Feast of SS Peter and Paul

El Greco

We celebrate, over the three days from July 28-30, the martyrdom of SS Peter and Paul.  You can read more about the main feast, in a homily of Pope Benedict XVI here.

SS John and Paul, martyrs (memorial, June 26)

The original Roman house below the present-day
Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo

SS John and Paul were martyred under Julian the Apostate circa 361-3.  The Martyrology says:

At Rome, on Mount Coelius, the holy martyrs John and Paul, brothers. The former was steward, the other secretary of the virgin Constantia, daughter of the emperor Constantine. Afterwards, under Julian the Apostate, they received the palm of martyrdom by being beheaded. 

Feasts of July

You can find links on notes about the feasts celebrated in the calendar in July below.

July 1

Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord (EF)

July 2

Visitation of Our Lady (Class II)
Novena to St Benedict

July 3

SS Processus and Marcellian memorial

July 5

St Anthony-Mary Zaccaria (EF)

July 9

SS Thomas More and John Fisher

July 11

Translation of the relics of St Benedict

July 12

St John Gualbert OSB (Memorial)
St John Gualbert (Benedictine Martyrology)

July 14

St Bonaventure, Class III

July 15

St Henry II, Patron saint of Benedictine Oblates

July 17

Pope St Leo IV OSB, memorial

July 19

St Vincent de Paul, memorial

July 20

SS Jerome Aemiliain, Joseph Calanctius and John Baptist de la Salle, Confessors, Memorial

July 21

St Mary Magdalene

July 23

St Apollinarus
St Apollinaris and St Brigid of Sweden (Martyrology)

July 24

St Cristina

July 25

St James
St James (Benedict XVI General Audience)

July 26

SS Anne and Joachim, parents of the BVM

July 27

St Panteleon

July 28

SS Nazarius, Celsus, Victor and St Innocent I (July 28, EF)

July 29

SS Felix, Simplicius, Faustinus and Beatrice, Martyrs, Memorial

July 30

SS Abdon and Sennen, Memorial
SS Julitta, Abdon and Sennen (martyrology)

July 31

St Ignatius

SS Gervase and Protasius (Memorial, 19 June)

c14th

SS Gervase and Protasius were martyred in the second century.  They are the patron saints of Milan and of haymakers and are invoked for the discovery of thieves. Their relics were discovered by St Ambrose as a result of a vision (which he records in a letter to his sister; the story is also narrated by St Augustine), who built a church to house them and is buried with them there, and their feast day marks the translation of their relics (you can read more on this over at New Liturgical Movement..

According to their Acts, Gervasius and Protasius were the twin sons of martyrs. Their father Saint Vitalis of Milan, a man of consular dignity, suffered martyrdom at Ravenna, possibly under Nero. The mother Saint Valeria died for her faith at Milan. Gervasius and Protasius were imprisoned, and visited in prison by Saint Nazarius.

The sons are said to have large hands and had been scourged and then beheaded, during the reign of the Emperor Nero, under the presidency of Anubinus or Astasius, and while Caius was Bishop of Milan.

The Martyrology says:

At Milan, the holy martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, brothers. The former, by order of the judge Astasius, was so long scourged with leaded whips, that he expired. The latter, after being scourged with rods, was beheaded. Through divine revelation their bodies were found by St. Ambrose. They were partly covered with blood, and as free from corruption as if they had been put to death that very day. When the translation took place, a blind man recovered his sight by touching their relics, and many persons possessed by demons were delivered. 

St Ephrem of Syria; SS Mark and Marcellianus, memorials (18 June)

St Ephrem (ca. 306 – 373) was a Syriac deacon and a prolific Syriac-language hymnographer and theologian of the 4th century from the region of Assyria, and is a doctor of the Church.

The readings for his feast in the Roman Office are as follows:

Ephraem was of Syrian descent, and son of a citizen of Nisibis. While yet a young man he went to the holy bishop James, by whom he was baptized, and he soon made such progress in holiness and learning as to be appointed master of a flourishing school at Nisibis, a city of Mesopotamia. After the death of the bishop James, Nisibis was captured by the Persians, and Ephraem went to Edessa. Here he settled first on the mountain among the monks, and then, that he might avoid the great numbers of men who flocked to him, he adopted the eremitical life. He was ordained deacon of the Church of Edessa, but refused the priesthood out of humility. He was conspicuous with the splendour of every virtue and strove to acquire piety and religion by professing true wisdom. He placed all his hope in God alone, despised all human and transitory things, and always longed for the divine and eternal.

 When, led by the Spirit of God, he went to Caesarea in Cappadocia, there he saw Basil, that mouthpiece of the Church, and both enjoyed mutual companionship in a suitable manner. In order to refute the countless errors which were rife at that time, and which were troubling the Church of God, and in order to expound zealously the divine mysteries of our Lord Jesus Christ, he wrote many studies in Syrian, almost all of which have been translated into Greek. St. Jerome beareth witness that he attained such fame, that his writings were read publicly in certain churches after the reading from the Scriptures.

His works taken as a whole, so infused with the bright light of learning, brought it about that this holy man, while yet alive, was held in great honour, and was even considered a Doctor of the Church. He also composed songs in verse, in honour of the most blessed Virgin Mary, and of the Saints, and for this reason he was appropriately named by the Syrians the Harp of the Holy Ghost. He was noted for his great and tender devotion towards the immaculate Virgin. He died, rich in merits, at Edessa in Mesopotamia on the 18th day of June in the reign of Valens. Pope Benedict XV, at the instance of many Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, and religious communities, declared him by a decree of the Congregation of Sacred Rites to be a Doctor of the universal Church.

You can read more about him in Pope Benedict XVI's General Audience on him. 

