Saints – Page 59

Saint Margaret of Hungary

Saint Margaret of Hungary’s “… friends and acquaintances petitioned for her to be acclaimed a saint almost immediately after her death. Among them was her own servant, Agnes, who rightly observed that this daughter of a monarch showed far more humility than any of the monastery’s maids. Although their testimony expressed Margaret’s overpowering desire to allow nothing to stand between her and God, the process of canonization was not complete until 1943.

The island where her convent stood, called first the ‘Blessed Virgin’s Isle,’ was called ‘Isle of Margaret’ after the saint.”

(Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Coulson, Dorcy, Farmer)

Saint Ita

Lord God, it was through the power of your Spirit that Saint
Ita was tireless in caring for the afflicted, and in guiding the young toward
holiness, and so we pray: prepare in our hearts, as you prepared in hers, a
home where you will dwell.

Prophet Malachi, saint

Commemoratio
sancti Malachiae, prophetae, qui, post transmigrationem Babylone diem magnum
Domini eiusque adventum in templum nuntiavit semperque et ubique mundam
oblationem nomini eius offerendam. (Roman Martyrology)

The commemoration of
Saint Malachi, the prophet, who, after the Babylonian Exile, announced the
great Day of the Lord, his coming into the Temple, and that an immaculate
offering be made to His Name, always and everywhere.

Saint Hilary Poitiers

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we may rightly
understand and truthfully profess the divinity of your Son, which the Bishop
Saint Hilary taught with such constancy.

Saint Theodosius the Great

Planted in the courts of your Lord, you blossomed
beautifully with virtue, and increased your children in the desert, showering them
with streams of your tears, O chief shepherd of the divine flock of God. Therefore,
we cry to you: “Rejoice, Father Theodosius.” Kondakion – Tone 8

From the hagiography:

Saint
Theodosius the Great lived during the fifth-sixth centuries, and was the
founder of cenobitic monasticism. At the monastery St Theodosius built a home
for taking in strangers, separate infirmaries for monks and laymen, and also a
shelter for the dying. Seeing that people from various lands gathered at the
Lavra, the saint arranged for services in the various languages: Greek,
Georgian and Armenian. All gathered to receive the Holy Mysteries in the large
church, where divine services were chanted in Greek.

St Theodosius accomplished
many healings and other miracles during his life, coming to the aid of the
needy. Through his prayers he once destroyed the locusts devastating the fields
in Palestine. Also by his intercession, soldiers were saved from death, and he
also saved those perishing in shipwrecks and those lost in the desert. Once,
the saint gave orders to strike the semandron (a piece of wood hit with a
mallet), so that the brethren would gather at prayer. He told them, “The
wrath of God draws near the East.” After several days it became known that
a strong earthquake had destroyed the city of Antioch at the very hour when the
saint had summoned the brethren to prayer.

Before his death, St Theodosius
summoned to him three beloved bishops and revealed to them that he would soon
depart to the Lord. After three days, he died at the age of 105. The saint’s
body was buried with reverence in the cave in which he lived at the beginning
of his ascetic deeds.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa

Watchful with the eyes of thy soul

and a vigilant
shepherd for the world,

with wisdom and thy fervent intercession thou didst drive
off heretics like wolves,/keeping thy flock unharmed.

Kondakion – Tone 1

Saint André Bessette

Lord our, friend of the humble, who blessed Your servant, Brother André with a great devotion to Saint Joseph and a real concern for the needy and the afflicted, through his intercession fill our hearts with compassion and lead us in the ways of prayer and love, that we may enter with him into Your glory.

See Saint André and the Oratory

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

But we lack
courage to keep a continual watch over nature, and therefore, year after year,
with our thousand graces, multiplied resolutions, and fair promises, we run
around in a circle of misery and imperfections. After a long time in the
service of God, we come nearly to the point from whence we set out, and perhaps
with even less ardor for penance and mortification than when we began our
consecration to him.

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

Divine Office, Office of
Readings

There are very few American women who have had an impact on civil and religious society because today’s saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, with the work of education and hospitals and other institutions of culture that her order, the Sisters of Charity, did for all of us.

Ask Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton to intercede for us right now to help us to make Jesus known through acts of charity and mercy.

Saint Sylvester, pope

The feast day of Saint Sylvester, located so close to the Christmas liturgical cycle was an early decision of the Fathers of the Church, but it has no relation to the Mystery of the Incarnation. Today’s feast Saint Sylveser, according to Pius Parsch is among the oldest in the Church’s liturgical life because his memory was among the first to receive public recognition by the laity due to his exemplary holiness and concern for the welfare of the faithful, especially the poor. He’s considered to be a confessor of the faith but also acknowledged as a martyr. Sylvester’s feast day was for a long time a holy day of obligation.

Sylvester was elected bishop of Rome in AD 314. He succeeded Saint Miltiades who was pope for 2 years (July 2, 311 – 10 January 314) and was succeed by Saint Mark who only served for 263 days. One of the first things he did as pope was to teach the virtue of peace and to live by example.

Notable about Pope Sylvester was that he lived in Rome as its bishop when the Council of Nicea I was held; recall that the Council of Nicea called to order not by the pope by the emperor, who by the way was a friend of Sylvester’s. During his papacy the great churches of St John Lateran, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, St Paul’s, St Lawrence’s and the first St Peter’s were built, among others.

Several things are attributed to Sylvester:

taught the orthodox Catholic faith in the face of heresy and schism
taught that the sign of the Cross was given to him by the Lord
cared for the poor and expected the clergy to do the same
cared for those in the Order of Virgins and Widows
determined that bishops had the exclusive right to consecrate chrism
instructed priests, when baptizing, also were to anoint with chrism
determined that deacons were to wear the dalmatic with a linen maniple
determined that bread was to be consecrated as Eucharist only a linen corporal
determined those ordained should be stable in that order before taking a higher order
instructed the laity should not sue the clergy
instructed the clergy should not sue another in civil court
called the 1st and 7th days of the week the “Lord’s Day” and the “Sabbath”
among the first use the word “feria” (a free day) for weekdays of the liturgical calendar without a commemoration.

Some of these things perdure today.

When Pope Sylvester died in AD 335 he served the Church as bishop of Rome for 21 years, 11 months, 1 day. He was first lair to rest in the catacomb of Saint Priscilla and later moved to the church of Saint Symmachus.

Saint Thomas Becket

O God our redeemer, the Church was [is] strengthened by the blood of Thy martyr Saint Thomas Becket: so bind us, in life and in death, to the sacrifice of Christ, that our lives being broken and offered with his, we may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world.