Everything through Mary

Such is the will of God
that we should have everything
through Mary.

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

Pope St. Pius V

Antonio Ghislieri was born in 1504 in Bosco, in the Tortona diocese. He received the Dominican habit at age fourteen, and after his ordination in Genoa, taught theology and philosophy for some years. He was Prior and Novice Master of several priories during a time of great moral laxity.

In 1556, he was consecrated Bishop of Nepi and Sutri and, the following year, was made Inquisitor General and raised to the rank of Cardinal.

Pope Pius IV transferred him to the bishopric of Mondovi in Piedmont, a diocese that had suffered much from the ravages of war. Under the care and guidance of the new bishop, the region was soon restored to peace and prosperity.

Recalled to Rome at the death of Pius IV, he was chosen as his successor, due in great part to the efforts of St. Charles Borromeo who saw in him the reformer the Church needed.

Taking the name of his predecessor, Pius V immediately introduced a new austerity and sobriety in the Papal States, re-directing sums customarily used for celebrations and festivities to aiding hospitals, poor convents and the truly indigent. He also initiated the tradition of the pope wearing white, as he continued to wear his white Dominican habit after being raised to the papal throne.

With zeal and apostolic energy, he launched numerous reforms, from ridding the Papal States of brigands to passing legislation against prostitution. In countering the widespread practice of granting favors and nominations to family members, or nepotism, he kept relatives at a distance.

Pope Pius V also had the best edition of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica published and, in 1567, he declared him Doctor of the Church. He promulgated the Catechism of the Council of Trent and had it translated into foreign languages. He also imposed on all parish priests the duty of using the Catechism to instruct the young in the tenets of the Faith.

Politically, materially and prayerfully, he supported Don Juan of Austria and Marc Antonio Colonna in the war against the Turkish fleet at Lepanto, the maritime battle that broke the Ottoman power in the Mediterranean. From the very onset of the conflict, the Pope had prayed almost continuously, often with arms raised like Moses on the mountain. At the decisive hour of victory, as a Rosary procession wound its way through Rome, the Pope interrupted his work, walked over to a window, and with radiant face, exclaimed, “The Christian fleet is victorious!”

To commemorate the great deliverance on October 7, 1571, he instituted the title of “Our Lady Help of Christians” and the feast of the Holy Rosary.

In the following year the pope was struck with a painful disorder from which he had long suffered, but which his austerities aggravated. He died on May 1, 1572, at the age of sixty-eight.

Of what should we be afraid?

And of what should we be afraid?
Our captain on this battlefield is Christ Jesus.
We have discovered what we have to do.
Christ has bound our enemies for us and weakened them that
they cannot overcome us
unless we so choose to let them.
So we must fight courageously and
mark ourselves with the sign of the most Holy Cross.

St Catherine of Siena

St. Catherine of Siena

Catherine Benincasa was born in Siena, Tuscany, in 1347. The twenty-third child of Giacomo, a well-to-do dyer, and his wife Lapa, the lively and happy girl grew up in the Benincasa’s spacious house. Their family home is preserved to this day.

At six years of age, Catherine saw Our Lord Jesus dressed as a Pontiff atop the Church of the Dominicans. This vision left such a deep impression upon her that she pledged herself to Christ.

Under family pressure, when she turned twelve, Catherine consented to pay more attention to her appearance and had her beautiful hair dressed to the fashion of the day. Repenting of this “great sin”, she cut it all off and declared she would never marry – a scandal to her family. She was set to menial labor, and harried and scolded continuously in an attempt to break her resolve. One day her father found her praying, a dove hovering over her. From that moment he ordered that she be left alone to a life of prayer.

Received into the Dominican Order as a tertiary in 1366, Catherine had a vision in which Jesus, accompanied by His Blessed Mother, officially betrothed her and placed a ring on her finger.

After this mystical betrothal, she was told that her seclusion was over and she must mingle with her fellow human beings seeking their salvation. Gradually, there gathered around her a group of followers whom she guided in the spiritual life. As her renown for holiness grew and the fame of her miracles spread, former suspicion turned to veneration.

Catherine became the arbiter of a serious feud between Florence and Perugia and the Holy See then at Avignon, France. She visited Pope Gregory XI and convinced him to return to Rome. Finally, through her mediation the cities were reconciled to the Holy See.

Around this time she produced the great work – later entitled “Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena” – which she dictated under the inspiration of God the Father.

With the death of Pope Gregory XI in 1378, and the election of Urban VI, the cardinals in Avignon disputed the choice and elected a rival pope giving rise to the great schism. Catherine spared no effort in establishing recognition of Urban. Far from resenting her help, he called the holy mystic to Rome to profit from her advice.

But early in 1380, thirty-three year old Catherine suffered a strange seizure after she offered herself as a victim for the healing of the Church. On April 29, after much suffering, Catherine gave up her ardent soul to her Divine Spouse.

She was canonized in 1461 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970.

Correction

He that loveth correction, loveth knowledge:
but he that hateth reproof is foolish.
He that is good, shall draw grace from the Lord:
but he that trusteth in his own devices doth wickedly.

Book of Proverbs (12:1-3)

St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort

Louis Grignion de Montfort was born in Brittany, France on January 31, 1673. From an early age he showed signs of spiritual maturity, and at the age of twelve entered the college of St. Thomas Becket in Rennes. There, a fire was lit within him inflaming in him a desire to become a missionary preacher. He was ordained in Paris in the year 1700.

He preached tirelessly in various cities and towns, incurring the displeasure of many ecclesiastics infected with the heresy of Jansenism. Traveling to Rome, he put his case before Pope Clement XI who named him Missionary Apostolic to France.

Louis de Montfort is specially known for his ardent devotion to the Mother of God, and his treatise, True Devotion to Mary, is one of the Church’s greatest devotional treasures. This true Apostle of Mary founded two religious orders: The Daughters of Divine Wisdom, and the Missionaries of the Company of Mary. His fiery zeal produced special fruits in the region of the Vendée, which three generations later valiantly rose up against the atheistic French Revolution then mauling France.

Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort died at age forty-three in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre in the Vendée on April 28, 1716 worn out by the efforts of his apostolate.

The power of habits

Habits acquired by our human actions alone
do not perish by one single contrary act: for
a man is not said to be intemperate for one single
act of intemperance, nor is a painter held an unskillful
master for having once failed in his art; but, as all
such habits are acquired by the influence of a series of
acts, so we lose them by a long cessation from their
acts or by many contrary acts.

St. Francis de Sales

St. Peter Armengol

Peter Armengol was born in 1238 in a small village in the archdiocese of Tarragon, Spain to a family of noble lineage.

