22 APRIL – SAINTS SOTUS AND CAIUS (Popes and Martyrs)

 

Soter was born at Fondi in Campania. He passed a decree forbidding virgins consecrated to God to touch the sacred Vessels and Palls, or to exercise the office of Thurifer in the Church. He also decreed that on Maundy Thursday, the Body of Christ should be received by all, excepting those who were forbidden to do so by reason of some grievous sin. His Pontificate lasted 3 years, 11 months and 18 days. He was crowned with martyrdom during the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius and was buried in the Cemetery which was afterwards called the Cemetery of Caliixtus. In the month of December, according to the custom observed by his predecessors, he ordained 18 Priests, 9 Deacons, and 11 Bishops.

Caius was a native of Dalmatia and a relation of the emperor Diocletian. He decreed that the following ecclesiastic orders or honours should precede the ordination of a Bishop: Door-keeper, Lector, Exorcist, Acolyte, Sub-deacon, Deacon and Priest. For some time he concealed himself in a cave in order to escape the cruelty exercised against the Christians by Diocletian, but after eight years, he, together with his brother Gabinus, received the crown of martyrdom. He governed the Church 12 years, 4 months and 5 days. He ordained in the month of December, 25 Priests, 8 Deacons and 5 Bishops. He was buried in the Cemetery of Callixtus on the 10th of the Calends of May (April 22nd). Urban VIII revived his memory in Rome, restored his Church, which was in ruins, and honoured it with a Title, a Station, and the relics of the Saint.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The palms of two martyred Popes are intertwined and grace this day of the Calendar. Soter suffered for Christ in the second, and Caius in the third century. A hundred years separate them, and yet we have the same energy of faith, the same jealous fidelity to keep intact the depositum left by Christ to His Church. What human society ever existed that produced heroes for century after century? The society, however, which was founded by Christ — in other words, the Church — is based on that traditional devotedness which consists in laying down one’s life for the Faith. And if so, we may be sure that the spirit of martyrdom would show itself in them that were the Heads and Fathers of this Society. The first thirty successors of Saint Peter paid dearly for the honour of the Supreme Pontificate: they were martyrs. How grand the throne of our Risen Jesus, surrounded as it is by all these kings clad in their triumphant scarlet robes!

Soter was the immediate successor of Anicetus whose feast we kept on the 17th of this month. Time has effaced the details of his life. Eusebius, however, gives us a fragment of a Letter written by Saint Diooysius, Bishop of Corinth, in which thanks are expressed to the Pontiff for the alms he sent to the faithful of that Church during a famine. An Apostolic Letter was sent with these alms and Saint Dionysius tells us that it was read in the assemblies of the Faithful, together with the one addressed to the same Church, in the preceding century, by Saint Clement. The Roman Pontiffs have ever united charity to their fidelity in preserving pure the Deposit of our Faith. With regard to Caius, he suffered death in the terrible persecution under Diocletian, and little more than a mere mention of his name is given in the annals of Christian Rome.

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O holy Pontiffs, you are of the number of those who went through the great tribulation (Apocalypse vii. 14) and passed, through fire and water (Psalm lxv. 12), to the eternal shores of Heaven. The thought of Jesus’ victory over death gave you courage: you remembered how His Passion was followed by a glorious Resurrection. By imitating Him in laying down your lives for your sheep, you have taught us how we also should think no sacrifice too great to be made for our Faith. Get us this heroic courage. Baptism has numbered us among the soldiers of Christ. Confirmation has given us the Spirit of Fortitude. We must, then, be ready for battle. It may be that even in our own times a persecution may rage against the Church. At all events, we have to fight against ourselves, the spirit of the world and Satan: support us by your prayers. You were once the Fathers of the Christian people. You are still animated with the pastoral charity which then filled your hearts. Protect us and make us loyal to the God whose cause was so clear to you when here on Earth.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Smyrna, the Saints Apelles and Lucius who were among the first disciples of Christ.

The same day, many holy martyrs who, the year following the death of St. Simeon, and on the anniversary of the Passion of Our Lord, were put to the sword for the name of Christ throughout Persia under king Sapor. Among those who then suffered for the faith were the eunuch Azades, a favourite of the king; Milles, a bishop renowned for sanctity and miracles; the bishop Acepsimas, with one of his priests named James; also Aithalas and Joseph, priests; Azadan and Abdiesus, deacons, and many other clerics; Mareas and Bicor, bishops, with twenty other bishops, and nearly two hundred and fifty clerics; many monks and consecrated virgins, among whom was the sister of St. Simeon, called Tarbula, with her maid-servant, who were both killed in a most cruel manner by being tied to stakes and sawed in two.

