2 JUNE – SAINTS MARCELLINUS, PETER AND ERASMUS (Martyrs)

During the reign of Diocletian the exorcist Peter was imprisoned in Rome by the judge Serenus because he confessed the Christian faith. He there set free Paulina, the daughter of Artemius, the keeper of the prison, from an evil spirit which tormented her. Upon this, Artemius and his wife and all their house, with their neighbours who had run together to see the strange thing, would fain be attached to the service of Christ. Peter therefore brought them to the priest Marcellinus who baptised all of them. When Serenus heard of it, he called Peter and Marcellinus before him and sharply rebuked them, adding to his bitter words, threats and terrors, unless they would deny Christ. Marcellinus answered him with Christian boldness, for which he was buffeted, separated from Peter, and shut up naked in a prison strewn with broken glass without food or light. When Peter and Marcellinus were found to increase in faith and courage, they were beheaded.

The bishop Erasmus was, in Campania, beaten with clubs and whips loaded with lead, and afterwards plunged into resin, sulphur, melted lead, boiling pitch, wax and oil. But he emerged unscathed, whole and sound, and this wonder converted many to believe in Christ. He was remanded again to prison, and bound in iron fetters. But from these he was wondrously delivered by an Angel. Lastly, being taken to Formi, Maximian caused him to be subjected to various torments, and in the end, being clad in a coat of red-hot brass, the power of God made him be more than conqueror in all these things also. Afterwards, having converted to the faith and confirmed many in it, he obtained the palm of a glorious martyrdom.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The glory of martyrdom illumines this day with a profusion rarely met with in the Cycle, and already we seem to descry the rosy dawn of that glad day, excelling all the rest, on which Peter and Paul will consummate, in their blood, their own splendid confession. Italy and Gaul, Rome and Lyons concur in forming a legion of heroes in the service of Heaven. For today, Lyons, the illustrious daughter of Rome, is keeping the special festival of a whole phalanx of warriors headed by the veteran chief, Saint Pothinus, a disciple of Saint Polycarp, who in the second century levied the brave recruits of his battalion on the banks of the Rhone. But to the Mother Church are due the first honours. Turn we then to Marcellinus, hailing him who, begetting by his fruitful priesthood a numerous progeny, shares with them the honours of his triumph in which they had been rendered worthy by the Holy Ghost at once to partake. Let us hail, likewise, the Exorcist Peter, leading to the sacred font such a long line of pagans won over to Christ by witnessing at his hand how great is the weakness of the demons.

When Christianity appeared on earth Satan was indeed, and visibly so, the Prince of this world. To him was every altar reared. To his empire were all laws and customs subservient. From the depths of their famous temples, the demon chiefs directed the political affairs of the cities that came to consult their oracles. Under divers names, the frailest of the fallen angels found honour and influence at the domestic hearth. Others had posts assigned to them in forests, on mountains, at fountains, or on sea, occupying, in opposition to God, this world that had been created by Him for His glory, but which Satan through man’s complicity had conquered. [Thousands of] years of abandonment on the part of Heaven permitted the usurper to consolidate his conquest, and a well planned resistance was skilfully prepared against the day on which the lawful King should offer to re-enter on his rights.

The coming of the Word made Flesh was the grand signal for the asserting of the Divine Claim. The Prince of this world, personally vanquished by the Son of God, understood well enough that he must needs return to the depths of Hell. But the countless powers of darkness constituted by him would maintain the struggle through the length of ages and dispute their position inch by inch. Driven from towns by the abjurations of holy Church and the triumph of martyrs, the infernal legions would fain marshal their ranks in the wilderness. There, under the leadership of an Anthony or a Pachomius, the soldiers of Christ must wage against them ceaseless and terrific battle. In the West Benedict, the Patriarch of Monks, in his turn meets with altars to the demons, yes, with demons themselves on the heights of Cassino, as late as the sixth century. Even in the seventh, they are found contending against Saint Gall for holds on the woods, lakes and rocks of what we now call Switzerland. And at last they are heard uttering mournful complaint because, driven as they have been from the haunts of men, even such desolate spots as these are denied them. Verily, in the divine Mind, the vocation of a monk to the desert has for its end not alone flight of the world and its concerns, but likewise the pursuit of demons into their last entrenchments.

We have dwelt thus on the foregoing considerations because their importance is extreme, and is equalled only by depth of systematic ignorance persisted in on this subject. True Christians of course firmly believe, now as formerly, in the secret and wholly spiritual combat which the soul has to sustain against Hell in the privacy of one’s own conscience, but too many have no scruple in rejecting, as if belonging to the domain of imagination, whatever is related of those other combats maintained by our fathers against the demons in an exterior and more public manner. The excuse for such Christians is no doubt in the fact that they live in a land where centuries ago this war in its external phases was ended by the social victory of Christendom. But the Holy Ghost has declared that the old serpent, bound up for a thousand years, is at last to be again unchained for a while (Apocalypse xx. 2, 3). If, perchance, we be nearing this fatal epoch, it is high time to look about us: ill prepared will we be for the waging again of the old battles, by such ignorance as ours, in which we are maintained by that habit of abandoning to the conceited impertinence of the shallow science that rules the day, facts (under the name of legend), the best attested in the history of our ancestors. Yes, after all, what is History, even since the revolt of Lucifer, but the picture of the war that is being waged between God and Satan? Now if, as we have said, Satan has by divine permission invaded the exterior world as well as that of souls, must it not be needful, in order (as our Lord expresses it), to cast him out (John xii. 21) that the struggle with him be breast to breast and foot to foot, inasmuch as it has assumed an exterior and visible character?

“The Word,” says Saint Justin, “was made Flesh for two ends: to save believers, and to drive away demons.” So also the expulsion of demons from the places they occupy in this material world, and specially the bodies of men, the noblest part thereof, would appear in the Gospel to have been one of the chief characteristics of our Saviour’s power. Again, when on quitting the Earth He sent His Apostles to continue His work amid the nations, this is the very thing He singles out as a primary sign of the mission they are to fulfil (Mark xvi. 17). The world of that day made no mistake about it. Soon enough had the pagans to state the cessation of the ancient oracles, in every place the cause of a phenomenon of such import to the ancient religion was evident to all: the very demons themselves were not backward in ascribing to the Christians this their enforced silence. As regards this power of Christianity against Hell, the Apologists of the second and third centuries appeal on the subject to public testimony without fear of a contradicting voice. “Before the eyes of everyone,” says Saint Justin to the emperors, “the Christians drive out demons in the Name of Jesus Christ, not only in Rome, but in the whole universe.” The gods of Olympus beheld themselves shamefully unmasked in the presence of their confused adorers, and Tertullian might well challenge thus the magistrates of the Empire: “Let one of those men who declare themselves to be under the power of the gods be brought before your tribunals: at the commanding word of the first comer among us, the spirit by which they are possessed will be constrained to confess what he is. if he avow not himself a demon and no god, fearing to lie to a Christian, at once shed the blood of this Christian blasphemer. But no, the terror they have of Christ is the reason why the mere touch, or even breathing of one of His servants, forces them to take to flight!”

So then, we see, Baptism sufficed to give to man such power as this, and verily this was the real meaning of our Lord’s promise when speaking of those who would believe in Him, and not alone of the heads of the Church, He said: “In my name they will cast out devils” (Mark xvi. 17). At an early date, however, the Church organising the holy war, constituted among her Sons one special Order having for its direct mission the pursuit of Satan on every point of this visible world. The Exorcists were by this delegation invested with a power that must needs accelerate the downfall of the prince of this world. And, what would be all the more odious and humiliating in this defeat, the Church raised no higher than to the rank of inferior clergy, an order so terrible, nevertheless, unto Hell. Lucifer had aimed at being equal to the Most High (Isaias xiv. 12-15). Hurled down from Heaven, he at least flattered himself in his folly to be able to supplant God on Earth and lo! the charge of defeating him here is confided not to Angels indeed, his equals by nature, but to men, yes, to the least and lowest of this race so easily tricked, that for long ages he had seen men prostrate before him! The hand of flesh constrains him, spirit though he be, to come off his throne. At their word he must needs cast away his vain adornments, he must unmask himself. The water they bless rekindles within him his eternal tortures. Of the prince of this world and his pomps, nothing remains but mere Satan, the ugly faced apostate, the condemned criminal wincing in the dust at the feet of the sons of men, or fleeing like a dry leaf at the breath of their mouth.

