Pope Saint Zephyrinus
by VP
Posted on Friday August 26, 2022 at 12:00AM in Saints
"God has always raised up holy pastors, zealous to maintain the sacred deposit of the faith of His Church inviolable, and to watch over the purity of its moral, and the sanctity of its discipline. How many conflicts did they sustain! with what constancy, watchfulness, and courage, did they stand their ground against idolatry, heresy, and the corruption of the World!
We enjoy the greatest advantages of the divine grace through their labors; and we owe to God a tribute of perpetual thanksgiving and immortal praise for all those mercies which He has afforded His Church on earth. We are bound also to recommend most earnestly to Him His own work, praying that He exalt the glory of His divine name, by propagating His holy faith on earth: that He continually raise up in His Church shining examples of all virtue, pastors filled with His spirit, and a people disposed to captivate their understandings to His revealed truths, and subject their hearts to the sweet yoke of His holy love and divine law; watchful to abhor and oppose every profane innovation of doctrine, and all assaults and artifices of vice."
Source: The Lives of the Primitive Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Butler
Saint Claire
by VP
Posted on Thursday August 11, 2022 at 12:00AM in Saints
"How great was the devotion St. Clare felt toward the Sacrament of the Altar is shown by the fact that during the severe illness which had confined her to bed she had herself raised in a sitting position and supported by props, and thus she spun the finest linens. From these she made more than fifty sets of corporals and, enclosing them in silken or purple burses, sent them to different churches in the plains and mountains about Assisi. When about to receive the Body of the Lord, Clare she burning tears and approached with awe, for she feared Him not less hidden in the Sacrament than ruling heaven and earth."
Source: The life of Saint Clare; ascribed to Fr. Thomas of Celano 1910
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
by VP
Posted on Monday June 06, 2022 at 11:09AM in Saints
St. John the Baptist, Front Royal VA. ©capg
Prayer to Mary for the Holy Church
Queen of heaven, thy immense love for
God maketh thee likewise love His Church. We pray thee, come to its help
amidst the ills under which it is now suffering, rent asunder as she is
by her own children. Thy prayers, being a mother’s, can obtain all from
that God Who loveth Thee so well. Pray then, pray for the Church; ask for enlightenment for so
many unbelievers who are persecuting it, and obtain for faithful souls
the necessary strength to resist being caught in the snares of the
unbelievers who would drag them down into their own ruin.
Source: St. Alphonsus' Prayer Book, 1888 Father Edward Saint Omer, Redemptorist.
"On February 11, 2018, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments inscribed a new obligatory Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, into the General Roman Calendar. This memorial is celebrated every year on the Monday after Pentecost.
Latin liturgical texts were also promulgated the same day, and on January 13, 2022, the Congregation confirmed the English translation of those texts. (...)Mary, Mother of the Church
Taking into consideration the close ties by which Mary and the Church are bound together, to the glory of the Blessed Virgin and for our consolation, We declare Mary Most Holy to be Mother of the Church, that is, of the whole Christian people, faithful and Pastors alike, who invoke her as their most loving Mother; and We establish that by this sweetest of names the whole Christian people should henceforth give still greater honor to the Mother of God and offer her their supplications.
Venerable Brothers, this concerns a title by no means new to Christian piety; indeed the Christian faithful and the universal Church choose to invoke Mary principally by the name of Mother. In truth, this name belongs to the genuine nature of devotion to Mary, since it rests firmly on that very dignity with which Mary is endowed as the Mother of the Incarnate Word of God.
Just as the Divine Motherhood is the basis both for Mary's unique relationship with Christ and for her presence in the work of human salvation accomplished by Christ Jesus, so likewise, it is principally from the Divine Motherhood that the relationships which exist between Mary and the Church flow. Mary is indeed the Mother of Christ who, at the moment he assumed human nature in her virginal womb, joined to himself, as Head, his Mystical Body, which is the Church. Mary, therefore, as Mother of Christ, must also be regarded as Mother of all the faithful and Pastors alike, that is to say, of the Church.
