Saint Hugh

Bishop of Grenoble (1053-1132)
Feast – April 1

Eleventh century Europe was Catholic. Earthly rulers sought blessings from the Pope before assuming the throne. The Catholic Church was the primary patron of education. Schools, which typically fell under a large church, taught subjects such as Latin, rhetoric, Greek arithmetic and various sciences. Catholic kings, Catholic schools teaching Catholic doctrine and a strong, prosperous, influential Catholic Church, some may call it heaven on earth. The problem is the enemy never sleeps and is working hard to corrupt people’s souls; to him the most beneficial is a corruption of priests and civil authority. In spiritual warfare good times tend to be the most dangerous, easy going and lukewarmness usually follow them. In eleventh century the good, loving, and caring God called St. Hugh to rescue the See of Grenoble from this disease. He was born at Chateauneuf in Dauphiné, France, in 1053. His parents were pious Catholics who’d devoted their lives to serve God. His father, Odilo, holding an honorable post in the army following the commandment of love and, without neglecting his duty to his prince, strove to restrain vices, especially those of impurity and lying, to make his soldiers faithful servants of their Creator. By the advice of his son, St. Hugh, in his later years he became a Carthusian monk and lived for eighteen years in great humility and austerity under St. Bruno and his successors until his death at the age of one hundred.

His mother was seeking salvation through motherhood, perseverance in faith, love and holiness, self-control, years of prayer, fasting, and abundant almsgiving. St. Hugh fulfilled his obligations as a son and as a priest assisting both of them in their final hours.

From his youth, St. Hugh was distinguished through his exceptional success in studies accompanied with unusual piety which is why he was offered canon in the cathedral of Valence. He accepted the proposition which fulfilled his desire to serve God in an ecclesiastical state, that he might always dwell in his house and be occupied in his praises.

His great sanctity, extraordinary talents and learning were noticed by papal legate cardinal Hugues de Dié.

He was so charmed at first sight of the saint when he happened to come to Valence that he would not be content till he had taken the good man into his household. He employed him in extirpating simony (buying and selling of church offices), and in many other affairs of importance. In 1080 the Council of Avignon was held under the presidency of the papal legate, in which Aicard, usurper of the See of Arles, was deposed, and Gibelin put in his place.  Problems and abuses in the Diocese of Grenoble, which had no bishop at the time, were discuss. St. Hugh, at age 27, as the person best qualified by his virtue and prudence to reform and restore the ancient glory of that church, was elected bishop, even though he was still a layman. Three bishops-elect, Lautelin of Embrun, Hugues of Grenoble and Didier of Cavaillon accompanied the legate to Rome and were consecrated by Pope Gregory VII.

After his ordination, inspired by the Pope and full of zeal, St. Hugh rushed to his flock but upon his arrival at Grenoble he found corruption so rampant that he couldn’t supply his own necessities. Revenues of the bishopric were dissipated. His people in general were immersed in a profound ignorance and negligence of essential duties of religion. Many plunged in vice and immorality, committed sins without any scruple or sign of remorse. He immediately set to the task of reforming the abuses in his new diocese. He stormed heaven with prayers, tears, and rigorous fasting and as an excellent and assiduous preacher he stormed people hearts and minds. He clashed with Count Guigues III of Albon over the possession of ecclesiastic lands.

Humbled and overwhelmed with work, he must have overlooked the first signs of progress and successes of his labor and after two years he resigned his bishopric, retiring to the austere abbey of Casa Dei, or Chaise-Dieu, in Auvergne. There he was 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. The people of Grenoble recognized how great a gift from God was their new bishop and how great a lost was his absence that at his return a year later they open their ears to his forceful preaching which touched hearts and moved crowds. In the confessional he wept with his penitents and aroused them to a deeper contrition. In few short years, the face of his diocese had changed. This time his sanctity brought forth great good in souls.

In 1084 young St. Bruno of Cologne and his six companions came to him for counsel, in their pious design of forsaking the world. St. Hugh after seeing them under a banner of seven stars in a dream, assisted them in the foundation of the Carthusian Monastery in a snowy and rocky Alpine location called Chartreuse in the diocese of Grenoble. He frequently visited them in their solitude, to join them in their exercises and austerity, and adopted much of their way of life.

In order to relieve the poor, he had long denied himself everything that had even the slightest appearance of luxury. He sold, in a time of famine, a gold chalice and his episcopal gold ring. Many rich moved by St. Hugh’s example and bestowed their treasures to the needy, ensuring that all the poor of his diocese were supplied.

The remembrance of divine love, or of his own and others’ spiritual miseries frequently produced a flood of tears from his eyes. In hearing confessions, he frequently mingled his tears with those of his penitents, or first excited theirs with his own. At his sermons it was not unusual to see the whole audience melt into tears together.

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, headaches and pains in the stomach, before He called him to Himself. He closed his penitential course on the 1st 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.

References and Excerpts

[1]          “Saint Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble.” https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_hugh_of_grenoble.html (accessed Apr. 14, 2021).

[2]          “St. Hugh of Grenoble | EWTN,” EWTN Global Catholic Television Network. https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/saints/hugh-of-grenoble-608 (accessed Apr. 14, 2021).

[3]          “Hugh of Châteauneuf,” Wikipedia. Mar. 05, 2021, Accessed: Apr. 14, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_of_Ch%C3%A2teauneuf&oldid=1010495751.

Saint Albinus

Bishop (470-550)

Feast – March 1

On the foundation of hard work provided by many saints, among them St. Germanus of Auxerre; St. Eucherius, Bishop of Lugdunum; St. Genevieve; St.  Avitus of Vienne; St. Clotilde; and Saint Remigius the Apostle to the Franks, the first daughter of the Church was born. Like every infant needs its mother, and every seedling needs water, the newborn Catholic France needed caretakers. One of those whom God called to perform this work was St. Albinus of Angers.

Born in 470 out of an ancient and noble family in Brittany, the northwesternmost region of France, which was inhabited by people from England and Ireland.

As a young boy, Saint Albinus was drawn into the love and Word of God, becoming fervent in every exercise of piety from early childhood. It wasn’t long before he was seeking happiness in being disengaged from all earthly things and declared to his parents his intention to become a monk. Despite his parents’ disapproval he eventually entered a nearby monastery at Cincillac.

Having embraced the monastic state, he lived as if he had no will of his own, taking upon himself all the humblest offices and disciplining his flesh by every kind of mortification.

St. Albinus lived a quiet life of service, prayer, contemplation, and hard work. He was a perfect model of virtue and a soul governed by the spirit of Christ, living only for Him.

In 504, at the age of thirty-five he was chosen Abbot of the monastery. Saint Fortunatus, his first historian, compared the monastery at that time to a garden rendered beautiful by the most exquisite, most varied, most fragrant flowers.

Twenty-five years later in 529 when Angers needed a bishop, the people turned to the holy Abbot.

As bishop, ablaze with a holy zeal for the honor of God, St. Albinus restored ecclesiastical discipline. He preached every day and took great care of the sick and the poor, for he believed that the soul needs daily nourishment just as does the flesh. He had a special concern for widows who were raising large families. His dignity seemed to make no alteration either in his mortifications, or in the constant piety of his soul.

Many Christians of his diocese had fallen into slavery through the invasions of the barbarians, and Saint Albinus used every resource available to him for their redemption. To add to the graces of charity from which his people benefitted, were those derived from his public miracles.

St. Albinus healed the sick and restored sight to the blind, and was even known to have raised from the dead one boy named Alabald. When one of his servants died during his absence, those who carried the man to his grave were unable to lower him until the bishop arrived to give the final benediction. St. Albinus was so well known for working miracles that faithful people all over Europe, from Spain to Poland, prayed for his intercession.

Those in power sought his counsel and advice, and he found time for everyone—rich and poor, noble or peasant. Honored by all he was never afflicted with vanity. Powerful in works and miracles, he looked upon himself as the most unworthy and most unprofitable among the servants of God. By his courage in maintaining the law of God and the canons of the church, he showed that true greatness of soul is founded in the sincerest humility.

