Happy St Valentine’s Day!
Hagiography reveals that Saint Valentine (+270) was a beekeeper himself and had a great love for these beautiful creatures. He was known for his gentle and caring treatment of the honey bees, and it is said that he would often talk to them and bless them with his prayers. (Something I do.)
Today is the feast of the defender of the faith and apostle of charity, the bishop Saint Nicholas of Myra. Some of us forget too easily that Saint Nicholas is a significant model of Christian life: truth and love.
The image of Nicholas standing on the back of a devil speaks volumes, don’t you think?
The modern rendition of Nicholas is Santa Claus which too often misses the whole point of who ought to be in real life. Nicholas helps us to see clearly; Claus makes things cloudy.
Memory of Bartolo Longo is liturgically honored today. Blessed Bartolo Longo (1841-1926) has been so far the only lay person of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem to be lifted to the altar. He quite dear to the Knights and Dames of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, and to me both as a devotee to the Rosary and to the Order.
Longo is an example for our members of constant prayer, active charity, and love for the most needy. From Pompeii, a city that he helped regenerate thanks to the grace of recitation of the Rosary, the Blessed continues to inspire initiatives of prayer and charity worldwide.
Since my baptismal parish is named for Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, Blessed Bartolo’s relic hangs in a stairwell (not an ideal place) but at least we remember him.
Prayer to Blessed Bartolo Longo
Blessed Bartolo Longo, you who dedicated your life to Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us and intercede for our needs. You who have known despair and suffering, help us to find hope and peace in difficult times.
You who have spread the devotion to the Rosary around the world, teach us to love this prayer and meditate on the mysteries of the life of Jesus and Mary. You who founded the city of Pompeii as a center of Marian devotion, protect and bless it always.
Blessed Bartolo Longo, you who lived your life in the service of others, help us imitate your example of charity and dedication. You who have been raised to the honours of the altars, pray for us and obtain the grace we need. Amen.
Today we are given the liturgical memorial of the often overlooked saint who has led by an experience of Christ, a man of deep desires to serve the Church, and a man who is a model of service to faith and the poor. St Vincent de Paul, the 17th century French priest is recalled not only for personal holiness and for what has become known the Vincentian charism. The importance of the Vincent’s influence is likely more important to our era than I dare say the Ignatian heritage. While Loyola’s real gift to the Church is not necessarily the least Society of Jesus and the educational system, but really the Spiritual Exercises and the method of discernment. Vincent’s gift to the Church is the integration of evangelization and charity.
What is also key to understanding and appreciating what Vincent did for us –and continues to do for us– is the spiritual bond he had with St Louise de Marillac. Vincent and Louise worked in complement to each other. Three Vincentian values that are often spoken of are spirituality, friendship and service. For me, the key value is friendship. Friendship is the sun to which one’s spiritual life and service orbit. What is the quality of our relation to God, others, the Church, the poor, to seminarians, and to ourselves? Without a flourishing and mature relationship with others, and principally with the Lord, then all else falls apart or doesn’t even get off the ground. As a young man and student under the Vincentians, I was taught that by example, Vincent indicated that our service to the poor is first nourished by our spiritual life, by personal and corporate prayer. Time spent praying before the Most Blessed Sacrament has an abundance of grace. Short of spending hours in prayer our friendship with those we work and serve is banal. In the end, we recall a gem in the crown of saints and blesseds in the crown of the Church.
St Vincent de Paul, pray for us.
We know the Gospel narrative of encounter of the Risen Lord at Emmaus. Read Luke 24:13-35. We know there were two men with Jesus. Many of us don’t know the names of these two men.
The Roman Martyrology tells us: “At Emmaus, the birthday of the blessed Cleopas, Disciple of Christ. It is related that he was killed by the Jews, for the confession of our Lord, in the same house in which he had entertained Him and where he was honourably buried.”
