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November (end of the year)

From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

THE Presentation is one of the minor solemnities of our Lady, and was inscribed at a comparatively late date on the sacred Cycle; it seems to court the homage of our silent contemplation. The world, unknown to itself, is ruled by the secret prayers of the just; and the Queen of saints, in her hidden mysteries, wrought far more powerfully than the so-called great men, whose noisy achievements fill the annals of the human race.

The East had been celebrating for seven centuries at least[1] the entrance of the Mother of God into the temple of Jerusalem,[2] when in 1372 Gregory XI. permitted it to be kept for the first time[3] by the Roman court at Avignon. Mary in return broke the chains of captivity, that had bound the Papacy for seventy years; and soon the successor of St. Peter returned to Rome. The feast of the Visitation, as we saw on July 2nd, was in like manner inserted in the Western Calendar, to commemorate the re-establishment of unity after the schism which followed the exile.

In 1373, following the example of the Sovereign Pontiff, Charles V. of France introduced the feast of the Presentation into the chapel of his palace. By letters dated 10th November 1374, to the masters and students of the college of Navarre, he expressed his desire that it should be celebrated throughout the kingdom: “Charles, by the grace of God king of the Franks, to our dearly beloved : health in him who ceases not to honour his Mother on earth. Among other objects of our solicitude, of our daily care and diligent meditation, that which rightly occupies our first thoughts is, that the blessed Virgin and most holy Empress be honoured by us with very great love, and praised as becomes the veneration due to her. For it is our duty to glorify her; and we, who raise the eyes of our soul to her on high, know what an incomparable protectress she is to all, how powerful a mediatrix with her blessed Son, for those who honour her with a pure heart... Wherefore, wishing to excite our faithful people to solemnize the said feast, as we ourselves propose to do by God's assistance every year of our life, we send this Office to your devotion, in order to increase your joy.”[4]

Such was the language of princes in those days. Now just at that very time, the wise and pious king, following up the work begun at Brétigny by our Lady of Chartres, rescued France from its fallen and dismembered condition. In the State then, as well as in the Church, at this moment so critical for both, our Lady in her Presentation commanded the storm, and the smile of the infant Mary dispersed the clouds.

The new feast, enriched with Indulgences by Paul II., had gradually become general,[5] when St. Pius V., wishing to diminish the number of Offices on the universal Calendar, included this one among his suppressions. But Sixtus V. restored it to the Roman Breviary in 1585, and shortly afterwards Clement VIII. raised it to the rank of Double Major. Soon the Clergy and Regulars adopted the custom of renewing their holy vows on this day, whereon their Queen had opened before them the way that leads by sacrifice to the special love of our Lord.

Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear, and forget thy people and thy father's house; and the King shall greatly desire thy beauty. Thus, wording the wishes of the daughters of Tyre, sang the Church of the expectation, on the summit of Mount Moriah; and penetrating the future with her inspired glance, she added: After her shall virgins be brought to the King, her neighbours shall be brought to thee; they shall be brought with gladness and? Voicing: they shall be brought into the temple of the King. Hailed beforehand as beautiful above the sans of men, this King, the most mighty, makes on this day a prelude to his conquests; and even this beginning is wonderful. Through the graceful infant now mounting the temple steps, he takes possession of that temple, whose priests will hereafter vainly disown him: for this child, whom the temple welcomes today, is his throne. Already his fragrance precedes and announ­ces him, in the Mother in whose bosom he is to be anointed with the oil of gladness, as the Christ among his brethren; already the Angels hail her as the Queen whose fruitful virginity will give birth to all those consecrated souls, who keep for the divine Spouse the myrrh and the incense of their holocausts, those daughters of kings, who are to form her court of honour.[6]

But our Lady's Presentation also opens new horizons before the Church. On the Cycle of the Saints, which is not so precisely limited as that of the Time, the mystery of Mary's sojourn in the sanctuary of the Old Covenant is our best preparation for the approaching season of Advent. Mary, led to the temple in order to prepare in retirement, humility, and love for her incomparable destiny, had also the mission of perfecting at the foot of the figurative altar the prayer of the human race, of itself ineffectual to draw down the Saviour from heaven. She was, as Saint Bernardine of Siena says, the happy completion of all the waiting and supplication for the coming of the Son of God; in her, as in their culminating point, all the desires of the saints who had preceded her found their consummation and their term.[7]

Through her wonderful understanding of the Scriptures, and her conformity, daily and hourly, to the minutest teachings and prescriptions of the Mosaic ritual, Mary everywhere found and adored the Messias hidden under the letter; she united herself to him, immolated herself with him in each of the many victims sacrificed before her eyes; and thus she rendered to the God of Sinai the homage, hitherto vainly expected, of the Law understood, practised, and made to fructify, in all the fulness that beseemed its divine Legislator. Then could Jehovah truly say: As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and return no more thither, but soak the earth and water it, and make it to spring: ... so shall my word be: ... it shall not return to me void, but it shall do whatsoever I please.[8]

Supplying thus for the deficiencies of the Gentiles as well as of the Synagogue, Mary beheld in the Bride of the Canticle the Church of the future. In our name she addressed her supplications to him whom she recognised as the Bridegroom, without however knowing that he was to be her own Son. Such yearnings of love, coming from her, were sufficient to obtain from the divine Word pardon for the infidelities of the past, and the immorality into which the wandering world was plunging deeper and deeper.[9] How well did this Ark of the New Cove­nant replace that of the Jews, which had perished with the first temple! It was for her, though he knew it not, that Herod the Gentile had continued the construction of the second temple, after it had remained desolate since the time of Zorobabel; for the temple, like the tabernacle before it, was but the home of the ark destined to be God's throne; but greater was the glory of the second temple which sheltered the reality, than of the first which con­tained but the figure.

The Greeks have chosen for the Lessons of the feast the passages of Scripture which describe the carrying of the Ark into the tabernacle of the desert,[10] and afterwards into the temple of Jerusalem.[11] The historical Lesson relates the traditions concerning the oblation of the Blessed Virgin by her holy parents to God in the temple, at the age of three years, there to dwell until, after the lapse of twelve years, the mystery of our salvation was to be accomplished in her.

In the sixth century, the emperor Justinian built, in honour of the Presentation, a magnificent church, on the southern part of the platform on which had formerly stood the temple and its annexes. It is now the mosque El-Aksa.

The next century gives us the following strophes, which bear witness to the antiquity of the feast.

DE B. VIRGINE IN TEMPLUM RECEPTA.

Salvatoris templum maxime mundum, illa tanti aestimanda ovis et Virgo, sacra illa arca thesaurum divinae continens gloriae hodie adducitur in domum Domini; gratiam secum affert divini Spiritus, dum angeli Dei eam concelebrant: Ipsa palam est coeleste tabernaculum.

Dei ineffabilium et sacrorum mysteriorum dum cerno in hac Virgine gratiam ostensam et aperte cumulatam, gaudeo, nec modos intelligere valeo insolitos et dictu difficiles, quibus electa illa immaculata, sola praestat super omnem creawturam, tam oculis quam mente perceptam; ideo faustis vocibus volens illi plaudere, stupeo vehementer animo et eloquio: audeo tamen eam praedicare, magnamque dicere. Ipsa siquidem est coeleste tabernaculum.

Rerum omnium conditor, opifex et Dominus, ex arcana misericordia et sola elementis sus, se ad nos inclinans, cum lapsum eum videret, quem propriis compegit manibus, misertues est, eumque restituere dignatus est, opere sublimiore, quippe bonus quum esset et misericors, semet exinanivit; propterea Mariam uti Virginem et immaculatam, sacivit sibi participem mysterii, quo genus nostrum sponte assumpsit: ipsa est coeleste tabernaculum.

