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Saint for Today - St. Rose of Lima

8/30/2013

The first flower of holiness which came to full blossom in South America, was the maiden Rose. She was born at Lima, of a Christian father and mother, and was remarkable from her childhood for marks of saintliness. The occasion of her name was a strange likeness to a rose, which her face assumed when she was a babe. To this name she afterwards added that of the Virgin Mother of God, desiring to be called St. Mary's Rose. At the age of fifteen years she uttered a vow of perpetual virginity. As she grew older, lest her parents should force her to marry, she polled her head of all her hair, which was very beautiful. She fasted to a degree almost superhuman, passing whole Lents without taking bread, and eating day by day only five pips of a lime.
She took the habit of the Third Order of St. Dominic, and then doubled her former severities. She wore a long and very rough hair-cloth, into which she inserted small pins. She wore day and night under her veil a crown, the inner side of which was armed with pricks. In imitation of the hard steps of St. Catherine of Siena, she girded her loins with a threefold iron chain. She made to herself a bed of knotty sticks, and filled the gaps with broken bits of potsherd. She built herself a very small hut in the farthest corner of the garden, where she gave herself up to thoughts of heavenly things, and to punishing her body with often scourging, starvation, and sleeplessness. But she waxed strong in spirit, and though she often had to fight with evil ghosts, she conquered them, fearlessly prostrated them, and triumphed over them.
She suffered greatly from painful illnesses, from the maltreatment of the servants, and from slanderous accusations, but still complained that she did not suffer as much as she deserved. For fifteen years she pined in misery from desolation and dryness of spirit, bravely enduring torments worse than any form of death. After this period she began to overflow with consolation, to be enlightened by visions, and to melt with love like a Seraph's. She attained, by the frequency of visions, to a strange personal familiarity with her Guardian Angel, with St. Catherine of Siena, and with the Virgin Mother of God, and she earned from Christ the words, Rose of my Heart, be thou my bride. She was famous for many miracles, both before and after she departed hence, and was happily transplanted into the Bridegroom's garden. Pope Clement X, with solemn pomp inscribed her name in the list of holy maidens.

Saint for Today - St. Sabina

8/29/2013

At St Seraphia's grave

Sabina was a Roman lady, the wife of a distinguished nobleman named Valentine. The Christian faith was taught to her by a maiden named Seraphia. After the martyrdom of this holy virgin, Sabina gathered together her relics, and buried them with godly service. For this cause she was in a little while arrested, under the Emperor Hadrian, and brought before the Judge Elpidius. Art thou, said he, the same Sabina who is so distinguished for her blood and her marriage? She answered: I am; but I give thanks to my Lord Jesus Christ for having delivered me through the prayers of his hand-maiden Seraphia from the troubling of the devils. Divers attempts were made to make her change her mind, but when they proved in vain, the Prefect passed sentence of death upon her for despising the gods. The Christians laid her body in the same grave in which she had herself laid that of Seraphia, her teacher in the faith.

The Beheading of St. John the Baptist

8/29/2013

The Lesson is taken from the Treatise concerning Virgins by St. Ambrose the Bishop

We must not hurry past the record of blessed Baptist John. We must ask what he was; by whom he was slain; and why and how. He was a righteous man, murdered for his righteousness by adulterers. He was a judge, who suffered condemnation to death by the guilty ones because he had justly judged their guilt. He was the prophet whose death was a fee paid to a dancing-girl for a lascivious dance. And lastly a thing from which even savages would shrink his head was served up as a dish at a banquet. For the order to commit the atrocity was given amid the merriment of a dinner-party; and the servants of the murderer introduced the murder amid the courses of the meal, running from banquet to prison, and from prison to banquet! See how many infamies are contained in this one crime.

