I am afraid that if we begin to put our trust in human help,
some of our Divine help will fail us.
St. Teresa of Avila
some of our Divine help will fail us.
St. Teresa of Avila
Friday, December 20, 2019
St. Dominic de Silos
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.Developing a taste for silence and solitude, he entered the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla. As he made great progress in the religious state, he was entrusted with works of reform and became prior of his monastery.
Refusing to hand over to King Garcia III of Navarre some of the monastery’s lands which the monarch coveted, he and two of his companions were forced into exile by the king. They were warmly received by Ferdinand I of Castille and León who entrusted to Dominic the monastery of San Sebastián de Silos, in a remote part of the diocese of Burgos. The ancient Benedictine monastery, however, was decaying – structurally and spiritually.
As Abbot of San Sebastian, Dominic restored order to both the physical structure of the edifice and the spiritual edifice of the souls within, and made Silos famous throughout Spain.
Dominic was a great miracle worker, and it was said that there was no disease that he had not, at one time or another, cured. His charitable solicitude embraced not only the poor and the infirm but Christians enslaved by the Moors. These he endeavored by all means within his powers to free from their cruel captivity.
About one hundred year after his death, a young woman, Blessed Juana de Aza de Guzmán, made a pilgrimage to his tomb, asking to conceive a child. The child she effectually conceived and bore, she named Dominic after the holy abbot of Silos. This Dominic became the great St. Dominic de Guzmán, founder of the Dominican Order.
Dominic of Silos died on December 20, 1073.
Thursday, December 19, 2019
Why a pure heart cannot help loving
When the heart is pure, it cannot help loving,
because it has found the source of love,
which is God Himself.
St. John Vianney
because it has found the source of love,
which is God Himself.
St. John Vianney
Pope St. Anastasius I
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.
Born a Roman, son of Maximus, Anastasius was the successor of St. Siricius, and was pope from 399 to 401.
During his short reign, he fought the heresy of Origen. In 400 he called a Council to discuss the man and his doctrines. The Council condemned Origin’s errors.
He also opposed Donatism, another heresy in Northern Africa.
Sts. Jerome, Augustine and Paulinus, were his friends and admirers.
Born a Roman, son of Maximus, Anastasius was the successor of St. Siricius, and was pope from 399 to 401.
During his short reign, he fought the heresy of Origen. In 400 he called a Council to discuss the man and his doctrines. The Council condemned Origin’s errors.
He also opposed Donatism, another heresy in Northern Africa.
Sts. Jerome, Augustine and Paulinus, were his friends and admirers.
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Jesus did not respect false ideas
While Jesus was kind to sinners and to those who went astray,
He did not respect their false ideas, however sincere they might have appeared.
He loved them all, but
He instructed them in order to convert them and save them.
Pope St. Pius X
He did not respect their false ideas, however sincere they might have appeared.
He loved them all, but
He instructed them in order to convert them and save them.
Pope St. Pius X
St. Flannan
St. Flannan mac Toirrdelbaig, was the son of Turlough, the King of Thomond in Ireland.
He became a monk at the monastery of Killaloe, and at a certain point made a pilgrimage to Rome where Pope John IV consecrated him bishop. He was the first bishop of Killaloe, the diocese becoming one of twenty-four established at the Synod of Rathbreasail in 1111. St. Flannan's diocese of Killaloe is operative to this day.
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.
Renowned for the eloquence and ardor of his preaching, St. Flannan, also performed remarkable miracles. When he sensed death approaching, he instructed those present on the importance of observing natural and human justice, blessed his relatives and died on December 18.
He became a monk at the monastery of Killaloe, and at a certain point made a pilgrimage to Rome where Pope John IV consecrated him bishop. He was the first bishop of Killaloe, the diocese becoming one of twenty-four established at the Synod of Rathbreasail in 1111. St. Flannan's diocese of Killaloe is operative to this day.
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.
Renowned for the eloquence and ardor of his preaching, St. Flannan, also performed remarkable miracles. When he sensed death approaching, he instructed those present on the importance of observing natural and human justice, blessed his relatives and died on December 18.
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Embrace it from the beginning
There are many who begin, yet they never reach the end.
I believe this is due mainly
to a failure to embrace the cross
– from the beginning.
St. Teresa of Avila
I believe this is due mainly
to a failure to embrace the cross
– from the beginning.
St. Teresa of Avila
St. Sturmius and the Diocese of Fulda
To systematize the work of evangelizing
Germany, St. Boniface organized a hierarchy on the usual ecclesiastical
basis; in Bavaria the Dioceses of Salzburg, Freising, Ratisbon, and
Passau; in Franconia and Thuringia, Würzburg, Eichstätt, Buraburg near
Fritzlar, and Erfurt. To facilitate missionary work farther north,
especially among the Saxons, he sought a suitable spot for the location
of a monastery. He chose for this mission St. Sturmius, who, after
journeying far and wide, found an appropriate place in the great forest
of Buchonia, in the district of Grabfeld on the Fulda. Boniface
sanctioned this choice of a location, and petitioned Carloman, to whom
the country round about belonged, to grant him the site for a monastery.
Carloman yielded to the saint's request, and also induced the Frankish
nobles who had estates in the vicinity to bestow a part of them on the
Church. On 12 March, 744, St. Sturmius took solemn possession of the
land, and raised the cross. The wilderness was soon cleared, and the
erection of the monastery and church, the latter dedicated to the Most
Holy Redeemer, begun under the personnel direction of St. Boniface. He
appointed St. Sturmius first abbot of the new foundation, which he
intended to surpass in greatness all existing monasteries of Germany,
and to be a nursery for priests. The rule was modelled on that of the
Abbey of Monte Cassino, as Sturmius himself had gone to Italy (748) for
the express purpose of becoming familiar with it. To secure absolute
autonomy for the new abbey, Boniface obtained from Pope Zachary a
privilege, dated 4 November, 751, placing it immediately under the Holy
See, and removing it from all episcopal jurisdiction. The authenticity
of this document has frequently been called into question, but on the
whole it is considered as well established. (For further details see
Tangl in "Mitteilungen des Instituts für österreichische
Geschichtsforschung", 1899; and B. Sepp, "Die Fuldaer Privilegien
Frage", Ratisbon, 1908.) In 753 Pepin gave the royal sanction to this
exemption from episcopal jurisdiction. Boniface showed his love for
Fulda when he charged that his remains should be laid to rest there.
Under the prudent administration of St. Sturmius (d. 779), the monastery soon rose to greater splendour; from an early period the tomb of St. Boniface made it a national sanctuary for Christian Germany. Great success crowned the agricultural work of the monks, and small colonies which were established in different places gradually became the centres of villages and civil communities. Soon Fulda was the mother-house of a number of smaller monasteries, which were later administered by provosts under the superiorship of the abbot. The gifts of German princes, nobles, and private individuals increased the landed possessions of the abbey so rapidly that they soon extended over distant parts of Germany; there were estates in Thuringia, Saxony, Hesse, Bavaria, Lorraine, Swabia: possessions along the Rhine, in East Frisia, and even at Rome (the church of Sant' Andrea). Even in artistic and literary lines Fulda rose to great importance. On the site of the first church, which had been artistically decorated by Sturmius, there rose under Abbots Baugulf (779-802), Ratgar (802-17), Eigil (818-22), and Rabanus Maurus (822-42) a magnificent edifice which roused the admiration of contemporaries, and even of posterity, and exerted a lasting influence on architectural and artistic activity in distant places. In addition to architecture, sculpture and painting were zealously cultivated. The monastic school established by Sturmius began to flourish during the time of Charlemagne and Alcuin, and, under Rabanus Maurus, particularly, was the chief nursery of civilization and learning in Germany, and became celebrated throughout Europe. It was open not only to theological students, but also to young men desiring to embrace secular careers. The curriculum embraced the subjects usually taught during the Middle Ages: the seven liberal arts (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, physics, and astronomy), the different branches of theology, and the German language. Among the most renowned pupils of this school were: Rabanus Maurus, Walafried Strabo, Servatus Lupus, Otfried of Weissenburg, Rudolfus Fuldensis, Williram, Probus, and Meginhard; among the laity: Einhard, Bernhard, King of Italy, and Ulrich von Hutten. Rabanus also founded a library to familiarize the Germans with religious and classical literature, and the zeal of the monks soon produced rich treasures of valuable manuscripts. Unfortunately the greater part of this library disappeared during the looting of the abbey by the Hessians in 1631, and has not since been discovered.
Gradually the monastery rose to a commanding position in the German Empire. From 968 the abbot was primate of all the Benedictine monasteries of Germany and Gaul; from the time of Otto I, arch-chancellor of the empress, whom he crowned jointly with the Elector of Mainz; from the twelfth century he was a prince of the empire; from 1184 had the privilege of sitting at the left of the emperor; and from 1360 the imperial banner was borne before him by a knight. This glory, however, was not wholly without shadows. The monastic discipline was relaxed to such a degree that Abbot Marquard (1150-65) undertook to carry out a reform by introducing the regulations in force at Hirsau (Consuetudines Hirsaugienses). The importance of the school as a centre of learning also declined. The great wealth of the abbey in landed possessions, tithes, revenues, and regalia drew an increasing number of nobles to the monastery. By the twelfth century the monks of noble birth had monopolized the seats of the chapter and, in the course of time, practically all the important offices of the abbey itself, as well as the provostships of the dependent houses, were held by members of the German nobility. The difficulty of administering the vast landed possessions caused the abbots to grant certain sections in fief, which eventually resulted in great losses to the abbey; for the feudatories frequently turned their positions to their own personal interests, and sought to convert the fiefs into private property. One of the most notable illustrations of the greed of these monastic stewards is shown by the action of Count Johann von Ziegenhain in the fourteenth century, who, in an insurrection of the burgers of the city of Fulda against Abbot Heinrich VI von Hohenberg (1315-53), headed an attack on the monastery. Not infrequently, too, the obligations of the abbots as princes of the empire, and the demands made upon them by the state proved most detrimental to the interests of the monastery and its inmates. In 1294, on application of the convent, the pope enjoined a separation of the abbatial and the conventual tables, which was put into effect in 1300 under Abbot Heinrich V von Weilnau (1288-1313) (cf. Rübsam, "Heinrich V. von Weilnau, Fürstabt von Fulda", Fulda, 1879). Imperial capitulations, of which there are records as early as the time of Heinrich VII von Kranlucken (1353-72), especially those of Johann I von Merlau (1395-1440), the "Old Statutes of 1395", restricted to a considerable degree the authority of the abbot over the convent, and raised correspondingly the independent status of that institution. In the mother-house the dean eventually replaced the abbot for all practical purposes. For centuries the chapter preserved this independence, which involved the almost complete exclusion of the abbot from the ecclesiastical organization of his monastery.
