16 NOVEMBER – SAINT GERTRUDE THE GREAT (Virgin)

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The school which is founded upon the rule of the great Patriarch of the Monks of the West began with Saint Gregory the Great. Such was the independent action of the Holy Spirit who guided it that in it women have prophesied as well as men. It is enough to mention Saint Hildegarde and Saint Gertrude, with whom we may fitly associate Saint Mechtilde and Saint Frances of Rome. Any one who has tried modern methods will find, on making acquaintance with these ancient writers, that he is breathing another atmosphere and is urged onward by a gentle authority which is never felt, but which allows no rest. He will not find that subtlety, that keen and learned analysis he has met with elsewhere, and which rather weary than aid the soul.

The pious and learned Father Faber has brought out, with his characteristic sagacity, the advantages of that form of spirituality which gives the soul breadth and liberty, and so produces in many persons effects which some modern methods fail of producing: “No one,” says he, “can be at all acquainted with the old-fashioned Benedictine school of spiritual writers, without perceiving and admiring the beautiful liberty of spirit which pervades and poesesses their whole mind.”

“It is just what we should expect from an order of such matured traditions. Saint Gertrude is a fair specimen of them. She is thoroughly Benedictine... A spirit of breadth, a spirit of liberty, that is the Catholic spirit. And it was eminently the badge of the old Benedictine ascetics. Modem writers for the most part have tightened things, and have lost by it instead of gaining. By frightening people, they have lessened devotion in extent, and by overstraining it, they have lowered it in degree” (Faber, All for Jesus).

In any case, there are many ways, and every way is good which brings men back to God by a thorough conversion of heart. But we are sure that those who may be led to commit themselves to the guidance of a saint of the old school will not lose their time, and that if they meet with less philosophy and less psychology on their way, they will be subdued by the simplicity and authority of her language, and be moved and melted as they contrast their own souls with that of their saintly guide. And this blessed revolution will take place in almost every soul that follows Saint Gertrude in the week of Exercises she proposes to them, if only they really desire to draw yet more closely the ties which unite them to God, if their intention be fixed aright, and their souls truly recollected in God. We may almost venture to assure such persons that they will come forth from these Exercises transformed in their whole being.

They will return to them again and again with ever increasing pleasure, for they will have no discouraging memory of fatigue, nor of the slightest constraint laid upon their liberty of spirit. They will feel confounded, indeed, to be admitted so near the inmost heart of so great a saint, but they will also feel that they have been created for the same end as that saint, and that they must bestir themselves, and quit all easy, dangerous ways which lead to perdition. And if we be asked from where comes that wonderful influence which our Saint exercises over all who listen to her, our answer would be: from her surpassing holiness. She does not prove the possibility of spiritual movement and advance. She moves and advances. A blessed soul, sent down from Heaven to dwell awhile with men, and speaking the language of the heavenly country in this land of exile would doubtless utterly transform those who heard its speech.

Now Saint Gertrude was admitted to such familiar converse with the Son of God that her words have just the accent of such a soul. And this is why they have been and are like winged arrows which pierce and wound all within their range. The understanding is enlarged and enlightened by her pure and elevated doctrine, and yet Saint Gertrude never lectures or preaches. The heart is touched and melted, and yet Saint Gertrude speaks only to God. The soul judges itself, condemns itself, renews itself by compunction, and yet Saint Gertrude has made no effort to move or convict it.

And if we ask what is the source of the special blessing attached to the language of Saint Gertrude, the answer is that it blesses because it is so impregnated with the divine Word, not only with the revelations which Saint Gertrude received from her heavenly Spouse, but with the sacred Scriptures and the liturgy of the Church. This holy daughter of the cloister drank in light and life day by day from the source of all true contemplation, from the very fountain of living waters which gushes forth from the psalms and the inspired words of the divine Office. Her every sentence shows how exclusively her soul was nourished with this heavenly food.

She so lived into the liturgy of the Church that we continually find in her revelations that the Saviour discloses to her the mysteries of Heaven, and the Mother of God and the saints hold converse with her on some Antiphon, or Response, or Introit, which the Saint is singing with delight, and of which she is striving to feel all the force and the sweetness. Hence that unceasing flow of unaffected poetry which seems to have become quite natural to her, and that hallowed enthusiasm which raises the literary beauty of her writings almost to the height of mystical inspiration. This child of the thirteenth century, buried in a monastery of Swabia, preceded Dante in the paths of spiritual poetry. Sometimes her soul breaks forth into tender and touching elegy. Sometimes the fire which consumes her bursts forth in transports of fervour. Sometimes her feelings clothe themselves quite instinctively in a dramatic form. Sometimes she stops short in her sublimest flights, and she who almost rivals the seraphim, descends to Earth, but only to prepare herself for a still higher flight. It is as though there had been an unending struggle between the humility which held her prostrate in the dust and the aspirations of her soul, panting after Jesus, who was drawing her, and who had lavished on her such exceeding love.

In our opinion the writings of Saint Gertrude lose nothing of their indescribable beauty even when placed beside those of Saint Teresa. Nay, we think that the saint of Germany is not infrequently superior to her sister of Spain. The latter, full of impetuous ardour has not, it is true, the tinge of pensive melancholy which colours the writings of the former. But Saint Gertrude knew Latin so well, and was so profoundly versed in the letter and the spirit of the holy Scriptures, that we do not hesitate to pronounce her style superior in richness and in force to that of Saint Teresa.

Still we pray the reader not to be frightened at the thought of being placed under the guidance of a seraph when his conscience tells him that he has still so much to do in the purgative way, before he can venture to enter upon paths which may never open to him on Earth. Let him simply listen to Saint Gertrude, let him fix his eye upon her, and have faith in the end she proposes to him. When the holy Church puts in our mouths the language of the Psalms, she knows full well that that language is often far beyond the feelings of our soul. But if we wish to bring ourselves up to the level of these divine hymns, our best method is certainly to repeat them frequently in faith and humility, and await the transformation they will assuredly effect. Saint Gertrude detaches us gently from ourselves, and brings us to Jesus by going before us herself, and by drawing us after her, though at a great distance. She goes straight to the heart of her divine Spouse, and she might well do so. But will it not be an inestimable blessing if she bring us to his feet like Magdalene, penitent and transformed by love? Even when she writes for her sisters alone, let us not suppose that these exquisite pages are useless to those of us who are living in the midst of the world. The religious life, when expounded by such an interpreter, is a spectacle as instructive as it is striking. Need we say that the practice of the precepts of the Gospel becomes more easy to those who have well pondered and admired the practice of its counsels? What is the Imitation of Christ but a book written by a monk for the use of monks, and yet who is not familiar with its teaching? How many seculars delight in the writings of Saint Teresa and yet the holy Carmelite makes the religious life the one theme of her teaching.

We will not now speak of her wonderful style of expression. We are so unused to the decided and elevated language of the ages of faith that some readers, accustomed to modern books alone, may be startled and even pained by Saint Gertrude. But what is the remedy for this inconvenience? If we have unlearned the language of that antique piety which fashioned saints, surely our best way is to learn it again as soon as we can. And Saint Gertrude will give us wonderful help in doing so.

The list of the devoted admirers of her writings would be long and imposing. But there is an authority far higher still — that of the Church herself. That mother of the faithful, ever guided by the Holy Ghost, has in her holy liturgy set her seal upon Saint Gertrude. The Saint herself, and the spirit which animated her, are there for ever recommended and glorified in the eyes of all Christians in virtue of the solemn judgement contained in the Office of her festival.

The life of Gertrude the Great, as she has merited to be distinguished among the Saints of the same name, was humble and obscure (1256‒1302). At five years of age she entered the Abbey of Helfta near Eisleben, and there she remained hidden in the secret of God’s face (Psalm xxx. 21). For several centuries, by an error which has also found its way into the Legend of the feast, she was confounded with the Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn who governed the monastery during our Saint’s lifetime, and was herself favoured with divine gifts. It was not until Gertrude’s sublime Revelations contained in the five books of the Legatus divinus pietatis, or Legate of divine love, had at length been published, that in 1677 her name was inscribed in the Roman Martyrology. In the following century (1738) Clement XII ordered her feast to be celebrated, as a Double, by the whole Church. The West Indies chose her as patroness, and a town in New Mexico bears her name.

