6 SEPTEMBER – FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Epistle – Galatians v. 25‒26, vi. 1‒10

Brethren, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be made desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. And if a man be overtaken in any fault, you, who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens; and so you will fulfil the law of Christ. For if any man think himself to be some thing, whereas he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let every one prove his own work, and so he will have glory in himself only, and not in another. For everyone will bear his own burden. And let him that is instructed in the word, communicate to him that instructs him, in all good things. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man will sow, those also will he reap. For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also will reap corruption. But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit will reap life everlasting. And in doing good, let us not fail. For in due time we will reap, not failing. Therefore, while we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Holy Church resumes the lesson of Saint Paul where she left it last Sunday. The Spiritual life, the life produced in our souls by the Holy Spirit in place of the former life of the flesh — this is still the subject of the Apostle’s teaching. When the flesh has been subdued, we must take care and not suppose that the structure of our perfection is completed. Not only must the combat be kept up after the victory under penalty of losing all we have won, but we must also be on the watch lest one or other of the heads of the triple concupiscence take advantage of the soul’s efforts being elsewhere directed to raise itself against us and sting us all the more terribly, because it is left to do just as it pleases. The Apostle warns us here of vain-glory, and well he may, for vain-glory is more than other enemies always in a menacing attitude, ready to infuse its subtle poison even into acts of humility and penance. Hence, the Christian who is desirous to serve God, and not his own gratification, by the virtues he practises, must keep up a specially active vigilance over this passion.

Just let us think, for a moment, on the madness that culprit would be guilty of who, having his sentence to death commuted for a severe flogging, should take pride in the stripes left on his body by the whip! May this madness never be ours! It would seem, however, as though it were far from being impossible, seeing how the Apostle, immediately after his telling us to mortify our flesh, bids us take heed of vainglory. In fact, we are not safe on this subject excepting inasmuch as the outward humiliation inflicted by us on our body has this for its principle, that our soul should voluntarily humble herself at the sight of her miseries. The ancient Philosophers, too, had their maxims about the restraint of the senses. But those among them who practised those admirably worded maxims found them a stepping-stone for their pride to mount up mountains high in self-conceit. It could not be otherwise, for they were totally devoid of anything like the sentiments which actuated our Fathers in the faith who, when they clad themselves in sackcloth and prostrated on the ground (1 Paralipomenon xxi. 16), cried out from the heart-felt conviction of the miseries of human nature: “Have mercy on me, God, according to your great mercy, for I was conceived in iniquities, and my sin is ever before me! (Psalm l.)

To practise bodily mortification with a view to get the reputation of being saints, is it not doing what Saint Paul here calls solving in the flesh, that, in due time, that is, on the day when the intentions of our hearts will be made manifest (1 Corinthians iv. 5) we may reap not life and glory everlasting, but endless disgrace and shame? Among the works of the flesh mentioned in last Sunday’s Epistle, we found contentions, dissensions and jealousies (Galatians v. 19‒21), all of which are the ordinary outcome of this vain-glory against which the Apostle is now warning us. The production of such rotten fruits would be an unmistakeable sign that the heavenly sap of grace had gone from our souls, and, that in its stead there had been brought the fermentation of sin; and that now, having made ourselves slaves, as of old, we must tremble because of the penalties threatened by God’s law. God is not mocked, and as to the confidence which generous fidelity of love imparts to those who live by the Spirit — it would, in the case we are now supposing, be but a hypocritical counterfeit of the holy liberty of the children of God. They alone are his children, whom the Holy Spirit leads (Romans viii. 14), and leads them in charity (Galatians iv. 13). Those others are led on by the flesh, and such cannot please God (Romans viii. 8).

If, on the contrary, we would have an equally unmistakeable sign which is quite compatible with the obscurities of faith, that we are really in possession of divine Union, let us not take occasion from the sight of other’s defects and faults to be puffed up with pride, but rather, from the consideration of our own miseries, be indulgent to every one else. If others fall, let us give them a helping and prudent hand. Let us bear one another’s burdens along the road of life and then, having thus fulfilled the law of Christ, we will know (and oh the joy there is in such knowing!) that we abide in Him, and He in us (1 John iv. 13). These most thrilling words which were made use of by our Lord to express the future intimacy He would have with whomsoever should eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood in Holy Communion (1 John vi. 57), Saint John, who had told them to us, takes them and uses them in his Epistles, and (let us mark the deep mystery of the application) applies them to whoever in the Holy Ghost observes the great commandment of loving his neighbour (1 John iii. 23, 24; iv. 12, 13).

