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.

28 JANUARY – SAINT AGNES (Second Feast)

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Five days after the martyrdom of the Virgin Emerentiana, the parents of the glorious Saint Agnes visited the tomb of their child during the night, there to weep and pray. It was the eighth day since her martyrdom. While they were thinking upon the cruel death which, though it had enriched their child with a Martyr’s palm, had deprived them of her society — Agnes suddenly appeared to them: she was encircled with a bright light and wore a crown on her head, and was surrounded by a choir of virgins of dazzling beauty. On her right hand there stood a beautiful white lamb, the emblem of the Divine Spouse of Agnes. Turning towards her parents, she said to them: “Weep not over my death: for I am now in Heaven together with these virgins, living with Him whom I loved on Earth with my whole soul.” It is to commemorate this glorious apparition that the holy Church has instituted this Feast which is called Saint Agnes’ Second Feast (Sancte Agnetis secundo.) Let us pray to this fervent spouse of the Divine Lamb that she intercede for as with Him, and present us to Him in this life until it be given to us to possess Him face-to-face in Heaven.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Flavian, martyr, who suffered under Diocletian.

At Apollonia, the holy martyrs Thyrsus, Leucius and Callinicus who were made to undergo various torments in the time of the emperor Decius. Thyrsus and Callinicus consummated their martyrdom by being beheaded. Leucius, being called by a heavenly voice, yielded his soul to God.

In Thebais, the holy martyrs Leonides and his companions, who obtained the palm of martyrdom in the time of Diocletian.

At Alexandria, the commemoration of many holy martyrs, who, while they were at Mass in the church on this day, were put to death in various manners by the followers of Syrian, an Arian general.

Also St. Cyril, bishop of the same city, a most celebrated defender of the Catholic faith who rested in peace with a great reputation for learning and sanctity.

At Saragossa, St. Valerius, bishop.

At Cuenca in Spain, the birthday of St. Julian, bishop, who went to his God with the reputation of working miracles after bestowing the goods of the Church on the poor, and, like the Apostles, supporting himself by the work of his hands.

In the monastery of Rheims, the demise of a holy priest named John, a man of God.

In Palestine, St. James, a hermit, who hid himself a long time in a sepulchre to do penance for a fault he had committed, and being celebrated for miracles, departed for Heaven.

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

Thanks be to God.

27 JANUARY – SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (Bishop and Doctor of the Church)

 

John, surnamed Chrysostom on account of his golden eloquence, was born at Antioch. Having gone through the study of the law and the profane sciences, he applied himself, with extraordinary application and success, to the study of the Sacred Scriptures. Having been admitted to holy orders and made a priest of the Church at Antioch, he was appointed Bishop of Constantinople after the death of Nectarius by the express wish of the Emperor Arcadius. No sooner had he entered upon the pastoral charge, than he began to inveigh against the licentious lives led by the rich. This his courageous preaching procured him many enemies. He likewise gave great offence to the Empress Eudoxia because he had reproved her for having appropriated to herself the money belonging to a widow name, Callitropa, and for having taken possession of some land which was the property of another widow. At the instigation, therefore, of Eudoxia, several Bishops met together at Chalcedon. Chrysostom was cited to appear, which he refused to do, because it was not a Council either lawfully or publicly convened. He was sent into exile. He had not been gone long before the people rose in sedition on account of the Saint’s banishment and he was recalled to the immense joy of the whole city. But, his continuing to inveigh against the scandals which existed, and his forbidding the games held before the silver statue of Eudoxia which was set up in the space opposite Sancta Sophia, were urged by certain Bishops, enemies of the Saint, as motives for a second banishment. The widows and the poor of the city bewailed his departure as that of a father.

