30 APRIL – SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA (Virgin and Doctor of the Church)

Catherine, a virgin of Siena, was born of pious parents. She asked for and obtained the Dominican habit, such as it is worn by the Sisters of Penance. Her abstinence was extraordinary and her manner of living most mortified. She was once known to have fasted without receiving anything but the Blessed Sacrament from Ash Wednesday to Ascension Day. She had very frequent contests with the wicked spirits who attacked her in various ways. She suffered much from fever and other bodily ailments. Her reputation for sanctity was so great that there were brought to her from all parts persons who were sick or tormented by the devil. She, in the name of Christ, healed such as were afflicted with malady or fever and drove the devils from the bodies of them that were possessed.

Being once at Pisa on a Sunday, and having received the Bread of Heaven, Catherine was rapt in an ecstasy. She saw our crucified Lord approaching to her. He was encircled with a great light, and from His five wounds there came rays which fell upon the five corresponding parts of Catherine’s body. Being aware of the favour bestowed on her, she besought our Lord that the stigmata might not be visible. The rays immediately changed from the colour of blood into one of gold, and passed, under the form of a bright light, to the hands, feet and heart of the Saint. So violent was the pain left by the wounds that it seemed to her as though she must soon have died, had not God diminished it. Thus our most loving Lord added favour to favour by permitting her to feel the smart of the wounds, and yet removing their appearance. The servant of God related what had happened to her to Raymund, her confessor. Hence, when the devotion of the faithful gave a representation of this miracle, they painted, on the pictures of Saint Catherine, bright rays coming from the five stigmata she had received.

Her learning was not acquired but infused. Theologians proposed to her the most difficult questions of divinity and received satisfactory answers. No one ever approached her who did not go away a better man. She reconciled many that were at deadly enmity with one another. She visited Pope Gregory XI who was then at Avignon in order to bring about the reconciliation of the Florentines who were under an interdict on account of their having formed a league against the Holy See. She told the Pontiff that there had been revealed to her the vow which he, Gregory, had made of going to Rome — a vow which was known to God alone. It was through her entreaty that the Pope began to plan measures for taking possession of his See of Rome, which he did soon after. Such was the esteem in which she was held by Gregory, and by Urban VI, his successor, that she was sent by them on several embassies. At length, after a life spent in the exercise of the sublimest virtues and after gaining great reputation on account of her prophecies and many miracles, she passed hence to her divine Spouse when she was about 33 years old. She was canonised by Pius II.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Dominican Order which yesterday presented a rose to our Risen Jesus now offers Him a lily of surpassing beauty. Catherine of Siena follows Peter the Martyr: it is a co-incidence willed by Providence to give fresh beauty to this season of grandest Mysteries. Our Divine King deserves everything we can offer Him, and our hearts are never so eager to give Him every possible tribute of homage as during these last days of his sojourn among us. See how nature is all flower and fragrance at this loveliest of her seasons! The spiritual world harmonises with the visible and now yields her noblest and richest works in honour of her Lord, the author of Grace. How grand is the Saint whose feast comes gladdening us today! She is one of the most favoured of the holy Spouses of the Incarnate Word. She was His, wholly and unreservedly, almost from her very childhood. Though thus consecrated to Him by the vow of holy virginity, she had a mission given to her by divine Providence which required her living in the world. But God would have her to be one of the glories of the religious state. He therefore inspired her to join the Third Order of Saint Dominic. Accordingly, she wore the habit and fervently practised, during her whole life, the holy exercises of a Tertiary.

From the very commencement there was a something heavenly about this admirable servant of God which we fancy existing in an angel who had been sent from Heaven to live in a human body. Her longing after God gave one an idea of the vehemence with which the Blessed embrace the Sovereign Good on their first entrance into Heaven. In vain did the body threaten to impede the soaring of this earthly seraph. She subdued it by penance and made it obedient to the spirit. Her body seemed to be transformed so as to have no life of its own but only that of the soul. The Blessed Sacrament was frequently the only food she took for weeks together. So complete was her union with Christ that she received the impress of the sacred stigmata and, with them, the most excruciating pain.

And yet, in the midst of all these supernatural favours, Catherine felt the keenest interest in the necessities of others. Her zeal for their spiritual advantage was intense, while her compassion for them, in their corporal sufferings was that of a most loving mother. God had given her the gift of miracles, and she was lavish in using it for the benefit of her fellow-creatures. Sickness and death itself were obedient to her command, and the prodigies witnessed at the beginning of the Church were again wrought by the humble Saint of Siena.

Her communings with God began when she was quite a child, and her ecstasies were almost without interruption. She frequently saw our Risen Jesus who never left her without having honoured her, either with a great consolation, or with a heavy cross. A profound knowledge of the mysteries of our holy faith was another of the extraordinary graces bestowed on her. So eminent, indeed, was the heavenly wisdom granted her by God that she who had received no education used to dictate the most sublime writings in which she treats of spiritual things with a clearness and eloquence which human genius could never attain to, and with a certain indescribable unction which no reader can resist.

