Catholic Encyclopedia – Blessed John Colombini

May 272012
 

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Founder of the Congregation of Jesuati; born at Siena, Upper Italy, about 1300; died on the way to Acquapendente, 31 July, 1367. There was nothing in his early life to indicate the presence in his character of any unusual seeds of holiness. Belonging to an old patrician family, he devoted himself, like thousands of his class in Italy, to commerce, swelled his already substantial fortune, and rose to a position of great prominence and influence among his fellow-citizens, who on several occasions elected him gonfalonier. Fortunate in his marriage, of which two children — Peter and Angela — were the fruit, his private life was marred by his avarice, his ambition, and his proneness to anger. One day, while still suffering under a sense of mortification after one of his passionate outbursts occasioned by a petty domestic disappointment, he chanced to take up a biography of Saint Mary of Egypt, whose later life had been as conspicuous for penance as her earlier had been for sin. The perusal of this narrative brought a new light into his fife; henceforth ambition and anger gave way to an almost incredible humility and meekness. The great transformation of his life extended to his business affairs, and excited in the purely mercenary-minded a ridicule easy to understand. Heedless, however, of raillery, he did not rest content with selling cheaper than any other merchant, but persisted in paying more for his purchases than the sum demanded. With the consent of his wife he soon abandoned his former patrician associates, visited hospitals, tended the sick, and made large donations to the poor. Then casting aside the clothes usual to his station, he assumed the garments of the most indigent, and, having fallen ill and believing himself treated with too much delicacy at home, deserted his luxurious house for the ordinary ward of a poor hospital. His relations urged him to return, and finally elicited his consent on the condition that thenceforth he would be given only the coarser forms of nourishment. Nursed back to health, he insisted on making his house the refuge of the needy and the suffering, washing their feet with his own hands, dispensing to them bodily and spiritual comfort, leaving nothing undone that the spirit of charity could suggest. Among the wonders recorded to have taken in this abode of Christian mercy was the miraculous disappearance of a leper, leaving the room permeated with an indescribable fragrance.

It required eight years to render his wife reconciled to the extraordinary philanthropy of her husband. His son having meanwhile died and his daughter taken the veil, Colombini with the approval of his wife, on whom he first settled a life-annuity, divided his fortune into three parts: the first went to endow a hospital, the second and third to two cloisters. Together with his friend Francisco Mini, who had been associated with him in all charitable labours, Colombini lived henceforward a life of apostolic poverty, begged for his daily bread, and esteemed it a favour to be allowed to wait on the sick poor, while in public and in their dwellings he stimulated the people to penance. He was soon joined by three of the Piccolomini and by members of other patrician families, who likewise distributed all their goods among the poor. Alarmed at these occurrences, many of the Sienese now raised an outcry, complaining that Colombini was inciting all the most promising young men of the city to “folly”, and succeeded in procuring his banishment. Accompanied by twenty-five companions, Colombini left his native city without a protest and visited in succession Arezzo, Città di Castello, Pisa and many other Tuscan cities, making numerous conversions, reconciling sundered friends, and effecting the return of much property to its rightful owners. An epidemic which broke out at Siena shortly after his departure, was generally regarded as a heavenly chastisement for his banishment, and there was a universal clamour for his recall. Regardless alike of derision and insult, he resumed on his return his former charitable occupations, in his humility rejoicing to perform the most menial services at houses where he had once been an honoured guest.

On the return of Urban V from Avignon to Rome (1367), Colombini and his followers hastened to meet him, and begged him to sanction the foundation of their Institution. A commission appointed by Urban and presided over by Cardinal William Sudre, Bishop of Marseilles, having attested their freedom from every taint of the error of the Fraticelli, whose views some evil-intentioned people had accused them of holding, the pope gave his consent to the foundation of their congregation. The name Jesuati (Jesuites) had already been given them by the populace of Viterbo because of their constant use of the ejaculation “Praise be to Jesus Christ.” From the very beginning they had a special veneration for Saint Jerome, and, to this fact and to the apostolic life they led, they are indebted for their longer title, Clerici apostolici s. Hieronymi (Apostolic Clerics of Saint Jerome). Urban appointed as their habit a white soutan, a white four-cornered hood hanging round the neck and falling in folds over the shoulders, and a mantle of a dun colour; the soutan was encircled by a leathern girdle, and sandals were worn on the feet. Their occupations were to be the care of the sick, particularly the plague-stricken, the burial of the dead, prayer, and strict mortification (including daily scourging). Their statutes were at first based on the Rule of Saint Benedict, modified to suit the aims of the congregation, but the Rule of Saint Augustine was later adopted. Colombini died a week after the foundation of his institute, having appointed Mini his successor. After many miracles had occurred at his tomb, Gregory XIII inserted Colombini’s name in the Roman Martyrology, fixing 31 July for the celebration of his feast, which is of obligation at Siena. Under Mini and his successor, Blessed Jerome Dasciano, the Jesuati spread rapidly over Italy. and in 1606 the Holy See allowed. the reception of priests into the congregation. Abuses, however, crept in subsequently, and the congregation was suppressed by Clement IX in 1668 as of little advantage to the interests of the Church.