It is incredible how much Chrysostom had to suffer in this exile and how many he converted to the Christian faith. At the very time that Pope Innocent I, in a Council held at Rome, was issuing a decree ordering that Chrysostom should be set at liberty — he was being treated by the soldiers who were taking him into exile with unheard of harshness and cruelty. While passing through Armenia, the holy Martyr Basiliscus, in whose Church he had offered up a prayer, thus spoke to him during the night: “Brother John! We will be united together tomorrow.” On the following morning Chrysostom received the sacrament of the Eucharist and signing himself with the sign of the cross, he breathed forth his soul to his God, on the eighteenth of the Calends of October (September 14th). A fearful hailstorm happened at Constantinople after the Saint’s death, and four days later the Empress died. Theodosius, the son of Arcadius, had the Saint’s body brought to Constantinople with all due honour where, amid a large concourse of people, it was buried on the sixth of the Calends of February (January 27th). Theodosius, while devoutly venerating the Saint’s relics, interceded for his parents that they might be forgiven. The body was at a later period translated to Rome, and placed in the Vatican Basilica. All men agree in admiring the unction and eloquence of his sermons, which are very numerous, as indeed of all his other writings. He is also admirable in his interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures, which he explains in their genuine sense. It has always been thought that he was aided in his writings and sermons by Saint Paul the Apostle, to whom he entertained an extraordinary devotion.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Before our Emmanuel came upon this our Earth, men were as sheep without a shepherd. The flock was scattered, and the human race was hastening on to perdition. Jesus would, therefore, not only be the Lamb that was to be slain for our sins. He made Himself, moreover, a shepherd so that He might bring us all back to the divine fold. But as He had to leave us when He ascended into Heaven, He has provided for the wants of His sheep by providing us with a succession of Pastors who should, in His name, feed the flock, even to the end of the world. Now instruction, which is the light of life, is what the flock of Christ needs above all other things, and therefore our Emmanuel required that the Pastors of his Church should also be Doctors of sacred science.

The Pastor owes two things to his people: namely, the Word of God and the Sacraments. He is under the obligation of dispensing, personally and unceasingly, this twofold nourishment to his flock, and of laying down his very life, if needed, in the fulfilment of a duty on which rests the whole work of the world’s salvation.

But since the disciple is not above His Master, the Pastors and Doctors of the Christian people, if they are faithful in the discharge of their duties, are sure to be hated by the enemies of God, for they cannot spread the Kingdom of Christ without, at the same time, taking from the power of Satan. Hence it is that the history of the Church is filled with the persecutions endured by her Pastors and Doctors who continued the ministry of zeal and charity begun by Christ upon the Earth. These contests have been threefold, and gave occasion to three admirable victories.

The Pastors and Doctors of the Church have had to struggle with paganism which sought, by inflicting tortures and death, to oppose the preaching of the law of Christ. It was this sort of persecution which gave the Church such Saints as those whom we celebrate during this Season of Christmas — Polycarp, Ignatius, Fabian, Marcellus, Hyginus and Telesphorus. When the era of Persecution was over, the Pastors and Doctors of the Christian people had to engage with enemies of another kind. Kings and princes became children of the Church and then sought to make her their own slave. They imagined that it would serve their political interests to interfere with the liberty of the Word of God which, like the light of the sun, was intended to be carried without hindrance throughout the whole Earth. They usurped the priestly power, as did the pagan Caesars, and presumed to set limits to the administration of those sources of life which become corrupt as soon as they are touched by a profane hand. This usurpation gave rise to an incessant contest between the temporal and spiritual powers, and produced a second class of Martyrs. God has glorified His Church during this long period of struggle, and has given her, from time to time, a brave defender of ecclesiastical Liberty. We have met two of these champions of the Word and the holy ministry during our Christmastide — Thomas of Canterbury and Hilary of Poitiers.

But there is a third sort of battle in which the Pastors and Doctors of the flock of Christ have had to fight: it is the battle with the world and its vices. It began when Christianity began, and will continue to the day of Judgement. It was their courage in this battle that made so many saintly Prelates be hated for the name of Jesus Christ. Neither their charity, nor their services to mankind, nor their humility, nor their meekness, protected them from ingratitude, spleen, calumny and persecution. And what was their offence? They had been faithful in their duty of preaching the doctrines of their Divine Master, of encouraging virtue, and of chiding the sins of men. The amiable Francis of Sales was as much disliked and even hated by bad men as was John Chrysostom himself, whose triumph gladdens the Church today, and who stands near the crib of his Lord as one of the most illustrious Martyrs of pastoral duty courageously discharged.

