Sept. 19th, St. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury

St. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury



This Theodore who, like the Apostle Paul, was a native of Tarsus, lived as a monk at Rome, where he was well known for godliness and learning. At that time Pope Vitalian was in treaty to send an Archbishop to Canterbury after the death of Deusdedit, the sixth who had ministered to that church since blessed Augustine. The Pope offered this dignity to the Abbot Hadrian, who excused himself out of lowliness, and put forward Theodore. Theodore therefore was consecrated and sent into England, with Abbot Hadrian for his companion, who was a man both learned and holy. As soon as he had come to Canterbury, he made a visitation to his own diocese, and also to the whole of England taking the said Hadrian with him everywhere. He was well received, and therefore he was able to set forth everywhere a right order of living and the canonical rule for the keeping of Easter. He also ordained bishops in meet places, and corrected with their help such things as needed amending. This it came about that the Archbishop of Canterbury was recognized as the Primate of all England. * For as much as Theodore himself, and the blessed Hadrian also, were excellently taught in letters both sacred and profane, they opened everywhere Church schools. Hence the Venerable Bede saith that brighter times never shone on England than those wherein Theodore administered her Church. She had kings who were both mighty and godly, and all men were longing to be taught in heavenly things from the famous masters at hand. Many learnt by their instruction, and so lighted England by their teaching and holiness that this would seem to be the golden age of the Church of England. Neither did Theodore and Hadrian give sacred letters only to the hearers, but worldly learning also, as the handmaid of theology. * Blessed Theodore oftentimes held Synods, wherein he passed wholesome decrees. He is reputed to have published a Book of Penitentials for the reformation of the lives of the faithful. His chief care was to ordain as bishops men above all cavil. He it was that translated blessed Chad to be Bishop of Litchfield. He it was who consecrated holy Erconwald as Bishop of London ; holy John of Beverley, Bishop of Hexham ; holy Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne ; and men not less holy as bishops in other churches. When the kings of England fell into disputes he so affected them by the authority which he enjoyed among them all, that they cast away their arms, and bound themselves together in the bond of a lasting peace. He ministered in holiness to the Church committed unto him for the space of twenty-two years, and helped to bring its diverse elements into an ecclesiastical unity which afterwards became the means of civic unity between the various kingdoms in which England was at first divided. At the age of eighty-six he went to be forever with the Lord, namely, in 690, upon September 19^th, and was buried with his predecessors in the Abbey Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Canterbury.

Collect:

Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God : that the devout observance of this festival of blessed Theodore, thy Confessor and Bishop, may be profitable unto us for our advancement in all godliness, and for the attainment of everlasting salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Aug. 11th, Saints Tiburtius and Susanna, Virgin and Martyrs.

Aug. 11^th, Saints Tiburtius and Susanna, Virgin and Martyrs.

This Tiburtius is celebrated in the inscription which Pope Saint Damasus placed at the traditional site of his death and burial, which same is usually set as the year 288, on the Lavican Way, to wit : when the sword of persecution pierced the bosom of our Mother the church, this noble Martyr, despising the command of the temporal prince, blissfully followed Christ to the heavenly kingdom ; which that merited for thee, O gracious Martyr, beloved of God, the honours of the sacred liturgy, and undying praise. And old story hath it that he was converted to Christianity by the soldier Sebastian, and for his boldness in proclaiming Christ was smitten with the sword at the Third Milestone on the Lavican Road, where he was buried by the Christians. On the same day is commemorated the noble maiden Susanna who, according to the Martyrology of saint Jerome, was beheaded for Christ about the year 295. The story told of her in later days was that she refused the offer of marriage of Galerius Maximianus, son to the Emperor Diocletian, because she had made a vow of her virginity to God, and after divers torments wherewith her holy resolution was tried, was smitten with the sword, in her own house, by order of the Emperor, and so passed to heaven to receive the double reward of virginity and martyrdom.

Collect:

O Lord, whomever failest to look down in mercy on them on whom thou bestowest the succour of thy Saints : grant, we pray thee, that the intercession of thy holy Martyrs, Tiburtius and Susanna, may evermore avail to comfort and defend us, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Aug. 10th, Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr.