The Jesuatesses or Sisters of the Visitation of Mary, founded about 1367 at the suggestion of Colombini by his cousin Blessed Catharine Colombini of Siena (d. 20 October, 1387), spoke as little as possible, fasted very strictly, and chastised their bodies twice daily. The also spread very rapidly, and survived in Italy until 1872.

MLA Citation

  • Thomas Kennedy. “Blessed John Colombini”. Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913. Saints.SQPN.com. 27 May 2012. Web. {today’s date}. <http://saints.sqpn.com/catholic-encyclopedia-blessed-john-colombini/>

Catholic Encyclopedia – Saint John Climacus

May 272012
 

Article

Also surnamed SCHOLASTICUS, and THE SINAITA, born doubtlessly in Syria, about 525; died on Mount Sinai. 30 March, probably in 606, according the credited opinion – others say 605. Although his education and learning fitted him to live in an intellectual environment, he chose, while still young, to abandon the world for a life of solitude. The region of Mount Sanai was then celebrated for the holiness of the monks who inhabited it; he betook himself thither and trained himself to the practice of the Christian virtues under the direction of a monk named Martyrius. After the death of Martyrius John, wishing to practise greater mortifications, withdrew to a hermitage at the foot of the mountain. In this isolation he lived for some twenty years, constantly studying the lives of the saints and thus becoming one of the most learned doctors of the Church.

In 600, when he was about seventy-five years of age, the monks of Sinai persuaded him to put himself at their head. He acquitted himself of his functions as abbot with the greatest wisdom, and his reputation spread so far that the pope (St. Gregory the Great) wrote to recommend himself to his prayers, and sent him a sum of money for the hospital of Sinai, in which the pilgrims were wont to lodge. Four years later he resigned his charge and returned to his hermitage to prepare for death.

Saint John Climacus has left us two important works: the “Scala [Klimax] Paradisi”, from which his surname comes, composed at the request of John, Abbot of Raithu, a monastery situated on the shores of the Red Sea; and the “Liber ad Pastorem”. The “Scala”, which obtained an immense popularity and has made its author famous in the Church, is addressed to anchorites and cenobites, and treats of the means by which the highest degree of religious perfection may be attained. Divided into thirty parts, or “steps”, in memory of the thirty years of the hidden life of Christ, the Divine model of the religious, it presents a picture of all the virtues and contains a. great many parables and historical touches, drawn principally from the monastic life, and exhibiting the practical application of the precepts. At the same time, as the work is mostly written in a concise, sententious form, with the aid of aphorisms, and as the reasonings are not sufficiently closely connected, it is at times somewhat obscure. This explains its having been the subject of various commentaries, even in very early’ times. The most ancient of the manuscripts containing the “Scala” is found in the Bibliothèque Rationale in Paris, and was probably brought from Florence by Catharine de’ Medici. In some of these manuscripts the work bears the title of “Spiritual Tables” (Plakes pneumatikai). It was translated into Latin by Ambrogio the Camaldolese (Ambrosius Camaldulensis) (Venice, 1531 and 1569; Cologne, 1583, 1593, with a commentary by Denis the Carthusian; and 1601, 8vo). The Greek of the “Scala”, with the scholia of Elias, Archbishop of Crete, and also the text of the “Liber ad Pastoem”, were published by Matthæus Raderus with a Latin translation (fol., Paris, 1633). The whole is reproduced in P.G., LXXXVIII (Paris, 1860), 5791248. Translations of the “Scala” have been published in Spanish by Louis of Granada (Salamanca, 1551), in Italian (Venice, 1585), in modern Greek by Maximus Margunius, Bishop of Cerigo (Venice, 1590), and in French by Arnauld d’Andilly (12mo, Paris, 1688). The last-named of these translations is preceded by a life of the saint by Le Maistre de Sacy. There is also in existence an ancient life of the saint by a monk named Daniel.

MLA Citation

  • Léon Clugnet. “Saint John Climacus”. Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913. Saints.SQPN.com. 27 May 2012. Web. {today’s date}. <http://saints.sqpn.com/catholic-encyclopedia-saint-john-climacus/>

Catholic Encyclopedia – Saint John Capistran

May 272012
 

Article

Born at Capistrano, in the Diocese of Sulmona, Italy, 1385; died 23 October, 1456. His father had come to Naples in the train of Louis of Anjou, hence is supposed to have been of French blood, though some say he was of German origin. His father dying early, John owed his education to his mother. She had him at first instructed at home and then sent him to study law at Perugia, where he achieved great success under the eminent legist, Pietro de Ubaldis. In 1412 he was appointed governor of Perugia by Ladislaus, King of Naples, who then held that city of the Holy See. As governor he set himself against civic corruption and bribery. War broke out in 1416 between Perugia and the Malatesta. John was sent as ambassador to propose peace to the Malatesta, who however cast him into prison. It was during this imprisonment that he began to think more seriously about his soul. He decided eventually to give up the world and become a Franciscan Friar, owing to a dream he had in which he saw Saint Francis and was warned by the saint to enter the Franciscan Order. John had married a wealthy lady of Perugia immediately before the war broke out, but as the marriage was not consummated he obtained a dispensation to enter religion, which he did 4 October, 1416.

