Friday
March 12, 2010
St, Gregory the
Great, Pope,
Confessor and
Doctor of the
Church.
St. Gregory I, called the Great, was
one of the most illustrious of the
Popes. For fourteen years his
pontificate was a model of
ecclesiastical rule. He healed
schisms; revived discipline; aided in
the conversion of the Spanish and
French Goths, and kindled anew in
Britain the light of the Faith. He set in
order the prayers and chant of the
Church; and the Church reckons him
one of her four great Doctors. He
died March 12, 604. To this day the
Pope when solemnizing High Mass at
St. Peter's is vested at the altar which
covers the tomb of St. Gregory.
(Source: Fr. Lasance, The New
Roman Missal)
Saturday
March 13, 2010
St. Euphrasia
(Eupraxia), Virgin
Antigonus, the father of this saint,
was a nobleman of the first rank and
quality in the court of Theodosius the
younger, nearly allied in blood to that
emperor, and honored by him with
several great employments in the
state. He was married to Euphrasia, a
lady no less illustrious for her birth
and virtue, by whom he had one only
daughter and heiress, called also
Euphrasia, the saint of whom we
treat. After her birth, her pious
parents, by mutual consent, engaged
themselves by vow, to pass the
remainder of their lives in perpetual
continence, that they might more
perfectly aspire to the invisible joys of
the life to come, and from that time
they lived together as brother and
sister, in the exercises of devotion,
alms-deeds, and penance. Antigonus
died within a year, and the holy
widow, to shun the importunate
addresses of young suitors for
marriage, and the distraction of
friends, not long after withdrew
privately, with her little daughter, into
Egypt, where she was possessed of
a very large estate. In that country
she fixed her abode near a holy
monastery of one hundred and thirty
nuns, who never used any other food
than herbs and pulse, which they
took only after sunset, and some only
once in two or three days; they wore
and slept on sackcloth, wrought with
their hands, and prayed almost
without interruption. When sick, they
bore their pains with patience,
esteeming them an effect of the
divine mercy, and thanking God for
the same: nor did they seek relief
from physicians, except in cases of
absolute necessity, and then only
allowed of ordinary general
remedies, as the monks of La Trappe
do at this day. Delicate and
excessive attention to health
nourishes self-love and
immortification, and often destroys
that health which it studies anxiously
to preserve. By the example of these
holy virgins, the devout mother
animated herself to fervor in the
exercises of religion and charity, to
which she totally dedicated herself.
She frequently visited these servants
of God, and earnestly entreated
them to accept a considerable
annual revenue, with an obligation
that they should always be bound to
pray for the soul of her deceased
husband. But the abbess refused the
estate, saying: "We have renounced
all the conveniences of the world, in
order to purchase heaven. We are
poor, and such we desire to remain."
She could only be prevailed upon to
accept a small matter to supply the
church-lamp with oil, and for incense
to be burned on the altar.
The young Euphrasia, at seven
years of age, made it her earnest
request to her mother, that she might
be permitted to serve God in this
monastery. The pious mother, on
hearing this, wept for joy, and not
long after presented her to the
abbess, who, taking up an image of
Christ, gave it into her hands. The
tender virgin kissed it, saying: "By
vow I consecrate myself to Christ."
Then the mother led her before an
image of our Redeemer, and lifting
up her hands to heaven, said: "Lord
Jesus Christ, receive this child under
your special protection. You alone
doth she love and seek: to you doth
she recommend herself." Then
turning to her dear daughter, she
said: "May God, who laid the
foundations of the mountains,
strengthen you always in his holy
fear." And leaving her in the hands of
the abbess, out of the monastery
weeping. Some time after time she
fell sick, and being forewarned of her
death, gave her last instructions to
her daughter, in these words: "Fear
God, honor your sisters, and serve
them with humility. Never think of
what you have been, nor say to
yourself that you are of royal
extraction. Be humble and poor on
earth, that you may be rich in
heaven." The good mother soon
after slept in peace. Upon the news
of her death, the emperor
Theodosius sent for the noble virgin
to court, having promised her in
marriage to a favorite young senator.
But the virgin wrote him, with her own
hand, the following answer:
"Invincible emperor, having
consecrated myself to Christ in
perpetual chastity, I cannot be false
to my engagement, and marry a
mortal man, who will shortly be the
food of worms. For the sake of my
parents, be pleased to distribute their
estates among the poor, the
orphans, and the church. Set all my
slaves at liberty, and discharge my
vassals and servants, giving them
whatever is their due. Order my
father's stewards to acquit my
farmers of all they owe since his
death, that I may serve God without
let or hindrance, and may stand
before him without the solicitude of
temporal affairs. Pray for me, you
and your empress, that I may be
made worthy to serve Christ."
The messengers returned with this
letter to the emperor, who shed many
tears in reading it. The senators who
heard it burst also into tears, and
said to his majesty; "She is the
worthy daughter of Antigonus and
Euphrasia, of your royal blood, and
the holy offspring of a virtuous
stock." The emperor punctually
executed all she desired, a little
before his death, in 395.
St. Euphrasia was to her pious
sisters a perfect pattern of humility,
meekness, and charity. If she found
herself assaulted by any temptation
she immediately discovered it to the
abbess, to drive away the devil by
that humiliation, and to seek a
remedy. The discreet superioress
often enjoined her on such
occasions, some humbling and
painful penitential labor; as
sometimes to carry great stones from
one place to another; which
employment she once under an
obstinate assault, continued thirty
days together with wonderful
simplicity, till the devil being
vanquished by her humble
obedience and chastisement of her
body, he left her in peace. Her diet
was only herbs or pulse, which she
took after sunset, at first every day,
but afterwards only once in two or
three, or sometimes seven days. But
her abstinence received its chief
merit from her humility; without which
it would have been a fast of devils.
