The Acts of the Apostles: 12, 1-25
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THE MARTYRDOM OF ST.JAMES THE GREATER
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Now about that time Herod the king put forth his hands to afflict certain of the church
_______________________________§_____________________________
12:1Now about that time Herod the king put forth his hands to afflict certain of the church. 12:2And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 12:3And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. And those were the days of unleavened bread. 12:4And when he had taken him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to guard him; intending after the Passover to bring him forth to the people. 12:5Peter therefore was kept in the prison: but prayer was made earnestly of the church unto God for him. 12:6And when Herod was about to bring him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and guards before the door kept the prison. 12:7And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shined in the cell: and he smote Peter on the side, and awoke him, saying, Rise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. 12:8And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And he did so. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. 12:9And he went out, and followed; and he knew not that it was true which was done by the angel, but thought he saw a vision. 12:10And when they were past the first and the second guard, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth into the city; which opened to them of its own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and straightway the angel departed from him. 12:11And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a truth, that the Lord hath sent forth his angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews. 12:12And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John whose surname was Mark; where many were gathered together and were praying. 12:13And when he knocked at the door of the gate, a maid came to answer, named Rhoda. 12:14And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the gate for joy, but ran in, and told that Peter stood before the gate. 12:15And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she confidently affirmed that it was even so. And they said, It is his angel. 12:16But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened, they saw him, and were amazed. 12:17But he, beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him forth out of the prison. And he said, Tell these things unto James, and to the brethren. And he departed, and went to another place. 12:18Now as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers, what was become of Peter. 12:19And when Herod had sought for him, and found him not, he examined the guards, and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judaea to Caesarea, and tarried there. 12:20Now he was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: and they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was fed from the king's country. 12:21And upon a set day Herod arrayed himself in royal apparel, and sat on the throne, and made an oration unto them. 12:22And the people shouted, saying, The voice of a god, and not of a man. 12:23And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. 12:24But the word of God grew and multiplied. 12:25And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their ministration, taking with them John whose surname was Mark.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/acts-asv.html
http://groups.google.com/group/christianbiblestudies?hl=it
mercoledì 30 luglio 2008
ST.JAMES THE GREATER
WALDTRAUD
Philippians 4:19 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18 -
And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in
Christ Jesus.
...give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in
Christ Jesus.
____________________________________________________________________________
Lord, I am willing to -
Receive what you give,
Lack what you withhold,
Relinquish what you take.
<><><><><>
July 25th - St. James the Greater
(Hebrew Yakob; Septuagint Iakob; N.T. Greek Iakobos; a favourite name among
the
later Jews).
The son of Zebedee and Salome (Cf. Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40; 16:1). Zahn
asserts that Salome was the daughter of a priest. James is styled "the
Greater"
to distinguish him from the Apostle James "the Less", who was probably
shorter
of stature. We know nothing of St. James's early life. He was the brother of
John, the beloved disciple, and probably the elder of the two.
His parents seem to have been people of means as appears from the following
facts.
* Zebedee was a fisherman of the Lake of Galilee, who probably lived in
or
near Bethsaida (John 1:44), perhaps in Capharnaum; and had some boatmen or
hired
men as his usual attendants (Mark 1:20).
* Salome was one of the pious women who afterwards followed Christ and
"ministered unto him of their substance" (cf. Matthew 27:55, sq.; Mark
15:40;
16:1; Luke 8:2 sq.; 23:55-24:1).
* St. John was personally known to the high-priest (John 18:16); and
must
have had wherewithal to provide for the Mother of Jesus (John 19:27).
It is probable, according to Acts 4:13, that John (and consequently his
brother
James) had not received the technical training of the rabbinical schools; in
this sense they were unlearned and without any official position among the
Jews.
But, according to the social rank of their parents, they must have been men
of
ordinary education, in the common walks of Jewish life. They had frequent
opportunity of coming in contact with Greek life and language, which were
already widely spread along the shores of the Galilean Sea.
Relation of St. James to Jesus
Some authors, comparing John 19:25 with Matthew 28:56 and Mark 15:40,
identify,
and probably rightly so, Mary the Mother of James the Less and of Joseph in
Mark
and Matthew with "Mary of Cleophas" in John. As the name of Mary Magdalen
occurs
in the three lists, they identify further Salome in Mark with "the mother of
the
sons of Zebedee" in Matthew; finally they identify Salome with "his mother's
sister" in John. They suppose, for this last identification, that four women
are
designated by John 19:25; the Syriac "Peshito" gives the reading: "His
mother
and his mother's sister, and Mary of Cleophas and Mary Magdalen." If this
last
supposition is right, Salome was a sister of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and
James
the Greater and John were first cousins of the Lord; this may explain the
discipleship of the two brothers, Salome's request and their own claim to
the
first position in His kingdom, and His commendation of the Blessed Virgin to
her
own nephew. But it is doubtful whether the Greek admits of this construction
without the addition or the omission of kai (and). Thus the relationship of
St.
James to Jesus remains doubtful.
His life and apostolate
The Galilean origin of St. James in some degree explains the energy of
temper
and the vehemence of character which earned for him and St. John the name of
Boanerges, "sons of thunder" (Mark 3:17); the Galilean race was religious,
hardy, industrious, brave, and the strongest defender of the Jewish nation.
When John the Baptist proclaimed the kingdom of the Messias, St. John became
a
disciple (John 1:35); he was directed to "the Lamb of God" and afterwards
brought his brother James to the Messias; the obvious meaning of John 1:41,
is
that St. Andrew finds his brother (St. Peter) first and that afterwards St.
John
(who does not name himself, according to his habitual and characteristic
reserve
and silence about himself) finds his brother (St. James). The call of St.
James
to the discipleship of the Messias is reported in a parallel or identical
narration by Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:19 sq.; and Luke 5:1-11. The two sons
of
Zebedee, as well as Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew with whom they were
in
partnership (Luke 5:10), were called by the Lord upon the Sea of Galilee,
where
all four with Zebedee and his hired servants were engaged in their ordinary
occupation of fishing. The sons of Zebedee "forthwith left their nets and
father, and followed him" (Matthew 4:22), and became "fishers of men".
St. James was afterwards with the other eleven called to the Apostleship
(Matthew 10:1-4; Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:12-16; Acts 1:13). In all four lists
the
names of Peter and Andrew, James and John form the first group, a prominent
and
chosen group (cf. Mark 13:3); especially Peter, James, and John. These three
Apostles alone were admitted to be present at the miracle of the raising of
Jairus's daughter (Mark 5:37; Luke 8:51), at the Transfiguration (Mark 9:1;
Matthew 17:1; Luke 9:28), and the Agony in Gethsemani (Matthew 26:37; Mark
14:33). The fact that the name of James occurs always (except in Luke 8:51;
9:28; Acts 1:13 -- Greek Text) before that of his brother seems to imply
that
James was the elder of the two. It is worthy of notice that James is never
mentioned in theGospel of St. John; this author observes a humble reserve
not
only with regard to himself, but also about the members of his family.
Several incidents scattered through the Synoptics suggest that James and
John
had that particular character indicated by the name "Boanerges," sons of
thunder, given to them by the Lord (Mark 3:17); they were burning and
impetuous
in their evangelical zeal and severe in temper. The two brothers showed
their
fiery temperament against "a certain man casting out devils" in the name of
the
Christ; John, answering, said: "We [James is probably meant] forbade him,
because he followeth not with us" (Luke 9:49). When the Samaritans refused
to
receive Christ, James and John said: "Lord, wilt thou that we command fire
to
come down from heaven, and consume them?" (Luke 9:54; cf. 9:49).
His martyrdom
On the last journey to Jerusalem, their mother Salome came to the Lord and
said
to Him: "Say that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and
the
other on thy left, in thy kingdom" (Matthew 20:21). And the two brothers,
still
ignorant of the spiritual nature of the Messianic Kingdom, joined with their
mother in this eager ambition (Mark 10:37). And on their assertion that they
are
willing to drink the chalice that He drinks of, and to be baptized with the
baptism of His sufferings, Jesus assured them that they will share His
sufferings (Mark 5:38-39).
