become habituated to live in an atmosphere of very limited truth. It is all subjective as well as little, and they consider it a very excellent thing to forget all other teaching except what they happen to possess, and beyond which it is a trouble to go. With Christians of this class it is not surprising that they feel puzzled at finding the Church continually urging them to take an interest in a long past which they call of no practical utility to them! But the interior life, truly worthy of the name, is not what these good people imagine. No school of spirituality, either now or ever, made the ideal of virtue consist in indifference for those great historical facts which are evidently so precious in the eyes of the Church, and of God Himself. And what is the usual result of this isolating themselves from their Mother’s most cherished appreciations? It is that by this determined shutting themselves up in their own private prayers they, by a just punishment, lose sight of the true end of prayer, which is union with and love of God. Their meditation is deprived of that element of intimate and fruitful converse with God which is assigned it by all the masters of the spiritual life. It soon becomes an unproductive exercise of analysis and reasoning in which there is nothing but abstract conclusions.

Now when God mercifully invited men to the divine nuptials by manifesting to them His Word, it was not by abstraction that He gave to our Earth this the Son of His own eternal Substance. As to His divinity, men could not in their present state see it in a direct way. Had then God shown us in this pretended abstract way, that eternal Son of His, in whom are found all beauty, and warmth and life — it would have been imperfect and cold. This He did not do, but as Saint Paul tells us, He manifested, He showed, the great mystery of godliness in the Flesh (1 Timothy iii. 16). The Word became a living soul (Genesis ii. 7). Eternal Truth assumed to Himself a Body that so He might converse with men (Baruch iii. 38) and grow up like one of themselves (Luke ii. 52). And when that Body which eternal Truth was to hold as His own forever was taken up in glory (1 Timothy iii. 16) — the Church, the Bride of this Man-God, the bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh (Ephesians v. 30‒32) continued in the world this manifestation of God by the members of Christ. She continued that historical development of the Word which is only to cease when time is no more. This manifestation, this development, surpasses all human calculations and reveals fresh aspects of the Wisdom of God even to the Angels themselves (Ephesians iii. 10). Undoubtedly, a real regard is to be had for those axioms to which great minds have reduced the principles of science in an abstract logical order quite independently of history and facts: but neither with God nor with man has this sort of petrified theorising anything in it of the life, the influence, the activity of substantial truth. In the Church, as in God, truth is life and light (John i. 4). Her grand Credo would never ring so triumphantly as it does through our churches, it would never make its way so irresistibly up to Heaven, if it were but a bare series of true definitions and phrases. Its superhuman power comes from each of its articles, almost each of its words, teeming with the blood of martyrs upon it and radiant for the Church and for God with the splendour of toils, and sufferings, and combats of thousands of sainted Confessors and Doctors, the very aristocracy, that is, of human nature ennobled by Baptism, whose living is to be the completion of the Body of Christ here below (Colossians i. 24; ii. 19).

The subject is too full to be treated of here but this much is irresistible — that after the master-fact of the Incarnation of the Word who came upon our Earth to manifest God through the ages of time by Christ and His members (2 Corinthians iv. 10, 11), there is not one which is more important, not one which has been and still is so dear to God, as the vocation of the two peoples that were successively called by Him to the blessing of an alliance with Him. The gifts and vocations of God are, as the Apostle expresses it, without repentance or regret on His part. Those Jews who are now His enemies because they reject the Gospel are still called carissimi, they are still the beloved and dearly beloved, because of their Fathers (Romans xi. 28, 29). For the same reason a time will come, and the whole world is waiting for it, when the denial of Judah being revoked and his iniquities blotted out, the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will be literally fulfilled (Romans xi. 25‒27). Then the divine unity of the two Testaments will be made evident, and the two peoples themselves will be made one under their one head, Christ Jesus (Ephesians ii. 14). The covenant of God with man being then fully realised such as He had designed it in His eternal wisdom — the Earth having yielded its fruit (Psalm lxvi. 7) — the world having done its work — the sepulchres will give back their dead (Romans xi. 15) and History will cease here on Earth, leaving glorified human nature to bloom in unreserved fullness of life under God’s complacent eye.

The truths, then, which are again brought before our notice by today’s Gospel are anything but dry or old-fashioned. Nothing is so grand and we must add there is nothing more practical in this season of the year, for it is the season that is consecrated to the mysteries of the Unitive Life. After all, in what primarily does union between God and man consist but in unanimity of the divine and human minds? Now we know that the divine mind has manifested all its designs in the respective history of the two Testaments and the two Peoples, and that the final result which is to bring these two histories to their close is the one only end which infinite Love was in the beginning, and is now, and will for ever be, proposing to fulfil. The Church, therefore, far from showing herself to be not up to the present age by recurring continually to truths such as these, is but clearly proving herself to be the most intelligent Bride of Jesus — is but evincing the changeless lovely youthfulness of a heart which ever beats in unison with that of her Spouse.

