22 AUGUST – OCTAVE OF THE ASSUMPTION: THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

The Immaculate Heart of Mary is a devotional title that refers to the interior life of the Blessed Virgin Mary―her joys and sorrows, her virtues and perfections, her virginal love for God, her maternal love for Jesus and her compassionate love for all mankind. Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a natural result of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1944 the Venerable Pope Pius XII ordered the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be celebrated throughout the universal Church on 22 August with the privilege of double of the Second Class. The Pope told the Catholic world that “with this devotion the Church renders the honour due to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, since under the symbol of this Heart she venerates with reverence the eminent and singular holiness of the Mother of God, and especially her most ardent love for God and Jesus her Son, and moreover her maternal compassion for all those redeemed by the divine Blood.” 

Mary Immaculate, Star of the Morning
Chosen before the creation began,
Destined to bring, through the light of your dawning
Conquest of Satan and rescue to men.

Bend from your throne at the voice of our crying.
Look to this earth where your footsteps have trod.
Stretch out your arms to us, living and dying,
Mary Immaculate, Mother of God.

We, sinners, honor your sinless perfection;
Fallen and weak, for God’s mercy we plead.
Grant us the shield of your mighty protection.
Measure your aid by depth of our need.

Bend from your throne at the voice of our crying.
Look to this earth where your footsteps have trod.
Stretch out your arms to us, living and dying,
Mary Immaculate, Mother of God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

He alone who could understand Mary’s holiness could appreciate her glory. But Wisdom, who presided over the formation of the abyss, has not revealed to us the depth of that ocean beside which all the virtues of the just and all the graces lavished on them are but streamlets. Nevertheless, the immensity of grace and merit by which the Blessed Virgin’s supernatural perfection stands quite apart from all others gives us a right to conclude that she has an equal super-eminence in glory which is always proportioned to the sanctity of the elect. Whereas all the other predestined of our race are placed among the various ranks of the celestial hierarchy, the holy Mother of God is exalted above all the choirs, forming by herself a distinct order, a new Heaven, where the harmonies of Angels and Saints are far surpassed. In Mary God is more glorified, better known, more loved than in all the rest of the universe. On this ground alone, according to the order of creative Providence which subordinates the less to the more perfect, Mary is entitled to be Queen of Earth and Heaven. In this sense, it is for her, next to the Man-God, that the world exists.

The great theologian, Cardinal de Lugo, explaining the words of the Saints on this subject, dares to say: “Just as, creating all things in his complacency for His Christ, God made Him the end of creatures, so with due proportion, we may say He drew the rest of the world out of nothing through the love of the Virgin Mother so that she too might thus be justly called the end of all things.” As Mother of God, and at the same time His first born, she had a right and title over His goods. As Bride she ought to share His crown. “The glorious Virgin,” says Saint Bernardine of Sienna, “has as many subjects as the Blessed Trinity has. Every creature, whatever be its rank in creation, spiritual as the Angels, rational as man, material as the heavenly bodies or the elements, Heaven and Earth, the reprobate and the blessed, all that springs from the power of God, is subject to the Virgin. For He who is the Son of God and of the Blessed Virgin, wishing, so to say, to make His Mother’s became, God as He is, the servant of Mary. If then it be true to say that every one, even the Virgin, obeys God, we may also convert the proposition, and affirm that every one, even God, obeys the Virgin.”

The empire of Eternal Wisdom comprises, so the Holy Spirit tells us, the heavens, the earth, and the abyss: the same then is the appanage of Mary on this her crowning day. Like the divine Wisdom to whom she gave Flesh, she may glory in God. He whose magnificence she once chanted, today exalts her humility. The Blessed one by excellence has become the honour of her people, the admiration of the Saints, the glory of the armies of the Most High. Together with the Spouse, let her, in her beauty, march to victory. Let her triumph over the hearts of the mighty and the lowly. The giving of the world’s sceptre into her hands is no mere honour void of reality: from this day forward she commands and fights, protects the Church, defends its head, upholds the ranks of the sacred militia, raises up Saints, directs Apostles, enlightens doctors, exterminates heresy, crushes Hell.

Let us hail our Queen, let us sing her mighty deeds. Let us be docile to her. Above all, let us love her and trust in her love. Let us not fear that, amid the great interests of the spreading of God’s Kingdom, she will forget our littleness or our miseries. She knows all that takes place in the obscurest corners, in the furthest limits of her immense domain. From her title of universal cause under the Lord, is rightly deduced the universality of her providence, and the masters of doctrine show us Mary in glory sharing in the science called of vision by which all that is, has been, or is to be, is present before God. On the other hand, we must believe that her charity could not possibly be defective: as her love of God surpasses the love of all the elect, so the tenderness of all mothers united, centred upon an only child, is nothing to the love with which with Mary surrounds the least, the most forgotten, the most neglected of all the children of God, who are her children too. She forestalls them in her solicitude, listens at all times to their humble prayers, pursues them in their guilty flights, sustains their weakness, compassionates their ills, whether of body or of soul, sheds on all men the heavenly favours of which she is the treasury.

Let us then say to her in the words of one of her great servants: “O most holy Mother of God, who has beautified Heaven and Earth, in leaving this world you have not abandoned man. Here below you lived in Heaven. From heaven you converse with us. Thrice happy those who contemplated you and lived with the Mother of life! But in the same way as you dwelt in the flesh with them of the first age, you now dwell with us spiritually. We hear your voice, and all our voices reach your ear, and your continual protection over us makes your presence evident. You visit us. Your eye is upon us all, and although our eyes cannot see you, O most holy One, yet you are in the midst of us, showing yourself in various ways to whoever is worthy. Your immaculate body come forth from the tomb hinders not the immaterial power, the most pure activity of that spirit of yours which, being inseparable from the Holy Ghost, breathes also where it wills. O Mother of God, receive the grateful homage of our joy, and speak for your children to Him who has glorified you: whatever you ask of Him, He will accomplish it by His divine power. May He be blessed forever!”

Let us honour the group of Martyrs which forms the rear-guard of our triumphant Queen. Timothy, who came from Antioch to Rome, Hippolytus, Bishop of Porto, and Symphorian, the glory of Autun, suffered for God at different periods and at different places, but they gathered their palms on the same day of the year, and the same Heaven is now their abode. “My son, my son,” said his valiant mother to Symphorian, “remember life eternal. Look up and see Him who reigns in Heaven. They are not taking your life away, but changing it into a better.”

Let us admire these heroes of our faith, and let us learn to walk like them, though by less painful paths, in the footsteps of our Lord, and so to rejoice Mary.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

At Rome, on the Via Ostiensis, the birthday of the holy martyr Timothy. After he had been arrested by Tarquinius, prefect of the city, and kept for a long time in prison, as he refused to sacrifice to the idols, he was scourged three times, subjected to the most severe torments and finally beheaded.

At Porto, St. Hippolytus, bishop, most renowned for learning. Having gloriously confessed the faith in the time of the emperor Alexander, he was bound hand and foot, precipitated into a deep ditch filled with water, and thus received the palm of martyrdom. His body was buried by Christians at that place.

At Autun, St. Symphorian, a martyr, in the time of the emperor Aurelian. Refusing to offer sacrifice to the idols, he was first scourged, then confined in prison, and finally ended his martyrdom by being beheaded.

At Rome, St. Antoninus, martyr, who, openly declaring himself a Christian, was condemned to capital punishment by the judge Vitellius, and buried on the Via Aurelia.

Also at Porto, the holy martyrs Martial, Saturninus, Epictetus, Maprilis and Felix, with their companions.

At Nicomedia, the Saints Agathonicus, Zoticus and their fellow-martyrs, under the emperor Maximian and the governor Eutholomius.

At Tarsus, the Saints Athanasius, bishop and martyr, Anthusa, a noble woman whom he had baptised, and two of her slaves, who suffered under Valerian.

At Rheims, the holy martyr Maurus and his companions.

In Spain, the saintly martyrs Fabrician and Philibert.

At Pavia, St. Gunifort, martyr.

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

Thanks be to God.