* * * * *

O revealer of the Sacred Heart, what better prayer could we offer in your honour than to say with you to the Son of the Blessed Virgin:

“O my soul’s calm untroubled Light! O dawn of morning, soft-gleaming with your beauteous light, become in me the perfect day. O my Love, who does not only enlighten but deify, come to me in all your might. Come and gently melt my whole being. May all that is of me be destroyed utterly. May I wholly pass into you, so that I may no more find myself in time, but may be already and most intimately united to you for all eternity. You have first loved me. It is you who has chosen me, and not I who have first chosen you. You are He who of His own accord runs towards His thirsting creature, and on your kingly brow gleams the fair splendour of the everlasting light. Show me your countenance, and let me gaze upon your beauty. How mild and full of charms is that face, all radiant with the rosy light of the dawn of the divine Sun! How can the spark live and glow far from the fire that gave it being? Or how can the drop of water abide far from the spring from where it was taken? O compassionate Love, why have you loved a creature so defiled and so covered with shame, but that you have willed to render it all fair in you?

O delicate flower of the Virgin Mary, your goodness and your tender mercy have won and ravished my heart. O Love, my glorious noontide, to take my rest in you, gladly would I die a thousand deaths. O Charity, O Love, at the hour of my death you will sustain me with your words, more gladdening far than choicest wine. You will then be my way, my unobstructed way, that I may wander no more nor stray. You will aid me then, O love, thou Queen of Heaven. You will clear my way before me to those fair and fertile pastures hidden in the divine wilderness, and my soul will be inebriated with bliss, for there will I see the face of the Lamb, my Spouse and my God. O Love, who are God, you are my best beloved possession. Without you neither Earth nor Heaven could excite in me one hope, nor draw forth one desire: vouchsafe to effect and perfect within me that union which you yourself desire: may it be the end, the crown and consummation of my being. In the countenance of my God your light beams soft and fair as the evening star.

O fair and solemn Evening, let me see your ray when my eye will close in death. O Love, much-loved Evening-tide, at that dread moment let the sacred flame, which burns evermore in your divine essence, consume all the stains of my mortal life. O my calm and peaceful Evening, when the evening-tide of my life will come, give me to sleep in you in tranquil sleep, and to taste that blissful rest which you have prepared in yourself for them that love you. With your serene, enchanting look vouchsafe to order all things and prepare all things for my everlasting espousal. O Love, be to me an eventide so bright and calm that my ravished soul may bid a loving farewell to its body, and return to God who gave it, and rest in peace beneath your beloved shadow!” (From the 5th Exercise. To kindle in the soul the love of God).

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Africa, the holy martyrs Rufinus, Mark, Valerius and their companions.

The same day, the holy martyrs Elpidius, Marcellus, Eustochius and their companions. Elpidius being a senator, and having perseveringly confessed the Christian faith before Julian the Apostate, was, with his companions, first tied to wild horses and dragged by them, and then being thrown into the fire, ended a glorious martyrdom.

At Lyons, the birthday of St. Eucherius, bishop and confessor, a man of extraordinary faith and learning. He renounced the senatorial dignity to embrace the religious life, and for a long time voluntarily shut himself up in a cavern where he served Christ in prayer and fasting. Afterwards, through the revelation of an angel, he was solemnly installed in the episcopal chair of the city of Lyons.

At Padua, St. Fidentius, bishop.

At Canterbury in England, St. Edmund, archbishop and confessor, who was sent into exile for having maintained the rights of his church. He died near Provins, in France, and was canonised by Pope Innocent IV.

The same day, the departure from this world of St. Othmar, abbot.

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

Thanks be to God.

16 NOVEMBER – TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

For the years when the number of the Sundays after Pentecost is only twenty-three, the Mass for today is taken from the twenty-fourth and last Sunday, and the Mass appointed for the twenty-third is said on the previous Saturday, or on the nearest day of the preceding week which is not impeded by a double or semi-double feast.

But under all circumstances the Antiphonary ends today. The Introits, Graduals, Communions and Postcommunions are to be repeated on each of the Sundays till Advent, which may be more or less in number, according to the Years. Our readers will remember how in the time of Saint Gregory Advent was longer than we now have it, and that in those days its weeks commenced in that part of the Cycle which is now occupied by the last Sundays after Pentecost. This is one of the reasons which explain there being a lack of liturgical riches in the composition of the dominical Masses which follow the twenty-third.

Even on this one, formerly, the Church, without losing sight of the Last Day, used to lend a thought to the new season which was fast approaching, the season, that is, of preparation for the great feast of Christmas. There used to be read as Epistle the following passage from Jeremias, which was afterwards, in several Churches, inserted in the Mass of the first Sunday of Advent:

“Behold! The days come, says the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch: and a King will reign, and will be wise: and will execute judgement and justice in the earth. In those days will Judah be saved, and Israel will dwell confidently: and this is the name that they will call Him: The Lord our Just One. Therefore, behold the days come, says the Lord, and they will say no more: The Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt! But: The Lord lives, who has brought out, and brought here, the seed of the house of Israel, from the land of the north, and out of all the lands, to which I had cast them forth! And they will dwell in their own land” (Jeremias xxiii. 5‒8).

As is evident, this passage is equally applicable to the conversion of the Jews and the restoration of Israel which are to take place at the end of the world. This was the view taken by the chief liturgists of the Middle Ages in order to explain thoroughly the Mass of the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost. First mentioning to our readers that originally the Gospel of this Sunday was that of the multiplication of the five loaves, let us listen to the profound and learned Abbot Rupert who, better than anyone, will teach us the mysteries of this day, which brings to a close the grand and varied Gregorian Melodies that we have been having during the whole year. “Holy Church,” says he, “is so intent on paying her debt of supplication, and prayer, and thanksgiving, for all men, as the Apostle demands (1 Timothy ii. 1), that we find her giving thanks also for the salvation of the children of Israel who she knows are one day to be united with her. And, as their remnants are to be saved at the end of the world (Romans ix. 27), so on this last Sunday of the Year she delights at having them just as though they were already her members! In the Introit, calling to mind the prophecies concerning them, she thus sings every Year: My thoughts are thoughts of peace, and not of affliction. Verily, His thoughts are those of peace, for he promises to admit to the banquet of His grace the Jews who are His brethren according to the flesh, thus realising what had been prefigured in the history of the patriarch Joseph. The brethren of Joseph, having sold him, came to him when they were tormented by hunger. For then he ruled over the whole land of Egypt. He recognised them, he received them, and made, together with them, a great feast. So too our Lord who is now reigning over the whole earth, and is giving the bread of life in abundance to the Egyptians, (that is, to the Gentiles), will see coming to Him the remnants of the children of Israel. He whom they had denied and put to death will admit them to His favour, will give them a place at His table, and the true Joseph will feast delightedly with his brethren.

The benefit of this divine Table is signified in the Office of this Sunday by the Gospel which tells us of our Lord’s feeding the multitude with five loaves. For it will be then that Jesus will open to the Jews the five books of Moses which are now "being carried whole and not yet broken — yes, carried by a child, that is to say, this people itself, who, up to that time will have been cramped up in the narrowness of a childish spirit. Then will be fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremias, which is so aptly placed before this Gospel: They will say no more: The Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt! But, the Lord lives, who has brought out the seed of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands into which they had been cast.

Thus delivered from the spiritual bondage which still holds them, they will sing with all their heart, the words of thanksgiving as we have them in the Gradual: You have saved us, Lord, from them that afflict us!”

