Peter, who is called Peter Celestine, because when he became Pope he did so under the title of Celestine V, was the son of respectable Catholic parents, and was born at Isernia in Apulia. He was hardly entered on boyhood, when he withdrew into a desert, in order to keep his soul safe from the snares of the world. In solitude he fed his mind with heavenly meditation, and brought his body into subjection, even by wearing an iron chain next to his bare flesh. He founded, under the Rule of St. Benedict, that congregation which was afterwards known as the Celestines. His light, as of a candle set upon a candlestick, could not be kept hidden, and after the Church of Rome had for a long while been widowed of a shepherd, he was chosen without his knowledge and in his absence, to fill the chair of Peter. The news of his election filled himself with as great amazement, as it did all others with sudden joy. When, however, he was seated in the exalted place of the Papal dignity, he found that the many cares by which he was beset made it wellnigh impossible for him to give himself to his accustomed meditations; of his own free will, he resigned the burden and the honour together; and, while he sought to return to his old way of life, he fell asleep in the Lord. How precious his death was in his sight was gloriously manifested by a Cross which appeared shining in the air before the door of the cell. He was illustrious for miracles both during his life and after his death, and when these had been duly investigated, Clement V, in the eleventh year after his departure hence, enrolled his name among those of the Saints.
Paschal Baylon was the son of poor and godly parents, in the town of Torre Hermosa, and Diocese of Sagunta in Aragon. From his childhood he gave indications of a holy life. He was naturally of a good disposition, and very wishful to learn about heavenly things. His boyhood and youth he passed in the occupation of a shepherd. This way of life pleased him well, because he thought it one useful and fitted to nourish lowliness and keep innocency. He ate little, and was instant in prayer. He had great weight and favour with his fellows and neighbours, whose quarrels he healed, corrected their mistakes, enlightened their ignorance, and roused them from idleness. They all greatly honoured and loved him, as though he were their father and teacher, and even then many called him Beato, that is, The Blessed. In a world which was to him a dry land where no water is, Paschal grew up a lily of the vallies, planted in the House of the Lord, whose strange sweetness spread all around. When he took upon him an harder life, by entering the Institute of Discalced Grey Friars, of the strict Observance, he rejoiced as a strong man to run a race, and gave himself up altogether to serve the Lord, thinking by day and by night only how he might attain more and more to have that mind in him which was was also in Christ Jesus. And so it came to pass in a little while, that his very elders set him before them for their model, as a pattern of a man seeking to be perfect in the path of the Seraphic Order. Paschal himself held the lowly place of a lay brother, and deemed himself the off-scouring of all things. He took most cheerfully, and discharged with the greatest humility and patience, the hardest and meanest work of the house, as though such were his peculiar right. His flesh would sometimes rebel against his spirit, but he broke it under the yoke of mortification, and brought it into subjection. Day by day the spirit of self-denial waxed stronger in him, and forgetting those things which were behind, he reached forth unto those things which were before. To the Virgin Mother of God he had vowed himself when he was but a very young boy, and he paid her every day the services of a son, and trusted her as a mother. It is hard to tell how intense was the love which bound him to the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, a love which seemed literally stronger than death, for when his dead body was found lying on the bier, its eyes opened and shut twice when the Sacred Host was lifted up, to the amazement of all that were there. When he was among heretics, he suffered much and grievously at their hands for plainly and openly telling the truth touching this Sacrament: they often sought after him to murder him, but by the singular Providence of God he was delivered from those wicked men. When he was at prayer he often became utterly insensible, and his soul fainted away with the love of God. During these trances it was believed that he received directly from heaven that knowledge which he had, and which enabled him, although a man altogether rough and unlettered, to answer the hardest questions upon the mysteries of the faith, and even to write some books. At last, full of good works, he joyfully passed away to be ever with the Lord, at the hour foretold by himself, on the Feast of Pentecost, the 17th day of May, in the year of salvation 1592, on which day also he had been born fifty-two years before. Illustrious for the graces above mentioned, and for the miracles which he worked both during his life and after his death, he was named Blessed by Pope Paul V, and Alexander VIII enrolled him among the Saints. At length, Leo XIII declared and appointed him in a special manner the patron in heaven of eucharistic conferences, and likewise of all