Antoninus was born at Florence of respectable parents. He gave great promise, even when quite a child, of his after sanctity. Having at the age of 16 entered the Order of Friars Preachers, he at once became an object of admiration by the practice of the highest virtues. He declared ceaseless war against idleness. After taking a short sleep at night, he was the first at the Office of Matins, which over, he spent the remainder of the night in prayer, or reading, or writing. If at times, he felt himself oppressed with unwelcome sleep owing to fatigue, he would lean his head for a while against the wall and then, shaking off the drowsiness, he resumed his holy vigils with renewed earnestness.
Being a most rigid observer of Religious discipline, Antoninus never ate flesh-meat except in the case of severe illness. His bed was the ground, or a naked board. He always wore a hair shirt and sometimes an iron girdle next to his skin. He observed the strictest chastity during his whole life. Such was his prudence in giving counsel, that, he went under the name of Antoninus the Counsellor. He so excelled in humility that even when Prior and Provincial, he used to fulfil, with the utmost self-abjection, the lowest duties of the monastery. He was made Archbishop of Florence by Pope Eugenius IV. Great was his reluctance to accept such a dignity, nor would he have consented had it not been out of fear of incurring the spiritual penalties with which he was threatened by the Pope.
It would be difficult to describe the prudence, piety, charity, meekness and apostolic zeal with which Antoninus discharged his episcopal office. He learned almost all the sciences to perfection, and he accomplished this by his own extraordinary talent without having any master to teach him. Finally, after many labours and after having published several learned books, he fell sick. Having received the Holy Eucharist and Extreme Unction, embracing the Crucifix, he joyfully welcomed death on the sixth of the Nones of May (May 10th) in 1459. He was illustrious for the miracles which he wrought during his life, as also for those which followed after his death. He was canonised by Adrian VI in 1523.
Being a most rigid observer of Religious discipline, Antoninus never ate flesh-meat except in the case of severe illness. His bed was the ground, or a naked board. He always wore a hair shirt and sometimes an iron girdle next to his skin. He observed the strictest chastity during his whole life. Such was his prudence in giving counsel, that, he went under the name of Antoninus the Counsellor. He so excelled in humility that even when Prior and Provincial, he used to fulfil, with the utmost self-abjection, the lowest duties of the monastery. He was made Archbishop of Florence by Pope Eugenius IV. Great was his reluctance to accept such a dignity, nor would he have consented had it not been out of fear of incurring the spiritual penalties with which he was threatened by the Pope.
It would be difficult to describe the prudence, piety, charity, meekness and apostolic zeal with which Antoninus discharged his episcopal office. He learned almost all the sciences to perfection, and he accomplished this by his own extraordinary talent without having any master to teach him. Finally, after many labours and after having published several learned books, he fell sick. Having received the Holy Eucharist and Extreme Unction, embracing the Crucifix, he joyfully welcomed death on the sixth of the Nones of May (May 10th) in 1459. He was illustrious for the miracles which he wrought during his life, as also for those which followed after his death. He was canonised by Adrian VI in 1523.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
The Order of St. Dominic, which has already presented to our Triumphant Jesus Peter the Martyr and Catherine the seraph of Siena, sends Him today one of the many bishops trained and formed in its admirable school. It was in the fifteenth century, a period when sanctity was rare on the Earth, that Antoninus realised, in his own person, the virtues of the greatest bishops of ancient times. His apostolic zeal, his deeds of charity, his mortified life, are the glory of the Church of Florence which was confided to his care. Heaven blessed that illustrious city with temporal prosperity on account of its saintly Archbishop. Cosmas of Medici was frequently heard to say that Florence owed more to Antoninus than to any other man. The holy prelate was also celebrated for his great learning. He defended the Papacy against the calumnies of certain seditious bishops in the Council of Basle, and at the General Council of Florence he eloquently asserted the truth of the Catholic Faith which was assailed by the abettors of the Greek schism. How beautiful is our holy Mother the Church that produces such children as Antoninus, and has them in readiness to uphold what is true, and withstand what is false!