But God would not permit such a treasure as this to lie buried in a little town of Italy. The saints are the supports of the Church, and though their influence be generally hidden, yet, at times, it is open and visible, and men then learn what the instruments are which God uses for imparting blessings to a world that would seem to deserve little else besides chastisement. The great question at the close of the fourteenth century was the restoring to the Holy City the privilege of its having within its walls the Vicar of Christ who, for 60 years, had been absent from his See. One saintly soul, by merits and prayers, known to Heaven alone, might have brought about this happy event after which the whole Church was longing, but God would have it done by a visible agency and in the most public manner. In the name of the widowed Rome — in the name of her own and the Church’s Spouse — Catherine crossed the Alps and sought an interview with the Pontiff who had not so much as seen Rome. The Prophetess respectfully reminded him of his duty, and in proof of her mission being from God, she tells him of a secret which was known to himself alone. Gregory XI could no longer resist, and the Eternal City welcomed its Pastor and Father. But at the Pontiff’s death a frightful schism, the forerunner of greater evils to follow, broke out in the Church. Catherine, even to her last hour, was untiring in her endeavours to quell the storm. Having lived the same number of years as our Saviour had done, she breathed forth her most pure soul into the hands of her God, and went to continue in Heaven her ministry of intercession for the Church she had loved so much on Earth, and for souls redeemed in the precious Blood of her Divine Spouse.

Our Risen Jesus who took her to her eternal reward during the Season of Easter granted her, while she was living on Earth, a favour which we mention here as being appropriate to the mystery we are now celebrating. He, one day, appeared to her, having with Him His Blessed Mother. Mary Magdalene, she that announced the Resurrection to the Apostles, accompanied the Son and the Mother. Catherine’s heart was overpowered with emotion at this visit. After looking for some time upon Jesus and his holy Mother, her eyes rested on Magdalene whose happiness she both saw and envied. Jesus spoke these words to her: “My beloved! I give her to you to be your mother. Address yourself to her, henceforth, with all confidence. I give her special charge of you.” From that day forward Catherine had the most filial love for Magdalene, and called her by no other name than that of Mother.

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Holy Church, filled as she now is with the joy of her Jesus’ Resurrection, addresses herself to you, O Catherine, who follows the Lamb wherever He goes (Apocalypse xiv. 4). Living in this exile where it is only at intervals that she enjoys His presence, she says to you: “Have you seen Him, whom my soul loves? (Canticles iii. 3). You are His Spouse, so is she. But there are no veils, no separation, for you: whereas, for her, the enjoyment is at rare and brief periods and, even so, there are clouds that dim the lovely Light. What a life was yours, O Catherine, uniting in itself the keenest compassion for the sufferings of Jesus, and an intense happiness by the share He gave you of His glorified life. We might take you as our guide both to the mournful mysteries of Calvary, and to the glad splendours of the Resurrection. It is these second that we are now respectfully celebrating: oh speak to us of our Risen Jesus. Is it not He that gave you the nuptial ring with its matchless diamond set amid four precious gems? The bright rays which gleam from your stigmata tell us that when He espoused you to Himself, you saw Him all resplendent with the beauty of His glorious wounds.

Daughter of Magdalene, like her, you are a messenger of the Resurrection, and when your last Pasch comes — the Pasch of your thirty-third year — you go to Heaven, to keep it for eternity. O zealous lover of souls! love them more than ever, now that you are in the palace of the King, our God. We too are in the Pasch in the New Life. Intercede for us that the life of Jesus may never die within us but may go on, strengthening its power and growth, by our loving Him with an ardour like your own. Get us, great Saint, something of the filial devotedness you had for holy Mother Church, and which prompted you to do such glorious things! Her sorrows and her joys were yours, for there can be no love for Jesus where there is none for His Spouse. And is it not through her that He gives us all His gifts? Oh, yes, we too wish to love this Mother of ours. We will never be ashamed to own ourselves as her children! We will defend her against her enemies. We will do everything that lies in our power to win others to acknowledge, love and be devoted to her.

Our God used you as His instrument, O humble Virgin, for bringing back the Roman Pontiff to his See. You were stronger than the powers of this Earth which would fain have prolonged an absence disastrous to the Church. The relics of Peter in the Vatican, of Paul on the Ostian Way, of Lawrence and Sebastian, of Caecilia and Agnes, exulted in their glorious tombs when Gregory entered with triumph into the Holy City. It was through you, O Catherine, that a ruinous captivity of seventy years’ duration was brought, on that day, to a close, and that Rome recovered her glory and her life.

