15 NOVEMBER – SAINT ALBERT THE GREAT (Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church)

Albert was the famous Dominican philosopher and theologian who had Saint Thomas Aquinas for his pupil and whose own works place him in the first ranks of Mediaeval scholars. A German by birth, after refusing many ecclesiastical dignities, content to serve in his own Order, he was constrained by the Pope to accept the Bishopric of Ratisbon, but after three years of able and successful pastoral work he was allowed to retire to his convent at Cologne, where he died in 1280, being then in his eighty-eighth year. His works are published in twenty-six folio volumes.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The birthday of St. Eugenius, bishop of Toledo, and martyr, a disciple of blessed Denis the Areopagite. Having consummated his martyrdom near Paris, he received from Our Lord a crown for his blessed sufferings. His body was afterwards conveyed to Toledo.

At Nola in Campania, blessed Felix, bishop and martyr, who was renowned for miracles from the fifteenth year of age. He terminated the combats of his martyrdom with thirty others under the governor Marcian.

At Edessa in Syria, the holy martyrs Gurias and Samonas, under the emperor Diocletian and the governor Antoninus.

In the same place, the martyrdom of St. Abibus, deacon, who was torn with iron hooks and cast into the fire in the time of the emperor Licinius and the governor Lysanias.

In Africa, the holy martyrs Secundus, Fidentian, and Varicus. In Bretagne, the birthday of St. Malo, bishop, who was glorious for miracles from his early years.

At Verona, St. Luperius, bishop and confessor.

In Austria, St. Leopold, margrave of that country, who was inscribed among the saints by Pope Innocent VIII.

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

Thanks be to God.

15 NOVEMBER – SIXTH RESUMED SUNDAY (AFTER EPIPHANY)

 Epistle – 1 Thessalonians i. 2–10

We give thanks to God always for you all, making a remembrance of you in our prayers without ceasing, being mindful of the work of your faith, and labour, and charity, and of the enduring of the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ before God and our Father: Knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election: for our Gospel has not been to you in word only, but in power also, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much fulness, as you know what manner of men we have been among you for your sakes. And you became followers of us, and of the Lord, receiving the word in much tribulation, with joy of the Holy Ghost: So that you were made a pattern to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. For from you was spread abroad the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia, and in Achaia, but also in every place, your faith which is towards God, is gone forth, so that we need not to speak any thing. For they themselves relate of us, what manner of entering in we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God. And to wait for his Son from heaven (whom he raised up from the dead) Jesus, who has delivered us from the wrath to come.

Thanks be to God.

Gospel – Matthew xiii. 31‒35

At that time Jesus spoke to the multitudes this parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field: which is the least indeed of all seeds, but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof. Another parable he spoke to them: The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened. All these things Jesus spoke in parables to the multitudes: and without parables he did not speak to them that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

14 NOVEMBER – SAINT JOSAPHAT (Bishop and Martyr)

Josaphat Kuncewicz was born of noble Catholic parents at Vladimir in Volhynia. When a child, as he was listening to his mother telling him about the Passion of Christ, a dart issued from the image of Jesus crucified and wounded him in the heart. Set on fire with the love of God, he began to devote himself with such zeal to prayer and other works of piety, that he was the admiration and the model of his older companions. At the age of 20 he became a monk under the Rule of Saint Basil and made wonderful progress in evangelical perfection. He went barefoot even in the severe winter of that country. He never ate meat, drank wine only when obliged by obedience, and wore a rough hair-shirt until his death. Tho flower of his chastity, which he had vowed in early youth to the Virgin Mother of God, he preserved unspotted. He soon became so renowned for virtue and learning that in spite of his youth he was made superior of the monastery of Byten.

Soon afterwards he became archimandrite of Vilna, and lastly, much against his will, but to the great joy of Catholics, he was chosen Archbishop of Polock. In this dignity he relaxed nothing of his former manner of life and had nothing so much at heart as the divine service and the salvation of the sheep entrusted to him. He energetically defended Catholic faith and unity, and laboured to the utmost of his power to bring back schismatics and heretics to communion with the See of blessed Peter. The Sovereign Pontiff and the plenitude of his power he never ceased to defend, both by preaching and by writings full of piety and learning, against the most shameless calumnies and errors of the wicked. He vindicated episcopal rights, and restored ecclesiastical possessions which had been seized by laymen. Incredible was the number of heretics he won back to the bosom of Mother Church, and the words of the Popes bear witness how greatly he promoted the union of the Greek and Latin churches. His revenues were entirely expended in restoring the beauty of God’s house, in building dwellings for consecrated virgins, and in other pious works. So bountiful was he to the poor, that, on one occasion having nothing with which to supply the needs of a certain widow, he ordered his Omophorion or episcopal pallium to be pawned.

The great progress made by the Catholic faith so stirred up the hatred of wicked men against the soldier of Christ that they determined to put him to death. He knew what was threatening him and foretold it when preaching to the people. As he was making his pastoral visitation at Vitebsk, the murderers broke into his house, striking and wounding all whom they found. Josaphat meekly went to meet them, and accosted them kindly, saying: “My little children, why do you strike my servants? If you have any complaint against me, here I am.” Hereupon they rushed on him, overwhelmed him with blows, pierced him with their spears, and at length despatched him with an axe and threw his body into the river. This took place on the twelfth of November 1623, in the forty-third year of his age. His body surrounded with a miraculous light was rescued from the waters. The martyr’s blood won a blessing first of all for his murderers for, being condemned to death, they nearly all abjured their schism and repented of their crime. As the death of this great bishop was followed by many miracles, Pope Urban VIII granted him the honours of beatification. On the third of the Calends of July 1867 when celebrating the centenary of the Princes of the Apostles, Pius IX. in the Vatican Basilica, in presence of the College of Cardinals, and of about 500 Patriarchs, Metropolitans and Bishops of every rite, assembled from all parts of the world, solemnly enrolled among the Saints this great defender of the Church’s unity, who was the first Oriental to be thus honoured. Pope Leo extended his Mass and Office to the universal Church.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Josaphat Kuncewicz, contemporary with Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Vincent de Paul, might have been taken for a Greek monk of the eleventh century, or an ascetic of the Thebaid. A stranger to the intellectual culture of the West, he knew only the liturgical books and sacred texts used in his own church. As a priest, an archimandrite, a reformer of his Order of Saint Basil, and lastly as Archbishop, he combated all his life against the consequences of the schism of Photius, and closed the struggle by culling the palm of martyrdom. Yet all this took place in the heart of Europe, in the countries then subject to Catholic Poland during the reign of the most pious of its kings. How is this mystery to be explained?

Immediately after the Mongolian invasions, Poland received into her arms, rather than conquered, the Ruthenian nation, that is to say the Slavs of the Greek rite from the Dnieper and the Dwina, who had formed around their capital and religious metropolis, Kiev, the nucleus of the power now known as Russia. Had she granted a participation in her own national life to these brethren separated from, but not enemies to, the Roman unity, who came to her full of confidence in her strength and her justice, Poland would have secured the triumph of the Catholic cause, and her own dominion throughout Slavonia. The union of the newcomers with the Roman Pontiff, which a little more political insight and religious zeal might have brought about in the fourteenth century, was not concluded until l595. This was the union of Brzeso. By the compact signed in this little town of Lithuania, the metropolitan of Kiev and the other Greek bishops declared that they returned to the communion of the holy Apostolic See. Being the spiritual superiors of half the nation, they thus completed the union of the three peoples, Ruthenian, Lithuanian and Polish, then subject to Sigismund III. Now, a religious reform, even if decreed by a council, does not become a reality until men of God, true apostles, and if need be martyrs, come forward to consummate it. This was the vocation of Saint Josaphat, the apostle and martyr of the Union of Brzesc. What he did not himself carry out was completed by his disciples. A century of glory was secured to the nation, and its political ruin was delayed for two hundred years.