Also in Persia, the Saints Parmenius, Helimenas and Chrysotelus, priests, Lucas and Mucius, deacons, whose triumph is related in the Acts of Saints Abdon and Sennen.

At Alexandria, the birthday of the martyr St. Leonides who suffered under Severus.

At Lyons, in the persecution of Antoninus Verus, St. Epipodius who was arrested with Alexander, his companion, and after undergoing severe torments consummated his martyrdom by decapitation.

At Sens, St. Leo, bishop and confessor.

At Anastasiopolis, St. Theodore, a bishop renowned for miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

5 APRIL – SAINT VINCENT FERRER (Confessor)

 

Vincent was born at Valencia in Spain, of respectable parents. He showed the gravity of old age even when quite a child. Considering within himself, as far as his youthful mind knew it, the dangers of this dark world, he received the Habit in the Order of Preachers when he was eighteen years of age. After his solemn profession he diligently applied himself to sacred studies and gained, with much applause, the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Shortly after this he obtained leave from his superiors to preach the word of God. He refuted the false doctrines of the Saracens, but with so much earnestness and success that he brought a great number of infidels to the faith of Christ and converted many thousand Christians from sin to repentance, and from vice to virtue. God had chosen him to teach the way of salvation to all nations, and tribes and tongues, as also to warn men of the coming of the last and dread Day of Judgement. He so preached that he struck terror into the minds of all his hearers and turned them from earthly affections to the love of God. His mode of life, while exercising this office of apostolic preaching, was as follows: he every day sang Mass early in the morning, delivered a sermon to the people, and, unless absolutely obliged to do otherwise, observed a strict fast.

Vincent gave holy and prudent advice to all who consulted him. He never ate flesh-meat or wore linen garments. He reconciled contending parties and restored peace among nations that were at variance. He zealously laboured to restore to, and maintain in, union the seamless garment of the Church which at that time was rent by a direful schism. He shone in every virtue. He was simple and humble, and treated his revilers and persecutors with meekness and affection. Many were the signs and miracles which God wrought through him, in confirmation of the holiness of his life and preaching. He very frequently restored the sick to health by placing his hands upon them. He drove out the unclean spirits from the bodies of such as were possessed. He gave hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, sight to the blind. He cured lepers and raised the dead to life. At length, worn out by old age and bodily infirmities, after travelling through many countries of Europe and reaping an abundant harvest of souls, this untiring herald of the Gospel terminated his preaching and life at Van in Brittany, in 1419. He was canonised by Pope Calixtus III.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Today, again, it is Catholic Spain that offers one of her sons to the Church that she may present him to the Christian world as a model and a patron. Vincent Ferrer, or, as he was called, the Angel of the Judgement, comes to us proclaiming the near approach of the Judge of the living and the dead. During his lifetime he traversed almost every country of Europe preaching this terrible truth, and the people of those times went from his sermons striking their breasts, crying out to God to have mercy upon them — in a word, converted. In these our days the thought of that awful Day when Jesus Christ will appear in the clouds of Heaven and judge mankind has not the same effect upon Christians. They believe in the Last Judgement because it is an Article of Faith. But, we repeat, the thought produces little impression. After long years of a sinful life, a special grace touches the heart and we witness a conversion. There are thousands thus converted, but the majority of them continue to lead an easy, comfortable life, seldom thinking on Hell and still less seldom on the Judgement with which God is to bring Time to an end.

It was not thus in the Christian Ages. Neither is it so now with those whose conversion is solid. Love is stronger in them than fear, and yet the fear of God’s Judgment is ever living within them and gives stability to the new life they have begun. Those Christians who have heavy debts with Divine Justice because of the sins of their past lives, and who, notwithstanding, make the time of Lent a season for evincing their cowardice and tepidity, sorely, such Christians as these must very rarely ask themselves what will become of them on that Day when the Sign of the Son of Man will appear in the heavens and when Jesus, not as Saviour, but as Judge, will separate the goats from the sheep. One would suppose that they have received a revelation from God that, on the Day of Judgement, all will be well with them. Let us be more prudent. Let us stand on our guard against the illusions of a proud, self-satisfied indifference. Let us secure to ourselves, by sincere repentance, the well-founded hope that on the terrible Day which has made the very Saints tremble we will hear these words of the Divine Judge addressed to us: “Come, blessed of my Father, possess the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!” (Matthew xxv. 34). Vincent Ferrer leaves the peaceful cell of his monastery that he may go and rouse men to the great truth they had forgotten — the Day of God’s inexorable justice. We have not heard his preachings, but, have we not the Gospel? Have we not the Church who, at the commencement of this Season of Penance, preached to us the terrible truth which Saint Vincent took as the subject of his instructions? Let us, therefore, prepare ourselves to appear before Him who will demand of us a strict account of those graces which He so profusely poured out upon us, and were the purchase of His Blood. Happy they that spend their Lents well, for they may hope for a favourable Judgement.

