SAINT PETER DAMIAN

SAINT PETER DAMIAN
Cardinal Bishop
(988-1072)

Saint Peter Damian, born in 988, lost both his parents at an early age. His eldest brother, to whose hands he was left, treated him so cruelly that another brother, a priest, moved by his piteous state, sent him to the University of Parma, where he acquired great distinction. His studies were sanctified by vigils, fasts, and prayers, until at last, thinking that all this was only serving God halfway, he resolved to leave the world. He joined the monks of Fonte Avellano, then in the greatest repute, and by his wisdom and sanctity rose to be Superior.

Saint Peter was called upon for the most delicate and difficult missions, among others the reform of ecclesiastical communities, which his zeal accomplished. Seven Popes in succession made him their constant adviser, and he was finally created Cardinal Bishop of Ostia. He withstood Henry IV of Germany, and labored in defense of Pope Alexander II against an antipope, whom he forced to yield and seek pardon. He was charged, as papal legate, with the repression of simony and correction of scandals; again, was commissioned to settle discords amongst various bishops; and finally, in 1072, to adjust the affairs of the Church at Ravenna. He had never paid attention to his health, which was at best fragile, and after enduring violent onslaughts of fever during the night, would rise to hear confessions, preach, or sing solemn Masses, always ready to sacrifice his well-being and life for the salvation of the souls entrusted to him.

After succeeding in this final mission as he ordinarily did, on his journey back to Ostia he was laid low by fever; he died at Faenza in a monastery of his Order, on the eighth day of his sickness, while the monks chanted Matins aroun

SAINT PETER’S CHAIR AT ANTIOCH

SAINT PETER’S CHAIR AT ANTIOCH
(ca. 36-43)

That Saint Peter, before he went to Rome, founded the see of Antioch is attested by many Saints of the earliest times, including Saint Ignatius of Antioch and Saint Clement, Pope. It was just that the Prince of the Apostles should take under his particular care and surveillance this city, which was then the capital of the East, and where the faith so early took such deep roots as to give birth there to the name of Christians. There his voice could be heard by representatives of the three largest nations of antiquity — the Hebrews, the Greeks and the Latins. Saint Chrysostom says that Saint Peter was there for a long period; Saint Gregory the Great, that he was seven years Bishop of Antioch. He did not reside there at all times, but governed its apostolic activity with the wisdom his mandate assured.

If as tradition affirms, he was twenty-five years in Rome, the date of his establishment at Antioch must be within three years after Our Saviour’s Ascension, for he would have gone to Rome in the second year of Claudius. He no doubt left Jerusalem when the persecution which followed Saint Steven’s martyrdom broke out (Acts 8:1), and remained in Antioch until he escaped miraculously from prison and from the hands of Herod Agrippa, while in Jerusalem in 43 at the time of the Passover. (Acts 12) Knowing he would be pursued to Antioch, his well-known center of activity, he went to Rome.

In the first ages it was customary, especially in the East, for every Christian to observe the anniversary of his Baptism. On that day each one renewed his baptismal vows and gave thanks to God for his heavenly adoption. That memorable day they regarded as their spiritual birthday. The bishops similarly kept the anniversary of their consecration, as appears from four sermons of Saint Leo the Great on the anniversary of his accession to the pontifical dignity. These commemorations were frequently continued by the people after their bishops’ decease, out of respect for their memory. The feast of the Chair of Saint Peter was instituted from very early times. Saint Leo says we should celebrate the Chair of Saint Peter with no less joy than the day of his martyrdom, for as in the latter he was exalted to a throne of glory in heaven, by the former he was installed Head of the Church on earth.

Reflection: On this festival we are especially bound to adore and thank the divine Goodness for the establishment and propagation of His Church, and to pray earnestly that in His mercy He will preserve it and extend its dominion, so that His name may be glorified by all nations and all hearts even to the boundaries of the earth.

BLESSED BROTHER DIDACE PELLETIER

BLESSED BROTHER DIDACE PELLETIER
Confessor
(1657-1699)

Brother Didace was the first child born at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, or at least the first child whose baptismal certificate is inscribed in the parish register; he was also the first Canadian-born Lay Brother of the first missionaries in New France, the Recollets (French Franciscans), and the first Canadian who left a reputation of sanctity on Canadian soil after his death. Such are the titles of Blessed Brother Didace, originally Claude Pelletier.

Blessed Brother Didace was born on June 28, 1657; his parents were Georges Pelletier and Catherine Vanier, from Dieppe, France. His life was not eventful exteriorly, and can be summarized in a few words. As a little boy, he was sent to the apprentices’ school established by Bishop de Laval at Saint Joachim, not far from Sainte Anne de Beaupré. There he learned the carpenter’s trade, in which he excelled. After a childhood and youth spent in labor, piety and love of innocence, he entered the Recollets at Quebec City in the autumn of 1678, at the age of twenty-one. He was clothed with the Franciscan habit in 1679, and received the name Didace in honor of a Spanish Saint, the patron of Lay Brothers; he made his religious vows one year later, in 1680.