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“Stir up, O Lord, we beseech you, in your Church the Spirit with which the blessed Josaphat your Martyr and Pontiff was filled.” Thus prays our Mother today, and the Gospel likewise points to her desire of obtaining pastors like you, O holy Bishop! The sacred text speaks of the false shepherd who flees at first sight of the wolf, but the Homily which explains it in the Night Office, brands equally with the title of hireling the keeper who, though he does not flee, suffers the enemy unresisted to work havoc in the fold. May the divine Shepherd, whom you imitated to the end, even to laying down your life for the sheep, live again in all those whom He calls, like Peter, to exercise a greater love.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Heraclea in Thrace, the birthday of the holy martyrs Clementinus, Theodotus and Philomenus.

At Alexandria, St. Serapion, martyr, whom the persecutors under the emperor Decius subjected to torments so cruel that all his limbs were disjointed. He became a martyr of Christ by being hurled down from the upper part of his house.

At Troyes in France, St. Venerandus, martyr, under the emperor Aurelian.

Also in France, the holy virgin Veneranda, who received the crown of martyrdom under the emperor Antoninus and the governor Asclepiades.

At Gangres in Paphlagonia, St. Hypatius, bishop, who on his way home from the great council of Nice, was attacked with stones by the Novatian heretics, and died a martyr.

At Algiers in Africa, blessed Serapion, of the Order of Our Blessed Lady of Ransom. For the redemption of the faithful in captivity and the preaching of the Christian faith, he was the first of his Order to deserve the palm of martyrdom by being crucified and cut to pieces.

At Emesa, the passion of many holy women, who were barbarously tortured and massacred under Mady, a savage Arabian chief.

At Bologna, St. Jucundus, bishop and confessor.

In Ireland, St. Lawrence, bishop of Dublin.

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

Thanks be to God.

13 NOVEMBER – SAINT DIDACUS OF ALCALÁ (Confessor)

Didacus was a Spaniard, born at the little town of Saint Nicholas de Porto in the diocese of Seville. From his early youth he began the practice of a perfect life, under the guidance of a pious priest in a solitary church. Then, in order to bind himself more closely to God, he made profession of the rule of Saint Francis, in the convent of the Observantine Friars Minor at Arizzafa. There he bore the yoke of humble obedience and regular observance with great alacrity and devoted himself especially to contemplation, in which he received wonderful lights from God so that, illiterate as he was, he spoke of heavenly things in an admirable manner, evidently by a divine gift.

He was sent to the Canary Islands to govern the brethren of his Order, and there he had much to suffer. He was burning with the desire of martyrdom, and by his words and example he converted many infidels to the faith of Christ. Coming to Rome in that Jubilee year in the pontificate of Nicholas V, he was entrusted with the care of the sick in the convent of Ara Coeli. With such loving charity did he acquit himself of this duty that the sick wanted for nothing even during a famine in the city. He also sometimes cleansed their ulcers by sucking them. He was remarkable for his great faith and his gift of healing, for by signing the cross upon the sick with oil from a lamp burning before au image of the Mother of God to whom he had the greatest devotion, he miraculously cured many of them.

At length, when at Alcala, he understood that the end of life was at hand. Clad in an old torn tunic, with his eyes fixed on the cross, he devoutly pronounced these words of the sacred hymn: “O sweet wood, sweet are your nails, and sweet your burden. You were worthy to bear the King and Lord of Heaven!” He then gave up his soul to God on the day before the Ides of November in 1463. His body was left unburied for several months to satisfy the pious devotion of those who came to see it, and as though already clothed with immortality, it exhaled a sweet odour. He was renowned for many striking miracles and was canonised by Pope Sixtus V.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

A humble lay-brother, Didacus of Saint Nicholas, is welcomed today by his father Saint Francis into the company of Bernardine of Siena and John Capistran, who preceded him by a few years to Heaven. The two latter left Italy and the whole of Europe still echoing with their voices, the one making peace between cities in the name of the Lord Jesus, the other urging on the Christian hosts to battle with the victorious Crescent. The age which they contributed so powerfully to save from the results of the great schism and to restore to its Christian destinies knew little of Didacus but his unbounded charity. It was the year of the great Jubilee, 1450. Rome having become once more, practically as well as theoretically, the holy city in the eyes of the nations, not even the most terrible scourges could keep her children at a distance. From every quarter of the globe, crowds, urged by the evils of the time, flocked to the sources of salvation, and Satan’s work of ruin was retarded by seventy years.

Men doubtless attributed but a very small share of such results to the humble brother who was spending himself in the Ara Coeli in the service of the plague-stricken, especially if they compared him with his brethren, the great Franciscan apostles. And yet the Church pays to Didacus today the very same honours as we have seen her pay to Bernardine and John Capistran. What is this but asserting that before God heroic acts of hidden virtue are not inferior to the noble deeds that dazzle the world if, proceeding from the same ardent love, they produce in the soul the same increase of divine charity.

The Pontificate of Nicholas V which witnessed the imposing concourse of people to the tombs of the Apostles in 1450 was also, and still is, justly admired for the new impetus given to the culture of letters and the arts in Rome, for it belongs to the Church to adorn herself for the honour of her Spouse with all that men rightly deem great and beautiful. Nevertheless, who is there now of all the humanists, as the learned men of that age were called, who would not prefer the glory of the poor, unlettered Friar Minor to that which vainly held out to them the hope of immortality? In the fifteenth century, as at all other times, God chose the foolish and the weak to confound the wise and the strong. The Gospel is always in the right.

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“O Almighty, everlasting God, who by an admirable order chooses the weak things of the world that you may confound whatever is strong, mercifully grant to our lowliness that by the pious prayers of blessed Didacus, your Confessor, we may be made worthy to be exalted to everlasting glory in Heaven.” Such is the prayer addressed to God by the Church at all the liturgical Hours on this your feast, O Didacus. Second her supplications, for you are in high favour with Him whom you followed so lovingly along the way of humility and voluntary poverty. A royal road indeed, since it brought you to a throne which far outshines all earthly thrones. Even here below, you far surpass in renown many of your contemporaries, who are now as forgotten as they were once illustrious. Sanctity alone merits crowns that endure through all ages of time and for all eternity, for God is the final awarder, as He is the supreme reason, of all glory, just as in Him lies the principle of all true happiness both for this world and for the next. May we all, after your example and by your assistance, learn this by our own blessed experience!

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Ravenna, the birthday of the holy martyrs Valentine, Solutor and Victor, who suffered under the emperor Diocletian.

At Aix in Province, St. Matrius, a most renowned martyr.

At Caesarea in Palestine, the martyrdom of the Saints Antoninus, Zebina, Germanus and Ennatha, virgin. Ennatha was scourged under Galerius Maximian, and burned alive, while the others, for boldly reproaching the governor Firmilian for his idolatry in sacrificing to the gods, were beheaded.

In Africa, the holy martyrs Arcadius, Paschasius, Probus and Eutychian, Spaniards, who refused absolutely to yield to the Arian perfidy during the persecution of the Vandals. Accordingly they were proscribed by the Arian king Genseric, driven into exile, and finally, after being subjected to fearful tortures, were put to death in various manners. Then was also made manifest the constancy of the small boy Paulillus, brother of the Saints Paschasius and Eutychian. As he could not be seduced from the Catholic faith, he was a long time beaten with rods and condemned to a base servitude.