Although his parents took great care regarding his education, young Peter forsook his life of privilege and turned to a life of crime, vice and caprice. He joined a gang of criminals who lived as bandits in the mountains to escape the authorities, and he soon became their leader.

Years later, when Armengol’s band of brigands attempted to ambush the retinue of a noble Spaniard, Peter was astonished when he discovered that the man he was fighting, and wanting to run through with his sword, was none other than his own father. Overcome with remorse, the repentant prodigal cast himself on his knees before his astonished father, imploring his forgiveness. Peter resolved to enter a Mercedarian monastery in Barcelona, an Order devoted to the ransoming of captive Christians. So fervent was he in his repeated requests for the habit and consistent in giving conducive proofs of his vocation that he was accepted.

For eight years, Armengol was the one directly responsible for the ransom of the captives, but his greatest yearning was to actually go himself to Africa and become a captive for the ransom of Christians, a desire that God saw fit to grant. On a ransom trip to the African continent, Friar Armengol agreed to become a hostage himself in exchange for the release of eighteen children. He was to be held until a sum of money was delivered for his ransom by a certain date. If it was not paid by the date set, Peter would be executed by his Moorish captors.

During his captivity, he converted many Moslems to the true Faith by the fervor of his preaching. However, when the sum of money intended for his ransom did not arrive at the appointed time, his captors threw him into prison, and subjected him to numerous forms of unspeakable and excruciating tortures, which he survived only by the grace of God.

The ransom still not having arrived, the Moors conspired to execute him. Totally confident, even in that impossible hour, Friar Armengol entrusted himself to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and went calmly to his impending death.

Six days later, when the company of Friars arrived with his ransom money, his body still hung from the gallows. Torn with grief, they went to the site of the martyr's death, hoping to at least recover his body, but were stunned when they found him still alive! Peter explained to them how the Virgin Mary had held him up and kept him alive until their arrival.

Armengol returned to Barcelona and lived a retired life in the Mercedarian Monastery of Our Lady de los Prados where he passed his days in familiar conversation with his Queen, whom he loved with such filial devotion.

God called his servant home on April 27, 1304.

Two things are required

Two things are required
in order to obtain eternal life:
the grace of God and man’s will.
And although God made man without man’s help,
He does not sanctify him without his cooperation.

St. Thomas Aquinas

Mother of Good Counsel

In the quaint medieval town of Genazzano, about 30 miles from Rome, on a side altar of the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, there is a small image of the Blessed Virgin holding her infant Son. The Child, in His turn, lovingly encircles Mary's neck with His arm, inclining her head towards Himself in a gentle and intimate embrace.

This small fresco has a marvelous history.

In the fifteenth century there lived in the town an elderly widow, by name Petruccia, who had invested the entirety of the small fortune left to her by her husband in a needed side chapel for her church. Her money running out when the walls were only a few feet high, the townsfolk openly mocked and ridiculed her for her foolishness. Undaunted, Petruccia assured them that in spite of the apparent failure of her own endeavors, the Mother of God and St. Augustine, whose spiritual sons were caretakers of the church, would finish the work she had begun.

On April 25, 1467 as the inhabitants of Genazzano celebrated the feast of their patron St. Mark, marvelous music was heard approaching, its source seemingly from above. Looking upwards, the astounded citizens saw a brilliant cloud descending towards them. The bell of the church, and then others throughout the town, began to peel of their own accord. The cloud came to rest on Petruccia’s unfinished chapel wall and gradually dissipated, revealing the extraordinary image of the Madonna and Child. The widow's supernatural confidence being so wonderfully rewarded before the astonished gaze of all, the construction of the chapel was not long in its completion.

Shortly after these remarkable events, two foreigners in strange attire arrived in Genazzano claiming to be Albanians. Their names were Giorgio and DeSclavis and on seeing the icon, they cried out with joy and then told a wonderful tale.

After the death of Albania's king, George Castriota, known as Scanderberg, their nation had finally been conquered by the invading Turks. Early in 1467, while they prayed before the miraculous fresco, the image suddenly became illuminated, and detaching itself from the wall, it began to move through the air. Entranced, the two former soldiers followed the painting, first over land and, then, across the Adriatic Sea, which solidified under their feet.

In the Eternal City they lost sight of it, until hearing reports of a great miracle in a nearby town, they surmised where their Madonna had come to rest. Both decided to remain near their treasure, and married and raised families in Genazzano.

A plaque left at the shrine by visiting Albanians begs their Madonna to return to them, but there she is to this day. It is a continuous miracle: a fresco painted on eggshell plaster suspended in the air for five and a half centuries, but how much greater is the miracle of that tender embrace between Mother and Child, that union of soul into which each one is invited and warmly received.

Why did Jesus die, toil, hunger, and thirst?

All the penalties imposed
by divine judgment upon man
for the sin of the first transgression
– death, toil, hunger, thirst and the like –
He took upon Himself, becoming what we are,
so that we might become what He is.

St. Mark the Hermit

St. Mark the Evangelist

We learn from the Epistle to the Colossians that Mark was a kinsman of Barnabas, who was a Levite, which presupposes that Mark was also of a Levitical family.

We read of Mark accompanying Paul and Barnabas on their apostolic missions, assisting them in Cyprus (Acts 13:5) and journeying with them to Perga in Pamphylia, from whence he returned on his own to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13). The Apostle to the Gentiles seems to have construed this last action on Mark's part as displaying a certain disloyalty. Later, when preparing to visit Cilicia and Asia Minor, a heated argument ensued with Paul refusing to include Mark, while Barnabas defended his cousin, "so that they separated from each other; Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed" (Acts 15, 37-40).

It is this same Mark who is later imprisoned with Paul in Rome. As proof of how much his personal opinion concerning Mark had changed during their joint captivity, the Apostle to the Gentiles afterwards writes to Timothy in Ephesus, “…take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me in the ministry.”

Tradition strongly affirms that Mark, the author of the second gospel, was more closely associated with St. Peter. Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus and Papias speak of Mark as being Peter's interpreter. Writing from Rome, Peter refers to “my son, Mark” (1 Peter 5, 13) who apparently was there with him. This is undoubtedly Mark the Evangelist.

Ancient tradition relates that Mark lived for some years in Alexandria as bishop of that city, and there suffered martyrdom.