Pro nobis igitur redemptor et Verbum in carne, cum vellet ostendi, tum Virginem in terram induxit, et novo adventu stupendoque incremento intemeratam illam honestavit; precibus enim hunc fructum concessit, eamque nuntio et praeconio promisit justis Joachim et Annae: receptoquo cum fide craculo, parentes cum amore et laetitia voverunt, se illam Domino oblaturosesse: ipsa est coeleste tabernaculum.

Divino jam numine exorta ama Virgine, justi, prout spoponderant, eam creatori dandam adducebant in templum; laeta ergo Anna palam exclamavit, sacerdotem affata: Eccillam recipito et introduc ad inaccessa templi panetralis, et circumtuere eam: mearum enim precum hic fructus datus est; hanc Deo auctori cum laetitia et fide promisi dicandam: ipsa est coeleste tabernaculum.

The exceedingly pure temple of the Saviour, the inestimable sheep, the holy Virgin, the sacred ark containing the treasure of the divine majesty, is led today into the house of the Lord; thither she brings the grace of the divine Spirit, while the Angels of God sing her praises, saying: Truly she is the heavenly tabernacle.

While I contemplate the grace of God's ineffable and sacred mysteries, revealed in its plenitude in this Virgin, I am full of joy, and I cannot comprehend the wonderful and inexpressible way in which this chosen and immaculate Virgin surpasses all creatures visible and invisible. Desiring then to applaud her with joyful voice, my thoughts and words fail me; yet I dare to proclaim her praises and exalt her, for she is the heavenly tabernacle.

The Creator, Author, and Lord of all things, out of his incomprehensible mercy and compassion, bent down towards us, and seeing the creature he had made with his own hands fallen away, he in his pity, deigned to restore it by a sublimer work than the creation; for he, so good and merciful, emptied himself; and in the mystery whereby he freely took on him our nature, he associated the immaculate Virgin Mary with himself: and she is the heavenly tabernacle.

The Word of God, our Redeemer, willing to show himself for our sake in the flesh, brought the Virgin into this world, and honoured the coming of that spotless one with new and stupendous gifts; for he gave her as the fruit and reward of prayer, and promised and announced her to Joachim and Anne. Her parents believed the word, and with joyful love they vowed to offer her to the Lord: for she is the heavenly tabernacle.

The lovely Virgin being horn according to the divine decree, her holy parents led her to the temple, to fulfil their promise, and give her to her Creator. Anne in her joy thus cried out to the priest: Receive this child, lead her into the most secluded parts of the temple surround her with all care; for she was given to me as the fruit of my prayers, and in the joy of my faith I promised to devote her to God her Creator: she is the heavenly tabernacle.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, many churches used to sing on this day the following Prose, composed as an acrostic on the words Ave Maria, benedico te, Amen. Hail Mary, I praise thee, Amen.

Sequence

Altissima providente
Cuncta rite disponente
Dei Sapientia:
Vno nexu conjugatis
Joachim et Anna, gratis
Juga sunt sterilia.

Ex coris affectu toto
Domino fideli voto
Se strinxerunt pariter:
Mox si prolem illis dare
Dignetur, hanc dedicare
In templo perenniter.

Angelus apparuit
Lucidus qui docuit
Exaudita vota:
Regis summi gratia
Ut his detur filia
Gratiosa tota.

In utero consecrata,
Miro modo generata,
Gignet mirabilius
Altissimi Patris natum
Virgo manens, qui realum
Mundi tollet gratius.

Benedicto virgo nata,
Temple trima praesentata
It ter quinis gradibus:
Erecta velox ascendit
Et uterque parens tendit
Se ornando vestibus.

Nova fulsit gloria
Templem, dum ecimia
Virgo praesentatur:
Edocta divinitus,
Visitata coelitus,
Angelis laetatur.

Dum ut nubant jubet multis
Princeps puellis adultis,
Primo virgo renuit:
Ipsam namque devovere
Parentes, ipsa manere
Virgo voto statuit.

Consultus Deus responsum
Dat, ut virgo sumat sponsum
Quem pandet flos editus:
Ostensus Joseph puellam
Ad parentum duxit cellam,
Nuptiis sollicitus.

Tunc Gabriel ad virginem
Ferens conceptus ordinem
Delegatur;
Erudita stat tacita,
Verba quae sint insolita
Meditatur.

At cum ille tradidit
Modum, virgo credidit,
Sique sacro flamine
Mox Verbum concipitur,
Et quod nusquam clauditur
Conditur in virgine.

Ecce virgo singularis,
Quanta laude sublimaris,
Quanta fulges gloria:
Nos ergo sic tuearis,
Ut tructu, quo gloriaris,
Fruamur in patria.

Amen.
The Wisdom of God
with inscrutable providence,
disposeth all things rightly:
Joachim and Anne
are united in wedlock,
but their union is sterile.

With all the heart's affection
they together bind themselves
by inviolable vow to the Lord:
that if he deign to give them offspring,
they without delay will consecrate it
to him forever in the temple.

A bright Angel appears,
and tells them their prayers are heard,
and by the grace
of the most high King,
a daughter shall be given them,
full of grace.

Holy even in her conception,
she is born in a wondrous manner,
yet in a way more wondrous still
will she give birth, remaining a virgin,
to the Son of the most high Father,
when he comes to freely, cancel the guilt of the world.

She is born then, that blessed Virgin,
and at the age of three years
is presented in the temple;
swift and erect, adorned with her beautiful robe,
she ascends the fifteen steps,
beneath her parents’ gaze.

The temple shines
with a new glory,
when this august Virgin is presented;
there she is taught by God,
is visited by the Angels from heaven,
and rejoices with them.

When the chief priest
bids the maidens of adult age
prepare for marriage,
the Virgin at first refuses;
for her parents have devoted her to God,
and she herself has vowed to remain a virgin.

God, being consulted,
an­swers that the virgin shall take him
for her spouse whom a miraculous flower shall designate;
Joseph thus chosen
weds the maiden
and leads her to his home.

Then Gabriel is sent to her,
telling her how she
is to become a mother;
but the prudent Virgin stands silent,
pondering over
the strangeness of the message.

But when he explains how this shall be,
she believes him;
and thus by the Holy Spirit
the Word is conceived,
and he whom no space can contain
is concealed in the Virgin's bosom.

O peerless maiden,
how dost thou surpass all praise
in thy dazzling glory!
Protect us now, that in our fatherland
we may enjoy thy fruit,
whereby thou art so honoured.

Amen.

“Congratulate me, all ye that love the Lord, because when I was a little one I pleased the Most High.”[12] Such is the invitation thou addressest to us, O Mary, in the Office chanted in thy honour; and on what feast couldst thou do so more appropriately?

When, even more little in thy humility than by thy tender age, thou didst mount, in thy sweet purity, the steps of the temple, all heaven must have owned that it was henceforth just for the Most High to take his delight in our earth. Having hitherto lived in retirement with thy blessed parents, this was thy first public act; it showed thee for a moment to the eyes of men, only to withdraw thee immediately into deeper obscurity. But, as thou wast officially offered and presented to the Lord, he himself doubtless, surrounded by the princes of his court, presented thee not less solemnly to those noble spirits, as their Queen. In the fulness of the new light that then burst upon them, they understood at once thy incomparable greatness, the majesty of the temple where Jehovah was receiving a homage superior to that of their nine choirs, and the august prerogative of the Old Testament to have thee for its daughter, and to perfect, by its teachings and guidance during those twelve years, the formation of the Mother of God.

