SAINT RICHARD of CHICHESTER

SAINT RICHARD of CHICHESTER
Bishop
(1197-1253)

Saint Richard of Chichester was born in 1197 in a little town a few miles from Worcester, England. He and his elder brother were left orphans while still young, and his brother was imprisoned as a result of their property’s unpaid debts. Richard gave up the studies which he loved, to farm his brother’s impoverished estate. His brother, in gratitude for Richard’s successful labors, proposed to turn over to him all his lands; but he refused both the estates and the offer of a brilliant marriage, to study for the priesthood at Oxford.

In 1235 Saint Richard was appointed, for his learning and piety, chancellor of that University and afterwards chancellor of his diocese by Saint Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury. The new Chancellor stood by the Saint in his long contest with the king, and then accompanied him into exile in France, in the Abbey of Pontigny. After Saint Edmund’s death there, he studied theology in Orleans before returning to England to toil as a simple parish priest. He was, however, soon elected by the Canons of Chichester, when their see became vacant, for their Bishop. This election greatly displeased the king, who had nominated another candidate whom the Canons judged unworthy.

The king in revenge refused to recognize the election, and seized the revenues of the see. Thus Saint Richard found himself fighting the same battle in which Saint Edmund had died. He went to Lyons, where he was consecrated bishop by Innocent IV in 1245, and returning to England he exercised fully his episcopal rights despite his poverty and the king’s hostility, and thoroughly reformed his see. Young and old loved Saint Richard, and after two years his revenues were restored. To feed the poor and heal the sick, he gave all he had and worked miracles; and when the rights or the sanctity of the Church were concerned, he was inexorable.

A priest of noble blood polluted his office by sin; Richard deprived him of his benefice, and refused the king’s petition in his favor. On the other hand, when a knight violently imprisoned a priest, Richard compelled the knight to walk around the priest’s church with the same log of wood on his neck to which he had chained him. And when the burgesses of Lewes tore a criminal from the church and hanged him, Richard made them dig up the body from its unconsecrated grave, and bear it back to the sanctuary they had violated. Richard died in 1253 while preaching, at the Pope’s command, a crusade against the Saracens.

Reflection. As a loyal brother, as Chancellor and as Bishop, Saint Richard faithfully performed each duty of his state without a thought for any personal interest. He who is faithful in little things, will also be faithful in the great ones, declared Our Lord; and the contrary is also an invariable law.

SAINT FRANCIS of PAULA

SAINT FRANCIS of PAULA
Thaumaturge, Founder
(1416-1507)

At the age of fifteen, Saint Francis left his poor home at Paula in Calabria, Italy, to live as a hermit in a cave on the seacoast. In time disciples gathered around him, and with them, in 1436, he founded the Order of the “Minims.” He chose this name that they might always consider themselves the least of monastic Orders. They observed a perpetual Lent, never touching meat, fish, eggs, or milk. Francis himself made the rock his bed; his best garment was a hair shirt, and boiled herbs were his only fare. His first consideration in all things wasCaritas, charity.

Saint Francis was a thaumaturge, which denomination indicates a miracle-worker known for his virtually unceasing wonders. The Church recognizes that God, as a rule, does not raise up more than one every century. He cured the sick, raised the dead, averted plagues, expelled evil spirits, and brought sinners to penance. But opposition arose; a famous preacher, misled by a few misguided monks, set to work to preach against Saint Francis and his miracles. The Saint took no notice of it, and the preacher, finding that he made no way with his hearers, determined to go to see this poor hermit whom he did not know, and confound him in person. The Saint received him kindly, gave him a seat by the fire, and listened to a long exposition of his own frauds. He then quietly took some glowing embers from the fire, and closing his hands upon them unhurt, said, “Come, Father Anthony, warm yourself, for you are shivering for want of a little charity.” Father Anthony, falling at the Saint’s feet, asked for pardon, and then, having received his embrace, left him, to become his panegyrist and himself attain great perfection.

When the avaricious King Ferdinand of Naples offered him a gift of money for his convent, Francis told him to give it back to his oppressed subjects, and softened his heart by causing blood to flow from the ill-gotten coin.

King Louis XI of France, trembling at the approach of death, sent for the poor hermit to come and ward off the foe whose advance neither his fortresses nor his guards could check. Francis went at the Pope’s command, leaving his country and his foundations there, which he foretold he would not see again; and he prepared the king for a pious death. He set the court to marveling when a delicately seasoned fish, which the king had ordered prepared for his guest’s dinner, swam away after Saint Francis cast it into the pool from which it had been taken. And the successors of King Louis showered favors on their remarkable guest, desiring him to remain in France. It was God’s will that retained him there.

His Rule for the Order of Minims was adopted also by women religious, and spread throughout Europe; a less rigorous Rule was adapted for the Third Order Secular for those who desired a life of penance in their state. His name was reverenced everywhere in the Christian world; his prophecies were, during his lifetime, and are still today, held in great veneration. He died at the age of ninety-one, on Good Friday, 1507, with the crucifix in his hand and the last words of Jesus on his lips: “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”

Reflection. Rely in all difficulties upon God. The faith and love which enabled Saint Francis to work miracles will do wonders for yourself, by giving you strength and consolation in proportion to your confidence and your efforts.

SAINT HUGH

SAINT HUGH
Bishop of Grenoble
(1053-1132)

It was the good fortune of Saint Hugh to receive, from his cradle, strong impressions of piety through the example and solicitude of his illustrious and holy parents. He was born at Chateauneuf in Dauphiné, France, in 1053. His father, Odilo, who served his country in an honorable post in the army, labored by all means in his power to make his soldiers faithful servants of their Creator, and by severe punishments, to restrain vice. By the advice of his son, Saint Hugh, in his later years he became a Carthusian monk, and died at the age of one hundred, having received Extreme Unction and Viaticum from the hands of his son. Under his direction, his mother had served God in her own house for many years by prayer, fasting, and abundant almsgiving; and Saint Hugh also assisted her in her last hours.