Brother Didace lived at Our Lady of the Angels mission in Quebec City for another three or four years. Because of his talent as a carpenter, he had a large part in the construction work which the Recollets of that time were undertaking. He was sent to Ile Percé and Ile Bonaventure in the Gaspesie, or eastern shore of the peninsula (1683-1689), to Plaisance, in Newfoundland (1689-1692), to Montreal (1692-1696), and finally to Three Rivers, Quebec (1696-1699). It was in this last city, while doing carpentry work at the Recollets’ church, that he contracted a fatal case of pleurisy.

Brother Didace was rushed to the Ursulines’ hospital; there he requested the last Sacraments, despite the opinion of a doctor who declared him in no immediate danger. After participating in the prayers for the dying, he expired on the evening of February 21, 1699, a Saturday. He was forty-one years old; his last twenty years had been spent with the Recollets.

SAINT EUCHERIUS

SAINT EUCHERIUS
Bishop of Orleans
(687-738)

This Saint was born at Orleans of a very illustrious family. At his birth his parents dedicated him to God, for his mother had been advised in a vision that he would some day be Bishop of the city of Orleans. They took great care to form both his mind and his heart. His improvement in virtue kept pace with his progress in learning; he meditated assiduously on the sacred writings, especially on Saint Paul’s manner of speaking on the world and its enjoyments, calling them mere empty shadows which deceive us and vanish away. These reflections at length sank so deeply into his mind that he resolved to leave the world. To put this design in execution, about the year 714 he retired to the abbey of Jumiege in Normandy, where he spent six or seven years in the practice of penitential austerities and obedience.

When his uncle, the bishop of Orleans, died, the senate and people with the clergy of that city, begged permission to elect Eucherius to the vacant see. The Saint entreated his monks to screen him from the honors threatening him; but they preferred the public good to any private inclinations, and resigned him to accept that important charge. He was consecrated with universal applause in 721.

Charles Martel, to defray the expenses of his wars and other undertakings, often stripped the churches of their revenues. Saint Eucherius reproved these encroachments with so much zeal that in the year 737, Charles banished him to Cologne. The extraordinary esteem which his virtue procured him in that city caused Charles to have him taken to a fortress in the territory of Liege. The governor of that country was so charmed with his virtue that he made him the distributer of his large alms, and allowed him to retire to the monastery of Sarchinium, or Saint Tron’s. Here prayer and contemplation were his whole employment until the year 743, in which he died, on the 20^th of February.

Reflection. Nothing softens the soul and weakens piety so much as frivolous indulgence. God has revealed what high store He sets by “retirement” in these words, spoken of His Spouse, the Church: “I will lead her into solitude, and I will speak to her heart.” (Osee 2:14)

SAINT CONRAD OF PIACENZA and SAINT BARBATUS

SAINT CONRAD OF PIACENZA
Hermit
(†1351)

Saint Conrad was living peacefully as a nobleman of Piacenza. He had married when quite young and led a virtuous and God-fearing life. One day, when engaged in his usual pastime of hunting, he ordered his attendants to set fire to some brushwood where game had taken refuge. The prevailing wind caused the flames to spread rapidly, and the surrounding fields and forest were soon in a state of conflagration. A mendicant who happened to be found near the place where the fire had originated was accused of being the author; he was imprisoned, tried and condemned to death. As the poor man was being led to execution, Conrad, stricken with remorse, declared the man innocent and confessed his own guilt openly. In order to repair the damage of which he had been the cause, as he then volunteered to do, he was obliged to sell all his possessions. He repaid his neighbors for all the losses they had suffered, then retired to a distant region where he took the Third Order habit of Saint Francis, while his wife entered the Order of Poor Clares.

After visiting the holy places in Rome, he went to Sicily and dwelt for forty years in strict penance, sleeping on the bare ground with a stone for pillow, and with dry bread and raw herbs for food. God rewarded his great virtue by the gift of prophecy and the grace of miracles. He died while praying on his knees in 1351, surrounded by a bright light, in the presence of his confessor, who was unaware for some time of his death because of his position. He is invoked especially for the cure of hernias.

Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 2; The Catholic Encyclopedia, edited by C. G. Herbermann with numerous collaborators (Appleton Company: New York, 1908).

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SAINT BARBATUS
Bishop of Benevento
(†682)

Saint Barbatus was born in the territory of Benevento in Italy, toward the end of the pontificate of Saint Gregory the Great, in the beginning of the seventh century. His parents gave him a Christian education, and Barbatus in his youth laid the foundation of the eminent sanctity which recommends him to our veneration. The innocence, simplicity, and purity of his manners, and his extraordinary progress in all virtues, qualified him for the service of the altar, to which he was admitted by receiving Holy Orders as soon as the canons of the Church would allow it. He was immediately employed by his bishop in preaching, for which he had an extraordinary talent, and, after some time, made parish priest of Saint Basil’s Church in Morcona, a town near Benevento.

