Saint Victor of Marseille

Soldier and Martyr († 290)

Feast – July 21

“I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Love for one another, high moral standards, the idea of mutual service, and the goal of obtaining a happy afterlife were the major characteristics that distinguished Christians from other citizens of the world in the third century and this brought many new converts to the Catholic Church. At the same time Christianity was considered to be a threat to the Roman Empire. With Christianity came limitations, human life gained value. Many things which average citizen would do without thinking to please the emperor or his minions were off limits for Christians. Despotic rulers couldn’t fully control them. For example, when a revolt started in one region of the Roman Empire it was always quelled using soldiers from a different region with no emotional attachment to locals. Spreading Christianity was a great obstacle to such tactics. To Christians all people are children of God, no matter where they reside, what language they speak or what the color of their skin is. In 286 AD, a legion of soldiers made up of over 6000 Christian Copts (Egyptian), had been called from Thebes in Egypt to Gaul to assist Emperor Maximian in defeating a revolt by the bagaudae, (impoverished local free peasants, reinforced by brigands, runaway slaves and deserters from the legions). St. Maurice, the leader of the Roman Theban Legion pledged his men’s military allegiance to Rome but he stated that service to God superseded all else. He said that to engage in wanton slaughter was inconceivable to Christian soldiers. Before going into battle, they were instructed to offer sacrifices to the pagan gods. He and his men refused to worship Roman deities and as a result the entire legion was massacred. Furious and dripping with the blood of the Theban legion, emperor Maximian turned his attention at Marseilles, the most numerous and flourishing church in Gaul. The tyrant brought here nothing but slaughter. His coming filled Christians with fear and alarms.

At the time St. Victor, a Catholic officer of the Roman army known for his noble lineage, military valor, and intelligence, served in the garrison of Marseille. He developed a strong apostolate with his fellow men of arms and the people of the city. In the nighttime he was going from house to house visiting the faithful and inspiring them to courageously face the persecution of those times with contempt of a temporal death and the love of eternal life.

The Emperor Maximian, arrived at Marseilles in person in the year 290. When St. Victor’s activities were discovered by enemies of the Faith, he was arrested and brought before the tribunal of the prefects Asterius and Eutychius, who exhorted him not to lose the fruit of his imperial service and the favor of his prince for the worship of a dead man. He answered that he renounced temporal rewards, if he could not enjoy them without being unfaithful to Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who had vouchsafed to become man for our salvation, and who after dying raised Himself from the dead, to reign perpetually with the Father, being God equally with Him. The entire court received this witness with shouts of rage, but due to his distinction, they sent him to the Emperor himself. The tyrant imposed cruel torments on him in an attempt to make him deny the Catholic Faith. St. Victor was bound hand and foot and dragged through the streets of the city, exposed to the blows and insults of the populace.

He was brought back bruised and bloody to the tribunal of the prefects, who, thinking his resolution must have been weakened by his sufferings, pressed him again to adore their gods. However, the martyr, filled with the Holy Spirit, expressed his respect for the emperor but his contempt for the debauched gods adding: “I despise your deities, and confess Jesus Christ; inflict upon me what torments you please.”

St. Victor was hoisted on the rack and tortured for a long time. Jesus Christ appeared to him on the rack, holding a cross in his hands, gave him his peace, and told him that he suffered in his servants, and crowned them after their victory. The tormentors grew weary and the prefect ordered him to be taken down and thrown into dungeon.

At midnight God visited him by His Angels. The prison was filled with a light brighter than that of the sun, and the martyr sang with the Angels the praises of God. Three soldiers, Alexander, Longinus, and Felician who guarded the prison, upon seeing this light, cast themselves at the martyr’s feet, asked his pardon, and expressed their desire for baptism. Victor instructed them as well as time would permit and sent for a priest the same night. The five of them went to the seashore, and the three converts were baptized, then all returned to the prison.

The next morning Maximian was informed of the conversion of the guards, and, in a transport of rage, sent officers to bring them all four before him in the middle of the marketplace. The mob loaded St. Victor with injuries and would vainly compel him to bring back his converts to the worship of their gods; but he said, “I cannot undo what is well done.” And turning to them he encouraged them saying, “You are still soldiers; behave with courage, God will give you victory. You belong to Jesus Christ; be faithful. An immortal crown is prepared for you.” The three soldiers persevered in the confession of Jesus Christ, and by the emperor’s orders were forthwith beheaded.

St. Victor was again placed on the rack, scourged, and carried back to prison, where he remained for three more days, recommending to God his martyrdom with many tears.

After that term the emperor called him before his tribunal and ordered to be taken to a pagan temple to burn incense to the false idol, Jupiter. St. Victor went up to the altar and kicked the statue to the ground. Indignant Emperor order that St. Victor’s foot be chopped off. The Saint suffered this mutilation with great joy, offering to God these first fruits of his body.

Then emperor condemned him to be crushed by a millstone. The executioners turned the wheel, and when part of his body was bruised and crushed, the mill broke down. When the mill broke down an order was given to behead him at once. His body with those of the other three heroes of Christ, Alexander, Felician and Longinus, were thrown into the sea, but cast ashore on the opposite bank by a current. They were buried by the Christians in a grotto hewn out of the rock. Very great miracles were wrought at St. Victor’s tomb or by his intercession, including the resurrection of a girl in her coffin, which occurred beside her open grave. His relics were kept for centuries in the Abbey of Saint Victor in Marseille. The French Revolution tried to destroy them, but they were preserved and today are in the Church of St. Nicolas of Chardonnay in Paris.

References and Excerpts:

[1]          “St. Victor of Marseille – Saint of July 21.” https://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j186sd_VictorMarseille_7-21.html (accessed Jul. 17, 2020).

[2]          “Saint Victor of Marseille, Soldier and Martyr.” https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_victor_of_marseille.html (accessed Jul. 17, 2020).

[3]          “ALL SAINTS: ⛪ Saint Victor of Marseilles – Martyr,” ALL SAINTS, Jul. 21, 2017. https://saintscatholic.blogspot.com/2017/07/saint-victor-of-marseilles-martyr.html (accessed Jul. 17, 2020).

[4]          MSW, “The Theban Legion Massacre AD 286,” Weapons and Warfare, Mar. 21, 2018. https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2018/03/21/the-theban-legion-massacre-ad-286/ (accessed Jul. 17, 2020).

Saint Irenaeus

Doctor of the Church, Bishop and Martyr (120-202)

Feast-June 28

Before the Edict of Milan in 313, which declared tolerance for Christianity in the Roman empire the most common path to sainthood was martyrdom. Christians were persecuted by everybody. Rulers, pagans and Jews hated them because the followers of Jesus, through their pious lives, exposed corruption, but as it is written in Matthew 10;28 28 “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” the biggest threat were and are deviations and heretical philosophies deceiving and dividing Christians.

Under those circumstances in the year 120, St. Irenaeus, one of the first Fathers, and first great theologian of the Church in the town of Smyrna in Asia Minor, now İzmir, Turkey was born.

His Greek parents, who were Christians, placed him while still young under the care of the great St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, a disciple of the Apostle John. It was in this holy school that he learned the sacred sciences which later made him a great ornament of the Church and the terror of her enemies.

St. Polycarp cultivated this rising genius and formed his mind in piety by his precepts and example, and the zealous young scholar was careful to reap all the advantages offered him by the solicitude of such a master. Such was his veneration for his tutor’s sanctity that he observed all the acts and virtues he saw in that holy man, the better to copy his example and learn his spirit. He listened to his instructions with an insatiable ardor, and so deeply did he engrave them in his heart that the impressions remained vivid even in his old age.

