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?”

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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.

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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 SAINT 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.

9 NOVEMBER – TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

 Dom Prosper Guéranger:

According to Honorius of Autun, the Mass of today has reference to the days of Antichrist. The Church, foreseeing the reign of the man of sin (2 Thessalonians ii. 3) and as though she were actually undergoing the persecution, which is to surpass all others — she takes her Introit of this twenty-second Sunday from the Psalm De profundis (Psalm cxxix.) If unitedly with this prophetic sense we would apply these words practically to our own personal miseries, we must remember the Gospel we had eight days ago, and which formerly was the one appointed for the present Sunday. Each one of us will recognise himself in the person of the insolvent debtor who has nothing to trust to but his master’s goodness, and in our deep humiliation we will exclaim: “If you, Lord, mark iniquities, who will endure it?”

Epistle – Philippians i. 6‒11

Brethren, we are confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you, will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. As it is meet for me to think this for you all: for that I have you in my heart; and that in my bands, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers of my joy. For God is my witness, how I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your charity may more and more abound in knowledge and in all understanding, that you may approve the better things, that you may be sincere and without offence until the day of Christ. Filled with the fruits of justice, through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Saint Paul, in the Church’s name, again invites our attention to the near approach of the Last Day. But what on the previous Sunday he called the evil day, he now, in the short passage taken from his Epistle to the Philippians which has just been read to us, calls and twice over, the day of Christ Jesus. The Epistle to the Philippians is full of loving confidence. Its tone is decidedly one of joy, and yet it plainly shows us that persecution was raging against the Church, and that the old enemy was making capital of the storm to stir up evil passions, even amid the very flock of Christ. The Apostle is in chains. The envy and treachery of false brethren intensify his sufferings (Philippians I. 15, 17) Still, joy predominates in his heart over everything else because he is come to that perfection of love in which divine charity is enkindled by suffering more even than by the sweetest spiritual caresses. To him, to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippian i. 21). He cannot make up his mind which of the two to choose: death, which would give him the bliss of being with his Jesus (Philippians i. 23), or life, which will add to his merits and his labours for the salvation of men (Philippians i. 22). What are all personal considerations to him? His one joy for both the present and the future is that Christ may be known and glorified, no matter how! (Philippians i. 18).

As to his hopes and expectations, he cannot be disappointed for Christ is sure to be glorified in his body, by its life and by its death! (Philippians i. 24‒27), hence in Paul’s soul that sublime indifference which is the climax of the Christian life. It is, of course, a totally different thing from that fatal apathy, to which the false mystics of the seventeenth century pretended to reduce the love of man’s heart. What tender affection has not this convert of Damascus for his brethren once he has reached this point of perfection! “God,” says he, “is my witness, how I long after you all, in the bowels of Jesus Christ!” The one ambition which rules and absorbs him is that God, who has begun in them the work, which is good by excellence, the work of Christian perfection (such as we know had been wrought in the Apostle himself), may be continued and perfected in them all by the day when Christ is to appear in His glory (Colossians iii. 4). This is what he prays for: that the wedding garment of those whom he has betrothed to the one Spouse (2 Corinthians xi. 2), in other words, that charity may beautify them with all its splendour for the grand Day of the eternal nuptials.

Now what is the sure means by which charity is to be perfected in them? It must abound, more and more, in knowledge and in all understanding of salvation, that is, in Faith. It is Faith that constitutes the basis of all supernatural virtue. A restricted, a diminished (Psalm xi. 2) Faith, could never support a large and high-minded charity. Those men, therefore, are deceiving themselves, whose love for revealed truth does not keep pace with their charity! Such Christianity as that believes as little as it may. It has a nervous dread of new definitions, and out of respect for error it cleverly and continually narrows the supernatural horizon. Charity, they say, is the queen of virtues. It makes them take everything easily, even lies against Truth. To give the same rights to error as to Truth is, in their estimation, the highest point of Christian civilisation grounded on love!

