SS Felix and Adauctus/in some places, St Rose of Lima (Aug 30)



The Glorification of Felix and Adauctus
Carlo Innocenzo Carlone

 From the martyrology:

"The feast of St. Rose of St. Mary, virgin, whose birthday is the 26th of this month.

At Rome, on the Ostian road, the martyrdom of the blessed priest Felix, under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. After being racked he was sentenced to death, and as they led him to execution, he met a man who spontaneously declared himself a Christian, and was forthwith beheaded with him. The Christians not knowing his name, called him Adauctus, because he was added to St. Felix and shared his crown."

St Augustine of Hippo (Aug 28)

Today is the feast of St Augustine in the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms, as well as the Benedictine 1962 calendar.

From the martyrology:

"At Hippo Regius, in Africa, the birthday of St. Augustine, bishop and famous Doctor of the Church. Converted and baptized by the blessed bishop Ambrose, he defended the Catholic faith with the greatest zeal against the Manicheans and other heretics, and after having sustained many other labors for the Church of God, he went to his reward in heaven. His relics, owing to the invasion of barbarians, were first brought from his own city into Sardinia, and afterwards taken by Luitprand, king of the Lombards, to Pavia, where they were deposited with due honors. "

St Bartholomew (Aug 24)

From the martyrology:

"The Apostle St. Bartholomew, who preached the Gospel of Christ in India. He passed thence into the Greater Armenia, where, after converting many to the faith, he was flayed alive by the barbarians, and beheaded by order of king Astyages, and thus he terminated his martyrdom. His sacred body was first carried to the island of Lipara, then to Benevento, and finally to Rome in the island of the Tiber, where it is venerated by the pious faithful."

The calling of St Bartholomew (aka Nathaniel) is chronciled in St John's Gospel.

Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History states that after the Ascension, Bartholomew went on a missionary tour to India, where he left behind a copy of the Gospel of Matthew. Other traditions record him as serving as a missionary in Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Parthia, and Lycaonia.  He is also credited, along with his fellow apostle Jude, with having brought Christianity to Armenia.

St Timothy (Benedictine)/Immaculate Heart of Mary (EF)/Queenship of the BVM - Aug 22



Jacopo di Montepulciano, c1340

 From the martyrology:

"At Rome, on the Ostian road, the birthday of the holy martyr Timothy. After he had been arrested by Tarquinius, prefect of the city, and kept for a long time in prison, as he refused to sacrifice to the idols, he was scourged three times, subjected to the most severe torments, and finally beheaded."

St Timothy was martyred in 311.

St Bernard Ptolemy OSB/ St Jane Frances de Chantal (EF)/St Pius X (OF) - Aug 21

From the martyrology:

"At Siena, in Tuscany, blessed Bernard Ptolemy, abbot and founder of the Congregation of Olivetans."

and

"At Annecy, in Savoy, the festival of St. Jane Frances Fremiot de Chantal, foundress of the Order of Nuns of the Visitation of St. Mary, who is commemorated on the 13th of December."

St Bernard of Clairvaux (Aug 20), Class III/OF Memorial

From the martyrology:

"In the territory of Langres, the demise of St. Bernard, first abbot of Clairvaux, illustrious for virtues, learning, and miracles. He was declared Doctor of the universal church by the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VIII. "

St Agapitus, Memorial (Aug 18)

St Agapitus was martyred at the age of 15 for being a Christian around 267 AD.

St Hyacinth (EF), Aug 17

St Hyacinth (1185-1257) was a Dominican from Poland.

Educated in Paris and Bologna, he started out as a secular priest, but while in Rome he witnessed a miracle performed by Saint Dominic, and thereafter received the habit from him.

"One of his miracles is connected with a Mongol attack on a monastery in Kiev. Hyacinth was about to save a monstrance (or possibly a ciborium, it is unknown exactly which one) containing the Blessed Sacrament when he heard the voice of the Blessed Virgin Mary asking him to take her too. So he decided to take also the statue of the Holy Virgin. Despite the fact that it weighed far more than he could normally lift, it became miraculously weightless. Thus he saved both the Blessed Sacrament and the statue of Our Lady."

Assumption of the BVM (Aug 15)

St Maximilian Kolbe (OF)/Vigil of the Assumption (EF/Benedictine), Aug 14

Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe, O.F.M. Conv. was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar, who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Nazi German concentration camp of Auschwitz, in 1939.  You can read more about his inspiring life here.

Today is also the Vigil of the Assumption in the traditional calendar.

SS Pontianus, Pope and Hippolytus, Martyrs, Memorial (August 13)

Pope Pontian

Today we celebrate the feasts of both a Pope and his rival anti-Pope, happily reconciled in the end.

Both were deported to the Sardinian salt mines, and died after harsh treatment there.  Pope St Pontian resigned in 235 in order to allow a successor to be elected in his stead.