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We give thanks to our Risen Jesus for the sublime gifts bestowed by Him on you, O Antoninus! When He confided a portion of His flock to your care, He enriched you with the qualities of a Shepherd according to His own Heart. He knew that he could trust to your love. He therefore gave you charge over His Lambs. The age in which you lived was one of great disorder, and one that prepared the way for the scandals of the following century. And yet you were one of the brightest lights the Church has ever had. Florence still cherishes your memory as the man of God and the father of your country. Aid her by thy prayers. The preachers of heresy have entered within her walls. Watch over the field on which your own hands sowed the good seed. Let not the cockle take root there. You were the defender of the Holy See. Raise up in unhappy Italy imitators of your zeal and learning. You had the happiness of witnessing, under the grand cupola of your Cathedral, the re-union of the Greek Church with Rome. You had a share in bringing about this solemn reconciliation which, alas, was to be of short duration.
Pray, O holy Pontiff, for the descendants of them that were faithless to the promise sealed on the very altar on which your hands so often offered up the Sacrifice of unity and peace. Disciple of the great Dominic, inheritor of his burning zeal, protect the holy order which he founded and of which you are so bright an ornament. Show that you still love it. Give it increase and procure for its children the holiness that once worked such loveliness and fruit in the Church. Holy Pontiff, be mindful of the faithful who implore your intercession at this period of the Year. Your eloquent lips announced the Pasch, so many years, to the people of Florence, and urged them to share in the Resurrection of our Divine Head. The same Pasch, the immortal Pasch, has shone once more upon us. We are still celebrating it. Oh pray that its fruits may be lasting in us, and that our Risen Jesus, who has given us Life, may, by His grace, preserve it in our souls for all eternity.
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During the reign of Julian the Apostate, Januarius, a priest, was brought before Gordian, a judge, that he might be condemned, but Gordian, after receiving instructions concerning the Christian Faith from this same priest, was baptised by him at Rome, together with his wife and 53 other members of his family. The Prefect, then having sent Januarius into exile, ordered his deputy Clementianus to imprison Gordian. The deputy, after some time, had Gordian led in chains before his tribunal and sought to induce him to deny the Faith. But failing in his attempt, he ordered him to be first scourged with whips laden with plummets of lead, and then beheaded. His body was exposed before the temple of Apollo that it might be devoured by dogs, but during the night the Christians took it and buried it on the Via Latina, in the same crypt in which had previously been laid the relics of the holy martyr Epimachus when brought from Alexandria, in which city he had endured a long imprisonment for the Christian Faith and was finally crowned with martyrdom by being burned to death
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
In the land of Hus, the holy prophet Job, a man of wonderful patience.
At Rome, the blessed priest and martyr Calepodius who was killed with the sword by order of the emperor Alexander. His body was dragged through the city and thrown into the river Tiber. It was afterwards found and buried by Pope Callistus. The consul Palmatius was also beheaded with his wife, his sons and forty-two of both sexes belonging to his household. Likewise, the senator Simplicius with his wife, and sixty eight of his house, Felix also with his wife Blanda. The heads of all these martyrs were exposed over different gates of the city to terrify Christians.
Also at Rome, on the Via Latina, the birthday of the holy martyrs Quartus and Quinctus whose bodies were translated to Capua.
At Lentini in Sicily, the holy martyrs Alphius, Philadelpus and Cyrinus.
At Smyrna, St. Dioscorides, martyr.
At Bologna, blessed Nicholas Albergati, a Carthusian monk, bishop of that city and Cardinal of the holy Roman Church, celebrated for his holiness and Legations Apostolic. His body was buried at Florence in the monastery of the Carthusians.
At Taranto, St. Cataldus, a bishop renowned for miracles.
At Milan, the finding of the bodies of the holy martyrs Nazarius and Celsus. The blessed bishop Ambrose found the body of St. Nazarius covered with blood still fresh, which he translated to the Basilica of the Apostles, together with the body of the blessed boy Celsus who Nazarius had brought up and who Anolinus, in the persecution of Nero, had ordered to be struck with the sword on the twenty-eighth of July, the day when their martyrdom is commemorated.