Fervent in the service of his Saviour, even to the observance of the divine Counsels (for he had embraced the monastic life) this golden-mouthed Preacher made no other use of his wonderful gift of eloquence than that of urging men to the observance of the virtues taught in the Gospel, and of reproving every vice. Satan sought to have his revenge against our Saint by raising him many enemies. Among these were an Empress whose vanities and sins he had rebuked, men in power whose wickedness he had held up to notice, women of influence who would have him preach a morality more in accordance with their own depravity, a Bishop of Alexandria and certain Prelates of the court who were jealous of his virtues and still more so of his reputation. He is exceedingly loved by his people but neither that nor his great virtues protect him from persecution. He whose eloquence had enraptured the people of Antioch and won for him the enthusiastic admiration of the citizens of Constantinople, was deposed in a council convened for the purpose, his name was ordered to be cancelled from the diptychs of the altar notwithstanding the energetic protest of the Roman Pontiff, and at length he was condemned to exile and died on the way, worn out by the hardships and fatigues he had to go through. But, this Pastor, this Doctor, was not vanquished. He said in the midst of all his persecutions, “Woe is to me if I preach not the Gospel!” (1 Corinthians ix. 16). He made use, too, of those other words of the great Apostle: “The word of God is not bound” (2 Timothy ii. 9). The Church triumphed in him. She was more glorified and more consoled by the unflinching courage of Chrysostom who was led into captivity for having preached the Gospel of Christ, than she had been by the success achieved by his eloquence, an eloquence which Libanius was heard to covet for his pagan orators. Let us hearken to the thrilling words of Chrysostom which he addressed to the Faithful immediately before his last banishment. He had been sent into exile once before, but a terrific earthquake happening immediately after his departure, and which was looked upon as sent by Heaven to punish the authors of so crying an injustice — the Empress herself went, with tears in her eyes, to ask the Emperor to recall him. Accordingly, he was permitted to return. Shortly after, fresh occasions were sought for and John is again sentenced to exile. He receives the intimation with all the calmness of a Saint who knows that the whole Church is on his side. Let us study this glorious model of a Bishop trained in the school of our Jesus, who is, as the Apostle calls him, “the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls” (1 Peter ii. 25):

“Many are the waves and threatening are the storms which surround me, but I fear them not, for I am standing on the Rock. Let the sea roar. It cannot wash away the Rock: Let the billows mount as they will. They cannot sink the barque of our Lord Jesus Christ. And tell me, what would you have me fear? Death? To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians i. 21). Exile? “The Earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof” (Psalm xxiii. 1). Confiscation of my goods? We brought nothing into this world and, certainly, we can carry nothing out (1 Timothy vi. 7). No — the evils of this world are contemptible, and its goods deserve but to be laughed at. I fear not poverty, I desire not riches; I neither fear to die, nor wish to live, save for your advantage sake. Your interest alone induces me to speak of these things, and to ask of you by the love you bear me to take courage. For no-one can separate us. No human power can part what God has united. It is said of husband and wife: Wherefore, a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife and they shall be two in one flesh (Genesis ii. 24): therefore, what God has joined together, let no man put asunder (Matthew xix. 6). You cannot, man, dissolve the nuptial tie — how do you hope to divide the Church of God? It is she whom you attack, because you cannot reach Him whom you fain would strike. You make me more glorious and you but waste your strength in warring against me, for it is hard for you to kick against the sharp goad (Acts ix. 6). You cannot blunt its point, and you make your own foot bleed, just as the billows when they dash against the rock, fall back mere empty froth. Believe me, O man, there is no power like the power of the Church. Cease your battling, lest you lose your strength. Wage not war with Heaven. When it is with man you war, you may win or lose, but when your fighting is against the Church it is impossible you should conquer, for God is above all in strength. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? (1 Corinthians x. 22). God founded, God gave firmness: who will be so bold as to attempt to pull down? Know you not His power? He looks upon the Earth and makes it tremble (Psalm ciii. 32). He gives His order, and that which trembled is made firm again. If He made firm the city after an earthquake had shaken it, how much more could He not give firmness to the Church? The Church is stronger than Heaven itself: “Heaven and Earth will pass, but my words will not pass” (Matthew xiv. 35). What words? “You are Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew xvi. 18).