The legend for St Hipppolytus however is more colourful, as the martyrology relates:

"At Rome, blessed Hippolytus, martyr, who gloriously confessed the faith, under the emperor Valerian. After enduring other torments, he was tied by the feet to the necks of wild horses, and being cruelly dragged through briars and brambles, and having all his body lacerated, he yielded up his spirit. On the same day, suffered also blessed Concordia, his nurse, who being scourged in his presence with leaded whips, went to our Lord; and nineteen others of his house, who were beheaded beyond the Tiburtine gate, and buried with him in the Veran field."

St Clare (August 11, OF); St Tibertius, memorial; St Susanna

From the martyrology:

"At Assisi in Umbria, the birthday of St. Clare, virgin, the first of the Poor Ladies of the Order of Friars Minor. Being celebrated for holiness of life and miracles, she was placed among the holy virgins by Pope Alexander IV...

At Rome, between the two laurels situation about three miles from the city, the birthday of St. Tiburtius, martyr, under the judge Fabian, in the persecution of Diocletian. After he had walked barefooted on burning coals and confessed Christ with increased constancy, he was put to the sword."

In the Extraordinary Form:

"Also at Rome, the holy virgin Susanna, a woman of noble race, and niece of the blessed Pontiff Caius. She merited the palm of martyrdom by being beheaded in the time of Diocletian."

Feast of St Lawrence (August 10)



Fra Angelico 1447-50

From the martyrology:

"At Rome, on the Tiburtine Way, the birthday of the blessed archdeacon Lawrence, martyred during the persecution of Valerian. After much suffering from imprisonment, from scourging with whips set with iron or lead, from hot metal plates, he at last completed his martyrdom by being slowly consumed on an iron instrument made in the form of a gridiron. His body was buried by blessed Hippolytus and the priest Justin in the cemetery of Cyriaca, in the Agro Verano."

SS Sixtus II, Felicissimus and Agapitus, memorial (August 7)

From the martyrology (for August 6):


"At Rome, on the Appian Way, in the cemetery of Callistus, the birthday of blessed Sixtus II, pope and martyr, who received the crown of martyrdom in the persecution of Valerian by being put to the sword. Also, the holy martyrs Felicissimus and Agapitus, deacons of blessed Sixtus; Januarius, Magnus, Vincent, and Stephen, subdeacons, all of whom were beheaded with him and buried in the cemetery of Praetextatus. With them suffered also blessed Quartus, as is related by St. Cyprian."

Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord (August 6)

Raphael

From the martyrology:

"On Mount Tabor, the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ."

St Dominic (August 4)

From the martyrology:

"St. Dominic, confessor, founder of the Order of Friars Preachers, who on the sixth day of this month rested in peace."

You can read more about the saint here.

Also today:
 
"In the village of Ars, in the diocese of Belley, France, the birthday of St. John Baptist-Mary Vianney, priest and confessor, renowned for his devotion as a parish priest.  Pope Pius XI placed him in the number of the saints, ordered that his feast should be observed on the 9th day of this month, and appointed him as the heavenly patron of all parish priests."
 
And

"At Rome, St. Perpetua, who was baptized by the blessed apostle Peter. She converted to the faith her son Nazarius and her husband Africanus, buried the remains of many holy martyrs, and finally went to our Lord endowed with an abundance of merit."

SS Lydia and Aspren (August 3)

From the martyrology:

"At Philippi in Macedonia, St. Lydia, a dealer in purple, who was the first to believe in the Gospel when the apostle St. Paul preached in that city, as is related by St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles..."

"At Naples in Campania, St. Aspren, bishop, who was cured of a sickness by the apostle St. Peter, and after being baptized, was made bishop of that city..."

"Among the Indians, bordering on Persia, the martyrdom of holy monks and other Christians who were put to death after suffering diverse torments, during the persecution of the Church of God by King Abenner."

St Alphonsus Mary de Liguori (August 2)

From the martyrology:

"At Nocera dei Pagani in Campani...St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, founder of the Congregation of our most Holy Redeemer, bishop of Santa Agata dei Goti, and confessor. Noted for his zeal for souls, his writings, and his example, Pope Gregory XVI added him to the canon of saints, and Pius IX declared him to be a doctor of the Universal Church. Pius XII established him as heavenly patron of all moral theologians and of those who hear Confession...founder of the Congregation of our most Holy Redeemer, bishop of Santa Agata dei Goti..."

You can read more about the saint here.

The Holy Maccabees (August 1)

Stattler, 1842

From the martyrology:

"At Antioch, the martyrdom of the seven brothers, the holy Machabees, martyrs, and their mother, who suffered under King Antiochus Epiphanes. Their relics were transferred to Rome, and placed in the church or St. Peter in Chains."

Today is also the anniversary of the dedication of that Church.