SAINT MARCELLINUS, PETER,
AND COMPANIONS
Martyrs, c. 304
June 2
 
 

MARCELLINUS AND PETER were among a group of Christians martyred at Rome about the year 304, during the persecution of Diocletian.  We know that Marcellinus was a priest and Peter probably an exorcist, but history tells us nothing more about their lives.  Sometime later in the century, the emperor Constantine the Great built a church over the tomb of the martyrs, and his mother, Saint Helena, was buried there.  In 827 Pope Gregory IV sent the bodies of the saints to Eginhard, a minister of Charlemagne, as relics for the Frankish churches; still later, the remains of the saints came to a final resting place, Seligenstadt in Germany.

SAINT BONIFACE
Bishop and Martyr, c.680-754
June 5
 
 

 BONIFACE, the Apostle of Germany, began life as an Anglo-Saxon boy named Winfrid, in the Kingdom of Wessex, about the year 680.  We are told that as early as the age of five he was determined to become a monk; at seven he was an oblate-student in the abbey school of Exeter; and at fourteen went on to further studies at the Abbey of Nursling.  From pupil to teacher was the natural course for him.  Before his ordination at thirty, he was a distinguished scholar, with a typical scholarly product-a Latin grammar-to his credit.

 Winfrid's life might have continued in this studious vein if he had not had that uncurable thirst for souls that makes the missionary.  The territory of Frisia (including the present-day Netherlands), just across the North Sea and inhabited by many recalcitrant pagans, had been attracting the young monk for some time. it was the land from which his own ancestors had sailed for England, and it was doubtless with something of those early adventurers' own spirit that Winfrid set off in 716, to Christianize their homeland.  The attempt was an abortive one, as a war that was raging between the Frisians and the Franks made any missionary activity impossible.  Forced to return to England, Winfrid stayed there for only two years (his brethren at Nursling elected him abbot in the vain hope of keeping him there) and then left for Rome to secure papal authority for his future missionary activities.

After giving Winfrid a warm welcome, the pope exacted from him a willingly given promise of loyalty to the Holy See, changed his name to Boniface ("he who does good"), and sent him back to the German provinces as a kind of missionary at large.  Preaching his way north, Boniface came again to Frisia, where the war was over and mission work was once more possible.  Under Saint Willibrord, an old man who had been struggling in the field for years with only scant success, Boniface worked for three years in Frisia.  He left only when Willibrord began speaking hopefully about his making the stay a permanent one.  Permanence of this kind was distasteful to Boniface because of his insatiable desire to make Christ known to as many pagans as possible.  In 722 he left Frisia for the wider fields of central and southern Germany, after first going again to Rome to be consecrated bishop by Pope Gregory II, who gave him jurisdiction over all the German provinces.

 The new bishop went next to Hesse, where one of his first acts, carried out in the presence of a crowd of awestruck pagans, was to put an axe to a giant oak tree, long revered as sacred to the pagan gods.  With the wood from the oak, Boniface built a chapel and, quite understandably, soon had it filled with converts.  With this vigorous start, he proceeded in the next thirty years to evangelize all of Franconia, Thuringia, Hesse, and Bavaria, a vast expanse covering thousands of square miles.  Boniface bound this area firmly to the Church by making converts and by organizing a vast network of dioceses and covering the land with religious foundations.  Many of the latter were filled by the parties of English monks and nuns who had followed Boniface across the Channel to help him in his work.  Fulda, largest of these foundations, became one of the greatest abbeys in the West.  With the religious establishments to give them stability, the new dioceses (many of which still exist just as Boniface planned them) rapidly knit the territories together in a strong Christian society.

 Despite his immense labors in Germany, Boniface had time for important work elsewhere, notably in Gaul, where the Church had been reduced to a royally-controlled patronage system by Charles Martel.  When Charles was succeeded by his sons Pepin and Carloman, Boniface used his influence to aid a reform movement for the Gallic Church.  With the help of the new rulers, by 747 the simony, clerical immorality, and other abuses that had been prominent in the Gallic Church were largely eliminated.  A general council held that year confirmed the work by sending to Rome a confession of faith and a statement of fidelity to the pope.  By this time, Boniface had received many honors: he had been appointed bishop of Mainz-his first fixed see and had been named primate of Germany, as well as apostolic delegate for Germany and Gaul.

 Frisia, that stubborn province of Boniface's younger days, was reverting to paganism after the death of Willibrord, and this relapse sent Boniface on his last journey.  In 753, with fifty-two companions, he sailed down the Rhine to begin the reconversion of the province.  All went well until his group penetrated the northern half of Frisia, which had never been reached by missionaries.  On the eve of Pentecost, 754, Boniface had arranged for a confirmation service on a broad plain called Dokkum, beside the river Borne.  Before his converts arrived, a hostile band of marauding pagans appeared, attacked the missionaries, and slaughtered all of them.  So died Boniface, having achieved a martyr's crown.

 His body was recovered and taken to Fulda, where it still reposes.  Another treasure at Fulda is the book Boniface was reading when he was attacked, hacked with sword cuts and soaked with the martyr's blood.  One of the greatest missionaries the Church has seen, Boniface is especially honored in Germany, of course, but also is widely venerated in England, where, with Pope Gregory the Great and Augustine of Canterbury, he is a patron of the country.

SAINT NORBERT
Bishop and Confessor, c.1080-1134
June 6
 

 GOD awakens the saints to the reality of His presence in a variety of ways, some of them quite dramatic: thunder and lightning was the way for Saint Norbert.  A relative of the German emperor, Henry V, Norbert was born about 1080 at Xanten, on the Rhine, and spent the first thirty years of his life in attendance at the royal court, where he was a great favorite.  It was a pleasant, amusing, and purposeless existence, although he had already been ordained a subdeacon.

 In 1111 he accompanied the emperor to Rome, and although his conscience was awakened when he saw Henry extorting from the imprisoned pope rights that belonged to the Holy See, it was only little by little that he left the court life and broke with the excommunicated emperor.  The decisive moment came for the young man as he was riding a horse through the German countryside one day; when a violent storm occurred, punctuated by thunder and lightning, the horse bolted, throwing Norbert to the ground.  The fall nearly killed him like Paul on the road to Damascus, Norbert emerged from the experience a different man.  His brush with death had revealed to him, in one sickening flash, the enormous emptiness of his life, and he resolved to make amends to God.

 He returned to Xanten, found a little hermitage, and gave himself up to prayer and mortification.  He left his solitude only to seek the advice and direction of Conrad of Ratisbon, the celebrated abbot of Siegburg.  Conrad advised study for the priesthood, and in 1115 Norbert was ordained at Cologne.  He returned again to Xanten to start his priestly career.  In his Youth, Norbert's family had secured an appointment for him as a canon at the collegiate church in Xanten; such positions were largely honorary, although usually given to priests, and people were accustomed to seeing the canons leading very worldly lives.  Remembering his own faults in this regard, Norbert began preaching to the canons on the need for more spirituality in their lives; his listeners, who had no taste for such medicine, laughed in his face and in 1118 denounced Norbert to the Council of Fritzlar as an unorthodox, meddling troublemaker.

