Maternity of Our Lady (EF), Oct 11

Here is an explanation of the feast, from the Catholic Encyclopedia:

"The object of this feast is to commemorate the dignity of the Mary as Mother of God. Mary is truly the Mother of Christ, who in one person unites the human and divine nature. This title was solemnly ratified by the Council of Ephesus, 22 June, 431. The hymns used in the office of the feast also allude to Mary's dignity as the spiritual mother of men. The love of Mary for all mankind was that of a mother, for she shared all the feelings of her son whose love for men led Him to die for our redemption (Hunter, Dogm.Theo. 2, 578). The feast was first granted, on the petition of King Joseph Manuel, to the dioceses of Portugal and to Brasil and Algeria, 22 January, 1751, together with the feast of the Purity of Mary, and was assigned to the first Sunday in May, dupl. maj. In the following year both feasts were extended to the province of Venice, 1778 to the kingdom of Naples, and 1807 to Tuscany."

The feast was made universal in 1931, in honour of the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus.  It was shifted to January 1 in the new calendar, allegedly for ecumenical reasons (though it is not particularly obvious what these are).

In any case, for a nice meditation on what it would have been like for Our Lady to be pregnant with Our Lord, have a read of this post over at New Theological Movement (from whence cometh the icon).

St Frances Borgia (EF, Oct 10)

From the martyrology:

"At Rome, St. Francis Borgia, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, celebrated for the austerity of his life, the gift of prayer, and for the firmness with which he renounced the dignities of the world, and refused those of the Church.

St John Leonardi (EF/OF), St Denis and companions (OF) Oct 9

Today is the feast of John Leonardi in the Extraordinary Form.  From the martyrology:

"At Rome, St John Leonardi, Confessor, founder of the Congregation of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God, renowned for his labours and miracles.  By his good offices the Missions for the Propagation of the Faith were established."

And also today, in the Ordinary Form, St Denis, bishop of Paris martyred around 250 AD:

"At Paris, the birthday of the holy martyrs Denis the Areopagite, bishop, Rusticus, priest, and Eleutherius, deacon. Denis was baptized by the Apostle St. Paul, and consecrated first bishop of Athens. Then going to Rome, he was sent to Gaul by the blessed Roman Pontiff Clement, to preach the Gospel. He proceeded to Paris, and after having for some years faithfully filled the office entrusted to him, he was subjected to the severest kinds of torments by the prefect Fescenninus, and at length, being beheaded with his companions, completed his martyrdom."

St Bridget (EF), Oct 8

folio 15, BL Harley MS 4640 (British Library), 1530.
Probably painted at Syon Monastery, Isleworth

St Bridget of Sweden (1303-73), mystic and foundress of the double order of Bridgettine nuns and monks after the death of her husband, is one of the patron saints of Europe.

From the martyrology:

"St. Bridget, widow, who, after visiting many holy places by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, died at Rome on the 23d of July. Her body was taken to Sweden on the 7th of this month."

Pope Benedict XVI gave a General Audience on her in 2010:

"...We are well acquainted with the events of St Bridget's life because her spiritual fathers compiled her biography in order to further the process of her canonization immediately after her death in 1373. Bridget was born 70 years earlier, in 1303, in Finster, Sweden, a Northern European nation that for three centuries had welcomed the Christian faith with the same enthusiasm as that with which the Saint had received it from her parents, very devout people who belonged to noble families closely related to the reigning house.

We can distinguished two periods in this Saint's life.