At Rome, Pope St. Nicholas, distinguished for the apostolic spirit.

At Tours, St. Brice, bishop, a disciple of the blessed bishop Martin.

At Toledo, St. Eugenius, bishop.

At Clermont in Auvergne, St. Quinctian, bishop.

At Cremona, St. Homobonus, confessor, renowned for miracles. He was ranked among the saints by Innocent III.

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

Thanks be to God.

12 NOVEMBER – SAINT MARTIN I (Pope and Confessor)

Martin was born at Todi in Umbria. Upon ascending the pontifical throne, he strove by letters and embassies to recall Paul, Patriarch of Constantinople, from his wicked heresy to the true Catholic faith. But, supported by the heretical emperor Constans, Paul was so carried away as to exile the legates of the Apostolic See to various islands. The Pope, indignant at this outrage, summoned a council of 105 bishops at Rome, in which he condemned Paul. Upon this Constans sent the exarch Olympius into Italy with orders either to kill Pope Martin or else to bring him to the emperor. Olympius, on reaching Rome, charged a lictor to assassinate the Pontiff as he was celebrating Mass in Santa Maria ad Praesepe. But the man, attempting to do so, was suddenly struck blind.

From that time many calamities befell the emperor Constans, which however made him no better, and he sent Theodore Calliopus to Rome to seize the Pope. By his deceitful dealing Martin was arrested and led prisoner to Constantinople. Thence he was banished into the Chersonesus where, on the eve of the Ides of November, he died worn out by his sufferings for the Catholic faith, and not without the glory of miracles. His body was afterwards translated to Rome, and placed in the church dedicated to Saints Sylvester and Martin. He governed the church 6 years, 1 month, and 26 days. He held two ordinations in the month of December, and ordained 11 priests, 5 deacons and 33 bishops.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

While the concourse of pilgrims to the sepulchre of the Bishop of Tours induced his third successor Perpetuus to raise over his precious remains the basilica in which so many prodigies were to be wrought all through the Middle Ages, Rome herself was dedicating to Saint Martin one of her noblest churches, uniting with him as joint titular her own illustrious Pontiff and Confessor Sylvester. Adorned with this twofold glory, Saint Martin-on-the-hill worthily inaugurated in the eternal City the cultus of Confessors side by side with that of the Martyrs. But another honour awaited the venerable sanctuary. Beside the wonder-working apostle and the pontiff of peace, both vanquishers of idolatry who had escaped the sword only through the conversion of the persecutors, the last of the martyr-popes, also Martin by name, came to seek a resting-place long after the pagan persecutions had ceased. “Martin I,” says Baronius, “fared better than any of his predecessors since the time of Constantine. Found worthy to suffer more than all of them for the Name of Jesus Christ, he had the good fortune to find a Decius and a Diocletian in a baptised prince.”

The emperor thus stigmatised by the great annalist was Constans II. From his grandfather Heraclius, who at least had given the world a few years of glory, he inherited nothing but the Byzantine pretension of imposing his dogmatic edicts upon the Church. Like the Ecthesis of Heraclius, the Type of Constans aimed at silencing the Catholics in their struggle with the Monothelites. Saint Leo II, on the 28th June, has already initiated us into these contests concerning the integrity of the two natures, divine and human, in the Man-God. Could the Church, without protesting, allow it to be said that her Spouse had taken from Adam a mere appearance of humanity, a half-formed nature without a will, such as the new sectaries imagined? More clear-sighted than Honorius, Martin I understood the danger, and knew how to repair the past while securing the future. Scarcely had he ascended the apostolic throne when he gathered, in the Church of our Saviour, one of the most beautiful assemblies ever held there. “Sound the trumpet, cry out upon the mountain. Soldiers of God, awake!” Thus from its very opening did the Lateran Council of 649 repair the fatal silence and avenge the Church’s honour. On reading its splendid and ample definitions, which present to the world the Son of the Virgin Mother in all His adorable integrity, we are reminded of the solemn declaration in the Praetorium on the great Friday: “Behold the Man!” Only that this time it was proclaimed in triumph and by those who loved him. Truly, O God our Saviour, you are the most complete, the most perfect, the most beautiful of the sons of men.

What a solace to the mind to see the imperial lucubrations returned, with the qualification of wicked and impious, to the Byzantine Caesar who held the defenceless Pontiff at his mercy in still dependent Rome! Martin I like Saint Paul could take the Church of God to witness that he had not neglected his duty of enlightening the flock. He could remind the pastors of the price at which Christ had purchased the sheep committed to their care: he himself was ready for everything. His martyrdom was to secure the final triumph of which the sixth general Council and Saint Leo II were destined to gather the fruits. The Greeks celebrate on the 13th April the feast of this glorious Pope whom they call a “corypheus of divine dogmas, the honour of Peter’s See, the pontiff who maintained the Church unshaken on the divine Rock.”

* * * * *

If it is just that the human race should honour its members in proportion as it has been honoured by them, you, O holy Pontiff, deserve a glorious memory. For, not only were your wonderful virtues such as cause the very powers of Heaven to admire our Earth, but you likewise compelled Satan to humble himself before our human nature. Deified entirely in the Person of God the Son, it is through you that it was fully recognised as such in spite of contradictions, in spite of the powerful ones of this world leaguing with the spirits of wickedness to overcloud this incomparable nobility of the sons of Adam. How comes it, that man is ever ready to join hands with Satan for his own destruction? But Lucifer himself was at first his own only enemy, and surely his folly is more difficult to explain than that of the frail creature he strives to draw after him along the path of pride which led him to perdition. It is pride that made him the prince of folly and the father of lies. His intellect, though the loftiest in Heaven, was not proof against self-love which induced him to take complacency in his created nothingness, to detain the truth of God in injustice (Romans i. 18) and to prefer darkness to the light. Thus it is that men, following Satan’s example and dishonouring God to exalt themselves, become vain in their thoughts (Romans i. 21) till such a darkness comes over their mind and heart and senses, as strikes with astonishment the soul that remains simple and upright in its humility.

Protect us, then, O holy Pontiff! keep up in us the understanding of God’s gift. May we never deserve the reproach of the Psalmist: “Man when he was in honour, did not understand; he is compared to senseless beasts, and is become like them” (Psalm xlviii. 13). May eternal Wisdom, to whose alliance we are called, never have the grief of seeing us prefer death. At the same time, teach us that, for the honour of God, as well as of man, the integrity of Our Lord’s Incarnation nation does not require the authentication of politicians, nor the approbation of the would-be wise, for it is of this mystery the Apostle says, that we must believe it with the heart in order to become just, and confess it with the mouth in order to be saved (Romans x. 10). Spare the Church the sorrow of ever again finding herself in such a situation as that from which your heroic martyrdom was alone able to deliver her.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Asia, the martyrdom of the Saints Aurelius and Publius, bishops.

In the diocese of Sens, St. Paternus, martyr.

At Ghent, St. Livinus, bishop and martyr.

In Poland, the holy martyrs Benedict, John, Matthew, Isaac and Christinus, hermits.

At Vitebsk in Poland, the martyrdom of St. Josaphat, of the Order of St. Basil, archbishop of Polotzk, who was cruelly murdered by the schismatics through hatred of Catholic unity and truth. He was canonised by Blessed Pius IX in 1867.

At Avignon, St. Rufus, first bishop of that city.

At Cologne, the decease of St. Cunibert, bishop.

At Tarazona in Spain, blessed Æmilian, a priest who wrought numberless miracles, and whose wonderful life was written by St. Braulio, bishop of Saragossa.