St. Irenaeus spent a number of years in combat against the eastern gnostics and philosophers of error. In order to confound the heresies of his age, he acquainted himself with the conceits of the pagan philosophers, and thereby became qualified to trace every error to its sources and set it in its full light. To counter the doctrines of the gnostic who took their name from the Greek word for “knowledge.” Claiming access to secret knowledge imparted by Jesus to only a few disciples, he offered three pillars of orthodoxy: the scriptures, the tradition handed down from the apostles, and the teaching of the apostles’ successors.

When many of the heretics of Asia Minor had migrated to pursue the Catholic religion in Gaul, a region of present day France, and were beginning to establish roots there, St. Polycarp decided to send the valiant soldier of Christ, St. Irenaeus with a company of about forty Christians to Lyons to aid St. Pothinus, its bishop who was already advanced in age.

During the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor from 161–180, St. Irenaeus was a priest of the Church of Lyon. The clergy of that city, many of whom were suffering imprisonment for the faith, sent him in 177 to Rome with a letter to Pope Eleutherius concerning the heresy of Montanism, and that occasion bore emphatic testimony to his merits. While Irenaeus was in Rome, a persecution took place in Lyons. The persecutors imagined that Christianity had been stifled in Lyons, and they ceased their pursuits for a time. Returning to Gaul, St. Irenaeus succeeded the martyr St. Pothinus and became the second bishop of Lyons.

During the religious peace which followed the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, the new bishop divided his activities between the duties of a pastor, of a missionary and of writings which were directed against Gnosticism. Through his preaching, St. Irenaeus converted almost the whole country to the Faith in a short time; the Christians of Lyons became models by their candor, their estrangement from all ambition, their poverty, chastity and temperance, and in this way confounded many adversaries of their religion. Through his writings he was already known to Tertullian, Theodoret and St. Epiphanus, who spoke of him as a luminous torch of truth in the darkness of those times.

The most famous of these writings is Adversus haereses (Against Heresies) where he concludes: “One should not seek among others the truth that can be easily gotten from the Church. For in her, as in a rich treasury, the apostles have placed all that pertains to truth, so that everyone can drink this beverage of life. She is the door of life.”

In Book I, St. Irenaeus talks about the Valentinian Gnostics and their predecessors, who he says go as far back as the magician Simon Magus. In Book II he attempts to provide proof that Valentinianism contains no merit in terms of its doctrines. In Book III St. Irenaeus purports to show that these doctrines are false, by providing counter-evidence gleaned from the Gospels. Book IV consists of Jesus’ sayings, and here he also stresses the unity of the Old Testament and the Gospel. In the final volume, Book V, St. Irenaeus focuses on more sayings of Jesus plus the letters of St. Paul the Apostle.

As a bishop of Lyons, St. Irenaeus served God for twenty-five years until he finally suffered martyrdom there with many others, in the year 202 under Emperor Septimus Severus. The imperial decrees renewing the persecutions arrived at Lyons at the time of the celebration of Severus’ tenth year of reign; the pagans found amid the celebrations an opportunity to take vengeance on the Christians, who refused to participate in the debaucheries which accompanied these feastings. Assassins armed with daggers, stones and knives filled the city with blood, and thousands of Christians won, with their bishop, the crown they had always admired as the greatest glory God could grant His servants.

St. Irenaeus remains enormously important to the Church today—not only for professional theologians but also for devout Catholics who want to better understand and defend their faith.

The Slayer of Gnostic heresy, the first heresy in the Christian world shows the path to fight the next. His writings are a great source of reassuring belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. They help in developing devotion to Mary. They help us understand the importance of apostolic succession, centrality, and unity throughout the Roman Church and its role in the world. They also grant us an appreciation for the scriptural canon of the four gospels and adopting the concept that all things come together in Christ.

References and Excerpts

[1]          F. Media, “Saint Irenaeus,” Franciscan Media, Jun. 28, 2016. https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-irenaeus/ (accessed Jun. 13, 2020).

[2]          “Saint Irenaeus, Doctor of the Church, Bishop and Martyr.” https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_irenaeus.html (accessed Jun. 13, 2020).

[3]          “Memorial of St. Irenaeus, bishop and martyr – June 28, 2016 – Liturgical Calendar.” https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2016-06-28 (accessed Jun. 13, 2020).

[4]          “Ten Things You Need to Know about St. Irenaeus,” Catholic Exchange, Jun. 27, 2014. https://catholicexchange.com/ten-things-need-know-st-irenaeus (accessed Jun. 13, 2020).

[5]          “Irenaeus,” Wikipedia. Jun. 11, 2020, Accessed: Jun. 13, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Irenaeus&oldid=962039252.

Saint Mammertus

Archbishop of Vienne

(† 477)

Feast – May 11

Vienne is a commune in southeastern France, located 21 miles south of Lyon, at the confluence of the Gère river and the Rhône. Today, it is the fourth largest city in the Isère department, of which it is a subprefecture, but previously it was a major center of the Roman Empire. Inhabited by the Allobroges and other Gaulish tribe’s, it was conquered by the Romans before the 50 BC conquest of Gallia by Julius Caesar.

In the 5^th century when the Western Roman Empire was on the brink of collapse, Almighty God awoke the people of Vienne from their spiritual lethargy by berating them with wars, earthquakes, fires, and ravenous wild beasts, some of these beasts were seen in the very market-places of cities, and other public calamities which threatened them with total destruction.

In such circumstances, in the year c. 460, St. Mammertus was elected and consecrated Archbishop of Vienne.

Prior to his elevation to the see of Vienne, little has been recorded about his life. He was born into a wealthy Gallic family from the neighborhood of Lyons. During his youth, he and his younger brother, Claudian Mammertus, received sound training and were distinguished for their secular learning as well as their knowledge of theology.

Claudian was celebrated by St. Sidonius Apollinaris as the greatest scholar and theological writer of his age and enjoyed the personal acquaintance of Bishop Eucherius of Lyons. St. Mammertus enlisted the aid of his brother Claudian, who at the time was a cloistered priest of commendable modesty and virtue, to assist in governing the affairs of his diocese.

One day a terrible fire started in the city of Vienne, which overwhelmed the efforts of men; but by the prayers of the good bishop, the fire suddenly went out. This miracle strongly affected the minds of the people. The holy prelate took this opportunity to make them sensible of the necessity and efficacy of devout prayer, and to improve their salutary dispositions to sincere compunction and penance, and a thorough amendment of life. On Easter-night, a second great fire broke out which alarmed the city more than ever. The zealous pastor had recourse to his usual arms, and poured forth his prayers with many tears, lying prostrate before the altar till the flames were miraculously extinguished. During this second conflagration, the archbishop formed a pious design of instituting an annual fast and supplication of three days, in which all the faithful should join with sincere compunction of heart to appease the divine retribution by fasting, prayer, tears, and confession of sins. This would be observed with processions and the Litany of the Saints called the Rogations, during the three days before the Ascension.

The Latin word “rogare”, means to supplicate or ask, and the purpose of the Days is to beg God for His mercy, to turn away His anger, and to ask Him to bless the fruits of the earth while protecting us from natural disasters.

It is clear from the homily of St. Avitus on the Rogations, that St. Mammertus regulated the psalms to be sung, and the rite to be observed on the three Rogation days.

St. Sidonius Apollonarius, bishop of Clermont, also adopted this pious institution and in a very short time it became a universal practice. St. Mammertus’s pious reform was received by all the churches of France after the first Council of Orleans under Clovis the Great, and then by the Church of Rome under the authority of Pope Leo III.

During his episcopate, the remains of St. Ferreolus were discovered, and were translated to a church in Vienne, built in honour of that martyr.