 The council condemned him only for preaching without proper authorization, but Norbert was stunned by the cruelty of his fellow clerics.  Giving away the remains of his family fortune, he set out for Languedoc in France, where Pope Gelasius II was temporarily residing.  It was winter, and Norbert walked barefoot the entire way.  When he was admitted to the pope, he begged pardon for a sinful life and requested that a suitable penance be given him.  The pope saw the caliber of the man before him and rewarded the saint's act of humility by giving him permission to preach at will throughout Europe.

 Thus vindicated, Norbert began a busy preaching career that took him throughout the French and Belgian dioceses.  In 1119, the bishop of Laon persuaded Norbert to go there, where the canons were no better than they had been at Xanten.  As before, the saint had little success with the worldly clerics; as an alternative line of action, however, the bishop suggested that Norbert found his own community of canons and gave him land for this purpose in the desolate valley of Premontre', near the city of Laon.  There, on Christmas day, 1121, a new type of religious order was born: the Order of Canons Regular of Premontre'.  The order was an austere one, based on the Rule of Saint Augustine, and Norbert had the satisfaction of seeing it attract canons from all over Europe, even many of those who had earlier rejected his attempts at reform.  A branch for lay people was established at the request of Theobald, count of Champagne; Norbert gave him a small scapular he could wear under his clothes and a simple rule that could be followed in secular life.  This "third order," or secular tertianship, is regarded as the first to be attached to any religious order.  After making other foundations (one was in Antwerp, where Norbert gained fame by putting to rout a celebrated heretic), the saint went to Rome in 1125 to have Pope Honorius II give formal approval to the Premonstratensians.

 There were no longer any doubts about the worth of this holy man.  When he appeared in Germany on a visit in 1126 he was prevailed upon by the hierarchy there to accept the consecration as archbishop of Magdeburg.  Leaving his order under the direction of a capable disciple, Hugh of Fosses, Norbert took up residence in Magdeburg, where he once more became a stumbling-block to Christians who had forgotten the meaning of their faith.  Unchaste priests, laymen who plundered the Church of its property, these and others were soon influenced by Norbert's authority.  Despite opposition (a mob once attacked him in his own cathedral), the archbishop carried out his reforms and eventually had an improved diocese.

 The last achievement in Norbert's full life was to join with Saint Bernard and the emperor Lothair to uphold Pope Innocent II in his struggle against the antipope Anacletus II.  That fight took Norbert to Rome again, in 1133 ; although the outcome was successful, the effort proved too much for Norbert's health.  He became ill on his return to Magdeburg and, shortly after his arrival there, died on June 6, 1134.  His order continued to expand after his death and still

SAINT MEDARD
Bishop and Confessor, c456-560
June 8
 

WHEN it rains in the Vermandois area of northern France, the peasants say, "Saint Medard is watering his colts."  In the springtime many French villages still observe the ceremony of the "rose queen" (this is a ceremony in which the girl judged to have been the most virtuous in the village during the past year is taken to the church, crowned with roses, and given a small present of money), and this custom is supposed to have originated with Saint Medard.  A popular saint, the good Medard is one for whose life story little is available except legends.

 Medard was born at Salency, in Picardy, of a noble Frankish family.  Ordained a priest at thirty-three, he was appointed bishop of Vermand (Saint-Quentin) in 530.  It was a savage society then, and Medard moved his see to the fortified town of Noyon, which was less vulnerable to the attacks of barbarians.  According to an unreliable tradition, Medard was so popular that the neighboring diocese of Tournai, on the death of its own bishop, asked him to fill the vacancy.  He is supposed to have received permission from Rome to do this, although it was a practice normally forbidden.  The only event known with certainty about the saint's life is that, in 544, he solemnly blessed the Frankish queen Radegunde as deaconess when she had found life with her murderer-husband, King Clotaire, unbearable.  Medard died, a very old man, about 560.

SAINT EPHRAEM
Confessor and Doctor of the Church, c.306-373
June 9
 

 IT is hard to imagine a more pleasant way of fighting heresy than by singing it down, which is more or less the method used by Saint Ephraem in the fourth century.  He was a deacon of the Church in the Mesopotamian city of Edessa, at a time when various gnostic sects were spreading erroneous doctrines by means of simple verses set to popular tunes.  Ephraem, who appreciated music but not heresy, promptly wrote the words for a counter-barrage of orthodox hymns ,and had people sing them in the churches.  This proved to be a surprisingly effective technique for combating heretical influences, and it also permanently established hymn-singing as a church practice.  Many of Ephraem's hymns, which he wrote in Syriac, are still used in the Syrian Church.

 Ephraem had come to Edessa from Nisibis, the place where he was born about 306, after his native town had been surrendered by the Romans to the Persians.  One account relates that his parents were Christians.  Another says that his father was a priest in the cult of the pagan god Abnil, and had turned Ephraem out of the family home when he became a Christian.
 The bishop of Nisibis gave him refuge and provided for his intellectual and spiritual formation.  In due time he became a teacher and a deacon and in this capacity assisted the bishop until the Persians came into power.  Christians had little chance of survival in Nisibis under the pagan Persian government.

 Ephraem took up residence in Edessa in 363.  This city was under Roman government, which since Constantine's time had granted tolerance and even support to Christians.  At first Ephraem worked as an attendant in the public baths to support himself, but soon followed the counsels of a monk he had met and retired to a desert area to live a monastic life.  He chose a cave for his dwelling; austere solitude, not isolation, was his aim, and he kept in close contact with the Christians in the city.  He founded in the city a school of theology for the Persian Christians who fled from their pagan persecutors.  From his pen came a great mass of writing--scriptural commentaries, moral, theological, and apologetic works-most of it, except the commentaries, in verse.  Ephraem may not have been the finest poet of antiquity, but the human warmth and love that he put into his treatment of the tenets of the faith gave his works a lasting attractiveness; his own people, who loved both him and his writings, gave him his title of "the Harp of the Holy Spirit.  "

 Not much is known of Ephraem's last years; he seems to have made a trip westward in 370, to visit Saint Basil the Great in Caesarea, and in 373 he led the organization of relief services during a severe famine in Edessa.  The latter work probably exhausted his energies, for he lived only about a month after returning to his cave that year.  Not so familiar to Western Christians as the other Eastern saints of renown, Ephraem nevertheless remains one of the truly prominent figures of the early Church, a fact given recognition in 1920, when Pope Benedict XV declared him a Doctor of the Church.