Herein lies the reason why we, though unworthy and weak, yet in a spirit of trust and with ardent filial love, raise our eyes to her. She who once gave us Jesus, the fount of heavenly grace, cannot fail to offer her maternal help to the Church, especially at this time in which the Spouse of Christ strives with greater zeal to fulfill her salvific mission
These closest of bonds between our heavenly Mother and the human race urge Us, moreover, to foster and further strengthen this confidence. Even though she has been enriched with superabundant and wondrous gifts from God so as to be made worthy to be Mother of the Incarnate Word, nevertheless, Mary is very near to us. Like us, she is a child of Adam and so too our sister on account of our common human nature; she was preserved from the stain of original sin by reason of the future merits of Christ, but she added to these gifts received from on high the example of her own perfect faith and so merited the proclamation in the Gospel: "Blessed are you who have believed."
In this mortal life she embodied the perfect form of a disciple of Christ, she was the mirror of all virtues, and in her manner of life exemplified fully those beatitudes proclaimed by Christ Jesus. Consequently, the universal Church, while she lives out the many facets of her life and in her active zeal, draws from the Virgin Mother of God the peerless example of how to imitate Christ perfectly.
Saint Dominic
by VP
Posted on Sunday April 03, 2022 at 09:13AM in Saints
Prayers to St. Dominic
My Lord Jesus Christ, Who didst found
the Church with Thy precious blood, and by the preaching of the apostles
didst establish, propagate, and extend it throughout the whole world,
and thereafter didst commission the holy patriarch Dominic to adorn,
illustrate, and defend it with the splendor of this merits and doctrine;
graciously hear the prayers which this apostolic man incessantly offers
to Thee for the increase of her treasures, both spiritual and temporal.
Pater, Ave, Gloria
Most
merciful Redeemer, Who didst choose as Thy fellow-laborer for the
salvation of souls, St. Dominic, who by his zeal, aided by Thy grace,
gained over to the Church so many heretics who had been lost to her, and
so many sinners who had grieved her by their obstinacy; send, O my God,
ever fresh laborers into Thy vineyard to work for Thy glory, and gather
in the fruits of eternal life.
Pater, Ave, Gloria.
O Good
Jesus, Who didst delight to see St. Dominic prostrate every night before
Thy altar, adoring Thee hidden in the most holy sacrament with most
lively faith, and offering up, now groans, now prayers, now penances on
behalf of the Church, at that time persecuted by her enemies and
profaned by her servants; defend this Thy Spouse through the
intercession of St. Dominic from the outrages and plots of the infernal
enemy of mankind.
Pater, Ave, Gloria.
V. Pray for us, St. Dominic.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray: Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that we who are
weighted down by the burden of our sins may be raised up by the
patronage of Thy blessed confessor Dominic. Through Christ, Our Lord.
Amen.
Pope Leo XIII, July 21, 1883
Source: With God: A Book of Prayers and Reflexions by Rev. Francis Xavier Lasance.
April 1, Saint Hugh of Grenoble, Bishop and confessor
by VP
Posted on Friday April 01, 2022 at 12:00AM in Saints
"St. Hugh, after his ordination, hastened to his flock; but being arrived at Grenoble, could not refrain his tears, and was exceedingly afflicted and terrified when he saw the diocese overrun with tares which the enemy had sown while the pastor slept. He found the people in general immersed in a profound ignorance of several essential duties of religion, and plunged in vice and immorality. Some sins seemed by custom to have lost their name, and men committed them without any scruple or sign of remorse. The negligence and backwardness of many in frequenting the sacraments indicated a total decay of piety, and could not fail introducing many spiritual disorders in their souls, especially a great lukewarmness in prayer and other religious duties. Simony and usury seemed, under specious disguises, to be accounted innocent, and to reign almost without control. Many lands belonging to the church were usurped by laymen; and the revenues of the bishopric were dissipated, so that the saint, upon his arrival, found nothing either to enable him to assist the poor, or to supply his own necessities, unless he would have had recourse to unlawful contracts, as had been the common practice of many others, but which he justly deemed iniquitous; nor would he by any means defile his soul with them. He set himself in earnest to reprove vice and reform abuses. To this purpose he endeavoured by rigorous fasts, watchings, tears, sighs, and prayer to draw down the divine mercy on his flock; and so plentiful was the benediction of heaven upon his labours that he had the comfort to see the face of his diocese in a short time exceedingly changed. "
Source: The Lives of the Fathers, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume 1
"His great sanctity and learning rendered him an ornament of the Cathedral of Valence, France and he was finally made Bishop of Grenoble. He set himself at once to reprove vice and to reform abuses, and so plentiful was the benediction of Heaven upon his labors that he had the comfort to see the face of his diocese in a short time exceedingly changed."