Holy Church, however, declares that we can imitate thee, O Mary, in this mystery of thy Presentation, as in all others.[13] Deign to bless especially those privileged souls who, by the grace of their vocation, are even here below dwellers in the house of the Lord : may they be like that fruitful olive enriched by the Holy Spirit, to which St John Damascene compares thee.[14] But is not every Christian, by reason of his Baptism, an indweller and a member of the Church, God's true sanctuary, prefigured by that of Moriah? May we, through thy intercession, follow thee so closely in thy Presentation, even here in the land of shadows, that we may deserve to be presented after thee to the Most High in the temple of his glory.[15]


[1] Pitra, Analecta sacra Spicilegio Solesmensi parata, i. 275.
[2] Menaea, ad diem hanc.
[3] This is to be understood only of the feast properly so called; for the marble of Berre, reproduced by Le Blant in No. 542 A of Inscriptions chrétennes de la Gaute, proves that the fact of Mary’s sojourn in the temple of Jerusalem ws recognized and honoured in the West in the fifth century. See Plate 72 of the same work, No. 433.
[4] Launcy, Historia Navarrae gymnasti, Pars I. Lib. i. cap. 10.
[5] From sources which do not come within the learned author’s scope, it appears, that in England, the feast is of much more ancient institution, though the evidence so far collected confines its observance to the monasteries. As Oblatio S. Mariae in templo Domini cum esset trium annorum, it occurs in several monastic Calendars of Saxon times, and, still under the title of Oblatio, in some of later date. This is only one of many interesting facts illustrating the English movement of the 10th and early 11th centuries in its devotional aspect: a side of the question which still awaits special study. (Translator’s note).
[6] Ps. xliv.
[7] Bernardin. Sen. Pro festivitatibus V. Mariae, Sermo iv.
[8] Isaias, lv. 10, 11.
[9] Olier, Vie intérieure de la très-sainte Viergo, Présentation.
[10] Exod. xi.
[11] III Kings viii.
[12] Second Responsory in the Common Office of our Lady.
[13] 2nd Lesson of 2nd Nocturn. Ambr. de Virginibus ii.
[14] 1st Lesson of 2nd Nocturn. Damasc. De Fide orthodoxa, iv.
[15] Collect of the feast.

 

From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

FELIX was called in his youth to dwell in the desert; and he thought to die there, forgotten by the world he had despised. But our Lord had decreed that his old age should yield fruit before men.

It was one of those epochs, which may be called turning-points in history. The first of the great active Orders was about to be raised up in the Church by St. John of Matha; others were soon to follow, called forth by the new requirements of the times. Eternal Wisdom, who remaining herself the same reneweth all things,[1] would prove that sanctity also never changes, and that charity, though assuming different forms, is ever the same, having but one principle and one aim, — God, loved for his own sake. Hence John of Matha was led by the Holy Spirit to Felix of Valois, as a disciple to the master; and then, upon pure contemplation personified by the anchorite living out his declining years in the depths of the forest, was grafted the intensely active life of the redeemer of captives. The desert of Cerfroid became the cradle, and remained the chief centre, of the Trinitarian Order.

Let us read the Church's history of the servant of God, remembering that it requires to be completed by that of his son and disciple. (Feb. 8th).

Felix, Hugo antea dictus, ex regali Valesiorum familia ortus in Gallia, ab ineunte aetate non levis dedit futurae sanctitatis indicia, praesertim misericordiae erga pauperes: nam adhuc infantulus, manu propria, ac si grandior esset, et judicii maturitate polleret, nummos egenis distribuit. Jame grandiusculus, solebat ex appositis in mensa dapibus ad ipsos mittere, et ferme eo, quod sapidius erat, obsonio pauperculos pueros recreabat. Adolescens non semel vestibus se exspoliavit, ut inopes cooperiret. Ab avunculo Theobaldo, Xamphanae et Blesii comite, vitam reo mortis impetravit, praedicens hunc infamem hactenus sicarium, mox sanctissimis praeditum moribus evasurum: veridicum testimonium monstravit eventus.

Post exactam laudabiliter adolescentiam, coepit coelestis contemplationis studio solitudinem cogitare; prius tmen voluit sacria initiari, ut omnem regni, a cujus successione jure legis Salicae non longe distabat, spem sibi praecideret. Saceerdos factus, et prima missa devotissime celebrata, non multo post in eremum secessit, ubi summa abstinentia victitans, coelestium charismatum abundantia pascebatur. Ibi cum sancto Joanne de Matha Parisiensi doctore, a quo ex divina inspiratione quaesitus et inventus, per aliquot annos sanctissime vixit; donec ambo per Angelum a Deo admoniti Romam petierunt, specialem a Summo Pontifice vivendi regulam impetratur. Facta igitur Innocentio Papae tertio inter Missarum solemnis revelatione religionis et instituti de redimendis captivis, ab ipso Pontifice, simul cum socio, candidis vestibus bicolori cruce signatis induitur, ad eam formam qua Angelus indutus apparuit: et insuper voluit Pontifax, ut nova religio juxta triplicem colorem, quo habitus constat, sanctissimme Trinitatis titulo decoraretur.

Regula propria ex Summi Pontificis Innocentii confirmatione accepta, in dicecesi Meldensi apud locum, qui Cervus Frigidus dicitur, primum ordinis paulo ante a se et socio exstructum coenobium ampliavit, ubi religiosam observantiam, et Redemptionis institutum mirifice coluit, ac inde per alumnos in alias provincisa diligentissime propagavit. Illustrem hic a beata Virgine Matre favorem accepit: dormientibus siquidem cunctis fratribus, et ad matutinas preces in pervigilio Nativitatis Deiparae media nocte recitandas, Deo sic disponente, non surgentibus, Felix de more vigilaus, et horas praeveniens, chorum ingressus, reperit beatam Virginem in medio chroi habitu cruce ordinis insignito indutam, ac coelitibus similiter indutis sociatam. Quibus permixtus Felix, praecinente Deipara, laudes divinas concinuit, riteque persolvit. Et quasi jam a terrestri ad coelestem chroum evocaretur, instantis mortis ab Angelo certiot factus, filios ad caritatem erga pauperes et captivos adhortans, animam Deo reddidit, aetate ac meritis consummatus, anno post Christum natum ducentesimo duodecimo supra millesimum, sub eodem Pontifice Innocentio tertio.
Felix, formerly called Hugh, was born in France, of the royal family of the Valois, and from his cradle gave promise of future sanctity and especially of charity towards the poor. While still an infant, he would distribute money to the needy with his own hand, as if he were grown up and had full use of reason. When somewhat older, he used to send them meat from the ta­ble, and would choose what was daintiest for poor little children. When a youth, he more than once stripped himself of his own garments to clothe the poor. He obtained the life of a condemned criminal from his uncle Theobald, Count of Champagne and Blois; foretelling that the man, hitherto an infamous murderer, would shortly become a saint; the truth of which prophecy was proved by the event.

Having spent his youth in the practice of virtue, he was induced by his love of heavenly contemplation to think of retiring into solitude. He determined, however, first to take Holy Orders, and thus cut off all possibility of succeeding to the crown, of which he had some expectations on account of the Salic Law. After being ordained priest, and celebrating his first Mass with the greatest devotion, he retired into the desert, where he lived in the severest abstinence, but enjoying an abundance of heavenly gifts and graces. There he was joined by John of Matha, a Parisian doctor, who had been inspired by God to seek him; and they lived together in a most holy manner for some years. God then sent an Angel, who bade them go to Rome and obtain a special rule of life from the Sovereign Pontiff. Pope Innocent M. received, during solemn Mass, a revelation concerning the religious Order to be insti­tuted for the ransom of captives; and he himself clothed Felix and John in a white habit with a red and blue cross, such as was worn by the Angel who had appeared. Moreover the Pontiff determined that on account of the three colours of the habit, the new Order should bear the name of the most holy Trinity.