At a comparatively early date the teachings of the Reformers found access to the chapter of Fulda, with which, in 1513, the Abbey of Hersfeld had been united; and Abbot Johannes III von Henneberg (1521-41) was forced to consent to a decree of reform favouring the spread of the new doctrines. The zealous Abbot Balthasar von Dermbach (1570-1606) proved an earnest restorer of discipline in the chapter, vigorously inaugurating the work of the Counter-Reformation. Banished by the members of the chapter and their colleagues in 1576, he was unable to return to his abbey until 1602, great progress having been made meanwhile by the imperial administrators in restoring the Catholic Faith. The foundation of a Jesuit college in 1571 was the signal for the reflorescence of the school, which had sunk to comparative insignificance. In addition to the Jesuit gymnasium, Gregory XIII founded (1584) a papal seminary, which he placed under the direction of the Jesuits. Both of these institutions have contributed largely to the maintenance and spread of the Catholic Faith in Germany. A similar zeal for reform was displayed by Balthasar's second successor, Johann Bernhard Schenk von Schweinsberg (1623-32), whose exertions, together with the decrees of several papal visitors, particularly Pietro Luigi Caraffa (1627), restored to the abbot a certain measure of his proper authority, over against that of the chapter and the professors of noble birth. The decrees of reform issued by Caraffa, against which the provosts rebelled after the nuncio's departure, were repeatedly confirmed by the Holy See. The capitulars and provosts of noble birth still retained the privilege of admitting into the chapter only such as could show a certain number of noble ancestors, and this prerogative received papal confirmation in 1731. During the Thirty Years War the chapter was again menaced; in 1631, Landgrave Wilhelm V of Hesse, by virtue of a treaty with Gustavus Adolphus, received the abbey in fief to Sweden, and sought gradually to make Protestantism predominant. After the battle of Nördlingen, however, he no longer had power over Fulda. When the turmoil of the war had ceased, the abbey experienced a period of peace and prosperity. In 1732 the Jesuit and Benedictine schools were united, enlarged, and converted into a university. Benedict XIV raised the abbey to the rank of a bishopric (5 Oct., 1752), with the retention of its monastic organization. The first prince-bishop was Amand von Buseck (1737-56), the collegiate chapter of one dean and fourteen capitulars being now the cathedral chapter.
By the Imperial Delegates' Enactment (Reichsdeputationshauptschluss) of 1802 the abbey was secularized, and bestowed on the Prince of Orania as a secular principality; it embraced at this time forty sq. miles, with a population of 100,000. Under Napoleon, in 1809, it was ceded to the Grand Duchy of Frankfort; in 1815, to Hesse-Kassel, with which, in 1866, it passed to Prussia. The university was closed under the law of secularization, and the papal seminary was converted into an episcopal seminary. The last prince-bishop, Adalbert III von Harstall (1788-1802), died in 1814.
In accordance with the Bulls "Provida solersque" of 1821 and "Ad dominici gregis custodiam" of 1827, the Diocese of Fulda was re-established in 1829, and made suffragan to the ecclesiastical province of the Upper Rhine, the first bishop being Johann Adam Rieger (1829-31).
In 1857 and 1871 the boundaries of the new diocese were so altered as to define the territory now embraced within it. It was seriously affected by the Kulturkampf, the see being vacant from 1873 to 1881, and the seminary closed between 1873 and 1886; some of the religious communities suppressed at that time have never been re-established.
The most important church of the diocese is the cathedral at Fulda, in the style of the Renaissance, erected by Prince-Abbot Adalbert von Schleifras (1704-12) on the site of the church built by Abbot Baugulf and his successors. It contains precious altars, a rich treasury, and, as its most important shrine, the tomb of St. Boniface, at which the bishops of Prussia, Baden, and Würtemberg gather once a year (cf. Pfaff, "Der Dom zu Fulda", 2nd ed., Fulda, 1855). Mention should also be made of the church of St. Michael at Fulda, dating from Carlovingian times; the church on the Petersberg near Fulda; the church of St. Peter at Fritzlar, erected early in the thirteenth century; and the Protestant church of St. Elizabeth at Marburg, a noble specimen of the thirteenth century Gothic. The most popular place of pilgrimage in the diocese is the tomb of St. Boniface.
BROUWER, Fuldensium antiquitates libri IV (Antwerp, 1612); SCHANNAT, Corpus traditionum Fuldensium (Leipzig, 1724); IDEM, Fuldischer Lehn-hof (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1726); IDEM, Vindiciæ quorundam archivi Fuldensis diplomatum (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1728); DRONKE, Traditiones et antiquitates Fuldenses (Kassel, 1844); IDEM, Codex diplomaticus Fuldensis (Kassel, 1850; index, 1862); ARND, Geschichte des Hochstifts Fulda (Frankfort, 1862); GEGENBAUER, Das Kloster Fulda im Karolingerzeitalter (2 vols., 1871, 1873); KOMP, Die zweite Schule Fuldas und das päpstliches Seminar (Fulda, 1877); IDEM in Kirchenlex., s. v.; LOTZ, Die Hochschule zu Fulda, in Hessenland, XII (1898); HEYDENREICH, Das älteste Fuldaer Cartular (Leipzig, 1899); RICHTER, Die ersten Anfänge der Bau- und Kunsttätigkeit des Klosters Fulda (Fulda, 1900); IDEM, Quellen und Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Abtei und der Diözese Fulda, I-III (Fulda, 1904-07); Schematismus der Diözese Fulda (Fulda, 1904; new ed., 1909); Festgabe zum Bonifatiusjubilæum, 1905 (Fulda, 1905); a collection of original documents relating to Fulda is in the course of preparation.
JOSEPH LINS (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Under the prudent administration of St. Sturmius (d. 779), the monastery soon rose to greater splendour; from an early period the tomb of St. Boniface made it a national sanctuary for Christian Germany. Great success crowned the agricultural work of the monks, and small colonies which were established in different places gradually became the centres of villages and civil communities. Soon Fulda was the mother-house of a number of smaller monasteries, which were later administered by provosts under the superiorship of the abbot. The gifts of German princes, nobles, and private individuals increased the landed possessions of the abbey so rapidly that they soon extended over distant parts of Germany; there were estates in Thuringia, Saxony, Hesse, Bavaria, Lorraine, Swabia: possessions along the Rhine, in East Frisia, and even at Rome (the church of Sant' Andrea). Even in artistic and literary lines Fulda rose to great importance. On the site of the first church, which had been artistically decorated by Sturmius, there rose under Abbots Baugulf (779-802), Ratgar (802-17), Eigil (818-22), and Rabanus Maurus (822-42) a magnificent edifice which roused the admiration of contemporaries, and even of posterity, and exerted a lasting influence on architectural and artistic activity in distant places. In addition to architecture, sculpture and painting were zealously cultivated. The monastic school established by Sturmius began to flourish during the time of Charlemagne and Alcuin, and, under Rabanus Maurus, particularly, was the chief nursery of civilization and learning in Germany, and became celebrated throughout Europe. It was open not only to theological students, but also to young men desiring to embrace secular careers. The curriculum embraced the subjects usually taught during the Middle Ages: the seven liberal arts (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, physics, and astronomy), the different branches of theology, and the German language. Among the most renowned pupils of this school were: Rabanus Maurus, Walafried Strabo, Servatus Lupus, Otfried of Weissenburg, Rudolfus Fuldensis, Williram, Probus, and Meginhard; among the laity: Einhard, Bernhard, King of Italy, and Ulrich von Hutten. Rabanus also founded a library to familiarize the Germans with religious and classical literature, and the zeal of the monks soon produced rich treasures of valuable manuscripts. Unfortunately the greater part of this library disappeared during the looting of the abbey by the Hessians in 1631, and has not since been discovered.
Gradually the monastery rose to a commanding position in the German Empire. From 968 the abbot was primate of all the Benedictine monasteries of Germany and Gaul; from the time of Otto I, arch-chancellor of the empress, whom he crowned jointly with the Elector of Mainz; from the twelfth century he was a prince of the empire; from 1184 had the privilege of sitting at the left of the emperor; and from 1360 the imperial banner was borne before him by a knight. This glory, however, was not wholly without shadows. The monastic discipline was relaxed to such a degree that Abbot Marquard (1150-65) undertook to carry out a reform by introducing the regulations in force at Hirsau (Consuetudines Hirsaugienses). The importance of the school as a centre of learning also declined. The great wealth of the abbey in landed possessions, tithes, revenues, and regalia drew an increasing number of nobles to the monastery. By the twelfth century the monks of noble birth had monopolized the seats of the chapter and, in the course of time, practically all the important offices of the abbey itself, as well as the provostships of the dependent houses, were held by members of the German nobility. The difficulty of administering the vast landed possessions caused the abbots to grant certain sections in fief, which eventually resulted in great losses to the abbey; for the feudatories frequently turned their positions to their own personal interests, and sought to convert the fiefs into private property. One of the most notable illustrations of the greed of these monastic stewards is shown by the action of Count Johann von Ziegenhain in the fourteenth century, who, in an insurrection of the burgers of the city of Fulda against Abbot Heinrich VI von Hohenberg (1315-53), headed an attack on the monastery. Not infrequently, too, the obligations of the abbots as princes of the empire, and the demands made upon them by the state proved most detrimental to the interests of the monastery and its inmates. In 1294, on application of the convent, the pope enjoined a separation of the abbatial and the conventual tables, which was put into effect in 1300 under Abbot Heinrich V von Weilnau (1288-1313) (cf. Rübsam, "Heinrich V. von Weilnau, Fürstabt von Fulda", Fulda, 1879). Imperial capitulations, of which there are records as early as the time of Heinrich VII von Kranlucken (1353-72), especially those of Johann I von Merlau (1395-1440), the "Old Statutes of 1395", restricted to a considerable degree the authority of the abbot over the convent, and raised correspondingly the independent status of that institution. In the mother-house the dean eventually replaced the abbot for all practical purposes. For centuries the chapter preserved this independence, which involved the almost complete exclusion of the abbot from the ecclesiastical organization of his monastery.
At a comparatively early date the teachings of the Reformers found access to the chapter of Fulda, with which, in 1513, the Abbey of Hersfeld had been united; and Abbot Johannes III von Henneberg (1521-41) was forced to consent to a decree of reform favouring the spread of the new doctrines. The zealous Abbot Balthasar von Dermbach (1570-1606) proved an earnest restorer of discipline in the chapter, vigorously inaugurating the work of the Counter-Reformation. Banished by the members of the chapter and their colleagues in 1576, he was unable to return to his abbey until 1602, great progress having been made meanwhile by the imperial administrators in restoring the Catholic Faith. The foundation of a Jesuit college in 1571 was the signal for the reflorescence of the school, which had sunk to comparative insignificance. In addition to the Jesuit gymnasium, Gregory XIII founded (1584) a papal seminary, which he placed under the direction of the Jesuits. Both of these institutions have contributed largely to the maintenance and spread of the Catholic Faith in Germany. A similar zeal for reform was displayed by Balthasar's second successor, Johann Bernhard Schenk von Schweinsberg (1623-32), whose exertions, together with the decrees of several papal visitors, particularly Pietro Luigi Caraffa (1627), restored to the abbot a certain measure of his proper authority, over against that of the chapter and the professors of noble birth. The decrees of reform issued by Caraffa, against which the provosts rebelled after the nuncio's departure, were repeatedly confirmed by the Holy See. The capitulars and provosts of noble birth still retained the privilege of admitting into the chapter only such as could show a certain number of noble ancestors, and this prerogative received papal confirmation in 1731. During the Thirty Years War the chapter was again menaced; in 1631, Landgrave Wilhelm V of Hesse, by virtue of a treaty with Gustavus Adolphus, received the abbey in fief to Sweden, and sought gradually to make Protestantism predominant. After the battle of Nördlingen, however, he no longer had power over Fulda. When the turmoil of the war had ceased, the abbey experienced a period of peace and prosperity. In 1732 the Jesuit and Benedictine schools were united, enlarged, and converted into a university. Benedict XIV raised the abbey to the rank of a bishopric (5 Oct., 1752), with the retention of its monastic organization. The first prince-bishop was Amand von Buseck (1737-56), the collegiate chapter of one dean and fourteen capitulars being now the cathedral chapter.
