4 FEBRUARY – SAINT ANDREW CORSINI (Bishop and Confessor)

 

Andrew was born at Florence of the noble Corsini family in 1303. He was the fruit of his parents’ prayers and was consecrated by them to the Blessed Virgin Mary. His future was thus shown by God to the mother. She dreamt that she had given birth to a wolf which went to the church of the Carmelites and, as it entered the threshold, was suddenly changed into a lamb. Though his early education was one which was calculated to form him to piety and to everything that suited his high birth, by degrees Andrew fell into a vicious manner of life notwithstanding the frequent reproaches made him by his mother. But as soon as he was told that he had been consecrated by his parents to the Virgin-Mother of God and heard of his mother’s vision, he entered the Order of Carmelites. The devil ceased not to molest him, even then, with manifold temptations, but nothing could make him change his resolution of entering the religious life.

Shortly after his profession Andrew was sent to Paris for a course of study. Having completed it and taken his degrees, he returned to Italy and was made superior of his Order in the province of Tuscany. It happened about that time that the Church of Fiesole lost its bishop, and Andrew was chosen as his successor. But looking on himself as unworthy of such a dignity, he hid himself so that no one knew where he was. But a child who had not yet received the use of speech, miraculously revealed the place outside the town where he was, upon which the Saint, fearing that further refusal would be a resistance to the divine will, was consecrated bishop. Thus exalted to so great a dignity Andre applied himself more than ever to the practice of humility, which had always been his favourite virtue. To the zeal of a good pastor he united tender compassion for the poor, abundant alms-giving, a life of prayer, long watchings and other virtues, all which, together with the gift of prophecy he had received, gained for him a great reputation for sanctity.

Pope Urban V hearing of his great merits sent him as his Legate to Bologna to quell a sedition that had arisen in that city. The fulfilment of this charge cost him much suffering, but such was his prudence that he succeeded in restoring peace among the citizens and so prevented further bloodshed. He then returned to Fiesole. Not long after, being worn out by ceaseless labours and bodily mortifications, and having been told by the Blessed Virgin Mary of the precise day of his death, he passed from this life to the kingdom of Heaven in 1373, in the seventieth year of his age. Great was the reputation of his name on account of the many and wonderful miracles wrought through his intercession, and at length he was canonised by Urban VIII. His body reposes in the church of his Order at Florence. The citizens of that city, having often experienced that his relics have drawn down the divine protection on them in times of public calamity, their devotion to the Saint is very great.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The saintly Bishop whose feast we keep today pressingly invites us, by his austere life and his burning zeal for the salvation of souls, to procure, at all costs, our own reconciliation with the Divine Justice. We are indebted for this feast to a member of the illustrious family of the Corsini, Pope Clement XII who, however, was but the instrument used by Divine Providence. The holy Bishop of the little town of Fiesole ever sought to be unknown during his life and God, who willed that he should be glorified by the whole Church, inspired the Sovereign Pontiff to inscribe his name among the Saints of the universal Calendar. Andrew the Saint, was once a sinner. His example will encourage us in the work of our conversion.

*****

Hear, O holy Pontiff, our prayer: we are sinners and would learn from you how we are to return to the God we have offended. His mercy was poured out upon you. Obtain the same for us. Have pity on Christians throughout the world, for the grace of repentance is now being offered to all. Pray for us that we may be filled with the spirit of compunction. We have sinned. We sue for pardon. Intercession like yours can win it for us. From wolves, change us into lambs. Strengthen us against our enemies. Get us an increase of the virtue of humility which you had in such perfection, and intercede for us with our Lord that He may crown our efforts with perseverance, as He did yours, that thus we may be enabled to unite with you in singing forever the praises of our Redeemer.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Eutychius, who endured a glorious martyrdom, and was buried in the cemetery of Callistus. Pope St. Damasus wrote an epitaph in verse for his tomb.

At Fossombrone, the holy martyrs Aquilinus, Geminus, Gelasius, Magnus and Donatus.

At Thumuis in Egypt, in the persecution of Diocletian, the passion of blessed Philaeas, bishop of that city, and of Philoromus, military tribune, who rejected the exhortations of their relations and friends to save themselves, offered themselves to death, and so merited immortal palms from God. With them was crowned with martyrdom a numberless multitude of the faithful of the same place who followed the example of their pastor.

The same day, St. Rembert, bishop of Bremen.

At Troyes, St. Aventin, confessor.

At Pelusium in Egypt, St. Isidore, a monk renowned for merit and learning.

The same day, St. Gilbert, confessor, In the town of Amatrice, in the diocese of Rieti, the decease of St. Joseph of Leonissa, of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchins, who suffered many afflictions from the Muslims. As he was celebrated for his apostolic labours and miracles, he was placed on the list of holy confessors by Pope Benedict XIV.

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

Thanks be to God.

3 FEBRUARY – SAINT BLAISE (Bishop and Martyr)

 

Blaise, whose signal virtues made him dear to the people of Sebaste in Armenia, was chosen Bishop of that city. When the Emperor Diocletian waged his cruel persecution against the Christians, the Saint hid himself in a cave on mount Argeus, and there he remained sometime concealed but was at length discovered by some soldiers of the governor Agricolaus while they were hunting. They led him to the governor, who gave orders that he should be put into prison. During his imprisonment, many sick people, attracted by the reputation of his sanctity, came to him and he healed them. Among these was a boy whose life was despaired of by the physicians, on account of his having swallowed a bone which could not be extracted from his throat. The Saint was twice brought before the governor, but neither fair promises nor threats could induce him to offer sacrifice to the gods. Whereupon he was first beaten with rods, and then his flesh was torn with iron hooks while he lay stretched on the rack. At length, he was beheaded, and nobly gave testimony to the faith of Christ our Lord on the third of the Nones of February (February 3rd).

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Now that the Church, has closed the joyous period of her Forty Days of Christmas and is putting us through a course of meditations on subjects which are to excite a spirit of penance within us, each of the Saints’ Feasts must produce an impression which will be in accordance with that spirit. From this day till Easter, we will study the Saints, as they come to us, in this special light: how much they laboured and suffered during their pilgrimage of life, and what was the plan they took for conquering the world and the flesh. “They went,” says the Psalmist, “and wept, casting their seeds: but coming they will come with joyfulness, carrying their sheaves” (Psalm cxxv. 6, 7). It will be the same with us and, at the end of our Lenten labours, our Risen Jesus will hail us as His living, regenerated children.

The Calendar of this portion of the year abounds with martyrs and, at the very onset, we meet with one of the most celebrated of these glorious champions of Christ. The scene of his pastoral virtues and his martyrdom, was Sebaste, a city of Armenia, the same that will give us forty martyred soldiers on a single day. The devotion to Saint Blase is, even to this day, most fervently kept up in the East, especially in Armenia. The Western Churches soon began to love and honour his memory, and so universally that we might call him one of the most popular of our Saints.

*****

Accept, glorious Martyr, the praise which we, too, offer you in union with that given you by the whole Church. In return for this homage of our veneration, look down upon the Christian people who are now preparing to enter on the Season of penance and be converted to the Lord their God by holy compunction and tears. We ask it of you by your own combat: assist us in the one for which we are preparing. When duty required you to undergo tortures and death, it found you ready and brave. Our duty is expiation by penance, and your prayers must get us courage. Our enemies are not more cruel than yours, but they are more treacherous and if we spare them we are lost. Obtain for us that heavenly assistance which enabled you to conquer. We are children of the Martyrs. God forbid we should be degenerate!

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

In Africa, St. Celerinus, deacon, who was kept nineteen days in prison loaded with fetters and confessed Christ gloriously in the midst of afflictions. By overcoming the enemy with invincible constancy he showed to others the road to victory.

Also the holy martyrs, Laurentinus and Ignatius, his uncles, and Celerina, his grandmother, who had been previously crowned with martyrdom. They are highly praised in an Epistle of St. Cyprian.

In the same country, the holy martyrs Felix, Symphronius, Hippolytus and their companions.

In the town of Gap, the holy bishops Tigides and Remedius.

At Lyons, the Saints Lupicinus and Felix, also bishops.

The same day, St. Anscharius, bishop of Bremen, who converted the Swedes and Danes to the faith of Christ.

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

Thanks be to God.

2 FEBRUARY – THE PURIFICATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Forty Days of Mary’s Purification are now completed and she must go up to the Temple, there to offer to God her child Jesus. Before following the Son and His Mother in this their mysterious journey, let us spend our last few moments at Bethlehem in lovingly pondering over the mysteries at which we are going to assist.

The Law commanded that a woman who had given birth to a son should not approach the Tabernacle for the term of forty days, after which time she was to offer a sacrifice for her Purification. She was to offer up a lamb as a holocaust, and a turtle or dove as a sin-offering. But if she were poor and could not provide a lamb, she was to offer, in its stead, a second turtle or dove. By another ordinance of the Law, every first-born son was to be considered as belonging to God and was to be redeemed by five sides, each side weighing, according to the standard of the Temple, twenty obols (Leviticus xii; Numbers iii. 47). Mary was a Daughter of Israel — she had given birth to Jesus —He was her first-born son. Could such a Mother and such a Son be included in the Laws we have just quoted? Was it becoming that Mary should observe them? If she considered the spirit of these legal enactments and why God required the ceremony of Purification, it was evident that she was not bound to them. They, for whom these Laws had been made, were espoused to men. Mary was the chaste Spouse of the Holy Ghost, a Virgin in conceiving, and a Virgin in giving birth to, her Son. Her purity had ever been spotless as that of the Angels, but it received an incalculable increase by her carrying the God of all sanctity in her womb, and bringing Him into this world. Moreover, when she reflected on her child being the Creator and sovereign Lord of all things, how could she suppose that He was to be submitted to the humiliation of being ransomed as a slave whose life and person are not His own? And yet, the Holy Spirit revealed to Mary that she must comply with both these Laws. She, the holy Mother of God, must go to the Temple like other Hebrew mothers, as though she had lost a something which needed restoring by a legal sacrifice. He that is the Son of God and Son of Man must be treated in all things as though He were a servant, and be ransomed in common with the poorest Jewish boy. Mary adores the will of God and embraces it with her whole heart.