Source: The Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints.
Feb. 14: Saint Valentine, Priest and Martyr
by VP
Posted on Sunday February 13, 2022 at 11:00PM in Saints
St. Valentine was a Roman priest who lived and labored among the poor Christians amid the cruel persecutions of the earl Church. He was highly respected and venerated for his zeal and piety in the service of the Lord. During the renewed persecution of the emperor Claudius, Valentine was seized and brought before the tribunal of a judge named Asterius, to be tried and condemned to death. Mindful of the words of the Savior "Do good to those who persecute you." he prayed that the good Lord might restore the sight of the blind daughter of his very judge. The Lord heard his prayer and miraculously gave the girl her sight. This miracle and the charity which prompted it so affected Asterius that he embraced the faith of St. Valentine. Forty-two other witnesses of the miracle followed his example. The news of this miracle and the conversion soon reached Claudius, who in his rage sent a body of soldiers to the house of Asterius where all were taken prisoners. They were led to Ostia and killed for their faith. St. Valentine was beaten with clubs and finally beheaded on the Flaminian way, February 14, 270 A.D. His remains were reverently gathered by Christians and brought to Rome. They now rest in the church of St. Praxedes.
It was the generous, noble, and heroic charity of St. Valentine which brought so many of his enemies into the fold of the loving Savior. Charity to our fellowmen will also win many of the enemies of our church to the Lord if we follow in the footsteps of St. Valentine.
Valentine appears to have been a very popular name among the early Christians, if we may judge from the number of saints who bear that name. The feast days of several of the other Saints Valentine are Feb. 14, St. Valentine, Bishop of Terni and martyr, another martyr of that name in Africa; a bishop and confessor, Oct 29, a priest and martyr Nov.3; an officer Dec. 16.
The custom of sending tokens of love on his feast has no bearing on the life of St. Valentine. About thirty years ago it was thought that the custom was dying out. Since then it has been commercialized and this fact no doubt has given it a semblance of popularity.
Source: Our Young People, 1916
Feb. 3: Saint Blaise Bishop and Martyr
by VP
Posted on Wednesday February 02, 2022 at 11:00PM in Saints
"St. Blase was a native of the city of Sebaste, in Armenia, and in his younger days applied himself to the study of philosophy, in which he made considerable progress; he afterwards studied medicine with great success. The science of the saints, however, and a desire to improve in the love of God, occupied his principal attention, whereby being inflamed with an ardent charity towards the poor, he went frequently to relieve them in their sickness. Upon the death of the bishop, his fellow citizens unanimously elected him their pastor, by reason of his extraordinary virtues and great learning.
He accepted the office, as being unwilling to resist the will of God, which appeared too manifest in his election to be mistaken; but in the government of his church he lost not that spirit of holy retirement which he had had from his youth. He therefore retired to Mount Argeus, without the city, and dwelt in a cave there. During our saint's residence in this place the Lord was pleased to manifest his sanctity by honoring him with the gift of miracles, and numerous crowds of persons used constantly to come to him for the cure of their bodily diseases as well as of their spiritual maladies. Even the most ferocious animals are said to have proceeded to his cave to be relieved. If they found the saint in prayer, they would patiently wait until he had done; nor would they depart until they had received his blessing.
About the year 315, Agricolaus, governor of Cappadocia and the lesser Armenia, had been sent, by the Emperor Licinius, to Sebaste, to put to death the Christians of that city; and, immediately upon his arrival, commenced to put his bloody commission into execution, by commanding that all those who had been already imprisoned for the faith should be devoured by wild beasts. He accordingly sent huntsmen into the neighboring forest to catch the ferocious animals, in order to execute his barbarous design. When they arrived at Mount Argeus, they found a multitude of these beasts assembled round the cave of St. Blase, and the holy bishop in the midst of them, performing his devotions. Astonished at this sight, they returned to Agricolaus, and informed him of the fact; which, although it caused him to marvel greatly, did not prevent him from sending his soldiers to arrest our saint. When they intimated to him the order of the governor he answered with a cheerful countenance: "Let us go to shed our blood for Jesus Christ;" then turning to those who stood by, he protested that he had long sighed for the honor of martyrdom, and that on the preceding night the Lord had manifested to him that he would vouchsafe to accept the sacrifice of his life.