Hugh, from the cradle, appeared to be a child of benediction; in his youth he was recognized as such through his exceptional success in his studies. Having chosen to serve God in the ecclesiastical state, he accepted a canonry in the cathedral of Valence. His great sanctity and learning rendered him an ornament of that church, and at the age of twenty-seven he was chosen Bishop of Grenoble. Pope Gregory VII consecrated him in Rome, and inspired in him an ardent zeal for the Church’s liberty and the sanctification of the clergy. He at once undertook to reprove vice and reform abuses, at that time rampant in his diocese, but found his efforts without fruit. He resolved therefore, after two years, to resign his charge, and retired to the austere abbey of Casa Dei, or Chaise-Dieu, in Auvergne.

There Saint Hugh lived for a year, a perfect model of all virtues in a monastery filled with saints, until Pope Gregory commanded him, in the name of holy obedience, to resume his pastoral charge, saying: “Go to your flock; they need you.” This time his sanctity effected great good in souls. His forceful preaching moved crowds and touched hearts; in the confessional he wept with his penitents, and aroused in them a deeper contrition. After a few years the face of his diocese had changed. His charity for the poor led him to sell even his episcopal ring and his chalice to assist them. During his episcopate the young Saint Bruno came to him for counsel, and it was Saint Hugh who assisted him in the foundation of the Carthusian Monastery in the mountains of the diocese of Grenoble, whose renown after a thousand years has not diminished.

Always filled with a profound sense of his own unworthiness, he earnestly solicited three Popes for leave to resign his bishopric, that he might die in solitude, but was never able to obtain his request. God was pleased to purify his soul by a lingering illness before He called him to Himself. He closed his penitential course on the 1^st of April in 1132, two months before completing his eightieth year. Miracles attested the sanctity of his death, and he was canonized only two years afterwards, by Pope Innocent II.

Reflection. Let us learn from the example of the Saints to shun the tumult of the world as much as our circumstances will allow, and apply ourselves to the exercises of holy solitude, prayer, and pious reading.

SAINT NICHOLAS of FLUE, SAINT BENJAMIN and SAINT SIMON

SAINT NICHOLAS of FLUE
Hermit
(1417-1487)

Saint Nicholas of Flue was born in Switzerland of pious parents. One day, when he saw an arrow launched on a neighboring mountain, he was filled with a desire for Heaven and with love for solitude. He married, to obey the formal will of his parents; he and his wife Dorothy became the parents of ten children. His merit and virtue caused him to be chosen by his fellow citizens to exercise very honorable public functions.

He was fifty years old when an interior voice said to him: “Leave everything you love, and God will take care of you.” He had to undergo a distressing combat, but decided finally to leave everything — wife, children, house, lands — to serve God. He left, barefooted, clothed in a long robe of coarse fabric, in his hand a rosary, without money or provisions, casting a final tender and prolonged gaze on his loved ones. His habitual prayer was this: “My Lord and my God, remove from me all that can prevent me from going to You. My Lord and my God, give me all that can draw me to You.”

One night God penetrated the hermit with a brilliant light, and from that time on he never again experienced hunger, thirst or cold. Having found a wild and solitary place, he dwelt there for a time in a hut of leaves, later in a cabin built with stones. The news of his presence, when it spread, brought him a great influx of visitors. Distinguished persons came to him for counsel in matters of great importance. It may seem incredible that the holy hermit lived for nineteen years only by the Holy Eucharist; the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, startled by this fact, had his cabin surveyed and verified this fact as being beyond question.

When Switzerland for a moment was divided and threatened with civil war in 1480, Saint Nicholas of Flue, venerated by all, was chosen as arbiter, to prevent the shedding of blood. He spoke so wisely that a union was reached, to the joy of all concerned, and the nation was saved. Bells were set ringing all over the country, and the concerted jubilation echoed across the lakes, mountains and valleys, from the most humble cottage to the largest cities.

At the age of 70, Saint Nicholas fell ill with a very painful sickness which tormented him for eight days and nights without overcoming his patience. He was beatified in 1669 by Pope Clement IX, canonized in 1947, by Pope Pius XII.

Source: Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l’année, by Abbé L. Jaud (Mame: Tours, 1950).

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SAINT BENJAMIN
Deacon, Martyr
(†424)

The Persian monarch Isdegerdes, son of Sapor III, put a stop to the cruel persecutions against the Christians begun by Sapor II, and the Church had been enjoying twelve years’ peace in that kingdom. Then, in 420, it was disturbed by the indiscreet zeal of a Christian bishop who burned down the Pyraeum, or Temple of Fire, the great divinity of the Persians. King Isdegerdes thereupon demolished all the Christian churches in Persia, put to death the offending bishop, and raised a general persecution against the Church, which continued during forty years with great fury. Isdegerdes died the following year, but his son and successor carried on the persecution with greater inhumanity.

The very recital of the cruelties he exercised on the Christians strikes us with horror. Among the glorious champions of Christ was Saint Benjamin, a deacon. The tyrant caused him to be beaten and imprisoned. He had lain a year in the dungeon, when an ambassador from the emperor obtained his release on condition that he never speak to any of the courtiers about religion. The ambassador, wishing to save him, said on Benjamin’s behalf, that he would not do so; but Benjamin, who was a minister of the Gospel, declared that he would miss no opportunity of announcing Christ. The king, being informed that he still was preaching the Faith in his kingdom, ordered him to be apprehended and tortured. Reeds were thrust with violence between the nails and flesh of his hands and feet and elsewhere, and this was frequently repeated. Finally a knotty stake was entered into his bowels to rend and tear them; in that torment he expired for love of his God, in the year 424.