Let us now resume the literal explanation of our Gospel. As we were observing on a previous Sunday, our Jesus here again wishes rather to give us a useful teaching than to manifest His divine power. It is for this purpose that He does not cure these ten lepers who besought Him to have mercy on them as on another occasion He cured one who was suffering from the same misery. To this latter who besought Him, He restored cleanliness by a few words. This was at the beginning of His public life. He said: “Be made clean, and forthwith the leprosy was cleansed” (Matthew viii. 3). But the lepers of our Gospel is an event that took place in the latter portion of our Lord’s sojourn among men: and they are made clean only while on their way to show themselves to the priests. Jesus sends them to the priests, just as He had done in the previous case, and thus, from the beginning to the close of His mortal life, He gives an example of the respect which was to be paid to the Old Law so long as it was not abrogated. That Law gave to the sons of Aaron the power, not of curing, but of discerning leprosy, and passing judgement on its being cured or not (Leviticus viii.).

The time, however, is now come for a Law that is to be far above that of Sinai, and it has a priesthood whose judgements are not to be concerning the state of the body but, by pronouncing the sentence of absolution, is to effectually remove the leprosy of souls. The cure which the ten lepers felt coming on them before they had reached the priests ought to have sufficed to show them, in Jesus, the power of the new priesthood which had been foretold by the Prophets (Isaias lxvi. 21‒23). The power which, by thus forestalling it in their favour, surpasses the authority of the ancient ministration is, or should be, evidence enough of the superior dignity of Him who exercises it. If only they were in suitable dispositions for the sacred rites which are going to be used in the ceremony of their purification (Leviticus xiv. 1‒32) — the Holy Ghost who, heretofore, had inspired the prophetic details of the mysterious function about to be celebrated, would enable them to understand the signification of the expiatory sparrow whose blood, being sprinkled upon the living water, sets free by the wood its fellow sparrow. That first bird typifies our Lord Jesus Christ who likens Himself, in the Psalm, to the lonely sparrow (Psalm ci. 8). His immolation on the Cross which gives to water the power of cleansing souls, communicates to the other sparrows, His Brethren (Psalm lxxxiii. 4), the purity of the Blood divine.

But the Jew is far from being ready for understanding these great mysteries. And yet the Law had been given to him that it might serve him as a hand leading him to Christ, and without exposing him to err (Galatians iii. 24). It was a signal favour granted him, not from any merits of his own, but because of his Fathers (Deuteronomy iv. 37; ix. 4‒6). The favour was all the more precious, inasmuch as it was bestowed at a time when the tradition regarding a future Redeemer was almost entirely lost by the bulk of mankind. Gratitude should have been uppermost in the heart of Judah but pride took its place. He was so taken up with the honour that had been put on him that it made him lose all desire for the Messiah. He cannot endure the thought that a time will come when the Sun of Justice, having risen for the whole Earth, the limited advantage which was given to a few during the hours of night will be eclipsed by the bright noon of a light which all vie to enjoy. He, therefore, proclaims, that the Old Law is definitive, though the Law protests itself to be but transitory. He, therefore, insists on the perpetuity of the reign of types and shadows. He lays it down as a dogma that no divine intervention can ever equal that made on Sinai: that every future prophet, every Sent of God, must be inferior to Moses: that all possible salvation is in the Law, and that from it alone flows every grace.

This explains to us how it was that of the ten men cured of leprosy by Jesus nine of them are found who have not even the remotest thought of coming to their Deliverer to thank Him: these nine are Jews. Jesus, to their minds, is a mere disciple of Moses, a bare instrument of favours holding his commission from Sinai, and as soon as they have gone through the legal formality of their purification, they take it that all their obligations to God are paid. The Samaritan, the despised Gentile whose sufferings have given him that humility which makes the sinner clear-sighted — he is the only one who recognises God by His divine works, and gives Him thanks for His favours. How many ages of apparent abandonment, of humiliation and suffering must pass over Judah too before he will recognise and adore his God, and confess to him his sins, and give him his devoted love, and, like this stranger, hear Jesus pronounce his pardon, and say: “Arise! Go your way! Your faith has made you whole and saved you!

6 SEPTEMBER – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The prophet Zachary, who returned in his old age from Chaldea to his own country and lies buried near the prophet Aggeus.

In Hellespont, St. Onesiphorus, a disciple of the Apostles, of whom the blessed Apostle St. Paul speaks in his Epistle to Timothy. He was severely scourged with St. Porphyry by order of the proconsul Hadrian, and being dragged by wild horses, gave up his soul to God.

At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Faustus, priest, Macarius, and ten companions, who received the martyr’s crown by being beheaded for the name of Christ in the time of the emperor Decius and the governor Valerius.

In Cappadocia, the holy martyrs Cottidus, deacon, Eugenius, and their companions.

In Africa, in the persecution of the Vandals, the holy bishops Donatian, Praesidius, Mansuetus, Germanus and Fusculus, who were most cruelly scourged and sent into exile by order of the Arian king Hunneric because they proclaimed the Catholic truth. Among them was one named Laetus, also a bishop, a courageous and most learned man, who was burned alive after a long imprisonment in a loathsome dungeon.

