St. Ignatius of Loyola

Today we honor St. Ignatius of Loyola. He lived during the time of Martin Luther. God chose him to start up a new religious order, The Society of Jesus, or, the Jesuits. If the Jesuits of today would get back to the teachings of their founder, instead of their 'socialistic' leanings, they would again be a force to reckon with, in dealing with heresy.

SAINT IGNATIUS of LOYOLA
Founder of the Society of Jesus
(1491-1556)
Saint Ignatius was born at Loyola in Spain, in the year 1491. He served his king as a courtier and a soldier until his thirtieth year. At that time a cannon ball broke the right leg of the young officer, who in a few days had reached the brink of death and received the Last Sacraments. It was the eve of the feast day of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; he fell asleep afterwards and believed he saw Saint Peter in a dream, restoring him to health by touching his wound. When he woke, his high fever was gone and he was out of danger, although lame. To pass the time of his convalescence after three operations, he asked for books; the Life of Christ and lives of the Saints were brought to him. He read them distractedly at first, then with profound emotion. He underwent a violent combat, but finally grace won out.

He began to treat his body with the utmost rigor and rose every night to weep over his sins. One night, he consecrated himself to the Saviour through the intercession of Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners, swearing inviolable fidelity to the Son and His Mother. Not long afterwards, to fortify him in his good resolutions, Mary appeared to him surrounded by light, holding in Her arms the Child Jesus. His heart purified by this vision, Ignatius made a general confession and a pilgrimage to Montserrat, to venerate a miraculous image of the Mother of God and implore Her protection, then bought a rude long habit for the pilgrimage he was planning to make to Jerusalem. He set out on foot, wearing only one sandal for his lame leg.

He spent some time at Manreza caring for the sick and undertaking a life of austerity equaled only by the most celebrated anchorites. Living by alms, fasting on bread and water, wearing a hair shirt, he remained kneeling every day for six or seven hours in prayer. The devil made vain efforts to discourage him. He fell ill, however, and was carried to the hospital from the cavern where he was staying. It was only out of obedience to his director at Montserrat that he ceased his extreme penance, and found again, through his obedience, the peace of soul he had lost. At Manreza he composed his famous Spiritual Exercises for those on retreats, which ever since have brought to grace and fervor great numbers of souls.

After a journey to Rome and other points of pilgrimage in Italy, he embarked for the Holy Land. He wished to remain there to work for the conversion of souls, but was commanded by the enlightened Provincial of the Franciscans, under obedience, to return to Europe. He was then thirty-three years old.

Ignatius had already won certain Spanish compatriots to join him in the service of God; it was for them that he had composed the Exercises. With them he undertook studies for several years, and at the end of that time had four companions. He taught catechism while at Alcala, and virtually reformed the entire youth of that city.

In 1528, when he was already 37 years old, he went to Paris to study in the greatest poverty, eating his meals at a hospital with the poor. He was persecuted when he converted a number of young persons. It was in Paris, with six young companions, that at Montmartre the Society of Jesus was founded. They made a vow to go to Jerusalem in absolute poverty, or if this proved impossible, which it did, to go to Rome to the Vicar of Christ, and place themselves at his disposition for the service of the Church and the salvation of souls. Our Lord promised Saint Ignatius that the precious heritage of His Passion would never be lacking to his Society. By this term, heritage, the Saviour referred to the contradictions and persecutions the just must always face. Founded to combat error, the Company of Jesus has always had to bear the fury of those who favor it.

When Saint Ignatius was cast into prison at Salamanca on suspicion of heresy, he said to a friend who expressed his sympathy, "It is a sign that you have little love of Christ in your heart, or you would not deem it so hard a fate to be in chains for His sake. All Salamanca does not contain as many fetters, manacles, and chains as I would gladly wear for love of Jesus Christ." Saint Ignatius went to receive his crown on July 31, 1556.

Reflection: Ask Saint Ignatius to obtain for you the grace to desire ardently the greater glory of God, even though it may cost you much suffering and humiliation.




Ignatius of Loyola Quotes:
“Go forth and set the world on fire.”

“Act as if everything depended on you; trust as if everything depended on God.”

“To give, and not to count the cost
to fight, and not to heed the wounds,
to toil, and not to seek for rest,
to labor, and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will”

“God freely created us so that we might know, love, and serve him in this life and be happy with him forever. God's purpose in creating us is to draw forth from us a response of love and service here on earth, so that we may attain our goal of everlasting happiness with him in heaven.
All the things in this world are gifts of God, created for us, to be the means by which we can come to know him better, love him more surely, and serve him more faithfully.
As a result, we ought to appreciate and use these gifts of God insofar as they help us toward our goal of loving service and union with God. But insofar as any created things hinder our progress toward our goal, we ought to let them go.”

“Lord, teach me to be generous;
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds;
To toil, and not to seek for rest;
To labor, and not to ask for reward -
except to know that I am doing your will.”

“If God causes you to suffer much it is a sign that He has great designs for you and that He certainly intends to make you a saint. And if you wish to become a great saint, entreat Him yourself to give you much opportunity for suffering; for there is no wood better to kindle the fire of holy love than the wood of the cross, which Christ used for His own great sacrifice of boundless charity.”

“Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.”

“Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.”

8th Sunday after Pentecost

"Redde rationem villicationis tuae"
"Give an account of thy stewardship,"--Luke, xvi. 2

This Sunday is the 8th Sunday after Pentecost. We will hear about being a good and faithful steward of our assets. I always think about the poor widow, who gave a small pittance, but it was a big portion of what she owned. And, Jesus commented that this woman was richer than all the others who pitched into the alms box, probably from an excess. We WILL be held accountable for what we do with what we have. Some people, even family members, decide that they don't want to know more about the Faith, because they don't think they will be held accountable for what they don't know. This isn't a very good excuse. God will, in turn, demand of them why they didn't want to know about Him. We are all held accountable for our actions. And, we will be held accountable all by ourselves; mommy and daddy will not be there to soothe things over.


The Particular Judgment
This takes place at the moment of death--"It is appointed unto man once to die, and after death, the judgment" (Heb. ix. 27). There is a similarity between the end of the world and the death of the individual: (a) both are certain--"my words shall not pass" (Luke xxi. 33) (b) the time of both is uncertain--"the day and the hour no man knoweth" (Matt. xxiv. 36); (c) both are accompanied by temptations and tribulations--"there shall arise false Christs," etc., "the sun shall be darkened," etc. (Matt. xxiv. 24, 29). The similarity between the particular and the general judgments: (a) it is the same person with his whole life who is judged in both cases; (b) the sentence is irrevocable in both cases.




St. Vincent de Paul, whose post follows this, offers his opinion:

"What is done for charity's sake is done for God. It is not enough for us that we love God ourselves; our neighbor also must love him; neither can we love our neighbor as ourselves unless we procure for him the good we are bound to desire for ourselves--viz., divine love, which unites us to our Sovereign Good. We must love our neighbor as the image of God and the object of His love, and must try to make men love their Creator in return, and love one another also with mutual charity for the love of God, Who so loved them as to deliver His own Son to death for them. But let us, I beg of you, look upon this Divine Savior as a perfect pattern of the charity we must bear to our neighbor."

Now, I'm going to let our beloved Abbot Gueranger explain it. He does a far better job at than I do. He's commenting on the readings from St. Paul to the Romans, which we have been hearing over the last few weeks:

'...man, unaided by grace, is incapable of producing perfect justice and absolute good. Experience has proved it, the fathers will, later on, unanimously assert it, and the Church, in her Councils, will define it. True, by the mere powers of his fallen nature, man may come to the knowledge of some truths, and to the practice of some virtues; but, without grace, he can never know, and still less observe, the precepts of even the natural law, if they are taken as a whole.

From Jesus and Jesus alone, comes all justice. Not only is supernatural grace in the sinner's soul, wholly from Him; but even that natural justice, of which men are so proud, and which they say is quite enough without anything else, soon leaves one who does not cling to Christ by Faith and love. Our modern world has a pompous phrase about 'the independence of the human mind'; let those who pretend to acknowledge no other but that, go one with their boasting of being moral and honest men; but, as to us Christians, we believe what our mother the Church teaches us; and, agreeably to such teaching, we believe that 'a moral and honest man'; that is to say, a man who lives up to all the duties which nature puts upon him, can only be such here below by a special aid of our Redeemer and Saviour Christ Jesus. With St. Paul, therefore, let us be proud of the Gospel; for, as he calls it, it is the power of God, not only to justify the ungodly, but also to enrich souls, that thirst after what is right, with an active and perfect justice. 'The just man liveth by faith' says St. Paul; and according to the growth of his faith, so is his growth in justice. Without faith if Christ, the pretension to reach perfection in good, by one's own power and works, produces nothing but the stagnation of pride and the wrath of God.'
GOSPEL (Luke XVI. 1-9.) At that time, Jesus spoke to his disciples this parable: There was a certain rich man who had a steward: and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said to him: How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for now thou canst be steward no longer. And the steward said within himself: What shall I do, because my lord taketh away from me my stewardship? To dig, I am not able: to beg I am ashamed. I know what I will do, that when I shall be removed from the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. Therefore calling together every one of his lord's debtors, he said to the first: How much dost thou owe my lord? But he said: A hundred barrels of oil. And he said to him: Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty, Then he said to another: And how much dost thou owe? Who said: A hundred quarters of wheat. He said to him: Take thy bill, and write eighty. And the Lord commended the unjust steward, for as much as he had done wisely: for the children of this world are wiser in their generations than the children of light. And I say to you: Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.