21 AUGUST – SAINT JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL (Widow)

Jane Frances Frémiot was born at Dijon in Burgundy in 1572. From her childhood she gave clear signs of her future great sanctity. It was said that when only five years of age, she put to silence a Calvinist nobleman by substantial arguments, far beyond her age, and when he offered her a little present she immediately threw it into the fire, saying: “This is how heretics will burn in Hell, because they do not believe Christ when He speaks.” When she lost her mother, she put herself under the care of the Virgin Mother of God, and dismissed a maid servant who was enticing her to love of the world. There was nothing childish in her manners. She shrank from worldly pleasures, and thirsting for martyrdom, she devoted herself entirely to religion and piety. She was given in marriage by her father to the Baron de Chantal, and in this new state of life she strove to cultivate every virtue, and busied herself in instructing in faith and morals her four children, her servants and all under her authority. Her liberality in relieving the necessities of the poor was very great, and more than once God miraculously multiplied her stores of provisions. On this account she promised never to refuse anyone who begged an alms in Christ’s name.

Jane was widowed at the age of 28 when the Baron died in an accident while hunting. She determined to embrace a more perfect life and bound herself by a vow of chastity. She not only bore her husband’s death with resignation, but overcame herself so far as to stand godmother to the child of the man who had killed him in order to give a public proof that she pardoned him. She contented herself with a few servants and with plain food and dress, devoting her costly garments to pious usages. Whatever time remained from her domestic cares she employed in prayer, pious reading and work. She could never be induced to accept offers of second marriage, even though honourable and advantageous. In order not to be shaken in her resolution of observing chastity, she renewed her vow and imprinted the most holy name of Jesus Christ on her breast with a red-hot iron. Her love grew more ardent day by day. She had the poor, the abandoned, the sick, and those who were afflicted with the most terrible diseases brought to her, and not only sheltered, comforted and nursed them, but washed and mended their filthy garments, and did not shrink from putting her lips to their running sores.

Having learnt the will of God from her spiritual director and friend Saint Francis de Sales, she founded the Institute of the Visitation of our Lady for the spiritual advancement of young girls and widows who did not have the desire or strength to subject themselves to the severe ascetical practices then in force in all religious orders. For this purpose she quitted, with unfaltering courage, her father, her father-in-law, and even her son, over whose body she had to step in order to leave her home, so violently did he oppose her vocation. She observed her Rule with the utmost fidelity, and so great was her love of poverty that she rejoiced to be in want of even the necessaries of life. She was a perfect model of Christian humility, obedience and all other virtues. Wishing for still higher ascensions in her heart, she bound herself by a most difficult vow always to do what she thought most perfect. The Order of the Visitation spread far and wide, chiefly through her endeavours, and she encouraged her sisters to piety, and charity by words and example, and also by writings full of divine wisdom.

Jane died at Moulins, having duly received the Sacraments of the Church. She died on the 13th of December 1641. Saint Vincent de Paul, who was at a great distance, saw her soul being carried to Heaven and Saint Francis de Sales coming to meet her. Her body was afterwards translated to the crypt in the Church of the Visitation at Annecy. Miracles having made her illustrious both before and after her death, she was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in 1751 and was canonised by Pope Clement XIII in 1767.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Although Mary’s glory is within her, beauty appears also in the garment with which she is clad: a mysterious robe woven of the virtues of the Saints who owe to her both their justice and their reward. As every grace comes to us through our Mother, so all the glory of Heaven converges towards that of the Queen.

Now among the blessed souls there are some more immediately connected with the holy Virgin. Prevented by the peculiarly tender love of the Mother of grace, they left all things when on Earth to run after the odour of the perfumes of the Spouse she gave to the world. In Heaven they keep the greater intimacy with Mary which was theirs even in the time of exile. Hence it is, that at this time of her exaltation beside the Son of God, the Psalmist sings also of the Virgins entering joyously with her into the temple of the King. The crowning of our Lady is truly the special feast of these daughters of Tyre, who have themselves become princesses and queens in order to form her noble escort and her royal court.

If the Saint proposed to our veneration today is not adorned with the diadem of virginity, she is nevertheless one of those who have deserved in their humility to hear the heavenly message: “Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear. And forget your people and your father’s house” (Psalms xliv. 11). In reply, such was her eagerness in the ways of love, that numberless virgins followed in her footsteps in order to be more sure of reaching the Spouse. She also, then, has a glorious place in the vesture of gold, with its play of colours, with which the Queen of Saints is clad in her triumph. For what is the variety noticed by the Psalm, in the embroideries and fringes of that robe of glory, if not the diversity of tints in the gold of divine charity among the elect? In order to bring forward the happy effect produced by this diversity in the light of the Saints, Eternal Wisdom has multiplied the forms under which the life of the counsels may be presented to the world. Such is the teaching given in the holy Liturgy by bringing together the feasts of yesterday and today on its sacred cycle. Between Cistercian austerity and the more interior renouncement of the Visitation of holy Mary, there seems to be a great distance: nevertheless the Church unites the memory of Saint Jane de Chantal and of the Abbot of Clairvaux in homage to the Blessed Virgin during the happy Octave which consummates her glory. It is because all rules of perfection are alike in being merely variations of the one Rule, that of love, of which Mary’s life was a perfect pattern. “Let us not divide the robe of the Bride,” says Saint Bernard.

“Unity, as well in heaven as on earth, consists in charity. Let him who glories in the Rule, not break the rule by acting contrary to the Gospel. If the kingdom of God is within us, it is because it is not meat and drink. But justice, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans xiv. 17). To criticise others on their exterior observance, and to neglect the Rule in what regards the soul, is to take out a gnat from the cup and to swallow a camel. You break your body with endless labour, you mortify with austerities your members which are on the earth, and you do well. But while you allow yourself to judge him who does not so much penance, he perhaps is following the advice of the Apostle: ‘More eager for the better gifts, keeping less of that bodily exercise which is profitable to little he gives himself up more to that godliness which is profitable to all things’ (1 Timothy iv. 8). Which then of you two keeps the Rule better? Doubtless he that becomes better thereby. Now which is the better? The humbler? or the more fatigued? ‘Learn of me,’ said Jesus, ‘because I am meek and humble of heart’” (Matthew xi. 29).

Saint Francis de Sales, in his turn, speaking of the diversity of religious Orders, says very well: “All Religious Orders have one spirit common to them all, and each has a spirit peculiar to itself. The common spirit is the design they all have of aspiring after the perfection of charity. But the peculiar spirit of each is the means of arriving at that perfection of charity, that is to say, at the union of our souls with God, and with our neighbour through the love of God.” Coming next to the special spirit of the institute he had founded together with our Saint, the Bishop of Geneva declares that it is “a spirit of profound humility towards God and of great sweetness towards our neighbour, inasmuch as there is less rigour towards the body, so much the more sweetness must there be in the heart.” And because “this Congregation has been so established that no great severity may prevent the weak and infirm from entering it and giving themselves up to the perfection of divine love,” he adds playfully: “If there be any sister so generous and courageous as to wish to attain perfection in a quarter of an hour by doing more than the Community does, I would advise her to humble herself and be content to become perfect in three days, following the same course as the rest. For a great simplicity must always be kept in all things: to walk simply, that is the true way for the daughters of the Visitation, a way exceedingly pleasing to God and very safe.”

With sweetness and humility for motto, the pious Bishop did well to give his daughters for escutcheon the divine Heart from which these gentle virtues derive their source. We know how magnificently Heaven justified the choice. Before a century had elapsed, a nun of the Visitation, the Blessed Margaret Mary, could say: “Our adorable Saviour showed me the devotion to His divine Heart as a beautiful tree which He had destined from all eternity to take root in the midst of our Institute. He wills that the daughters of the Visitation should distribute the fruits of this sacred tree abundantly to all those that wish to eat of it, and without fear of its failing them.”

“Love! Love! Love! my daughters, I know nothing else.” Thus did Jane de Chantal, the glorious co-operatrix of Saint Francis in establishing the Visitation of holy Mary, often cry out in her latter years. “Mother,” said one of the sisters, “I will write to our houses that your charity is growing old, and that, like your godfather Saint John, you can speak of nothing but love.” To which the Saint replied: “My daughter, do not make such a comparison, for we must not profane the Saints by comparing them to poor sinners. But you will do me a pleasure if you tell those sisters that if I went by my own feelings, if I followed my inclination, and if I were not afraid of wearying the sisters, I should never speak of anything but charity. And I assure you, I scarcely ever open my mouth to speak of holy things without having a mind to say: ‘You must love the Lord with your whole heart, and your neighbour as yourself.’”