Aug. 10^th, Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr.
No Martyr of the Church hath a name more famous than Lawrence, in whose praise the most illustrious of the Latin Fathers have written, and in whose triumph the universal Church hath ever delighted to join. Spain hath claimed him as he son. He was one of the seven Deacons of the Church in Rome during the Popedom of Saint Sixtus II. These Levites bore an important office, namely, to car for the sacred vessels and church-property ; to succour, with the alms entrusted to them, all the Christian poor and needy, of whom there were very many ; and to assist the Pope in the administration of the Sacraments, and in offering the holy Sacrifice. In 257 the Emperor Valerian published an edict which decreed that all Christian leaders, the clergy in particular, should be put to death, so that the flock might be scattered through the destruction of its shepherds. In the following year, on August 6^th, holy Sixtus was martyred, and four days thereafter the Archdeacon Lawrence followed his spiritual father in martyrdom. And the names of them both have had, for centuries, grateful mention the Gregorian Canon. The poet Prudentius, Bishop Saint Ambr9se, Pope Saint Damasus , and other early writers, who made use of the oral traditions of their days, wrote of the holy Archdeacon in such wise as to give the form to his liturgical Office which it still hath. According to Prudentius, the blessed Martyr in his death agony offered the sacrifice of himself to God in impetration for the triumph of Christianity in pagan Rome. And when this became an accomplished fact, it was regarded as a victory which Lawrence had won for Christ ; and his day therefore was the chief Saint’s Day after that of Saints Peter and Paul. Hence, in the Lateran palace, since early times, the Pontifical Chapel hath been nemed for holy Lawrence ; and there, every day after Mass the Thanksgiving, now to be found in the Missal, was recited with the Collect of Saint Lawrence as a memorial to him.

COLLECT.

O LORD, who knowest us to be sore beset by reason of our sins: mercifully grant that, like as thou didst enable thy blessed servant Lawrence to overcome the fires of his torments; so we may by thy grace assuage the flames of our temptations. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

August 5th, Our Lady of the Snows

Our Lady of the Snows

This feast is in commemoration of the first church to be dedicated in Rome under the invocation of our Lady, and the third of those Christian temples in the City known as Patriarchal Basilicas. The origin of this building, according to an old story, popular in ancient times, was as followeth. In the middle of the fourth century, during the pontificate of Pope Liberius, there lived at Rome a certain nobleman named John, and a noble lady his wife, who had no children to whom to leave their substance, and who vowed that they would make the holy Virgin Mother of God their heiress. And earnestly they besought her in some way to make known to them upon what godly work she would have their money spent. And thereupon (so saith the story) the blessed Virgin graciously listened to the heart-felt earnestness of their prayers, and by a wondrous sign assured them of her will.


On the fifth day of August, which is the time when the heat of summer waxeth greatest in Rome, a part of the Esquiline Hill was covered at night with snow. And some scholars think that such a strange and unseasonable fall of snow did take place, and so gave rise to the old tale, which goeth on to say on this same night the Mother of God appeared in a dream to John and his wife separately, and told them that on that spot, which in the morning they could see clad in snow, they should build a church, to be dedicated under the name of the Virgin Mary, for that this was the way in which she chose that they should make her their heiress. Then John went and told it to Pope Liberius, who declared that he also had been visited by a like dream.

Therefore Pope Liberius went in a solemn procession of clergy and people to the snow-clad hill, and traced upon that spot the plan of the church, which same was afterwards built with the money of John and his wife. And later it was rebuilt by Saint Pope Sixtus III. At the beginning it was called by divers names, sometimes the Liberian Basilica, sometimes the Church of Saint Mary-at-the-Manger (because of the presence there of a relick revered as the Manger in which our infant Lord lay), and so on. Howbeit, since there are in Rome many churches called after the holy Virgin Mary, and this church, both in age and dignity, doth excel them all, it is commonly called St. Mary Major. And the memory of the dedication there of is kept every year by this feast-day that taketh name from the strange fall of snow which is said to have taken place on this day.


Collect
O Lord God Almighty, we beseech thee to keep us thy servants both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls : that by the glorious intercession of blessed Mary Ever-Virgin, we may be defended from our present heaviness and attain in the end to everlasting gladness. Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, who livest and reignest with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Saints Nazarius & Celsus, Martyrs. Victor I, Pope & Martyr & Innocent I, Pope & Confessor

Saints Nazarius & Celsus, Martyrs. Victor I, Pope & Martyr & Innocent I, Pope & Confessor

