11 OCTOBER – THE MATERNITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

This feast commemorates the dignity of the Mary as Mother of God (Theotokos), the title of Mary ratified by the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. The feast was first granted to the dioceses of Portugal and to Brasil and Algeria in 1751. In 1752 it was granted to the province of Venice, in 1778 to the kingdom of Naples and in 1807 to Tuscany.

Eighth Lesson from the Roman Breviary:

Marvel at both these things, and choose whether to marvel most at the sublime condescension of the Son, or at the sublime dignity of Mary. Either is amazing, either marvellous. That God should obey this woman, is a lowliness without parallel; that this woman should rule over God, an exaltation without match. In praise of virgins, and of virgins only, is it sung that “These are they which follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Apocalypse xiv. 4). Of what praise then think you that she must be worthy who even leads the Lamb. “O man, learn to obey. O earth, learn to submit. O dust, learn to keep down. It is of your Maker that the Evangelist said: ‘And He was subject to them.’ Blush, O proud ashes! God humbles Himself; and you exalt yourself? God is subject to men; and will you, by striving to rule over men, set yourself before your Maker?

O happy Mary, lowly and virgin; and wondrous virginity, which motherhood destroyed not, but exalted; and wondrous lowliness, which the fruitful virginity took not away, but ennobled; and wondrous motherhood, which was both virgin and lowly. Which of them is not wondrous? which of them is not unexampled, and which of them does not stand alone? The wonder would be if you were not puzzled at which to wonder most — motherhood in a virgin, or virginity in a mother; a motherhood so exalted, or lowliness in such exaltation. But indeed more marvellous than any one of these things is the combination of them all, and without all comparison, it is more excellent and more blessed to have received them all, than to have received any one of them alone. What wonder is it that God, of Whom we see and read, that “He is wonderful in His holy places” (Psalm lxvii. 36), should have shown Himself wonderful in His Mother? O you that be married, honour this incorruption in corruptible flesh; O, holy maidens, gaze in wonder at motherhood in a maid; O, all mankind, take pattern by the lowliness of the Mother of God.

O God, who willed that your Word should take flesh at the message of an angel in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, grant to us, we beseech you, that we who believe her to be indeed the Mother of God may be aided by her intercession with you. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Tarsus in Cilicia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Tharacus, Probus and Andronicus, who endured a long and painful imprisonment, during the persecution of Diocletian, and being three times subjected to diverse punishments and tortures, finally obtained a glorious triumph for the confession of Christ by having their heads struck off.

In Vexin, in the time of the governor Fescenninus, the passion of the holy martyrs Nicasiuc, bishop of
Rouen, Quirinus, priest, Scubiculus, deacon, and Pientia, virgin.

Also the martyrdom of the Saints Anastasius, priest, Placidus, Genesius, and their companions.

In Thebais, St. Sarmata, a disciple of the blessed abbot Anthony, who was put to death for Christ by the Saracens.

At Besançon in France, St. Germanus, bishop and martyr.

At Uzes in Narbonese Gaul, St. Firminus, bishop and confessor.

In Ireland, St. Kenny, abbot.

At Lier in Belgium, the departure from this life of St. Gummarus, confessor.

At Eennes, St. Æmilian, confessor.

At Tarsus in Cilicia, the holy women Zenaides and Philonilla, sisters, who were relatives of the blessed Apostle St. Paul, and his disciples in the faith.

At Verona, St. Placidia, virgin.

At Calotium, a place now in the diocese of Asti, but formerly in that of Pavia, St. Alexander Sauli, bishop and confessor, of the congregation of Barnabites, a man illustrious by birth, learning and miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

11 OCTOBER – TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Epistle – Ephesians v. 15‒21

Brethren, see how you walk circumspectly, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore, become not unwise, but understanding what is the will of God. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury: but be filled with the Holy Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord: giving thanks always for all things, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father; being subject one to another in the fear of Christ.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

As the nuptials of the Son of God approach their final completion, there will be, also, on the side of Hell, a redoubling of rage against the Bride, with a determination to destroy her. The dragon of the Apocalypse (Apocalypse xii. 9) the old serpent who seduced Eve, will vomit his vile foam, as a river, from his mouth (Apocalypse xii. 15): that is, he will urge on all the passions of man that they may league together for her ruin. But, do what he will, he can never weaken the bond of the eternal alliance. And having no power against the Church herself, he will turn his fury against the last children of the new Eve who will have the perilous honour of those final battles, which are described by the Prophet of Patmos (Apocalypse xii. 17).

It is then, more than at all previous times, that the Faithful will have to remember the injunction given to us by the Apostle in today’s Epistle: that is, they will have to comport themselves with that circumspection which he enjoins, taking every possible care to keep their understanding, no less than their heart, pure, in those evil days. Supernatural light will, in those days, not only have to stand the attacks of the children of darkness who will put forward their false doctrines. It will, moreover, be minimised and falsified by the very children of the light yielding on the question of principles. It will be endangered by the hesitations, and trimmings, and human prudence, of those who are called far-seeing men. Many will practically ignore the master-truth that the Church never can be overwhelmed by any created power. If they do remember that our Lord has promised Himself to uphold his Church even to the end of the world (Matthew xxviii. 20), they will still have the impertinence to believe that they do a great service to the good cause by making certain politically clever concessions which, if they were tried in the balance of the sanctuary, would be found under weight!

Those future worldly-wise people will quite forget that our Lord will have no need, for helping Him to keep His promise, of crooked schemes, however shrewd those may be. They will entirely overlook this most elementary consideration — that the co-operation which Jesus deigns to accept, at the hands of His servants, in the defence of the rights of His Church, never could consist in the garbling, or in the disguisement, of those grand truths which constitute the power and beauty of the Bride. Is it possible that they will forget the Apostle’s maxim which he lays down in his Epistle to the Romans — that the conforming oneself to this world — the attempting an impossible adaptation of the Gospel to a world that is un-Christianised — is not the means for proving what is the good, and acceptable, and the perfect will of God? (Romans xii. 12) So that it will be a thing of great and rare merit, in many an occurrence of those unhappy times, to merely understand what is the will of God, as our Epistle expresses it.

“Look to yourselves,” would Saint John say to those men, “that you lose not the things which you have wrought. Make yourselves sure of the full reward,” which is only given to the persevering thoroughness of doctrine and faith! (2 John 8, 9). Besides, it will be then, as in all other times, that according to the saying of the Holy Ghost, “the simplicity of the just will guide them” (Proverbs xi. 3) and far more safely than any human ingenuity could do. Humility will give them Wisdom (Proverbs xi. 2) and, keeping themselves closely united to this noble companion, they will be made truly wise by her, and will know what is acceptable to God (Wisdom ix. 10). They will understand that aspiring, like the Church herself, to union with the eternal Word — fidelity to the Spouse, for them, as it is for the Church, is nothing else than fidelity to the truth, for the Word, who is the one same object of love to both of them, is in God no other than the splendour of infinite truth (Wisdom vii. 25, 26).

Their one care, therefore, will ever be to approach nearer and nearer to their Beloved by a continually increasing resemblance to Him: that is to say, by the completest reproduction, both in their words and works, of the beautiful Truth. By so doing they will be serving their fellow creatures in the best possible way, for they will be putting in practice the counsel of Jesus, who bids them seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and confide in Him for all the rest (Matthew vi. 33). Others may have recourse to human and accommodating combinations fitted to please all parties. They may put forward dubious compromises which (so their suggestors think) will keep back for some weeks, or some months perhaps, the fierce tide of revolution. But those who have God’s spirit in them will put a very different construction on the admonition given us by the Apostle in today’s Epistle, where he tells us to redeem the time.

It was our Lord who bought time, and at a great price. And He bought it for us that it might be employed by His faithful servants in procuring glory for God. By most men it is squandered away in sin or folly, but those who are united to Christ as living members to the Spouse of their souls will redeem it. That is, they will put such an intensity into their faith and their love that, as far as it is possible for human nature, not a moment of their time will be anything but an earnest undiminished (Psalm xi. 2) tribute of their service of their Lord. To the insolent and blasphemous things which are then to be spoken by the Beast (Apocalypse xiii. 5, 6), these determined servants of God will give for their brave answer the cry of Saint Michael which he uttered against Satan who was the helper of the Beast (Apocalypse xiii. 2): “Who is like God!”