St. Mammertus summoned a synod at Vienne between 471 and 475 and at 475 attended a synod at Arles, which dealt with the predestination teaching of Lucidus, a Gallic priest, the first theologian who can legitimately be styled ‘predestinarian’. Of a particular importance are his assertions that Christ did not die for all man, that divine grace is irresistible and that those who are lost, are lost through God’s will.

St. Mammertus died about the year 477 in Vienne, but his body was transported to Orleans and placed in its cathedral. There, until the 16th century, it remained in great veneration, then was burnt by enemies of the Church.

References and Excerpts

[1]          “Saint Mammertus, Archbishop of Vienne.” https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_mammertus.html (accessed May 06, 2020).

[2]          “Saint Mammertus, Archbishop of Vienne, Confessor. May 11. Rev. Alban Butler. 1866. Volume V: May. The Lives of the Saints.” https://www.bartleby.com/210/5/111.html (accessed May 06, 2020).

[3]          “Mamertus,” Wikipedia. May 11, 2019, Accessed: May 06, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mamertus&oldid=896613381.

Saint Leo the Great

Pope (398-461)

Feast – April 11

Constantine the Great was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He was the man behind the Edict of Milan in 313, which declared tolerance for Christianity in the Roman empire. He also enacted administrative, financial, social and military reforms to strengthen the empire, restructured the government, separating civil and military authorities. To combat inflation he introduced the solidus, a new gold coin that became the standard for Byzantine and European currencies for more than a thousand years. The Roman army was reorganized to consist of mobile units (comitatenses) and garrison troops (limitanei) capable of countering internal and external threats. These changes brought prosperity and security into the Empire. A lack of appreciation for such great blessings would cause the collapse of the Roman Empire a hundred years later. The Vandals and Huns were ravaging Roman provinces. At the same time numerous heresies threatened the Church; among them was Pelagianism which denied Original Sin based on the mistaken notion that we can perfect ourselves and reach salvation without God’s grace. Manichaeism rejected the very teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament and proclaiming everything material as evil. In the east, Nestorianism was gaining followers, a heresy initiated by Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, denied Mary the title of Theotokos (Greek: “God-bearer” or, “Mother of God”) and claimed that she only bore Christ’s human nature in her womb. He proposed the alternative title Christotokos (“Christ-bearer” or “Mother of Christ”) thus fracturing Christ into two separate persons, one human and one divine. creating Nestorianism which.

At a time when the Church was experiencing great obstacles to her growth, on August 11th, 440 AD, Pope Sixtus III died.

On September 29th, an Archdeacon of the Roman Church under Popes Saint Celestine, and Saint Sixtus III, was unanimously elected to be the new pope. Today he is known as St. Leo the Great and was consecrated on Saint Michael’s day, April 11th, 440. The election happened while he was absent, visiting Gaul at the request of Emperor Valentinian III to bring peace between Aëtius, one of Gaul’s chief military commanders, and the chief magistrate Caecina Decius Aginatius Albinus.

St. Leo the Great’s origins are obscure, so nothing is known with certainty of his early life beside that He was born in 398 into a Roman aristocratic family, native of Tuscany and his father’s name was Quintianus.

He was ordained into Holy Orders and rose to prominence and became widely respected for his love for the Lord, intelligence, persuasive nature and gift of bringing reconciliation between disputing groups of Christians. He became a very well-known deacon of the Church. In 431 St. John Cassian dedicated to him the treatise against Nestorius.

His response to the call of the Lord transformed him into one of the greatest popes of Christian history. In fact, he was the first pope to be given the title “the Great.” His swift election reflected the respect he had garnered among the people and their affection for this pastoral and wise servant of the Lord.

He assumed the papacy at a time of increasing barbarian invasions; this was coupled with decreasing imperial authority, which forced the Bishop of Rome to take a more active part in civic and political affairs. During his reign, he tirelessly fought to preserve the unity of the Church and its faith; and to ensure the safety of his people against invasions from armies which sought to destroy the Church and the Christian influence on culture which she brought to bear.

Over time, St. Leo the Great became known as one of the best administrative popes of the ancient Church. But he was so much more. Always humble, he saw himself as the servant of the servants of God and felt privileged to sit in the Chair of St. Peter. He was one of the first bishops of Rome to promote papal primacy based on succession from St. Peter the Apostle; and he did so as a means of maintaining unity among the church.

In conception of his duties as supreme pastor, the maintenance of strict ecclesiastical discipline occupied a prominent place. This was particularly important at a time when the continual ravages of the barbarians were introducing disorder into all conditions of life, and the rules of morality were being seriously violated. Feeling that the primatial rights of the bishop of Rome were threatened, he appealed to the civil power for support and obtained, from Valentinian III, a decree on the 6th of June 445, which recognized the primacy of the bishop of Rome based on the merits of St. Peter, the dignity of the city, and the legislation of the First Council of Nicaea; and provided for the forcible extradition by provincial governors of any bishop who refused to answer a summons to Rome.

In Gaul Patroclus, bishop of Arles (d. 426) had received from Pope Zosimus the recognition of a subordinate primacy over the Gallican Church which was strongly asserted by his successor Hilary. An appeal from Chelidonius of Besançon gave St. Leo the opportunity to assert the pope’s authority over Hilary.

In 445, Leo disputed with Patriarch Dioscorus, Cyril of Alexandria’s successor as Patriarch of Alexandria, insisting that the ecclesiastical practice of his see should follow that of Rome on the basis that St. Mark the Evangelist, the disciple of St. Peter the Apostle and the founder of the Alexandrian Church, could have had no other tradition than that of the prince of the apostles.

Meanwhile, the African province of Mauretania Caesariensis had been preserved to the empire and thus to the Nicene faith during the Vandal invasion. In its isolation, it was disposed to rely on outside support, and the Pope saw an opportunity to assert his authority there.

St. Leo used his utmost energy in maintaining discipline, insisted on the exact observance of the ecclesiastical precepts, and did not hesitate to rebuke when necessary. Letters relative to these and other matters were sent to the bishops who had tolerated deviations.

St. Leo was a great defender of the orthodox teaching of the Catholic Church and protected the full deposit of faith. Not long after his elevation to the Chair of Peter, he saw himself compelled to combat energetically the heresies which seriously threatened church unity even in the West. St. Leo had ascertained through Bishop Septimus of Altinum, that in Aquileia the priests, deacons, and clerics, who had been adherents of Pelagius, were admitted to communion without an explicit abjuration of their heresy. The pope sharply censured this procedure, and directed that a provincial synod should be assembled in Aquileia, at which such persons were to be required to abjure Pelagianism publicly and to subscribe to an unequivocal confession of Faith. This zealous pastor waged war even more strenuously against Manichæism, inasmuch as its adherents, who had been driven from Africa by the Vandals, had settled in Rome, and had succeeded in establishing a secret Manichæan community there. The pope ordered the faithful to point out these heretics to the priests, and in 443, together with the senators and presbyters, conducted in person an investigation, in the course of which the leaders of the community were examined. A number of Manichæans in Rome were converted and admitted to confession; others, who remained obdurate, were in obedience to imperial decrees banished from Rome by the civil magistrates. On 30 January, 444, the pope sent a letter to all the bishops of Italy, to which he appended the documents containing his proceedings against the Manichæans in Rome, and warned them to be on their guard and to take action against the followers of the sect.