The Archangel Michael recognises in these sons of Adam the worthy allies of the faithful Angels he led forward to victory. But amid these continuators of the mighty battle begun on the heights of Heaven (Apocalypse xii. 7-9), the Exorcist Peter comes before us today radiant with matchless splendour. The triumph of martyrdom has been added to his victories won over Satan’s cohorts. None better than he drove Hell backwards, for, chasing the demons out of men’s bodies, he moreover made conquest of their souls. The Priest Marcellinus, his companion in martyrdom as he had been in victory, is likewise his associate in glory. The Church wishes that these two names of theirs so redoubtable to the spirits of darkness, should shine in one same aureola here below as in Heaven. Daily does she render them the most solemn homage in her power by naming them both on the diptych of the Holy Sacrifice together with the Apostles and the first of her sons. Such was the importance of the mission they fulfilled and the renown of their final combat, that their bodies translated to the Via Latina became the nucleus of an illustrious cemetery. The Christians of the Age of Peace that came soon after their glorious confession, vied with one another in obtaining sepulture near these soldiers of Christ whose protection they craved: Constantine the Great, the vanquisher of idolatry, deposited at their sacred feet the remains of his mother, Saint Helena, who had herself become a terror to the demons by her discovering the True Cross. A celebrated inscription was composed in their honour by Saint Damasus, who in childhood had learned the details of their martyrdom from the very executioner himself, afterwards converted. This inscription hard by their tomb completed the monuments of that catacomb in which Christian art had multiplied its richest teachings.

To the memory of Saints Marcellinus and Peter is joined in the Liturgy of today the name of a holy Bishop and Martyr, formerly well known to the faithful. If the Acts of his life that have reached us are not free from all reproach in a critical point of view, the favours obtained by the intercession of this Saint Erasmus, or Elmo, wafted his name over the whole of Christendom, as is attested by the numberless forms this name assumed in various countries of the West during the Middle Ages. He holds a place in the group of Saints styled auxiliatores or Helpers, whose cultus is widespread in Germany and Italy more particularly. Mariners look on him as their patron because of a certain miraculous voyage related in his life. One of the tortures to which he was subjected during his martyrdom has made him be invoked for the cholic. Nor should we forget to mention here how great a veneration Saint Benedict, the Patriarch of Western Monks, had for Saint Erasmus. When he quitted the Campagna for his solitude on the banks of the Anio, he marked his principal station between Subiaco and Monte Cassino by building a Church and Monastery at Veroli under the invocation of this holy martyr, and another was dedicated by him in Rome, likewise, to Saint Erasmus.

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YOU three holy Martyrs all confessed Jesus Christ in the midst of the most terrific storm ever raised by the demon against the Church. Though all three, in different grades of the hierarchy, you were alike guides of the Christian people, drawing them by thousands in your train, into the arena of martyrdom, and by still more numerous conversions, filling up the void made in Earth’s chosen band by the departure of your victorious companions to Heaven. Wherefore the Church this day joins her grateful homage here below with the silvery shouts of glad congratulation that ring through the Church Triumphant. Be you propitious, as of yore, in alleviating the ills that overwhelm mankind in this vale of tears. The excess of man’s misery is that he seems to have forgotten how to call on such powerful protectors in his hour of need. Revive your memory, in our midst, by new benefits to our race. As you, Erasmus, was formerly protected by Heaven, do now, in your turn, succour those who are a prey to the tempest-tossed sea. In your last hour of bitter anguish you suffered your executioners to tear your very bowels. Lend then a kindly aid to such as call on your name when racked by pains which bear some resemblance, though but faint, to what you endured for Christ. Peter and Marcellinus, linked one to another both in toil and in glory, cast gentle eyes on us: one glance of yours would make all Hell to tremble, would drive far from us its darksome cohorts.

But how much is your aid needed in society at large in the whole visible world! The foe you so mightily thrust backwards into the fiery pit is once more master. Alas, have we come to the time in which, again taking up war against the Saints, it will be granted him to overcome them? (Apocalypse xiii. 7) Scarce does he even hide himself nowadays. Not only does he lead the world by a thousand springs ostensibly put in his hands by Societies formerly secret, but he may be seen trying to push his way into gatherings of all sorts, into the very bosom of homes as a family guest, as a comrade in diversion or in business, with table-turning and all those processes for divination such as Tertullian denounced in your early day. The expulsion of demons by Christianity had been so absolute that up to more recent times such fatal practices had fallen into utter oblivion among us. If at first, in Christian families, the warning voice of the pastors of God’s Church has prevailed over the incitements of an unhealthy curiosity, still a sect has since been formed in which Satan is sole guide and oracle. The Spiritists, as they are called, in concert with Freemasonry, are preparing the way for the final invasion of the exterior world by infernal bands. Antichrist, with his usurped power and vain prestige, will be but the common product of political lodges and of this sect in which the task is proposed of bringing back, under a new form, the ancient mysteries of paganism. Valiant Soldiers of the Church, make us, we beseech you, worthy of our forefathers. If the Christian army must needs decrease in numbers, let faith all the more wax strong in it. Let courage neither lack nor go astray. May its ranks be seen facing the foe, at that last hour in which the Lord Jesus will slay, with the breath of His Mouth, the man of sin (2 Thessalonians ii. 8), and plunge once again and forever, the whole of Satan’s crew down into the lowest depths of the bottomless pit.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Lyons, many holy martyrs (Photinus, bishop, Sanctus, deacon, Vetius, Epagathus, Maturus, Ponticus, Biblis, Attalus, Alexander and Blandina, with many others), whose many valiant combats, in the time of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Verus, are recorded in a letter from the church at Lyons to the churches of Asia and Phrygia. St. Blandina, one of these martyrs, though weaker on account of her sex and frame, and of her lower condition in life, encountered longer and more terrible trials. But remaining unshaken, she was put to the sword and followed those whom she had exhorted to win the palm of martyrdom.

At Rome, St. Eugenius, pope and confessor.

At Tarni in Terra-di-Bari, St. Nicholas Peregrinus, confessor, whose miracles were related in the Roman Council under Pope Urban II.

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

Thanks be to God.

2 JUNE – TUESDAY AFTER TRINITY SUNDAY

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The history of the Blessed Eucharist is one with that of the Church herself: the liturgical usages which have varied in the celebration of the most august of all the Sacraments have followed the great social phases of the Christian world. This was a necessity, for the Eucharist is the vital centre here below from which everything in the Church converges. It is the inner bond which unites together that society of which Christ is the head, the society of which He is to reign over the nations which are to be His inheritance (Psalms ii. 8). Union with Peter, the Vicar of Christ, must always be the indispensable condition, the external mark, of the union of the members with the invisible Head. But supported in an ineffable manner on the Rock which bears the Church, the divine Mystery in which Christ gives Himself to each one of His servants must ever be the essential mystery of union and, as such, the centre and the bond of the great Catholic communion. Let us today get a clear notion of this fundamental truth on which was based the very formation of the Church at her commencement, and let us consider the influence it exercised on the forms of Eucharistic worship during the first twelve centuries. Tomorrow we will continue the subject by examining how subsequent loss of fervour, heresy and social degeneracy induced the Church to gradually modify these forms which, after all, are but accidental. They were admirably adapted to the favoured times they had served, but would scarcely suit the changed circumstances and requirements of later generations of the Church’s children.

It was on the eve of His Passion that our Lord instituted the great Memorial which was to perpetuate in all places the one Sacrifice by which are perfected forever they that are sanctified (Hebrews x. 14). The Cross was “the Altar of the world,” as Saint Leo calls it, and on that Cross, says the same holy Doctor, was made a few hours after the Last Supper, “the oblation of the whole human nature,” for the whole human race was united with this last act of infinite adoration and reparation offered by its Head to the supreme Majesty of God. The Church, issuing, as she did, with the Blood and Water from the side of her Saviour, was then but in her infancy, and the Mystery of divine union which Jesus had come upon the Earth to produce by Himself uniting to the Father, in the Holy Ghost, the members of His mystical body — this union was not to have its immediate realisation for each separate member except by its successive application to each one, as his time came. This was the object of the sublime institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. It was a New Testament which gave to the future Church the possession of the Mystery by which each generation, linked on to its predecessors by the unity of the one same Sacrifice, would find itself in union with the Word Incarnate, and in that union would have the tie which mutually binds His members together, and the unity of His mystical body.