James won the crown of martyrdom fourteen years after this prophecy, A.D.
44.
Herod Agrippa I, son of Aristobulus and grandson of Herod the Great, reigned
at
that time as "king" over a wider dominion than that of his grandfather. His
great object was to please the Jews in every way, and he showed great regard
for
the Mosaic Law and Jewish customs. In pursuance of this policy, on the
occasion
of the Passover of A.D. 44, he perpetrated cruelties upon the Church, whose
rapid growth incensed the Jews. The zealous temper of James and his leading
part
in the Jewish Christian communities probably led Agrippa to choose him as
the
first victim. "He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword." (Acts
12:1-2). According to a tradition, which, as we learn from Eusebius (Hist.
Eccl., II, ix, 2, 3), was received from Clement of Alexandria (in the
seventh
book of his lost "Hypotyposes"), the accuser who led the Apostle to
judgment,
moved by his confession, became himself a Christian, and they were beheaded
together. As Clement testifies expressly that the account was given him "by
those who were before him," this tradition has a better foundation than many
other traditions and legends respecting the Apostolic labours and death of
St.
James, which are related in the Latin "Passio Jacobi Majoris", the Ethiopic
"Acts of James", and so on.
St. James in Spain
The tradition asserting that James the Greater preached the Gospel in Spain,
and
that his body was translated to Compostela, claims more serious
consideration.
According to this tradition St. James the Greater, having preached
Christianity
in Spain, returned to Judea and was put to death by order of Herod; his body
was
miraculously translated to Iria Flavia in the northwest of Spain, and later
to
Compostela, which town, especially during the Middle Ages, became one of the
most famous places of pilgrimage in the world. The vow of making a
pilgrimage to
Compostela to honour the sepulchre of St. James is still reserved to the
pope,
who alone of his own or ordinary right can dispense from it. In the twelfth
century was founded the Order of Knights of St. James of Compostela.
With regard to the preaching of the Gospel in Spain by St. James the
greater,
several difficulties have been raised:
* St. James suffered martyrdom A.D. 44 (Acts 12:2), and, according to
the
tradition of the early Church, he had not yet left Jerusalem at this time
(cf.
Clement of Alexandria, "Strom.", VI; Apollonius, quoted by Eusebius, "Hist.
Eccl." VI, xviii).
* St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans (A.D. 58) expressed the
intention to
visit Spain (Romans 15:24) just after he had mentioned (15:20) that he did
not
"build upon another man's foundation."
* The argument ex silentio: although the tradition that James founded an
Apostolic see in Spain was current in the year 700, no certain mention of
such
tradition is to be found in the genuine writings of early writers nor in the
early councils; the first certain mention we find in the ninth century, in
Notker, a monk of St. Gall (Martyrol., 25 July), Walafried Strabo (Poema de
XII
Apost.), and others.
* The tradition was not unanimously admitted afterwards, while numerous
scholars reject it. The Bollandists however defended it (see Acta Sanctorum,
July, VI and VII, where other sources are given).
The authenticity of the sacred relic of Compostela has been questioned and
is
still doubted. Even if St. James the Greater did not preach the Christian
religion in Spain, his body may have been brought to Compostela, and this
was
already the opinion of Notker. According to another tradition, the relics of
the
Apostle are kept in the church of St-Saturnin at Toulouse (France), but it
is
not improbable that such sacred relics should have been divided between two
churches. A strong argument in favour of the authenticity of the sacred
relics
of Compostela is the Bull of Leo XIII, "Omnipotens Deus," of 1 November,
1884.
From
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08279b.htm
Saint Quote:
Thou knowest well how to excuse and color thine own deeds; but thou art not
willing to receive the excuses of others. It were more just that thou
shouldest
accuse thyself, and excuse thy brother.
-Thomas à Kempis
Bible Quote:
"I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in
him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith" (Philippians 3:8-9)
<><><><>
St. Teresa's Bookmark
Let nothing disturb thee.
Let nothing affright thee.
All things are passing.
Only God is changeless.
Patience attaineth all things.
Whoever hath God
lacks for nothing.
God alone suffices!
St. Teresa of Avila
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.christian.campus-crusade/browse_frm/thread/73fa35a8ef47ea4f?hl=it#
Philippians 4:19 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18 -
And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in
Christ Jesus.
...give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in
Christ Jesus.
____________________________________________________________________________
Lord, I am willing to -
Receive what you give,
Lack what you withhold,
Relinquish what you take.
<><><><><>
July 25th - St. James the Greater
(Hebrew Yakob; Septuagint Iakob; N.T. Greek Iakobos; a favourite name among
the
later Jews).
The son of Zebedee and Salome (Cf. Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40; 16:1). Zahn
asserts that Salome was the daughter of a priest. James is styled "the
Greater"
to distinguish him from the Apostle James "the Less", who was probably
shorter
of stature. We know nothing of St. James's early life. He was the brother of
John, the beloved disciple, and probably the elder of the two.
His parents seem to have been people of means as appears from the following
facts.
* Zebedee was a fisherman of the Lake of Galilee, who probably lived in
or
near Bethsaida (John 1:44), perhaps in Capharnaum; and had some boatmen or
hired
men as his usual attendants (Mark 1:20).
* Salome was one of the pious women who afterwards followed Christ and
"ministered unto him of their substance" (cf. Matthew 27:55, sq.; Mark
15:40;
16:1; Luke 8:2 sq.; 23:55-24:1).
* St. John was personally known to the high-priest (John 18:16); and
must
have had wherewithal to provide for the Mother of Jesus (John 19:27).
It is probable, according to Acts 4:13, that John (and consequently his
brother
James) had not received the technical training of the rabbinical schools; in
this sense they were unlearned and without any official position among the
Jews.
But, according to the social rank of their parents, they must have been men
of
ordinary education, in the common walks of Jewish life. They had frequent
opportunity of coming in contact with Greek life and language, which were
already widely spread along the shores of the Galilean Sea.
Relation of St. James to Jesus
Some authors, comparing John 19:25 with Matthew 28:56 and Mark 15:40,
identify,
and probably rightly so, Mary the Mother of James the Less and of Joseph in
Mark
and Matthew with "Mary of Cleophas" in John. As the name of Mary Magdalen
occurs
in the three lists, they identify further Salome in Mark with "the mother of
the
sons of Zebedee" in Matthew; finally they identify Salome with "his mother's
sister" in John. They suppose, for this last identification, that four women
are
designated by John 19:25; the Syriac "Peshito" gives the reading: "His
mother
and his mother's sister, and Mary of Cleophas and Mary Magdalen." If this
last
supposition is right, Salome was a sister of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and
James
the Greater and John were first cousins of the Lord; this may explain the
discipleship of the two brothers, Salome's request and their own claim to
the
first position in His kingdom, and His commendation of the Blessed Virgin to
her
own nephew. But it is doubtful whether the Greek admits of this construction
without the addition or the omission of kai (and). Thus the relationship of
St.
James to Jesus remains doubtful.
His life and apostolate
The Galilean origin of St. James in some degree explains the energy of
temper
and the vehemence of character which earned for him and St. John the name of
Boanerges, "sons of thunder" (Mark 3:17); the Galilean race was religious,
hardy, industrious, brave, and the strongest defender of the Jewish nation.
When John the Baptist proclaimed the kingdom of the Messias, St. John became
a
disciple (John 1:35); he was directed to "the Lamb of God" and afterwards
brought his brother James to the Messias; the obvious meaning of John 1:41,
is
that St. Andrew finds his brother (St. Peter) first and that afterwards St.
John
(who does not name himself, according to his habitual and characteristic
reserve
and silence about himself) finds his brother (St. James). The call of St.
James
to the discipleship of the Messias is reported in a parallel or identical
narration by Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:19 sq.; and Luke 5:1-11. The two sons
of
Zebedee, as well as Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew with whom they were
in
partnership (Luke 5:10), were called by the Lord upon the Sea of Galilee,
where
all four with Zebedee and his hired servants were engaged in their ordinary
occupation of fishing. The sons of Zebedee "forthwith left their nets and
father, and followed him" (Matthew 4:22), and became "fishers of men".