societies of the most holy Eucharist, whether founded up to that time, or that might founded in the future. Ubald was born of a noble family at Gubbio in Umbria, and well established in godliness and learning from his earliest years. When he was a young man, it was often proposed to him to marry, but he never abandoned his determination to preserve his virginity. After that he was ordained Priest he divided his inheritance among the poor and Churches, and embraced the Institute of Canons Regular of St. Augustine. This Institute he brought to Gubbio, and for some time led therein a most holy life. When the fame of his saintliness had got noised abroad, Pope Honorius II set him, contrary to his own wishes, over the Church of Gubbio, and he was honoured with consecration as Bishop by the hands of the said Pope himself. When Ubald came to live as Bishop in Gubbio, he changed his way of life in no wise from that which he had led before, but his virtues began to be more eminent because his word and ensample were now more able to benefit his neighbours, to whom the shepherd of their souls was a pattern, not by outward showing only, but from his heart. He ate little, dressed simply, and slept upon a hard and very poor bed. He always bore in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, while he daily fed his soul in unceasing and earnest prayer. Hence he acquired such wonderful meekness, that when he was most grievously wronged and insulted he not only took it patiently, but, by a strange impulse of love for them, embraced his persecutors with every proof of affection. For the space of two years before Ubald passed away from this present life, he was tried as gold in the furnace, by grievous bodily weakness, and, day after day, amid the sharpest sufferings, he never ceased patiently to give God thanks. He rested in peace on the sacred day of Pentecost, having for many years governed with great praise the Church which had been entrusted to him, and glorious for good works and miracles. Pope Celestine III numbered him with the Saints. His strength is most chiefly shewn in the casting out of evil spirits. His body hath remained without corruption for all these ages, and is reverenced greatly in his native town by Christ's faithful people. To them he hath more than once shewn himself good at need. John Baptist de La Salle, born of an honourable family at Rheims, when still a boy shewed by his manners and actions that he was called by destiny to the Lord, and was to be adorned with the excellence of holiness. As a youth he studied literature and the philosophical sciences at the academy at Rheims. During this time, although his mental powers and his lively and pleasant disposition endeared him to all, he nevertheless shrank from the company of his fellows, so that, being inclined to solitude, he might the more easily find time for God. Already having been for some time enlisted in the ranks of the clergy, he was enrolled among the canons of Rheims at the age of sixteen years. He went to Paris to study theology at the university of the Sorbonne, and was admitted to the Sulpician seminary. But he was soon forced to return home because of the death of his parents, and undertook the education of his brothers, which he carried on, without meanwhile interrupting his sacred studies, and with the greatest success, as was proved by subsequent events. He was finally ordained priest, and said his first Mass with the intense faith and ardour of the soul which, throughout his whole life, he brought to those holy Mysteries. Meanwhile, burning with zeal for the salvation of souls, he devoted himself wholly to their service. He undertook the direction of the Sisters of the Infant Jesus, founded for the education of girls; and not only managed them most prudently, but saved their institute from dissolution. From this time onwards, he turned his attention to the education of poor boys in religion and good morals. And God had raised him up for this very end, namely, that he should found in his Church a new family of religious men, and should look after boys' schools, especially of poor boys, with unceasing and efficient care. And, indeed, this duty, entrusted to him by Divine providence, was successfully accomplished, in spite of very much opposition and great hardships, by the foundation of an institute of brothers which he named the Christian Schools. His male associates in this great and arduous work he at first received into his own house; and then, establishing them in a more suitable dwelling, thoroughly inspired them with his method and with those wise laws and regulations which were afterwards confirmed by Benedict XIII. Because of humility and love of poverty, he first resigned his canonry and distributed all his property among the poor; and later also, after many unsuccessful attempts to do so, he of his own will resigned the government of the institute which he had founded. But meanwhile his solicitude for the brothers and for the schools which he opened in different places did not lessen, though he began to give himself more diligently to God. Shewing his hatred for self in constant fastings, in the use of the discipline and in other austerities, he spent his nights in prayer. At length, conspicuous for every kind of virtue, especially obedience, and zeal for fulfilling the divine will, and love and devotion to the Apostolic See, full