The Son of God was not to be made known to the world but by gradual revelations. For thirty years He leads a hidden life in the insignificant village of Nazareth, and during all that time men took Him to be the son of Joseph (Luke iii. 23). It was only in His thirtieth year that John the Baptist announced Him, and then only in mysterious words to the Jews who flocked to the Jordan, there to receive from the Prophet the baptism of penance. Our Lord Himself gave the next revelation — the testimony of His wonderful works and miracles. Then came the humiliations of His Passion and Death, followed by His glorious Resurrection which testified to the truth of His prophecies, proved the infinite merits of His Sacrifice and, in a word, proclaimed His Divinity. The Earth had possessed its God and its Saviour for three-and-thirty years and men, with a few exceptions, knew it not. The shepherds of Bethlehem knew it, but they were not told, as were afterwards the fishermen of Genesareth, to go and preach the Word to the furthermost parts of the world. The Magi, too, knew it. They came to Jerusalem and spoke of it, and the city was in a commotion. But all was soon forgotten, and the Three Kings went back quietly to the East. These two events (which would, at a future day, be celebrated by the Church as events of most important interest to mankind) were lost upon the world, and the only ones that appreciated them were a few true Israelites who had been living in expectation of a Messiah who was to be poor and humble, and was to save the world. The majority of the Jews would not even listen to the Messiah having been born, for Jesus was born at Bethlehem, and the Prophets had distinctly foretold that the Messiah was to be called a Nazarite (Matthew ii. 23).

The same Divine plan — which had required that Mary should be espoused to Joseph in order that her fruitful virginity might not seem strange in the eyes of the people — now obliged her to come, like other Israelite mothers, to offer the sacrifice of Purification for the birth of the son whom she had conceived by the operation of the power of the Holy Ghost, but who was to be presented in the Temple as the son of Mary, the spouse of Joseph. Thus it is, that Infinite Wisdom delights in showing that His thoughts are not our thoughts, and in disconcerting our notions. He claims the submissiveness of our confidence until the time come that He has fixed for withdrawing the veil and showing Himself to our astonished view. The Divine Will was dear to Mary in this as in every circumstance of her life. The Holy Virgin knew that by seeking this external rite of Purification she was in no way risking the honour of her child, or failing in the respect due to her own virginity. She was in the Temple of Jerusalem what she was in the house of Nazareth, when she received the Archangel’s visit — she was the Handmaid of the Lord. She obeyed the Law because she seemed to come under the Law. Her God and her Son submitted to the ransom as humbly as the poorest Hebrew would have to do. He had already obeyed the edict of the emperor Augustus in the general census. He was to be obedient even unto death, even to the death of the Cross. The Mother and the Child, both humbled themselves in the Purification and man’s pride received on that day one of the greatest lessons ever given it.

What a journey was this of Mary and Joseph. from Bethlehem to Jerusalem! The Divine Babe is in His Mother’s arms — she had Him on her heart the whole way. Heaven, and Earth, and all nature, are sanctified by the gracious presence of their merciful Creator. Men look at this Mother as she passes along the road with her sweet Jesus. Some are struck with her appearance, others pass her by as not worth a look. But of the whole crowd there was not one that knew he had been so close to the God who had come to save him. Joseph is carrying the humble offering which the Mother is to give to the priest. They are too poor to buy a lamb — besides, their Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The Law required that a turtle, or dove, should be offered in the place of a lamb when the mother was poor. Innocent birds! Emblems of purity, fidelity and simplicity. Joseph has also provided the five sides, the ransom to be given for the first-born son —Mary’s only Son, who has vouchsafed to make us His brethren and by adopting our nature to render us partakers of His. At length, the Holy Family enter Jerusalem. The name of this Holy City signifies Vision of Peace, and Jesus comes to bring her Peace. Let us consider the names of the three places in which our Redeemer began, continued and ended his life on Earth. He is conceived at Nazareth, which signifies a Flower. And Jesus is, as He tells us in the Canticle, the Flower of the field and the Lily of the valley (Canticles ii. 1) by whose fragrance we are refreshed. He is born at Bethlehem, the House of Bread, for He is the nourishment of our souls. He dies on the Cross in Jerusalem, and by His Blood He restores peace between Heaven and Earth, peace between men, peace within our own souls and, on this day of His Mother’s Purification, we will find Him giving us the pledge of this peace.

While Mary, the Living Ark of the Covenant, is ascending the steps which lead up to the Temple carrying Jesus in her arms, let us be attentive to the Mystery — one of the most celebrated of the prophecies is about to be accomplished, one of the principal characters of the Messiah is about to be shown as belonging to this infant. We have already had the other predictions fulfilled, of His being conceived of a Virgin and born in Bethlehem. Today He shows us a further title to our adoration — He enters the Temple. This edifice is not the magnificent Temple of Solomon which was destroyed by fire during the Jewish captivity. It is the Second Temple which was built after the return from Babylon, and is not comparable to the First in beauty. Before the century is out, it also is to be destroyed, and our Saviour will soon tell the Jews that not a stone will remain on stone that will not be thrown down (Luke xxi. 6). Now, the Prophet Aggeus, in order to console the Jews who had returned from banishment and were grieving because they were unable to raise a House to the Lord equal in splendour to that built by Solomon, addressed these words to them, which mark the time of the coming of the Messiah: “Take courage, O Zorobabel, says the Lord; and take courage, O Jesus, the son of Josedec, the High Priest; and take courage, all ye people of the land — for thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet one little while, and I will move the Heaven, and the Earth, and the sea, and the dry land. And I will move all nations; and the Desired of all nations will come; and I will fill this House with glory. Great will be the glory of this House, more than of the first; and in this place I will give Peace, says the Lord of hosts” (Aggeus ii. 5, 7, 8, 10).

The hour is come for the fulfilment of this prophecy. The Emmanuel has left Bethlehem. He has come among the people. He is about to take possession of His Temple, and the mere fact of His entering it will immediately give it a glory which is far above that of its predecessor. He will often visit it during His mortal life, but His coming to it today, carried as He is in Mary’s arms, is enough for the accomplishment of the promise, and all the shadows and figures of this Temple at once pale before the rays of the Sun of Truth and Justice. The blood of oxen and goats will, for a few years more, flow on its altar, but the infant who holds in His veins the Blood that is to redeem the world is, at this moment, standing near that very altar. Amid the Priests who are there, and amid the crowd of Israelites who are moving to and fro in the sacred building, there are a few faithful ones who are in expectation of the Deliverer, and they know that the time of His manifestation is at hand. But there is not one among them all who knows that at that very moment this expected Messiah is under the same roof with Himself.

But, this great event could not be accomplished without a prodigy being wrought by the Eternal God as a welcome to His Son. The shepherds had been summoned by the Angel, and the Magi had been called by the Star, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. This time it is the Holy Ghost Himself who sends a witness to the Infant, now in the great Temple. There was then living in Jerusalem an old man whose life was well near spent. He was a Man of desires (Daniel x. 11) and his name was Simeon. His heart had longed unceasingly for the Messiah and, at last, his hope was recompensed. The Holy Ghost revealed to him that he should not see death without first seeing the rising of the Divine Light. As Mary and Joseph were ascending the steps of the Temple to take Jesus to the altar, Simeon felt within himself the strong impulse of the Spirit of God. He leaves his house and walks towards the Temple. The ardour of his desire makes him forget the feebleness of age. He reaches the porch of God’s House and there, amid the many mothers who had come to present their children, his inspired gaze recognises the Virgin of whom he had so often read in Isaias, and he presses through the crowd to the child she is holding in her arms.

Mary, guided by the same Divine Spirit, welcomes the saintly old man and puts into his trembling arms the dear object of her love, the Salvation of the world. Happy Simeon! Figure of the ancient world, grown old in its expectation, and near its end. No sooner has he received the sweet Fruit of Life than his youth is renewed as that of the eagle, and in his person is wrought the transformation which was to be granted to the whole human race. He cannot keep silence. He must sing a Canticle. He must do as the shepherds and Magi had done, he must give testimony: “Now,” says he, “now, O Lord, dismiss your servant in peace, because my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared: a light that is to enlighten the Gentiles, and give glory to your people Israel” (Luke ii. 29). Immediately, there comes, attracted to the spot by the same Holy Spirit, the holy Anne, Phanuel’s daughter, noted for her piety and venerated by the people on account of her great age. Simeon and Anna, the representatives of the Old Testament, unite their voices and celebrate the happy coming of the child who is to renew the face of the Earth. They give praise to the mercy of Jehovah who, in this place, in this Second Temple, gives peace to the world as the Prophet Aggeus had foretold. This was the peace so long looked forward to by Simeon, and now in this peace will he sleep. “Now, Lord,” as he says in his Canticle, “dismiss your servant, according to your word, in peace!” His soul, quitting its bond of the flesh, will now hasten to the bosom of Abraham and bear to the elect who rest there, the tidings that peace has appeared on the Earth, and will soon open Heaven. Anne has some years still to pass on Earth. As the Evangelist tells us, she has to go and announce the fulfilment of the promises to such of the Jews as were spiritually minded, and looked for the Redemption of Israel (Luke ii. 38).

The divine seed is sown. The shepherds, the Magi, Simeon and Anne have all been its sowers. It will spring up in due time, and when our Jesus has spent His thirty years of hidden life in Nazareth and will come for the harvest time, He will say to His Disciples: “Lift up your eyes, and see the countries, for they are white already for the harvest (John iv. 35). Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that He send labourers into His harvest” (Luke x. 2). Simeon gives back to Mary the child she is going to offer to the Lord. The two doves are presented to the priest who sacrifices them on the altar. The price for the ransom is paid. The whole law is satisfied and, after having paid her homage to her Creator in this sacred place where she spent her early years, Mary, with Jesus fast pressed to her bosom, and her faithful Joseph by her side, leaves the Temple.