His parishioners were steeled in their irregularities, and they treated him as a disturber of their peace, persecuting him with the utmost violence. Finding their malice conquered by his patience and humility, and his character shining still more brightly, they had recourse to slander. Here their virulence and success was such that their bishop was obliged to withdraw his charitable endeavors among them. Barbatus returned to Benevento, where he was received with joy.

When Saint Barbatus entered upon his ministry in that city, the Christians themselves still retained many idolatrous superstitions, which their duke, Prince Romuald, authorized by his example. They expressed a religious veneration for a golden viper and prostrated themselves before it; they also paid superstitious honors to a tree, in ceremonies ending in public games. Saint Barbatus preached zealously against these abuses. Finally he roused the attention of the people by foretelling the distress and the calamities which their city was to suffer from the army of the Emperor Constans, who, landing soon afterwards in Italy, laid siege to Benevento. The bishop of Benevento died during the siege, and after public tranquility was restored, it was Saint Barbatus who was consecrated bishop to replace him, in March of 663.

Invested with the episcopal character, Saint Barbatus pursued and completed the good work he had so fittingly begun, and destroyed every trace of superstition in the entire state. After nineteen years of these labors he died on February 29, 682, being about seventy years old.

Reflection. Saint Augustine says, “When the enemy has been cast out of your hearts, renounce him not only in word but in works; not only by the sound of the lips, but in every act of your life.”

SAINT BERNADETTE SOUBIROUS and SAINT SIMEON

SAINT BERNADETTE SOUBIROUS
Virgin
(1844-1879)

Saint Bernadette Soubirous was born at Lourdes, in the Pyrenees mountains, in 1844. This young girl, fragile of health, born of a very poor but pious family, at fourteen years of age witnessed eighteen apparitions of Our Blessed Lady at Lourdes, from February 11, 1858 to July 16^th of the same year. She was instructed to make known the healing powers which the Blessed Virgin, by Her presence, would give to the miraculous spring of Lourdes. A worker who had lost an eye in an explosion recovered his sight when he washed his face in this water; a dying child was plunged into the small basin which had formed around the spring, and the next day began to walk. The police attempted to stop the crowds from going to the Grotto for the foretold apparitions, but were unable to do so. On March 25^th, the Beautiful Lady identified Herself in response to Bernadette’s request: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

Bernadette was accused of having hallucinations, of spells of mental illness, of lying, but her great simplicity eventually made evident her innocence and entire sanity. Through the benevolent understanding and collaboration of the bishop of nearby Tarbes, Bishop Laurence, who later authorized the cult of Our Lady of Lourdes, a chapel and then a beautiful basilica were raised above the grotto of the apparitions, on the banks of the Gave River, now a world-famous pilgrimage site.

In 1866 Saint Bernadette joined the Sisters of Charity at Nevers, taking her perpetual vows in 1878. She died in 1879 at the age of 36, after long and painful sufferings which she bore very willingly, even with joy. When one of the Mothers said to her: “We will pray that God may relieve your pain,” she answered, “No! Don’t pray for relief for me, only for patience.” The last words she wrote in her little spiritual notebook were: “The more I am crucified, the more I rejoice.” She was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1925, canonized by him in 1933.

Source: Lives of the Saints for Every Day of the Year, edited by Rev. Hugo Hoever, S.O. Cist., Ph.D. (Catholic Book Publishing Co.: New York, 1951-1955).

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SAINT SIMEON
Bishop of Jerusalem, Martyr
(†107)

Saint Simeon was the son of Cleophas, otherwise called Alpheus, who was father also of Saint James the Lesser, the first bishop of Jerusalem, of Saint Jude the Apostle, and of another son named Joseph. Alpheus, according to tradition, was Saint Joseph’s brother; thus Saint Simeon was the nephew of Saint Joseph and the cousin of our Saviour.

We cannot doubt but that he was an early follower of Christ; tradition assigns the family’s residence to Nazareth. He certainly received the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, with the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles. When the Jews massacred Saint James the Lesser, his brother Simeon reproached them for their atrocious cruelty. After this first bishop of Jerusalem had been put to death in the year 62, that is, twenty-nine years after Our Saviour’s Resurrection, the Apostles and disciples met at Jerusalem to appoint a successor, and unanimously chose Saint Simeon, who had probably already assisted his brother in the government of that Church.

In the year 66 or 67, during which Saints Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome, civil war broke out in Judea as a result of the hostility of the Jews against the Romans and their seditions. The Christians of Jerusalem were warned by God of the impending destruction of that city. With Saint Simeon at their head, they therefore left it in that year and retired beyond the Jordan to a small city called Pella, before Vespasian, Nero’s General, later Roman Emperor, entered Judea. After the taking and burning of Jerusalem they returned there once more, still under the leadership of Saint Simeon, and settled amid its ruins.