Pray for unhappy Italy, which was so dear to you, and which is so justly proud of its Saint of Siena. Impiety and heresy are now permitted to run wild through the land. The name of your Spouse is blasphemed. The people are taught to love error and to hate what they had hitherto venerated. The Church is insulted and robbed. Faith has long since been weakened, but now its very existence is imperilled. Intercede for your unfortunate country, dear Saint!Oh surely it is time to come to her assistance and rescue her from the hands of her enemies. Delay not, but calm the storm which seems to threaten a universal wreck!

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Lambesa in Numidia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Marian, lector, and James, deacon. The former, after having successfully endured vexations for the confession of Christ in the persecution of Decius, was again arrested with his illustrious companion, and both being subjected to severe and cruel torments during which they were twice miraculously comforted from heaven, finally fell by the sword with many others.

At Saintes, blessed Eutropius, bishop and martyr, who was consecrated bishop and sent to Gaul by St. Clement. After preaching for many years he had his skull crushed for bearing testimony to Christ and thus gained a victory by his death.

At Cordova, the holy martyrs Amator, priest, Peter, monk, and Lewis.

At Novara, the martyrdom of the holy priest Lawrence, and some boys, whom he was educating.

At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Aphrodisius, priest, and thirty others.

At Ephesus, St. Maximus, martyr, who was crowned in the persecution of Decius.

At Fermo in the Marches of Ancona, St. Sophia, virgin and martyr.

At Naples in Campania, St. Severus, bishop, who, among other prodigies, raised for a short time a dead man from the grave, in order to convict of falsehood the lying creditor of a widow and her children.

At Evorea in Epirus, St. Donatus, a bishop, who was eminent for sanctity in the time of the emperor Theodosius.

At London in England, St. Erconwald, a bishop celebrated for many miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

29 APRIL – SAINT PETER (Martyr)

Peter was born at Verona of parents who were infected with the heresy of the Manichees. But he himself, almost from his very infancy, fought against heresies. When he was seven years old he was one day asked by an uncle, who was a heretic, what they taught him at the school he went to. He answered that they taught him the Symbol of the Christian Faith. His father and uncle did all they could, both by promises and threats, to shake the firmness of his faith, but all to no purpose. When old enough, he went to Bologna in order to prosecute his studies. While there he was called by the Holy Ghost to a life of perfection, and obeyed the call by entering into the Order of Saint Dominic. Great were his virtues as a religious man. So careful was he to keep both body and soul from whatever could sully their purity, that his conscience never accused him of committing a mortal sin.

He mortified his body by fasting and watching, and applied his mind to the contemplation of heavenly things. He laboured incessantly for the salvation of souls and was gifted with a special grace for refuting heretics. He was so earnest when preaching that people used to go in crowds to hear him and numerous were the conversions that ensued. The ardour of his faith was such that he wished he might die for it, and earnestly begged that favour from God. His death, which he foretold a short time before in one of his sermons, was inflicted on him by the heretics. While returning from Como to Milan in the discharge of the duties of the holy Inquisition, he was attacked by a wicked assassin who struck him twice on the head with a sword. The Symbol of Faith which he had confessed with manly courage when but a child, he now began to recite with his dying lips, and having received another wound in his side, he went to receive a martyr’s palm in Heaven in 1252. Numerous miracles attested his sanctity. He was canonised by Pope Innocent IV in 1253.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The hero deputed this day by the Church to greet our Risen Lord was so valiant in the Good Fight that martyrdom is part of his name. He is known as Peter the Martyr, so that we cannot speak of him without raising the echo of victory. He was put to death by heretics and is the grand tribute paid to our Redeemer by the thirteenth century. Never was there a triumph hailed with greater enthusiasm than this. The martyrdom of Saint Thomas of Canterbury excited the admiration of the faithful of the preceding century, for nothing was so dear to our forefathers as the Liberty of the Church. The martyrdom of Saint Peter was celebrated with a like intensity of praise and joy. Let us hearken to the fervid eloquence of the great Pontiff, Innocent IV, who thus begins the Bull of the martyr’s canonisation:

“The truth of the Christian Faith, manifested, as it has been, by great and frequent miracles, is now beautified by the new merit of a new Saint. Lo! a combatant of these our own times comes, bringing us new and great and triumphant signs. The voice of his blood shed (for Christ) is heard, and the fame of his martyrdom is trumpeted through the world. The land is not silent that sweats with his blood. The country that produced so noble warrior resounds with his praise. Yes, the very sword that did the deed of parricide proclaims his glory... Mother Church has great reason to rejoice, and abundant matter for gladness. She has cause to sing a new canticle to the Lord, and a hymn of fervent praise to her God: the Christian people has cause to give forth devout songs to its Creator. A sweet fruit, gathered in the garden of Faith, has been set upon the table of the Eternal King: a grape-bunch, taken from the vineyard of the Church, has filled the royal cup with new wine... The flourishing Order of Preachers has produced a red rose whose sweetness is most grateful to the King, and from the Church here on Earth there has been taken a stone which, after being cut and polished, has deserved a place of honour in the temple of Heaven.”