Immediately after instituting this new Passover Jesus said to His Disciples: “A new commandment I give to you: that you love one another, as I have loved you: and, by this will all men know that you are my disciples” (John xiii. 34, 35). This was the first injunction given to His disciples by Jesus after giving Himself to them in the Eucharist. This love of, and union with, each other was to be the mark of the Covenant which He then, through His Apostles, contracted with all them who were to believe in Him through the word of their preaching (John xvii. 20). His very first prayer after that first giving His Body and Blood under the Eucharistic species is for that same union — the union of His Faithful one with another; a union, admirable as is the Mystery which produces and maintains it; a union so intimate, that its model is the union existing between Jesus and His Eternal Father: “May they all be one, as you, Father, in me, and I in you; that they may be made perfect in one — one, as we also are one” (John xvii. 21-23).

Under the direction of the Holy Spirit the Church understood from the very first the intentions of her divine Master. The three thousand who were converted on the day of Pentecost are described in the Acts as persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles in the communication of the breaking of bread, and in prayers (Acts ii. 43). And so great is the power of union derived from their all partaking of the heavenly Bread that they were remarked by the Jews as a class of men forming a society distinct from every other, which won the esteem of all that beheld them, and drew others daily to join them (Acts ii. 47).

A few years later and the Church, led on by the same Holy Spirit, passed beyond the narrow limits of Judea and carried her treasures to the Gentiles. It was a world of corruption where all was discord between man and man, and where the only remedy to the outrages of individual egotism was the tyranny of a Caesar. And it was into such a world that the Christians came and showed it, from east to west, the marvel of a new people which, by the sole influence of its virtues, recruited its members from every class of society, and from every clime, and was stronger and more united than any nation that had ever appeared on Earth. The Pagans were in admiration at this strange and inexplicable novelty. Without knowing what they were doing, without troubling themselves with any further inquiry, they bore testimony to the perfection with which these Christians fulfilled the dying wishes of their Founder. They thus spoke of them: “See how they love one another!” It was indeed a mystery, but the Faithful, the Initiated, understood it, for it had been thus explained to them by the Apostle: “We, being many, are one bread, one body, all that partake of one Bread” (1 Corinthians x. 17). This text is admirably commented by Saint Augustine in a sermon he preached to the Neophytes a few hours after their Baptism:

“I remember the promise I made of explaining to you who have been baptised the mystery of the Lord’s Table, which you now see, and of which you were made partakers in the night just past. That Bread which you see on the Altar, that Bread which has been sanctified by the word of God, is the Body of Christ: that Chalice, or, rather, what that Chalice contains, which has been sanctified by the word of God, is the Blood of Christ. By these did Christ our Lord will to give us His Body and His Blood which He shed for us, to the remission of our sins. If you have properly received them, you are what you have received, for the Apostle says: ‘We, being many, are one bread, one body.’ Yes, it was thus that he expounded the sacrament of the Table of the Lord: We, being many, are one bread, one body. We are, by this Bread, instructed how we are to love unity. Was this Bread made out of one grain? Were there not many grains of wheat? But before they came to be bread, they were separated one from the other. They became joined by means of water, and by a certain bruising: for, unless the wheat be ground, and be moistened with water, it could never take the form we call bread. It was the same with you until you were, so to say, ground by the humiliation of fasting and the sacrament of exorcism. Baptism and water came to you. You were moistened that so you might come to the state of bread. But even so there is no bread without fire. What, then, does fire signify? It is the Chrism, for the oil which makes our fire is the sacrament of the Holy Ghost... The Holy Ghost, therefore, comes. After water, comes fire and you are made Bread, which is the Body of Christ... Christ willed that we should be His Sacrifice — the Sacrifice of God... Great, very great, are these mysteries!... Do you so receive them, as to take care that you have unity in your hearts. Be one, by your loving one another, by holding one faith, one hope and undivided charity. When the heretics receive this Bread, they receive testimony against themselves for they are seeking to make division, whereas this Bread is the sign of unity.”

The Scripture, speaking of the first Christians, says that they had but one heart and one soul, and it is the unity which is signified by the Wine in the Holy Mysteries; “For,” continues St. Augustine, “the wine was once in so many bunches of grapes, but now it is all one, one in the sweetness of the chalice, for it has gone through the crushing of the wine-press. So you, after those fastings, and labours, and humility, and contrition, have come, in the name of Christ,to the Chalice of the Lord. And you are there on that Table, and there in that Chalice. You are there together with us, for we have eaten together, and drunk together, and that because we live together. Thus did Christ our Lord (by the wine made one out of many grapes) signify us, and wished us to be one with Him, and by His Table consecrated the mystery of our peace and unity.”

These admirable expressions of Saint Augustine are but the substance of the doctrine regarding the Holy Eucharist held by the Church in the fourth century. They give us the very essence of that doctrine in all its fullness and in all the clearness of its literal truth. No other could have been given to Neophytes who up to that time had been kept in complete ignorance of the august Mysteries of which they were henceforth to partake. As to the discipline of that secrecy, we will have to speak of it a little further on. The doctrine of the Eucharist here laid down by the great Bishop of Hippo is identical with that given by all the Fathers. In Gaul, Saint Hilary of Poitiers and Saint Cesarius of Aries. In Italy, Saint Gaudentius of Brescia. At Antioch and Constantinople, Saint John Chrysostom. At Alexandria, Saint Cyril — all had the same way of putting this dogma of faith before their people. Christ is not divided: the Head and the members, the Word and His Church are inseparably one in the unity of the mystery instituted for the very purpose of producing that unity. And this unanimous teaching of the Fathers who lived in the golden age of Christian eloquence was reproduced by Paschasius Radbert in the ninth century, by Rupert in the twelfth, and by William of Auvergne in the beginning of the thirteenth.

It would be too long to give the names, and still more to quote passages in testimony of how all the Churches for the first twelve centuries looked on the holy Eucharist in this same way, that is, as instituted for the purpose of union. If we follow this traditional teaching back to the apostolic source from which it originated, we will find Saint Cyprian in the age of Persecution speaking to his people on the union between the divine Head and His members, which is the necessary result of the Holy Sacrament. He shows this, not only by the nature of bread and wine, the essential elements for the consecration of the mysteries, but likewise by the mingling of water with the wine in the Eucharistic cup: the water, he says, signifies the faithful people, the wine denotes the Blood of Christ, their union in the chalice — union necessary for the integrity of the Sacrifice — union the most complete and inseparable — expresses the indissoluble alliance between Christ and His Church which consummates the Sacrament. The same Saint Cyprian shows that the Unity of the Church by the Chair of Peter, which is the subject of one of his finest treatises, is divinely established on the sacred Mysteries. He speaks enthusiastically of the multitude of believers, the Christian unanimity being held together in the bonds of a firm and indivisible charity by the Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ in His Sacrament, and Christ in His Vicar, is in reality but the one same Rock that bears the building which is erected on it: the one sole Head, visible in His representative, His Vicar, and invisible in His own substance, in the Sacrament.

This sentiment of union as the result of the Eucharist was rooted in the soul of the early Church. Her very mission was to bring about the union of all the children of God that were dispersed throughout the world (John xi. 52), and when the violence of her enemies obliged her to provide her children with some secret sign by which they might recognise each other, and not be recognised by pagans or persecutors or blasphemers, she gave them the mysterious icthus, the FISH, which was the sacred symbol of the Eucharist. The letters which form the Greek word for fish (icthus) are the initials of a formula in the same language which gives this sentence: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. The Fish is shown to us in the Book of Tobias (Tobias vi.) as a figure of Christ who is the food of the wayfarer; casts out the devil by His virtues; and gives light to the world, grown old in iniquity. Again, it is not without a prophetic and mysterious purpose that the fish is mentioned in Genesis as being blessed by the Creator at the commencement of the world, just as man himself was (Genesis i. 22, 28). It goes with the bread which is miraculously multiplied in the Gospel when our Lord prefigures the marvels of the Eucharist. It is brought again to our notice after the Resurrection: it is found lying on hot coals, and is offered by Jesus, together with bread, as a repast to seven of His disciples on the banks of lake Tiberias (John xxi. 9).