The city of Venice claims to possess the remains of St. Mark the Evangelist, brought there from Alexandria in the ninth century. Preserved by the Venetians for centuries, their authenticity has not gone unchallenged. From time immemorial, however, St. Mark – Apostle and Evangelist – symbolized by the lion, has always been honored as patron of this "Queen of the Adriatic."
Photo by: Bolo77/Stefano Bolognini

Winning consists in not abandoning the cross

In the spiritual life, one does not sustain honorable losses.
War honors
come only with victory.
And winning consists in not abandoning the cross
even when one falls beneath it. It consists in persevering
amidst the apparent failures of external works,
amidst adversity, in the exhaustion of all of one’s strength.
It consists in carrying the cross to the height of Calvary, and, there,
letting oneself be crucified.

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen

Fidelis was born Mark Rey in Sigmaringen in Prussia, and was the son of the town's burgomaster. Pursuing studies at the University of Freiburg in Bresigau, he eventually taught philosophy, while working towards a degree in law.

In 1604, he was appointed tutor to a small group of noble youths and with them made a six-year tour of Europe. His pupils, who grew to respect and love him, attested to the austerity and holiness of his life.

On his return to Germany, he took a doctorate in law and was soon known for his integrity and for his espousal of the cause of the oppressed. Still, the corruption within the legal profession disgusted him and he decided to enter the Capuchin branch of the Franciscan Order.

He was a preacher and confessor of great repute and from the beginning of his apostolic life fought heresy, especially in the form of Calvinism and Zwinglianism, not only through preaching but also with his pen.

Appointed, with eight others, apostle of the region of Grison with the mission of bringing its people back to the faith, he undertook the project with courage and dedication. From the start the wonderful effect of his zeal infuriated his adversaries. They roused the peasants against him by spreading the rumor that he was an enemy of their national aspirations and the agent of the Austrian Emperor.

Fidelis was warned, but chose to spend several nights in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament at the feet of a crucifix. On April 24 he was back at his pulpit. A gunshot fired from the crowd missed him, but once back on the road, he was attacked by a group of armed men demanding that he renounce his Faith. He refused and was struck down while calling on God to forgive his assailants, as they mangled his body with their weapons.

The conversion of a Zwinglian minister who witnessed the scene was one of the first fruits of his martyrdom. Fidelis was canonized by Pope Benedict XIV.

Sickness itself can be a prayer

The prayer of the sick person is
his patience and his acceptance of his sickness
for the love of Jesus Christ.
Make sickness itself a prayer, for there is none
more powerful, save martyrdom!

St. Francis de Sales

St. George

Though the story of St. George is intertwined with legend, especially the account of him slaying a dragon, the historicity of his life is certain.
He was of Greek origin, seemingly of a noble, Christian family. His father was Gerondios, from Capaddocia, a prominent officer in the Imperial army. His mother was Polychronia, from the city of Lyda, now in Israel.

As a youth, he lost first his father and then his mother, after which he enlisted in the Roman army under Emperor Diocletian. The latter favored him in honor of his father’s service, and George was made an Imperial Tribune.

By imperial edict, Roman soldiers were forbidden to practice Christianity. Notwithstanding this prohibition, George loudly proclaimed himself a follower of Christ before the Emperor Diocletian and his fellow soldiers. Upset at the news, the Emperor offered George an abundance of earthly goods in exchange for his Christian Faith, but George was unmoved. He endured various tortures and was finally beheaded. The Empress Alexandra was converted by his courageous example, and some interpret that while the dragon often depicted being slain by St. George is the pagan Roman might, the lady in the background is the Empress.

Devotion to St. George spread throughout Asia Minor, and already early in the fourth century churches were being dedicated to his honor.

Throughout the history of Christian battles there have been reports of St. George’s heavenly assistance, Richard I of England and other Crusaders also confirming such intercession. It is not known how St. George was chosen as patron of England, though it is certain that his fame had reached the isle long before the Norman Conquest.

Why was Mary raised to the dignity of Mother of God?

Mary was raised to the dignity of Mother of God
rather for sinners than for the just, since
Jesus Christ declares that
He came to call not the just, but sinners.

St. Anselm

St. Theodore of Sykeon

Born in the Roman Galatian town of Sykeon in Asia Minor, Theodore was the son of a woman of ill repute, who kept an inn along the imperial highway.

As a child, he was so given to prayer that he would often give up a meal to spend time in church. From an early age he shut himself up first in the cellar of his mother’s house and then in a cave beneath a disused chapel. Later, for a time, seeking to further escape the world, he sought solitude on a mountain.

On a pilgrimage to Jerusalem Theodore assumed a monk’s habit, and though only eighteen years of age, was ordained a priest by his own bishop. His life was most austere, wearing an iron girdle about his body and only sparingly partaking of vegetables.

Endowed with the gift of prophecy and miracles, on a second pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he obtained abundant rain after a severe drought.

Theodore founded several monasteries, and ruled as abbot in Sykeon. He was consecrated Bishop of Anastasiopolis, though he deemed himself totally unfitted. After ten years he succeeded in relinquishing his post and retired to Sykeon.

From Sykeon he was recalled to Constantinople to bless the emperor and the senate and there healed one of the Emperor’s sons of a skin disease, reputedly leprosy.

Theodore had a great devotion to St. George and did much to propagate devotion to him.

He died in Sykeon on April 22, 613.

What truth is worth

Love TRUTH.
Show yourself as you are,
without pretense, without fears and cares.
And if the truth means your persecution, accept it;
if it means your torment, bear it.
And if for the truth's sake,
you should sacrifice yourself and your life,
be strong in your sacrifice.

St. Giuseppe Moscati

St. Anselm of Canterbury

Anselm was born in Aosta in Italy about the year 1033. There was little sympathy between the lad and his father, a harsh man who practically drove him from home after his mother’s death to pursue his studies in Burgundy, France.

In the Benedictine monastery of Bec in Normandy, Anselm met and became the disciple and friend of its great abbot, Lanfranc. When Anselm was twenty-seven, Lanfranc was elected to higher office, and he himself appointed Prior of Bec. Fifteen years later, Anselm was chosen abbot, a position that entailed visits to England where the abbey had property, and where Lanfranc was now Archbishop of Canterbury.

An original thinker and great scholar, Anselm had a burning passion to learn about natural and supernatural truth. He developed a method of study for which he came to be known as the "Father of Scholasticism." Under his governance, first as prior and then as abbot, the Abbey of Bec became a center of true reformation in Normandy and England.

Above all, Anselm's great merit lay in his earnest and conscious effort of living according to what he learned from the study of divine truths. His life truly was a combination of contemplation, study, prayer, writing, and activity.

As the seat of Canterbury became vacant, the pastoral staff was forced into the monk’s reluctant hand. Now, as archbishop, he set about defending the liberties and rights of the Church against encroaching English monarchs for which he was sorely persecuted and exiled, but ultimately upheld, by Pope Urban II.