They quite forget that the first object of charity being God, who is substantial Truth, He has no greater enemy than a lie. They cannot understand how it is that a Christian does not do a work of love by putting on the same footing the Object beloved, and His mortal enemy! The Apostles had very different ideas: in order to make charity grow in the world, they gave it a rich sowing of truth. Every new ray of Light they put into their disciples’ hearts was an intensifying of their love. And these disciples, having, by Baptism, become themselves light (Ephesians v. 8), they were most determined to have nothing to do with darkness. In those days to deny the truth was the greatest of crimes . To expose themselves, by a want of vigilance, to infringe on the rights of truth, even in the slightest degree, was the height of imprudence (Ephesians v. 15, 17). When Christianity first shone on mankind, it found error supreme mistress of the world. Having, then, to deal with a universe that was rooted in death (Matthew iv. 16), Christianity adopted no other plan for giving it salvation than that of making the Light as bright as could be. Its only policy was to proclaim the power which truth alone has for saving man, and to assert its exclusive right to reign over this world. The triumph of the Gospel was the result: it came after three centuries of struggle — a struggle intense and violent on the side of darkness which declared itself to be supreme and was resolved to keep so — but a struggle most patient and glorious on the side of the Christians, the torrents of whose blood did but add fresh joy to the brave army, for it became the strongest possible foundation of the united Kingdom of Love and Truth.

But now, with the connivance of those whose Baptism made them, too, be Children of Light, error has regained its pretended Rights. As a natural consequence, the charity of an immense number has grown cold in proportion (Matthew xxiv. 12). Darkness is again thickening over the world as though it were in the chill of its last agony. The children of light (Ephesians v. 8) who would live up to their dignity must behave exactly as did the early Christians. They must not fear, nor be troubled. But like their forefathers and the Apostles, they must be proud to suffer for Jesus’s sake (Philippians i. 28‒30) and prize the word of life (Philippians ii. 16) as quite the dearest thing they possess: for they are convinced that, so long as truth is kept up in the world, so long is there hope for it (John viii. 32). As their only care is to make their manner of life worthy of the Gospel of Christ (Philippians i. 27). they go on, with all the simplicity of children of God, faithfully fulfilling the duties of their state of life in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation as stars of the firmament do in the night (Philippians ii. 15). “The stars shine in the night,” says Saint John Chrysostom, “they glitter in the dark. So far from growing dim amid the gloom that surrounds them, they seem all the more brilliant. So will it be with you if you are virtuous amid the wicked. Your light will shine so much the clearer.” “As the stars,” says Saint Augustine, “keep on their course in the track marked out for them by God, and grow not tired of sending forth their light in the midst of darkness, neither heed they the calamities which may be happening on Earth, so should do those holy ones whose conversation is truly in Heaven (Philippians iii. 20). They should pay no more notice as to what is said or done against them, than the stars do.”

Gospel – Matthew xxii. 15‒21

At that time the Pharisees going, consulted among themselves how to ensnare Jesus in His speech. And they sent to Him their disciples, with the Herodians, saying: “Master, we know that you are a true speaker, and teach the way of God in truth, neither care you for any man: for you do not regard the person of men. Tell us therefore what you think: is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not?” But Jesus knowing their wickedness, said: “Why do you tempt me, you hypocrites! Show me the coin or the tribute. And they offered Him a penny. And Jesus said to them: “Whose image and inscription is this?” They say to Him: “Caesar’s. Then He said to them: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Praise to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The getting truths to be diminished (Psalm xi. 2) is evidently to be a leading peril of the latter times, for during these weeks which represent the last days of the world, the Church is continually urging us to a sound and solid understanding of truth as though she considered that to be the great preservative for her children. Last Sunday she gave them, as defensive armour, the shield of faith and as an offensive weapon, the word of God. On the previous Sunday it was circumspection of mind and intelligence that she recommended to them, with a view to their preserving, during the approaching evil days, the holiness which is founded on truth. For, as she told them the previous week, their riches in all knowledge are of paramount necessity. Today, in the Epistle, she implored of them to be ever progressing in knowledge and all understanding, as being the essential means for abounding in charity, and for having the work of their sanctification perfected for the day of Christ Jesus. The Gospel comes with an appropriate finish to these instructions given us by the Apostle: it relates an event in our Lord’s life which stamps those counsels with the weightiest possible authority — the authority of the example of Him who is our divine Model. He gives His disciples the example they should follow when, like Himself, they have snares laid by the world for their destruction.