C15th (the saints are at the right)

Theigtheenth of June is also the memorial of SS Mark and Marcellian, matyrs under Diocleian c286.  According to their legend, they were twin brothers who were deacons, and refused to offer pagan sacrifices.  In prison their parents attempted to persuade them to apostasize; St Sebastian, however, convinced them to stand firm.  The entry in the martyrology reads:

At Rome, on the Ardeatine road, in the persecution of  Diocletian, the birthday of the saintly brothers Marcus and Marcellian, martyrs, who were arrested by the judge Fabian, tied to a stake, and had sharp nails driven into their feet. As they ceased not to praise the name of Christ, they were pierced through the sides with lances, and thus went to the kingdom of heaven with the glory of martyrdom. 

St Vitus (memorial, 15 June)

circa 1515

St Vitus was from Sicily and was martyred during the persecution of Christians by co-ruling Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian in 303. The entry in the Martyrology reads:

In Basilicata, near the river Silaro, the birthday of the holy martyrs Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia, who were brought thither from Sicily, in the reign of Diocletian, and after being plunged into a vessel of melted lead, after being exposed to the beasts, and on the pillory, from which torments they escaped uninjured through the power of God, they ended their religious combats. 

St Vitus is counted as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers of medieval Roman Catholicism.

In the late Middle Ages, people in Germany and countries such as Latvia celebrated the feast of Vitus by dancing before his statue. This dancing became popular and the name "Saint Vitus Dance" was given to the neurological disorder Sydenham's chorea. It also led to Vitus being considered the patron saint of dancers and of entertainers in general.

Feast of St Basil the Great (Class III, June 14)

The readings in the Roman Office for the feast are set out below.  The sections omitted for the one reading in the Benedictine Office are indicated by square brackets:

This Basil was a noble Cappadocian who studied earthly learning at Athens, in company with Gregory of Nazianzus, to whom he was united in a warm and tender friendship. He afterwards studied things sacred in a monastery, where he quickly attained an eminent degree of excellence in doctrine and life, whereby he gained to himself the surname of the Great. He was called to Pontus to preach the Gospel of Christ Jesus, and brought back into the way of salvation that country which before had been wandering astray from the rules of Christian discipline. He was shortly united as coadjutor to Eusebius, Bishop of Cassarea, for the edification of that city, and afterwards became his successor in the see. One of his greatest labours was to maintain that the Son is of one Substance with the Father, and when the Emperor Valens, moved to wrath against him, was willing to send him into exile, he so bent him by dint of the miracles which he worked that he forced him to forego his intention.

[The chair upon which Valens sat down, in order to sign the decree of Basil's ejectment from the city, broke down under him, and three pens which he took one after the other to sign the edict of banishment, all would not write and when nevertheless he remained firm to write the ungodly order, his right hand shook. Valens was so frightened at these omens, that he tore the paper in two. During the night which was allowed to Basil to make up his mind, Valens' wife had a severe stomach-ache, and their only son was taken seriously ill. These things alarmed Valens so much that he acknowledged his wickedness, and sent for Basil, during whose visit the child began to get better. However, when Valens sent for some heretics to see it, it presently died.]

The abstinence and self-control of Basil were truly wonderful. [He was content to wear nothing but one single garment.] In observance of fasting he was most earnest, and so instant in prayer, that he would oftentimes pass the whole night therein. [His virginity he kept always unsullied]. He built monasteries, wherein he so adapted the institution of monasticism, that he exquisitely united for the inmates the advantages of the contemplative and of the active life. He was the author of many learned writings, and, according to the witness of Gregory of Nazianzus, no one hath ever composed more faithful and edifying explanations of the books of the Holy Scripture. He died upon the 1st day of January, (in the year of our Lord 379,) at which time so essentially spiritual was his life, that his body showed nothing but skin and bones.

St Basil is a key saint from a Benedictine perspective, since St Benedict knew and drew on several of his works.  His shorter rule and several of his homilies were translated into Latin very early, and circulated widely in the West.  St Ambrose, for example, drew heavily on his sermons on the dyas of creation to produce a similar work of his own.  According to the Wikipedia:

Basil was born into the wealthy family of Basil the Elder, a famous rhetor, and Emmelia of Caesarea, in Pontus, around 330. His parents were renowned for their piety. His maternal grandfather was a Christian martyr, executed in the years prior to Constantine I's conversion. His pious widow, Macrina, herself a follower of Gregory Thaumaturgus (who had founded the nearby church of Neocaesarea), raised Basil and his four siblings (who also can be venerated as saints): Macrina the Younger, Naucratius, Peter of Sebaste and Gregory of Nyssa.

Basil received more formal education in Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia (modern-day Kayseri, Turkey) around 350-51. There he met Gregory of Nazianzus, who would become a lifetime friend. Together, Basil and Gregory went to Constantinople for further studies, including the lectures of Libanius. The two also spent almost six years in Athens starting around 349, where they met a fellow student who would become the emperor Julian the Apostate. Basil left Athens in 356, and after travels in Egypt and Syria, he returned to Caesarea, where for around a year he practiced law and taught rhetoric.

Basil's life changed radically after he encountered Eustathius of Sebaste, a charismatic bishop and ascetic. Abandoning his legal and teaching career, Basil devoted his life to God. A letter described his spiritual awakening:

“I had wasted much time on follies and spent nearly all of my youth in vain labors, and devotion to the teachings of a wisdom that God had made foolish. Suddenly, I awoke as out of a deep sleep. I beheld the wonderful light of the Gospel truth, and I recognized the nothingness of the wisdom of the princes of this world."

You can read more on the saint in Pope Benedict VI's two General Audiences on him, here and here.