Such was the language wherewith the supreme Pontiff spoke of the new martyr, and the people responded by celebrating his feast with extraordinary devotion. It was kept as were the ancient festivals, that is, all servile work was forbidden upon it. The Churches served by the Fathers of the Dominican Order were crowded on his feast, and the faithful took little branches with them that they might be blessed in memory of the Triumph of Peter the Martyr. This custom is still observed, and the branches blessed by the Dominicans on this day are venerated as being a protection to the houses where they are kept.

How are we to account for all this fervent devotion of the people towards Saint Peter? It was because he died in defence of the Faith, and nothing was so dear to the Christians of those days as Faith. Peter had received the charge to take up all the heretics who, at that time, were causing great disturbance and scandal in the country round about Milan. They were called Cathari but in reality were Manicheans. Their teachings were detestable, and their lives of the most immoral kind. Peter fulfilled his duty with a firmness and equity which soon secured him the hatred of the heretics, and when he fell a victim to his holy courage a cry of admiration and gratitude was heard throughout Christendom. Nothing could be more devoid of truth than the accusations brought by the enemies of the Church and their indiscreet abettors, against the measures formerly decreed by the public law of Catholic nations, in order to foil the efforts made by evil-minded men to injure the true Faith. In those times no tribunal was so popular as that whose office it was to protect theFaith, and to put down all them that attacked it.

It was to the Order of Saint Dominic that this office was mainly entrusted, and well may they be proud of the honour of having so long held one so beneficial to the salvation of mankind. How many of its members have met with a glorious death in the exercise of their stern duty! Saint Peter is the first of the martyrs given by the Order for this holy cause: his name, however, heads a long list of others who were his brethren in religion, his successors in the defence of the Faith, and his followers to martyrdom. The coercive measures that were once, and successfully, used to defend the Faithful from heretical teachers have long since ceased to be used. But for us Catholics, our judge ent of them must surely be that of the Church. She bids us today honour as a martyr one of her Saints who was put to death while resisting the wolves that threatened the sheep of Christ’s fold. Should we not be guilty of disrespect to our Mother if we dared to condemn what she so highly approves? Far, then, be from us that cowardly truckling to the spirit of the age which would make us ashamed of the courageous efforts made by our forefathers for the preservation of the Faith! Far from us that childish readiness to believe the calumnies of Protestants against an institution which they naturally detest! Far from us that deplorable confusion of ideas which puts truth and error on an equality and, from the fact that error can have no rights, concludes that truth can claim none!

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The victory was yours, Peter, and your zeal for the defence of holy Faith was rewarded. You ardently desired to shed your blood for the holiest of causes and by such a sacrifice to confirm the faithful of Christ in their religion. Our Lord satisfied your desire. He would even have your martyrdom be in the festive season of the Resurrection of our Divine Lamb that His glory might add lustre to the beauty of your holocaust. When the death-blow fell upon your venerable head and your generous blood was flowing from the wounds, you wrote on the ground the first words of the Creed for whose holy truth you were giving your life.

Protector of the Christian people, what other motive had you, in all your labours, but charity? What else but a desire to defend the weak from danger induced you not only to preach against error, but to drive its teachers from the flock? How many simple souls who were receiving divine truth from the teaching of the Church have been deceived by the lying sophistry of heretical doctrine, and have lost the Faith? Surely the Church would do her utmost to ward off such dangers from her children: she would do all she could to defend them from enemies who were bent on destroying the glorious inheritance which had been handed down to them by millions of martyrs! She knew the strange tendency that often exists in the heart of fallen man to love error, whereas Truth, though of itself unchanging, is not sure of its remaining firmly in the mind, unless it be defended by learning or by faith. As to learning, there are but few who possess it. And as to faith, error is ever conspiring against and, of course, with the appearance of truth. In the Christian Ages it would have been deemed not only criminal, but absurd, to grant to error the liberty which is due only to truth. And they that were in authority considered it a duty to keep the weak from danger by removing from them all occasions of a fall — just as the father of a family keeps his children from coming in contact with wicked companions who could easily impose on their inexperience and lead them to evil under the name of good.

Obtain for us, O holy Martyr, a keen appreciation of the precious gift of Faith — that element which keeps us in the way of salvation. May we zealously do everything that lies in our power to preserve it, both in ourselves and in them that are under our care. The love of this holy Faith has grown cold in so many hearts, and frequent intercourse with heretics or free-thinkers has made them think and speak of matters of Faith in a very loose way. Pray for them, O Peter, that they may recover that fearless love of the Truths of Religion which should be one of the chief traits of the Christian character. If they be living in a country where the modern system is introduced of treating all religions alike, that is, of giving equal rights to error and to truth, let them be all the more courageous in professing the truth and detesting the errors opposed to the truth. Pray for us, O holy Martyr, that there may be kindled within us an ardent love of that Faith without which, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews xi. 6). Pray that we may become all earnestness in this duty which is of vital importance to salvation, that thus our Faith may daily gain strength within us, till at length we will merit to see in Heaven what we have believed unhesitatingly on Earth.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Paphos in Cyprus, St. Tychicus, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Paul, who called him in his epistles most dear brother, faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord.