God is represented by the rich man; the steward is man, to whom God has confided the various goods of soul and body, of grace and nature: faith, intellect, memory , free will; and five senses, health, strength of body, beauty, skill and power over others, time and opportunity for good, temporal riches, and other gifts. These various goods of soul and body God gives us not as our own, but on loan to us to be used for His honor and the salvation of man. He will therefore demand the strictest account of us if we use them for sin, luxury, seduction, or oppression of others.
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'This Gospel reading is perhaps the most perplexing of all the Sunday Gospels. The faithless steward, accused of mismanagement, is praised by his master for preparing himself, and making friends with, “the Mammon of iniquity” by means of a fraudulent contract. Our Lord here is not condoning the fraud of the steward. Rather, the "point" of the parable is that providing for one’s future deserves praise. The lesson we are to learn is to use presently all the talents we have at our disposal so as to prepare for ourselves riches for heaven.
' (St. Jerome’s Letter to Algasia, #121, n. 6)

More Gueranger:'For the fool, as well as for the wise man, the day will come when his soul will be required of him; and when the rich man, as well as the poor, will be brought before his Maker, exactly as he was on the day of his first entrance into the world, and it will be said to him: "Give an account of thy stewardship!" At that dread hour, the rule observed for the judgment will be that which our Lord revealed to us during His mortal life; "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required; and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more." Woe to the steward who, disregarding the trust assigned to him, has done just what his own whim suggested with the goods of which he was only the dispenser! When the light of eternity shall be upon him, he will understand the error of his foolish pride. He will see the shameful injustice of a life which the world perhaps thought a very decent one, but which was spent without the slightest regard to God's intentions in giving him the riches of which he boasted. He will then be entirely deprived of them all; neither will it be then in his power to make a better use of them for the future---that is, a use more in accordance with the designs of God. If he might, at least, make some restitution for the goods he has abused! If he might sue for aid from those with whom he lived upon earth! But, NO! when time is over, labor is over too. He has nothing to show for all his riches; he is powerless; and when he goes before that dread tribunal, where every man is afraid that he cannot put his own accounts right, whom can he get to help him?'

We should remember these words spoken by our Lord: "Come to me, all ye who labor, and I will give you rest."

'Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service, you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense His own already.'
- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Not only are we incapable, of ourselves, of doing any good work, but, without the help of grace, we cannot even have a thought of supernatural good. Now, the surest means for obtaining the help that is so needed by us to acknowledge humbly before God that we depend entirely upon Him; it is what the Church does in the Collect for this Sunday:

Grant us, O Lord, we beseech Thee, the spirit of always thinking what is right; and grant us mercifully the spirit of doing it: that we, who cannot subsist without Thee, may live according to Thee.


"You are not a master, but a steward over the things committed to you; and therefore you are to render an account of them." I will place before your eyes today the rigor of this judgment, which shall be passed on each of us on the last day of our life." (St. Bonaventure)



Strengthen me, O Lord, that I may not live according to the desires of the flesh; but resist them firmly by the power of Thy Spirit, that I may not die the eternal death.

St. Martha

Martha, sister of Mary Magdalen and Lazarus, is the owner of the house in Bethany, where Jesus spent a good portion of His time. She is the one, when Jesus was visiting, was busy with the housework, while Mary was at His Feet, listening. She was told that Mary had chosen the better portion when she was working. However, it is JUST as important to serve Him, too.

Glory, then, be to this daughter of Sion, of royal descent, who, faithful to the traditions of hospitality handed down from the Patriarchs and early Fathers, was blessed more than all of them in the exercise of this noble virtue! These ancestors of our Faith, pilgrims themselves and without fixed habitation, knew more or less obscurely that the Desired of Israel and the Expectation of the nations was to appear as a wayfarer and a stranger on earth; and they honored the future Saviour in the person of every stranger that presented himself at their tent door; just as we, their sons and daughters, in the Faith of the same promises now accomplished, honor Christ in the guest whom His goodness sends us. This relation between Him that was to come and the pilgrim seeking shelter made hospitality the most honored handmaid of divine charity. More than once did God show His approval by allowing angels to be entertained in human form. If such heavenly visitations were an honor of which our earth was not worthy, how much great was Martha's privilege in rendering hospitality to the Lord of angels! If before the coming of Christ it was a great thing to honor Him in those who prefigured Him, and if now to shelter and serve Him in His mystical members deserves an eternal reward, how much greater and more meritorious was it to receive in person that Jesus, the very thought of whom gives to virtue its greatness and its merit. Again, as the Baptist excelled all the other prophets by having pointed out as present the Messias whom they announced as future, so Martha, by having ministered to the person of the Word made Flesh, ranks above all others who have ever exercised the works of mercy.

Here we recognize a perfect type of the Church, wherein, with the devotedness of fraternal love, and under the eye of our heavenly Father, the active ministry takes the precedence, and holds the place of government over all who are drawn by grace to Jesus. We can understand the Son of God showing a preference for this blessed house; he was refreshed from the weariness of His journeys by the devoted hospitality He there received, but still more by the sight of so perfect an image of that Church for whose love He had come on earth.

Martha, then, understood by anticipation, that He Who holds the first place must be the servant, as the Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister; and as, later on, the Vicar of Jesus, the Prince of Prelates in the holy Church, was to call himself the Servant of the servants of God. But in serving Jesus, as she served also with Him and for Him her brother and her sister, who can doubt that she had the greatest share in these promises of the God-Man: "He that ministers to me shall follow me, and where I am, there also shall my minister be, and my Father will honour him."

Nothing more is said of Martha in the Gospel, but it is not doubted that she was, with the other pious women, on Mount Calvary at the time of the Saviour's Passion, and later also present at His Ascension, and the coming of the Holy Ghost. All her biographers agree in the fact that, in the persecution of the Christians, she was placed by the Jews, with her brother and sister, in a boat which had neither sail nor oar, and was cast adrift on the high sea to perish. (You've seen those bumper stickers stating: 'God is my co-Pilot', haven't you?) Well, God was their pilot, and guided them to Marseilles, in France, where they safely landed. This miracle, together with their preaching, brought the people of Marseilles, and of Aix, and of the neighborhood to believe in Christ.

Magdalen, some time later, went into a desert, where she led a penitential life for thirty years. (Apparently, she was carried to heaven every day of this existence by angels, so that she could hear their songs of praise.) Lazarus was made Bishop of Marseilles and Maximin of Aix. Martha, however, after having converted many virgins to the Christian faith by her kind exhortations, and instilled into them a love of virginal chastity, selected a secluded place between Asignon and Arles, where she erected a dwelling. There she lived with her maid Marcella and several virgins, who desired, like herself, to spend their days far from the tumult of the world, in chastity and peace, and to lead a cloistral life; whence St. Martha is by many regarded, if not as the first founder, yet as a model of a religious life. She was a guide to all, and her example served as a rule to them whereby to regulate their conduct.

Thirty years she lived thus in great austerity, abstaining from meat and wine. She was devoted to prayer, and it is written of her, that she threw herself upon her knees to pray one hundred times during the day and as often during the night. Her virginal chastity she preserved until her death, the hour of which was revealed to her a year before she departed. A fever which seized her, and lasted until she died, was regarded by her as a means to become more like her Saviour and increase her merits. Hence she was always cheerful in her suffering, bearing it with angelic patience. Eight days before she died, she heard heavenly music, and saw the soul of her sister, accompanied by many angels, ascend to heaven, which not only filled her soul with divine joy, but also with the fervent desire soon to be re-united with Christ. The Saviour Himself deigned to appear to her, saying: "Come, beloved one; as thou hast received Me in thy terrestrial home, so will I receive thee now in My heavenly mansion." St. Martha was transported with joy, and the nearer the hour of her death approached, the more fervent became her prayers and her desire to be with God. Shortly before her end, she desired to be laid upon the ground, which was strewn with ashes, and after having given her last instructions to those under her, she raised her eyes to heaven and gave her virgin soul to the Almighty, while she pronounced the words her beloved Saviour had spoken: "Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." Her tomb has been glorified by God with many miracles, and is held in great veneration.


PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS:

Without doubt, you think St. Martha greatly blessed because she had the high honor to receive our Lord into her house and to serve Him. But why do you not estimate your own much greater happiness? Who is He, whom you receive in Holy Communion, in a much more excellent manner, than Martha received Him? Is He not the same Jesus who went into her house? He comes more frequently to you--or is ready to do so--than He ever visited Martha. Ah! recognize this great blessing and use it to your salvation. May you also prepare yourself most assiduously to receive your Lord, and to serve Him well, in order that He may one day receive you into His kingdom. To receive Holy Communion is one of the most effectual means to gain salvation. "He that eateth this Bread shall live for ever," says Christ. (John, vi.) Live, then, in this world, in sanctifying grace, and live in heaven, in the presence of the Almighty.

Martha lived an austere life during thirty years, prayed day and night, preserved her chastity, constantly practiced good works, and suffered sickness with cheerful patience. Whoever lives thus, may well say at the end of his days: "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit." But whoever employs neither his mind, his body, nor his soul in the service of God, who gratifies every wish of the body and stains his soul with sin, without trying to purify it again, who is indolent in doing good works, who uses the members of the body, the faculties of the mind, more to offend God than to serve Him; who manifests no patience in sickness and trial, who detests penance and austerities; who seldom prays, and is unchaste; cannot truly say with confidence, in his last hour: "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit." For, how can he hope that God will receive into His hands a soul, which, during a whole lifetime, was rather in the hands of Satan than in those of the Almighty, a soul which lived more according to the will of Satan than the will of God; and, finally, a soul which gave not the body, that clothed it, to the service of the Most High? "He is too arrogant," writes St. Gregory of Nyssa, "who having, during his life, constantly warred against the Almighty by sin and vice, hopes, like another Moses, to die in the arms of the Lord." If you desire, therefore, at your last moment, to commend your soul into the hands of your Saviour with a well-founded hope that He will receive it, employ now your mind and all the faculties of your soul, in the service of your God, as Martha did.

To this effect is the admonition of St. Peter: "They shall commend their souls in good deeds to the faithful Creator." (I. Peter, iv.) If we commend now our mind, our soul to God with good deeds, we can commend it at the end of our lives to Him, with the certain hope of salvation. Now, while on this earth, we must serve God with soul and body; for God has promised eternal life to His servants. If you will not do this, the promise of God was not made for you. "Whoever does not fulfill the commandments of the Lord, vainly expects what the Lord has promised," says St. John Chrysostom.


Prayer:

Now that, together with Magdalene, thou hast entered for ever into possession of the better part, thy place in heaven, O Martha, is very beautiful. For they that have ministered well, says St. Paul, shall purchase to themselves a good degree, and much confidence in the faith which is in Christ Jesus (1 Tim. iii. 13). The same service which the deacons, here alluded to by the Apostle, performed for the Church, thou didst render to the Church's Head and Spouse; thou didst rule well thine, own house, which was a figure of that Church so dear to the Son of God. But God is not unjust, that He should forget your work and the love which you have shown in His name, you who have ministered and do minister to the saints (Heb. vi. 10). And the Saint of saints Himself, thy indebted guest, gave us to understand something of thy greatness, when, speaking merely of a faithful servant set over the family to distribute food in due season, He cried out: Blessed is that servant whom when his lord shall come, he shall find so doing. Amen I say to you, he shall place him over all his goods (St. Matth. xxiv. 46, 47). O Martha, the Church exults on this day, whereon our Lord found thee thus continuing to serve Him in the persons of those little ones in whom He bids us seek Him. The moment had come for Him to welcome thee eternally. Henceforth the Host most faithful of all to the laws of hospitality, makes thee sit at His table in His own house, and girding Himself, ministers to thee as thou didst minister to Him.

From the midst of thy peaceful rest, protect those who are now carrying on the interests of Christ on earth, in His mystical Body, which is the entire Church, and in His wearied and suffering members the poor and the afflicted. Bless and multiply the works of holy hospitality; may the vast field of mercy and charity yield ever-increasing harvests. May the zeal displayed by so many generous souls lose nothing of its praiseworthy activity; and for this end, O sister of Magdalene, teach us all as our Lord taught thee, to place the one thing necessary above all else, and to value at its true worth the better part. After the word spoken to thee, for our sake as well as thine own, whosoever would disturb Magdalene at the feet of Jesus, or forbid her to sit there, would deserve to have his works frustrated by offended heaven.

St. Victor, Pope

Saint Victor I, (born , Africa—died 199, Rome?; feast day July 28), pope from about 189 to 198/199.

After succeeding St. Eleutherius in 189, Victor tried to assert Roman authority in the early Christian church. Most notably, he tried to sanction the Roman date for Easter over that celebrated by the Quartodecimans of Asia Minor, who kept the holiday on 14 Nisan rather than on the following Sunday. Victor threatened Polycrates (the bishop of Ephesus) and other bishops of Asia Minor with excommunication if they did not abandon their practice, and when they defied him he went through the motions of carrying out the sentence. The sentence was apparently withdrawn later, since the Asian churches remained in communion with Rome, and Quartodeciman practices in fact continued in Asia Minor for several centuries. Still, Victor’s threat was reputedly the first papal act to influence the ecclesiastical affairs of the Eastern patriarchs. He is also believed to have been the first pope to have dealings with the imperial household.

Under Victor, Latin replaced Greek as the official language of the Roman church, and Victor himself wrote in Latin. In addition to settling the Easter controversy, he held a number of synods at Rome to deal with the dynamic monarchian heresy of the Byzantine merchant Theodotus, whom Victor excommunicated for teaching that Jesus was a normal human being until his Baptism, when the divine power (dynamis) descended upon him. Victor’s actions were more characteristic of a pope than those of preceding bishops of Rome.

 

 

Councils of Ephesus, three assemblies held in Asia Minor to resolve problems of the early Christian Church.

In 190 Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, convened a synod to establish the 14th of Nisan (the date of the Jewish Passover) as the official date of Easter. Pope Victor I, preferring a Sunday as more convenient and desiring uniformity, repudiated the decision and separated the rebels from Rome.

In 431 Pope Celestine I commissioned Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, to conduct proceedings against Nestorius, his longtime adversary, whose doctrine of two Persons in Christ the Pope had previously condemned. When the Eastern bishops (more sympathetic to Nestorius) ... (100 of 293 words)

 

 

Pope Saint Victor I was bishop of Rome (from about 189 to 199 C.E.). Having been born in the Roman Province of Africa, he was the first African pope.
Victor is best known for his role in the Easter controversy, in which he attempted unsuccessfully to require that all Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus on Sunday, rather than in relation to the Jewish calculation of Passover. He was also actively involved in ridding the Roman church of Gnosticism and other heresies, including Adoptionism and possibly Montanism.
According to Jerome, Victor was the first Christian author to write theological works in Latin. Before Victor's time, Rome celebrated the Mass in Greek, and he may have been the first Roman bishop to use a Latin liturgy. Latin masses, however, did not become widespread until the latter half of the fourth century.
Although he is traditionally venerated as a martyr, there is no evidence of his martyrdom in the historical records. Indeed, he seems to have been the first pope to have enjoyed close connections to the imperial household. His reign was marked by improved and peaceful relations with the Roman state.

Victor died in 199 C.E., and was succeeded by Pope Zephyrinus. His feast day is commemorated on July 28.

 

The Liber Pontificalis identifies him as a native of Africa and gives his father's name as Felix. The dates of his reign as bishop of Rome are a matter of some confusion. The Liber Pontificalis gives the years 186-197 as the period of Victor's episcopate. The Armenian text of the Chronicle of Eusebius, however, places the beginning of Victor's pontificate in the seventh year of the reign of the Emperor Commodus (187) and gives it a duration of 12 years. In Eusebius' Church History (V, xxxii), however, Eusebius places the beginning of Victor's pontificate in the tenth year of Commodus and makes it last ten years.

 

Easter controversy

While the external situation of the Roman Church thus prospered, internal dissensions during this period greatly affected the Church. The dispute over the celebration of Easter in particular grew more acute. The Roman Christians who had come from the province of Asia (also called Phrygia in today's western Turkey) were accustomed to observe Easter in relation to the timing of Passover, on the fourteenth day of Jewish month of Nisan—whatever day of the week that date might happen to be. This tradition led to trouble when it was noticed by the native Christian community of Rome.

 Irenaeus of Lyons agreed with Victor on the date of Easter, but scolded him for his harsh attitude toward eastern Christians who wanted to celebrated the holiday on the fourteenth day of Nisan.

 

Pope Victor decided to bring about unity in the observance of the Easter festival and to persuade the "Quartodecimans" to join in the practice of the Roman Church. He wrote, therefore, to Bishop Polycrates of Ephesus and persuaded him to call together the bishops of the province of Asia in order to discuss the matter with them. This was done, but the result was not to the pope's liking. In the letter sent to Victor by Polycrates in reply, he declared that he firmly held to the Quartoceciman custom as did the majority of the many other celebrated bishops of that region.