While in Rome in 1098, Anselm attended the Council of Bari and assisted in the definition of the doctrines challenged by the Greeks.

Anselm’s was a character of singular charm. He was known for his sympathy and sincerity which won him the affection of men of all classes and nationalities. A friend of the poorest of the poor, his care also extended to slaves, being one of the first to stand against slavery. In 1102, at the Council of Westminster, he obtained the passing of a resolution prohibiting the practice of selling men like cattle.

Anselm of Canterbury died in 1109 and was declared Doctor of the Church in 1720.

How to see God

When we do not consent to temptation,
we keep our hearts clean,
of which it is said,
“Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God."

St. Thomas Aquinas

St. Agnes of Montepulciano

Around the year 1268 in the Tuscan village of Gracchiano-Vecchio, a child was born to a well-to-do couple, a little girl who was to become one of the great women saints of the Dominican Order.

Attracted  to prayer from an early age, even as a child Agnes would spend hours on her knees praying the Our Father and Hail Mary. At nine years of age, she convinced her parents to place her in the nearby Franciscan monastery at Montelpuciano. In the austerity of monastic life, she advanced in virtue by leaps and bounds.

Five years later, Agnes was called upon to leave Montepulciano to assist in the foundation of a new convent in Proceno. As soon as it was known that Agnes was at Proceno, several girls offered themselves as postulants. With special papal dispensation, the fifteen-year-old Agnes was elected abbess.

From that day onwards, she redoubled her austerities, living for fifteen years on bread and water, and sleeping on the ground with a stone pillow.

Still, the inhabitants of Montelpuciano pined for their now famous saint, and on the plans to build a new convent for her, she returned. The establishment flourished under her rule and guidance, and she remained prioress of this convent until her death.

In her later years, she suffered from a painful illness but did not allow this condition to interfere with her duties. She died at the age of forty-nine.

Money - it might kill you

Earthly riches are like the reed.
Its roots are sunk in the swamp, and
its exterior is fair to behold; but inside
it is hollow.
If a man leans on such a reed,
it will snap off and pierce his soul.

St. Anthony of Padua

St. Alphege of Canterbury

As a youth, Alphege became a monk in the monastery of Deerhurst in Gloucestershire, England, afterwards an anchorite and later an abbot in a monastery in Bath. At thirty, at the insistence of St. Dunstan and to his great consternation, he was elected Bishop of Winchester. As bishop, he maintained the same austerity of life as when a monk. During his episcopate he was so generous toward the poor that there were no beggars left in the diocese of Winchester.

Alphege served twenty-two years as bishop of this see and was then translated to the see of Canterbury at the death of Archbishop Aelfric.

During this period, England suffered from the ravages of the Danes who joined forces with the rebel Earl Edric, marched on Kent and laid siege to Canterbury. When the city was betrayed, there was a terrible massacre, men and women, old and young, dying by the sword.

The Archbishop hastened to the defense of his people, and pressing through the crowd begged the Danes to cease the carnage. He was immediately seized, roughly handled, and imprisoned.

A mysterious and deadly plague broke out among the Danes, and, despite the fact that the holy prelate had healed many of their own with his prayers and by giving them blessed bread, the Danes demanded an exorbitant ransom for his release. As the Archbishop protested that the country was too poor to pay such a price, he was brutally assassinated.

St. Alphege was the first Archbishop of Canterbury to die a violent death. In 1023, the martyr's body was translated with great ceremony to Canterbury accompanied by the Danish King Canute. Although he did not die directly in defense of the Faith, St. Alphege is considered a martyr of justice.

There is only one ladder to heaven

Apart from the cross
there is no other ladder by which
we may get to heaven.

St. Rose of Lima

St. Galdinus of Milan

St. Galdinus of Milan

Galdinus was born about the year 1096 into the Della Salla family, of minor Milanese nobility.

He lived in a tumultuous time for the Church in Italy with the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa causing trouble. Opposed to the election of Pope Alexander III in 1159, Barbarossa proceeded to rally a few dissident cardinals that elected another Pope. When the people of Milan sided with the legitimate Pope, the Emperor invaded.

Galdinus, who occupied the post of chancellor and archdeacon under Hubert, the Archbishop of Milan, was obliged to follow the prelate into exile.

In 1165 Galdinus was created Cardinal, and upon the death of Archbishop Hubert, was consecrated his successor by Pope Alexander III himself. The new prelate went about comforting his war-weary people and gathering his dispersed flock. He also re-enforced discipline among his clergy who had, during the troubled times, become lax.

Throwing himself heart and soul into the new undertaking, Galdinus preached constantly, not only healing the spiritual wounds caused by the schism but clarifying the faith to those confused by the heretical doctrine of the Cathars, then widely prevalent in the north of Italy. The Cathari, or Albigensians, rejected the seven sacraments, had special hatred for the Holy Eucharist and Matrimony, and believed that the physical world was all evil. Among their bizarre beliefs was that women must be reborn as men in order to achieve salvation.

On the last day of his life, too weak to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the ardent shepherd could not be kept from his pulpit. When the zealous preacher came to the end of his discourse, he simply died at his post.

Novena to Our Lady of Good Counsel (Feast: April 26)

By Pope Pius XII, 23 January 1953

 

Holy Virgin, moved by the painful uncertainty we experience in seeking and acquiring the true and the good, we cast ourselves at thy feet and invoke thee under the sweet title of  Mother of Good Counsel.  We beseech thee: come to our aid at this moment in our worldly sojourn when the double darkness of error and of evil plot our ruin by leading minds and hearts astray.
Seat of Wisdom and Star of the Sea, enlighten the victims of doubt and of error so that they may not be seduced by evil masquerading as good; strengthen them against the hostile and corrupting forces of passion and of sin.
Mother of Good Counsel, obtain for us our most urgent need..... (here mention your request) and secure for us from thy Divine Son the love of virtue and the strength to choose, in doubtful and difficult situations, the course agreeable to our salvation.
Supported by thy hand we shall thus journey without harm along the paths taught us by the word and example of Jesus our Savior, following the Sun of Truth and Justice in freedom and safety across the battlefield of life under the guidance of thy maternal Star, until we come at length to the harbor of salvation to enjoy with thee unalloyed and everlasting peace.   Amen

Say the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, three times each.

  

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Read: The Story of the Miraculous Fresco of Our Lady of Good Counsel

What is the paradise of God?

The heart of man is, so to speak,
the paradise of God.
Since His delights are to be with you,
let yours be found in Him.

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

St. Stephen Harding

Stephen Harding was an Englishman of an honorable family, and heir to a large estate. Born in Dorset, he was educated at the monastery of Sherborne and spoke English, Norman, French and Latin.