Now, what is this Fish? This Bread? The Fathers answer: Christ is the Bread of that mysterious repast. He is the Fish taken from living water, and is roasted on the altar of the Cross by the fire of His love, and feeds the Disciples on His own substance, and offers Himself to the entire world as the true icthus. No wonder then that we find this sacred symbol on almost everything that the Christians of the first three centuries possessed: on precious stones, rings, lamps, inscriptions, paintings, there was the Fish, in some shape or other. It was the watchword, the tessera of the Christians, in those days of persecution. An inscription of the second century discovered, in modern times at Autun thus speaks of the Christians: “This divine race of the heavenly icthus, this noble hearted race, receive from the Saviour of the Saints, the nourishment which is sweet as honey, and drink long draughts of the divine fount, holding icthus in their hands.”A holy Bishop of Asia Minor of that same early period by name Abercius of Hierapolis, who was divinely led into various lands, everywhere recognises the disciples of Christ by the holy Fish, which makes all, however separated by distance, to be one. “I have,” says he, shortly before the close of his life of travel, “I have seen Rome. I have beheld the queen city in her robes and sandals of gold. I have made acquaintance with the people decked with bright rings. I have visited the country of Syria, and all her cities. Passing the Euphrates, I have seen Nisibis. And all people in the East were in union with me, for we all formed but one body. Everywhere, faith presented to all and gave, as nourishment to all, the glorious and holy ICTHUS which came from the only fount, and was taken by the most pure Virgin.”

This then was the bond of that mighty union between Christians, which was such a puzzle to the pagan world. And the more the real cause of that unity was kept concealed from its eyes, so much the more violent was the fury with which it attacked the Church. Our Lord had said: “Give not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine” (Matthew vii. 6). These words contained, in principle, the discipline of secrecy which was observed in the Church till the conversion of the Western world was completed. The holiness of the Sacraments, the sublimity of the Christian doctrines, necessitated an extreme reserve on the part of the Faithful, living, as they had to do, amid people whose moral degradation and brutal corruption rendered them what our Saviour had told us men would sometimes make themselves. But there was nothing which it was so imperative to hide from the stare and sacrilege of pagans as the most Holy Eucharist — that “great pearl of the sacred, Body of the Lamb,” as Venantius Fortunatus calls it. It was this that gave rise to the essential distinction into two classes of a Christian assembly when met for divine worship: there were the initiated, and the uninitiated, the Faithful and the Catechumens. The distinction began with the apostolic age and was kept up till the eighth century. A few weeks before the solemn administration of Baptism there took place, as we have elsewhere explained, the giving, or, as it was termed, the Tradition of the Symbol, to the future members of the Church. But the Eucharistic Mystery, the arcanum by excellence, was, even then, kept back from the fortunate candidates for holy Baptism. This explains the varied precautionary expressions, the reticence, the studied obscurity of phraseology, used by the Fathers in their discourse to their flock, and this for years after the times of Constantine and Theodosius. The Catechumens were admitted while the holy Scriptures were being read or while the Psalms were being chanted, but as soon as the Bishop had given his discourse on the portion which had been read, either of the Gospel or other passages of the sacred Volume, these Catechumens were dismissed by the Deacon and this missa, or mission, gave its name to that first portion of the Liturgy: it was called the “Mass of the Catechumens,” just as the second part, which was from the oblation to the final dismissal, was called the “Mass of the Faithful.”

And yet this same holy Mother Church, which kept so jealous an eye to her treasure as not to let it be fully known except to her true children made such by Baptism, with what delight did she not at the feasts of Easter and Pentecost reveal to her newborn children, as soon as they came from the font, the ineffable secret until then kept in her heart as Bride, the full mystery of the icthus! Incorporated in Christ by the saving waters, enrolled in His army and marked with the sign of His soldiers by the anointing received from the Bishop, with what maternal fondness did she not lead them from the Baptistery first, and then from the Chrismarium, to the hallowed precinct of the Mysteries instituted by the Word Incarnate! Yes, it was there that Jesus, their Head, was awaiting His new members that He might draw all the more closely the bonds which already knit them to His mystic Body and unite them to Himself in the infinite homage of that one great Sacrifice which himself was offering to the Eternal Father.

This wondrous unity of the Eucharistic Sacrifice which, in its ever the same one oblation, included both Head and Members: this unity of Sacrifice which kept alive and strengthened the union of each Christian community and of the whole Church, was admirably expressed by the magnificent forms of the primitive Liturgy. After the Catechumens had been dismissed and the unworthy expelled, all the Faithful without exception, from the Emperor and his Court down to the poorest cottager, whether man or woman, advanced towards the altar, each one offering their share of bread and wine for the sacred Mysteries. Themselves a “kingly priesthood,” as Saint Peter calls them (1 Peter ii. 9), a living victim figured by the gifts they brought, they assisted, standing at the immolation of the divine Victim whose members they truly were. Then, united in the kiss of peace, the external sign of their union of heart, they received in their hands, and still standing, the sacred Body, their spiritual nourishment. The Deacons offered them the Chalice, and they drank of the Precious Blood. Even babes in their mothers’ arms, were eager for the divine drink, and received some drops, at least, into their innocent mouths. The sick who could not leave their rooms, and prisoners, were not deprived of being united with their brethren in the sacred banquet: they received the precious Gifts at the hands of ministers who were sent to them for the purpose by the Bishop. The Anchorets in their deserts, Christians living in the country, and all such as could not be present at the next assembly, took the Body of our Lord with them, that thus they might not, because of distance, be deprived of uniting at the coming celebration of the Mysteries of salvation. Those were ages when Christian unity was continually being attacked by persecution, schism and heresy, all three at once. And the Church, to counteract the danger, had no hesitation in facilitating by every lawful means the use and application of the venerable Sacrament, which is the sign of unity and the innermost centre, and the strongest tie, of the Christian community.

It was from the same principle of unity that, although in each city there were generally several churches or centres for the assemblies of the Faithful and a greater or less number of Clergy, yet all the Faithful and Clergy came together for the collect, or synaxis, into some one place fixed upon by the Bishop. “Where the Bishop will show himself,” says Saint Ignatius of Antioch, “there let the multitude be; just as, where Christ Jesus is, there is the catholic Church. It is not lawful, either to baptise, or to celebrate the agape (the Eucharist) without the Bishop. Do all of you assemble for prayer in the one same place. Let there be unity of common prayer, unity of mind, unity of hope... Do all of you come together, as though you were one man, into the temple of God, as to one altar, as to one Christ Jesus, the great high-priest of the unborn God. Let us enjoy the one Eucharist, for one is the Flesh of our Lord Jesus, and one His Blood which was shed for us. one also is the Bread which was broken to us all, and one the Cup which was distributed to all: one altar to the whole Church, and one Bishop, surrounded by the Presbyterium and the Deacons.”

The Presbyterium was the college of priests of each city. They kept near the Bishop, were his council, and celebrated the sacred functions together with him. It would seem that at the beginning they were twelve in number, the closer to represent the Apostles. But in the great cities that number was soon doubled. We find that towards the close of the first century there were in Rome five and twenty oriests who were, respectively, set over twenty-five Titles, that is, Churches, of the metropolis. The Pontiff took first one, and then another, of these Titles, for the celebration of the Mysteries. The twenty-four Priests of the other Titles united with the Pontiff in the solemnity of one and the same Sacrifice, and con-celebrated at one and the same Altar. In their respective places, the seven Deacons and all the inferior clerics, each according to his rank, here below, at one Altar, but the unity of the Sacrifice which was everywhere offered was, like the unity of the Church herself, expressed by the mutual transmission, between the various Bishops, of the sacred species that had been consecrated by them, and these each one put into the chalice from which they received the precious Blood. Saint Ireneus who lived in the second century tells us that the supreme Hierarch, the Pontiff of Rome, used to send these sacred gifts, not only to Churches in the West, but even into Asia, as emblems of the unity existing between the Churches there, and the Church, the Mistress and Mother of all others. So, too, when the number of the Faithful became so great as to induce the Church to allow individual priests to celebrate alone the holy Mysteries, the priests of the town where a Bishop resided never thought of exercising this isolated function until they had received from the Bishop a fragment of the bread he had consecrated, and which they mingled with their own Sacrifice. It was the fermentum, the sacred leaven of Catholic Communion.

1 JUNE – SAINT ANGELA MERICI (Virgin)

Angela de Merici was born to virtuous parents at Decenzano (a town in the diocese of Verona near Lake Benago in Venetian territory) in 1474. At the age of 15 she and her sister Giana Maria became orphaned and went to live with an uncle. Giana died suddenly without receiving the Last Rites. From a young age Angela was determined to keep her virginity forever. She had a thorough contempt for those outward deckings on which so many women set their hearts. She purposely disfigured the beauty of her features and hair that she might find no favour except with the Spouse of our souls. When her parents died she sought to retire into a desert that she might lead a life of penance, but being prevented by her uncle she did at home what she was not permitted to do in a wilderness: she frequently wore a hair-shirt, and took the discipline. She never eat flesh-meat except in case of sickness. She never drank wine except at Christmas and Easter. Sometimes she passed whole days without any food.