Piecing together information from other sources we have consider the entry of the renown historian, Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, who quotes the earlier chronicler, Hegesippus, writing in c. 180, that he had years before interviewed the grandsons of Jude the Apostle and learned that Clopas was the Brother of St Joseph, spouse of the Virgin Mary: “After the martyrdom of James, it was unanimously decided that Simeon, Son of Clopas, was worthy to occupy the See of Jerusalem. He was, it is said, a Cousin of the Saviour.” Hegesippus noted, that Clopas was a Brother of Joseph. Epiphanius adds that Joseph and Cleopas were Brothers, sons of “Jacob, surnamed Panther.”
And then there’s the surviving fragments of the work Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord of the Apostolic Father Papias of Hierapolis, who lived c. 70–163, Cleophas and Alphaeus are the same person: “Mary the wife of Cleophas or Alphaeus, who was the Mother of James the Bishop and Apostle and of Simon and Thaddeus and of one Joseph.”
Here in sacred Scripture and in Tradition we meet the Risen Lord, and we meet hope. Saints Clops and Simeon at Emmaus communicate to us that the heart’s desires are fulfilled in the Lord, in the Breaking of the Bread, where all else falls away and centers us on the one we desire: God Himself.
Today the Church in England honors its first martyr early in the 4th century, St Alban. In some missals, St Alban is commemorated on June 20. The saint’s biographer writes,
“St. Alban was the first martyr of England, his own country (homeland). During a persecution of Christians, Alban, though a pagan, hid a priest in his house. The priest made such a great impression on him that Alban received instructions and became a Christian himself.
“In the meantime, the governor had been told that the priest was hiding in Alban’s house, and he sent his soldiers to capture him. But Alban changed clothes with his guest, and gave himself up in his stead. The judge was furious when he found out that the priest had escaped and he said to Alban, “You shall get the punishment he was to get unless you worship the gods.” The Saint answered that he would never worship those false gods again. “To what family do you belong?” demanded the judge. “That does not concern you,” said Alban. “If you want to know my religion, I am a Christian.” Angrily the judge commanded him again to sacrifice to the gods at once. “Your sacrifices are offered to devils,” answered the Saint. “They cannot help you or answer your requests. The reward for such sacrifices is the everlasting punishment of Hell.”
“Since he was getting nowhere, the judge had Alban whipped. Then he commanded him to be beheaded. On the way to the place of execution, the soldier who was to kill the Saint was converted himself, and he too, became a martyr. 304 A.D.
Let us pray with the Church:
O God, by whose grace Saint Alban gave himself up for his friend and received the martyr’s crown as the first in this land to shed his blood for Christ: Grant, we pray, that, following his example and supported by his prayers, we may worship you, the living God, and give true witness to Christ our Lord. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Pope Benedict XVI once commemorated the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, he spoke of the fruitful tension (the generativity) that emerges for the Christian meaning of work:
“Work is of fundamental importance to the fulfillment of the human being and to the development of society. Thus, it must always be organized and carried out with full respect for human dignity and must always serve the common good.
At the same time, it is indispensable that people not allow themselves to been slaved by work or idolize it, claiming to find in it the ultimate and definitive meaning of life…”
The Pope continues:
“Work must serve the true good of humanity, permitting “men as individuals and as members of society to pursue and fulfill their total vocation” (Gaudium et Spes, n. 35). For this to happen, technical and professional qualifications, although necessary, do not suffice; nor does the creation of a just social order, attentive to the common good.
It is necessary to live a spirituality that helps believers to sanctify themselves through their work, imitating St Joseph, who had to provide with his own hands for the daily needs of the Holy Family and whom, consequently, the Church holds up as Patron of workers.”
Thus, as Catholics we don’t see meaningful work as trivial, a drudgery, a four lettered word –something to be avoided. We understand work as contributing to our sanctification and it demonstrates our ability to collaborate with God in building up the Kingdom of God. Following the example of St. Benedict who points to Joseph quietly, as one example, our goal is to integrate work and prayer, by pursuing the model of holiness as a beautiful work.