At Constantinople, St. Nilus, abbot who resigned the office of governor of the city to become a monk, and was distinguished for learning and sanctity, in the time of Theodosius the Younger.

Also at Constantinople, St. Theodore Studita, who became celebrated throughout the whole Catholic Church by his vigorous defence of the faith against the Iconoclasts.

At Alcala in Spain, St. Didacus, confessor, of the Order of Friars Minor, who was renowned for his humility. Inscribed in the Martyrology by Pope Sixtus V, his feast is kept on the thirteenth of this month.

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

Thanks be to God.

11 NOVEMBER – ARMISTICE DAY/REMEMBRANCE DAY/VETERANS' DAY

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

Eternal rest give to them, Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them.

11 NOVEMBER – SAINT MARTIN OF TOURS (Bishop and Confessor)

Martin was born at Sabaria in Pannonia. When 10 years old he fled to the church against his parents’ will and had himself enrolled among the catechumens. At the age of 15 he became a soldier and served in the army first of Constantius and afterwards of Julian. On one occasion, when a poor naked man at Amiens begged an alms of him in the name of Christ, having nothing but his armour and clothing, he gave him half of his military cloak. The following night Christ appeared to him clad in that half-cloak, and said: “Martin, while yet a catechumen has clothed me with this garment.” At 18 years of age, he was baptised, and abandoning his military career, he went to Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, by whom he was made an acolyte. Later on, having become bishop of Tours, he built a monastery where he lived for some time in a most holy manner, in company with 80 monks. He was seized with a violent fever at Cande, a village in his diocese, and he earnestly besought God to free him from the prison of the body. His disciples hearing, asked him: “Father, why do you abandon us? or to whom do you leave us in our desolation?” Martin, touched by their words, prayed to God in this manner: “O Lord, if I am still necessary to your people, I do not refuse to labour.” When his disciples saw him praying in the height of the fever, lying on his back, they besought him to turn over for a little while, that he might get some rest and relief. But Martin answered: “Suffer me to gaze on Heaven rather than Earth, that my spirit, which is about to depart, may be directed on its way to our Lord. As death drew near he saw the enemy of mankind and exclaimed: “What are you doing here, you cruel beast? You will find no evil in me.” While uttering these words he gave up his soul to God, at the age of 81. He was received by a choir of Angels whom many, and in particular Saint Severinus Bishop of Cologne, heard singing the praises of God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Three thousand six hundred and sixty churches dedicated to Saint Martin in France alone, and well-near as many in the rest of the world, bear witness to the immense popularity of the great thaumaturgus. In the country, on the mountains and in the depth of forests, trees, rocks, and fountains, objects of superstitious worship to our pagan ancestors, received, and in many places still retain, the name of him who snatched them from the dominion of the powers of darkness to restore them to the true God. For the vanquished idols, Roman, Celtic or German, Christ substituted their conqueror, the humble soldier, in the grateful memory of the people. Martin’s mission was to complete the destruction of paganism which had been driven from the towns by the martyrs, but remained up to his time master of the vast territories removed from the influence of the cities. While on the one hand he was honoured with God’s favours, on the other he was pursued by Hell with implacable hatred. At the very outset he had to encounter Satan, who said to him: “I will beset your path at every turn,” and he kept his word. He has kept it to this very day: century after century, he has been working ruin around the glorious tomb which once attracted the whole world to Tours. In the sixteenth, he delivered to the flames by the hands of the Huguenots, the venerable remains of the protector of France: by the nineteenth, he had brought men to such a height of folly as themselves to destroy, in time of peace, the splendid basilica which was the pride and the riches of their city. The gratitude of Christ, and the rage of Satan, made known by such signs, reveal sufficiently the incomparable labours of the pontiff, apostle, and monk, Saint Martin.

A monk indeed he was, both in desire and in reality, to the last day of his life. “From earliest infancy he sighed after the service of God. He became a catechumen at the age of ten, and at twelve he wished to retire to the desert. All his thoughts were engaged on monasteries and churches. A soldier at fifteen years of age, he so lived as even then to be taken for a monk. After a first trial of religious life in Italy, he was brought by Saint Hilary to this solitude of Liguge, which, thanks to him, became the cradle of monastic life in Gaul. To say the truth, Martin, during the whole course of his life, felt like a stranger everywhere else, except at Ligugé. A monk by attraction, he had been forced to be a soldier, and it needed violence to make him a Bishop: and even then he never relinquished his monastic habits. He responded to the dignity of a Bishop, says his historian, without declining from the rule and life of a monk. At first he constructed for himself a cell near his church of Tours and soon afterwards built, at a little distance from the town, a second Ligugé, under the name of Marmoutier or the great monastery” (Cardinal Pie, Homily pronounced on occasion of the re-establishment of the Benedictine Order at Ligugé, Nov. 25th 1853).

The holy Liturgy refers to Saint Hilary the honour of the wonderful virtues displayed by Martin. What were the holy bishop’s reasons for leading his heaven-sent disciple by ways then so little known in the West, he has left us to learn from the most legitimate heir of his doctrine as well as of his eloquence. “It has ever been,” says Cardinal Pie, the ruling idea of all the Saints, that, side by side with the ordinary ministry of the pastors, obliged by their functions to live in the midst of the world, the Church has need of a militia, separated from the world and enrolled under the standard of evangelical perfection, living in self-renunciation and obedience, and carrying on day and night the noble and incomparable function of public prayer. The most illustrious pontiffs and the greatest doctors have thought, that the secular clergy themselves could never be better fitted for spreading and making popular the pure doctrines of the Gospel, than if they could be prepared for their pastoral office by living either a monastic life, or one as nearly as possible resembling it. Read the lives of the greatest bishops both in East and West, in the times immediately preceding or following the peace of the Church, as well as in the Middle Ages: they have all, either themselves at some time professed the monastic life, or lived in continual contact with those who professed it. Hilary, the great Hilary, had, with his experienced and unerring glance, perceived the need. He had seen the place that should be occupied by the monastic Order in Christendom, and by the regular clergy in the Church. In the midst of his struggles, his combats, his exile, when he witnessed with his own eyes the importance of the monasteries in the East, he earnestly desired the time when, returning to Gaul, he might at length lay the foundations of the religious life at home. Providence was not long in sending him what was needful for such an enterprise: a disciple worthy of the master, a monk worthy of the bishop.”

Elsewhere, comparing together Saint Martin, his predecessors, and Saint Hilary himself in their common apostolate of Gaul, the illustrious Cardinal says: “Far be it from me to undervalue all the vitality and power already possessed by the religion of " Jesus Christ in our divers provinces, thanks to the preaching of the first apostles, martyrs and bishops who may be counted back in a long line almost to the day of Calvary. Still I fear not to say it: the popular apostle of Gaul, who converted the country parts, until then almost entirely pagan, the founder of national Christianity, was principally Saint Martin. And how is it that he, above so many other great bishops and servants of God, holds such pre-eminence in the apostolate? Are we to place Martin above his master Hilary? With regard to doctrine, certainly not; and as to zeal, courage, holiness, it is not for me to say which was greater, the master’s or the disciple’s. But what I can say is that Hilary was chiefly a teacher, and Martin was chiefly a thaumaturgus. Now, for the conversion of the people, the thaumaturgus is more powerful than the teacher and consequently, in the memory and worship of the people, the teacher is eclipsed and effaced by the thaumaturgus.