Epistle – Philippians iii. 17‒21; iv. 1‒3

Brethren, be followers of me and observe them who walk so as you have our model. For many walk, of whom I have told you often (and now tell you weeping) that they are enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame: who mind earthly things. But our conversation is in heaven, from where also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of His glory, according to the operation by which also He is able to subdue all things to Himself. Therefore, my dearly beloved brethren, and most desired, my joy, and my crown: so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beg of Evodia, and I beseech Syntyche, to be of one mind in the Lord. And I entreat you also, my sincere companion, help those women that have laboured with me in the Gospel, with Clement and the rest of my fellow labourers, whose names are in the book of life.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Clement whose name is here mentioned by the Apostle is that of Saint Peter’s second successor. Very frequently the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost comes close upon the feast of this great Pope and Martyr of the first century. Disciple of Paul and, later on, in close intimacy with Peter, and named by the Vicar of Christ as the fittest to succeed him in the apostolic chair, Clement, as we will see on the 23rd of November, was one of those Saints who in those early times were the most venerated by the Faithful. The mention made of him in the Office of the Time, just before his appearance on the Cycle of holy Church, excited the Christian people to joy and roused its fervour. It reminded them that one of their best and dearest protectors would soon be visiting them. At the time when Saint Paul was writing to the Philippians, Clement, who was long to survive the Apostles, was prominently one of those men spoken of in our Epistle, that is, one of the followers of those illustrious models who were called to perpetuate in the flock confided to their care (1 Peter v. 3) the pattern of holy living, and that, not so much by their zealous teaching, as by the force of example. The Church, the One true Bride of the divine Word, was known by the incommunicable privilege of possessing within her the Truth — not only its dead letter, but its ever living self, and this by her holiness. The Holy Ghost has not kept the books of sacred Scripture from passing into the hands of the sects separated from the centre of unity, but He has reserved to the Church the treasure of tradition which transmits, surely and fully, from one generation to another, the Word who is light and life (John i. 4). Yes, this tradition is kept up by the truth and holiness of the Man-God. They are ever existing in His members, they are ever tangible and visible in the Church (1 John i. 1). Holiness, which is inherent in the Church, is tradition in its purest and strongest form because it is the truth, not only preached, but reduced to action and work (1 Thessalonians ii. 13), as it was in Christ Jesus, and as it is in God (John v. 17). It is the deposit (1 Timothy vi. 20) which the disciples of the Apostles had the mission to hand faithfully down to their successors, just as the Apostles themselves had received it from the Word who had come upon the Earth.

Hence Saint Paul did not content himself with entrusting dogmatic teaching to his disciple Timothy (2 Timothy ii. 2). He said to him: “Be you an example to the Faithful, in word, and in living” (1 Timothy iv. 12). He said much the same to Titus: “Show yours elf an example of good works, in doctrine and in integrity of life” (Titus ii. 7). He repeated to all: “Be followers of me, as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians iv. 16). He sent Timothy to the Corinthians that he might remind them, or, where it was necessary, might teach them not only the dogmas of his Gospel, but, likewise, his ways in Christ Jesus, that is, his manner of life. For this manner of life of the Apostle was, in a certain measure, his teaching every where in all the Churches (1 Corinthians iv. 17), and he lauded the Faithful of Corinth for their being mindful to imitate him in all things, which was a keeping to the tradition of Christ (1 Corinthians xi. 1‒2). As for the Thessalonians, they had so thoroughly entered into this teaching, taken from their Apostle’s life, that, as Saint Paul says of them, they had become a pattern to all believers. This silent teaching of Christian revelation, which they showed forth in their conduct, made it superfluous for the messengers of the Gospel to say much (1 Thessalonians i. 5‒8).

The Church is a magnificent Temple which is built up, to the glory of God, by the living stones which let themselves be set into its walls. The constructing of those sacred walls, and on the plan laid down by Christ, is a work in which all are permitted to share. What one does by word (1 Corinthians xiv. 3), another does by good example (Romans xiv. 19). But both of them build, both of them edify the holy City. And as it was in the Apostolic Age, so always, example is more powerful than word unless that word be backed by the authority of holiness in him who speaks it: unless, that is, he leads a life according to the perfection taught by the Gospel. But, as the giving edification to those around him is an obligation incumbent on the Christian, an obligation imposed both by charity he owes to his neighbour and by the zeal he should have for the house of God,so, likewise, under pain of presumption, he should seek his own edification in the conduct of others. The reading of good books, the study of the Lives of the Saints, the observing, as our Epistle says, the respectfully observing those holy people with whom he lives — all this will be incalculable aid to him in the work of his own personal sanctification and in the fulfilment of God’s purposes in his regard.

This devout intercourse with the elect of Earth and Heaven will keep us away from men who are enemies of the Cross of Christ and mind earthly things, and put their happiness in carnal pleasures. It will make our conversation be in Heaven. Preparing for the day which cannot now be far off —the day of the Coming of our Lord — we will stand fast in Him, in spite of the falling off of so many among us who, by the current of the world’s fashion, are hurried into perdition. The troubles and sufferings of the last times will but intensify our hope in God, for they will make us long all the more ardently for the happy day when our Redeemer will appear and complete the work of the salvation of His servants by imparting, to their very flesh, the brightness of His own divine Body. Let us, as our Apostle says, be of one mind in the Lord. And, then, as he bids his dear Philippians do, let us rejoice in the Lord always, yes, let us rejoice, for, the Lord is near (Philippians iv. 4, 5).

Gospel – Matthew ix. 18‒26

At that time Jesus was speaking to the multitude. Behold a certain ruler came up and adored Him, saying: “Lord, my daughter is even now dead. But come lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus rising up followed him, with His disciples. And behold a woman who was troubled with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind Him, and touched the hem of His garment. For she said within herself: “If I will touch only his garment I will be healed.” But Jesus turning and seeing her, said: “Be of good heart, daughter, your faith has made you whole.” And the woman was made whole from that hour. And when Jesus was come into the house of the ruler, and saw the minstrels and the multitude making a rout, He said: “Give place: for the girl is not dead, but sleeps.” And they laughed Him to scorn. And when the multitude was put forth, He went in and took her by the hand. And the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that country.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Although the choice of this Gospel for the twenty-third Sunday has not great antiquity on its side, yet is it in most perfect keeping with the post-pentecostal Liturgy and confirms what we have stated, relative to the character of this portion of the Church’s Year. Saint Jerome tells us, in the homily selected for the day, that the Hemorrhoissa healed by our Lord is a type of the Gentile world, while the Jewish people is represented by the daughter of the Ruler of the Synagogue. This latter is not to be restored to life until the former has been cured. And this is precisely the mystery we are so continually commemorating during these closing weeks of the Liturgical Year — the fullness of the Gentiles recognising and welcoming the divine Physician, and the blindness of Israel at last giving way to the Light (Romans xi. 25).

We have celebrated, during this Year of Grace, all the grand Mysteries of the Redemption, and this ought to enable us to appreciate the glorious economy, as the Fathers love to call what we admire under another name. The spirit of the Church’s Liturgy at this close of her and our Year, lets us see the world as though its end were come. It looks as though it were sinking away down into some deep abyss — and yet, no. It is only that it may shake off the wicked from its surface, and then it will come up again blooming in light and love. All this has been the divine reality of the Year of Grace we have had put before us, yes, and in us, by our sweet Mother the Church. And now we are, or ought to be, in a mood to feel a thrill of admiration at the mysterious yet, at the same time, the strong and sweet ways of eternal Wisdom (Wisdom viii. 1). At the beginning, when Man was first created, sin soon followed, breaking up the harmony of God’s beautiful world and throwing man off the divine path where his Creator had placed him. Time and wickedness went on till there was a family on which God’s mercy fell. The light which beamed on that privileged favourite only showed the plainer the thick darkness in which the rest of mankind was vegetating. The Gentiles, abandoned to their misery — all the more terrible because they had caused it and loved it — saw God’s favours all bestowed on Israel, while themselves were disregarded and wished to be so. Even when the time came for original sin to be remedied, it seemed as though that was just the time for the final reprobation of the Gentiles — for the salvation that came down from Heaven in the person of the Man-God was seen to be exclusively directed towards the Jews and the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew xv. 24).