St. Albinus railed against injustice, immorality, and lax behavior on the part of the clergy.  He fought for the rights of the poor, and chastised the noble for immoral lifestyles.

Once, the king himself carried off a beautiful young girl and locked her away for his own pleasure. When St. Albinus heard about it, he went directly to the castle and demanded her freedom. The guards dared not oppose him and handed her over. The king did not pursue but had the audacity to demand a ransom for her freedom, which Albinus paid himself.

He restored measures of ecclesiastical discipline, through the third Council of Orleans, convened in 538 through his influence over King Childebert. He procured the thirtieth canon of the council of Epaone to be revived, by which those are declared excommunicated who presume to contract incestuous marriages.

St. Albinus died on March 1, 549 at the age of 80, while visiting those in his community who needed his support, shortly after making a long journey which he undertook to consult St. Cesarius, Bishop of Arles, concerning matters of episcopal government.

His body is interred in the crypt of Saint-Pierre Church at the famous abbey of St. Albinus at Angers, built upon the spot where he was buried by king Childebert. Countless miracles have occurred at his tomb.

References and Excerpts:

[1]          E. Staff, “Saint Albinus, Bishop – REGINA Magazine,” Mar. 01, 2017. https://www.reginamag.com/saint-albinus-bishop/ (accessed Feb. 26, 2021).

[2]          “Saint Albinus, Bishop.” https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_albinus.html (accessed Feb. 26, 2021).

[3]          “ST. ALBINUS, BISHOP OF ANGERS,” Sensus Fidelium, Mar. 01, 2019. https://sensusfidelium.us/the-lives-of-the-fathers-martyrs-and-other-principal-saints/march/st-albinus-bishop-of-angers/ (accessed Feb. 26, 2021).

[4]          “Home.” http://faith.nd.edu/s/1210/faith/start.aspx?gid=609&pgid=61 (accessed Feb. 26, 2021).

 

Saint Eucherius

Bishop of Orleans(687-738)
Feast – February 20

The Devil never sleeps and the war never ends.

In early 711, forces led by Tariq ibn Ziyad disembarked in Gibraltar starting the westernmost expansion of the Umayyad Caliphate and Muslim rule into Europe. By 716 the Iberian Peninsula known as Hispania became Al-Andalus. A small area of Southern France named Septimania was separating the Muslims from Gaul (a region of Western Europe inhabited by Celtic tribes, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy, the Netherlands, and the west bank of the Rhine in Germany). King Ardo of Septimania did everything he could to slow the advance of Arab and Berber armies under al-Hurr ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Thaqafi, when they crossed the Pyrenees (the mountains separating Spain and France) in 717. Two years later in 719 Muslims took  Septimania’s capital Narbonne  and secured control of region.

This generated many Visigothic refugees who were forced to travel north, to the refuge of Duke Odo in the semi-independent Franks duchy of Aquitaine.

In early 721, the Umayyad army under Al-Samh arrived at the gates of Toulouse; an essential city of Aquitaine resided on the Garonne river. Surprised by the incursion, Odo was overwhelmed by this military expedition and immediately left the city seeking help from Charles Martel “The Hammer,” Duke and Prince of the Franks, Mayor of the Palace and practically the ruler of Francia. Charles preferred to have Odo defeated in order to reconquer it and absorb the Duchy of Aquitaine, leaving Duke Odo with no choice but to head back to Toulouse with haste. On the 9th June 721 Odo took a majority of his experienced riders and charged directly towards the Umayyad army. As the battle continued on throughout the day and the charge by Odo seemed to be ineffective, he commanded his units to fallback just to return unexpected in evening. Odo with the full force smashed through the unprepared enemy lines, approached the enemy camp, slaughtering many Umayyad footman. Al-Samh was wounded and his army obliterated. This victory halted Muslim expansion for three years.

In 732 Abd er Rahman lead the Umayyad forces north. This time Duke Odo was easily defeated at Bordeaux and Garonne. Muslims pushed towards the Loire River crushing all resistance in their path.

On October 3rd, a Muslim army under Abd er Rahman and a Christian army under Duke Charles Martel came face to face between the cities of Poitiers and Tours, in Aquitaine in western France. For seven days, the two armies engaged in minor skirmishes. The battle finally began on the seventh day on, as Abd er Rahman did not want to wait any longer, with winter approaching. After Abd er-Rahman was killed in the clash his troops fled under the darkness of night.

The battle helped lay the foundations of the Carolingian Frankish-dominated Empire in western Europe for the next century and established Charles The Hammer as its leader. Charles decided to fund his war efforts through confiscation of church property. To curb His pride and discourage others from following his example, God called Saint Eucherius to deal with this problem.

St. Eucherius was born c. 687 at Orleans to a very illustrious family.

His pious mother while being pregnant had been advised in a vision that he would someday be Bishop of the city of Orleans. She in her daily prayers was offering him to God asking for nothing for him but divine grace. At his birth, his parents dedicated him to God. They took great care to form both his mind and his heart and set him to study when he was but seven years old. His improvement in virtue kept pace with his progress in learning. Meditation on sacred scripture, especially on Saint Paul’s writings about the world and its enjoyments, calling them mere empty shadows which deceive us and vanish away, so deeply sunk in his heart and mind that he resolved to leave the world and about the year 714 at the age of 27 he retired to the abbey of Jumiege in Normandy. The reputation of his virtue was so great that when his uncle Suavaric, Bishop of Orléans, died, the people and clergy of the city petitioned the mayor of the palace his permission to elect St. 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 finally consented and with universal applause was consecrated Bishop of Orleans in 721. He devoted himself entirely to the care of his church. He was indefatigable in instructing and reforming his flock, and his zeal and even reproofs were accompanied with so much sweetness and charity, that it was impossible not to love and obey him.

When Duke Charles Martel confiscated church property by stripping churches of their revenues to fund his war efforts and other activities while encouraging others to do the same, St. Eucherius reproved these encroachments with great zeal and found himself out of favor with the new Carolingian dynasty. When Charles returned from his victory at the Battle of Tours, he stopped in Orléans. To avoid condemnation of the local population he ordered St. Eucherius to follow him to Verneuil upon the Oise, in the diocess of Beauvais, where he then kept his court, and banished him to Cologne, Germany.

The local governor in Cologne was so charmed with his virtue, that he made him the distributer of his large alms, and allowed him to retire to the monastery build by St. Trudo at Sarchinium, on the River Cylindria.

One day while at prayer, St. Eucherius had been taken up and shown, among other things, the sufferings of those in hell, among whom he saw Charles Martel.  When the vision ended, he called St. Boniface and Fulrad, the Abbot of Saint – Denis, and asked them to see if Charles Martel had died.  When the two opened the tomb, a dragon rushed out, and they found the tomb’s interior blackened as though burned.  These two signs were taken as evidence that the vision had been accurate, and that Charles had been condemned to hell for his confiscation of Church property.

Prayer and contemplation were St. Eucherius’s whole employment, until the year 743, in which he died on the 20th of February.

References and Excerpts:

[1]          “Saint Eucherius, Bishop of Orleans.” https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_eucherius.html (accessed Jan. 30, 2021).

[2]          “Saint Eucherius of Orleans – Newman Connection – Effingham, IL.” http://www.newmanconnection.com/faith/saint/saint-eucherius-of-orleans (accessed Jan. 30, 2021).

[3]          “ALL SAINTS: ⛪ Saint Eucherius of Orleans,” ALL SAINTS, Feb. 20, 2014. https://saintscatholic.blogspot.com/2014/02/saint-eucherius-of-orleans.html (accessed Jan. 30, 2021).

[4]          “Eucherius of Orléans,” Wikipedia. Feb. 05, 2020, Accessed: Jan. 30, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eucherius_of_Orl%C3%A9ans&oldid=939311285.

[5]          “The Compass newspaper — November 21, 2008 Issue — Saint of the Day.” https://www.thecompassnews.org/compass/2008-11-21/saintoftheday.shtml (accessed Jan. 30, 2021).

