SAINT APOLLINARIS the APOLOGIST

SAINT APOLLINARIS the APOLOGIST
Bishop
(† ca. 180)

Claudius Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, was one of the most illustrious prelates of the second age of the Church, which began with the edict of Constantine in 313, making Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire. Notwithstanding the great eulogies bestowed on Saint Apollinaris by Eusebius, Saint Jerome, Theodoret, and others, little is known of his acts, and his writings, which then were held in great esteem, are apparently all lost. He had written many excellent treatises against the heretics and pointed out, as Saint Jerome testifies, the philosophical sect from which each heresy derived its errors.

Nothing rendered his name so illustrious, however, as the noble apology for the Christian religion which he addressed to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius about the year 175. This was spoken soon after the miraculous victory the emperor obtained over enemies, through the prayers of the Christians. Saint Apollinaris reminded Marcus Aurelius of the benefit he had received from God through the prayers of his Christian subjects, and implored protection for them against the persecutions of the pagans. Marcus Aurelius published an edict in which he forbade anyone, under pain of death, to accuse a Christian on account of his religion; but, by a strange inconsistency, he did not have the courage to abolish the laws then in force against the Christians. As a consequence, many of them continued to suffer martyrdom, though their accusers were also put to death.

The exact date of Saint Apollinaris’ death is not known; the Roman Martyrology mentions him on the 8^th of January.

Reflection. Words of Our Lord Jesus Christ: “Therefore I say unto you, all things whatsoever you ask when you pray, believe that you shall receive: and they shall come unto you.” (Matt. 21:22) The martyrs who prayed for the end of the persecutions were heard, when Constantine in 313 published the Edict of Nantes, making Christianity the religion of the Empire.

SAINT LUCIAN the SYRIAN

SAINT LUCIAN the SYRIAN
Martyr
(†312)

Saint Lucian was born at Samosata in Syria. Having lost his parents in his youth, he distributed to the poor all his worldly goods, of which he had inherited an abundant share, and withdrew to Edessa, to live near a holy man named Macarius, who imbued his mind with a knowledge of Holy Scripture and led him to the practice of the Christian virtues. Having become a priest, his time was divided between the external duties of his holy state, the performance of works of charity, and the study of sacred writings.

Saint Lucian revised the books of the Old and New Testaments, expunging the errors which had found their way into the text either through the negligence of copyists or the malice of heretics. His translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek was universally esteemed and was very useful to Saint Jerome, for whom he prepared the way. Soon afterwards the latter was to give to the world the Latin translation of the Bible known as the Vulgate.

Having been denounced as a Christian during the persecution of Maximin, Lucian was thrown into prison and condemned to torture, which was protracted for twelve whole days. A group of Christians visited him in prison on the feast of the Epiphany, and brought bread and wine to him; while bound and chained down on his back, he consecrated the divine mysteries upon his own breast, that the faithful who were present might receive Holy Communion. He finished his glorious career in prison, and died with the words, “I am a Christian,” on his lips.

Reflection. If we would keep our faith pure, we must study its holy truths. We cannot detect falsehood until we know and love the truth; and to us the truth is not an abstraction, but has become incarnate in a Person, Jesus Christ, God and Man.

The EPIPHANY of OUR LORD

The EPIPHANY of OUR LORD

The word Epiphany means “manifestation,” and it has passed into general acceptance throughout the universal Church, from the fact that Jesus Christ manifested to the eyes of men His divine mission on this day first of all, when a miraculous star revealed His birth to the kings of the East. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy that “a star would arise from Jacob”. (Numbers 24:17) It was understood by these Wise Men that this star was announcing the Saviour-King, destined to be born of the Jews. And they, in spite of the difficulties and dangers of a long and tedious journey through deserts and mountains almost impassable, hastened at once to Bethlehem to adore Him. And there they offered Him mystical presents, as to the King of kings, to the God of heaven and earth, and to a Man whose human nature made Him mortal and subject to sufferings.

The second manifestation commemorated by this feast day occurred when He came forth from the waters of the Jordan after having received Baptism from the hands of Saint John, and the Holy Ghost descended on Him in the visible form of a dove. A voice from heaven was heard, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

The third manifestation which the Church’s liturgy recalls to us is that of the divine power of Jesus when, at the marriage-feast of Cana, by the first of His miracles He changed water into wine. And at the sight of this prodigy His disciples believed in His Divinity. These three great events, concurring to the same end, the Church has wished to celebrate in one and the same festival.