Desirous of seeking a more perfect way of Christian perfection, he, with a devout companion, traveled into Scotland and afterwards to Paris and to Rome. On their return journey, the two travelers chanced upon a collection of huts in the forest of Molesme in Burgundy, where monks lived in great austerity. Struck by their way of life and finding kindred spirits in Robert the Abbot, and Alberic the Prior, he bid his friend goodbye and threw in his lot with the monks.

After some years, finding that religious fervor had waned considerably, Stephen, Robert, Alberic and others went to Lyons and with the support of Bishop Hugh struck a new foundation in the forest of Citeaux sponsored by Rainald, Lord of Beaune, and Odo, Duke of Burgundy.

Later Robert returned to his monks of Molesme who reclaimed him as their abbot, and upon the death of Alberic, in 1109, Stephen succeeded him as Abbot of Citeaux.

He immediately instituted such austere measures to keep the spirit of the world out that he alienated the support of many who had helped to establish the abbey. Novices ceased applying, and to make matters worse, a mysterious disease decimated his monks to the point that even Stephen’s stout heart began to quiver wondering if he were really doing God’s will.

God answered him dramatically when thirty noblemen knocked at the abbey’s door seeking admittance. They were headed by young St. Bernard who in his zeal had convinced his brothers, uncles and a number of his acquaintances to give up the world with him.

Increasing numbers called for additional foundations and the first two were made at Morimond and Clairvaux. To the general surprise, Stephen appointed twenty-four-year-old Bernard as Abbot of Clairvaux. When nine abbeys had sprung from Citeaux, Stephen drew up the statutes of his Charter of Charity which officially organized the Cistercians into an order.

Stephen Harding died in 1134, advanced in age and nearly blind, and having served as Abbot of Cîteaux for twenty-five years.

True Sleeping Beauty - St. Bernadette (Feast: April 16)

Do we lie to our children when we tell them fairytales, parents may ask?
Indeed not!
No fairytale matches what in reality God can do and will do for those who trust His omnipotence. Thus, fairytales are a way of “wetting the appetite” of children for the marvelous, wonder-filled world of God’s miracles, and, finally Heaven.
In my Catholic home, as I graduated from fairytales to the lives of the saints, I was pleasantly surprised to find amazing parallels between their stories with the marvelous tales of my childhood.
Actually, my fairytales paled compared to the riveting miracles, God Our Lord, and Mother Mary, true “Fairy God’s Mother”, had worked in these saints’ lives. And then, one day, I was awe-struck on being shown a photo of the incorrupt body of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, who saw the Blessed Mother eighteen times in Lourdes, France in 1858.

 

Here was the real “Sleeping Beauty”!
The incorruption of the bodies of some saints is a phenomenon, which science cannot explain. Far from “mummified”, these bodies are preserved without exterior aid, some having escaped not only the ravages of natural decomposition, but also the added putrefying effect of humidity, and even the corrosiveness of lime.
The first saint in Catholic history to have escaped normal decay is the Roman virgin Saint Cecilia, martyred in 177 A.D, her integral body discovered in 1599. Throughout history, about 250 such bodies were exhumed and found to be in different stages of preservation.
Bernadette of Lourdes, who died at age 36, was first exhumed thirty years after her death. Before the local bishop and other authorities, the body was recognized to be amazingly intact with even internal organs preserved. Because of some discoloration of the skin, a light wax cover was placed over her face and hands for eventual public veneration.
Indeed, in life young Bernadette had been incorruptible.
Perhaps, the young visionary’s outstanding qualities were utter simplicity, and piercing honesty. After seeing the Blessed Virgin, and initiating the miraculous fountain of Lourdes, she remained true to herself, despite the center of feverish attention.
Unmoved by the acclaiming public that promptly conferred saintly stardom on her, young Bernadette answered the grueling clerical investigators with utter transparency, disconcerting directness and uncanny wisdom for one so young and only recently lettered.
When entering the the convent of the Sisters of Nevers, she thought it only logical that she be assigned to menial tasks.
She lived in fidelity to her vows, pure, simple, true, and a lover of her daily cross, her one desire to be with her “lady” who had appeared to her and sealed her heart for heaven.
She now reposes, enshrined in a crystal urn in the chapel of St. Gildard, Nevers, France, a true Sleeping Beauty, stung by the curse of death, but peacefully awaiting the return of her divine Bridegroom.
So, no – fairy-tales don’t lie!

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By Andrea F. Phillips
References:
https://www.catholicpilgrims.com/lourdes/bb_bernadette_body.htm
https://www.visionsofjesuschrist.com/weeping216.htm
Catholic Online

How to make a man go to Heaven

Think well. Speak well. Do well.

These three things,
through the mercy of God,
will make a man go to Heaven.

St. Camillus de Lellis

St. Bernadette Soubirous

Bernadette Soubirous, baptized Marie Bernarde, was the oldest of a family of six, the daughter of a miller, François Soubirous and his wife, Louise Casteròt. They lived in Lourdes, a small town in the French Pyrenees.

Hit by hard times, her father had to give up the mill and move the family into the only lodging available, a former prison. "Le cachot" or "the dungeon," was damp and cold. Always sickly, Bernadette had contracted cholera as a child and suffered from severe asthma attacks. Considered a slow learner, she had the simplicity of a dove, was good, patient, and nothing but honest.

On February 11, 1858 while out with her sister and two friends, her companions skipped over stones to cross the River Gave to gather sticks for fuel near the grotto of Massabielle.

Hesitant about wading into the frigid water, the asthmatic Bernadette was seated on a rock when a sudden gust of wind made her look up. In the grotto she beheld a luminous lady, dressed in white with a blue sash around her waist, golden roses on her feet and a rosary over her arm.

Report of the vision caused a commotion, and people began to accompany Bernadette to the grotto where, altogether, there were eighteen apparitions in a period of two months. On March 25 the lady revealed herself as “The Immaculate Conception”, four years after the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The Virgin’s message was one of prayer and personal conversion and she also asked for a church to be built and that people come on pilgrimage.

During one of the apparitions, Bernadette suddenly began to dig inside the grotto, from whence emerged a fountain that flows abundantly today. Its water has worked countless cures, though only 67 are officially recognized by the Church and medicine.

After the apparitions, though her father’s life improved with offers of work, Bernadette’s was continuously harassed by visitors and ecclesiastical inquiries.

In 1866 she entered the convent of Notre Dame de Nevers where, despite her delicate health, she served as infirmarian and sacristan.  Developing painful, fatal tuberculosis of the bone, Bernadette suffered patiently until her death at age thirty-five on April 16, 1879. She died reaffirming the veracity of the apparitions.