By the Imperial Delegates' Enactment (Reichsdeputationshauptschluss) of 1802 the abbey was secularized, and bestowed on the Prince of Orania as a secular principality; it embraced at this time forty sq. miles, with a population of 100,000. Under Napoleon, in 1809, it was ceded to the Grand Duchy of Frankfort; in 1815, to Hesse-Kassel, with which, in 1866, it passed to Prussia. The university was closed under the law of secularization, and the papal seminary was converted into an episcopal seminary. The last prince-bishop, Adalbert III von Harstall (1788-1802), died in 1814.
In accordance with the Bulls "Provida solersque" of 1821 and "Ad dominici gregis custodiam" of 1827, the Diocese of Fulda was re-established in 1829, and made suffragan to the ecclesiastical province of the Upper Rhine, the first bishop being Johann Adam Rieger (1829-31).
In 1857 and 1871 the boundaries of the new diocese were so altered as to define the territory now embraced within it. It was seriously affected by the Kulturkampf, the see being vacant from 1873 to 1881, and the seminary closed between 1873 and 1886; some of the religious communities suppressed at that time have never been re-established.
The most important church of the diocese is the cathedral at Fulda, in the style of the Renaissance, erected by Prince-Abbot Adalbert von Schleifras (1704-12) on the site of the church built by Abbot Baugulf and his successors. It contains precious altars, a rich treasury, and, as its most important shrine, the tomb of St. Boniface, at which the bishops of Prussia, Baden, and Würtemberg gather once a year (cf. Pfaff, "Der Dom zu Fulda", 2nd ed., Fulda, 1855). Mention should also be made of the church of St. Michael at Fulda, dating from Carlovingian times; the church on the Petersberg near Fulda; the church of St. Peter at Fritzlar, erected early in the thirteenth century; and the Protestant church of St. Elizabeth at Marburg, a noble specimen of the thirteenth century Gothic. The most popular place of pilgrimage in the diocese is the tomb of St. Boniface.
BROUWER, Fuldensium antiquitates libri IV (Antwerp, 1612); SCHANNAT, Corpus traditionum Fuldensium (Leipzig, 1724); IDEM, Fuldischer Lehn-hof (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1726); IDEM, Vindiciæ quorundam archivi Fuldensis diplomatum (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1728); DRONKE, Traditiones et antiquitates Fuldenses (Kassel, 1844); IDEM, Codex diplomaticus Fuldensis (Kassel, 1850; index, 1862); ARND, Geschichte des Hochstifts Fulda (Frankfort, 1862); GEGENBAUER, Das Kloster Fulda im Karolingerzeitalter (2 vols., 1871, 1873); KOMP, Die zweite Schule Fuldas und das päpstliches Seminar (Fulda, 1877); IDEM in Kirchenlex., s. v.; LOTZ, Die Hochschule zu Fulda, in Hessenland, XII (1898); HEYDENREICH, Das älteste Fuldaer Cartular (Leipzig, 1899); RICHTER, Die ersten Anfänge der Bau- und Kunsttätigkeit des Klosters Fulda (Fulda, 1900); IDEM, Quellen und Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Abtei und der Diözese Fulda, I-III (Fulda, 1904-07); Schematismus der Diözese Fulda (Fulda, 1904; new ed., 1909); Festgabe zum Bonifatiusjubilæum, 1905 (Fulda, 1905); a collection of original documents relating to Fulda is in the course of preparation.
JOSEPH LINS (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Monday, December 16, 2019
Christmas Novena, December 16 - 24
Opening Prayer for each day:
Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment
In which the Son of God was born
Of the most pure Virgin Mary
At midnight, in Bethlehem
In piercing cold.
In that hour, vouchsafe I beseech Thee, O my God,
To hear my prayers and grant my petitions
Through the merits of Jesus Christ and of His most blessed Mother. Amen.
(Mention your intentions here)
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 |
| Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 |
| Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 |
Day 1
Prayer: O
Great Son of God, you have become man in order to make yourself loved
by men. But where is the love that men give you in return? You have
given your life blood to save our souls.Why then are we so hard-hearted, repaying your love with our ingratitude? More than others, I have myself ill-treated you in this manner, Lord.
But your Passion is my hope. For the sake of that love which led you to take upon yourself our human nature and to die for me on the cross, forgive me all the offenses I have committed against you.
I love you, O Word Incarnate. I love you, O infinite goodness. Contrite and repentant, out of love for you, I could die of grief for these offenses. Give me, O Jesus, your love. Let me no longer live in ungrateful forgetfulness of the love you bear me. I wish to love you always. Grant that I may always persevere in this holy desire.
O Mary, Mother of God and my Mother, pray for me that your Son may give me the grace to love Him always. Amen.
Day 2
Prayer: O
Dearest Infant! Tell me, what have you come on earth to do? Tell me,
whom do you seek? Yes, I already know. You have come to die for me, to
save me from hell. You have come seeking me, your lost sheep, so that,
instead of fleeing from you, my gentle shepherd, I may rest in the
protection of loving arms. O my Jesus, my treasure, my life, my love and
my all! Whom will I love, if not you? Where can I find a father, a
friend, a spouse more loving and more lovable than yourself?I love you, O my God; I love you, my only good. I regret the many years when I have not loved you as I ought, but rather spurned and offended you. Forgive me, O my beloved Redeemer; I am heartedly sorry for having treated you so coldly.
Pardon me, and give me the grace never more to withdraw from you, but constantly to love you in all the years that still lie before me in this life. My love, I give myself entirely to you; accept me, and do not reject me as I deserve.
O Mary, my advocate, by your prayers you can obtain whatever you will from your Son. Beseech Him, then, to forgive me, and to grant me holy perseverance until death. Amen.
Day 3
Prayer: O
Dear Infant Jesus, would I have been so ungrateful and offended you so
often, if I had realized how much you have suffered for me? But these
tears which you shed, this poverty which you embrace for love of me,
fill me with the hope that you will pardon all the offenses I have
committed against you.My Jesus, I am sorry for having so often turned my back on you. But now I love you above all else. "My God and my all!" From this moment forward, O my God, you shall be my only treasure and my only good. With Saint Ignatius of Loyola I will say to you, "Give me the grace to love you; that is enough for me." I long for nothing else; I want nothing else. You alone are enough for me, my Jesus, my life, my love.
O Mary, my Mother, obtain for me the grace that I may always love Jesus and always be loved by Him. Amen.
Day 4
Prayer: O
Dearest Savior, you have embraced so many outrages for love of me, yet I
am incapable of bearing a single insult without immediately being
filled with resentful thoughts, I who have so often deserved to be
trodden underfoot by the demons in hell! I am ashamed to appear before
you, sinful and proud as I am. Yet, do not drive me from your presence, O
Lord, even though that is what I deserve. You have said that you will
not spurn a contrite and humbled heart. I am sorry for the offenses I
have committed against you. Forgive me, O Jesus. I will not offend you
again.For love of me you have borne so many injuries; for love of you, I will bear all the injuries that are done to me. I love you, Jesus, who were despised for love of me. I love you above every other good. Give me the grace to love you always and to bear every insult for love of you.
O Mary, recommend me to your Son; pray to Jesus for me. Amen.
Day 5
Prayer: O
Jesus, my sweet Love! I too have caused you to suffer during your
life. Tell me, then, what I must do in order to win your forgiveness. I
am ready to do all you ask of me. I am truly sorry, O sovereign Good,
for all the offenses I have committed against you. I love you more than
myself, or at least I feel a great desire to love you. Since it is you
who have given me this desire, do you also give me the strength to love
you exceedingly.It is only right that I, who have offended you so much, should love you very much. Always remind me of the love you have borne me, so that my soul may ever burn with love of you and long to please you alone. O God of love, I, who was once a slave of hell, now give myself entirely to you. Graciously accept me and bind me to yourself with the bonds of your love. My Jesus, from this day and forever, I shall live loving you, and, in loving you, will I die.
O Mary, my Mother and my hope, help me to love your dear God and mine. This is the only favor I ask of you, and through you I hope to receive it. Amen.
Day 6
Prayer: O
my Dear Redeemer! Where would I now be, if you had not borne with me so
patiently, but had called me from this life while I was in the state of
sin?Since you have waited for me till now, forgive me quickly, O my Jesus, before death finds me still guilty of so many offenses that I have committed against you. I am so sorry for having despised you, my sovereign Good that I could die of grief. But you cannot abandon a soul that seeks you.
If hitherto I have forsaken you, I now seek you and love you. Yes, my God, I love you above all else; I love you more than myself.
Help me, Lord, to love Thee during the rest of my life. I seek nothing else of you. But this I beg of you, this I hope to receive from you.
Mary, my hope, pray for me. If you pray for me, I am sure of obtaining this grace. Amen.
Day 7
Prayer: Dear
Infant Jesus, crying so bitterly! How much reason you have to weep in
seeing yourself persecuted by men whom you have loved so much. I, too, O
God, have persecuted you by my sins. But you know that now I love you
more than myself, and that nothing pains me more than the thought that I
have so often spurned you, my sovereign Good.Forgive me, O Jesus, and let me bear you with me in my heart, during the remainder of my life’s journey, so that together with you, I may enter into eternity. How often have I driven you from my soul by my sins. But now I love you above all things, and more than all other misfortunes, I regret that I have offended you. I wish to leave you no more, my beloved Lord. But give me the strength to resist temptation. Never permit me to be separated from you again. Let me rather die than ever again lose your good grace.
O Mary, my hope, obtain that I may always live in God's love and then die in loving Him. Amen.
Day 8
Prayer: O
Jesus, my Savior! When I consider how, for love of me, you spent thirty
years of your life hidden and unknown in a poor workshop, how can I
desire the pleasures, honors and riches of this world? Gladly do I
renounce them, one and all, since I wish to be your companion on this
earth, poor as you were, mortified and humble as you were, so that I may
hope to be able one day to enjoy your companionship in heaven. What are
all the treasures and kingdoms of this world? O Jesus, you are my only
treasure, my only Good!I keenly regret the many times in the past when I spurned your friendship in order to satisfy my foolish whims. I am sorry for them with all my heart. For the future I would rather lose my life a thousand times than lose your grace by sin. I desire never to offend you again, but always to love you. Help me to remain faithful to you until death.
O Mary, the sure refuge of sinners, you are my hope. Amen.
Day 9
Prayer: O
Adorable Infant Jesus! I should not have the boldness to cast myself at
your feet, if I did not know that you yourself invite me to draw
near. It is I who by my sins have made you shed so many tears in the
stable of Bethlehem. But since you have come on earth to pardon
repentant sinners, forgive me also, now that I am heartily sorry for
having spurned you, my Savior and my God, who are so good and who have
loved me so much.This blessed night, during which you bestow great graces on so many souls, grant your heavenly consolation to this poor soul of mine. All that I ask of you is the grace to love you always, from this day forward, with all my heart. Set me all on fire with your holy love. I love Thee, O my God, who became a Babe for love of me. Never let me cease loving you ever more.