In 451 at the Council of Chalcedon the theological issue at stake concerned Christ’s divinity. Some theologians in the East were espousing the Monophysite heresy, which argued that Christ had only one divine nature. The Council consisted of six hundred bishops from the Eastern Roman Empire, with a handful from Africa. Pope Leo sent three legates from Italy who were treated with all honor and respect as representatives of Peter’s successor. They read out loud to the Council Fathers the “Tome of Leo” on the Incarnation. The pope’s words laid out, with force, clarity, and eloquence, that Jesus Christ had both a divine and a human nature. When the legates finished reading, the bishops’ common response to the pope’s words was “This is the faith of the fathers; this is the faith of the apostles…Let anyone who believes otherwise be anathema. Peter has spoken through the mouth of Leo.” To this day, Leo’s letter is heralded and praised, not only for bringing peace, but for preserving the fullness of Christian truth and doctrine. It helped the whole Church enter more fully into the heart of the Gospel message of who Jesus is – and who we can become in Him, as we cooperate with grace.

St. Leo’s writings (both the sermons and the letters) are mostly concerned with theological questions concerning the person of Jesus Christ (Christology) and his role as mediator and savior (Soteriology), which is partially connected to the Council of Chalcedon in which Roman legates participated in Leo’s name. Subsequently, through numerous letters addressed to bishops and members of the imperial family, St. Leo incessantly worked for the propagation and universal reception of the faith in Christ as defined by Chalcedon, also in the eastern part of the Roman empire.

In his far-reaching pastoral care of the Universal Church, in the West and in the East, the pope never neglected the domestic interests of the Church at Rome. He focused heavily on the pastoral care of his people, he galvanized charitable works in a Rome beset by famines, an influx of refugees, and poverty. To him, being a Christian was not only about embracing the fullness of the Gospel theologically but living it out in a world filled with hurt, suffering and needs. He further associated the practice of fasting with charity and almsgiving particularly on the Ember days. Pope Leo I was renowned for his profoundly spiritual sermons. With his words, could reach the everyday needs of his people. It was his reputation as an “instrument of the call to holiness, well-versed in Scripture and ecclesiastical awareness” that helped him become one of the greatest popes in the history of the Church.

 

Along with his dynamic faith and outstanding theological wisdom, Pope Leo I was also courageous.

In 452 Pope Leo entered the history books when he rendezvoused with Attila the Hun in Northern Italy, convincing him not to sack Rome. At the emperor’s wish, accompanied by the Consul Avienus and the Prefect Trigetius,  he went in 452 to Upper Italy, and met Attila at Mincio in the vicinity of Mantua, obtaining from him the promise that he would withdraw from Italy and negotiate peace with the emperor. Attilas chieftains were astonished to see the terrible Attila, the Scourge of God, fresh from the sack of Aquileia, Milan and Pavia and with the rich prize of Rome within his grasp, turn his great host back to the Danube at the Saint’s word. They asked him why he had acted so strangely. He told them he had seen two venerable personages — who are generally supposed to be Saints Peter and Paul — standing behind Saint Leo.

Pope Leo’s intercession could not prevent the sack of the city by the Vandal King Genseric in 455, but murder and arson were repressed by his influence. The Pope and members of his clergy went to meet the invader to implore him to desist. While the Vandals plundered the city, the gesture nevertheless prevented Rome from being burned and assured that the Basilicas of St Peter, St Paul and St John, in which part of the terrified population sought refuge, were spared. Pope Leo afterwards assisted in rebuilding the city of Rome.

He died on November 10, 461 after having ruled the Church for a little over twenty years.

Pope Leo I’s papacy has been described as one of the most important in the Church’s history. Nearly 100 sermons and 150 letters of St. Leo I, known for the concision, depth, and clarity, have been preserved; one of them is still, to this day, used in the Office of Readings on Christmas.

He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1754. by Pope Benedict XIV.

Patron Saint of popes and confessors.

References and Excerpts:

[1]          C. Online, “St. Leo the Great – Saints & Angels,” Catholic Online. https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=299 (accessed Apr. 11, 2020).

[2]          “Saint Leo the Great, Pope.” https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_leo_the_great.html (accessed Apr. 11, 2020).

[3]          “CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pope St. Leo I (The Great).” http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09154b.htm (accessed Apr. 11, 2020).

[4]          “Memorial of St. Leo the Great,” My Catholic Life! https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-10-st-leo-the-great/ (accessed Apr. 11, 2020).

[5]          “Pope Leo I,” Wikipedia. Apr. 10, 2020, Accessed: Apr. 11, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pope_Leo_I&oldid=950120953.

Saint Wulfran

Archbishop of Sens (647-720)

Feast – March 20

Since 496 when St. Remigius baptized Clavis I King of France the Catholic faith became predominant in this region and consequently the economic situation improved.

In AD 567, Austrasia became a separate kingdom within the Frankish kingdom and was ruled by Sigebert I. In the 7th and 8^th centuries it was the powerhouse from which the Carolingians, originally mayors of the palace of Austrasia, took over the rule of all Franks, all of Gaul, most of Germany, and Northern Italy. Under the rule of Chlothar II called the Great or the Young and later his son Dagobert I Frankish society experienced greater integration.

Meanwhile in the Frisia region to the north, along the southeastern corner of the North Sea, part of the modern day Netherlands and northern Germany, Germanic pagans continued their barbarous custom of sacrificing human beings to idols.

In this situation in year 647 in the diocese of Meaux, at Mauraliacus, near Fontainebleau, St. Wulfran, son of a knight attached to the court of Dagobert I, king of the Franks, was born.

He was educated by the successor of Dagobert, at King Clovis II’s court and showed a gift for academic learning.

The Saint spent some years in the court of King Clotaire III and his mother, St. Bathildes; but he occupied his heart only with God, despising worldly greatness as empty and dangerous, and daily advancing in virtue. He renounced the world and received sacred orders; his estate he bestowed on the Abbey of Fontenelle, or St. Wandrille, in Normandy.

He was nonetheless called to the court of Theuderic III. This seems to have propelled him into greater prominence. When the archbishop of Sens died, he was chosen in 692 to replace him, by the common consent of the clergy and people of that city. He governed that diocese with great zeal and sanctity.

By 693 he was in the post as he attended an assembly of bishops at Valenciennes.

In 695, he resigned the archbishopric in favor of St. Amatus, who, it seems, he thought would be better at that sort of work and retired to the Benedictine abbey called “Fontenelle”.

It was a tender compassion for the blindness of the idolaters of Friesland, and the example of the zealous English preachers in those parts to enter Frisia as a poor missionary priest.

On the voyage by water, the deacon who served him at the altar, accidentally dropped the paten into the sea. St. Wulfran told him to place his hand where it had fallen on the waves, and it came up to him by a miracle. For long years that paten was conserved in the monastery of St. Wandrille. On this mission he baptized great multitudes, among them a son of their King, Radbod. In Frisia, people, including children, were sacrificed to the local gods having been selected by a form of lottery. St. Wulfram, having remonstrated with King Radbod on the subject, was told that the king was unable to change the custom, but Wulfram was invited to save them if he could.

On a certain occasion, one such unfortunate, a young boy, had been selected by lot as the victim of a sacrifice to the gods, or demons of the land. St. Wulfran earnestly begged his life of King Radbod, but the people ran tumultuously to the palace, and would not suffer what they called a sacrilege.

After many words they consented, but on condition that St.Wulfran’s God Himself save the victim’s life. The Saint prayed God to resurrect him, and the child, after hanging on the gibbet two hours and being left for dead, fell to the ground by the breaking of the cord. The servant of God went to him and told him to stand, which he did, and he was given to the missionary. He later became a monk and priest at Fontenelle.

St. Wulfran, after praying, also miraculously rescued a poor widow’s two children, seven and five years old, tied to posts and left to drown as the tide rose in honor of the idols; he walked out across the water in the sight of all the people, to take their hands and bring them back to land. The faith of the missionaries (and their power to work miracles) frightened and awed the people.