After he had taken his vows he came under the influence of Saint Bernardine of Siena, who taught him theology: he had as his fellow-student Saint James of the Marches. He accompanied Saint Bernardine on his preaching tours in order to study his methods, and in 1420, whilst still in deacon’s orders, was himself permitted to preach. But his apostolic life began in 1425, after he had received the priesthood. From this time until his death he laboured ceaselessly for the salvation of souls. He traversed the whole of Italy; and so great were the crowds who came to listen to him that he often had to preach in the public squares. At the time of his preaching all business stopped. At Brescia on one occasion he preached to a crowd of one hundred and twenty-six thousand people, who had come from all the neighbouring provinces. On another occasion during a mission, over two thousand sick people were brought to him that he might sign them with the sign of the Cross, so great was his fame as a healer of the sick. Like Saint Bernardine of Siena he greatly propagated devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, and, together with that saint, was accused of heresy because of this devotion. While he was thus carrying on his apostolic work, he was actively engaged in assisting Saint Bernardine in the reform of the Franciscan Order. In 1429 John, together with other Observant friars, was cited to Rome on the charge of heresy, and he was chosen by his companions to defend their cause; the friars were acquitted by the commission of cardinals.

After this, Pope Martin V conceived the idea of uniting the Conventual Friars Minor and the Observants, and a general chapter of both bodies of Franciscans was convoked at Assisi in 1430. A union was effected, but it did not last long. The following year the Observants held a chapter at Bologna, at which John was the moving spirit. According to Gonzaga, John was about this time appointed commissary general of the Observants, but his name does not appear among the commissaries and vicars in Holzapfel’s list (Manuale Hist. Ord. FF. Min., 624-5) before 1443. But it was owing to him that Saint Bernardine was appointed vicar-general in 1438. Shortly after this, whilst visiting France he met Saint Colette, the reformer of the Second Franciscan Order or Poor Clares, with whose efforts he entirely sympathized. He was frequently employed on embassies by the Holy See. In 1439 he was sent as legate to Milan and Burgundy, to oppose the claims of the antipope Felix V; in 1446 he was on a mission to the King of France; in 1451 he went at the request of the emperor as Apostolic nuncio to Austria. During the period of his nunciature John visited all parts of the empire, preaching and combatting the heresy of the Hussites; he also visited Poland at the request of Casimir IV. In 1454 he was summoned to the Diet at Frankfort, to assist that assembly in its deliberation concerning a crusade against the Turks for the relief of Hungary: and here, too, he was the leading spirit. When the crusade was actually in operation John accompanied the famous Hunyady throughout the campaign: he was present at the battle of Belgrade, and led the left wing of the Christian army against the Turks. He was beatified in 1694, and canonized in 1724. He wrote many books, chiefly against the heresies of his day.

MLA Citation

  • Father Cuthbert. “Saint John Capistran”. Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913. Saints.SQPN.com. 27 May 2012. Web. {today’s date}. <http://saints.sqpn.com/catholic-encyclopedia-saint-john-capistran/>

Catholic Encyclopedia – Saint John Baptist de Rossi

May 272012
 

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(De Rubeis).

Born at Voltaggio in the Diocese of Genoa, 22 February, 1698; died at Rome, 23 May, 1764; feast on 23 May. His parents, Charles de Rossi and Frances Anfossi, were not rich in earthly goods, but had solid piety and the esteem of their fellow-citizens. Of their four children, John excelled in gentleness and piety. At the age of ten he was taken to Genoa by friends for his education. There he received news of the death of his father. After three years he was called to Rome by a relative, Lorenzo de Rossi, who was canon at Saint Mary in Cosmedin. He pursued his studies at the Collegium Romanum under the direction of the Jesuits, and soon became a model by his talents, application to study, and virtue. As a member of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin and of the Ristretto of the Twelve Apostles established at the college, he led the members in the meetings and pious exercises, in visits to the sick in the hospitals and in other works of mercy, and merited even then the name of apostle. At the age of sixteen he entered the clerical state. Owing to indiscreet practices of mortification he contracted spells of epilepsy, notwithstanding which he made his course of scholastic philosophy and theology, in the college of the Dominicans, and, with dispensation, was ordained priest on 8 March, 1721. Having reached the desired goal, he bound himself by vow to accept no ecclesiastical benefice unless commanded by obedience. He fulfilled the duties of the sacred ministry by devoting himself to the labourers, herds, and teamsters of the Campagna, preaching to them early in the morning, or late in the evening, at the old Forum Romanum (Campo Vaccino), and by visiting, instructing, and assisting the poor at the hospital of Saint Galla. In 1731 he established near Saint Galla another hospital as a home of refuge for the unfortunates who wander the city by night (“Rom. Brev.”, tr. Bute, Summer, 573). In 1735 he became titular canon at Saint Mary in Cosmedin, and, on the death of Lorenzo two years later, obedience forced him to accept the canonry. The house belonging to it, however, he would not use, but employed the rent for good purposes.