As soon as the news was spread among the citizens that their bishop was being led to Sebaste by order of the governor the streets were filled with people who, with tears in their eyes, asked his blessing. Among the rest was a woman, who, weeping bitterly, presented to him her child, who was expiring by reason of a small bone having stuck in his throat; full of holy confidence, she besought the saint to save his life. St. Blase, moved to compassion by the tears of the afflicted mother, prayed to the Lord not only for the relief of that child, but of all those who would find themselves similarly afflicted. Having terminated his prayer the child perfectly recovered; and hence the origin of the peculiar devotion of the faithful to this saint when afflicted with diseases of the throat.
When St. Blase arrived at the city and was presented to the governor, he was commanded to sacrifice to the immortal gods. The saint answered: "What a title for your demons, who can bring only evil on their worshippers! There is only One Immortal God, and him do I adore." Agricolaus, infuriated at this answer, caused the saint to undergo a scourging so prolonged and cruel that it was thought the saint could not possibly survive it; but having endured this torture with placid courage, he was sent to prison, where he continued to work miracles so extraordinary that the governor ordered him to be again lacerated with iron hooks.
The blood of the saint ran profusely, and certain pious women were induced to collect portions of it, which act of devotion was amply rewarded, for they were seized, with two of their children, and brought before the governor. He commanded them to sacrifice to the gods under pain of death. The holy women asked for their idols, as some thought, to sacrifice to them, but they no sooner laid hands upon them than they cast them into an adjoining lake, for which they were instantly beheaded, along with their children.
Agricolaus resolved to wreak his vengeance on St. Blase; and not content with the torture which he had already caused him to endure, commanded him to be stretched upon the rack, and his flesh to be torn with iron combs, in which state a red-hot coat of mail was placed upon him. Finally, the tyrant, despairing of overcoming his constancy, ordered him to be cast into the lake; the saint, arming himself with the sign of the cross, walked upon the waters, and, arriving at the middle, sat down, and invited the idolaters to do the same if they believed that their gods could enable them. Some were so rash as to make the attempt, but were immediately drowned.
St. Blase was admonished then by a voice from heaven to go forth from the lake and encounter his martyrdom. When he reached the land the impious tyrant ordered him to be beheaded. This sentence was executed in the year 313. The republic of Ragusa honor him as their principal patron, and he is the titular saint of many cities.
Source: Victories of the Martyrs: Or, The Lives of the Most Celebrated Martyrs of the Church, Saint Alphonse de Liguori
Prayer:
O glorious Saint Blaise, who by thy martyrdom didst leave to the Church a precious witness to the faith, obtain of us the grace to preserve within ourselves this divine gift, and to defend, without human respect, both by word and example, the truth of that same faith, which is so wickedly attacked and slandered in these our times. Thou who didst miraculously restore a little child when it was at the point of death by reason of an affliction of the throat, grant us thy mighty protection in like misfortunes; and, above all, obtain for us the grace of Christian mortification together with a faithful observance of the precepts of the Church, which may keep us from offending Almighty God. Amen.
Source: In Lumine Fidei
The iron combs, hooks, racks, swords, and scaffolds, which were purpled with the blood of the martyrs, are eternal proofs of their invincible courage and constancy in the divine service. But are they not at the same time subjects of our condemnation and confusion? How weak are our resolutions! how base our pusillanimity and cowardice in the pursuit of virtue! We have daily renewed our most sacred baptismal engagements, and our purposes of faithfully serving God; these we have often repeated at the feet of God's ministers, and in presence of his holy altars, and we have often begun our conversion with great fervor. Yet these fair blossoms were always nipped in the bud; for want of constancy we soon fell back into our former sloth and disorders, adding to our other prevarications that of base infidelity. Instead of encountering gibbets and wild beasts, we were scared at the sight of the least difficulty, or we had not courage to make the least sacrifice of our passions, or to repulse the weakest and most contemptible assaults of the world. Its example, or that dangerous company from which we had not resolution to separate ourselves, carried us away; and we had not courage to withstand those very maxims which we ourselves condemn in the moments of our serious reflections as contrary to the spirit of the gospel. Perhaps we often flew back for fear of shadows, and out of apprehensions frequently imaginary, le6t we should forfeit some temporal advantage, some useful or agreeable friend. Perhaps we were overcome by the difficulties which arose barely from ourselves, and wanted resolution to deny our senses, to subdue our passions, to renounce dangerous occasions, or to enter upon a penitential life. Blinded by self-love, have we not sheltered our dastardly pusillanimity under the cloak of pretended necessity, or even virtue?