But the people that had been treated with so much predilection, and whose Fathers and first Rulers had so ardently prayed for the coming of the Messiah, was no longer up to the position made for it by the holy patriarchs and prophets. Its beautiful religion, founded as it was on desire and hope, was then nothing but a sterile expectancy which kept it motionless and unable to advance a single step towards its Redeemer. As to its Law, Israel then minded nothing but the letter and, at last, turned it into a mummy of sectarian formalism. Now, while in spite of all this sinful apathy it was mad with jealousy, pretending that no one else had any right to Heaven’s favours, the Gentile, whose ever increasing misery urged him to go in search of some deliverer, found one and recognised him in Jesus the Saviour of the world. He was confident that this Jesus could cure him, so he took the bold initiative, went up to Him, and had the merit of being the first to be healed. True, our Lord had treated him with an apparent disdain, but that had only had the effect of intensifying his humility, and humility has a power of making way anywhere, even into Heaven itself (Ecclesiasticus xxxv. 21).

Israel, therefore, was now made to wait. One of the Psalms he sang, ran thus: “Ethiopia will be the first to stretch out her hands to God” (Psalm lxvii. 32). It is now the turn for Israel to recover, by the pangs of a long abandonment, the humility which had won the divine promises for his Fathers, the humility which alone could merit his seeing those promises fulfilled. By this time, however, the word of salvation has made itself heard throughout all the nations, healing and saving all who desired the blessing. Jesus, who had been delayed on the road, came at last to the house towards which He first purposed to direct His sacred steps. He reached, at last, the house of Judah where the daughter of Sion was in a deep sleep. She is in it still! His almighty compassion drives away from the poor abandoned one the crowd of false teachers and lying prophets who had sent her into that mortal sleep, by all the noise of their vain babbling: He casts forth forever from her house those insulters of His own divine self who were quite resolved to keep the dead one dead. Taking the poor daughter by the hand, He restores her to life, and to all the charm of her first youth, proving thus that her apparent death had been but a sleep, and that the long delay of dreary ages could never belie the word of God which He had given to Abraham, His servant (Luke i. 54, 55).

Now therefore, let this world of ours hold itself in readiness for its final transformation, for the tidings of the restoration of the daughter of Sion puts the last seal to the accomplishment of the prophecies. It remains now but for the graves to give back their dead (Daniel xii. 1, 2). The valley of Josaphat is preparing for the great meeting of the nations (Joel iii. 2). Mount Olivet is once more (Acts i. 11) to have Jesus standing upon it, but this time as Lord and Judge! (Zacharias xiv. 4).

15 NOVEMBER – SAINT ALBERT THE GREAT (Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church)

Albert was the famous Dominican philosopher and theologian who had Saint Thomas Aquinas for his pupil and whose own works place him in the first ranks of Mediaeval scholars. A German by birth, after refusing many ecclesiastical dignities, content to serve in his own Order, he was constrained by the Pope to accept the Bishopric of Ratisbon, but after three years of able and successful pastoral work he was allowed to retire to his convent at Cologne, where he died in 1280, being then in his eighty-eighth year. His works are published in twenty-six folio volumes.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The birthday of St. Eugenius, bishop of Toledo, and martyr, a disciple of blessed Denis the Areopagite. Having consummated his martyrdom near Paris, he received from Our Lord a crown for his blessed sufferings. His body was afterwards conveyed to Toledo.

At Nola in Campania, blessed Felix, bishop and martyr, who was renowned for miracles from the fifteenth year of age. He terminated the combats of his martyrdom with thirty others under the governor Marcian.

At Edessa in Syria, the holy martyrs Gurias and Samonas, under the emperor Diocletian and the governor Antoninus.

In the same place, the martyrdom of St. Abibus, deacon, who was torn with iron hooks and cast into the fire in the time of the emperor Licinius and the governor Lysanias.

In Africa, the holy martyrs Secundus, Fidentian, and Varicus. In Bretagne, the birthday of St. Malo, bishop, who was glorious for miracles from his early years.

At Verona, St. Luperius, bishop and confessor.

In Austria, St. Leopold, margrave of that country, who was inscribed among the saints by Pope Innocent VIII.

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

Thanks be to God.

14 NOVEMBER – SAINT JOSAPHAT (Bishop and Martyr)

Josaphat Kuncewicz was born of noble Catholic parents at Vladimir in Volhynia. When a child, as he was listening to his mother telling him about the Passion of Christ, a dart issued from the image of Jesus crucified and wounded him in the heart. Set on fire with the love of God, he began to devote himself with such zeal to prayer and other works of piety, that he was the admiration and the model of his older companions. At the age of 20 he became a monk under the Rule of Saint Basil and made wonderful progress in evangelical perfection. He went barefoot even in the severe winter of that country. He never ate meat, drank wine only when obliged by obedience, and wore a rough hair-shirt until his death. Tho flower of his chastity, which he had vowed in early youth to the Virgin Mother of God, he preserved unspotted. He soon became so renowned for virtue and learning that in spite of his youth he was made superior of the monastery of Byten.

Soon afterwards he became archimandrite of Vilna, and lastly, much against his will, but to the great joy of Catholics, he was chosen Archbishop of Polock. In this dignity he relaxed nothing of his former manner of life and had nothing so much at heart as the divine service and the salvation of the sheep entrusted to him. He energetically defended Catholic faith and unity, and laboured to the utmost of his power to bring back schismatics and heretics to communion with the See of blessed Peter. The Sovereign Pontiff and the plenitude of his power he never ceased to defend, both by preaching and by writings full of piety and learning, against the most shameless calumnies and errors of the wicked. He vindicated episcopal rights, and restored ecclesiastical possessions which had been seized by laymen. Incredible was the number of heretics he won back to the bosom of Mother Church, and the words of the Popes bear witness how greatly he promoted the union of the Greek and Latin churches. His revenues were entirely expended in restoring the beauty of God’s house, in building dwellings for consecrated virgins, and in other pious works. So bountiful was he to the poor, that, on one occasion having nothing with which to supply the needs of a certain widow, he ordered his Omophorion or episcopal pallium to be pawned.

The great progress made by the Catholic faith so stirred up the hatred of wicked men against the soldier of Christ that they determined to put him to death. He knew what was threatening him and foretold it when preaching to the people. As he was making his pastoral visitation at Vitebsk, the murderers broke into his house, striking and wounding all whom they found. Josaphat meekly went to meet them, and accosted them kindly, saying: “My little children, why do you strike my servants? If you have any complaint against me, here I am.” Hereupon they rushed on him, overwhelmed him with blows, pierced him with their spears, and at length despatched him with an axe and threw his body into the river. This took place on the twelfth of November 1623, in the forty-third year of his age. His body surrounded with a miraculous light was rescued from the waters. The martyr’s blood won a blessing first of all for his murderers for, being condemned to death, they nearly all abjured their schism and repented of their crime. As the death of this great bishop was followed by many miracles, Pope Urban VIII granted him the honours of beatification. On the third of the Calends of July 1867 when celebrating the centenary of the Princes of the Apostles, Pius IX. in the Vatican Basilica, in presence of the College of Cardinals, and of about 500 Patriarchs, Metropolitans and Bishops of every rite, assembled from all parts of the world, solemnly enrolled among the Saints this great defender of the Church’s unity, who was the first Oriental to be thus honoured. Pope Leo extended his Mass and Office to the universal Church.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Josaphat Kuncewicz, contemporary with Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Vincent de Paul, might have been taken for a Greek monk of the eleventh century, or an ascetic of the Thebaid. A stranger to the intellectual culture of the West, he knew only the liturgical books and sacred texts used in his own church. As a priest, an archimandrite, a reformer of his Order of Saint Basil, and lastly as Archbishop, he combated all his life against the consequences of the schism of Photius, and closed the struggle by culling the palm of martyrdom. Yet all this took place in the heart of Europe, in the countries then subject to Catholic Poland during the reign of the most pious of its kings. How is this mystery to be explained?