Prayer. We entreat you, O most holy martyrs, who cheerfully suffered most cruel torments for God our Saviour and His love, on which account you are now most intimately and familiarly united to Him, that you pray to the Lord for us, poor sinners. May He infuse into us the grace of God, to enlighten our souls to love Christ as you loved Him!

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 SIMON
Infant Martyr
(†1472)

“Hail, flowers of the martyrs!” the Church sings in her Office of the Holy Innocents, who were the first to die for Christ; and in every age mere children and infants have gloriously confessed His name. The Jews of the city of Trent, assuredly possessed at that moment by the demons of hell, determined in 1472 to vent their hatred for the Crucified by slaying a Christian child at the coming Passover. One of their number was commissioned to trap a victim, and found a bright, smiling boy named Simon playing outside his home, with no one guarding him. The boy, who was not yet two years old, began to call and cry for his mother when he found himself being led from home; it was apparently these cries which led later to the discovery of the kidnappers. At midnight on Holy Thursday the work of butchery began. Having gagged his mouth, they held his arms in the form of a cross, while they pierced his tender body with sharp-pointed instruments, in blasphemous mockery of the sufferings of Jesus Christ. After an hour’s torture the little martyr lifted his eyes to heaven and gave up his innocent soul.

The murderers cast his body into a stream, after a search had begun for the child. Their crime was discovered nonetheless, when they themselves, to appear innocent, advised the police that a child’s body was floating in the water. A physician called to examine him wrote a report by order of the bishop, who afterwards transported his remains as a precious relic to the church of Saint Peter in Trent. A multitude of miracles followed, and the assassins were apprehended and punished.

William of Norwich is another child martyr. His parents were simple country folk, but his mother was instructed by a vision to expect in her son a Saint. As a boy he fasted three times a week and prayed constantly. He was only an apprentice twelve years of age, at a tanner’s in Norwich, when he won his crown. A little before Easter in the year 1137, he was enticed into the house of an enemy of Christ, and there gagged, bound, and crucified in hatred of the Saviour of all men. Five years passed before the body was found, then it was buried as a saintly relic in the cathedral churchyard. A rose tree, planted close by, flowered miraculously in mid-winter, and many sick persons were healed of their diseases at Saint William’s shrine.

Reflection. Learn from the infant martyrs that, however weak you may be, you still can suffer for Christ’s sake, and by suffering win your crown.

SAINT JOHN CLIMACUS

SAINT JOHN CLIMACUS
Abbot
(525-605)

Saint John, whose national origin remains unknown, was called Climacus because of a treatise he wrote called The Ladder (Climax) of Paradise. He made such progress in learning as a disciple of Saint Gregory Nazianzen that while still young, he was called the Scholastic. At the age of sixteen he turned from the brilliant future which lay before him, and retired to Mount Sinai, where he was placed under the direction of a holy monk named Martyrius. Once that religious journeyed to Antioch and took the young John with him; they visited Saint Anastasius, a future Patriarch of Antioch, and the Saint asked Martyrius who it was who had given the habit to this novice? Hearing that it was Martyrius himself, he replied, “And who would have said that you gave the habit to an Abbot of Mount Sinai?” Another religious, a solitary, made the same prediction on a similar visit, and washed the feet of the one who would some day be Abbot of Mount Sinai.

Never was there a novice more fervent, more unrelenting in his efforts for self-mastery. On the death of his director, when John was about thirty-five years old, he withdrew into a deeper solitude, where he studied the lives and writings of the Saints and was raised to an unusual height of contemplation. There he remained for forty years, making, however, a visit to the solitaries of Egypt for his instruction and inspiration. The fame of his holiness and practical wisdom drew crowds around him for advice and consolation.

In the year 600, when he had reached the age of seventy-five, he was chosen as Abbot of Mount Sinai by a unanimous vote of the Sinai religious, who said they had placed the light upon its lampstand. On the day of his installation, six hundred pilgrims came to Saint Catherine’s Monastery, and he performed all the offices of an excellent hotel-master; but at the hour of dinner, he could not be found to share the meal with them. For four years, said his biographer, a monk of the monastery of Raithe, “he dwelt on the mountain of God, and drew from the splendid treasure of his heart priceless riches of doctrine which he poured forth with wondrous abundance and benediction.” He was induced by a brother abbot to write the rules by which he had guided his life; and the book which he had already begun, The Ladder, detailing thirty degrees of advancement in the pursuit of perfection, has been prized in all ages for its wisdom, clearness, and unction.

At the end of that time, he retired again to his solitude, where he died the following year, as he had foretold.

Reflection. “Cast not from thee, my brother,” says the Imitation of Christ, “the assured hope of attaining to the spiritual life; thou hast still the time and the means.”

SAINTS JONAS and BARACHISIUS, and THEIR COMPANIONS

SAINTS JONAS and BARACHISIUS, and THEIR COMPANIONS
Martyrs
(†327)

King Sapor of Persia, in the year 327, the eighteenth of his reign, raised a bloody persecution against the Christians and laid waste their churches and monasteries. Jonas and Barachisius, two brothers of the city Beth-Asa, hearing that several Christians were under sentence of death at Hubaham, went there to encourage and serve them. “Fear not, brothers, but let us combat for the name of Jesus crucified, and like our predecessors we shall obtain the glorious crown promised to valiant soldiers of the Faith.” Fortified by these words, nine of that number received the crown of martyrdom.

After their execution, Jonas and Barachisius were apprehended for having exhorted the martyrs to die. The president entreated the two brothers to obey the king of Persia, and to worship the sun, the moon, fire, and water. They answered that it was more reasonable to obey the immortal King of heaven and earth than a mortal prince. Saint Jonas was beaten with knotty clubs and with rods until his ribs were visible, but he blessed God. Then he was chained by one foot and dragged to a frozen pond to spend the night there.