Saint Canute

King of Denmark, Martyr († 1086)

Feast – January 19

Since the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus, the Roman Empire became a vehicle spreading Christianity through the world bringing blessings of prosperity. In 800, the Frankish king Charlemagne was crowned emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III. This transferred the Roman Empire from east to west and set the foundation for the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806. Wealthy towns with beautiful churches, monasteries and peaceful communities were desired by neighboring pagans too, but unwilling to discard their idols they saw different ways to assume it. 793 AD to 1066 AD was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen from Scandinavia and Denmark, known as Vikings, undertook large-scale raiding to collect significant wealth. This created a need for trade. Viking merchants regarded Christianity as a necessary evil that they had to put up with to be successful in trading. That is why when they went abroad, they would often allow themselves to be marked with the sign of the cross. It is believed that because of the extensive trade networks with Christians the Vikings chose Christianity during the 900s.

In 965 King Harald Bluetooth’s declared Denmark Christian, but the transition to Christianity took place gradually. Even with missionaries doing their best to introduce Christianity traces of the Norse gods were still evident up until the 1200s.

In 1042 St. Canute was born one of the many sons of King Sweyn II Estridsson. He was named after his father’s uncle Canute the Great – King of Denmark, England and Norway, often referred as the North Sea Empire. Sweyn took good care of the education of his son who being endowed with excellent qualities both of mind and body, answered perfectly well the care of his preceptors and governors. St. Canute was first noted as a member of Sweyn’s 1069 raid of England and was one of the leaders of another raid in 1075. As a young prince, he cleared the seas of pirates and subdued several neighboring provinces which were harassing Denmark.

The kingdom of Denmark had an elected ruler until the year 1660. Thus, when Sweyn died, many pitched upon our saint whose eminent virtues best qualified him for the throne, but the majority, fearing his martial spirit, preferred his eldest natural brother Harold, commonly called the Slothful.

St. Canute retired into Sweden to King Halstan, who received him with the greatest marks of kindness and esteem. On the 17^th of April, 1080, after two year’s reign Harold died and St. Canute was called to succeed him.

On his accession, he married Alice of Flanders, daughter of Robert, Earl count of Flanders. She bore him one son, Charles (St. Charles the Good, Earl of Flanders) and twin daughters Cæcilia and Ingerid.

He began his reign with a successful war against the troublesome, barbarous enemies of the state, and by planting the faith in the conquered provinces of Courland, Samogitia, and Livonia. His courage rivaled in excellence with his ability in the conduct and skills of war, but his piety surpassed all his other endowments. He chastised his body with fasting, discipline, and hair-cloths. Prayer was his assiduous exercise.

Amid the glory of his victories he humbly prostrated himself at the foot of the crucifix, laying there his diadem, and offering himself and his kingdom to the King of kings.

Denmark was officially a Christian country for over a hundred years but needed a zealous hand at the helm to cement this. St. Canute seemed to have been chosen for that task.

After having provided for the peace and safety of his country and enlarged its territories his next concern was to reform abuses at home. For this purpose, he enacted severe, but necessary laws, for the strict administration of justice, and repressed the violence and tyranny of the great, without respect for status. It became evident when he condemned to death a Danish lord whose vessel, to sustain the owner’s luxury, had pillaged the ship of a neighboring country and massacred the crew.

His charity and tenderness towards his subjects made him study all possible ways to ease them of their burdens.

He honored holy men and granted many privileges and immunities to the clergy. He enhanced the authority of the church and demanded austere observation of church holidays. By building and adorning churches, giving large gifts to the churches in Dalby, Odense, Roskilde, Viborg, Lund, he even donated his very great value crown to the church of Roschild, in Zealand he enhance the people’s esteem to provide for needs of the Church.

When childless English king Edward the Confessor died in 1066, the Norman King William the Conqueror built a large fleet and invaded England in September 1066. He defeated and killed Harold Godwinson the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066 and on Christmas day the same year became King of England. He made arrangements for the governance of England in early 1067 before returning to Normandy. Several unsuccessful rebellions followed.

In 1069 St. Canute sent forces to assist the vanquished; but these troops found no one willing to join them and were easily defeated.

Later being invited by the conquered English, he raised an army to expel the Normans: but through the treacherous practices of his brother Olaf, was obliged to wait so long on the coast, that his troops deserted him. The pious king judging this a proper occasion to induce his people to pay tithes to their pastors proposed to them either to pay a heavy fine, by way of punishment for their desertion, or submit to the law of tithes for the pastors of the church.

In early 1086 a revolt broke out in Vendsyssel, where St. Canute was staying, first he fled to Schleswig and eventually to Odense. On 10 July 1086, he and his men took refuge inside the wooden St. Alban’s Priory, in Odense. Perceiving his danger, he confessed his sins at the foot of the altar and received Holy Communion. Stretching out his arms before the altar fervently recommended his soul to his Creator. According to the chronicler Ælnoth of Canterbury he died down on his knees following a lance thrust in the flank. His brother Benedict, and seventeen others, were slain with him.

Olaf succeeded him in the kingdom. God punished the people during the eight years and three months of his reign with crop failure, dreadful famine, and other calamities. According to Arild Hvitfeldt’s “Danmarks Riges Krønike”, in those years springtime was so dry that the fields looked as if they had been burned, and in the fall the skies opened up and rain fell so often that people floated about on pieces of wood to cut the heads off the grain that rose above the water; the hunger of the people grew so great that they dug the earth looking for roots. The wealthy grew thin, and the poor died of starvation. At the same time sanctity of the martyr was attested by many miraculous cures of the sick at his tomb. For this reason his relics were taken up out of their obscure sepulchre, and honourably entombed and his canonization was already being sought before the end of the reign of Olaf.

His successor, Eric I the Good restored piety and religion in Denmark and sent ambassadors to Rome, with proofs of the miracles performed. On 19 April 1101 Pope Paschal II confirmed the “cult of Canute” that had arisen, and King Canute IV was canonized as a saint under the name San Canuto.

References and Excerpts:

[1]          O. I. H. depicting K. O. Ik. of D.-1095PredecessorCanute I. the H. I. E. 1050Died18 A. 1095ConsortIngegerd of N. U. nameOlaf S. I. E. Catholicism, “WikiVisually.com.” http://wikivisually.com (accessed Jan. 09, 2021).

[2]          “Saint Canutus, King of Denmark, Martyr.” https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_canutus.html (accessed Jan. 09, 2021).

[3]          “Butler’s Lives of the Saints – Saint Canutus, King of Denmark, Martyr,” CatholicSaints.Info, Jan. 18, 2013. https://catholicsaints.info/butlers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-canutus-king-of-denmark-martyr/ (accessed Jan. 09, 2021).

[4]          “Canute IV of Denmark,” Wikipedia. Dec. 29, 2020, Accessed: Jan. 09, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Canute_IV_of_Denmark&oldid=997083466.

 

 

Saint Damasus

Pope († 384)
Feast – December 11

In the year 272 in Naissus, Dacia Mediterranea (today Niš, Serbia), Flavius Valerius Constantinus, also known as Constantine the Great was born to Flavius Constantius, an Illyrian army officer who became one of the four emperors of the Tetrarchy and Helena, a holy Christian woman of low social standing from Helenopolis of Bithynia, in Asia Minor, modern Turkey.

Constantine served with distinction under emperors Diocletian and Galerius campaigning in the eastern provinces against barbarians and the Persians. In 305 he was recalled west to fight under his father in Britain. After his father’s death in 306, Constantine was acclaimed as emperor by the army at Eboracum (York). He played an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan in 313, which ended persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. By 324 he emerged victorious in the civil wars against emperors Maxentius and Licinius and become sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Constantine was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. In those transitional and crucial times for the Catholic Church, about year 304 in Rome St. Damasus was born. His parents were Antonius and Laurentia. Both parents originally come from the Lusitania region covering today autonomous community of Extremadura and a part of the province of Salamanca in Spain. St. Damasus grew up in Rome in the service of the church of the martyr St. Laurence, which later became the basilica of San Lorenzo where his father received Holy Orders and served as parish priest. He began his ecclesiastical career as a deacon in his father’s church, and later served as a priest. Described by St. Jerome as “an incomparable person, learned in the Scriptures, a virgin doctor of the virgin Church, who loved chastity” he distinguished himself from others and in 352 was called to serve the Catholic Church as archdeacon to the Pope St. Liberius.