Such is the mystery of this fortieth day which closes, by this admirable Feast of the Purification, the holy season of Christmas. Several learned writers, among whom we may mention Henschenius and Pope Benedict XIV, are of opinion that this Solemnity was instituted by the Apostles themselves. This much is certain, that it was a long-established Feast even in the fifth century. The Greek Church and the Church of Milan count this Feast among those of our Lord, but the Church of Rome has always considered it as a Feast of the Blessed Virgin. It is true, it is our Saviour who is this day offered in the Temple, but this offering is the consequence of our Lady’s Purification. The most ancient of the Western Martyrologies and Calendars call it The Purification. The honour thus paid by the Church to the Mother tends, in reality, to the greater glory of her Divine Son, for He is the Author and the End of all those prerogatives which we revere and honour in Mary.

Lesson – Malachias iii. 1–5

Thus says the Lord God: “Behold I send my angel, and he will prepare the way before my face. And presently the Lord whom you seek, and the Angel of the Testament whom you desire, will come to His Temple. Behold He comes, says the Lord of hosts: and who will be able to think of the day of His coming? and who will stand to see Him? For He is like a refining fire, and like the fuller’s herb: and He will sit refining and cleansing the silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and will refine them as gold, and as silver, and they will offer sacrifices to the Lord in justice. And the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will please the Lord, as in the days of old, and in the ancient years,” says the Lord Almighty.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

All the Mysteries of the Man-God have this for their object — the purifying of our hearts. He sends His Angel (that is, His Precursor) before His face that he may prepare His way and we have heard this holy Prophet crying out to us, in his wilderness: “Be humbled, ye hills! and ye valleys, be ye filled up!” At length, he that is the Angel, the Sent, by excellence, comes in person to make a Testament or Covenant with us. He comes to His Temple, and this Temple is our heart. But He is like a refining fire that takes away the dross of metals. He wishes to renew us by purifying us, that thus we may be worthy to be offered to Him, and with Him, by a perfect sacrifice. We must, therefore, take care and not be satisfied with admiring these sublime Mysteries. We must hold this as a principle of our spiritual life — that the Mysteries brought before us, feast after feast, are intended to work in us the destruction of the old, and the creation of the new, man. We have been spending Christmas. We ought to have been born together with Jesus. This new birth is now at its fortieth day. Today we must be offered by Mary (who is also our Mother) to the Divine Majesty, as Jesus was. The moment is come for our offering, for it is the hour of the Great Sacrifice. Let us redouble the fervour of our preparation.

Gospel – Luke ii. 22–32

At that time, after the days of the purification of Mary, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male opening the womb will he called holy to the Lord. And to offer a sacrifice according as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Ghost was in him. And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when His parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he also took him into his arms, and blessed God, and said: “Now dismiss your servant, O Lord, according to your word in peace. Because my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples: a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Holy Spirit has led us to the Temple, as He did Simeon. There we see the Virgin-Mother offering at the altar her Son who is the Son of God. We are filled with admiration at this fidelity, of the child and His Mother, to the Law, and we feel in our hearts a desire to be also presented to our Creator who will accept our homage as He accepted that offered Him by His Divine Son. Let us, at once, put ourselves in those same holy dispositions which filled the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The salvation of the world has this day gained ground. Let the work of our individual sanctification also advance. From this Feast forward, the Mystery of the Infant-God will no longer be put before us by the Church as the special object of our devotion. The sweet Season of Christmas will, in a few hours, have left us and we will have to follow our Jesus in His combats against our enemies. Let us keep close to our dear King. Let us ever keep Simeon’s spirit and follow our Redeemer, walking in His footsteps, who is our Light. Let us love this Light, and merit, by our fidelity in using it, that it unceasingly shine on us.

*****

We adore and thank you, O Emmanuel, on this happy day which saw you enter into the Temple of your Majesty, carried in the arms of your incomparable Mother. You come into the Temple that you may offer yourself for our sakes. You deign to be redeemed by the payment of a ransom for, one day, you have to pay an infinite ransom for us. You come now to offer a ceremonial sacrifice because you are soon to abolish every sacrifice by the one that alone is perfect. You enter today into that Jerusalem which is to be the place of your Passion and Death. Our salvation urges you on. You were born for us, but you are not satisfied. And every gift of this your fortieth day must needs bespeak the future proofs you have yet to give us of the love you bear us.

You, the Consolation of Israel, on whom the Angels love to look! You enter into the Temple and they who were living in expectation of their Redeemer redouble their hope. Oh that we had something of that love which burned in Simeon’s heart as he held you in his arms! All he lived for was to see you, O Divine Infant, and having seen you, he longs to die. One brief moment’s sight of you makes him sleep in peace! What must it be to possess you eternally, when a glance could satisfy the longings of a whole life! But, O Saviour of our souls, if Simeon was so satiated with this seeing you presenting yourself for mankind in the Temple, how ought we to love you, we who have seen the final consummation of your Sacrifice? The day will come when, as your devout servant Bernard expresses it, you will be offered, not in the Temple and on Simeon’s arms, but outside the city gates and on the arms of the Cross. On that day man will not offer up the blood of a victim for you, but yourself will offer up your own Blood for man. Now, it is the morning. Then, it will be the evening sacrifice. Now, you are in the age of infancy. Then, you will have attained the fullness of the age of Man. And having loved us from the beginning, you will love us even to the end.

What return shall we make to you, Divine Infant, for you bear within your heart, during this your first offering, the same infinite love of us with which you will consummate your last? Can we do less than offer ourselves to you from this very day, and be wholly yours? You give yourself to us in the Adorable Sacrament with more perfection than you gave yourself to Simeon, and we receive you, not in ours arms, but in our very breast. Dismiss us, dear Jesus! Break our chains. Give us your peace, and may we, like Simeon, enter now on a new life. In order to imitate your virtues and be united with you, we have endeavoured during this holy Season to gain that humility and simplicity which you wish to see within us. Assist us to persevere in the spiritual life that, like you, we may grow in age and wisdom, before both God and men (Luke ii. 52).

And you, Mary, purest of Virgins, and Mother blessed above all mothers! Daughter of the Prince! How beautiful are your steps (Canticles vii. 1) on this day of your Purification when you enter the Temple with our Jesus in your arms! Who could tell the joy and the humility of your maternal heart in this offering you make to the Eternal Father of His and your Son? Looking around on the mothers who have come for their own purification on this same day, you rejoice at the thought that the babes they are now presenting in the Temple will one day see and know your Jesus, their Saviour. What a privilege that these children should be presented to the Lord together with yours! What honour for these mothers that they should be purified in your holy company! If the Temple is glad at seeing enter within its walls the God in whose honour it has been built, part of its joy is to see Him throned there in your arms, who are the holiest of creatures, the one child of Eve that has never known sin, the Virgin-Mother of this God. But, while humbly keeping within yourself the secrets of the Eternal Father and mingled in the throng of these Hebrew mothers, the holy Simeon advances towards you, Mary! Knowing that the Holy Ghost has revealed the mystery to him, you affectionately place in his hands the God of Heaven and Earth who has come to be the Consolation of Israel. The holy Anna, too, approaches you, and you lovingly receive her. Perhaps in your younger years you had received from her, in this very Temple, the affection and care of a second mother. Your heart thrills with delight at hearing these two venerable Saints extolling God’s faithfulness to His promises, and the glory of your child, and the splendour of the Light which is now to be shed forth on all nations. The happiness of thus hearing the praises of the God, who is your child, fills you with joy and thankfulness. But oh what a sword of grief pierces your heart, dear Mother, at the words of Simeon as he gives you back your babe! Henceforth you must weep as often as you look on Him. He is to be a sign of contradiction (Luke ii. 34) and the wounds men are to give Him are to wound your soul! The blood of victims like these that are now being offered in the Temple will cease to flow and be changed for the Blood of your Jesus! O Mother of Sorrows, we were the cause of all this. It was our sins that changed your joy into mourning. And yet you love us because your Jesus loves us! Love us now and forever. Intercede for us with your Son. Pray that we may never lose the graces granted us during these forty happy days. These graces drew us to the crib of your child, and your affection for us encouraged to stay. We are resolved to maintain our position near this Jesus, following Him through all the Mysteries which are now to succeed this of His Infancy. We are resolved to be faithful disciples of this dear Master, and follow Him, as you did, even to the foot of that Cross, which was revealed to you on this day.

2 FEBRUARY – CANDLEMAS

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

After Tierce follows the Blessing of the Candles, which is one of the three principal ones observed by thee Church during the year. The other two are the Blessing of the Ashes and the Blessing of the Palms.

The signification of this ceremony bears so essential a connection with the mystery of our Lady’s Purification, that if Septuagesima, Sexagesima or Quiuquagesima Sunday fall on the 2nd of February, the Feast is deferred to tomorrow, but the Blessing of the Candles and the Procession which follows it always take place on this precise day.

In order to give uniformity to the three great Blessings of the year, the Church prescribes for that of the candles the same colour for the vestments of the sacred Ministers as is used in the two other Blessings of the Ashes and Palms — namely, purple. Thus this solemn function, which is inseparable from the day on which our Lady’s Purification took place, may be gone through every year on the 2nd of February, without changing the colour prescribed for the three Sundays just mentioned.