St. James was afterwards with the other eleven called to the Apostleship
(Matthew 10:1-4; Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:12-16; Acts 1:13). In all four lists
the
names of Peter and Andrew, James and John form the first group, a prominent
and
chosen group (cf. Mark 13:3); especially Peter, James, and John. These three
Apostles alone were admitted to be present at the miracle of the raising of
Jairus's daughter (Mark 5:37; Luke 8:51), at the Transfiguration (Mark 9:1;
Matthew 17:1; Luke 9:28), and the Agony in Gethsemani (Matthew 26:37; Mark
14:33). The fact that the name of James occurs always (except in Luke 8:51;
9:28; Acts 1:13 -- Greek Text) before that of his brother seems to imply
that
James was the elder of the two. It is worthy of notice that James is never
mentioned in theGospel of St. John; this author observes a humble reserve
not
only with regard to himself, but also about the members of his family.
Several incidents scattered through the Synoptics suggest that James and
John
had that particular character indicated by the name "Boanerges," sons of
thunder, given to them by the Lord (Mark 3:17); they were burning and
impetuous
in their evangelical zeal and severe in temper. The two brothers showed
their
fiery temperament against "a certain man casting out devils" in the name of
the
Christ; John, answering, said: "We [James is probably meant] forbade him,
because he followeth not with us" (Luke 9:49). When the Samaritans refused
to
receive Christ, James and John said: "Lord, wilt thou that we command fire
to
come down from heaven, and consume them?" (Luke 9:54; cf. 9:49).
His martyrdom
On the last journey to Jerusalem, their mother Salome came to the Lord and
said
to Him: "Say that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and
the
other on thy left, in thy kingdom" (Matthew 20:21). And the two brothers,
still
ignorant of the spiritual nature of the Messianic Kingdom, joined with their
mother in this eager ambition (Mark 10:37). And on their assertion that they
are
willing to drink the chalice that He drinks of, and to be baptized with the
baptism of His sufferings, Jesus assured them that they will share His
sufferings (Mark 5:38-39).
James won the crown of martyrdom fourteen years after this prophecy, A.D.
44.
Herod Agrippa I, son of Aristobulus and grandson of Herod the Great, reigned
at
that time as "king" over a wider dominion than that of his grandfather. His
great object was to please the Jews in every way, and he showed great regard
for
the Mosaic Law and Jewish customs. In pursuance of this policy, on the
occasion
of the Passover of A.D. 44, he perpetrated cruelties upon the Church, whose
rapid growth incensed the Jews. The zealous temper of James and his leading
part
in the Jewish Christian communities probably led Agrippa to choose him as
the
first victim. "He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword." (Acts
12:1-2). According to a tradition, which, as we learn from Eusebius (Hist.
Eccl., II, ix, 2, 3), was received from Clement of Alexandria (in the
seventh
book of his lost "Hypotyposes"), the accuser who led the Apostle to
judgment,
moved by his confession, became himself a Christian, and they were beheaded
together. As Clement testifies expressly that the account was given him "by
those who were before him," this tradition has a better foundation than many
other traditions and legends respecting the Apostolic labours and death of
St.
James, which are related in the Latin "Passio Jacobi Majoris", the Ethiopic
"Acts of James", and so on.
St. James in Spain
The tradition asserting that James the Greater preached the Gospel in Spain,
and
that his body was translated to Compostela, claims more serious
consideration.
According to this tradition St. James the Greater, having preached
Christianity
in Spain, returned to Judea and was put to death by order of Herod; his body
was
miraculously translated to Iria Flavia in the northwest of Spain, and later
to
Compostela, which town, especially during the Middle Ages, became one of the
most famous places of pilgrimage in the world. The vow of making a
pilgrimage to
Compostela to honour the sepulchre of St. James is still reserved to the
pope,
who alone of his own or ordinary right can dispense from it. In the twelfth
century was founded the Order of Knights of St. James of Compostela.
With regard to the preaching of the Gospel in Spain by St. James the
greater,
several difficulties have been raised:
* St. James suffered martyrdom A.D. 44 (Acts 12:2), and, according to
the
tradition of the early Church, he had not yet left Jerusalem at this time
(cf.
Clement of Alexandria, "Strom.", VI; Apollonius, quoted by Eusebius, "Hist.
Eccl." VI, xviii).
* St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans (A.D. 58) expressed the
intention to
visit Spain (Romans 15:24) just after he had mentioned (15:20) that he did
not
"build upon another man's foundation."
* The argument ex silentio: although the tradition that James founded an
Apostolic see in Spain was current in the year 700, no certain mention of
such
tradition is to be found in the genuine writings of early writers nor in the
early councils; the first certain mention we find in the ninth century, in
Notker, a monk of St. Gall (Martyrol., 25 July), Walafried Strabo (Poema de
XII
Apost.), and others.
* The tradition was not unanimously admitted afterwards, while numerous
scholars reject it. The Bollandists however defended it (see Acta Sanctorum,
July, VI and VII, where other sources are given).
The authenticity of the sacred relic of Compostela has been questioned and
is
still doubted. Even if St. James the Greater did not preach the Christian
religion in Spain, his body may have been brought to Compostela, and this
was
already the opinion of Notker. According to another tradition, the relics of
the
Apostle are kept in the church of St-Saturnin at Toulouse (France), but it
is
not improbable that such sacred relics should have been divided between two
churches. A strong argument in favour of the authenticity of the sacred
relics
of Compostela is the Bull of Leo XIII, "Omnipotens Deus," of 1 November,
1884.
From
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08279b.htm
Saint Quote:
Thou knowest well how to excuse and color thine own deeds; but thou art not
willing to receive the excuses of others. It were more just that thou
shouldest
accuse thyself, and excuse thy brother.
-Thomas à Kempis
Bible Quote:
"I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in
him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith" (Philippians 3:8-9)
<><><><>
St. Teresa's Bookmark
Let nothing disturb thee.
Let nothing affright thee.
All things are passing.
Only God is changeless.
Patience attaineth all things.
Whoever hath God
lacks for nothing.
God alone suffices!
St. Teresa of Avila
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.christian.campus-crusade/browse_frm/thread/73fa35a8ef47ea4f?hl=it#
ST.MARTHA OF BETHANY
St. Martha
Virgin (First Century)
Martha was the sister of Mary of Bethany. We know only what we read about her in the Gospels of Luke and John. Whatever is said about her early life comes to us from apocryphal writings which usually are no more than the work of somebody's imagination. We know that she busied herself preparing a meal for Jesus and his disciples, then went to Jesus to complain that Mary did nothing while she had to do all the housework. It was at that time Jesus reminder her that Mary had chosen "the best part".
We see her again when, at the tomb of her brother Lazarus, she pronounces those profound words of faith which have come into our funeral liturgy: "I know He will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus told her: "I am the resurrection and the life: whoever believes in me, though he should die, will come to life;...Do you believe this?" "Yes Lord", she replied, "I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God; he who is to come into the world."
The cult of St. Martha began about the year 1200. Where or how she died we do not know. Whether hers was a matyr's death or a natural one we do not know. We do know that she is our patroness for whom Jesus was like family, and therefore, a powerful one in the presence of God. Because she took care of the hungry, followers of Jesus traditionally know her as the Patroness of housewives, waiters, and waitresses. Let us follow her example in caring for our homeless, poor, HIV sufferers among us! If we were up in the cool North, we would probably be enjoying a bazaar or a fair, but because of our sweltering heat our Patroness' feast will be celebrated only in our hearts, in our prayers, and in our re-commitment to the needy. Let us pray to her for the needs of the parish and for our own personal needs, material and spiritual. The Prayer to St. Martha is:
'St. Martha, I resort to thy protection and aid and as a proof of my affection and faith I offer this light which I shall burn every Tuesday. Comfort me in all my difficulties and through the great favor thou didst enjoy when the Savior was lodged in thy house,. Intercede for my family that we may always hold God in our hearts, and that we may be provided for in all our necessities, I ask, St. Martha, to overcome all difficulties as thou didst overcome the dragon at thy feet.'