Who is there that, on seeing the messenger hasten from the dinner-table to the prison, would not have forthwith concluded that he carried an order for the prophet's release? If anyone had heard that it was Herod's birthday, and that he was giving a great feast, and that he had offered a damsel the choice of whatever she wished, and that thereupon a messenger had been sent to John's dungeon―if anyone, I say, had heard this, what would he have supposed? He would have concluded that the damsel had asked and obtained John's freedom. What hath merry-making in common with cruelty? or pleasure-seeking with death-dealing? While the banquet was in progress, the prophet was hurried to his doom, by an order from the reveller whom he had not troubled even by a prayer for release. He was slain with the sword, and his head was served up in a charger. This was the new dish demanded by a cruelty which the banquet had been powerless to glut.

Look, O cruel king, and see a decoration which suiteth well thy banquet! Stretch forth thine hand, and touch the head of death at thy feast. So as to lose no part of the luxury of cruelty, let the streams of his sacred blood run between thy fingers. Thine hunger the dinner hath been unable to satisfy; thy cups have not been able to quench thine inhuman thirst; drink the blood still flowing from the palpitating veins of this sacred head. Look at the eyes! Even in death they remain the witness of thine uncleanness, albeit they have made haste to close themselves upon the spectacle of thy pleasures. Those eyes are closing, but, as it were, not so much from death, as from horror at thine enjoyment. That golden mouth, whose bloodless lips are silent now, can repeat no more the denunciation which thou couldest not bear to hear! But even yet thou art afraid of their unspoken judgments!

St Hermes - August 28th

8/28/2013

Martyr, Bishop of Salano (Spalato) in Dalmatia. Very little is known about him; in Romans 16:14, St. Paul says: "Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren that are with them." This last name is supposed by many to refer to the subject of his article, who is also said to have succeeded Titus as Bishop of Dalmatia, and to have been martyred. A passing mention is made of a Hermas in the Acta SS. Bolland., April 8, under Herodion; and Pape says he was one of the seventy-two disciples of Our Lord. Hermes was a very common name among slaves. Migne (P.G., 4 November) says he was one of the seventy disciples, along with Patrobas, Linus, Gaius and Philologus; and Canisius talks of a "Hermæus presbyter" . . . who converted many from idols to Christ, suffered for his faith with Nicander, Bishop of Myra, and was "lacerated and hanged."

From Wikipedia
His existence is attested by his early cult. However, his Acts, included in those of Pope St. Alexander I, are legendary. They state that Hermes was a martyr with companions in Rome, who were killed at the orders of a judge named Aurelian. Hermes was a wealthy freedman.

Some of his relics were given to Spoleto by Gregory the Great. Other relics went to Lothair I by Pope Leo IV; Lothair brought them first to Cornelismünster, near Aachen. The relics later came to Ronse in the 9th century. During those times, Viking raids forced the monks to flee the town more than once, and the monastery was burnt by the Normans in 880. The relics were recovered in 940 and housed in a Romanesque-style crypt in 1083. The church of Saint Hermes, which was later built on top of the crypt, was consecrated in 1129. A pilgrimage in honour of the saint, who had by then be known to cure mental illnesses, sustained the local economy. There is still a French saying today which translates as "Saint Hermes cures the area's madmen but keeps the Ronse dwellers as they are".

In past centuries, St. Elmo's Fire was sometimes called "St. Hermes’ Fire.

Although he is recognized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, the commemoration of Saint Hermes in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints was removed in 1969 (as usual, ed.) because of the paucity of information about him.

Saint for Today - St. Augustine

8/28/2013

Augustine was born of honourable parents at Tagaste in Africa. As a boy his great intelléctual sharpness caused him to distance all his companions in learning. When he was living at Carthage as a young man, he fell into the heresy of the Manicheans. He afterwards went to Rome, and was thence sent to Milan to teach rhetorick. At Milan he often went to hear the sermons of Bishop Ambrose, by whose labours he was drawn to the Catholic Church, and by whom he was baptized at the age of thirty-three. After his return to Africa, Valerius, the illustrious and saintly Bishop of Hippo, finding him to unite holiness of life with Catholic profession, made him a Priest. At this time he founded a sort of family of godly men, who lived and worshipped in common with him, and whom he earnestly formed upon the model of the Apostolic life and teaching. The Manichean heresy flaming forth with violence, he began strongly to attack it, and confounded the arch-heretic Fortunatus.