of merit, and having devoutly received the sacraments, he fell asleep in the Lord in the sixty-eighth year of his age. The Supreme Pontiff Leo XIII placed him in the list of the Blessed; and, illustrious by new miracles, he was adorned with honours of the Saints in the year of jubilee, 1900. Pius XII appointed him the special heavenly patron of all teachers of boys and young men. Boniface, a Roman citizen, who had lived in sin with the noble matron Aglaë, was so overwhelmed with sorrow at that transgression, he gave himself up in penance to look for and bury the bodies of the martyrs. While he was at Tarsus, and apart from his fellow-travellers, he saw a great many persons being tormented in various ways, because they confessed to believing in Christ. He kissed their chains and earnestly exhorted them to bear their sufferings bravely, since the affliction which was theirs but for a moment, was working a great, even an eternal weight of glory for them. For this reason Boniface also was apprehended, and his flesh torn off with iron claws. Sharp reeds also were driven between his finger-nails, and melted lead was poured into his mouth. His only exclamation, in the midst of these tortures, was: I give thee thanks, O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. He was then thrown head downwards into a cauldron of boiling pitch; when he came out unhurt, the judge, burning with rage, ordered him to be beheaded. During this time a great earthquake occurred, so that many pagans were converted to the faith of Christ the Lord. Next day his companions, searching for him, learned he had suffered martyrdom, and bought his body for five hundred pieces of gold, and having embalmed it with spices and wrapped it in linen, they had it taken to Rome. All this was made known by an Angel to the matron Aglaë, who, now penitent, had devoted herself to good works; going to meet the holy body, she built a church in his name, in which the body was buried on the 5th day of June. His soul had passed to heaven on the 14th day of May at Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Robert, a native of Montepulciano and of the noble family of Bellarmine, had for his mother the most pious Cynthia Cervini, sister of Pope Marcellus II. From the first he was conspicuous for exemplary piety and most chaste manners, earnestly desiring this one thing, to please God alone and to win souls to Christ. He attended the college of the Society of Jesus in his native town where he was highly commended for his intelligence and modesty. At the age of eighteen he entered the same Society at Rome, and was a model of all religious virtues. Having passed through the course of philosophy at the Roman College, he was sent first to Florence, then to Monreale, later to Padua to teach sacred theology, and afterwards to Louvain where, not yet a priest, he ably discharged the office of preacher. After ordination at Louvain, he taught theology with such success that he brought back many heretics to the unity of the Church, and was regarded throughout Europe as a most brilliant theologian; and St. Charles, Bishop of Milan, and others keenly sought after him. Recalled to Rome at the wish of Pope Gregory XIII, he taught the science of controversial theology at the Roman College, and there, as spiritual director he guided the angelic youth Aloysius in the paths of holiness. He governed the Roman College and then the Neapolitan province of the Society of Jesus in accordance with the spirit of St. Ignatius. Again summoned to Rome, he was employed by Clement VIII in the most important affairs of the Church, with the greatest advantage to the Christian state; then against his will and in spite of opposition, he was admitted among the number of the cardinals, because, as the Pontiff publicly declared, he did not have his equal among theologians in the Church of God at the time. He was consecrated bishop by the same Pope, and administered the archdiocese of Capua in a most saintly manner for three years: having resigned this office, he lived in Rome until his death, as a most impartial and trusty counsellor to the Supreme Pontiff. He wrote much, and in an admirable manner. His principal merit lieth in his complete victory in the struggle against the new errors, during which he distinguished himself as a strenuous and outstanding vindicator of Catholic tradition and the rights of the Roman See. He gained this victory by following St. Thomas as his guide and teacher, by a prudent consideration of the needs of his times, by his irrefragable teaching, and by a most abundant wealth of testimony well-chosen from the sacred writings and from the very rich fountain of the Fathers of the Church. He is eminently noted for very numerous short works for fostering piety, and especially for that golden Catechism, which he never failed to explain to the young and ignorant both at Capua and at Rome, although preoccupied with other very important affairs. A contemporary cardinal declared that Robert was sent by God the instruction of Catholics, for the guidance of the good, and for the confusion of heretics; St. Francis de Sales regarded him as a fountain of learning; the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XIV called him the hammer of heretics; and Benedict XV proclaimed him the model of promoters and defenders of the Catholic religion. He was most zealous in the religious