As a Novena, this may be said for nine Tuesdays with the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be to the Father."
Father Fausto Stampiglia, STD, S.A.C. in St. Martha's Sunday Bulletin of 28 July 1996
http://www.stmartha.org/St.%20Martha.htm
Virgin (First Century)
Martha was the sister of Mary of Bethany. We know only what we read about her in the Gospels of Luke and John. Whatever is said about her early life comes to us from apocryphal writings which usually are no more than the work of somebody's imagination. We know that she busied herself preparing a meal for Jesus and his disciples, then went to Jesus to complain that Mary did nothing while she had to do all the housework. It was at that time Jesus reminder her that Mary had chosen "the best part".
We see her again when, at the tomb of her brother Lazarus, she pronounces those profound words of faith which have come into our funeral liturgy: "I know He will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus told her: "I am the resurrection and the life: whoever believes in me, though he should die, will come to life;...Do you believe this?" "Yes Lord", she replied, "I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God; he who is to come into the world."
The cult of St. Martha began about the year 1200. Where or how she died we do not know. Whether hers was a matyr's death or a natural one we do not know. We do know that she is our patroness for whom Jesus was like family, and therefore, a powerful one in the presence of God. Because she took care of the hungry, followers of Jesus traditionally know her as the Patroness of housewives, waiters, and waitresses. Let us follow her example in caring for our homeless, poor, HIV sufferers among us! If we were up in the cool North, we would probably be enjoying a bazaar or a fair, but because of our sweltering heat our Patroness' feast will be celebrated only in our hearts, in our prayers, and in our re-commitment to the needy. Let us pray to her for the needs of the parish and for our own personal needs, material and spiritual. The Prayer to St. Martha is:
'St. Martha, I resort to thy protection and aid and as a proof of my affection and faith I offer this light which I shall burn every Tuesday. Comfort me in all my difficulties and through the great favor thou didst enjoy when the Savior was lodged in thy house,. Intercede for my family that we may always hold God in our hearts, and that we may be provided for in all our necessities, I ask, St. Martha, to overcome all difficulties as thou didst overcome the dragon at thy feet.'
As a Novena, this may be said for nine Tuesdays with the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be to the Father."
Father Fausto Stampiglia, STD, S.A.C. in St. Martha's Sunday Bulletin of 28 July 1996
http://www.stmartha.org/St.%20Martha.htm
venerdì 11 luglio 2008
ST.BENEDICT
ST. BENEDICT
Abbot and Patriarch of the Western Monks
JULY 11
A.D. 543
ST. BENEDICT, or BENNET, was a native of Norcia, formerly an episcopal see in Umbria, and was descended from a family of note and born about the year 480. The name of his father was Eutropius, and that of his grandfather, Justinian. When he was fit for the higher studies, he was sent by his parents to Rome and there placed in the public schools. He, who till that time knew not what vice was and trembled at the shadow of sin, was not a little shocked at the licentiousness which he observed in the conduct of some of the Roman youth, with whom he was obliged to converse; and he was no sooner come into the world, but he resolved to bid an eternal farewell to it, not to be entangled in its snares. He therefore left the city privately and made the best of his way towards the deserts. His nurse, Cyrilla, who loved him tenderly, followed him as far as Afilum, thirty miles from Rome, where he found means to get rid of her and pursued his journey alone to the desert mountains of Sublacum, near forty miles from Rome. It is a barren, hideous chain of rocks, with a river and lake in the valley. Near this place the saint met a monk of a neighboring monastery, called Romanus, who gave him the monastic habit, with suitable instructions, and conducted him to a deep narrow cave in the midst of these mountains, almost inaccessible to men. In this cavern, now called the Holy Grotto, the young hermit chose his abode and Romanus, who kept his secret, brought him hither, from time to time, bread and the like slender provisions, which he retrenched from his own meals, and let them down to the holy recluse with a line, hanging a bell to the cord to give him notice. Bennet seems to have been about fourteen or fifteen years old when he came to Sublacum; St. Gregory says he was yet a child. He lived three years in this manner, known only to Romanus. But God was pleased to manifest his servant to men, that he might shine forth as a light to many. In 497, a certain pious priest in that country, while he was preparing a dinner for himself on Easter-Sunday, heard a voice which said, "You are preparing for yourself a banquet, while my servant Bennet, at Sublacum, is distressed with hunger." The priest immediately set out in quest of the hermit and with much difficulty found him out. Bennet was surprised to see a man come to him; but before he would enter into conversation with him, he desired they might pray together. They then discoursed for some time on God and heavenly things. At length the priest invited the saint to eat, saying it was Easter-day, on which it is not reasonable to fast; though St. Bennet answered him that he knew not that it was the day of so great a solemnity, nor is it to be wondered at that one so young should not be acquainted with the day of a festival which was not then observed by all on the same day, or that he should not understand the Lunar Cycle, which at that time was known by very few. After their repast the priest returned home. Soon after certain shepherds discovered the saint near his cave, but at first took him for a wild beast; for he was clad with the skins of beasts, and they imagined no human creature could live among those rocks. When they found him to be a servant of God, they respected him exceedingly, and many of them were moved by his heavenly discourses to embrace with fervor a course of perfection. From that time he began to be known, and many visited him and brought him such sustenance as he would accept, in requital for which he nourished their souls with spiritual instructions. Though he lived sequestered from the world, he was not yet secure from the assaults of the tempter. Wherever we fly the devil still pursues us, and we carry a domestic enemy within our own breasts. St. Gregory relates that while St. Bennet was employed in divine contemplation, the fiend endeavored to withdraw his mind from heavenly objects by appearing in the shape of a little black-bird; but that, upon his making the sign of the cross, the phantom vanished. After this, by the artifices of this restless enemy, the remembrance of a woman whom the saint had formerly seen at Rome occurred to his mind and so strongly affected his imagination that he was tempted to leave his desert. But blushing at so base a suggestion of the enemy, he threw himself upon some briers and nettles which grew in the place where he was, and rolled himself a long time in them, till his body was covered with blood. The wounds of his body stifled all inordinate inclinations, and their smart extinguished the flame of concupiscence. This complete victory seemed to have perfectly subdued that enemy; for he found himself no more molested with its stings.