Nowadays there is much talk about the necessity of reasoning in order to persuade men as to the reality of divine things: but that is forgetting Scripture and history; nay more, it is degenerating. God has not deemed it consistent with His Majesty to reason with us. He has spoken. He has said what is and what is not, and as He exacts faith in His word, He has sanctioned His word. But how has He sanctioned it? After the manner of God, not of man. By works, not by reasons: non in sermone, sed in virtute, not by the arguments of a humanly persuasive philosophy: non in persuasibilibus humane sapientiae verbis, but by displaying a power altogether divine: sed in ostensione spiritus et virtutis. And wherefore? For this profound reason: Ut fides non sit in sapientia hominum, sed in virtute Dei: that faith may not rest upon the wisdom of man, but upon the power of God (1 Corinthians ii. 4). But now men will not have it so: they tell us that in Jesus Christ the theurgist wrongs the moralist; that miracles are a blemish in so sublime an ideal. But they cannot reverse this order. They cannot abolish the Gospel, nor history. Begging the pardon of the learned men of our age and their obsequious followers: not only did Christ work miracles, but He established the faith upon the foundation of miracles. And the same Christ, not to confirm His own miracles which are the support of all others, but out of compassion for us, who are so prone to forgetfulness, and who are more impressed by what we see than by what we hear. the same Jesus Christ has placed in his Church, and that for all time, the power of working miracles. Our age has some, and will see yet more. The fourth century witnessed in particular those of Saint Martin.

“The working of wonders seemed mere play to him. All nature obeyed him. The animals were subject to him. Alas! cried the Saint one day: the very serpents listen to me, and men refuse to hear me. Men, however, often did hear him. The whole of Gaul heard him. Not only Aquitaine, but also Celtic and Belgic Gaul. Who could resist words enforced by so many prodigies? In all these provinces he overthrew the idols one after another, reduced the statues to powder, burnt or demolished all the temples, destroyed the sacred groves and all the haunts of idolatry. Was it lawful? you may ask. If I study the legislation of Constantine and Constantius, perhaps it was. But this I know: Martin, eaten up with zeal for the house of the Lord, was obeying none but the spirit of God. And I must add, that against the fury of the pagan population Martin’s only arms were the miracles he wrought, the visible assistance of Angels sometimes granted him, and, above all, the prayers and tears he poured out before God, when the hard-heartedness of the people resisted the power of his words and of his wonders. With these means Martin changed the face of the country. Where he found scarcely a Christian on his arrival, he left scarcely an infidel at his departure. The temples of the idols were immediately replaced by temples of the true God; for, says Sulpicius Severus, as soon as he had destroyed the homes of superstition, he built churches and monasteries. It is thus that all Europe is covered with sanctuaries bearing the name of Saint Martin” (Cardinal Pie, Sermon preached in the cathedral of Tours, on the Sunday following the patronal feast of Saint Martin, Nov. 14th, 1858).

His beneficial actions did not cease with his death. They alone explain the uninterrupted concourse of people to his holy tomb. His numerous feasts in the year, the Deposition or Natalis, the Ordination, Subvention and Reversion, did not weary the piety of the faithful. Kept everywhere as a holiday of obligation, and bringing with it the brief return of bright weather known as Saint Martin’s summer, the eleventh of November rivalled with Saint John’s day in the rejoicings it occasioned in Latin Christendom. Martin was the joy of all, and the helper of all. Saint Gregory of Tours does not hesitate to call his blessed predecessor the special patron of the whole world, while monks and clerics, soldiers, knights, travellers and inn-keepers on account of his long journeys, charitable associations of every kind in memory of the cloak of Amiens, have never ceased to claim their peculiar right to the great Pontiff’s benevolence. Hungary, the generous land which gave him to us, without exhausting its own provision for the future, rightly reckons him among its most powerful protectors. But to France he was a father: in the same manner as he laboured for the unity of the faith in that land, he presided also over the formation of national unity, and he watches over its continuance. As the pilgrimage of Tours preceded that of Compostella. in the Church, the cloak of Saint Martin led the Frankish armies to battle even before the oriflamme of Saint Denis. “How,” said Clovis, “can we hope for victory, if we offend blessed Martin?”

* * * * *

O holy Martin, have compassion on our depth of misery! A winter more severe than that which caused you to divide your cloak now rages over the world. Many perish in the icy night brought on by the extinction of faith and the cooling of charity. Come to the aid of those unfortunates, whose torpor prevents them from asking assistance. Wait not for them to pray, but forestall them for the love of Christ in whose name the poor man of Amiens implored you, whereas they scarcely know how to utter it. And yet their nakedness is worse than the beggar’s, stripped as they are of the garment of grace, which their fathers received from thee and handed down to posterity.

How lamentable, above all, has become the destitution of France, which you once enriched with the blessings of Heaven, and where your benefits have been requited with such injuries! Deign to consider, however, that our days have seen the beginning of reparation, close by your holy tomb restored to our filial veneration. Look upon the piety of those grand Christians whose hearts were able, like the generosity of the multitude, to rise to the height of the greatest projects. See the pilgrims, however reduced their numbers, now taking once more the road to Tours, traversed so often by people and kings in better days of its history. Has that history of the brightest days of the Church, of the reign of Christ the King, come to an end, O Martin? Let the enemy imagine he has already sealed our tomb. But the story of your miracles tells us that you can raise up even the dead. Was not the catechumen of Liguge snatched from the land of the living when you called him back to life and Baptism? Supposing that, like him, we were already among those whom the Lord remembers no more, the man or the country that has Martin for protector and father need never yield to despair. If you deign to bear us in mind, the Angels will come and say again to the supreme Judge: “This is the man, this is the nation for whom Martin prays,” and they will be commanded to draw us out of the dark regions where dwell the people without glory, and to restore us to Martin, and to our noble destinies.

Your zeal, however, for the advancement of God’s kingdom knew no limits. Inspire, then, strengthen and multiply the apostles all over the world who, like you, are driving out the remnants of infidelity. Restore Christian Europe which still honours your name, to the unity so unhappily dissolved by schism and heresy. In spite of the many efforts to the contrary, maintain your noble fatherland in its post of honour, and in its traditions of brave fidelity. May your devout clients in all lands experience that your right arm still suffices to protect those who implore you. In Heaven today, as the Church sings, the Angels are full of joy, the Saints proclaim your glory, the Virgins surround you saying: “Remain with us for ever.” Is not this the continuation of what your life was here on Earth when you and the virgins vied with each other in showing mutual veneration, when Mary their Queen accompanied by Thecla and Agnes loved to spend long hours with you in your cell, Marmoutier, which thus became, says your historian, like the dwellings of the Angels? Imitating their brothers and sisters in Heaven, virgins and monks, clergy and pontiffs turn to you, never fearing that their numbers will cause any one of them to receive less, knowing that your life is a light sufficient to enlighten all and that one glance from Martin will secure to them the blessings of the Lord.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Cotyaeum in Phrygia, during the persecution of Diocletian, the celebrated martyrdom of St. Mennas, Egyptian soldier, who cast off the military belt and obtained the grace of serving the King of heaven secretly in the desert. Afterwards coming out publicly, and freely declaring himself a Christian, he was first subjected to dire torments, and finally kneeling in prayer, and giving thanks to Our Lord Jesus Christ, he was struck with the sword. After his death he was renowned for many miracles.

At Ravenna, the holy martyrs Valentine, Felician and Victorinus, who were crowned in the persecution of Diocletian.

In Mesopotamia, St. Athenodorus, martyr, who was subjected to fire and other torments under the same Diocletian and the governor Eleusius. He was at length sentenced to capital punishment, but the executioner having fallen down and no other person daring to strike him with the sword, he passed to his repose in the Lord while praying.

At Lyons, St. Veranus, bishop, whose life was illustrated by his faith and other virtues.