At Cirtha in Numidia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Agapius and Secundinus, bishops, who, after a long exile in that city, added to the glory of their priesthood the crown of martyrdom. They suffered in the persecution of Valerian during which the enraged Gentiles made every effort to shake the faith of the just. In their company suffered Æmilian, soldier, Tertulla and Antonia, consecrated virgins, and a woman with her twin children.

The same day, seven robbers, who, being converted to Christ by St. Jason, attained to eternal life by martyrdom.

At Brescia, St. Paulinus, bishop and confessor.

In the monastery of Cluny, the abbot St. Hugh.

In the monastery of Molesmes, St. Robert, first abbot of the Cistercians.

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

Thanks be to God.

28 APRIL – SAINT VITALIS (Martyr)

Vitalis was a soldier and the father of Saints Gervasius and Protasius. Coming one day into Ravenna in company with the judge Paulinus, there was being led to execution, for his having confessed the Christian faith, a certain Ursicinus, a physician. Vitalis observing that his courage was somewhat staggered by the tortures, cried out to him: “Ursicinus! You that are a physician, and cure other men, take heed lest you wound yourself with the dart of eternal death!” Encouraged by these words Ursicinus bravely suffered martyrdom. Whereupon, Paulinus was very angry and ordered Vitalis to be seized, tortured on the rack and then thrown into a deep pit where he was to be buried alive by stones being thrown upon him. This done, one of the priests of Apollo who had excited Paulinus against Vitalis was possessed by a devil and began shouting these words: “O Vitalis, Martyr of Christ, you burn me beyond endurance!” Mad with the inward burning, he threw himself into a river.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

There are few martyrs of the West whose names are more celebrated than those of Saints Gervasius and Protasius. The veneration in which they are held by the Roman Church has led her to honour the memory of their father who also won the palm under the persecution of Nero. She has chosen for his feast the glad Season of Easter. The account given by the Liturgy upon Saint Vitalis is short, but we can gather from the few circumstances related what fine characters these primitive Christians were who received the crown of martyrdom under the first of all the Persecutions, the one that numbers, among its choicest victims, the two Apostles Saints Peter and Paul.

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Sin is the enemy of the soul. It throws her back again into that death from which Jesus had drawn her by His Resurrection. To preserve one of your brethren from this misery, you, Vitalis, bravely raised cry of zealous warning to him in the midst of his torments, and your words awakened him to self-possession and courage. Show this same fraternal charity to us. We are living with the Life of our Risen Jesus but the enemy is bent on robbing us of this life. He will seek to intimidate us. He will lay all manner of snares with which to deceive us. He will give us battle, and this untiringly. Pray then for us, holy Martyr, that we may be on our guard, and that the mystery of the Pasch may be fully accomplished within us, now and forever.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

St. Paul of the Cross, a man remarkable for innocence of life and the spirit of penance, and Founder of the Congregation of the Cross and Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Consumed with a burning love for Christ crucified, illustrious by his heavenly gifts and the working of miracles, and blessed with a perfect and finished virtue, he went to his repose in the Lord.

At Milan, the martyr St. Valeria who was the wife of St. Vitalis.

At Atinor, St. Mark, who being made bishop by the blessed Apostle St. Peter, was the first to preach the Gospel to the inhabitants of that region, and received the crown of martyrdom in the persecution of Domitian under the governor Maximus.

At Alexandria, the martyrdom of the virgin St. Theodora. For refusing to sacrifice to idols, she was led to a place of debauchery, but a Christian named Didymus, through the admirable Providence of God, delivered her by quickly exchanging garments with her. He was afterwards decapitated and crowned with her in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Eustratius.

The same day, the saints Aphrodisius, Caralippus, Agapius and Eusebius, martyrs.

In Pannonia, St. Pollio, martyr, under the emperor Diocletian.

At Prusa in Bithynia, the holy martyrs Patritius, bishop, Acatius, Menander and Polyenus.

At Tarrazona in Spain, St. Prudentius, bishop and martyr.

At Pelino in Abruzzo, St. Pamphilus, bishop of Valva, illustrious by his charity towards the poor, and the gift of miracles. His body was buried at Solmona.

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

Thanks be to God.