It is exceedingly difficult to say what was the origin of this ceremony. Baronius, Thomassin and others are of opinion that it was instituted towards the close of the 5th century by Pope Saint Gelasius, in order to give a Christian meaning to certain vestiges, still retained by the Romans, of the old Lupercalia. Saint Gelasius certainly did abolish the last vestiges of the feast of the Lupercalia which, in earlier times, the pagans used to celebrate in the month of February. Pope Innocent III in one of his Sermons for the Feast of the Purification attributes the institution of this ceremony of Candlemas to the wisdom of the Roman Pontiffs who turned into the present religious rite the remnants of an ancient pagan custom which had not quite died out among the Christians. The old pagans, he says, used to carry lighted torches in memory of those which the fable gives to Ceres when she went to the top of Mount Etna in search of her daughter Proserpine. But against this, we have to object that on the pagan calendar of the Romans there is no mention of any feast in honour of Ceres for the month of February. We, therefore, prefer adopting the opinion of Dom Hugh Menard, Pocca, Henschenius and Pope Benedict XIV that an ancient feast, which was kept in February and was called the Amburbalia, during which the pagans used to go through the city with lighted torches in their hands, gave occasion to the Sovereign Pontiffs to substitute in its place a Christian ceremony which they attached to the Feast of that sacred mystery in which Jesus, the Light of the world, was presented in the Temple by His Virgin-Mother.

The mystery of today’s ceremony has frequently been explained by liturgists dating from the seventh century. According to Saint Ivo of Chartres, the wax — which is formed from the juice of flowers by the bee (which has always been considered as the emblem of virginity) — signifies the virginal flesh of the Divine Infant who diminished not, either by His conception or His birth, the spotless purity of His Blessed Mother. The same holy Bishop would have us see in the flame of our candle a symbol of Jesus who came to enlighten our darkness. Saint Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking on the same mystery, bids us consider three things in the blessed candle: the wax, the wick and the flame. The wax, he says, which is the production of the virginal bee, is the flesh of our Lord. The wick, which is within, is His soul. The flame which burns on the top, is His Divinity. Formerly, the faithful looked upon it as an honour to be permitted to bring their wax tapers to the Church on this Feast of the Purification that they might be blessed together with those which were to be borne in the procession by the Priests and sacred Ministers. And the same custom is still observed in some congregations. It would be well if Pastors were to encourage this practice, retaining it where it exists, or establishing it where it is not known. There has been such a systematic effort made to destroy or, at least, to impoverish the exterior rites and practices of religion that we find, throughout the world, thousands of Christians who have been insensibly made strangers to those admirable sentiments of faith which the Church alone, in her Liturgy, can give to the body of the faithful.

Thus, we shall be telling many what they have never heard before, when we inform them that the Church blesses the candles today, not only to be carried in the procession which forms part of the ceremony, but also for the use of the faithful, inasmuch as they draw upon such as use them with respect, whether on sea or on land, (as the Church says in the Prayer) special blessings from Heaven. These blessed candles ought, also, to be lit near the bed of the dying Christian as a symbol of the immortality merited for us by Christ, and of the protection of our Blessed Lady.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, on the Via Salaria, the passion of St. Apronian, a notary. While he was yet a Gentile and was leading St. Sisinius out of prison to present him before the governor Laodicius, he heard a voice from heaven saying, “Come you, the blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.” At once he believed, was baptised and, after confessing our Lord, received the sentence of death.

Also at Rome, the holy martyrs Fortunatus, Felician, Firmus and Candidus.

At Caesarea in Palestine, St. Cornelius, a centurion, whom the blessed Apostle St. Peter baptised and raised to the episcopal dignity in that city.

At Orleans, the holy bishop Flosculus.

At Canterbury in England, the birthday of St. Lawrence, bishop, who succeeded St. Augustine in the government of that church and converted the king himself to the faith.

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

Thanks be to God.

1 FEBRUARY – SAINT BRIGID OF IRELAND (Virgin)

 

Brigid was born at Fouchard (Foughard) in the diocese of Armagh, County Louth (then part of Ulster) circa 451. Her father, a nobleman called Dubtach, was descended from Eschaid, the brother of King Constantine of the Hundred Battles, as he is surnamed by the Irish historians. Brigid’s parents were baptised by Saint Patrick himself, and they brought up their children in the holy fear of God. Brigid showed signs of sanctity from early in her life. Eventually she received the veil from the hands of Saint Mel, who was a nephew of Saint Patrick. In about 585 she built her first cell under a large oak which had previously been the site of pagan worship and from which it was named ‘Kil-dara’ (the cell of the oak). This was the first religious house of women in Ireland around it arose the city of Kildare. Bridget died circa 532 and was buried in the Cathedral of Downpatrick, where her relics were enshrined with those of Saint Patrick and Saint Columba.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Smyrna, St. Pionius, priest and martyr. After writing in defence of the Catholic faith, after suffering imprisonment in a loathsome dungeon, where by his exhortations he encouraged even to martyrdom many of his brethren, after enduring excruciating pains from being pierced with nails and laid on a hot fire, he ended his life happily for Christ. With him suffered fifteen others.

At Ravenna, the holy bishop Severus, whose great virtues deserved that he should be raised to the episcopate by the sign of a dove.

At Trois-Chateaux in France, St. Paul, bishop, whose life was eminent for virtues and whose death was made precious by miracles.

The same day, St. Ephrem, deacon of the church of Edessa, in the time of the emperor Valens. After suffering many trials for the faith of Christ and gaining great renown for holiness and learning, he went to rest in the Lord.

At Castel Fiorentino in Tuscany, the blessed virgin Verdiana, a recluse of the Order of Vallumbrosa.

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

Thanks be to God.

1 FEBRUARY – SAINT IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH (Bishop and Martyr)

Ignatius was the third Bishop of the Church of Antioch, Saint Peter the Apostle being the first. During the persecution under Trajan he was condemned to be devoured by wild beasts and was sent in chains to Rome. During this voyage, which was made by sea, he had to stop at Smyrna where Polycarp, the disciple of Saint John, was Bishop. From this city he wrote several Epistles: one to the Ephesians, a second to the Magnesians, a third to the Trallians, a fourth to the Romans. When he had left Smyrna, he addressed an Epistle to the Philadelphians and Smyrneans, and one to Polycarp himself, recommending to him his Church of Antioch. It is in this last named Letter that he quotes from the Gospel a passage bearing testimony to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. “From Syria,” he says, “even unto Rome, I am fighting with wild beasts, both by sea and land, both by night and day, for I am fastened to ten leopards, I mean, to the soldiers who have care of me. When I show them a kindness, they grow more brutal. Their injuries are my instruction, but I am not thereby justified. I long for the wild beasts that are prepared for me, which I heartily wish may rush on me, and torture me, and devour me, and not be afraid to touch me, as has happened with other martyrs. Nay, if they refuse to approach me, I will make them come on, I will rush upon them, that so they may devour me. Pardon me, my little children: I know what is for my own welfare. Now do I begin to be a disciple of Christ, and care for nothing in this world so that I may find Jesus. Let fire, or the cross, or wild beasts, or the breaking of my bones, or the cutting me to pieces, or the shattering of my whole body, yea, all the tortures of the devil — let them all come upon me, only let me enjoy my God.” When he was sentenced to be devoured by wild beasts and heard the roaring of the lions, his impatience to suffer made him exclaim: “I am the wheat of Christ — let me be ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may become the pure bread.” He suffered in the eleventh year of Trajan’s reign.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Two days more and the happy season of Christmas will be over! This is the vigil of its termination, and lo! — there comes to gladden us one of the grandest Martyrs of the year — Ignatius surnamed the Theophorus, Bishop of Antioch. A venerable tradition tells us that this old man who so generously confessed the faith before Trajan was the child whom Jesus took into His arms and showed to His Disciples as a model of that simplicity which we must all have if we would enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Today he appears before us standing near the crib in which this same Jesus gives us His own divine lessons of humility and simplicity.

But in this the Court of our Emmanuel Ignatius stands near to Peter, for the Prince of the Apostles made him his second successor in his first See of Antioch. From so honoured a position Ignatius derived that courage which made him resist a powerful emperor even to his face, defy the wild beasts of the amphitheatre and triumph by a glorious martyrdom. As it were to show the supremacy of the See of Rome, Divine Providence willed that he, with his chains on him, should go to see Peter and finish his course in the Holy City, and thus mingle his blood with that of the Apostles. Rome would have been imperfect without the glory of Ignatius’ martyrdom, which is the pride of her Colosseum, rich as it is with the blood of so many thousands of Martyrs. Ignatius’ character is impetuosity of love for his God. He has but one fear — it is that the prayers of the Romans will stay the lions from devouring him, and his desire of being united to Christ be thus denied him. Let us admire this superhuman fortitude which shows itself thus suddenly amid the pagan world, and let us acknowledge that so ardent a love of God and so vehement a longing to possess Him could only have come from the accomplishment of the Mysteries of our Redemption which showed man how much God loved him. The crib of Bethlehem, even had there never been the Sacrifice of Calvary, would of itself be sufficient to convince us of all this. God comes down from Heaven for the sake of His creature, man. He Himself becomes Man, nay, a child, and is laid in a manger! Such miracles of love would have sufficed to save the guilty world. How, then, will they not have power to prompt men to give their whole heart to their loving God? And would it be too much if we made a sacrifice of our very lives to repay our Jesus for only that much of His love which He showed us by being born among us?

*****

All your desires were satisfied, O glorious Martyr! You have died for Jesus. You are with Jesus. Rome’s sons and daughters filled the Colosseum. Their savage joy made it tremble with their cheers as they saw you mangled by the lions. It was the hour you had prayed for — your sacrifice for Him who had sacrificed Himself for you is over, and your soul is buried in His divine embrace! Generous and impetuous lover of Christ! You were ambitious to pay your debt to the Crucified — the debt of suffering. It seemed to you that you had no right to His kingdom until you had repaid His Passion by some cruel tortures endured for Him. Worthy companion of Stephen, Sebastian, Vincent and Agnes! How rich and verdant is the palm you hold over your Jesus’ crib! Can you look upon us, weak Christian cowards, and not pity us? Pray for us that we may at least be faithful to our Lord when we are persecuted by the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil; that we may at least give our hearts to His service, if we are not to be permitted to give our bodies to be tortured for His Name. You were chosen, when a little child, as the model of the simplicity which our Saviour was teaching to His Disciples, and this innocence never left you. Ask for us from Him who is the King of little children that one of the graces of the Christmas we have been keeping may be this holy simplicity of heart.