Source: St. Blaise (The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume 1 , Alban Butler)
Pierre Thomas, Patriarch, (Jan 8th)
by VP
Posted on Friday January 07, 2022 at 11:00PM in Saints
Carmelite Latin patriarch and papal legate. Peter was born in Gascony, France and joined the Carmelites while still a young man. In 1342 he was appointed procurator of the order and, from Avignon, he oversaw the organization and government of the Carmelites. As Avignon was then the seat of the popes, he entered into their service, attracting papal attention because of his skills as a preacher and his eloquence. Named to the papal diplomatic service, he held the post of papal legate to Genoa, Milan, and Venice, and was appointed bishop of Patti and Lipari in 1354, bishop of Coron in 1359, archbishop of Candia in 1363, and titular Patriarch of Constantinople in 1364. At the behest of Pope Urban V, he journeyed to Serbia, Hungary, and Constantinople in an effort to organize a crusade against the Turks. He took part in a military operation against Alexandria, Egypt, in 1365 during which he was severely wounded. He died from his injuries at Cyprus a few months later. While never formally canonized, his feast was permitted to the Carmelites in 1608.
Source: Saint and Angels,
More bioJanuary 5 Saint Telesphorus, Pope and Martyr
by VP
Posted on Tuesday January 04, 2022 at 11:17PM in Saints
O Eternal Shepherd, who appointed blessed Telesphorus shepherd
of the whole Church, let the prayers of this martyr and supreme pontiff
move You to look with favor upon Your flock and to keep it under Your
continual protection.
As a Greek by birth, though some authors say that he was born in Terra Nova, in Calabria. It is by some affirmed that his father was an Anchorite, and that Telesphorus himself was Roman by birth. Some say that by his decrees he confirmed the observance of Lent; and others affirm that the quadragesimal Fast came down by tradition, as stated by Saint Ignatius, Saint Jerome, and Theophilus. This holy pope suffered martyrdom, A. D. 139.
In his four ordinations, Telesphorus created thirteen bishops, fifteen priests, and eight deacons. Some pious Christians removed his body after execution, and placed it near that of Saint Peter, in the Vatican.
It is said that this pope ordered that all priests should celebrate three Masses on Christmas day. But Novaes considers that this statement rests only upon an apochryphal Decretal (vol. i., p. 44). However, this observance was followed under Saint Gregory the Great.
Saint Telesphorus presided over the Holy See during eleven years, eight months, and eighteen days.
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PONTIFICATE OF ST. TELESPHORUS (A. D. 128–138).
1. St. TELESPHORUS succeeded St. Sixtus I. Before his elevation he had led the life of the anchorites, as we learn from the Liber Pontificalis, ex Anachoreta. To preside over the Christian assemblies in the catacombs; to ordain priests (* These ordinations were usually held about Christmas, mense decembri. The Church, from the earliest period, observed the practice of reserving fixed epochs for these important coremonies, which perpetuate the priesthood in the world.) and consecrate bishops, to take the place of those who had suffered from the sword of persecution; to confirm in faith and patience the churches shaken by the fury of tyrants; to regulate the order of the sacred ceremonies, and the forms of prayers or hymns that accompanied them; to place the ecclesiastical hierarchy on solid foundations; to watch over the maintenance of the holy doctrines and traditions; finally, to close a life of privations and pious toil by the torments of martyrdom ;—such were the glorious privileges of the earliest Roman Pontiffs.
1/. The Apostolic institution of Lent was maintained and confirmed by St. Telesphorus, who ordained a fast of seven weeks before Easter.
2/ The custom of celebrating Mass only at the hour of tierce-nine o'clock in the morning-was also maintained by this pope, who allowed no exception but on the feast of the Nativity, when it was celebrated in the night.
3/ He was the first who introduced into the liturgy the Gloria in Excelsis.