28 APRIL – SAINT PAUL OF THE CROSS (Confessor)

In 1725 Paolo Francesco Danei (1694–1775) visited Rome and obtained the permission of Pope Benedict XIII to form the Congregation of the Passion. In 1741 Pope Benedict XIV approved its rules and in 1769 Pope Clement XIV confirmed the rules and approved the Congregation, which is popularly known as the ‘Passionists’ and whose main object is “to keep alive forever in the hearts and minds of the faithful a memory of the Passion of our Lord.” Pope Clement XIV gave the Basilica of Saints Paul and John in Rome, and its adjacent house, to the Congregation. Paolo Francesco Danei, who was beatified in 1852 and was canonised in 1867, is known to the world as Saint Paul of the Cross.

The Passionists wear a black habit, with a belt of leather and Rosary beads around the waist. On their black cloak and on the left breast is a white heart, three nails, and the words JESU CHRISTI PASSIO crowned with a cross. The Congregation of the Passion is a mendicant order, which has no endowments or property, either in private or in common, other than their houses and the land attached to each. They depend on their labours and on the charity of Catholic people. Members take the usual three religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and the purpose of the order is the sanctification of its members, and the sanctification of others, to be achieved by practising and promoting devotion to the Passion of Our Lord.

27 APRIL – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Nicomedia, during the persecution of Diocletian, the birthday of St. Anthimus, bishop and martyr, who obtained the glory of martyrdom for the faith by decapitation. Nearly all his numerous flock followed him. The judge ordered some to be beheaded, some to be buried alive, and others to be put in boats and sunk in the sea.

At Tarsus in Cilicia, the Saints Castor and Stephen, martyrs.

At Rome, the demise of the blessed Pope Anastatius, a man most rich in his poverty and filled with apostolic zeal whom Rome, says St. Jerome, did not deserve to possess long, lest the capital of the world should be devastated under such a bishop, for shortly after his death Rome was taken and sacked by the Goths.

At Bologna, St. Tertullian, bishop and confessor.

At Brescia, the bishop St. Theophilus.

At Constantinople, the abbot St. John who combated vigorously for the worship of holy images under Leo the Isaurian.

At Tarragona, the blessed Peter Armengaudius, of the Order of Blessed Mary of Mercy for the Redemption of Captives, who endured many tribulations in Africa in ransoming the faithful, and finally closed his career peacefully in the convent of St. Mary of the Meadows.

At Lucca in Italy, blessed Zita, a virgin renowned for virtues and miracles, whose festival is celebrated on this day conformably to the decree of Pope St. Leo X.

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

Thanks be to God.

26 APRIL – SAINTS CLETUS AND MARCELLINUS (Popes and Martyrs)

Cletus, the son of Emilianus, was a Roman from Region V, and of the patrician street. He governed the Church during the reigns of the emperors Vespasian and Titus. Agreeably to the order given him by the Prince of the Apostles, he established 25 priests in the city. He was the first who in his letters used the words “Health and Apostcolic benediction.” Having put the Church into admirable order and having governed it 12 years, 7 months and 2 days, he was crowned with martyrdom under the emperor Domitian in the Second Persecution following that of Nero, and was buried in the Vatican near the body of Saint Peter.

Marcellinus, a Roman by birth, was overcome by fear in the terrible persecution under the emperor Diocletian, and offered incense to the idols of the gods. But such was his sorrow for his fall that he immediately repaired to Sinuessa where a council of several bishops was being held and, entering in, covered with sackcloth and shedding floods of tears, he publicly confessed his sin. No one, however, dared to condemn him, but all, with one voice, exclaimed: “Judge yourself by your own lips, not by our judgement, for the first See is judged by no-one. They added that Peter, too, sinned through the same weakness and by the like tears, obtained pardon from God. Having returned to Rome, Marcellinus went to the emperor and severely reproached him for having driven him to so great a crime. Whereupon, the emperor ordered him to be beheaded, together with three other Christians, Claudius, Cyrinus and Antoninus. Their bodies, by the emperor’s order, were left 36 days without burial, after which the blessed Marcellus (in consequence of his receiving while asleep, an admonition from Saint Peter) had them buried in the Cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria, at which burial were present many Priests and Deacons who, with torches in their hands, sang hymns in honour of the martyrs. Marcellinus governed the Church 7 years, 11 months and 23 days. During this period, he gave two ordinations in December, at which four were made Priests and five were made Bishops.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Two bright stars appear this day on the Ecclesiastical Cycle proclaiming the glory of our Jesus, the Conqueror of death. Again, they are two Pontiffs and Martyr-Pontiffs. Cletus leads us to the very commencement of the Church, for he was a disciple of Peter and his second Successor in the See of Rome. Marcellinus was a witness of the great Persecution under Diocletian. He governed the Church on the eve of her triumph. Let us honour these two fathers of Christendom who laid down their lives in its defence, and let us offer their merits to Jesus, who supported them by His grace and cheered them with the hope that, one day, they would share in His Resurrection.