The religion of Christ began to take root in this pagan land, and many were converted. He retired to Fontenelle that he might prepare himself for death, and expired in peace there on the 20th of March, 720.

References and Excerpts

[1]          “Wulfram of Sens,” Wikipedia. 08-Oct-2019.

[2]          “Saint Wulfran, Archbishop of Sens.” [Online]. Available: https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_wulfran.html. [Accessed: 07-Mar-2020].

Saint John of Matha

Founder (1160-1213)

Feast – February 8

On April 22, 571 AD in Mecca, Saudi Arabia Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim, an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam was born, a prophet, sent to present and confirm the monotheistic teachings preached previously by Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets.

The Muslim community spread through the Middle East through military conquest, inspired by religion and motivated by greed and politics.

Between the eighth and the fifteenth centuries medieval Europe was in a state of intermittent warfare between the Christian kingdoms of southern Europe and the Muslim polities of North Africa, Southern France, Sicily and portions of Spain. Raids by Muslim bands and armies were an almost annual occurrence. The threat of capture or kidnapping, whether by Muslim pirates or coastal raiders, or during one of the region’s intermittent wars, was a continual concern for residents of Catalonia, Languedoc, and other coastal provinces of medieval Christian Europe.

In 1160 St. John of Matha, the institutor of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity for the Ransom of Captives, was born at Faucon in Provence, France, to parents, Euphemius and Martha at Faucon-de-Barcelonnette. They were conspicuous for their nobility and virtue, and St John was consecrated to God by a vow at his birth.

His life from his youth was exemplary, by his self-sacrifice for the glory of God and the good of his neighbor. As a child, his chief pleasure was serving the poor; and he would say to them that he had come into the world for no other end but to care for them.

His father Euphemius sent him to Aix, where he learned grammar, fencing, riding, and other exercises fit for a young nobleman. While there he gave the poor a considerable part of the money his parents sent him, and he visited the hospital every Friday to assist the sick poor.

Later he studied in Paris with such distinction that after having completed his theological course, he received the degree of doctor. His eminent learning and virtue induced the Bishop of Paris to promote him, in spite of his humble resistance, to the Holy Order of Priesthood, in the hope that during his sojourn in that city, he might be a bright example to young students by his talents and piety. At the age of 32 in December 1192 St. John of Matha was ordained a priest.

While celebrating his first Mass in the Bishop’s chapel, in the presence of the Prelate and several assistants, he was honored by a signal of favor from Heaven. There appeared to him an Angel clad in a white and brilliant robe; he had on his breast a red and blue cross, and his hands reposed on the heads of a Christian and a Moorish captive.

To comprehend what this vision might signify he thought it wise to spend some time in retirement, prayer, and mortification. Having heard of a holy hermit, St. Felix of Valois, living in a great wood near Gandelu, in the diocese of Meux, he requested him for instructions in the practice of perfection. They agreed to live together, and for three years St. John devoted himself to prayer and contemplation.

Another sign was given the two hermits. It happened, that as they were one day seated near a fountain, conferring with each other on holy things, a stag came towards them, bearing a red and blue cross between his antlers. St. John, perceiving that St. Felix was surprised by so strange an occurrence, told him of the vision he had had at his first Mass. They gave themselves even more fervently to prayer, and having been admonished in sleep, they resolved to set out for Rome in the midst of a severe winter, towards the end of the year 1197, to learn the Will of God from the lips of the Sovereign Pontiff. Pope Innocent III consulted the Sacred College and had a Mass offered in the Lateran basilica, on the feast of St. Agnes, to understand what God was asking. At the moment of the Elevation, the Pope saw the same Angel in the same vision as had been given St. John.

On December 17, 1198, the Pontiff gave his approbation to the new institute, and commanded it to be called the Order of the Most Holy Trinity for the Ransom of Captives, bidding its members wear a white habit, with a red and blue cross. Fully approved in 1209, they erected their first monastery at Cerfroid, in the diocese of Meaux. Pope Innocent III gave them the house, church, and hospital of St. Thomas de Formis, together with various revenues and possessions.

Soon, countless vocations came to the Order. The members of the Order fasted every day, and after preaching throughout Europe, winning associates for their Order and gathering alms to buy back captives, went to northern Africa to redeem the Christian slaves taken prisoner during the Crusades or while traveling on the seas. The first Christian slaves were rescued by the Order in 1201.  To carry out this task, the Trinitarians needed large amounts of money. So, they placed their fund-raising efforts under the patronage of Mary, the Mother of God. In gratitude for her assistance, St. John of Matha honored Mary with the title of “Our Lady of Good Remedy.”

The main goal of the Trinitarians, which was to ransom the captives, also had a favorable effect on the Crusaders, who had less fear to be captured and remain slaves of the Moors for a long period of time, or even indefinitely. The Trinitarians traveled with the Crusaders, teaching the soldiers, taking care of the sick, and dealing with the redemption of the captives and gave them the hope to be ransomed and return to the fight.

In 1202 and 1210 St. John travelled to Tunis himself and brought back countless Christian slaves.

On his second trip in 1210, he suffered much from the infidels, who were enraged at his zeal and his success in exhorting the slaves to remain constant in their faith. On his return with the 120 Catholics whom he had ransomed, he found that the Muslims had damaged the rudder of his ship and ripped its sails to prevent its safe arrival and cause the ship to perish at sea. Instead, St. John of Matha, full of confidence in God, begged Him to be their pilot. He tied his cloak to the mast, with a crucifix in his hands, saying, “Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered! O Lord, Thou wilt save the humble, and wilt bring down the eyes of the proud.” Wind filled the small sail, and a few days later brought the ship safely to the port of Ostia, near the mouth of the Tiber, three hundred leagues from Tunis.

Saint John on one occasion was assaulted in Morocco and left, in his blood, for dead. He was preserved by a miracle and took up his charitable services again.

Worn out by his heroic labors, John died in 1213, at the age of fifty-three.

References and Excerpts:

[1]          “Saint John of Matha, Founder.” [Online]. Available: https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_john_of_matha.html. [Accessed: 06-Feb-2020].
[2]          “St. John of Matha, saint of February 8.” [Online]. Available: https://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j114sdJohnMatha_2-08.htm. [Accessed: 06-Feb-2020].
[3]          “St. John of Matha.” [Online]. Available: https://www.salvemariaregina.info/SalveMariaRegina/SMR-167/Matha.htm. [Accessed: 06-Feb-2020].
[4]          “John of Matha,” Wikipedia. 06-Feb-2020.

Saint Hilary of Poitiers

Doctor of the Church (301-368)

Feast – January 14

Saint Hilary was a native of Poitiers, France. Belonging to a noble pagan family he received a good pagan education which included a high level of Greek. He abandoned his Neo-Platonism for Christianity when he met his God of nature in the Old and New Testament writings. He renounced idolatry and was baptized with his wife and his daughter (Saint Abra) and separated himself rigidly from all non-Catholic company, fearing the influence of error, rampant in a number of false philosophies and heresies, for himself and his family in this very troubled period in the Church. He entered Holy Orders with the consent of his very virtuous wife and separated from his family as was required of the clergy. Later he wrote a very famous letter to his dearly loved daughter, encouraging her to adopt a consecrated life. She followed this counsel and died, still young, a holy death.

His wide learning and zeal for the Faith attracted the attention of Christians in Poitiers and about 353 they unanimously elected him, against his will, to be the bishop of Poitiers.

The Church was then greatly disturbed by internal discords, the authority of the popes not being so powerful in practice as either to prevent or to stop them.