Upon receiving the confirmation of their rule from Pope Innocent, Felix returned to Cerfroid, in the diocese of Meaux, and enlarged the first convent of the Order, which he and his companion had built there shortly before. There he caused religious observance and the work of ransom to flourish; and he dili­gently propagated the Order by sending disciples into other provinces. In this place he was favoured with a remarkable grace by the blessed Virgin Mary. On the vigil of the Nativity of the Mother of God, while the brethren, God so disposing, remained asleep instead of rising at midnight for Matins, Felix who was watching according to his custom before the appointed hour, entered the church, and found the blessed Virgin in the middle of the choir, clad in the habit and cross of the Order, and surrounded by Angels in the same attire. Felix joined them, and the Mother of God having intoned the Office, he sang the divine praises with them even to the end. Then, as if calling him from the choir of earth to that of heaven, an Angel informed him that his death was at hand. He exhorted his sons to love of the poor and of captives; and gave up his soul to God, full of days and of merits, in the year of our Lord 1212, in the pontificate of the said Innocent III.

Felix, happy lover of charity, teach us the worth, and also the nature, of this queen of virtues. It was she that attracted thee into solitude in pursuit of her divine Object; and when thou hadst learnt to find God in himself, she showed him to thee and taught thee to love him in thy brethren. Is not this the secret which makes love become strong as death, and daring enough, as in the case of thy sons, to defy hell itself? May this love inspire us with every sort of devotedness; may it ever remain the excellent portion of thy holy Order, leading it to adapt itself to every new requirement, in a society where the worst kind of slavery, under a thousand forms, reigns supreme.

[1] Wisd. vii. 27.

 

From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

ALTHOUGH the blessed in heaven shine each with his own peculiar glory, God is pleased to group them in families, as he groups the stars in the material firmament. It is grace that presides over the arrangement of these constellations in the heaven of the Saints; but sometimes it seems as if God wished to remind us that he is the sole Author of both grace and nature ; and inviting them, in spite of the fall, to honour him unitedly in his elect, he causes sanctity to become a glorious heirloom, handed down from generation to generation in the same family on earth. Among these races, none can compare with that royal line which, beginning in ancient Pannonia, spread its branches over the world in the most flourishing days of Christendom : Rich in virtue and studying beautifulness,[1] as Scripture says, it brought peace into all the royal houses of Europe, with which it was allied; and the many names it has inscribed in the golden book of the blessed, perpetuate its glory.

Among these illustrious names, and surrounded by them as a diamond set in a circle of pearls, the greatest, in the esteem of the Church and of the people, is that of the amiable Saint, who was ripe for heaven at the age of twenty-four years, and who ascended on this day into the company of Stephen, Emeric, and Ladislas. Elizabeth was not inferior to them in manly virtues; but the simplicity of her loving soul added to the heroism of her race a sweetness, whose fragrance drew after her along the path of sanctity her daughter Gertrude of Thuringia, and her relatives Hedwige of Silesia, Agnes of Bohemia, Margaret of Hungary, Cunigund of Poland, and Elizabeth of Portugal.

All the poetry of those chivalrous times appears in the beautiful pages of contemporaneous writers, as they describe to us the innocent child, transplanted like a tender flower from the court of Hungary to that of Thuringia; and her life of devotedness there, with a bridegroom worthy to witness the ecstasies of her lofty but ingenuous piety, and to defend her heroic virtue against her slanderers. To the stewards who complained that during the absence of Duke Lewis she had, in spite of their remonstrances, exhausted the revenues upon the poor, he replied: “I desire that my Elizabeth be at liberty to act as she wishes, provided she leaves me Warteburg and Naumburg.” Our Lord opened the landgrave's eyes to see transformed into beautiful roses the provisions Elizabeth was carrying to the poor. Jesus crucified appeared in the leper she had taken into her own apartments that she might the better tend him. If it happened that illustrious visitors arrived unexpectedly, and the duchess having bestowed all her jewels in alms was unable to adorn herself becomingly to do them honour, the Angels so well supplied the deficiency that, according to the German chroniclers of the time, it seemed to the astonished guests that the Queen of France herself could not have appeared more strikingly beautiful or more richly attired.

Elizabeth indeed was never wanting to any of the obligations or requirements of her position as a wife and as a sovereign princess. As graciously simple in her virtues as she was affable to all, she could not understand the gloomy moroseness which some affected in their prayers and austerities. “They look as if they wanted to frighten our Lord,” she would say, “whereas he loves the cheerful giver.”[2]

The time soon came, when she herself had to give generously without counting the cost. First there was the cruel separation from her husband, Duke Lewis, on his departure for the crusade; then the heart-rending scene, when his death was announced to her, just as she was about to give birth to her fourth child; and thirdly the atrocious act of Henry Raspon, the landgrave's unworthy brother, who, thinking this a good opportunity for seizing the deceased's estates, drove out his widow and children, and forbade anyone to give them hospitality. Then in the very land where every misery had been succoured by her charity, Elizabeth was reduced to the necessity of begging, and not without many rebuffs, a little bread for her poor children, and of seeking shelter with them in a pig-sty.

On the return of the knights who had accompanied Duke Lewis to the Holy Land, justice was at length done to our Saint. But Elizabeth, who had become the passionate lover of holy poverty, chose to remain among the poor. She was the first professed Tertiary of the Seraphic Order; and the mantle sent by St. Francis to his very dear daughter, became her only treasure. The path of perfect self-renunciation soon brought her to the threshold of heaven. She who, twenty years before, had been carried to her betrothed in a silver cradle, and robed in silk and gold, now took her flight to God from a wretched hovel, her only garment being a patched gown. The min­strels, whose gay competitions had signalized the year of her birth, were no longer there; but the Angels were heard singing, as they bore her up to heaven : The kingdom of this world have I despised, for the love of Jesus Christ my Lord, whom I have seen, whom I have loved, in whom I have believed, whom I have tenderly loved.

Four years later, Elizabeth, now declared a Saint by the Vicar of Christ, beheld all the nations of the holy Empire, with the emperor himself at their head, hastening to Marburg, where she lay at rest in the midst of the poor whose life she had imitated. Her holy body was committed to the care of the Teutonic Knights, who in return for the honour, made Marburg one of the headquarters of their Order, and raised to her name the first Gothic church in Germany. Numerous miracles long attracted the Christian world to the spot.

And now, though still standing, though still beautiful in its mourning, St. Elizabeth's at Marburg knows its glorious titular only by name. And at Warteburg, where the dear Saint went through the sweetest episodes of her life as a child and as a bride, the great memorial now shown to the traveller is the pulpit of an excommunicated monk, and the ink-stain with which, in a fit of folly or drunkenness, he had soiled the wall, as he afterwards endeavoured with his pen to profane and sully everything in the Church of God.

It is time to read the liturgical history of the feast.

Elisabeth Andreae regis Hungariae filia ab infantia Deum timere coepit: et crescens aetate, crevit etiam pietate. Ludovico Lantgravio Hassiae et Thuringiae in conjugem copulata, non minori cura quae Dei, quam quae viri sui erant, exsequebatur. Surgens enim nocturno tempore, orationi diu incumbebat; ac variis misericordiae officiis dedita, viduis, pupillis aegrotis, egentibus sedulo inserviebat; gravique fame urgent, domus suae frumenta liberaliter erogabat. Leprosos hospitio suscipiens, manus eorum et pedes osculabatur. Curandis autem et alendis pauperibus insigne xenodochium construxit.

Defuncto conjuge, ut Deo liberius serviret, depositis omnibus saecularis gloriae indumentis, vili tunica induta est, atque ordinem Poenitentium sancti Francisco ingressa, patientiae et humilitatis virtute maxime enituit. Nam bonis omnibus exuta, a propriis aedibus ejecta, ab omnibus derelecta, contumelias, irrisiones, obtrectationes invicto animo toleravit, adeo ut summopere gauderet, se talia pro Deo pati. Ad infima quaeque ministeria erga pauperes et aegrotos se abjiciens, eis necessaria procurabat, solis oleribus et leguminibus pro suo victu contenta.