The first was characterized by her happily married state. Her husband was called Ulf and he was Governor of an important district of the Kingdom of Sweden. The marriage lasted for 28 years, until Ulf's death. Eight children were born, the second of whom, Karin (Catherine), is venerated as a Saint. This is an eloquent sign of Bridget's dedication to her children's education. Moreover, King Magnus of Sweden so appreciated her pedagogical wisdom that he summoned her to Court for a time, so that she could introduce his young wife, Blanche of Namur, to Swedish culture. Bridget, who was given spiritual guidance by a learned religious who initiated her into the study of the Scriptures, exercised a very positive influence on her family which, thanks to her presence, became a true “domestic church”. Together with her husband she adopted the Rule of the Franciscan Tertiaries. She generously practiced works of charity for the poor; she also founded a hospital. At his wife's side Ulf's character improved and he advanced in the Christian life. On their return from a long pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, which they made in 1341 with other members of the family, the couple developed a project of living in continence; but a little while later, in the tranquillity of a monastery to which he had retired, Ulf's earthly life ended. This first period of Bridget's life helps us to appreciate what today we could describe as an authentic “conjugal spirituality”: together, Christian spouses can make a journey of holiness sustained by the grace of the sacrament of Marriage. It is often the woman, as happened in the life of St Bridget and Ulf, who with her religious sensitivity, delicacy and gentleness succeeds in persuading her husband to follow a path of faith. I am thinking with gratitude of the many women who, day after day, illuminate their families with their witness of Christian life, in our time too. May the Lord's Spirit still inspire holiness in Christian spouses today, to show the world the beauty of marriage lived in accordance with the Gospel values: love, tenderness, reciprocal help, fruitfulness in begetting and in raising children, openness and solidarity to the world and participation in the life of the Church.

The second period of Bridget's life began when she was widowed. She did not consider another marriage in order to deepen her union with the Lord through prayer, penance and charitable works. Therefore Christian widows too may find in this Saint a model to follow. In fact, upon the death of her husband, after distributing her possessions to the poor — although she never became a consecrated religious — Bridget settled near the Cistercian Monastery of Alvastra. Here began the divine revelations that were to accompany her for the rest of her life. Bridget dictated them to her confessors-secretaries, who translated them from Swedish into Latin and gathered them in eight volumes entitled Revelationes (Revelations). A supplement followed these books called, precisely, Revelationes extravagantes (Supplementary revelations).

St Bridget's Revelations have a very varied content and style. At times the revelations are presented in the form of dialogues between the divine Persons, the Virgin, the Saints and even demons; they are dialogues in which Bridget also takes part. At other times, instead, a specific vision is described; and in yet others what the Virgin Mary reveals to her concerning the life and mysteries of the Son. The value of St Bridget's Revelations, sometimes the object of criticism Venerable John Paul II explained in his Letter Spes Aedificandi: “The Church, which recognized Bridget's holiness without ever pronouncing on her individual revelations, has accepted the overall authenticity of her interior experience” (n. 5). Indeed, reading these Revelations challenges us on many important topics. For example, the description of Christ's Passion, with very realistic details, frequently recurs. Bridget always had a special devotion to Christ's Passion, contemplating in it God's infinite love for human beings. She boldly places these words on the lips of the Lord who speaks to her: “O my friends, I love my sheep so tenderly that were it possible I would die many other times for each one of them that same death I suffered for the redemption of all” (Revelationes, Book I, c. 59). The sorrowful motherhood of Mary, which made her Mediatrix and Mother of Mercy, is also a subject that recurs frequently in the Revelations.

In receiving these charisms, Bridget was aware that she had been given a gift of special love on the Lord's part: “My Daughter” — we read in the First Book of Revelations — “I have chosen you for myself, love me with all your heart... more than all that exists in the world” (c. 1). Bridget, moreover, knew well and was firmly convinced that every charism is destined to build up the Church. For this very reason many of her revelations were addressed in the form of admonishments, even severe ones, to the believers of her time, including the Religious and Political Authorities, that they might live a consistent Christian life; but she always reprimanded them with an attitude of respect and of full fidelity to the Magisterium of the Church and in particular to the Successor of the Apostle Peter.