Reflection. Admire the almighty power of this little Child, who from His cradle makes known His coming to the shepherds and magi — to the shepherds by means of His Angel, to the magi by a star in the East. Admire the docility of these kings. Jesus is born: behold them at His feet! Let us be little, let us efface ourselves, and the divine strength will be granted to us. Let us be docile and quick in following divine inspirations, and we shall then become wise by the wisdom of God, powerful by His almighty power.

SAINT SIMEON STYLITES

SAINT SIMEON STYLITES
(†459)

One winter’s day, about the year 401, the snow lay thick around Sisan, a little town in Cilicia. A shepherd boy, who could not lead his sheep to the fields on account of the cold, went to the church instead and listened to the eight Beatitudes, which were read that morning. He asked how these blessings were to be obtained, and then, when he was told of the monastic life, a thirst for perfection arose within him. He became the wonder of the world, the great Saint Simeon Stylites, given by God in spectacle to Angels and men.

He was warned that perfection would cost him dear, that it could not be attained without first conquering self. A mere child, he began the monastic life by learning the Psalter by heart, and thereafter passed a dozen years in superhuman austerity. He bound a rope round his waist until the flesh festered. He took food only once in seven days, and, when God led him to a solitary life, kept fasts of forty days. He desired solitude and spent three years as a hermit in a cabin at the base of a mountain. When he became a curiosity for many persons because of his extreme mortifications, he spent thirty-seven years on the top of a very high pillar in Syria, not far from Antioch, exposed to heat and cold, standing in prayer, never seen to lie down, nourished each week by the Holy Eucharist, day and night adoring the majesty of God.

Perfection was all in all to Saint Simeon; the means were nothing, except in so far as God chose them for him. Certain solitaries of the region, hearing of him, were suspicious of a life so new and so strange, and sent some of their number to test him, reproving him for departing from the tested ways of the Fathers and choosing a path so original. They bade Saint Simeon come down from his pillar and return to the common life he had left. In a moment the Saint made ready to descend, but the emissaries were satisfied with this proof of humility; they had been told to revoke the order if he was disposed to obey. “Stay,” they said, “and take courage; your way of life is from God.”

Cheerfulness, humility, and obedience thus set their seal upon the inspired austerities of Saint Simeon. He obtained miracles for those who appealed to his prayers, and by his tears and supplications to God averted catastrophes he foresaw in vision. The words which God put into his mouth brought crowds of pagans to Baptism and sinners to penance. At last, in the year 460, those who watched from below noticed that he had been motionless for three whole days. They ascended, and found the old man’s body still bent in the attitude of prayer; but his soul was with God.

Reflection. Saint Augustine says, “This is the occupation of our life: by effort and toil, by prayer and supplication, to advance in the grace of God, until we come to that height of perfection where with clean hearts we may behold God.”

SAINT ANGELA of FOLIGNO & SAINT GREGORY

SAINT ANGELA of FOLIGNO
Widow
(1249-1309)

Saint Angela was born in Foligno, Italy, and lived most of her life in the small Umbrian town of her birth. There was nothing remarkable about Angela’s early years, and there was nothing scandalous about her life. Yet she tells us in her later writings that for over thirty years she led a mortally sinful life. Perhaps she was referring to the pride and comfort of a wealthy and fashionable existence, for she came from a family of great property, married well, and afterwards ruled a large household of children and servants. As she describes her conversion, it reads like the story of many a soul today. Fear of her damnation led her to the confessional one day. But she was afraid to tell her most serious sins, and so made a bad confession, then a sacrilegious Communion. Only greater remorse followed. Tormented in soul, she prayed to Saint Francis of Assisi, and he appeared to her in a vision. The next day she made a complete and sincere confession.

From this point on, her life was completely changed. The thought of her sins gave her a desire for penance, suffering, and reparation. In Foligno and its neighboring town, Assisi, the memory of Saint Francis, who had died in 1226, was still fresh. It is not surprising, then, that Angela was inspired by Franciscan ideals from the time of her conversion until her death in 1309. When one by one her mother, her husband and all her children had died, she became a Franciscan tertiary and later lived as a mendicant, a poor beggar, completely dependent upon the charity of others.

She was a soul whom God chose to fulfill the role of a mystic. Her confessor recorded from her own lips the visions and ecstasies that were granted to her with startling frequency. For Angela “the whole world was filled with God,” and she was in almost constant communion with Him. Yet we would misunderstand the interior life of this mystic, or any other, for that matter, if we imagine that her life was without pain, without constant suffering. Angela herself tells us that at times she was overcome with grief because she could see nothing but the extraordinary goodness of God and, in contrast, the vanity of earthly things and the ingratitude of creatures. The sight of a crucifix produced in Saint Angela torrents of tears. The intimacy she enjoyed with God was a grace which at one period of her life was entirely withheld from her, that she might like Job, become a model of constancy amid great and prolonged torments.