If thou will not believe His word, believe facts. How many tyrants have sought to crush the Church? They had their gridirons, and fiery furnaces, and wild beasts, and swords — and all failed. Where are those enemies now? Buried and forgotten. And the Church? Brighter than the sun. All they had is now past, but her riches are immortal. If the Christians conquered when they were but few in number, can you hope to vanquish them now that the whole Earth is filled with the holy religion? Heaven and Earth will pass, but my words will not pass. Wonder not at it, or the Church is dearer to God than the very heavens. He took flesh not from Heaven, but from His Church on Earth. And Heaven is for the Church, not the Church for Heaven.

Be not troubled at what has happened. I ask this favour of you: be firm in your faith. Have you not observed, that,when Peter was walking on the waters and began to fear, he was in danger of sinking not because the sea was rough, but because his faith was weak? Have I been raised to this dignity by human intrigue? Was it man that brought me to it, or can man now depose me? I say not this from arrogance or boasting. God forbid I say it from the desire of calming your trouble. The devil no sooner saw that your city was tranquillised, than he plotted how he might disturb the Church. You wicked and most impious spirit! You could not throw down the walls of a city and you think you can make the Church fall? Does the Church consist of walls? he Church consists of the multitude of the Faithful. Look at her pillars and see how solid they are fastened, not by iron, but by faith. Not only is the great multitude itself more vehement than fire, but even one single Christian would conquer you. Have you forgotten the wounds you received from the Martyrs? Often the combatant was a tender maiden delicate as a flower, yet firmer than a rock. You mangled her flesh, but her faith was proof against all your tortures. Her blood fell as nature felt the wounds, but her faith fell not. Her body was torn, but her manly soul flinched not. What was material was spoilt, what was spiritual was untouched. You could not vanquish one woman and yet you hope to vanquish a whole people? Have you not heard these words of the Lord: “Where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”? (Matthew xviii. 20). And do you think He will not be in the midst of a numerous people, united together by the ties of charity? I have his pledge, and on that I trust, not on my own strength. I have His written promise. That is my staff, and my guarantee, and my tranquil port. What matters it to me if the whole world be upset — ave I not His written word? Have I not his letters? There is my rampart and there my defence. What letters? “I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matthew xxviii. 20). Christ is with me — of whom shall I be afraid? Though stormy billows should rise up against me, though the sea should open to swallow me, though the wrath of kings should be kindled against me — I will heed them no more, than if they were so many spider’s webs. Had not my love for you kept me, I would have started this very day on my exile, for this is my constant prayer: O Lord! Your will be done (Matthew vi. 10). I will do your will. Not what such or such an one may will, but what you will. This is my tower of strength, this is my firm rock, this is my trusty staff. If God wills that I go, I will go. If He wills me to remain here, I will give Him thanks. Yes, wherever He wills me to go, I will bless His holy name.”

What humility and courage in this saintly minister of Christ! What a consolation for the Church when God sends her men like this! He has given four to the Eastern Church: Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzum, Basil and Chrysostom. In spite of the immense dangers to which faith was exposed during the age in which they lived, these four Holy Doctors, by their sanctity, learning and courage kept it alive among the people. Athanasius and Gregory appear to us in that period of the Ecclesiastical Year when the Church is radiant with her Easter joy and celebrates the Resurrection of her Divine Spouse. Basil’s feast gladdens us in the season of Pentecost when the Church is filled with the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Chrysostom comes at Christmastide and adds to the joy of the dear Mystery of Bethlehem. Let us, the favoured children of the Latin Church which alone has preserved the primitive faith because Peter is with her — let us honour these four faithful guardians of Tradition: let us today pay the homage of our devotion to Chrysostom, the Doctor of the universal Church, the conqueror of the world, the dauntless Pastor, the successor of the Martyrs, the Preacher by excellence, the admirer of Saint Paul, and the fervent imitator of our Lord Jesus Christ.