Saint Barachisius had two red-hot iron plates and two red-hot hammers applied under each arm, and melted lead dropped into his nostrils and eyes; after which he was carried to prison, and there hung up by one foot. Despite these cruel tortures, the two brothers survived and remained steadfast in the Faith. New and more horrible torments were then devised; both finally expired under a terrible press. They yielded up their heroic lives, praying for their enemies, while their pure souls winged their flight to heaven, there to gain the martyr’s crown which they had so faithfully won.

Reflection. The powerful motives which supported the martyrs under the most fearful torments ought to inspire us with patience, resignation, and holy joy when tried by sickness and all crosses. Nothing is more heroic in the practice of Christian virtue, nothing more precious in the sight of God, than the sacrifice represented by patience, submission, constant fidelity, and charity in a state of suffering.

SAINT JOHN CAPISTRAN and SAINT GONTRAN

SAINT JOHN CAPISTRAN
Confessor
(1385-1456)

Saint John was born at Capistrano, near Naples in Italy, in 1385. Having studied both secular and canon law, he became so skilled in it that his reputation spread over all of Italy. He was imprisoned during a war and abandoned by his protector for some time, during which his young wife died. He resolved while still in prison to serve in the future no other interests but those of God. His property was sold at his command, his ransom paid, and from his prison he entered a monastery near Peruse where the Rule of Saint Francis was observed in its purity.

The superiors, fearing this vocation to be a passing fancy, tested him severely, even sending him away twice; but he remained day and night at the door, suffering joyfully all trials. His heroic perseverance disarmed their fears and severity, and he was admitted to religious profession.

For seven years he practiced great austerities, cared for the sick in the hospitals, and preached on all sides the word of God. In this, say his biographers, he succeeded so admirably that few preachers in the course of all the centuries can be compared with him. He became a disciple of Saint Bernardine of Siena, assisting him in public conferences and discussions. Like many great servants of God he was calumniated, as though he had taught errors; he went to Rome to justify his teachings in the presence of the Pope and a group of cardinals, which he did admirably well, and they recognized the obvious innocence of the accused Saint.

Afterwards he preached all over Italy, and everywhere brought about the reform of lives. Five Popes in succession gave commissions to this remarkable Franciscan to represent them in important affairs, and he traveled to France, Austria, Poland and Germany. Everywhere his negotiations were crowned with success. But none of the Popes succeeded in raising him to the episcopal dignity; their efforts met an absolute resistance in his humility.

His extraordinary qualities proved to be of great assistance to the Holy See in another circumstance. When Mohammed II was threatening Vienna and Rome, Saint John Capistran, at the bidding of Pope Callixtus III, enrolled for a crusade 70,000 Christians. In a vision he was assured of victory in the Name of Jesus and by the Cross he bore. Marching at the head of the crusaders, he entered Belgrade at the head of the army. This General of the Friars Minor won a remarkable victory in that year of 1455, when 40,000 of the enemies of the Christians perished, but virtually none among the latter. He himself died the following year at the age of 71. He is regarded as a martyr, for enemies of the faith twice succeeded in giving him poison, which was ineffectual; he died only from the immense fatigue he had suffered in the defense of the city of Belgrade. “An infinity of miracles” followed his death. He was canonized in 1690.

Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 11.

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SAINT GONTRAN
King of Burgundy
(525-593)

Saint Gontran was the son of King Clotaire and grandson of Clovis I and Saint Clotildis. When Clotaire died in 561, his domains were divided among his four sons. While Gontran’s brother Caribert reigned at Paris, Sigebert in Metz, and Chilperic in Soissons, he was crowned king of Orleans and Burgundy in 561. He then made Chalons-sur-Saone his capital.

When compelled to take up arms against his ambitious brothers and the Lombards, he made no other use of his victories, gained under the conduct of a brave general called Mommol, than to give peace to his dominions. The crimes in which the barbarous habits of his nation involved him, he effaced by tears of repentance. The prosperity of his reign, both in peace and war, condemns those who suppose that human policy cannot be determined by the maxims of the Gospel, whereas the truth is just the contrary: no others can render a government so efficacious and prosperous.

Saint Gontran always treated the pastors of the Church with respect and veneration. He was the protector of the oppressed, and the tender parent of his subjects. He gave the greatest attention to the care of the sick. He fasted, prayed, wept, and offered himself to God night and day as a victim ready to be sacrificed on the altar of His justice, to avert His indignation, which Saint Gontran believed he himself provoked and drew down upon his innocent people. He was a severe punisher of crimes in his officers and others, and by many wholesome regulations he restrained the barbarous licentiousness of his troops; but no man was ever more ready to forgive offenses against his own person. With royal magnificence he built and endowed many churches and monasteries.

This good king died on the 23^rd of March in 593, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, having reigned thirty-one years.

Reflection. There is no means of salvation more reliable than the practice of mercy, since Our Lord has said: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall find mercy.” (Matt. 5:7)

SAINT JOHN DAMASCENE and SAINT JOHN OF EGYPT

SAINT JOHN DAMASCENE
Doctor of the Church
(676-780)

Saint John was born in the late 7^th century, and is the most remarkable of the Greek writers of the 8^th century. His father was a civil authority who was Christian amid the Saracens of Damascus, whose caliph made him his minister. This enlightened man found in the public square one day, amid a group of sad Christian captives, a priest of Italian origin who had been condemned to slavery; he ransomed him and assigned him to his young son to be his tutor. Young John made extraordinary progress in grammar, dialectic, mathematics, music, poetry, astronomy, but above all in theology, the discipline imparting knowledge of God. John became famous for his encyclopedic knowledge and theological method, later a source of inspiration to Saint Thomas Aquinas.

When his father died, the caliph made of him his principal counselor, his Grand Vizier. Thus it was through Saint John Damascene that the advanced sciences made their apparition among the Arab Moslems, who had burnt the library of Alexandria in Egypt; it was not the Moslems who instructed the Christians, as was believed for some time in Europe. Saint John vigorously opposed the ferocious Iconoclast persecution instigated by the Emperor of Constantinople, Leo the Isaurian. He distinguished himself, with Saint Germain, Patriarch of Constantinople, in the defense of the veneration of sacred images.

