30 NOVEMBER – SAINT ANDREW (Apostle and Martyr)

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us read the life of this glorious fisherman of the lake of Genesareth, who was afterwards to be the successor of Christ Himself, and the companion of Peter on the tree of the Cross. The Church has compiled it from the ancient Acts of the Martyrdom of the holy Apostle, drawn up by the priests of the Church of Patrae, which was founded by the Saint. The authenticity of this venerable piece has been contested by Protestants inasmuch as it makes mention of several things which would militate against them. Their sentiment has been adopted by several critics of the 17th and 18th centuries. On the other hand, these Acts have been received by a far greater number of Catholic writers of eminence, among whom may be mentioned the great Baronius, Labbe, Natalia Alexander, Gallandus, Lumper, Morcelli, etc. The Churches, too, of both East and West, which have inserted these Acts in their respective Offices of Saint Andrew, are of some authority, as is also Saint Bernard, who has made them the groundwork of his three admirable sermons on Saint Andrew:

Andrew, the Apostle, born at Bethsaida, a town of Galilee, was brother of Peter and disciple of John the Baptist. Having heard his master say, speaking of Christ: “Behold the Lamb of God!” he followed Jesus and brought to Him his brother also. When, afterwards, he was fishing with his brother in the sea of Galilee, they were both called, before any of the other Apostles, by our Lord who, passing by, said to them: “Come after me. I will make you to be fishers of men.” Without delay, they left their nets and followed Him.

After the Passion and Resurrection, Andrew went to spread the faith of Christ in Scythia in Europe, which was the province assigned to him. Then he travelled through Epirus and Thrace, and by his teaching and miracles converted innumerable souls to Christ. Afterwards, having reached Patrae in Achaia, he persuaded many in that city to embrace the truth of the Gospel. Finding that the Proconsul Aegeas resisted the preaching of the Gospel, he most freely upbraided him for that he, who desired to be considered as a judge of men, should be so far deceived by devils as not to acknowledge Christ to be God, the Judge of all. Then Aegeas being angry, said: “Cease to boast of this Christ, whom such like words as these kept not from being crucified by the Jews.” But finding that Andrew continued boldly preaching that Christ had offered Himself to be crucified for the salvation of mankind, he interrupted him by an impious speech, and at length exhorted him to look to his own interest and sacrifice to the gods. Andrew answered him: “I offer up every day to almighty God, who is one and true, not the flesh of oxen, nor the blood of goats, but the spotless Lamb upon the altar. I of whose flesh the whole multitude of the faithful eat, and the Lamb that is sacrificed, remains whole and living.” Whereupon Aegeas being exceeding angry, ordered him to be thrust into prison, where the people would easily have freed Andrew, had he not himself appeased the multitude, begging of them, with most earnest entreaty, that they would not keep him from the long-sought-for crown of martyrdom, to which he was hastening. Not long after this, Andrew was brought before the tribunal,where he began to extol the mystery of the Cross and rebuke the judge for his impiety. Aegeas, no longer able to contain himself on hearing these words, ordered him to be hoisted on a cross, and to to die like Christ.

Having been brought to the place of execution and seeing the cross at some distance, Andrew began to cry out: “O good Cross, made beautiful by the body of my Lord! so long desired, so anxiously loved, so unceasingly sought after, and now at last ready for my soul to enjoy! Take me from amidst men, and restore me to my Master, that by you He may receive me, who by you redeemed me.” He was therefore fastened to the cross, on which he hung alive two days, preaching without cessation the faith of Christ, after which he passed to Him, whose death he had so coveted. Andrew’s relics were first translated to Constantinople, under the emperor Constantine, and afterwards to Amalfi. During the Pontificate of Pius II the head was taken to Rome and placed in the Basilica of Saint Peter.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This feast is destined each year to terminate with solemnity the Cycle which is at its close, or to add lustre to the new one which has just begun. It seems indeed fitting that the Christian year should begin and end with the cross which has merited for us each of those years which it has pleased the divine goodness to grant us, and which is to appear, on the last day, in the clouds of Heaven, as the seal put on time. We should remember that Saint Andrew is the Apostle of the Cross. To Peter, Jesus has given firmness of faith, to John warmth of love. The mission of Andrew is to represent the Cross of His divine Master. Now it is by these three, faith, love and the Cross, that the Church renders herself worthy of her Spouse. Everything she has or is, bears this threefold character. Hence it is that after the two Apostles just named, there is none who holds such a prominent place in the universal Liturgy as Saint Andrew.

The Greek Church is as fervent as any of the Churches of the West in celebrating the prerogatives and merits of Saint Andrew. He is the more dear to it because Constantinople considers him as her patron Apostle. It would, perhaps, be difficult for the Greeks to give any solid proofs of Saint Andrew’s having founded, as they pretend, the Church of Byzantium: but this is certain, that Constantinople enjoyed for many centuries the possession of the precious treasure of the Saint’s relics. They were translated to that city in the year 357, through the interest of the Emperor Constantius, who placed them in the Basilica of the Apostles built by Constantine. Later on, that is, about the middle of the 6th century, Justinian caused them to be translated a second time, but only from one part of that same Basilica to another.

The Church of Constantinople, so devoted, as we have seen, to the glory of Saint Andrew, was at length deprived of the precious treasure of his eelics. This happened in the year 1210 when the City was taken by the Crusaders. Cardinal Peter of Capua, the Legate of the Holy See, translated the body of Saint Andrew into the Cathedral of Amalfi, a town in the Kingdom of Naples, where it remains to this day, the glorious instrument of numberless miracles, and the object of the devout veneration of the people. It is well known how, at the same period, the most precious relics of the Greek Church came, by a visible judgement of God, into the possession of the Latins. Byzantium refused to accept those terrible warnings and continued obstinate in her schism. She was still in possession of the Head of the holy Apostle, owing, no doubt, to this circumstance, that in the several Translations which had been made, it had been kept in a separate reliquary by itself. When the Byzantine Empire was destroyed by the Turks, Divine Providence so arranged events as that the Church of Rome should be enriched with this magnificent relic. In 1462, the Head of Saint Andrew was, therefore, brought there by the celebrated Cardinal Bessarion. And on the twelfth of April of that same year, Palm Sunday, the heroic Pope Pius II went in great pomp to meet it as far as the Bridge Milvius (Ponte Molle), and then placed it in the Basilica of Saint Peter, on the Vatican, where it is at present, near the Confession of the Prince of the Apostles. At the sight of this venerable Head, Pius II was transported with a religious enthusiasm, and before taking up the glorious relic in order to carry it into Rome, he pronounced the magnificent address which we now give:

“At length, you have arrived, O most holy and venerable head of the saintly Apostle! The fury of the Turks has driven you from thy resting-place, and you are come as an exile to your brother, the Prince of the Apostles. No, your brother will not fail you. And by the will of God, the day will come when men will say in your praise: happy banishment which caused you to receive such a welcome! Meanwhile, here will you dwell with your brother and share in his honours. This is Rome, the venerable City, which was dedicated by your brother’s precious blood. The people you see, are they whom the blessed Apostle, your most loving brother, and Saint Paul, the Vessel of Election, regenerated to Christ our Lord. Thus the Romans are your kinsmen. They venerate, and honour, and love you as their Father’s brother, nay, as their second Father, and are confident of your patronage in the presence of the great God. Most blessed Apostle Andrew! Preacher of the truth and defender of the dogma of the most Holy Trinity! With what joy do you not fill us on this day on which it is given us to behold your sacred and venerable head which deserved that, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Paraclete should rest on it in the form of fire! O you Christians that visit Jerusalem out of reference for your Saviour, that there you may see the places where His feet have stood: Lo! here is the throne of the Holy Ghost. Here sat the Spirit of the Lord. Here was seen the Third Person of the Trinity. Here were the eyes that so often saw Jesus in the flesh. This was the mouth that so often spoke to Jesus, and on these cheeks did that same Lord doubtless impress His sacred kisses.