For a number of years John was afraid, on account of his sickness, to enter the confessional, and it was his custom to send to other priests the sinners whom he had brought to repentance by his instructions and sermons. In 1738 a dangerous sickness befell him, and to regain his health he went to Cività Castellana, a day’s journey from Rome. The bishop of the place induced him to hear confessions, and after reviewing his moral theology he received the unusual faculty of hearing confessions in any of the churches of Rome. He showed extraordinary zeal in the exercise of this privilege, and spent many hours every day in hearing the confessions of the illiterate and the poor whom he sought in the hospitals and in their homes. He preached to such five and six times a day in churches, chapels, convents, hospitals, barracks, and prison cells, so that he became the apostle of the abandoned, a second Philip Neri, a hunter of souls. In 1763, worn out by such labours and continued ill-health, his strength began to ebb away, and after several attacks of paralysis he died at his quarters in Trinità de’ Pellegrini. He was buried in that church under a marble slab at the altar of the Blessed Virgin. God honoured his servant by miracles, and only seventeen years after his death the process of beatification was begun, but the troubled state of Europe during the succeeding years prevented progress in the cause until it was resumed by Pius IX, who on 13 May, 1860, solemnly pronounced his beatification. As new signs still distinguished him, Leo XIII, on 8 December, 1881, enrolled him among the saints.

MLA Citation

  • Francis Mershman. “Saint John Baptist de Rossi”. Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913. Saints.SQPN.com. 27 May 2012. Web. {today’s date}. <http://saints.sqpn.com/catholic-encyclopedia-saint-john-baptist-de-rossi/>

Catholic Encyclopedia – Blessed Edward Powell

May 272012
 

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With Blessed Thomas Abel there suffered Edward Powell, priest and martyr, born in Wales about 1478; M.A. Oxon.; Fellow of Oriel, 1495; D.D. 26 June, 1506 and styled perdoctus vir by the university. He was rector of Bleadon, Somerset, and prebendary of Centum Solidorum in Lincoln, which he exchanged for Carlton-cum-Thurlby in 1505, and the latter for Sutton-in-Marisco in 1525. He also held the prebends of Lyme Regis, Calstock, Bedminster, and Saint Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, and the living of Saint Edmond’s Salisbury. A court preacher in high favour with Henry VIII, he was ordered to publish a reply to Luther (“Propugnaculum summi Sacerdotii Evangelici, ac septem Sacramentorum, aeditum per virum eruditum, sacrarum literarum professorem Edoardum Poelum adversus Maratinum Lutherum fratrem famosum et Wiclifistan insignem”, London, 1523, three books in the form of a dialogue between Powell and Luther). The University of Oxford commended this work, and styled Powell “the glory of the university” in a letter to the king. Powell was one of the four theologians selected to defend the legality of the marriage of Catherine of Aragon, in connection with which he wrote the very rare “Tractatus de non dissolvendo Henrici Regis cum Catherina matrimonio” (London).

In March, 1533, Powell was selected to answer Latimer at Bristol, and was alleged to have disparaged his moral character. Latimer complained to Cromwell, and Powell fell into further disfavour by denouncing Henry’s marriage with Anne Boleyn. He was discharged from the proctorship of Salisbury in Jan., 1534, and in November he was attainted, together with Blessed John Fisher, for high treason in refusing to take the oath of succession, deprived of his benefices, and imprisoned in the Tower of London. His confinement was very rigorous; the keeper himself was sent to the Marshalsea Prison for allowing Powell and Abel out on bail. The sentence was not carried out until 30 July, 1540. Three Catholics (Powell, Abel, and Richard Featherstone) and three Protestants suffered together. The victims were dragged on hurdles from the Tower to Smithfield, a Catholic and a Protestant on each hurdle. Powell’s companion was Robert Barnes, the Protestant divine. A dialogue in verse was published shortly after, “The Metynge of Doctor Barnes and Dr. Powell at Paradise Gate and of theyre communicacion bothe drawen to Smithfylde fro the Towar” (London, 1540), in the British Museum. The Catholics were hanged, drawn, and quartered as traitors; the others were burned as heretics.

MLA Citation

  • C F Wemyss Brown. “Blessed Edward Powell”. Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913. Saints.SQPN.com. 27 May 2012. Web. {today’s date}. <http://saints.sqpn.com/catholic-encyclopedia-blessed-edward-powell/>

Butler’s Lives of the Saints – Saints Cantius and Cantianus, Brothers, and Cantianilla, Their Sister, Martyrs

May 272012
 

Article

May 31

If riches are loaded with the curses of the gospel, because to many they prove dangerous, and afford the strongest incentives to the passions, the greater is their crown who make them the means of their sanctification. This circumstance enhances the glory of these holy martyrs. They were of the most illustrious family of the Anicii in Rome, and near relations to the emperor Carinus, who was himself a favourer of the Christians in Gaul. They were brought up together in their own palace in Rome, under the care of a pious Christian preceptor named Protus, who instructed them in the faith, and in the most perfect maxims of our divine religion. When the persecution of Dioclesian began to fill Rome with terror, they sold their possessions in that city, and retired to Aquileia, where they had a good estate. The bloody edicts had also reached that country, and Sisinnius, general of the forces, and Dulcidius, the governor of the province, were busied night and day in making the strictest search after Christians, and in filling the prisons with crowds of confessors. No sooner were they informed of the arrival of our saints, but they summoned them to appear and offer sacrifice, and at the same time by a messenger acquainted the emperor with what they had done, begging his instructions how they ought to proceed with regard to persons of their rank. Dioclesian sent an order that they should be beheaded in case they refused to worship the gods. The martyrs had left Aquileia in a chariot drawn by mules, but were stopped by an accident four miles out of the town at Aquæ-Gradatæ. Hither Sisinnius pursued them, carrying with him the order of the emperor. He entreated and conjured them to comply; but they answered, that nothing should make them unfaithful to God, declaring that all who should worship idols would be punished with everlasting fire. Wherefore they were all beheaded, together with Protus their preceptor, in the year 304. Zœlus, a priest, honourably embalmed and buried their bodies in the same monument. The place hath since changed its name of Aquæ-Gradatæ for that of San-Cantiano.