It was the last day of Jesus’s public teaching. It was almost the eve of His departure from this earth. His enemies had failed in every attempt until then made to ensnare Him. This last plot was to be unusually deep-laid. The Pharisees, who refused to recognise Caesar’s authority and denied his claim to tribute, joined issue with their adversaries, the partisans of Herod and Rome, to propose this insidious question to Jesus: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caasar, or not? If our Lord’s answer was negative, He incurred the displeasure of the government. If He took the affirmative side, He would lose the estimation of the people. With His divine prudence, He disconcerted their plans. The two parties, so strangely made friends by partnership in one common intrigue, heard the magnificent answer which was divine enough to make even Pharisees and Herodians one in the Truth: but Truth was not what they were in search of, so they both skulked back again into their old party squabbles. The league formed against our Jesus was broken. The effort made by error recoiled on its own self, as must ever be the case. And the answer it had elicited passed from the lips of our Incarnate Lord to those of His Bride, the Church, who would be ever repeating it to this world of ours, for it contains the first principle of all governments on Earth.

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”: it was the dictum most dear to the Apostles. If they boldly asserted that we must obey God rather than men (Acts v. 29), they explained the whole truth, and added: “Let every soul be subject to the higher powers: for there is no power but from God: and those that are, are ordained of God. Therefore, he that resists the power, resists the ordinance of God. And they that resist, purchase to themselves damnation. Wherefore, be subject of necessity, not only for wrath, but also for conscience’s sake. For, therefore, also you pay tribute, for they are the ministers of God serving unto this purpose” (Romans xiii. 1, 2, 5, 6). The will of God (1 Peter ii. 15) — there is the origin, there is the real greatness of all authority amongst men! Of himself man has no right to command his fellow man. The number, however imposing it may be, makes no difference with this powerlessness of men over my conscience: for whether they be one, or five hundred, I, by nature, am equal to each one among them. And by adding the number of their so-called rights over me, they are only adding to the number of nothingnesses. But, God, wishing that men should live one with the other, has thereby wished that there exist among them a power which should rule over the rest; that is, should direct the thousands or millions of different wills to the unity of one social end. God leaves to circumstances, though it is His providence that regulates those circumstances — He leaves to men themselves, at the beginning of any mere human society — a great latitude as to the choice of the form under which is to be exercised both the civil power itself and the mode of its transmission. But, once regularly invested with the power, its depositories, its possessors — are responsible to God alone, as far, that is as the legitimate exercise of their authority goes — because it is from God alone that that power comes to them. It does not come to them from their people who, not having that power themselves, cannot give it to another. So long as those rulers comply with the compact or do not turn to the ruin of their people the power they received for its well-being — so long their right to the obedience of their subjects is the right of God Himself — whether they exercise their authority in exacting the subsidies needed for government or in passing laws which, for the general good of the people, restrain the liberty otherwise theirs, by natural right; or, again, by bidding their soldiers defend their country, at the risk of life. In all such cases, it is God Himself that commands, and insists on being obeyed: in this world He puts the sword into the hands of representatives, that they may punish the disobedient, and in the next He Himself will eternally punish them unless they have made amends.

How great, then, is not the dignity of human Law! It makes the legislator a representative of God and, at the same time, spares the subject the humiliation of feeling himself debased before a fellow man! But in order that the law oblige, that is, be truly a law, it is evident that it must be, first and foremost, conformable to the commands and the prohibitions of that God, whose will alone can give it a sacred character, by making it enter into the domain of man’s conscience. It is for this reason, that there cannot be a law against God, or His Christ, or His Church. When God is not with him who governs, the power he exercises is nothing better than brute force. The sovereign or the parliament that pretends to govern a country in opposition to the laws of God has no right to anything but revolt and contempt from every upright man. To give the sacred name of law to tyrannical enactments of that kind is a profanation, unworthy not only of Christian, but of every man who is not a slave.