Would to God we could ever have ringing in our ears the saying of the Apostle: “While we have time, let us work good to all men!” For the day will come, and it is not so very far off, when the Angel, carrying the mysterious Book, and having one foot on the earth and the other on the sea, will make his mighty voice as that of a lion he heard through the universe and, with his hand lifted up towards Heaven, will swear by Him that lives forever and ever, that time “will be no more!” (Apocalypse x. 1‒6) Then will man reap with joy what he will have sown in tears (Psalm cxxv. 5) he failed not, he grew not weary, of doing good while in the dreary land of his exile — still less will he ever tire of the everlasting harvest, which is to be in the living light of the Eternal Day.

Gospel – Luke vii. 11‒16

At that time, Jesus went into a city that is called Naim; and there went with Him His disciples, and a great multitude. And when He came near the gate of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow: and a great multitude of the city was with her. Whom when the Lord had seen, being moved with mercy towards her, He said to her: “Weep not.” And He came near and touched the bier. And they that carried it, stood still. And He said: “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And he that was dead, sat up, and began to speak. And He gave him to his mother. And there came a fear on them all: and they glorified God, saying: “A great prophet is risen up among us,” and, “God has visited His people.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This is the second time during the Year, holy Church offers this Gospel to our consideration. We cannot be surprised at this, for the Fathers selected by her as its interpreters tell us, on both of these occasions, that the afflicted mother, who follows her son to the grave is the Church herself. The first time we saw her under this symbol of a mother mourning for her child was in the penitential season of Lent. She was then, by her fasting and prayer (united as those were with her Jesus’ sufferings) preparing the resurrection of such of our brethren as were dead in sin. Their resurrection was realised and we had them, in all the fullness of their new life, seated, side by side with us at the Paschal Table. What exquisite joy on that Feast of Feasts inundated the Mother’s heart as she thus shared in the triumphant gladness of her divine Spouse! He, her Jesus was, by His one Resurrection, twice over the conqueror of death: He rose from the grave, and He gave back the child to the Mother. The Disciples of this Risen Lord who follow Him closely by their observance of the evangelical counsels, yes, they, and the whole multitude that associated themselves with the Church, glorified Jesus for His wonderful works, and sang the praises of that God who thus vouchsafed to visit His people.

The Mother ceased to weep. But since then the Spouse has again left her to return to His Father. She has resumed her widow’s weeds, and her sufferings are continually adding to the already well-near insupportable torture of her exile. And, from where these sufferings? From the relapses of so many of those ungrateful children of hers to whom she had given a second birth (Galatians iv. 12) and at the cost of such pains and tears! The countless cares she then spent over her sinners, and that new life she gave them in the presence of her dying Jesus, all this made each of the penitents during the Great Week as though he were the only son of that Mother. What an intense grief, says Saint John Chrysostom, that so loving a Mother should see them relapsing after the communion of such mysteries into sin which kills them! “Spare me,” as she may well say, in the words which the holy Doctor puts into the Apostle’s mouth, “Spare me! No other child, once born into this world, ever made his Mother suffer the pangs of childbirth over again!”

To repair the relapse of a sinner costs her no less travail, than the giving birth to such as had never believed.