These closing weeks of the year used in old times to be called: Weeks of the holy Angel. We have seen, in one of these Sundays how there was announced the great Archangel’s coming to the aid of God’s people as Daniel the Prophet had foretold would be at the end of the world (Daniel xii. 1). When, therefore, the final tribulations will commence, when exile will scatter the Faithful and the sword will slay them (Apocalypse xiii. 7, 10) and the world will approve all that, prostrate, as it then will be, before the Beast and his image (Apocalypse xiii. 3, 4, 8, 15), let us not forget that we have a leader chosen by God and proclaimed by the Church: a leader who will marshal us during those final combats in which the defeat of the Saints (Apocalypse xiii. 7) will be more glorious than were the triumphs of the Church in the days when she ruled the world. For, what God will then ask of his servants will not be success of diplomatic arrangements, nor a victory won by arms, but fidelity to His truth, that is, to His Word: a fidelity all the more generous and perfect, as there will be an almost universal falling off around the little army fighting under the Archangel’s banner. Uttered by a single faithful heart, and under such circumstances, and uttered with the bravery of faith and the ardour of love — the cry of Saint Michael, which heretofore routed the infernal legions, will be a greater honour to God than will be the insult offered to Him by the millions of the degraded followers of the Beast.

Let us get thoroughly imbued with these thoughts which are suggested by the opening lines of our Epistle. Let us, also, master the other instructions it contains and which, after all, differ but little from the ones we have been developing. On this Sunday when, formerly, was read the Gospel of the nuptials of the Son of God and the invitation to his divine banquet, our holy Mother the Church appropriately in the Epistle bids us observe the immense difference there is between these sacred delights, and the joys of the world’s marriage feasts. The calm, the purity, the peace of the just man who is admitted into intimacy with God, are a continual feast to his soul (Proverbs xv. 16). The food served up at that feast is Wisdom (Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 29). Wisdom, too, is the beloved Guest, who is unfailingly there (Wisdom viii. 16; Apocalypse iii. 20). The world is quite welcome to its silly and often shameful pleasures. The Word and the soul which, in a mysterious way, He has filled with the Holy Spirit (Canticles i. 1) join together to sing to the eternal Father in admirable unison. They will go on, forever, with their hymns of thanksgiving and praise, for the materials of both are infinite. The hideous sight of the earth’s inhabitants who will then, by thousands, be paying homage to the harlot, who sits on the Beast and offers them the golden cup of her abominations (Apocalypse xvii. 1‒5) — no, not even that will interfere in the least with the bliss caused in Heaven by the sight of those happy souls on Earth. The convulsions of a world in its last agony, the triumphs of the woman drunk with the blood of the martyrs (Apocalypse xvii. 6) — far from breaking in on the harmony which comes from a soul which is united with the Word, they will but give greater fullness to her notes which sound forth the divine, and greater sweetness to the human music of the human song.

The Apostle tells all this in his own magnificent way where he says: “Who, then, will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation? Or distress? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or danger? Or persecution? Or the sword? True, it is written: For your sake we are put to death all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter (Psalm xliii. 22) — but in all these things we overcome because of Him that has loved us. For I am sure, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord” (Romans viii. 35‒39).

Gospel – John iv. 46‒53

At that time, there was a certain ruler whose son was sick at Capharnaum. Having heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and prayed Him to come down and heal his son for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not.” The ruler said to Him, “Lord, come down before my son dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go your way, your son lives.” The man believed the word which Jesus said to him and went his way. And as he was going down, his servants met him and they brought word, saying that his son lived. He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he grew better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father therefore knew that it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed and his whole house.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Gospel for today is taken from Saint John. It it is the first and only time during the whole course of these Sundays after Pentecost. It gives the twentieth Sunday the name of Ruler of Capharnaum. The Church has selected this Gospel on account of its bearing a certain mysterious relation to the state the world will be in when those last days will come which the Liturgy of this close of the Church’s Year is so continually and prophetically bringing before us.

The world is drawing towards its end. Like the Ruler’s son, it begins to die. Tormented by the fever of the passions which have been excited in Capharnaum, the city of business and pleasure, it is too weak to go itself to the Physician who could cure it. It is for its father, for the pastors who by baptism gave it the life of grace and govern the Christian people as rulers of holy Church. It is for them to go to Jesus and beseech Him to restore the sick man to health. Saint John begins this account (John iv. 46) by mentioning the place where they were to find Jesus: it was at Cana, the city of the marriage-feast and where He first manifested His power (John ii. 11) in the banquet hall. It is in Heaven that the Man-God abides now that he has quitted our Earth where He has left His disciples deprived of the Bridegroom (Matthew ix. 15) and having to pass a certain period of time in the field of penance.

Capharnaum signifies the field of penance and of consolation, which penance brings with it. Such was this Earth intended to be when Man was driven from Eden. Such was the consolation to which during this life the sinner was to aspire. And because of his having sought after other consolations, because of his having pretended at turning this field of penance into a new paradise, the world is now to be destroyed. Man has exchanged the life-giving delights of Eden for the pleasures which kill the soul, and ruin the body, and draw down the divine vengeance. There is a remedy for all this, and only one. It is the zeal of the pastors, and the prayers of that portion of Christ’s flock which has withstood the torrent of universal corruption. But it is of the utmost importance that, on this point, the Faithful and their Pastors should lay aside all personal considerations and thoroughly enter into the spirit which animates the Church herself. Though treated with the most revolting ingratitude, and injustice, and calumny, and treachery of every sort, this Mother of mankind forgets all these her own wrongs and thinks only of the true prosperity and salvation of the very countries which despise her. She is well aware that the time is at hand when God will make justice triumphant. and yet she goes on struggling, as Jacob did, with God (Genesis xxxii. 24‒28) until there come the dawn of that terrible day foretold by David and the Sibyl. At the thought of the pool of fire (Apocalypse xxi. 8) whose hellish vapours are already seeming to infest our atmosphere, and into which are to be plunged her rebellious children, she looks almost as though she forgot the approach of the eternal nuptials and had lost her vehement longings as a Bride. One would say that she thinks of nothing but of her being a Mother and as such she keeps on praying as she has always been doing, only more fervently than ever, that the end may be deferred, pro mora finis.

That we may fulfil her wishes, let us, as Tertullian says, “assemble together in one body that we may, so to speak, offer armed force to God by our prayers. God loves such violence as that.” But that our prayer may have power of that kind, it must be inspired by a faith which is thorough and proof against every difficulty. As it is our faith which overcomes the world (1 John iv. 5), so it is likewise our faith which triumphs over God, even in cases which seem beyond all human hope. Let us do as our Mother does, and think of the danger incurred by those countless men who madly play on the brink of the precipice into which, when they fall, they fall forever. It is quite true they are inexcusable. It was only last Sunday that they were reminded of the weeping and gnashing of teeth, in the exterior darkness, which they will undergo who despise the call to the King's marriage-feast (Matthew xxii. 13), but they are our brethren, and we should not be so quietly resigned at seeing them lose their souls. Let us hope against all hope. Our Lord who knew with certainty that obstinate sinners would be lost — did He, on that account, hesitate to shed all His Blood for them?

It is our ambition to unite ourselves to Him by the closest possible resemblance. Let us, then, be resolved to imitate in that also, were occasion to serve us. At all events, let us pray, and without ceasing, for the Church’s and our enemies, so long as we are not assured of their being lost. It is here that nothing is useless, nothing is thrown away, for come what may, God is greatly honoured by our faith and by the earnestness of our charity. Only let us be careful not to merit the reproach uttered by our Redeemer against the limping (Hebrews xii. 13) faith of the fellow townsmen of the Ruler of Capharnaum. We know that our Jesus has no need to come down from Heaven to Earth in order to give efficiency to the commands of His gracious will. If He deign to multiply signs and wonders around us, we will rejoice at them because of our brethren who are weak of faith, we will make them an occasion for exalting His Holy Name — but we will lovingly assure Him that our soul had no need of new proofs of His power in order to believe in Him.

10 OCTOBER – SAINT FRANCIS BORGIA (Confessor)

 

Francis was born in Valencia, Spain, in 1510 to Juan Borgia, who was the third Duke of Gandía and the son of Giovanni Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia). His mother was Juana, the daughter of Alonso de Aragón, Archbishop of Saragossa, who was the illegitimate son of King Ferdinand II of Aragon. He passed his childhood in his father’s house in innocence and piety, but appeared still more admirable when he showed himself a pattern of Christian virtue and austerity, first at the court of Emperor Charles V and afterwards as viceroy of Catalonia. He was charged to convey the body of the Empress Isabella to her tomb at Granada. Seeing the horrible change in her features, he understood how fleeting are all earthly things and vowed to renounce everything as soon as possible and devote himself to the service of the King of kings. From that day forward he made such progress in virtue that in the midst of overwhelming occupations his life was a faithful copy of religious perfection, so that he was called the miracle of princes.

Francis married Eleonora de Castro and had five children. On her death he entered the Society of Jesus so that he be more hidden. Many princes followed him in embracing a severe way of life. Charles V himself acknowledged that his advice and example had led him to abdicate the throne. Francis devoted himself to the exercises of a penitential life and macerated his body by fasting, iron chains, a rough hair-shirt and long and bloody disciplines. He allowed himself very little sleep. He spared no effort to gain souls. Saint Ignatius appointed him Commissioner General for Spain and soon afterwards, against his will, he was elected third General of the Order. In this position his prudence and holiness endeared him to Popes and also temporal rulers. He founded and enlarged many houses of his Order and introduced the Order into Poland, the islands of the Atlantic, Mexico and Peru. He sent apostles into other regions to spread the Catholic faith by their peaching and labours and their blood.