Valerius, moved by the godly zeal of Augustine, joined him with himself as an assistant in his duties of Bishop. He was lowly and pure in the highest degree. His furniture and dress were plain, and his food of the commonest sort, which he always seasoned when at table by either reading some religious book, or arguing upon some religious subject. His tenderness to the poor was such that, failing all other resources, he broke up the hallowed vessels to relieve their wants. It was his rule not to dwell or be very close friends with any woman, a rule which he did not relax even in the case of his sister and niece, for he was accustomed to say, that although no scandal could arise in the case of such near kinswomen, yet it might arise concerning the women friends who sought their company. He never ceased to preach the Word of God, until he was disabled by heavy sickness. He was always an hard follower after heretics, and by his words and his writings never them suffered them to rest anywhere. In great measure he purged Africa of the Manicheans, Donatists, Pelagians, and other heretics.

He wrote so much, and that with such godliness and understanding, that he is to be held among the very chiefest of them by whom the teachings of Christianity have been shewn forth. He is one of the first of those whom later theologians have followed, in method, and in argument. He fell sick of a fever what time the Vandals were laying Africa waste, and when they were busy in the third month of besieging Hippo. When he understood that his departure from this present life was at hand, he caused the Psalms of David which most speak the language of repentance to be placed before him, and read them with tears, for he was wont to say that even if a man's conscience were to accuse him of no sin, he should not dare to leave this world except as a penitent. His senses remained vigorous to the last, and it was while rapt in prayer, in the presence of the brethren whom he had exhorted to love, godliness, and all goodness, that he departed for heaven. He lived 76 years, whereof he had been a Bishop nearly thirty-six. His body was first carried to Sardinia, but Luitprand, King of the Lombards, afterwards bought it for a great price, and took it to Pavia, where it is honourably buried.

Saint for Today - St Joseph Calasanctius

8/27/2013

Joseph Calasanctius, called Of the Mother of God, was born of a noble family at Petralta in Aragon. From his tender years he began to shew that fondness for children, and that gift of instructing them for which he was afterwards distinguished. He called them around him when he was still but a child himself, and taught them the mysteries of the faith and godly prayers. He was deeply learned in profane and sacred letters, and it was while he was studying theology at Valencia that he bravely overcame the wiles of a noble and powerful lady and, by a brilliant victory, kept untarnished that virginity which he had vowed to God. He became a Priest in consequence of a vow, and was summoned by many Bishops in the kingdoms of New Castile, Aragon, and Catalonia, to help them in their work, wherein he surpassed the hopes of all, correcting depraved manners, restoring the discipline of the Church, and marvellously putting an end to hatreds and bloody feuds. But in obedience to a vision from heaven and many warnings from the voice of God, he left Spain and went to Rome.

In Rome he afflicted his body with extraordinary hardness of living, with watching, and fasting, and so passed his days and nights in prayer, and in the contemplation of heavenly things. He was used to visit the Seven Churches almost every night, a custom which he kept for many years. Having joined several godly Brotherhoods, it was strange how eagerly he relieved the poor by alms and every sort of kindness, choosing especially the sick and the imprisoned. When the city was ravaged by a pestilence, such was the charitable zeal with which he joined in the labours of St. Camillus de Lellis, that besides the great help which he brought to the sick poor, he would even carry the bodies of the dead on his own shoulders to burial. Having understood from God that his call was to bring up children in godliness and good learning, he founded the Order of the Poor Regular Clerks of the Pious Schools of the Mother of God, who profess as the special object of their Institute a singular care for the teaching of the poor. This Institute received the warm approval of Clement VIII, Paul V, and other Popes, and in a short time obtained a marvellous extension through many provinces and kingdoms of Europe. In this work Joseph Calasanctius underwent so many toils, and patiently bore so many griefs, that he was proclaimed by all men a wonder of endurance and a very image of holy Job.