MLA Citation

  • Father Alban Butler. “Saints Cantius and Cantianus, Brothers, and Cantianilla, Their Sister, Martyrs”. Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints, 1866. Saints.SQPN.com. 27 May 2012. Web. {today’s date}. <http://saints.sqpn.com/butlers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-cantius-and-cantianus-brothers-and-cantianilla-their-sister-martyrs/>

Butler’s Lives of the Saints – Saint Petronilla, Virgin

May 272012
 

Article

May 31

Among the disciples of the apostles in the primitive age of saints, this holy virgin shone as a bright star in the church. She lived when Christians were more solicitous to live well than to write much: they knew how to die for Christ; but did not compile long books or disputations, 1 in which vanity has often a greater share than charity. Hence no particular account of her actions hath been transmitted down to us. But how eminent her sanctity was we may judge from the lustre by which it was distinguished among the apostles, prophets, and martyrs. Her name is the feminine and diminutive of Peter, and she is said to have been a daughter of the apostle Saint Peter, which tradition is confirmed by certain writings quoted by the Manichees in the time of Saint Austin, 2 which affirm that Saint Peter had a daughter whom he cured of a palsy. That Saint Peter was married before his vocation to the apostleship we learn from the gospel; though Saint Jerom and other ancient fathers testify that he lived in continency after his call. Saint Clement of Alexandria assures us, 3 that his wife attained to the glory of martyrdom; at which that apostle himself encouraged her, bidding her to remember our Lord. But it seems not certain whether Saint Petronilla was more than the spiritual daughter of that apostle. She flourished at Rome, and was buried on the way to Ardea, where anciently a cemetery and a church bore her name; so famous that in it a station or place for the assembly of the city in public prayer, was established by Gregory III. She is commemorated in the true Martyrology of Bede, in those which bear the name of Saint Jerom, etc.

The saints, whether in sickness or in health, in public or in private life, devoted all their thoughts and actions to God, and thus sanctified all their employments. The great end for which they lived was always present to their minds, and they thought every moment lost in which they did not make some advances towards eternal bliss. How will their example condemn at the last day the trifling fooleries, and the greater part of the conversation and employments of the world, which aim at nothing but present amusements, as if it were the business of a rational creature to divert his mind from thought and reflection, and forget the only affair – the business of eternity.

MLA Citation

  • Father Alban Butler. “Saint Petronilla, Virgin”. Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints, 1866. Saints.SQPN.com. 27 May 2012. Web. {today’s date}. <http://saints.sqpn.com/butlers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-petronilla-virgin/>

Butler’s Lives of the Saints – Saint Maguil, in Latin Madelgisilus, Recluse in Picardy

May 272012
 

Article

May 30

He is said to have been a native of Ireland, and the inseparable companion of Saint Fursey, with whom he passed into France. After the death of that saint (who is honoured on the 16th of January) Maguil retired among the monks of Saint Riquier, whom he exceedingly edified by his virtues; but fearing that the extraordinary veneration in which he was held might expose him to the suggestions of pride, he, with the abbot’s leave, hid himself in the solitude of Monsterlet, upon the river Authie, where he served God with new fervour in all the exercises of a contemplative life. Here he was visited by a holy English recluse named Vulgan, 1 with whom he contracted a strict friendship, and they afterwards lived together for several years. The latter being seized with a mortal illness, endeavoured to comfort his companion, whose grief on the occasion was excessive; and exhorting him to have sentiments more becoming a Christian, “You should tremble,” says he, “lest by this grief you offend God, and lose all the fruit of your labours.” The abbot and monks of Saint Riquier being apprized of the situation of Vulgan, administered to him the sacraments, and after his death buried him in the chapel of the hermitage. Saint Maguil survived him but a short time, having died about the year 685. His body was buried in the same tomb with that of his holy companion, but was afterwards removed into a church of his name built near Saint Riquier. He is honoured on this day, which is supposed to be the day on which he died.

MLA Citation

  • Father Alban Butler. “Saint Maguil, in Latin Madelgisilus, Recluse in Picardy”. Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints, 1866. Saints.SQPN.com. 27 May 2012. Web. {today’s date}. <http://saints.sqpn.com/butlers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-maguil-in-latin-madelgisilus-recluse-in-picardy/>

Butler’s Lives of the Saints – Saint Ferdinand III, King of Castile and Leon, Confessor