life and he maintained that manner of life after having been chosen as one of the empurpled cardinals. He did not want to any wealth beyond what was necessary; he was satisfied with a moderate household, and scanty fare and clothing. He did not strive to enrich his relatives, and he could scarcely be induced to relieve their poverty even occasionally. He had the lowest opinion of himself, and was of wonderful simplicity of soul. He had an extraordinary love for the Mother of God; he spent many hours daily in prayer. He ate very sparingly, and fasted three times a week. Uniformly austere with himself, he burned with charity towards his neighbour, and was often called the father of the poor. He earnestly strove that he might not stain his baptismal innocence to even the slightest fault. Almost eighty years old, he fell into his last illness at St. Andrew's on the Quirinal hill, and in it he shewed his usual radiant virtue. Pope Gregory XV and many cardinals visited him on his deathbed, lamenting the loss of such a great pillar of the Church. He fell asleep in the Lord in the year 1621, on the day of the sacred Stigmata of St. Francis, the memory of which he had been instrumental in having celebrated everywhere. The whole city mourned his death, unanimously proclaiming him a Saint. The Supreme Pontiff Pius XI inscribed his name, first, in the number of the Blessed, and then in that of the Saints, and shortly afterwards, by a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, he declared him a Doctor of the universal Church. His body is honoured with pious veneration at Rome in the church of St. Ignatius, near the tomb of St. Aloysius, as he himself had desired. Nereus and Achilleus were brethren, eunuchs belonging to Flavia Domitilla, who were baptized by blessed Peter, along with her and her mother Plautilla. They had advised Domitilla to consecrate her virginity to God, and on this account Aurelian, to whom she was betrothed, accused them of being Christians. They nobly confessed the faith, and were banished to the island of Ponza. Then they were again put to the torture, and after being scourged, were taken to Tarracina. At Terracina, Minutius Rufus tormented them with the rack and with fire, but as they constantly affirmed that having once been baptized by the blessed Apostle Peter, no torture could ever make them sacrifice to idols, they were beheaded. Auspicius, their own disciple and the tutor of Domitilla, took their bodies to Rome, where they were buried on the road to Ardea. The Virgin Flavia Domitilla was a Roman, the niece of the Emperors Titus and Domitian, and was veiled by the blessed Pope Clement. Aurelian, son of the Consul Titus Aurelius, to whom she was betrothed, accused her of being a Christian, and the Emperor Domitian banished her into the island of Ponza, where she long suffered and testified in prison. At length she was taken to Terracina, where she again confessed Christ, and as she seemed ever to grow firmer, the judge, under the Emperor Trajan, caused her chamber to be set on fire, and there Domitilla, with her foster-sisters the maidens Theodora and Euphrosyna, finished the race of faith by grasping the crown of glory, on the 7th day of May. Their bodies were found whole, and were buried by the Deacon Caesarius. This, the twelfth day of May, is that whereon the bodies of Nereus and Achilleus, and that of Domitilla, were carried from the Deaconry of St. Hadrian, and laid in the Church which is properly called by the name of these holy martyrs but formerly by that of St. Peter's Bandage. Pancras was the son of a noble family of Phrygia. He came to Rome in the reign of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, being there a boy of fourteen years of age. There he was baptized by the Bishop of Rome, and brought up in the Christian faith. On this account he was soon after taken, and having constantly refused to sacrifice to the gods, he offered his neck to the executioner with manly courage, and won a glorious crown of martyrdom. The Lady Octavilla took his body by night, embalmed it with precious ointments, and buried it on the Aurelian Way. Antoninus was born of respectable parents at Florence, and the holiness of his after life was foreshadowed in him even a little child. When he was sixteen years of age he entered the Order of Friars Preachers, and from that time forth he was a burning and a shining light to all the godly. He proclaimed a truceless war against idleness: after a short night's rest, he was the first to come to the service of Matins; when they were over he spent the rest of the night in prayer, or at least in reading, or writing out books, or if sleep altogether overcame his weary body, he would rest against the wall with his head bowed down, and then shake off slumber again, and set himself anew with fresh eagerness to his sacred watch. He required of himself the most unflinching observance of the Rule of his Order, and never ate meat unless he were grievously ill. He slept upon the ground or upon bare boards. He always wore haircloth, and sometimes an iron girdle which bit into his naked skin. His virginity he kept ever undimmed by the least breath or shadow. He was so skilful in giving advice that he gained the common nickname of Antoninus the Counsellor. At the same time so beautifully brilliant was his lowliness, that even when he was at the head of houses and