Angela spent much time in prayer, very little in sleep, and she slept on the ground. The devil having once appeared to her in the form of an angel of light, she at once detected his craft and put him to flight. At length, having resigned her right to the fortune left her by her parents, she embraced the rule of the Third Order of Saint Francis, received the habit and united evangelical poverty to the merit of virginity. She showed her neighbour every kind office in her power and gave the poor a portion of her own food, which she procured by begging. She gladly served the sick. She gained the reputation of great sanctity in several places which she visited either that she might comfort the afflicted, or obtain pardon for criminals, or reconcile them that were at variance, or reclaim sinners from the sink of crime. She had a singular hungering after the Bread of Angels, which she frequently received. And such was the vehemence of her love of God, that she was often in a state of ecstasy.

Angela visited the Holy Places of Palestine with extraordinary devotion. During her pilgrimage, she lost her sight on landing on the isle of Candia, but recovered it when leaving. She also miraculously escaped shipwreck and falling into the hands of barbarians. During the pontificate of Pope Clement VII she went to Rome to venerate the Rock of the Church and gain the Jubilee Indulgence. The Pope had an interview with her, and at once discovered her sanctity and spoke of her to others in terms of highest praise. After returning to Brescia she took a house near the Church of Saint Afra. There, by God’s command made known to her by a voice from Heaven and by a vision, she instituted a new society of virgins under a special discipline and holy rules which she drew up. She put her Institute (the Company of Saint Ursula) (commonly called “the Angelines”) under the title and patronage of Saint Ursula, the leader of the army of virgins. Shortly before her death Angela foretold that this Institute would last to the end of the world.

Angela died on the 27th of January 1540 and her body, which lies in the Church of Saint Afra in Brescia, was kept 30 days before being put in the grave, and preserved the flexibility and appearance of a living body. Many miracles were wrought at her tomb. The rumour of these miracles spread not only through Brescia and Decenzano, but also in other places. The name of Blessed was soon given to Angela, and her image was put on altars. Saint Charles Borromeo, a few years after Angela’s death, affirmed, while preaching at Brescia, that she was worthy of canonisation. In 1768 Clement XIII ratified and confirmed the devotion thus paid her by the Faithful, which had already received the approbation of several bishops, and the encouragement of several Indults of Sovereign Pontiffs. Finally, after several new miracles had been juridically proved, Pope Pius VII enrolled Angela in the list of holy virgins, in the solemn canonisation celebrated in the Vatican Basilica on the 24th of May 1807.

The Angelines are a secular institute of women who remain in the world and live celibate lives in their own homes. There is also a monastic Order of Saint Ursula, which became a closed religious order in 1572 at the insistence of Saint Charles Borromeo who was then the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan. The largest order of Ursuline religious are those of the Roman Union.

The Company of Ursula (Brescia): http://www.angelamerici.it/

The Company of Ursula (USA): http://companyofstursula.org/

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The sixteenth century, which a few days back offered to our Risen Lord the seraphic Magdalene de Pazzi, now presents Him with this second fruit of heroic sanctity. Angela [de Merici] realised the whole meaning of her beautiful name. In a mortal body she possessed the purity of the blessed Spirits, and imitated their celestial energy by the vigorous practice of every virtue. This heroine of grace trampled beneath her feet everything that could impede her heavenward march. Gifted at an early age with the highest contemplation, she bravely travelled to Palestine, there to venerate the footsteps of her Divine Spouse Jesus. After this, she visited the new Jerusalem — Rome — and offered up her fervent prayers at the Confession of Saint Peter. She then entered into her rest, and founded a Religious Order, which is and will be to the end of time, one of the glories and aids of Holy Church.

The thought of the great Saint Ursula and her virginal Legion made a deep impression on Angela’s soul, and she too would form to our Lord an army of valiant women. Ursula confronted the barbarian host. Angela would give battle to the world and to its seductions, which are so dangerous to young girls. God blessed her with victory. As a trophy of her combats she can point to the countless generations of young people whom her Order has saved during the last [four] centuries, by giving them a solid Christian education.

* * * * *

You fought the battles of our Lord, Angela, and your holy labours merited for you a glorious rest in the mansions of eternal bliss. An insatiable zeal for the honour of the Jesus whom you had chosen as your Spouse, and an ardent charity for the creatures redeemed by His Precious Blood — these were the characteristics of your whole life. This love of your neighbour made you the mother of a countless progeny, for who can number the young children that have been educated in sound doctrine and piety by your Daughters? You powerfully contributed to the welfare of Christian society by thus preparing so many for the duties of domestic life, and how many other Congregations, in imitation of your Ursulines, have taken up the same admirable work, and have brought consolation to the Church and happiness to the world?

The Sovereign Pontiff ordered that your feast should be kept throughout the whole Church. He declared, in issuing this Decree, that he wished to put under your maternal protection the young girls who are nowadays exposed to such fearful dangers by the enemies of Christ and His Church. They have formed the project of undermining the faith of women, that so their good influence may be destroyed in their families. Disconcert these impious plans, O Angela! Protect your sex. Nourish within it the sentiment of the dignity of Christian Woman, and society may still be saved. We address ourselves to you, O Spouse of Christ, that you would aid us to fervour in the Liturgical Year in which we are made to follow in the path that was so dear to you. Your devotion in following the Divine Mysteries which are successively brought before us, led you to visit the Holy Land. You longed to see Nazareth and Bethlehem, to traverse Galilee and Judea, to give thanks in the Cenacle, to weep on Calvary, and to adore the glorious Sepulchre. Deign to bless our feeble desires and efforts to tread in these same holy paths. We have still to follow you to Mount Olivet, where our Redeemer ascended into Heaven. We have to return to the Cenacle, which the Holy Ghost is preparing to light up with His Divine Fire. Obtain for us, O Angela, that we may follow you to these hallowed spots, which made you quit your country and undertake a long and perilous pilgrimage. Oh prepare our hearts for the sublime Mysteries which are to crown our Paschal Season!

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Juventius, martyr.

At Caesarea in Palestine, blessed Pamphilus, priest and martyr, a man of remarkable sanctity and learning, and great charity to the poor. In the persecution of Galerius Maximian he was tortured for the faith of Christ under the governor Urbanus, and thrown into prison. Then, being again subjected to torments under Firmilian, he consummated his martyrdom with others. With them suffered also Valens, deacon, and Paul, and nine others, whose commemoration occurs on other days.

At Autun, the Saints Reverian, bishop, and Paul, priest, with ten others, who were crowned with martyrdom under the emperor Aurelian.

In Cappadocia, in the time of the emperor Alexander and the prefect Simplicius, the holy martyr Thespesius who, after undergoing many torments, was beheaded.

In Egypt, under the emperor Diocletian, the holy martyrs Ischyrion, military officer, and five other soldiers who were put to death in different manners for the faith of Christ.

Also St. Firmus, martyr, who was scourged most severely, struck with stones, and finally decapitated during the persecution of Maximian.

At Perugia, the holy martyrs Felinus and Gratinian, soldiers under Decius, who were variously tortured and thus by a glorious death won the palm of martyrdom.

At Bologna, St. Proculus, martyr, who suffered under the emperor Maximian.

At Amelia, in the reign of Diocletian, St. Secundus, martyr, who consummated his martyrdom by being thrown into the river Tiber.

At Città-di-Castello in Umbria, St. Crescentian, a Roman soldier, crowned with martyrdom under the same emperor.

In Umbria, St. Fortunatus, a priest renowned for virtues and miracles.

In the monastery of Lerins, the abbot St. Caprasius.

At Treves, St. Simeon, monk, who was added to the number of the saints by Pope Benedict IX.

At Burgos in Spain, in the monastery of Onia, St. Eneco, Benedictine abbot, illustrious by his sanctity and miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

JUNE – THE MONTH OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

L’Abbé Martin Berlioux (1829‒1887):

The devotions of the Month of Mary have just been brought to a close, and the result of those devotions should be the resolution to begin well and to sanctify as far as possible the Month dedicated to the Sacred Heart. You owe it to that tender Mother, who says to you: “My child, I am the road which leads to Jesus. Go, kneel at His holy altar, and there contemplate the beauties and riches of His Divine Heart. I will impart to you my spirit to understand It, my heart, with which to love It, and each day I will implore It to bless you and to shower down on you the treasures of Its love.”