Such words are worthy of her who obtained for the Church the admirable Treatise on the Love of God, composed, says the Bishop of Genoa, for her sake, at her request and solicitation, for herself and her companions. At first, however, the impetuosity of her soul, overflowing with devotedness and energy, seemed to unfit her to be mistress in a school where heroism can only express itself by the simple sweetness of a life altogether hidden in God. It was to discipline this energy of the valiant woman without extinguishing its ardour, that Saint Francis perseveringly applied himself during the eighteen years he directed her. “Do all things,” he repeats in a thousand ways, “without haste, gently, as do the Angels. Follow the guidance of divine movements and be supple to grace. God wills us to be like little children.” And this reminds us of an exquisite page from the amiable Saint, which we cannot resist quoting: “If one had asked the sweet Jesus when He was carried in His Mother’s arms, to where He was going, might He not with good reason have answered: ‘I go not, 'tis my Mother that goes for me:’ and if one had said to Him: ‘But at least do you not go with your Mother?’ Might He not reasonably have replied: ‘No, I do not go, or if I go to where my Mother carries me, I do not myself walk with her nor by my own steps, but by my Mother’s, by her, and in her.’ But if one had persisted with Him, saying: ‘But at least, O most dear divine child, you really will to let yourself be carried by your sweet Mother?’ No, verily, might He have said, ‘I will nothing of all this, but as my entirely good Mother walks for me, so she wills for me. I leave her the care as well to go as to will to go for me where she likes best. And as I go not but by her steps, so I will not but by her will. Aand from the instant I find myself in her arms, I give no attention either to willing or not willing, turning all other cares over to my Mother, save only the care to be on her bosom, to suck her sacred breast, and to keep myself close clasped to her most beloved neck, that I may most lovingly kiss her with the kisses of my mouth. And be it known to you that while I am amidst the delights of these holy caresses which surpass all sweetness, I consider that my Mother is a tree of life, and myself on her as its fruit, that I am her own heart in her breast, or her soul in the midst of her heart, so that as her going serves both her and me without my troubling myself to take a single step, so her will serves us both without my producing any act of my will about going or coming. Nor do I ever take notice whether she goes fast or slow, hither or thither, nor do I inquire whither she means to go, contenting myself with this, that go to where she please I go still locked in her arms, close laid to her beloved breasts, where I feed as among lilies...’ Thus should we be, Theotimus, pliable and tractable to God’s good pleasure.”

The office of Martha seemed at first to be destined for you, O great Saint! Your father, Francis de Sales, forestalling Saint Vincent de Paul, thought of making your companions the first daughters of Charity. Thus was given to your work the blessed name of Visitation, which was to place under Mary’s protection your visits to the sick and neglected poor. But the progressive deterioration of strength in modern times had laid open a more pressing want in the institutions of holy Church. Many souls called to share Mary’s part were prevented from doing so by their inability to endure the austere life of the great contemplative Orders. The Spouse, who deigns to adapt His goodness to all times, made choice of you, O Jane, to second the love of His Sacred Heart and come to the rescue of the physical and moral miseries of an old, worn-out and decrepit world.

Renew us, then, in the love of Him whose charity consumed you first. In its ardour, you traversed the most various paths of life and never did you fail of that admirable strength of soul which the Church presents before God today in order to obtain through you the assistance necessary to our weakness. May the insidious and poisonous spirit of Jansenism never return to freeze our hearts. But at the same time, as we learn from you, love is only then real, when, with or without austerities, it lives by faith, generosity, and self-renunciation, in humility, simplicity and gentleness. It is the spirit of your holy institute, the spirit which became, through your angelic Father, so amiable and so strong: may it ever reign amid your daughters, keeping up among their houses the sweet union which has never ceased to rejoice Heaven. May the world be refreshed by the perfumes which ever exhale from the silent retreats of the Visitation of holy Mary!

* * * * *

O glorious saint, Blessed Jane Frances, who, by your fervent prayer, attention to the Divine Presence and purity of intention in your actions, attained on Earth an intimate union with God, be now our advocate, our mother, our guide in the path of virtue and perfection. Plead our cause near Jesus, Mary and Joseph to whom you were so tenderly devoted and whose holy virtues you so closely imitated. Obtain for us, O amiable and compassionate saint, the virtues you see most necessary for us: an ardent love of Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament, a tender and filial confidence in His blessed Mother and, like you, a constant remembrance of His sacred Passion and death.

V. Saint Jane Frances, pray for us.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

* * * * *

 

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In the Campo Verano at Rome, St. Cyriaca, widow and martyr. In the persecution of Valerian, after devoting herself and all her goods in the service of the saints, she gave up her life by suffering martyrdom for Christ.

At Salona, St. Anastasius, a law officer, who was converted to the faith by seeing the fortitude with which blessed Agapitus bore his torments, and being put to death by order of the emperor Aurelian, for confessing the name of Christ, went to Our Lord.

In Sardinia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Luxorius, Cisellus and Camerinus who were put to the sword in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Delphius.

In Gevaudan, St. Privatus, bishop and martyr, who suffered in the persecution of Valerian and Gallienus.

The same day, the holy martyrs Bonosus and Maximian.

At Fundi in Campania, St. Paternus, a martyr, who came from Alexandria to Rome to visit the tomb of the Apostles. Then he retired to the neighbourhood of Fundi, where, being seized by the tribune while he was burying the bodies of the martyrs, he died in captivity.

At Edessa in Syria, during the persecution of Maximian, the holy martyrs Bassa, and her sons Theogonius, Agapius and Fidelis, who their pious mother exhorted to martyrdom and sent before her bearing their crowns. Being herself beheaded, she joyfully followed them and shared their victory.

At Verona, St. Euprepius, bishop and confessor.

Also St. Quadratus, bishop.

At Siena in Tuscany, blessed Bernard Ptolemy, abbot and founder of the Congregation of Olivetans.

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

Thanks be to God.

20 AUGUST – SAINT BERNARD (Abbot, Confessor and Doctor of the Church)

Bernard, the “mellifluous Doctor,” was born at Fontaines, near Dijon in France in 1091. As a youth, on account of his great beauty he was much sought after by women, but could never be shaken in his resolution of observing chastity. To escape these temptations of the devil, he, at twenty-two years of age, determined to enter the monastery of Citeaux, the first house of the Cistercian Order, then famous for sanctity. He consecrated himself to God under the leadership of the English Abbot, Saint Stephen Harding, in the newly instituted Abbey. When his brothers learnt Bernard’s design, they did their best to deter him from it but he, more eloquent and more successful,won them and many others to his opinion, so that together with him thirty young men embraced the Cistercian Rule.

 

As a monk Bernard was so given to fasting, that when ever he had to take food he seemed to be undergoing torture. He applied himself in a wonderful manner to prayer and watching, and was a great lover of Christian poverty. Thus he led a heavenly life on Earth, free from all anxiety or desire of perishable goods. The virtues of humility, mercy and kindness shone conspicuously in his character. He devoted himself so earnestly to contemplation that he seemed hardly to use his senses except to do acts of charity, and in these he was remarkable for his prudence. While thus occupied he refused the bishoprics of Genoa, Milan and others which were offered to him, declaring that he was unworthy of so great an office. He afterwards built monasteries in many places in which the excellent rules and discipline of Bernard long flourished. When the monastery of Saints Vincent and Anastasius at Rome was restored by Pope Innocent II, Bernard appointed as Abbot the future sovereign Pontiff Eugenius III, to whom he also sent his book De Consideratione.

Bernard wrote many other works which clearly show that his doctrine was more the gift of God than the result of his own labours. On account of his great reputation for virtue, the greatest princes begged him to act as arbiter in their disputes, and he went several times into Italy for this purpose, and for arranging ecclesiastical affairs. He was of great assistance to the Supreme Pontiff Innocent II in putting down the schism of Peter de Leone, both at the courts of the emperor and of king Henry of England, and at a Council held at Pisa. In obedience to Saint Stephen, Bernard founded the Abbey of Clairvaux in 1115 and remained Abbot of it for the rest of his life. In 1146 he preached the Second Crusade in France and exerted a strong and healthy influence on the European politics of his age. Bernard died in 1153 and was buried in the Marian chapel of his Abbey of Clairvaux. Pope Alexander III canonised Bernard 12 years later and and Pope Pius VIII proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The valley of wormwood has lost its bitterness. Having become Clairvaux, or the bright valley, its light shines over the world. From every point of the horizon vigilant bees are attracted to it by the honey from the rock which abounds in its solitude. Mary turns her glance upon its wild hills, and with her smile sheds light and grace upon them. Listen to the harmonious voice arising from the desert. It is the voice of Bernard, her chosen one. “Learn, O man, the counsel of God. Admire the intentions of Wisdom, the design of love. Before bedewing the whole earth, be saturated the fleece. Being to redeem the human race, he heaped up in Mary the entire ransom. O Adam, say no more: ‘The woman whom you gave me offered me the forbidden fruit.’ Say rather: ’The woman whom you gave me has fed me with a fruit of blessing.’ With what ardour ought we to honour Mary, in whom was set all the fullness of good! If we have any hope, any saving grace, know that it overflows from her who today rises replete with love: she is a garden of delights, over which the divine South Wind does not merely pass with a light breath, but sweeping down from the heights, he stirs it unceasingly with a heavenly breeze, so that it may shed abroad its perfumes, which are the gifts of various graces. Take away the material sun from the world: what would become of our day? Take away Mary, the star of the vast sea: what would remain but obscurity over all, a night of death and icy darkness? Therefore, with every fibre of our heart, with all the love of our soul, with all the eagerness of our aspirations, let us venerate Mary. It is the will of Him who wished us to have all things through her.”