Immediately after the Mongolian invasions, Poland received into her arms, rather than conquered, the Ruthenian nation, that is to say the Slavs of the Greek rite from the Dnieper and the Dwina, who had formed around their capital and religious metropolis, Kiev, the nucleus of the power now known as Russia. Had she granted a participation in her own national life to these brethren separated from, but not enemies to, the Roman unity, who came to her full of confidence in her strength and her justice, Poland would have secured the triumph of the Catholic cause, and her own dominion throughout Slavonia. The union of the newcomers with the Roman Pontiff, which a little more political insight and religious zeal might have brought about in the fourteenth century, was not concluded until l595. This was the union of Brzeso. By the compact signed in this little town of Lithuania, the metropolitan of Kiev and the other Greek bishops declared that they returned to the communion of the holy Apostolic See. Being the spiritual superiors of half the nation, they thus completed the union of the three peoples, Ruthenian, Lithuanian and Polish, then subject to Sigismund III. Now, a religious reform, even if decreed by a council, does not become a reality until men of God, true apostles, and if need be martyrs, come forward to consummate it. This was the vocation of Saint Josaphat, the apostle and martyr of the Union of Brzesc. What he did not himself carry out was completed by his disciples. A century of glory was secured to the nation, and its political ruin was delayed for two hundred years.

* * * * *

“Stir up, O Lord, we beseech you, in your Church the Spirit with which the blessed Josaphat your Martyr and Pontiff was filled.” Thus prays our Mother today, and the Gospel likewise points to her desire of obtaining pastors like you, O holy Bishop! The sacred text speaks of the false shepherd who flees at first sight of the wolf, but the Homily which explains it in the Night Office, brands equally with the title of hireling the keeper who, though he does not flee, suffers the enemy unresisted to work havoc in the fold. May the divine Shepherd, whom you imitated to the end, even to laying down your life for the sheep, live again in all those whom He calls, like Peter, to exercise a greater love.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Heraclea in Thrace, the birthday of the holy martyrs Clementinus, Theodotus and Philomenus.

At Alexandria, St. Serapion, martyr, whom the persecutors under the emperor Decius subjected to torments so cruel that all his limbs were disjointed. He became a martyr of Christ by being hurled down from the upper part of his house.

At Troyes in France, St. Venerandus, martyr, under the emperor Aurelian.

Also in France, the holy virgin Veneranda, who received the crown of martyrdom under the emperor Antoninus and the governor Asclepiades.

At Gangres in Paphlagonia, St. Hypatius, bishop, who on his way home from the great council of Nice, was attacked with stones by the Novatian heretics, and died a martyr.

At Algiers in Africa, blessed Serapion, of the Order of Our Blessed Lady of Ransom. For the redemption of the faithful in captivity and the preaching of the Christian faith, he was the first of his Order to deserve the palm of martyrdom by being crucified and cut to pieces.

At Emesa, the passion of many holy women, who were barbarously tortured and massacred under Mady, a savage Arabian chief.

At Bologna, St. Jucundus, bishop and confessor.

In Ireland, St. Lawrence, bishop of Dublin.

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

Thanks be to God.

13 NOVEMBER – SAINT DIDACUS OF ALCALÁ (Confessor)

Didacus was a Spaniard, born at the little town of Saint Nicholas de Porto in the diocese of Seville. From his early youth he began the practice of a perfect life, under the guidance of a pious priest in a solitary church. Then, in order to bind himself more closely to God, he made profession of the rule of Saint Francis, in the convent of the Observantine Friars Minor at Arizzafa. There he bore the yoke of humble obedience and regular observance with great alacrity and devoted himself especially to contemplation, in which he received wonderful lights from God so that, illiterate as he was, he spoke of heavenly things in an admirable manner, evidently by a divine gift.

He was sent to the Canary Islands to govern the brethren of his Order, and there he had much to suffer. He was burning with the desire of martyrdom, and by his words and example he converted many infidels to the faith of Christ. Coming to Rome in that Jubilee year in the pontificate of Nicholas V, he was entrusted with the care of the sick in the convent of Ara Coeli. With such loving charity did he acquit himself of this duty that the sick wanted for nothing even during a famine in the city. He also sometimes cleansed their ulcers by sucking them. He was remarkable for his great faith and his gift of healing, for by signing the cross upon the sick with oil from a lamp burning before au image of the Mother of God to whom he had the greatest devotion, he miraculously cured many of them.

At length, when at Alcala, he understood that the end of life was at hand. Clad in an old torn tunic, with his eyes fixed on the cross, he devoutly pronounced these words of the sacred hymn: “O sweet wood, sweet are your nails, and sweet your burden. You were worthy to bear the King and Lord of Heaven!” He then gave up his soul to God on the day before the Ides of November in 1463. His body was left unburied for several months to satisfy the pious devotion of those who came to see it, and as though already clothed with immortality, it exhaled a sweet odour. He was renowned for many striking miracles and was canonised by Pope Sixtus V.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

A humble lay-brother, Didacus of Saint Nicholas, is welcomed today by his father Saint Francis into the company of Bernardine of Siena and John Capistran, who preceded him by a few years to Heaven. The two latter left Italy and the whole of Europe still echoing with their voices, the one making peace between cities in the name of the Lord Jesus, the other urging on the Christian hosts to battle with the victorious Crescent. The age which they contributed so powerfully to save from the results of the great schism and to restore to its Christian destinies knew little of Didacus but his unbounded charity. It was the year of the great Jubilee, 1450. Rome having become once more, practically as well as theoretically, the holy city in the eyes of the nations, not even the most terrible scourges could keep her children at a distance. From every quarter of the globe, crowds, urged by the evils of the time, flocked to the sources of salvation, and Satan’s work of ruin was retarded by seventy years.

Men doubtless attributed but a very small share of such results to the humble brother who was spending himself in the Ara Coeli in the service of the plague-stricken, especially if they compared him with his brethren, the great Franciscan apostles. And yet the Church pays to Didacus today the very same honours as we have seen her pay to Bernardine and John Capistran. What is this but asserting that before God heroic acts of hidden virtue are not inferior to the noble deeds that dazzle the world if, proceeding from the same ardent love, they produce in the soul the same increase of divine charity.

The Pontificate of Nicholas V which witnessed the imposing concourse of people to the tombs of the Apostles in 1450 was also, and still is, justly admired for the new impetus given to the culture of letters and the arts in Rome, for it belongs to the Church to adorn herself for the honour of her Spouse with all that men rightly deem great and beautiful. Nevertheless, who is there now of all the humanists, as the learned men of that age were called, who would not prefer the glory of the poor, unlettered Friar Minor to that which vainly held out to them the hope of immortality? In the fifteenth century, as at all other times, God chose the foolish and the weak to confound the wise and the strong. The Gospel is always in the right.

* * * * *

“O Almighty, everlasting God, who by an admirable order chooses the weak things of the world that you may confound whatever is strong, mercifully grant to our lowliness that by the pious prayers of blessed Didacus, your Confessor, we may be made worthy to be exalted to everlasting glory in Heaven.” Such is the prayer addressed to God by the Church at all the liturgical Hours on this your feast, O Didacus. Second her supplications, for you are in high favour with Him whom you followed so lovingly along the way of humility and voluntary poverty. A royal road indeed, since it brought you to a throne which far outshines all earthly thrones. Even here below, you far surpass in renown many of your contemporaries, who are now as forgotten as they were once illustrious. Sanctity alone merits crowns that endure through all ages of time and for all eternity, for God is the final awarder, as He is the supreme reason, of all glory, just as in Him lies the principle of all true happiness both for this world and for the next. May we all, after your example and by your assistance, learn this by our own blessed experience!

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Ravenna, the birthday of the holy martyrs Valentine, Solutor and Victor, who suffered under the emperor Diocletian.