Francis had a low opinion of himself. He always called himself a sinner. This humility led him to persistently refuse the office of bishop. Filled with contempt for the world and himself, he delighted in sweeping away dirt, begging from door to door and serving the sick in hospitals. He devoted many hours every day to heavenly contemplation, spending 8-10 hours praying, and genuflecting in adoration a hundred times in the day. He never omitted to say Mass. While offering the divine Victim or preaching, the heavenly ardour which consumed him was manifested in the radiance of his countenance. He knew by heavenly instinct where the most holy Body of Christ, hidden in the Eucharist, was kept. Pope Saint Pius V appointed Francis companion to Cardinal Alessandrino, in an embassy for uniting the Christian princes against the Turks.

Francis died in Ferrara in 1572 while travelling on an embassy from Pope Saint Pius V to the kings of France and Spain. He was canonised by Pope Clement X in 1670 and his relics were translated to Madrid, Spain, in 1901.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“Vanity of vanities and all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes i. 2) No argument was needed to impress this truth upon the Saint of today when the coffin was opened which contained all that Spain had admired of faith and loveliness, and death suddenly revealed to its awful reality. O ye beauties of all times, death alone never dies. It invites itself to your dances and pleasures, it assists at all your triumphs, it hears promises said to be eternal: and how quickly it can scatter your adorers! A few years, a few days, perhaps even less, and all your borrowed sweetness will be decaying in the tomb!

“Enough of vain phantoms, enough of serving mortal kings. Awaken, O my soul!” Such was Francis Borgia’s reply to the teachings of death. The friend of Charles V, the great lord unequalled for nobility, fortune and brilliant qualities, quitted the court as soon as possible. Ignatius, the soldier of the siege of Pampeluna, beheld at his feet the viceroy of Catalonia, begging to be protected against the honours which pursued him even under the poor habit of a Jesuit, which was now his glory.

O LORD Lord Jesus Christ, the pattern and reward of true humility, we beseech you, that as you made blessed Francis a glorious follower of you in the contempt of worldly honour, so you would grant us to be partakers of the same imitation and glory.” Such is the prayer the Church offers through you to her divine Spouse. She knows that the Saints always have great power with God, but especially when they would obtain for their devout clients the virtues they themselves more particularly cultivated when on Earth. How precious is this prerogative in thy case, O Francis, for it concerns the virtue which attracts God’s grace in this life, and wins such glory hereafter! Since pride has hurled Lucifer into the abyss and the self-abasement of the Son of God has led to His exaltation above the heavens, humility, whatever men may now say, has lost nothing of its inestimable value. It is still the indispensable foundation of every durable edifice, whether spiritual or social: the basis without which the other virtues, and even charity the Queen of them all, could not subsist a single day. Therefore, O Francis, obtain for us this humility. Thoroughly convince us of the vanity of this world’s honours and false pleasures. May the holy Society, which you after Saint Ignatius rendered still more valuable to the Church, cherish this spirit of yours so that it may deserve more and more the esteem of Heaven and the gratitude of Earth.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

On the island of Crete, blessed Pinytus, most noble among the bishops. He was bishop of Gnosia, and flourished under Marcus Antoninus Verus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus. He left in his writings, as in a mirror, a vivid delineation of himself.

At Cologne, in the persecution of Maximian, St. Gereon, martyr, with three hundred and eighteen others who patiently bowed their necks to the sword for the true religion.

In the neighbourhood of the same city, the holy martyrs Victor and his companions.

At Bonn in Germany, the holy martyrs Cassius and Florentius, with many others.

At Nicomedia, the holy martyrs Eulampius, and his sister, the virgin Eulampia, who, hearing that her brother was tortured for Christ, rushed through the crowd, embraced him and became his companion. Both were cast into a cauldron of boiling oil, but being quite uninjured, they terminated their martyrdom by decapitation with two hundred others, who, impressed by the miracle, had believed in Christ.

At York in England, the holy bishop Paulinus, a disciple of Pope St. Gregory. Being sent there by that pope with others to preach the Gospel, he converted king Edwin and his people to the faith of Christ.

At Piombino in Tuscany, St. Cerbonius, bishop and confessor, who, as Pope St. Gregory related, was renowned for miracles, both during life and after death.

At Verona, another St. Cerbonius, bishop.

At Capua, St. Paulinus, bishop.

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

Thanks be to God.

9 OCTOBER – SAINT JOHN LEONARD (Confessor)

Giovanni Leonardi was born in Lucca, Tuscany, in 1541 and was ordained as a priest in 1572. In 1574 he founded the Congregation of the Regular Clergy of the Mother of God and worked to spread devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, frequent reception of the Holy Eucharist and the devotion of the Forty Hours. In Rome he met Saint Philip Neri who entrusted him with the task of reforming the Benedictine Congregation of Montevergine. John co-founded the great Roman College of Propaganda Fide. He died in Rome in 1609, was beatified by Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1861 and was canonised by Pope Pius XI in 1938.

O God, who for the propagation of the faith among the nations was pleased in a wondrous manner to raise up blessed John your confessor, and through him gathered together in your Church a new family for the instruction of the faithful, grant to us your servants that we may so profit by his teaching as to attain everlasting rewards. Through our Lord...

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Paris, the birthday of the holy martyrs Denis the Areopagite, bishop, Rusticus, priest, and Eleutherius, deacon. Denis was baptised by the blessed Apostle St. Paul, and consecrated first bishop of Athens. Then going to Rome, he was sent to Gaul by Pope St. Clement to preach the Gospel. He proceeded to Paris, and after having for some years faithfully filled the office entrusted to him, he was subjected to the severest kinds of torments by the prefect Fescenninus, and at length, being beheaded with his companions, completed his martyrdom.

The same day, the commemoration of the holy patriarch Abraham, father of all believers.

At Julia (now Borgo-San-Donnino) near Parma, on the Via Claudia, St. Domninus, martyr, under the emperor Maximian. As he was trying to escape the raging persecution, he was overtaken by his pursuers, and being transpierced with a sword, died gloriously.

At Cassino, St. Deusdedit, abbot, who was cast into prison by the tyrant Sicardus, and being there consumed with hunger and misery, yielded up his soul.

In Hainaut, St. Gislenus, bishop and confessor, who, resigning his See, led the monastical life in a monastery built by himself and was distinguished by many virtues.

At Valencia in Spain, St. Louis Bertrand, of the Order of Preachers, who, being filled with the apostolic spirit, confirmed, by the innocence of his life and the working of many miracles, the Gospel which he had preached in America.

At Jerusalem, the Saints Andronicus, and Athanasia, his wife.

At Antioch, St. Publia, abbess, who, while Julian the Apostate was passing by, sang with her religious these words of David: “The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold” and “Let them that make them, become like unto them.” By the command of the emperor she was struck on the face and severely rebuked.

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

Thanks be to God.

8 OCTOBER – SAINT SIMEON THE JUST (Prophet)

Gospel – Luke ii. 25–35

Behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was in him. And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when his parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, He also took him into his arms, and blessed God, and said: “Now dismiss your servant, O Lord, according to your word in peace: because my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples: A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” And his father and mother were wondering at those things which were spoken concerning him. And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother: “Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be contradicted. And your own soul a sword will pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Saint Adamnan and Saint Gregory of Tours said that holy Simeon was buried on Mount Olivet. In the sixth century his relics were translated to Constantinople by Justin the Younger. Since the thirteenth century the body of the holy prophet has rested in a great silver ark in the Church of Saint Simeon in Zadar, Croatia (formerly Zara):

“After various vicissitudes and removals this magnificent piece of silversmith's work, the largest it is said, in the churches of the Austrian Empire, is now to be seen above and behind the high altar, supported by two bronze angels, and reached by a narrow flight of stairs from each side, so that the faithful who come to adore the saint may ascend on one side to see the relic and kiss the shrine, and descend on the other.

This they may be seen doing all day long, but on the feast of St. Simeon, October 8th, they come in enormous numbers, and each pilgrim receives a bombace, or little tuft of cotton-wool in a paper envelope, which has been shut up in the ark and has thereby imbibed virtues which are miraculous in cases of toothache or earache or other minor ills to which cotton wool is applicable... For three months beforehand the business of making these bombaci goes on...