At Verona, St. Petronius, bishop and confessor.

At Rome, the holy abbot Eleutherius, a servant of God, who, according to the testimony of Pope St. Gregory, raised a dead man to life by his prayers and tears.

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

Thanks be to God.

5 SEPTEMBER – SAINT LAWRENCE JUSTINIAN (Bishop and Confessor)

Laurence was born at Venice of the illustrious family of the Justiniani, and while still a child was remarkable for the seriousness of his character. He spent his youth in exercises of piety, and then being attracted by divine Wisdom to the chaste espousals of the Word and the soul, he began to think of embracing a religious state. As a prelude to this new warfare he secretly undertook many bodily austerities, such as sleeping upon bare boards. Sitting, as it were, as judge, he placed the pleasures of the world and the marriage prepared for him by his mother on the one hand, and on the other the austerities of the cloister. Then casting his eyes on an image of Christ crucified, he said: “You, O Lord, are my hope: there you have placed your most secure refuge,” and he went to the congregation of Canons of Saint George in Alga. Here he invented fresh torments, and waged war with even more vehemence than before, against himself, as if against his greatest enemy. So far from allowing himself the least gratification, he would never set foot in the garden belonging to his family nor in his paternal home, except when without a tear he performed the last offices of piety towards his dying mother. He was equally zealous in the practice of obedience, meekness and especially of humility.

He would choose of his own accord the humblest duties of the monastery, and begged his bread in the most crowded parts of the town, seeking rather mockery than alms. He bore insults and calumnies unmoved and in silence. His great support was assiduous prayer, in which he was often rapt in God in ecstasy. The love of God burnt so brightly in his heart that it kindled a like ardour in the hearts of his companions and encouraged them to perseverance. Eugenius IV appointed him bishop of his native city. He made great efforts to decline the dignity, but when obliged to accept it, he so discharged its obligations as to win the praise of all. He changed no thing of his former manner of life, practising holy poverty, as he had ever done, in what regarded his table, his bed and his furniture. He kept but few persons in his house or service, for he used to say that he had another large family, meaning Christ’s poor. Every one had free access to him at any hour. He helped and consoled all with fatherly charity, even burdening himself with debts in order to relieve the necessitous.

When he was asked on whose help be counted in such cases, he answered: “On my Lord’s help, and He can easily pay for me.” And divine Providence always justified his confidence by sending him help in the most unexpected manner. He built many monasteries for nuns, whom he trained with great vigilance to the life of perfection. He devoted himself zealously to withdrawing the ladies of Venice from worldly pomp and vanity of dress, and to the reformation of ecclesiastical discipline and Christian morals. Thus he truly deserved the title of ‘honour and glory of prelates,’ which Eugenius IV applied to him in presence of the cardinals. Nicholas V, the next Pope, translated the Patriarchiate from the See of Grado to that of Venice, and proclaimed him first Patriarch. He was honoured with the gift of tears, and daily offered to almighty God the Victim of propitiation. Once when saying Mass on the night of our Lord’s Nativity he saw Christ Jesus under the form of a most beautiful Infant. Great was his care for the flock entrusted to him, and on one occasion it was revealed by Heaven that Venice owed its safety to its pontiff’s prayers and merits. Filled with the spirit of prophecy, he foretold many events which no human mind could have foreseen, while his prayers often put the devils to flight and healed diseases. Though he had made but little study of letters, he wrote books full of heavenly doctrine and piety.

When his last illness came on, his servants prepared a more comfortable bed for him on account of his sickness and old age. But he, shrinking from such a luxury which was too unlike his Lord’s hard death-bed, the cross, bade them lay him on his usual couch. Knowing the end of his life had come, he raised his eyes to heaven, and saying “I come to you, O good Jesus!” he fell asleep in the Lord on the eighth of January. The holiness of his death was attested by angelic harmonies heard by several Carthusian monks, as also by the state of his body, which during the two months that it lay unburied, remained whole and inoorrupt, of a lively colour and breathing a sweet fragrance. Other miracles, worked after his death, also gave proof of his sanctity, on which account, Pope Alexander VIII enrolled him among the saints. Innocent XII assigned for his feast the fifth of September, on which day the holy man had been raised to the pontifical dignity.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“Come, all ye who are drawn by the desire of unchangeable good, and who seek it in vain in this passing world. I will tell you what Heaven has done for me. Like you, I once sought with feverish eagerness, and this exterior world could not satisfy my burning desire. But, by the divine grace which fed my anguish, at length she, whose name I then knew not, appeared to me, more beautiful than the sun, sweeter than balm. As she approached, how gentle was her countenance, how peace-inspiring her voice, saying to me: ‘O thou, whose youth is all full of the love with which I inspire you, why do you thus pour out your heart? The peace you seek by so many different ways, is with me. Your desire will be amply fulfilled, I promise you, if only you wilt take me for your bride.’ I acknowledge that at these words my heart failed, my soul was all pierced with the dart of her love. As I wished to know her name, her dignity, her origin, she told me she was called the wisdom of God and that, at first invisible in the bosom of the Father, she had taken of a mother a visible nature, in order to be more easily loved. Then, with great delight, I gave my consent and she, kissing me, departed full of joy. Ever since then, the flame of her love has been growing with in me, absorbing all my thoughts. Her delights endure forever. She is my well-beloved bride, my inseparable companion. Through her, the peace I once sought is now the cause of my joy. Hear me then, all of you: go to her in like manner, for she makes it her happiness to reject no-one” (Laurence Justiniani, Fasciculus amoris, cap. xvi.)