O wondrous Sanctuary in which dwelt charity, and kindness, and gentleness, and spiritual consolation. Who could look upon such venerable and precious relics of the Apostle of Christ and not be moved? and not be filled with tender devotion? and not shed tears for very joy? Yes, O most admirable Apostle Andrew, we rejoice, and are glad, and exult, at this your coming, for we doubt not but what you yourself are present here and bear us company as we enter with your head into the Holy City.

The Turks are indeed our enemies, as being the enemies of the Christian Religion, but in that they have been the occasion of your coming among us, we are grateful to them. For, what greater blessing could have befallen us than that we should be permitted to see your most sacred head, and that our Rome should be filled with its fragrance? Oh that we could welcome you with the honours which are due to you, and receive you in a way becoming your exceeding holiness! But, accept our good will and our sincere desire to honour you, and suffer us now to touch your relics with our unworthy hands and, though sinners, to accompany you into the walls of the City. Enter, then, the Holy City, and show your love to her people. May your coming be a boon to Christendom. May your entrance be peaceful, and your abode among us bring happiness and prosperity. Be our advocate in Heaven and, together with blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, defend this City, and protect, with your love, all Christian people that, by your intercession, the mercy of God may be upon us, and if His indignation be kindled against us by reason of our manifold sins, let it fall upon the impious Turks and the pagan nations that blaspheme our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Thus has the glory of Saint Andrew been blended in Rome with that of Saint Peter. But the Apostle of the Cross whose feast was heretofore kept in many Churches with an Octave, has also been chosen as Patron of one of the Kingdoms of the West. Scotland, when she was a Catholic country, had put herself under his protection. May he still exercise his protection over her, and, by his prayers, hasten her return to the true faith!

Let us now, in union with the Church, pray to this holy Apostle, for this is the glorious day of his feast: let us pay him that honour which is due to him, and ask him for the help of which we stand in need.

* * * * *

God grants us to meet you, O blessed Andrew, at the threshold of the mystic Season of Advent on which we are so soon to enter. When Jesus, our Messiah, began His public life, you had already become the obedient disciple of the Precursor who preached His coming: you were among the first of them who received the Son of Mary as the Messiah foretold in the law and the prophets. But you could not keep the heavenly secret from him who was so dear to you. To Peter, then, you bore the good tidings, and led him to Jesus. O blessed Apostle, we also are longing for the Messiah, the Saviour of our souls. Since you have found Him, lead us also to Him. We place under your protection the holy period of expectation and preparation which is to bring us to the day of our Saviour’s Nativity, that divine mystery in which He will manifest Himself to the world. Assist us to render ourselves worthy of seeing Him on that great night. The baptism of penance prepared you for receiving the grace of knowing the Word of life. pray for us that we may become truly penitent and may purify our hearts during that holy time, and thus be able to behold Him who has said: “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.”

You have a special power of leading souls to Jesus, O glorious Saint! for even he, who was to be made the pastor of the whole flock, was presented to the Messiah by you. By calling you to Himself on this day, our Lord has given you as the patron of Christians who each year, seeking again that God in whom you are now living, pray to you to show them the way which leads to Jesus.

You teach us this way: it is that of fidelity, of fidelity even to the Cross. In that way you courageously walked, and because the Cross leads to Jesus Christ, you passionately loved the Cross. Pray for us, O holy Apostle, that we may begin to understand this love of the Cross, and that having understood it, we may put it in practice. Your brother says to us in his Epistle: “Christ having suffered in the flesh, be you also armed with the same thought” (1 Peter iv. 1) Your feast, O blessed Andrew, shows us you as the living commentary of this doctrine. Because your Master was crucified, you would also be crucified. From the high throne to which you have been raised by the Cross, pray for us that the Cross may be to us the expiation of the sins which are upon us, the quenching of the passions which burn within us, and the means of uniting us by love to Him, who, through love alone for us, was nailed to the Cross.

Important, indeed, and precious are these lessons of the Cross. But the Cross, O blessed Apostle, is the perfection and the consummation, and not the first commencement. It is the Infant God, it is the God of the Crib that we must first know and love. It was the Lamb of God that Saint John pointed out to you, and it is that Lamb whom we so ardently desire to contemplate. The austere and awful time of Jesus’ Passion is not come. We are now in Advent. Fortify us for the day of combat, but the grace we now most need is compunction and tender love. We put under your patronage this great work of our preparation for the Coming of Jesus into our hearts.

Remember also, O blessed Andrew, the holy Church of which you were a pillar and which you have beautified by the shedding of your blood: lift up your hands for her to Him whose battle she is forever fighting. Pray that the Cross she has to bear in this her pilgrimage may be lightened, that she may love this Cross, and that it may be the source of her power and her glory. Remember with special love the holy Roman Church, the Mother and Mistress of all Churches. And by reason of that fervent love she has for you, obtain for her victory and peace by the Cross. Visit anew, in your Apostolic zeal, the Church of Constantinople which has forfeited true light and unity because she would not render homage to Peter, your brother, whom you honoured as your chief, out of love to Him who is the common Master of both him and you.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, the martyrdom of the Saints Castulus and Euprepis.

At Constantinople, St. Maura, virgin and martyr.

Also St. Justina, virgin and martyr.

At Saintes, the holy bishop Trojanus, a man of great sanctity, who shows by many miracles that he lives in heaven, though buried on earth.

At Rome, St. Constantius, confessor, who strongly opposed the Pelagians, and by enduring many injuries from them, gained a place among holy confessors.

In Palestine, blessed Zosimus, confessor, who was distinguished by sanctity and miracles in the time of the emperor Justin.

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

Thanks be to God.

29 NOVEMBER – SAINT SATURNIUS (Martyr)

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Christmas begins to glimmer on the horizon. The last Sunday after Pentecost has given us the closing instructions of the moveable Cycle. Beginning with the twenty-seventh of this month, the present days belong in some years to the new Cycle, in others to the one which is ending.

The last Lesson from the Scripture of the Time ends with the solemn declaration of the last of the Prophets, announcing the approach of a new era: “From the rising of the sun even to the going down, my Name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my Name a clean oblation! for my Name is great among the Gentiles, says the Lord of hosts” (Malachias i. 11). And in today’s Gospel we have Saint John the Baptist echoing the words of Malachias, and joining the old and the new times together: “Behold the Lamb of God!” He points out to us the Messiah close at hand. Andrew, brother of Peter, and another of John’s disciples, asked this Messiah: “Rabbi, where do you dwell?” Jesus answered: “Come and see.” And they went, continues the Evangelist, and saw where He abode, and they stayed with Him that day. Whereupon Saint Augustine speaking in the name of the Church on this Vigil, says: “Let us build Him a dwelling in our hearts, that He may come to us, and teach us, and live with us.” Here is our Advent planned out for us. Let us put that blessed season under the protection of the Apostle of the Cross, and also of the holy Martyr Saturninus, whom the Church has honoured on this day from time immemorial.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The vigil of St. Andrew, apostle.

At Rome, on the Via Salaria, the birthday of the holy martyr Saturninus, an aged man, and the deacon Sisinius, in the time of the emperor Maximian. After a long imprisonment, they were, by order of the prefect of the city, placed on the rack, distended with ropes, scourged with rods and whips garnished with metal, then exposed to the flames, taken down from the rack and beheaded.

At Toulouse, in the time of Decius, the holy bishop Saturninus, who was confined by the pagans in the capitol of that city, and from the highest part of the building precipitated down the stairs, by which fall, having his head crushed, his brains dashed out and his whole body mangled, he rendered his worthy soul to Our Lord.

Also the martyrdom of the Saints Paramon and his companions, to the number of three hundred and seventy-five, under the emperor Decius and the governor Aquilinus.

At Ancyra, St. Philomenus, martyr. During the persecution of the emperor Aurelian, under the governor Felix, he was first exposed to the flames, then having his hands, feet and head pierced with nails, consummated his martyrdom.

At Veroli, the holy martyrs Blasius and Demetrius.

At Todi, St. Illuminata, virgin.

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

Thanks be to God.

28 NOVEMBER – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Rufus, who, with all his family, was made a martyr by Diocletian.

At Corinth, the birthday of St. Sosthenes, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Paul, who is mentioned by that Apostle in his Epistle to the Corinthians. He was chief of the synagogue when converted to Christ, and, as a glorious beginning, consecrated the first fruits of his faith by being scourged in the presence of the proconsul Gallio.