In the monastery of Crypta-Ferrata near Frascati, the holy abbot, Bartholomew, companion of blessed Nilus, whose life he wrote.

In the province of Abruzzo, blessed Mennas, solitary, whose virtues and miracles are mentioned by Pope St. Gregory.

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

Thanks be to God.

10 NOVEMBER – SAINT ANDREW AVELLINO (Confessor)

 

Andrew Avellino, formerly called Lancelot, was born at Castro Nuovo, a small town in Sicily, in 1521. While still an infant he gave evident signs of future holiness. He left his father’s house to study the liberal arts, in the pursuit of which he passed so blamelessly through the slippery age of youth, as ever to keep before his eyes the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. Of a comely appearance, he was so great a lover of holy purity that he was able to escape snares laid for his chastity by shameless women, and even to repel open attacks. After being made a cleric, he went to Naples to study law and there took his degree. Meanwhile he was promoted to the priesthood, after which he began to plead, but only in the ecclesiastical court and for private individuals, in accordance with the prescriptions of Canon Law. Once, however, when pleading a cause, a slight untruth escaped him, and happening soon after, in reading the Holy Scripture, to come upon these words: “The mouth that believes kills the soul, he conceived so great a sorrow and repentance for his fault, that he determined at once to abandon that kind of life. He therefore left the bar, and devoted himself entirely to the divine service and the sacred ministry. As he was eminent in priestly virtues, the Archbishop of Naples confided to him the direction of certain nuns. In discharging this office he incurred the hatred of some evil men, who attempted his life. He escaped their first assault but soon afterwards one of the assassins gave him three wounds in the face: an injury which he bore unmoved. Desirous of a more perfect life, he humbly begged to be admitted among the Regular Clerks, and on obtaining his request, he asked to be called by the name of Andrew, on account of his ardent love of the Cross.

Andrew earnestly devoted himself to the stricter manner of life he had embraced, and to the practice of the virtues, going so far as to bind himself thereto by two most difficult vows, viz; never to do his own will, and ever to advance in Christian perfection. He had the greatest respect for religious discipline, and zealously promoted it when he was superior. Whatever time remained over after the discharge of his duties and the prescriptions of the rule, he devoted to prayer and the salvation of souls. He was noted for his piety and prudence in hearing Confessions. He frequently visited the towns and villages near Naples, exercising the apostolic ministry with profit to souls. Our Lord was pleased to show by miracles how great was this holy man’s love of his neighbour. As he was once returning home late at night from hearing a sick man’s confession, a violent storm of wind and rain put out the light that was carried before him, but neither he nor his companions were wet by the pouring rain and moreover a wonderful light shining from his body enabled them to find their way through the darkness. His abstinence and patience were extraordinary, as also his humility and hatred of self. He bore the assassination of his nephew with unruffled tranquillity, withheld his family from seeking revenge, and even implored the judges to grant mercy and protection to the murderers.

He propagated the Order of the Regular Clerks in many places, and founded houses for them in Milan and Piacenza. The Cardinals Charles Borromeo and Paul of Arezzo a Regular Clerk, bore him great affection, and availed themselves of his assistance in the discharge of their pastoral office. The Virgin Mother of God he honoured with a very special love and worship. He was permitted to converse with the Angels and affirmed that when saying the Divine Office, he heard them singing with him as if in Choir. At length, after giving heroic examples of virtue, and becoming illustrious for his gift of prophecy by which he knew the secrets of hearts, and distant and future events, he was worn out with old age and broken down with labours. As he was at the foot of the Altar about to say Mass, he thrice repeated the words: “Introibo ad altare Dei” (I will go in to the altar of God) and fell down struck with apoplexy. After being strengthened by the Sacraments of the Church, he peacefully expired in the midst of his brethren on the 10th of November 1608. His body was buried at Naples in the church of Saint Paul and is honoured even to this day by as great a concourse of people as attended the interment. Finally, as he had been illustrious for miracles both in life and after death, he was beatified by Pope Urban VIII in 1624 and was canonised by Pope Clement XI in 1712.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

In the sixteenth century, in reply to the reproach of exhaustion hurled against the Church, the Holy Ghost raised from her soil an abundant harvest of sanctity. Andrew was one of His most worthy cooperators in the work of holy reformation and supernatural renaissance which then took place. Eternal Wisdom had as usual suffered Satan to go before, for his own greater shame, cloaking his evil works under the grand names of renaissance and reform. It was nine years since Saint Cajetan had departed this world, leaving it strengthened by his labours and all embalmed with the fragrancee of his virtues. The former Bishop of Theate, his companion and collaborator in founding the first Regular Clerks, was now governing the Church under the name of Paul IV when in 1556 God bestowed upon the Theatines, in the person of our Saint, an heir to the supernatural gifts, the heroic sanctity and the zeal for the sanctuary, that had characterised their father. Andrew was the friend and support of the great Bishop of Milan, Saint Charles Borromeo, whose glory in Heaven he went to share on this day. His pious writings are still used in the Church. He himself formed some admirable disciples, such as Laurence Scupoli, author of the well-known work so prized by the Bishop of Geneva, the Spiritual Combat.

* * * * *

How sweet and yet how strong were the ways of Eternal Wisdom in your regard, O blessed Andrew, when a slight fault into which you were surprised became the starting-point of your splendid sanctity! “The mouth that belies kills the soul. Seek not death in the error of your life, neither procure destruction by the works of your hands” (Wisdom i. 11, 12). You read these words of divine Wisdom and fully understood them. The aim of life then appeared to you very different in the light of the vows you were inspired to make, ever to turn away from yourself and ever to draw nearer to the Sovereign Good.

With holy Church in her Collect, we glorify our Lord for having disposed such admirable ascensions in your heart. This dai1y progress led you on from virtue to virtue, till you now behold the God of gods in Sion. Your heart and your flesh rejoiced in the living God. Your soul, absorbed in the love of His hallowed courts, fainted at the thought thereof. No wonder it was at the foot of God’s altar that your life failed you, and you entered on the passage to His blessed home. With what joy you were welcomed into the eternal choirs by those who had been on Earth your angelic associates in the divine praise!

Be not unmindful of the world’s homage. Deign to respond to the confidence of Naples and Sicily, which commend themselves to your powerful patronage. Bless the pious family of Regular Clerks Theatines, in union with Saint Cajetan your father and theirs. Obtain for us all a share in the blessings so largely bestowed on you. May the vain pleasures found in the tabernacles of sinners never seduce us, but may we prefer the humility of God’s house to all worldly pomp. If, like you, we love truth and mercy, our Lord will give to us, as He gave to you, grace and glory. Calling to mind the circumstances of your blessed end, Christians honour you as a protector against sudden and unprovided death: be our guardian at that last moment. Let the innocence of our life, or at least our repentance, prepare for us a happy exit, and may we, like you, breathe out our last sigh in hope and love (Psalm lxxxiii.).

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The birthday of the holy martyrs Tryphon and Respicius, and the virgin Nympha.

In the diocese of Agde, the holy martyrs Tiberius, Modestus and Florentia, who, after being subjected to various torments, consummated their martyrdom in the time of Diocletian.

At Antioch, the Saints Demetrius, bishop, Anian, deacon, Eustosius, and twenty other martyrs.

At Ravenna, St. Probus, a bishop, renowned for miracles.

At Orleans, St. Monitor, bishop and confessor.

In England, St. Justus, bishop, who was sent by Pope St. Gregory with Augustine, Mellitus and others to preach the Gospel in that country. There he went to his repose in the Lord, celebrated for sanctity.