The fame of his sanctity being spread abroad, it occasioned several to forsake the world and imitate his penitential manner of life. Some time after, the monks of Vicovara, on the death of their abbot, pitched upon him to succeed him. He was very unwilling to take upon him that charge, which he declined in the spirit of sincere humility, the beloved virtue which he had practiced from his infancy, and which was the pleasure of his heart, and is the delight of a God humbled even to the cross for the love of us. The saint soon found by experience that their manners did not square with his just idea of a monastic state. Certain sons of Belial among them carried their aversion so far as to mingle poison with his wine; but when, according to his custom, before he drank of it he made the sign of the cross over the glass, it broke as if a stone had fallen upon it. "God forgive you, brethren," said the saint, with his usual meekness and tranquillity of soul, "you now see I was not mistaken when I told you that your manners and mine would not agree." He therefore returned to Sublacum, which desert he soon peopled with monks, for whom he built twelve monasteries, placing in each twelve monks with a superior. 1 In one of these twelve monasteries there lived a monk, who, out of sloth, neglected and loathed the holy exercise of mental prayer, inasmuch that after the psalmody or divine office was finished, he every day left the church to go to work, while his brethren were employed in that holy exercise; for by this private prayer in the church, after the divine office, St. Gregory means pious meditation, as Dom. Mege demonstrates. This slothful monk began to correct his fault upon the charitable admonition of Pompeian, his superior; but, after three days, [he] relapsed into his former sloth. Pompeian acquainted St. Benedict, who said, "I will go and correct him myself." Such indeed was the danger and enormity of this fault as to require the most effectual and speedy remedy. For it is only by assiduous prayer that the soul is enriched with the abundance of the heavenly water of divine graces, which produces in her the plentiful fruit of all virtues. If we consider the example of all the saints, we shall see that prayer was the principal means by which the Holy Ghost sanctified their souls, and that they advanced in perfection in proportion to their progress in the holy spirit of prayer. If this be neglected, the soul becomes spiritually barren, as a garden loses all its fruitfulness and all its beauty, if the pump raises not up a continual supply of water, the principle of both. St. Benedict, deploring the misfortune and blindness of this monk, hastened to his monastery and coming to him at the end of the divine office, saw a little black boy leading him by the sleeve out of the church. After two days' prayer, St. Maurus saw the same, but Pompeian could not see this vision, by which was represented that the devil studies to withdraw men from prayer, in order that, being disarmed and defenseless, they may easily be made a prey. On the third day, St. Benedict finding the monk still absent from church in the time of prayer, struck him with a wand, and by that correction the sinner was freed from the temptation. Dom. German Millet tells us, from the tradition and archives of the monastery of St. Scholastica, that this happened in St. Jerome's. In the monastery of St. John, a fountain sprung up at the prayers of the saint; this, and two other monasteries, which were built on the summit of the mountain, being before much distressed for want of water. In that of St. Clement, situated on the bank of a lake, a Goth, who was a monk, let fall the head of a sickle into the water as he was cutting down thistles and weeds in order to make a garden, but St. Maur, who with St. Placidus lived in that house, holding the wooden handle in the water, the iron of its own accord swam, and joined it again, as St. Gregory relates. St. Benedict's reputation drew the most illustrious personages from Rome and other remote parts to see him. Many, who came clad in purple, sparkling with gold and precious stones, charmed with the admirable sanctity of the servant of God, prostrated themselves at his feet to beg his blessing and prayers, and some, imitating the sacrifice of Abraham, placed their sons under his conduct in their most tender age, that they might be formed to perfect virtue from their childhood. Among others, two rich and most illustrious senators, Eutychius, or rather Equitius, and Tertullus, committed to his care their two sons Maurus, then twelve years old, and Placidus, also a child, in 522. 2 The devil, envying so much good, stirred up his wicked instruments to disturb the tranquillity of the servant of God. Florentius, a priest in the neighboring country, though unworthy to bear that sacred character, moved by a secret jealousy, persecuted the saint, and aspersed his reputation with grievous slanders. Bennet, being a true disciple of Christ, knew no revenge but that of meekness and silence and, not to inflame the envy of his adversary, left Sublacum and repaired to Mount Cassino. He had not gotten far on his journey when he heard that Florentius was killed by the fall of a gallery in which he was. The saint was much afflicted at his sudden and unhappy death and enjoined Maurus a penance for calling it a deliverance from persecution. Cassino is a small town, now in the kingdom of Naples, built on the brow of a very high mountain, on the top of which stood an old temple of Apollo surrounded with a grove in which certain idolaters still continued to offer their abominable sacrifices. The man of God having, by his preaching and miracles, converted many of them to the faith, broke the idol to pieces, overthrew the altar, demolished the temple, and cut down the grove. Upon the ruins of which temple and altar he erected two oratories or chapels; one bore the name of St. John the Baptist, the other of St. Martin. This was the origin of the celebrated abbey of Mount Cassino, the foundation of which the saint laid in 529, the forty-eighth year of his age, the third of the emperor Justinian -- Felix IV being pope, and Athalaric king of the Goths in Italy. The patrician, Tertullus, came about that time to pay a visit to the saint and to see his son Placidus, and made over to this monastery several lands which he possessed in that neighborhood and also a considerable estate in Sicily. St. Bennet met on Mount Cassino one Martin, a venerable old hermit, who, to confine himself to a more austere solitude, had chained himself to the ground in his cell, with a long iron chain. The holy abbot, fearing this singularity might be a mark of affectation, said to him: "If you are a servant of Jesus Christ, let the chain of his love, not one of iron, hold you fixed in your resolution." Martin gave proof of his humility by his obedience and immediately laid aside his chain. St. Bennet governed also a monastery of nuns, situated near Mount Cassino, as is mentioned by St. Gregory; he founded an abbey of men at Terracina and sent St. Placidus into Sicily to establish another in that island. Though ignorant of secular learning, he was eminently replenished with the Spirit of God and an experimental science of spiritual things -- on which account he is said by St. Gregory the Great to have been "learnedly ignorant and wisely unfettered." For the alphabet of this great man is infinitely more desirable than all the empty science of the world, as St. Arsenius said of St. Antony. From certain very ancient pictures of St. Benedict, and old inscriptions, Mabillon proves this saint to have been in holy orders and a deacon. Several moderns say he was a priest but, as Muratori observes, without grounds. By the account which St. Gregory has given us of his life, it appears that he preached sometimes in neighboring places, and that a boundless charity opening his hand, he distributed among the needy all that he had on earth, to lay up his whole treasure in heaven. St. Bennet, possessing perfectly the science of the saints and being enabled by the Holy Ghost to be the guide of innumerable souls in the most sublime paths of Christian perfection, compiled a monastic rule, which, for wisdom and discretion, St. Gregory the Great preferred to all other rules, and which was afterwards adopted, for some time, by all the monks of the West. It is principally founded on silence, solitude, prayer, humility, and obedience.
St. Bennet calls his Order a school in which men learn how to serve God; and his life was to his disciples a perfect model for their imitation and a transcript of his rule. Being chosen by God, like another Moses, to conduct faithful souls into the true promised land, the kingdom of heaven, he was enriched with eminent supernatural gifts, even those of miracles and prophecy. He seemed, like another Eliseus, endued by God with an extraordinary power, commanding all nature and, like the ancient prophets, foreseeing future events. He often raised the sinking courage of his monks and baffled the various artifices of the devil with the sign of the cross, rendered the heaviest stone light in building his monastery by a short prayer, and, in presence of a multitude of people, raised to life a novice who had been crushed by the fall of a wall at Mount Cassino. He foretold, with many tears, that this monastery should be profaned and destroyed, which happened forty years after, when the Lombards demolished it about the year 580. He added that he had scarce been able to obtain of God that the inhabitants should be saved. It was strictly forbidden by the rule of St. Benedict for any monk to eat out of his monastery, unless he was at such a distance that he could not return home that day, and this rule, says Saint Gregory, was inviolably observed. Indeed, nothing more dangerously engages monks in the commerce of the world; nothing more enervates the discipline of abstinence and mortification than for them to eat and drink with seculars abroad. St. Gregory tells us that St. Bennet knew by revelation the fault of one of his monks who had accepted of an invitation to take some refreshment when he was abroad on business. A messenger who brought the saint a present of two bottles of wine, and had hid one of them, was put in mind by him to beware of drinking of the other, in which he afterwards found a serpent. One of the monks, after preaching to the nuns, had accepted of some handkerchiefs from them, which he hid in his bosom; but the saint, upon his return, reproved him for his secret sin against the rule of holy poverty. A novice, standing before him, was tempted with thoughts of pride on account of his birth; the saint discovered what passed in his soul and bid him make the sign of the cross on his breast.
When Belisarius, the emperor's general, was recalled to Constantinople, Totila, the Arian king of the Goths, invaded and plundered Italy. Having heard wonders of the sanctity of St. Bennet and of his predictions and miracles, he resolved to try whether he was really that wonderful man which he was reported to be. Therefore, as he marched through Campania, in 542, he sent the man of God word that he would pay him a visit. But instead of going in person, he dressed one of his courtiers, named Riggo, in his royal purple robes, and sent him to the monastery, attended by the three principal lords of his court and a numerous train of pages. St. Bennet, who was then sitting, saw him coming to his cell and cried out to him at some distance: "Put off, my son, those robes which you wear and which belong not to you." The mock king, being struck with a panic for having attempted to impose upon the man of God, fell prostrate at his feet, together with all his attendants. The saint, coming up, raised him with his hand; and the officer returning to his master, related trembling what had befallen him. The king then went himself, but was no sooner come into the presence of the holy abbot but he threw himself on the ground and continued prostrate till the saint, going to him, obliged him to rise. The holy man severely reproved him for the outrages he had committed, and said, "You do a great deal of mischief, and I foresee you will do more. You will take Rome; you will cross the sea, and will reign nine years longer; but death will overtake you in the tenth, when you shall be arraigned before a just God to give an account of your conduct." All which came to pass as St. Benedict had foretold him. Totila was seized with fear and recommended himself to his prayers. From that day the tyrant became more humane; and when he took Naples, shortly after, treated the captives with greater lenity than could be expected from an enemy and a barbarian. When the bishop of Camusa afterwards said to that saint that Totila would leave Rome a heap of stones, and that it would be no longer inhabited, he answered: "No; but it shall be beaten with storms and earthquakes and shall be like a tree which withers by the decay of its root." Which prediction St. Gregory observes to have been accomplished.