Three hundred years of Roman oppression ended, arenas were empty, but the war continued. Heresies such as Arianism, Apollinarianism and Macedonianism were confusing and dividing Christians in the east and west. When in 354 Emperor Constantius II, a promotor of Arianism, banished Pope St. Liberius to Beroea, an ancient city of the Hellenistic period and Roman Empire now known as Veria in Macedonia, northern Greece, a faithful archdeacon followed him into exile, but afterwards returned to Rome.

After more than two years in exile the emperor recalled him under extreme pressure from the Roman population who refused to recognize his puppet, Felix II. As the Roman See was “officially” occupied by Felix, a year passed before St. Liberius came back to Rome. It was the emperor’s intention that St. Liberius should govern the Church jointly with Felix, but upon his arrival, Felix was expelled by the Roman people. During the period before St. Liberius’ return, St. Damasus had a great share in the government of the church.

Following the death of Pope St. Liberius on 24 September 366, St. Damasus was elected by a large majority as the new Bishop of Rome, but a minority proclaimed deacon Ursinus as Pope, inciting a revolt in Rome, which resulted in violent battles in two basilicas, where 137 people died. Emperor Valentinian came to the defense of St. Damasus and drove the usurper from Rome for a time. Later he returned, and finding accomplices for his evil intentions, accused the Holy Pontiff of adultery. St. Damasus took only such action as was becoming to the common father of the faithful; in 378 he assembled a synod of forty-four bishops, in which he justified himself so well that the calumniators were excommunicated and banished.

As Pope his lifestyle was simple in contrast to many ecclesiastics of Rome. St. Damascus was fierce in his denunciation of heresies. In two Roman synods (368 and 369) he condemned Apollinarianism and Macedonianism and in 381 he sent his legate St. Zenobius to the Council of Constantinople convoked against the aforesaid heresies and to console the faithful who were cruelly persecuted by the fanatic Arian Emperor Valens.

In order to put an end to the marked divergences in the western texts of that period, St. Damasus encouraged the highly respected scholar St. Jerome to revise the available Old Latin versions of the Bible into a more accurate Latin on the basis of the Greek New Testament and the Septuagint, resulting in the Vulgate. One of the most important works of Pope Damasus was to preside in the Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list of Sacred Scripture.

In the meantime, St. Damasus rebuilt and adorned the Church of Saint Laurence, still called Saint Laurence in Damaso, and provided for the proper housing of the archives of the Roman Church. He built in the basilica of St. Sebastian on the Appian Way the marble monument known as the “Platonia” in honour of the temporary transfer to that place of the bodies of Saints Peter and Paul and decorated it with an important historical inscription. He also built on the Via Ardeatina, between the cemeteries of Callistus and Domitilla, a basilicula, or small church, the ruins of which were discovered in 1902 in which, according to the “Liber Pontificalis”, the pope was buried with his mother and sister.

St. Damasus built at the Vatican a baptistery in honour of St. Peter. He had the springs of the Vatican drained, since they were inundating the tombs of the holy persons buried there, and he decorated the sepulchers of a great number of martyrs in the cemeteries, adorning them with epitaphs in verse.

His eighteen year reign reinforced the primacy of the Apostolic See and the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Roman Church based, not on the decrees of councils, but on the very words of Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:18).

During his pontificate on 27 February 380, emperor Gratian, Valentinian II, and Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica “De fide Catholica” which proclaimed Catholicism, the doctrine which St. Peter had preached to the Romans and of which Pope St. Damasus was head, as the religion of the Roman State. The “Altar of Victory” was removed, no more Vestal Virgins, an no pagan priests reading in the Senate.

The Church was in the ascendancy. the Bishop of Rome’s importance swelled. Latin became the principal liturgical language as part of the pope’s reforms. Pope St. Damasus rode the first wave of these historical and religious trends. He was perhaps the first pope to rule with swagger. He died on the 10th of December in 384, when he was nearly eighty years old. In the eighth century, his relics were definitively placed in the church of Saint Laurence in Damaso, except for his head, conserved in the Basilica of Saint Peter.

References and Excerpts:

[1]          F. Media, “Saint Damasus I | Franciscan Media.” https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-damasus-i (accessed Jan. 09, 2021).

[2]          “Saint Damasus, Pope.” https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_damasus.html (accessed Jan. 09, 2021).

[3]          “CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pope St. Damasus I.” https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04613a.htm (accessed Jan. 09, 2021).

[4]          “Memorial of Saint Damasus I, Pope,” My Catholic Life! https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/11-december-saint-damasus-i-pope-optional-memorial/ (accessed Jan. 09, 2021).

[5]          “Pope Damasus I,” Wikipedia. Dec. 22, 2020, Accessed: Jan. 09, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pope_Damasus_I&oldid=995639706.

 

Saint James of The March of Ancona

Franciscan Priest (1391-1476)

Feast – November 28

The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income. (Luke 18:11-12)

Pietro da Fossombrone, known also as Angelo da Clareno was born about 1248, and entered the Franciscan order around 1270. Believing that the rule of St Francis was not being observed and interpreted according to the mind and spirit of the Seraphic Father, he retired to a hermitage with a few companions in the Marche of Ancona along the Adriatic Sea in central Italy and formed a new branch of the order known as the “Clareni.” This started poisonous disputes concerning poverty among Franciscans and gave birth to various heretical sects of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries called Fraticelli. Fraticelli regarded the wealth of the Church as scandalous, and that of individual churchmen as invalidating their status.

In 1391 in the same region, Marche of Ancona, at Monteprandone was born into a poor family Dominic Gangala – St. James of The March of Ancona.

His parents raised him in the fear and love of God. He began his studies at Offida under the guidance of his uncle, a priest who later sent him to school in the nearby town of Ascoli Piceno. While still young he was sent to the University of Perugia, where he studied civil and canon law with such remarkable success that he received a doctor’s degree in both subjects. This qualified him to be chosen preceptor to the children of a young gentleman of Perugia. He went with him to Florence, to aid in the administration of a juridical office the nobleman had obtained there. When St. James was about to be engulfed in the whirlpool of worldly excesses and the vanity of the world, he felt a singular attraction for the religious life. At first, he thought of joining the contemplative Carthusians, but almighty God had a different plan for him.

While traveling one day near Assisi he went into the Church of the Portiuncula to pray. Moved by the fervor of the Franciscan friars and inspired by the example of their blessed founder, he determined to petition in that very place for the habit of the Order. He was received into the Order of Friars Minor on the 26^th of July 1416 at the age of 25 in the chapel of the Portiuncula at the convent of Our Lady of the Angels and took the monastic name Jacobus, James in English.

During his novitiate his life became a constant spiritual war against the world, the flesh and the devil in silence of his cell, adding extraordinary fasts and vigils to his assiduous prayer he became a model of religious perfection. Having finished his novitiate at the hermitage of the Carceri, near Assisi, he studied theology under St. Bernardino of Siena at Fiesole, near Florence.

St. James led a most austere life; he slept on the bare floor three hours a night while the remainder of the night he spent meditating on the sufferings of Christ. He scourged himself daily and like St. Francis observed a 40-day fast 7 times a year. Bread and water were his regular food, sometimes he added beans or vegetables. This concerned St. Bernardino of Siena who instruct St. James to moderate his penances in order to conserve his strength.

While studying he became widely recognized for his oratory and soon after his ordination on June 13th, 1420, he was sent out with St. John Capistrano as a missionary.

St. James undertook this high calling with untiring zeal delivering forceful and effective sermons. First, He began to preach in Tuscany, in the Marches, and Umbria than all over Italy and through 13 Central and Eastern European countries: Dalmatia, Croatia, Albania, Bosnia, Austria, Bohemia, Saxony, Prussia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Russia, laboring for the salvation of thousands of souls. St. James always traveled without any provisions other than his confidence in God. If he found no aid or was without lodging, he rejoiced in his union with Lady Poverty, to whom he was joined by his religious profession.