Cum vero in his aliisque plurimis sanctis operibus vitam religiosissime transegisset, finis tandem suae peregrinationis advenit, quem domesticis suis ante praedixit. Cumque defixis in coelum oculis divinae contemplationi vacaret, a Deo mirabiliter recreata, et sacramentis refecta, obdormivit in Domino. Statimque plurima ad ejus tumulum miracula patrata sunt. Quibus auditis, et rite probatis, regorius nonus Sanctorum numero eam adcripsit.
Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew king of Hungary feared God from her infancy, and increased in piety as she advanced in age. She was married to Lewis, landgrave of Hesse and Thuringia, and devoted herself to the service of God and of her husband. She used to rise in the night and spend a long time in prayer; and moreover she devoted herself to works of mercy, diligently caring for widows and orphans, the sick and the poor. In time of famine she freely distributed her store of corn. She received lepers into her house, and kissed their hands and fee; she also built a splendid hospital, where the poor might be fed and cared for.

On the death of her hus­band, she, in order to serve God with greater freedom, laid aside all worldly ornaments, clothed herself in a rough tunic, and entered the Order of Penance of St. Francis. She was very remarkable for her patience and humility. Being despoiled of all her possessions and turned out of her own house, and abandoned by all, she bore insults, mockeries, and reproaches with undaunted courage, rejoicing exceedingly to suffer thus for God's sake. She humbled herself by performing the lowest offices for the poor and sick, and procured them all they needed, contenting herself with herbs and vegetables for her only food.

She was living in this holy manner, occupied with these and many other good works, when the end of her pilgrimage drew nigh, as she had foretold to her companions. She was absorbed in divine contemplation, with her eyes fixed on heaven; and after being wonderfully consoled by God, and strengthened with the Sacraments, she fell asleep in our Lord. Many miracles were immediately wrought at her tomb; and on their being duly proved, Gregory IX. enrolled her among the Saints.

The following Hymn in honour of St. Elizabeth was sung in Germany in the fourteenth century.

Hymn

Hymnum Deo vox jocunda
Decantat Ecclesiae;
Nam congaudet laetabunda
Sion mater filiae
Ascendenti de profunda
Convalle miseriae.

Quam regali stirpe natam
In annis infantiae
Vir accepti desponsatam
Indolis eximiae,
Semper tamen inspiratum
Voto continentiae.

Fide, prole, sacramento
Ratum hoc conjugium,
Vero docet argumento
Quod patrum coelestium
Vitae sanctae succremento
Attigit consortium.

Lege caris sic ligata
Non extinxit spiritum,
Sed implevit fide rata
Nec reliquit irritum
Quod a Deo mens parata
Gerebat propositum.

Haec insignis, haec beata
Pauperum nutritia
Fastu mundi non elata
Nec parentum gloria,
In se carne trucidata
Crucifixit vitia.

Aquam eam dum rogavit
Hostis innocentiae,
Potum lacte perforavit
Clavo poenitentiae,
Et sic sese liberavit
Virtus patientiae.

Tandem viro destituta
Munda mundum exuit,
Christum mente jam induta
Saccum carni consuit,
Et in tempus hoc statuta
Sic lampas emicuit.

Veras censu paupertatis
Redimens divitias
De thesauro pietatis
Fudit auri copias,
Et multorum egestatis
Supplevit inopias.

Fecit opus fuso, cibi
Quaerents alimoniam,
Et vilescens ipsa sibi
Sprevit ignominiam,
Sciens soli, Christe, tibi
Recte dari gloriam.

Gloria sit, Jesu bone,
Tibi nunc et jugiter,
Qui certantes in agone
Adjuvas fideliter,
Et mercedem das coronae
Vindenti viriliter.

Amen.
The Church in joyous accents
sings a hymn to God;
Sion is in gladness,
rejoicing with her daughter
who ascends from
the valley of misery.

Born of royal race,
she is affianced
while yet a babe;
her husband finds her
adorned with every gift
and enamoured of purity.

Their union is hallowed
by fidelity, fecundity, and the grace of the Sacrament;
Elizabeth's increasing holiness
proves that she is being led
to the company
of her fathers in heaven.

Though subject
to the law of the flesh,
her spirit was not quenched;
faithful to her sacred engagements,
she obeyed the inspirations
her willing heart received from God.

She became the noble
and blessed feeder of the poor;
neither by worldly glory
nor by her kingly origin was she elated,
but she crucified the vices
in her mortified flesh.

The enemy of innocence
asked her for water, as Sisara asked Jahel; 
she deceived him with milk,
and transpiercing him
with the nail of penance,
she delivered herself by her virtue of patience.

Bereaved of her husband,
she abandoned the world, unsullied by its contact;
and having already put on Christ interiorly,
she now clothed her body with sack-cloth,
and, even in the time of her mortality,
shone as a bright lamp.

Buying true riches
at the price of poverty,
she poured out the golden
treasures of her piety,
and supplied the needs
of innumerable poor.

Working with her spindle,
she earned her daily bread;
and, vile in her own eyes
she made light of shame,
knowing that to thee alone,
O Christ, honour is due.

Glory be to thee, O good Jesus,
both now and forever;
for thou faithfully assistest
them that fight the good fight,
and rewardest the valiant
victor with a crown.

Amen.

What a lesson thou leavest to the earth, as thou mountest up to heaven, O blessed Elizabeth! We ask with the Church, for ourselves and for all our brethren in the faith: may thy glorious prayers obtain from the God of mercy that our hearts may open to the light of thy life's teaching, so that despising worldly prosperity we, may rejoice in heavenly consolations.[3] The Gospel read in thy honour today tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like to a hidden treasure, and to a precious pearl; the wise and prudent man sells all he has, to obtain the treasure or the pearl.[4] Thou didst well understand this good traffic, as the Epistle calls it,[5] and it became the good fortune of all around thee : of thy happy subjects, who received from thee succour and assistance for both soul and body, of thy noble husband, who found an honourable place among those princes who knew how to exchange a perishable diadem for an eternal crown; in a word, of all who belonged to thee. Thou wast their boast; and several among them followed in thy footsteps along the heavenward path of self-renunciation. How is it that others, in an age of destruction, could abjure their title of children of Saints, and draw the people after them to deal so wantonly with the sweetest memorials and the noblest traditions? May our Lord restore to his Church and to thee the country where thou didst experience his love; may thy supplications, united with ours, revive the ancient faith in those branches of thy stock which are no longer nourished with that life-giving sap; and may the glorious trunk continue, in its faithful branches, to give saints to the world.


[1] Eccli. xliv. 6.
[2] Montalembert, Histoire de sainte Elisabeth de Hongrie, ch. vii.
[3] Collect of the feast.
[4] Gospel, from St. Matthew, xii.
[5] Epistle, Proverbs xxxi.

 

From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

QUOD DUCE TE MUNDUS SURREXIT IN ASTRA TRIUMPHANS, HANC CONSTANTINUS VICTOR TIBI CONDIDIT AULAM.

Because the world under thy conduct has risen triumphant to the very heavens, Constantine the conqueror has built this temple in thy honour. This inscription stood in letters of gold over the triumphal arch in the ancient Vatican Basilica.[1] Never did the Roman genius frame a more magnificent utterance in so few words; never did the greatness of Simon BarJona appear to such advantage on the seven hills. In 1506 the great arch, that had looked down upon twelve centuries of prostrate pilgrims, fell from old age, and the beautiful inscription perished. But Michael Angelo's lofty dome points out to the city and the world the spot where sleeps the Galilaean fisherman, the successor of the Caesars, the Vicar of Christ, the ruler of the destinies of Rome.