O Mary, Mother of Jesus and my Mother, you can obtain everything from your Son by your prayers. This is the only favor I ask of you: pray to Jesus for me. Amen.
Ready for prayer?
Although one is not bound to pray at all hours,
one is bound throughout the day to keep oneself fit for prayer.
St. Thomas Aquinas
one is bound throughout the day to keep oneself fit for prayer.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Saint Adelaide
(Adelheid)
Born 931; died 16 December, 999, one of the conspicuous characters in the struggle of Otho the great to obtain the imperial crown from the Roman Pontiffs. She was the daughter of Rudolph II, King of Burgundy, who was at war with Hugh of Provence for the crown of Italy. The rivals concluded a peace in 933, by which it was stipulated that Adelaide should marry Hugh's son Lothaire. The marriage took place, however, only fourteen years later; Adelaide's mother meantime married Hugh. By this time Berengarius, the Marquis of Ivrea, came upon the scene, claiming the Kingdom of Italy for himself. He forced Hugh to abdicate in favour of Lothaire, and is supposed to have afterwards put Lothaire to death by poison. He then proposed to unite Adelaide in marriage with his son, Adalbert. Refusing the offer, Adelaide was kept in almost solitary captivity, in the Castle of Garda, on the lake of that name. From it she was rescued by a priest named Martin, who dug a subterraneous passage, by which she escaped, and remained concealed in the woods, her rescuer supporting her, meantime, by the fish he caught in the lake. Soon, however, the Duke of Canossa, Alberto Uzzo, who had been advised of the rescue, arrived and carried her off to his castle. While this was going on the Italian nobles, weary of Berengarius, had invited Otho to invade Italy. He met with little resistance, and betook himself to Canossa where he met Adelaide, and married her on Christmas day, 951, at Pavia. This marriage gave Otho no new rights over Italy, but the enthusiasm of the people for Adelaide, whose career had been so romantic, appealed to them and made Otho's work of subjugating the peninsula easy. In Germany she was the idol of her subjects, while her husband lived. During the reign of her son Otho II, her troubles began, chiefly owing to the jealousy of her daughter-in-law, Theophano, and possibly also because of her excessive liberality in her works of charity. It resulted in her withdrawing from court and fixing her residence at Pavia, but a reconciliation was effected by the Abbot of Cluny, St. Mayeul. The same troubles broke out when her grandson came to the throne, the jealous daughter-in-law being yet unreconciled, and Adelaide was again forced into seclusion. But Theophano dying suddenly, Adelaide was recalled to assume the burden of a Regency. Her administration was characterized by the greatest wisdom. She took no revenge upon her enemies; her court was like a religious house; she multiplied monasteries and churches in the various provinces, and was incessant in her efforts to convert the pagans of the North. In the last year of her reign she undertook a journey to Burgundy to reconcile her nephew Rudolph with his subjects, but died on the way at Seltz, in Alsace. She is not mentioned in the Roman martyrology, but her name appears in several calendars of Germany, and her relics are enshrined in Hanover. St. Odilo of Cluny wrote her life.
Born 931; died 16 December, 999, one of the conspicuous characters in the struggle of Otho the great to obtain the imperial crown from the Roman Pontiffs. She was the daughter of Rudolph II, King of Burgundy, who was at war with Hugh of Provence for the crown of Italy. The rivals concluded a peace in 933, by which it was stipulated that Adelaide should marry Hugh's son Lothaire. The marriage took place, however, only fourteen years later; Adelaide's mother meantime married Hugh. By this time Berengarius, the Marquis of Ivrea, came upon the scene, claiming the Kingdom of Italy for himself. He forced Hugh to abdicate in favour of Lothaire, and is supposed to have afterwards put Lothaire to death by poison. He then proposed to unite Adelaide in marriage with his son, Adalbert. Refusing the offer, Adelaide was kept in almost solitary captivity, in the Castle of Garda, on the lake of that name. From it she was rescued by a priest named Martin, who dug a subterraneous passage, by which she escaped, and remained concealed in the woods, her rescuer supporting her, meantime, by the fish he caught in the lake. Soon, however, the Duke of Canossa, Alberto Uzzo, who had been advised of the rescue, arrived and carried her off to his castle. While this was going on the Italian nobles, weary of Berengarius, had invited Otho to invade Italy. He met with little resistance, and betook himself to Canossa where he met Adelaide, and married her on Christmas day, 951, at Pavia. This marriage gave Otho no new rights over Italy, but the enthusiasm of the people for Adelaide, whose career had been so romantic, appealed to them and made Otho's work of subjugating the peninsula easy. In Germany she was the idol of her subjects, while her husband lived. During the reign of her son Otho II, her troubles began, chiefly owing to the jealousy of her daughter-in-law, Theophano, and possibly also because of her excessive liberality in her works of charity. It resulted in her withdrawing from court and fixing her residence at Pavia, but a reconciliation was effected by the Abbot of Cluny, St. Mayeul. The same troubles broke out when her grandson came to the throne, the jealous daughter-in-law being yet unreconciled, and Adelaide was again forced into seclusion. But Theophano dying suddenly, Adelaide was recalled to assume the burden of a Regency. Her administration was characterized by the greatest wisdom. She took no revenge upon her enemies; her court was like a religious house; she multiplied monasteries and churches in the various provinces, and was incessant in her efforts to convert the pagans of the North. In the last year of her reign she undertook a journey to Burgundy to reconcile her nephew Rudolph with his subjects, but died on the way at Seltz, in Alsace. She is not mentioned in the Roman martyrology, but her name appears in several calendars of Germany, and her relics are enshrined in Hanover. St. Odilo of Cluny wrote her life.
Vite de' Santi Gentilucci, Decembre.
Sunday, December 15, 2019
To reach the height of grace without this is impossible
Without the burden of afflictions
it is impossible to reach the height of grace.
The gift of grace increases as the struggle increases.
it is impossible to reach the height of grace.
The gift of grace increases as the struggle increases.
St. Rose of Lima
St. Mary di Rosa
Mother
Maria Crocifissa was born Paolina Francesca di Rosa, the sixth of nine
children of Clement di Rosa and the Countess Camilla Albani. The di
Rosas were a wealthy family of Brescia, Italy.Losing her mother to a terminal illness at age eleven, her education was entrusted to the Visitation Sisters. At seventeen Paolina left school to assist in the running of her father’s estate and household. To these duties she soon added the care and spiritual welfare of the girls working at her father’s mills and other factories in the city. She also founded a woman’s guild and arranged retreats and special missions. When the cholera epidemic devastated Brescia in 1836, she and a widow, Gabriela Bornati, served the victims in the hospital with such dedication that Paolina was next asked to undertake the supervision of a workhouse for penniless girls, which she did for two years.
She continued to engage in social work, always giving signs of ability and a perspicacious intelligence with a surprising grasp of theology. In 1840, with Gabriela Bornati, she started a congregation with the purpose of serving the ill and suffering in hospitals. Taking the name of Handmaids of Charity, they started with four members and soon grew to number twenty-two.
The name she took upon her profession of religious vows was a synthesis of her whole life: Maria Crocifissa. Her spiritual life was firmly grounded on the imitation of Christ’s suffering on the Cross. This was the foundation of her life, her teaching and her contemplation. Her love for Christ Crucified was reflected in her unstinting and total dedication to the suffering members of his Mystical Body.
As the community expanded, Clemente di Rosa provided a commodious house in Brescia, and their rule of life was provisionally approved by the bishop in 1843. Anticipating Florence Nightingale by several years, the Handmaids of Charity ministered to the wounded in the war which ravaged the region in 1848. After a meeting with Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1850, the constitutions of the Handmaids of Charity of Brescia were approved.
A second cholera epidemic hit northern Italy and pushed the growing order to its limit. After a flurry of foundations in Spalato, Dalmatia and Verona, Mother Maria collapsed, and was brought home to Brescia to die. She passed away peacefully on December 15, 1855 at the age of forty-two.
Saturday, December 14, 2019
Set the soul on fire
Contemplation is nothing else than a secret, peaceful, and loving
infusion of God, which if admitted,
will set the soul on fire with the Spirit of love.
St. John of the Cross
infusion of God, which if admitted,
will set the soul on fire with the Spirit of love.
St. John of the Cross
St. John of the Cross
Founder (with St. Teresa) of the Discalced Carmelites, doctor of
mystic theology, b. at Hontoveros, Old Castile, 24 June, 1542; d. at
Ubeda, Andalusia, 14 Dec., 1591. John de Yepes, youngest child of
Gonzalo de Yepes and Catherine Alvarez, poor silk weavers of Toledo,
knew from his earliest years the hardships of life. The father,
originally of a good family but disinherited on account of his marriage
below his rank, died in the prime of his youth; the widow, assisted by
her eldest son, was scarcely able to provide the bare necessities. John
was sent to the poor school at Medina del Campo, whither the family had
gone to live, and proved an attentive and diligent pupil; but when
apprenticed to an artisan, he seemed incapable of learning anything.
Thereupon the governor of the hospital of Medina took him into his
service, and for seven years John divided his time between waiting on
the poorest of the poor, and frequenting a school established by the
Jesuits. Already at that early age he treated his body with the utmost
rigour; twice he was saved from certain death by the intervention of the
Blessed Virgin. Anxious about his future life, he was told in prayer
that he was to serve God in an order the ancient perfection of which he
was to help bring back again. The Carmelites having founded a house at
Medina, he there received the habit on 24 February, 1563, and took the
name of John of St. Matthias. After profession he obtained leave from
his superiors to follow to the letter the original Carmelite rule
without the mitigations granted by various popes. He was sent to
Salamanca for the higher studies, and was ordained priest in 1567; at
his first Mass he received the assurance that he should preserve his
baptismal innocence. But, shrinking from the responsibilities of the
priesthood, he determined to join the Carthusians.
However, before taking any further step he made the acquaintance of St. Teresa, who had come to Medina to found a convent of nuns, and who persuaded him to remain in the Carmelite Order and to assist her in the establishment of a monastery of friars carrying out the primitive rule. He accompanied her to Valladolid in order to gain practi cal experience of the manner of life led by the reformed nuns. A small house having been offered, St. John resolved to try at once the new form of life, although St. Teresa did not think anyone, however great his spirituality, could bear the discomforts of that hovel. He was joined by two companions, an ex-prior and a lay brother, with whom he inaugurated the reform among friars, 28 Nov., 1568. St. Teresa has left a classical dscription of the sort of life led by these first Discalced Carmelites, in chaps.xiii and xiv of her "Book of Foundations". John of the Cross, as he now called himself, became the first master of novices, and laid the foundation of the spiritual edifice which soon was to assume majestic proportions. He filled various posts in different places until St. Teresa called him to Avila as director and confessor to the convent of the Incarnation, of which she had been appointed prioress. He remained there, with a few interruptions, for over five years. Meanwhile, the reform spread rapidly, and, partly through the confusion caused by contradictory orders issued by the general and the general chapter on one hand, and the Apostolic nuncio on the other, and partly through human passion which sometimes ran high, its existence became seriously endangered.