The Emperor, irritated, himself conjured up a plot against him. A letter was forged, signed with Saint John’s name, and addressed to himself, the Emperor of Constantinople, offering to deliver up the city of Damascus to him. That letter was then transmitted by the Emperor to the Caliph of Damascus, advising him as a “good neighbor” should do, that he had a traitor for minister. Although Saint John vigorously defended himself against the charge, he was condemned by the Caliph to have his right hand cut off. The severed hand, by order of the Caliph, was attached to a post in a public square. But Saint John obtained the hand afterwards, and invoked the Blessed Virgin in a prayer which has been preserved; he prayed to be able to continue to write the praises of Her Son and Herself. The next morning when he awoke, he found his hand joined again to the arm, leaving no trace of pain, but only a fine red line like a bracelet, marking the site of the miracle.

The Saint was reinstated afterwards to the favor of the local prince, but he believed that heaven had made it clear he was destined to serve the Church by his writings. He therefore distributed his property and retired soon thereafter to the monastery of Saint Sabas near Jerusalem, where he spent most of his remaining years in apologetic writings and prayer. Occasionally he left to console the Christians of Syria and Palestine and strengthen them, even going to Constantinople in the hope of obtaining martyrdom there. However, he was able to return to his monastery. There he died in peace at the age of 104, and was buried near the door of the monastery church, in the year 780.

Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 5; The Catholic Encyclopedia, edited by C. G. Herbermann with numerous collaborators (Appleton Company: New York, 1908).

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SAINT JOHN OF EGYPT
Solitary
(†394)

Until he was twenty-five, John worked as a carpenter with his father. Then, experiencing a call from God, he left the world and committed himself to a holy solitary in the desert. His master tested him by many unreasonable commands, bidding him roll hard rocks, tend dead trees, and the like. John distinguished himself by his perfect obedience, for he executed all commands with the simplicity of a child.

The monk Palladius, who later became a bishop, visited him one day. Saint John foretold he would some day become a bishop. He laughed, saying he was only in charge of a kitchen, but Saint John smiled and said, “You will have, in that future office, many labors and afflictions to endure. If you want to avoid them, remain in your solitude, for as long as you stay there, no one can consecrate you a bishop!” Palladius, when he fell ill, was sent to Alexandria, then advised to go for his health to Palestine and Bithynia, in northeastern Asia Minor, where he was indeed made Bishop of Helenopolis. He was included in the persecution against Saint John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople, and had to conceal himself for eleven months in a dark room; there he recalled the words of the great prophet and spiritual teacher, Saint John of Egypt.

After a careful training of sixteen years, Saint John had withdrawn to the top of a steep cliff, to think only of God and his soul. The more he knew of himself, the more he distrusted himself. The result of his vigilance and purity was threefold — a holy joy and cheerfulness which consoled all who conversed with him, perfect obedience to superiors, and, in return for this, authority over creatures, whom he had forsaken for the Creator. He had the gift of reading in souls; once when a deacon visited him with six other persons, Saint John recognized him as a cleric, though the young man had kept it a secret until then, and denied it. Saint John kissed his hand after identifying him as a deacon before all present, saying, “One must never lie, even under the pretext of doing good. Beware of disavowing the grace God has given you; for falsehood comes not from God, but from an evil source, as Our Saviour teaches us.”

Devils assailed Saint John continually, but he never ceased his prayer. After his long communing with God, he turned to humans with gifts of healing and prophecy. Twice each week he spoke through a window with those who came to him, blessing oil for the sick and predicting things to come. To the Emperor Theodosius he foretold his future victories and the time of his death. Rufinus, biographer of the Desert Fathers, recorded a long instruction offered himself and other visitors from Jerusalem. Saint John warned in particular against vanity: “Vanity is such a great and dangerous sin that it can make souls fall from the very heights of perfection; and that is why I exhort you to avoid it more than any other.”

The last three days of his life he gave wholly to God; on the third he was found on his knees as in prayer, but his soul was with the blessed. He died in 394.

Reflection. The Saints examine themselves by the perfections of God, and do penance. We judge our conduct by the standard of other men, and rest satisfied with it. Yet it is by the divine graces we ourselves have received and either profited from or repulsed, that we shall be judged when we die.

SAINT LUDGER

SAINT LUDGER
First Bishop of Munster
(†809)

Saint Ludger was born in Friesland (the Netherlands) about the year 743. His father, a nobleman of the first rank, at the child’s own request, committed him very young to the care of Saint Gregory, Bishop of Utrecht, a disciple of Saint Boniface and his successor in the government of the see of Utrecht. Saint Gregory educated him in his monastery of Utrecht, and gave him the clerical tonsure.

Ludger, desirous of further religious studies, passed over into England, and spent four and a half years under Alcuin, Rector of a famous school at York. In 773 he returned home, and when Saint Gregory died in 776, his successor, Alberic, compelled Saint Ludger to receive the priesthood.

The new bishop employed him for several years in preaching the Word of God in Friesland, where he converted great numbers, founded several monasteries, and built many churches. The pagan Saxons then entered and ravaged the country, and drove out the missionaries. Saint Ludger traveled to Rome to consult Pope Adrian II as to what course he should take, and what he thought God required of him. He then retired for three and a half years to Monte Cassino to study Saint Benedict’s Rule; there he wore the habit of the Order and conformed to its practices during his stay, but made no religious vows.

In 787, Charlemagne overcame the Saxons, conquering Friesland and the coast of the Germanic Ocean as far as Denmark. Saint Ludger was sent by the Emperor, who had heard of him, to evangelize the pagans of five districts; thus he returned into East Friesland, where he brought the Saxons to the Faith, with the province of Westphalia. He founded the monastery of Werden, twenty-nine miles from Cologne. In 802, Hildebald, Archbishop of Cologne, in spite of his strenuous resistance, ordained him Bishop of Munster. He joined to his diocese five cantons of Friesland which he had converted, and founded the monastery of Helmstad in the duchy of Brunswick.