At Melun, St. Leo, confessor.

At Iconium in Lycaonia, the holy women Tryphenna and Tryphosa, who profited by the preaching of the blessed Apostle St. Paul and the example of Thecla to make great progress in Christian perfection.

On the island of Paros, St. Theoctistes, virgin.

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

Thanks be to God.

9 NOVEMBER – DEDICATION OF THE BASILICA OF ST SAVIOUR (SAINT JOHN LATERAN)

 

The rites observed by the Roman Church in consecrating churches and altars were instituted by Pope Sylvester. For although from apostolic times churches were dedicated to God and called by some oratories, by others churches, and in them the Christian people assembled on the first day of the week and were wont there to pray, to hear the word of God and to receive the Holy Eucharist, yet until then they were never so solemnly consecrated, nor was an altar erected in them, anointed with chrism, to represent and signify our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our altar, victim and priest.

When the emperor Constantine had received health of body and soul by the Sacrament of Baptism, he promulgated a law to the whole world allowing the Christians to build churches. And he encouraged them in this work by his own example as well as by this edict. Thus, in his Lateran palace he dedicated a church to our Saviour, and founded the adjoining baptistery in honour of Saint John the Baptist on the very spot where he himself had been baptised by Saint Sylvester and cleansed from his leprosy. The Pontiff consecrated it on the fifth of the Ides of November, and we celebrate the memory of it on this same day on which for the first time a church was publicly dedicated in Rome, and there appeared before the eyes of the Roman people an image of our Saviour depicted on the wall.

Although later on, when consecrating the altar of the Prince of the Apostles, blessed Sylvester decreed that from then on all altars should be built of stone, the altar of the Lateran Basilica was of wood. This however is not surprising. For, from the time of Saint Peter down to Sylvester, persecution prevented the Pontiffs from having any fixed abode, so that they offered the holy Sacrifice either in crypts or cemeteries, or in the houses of the faithful, as necessity compelled them, on the said wooden altar which was hollow like a chest.

When peace was granted to the Church, Sylvester placed this altar in the first church, the Lateran. And in honour of the Prince of the Apostles, who is said to have offered the holy Sacrifice upon it, and of the other Pontiffs who had used it up to that time, he decreed that no one should celebrate Mass on it except the Roman Pontiff. The church having been injured and half ruined in consequence of fires, hostile invasions and earthquakes, was several times repaired by the care of the Popes.

After a new restoration Pope Benedict XIII solemnly consecrated it on the 28th of April 1726, and ordered the commemoration of it to be celebrated on this present day. The great works undertaken by Blessed Pius IX, were completed by Pope Leo XIII: the principal apse, which was threatening to fall through age, was very much enlarged. The ancient mosaic, already partially restored at different times, was reconstructed on the old model and transferred to the new apse, which is handsomely and richly decorated. The roof and woodwork of the transepts were renewed and ornamented. Also, a sacristy and house for the Canons were added, and a portico connecting these building with Constantine’s baptistery. The works were completed in 1884.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The consecration of churches:

“Domum Dei decet sanctitudo: Sponsum ejus Christum adoremus in ea.” Such is the lnvitatory Antiphon which sums up the liturgical thought of the day: “Holiness becomes the House of God: let us adore therein Christ her Spouse.” What is this mystery of a house that is at the same time a bride? Our churches are holy because they belong to God, and on account of the celebration of the holy Sacrifice in them, and the prayer and praise offered to the divine Guest who dwells there. More truly than the figurative tabernacle or the ancient temple, they are separated, solemnly and forever by their dedication, from all the dwellings of men, and exalted far above all earthly palaces. Still, notwithstanding the magnificent rites performed within them on the day they were consecrated to God, notwithstanding the holy oil with which their walls remain for ever impregnated, they themselves are devoid of feeling and life.

What else, then, can be meant, but that the solemn function of the dedication, and the annual Feast that commemorates it, do not point merely to the material building, but rise to living and more sublime realities? The principal glory of the noble edifice will be to symbolise those great realities. Under the shelter of its roof, the human race will be initiated into ineffable secrets, the mystery of which will be consummated in another world, in the noonday light of Heaven. Let us listen to some doctrine on this subject. God has but one sanctuary truly worthy of Him, viz: his own divine life; the tabernacle, with which He is said to surround Himself when he bends the heavens. Though impenetrable darkness to the eyes of mortals, it is the inaccessible light in which dwells in glory the ever-tranquil Trinity (Psalm xvii.) And yet, O God most high, this same divine life, which cannot be contained by the heavens, much less by the earth, you deign to communicate to our souls and thereby to make man a partaker in the divine nature. Henceforth there is no reason why the Holy Trinity should not reside in him, just as in the highest heavens. Thus, from the beginning, you could lay it down as the law of the newly-created world, and could declare to the abyss, to the earth, to the heavens, that it would be your delight to dwell with the children of men.

When, therefore, the “fullness of time came, God sent his Son, making him the son of Adam, in order that in man might dwell all the fullness of the Godhead corporally” (Colossians ii. 9). From that day forward Earth has had the advantage over Heaven. Every Christian has participation in Christ, and having become the temple of the Holy Ghost, bears God in his body (1 Corinthians vi. 20). This temple of God, says the Apostle, is holy, which you are (1 Corinthians iii. 17): the temple is the individual Christian. It is also the Christian assembly.

Whereas Christ calls the whole human race to participate in His own fullness, the human race in its turn completes Christ. It is bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, one body with Him, and, together with Him, the one victim which is to burn eternally with the fire of love upon the Altar of Heaven. At the same time, Christ is the corner-stone on which other living stones, all the predestined, are built up by the apostolic architects into the holy temple of the Lord. Thus the Church is the Bride, and by and with Christ she is the House of God. She is such already in this world, where in labour and suffering the elect ones are chiselled, and are laid successively in the places assigned them by the divine plan. She is such in the happiness of Heaven, where the eternal temple is being constructed of every soul that ascends from Earth until, when completed by the acquisition of our immortal bodies, it will be consecrated by the great High-Priest on the day of the incomparable dedication, the close of time. Then will the world, redeemed and sanctified, be solemnly restored to the Father who gave it His only-begotten Son, and God will be all in all. Then it will appear that the Church was truly the archetype shown beforehand on the Mount (Exodus xxvi. 30) of which every other sanctuary, built by the hands of men, could be but the figure and the shadow. Then will be realised the vision of Saint John: “I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying: Behold the tabernacle of God” (Apocalypse xxi. 2, 3).

The name of Church given to the Christian temple signifies the assembly of the baptised. The sanctification of the elect in its successive phases, is the soul and inspiration of that most solemn of liturgical functions, the dedication of a church. First of all, the temple with its bare walls and closed doors represents the human race created by God, and yet robbed of His presence ever since the original sin. But the heirs of the promise have not yielded to despair: they have fasted, they have prayed through the night. Morning finds them sending up to God the supplication of the penitential Psalms, the inspired expression of David’s chastisement and repentance. At early dawn there appears under the tent, where the exiles are praying, the Word our Saviour. He is represented by the Pontiff vesting in the sacred robes, as he clothed himself with our flesh. The God-Man joins His brethren in their prayer. Then, leading them to the still closed temple, He there prostrates with them and redoubles His supplications. Then around the noble edifice, unconscious of its destinies, begins the patient strategy with which the grace of God and the ministers of that grace undertake the siege of abandoned souls. Thrice the Pontiff goes around the whole building, and thrice he attempts to force open those obstinately closed doors. But his storming consists of prayers to Heaven, his force is but the merciful and respectful persuasion of human liberty. “Open, O ye gates, and the King of glory shall enter in.” At length the unbeliever yields. An entrance is gained into the temple: “Peace eternal to this house, in the name of the Eternal!” All is not yet finished however, far from it. This is but the commencement. The still profane edifice must be made into a dwelling worthy of God. The Pontiff, now within, continues to pray. His thoughts are intent upon the human race, symbolised by this future church. He knows that in its fallen state ignorance is its first evil. Accordingly he rises and, on two lines of ashes running transversely from end to end of the temple and crossing in the centre of the nave, he traces with his episcopal crozier the Greek and Latin alphabets, the elements of the two principal languages in which Scripture and Tradition are preserved. They are traced with the pastoral staff, on ashes, and on the cross, because sacred science comes to us from doctrinal authority, because it is understood only by the humble, and because it is all summed up in Jesus crucified.