He carried out that ministry with such great fervor and power that he never failed to touch the most hardened hearts and produce truly miraculous conversions. Inspired by his apostolic example, more than 200 of the noblest young men of Germany were impelled to enter the Franciscan Order. The crowds who came to hear him were so great that the churches were not large enough to accommodate them, and it became imperative for him to preach in the public squares.  For more than 50 years he traveled spreading devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus and preached penance. This extremely popular preacher was instrumental in converting 36 women of bad repute by a single sermon on St. Mary Magdalen at Milan. At Buda he effected the miraculous cessation of a furious sedition by simply showing the crucifix to the people; the rebels themselves took him upon their shoulders and carried him through the streets of the city. At Prague he brought back to God many who had fallen into error, and when a magician wanted to dispute with him, he rendered him mute and thus obliged him to retire in confusion. He raised from dangerous illness the Duke of Calabria and the King of Naples.

It is said that he brought 50,000 heretics into the bosom of the Church and led 200,000 unbelievers to baptism. God granted St James gifts of wisdom and prophesy, so popes and princes were seeking his counsel.

With St. John of Capistrano, Albert of Sarteano, and St. Bernardino of Siena, St. James is considered one of the “four pillars” of the Observant movement among the Franciscans, especially known for their preaching.

From 1427 onward, St. James combated heretics and was on legations in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary. In Bosnia he was also commissary of the Friars Minor. At the time of the Council of Basle he promoted the union of the moderate Hussites with the Church, and that of the Greeks in the Council of Ferrara-Florence.

After Constantinople fell on 29 May 1453 to the Ottomans, he joined Saint John of Capistrano to preach a crusade against the Turks terrorizing Western Europe and in 1456 he was sent to Hungary as his successor. St. James founded several monasteries in Bohemia, Hungary, and Austria.

In Italy he was appointed inquisitor against a heretic sect called the Fratelli. When he was offered the archiepiscopal dignity of the see of Milan in 1460, he declined with words: “I have no other desire upon earth than to do penance and to preach penance as a poor Franciscan.”

Especially devoted to the Precious Blood of Jesus, he, himself, was brought up on heresy charges during the Dominican Inquisition in 1462. The Pope intervened, ordering the case put on permanent hold, with no decision ever rendered on his statements. However, during the course of the inquisition, James was the victim of attempted assassinations twice, both times in the form of a poisoned chalice (as he is frequently depicted in art). Twice assassins lost their nerve when they came face to face with him.

The Saint’s love for the poor and disdain for extremely high interest rates led him to establish the montes pietatis—literally, mountains of charity— which were nonprofit credit organizations that lent money on pawned objects at very low rates and were made very popular by his protégé, St. Bernardine of Feltre.

St. James spent the last three years of his life in Naples. Worn out by his many labors as well as advanced age, he died on November 28, 1476, in the 85th year of his life, 60 years of which were consecrated to God in the religious state.

His body remained in a crystal coffin, incorrupt, flexible, and emitting a fragrant perfume in the Franciscan church of Santa Maria la Nova in Naples for over five centuries until 2001 when it was finally transferred to his birthplace of Monteprandone.

Beatified by Pope Urban VIII, 1624, he was canonized by Benedict XIII, 1726.

References and Excerpts:

[1]          F. Media, “Saint James of the Marche | Franciscan Media.” https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-james-of-the-marche (accessed Dec. 28, 2020).

[2]          E. Staff, “Saint James of the Marches, Confessor – REGINA Magazine,” Nov. 28, 2016. https://www.reginamag.com/saint-james-of-the-marches/ (accessed Dec. 28, 2020).

[3]          “Saint James of The March of Ancona, Franciscan Priest.” https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_james_of_the_march_of_ancona.html (accessed Dec. 28, 2020).

[4]          “Saint James of the March.” https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/saint-james-of-the-march.html (accessed Dec. 28, 2020).

[5]          “CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. James of the Marches.” https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08278b.htm (accessed Dec. 28, 2020).

[6]          “28. St. James of the March, Priest – Divine Redeemer Sisters – American region.” http://www.divine-redeemer-sisters.org/saint-of-the-day/november/28-st-james-of-the-march-priest (accessed Dec. 28, 2020).

[7]          “James of the Marches,” Wikipedia. Dec. 16, 2020, Accessed: Dec. 28, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_of_the_Marches&oldid=994637339.

Saint Hilarion the Great

Patriarch of the Solitaries of Palestine 291–371
Feast – October 22

In the third century, of the many gods of the Romans, Jupiter, the son of Saturn, was their supreme god. On the other hand, the empire had been assembled from a great number of territories whose peoples had already established their own way of life. They were not about to surrender it, nor were they ever asked to do so by their conquerors. What characterized the religious life of the empire as a whole was the continued vitality of local cults in combination with a generally reverent awareness of one’s neighbors’ cults. The emperor, for example, might openly offer personal veneration to his favorite god, but when he was on his travels, he would offer cult at the chief shrines of all the localities he visited. This half-hearted faith lead many citizens of the Roman empire to look for a deeper sense in their existence, and Christianity was the answer.

One of them was Saint Hilarion, born about 291 at Tabatha, five miles to the south of Gaza, Palestine. He was sent by his pagan parents to Alexandria to study grammar at a very early age. He was a thin and delicate youth of fragile health who grew like a rose out of thorns. Through his progress in learning, he gave evidence of his wit, while his good temper and dispositions fostered love from those that knew him.

At the age of fifteen he became a Christian and a new man, renouncing all the mad sports of the circus, the entertainments of the theatre and taking no delight but in the churches and assemblies of the faithful.

St. Hilarion was attracted by the renown of the anchorite, St. Anthony the Great, and desiring to study with him and learn what is pleasing to God he retired to the desert. He carefully observed everything in the life of the “Father of Anchorites.” St. Hilarion was moved by the example of his virtue, observing his manner of life, his fervor in prayer, humility in receiving the brethren, his severity in reproving them, his earnestness in exhorting them, and his perseverance in austerities. However, he was not able to bear the frequent concourse of those who resorted to St. Antony to be healed of diseases or delivered from devils. Desiring to serve God in perfect solitude, after two months St. Hilarion resolved to devote himself to the ascetic life of a hermit. He returned home to find that his parents had died. After distributing his family’s inheritance to the poor and then despite his youth and delicate health he withdrew to a little hut in the desert of Majuma, near Gaza, where he led a life similar to that of St. Anthony.

He took with him only a shirt of coarse linen, a cloak of skins given to him by St. Anthony, and a coarse blanket. He led a nomadic life, not partaking of his frugal meal until after sunset. He supported himself by weaving baskets. He lived first in a cabin of reeds, then in one of clay, so low and narrow that it seemed more like a tomb than a lodging for a young man, never washed his clothes, changed them only when they fell apart, and shaved his hair only once a year. He experienced spiritual dryness that included many violent temptations and assaults from the infernal spirit expending all their efforts to make him abandon this life of total renouncement. Often when he lay down did naked women appear to him and sumptuous feasts when he was hungry! During prayer Saint Hilarion heard children crying, women wailing, the roaring of lions and other wild beasts.

He was victorious by the assistance of omnipotent grace. The phantoms of the enemy St. Hilarion dissipated by casting himself upon his knees and signing his forehead with the cross of Christ

He fought them with heavy labor, fasting and fervent prayer. Where beset by carnal thoughts, he fasted even more. According to St. Jerome he was “so wasted that his bones scarcely held together.” When the deafer heaven seemed to his cries on such occasions, the louder and the more earnestly he persevered knocking.

Being enlightened and strengthened by a supernatural grace, he never suffered himself to be imposed upon by the artifices by which the devil strove to withdraw him from holy prayer, in which the saint spent the days and great part of the nights. To have dropped the shield of prayer under these temptations would have been to perish.