Thus spoke the monk who had acquired his eloquence, as he tells us himself, among the beeches and oaks of the forest, and he poured into the wounds of mankind the wine and oil of the Scriptures. In 1113, at the age of twenty- two, Bernard arrived at Citeaux, in the beauty of his youth, already ripe for great combats. Fifteen years before, on the 21st March 1098, Robert of Molesmes had created this new desert between Dijon and Beaune. Issuing from the past, on the very feast of the patriarch of monks, the new foundation claimed to be nothing more than the literal observance of the precious Rule given by him to the world. The weakness of the age, however, refused to recognise the fearful austerity of these new comers into the great family: as inspired by that holy code, wherein discretion reigns supreme, for this discretion is the characteristic of the school accessible to all, where Benedict “hoped to ordain nothing rigorous or burthensome in the service of God.” Under the government of Stephen Harding, the next after Alberic, successor of Robert, the little community from Molesmes was becoming extinct, without human hope of recovery, when the descendant of the lords of Fontaines arrived with thirty companions, who were his first conquest, and brought new life where death was imminent.

“Rejoice, you barren one that bears not, for many will be the children of the barren.” La Forte was founded that same year in Chalonnais, next Pontigny, near Auxerre, and in 1115 Clairvaux and Morimond were established in the diocese of Langres; while these four glorious branches of Citeaux were soon, together with their parent stock, to put forth numerous shoots. In 1119 the Charter of charity confirmed the existence of the Cistercian Order in the Church. Thus the tree, planted six centuries earlier on the summit of Monte Cassino, proved once more to the world that in all ages it is capable of producing new branches, which, though distinct from the trunk, live by its sap, and are a glory to the entire tree.

During the months of his novitiate Bernard so subdued nature that the interior man alone lived in him. The senses of his own body were to him as strangers. By an excess, for which he had afterwards to reproach himself, he carried his rigour, though meant for a desirable end, so far as to ruin the body, that indispensable help to every man in the service of his brethren and of God. Blessed fault, which Heaven took upon itself to excuse so magnificently. A miracle (a thing which no one has a right to expect) was needed to uphold him henceforth in the accomplishment of his destined mission. Bernard was as ardent in the service of God as others are for the gratification of their passions. “You would learn of me,” he says in one of his earliest works, “why and how we must love God. And I answer you: The reason for loving God is God Himself. And the measure of loving Him is to love Him without measure.” What delights he enjoyed at Citeaux in the secret of the face of the Lord! When, after two years, he left this blessed abode to found Clairvaux, it was like coming out of Paradise. More fit to converse with Angels than with men, he began, says his historian, by being a trial to those whom he had to guide: so heavenly was his language, such perfection did he require surpassing the strength of even the strong ones of Israel, such sorrowful astonishment did he show on the discovery of infirmities common to all flesh.

But the Holy Spirit was watching over the vessel of election called to bear the name of the Lord before kings and people; the divine charity, which consumed his soul, taught him that love has two inseparable, though sadly different, objects: God, whose goodness makes us love Him, and man, whose misery exercises our charity. According to the ingenious remark of William de Saint-Thierry, his disciple and friend, Bernard re-learnt the art of living among men. He imbued himself with the admirable recommendations given by the legislator of monks to him who is chosen Abbot over his brethren: “When he gives correction, let him act prudently, and push nothing to extremes, lest whilst eager of extreme scouring off the rust, the vase get broke... When he enjoins work to be done, let him use discernment and moderation, and think of holy Jacob’s discretion, who said: ‘If I cause my flocks to be overdriven, they will all die in one day.’ Taking, therefore, these and other documents regarding that mother of virtue, discretion, let him so temper all things as that the strong may have what to desire and the weak nothing to deter them.”

Having received what the Psalmist calls “understanding concerning the needy and the poor,” Bernard felt his heart overflowing with the tenderness of God for those purchased by the divine Blood. He no longer terrified the humble. Beside the little ones who came to him attracted by the grace of his speech might be seen the wise, the powerful, and the rich ones of the world, abandoning their vanities, and becoming themselves little and poor in the school of one who knew how to guide them all, from the first elements of love to its very summits. In the midst of seven hundred monks receiving daily from him the doctrine of salvation, the Abbot of Clairvaux could cry out with the noble pride of the Saints: “He that is mighty has done great things in us, and with good reason our soul magnifies the Lord. Behold we have left all things to follow you: it is a great resolution, the glory of the great Apostles. Yet we, too, by his great grace have taken it magnificently. Perhaps, even if I wish to glory therein, I will not be foolish, for I will say the truth: there are some here who have left more than a boat and fishing-nets.”

“What more wonderful,” he said on another occasion, “than to see one who formerly could scarce abstain two days from sin, preserve himself from it for years, and even for his whole life? What greater miracle than that so many young men, boys, noble personages, all those, in a word, whom I see here, should be held captive without bonds in an open prison by the sole fear of God, and should persevere in penitential macerations beyond human strength, above nature, contrary to habit? What marvels we should discover, as you well knew, were we allowed to seek out the details of each one’s exodus from Egypt, of his passage through the desert, his entrance into the monastery, and his life within its walls.”

But there were other marvels not to be hidden within the secret of the cloister. The voice that had peopled the desert was bidden to echo through the world. And the noises of discord and error, of schism and the passions, were hushed before it. At its word the whole West was precipitated as one man upon the infidel East. Bernard had now become the avenger of the sanctuary, the umpire of kings, the confidant of sovereign Pontiffs, the thaumaturgus applauded by enthusiastic crowds. Yet, at the very height of what the world calls glory, his one thought was the loved solitude he had been forced to quit. “It is high time,” he said, “that I should think of myself. Have pity on my agonised conscience: what an abnormal life is mine! I am the chimera of my time, neither clerk nor layman, I have the habit of a monk and none of the observances. In the perils which surround me, at the brink of precipices yawning before me, help me with your advice, pray for me.”

While absent from Clairvaux he wrote to his monks: “My soul is sorrowful and cannot be comforted till I see you again. Alas! Must my exile here below, so long protracted, be rendered still more grievous? Truly those who have separated us have added sorrow upon sorrow to my evils. They have taken away from me the only remedy which enabled me to live away from Christ. While I could not yet contemplate his glorious Face, it was given me at least to see you, you his holy temple. From that temple the way seemed easy to the eternal home. How often have I been deprived of this consolation? This is the third time, if I mistake not, that they have torn out my heart. My children are weaned before the time. I had begotten them by the Gospel, and I cannot nourish them. Constrained to neglect those dear to me and to attend to the interests of strangers, I scarcely know which is harder to bear, to be separated from the former or to be mixed up with the latter. O Jesus, is my whole life to be spent in sighing? It were better for me to die than to live, but I would fain die in the midst of my family. There I should find more sweetness, more security. May it please my Lord that the eyes of a father, however unworthy of the name, may be closed by the hands of his sons; that they may assist him in his last passage; that their desires, if you judge him worthy, may bear his soul to the abode of the blessed; that they may bury the body of a poor man with the bodies of those who were poor with him. By the prayers and merits of my brethren, if I have found favour before you, grant me this desire of my heart. Nevertheless, your will, not mine, be done; for I wish neither to live nor to die for myself.”

Greater in his Abbey than in the noblest courts, Bernard was destined to die at home at the hour appointed by God, but not without having had his soul prepared for the last purification by trials both public and private. For the last time he took up again, but could not finish, the discourses he had been delivering for the last eighteen years on the Canticle. These familiar conferences, lovingly gathered by his children, reveal in a touching manner the zeal of the sons for divine science, the heart of the father and his sanctity, and the incidents of daily life at Clairvaux. Having reached the first verse of the third chapter, he was describing the soul seeking after the Word in the weakness of this life, in the dark night of this world, when he broke off his discourses, and passed to the eternal face to face vision, where there is no more enigma, nor figure, nor shadow.