In Africa, under the Arian king Genseric in the persecution of the Vandals, the holy martyrs Papinian and Mansuetus, bishops, who, for the Catholic faith, were burned in every part of their bodies with hot plates of iron, and thus ended their glorious combat.

At this time also, other holy bishops. Valerian, Urban, Crescens, Eustachius, Cresconius, Crescentian, Felix, Hortulanus and Florentian, terminated the course of their lives in exile.

At Constantinople, in the time of Constantine Copronymus, the holy martyrs Stephen the Younger, Basil, Peter, Andrew and their companions, numbering three hundred and thirty-nine monks, who were subjected to various torments for the worship of holy images, and confirmed the Catholic truth with the shedding of their blood.

At Rome, blessed Pope Gregory III, who departed for heaven with a reputation for sanctity and miracles.

At Naples, the departure from this world of St. James de La Marca, confessor, of the Order of Friars Minor, celebrated for the austerity of his life, his apostolic manner of preaching, and his many legations undertaken for the success of the affairs of Christianity. His name was added to the Calendar of the Saints by Pope Benedict XIII.

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

Thanks be to God.

27 NOVEMBER – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Antioch, the holy martyrs Basileus, bishop, Auxilius, and Saturninus.

In Persia, St. James Intercisus, a distinguished martyr. In the time of Theodosius the Younger he denied Christ to please king Isdegerdes, but his mother and his wife having for that reason withdrawn from his company, he entered into himself, and returned to the king to declare his faith in Our Lord, upon which the irritated monarch condemned him to be cut to pieces and beheaded. Countless other martyrs suffered at this time in the same country.

At Sebaste in Armenia, the holy martyrs Hirenarchus, Acacius, priest, and seven women. Struck with the constancy of these women, Hirenarchus was converted to Christ and with Acacius died under the axe in the reign of the emperor Diocletian and under the governor Maximus.

In Galicia, on the river Caea, the Saints Facundus and Primitivus, who suffered under the governor Atticus.

At Aquileia, St. Valerian, bishop.

At Riez in France, St. Maximus, bishop and confessor, who, from his tender years, was endowed with every grace and virtue. Being first superior of the monastery of Lerins, and afterwards bishop of the church of Riez, he was celebrated for the working of miracles and prodigies.

At Salzburg in Austria, St. Virgilius, bishop, and apostle of Carinthia, inscribed among the saints by Pope Gregory IX.

In India, on the confines of Persia, the Saints Barlaam and Josaphat, whose wonderful deeds were written by St. John Damascene.

At Paris, the departure from this world of St. Severin, monk and solitary.

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

Thanks be to God.

26 NOVEMBER – SAINT SILVESTER (Abbot)

Sylvester was born of a noble family at Osimo in the Marches of Ancona, and in his boyhood was remarkable for his love of study and his good conduct. As a youth he was sent by his father to Bologna to study jurisprudence, but was admonished by God to devote himself to sacred learning. This incited his father to anger, which Sylvester patiently endured for 10 years. On account of his remarkable virtue, the Canons of Osimo elected him an honorary member of their chapter, in which position he benefited the people by his prayers, example and sermons. While assisting at the funeral of a nobleman, his relative, who had been remarkably handsome, he looked into the open coffin, and seeing the corpse all deformed, said to himself: “What this man was, I am now. What he is now, I will be hereafter.” As soon as the funeral was over, reading these words of our Lord: “If any one will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” he retired into solitude to attain greater perfection. There he gave himself up to watching, prayer and fasting, often eating nothing but raw herbs.

The better to conceal himself from men Sylvester frequently changed his place of abode and at length settled at Monte Fano which, though near to Fabriano, was at that time a desert. There he built a church in honour of the most holy father Benedict, and founded the Congregation of Sylvestrians under the rule and habit shown him by Saint Benedict in a vision. Satan, roused to envy, strove in many ways to terrify his monks, making assaults by night at the monastery gates. But the man of God repressed the enemy’s attack with such vigour that the monks, recognising their father’s sanctity, were more and more confirmed in their holy purpose. Sylvester was remarkable for the spirit of prophecy and other gifts which he guarded by deep humility. This so stirred up the devil’s envy that he cast the saint headlong down the oratory stairs and almost killed him, but the Blessed Virgin at once graciously restored him to health. In gratitude for this benefit, Sylvester showed her the tenderest unfailing piety to the end of his life. He died at the age of about 90 years, renowned for sanctity and miracles, on the sixth of the Calends of December in 1267. Pope Leo XIII extended his Office and Mass to the universal Church.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

God often brings the world to those who see from it, as Sylvester Gozzolini among others experienced. In the thirteenth century the world, all in admiration at the sanctity and the eloquence of the new Orders, seemed to have forgotten the monks and the desert. God, who never forgets, led his elect silently into solitude and the wilderness began again to rejoice and flourish like the lily. Strength was restored to the weak hands and feeble knees of the sons of the cloister. The austerities of olden days and the fervour of prolonged prayer were revived at Monte Fano and extended into 60 other monasteries. The new religious family of the Sylvestrians was approved by Innocent IV in 1247. Though originated seven centuries after Saint Benedict, and distinguished from the elder families by its blue habit, it claims the Patriarch of Cassino for its legislator and father.

Death, by revealing to you, O Sylvester, the vanity of noble birth and beauty, opened to you the path of life. The frivolous world, deceived by the mirage of false pleasures cannot understand the Gospel which defers beatitude to another life, and paves the way to it with renunciation, humility and the cross. With the Church, we ask of our merciful God, in consideration of your merits, the grace to despise, as you did, the fleeting joys of this world, that we may partake with you of true and eternal happiness. Deign to support our petition with your own supplication. We beseech Him who has glorified you to bless and multiply your sons, to sustain them and the whole monastic Order, and every religious family, under the sufferings of the present time.

26 NOVEMBER – SAINT PETER OF ALEXANDRIA (Bishop and Martyr)

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Peter, successor of Saint Theonas in the See of Alexandria, was by his learning and holiness the glory of Egypt and the light of the whole Church of God. Such was his courage under the terrible persecution raised by Maximian Galerius that the example of his admirable patience strengthened a great many in Christian virtue. He was the first to cut off from the communion of the faithful, Arius, deacon of Alexandria, for favouring the schism of the Meletians. When Peter had been condemned to death by Maximian, the priests Achillas and Alexander came to him in prison to intercede for Arius, but the bishop answered that during the night Jesus had appeared to him with His garment torn, and on his asking the cause, had replied: “Arius has rent my garment, which is the Church.” He then foretold that they two would succeed him in turn in the episcopate, and forbade them ever to receive Arius to communion, for he knew that he was dead to God. The truth of this prophecy was soon proved by the event. Peter was beheaded, and thus went to receive the crown of martyrdom on the sixth of the Calends of December, in the twelfth year of his episcopate. Let us offer our homage and prayers to the great bishop whom the Church thus commemorates today. For a long time he went by the name of Peter the Martyr, until in the thirteenth century another Peter martyr, himself illustrious among all, came to claim the title, leaving his glorious brother to be known as Saint Peter of Alexandria.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Alexandria, in the same persecution, the holy martyrs Faustus, priest, Didius and Ammonius. Likewise, Phileas, Hesychius, Pachomius and Theodore, Egyptian bishops, with six hundred and sixty others, who the sword of persecution sent to heaven.

At Nicomedia, in the time of Constantius, St. Marcellus, a priest, who died a martyr by being hurled down from a rock.

At Padua, St. Bellinus, bishop and martyr.

At Rome, St. Siricius, pope and confessor, celebrated for his learning, piety and zeal for religion, who condemned various heretics, and published salutary laws concerning ecclesiastical discipline.

At Autun, St. Amator, bishop.

At Constance, St. Conrad, bishop.

In the diocese of Rheims, the birthday of St. Basolus, confessor.

At Adrianople in Paphlagonia, St. Stylian, anchoret, renowned for miracles.

In Armenia, St. Nicon, monk.