Once . . . when he was eighteen years old, brigands tried to find him at night. Either they believed that he had something to steal or they thought he would scorn them if they didn’t intimidate him. . . . From evening till dawn, they hunted in every direction but couldn’t find him. In the broad daylight, however, they came upon him and apparently as a joke asked him: “What would you do if robbers attacked you?” He answered: “A naked person does not fear robbers.” “You could be killed.” “I could,” he said. “But I am not afraid of robbers because I am ready to die.” They were so touched by his answers they promised him to abandon their life of pillage.

He learned all of Holy Scripture by heart and repeated it with admirable devotion.

St. Hilarion began to work miracles by his prayers, and visitors made their way to his former solitude.

His first miracle was when he cured a woman of Eleutheropolis (a Roman city in Syria Palestine), despised by her husband of fifteen years because of her sterility, . . . was the first who dared to intrude upon blessed Hilarion’s solitude. While he was still unaware of her approach, she suddenly threw herself at his knees saying: “Forgive my boldness. . . ., he asked her why she had come and why she was weeping. When he learned the cause of her grief, raising his eyes to heaven, he commanded her to have faith and to believe. He followed her departure with tears. When a year had gone by, he saw her with her son. A second miracle much enhanced the saint’s reputation. Elpidius, who was afterwards prefect of the praetorium, and his wife Aristeneta, returning from a visit of devotion they had made to St. Antony to receive his blessing and instructions, arrived at Gaza, where their three children fell sick, and their fever proving superior to the power of medicines they were brought to the last extremity, and their recovery despaired of by the physicians. The mother, like one distracted, addressed herself to St. Hilarion, who, moved by her tears, went to Gaza to visit them. Upon his invoking the holy name of Jesus by their bedside, the children fell into a violent sweat, by which they were so refreshed as to be able to eat, to know their mother, and kiss the saint’s hand.

Later, he healed a paralyzed charioteer. Such was the grace that he received from God that he could tell by the smell of someone’s body or clothing which passion afflicted his soul.

Miraculous cures and exorcisms of demons which he performed spread his fame in the surrounding country, Many heathens were converted, and people came to seek his help and counsel in such great numbers that he could hardly find time to perform his religious duties. He refused all remuneration for his assistance, saying to his visitors from the city that they were better placed than he to distribute in alms the money they were offering him and that the grace of God is not for sale.

St. Anthony esteemed him highly, occasionally wrote him letters, and sent to him the sick persons who came to him from Syria, telling them they had no need to make so long a journey.

Many came to St. Hilarion wanting to save their soul under his guidance, in 329 numerous disciples assembled round him, thus giving rise to the monastic life in Palestine, of which St. Hilarion is regarded as the founder. With his blessing monasteries began to spring up throughout Palestine. Going from one monastery to another, he instituted a strict ascetic manner of life.

His exhortations to abandon idolatry were so powerful that on one occasion a group of Saracens promised to convert, asking him to send them a priest to baptize them and establish a church. One day, accompanied by three thousand persons who were following him, he blessed the vine of a solitary who received him. The vine furnished a triple harvest and all in the crowd were well nourished.

St. Hilarion found his solitude transformed into a city, the parade of petitioners and would-be disciples drove Hilarion to retire to more remote locations, but they followed him everywhere. Till that time neither Syria nor Palestine were acquainted with that penitential state; so that St. Hilarion was the first founder of it in those countries, as St. Antony had been in Egypt.

At the age of sixty-five St. Hilarion was informed by revelation of the death of St. Antony. Afflicted at the great number of bishops, priests, and people that were continually resorting to him, regretting the loss of that sweet solitude and obscurity which he formerly enjoyed, he wished to visit the places where St. Anthony had dwelt. His Palestinian disciples attempted to change his mind without success. Taking with him only forty monks, he set out for Egypt on foot. On the fifth day he arrived at Peleusium; and in six days more at Babylon, in Egypt. Two days after he came to the city of Aphroditon. After travelling three days in a horrible desert they came to mountains, where they found two monks, St. Antony’s disciples Isaac and Pelusius.

St. Hilarion returned to Aphroditon and withdrew with only two disciples into a neighboring desert. Exercised himself with more earnestness than ever in abstinence and silence; saying, according to his custom, that he then only began to serve Jesus Christ. It had not rained in the country for three years, that is, ever since the death of St. Antony, when the people in deep affliction and misery addressed themselves to St. Hilarion, whom they looked upon as St. Antony’s successor, imploring his compassion and prayers. The saint lifted his hands and eyes to heaven, and immediately obtained a plentiful rain.

Even for saints like St. Hilarion who steadfastly pursued God, life is a battle of wills. He desired solitude, believing it was God’s will for him, but God had other ideas and sent crowds to disrupt his aloneness.

The saint, seeing the extraordinary honors which were paid him in that place, departed privately towards Alexandria, in order to proceed to the desert of Oasis. He turned from Alexandria to Brutium, a remote suburb of that city, where several monks dwelt. He left this place the same evening, and when these monks very importunately pressed him to stay, he told them that it was necessary for their security that he should leave them.

When Julian the Apostate ascended the throne, in revenge of the affront St. Hilarion had put upon their god Mamas, the prince ordered the pagans of Gaza to kill him. That very night armed men arrived there in pursuit to put him to death.

The saint spent about a year in the desert of Oasis and finding that he was too well known in that region, he determined to seek shelter on some remote island, embarking with one companion for Sicily.

He landed at Pachynus, a famous promontory on the eastern side of the island, now called Capo di Passaro. St. Hilarion, fearing lest he should be discovered if he settled near the coast, travelled twenty miles up the country and stopped in an unfrequented wild place near the promontory of Pachinum. His disciple, Hesychius, who had long sought him heard at Modon, in Peloponnesus, that a prophet who wrought many miracles had appeared in Sicily. He embarked and after arriving at Pachinum he inquired for the holy man at the first village, easily finding him famous among the locals for his miracles and his disinterestedness. Soon St. Hilarion saw himself again surrounded by disciples eager to follow his holy example.

St. Hilarion, desiring solitude, decided to go into a country where not even his language should be understood. Leaving Sicily, he went to Epidaurus in Dalmatia now Old Ragusa. In Dalmatia miracles again defeated the saint’s desire of living unknown.

In 366 he saved a city from being engulfed by tidal waves raised by a great earthquake and rendered valuable assistance to the inhabitants.

St. Hilarion, seeing it impossible to live there unknown, fled away in the night in a small vessel to the island of Cyprus. Being arrived there, he retired to a place two miles from Paphos. He had not been there three weeks when people possessed with devils in various parts of the island began to cry out that Hilarion, the servant of Jesus Christ, was come.

He tried many times to live unknown but never could succeed. After two years Hesychius persuaded him to lay aside that goal and retire to a solitary place which he had found twelve miles from the shore, not unpleasantly situated among very rough and craggy mountains. It was during his sojourn in Cyprus that he became acquainted with St. Epiphanius, Archbishop of Salamis

The saint, in the eightieth year of his age, wrote a short letter with his own hand, a last will and testament, in which he gave to  his faithful disciple, Hesychius all his possession his book of the gospels, his sackcloth, hood, and little cloak.

Many pious persons came to see him in his last sickness, hearing he had foretold that he was to go to our Lord.

St. Hilarion died in 371, or the following year, on the island of Cyprus being about eighty years of age.

He expressed his sense of the divine judgments but encouraged his soul to a humble confidence in the mercy of his Judge and Redeemer. His last words were: “Go forth, what cost thou fear? go forth, my soul, what cost thou apprehend? Behold, it is now threescore and ten years that thou hast served Christ; and art thou afraid of death?”

His body was found incorrupt some time afterwards and was transported to Palestine to his original monastery near Majuma.

References and Excerpts

 

[1]          “Saint Hilarion, Patriarch of the Solitaries of Palestine.” https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_hilarion.html (accessed Nov. 06, 2020).

[2]          “CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Hilarion.” https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07347a.htm (accessed Nov. 06, 2020).

[3]          “Venerable Hilarion the Great.” https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2000/10/21/103009-venerable-hilarion-the-great (accessed Nov. 06, 2020).