 

Either in 1213 or 1273 a ship was driven to Zara by a tempest, having on board a nobleman who during his stay deposited in the cemetery the body as he said of his brother, which he was taking home for burial. The nobleman however died at Zara, and from his papers it was discovered that the body was none other than that of Simeon the Just, who had held Christ in his arms in the Temple. Dreams and portents were not long wanting to confirm the discovery, and the body was taken to the collegiate Church of Sainta Maria, where, by the expulsion of devils from demoniacs and other satisfactory miracles of the same kind, it sufficiently asserted its sanctity. In 1371 Louis the Great of Hungary with the elder and younger Elizabeth, his mother and wife, visited Zara after his conquest of Dalmatia. The younger queen, so says the legend, was so desirous of possessing a piece of the relic that she broke off a finger and hid it in her bosom, but she instantly lost her senses and only recovered them on restitution of her theft. The finger miraculously attached itself to the body, and the bosom of the queen which had begun to mortify and breed worms was no less miraculously healed. After this we at last touch historical ground. Elizabeth wrote to certain nobles of Zara to have a rich ark of silver made to contain the relic: they entrusted the work to one Francesco d’Antonio di Milano, a goldsmith of Zara, with whom they entered into a contract in 1377, and the ark was finished in 1380, as we know by the inscription on the back, in which Francesco di Milano has recorded his own name as the artificer. The ark is an oblong coffer with a coped roof and a gable at each end, and is long enough to contain a human body at full length... Both within and without the whole ark is covered with silver plates, embossed with figure subjects, and chased with diapers and ornamental borders. The effigy of Simeon lies on the slope of the roof towards the church, and the rest of the surface is occupied with various scenes of the arrival of the relic at Zara, and of the miracles it performed there, the only historical subject being the Presentation in the temple which occupies the central panel of the front” (Thomas Jackson, Dalmatia, the Quarnero and Istria, 1887).

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Caesarea in Palestine, in the reign of Decius, St. Reparata, virgin and martyr, who, refusing to sacrifice to idols, was subjected to various kinds of torments and finally struck with the sword. Her soul was seen to leave her body in the shape of a dove and ascend to heaven.

At Thessalonica, St. Demetrius, a proconsul, who, for having brought many to the faith of Christ, was pierced with spears by order of the emperor Maximian, and thus ended his martyrdom.

In the same place, St. Nestor, martyr.

At Seville in Spain, St. Peter, martyr.

At Laodicea, in the time of Diocletian, St. Artemon, a priest, who gained the crown of martyrdom by fire.

In the diocese of Laon, St. Benedicta, virgin and martyr.

At Ancona, Saints Palatias and Laurentia, who were sent into exile in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Dion, and sank under the weight of toil and misery.

At Rouen, St. Evodius, bishop and confessor.

At Jerusalem, St. Pelagia, surnamed the Penitent.

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

Thanks be to God.

8 OCTOBER – SAINT BRIDGET OF SWEDEN (Widow)

Bridget (Birgitta) was born in Sweden in 1303 to the pious knight Birger Persson and his wife Ingeborg who was related to Swedish royalty. While she was yet unborn, her mother was saved from shipwreck for her sake. At the age of 10 Bridget heard a sermon on the Passion of our Lord, and the next night she saw Jesus on the Cross, covered with fresh blood and speaking to her about His Passion. From then on meditation on that subject affected her so much that she could never think of His sufferings without tears.

At the age of 13, Bridget married Prince Ulfo Gudmarsson of Nericia and bore four sons and four daughters, including a girl who was to become Saint Catherine of Sweden. She won him by the example and persuasion, to a life of piety. She then devoted herself with maternal love to the education of her children. Bridget was most zealous in serving the poor, especially the sick. She set apart a house for their reception and there she would often wash and kiss their feet. Together with Ulfo, she went on pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella to visit the tomb of the Apostle Saint James. On the return journey Ulfo became seriously ill at Arras, but Saint Dionysius appeared to Bridget at night and foretold her the restoration of her husband’s health and other future events.

Ulfo became a Cistercian monk but died soon afterwards. Bridget then having heard the voice of Christ calling her in a dream, she embraced a more austere way of life and entered the Third Order of Saint Francis. Bridget was blessed by God with celestial visions and revelations. She founded the Order of the Most Holy Saviour (the “Bridgetines”) and the monastery of Vadstena on the banks of Lake Wetten. At our Lord’s command she went to Rome where she kindled the love of God in the hearts of many people. She also made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem but on her return to Rome suffered a fever and died on the 23rd of July 1373. She was canonised in 1393 by Pope Boniface IX and her feast is kept on the anniversary of the translation of her relics to Sweden. Saint Bridget is the patroness of Sweden and widows.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“Who, O Lord, has treated you thus?” “They that despise me and forget my love.” This was the first revelation of the Son of God to Bridget of Sweden. Francis of Assisi, raising before the world the standard of the Cross, had announced that Christ was about to recommence the Dolorous Way: not now in His own Person, but in the Church, who is flesh of His flesh. The truth of this declaration Bridget experienced from the very opening of that fatal fourteenth century during which such innumerable disasters, the results of crime, fell at once upon the West.

Born in the year when Sciarra Colonna, a new Pilate’s servant, dared to strike the Vicar of Christ, Bridget's childhood was contemporaneous with those sad falls which caused the Church to be despised by her enemies. There were no Saints in Christendom comparable to the great ones of old. In the preceding age the Latin races had exhausted their vitality in producing flowers, but where were the promised fruits? Ancient Europe had nothing but affronts for the Word of God. This feast, this apparition of Jesus in cold Scandinavia, seems to point to His flight from the habitual centre of His predilection. Bridget was ten years old, when the Man of Sorrows sought a resting-place in her heart: and at that very time the death of Clement V and the election of John XXII in a foreign land fixed the Papacy in its seventy years’ exile.

Rome meanwhile, widowed of her Pontiff, appeared the most miserable of cities: “The ways of Sion mourn, because there are none that come to the solemn feast.” Sacked by her own sons, she was daily losing some remnant of her ancient glory. Her public roads were scenes of bloodshed. Solitude reigned amid the ruins of her crumbling basilicas. Sheep grazed in Saint Peter’s and the Lateran. From the Seven Hills anarchy had spread throughout Italy, transforming the towns into haunts of brigands, and the country parts into deserts. France was doomed to expiate, in the horrors of a hundred years’ war, the captivity of the Sovereign Pontiff.

Unfortunately, the captivity was loved. The Court of Avignon did not mourn like the Hebrews by the rivers of Babylon. Richer in gold than in virtues, it were well, had they not, for a long time, shaken the influence of the Holy See over the nations. The German Empire and Louis of Bavaria could easily refuse obedience to the ward of the Valois. The Fratricelli accused the Pope of heresy while, countenanced by the doctors of the law, Marsillus of Padua attacked the very principle of the Papacy. Benedict XII, discouraged by the troubles in Italy, abandoned his design of returning to Rome and built upon the rook of Doms the famous castle, at once fortress and palace, which seemed to fix the residence of the Popes forever on the banks of the Rhone.

The misery of Rome and the splendour of Avignon reached their height under Clement VI who entered into a contract with Jane of Naples, Countess of Provence, securing to the Church the definitive possession of Avignon. At that time the Papal court surpassed all others in luxury and worldliness. God in His justice visited the nations with the scourge of the Black Death, while in His mercy He sent warnings from Heaven to Pope Clement: “Arise. Make peace between the kings of France and England, and go into Italy to preach the year of salvation, and to visit the places watered by the blood of Saints. Consider how, in the past, you have provoked my anger, doing your own will and not your duty. And I have held my peace. But now my time is at hand. If you will not obey, I will require of you an account of the unworthiness with which you have passed through all the degrees by which I permitted you to be exalted in glory. You will be answerable for all the avarice and ambition that have been rife in the Church in thy days. You could have done much towards a reformation, but being carnal-minded you would not. Repair the past by zeal during the rest of your life. Had not my patience preserved you, you would have fallen lower than any of your predecessors. Question your conscience, and you will see that I speak the truth.”

The severe message dictated by the Son of God to the prophetess Bridget of Sweden came from that Northern land where sanctity seemed to have taken refuge during the past half century. Though incurring such reproaches, the Pope still had great faith, and he accordingly received with generous courtesy the messengers from the Princess of Nericia. But though he promulgated the celebrated Jubilee of the half-century, Clement VI allowed the holy year to pass away without going himself to prostrate at the tombs of the Apostles, to which he convoked the entire world. The patience of God was at an end. The judgement of that soul was revealed to Bridget. She saw its terrible chastisement, which however was not eternal and was tempered by hope.

Hitherto wholly engaged with the supernatural interests of her own country, Bridget suddenly found her mission embrace the whole world. In vain, by her prayers to God, by her warnings to princes, had the Saint striven to avert from Sweden the trials that were to end in the union of Calmar. Neither Magnus II nor his consort Blanche of Dampierre took to heart the menaces of their noble relative: “I saw the sun and the moon shining together in the heavens until both having giving their power to the dragon, the sky grew pale, reptiles filled the earth, the sun sank into the abyss, and the moon disappeared, leaving no trace behind.”