Even when he was at the head of his whole Order, and toiling with all his might for the salvation of souls, he never ceased to teach children, especially the poor, to sweep out the school rooms, and to accompany the scholars home. Thus in spite of broken health he worked on for two and fifty years, with the greatest long-suffering and lowliness. He won that God should glorify him by many miracles worked in the presence of his disciples, and that the most blessed Virgin should appear to him, with the Child Jesus in her arms, blessing them as they prayed. He refused wealthy preferments when they were offered to him. He was eminent for the gift of prophecy, for the power of reading the secrets of the heart, of knowing distant events, and of miracles. The Virgin Mother of God, to whom from his childhood he had had an especial love, and other heavenly ones, honoured him by often allowing him to see them. He foretold the day of his own death, and the restoration and growth of his Order, which seemed at that time to be almost entirely destroyed. He fell asleep in the Lord at Rome, upon the 25th day of August, in the year of salvation 1648, and of his own age the 92nd. An hundred years after his death his heart and tongue were found whole and incorrupt. God glorified him by many miracles even after his death, and he was first crowned by Benedict XIV with the honours paid to the Blessed, and then solemnly enrolled by Clement XIII among the Saints.

The Seven Joys of the Blessed Virgin Mary

8/27/2013

Feast of the Seven Joys of the Blessed Virgin Mary Franciscan Crown (Or Seraphic Rosary.)

A Rosary consisting of seven decades in commemoration of the seven joys of the Blessed Virgin (the Annunciation, Visitation, Birth of our Lord, Adoration of the Magi, Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple, the Resurrection of Our Lord, and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin and her Coronation in heaven), in use among the members of the three orders of St. Francis.

The Franciscan Crown dates back to the year 1422. Wadding tells us that a young novice who had that year been received into the Franciscan Order had, previous to his reception, been accustomed to adorn a statue of the Blessed Virgin with a wreath of fresh and beautiful flowers as a mark of his piety and devotion. Not being able to continue this practice in the novitiate, he decided to return to the world. The Blessed Virgin appeared to him and prevented him from carrying out his purpose. She then instructed him how, by reciting daily a rosary of seven decades in honour of her seven joys, he might weave a crown that would be more pleasing to her than the material wreath of flowers he had been wont to place on her statue. From that time the practice of reciting the crown of the seven joys became general in the order.

The manner of reciting the Franciscan Rosary is as follows: The Apostles' Creed, the Our Father, and three Hail Marys having been said as usual, the mystery to be meditated upon is introduced after the word Jesus of the first Hail Mary of each decade, thus: "Jesus, whom thou didst joyfully conceive", "Jesus, whom thou didst joyfully carry to Elizabeth", and so on for the remaining five decades, which are given in most manuals of Franciscan devotion. At the end of the seventh decade two Hail Marys are added to complete the number of years (72) that the Blessed Virgin is said to have lived on earth.There are other ways of reciting the Crown but the one given seems to be in more general use.

The plenary Indulgence attached to the recitation of the Franciscan Crown, and applicable to the dead, may be gained as often as the crown is recited.It is not required that the beads be blessed, or in fact that beads be used at all, since the Indulgence is not attached to the material rosary, but to the recitation of the prayers as such. In 1905 Pope Pius X, in response to the petition of the Procurator General of the Friars Minor, enriched the Franciscan Crown with several new Indulgences that may be gained by all the faithful. Those who assist at a public recitation of the Franciscan Crown participate in all the Indulgences attached to the Seraphic Rosary that are gained by the members of the Franciscan Order. It is required, however, that beads be used and that they be blessed by a priest having the proper faculties. A translation of the pontifical Brief is given in "St. Anthony's Almanac" for 1909.

Our Lady of Czetochowa

8/26/2013

Feast Day August 26

The icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa has been intimately associated with Poland for the past six hundred years. Its history prior to its arrival in Poland is shrouded in numerous traditions which trace the icon's origin to St. Luke who painted it on a cedar table top from the house of the Holy Family.

One of the oldest documents from Jasna Góra states that the picture travelled from Jerusalem, via Constantinople and Belz, to finally reach Częstochowa in August 1382 by Władysław Opolczyk, Duke of Opole. The Black Madonna is credited with miraculously saving the monastery of Jasna Góra from a 17th-century Swedish invasion, The Deluge.