2. While Adrian visited the various provinces of his empire, he left behind him, together with shameful monuments of his passions, useful amelioration, and durable reforms. Athens was especially the object of his care; he did much for its embellishment, and gave it his name—the City of Adrian. During one of his visits there, St. Quadratus, whom Eusebius represents as a disciple of the Apostles, a man of brilliant genius and of apostolic zeal, availed himself of the occasion to address to him an apology, or defense, on behalf of the Christians, A.D. 126. This work, the first of its kind, was still extant in the time of St. Jerome, who mentions it with high eulogium. Only a fragment remains to us, on the reality of the miracles of Jesus Christ, as distinguished from the enchantments and transient impressions of magic. “The miracles of the Savior,” said the holy apologist, “ were always visible, because they were always true. Those whom He cured, those whom He recalled from death to life, were seen, not only at the moment of their cure, or of their resurrection, but long afterwards; not only during the lifetime of the Savior, but many years after He had ascended to heaven; some of them, indeed, are still living.'Aristides, a Christian philosopher of Athens, about the same time, presented another apology to Adrian, in which he relies on the testimony of the ancient philosophers to prove the sublimity of the Catholic faith. This work is also lost to us. The emperor, touched by these just representations, seems to have adopted sentiments more favorable to the Christian religion.
3.But that which chiefly contributed to put an end to the persecution was the letter which, nearly at the same time, Serenius Granianus, proconsul of Asia, addressed to Adrian on the subject of the cruelties practiced by the multitude upon the Christians. It was a custom at the public festivals, that the people of Rome, or of the provinces present, should have liberty to ask of the prince or proconsuls any thing which their passions, excited by the bloody spectacle, could suggest. “ The Christians to the lions” was the cry in every amphitheater, and without interrogatory, or process of law, or any valid judgment, Christians, by thousands, were cast to the wild beasts. Serenius, in his letter to the emperor, did not hesitate to pronounce upon these proceedings as monstrous iniquities. To sacrifice to the clamor of the populace a multitude of victims of every age and rank, of both sexes, when they were not even accused of any judicial crime, seemed to him a barbarism unworthy of Rome and of Adrian.
4. The reply of the emperor was not addressed to Serenius Granianus, who, in the interval, had probably relinquished the government of Asia, but to his successor, Minucius Fundanus. It is thus recorded by Eusebius : “I have received the letter addressed to me by the illustrious Serenius Granianus, your predecessor. The affair appears to merit serious attention, in order to protect these men (the Christians) from similar vexations, and that pretenses may be withdrawn from informers for future calumnies. If the inhabitants of any district have charges to make against the Christians, which they are able in person to sustain before your tribunal, let them have recourse to this judicial mode; but they must not be permitted to pursue them with foolish or tumultuous clamor. Reason demands that if there be any ground of accusation, you should have cognizance of it. If they are convicted of actions contrary to the laws, decide the case according to the gravity of the crime. If, on the contrary, the accusation proves to be calumnious, let the informer suffer merited punishment.”
This re-script was sent to other governors of provinces, and the fury of persecution was relaxed, though not entirely extinguished; for, on the one hand, the passions of the populace, and, on the other, the hatred of the proconsuls for the very name of Christian, together with the progressive decline of respect and obedience towards the central authority, continued still to leave multitudes of Christians a prey to the blind passions of the populace, or to judges misguided by their prejudices.