The criminal coldness of the South had been the occasion of grace for the North. But the latter in its turn did not profit by the time of its visitation and Bridget quitted it forever. She herself was a city of refuge to our Lord. Taking up her abode in Rome, she there, by her holiness, prepared the way for the return of Christ’s Vicar. There for twenty years she, as it were, personified the Eternal City, enduring all its bitter sufferings, knowing all its moral miseries, presenting its tears and prayers to our Lord, continually visiting the tombs of Apostles and martyrs throughout the peninsula, and at the same time never ceasing to transmit to Pontiffs and Kings the messages dictated to her by God.

At length the horizon appeared to be brightening: while the just and inflexible Innocent VI reformed the Papal court, Albornoz was restoring peace in Italy. In 1367 Bridget had the great joy of receiving in the Vatican the blessing of Urban V. Unhappily, in three short years Urban quitted the threshold of the Apostles to return to his native land, but as Bridget foretold, he re-entered Avignon only to die. He was succeeded by the nephew of Clement VI, Roger de Beaufort under the name of Gregory XI who was destined to put an end to the exile and break the chains of the Roman Pontiffs.

But Bridget’s hour had come. Another was to reap in joy what she had sown in tears. Catherine of Siena was to bring back to the Holy City the Vicar of Our Lord. As to the valiant Scandinavian who had never lost courage nor faltered in faith through the failures of her missions, she was inspired by her divine Spouse to visit the holy places, the scenes of His Passion. It was on her return from this last pilgrimage that, far from her native land, in that desolate Rome whose widowhood she had striven in vain to terminate, she was called to her heavenly reward. Her body was carried back to Scandinavia by her daughter Saint Catherine of Sweden. It was laid in the yet unfinished monastery of Vadstena, mother-house of that projected Order of our Saviour, the foundation of which, like all the undertakings imposed by God on Bridget, was not to be completed until after her death. Twenty-five years before she had received almost simultaneously the command to found, and the command to quit, this holy retreat, as though our Lord would give her a glimpse of its blessed peace only to crucify her the more in the very different path into which He immediately led her. Such is God’s severity towards His dear ones, and such His sovereign independence with regard to His gifts. In the same manner He had allowed the Saint, in her early years, to be attracted by the beautiful lily of virginity, and had then signified His Will that the flower should not be hers. “When I cry,” said the Prophet, in a captivity figurative of that of which Bridget felt all the bitterness, “when I cry and entreat, he has shut out my prayer. He has shut up my ways with square stones, he has turned my paths upside down.”

Let us call to mind that St. Bridget died on the 23rd of July 1373. The 8th October is the anniversary of the first Mass celebrated in her honour by Pope Boniface IX on the day following her canonisation. Martin V confirmed the Acta of Boniface IX in her honour and approved her Revelations which had been violently attacked in the Councils of Constance and Basle, only to come forth with a higher recommendation to the piety of the faithful. Many indulgences are attached to the Rosary which bears the Saint’s name. These are now, by the favour of the Apostolic See, frequently applied to ordinary Rosaries. But it must be remembered that the true Rosary of Saint Bridget is composed of the Ave Maria recited sixty-three times, the Pater Noster seven times, and the Credo seven times, in honour of the supposed number of our Lady’s years on Earth, and of her joys and sorrows. It was also from a desire of honouring our Lady that the Saint vested in the Abbess the superiority over the double monasteries in the Order of our Saviour.

* * * * *

O valiant woman, support of the Church in most unhappy times, may you now be blessed by all nations! When the Earth, grown poor in virtue, no longer paid its debts to the Lord, you were the treasure discovered and brought from the uttermost coasts to supply for the indigence of many. You earned the good will of Heaven for the until then despised North. Then the Holy Spirit was moved by the prayers of Apostles and Martyrs to lead you to the land which their blood had not sufficed to render fruitful for the Spouse. You appeared as the merchant ship bringing bread from afar to countries wasted and barren. At your voice Rome took heart again. After your example she expiated the faults which had wrought her ruin. Your prayers and hers won back to her the heart of her Spouse and of His Vicar.

Your own portion was one of suffering and labour. When to the joy of all your work was consummated, you had already quitted this world. You resembled the heroes of the Old Testament, saluting from afar the promises that others were to see fulfilled, and acknowledging themselves to be strangers and pilgrims on the Earth. Like them you sought not the fatherland you had abandoned and to which you could have returned, but the only true home which is Heaven. Moreover, God made it a glory to be called your God.

From the eternal city where your exile is at an end, preserve in us the fruit of your example and teachings. Your Order of our Saviour perpetuates them in the countries where it still exists though so much diminished. May it revive at Vadstena in its primitive splendour! By it and its rivals in holiness, bring back Scandinavia to the faith, now so unhappily lost, of its apostle Anscharius, and of Eric and Olaf its martyr kings. Lastly, protect Rome whose interests were so specifically confided to you by our Lord. May she never again experience the terrible trial which cost you a lifetime of labour and suffering.

7 OCTOBER – SAINT MARK (Pope and Confessor)

Mark, a native of Rome, was the son of Priscus. Mark succeeded Pope Saint Silvester as Bishop of Rome on 18 January 336 AD.

During his short pontificate of eight months he founded the Basilica of San Marco Evangelista al Campidoglio (Titulus Pallacinae) at the Capitol, and dedicated it to his namesake, the Apostle and Evangelist, Saint Mark. He also founded the Basilica of Saint Balbina, erected over the cemetery of that saint. Pope Mark died on 7 October 336 and was buried in the Catacombs of Saint Balbina. Many centuries later his relics were translated to the Basilica of San Marco.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Mark, successor to Sylvester, the Pontiff of peace, has been honoured on this day from time immemorial. According to the testimony of Saint Damasus, his virtues no less than his name recalled Saint Mark the Evangelist. He occupied the supreme See only eight months but in that short time he followed up the recent triumph of the Church by wise organisations. He built two new sanctuaries in Rome. He gave the Pallium, of which this is the first mention in history, to the Bishop of Ostia, to enhance his high privilege of being the appointed consecrator of the Roman Pontiffs.

This Pontificate witnessed the awful death of Arius. Constantine had been deceived into ordering the re-instatement of this wicked man who taught that the Word Incarnate was a mere creature. The heresiarch, followed by his partisans, was proceeding in triumph through the streets of Constantinople intending to force open the doors of the Basilica where the faithful, with their Bishop St. Alexander, were beseeching God with fasting and tears, to avert the profanation. Suddenly, seized with an ignominious trembling, Arius was obliged to retire to a secret place, where his flatterers soon afterwards found him stretched on the floor with his bowels cast out. He had merited the death of a Judas for having delivered up the Son of God to the disputes of the people, to the mockeries of the proud, to the contradictions of the Praetorium.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In the province of the Euphrates, the holy martyrs Sergius and Bacchus, noble Romans, in the time of the emperor Maximian. Bacchus, being scourged with rough whips until his body was completely mangled, breathed his last in the confession of Christ. Sergius had his feet forced into shoes full of sharp-pointed nails, and, remaining unshaken in the faith, he was sentenced to undergo capital punishment. The place where he reposes is called after him Sergiopolis, and, on account of the signal miracles wrought in it, is honoured by a great concourse of Christians.

At Rome, the holy martyrs Marcellus and Apuleius, who at first followed Simon Magus, but seeing the wonders which the Lord performed by the blessed Apostle St. Peter, abandoned Simon and embraced the apostolic doctrine. After the death of the Apostles, under the ex-consul Aurelian, they won the crown of martyrdom and were buried near the city.

Also in the province of the Euphrates, St. Julia, virgin, who endured martyrdom under the governor Marcian.

At Padua, St. Justina, virgin and martyr, who was baptised by the blessed Prosdocimus, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Peter. As she remained firm in the faith of Christ, she was put to the sword by order of the governor Maximus and thus went to God.

At Bourges, St. Augustus, priest and confessor.

In the diocese of Rheims, St. Helanus, priest.

In Sweden, the translation of the body of St. Bridget, widow.

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

Thanks be to God.