May 272012
 

Article

May 30

He was eldest son to Alphonsus, king of Leon, and of Berangera of Castile, elder sister of Blanche, mother of Saint Lewis of France, and was born about the end of the year 1198 or some time in 1199. Beranga had been obliged by Pope Innocent III. to a separation from Alphonsus of Leon after having borne to him two sons, Ferdinand and Alphonsus, and two daughters, because, though in the third degree of consanguinity, they had been married without a dispensation, which was at that time very difficult to be obtained. But because this marriage had been contracted bona fide by the decrees of the pope, and the states of the two kingdoms, their children were declared their lawful heirs. Berangera returned to her father Alphonsus IX. of Castile, one of the most valiant and virtuous kings that ever reigned in Spain, and who was to her the most tender and best of fathers. He dying in 1214, his son Henry, eleven years of age, succeeded him under the tutorship and regency of his mother, Eleonor of England. But she followed her husband to the grave within twenty-five days; grief for having lost him being the cause of her death. Berangera was charged with the guardianship of her brother and the regency of the kingdom; but out of love of retirement suffered herself to be persuaded to resign both to a nobleman called Don Alvarez, who proved a perfidious, turbulent man, and for several years embroiled all Castile and the neighbouring kingdoms. Berangera was a princess of accomplished prudence and piety, and exercises of devotion were her chief delight. King Henry, by the contrivance of Alvarez, at twelve years of age was married to Mafalda, sister to Alphonsus, king of Portugal, but upon an impediment of consanguinity which was proved before commissaries, Pope Innocent III. declared the marriage null, and Mafalda returning to Portugal, founded a Cistercian nunnery at Arouca, took herself the veil, and lived in such great sanctity as to be honoured among the saints on the 1st of May. The young King Henry died of a wound he received by a tile falling upon his head at Palencia on the 6th of June, 1217, and Berangera put in her claim to the crown; but transferring her right upon her son Ferdinand, surnamed the Saint, caused him, who was in the eighteenth year of his age, to be proclaimed king at Palencia, Valladolid, and Burgos, having first lodged in the archives of the church of this last city, the solemn act of her own resignation. Don Alvarez and other factious spirits filled the kingdom with disturbances and civil wars for several years; but these the young king by his clemency, prudence, and valour, assisted by his mother’s counsels, stifled and overcame. Alvarez was taken and pardoned; and perfidiously renewed his treasonable cabals and broils, both at home and abroad. Though Ferdinand was so great a king, no child ever obeyed a mother with a more ready and perfect submission than he did Berangera to the time of her death, as his ancient historian assures us. By her advice he took to wife, in 1219, Beatrix, daughter of Philip of Suabia, emperor of Germany, a most virtuous and accomplished princess. The happy union of their hearts was never disturbed by the least cloud during the fifteen years of their cohabitation; and their marriage was blessed with a numerous family of seven sons and three daughters. Saint Ferdinand was severe in the administration and the execution of the laws, but readily pardoned all personal injuries; and no sooner were rebellions crushed, but he granted general amnesties. His prudence and his constant attention to the care of his people appeared most conspicuous in the happy choice he always made of governors, magistrates, and generals. Rodriguez, archbishop of Toledo and chancellor of Castile, was during thirty years at the head of all his councils, and so perfectly united with Berangera and Saint Ferdinand in all their deliberations as to seem to have but one soul with them. To set a curb to inferior tribunals he established the court, since called the Royal Council of Castile, which consists of ten auditors, and to which there lies an appeal from all other courts. A code of laws which he caused to be compiled by the most able lawyers is still used in that kingdom.

Nothing ever so much troubled our saint, as when his own father Alphonsus, king of Leon, stirred up by Alvarez, laid claim to and invaded his dominions. Saint Ferdinand endeavoured by the most dutiful and endearing letters to give him all possible satisfaction, and lent him his own forces to fight against the Moors. With this succour his father conquered Caures, Merida, and Badajoz, and extended his dominions to the frontiers of Andalusia. Being resolved as much as possible never to draw his sword but against the infidels, he restored several places the claims to which seemed doubtful, and waved all occasions of quarrels with the kings of Portugal and Arragon, and with Eleonor of England in Gascony. He founded several bishoprics, and contributed munificently to the building or repairing of many stately cathedrals, and other churches, monasteries and hospitals. No necessity could ever make him impose any heavy tax upon his subjects. In his wars with the Moors, when one suggested to him a method of raising an extraordinary subsidy, he rejected the proposal with indignation; saying, “God would not fail to supply him other ways, and that he feared more the curse of one poor old woman than the whole army of the Moors.” He first marched against them into the kingdom of Baëza in 1225; and in the second year, Aben Mahomet, a prince of the race of the Miramolins of Africa, king of that country, yielded himself up vassal to King Ferdinand, and surrendered to him his strongest holds. In 1230 he took nearly twenty strong places in Andalusia, and in the kingdoms of Cordova and Jaën. Aben Mahomet having been murdered by a general conspiracy of his subjects, because he had made himself vassal to a Christian king who was the sworn enemy of their religion, Saint Ferdinand took occasion to conquer the whole kingdom of Baëza, and to erect a bishopric in its capital. His whole conduct bore testimony to the truth of his solemn protestation, in which he appealed to heaven, saying: “Thou, O Lord, who searchest the secrets of hearts, knowest that I desire thy glory, not mine; and the increase of thy faith, and holy religion, not of transitory kingdoms.” The Archbiship Rodriguez performed the solemn office, and all pastoral functions in the army, and the bishop of Palencia in his room one year that he happened to be sick. Saint Ferdinand set his soldiers the most perfect example of devotion. He fasted rigorously, prayed much, wore a rough hair-shirt made in the shape of a cross, spent often whole nights in tears and prayers, especially before battles, and gave to God the whole glory of all his victories. In his army he caused an image of the Blessed Virgin to be carried, and wore another small one on his breast, or sometimes when on horseback placed it on the pummel of his saddle before him. From the spoils taken in war he contributed in a truly royal manner to the rebuilding of the most stately cathedral of Toledo, of which he laid the first stone. Several towns which were conquered from the Moors, he gave to the Order of Calatrava or others, and to the archbishopric of Toledo, upon condition they should defend them against the infidels. This is the origin of the great riches of that archbishopric, and of the military religious Orders in Spain.