The Church unites her voice to that of the Blessed Virgin. The month of flowers, consecrated to the Queen of Heaven, is no sooner ended than she ardently desires that the month of fruits should be dedicated to the Heart of Jesus. She wills that we should turn from the powerful mediation of our advocate to the infinite mercy of our Saviour. The Church says to us with the prophet: “You will draw waters with joy out of the Saviour’s fountains” (Isaias xii. 3).

The illustrious Pius IX of holy memory enriched the Month of the Sacred Heart with many precious indulgences, and uttered the following most consoling words: “There is no hope for the Church and society but in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It alone can remedy the evils of these days.”

Finally, Jesus invites and urges us to hasten to His Heart. To each of us He shows His wounded side, as He did to the apostle Saint Thomas, saying: “Come, touch, see, and taste the sweetness of my Heart. It belongs to you, and Its delights are to be with the children of men. Come, then, to me during these thirty days consecrated to my honour. Come, whatever may be your sorrow and your miseries, and I will refresh you. If you knew the gift of God, if you knew who I am, and what I am able to bestow on you, with what eagerness would you not respond to my loving call.”

Let us, then, go, Christians, where the Saviour’s love summons us: that place, we know well, should be at His feet, like Magdalene, to bedew them with our penitential tears. But since He offers us the privilege of Saint John, let us raise ourselves up to that divine and tender Heart: Accedet homo ad coraltum (Man will come to a deep heart) (Psalms Ixiii. 7). We will inhale Its fragrance, listen to Its soft voice, make known to It our sorrows, and we will obtain for ourselves and relations, for the Church, for our beloved country, for the just, and for poor sinners, all we need. We will be able to say with Solomon, speaking of the gift of wisdom: “Now all good things came to me together with it” (Wisdom vii. 11).

That we may spend this month in a proper manner, let us consider, in the presence of God, what are the graces that we hope to gain by our practices of devotion, and let us offer up our prayers, Communions and good works for this intention. Let us have in our rooms a picture of the Sacred Heart: the sight of it will remind us of our practices of devotions, and kindle in our breasts the fire of divine love. Our Lord has promised that wherever the representation of His Sacred Heart is exposed and venerated, it will be a source of abundant benedictions. We should communicate, if possible, every Friday, and during the day repeat often the invocation: Heart of Jesus, burning with love for us, inflame our hearts with your love!

O GOOD Master and Saviour Jesus Christ, vouchsafe to accept our loving adoration on this first day of the month dedicated to your divine Heart. What joy to come each day and offer you our homage, and what a source of grace and blessings will it be to us. Help us to profit by this holy time, and do you, O Virgin Mary, our Mother, lead us to the Heart of Jesus, and lend us your own with which to love Him. Amen.

1 JUNE – MONDAY AFTER TRINITY SUNDAY

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Having by His divine light added fresh appreciation towards the sovereign mystery of the august Trinity, the Holy Ghost next leads the Church to contemplate that other marvel which concentrates in itself all the works of the Incarnate Word and leads us, even in this present life, to union with God. The mystery of the Holy Eucharist is going to be brought before us in all its magnificence: it behoves us therefore to prepare the eyes of our soul for the worthy reception of the light which is so soon to dawn on us. As during the whole year, we have never lost sight of the mystery of the Holy Trinity and all our worship has unceasingly been offered to the Three divine Persons. So, in like manner, the Blessed Eucharist has uninterruptedly accompanied us throughout the whole period of the Liturgical Year, either as the means for our paying our homage to the infinite Majesty of God, or as the nourishment which sustains the supernatural life.

Though we knew and loved these two ineffable mysteries before, yet the graces of Pentecost have added much to both our knowledge and our love. Yesterday the mystery of the Trinity beamed on us with a greater clearness than ever, and now we are close to the solemnity which is to show us the Holy Eucharist with an increase of light and joy to our faith. The Blessed Trinity is, as we have already shown, the essential object of all religion. It is the centre to which all our homage converges and this, even when we do not seem to make it our direct intention.

Now, the Holy Eucharist is the best of all the means by which we can give to the Three divine Persons the worship we owe Them. It is, moreover, the bond by which Earth is united with Heaven. It is easy, therefore, to understand how it was that holy Church so long deferred the institution of the two festivals immediately following Whitsuntide. All the mysteries we have celebrated up to this time were contained in the august Sacrament which is the memorial and, so to say, the compendium of the wonderful things wrought in our favour by our Redeemer (Psalms cx. 4). It was the reality of Christ’s presence under the sacramental species that enabled us to recognise in the sacred Host at Christmas, the child that was born to us; in Passiontide, the Victim who redeemed us; and at Easter, the glorious conqueror of death. We could not celebrate all those admirable mysteries without the aid of the perpetual Sacrifice. Neither could that Sacrifice be offered up without its renewing and repeating them.

It was the same with the feasts of our Blessed Lady and the Saints — they kept us in the continual contemplation of the Holy Sacrament. When we honoured Mary on the solemnities of the Immaculate Conception, the Purification or the Annunciation, we were honouring Her who had, from her own substance, given that Body and Blood which was then offered on our altars. As to the Apostles and the Martyrs whose memories we solemnised, from where had they the strength to suffer so much and so bravely for the faith, but from the sacred banquet which we then celebrated, and which gives courage and constancy to them that partake of it? The Confessors and Virgins, as their feasts came round, seemed to us as so many lovely flowers in the garden of the Church, and that garden itself all fruitful with wheat and clusters of grapes because of the fertility given by Him who is called in the Scriptures both Wheat and Wine (Zacharias ix. 17).

Putting together all the means within our reach for honouring these blessed citizens of the heavenly court, we have chanted the grand Psalms of David, and hymns, and canticles, with all the varied formulas of the Liturgy: but nothing that we could do towards celebrating their praise could be compared to the Holy Sacrifice offered to the divine Majesty. It is in that Sacrifice that we entered into direct communication with them according to the energetic term used by the Church in the Canon of the Mass (communicantes). The blessed in Heaven are ever adoring the Most Holy Trinity by and in Christ Jesus our Lord: and it is by the Sacrifice of the Mass that we were united with them in the one same centre, and that we mingled our homage with theirs. Hence, they received an increase of glory and happiness. So, then, the Holy Eucharist, both as Sacrifice and Sacrament, has always been prominently before us. If we are now going to devote several days to a more attentive consideration of its magnificence and power, if we are now going to make more earnest efforts to taste more fully its heavenly sweetness, it is not a something fresh, which attracts our special notice and devotion for a season, and will then give way for something else: no, the Eucharist is that element prepared for us by the love of our Redeemer, of which we must always avail ourselves in order that we may enter into direct communication with our God, and pay Him the debt not only of our worship, but also of our love.

And yet, the time would come when the Holy Ghost who governs the Church would inspire her with the thought of instituting a special solemnity in honour of that august mystery in which all others are included. There is a sacred element which gives a meaning to every feast that occurs during the Year, and graces it with the beauty of its own divine splendour. That sacred element is the Most Holy Eucharist, and itself had a right to a solemn festival in keeping with the dignity of its divine object. But that festive exaltation of the divine Host, and those triumphant processions so deservedly dear to the present generation of Christians, were not practicable in the ages of the early Persecutions. And when those rough times had passed away and the courageous Martyrs had won victory for the Church, those same modes of honouring the Eucharist would not have suited the spirit and form of the primitive liturgical observances, which were kept up for ages following. Neither were they needed for the maintenance of the lively faith of those times. They would have been superfluous for a period such as that was, when the solemnity of the Sacrifice itself, and the share the people at large took in the sacred Mysteries, and the uninterrupted homage of liturgical chants sustained by the crowds of faithful adorers around the altar, gave praise and glory to God, secured correctness of faith, and fostered in the people a superabundance of supernatural life, which is not to be found nowadays. The divine Memorial produced its fruits, the intentions our Lord had in instituting the Eucharist were realised, and the remembrance of that institution, which used then to be solemnised as we now celebrate Mass on Maundy Thursday, was deeply impressed on the minds of the Faithful.