*****

What a crown is yours, O Chrysostom! Oh how glorious is your name in the Church of both Heaven and Earth! You preached the gospel in truth, you fought the battle of your Lord with courage, you suffered for the cause of justice and you gave up your life in defence of the liberty of God’s word. The applause of men did not make you less stern in claiming the rights of God, and the gift of apostolic eloquence with which the Holy Ghost had enriched you was but a feeble image of the divine fire which burned within your heart, and which made you love the Word Incarnate, Christ Jesus our Lord, more than your own glory, or happiness, or life. You were calumniated by wicked men. Your name was erased from the tablets of the holy altar and like your divine Master, you were condemned as a criminal and deposed from the episcopal throne. But as well might men strive to eclipse the sun, as efface your loved name from the memory of the Christian world. Rome defended you and has ever honoured your admirable virtues, just as she now venerates your sacred relics which repose near the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles. She and all her children throughout the world consider you as one of the most faithful dispensers of divine Truth.

Recompense the devotion we have for you, O Chrysostom, by watching over us from Heaven. Instruct us, convert us, make us earnest Christians. Like your beloved master Saint Paul, you careed for no knowledge save that which would make you know Christ Jesus — but is it not in Christ Jesus that are hidden all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom? Teach us to know this dear Saviour who has come down to us with all His infinite perfections. Teach us to know His spirit. Tell us how we may please and imitate Him. Ask Him to receive the offering of our faithful love. In one thing we resemble you, great Saint!We are exiles, but, alas, we are so often tempted to love our exile as though it were our home. Detach us from this Earth and its vanities. May we long to be united with you (as you were united with the holy Martyr Basiliscus) in order that we may be with our Jesus.

Faithful Pastor, pray for our Pastors. Obtain for them your own spirit, and pray that their flocks may be docile to their teachings. Bless the Preachers of God’s word so that they may preach not themselves but Jesus Christ. Ask our Lord to give them that Christian eloquence which comes from the study of the Sacred Volume and from prayer, that thus the Faithful may be allured to virtue by the charm of an unearthly language, and may give glory to God. Protect the Roman Pontiff, whose predecessor was your sole defender. May he ever be the protector of the Bishops of the Church who are persecuted for justice sake. Pray for your Church of Constantinople. Show, too, your love for the Western Church which has ever revered and loved you. Hasten the fall of the heresies which have so long laid waste large portions of her inheritance. Dispel the dark clouds of incredulity and obtain for us all, by your powerful intercession, a lively faith and the fervent practice of every virtue.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Sora, St. Julian, martyr, who, being arrested in the persecution of Antoninus, was beheaded, because a pagan temple had fallen to the ground while he was tortured. Thus did he win the crown of martyrdom.

In Africa, St. Avitus, martyr.

In the same country, the holy martyrs, Datius, Reatrus and their companions, who suffered in the persecution of the Vandals.

Also the holy martyrs Dativus, Julian, Vincent and twenty-seven others.

At Rome, St. Vitalian, pope.

At Le Mans, the demise of St. Julian, the first bishop of that city, who was sent there by the blessed Apostle St. Peter to preach the Gospel.

In the monastery of Bobacum, St. Maur, abbot.

At Brixen, St. Angela Merici, virgin, foundress of the Order of the Nuns of St. Ursula, whose principal aim is to direct young girls in the ways of the Lord. By an indult of Pope Pius VII her feast is celebrated on the thirty-first of May.

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

Thanks be to God.

26 JANUARY – SAINT PAULA (Widow)

 

Paula, a Roman lady of a most noble senatorial family, but still more noble by the holiness of her life, was married to Toxotius, of an equal noble race, and bore him five children. After her husband’s death, she devoted her whole self to the service of God and distributed her great wealth to the poor of Christ, but with so much charity that she would go through the city in search of them, and (as Saint Jerome relates of her) would count herself a loser if any poor needy person were fed by any other than herself. This zeal for the poor continued till her death, and she would sometimes say that she longed to die as a poor mendicant and to be buried in a borrowed winding-sheet.

Certain dissensions having arisen between some of the Churches under the pontificate of Saint Damasus, several Bishops, both of the East and West, came to Rome. Paula gave hospitality to Saint Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamina in Cyprus. She also loaded Paulinus of Antioch with every sort of kindness. Their virtues made such an impression on her that she determined to leave her country and spend the rest of her days in the desert. Therefore, without delay, she fled from the noise and bustle of the city and from the flattery of admirers. And preferring the humble Bethlehem to Rome, she set out for Porto and there embarked for Palestine. Her brother, relatives and children did their utmost to dissuade her from her resolution and made use of every argument that could weigh with a mother’s heart. But while feeling all the keenness of sorrow, Paula raised her tearless eyes to Heaven and conquered by her love for God, the love that would have kept her with her children. She was a mother but she was also the handmaid of Christ, and that was before all else.