In 1349 Bridget left Sweden for good and went on pilgrimage to Rome. She was not only intending to take part in the Jubilee of the Year 1350 but also wished to obtain from the Pope approval for the Rule of a Religious Order that she was intending to found, called after the Holy Saviour and made up of monks and nuns under the authority of the Abbess. This is an element we should not find surprising: in the Middle Ages monastic foundations existed with both male and female branches, but with the practice of the same monastic Rule that provided for the Abbess' direction. In fact, in the great Christian tradition the woman is accorded special dignity and — always based on the example of Mary, Queen of Apostles — a place of her own in the Church, which, without coinciding with the ordained priesthood is equally important for the spiritual growth of the Community. Furthermore, the collaboration of consecrated men and women, always with respect for their specific vocation, is of great importance in the contemporary world. In Rome, in the company of her daughter Karin, Bridget dedicated herself to a life of intense apostolate and prayer. And from Rome she went on pilgrimage to various Italian Shrines, in particular to Assisi, the homeland of St Francis for whom Bridget had always had great devotion. Finally, in 1371, her deepest desire was crowned: to travel to the Holy Land, to which she went accompanied by her spiritual children, a group that Bridget called “the friends of God”. In those years the Pontiffs lived at Avignon, a long way from Rome: Bridget addressed a heartfelt plea to them to return to the See of Peter, in the Eternal City. She died in 1373, before Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome definitively. She was buried temporarily in the Church of San Lorenzo in Panisperna in Rome but in 1374 her children, Birger and Karin, took her body back to her homeland, to the Monastery of Vadstena, the headquarters of the Religious Order St Bridget had founded. The order immediately experienced a considerable expansion. In 1391 Pope Boniface IX solemnly canonized her. Bridget's holiness, characterized by the multiplicity of her gifts and the experiences that I have wished to recall in this brief biographical and spiritual outline, makes her an eminent figure in European history. In coming from Scandinavia, St Bridget bears witness to the way Christianity had deeply permeated the life of all the peoples of this Continent. In declaring her Co-Patroness of Europe, Pope John Paul II hoped that St Bridget — who lived in the 14th century when Western Christianity had not yet been wounded by division — may intercede effectively with God to obtain the grace of full Christian unity so deeply longed for. Let us pray, dear brothers and sisters, for this same intention, which we have very much at heart, and that Europe may always be nourished by its Christian roots, invoking the powerful intercession of St Bridget of Sweden, a faithful disciple of God and Co-Patroness of Europe."

October 7: Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

From the Wikipedia:

"Originally observed as the Feast of Our Lady of Victory, its date was chosen to commemorate the European victory at the third naval Battle of Lepanto in 1571. This battle marked the high point of Turkish (Muslim) advance on European soil with the Balkans and the regions west and north of the Black Sea returning to Western (Christian) hands in the succeeding centuries. This victory, after two earlier defeats at the same location, was attributed to Our Lady of the Rosary as special processions were made on that same day in Rome for the sake of this crucial victory.

Pope Pius V ordered that a commemoration of the rosary should be made upon that day, and at the request of the Dominican Order Gregory XIII in 1573 allowed this feast to be kept in all churches which possessed an altar dedicated to the rosary. In 1671, the observance of this festival was extended by Clement X to the whole of Spain, and somewhat later Clement XI after the important victory over the Turks gained by Prince Eugene on 6 August, 1716, at Peterwardein in Hungary, commanded the feast of the rosary to be celebrated by the universal Church. A set of "proper" readings were approved by Benedict XIII."

October 6: St Bruno, Memorial

St Bruno (1030-1101) is of course the founder of the Carthusian Order.

From Saints and Angles online:

"Bruno was born in Cologne of the prominent Hartenfaust family. He studied at the Cathedral school at Rheims, and on his return to Cologne about 1055, was ordained and became a Canon at St. Cunibert's.

He returned to Rheims in 1056 as professor of theology, became head of the school the following year, and remained there until 1074, when he was appointed chancellor of Rheims by its archbishop, Manasses. Bruno was forced to flee Rheims when he and several other priests denounced Manasses in 1076 as unfit for the office of Papal Legate.

Bruno later returned to Cologne... when Manasses was deposed, and though the people of Rheims wanted to make Bruno archbishop, he decided to pursue an eremitical life.

He became a hermit under Abbot St. Robert of Molesmes (who later founded Citeaux) but then moved on to Grenoble with six companions in 1084. They were assigned a place for their hermitages in a desolate, mountainous, alpine area called La Grande Chartreuse, by Bishop St. Hugh of Grenoble, whose confessor Bruno became. They built an oratory and individual cells, roughly followed the rule of St. Benedict, and thus began the Carthusian Order. They embraced a life of poverty, manual work, prayer, and transcribing manuscripts, though as yet they had no written rule.

The fame of the group and their founder spread, and in 1090, Bruno was brought to Rome, against his wishes, by Pope Urban II (whom he had taught at Rheims) as Papal Adviser in the reformation of the clergy.