8 NOVEMBER – THE FOUR HOLY CROWNED MARTYRS

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“Strangers as we are and pilgrims on the Earth, let us fix our hearts and our thoughts on the day which will give to each of us a home, and restore us to Paradise. Who, that is on a voyage, would not hasten to return to his country! Who, that is on the way home, would not eagerly desire a favourable wind, that he might the sooner embrace his dear ones! Parents, brothers, children, friends in multitudes impatiently await us in our heavenly fatherland. Blessed crowd! already secure of their own eternal happiness, they are solicitous about our salvation. What joy for them and for us, when at length we see them and they may embrace us! How great the delight of that heavenly kingdom: no more fear of death, but eternal and supreme happiness! Let all our earnest desires tend to this: that we may be united with the Saints, that together with them we may possess Christ.”

These enthusiastic words, borrowed from Saint Cyprian’s beautiful book, On Mortality, are used by the Church in her second Nocturn, and in the third she gives us the strong language of Saint Augustine, consoling the faithful, who are obliged still to remain in exile, by reminding them of the great beatitude of this Earth: the beatitude of those who are persecuted and cursed by the world. To suffer gladly for Christ is the Christian’s glory, the invisible beauty which wins for his soul the good pleasure of God, and procures him a great reward in Heaven.

“He that hurts, let him hurt still,” says our Lord, “and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still. And he that is just, let him be justified. And he that is holy, let him be sanctified still. Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to every man according to his works. I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Apocalypse xxii. 11‒13). Patience, then, Christians. Patience, all who are now despised, for time is short. The fashion of this world passes away! (1 Corinthians vii. 29‒31). It is in the light of our Baptism that we must look upon those foolish men who think themselves strong because they are violent, who call themselves wise, because pleasure is their only law. When the Man-God, with the spirit of His mouth, will take vengeance on Satan their leader, their lot will be the indignant sentence heard by the Prophet of Patmos: “Without are dogs, murderers, every one that loves and makes a lie” (Apocalypse xxii. 15). Meanwhile the whole creation, which they made the unwilling slave of their corruption, will answer to their disgraceful fall by a triumphant song of deliverance. Itself will be transformed into new a Heaven and a new Earth. It will partake of the glory of the children of God, delivered like itself, and will be worthy to contain the new Jerusalem: the holy city where in our flesh we will see God, and where, seated at the right hand of the Father in the Person of Jesus Christ, our glorified human nature will enjoy for ever the honours of a bride.

Let us go in spirit to Rome, and direct our steps towards the ancient church on the Coelian Hill which bears the name of the Four crowned Martyrs. There are few Saints whose Acts have been more disparaged by a superficial criticism ignorant of “archaeological science,” such as that of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. But now “the history and traditions relating to the august monument on the Coelian have been restored to honour by learned men and antiquaries, whom no one could accuse of superstition, or of a blind credulity with regard to medieval legends.” Such is the unanswerable decision of the Commandant de Rossi. Let us, then, with the holy Liturgy, offer our homage and prayers to the titular Saints of this venerable church who once held offices of trust in the empire. And let us not forget those other Martyrs, the five sculptors (see below), who like the former preferred death to infidelity, and now share the glory of their tomb.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The Octave of All Saints.

At Rome, on the Via Labicana, three miles from the city, the martyrdom of the Saints Claudius, Nicostratus, Symphorian, Castorius and Simplicius, who were first sent to prison, then scourged with whips set with metal, and as they could not be made to forsake the faith of Christ, Diocletian ordered them to be thrown into the river .

At Rome, St. Deusdedit, pope, whose merit was so great that he cured a leper by kissing him.

At Bremen, St. Willehad, first bishop of that city, who, in conjunction with St. Boniface, whose disciple he was, spread the Gospel in Friesland and Saxony.

At Soissons in France, St. Godfrey, bishop of Amiens, a man of great holiness.

At Verdun, St. Maurus, bishop and confessor.

At Tours, St. Clarus, priest, whose epitaph was written by St. Paulinus.

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

Thanks be to God.

7 NOVEMBER – FERIA

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“A great mystery” says Saint John Chrysostom, “is accomplished in our dead. A mystery of praise and of joy, when, summoned by the King of kings, the soul goes to meet her Lord, accompanied by Angels sent from Heaven for the purpose! And you lament? When the bridegroom, to whom you have given your daughter, carries her to a far country, you do not complain, provided he makes her happy. Although her absence is a grief to you, the sadness is tempered. And now, because it is not a man, a fellow-slave, but the Lord Himself that claims one of your family, is your grief to be without measure? I do not forbid you to shed a tear. Weep, but be not disconsolate even as others who have no hope (1 Thessalonians iv. 12) And be ready also to return thanks as is meet, honouring thereby your dead, as well as glorifying God, and thus giving them magnificent obsequies.”