Being accused to the Emperor Charlemagne of wasting his income and neglecting the embellishment of churches, that prince ordered him to appear at court. The Saint, when he was summoned before the Emperor, was at prayer, and told the messenger he would follow him as soon as he had finished his devotions. He was sent for three times before he was ready, and his delay was represented to the Emperor by the courtiers as contempt for his Majesty. The Emperor, with some emotion, asked Saint Ludger why he had made him wait so long, though he had sent for him often. The bishop answered that although he had the most profound respect for his Majesty, yet God was infinitely above him; that while we are occupied with Him, it is our duty to forget everything else. This answer made such an impression on Charlemagne that he dismissed him with honor and disgraced his accusers.

Saint Ludger was favored with the gifts of miracles and prophecy, but desired that these not be published. His last sickness did not hinder him from continuing his functions up to and including the last day of his life, which was Passion Sunday. On that day he preached very early in the morning, said Mass towards nine, and preached again before nightfall, in another town. He told those with him that he would die during the night, and indicated a place in his monastery of Werden where he wished to be interred. He died as he foretold, on March 26, 809.

Reflection. Prayer is an action so sublime and supernatural that the Church in her Canonical Hours teaches us to begin it by a fervent petition of grace to perform it well. We ought never to appear before God, to offer Him our homages or supplications, without trembling and without being deaf to all creatures, and closing off our senses to any object apt to distract our minds from God.

ANNUNCIATION of the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

ANNUNCIATION of the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

This great festival takes its name from the happy tidings brought by the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin, announcing the Incarnation of the Son of God. It commemorates the most important embassy that was ever known, an embassy sent by the King of kings, and performed by one of the chief princes of His heavenly court, and directed, not to the great ones of this earth, but to a poor, unknown virgin who, being endowed with angelic purity of soul and body, and perfect humility and submission to God, was greater in His eyes than the mightiest monarch in the world.

When the Son of God became man, He could have taken our nature without the cooperation of any creature; but He was pleased to be born of a woman, the One announced in the third chapter of Genesis. In choosing Her whom He raised to this most sublime of all dignities, He was turning to the one maiden who, by the riches of His grace and virtues, was of all others the most holy and the most perfect. The purpose of this embassy of the Archangel was to give a Saviour to the world, a victim of propitiation to the sinner, a model to the just, a son to this Virgin who would remain a virgin, and a new nature to the Son of God — the nature of man, capable of suffering pain and anguish in order to satisfy God’s justice for our transgressions.

When the Angel appeared to Mary and addressed Her, the Blessed Virgin was troubled; not at his coming, says Saint Ambrose, for heavenly visions and conversation with the blessed spirits had been familiar to Her, but what alarmed Her, he says, was the Angel’s appearing in human form, in the shape of a young man. What added to her alarm on this occasion was his words of praise. Mary, guarded by her modesty, was in confusion before expressions of this sort, and dreaded even the shadow of deluding flattery. Such high commendations made her cautious, until in silence She had more fully considered the matter: “She deliberated in her mind,” says Saint Luke, “what manner of salutation this could be.”

The Angel, to calm her, said: “Fear not, Mary, for Thou hast found favor before God.” He then informed Her that She was to conceive a Son whose name would be Jesus, who would be great and the Son of the Most High, and possessed of the throne of David, Her illustrious ancestor. Mary, out of a just concern to know how she may comply with the will of God without prejudice to Her vow of virginity, inquired, “How shall this be?” Nor did She give Her consent until the heavenly messenger informed Her that it was to be a work of the Holy Spirit, who, in making Her fruitful, would not alter in the slightest Her virginal purity. In submission to God’s will, without any further inquiries, She expressed Her assent in these humble but powerful words: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto Me according to thy word.” What faith and confidence Her answer expressed! What profound humility and perfect obedience!

Reflection. Humility is the foundation of a spiritual life. By it Mary was prepared for the extraordinary graces and virtues which would ever enrich Her, and for the eminent dignity of Mother of God.

SAINT GABRIEL ARCHANGEL

SAINT GABRIEL ARCHANGEL

The day before the great feast of the Annunciation, the Church celebrates the feast of the Archangel who brought to earth the glad tidings that Mary was chosen to be the Mother of the Incarnate God.

This angelic Messenger appears several times in the history of God’s chosen people. He came to Daniel the prophet after he had a vision of the future Persian and Greek empires, to explain the vision to him, as Daniel narrates in the eighth chapter of his book. So great was the Archangel’s majesty that the prophet fell on his face trembling.

The Angel of the Incarnation again appeared to the prophet to answer his prayer at the end of the exile, and advise him of the exact date of the future Redemption by the long-awaited Messiah.

When the fullness of time had come, Gabriel was sent several times as the harbinger of the Incarnation of the Most High God. First, to the Temple of Jerusalem, while Zachary stood at the altar of incense, to tell him that his wife Elizabeth would bring forth a son to be called John, who would prepare the way of the Lord. (Luke 1:17) Six months later the great Archangel again appeared, bearing the greatest message God ever sent to earth. Standing before the Blessed Virgin Mary, this great Archangel of God trembled with reverence as he offered Her the ineffable honor of becoming Mother of the Eternal Word. Upon Her consent, “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” It was he, we can readily believe, who also fortified Saint Joseph for his mission as virginal father of the Saviour.

Gabriel rightly bears the beautiful name, the strength of God, manifesting in every apparition the power and glory of the Eternal. According to some of the Fathers of the Church, it was Saint Gabriel, Angel of the Incarnation, who invited the shepherds of Bethlehem to come to the Crib to adore the newborn God. He was with Jesus in His Agony, no less ready to be the strength of God in the Garden than at Nazareth and Bethlehem. Throughout Christian tradition he is the Angel of the Incarnation, the Angel of consolation, the Angel of mercy.