The death of this great saint seems to have happened soon after that of his sister St. Scholastica, and in the year after his interview with Totila. He foretold it his disciples and caused his grave to be opened six days before. When this was done he fell ill of a fever and on the sixth day would be carried into the chapel, where he received the body and blood of our Lord, and having given his last instructions to his sorrowful disciples, standing and leaning on one of them, with his hands lifted up, he calmly expired, in prayer, on Saturday, the 21st of March, probably in the year 543, and of his age the sixty-third, having spent fourteen years at Mount Cassino. The greatest part of his relics remains still in that abbey; though some of his bones were brought into France, about the close of the seventh century, and deposited in the famous abbey of Fleury, which, on that account, has long borne the name of St. Bennet's on the Loire. 3 It was founded in the reign of Clovis II, about the year 640, and belongs at present to the congregation of St. Maur.
St. Gregory, in two words, expresses the characteristic virtue of this glorious patriarch of the monastic order, when he says that, returning from Vicovara to Sublaco, he dwelt alone with himself; which words comprise a great and rare perfection, in which consists the essence of holy retirement. A soul dwells not in true solitude unless this be interior as well as exterior, and unless she cultivates no acquaintance but with God and herself, admitting no other company. Many dwell in monasteries, or alone, without possessing the secret of living with themselves. Though they are removed from the conversation of the world, their minds still rove abroad, wandering from the consideration of God and themselves, and dissipated amid a thousand exterior objects which their imagination presents to them, and which they suffer to captivate their hearts and miserably entangle their will with vain attachments and foolish desires. Interior solitude requires the silence of the interior faculties of the soul, no less than of the tongue and exterior senses; without this, the enclosure of walls is a very weak fence. In this interior solitude, the soul collects all her faculties within herself, employs all her thoughts on herself and on God, and all her strength and affections in aspiring after him. Thus, St. Benedict dwelt with himself, being always busied in the presence of his Creator, in bewailing the spiritual miseries of his soul and past sins, in examining into the disorders of his affections, in watching over his senses and the motions of his heart, and in a constant attention to the perfection of his state, and the contemplation of divine things. This last occupied his soul in the sweet exercises of divine love and praise, but the first-mentioned exercises, or the consideration of himself and of his own nothingness and miseries, laid the foundation by improving in him continually the most profound spirit of humility and compunction. The twelve degrees of humility, which he lays down in his Rule, are commended by St. Thomas Aquinas. The first is a deep compunction of heart and holy fear of God and his judgments, with a constant attention to walk in the divine presence, sunk under the weight of this confusion and fear. 2. The perfect renunciation of our own will. 3. Ready obedience. 4. Patience under all sufferings and injuries. 5. The manifestation of our thoughts and designs to our superior or director. 6. To be content and to rejoice in all humiliations; to be pleased with mean employments, poor clothes, &c., to love simplicity and poverty (which he will have among monks, to be extended even to the ornaments of the altar), and to judge ourselves unworthy and bad servants in everything that is enjoined us. 7. Sincerely to esteem ourselves baser and more unworthy than every one, even the greatest sinners. 4 8. To avoid all love of singularity in words or actions. 9. To love and practice silence. 10. To avoid dissolute mirth and loud laughter. 11. Never to speak with a loud voice, and to be modest in our words. 12. To be humble in all our exterior actions, by keeping our eyes humbly cast down with the publican, and the penitent Manasses. St. Benedict adds that divine love is the sublime recompense of sincere humility, and promises, upon the warrant of the divine word, that God will raise that soul to perfect charity which, faithfully walking in these twelve degrees, shall have happily learned true humility. Elsewhere he calls obedience without delay the first degree of humility, but means the first among the exterior degrees; for he places before it interior compunction of soul, and the renunciation of our own will.
From St. Gregory, (Dial. 1. 2, c. 1) who assures us that he received his account of this saint from four abbots, the saint's disciples: namely, Constantine, his successor at Monte Cassino; Simplicius, third abbot of that house; Valentinian, the first abbot of the monastery of Lateran; and Honoratus, who succeeded St. Benedict at Subiaco. See the remarks of Mabillon, Annal. sent l. 1, p. 3, and l. 2, p. 38, and Act. Sanct. Bened. t. 1, p. 80. Also Dom. Mege, Vie de St. Benoit, avec une Histoire Abr�g�e de son Ordre in 4to. An. 1690. Haeften's Disquisitions, and abbot Steingelts abridgment of the same and Ziegel bauer and Legipont, Historia Literaria Ord. S. Benedicti, Ann. 1754, t. 1, p. 3, and principally t. 3, p. 2.
From Butler's Lives of the Saints on CD-ROM (Harmony Media Inc., Salem, OR)
The St. Benedict Medal
http://www.stbenedictchapel.org/lives/benedict.html
Abbot and Patriarch of the Western Monks
JULY 11
A.D. 543
ST. BENEDICT, or BENNET, was a native of Norcia, formerly an episcopal see in Umbria, and was descended from a family of note and born about the year 480. The name of his father was Eutropius, and that of his grandfather, Justinian. When he was fit for the higher studies, he was sent by his parents to Rome and there placed in the public schools. He, who till that time knew not what vice was and trembled at the shadow of sin, was not a little shocked at the licentiousness which he observed in the conduct of some of the Roman youth, with whom he was obliged to converse; and he was no sooner come into the world, but he resolved to bid an eternal farewell to it, not to be entangled in its snares. He therefore left the city privately and made the best of his way towards the deserts. His nurse, Cyrilla, who loved him tenderly, followed him as far as Afilum, thirty miles from Rome, where he found means to get rid of her and pursued his journey alone to the desert mountains of Sublacum, near forty miles from Rome. It is a barren, hideous chain of rocks, with a river and lake in the valley. Near this place the saint met a monk of a neighboring monastery, called Romanus, who gave him the monastic habit, with suitable instructions, and conducted him to a deep narrow cave in the midst of these mountains, almost inaccessible to men. In this cavern, now called the Holy Grotto, the young hermit chose his abode and Romanus, who kept his secret, brought him hither, from time to time, bread and the like slender provisions, which he retrenched from his own meals, and let them down to the holy recluse with a line, hanging a bell to the cord to give him notice. Bennet seems to have been about fourteen or fifteen years old when he came to Sublacum; St. Gregory says he was yet a child. He lived three years in this manner, known only to Romanus. But God was pleased to manifest his servant to men, that he might shine forth as a light to many. In 497, a certain pious priest in that country, while he was preparing a dinner for himself on Easter-Sunday, heard a voice which said, "You are preparing for yourself a banquet, while my servant Bennet, at Sublacum, is distressed with hunger." The priest immediately set out in quest of the hermit and with much difficulty found him out. Bennet was surprised to see a man come to him; but before he would enter into conversation with him, he desired they might pray together. They then discoursed for some time on God and heavenly things. At length the priest invited the saint to eat, saying it was Easter-day, on which it is not reasonable to fast; though St. Bennet answered him that he knew not that it was the day of so great a solemnity, nor is it to be wondered at that one so young should not be acquainted with the day of a festival which was not then observed by all on the same day, or that he should not understand the Lunar Cycle, which at that time was known by very few. After their repast the priest returned home. Soon after certain shepherds discovered the saint near his cave, but at first took him for a wild beast; for he was clad with the skins of beasts, and they imagined no human creature could live among those rocks. When they found him to be a servant of God, they respected him exceedingly, and many of them were moved by his heavenly discourses to embrace with fervor a course of perfection. From that time he began to be known, and many visited him and brought him such sustenance as he would accept, in requital for which he nourished their souls with spiritual instructions. Though he lived sequestered from the world, he was not yet secure from the assaults of the tempter. Wherever we fly the devil still pursues us, and we carry a domestic enemy within our own breasts. St. Gregory relates that while St. Bennet was employed in divine contemplation, the fiend endeavored to withdraw his mind from heavenly objects by appearing in the shape of a little black-bird; but that, upon his making the sign of the cross, the phantom vanished. After this, by the artifices of this restless enemy, the remembrance of a woman whom the saint had formerly seen at Rome occurred to his mind and so strongly affected his imagination that he was tempted to leave his desert. But blushing at so base a suggestion of the enemy, he threw himself upon some briers and nettles which grew in the place where he was, and rolled himself a long time in them, till his body was covered with blood. The wounds of his body stifled all inordinate inclinations, and their smart extinguished the flame of concupiscence. This complete victory seemed to have perfectly subdued that enemy; for he found himself no more molested with its stings.