This state of things lasted till the beginning of the thirteenth century when, as the Church expresses it, a certain coldness took possession of the world. Faith grew weak, and the vigorous piety which characterised the Christians of the previous ages became exceedingly rare. There were grand exceptions, here and there, of individual saintliness, but there was an unmistakable falling off amid people at large, and the falling off was progressive: so much so, indeed, that there was danger that the Mystery which by its very nature is the Mystery of Faith would suffer in a special manner from that coldness, that indifference, of the new generation. Even at that period, Hell had been at work stirring up sacrilegious teachers here and there who dared to throw doubts on the dogma of the Real Presence. Fortunately the people easily took alarm and, as a general rule, were too strong in the old faith to be led astray. The Pastors, too, of the Church were alive to the danger, for there were souls who allowed themselves to be deceived. Scotus Erigena had formulated the sacramentarian heresy: he had taught that the Eucharist “was but a sign, a figure of spiritual union with Jesus, of which the intellect alone could be cognizant.” His teaching made little impression. It was regarded as mere pedantry, and was too novel to make head against Catholic Tradition, such as was to be found exposed in the learned writings of Paschasius Padbert, Abbot of Corbie.

The sophistry of Scotus was revived in the eleventh century by Berengarius, but although its new promoter was more crafty and conceited than its originator, and did greater and more lasting mischief, yet it died with him. The time for Hell to play havoc with such direct attacks as these had not yet come. They were laid aside for others of a more covert kind. That hotbed of heresies, the empire of Byzantium, fostered the almost extinct germ of Manicheism. The teaching of that sect regarding the flesh — that it is the work of the evil principle — was subversive of the dogma of the Eucharist. While Berengarius was trying to bring himself into notice by the noisy but ineffectual broachings of his errors, Thrace and Bulgaria were quietly sending their teachers into the West. Lombardy, the Marches and Tuscany became infected. So did Austria, in several places, and almost all at one and the same time. So too did three cities of France — Orleans, Toulouse and Arras. Forcible measures for repressing the evil were used, but it was one which knew how to grow strong by retreat. Taking the south of France for the basis of its operations, the foul heresy silently organised its strength during the whole of the twelfth century. So great was the progress it made thus unperceived, that when it came publicly before the world at the beginning of the thirteenth century, it had an army ready for the maintenance of its impious doctrines. Torrents of blood had to be shed in order to subdue it and deprive it of its strongholds, and for years after the defeat of the armed insurrection the Inquisition had to exercise active watchfulness in the provinces that had been tainted by the Albigensian contagion.

Simon of Montfort was the avenger of the Catholic faith. But while the victorious arm of the Christian hero was dealing a death-blow to heresy, God was preparing for His Son, who had been so unworthily outraged by the sectarians in the Sacrament of His Love, a triumph of a more peaceful kind, and a more perfect reparation. It was in 1208 that a humble Religious of the Congregation of the Hospitallers by name the Blessed Juliana of Mont-Cornillon, near Liége, had a mysterious vision in which she beheld the moon at its full, but having a hollow on its disc. In spite of all her efforts to divert herself from what she was afraid was an illusion, the same vision appeared before her as often as she set herself to pray. After two years of such efforts and earnest supplications, it was revealed to her that the moon signified the Church as it then was and that hollow she observed on its disc expressed the want of one more solemnity in the Liturgical Year — a want which God willed should be supplied by the introduction of a feast to be kept annually in honour of the institution of the Blessed Eucharist: the solemn commemoration made of the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday was no longer sufficient for the children of the Church, shaken as they had been by the influences of heresy. It was not sufficient even for the Church herself who, on that Thursday, has her attention divided by the important functions of the day, and is wholly taken up a few hours later by the sad mysteries of the great Friday.

At the same time that Juliana received this communication, she was also commanded to set to work and make known to the world what she had been told was the divine will. Twenty years, however, passed, before the humble and timid virgin could bring herself to put her person thus forward. She at length mentioned the subject to a Canon of Saint Martin’s of Liége, named John of Lausanne, whom she much respected for his great holiness of life. And she besought him to confer with men of theological learning on the subject of the mission confided to her. All agreed that not only there was no reason why such a feast should not be instituted but, moreover, that it would be a means for procuring much glory to God, and great good to souls. Encouraged by this decision, the saintly Juliana got a proper Office composed and approved for the future Festival. It begins with the words: Animarum cibus, and a few portions are still extant.

The Church of Liége, to which the universal Church owes the yesterday’s solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, was predestined to have the honour of originating the Feast of Corpus Christi. It was a happy day when in 1246, after so many delays and difficulties, the then Bishop of Liége, Robert de Torôte, published a synodical decree that each year, on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, there should be observed in all the Churches of his Diocese, with rest from servile work, and with the preparation of fasting on the eve, a solemn Feast in honour of the Blessed Sacrament.

But the mission of the Blessed Juliana was far from being at an end. She had to be punished for having so long deferred it. The Bishop died, and the decree he had issued would have long been a dead letter had there not been one, the only one, Church of the Diocese whose clergy were determined to carry the decree into execution: these were the Canons of Saint Martin-au-Mont. Though there was no authority during the vacancy that cared to enforce the observance, yet in 1247 the Feast of Corpus Christi was kept in that privileged Church. Robert’s successor, Henry de Gueldre, a warrior and grandee, took no interest in what his predecessor had had so much at heart. Hugh de Saint Cher, Cardinal of Saint Sabina and Legate in Germany, having gone to Liége with a view to remedy the disorders to which the new episcopal government had given rise, heard mention of the decree of the late Bishop Robert, and of the new Feast. The Cardinal had formerly been Prior and Provincial in the Order of Saint Dominic, and was one of the theologians who, having been consulted by John de Lausanne, had favoured the project. He was of the same mind when Legate, and claimed the honour of keeping the Feast himself, and singing Mass with much solemnity. Not satisfied with that, he issued a Circular dated December 29, 1253, which he addressed to the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots and Faithful of the territory of his legation. And in that document he confirmed the decree of the Bishop of Liége, and extended it to all the country over which he was Legate, granting one hundred days’ indulgence to all who, contrite and after confession of their sins, should on the Feast itself, or during its Octave, devoutly visit a Church in which the Office of Corpus Christi was being celebrated. In the year following the Cardinal of Saint George in Velabro who had succeeded as Legate confirmed and renewed the ordinances made by the Cardinal of Saint Sabina.

These reiterated decrees, however, failed to remove the widespread indifference. A terrible blow had been given by the proposed Feast to the powers of Hell, and Satan excited every possible opposition to it. As soon as the Legates had taken their departure, several local Superiors, men of note and authority, published their own ordinances in opposition to what had been already given. In 1258, the year of the Blessed Juliana’s death, there was still but the single Church of Saint Martin that would celebrate the Feast, which it was her mission to spread throughout the entire world. But she left the continuation of her work to a holy recluse of the name of Eve, to whom she had confided her secrets.

On the 29th day of August 1261 James Pantaléon ascended the papal throne under the name of Urban IV. He owed his election to this dignity of his great personal merits for, by birth, he had nothing to recommend him. He had been Archdeacon of Liége, and there had met with the Blessed Juliana and had approved her work. In this his exaltation to the papacy Eve thought she had an indication of God’s providence. She induced the Bishop, Henry de Gueldre, to send his written congratulations to the new Pontiff and at the same time to entreat him to confirm, by his own approbation, the Feast which had been instituted by Robert de Torôte. About that same time, several supernatural events had attracted public attention, and in particular, the prodigy at Bolsena near Orvieto where the papal court happened to be then residing — the prodigy of a corporal having been stained with blood by a miraculous Host. These events seemed as though providentially permitted in order to rouse Urban’s attention and confirm him in the holy zeal he had formerly evinced for the glory of the Blessed Sacrament. Saint Thomas of Aquinas was appointed to compose, according to the Roman rite, the Office for the Feast, which Office was to be substituted for the one prepared by the Blessed Juliana, and which she had adapted to the ancient liturgy of France. The Bull Transiturus was published soon after. It made known to the Church the Pope’s intentions. Urban there mentions the revelations which had come to his knowledge before his election and declares that, in virtue of his apostolic authority, for the confounding of heresy and the increase of the true faith, he institutes a special Solemnity in honour of the divine Memorial left by Christ to His Church. The day there fixed for the Feast is the fifth Feria (that is, the Thursday) after the Octave of Pentecost, for the Papal document does not mention, as the decree of the Bishop of Liége had done, the Feast of the Blessed Trinity, which had not yet been received into the calendar of the Church of Rome.

In imitation of what had been done by Hugh de Saint Cher, the Pontiff granted a hundred days’ indulgence to all the Faithful who, being contrite and having confessed their sins, should assist at Mass, or Matins, or at first or second Vespers, of the Feast. And for assisting at Prime, Tierce, Sext, None and Compline, forty days for each of those Hours. He also granted a hundred days for each day within the Octave to those who should assist, on any such day, at the Mass and the entire Office. Though thus entering into all these details, there is not an allusion to the Procession, for it was not introduced till the following century.

