Also
known as St. Thomas of Canterbury, he was born in London on December 21
about the year 1118. His parents had come from Normandy and settled in
England some years previously. His early education at Merton Abbey was
followed by further studies in Paris. He initially employed himself in
secretarial work, first with Sir Richer de l’Aigle and then with his
kinsman, Osbert Huitdeniers, who was “Justiciar” of London. About the
year 1141, he entered the service of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury,
and so won his master’s favor that he became the most trusted of all
his clerks.
Theobald recognized his capacity and made use of him
in many delicate negotiations. After studying civil and canon law at
Bologna and Auxerre, the Archbishop ordained Thomas a deacon in 1154 and
bestowed on him several preferments, the most important of which was
the Archdeaconry of Canterbury.
When Henry II came to the throne
upon the death of King Stephen, he took “Thomas of London”, as Becket
was then most commonly called, for his chancellor, and in that office
Thomas at the age of thirty-six became one of the most powerful subjects
in Henry’s dominions. Although twelve years his junior, the sovereign
“had but one heart and one mind” with his chancellor. Both had the
prosperity of the kingdom deeply at heart and in many matters they saw
eye to eye. The king’s imperial views and love of splendor were quite to
the taste of his minister. When Thomas went to France in 1158 to
negotiate a marriage treaty, he traveled with such pomp that the people
said: “If this be only the chancellor what must be the glory of the king
himself?”
Thomas took a leading role in most operations, be they
civil or military. Deacon though he was, he unhorsed knights like the
best of them and lead the most daring attacks in person. But although,
as men then reported, “he put off the archdeacon”, in this and other
ways, he was very far from assuming the licentious manners of those
around him. No word was ever breathed against his personal purity. Foul
conduct or foul speech, lying or unchastity were hateful to him, and on
occasion he punished them severely.
He seems at all times to have had clear
principles with regard to the claims of the Church, and even during this
period of his chancellorship he more than once risked Henry’s grievous
displeasure. But to the very limits of what his conscience permitted,
Thomas identified himself with his master’s interests.
Archbishop
Theobald died in 1161, and in the course of the next year Henry seems
to have decided that it would be good policy to prepare the way for
further schemes of reform by securing the advancement of his chancellor
to the primacy. From the first Thomas drew back in alarm. “I know your
plans for the Church,” he said, “you will assert claims which I, if I
were archbishop, must needs oppose.” But Henry would not be denied, and
Thomas at the instance of Cardinal Henry of Pisa, who urged it upon him
as a service to religion, yielded in spite of his misgivings. He was
ordained priest on Saturday in Whit Week and consecrated bishop the next
day, Sunday, 3 June, 1162.
A great change took place in the
saint’s way of life after his consecration as archbishop. Even as
chancellor he had practiced secret austerities, but now in view of the
struggle he clearly saw before him he gave himself to fastings and
disciplines, hair shirts, protracted vigils, and constant prayers.
Before the end of the year 1162 he stripped himself of all signs of the
lavish display which he had previously affected. On August 10 he went
barefoot to receive the envoy who brought him the pallium from Rome.
Contrary to the king’s wish he resigned the chancellorship. Whereupon
Henry seems to have required him to surrender certain ecclesiastical
preferments which he still retained, notably the archdeaconry, and when
this was not done at once showed bitter displeasure. Other
misunderstandings soon followed. The archbishop, having, as he believed,
the king’s express permission, set about to reclaim alienated estates
belonging to his see, a procedure which again gave offence. Still more
serious was the open resistance which he made to the king’s proposal
that a voluntary offering to the sheriffs should be paid into the royal
treasury.The saint’s protest seems to have been successful, but the
relations with the king only grew more strained.
Soon after this
the great matter of dispute was reached in the resistance made by Thomas
to the king’s officials when they attempted to assert jurisdiction over
criminous clerks. The saint himself had no wish to be lenient with
criminous clerks. It was with him simply a question of principle. St.
Thomas seems all along to have suspected Henry of a design to strike at
the independence of what the king regarded as a too powerful Church.
With this view Henry summoned the bishops at Westminster (1 October,
1163) to sanction certain as yet unspecified articles, one of the known
objects of which was to bring clerics guilty of crimes under the
jurisdiction of the secular courts. The other bishops, as the demand was
still in the vague, showed a willingness to submit, though with the
condition “saving our order”, upon which St. Thomas inflexibly insisted.