SAINT ANTHONY OF PADUA
Confessor and Doctor of the Church, c.1195-1231
June 13
 

 IF Saint Anthony is remembered today mainly as a saint to whom prayers are addressed when articles are lost, his own time had a quite different view of him.  To people then, he was an inspiring preacher who could make the word of God live in their hearts as few other men could.  Born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1195, he joined a community of Augustinian canons when he was fifteen; after two years he was transferred to one of the order's houses in Coimbra, then Portugal's capital, and there, in 1221, he saw something that marked the turning point in his life: the relics of a number of Franciscan friars, who had been killed by the Moors in Morocco, being returned to Coimbra for burial. (Picture)

 Deeply impressed by the heroism of these men, Anthony decided to join the Franciscans and go to Morocco himself.  After he had persuaded all the superiors involved to let him make the change, he was sent to Africa, but was unfortunate enough to become seriously ill, and had to start back for Portugal.  When his ship was blown off course and landed in Sicily, Anthony, now thoroughly discouraged, abandoned thoughts of Portugal and Morocco and traveled up the Italian peninsula to Assisi, where Saint Francis was holding his last general chapter for his order.  After the chapter, Anthony was sent, by his own request, to a hermitage at San Paolo, where he might have remained permanently if it had not been for an unexpected request for his services as a speaker.

 This occurred at an ordination ceremony that Anthony was attending with his superior.  Through an oversight, no one had been appointed to give the sermon for the day, and none of the unprepared ecclesiastics were willing to give voice; in desperation it was finally suggested that Anthony the least qualified member there, apparently-give the sermon.  The young man did so, and after a stumbling start amazed his audience by launching out into a profound and moving address.  This burst of eloquence catapulted Anthony into fame; for the rest of his life, preaching, more than anything else, was his work.  His order first sent him to northern Italy, which was infested with heretics of various sorts.  He had great success there, not only because of his oratorical skill, but also because of his knowledge, which enabled him to give convincing refutations for the heretics' arguments.  His acquaintance with Holy Scripture was especially profound, so much so that Saint Francis gave Anthony permission to fill the position of lector of theology in the order, a post Francis had not yet entrusted to anyone.  About 1224 Anthony went to France for a two- or three-year period; he taught and preached there, his fame growing all the time.  In 1227, after the death of Saint Francis, he returned to Italy, where he was stationed in the city of Padua.

 Anthony's preaching career reached its height in Padua; his appearances in the pulpit became the chief events in the city's life.  He was outspoken against usury, or the charging of excessive interest on loans of money.  This was a predominant vice in Padua and had such accompanying features as squalid debtors' prisons, filled with poor people who could not meet the exorbitant demands of the moneylenders.  By preaching Christian charity, Anthony was able to curb the vicious practice, and even succeeded in getting laws passed that made it less easy for the usurers to jail people for debt.  The poor, the oppressed, those most in need of charity and justice-these were the people Anthony worked for during the rest of his short life.

At thirty-six, his health ruined by overwork, Anthony died.  Whether or not he was a miracle-worker during his lifetime has been disputed; there is no doubt, however, that he was such after his death.  How the practice of praying to him for the return of lost articles originated is also obscure; some think it may have been inspired by a story (perhaps legendary) about a young friar who stole Anthony's psalter and, when the saint prayed for its return, had a vision of divine retribution that frightened him into returning the book.  In art Anthony is often pictured with the Infant Christ, who is said to have descended and stood upon the book the saint was holding while he preached on the subject of the Incarnation.  Anthony was canonized the year after his death and was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius MI in 1946.

SAINT GERMAINE COUSIN
Virgin, c.1579-1601
June 16
 

 GERMAINE COUSIN was born about 1579 in the village of Pibrac, near Toulouse, in southern France.  Her mother died soon after giving birth to her, and her father, a farm worker, married again.  Germaine was in poor health and physically handicapped from birth; her right hand was withered and paralyzed, and she suffered from scrofula, a form of tuberculosis resulting in ugly skin eruptions, particularly around the neck.  Her father and stepmother were apparently revolted at her physical condition and gave her as little attention as possible; they fed her with scraps of food and made her sleep apart from the other children in a stable, or under a staircase.  As Germaine grew up, she was given no education and, to be kept out of the way, was sent to the fields to watch over sheep.  These are the conditions in which she lived until her death at the age of twenty-two.

 The only thing that distinguishes Germaine's history from countless others just as wretched or worse, is her hope and courage.  Her life, which the average person would probably regard as unbearable, she accepted gratefully, for its very privations allowed her to express her love of God.  Her food, little of it as there was, was something for her to share with the beggars who roamed the countryside and were even less fortunate than she.  Germaine's long hours in the fields gave her opportunities for prayer or for simple talks with the small children of the neighborhood, explaining to them the need for knowing and loving God.  Mass was the most important event in each day, even though it meant leaving her flocks and walking a long way to church, a journey made dangerous by the necessity of fording a broad stream that was often swollen by rain.

 As the years went by, Germaine's neighbors gradually came to realize the nobility of spirit the girl possessed.  Stories began to accumulate about her: on her way to church in the morning, she had been seen to come out of the stream with completely dry clothes; her sheep never strayed in her absence and were never attacked by the wolves that lurked in the nearby forests waiting for just such opportunities.  Finally, her family came to a tardy realization of the extraordinary person in their midst and made some shamefaced attempts to treat her in a more humane fashion.  She preferred, however, to continue just as she had in the past; it made little difference, in any event, for her life was running out.  On a summer morning in 1601, she was found dead, lying on her bed-a pile of straw underneath a staircase.

 Germaine was buried in the village church and years later, in 1644, her body was found to be incorrupt; after sixteen years it was re-examined and still was well preserved.  Miracles had been attributed to her intercession by this time, and the people of the village where she had been so cruelly treated were now praying to her in increasing numbers.  Official confirmation of Germaine's sanctity came in 1867, when she was canonized by Pope Pius IX.

SAINT FRANCIS RÉGIS CLET
Martyr  1748-1820
June 17
 
 

THERE is something about the life of SaintFrancis Régis Clet that echoes the patience and sorrow of Job-the old man who was considered an outcast, who was broken in health, deprived of friends and lands, and yet could say: "Slay me though he might, I will wait for him" (Job 13:15).

This special note of affliction and darkness was to shadow the entire career of Francis Clet.  Francis was born in the ancient French city of Grenoble.  At twenty-one he entered the "Vincentians," or Congregation of the Mission, founded by Saint Vincent de Paul.  After his ordination in 1773, he was sent to the diocesan seminary at Annecy as a professor of moral theology.  Five years later he was appointed novice master at Saint-Lazare, the Vincentian motherhouse in Paris.  On the eve of the storming of the Bastille, July 13, 1789, the house was sacked and the Vincentians were forced to flee.  The revolutionary terror brought with it the added difficulty of keeping a regular detail of missionaries to send to the Far East.  When, in 1791, one priest was unable to leave for China, Francis volunteered to take his place.