With such sentiments were our fathers inspired, in those farewells of the primitive liturgy, which contrasted so strangely with the sad pomp of pagans and which made the funeral train resemble a bridal procession. First, loving hands respectfully washed the body, which had been sanctified by the waters of Baptism and the holy oil, and so often honoured by the visit of our Lord in his blessed Sacrament. It was then clothed in the robes of honour in which it had served its divine Spouse, and, like Him in the tomb, it was surrounded with fragrant spices. Often the sacred Host itself was laid upon the breast after the holy sacrifice of thanksgiving and propitiation. Thus, during an admirable succession of prayers and triumphant chants, amid clouds of incense and numberless torches, the body was carried to the place of rest where Christian burial was to associate it to the last mystery of our Saviour’s mortal career. There, as over the garden of Golgotha on the great Saturday, the naked Cross, despoiled of its divine Burden, looked down upon the graves where the Man-God in His mystic members still awaited the hour of resurrection.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Padua, the demise of St. Prosdocimus, first bishop of that city, who was ordained bishop by the blessed Apostle St. Peter, and sent there to preach the word of God, where, celebrated for many virtues and prodigies, he happily ended his life.

At Perugia, St. Herculanus, bishop and martyr.

The same day, St. Amaranthus, martyr, who was buried in the city of Albi, after the termination of combats faithfully sustained, but lives in eternal glory.

At Melitine in Armenia, the martyrdom of the Saints Hieron, Meander, Hesychius and thirty others, who were crowned in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Lysias.

At Amphipolis in Macedonia, the holy martyrs Auctus, Taurio and Thessalonica.

At Ancyra, the passion of the Saints Melasippus, Anthony and Carina, under Julian the Apostate.

At Cologne, St. Engelbertus, bishop, who did not hesitate to suffer martyrdom in defence of ecclesiastical liberties, and for obedience to the Roman Church.

At Alexandria, blessed Achillas, a bishop renowned for erudition, faith and purity of life.

In Friesland, the decease of St. Willibrord, bishop of Utrecht, who was consecrated bishop by the blessed Pope Sergius, and preached the Gospel in Friesland and Denmark.

At Metz, St. Eufus, bishop and confessor.

At Strasburg, St. Florentius, bishop.

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

Thanks be to God.

6 NOVEMBER – FERIA

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“You are my portion, O Lord, Alleluia, in the land of the living, Alleluia, Alleluia. Bring forth my soul out of prison, to confess to your Name; in the land of the living, Alleluia, Alleluia. Glory and honour be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, world without end, Amen: in the land of the living, Alleluia, Alleluia.”

Such is the opening chant for the departed, in the Mozarabic Missal. With the Greeks, in like manner, no word is of more frequent recurrence in the Office of the Dead, than the Alleluia. Moreover, both Greece and Spain are but observing what was once a general practice throughout the Church. Saint Jerome tells us how, at the death of Fabiola, all the Roman people assembled, the chant of psalms echoed on all sides, and the sublime Alleluia filled the temples till it shook their gilded roofs. Two centuries later, the story of Saint Radegonde’s funeral written by her daughter Baudonivia proves that if submissive tears were not forbidden to the survivors and might at times even flow abundantly, the custom in Gaul was, nevertheless, the same as that of Rome. And again with regard to a later period, the Manuscript of Rheims quoted by Dom Hugh Menard in his notes on the Gregorian Saoramentary prescribes as a prelude to the burial prayers the chanting of the Psalm In ezitu Israel de Aegypto, with Alleluia as Antiphon.

When Saint Anthony buried in the desert the body of Saint Paul the first hermit, the biographer of the latter relates that, in accordance with Christian tradition, Anthony sang hymns as well as psalms. Such was actually the universal Christian tradition, identical in all lands. Saint John Chrysostom remarks the same fact and explains it thus: “Tell me, are they not conquerors, the dead whom we carry in procession with shining torches and the singing of hymns? Yes, we praise God and give Him thanks, for He crowns the departed one. He has put an end to his labour and He keeps him near Himself, free from all fear. Seek no other explanation for these hymns and psalms: they are an expression of joy.”