St. John was ordered by his provincial to return to the house of his profession (Medina), and, on his refusing to do so, owing to the fact that he held his office not from the order but from the Apostolic delegate, he was taken prisoner in the night of 3 December, 1577, and carried off to Toledo, where he suffered for more than nine months close imprisonment in a narrow, stifling cell, together with such additional punishment as might have been called for in the case of one guilty of the most serious crimes. In the midst of his sufferings he was visited with heavenly consolations, and some of his exquisite poetry dates from that period. He made good his escape in a miraculous manner, August, 1578. During the next years he was chiefly occupied with the foundation and government of monasteries at Baeza, Granada, Cordova, Segovia, and elsewhere, but took no prominent part in the negotiations which led to the establishment of a separate government for the Discalced Carmelites. After the death of St. Teresa (4 Oct.,1582), when the two parties of the Moderates under Jerome Gratian, and the Zelanti under Nicholas Doria struggled for the upper hand, St. John supported the former and shared his fate. For some time he filled the post of vicar provincial of Andalusia, but when Doria changed the government of the order, concentrating all power in the hands of a permanent committee, St. John resisted and, supporting the nuns in their endeavour to secure the papal approbation of their constitutions, drew upon himself the displeasure of the superior, who deprived him of his offices and relegated him to one of the poorest monasteries, where he fell seriously ill. One of his opponents went so far as to go form to monastery gathering materials in order to bring grave charges against him, hoping for his expulsion from the order which he had helped to found.
As his illness increased he was removed to the monastery of Ubeda, where he at first was treated very unkindly, his constant prayer, "to suffer and to be despised", being thus literally fulfilled almost to the end of his life. But at last even his adversaries came to acknowledge his sanctity, and his funeral was the occasion of a great outburst of enthusiasm. The body, still incorrupt, as has been ascertained within the last few years, was removed to Segovia, only a small portion remaining at Ubeda; there was some litigation about its possession. A strange phenomenon, for which no satisfactory explanation has been given, has frequently been observed in connexion with the relics of St. John of the Cross: Francis de Yepes, the brother of the saint, and after him many other persons have noticed the appearance in his relics of images of Christ on the Cross, the Blessed Virgin, St. Elias, St. Francis Xavier, or other saints, according to the devotion of the beholder. The beatification took place onb 25 Jan., 1675, the translation of his body on 21 May of the same year, and the canonization on 27 Dec., 1726.
He left the following works, which for the first time appeared at Barcelona in 1619.
His axiom is that the soul must empty itself of self in order to be filled with God, that it must be purified of the last traces of earthly dross before it is fit to become united with God. In the application of this simple maxim he shows the most uncompromising logic. Supposing the soul with which he deals to be habitually in the state of grace and pushing forward to better things, he overtakes it on the very road leading it, in its opinion to God, and lays open before its eyes a number of sores of which it was altogether ignorant, viz. what he terms the spiritual capital sins. Not until these are removed (a most formidable task) is it fit to be admitted to what he calls the "Dark Night", which consists in the passive purgation, where God by heavy trials, particularly interior ones, perfects and completes what the soul had begun of its own accord. It is now passive, but not inert, for by submitting to the Divine operation it co-operates in the measure of its power. Here lies one of the essential differences between St. John's mysticism and a false quietism. The perfect purgation of the soul in the present life leaves it free to act with wonderful energy: in fact it might almost be said to obtain a share in God's omnipotence, as is shown in the marvelous deeds of so many saints. As the soul emerges from the Dark Night it enters into the full noonlight described in the "Spiritual Canticle" and the "Living Flame of Love". St. John leads it to the highest heights, in fact to the point where it becomes a"partaker of the Divine Nature". It is here that the necessity of the previous cleansing is clearly perceived the pain of the mortification of all the senses and the powers and faculties of the soul being amply repaid by the glory which is now being revealed in it.
St. John has often been represented as a grim character; nothing could be more untrue. He was indeed austere in the extreme with himself, and, to some extent, also with others, but both from his writings and from the depositions of those who knew him, we see in him a man overflowing with charity and kindness, a poetical mind deeply influenced by all that is beautiful and attractive.
The best life of St. John of the Cross was written by JEROME DE SAN JOSÉ (Madrid, 1641), but, not being approved by the superiors, it was not incorporated in the chronicles of the order, and the author lost his position of annalist on account of it.
Benedict Zimmerman (Catholic Encyclopedia)
However, before taking any further step he made the acquaintance of St. Teresa, who had come to Medina to found a convent of nuns, and who persuaded him to remain in the Carmelite Order and to assist her in the establishment of a monastery of friars carrying out the primitive rule. He accompanied her to Valladolid in order to gain practi cal experience of the manner of life led by the reformed nuns. A small house having been offered, St. John resolved to try at once the new form of life, although St. Teresa did not think anyone, however great his spirituality, could bear the discomforts of that hovel. He was joined by two companions, an ex-prior and a lay brother, with whom he inaugurated the reform among friars, 28 Nov., 1568. St. Teresa has left a classical dscription of the sort of life led by these first Discalced Carmelites, in chaps.xiii and xiv of her "Book of Foundations". John of the Cross, as he now called himself, became the first master of novices, and laid the foundation of the spiritual edifice which soon was to assume majestic proportions. He filled various posts in different places until St. Teresa called him to Avila as director and confessor to the convent of the Incarnation, of which she had been appointed prioress. He remained there, with a few interruptions, for over five years. Meanwhile, the reform spread rapidly, and, partly through the confusion caused by contradictory orders issued by the general and the general chapter on one hand, and the Apostolic nuncio on the other, and partly through human passion which sometimes ran high, its existence became seriously endangered.
St. John was ordered by his provincial to return to the house of his profession (Medina), and, on his refusing to do so, owing to the fact that he held his office not from the order but from the Apostolic delegate, he was taken prisoner in the night of 3 December, 1577, and carried off to Toledo, where he suffered for more than nine months close imprisonment in a narrow, stifling cell, together with such additional punishment as might have been called for in the case of one guilty of the most serious crimes. In the midst of his sufferings he was visited with heavenly consolations, and some of his exquisite poetry dates from that period. He made good his escape in a miraculous manner, August, 1578. During the next years he was chiefly occupied with the foundation and government of monasteries at Baeza, Granada, Cordova, Segovia, and elsewhere, but took no prominent part in the negotiations which led to the establishment of a separate government for the Discalced Carmelites. After the death of St. Teresa (4 Oct.,1582), when the two parties of the Moderates under Jerome Gratian, and the Zelanti under Nicholas Doria struggled for the upper hand, St. John supported the former and shared his fate. For some time he filled the post of vicar provincial of Andalusia, but when Doria changed the government of the order, concentrating all power in the hands of a permanent committee, St. John resisted and, supporting the nuns in their endeavour to secure the papal approbation of their constitutions, drew upon himself the displeasure of the superior, who deprived him of his offices and relegated him to one of the poorest monasteries, where he fell seriously ill. One of his opponents went so far as to go form to monastery gathering materials in order to bring grave charges against him, hoping for his expulsion from the order which he had helped to found.
As his illness increased he was removed to the monastery of Ubeda, where he at first was treated very unkindly, his constant prayer, "to suffer and to be despised", being thus literally fulfilled almost to the end of his life. But at last even his adversaries came to acknowledge his sanctity, and his funeral was the occasion of a great outburst of enthusiasm. The body, still incorrupt, as has been ascertained within the last few years, was removed to Segovia, only a small portion remaining at Ubeda; there was some litigation about its possession. A strange phenomenon, for which no satisfactory explanation has been given, has frequently been observed in connexion with the relics of St. John of the Cross: Francis de Yepes, the brother of the saint, and after him many other persons have noticed the appearance in his relics of images of Christ on the Cross, the Blessed Virgin, St. Elias, St. Francis Xavier, or other saints, according to the devotion of the beholder. The beatification took place onb 25 Jan., 1675, the translation of his body on 21 May of the same year, and the canonization on 27 Dec., 1726.
He left the following works, which for the first time appeared at Barcelona in 1619.
- "The Ascent of Mount Carmel", an explanation of some verses beginning: "In a dark night with anxious love inflamed". This work was to have comprised four books, but breaks off in the middle of the third.
- "The Dark Night of the Soul", another explanation of the same verses, breaking off in the second book. Both these works were written soon after his escape from prison, and, though incomplete, supplement each other, forming a full treatise on mystic theology.
- An explanation of the "Spiritual Canticle", (a paraphrase of the Canticle of Canticles) beginning "Where hast Thou hidden Thyself?" composed part during his imprisonment, and completed and commented upon some years later at the request of Venerable Anne of Jesus.
- An explanation of a poem beginning: "O Living Flame of Love", written about 1584 at the bidding of Dona Ana de Penalosa.
- Some instructions and precautions on matters spiritual.
- Some twenty letters, chiefly to his penitents. Unfortunately the bulk of his correspondence, including numerous letters to and from St. Teresa, was destroyed, partly by himself, partly during the persecutions to which he fell a victim.
- "Poems", of which twenty-six have been hitherto published, viz., twenty in the older editions, and recently six more, discovered partly at the National Library at Madrid, and partly at the convent of Carmelite nuns at Pamplona.
- "A Collection of Spiritual Maxims" (in some editions to the number of one hundred, and in others three hundred and sixty-five) can scarcely count as an independent work, as they are culled from his writings.
His axiom is that the soul must empty itself of self in order to be filled with God, that it must be purified of the last traces of earthly dross before it is fit to become united with God. In the application of this simple maxim he shows the most uncompromising logic. Supposing the soul with which he deals to be habitually in the state of grace and pushing forward to better things, he overtakes it on the very road leading it, in its opinion to God, and lays open before its eyes a number of sores of which it was altogether ignorant, viz. what he terms the spiritual capital sins. Not until these are removed (a most formidable task) is it fit to be admitted to what he calls the "Dark Night", which consists in the passive purgation, where God by heavy trials, particularly interior ones, perfects and completes what the soul had begun of its own accord. It is now passive, but not inert, for by submitting to the Divine operation it co-operates in the measure of its power. Here lies one of the essential differences between St. John's mysticism and a false quietism. The perfect purgation of the soul in the present life leaves it free to act with wonderful energy: in fact it might almost be said to obtain a share in God's omnipotence, as is shown in the marvelous deeds of so many saints. As the soul emerges from the Dark Night it enters into the full noonlight described in the "Spiritual Canticle" and the "Living Flame of Love". St. John leads it to the highest heights, in fact to the point where it becomes a"partaker of the Divine Nature". It is here that the necessity of the previous cleansing is clearly perceived the pain of the mortification of all the senses and the powers and faculties of the soul being amply repaid by the glory which is now being revealed in it.
St. John has often been represented as a grim character; nothing could be more untrue. He was indeed austere in the extreme with himself, and, to some extent, also with others, but both from his writings and from the depositions of those who knew him, we see in him a man overflowing with charity and kindness, a poetical mind deeply influenced by all that is beautiful and attractive.
The best life of St. John of the Cross was written by JEROME DE SAN JOSÉ (Madrid, 1641), but, not being approved by the superiors, it was not incorporated in the chronicles of the order, and the author lost his position of annalist on account of it.
Benedict Zimmerman (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Friday, December 13, 2019
Ask Our Lady to put an end to so much suffering
The more somber circumstances become
and the more excruciating sundry pains grow,
the more we should ask Our Lady to put an end to so much suffering — not merely
for our own relief, but for the greater benefit of our souls.