In the short notice on the life of Saint Marcellinus the reader will meet with a circumstance which, by some learned historians, is rejected as utterly untrue, whilst, by others equally learned, it is considered as authentic. The holy Pontiff is said to have flinched before his persecutors and to have gone so far as to offer incense to the idols, but the statement adds that he repaired his fault by a second and courageous profession of his faith which secured for him the crown of martyrdom. The plan of our work does not admit critical disquisitions. We will therefore not attempt to clear up this difficulty of history. It is enough for us to know that all are agreed upon the martyrdom of this holy Pope. At the time when the Lesson, which is now in the Breviary, was drawn up, the fall of Marcellinus was believed as a fact. Later on, it was called in question and the arguments used against it are by no means to be despised. The Church, however, has not thought well to change the Lesson as it first stood, the more so as questions of this nature do not touch upon faith. We scarcely need to remind the reader, that the fall of Marcellinus, supposing it to be a fact, would be no argument against the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff. The Pope cannot teach error, when he addresses himself to the Church. But he is not impeccable in his personal conduct.

* * * * *

Pray for us, O holy Pontiffs, and look with fatherly love upon the Church on Earth which was so violently persecuted in your times and, at the present day, is far from enjoying peace. The worship of idols is revived, and though they be not of stone or metal, yet they that adore them are as determined to propagate their worship as were the pagans of former days to make all men idolaters. The gods and godesses now in favour are called Liberty, Progress and Modern Civilisation. Every measure is resorted to in order to impose these new divinities upon the world. They that refuse to adore them are persecuted. Governments are secularised, that is, un-Christianised. The education of youth is made independent of all moral teaching. The religious element is rejected from social life as an intrusion: and all this is done with such a show of reasonableness that thousands of well-minded Christians are led to be its advocates, timid perhaps, and partial, but still its advocates.

Preserve us, O holy Martyrs, from being the dupes of this artful impiety. It was not in vain that our Jesus suffered death and rose again from the grave. Surely, after this He deserves to be what He is — King of the whole Earth under whose power are all creatures. It is in order to obey Him that we wish no other Liberty save that which He has based upon his Gospel; no other Progress save that which follows the path He has marked out; no other Civilisation save that which results from the fulfilment of the duties to our fellow men, which He has established. It is He that created human nature and gave it its laws. It is He that redeemed it and restored it to its lost rights. Him alone, then, do we adore. O holy Martyrs, pray that we may never become the dupes or slaves of the theories of human pride, not even should they that make or uphold them, have power to make us suffer or die for our resistance.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Amasea in Pontus, St. Basileus, bishop and martyr, whose illustrious martyrdom occurred under the emperor Licinius. His body was thrown into the sea, but being found by Elpidiphorus through the revelation of an angel, it was honourably entombed.

At Braga in Portugal, St. Peter, martyr, the first bishop of that city.

At Venice, St. Clarence, bishop and confessor.

At Verona, St. Lucidius, bishop.

In the monastery of Centula, St. Richarius, priest and confessor.

At Troyes, St. Exuperantia, virgin.

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

Thanks be to God.

25 APRIL – THE GREATER LITANIES

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

This day is honoured in the Liturgy by what is called Saint Mark’s Procession. The term, however,is not a correct one, inasmuch as a Procession was a privilege peculiar to the twenty-fifth of April previously to the institution of our Evangelist’s feast, which, even so late as the sixth century, had no fixed day in the Roman Church. The real name of this Procession is The Greater Litanies. The word Litany means Supplication, and is applied to the religious rite of singing certain chants while proceeding from place to place, and this in order to propitiate Heaven. The two Greek words Kyrie eleison (Lord have mercy on us) were also called Litany, as likewise were the invocations which were afterwards added to that cry for mercy, and which now form a Liturgical prayer used by the Church on certain solemn occasions.

The Greater Litanies (or Processions) are so called to distinguish them from the Minor Litanies, that is, Processions of less importance as far as the solemnity and concourse of the faithful were concerned. We gather from an expression of Saint Gregory the Great that it was an ancient custom in the Roman Church to celebrate, once each year, a Greater Litany at which all the Clergy and people assisted. This holy Pontiff chose the twenty-fifth of April as the fixed day for this Procession and appointed the Basilica of Saint Peter as the Station.

Several writers on the Liturgy have erroneously confounded this institution with the Processions prescribed by Saint Gregory for times of public calamity. It existed long before his time, and all that he had to do with it was the fixing it to the twenty-fifth of April. It is quite independent of the feast of Saint Mark which was instituted at a much later period. If the twenty-fifth of April occur during Easter Week, the Procession takes place on that day (unless it be Easter Sunday) but the feast of the Evangelist is not kept till after the Octave.