Saint Dionysius speaks in the same strain in his book on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. After alluding to the joy of the dying Christian as he sees approaching the end of his struggle and an eternal security, he adds: “The relatives of the deceased, his friends in God and in holiness, proclaim him blessed for having conquered at last. And they address their songs of thanksgiving to the heavenly Author of the victory. Praying that themselves may obtain a similar lot, they bear him to the hierarch the distributor of the holy crowns, to whom it belongs to perform the sacred rites prescribed with regard to those who have slept in the Lord.”

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Tunis, in Africa, the birthday of St. Felix, martyr, who, having confessed Christ, was sent to prison, his execution being deferred. But the next day he was found dead, as is related by St. Augustine, in his exposition of a psalm to the people on the feast of the saint.

At Theopolis, ten holy martyrs, who are reported to have been put to death by the Saracens.

At Barcelona, St. Severus, bishop and martyr, who had his head pierced with a nail, and thus received the crown of martyrdom for the faith.

In Phrygia, St. Atticus.

At Berg, the departure from this life of St. Winoc, abbot, who was renowned for virtues and miracles, and for a long time served his brethren, even those who were subject to him.

At Fundi in Campania, St. Felix, monk.

At Limoges in Aquitaine, St. Leonard, confessor, a disciple of the blessed bishop Remigius, who was born of a noble family, and chose to lead a solitary life. He was celebrated for holiness and miracles, but his miraculous gift shone particularly in the deliverance of captives.

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

Thanks be to God.

5 NOVEMBER – THE HOLY RELICS

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Had we Angels’ eyes we should see the Earth as a vast field sown with seed for the resurrection. The death of Abel opened the first furrow and ever since the sowing has gone on unceasingly the wide world over. This land of labour and of suffering, what treasures it already holds laid up in its bosom! And what a harvest for Heaven when the Sun of Justice, suddenly darting forth His rays, will cause to spring up as suddenly from the soil the elect ears ripe for glory! No wonder that the Church herself blesses and superintends the laying  of the precious grain in the Earth.

But the Church is not content to be always sowing. Sometimes, as though impatient of delay, she raises from the ground the chosen seed she had sown in it. Her infallible discernment preserves her from error and, disengaging from the soil the immortal germ, she forestalls the glory of the future. She encloses the treasure in gold or precious stuffs, carries it in triumph, invites the multitudes to come and reverence it. Or she raises new temples to the name of the blessed one, and assigns him the highest honour of reposing under the Altar on which she offers to God the tremendous Sacrifice.

“Let your charity understand,” explains Saint Augustine: “it is not to Stephen we raise an altar in this place, but of Stephen’s relics we make an altar to God. God loves these altars, and if you ask the reason: ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints’ (Psalm cxv. 15). In obedience to God the invisible soul has quitted its visible dwelling. But God preserves this dwelling. He is glorified by the honour we pay to this lifeless flesh and, clothing it with the might of His divinity, he gives it the power of working miracles.” Hence the origin of pilgrimages to the shrines of the Saints. “Christian people,” says Saint Gregory of Nyssa, “wherefore are you assembled here? A tomb has no attractions. Nay, the sight of its contents inspires horror. Yet, see what eagerness to approach this sepulchre! So great an object of desire is it that a little of the dust from around it is esteemed a gift of great price. As to beholding the remains it conceals, that is a rare favour, and an enviable one, as those can testify who enjoy the privilege: they embrace the holy body as though it were yet alive, they press their lips and their eyes upon it, shedding tears of love and devotion. What emperor ever received such honour?”