“O Wisdom, who sits on your lofty throne. O Word, by whom all things were made, be propitious to me, in this manifestation of the secrets of your holy love.” Such, O Laurence, was your prayer when, fearing to be responsible for the hidden talent, if you should keep to yourself what might profit others, you resolve to make known august mysteries. We thank you for having given us to share in these heavenly secrets. By the reading of your devout works, and by your intercession with God, draw us to the heights of holiness, like the purified flame which can but mount upwards. Man falls from his inborn nobility if he seeks rest in anything save Him to whose image he is made. All things here below are reflections of God’s eternal beauty. They teach us to love Him, and help us to sing our love. What delights were yours on those lofty summits of charity so near to Heaven, which are to be reached by the paths of truth, i.e. the virtues. It is indeed your own portrait you draw, when you say of the soul admitted to ineffable intimacy with the Wisdom of the Father: ‘All things are profitable to her. Whichever way she turns, she perceives but the gleams of love. Sights and sounds, sweetnesses and perfumes, delicate viands, concerts of earth, brightness of the skies: all that she hears, all that she sees in the whole of nature, is a nuptial harmony, the beauty of the banquet in which the Word has espoused her.” Oh! may we walk, like you, by the light of God, live in desire and in union, love ever more and more, that ever more and more we may be loved!

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In the suburbs of Rome, blessed Victorinus, bishop and martyr, in the time of Nerva Trajan. Being renowned for sanctity and miracles, he was elected bishop of Amiterno by the whole people, but afterwards he was banished, with other servants of God, to Contigliano where foetid sulphurous waters spring forth, and was suspended with his head downward by order of the judge Aurelian. Having for the name of Christ endured this torment for three days, he was gloriously crowned and went victoriously to our Lord. His body was taken away by Christians and buried with due honours at Amiterno.

At Porto, the birthday of St. Herculanus, martyr.

At Capua, the holy martyrs Quinctius, Arcontius and Donatus.

The same day, St. Romulus, prefect of Trajan’s court. For reproving the cruelty of the emperor towards Christians he was scourged with rods and beheaded.

At Melitine in Armenia, the martyrdom of the holy soldiers Eudoxius, Zeno, Macarius and their companions to the number of eleven hundred and four, who threw away their military belts and were put to death for the confession of Christ in the persecution of Diocletian.

At Constantinople, the holy martyrs Urbanus, Theodore, Menedemus, and their ecclesiastical companions, seventy-seven in number, who were put in a ship by the command of the emperor Valens and burned on the sea for the Catholic faith.

In the neighbourhood of Terouanne, in the monastery of Sithiu, St. Bertin, abbot.

At Toledo, St. Obdulia, virgin.

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

Thanks be to God.

4 SEPTEMBER – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Mount Nebo in the land of Moab, the holy lawgiver and prophet Moses.

At Ancyra in Galatia, the birthday of three saintly boys, Rufinus, Silvanus and Vitalicus, martyrs.

At Chalons in France, St. Marcellus, martyr, under the emperor Antoninus. Being invited to a profane banquet by the governor Priscus, and abhorring the meats that were served, he reproved with great freedom all persons present for worshipping the idols. For this, by an unheard-of kind of cruelty, the same governor had him burned alive up to the waist. After persevering for three days in praising God, he yielded up his undefiled soul.

The same day, the holy martyrs Magnus, Castus and Maximus.

At Treves, St. Marcellus, bishop and martyr.

The same day, the Saints Thameles, previously a pagan priest, and his companions, martyrs under the emperor Hadrian.

Also the holy martyrs Theodore, Oceanus, Ammian and Julian, who had their feet cut off, and consummated their martyrdom by being thrown into the fire, in the time of the emperor Maximian.

At Rimini, St. Marinus, deacon.

At Palermo, the birthday of St. Rosalia, virgin, a native of that city, issued from the royal blood of Charlemagne. For the love of Christ she forsook the princely court of her father and led a heavenly life alone in mountains and caverns.

At Naples in Campania, the birthday of St. Candida, who was the first to meet the blessed Apostle St. Peter when he came to that city, and being baptised by him, afterwards ended her holy life in peace.

In the same place, St. Candida, the younger, renowned for miracles.

At Viterbo, blessed Rose, virgin.

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

Thanks be to God.