The king’s resentment was thereupon manifested by requiring the
archbishop to surrender certain castles he had hitherto retained, and by
other acts of unfriendliness. In deference to what he believed to be
the pope’s wish, the archbishop in December consented to make some
concessions by giving a personal and private undertaking to the king to
obey his customs “loyally and in good faith”. But when Henry shortly
afterwards at Clarendon sought to draw the saint on to a formal and
public acceptance of the “Constitutions of Clarendon”, under which name
the sixteen articles, the avitæ consuetudines as finally drafted, have
been commonly known, St. Thomas, though at first yielding somewhat to
the solicitations of the other bishops, in the end took up an attitude
of uncompromising resistance.
Then followed a period of unworthy
and vindictive persecution. When opposing a claim made against him by
John the Marshal, Thomas upon a frivolous pretext was found guilty of
contempt of court. For this he was sentenced to pay £500; other demands
for large sums of money followed, and finally, though a complete release
of all claims against him as chancellor had been given on his becoming
archbishop, he was required to render an account of nearly all the
moneys which had passed through his hands in his discharge of the
office. Eventually a sum of nearly £30,000 was demanded of him. His
fellow bishops summoned by Henry to a council at Northampton, implored
him to throw himself unreservedly upon the king’s mercy, but St. Thomas,
instead of yielding, solemnly warned them and threatened them. Then,
after celebrating Mass, he took his archiepiscopal cross into his own
hand and presented himself thus in the royal council chamber. The king
demanded that sentence should be passed upon him, but in the confusion
and discussion which ensued the saint with uplifted cross made his way
through the mob of angry courtiers. He fled away secretly that night
(October 13, 1164) sailed in disguise from Sandwich (November 2), and
after being cordially welcomed by Louis VII of France, he threw himself
at the feet of Pope Alexander III, then at Sens, on November 23. The
pope, who had given a cold reception to certain episcopal envoys sent by
Henry, welcomed the saint very kindly, and refused to accept his
resignation of his see. On November 30, Thomas went to take up his
residence at the Cistercian Abbey of Pontigny in Burgundy, though he was
compelled to leave this refuge a year later, as Henry, after
confiscating the archbishop’s property and banishing all the Becket
kinsfolk, threatened to wreak his vengeance on the whole Cistercian
Order if they continued to harbor him.
The
negotiations between Henry, the pope, and the archbishop dragged on for
the next four years without the position being sensibly changed.
Although the saint remained firm in his resistance to the principle of
the Constitutions of Clarendon, he was willing to make any concessions
that could be reasonably asked of him, and on January 6, 1169, when the
kings of England and France were in conference at Montmirail, he threw
himself at Henry’s feet, but as he still refused to accept the obnoxious
customs, Henry repulsed him. At last in 1170 some sort of
reconciliation was patched up. The question of the customs was not
mentioned and Henry professed himself willing to be guided by the
archbishop’s council as to amends due to the See of Canterbury for the
recent violation of its rights in the crowning of Henry’s son by the
Archbishop of York. On December 1, 1170, St. Thomas had brought with
him, as well as over the restoration by the de Broc family of the
archbishop’s castle at Saltwood. How far Henry was directly responsible
for the tragedy which soon after occurred on December 20 is not quite
clear. Four knights who came from France demanded the absolution of the
bishops. St. Thomas would not comply. They left for a space, but came
back at Vesper time with a band of armed men. To their angry question,
“Where is the traitor?” the saint boldly replied, “Here I am, no
traitor, but archbishop and priest of God.” They tried to drag him from
the church, but were unable, and in the end they slew him where he
stood, scattering his brains on the pavement. His faithful companion,
Edward Grim, who bore his cross, was wounded in the struggle.
A
tremendous reaction of feeling followed this deed of blood. In an
extraordinary brief space of time devotion to the martyred archbishop
had spread all through Europe. The pope promulgated the bull of
canonization, little more than two years after the martyrdom, February
21, 1173. On July 12, 1174, Henry II did public penance, and was
scourged at the archbishop’s tomb. An immense number of miracles were
worked, and for the rest of the Middle Ages the shrine of St. Thomas of
Canterbury was one of the wealthiest and most famous in Europe.
In
1220, St. Thomas Becket’s remains were relocated from this first tomb
to a shrine, where it stood until it was destroyed in 1538, by orders of
Henry VIII. The king also destroyed St. Thomas Becket’s bones and
ordered that all mention of his name be obliterated. The pavement where
the shrine stood is today marked by a lit candle.
Little is historically known about Pope Sylvester, though legend adds a few anecdotes.
When
the Magi arrived in Judea seeking the newborn “king of the Jews” (Matt.