Victor then called a meeting of Italian bishops at Rome, which is the earliest Roman synod known. He also wrote to the leading bishops of the various districts, urging them to call together the bishops of their sections of the country and to take counsel with them on the question of the Easter festival. Letters came from all sides: From the synod in Palestine, at which Theophilus of Caesarea and Narcissus of Jerusalem presided; from the synod of Pontus over which the venerable Palmas presided; from the communities in Gaul whose bishop was Irenaeus of Lyons; from the bishops of the Kingdom of Osrhoene; and also from individual bishops, such as Bakchylus of Corinth. These letters unanimously agreed with Victor that Easter was to be observed on Sunday.

Victor, who believed that he acted as the head of Catholic Christendom, now ordered the bishops of the province of Asia to abandon their custom and to accept the practice of always celebrating Easter on Sunday. Those who refused to comply he declared to be excommunicated, in effect condemning their practice as heresy. The first major split between eastern and western Christianity had thus begun.

Victor's severe procedure outraged even some of those who agreed with him on the main point. Irenaeus of Lyons and others wrote to Victor, criticizing his harshness and urging him to maintain peace and unity with the bishops of Asia. Irenaeus reminded him that even though his predecessors had maintained the Sunday observance of Easter, they had never broken off friendly relations and communion with bishops because they followed another custom (Eusebius, "Hist. eccl.," V, xxiii-xxv). Under this influence, Victor was forced to reconsider his actions and lifted the threat of excommunication against the eastern churches.

In Rome, Victor enforced the observance of Easter on Sunday by all Christians in the capital. However, an easterner named Blastus, with a number of followers, refused to go along with this policy, creating a schism in Rome (Eusebius, loc. cit., B, xx). Beyond this, in terms of the wider course of the Easter controversy under Victor I, little is known. However, in the course of the third century, the Roman practice in the observance of Easter became more universal. Nevertheless, the Nisan 14 tradition was still important enough in the early fourth century that Emperor Constantine I felt compelled to ban it, declaring: "Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Savior a different way" (Eusebius, Life of Constantine, Book III, chapter 18)

Other challenges

Victor also had difficulties with a Roman priest named Florinus. As an official of the imperial court, Florinus had become acquainted in Asia Minor with Saint Polycarp, and later became a presbyter of the Roman Church. He allegedly fell into the Gnostic heresy and defended the views of the Gnostic leader Valentinus. Irenæus wrote two treatises against Florinus' opinions: "On the Monarchy [of God] and that God is not the Author of Evil," and "On the Ogdoad." Irenaeus called Victor's attention to the writings of Florinus, and Victor forbade him to practice his priestly functions and may have expelled him from the Church altogether (Eusebius, "Hist. eccl.," V, xv, 20).

Victor faced another challenge when a rich Christian called Theodotus the Leather-seller came from Constantinople to Rome and taught that Christ, rather than being the Incarnation of God from his birth, was endowed by the Holy Ghost with divine power when he was baptized by John the Baptist. Victor condemned this teaching as heresy and excluded Theodotus from the Church. Theodotus, however, would not submit. Together with his adherents, he formed a separate congregation, which maintained itself for several years at Rome.

Victor may also have been the pope who first opposed the Montanists. Tertullian reports ("Ad Praceam," 1) that a Roman bishop, whose name he does not give, had initially declared his acceptance of the prophecies of Montanus, but had been persuaded by a certain Praxeas to withdraw his support. Some believe that Tertullian, who himself had joined the Montanists by the time he wrote this, referred to Victor's predecessor, Pope Eleutherius, rather than Victor himself.

Promoter of Latin

Jerome calls Pope Victor the first Latin writer in the Church (Chronicon, ad an. Abr. 2209). Prior to him, Greek was the nearly universal language of theological discourse. Jerome mentions small theological treatises written by him in Latin. However, besides the letters touching the Easter controversy, none of Victor's actual works is known. The question of whether he promoted the use of Latin in the Roman liturgy is an open one.

It may have been during Victor's administration that the canon of scripture used at Rome, and which has been partially preserved in the Muratorian Fragment, was drawn up.

Legacy

Victor, though harsh and unsuccessful in his attempt to bring the eastern churches to heel on the Easter controversy, affirmed Rome's primacy on this matter, in a manner still looked to in the Catholic tradition as being within the pope's rights. From the standpoint of the eastern churches, however, Rome's primacy has always been one of honor only, not one of legislative authority. In this sense, Victor's actions set an unfortunate precedent, which continued to be experienced as arrogance and sometimes as outright error by those of the Orthodox tradition.

As the first Latin writer of the Catholic Church, Victor left an important legacy, as Latin would eventually become the official language of the Western Church. While this would create a rich intellectual and liturgical tradition throughout Europe, it, too, exacerbated relations with the east. This was especially the case during the theological controversies of the fourth and fifth centuries, which sometimes hung on the translation of technical terminology which was not easily rendered into both Latin and Greek with the same precise meaning.

(Thank you for this, St. Victor.  There used to be a time when Catholics could attend Mass anywhere in the world and know exactly where they were in the Mass because of Latin.  Could we go to another country, go to Mass, and say the same anymore?)

St. Innocent I, Pope

Pope St. Innocent I
St. Innocent I, a native of Albano, Italy, reigned from 401 to 417 and lived at the same time as Saints Jerome and Augustine. He ascended the throne by compulsion, and considering himself in it with trembling, he never ceased to beg of God the spirit of his holy wisdom and prudence, which he stood the more in need of, as the times in which he lived were more difficult. Alaric the Goth, with an army of barbarians, threatened to carry desolation over all Italy. The pope exhorted the faithful to receive the scourges of heaven with submission and humility, and undertook several journeys to negotiate a reconciliation between the emperor Honorius and Alaric, but in vain. The Goths received a great overthrow from the Roman army commanded by Stilico, in 403. But Alaric led them a second time to attempt the plunder of Rome; and because Honorius refused to make him general of the imperial army, he took that city on the 24th of August, 410, and abandoned it to the fury of his soldiers, excepting the church of SS. Peter and Paul, to which he granted the privilege of a sanctuary. Pope Innocent was at that time absent with the emperor at Ravenna. The year following, Alaric being dead, his brother-in-law and successor Atulphus again plundered Rome.

After the departure of the barbarians, the good pope hastened there, and by his presence brought comfort and joy to that afflicted people. He taught them to draw an advantage from their sufferings by making a good use of them; and so much were the Heathens edified at the patience, resignation, and virtue with which the Christians suffered the loss of their goods and whatever was dear, without any murmuring or complaint, that they came in crowds desiring to be instructed in the faith and baptized.

This energetic Pope is known for his zealous welfare for the entire Church. His decrees became law in Spain, Gaul and Italy. St. Jerome, writing to the virgin Demetrias says of Innocent: "Hold fast to the Faith of holy Innocent, who is the son of Anastasius of blessed memory and his successor in the Apostolic throne; receive no strange doctrine, however shrewd and prudent you may think yourself."
Orosius writes that, like the just Lot, he was withdrawn by God's providence from Rome, and preserved in safety at Ravenna, that he might not be a witness of the ruin of the Roman people. to the Pope for confirmation. During Innocent's pontificate, he emphasized papal supremacy, commending the bishops of Africa for referring the decrees of their councils at Carthage and Millevis in 416, condemning Pelagianism, to the Pope for confirmation. It was his confirmation of these decrees that caused Augustine to make a remark that was to echo through the centuries: "Roma locuta, causa finitas" (Rome has spoken, the matter is ended). Earlier Innocent had stressed to Bishop St. Victrius and the Spanish bishops that matters of great importance were to be referred to Rome for settlement. Innocent strongly favored clerical celibacy and fought the unjust removal of St. John Chrysostom. He vainly sought help from Emperor Honorius at Ravenna when the Goths under Alaric captured and sacked Rome. Innocent died in Rome on March 12. After the condemnation of Pelagius and Celestinus, he decreed, contrary to their heretical teachings, that children, even though born of a Christian mother, must be born again by water, in order that their second birth may cleanse away the stain they have contracted by the first. He also approved the observance of fasting on the Saturday in memory of the burial of Christ our Lord. He sat fifteen years, one month, and ten days on the throne of Peter. He held four ordinations in the month of December, and made thirty priests, fifteen deacons, and fifty-four bishops for diverse places. He was buried in the cemetery called ad Ursum Pileatum.


In 410, during his pontificate, Rome was ravaged by the barbarians of Alaric. He took the responsibility of rebuilding the city and showed great charity in helping the victims.



Comments of Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira:

St. Innocent is one of the greatest Popes of the 5th century. It is beautiful to see how he was entirely faithful amidst a hard struggle in a tragic era.

He lived at the time of the fall of the Western Roman Empire, when it seemed as if a multitude of accumulated chastisements fell over the Empire all at once. Historians do not sufficiently emphasize the simultaneous development of two major things at that time. The first, the invasion of the barbarians touched the temporal order, and indirectly shook the Church as well, since those barbarians were either pagans or heretics. The second, various heresies burst out everywhere when the Church emerged from the catacombs. Therefore, the Church faced attacks equal to, or even worse than, those which chastised the State.