Successor of Peter in the See of Antioch! Pray for the Churches of your Patriarchate that they may return to the true Faith and Catholic unity. Intercede for the Holy City of Rome which you watered with your blood, and which is now in possession of your sacred relics that were saved from the lions’ jaws. Watch over the maintenance of ecclesiastical discipline and order, of which you left such admirable rules in your Epistles, and obtain for the Church that all the members of her hierarchy may be united in the bonds of duty and love, that thus she may be beautiful in the strength of her unity and terrible to the enemies of God, as an army set in array (Canticles vi. 3).

31 JANUARY – SAINT JOHN BOSCO (Confessor)

 

John Bosco was born in 1815 in Becchi, Italy, to farmhands Francesco Bosco and Margherita Occhiena. Francesco died when John was two years old and he was brought up by his mother and two older brothers, Antonio and Giuseppe. Poverty kept John from going to school and he spent his early childhood as a shepherd, receiving instruction only from his parish priest. Continuous quarrels with his brother Antonio forced him to leave home and look for work as a farmhand. In 1830 John finally attended school and in 1835 he entered a seminary. Six years later in 1841 he was ordained as a priest by the Archbishop of Turin. John dedicated his life and ministry to the improvement and education of street children, juvenile offenders and other needy young people. John was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady Help of Christians and to Saint Francis de Sales. In 1859 he founded the Society of Saint Francis de Sales, and 1870 he founded the lay movement, the Association of Salesian Co-operators. He died in 1888 and was beatified in 1929. In 1934 Pope Pius XI canonised John, who is popularly known as “Don Bosco.”

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

On the Via Ostiensis at Rome, the holy martyrs Cyrus and John, who were beheaded after suffering many torments for the name of Christ.

At Alexandria, in the time of the emperor Decius, the birthday of St. Metran, martyr, who, because he refused to utter blasphemous words at the bidding of the pagans, was scourged until he was covered with bruises and pierced through the face and eyes with sharp-pointed reeds. He was then driven out of the city, overwhelmed with stones and killed.

In the same place, the holy martyrs Saturninus, Thyrsus and Victor.

In the same city, the holy martyrs Tharsicius, Zoticus, Cyriacus and their companions.

At Cyzicum in Hellespont, St. Triphenes, martyr, who overcame various torments, but was finally killed by a bull, and thus merited the palm of martyrdom.

At Modena, St. Geminian, bishop, made illustrious by his miracles.

In the province of Milan, St. Julius, priest and confessor, in the reign of the emperor Theodosius.

At Rome, St. Marcella, a widow, whose meritorious deeds are related by St. Jerome.

In the same place, blessed Louisa Albertoni, a Roman widow, of the Third Order of St. Francis, distinguished for her virtues.

The same day, the translation of the Evangelist St. Mark, when his sacred body was brought from the city of Alexandria in Egypt, then occupied by barbarians, to Venice, and with the greatest honours placed in the large church dedicated to his name.

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

Thanks be to God.

30 JANUARY – SAINT MARTINA (Virgin and Martyr)

 

Martina, a noble virgin of Rome, was the daughter of a consul. Having lost her parents while a child, and being exceedingly fervent in the practice of the Christian religion, she was singularly charitable to the poor and distributed among them her immense riches. During the reign of Alexander Severus she was ordered to worship the false gods, but most courageously refused to commit so detestable a crime. She was several times scourged. Her flesh was torn with iron hooks and nails and potsherds, and her whole body was cut with most sharp swords. She was scalded with boiling oil, and was, at length, condemned to be devoured by wild beasts in the amphitheatre. But being miraculously left untouched by them, she was thrown on a burning pile from which she also escaped unhurt by the same divine power. Some of the men that had inflicted these tortures on her, being struck by the miracle and touched by the grace of God, embraced the Christian faith and, after suffering many tortures, gained the glorious palm of martyrdom by being beheaded. The prayers of Martina were powerful with God. Earthquakes shook the city, fire fell from the heavens in the midst of loud thunder, the temples and idols of the gods were overthrown and destroyed. More than once, milk flowed from her wounds together with the blood, and a most sweet fragrance was perceived by the bystanders. Sometimes she was seen raised up and placed on a beautiful throne, and singing the divine praises surrounded by heavenly spirits. Vexed above measure by these prodigies and, above all, by her constancy, the judge ordered her to be beheaded. Which being done, a voice from Heaven was heard calling Martina to ascend. The whole city trembled, and many of the idolaters were converted to the faith of Christ.

Martina suffered under the Pontificate of Urban I and under that of Urban VIII her body was discovered in an ancient Church, together with those of the holy Martyrs Concordius, Epiphanius and companions, near the Mamertine prison at the foot of the Capitoline Hill. The Church was restored and decorated, and the body of the Saint was again placed in it, with much solemnity, in the presence of a great concourse of people, and amidst shouts of joy from the whole city.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

A third Roman Virgin, wearing on her brow a Martyr’s crown, comes today to share the honours given to Agnes and Emerentiana, and offer her palm to the Lamb. Her name is Martina, which the pagans were wont to give to their daughters in honour of their god of war. Her sacred relics repose at the foot of the Capitoline Hill in the ancient temple of Mars which has now become the beautiful Church of Saint Martina. The holy ambition to render herself worthy of Him whom she had chosen as her divine Spouse gave her courage to suffer torments and death for His sake, so that of her, as of the rest of the Martyrs, we may say those words of the Liturgy, she washed her robes in the Blood of the Lamb. Our Emmanuel is the Mighty God (Isaias ix. 6), the Lord that is mighty in war (Psalm xxiii. 8), not, like the Mars of the pagans needing the sword to win his battles. He vanquishes His enemies by meekness, patience and innocence, as in the martyrdom of today’s Saint whose victory was grander than was ever won by Rome’s boasted warriors.

*****

Thus does Christian Rome hymn your praises, O generous Martyr! And while praising, begs you to protect her with your loving care. She is safe from danger if shielded by such watchfulness as yours. Hear her prayers, and drive far from the Holy City the enemies that would plot her ruin. She has foes more to be dreaded than they that attack her walls with the cannon of their fierce artillery — she has them who plot the destruction of her independence. Disconcert these plans of perfidy, and remember, Martina, that the city which now asks your aid was the Mother that trained you to be a Martyr.

Obtain for us from Jesus, your Spouse, the courage to destroy those idols of our affections to which we are so prone to offer the sacrifice of our hearts. The enemies of our salvation are untiring in their attacks upon our frailty — Oh stretch out to us your helping hand, that hand which made the idols of Rome tremble, is not less powerful now to stay the violence of the world that threatens to destroy our souls. Your own brave combats have given you a place of honour near our Redeemer’s crib: if, like you, we will but resist and conquer, this Mighty God will welcome us, too, and bless us. He came into this world that He might vanquish our enemies, but He requires of us to share with him the toils of the battle. Pray for us, O Martina, that our confidence in our God may ever be accompanied by diffidence in ourselves, and we will never be cowards in the great contest for Heaven!

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Antioch, the passion of the blessed priest Hippolytus, who, for a short time deceived by the Novatian schismatics, was converted by the grace of Christ and returned to the unity of the Church for which and in which he afterwards underwent a glorious martyrdom. Being asked by the schismatics which was the better side, he repudiated the doctrine of Novatus and affirming that the faith ought to be professed which the Chair of Peter taught, he presented his neck to the executioners.

In Africa, the passion of the holy martyrs Felician, Philappian and one hundred and twenty-four others.

At Edessa in Syria, in the reign of Trajan, St. Barsimaeus, bishop, who converted many Gentiles to the faith, sent them before him to be crowned, and followed them with the palm of martyrdom.

In the same place, St. Barsen, bishop, renowned for the gift of curing diseases. For the Catholic faith he was banished by the Arian emperor Valens into the remotest parts of that country and there ended his days.

Also blessed Alexander, a man of venerable aspect and advanced age, who was apprehended in the persecution of Decius and after gloriously and repeatedly confessing the faith, gave up his soul to God in the midst of torments.

At Jerusalem, the birthday of St. Matthias, bishop, of whom are related wonders and actions inspired by faith. After having endured many trials for Christ under Hadrian, he passed away in peace.

At Rome, Pope St. Felix, who laboured much for the Catholic faith.

At Pavia, St. Armentarius, bishop and confessor.

In the monastery of Maubeuge in Hainaut, St. Aldegundis, a virgin, who lived in the time of king Dagobert.

At Milan, St. Savina, a most religious woman, who went to rest in the Lord while praying at the tomb of the holy martyrs Nabor and Felix.

At Viterbo, the holy virgin Hyacintha de Mariscotti, a nun of the Third Order of St. Francis, distinguished for the virtues of penance and charity. She was inscribed among the blessed by Pope Benedict XIII, and among the saints by Pope Pius VII.

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

Thanks be to God.

29 JANUARY – SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES (Bishop and Confessor)

 

 

Francis was born of pious and noble parents in the town Sales, from which the family took their name. From his earliest years he gave pledge of his future sanctity by the innocence and gravity of his conduct. Having been instructed in the liberal sciences during his youth, he was sent early to Paris that he might study philosophy and theology, and in order that his education might be complete, he was sent to Padua where he took, with much honour, the degree of doctor in both civil and canon law. He visited the sanctuary of Loreto where he renewed the vow he had already taken in Paris, of perpetual virginity, in which holy resolution he continued till death despite all the temptations of the devil and all the allurements of the flesh. He refused to accept an honourable position in the Senate of Savoy and entered into the ecclesiastical state. He was ordained priest and was made Provost of the Diocese of Geneva, which charge he so laudably fulfilled that Granier, his Bishop, selected him for the arduous undertaking of labouring, by the preaching of God’s word, for the conversion of the Calvinists of Chablais and the neighbouring country round about Geneva. This mission he undertook with much joy. He had to suffer the harshest treatment on the part of the heretics who frequently sought to take away his life, caluminated him and laid all kinds of plots against him, but he showed heroic courage in the midst of all these dangers and persecutions and by the divine assistance, converted, as it is stated, 72,000 heretics to the Catholic faith, among whom were many distinguished by the high position they held in the world and by their learning.