The Jerusalem church flourished again for a few years until razed by Adrian, and multitudes of Jews were converted by the great number of prodigies and miracles wrought in its midst. The emperors Vespasian and Domitian had commanded all to be put to death who were of the race of David; but Saint Simeon escaped their searches. When Trajan renewed the same decree, however, certain heretics and Jews accused the Saint before the Roman governor in Palestine, as being both of the race of David and a Christian.

The holy bishop was condemned to be crucified. He died in the year 107, after having undergone during several days the usual tortures, though he was one hundred and twenty years old. He suffered these torments with so much patience that he won universal admiration. He had governed the Church of Jerusalem for about forty-three years.

Reflection. We bear the name of Christians, but are full of the spirit of worldlings, and our actions are infected with the poison of the world. We secretly seek ourselves, even when we flatter ourselves that God is our only aim, and while hoping to convert the world, we suffer it to pervert us. When shall we begin to study to crucify our passions and die to ourselves, that we may lay a solid foundation of true virtue and establish its reign in our hearts?

Saint Francis Regis Clet and saint Flavian

SAINT FRANCIS REGIS CLET
Lazarist Missionary
(1748-1820)

Born in 1748, Francis was the son of a merchant of Grenoble in France; he was the tenth of fifteen children. The family was deeply religious, and several of its members were already consecrated to God. Francis attended the Jesuit college at Grenoble, and in 1769 entered the novitiate of the Lazarists, a missionary Community founded by Saint Vincent de Paul. He was ordained a priest in 1773, then taught moral theology in a diocesan seminary. In 1789 he was named director of the Lazarist Seminary in Paris, but was obliged by the fury of the revolution in that year, with the entire Congregation, to abandon the mother house.

Saint Francis exposed his desire to be a foreign missionary to his superior, and was sent by him to China in 1791; there he labored for 28 years, entirely alone for several years in a vast district. Death had deprived him of his two brother-priests. Persecutions in 1812 and 1818 destroyed his church and schoolhouse, and he himself escaped several times, as it were by miracle, from searching parties. But he was finally betrayed by a Chinese Christian for a large sum of money, and seized in June of 1819.

For five weeks he endured cruel tortures in total silence, then was transferred to another prison, where he found a fellow Chinese Lazarist from whom he could receive the Sacraments. His death sentence was pronounced in January of 1820, and he died in February of that year, strangled while tied to a stake erected like a cross.

Source: The Catholic Encyclopedia, edited by C. G. Herbermann with numerous collaborators (Appleton Company: New York, 1908).

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SAINT FLAVIAN
Patriarch of Constantinople, Martyr
(†449)

Flavian was elected Patriarch of Constantinople in 447. His short episcopate of two years was from its outset a time of conflict and persecution. The eunuch Chrysaphius, the emperor’s favorite, tried to extort a large sum of money from Saint Flavian on the occasion of his consecration as archbishop. The Archbishop sent him some blessed bread as a sign of peace and communion, but his fidelity in refusing what might even have the appearance of simony, brought on him the enmity of the most powerful man in the empire, the same Chrysaphius.

In 448 Flavian had to condemn the rising heresy of the abbot Eutyches, who was a relative of Chrysaphius; the unfortunate abbot obstinately denied that Our Lord was in two perfect natures after His Incarnation. Eutyches drew to his cause all the bad elements which gathered about the Byzantine court. His intrigues were long baffled by the vigilance of Saint Flavian; but at last he obtained from the emperor the assembly of a council at Ephesus, in August 449, presided over by his friend Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria. Its purpose was to depose Flavian and reverse the decision of the earlier council which had condemned Eutyches. Eutyches entered into this “robber council,” as it is called, surrounded by soldiers. The Roman legates could not even read aloud the Pope’s letter, which clearly established Catholic doctrine and revealed the ignorance of Eutyches. At the first sign of resistance to the condemnation of the Catholic Patriarch Flavian, fresh troops entered with drawn swords. In spite of the protests of the legates, the soldiers terrified most of the bishops into acquiescence.

The fury of Dioscorus reached its height when Flavian appealed to the Holy See. The heretical bishop, who soon afterward would pretend to excommunicate the reigning Vicar of Christ, Saint Leo, forgot his apostolic office and laid violent hands on his adversary. Saint Flavian was seized by Dioscorus and others, thrown down, beaten, kicked, and finally carried into banishment at Epipa, near Sardes in Lydia, where he died shortly afterwards, in August of 449.

Let us contrast the ends of the faithful and the unfaithful servants. Saint Flavian clung to the teaching of the Roman Pontiff, and sealed his faith with his blood. Two years after his death, the Council of Chalcedon placed him among the choir of martyrs and Saints. Dioscorus, who “excommunicated” the Vicar of Christ, died obstinate and impenitent in the heresy of Eutyches. Chrysaphius was disgraced and sentenced to death by the emperor, whose eyes were eventually opened.