Bruno persuaded Urban to allow him to resume his eremitical state, founded St. Mary's at La Torre in Calabria, declined the Pope's offer of the archbishopric of Reggio, became a close friend of Count Robert of Sicily, and remained there until his death on October 6. He wrote several commentaries on the psalms and on St. Paul's epistles. He was never formally canonized because of the Carthusians' aversion to public honors but Pope Leo X granted the Carthusians permission to celebrate his feast in 1514, and his name was placed on the Roman calendar in 1623.

October 5: SS Maurus and Placid, OSB

St Benedict receives SS Maurus and Placid
Sodoma, c15th

SS Maurus and Placid were both child oblates under St Benedict, and several incidents relating to them feature in St Gregory's Life of St Benedict.

Both, however, have subsequent legends attached to them that though largely dismissed by most contemporary historians, in fact do have some plausibility in my opinion, and are worth reconsidering.

St Maurus (512-584)

St Maurus was one of the most popular saints of the middle ages, with a widespread cult, in part due to the references to him in St Gregories Life of St Benedict, and in part to two later works, his Life and the Little Book of Miracles.

In the Life, St Maurus is credited with the introduction of Benedictine monasticism into France due to his foundation of the monastery of Glanfeuil, in response to a request from the bishop of Le Mans.

According to the story, by the time he and his fellow monks arrived in France to make the proposed new foundation, the bishop had died and his successor was less than enthusiastic.  St Maurus managed to find another benefactor however, and the monastery was duly founded, and thrived (albeit with the usual trials and tribulations) until its destruction by the Vikings.  The monks, however, fled to Paris, and established a new monastery there to continue his cult.

The modern translator of St Maurus' life (published, somewhat ironically given the Cistercian rejection of the type of monasticism St Maurus' life represented, in the Cistercian Studies Series in 2008), John Wickstrom, is a sceptic about both the authenticity of the life, and the historical claims it sought to bolster.

But though the Life itself may well have been largely a larger redaction or much later composition, I'm not convinced we should so quickly dismiss the underlying historicity of the main events it chronicles.

First, archeological excavations in the late nineteenth century established that there was indeed a monastery at this location in the sixth century, founded on the remains of a roman villa.

Secondly, this was a period of expansion of monasticism in Northern Europe, so the idea of seeking out a delegation from an existing monastery of some fame in Italy to assist in making a foundation is not at all implausible.

Thirdly, this region seems to have been a very early centre of enthusiastic devotion to Benedictine saints that is otherwise hard to explain.  The nearby monastery of Fleury, founded by 640, is famous for its raid on Monte Cassino to obtain the relics of St Benedict, as is Le Mans, which claimed to have obtained the relics of St Scholastica).

In any case, St Maurus was an important disciple of St Benedict, and the blessing for the sick named for him remains an important part of the Benedictine patrimony.

St Placid

St Placid was also one of St Benedict's disciples: he was originally credited as having been sent to establish a monastery at Messina in Sicily, and being martyred there by pirates, but 1969 (modernist-rationalist) revisionism has led to this claim being dropped from the modern martyrology.

It is certainly true that the ninth century attribution of his martyrdom to Muslim raiders was anachronistic.

But his was certainly a turbulent period in the history of Sicily, so whether the addition of this detail is enough to invalidate the underlying story of his martyrdom is, in my view, debatable.

**And for the record, here is the older Roman Office reading for the Office on him:

Commemoration of Ss. Placidus and Companions, Martyrs

Placidus was the son of Tertullus, one of the noblest persons of Rome. He was offered to God (by his father) when a child (only seven years of age) and given over to holy Benedict, in whose teaching and Rule of monks he so profited that he was reckoned among the chiefest of his disciples.

By him he was sent into Sicily, where he founded near the Port of Messina a Church and monastery in honour of St John the Baptist, and lived therein with his monks in wonderful holiness. Thither there came to see him his brothers Eutychius and Victorinus and his virgin sister Flavia, and while they were together, there landed there a certain brutal pirate, named Manucha, who took the monastery, and when he could in no wise prevail upon Placidus and the others to deny Christ, he commanded him, his brothers, and his sister to be cruelly murdered. With them Donatus, Firmatus a Deacon, Faustus, and thirty other monks brought the conflict of testimony to the blessed end of martyrdom, upon the fifth day of October, in the year of salvation 539

Statue of St Placid by Meinrad, 1679-81