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How grand must have been your eloquence, Vincent, that could rouse men from their lethargy and give them to feel all the terrors of the awful Judgement. Our forefathers heard your preaching and returned to God, and were pardoned. We, too, were drowsy of spirit when, at the commencement of this holy Season, the Church awakened us to the work of our salvation by sprinkling our heads with ashes, and pronouncing over us the sentence of our God by which we are condemned to die. Yes, we are to die. We are to die soon, and a Judgement is to be held upon us, deciding our eternal lot, Then, at the moment fixed in the divine decrees, we will rise again in order that we may assist at the solemn and terrible Judgement. Our consciences will be laid open, our good and bad actions will be weighed, before the whole of mankind, after which the sentence already pronounced upon us in our particular Judgement will be made public. Sinners as we are, how will we be able to bear the eye of our Redeemer who will then be our inexorable Judge? How will we endure even the gaze of our fellow-creatures who will then behold every sin we have committed? But above all, which of the two sentences will be ours? Were the Judge to pronounce it at this very moment, would He place us among the Blessed of His Father, or among the Cursed? On His right, or on His left?

Our fathers were seized with fear when you, Vincent, put these questions to them. They did penance for their sins and, after receiving pardon from God their fears abated, and holy joy filled their souls. Angel of God’s Judgement! Pray for us that we may be moved to salutary fear. A few days hence and we will behold our Redeemer ascending the hill of Calvary with the heavy weight of His Cross upon him. We will hear Him thus speaking to the Daughters of Jerusalem: “Weep not over me, but weep for yourselves and for your children: for if in the green wood they do these things, what will be done in the dry?” (Luke xxiii. 28, 31). Help us, Vincent, to profit of these words of warning. Our sins have reduced us to the condition of dry dead branches that are good for nothing but to burn in the fire of divine vengeance. Help us by your intercession to be once more united to Him who will give us life. Your zeal for souls was extreme. Take ours under your care and procure for them the grace of perfect reconciliation with our offended Judge. Pray, too, for Spain, the country that gave you life and faith, your religious profession and your priesthood. The dangers that are now threatening her require all your zeal and love. Exercise them in her favour and be her faithful protector.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Thessalonica, St. Irene, virgin, who was imprisoned for having concealed the sacred books contrary to the edict of Diocletian, was pierced with an arrow and consumed by fire by order of the governor Dulcetius under whom her sisters Agape and Chionia had previously suffered.

On the island of Lesbos, the sufferings of five holy martyrs.

The same day, St. Zeno, martyr, who was flayed alive, besmeared with pitch and then cast into the fire.

In Africa, the holy martyrs, who, in the persecution of the Arian king Genseric, were murdered in the church on Easter Sunday. The lector, while singing Alleluia at the stand, was pierced through the throat with an arrow.

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

Thanks be to God.

3 APRIL – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Taormina in Sicily, the bishop St. Pancratius, who sealed with a martyr’s blood the Gospel of Christ which the blessed Apostle St. Peter had sent him there to preach.

At Tomis in Scythia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Evagrius and Benignus.

At Thessalonica, the martyrdom of the holy virgins Agape and Chionia, under the emperor Diocletian. As they would not deny Christ, they were first detained in prison, then cast into the fire, but being untouched by the flames, they gave up their souls to their Creator while praying to Him.

At Tyre, the martyr St. Vulpian, who was sewn up in a sack with a serpent and a dog and drowned in the sea during the persecution of Maximian Galerius.

In the monastery of Medicion, in the East, the abbot St. Nicetas, who suffered much for the worship of holy images in the time of Leo the Armenian.

In England, St. Richard, bishop of Chichester, celebrated for holiness and glorious miracles. In the same country, St. Burgundofora, abbess and virgin.

At Palermo, St. Benedict, of St. Philadelphus, confessor, surnamed the Black, on account of his colour. He was of the Order of Friars Minor, and rested in the Lord on the third of April, with a reputation for miracles. Pope Pius VII placed him in the number of the saints.

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

Thanks be to God.