She cleaned out the chambers of the
other nuns, carried water to the
kitchen, and, out of obedience,
cheerfully employed herself in the
meanest drudgery; making painful
labor a part of her penance. To
mention one instance of her
extraordinary meekness and humility:
it is related, that one day a maid in
the kitchen asked her why she fasted
whole weeks, which no other
attempted to do besides the abbess.
Her answer was, that the abbess had
enjoined her that penance. The other
called her a hypocrite. Upon which
Euphrasia fell at her feet, begging
her to pardon and pray for her. In
which action it is hard to say, whether
we ought more to admire the
patience with which she received so
unjust a rebuke and slander. or the
humility with which she sincerely
condemned herself; as if, by her
hypocrisy and imperfections, she had
been a scandal to others. She was
favored with miracles both before
and after her death, which happened
in the year 410, and the thirtieth of
her age. Her name is recorded on
this day in the Roman Martyology.
(Source: Butler's Lives of the
Saints)
Saints
Thursday
March 11, 2010
St. Sophronius,
Patriarch of
Jerusalem and
Confessor:
He was a native of Damascus, and
made such a progress in learning
that he obtained the name of the
Sophist. He lived twenty years near
Jerusalem, under the direction of
John Moschus, a holy hermit,
without engaging himself in a
religious state. These two great men
visited together the monasteries of
Egypt, and were detained by St.
John the Almoner, at Alexandria,
about the year 610, and employed
by him two years in extirpating the
Eutychians, and in reforming his
diocese. John Moschus wrote there
his Spiritual Meadow, which he
dedicated to Sophronius. He made
a collection in that book of the
edifying examples of virtue which he
had seen or heard of among the
monks, and died shortly after at
Rome. Athanasius, patriarch of the
Jacobites or Eutychians, in Syria,
acknowledged two distinct natures
in Christ, the divine and the human;
but allowed only one will. This Demi-
Eutychianism was a glaring
inconsistency; because the will is
the property of the nature.
Moreover, Christ sometimes speaks
of his human will distinct from the
divine, as in his prayer in his agony
in the garden. This Monothelite
heresy seemed an expedient
whereby to compound with the
Eutychians. The emperor Heraclius
confirmed it by an edict called
Ecthesis, or the Exposition,
declaring that there is only one will
in Christ namely, that of the Divine
Word: which was condemned by
pope John IV. Cyrus, bishop of
Phasis, a virulent Monothelite, was
by Hemclius preferred to the
patriarchate of Alexandria, in 629.
St. Sophronius, falling at his feet,
conjured him not to publish his
erroneous articles but in vain. He
therefore left Egypt, and came to
Constantinople, where he found
Sergius, the crafty patriarch, sowing
the same error in conjunction with
Theodorus or Pharan. Hereupon he
traveled into Syria, where, in 634,
he was, against his will, elected
patriarch of Jerusalem.
He was no sooner established in his
see, than he assembled a council of
all the bishops of his patriarchate, in
634, to condemn the Monothelite
heresy, and composed a synodal
letter to explain and prove the
Catholic faith. This excellent piece
was confirmed in the sixth general
council. St. Sophronius sent this
learned epistle to pope Honorius
and to Sergius. This latter had, by a
crafty letter and captious
expressions, persuaded pope
Honorius to tolerate a silence as to
one or two wills in Christ. It is
evident from the most authentic
monuments, that Honorius never
assented to that error, but always
adhered to the truth. However, a
silence was ill-timed, and though not
so designed, might be deemed by
some a kind of connivance; for a
rising heresy seeks to carry on its
work under ground without noise: it
is a fire which spreads itself under
cover. Sophronius, seeing the
emperor and almost all the chief
prelates of the East conspire
against the truth, thought it his duty
to defend it with the greater zeal. He
took Stephen, bishop of Doria, the
eldest of his suffragans, led him to
Mount Calvary, and there adjured
him by Him who was crucified on
that place, and by the account
which he should give him at the last
day, "to go to the apostolic see,
where are the foundations of the
holy doctrine, and not to cease to
pray till the holy persons there
should examine and condemn the
novelty." Stephen did so, and
stayed at Rome ten years, till he
saw it condemned by pope Martin I.
in the council of Lateran, in 649.
Sophronius was detained at home
by the invasion of the Saracens.
Mahomet had broached his
impostures at Mecca, in 608, but
being rejected there, fled to Medina,
in 622. Aboubeker succeeded him
in 634 under the title of Caliph, or
vicar of the prophet. He died after a
reign of two years. Omar, his
successor, took Damascus in 636,
and after a siege of two years,
Jerusalem, in 638. He built a
mosque in the place of Solomon's
temple, and because it fell in the
night, the Jews told him it would not
stand unless the cross of Christ,
which stood on Mount Calvary, was
taken away: which the Caliph
caused to be done. Sophronius, in a
sermon on the exaltation of the
cross, mentions the custom of
taking the cross out of its case at
Mid-Lent to be venerated., Photius
takes notice that his works breathe
an affecting piety, but that the
Greek is not pure. They consist of
his synodal letter, his letter to pope
Honorius, and a small number of
scattered sermons. He deplored the
abomination of desolation set up by
the Mahomentans in the holy place.
God called him out of those evils to
his kingdom on the 11th of March,
639, or, as Papebroke thinks," in
644.
(Source: Butler's Lives of the
Saints)