Having, therefore, embarked, accompanied by her daughter Eustochium who had imitated her in her holy purpose, Paula set sail, longing, with all the ardour of faith and love, to visit Jerusalem and the Holy Places. After touching at Cyprus and Selucia, she landed at Syria and Palestine, visiting each hallowed spot with so much joy and devotion that nothing less than the resolution of seeing the others could have torn her from it. Having, at length, reached Bethlehem, there she remained and built four monasteries, one for men, over which Saint Jerome presided, and the three others for women.

The remainder of her life was spent in Bethlehem in the exercises of the most admirable sanctity. Humility was her favourite virtue. Her meekness was extraordinary, as also was her love for the poor. She was calumniated by certain envious tongues and was tried by numerous crosses, but she bore all with invincible patience and forbearance. She was slow to speak and swift to hear. She knew the Sacred Scriptures by heart, for she was most assiduous in reading both the Old and New Testament. She applied herself to the study of Hebrew, which she so perfectly mastered that she used to sing the Psalms in that language and spoke it as though it had been her native tongue. She slept on a haircloth thrown on the floor, and even such sleep as this was interrupted by such long and frequent prayers that it seemed as though her nights were prayer rather than sleep. Even when suffering the most violent fever, she would not allow herself anything that could make her bed less comfortless. Her abstinence was so great that it bordered on imprudence. She added to the weakness of her frame by severe fasting and hard work. Excepting the feast days, she would scarcely allow herself a drop of oil with her food. No argument could induce her to take wine as a means for restoring her to strength. It would be difficult to describe the tender care with which she nursed the sick. She lavished on them whatever she had, while to herself, when in sickness, she allowed no indulgence so that she had two measures: one of commiseration for others, and one of severity towards herself.

At length, Paula fell into a dangerous sickness, and saw that her death was approaching. A chill was over her whole body, her heart alone retaining a spark of life. Then, as though she were going to her home and was leaving a place of banishment, she ceased not, until she breathed forth her soul, to repeat these verses of the Psalm: “O Lord! I have loved the beauty of your house, and the place where your glory dwells. How lovely are your tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord.” Signing her lips with the sign of the cross, she yielded her most holy soul to her God on the seventh of the Calends of February (January 26), in the fifty-sixth year of her age. Her remains were carried by bishops into the Church of the Holy Cave. From all the towns of Palestine there came to her funeral a multitude of monks, virgins, widows and poor who, as at the death of Dorcas, showed the garments she had given them. On the third day she was buried under the Church, close to the Grotto of our Lord.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The noble and pious widow who left all the pomps of Rome and bade adieu to her children to lead a life of retirement in Bethlehem, comes before us today as one of the Saints that have a special right to be near the crib of the Infant Jesus. She was, during her life, irresistibly attracted to it as to something far richer in her eyes than all the palaces of kings. There did she find her God who had rendered Himself poor for our sakes, and whose poverty she, in the days of her opulence, used to console by relieving the wants of the indigent. It was through her zeal that several monasteries were founded in the neighbourhood of the holy cave, where the Word made Flesh first appeared to men. She spent her days in prayer, in works of penance and charity, and in the meditation of the Holy Scriptures which she studied under the guidance of the great Saint Jerome. It is a sight worthy of our admiration to behold these Christian ladies and virgins filled with the sublime spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ while everything around them was corrupted by the grossest sensuality of pagan Rome. We find them retiring either to the deserts of Egypt, there to study the virtues of the monks and hermits, or to the Holy Land, there to venerate the scenes of our Lord’s life. Paula is one of the foremost of these noble Christian women, and it is with extreme regret that we are obliged to omit the account of her pilgrimage, given with so much spirit and unction by Saint Jerome in letters addressed to the illustrious virgin Eustochium, the daughter of Saint Paula. We must limit ourselves to the following quotation in which the Holy Doctor describes the arrival at Bethlehem:

“Having divided among the poor and her attendants what little money she had still remaining, Paula left Jerusalem and proceeded to Bethlehem. After paying a short visit to the tomb of Rachel which lies on the right hand of the road, she arrived at the city she so much longed to see, and she entered into the Grotto of our Lord. As soon as she beheld the sacred spot in which our Lady sought shelter and saw the stable “where the ox knew his owner, and the ass his master’ crib” (Isaias i. 3) she told me, with much emotion, that she saw, with the eyes of her faith, the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and sleeping in the manger: the Magi adoring, the Star brightly shining over the stable, the Virgin-Mother, Joseph eager to render her his service, the shepherds arriving at midnight, the Innocents massacred, Herod enraged and Joseph and Mary fleeing into Egypt. Tears of joy trickled down her cheeks and she exclaimed: ‘Hail, O Bethlehem! house of bread in which was born the Bread that came down from Heaven! Hail, O Ephrata! fertile land whose fruit is our very God. It is of you that the Prophet Micheas spoke when he said: Bethlehem, Ephrata! You are not the least of the thousand cities of Judah, for out of you will come He that is to be the Ruler in Israel, and His going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity (Micheas v. 2) Yes, it was in you that was born the Prince who was begotten before the day-star, and whose birth in the bosom of the Father was before all ages. I, a poor wretched sinner, even I have been permitted to kiss the crib in which the infant Saviour shed His first tears. I have been permitted to pray in that cave in which the Virgin-Mother brought forth our Lord. Here, henceforth, will I rest, for this is the country of our Master. Here will I dwell, for our Lord chose it for His own dwelling-place.’”

*****

You loved the crib of your Lord, O generous hearted Paula! You preferred the humble Grotto of Bethlehem to all the riches of Rome, and Jesus, to reward your love and the sacrifice you made for Him, has united you to Himself for eternity. May we learn from your example to go in search of the infant Jesus, and to relish the mysteries of His divine birth. May we break down every obstacle whenever He calls us to Himself. May He mercifully teach us to acknowledge the rights He has acquired over us by the sacrifices He made for our sakes, and be, thereby, disposed to give Him whatever He may ask at our hands. May your eagerness to sacrifice the strongest affections of your heart in order that you might be united to Him alone animate us to moderate and regulate ours.

May your prayers help us to keep our hearts faithful to Him who made them, and ready, at all times, to follow Him in the path to which He may call us. May we stand on our guard against that spirit of the world which is ever seeking to enter into a compact with Christianity, and by calling into question the counsels of our Lord to deny even the obligation of all men to obey His precepts. May the light of the Holy Ghost shine upon us, and the love of Jesus inflame our hearts. Then will we understand the conduct of the Saints. Their examples may, indeed, make us feel ashamed at our weakness, but they will also bring light to our soul, and will encourage us to fulfil those duties which God puts upon us, nor will self-love be able to cheat us into tepidity.

Pray for the Church of Syria which you sanctified by your virtues. Watch over the sanctuaries of the Holy Land. Protect the pilgrims who, after your example, visit the Holy Places where were achieved the Mysteries of our Redemption. Excite throughout Christendom a love of the Holy Land, and may we be inflamed in the love of Jesus by following devoutly the Stations He marked for us in His sacred Passion.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Hippo Regius in Africa, the holy bishop Theogenes and thirty-six others, who, despising temporal death, obtained the crown of eternal life in the persecution of Valerian.

In the diocese of Paris, the saintly queen Bathildis, illustrious by her sanctity and glorious miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

26 JANUARY – SAINT POLYCARP (Bishop and Martyr)

 