3 SEPTEMBER – SAINT PIUS X (Pope and Confessor)

Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was born in 1835 at Riese in the Venetian province of Treviso to Giovanni Battista Sarto, a postman, and Margarita Sarto (née Sanson). In 1850 he entered the seminary at Padua where he completed his classical, philosophical and theological studies with distinction. He was ordained in 1858 and served as a parish priest at Tombolo, during which time he studied the works of Saint Thomas Aquinas and canon law. He also established a night school for adults and preached in other towns to which he was called. In 1867 he was appointed arch-priest of Salzano in the Diocese of Treviso and in 1875 he was made Canon and Vicar-General of the Cathedral of Treviso. In 1884 he was appointed Bishop of Mantua and in 1893 Pope Leo XIII elevated him to the position of cardinal and Patriarch of Venice. When Leo XIII died in 1903 he was elected Pope and took the name Pius. As Pope Pius X he promulgated a new Code of Canon Law and a new Catechism of the Catholic Church. He condemned Modernism, promoted the use of Gregorian Chant and reformed the Roman Curia. Pope Pius X died in 1914 and was canonised by Pope Pius XII in 1954.

O God, who to safeguard the Catholic faith and to restore all things in Christ filled the Supreme Pontiff Saint Pius with heavenly wisdom and apostolic fortitude, grant in your mercy that by striving to fulfil his ordinances and to follow his example, we may reap the eternal rewards. Through our Lord...

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Serapia, virgin. Under the emperor Hadrian, she was delivered to two lascivious young men, and as she could not be corrupted, nor afterwards burned with lighted torches, she was beaten with rods, and finally beheaded, by order of the judge Berillus. She died on the twenty-ninth of July and was buried by blessed Sabina in her own sepulchre near the Campus Vindicianus. But the commemoration of her martyrdom is celebrated more solemnly on this day when their common tomb was finished and adorned and dedicated as a place of prayer.

At Corinth, the birthday of St. Phoebe, mentioned by the blessed Apostle St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans.

At Aquileia, the holy virgins and martyrs Euphemia, Dorothea, Thecla and Erasma. Under Nero, after enduring many torments, they were slain with the sword, and buried by St. Hermagoras.

At Capua, the holy martyrs Aristseus, bishop, and Antoninus, a boy.

At Nicomedia, the martyrdom of St. Basillissa, virgin and martyr, in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Alexander. At the age of nine years, after having, through the power of God, overcome scourging, fire and the beasts, she gave up her soul to her Creator in prayer.

Also the holy martyrs Zeno and Chariton. The one was cast into a cauldron of melted lead, the other into a burning furnace.

At Cordova in Spain, St. Sandalus, martyr.

The same day, the birthday of the holy martyrs Aigulphus, abbot of Lerins, and the monks, his companions, who, after their tongues were cut off, and their eyes plucked out, were killed with the sword.

At Toul in France, St. Mansuetus, bishop and confessor.

At Milan, the demise of St. Auxanus, bishop.

The same day, St. Simeon Stylites, the younger.

At Rome, the raising to the Sovereign Pontificate of St. Gregory the Great, an incomparable man, who, being forced to take that burden on himself, sent forth from the more exalted throne brighter rays of sanctity upon the world.

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

Thanks be to God.

2 SEPTEMBER – SAINT STEPHEN OF HUNGARY (King and Confessor)

Stephen was born at Gran in Hungary in 975. Together with his father Géza he was baptised by Archbishop Saint Adalbert of Prague in 985 and changed his heathen name (Vaik) to Stephen. In 995 he married Gisela, a sister of the Duke of Bavaria who was to became the emperor Saint Henry II, and in 997 Stephen succeeded his father as Grand Prince of Hungary. In 1000-1001 Stephen became the first Christian King of Hungary.Stephen introduced into Hungary both the faith of Christ and the regal dignity. He obtained his royal crown from the Roman Pontiff, and having been, by his command, anointed king, offered his kingdom to the apostolic See. He built several houses of charity at Rome, Jerusalem and Constantinople, and with a wonderfully munificent spirit of religion, he founded the archiepiscopal See of Gran and ten other bishoprics. His love for the poor was equalled only by his generosity towards them. For, seeing in them Christ Himself, he never sent anyone away sad or empty handed. So great indeed was his charity that, to relieve their necessities, after expending large sums of money, he often bestowed upon them his household goods. It was his custom to wash the feet of the poor with his own hands, and to visit the hospitals at night, alone and unknown, serving the sick and showing them every charity.
 
As a reward for these good deeds his right hand remained incorrupt after death, when the rest of his body had returned to dust. He was much given to prayer and would spend al most entire nights without sleep, rapt in heavenly contemplation. At times he was seen ravished out of his senses and raised in the air. By the help of prayer he more than once escaped in a wonderful manner from treasonable conspiracies and from the attacks of powerful enemies. Having married Ghisella of Bavaria, sister of the emperor Saint Henry, he had by her a son Emeric, whom he brought up in such regularity and piety as to form him into a saint. He summoned wise and holy men from all parts to aid him in the government of his kingdom, and undertook nothing without their advice. In sack cloth and ashes, he besought God with most humble prayer, that he might not depart this life without seeing the whole kingdom of Hungary Catholic. So great indeed was his zeal for the propagation of the faith that he was called the apostle of his nation, and he received from the Roman Pontiff, both for himself and for his successors, the privilege of having the cross borne before them.