Saint Ferdinand was marching to lay siege to Jaën in 1230, when he received news of the death of his father, Alphonsus of Leon, and was called by his mother to take possession of that kingdom, which from that time has remained united with Castile. It cost him three years to settle the affairs of his new kingdom; but in 1234 he recommenced his wars against the Moors by the siege of Ubeda, which he took after having spent the whole campaign before it. In the meantime the infant Alphonsus, with fifteen hundred men, defeated at Xeres the formidable army of Abenhut, king of Seville, divided into seven bodies of troops, each of which was more numerous than the whole Christian army. From the deposition of several prisoners and others, the Christians concluded that the apostle Saint James had appeared at the head of their troops in the armour of a knight, mounted on a white horse; and this victory cost the Christians only the lives of one knight, who had refused to forgive an injury, and ten soldiers. The joy of these victories was allayed by the death of the virtuous Queen Beatrix, Saint Ferdinand’s consort, who departed this life at Toro, about the beginning of the year 1236. The grief for this loss did not long suspend his warlike preparations, and whilst James, king of Arragon, wrested from the Moors the kingdom of Majorca and that of Valentia, he completed the conquest of the two Moorish kingdoms of Baëza and Cordova. This last city had been in the hands of those infidels five hundred and twenty-four years, and had been long the capital of their empire in Spain, when Saint Ferdinand, after a long siege, entered it by capitulation, on SS. Peter and Paul’s day in 1236. The great mosque was purified by John, bishop of Osma, and converted into a church under the invocation of the Mother of God, and Saint Ferdinand refounded there a bishopric. The great bells of Compostella, which Almansor had caused to be brought hither on the backs of Christians, Saint Ferdinand commanded to be carried back on the backs of Moors.