Today, Lourdes is one of the most visited and beloved Catholic shrines in the world. Bernadette’s body lies in the convent chapel in Nevers, miraculously incorrupt

The Marvels of St. Bernadette (Feast: April 16)

 By Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira 

After reading the life of any saint, we close the book exclaiming, “What a great saint! I did not think something like this could exist.”  Indeed, as long as it is well written, the life of any saint is a unique marvel full of surprises.
The life of Saint Bernadette Soubirous is no exception. She was a French peasant girl from an area of the Pyrenees mountains which, from a certain standpoint, blends together aspects of Spain and France. She looks very French although she has Spanish features. Looking at her authentic pictures (not usually found in churches), we see a person with a slightly squarish face with regular and well-defined features. She has large black eyes with a certain fixed Spanish gaze unlike the quicker and darting French gaze. Her Spanish gaze is penetrating almost to the point of an x-ray. Together with her Spanish nose, her face presents a coherence that really stands out and marks her from top to bottom.
Her mindset is direct and straightforward. She does not mince words. She was a person with very high horizons but had a very simple upbringing, meaning that she was never taught to be reserved or discreet. What she thought, she would come right out and say.
Her whole expression is one of complete detachment. She was completely humble and did not want to be anyone special. Her goal was to go about the service of Our Lady without caring about what others think.
Consider the fact that Saint Bernadette could have become vain when seeing huge crowds gathered to see her speak with Our Lady at the Grotto during the apparitions.  
This fact is aggravated by the fact that Saint Bernadette was from the countryside where such attention causes a much greater impression. The smaller the town, the more importance one attaches to it.  It is easier for a New Yorker (to use an American example) to criticize New York than for villagers to criticize their own little town. When the mayor of the small village dies, the whole town shows up for the funeral.  The entire village represents the whole world.  It is considered extraordinary.
We might add that this atmosphere of the small countryside village has much more life and is more accommodating than the huge modern-day Babels in which the individual is like a loose grain of sand. In the village, each inhabitant is like the living cell of an organism.  In New York or Sao Paulo, each is like a grain of sand in a huge pile in which each grain weighs on top of the others, and from which every windstorm takes grains far away.
Thus, we can understand what it meant for Saint Bernadette to have the whole town of Lourdes come see her.  It was something extraordinary. However, her reaction was not to become vain. Rather she remained indifferent to the attention. During the whole time, she was completely and naturally herself before everyone.  When called by the police to speak about the revelations, she behaved with extraordinary fearlessness and ease. Toward her parents, the parish priest and other upright people with whom she dealt, and later with her religious superiors, she was a model of respect and obedience.
Thus, we can see in her the spirit of a true ultramontane and Catholic woman.  She is a true saint totally indifferent to the pomp and esteem of this world.  By disregarding everything, she was not disregarded. For if she would have sought the applause of the world, she would not be free to do anything except those actions which would gain her this applause.  She would be forced to play to their tune.  Saint Bernadette Soubirous’ attitude was to be herself.  If the world did not like it, she did not care.  All she cared about was being faithful to the Holy Catholic Church.
When it came to legitimate authorities, her attitude was different.  She took great care to show extreme obedience and respect.  This is because there was a supernatural principle that was involved and not merely the human factor of herself.  She did not care about the ways of the world, but she showed all due care and respect to things with a religious root, which came from God. 
Saint Bernadette Soubirous impressed many by her conduct during the apparitions.  She converted countless people simply by the way she made the sign of the cross.  She learned this from Our Lady – the supreme model of friends and worshippers of Jesus Christ – and thus she acquired a love of suffering and of the Cross of Christ.  Hence something of Our Lady’s unction would show in her when she made the sign of the cross.
Even after the apparitions, she edified people as they watched her make the sign of the cross, something we often do haphazardly without attaching due importance to what we are doing.
However, what most deeply impressed people was her whole demeanor during the apparitions.  They perceived she was in contact with something they could not see but came from outside her.
They noted an extraordinary transformation in her.  From a simple peasant girl, she would take on a majesty that impressed everybody.  One lady from high society who saw her during an apparition said she had never seen a girl from the aristocracy with the bearing and stature of Saint Bernadette while speaking to Our Lady.  In other words, because she was dealing with the Queen of Heaven and Earth, this Queen communicated to her something regal, and something of this virtue remained in her soul.
Many people realized that Our Lady was speaking to her, not because they saw Our Lady but because they saw Bernadette as a mirror of Our Lady.  Indeed, during the apparitions, the seer was a kind of Speculum Mariae, or better, Speculum Justitiae.   It is truly admirable to see how Our Lady communicates her virtues to her devotees, who, so to speak, imbibe them from her.  
When a sister at her convent insisted with Sister Bernadette to tell them about the dress Our Lady was wearing when she appeared.  She answered that if they wanted to know the details let them ask Our Lady to come back so they can see for themselves.
This was characteristic of Saint Bernadette’s many picturesque comments.  Her superior often tried to make them less biting and more polite but finally allowed them to go through.  Bernadette’s sayings had a note that was both comic and fiery with a sharp edge that showed her bubbly temperament.
When asked if she was proud of being chosen by Our Lady, she replied: “Who do you think I am? The Blessed Mother picked me because I was the most ignorant one. Had she found someone more ignorant than me she would certainly have chosen her.”
Such a comment was not only humble but also quite true.  Humility is truth.  Our Lady chose her because she was the most ignorant girl in Lourdes.  Before the revelations, she was a good girl but not a saint.  Our Lady chose her because her ignorance was one of the extraordinary arguments to confirm the apparitions.
She was such an ignorant peasant girl that she simply had no means to know about the spiritual things she told the authorities.  She did not have the spiritual background to maintain the attitude she maintained.
Her ignorance was one of the apologetic aspects of Lourdes.
While very lively, Saint Bernadette could easily go unnoticed.  In time, her illness gradually wore her down.  Actually her situation is similar to that of Saint Therese, the Little Flower.  She offered her life as an expiatory victim for sinners, but above all for a mysterious sinner who she did not name and for whom she suffered horribly so he would make amends and be sanctified.  Was it a man of her time or a man to come in the future, whose existence Providence revealed to her?  No one knows.
One biography of Saint Bernadette mentions the fact that Our Lady revealed a secret to her, which she never said anything about.  It seems that it was something related to the identity of that mysterious sinner. Thus the three great apparitions of Our Lady of our times all had secrets: Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Lourdes, and Our Lady of Fatima.
Let us ask Saint Bernadette to obtain for us a great devotion to Our Lady and that she may increasingly communicate Our Lady’s virtues to us.
 

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The preceding text is taken from an informal lecture Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira gave on April 15, 1966. It has been translated and adapted for publication without his revision. 