It was fitting to see the herald of the Mother of God following so closely her triumphal car. Entering Heaven during this bright Octave, you delight to lose yourself in the glory of her whose greatness you proclaimed on Earth. Be our protector in her court. Attract her maternal eyes towards Citeaux. In her name save the Church once more, and protect the Vicar of Christ. But today, rather than to pray to you, you invite us to sing to Mary and pray to her with you. The homage most pleasing to you, O Bernard, is that we should profit by your sublime writings and admire the Virgin who, “today ascending glorious to heaven, put the finishing touch to the happiness of the heavenly citizens. Brilliant as it was already, heaven became resplendent with new brightness from the light of the virginal torch. Thanksgiving and praise resound on high. And will we not in our exile partake of these joys of our home? Having here no lasting dwelling, we seek the city where the Blessed Virgin has arrived this very hour. Citizens of Jerusalem, it is but just that, from the banks of the rivers of Babylon, we should think with dilated hearts of the overflowing river of bliss, of which some drops are sprinkled on earth today. Our Queen has gone before us. The reception given to her encourages us who are her followers and servants. Our caravan will be well treated with regard to salvation, for it is preceded by the Mother of mercy as advocate before the Judge her Son.”

“Whoever remembers having ever invoked you in vain in his needs, O Blessed Virgin, let him be silent as to your mercy. As for us, your little servants, we praise your other virtues, but on this one we congratulate ourselves. We praise your virginity, we admire your humility. But mercy is sweeter to the wretched. We embrace it more lovingly. We think of it more frequently, we invoke it unceasingly. Who can tell the length and breadth and height and depth of yours, O Blessed one? Its length, for it extends to the last day. Its breadth, for it covers the earth. Its height and depth, for it has filled heaven and emptied hell. You are as powerful as merciful. Having now rejoined your Son, manifest to the world the grace you have found before God: obtain pardon for sinners, health for the sick, strength for the weak, consolation for the afflicted, help and deliverance for those who are in any danger, O clement, O merciful, O sweet Virgin Mary!”

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The same day, St. Lucius, senator, who was converted to the faith on seeing the constancy of Theodore, bishop of Gyrene, during his martyrdom. He also converted the governor Dignian, with whom he set out for Cyprus, where, seeing other Christians crowned for the confession of the Lord, he offered himself voluntarily and merited the same crown of martyrdom by having his head struck off.

In Thrace, in the time of the governor Apellian, thirty-seven holy martyrs, who had their hands and feet cut off for the faith of Christ and were cast into a burning furnace.

Also the holy martyrs Severus, and the centurion Memnon, who, suffering the same kind of death, went victoriously to heaven.

At Cordova, during the persecution of the Arabs, the holy martyrs Leovigildus and Christopher, monks, who were thrust into prison for the defence of the Christian faith, and soon after, by being beheaded and cast into the fire, obtained the palm of martyrdom.

At Rome, blessed Porphyry, a man of God, who instructed the holy martyr Agapitus in the faith and doctrine of Christ.

In the island of Noirmoutiers, St. Philibert, abbot.

At Chinon, St. Maxinms, confessor, a disciple of the blessed bishop Martin.

On Mount Senario in the diocese of Florence, blessed Manetius, confessor, one of the seven founders of the Order of the Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who breathed his last while reciting hymns in her honour.

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

Thanks be to God.

19 AUGUST – SAINT JOHN EUDES (Confessor)

John Eudes was born in Normandy, France, in 1601. At the age of 14 he took a vow of chastity, and after studying with the Jesuits he joined the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri. He was ordained as a priest in 1625 but immediately afterwards became sick with an illness that kept him in bed for a year. During the great plagues of 1627 and 1631 John Eudes volunteered to care for the sick. At the age of 32 he became a parish missionary, preaching more than 100 missions in many parts of France. John Eudes founded the Congregation of the Priests of Jesus and Mary (Eudists) and the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, and wrote Propers for a Mass and Divine Office of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. He died in Normandy in 1680, was beatified in 1909 and was canonised in 1925. Saint John Eudes is called the Apostle of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

O God, who wonderously inflamed blessed John your confessor to promote the public worship of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and through him willed to found new religious families in your Church, grant, we beseech you, that we who venerate his merits may also be taught by the example of his virtues. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Julius, senator and martyr, who was delivered up to the judge Vitellius, and by him thrown into prison. By order of the emperor Commodus, he was beaten with rods until he expired. His body was buried in the cemetery of Calepodius on the Via Aurelia.

In Cilicia, the birthday of St. Andrew, tribune, and his military companions, who were converted to Christianity through a miraculous victory they had gained over the Persians. Being accused on this account, they were massacred in the defiles of Mount Taurus by the army of the governor Seleueus under the emperor Maximian.

In Palestine, St. Timothy, a martyr, in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Urbanus. After overcoming many torments, he was consumed with a slow fire. In the same country suffered also Thecla and Agapius. The former being exposed to the beasts, was torn to pieces by their teeth, and went to her spouse, but Agapius, after enduring many torments, was reserved for greater combats.

At Anagni, St. Magnus, bishop and martyr, who was put to death in the persecution of Decius.

At the castle of Brignoles in Provence, the demise of St. Louis, bishop of Toulouse, of the Order of Friars Minor, renowned for holiness of life and miracles. His body was taken then to Marseilles, and buried with due honours in the church of the Friars Minor.

In the neighbourhood of Sisteron in France, blessed Donatus, priest and confessor. Being from his very infancy endowed with the grace of God in an extraordinary manner, he lived the life of an anchoret for many years, and after having been renowned for glorious miracles, went to Christ.

In the territory of Bourges, St. Marian, confessor.

At Mantua, St. Rufinus, confessor.

At Rome, blessed Urban II, pope, who followed in the footsteps of Pope St. Gregory VII, in his zeal for learning and religion, and fired the Crusaders with enthusiasm for the recovery of the holy places in Palestine from the power of the infidels. The veneration paid to him from time immemorial Pope Leo XIII approved and confirmed.

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

Thanks be to God.

13 AUGUST – SAINT RADEGONDE OF FRANCE (Queen)

Radegonde was the daughter of Berthaire, king of Thuringia. When 10 years old she was led away captive by the Franks, and because of her striking and queenly beauty their kings disputed among themselves for the possession of her. They drew lots and she fell to the share of King Clothaire of Soissons. He entrusted her education to excellent masters. She eagerly imbibed the doctrines of the Christian faith, and renouncing the worship of false gods which she had learnt from her fathers, she determined to observe not only the precepts, but also the counsels of the Gospel. When she was grown up, Clothaire, who had long before chosen her, took her to wife, and despite of her refusal and her attempts at flight, she was proclaimed queen to the great joy of all. When raised to the throne she joined charity to the poor, continual prayer, frequent watchings, fasting and other bodily austerities to her regal dignity, so that the courtiers said in scorn that the king had married not a queen but a nun. Her patience shone out brightly in supporting many grievous trials caused her by the king.

But when she heard that her own brother had been unjustly slain by command of Clothaire, she immediately left the court with the king’s consent, and going to the blessed bishop Meclard she earnestly begged him to consecrate her to the Lord. The nobles strongly opposed his giving the veil to her whom the king had solemnly married. But she at once went into the sacristy and clothed herself in the monastic habit. Then advancing to the altar she thus addressed the bishop: “If you hesitate to consecrate me because you fear man more than God, there is one who will demand an account of my soul from you.” These words deeply touched Meclard. He placed the sacred veil on the queen’s head, and imposing his hands on her, consecrated her a deaconess. She proceeded to Poitiers and there founded a monastery of virgins which was afterwards called “of the Holy Cross.” The splendour of her virtues shone forth and attracted innumerable virgins to embrace a religious life. On account of her extraordinary gifts of divine grace, all wished her to be their mistress, but she desired to serve rather than to command.