 For the next thirty years in China, Father Clet faced obstacles destined to wear down his spirit and destroy all his attempts to convert the heathens.  He was intermittently scrutinized by the officials, attacked by antagonists, and cut off from any communication with his missionary companions.  For three years he carried on his work absolutely alone.  His health broke gradually and painfully.
 In 1818 a period of persecution began when the emperor issued an edict declaring that all foreign religions must be suppressed.  For a long time Father Clet evaded capture, but a malicious pagan betrayed the priest for a reward of about a thousand dollars, Francis was subjected to imprisonment, scourgings, and other torments, the more terrible because of his age.  Finally, in 1820, according to a barbarous custom, Father Clet was strangled.  Twice the noose was tightened about his neck and twice he was allowed to revive.  The third time brought death.  A lifetime of faithful and loving endurance had prepared him to meet such a death heroically.

SAINT ROMUALD
Abbott and Confessor, c-951-1027
June 19
 
 

THE history of any nation shows that a sustained period of extravagance and prosperity is usually followed by depressions or violent reforms of some kind.  Emperor Charlemagne (768-814) had labored to build up the resources of a rich educational, religious, and intellectual life for his people.  After his death, the cultural ideals which he had promoted died quickly.  Ecclesiastical life began to decline; religious men were treated as bores, and monasteries which had always been centers of learning and religious thought were rapidly decaying from within.  The reforms did come, but not without a struggle.  Eventually, through the efforts of some few monks, religious life again began to flourish.  One of the strictest reforms of the tenth century was begun by Saint Romuald, founder of the Camaldolese Order.

Romuald's religious life began when he saw his father kill a relative in a duel.  Horrified by the murder, Romuald went to a monastery at Classis, near Ravenna, to do penance for his father's crime.  Later he joined the same monastery as a monk and was elected superior in 996.  Although he realized reform was needed to restore the monastic spirit, he was powerless against the apathy of the monks who were enjoying their undisciplined life.  After three years Romuald gave up his efforts to improve the monastery and left it in order to pray and to plan another reform.  For several years he wandered through the countryside, living in various monasteries and preaching the spirit of penance and prayer.  During that time he gathered only a few men who were willing to live the monastic rule of Saint Benedict according to its original demands.

A popular Italian legend relates that while looking for a site for a new monastery, Romuald met the Count Maldolus who told the saint of a dream in which he saw monks, clothed in white, ascending a ladder to heaven.  After hearing of Romuald's plans, the count offered his land, Campo Maldoli.  Out of gratitude, the monk named his new order Camaldolese.
The Camaldolese Order was the first to combine successfully the apparently contradictory aspects of the hermitic life of Eastern monks with the community life of Western monasticism.  Each monk of this order has his own room in which he lives and prays alone, joining the others only for community prayers.  Fasts are long and hard: meat is never eaten, and every Friday a fast of bread and water is kept.  During Lent, milk, cheese, eggs, and butter are forbidden.  Each monk has his own workshop and garden, where he labors alone while maintaining union with the others for the upkeep of the community.  Probably because of the severity of the rule, the order has only about two hundred members.  Two came to the U.S.A. in 1958 to start a community.

Obviously, Camaldolese life was not meant for everyone; yet Romuald saw clearly that extreme penance and mortification were the only forceful answers to the moral corruption of the period.  His principle of practicing "penance with a joyful heart" can be a guide to those caught in the web of seemingly useless activity.  As history unfolds, we see that the world still needs the example of those whose lives constitute a powerful sermon of contemplation and recollection.

Saint Romuald, founder and abbot, died alone in his monastery of Val Castro, Italy, in 1027.

SAINT ALOYSIUS GONZAGA
Confessor, c.1568-1591
June 21
 

 IN 1572, when Aloysius was four years old, his father, the marquis of Castiglione in Lombardy, gave him a set of toy guns and cannons for playthings.  The marquis was a member of the European nobility and wanted his son to become familiar with the proud traditions of that society, especially its proficiency in the arts of war.  The child played happily with the toys, and the next year, when his father took him for several months to an army encampment where his troops were stationed, Aloysius enjoyed himself even more.  Here were real guns and soldiers, with no need for make-believe; the boy marched with the men, mimicked their manners (even their profanity, which he innocently repeated), and finally achieved a really tremendous exploit: while no one was watching, he managed to put some powder into a cannon and fire it!  This was more than even his father had bargained for, but the marquis was indulgent with his son, thinking that at least he was showing the right aggressive spirit. (Picture)

 Aloysius had spirit, indeed, but a kind that his father soon found hard to appreciate.  In an incredibly short time, the boy outgrew the toys and enthusiasms of childhood; at seven he had only one interest: the spiritual life.  The reality of Christ and the need for returning His love through prayer and selfsacrifice now absorbed Aloysius completely.  All other activities-including the military life-were from this time on nothing more to him than childish pastimes, unworthy of serious attention.  As far as his father was concerned, this was a completely wrong-headed view of things.

 In hope of awakening Aloysius to a proper appreciation of the world that was open to him, the marquis sent him, along with his younger brother, Rodolfo, on a tour of some of the fabulous courts of the day.  In I S77 it was Florence, with all its Medici splendor; in 1579, Mantua, whose duke was the marquis' own patron; in 1581, the royal court of Spain, where the marquis was called on state affairs and his sons were given the privilege of being pages to the king's son.  His acquaintance with Renaissance court life aroused only one thing in Aloysius: an iron resolve never to be drawn into that society, which he later described as one of "fraud, dagger, poison, and lust of the most hideous kind." In his fight to keep free of this environment, Aloysius was unsparing with himself; he prayed and meditated long hours, fasted often, scourged himself, and took a vow of chastity.  His zeal in this last regard even led him to such youthful excesses as refusing to stay alone in the same room with his mother or sisters.

 By the time he was seventeen, Aloysius had determined his future: it was to be spent as a priest in the Jesuit order.  When he announced this decision to his father, the marquis erupted into threats and abuse; he even forced the boy into a final frantic round of visits to the Italian courts, hoping for a last-minute change of heart on Aloysius' part.  All this was quite useless, however, and the marquis finally had to give his consent.  On November 25, 1585, Aloysius entered the Jesuit novitiate at Rome, and then strangely enough, it was the father who experienced a change of heart.  He became ill after his son's departure and lived only about six weeks.  During the time before his death, he completely reversed his attitude toward Aloysius and gave his full approval to his son's decision.  The youth's few years as a Jesuit (he was not to live to be ordained) were taken up mainly with studies and, of course, with the constant deepening of his interior life of prayer and sacrifice.  In 1589 he had a chance for a last visit to his home when his superiors sent him there to intervene in a quarrel that had broken out between his brother Rodolfo and the duke of Mantua over property rights.  Aloysius brought the two men to a peaceable settlement of their dispute and also helped Rodolfo regularize a secret marriage he had made.