However, the two institutions, the Church and the State, had different destinies. While the putrid Roman State disappeared, the Church produced great Popes, not ecumenical Popes but rather warrior Pontiffs who relentlessly fought against the heresies, making continuous excommunications and wounding the enemies of the Church as much as they could.



Pope Innocent I faced the sacking of Rome by Alaric in 410.
The Roman Emperors adopted a pacifist policy, permitting the barbarians to cross the military posts of the Empire that had been constructed near the natural barriers of the Rhine and Danube rivers. After crossing those lines, the barbarians were allowed to remain inside the Empire and settle land there. Once the Empire’s army became accustomed to their presence and let down its guard, the barbarians started their invasions from within.

On the contrary, the great Popes of those times did not take a pacifist attitude. They energetically fought the enemies of the Church and strongly defended the doctrine of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The result of these two opposite policies is that the Western Roman Empire ended, while the Church - led by Popes like St. Innocent - rose to a most glorious destiny. Those Popes were the first great men who constituted the foundation for the Middle Ages.

These considerations show us how that energetic policy of the Popes to resolve the problems of the Church and defend the truth is the correct one.

Let us pray to Pope St. Innocent I to give us energy like his to defend the cause of the Catholic Church in these days of abomination in which we live, even if the example we receive from high places is the opposite.

St. Pantaleon, Martyr

SAINT PANTALEON of NICOMEDIA
Physician and Martyr
(†303)

 Saint Pantaleon was born in Nicomedia of a pagan father and a Christian mother, who died while her son was still a child. He was among the court physicians of the Emperor Galerius Maximianus. Deceived by hearing the false maxims of the world applauded, he was without religion when God decided to rescue his soul from its unhappy darkness. A zealous and prudent Christian named Hermolaus took special notice of him and awakened his conscience, telling him that although the famous physicians of ancient times had possessed the science which cures bodies, Jesus Christ was a far more excellent Physician, able to cure not only bodies, but souls, by His divine doctrine. Hermolaus succeeded in bringing him into the fold of the Church.

The young Christian strove to procure for his father the same grace he himself had received, and his words had already begun to separate his father from his idols, when one day a blind man, led by friends, came to the door and begged Pantaleon to cure him. His father was present and heard the promise his son made to this man to do so, if he would give to the poor the money he was offering him. The father was amazed and feared that the promise could not be fulfilled. But the young Saint prayed and touched the eyes of the blind man, invoking the name of Jesus Christ, and his eyes were opened. Pantaleon's father and the blind man were both baptized as a result of this miracle. When Eustorgus, his father, died, Saint Pantaleon liberated all his slaves and, having sold most of his possessions, gave to the liberated ones and others the assistance their poverty required. He cured other illnesses and soon became renowned in Nicomedia.

Saint Pantaleon, being a very sincere penitent, ardently wished to expiate his former idolatry by the martyrdom he could foresee. When a bloody persecution broke out at Nicomedia in 303, the blind man he had cured was beheaded upon refusing to admit that it was the gods who had cured him. Saint Pantaleon, to prepare himself for the imminent combat, distributed all he had left among the poor. Not long after this act of charity he was arrested and subjected to various tortures, during which he was preserved from death. Three other Christians, of whom one was Hermolaus, were apprehended. After suffering many torments, the four confessors were all sentenced to be beheaded.

The relics of Saint Pantaleon were translated to Constantinople, and there received great honor. His blood, conserved in a small vial, is said to liquefy on his feast day and become oxygenated. Charlemagne brought a part of his relics into France, where they are presently divided again, a portion being in the abbey of Saint Denys near Paris, and the head at Lyons. Saint Pantaleon, whose name means the "all-compassionate one," is the patron of physicians.

 

Happy are they who, whatever may be their station or calling in life, are intent on bringing those with whom they come into contact under the influence of religion. But, alas, too many do just the reverse. They permit themselves to be led astray by bad example, and set aside the claims of the Church as too severe and exacting. How do you act in this regard? Do you shun the company of the wicked? A proverb says: "Tell me in whose company you are found, and I will tell you who you are." Bad company insensibly undermines faith and morals, overcomes the fear of evil and the aversion to it and weakens the will. "He that loveth danger shall perish in it" (Ecclus. iii. 27).

As soon as St. Pantaleon came to a sense of his apostasy, he repented and returned to the practice of the Faith. He did this despite the knowledge that he thereby incurred hatred and persecution. The true Christian will ever follow the dictates of conscience and please God, whether he thereby incur the displeasure of men or not. If, to please men, we become remiss in the service of God, we show that we fear and love Him less than men. What a lamentable folly! Of whom have we to expect greater benefits or to fear greater evils--from God or man? Do not act thus unwisely; rather imitate St. Pantaleon, and live for God and His service.



Prayer of the Church

Almighty God, grant us through the intercession of Thy blessed martyr Pantaleon to be delivered and preserved from all ills of the body, and from evil thoughts and influences in spirit. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

St. Anne, Grandmother of Jesus

Saint Anne, chosen by God to be the mother of Mary, His own Blessed Mother on earth, was the spouse of Saint Joachim. Ancestor of the Eternal King and High Priest, Joachim was of the royal house of David, while Anne was of Levitical descent. Their lives were wholly occupied with prayer and good works. One thing only was wanting to their union - they were childless, and this was held as a bitter misfortune among the Jews. At length, when Anne was well advanced in age, Mary was born, the fruit rather of grace than of nature, and the child more of God than of man.

In the words of our Blessed Abbot Gueranger, who puts it so beautifully:

'Anne was, as it were, the starting point of redemption, the horizon scanned by the prophets, the first span of the heavens to be empurpled with the rising fires of dawn; the blessed soil whose produce was so pure as to make the angels believe that Eden had been restored to us. But in the midst of the incomparable peace that surrounds her, let us hail her as the land of victory surpassing the most famous fields of battle; as the sanctuary of the Immaculate Conception, where our humiliated race took up the combat begun before the throne of God by the angelic host; where the serpent's head was crushed, and Michael, now surpassed in glory, gladly handed over to his sweet Queen, at the first moment of her existence, the command of the Lord's armies.'

After much prayer over the years, Anne's prayers are answered: "And behold an angel of the Lord stood by (possibly St. Gabriel), and said to her: "Anne, God has heard thy prayer; thou shalt conceive and bear a child, and thy fruit shall be honored throughout the whole inhabited earth." And in due time Anne brought forth a daughter, and said: "My soul is magnified this hour." (Sound somewhat familiar?) And she called the child Mary; and giving her the breast, she intoned this canticle to the Lord:

"I will sing the praise of the Lord my God: for He has visited me and has taken away my shame, and has given me a fruit of justice. Who shall declare to the sons of Ruben that Anne is become fruitful? Hear, hear, O ye twelve tribes: behold Anne is giving suck!" (From the Protevangelium Jacobi.)

With the birth of Mary the holy matron began a new life; she watched Her every movement with reverent tenderness, and, aware of the little one's destiny, felt herself hourly sanctified by the presence of her Immaculate Child. But she had vowed her daughter to God; to God the child Mary had already consecrated Herself, and to Him Anne gave Her back. Mary was three years old when Anne and Joachim led Her to the Temple steps, saw Her pass by Herself into the inner sanctuary, and then saw Her no more. Thus was Anne left childless in her old age, and deprived of her purest earthly joy. The holiest parents on earth could not, in the plan of God, raise this Child as was needed: Mary had to suffer from Her earliest years. Saint Anne and Saint Joachim humbly adored the Divine Will, and continued to watch and pray, until God called them to unending rest. (Remember Simeon and Anna in the temple? This Anna was to take care of Mary through these years.)

                                              Mary presenting herself to the temple
Let us conclude with this praise and prayer to out Lord, from the Ambrosian Missal of Milan:

'It is right and just to give thanks to Thee, O eternal God, Who by a singular privilege of Thy grace, hast exalted the blessed Anne. To whose desire of fruitfulness thou didst give a gift so magnificent and so far surpassing all others, that from her was born Mary, the Virgin of virgins, the Lady of the angels, the Queen of the world, the star of the sea, the Mother of Thy Son, Who is both God and Man.

O almighty everlasting God, Who didst give to blessed Anne, after the affliction of long barrenness, the grace to bear a glorious fruit; grant, we beseech Thee, that, as her merits intercede with Thee for us, we may be made fruitful in works of salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.'

St. Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin and Grandmother of Our Lord, please pray for us.



A Prayer to be said by Parents
In behalf of their Children

O Lord God, who hast called us to holy matrimony and hast been pleased to render our union fruitful, thus making glad the sublime state of life wherein Thou hast placed us, by a certain likeness to Thine own infinite fruitfulness; we heartily recommend to Thee our dear children; we entrust them to Thy fatherly care and all-powerful protection, that they may grow daily in Thy holy fear, may lead a perfect Christian life and may be a source of consolation, not only to us who have given them life, but also and chiefly to Thee, who art their Creator.