[4]          “St. Hilarion | EWTN,” EWTN Global Catholic Television Network. https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/saints/hilarion-603 (accessed Nov. 06, 2020).

[5]          “Saint Hilarion,” Loyola Press. https://www.loyolapress.com/catholic-resources/saints/saints-stories-for-all-ages/saint-hilarion/ (accessed Nov. 06, 2020).

[6]          “Hilarion,” Wikipedia. Oct. 21, 2020, Accessed: Nov. 06, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hilarion&oldid=984665226.

 

Saint Lambert

Bishop of Maestricht, Martyr (640-705)

Feast – September 17

Baptism of the Merovingian King Clovis by St. Remigius On Christmas Eve of 496 opened a new era. France, the first daughter of the Catholic Church, was born.

While St. Remigius was speaking, a splendorous light appeared in the chapel that far outshone the dim light of the candles, and a loud voice was heard saying: “Peace be with you. It is I, do not fear. Remain in my love.” The physiognomy of the man of God was shining with a fiery brilliance. The King and the Queen knelt before the Prelate. Moved by the spirit of God, he made this prophecy: “Your posterity shall nobly govern this kingdom, which will give much glory to the Holy Church. It shall inherit the Empire of the Romans. This nation will not cease to prosper so long as it follows the path of truth, but decadence will come upon it with vices and bad customs. For, in truth, it is in this way that all kingdoms and nations have fallen into ruin.”

King Clovis proved that when Christ reigns through the earthly kings, we have the Kingdom of Christ. After his death his four sons divided kingdom, each reigning from a different centre: Thierry at Metz, Clodomir at Orléans, Childebert at Paris, and Clotaire at Soissons. They continued the career of conquest inaugurated by their father, and, despite the frequent discords that divided them, augmented the estates he had left them. In 558, Clotaire I, the last of the four brothers, become sole heir to the estate of his father, Clovis. He died in 561 leaving four sons: Gontran, Charibert, Sigebert and Chilperic. Once more the monarchy was divided, being partitioned in about the same way as on the death of Clovis in 511. Sigebert had won the hand of the beautiful Brunehilde, daughter of Athanagild, King of the Visigoths. Chilperic had followed Sigebert’s example by marrying Galeswintha, Brunehilde’s sister, but at the instigation of his mistress, Fredegonda, he soon had Galeswintha assassinated and placed Fredegonda upon the throne. Brunehilde’s determination to avenge the death of her sister involved in bitter strife not only the two women but their husbands. Charibert’s death in 567 and the division of his estate occasioned quarrels between Chilperic and Sigebert, already at odds on account of their wives.

The sad prediction of Christmas Eve of 496; “This nation will not cease to prosper so long as it follows the path of truth, but decadence will come upon it with vices and bad customs. For, in truth, it is in this way that all kingdoms and nations have fallen into ruin,” started to become reality. For a Christian country to survive when its king becomes lukewarm and abandons God’s laws it is necessary to have a strong Catholic Church with saintly bishops and priests.

In times of tumults and distress in the Merovingian kingdom, in the town of Maastricht (in modern-day Belgium), around the year 640, Saint Lambert was born to Apre, lord of Liège, and his wife Herisplende. Saint Lambert was baptized by his godfather, Bishop Remaclus. His noble father entrusted his education to the Landoald, Archpriest of the city and later to his uncle St. Theodard who succeeded Remaclus as Bishop of Maastricht.

As a young man he wrought miracles, one day bringing forth a spring to quench the thirst of some workers building a church, and in this way he became known to all the city. Early biographers described him as “a prudent young man of pleasing looks, courteous and well-behaved in his speech and manners, well-built, strong, a good fighter, clear-headed, affectionate, pure and humble, and fond of reading.” Saint Lambert appears to have frequented the Merovingian court of Childeric II, son of St. Balthild, who was King of Austrasia from 662 and the sole King of the Franks from 673.

When St. Theodard was assassinated in the defense of the possessions of the church, St. Lambert was chosen by the people, at the age of only 21 years, to be his successor.

He was loved by his flock, he taught them the maxims of the Gospel and reproved vice with an apostolic liberty. His soul was perfectly nourished by grace and was totally dead to all earthly pleasures; his hands were open to distribute alms, his arms to receive those who were suffering, and his heart to take pity on the afflicted.

In 675 King Childeric II was assassinated.  St. Lambert openly condemned this act as contrary to Sacred scripture and the teachings of Catholic Church. When Ebroin came to power over the province of Neustria (to which Maastricht belonged) a second time in 675 AD, he banished our Saint from his see.

He withdrew to the recently founded Abbey of Stavelot where he lived for seven years as one of the brethren, obeyed the rule as strictly as the youngest novice claiming no privileges despite his office.

Once, getting up to pray during the night, he accidentally let fall a wooden sandal and disturbed the monastic silence. The Abbot gave orders that the offender go and pray before the cross which stood before the church door. St. Lambert, without any answer, went out into the court as he was, barefooted and covered only with his hair shirt; and in this condition he prayed for several hours, forgotten, as he knelt before the cross. Finally, in the morning they noticed the holy bishop there, covered with snow, his face shining. The Abbot and the monks fell to their knees and asked his pardon, but St. Lambert replied that he was honored to serve God like the Apostles, in cold and nakedness.

When King Pepin of Heristal took power in 681, he restored Lambert to his See, despite the Saint’s desire to remain in obscurity.

Although St. Lambert had been personally enriched in the peace of his holy retirement, he had wept at seeing the majority of the churches of France laid waste. The holy bishop renewed his pastoral labors with vigor, visiting the most distant parishes. In company with St. Willibrord “Apostle to the Frisians” who had come from England in 691, he preached the gospel in the lower stretches of the Meuse, in the area to the north despite danger and threats. In conjunction with St. Landrada he founded a female monastery at Munsterblizen. He was also the spiritual director of the young noble Hubertus, eldest son of Bertrand, Duke of Aquitaine. Hubertus would later succeed St. Lambert as bishop of Maastricht.

But when King Pepin put away his wife and replaced her with his concubine Alpais, St. Lambert was the only Bishop who dared to rebuke him.

He was murdered by the troops of Dodon, Pepin’s domesticus (manager of state domains), in his house on the 17th of December, 705. His assassins carried out their evil commission, even though they found a cross shining above the humble dwelling where he was staying.

St. Lambert’s two nephews, Peter and Audolet, were also killed defending their uncle. They too, were viewed as saints.

References and Excerpts

[1]          “Saint Lambert, Bishop of Maastricht.” http://www.oodegr.com/english/biographies/arxaioi/Lambert_maastricht.htm (accessed Sep. 26, 2020).

[2]          “Saint Lambert, Bishop of Maestricht, Martyr.” https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_lambert.html (accessed Sep. 26, 2020).

[3]          “Lambert of Maastricht,” Wikipedia. Sep. 25, 2020, Accessed: Sep. 26, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lambert_of_Maastricht&oldid=980208858.

[4]          “CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: The Franks.” https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06238a.htm (accessed Sep. 26, 2020).

 

Blessed Marco D’aviano

Italian Capuchin priest (1631-1699)

Feast: August 13

“So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:16)

A passionate servant of God, pope St. John Paul II, who conducted 104 pilgrimages all over the world during his 27year pontificate, was well aware of the dangers of being lukewarm. In His youth he witnessed the evil of Hitler’s variation of Socialism known as Fascism, then he spent many years under Communism. Both of these evil systems came into existence because of easy going lukewarm people.

On April 27 2003 he reintroduced to the world and beatified the great seventieth century warrior against lukewarm-ness, a passionate preacher who filled the confessionals, Capuchin Priest Marco D’aviano.