He had the most ardent devotion towards the Mother of God, in whose honour he built a magnificent church, solemnly declaring her patroness of Hungary. In return the blessed Virgin received him into Heaven on the very day of her Assumption, which the Hungarians, by the appointment of their holy king, call ‘the day of the great Lady.’ His sacred body, exhaling a most fragrant odour and distilling a heavenly liqueur, was, by order of the Roman Pontiff, translated, amidst many and divers miracles, to a more worthy resting-place, and buried with greater honour. Pope Innocent XI commanded his feast to be celebrated on the fourth of the Nones of September, on which day, Leopold I, emperor elect of the Romans and king of Hungary, had, by the divine assistance, gained a remarkable victory over the Turks at the siege of Buda.
 
Dom Prosper Gueranger:

“Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness” (Judges xiv. 14). The people with teeth of steel, grinding the nations, gives itself up as food to him, to whom was said: ‘Kill and eat’ (Saint Peter, in the vision at Joppe, which signified the assimilation of the Gentiles by the Church.) the mouth of the Huns, formerly vomiting foam and rage, now distils the honey of charity. Such, O Christ, are your miracles. Such are your works, O our God.” Thus does Baronius, on reaching in his history the year of Christ 1000, hail the arrival of the Hungarian deputies who came to offer to the Roman Church the suzerainty of their land, and beseech the Vicar of Christ to confer the title of king upon their duke Stephen. We are carried back in thought a century earlier when, led by Arpadus, the son of Almutz, under the banner of the hawk, the Magyars came down from the mountains of Transylvania into the plains watered by the Theiss and the Danube. Attila seemed to live again in those sons of his race, who poured like a torrent over Germany, Gaul and Italy.

But the empire of the Huns over reconquered Pannonia was to be lasting only on condition of its ceasing to be the scourge of God, and becoming the rampart of His Church. In this world, while it is not yet time for eternal justice, the instruments of God’s anger are soon broken unless they are amenable to love. Five centuries earlier, Attila in person was rushing like an overflowing river upon the capital of the world when he was met by the sovereign Pontiff. The Hungarian chronicles record the following message as having been then received from heaven by the universal devastator: ‘Hearken to the command of the Lord God Jesus Christ. Your pride will not be suffered to enter into the holy city where lie the bodies of My apostles. Return. Later on a descendant of yours will come to Rome with humility, and I will cause him there to receive a crown that will last forever.’ Attila thereupon recrossed the Alp and had only just time to reach the Danube before he died. In the days of Saint Stephen the heavenly promise was fulfilled.

Let the reader not be astonished that we do not discuss its authenticity. Legendary or not, as to the forms with which national traditions have clothed it, there is nothing in this divine engagement which the historian need reject. It is in accordance with the rules of God’s Providence which governs history. God never forgets a service, nor does apostolic gratefulness wear out with years: the debt of gratitude which Leo the Great contracted, Sylvester II paid at the appointed time. From that tomb respected by the plunderer, a virtue came forth, changing the avenger into an apostle. The crown, placed on the brow of Attila’s successor by Peter’s successor, was destined to be his as long as he should be preceded by the cross, that other mark of honour conferred upon him. Like the Holy Empire, to which Hungary was to be later on united without however being absorbed by it, the Hungarian monarchy was founded upon Peter. For his sake it subsisted, and he alone, under God, was the safeguard of its future.

Let not the sad forebodings of the present hour make us forget the marvellous power shown on this feast by the Lamb the Ruler of the Earth (Isaias xvi. 1). Scarcely had the blood shed by the sons of Arpadus disappeared from the streets of the cities, scarcely had the smoke of burning ruins and the dust of crumbling walls been scattered, when their fierce energy, tempered like a choice blade in the waters of the sacred font, became the defence of Christianity in the east. A new sort of invasion began. The holiness sprung from Stephen put forth numerous branches, which, shedding their beautiful blossoms over the whole Earth, filled all lands with perfumes of the Spouse.