At Rome, St. Leonard of Port Maurice, confessor, of the Friars Minor of St. Francis, of the Strict Observance. He was remarkable for zeal, for he spent several years with extraordinary success in conducting his holy expeditions through Italy for the conquest of souls. He was ranked among the blessed by Pope Pius VI, and among the saints by Blessed Pius IX during the solemnities connected with the eighteenth centenary of the princes of the Apostles, Saints Peter and Paul.

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

Thanks be to God.

26 NOVEMBER – TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The number of the Sundays after Pentecost may exceed twenty-four and go up as far as twenty-eight, according as Easter is each Year, more or less near to the vernal equinox. But the Mass here given is always reserved for the last, and the intervening ones, be their number what it may, are taken from the Sundays after the Epiphany which, in that case, were not used at the beginning of the year.

These Sundays are the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th, after the Epiphany. Those Years when there are Twenty-five Sundays after Pentecost, it is the 6th after the Epiphany which is put after the twenty-third. If the number of those Sundays be twenty-six, the 5th after the Epiphany becomes the twenty-fourth after Pentecost. If the number be twenty- seven, we go back to the 4th after the Epiphany, and the rest follow. If it be as high as twenty-eight, we begin with the 3rd.

This, however, does not apply to the Introit, Gradual, Offertory and Communion which, as we have already said, are repeated from the twenty-third Sunday. We have seen how that Mass of the twenty-third Sunday was regarded by our fore-fathers as really the last of the Cycle. Abbot Rupert has given us the profound meaning of its several parts. According to the teaching we have already pondered over, the reconciliation of Judah was shown us as being, in time, the term intended by God: the last notes of the sacred Liturgy blended with the last scene of the world’s history, as seen and known by God. The end proposed by eternal Wisdom in the world’s creation and mercifully continued, after the Fall, by the mystery of Redemption, has now (we speak of the Church’s Year and God’s workings) been fully carried out: this end was no other than that of divine Union with Human Nature, making it one in the unity of one only body (Ephesians ii. 16). Now that the two antagonist people, Gentile and Jew, are brought together in the one same New Man in Christ Jesus their Head (Ephesians ii. 15), the Two Testaments which so strongly marked the distinction between the ages of time, the one called the Old, the other the New —yes, these Two Testaments fade away and give place to the glory of the Eternal Alliance.

It was here, therefore, that Mother Church formerly finished her Liturgical Year. She was delighted at what she had done during all the past months. That is, at having led her children not only to have a thorough appreciation of the divine plan which she had developed before them, in her celebrations — but moreover, and more especially, to unite them themselves by a veritable Union to their Jesus, by a real communion of views, and interests, and loves. On this account, she used not to revert again to the second Coming of the God-Man and the Last Judgement, two great subjects which she had proposed for her children’s reflections at the commencement of the Purgative Life, that is, her season of Advent. It is only since a few centuries that, with a view of giving to her Year a conclusion more defined and intelligible to the Faithful of these comparatively recent times, she closes the Cycle with the prophetic description of the dread Coming of her Lord, which is to put an end to Time and open Eternity. From time immemorial, Saint Luke had had the office of announcing, in Advent, the approach of the Last Judgement. The Evangelist Saint Matthew was selected for this its second and more detailed description on the last Sunday after Pentecost.

Epistle – Colossians i. 9‒14

Brethren, we cease not to pray for you, and to beg that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom, and spiritual understanding: that you may walk worthy of God in all things pleasing: being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God: strengthened with all might according to the power of His glory, in all patience and long-suffering with joy. Giving thanks to God the Father, who has made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light: who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Thanksgiving and Prayer! There we have the epitome of our Epistle, and an eloquent conclusion of the Apostle’s course of instructions: it is also both summary and conclusion of the Year of the sacred Liturgy. The Doctor of the Gentiles has been zealous beyond measure in his fulfilment of the task assigned to him by Mother Church. Of a certainty, the fault is not his if the souls he undertook to guide, on the morrow of the descent of the Spirit of Love, have not all reached that summit of perfection which he longed we should all get up to! Those who have gone bravely forward in the path which, a year since, was opened out to them by holy Church, now, by a happy experience, know that that path most surely leads them to the life of Union where divine charity reigns supreme! Who is there that, with anything like earnestness, has allowed his mind and heart to take an interest in the several Liturgical Seasons which have been brought before us, and been celebrated, by the Church during the past twelve months —has not also felt an immense increase of light imparted to him? Now, Light is that indispensable element which delivers us from the power of darkness and translates us, by the help of God, into the kingdom of the Son of His love. The work of redemption which this His beloved Son came down on Earth to accomplish for His Father’s glory, could not do otherwise than make progress in those who have, with more or less fervour, entered into the spirit of His Church during the whole Year, that is, from the opening of Advent right up to these the closing days of the sacred Cycle. All of us, then, whoever we may be, should give thanks to this Father of Lights (James i. 17) who has thus made us worthy to be partakers, somewhat at least, of the lot of the Saints.

So, then, all of us, be the share of such participation what it may — yes, all of us must pray that the excellent gift which has been put into our hearts may fervently yield itself to the still richer development, which the coming new Cycle is intended to produce within us.

The just man cannot possibly remain stationary in this world. He must either descend or ascend. And whatever may be the degree of perfection to which grace has led him, he must be ever going still higher as long as he is left in this life (Psalm lxxxiii. 6). The Colossians to whom the Apostle was writing had fully received the Gospel: the word of truth which had been sown in them had produced abundant fruit, in faith, hope and love (Colossians i. 4‒6): and yet, instead of relenting on that account his solicitude in their regard, it is precisely for that reason (Colossians i. 9) that Saint Paul, who had prayed for them up to then, ceases not to go on praying for them. So let us do — let us go on praying. Let us beg of God that He will again, and always, fill us with His divine Wisdom, and with the Spirit of understanding. We need all that in order to correspond with His merciful designs. If the new Year of the Church, which is so soon to begin, finds us faithful and making fresh progress, we will be repaid with new aspects of Truth in the garden of the Spouse, and the fruits we will produce there will be more plentiful and far sweeter than in any by-gone Year. Therefore, let us make up our minds to walk worthy of God, “with dilated hearts,” and bravely, for the eye of His approving love will be ever upon us as we toil along. Oh yes! Let us run on in that up-hill path which will lead us to eternal repose in the Beatific Vision.

Gospel – Matthew xxiv. 15‒35

At that time Jesus said to His disciples: “When you will see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place: he that reads, let him understand. Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains. And he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take anything out of his house. And he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat. And woe to them that are with child, and give suck in those days. But pray that your flight be not in the winter, or on the Sabbath. For there will be then great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither will be. And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh could be saved: but for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened. Then if any man will say to you: Lo! Here is Christ, or there: do not believe him: For there will arise false christs and false prophets, and will show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Behold I have told it you, before hand. If therefore they will say to you: Behold he is in the desert, go you not out: Behold he is in the closets, believe it not. For as lightning comes out of the east, and appears even into the west, so will also the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the body will be there will the eagles also be gathered together. And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be moved: and there will appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven: and then will all tribes of the Earth mourn: and they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven with much power and majesty. And he will send his angels with a trumpet, and a great voice: and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them. And from the fig tree learn a parable: when the branch of it is now tender and the leaves come forth, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you will see all these things, know you that it is near at the doors. Amen, I say to you, that this generation will not pass till these things be done. Heaven and Earth will pass, but my words will not pass.”

Praise to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Several times during Advent we meditated on the circumstances which are to accompany the Last Coming of Christ our Lord. And in a few days the same great teachings will be again brought before us, filling our souls with a salutary fear. May we then be permitted, on this last Sunday of our Liturgical Year, to address ourselves in a prayer of desire and praise to our adorable Lord and King, the solemn hour of whose Judgement is to be the consummation of His work and the signal of His triumph.