Polycarp, a disciple of the Apostle John who ordained him Bishop of Smyrna, was looked up to by all the Churches of Asia inasmuch as he had not only known some of the Apostles and those who had seen our Lord, but had been trained by them. He went to Rome, during the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, and under the Pontificate of Anicetus, to have an answer to certain questions regarding Easter. While there he brought back to the faith several Christians who had been misled by the teaching of Marcion and Valentine. Having, on a certain occasion, casually met Marcion who said to him: “Do you know us?” Polycarp replied: “Yes, I know you as the first-born of Satan.” Some time after, under the reign of Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, in the fourth persecution after that under Nero, he was cited before the Proconsul of Smyrna who condemned him to be burnt alive. The sentence was carried into effect in the amphitheatre amid the clamours of the whole people. He wrote an important Letter to the Philippians which is still read in the Churches of Asia.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Amid the sweetness he is enjoying from the contemplation of the Word made Flesh, John the Beloved Disciple beholds coming towards him his dear Polycarp, the Angel of the Church of Smyrna (Apocalypse ii. 8), all resplendent with the glory of martyrdom. This venerable Saint has on his soul the fervent love that made him say in the amphitheatre when asked by the Proconsul to curse his Divine Master: “Six-and-eighty years have I served Him, and He has never done me any wrong — nay, He has laden me with kindness. How could I blaspheme my King who has saved me?” After having suffered fire and the sword, he was admitted into the presence of this King, his Saviour, in reward for the eighty-six years of his faithful service, for the labours he had gone through in order to maintain faith and charity among his flock, and for the cruel death he endured. He was a disciple of Saint John the Evangelist whom he imitated by zealously opposing the heretics who were then striving to corrupt the faith. In obedience to the command of his holy Master (2 John i. 10), he refused to hold intercourse with Marcion, the heresiarch whom he called the first-born of Satan. This energetic adversary of the proud sect that denied the mystery of the Incarnation wrote an admirable Epistle to the Philippians in which we find these words: “Whoever confesses not that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, is an Antichrist.” Polycarp, then, had a right to the honour of standing near the crib in which the Son of God shows Himself to us in all His loveliness, and clothed in flesh like our own.

Let us honour this disciple of John, this friend of Ignatius, this Bishop of the Apostolic Age, whose praise was pronounced by Jesus Christ Himself in the Revelations of Patmos. Our Saviour said to him by the mouth of Saint John: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Apocalypse ii. 10). Polycarp was faithful even unto death, and has received his crown. And while we are celebrating the coming of his King among us, he is one of the Saints who assist us to profit of the holy season.

* * * * *

How well you bore out the full meaning of your name, Polycarp, for you produced many fruits for your Saviour during your six-and-eighty years spent in his service. The numerous souls won over to Christ, the virtues which adorned your life, and your life itself, which you presented to your Lord in its full maturity — these were your fruits. And what happiness was yours to have received instruction from the Disciple that leaned upon Jesus’s breast! After being separated from Him for more than sixty years, you are united with Him on this the day of your martyrdom, and your venerable master receives you in a transport of joy. You adore, with Him, that Divine Babe whose simplicity you had imitated during life, and who was the single object of your love. Ask of Him, for us, that we too may be faithful unto death.

Fertilise by your prayers, now that you are throned in Heaven, the vineyard of the Church which, when on Earth, you cultivated by your labours and watered with the blood of your glorious martyrdom. Re-establish faith and unity in the Churches of Asia which were founded by your venerable hand. Hasten, by your prayers, the destruction of that degrading slavery of Mahometanism which has kept the East in bondage so long because her once faithful children severed themselves from Rome by the great schism of Byzantium. Pray for the Church of Lyons which regards you as its founder, through the ministry of your disciple Pothinus and takes itself so glorious a share in the apostolate of the Gentiles by the work of the Propagation of the Faith.

Watch over the purity of our holy Faith and preserve us from being deceived by false teachers. The error which you combated and which teaches that all the mysteries of the Incarnation are but empty symbols, has risen up again in these our days. There are Marcions even now who would reduce all religion to myths, and they find some few followers. May your powerful prayers rid the world of this remnant of so impious a doctrine. You paid homage to the Apostolic Chair, for you too would see Peter, and journeyed to Rome in order to consult its Pontiff on questions regarding the interests of your Church of Smyrna. Defend the rights of this august See from which alone are derived both the jurisdiction of our Pastors and the authoritative teachings of Faith. Pray for us that we may spend the remaining days of this holy Season in the contemplation and the love of our new-born King. May this love, accompanied with purity of heart, draw down upon us the merciful blessings of our God and at length, after our course is run, obtain for us the Crown of Life.