The three steps of grace

Every grace granted to man
has three degrees in order:
by God it is communicated to Christ,
from Christ it passes to the Virgin, and
from the Virgin it descends to us.

St. Bernardine of Siena

St. Hunna

Little is known about St. Hunna other than that she was an aristocratic lady from the royal family of Alsace and married to a nobleman, Huno of Hunnaweyer, a small village in the diocese of Strasbourg. She was known to be so caring of the poor around her that she even lent a hand in doing the washing for her neighbors in need. Because of this she was known as “the holy washerwoman”.

She also donated properties to monasteries and financed the construction of churches.

Hunna had a son who was baptized by the holy bishop of Nevers, St. Deodatus, and was given his name in Baptism. This son later entered a monastery founded by the same St. Deodatus at Ebersheim.

Hunna was canonized in 1520 by Pope Leo X at the instance of Duke Ulric of Wurtemberg.

The Robber Who Stole Heaven

In the mountainous region of Trent in Germany, there lived a notorious robber who made his living by bringing misfortune on others. His occupation being what it was, he would only increase his property by decreasing that of his victims.
One day, he was admonished by a local religious to change his course of life and thereby insure his eternal salvation. The only answer the robber gave was that for him there was no remedy.
"Do not say so," said the religious, "do what I tell you. Fast on each Saturday in honor of the Virgin Mary, and on that day of the week do no harm to anyone. She will obtain for you the grace of not dying in God’s displeasure.”
The robber thought to himself, “This is a small price to pay to insure my salvation; I will do as this holy man has prescribed.” He then obediently followed the religious’ advice, and made a vow to continue to do so. That he might not break it, from that time on he traveled unarmed on Saturdays.
Many years later, our robber was apprehended on a given Saturday by the officers of justice, and that he might not break his oath, he allowed himself to be taken without resistance. The judge, seeing that he was now a gray-haired old man, wished to pardon him.
Then the truly miraculous occurred. Rather than jump for joy thanking the judge for his leniency, the old robber, said that he wished to die in punishment of his sins. He then made a public confession of all the sins of his life in that same judgment hall, weeping so bitterly that all present wept with him.
He was beheaded, a death reserved for the nobility, rather than hanged. Then his body was buried with little ceremony, in a grave dug nearby.
Very soon afterwards, the mother of God came down from Heaven with four holy virgins by her side. They took the robber’s dead body from that place, wrapped it in a rich cloth embroidered with gold, and bore it themselves to the gate of the city.
There the Blessed Virgin said to the guards: "Tell the bishop from me, to give an honorable burial, in such a church to this dead person, for he was my faithful servant." And thus it was done.
All the people in the village thronged to the spot where they found the corpse with the rich pall, and the bier on which it was placed. And from that moment on, says Caesarius of Heisterbach, all persons in that region began to fast on Saturdays in honor of she who was so kind to even a notorious robber.
From the Glories of Mary, by St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori.

Knowledge as charity

Some seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge:
that is curiosity.
Others seek knowledge that they may themselves be known:
that is vanity.
But there are still others who seek knowledge in order to serve and edify others,
and that is charity.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

St. Bénézet of Avignon

Bénézet or “Little Benedict” was a French lad, pious and thoughtful beyond his years who minded his mother’s sheep. He was deeply concerned about how dangerous it was for poor people to cross the unpredictable Rhône River.

It is said that during an eclipse, in the year 1177, he heard a voice that said to him: "Bénézet, take your rod and go down to Avignon, the capital's waterfront: talk to people and tell them that we must build a bridge."

In the Middle Ages the construction and repair of bridges was considered a work of mercy. Though Bénézet knew nothing of building bridges, he took his staff and obeyed the call.

At first the bishop of Avignon dismissed him as being daft, but after witnessing several miracles performed by the holy shepherd lad, he supported the enterprise, and the Brotherhood of Bridge Builders was formed with wealthy sponsors. For seven years Bénézet conducted the operations.

The Provençal shepherd-turned-bridge-builder died in 1184 when most of the difficulties with the construction had been overcome. The mighty bridge, completed four years later, measured 900 meters long and spanned the river with 22 arches, connecting one of the main pilgrimage routes from Italy to Covadonga on the Atlantic coast of Spain.

Bénézet’s body was interred in a small chapel on the bridge itself. This chapel, standing on one of the bridge's piers, was dedicated to St. Nicholas, the patron saint of the Rhône boatmen. In 1669, when part of the bridge collapsed from the force of the current, his coffin was taken up and in 1670 opened before the Grand Vicar. The body was found to be intact, even the bowels were sound and the color of his eyes fresh. The body was first translated to the Cathedral of Avignon and finally interred in the Church of St. Didier in the city.

The fame of Bénézet's bridge in Avignon was spread far beyond the borders of France by the children’s song, Sur le Pont d’Avignon, which is sung all over the world, even in China.
        Photo on Left by: Elliott Brown                                               Photo on Right by: Charles Greenhough

Easter and the Marvelous World of Eggs

As a child, I was fascinated by the foil wrapped, chocolate eggs hidden in the bush. The intense search was rewarded by a glimmer of light and color in the greenery that never failed to make my heart skip.
Still, in our Catholic household, we actively celebrated the Resurrection of Our Lord; and it was explained to us children that the Easter egg was a symbol of Jesus’ resurrection because the egg is symbolic of new life that emerges from a confined space, such as Christ’s tomb.



Later, for a few years, I attended a Ukrainian Catholic grade-school and there I was introduced to the fascinating art of Pysanky, or “writing on eggs”, and tried my wobbly hand at it.
As I handled the “kistka” an instrument that dispenses hot wax, as an ink pen dispenses ink, I loved every minute. The process, basically masks designs and progressively dips the egg into dies to reveal, at the end, and when the wax is melted off, a small marvel. No matter how amateur or how proficient one is at it, there’s a thrill.

Indeed, pysanky, from the word pysaty, “to write”, dates back to pre-Christian times, when eggs were celebrated for their life-giving/nutritious properties.
With the advent of Christianity, the custom was incorporated into the new faith and related to Our Lord’s Resurrection with Christian symbols replacing pagan ones.
I wasn’t to be a pysanky artist. I use a pen, rather than a “kistka”, but never forget that one time I did “write” on an egg, and felt the fascination of the ancient tradition.
It was thus, with another heart-skip that last October, while on vacation in Hot Springs, Arkansas, I met a group of bubbly Pysanky artists who convene there every year.
Inspired by Pysanky master Lorrie Popow, a life-long writer of Pysanky, just named 2015 Arkansas Living Treasure, people come from all over the world to learn this ancient art form.

