18 DECEMBER – FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

We have now entered into the week which immediately precedes the birth of the Messiah. That long-desired Coming might be even tomorrow, and at furthest, that is, when Advent is as long as it can be, the beautiful feast is only seven days from us. So that the Church now counts the hours, she watches day and night, and since the 17th of December, her Offices have assumed an unusual solemnity. At Lauds, she varies the Antiphons each day, and at Vespers, in order to express the impatience of her desires for her Jesus, she makes use of the most vehement exclamations to the Messiah, in which she each day gives him a magnificent title, borrowed from the language of the Prophets.

Epistle – 1 Corinthians iv. 1‒5

Brethren, let men regard us as the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the mysteries of God. Here now it is required among the dispensers, that a man be found faithful. But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you, or by man’s day; but neither do I judge my own self. For I am not conscious to myself of any thing, yet am I not hereby justified; but he that judges me, is the Lord. Therefore judge not before the time; until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then will every man have praise from God.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church here reminds the people of the dignity of the Christian priesthood. The occasion is an appropriate one, as the ordinations were held yesterday. She also brings before her sacred Ministers the obligation they have contracted of being faithful to the duties imposed upon them. But let not the flock judge their pastor, since all, both priest and people, are living in expectation of the day of our Saviour’s coming: not only of that second one, for which we are now preparing, but also of that last Coming which will be as terrible as the other two are dear to the hearts of men. After having spoken these words of stern admonition, the Church resumes the expressions of her hopes and her entreaties for the speedy coming of her Spouse.

Gospel – Luke iii. 1‒6

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Judea, and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina; Under the high priests Annas and Caiphas; the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins; as it was written in the book of the sayings of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley will be filled; and every mountain and hill will be brought low; and the crooked will be made straight; and the rough ways plain; And all flesh will see the salvation of God.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

You are near, O Lord, for the inheritance of your people has passed into the hands of the Gentiles, and the land which you promised to Abraham is now but a province of that vast empire to which your own is to succeed. The oracles of the Prophets are being rapidly fulfilled, each in its turn. The prediction of Jacob himself has been accomplished: The sceptre is taken from Judah. Everything is ready for your coming, O Jesus! Thus it is that you renew the face of the Earth. Deign, also, I beseech you, to renew my heart, and give me courage during these last few hours of my preparation for receiving you. I feel the need I have of withdrawing into solitude, of receiving the baptism of penance, of making straight all my ways: O divine Saviour, let all this be done in me, that so my joy may be full on the day of your coming.

10 DECEMBER – SATURDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xxv. 1‒9

O Lord, you are my God, I will exalt you, and give glory to your name: for you have done wonderful things, your designs of old faithful. Amen. For you have reduced the city to a heap, the strong city to ruin, the house of strangers to be no city, and to be no more built up forever. Therefore will a strong people praise you, the city of mighty nations will fear you... Because you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress: a refuge from the whirlwind, a shadow from the heat. And the Lord of hosts will make to all people, in this mountain, a feast of fat things, a feast of wine, of fat things full of marrow, of wine purified from the lees. And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the bond with which all people are tied, and the web that He began over all nations. He will cast death down headlong forever: and the Lord God will wipe away tears from every face, and the reproach of his people he will take away from off the whole Earth: for the Lord has spoken it. And they will say in that day: “Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord, we have patiently waited for Him, and we will rejoice and be joyful in His salvation.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Yet a little while, and the conqueror of death will appear, and then, in the joy of our hearts, we will say: “Lo, this is our God: we have ~waited for Him, and He will save us. We have patiently waited for Him. This is He, and we will rejoice and be joyful in His salvation.” Let us, therefore, prepare the way of the Lord, that we may receive Him worthily, and in this work of our preparation, let us have recourse to Mary. Saturday is the day which is sacred to her. She will the more readily grant the prayers said to her upon it. Let us consider her in her grand privilege of being full of grace, carrying in her womb Him whom we so long to possess. If we ask her by what means she rendered herself worthy of such an immense favour, she will tell us that in her was simply fulfilled the prophecy which the Church so continually repeats during these days of Advent: “Every valley will be filled up.” The humble Mary was the valley blessed of the Lord, a valley beautiful and fertile in which God sowed the Divine Wheat, our Saviour, Jesus: for it is written in the Psalm that “the valleys will abound with corn” (Psalm lxiv. 14).

O Mary, it was your humility that drew down upon you the admiration of your Creator. If, from the high Heaven where He dwells, He had perceived a Virgin more humble in her love, He would have chosen her in preference to you: but no, it was you that won His predilection, O mystic valley, ever verdant and lovely in your flowers of grace. We that, like high hills, are so proud and such sinners, what shall we do? We must look on this God of ours who comes to us in infinite humility and then humble ourselves out of love and gratitude. O Blessed Mother! Obtain this grace for us. Pray for us that henceforth we may submit ourselves to the will of our Lord as you did when you spoke those admirable words: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord : may it be done to me according to thy word!”