 Aloysius' reputation for sanctity grew steadily while he was with the Jesuits, and great things were expected of him achievements his short life left little time to fulfill.  In 1591 the plague struck Rome, and when Aloysius went to work in a hospital set up by the Jesuits, he contracted the disease.  His illness was a lingering one, but he knew what the outcome would be and waited with a kind of joyful impatience for death, completely happy at the thought of at last being united with God.  The end came finally on the night of June 20, 1591.  That Aloysius never had committed a mortal sin was the opinion of many, including his confessor and friend, Saint Robert Bellarmine.  To achieve such sanctity during adolescence and young manhood, perhaps the hardest time of all to live close to God, is truly remarkable and makes it particularly fitting that Aloysius should be a patron of Catholic youth.

SAINT JOHN FISHER
Bishop and Martyr, c.1469-1535
June 22
 

 THE long agony of the Church in England, beginning in the reign of Henry VIII, had for one of its first and most illustrious victims Saint John Fisher, the bishop of Rochester.  Born in Yorkshire in 1469, Fisher was sent to Cambridge University at fourteen, was ordained there in 1491, and served there in various positions until he was named chancellor of the university in 1504.  In 1502 he had been made chaplain to Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII.  With her financial assistance, Cambridge developed into one of the finest universities of Europe.  As chancellor, Fisher brought the humanist Erasmus to teach at Cambridge, restored Greek and Hebrew to the curriculum, and multiplied many times over the meager library of some 300 books.  Unlike so many scholars of the time, Fisher had something besides learning: his spirit could not grow in knowledge alone, and love of the cross led him to associate a hair shirt and the use of a discipline with his scholarly work.

 Appointed bishop of Rochester when he was only thirty-five (he had refused richer sees), the saint was as conscientious and successful as he had been at Cambridge.  Administering the diocese and the university, producing scholarly works in opposition to the Lutherans, Bishop Fisher was soon the outstanding prelate in England.  This, at least, was the opinion of Henry VIII, who early in his reign often spoke glowingly of the qualities of "his Rochester." As time passed, however, and Henry became increasingly preoccupied with Anne Boleyn, his appreciation for the bishop grew considerably less.  In 1529, when the king began divorce proceedings against his wife, Catherine, Fisher spoke against the legality of the action.  Henry began insinuating that the bishop was a traitor, the charge that later became standard for anyone who opposed the will of the monarch, even in religious matters.

 The Oath of Succession, which acknowledged Henry as supreme head of the English Church, was the next test; when Fisher refused to take the oath (almost alone, with Thomas More, among the distinguished men of England to see the issue clearly and refuse), a trial for treason was the result, with a verdict of guilty that was never in doubt.  This was in June 1535; Fisher had been in prison for months, and while there had been sent a cardinal's hat by Pope Paul III, an action that hastened his trial by further enraging the king against him.

 Awakened on the morning of June 21, and told that this was to be the day of his execution, the bishop asked to have a little more sleep, as he had had a restless night; after two hours of sound slumber, he awoke, ready for what was to follow.  Taking up his New Testament he read the consoling text: "Now this is everlasting life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and him whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ.  I have glorified thee on earth; I have accomplished the work that thou hast given me to do" (John 17:3-4).  On Tower Hill, facing the huge mob that had come to see him die, the bishop spoke to the people calmly, telling them that he was dying-for "the faith of the Catholic Church and of Christ," and asking them to pray for him.  He was beheaded, and Henry, in a last vengeful gesture, had the head of the saint exposed on London Bridge for two weeks and then thrown into the Thames.  In 1935, Pope Pius XI canonized both Fisher and Thomas More, who was executed a few days after the bishop.

SAINT THOMAS MORE
Martyr, c.1478-1535
June 22
 

 SIR THOMAS MORE was born to be spoiled.  He had all the gifts for it-wit, appearance, learning, and a flair for making friends.  But he was not rich and had to make his own way.
 His success story has a familiar ring to it.  It is only the dates that keep him from sounding like a contemporary politician.  His father, Sir John More, was a judge on the King's Bench and sent his son to study the classics at Oxford and then law at New Inn and Lincoln's Inn.  Having become a renowned lawyer, Thomas was elected to Parliament in 1504.  In 1510 he was appointed under-sheriff of London, in 1518 sub-treasurer to Henry VIII, and in 1521 he was knighted.  He was chosen speaker of the House of Commons in 1523, and in 1529 became lord chancellor of England in succession to Cardinal Wolsey.  He was also a literary sensation; his book Utopia was a best-seller.

 There was every reason for him to be caught in the tide of ambition which swirled on every side.  He was hardly the sort of man the world would have marked for martyrdom.
 It seems incredible that a man in his position could have seen things so clearly.  It had always been understood that "the king is under God and the law." The monarchy, though strong, was limited by the rights of the Magna Carta, the rights of the Church, the nobles, and the Commons.  There was a division of power-Caesar's and God's.  Thomas More saw that Henry VIII was seeking step by step to end that division of power.  The king concentrated all power, secular and spiritual, in his own hands.  He overrode traditional rights and safeguards, and judicially murdered those who sought to keep his will within limits.

 All the native English bishops, save only John Fisher of Rochester, gave way before the demands of the king, hoping vaguely that the storm would pass, the favor of Anne Boleyn would fall, and they would remain to put the Church back in its rightful place.  Where did More find the courage and the insight that others, seemingly more saintly, lacked?
 There is no secret about it.  More was from his youth a man of prayer.  While he studied at Lincoln's Inn he lived a life of complete austerity with the Carthusians.  Even after marriage, his prayer and penance continued.  He wore a hairshirt all his life.  Such austerity was unusual in Henry's luxurious court.  His wife was so horrified that she tried to have the penance banned by his confessor, and his merry little daughter-in-law, seeing a corner of the shirt sticking out as he sat at dinner without his collar, had an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

 Laughter was a plentiful commodity in that house.  It was perhaps the merriest household in all of England.  In 1505 Thomas had married Miss Jane Colt, and they had four children, Margaret, Elizabeth, Cecilia, and John.  In 1511, Jane died, still quite young herself.
 Being left with four children, all under five years of age, More almost immediately married Alice Middleton, a widow several years his senior, to provide a mother's care for his children.  She was kind, full of common sense, and about the only fault she can be accused of is that she rarely understood her husband's jokes.  More lived with her as happily as if she had all the charms of youth.