Culture is a powerful thing. It can be used for bad, as manifested all around us today, or it can be used for good as evinced by the strength of ancient customs. Steeped in a civilization inspired by Christ, these customs not only have enriched generations past, but continue to cross oceans, resurfacing in places such as the heart of Arkansas!

Indeed such traditions, when used and passed on with the right knowledge and linked to their deep religious meaning, can be an asset to faith, especially for children who are so visual and “hands on”.
I loved those eggs I found in the bush, and I loved those eggs I learned about in school. They never took away from faith, but rather lent a marvelous component of enjoyment and art to the sacred in my life.

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 By Andrea F. PhillipsPhotos: Pysanky Eggs displayed at the 2014 convention of Pysanky painters in Hot Springs Arkansas. 

The greatest type of courage

Of the several types of courage which a man needs,
one of the greatest – or the greatest –
is the courage to decide to be pure.

To be pure requires
great manliness,great seriousness,
great strength of will.

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

Pope St. Martin I

Pope Martin I is historically acclaimed as a heroic defender of the Faith, a man of exalted virtue and untiring courage. Born in Umbria, his biographer Theodore describes him as “of noble birth, a great student, of commanding intelligence, of profound learning, and of great charity to the poor.”

Elected as the successor of the Fisherman in 649, Martin governed the Church during a time when the Emperor of Constantinople, Constans II, supported Paul, the Patriarch of Constantinople and others in the Monothelite heresy, which proposed that Christ had a reduced human nature and human will.

At the patriarch's adamant refusal to recant his heretical doctrine, the Pope refused to remain silent, issued an excommunication against the Patriarch Paul and summoned a Lateran Council which formally condemned the heresy. Infuriated at this “slap in the face” Constans II sent a man to Rome to assassinate the Pope, but Martin was protected by God and the attempt failed. After this, many calamities befell the Emperor, but obstinate, he ordered his governor and soldiers in Italy to arrest the Pope and bring him to Constantinople, which, after some difficulties, was finally carried out.

In Constantinople the Pope was subject to public ridicule, extreme ill treatment and then a cruel imprisonment. Lastly, Constans II exiled him to the Crimea where he suffered from the famine of the land, from total friendlessness and abandonment of his own. He died two years later in 656 a martyr to the right of the Church to define and uphold doctrine even in the face of Imperial power.
Photo by: Wolfgang Sauber

St. Hermenegild

Hermenegild and his brother Reccared were the sons of Leovigild, a Visigothic King of Spain and his first wife, Theodosia. Leovigild shared his kingdom with his two sons, placing Hermenegild upon the throne of Seville. Both had been raised as Arians, a heretical sect that denied the divinity of Christ.

Hermenegild, the elder, was married to Inguthis, a daughter of the Frankish King Sigibert I. Whereas he was Arian, she was a zealous Catholic, and her patient fortitude in the persecutions and torments inflicted on her by Leovigild’s second wife, Gosvint, as well as the instructions and exhortations of the Bishop of Seville, St. Leander, eventually lead to Hermenegild’s conversion.

Despite his father’s rage at his decision and the pressure from his family, Hermenegild held firm in his newfound Catholic faith. As the sovereign King of Seville, Hermenegild defended himself and his subjects against Leovigild’s attacks. However, being much too weak to withstand the sieges of such a strong power, and having been unable to secure any assistance from Constantinople and, subsequently, suffering a bitter betrayal at the hand of the Roman generals, Hermenegild fled, seeking refuge in a much venerated church in Osseto. King Leovigild refused to violate this sanctuary and, instead, sent Hermenegild’s brother Reccared in to promise him pardon should he submit and come out. Hermenegild complied and came out to the convincing pretense of sincerity and joy from his father. However, once back in Leovigild’s camp, the king ordered him stripped of his royal robes, bound, and imprisoned in the tower of Seville, where the young prince had reigned for two short years.

His father's cruelty failed to move the young king from his resolve. Hermenegild was unwavering in his faith and even imposed additional austerities and penances upon himself during his imprisonment in spite of his already intense suffering. The last straw came for Leovigild when his son refused Communion from the hand of an Arian bishop who came to visit him during the solemnity of Easter. He was subsequently beheaded on this day in the year 586.

The True Meaning of Easter

The Resurrection represents the eternal and definitive triumph of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the complete defeat of his adversaries, and the supreme argument of our faith. Saint Paul said that, if Christ had not resurrected, our faith would be vain. The whole edifice of our beliefs is founded on the supernatural fact of the Resurrection. Let us then meditate about this highly elevated subject.

*      *      *

Christ Our Lord was not resurrected: He resurrected. He was dead. Lazarus was resurrected. Someone other than him, in this case, Our Lord, called him back to life. As for the Divine Redeemer, no one resurrected Him. He resurrected Himself, needing no one to call Him back to life. He took his life back when He so willed.

Everything that is said about Our Lord can be analogically applied to the Holy Catholic Church.  We often see, in the history of the Church, that precisely when She seemed irremediably lost and all the symptoms of catastrophe seemed to undermine Her, events took place that kept Her alive against all the expectations of Her adversaries.  A rather curious fact is that sometimes it is the Church’s enemies that come to Her aid, rather than Her friends.  For example, in a most sensitive time period for Catholicism like Napoleon’s era, an extremely unusual episode took place: a conclave was convened for the election of Pius VII under the protection of Russian troops, all of them schismatic and under the command of a schismatic sovereign.  In Russia itself, the practice of the Catholic religion was curbed in a thousand ways.  Yet, in Italy, Russian troops ensured the free election of a Sovereign Pontiff precisely at the moment when a vacancy in the See of Peter would have caused such grievous damages for Holy Church that, humanly speaking, she might never have been able to overcome them.

Such are the marvelous means that Divine Providence employs to demonstrate that God has the supreme government of all things.  However, let us not think that the Church owed Her salvation to Constantine, Charlemagne, John of Austria, or Russian troops.  Even when She seems to be entirely abandoned and when She lacks the most indispensable natural resources for survival, let us be certain that Holy Church will not die.  Like Our Lord, She will rise with Her own, divine strength.  And the more inexplicable the seeming resurrection of the Church may be from the human standpoint (we say seeming, because, unlike Our Lord, the Church will never die a real death), the more glorious Her victory will be.

In these murky and sad days, let us thus confide.  However, in order to restore all things in the Kingdom of Christ, let us confide not in this or that power, man, or ideological current but in Divine Providence, which will once again force the sea to open wide, move mountains and cause the whole earth to tremble if necessary to fulfill the divine promise:

 

“The gates of Hell shall not prevail against Her.”

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