And if we compare these times of ours with the period when sainted Pastors made her words be respected all over the world, is there a single Christian who is still faithful to the Church who does not feel impelled, by such contrast, to be more and more devoted to a Mother so abandoned as she now is? Let us listen to the eloquent words of Saint Laurence Justinian on this subject. “Then,” says he, “all resplendent with the mystic jewels with which the Bridegroom had beautified her on the wedding-day, she thrilled with joy at the increase of her children, both in merit and number. She urged them to ascend to ever greater heights. She offered them to God, she raised them in her arms up towards Heaven. Obeyed by them, she was, in all truth, the mother of fair love and fear (Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 24). She was beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array (Canticles vi. 9). She stretched out her branches as the turpentine tree, and beneath their shadow she sheltered them she had begotten against the heat, and the tempest, and the rain. So long, then, as she could, she laboured, feeding at her breasts all those she was able to assemble. But her zeal, great as it was, has redoubled from the time she perceived that many, yea very many, had lost their first fervour. Now for many years, she is mourning at the sight of how, each day, her Creator is offended, how great are the losses she sustains, and how so many of her children suffer death. She that was once robed in scarlet, has put on mourning garments. Her fragrance is no longer felt by the world. Instead of a golden girdle, she has but a cord, and instead of the rich ornament of her breast, she is vested in haircloth (Isaias iii. 24) Her lamentations and tears are ceaseless. Ceaseless is her prayer striving if, by some way, she may make the present as beautiful as in times past. And yet, as though it were impossible for her to call back that lovely past, she seems wearied at such supplication. The word of the prophet has come true: They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together. There is none that cloth good, no, not one!.. (Psalm xiii. 3) The manifold sins committed by the Church’s children against the divine precepts show that they who so sin are rotten members, members alien to the body of Christ. Nevertheless, the Church forgets not that she gave them birth in the laver of salvation. She forgets not the promises they then made to renounce the devil, and the pomps of the world, and all sin. Therefore does she weep over their fall, being their true mother and never losing the hope of winning their resurrection by her tears. What a flood of tears is thus every day shed before God! What fervent prayers does not this spotless virgin send by the ministry of the holy Angels up to Christ who is the salvation of sinners! In the secret of hearts, in lonely retreats, as well as in her public temples, she cries out to the divine mercy that they who are now buried in the filth of vice, may be all restored to life. Who will tell the joy of her heart when she receives back living, the children she mourned over as dead? If the conversion of sinners is such a joy to Heaven (Luke xv. 7), what must it be to such a Mother? According to the multitude of the sorrows of her heart so will be the consolations, giving joy to her soul (Psalm xciii. 19).

It is the duty of us Christians who, by God’s mercy, have been preserved from the general decay, to share in the anguish of our Mother, the Church. We should humbly but fervently co-operate with her in all her zealous endeavours to reclaim our fallen brethren. We surely can never be satisfied with not being of the number of those senseless sons who are a sorrow to their Mother (Proverbs xvii. 25), and despise the labour of her that bore them (Proverbs xxx. 17). Had we not the Holy Spirit to tell us how he that honours his Mother, is as one that lays up to himself a treasure? The thought of what our birth cost her (Ecclesiasticus iii. 5) would force us to do everything that lies in our power to comfort her. She is the dear Bride of the Incarnate Word, and our souls, too, aspire to union with Him. Let us prove that such Union is really ours by doing as the Church does, that is, by showing in our acts the one thought, the one love, which the divine Spouse always imparts to souls that enjoy holy intimacy with Him, because there is nothing He Himself has so much at heart — the thought of bringing the whole world to give glory to His Eternal Father, and the love of procuring salvation for sinners.

5 SEPTEMBER – SAINT LAWRENCE JUSTINIAN (Bishop and Confessor)

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

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

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

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

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

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

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

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At Toledo, St. Obdulia, virgin.

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

Thanks be to God.

4 SEPTEMBER – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

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

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

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

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

At Treves, St. Marcellus, bishop and martyr.

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

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

At Rimini, St. Marinus, deacon.

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

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

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

At Viterbo, blessed Rose, virgin.

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

Thanks be to God.

3 SEPTEMBER – SAINT PIUS X (Pope and Confessor)

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

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

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

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

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

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

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

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

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

At Cordova in Spain, St. Sandalus, martyr.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks be to God.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1 SEPTEMBER – SAINT GILES (Abbot and Confessor)

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

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Benevento, twelve saintly brothers, martyrs.

In Palestine, the Saints Josue and Gedeon.

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

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

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

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

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

In Spain, the holy martyrs Vincent and Laetus.

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

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

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

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

At Le Mans, St. Victorius, bishop.

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

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

Thanks be to God.