2 APRIL – SAINT FRANCIS OF PAOLA (Confessor)

Francis was born at Paula in Calabria. His parents, who were for a long time without children, obtained him from Heaven after having made a vow and prayed to Saint Francis. Then very young, being inflamed with the love of God, Francis withdrew into a desert where for six years he led an austere life, but one that was sweetened by heavenly contemplations. The fame of his virtues having spread abroad, many persons went to him out of a desire to be trained in virtue. Out of a motive of fraternal charity, he left his solitude, built a Church near Paula and there laid the foundation of his Order. He had a wonderful gift of preaching. He observed virginity during his whole life. Such was his love for humility that he called himself the last of all men, and would have his disciples named Minims. His dress was of the coarsest kind. He always walked barefooted and his bed was the ground. His abstinence was extraordinary: he ate only once in the day and not until after sunset. His food consisted of bread and water to which he scarcely ever added those viands which are permitted even in Lent. And this practice he would have kept up by his Religious under the obligation of a fourth vow. God bore witness to the holiness of His servant by many miracles, of which this is the most celebrated: that when he was rejected by the sailors, he and his companion passed over the straits of Sicily on his cloak, which he spread out on the water. He also prophesied many future events. King Louis XI France had a great desire to see the Saint and treated him with great respect. Having reached his ninety-first year, he died at Tours in 1507. His body, which was unburied for eleven days, so far from becoming corrupt, yielded a sweet fragrance. He was canonised by Pope Leo X.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The founder of a Religious Order, whose distinguishing characteristics were humility and penance comes before us to-day: it is Francis of Paula. Let us study his virtues and beg his intercession. His whole life was one of great innocence, and yet we find him embracing, from his earliest youth, mortifications which nowadays, would not be expected from the very worst sinners. How was it that he could do so much? And we, who have so often sinned, do so little? The claims of Divine Justice are as strong now as ever they were, for God never changes, nor can the offence we have committed against Him by our sins be pardoned unless we make atonement. The Saints punished themselves with life-long and austere penances for the slightest sins, and the Church can scarcely induce us to observe the law of Lent, though it is now reduced to the lowest degree of severity.

What is the cause of this want of the spirit of expiation and penance? It is that our Faith is weak, and our love of God is cold because our thoughts and affections are so set upon this present life that we seldom if ever consider things in the light of eternity? How many of us are like the King of France, who having obtained permission from the Pope that Saint Francis of Paula should come and live near him, threw himself at the Saint’s feet and besought him to obtain of God that he, the King, might have a long life! Louis XI had led a most wicked life, but his anxiety was, not to do penance for his sins, but to obtain, by the Saint’s prayers, a prolongation of a career which had been little better than a storing up wrath for the day of wrath. We, too, love this present life. We love it to excess. The laws of Fasting and Abstinence are broken not because the obeying them would endanger life or even seriously injure health, for where either of these is to be feared, the Church does not enforce her Lenten penances: but people dispense themselves from Fasting and Abstinence because the spirit of immortification renders every privation intolerable, and every interruption of an easy comfortable life insupportable. They have strength enough for any fatigue that business or pleasure calls for, but the moment there is question of observing those laws which the Church has instituted for the interest of the body as well as of the soul, all seems impossible. The conscience gets accustomed to these annual transgressions and ends by persuading the sinner that he may be saved without doing penance.

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Apostle of penance! Your life was always that of a Saint and we are sinners: yet do we presume during these days to beg your powerful intercession in order to obtain of God that this holy Season may not pass without having produced within us a true spirit of penance which may give us a reasonable hope of receiving His pardon. We admire the wondrous works which filled your life — a life that resembled in duration that of the Patriarchs, and prolonged the privilege the world enjoyed of having such a Saint to teach and edify it. Now that you are enjoying in Heaven the fruits of your labours on Earth, think upon us and hearken to the prayers addressed to you by the faithful. Get us the spirit of compunction which will add earnestness to our works of penance. Bless and preserve the Order you have founded. Your holy relics have been destroyed by the fury of heretics. Avenge the injury thus offered to your name by praying for the conversion of heretics and sinners, and drawing down upon the world those heavenly graces which will revive among us the fervour of the Ages of Faith.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Caesarea in Palestine, during the persecution of Galerius Maximian, the birthday of the martyr St. Amphian, who, because he reproved the governor Urban for sacrificing to idols, was cruelly lacerated and, with his feet wrapped in a cloth saturated with oil, was set on fire. After these painful tortures, he was plunged into the sea. Thus through fire and water he reached everlasting repose.

In the same city, the passion of St. Theodosia, a virgin of Tyre, who, in the same persecution, for having publicly saluted the holy confessors as they stood before the tribunal and begged of them to remember her when they should be with God, was arrested and led to the governor Urban. By his order, her sides and breasts were lacerated to the very vitals and she was thrown into the sea.

At Lyons, St. Nizier, bishop of that city, renowned for his saintly life and miracles.

At Como, St. Abundius, bishop and confessor.

At Langres, St. Urban, bishop.

In Palestine, the decease of St. Mary of Egypt, surnamed the Sinner.

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

Thanks be to God.