Arianism, under the protection of the Emperor Constantius II, was then at the heights of its exaltation and threatened to overrun the Western Church. The heresy spread rapidly. Saint Jerome said, “The world groaned and marveled to find that it was Arian.” St. Hilary undertook to repel this disruption. One of his first steps was to secure the excommunication, by those of the Gallican hierarchy who still remained orthodox Christians, of Saturninus, the Arian Bishop of Arles, and two of his prominent supporters, Ursacius of Singidunum and Valens of Mursa. About the same time, St. Hilary wrote to Emperor Constantius II a remonstrance against the persecutions by which the Arians had sought to crush their opponents (Ad Constantium Augustum liber primus).

Saturninus, being exposed by St. Hilary, convened and presided over a council at Béziers in 356 with the intention of justifying himself, and establishing his false doctrine. Here the Bishop of Poitiers courageously presented himself to defend orthodoxy, but the council, composed for the most part of Arians, refused to hear him. When Emperor Constantius II ordered all the bishops of the West to sign a condemnation of St. Athanasius, the great defender of the faith in the East, St. Hilary refused and was, along with Rhodanus of Toulouse, banished from France to far off Phrygia and gained the nick-name of the “Athanasius of the West.”

St. Hilary was a firm guardian of the Trinity as taught by the Western church, and therefore saw the foreseen Antichrist in those who repudiated the divinity of the Son and thought Him to be but a created Being. He spent more than three years in exile. Instead of remaining inactive he gave himself up to study, completed several of his works and wrote his treatise on the synods. In this work he analyzed the professions of faith uttered by the Oriental bishops in the Councils of Ancyra, Antioch, and Sirmium, and while condemning them, since they were in substance Arian, he sought to show that sometimes the difference between the doctrines of certain heretics and orthodox beliefs was rather in the words than in the ideas. Although some members of his own party thought the first had shown too great a forbearance towards the Arians, St. Hilary replied to their criticisms in the Apologetica ad reprehensores libri de synodis responsa.

“Hence also they who deny that Christ is the Son of God must have Antichrist for their Christ.”

In 359, the city of Seleucia witnessed the Council in which a large number of Oriental bishops, majority of whom were either Anomoeans (extreme division of Arians) or Semi-Arians and some Catholics, contended for mastery. St. Hilary, whom everyone wished to see and hear, for so great was his reputation for learning and virtue, was invited to be present at this assembly. The governor of the province even furnished him with post horses for the journey. He took part in the violent discussions which took place between the Semi-Arians, who inclined toward reconciliation with the Catholics, and the Anomoeans.

After the council, which had no result beyond the wider separation of these brothers in enmity, he left for Constantinople, the stronghold of heresy, to continue his battle against error. Meanwhile the Semi-Arians, who were less numerous and less powerful, besought him to become the intermediary in a reconciliation between themselves and the bishops of the West. The Anomoeans, who had the immense advantage of being upheld by the emperor, dreaded the meeting and its outcome, and pleaded with the emperor to send this troublemaker back home. Constantius II acceded to their desire, and the exile was thus sent on his journey home. In 361 St. Hilary re-entered Poitiers in triumph and resumed possession of his see. The success he had achieved in his combat against error was rendered more brilliant shortly afterwards by the deposition of Saturninus, the Arian Bishop of Arles by whom he had been persecuted.

In 364, St. Hilary extended his efforts once more beyond Gaul, preaching wherever he went, disconcerting the heretics and procuring the triumph of orthodoxy.

If he was full of indulgence for those whom gentleness might finally win from error, he was intractable towards those who were obstinate in their adherence to it. He impeached Auxentius, bishop of Milan who was a firm defender of the Arian doctrines, but Emperor Valentinian, who protected the heretic, ordered Hilary to depart immediately from Milan.

After years of missionary travel, St. Hilary “Hammer of the Arians” returned to Poitiers, where he died in peace in 368. He was declared a doctor of the church in 1851 by Pope Pius IX.

References and Excerpts
[1] F. Media, “Saint Hilary of Poitiers,” Franciscan Media, 13-Jan-2016. [Online]. Available: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-hilary/. [Accessed: 23-Dec-2019].

[2] “Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Doctor of the Church.” [Online]. Available: https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_hilary_of_poitiers.html. [Accessed: 23-Dec-2019].

[3] “Saint Hilary, Bishop and Doctor.” [Online]. Available: https://www.salvemariaregina.info/SalveMariaRegina/SMR-163/Saint%20Hilary.html. [Accessed: 23-Dec-2019].

[4] “CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Hilary of Poitiers.” [Online]. Available: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07349b.htm. [Accessed: 23-Dec-2019].

[5] “Hilary of Poitiers,” Wikipedia. 10-Dec-2019.

Saint Thomas Becket

Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr (1117-1170)

Feast – December 29

Saint Thomas was born on 21 December, 1117, the feast day of St Thomas the Apostle, in Cheapside, London, England. He was the son of Gilbert and Matilda Becket. Gilbert’s father was from Thierville in the lordship of Brionne in Normandy and was either a small landowner or a petty knight. Matilda was also of Norman descent, and her family may have originated near Caen. Gilbert began his life as a merchant, perhaps as a textile merchant, but by the 1120s he was living in London and was a property owner, living on the rental income from his properties. He also served as the sheriff of the city at some point.

Saint Thomas’s parents were not peasants, but people of some mark, and from his earliest years their son had been well taught and had associated with gentlefolk. He was endowed by both nature and grace with gifts recommending him to his fellow men; and his father, certain he would one day be a great servant of Christ, beginning when he was 10, sent him as a student to Merton Priory in England and later to a grammar school in London, perhaps the one at St Paul’s Cathedral. Later, he spent about a year in Paris around age 20.

When Gilbert Becket suffered financial reverses, St. Thomas was forced to earn a living as a clerk. On leaving school he employed himself in secretarial work, first with Sir Richer de l’Aigle and then with his kinsman, Osbert Huitdeniers, who was “Justiciar” (administrator of justice) of London. There he was obliged to learn the various rights of the Church and of the secular arm, but already he saw so many injustices imposed upon the clergy that he preferred to leave that employment rather than to participate in iniquity. A tall, handsome, intelligent, young legal clerk with a magnetic personality made friends easily. His remarkable memory and business ability attracted the attention of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury.

About the year 1141 he entered the Archbishop’s service, and in that household, he won his master’s favor and eventually became the most trusted of all his clerks.

The Archbishop recognized his capacity, made use of him in many delicate negotiations, and afterwards allowed him to go for a year to study civil and canon law at Bologna and Auxerre. After a few years, witnessing his perfect service in 1154 he ordained St. Thomas deacon, and bestowed upon him several preferments, the most important of which was the Archdeaconry of Canterbury.

Noticing St. Thomas’s efficiency in those posts and his excellence as a speaker capable of solving complicated problems, Theobald felt that St. Thomas would be a good match for the new, young King of England, Henry II. At the archbishop’s recommendation, in January 1155 he was made chancellor of England.

In that office St. Thomas, at the age of thirty-seven, became, with the possible exception of the justiciar, the most powerful subject in Henry’s wide dominions. He loved his life, spent money on clothes, entertainment, hunting, and good times. A strong friendship developed between him and the king. Often the king and his minister behaved like two schoolboys at play. But although they hunted or rode at the head of an army together it was no mere comradeship in pastime which united them. Both were hard workers, and both, we may believe, had the prosperity of the kingdom deeply at heart.

In that high office, while inflexible in the rendition of justice, he was generous and solicitous for the relief of misery.