7 OCTOBER – OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY

The Battle of Lepanto, 7th October 1571

 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

It is customary with men of the world to balance their accounts at the end of the year, and ascertain their profits. The Church is now preparing to do the same. We will soon see her solemnly numbering her elect, taking an inventory of their holy relics, visiting the tombs of those who sleep in the Lord, and counting the sanctuaries, both old and new, that have been consecrated to her divine Spouse. But today’s reckoning is a more solemn one, the profits more considerable: she opens her balance-sheet with the gain accruing to our Lady from the mysteries which compose the Cycle. Christmas, the Cross, the triumph of Jesus, these produce the holiness of us all. But before and above all, the holiness of Mary. The diadem which the Church thus offers first to the august Sovereign of the world is rightly composed of the triple crown of these sanctifying mysteries, the causes of her joy, of her sorrow, and of her glory. The joyful mysteries recall the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Birth of Jesus, Mary’s Purification and the Finding of our Lord in the Temple. The sorrowful mysteries bring before us the Agony of our blessed Lord, His being scourged, and crowned with thorns, the carrying of the Cross, and the Crucifixion. While, in the glorious mysteries, we contemplate the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour, Pentecost, and the Assumption and Coronation of the Mother of God. Such is Mary’s Rosary: a new and fruitful vine which began to blossom at Gabriel’s salutation, and whose fragrant garlands form a link between Earth and Heaven.

In its present form the Rosary was made known to the world by Saint Dominic at the time of the struggles with the Albigensians, that social war of such ill-omen for the Church. The Rosary was then of more avail than armed forces against the power of Satan. It is now the Church’s last resource. It would seem that the ancient forms of social prayer being no longer relished by the people, the Holy Spirit has willed by this easy and ready summary of the Liturgy to maintain, in the isolated devotion of these unhappy times, the essential of that life of prayer, faith and Christian virtue which the public celebration of the Divine Office formerly kept up among the nations. Before the thirteenth century popular piety was already familiar with what was called the psalter of the laity, that is, the Angelical Salutation repeated one hundred and fifty times. It was the distribution of these Hail Marys into decades, each devoted to the consideration of a particular mystery, that constituted the Rosary. Such was the divine expedient, simple as the Eternal Wisdom that conceived it and far-reaching in its effects, for while it led wandering man to the Queen of mercy, it obviated ignorance which is the food of heresy, and taught him to find once more “the paths consecrated by the Blood of the Man-God, and by the tears of his Mother.”

Thus speaks the great Pontiff who, in the universal sorrow of these days, has again pointed out the means of salvation more than once experienced by our fathers. Leo XIII in his Encyclicals has consecrated the present month to this devotion as dear to Heaven. He has honoured our Lady in her Litanies with a new title, Queen of the most holy Rosary, and he has given the final development to the solemnity of this day by raising it to the rank of a second class Feast, and by enriching it with a proper Office explaining its permanent object. Besides all this, the Feast is a memorial of glorious victories which do honour to the Christian name. Soliman II, the greatest of the Sultans, taking advantage of the confusion caused in the West by Luther, had filled the sixteenth century with terror by his exploits. He left to his son, Selim II the prospect of being able at length to carry out the ambition of his race: to subjugate Rome and Vienna, the Pope and the Emperor, to the power of the Crescent. The Turkish fleet had already mastered the greater part of the Mediterranean, and was threatening Italy when, on the 7th October 1571, it came into action in the Gulf of Lepanto with the pontifical galleys supported by the fleets of Spain and Venice. It was Sunday. Throughout the world the confraternities of the Rosary were engaged in their work of intercession. Supernaturally enlightened, Saint Pius V watched from the Vatican the battle undertaken by the leader he had chosen, Don John of Austria, against the three hundred vessels of Islam. The illustrious Pontiff, whose life’s work was now completed, did not survive to celebrate the anniversary of the triumph, but he perpetuated the memory of it by an annual commemoration of our Lady of Victory. His successor, Gregory XIII, altered this title to our Lady of the Rosary, and appointed the first Sunday of October for the new Feast, authorising its celebration in those churches which possessed an altar under that invocation.

A century and a half later, this limited concession was made general. As Innocent XI in memory of the deliverance of Vienna by Sobieski had extended the Feast of the most holy Name of Mary to the whole Church, so in 1716 Clement XI inscribed the Feast of the Rosary on the universal Calendar in gratitude for the victory gained by Prince Eugene at Peterwardein on the 5th August under the auspices of Our Lady of the Snow. This victory was followed by the raising of the siege of Corfu, and completed a year later by the taking of Belgrade.

[Note: In 1913 Pope Saint Pius X moved the Feast of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary to the 7th of October]

The joys experienced on the other Feasts of the Mother of God are all gathered up and resumed in this one for us, for the Angels, and for our Lady herself. Like the Angels, then, let us offer, together with Mary, the homage of our just delight to the Son of God, her Son, her King and ours.

Lesson – Proverbs viii. 22‒24; 32‒35

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made any thing 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. Now therefore, you 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 Guéranger:

Our Lady’s mysteries are before all time in God’s sight, like those of her divine Son. Like these they will endure for all eternity. Like them they rule the ages which circle round the Word and Mary, preparing for both in the days of figures, perpetuating their presence by the incessant glorification of the most holy Trinity in whose name all Christians are baptised. Now the Rosary honours all this series of mysteries. Today’s Feast is a glance back upon the Cycle as it draws to its close. From these mysteries, from this view of them, we must draw the conclusion formulated by our Lady herself in this passage from Proverbs which the Church applies to her: “Now therefore, my children, consider my ways. Imitate me, that you may find happiness.” Blessed is he that watches at her gate! Let us pray to her, rosary in hand, considering her at the same time, meditating on her life and her greatness, and watching, were it but for a quarter of an hour, at the entrance to the palace of this incomparable Queen. The more faithful we are, the more assured will be our salvation and our progress in true life.

Gospel – Luke i. 26‒38

At that time the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And the Angel being come in, said to her: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among among women.” Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the Angel said to her: “Fear not, Mary, for you have found grace with God. Behold you will conceive in your womb, and will bring forth a son and you will call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of David his father: and he will reign in the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the Angel: “How will this be done, because I know not man?” And the Angel answering, said to her, “The Holy Ghost will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And therefore also the Holy which will be born of you, will be called the Son of God. And behold your cousin Elizabeth, she also has conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: because no word will be impossible with God.” And Mary said: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Gospel is the same as on the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary. “At that time, the Angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a Virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the Virgin’s name was Mary. And the Angel being come in, said to her: Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.” “Blessed are you among women,” repeated Elizabeth a few days later, “and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” These two salutations, with the name of Mary added to the Angel’s greeting and the name of Jesus to Elizabeth’s, constituted the Ave Maria in the time of Saint Dominic, the promulgator of the Rosary. The prayer, “Holy Mary Mother of God” which now so beautifully completes the formula of praise received the sanction of the Church in the sixteenth century. No better Gospel could then have been chosen for today, for it gives the original text of the Rosary and describes the first of its mysteries.

6 OCTOBER – SAINT BRUNO (Confessor)

Bruno was born in 1030 at Cologne in Germany. From from his very cradle he gave great promise of future sanctity. Favoured by divine grace, the gravity of his character made him shun all childishness so that, even at that age one might have foreseen in him the future father of monks and restorer of the anchoretical life. His parents, who were distinguished for virtue and nobility, sent him to Paris where he made great progress in philosophy and theology, and took the degrees of doctor and master in both faculties. Soon after this, he was, for his remarkable virtue, appointed to a canonry in the church of Rheims.

After some years, Bruno, with six of his friends, renounced the world and betook himself to Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble. On learning the cause of their coming, the Bishop understood that they had been signified by the seven stars he had seen falling at his feet in his dream of the previous night. He therefore made over to them some wild mountains called the Chartreuse, belonging to his diocese, and himself conducted them there. After having there lived an eremitical life for several years, Bruno was summoned to Rome by Pope Urban II who had been his disciple. In the great trials through which the Church was then passing, the Pontiff availed himself of the Saint’s prudence and knowledge for some years, until Bruno, refusing the archbishopric of Reggio, obtained leave to retire. Attracted by the love of solitude he went to a desert place near Squillace in Calabria. Count Roger of Calabria was one day hunting when his dogs began to bark round the Saint’s cave. The Count entered and found Bruno at his prayers. He was so struck by his holiness that from then on he greatly honoured him and his companions and supplied their needs. His generosity met with its reward. A little later, when Count Roger was besieging Capua, and Sergius, an officer of his guard, had determined to betray him, Bruno, who was still living in his desert, appeared to the Count in sleep, revealed the treason to him, thus saving him from imminent peril.

At length, full of virtues and merits, and as renowned for holiness as for learning, Bruno fell asleep in our Lord in 1101, and was buried in the monastery of Saint Stephen built by Count Roger, where he is greatly honoured to this day. He was canonised by Pope Gregory XV in 1623.