O Jesus! who then are to come to deliver your Church and avenge that God who has so long borne every sort of insult from His creature man, that day of your coming will indeed be terrible to the sinner! He will then understand how the Lord has made all things for Himself, all, even the ungodly, who on the evil day is to show forth the divine justice (Proverbs xvi. 4). The whole world, fighting on his side against the wicked (Wisdom v. 21) will then at last be avenged for that slavery of sin which had been forced upon it (Romans viii. 21). Vainly will the wicked cry out to the rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him that will then be seated on His throne (Apocalypse vi. 16). The abyss will refuse to engulf them: in obedience to Him who holds the keys of death and Hell (Apocalypse i. 18), it will give forth to a man its wretched victims and set them at the foot of the dread tribunal. Jesus, how magnificent will not your power then appear! The heavenly hosts will also be standing around you, forming your brilliant (Apocalypse xix. 14) court, and assembling your elect from the four quarters of the Earth.

For we also, we your redeemed, who had become your members by becoming the members of your beloved Church — we are to be there on that day, and our place, O ineffable mystery, is to be the one you have reserved for your Bride — it is to be your own throne (Apocalypse iii. 21) where seated, we will judge the very angels (1 Corinthians vi. 3). Even now, all those blessed of the Father (Matthew xxv. 3), all those elect whose youth, like that of the eagle, has been so often renewed by their receiving your precious Blood (Psalm cii. 5) — have they not had their eyes fitted to gaze, and without being dazzled, on the Sun of Justice when He will appear in the heavens? The tediousness of their long exile has given such keenness to their hunger that nothing will have power to stay their flight once the sacred prey of your divine Body will be shown them! What hindrance could be strong enough to check the impetuosity of the love (Canticles viii. 6) which will bring them all together to the banquet of the eternal Pasch? The trumpet of the Archangel which will ring through the graves of the just is to be a summons calling them not to death, but to life — to the sight of the old enemy’s destruction (1 Corinthians xv. 28) — to a redemption which is to include their very bodies (Romans viii. 23) — to the unimpeded passover to the true Land of promise— in a word, to the Pasch and, this time, quite real, and for all, and forever. What will not be the joy of that true Day of the Lord! ( Psalm cxvii. 24) — what joy for them that have by faith lived in Christ, and loved Him without seeing Him! (1 Peter i. 28).

Identifying themselves with you, O Jesus, notwithstanding the weakness of the flesh, they have continued here below your life of suffering and humiliation: what a triumph when, delivered forever from sin and vested in their immortal bodies, they will be borne aloft before your face, that they may forever be with you! (1 Thessalonians iv. 6). But their chief joy on that great Day will be to assist at the glorification of their most dear Lord by the manifestation of the power which was given to Him over all flesh (John xvii. 2). It is to be then, Emmanuel, that crushing the heads of kings and making your enemies your footstool (Psalm cix.) you will be shown as the one Ruler of all nations (Psalm ii.). It is to be then that Heaven, and Earth, and Hell, will bow their knee (Philippians ii. 10) before that Son of Man who until then appeared on Earth as a slave, and was judged, and condemned, and put to death between two thieves. It is to be then, dear Jesus, that you will judge the unjust judges to whom, even in the midst of all the humiliations they put on you, you foretold this your Coming on the clouds of Heaven (Matthew xxvi. 64). And when, after the irrevocable sentence has been passed, the wicked will go to everlasting torments, and the just to life eternal (Maathew xxv. 46), your Apostle tells us, that having conquered your enemies and been proclaimed undisputed King, you will consign to your eternal Father this your Kingdom won over death. It will be the perfect homage of you, the Head, and of all your faithful members (1 Corinthians xv. 24‒28). God will thus be all in all. It will be the perfect accomplishment of that sublime prayer you taught mankind to make (Matthew vi. 9), which they daily offer up to the Father who is in Heaven, and say to Him: Hallowed be thy name! Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven! Blissfully peaceful Day when blasphemy is to cease, and when this poor Earth of ours, cleansed by fire from the filth of sin, will be turned into a new paradise! Where, then, is the Christian who would not thrill with emotion at the thought of that last of all the Days of time which is to usher in beautiful Eternity? Who would not despise the agonies of his own last hour when he reflects that those sufferings have really only one meaning in them — that is, as the Gospel words it, that the Son of Man is near even at the very doors!

O sweet Jesus, detach us, every Year, more and more from this world whose fashion passes away (1 Corinthians vii. 31) with its vain toils, its false glories, and its lying pleasures. It was your own foretelling that, as in the days of Noah, and Sodom, men will go on with their feasting, and business, and amusements, without giving any more thought to your approaching Coming than their forefathers heeded the threat of the Deluge, or of the fire, which came on them and destroyed them (Luke xvii. 26‒30). Let these men go on with their merrymaking and their sending gifts one to the other, as your Apocalypse expresses it, because, so they will have it, Christ and His Church are then to be worn out ideas! (Apocalypse xi. 10). While they are tyrannising over your holy City in a thousand varied ways, and persecuting her as no past period had ever done, they little think that all this is an announcement of the Eternal Nuptials which are near at hand. All these trials were the fresh jewels which the Bride was to have on her before all her beauty was complete, and the blood of her last Martyrs was to incarnadine her already splendid robes with all the richness of royal crimson. As for us, we lend an ear to the echoes of our home above, and from the throne of our God we hear going forth the voice heard by your beloved Prophet of Patmos: “Give praise to our God, all you his servants, and you that fear him, little and great! Alleluia! For the Lord our God the almighty has reigned! Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory to Him, for the Marriage of the Lamb is come, and His Wife has prepared herself! (Apocalypse xix. 5‒7). Yet a little while till the number of our brethren be made up (Apocalypse vi. 11) and then, with the Spirit and the Bride, we will say to you in all the ardour of our souls that have long thirsted after you: Come, Lord Jesus! (Apocalypse xxii. 17) Come and perfect us in love, by Union eternal, to the glory of the Father, and of yourself the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, forever and ever!

25 NOVEMBER – SAINT CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA (Virgin and Martyr)

Catherine was a noble maiden of Alexandria, who from her earliest years joined the study of the liberal arts with fervent faith, and in a short while came to such an height of holiness and learning that when she was 18 years of age she prevailed over the chiefest wits. When she saw many diversely tormented and haled to death by command of Maximin because they professed the Christian religion, she went boldly to him and rebuked him for his savage cruelty, bringing forward likewise most sage reasons why the faith of Christ should be needful for salvation. Maximim marvelled at her wisdom and bade keep her while he gathered together the most learned men from all quarters and offered them great rewards if they would confute Catherine and bring her from believing in Christ to worship idols. But the event fell contrariwise, for many of the philosophers who had come to dispute with her were overcome by the force and skill of her reasoning, so that the love of Christ Jesus was kindled in them and they were content even to die for His sake.

Then Maximin strove to beguile Catherine with fair words and promises, and when he found it was lost pains, he caused her to be hided and bruised with lead-laden whips and so cast into prison, and neither meat nor drink given to her for 11 days. At that time Maximin’s wife and Porphyry, the Captain of his host, went to the prison to see the damsel, and at her preaching believed in Jesus Christ and were afterwards crowned with martyrdom. Then was Catherine brought out of ward and a wheel was set, wherein were fastened many and sharp blades, so that her virgin body might thereby be most direfully cut and torn in pieces, but in a little while, as Catherine prayed, this machine was broken in pieces, at the which marvel many believed in Christ. But Maximin was hardened in his godlessness and cruelty, and commanded to behead Catherine. She bravely offered her neck to the stroke and passed away hence to receive the twain crowns of maidenhood and martyrdom, on the 25th day of November. Her body was marvellously laid by Angels upon Mount Sinai in Arabia.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

O blessed Catherine, accept us as your disciples. In thy person, philosophy, true to its beautiful name, leads us to Eternal Wisdom, truth leads to goodness and science to Christ who is the way, the truth and the life. “O curious inquirers, who delight in idle, fruitless speculation,” exclaims the most eloquent of your panegyrists, “know that the brilliant light of science which enchants you, is not intended merely to please your eyes, but to guide your steps and rule your conduct. Vain minds, that make such pompous display of your learning in order to win men’s praise, learn that this glorious talent has not been entrusted to you for your self-advancement, but for the triumph of the truth. And you, cowardly, sordid souls, who use science as a means of gaining earthly goods, consider seriously that so divine a treasure is not meant to be traded with in so unworthy a manner, and that the only commerce it is concerned with, is of a higher and sublimer kind: the redemption of souls.”