SAINT ONESIMUS and SAINT JOHN DE BRITTO

SAINT ONESIMUS
Bishop of Ephesus and Martyr
(†95)

Onesimus was a Phrygian by birth and a slave to Philemon, a person of influence who had been converted to the faith by Saint Paul. Having offended his master and been obliged to flee, he sought out Saint Paul, then a prisoner for the faith at Rome. The Apostle baptized him and sent him back to his master, with the beautiful letter we know as the Epistle to Philemon, asking for the liberty of Onesimus, that he might become one of his own assistants.

Philemon pardoned him and set him at liberty, and Onesimus returned to his spiritual father, as Saint Paul had requested; thereafter he faithfully served the Apostle. We know that Saint Paul made him, with Tychicus, the bearer of his Epistle to the Colossians. (Col. 4:7-9)

Later, as Saint Jerome and other Fathers testify, he became an ardent preacher of the Gospel and a bishop. It is he who succeeded Saint Timothy as bishop of Ephesus. He was cruelly tortured in Rome, for eighteen days, by a governor of that city, infuriated by his preaching on the merit of celibacy. His legs and thighs were broken with bludgeons, and he was then stoned to death. His martyrdom occurred under Domitian in the year 95.

Reflection. With what excess of goodness does God communicate Himself to souls who open themselves to Him! With what caresses does He often visit them! With what a profusion of graces does He enrich and strengthen them! In our trials and temptations let us then offer our hearts to God, remembering, as Saint Paul says, “To those who love God, all things work together unto good.” (Rom. 8:28)

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SAINT JOHN DE BRITTO
Martyr
(1647-1693)

Don Pedro II of Portugal, when a child, had among his little pages a modest boy of rich and princely parents. The young John de Britto — for that was his name — had much to bear from his careless-living companions, to whom his holy life was a reproach. A severe illness made him turn for aid to Saint Francis Xavier, a Saint well loved by the Portuguese; and when he recovered, in answer to his prayers, his mother clothed him for a year in the tunic worn in those days by the Jesuit Fathers. From that time John’s heart burned to follow the example of the Apostle of India.

When he was fifteen years old, he entered on December 17, 1662, the Lisbon novitiate of the Society of Jesus, and eleven years later, despite the determined opposition of his family and the court, he left with twenty-seven Jesuit co-disciples for Madura. Blessed John’s mother, when she had learned that her son was going to India, used all her influence to prevent him from leaving his own country, and persuaded the Papal Nuncio to intervene. But the future martyr declared firmly: “God, who called me from the world into religious life, now calls me from Portugal to India. Not to respond to my vocation as I ought, would be to provoke the justice of God. As long as I live, I shall never cease to desire passage to India.” His ardent desire was fulfilled.

He labored in the Jesuit province of Madura, which included seven missions, preaching, converting, and baptizing multitudes, at the cost of privations, hardships, and persecutions. In 1682, struck by his success and his sanctity, his Jesuit Superiors entrusted to him the government of the entire province. To the wars of the local kings, which created ravages, disorder, pillage and death for the people, famine, pestilence, and floods came to add to the devastation of the unhappy land. Both the days and the nights of Saint John were dedicated to bringing aid to the poor Christians and pagans afflicted by so many disasters. At times he took charge of entire populations which the wars had caused to migrate. All the Christians were pursued by bands of robbers, paid by the ruling elements to prevent any increase in the influence of the disciples of Christ. Saint John’s miracles helped him, and God preserved him from the snares of his many enemies.

After four years of this major responsibility, amid the anarchy which reigned, he was seized, tortured, and nearly massacred by the pagans, then banished from the local states. His Superiors sent him back to Europe to concern himself with the affairs of the missions of India. They wrote of him: “He has affronted every peril to save souls and extend the kingdom of Jesus Christ, for whose love he has been captured several times and condemned to frightful torments.” He preached in Portugal at the court and in the various dioceses and universities, without ever forgetting that he was a missionary of Madura, for which he recruited many generous workers for the Gospel vineyard.

He finally went back to the land of his choice in 1690 with twenty-five Jesuits, of whom several died during the voyage. The king of Portugal took every means to obtain his return to Portugal, if not as tutor to his son, which post he had declined, then as bishop of one of the Portuguese sees, but the Saint was occupied in baptizing thousands of catechumens and instructing the pagans whom grace had touched. The brahmans were alarmed once more and conjured his death; he was tracked everywhere, but the envoys could not take him for some time. Eventually they succeeded, and his great enemy, a local ruler, exiled him with orders to imprison him and kill him secretly. But his execution by decapitation was carried out in the sight of a multitude of Christians who knew of his coming martyrdom, and who saw him pray in an apparent ecstasy, which checked the executioner’s courage for a time. They buried him and did not cease to pray at the tomb of this second Apostle to India. He was canonized in 1947 by Pope Pius XII.

SAINTS FAUSTINUS and JOVITA

SAINTS FAUSTINUS and JOVITA
Martyrs
(†122)

Faustinus and Jovita were brothers, nobly born, and were zealous professors of the Christian religion, which they preached without fear in their city of Brescia in Lombardy, during the persecution of Adrian. Their remarkable zeal excited the fury of the heathens against them, and procured them a glorious death for their faith.