The second glory of the eternal City is the tomb of St. Paul on the Ostian Way. Unlike that of St. Peter, which lies deep down in the Vatican crypt, this tomb is raised to the level of the floor by massive masonry, on which rests the great sarcophagus. This circumstance was ascertained in 1841, when the papal altar was reconstructed. It was evidently to obviate the consequences of inundations from the Tiber, that the sarcophagus had thus been raised above the place where Lucina had first laid it.[2] The pilgrim certainly finds nothing to blame in this arrangement, when, on looking through the small opening in the centre of the altar, his respectful glance falls upon the marble of the tomb, and he reads these imposing words traced in large characters of Constantine's period: PAULO APOSTOLO ET MARTYRI. To Paul Apostle and Martyr.[3]

Thus Christian Rome is protected on the North and South by these two citadels. Let us enter into the sentiments of our fathers, when they said of this privileged city: “Peter the door-keeper, sets his holy dwelling at the entrance: who can deny that this city is like heaven? At the other extremity, Paul from his temple guards the walls; Rome lies between the two: here then God dwelleth.”[4]

The present feast therefore deserves to be more than a local solemnity; its extension to the universal Church is a subject for the world's gratitude. Thanks to this feast, we can all make together in spirit today the pilgrimage ad limina Apostolorum,[5] which our ancestors performed with such fatigue and danger, yet never thought they purchased too dearly its holy joys and blessings. “Heavenly mountains, glittering heights of the new Sion! There are the gates of our true country, the two lights of the immense world. There Paul's voice is heard like thunder; there Peter withholds or hurls the bolt. The former opens the hearts of men, the latter opens heaven. Peter is the foundation-stone, Paul the architect of the temple where stands the altar by which God is propitiated. Both together form a single fountain, which pours " out its healing and refreshing waters.”[6]

In the following Lessons the Roman Church gives us her traditions concerning the two basilicas whose dedication feast we are celebrating.

Ex locis sacris quae clim apud Christianos venerationem habuerunt, illa celeberrima et frequentissima fuerunt, in quibus condita sanctorum corpora, vel aliquod Martyrum vestigium aut monumentum esset. In quorum numero sanctorum locorum, in primis semper fuit insignis es Vaticani pars, quam, sancti Petri Confessionem appellabant. Nam eo Christiani ex omnibus orbus terrae partibus, tamquam ad fidei petram et Ecclesiae fundamentum convenientes, locum Principis Apostolorum sepulchro consecratum, summa religione ac pietate venerabantur.

Illuc Constintinus Magnus imperator octavo die post susceptum baptismum venit, depositoque diademate, et humi jacens, vim lacrimarum profudit: mox sumpto ligone ac bidente terram eruit: indeque duodedim terrae cophinis, honoris causa duodecim Apostolorum, ablatis, ac loco basilicae Principis Apostolorum designate, ecclesiam aedificavit. Quam sanctus Silvester Papa decimo quarto calendas decembris, eo modo quo Lateranensem ecclesiam quinto idus novembris consecraverat, dedicavit: et in ea altare lapideum chrismate delibutum erexit; atque ex eo tempore sancivit, ne deinceps altaria nisi ex lapide fierent. Idem beatus Silvester basilicam sancti Pauli Apostoli in via Ostiensi ab eodem Constantino imperatore magnificentissime aedificatem dedicavit. Quas basilicas idem imperator multis praediis attributis locupletavit, ac muneribus amplissimis exornavit.

Porro Vaticanam basilicam vetustate jampridem collabentem, ac propterea multorum Pontificum pietate latius ac magnificentius a fundamentis erectam, Urbanus Octavus hac eadem recurrente die anni milesimi sexcentesimi vigesimi sexti, solemni ritu consecravit. Basilicam vero Ostiensem, quum dira incendi vis, anno millesimo octingentesimo vigesimo tertio penitus consumpsisset, indefessa quatuor Pontificum cura splendidius quam antea erectam, et ab interitu veluti vindicatam. Pius Nonus auspicatissimam nactus occasionem qua dogma de Immaculata beatae Mariae Virginis Conceptione nuper ab ipso proclamatum, in gentem cardinalium et episcoporum numerum ex dissitis etiam catholici orbis regionibus Roman attraxerat, die decima decembris anni millesimi octingentesimi quinquagesimi quarti, tanta circumdatus purpuratorum patrum et antistitum corona solemniter dedicavit, ejusque celebritatis memoriam hac die recolendam decrevit.
Among the holy places ve­nerated of old by the Christians, those were the most honoured and most frequented in which the bodies of the Saints were preserved, or some relic or memorial of the Martyrs. Chief among these holy places has ever been that part of the Vatican hill which was called the Confession of St. Peter. Christians from all parts of the world flocked thither, as to the rock of the faith and the foundation of the Church, and honoured with the greatest reverence and piety the spot hallowed by the sepulchre of the prince of the Apostles.

Hither on the octave day of his baptism, came the emperor Constantine the Great; and taking off his diadem, he prostrated on the ground with many tears. Then taking a hoe and mattock he broke up the earth, of which twelve basketfuls were taken away in honour of the twelve Apostles; and on the site thus marked out, he built the basilica of the Prince of the Apostles. Pope St. Sylvester dedicated it on the fourteenth of the Calens of December, just as he had consecrated the Lateran church on the fifth of the Ides of November. He erected in it a stone altar which he anointed with chrism, and decreed that thencefor­ward all altars should be made of stone. The same blessed Sylvester dedicated the basilica of St. Paul the Apostle on the Ostian Way, also magni­ficently built by the emperor Constantine, who enriched both basilicas with many estates and rich gifts and ornaments.

The Vatican basilica, however, began to decay through age; and was rebuilt from its foundations on a more extensive and magnificent scale, through the piety of several Pontiffs. It was solemnly dedicated by Urban VIII., on this day in the year 1626. In the year 1823 the Ostian basilica was burnt to the ground; but the ruins were repaired and it was rebuilt more splendidly than before, through the unwearied exertions of four Popes. Pius IX., seizing the auspicious occasion, when his Definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the blessed Virgin Mary had drawn an immense number of Cardinals and Bishops even from distant parts of the Catholic world to Rome, solemnly dedicated this basilica on the tenth of December 1854, assisted and surrounded by this noble gathering of prelates; and he decreed that the anniversary commemoration should be celebrated on this day.

In honour of the holy Apostles we gladly borrow from the libraries of our Anglican brethren the following Sequence, sung four centuries ago by the venerable church of York.

Sequence

In sollemni memoria
Apostolorum principis,
Piae laudis harmonia
Laetis resonet canticis.

Veneremur simul pari
Dignum lade venerari apostolum gentium;
Ut quos amor vita junxit,
Nec mors ipsa post disjunxit jungat et praeconium.

Horum laus est quod destructa
Romanae potentiae idolatria,
Jam fundata et firmata
Ibidem orbem gubernat Ecclesia.

Fide Petri fundamentum
Pauli tenet firmamentum dogmate Ecclesia;
Clavis huic potentiae,
Illi cessit scientiae juncta ad officia.

Petro namque sub pastore
Gratulatur et rectore inter fluctus saeculi;
Pauli viget ex doctrina,
Vitae sumpta medicina grex fidelis populi.

Iste verbo instruit,
Ille coelum aperit verbo vitae credulis,
Et quod unus praedicat
Alter verum comprobat crebris hoc miraculis.

Hic Judaeos, ille gentes
Viam vitae nescientes ad salutem convocat;
Ambo praesunt convocatis,
Ambo certant desolatis, hostis ne prevaleat.