 The house at Chelsea was never empty.  In time, besides the son and three daughters there were their husbands and wife, and many grandchildren.  The Mores were never without guests.  The most brilliant figures of the day gathered in their home.  Among the most frequent guests was More's very dear friend, the humanist scholar Erasmus.  Even the king enjoyed dropping in on the family unexpectedly, sharing dinner with them, and walking in the garden, arm-in-arm with his chancellor.

 There is no doubt that More enjoyed life to the fullest.  But from the day he took the chancellorship, he knew that that form of life was threatened.  He took the position only with the understanding that he would not be asked to involve himself in Henry's matrimonial difficulties.  When it became clear that Henry would break with Rome, More asked to be relieved of his position because of his health.  He was well aware that Cromwell was coming into political power and that Anne Boleyn was plotting against him.

 He had not long to wait.  On April 12, 1534, More was asked to present himself the next day at Lambeth Palace to take the Oath of Succession.  He was perfectly willing to swear to support the succession of Anne's children, but when he found that he was also required to repudiate the pope, he refused and was imprisoned in the Tower.  During this time, he refused to answer questions; as the law stood, he could not be condemned for silence, only for actual speech against the king.

 Suddenly, all his privileges were denied him.  His writing materials, even his books, were taken away.  He was questioned more frequently.  Bishop Fisher, having been tricked into speaking his opinion, had been executed.  It was obviously hoped that the same would happen to More.
At the trial, which followed a few days after Fisher's execution, More continued to refuse to discuss the matter.  He felt that he was a weak person and that, if he were presumptuous in forcing his own martyrdom, he might weaken when faced with death.

Only after his condemnation was certain did More state his position for the record.  He reminded the court of the rights of the Magna Carta, and that the king had, at his coronation, sworn to uphold the rights of the Church.  He said, "No more might this realm of England refuse obedience to the See of Rome than might a child refuse obedience to his natural father."  If More had once been afraid for his constancy, all fears were gone now.  His death was in perfect accord with a devout and gay-hearted life.  He jested with the lieutenant of the Tower, rallied the nervous executioner, and moved his beard away from the path of the ax, saying that it, at least, had committed no treason.

 He died on July 6, 1535, declaring for the last time that he was, "The King's good servant, but God's first."

SOLEMNITY OF THE BIRTH OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST
Prophet and Precursor (New Testament)
 
 

 THE life of Saint John the Baptist is summed up in his title "the Precursor," the forerunner.  His mission was to announce to the Jews that the time of the promised Messiah had come and, when Christ began His public life, to identify Him as the Messiah.
 His parents were Zachary and Elizabeth, an elderly, God-fearing couple (Zachary was a priest of the Temple) who had no children and were resigned to that state, when an angel appeared to Zachary in the Temple and promised him a son.  Soon afterwards Elizabeth, despite her advanced age, conceived a child.  Before John was born, his mother received a visit from her cousin, the Blessed Virgin, who by this time, through the power of the Holy Ghost, had conceived her divine Son.  "When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary . . . the babe in her womb leapt" (Luke 1:41); the common interpretation of this incident is that the Baptist was miraculously enabled to recognize Christ and was cleansed from original sin by the meeting, so that he was born in the state of sanctifying grace.  After John's birth, Zachary uttered his canticle of thanksgiving to God, foretelling his son's work with the words, "And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Most High, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways" (Luke 1:76).

 John's early years were hidden ones, as Christ's were.  Sometime before his public life began, he went into the desert, where, clothed in a camel's skin, he lived on locusts and wild honey.  Then "the word of God came to John" (Luke 3:2), and he began his mission.  He preached to the Jews the need of repentance for their sins; when they questioned him about his identity (some believed him to be the Messiah), he replied that he was not the Christ, but "the voice of one crying in the desert, 'Make straight the way of the Lord"' (John 1:23).  He warned them that "one mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to loose" (Luke 3:16). Whoever accepted his message, he baptized in a ceremony symbolic of the sacramental baptism soon to be inaugurated by Christ.

 John's mission had its fulfillment on the momentous day when Christ joined the crowds and, in His turn, asked for baptism.  On seeing Christ, John said: "Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29), and at first argued that he was unworthy of baptizing our Lord.  Christ had determined on this means to open His public ministry, however, and insisted on the ceremony in order that they might "fulfill all justice" (Matt. 3:15).  After the baptism, the heavens opened, and the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove descended upon Him, with a voice from the heavens saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17).  To make unmistakably clear the significance of Christ's appearance, John declared, "I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God"(John 1:34).

 Now that Christ had begun His public mission, there was no further need for the precursor.  John saw this and sent his disciples after Christ, saying "He (Christ) must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30).  There remained for him only his cruel death in the palace of Herod, where he had been imprisoned after rebuking Herod for his unlawful marriage to his brother's wife, Herodias.  The account of this death is a familiar one: Salome's dance before Herod, her terrible request (prompted by Herodias, her mother) for John's head on a dish, and the granting of this dreadful favor; such was the grisly chain of events that brought the Baptist's career to its close.

 Before John's death his sanctity was witnessed by Christ Himself, who reproached the Jews for not having listened to the Baptist and spoke of him in words that were both a tribute to John and a warning to the Jews: "But what did you go out to see?" Christ asked them of John; "A prophet?  Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.  This is he of whom it is written, 'Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall make ready thy way before thee.' I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist" (Luke 7:26-28) . John, by being perfectly faithful to his mission as the precursor, was perfectly faithful to Christ; by announcing the coming of the Savior and then, when Christ appeared, effacing himself in favor of our Lord, John had made Christ the whole end and aim of his life; and this is the aim of every Christian.

 John the Baptist has always been a popular saint, and relics that are supposed to be his are venerated today in many places.  According to an ancient tradition, his disciples obtained his body after his beheading and buried it in the city of Sebaste.  During the fourth-century persecution of Julian the Apostate, John's bones are said to have been burned, with the exception of a few that were saved from the fire and sent to Saint Athanasius in Alexandria.  These remaining relics spread from there throughout the Christian world, so that now some part of them is claimed in various places.

SAINT ANTHELMUS
Bishop and Confessor, c.1105-1178
June 26
 

ge. BORN about 1105, near Cbambery in eastern France, Saint Anthelmus is one of the prominent figures of the Carthusian Order, although he began his adult life as a secular priest.  A younger son of a noble family, he was destined "for the Church," from his childhood, and after being ordained was given a comfortable administrative position in the diocese.  During the years he filled this post, Anthelmus occasionally visited a relative at the Carthusian monastery of Portes.  The solitary life of prayer and sacrifice he discovered there, with its calm, austere beauty, profoundly attracted him, and he obtained permission to enter the order about 1137.