SAINT VICTORIAN and COMPANIONS

SAINT VICTORIAN and COMPANIONS
Martyrs
(†484)

Huneric, the Arian king of the Vandals in Africa, succeeded his father Genseric in 477. He acted at first with moderation towards the Catholics of Carthage, but in 480 began a grievous persecution of the clergy and holy virgins, which in 484 became general. Vast numbers of Catholics were put to death.

Saint Victorian, at that time one of the principal lords of the kingdom, had been made governor of Carthage with the Roman title of Proconsul. He was the wealthiest subject of Huneric, who placed great confidence in him, and Victorian always behaved with inviolable fidelity. Now, however, when the king, after publishing his cruel edicts, sent him a message in which he promised, if Victorian would conform to his religion, to heap on him the greatest wealth and the highest honors which it was in the power of a prince to bestow, Victorian could not grant that request.

The Saint, who amid the glittering pomps of the world perfectly understood its emptiness, made this generous answer to the messenger: “Tell the king that I trust in Christ. His Majesty may condemn me to any torments, but I shall never consent to renounce the Catholic Church, in which I have been baptized. Even if there were no life after this, I would never be ungrateful and perfidious to God, who has granted me the happiness of knowing Him, and bestowed on me His most precious graces.” The tyrant became furious at this answer, and the tortures which he caused the Saint to endure cannot be imagined. Saint Victorian suffered them with joy, and amid them completed his glorious martyrdom.

The Roman Martyrology for this day joins with him four others who were crowned in the same persecution. Two of those who were apprehended for the faith were brothers who had promised each other to die together, if possible; and they begged of God, as a favor, that they might both suffer the same torments. The persecutors suspended them in the air with great weights at their feet. One of them, under the excess of pain, begged to be taken down for a little ease. His brother, fearing that this might move him to deny his faith, cried out from the rack, “God forbid, dear brother, that you should ask such a thing. Is this what we promised to Jesus Christ?” The other was so wonderfully encouraged that he cried out, “No, no; I ask not to be released; increase my tortures, exert all your cruelties till they are exhausted upon me.” They were then burned with red-hot iron plates, and tormented so long that the executioners finally left them, saying, “Everyone follows their example; no one embraces our religion now.” This they said seeing that although these two had been so long and so grievously tormented, there were no scars or bruises visible upon them.

Among many glorious confessors at that time, one Liberatus, an eminent physician, was sent into banishment with his wife. He only grieved to see his infant children torn from him. His wife checked his tears by these words: “Think no more of them; Jesus Christ Himself will take care of them and protect their souls.” In prison she was told that her husband had conformed, and when she met him at the bar before the judge, she reproached him in the court for having abandoned God. She learned from his answer, however, that a base lie had attempted to separate her from her holy faith and from eternal life.

Two merchants of Carthage, who both bore the name of Frumentius, suffered martyrdom about the same time. Twelve young children were dragged away by the persecutors, and cruelly scourged every day for many days; yet by God’s grace every one of them persevered to the end of the persecution, firm in the faith.

SAINT CATHERINE of SWEDEN

SAINT CATHERINE of SWEDEN
Queen
(1322-1381)

Saint Catherine was the daughter of Saint Bridget of Sweden and of Ulpho, Prince of Nericia, a region of the same land. The love of God seemed to hasten in her the use of her reason, and at seven years of age she was placed in the convent of Risburgh, to be educated in piety under the care of the holy abbess of that house. Being very beautiful, she was promised by her father in marriage to a young nobleman of great virtue; but the virgin persuaded her suitor to join with her in making a mutual vow of perpetual chastity. Listening to her discourses, the young man became desirous only for heavenly graces, and, to draw them down upon his soul in greater abundance, he readily acquiesced to the proposal. The happy couple, having but one heart and one desire, by a holy emulation encouraged each other to prayer, mortification, and works of charity.

After the death of her father, Saint Catherine, out of devotion to the Passion of Christ and to the relics of the martyrs, obtained her spouse’s permission to join her mother in her well-known pilgrimages and practices of devotion and penance in Rome. She went to her there and they visited the tombs of the martyrs and the churches, and together practiced mortification and works of piety, caring for the sick in the hospitals. Not long afterward, Catherine’s royal spouse died piously and then she found herself obliged to refuse numerous requests for her hand in marriage. When her mother died in 1373, she returned to Sweden, taking the mortal remains of Saint Bridget with her for burial. Catherine entered a monastery at Vatzan, where after a life of severe penance, she died on the 24^th of March in 1381. For the last twenty-five years of her life Saint Catherine had purified her soul daily by the sacramental confession of her sins.

Reflection. Whoever has to dwell in the world stands in need of great prudence; the Holy Scripture itself assures us that “the knowledge of the saints is prudence.” (Prov. 9:10)

SAINT BENEDICT

SAINT BENEDICT
Father of Western Monasticism
(480-543)

Saint Benedict, blessed by grace as his prophetic name seemed to foretell, was born of a noble Italian family in Umbria, in the year 480. As a boy he showed great inclination for virtue, and maturity in his actions. He was sent to Rome at the age of seven, to be placed in the public schools. At the age of fourteen, alarmed by the licentiousness of the Roman youth, he fled to the desert mountains of Subiaco, forty miles from Rome, and was directed by the Holy Spirit into a deep, craggy, and almost inaccessible cave, since known as the Holy Grotto. He lived there for three years, unknown to anyone save a holy monk named Romanus, who clothed him with the monastic habit and brought him food.

He was eventually discovered, when, one Easter day, God advised a priest who lived about four miles from there, to take food to His servant, who was starving. The priest searched in the hills and finally found the solitary, and they took their meal together. Some shepherds also knew of his retreat, and soon the fame of this hermit’s sanctity began to spread. The demon persecuted him, but to no avail; when a temptation of the flesh assailed him, he rolled in a clump of thorns and nettles, and came out of it covered with blood but sound in spirit.