Thus, O Catherine, you employed your science solely for the truth. You made “the majesty of Jesus Christ so visible, that His presence dissipated all the errors of philosophy, and the truths it had usurped acknowledged Him for their Master, or rather were gathered up in Him as in their centre. Let us learn from this holy example to bear witness to the truth and to make it triumph over the world, employing all our light of knowledge in the fulfilment of this duty. O holy truth, I owe you the testimony of my words, of my life, of my blood: for the truth is God Himself.”

This, O magnanimous virgin, is the thought of holy Church when she thus formulates her prayer for today: O God, who gave the law to Moses on the summit of Mount Sinai and wonderfully deposited in the same place the body of the blessed Virgin and Martyr Catherine by means of your holy Angels; grant, we beseech you, that by her merits and intercession, we may be enabled to arrive at the mountain, which is Christ, who lives and reigns with you for ever and ever.”

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Moses, priest and martyr, who, with others detained in prison, was often consoled by the letters of St. Cyprian. After he had withstood with unbending courage not only the Gentiles, but also the Novatian schismatics and heretics, he was finally, in the persecution of Decius, crowned with a martyrdom which fills the mind with admiration, according to the words of Pope St. Cornelius.

At Antioch, St. Erasmus, martyr.

At Caesarea in Cappadocia, St. Mercury, soldier, who vanquished the barbarians and triumphed over the cruelty of Decius through the protection of his guardian angel. Finally, having acquired great glory from his sufferings, he was crowned with martyrdom and went to reign forever in heaven.

In Emilia in Italy, St. Jucunda, virgin.

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

Thanks be to God.

24 NOVEMBER – SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS (Confessor)

John of the Cross was born of godly parents at Fontibere, near Avila, in Spain in 1542. It began soon to appear that he was foreordained to be an acceptable servant to the Virgin Mother of God. At five years of age he fell into a well, but the hand of the Mother of God took him up and saved him from all hurt. So burning was his desire to suffer that when he was nine years old he gave up any softer bed, and used to lie on potsherds. In his youth he devoted himself as a servant in the hospital for the sick poor at Medina del Campo, and embraced with eager charity the meanest offices there, his readiness likewise exciting others to imitate him. In 1563 he obeyed the call to higher things and entered the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, wherein, by command of his Superiors, he received Priest’s Orders. By their leave and his own strong desire for the sternest discipline and the strictest life, he adopted the primitive Rule. Full of the memory of what our Lord suffered he declared war against himself as his own worst enemy, and carried it on by depriving himself of sleep and food, by iron chains, by whips, and by every kind of self-torture. And in a little while he had crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof. He was indeed worthy that holy Theresa should say of him that he was one of the purest and holiest souls by whom God was then enlightening His Church.

The strange hardness of his life and the might of his graces, joined to the unceasing concentration of his mind on God, had the effect of often subjecting him to daily and extraordinary trances. So burning was his love of God that the fire sometimes could not be kept bound within, and broke forth, so that his face shone. The salvation of his neighbours was one of his dearest longings, and he was unwearied in preaching the Word of God, and in administering the Sacraments. As strong in so many good works and glowing with zeal to make discipline harder, he was given by God to be an helpmate to holy Theresa, and he aided her to set up again the primitive observance among the brethren of the Order of Mount Carmel, as she had already done among the sisters. In doing God’s work, he and God’s handmaid together went through toils that cannot be numbered. No discomforts or dangers held him back from going throughout all Spain to visit all and each of the convents which the care of that holy Virgin had founded, and in them, and in very many others erected by her means for spreading the renewed observance, he strengthened it by his word and example. He is indeed worthy to be reckoned second only to the holy Theresa as a professor and founder of the Order of discalced Carmelites.

He remained throughout all his life a clean man and when some shameless women tried to beguile his modesty, he not only foiled them, but gained them for Christ. In the judgement of the Apostolic See he was as much taught of God as was holy Theresa, for explaining God’s hidden mysteries, and he wrote books of mystical theology filled with heavenly wisdom. Christ once asked him what reward he would have for so much work, to which he answered: “Lord, that I may suffer, and be disesteemed for your sake.” He was very famous for his power over devils, whom he often scared out of men’s bodies, for discerning of spirits, for the gift of prophecy and for eminent miracles. He was extraordinarily lowly and often entreated of the Lord that he might die in some place where he was unknown. In accordance with his prayer, he was sent to Ubeda where for three months the Prior imprisoned and cruelly ill-used him during his last sickness. To crown his love of suffering, he bore uncomplainingly five open sores in his leg, running with water.

At last, on the 14th of December 1591, being the day, and at the hour foretold by himself, after having in godly and holy wise received the Sacraments of the Church, hugging the image of that crucified Saviour of whom his heart and his mouth had been used to be full, he uttered the words: “Into your hands I commend y spirit,” and fell asleep in the Lord. As his soul passed away it was received into a glorious cloud of fire. His body yielded a right sweet savour, and is still incorrupt where it lies, held in great honour, at Segovia. He was famous for very many miracles both before and since his death, and Pope Benedict XIII numbered his name among those of the Saints.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us go with the Church to Mount Carmel and offer our grateful homage to John of the Cross who, following in the footsteps of Teresa of Jesus, opened a safe way to souls seeking God.

The growing disinclination of the people for social prayer was threatening the irreparable destruction of piety when, in the sixteenth century, the divine goodness raised up Saints whose teaching and holiness responded to the needs of the new times. Doctrine does not change: the asceticism and mysticism of that age transmitted to the succeeding centuries the echo of those that had gone before. But their explanations were given in a more didactic way and analysed more narrowly. Their methods aimed at obviating the risk of illusion to which souls were exposed by their isolated devotion. It is but just to recognise that under the ever fruitful action of the Holy Ghost the psychology of supernatural states became more extended and more precise.

The early Christians, praying with the Church, living daily and hourly the life of her Liturgy, kept her stamp upon them in their personal relations with God. Thus it came about that, under the persevering and transforming influence of the Church, and participating in the graces of light and union and in all the blessings of that one Beloved so pleasing to the Spouse, they assimilated her sanctity to themselves without any further trouble but to follow their Mother with docility, and suffer themselves to be carried securely in her arms. Thus they applied to themselves the words of our Lord: “Unless you become as little children, you will not enter into the kingdom of Heaven.” We need not be surprised that there was not then, as now, the frequent and assiduous assistance of a particular director for each soul. Special guides are not so necessary to the members of a caravan or of an army: it is isolated travellers that stand in need of them, and even with these special guides, they can never have the same security as those who follow the caravan or the army.

This was understood, in the course of the last few centuries, by the men of God who, taking their inspiration from the many different aptitudes of souls, became the leaders of schools, one it is true in aim, but differing in the methods they adopted for counteracting the dangers of individualism. In this campaign of restoration and salvation where the worst enemy of all was illusion under a thousand forms with its subtle roots and its endless wiles, John of the Cross was the living image of the Word of God, more piercing than any two-edged sword, reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, for he read, with unfailing glance, the very thoughts and intentions of hearts.

Let us listen to his words. Though he belongs to modern times, he is evidently a son of the ancients. “The soul,” he says, “is to attain to a certain sense, to a certain divine knowledge, most generous and full of sweetness, of all human and divine things which do not fall within the common sense and natural perceptions of the soul. It views them with different eyes now, for the light and grace of the Holy Ghost differ from those of sense, the divine from the human. The dark night, through which the soul passes on its way to the divine light of the perfect union of the love of God — so far as it is in this life possible — requires for its explanation greater experience and light of knowledge than I possess. For so great are the trials, and so profound the darkness, spiritual as well as corporal, which souls must endure, if they will attain to perfection, that no human knowledge can comprehend them, nor experience describe them.

The journey of the soul to the divine union is called night, for three reasons.