Faustinus, a priest, and Jovita, a deacon, were preaching the Gospel fearlessly in the region when Julian, a pagan officer, apprehended them. They were commanded to adore the sun, but replied that they adored the living God who created the sun to give light to the world. The statue before which they were standing was brilliant and surrounded with golden rays. Saint Jovita, looking at it, cried out: “Yes, we adore the God reigning in heaven, who created the sun. And you, vain statue, turn black, to the shame of those who adore you!” At his word, it turned black. The Emperor commanded that it be cleaned, but the pagan priests had hardly begun to touch it when it fell into ashes.

The two brothers were sent to the amphitheater to be devoured by lions, but four of those came out and lay down at their feet. They were left without food in a dark jail cell, but Angels brought them strength and joy for new combats. The flames of a huge fire respected them, and a large number of spectators were converted at the sight. Finally sentenced to decapitation, they knelt down and received the death blow. The city of Brescia honors them as its chief patrons and possesses their relics, and a very ancient church in that city bears their names.

Reflection. The spirit of Christ is ever a spirit of martyrdom. It is always the spirit of the cross. The more we share in the suffering life of Christ, the greater share we inherit of His Spirit, and of the fruits of His death. To souls mortified in their senses and disengaged from earthly things, God gives frequent foretastes of the sweetness of eternal life, and ardent desires of possessing Him in His glory. This is the spirit of martyrdom, which entitles a Christian to a happy resurrection and to the bliss of the life to come.

SAINT VALENTINE

SAINT VALENTINE
Priest and Martyr
(†268)

Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who assisted the martyrs during the persecution under Claudius II. His great virtue and influence became known, and he was apprehended and brought before the emperor’s tribunal. “Why, Valentine, do you want to be the friend of our enemies and reject our friendship?” The Christian priest replied, “My Lord, if you knew the gift of God, you would be happy, and your empire with you; you would reject the cult of your idols and would adore the true God and His Son Jesus Christ.” One of the judges interrupted, asking the martyr what he thought of Jupiter and Mercury. “That they were miserable, and spent all their lives in debauchery and crime!” The judge, furious, cried, “He has blasphemed against the gods and against the empire!” The emperor nonetheless continued his questioning with curiosity, pleased to have this opportunity to know what Christians thought. Valentine had the courage to exhort him to do penance for the blood of Christians which he had shed. “Believe in Jesus Christ, be baptized and you will be saved, and already in this life you will insure your empire’s glory and the triumph of your arms.” Claudius began to be convinced, and said to those in attendance, “Hear the beautiful doctrine this man is teaching us!” But the prefect of Rome, dissatisfied, cried out, “See how this Christian is seducing our prince!” Claudius, weakening, abandoned the holy priest to another judge.

This man, named Asterius, had a little girl who had been blind for two years. Hearing of Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, he asked Valentine if he could convey that light to his child. Saint Valentine placed his hand on her eyes and prayed: “Lord Jesus Christ, true Light, illuminate this blind child!” The child saw, and the Judge with all his family confessed Christ and received Baptism. The emperor, hearing of this, would have turned his gaze away from these conversions, but fear caused him to betray his sense of justice. With several other Christians Saint Valentine was tortured and martyred in the year 268.

This illustrious martyr has always been held in great honor in Rome, where there still exists a catacomb named for him.

Reflection. In the cause of justice and truth, human prudence should not be consulted; in that case, it is mere human respect. Saint Paul says: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” (I Cor. 3:19)

SAINT CATHERINE OF RICCI

SAINT CATHERINE OF RICCI
Virgin
(1522-1590)

Alexandrina of Ricci was the daughter of a noble Florentine. At the age of thirteen she entered the Third Order of Saint Dominic in the monastery of Prato, taking in religion the name of Catherine, in honor of her patron and predecessor of Siena. Her special attraction was to the Passion of Christ, in which she was permitted miraculously to participate. During the Lent of 1541, being then twenty-one years of age, she had a vision of the crucifixion so heartrending that she was prostrated and confined to bed for three weeks, and was only restored on Holy Saturday, by an apparition of Saint Mary Magdalene and the risen Jesus.

During twelve years Saint Catherine passed every Friday in ecstasy. She received the sacred stigmata, the wound in the left side, and the crown of thorns. All these favors gave her continual and intense suffering, and inspired her with a loving sympathy for the yet more bitter tortures of the Holy Souls. In their behalf she offered all her prayers and penances; and her charity toward them became so famous throughout Tuscany that after every death the friends of the deceased hastened to Catherine to secure her prayers.