At Aix in Province, St. Matrius, a most renowned martyr.

At Caesarea in Palestine, the martyrdom of the Saints Antoninus, Zebina, Germanus and Ennatha, virgin. Ennatha was scourged under Galerius Maximian, and burned alive, while the others, for boldly reproaching the governor Firmilian for his idolatry in sacrificing to the gods, were beheaded.

In Africa, the holy martyrs Arcadius, Paschasius, Probus and Eutychian, Spaniards, who refused absolutely to yield to the Arian perfidy during the persecution of the Vandals. Accordingly they were proscribed by the Arian king Genseric, driven into exile, and finally, after being subjected to fearful tortures, were put to death in various manners. Then was also made manifest the constancy of the small boy Paulillus, brother of the Saints Paschasius and Eutychian. As he could not be seduced from the Catholic faith, he was a long time beaten with rods and condemned to a base servitude.

At Rome, Pope St. Nicholas, distinguished for the apostolic spirit.

At Tours, St. Brice, bishop, a disciple of the blessed bishop Martin.

At Toledo, St. Eugenius, bishop.

At Clermont in Auvergne, St. Quinctian, bishop.

At Cremona, St. Homobonus, confessor, renowned for miracles. He was ranked among the saints by Innocent III.

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

Thanks be to God.

12 NOVEMBER – SAINT MARTIN I (Pope and Confessor)

Martin was born at Todi in Umbria. Upon ascending the pontifical throne, he strove by letters and embassies to recall Paul, Patriarch of Constantinople, from his wicked heresy to the true Catholic faith. But, supported by the heretical emperor Constans, Paul was so carried away as to exile the legates of the Apostolic See to various islands. The Pope, indignant at this outrage, summoned a council of 105 bishops at Rome, in which he condemned Paul. Upon this Constans sent the exarch Olympius into Italy with orders either to kill Pope Martin or else to bring him to the emperor. Olympius, on reaching Rome, charged a lictor to assassinate the Pontiff as he was celebrating Mass in Santa Maria ad Praesepe. But the man, attempting to do so, was suddenly struck blind.

From that time many calamities befell the emperor Constans, which however made him no better, and he sent Theodore Calliopus to Rome to seize the Pope. By his deceitful dealing Martin was arrested and led prisoner to Constantinople. Thence he was banished into the Chersonesus where, on the eve of the Ides of November, he died worn out by his sufferings for the Catholic faith, and not without the glory of miracles. His body was afterwards translated to Rome, and placed in the church dedicated to Saints Sylvester and Martin. He governed the church 6 years, 1 month, and 26 days. He held two ordinations in the month of December, and ordained 11 priests, 5 deacons and 33 bishops.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

While the concourse of pilgrims to the sepulchre of the Bishop of Tours induced his third successor Perpetuus to raise over his precious remains the basilica in which so many prodigies were to be wrought all through the Middle Ages, Rome herself was dedicating to Saint Martin one of her noblest churches, uniting with him as joint titular her own illustrious Pontiff and Confessor Sylvester. Adorned with this twofold glory, Saint Martin-on-the-hill worthily inaugurated in the eternal City the cultus of Confessors side by side with that of the Martyrs. But another honour awaited the venerable sanctuary. Beside the wonder-working apostle and the pontiff of peace, both vanquishers of idolatry who had escaped the sword only through the conversion of the persecutors, the last of the martyr-popes, also Martin by name, came to seek a resting-place long after the pagan persecutions had ceased. “Martin I,” says Baronius, “fared better than any of his predecessors since the time of Constantine. Found worthy to suffer more than all of them for the Name of Jesus Christ, he had the good fortune to find a Decius and a Diocletian in a baptised prince.”

The emperor thus stigmatised by the great annalist was Constans II. From his grandfather Heraclius, who at least had given the world a few years of glory, he inherited nothing but the Byzantine pretension of imposing his dogmatic edicts upon the Church. Like the Ecthesis of Heraclius, the Type of Constans aimed at silencing the Catholics in their struggle with the Monothelites. Saint Leo II, on the 28th June, has already initiated us into these contests concerning the integrity of the two natures, divine and human, in the Man-God. Could the Church, without protesting, allow it to be said that her Spouse had taken from Adam a mere appearance of humanity, a half-formed nature without a will, such as the new sectaries imagined? More clear-sighted than Honorius, Martin I understood the danger, and knew how to repair the past while securing the future. Scarcely had he ascended the apostolic throne when he gathered, in the Church of our Saviour, one of the most beautiful assemblies ever held there. “Sound the trumpet, cry out upon the mountain. Soldiers of God, awake!” Thus from its very opening did the Lateran Council of 649 repair the fatal silence and avenge the Church’s honour. On reading its splendid and ample definitions, which present to the world the Son of the Virgin Mother in all His adorable integrity, we are reminded of the solemn declaration in the Praetorium on the great Friday: “Behold the Man!” Only that this time it was proclaimed in triumph and by those who loved him. Truly, O God our Saviour, you are the most complete, the most perfect, the most beautiful of the sons of men.

What a solace to the mind to see the imperial lucubrations returned, with the qualification of wicked and impious, to the Byzantine Caesar who held the defenceless Pontiff at his mercy in still dependent Rome! Martin I like Saint Paul could take the Church of God to witness that he had not neglected his duty of enlightening the flock. He could remind the pastors of the price at which Christ had purchased the sheep committed to their care: he himself was ready for everything. His martyrdom was to secure the final triumph of which the sixth general Council and Saint Leo II were destined to gather the fruits. The Greeks celebrate on the 13th April the feast of this glorious Pope whom they call a “corypheus of divine dogmas, the honour of Peter’s See, the pontiff who maintained the Church unshaken on the divine Rock.”

* * * * *

If it is just that the human race should honour its members in proportion as it has been honoured by them, you, O holy Pontiff, deserve a glorious memory. For, not only were your wonderful virtues such as cause the very powers of Heaven to admire our Earth, but you likewise compelled Satan to humble himself before our human nature. Deified entirely in the Person of God the Son, it is through you that it was fully recognised as such in spite of contradictions, in spite of the powerful ones of this world leaguing with the spirits of wickedness to overcloud this incomparable nobility of the sons of Adam. How comes it, that man is ever ready to join hands with Satan for his own destruction? But Lucifer himself was at first his own only enemy, and surely his folly is more difficult to explain than that of the frail creature he strives to draw after him along the path of pride which led him to perdition. It is pride that made him the prince of folly and the father of lies. His intellect, though the loftiest in Heaven, was not proof against self-love which induced him to take complacency in his created nothingness, to detain the truth of God in injustice (Romans i. 18) and to prefer darkness to the light. Thus it is that men, following Satan’s example and dishonouring God to exalt themselves, become vain in their thoughts (Romans i. 21) till such a darkness comes over their mind and heart and senses, as strikes with astonishment the soul that remains simple and upright in its humility.

Protect us, then, O holy Pontiff! keep up in us the understanding of God’s gift. May we never deserve the reproach of the Psalmist: “Man when he was in honour, did not understand; he is compared to senseless beasts, and is become like them” (Psalm xlviii. 13). May eternal Wisdom, to whose alliance we are called, never have the grief of seeing us prefer death. At the same time, teach us that, for the honour of God, as well as of man, the integrity of Our Lord’s Incarnation nation does not require the authentication of politicians, nor the approbation of the would-be wise, for it is of this mystery the Apostle says, that we must believe it with the heart in order to become just, and confess it with the mouth in order to be saved (Romans x. 10). Spare the Church the sorrow of ever again finding herself in such a situation as that from which your heroic martyrdom was alone able to deliver her.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Asia, the martyrdom of the Saints Aurelius and Publius, bishops.

In the diocese of Sens, St. Paternus, martyr.

At Ghent, St. Livinus, bishop and martyr.

In Poland, the holy martyrs Benedict, John, Matthew, Isaac and Christinus, hermits.