The fame of his sanctity being spread abroad, it occasioned several to forsake the world and imitate his penitential manner of life. Some time after, the monks of Vicovara, on the death of their abbot, pitched upon him to succeed him. He was very unwilling to take upon him that charge, which he declined in the spirit of sincere humility, the beloved virtue which he had practiced from his infancy, and which was the pleasure of his heart, and is the delight of a God humbled even to the cross for the love of us. The saint soon found by experience that their manners did not square with his just idea of a monastic state. Certain sons of Belial among them carried their aversion so far as to mingle poison with his wine; but when, according to his custom, before he drank of it he made the sign of the cross over the glass, it broke as if a stone had fallen upon it. "God forgive you, brethren," said the saint, with his usual meekness and tranquillity of soul, "you now see I was not mistaken when I told you that your manners and mine would not agree." He therefore returned to Sublacum, which desert he soon peopled with monks, for whom he built twelve monasteries, placing in each twelve monks with a superior. 1 In one of these twelve monasteries there lived a monk, who, out of sloth, neglected and loathed the holy exercise of mental prayer, inasmuch that after the psalmody or divine office was finished, he every day left the church to go to work, while his brethren were employed in that holy exercise; for by this private prayer in the church, after the divine office, St. Gregory means pious meditation, as Dom. Mege demonstrates. This slothful monk began to correct his fault upon the charitable admonition of Pompeian, his superior; but, after three days, [he] relapsed into his former sloth. Pompeian acquainted St. Benedict, who said, "I will go and correct him myself." Such indeed was the danger and enormity of this fault as to require the most effectual and speedy remedy. For it is only by assiduous prayer that the soul is enriched with the abundance of the heavenly water of divine graces, which produces in her the plentiful fruit of all virtues. If we consider the example of all the saints, we shall see that prayer was the principal means by which the Holy Ghost sanctified their souls, and that they advanced in perfection in proportion to their progress in the holy spirit of prayer. If this be neglected, the soul becomes spiritually barren, as a garden loses all its fruitfulness and all its beauty, if the pump raises not up a continual supply of water, the principle of both. St. Benedict, deploring the misfortune and blindness of this monk, hastened to his monastery and coming to him at the end of the divine office, saw a little black boy leading him by the sleeve out of the church. After two days' prayer, St. Maurus saw the same, but Pompeian could not see this vision, by which was represented that the devil studies to withdraw men from prayer, in order that, being disarmed and defenseless, they may easily be made a prey. On the third day, St. Benedict finding the monk still absent from church in the time of prayer, struck him with a wand, and by that correction the sinner was freed from the temptation. Dom. German Millet tells us, from the tradition and archives of the monastery of St. Scholastica, that this happened in St. Jerome's. In the monastery of St. John, a fountain sprung up at the prayers of the saint; this, and two other monasteries, which were built on the summit of the mountain, being before much distressed for want of water. In that of St. Clement, situated on the bank of a lake, a Goth, who was a monk, let fall the head of a sickle into the water as he was cutting down thistles and weeds in order to make a garden, but St. Maur, who with St. Placidus lived in that house, holding the wooden handle in the water, the iron of its own accord swam, and joined it again, as St. Gregory relates. St. Benedict's reputation drew the most illustrious personages from Rome and other remote parts to see him. Many, who came clad in purple, sparkling with gold and precious stones, charmed with the admirable sanctity of the servant of God, prostrated themselves at his feet to beg his blessing and prayers, and some, imitating the sacrifice of Abraham, placed their sons under his conduct in their most tender age, that they might be formed to perfect virtue from their childhood. Among others, two rich and most illustrious senators, Eutychius, or rather Equitius, and Tertullus, committed to his care their two sons Maurus, then twelve years old, and Placidus, also a child, in 522. 2 The devil, envying so much good, stirred up his wicked instruments to disturb the tranquillity of the servant of God. Florentius, a priest in the neighboring country, though unworthy to bear that sacred character, moved by a secret jealousy, persecuted the saint, and aspersed his reputation with grievous slanders. Bennet, being a true disciple of Christ, knew no revenge but that of meekness and silence and, not to inflame the envy of his adversary, left Sublacum and repaired to Mount Cassino. He had not gotten far on his journey when he heard that Florentius was killed by the fall of a gallery in which he was. The saint was much afflicted at his sudden and unhappy death and enjoined Maurus a penance for calling it a deliverance from persecution. Cassino is a small town, now in the kingdom of Naples, built on the brow of a very high mountain, on the top of which stood an old temple of Apollo surrounded with a grove in which certain idolaters still continued to offer their abominable sacrifices. The man of God having, by his preaching and miracles, converted many of them to the faith, broke the idol to pieces, overthrew the altar, demolished the temple, and cut down the grove. Upon the ruins of which temple and altar he erected two oratories or chapels; one bore the name of St. John the Baptist, the other of St. Martin. This was the origin of the celebrated abbey of Mount Cassino, the foundation of which the saint laid in 529, the forty-eighth year of his age, the third of the emperor Justinian -- Felix IV being pope, and Athalaric king of the Goths in Italy. The patrician, Tertullus, came about that time to pay a visit to the saint and to see his son Placidus, and made over to this monastery several lands which he possessed in that neighborhood and also a considerable estate in Sicily. St. Bennet met on Mount Cassino one Martin, a venerable old hermit, who, to confine himself to a more austere solitude, had chained himself to the ground in his cell, with a long iron chain. The holy abbot, fearing this singularity might be a mark of affectation, said to him: "If you are a servant of Jesus Christ, let the chain of his love, not one of iron, hold you fixed in your resolution." Martin gave proof of his humility by his obedience and immediately laid aside his chain. St. Bennet governed also a monastery of nuns, situated near Mount Cassino, as is mentioned by St. Gregory; he founded an abbey of men at Terracina and sent St. Placidus into Sicily to establish another in that island. Though ignorant of secular learning, he was eminently replenished with the Spirit of God and an experimental science of spiritual things -- on which account he is said by St. Gregory the Great to have been "learnedly ignorant and wisely unfettered." For the alphabet of this great man is infinitely more desirable than all the empty science of the world, as St. Arsenius said of St. Antony. From certain very ancient pictures of St. Benedict, and old inscriptions, Mabillon proves this saint to have been in holy orders and a deacon. Several moderns say he was a priest but, as Muratori observes, without grounds. By the account which St. Gregory has given us of his life, it appears that he preached sometimes in neighboring places, and that a boundless charity opening his hand, he distributed among the needy all that he had on earth, to lay up his whole treasure in heaven. St. Bennet, possessing perfectly the science of the saints and being enabled by the Holy Ghost to be the guide of innumerable souls in the most sublime paths of Christian perfection, compiled a monastic rule, which, for wisdom and discretion, St. Gregory the Great preferred to all other rules, and which was afterwards adopted, for some time, by all the monks of the West. It is principally founded on silence, solitude, prayer, humility, and obedience.