Saint Catherine offered many prayers, fasts, and penances for a certain great man, and thereby obtained his salvation. It was revealed to her that he was nonetheless in purgatory; and such was her love of Jesus crucified that she offered to suffer all the pains which would be inflicted on that soul. Her prayer was granted. The soul entered heaven, and for forty days Catherine suffered indescribable agonies. Her body was covered with blisters, emitting heat so great that her cell seemed on fire. Her flesh appeared as if roasted, and her tongue like red-hot iron. She remained calm and joyful, saying, “I long to suffer all imaginable pains, that souls may quickly see and praise their Redeemer.” She conversed with the Saints in glory, and frequently with Saint Philip Neri at Rome without ever leaving her convent at Prato. She died, amid angels’ songs, in 1590.

Reflection: If we truly love Jesus crucified, we must like Saint Catherine, long to release the Holy Souls whom He has redeemed but has left to our charity to set free.

THE SEVEN HOLY SERVITE FOUNDERS and SAINT BENEDICT of ANIAN

THE SEVEN HOLY SERVITE FOUNDERS
(Mid 13^th century)

Can you imagine seven prominent men of any large modern city banding together, leaving their homes and profession, and going into solitude for a life directly given to God? That is what happened in the cultured and prosperous city of Florence in the middle of the 13^th century. At this time, the city was torn with political strife as well as by the heresy of the Cathari; morals were low and religion neglected.

On the feast of the Assumption in 1233, seven of the members of a Florentine Confraternity devoted to the Holy Mother of God were gathered in prayer under the presidency of Alessio Falconieri. The Blessed Virgin appeared to the young men and exhorted them to devote themselves to Her service, in retirement from the world. It was in 1240 that they decided to withdraw together from the city to a solitary place for prayer and the service of God. Their aim was to lead a life of penance and prayer, but they soon found themselves disturbed by increasing numbers of visitors. They next retired to the deserted slopes of Monte Senario near Florence, where the Blessed Virgin appeared to them again. There the nucleus of a new Order was formed, called Servants of Mary, or Servites, in recognition of their special manner of venerating the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady.

In 1244, under the direction of Saint Peter of Verona, O.P., this small group adopted a religious habit similar to the Dominican habit, choosing to live under the rule of Saint Augustine. The new Order took a form resembling more the mendicant friars than the older monastic Orders. One of the most remarkable features of the new foundation was its wonderful growth. Even in the fourteenth century, the Order had more than one hundred convents in several nations of Europe, as well as in India and on the Island of Crete. The Rosary of the Seven Sorrows is one of their regular devotions, as is also the Via Matris, or Way of the Cross of Mary.

Sources: Saint of the Day: The 173 Saints of the new Missal. Edited by Leonard Foley, O.F.M., Vol. I (Saint Anthony Messenger Press: Cincinnati, 1974); The Catholic Encyclopedia, edited by C. G. Herbermann with numerous collaborators (Appleton Company: New York, 1908).

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SAINT BENEDICT of ANIAN
Abbot
(750-821)

Saint Benedict of Anian was the son of Aigulf, Governor of Languedoc, and was born about 750. In his early youth he served as cup-bearer to King Pepin and his son Charlemagne, under them enjoying great honors and possessions. Grace entered his soul at the age of twenty, and he resolved to seek the kingdom of God with his whole heart. Without relinquishing his place at court, he lived there a very mortified life for three years; then a narrow escape from drowning made him vow to leave the world, and he entered the cloister of Saint Seine, near Langres.

In reward for Saint Benedict’s heroic austerities in the monastic state, God bestowed upon him the gift of tears, and inspired him with a knowledge of spiritual things. As procurator for the monastery, he was very solicitous for the wants of the brethren, and most hospitable to the poor and to guests. Declining to accept the abbacy, he built himself a little hermitage on the Anian brook, and lived some years in great solitude and poverty.

When the fame of his sanctity drew many souls to him, he was obliged to build a large abbey, and within a short time governed three hundred monks. He became the great restorer of monastic discipline throughout France and Germany. First, he drew up with immense labor a code of the rules of the first Saint Benedict, his patron, which he collated with those of the chief monastic founders, showing the uniformity of the exercises in each. He enforced by his Penitential their exact observance; secondly, he minutely regulated all matters regarding food, clothing, and every detail of life; and thirdly, by prescribing the same regime for all, he precluded jealousies and insured perfect charity. In a Provincial Council at which he was present, held in 813 under Charlemagne, it was declared that all monks of the West should adopt the rule of Saint Benedict of Anian. He died February 11, 821.

Reflection. The decay of monastic discipline and its restoration by Saint Benedict prove that none are safe from loss of fervor, but that all can regain it by fidelity to grace.

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Severinus

OUR LADY of LOURDES
(1858)

The first of the eighteen apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the humble Bernadette Soubirous took place at Lourdes on February 11, 1858. On March 25^th, when Bernadette asked the beautiful Lady Her name, She replied: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” The Church for long centuries had believed in Her Immaculate Conception, Her exemption from every trace of the original sin which through Adam, our first and common father, separated man from his God. It was never proclaimed a dogma, however, until 1854. Mary Herself, in 1830, had asked of a Vincentian Sister at the Rue du Bac in Paris, that a medal be struck bearing Her likeness and the inscription: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee.” Our Lady by Her apparitions at Lourdes in 1858 seems to convey Her appreciation for the formal proclamation of Her great privilege, by Pius IX, in 1854. Countless and magnificent miracles of healing have occurred at Lourdes, confirmed by physicians and recorded in the Lourdes shrine “Book of Life.” To name but one: a doctor wrote a book describing the great miracle he had witnessed for a dying girl, whom he had observed on the train that was carrying handicapped persons from Paris to Lourdes. He had not expected her to survive and return home from the sanctuary.