3 DECEMBER – SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER (Confessor)

Francis was born of noble parents, at Xavier, in the diocese of Pampelona, Spain, in. Having gone to Paris, he there became the companion and disciple of Saint Ignatius. Under such a master, he arrived at so high a contemplation of divine things as to be sometimes raised above the ground: which occasionally happened to him while saying Mass before crowds of people. He had merited these spiritual delights by his severe mortifications of the body, for he never allowed himself either flesh meat, or wine, or even wheaten bread, and ate only the coarsest food. He not infrequently abstained, for the space of two or three days, from every sort of nourishment. He scourged himself so severely with disciplines, to which were fastened pieces of iron, as to be frequently covered with blood. His sleep, which he took on the ground, was extremely short.

Such austerity and holiness of life had fitted him for the labours of an Apostle, so that when King John III of Portugal asked of Pope Paul III that some of the newly-founded Society of Jesus might be sent to the Indies, that Pontiff, by the advice of Saint Ignatius, selected Francis for so important a work, and gave him the powers of Apostolic Nuncio. Having reached those parts, he was found to be, on a sudden, divinely gifted with the knowledge of the exceedingly difficult and varied languages of the several countries. It sometimes even happened, that while he was preaching in one language to the people of several nations, each heard him speaking in their own tongue. He travelled over innumerable provinces, always on foot, and not infrequently bare footed. He carried the faith into Japan, and six other countries. He converted to Christ many hundred thousands in the Indies, and baptised several Princes and Kings.

And yet, though he was doing such great things for God, he was so humble, that he never wrote to Saint Ignatius, the then General of the Society, but on his knees. God blessed this zeal for the diffusion of the Gospel by many and extraordinary miracles. The Saint restored sight to a blind man. By the sign of the cross he changed sea-water into fresh, sufficient, for many days, for a crew of 500 men who were dying from thirst. This water was afterwards taken into several countries, and being given to sick people, they were instantly cured. He raised several dead men to life. One of these had been buried on the previous day, so that the corpse had to be taken out of the grave. Two others were being carried to the grave when the Saint took them by the hand and, raising them from the bier, restored them to their parents. Being continually gifted with the spirit of prophecy, he foretold many future events, or such as were happening in most distant parts.

At length, full of merit, and worn out by his labours, he died on the second day of December, in Sancian, an island off the coast of China. His corpse was twice buried in unslaked lime, but was found, after several months, to be incorrupt: blood flowed from it, and it exhaled a pleasing fragrance. When it was brought to Malacca, it instantly arrested a most raging pestilence. At length, fresh and extraordinary miracles being everywhere wrought through the intercession of the man of God, he was enrolled among the Saints by Pope Gregory XV.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Apostles being the heralds of the Coming of the Messiah, it was fitting that Advent should have in its calendar the name of some one among them. Divine Providence has provided for this, for to say nothing of Saint Andrew whose feast is often past before the season of Advent has commenced, Saint Thomas’ day is unfailingly kept immediately before Christmas. We will explain later on why Saint Thomas holds that position rather than any other Apostle. At present we simply assert the fitness of there being at least one of the Apostolic College who should announce to us, in this period of the Catholic cycle, the Coming of the Redeemer. But God has not wished that the first Apostolate should be the only one to appear on the first page of the liturgical calendar. Great also, though in a lesser degree, is the glory of that second Apostolate by which the Spouse of Jesus Christ multiplies her children, even in her fruitful old age, as the Psalmist expresses it (Psalm cxi. 15). There are Gentiles who have still to be evangelised. The Coming of the Messiah is far from having been announced to all nations. Now, of all the valiant messengers of the divine Word who have, during the last few hundred years, proclaimed the good tidings among infidel nations, there is not one whose glory is greater, who has worked greater wonders, or who has shown himself a closer imitator of the first Apostles, than the modern Apostle of the Indies, Saint Francis Xavier.

Yes, the life and apostolate of this wonderful man were a great triumph for our Mother the holy Catholic Church, for Saint Francis came just at the period when heresy, encouraged by false learning, by political intrigues, by covetousness and by all the wicked passions of the human heart, seemed on the eve of victory. Emboldened by all these, this enemy of God spoke with the deepest contempt of that ancient Church which rested on the promises of Jesus Christ. It declared that she was unworthy of the confidence of men, and dared even to call her the harlot of Babylon, as though the vices of her children could taint the purity of the Mother. God’s time came at last, and He showed Himself in His power: the garden of the Church suddenly appeared rich in the most admirable fruits of sanctity. Heroes and heroines issued from that apparent barrenness, and while the pretended Reformers showed themselves to be the wickedest of men, two single countries — Italy and Spain — gave to the world the most magnificent Saints.