Sacred theology says that Our Lady's prayers
anticipated the moment of the world's redemption by the Messiah.
At this anguished moment in history, let us turn our eyes to Our Lady with confidence,
asking her to hasten the great moment we all await,
when a new Pentecost will kindle beacons of light and hope in this darkness and
restore the kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ on earth.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
and the more excruciating sundry pains grow,
the more we should ask Our Lady to put an end to so much suffering — not merely
for our own relief, but for the greater benefit of our souls.
Sacred theology says that Our Lady's prayers
anticipated the moment of the world's redemption by the Messiah.
At this anguished moment in history, let us turn our eyes to Our Lady with confidence,
asking her to hasten the great moment we all await,
when a new Pentecost will kindle beacons of light and hope in this darkness and
restore the kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ on earth.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
St. Lucy
A virgin and martyr of Syracuse in Sicily, whose feast is celebrated
by Latins and Greeks alike on 13 Dec. According to the traditional
story, she was born of rich and noble parents about the year 283. Her
father was of Roman origin, but his early death left her dependent upon
her mother, whose name, Eutychia, seems to indicate that she came of
Greek stock. Like so many of the early martyrs, Lucy had consecrated her
virginity to God, and she hoped to devote all her worldly goods to the
service of the poor. Her mother was not so single-minded, but an
occasion offered itself when Lucy could carry out her generous
resolutions. The fame of the virgin-martyr Agatha, who had been executed
fifty-two years before in the Decian persecution, was attracting
numerous visitors to her relics at Catania, not fifty miles from
Syracuse, and many miracles had been wrought through her intercession.
Eutychia was therefore persuaded to make a pilgrimage to Catania, in the
hope of being cured or a haemorrhage, from which she had been suffering
for several years. There she was in fact cured, and Lucy, availing
herself of the opportunity, persuaded her mother to allow her to
distribute a great part of her riches among the poor. The largess
stirred the greed of the unworthy youth to whom Lucy had been
unwillingly betrothed, and he denounced her to Paschasius, the Governor
of Sicily. It was in the year 303, during the fierce persecution of
Diocletian. She was first of all condemned to suffer the shame of
prostitution; but in the strength of God she stood immovable, so that
they could not drag her away to the place of shame. Bundles of wood were
then heaped about her and set on fire, and again God saved her.
Finally, she met her death by the sword. But before she died she
foretold the punishment of Paschasius and the speedy termination of the
persecution, adding that Diocletian would reign no more, and Maximian
would meet his end. So, strengthened with the Bread of Life, she won her
crown of virginity and martyrdom.
This beautiful story cannot unfortunately be accepted without criticism. The details may be only a repetition of similar accounts of a virgin martyr's life and death. Moreover, the prophecy was not realized, if it required that Maximian should die immediately after the termination of his reign. Paschasius, also, is a strange name for a pagan to bear. However, since there is no other evidence by which the story may be tested, it can only be suggested that the facts peculiar to the saint's story deserve special notice. Among these, the place and time of her death can hardly be questioned; for the rest, the most notable are her connexion with St. Agatha and the miraculous cure of Eutychia, and it is to be hoped that these have not been introduced by the pious compiler of the saint's story or a popular instinct to link together two national saints. The story, such as we have given it, is to be traced back to the Acta, and these probably belong to the fifth century. Though they cannot be regarded as accurate, there can be no doubt of the great veneration that was shown to St. Lucy by the early church. She is one of those few female saints whose names occur in the canon of St. Gregory, and there are special prayers and antiphons for her in his "Sacramentary" and "Antiphonary". She is also commemorated in the ancient Roman Martyrology. St. Aldheim (d. 709) is the first writer who uses her Acts to give a full account of her life and death. This he does in prose in the "Tractatus de Laudibus Virginitatis" (Tract. xliii, P. L., LXXXIX, 142) and again, in verse, in the poem "De Laudibus Virginum" (P. L., LXXXIX, 266). Following him, the Venerable Bede inserts the story in his Martyrology.
With regard to her relics, Sigebert (1030-1112), a monk of Gembloux, in his "sermo de Sancta Lucia", says that he body lay undisturbed in Sicily for 400 years, before Faroald, Duke of Spoleto, captured the island and transferred the saint's body to Corfinium in Italy. Thence it was removed by the Emperor Otho I, 972, to Metz and deposited in the church of St. Vincent. And it was from this shrine that an arm of the saint was taken to the monastery of Luitburg in the Diocese of Spires—an incident celebrated by Sigebert himself in verse. The subsequent history of the relics is not clear. On their capture of Constantinople in 1204, the French found some of the relics in that city, and the Doge of Venice secured them for the monastery of St. George at Venice. In the year 1513 the Venetians presented to Louis XII of France the head of the saint, which he deposited in the cathedral church of Bourges. Another account, however, states that the head was brought to Bourges from Rome whither it had been transferred during the time when the relics rested in Corfinium.
James Bridge (Catholic Encyclopedia)
This beautiful story cannot unfortunately be accepted without criticism. The details may be only a repetition of similar accounts of a virgin martyr's life and death. Moreover, the prophecy was not realized, if it required that Maximian should die immediately after the termination of his reign. Paschasius, also, is a strange name for a pagan to bear. However, since there is no other evidence by which the story may be tested, it can only be suggested that the facts peculiar to the saint's story deserve special notice. Among these, the place and time of her death can hardly be questioned; for the rest, the most notable are her connexion with St. Agatha and the miraculous cure of Eutychia, and it is to be hoped that these have not been introduced by the pious compiler of the saint's story or a popular instinct to link together two national saints. The story, such as we have given it, is to be traced back to the Acta, and these probably belong to the fifth century. Though they cannot be regarded as accurate, there can be no doubt of the great veneration that was shown to St. Lucy by the early church. She is one of those few female saints whose names occur in the canon of St. Gregory, and there are special prayers and antiphons for her in his "Sacramentary" and "Antiphonary". She is also commemorated in the ancient Roman Martyrology. St. Aldheim (d. 709) is the first writer who uses her Acts to give a full account of her life and death. This he does in prose in the "Tractatus de Laudibus Virginitatis" (Tract. xliii, P. L., LXXXIX, 142) and again, in verse, in the poem "De Laudibus Virginum" (P. L., LXXXIX, 266). Following him, the Venerable Bede inserts the story in his Martyrology.
With regard to her relics, Sigebert (1030-1112), a monk of Gembloux, in his "sermo de Sancta Lucia", says that he body lay undisturbed in Sicily for 400 years, before Faroald, Duke of Spoleto, captured the island and transferred the saint's body to Corfinium in Italy. Thence it was removed by the Emperor Otho I, 972, to Metz and deposited in the church of St. Vincent. And it was from this shrine that an arm of the saint was taken to the monastery of Luitburg in the Diocese of Spires—an incident celebrated by Sigebert himself in verse. The subsequent history of the relics is not clear. On their capture of Constantinople in 1204, the French found some of the relics in that city, and the Doge of Venice secured them for the monastery of St. George at Venice. In the year 1513 the Venetians presented to Louis XII of France the head of the saint, which he deposited in the cathedral church of Bourges. Another account, however, states that the head was brought to Bourges from Rome whither it had been transferred during the time when the relics rested in Corfinium.
James Bridge (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Thursday, December 12, 2019
She Who Smashes the Serpent
Pope Pius XII gave Our Lady of Guadalupe the title of “Empress of the Americas” in 1945. Since December 12 is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, it seems like a propitious moment to recall how she reigns over our nation from Heaven, protecting and guiding us with motherly solicitude and tenderness. The constant miracle memorialized on Saint Juan Diego’s tilma and the context of the apparitions remind us that Our Lady is victorious over the serpent, she intervenes in history and is eager to intercede for those who seek her intersession in this vale of tears.
How Our Lady Intervened in History
The oldest reliable source of the apparitions of the Mother of God to
Saint Juan Diego was written in Náhuatl by Antonio Valeriano. He was a
contemporary of Juan Diego and Bishop Frey Juan de Zumárraga. Mr.
Valeriano’s account was published in 1649 and is known as the Nican Mopohua.On December 9, 1531, Juan Diego was on his way to attend Mass in what is today Mexico City. It was dawn as he approached Tepeyac Hill, a few miles from his destination. Juan Diego was no ordinary Indian, but the grandson of King Netzahualcoyotl,1 and the son to King Netzahualpilic and Queen Tlacayehuatzin, who was a descendant of Moctezuma I.
As Juan Diego neared the hill’s summit, something extraordinary happened. Unseen birds began to sing in a supernatural way. The birds would pause while others responded, forming a heavenly duet. He thought he was perhaps dreaming and pondered how unworthy he was to witness something so extraordinary.
The
heavenly symphony stopped and a sweet voice called him from the
hilltop, “Juanito. Juan Diegito.” Hearing this, he happily ascended the
hill. What he found upon reaching the source of the voice changed his
life forever. There, on a rock, stood a beautiful lady. Everything
around her was transformed. Her clothing was radiant as the sun. The
rock she stood on seemed to emit rays of light. She was surrounded with
the splendors of the rainbow. Cacti and other plant life nearby looked
like emeralds. Their leaves were like fine turquoise and their thorns
sparkled like gold.Juan Diego bowed before her in ceremonious respect. A tender dialogue between Our Lady and Juan Diego followed, “Listen, xocoyote2mio, Juan, where are you going?”
Rejoicing, he happily responded, “My Holy One, my Lady, my Damsel, I am on my way to your house at Mexico-Tlatilulco; I go in pursuit of the holy things that our priests teach us.”
The celestial lady revealed to him that she was indeed the Mother of God, telling him of her desire to have a church built, where she might bestow all her love, mercy, help and protection. She showed overflowing love to Juan Diego, “and to all the other people dear to me who call upon me, who search for me, who confide in me; here I will hear their sorrow, their words, so that I may make perfect and cure their illnesses, their labors and theirs calamities.”
Then Our Beloved Lady, respecting the authority established by God, sends the noble Juan Diego with this message to the bishop
elect
of Mexico. She tells him to accomplish the mission diligently,
promising to reward his services. He bows, telling her that he will go
straightaway to fulfill her wishes, and departs.Frey Juan de Zumárraga was one of the first twelve Franciscan missionaries to go to Mexico and the first bishop of that new land. When Juan Diego reached the bishop’s palace, he promptly announced he wished to deliver a message for the bishop. The servants made Juan Diego wait before allowing the audience. Obediently, and with great enthusiasm, he told the bishop what he had seen and heard. Bishop Zumarraga listened attentively, but told Juan Diego to return when they could discuss the matter at greater length. After all, how did he know the story was true?
Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac Hill. As he approached the hill, Our Lady was waiting for him. He drew near and knelt. With sadness, he told Our Lady that he failed in his mission. The marvelous dialogue continues, “My Holy One, most noble of persons, my Lady, my xocoyota, my Damsel . . . .”
Juan Diego explained why he failed, how unworthy he was for such a mission and how the bishop was suspicious. Our Lady listened tenderly and patiently as he suggested she send one of the well-known and respected lords of the land. Then, he thought, her message would be believed.