The number of miracles she worked spread her name far and wide, but she herself, forgetful of her dignity, sought out the lowest and humblest offices. She loved especially to take care of the sick, the needy, and above all the lepers whom she often cured in a miraculous manner. She honoured the divine Sacrifice of the Altar with deep piety, making with her own hands the bread which was to be consecrated, and supplying it to several churches. Even in the midst of the pleasures of a court, she had applied herself to mortifying her flesh, and from her childhood she had burned with desire of martyrdom. Now that she was leading a monastic life she subdued her body with the utmost rigour. She girt her self with iron chains and tortured her body with burning coals, courageously fixing red-hot plates of metal on her flesh that thus it also might, in a way, be inflamed with love of Christ. King Clothaire, bent on taking her back and carrying her off from her monastery, set out for Holy Cross, but she deterred him by means of letters which she wrote to Saint Germanus, Archbishop of Paris, so that prostrate at the holy prelate’s feet, the king begged him to beseech his pious queen to pardon him who was both her sovereign and her husband.

Radegonde enriched her monastery with relics of the saints brought from different countries. She also sent clerics to the emperor Justin and obtained from him a large piece of the wood of our Lord’s Cross. It was received with great solemnity by the people of Poitiers and both clergy and laity sang exultingly the hymns composed by Venantius Fortunatus in honour of the blessed Cross. This poet was afterwards bishop of Poitiers. He enjoyed the holy friendship of Radegonde and directed her monastery. At length the holy queen, being ripe for Heaven, was honoured a few days before her death by an apparition of Christ under the form of a most beautiful youth, and she heard these words from His mouth: “Why are you consumed by so great a longing to enjoy my presence? Why do you pour out so many tears and sighs? Why do you come as a suppliant so often to my altars? Why do you break down your body with so many labours, when I am always united to you? My beautiful pearl, know that you are one of the most precious stones in my kingly crown.” In 587 she breathed forth her pure soul into the bosom of the heavenly Spouse who had been her only love. Gregory of Tours buried her, as she had wished, in the Church of Saint Mary.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Never was such a booty won as that obtained by the sons of Clovis in their expedition against Thuringia towards the year 530. “Receive this blessing from the spoils of the enemy” (1 Kings xxx. 26), might they well say on presenting to the Franks the orphan brought from the court of the fratricide prince whom they had just chastised. God seemed in haste to ripen the soul of Radegonde. After the tragic death of her relatives followed the ruin of her country. So vivid was the impression made in the child’s heart, that long afterwards the recollection awakened in the queen and the Saint a sorrow and a home sickness which nothing but the love of Christ could overcome. “I have seen the plain strewn with dead and palaces burnt to the ground. I have seen women, with eyes dry from very horror, mourning over fallen Thuringia. I alone have survived to weep over them all.”

The licentiousness of the Frankish kings was as unbridled as that of her own ancestors. Yet in their land the little captive found Christianity which she had not until then known. The faith was a healing balm to this wounded soul. Baptism, in giving her to God, sanctified, without crushing, her high-spirited nature. Thirsting for Christ, she wished to be martyred for Him. She sought Him on the cross of self-renunciation. She found Him in His poor suffering members. Looking on the face of a leper, she would see in it the disfigured countenance of her Saviour, and from there rise to the ardent contemplation of the triumphant Spouse whose glorious Face illumines the abode of the Saints.

What a loathing, therefore, did she feel when offering her royal honours, the destroyer of her own country sought to share with God the possession of a heart that Heaven alone could comfort or gladden! First flight, then the refusal to comply with the manners of a court where everything was repulsive to her desires and recollections, her eagerness to break, on the very first opportunity, a bond which violence alone had contracted, prove that the trial had no other effect, as her Life says, but to bend her soul more and more to the sole object of her love. Meanwhile, near the tomb of Saint Martin, another queen, Clotilde, the mother of the most Christian kingdom, was about to die. Unfortunate are those times when the men after God’s own heart, at their departure from Earth, leave no-one to take their place. As the Psalmist cried out in a just consternation, “Save me, O Lord, for there is now no saint!” (Psalms xi. 2).

For, though the elect pray for us in Heaven, they can no longer “fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in their flesh, for His body, which is the Church” (Colossian i. 24). The work begun at the baptistery of Rheims was not yet completed. The Gospel, though reigning by faith over the Frankish nation, had not yet subdued its manners. Christ who loved the Franks heard the last prayer of the mother He had given them, and refused her not the consolation of knowing that she should have a successor. Radegonde was set free just in time to prevent an interruption in the laborious work of forming the Church’s eldest daughter, and she took up in solitude the struggle with God, by prayer and expiation, begun by the widow of Clovis. In the joy of having cast off an odious yoke, forgiveness was an easy thing to her great soul. In her monastery at Poitiers she showed an unfailing devotedness for the kings whose company she had fled. The fortune of France was bound up with theirs. France the cradle-land of her supernatural life, where the Man-God had revealed Himself to her heart, and which she therefore loved with part of the love reserved for her heavenly country. The peace and prosperity of her spiritual fatherland occupied her thoughts day and night. If any quarrel arose among the princes, say the contemporary accounts, she trembled from head to foot at the very thought of the country’s danger. She wrote, according to their different dispositions, to each of the kings, imploring them to consider the welfare of the nation. She interested the chief vassals in her endeavours to prevent war. She imposed on her community assiduous watchings, exhorting them with tears to pray without ceasing. As to herself, the tortures she inflicted on herself for this end are inexpressible.

The only victory, then, that Radegonde desired, was peace among the princes of the Earth. When she had gained this by her struggle with the King of Heaven, her joy in the service of the Lord was redoubled and the tenderness she felt for her devoted helpers, the nuns of Sainte-Croix, could scarcely find utterance: “You, the daughters of my choice,” she would say, “my eyes, my life, my sweet repose, so live with me in this world that we may meet again in the happiness of the next.” And they responded to her love. “By the God of Heaven it is true that everything in her reflected the splendour of her soul.” Such was the spontaneous and graceful cry of her daughter Baudonivia, and it was echoed by the graver voice of the historian-bishop, Gregory of Tours, who declared that the supernatural beauty of the Saint remained even in death. It was a brightness from Heaven which purified while it attracted hearts, which caused the Italian Venantius Fortunatus to cease his wanderings, made him a Saint and a Pontiff, and inspired him with his most beautiful poems.

The light of God could not but be reflected in her who, turning towards Him by uninterrupted contemplation, redoubled her desires as the end of her exile approached. Neither the relics of the saints which she had so sought after as speaking to her of her true home, nor her dearest treasure, the Cross of her Lord, was enough for her. She would fain have drawn the Lord Himself from His throne to dwell visibly on Earth. She only interrupted her sighs to excite in others the same longings. She exhorted her daughters not to neglect the knowledge of divine things and explained to them with profound science and motherly love the difficulties of the Scriptures. As she increased the holy readings of the community for the same end, she would say: “If you do not understand, ask. Why do you fear to seek the light of your souls?” And she would insist: “Reap, reap the wheat of the Lord, for I tell you truly, you will not have long to do it: reap, for the time draws near when you will wish to recall the days that are now given you, and your regrets will not be able to bring them back.” And the loving Chronicler to whom we owe these sweet intimate details continues: “In our idleness we listen coolly to the announcement, but that time has come all too soon. Now is realised in us the prophecy which says: ‘I will send forth a famine into your land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the Word of the Lord’ (Amos viii. 11). For though we still read her conferences, that voice which never ceased is now silent. Those lips, ever ready with wise advice and sweet words, are closed. O most good God, what an expression, what features, what manners you had given her! No, no-one could describe it. The remembrance is anguish! That teaching, that gracefulness, that face, that mien, that science, that piety, that goodness, that sweetness, where are we to seek them now?”

Such touching sorrow does honour to both Mother and daughters, but it could not keep back the former from her reward. On the morning of the Ides of August 587, while Sainte-Croix was filled with lamentations, an Angel was heard saying to others on high: “Leave her yet longer, for the tears of her daughters have ascended to God.” But those who were bearing Radegonde away replied: “It is too late, she is already in Paradise.”

YOUR exile is over, eternal possession has taken the place of desire. All Heaven is illumined with the brightness of the precious stone that has come to enrich the diadem of the Spouse. O Radegonde, the Wisdom who is now rewarding you toils led you by admirable ways. Your inheritance, become to you as a lion in the wood spreading death around you, your captivity far from your native land, what was all this but love’s way of drawing you from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards, where idolatry had led you in childhood? You had to suffer in a foreign land, but the light from above shone into your soul and gave it strength. A powerful king tried in vain to make you share his throne. You were a queen but for Christ, who in His goodness made you a mother to that kingdom of France which belongs to Him more than to any prince. For His sake you loved that land become yours by the right of the Bride who shares the sceptre of her Spouse. For His sake, that nation, whose glorious destiny you predicted, received unstintedly all your labours, your unspeakable mortifications, your prayers and your tears. O you who are ever queen of France, as Christ is ever its King, bring back to Him the hearts of its people, for in their blind error they have laid aside their glory, and their sword is no longer wielded for God. Protect above all the city of Poitiers which honours you with a special cultus together with its great Saint Hilary. Bless your daughters of Sainte-Croix, who, ever faithful to your great traditions, prove the power of that fruitful stem which through so many centuries and such devastations has never ceased to produce both flowers and fruit. Teach us to seek our Lord and to find Him in His holy Sacrament, in the relics of His Saints, in His suffering members on Earth. And may all Christians learn from you how to love.