Of the thousands of tourists who annually visit Assisi and pray at the tombs of Saint Francis and Saint Clare, few travel the short distance to Foligno, where Angela is buried in the Franciscan church. But she, like the Saints of Assisi, has many a lesson for our day. No sinner who would have recourse to her would ever despair.

Sources: 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); Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 1.

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SAINT GREGORY
Bishop of Langres
(†539)

Saint Gregory was the Count of Autun, a Christian administrator whose government was respected and blessed by the citizens of that city. After governing for about forty years, he lost his worthy wife in death, and then, resigning his office, he entered into the clergy. It was not long before he was consecrated, in view of his singular virtues, Bishop of Langres. Saint Gregory of Tours wrote of him that “he lived like an anchorite in the midst of the world.” During his administration, two monasteries which would later acquire fame were founded in his diocese, that of Saint John de Reome, and an offshoot founded by Saint Seine.

Saint Gregory presided in the see of Langres with admirable prudence and zeal for another thirty-three years, sanctifying his pastoral labors by the most profound humility, assiduous prayer, and extraordinary abstinence and mortification. An incredible number of infidels were converted by him from idolatry, and worldly Christians from their disorders. He died at the beginning of the year 539, a few days after the Epiphany. Out of devotion to Saint Benignus, he desired to be buried near that Saint’s tomb at Dijon; that wish was fulfilled by the care of his virtuous son Tetricus, who succeeded him in his see.

Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 13; 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).

SAINT GENEVIEVE

SAINT GENEVIEVE
Virgin
(422-512)

Saint Genevieve was born at Nanterre, near Paris. Saint Germanus, when passing through that village, noticed this little shepherdess and predicted her future sanctity. At seven years of age she made a vow of perpetual chastity. After the death of her parents, Paris became her abode, but she often traveled on works of mercy in which she was assisted by the gifts of prophecy and miracles.

At one time she was cruelly persecuted. Her enemies, jealous of her power, called her a hypocrite and tried to drown her, but when Saint Germanus sent her some blessed bread as a token of esteem, the outcry ceased. Ever afterwards she was honored as a Saint.

During the siege of Paris by Childeric, king of the Franks, Genevieve went out with a few followers and procured grain for the starving citizens. Childeric, though a pagan, respected her, and at her request spared the lives of many prisoners. When Attila and his Huns were approaching the city for another incursion, the inhabitants, instead of taking flight, asked her aid; and listening to her exhortations they undertook prayer and penance, thus averting the impending scourge, as she had foretold would be possible. Clovis, when converted from paganism by his holy wife, Saint Clotilda, made Genevieve his constant adviser, and, in spite of his violent character, became a generous and Christian king.

Saint Genevieve died in 512, at the age of eighty-nine. When in 1129 a pestilence broke out at Paris, in a short time it swept off fourteen thousand persons, and, in spite of all human efforts, daily added to its victims. At length, on November 26^th, the reliquary of Saint Genevieve was carried in solemn procession through the city. That same day only three persons died; the rest recovered, and no others were taken ill. This was but the first of a series of miraculous favors which the city of Paris has obtained through the relics of its patron Saint.

Reflection. Genevieve was only a poor peasant girl, but Christ dwelt in her heart. She was anointed with His Spirit, and with power; she went about doing good, and God was with her.

SAINT MACARIUS of ALEXANDRIA & SAINT FULGENTIUS

SAINT MACARIUS of ALEXANDRIA
Hermit
(†394)

Saint Macarius when a youth left his fruit-stall at Alexandria to join the great Saint Anthony; that patriarch, advised by a miracle of his disciple’s sanctity, named him the heir to his virtues. For a time he remained in the Thebaid with his fellow hermits, but later he went to the desert of Scete. He had a cell there and others in two distinct places, but his principal dwelling place was the desert of the Cells. All of these cells were for him a source of mortification, being without window, or too short for him to lie down.

The life of this solitary was one long conflict with himself and with the demons. “I am tormenting my tormentor,” he replied to a hermit who met him in the heat of the day, bent double with a basket of sand. “Whenever I am slothful and idle, I am pestered by desires for distant travel.” When he was quite worn out he returned to his cell. Since sleep at times overpowered him, he kept watch standing for twenty days and nights; then, being about to faint, he entered his cell and slept, but thereafter slept only at will.

