The Martyrs of Alexandria, A.D. 261-2-3.
by VP
Posted on Thursday February 27, 2025 at 11:00PM in Saints
"THESE were many holy priests, deacons, and laymen, who when the city of Alexandria, for its sins, lay under the scourge of a most severe plague, in the third century, exposed their lives for the service and comfort of those who were infected. There was not a single house in that great city which entirely escaped the pestilence, or had not to mourn for some dead. All places were filled with groans, and the living appeared almost dead with fear. This sickness was the greatest of calamities to the Pagans, but an exercise and trial to the Christians, who shewed on that occasion, how contrary the spirit of charity is to the interested spirit of self-love. In the time of this public calamity, most of them, regardless of their own lives, visited, relieved, and attended the sick, and comforted the dying. They closed their eyes, and buried them; and the charity of many of them being rewarded by death, the Church has thought proper to honour their memory, making but little difference between so glorious a death, and that of the martyrs. "Thus," adds St. Dionysius, "the best of our brethren have departed this life; some of the most valuable both of priests, deacons, and laics; and it is thought that this kind of death is nothing different from martyrdom."
If the Church has such value for this generous charity, learn also to set a value on it, and practise it as far as your circumstances will permit. There are frequent occasions of giving comfort and help to your neigbour. As many as are diseased, afflicted, or in prison, call upon your charity; and whatever you can do for them, either by visits or money, Christ takes it as done to himself, and has promised himself for your reward. Happy are you if this charity be the business of your life: and happy too, if whatever time you can spare from other business, be employed in this. To how much better account will this turn, than what is given to idleness, unprofitable conversation, and dangerous amusements? Learn only to offer what you do of this kind to God, and you will lay up for yourself treasures in heaven." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
Saint Proterius
THE FURY OF HATRED. Proterius having been elected patriarch of Alexandria, in 452, in the place of Dioscorus, who had been deposed by the Council of Chalcedon, and was a partisan of the arch-heretic Eutychius, great troubles prevailed in the city. The civil power succeeded in repressing them, without, however, being able to prevent a third patriarch, named Timotheus, from being consecrated and violently expelling Proterius from his see. The civil power once more intervened and exiled the intruder. Under this blow, the Eutychians, who were aware of the unbending firmness of Proterius, could no longer contain themselves: they pursued him furiously, on the Good Friday in the year 457, even to the baptistry of the church of St. Quirinus, there trampled him under foot and bound him with cords; thereupon, according as their rage was being glutted, they accumulated their blows and trailed him through the streets. They tore him limb from limb, burnt the mangled remains, and scattered the ashes to the wind. The bishops of Thrace bore a glorious testimony to his memory in a letter addressed by them to the Emperor Leo.
MORAL REFLECTION. The apostle depicts in other
features the charity which should animate Christians: "It is patient, is
kind. Charity believeth all things, rejoiceth not in iniquity, and
thinketh no evil."-(1 Cor. xiii. 4.) Abbe Lecanu
There is a Hell for the Wicked
by VP
Posted on Thursday February 27, 2025 at 11:00PM in Books
"How is it possible that a merciful God could punish with eternal misery poor human beings for slips and faults of natural weakness? Why does He create them? Does He rejoice in calling persons into existence to damn them? God created us for eternal happiness; heaven is our destiny. Those who succeed in damning themselves, do it against the will of God.
God, though infinite in His mercy is infinite in all His perfections: He is infinitely just. No punishment which He can inflict upon him who dies in mortal sin will be commensurate with His justice unless that punishment be boundless in its intensity and eternal in its duration.
I do not understand how anybody can believe in a God without believing in everlasting punishment. The very existence of God calls for a hell of the wicked where the worm never dies and the fire shall never be quenched. He who dies in mortal sin remains in that sin, as the Scripture assures us: "Wherever the tree falleth there it shall lie." He remains for all eternity as he died: the enemy of God. And God must for all eternity treat him as His enemy. Reason, I repeat, requires the existence of hell; therefore, all ages and all nations have believed in it. The pagans firmly believed in it; they spoke of the wicked dead as suffering endless banishment and as being condemned to endless labor and torment.
It is no credit to our enlightened age if it records the names of individuals who became conspicuous by sneering at the mention of hell, who pretended there was no such place or state or hell-fire or everlasting punishment. Does such an impudent denial destroy the doctrine of hell? Besides, hell is not an opinion, and not even a mere doctrine, but hell is a real fact; reason and revelation convince us of the existence of this fact. Can a man do away with a fact by denying it? Is there no such city as San Francisco, because you deny it on the ground that you never saw it? Does the sun cease to shine as soon as you state: The sun is not shining? Moreover, did ever a learned man prove that there was no hell? Voltaire and Rousseau made a desperate attempt to prove the non-existence of hell, but all that these blasphemers accomplished was to assert boldly that perhaps there was no hell. Against such a silly perhaps we have sound reason supported by the infallible word of God to convince us of hell. Yes, there is a hell, and those who refuse to believe in it will be cast into it forever. The wicked may wish that there be no hell and laugh at the idea of it: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, shall say to them on the last day: "Depart from Me, ye accursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels." Such is the just retribution of mortal sin, which is a turning away from God for the sake of a created thing. The damned are deprived of ever seeing God. This is the greatest of all imaginable sufferings, and yet it is a most appropriate punishment: He who has rejected God on earth, shall be rejected by Him for all eternity.
As soon as the wicked soul leaves the body in death, it shall realize the irreparable loss of God, and find itself cast away from the face of God forever. It shall be sunk into the flames of hell, into a sea of fire. The soul, without the body, can be reached by this fire; God shall cause all those sensations in the soul which it had when lodged in the body. The fire of hell, set ablaze to punish the Wicked, is not like earthly fire; it does not consume, but preserves; it does not give light, but causes extreme darkness.
The unspeakable torment of hell is waiting for you if you die in a grievous sin. Make up your mind to avoid such an eternal misfortune at the risk of losing everything temporal."
Source: Spiritual Pepper and Salt for Catholics and Non-Catholics by Bishop William Stang 1902