The Siege of Jasna Góra took place in the winter of 1655 during the Second Northern War / The Deluge — as the Swedish invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is known. The Swedes were attempting to capture the Jasna Góra monastery in Częstochowa. Their month-long siege however, was ineffective, as a small force consisting of monks from the Jasna Gora monastery led by their Prior and supported by local volunteers, mostly from the szlachta (Polish nobility), fought off the numerically superior invaders, saved their sacred icon and, according to some accounts, turned the course of the war.

This event led King John II Casimir Vasa to "crown" Our Lady of Częstochowa ("the Black Madonna") as Queen and Protector of Poland in the cathedral of Lwów on April 1, 1656. Another story concerning the Black Madonna of Częstochowa is that the presence of the holy painting saved its church from being destroyed in a fire, but not before the flames darkened the fleshtone pigments.

The story concerning the two scars on the Black Madonna's right cheek is that the Hussites stormed the Pauline monastery in 1430, plundering the sanctuary. Among the items stolen was the icon. After putting it in their wagon, the Hussites tried to get away but their horses refused to move. They threw the portrait down to the ground and one of the plunderers drew his sword upon the image and inflicted two deep strikes. When the robber tried to inflict a third strike, he fell to the ground and squirmed in agony until his death. Despite past attempts to repair these scars, they had difficulty in covering up those slashes (as they found out that the painting was painted with tempera infused with diluted wax). In commemoration of the attack, two slashes on her right cheek were made by a pen.

Another story states that, as the robber struck the painting twice, the face of the Virgin Mary started to bleed; in a panic, the scared Hussites retreated and left the painting. Because of the Black Madonna, Częstochowa is regarded as the most popular shrine in Poland, with many Polish Catholics making a pilgrimage there every year. Often, people will line up on the side of the road to hand provisions to the pilgrims as those who walk the distance to Częstochowa walk the entire day and have little means to get things for themselves.

As evidenced from the icon on the right, it appears Orthodox Christians were not unaware of the Black Madonna. They too venerate her. In Vodou, it is believed that a common depiction of Erzulie has its roots in copies of the icon of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, brought to Haiti by Polish soldiers fighting on both sides of the Haitian Revolution from 1802 onwards. In her Petro nation aspect as Erzulie Dantor she is often depicted as a scarred and buxom woman, holding a child protectively in one hand and a knife in the other. She is a warrior and particularly a fierce protector of women and children. In Santeria, this image is referred to as Santa Barbara Africana.

Ukrainians also have a special devotion for the Madonna of Częstochowa.

St Zephyrinus - Pope

8/26/2013

Pope Zephyrinus was a Roman, who was called to govern the Church during the reign of the Emperor Severus. It was he who decreed that they who are to be ordained should be ordained only at a fit time, and in the presence of many clerks and laymen, as was indeed already the custom, and that none but learned men and well known and spoken of should be set apart to that office. He decreed also that when the bishop celebrated the Holy Liturgy, all the priests should be present around him. Also he decreed that no patriarch, primate, or metropolitan should pronounce sentence on a bishop, unless they were charged with the authority of the Apostolic See. He lived as Pope eighteen years and eighteen days. He held four December ordinations, wherein he made thirteen priests, seven deacons, and thirteen bishops for divers places. He received the crown of martyrdom under the Emperor Antoninus, and was buried on the Appian Way, near the cemetery of Callistus, upon the 26th day of August.

Saint for Today - St. Loius IX

8/25/2013

In Louis IX of France were united the qualities of a just and upright sovereign, a fearless warrior, and a saint. This crusading king was a living embodiment of the Christianity of the time: he lived for the welfare of his subjects and the glory of God. His father was Louis VIII, of the Capet line, and his mother was the redoubtable Queen Blanche, daughter of King Alfonso of Castile and Eleanor of England. Louis, the oldest son,* was born at Poissy on the Seine, a little below Paris, on April 25,1214, and there was christened. Much of his virtue is attributed to his mother's care, for the Queen devoted herself to her children's education. Louis had tutors who made him a master of Latin, taught him to speak easily in public and write with dignity and grace. He was instructed in the arts of war and government and all other kingly accomplishments. But Blanche's primary concern was to implant in him a deep regard and awe for everything related to religion. She used often to say to him as he was growing up, "I love you my dear son, as much as a mother can love her child; but I would rather see you dead at my feet than that you should commit a mortal sin."