SEPTEMBER – THE MONTH OF THE SEVEN SORROWS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a devotion which dates back to the thirteenth century when the first altar to the Mater Dolorosa (Sorrowful Mother) was erected in a monastery in Germany. In 1233 the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to seven young men of noble rank of Florence and asked them to withdraw from the world and form a new religious order devoted particularly to her Seven Sorrows. The “Religious Servants of the Holy Virgin,” also known as the Servite Order, adopted the Rule of Saint Augustine, and Saint Juliana Falconieri founded the Third Order for women in 1306.

Devotion to the Seven Sorrows of Mary should be practised especially by those who wish to rid themselves of sinful habits. This devotion:

• nourishes the spirit of compunction;
  
• affords great consolation;
  
• strengthens confidence in God's mercy;
  
• draws down the special protection of the Blessed Mother in the hour of temptation;
  
• preserves the converted sinner from relapsing into sin.

According to Saint Bridget of Sweden, the Blessed Virgin Mary revealed to her that she will grant those who daily honour her by saying seven Hail Marys while meditating on her tears and sorrows the following seven graces:

1. I will grant peace to their families.
   
2. They will be enlightened about the divine mysteries.
   
3. I will console them in their pains and I will accompany them in their work.
   
4. I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my divine Son or the sanctification of their souls.
   
5. I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives.
   
6. I will visibly help them at the moment of their death - they will see the face of their mother.
   
7. I have obtained this grace form my divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and sorrows will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness, since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son will be their eternal consolation and joy.

And, according to Saint Alphonsus Ligouri, Our Lord revealed to Saint Elizabeth of Hungary that He will grant those who are devoted to the Seven Sorrows of His Blessed Mother the following four graces:

1. That those who invoke the divine Mother by her sorrows, before death will merit to obtain true repentance of all their sins.
   
2. That He will protect such in their tribulations, especially at the hour of death.
   
3. That He will impress on them the memory of His Passion, and that they will have their reward for it in Heaven.
   
4. That He will commit such devout servants to the hands of Mary, that she may dispose of them according to her pleasure, and obtain for them all the graces she desires.
   

31 AUGUST – SAINT RAYMUND NONNATUS (Bishop and Confessor)

Raymund, surnamed Nonnatus on account of his having been brought into the world in an unusual manner after the death of his mother, was of a pious and noble family of Portelli in Catalonia. Raymund was born in about 1200 AD. From his very infancy he showed signs of his future holiness for, despising childish amusements and the attractions of the world, he applied himself to the practice of piety so that all wondered at his virtue, which far surpassed his age. As he grew older he began his studies, but after a short time he returned at his father’s command to live in the country. He frequently visited the chapel of Saint Nicholas near Portelli to venerate in it a holy image of the Mother of God, which is still much honoured by the faithful. There he would pour out his prayers, begging God’s holy Mother to adopt him for her son and to deign to teach him the way of salvation and the science of the saints.

The most benign Virgin heard his prayer and gave him to understand that it would greatly please her if he entered the religious Order lately founded by her inspiration, under the name of the Order of ‘Ransom, or of Mercy for the redemption of captives.’ Upon this Raymund at once set out for Barcelona, there to embrace that institute so full of brotherly charity. Thus enrolled in the army of holy religion, he persevered in perpetual virginity, which he had already consecrated to the blessed Virgin. He excelled also in every other virtue, most especially in charity towards those Christians who were living in misery as slaves of the pagans. He was sent to Africa to redeem them, and freed many from slavery. But when he had exhausted his money, rather than abandon others who were in danger of losing their faith, he gave himself up to the barbarians as a pledge for their ransom. Burning with a most ardent desire for the salvation of souls, be converted several Muslims to Christ by his preaching. On this account he was thrown into a close prison, and after many tortures his lips were pierced through and fastened together with an iron padlock, which cruel martyrdom he endured for a long time.