Contra summae potentiae
Consurgunt imperium,
Unus crucis, alter ensis
Perpessus supplicium.

Sicque una urbe mortem
Una die passi, sortem ad justorum transmeant;
Qui malorum noe exsortes
Sua prece et consortes beatorum faciant.

Amen.
On this solemn commemoration
of the Prince of the Apostles,
let the harmony of our loving praise
resound in joyous canticles.

With him let us also honour
the Apostle of the Gentiles, worthy of equal praise;
that those whom love united in life,
and death itself did not sever, may together receive our homage.

Their praise consists in this,
that the idolatry of the Roman empire has been destroyed;
and in that same Rome the Church
has been founded and built up, and rules the world.

The Church is founded on Peter's faith,
and strengthened by Paul's teaching;
one holds the key of authority,
the other that of knowledge, both for the same work.

With Peter for their shepherd and guide,
the faithful people rejoice amid the billows of this world;
while they grow strong
and receive life-giving medicine from Paul's doctrine.

Paul instructs them by his word,
Peter opens heaven to believers in the word of life,
and what the one preaches
the other proves by many miracles.

One calls the Jews to salvation, the other the Gentiles
ignorant of the way of life;
together they direct the called,
together they strive lest the enemy should prevail against them.

They stand against the highest power of the empire,
and incur the penalty,
one of the cross,
the other of the sword.

Thus they suffer death in the same city,
on the same day, and together pass to the reward of the just;
by their prayer may they deliver us from all evil,
and make us companions of the blessed.

Amen.

Today let us call to mind and complete the instructions we received on the general feast of the Dedication of churches; and let us conclude with the following Sequence, worthy of the pen of Adam of St. Victor, to whom it was long attributed. It sets forth in all the figures once so well known, the great mystery of Christ's union with the human race, which is expressed in the consecration of Christian temples.

Sequence

Quam dilecta tabernacula
Domini virtutum
et atria!

Quam electi Architecti,
Tuta aedificia, quae non movent
Imo fovent vectus, flumen, pluvia!

Quam decora fundamenta
Per concinna sacramenta
Umbrae praecurrentia!

Latus dae dormientis
Evam fundit, in manentis
Copulae primoria.

Arca ligno fabricata
Noe servat, gubernata
Mundi per diluvium.

Prole sera tandem foeta
Anus Sara ridet laeta,
Nostrum lactans gaudium.

Servus bibit qui legatur
Et camelus adaquatur
Ex Rebeccae hydria.

Haec insures et armillas
Aptat sibi, ut per illas
Virgo fiat congrua,

Synagoga supplantatur
A Jacob, dum devagatur
Nimis freta litterae.

Liam lippam latent multa:
Quibus Rachel videns fulta,
Pari nubit foedere.

In bivio tegens nuda,
Geminos parit ex Juda
Thamar diu vidua.

Hic Moyses a puella
Dum se lavat, in fiscella
Reperitur scirpea.

Hic mas agnus immolatur
Quo Israel satiatur,
Tinctus ejus sanguine;

Hic transitur rubens unda,
Egyptios sub profunda
Obruens voragine.

Hic est urna manna plena,
Hic mandata legis dena,
Sed in arca foederis.

Hic sunt aedis ornaments,
Hic Aaron indumenta
Quae praecedit poderis.

Hic Urias viduatur,
Bethsabee sublimatur,
Sedis consors regiae.

Haec regi varietate
Vestis astat deauratae,
Sicut regum filiae.

Huc venit Austri regina,
Salomonis quam divina
Condit sapientis,

Haec est nigra sed formosa,
Myrrhae et thuris fumosa,
Virga pigmentaria.

Haec futura
Quae figura obumbravit,
Reseravit nobis die gratiae;

Jam in lecto cum dilecto quiescamus,
Et peallamus:
Adsunt enim nuptiae.

Quarum tonat initium
In tubis epulantium
Et finis per pealterium.

Sponsum millena millia
Una canunt melodia,
Sine fine dicentia: Alleluia!

Amen.
How lovely are the tabernacles
and courts of the Lord
of hosts!

So firmly is the temple built by the incomparable architect,
that wind and flood
and rain instead of shaking  strengthen it.

Beauteous are its foundations,
aptly prefigured by the mysteries
of the time of shadows!

While Adam sleeps
Eve comes forth from his side,
the first type of an eternal union.

The ark, built of wood,
preserves Noe, safely sailing
through the deluge that destroys the world.

Sara, advanced in years,
laughs joyously to see herself a mother
suckling the child whose name signifies our joy.

The servant sent as ambassador
drinks from Rebecca's pitcher,
and she waters his camels;

then she adorns herself
with ear-rings and bracelets,
that she may appear as beseems a virgin.

The synagogue, wandering away
and trusting too much to the letter,
is supplanted by Jacob.

Many things lie hid from blear-eyed Lia,
which are a strength to Rachel the clear-sighted,
and give her equal rights.

Thamar, long a widow,
veils herself on the highway,
and gives twin sons to Juda.

Moses, in a wicker-basket,
is found by the maiden
as she is bathing.

The male lamb being im­molated,
the Israelites are fed therewith,
and are marked with its blood.

They cross the Red Sea,
whose rushing waves
engulf the Egyptians.

Here is the urn full of manna;
here in the Ark of the Covenant
are the ten commandments of the Law.

Here are the ornaments of the temple;
here the garments of Aaron,
and first of them all the Pontiff's ephod.

Bethsabee, widow of Urias, 
is raised as bride
even to share the royal throne,

and stands before the king
in robes of gold and all variety,
even as the daughters of princes.

Hither comes the queen of the South,
whom Solomon instructs
with his divine wisdom;

Though black, she is beautiful,
breathing the fragrance of myrrh
and incense and every perfume.

These future things
foreshadowed thus in figures,
the day of grace has revealed to us;

Let us rest in peace
with the Beloved and sing to him,
for it is the Nuptial-day.

The feast was opened
by the clang of trumpets,
and closes with the psaltery.

Millions of voices hail the Spouse
with one same melody,
repeating without end: Alleluia!

Amen.

[1] De Rossi, Inscript. Christ. T. II. 345.
[2] See the Legend of St. Cornelius, Sept. 16th.
[3] Dom Gueranger, Saint Cécile et la Société romaine aux deux premiers siècles, ch vi.
[4] Janitor ante fores fixit sacraria Petrus: Quis neget has arces instar esse poli? Parte alia Pauli circumdant atria muros: Hos inter Roma est: hic sedet ergo Deus. Inscription on the gate of Rome which was called n the 6th century the gate of St. Peter. (DE ROSSI, INSCRIPT. ii. 99.)
[5] To the threshold of the Apostles, i. e. of their basilicas, where pilgrims used to prostrate before entering.
[6] Venant. Fortunat. Miscellania, iii. 7.

 

From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

MOSES instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, mighty in his words and in his deeds,[1] retired into the desert: Gregory, adorned with the best gifts of birth and nature, brilliant in rhetoric, rich in every science, hid himself from men in the flower of his youth, and hastened to offer to God in solitude the holocaust best pleasing to the Lord. Each was the hope of his race; yet each turned away to lose himself in the contemplation of heavenly mysteries. Meanwhile, the yoke of Pharaoh lay heavy upon Israel; meanwhile, souls were perishing, whom one of Gregory's burning words might have snatched from the empire of idolatry: was not such flight, then, desertion?

Is it for man to proclaim himself a saviour, when Jesus did not arrogate that title to himself? And when evil was rife all around, did the Carpenter of Nazareth do wrong to remain in the shade for thirty years previous to his short period of ministry? O ye teachers of our excited, fevered times, who dream of a new hierarchy among the virtues, and understand divine charity far otherwise than did our fathers: not those are of the race of Israel's saviours whose ideas concerning social good differ from those of the world's Redeemer.