In the sixth century, Muhammad, a community organizer, social and political leader, founder of Islam and first Caliph (Islamic custodian, leader of the entire multi-ethnic trans-national Muslim empire), united the Arab tribes in holy war against infidels by promising them opportunities for plunder, glory and endless orgies in heaven. The number of his followers and territory occupied by them was steadily growing. The biggest obstacle to Islamic expansion was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, Constantinople. Constantinople was instrumental in the advancement of Christianity during Roman and Byzantine times and was essential in slowing the spread of Islam by blocking the shorter passage to Europe. This is why Muslims first conquered Northern Africa which give them access to Spain. In early 711 forces led by Tariq ibn Ziyad disembarked in Gibraltar starting the westernmost expansion of both the Umayyad Caliphate and Muslim rule into Europe. For seven centuries Muslims controlled Spain but were unable to spread their dominion farther into Europe.

With the advent of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire in 1299, the Byzantine Empire began to lose territories and Constantinople began to lose population. By the early 15th century, the Byzantine Empire was reduced just to the city and its environs, along with Morea in Greece. On 29 May 1453 after a 53-day siege lead by Sultan Mehmed II, Constantinople fell to the Ottomans.

The existence of the Ottoman Empire needed a constant holy war against Catholics to obtain a crucial source of wealth and skilled slaves.

Bulgaria and Serbia, which sit on the Balkan Mountains became the next obstacle to overcome on the way to central Europe. Almost seventy years later, in 1529 in the aftermath of the 1526 Battle of Mohács, which had resulted in the death of the King of Hungary and the descent of the kingdom into civil war, forces of the Ottoman Empire lead by Suleiman the Magnificent finally had the opportunity to capture the city of Vienna, Austria. Suleiman was facing a critical shortage of supplies, sickness, desertions, so he convened an official council on October12. It was decided to attempt one final, major assault. Extra rewards were offered to the troops.

However, this assault was also beaten back, and the defenders prevailed. Unusually heavy snowfall made conditions go from bad to worse. The Ottoman retreat turned into a disaster with much of the baggage and artillery abandoned or lost in rough conditions, as were many prisoners.

154 years later, after the conquest of the Kingdom of Hungary, the capture of the Island of Rhodes, siege of Malta, conquest of Cyprus, a 15-year war with Austria, two wars against Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania in 1683, an Ottoman army of 150,000 accompanied by 40,000 Crimean Tatars under the command of Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha reached the gates of Vienna. This began the second Ottoman siege of the city. The plan was to make Vienna the capital of a second Turkish empire in the heart of Europe. But good God did not leave His children defenseless, to punish His enemy’s pride He dispatched the Capuchin Priest Marco D’aviano.

His name was Carlo Domenico Cristofori, born in Aviano, a small community south west of Friuli in the Republic of Venice (Italy) on November 17, 1631. He was the third of eleven children of Pasquale Cristofori and Rosa Zanoni.

Confirmed in 1643, Cristofori attended high school at the Jesuit College in Gorizia. A timid, reserved, thoughtful and placid boy: difficult to predict that, on growing up, he would be a sought-for guest of all the great European courts, or that he would have to defend himself from crowds acclaiming him a saint, or that he would have become friend and counselor to Leopold I of the Hapsburgs, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. At 16 he ran away in his desire to assist the Venetians engaged in defending the island of Candia (Crete) under siege by the Ottoman Turks. On his way, he sought shelter at a Capuchin convent in Capodistria, where he was welcomed by the Superior who knew his family and who, after providing him with food and rest, advised him to return home. Inspired by his encounter with the Capuchins, he felt that God was calling on him to enter their Order. In 1648 aged 17 he started the novitiate at Conegliano and on taking the habit after taking religious vows in 1649 he assumed the name of Marco d’Aviano.

He completed his theological studies and on the 18^th of September 1655, was ordained priest at Chioggia, dedicating himself to preaching. In 1664 he received a license to preach throughout the Republic of Venice and other Italian states. He was also given more responsibility when he was elected Superior of the convents of Belluno in 1672, and Oderzo in 1674.

His preaching, together with an exemplary life, achieved continental fame. Sermons, Lenten exercises, blessings, masses: the life of Father Marco was composed in large part of these activities. His life took an unexpected turn in 1676, when he gave his blessing to a nun, bedridden for some 13 years: she was miraculously healed. The news spread far and wide, and it was not long before the sick, and many others from all social strata, began to seek him out. A series of conversions and prodigious healings suddenly took place. The Pope, Blessed Innocent XI called him “the miracle worker of the century.”

His popularity reached France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Tyrol, Bavaria, Austria, the German states, Bohemia and Slovenia which Padre Marco visited on missionary journeys requested by the bishops for the spiritual renewal of those nations. Huge crowds gathered to hear him and receive his blessing and following these gatherings extraordinary events always took place. In 1681 Innocent XI granted Father Marco the privilege, never before granted to a religious, of imparting the papal blessing, with plenary indulgence for the dead attached, on the day of general communion.

But his main priority was the practice of confession, to exhort and obtain repentance from sins, that he was most devoted to. Father Venanzio Ranier, Vice-postulator of the cause for beatification, recounts: “Father Marco was interested above all in the life of grace and the return to it of those who had strayed from it. The Apostle of forgiveness par excellence , he filled up the confessionals, so much so that the Jesuits in Belgium, where Marco d’Aviano went in 1681, wrote that they had never confessed so many as during the passage of the Italian Capuchin.

Among those who sought his help was Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, whose wife had been unable to conceive a male heir. From 1680 to the end of his life, Marco d’Aviano became a “guardian angel”, close confidant and adviser to him, providing the irresolute and often indecisive emperor with guidance and advice for all problems, political, economic, military or spiritual. His forceful, energetic and sometimes passionate and fiery personality proved a good complement for Leopold’s tendency to allow endless doubts and scruples to paralyze his capacity for action.

As the danger of war with the Turks grew near, in 1683 during the Ottoman army’s invasion of Europe Bl. Marco d’Aviano was appointed by Pope Innocent XI as his personal envoy to the Emperor.

As an impassioned preacher and a skillful mediator he played a crucial role in resolving disputes, restoring unity, and energizing the armies of the Holy League, which included Austria, Poland, Venice, and the Papal States under the leadership of the Polish king Jan III Sobieski.

On September 11, 1683 Bl. Marco d’Aviano lead a day of prayer. At dawn on the historic day, September 12th, 1683, assisted by the Polish king Bl. Marco d’Aviano celebrated mass, during which he offered himself as a victim to the Lord for the salvation of Christendom and Europe, arousing enthusiasm and the certainty of win. A glorious victory followed the mass, victory obtained through the power of prayer, victory marking a military phase in the history of the continent and the most disastrous defeat and failure for the Ottoman’s since their foundation in 1299.

On the 25^th of December 1683, a disgraced Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha was executed by strangulation with a silk rope on the sultan’s orders.

Bl. Marco d’Aviano’s mission continued in the following years, promoting an alliance among European states for the liberation of the Balkans from Turkish oppression. Buda, Hungary’s capital, was liberated in 1686 after nearly one-and-a-half centuries of Turkish domination; in 1688 the stronghold of Belgrade capital of Serbia, was also liberated. He always maintained a strictly religious spirit, to which any violence and cruelty were repugnant. At the siege of Belgrade Padre Marco obtained the sparing of 800 Turkish soldiers’ lives.

In the meantime, he continued to devote himself to preaching in a fiery and persuasive manner, especially in the Veneto area. His Lenten sermons remain famous. He maintained epistolary contact with influential people of the day, especially as spiritual adviser to emperor Leopold I.

At 11 pm on 13 August 1699 during his last journey to Austria’s capital, worn out by his strenuous life, gripping the crucifix he had always carried with him, in the presence of the emperor and his wife Eleonora, Bl. Marco d’Aviano died. He was buried in the Capuchins’ church in Vienna.

References and Excerpts

[1]          “30Giorni | The preacher who filled the confessionals (by Gianni Cardinale).” http://www.30giorni.it/articoli_id_787_l3.htm (accessed Aug. 28, 2020).

[2]          “ENGLISH | Beato Marco d’Aviano.” https://www.beatomarcodaviano.it/english/ (accessed Aug. 28, 2020).

[3]          “Marco d’Aviano,” Wikipedia. Mar. 15, 2020, Accessed: Aug. 28, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marco_d%27Aviano&oldid=945749489.