One of these is brought before us today, claiming our love and our praise. The Calendar of the Liturgical Year will present to us, from time to time, his contemporaries and his companions in divine grace and heroic sanctity. The sixteenth century is, therefore, worthy of comparison with any other age of the Church. The so-called Reformers of those times gave little proof of their desire to convert infidel countries, when their only zeal was to bury Christianity beneath the ruin of her churches. But at that very time, a society of Apostles was offering itself to the Roman Pontiff that he might send them to plant the true faith among people who were sitting in the thickest shades of death. But, we repeat, not one of these holy men so closely imitated the first Apostles as did Francis, the disciple of Ignatius. He had all the marks and labours of an Apostle: an immense world of people evangelised by his zeal, hundreds of thousands of infidels baptised by his indefatigable ministration, and miracles of every kind, which proved him, to the infidel, to be marked with the sign which they received who, living in the flesh, planted the Church, as the Church speaks in her Liturgy. So that in the sixteenth century the East received from the ever holy city of Rome an Apostle who, by his character and his works, resembled those earlier ones sent her by Jesus Himself. May our Lord Jesus be forever praised for having vindicated the honour of the Church, His Spouse, by raising up Francis Xavier and giving to men, in this His servant, a representation of what the first Apostles were, whom He sent to preach the Gospel when the whole world was pagan.

*****

Glorious Apostle of Jesus Christ who imparted His divine light to the nations that were sitting in the shadows of death! We, though unworthy of the name of Christians, address our prayers to you that, by the charity which led you to sacrifice everything for the conversion of souls, you would deign to prepare us for the visit of the Saviour whom our faith and our love desire. You were the father of infidel nations. Be the protector during this holy season of them that believe in Christ. Before your eyes had contemplated the Lord Jesus, you made Him known to countless people. Now that you see Him him face to face, obtain for us that when He is come, we may see Him with that simple and ardent faith of the Magi, those glorious first-fruits of the nations to which you bore the admirable light (1 Peter ii. 9).

Remember also, O great Apostle, those nations which you evangelised and where now, by a terrible judgement of God, the word of life has ceased to bring forth fruit. Pray for the vast empire of China on which you looked when dying, but which was not blessed with your preaching. Pray for Japan, your dear garden which has been laid waste by the savage wild beast, of which the Psalmist speaks. May the blood of the Martyrs which was poured out on that land like water, bring it the long expected fertility. Bless, too, all the Missions which our holy Mother the Church has undertaken in those lands where the Cross has not yet triumphed. May the heart of the infidel be opened to the grand simplicity and light of faith. May the seed bring forth fruit a hundred-fold. May the number of your successors in the new apostolate ever increase. May their zeal and charity fail not. May their toil receive its reward of abundant fruit, and may the crown of martyrdom which they receive be not only the recompense, but the perfection and the triumph of their apostolic ministry. Recommend to our Lord the innumerable members of that Association which is the means of the Faith being propagated through the world, and which has you for its Patron. Pray, with a filial affection and earnestness, for that holy Society of which you are so bright an ornament, and which reposes on you its firmest confidence. May it more and more flourish under the storm of trial which never leaves it in rest. May it be multiplied so that the children of God may be multiplied by its labours. May it ever have ready, for the service of the Christian world, zealous Apostles and Doctors. May it not be in vain that it bears the name of Jesus.

*****

Let us consider the wretched condition of the human race at the time of Christ’s coming into the world. The ancient traditions are gradually becoming extinct. The Creator is not acknowledged, even in the very work of His hands. Everything has been made God, except the God who made all things. This frightful Pantheism produces the vilest immorality, both in society at large, and in individuals. There are no rights acknowledged save that of might. Lust, avarice and theft are honoured by men in the gods of their altars. There is no such thing as Family, for divorce and infanticide are legalised. Mankind is degraded by a general system of slavery. Nations are being exterminated by endless wars. The human race is in the last extreme of misery, and unless the hand that created it reforms it, it must needs sink a prey to crime and bloodshed. There are indeed some few just men still left upon the Earth, and they struggle against the torrent of universal degradation. But they cannot save the world: the world despises them, and God will not accept their merits as a palliation of the hideous leprosy which covers the Earth. All flesh has corrupted its way and is more guilty than even in the days of the deluge. And yet a second destruction of the universe would but manifest anew the justice of God. It is time that a deluge of His divine mercy should flood the universe, and that He who made man, should come down and heal him. Come then, O eternal Son of God! Give life again to this dead body. Heal all its wounds. Purify it. Let grace superabound where sin before abounded, and having converted the world to your holy law, you will have proved to all ages that you who earnest, was in very truth the Word of the Father. For as none but a God could create the world, so none but the same omnipotent God could save it from Satan and sin, and restore it to justice and holiness.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Judea, the holy prophet Sophonias.

At Rome, the holy martyrs Claudius, tribune, and Hilaria, his wife, with Jason and Maurus, their sons, and seventy soldiers. By the command of the emperor Numerian, Claudius was fastened to a large stone and precipitated into the river. The soldiers and the sons of Claudius were condemned to capital punishment. But blessed Hilaria, after having buried the bodies of her sons, and while praying at their tomb, was arrested by pagans and shortly after departed for heaven.