After the death of Granier who had already made him his Coadjutor, he was made Bishop of Geneva. Then it was that his sanctity showed itself in every direction, by his zeal for ecclesiastical discipline, his love of peace, his charity to the poor and every virtue. From a desire to give more honour to God he founded a new Order of nuns which he called the Visitation, taking for their Rule that of Saint Augustine, to which he added Constitutions of admirable wisdom, discretion and sweetness. He enlightened the children of the Church by the works he wrote, which are full of a heavenly wisdom, and point out a path which is at once safe and easy to Christian perfection. In his fifty-fifth year, whilst returning from France to Annecy, he was taken with his last sickness, immediately after having celebrated Mass on the Feast of Saint John the Evangelist. On the following day his soul departed this life for Heaven in 1622. His body was taken to Annecy and buried with great demonstration of honour, in the Church of the nuns of the Order of the Visitation. Immediately after his death miracles began to be wrought through his intercession, which being officially authenticated, he was canonised by Pope Alexander VII and his Feast was appointed to be kept on the 29th of January.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The angelical Bishop Francis of Sales has a right to a distinguished position near the crib of Jesus on account of the sweetness of his virtues, the childlike simplicity of his heart and the humility and tenderness of his love. He comes with the lustre of his glorious conquests on him — seventy-two thousand heretics converted to the Church by the ardour of his charity, an Order of holy servants of God, which he founded, and countless thousands of souls trained to piety by his prudent and persuasive words and writings.

God gave him to his Church at the very time that heresy was holding her out to the world as a worn-out system that had no influence over men’s minds. He raised up this true minister of the Gospel in the very country where the harsh doctrines of Calvin were most in vogue, that the ardent charity of Francis might counteract the sad influence of that heresy. “If you want heretics to be convinced of their errors,” said the learned Cardinal Du Perron, “you may send them to me. But if you want them to be converted, send, them to the Bishop of Geneva.” Francis of Sales was sent, then, as a living image of Jesus, opening his arms and calling sinners to repentance, the victims of heresy to truth, the just to perfection and all men to confidence and love.

The Holy Spirit had rested on him with all his divine power and sweetness. A few days back we were meditating on the Baptism of Jesus, and how the Holy Ghost descended on Him in the shape of a dove. There is an incident in the life of Francis which reminds us of this great Mystery. He was singing Mass on Whit Sunday at Annecy. A dove, which had been let into the Cathedral, after flying for a long time round the building, at length came into the sanctuary and rested on the Saint’s head. The people could not but be impressed with this circumstance, which they looked on as an appropriate symbol of Francis’s loving spirit, just as the globe of fire which appeared above the head of Saint Martin when he was offering up the Holy Sacrifice, was interpreted as a sign of his apostolic zeal. The same thing happened to our Saint on another occasion. It was the Feast of our Lady’s Nativity and Francis was officiating at Vespers in the Collegiate Church at Annecy. He was seated on a throne, the carving of which represented the Tree of Jesse, which the Prophet Isaias tells us produced the virginal branch from which sprang the divine flower on which there rested the Spirit of love. They were singing the Psalms of the Feast when a dove flew into the Church through an aperture in one of the windows of the choir on the epistle side of the altar. It flew about for some moments and then lighted first on the Bishop’s shoulder, then on his knee, where it was caught by one of the assistants. When the Vespers were over, the Saint mounted the pulpit and ingeniously turned the incident that had occurred into an illustration which he hoped would distract the people from himself. He spoke to them of Mary, who, being full of the grace of the Holy Spirit, is called “the dove that is all fair, in whom there is no blemish” (Canticles vi. 8, iv. 7).

If we were asked which of the disciples of our Lord was the model on which this admirable prelate formed his character, we should mention, without any hesitation, the Beloved Disciple, John. Francis of Sales is, like him, the Apostle of charity and the simplicity of the great Evangelist caressing an innocent bird is reflected with perfection in the heart of the Bishop of Geneva. A mere look from John, a single word of his, used to draw men to the love of Jesus. And the contemporaries of Francis were wont to say: “the Bishop of Geneva is so amiable, what, Lord, must not you be!”

A circumstance in our Saint’s last illness again suggests to us the relation between himself and the Beloved Disciple. It was on the 27th of December, the Feast of Saint John, that Francis, after celebrating Mass and giving Communion to his dear Daughters of the Visitation, felt the first approach of the sickness which was to cause his death. As soon as it was known, the consternation was general but the Saint has already his whole conversation in Heaven, and on the following day, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, his soul took its flight to its Creator and the candour and simplicity of his spirit made him a worthy companion of those dear little ones of Bethlehem. But on neither of these two days could the Church place his Feast, as they were already devoted to the memory of St. John and the Holy Innocents. But she has ordered it to be kept during the forty days consecrated to the Birth of our Lord, and this 29th of January is the day fixed for it.

Saint Francis, then, the ardent lover of our new-born King, is to aid us, like all these other Christmas Saints, to know the charms of the Divine Babe. In his admirable Letters, we find him expressing, with all the freedom of friendly correspondence, the sweetness which used to fill his heart during this holy Season. Let us read a few passages from these confidential papers — they will teach us how to love our Jesus. Towards the end of the Advent of 1619, he wrote to a Religious of the Visitation, instructing her how to prepare for Christmas:

“My very dear Daughter, our sweet Infant Jesus is soon to be born in our remembrance, at the coming Feasts. And since He is born on purpose that He may visit us in the name of His Eternal Father, and is to be visited in His crib by the shepherds and the kings, I look on Him as both the Father and the Child of our Lady of the Visitation. Come, then, load Him with your caresses. Join all our Sisters in giving Him a warm welcome of hospitality. Sing to Him the sweetest carols you can find and, above all, adore Him very earnestly and very sweetly and, with Him, adore His poverty, His humility, His obedience and His meekness, as did His most holy Mother and Saint Joseph. Take one of His divine tears which is the dew of Heaven, and put it on your heart so that you may never admit any other sadness there than the sadness which will gladden this sweet Infant. And when you recommend your own soul to Him, recommend mine also, for you know its devotedness to yours. I beg of you to remember me affectionately to the dear Sisters whom I look upon as simple shepherdesses keeping watch over their flocks, that is, their affections, and who, being warned by the Angel, are going to pay their homage to the Divine Babe and offer Him, as an earnest of their eternal loyalty, the fairest of their lambs, which is their love, unreserved and undivided.”

On Christmas Eve, filled by anticipation with the joy of the sacred Night which is to give the world its Redeemer, Francis writes to Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, and thus invites her to profit by the visit of the Divine Infant received from the contemplation of the great Mystery:

“Oh the sweetness of this night! The Church has been singing these words — honey has dropped from the Heavens. I thought to myself that the Angels, not only come down on our Earth to sing their admirable Gloria in excelsis, but to gaze also on this sweet Babe, this Honey of Heaven resting on two beautiful Lilies, for sometimes He is in Mary’s arms, and sometimes it is Joseph that caresses Him. What will you say of my having the ambition to think that our two Angel Guardians were of the grand choir of blessed Spirits that sang the sweet hymn on this night? I said to myself — oh happy we if they would deign to sing once more their heavenly hymn and our hearts could hear it! I besought it of them that so there might be glory in the highest heavens, and peace to hearts of good will. Returning home from celebrating these sacred Mysteries, I rest awhile in thus sending you my Happy Christmas! for I dare say that the poor shepherds took some little rest after they had adored the Babe announced to them by the Angels. And as I thought of their sleep on that night, I said to myself: How sweetly must they not have slept, dreaming of the sacred melody with which the Angels told them the glad tidings, and of the dear child and the Mother they had been to see!”

We will close our quotations by the following passage of another of his Letters to Saint Jane Frances de Chantal in which he speaks of the Most Holy Name of Jesus which the Divine Child of Mary received at His circumcision:

“O my Jesus! fill our hearts with the sacred balm of your Holy Name so that the sweetness of its fragrance may penetrate our senses and perfume our every action. But that our hearts may be capable of receiving this sweetness, they must be circumcised: take, therefore, from them whatever could displease your divine sight. O glorious Name! Named by the heavenly Father from all eternity, be you forever written on our souls that, as you, Jesus, are our Saviour, so may our souls be eternally saved. And you, O Holy Virgin, that were the first among mortals to pronounce this saving Name, teach us to pronounce it as it behoves us, that so we may merit the salvation which you brought into this world! My dear Daughter! it was but right that my first letter of this year should be to Jesus and Mary: my second is to you, to wish you a Happy New Year and exhort you to give your whole heart to God. May we so spend this year as that it may secure to us the years of eternity! My first word on waking this morning was: Jesus! and I felt as though I would gladly pour out on the face of the whole Earth the oil of this sweet Name. As long as balm is shut up in a well-sealed vase, no one knows its sweetness, save him who put it there: but as soon as the vase is opened and a few drops are sprinkled around, all who are present say: what sweet balm! Thus it was, my dear daughter, with our Jesus. He contained within Himself the balm of salvation, but no one knew it until His divine Flesh was laid open by the fortunate wound of that cruel knife. And then people knew Him to be the Balm of the world’s Salvation, and first Joseph and Mary, then the whole neighbourhood, began to cry out: Jesus! which means Saviour.”