8 AUGUST – SAINTS CYRIACUS, LARGUS AND SMARAGDUS (Martyrs)

Cyriacus, a deacon, underwent a long imprisonment together with Largus, Sisinitis and Smaragdus, and worked many miracles. Among others, by his prayers, he freed Arthemia, a daughter of Diocletian, from the possession of the devil. He was sent to Sapor, king of Persia, and delivered his daughter, Jobia, in like manner from the devil. He baptised the king, her father, and 430 others, and then returned to Rome. There he was seized by command of the emperor Maximiau, and dragged in chains before his chariot. Four days afterwards he was taken out of prison, boiling pitch was poured over him, he was stretched on the rack, and at length he was put to death by the axe, with Largus, Smaragdus, and 20 others at Sallust’s Gardens on the Via Salaria. A priest named John buried their bodies on that same way, on the 17th of the Calends of April, but on the 6th of the Ides of August, Pope Saint Marcellus I and the noble lady Lucina wrapped them in linen with precious spices, and translated them to Lucina’s estate on the Via Ostiensis, seven miles from Rome. Afterwards they were brought to Rome and placed in the Church of Santa Maria in Via Lata (the Title of a Cardinal-deacon).

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Today a precursor of Laurence appears on the Cycle: the deacon Cyriacus whose power over the demon made Hell tremble, and entitles him to a place among the Saints called Helpers. He and his companions in martyrdom form one of the noblest groups of Christ’s army in that last and decisive battle in which the eagerness of the faithful to show that they knew how to die won victory for the Cross. Rome, baptised in the blood she had shed, found herself Christian in spite of herself. All her honours were now to be lavished on the very men whom in the time of her folly she had put to the sword. Such are thy triumphs, O Wisdom of God!

Mention of the three martyrs celebrated today is to be found in the most authentic calendars of the Church that have come down to us from the fourth century. If then, as Baronius acknowledges, there is some reason for calling in question certain details of the legend, their cultus is none the less immemorial on Earth, and the unwavering devotion of which they are the objects, especially in the sanctuaries enriched with their holy relics, proves that they have great power before the throne of the Lamb.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Anzarba in Cilicia, St. Marinus, an aged man, who was scourged, racked and lacerated, and died by being exposed to wild beasts, in the time of the emperor Diocletian and the governor Lysias.

Also the holy martyrs Eleutherius and Leonides, who underwent martrydom by fire.

In Persia, St. Hormisdas, a martyr, under king Sapor.

At Cyzicum in Hellespont, St. Æmilian, bishop, who ended his life in exile after having suffered much from the emperor Leo for the worship of holy images.

In Crete, St. Myron, a bishop renowned for miracles.

At Vienne in France, St. Severus, priest and confessor, who undertook a painful journey from India in order to preach the Gospel in that city, and converted a great number of pagans to the faith of Christ by his labours and miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

12 JULY – SAINT JOHN GUALBERT (Abbot)

Giovanni Gualberto was born in Florence to the noble family of Visdomini in about 995. While a soldier, his sole brother Hugh was slain. On Good Friday, John met the murderer alone and unarmed in a spot where they could not avoid each other. The murderer, with arms out stretched in the form of a cross, begged for mercy, and John, through reverence for the sacred sign, graciously spared him. Having changed his enemy into a brother, John went to pray in the nearby church of San Miniato. As he was adoring the image of Christ crucified, he saw it bend its head towards him. Touched by this miracle, John determined to fight for God alone, even against his father’s wishes. He cut off his hair and put on the monastic habit. Soon the pious and religious manner of his life shed made him a living rule and pattern of perfection. On the death of the Abbot of the place he was unanimously elected its superior, but preferring obedience to superiority, and being reserved by the divine Will for greater things, John went to Romuald who was living in the desert of Camaldoli. The latter, inspired by Heaven, announced to John the institute he was to form. Thus he laid the foundations of his Order of the Vallis Umbrosa under the Rule of Saint Benedict.

Soon afterwards many flocked to John. He received them into his society, and with them zealously devoted himself to rooting out heresy and simony, and propagating the Apostolic faith, for which devotedness he and his disciples suffered many injuries. His enemies, in their eagerness to destroy him and his brethren, suddenly attacked the monastery of San Salvi at night, burned the church, demolished the buildings and mortally wounded all the monks. But John restored them all to health by a single sign of the Cross. The monk Peter miraculously walked unhurt through a huge blazing fire, and thus John obtained for himself and his sons the peace they so much desired. From that time forward every stain of simony disappeared from Tuscany, and faith was restored to its former purity throughout Italy. John built many new monasteries and restored many others, both as to their material buildings and as to regular observance, strengthening them all with the bulwark of holy regulations. In order to feed the poor he sold the sacred vessels of the Altar. The elements were obedient to his will when he sought to check evil-doers, and the sign of the Cross was the sword he used by which to conquer the devils.

Worn out by abstinence, watchings, fasting, prayer, maceration of the flesh and old age, John became seriously ill. During his sickness he repeated unceasingly those words of David: “My soul has thirsted after the strong living God: when will I come and appear before the face of God?” When death drew near, he called together his disciples and exhorted them to preserve fraternal union. Then he caused these words to be written on a paper which he wished should be buried with him: “I, John, believe and confess the faith which the holy Apostles preached, and the holy Fathers in the four Councils have confirmed.” Having been honoured during three days with the gracious presence of Angels, John died, aged 78, Passignano in 1073. He was canonised by Pope Celestine III in 1193.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Never, from the day when Simon Magus was baptised at Samaria, had Hell seemed so near to conquering the Church as at the period brought before us by today’s feast. Rejected and anathematised by Peter, the new Simon had said to the princes, as the former had said to the Apostles: “Sell me this power, that upon whoever I will lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.” And the princes, ready enough to supplant Peter and fill their coffers at the same time, had taken on themselves to invest men of their own choice with the government of the churches. The bishops in their turn had sold to the highest bidders the various orders of the hierarchy, and sensuality, ever in the wake of covetousness, had filled the sanctuary with defilement.

The tenth century had witnessed the humiliation of the supreme Pontificate itself. Early in the eleventh, simony was rife among the clergy. The work of salvation was going on in the silence of the cloister, but Peter Damian had not yet come forth from the desert, nor had Hugh of Cluny, Leo IX and Hildebrand brought their united efforts to bear upon the evil. A single voice was heard to utter the cry of alarm and rouse the people from their lethargy: it was the voice of a monk who had once been a valiant soldier, and to whom the crucifix had bowed its head in recognition of his generous forgiveness of an enemy. John Gualbert, seeing simony introduced into his own monastery of San Miniato, left it and entered Florence, only to find the pastoral staff in the hands of a hireling. The zeal of God’s House was devouring his heart, and going into the public squares, he denounced the Bishop and his own Abbot, that thus he might at least deliver his own soul.

At the sight of this monk confronting single-handed the universal corruption, the multitude was for a moment seized with stupefaction. But soon surprise was turned into rage, and John with difficulty escaped death. From this day his special vocation was determined: the just, who had never despaired, hailed him as the avenger of Israel, and their hope was not to be confounded. But, like all who are chosen for a divine work, he was to spend a long time under the training of the Holy Spirit. The athlete had challenged the powers of this world. The holy war was declared: one would naturally have expected it to wage without ceasing until the enemy was entirely defeated. And yet, the chosen soldier of Christ hastened into solitude to “amend his life,” according to the truly Christian expression used in the foundation-charter of Vallombrosa. The promoters of the disorder, startled at the suddenness of the attack, and then seeing the aggressor as suddenly disappear, would laugh at the false alarm. But, cost what it might to the once brilliant soldier, he knew how to abide in humility and submission the hour of God’s good pleasure.