At Tangier in Morocco, St. Cassian, martyr. After having been a recorder for a long time, at length, through the inspiration of heaven, he deemed it an execrable thing to contribute to the massacre of Christians, and therefore abandoned his office, and making profession of Christianity, deserved to obtain the triumph of martyrdom.

Also in Africa, the holy martyrs Claudius, Crispinus, Magina, John and Stephen.

In Hungary, St. Agricola, martyr.

At Nicomedia, the Saints Ambicus, Victor and Julius.

At Milan, St. Mirocles, bishop and confessor, sometimes mentioned by St. Ambrose.

In England, St. Birinus, first bishop of Dorchester.

At Coire in Switzerland, St. Lucius, king of the Britons, who as the first of those kings who received the faith of Christ in the time of Pope Eleutherius.

At Siena, in Tuscany, St. Galganus, hermit.

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

Thanks be to God.

29 OCTOBER – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Lucania, the holy martyrs Hyacinthus, Quinctus, Felician and Lucius.

At Sidon in Phoenicia, St. Zenobius, a priest. While the last persecution was raging, by exhorting others to martyrdom, he was himself deemed worthy of it.

The same day, the holy bishops Maximilian, martyr, and Valentine, confessor.

At Bergamo, St. Eusebia, virgin and martyr.

At Jerusalem, the birthday of blessed Narcissus, a bishop distinguished for holiness, patience and faith, who went to the kingdom of God at the age of one hundred and sixteen years.

At Autun, St. John, bishop and confessor.

At Cassiope on the island of Corfu, St. Donatus, mentioned by Pope St. Gregory.

At Vienne, the departure from this world of blessed Theodore, abbot.

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

Thanks be to God.

22 OCTOBER – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Jerusalem, the blessed bishop Mark, a celebrated and learned man, who was the first Gentile that governed the church of Jerusalem. His brief episcopate was rewarded by the palm of martyrdom under the emperor Antoninus.

At Adrianople in Thrace, the birthday of the holy martyrs Philip, bishop, Severus, priest, Eusebius and Hermes, who, after being imprisoned and scourged, were burned alive in the time of Julian the Apostate.

Also the holy martyrs Alexander, bishop, Heracilus, soldier, and their companions.

At Fermo in the Marches of Ancona, St. Philip, bishop and martyr.

At Huesca in Spain, the holy virgins Nunilo and Alodia, sisters, who endured martyrdom by being condemned to capital punishment by the Saracens for the confession of the faith.

At Cologne, St. Cordula, one of the companions of St. Ursula, who, being terrified at the torments and slaughter of the other virgins, hid herself, but soon repenting, came forward the next day, and last of all received the crown of martyrdom.

At Hierapolis in Phrygia, St. Abercius, bishop, who flourished under the emperor Marcus Antoninus.

At Rouen, St. Melanius, bishop, who was ordained by Pope St. Stephen, and sent there to preach the Gospel.

In Tuscany, St. Donatus, of Scotland, bishop of Fiesoli.

At Verona, St. Verecundus, bishop and confessor.

At Jerusalem, St. Mary Salome, who, as we read in the Gospel, piously attended to the burial of Our Lord.

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

Thanks be to God.

21 OCTOBER – SAINT URSULA AND COMPANIONS (Martyrs)

In about the middle of the fifth century when Attila, chief of the Huns, had been defeated at Chalons in his first invasion of Gaul, he returned into Pannonia, and before crossing the Rhine he attacked the city of Cologne. From his hatred of the Catholic religion which greatly flourished there, he gave it up to sack and slaughter. The savages, burning with lust, cruelly assaulted the young virgins who were abiding there on their journey from Britain, among whom the most famous is the virgin Ursula, who exhorted her companions to endure all torments, and rather to suffer the most cruel death than to submit to the loss of their virginity.

Ursula’s band of virgins were slain by the Huns: some by the sword, some pierced with arrows, and some felled with bludgeons. Ursula, bending as a glorious victim over the piles of her slaughtered companions as over heaps of heavenly pearls, red with the bloodshed for faith and chastity, led triumphantly into Heaven the army crowned with these double crowns. After the barbarian hordes had left, the surviving residents of Cologne gathered up the bodies of the virgins and other martyrs and buried them with all honour. On the field stained with the blood of the martyrs where they were laid to rest, a Church was erected in the seventh century and was named that of the Holy Virgins.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Saint Hilarion was one of the first Confessors, if not the very first, to be honoured in the East with a public cultus like the Martyrs. In the West, the white-robed army led by Ursula adds to the glory of the holy monk who has the first honours of this day. On the 21st October 451 Cologne was made equal to the most illustrious cities by a spiritual glory. Criticism, and there is no lack of it, may dispute the circumstances which brought together the legion of virgins, but the fact itself that eleven thousand chosen souls were martyred by the Huns in recompense for their fidelity is now acknowledged by true science. From the earth where so many noble victims lay concealed, they have more than once been brought to light by multitudes, bearing about them evidence of the veneration of those who had buried them. For instance, by a happy inspiration, the arrow that had set free the blessed soul would be left, as a token of victory, fixed in the breast or forehead of the martyr.