St. Bennet calls his Order a school in which men learn how to serve God; and his life was to his disciples a perfect model for their imitation and a transcript of his rule. Being chosen by God, like another Moses, to conduct faithful souls into the true promised land, the kingdom of heaven, he was enriched with eminent supernatural gifts, even those of miracles and prophecy. He seemed, like another Eliseus, endued by God with an extraordinary power, commanding all nature and, like the ancient prophets, foreseeing future events. He often raised the sinking courage of his monks and baffled the various artifices of the devil with the sign of the cross, rendered the heaviest stone light in building his monastery by a short prayer, and, in presence of a multitude of people, raised to life a novice who had been crushed by the fall of a wall at Mount Cassino. He foretold, with many tears, that this monastery should be profaned and destroyed, which happened forty years after, when the Lombards demolished it about the year 580. He added that he had scarce been able to obtain of God that the inhabitants should be saved. It was strictly forbidden by the rule of St. Benedict for any monk to eat out of his monastery, unless he was at such a distance that he could not return home that day, and this rule, says Saint Gregory, was inviolably observed. Indeed, nothing more dangerously engages monks in the commerce of the world; nothing more enervates the discipline of abstinence and mortification than for them to eat and drink with seculars abroad. St. Gregory tells us that St. Bennet knew by revelation the fault of one of his monks who had accepted of an invitation to take some refreshment when he was abroad on business. A messenger who brought the saint a present of two bottles of wine, and had hid one of them, was put in mind by him to beware of drinking of the other, in which he afterwards found a serpent. One of the monks, after preaching to the nuns, had accepted of some handkerchiefs from them, which he hid in his bosom; but the saint, upon his return, reproved him for his secret sin against the rule of holy poverty. A novice, standing before him, was tempted with thoughts of pride on account of his birth; the saint discovered what passed in his soul and bid him make the sign of the cross on his breast.
When Belisarius, the emperor's general, was recalled to Constantinople, Totila, the Arian king of the Goths, invaded and plundered Italy. Having heard wonders of the sanctity of St. Bennet and of his predictions and miracles, he resolved to try whether he was really that wonderful man which he was reported to be. Therefore, as he marched through Campania, in 542, he sent the man of God word that he would pay him a visit. But instead of going in person, he dressed one of his courtiers, named Riggo, in his royal purple robes, and sent him to the monastery, attended by the three principal lords of his court and a numerous train of pages. St. Bennet, who was then sitting, saw him coming to his cell and cried out to him at some distance: "Put off, my son, those robes which you wear and which belong not to you." The mock king, being struck with a panic for having attempted to impose upon the man of God, fell prostrate at his feet, together with all his attendants. The saint, coming up, raised him with his hand; and the officer returning to his master, related trembling what had befallen him. The king then went himself, but was no sooner come into the presence of the holy abbot but he threw himself on the ground and continued prostrate till the saint, going to him, obliged him to rise. The holy man severely reproved him for the outrages he had committed, and said, "You do a great deal of mischief, and I foresee you will do more. You will take Rome; you will cross the sea, and will reign nine years longer; but death will overtake you in the tenth, when you shall be arraigned before a just God to give an account of your conduct." All which came to pass as St. Benedict had foretold him. Totila was seized with fear and recommended himself to his prayers. From that day the tyrant became more humane; and when he took Naples, shortly after, treated the captives with greater lenity than could be expected from an enemy and a barbarian. When the bishop of Camusa afterwards said to that saint that Totila would leave Rome a heap of stones, and that it would be no longer inhabited, he answered: "No; but it shall be beaten with storms and earthquakes and shall be like a tree which withers by the decay of its root." Which prediction St. Gregory observes to have been accomplished.
The death of this great saint seems to have happened soon after that of his sister St. Scholastica, and in the year after his interview with Totila. He foretold it his disciples and caused his grave to be opened six days before. When this was done he fell ill of a fever and on the sixth day would be carried into the chapel, where he received the body and blood of our Lord, and having given his last instructions to his sorrowful disciples, standing and leaning on one of them, with his hands lifted up, he calmly expired, in prayer, on Saturday, the 21st of March, probably in the year 543, and of his age the sixty-third, having spent fourteen years at Mount Cassino. The greatest part of his relics remains still in that abbey; though some of his bones were brought into France, about the close of the seventh century, and deposited in the famous abbey of Fleury, which, on that account, has long borne the name of St. Bennet's on the Loire. 3 It was founded in the reign of Clovis II, about the year 640, and belongs at present to the congregation of St. Maur.
St. Gregory, in two words, expresses the characteristic virtue of this glorious patriarch of the monastic order, when he says that, returning from Vicovara to Sublaco, he dwelt alone with himself; which words comprise a great and rare perfection, in which consists the essence of holy retirement. A soul dwells not in true solitude unless this be interior as well as exterior, and unless she cultivates no acquaintance but with God and herself, admitting no other company. Many dwell in monasteries, or alone, without possessing the secret of living with themselves. Though they are removed from the conversation of the world, their minds still rove abroad, wandering from the consideration of God and themselves, and dissipated amid a thousand exterior objects which their imagination presents to them, and which they suffer to captivate their hearts and miserably entangle their will with vain attachments and foolish desires. Interior solitude requires the silence of the interior faculties of the soul, no less than of the tongue and exterior senses; without this, the enclosure of walls is a very weak fence. In this interior solitude, the soul collects all her faculties within herself, employs all her thoughts on herself and on God, and all her strength and affections in aspiring after him. Thus, St. Benedict dwelt with himself, being always busied in the presence of his Creator, in bewailing the spiritual miseries of his soul and past sins, in examining into the disorders of his affections, in watching over his senses and the motions of his heart, and in a constant attention to the perfection of his state, and the contemplation of divine things. This last occupied his soul in the sweet exercises of divine love and praise, but the first-mentioned exercises, or the consideration of himself and of his own nothingness and miseries, laid the foundation by improving in him continually the most profound spirit of humility and compunction. The twelve degrees of humility, which he lays down in his Rule, are commended by St. Thomas Aquinas. The first is a deep compunction of heart and holy fear of God and his judgments, with a constant attention to walk in the divine presence, sunk under the weight of this confusion and fear. 2. The perfect renunciation of our own will. 3. Ready obedience. 4. Patience under all sufferings and injuries. 5. The manifestation of our thoughts and designs to our superior or director. 6. To be content and to rejoice in all humiliations; to be pleased with mean employments, poor clothes, &c., to love simplicity and poverty (which he will have among monks, to be extended even to the ornaments of the altar), and to judge ourselves unworthy and bad servants in everything that is enjoined us. 7. Sincerely to esteem ourselves baser and more unworthy than every one, even the greatest sinners. 4 8. To avoid all love of singularity in words or actions. 9. To love and practice silence. 10. To avoid dissolute mirth and loud laughter. 11. Never to speak with a loud voice, and to be modest in our words. 12. To be humble in all our exterior actions, by keeping our eyes humbly cast down with the publican, and the penitent Manasses. St. Benedict adds that divine love is the sublime recompense of sincere humility, and promises, upon the warrant of the divine word, that God will raise that soul to perfect charity which, faithfully walking in these twelve degrees, shall have happily learned true humility. Elsewhere he calls obedience without delay the first degree of humility, but means the first among the exterior degrees; for he places before it interior compunction of soul, and the renunciation of our own will.
From St. Gregory, (Dial. 1. 2, c. 1) who assures us that he received his account of this saint from four abbots, the saint's disciples: namely, Constantine, his successor at Monte Cassino; Simplicius, third abbot of that house; Valentinian, the first abbot of the monastery of Lateran; and Honoratus, who succeeded St. Benedict at Subiaco. See the remarks of Mabillon, Annal. sent l. 1, p. 3, and l. 2, p. 38, and Act. Sanct. Bened. t. 1, p. 80. Also Dom. Mege, Vie de St. Benoit, avec une Histoire Abr�g�e de son Ordre in 4to. An. 1690. Haeften's Disquisitions, and abbot Steingelts abridgment of the same and Ziegel bauer and Legipont, Historia Literaria Ord. S. Benedicti, Ann. 1754, t. 1, p. 3, and principally t. 3, p. 2.
From Butler's Lives of the Saints on CD-ROM (Harmony Media Inc., Salem, OR)
The St. Benedict Medal
http://www.stbenedictchapel.org/lives/benedict.html
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