In art Saint Bruno is represented contemplating the crucifix, with the words on a scroll issuing from his mouth, “O bonitas!” (O goodness!) or, “Ecce elongavi fugiens, et mansi in solitudine” (Behold, I wander far off, and I abode in the wilderness) (Psalm liv. 8). Sometimes he is shown bearing an olive-branch, or a crucifix the ends of which are foliated with olive leaves, on account of an antiphon in the Carthusian Breviary, which likens him to the olive taking root and bearing fruit in the most barren soil.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Among the divers religious families, none is held in higher esteem by the Church than the Carthusian. The prescriptions of the corpus juris determine that a person may pass from any other order into this without deterioration. And yet it is of all the least given to active works. Is not this a new, and not the least convincing proof that outward zeal, however praiseworthy is not the only, nor the principal thing, in God’s sight? The Church, in her fidelity, values all things according to the preferences of her divine Spouse. Now our Lord esteems His elect not so much by the activity of their works, as by the hidden perfection of their lives — that perfection which is measured by the intensity of the divine life, and of which it is said: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Maathew v. 48). Again, it is said of this divine life: “You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians iii. 3). The Church then considering the solitude and silence of the Carthusian, his abstinence even to death, his freedom to attend to God through complete disengagement from the senses and from the world, sees in it the guarantee of a perfection which may indeed be met with elsewhere, but here appears to be far more secure. Hence, though the field of labour is ever widening, though the necessity of warfare and struggle grows ever more urgent, she does not hesitate to shield with the protection of her laws, and to encourage with the greatest favours, all who are called by grace to the life of the desert. The reason is not far to seek. In an age when every effort to arrest the world in its headlong downward career seems vain, has not man greater need than ever to fall back upon God? The enemy is aware of it, and therefore the first law he imposes upon his votaries is to forbid all access to the way of the counsels, and to stifle all life of adoration, expiation and prayer. For he well knows that, though a nation may appear to be on the verge of its doom, there is yet hope for it as long as the best of its sons are prostrate before the Majesty of God.

Look at the history of the West in the eleventh century. If there ever was a time when it seemed urgent that the cloister, far from increasing the number of its inmates, should send them forth to the last man for the active service of the Church, it was surely the epoch when the flesh, victorious over the spirit, posted up its triumphs even in the sanctuary: when, for each other’s sake, Caesar and Satan held the pastors of the people in bondage. Nevertheless, at that very time, not only Cluny became the stronghold of Christianity, but Camaldoli, Vallombrosa, the Charterhouse, and finally Citeaux, were founded and grew strong. So great was the demand even in the monastic life itself, for still closer retreat, by souls athirst for immolation and penance. And yet, so far from complaining of being abandoned, the world reckoned among its most glorious deliverers Romuald, John Gualbert, Bruno and Robert of Molesmes. Moreover the century was great in the faith, and in that energy of faith which knew how to apply fire and steel to the festering wounds of humanity, great in the uprightness with which it recognised the necessity of expiation for such crying evils. Society, represented by its choicest members before the feet of God, received new life from Him.

This Feast, then, is the world’s homage to one of its greatest benefactors. The reader may learn more about our Saint by having recourse to his works: his letters, breathing the fragrance of solitude and written in the beautiful style known to the monks of that heroic age, and his commentaries on Saint Paul and on the Psalms, which are clear and concise, revealing at once his science and his love of Jesus and of the Church. According to the custom of the time, the breve depositionis announcing his death was sent round from church to church, and returned covered with testimonies of universal veneration. Nevertheless his disciples were more intent on imitating his holiness than on having it recognised by the Apostolic See. Four centuries after his death, Leo X without any process, on the simple evidence of the cause, authorised the Carthusians to pay public honour to their Father. A hundred years later, in 1622, Gregory XV extended his feast to the entire world.

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BLESS, O Bruno, the grateful joy of God’s children. With their whole hearts they acquiesce in the judgement of their Mother the Church when, among the beautiful, rich fruit-trees in our Lord’s garden, she hides not her predilection for those whose silent shade attracts the preference of her divine Spouse. “Show me, O you whom my soul loves where you feed, where you lie in the midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of your companions” (Canticles i. 6). Thus speaks the Bride in the sacred Canticle. And hearing the divine answer extolling the better part, you mingle your voice with the song of our Lord and the Church, saying: “O solitude and silence of the desert. Hidden joy. Good things unknown to the multitude, but known to the valiant. There are the young shoots of virtue carefully cultivated: there labour and rest are one and the same, and are nourished with fruits of Paradise: There the eye acquires that look which wounds the Bridegroom’s heart (Canticles iv. 9) and that purity, which beholds God (Matthew v. 8). There is Rachel in all her beauty, more loved by Jacob than Lia, although less fruitful. And her sons, Joseph and Benjamin, are their father’s favourites.”

Your sons cherish, in their hereditary peace, this privilege of the perfect even in these days of feverish excitement. Simple as themselves is the history of their Order: full of the supernatural, yet seeming to eschew the marvellous and the miraculous, while the heroism of all is so great, that very few stand out from the rest as remarkable for sanctity. Preserve this your own spirit in your children, O Bruno, and make us profit by their example. For their life silently preaches to the world the Apostle’s doctrine: “Concerning spiritual things... I show to you yet a more excellent way. If I speak with the tongues of men and of Angels, and have not charity... if I should have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains... and if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing. Charity never falls away: whether prophecies will be made void, or tongues will cease, or knowledge will be destroyed. Do not become children in sense, but in malice be children, and in sense be perfect” (1 Corinthians xii. xiii. xiv.)

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Laodicea, the blessed bishop and martyr Sagar, one of the first disciples of the blessed Apostle St. Paul.

At Capua, the birthday of the holy martyrs Marcellus, Castus, Æmilius and Saturninus.

At Agen in France, the birthday of St. Faith, virgin and martyr, whose example encouraged blessed Caprasius so much that he happily terminated his combat by martyrdom.

Also St. Erotis, martyr, who, being inflamed with the love of Christ, triumphed over the violence of the flames.

At Treves, the commemoration of almost numberless martyrs who were put to death for the faith in various manners under the governor Rictiovarus in the persecution of Diocletian.

At Auxerre, St. Eomanus, bishop and martyr.

At Oderzo, St. Magnus, bishop, whose body rests at Venice.

At Naples, the decease of St. Mary Frances of the Five Wounds of Our Lord, a nun of the Third Order of St. Francis. On account of her reputation for virtues and the working of miracles, she was placed among the holy virgins by Blessed Pius IX.

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

Thanks be to God.

5 OCTOBER – SAINT PLACIDUS AND COMPANIONS (Martyrs)

Placidus was born in 515 AD. A Roman by birth and son of Tertullus, he belonged to the noble family of the Anicii. Eutychius and Victorinus were brothers of Placidus and Flavia was their sister. Offered to God while still a child, Placidus was entrusted to Saint Benedict and made such progress in sanctity and in the monastic life as to become one of his principal disciples. He was present when the holy Father obtained from God by prayer a fountain of water in the solitude of Subiaco. While still a boy, being sent one day to draw water, he fell into the lake but was miraculously saved by the monk Maurus who at the command of the holy Father ran dry-shod over the water. Later on he accompanied Saint Benedict to Monte Cassino. At the age of 21 Placidus was sent into Sicily to defend, against certain covetous persons, the goods and lands which his father had given to Monte Cassino. On the way he performed so many great miracles, that he arrived at Messina with a reputation for sanctity. He built a monastery on his paternal estate not far from the harbour, and gathered together Donatus and Firmatus, deacons, Faustus and thirty other monks, being thus the first to introduce the monastic life into the island.

Nothing could be more placid or more humble than his behaviour, and he surpassed everyone in prudence, gravity, kindness and unruffled tranquillity of mind. He often spent whole nights in the contemplation of heavenly things, only sitting down for a short time when overpowered by the necessity of sleep. Placidus was most zealous in observing silence and when it was necessary to speak the subjects of his conversation were the contempt of the world and the imitation of Christ. His fasts were most severe, and he abstained all the year round from flesh and every kind of milk-meat. In Lent he took only bread and water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The rest of the week he passed without any food. He never drank wine, and always wore a hair-shirt. So numerous and so remarkable were the miracles he worked, that the sick came to him in crowds to be cured, not only from the neighbourhood, but also from Etruria and Africa. But Placidus, in his great humility, worked all his miracles in the name of Saint Benedict, attributing them to his merits. His holy example and the wonders he wrought caused the Christian faith to spread rapidly.

In the fifth year after his arrival in Sicily, the Saracens made a sudden incursion, and seized upon Placidus and his thirty monks while they were singing the Night Office in the church. At the same time were taken Eutychius and Victorinus, his brothers, and his sister the virgin Flavia, who had all come from Rome to visit him, and also Donatus, Faustus and the deacon Firmatus. Donatus was beheaded on the spot. The rest were taken before Manucha, the chief of the pirates. And as they firmly refused to adore his idols, they were beaten with rods, and cast, bound hand and foot, into prison without food. Every day they were beaten afresh, but God supported them. After many days they were again led before the tyrant, and as they still stood firm in the faith, they were again repeatedly beaten, then stripped of their clothes and hung, head downwards, over thick smoke to suffocate. They were left for dead, but the next day were found alive and miraculously healed of their wounds. The tyrant then addressed himself to the virgin Flavia. But finding he could gain nothing by threats or promises, he ordered her to be stripped and hung by the feet from a high beam, insulting her meanwhile upon her nakedness.