5. The Jews, always conquered, and always rebellious, availed themselves of the absence of the emperor in distant provinces to attempt a new insurrection. They were embittered against the sovereignty of Adrian by a double motive. This prince, who had undertaken to raise all the cities of his vast empire from their ruins, had sent a pagan colony to rebuild and inhabit Jerusalem. He also changed the name of the ancient City of David to that of Ælia Capitolina. The Jews could not endure without indignation the presence of these idolaters, who raised altars to false gods in the very places where the God of Abraham had been so long invoked by their fathers. Another measure, too, had outraged their devoted attachment to the law of Moses. Adrian had prohibited, under pain of death, the circumcision of their infants. This was to take away the seal of their covenant with God—the sacred sign which distinguished them from the pagans. A sullen discontent soon became apparent among them. They assembled in the vast subterranean cavities near their cities, and secretly organized a revolt. A cunning impostor contrived to turn these hostile inclinations to the profit of his own ambition. He was Barchocebas, or the Son of the Star. He announced himself as the envoy of God, to deliver the Jewish people from the oppression of their enemies. The star of Jacob, predicted by Balaam, was the sign of his advent; he was the Messiah promised by the prophets, and expected by the patriarchs. The rabbi Akiba placed the resources of his science and influence at the service of the false prophet, and Barchocebas was hailed as the Savior of Jerusalem. He soon found him. self at the head of a multitude of partisans, and the first use he made of his power was to persecute with the greatest cruelty the Christians who refused to abjure their faith in Jesus Christ, and to enter into the league which he formed against the Roman domination. The tortures to which he condemned these victims surpassed in barbarity and cruelty all that pagan rage had hitherto invented. Meanwhile he extended his intrigues throughout the East among the Jews, and sought for the enemies of the empire in all directions. In the neighboring tribes he found a multitude greedy for pillage, ready to swell the number of his troops. The Romans, at first, despised this insurrectionist movement in a nation which they had so often conquered, and its importance was only discovered when the extent of its ramifications became apparent. The governor of Judea, Tinnius Rufus, began by sending to execution a crowd of persons, without distinction of age or sex. This act of cruel severity served only to excite the insurgents to greater fury. Their revolt at once, in every point in Syria, alarmed the governor, who called on the emperor for re-enforcement. Adrian summoned from Great Britain Julius Severus, reputed to be the greatest general of his time, and dispatched him to the aid of Tinnius Rufus. Seeing the numbers of his enemies, Severus avoided a general attack, preferring a slower mode of warfare to the dangers of an uncertain combat. He therefore attacked them separately, to force them into narrower limits, and to cut off their supplies. His skillful manæuvres were completely successful. Within two years he captured, in succession, every fortified place in Judea, and destroyed more than six hundred thousand Jews, without including those who perished by famine, fire, or want. An immense multitude were sold in the markets of Terebinth and Gaza. Such as were not sold in those cities were transported into Egypt. This frightful disaster surpassed those which Nabuchodonosor and Titus had inflicted upon Judea. Barchocebas lost his life at the siege of Bether, where the rebels had fixed the center of their operations. Jerusalem no longer preserved any traces of her past glories. The stones which had served in the erection of the temple, were now employed to build a theater. Over one of the gates was placed a marble hog, to the Jews the most impure of animals. A statue of Jupiter was set upon the Holy Sepulcher; and one of Venus was raised upon Calvary. A sacred wood for pagan sacrifices was planted at Bethlehem The consecration to Adonis of the grotto where Jesus was born, profaned this holy place. The dispersed Israelite were prohibited from entering Jerusalem-neither were they allowed to approach it-however strong might be their love of Sion. They were obliged to purchase at a great price the per mission, on one day of the year, to bathe with their tears the places upon which, in other times, their religion had shed such splendor. St. Jerome, who, in his time, was a witness of this lugubrious ceremony, says: “After having purchased the blood of the Savior, they purchase their own tears; they pay a ransom for the privilege of weeping. What a dismal spectacle, on the anniversary of the day when Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by the Romans,'to see the approach, in mournful attire, of a multitude of people—of women and men, bending under the weight of years, and covered with rags, whose bearing attests the anger of the Lord, in the exhaustion of their bodies, and in their torn garments !"
This catastrophe was advantageous, however, to the Christian Church in Jerusalem, which hitherto had been governed by bishops converted from Judaism, and was consequently attached to the observances of the Mosaic law. A residence in this city being now permitted only to the Gentiles, the Church was recruited chiefly by her conquests among them. Besides, in the utter dispersion of a people condemned by God, this last tempest gave a new force to the proofs of Christianity, which, according to the prophets, was to succeed Judaism, and rise on its ruins, A. D. 134.
6. Far from confessing their offenses in the presence of these terrible judgments of Heaven, the Jewish doctors sought more diligently, than ever to blind themselves, and to lead their unhappy compatriots into the same errors. From hatred to Christianity, and in order to weaken the proofs of the divinity of Jesus Christ, which is made so evident in the prophecies, they began the composition of the Talmud, or doctrine, an enormous compilation of their oral traditions. This work is divided into two parts; the Mischna, or law, which is the text, and the Ghemur, or complement, which is a commentary on the other. The entire collection forins twelve volumes in folio. Among its fables and puerile inventions there is a hatred of the name of Christian, which is not even dissembled. This book is perhaps the greatest obstacle to the conversion of the Jews.