Behold, O Lord, in what a world they must pass their lives; consider the cunning flatteries whereby the sons of men everywhere endeavor to deprave their minds and hearts with false doctrine and wicked example. Be watchful, O Lord, to help and defend them; grant us the grace to be able to guide them aright in the paths of virtue and in the way of Thy commandments, by the righteous pattern of our own life and practice, and our perfect observance of Thy holy law and that of our holy mother the Church; and in order that we may do so faithfully, make us certain of the grave danger that awaits us at the hands of Thy divine justice. Nevertheless all our efforts will be unavailing, unless Thou, O almighty and merciful God, shalt make them fruitful by Thy heavenly blessing.

This Thy blessing, therefore, we humbly ask of Thee, from the bottom of our hearts, trusting in Thy great goodness and mercy hitherto shown unto us; we ask it for ourselves and for the children whom Thou hast been graciously pleased to give unto us. We dedicate them to Thee, O Lord, do Thou keep them as the apple of Thine eye, and protect them under the shadow of Thy wings; do Thou make us worthy to come at last to heaven, together with them, giving thanks unto Thee, our Father, for the loving care Thou hast had of our entire family and praising Thee through endless ages. Amen.



(1943 Raccolta: An indulgence of 300 days)


May St. Joachim and St. Anne pray for us, that we try to imitate them in the raising of our children

St. James, Apostle

SAINT JAMES the GREATER
Apostle
Patron of Spain
(†44)

 Among the twelve Apostles, three were chosen to be the close companions of our Blessed Lord, and of these James was one. He, with Peter and John, was admitted to the house of Jairus when his dead child was raised to life (Luke 8:40 ff.); only these three were taken up to the high mountain of Thabor and beheld the face of Jesus shining as the sun, and His garments white as snow (Mark 9:2-7). These three alone witnessed the fearful agony in Gethsemane. (Luke 22:39-45)

What was it that won James a place among the favorite three? Faith, burning, impetuous and outspoken, the straightforwardness of the true Israelite, were visible in him; but these qualities needed purifying before the "Son of Thunder" could proclaim the Gospel of peace. St. Mark relates that Christ called James and his brother, on account of the vehemence of their zeal, "Boanerges," or children of the thunder, because they announced the Gospel with such earnestness, that their voices penetrated the hearts of men, like the rolling of the thunder, and moved them to recognize and receive the truth. It was James who suggested fire from heaven to consume the inhospitable Samaritans, and who sought a place of honor beside Christ in His kingdom. Yet Our Lord, in rebuking his presumption, prophesied his faithfulness unto death. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, we read that the mother of James and John, Salome, had come to Christ, asking Him to place one of her sons on His right hand, the other on His left in His kingdom. The Saviour reproved the two Apostles for their ambition, saying: "You know not what you ask." After this, He asked them: "Can you drink of the Chalice that I shall drink?" And they resolutely replied: "Yes, we can."

 He went to Spain after the death of Our Lord, and remained there for nine years, according to tradition. The famous Basilica of Saint James of Compostello, one of the most frequented pilgrimage sites of Europe, the site also of countless miracles, commemorates the memory of the nation's beloved Apostle. (Let us keep in mind that James overcame the Mussulman (the 'peaceful religion', or is it the 'religion' of submission?) plague in Iberia. We could sure use his help these days)

In the year 44 St. James, who was at that time in Jerusalem, was brought before King Herod Agrippa. The Apostle had been preaching fearlessly there, curing the sick and the blind, and delivering possessed persons. Two magicians were sent by the authorities to stop his doings by their charms, but both were converted. His enemies were not defeated by that, however, and paid two Roman captains to incite a sedition during the Apostle's preaching, then seize him as its author. A certain Josias, a scribe among the Pharisees, put a cord around his neck and took him before the third Herod, grandson of the first, murderer of the Innocents, and nephew of the second, who had the Baptist decapitated. This new sycophant of the Roman Emperors, desiring to conciliate the Jews and make them forget his non-Jewish origins, decided to do so by persecuting the Christians. Without delay he condemned Saint James to die by the sword. When the man who had brought him to the tribunal saw the courage with which he went to martyrdom he declared that he, too, was a Christian.

As they were being hurried to execution, he (Josias), implored James' forgiveness. The Apostle kissed him, saying: "Peace be with you." He was taken with the Apostle to the place of execution, where Saint James and his convert died together.(What strikes me is the fact that one of the 'sons of thunder' is the first of the Apostles to die, while the other one, John, is the last to die. Just sayin' I don't know if it means anything, but I thought it was interesting.)

His body was afterwards translated to Compostella, where it is honoured with the highest veneration; pilgrims flock thither from every part of the world, to satisfy their devotion or pay their vows. The memory of his natalis is celebrated by the Church to-day, which is the day of his translation. But it was near the feast of the Pasch that, first of all the Apostles, he shed his blood, at Jerusalem, as a witness to Jesus Christ.

The Saint one night left the city with his disciples and went to the banks of the river Ebro, to offer his prayer there undisturbed. Suddenly the Blessed Virgin, who at that time was still on earth, appeared to him, surrounded by many angels. James recognized her immediately, and, falling on his knees before her, honored her as the Mother of his Redeemer. She said to him: "Thou shalt build upon this place, a Church in my honor; for I know that the inhabitants of Saragossa will conceive an especial devotion to me, for which reason I will henceforth protect them." James obeyed her words, and erected a Church which although small at the beginning, was afterwards enlarged and rebuilt in its present form. This Church is still called the "Church of the Pillar of St. Mary," because the Blessed Virgin appeared to the Apostle on a pillar which yet remains.


The Apostle won the three crowns of heroism: he is a Doctor par excellence of the Faith, he was the first Apostle to be martyred, and according to St. Epiphanus and other historians, he always conserved his virginity. He is the patron of Spain. A Spanish author by the name of Tamayo reports fifteen different apparitions of Saint James to the kings and princes of Spain, followed each time by some specific assistance for the benefit of the land.

No sooner was James called by Christ to follow Him, than unhesitatingly he left home and everything and followed the Saviour. If he had not done so, or if he had delayed, who knows if a second call would have reached him, and if he would not have gone to eternal destruction? God calls you already so long to follow Him, to do penance, to correct your life, to manifest greater fervor in His service, to avoid all occasions of evil, to break off all sinful associations, to confess your evil deeds, to restore what you have no right to possess, to repair the reputation of your neighbor, which you have injured by your slanders, etc. He calls you by an inner, voice, and by your confessor, or through sermons. Why do you not follow Him? Why do you delay from day to day? Oh! take heed, that the menace of God be not verified in you: "I called and you refused: I stretched out my hand and there was none that regarded. You have despised all my counsel, and have neglected my reprehensions. I will also laugh at your destruction. (Prov. i.)" If you do not wish to become yourself an example of this dreadful menace, resolve to-day to follow the call of your God, and to act according to His exhortations. Delay not longer, or He may cease to invite you, and you will go to destruction.

We must all desire a place in the kingdom of our Father; but, can we drink the chalice which He holds out to each one of us? 'Possumus', we must say with Saint James - "We can!" - but only in the strength of Him who drank it first for us.


Prayer:
O glorious Apostle, Saint James, who by reason of thy fervent and generous heart wast chosen by Jesus to be a witness of His glory on Mount Thabor, and of His agony in Gethsemane; thou, whose very name is a symbol of warfare and victory: obtain for us strength and consolation in the unending warfare of this life, that, having constantly and generously followed Jesus, we may be victors in the strife and deserve to receive the victor's crown in heaven. Amen.


(Indulgence of 300 days)

St. Christopher

From one of the 'Sons of Thunder' to the one whose name means 'Christbearer', St. Christopher.  He is one of the 'Fourteen Holy Helpers'.  If you do a search on this name, you will find him and thirteen more, who are listed this time of year, and who help us in our various needs.

St. Christopher, Martyr by Father Francis Xavier Weninger, 1876

The Roman Martyrology, today, honors also St. Christopher, who received the crown of martyrdom about the middle of the third century. He was born and educated in idolatry, but no sooner had he embraced Christianity, than he zealously strove to convert others to the true faith, and labored especially for this end in the district of Lycia. When, on this account, he was arraigned before the heathen judges, he fearlessly confessed Christ. Making him prisoner, they sent two wicked heathen women to him, who by tempting him to evil deeds, should open the way for him to forsake Christianity. But the Saint not only induced them by his exhortations to change their conduct, but also converted them to the Christian faith; which so enraged the judge, that he ordered the Saint to be tormented most cruelly.

