Monday, September 3, 2012

Pope St Pius X (EF/Benedictine)/St Gregory (OF), Sept 3



From the martyrology:

"St Pius X, Pope, whose birthday is recorded on August 20."

Pope Pius X has a large fan club amongst traditionalists because of his tough stand on the heresy of modernism, even having a traditionalist society named after him. 

Personally, I always find that rather ironic, since he was also the first of the twentieth century liturgical wreckovators, changing the order of reception of the sacraments, overturning longstanding tradition on the frequency of reception of the Eucharist, and above all fundamentally revamping the Roman Breviary.

Fortunately in the Ordinary Form, today is the feast of a rather more traditional liturgical reformer, St Gregory the Great:

"Likewise at Rome, the raising to the Sovereign Pontificate of St. Gregory the Great, an incomparable man, who, being forced to take that burden upon himself, sent forth from the more exalted throne brighter rays of sanctity upon the world."

Saturday, September 1, 2012

St Giles & 12 Holy Brothers (EF: 1 Sept)




In the Extraordinary Form, today is the feast of St Giles (650-710), a Greek hermit who ended up settling in Provence, and one of the fourteen holy helpers.

From the martyrology:

"In the province of Narbonne, St. Giles, abbot and confessor.


At Benevento, twelve saintly brothers, martyrs."

Thursday, August 30, 2012

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."

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

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. "

Friday, August 24, 2012

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.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

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.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

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."