Our Lady was not persuaded. She wanted him to accomplish the mission, and said, “I pray you, my xocoyote, and advise you with much care, that you go again tomorrow to see the bishop and represent me; give him an understanding of my desire, my will, that he build the church that I ask . . . .”
Juan
Diego did not fear the difficulties of the mission, he was only afraid
the mission would not be accomplished. However, he told Our Lady he
would fulfill her command and return the following evening with the
bishop’s reply.“And now I leave you, my xocoyota, my Damsel, my Lady; meanwhile, you rest.” Juan Diego suggested that Our Lady rest a little! It is impressive that she not only allowed him to treat her this way, but also loved his candidness.
The next day, he traveled to Mexico for Mass. Afterwards, he went directly to the bishop’s palace, fell on his knees and repeated all that Our Lady had told him to the bishop, who asked questions about the lady. Not entirely convinced, however, the bishop told Juan Diego that he could not affirm that the apparition was Our Lady and asked for a sign of reassurance from Our Lady to build a church.
Juan Diego confidently stated he would ask Our Lady for a sign. The bishop agreed, and sent a few servants to follow Juan Diego and report on everything he did. But they lost him and could not find him. They returned annoyed, speaking poorly of him to the bishop. They even resolved to seize and punish Juan Diego when he appeared again.
Juan Diego should have returned with the sign on Monday, but when he returned home, his uncle Juan Bernadino was seriously ill. His health worsened throughout Monday night, and on early Tuesday asked Juan Diego to call a priest. The nephew obediently went, making sure his route did not pass near Tepeyac Hill as he feared Our Lady would see him and persuade him to continue the mission she entrusted to him. So he took a shortcut he thought concealed him from Our Lady.
Stealthily advancing along, he was discovered by Our Lady, who descended the slope and asked, “Xocoyote mio, where are you going? What road is this you are taking?”
Caught red-handed, Juan Diego replied diplomatically, “My daughter, my xocoyota, God keep you, Lady. How did you waken? And is your most pure body well, perchance?” Then he explained his predicament, “My Virgin, my Lady, forgive me, be patient with me until I do my duty, and then tomorrow I will come back to you.” One cannot help but smile while imagining Juan Diego, in his simplicity, asking Our Lady to wait until he returned the next day after helping his dying uncle.
The Mother of God responded affectionately, “Do not be frightened or grieve, or let your heart be dismayed; however great the illness may be that you speak of, am I not here, I who am your mother, and is not my help a refuge?”
She told him his uncle was already cured. Juan Diego rejoiced, and asked her to give him the sign that the bishop wanted. She told him to go to the hilltop and cut the
flowers
he would find. Then, he was to bring them back to her. It was December,
and only cacti and a few other sparse plants grew on the hill. However,
Juan Diego found Castilian roses in abundance there and delighted in
their fragrance. He carefully cut several, wrapping them in his tilma or cloak made of cactus fiber. He returned to Our Lady and she tenderly arranged them inside his tilma
with her own hands, and commanded him to go to the bishop and show him
the sign he was waiting for. She also told him not to open his tilma for anyone but the bishop.He made haste to Bishop Zumárraga, confident now that he would accomplish Our Lady’s designs. Along the way, the wonderful fragrance of the roses pleased him. At the bishop’s palace, he was left waiting for a long time. The servants saw him as a nuisance and made him wait until it was very late, and even demanded to see what was in his tilma. Because he refused to show them, they pushed and knocked him about. When he perceived he would not see the bishop unless he showed them something, he let them peek in the tilma. Seeing and smelling the celestial roses, the servants made three attempts to take some. At each attempt, the roses miraculously became part of the tilma as if they were painted. With this, they ushered Our Lady’s ambassador in to see the bishop. Juan Diego knelt down and began to explain all he saw and heard from Our Lady. The bishop listened intently. To prove what he said was true, he untied his tilma and let the roses fall to the ground. Those watching fell to their knees in silent amazement. Miraculously imprinted on the tilma was Our Lady’s perfect image. Recalling their disbelief and mistreatment of the Blessed Mother’s ambassador, the servants were filled with shame.
Bishop Zumarraga tearfully took the tilma from Juan Diego, placed it in his private chapel, and entreated the saint to stay with him for the night in the palace. The next day, with a crowd following behind them, the two went to the site where Our Lady wanted her church built. Juan Diego gave a detailed account of the apparitions. Then they went to see Juan Bernadino and check on the state of his health.
She Who Smashes the Serpent
Juan Bernadino was surprised to see his nephew accompanied by the
bishop and a crowd of admirers. Naturally, he asked what was happening.
The miracle was told again and Uncle Juan acknowledged that he was
cured. Our Lady appeared to him and cured him. She told him of her
desire to be called Santa María de Guadalupe. Guadalupe in Spanish corresponds phonetically to Coatlaxopeuh in Náhuatl, which means “I smashed the serpent with the foot.”The bishop then displayed the tilma in the Cathedral of Mexico for public veneration and called on all to help in the construction of the new church, which was completed on December 26, 1531. On that day, a great procession was made from the cathedral to the new church. Spaniards and Indians, ecclesiastical and imperial officials alike accompanied Our Lady of Guadalupe to her new shrine. The Indians performed war dances in her honor, and covered the whole path to Tepeyac Hill with flowers.
Amid the festive rejoicing, an overzealous Indian fired an arrow, mortally piercing the throat of another Indian. There were cries and sobs over the dead Indian. Then, inspired by grace, all began to ask that his lifeless body be placed in front of the tilma. As everyone began to invoke Our Lady of Guadalupe’s help, the dead Indian came back to life, his throat instantly healed. Everyone cheered as he rose to his feet. Strengthened by the miracle, the procession resumed and the image was placed in the new shrine.
Miracles That Defy Science
Since the tilma is made of cactus fiber, it should have disintegrated after twenty years. However, it has survived from 1531 until the present day without cracking or fading. Scientists cannot explain how this is possible. In the 18th century, Dr. José Ignácio Bartolache had two copies of the image made and placed where the original was. After several years, the two copies deteriorated.
Over time, the faithful have tried to “embellish” the tilma. A crown was painted on Our Lady’s head and angels in the clouds. However, unlike the tilma, these additions have worn away and are no longer visible. The rays of the sun, for example, were coated with gold and the moon plated with silver. These embellishments also faded away. In fact, the silver-plated moon turned black.
Scientists are baffled how the image was imprinted on the tilma. There are no brush strokes or sketch marks on it. Richard Kuhn, a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, ascertained that Our Lady of Guadalupe’s image does not contain natural, animal, or mineral pigments. The tilma defies natural explanation.
If one were to go to the Guadalupe shrine in Mexico City, a stone sail ship monument is visible near the chapel on the hill. The landmark commemorates a miracle that took place in 1565 when General Miguel López de Legazpi was returning from the Philippines and his ship was engulfed by a tempest. On the verge of sinking, the crew in desperation made a vow to Our Lady of Guadalupe; if she saved them, they would carry their last remaining sail to her on pilgrimage. The storm abated and they fulfilled their promise.
The
greatest miracle was that eight million Indians converted in only seven
years following the apparitions. The early Franciscan and Dominican
missionaries were busy night and day baptizing and administering the
Sacraments. On average, over three thousand Indians a day were baptized
for the duration of seven years.Symbolism of the Tilma
The miraculous tilma is like a catechism class for the Mexican Indians. Our Lady, as she appears, eclipses the sun, showing her superiority over the Aztec sun god. She stands on the moon, trampling the Aztec moon god under foot. She is surrounded by clouds and attended by an angel, showing that she is not of this earth. Yet her hands are folded in supplication and her head is tilted in a position of humility, thus showing that while she tramples the pagan gods, she is not God. Around her neck, she wears a brooch with a cross, leading mankind to the Supreme Being, the God of the Christians.
May the goodness and tenderness Our Lady showed Saint Juan Diego encourage our readers to have more devotion to her. Like every good mother, she is also the implacable foe against those who inflict harm on her children. Therefore, she is our special aid in the struggle against evil today. Let our battle cry be “¡Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!” (Long live Our Lady of Guadalupe!)
Footnotes
1. Netzhaulcoyotl is famous in mexican history as a warrior, philosopher and poet. Analyzing the order of nature, he deduced the existence of only one, invisible God, the Creator of all things. Whom he adored by burning incense and in Whose honor he composed sixty psalms of praise similar to those by King David. He disliked human sacrifice and the worship of pagan gods. (cfr. JUAN ANTONIO MONTALVO, “Plática sobre la Virgen de Guadalupe,”, in HISTORICA, órgano del Centro de Estudios Guadalupanos, AC, Colección II, México, Editorial Hombre S. de R.L., 1983, pp. 7, 8. )
2. This Náhuatl word means “smallest of my sons.” Xocoyota is the form for daughter.
Bibliography
Demarest & Taylor, The Dark Virgen: The Book of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Carl Anderson and Monsignor Eduardo Chavez, Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of a Civilization of Love (Doubleday Religion, August 4, 2009)
Joan Carroll Cruz, Miraculous Images of Our Lady (TAN Books and Publishers, May 1, 2009)
Sister Mary Amatora, O.S.F., The Queen’s Portrait: The Story of Guadalupe (Exposition Press, 4th ed., 1972)
Is there anything else that you need?
“Am I not here who am your mother?
Are you not under my shadow and protection?
Am I not your fountain of life?
Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms?
Is there anything else that you need?”
Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego
Are you not under my shadow and protection?
Am I not your fountain of life?
Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms?
Is there anything else that you need?”
Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego
Our Lady of Guadalupe
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.Putting an end to the horrific practice of extensive human sacrifice to satanic idols, he sent for Spanish missionaries to begin the work of evangelizing Mexico. Coming up against the natural obstacles, the work was arduous, and progress slow. The fact that some Spaniards suppressed the natives did not help. As a revolt brewed, the saintly Don Juan de Zumárraga, first bishop of Mexico, appealed to heaven for help.
On December 9, 1531, one of Mexico’s first converts to Christianity, a middle-aged native named Juan Diego, was making his usual way into Mexico City to attend Holy Mass. As he passed a hill called Tepeyac, he heard music, then a sweet voice that called his name, “Juan, Juan Dieguito…”
Following the sound of the voice calling to him, he climbed the hill and came face to face with a beautiful lady in an aura of light who said she was “the ever Virgin, Mother of the true God”. Speaking in Nahuatl, she asked him to convey to the bishop that she wished a church built on the spot where she stood.
Juan Diego obeyed but Don Zumárraga did not believe him. Two more times the lady appeared with the same request, and, finally, the prelate asked for a sign as a proof of the apparition’s authenticity.
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.Gathering the blooms in his tilma (a whitish cape), he returned to the lady who re-arranged them with her own hands.
When Juan released the flowers before the bishop and his retinue, a brilliant image of the Blessed Virgin appeared on his tilma before the astonished eyes of all. On his knees, Bishop Zumárraga contemplated the wonder, also moved at the sight of the Castillian Roses, the sign for which he had secretly asked.
In an apparition where Our Lady healed Juan Diego’s dying uncle, she referred to herself as, “she who crushes the serpent,” in Nahuatl, “Coatlaxopeuh”, interpreted as “Guadalupe”. Though there are other interpretations, the latter seems most plausible as the cult of “Quetzalcoatl”, the “Serpent-god” was prominent in pre-Christian Mexico.