But the virgin answered: “Man and woman have the same Author and Creator, God. Hence neither my sex, nor this nakedness which I endure for love of Him, will be any disadvantage to me in His eyes who for my sake chose not only to be stripped, but also to be nailed to a cross.” Manucha enraged at this reply ordered her to be beaten and tortured with the smoke, and then handed her over to be dishonoured. At the virgin’s prayer, God struck all who attempted to approach her with sudden stiffness and pain in all their limbs. The tyrant next attacked Placidus, the virgin’s brother, who tried to convince him of the vanity of his idols. Manucha thereupon commanded his mouth and teeth to be broken with stones, and his tongue to be cut out by the root. But the martyr spoke as clearly and easily as before. The barbarian grew more furious at this miracle and commanded that Placidus, with his sister and brethren should be crushed under an enormous weight of anchors and millstones. But even this torture was powerless to hurt them. Finally, 36 of Placidus’ family, with their leader and several others, were beheaded on the shore near Messina and gained the palm of martyrdom on the third of the Nones of October in 539. Gordian, a monk of that monastery, who had escaped by flight, found all their bodies entire after several days and buried them with tears. Not long afterwards the barbarians, in punishment of their crime, were swallowed up by the avenging waves of the sea. In 1588, the discovery of the martyrs’ relics at Messina confirmed the truth of their Acts. On this occasion Pope Sixtus V extended the celebration of their Feast to the universal Church.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The proto-martyr of the Benedictine Order stands before us today in his strength and his beauty. The empire had fallen, and the yoke of the Arian Goths lay heavy on Italy. Rome was no longer in the hands of the glorious races which had made her greatness. These, nevertheless, kept up their honourable traditions. They offered a great lesson for future times of revolution to other descendants of not less noble families: in lieu of the ensign of civic honour once committed to their fathers, the survivors of the old patrician ranks made it their duty to raise still higher the standard of true heroism of those virtues which alone are everlasting.

Thus Benedict of Nursia, fleeing into the desert, had rendered greater service than any mighty conqueror to Rome and her immortal destinies. The world soon discovered this fact and then began, as Saint Gregory tells us, the concourse of Roman nobles bringing their children to the Patriarch of monks to be educated by him for Almighty God. Placidus was the eldest son of the patrician Tertullus. The excellent qualities early discovered in the child led his worthy father to offer to God, without delay, this dear first-fruit of his paternity. In those days parents loved their children not for this passing world, but for eternity. Not for themselves, but for our Lord. The faith of Tertullus was well rewarded when, twenty years later, not only his first-born, but also his two other sons and their sister, were crowned with martyrdom. This was not the first holocaust of the kind in that heroic family, if it be true that they were relatives by blood, and heirs of the goods as well as the virtues, of the holy martyr Eustace who had been immolated four centuries earlier with his wife and sons.

Among the children of promise enlisted by the vanquished nobles of the ancient empire in the new militia of the holy Valley, Equitius brought to Subiaco his son Maurus, a boy some years older than Placidus. Henceforth the names of Maurus and Placidus became inseparable from that of Benedict, and the Patriarch acquired a new glory from his two sons, so united and yet so different. Equal in their love of their master and father, and themselves equally loved by him for their equal fidelity in good works, they experienced to the full that delight in virtue which makes its practice a second nature. However similar their zeal in using the most strong and bright armour of obedience in the service of Christ the King, it was wonderful to see the master accommodating himself to the age of his disciples, so adapting himself to their differences of character that there was nothing precipitate, nothing forced, in his education. It disciplined nature without crushing it, and followed the Holy Ghost without endeavouring to take the lead. In Maurus was especially reproduced Benedict’s austere gravity, in Placidus his simplicity and sweetness. Benedict took Maurus to witness the chastisement inflicted on the wandering monk who could not stay at prayer. But Placidus accompanied him to the mountain-top where his prayer obtained a spring of water to deliver from danger and fatigue the brethren dwelling on the rooks above the Anio. But when walking along the river side holding Placidus by the hand and leaning upon Maurus, the legislator of monks explained to them the code of perfection they were afterwards to propagate, the Angels knew not which most to admire: the candour of the one winning the father’s tenderest affection, or the precocious maturity of the other meriting the holy patriarch’s confidence and already sharing his burden.

Who does not recollect the admirable scene of Maurus walking on the water and saving Placidus from drowning? Monastic traditions never weary of extolling the obedience of Maurus, Benedict’s humility and the sagacious simplicity of the child pronouncing sentence as judge of the prodigy. Of such children the Master could say from experience: “The Lord often reveals that which is best to him that is the younger.” And we may well believe that the recollections of the holy Valley prompted him later on to lay down in his Rule this prescription: “In all places whatsoever, let not age be taken into account as regards order, neither let it be to the prejudice of anyone: for Samuel and Daniel, while yet children, were judges over the elders.'”

“Placidus, my beloved son, why should I weep for you? You are taken from me, only that you may belong to all men. I will give thanks for this sacrifice of the fruit of my heart offered to Almighty God.” Thus, on hearing of this day’s triumph, spoke Benedict, your spiritual father, mingling tears with his joy. He did not survive you long: yet long enough to complete, of his own accord, the sacrifice of separations by sending into far off France the companion of your childhood, Maurus, who was destined not to rejoin you in Heaven for so many long years. Charity seeks not her own interests. She finds them by forgetting self and losing self in God. Placidus had disappeared. Maurus had been sent away. Benedict was about to die: human prudence would have believed the holy Patriarch’s work in danger of perishing, whereas at this critical moment it strengthened its roots and extended its branches over the whole world. Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground dies itself remains alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit (John xii. 24‒25). As heretofore the blood of martyrs was the seed of Christians, it now produced a rich harvest of monks.

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Blessed be you, O Placidus, far beyond your native Italy and Sicily, the scene of your combat. Blessed be you for the numberless ears of corn, for the abundant harvest sprung from the choice grain that fell to the earth on this day: faith bids us see in your immolation the secret of the success granted to the monastic mission of Maurus. Thus, despite the great diversity and the unequal length of your paths in life, you are ever united in the heart of your master and father. At the appointed hour he did not hesitate before the holocaust our Lord required of him, wherefore, he now in Heaven beholds the fulfilment of the hopes he had centred in his two beloved sons.

Deign, O Placidus, to continue your interest in the extension of Christ’s reign on Earth, in the progress of the perfect life in the Church, in the diffusion throughout the world of the monastic family on which you are the glory. Novices especially are confided to you: remembering the blessed education you were privileged to receive, watch over the aspirants to the better part. To them above all is applied the Gospel saying: “Unless you become as little children, you will not enter into the kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew xvii. 3), that kingdom of Heaven which consists in the anticipated possession of God here on Earth in the life of union attained by the way of the counsels. May they reproduce before the Angels your humble and sweet simplicity and show their gratitude for the maternal solicitude of their holy Order by the came filial docility with which you responded to the holy Legislator’s special tenderness. May they, in spite of the world’s opposition, increase in numbers and in merit, for the honour of God! The trials of the present must prepare the monastic Order, and indeed the whole religious state, for the trials of the future. It is around the monks that the martyrs of the last days will gather, as around thee assembled the Christians of Messina, and your two brothers, and the heroic Flavia, so truly worthy to be doubly your sister. May the chosen flock increase and be ever united, so as to be able to say with one voice to the persecutors both present and future: “Do what you mean to do, for we are all of one mind, one faith, one manner of life.”

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The birthday of blessed Thraseas, bishop of Eumenia, who ended his career by martyrdom at Smyrna.

At Treves, the holy martyrs Palmatius and his companions, who suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Eictiovarus.

The same day, under the emperor Diocletian and the ex-consul Domitius, St. Charitina, a virgin, who was exposed to the fire and thrown into the sea, but escaping uninjured, she had her hands and feet cut off, her teeth plucked out, and finally she yielded her spirit in prayer.

At Auxerre, the departure from this life of the saintly deacon Firmatus and the virgin Flaviana, his sister.

At Ravenna, St. Marcellinus, bishop and confessor.

At Valence in France, St. Apollinaris, a bishop, who was renowned in life for virtues, and in death for miracles and prodigies.

The same day, St. Attilanus, bishop of Zamora, who was ranked among the saints by Pope Urban II.

At Leon in Spain, St. Froilanus, bishop of that city, renowned for his zeal in spreading the monastic life, for his liberality to the poor and other virtues, and for miracles.

At Rome, St. Galla, widow, daughter of the consul Symmachus, who, after the death of her husband, remained many years near the church of St. Peter, applying to prayer, alms-giving, fasting and other pious works. Her most happy death was described by Pope St. Gregory.

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

Thanks be to God.