7. At this epoch, a work of another class, but with the same object, was undertaken by an apostate Christian. Aquila, a native of Sinope, in Pontus, was first a pagan. The miracles which he saw performed among the Christians converted him, and he was baptized; but his attachment to astrology, which, in spite of the counsels of the bishops, he refused to abandon, caused his excommunication, and he was excluded from the Church. To avenge this injury, he was circumcised, and openly embraced Judaism. Carrying his hatred still further, he applied himself to the study of the Hebrew tongue; and after acquiring a thorough knowledge of it, he commenced a new Greek version of the Scriptures, to correct that of the Septuagint. He endeavored especially to make it literal, and succeeded so well that even St. Jerome pronounces his translation very exact. But the same Father reproaches him for having designedly weakened the passages which serve to establish the divinity of Jesus Christ.
8. All these desperate efforts to hinder the progressive advancement of the Catholic Church ended by imparting to it new strength. The dispersed Jews carried everywhere the testimony of the victory of Christianity, and the heretics, in yielding to the disorders of an infamous life, condemned themselves; in fine, the emperors achieved the ruin of their own authority by the excesses of every description to which they abandoned themselves. Adrian expired A. D. 138. Towards the close of his life, this prince became melancholy and cruel. He condemned to death his brother-in-law Servienus, and Fuercus, his grand-nephew. He was suspected of poisoning his wife Sabina, whom he afterwards placed among the divinities of the empire. He complained that he, who at his will had sent so many to execution, could not die himself. Finally he expired, suffocated by an excess in eating, cursing the physicians, and jesting upon his soul. Antoninus Pius, his adopted son, a prince worthy of the surname which his virtues and his gratitude towards his benefactor had gained for him, succeeded to the throne. His fine qualities endeared him to the Romans and made him venerable to strangers, even to the barbarian sovereigns, who chose him more than once for arbiter in their disputes.
9. The same year Pope St. Telesphorus ended his Apostolic career by a glorious martyrdom. He had governed the Church ten years. St. Hyginus, converted from philosophism-ex philosopho—was his successor.
Saint Rigobert, Archbishop of Rheims
by VP
Posted on Monday January 03, 2022 at 11:50PM in Saints
Saint Ribogert was born of illustrious parents, and in his youth entered the monastic life. The modesty of his life, his piety, and the simplicity of his manners, caused him to be nominated Archbishop of Rheims, which was his native town, on the death of Archbishop Reolus, during the old age of whom the Church of Rheims had lapsed into a very bad state. Piety had languished, Vice predominated, and both the clerics and the people seemed to be running wild when Rigobert was raised to the See. But he, by exhorting, by correcting, and by punishing the people, succeeded in bringing them to better manners.
Gaul was at this time governed by Pepin, for whom the Saint always showed great respect. One day, when King Pepin came to hunt in a wood near Rheims, the Archbishop sent him a present, and the King, turning to 'his friends, praised him to them, and then requested to ask what he would, and it should be given him. The Archbishop, with great modesty, asked only for the gift of a house in which he might exercise the cure of souls, and incite them to good works. The King was vexed that he had not asked for more, and told him he would give him with the house as much land as he could walk round while the King was at dinner. Rigobert accordingly walked round the land, and wherever his feet trod fresh grass was always afterwards to be seen, which was never injured, by summer's -heat or winter's storms.
But ; after the death of Pepin, Charles Martel, his son, treated the good Archbishop; who had baptized him, very badly, because when a great contest arose between Charles and a certain lord about the position of Mayor of the Palace, and they both went to the different towns to solicit votes, Rigobert. would not allow Charles to enter Rheims. Charles was furious, and after he had gained his cause, he drove the Archbishop from his See.
It happened one day that as Saint Rigobert was walking with his boy, he met a courtier of Charles Martel, who gave him a goose as a present. The boy took it in his arms to carry it home, but it escaped and flew away; The Archbishop laughed, but before he reached his house, the bird Hew back into the arms of the boy, Saint Rigobert, however, would not allow it to be killed. Saint Rigobert died in the year 773, and many miracles were wrought at his tomb.
Source: Saints of the order of St. Benedict