The question naturally presents itself — why did Saint Gregory choose the twenty-fifth of April for a Procession and Station in which everything reminds us of compunction and penance, and which would seem so out of keeping with the joyous Season of Easter? The first to give a satisfactory answer to this difficulty was Canon Moretti, a learned Liturgiologist of [the eighteenth] century. In a dissertation of great erudition he proves that in the fifth, and probably even in the fourth, century, the twenty-fifth of April was observed at Rome as a day of great solemnity. The faithful went on that day to the Basilica of Saint Peter in order to celebrate the anniversary of the first entrance of the Prince of the Apostles into Rome, upon which he thus conferred the inalienable privilege of being the Capital of Christendom. It is from that day that we count the twenty-five years, two months and some days that Saint Peter reigned as Bishop of Rome. The Sacramentary of Saint Leo gives us the Mass of this Solemnity, which afterwards ceased to be kept. Saint Gregory, to whom we are mainly indebted for the arrangement of the Roman Liturgy, was anxious to perpetuate the memory of a day which gave to Rome her grandest glory. He, therefore, ordained that the Church of Saint Peter should be the Station of the Great Litany, which was always to be celebrated on that auspicious day. The twenty-fifth of April comes so frequently during the Octave of Easter that it could not be kept as a feast, properly so called, in honour of Saint Peter’s entrance into Rome. Saint Gregory, therefore, adopted the only means left of commemorating the great event.

But there was a striking contrast resulting from this institution, of which the holy Pontiff was fully aware, but which he could not avoid: it was the contrast between the joys of Paschal Time, and the penitential sentiments with which the faithful should assist at the Procession and Station of the Great Litany. Laden as we are with the manifold graces of this holy Season and elated with our Paschal joys, we must sober our gladness by reflecting on the motives which led the Church to cast this hour of shadow over our Easter sunshine. After all, we are sinners, with much to be sorry for, and much to fear. We have to avert those scourges which are due to the crimes of mankind. We have, by humbling ourselves and invoking the intercession of the Mother of God and the Saints, to obtain the health of our bodies and the preservation of the fruits of the Earth. We have to offer atonement to Divine justice for our own and the world’s pride, sinful indulgences and insubordination. Let us enter into ourselves, and humbly confess that our own share in exciting God’s indignation is great. And our poor prayers, united with those of our holy Mother the Church, will obtain mercy for the guilty, and for ourselves who are of the number.

A day, then, like this, of reparation to God’s offended Majesty, would naturally suggest the necessity of joining some exterior penance to the interior dispositions of contrition which filled the hearts of Christians. Abstinence from flesh meat has always been observed on this day at Rome, and when the Roman Liturgy was established in France by Pepin and Charlemagne, the Great Litany of the twenty-fifth of April was, of course, celebrated and the abstinence kept by the faithful of that country. A Council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 836 enjoined the additional obligation of resting from servile work on this day: the same enactment is found in the Capitularia of Charles the Bald. As regards Fasting — properly so called — being contrary to the spirit of Paschal Time, it would seem never to have been observed on this day, at least not generally. Amalarius, who lived in the ninth cntury, asserts that it was not then practised even in Rome.

During the Procession, the Litany of the Saints is sung, followed by several Versicles and Prayers. The Mass of the Station is celebrated in the Lenten Rite, that is, without the Gloria in excelsis, and in purple vestments. We have inserted the Litany of the Saints in the following volume, for the Rogation Days.

We take this opportunity of protesting against the negligence of Christians on this subject. Even persons who have the reputation of being spiritual, think nothing of being absent from the Litanies said on Saint Mark’s and the Rogation Days. One would have thought that when the Holy See took from these Days the obligation of Abstinence, the faithful would be so much the more earnest to join in the duty still left — the duty of Prayer. The people’s presence at the Litanies is taken for granted and it is simply absurd that a religious rite of public reparation should be one from which almost all should keep away. We suppose that these Christians will acknowledge the importance of the petitions made in the Litanies, but God is not obliged to hear them in favour of such as ought to make them and yet do not. This is one of the many instances which might be brought forward of the strange delusions into which private and isolated devotion are apt to degenerate. When Saint Charles Borromeo first took possession of his See of Milan, he found this negligence among his people, and that they left the clergy to go through the Litanies of the twenty-fifth of April by themselves. He assisted at them himself, and walked bare-footed in the Procession. The people soon followed the sainted Pastor’s example.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Syracuse, the holy martyrs Evodius, Hermogenes and Callistus.

At Antioch, St. Stephen, bishop and martyr, who suffered much from the heretics opposed to the Council of Chalcedon and was precipitated into the river Orontes in the time of the emperor Zeno.

In the same city, the Saints Philo and Agathopodes, deacons.

At Alexandria, the bishop St. Anian, a disciple of the Evangelist St. Mark, and his successor in the episcopate. With a great renown for virtue, he rested in the Lord.

At Lobbes, the birthday of St. Erminus, bishop and confessor.

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

Thanks be to God.