Like the catechumen, the human race now enlightened requires, together with the temple, to be purified. The Pontiff makes use of the loftiest Christian symbolism in order to perfect the element of this purification which he has so much at heart: he mingles water and wine, ashes and salt, figures of the humanity and the divinity, of the death and the resurrection of our Saviour. As Christ preceded us in the waters of Baptism at the Jordan, the aspersions are begun at the Altar and continued through the whole building. Originally, at this point in the function, not only the interior and the pavement of the temple, but also the exterior of the walls, and in some places even the roof, were inundated with the sanctifying shower which drives away demons, gives this dwelling to God, and prepares it for the reception of fresh favours. In the order of the work of salvation, water is followed by oil, which confers on the Christian, in the second Sacrament, the perfection of his supernatural being, and which also makes kings, priests and pontiffs. For all these reasons, the holy oil now flows copiously over the Altar, which represents Christ our Head, Pontiff and King, that it may afterwards, like the water, find its way to the walls of the entire church. Truly is this temple henceforth worthy of the name of church: for thus baptised and consecrated with the God-Man, by water and the Holy Ghost, the stones of which it is built represent perfectly the faithful who are bound together and to the divine Corner-Stone by the imperishable cement of love.

“Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem, praise your God, O Sion!” The sacred chants which, since the beginning of the solemn function, have not ceased to enhance its sublime developments, now redouble in enthusiasm. And rising to the full height of the mystery, they hail the church, now so intimately associated to the Altar, as the Bride of the Lamb. From this Altar ascend clouds of incense which, mounting to the roof and stealing down the nave, impregnate the whole temple with the perfumes of the Spouse. And now the Subdeacons come forward, presenting for the Pontiff’s blessing the gifts made to the Bride on this great day, and the vesture she has prepared for herself and for the Lord.

In the early Middle Ages, it was only at this point that took place the triumphant translation of the relics destined to be placed in the Altar, after having remained all this time in the tent outside, as it were in exile. This ceremony is still, in the East, the conclusion of the Dedication rites. “I go to prepare a place for you,” said our Lord, “and when I have prepared it, I will come again, and will take you to myself, that where I am you also may be.” In the Greek church, the Pontiff lays the holy relics on the sacred disc (corresponding to our paten), and carries them raised above his head, honouring equally with the venerable mysteries these precious remains, because the Apostle said of the faithful: “You are the body of Christ and His members.” In the West, up to the thirteenth century and even later, the sacred Body of our Lord Himself in the holy Eucharist was sealed up in the Altar with the relics of the Saints. It was the “Church united to the Redeemer, the Bride to the Bridegroom,” says Saint Peter Damian. It was the final consummation, the passage from time to eternity.

The consecration of the Lateran Basilica:

In the fourth century of our era, the cessation of persecution seemed to give the world a foretaste of its future entrance into eternal peace. “Glory to the Almighty! Glory to the Redeemer of our souls!” wrote Eusebius at the opening of the tenth and last book of his History. Himself a witness of the triumph, he describes the admirable spectacle everywhere displayed by the dedication of the new sanctuaries. In city after city the Bishops assembled and crowds flocked together. From nation to nation, the good-will of mutual charity, of common faith, and of recollected joy, so harmonised all hearts that the unity of Christ’s body was clearly manifested in these multitudes animated by the same inspiration of the Holy Ghost. It was the fulfilment of the ancient prophecies: the living city of the living God, where all, whatever their age or sex, praise together the Author of all good things. How solemn were then the rites of the Church! The complete perfection therein displayed by the Pontiffs, the enthusiasm of the psalmody, the inspired readings, the celebration of the ineffable Mysteries, formed a divine pageantry.

Constantine had placed the imperial treasure at the disposal of the Bishops, and he himself stimulated their zeal for what he called in his edicts the work of the churches. Rome, the place of his victory by the Cross, the capital of the now Christian world, was the first to benefit by the prince’s munificence. In a series of dedications to the glory of the holy Apostles and Martyrs, Sylvester, the Pontiff of peace, took possession of the Eternal City in the name of the true God. Today is the birthday of the mother and mistress of churches, called “of our Saviour, Aula Dei (God’s palace), the golden Basilica.” It is a new Sinai where the apostolic oracles and so many Councils have made known to the world the law of salvation. No wonder this feast is celebrated by the whole world.

Although the Popes for centuries have ceased to dwell in the Lateran palace, the Basilica still holds the first rank. It is as true now, as it was in the time of Saint Peter Damian, to say that “as our Saviour is the Head of the elect, so the church which bears His name is the head of all churches. Those of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, on its right and left, are the two arms with which this sovereign and universal church embraces the whole earth, saving all those who desire salvation, cherishing and protecting them in its maternal bosom.” And Saint Peter Damian applied conjointly to our Saviour and His Basilica the words of the prophet Zacharias: “Behold a Man, the Orient is his name: and under him will he spring up, and will build a temple to the Lord. Yea, he will build a temple to the Lord: and he will bear the glory, and will sit, and rule upon his throne: and he will be a priest upon his throne” (Zacharias vi. 12, 13).

It is still at the Lateran Basilica that the Roman Pontiffs take official possession of their See. There each year, in the name of the Pope as Bishop of Rome, the episcopal functions are performed, viz: the blessing of the Holy Oils on Maundy Thursday, and on Holy Saturday the blessing of the Font, solemn Baptism and Confirmation, and the general Ordination. Could the great poet of the age of triumph, Prudentius, return to life in these our days, he might still say: “The Roman people hasten in eager crowds to the Lateran, from which they return marked with the sacred sign, with the royal chrism. And are we yet to doubt that Rome is consecrated to you, O Christ!”

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Amasea, in Pontus, the birthday of St. Theodore, a soldier, in the time of the emperor Maximian. For the confession of Christ, he was severely scourged and sent to prison, where he was comforted by an apparition of our Lord, who exhorted him to act with courage and constancy. He was finally stretched on the rack, lacerated with iron hooks till his intestines were laid bare, and then cast into the flames to be burned alive. His glorious deeds have been celebrated in a magnificent oration by St. Gregory of Nyssa.

At Tyana in Cappadocia, the martyrdom of St. Orestes, under the emperor Diocletian.

At Thessalonica, St. Alexander, martyr, during the reign of Maximian.

At Bourges, St. Ursinus, confessor, who was ordained at Rome by the successors of the apostles and appointed first bishop of that city.

At Naples in Campania, St. Agrippinus, a bishop renowned for miracles.

At Constantinople, the holy virgins Eustolia, a native of Rome, and Sopatra, daughter of the emperor Maurice.

At Berytus in Syria, the Commemoration of the Image of our Saviour, which being fastened to a cross by the Jews, poured out blood so copiously that the Eastern and Western Churches received abundantly of it.

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

Thanks be to God.