Little by little other souls, disgusted with the state of society, came to join him. And soon the army of prayer and penance spread throughout Tuscany. It was destined to extend over all Italy, and even to cross the mountains. Settimo, seven miles from Florence, and San Salvi at the gates of the city, were the strongholds whence the holy war was to recommence in 1063. Another simoniac, Peter of Favia, had purchased the succession to the episcopal see. John, with all his monks, was resolved rather to die than to witness in silence this new insult offered to the Church of God. His reception this time was to be very different from the former, for the fame of his sanctity and miracles had caused him to be looked upon by the people as an oracle. No sooner was his voice heard once more in Florence than the whole flock was so stirred that the unworthy pastor, seeing he could no longer dissemble, cast off his disguise and showed what he really was: a thief who had come only to rob and kill and destroy. By his orders a body of armed men descended upon San Salvi, set fire to the monastery, fell upon the brethren in the midst of the Night Office, and put them all to the sword, each monk continuing to chant till he received the fatal stroke. John Gualbert, hearing at Vallombrosa of the martyrdom of his sons, intoned a canticle of triumph. Florence was seized with horror and refused to communicate with the assassin bishop. Nevertheless four years had yet to elapse before deliverance could come, and the trials of Saint John had scarcely begun.

Saint Peter Damian, invested with full authority by the Sovereign Pontiff, had just arrived from the Eternal City. All expected that no quarter would be given to simony by its sworn enemy, and that peace would be restored to the afflicted Church. The very contrary took place. The greatest saints may be mistaken, and so become to one another the cause of sufferings by so much the more bitter as their will, being less subject to caprice than that of other men, remains more firmly set on the course they have adopted for the interests of God and His Church. Perhaps the great bishop of Ostia did not sufficiently take into consideration the exceptional position in which the Florentines were placed by the notorious simony of Peter of Pavia, and the violent manner in which he put to death, without form of trial, all who dared to withstand him. Starting from the indisputable principle that inferiors have no right to depose their superiors, the legate reprehended the conduct of the monks, and of all who had separated themselves from the bishop. There was but one refuge for them, the Apostolic See, to which they fearlessly appealed: a proceeding which no one could call uncanonical. But there, says the historian, many who feared for themselves, rose up against them, declaring that these monks were worthy of death for having dared to attack the prelates of the Church, while Peter Damian severely reproached them before the whole Roman Council. The holy and glorious Pope Alexander II took the monks under his own protection and praised the uprightness of their intention. Yet he dared not comply with their request and proceed further because the greater number of the bishops sided with Peter of Pavia. The archdeacon Hildebrand alone was entirely in favour of the Abbot of Vallombrosa.

Nevertheless the hour was at hand when God Himself would pronounce the judgement refused them by men. While overwhelmed with threats and treated as lambs among wolves, John Gualbert and his sons cried to heaven with the Psalmist: “Arise, O Lord, and help us. Arise, why do you sleep, O Lord? Arise, O God, and judge our cause.” At Florence the storm continued to rage. Saint Saviour’s at Settimo had become the refuge of such of the clergy as were banished from the town by the persecution. The holy founder, who was then residing in that monastery, multiplied in their behalf the resources of his charity. At length the situation became so critical that one day in Lent of the year 1067 the rest of the clergy and the whole population left the simoniac alone in his deserted palace and fled to Settimo. Neither the length of the road deep in mud from the rain, nor the rigorous fast observed by all, says the narrative written at that very time to the Sovereign Pontiff by the clergy and people of Florence, could stay the most delicate matrons, women about to become mothers, or even children. Evidently the Holy Ghost was actuating the crowd. They called for the judgement of God. John Gualbert, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, gave his consent to the trial, and in testimony of the truth of the accusation brought by him against the Bishop of Florence, Peter, one of his monks, since known as Peter Igneus, walked slowly before the eyes of the multitude through an immense fire without receiving the smallest injury. Heaven had spoken: the Bishop was deposed by Rome, and ended his days a happy penitent in that very monastery of Settimo.

In 1073, the year in which his friend Hildebrand was raised to the Apostolic See, John was called to God. His influence against simony had reached far beyond Tuscany. The Republic of Florence ordered his feast to be kept as a holiday, and the following words were engraved upon his tomb-stone:

TO JOHN GUALBERT, CITIZEN OF FLORENCE, DELIVERER OF ITALY.

O TRUE disciple of the New Law, who knew how to spare an enemy for the love of the Holy Cross, teach us to practise, as you did, the lessons conveyed by the instrument of our salvation, which will then become to us, as to you, a weapon ever victorious over the powers of Hell. Could we look on the Cross and then refuse to forgive our brother an injury, when God Himself not only forgets our heinous offences against His Sovereign Majesty, but even died on the Tree to expiate them? The most generous pardon a creature can grant is but a feeble shadow of the pardon we daily obtain from our Father in Heaven. Still, the Gospel which the Church sings in your honour may well teach us that the love of our enemies is the nearest resemblance we can have to our heavenly Father, and the sign that we are truly His children.

You had, O John, this grand trait of resemblance. He who in virtue of His eternal generation is the true Son of God by nature, recognised in you the mark of nobility which made you His brother. When He bowed His sacred Head to you, He saluted in you the character of a child of God which you had just so beautifully maintained: a title a thousand times more glorious than those of your noble ancestry. What a powerful germ was the Holy Ghost planting at that moment in your heart! And how richly does God recompense a single generous act! Your sanctification, the glorious share you took take in the Church’s victory, the fecundity by which you live still in the Order sprung from you: all these choice graces for your own soul and for so many others, hung on that critical moment. Fate, or the Justice of God, as your contemporaries would have said, had brought your enemy within your power: how would you treat him? He was deserving of death, and in those days every man was his own avenger. Had you then inflicted due punishment on him, your reputation would have rather increased than diminished. You would have obtained the esteem of your comrades, but the only glory which is of any worth before God, indeed the only glory which lasts long even in the sight of men, would never have been yours. Who would have known you at the present day? Who would have felt the admiration and gratitude with which your very name now inspires the children of the Church?

The Son of God, seeing that your dispositions were conformable to those of His Sacred Heart, filled you with His own jealous love of the holy City for whose redemption He shed His Blood. O you that were zealous for the beauty of the Bride, watch over her still. Deliver her from hirelings who would fain receive from men the right of holding the place of the Bride groom. In our days venality is less to be feared than compromise. Simony would take another form. There is not so much danger of bribery, as of fawning, paying homage, making advances, entering into implicit contracts: all which proceedings are as contrary to the holy Canons, as are pecuniary transactions. And after all, is the evil any the less for taking a milder form, if it enables princes to bind the Church again in fetters such as you laboured to break? Suffer not, O John Gualbert, such a misfortune which would be the forerunner of terrible disasters. Continue to support with your powerful arm the common Mother of men. Obtain for Christians of every condition the courage required for the warfare in which all are bound to engage.

On this same day the whole Church unites in the solemn homage which Milan continues to pay, after a lapse of [eighteen] centuries, to two valiant witnesses of Christ. “Our martyrs Felix and Nabor,” says Saint Ambrose, “are the grain of mustard-seed mentioned in the Gospel. They possessed the good odour of faith, though it did not appear to men. Persecution arose, they laid down their arms, and bowed their heads to the sword, and immediately the grace that was hidden within them was shed abroad even to the ends of the world so that we can now in all truth say of them: Their sound has gone forth into all the Earth.”

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Cyprus, St. Jason, one of the first disciples of Christ.

At Aquileia, the birthday of St. Hermagoras, a disciple of the Evangelist St. Mark, and first bishop of that city. While occupied in performing miraculous cures, in preaching frequently and bringing souls to repentance, he suffered many kinds of torments, and finally by capital punishment, merited an immortal triumph with his deacon Fortunatus.

At Lucca in Tuscany, blessed Paulinus, who was consecrated first bishop of that city by the blessed Apostle St. Peter. Under Nero, after many combats, he terminated his martyrdom with some companions at the foot of Mount Pisa.

The same day, the Saints Proclus and Hilarion, who won the palm of martyrdom after most bitter torments in the time of the emperor Trajan and the governor Maximus.

At Lentini, St. Epiphana, who, after having her breasts cut off, died in the time of the emperor Diocletian and the governor Tertillus.

At Toledo, St. Marciana, virgin and martyr. For the faith of Christ, she was exposed to the beasts, torn to pieces by a bull, and was thus crowned with martyrdom.

At Lyons, St. Viventiolus, bishop.

At Bologna, St. Paternian, bishop.

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

Thanks be to God.