Saint Angela of Merici confided to the patronage of this glorious phalanx her spiritual daughters, and the numberless children whom they will continue till the end of time to educate in the fear of the Lord. The grave Sorbonne dedicated its church to the holy virgins as well as to the Mother of God, and here, as in the Universities of Coimbra and Vienna, an annual panegyric was pronounced in praise of them. Portugal, enriched with some of their precious relics, carried their cultus into the Indies. And pious confraternities have been formed among the faithful for obtaining their assistance at the hour of death.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Ostia, St. Asterius, priest and martyr, who suffered under the emperor Alexander, as we read in the Acts of the blessed Pope Callistus.

At Nicomedia, the birthday of the Saints Dasius, Zoticus, Caius and twelve other soldiers, who, after suffering various torments, were submerged in the sea.

At Maronia near Antioch in Syria, St. Malchus, monk.

At Lyons, St. Viator, deacon of blessed Justus, bishop of that city.

At Laon, St. Cilinia, mother of blessed Remigius, bishop of Rheims.

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

Thanks be to God.

23 SEPTEMBER – SAINT LINUS (Pope and Martyr)

Pope Linus was born at Volterra in Tuscany, and was the first to succeed Saint Peter in the government of the Church. His faith and holiness were so great that he not only cast out devils, but even raised the dead to life. He wrote the acts of blessed Peter, and in particular what he had done against Simon Magus. He decreed that no woman should enter a church with her head uncovered. On account of his constancy in confessing the Christian faith, this Pontiff was beheaded by command of Saturninus, a wicked and ungrateful ex-consul whose daughter he had delivered from the tyranny of the devils. He was buried on the Vatican, near the sepulchre of the prince of the apostles, on the ninth of the Calends of October. He governed the Church 11 years, 2 months and 23 days. In two ordinations in the month of December he consecrated 15 bishops and 18 priests.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The lives of the first Vicars of Christ are buried in a mysterious obscurity, just as the foundations of a monument built to defy the ravages of time are concealed from view. To be the supports of the everlasting Church is a sufficient glory: sufficient to justify our confidence in them, and to awaken our gratitude. As for ourselves, we will rejoice with the Church on this feast and pay our loving veneration to the humble and gentle Pontiff who was the first laid to rest beside Saint Peter in the Vatican crypts.

* * * * *

Simon Bar-Jonah was invested with the sovereign pontificate by our Lord in person, and openly before all. You, O blessed Pontiff, received in secret, yet none the less directly from Jesus, the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. In your person began the reign of pure faith. Henceforth the bride, though she hears not the Man-God repeat His injunction to Peter: “feed my lambs,” nevertheless acknowledges the continuance of His authority in the lawfully appointed representative of her divine Spouse. Obtain by your prayers that the shadows of Earth may never cause us to waver in our obedience and that hereafter we may merit, with you, to contemplate our divine Head in the light of eternal day.

19 SEPTEMBER – SAINT JANARIUS (Bishop and Martyr) AND COMPANIONS (Martyrs)

During the persecution of Christians under Diocletian and Maximian, Januarius, bishop of Beneventum (Benevento), was brought before Timothy, president of Campania, at Nola, for the profession of the Christian faith. There his constancy was tried in various ways. He was cast into a burning furnace, but escaped unhurt, not even his garments or a hair of his head being injured by the flames. This enraged the president who commanded the martyr’s body to be so stretched that all his joints and nerves were displaced. Meanwhile, Festus his deacon, and Desiderius a lector, were seized, loaded with chains and dragged, together with the bishop, before the president’s chariot to Pozzuolo. There they were cast into a dungeon where they found the deacons Sosius of Misenum and Proculus of Pozzuolo, with Eutyches and Acutius laymen all condemned to be thrown to wild beasts. The following day they were all exposed in the amphitheatre, but the animals forgetting their natural ferocity, crouched at the feet of Janarius. Timothy attributed this to magical arts and condemned the martyrs of Christ to be beheaded, but as he was pronouncing the sentence, he was suddenly struck blind. However, at the prayer of Januarius he soon recovered his sight, on account of which miracle about 5,000 men embraced the faith. The ungrateful judge was in no way softened by the benefit conferred on him. Rather, enraged by so many conversions and fearing the emperor’s edicts, he ordered the holy bishop and his companions to be beheaded.