 He began his novitiate at Portes and finished it as the Grande Chartreuse, high in the French Alps, which had been almost destroyed by an avalanche a few years before.  Its prior was trying to rebuild it, and Anthelmus was an invaluable aid in the work, being as successful at sheep raising and barn building as he was in helping his fellow monks keep faithful to their rule.  When the prior resigned in 1139, Anthelmus was elected to the office.  He completed the rebuilding of the monastery and also made it the motherhouse for all the other Carthusian monasteries that until then had been independent.  After twelve years as head of the order, Anthelmus retired and went back to his solitude-to remain permanently, he hoped, an ordinary monk.  Subsequent priors had the same idea, however; when Bernard de Varey retired from office at Portes, Anthelmus had to step in to fill the vacancy.  Portes had become an extremely prosperous monastery, distressingly so to Anthelmus, who spent most of his time there in dispensing its wealth in charitable projects.  After two years, the saint once more attempted retirement to the Grande Chartreuse, but now his reputation had spread and his help was wanted beyond his own order.

 The election of the new pope, Alexander III, was being contested by an antipope, and Anthelmus was asked to enter the controversy.  With the help of another abbot, Geoffrey of Hautcombe, he organized support for the true pope throughout Europe.  Once firmly established in the papacy, Alexander demonstrated his appreciation for Anthelmus' assistance by appointing him, in 1163, bishop of Belley.  The saint would have cheerfully foregone the honor, but once put in office he ruled the diocese with his customary zeal and efficiency.  Clerical celibacy-or the lack of it-was one of his chief problems, and he was unrelenting in his insistence that his priests strive to be worthy of their holy station.  He also gave careful attention to the laity-from the lepers, whose sores he himself cleaned, to Humbert III, duke of Saxony and lord of Belley, whom he excommunicated for interfering in Church affairs.  Utterly serious about this action, Anthelmus would not revoke it even at the pope's urging; when attempts to influence him in this regard continued, he went back to Portes and threatened to stay there unless his treatment of Humbert was accepted.  He had his way-everyone knew he was too valuable to lose-and soon was back at Belley.

 The pope wished to send him to England as papal legate in an attempt to end another bishop-ruler quarrel, this one the long and famous conflict between Henry II and Saint Thomas 'a Becket; Emperor Frederic Barbarossa succeeded in preventing this legation, however, and two Carthusians from another monastery were sent.  In his last years Anthelmus received extraordinary honors from the emperor: temporal power over the city of Belley itself, the right to coin his own money, and other privileges.  The bishop still longed for the cloisters of the Grande Chartreuse, however, and visited there whenever he had the chance.  On his death bed in 1178, he was visited by Duke Humbert, who had come at last to beg his forgiveness and absolution.  Anthelmus gladly gave it to him and peacefully went to meet the eternal jud

SAINT CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church, c. 376-444
June 27
 
 

THERE was no room for compromise or indifference in the issues involved.  The disagreement, violent on both sides, concerned one of the basic dogmas of Catholicism: the divinity of Christ.  The adversaries were Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius of Constantinople.  Both were bishops.
A short time after he was made bishop of Constantinople in 428, Nestorius began preaching that there were two distinct persons in Christ: God and man.  He denied the Incarnation, that is, that God was made man.  Although he accepted the Blessed Virgin as the mother of the man Christ, he denied that she was the mother of God.  He stated flatly that Christ was not divine.

When Cyril read these denials, he wrote several letters to Nestorius pointing out his errors, but he received only contemptuous answers.  He consequently appealed to Pope Celestine to intervene.  After inspecting the false doctrine at a council in Rome, the pope condemned it and pronounced the sentence of excommunication against Nestorius unless he retracted his statements within ten days.  Cyril was appointed papal delegate to preside at the Council of Ephesus (431), at which two hundred bishops were present.  Again all the Nestorian documents underwent scrupulous examination and again all were condemned.  Nestorius refused to retract his statements and was banished to the desert, where he died after drawing many persons after him into his erroneous sect.

Saint Cyril had succeeded in halting the heresy.  Although some sects still adhere, to this day, to the dictates of Nestorius, the heresy was no longer a real threat to the Catholic Church after the Council of Ephesus.  Pope Celestine described Cyril as a "generous defender of the Church and faith, the Catholic doctor and apostolic man."
While his chief fame rests on his suppression of Nestorianism, Cyril was also responsible for encouraging devotion to the Holy Eucharist through his emphasis on the effects this sacrament produces in the souls of those who receive it worthily.  His life work seems to be summed up in one of his famous writings: "Christ is not a man into whom the Word has descended, but the very Word taking birth in flesh that is its own.  It is in this sense that it is said in all truth that God is born, that He died, and that Mary is the mother of God."

Saint Cyril, called Doctor of the Incarnation, died in 444 during his thirty-second year as bishop of Alexandria.

SAINT  IRENAEUS
Bishop and Martyr, -304
June 28
 
 

THE last and most terrible persecution of the Christians in the Roman Empire was carried out under Emperor Diocletian in the fourth century.  Thousands of brave men and women died for their faith, and Saint Irenaeus (there have been others with the same name) was one of those martyrs.  The bishop of Sirmium in Pannonia (modem Yugoslavia), in the year 304 he was brought before the governor of the province and given the familiar choice: sacrifice to the gods or die.  Irenaeus chose death and was given the unusual sentence of being drowned in the city's river.  Too easy a death, the bishop complained, and asked for one in which he could suffer more for his faith.  Irritated by the courageous request, the governor had Irenaeus beheaded and then, as a final insult to his body, had it thrown into the river.

SOLEMNITY OF STS. PETER AND PAUL
June 29

SAINT PETER
Apsotle (New Testament)
 
 

 THE dominant figure among the followers of Christ in the Gospels is Peter, Prince of the Apostles.  If through no other means than by listening for years to the Sunday Gospels read in church, every Catholic, whether he is aware of it or not, has an indelible knowledge of the events in the life of the Church's first leader.  It takes little effort for us to recall the most important of them: Christ's calling of Simon (Peter's original name) and his brother Andrew away from their trade as fishermen on the Sea of Galilee: "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matt. 4:19); Simon Peter's resounding confession of faith in Christ when our Lord tested the apostles by asking them who he was: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:17), and Christ's profoundly significant reply: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to thee, but my Father in heaven.  And I say to thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:17-18); then Christ's foretelling Peter's denial of Him: ". . . this very night, before a cock crows twice, thou wilt deny me three times" (Mark 14:30), and Peter's bitterly repented fulfillment of the prophecy: "I do not know the man!" (Matt. 26:72).