At Vitebsk in Poland, the martyrdom of St. Josaphat, of the Order of St. Basil, archbishop of Polotzk, who was cruelly murdered by the schismatics through hatred of Catholic unity and truth. He was canonised by Blessed Pius IX in 1867.

At Avignon, St. Rufus, first bishop of that city.

At Cologne, the decease of St. Cunibert, bishop.

At Tarazona in Spain, blessed Æmilian, a priest who wrought numberless miracles, and whose wonderful life was written by St. Braulio, bishop of Saragossa.

At Constantinople, St. Nilus, abbot who resigned the office of governor of the city to become a monk, and was distinguished for learning and sanctity, in the time of Theodosius the Younger.

Also at Constantinople, St. Theodore Studita, who became celebrated throughout the whole Catholic Church by his vigorous defence of the faith against the Iconoclasts.

At Alcala in Spain, St. Didacus, confessor, of the Order of Friars Minor, who was renowned for his humility. Inscribed in the Martyrology by Pope Sixtus V, his feast is kept on the thirteenth of this month.

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

Thanks be to God.

11 NOVEMBER – ARMISTICE DAY/REMEMBRANCE DAY/VETERANS' DAY

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

Eternal rest give to them, Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them.

11 NOVEMBER – SAINT MARTIN OF TOURS (Bishop and Confessor)

Martin was born at Sabaria in Pannonia. When 10 years old he fled to the church against his parents’ will and had himself enrolled among the catechumens. At the age of 15 he became a soldier and served in the army first of Constantius and afterwards of Julian. On one occasion, when a poor naked man at Amiens begged an alms of him in the name of Christ, having nothing but his armour and clothing, he gave him half of his military cloak. The following night Christ appeared to him clad in that half-cloak, and said: “Martin, while yet a catechumen has clothed me with this garment.” At 18 years of age, he was baptised, and abandoning his military career, he went to Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, by whom he was made an acolyte. Later on, having become bishop of Tours, he built a monastery where he lived for some time in a most holy manner, in company with 80 monks. He was seized with a violent fever at Cande, a village in his diocese, and he earnestly besought God to free him from the prison of the body. His disciples hearing, asked him: “Father, why do you abandon us? or to whom do you leave us in our desolation?” Martin, touched by their words, prayed to God in this manner: “O Lord, if I am still necessary to your people, I do not refuse to labour.” When his disciples saw him praying in the height of the fever, lying on his back, they besought him to turn over for a little while, that he might get some rest and relief. But Martin answered: “Suffer me to gaze on Heaven rather than Earth, that my spirit, which is about to depart, may be directed on its way to our Lord. As death drew near he saw the enemy of mankind and exclaimed: “What are you doing here, you cruel beast? You will find no evil in me.” While uttering these words he gave up his soul to God, at the age of 81. He was received by a choir of Angels whom many, and in particular Saint Severinus Bishop of Cologne, heard singing the praises of God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Three thousand six hundred and sixty churches dedicated to Saint Martin in France alone, and well-near as many in the rest of the world, bear witness to the immense popularity of the great thaumaturgus. In the country, on the mountains and in the depth of forests, trees, rocks, and fountains, objects of superstitious worship to our pagan ancestors, received, and in many places still retain, the name of him who snatched them from the dominion of the powers of darkness to restore them to the true God. For the vanquished idols, Roman, Celtic or German, Christ substituted their conqueror, the humble soldier, in the grateful memory of the people. Martin’s mission was to complete the destruction of paganism which had been driven from the towns by the martyrs, but remained up to his time master of the vast territories removed from the influence of the cities. While on the one hand he was honoured with God’s favours, on the other he was pursued by Hell with implacable hatred. At the very outset he had to encounter Satan, who said to him: “I will beset your path at every turn,” and he kept his word. He has kept it to this very day: century after century, he has been working ruin around the glorious tomb which once attracted the whole world to Tours. In the sixteenth, he delivered to the flames by the hands of the Huguenots, the venerable remains of the protector of France: by the nineteenth, he had brought men to such a height of folly as themselves to destroy, in time of peace, the splendid basilica which was the pride and the riches of their city. The gratitude of Christ, and the rage of Satan, made known by such signs, reveal sufficiently the incomparable labours of the pontiff, apostle, and monk, Saint Martin.

A monk indeed he was, both in desire and in reality, to the last day of his life. “From earliest infancy he sighed after the service of God. He became a catechumen at the age of ten, and at twelve he wished to retire to the desert. All his thoughts were engaged on monasteries and churches. A soldier at fifteen years of age, he so lived as even then to be taken for a monk. After a first trial of religious life in Italy, he was brought by Saint Hilary to this solitude of Liguge, which, thanks to him, became the cradle of monastic life in Gaul. To say the truth, Martin, during the whole course of his life, felt like a stranger everywhere else, except at Ligugé. A monk by attraction, he had been forced to be a soldier, and it needed violence to make him a Bishop: and even then he never relinquished his monastic habits. He responded to the dignity of a Bishop, says his historian, without declining from the rule and life of a monk. At first he constructed for himself a cell near his church of Tours and soon afterwards built, at a little distance from the town, a second Ligugé, under the name of Marmoutier or the great monastery” (Cardinal Pie, Homily pronounced on occasion of the re-establishment of the Benedictine Order at Ligugé, Nov. 25th 1853).

The holy Liturgy refers to Saint Hilary the honour of the wonderful virtues displayed by Martin. What were the holy bishop’s reasons for leading his heaven-sent disciple by ways then so little known in the West, he has left us to learn from the most legitimate heir of his doctrine as well as of his eloquence. “It has ever been,” says Cardinal Pie, the ruling idea of all the Saints, that, side by side with the ordinary ministry of the pastors, obliged by their functions to live in the midst of the world, the Church has need of a militia, separated from the world and enrolled under the standard of evangelical perfection, living in self-renunciation and obedience, and carrying on day and night the noble and incomparable function of public prayer. The most illustrious pontiffs and the greatest doctors have thought, that the secular clergy themselves could never be better fitted for spreading and making popular the pure doctrines of the Gospel, than if they could be prepared for their pastoral office by living either a monastic life, or one as nearly as possible resembling it. Read the lives of the greatest bishops both in East and West, in the times immediately preceding or following the peace of the Church, as well as in the Middle Ages: they have all, either themselves at some time professed the monastic life, or lived in continual contact with those who professed it. Hilary, the great Hilary, had, with his experienced and unerring glance, perceived the need. He had seen the place that should be occupied by the monastic Order in Christendom, and by the regular clergy in the Church. In the midst of his struggles, his combats, his exile, when he witnessed with his own eyes the importance of the monasteries in the East, he earnestly desired the time when, returning to Gaul, he might at length lay the foundations of the religious life at home. Providence was not long in sending him what was needful for such an enterprise: a disciple worthy of the master, a monk worthy of the bishop.”

Elsewhere, comparing together Saint Martin, his predecessors, and Saint Hilary himself in their common apostolate of Gaul, the illustrious Cardinal says: “Far be it from me to undervalue all the vitality and power already possessed by the religion of " Jesus Christ in our divers provinces, thanks to the preaching of the first apostles, martyrs and bishops who may be counted back in a long line almost to the day of Calvary. Still I fear not to say it: the popular apostle of Gaul, who converted the country parts, until then almost entirely pagan, the founder of national Christianity, was principally Saint Martin. And how is it that he, above so many other great bishops and servants of God, holds such pre-eminence in the apostolate? Are we to place Martin above his master Hilary? With regard to doctrine, certainly not; and as to zeal, courage, holiness, it is not for me to say which was greater, the master’s or the disciple’s. But what I can say is that Hilary was chiefly a teacher, and Martin was chiefly a thaumaturgus. Now, for the conversion of the people, the thaumaturgus is more powerful than the teacher and consequently, in the memory and worship of the people, the teacher is eclipsed and effaced by the thaumaturgus.