Perceiving, however, that the Saint remained constant under all kinds of martyrdom, and by his example converted a great many heathens, the tyrant at length ordered him to be beheaded. This Saint is generally represented as of a gigantic stature, with a budding staff in his hand, carrying Christ, in the form of a lovely child, across a river. The cause of this is, that St. Christopher possessed a very tall figure, and one day, while expounding the truth of the Gospel to the heathens, he fixed a withered stick into the ground, which, to testify to the truth of his teachings, immediately began to bud. It is also told of him that his desire to assist his neighbor induced him to make his dwelling for some time by a river, and to carry travelers across to the opposite shore, as there was no bridge. While employed in these deeds of kindness, Christ Himself appeared one day to him, in the form of a lovely child, desiring to be carried over the river. The Saint took Him upon his shoulder, and carried him to the opposite shore, where the Saviour, making Himself known, filled the heart of His faithful servant with inexpressible joy.

There have been in the last few centuries, some who, wickedly desiring to tarnish the glory of the Saints, dared to assert that St. Christopher never existed. Several learned men, however, have, by their powerful arguments, silenced this erroneous statement. It is an established fact, that this holy Martyr was already honored by the whole Christian world, more than a thousand years before Luther. There are several convents and churches which were founded in his honor. It must here also be remarked that the Catholic Church by no means approves of the superstition practiced by some weak-minded persons; as, for instance, to say the so-called Prayer of St. Christopher, in order to find hidden treasures or to receive money from the Saint. It is known that, in our time, some who practised this superstition were punished by a just judgment of the Almighty in a terrible manner, by a sudden death.

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS.

The heathen tyrant endeavored to incite St. Christopher to the vice of unchastity, through two wicked women, because he thought that this would be the best way to lead him from Christianity. The same means were tried by other tyrants, with others of the faithful. Christopher, however, who desired to remain true to his faith, was not to be seduced. Heed it well. Unchastity is the way which leads to the loss of the true faith, hence to hell. Those who become addicted to this terrible vice, begin slowly to doubt several points of faith, until they have persuaded themselves that the sin they commit is not so great as is preached from the pulpit, but only a human weakness which God could not and would not punish with hell. Whoever reasons in this manner, has ceased to be a Catholic, as he does not believe everything God teaches us by His holy Church. The true faith of the heart is already lost, although apparently he may still belong to the Church of Christ. Without faith, heaven is lost, but hell remains. "He that believes not shall be condemned," says Christ. (John, hi.; Mark, xvi.) Ponder well these words, and if you are free from this vice, give thanks to the Almighty, and, following the example of Christopher, let nothing seduce you. But if you are a slave to it, tear yourself away from it, if you will truly deserve the name of Catholic, and escape everlasting fire. " No man is more ready to despise God, more audacious in criminal deeds, more hardened in sin, more inflexible to repentance, and nearer to hell, than he who lives an unchaste life," writes St. Thomas of Villanova.







The Legend of St. Christopher

In ancient tradition concerning St. Christophorus relates: He was born in the land of Canaan, and was named Reprobus, that is Reprobate, for he was a barbarous heathen. In stature and strength he was a giant. Thinking no one his like in bodily vigor, he resolved to go forth in search of the mightiest master and serve him. In his wanderings, he met with a king who was praised as the most valorous man on earth. To him he offered his services and was accepted. The king was proud of his giant and kept him near his person. One day a minstrel visited the king's castle, and among the ballads he sung before the court was one on the power of Satan. At the mention of this name the king blessed himself, making the sign of the cross. Reprobus, wondering, asked him why he did that. The king replied: "When I make this sign, Satan has no power over me." Reprobus rejoined: "So thou fearest the power of Satan? Then he is mightier than thou, and I shall seek and serve him."

Setting forth to seek Satan, he came into a wilderness. One dark night he met a band of wild fellows riding through the forest. It was Satan and his escort. Reprobus bravely accosted him, saying he wished to serve him. He was accepted. But soon he was convinced that his new master was not the mightiest on earth. For one day, whilst approaching a crucifix by the wayside, Satan quickly took to flight, and Reprobus asked him for the reason. Satan replied: "That is the image of my greatest enemy, who conquered me on the cross. From him I always flee." When Reprobus heard this, he left the devil, and went in search of Christ.

In his wanderings, he one day came to a hut hidden in the forest. At its door sat a venerable old man. Reprobus addressed him, and in the course of the conversation that ensued the old man told him that he was a hermit, and had left the world to serve Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth. "Thou art my man," cried Reprobus; "Christ is He whom I seek, for He is the strongest and the mightiest. Tell me where I can find Him." The hermit then began instructing the giant about God and the Redeemer, and concluded by saying: "He who would serve Christ must offer himself entirely to Him, and do and suffer everything for His sake. His reward for this will be immense and will last forever." Reprobus now asked the hermit to allow him to remain, and to continue to instruct him. The hermit consented. When Reprobus was fully instructed, he baptized him. After his baptism, a great change came over the giant. No longer proud of his great size and strength, he became meek and humble, and asked the hermit to assign to him some task by which he might serve God, his master. "For," said he, "I can not pray and fast; therefore I must serve God in some other way." The hermit led him to a broad and swift river nearby, and said: "Here build thyself a hut, and when wanderers wish to cross the river, carry them over for the love of Christ." For there was no bridge across the river.

Henceforth, day and night, whenever he was called, Reprobus faithfully performed the task assigned to him. One night he heard a child calling to be carried across the river. Quickly he rose, placed the child on his stout shoulder, took his staff and walked into the mighty current. Arrived in midstream, the water rose higher and higher, and the child became heavier and heavier. "O child," he cried, "how heavy thou art! It seems I bear the weight of the world on my shoulder." And the child replied, "Right thou art. Thou bearest not only the world, but the Creator of heaven and earth. I am Jesus Christ, thy King and Lord, and henceforth thou shalt be called Christophorus, that is, Christ-bearer. Arrived on yonder shore, plant thy staff in the ground, and in token of my power and might tomorrow it shall bear leaves and blossoms."

And the child disappeared. On reaching the other shore, Christophorus stuck his staff into the ground, and behold, it budded forth leaves and blossoms. Then, kneeling, he promised the Lord to serve Him ever faithfully. He kept his promise, and thenceforth became a zealous preacher of the Gospel, converting many to the Faith. On his missionary peregrinations he came also to Lycia, where, after his first sermon, eighteen thousand heathens requested baptism. When Emperor Decius heard of this, he sent a company of four hundred soldiers to capture Christophorus. To these he preached so convincingly, that they all asked for baptism. Decius became enraged thereat and had him cast into prison. There he first treated him with great kindness, and surrounded him with every luxury to tempt him to sin, but in vain. Then he ordered him to be tortured in the most cruel manner, until he should deny the Faith. He was scourged, placed on plates of hot iron, boiling oil was poured over and fire was lighted under him. When all these torments did not accomplish their purpose, the soldiers were ordered to shoot him with arrows. This, too, having no effect, he was beheaded, on July 25th, 254. Two great saints refer to the wonderful achievements of St. Christophorus. St. Ambrose mentions that this saint converted forty-eight thousand souls to Christ. St. Vincent Ferrer declares, that when the plague devastated Valencia, its destructive course was stayed through the intercession of St. Christophorus.

Lesson:

The legend of St. Christophorus conveys a wholesome truth. We ought all to be Christbearers, by preserving in our hearts faith, hope, and charity, and by receiving Our Lord worthily in holy communion. He alone is worthy of our service. In the service that we owe to men, we ought to serve God by doing His will. We cannot divide our heart, for Our Lord Himself says, "No man can serve two masters" (Matt. vi. 24). If you serve the world, it deceives you, for it cannot give you what it promises. If you serve sin, Satan is your master. He, too, deceives his servants, and leads them to perdition. Christ on the cross conquered these two tyrants, and with His help you can also vanquish them. Therefore, give yourself to Him with all your heart, and you shall find peace in this world, and eternal bliss in the next. St. Augustine learned this truth by sad experience, and therefore exclaims: "Thou hast created us for Thee, O Lord, and our heart is restless till it rests in Thee."

Prayer of the Church

Grant us, almighty God, that whilst we celebrate the memory of Thy blessed martyr St. Christophorus, through his intercession the love of Thy name may be increased in us. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 



Prayer in Honor of St. Christophorus

O God, Who didst make St. Christophorus a true Christ-bearer, who converted multitudes to the Christian faith, and who didst give him the grace to suffer for Thy sake the most cruel torments; through the intercession of this saint we implore Thee to protect us from sin, the only real evil. Preserve us, also, against harmful elementary forces, such as earthquake, lightning, fire, and flood. Amen.

Invocation of St. Christophorus

Great St. Christophorus, seeking the strongest and mightiest master thou didst find him in Jesus Christ, the almighty God of heaven and earth, and didst faithfully serve Him with all thy power to the end of thy life, gaining for Him countless souls and finally shedding thy blood for Him; obtain for me the grace to bear Christ always in my heart, as thou didst once bear Him on thy shoulder, so that I thereby may be strengthened to overcome victoriously all temptations and resist all enticements of the world, the devil, and the flesh, and that the powers of darkness may not prevail against me. Amen.