Apostle and king, protect your people, assist the Church, succour us all. At the close of that tenth century when anarchy had penetrated even into the sanctuary, hope sprang up once more on the day on which the Holy Spirit, the Creator and Renovator, chose your race, in all its native vigour, to renew the youth of the world. Satan, who thought that the papacy was humiliated once for all, trembled with rage when he saw new labourers coming to Peter, as to the only foundation on which it is possible to build. The proudest family that had ever caused the empire of Romulus to shake, asked of Rome the right to be counted among the nations of the west. How true it is that the gates of Hell will never prevail against the Rock, against the Church founded on it, against the holy city prepared on the top of mountains to draw all nations to itself! In vain had the storm stirred up the very mire of the torrents of the abyss: it was the hour when God lifted up His hand, as the prophet says, towards the far-off lands, and kings came bringing to the ever holy bride those unknown sons whom they themselves had educated for her (Isaias xlix. 12‒23). No, the Lord confounds not them that wait for Him. And therefore we will hope, even against hope, in the future of the noble nation established by you upon the apostolic strength. A people justly proud of so many irreproachable heroes could not allow itself to be long led astray by a false liberty kept up by Jewish gold, and extolled by all the enemies of the country’s traditions. Martin watches together with you over the land of his birth, and the sovereign of Hungary, the august Queen of Heaven, will not suffer her loyal subjects to listen to the proposals of the infernal spirit.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
 
At Rome, the holy martyr Maxima, who confessed Christ with St. Ansanus in the persecution of Diocletian and yielded up her soul while she was beaten with rods.
 
At Pamiers in France, St. Antoninus, martyr, whose relics are kept with great veneration in the church of Palencia.
 
Also the holy martyrs Diomedes, Julian, Philip, Euthychian, Hesychius, Leonides, Philadelphus, Menalippus and Pantagapas. They consummated their martyrdom, some by fire, some by water, others by the sword or by the cross.
 
At Nicomedia, the holy martyr Zeno, and his sons Concordius and Theodore.

The same day, the martyrdom of the Saints Evodius and Hermogenes, brothers, and Callista, their sister.
 
At Lyons in France, St. Justus, bishop and confessor, who was endowed with extraordinary sanctity and a prophetic spirit. He resigned his bishopric and retired into a desert of Egypt with his lector Viator. When he had for some years led an almost angelical life, and the end of his meritorious labours had come, he went to Our Lord to receive the crown of justice on the fourteenth day of October. His holy body, together with the relics of his blessed lector Viator, was afterwards taken to Lyons on this day.
 
In the same city, St. Elpidius, bishop and confessor.
 
In the Marches of Ancona, another St. Elpidius, an abbot. A town bearing his name glories in the possession of his sacred body.
 
On Mount Soractes, the abbot St. Nonnosus who by his prayers removed a rock of huge dimensions, and was renowned for other miracles.
 
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
 
Thanks be to God.

1 SEPTEMBER – SAINT GILES (Abbot and Confessor)

Giles (Aedigius) was born in Athens in the middle of the seventh century to an illustrious family. From his childhood Giles applied himself applied himself so earnestly to the study of divine things and to works of charity, that he seemed to care for nothing else. On the death of his parents he he distributed his whole fortune among the poor, even stripping himself of his own garment in order to clothe a poor sick man, who was cured as soon as he put it on. Many other miracles soon made his name so famous, that for fear of renown he fled to Saint Caesarius at Arles. After two years Giles departed from there and retired into a desert where he lived a life of holiness, his only food being the roots of herbs and the milk of a hind who came to him at fixed times. One day the hind being pursued by the royal huntsmen took refuge in his cave. Upon this discovery of the holy man, the king of France begged Giles to allow a monastery to be built on the site of the cave. At the king’s desire he was obliged, against his will, to undertake the government of this monastery. After having for several years discharged that office with much piety and prudence he passed away to Heaven.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“A simple and upright man, and fearing God, and avoiding evil” (Job xiv. 14): such is the description of the just man in the lessons of the night Office for the time, and it is the portrait of the holy monk whom the Church offers us today for our admiration, our imitation, and our devotion. Fleeing from men in order to find God, he quitted his native land where his rank, and still more his virtues, prevented him from being unknown. He wandered from the coasts of Greece to the borders of the Rhone, and stopped at length in the forests of Septimania, where he seemed to have found his desired solitude. There for three years he dwelt in a cave hidden among the brambles, spending his time in giving thanks to God and praying for the salvation of the people. He lived on herbs and water until our Lord sent him a hind to nourish him with her milk. But his little friend was soon to betray him. One day, hard pressed by the hounds, she fled in terror to the saint, followed by the royal huntsmen. Safe with her protector her fears were calmed, but an arrow aimed at her pierced Saint Giles’s hand, which was never afterwards healed, for he refused to have it dressed, in order that he might hear the pain of it for the rest of his life.

But a greater trial awaited him: his retreat having been thus discovered, a monastery soon rose upon the spot, and he was forced to become its abbot. Moreover he worked so many miracles that crowds came to see him. Farewell to the silence and oblivion of his beloved forest! After the death of the servant of God, the place became more and more frequented. From north and east and south pilgrims poured in, to offer up their prayers and fulfil their vows at the tomb of one who soon became known as one of the most helpful saints in Heaven.

[Saint Giles is the only confessor in the group of fourteen saints known as helpers, whose names are given in ancient missals in the following order: George, Blase, Erasmus, Pantaleon, Vitus, Christopher, Giles, Achatus or Acathius, Denis, Cyriacus, Eustace, Catherine, Margaret, and Barbara. He was even reckoned among the five privileged saints, viz . Denis, George, Christopher, Blase, and Giles, honoured in a more special manner in certain places.]