In 1237, by the counsels of his mother, he married a second wife, chiefly at the recommendation of his aunt Blanche, dowager queen of France. This was Jane of Ponthieu, who bore him two sons and a daughter, and lived in the most happy constant harmony with the queen mother and the king till their death, and joined them in all their exercises of piety and devotion. The winter they usually spent together; in spring, when the king put himself at the head of his army to march to new conquests, she usually assisted Berangera in superintending the domestic administration of the affairs of state. Saint Ferdinand in the campaigns which followed the taking of Cordova made himself master of twenty-four other towns, of which Ecija was the first and Moron the last. Abenhudiel, king of Murcia, voluntarily surrendered his kingdom to king Ferdinand, reserving some open places to himself and certain lords of his country, which they were to hold in vassalage. Saint Ferdinand sent his son Alphonsus to take possession of the city of Murcia, to purify the mosques, and establish there a bishopric. The strong cities of Lorca, Mula, and Carthagena, which refused to yield themselves up to him, he took three years after. Arjona and Jaën maintained obstinate sieges; but at length fell into the hands of Ferdinand, with Alcala, Real, Ivora, and some other places dependent on Jaën. The loss of this capital so terrified Benalhamar, king of Granada, that he repaired to the camp of Ferdinand, cast himself at the feet of the conqueror, and offered to hold his kingdom of him in vassalage, and to pay him an annual tribute of one hundred and fifty thousand maravedis. These conditions were accepted, and by remaining always faithful to king Ferdinand, he transmitted his kingdom to his posterity. The rich and strong city of Seville, after the death of its king Abenhut, had formed itself into a republic, when king Ferdinand resolved to turn his forces against that place, far the most important which the Moors at that time possessed in Spain. The death of archbishop Rodriguez, his most faithful minister, followed by that of Berangera, his mother, interrupted his preparations for a short time; but motives of religion moderating his grief for the loss of the best of mothers, he had no sooner settled the administration by the orders which he despatched into Castile, but he resumed his expedition with greater vigour than ever. The siege held sixteen months, Seville being then the largest and strongest city in Spain. Its double walls were very broad and high, and defended by one hundred and sixty-six towers; the western side of the city was secured by the great river Guadalquivir, besides a deep broad moat at the foot of the innermost wall round the city. All provisions were abundantly supplied from the famous garden of Hercules, esteemed by the ancients the most delightful spot of ground in the world, called by the Moors Axarafa. This territory is about thirty miles in length, and twelve in breadth, and contained one hundred thousand farms besides castles and towns. It lay on the right side of the river, where its communication with the city was secured by the castle of Triana on that bank, which was joined by a great iron chain, and a bridge of boats with the golden tower on the opposite bank at the bottom of the city. Saint Ferdinand’s fleet defeated that of the Moors, and mounted the river within sight of the castle of Triana; his land forces vanquished the succours sent from Africa, and in daily combats gained continual advantages. Yet the siege was not advanced till in the tenth month, on the feast of the Invention of the Cross in May, Ferdinand’s admiral, by launching two great ships upon the chain and bridge of boats broke both. Triana was then besieged, and after having been long battered with rams and other engines, and stood many assaults, was at length reduced. The city itself surrendered on the 23d of November, 1249; the Moors were allowed a month to sell or dispose of their goods; three hundred thousand removed to Xeres, one hundred thousand passed into Africa. Axataf, governor-general of the Moors at Seville, being arrived at a hill called Belvidere, from which he had a prospect of the sea before him, and of the city behind him, turning towards Seville to take his last leave of that city, said with tears, that only a saint who by his justice and piety had heaven in his interest in all his undertakings could ever have taken so rich, so populous, and so strong a city with so small an army; but that God by his eternal decrees had taken it from the Moors. Saint Ferdinand, after the most solemn thanksgivings to God, implored the intercession of the Virgin Mother before her famous image which is still preserved, and refounded the cathedral with such magnificence and splendour, that it yielded to no church in Christendom but that of Toledo. The three years which he survived he resided at Seville to settle the tribunals and regulate the affairs of this important conquest; but added at the same time to his dominions Xeres, Medina, Sidonia, Alcala de los Gazules, Bejar, Port Saint Mary’s, Cadiz, Saint Lucar, Arcos, Lebrixa, Rota, Trebuxena, and a great number of other towns and castles. He showed by his example that devotion is consistent with the duties of a king and Christian soldier; he was in all things severe to himself, but compassionate and mild to all others, always master of himself and his passions. He was preparing an expedition against the Moors in Africa, when he was taken with his last sickness. He prepared himself for death by the most edifying sentiments of compunction and a general confession; then called for the viaticum; and whilst the bishop of Segovia, attended by all the clergy of Seville and the court, brought the holy sacrament, the king rose from his bed, fell on his knees on the floor, put a cord about his neck, and taking a crucifix in his hands kissed and saluted the wounds of his Saviour, watering each of them with his tears. He then made his confession aloud, though he had nothing to accuse himself of which others could think to have been criminal, how much soever he was himself penetrated with confusion and regret for the least appearance of a fault. He made an act of faith in presence of the holy sacrament, which he received pouring forth a flood of tears of tender love and devotion. Before his death he called for all his children, gave them excellent instructions with his blessing, and asked pardon of all the world if ever he had given offence to any. In his agony, holding a blessed taper in his hands, he recommended his soul to God through the merits of his crucified Redeemer in the most pathetic aspirations; then caused the clergy to recite near him the Litanies, and afterwards the Te Deum. This was scarcely finished when he yielded up his soul into the hands of his Creator on the 30th of May, in the year 1252, the fifty-third of his age, the thirty-fifth of his reign in Castile, and the twenty-second in Leon. According to his desire he was buried before the image of our Lady in the great church at Seville, and his body is still preserved in that church in a rich shrine without the least blemish of corruption, and has been honoured with miracles. Saint Ferdinand was canonized by Clement X, in 1671.

MLA Citation

  • Father Alban Butler. “Saint Ferdinand III, King of Castile and Leon, Confessor”. Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints, 1866. Saints.SQPN.com. 27 May 2012. Web. {today’s date}. <http://saints.sqpn.com/butlers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-ferdinand-iii-king-of-castile-and-leon-confessor/>

Butler’s Lives of the Saints – Saint Walstan, Confessor

May 272012
 

Article

May 30

A.D. 1016.

Saint Walstan was formerly much honoured at Cossey and Bawburgh, commonly called Baber, two villages four miles from Norwich. He was born at Baber, and of a rich and honourable family. The name of his father was Benedict, that of his mother Blida. By their example and good instructions he, from his infancy, conceived an ardent desire to devote himself to God with the greatest perfection possible. In this view, at twelve years of age he renounced his patrimony, left his father’s house, and entered a poor servant at Taverham, a village adjoining to Cossey. He was so charitable that he gave his own victuals to the poor, and sometimes even his shoes, going himself barefoot. He applied himself to the meanest and most painful country labour in a perfect spirit of penance and humility; fasted much, and sanctified his soul and all his actions by assiduous, fervent prayer, and the constant union of his heart with God. He made a vow of celibacy, but never embraced a monastic state. God honoured his humility before men by many miracles. He died in the midst of a meadow where he was at work, on the 30th of May in 1016. His body was interred at Baber: it was carried thither through Cossey or Costessye, where a well still bears his name, as does another which was more famous at Baber, a little below the church. These places were much resorted to by pilgrims, especially to implore the intercession of this saint for the cure of fevers, palsies, lameness, and blindness. His body was enshrined in the north chapel of that church, which chapel was on that account pulled down in the reign of Henry VIII. though the church is still standing. All the mowers and husbandmen in these parts constantly visited it once a year, and innumerable other pilgrims resorted to it, not only from all parts of England, but also from beyond the seas. The church is sacred to the memory of the Blessed Virgin, and of Saint Walstan.

MLA Citation

  • Father Alban Butler. “Saint Walstan, Confessor”. Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints, 1866. Saints.SQPN.com. 27 May 2012. Web. {today’s date}. <http://saints.sqpn.com/butlers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-walstan-confessor/>
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