Eager to secure, each for itself, a patron before God among these holy martyrs, the neighbouring towns provided burial places for their bodies. In obedience to a warning from Heaven, the Neapolitans took the body of Saint Januarius and placed it first at Beneventum, then in the monastery of Monte Vergine, and finally in the principal church at Naples where it became illustrious for many miracles. One of the most remarkable of these was the extinction of a fiery eruption of Mount Vesuvius, when the terrible flames threatened with destruction not only the neighbourhood but even distant parts. Another remarkable miracle is seen even to the present day, namely: when the martyr’s blood, which is preserved congealed in a glass vial, is brought in presence of his head, it liquefies and boils up in a wonderful manner, as if it had been but recently shed. In Italy Saint Janarius is known as San Gennaro.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Janarius is ever preaching the Gospel to every creature, for his miraculous blood perpetuates the testimony he bore to Christ. Let those who say they cannot believe unless they see, go to Naples. There they will behold the martyr’s blood, when placed near his head which was cut off [seventeen] hundred years ago, to liquefy and boil as at the moment it escaped from his sacred veins. No, miracles are not lacking in the Church at the present day. True, God cannot subject Himself to the fanciful requirements of those proud men who would dictate to Him the conditions of the prodigies they must needs witness ere they will bow before His infinite Majesty. Nevertheless, His intervention in interrupting the laws of nature framed by Him and by Him alone to be suspended, has never yet failed the man of good faith in any period of history. At present there is less dearth than ever of such manifestations.

* * * * *

O holy martyrs, and you especially, O Januarius, the leader no less by your courage than by your pontifical dignity, your present glory increases our longing for Heaven. Your past combats animate us to fight the good fight. Your continual miracles confirm us in the faith. Praise and gratitude are therefore due to you on this day of your triumph. And, we pay this our debt in the joy of our hearts. In return, extend to us the protection of which the fortunate cities placed under your powerful patronage are so justly proud. Defend those faithful towns against the assaults of the evil one. In compensation for the falling away of society at large, offer to Christ our King the growing faith of all who pay you honour.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Nocera, the birthday of the holy martyrs Felix and Constantia who suffered under Nero.

In Palestine, the holy martyrs Peleus, Nilus and Elias, bishops in Egypt, who were, with many others of the clergy, consumed by fire for the sake of Christ during the persecution of Diocletian.

The same day, the holy martyrs Trophimus, Sabbatius and Dorymedon, senator, under the emperor Probus. By command of the governor Atticus, at Antioch, Sabbatius was scourged until he expired. Trophimus was sent to the governor Perennius at Synnada, where he and the senator Dorymedon consummated their martyrdom by decapitation after enduring many torments.

At Cordova, in the Arabian persecution, St. Pomposa, virgin and martyr.

At Canterbury, the holy bishop Theodore, who was sent to England by Pope Vitalian, and was renowned for learning and holiness.

At Tours, St. Eustochius, bishop, a man of great virtue.

In the diocese of Langres, St. Sequanus, priest and confessor.

At Barcelona in Spain, blessed Mary de Cervellione, virgin, of the Order of Our Lady of Ransom. She is commonly called Mary of Help on account of the prompt assistance she renders to those who invoke her.

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

Thanks be to God.

13 SEPTEMBER – FERIA

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

“How beautiful are your first steps, O prince’s daughter! Our eyes are never weary of contemplating in you the marvel of harmonious sweetness united to the strength of an army” (Canticles vii. 1, 2). Blessed child, continue to grow in grace. May your course be prosperous. May your thy royalty be strengthened and established. But the Church will not wait till you be grown up to sing to you her beautiful antiphon: ‘Rejoice O Virgin Mary. You alone have destroyed all heresies throughout the world.’

Heresy, Satan’s denial of what God affirms by His Christ, this is the great struggle, or rather the only one which sums up history. God having created the world for the sole purpose of uniting it to Himself by His Word made Flesh, the enemy of God and of the world, in order to break the bond of this mysterious love, attacks by turns the Divinity and the Humanity of Christ the Mediator. But all his lies are in vain: Jesus is Man, for He is born of a Mother, like every one of us. He is God, for He alone is born of a Virgin. The Man-God, who, according to Simeon’s prophecy, is a sign of contradiction to the sons of perdition, has Himself a sign, for unprejudiced eyes, viz: a Virgin-Mother: “The Lord Himself,” said the Prophet, “will give you a sign. Behold Virgin will conceive and bear a Son and His name will be called Emmanuel (Isaias vii. 14) God with us.”

In the second of the celebrated conferences held with Manes in 277 by the holy bishop Archelaus, the heresiarch having denied that Christ was born of Mary, Archelaus replied: “If such be the case, if He was not born, then obviously He did not suffer, for to suffer is impossible to one not born. If He did not suffer, no mention can be made of the cross. Do away with the cross, and Jesus cannot have risen from the dead. But if Jesus be not risen, no one else can rise again; and if there is no resurrection, there can be no judgement. In that case there is no use in keeping the commandments of God: ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die’ (1 Corinthians xv. 32). Such is the corollary to your argument. Confess, on the other hand, that our Lord was born of Mary, and thence will follow the passion, the resurrection, and the judgment. Then the whole of Scripture is saved. No, this is no vain question for, as the whole Law and the Prophets are contained in the two precepts of charity, so all our hope depends on the motherhood of the blessed Virgin.”