 

 

 

St. Christina, Virgin/Martyr

St. Christina, Virgin and Martyr
by Father Francis Xavier Weninger, 1876

Those who consider the life and the different kinds of martyrdom of this holy Virgin, and do not remember what we said in the preface to these volumes, may easily be tempted to suppose that much of what we relate is impossible, and the work of imagination. But as the whole history is founded on indubitable and unobjectionable testimony, we shall relate her life plainly and faithfully, remembering that God chose this holy Virgin, in preference to innumerable others, to honor and glorify His holy faith among the blind heathen, to confound the tyrants and persecutors of Christendom, and to reveal to the world the wonders of His Omnipotence.

The Saint was a native of Tyro, in Tuscany, where her father Urban, was prefect. He was a sworn enemy to the Christians, and hardly passed a day on which he did not call some one of the faithful into his presence, and doom him to suffering and to death. Christina, who on seeing this, observed at the same time how fearless and happy the Christians were during their torments, was curious to know what kind of men they were, why they were thus persecuted, and what gave them strength to bear so uncomplainingly, nay, so cheerfully, the sufferings they endured. When instructed about all this, the grace of God worked so strongly in her, that she felt an intense desire to be, by means of holy Baptism, numbered among the Christians. She rested not until her desire was fulfilled, and at the age of nine years, she received holy Baptism and with it the name of Christina. Her zeal was greater than could have been expected at her tender age. She secretly took her father's idols, composed of gold and silver, and breaking them into pieces with the assistance of others, divided them among the poor. Her father, almost beside himself with rage when he was informed of this, resolved to avenge, with his daughter's blood, the dishonor done to the gods, but not until he had endeavored to win her by kindness from the faith of Christ. Hence he called her to him and all alone with her, urged her, with many manifestations of kindness and at last with menaces, to forsake Christ. Christina, however, said fearlessly: "Do with me whatever you like, my dear father; you can take my life, but the faith of Christ you have no power to tear out of my heart. My Saviour will strengthen me to suffer patiently all that you have threatened." Scarcely had she spoken these words, when the inhuman father commanded the executioners whom he had called to scourge her most cruelly over her whole body.

Christina gave no signs of pain during this suffering. After this, the tyrant ordered that the wounds she had received should be enlarged with iron combs and whips with sharp points, which was done with such ferocity, that whole pieces of flesh were torn from the tender body of the Virgin. Christina stood at first immovable with her eyes turned to heaven, and then praised and thanked the Almighty for so visibly aiding her to bear her pains. The father,--who was no father, but a savage beast,--still more embittered by her conduct, ordered an iron wheel to be brought. Christina was then bound upon it, oil was poured over her, and then the wheel was raised in such a manner that it could be turned. When this was done, a fire was prepared under it, in order slowly to roast the maiden. Almighty God, however, so effectually strengthened His heroic confessor, that she sang loudly during this terrible torment. She remained unhurt by the flames, while many of the spectators were seized by them and severely injured. The tyrant, astonished at this miracle, would still not relent, but ordered her to be dragged to a dungeon, with the intention to renew her torture on the following day.

Hardly had Christina entered the dungeon, when an angel of the Most High appeared to her and healed her wounds, encouraged her to persevere, and gave her assurance of divine assistance. When her father was informed that she was so miraculously healed, he immediately sent some executioners into the prison, with orders to tie a large stone around her neck, and cast her into a lake, so that nothing further might be seen or heard of her. But the same angel who had visited her the day before, carried her safely to the shore. Christina was sent again to the dungeon, and Urban thought of new ways and means to torment her. But when morning dawned, he was found dead in his bed. He had probably died from a stroke of apoplexy, brought on by his uncontrolled anger.

Thus God punished, by a sudden and unhappy death, his inhuman wickedness. Christina was much more pained by the eternal destruction of her father, than by all the tortures she had suffered. The latter, however did not end with her father's death : for Dio, who was Urban's successor, not only in his functions, but also in his cruelty, had Christina brought before him, and as she remained firm in her refusal to abandon the Christian faith, he commanded an iron cradle to be constructed and filled with boiling oil and tar, into which Christina should be cast. The heroine evinced not the slightest fear of this instrument of torture, but signing herself with the sign of the Cross, she said to the soldiers who cast her into the cradle: "Well have you reason to lay me like a child in a cradle; for it is hardly a year since I was born in holy baptism." She remained in it a considerable time ; but when they at length perceived that she neither felt pain nor was in the least harmed, they took her out and brought her into the temple of Apollo, commanding her to sacrifice to him. No sooner, however, had Christina set foot in the temple, than she made the sign of the Cross, and the idol, falling from the altar upon the ground, was broken into a thousand pieces.

At the same moment, the prefect Dio, struck with apoplexy, sank dead upon the earth. The soldiers, who had brought Christina into the temple, were terrified by this twofold wonder, and freeing the Virgin from her fetters, they cried aloud: "Truly, the God of the Christians is the only true God." Many of those present abandoned idolatry and became converts to the Christian faith. When Julian, Dio's successor, heard of Christina and the sudden end of his predecessor, he feared that the people might accuse him of cowardice, if he did not continue the process against a weak woman. Hence he said to her: "Thou must either immediately sacrifice to the gods, or I will cast thee alive into a burning furnace." Christina refused more earnestly than ever to obey, and Julian ordered her to be cast into the furnace, which meanwhile had been prepared. The order was executed, and Christina remained in it until the fifth day, unharmed, as, in ages past, the three companions of Daniel had been in the furnace of Babylon. She also imitated these in constantly praising God and giving thanks for so many mercies received. Julian ascribed this miracle to magic, and following the advice of a magician, he had Christina thrown into a dark cavern, into which this magician had charmed a great many of the most venomous animals. The holy Virgin once more signed herself with the cross, and none of the animals touched her. She stood in the midst of them, giving praise to the Almighty, her Protector. To prevent this they tore out her tongue, at the command of Julian; but even then she ceased not praising God. This new miracle converted many to the Christian faith, and the tyrant commanded them at length to fasten her to a stake and pierce her with arrows. While they bound her fast, her heart was filled with the desire to behold in heaven Him for whom she had suffered so much on earth. She therefore called on God to impart to her the long-desired crown of martyrdom. Her prayer was answered, for one of the arrows found the way to her heart, and her heroic soul went to Him by whose mighty assistance she had conquered three tyrants. Her glorious death took place in the year of our Lord, three hundred. We conclude the life of this Saint with the words of St. Augustine:

"When we consider the perseverance of a human being, tortured in so many ways, it seems incredible. But when we think of the omnipotence of the Most High, the relation will not be deemed impossible."

  St. Christina made use of the opportunity offered her to instruct herself in the new faith, and thus was sooner convinced of its truth. Those tyrants by whom she was tormented had the same opportunity to instruct themselves, but used it not. They therefore did not become convinced of its truth, but remaining in their error, became more hardened in their wickedness, and were thus lost to all eternity; while Christina was saved by the true faith. So much depends on rightly using opportunities which lead to the path of heaven. How despairing must now be the grief of those tyrants to think that they had the opportunity, but used it not to their salvation. It is now lost to them, and will never again return. Oh! how sad! Compare with this the happiness which St. Christina now enjoys, because she made use of the opportunities God gave her. You have also, in your station, opportunities enough to do good and to work out your salvation. Why do you not make better use of them? Believe me, the greatest pain that one endures in hell is to think: "I could have saved my soul, escaped hell, and gained heaven. I had time and opportunity to use the means necessary for it; but I have forfeited them. I have no more time and opportunity now, and shall have them nevermore." "Oh! how dreadful will be the torment of the damned when they remember that they did not use the opportunity they had to correct their lives, and thus have precipitated themselves into everlasting punishment ;" says St. Chrysostom. If you wish not to experience these torments yourself, improve better in future the opportunities which are offered to you.

  St. Christina, a tender virgin, scarcely ten or eleven years old, suffered for the true Faith such terrible tortures, not only with invincible fortitude, but with happiness, praising God, during her martyrdom. What do you suffer for the love of God, and what is your conduct during your suffering? Your suffering does not deserve the name, when compared with that of St. Christina, and still your conduct is far from that of this holy martyr. Can so different a suffering expect an equal glory in heaven, or do you perhaps think that you can enter heaven without having suffered, although the Saints took possession of it only by suffering ? You yourself will hardly have the heart to affirm this. Oh! then resolve to bear your small trials with greater patience. Murmur not against the Almighty, but praise His wisdom and give thanks to Him that He leads you by the same path by which He led His Saints to heaven, and on which walked even Christ our Lord. "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory?" (Luke,xxiv.) "All that have pleased God passed through many tribulations, remaining faithful." (Judith, viii.) Why then would you seek another way than that of the cross? "The entire life of Christ consisted of crosses and martyrdom, and you desire nothing but peace and pleasure in this world?" Thus speaks the pious Thomas a Kempis; while St. Bernard says : "The only true path that leads us to heaven is the cross and suffering."