*****

Peaceful conqueror of souls! Pontiff beloved of God and man! We venerate you as the perfect imitator of the sweetness and gentleness of our Jesus. Having learnt of Him to be meek and humble of heart, you did, according to His promise, possess the land (Matthew v. 4). Nothing could resist you. Heretics, however obstinate; sinners, however hardened; tepid souls, however sluggish — all yielded to the powerful charm of your word and example. We love to see you standing near the crib of our loving Jesus and sharing in the glory of John and the Innocents, for you were an Apostle like John and simple like the children of Rachel. Oh that our hearts might be filled with the spirit of Bethlehem and learn how sweet is the yoke, and how light the burden of our Emmanuel! (Matthew xi. 30).

Pray for us to our Lord that our charity may be ardent like yours; that the desire of perfection may be ever active within us; that we may gain that introduction to a devout life which you so admirably taught; that we may have that love of our neighbour without which we cannot hope to love God; that we may be zealous for the salvation of souls; that we may be patient and forgive injuries, in order that we may love one another, not only in word and in tongue, but as your great model says, in deed and in truth (1 John iii. 18). Bless the Church Militant whose love for you is as fresh as though you had but just now left her. You are venerated and loved throughout the whole world.

Hasten the conversion of the followers of Calvin. Your prayers have already miraculously forwarded the great work and the Holy Sacrifice has long since been publicly offered up in the very city of Geneva. Redouble those prayers, and then, even we may live to see the grand triumph of the Church. Root out too, the last remnants of that Jansenistic heresy which was beginning to exercise its baneful influence at the close of your earthly pilgrimage. Remove from us the dangerous maxims and prejudices which have come down to us from those unhappy times when this odious sect was at the height of its power.

Bless with all the affection of your paternal heart the holy Order you founded and which you offered to Mary under the title of her Visitation. Maintain it in its present edifying fervour, give it increase in number and merit and direct it that so your family may be ever animated by the spirit of its father. Pray, also, for the venerable episcopate of which you are the ornament and model: ask our Lord to bless His Church with pastors endowed with your spirit, inflamed with your zeal, and imitators of your sanctity.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, on the Via Nomentana, the birthday of the holy martyrs Papius and Maurus, soldiers under the emperor Diocletian. At their first confession of Christ their mouths were bruised with stones and they were thrown into prison by order of Laodicius, prefect of the city. Afterwards they were beaten with rods and with leaded whips until they expired.

At Perugia, in the time of Marcus Aurelius, St. Constantius, bishop and martyr, who together with his companions, received the crown of martyrdom for the defence of the faith.

At Edessa in Syria, the holy martyrs Sarbelius and his sister Barbea, who were baptised by the blessed bishop Barsimseus, and crowned with martyrdom in the persecution of Trajan under the governor Lysias.

In the territory of Troyes, St. Sabinian, martyr, who was beheaded for the faith of Christ by the command of the emperor Aurelian.

At Milan, St. Aquilinus, priest, who was crowned with martyrdom by having his throat pierced with a sword by the Arians.

At Treves, the demise of the blessed bishop Valerius, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Peter.

At Bourges, St. Sulpicius Severus, bishop, distinguished by his virtues and erudition.

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

Thanks be to God.

28 JANUARY – BLESSED CHARLEMAGNE (Emperor)

 

The father of the Blessed Charles was Pepin who was the son of the Duke of Brabant (afterwards elected to the throne of France) and of Bertrade, daughter of the Greek Emperor. He merited, by his glorious deeds and his zeal for the Christian religion, the surname of Great. And by one of the Councils held at Mayence he was called the Most Christian Monarch. Having driven the Lombards out of Italy, he was the first to have the honour of being crowned Emperor by the Vicar of Christ, Pope Leo III. At the request of Adrian, Leo’s predecessor, he entered with an army into Italy and restored to the Church her patrimony, and to the West the Empire. He avenged the injuries done to Pope Leo by the Romans during the chanting of the Litany, and he expelled from the city such as had taken part in this sacrilege. He passed many laws tending to the honour of the Church. Among the rest, he re-established the law which provide that civil suits should be referred to the judgement of the Church in case of one of the parties demanding it. Though of a most gentle disposition, he was very severe in suppressing vice, more especially adultery and idolatry, for which he established special tribunals vested with extraordinary powers.

After having waged war for 33 years with the Saxons, he at length brought them into subjection, imposing no other law upon them, than that they should become Christians. He obliged all land owners to erect a cross of wood in their fields as an open confession of their faith. He rid Gascony, Spain and Gallicia of idolaters and restored the sepulchre of Saint James to what we see it at this day. He upheld the Christian religion in Hungary by an eight years campaign, and in fighting against the Saracens, he always made use of the victorious spear with which with one of the soldiers opened our Saviour’s side. God seemed to favour, by many miracles, all these efforts made for the spreading of the faith. Thus the Saxons who were laying siege to Sigisburgh were struck by God with fear and took to flight. And in the first rebellion of the same people, there sprang up from the earth a plentiful stream with which was refreshed Charles’ whole army, which had been without water for three days. And yet, this great Emperor could scarce be distinguished by his dress from the rest of the people and almost always wore a hair-shirt, never appearing in his gilded robes save on the principal Feasts of our Lord and the Saints.

He gave alms to the poor and to pilgrims, not only at his regal residence, but in every part of the world, by sending them money. He built 24 monasteries, to each of which he sent what is called the Golden Letter, weighing 200 pounds. He founded two Metropolitan and nine Episcopal Sees. He built 27 churches and founded two universities, one in Pavia, the other in Paris. As Charles himself was fond of study, in which he had Alcuin as his master, so, likewise, would he have his sons trained in the liberal sciences before he permitted them to turn either to war or to the chase. In the sixty-eighth year of his age, he had his son Louis crowned king, and devoted himself wholly to prayer and alms-deeds. Each morning and evening he visited the Church, and often he repaired there also in the night, for he was exceedingly fond of the Gregorian Chant and was the first to introduce it into France and Germany. He had obtained cantors from Pope Adrian I and took care to have the hymns of the Church copied in every place. He made copies of the Gospels with his own hand and collated them with the Greek and Syriac versions.

Charlemagne was extremely sparing in what he took to eat and drink. If he fell sick, he sought a remedy in fasting, which he sometimes observed for seven continuous days. At length, after suffering much from malicious men, being then in his seventy-second year, he fell sick. He received the consolation of Holy Communion at the hands of Bishop Hildebald. He signed his whole body with the sign of the Cross, singing the words, “Into your hands,” which done, he rendered to God his soul rich in merit, on the fifth of the Calends of February (January 28th). He was buried in the Basilica of Aix-la-Chapelle which he had built and enriched with relics of the Saints. There he is honoured by the devotion of numerous pilgrims and by the favours granted by God through his intercession. His Feast is kept in most of the dioceses of Germany by the consent of the Church ever since the time of Pope Alexander III. It is kept as the Feast of the principal propagator of the faith in the North.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

In many Churches, especially in Germany, there is kept, on the second Feast of the Martyr Agnes, the Feast of the pious Emperor Charlemagne. The Emmanuel who is come into this world is to receive the title of King of kings and Lord of lords. He is to gird Himself with the sword and bring all nations into subjection. What could be more fitting than that He should lead to His crib the greatest of Christian princes who ever made it his glory to use his sword in the service of Christ and His Church? Charlemagne was held as a Saint by the people, and the decree of his canonisation was given by the Antipope Paschal III in the year 1165, at the request of Frederic Barbarossa, on which account the Holy See has permitted this public veneration to be continued in all those places where it prevailed, though it has never given its approbation to the informal procedure of Paschal, nor made it valid by its own sentence, which it would, in all probability, have done had the request been made. At the same time, the many Churches which, now for [nine] centuries have honoured the memory of Charlemagne, keep his Feast under the simple title of Blessed out of respect to the Roman Martyrology where his name is not inserted.

Before the Reformation the name of Blessed Charlemagne was inscribed in the Calendar of a great many of the Churches in France. The Breviaries of Rheims and Rouen are the only ones that have retained it. The Church of Paris ceased to keep his Feast in order to satisfy the prejudices of several Doctors of the University in the early part of the sixteenth century. Protestantism had, naturally enough, an antipathy for a man who was the noblest type of a Catholic prince, and they who were tainted with the spirit of Protestantism defended their blotting out the name of Charlemagne from the Calendar, not so much by the informality of his canonisation, as by the scandal which they affected to find in his life. Public opinion was formed on this, as on so many other matters, with extreme levity. And among those who will be surprised at finding the name of Charlemagne in this volume, we quite expect that they will be the most astonished who have never taken the trouble to inquire into the holiness of his life.

More than 30 Churches in Germany still keep the Feast of the great Emperor. His dear Church of Aix-la-Chapelle possesses his relics and exposes them to the veneration of the people. The University of Paris, strange to say, chose him for its patron in 1661. But his Feast, which had been given up for more than a century, was only restored as a national holiday without the slightest allusion being made to it in the Liturgy. It does not enter into the plan of this work to discuss the reasons for which public veneration has been paid to the Saints whose feasts we keep during the year. Our readers must not, therefore, expect from us anything in the shape of a formal defence of the saintly life of Charlemagne. Nevertheless, we cannot refrain from making a few remarks which our subject seems to require. And firstly, we affirm, with the great Bossuet, that the morals of Charlemagne were without reproach, and that the contrary opinion, which is based on certain vague and contradictory expressions of a few writers of the Middle Ages, has only gained ground by Protestant influence.

Dom Mabillon, after having given the history of the Emperor’s repudiation of Hermengarde and his return to Himiltrude his first wife, concludes his account of Charlemagne in his Benedictine Annals by acknowledging that this Prince’s plurality of wives has never been proved to have been simultaneous. Natalis Alexander and Le Cointe — authors who cannot be taxed with partiality and who have gone into all the intricacies of the question — prove most clearly that the only reproach to be laid to Charlemagne’s charge on the subject of his wives, is his having repudiated Himiltrude, out of complaisance to the mother of Hermengarde, a fault which he repaired the following year in compliance with the remonstrances of Pope Stephen IV. We grant, that after the death of Luitgarde, the last of his wives who was treated as Queen, Charlemagne married several others whom Eginhard calls concubines, because they did not wear the crown and their children were not considered as princes of the blood. But we say with Mabillon that Charlemagne may have had these wives successively, and that it is difficult to believe the contrary, regarding so religious a Prince, and one who had a singular respect for the laws of the Church.