provinces of his Order, he most cheerfully undertook all the meanest services of the houses where he was. Eugenius IV appointed him Archbishop of Florence, and he took it so ill, that it was only when awed by the threats of the Apostolic See that he obeyed, and accepted the dignity. As Archbishop it can hardly be told how noble he was, in wisdom, in godliness, in love, in meekness, in priestly zeal. It was wonderful to see how thoroughly he taught himself nearly all the sciences, without the help of a master. At last, after much work, and publishing many valuable books on Doctrine, he received the Holy Eucharist and was anointed, and then, clasping the image of his crucified Saviour to his heart, joyfully welcomed death, on the 2nd day of May, in the year 1459. He was remarkable for the working of miracles, both during his life and after his death, and Adrian VI enrolled his name among those of the Saints in the year 1523. Gregory, to whom is commonly given, on account of his extraordinary depth of sacred learning, the title of The Divine, was a noble Cappadocian, born at Nazianzus in that country, and educated at Athens along with St. Basil, with whom likewise, when they had acquired knowledge in divers branches of earthly learning, he gave himself up to learn the things of God. This they did for some years in a monastery, framing their opinions, not out of their own heads, but according to the interpretation arrived at by the wisdom and decision of the ancients. They were both distinguished by power of doctrine and holiness of life; they were both called to the duty of preaching the Gospel of truth; and through the Gospel they both begat many sons unto Christ. Gregory after a while returned home. He was first made Bishop of Sosima, and afterwards administered the Church at Nazianzus. Then he was called to rule the Church of Constantinople. That city, which he found reeking with heresy, he purged, and brought again to the Catholic faith. But this, which deserved for him the warmest love of all men, raised up many enemies. Among the bishops themselves there was a great party against him, and to still their contentions, he, of his own free will, gave up his See, saying with the Prophet Jonah: Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea: so shall the sea be calm unto you; for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. So he went his way back again to Nazianzus, and when he had seen that Eulalius was set over that Church, he gave himself up altogether to think and write concerning the things of God. He wrote much, both in prose and verse, with wonderful godliness and eloquence. According to the judgement of learned and holy men, there is nothing in his writings which anywhere strays from the line of true godliness and Catholic truth, and not a single word which any one can justly call in doubt. He was one of the latest champions of the doctrine that the Son is of one substance with the Father. No one hath ever won greater praise for goodness of life, neither was any man more earnest in prayer. During the reign of the Emperor Theodosius he dwelt in the country after the manner of a monk, and unceasingly taken up with writing and reading, until, in a good old age, he laid down his earthly, to enter on an heavenly life. That the blessed Archangel Michael hath oftentimes been seen of men is attested on the authority of the Holy Bible, and also by the ancient traditions of the Saints. For this reason such visions are held in remembrance in many places. As of old time did the Synagogue of the Jews, so now doth the Church of God venerate Michael as her watcher and defender. But during the Popedom of Gelasius I, the summit of Mount Gargano in Apulia, at whose foot lieth the town of Siponto, was the scene of an extraordinary appearance of this same Archangel Michael. And it came to pass on this wise. A certain man had a bull grazing with the flock upon Mount Gargano, and it strayed. And when they had sought it for a long while they found it jammed in the mouth of a cavern. Then one that stood there shot an arrow at it to slay it, but the arrow turned round and came back against him that had shot it. They therefore that saw it, and all those that heard it, were sore afraid because of that which had come to pass, so that no man dared any more to draw near to the cavern. But when they had sought counsel of the Bishop of Siponto, he answered, that it behoved to seek the interpretation from God, and proclaimed three days of fasting and prayer. After three days the Archangel Michael gave warning to the Bishop that that place was under his protection, and that he had thus pointed out by a sign that he wished that worship should be offered to God there, with remembrance of himself and of the Angels. Then the Bishop and the citizens made haste and came to the cavern; and when they found that the form thereof was somewhat after the fashion of a Church they began to perform the public worship of God therein: which sanctuary hath been glorified with many miracles. It was not long after these things that Pope Boniface IV hallowed the Church of St. Michael on Hadrian's Mole at Rome, on the 29th day of September, on the which day the Church also holdeth in remembrance All Angels. But this present day is hallowed in remembrance of the manifestation of the Archangel Michael. |
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