As news of the stupendous miracle spread, so did the Catholic Faith. As the natives flocked to Juan Diego’s tilma with their sorrows and joys, plaints and petitions, Mary’s silent sweetness, love and purity effectively won over the hearts of the Mexican people.
To them, she was – and is to this day – “their queen”, La Guadalupana.
Not only had the exalted lady appeared to one of them, but she had also adopted their own ruddy semblance, conveying to them that she was queen by wearing the Aztec royal turquoise, yet not divine as her head was bowed. That she was of the faith of the Spaniards they knew by the small black cross at her neck, the same as on Cortéz’ soldiers’ helmets. So, once more, led by the Mother, all of Mexico came to the Son. In a few years, nine million accepted Baptism.
The sacred tilma is venerated to this day in the shrine built on the site of Tepeyac in Mexico City. The icon has miraculously defied the test of time, as the natural fibers of the cloak normally last twenty years. Not only are image and cloth intact, but other inexplicable facts continue to astonish science.
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
The value of aridity
One single act done with aridity of spirit
is worth more
than many done with feelings of devotion.
St. Francis de Sales
is worth more
than many done with feelings of devotion.
St. Francis de Sales
December 11 – Pope Falsely Accused of Adultery
Pope St. Damasus I
Born about 304; died 11 December, 384.His father, Antonius, was probably a Spaniard; the name of his mother, Laurentia, was not known until quite recently. Damasus seems to have been born at Rome; it is certain that he grew up there in the service of the church of the martyr St. Laurence. He was elected pope in October, 366, by a large majority, but a number of over-zealous adherents of the deceased Liberius rejected him, chose the deacon Ursinus (or Ursicinus), had the latter irregularly consecrated, and resorted to much violence and bloodshed in order to seat him in the Chair of Peter. Many details of this scandalous conflict are related in the highly prejudiced “Libellus Precum” (P.L., XIII, 83-107), a petition to the civil authority on the part of Faustinus and Marcellinus, two anti-Damasan presbyters (cf. also Ammianus Marcellinus, Rer. Gest., XXVII, c. iii). Valentinian recognized Damasus and banished (367) Ursinus to Cologne, whence he was later allowed to return to Milan, but was forbidden to come to Rome or its vicinity.
The party of the antipope (later at Milan an adherent of the Arians and to the end a contentious pretender) did not cease to persecute Damasus. An accusation of adultery was laid against him (378) in the imperial court, but he was exonerated by Emperor Gratian himself (Mansi, Coll. Conc., III, 628) and soon after by a Roman synod of forty-four bishops (Liber Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, s.v.; Mansi, op. cit., III, 419) which also excommunicated his accusers.
Damasus defended with vigour the Catholic Faith in a time of dire and varied perils. In two Roman synods (368 and 369) he condemned Apollinarianism and Macedonianism; he also sent his legates to the Council of Constantinople (381), convoked against the aforesaid heresies. In the Roman synod of 369 (or 370) Auxentius, the Arian Bishop of Milan, was excommunicated; he held the see, however, until his death, in 374, made way for St. Ambrose. The heretic Priscillian, condemned by the Council of Saragossa (380) appealed to Damasus, but in vain. It was Damasus who induced Saint Jerome to undertake his famous revision of the earlier Latin versions of the Bible. St. Jerome was also his confidential secretary for some time (Ep. cxxiii, n. 10). An important canon of the New Testament was proclaimed by him in the Roman synod of 374. The Eastern Church, in the person of St. Basil of Cæsarea, besought earnestly the aid and encouragement of Damasus against triumphant Arianism; the pope, however, cherished some degree of suspicion against the great Cappadocian Doctor. In the matter of the Meletian Schism at Antioch, Damasus, with Athanasius and Peter of Alexandria, sympathized with the party of Paulinus as more sincerely representative of Nicene orthodoxy; on the death of Meletius he sought to secure the succession for Paulinus and to exclude Flavian (Socrates, Hist. Eccl., V, xv). He sustained the appeal of the Christian senators to Emperor Gratian for the removal of the altar of Victory from the Senate House (Ambrose, Ep. xvii, n. 10), and lived to welcome the famous edict of Theodosius I, “De fide Catholica” (27 Feb., 380), which proclaimed as the religion of the Roman State that doctrine which St. Peter had preached to the Romans and of which Damasus was supreme head (Cod. Theod., XVI, 1, 2).
When, in 379, Illyricum was detached from the Western Empire, Damasus hastened to safeguard the authority of the Roman Church by the appointment of a vicar Apostolic in the person of Ascholius, Bishop of Thessalonica; this was the origin of the important papal vicariate long attached to that see. The primacy of the Apostolic See, variously favoured in the time of Damasus by imperial acts and edicts, was strenuously maintained by this pope; among his notable utterances on this subject is the assertion (Mansi, Coll. Conc., VIII, 158) that the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Roman Church was based, not on the decrees of councils, but on the very words of Jesus Christ (Matt., xvi, 18). The increased prestige of the early papal decretals, habitually attributed to the reign of Siricius (384-99), not improbably belongs to the reign of Damasus (“Canones Romanorum ad Gallos”; Babut, “La plus ancienne décrétale”, Paris, 1904). This development of the papal office, especially in the West, brought with it a great increase of external grandeur. This secular splendour, however, affected disadvantageously many members of the Roman clergy, whose worldly aims and life, bitterly reproved by St. Jerome, provoked (29 July, 370) an edict of Emperor Valentinian addressed to the pope, forbidding ecclesiastics and monks (later also bishops and nuns) to pursue widows and orphans in the hope of obtaining from them gifts and legacies. The pope caused the law to be observed strictly.
Damasus restored his own church (now San Lorenzo in Damaso) and provided for the proper housing of the archives of the Roman Church. He built in the basilica of St. Sebastian on the Appian Way the (yet visible) marble monument known as the “Platonia” (Platona, marble pavement) in honour of the temporary transfer to that place (258) of the bodies of Sts. Peter and Paul, and decorated it with an important historical inscription (see Northcote and Brownlow, Roma Sotterranea). He also built on the Via Ardeatina, between the cemeteries of Callistus and Domitilla, a basilicula, or small church, the ruins of which were discovered in 1902 and 1903, and in which, according to the “Liber Pontificalis”, the pope was buried with his mother and sister. On this occasion the discoverer, Monsignor Wilpert, found also the epitaph of the pope’s mother, from which it was learned not only that her name was Laurentia, but also that she had lived the sixty years of her widowhood in the special service of God, and died in her eighty-ninth year, having seen the fourth generation of her descendants. Damasus built at the Vatican a baptistery in honour of St. Peter and set up therein one of his artistic inscriptions (Carmen xxxvi), still preserved in the Vatican crypts. This subterranean region he drained in order that the bodies buried there (juxta sepulcrum beati Petri) might not be affected by stagnant or overflowing water. His extraordinary devotion to the Roman martyrs is now well known, owing particularly to the labours of Giovanni Battista De Rossi. For a good account of his architectural restoration of the catacombs and the unique artistic characters (Damasan Letters) in which his friend Furius Dionysius Filocalus executed the epitaphs composed by Damasus, see Northcote and Brownlow, “Roma Sotterranea” (2nd ed., London, 1878-79). The dogmatic content of the Damasan epitaphs (tituli) is important (Northcote, Epitaphs of the Catacombs, London, 1878). He composed also a number of brief epigrammata on various martyrs and saints and some hymns, or Carmina, likewise brief. St. Jerome says (Ep. xxii, 22) that Damasus wrote on virginity, both in prose and in verse, but no such work has been preserved. For the few letters of Damasus (some of them spurious) that have survived, see P.L., XIII, 347-76, and Jaffé, “Reg. Rom. Pontif.” (Leipzig, 1885), nn. 232-254.
THOMAS J. SHAHAN (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Surrender
To surrender oneself is more than to devote oneself,
more than to give oneself,
it is even something more than to abandon oneself to God.
In a word, to surrender oneself is to die to everything and to self,
to be no longer concerned with self
except to keep it continually turned toward God.
St. Marie-Victoire Couderc
more than to give oneself,
it is even something more than to abandon oneself to God.
In a word, to surrender oneself is to die to everything and to self,
to be no longer concerned with self
except to keep it continually turned toward God.
St. Marie-Victoire Couderc
Our Lady of Loreto
The
title "Our Lady of Loreto" is associated with the Holy House of Loreto
in Italy, the house of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
miraculously transported by the angels from Palestine to Europe.The house of the Holy Family in Nazareth has always been the object of Christian veneration. Shortly after 313, St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, built a basilica over this holy abode. The Saracens invaded the Holy Land in 1090, plundering and destroying Christian shrines, including Constantine’s basilica. Under the ruble, the Holy House was found intact. During the twelfth century, another basilica was built to protect the holy dwelling. In 1219 or 1220 St. Francis of Assisi visited the Holy House in Nazareth. So did King St. Louis IX of France, when he was leading a crusade to liberate the Holy Land. In 1263, when the Muslims overpowered the crusaders, the basilica was again destroyed but, once more, the Holy House was found intact.
When the crusaders where completely driven out of the Holy Land in 1291, the Holy House disappeared.
On May 10, 1291 a parish priest, Fr. Alexander Georgevich in the town of Tersatto, Dalmatia, (present-day Croatia) noticed the sudden appearance of a small building resting on a plot of land. Puzzled, he prayed about it, and in a dream saw the Blessed Virgin Mary, who explained that the structure was the house of the Holy Family, brought there by the power of God.
In 1294, with the Moslem invasion of Albania, the house disappeared again. According to the testimony of shepherds, it was seen on December 10 of that year born aloft by angels over the Adriatic Sea. This time the Holy House came to rest in a wooded area four miles from Recanati, Italy. As the news spread fast, thousands flocked there, and many miracles took place at the site.
Due to contrary circumstances, twice again the house was moved, finally coming to rest in the town of Loreto, Italy, its present location.
As miracles continued to occur in connection with pilgrimages to the house, deputations were sent to Nazareth to determine its origins in 1292, in 1296, and in 1524. All three declared that the measurements of the house corresponded to the visible foundations of the house of Nazareth.
In 1871 at the suggestion of Cardinal Bartolini, Professor Ratti of the University of Rome was given mortar and stones from the house at Loreto, and similar materials from houses in Nazareth. Ignorant of which was which, Prof. Ratti ascertained that the composition of the material from the house of Loreto while not original to Italy was identical to that of the material from Nazareth.
Other striking facts about the house in Loreto are that it has no foundations. The walls rest on a plot that was part field and part road, a sure indication that it was not built there but placed there. The style of the house of Loreto is not Italian but Eastern. And the original door was on the long side of the house, indicating that it was a dwelling and not a church.
Today a great basilica houses the dwelling of the holiest of families. From 1330, practically all the Popes have considered Loreto the greatest shrine of Christendom. Bulls in favor of the shrine were issued by Pope Sixtus IV in 1491 and by Julius II in 1507. While the miracle of the translation of the house is not a matter of faith, Innocent XII, in the seventeenth century, appointed a special Mass for the Feast of the Translation of the Holy House. Numerous saints have visited the house-relic.
As pilgrims enter the small precinct, they read on the threshold, “Hic Verbum caro factum est” – “Here the Word became flesh”. Above the altar inside the holy house is an ancient statue of Our Lady holding the Infant Jesus, known as Our Lady of Loreto.
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