Gregory, like Moses, was of that blessed race. His friends and enemies agreed in saying that he resembled the Hebrew legislator in the excellence of his virtue, and in the splendour of the prodigies wrought by his word.[2] Both were actuated by the desire of knowing God, and manifesting him to the men they were called to lead: the fulness of doctrine is the gift most necessary to the guides of the people, and their want of it the greatest penury. I am who am was the answer to Moses' enquiry; and this sublime formula, confided to him from the midst of the burning bush, authenticated the mission which called him forth from the desert. When Gregory was commanded by God to go out into the world, the blessed Virgin, of whom the burning bush was a figure, appeared before his dazzled eyes in the dark night when he was praying for light. And St. John, following the Mother of God, let fall from his lips this other formula completing the former for the disciples of the Law of love:

One only God, Father of the living Word, of that substantial and mighty Wisdom who is the eternal expression of himself; the perfect principle of the only and perfect Son begotten by him. One only Lord, sole-begotten of the Only one; God of God, efficacious Word, Wisdom embracing and containing the world, creative power of all creation, true Son of a true Father. One only Holy Spirit, holding of God his divine existence, revealed to men by the Son of whom he is the perfect likeness, life and life-giving, holy and imparting holiness. The perfect Trinity, immutable, inseparable in glory, in eternity, in dominion.[3]

This was the message our Saint was to communicate to his country, the creed that was to bear his name in the Church. By his faith in the most holy Trinity he was to remove mountains, and set limits to the waves, to drive out Satan, and eradicate infidelity from Pontus. When, towards the year 240, Gregory, then bishop, was on his way to Neocaesarea, he saw on all sides the temples of idols, and stopped for the night at a famous sanctuary. In the morning all the gods had taken to flight and refused to come back; but the Saint gave to the priest of the oracle a note thus worded: Gregory to Satan: return. A more bitter defeat awaited the demons; forced to stay their precipitate retreat, they were compelled to witness the ruin of their empire over the souls they had abused. The priest was the first to give himself up to the Bishop, and became his deacon ; and soon upon the ruins of the temples everywhere overthrown arose the Church of Christ, the only God.

Happy was that Church, so firmly founded that heresy was powerless against it in the following century, when so many others bowed before the storm of Arianism. On the testimony of St. Basil, the successors of St. Gregory, themselves eminent men, were as an adornment of precious stones, a crown of stars, to the Church of Neocaesarea. Now all these illustrious Pontiffs, says he, considered it an honour to keep up the memory of their great predecessor; they would never suffer that any act, word, or movement other than his, in performing the sacred rites, should prevail over the traditions he had left.[4]

When Clement XII., as we have seen, established in the entire Church the feast of St. Gertrude the Great, he at first decreed that it should be kept on this day, on which it is still celebrated by the Order of St. Benedict. But as the 17th November had been for long centuries assigned to St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, it seemed unfitting, said Benedict XIV. that he who moved mountains should himself be moved from his place by the holy virgin. Accordingly in 1739, the year following its institution, the feast of St. Gertrude was fixed on the fifteenth of this month.[5]

Let us read the brief account of the great Thaumaturgus given in the holy Liturty.

Gregorius Neocaesareae Ponti episcopus sanctitate doctrinaque illustris, signis vero ac miraculis multo illustrior, quorum multitudine atque praestantis Thaumaturgus appelatus est, et sancti Basilii testimonio cum Moyse, Prophetis et Apostolis comparatus; montem, qui ecclesiae aedificationem impediebat, oratione alio transtulit. Item paludem, inter fratres causam discordiarum, exsiccavit. Lycum fluvium, perniciose agros unundantem defixo ad ripam, quo sustentabutur, baculo, qui statim virentem crevit in arborem, coercuit, ut postea ultra eum terminum non effluxerit.

Saepissime daemones ex idolorum simulcris, atque ex hominum corporibus ejecit, multaque alia mirabiliter efficit, quibus innumerabiles homines traduxit ad Jesu Christi fidem, cum etiam propetico spiritu futura praediceret. Qui migraturus e vita, cum quaesisset quot in civitate Neocaesariensi reliqui esset tantum esse septemdecim; Deo gratias agens, Totidem inquit, erant fideles, cum coepi episcopatum. Plura scripsit, quibus etiam non solum miraculis, Dei Ecclesiam illustravit.
Gregory, bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus, was illustrious for his holiness and learning, but still more for his miracles, which were so startling and so numerous that he was called the Thaumaturgus; and, according to St. Basil, he was considered comparable to Moses, the Pro­phets, and the Apostles. By his prayer he removed a mountain, which was an obstacle to the building of a church. He also dried up a lake which was a cause of dissension be­tween brothers. The river Lycus, which was inundating and devastating the fields, he restrained by fixing in the bank his stick which immediately grew into a green tree, and served as a limit which the river henceforth never overpassed.

He frequently expelled the devils from idols and from men's bodies, and worked many other miracles, by means of which he led multitudes to the faith of Christ. He also foretold future events by the spirit of prophecy. When he was dying, he asked how many infidels remained in the city of Neocaesarea; and on being informed that there were only seventeen, he gave thanks to God, and said: When I was made bishop, there were but seventeen believers. He wrote several works, by which, as well as by his miracles, he adorned the Church of God.

O holy Pontiff, thy faith, removing mountains and commanding the waves, was a justification of our Lord's promise. Teach us in our turn to do honour to the Gospel, by never doubting of our Lord's word and of the help he promises us against Satan, whom the Church points out to us today as the proud mountain that is to be cast into the sea;[6] and also against the overflowing tide of our passions, and the enticements of the world, of which thy writings teach us the vanity.[7] After the victory let us not forget that the succour came to us from heaven; preserve us from ingratitude, which thou didst so detest. We still possess the touching eulogy dictated by thy gratitude towards the illustrious master, to whose teachings, under God, thou didst owe the glorious strength and splendour of thy faith. Here is a precious and practical lesson for all: while praising divine Providence in the man who was his predestined instrument in thy regard, thou didst not forget the homage due to the Angel of God, who had preserved thee from falling into the abyss, during the darkness of infidelity in which thy first years were spent; that heavenly Guardian who, ever watchful in his active, enlightened, persevering devotedness, supplies for our insufficiencies, nourishes and instructs us, leads us by the hand, and secretly arranges for our souls those blessed circumstances and occasions, which transform our life and secure eternal happiness.[8]

How can wo sinful creatures sufficiently thank the Author of all good, the infinite Being who gives to man both the holy Angels and the visible intermediaries of divine grace on earth? But let us take courage, for we have as our Head his own Son, his Word who saved our souls, and who rules the universe. He alone, and that without effort, can render to his Father unceasing, eternal thanksgiving, for himself and for us all, without risk of not knowing or of forgetting the least subject of gratitude, without fear of any imperfection in the manner or the magnitude of his praise. To him, then, to the divine Word, we commit as thou didst, O Gregory, the care of perfecting the expression of our gratitude for the unspeakable kindness of our heavenly Father; for the Word is to us, as to thee, the only channel of piety, gratitude, and love.[9] May he give us in these days pastors who will imitate thy works; and may he raise up again the ancient churches of the East, which once received such light from thee!


[1] Acts vii. 22.
[2] Basil. De Spiritu Sancto. xxix.
[3] Greg. Nyss. Vita Greg. Thaumaturg.
[4] Basil. De Spiritu Sancto xxix.
[5] Benedict xiv. De canonizat. SS. Lib. i. cap. xli. 40, 41.
[6] Homil. Ad Matut. Ex Beda in Marc.
[7] Greg. Thaumat. Metaphrastis in Ecclesiasten Salomonis.
[8] In Origeuem oration panegyrica.
[9] Ibid.