But independently of the opinion of the grave authors whom we have cited, there is an incontestable proof of Charlemagne’s innocence on the score of the simultaneous plurality of wives, at least from the time of his separation from Hermengarde. The Prince was then in his twenty-eighth year. The severity of the Roman Pontiffs relative to the marriages of sovereigns is too well known to require proof. The history of the Middle Ages abounds with the struggles they had, on this essential point of Christian morals, with the most powerful monarchs, some of whom were most devoted to the Church. How, then, we would ask, would it be possible that Saint Adrian I who governed the Church from 772 to 795, and whom Charlemagne treated as a father, asking his advice in everything he undertook — how, we repeat, would this holy Pontiff allow Charlemagne to indulge in the most scandalous crimes without remonstrating, while Stephen IV who only sat three years and had not the same influence on this Prince, could induce him to dismiss Hermengarde? Or again, would Saint Leo III who reigned as Supreme Pontiff from 795 till after Charlemagne’s death, and who recompensed his virtuous conduct by crowning him Emperor — would he have made no effort to induce him to abandon the concubinage in which some writers would make us believe he lived after the death of his last Queen Luitgarde? Now, we find not the shadow of any such remonstrances made by these two Popes who governed the Church for more than forty years, and have been placed on her altars. The honour of the Church herself is at stake in this question, and it is the duty of every Catholic to suspect the imputations cast on the name of Charlemagne as calumnies.

It would seem, from the letter of Pope Stephen IV, that the marriage with Himiltrude was suspected, though falsely, of nullity. And it is not improbable that this suspicion may have satisfied Charlemagne’s conscience when he divorced her. However this may be, we find Charlemagne afterwards legislating against public immorality with all the zeal and energy of a man whose own life was not tainted with anything of the kind. We will cite but one example of this Christian firmness in repressing scandal, and we put it to the conviction of any honest heart, if a Prince whose life had been a series of public scandals, could have dared to express himself with the simplicity and confidence of an innocent conscience in an assembly of the Bishops and Abbots of his Empire and in the presence of the princes and barons whose licentiousness he wished to repress, and who might so justly have excused their own disorders by the lewd example of the very man who exhorted them to virtue and threatened to chastise their vices?

In a Capitulary given during the Pontificate of Saint Leo III, he thus decrees: “We forbid, under pain of sacrilege, the seizure of the goods of the Church, and injustices of whatever sort, adultery, fornication, incest, illicit marriage, unjust homicide, etc, for we know, that by such things kingdoms and kings, yes and private subjects, do perish. And whereas, by God’s help and the merit and the intercession of the Saints and Servants of God whom we have at all times honoured we have gained a goodly number of kingdoms and won manifold victories, it behoves us all to be on our guard lest we deserve the forfeiture of these gains by the aforementioned crimes and shameful lewdnesses. We know, of a truth, that sundry countries in which have been perpetrated these seizures of the goods of the Church, these injustices, these adulteries, and these prostitutions, have lost their courage in battle, and their firmness in the faith. Anyone may learn from history how the Lord has permitted the Saracens and other peoples to conquer the workers of such like iniquities. Nor doubt we that the like will happen likewise to us unless we abstain from such misdeeds, for God is wont to punish them. Be it therefore known to all our subjects that he who will be taken and convicted of any of these crimes will be deposed of all his honours if he has any, that he will be thrown into prison till he repents and make amends by a public penitence, and, moreover, that he will be cut off from all communication with the faithful, for we will grievously fear the pit in which we see others be fallen.” Again, we ask, would Charlemagne have spoken such language as this if, as has been asserted, his old age was being disgraced with debauchery at the very time that he passed this Capitulary, that is, after the death of Luitgarde?

Granting, then, that this great Prince had sinned, we must allow that it was only in the early part of his reign, and we ought to remember that the remainder of his life was so holy as to be more than an ample penance. Is it not a sight worthy of our admiration to see this brave warrior when he had become the mighty Sovereign unceasingly practising not only sobriety, which was a rare virtue among his countrymen, but fastings which would bear comparisons with those of the most fervent anchorets — wearing a hair-shirt even to the day of his death, assisting at the Offices of the Church day and night even during his various campaigns when he had the Divine services performed in his tent — and giving abundant alms (which, as the Scripture tells us, covers a multitude of sins), not only to all the poor of his dominions who besought his charity, but likewise to the Christians of Africa, Egypt, Syria and Palestine, for whose sakes he more than once exhausted his royal treasury? But what is above all this and, in the absence of every other proof, would testify to Charlemagne possessing every virtue that could adorn a Christian Prince, is his making no other use of his sovereign power than that of spreading the Kingdom of Christ on the Earth. It is the one single end he proposed to himself in every battle he fought, and every law he made.

This monarch, to whom were subject France, Catalonia, Navarre, and Aragon; Flanders, Holland, and Friesland; the provinces of Westphalia, Saxony, as far as the Elbe; Franconia, Suabia, Thuringia, and Switzerland; the two Pannonias (that is, Austria and Hungary) Dacia, Bohemia, Istria, Libumia, Dalmatia, and even Sclavonia; and finally, the whole of Italy, as far as southern Calabria — this Monarch signs himself, in his glorious Capitularia: “I, Charles, by the grace of God and the giving of His mercy, King and governor of the Kingdom of the French, devoted defender of God’s Holy Church, and her humble Champion.” So many other Kings and Emperors — who are not to be compared with him in power, and yet are objects of men’s admiration in spite of all their crimes which are artfully palliated by every possible excuse — have made it their one grand aim to enslave the Church. History tells us of even some otherwise pious kings who were jealous of her Liberty and sought to curtail it: Charlemagne ever respected that Liberty as though it were his own mother’s honour. It was he, that, following the example of Pepin, his father, so nobly secured the independence of the Apostolic See. Never had the Roman Pontiffs a more devoted or a more obedient son. Scorning petty political jealousies, he restored to the clergy and people the episcopal elections which were in the hands of the sovereign when he began his reign. He waged war mainly with a design to favour the propagation of the faith among infidel nations. He marched into Spain that he might free the Christians from the yoke of the Moors. He brought the Churches of his kingdom into closer union with the Apostolic See by establishing the Roman Liturgy in all the States that were under his sceptre. In the whole of his legislation, which he framed in assemblies where Bishops and Abbots had the preponderance, there is not a single trace of what have been called Galilean Liberties, which consist in the interference of the Sovereign or civil Magistrate in matters purely ecclesiastical. “So great was Charlemagne’s love for the Roman Church,” says Bossuet, “that the main point of his Last Will was the recommending to his successors the defence of the Church of Saint Peter, a defence which was the precious heirloom of his house, handed down to him by his father and his father’s father, and which he was resolved to leave also to his children. It was this love of the Church which prompted him to say, and the saying was afterwards repeated in a full Council held during the reign of one of his descendants, that “if the Church of Rome were, by an impossibility, to put on us a burden which was well near insupportable, we ought to bear it.”

What could prompt this spirit of Christian moderation which made Charlemagne so respectful to the moral power of the Church — what could temper down the risings of pride which, as a general rule, increases with the increase of power — what save a most saintly tenor of life? Man, unless he be endowed with the help of a powerful grace, cannot attain, much less can he maintain himself his whole life long in such perfect dispositions as these. Charlemagne, then, has been selected by our Emmanuel Himself to be the perfect type of a Christian Prince, and we Catholics should love to celebrate his glory during this Christmas season during which is born among us the Divine Child who is come to reign over all nations and guide them in the path of holiness and justice. Jesus has come from Heaven to be the model of kings, as of the rest of men. And so far no man has so closely imitated this divine model as “Charles the Victorious, the ever-August, the Monarch crowned by God.”

*****

All hail faithful and beloved servant of God, Apostle of Christ, Defender of His Church, Lover of justice, Guardian of the laws of morality, and Terror of them that hate the Christian name! The hand of the Vicar of Christ purified the diadem of the Caesars and put it on your venerable head. The imperial sceptre and globe are in your hands. The sword of the victories won for God is girt on your side. The Supreme Pontiff has anointed you King and Emperor. Bearing thus in yourself the figure of Christ in His temporal Kingship, you so used your power as that He reigned in and by you. And now He recompenses you for the love you had for Him, for the zeal you had for His glory, and for the respect you ever evinced to the Church, His Spouse. He has changed your earthly and perishable royalty into that which is eternal, and in this heavenly kingdom you are surrounded by those countless souls whom you converted from idolatry to the service of the one true God.

We are celebrating the birth of the Son of that Virgin-Mother in whose honour you built the glorious Church which still excites the admiration of all nations. It was in that sacred edifice that you placed the swathing-clothes with which she clad her Divine Babe. And it is here, too, that our Emmanuel would have your own relics enshrined, so to receive the honour they deserve. admirable imitator of the faith of the three Eastern Kings, present us to Him who deigned to be clothed in these humble garments. Ask Him to give us a share of your humility which made you love to kneel near His crib — of your devotion for the Feasts of the Church — of your zeal for the glory of His divine Majesty — and of the courage and earnestness with which you laboured to spread His Kingdom on Earth.

Pray for our Europe which was once so happy under your paternal rule and is now divided against itself. The Empire which the Church confided to your care, has now fallen in just punishment for its treachery to the Church that gave it existence. The nations of that fallen Empire are now restless and unhappy. The Church alone can satisfy their wants, for she alone can give them Faith. She alone has not changed the principles of justice. She alone can control power and teach subjects obedience. Oh pray that nations, both people and their governments, may return to what can alone give them liberty and security, and cease to seek these blessings by revolution and discord. Protect France, that fairest gem of your crown, protect her with a special love, and show her that you are ever her King and her Father.