The king’s imperial views and love of splendour were reflected by his minister when he went to France in 1158 to negotiate a marriage treaty, he travelled with such pomp that the people said: “If this be only the chancellor what must be the glory of the king himself?” At the same time, he was severe towards himself, spending the better part of every night in prayer. He often employed a discipline, to be less subject to the revolts of the flesh against the spirit.

To St. Thomas, his own sovereign, Henry II, confided the education of the crown prince. Of the formation of the future king and the young lords who composed his suite, the Chancellor took extreme care, knowing well that the strength of a State depends largely on the early impressions received by the elite of its youth.

In a war with France he won the respect of his enemies, including that of the young king Louis VII. He led the most daring attacks in person, unhorsed many French knights, and in laying waste the enemy’s country with fire and sword the chancellor’s principles did not materially differ from those of the other commanders of his time. Although, as men then reported, “he put off the archdeacon,” in this and other ways, he was very far from assuming the licentious manners of those around him. No word was ever breathed against his personal purity. Foul conduct or foul speech, lying or unchastity were hateful to him, and on occasion he punished them severely.

Under Henry I the archbishops had begun to embrace the Gregorian Reforms which had spread from Italy to France through the Holy Roman Empire. These reforms included free elections to clerical posts, inviolability of church property, freedom to appeal to Rome, and clerical immunity from lay tribunals. Unfortunately, Henry II wanted complete control of his kingdom, including the Church. He wanted to take some powers away from the Church, and he needed an archbishop to support him.

With the death of Theobald in 1161, Henry hoped to appoint St. Thomas as archbishop and thus complete his program. The king insisted on the consecration of Saint Thomas in his stead. Saint Thomas at first declined, warning the king that from that hour their friendship would be threatened by his own obligations to uphold the rights of the Church.

“I served our Theobald well when I was with him: I served King Henry well as Chancellor: I am his no more, and I must serve the Church.”

In the end he was obliged by obedience to yield. St. Thomas Becket was nominated as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162, his election was confirmed on 23 May 1162 by a royal council of bishops and noblemen, was ordained priest on Saturday in Whitweek and consecrated bishop the next day, Sunday, the 3rd of June, 1162 by Henry of Blois, the Bishop of Winchester and the other suffragan bishops of Canterbury.

King Henry II may have hoped that Becket would continue to put the royal government first, rather than the church. However, the famous transformation, a great change took place in the saint’s way of life after his consecration as archbishop. Even as chancellor he had practiced secret austerities, but now in view of the struggle he clearly saw before him, he resigned as chancellor, sold his mansion, and went to live in a monastery, sold his rich clothes and furnishings and gave the money to the poor. He gave himself to fastings and disciplines, hair shirts, protracted vigils, and constant prayers. Before the end of the year 1162 he stripped himself of all signs of the lavish display which he had previously affected. On 10 Aug. he went barefoot to receive the envoy who brought him the pallium from Rome.

His personality was the same, but more noticeable were his generosity and determination to protect the Church. St. Thomas sought to recover and extend the rights of the archbishopric, set about to reclaim alienated estates belonging to his see. He opposed taxation of the Church, refused to allow Henry to make Church appointments that suited him and blocked his other attempts to control the Church, including the jurisdiction of secular courts over English clergymen.

As the first recorded instance of any determined opposition to the king’s arbitrary will in a matter of taxation, he opposed Henry’s proposal that a voluntary offering to the sheriffs should be paid into the royal treasury; this incident is of much constitutional importance. The saint’s protest seems to have been successful. This series of conflicts accelerated antipathy between St. Thomas and the king.

Attempts by Henry II to influence the other bishops against him began in Westminster in October 1163, where the King sought approval of the traditional rights of the royal government in regard to the church. Many of these pretended customs violated the liberties of the Church, and some were even invented for the occasion. This led to the Constitutions of Clarendon were King Henry II presided over the assemblies of most of the higher English clergy on the 30th of January, 1164. In sixteen constitutions, he sought less clerical independence and a weaker connection with Rome. St. Thomas obliged in conscience to resist, and was soon the object of persecution, not only from the irritated king but by all who had sworn loyalty to his nefarious doings.

When opposing a claim made against him by John the Marshal, St. Thomas upon a frivolous pretext was found guilty of contempt of court. For this he was sentenced to pay £500; other demands for large sums of money followed, and finally, though a complete release of all claims against him as chancellor had been given on his becoming archbishop, he was required to render an account of nearly all the moneys which had passed through his hands in his discharge of the office, a sum of nearly £30,000 was demanded of him.

Henry summoned St. Thomas to appear before a great council at Northampton Castle on 8 October 1164, to answer allegations of contempt of royal authority and malfeasance in the Chancellor’s office. After celebrating Mass, he took his archiepiscopal cross into his own hand and presented himself thus in the royal council chamber.

Convicted on the charges, Becket stormed out of the trial and fled away secretly that night (13 October, 1164) and on November 2 sailed in disguise to the Continent and took refuge in France under the protection of the generous Louis VII. Pope Alexander III was at that time was in France, and welcomed the saint very kindly, but refused to accept his resignation of his see. Henry pursued the fugitive archbishop with a series of edicts, targeting him as well as all his friends and supporters.

He spent nearly two years in the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny, in Burgundy, though he was compelled to leave this refuge as Henry, after confiscating the archbishop’s property and banishing all his kinsfolk, threatened to wreak his vengeance on the whole Cistercian Order if they continued to harbour him.

The Archbishop fought back by threatening excommunication and interdict against the king, bishops and the entire kingdom. In 1167 Papal legates were sent with authority to act as arbitrators. In 1170, Pope Alexander III, sent delegates to impose a solution to the dispute. At that point, Henry offered a compromise that would allow St. Thomas to return to England from exile. He knew well that it was to martyrdom that he was destined; it is related that the Mother of God appeared to him in France to foretell it to him, and that She presented him for that intention with a red chasuble. By this time the persecuted Archbishop’s case was known to all of Christian Europe, which sympathized with him and elicited from king Henry an appearance of conciliation. In June 1170, Roger de Pont L’Évêque, the archbishop of York, along with Gilbert Foliot, the Bishop of London, and Josceline de Bohon, the Bishop of Salisbury, crowned the heir apparent, Henry the Young King, at York. This was a breach of Canterbury’s privilege of coronation, and in November 1170 when the Pope cut these bishops off from the Church, St. Thomas upheld that decision and excommunicated all three.

On 1 December, 1170, St. Thomas landed in England, and was received with every demonstration of popular enthusiasm. After six years, his office was restored and he returned to England, to preach again and enforce order in his see. But trouble occurred in connection with the sentence of excommunication of the bishops, which St. Thomas had brought with him.
The news reached Henry II, Henry the Young King’s father. One night, in a rage, the humiliated king exclaimed before his knights, “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?” which were interpreted by his men as wishing St. Thomas killed. Four knights, Reginald FitzUrse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy and Richard le Breton, on 29 December 1170 rode to the monastery where he lived. They demanded the absolution of the bishops. They did not succeed in making St. Thomas change what he believed was his obedience to the Pope. St. Thomas would not comply. They left for a space, but came back at Vesper time with a band of armed men. They violated a monastic cloister and chapel. the Saint himself prevented the monks from resisting the assassins at the door. To their angry question, “Where is the traitor?” the saint boldly replied, “Here I am, no traitor, but archbishop and priest of God.”

They tried to drag him from the church, but were unable, and in the end they slew him before the altar where he stood, scattering his brains on the pavement. His last words were: “I die willingly, for the name of Jesus and for the defense of the Church”. Following Becket’s death, the monks prepared his body for burial. According to some accounts, it was discovered that Becket had worn a hairshirt under his archbishop’s garments—a sign of penance.