“Emperors!” rejoins Saint John Chrysostom, “as the porters at their gates, such have they become with regard to poor fishers. The son of the great Constantine deemed he could not pay a higher honour to his father than to procure him a place of sepulture in the porch of the fisherman of Galilee.” And again, concluding his commentary on Saint Paul’s admirable Epistle to the Romans, the golden-mouthed Doctor exclaims: “And now, who will grant me to prostrate myself at Paul’s sepulchre, to contemplate the ashes of that body which,  suffering for us, filled up what was wanting of the sufferings of Christ? The dust of that mouth  which spoke boldly before kings and, showing what Paul was, revealed the Lord of Paul? The dust of that heart, truly the heart of the world, more lofty than the heavens, more vast than the universe, as much the heart of Christ as of Paul, and in which might be read the book of grace, graven by the Holy Spirit? Oh I that I might see the remains of the hands which wrote those Epistles, of  the eyes which were struck with blindness and recovered their sight for our salvation, of the feet which traversed the whole earth! Yes, I would fain contemplate the tomb where repose these instruments of justice and of light, these members of Christ, this temple of the Holy Ghost. O venerable body, which, together with that of Peter, protect Rome more securely than all ramparts!”

In spite of such teachings as these, the heretics of the sixteenth century profaned the tombs of the Saints under pretext of bringing us back to the doctrine of our forefathers. In contradiction to these strange reformers, the Council of Trent expressed the unanimous testimony of Tradition in the following definition which sets forth the theological reasons of the honour paid by the Church to the relics of Saints:

“Veneration ought to be shown by the faithful to the bodies of the Martyrs and other Saints who live with Jesus Christ. For they were His living members and the temples of the Holy Ghost. He will raise them up again to eternal life and glory, and through them God grants many blessings to mankind. Therefore, those who say that the relics of the Saints are not worthy of veneration, that it is useless for the faithful to honour them, that it is vain to visit the memorials or monuments of the Saints in order to obtain their aid, are absolutely to be condemned, And, as they have already been long ago condemned, the Church now condemns them once more.”

Our ancestors looked upon holy relics as their greatest riches, the treasure by excellence of their cities. Dew of Heaven and fatness of the Earth, the blessings of this world and of the next seemed to distill from the bodies of the Saints. Their presence was a check to hostile armies, as well as to the legions of Hell. It guarded morals, fostered faith, and encouraged prayer in the heart of cities, to which they attracted as great crowds as now flock to our centres of pleasure. And with what vigilance was cherished the blessed deposit, the loss of which would have been considered the greatest of public calamities! “I have here, my brethren,” says Cardinal Pie, “to unfold to you a marvellous desire of the God whom Scripture calls wonderful in His Saints. The Lord Jesus who said to his disciples: ‘Go ye and teach,’ euntes ergo docete, frequently takes pleasure in sending them forth again after their death, and He makes use of their apostolate from beyond the tomb to carry the blessings of grace to other nations besides those whom they evangelised in life. ‘I have appointed you,’ He said, ‘that you should go and should bring forth fruit:’ Posui cosut eatis et fructum atferatis. In obedience to this command, the Saints, even after having reached  the blessed term of their mortal pilgrimage, consent to become wayfarers once more. Had I leisure to recount to you all the posthumous wanderings of our illustrious pontiffs and thaumaturgi, for instance the repeated journeys of our own Hilary and Martin during more than ten centuries, I should, though captivating your attention by narratives full of interest, run the risk of wearying you by the length of my discourse.”

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

St. Zachary, priest and prophet, father of St. John the Baptist.

Also St. Elizabeth, mother of the same most holy precursor.

At Terracina in Campania, the birthday of the holy martyrs, Felix, priest, and Eusebius, monk. The latter having buried the holy martyrs Julian and Caesarius, and converted to the faith of Christ many who the priest St. Felix baptised, was arrested with him, and both being led to the tribunal of the judge who could not succeed in intimidating them, they were shut up in prison, and as they refused to offer sacrifice, were beheaded that same night.

At Emesa in Phoenicia, during the persecution of Decius, the holy martyrs Galation, and Epistemis, his wife, who were scourged, had their hands, feet and tongue severed from their bodies, and finally consummated their martyrdom by decapitation.

Also the holy martyrs Domninus, Theotimus, Philotheus, Silvanus and their companions, under the emperor Maximinus.

At Milan, St. Magnus, bishop and confessor.

At Brescia, St. Dominator, bishop.

At Treves, St. Fibitius, who was made bishop of that city while filling the office of abbot.

At Orleans in France, St. Laetus, priest and confessor.

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

Thanks be to God.