At Madrid, St. Isidore, a labourer. Being renowned for miracles, Pope Gregory XV placed him in the number of the saints at the same time with St. Ignatius, St. Francis, St. Theresa and St. Philip.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
Two fresh martyrs ascend from our Earth on this day and are admitted to share of Jesus’ glory. Again it is Rome that deputes them to bear her homage to the Conqueror of Death. Gordian was one of the magistrates under Julian the Apostate who were commissioned to persecute the Christians. One day, while exercising his office, he suddenly descended from the tribunal and took his place among the criminals. He was soon called upon to shed his blood for the Faith. His martyrdom, together with that of the illustrious brothers, John and Paul, whose feast we will keep in June, closes the period of the Pagan Persecutions in the West. The fact of his being buried in the crypts on the Latin Way awakened the memory of another martyr whose relics, half consumed by fire, had long before been brought there from Alexandria. His name was Epimachus, and on this day the two martyrs were united inseparably in the devotion of the faithful. Neither the place nor the period of their combat was the same, but both of them fought for the one cause and won the same victory. The two Conquerors are buried in Peace in the Eternal City but He for whose name they delivered their bodies to death, is mindful of their precious remains. Yet a little while, and He will fulfil, in their regard, the promise He made when He said: “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believes in me, although he be dead, will live” (John xi. 25).
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Sleep your sleep of Peace, O holy Martyrs! Rest yet a little time, till your fellow-servants and brethren who are to be slain, even as you, will be filled up (Apocalypse vi. 11). The number has been added to in every century, but the world is now near its end and its last period is to be rich in martyrdom. When the reign of the Man of Sin (2 Thessalonians ii. 3) begins its course, and the final tempest rages against the barque of holy Church, then, O Martyrs of Christ, protect the Christian people in return for the yearly tribute of honour that it has paid to your venerable names. Pray also for us who are living during these sad times, whose miseries seem like the distant howling of the storm that is to precede the end of the world. Strengthen our hearts, O holy Martyrs, and whatever may be the lot prepared for us by Providence, obtain for us that we may be faithful to Him who would be to us, what He has been to you — the Resurrection and the Life (John xi. 25).Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
In the land of Hus, the holy prophet Job, a man of wonderful patience.
At Rome, the blessed priest and martyr Calepodius who was killed with the sword by order of the emperor Alexander. His body was dragged through the city and thrown into the river Tiber. It was afterwards found and buried by Pope Callistus. The consul Palmatius was also beheaded with his wife, his sons and forty-two of both sexes belonging to his household. Likewise, the senator Simplicius with his wife, and sixty eight of his house, Felix also with his wife Blanda. The heads of all these martyrs were exposed over different gates of the city to terrify Christians.
Also at Rome, on the Via Latina, the birthday of the holy martyrs Quartus and Quinctus whose bodies were translated to Capua.
At Lentini in Sicily, the holy martyrs Alphius, Philadelpus and Cyrinus.
At Smyrna, St. Dioscorides, martyr.
At Bologna, blessed Nicholas Albergati, a Carthusian monk, bishop of that city and Cardinal of the holy Roman Church, celebrated for his holiness and Legations Apostolic. His body was buried at Florence in the monastery of the Carthusians.
At Taranto, St. Cataldus, a bishop renowned for miracles.
At Milan, the finding of the bodies of the holy martyrs Nazarius and Celsus. The blessed bishop Ambrose found the body of St. Nazarius covered with blood still fresh, which he translated to the Basilica of the Apostles, together with the body of the blessed boy Celsus who Nazarius had brought up and who Anolinus, in the persecution of Nero, had ordered to be struck with the sword on the twenty-eighth of July, the day when their martyrdom is commemorated.
At Madrid, St. Isidore, a labourer. Being renowned for miracles, Pope Gregory XV placed him in the number of the saints at the same time with St. Ignatius, St. Francis, St. Theresa and St. Philip.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