In an extraordinary brief space of time, devotion to the martyred archbishop had spread all through Europe and on 21 February 1173—little more than two years after his death—he was canonized by Pope Alexander III. Miracles were reported to occur at St. Thomas’s tomb and many pilgrimages were made there. People called him a saint. In 1174, Henry II did public penance, and was scourged at the archbishop’s tomb. His assassins fled north to de Morville’s Knaresborough Castle, where they remained for about a year. De Morville also held property in Cumbria and this may also have provided a convenient bolt-hole, as the men prepared for a longer stay in the separate kingdom of Scotland, Pope Alexander excommunicated all four. Seeking forgiveness, the assassins travelled to Rome and were ordered by the Pope to serve as knights in the Holy Lands for a period of fourteen years.

St. Thomas was the most famous martyr of the Middle Ages.

References and Excerpts
[1] “Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr.” [Online]. Available: http://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_thomas_becket.html. [Accessed: 02-Dec-2019].
[2] “Saint Thomas Becket | Biography, Death, & Significance,” Encyclopedia Britannica. [Online]. Available: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Thomas-Becket. [Accessed: 02-Dec-2019].
[3] “CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Thomas Becket.” [Online]. Available: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14676a.htm. [Accessed: 02-Dec-2019].
[4] “Saint Thomas Becket.” [Online]. Available: https://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/saints/saints-stories-for-all-ages/saint-thomas-becket. [Accessed: 02-Dec-2019].
[5] “Thomas Becket,” Wikipedia. 01-Dec-2019.

Saint Andrew Avellino

Theatine Priest († 1608)

Feast – November 10

Saint Andrew Avellino, Born 1521 at Castronuovo (today Castronuovo di Sant’Andrea), a small town in the province of Potenza Basilicata in the Kingdom of Naples, his baptismal name was Lancelott. From his early youth he was a great lover of chastity. After receiving his elementary training in the school of Castronuovo, he was sent to Venice to pursue a course in the humanities and in philosophy. Being a handsome youth, his chastity was often exposed to danger from female admirers, and to escape their importunities he took ecclesiastical tonsure.

He went to Naples to study canon and civil law, obtained the degree of Doctor of Laws and was ordained priest at the age of twenty-six and became a lawyer at the ecclesiastical court at Naples. During a heated courtroom argument he supported his position with a lie; in that setting, he had committed perjury.

When, soon afterwards, his eyes fell upon the passage in the Bible, ” A lying mouth destroys the soul ” (Wisdom 1:11), he felt deep remorse, renounced his profession as ecclesiastical lawyer and for some time devoted himself entirely to holy meditation and other spiritual exercises, settling into a life of penance and giving himself up to the care of souls.

The Archbishop of Naples now commissioned him to reform a convent at Naples, which by the laxity of its discipline had become a source of great scandal. By his own example and his untiring zeal, he restored the religious discipline of the convent but not without many and great difficulties. Certain wicked men who were accustomed to have clandestine meetings with the nuns became exasperated at the saint’s interference, and one night, with companions waiting for him when he was about to leave a church, felled him with three sword thrusts. Severely wounded, St. Andrew was brought to the house of the Theatine Clerks Regular to recuperate. He lost much blood, but his wounds healed perfectly without leaving any trace. The viceroy of Naples was ready to employ all his authority to punish the authors of this sacrilege; the holy priest, not desiring the death of sinners but rather their conversion and their salvation, declined to pursue them.

He resolved to devote himself entirely to God and joined the Order of Theatines, which had been recently founded by St. Cajetan. In 1556, on the vigil of the Assumption he was invested, being then thirty-five years of age and took the name of Andrew in honor of the crucified Apostle.

After completing his novitiate, he obtained permission to visit the tombs of the Apostles and the Martyrs at Rome. After a pilgrimage St. Andrew returned to Naples and was named master of novices in his Community. All his spare moments he devoted to prayer and contemplation. The souls committed to his care made great progress in perfection.

After holding this office for ten years, he was elected Superior of the house there. His zeal for strict religious discipline and for the purity of the clergy, as well as his deep humility and sincere piety, induced the General of his Order to entrust him with the foundation of two new Theatine houses, one at Milan and the other at Piacenza.

He became Superior of the Milan foundation where his friendship with Saint Charles Borromeo took root, the two Saints conversed together often. St. Andrew, with his admirable simplicity, confided to the Archbishop that he had seen Our Lord, and that since that time the impression of His divine beauty, remaining with him constantly, had rendered insipid all other so-called beauties of the earth.

Through Saint Andrew’s efforts, many more Theatine houses rose up in various dioceses of Italy. As superior of some of these new foundations, he was so successful in converting sinners and heretics by his prudence in the direction of souls and by his eloquent preaching that numerous disciples thronged around him, eager to be under his spiritual guidance. One of the most noteworthy of his disciples was Lorenzo Scupoli, the author of “The Spiritual Combat.”

God honored him with the gifts of prophecy and miracles. He practiced the greatest mortifications and gave an admirable example of that Christian charity which consists in doing good to those who do harm to us.
Petitions were presented to Pope Gregory XIV to make him a bishop, but he declined that honor with firmness, having always desired to remain obedient rather than to command. When his term as superior ended, he was successful in avoiding the government of another Theatine residence for only three years, but eventually he became the Superior at Saint Paul of Naples.

Once when St. Andrew was taking the Viaticum to a dying person and a storm extinguished the lamps, a heavenly light surrounded him, guided his steps, and sheltered him from the rain. However, he was far from exempt from sufferings. His horse threw him one day on a rough road, and since his feet were caught in the stirrups, dragged him for a long time along this road. He invoked St. Dominic and St. Thomas Aquinas, who came to him, wiped his face covered with blood, cured his wounds, and even helped him back onto the horse. He attributed such episodes to his unworthiness, believing he was among the reprobate, but St. Thomas once again came to him, accompanied by St. Augustine, and restored his confidence in the love and mercy of God.

Though indefatigable in preaching, hearing confessions, and visiting the sick, he still had time to write some ascetical works. His letters were published in 1731 at Naples in two volumes, and his other ascetical works were published three years later in five volumes.

On the last day of his life, November 10, 1608, St. Andrew rose to say Mass. He was eighty-eight years old, and so weak he could scarcely reach the altar. He began the Judica me, Deus, (Judge me, O God) the opening prayer, but fell forward, the victim of apoplexy. Laid on a straw mattress, his whole frame was convulsed in agony, while the ancient fiend, in visible form, advanced as though to seize his soul. Then, while the onlookers prayed and wept, he invoked Our Lady, and his Guardian Angel seized the monster and dragged it out of the room. A calm and holy smile settled on the features of the dying Saint and, as he gazed with a grateful countenance on the image of Mary, his holy soul winged its way to God.

In 1624, only 16 years after his death, St. Andrew was beatified by Pope Urban VIII, and in 1712 was canonized by Pope Clement XI. His remains lie buried in the Church of St. Paul at Naples.

References and Excerpts

[1] Matthew, “St. Andrew Avellino,” A Catholic Life. [Online]. Available: https://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2016/11/st-andrew-avellino.html. [Accessed: 04-Nov-2019].
[2] “Saint Andrew Avellino, Theatine Priest.” [Online]. Available: http://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_andrew_avellino.html. [Accessed: 04-Nov-2019].
[3] “CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Andrew Avellino.” [Online]. Available: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01472b.htm. [Accessed: 04-Nov-2019].
[4] “Saint Andrew Avellino,” CatholicSaints.Info, 08-Oct-2010. .
[5] “Andrew Avellino,” Wikipedia. 14-Oct-2019.