2:1-2), King Herod was worried. After ascertaining in Scriptures that
Bethlehem was the likely birthplace of the Child, he met with the Wise
Men. The crafty king bid them go to Bethlehem and bring him back details
so he could also adore the new king.
The
Church considers those slaughtered babes, the first martyrs, since they
shed their blood because of Christ. The Church officially honors their
martyrdom on December 28. Several churches in Rome and throughout Europe
claim to house their relics.
John
was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, the son of Zebedee and Salome,
and the brother of James the Greater. In the Gospels, the brothers are
often called “the sons of Zebedee”. Our Lord also called them
“Boanerges” or “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17). The fact that John is
usually mentioned after James seems to indicate that he was younger than
his brother.
Warned
by an angel, the young family left in the dead of night. Once more
Saint Joseph led the donkey that had brought Blessed Mary to Bethlehem.
But now, the happy beast carried the Creator of the Universe as well.
Stephen was a Jew, possibly of the Hellenist Dispersion who, therefore, spoke Greek.
As
the martyr felt himself dying under the awful blows, he said, “Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling on his knees he cried out, “Lord,
lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7:58-59). After which he fell
asleep in the Lord.
Christmas!... Christmas!... Joy was universal.
Christ studied the young man. “If only you knew what it is that I am ‘begging’ for...”
Princesses
Irmina and Adela were daughters of St. Dagobert II, King of the Francs.
Their father had acceded to the throne at the age of seven but had been
deposed soon after and had fled to Ireland for safety. During his exile
he married the Anglo-Saxon princess, Matilda, and had five children,
among them Adela and Irmina. He returned to the Frankish capital of Metz
in 673 and reclaimed the throne.
Born on June 23, 1390, John Cantius takes his name from the town of his birth, Kanti, Poland.
In
his letter to Fabian, the Bishop of Antioch, St. Dionysius of
Alexandria speaks of Christians who suffered martyrdom under the Emperor
Decius. Many were driven to flee into the desert where they suffered
hunger, exposure, and died prey to either wild beasts, or at the hand of
men just as wild. A good number were also sold into slavery.
St. Peter Canisius is rightly considered the second apostle of Germany after St. Boniface. 
He
combined powerful preaching, with teaching and ceaseless works of
charity. In Austria, he at first preached to almost empty churches,
partially due to his Rhineland German which grated on the ears of the
Viennese. But his tireless ministrations to the sick and dying during
an outbreak of the plague, won the citizens’ hearts, after which his
accent was of little importance.
Dominic
was born at Canas de Navarre, on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees. From
a family of peasants, at first he looked after his father’s flocks in
the foothills of the beautiful mountains of that region.
St.
Jerome wrote of Pope Anastasius that he was a distinguished man of
blameless life and apostolic solicitude, a man of great holiness, rich
in his poverty.
Indeed,
that Christmas tree standing in our living room has an ancient,
wonderful history. And though the custom began pagan, it was “baptized”
and adopted by the wisdom of a great saint.
St. Flannan mac Toirrdelbaig, was the son of Turlough, the King of Thomond in Ireland.
Following
Flannan’s example of dedication and holiness, his devout father, King
Turlough, retired in his old age and entered religion, becoming a monk
in the Abbey of Lismore.
Fourteen
years later the young princess married Lothair II, then nominal King of
Italy. Supported by the Italian nobility, real power in the kingdom was
held by Berengar of Ivrea. The couple had a daughter, Emma who later
married Lothair of France.
John’s
father, Gonzalo de Yepes, was of a prominent family in Toledo, Spain.
At his marriage to a poor girl, Catherine Alvarez, he was disinherited,
and tried his hand at the silk-weaving trade. When Gonzalo died young,
Catherine was left destitute with three young sons, John being the
youngest.
Around
this time in his life, after tasting the joys of contemplation, John
entered a period of aridity, scruples, and interior desolation. While
assaulted with terrible temptations, he was also persecuted with
calumnies. His book, Dark Night of the Soul is the child of
these trials. But in the calm that followed the storm, St. John became a
great mystic, writer, and is deemed one of the best poets that ever
lived.
Her mother, unaware of this vow and afflicted with an unrelenting illness, betrothed Lucy to a wealthy young pagan.
In
February of 1519, Hernán Cortéz, a Spanish General, landed in Aztec
Mexico with a contingent of armed men. By August of 1521, with the help
of native allies, he had conquered the country.
On
relating the bishop’s request, the Blessed Virgin bid Juan Diego climb
to the top of the hill, and to gather the flowers he would find there.
Doing so, the good man was amazed at seeing an abundance of Castillian
roses, unseasonal in December.