This and his other noble deeds spread the fame of his sanctity far and near, so that Gregory IX determined to enrol him in the august college of the cardinals of the holy Roman Church. When raised to that dignity the man of God shrank from all pomp and clung always to religious humility. On his way to Rome, as soon as he reached Cardona, he was attacked by his last illness, and earnestly begged to be strengthened by the Sacraments of the Church. As his illness grew worse and the priest delayed to come, angels appeared, clothed in the religious habit of his Order, and refreshed him with the saving Viaticum. Having received It he gave thanks to God, and passed to our Lord on the last Sunday of August in 1240. Contentions arose concerning the place where he should be buried. His coffin was therefore placed upon a blind mule and by the will of God it was taken to the chapel of Saint Nicholas, that it might be buried in that place where he had first begun a more perfect life. A convent of his Order was built on the spot, and there famous for many signs and miracles he is honoured by the concourse of all the faithful of Catalonia, who come there to fulfil their vows.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

August closes as it began, with a feast of deliverance, as though that were the divine seal set by eternal Wisdom upon this month — the mouth when holy Church makes the works and ways of divine Wisdom the special object of her contemplation.

Upon the fall of our first parents and their expulsion from Paradise, the Word and Wisdom of God, that is, the second Person of the blessed Trinity, began the great work of our deliverance —that magnificent work of human redemption which, by an all-gracious, eternal decree of the three divine Persons, was to be wrought out by the Son of God in our flesh. And as that blessed Saviour, in His infinite wisdom, made spontaneous choice of sorrows, of sufferings, and of death on a cross, as the best means of our redemption, so has He always allotted to His best loved friends, the kind of life which He had deliberately chosen for Himself, that is, the way of the cross. And the nearest and dearest to Him were those who were predestined, like His blessed Mother, the Mater Dolorosa, to have the honour of being most like Himself, the Man of sorrows. Hence the toils and trials of the greatest saints. Hence the great deliverances wrought by them, and their heroic victories over the world and over the spirits of wickedness in the high places.

On the feasts of Saints Raymund of Pegnafort and Peter Nolasco we saw something of the origin of the illustrious Order to which Raymund Nonnatus added such glory. Soon the august foundress herself, our Lady of Mercy, will come in person to receive the expression of the world’s gratitude for so many benefits.

TO what a length, O illustrious saint, did you follow the counsel of the wise man! ‘The bands of wisdom,’ says he, ‘are a healthful binding’ (Ecclesiasticus vi. 31). And, not satisfied with putting ‘your feet into her fetters and your neck into her chains,’ (Ecclesiasticus vi. 25), in the joy of you love you offered your lips to the dreadful padlock, not mentioned by the son of Sirach. But what a reward is yours now that this Wisdom of the Father, whose twofold precept of charity you so fully carried out, inebriates you with the torrent of eternal delights, adorning your brow with the glory and grace which radiate from her own beauty! We would fain be forever with you near that throne of light. Teach us, then, how to walk, in this world, by the beautiful ways and peaceable paths of Wisdom. Deliver our souls, if they be still captive in sin. Break the chains of our self-love, and give us instead those blessed bands of Wisdom which are humility, abnegation, self-forgetfulness, love of our brethren for God’s sake, and love of God for His own sake.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Treves, the birthday of St. Paulimis, a bishop, who was exiled for the Catholic faith by the Arian emperor Constantius in the time of the Arian persecution. By having to change the place of his exile which was beyond the limits of Christendom, he became wearied unto death, and finally, dying in Phrygia, received a crown from the Lord for his blessed martyrdom.

Also the holy martyrs Robustian and Mark.

At Transaquae, among the Marsi near lake Celano, the birthday of the holy martyrs Cresidius, priest, and his companions, who were crowned with martyrdom in the persecution of Maximinus.

At Caesarea in Cappadocia, the Saints Theodotus, Rufina and Ammia. The first two were the parents of the martyr St. Mamas, who was born in prison, and who Ammia brought up.

At Athens, St. Aristides, most celebrated for his faith and wisdom, who presented to the emperor Hadrian a treatise on the Christian religion containing the exposition of our doctrine. In the presence of the emperor he also delivered a discourse in which he clearly demonstrated that Jesus Christ is the only God.

At Auxerre, St. Optatus, bishop and confessor.

In England, St. Aidan, bishop of Lindisfarne. When St. Cuthbert, then a shepherd, saw his soul going up to heaven, he left his sheep and became a monk.

At Nusco, St. Amatus, bishop.

On Mount Senario near Florence, blessed Bonajuncta, confessor, one of the seven founders of the Order of the Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who gave up his soul into the hands of the Lord while discoursing to his brethren on the Passion of Our Saviour.

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

Thanks be to God.