The first is derived from the point from which the soul sets out, the privation of the desire of all pleasure in all the things of this world, by an entire detachment therefrom. This is as night for every desire and sense of man. The second, from the road by which it travels. That is, faith, for faith is obscure like night to the intellect. The third, from the goal to which it tends, God, incomprehensible and infinite, who in this life is as night to the soul. We must pass through these three nights if we are to attain to the divine union with God. They are foreshadowed in holy Scripture by the three nights which were to elapse, according to the command of the angel, between the betrothal and the marriage of the younger Tobias (Tobias vi. 18). On the first night he was to burn the liver of the fish in the fire, which is the heart whose affections are set on the things of this world, and which, if it will enter on the road that leads to God, must be burned up and purified of all created things in the fire of this love. This purgation drives away the evil spirit who has dominion over our soul because of our attachment to those pleasures which flow from temporal and corporeal things.

The second night, said the angel, you will be admitted into the society of the holy Patriarchs, the fathers of the faith. The soul having passed the first night, which is the privation of all sensible things, enters immediately into the second night, alone in pure faith, and by it alone directed: for faith is not subject to sense.

The third night, said the Angel, you will obtain a blessing — that is, God, who in the second night of faith communicates Himself so secretly and so intimately to the soul. This is another night, inasmuch as this communication is more obscure than the others. When this night is over, which is the accomplishment of the communication of God in spirit, ordinarily effected when the soul is in great darkness, the union with the bride, which is the Wisdom of God immediately ensues. O spiritual soul, when you see your desire obscured, your will arid and constrained, and your faculties incapable of any interior act, be not grieved at this, but look upon it rather as a great good, for God is delivering you from yourself, taking the matter out of your hands. For however strenuously you may exert yourself, you will never do anything so faultlessly, so perfectly and securely as now — because of the impurity and torpor of your faculties — when God takes you by the hand, guides you safely in your blindness, along a road and to an end you know not, and whither you could never travel guided by your own eyes, and supported by your own feet.”

We love to hear the Saints describe the paths which they themselves have trodden, and of which, in reward for their fidelity, they are the recognised guides in the Church. Let us add that “in sufferings of this kind, we must take care not to excite our Lord’s compassion before His work is completed. There can be no mistake about it, certain graces which God gives to the soul are not necessary for salvation, but they must be obtained at a price. If we were to make too many difficulties, it might happen that, to spare our weakness, our Lord would let us fall back into a lower way. This, to the eye of faith, would be a terrible and irreparable misfortune.”

“For the interests of holy Church and the glory of God, it is more important than we are able to say, that truly contemplative souls should be multiplied upon the Earth. They are the hidden spring, the moving principle of everything that is for the glory of God, for the kingdom of His Son, and for the perfect fulfilment of His divine Will. Vain would it be to multiply active works and contrivances, yea, and even deeds of sacrifice. All will be fruitless if the Church Militant has not her saints to uphold her, saints still wayfarers (in via), which is the state in which the Master chose to redeem the world. Certain powers and a certain fruitfulness are inherent to the present life. It has in itself so few charms that it will not have been useless to show, as we have done, that it has also some advantages.”

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The birthday of St. Chrysogonus, martyr. Chrysogonus was imprisoned at Rome in the reign of the Emperor Diocletian. There he lived for two years on the alms of the holy Anastasia. She was suffering much persecution from her husband Publius for Christ’s Name’s sake, and was used to write to Chrysogonus to ask for the help of his prayers, and he in return comforted her by his epistles. Presently the Emperor wrote to Rome commanding the rest of the Christians who were in prison there to be put to death, and Chrysogonus to be sent to himself at Aquileia. When he was brought there, he said to him: “I have sent for you, O Chrysogonus, that I may increase your honours, if only you will bring thy mind to worship the gods.” Thereto Chrysogonus answered: “With my mind and with my prayers I worship Him Who is God indeed, but such gods as are nothing but images of devils, them I hate and curse.” Then was the Emperor kindled to fury at this answer and commanded Chrysogonus to be beheaded at Aquae Gradatae on the 24th day of November. His body was cast into the sea but found a little while afterwards washed up upon the shore, and the Priest Zoilus took it and buried it in his own house.

At Rome, St. Crescentian, martyr, whose name is mentioned in the Acts of the blessed Pope Marcellus.

At Amelia in Umbria, during the persecution of Diocletian, St. Firmina, virgin and martyr, who, after being subjected to various torments, to hanging, and to burning with flaming torches, yielded up her spirit.

At Corinth, St. Alexander, martyr, who fought unto death for the faith of Christ under Julian the Apostate and the governor Sallust.

At Cordova, the saintly virgins and martyrs Flora and Mary, who were for a long time confined in prison and slain with the sword in the persecution of the Arabs.

At Perugia, St. Felicissimus, martyr.

At Milan, St. Protasius, bishop, who defended the cause of Athanasius before the emperor Constans, in the council of Sardica. Having sustained many labours for the church entrusted to him and for religion, he departed this life to go to the Lord.

In the castle of Blaye, St. Romanus, a priest, whose holiness is proclaimed by glorious miracles.

In Auvergne, St. Portian, an abbot, who was renowned for miracles in the time of king Theodoric.

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

Thanks be to God.

23 NOVEMBER – SAINT CLEMENT OF ROME (Pope and Martyr)

Clement was a Roman by birth, son of Faustinus who dwelt in the region of the Coelian Hill. He was a disciple of blessed Peter and is mentioned by Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians in these words: “I entreat you also, my sincere companion, help those women who have laboured with me in the Gospel, with Clement and the rest of my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life.” Clement divided Rome into seven regions, appointing a notary for each who was to ascertain and record with the greatest care the acts and sufferings of the martyrs. He wrote many useful and learned works such as did honour to the Christian name. He converted many to the faith of Christ by his learning and holiness of life, and was on that account banished by the emperor Trajan to the desert of Cherson beyond the Black Sea.

Here he found two thousand Christians, likewise banished by Trajan, who were employed in quarrying marble. Seeing them suffering from want of water, Clement betook himself to prayer, and then ascended a neighbouring hill, on the summit of which he saw a Lamb, pointing out with his right foot a spring of sweet water. At this source they all quenched their thirst and many infidels were converted by the miracle, and began to revere Clement as a Saint. On hearing this Trajan was enraged and sent officers with orders to cast Clement into the sea with an anchor tied to his neck. After the execution of this sentence, as the Christians were praying on the shore, the sea began to recede for the distance of three miles. On approaching they found a small building of marble in the form of a temple in which lay the martyr’s body in a stone coffin, and beside it the anchor with which he had been drowned. The inhabitants of the country were so astounded at the miracle that they were led to embrace the Christian faith.

The holy body was afterwards translated to Rome, under Pope Nicholas I and deposited in the Basilica of San Clemente. A church was also built and dedicated in his honour, on that spot in the island where the miraculous fountain had sprung up. He held the pontificate 9 years, 6 months and 6 days. In two ordinations in the month of December, he consecrated 10 priests, 2 deacons and 15 bishops.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The memory of Saint Clement has been surrounded with a peculiar glory from the very beginning of the Roman Church. After the death of the Apostles he seems to eclipse Linus and Cletus, although these preceded him in the Pontificate. We pass as it were naturally from Peter to Clement, and the East celebrates his memory with no less honour than the West. He was in truth the universal Pontiff, and his acts as well as his writings are renowned throughout the entire Church. This widespread reputation caused numbers of apocryphal writings to be attributed to him which, however, it is easy to distinguish from his own. But it is remarkable that all the falsifiers who have thought fit to put his name to their own works, or to invent stories concerning him, agree in declaring that he was of imperial descent. With only one exception, all the documents which attest Clement’s intervention in the affairs of distant churches have perished with time, but the one that remains shows us in full action the monarchical power of the Bishop of Rome at that primitive epoch.

The church of Corinth was disturbed with intestine quarrels caused by jealousy against certain pastors. These divisions, the germ of which had appeared even in Saint Paul’s time, had destroyed all peace and were causing scandal to the very pagans. The Corinthians at last felt the necessity of putting an end to a disorder which might be prejudicial to the extension of the Christian faith, and for this purpose it was requisite to seek assistance from outside. The Apostles had all departed this life, except Saint John who was still the light of the Church. It was no great distance from Corinth to Ephesus where the Apostle resided: yet it was not to Ephesus but to Rome that the Church of Corinth turned. Clement examined the case referred to his judgement by that Church, and sent to Corinth five commissaries to represent the Apostolic See. They were bearers of a letter which Saint Irenaeus calls potentissimas litteras. It was considered at the time so beautiful and so apostolic, that it was long read in many churches as a sort of continuation of the canonical Scriptures. Its tone is dignified but paternal, according to Saint Peter’s advice to pastors. There is nothing in it of a domineering spirit, but the grave and solemn language bespeaks the universal pastor whom none can disobey without disobeying God Himself. These words so solemn and so firm wrought the desired effect: peace was re-established in the church of Corinth, and the messengers of the Roman Pontiff soon brought back the happy news. A century later, Saint Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, expressed to Pope Saint Soter the gratitude still felt by his flock towards Saint Clement for the service he had rendered.