Nowadays there is much talk about the necessity of reasoning in order to persuade men as to the reality of divine things: but that is forgetting Scripture and history; nay more, it is degenerating. God has not deemed it consistent with His Majesty to reason with us. He has spoken. He has said what is and what is not, and as He exacts faith in His word, He has sanctioned His word. But how has He sanctioned it? After the manner of God, not of man. By works, not by reasons: non in sermone, sed in virtute, not by the arguments of a humanly persuasive philosophy: non in persuasibilibus humane sapientiae verbis, but by displaying a power altogether divine: sed in ostensione spiritus et virtutis. And wherefore? For this profound reason: Ut fides non sit in sapientia hominum, sed in virtute Dei: that faith may not rest upon the wisdom of man, but upon the power of God (1 Corinthians ii. 4). But now men will not have it so: they tell us that in Jesus Christ the theurgist wrongs the moralist; that miracles are a blemish in so sublime an ideal. But they cannot reverse this order. They cannot abolish the Gospel, nor history. Begging the pardon of the learned men of our age and their obsequious followers: not only did Christ work miracles, but He established the faith upon the foundation of miracles. And the same Christ, not to confirm His own miracles which are the support of all others, but out of compassion for us, who are so prone to forgetfulness, and who are more impressed by what we see than by what we hear. the same Jesus Christ has placed in his Church, and that for all time, the power of working miracles. Our age has some, and will see yet more. The fourth century witnessed in particular those of Saint Martin.

“The working of wonders seemed mere play to him. All nature obeyed him. The animals were subject to him. Alas! cried the Saint one day: the very serpents listen to me, and men refuse to hear me. Men, however, often did hear him. The whole of Gaul heard him. Not only Aquitaine, but also Celtic and Belgic Gaul. Who could resist words enforced by so many prodigies? In all these provinces he overthrew the idols one after another, reduced the statues to powder, burnt or demolished all the temples, destroyed the sacred groves and all the haunts of idolatry. Was it lawful? you may ask. If I study the legislation of Constantine and Constantius, perhaps it was. But this I know: Martin, eaten up with zeal for the house of the Lord, was obeying none but the spirit of God. And I must add, that against the fury of the pagan population Martin’s only arms were the miracles he wrought, the visible assistance of Angels sometimes granted him, and, above all, the prayers and tears he poured out before God, when the hard-heartedness of the people resisted the power of his words and of his wonders. With these means Martin changed the face of the country. Where he found scarcely a Christian on his arrival, he left scarcely an infidel at his departure. The temples of the idols were immediately replaced by temples of the true God; for, says Sulpicius Severus, as soon as he had destroyed the homes of superstition, he built churches and monasteries. It is thus that all Europe is covered with sanctuaries bearing the name of Saint Martin” (Cardinal Pie, Sermon preached in the cathedral of Tours, on the Sunday following the patronal feast of Saint Martin, Nov. 14th, 1858).

His beneficial actions did not cease with his death. They alone explain the uninterrupted concourse of people to his holy tomb. His numerous feasts in the year, the Deposition or Natalis, the Ordination, Subvention and Reversion, did not weary the piety of the faithful. Kept everywhere as a holiday of obligation, and bringing with it the brief return of bright weather known as Saint Martin’s summer, the eleventh of November rivalled with Saint John’s day in the rejoicings it occasioned in Latin Christendom. Martin was the joy of all, and the helper of all. Saint Gregory of Tours does not hesitate to call his blessed predecessor the special patron of the whole world, while monks and clerics, soldiers, knights, travellers and inn-keepers on account of his long journeys, charitable associations of every kind in memory of the cloak of Amiens, have never ceased to claim their peculiar right to the great Pontiff’s benevolence. Hungary, the generous land which gave him to us, without exhausting its own provision for the future, rightly reckons him among its most powerful protectors. But to France he was a father: in the same manner as he laboured for the unity of the faith in that land, he presided also over the formation of national unity, and he watches over its continuance. As the pilgrimage of Tours preceded that of Compostella. in the Church, the cloak of Saint Martin led the Frankish armies to battle even before the oriflamme of Saint Denis. “How,” said Clovis, “can we hope for victory, if we offend blessed Martin?”

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O holy Martin, have compassion on our depth of misery! A winter more severe than that which caused you to divide your cloak now rages over the world. Many perish in the icy night brought on by the extinction of faith and the cooling of charity. Come to the aid of those unfortunates, whose torpor prevents them from asking assistance. Wait not for them to pray, but forestall them for the love of Christ in whose name the poor man of Amiens implored you, whereas they scarcely know how to utter it. And yet their nakedness is worse than the beggar’s, stripped as they are of the garment of grace, which their fathers received from thee and handed down to posterity.

How lamentable, above all, has become the destitution of France, which you once enriched with the blessings of Heaven, and where your benefits have been requited with such injuries! Deign to consider, however, that our days have seen the beginning of reparation, close by your holy tomb restored to our filial veneration. Look upon the piety of those grand Christians whose hearts were able, like the generosity of the multitude, to rise to the height of the greatest projects. See the pilgrims, however reduced their numbers, now taking once more the road to Tours, traversed so often by people and kings in better days of its history. Has that history of the brightest days of the Church, of the reign of Christ the King, come to an end, O Martin? Let the enemy imagine he has already sealed our tomb. But the story of your miracles tells us that you can raise up even the dead. Was not the catechumen of Liguge snatched from the land of the living when you called him back to life and Baptism? Supposing that, like him, we were already among those whom the Lord remembers no more, the man or the country that has Martin for protector and father need never yield to despair. If you deign to bear us in mind, the Angels will come and say again to the supreme Judge: “This is the man, this is the nation for whom Martin prays,” and they will be commanded to draw us out of the dark regions where dwell the people without glory, and to restore us to Martin, and to our noble destinies.

Your zeal, however, for the advancement of God’s kingdom knew no limits. Inspire, then, strengthen and multiply the apostles all over the world who, like you, are driving out the remnants of infidelity. Restore Christian Europe which still honours your name, to the unity so unhappily dissolved by schism and heresy. In spite of the many efforts to the contrary, maintain your noble fatherland in its post of honour, and in its traditions of brave fidelity. May your devout clients in all lands experience that your right arm still suffices to protect those who implore you. In Heaven today, as the Church sings, the Angels are full of joy, the Saints proclaim your glory, the Virgins surround you saying: “Remain with us for ever.” Is not this the continuation of what your life was here on Earth when you and the virgins vied with each other in showing mutual veneration, when Mary their Queen accompanied by Thecla and Agnes loved to spend long hours with you in your cell, Marmoutier, which thus became, says your historian, like the dwellings of the Angels? Imitating their brothers and sisters in Heaven, virgins and monks, clergy and pontiffs turn to you, never fearing that their numbers will cause any one of them to receive less, knowing that your life is a light sufficient to enlighten all and that one glance from Martin will secure to them the blessings of the Lord.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Cotyaeum in Phrygia, during the persecution of Diocletian, the celebrated martyrdom of St. Mennas, Egyptian soldier, who cast off the military belt and obtained the grace of serving the King of heaven secretly in the desert. Afterwards coming out publicly, and freely declaring himself a Christian, he was first subjected to dire torments, and finally kneeling in prayer, and giving thanks to Our Lord Jesus Christ, he was struck with the sword. After his death he was renowned for many miracles.

At Ravenna, the holy martyrs Valentine, Felician and Victorinus, who were crowned in the persecution of Diocletian.

In Mesopotamia, St. Athenodorus, martyr, who was subjected to fire and other torments under the same Diocletian and the governor Eleusius. He was at length sentenced to capital punishment, but the executioner having fallen down and no other person daring to strike him with the sword, he passed to his repose in the Lord while praying.

At Lyons, St. Veranus, bishop, whose life was illustrated by his faith and other virtues.

In the monastery of Crypta-Ferrata near Frascati, the holy abbot, Bartholomew, companion of blessed Nilus, whose life he wrote.

In the province of Abruzzo, blessed Mennas, solitary, whose virtues and miracles are mentioned by Pope St. Gregory.

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

Thanks be to God.