In May, 1234, Louis, then twenty, married Margaret, the oldest daughter of Raymond Beranger, Count of Provence. They had eleven children, five sons and six daughters. This line continued in power in France for five hundred years. In 1793, as the guillotine fell on Louis XVI, it will be recalled that the Abbe Edgeworth murmured: "Son of St. Louis, ascend to Heaven!"

After taking the government of the realm into his hands, one of the young King's first acts was to build the famous monastery of Royaumont, with funds left for the purpose by his father. Louis gave encouragement to the religious orders, installing the Carthusians in the palace of Vauvert in Paris, and assisting his mother in founding the convent of Maubuisson. Ambitious to make France foremost among Christian nations, Louis was overjoyed at the opportunity to buy the Crown of Thorns and other holy relics from the Eastern Emperor at Constantinople. He sent two Dominican friars to bring these sacred objects to France, and, attended by an impressive train, he met them at Sens on their return. To house the relics, he built on the island in the Seine named for him, the shrine of Sainte-Chapelle, one of the most beautiful examples of Gothic architecture in existence. Since the French Revolution it stands empty of its treasure.

Louis loved sermons, heard two Masses daily, and was surrounded, even while traveling, with priests chanting the hours. Though he was happy in the company of priests and other men of wisdom and experience, he did not hesitate to oppose churchmen when they proved unworthy. The usual tourneys and festivities at the creation of new knights were magnificently celebrated, but Louis forbade at his court any diversion dangerous to morals. He allowed no obscenity or profanity. "I was a good twenty-two years in the King's company," writes Joinville, "and never once did I hear him swear, either by God, or His Mother, or His saints. I did not even hear him name the Devil, except if he met the word when reading aloud, or when discussing what had been read." A Dominican who knew Louis well declared that he had never heard him speak ill of anyone. When urged to put to death the rebel son of Hugh de la Marche, he would not do so, saying, "A son cannot refuse to obey his father's orders."

On a crusade in in 1270, dysentery and other diseases broke out among the crusaders, and Louis' second son, who had been born at Damietta during the earlier crusade, died. That same day the King and his eldest son, Philip, sickened, and it was soon apparent that Louis would not recover. He was speechless all the next morning, but at three in the afternoon he said, "Into Thy hands I commend my spirit," and quickly breathed his last. His bones and heart were taken back to France and kept enshrined in the abbey-church of St. Denis, until they were scattered at the time of the Revolution. Louis was strong, idealistic, austere, just; his charities and foundations were notable, and he went on two crusades. Little wonder that a quarter of a century after his death the process of canonization was started and quickly completed the man who was "every inch a king" became a saint of the Church in 1297, twenty-seven years after his death.

To his son he gave these words "Fair son, the first thing I would teach thee is to set thine heart to love God; for unless he love God none can be saved. Keep thyself from doing aught that is displeasing to God, that is to say, from mortal sin. Contrariwise thou shouldst suffer every manner of torment rather than commit a mortal sin.

"If God send thee adversity, receive it in patience and give thanks to our Saviour and bethink thee that thou hast deserved it, and that He will make it turn to thine advantage. If He send thee prosperity, then thank Him humbly, so that thou becomest not worse from pride or any other cause, when thou oughtest to be better. For we should not fight against God with his own gifts.

"Confess thyself often and choose for thy confessor a right worthy man who knows how to teach thee what to do, and what not to do; and bear thyself in such sort that thy confessor and thy friends shall dare to reprove thee for thy misdoings. Listen to the services of Holy Church devoutly, and without chattering; and pray to God with thy heart and with thy lips, and especially at Mass when the consecration takes place. Let thy heart be tender and full of pity toward those who are poor, miserable, and afflicted, and comfort and help them to the utmost of thy power."

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