Brought up in the school of the Apostles, Clement had retained their style and manner. These are visible in his two Letters to virgins, which are mentioned by Saint Epiphanius and Saint Jerome, and were found in the eighteenth century translated into Syriac, in a manuscript brought from Aleppo. As Saint Caecilia reminded us yesterday, the principle of chastity being vowed to God was, from the very beginning, one of the bases of Christianity, and one of the most effectual means for the transformation of the world. Christ Himself had praised the superior merit of this sacrifice, and Saint Paul, comparing the two states of life, taught that the virgin is wholly taken up with our Lord, while the married woman, whatever her dignity, is divided (1 Corinthians vii.). Clement had to develop this doctrine, and he did so in these two letters. Anticipating those great doctors of Christian virginity, Saint Athanasius, Saint Ambrose, Saint Jerome Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Augustine, he developed the teachings of Saint Peter and Saint Paul on this important subject.

“He or she,” he says, “who aspires to this higher life, must lead like the Angels an existence all divine and heavenly. The virgin cuts herself off from the allurements of the senses. Not only does she renounce the right to their even lawful use, but she aspires to that hope which God, who can never deceive, encourages by his promise, and which far surpasses the natural hope of posterity. In return for her generous sacrifice, her portion in Heaven is the very happiness of the Angels.” Thus spoke the disciple chosen by Saint Peter to set his hand to the task of renovating Rome. It needed no less than this strong doctrine in order to combat the depraved manners of the Empire. Had Christianity been satisfied with inviting men to honour, as the Philosophers had done, its efforts would have been to no purpose. Stoicism, by exciting great pride, could bring some men even to despise death. But it was utterly powerless against sensuality which we must own to have been the strongest auxiliary to the tyranny of the Caesars. The ideal of chastity, thrown into the midst of that dissolute society, could alone arrest the ignominious torrent that threatened to submerge all human dignity. Happily for the world, Christian morality succeeded in gaining ground, and its maxims being followed up by striking examples, it at length forced itself upon the public notice. Roman corruption was amazed to hear of virginity being held in honour and practised by a great many followers of the new religion, and that at a time when the greatest privileges and the most terrible chastisements could scarcely keep to their duty the six vestals, upon whose fidelity depended the honour and the safety of the city. Vespasian and Titus were aware of the infringements upon their primary duty committed by these guardians of the Palladium, but they considered that the low level at which morals then stood, forbade them to inflict the ancient penalties upon these traitresses.

The time, however, was at hand when the emperors, the senate and all Rome were to learn from the first Apology of Saint Justin the marvels of purity concealed within that Babylon of iniquity. “Among us, in this city,” said the Apologist, “there are many men and women who have reached the age of sixty or seventy years. Brought up from infancy under the law of Christ, they have persevered to this day in the state of virginity, and there is not a country where I could not point out many such.”

Athenagorus, in a memorial presented a few years later to Marcus Aurelius, was able to say in like manner: “You will find among us a multitude of persons, both men and women, who have passed their life up to old age in the state of virginity, having no ambition but to unite themselves more intimately to God.”

Clement was predestined to the glory of martyrdom. He was banished to the Chersonesus on the Black Sea. The Acts, which relate the details of his sufferings, are of very great antiquity. We will not here enter into discussions concerning them. They tell us how Clement found in the peninsula a considerable number of Christians already transported there, and employed in working the rich and abundant marble quarries. The joy of these Christians on seeing Clement is easily conceived. His zeal in propagating the faith in this far-off country, and the success of his apostolate, are no matter for surprise. The miracle of a fountain springing from the rock at Clement’s word to quench the thirst of the Confessors is a fact analogous to hundreds of others related in the most authentic Acts of the Saints. Lastly, the apparition of the mysterious Lamb upon the mountain, marking with his foot the spot whence the water was to flow, carries back the mind to the earliest Christian mosaics, on which may still be seen the symbol of the lamb standing on a green hillock.

In the ninth century Saint Cyril, apostle of the Slavs, discovered near Cherson the precious remains of the martyr-pontiff. Clement was brought back to Rome and the great church which had hitherto, according to Saint Jerome, preserved the memory of his name, henceforth possessed a still richer treasure. The very memory, however, was of great value for science no less than for piety: on the testimony of ancient traditions, this church was built on the site of Saint Clement’s old home in the region of the Coelian Hill which we know from other sources to have been the quarter preferred by the Roman aristocracy of the period. Modern archaeological investigations have discovered beneath the apse of the primitive basilica, and forming a sort of underground Confession or crypt, the rooms of a private dwelling, the style and ornaments of which are of the Flavian period.

* * * * *

“The Lord says: My words which I have put in your mouth, will not depart out of your mouth: and your gifts will be accepted upon my altar.” Thus does the Church open the chants of the great Sacrifice in your honour, O holy Pontiff! It was indeed a joy and a supreme consolation to her to experience that, after the departure of the Apostles, the word did not fail. For of all the gifts left her by her divine Spouse at His Ascension into Heaven, this was the most indispensable. In your writings, the word continued to traverse the world, authoritative and respected, directing, pacifying, sanctifying the people, as fully and as surely as in the days of the Apostles or of our Lord Himself. Clear and manifest, thanks to you, was the proof that Jesus, according to His promise, remains with His disciples till the end of the world. Be you blessed for having thus, in the earliest times, consoled our Mother the Church. You understood, O Clement, that the great apostolic work, the diffusion of the Gospel among all nations, was not to be interrupted by the departure of the first labourers. You caused death and darkness to retreat farther and farther. All nations owe you a deep debt of gratitude, but especially the French: for you sent your messengers to Paris and its sister cities, crying in your name: “Rise you that sleep, and arise from the dead; and Christ will enlighten you” (Ephesians v. 14). But the labours of an apostolate attacked in every land by the prince of this world, and the cares of universal government, did not exhaust the zeal that fired your apostolic soul. Be you blessed for having reserved your special teaching and solicitude for the best-loved portion of our Lord’s flock, for them that follow the Lamb on the mountain where you saw Him, and wherever He goes. Through your prayers, may the imitators of Flavia Domitilla increase in number and still more in merit. May every Christian learn from the lesson of your life, that the nobility of this world is nothing compared with that which is won by the love of Christ. May the world, and its capital, once given to God by the Apostles and the Roman patricians, become once more His undisputed kingdom.

* * * * *

On the 10th July we honoured Saint Felicitas, mother of the Martyrs, giving a second and heavenly birth to her seven sons. But her own recompense was delayed for four long months. The Church has inscribed her name on the sacred diptychs. Let us then again offer her our prayers and praises on this day on which the sword at length fulfilled her desires, and in justification of her name, restored her to her sons in eternal felicity:

Grant we beseech you, O Almighty God, that celebrating the solemnity of blessed Felicitas your Martyr, we may be protected by her merits and prayers. Through our Lord.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Merida in Spain, St. Lucretia, virgin and martyr, who consummated her martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Dacian.

At Cyzicum in Hellespont, St. Sisinius, martyr, who, after many torments, was put to the sword in the same persecution.

At Iconium in Lycaonia, the holy bishop Amphilochius, who was the companion of St. Basil and St. Gregory Nazianzen in the desert, and their colleague in the episcopate. After many combats for the Catholic faith, he rested in peace, with the reputation of a holy and learned prelate.

At Girgenti, the decease of St. Gregory, bishop.

In the village of Hasbein, St. Tron, priest and confessor.

At Mantua, blessed John the Good, of the Order of St. Augustine, whose celebrated life was written by St. Antoninus.

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

Thanks be to God.