Nazarius and Celsus were early venerated at Milan as Martyrs, and there blessed Ambrose searched for their remains and believed that he had found them. Nazarius was baptized by Saint Pope Linus, and afterwards went to Gaul. Where he met with the boy Celsus, whom he instructed in the Faith, and baptized. Therefore these twain went to Treves, and in Nero’s persecution were both thrown into the sea, whence they had a marvellous escape, and fled to Milan, where they spread the Faith, for which they were apprehended and beheaded, and buried outside the Roman Gate. There their bodies lay unknown and unhonoured till blessed Ambrose found them, and laid them in an honorable sepulchre in Milan. * Pope Victor I was by birth an African, and governed the Church under the Emperor Severus. To his efforts it is chiefly due that the Western Church came to agreement in the celebration of the paschal feast by our present method of reckoning. But Saint Irenaeus interceded with him, that he would not provoke into schism certain of the Church whose custom in this matter was different. He is reputed also to have decreed that , if need be, Baptism can be administered with any water, so long as it be natural. He cast out of the Church Theodotus the Tanner, who came from Constantinople, and taught that Christ was nothing but a man. He wrote upon the subject of the Passover, and composed some other small works. According to the Pontifical Book, he held two December ordinations, wherein he made four priests, seven deacons, and twelve bishops for divers places, and sat in the Chair of Peter nine years, on month and twenty-eight days. He is believed to have received the crown of his testimony, and his burial on Vatican Hill, on July 28^th, about the year 197, and by tradition is revered as a Martyr. * Pope Innocent I flourished in the days of Saints Jerome and Augustine, when the times were troublous, and Alaric sacked the Eternal City; on behalf of which he had gone to get the help of the Emperor Honorius at Ravenna, whereby the man of God escaped the grief of seeing the destruction of the Roman people, even as righteous Lot, by God’s providence, escaped the burning of Sodom. This holy Pope was a vigorous administrator of the duties of his office, whereby he left his mark on Christianity for all time. He it was who condemned Pelagius and Caelestius, and made a decree against their heresy, ordering that little children even those whose mothers were Christians, must be born again in Baptism, that their original sin might be done away. Numerous other notable things were done by him. For he befriended and protected holy John Chrysostom. He wrote letters containing prudent decisions which are now observed as laws. To the Bishop of Tolouse he wrote that absolution and holy Communion is never to be denied to dying penitents. To the Bishop of Gubbio he wrote that bishops only (because they alone have the fulness of the priesthood) are administer Confirmation. According to the Pontifical Book, he sat in the throne of Peter fifteen years, one month, and ten days, and held four December ordinations, wherein he made thirty priests, fifteen deacons, and forty-four bishops for divers places. He went to God on March 12^th, 417, and was buried in the cemetery known as the Place of the Bear-and-the-Cap, but is honored on the reputed date of his translation.

Collect:

We pray thee, O Lord : that the glorious confession of thy blessed Saints, Nazarius, Celsus, Victor, and Innocent, may strengthen us against all temptations, and obtain for the frailty of our mortal nature the succour of thy bounteous goodness, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

July 26th ,ST. ANNE, MOTHER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

From a Sermon by St. John Damascene

The home of Anne is set before us, that herein we may see an ensample both of married and of maiden life, the one in the person of Anne the mother, the other in that of Mary her daughter. Whereof one hath but now ceased to be barren, and the other is in a little while destined, beyond the course of nature, to become the Mother of the Messiah by a singular birth, specially designed of God to build up anew our nature. We can imagine, then, how Anne, filled with the Holy Ghost, with joyful and jubilant spirit, might have sung aloud: Rejoice with me, for out of my barren womb I have borne the bud of promise, and, as I have longed to do, I nourish at my breasts the fruit of benediction ; I have laid aside the mournful garments of barrenness, and put on the joyful raiment of fruitfulness ; let Hannah, the adversary of Peninnah, make merry with me, and join with me for fellow-feeling, in the singing of this new and unhoped-for wonder that is wrought in me ; let Sarah be glad that was joyfully pregnant in her old age. She was but a shadow cast before of my conception, even before me that hitherto have been barren. Let all the barren and fruitless break forth into singing, when they behold in what wondrous wise I have been visited from heaven.

Let all other mothers also, when they like Anne are gifted with fruitfulness, say : Blessed be he that gave their desire unto them that besought him! that gave fruitfulness unto her that was barren! that granted unto her that from her should bud forth the joy-bringing Virgin! Who, according to the flesh, was Mother of God, and whose womb was a heaven wherein he dwelt whom no place can contain. Let us also with them offer our praises to her that was called barren, but now is become the mother of a maid-child ; let us say unto her in the words of the Scripture : O how blessed is the house of David from whence thou art sprung! and that womb wherein God hath fashioned the ark of his holiness! her, by whom he was himself conceived without man's seed!

Right blessed art thou, yea, thrice blessed, whom God hath so blest as to make thee to bring forth, as his own gift, the babe Mary! Whose very name is highly honourable, out of whom Christ, the Flower of life, blossomed! A maiden whose rising is glorious, and whose delivery is worth more than the world. We also, O Anne, woman right blessed, do with thee joy. In sooth thou hast brought forth what we all have hoped for, and God hath given us, namely, the babe of promise. Blessed indeed art thou, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb! The tongues of all the godly do magnify thine offspring, and every glad word is spoken concerning her of whom thou art delivered. It is indeed meet and right, and our bounden duty, to praise her who received a revelation from the goodness of God, and bore for us such and so great a fruit, from whom sweet Jesus sprang.

　

　

Collect

O God, who didst vouchsafe to give grace to blessed Saint Anne that she might be worthy to bear the Mother of thine only-begotten Son : mercifully grant that we who rejoice in the observance of her feast day, may by her intercession find favour in thy sight. Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, who livest and reignest with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Anaphora- Come let us praise the Mother