When for six months the demons tormented him with temptations, he would go to a marsh and remain naked in the water until his body was covered with noxious insect bites and boils, and he was recognized only by his voice. Once, when being thirsty he received a present of grapes, he passed them untouched to a hermit who was toiling in the heat. This one gave them to a third, who handed them to a fourth; in this way the grapes went the round of the desert and finally returned to Macarius, who thanked God for his brethren’s self-denial.

Macarius saw demons assailing the hermits at prayer. They put their fingers into the mouths of some and made them yawn. They closed the eyes of others, and walked upon them with contempt when they fell asleep. They placed vain and sensual images before many of the brethren, and then mocked those who were captivated by them. None vanquished the devils effectively save those who by constant vigilance repelled them at once. He called some of the solitaries to come to him and asked them if they had not thought about buildings, journeys or other such things. They acknowledged their fault, seeing he had perceived the vain thoughts which distract souls during prayer, caused by the illusion of the devils, and which the vigilant reject as foreign to their purpose.

After being many years Superior, Macarius, desiring humiliation and spiritual progress, fled in disguise to Saint Pachomius to begin religious life over again as his novice. Soon the brethren were going to their Superior to tell them of the extraordinary mortifications of the newcomer. Saint Pachomius prayed, and then, instructed by a vision, addressed Macarius by his name, saying he had long wanted to know him. And he thanked him for having given such excellent examples to his religious. Then he bade him return to his former brethren in religion, who loved him as their father, to pray for Pachomius’ monks as well.

At the age of seventy-three, Saint Macarius was driven into exile and brutally outraged by Arian heretics. He died in the year 394.

Reflection. Prayer is the breath of the soul. But Saint Macarius teaches us that both mind and body must be brought to subjection before the soul is free to pray efficaciously.

Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 1; Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Livesof the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).

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SAINT FULGENTIUS
Doctor of the Church, Bishop
(468-533)

Born in Africa of illustrious and Catholic parents, Fulgentius was an excellent student of languages and of various other practical disciplines. His father had died while still young, and Fulgentius soon became the support of his mother and younger brother. He was appointed at an early age procurator of his province at Carthage; but this elevation in the world’s esteem was distasteful to him, and he was enlightened by the Spirit of God to see the vanity of the world.

At the age of twenty-two, having read Saint Augustine’s treatise on the Psalms, he resolved to embrace monastic life, and began to prepare for it by mental prayer, fasting, and other penances practiced in secret. When he was accepted into a monastery by a holy bishop named Faustus, his mother hoped to change his mind; but when she arrived he remained firm and did not accept to see her. Such are the austerities of the Saints, called to accomplish much for God. He later renounced all his goods on behalf of his mother and younger brother.

After six years of peace, his monastery was attacked by Arian heretics, and Faustus, Fulgentius and the other monks were driven out, destitute, into the desert. Fulgentius entered another monastery on his Superior’s advice, and there he shared the duties of the Superior, to the latter’s great consolation, until that house was attacked by barbarians. In the refuge to which he then repaired he was persecuted, held captive, and tortured by an Arian priest, but sought no vengeance when authorities offered him support if he would enter a complaint. Fulgentius and his Superior, who was with him, decided to build another monastery in the province they had abandoned.

For a time Fulgentius remained there, but he desired solitude and set out on a journey to the holy places of Rome. There the imperial splendors he beheld spoke to him of the greater glory of the heavenly Jerusalem, his final goal. And at the first lull in the persecution, he returned to his African cell in the year 500.

Elected bishop of Ruspe in 508, he was summoned to face new dangers, and was shortly afterwards banished by the Arian king, with some sixty other Catholic prelates, to Sardinia. Though the youngest of the exiles, he became the spokesman of his brethren and the support of their orphaned flocks. By his books and letters, which are still extant, he confounded both Pelagian and Arian heresiarchs, and strengthened the Catholics in Africa and Gaul. He prayed for all his compatriots in exile: “You know, Lord, what is most expedient for the salvation of our souls; assist us in our corporal necessities, that we may not lose the spiritual goods.” On the death of the Arian king, the bishops returned to their flocks. Saint Fulgentius was welcomed amid the greatest joy, after eighteen years of exile. He labored with his fellow bishops in the synods as their chosen leader, and re-established discipline. When he felt his end was near, he retired to an island monastery, where after a year’s preparation he called for his clergy and religious, and with their aid distributed all his goods to the poor. He died in peace in the year 533.

Reflection. Each year may bring us new changes and trials; let us learn from Saint Fulgentius to receive all that happens as appointed for our salvation, and from the hand of God.