Disciples came to him, and under his direction, numerous monasteries were founded. The rigor of the rule he drew up, however, brought upon him the hatred of some of the monks, and one of them mixed poison with the Abbot’s drink. When the Saint made the sign of the cross on the poisoned bowl, it broke and fell in pieces to the ground.

Saint Benedict resurrected a boy whose father pleaded for that miracle, saying “Give me back my son!” He replied, “Such miracles are not for us to work, but for the blessed apostles! Why will you lay upon me a burden which my weakness cannot bear?” But finally, moved by compassion, he prostrated himself upon the body of the child, and prayed: “Behold not, O Lord, my sins, but the faith of this man, and restore the soul which Thou hast taken away!” And the child rose up, and walked to the waiting arms of his father. When a monk lost the iron head of his axe in a river, the Abbot told him to throw the handle in after it, and it rose from the river bed to resume its former place.

Six days before his death, Saint Benedict ordered his grave to be prepared, then fell ill of a fever. On the sixth day he asked to be carried to the chapel, and, having received the sacred Body and Blood of Christ, with hands uplifted and leaning on one of his disciples, he calmly expired in prayer, on the 21^st of March, 543.

Reflection. The Saints never feared to undertake any work for God, however arduous, because distrusting self they relied for assistance and support wholly upon prayer.

SAINT BROTHER ANDREW

SAINT BROTHER ANDREW
Miracle-Worker, Apostle of Saint Joseph
(1845-1937)

Little Alfred Bessette, born at St. Grégoire, Quebec on August 9, 1845, had his roots in our own soil. The future Saint Brother Andrew of Mount Royal was a son of this land and of the French Canadian family. The infant was baptized conditionally the day after his birth in the village “church”, which at that time was a stone house serving as the only sacred dwelling. He was so frail that his parents had “undulated” him immediately after his birth.

Since the family was poor, they went four years later to Farnham, where the father could earn his living more readily. One fatal day he went with the lumberjacks to the forest and, as Brother Andrew would say later, “the tree he was cutting became locked in the branches of another, and my unfortunate father was crushed to death.” The child was nine years old and remembered that his mother “remained as though frozen”. A widow with ten children, she scarcely recovered from the shock of the accident. She “faded away” and died three years later of tuberculosis, at the age of 43. “I rarely prayed for my mother, but I have often prayed to her,” Brother Andrew used to say.

Then the family was scattered. Alfred at the age of twelve had to face life, using his initiative. For him began, then, thirteen years of a wandering life which would take him even to the United States, looking for work. An orphan without schooling, he had to search where he should go and how to survive. Like many boys from large families, he had to leave school at thirteen or fourteen years and earn his bread. And it was also because of his uncertain health and lack of money that he could never undertake prolonged studies. His mother had given him something of her own knowledge, but it was only with great difficulty that he finally learned to sign his name and to read a little. He had only his two arms to offer an employer as guarantee, but despite his frail health, he put his whole heart into his work. He himself said later: “In spite of my weakness, I didn’t let myself be outdone by the others at work.”

After he entered the Community of the Holy Cross as a lay Brother, he spent forty years washing the floors and windows, cleaning the lamps, entering the firewood, acting as porter and commissioner. Then, for more than twenty-five years, he received visitors in his little office — during six to eight hours a day, in all kinds of weather, and this until the age of 91. One day he was asked how he had managed to live so long with so little health. With humor he explained his recipe for health: “By eating as little as possible and working as much as possible...”

An immense work was being realized; crowds which became increasingly dense were pressing to the Oratory of Saint Joseph, for which heaven had chosen him as founder. The great skeleton of the largest sanctuary in the world dedicated to Saint Joseph could already be seen rising on the hilltop. And yet Brother Andrew never talked of “my work... my project.” On the contrary: “I am nothing, only a tool in the hands of Providence, a poor instrument of Saint Joseph.” “The good Lord took me to humiliate the others. He took the most ignorant one to humiliate the people and the Community of the Holy Cross. If there had been one more ignorant than myself, God would have chosen him instead.”

What care he showed in receiving and meeting people! He spent long hours in the office where thousands came to see him. And Brother Andrew remarked one day: “It is astonishing! They often ask me for cures, but rarely for humility and the spirit of faith. Yet these are so important. If the soul is sick, we have to begin by caring for the soul. Do you have faith? Do you believe the good Lord can do something for you? Go and make your confession, go and receive Communion, then come back to see me.” Such were the words that always returned to his lips, when he was asked for favors and cures. If he suggested making a novena to Saint Joseph, to use the oil or a medal of Saint Joseph, it was because “those were as many acts of love and faith, confidence and humility.” In general, he encouraged the people to see doctors; sometimes he wept with those who were suffering. But he never ceased to say, “How good the good Lord is! God loves you. God is love.” And Brother Andrew knew how to bring forth sprouts of hope in the hearts of those he met.

In the night of January 5-6, 1937, an old Brother 91 years old was dying in a modest room of Saint Laurent Hospital, in a suburb of Montreal. The few persons present at his bedside felt, however, that from this little man came an impression of strength, humanity, and moral power such as they had never known before. The dying man moved his head a little: “The great Almighty One is coming...” Then he raised his eyes to heaven... “O Mary, my sweet Mother and Mother of my Jesus, deign to help me!” Finally, they heard a few words scarcely intelligible, which were repeated again and again: “Saint Joseph, Saint Joseph, Saint Joseph...” At 12:50 AM, Brother Andrew breathed his last. The news of his decease was quickly relayed, and the following morning, all of Quebec knew that Brother Andrew was dead.

“He spent his life talking to others about God and to God of others,” a friend said. This testimony gives a just appreciation of what his life was, filled with faith and love.