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Alexandria, the birthday of blessed Philip, father of the virgin St. Eugenia. Resigning the dignity of prefect of Egypt, he obtained the grace of baptism. His successor, the prefect Terentius, caused him to be pierced through the throat with a sword while he was praying.

Also the holy martyrs Macrobius and Julian, who suffered under Licinius.

The same day, St. Ligorius, martyr, who living in the desert, was murdered by Gentiles for the faith of Christ.

At Alexandria, St. Eulogius, a bishop, celebrated for learning and sanctity.

At Angers in France, St. Mauritius, a bishop, renowned for numberless miracles.

At Sens, St. Amatus, bishop and confessor.

The same day, St. Venerius, confessor, a man of admirable sanctity, who led an heremitical life in the island of Palmaria.

In the monastery of Remiremont in France, St. Amatus, priest and abbot, illustrious for the virtue of abstinence and the gift of miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

20 FEBRUARY – QUINQUAGESIMA MONDAY

Lesson – Genesis xiii. 1‒15

And Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south. And he was very rich in possession of gold and silver. And he returned by the way that he came, from the south to Bethel, to the place where before he had pitched his tent between Bethel and Hai: in the place of the altar which he had made before; and there he called upon the name of the Lord. But Lot also, who was with Abram, had flocks of sheep, and herds of beasts, and tents. Neither was the land able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, and they could not dwell together. Whereupon also there arose a strife between the herdsmen of Abram and of Lot. And at that time the Canaanite and the Pherezite dwelled in that country. Abram therefore said to Lot: “Let there be no quarrel, I beseech you, between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen: for we are brethren. Behold the whole land is before you: depart from me I pray you: if you will go to the left hand, I will take the right: if you choose the right hand, I will pass to the left.” And Lot, lifting up his eyes, saw all the country about the Jordan, which was watered throughout, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrhah, as the paradise of the Lord, and like Egypt as one comes to Segor. And Lot chose to himself the country about the Jordan, and he departed from the east: and they were separated one brother from the other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan; and Lot abode in the towns that were about the Jordan, and dwelt in Sodom. And the men of Sodom were very wicked, and sinners before the face of the Lord, beyond measure. And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him: “Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you now are, to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west. All the land which you see, I will give to you and to your seed forever.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The life of a faithful Christian, like that of the Patriarch Abraham, is neither more nor less than a courageous journeying onwards to the place destined for him by his Creator. He must put aside everything that could impede his progress, nor must he look back. This is undoubtedly hard doctrine, but if we reflect for a moment on the dangers which surround fallen man during his earthly pilgrimage and on what our own sad experience has taught us, we will not think it hard or strange that our Saviour has made the renouncing and denying ourselves an essential condition of our salvation. But, independently of this, is it not far better to put our life under God’s guidance than to keep it in our own? Are we so wise or so strong as to be able to guide ourselves? We may resist as we please, but God is our Sovereign Lord and Master, and by giving us free will by which we may either resist His will or follow it, He has not abdicated His own infinite rights to His creatures’ obedience. Our refusal to obey would not make Him the less our Master.

Had Abraham, after receiving the divine call, chosen to remain in Chaldea and refused to break up the home which God bade him leave, God would then have selected some other man to be the Patriarch of His chosen people, and Father of that very family which was to have the Messiah as one of its children. This substituting one for another in the order of grace is frequently forced upon Divine Justice: but what a terrible punishment it is for him that caused the substitution! When a soul refuses salvation, Heaven does not therefore lose one of its elect: God, finding that He is despised by the one he called, offers the grace to another until His call is followed.

The Christian life consists in this untiring unreserved obedience to God. The first effect of this spirit of submission is that it takes the soul from the region of sin and death in which she was wasting away her existence. It takes her from the dark Chaldea and places her in the promised land of light. Lest she should faint on her way along the narrow path and fall a victim to the dangers which never leave her, because they are in her own self, God asks her for sacrifices, and these brace her. Here again we have Abraham for our model. God loves Him and promises Him the richest of blessings. He gives him a son as pledge of the promise, and then shortly after tests the holy Patriarch’s devotedness by commanding him to slay with his own hand this dear child on whom he has been told to build his hopes!

Man’s path on earth is sacrifice. We cannot go out from evil except by the way of self-resistance, nor keep our footing on good ground but by constant combating. Let us imitate Abraham: fix our eye steadfastly on the eternal hills, and consider this world as a mere passing dwelling, a tent, put up for a few days. Our Jesus has said to us: “I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to separate” (Matthew x. 34, 35). Separation, then, and trials are sure to be sent us. But we are equally sure that they are for our good, since they are sent us by Him who so loved us that He became one of ourselves. But this same Jesus has also said: “Where thy treasure is, there too is your heart” (Matthew vi. 21). Christians! Can our treasure be in this wretched world? No, it must be in that fair Land above. There, then, must we be in desire and affection.