Through the Lourdes Apparitions, the devotion of persons in all parts of the world to the Immaculate Mother of God has been wonderfully spread, and countless miracles have been wrought everywhere through Her intercession. The Virgin Mother of God is truly the chosen Messenger of God to these latter times, which are entrusted to Her, the chosen vessel of the unique privilege of exemption from original sin. Only with Her assistance will the dangers of the present world situation be averted. As She has done since 1858 in many places, at Lourdes, too, She gave us Her peace plan for the world, through Saint Bernadette: Prayer and Penance, to save souls.

Source: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).

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SAINT SEVERINUS
Abbot
(†507)

Saint Severinus, of a noble family in Burgundy, was educated in the Catholic faith at a time when the Arian heresy reigned in that region. He forsook the world in his youth and dedicated himself to God in the monastery of Agaunum, which consisted only of scattered cells until, some time later, the Catholic King Sigismund built there the great Abbey of Saint Maurice.

Saint Severinus became the holy abbot of Saint Maurice, with its distinct convents for men and women, all of whom bore voluntarily the yoke of penance and celibacy without solemn vows. The Abbot had governed his community for many years in the exercise of penance and charity, when, in 504, Clovis, the first Christian king of France, who was lying ill of a fever, sent his chamberlain to conduct the Saint to court. After his physicians had for two years endeavored without success to cure him, Clovis was told that the sick from all parts recovered their health by the prayers of Saint Severinus. The Abbot therefore took leave of his monks, and told them he would never see them again in this world.

On his journey he healed Eulalius, Bishop of Nevers, who had been for some time deaf and dumb; he also healed a leper at the gates of Paris. And coming to the palace he immediately restored the king to perfect health, by covering him with his own cloak. He cured many other sick persons at the court and in Paris. The king, in gratitude, distributed large alms to the poor and released all his prisoners.

Saint Severinus, returning toward Agaunum, stopped at Chateau-Landon in Gatinais, where two priests served God in a solitary chapel. Foreseeing his imminent death, he asked admittance among them, and they received this stranger, whom they soon greatly admired for his sanctity. His death followed shortly after, in 507. This site became the Abbey of Saint Severinus, with a beautiful church dedicated to him. His relics were later scattered, when this church was plundered.

Reflection. God blesses with His favor those who delight in exercising mercy. “According to thy ability be merciful: if thou hast much, give abundantly; if thou hast little, take care even so to bestow willingly a little.” (Tobias 4:8)

SAINT SCHOLASTICA

SAINT SCHOLASTICA
Abbess
(480-543)

Of this Saint but little is known on earth, save that she was the very pious younger sister of the great patriarch Saint Benedict, and that, under his direction, she founded and governed a numerous community near Monte Casino. Saint Gregory sums up her life by saying that she devoted herself to God from her childhood, and that her pure soul rose to God in the likeness of a dove, as if to show that her life had been enriched with the fullest gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Her brother was accustomed to visit her once every year, before Lent, and “she could not be sated or wearied with the words of grace which flowed from his lips.” On his last visit, after a day passed in spiritual conversation, the Saint, knowing that her end was near, said, “My brother, leave me not, I pray you, this night, but discourse with me till dawn on the bliss of those who see God in heaven.” Saint Benedict would not break his rule for the sake of natural affection, but his sister bowed her head and prayed, and there arose a storm so violent that Saint Benedict could not return to his monastery, and they passed the night as she had prayed, in heavenly conversation.

Three days later Saint Benedict saw in a vision the soul of Saint Scholastica going up in the likeness of a dove into heaven. Then he gave thanks to God for the graces He had given her and the glory which had crowned them. When she died, Saint Benedict as well as her spiritual daughters, and the monks sent by their patriarch to her conventual church, mingled their tears and prayed, “Alas! alas! dearest mother, to whom dost thou leave us now? Pray for us to Jesus, to whom thou art gone.” They then devoutly celebrated holy Mass, “commending her soul to God;” and her body was borne to Monte Casino, where her brother lay her in the tomb he had prepared for himself. It was written that “they all mourned her many days.” Finally Saint Benedict said, “Weep not, my sisters and brothers; for assuredly Jesus has taken her, before us, to be our aid and defense against all our enemies, that we may remain standing on the evil day and be perfect in all things.” Her death occurred in about the year 543.

Reflection. Our relatives must be loved in and for God; otherwise the purest affection becomes inordinate and is ill directed, because taken from Him.