All now seemed settled: and yet, owing to the troubles which were then so rife in Italy and the Empire, the Bull of Urban IV was forgotten and remained a dead letter. Forty years and more elapsed before it was again promulgated and confirmed by Pope Clement V at the Council of Vienne. John XXII gave it the force of a settled law by inserting it in the Clementines about the year 1318, and he had thus the honour of putting the finishing hand to the great work which had taken upwards of a century for its completion.

The Feast of the Blessed Sacrament, or, as it is commonly called, Corpus Christi, began a new phase in the Catholic worship of the Holy Eucharist. But in order to understand this we must go more thoroughly into the question of Eucharistic worship as practised in the previous ages of the Church: the inquiry is one of importance for the full appreciation of the great Feast for which we must now be preparing our souls. No preparation, so it seems to us, could be more to the point than the devoting the two next days to a faithful and compendious study of the chief features in the history of the Blessed Eucharist.

IT belongs to you, Holy Spirit, to teach us the history of so great a Mystery. Scarcely has your reign begun upon the Earth when, faithful to your divine mission of glorifying our Emmanuel (John xvi. 14) who has ascended into Heaven, you at once raise our eyes and hearts up to that best gift of His love by which we still possess Him under the Eucharistic veil. During those long ages of the expectation of nations, you brought the “Word before mankind.” You spoke of Him in the Scriptures, you proclaimed Him by the Prophets. You that are the Gift of the Most High! (2 Peter i. 19-21) You are also infinite Love and it is through you, as such, that are wrought all the manifestations which God vouchsafes to make to us His creatures. It was you that brought this divine Person, the Word, into the womb of the immaculate Virgin Mary, there to clothe Him with sinless flesh and so make Him our Brother and our Saviour. And now that He has ascended to His Father and our Father (John xx. 17), depriving us of the sight of His human nature, all beauteous with its perfections and charms; now that we have to go through this vale of tears deprived of His visible company, He has sent you to us (Luke xxiv. 49), and you are come, divine Spirit, as our Consoler. But the consolation you bring us, dear Paraclete, is ever the same — it is the faithful remembrance of our Jesus (John xiv. 26). Yes, more, it is His divine Presence perpetuated by you in the Sacrament of Love. We had been already told that this would be so, that you would not speak of yourself (John xvi. 13) or for yourself, but that you would come to give testimony of the Emmanuel (John xv. 26), continue His work, and produce His divine likeness in each one of us.

How admirable is this your fulfilment of your sublime mission, which is all for the glory of Jesus! Divine Spirit, Guardian of the Word in the Church! it is far beyond our power to describe how great is your vigilance over the word of teaching, brought by the Saviour to this Earth of ours, a teaching which is the true expression of Himself and which, coming as He Himself does from the mouth of the Father, is the nourishment of His Bride here below (Matthew iv.). But with what infinite respect and vigilance, Holy Spirit, do you not preside over the august Sacrament in which is present, with all the reality of His adorable Flesh, that same Incarnate Word who from the very first of creation was the centre and object of all your dealings with creatures!

It is by the mystery which is produced by your omnipotence that the exiled Bride recovers her Spouse. It is by you that she traverses the long ages of time holding and prizing her infinite treasure. It is by you that she, with such superhuman wisdom, puts it to profit by so arranging, so modifying her discipline, yes, her very life, as to secure in each age of time the greatest possible faith, respect and love towards the Divine Eucharist. If she anxiously hides It from the profane men that would only turn their knowledge into blasphemy, or if she lavishes on It all that Liturgy can give of pomp and magnificence, or if again, she brings It forth from her sacred temples and triumphantly carries It in processions through the crowded streets of cities or the green lanes of the quiet country, it is you, divine Spirit, that inspires her with what is best. It is your divine foresight that suggests to her what is the surest means for gaining, in each respective period and age, the most of honour and love for that Jesus of hers, who is ever present in the Sacred Host, and who deigns to let His love be delighted with being thus among the children of men (Proverbs vii. 31).

Vouchsafe, Holy Ghost, to aid us in our contemplations of this sacred Mystery. Enlighten our understandings, inflame our hearts, during these hours of preparation for its Feast. Give to our souls the knowledge of that Jesus who is coming to us beneath the Sacramental veil. May this holy Mystery be to us, during this last portion of the year and its liturgy, our Bread to support us on the journey we have still to make through the desert before we can reach the mount of God (3 Kings xix.). We have yet a great way to go, and a way so different from the one we have already passed through when we had the company of our Jesus in the Mysteries He was working for our salvation. Be you, Holy Spirit, our guide in those paths which the Church, under your direction, is courageously traversing, and is every day approaching nearer to the end of her pilgrimage here below. Yet, scarcely have we entered on this second portion of our Year, than you, divine Spirit, bring us to the banquet prepared by divine Wisdom (Wisdom ix.) where the pilgrim gets the strength he needs for his journey. We will walk on, then, in the strength of this heavenly food (3 Kings xix. 8), and when our course is run we will, with the same Bread to support us, cry out with the Spirit and the Bride that our Lord Jesus may come (Apocalypse xxii. 17) to us at that last hour, and admit us into His eternal kingdom.

31 MAY – SAINT PETRONILLA (Virgin)

Petronilla is said to have been a spiritual daughter of Saint Peter, who took her with him to Rome where she became paralysed. Simon Magus having asked him why, if he could perform miracles, he allowed his daughter to remain infirm, Saint Peter answered that “It was expedient for her.” Then he added, “Nevertheless, to show the power of God, she will rise from her bed and walk.” Then he called her, and she rose and was restored to her full health. An officer who greatly admired her beauty sent soldiers to her to ask her to be his wife, but she replied: “If he wants me to marry him, let him not send rough soldiers to woo me, but respectable matrons, and give me time to make up my mind.” But before Flaccus could obtain matrons to convey his offer, Petronilla died.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Though the Church makes but a simple commemoration of this illustrious virgin in the office of this day, we will not fail to offer her the homage of our devout veneration. On the twelfth of this month, we kept the feast of the noble virgin and martyr, Flavia Domitilla: it is probable that Aurelia Petronilla was also of the imperial family of the Flavians. The early traditions of the Church speak of her as being the spiritual daughter of the Prince of the Apostles, and though she did not like Domitilla lay down her life for the Faith, yet she offered to Jesus that next richest gift — her virginity. The same venerable authorities tell us also that a Roman Patrician by name Flaccus, having asked her in marriage, she requested three days for consideration during which she confidently besought the aid of her Divine Spouse. Flaccus presented himself on the third day, but found the palace in mourning and her family busy in preparing the funeral obsequies of the young virgin, who had taken her flight to Heaven, as a dove that is startled by an intruder’s approach.

In the eighth century the holy Pope Paul I had the body of Petronilla taken from the Cemetery of Domitilla on the Via Ardeatina. Her relics were found in a marble sarcophagus, the lid of which was adorned at each corner with a dolphin. The Pope had them enshrined in a little church which he built near the south side of the Vatican Basilica. This Church was destroyed in the sixteenth century in consequence of the alterations needed for the building of the new Basilica of Saint Peter, and the relics of Saint Petronilla were translated to one of its altars On the west side. It was but just that she should await her glorious Resurrection under the shadow of the great Apostle who had initiated her in the Faith and prepared her for her eternal nuptials with the Lamb.

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Your triumph, Petronilla, is one of our Easter joys! We lovingly venerate your blessed memory. You disdained the pleasures and honours of the world, and your virginal name is one of the first on the list of the Church of Rome, which was your mother. Aid her now by your prayers. Protect those who seek your intercession, and teach us how to celebrate with holy enthusiasm the Solemnities that are soon to gladden us.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Aquileia, the holy martyrs Cantius, Cantian and Cantianilla. For their attachment to the Christian faith they were condemned to capital punishment with their tutor Protus in the time of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian.

At Torres in Sardinia, St. Crescentian, martyr.

At Comana in Pontus, in the time of the emperor Antoninus, St. Hermias, a soldier. Being miraculously delivered from many horrible torments, he converted his executioner to Christ and made him partaker of the crown which he himself obtained first by having his head struck off with the sword.

At Verona, St. Lupicinus, bishop.

At Rome, St. Paschasius, deacon and confessor, who is mentioned by Pope St. Gregory.

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

Thanks be to God.