These are the thoughts the Church would have us meditate upon during these days which immediately precede the Forty of Lent. They will help to purify our hearts and make them long to be with their God. The noise of the world’s sins and scandals reaches our ears: let us pray that the Kingdom of God may come to us and to those poor sinners, for God’s infinite mercy can change them, if He will, into children of Abraham. Not a day passes but He so changes many a sinner. He has, perhaps, shown that miracle of His mercy to us, and those words of the Apostle may be applied to us: “You, who some time were afar off, are now made near (to God) by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians ii. 13).

17 FEBRUARY – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, the passion of St. Faustinus, whom forty-four others followed to receive the crown of martyrdom.

In Persia, during the persecution of Decius, the birthday of blessed Polychronius, bishop of Babylon, who, being struck in the mouth with stones, stretched out his hands, lifted up his eyes to heaven and expired.

At Concordia, the holy martyrs Donatus, Secundian, and Romulus, with eighty-six others, partakers of the same crown.

At Caesarea in Palestine, St. Theodulus, an aged man, in the service of the governor Firmilian. Moved by the example of the martyrs, he confessed Christ with constancy, was fastened to a cross, and thus by a noble victory merited the palm of martyrdom.

In the same place, St. Julian, a Cappadocian, who, because he had kissed the relics of the martyrs, was denounced as a Christian and led to the governor who had him consumed with a slow fire.

In the territory of Terouanne, St. Silvinus, bishop of Toulouse.

In Ireland, St. Fintan, priest and confessor.

At Florence, blessed Alexius Falconieri, confessor, one of the seven Founders of the Order of the Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, in the one hundred and tenth year of his age, terminated his blessed career in the consoling presence of Jesus Christ and the angels.

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

Thanks be to God.

16 FEBRUARY – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The birthday of blessed Onesimus, concerning whom the blessed Apostle St. Paul wrote to Philemon. He made him bishop of Ephesus after St. Timothy, and committed to him the office of preaching. Being led a prisoner to Rome, and stoned to death for the faith of Christ, he was buried in that city, but his body was afterwards carried to the place where he had been bishop.

At Cumae in Campania, the Translation of St. Juliana, virgin and martyr. Under the emperor Maximian she was first severely scourged by her own father, Africanus, then made to suffer many torments by the prefect, Evilasius, whom she had refused to marry. Later being thrown into prison, she encountered the evil spirit in a visible manner. Finally, as a fiery furnace and a cauldron of boiling oil could do her no injury, she terminated her martyrdom by decapitation.

In Egypt, St. Julian, martyr, with five thousand other Christians.

At Caesarea in Palestine, the holy martyrs Elias, Jeremias, Isaias, Samuel and Daniel, Egyptians, who of their own accord served the confessors of Christ condemned to labour in the mines of Cilicia, but were arrested on their return, and after being cruelly tortured by the governor Firmilian under the emperor Galerius Maximian, were put to the sword. After them, St. Porphyry, servant of the martyr Pamphilus, and St. Seleucus, a Cappadocian, who had been victorious in several combats, being again exposed to torments, won the crown of martyrdom, the one by fire, the other by the sword.

At Arezzo in Tuscany, blessed Pope Gregory X, a native of Piacenza, who was elected Sovereign Pontiff while he was archdeacon of Liege. He held the second Council of Lyons, received the Greeks into the unity of the Church, appeased discords among Christians, made generous efforts for the recovery of the Holy Land, and governed the Church in the most holy manner.

At Brescia, St. Faustinus, bishop and confessor.

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

Thanks be to God.

8 JANUARY – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Beauvais in France, the holy martyrs Lucian, priest, Maximian and Julian. The last two were killed with the sword by the persecutors, but blessed Lucian who had come to France with St. Denis, not fearing, after the slaughter of his companions, to confess the name of Christ openly, received the same sentence of death.

Also in France, St. Eugenian, martyr.

In Lybia, the holy martyrs Theophilus, deacon, and Helladius, who, after being lacerated and cut with sharp pieces of earthenware were cast into the fire and rendered their souls to God.

At Venice, the demise of blessed Lawrence Justinian, confessor, first patriarch of that city. Eminent for learning and abundantly filled with the heavenly gifts of divine wisdom, he was ranked among the saints by Pope Alexander VIII. He is again mentioned on the fifth of September.

At Hierapolis in Asia, St. Apollinaris, bishop, who was conspicuous for sanctity and learning, under Marcus Antoninus Verus.

At Naples in Campania, the birthday of the bishop St. Severin, brother to the blessed martyr Victorinus, who, after working many miracles, went to rest, replenished with virtues and merits.

At Pavia, St. Maximus, bishop and confessor.

At Metz, St. Patiens, bishop.

The same day, among the inhabitants of Noricum (now Austria), the abbot St. Severin, who preached the Gospel in that country and is called its apostle. By divine power his body was carried to Lucullanum near Naples, and from there transferred to the monastery of St. Severin.

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

Thanks be to God.