Among the crowds came Pontiffs [Urban II, who consecrated the altar of the basilica where the holy body rested, Gelasius II, Callistus II, Innocent II. Clement IV was born at Saint Giles’s. Julius II had held the abbey in commendam] and kings [Boleslas III of Poland, and Saint Louis of France.] But the most numerous classes of visitors to the holy relics were soldiers and little children, the former equipped for the crusades, the latter borne in their mothers’ arms; all confiding in the humble, gentle monk who, at the risk of his life, calmed the terror of the poor little hind; all imploring his assistance against the fear which even the bravest may feel in the hour of battle, or the fright that disturbs the little one in his cradle. Saint Giles’s ranked as one of the three great pilgrimages of the west; the other two being Rome and Compostello.

Over the relics of the saint was raised a colossal church, which has been described as “the most perfect type of the Byzantine style when at the height of its splendour.” Around it a town of 30,000 households has sprung up, where formerly there was but a desert. The most illustrious of the powerful Counts of Toulouse gave the preference over his other titles to the one he held from this noble city; he would be known to posterity as Raymund of Saint Giles. A hundred years later, Raymund VI did penance at the threshold of the celebrated basilica for his connivance with heresy. Our saint, who had just given hospitality to Peter of Castelnau for his last resting-place, opened his gates for the reconciliation of the martyr’s presumed murderer.

We should never end, were we to enumerate the churches, parishes, abbeys, and altars consecrated to Saint Giles, in all parts of Christendom, which are so many sources of grace, and new centres for pilgrimages. Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Bavaria, Poland, rival France in this respect. England is second to no country in the world. She has 146 sanctuaries dedicated to the pious monk, and even the established church continues to honour him.

“Go to my servant... and offer for yourselves a holocaust: and my servant... shall pray for you: his face I will accept, that folly be not imputed to you” (Job lxii. 8). This word is unceasingly fulfilled, O blessed Giles, in the innumerable sanctuaries where you are honoured. Make use of your prerogatives for our benefit. Hear our prayers for the glory of Him who has crowned your humility. In return for the beautiful peace you ever preserved in your soul, you now have power over the countless troubles which disturb our miserable existence, from the cradle even to the tomb. You aid mothers to drive away from their babes the nightly phantoms raised by the enemy of the innocents. You preserve the little ones from the terrible maladies to which childhood is liable. You watch over the youth, to secure his good morals, and give him the fear of God which will make him a courageous and upright man. You make him brave and calm in the midst of dangers, whether in thunderstorms or on the field of battle. Above all, you preserve your client from the most cowardly of all fears, that of human respect; and from the saddest kind of shame, that which would withhold him from acknowledging his sins in the sacred tribunal of Penance. The cares and disappointments of middle life do not disturb the peace of him who trusts in you. Old age has no anxious future for him. He falls into his last sleep, in the bosom of God, as in infancy he fell asleep in his mother’s arms. Deign to accept us among your devout clients, and disappoint us not in our expectations.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Benevento, twelve saintly brothers, martyrs.

In Palestine, the Saints Josue and Gedeon.

At Jerusalem, blessed Anna, prophetess, whose sanctity is revealed in the Gospel.

At Capua, on the Via Aquaria, St. Priscus, martyr, who was one of the ancient disciples of Christ.

At Rheims in France, St. Sixtus, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Peter, who was consecrated by him the first bishop of that city and received the crown of martyrdom under Nero.

At Todi in Umbria, St. Terentian, bishop and martyr. Under the emperor Hadrian, he was racked, and scourged with whips set with metal by order of the proconsul Laetian, and finally, having his tongue cut out, he ended his martyrdom by undergoing capital punishment.

At Heraclea, St. Ammon, deacon, and forty holy virgins who he instructed in the faith and led with him to the glory of martyrdom under the tyrant Licinius.

In Spain, the holy martyrs Vincent and Laetus.

At Piombino in Tuscany, St. Regulus, martyr, who went there from Africa and consummated his martyrdom under Totila.

At Sens, St. Lupus, bishop and confessor, of whom it is related, that on a certain day, while he stood at the holy altar in presence of the clergy, a gem fell from heaven into the consecrated chalice he was using.

At Capua, St. Priscus, bishop. He was one of those priests who were subjected to various trials for the Catholic faith during the persecution of the Vandals. Being put in an old ship on the coast of Africa, they reached the shores of Campania, and separating, they were placed at the head of various churches, and thus greatly extended the Christian religion. The companions of Priscus were Castrensis, Tammarus, Rosius, Heraclius, Secundinus, Adjutor, Mark, Augustus, Elpidius, Canion and Vindonius.

At Aquino, St. Constantius, a bishop renowned for the gift of prophecy and many virtues.

At Le Mans, St. Victorius, bishop.

In Baden, in the diocese of Constance, St. Verena, virgin.

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

Thanks be to God.