Great and Holy Friday seems like a day to post this intriguing picture of the crucified Lord, St Bernard and honey bees. Surely you can connect the dots. The Passion of the Lord –a supreme act of love, is called to mind and hence by the Cross we are saved. Particular thanks to Aurelius Belz, a researcher in the cultural history of musical instruments, for publishing this “find” on his blog.
From the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great we are educated: “… He [Jesus] surrendered himself as a ransom to death by which we were held captive, sold into slavery under sin. Descending by the cross into Hades to fulfill all things in himself, he freed us from Death’s despair, and rose on the third day, preparing the way for the resurrection of all flesh from the dead…”
Honey bees ascend to the side wound of Jesus.
Mr. Belz writes: “It should be noted here in relation to the medal that the encounter of a bee colony with the Savior has a significant precursor. Both on an altar sheet (private property, Germany) and in Josef Meglinger’s Cistercineser Year, published in 1700 in print, we see Bernard of Clairvaux –who received the epithet doctor mellifluus due to his honey-flowing sermons– with a beehive in front of an altar with the crucified. The bees ascend to the side wound of Jesus and on a banner we find the text. “Nil cogitatur dulcius quam JESUS Dei Filius”, nothing sweeter can be thought of than Jesus, the Son of God. The flowers on the altar are symbolic bearers of meaning, so the lily stands for innocence, the rose for love and the sunflower, which always turns to the light, for permanence in faith. (Josef Meglinger, Cistercienser Year, 1700)
St. Bernard is the famous abbot of the Cistercian Benedictine reform. He’s the patron saint of beekeepers as well as the patron saint of bees and candlemakers. The image connected with this post is Bernard of Clairvaux, circa 1090 – 20.8.1153, French monk, saint, full length, copper engraving, Germany, circa 1700, Marienthal Abbey library.
On a personal note, St. Bernard has been invoked as one of the patron saints of my apiary.
Doubtful that most Catholics will note who the Doctors of the Church are among the saints, but perhaps we ought to attend to the small group much more than we do. Today, St. Gregory of Narek is liturgically remembered by the Church. Gregory is revered as a saint, a man who served as a priest, gifted by the Spirit as a mystic, and shared his talents as a composer, astronomer, theologian and poet; he is honored as the first poet of Armenia and revered by Armenians as a “watchful angel in human form.” He is also the 36th Doctor of the Church and, one of very small group of Eastern Fathers with the title.
Matthew Bunson wrote a good biography of St Gregory of Narek that will give you a wider perspective.
Today we pray for the gift to see. Not only seeing light, color and people/things, but seeing deeply things of God –in the spiritual life — through the intercession of Saint Lucy of Syracuse (283–304). It is a fervent pray of mine that Saint Lucy will open the eyes of us all to see truth, beauty and goodness; I also pray for my friend Ken whose birthday is celebrated today, and for those who live eye problems.
The feast of St. Lucy whose name from the Latin lux, for “light”, reminds us who dwell in the still darkening northern hemisphere that our days will soon be getting longer again.
One her biographers say “Some accounts have Lucy slain by having her throat thrust through with sword.
“Other accounts say that to protect her virginity she disfigured herself by cutting her own eyes out and sending them to her suitor, a plot likely to discourage him.
“St. Lucy is therefore the patroness of sight.
“St. Lucy shows up fairly often in Dante’s great Divine Comedy. She is first in the Inferno. It is Lucy who asked Beatrice to help Dante. In Purgatory the eagle that bears Dante upward in a dream is actually Lucy who is bearing him to the gate of Purgatory. Eagles, of course, are “eagle-eyed” and see very well. In the Paradiso she is placed directly across from Adam in the Heaven of the Rose. She can gaze directly at God.
The photo, above, is from the Church of St. Lucy in Rome taken by Fr JZ.