 Additional information about Peter's life is contained in the Acts of the Apostles, where his actions as head of the Church are recorded: on the first Pentecost he speaks for all the apostles, and about three thousand converts are made (Acts 2:14-41); in the name of Christ he heals the sick, who are eager to have even his shadow fall on them (Acts 3:6; 5:15); imprisoned by Herod, he is miraculously released by an angel (Acts 12:1-17); he leads the way in preaching the faith to the gentiles (Acts 10:1-48) and, at the Council of Jerusalem (about the year 51), rules against subjecting them to all the requirements of the old Jewish law (Acts 15:6-1).

 Tradition-our final source of knowledge about Peter completes his history: until about the year 42, he had his see at Antioch; afterwards he was in Corinth, and finally in Rome where he established his see permanently, wrote his two Epistles, and suffered martyrdom-a head-downward crucifixion under the emperor Nero, about the year 67.  For centuries it has been believed that Peter's tomb was under the high altar in Saint Peter's at Rome, and recent excavations there have brought to light considerable evidence in confirmation of this tradition.

 From all these sources an appealing image of Peter emerges: a man so like ourselves that we are attracted to him as we seldom are to saints whose almost inhuman severities leave us awe-struck.  Peter is human-all too human at times.  Full of brave words and good intentions, he as often as not fails abjectly when put to the test.  After he confidently leaps out of the boat and begins to walk on the water at Christ's bidding, fear seizes him and he begins to sink; Christ has to rescue him, saying, "O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt?" (Matt. 14:31).  Before his shameful denial of Christ he boasts pathetically, "Even though all shall be scandalized because of thee, I will never be scandalized. . . . Even if I should have to die with thee, I will not deny thee!" (Matt. 26:33, 35).  When Christ prophesies His own passion and death to the apostles, Peter takes it upon himself to assure our Lord confidently, "Far be it from thee, O Lord; this will never happen to thee"; and Christ has to reprimand his brash follower with, "Get behind me, satan, thou art a scandal to me; for thou dost not mind the things of God, but those of men" (Matt. 16:22-23). Even after Christ's Ascension, when Peter is acting as head of the Church, he does not escape reproof; Saint Paul, in his Epistle to the Galatians, says that, because Peter stopped eating with the gentiles out of fear of what the Jewish Christians would say, "I withstood him to his face, because he was deserving of blame" (Gal. 2:11). Poor Peter!  He could do nothing right!

 But before we take too much comfort from his weakness and mediocrity, we might note some of his other qualities.  At his first meeting with Christ, when he senses something of our Lord's infinity, he realizes exactly what his own worth is and sums it up with nice precision: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Luke 5:8).  Honest enough to admit this, he is also courageous enough to leave everything he has to follow Christ.  So wholehearted is his commitment that when Christ later asks the apostles if they want to leave Him, as many others are doing, Peter can only say, "Lord, to whom shall we go?" (John 6:69).  Christ is now at the center of Peter's existence and there is nothing else in the world that has any meaning for him.  Even after denying Christ, he perseveres in his attachment to Him and repents, and does not fall into the oblivion of despair as Judas did.  Peter maintained the precious truth that he had known the Lord and found salvation in Him, and he was able to endure to the end in this faith, through his selfless love of the Redeemer.  Ultimately, it was this gift of love, learned from Christ Himself, that transformed Peter from the simple fisherman into the man of faith, Christ's first vicar on earth

SAINT PAUL
Apostle (New Testament)
 
 

 ALL the first Christians were necessarily missionaries, but one outshines them all; Saint Paul, a man whose eloquence and zeal flooded the pagan world with the name and message of Christ.  He was named Saul by his Jewish parents, who were Roman citizens in Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia in southeast Asia Minor.  The parents were members of the strictest of the Jewish sects, the Pharisees, and reared their son in rigid conformity to Pharisaic teachings.  Immensely talented and energetic, Saul absorbed everything he was taught-including his father's trade of tent-making.  Proud of his brilliance, his parents sent him to Jerusalem to study under the celebrated teacher of the law, Gamaliel.  Saul had probably completed his studies and returned to Tarsus by the time Christ began His public life; he does not mention being in Palestine until after Christ's Ascension, at the stoning of Saint Stephen.  By then, Saul was a fiery defender of Jewish orthodoxy, contemptuous of Christians and eager to wipe them out as corrupters of Judaism.  He watched with approval as life was crushed out of Stephen, and then started his own career of persecution.

 His own words, as reported in the Acts of the Apostles, best describe his activities: ". . . I then thought it my duty to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth . . . . many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests to do so; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them; and oftentimes in all the synagogues I punished them and tried to force them to blaspheme; and in my extreme rage against them I even pursued them to foreign cities " (Acts 26:9-11).

 One of these cities was Damascus, where Saul wanted to arrest the Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial.  The journey there was the most critical of his life; this is his description of it: ". . . as I was on my way and approaching Damascus, suddenly about noon there shone round about me a great light from heaven; and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me?  And I answered, 'Who art thou, Lord?  And he said to me, 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou art persecuting.' . . . And I said, 'What shall I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me, 'Get up and go into Damascus, and there thou shalt be told of all that thou art destined to do' " (Acts 22:6-10).  In this momentous encounter, Saul's life was shattered and re-made.  He went to Damascus, was baptized by a holy Christian named Ananias, and then retired to the desert of Arabia to meditate and to prepare himself for his future work.

 About three years later, Saul returned to Damascus and began preaching his new faith.  His change in allegiance caused a sensation, of course, and the enraged Jews plotted to kill their former comrade.  Saul escaped by being let down over the city walls in a basket, and then he visited Peter in Jerusalem and learned many details of the life and sayings of Jesus, and the practices of the Christian community.  For a time Paul tried to preach the gospel to the Jews and at the same time escape their vengeance.  Then he went back to Tarsus for a few quiet years, where in lonely prayer and thought was forged the profound understanding of the mystery of Christ that would influence Christianity forever.  After another visit to Jerusalem, he finally came to Antioch at the request of Barnabas.  It was from this city that Paul (he began to use the Roman form of his name about this time) set out on his first missionary journey.

 Between the years 45 and 58, he made three of these trips with various companions, including Saints Barnabas, Mark, and Luke, visiting the major cities of Phoenicia, Asia Minor, Greece, and Macedonia.  His procedure was always the same: to confront the religious leaders of the people, usually in the synagogue, and boldly preach the message of Christ to them.  Often enough, his reward was a stoning or whipping, with expulsion from the city, but despite opposition he made scores of converts and left the areas dotted with firmly established Christian communities.  He preached to the gentiles and supported Peter's decision at the Council of Jerusalem to make Church membership easier for the gentiles by emancipating them from many provisions of the Jewish law.  At the end of his third journey, Paul returned to Jerusalem, where he was arrested by the Jews as a transgressor against their law.  He would have been put to death, but by appealing to Caesar, as his Roman citizenship allowed him to do, he made it necessary for the officials to send him to Rome for trial.  He spent two years there, preaching to all who came to him (he was only under house arrest), and then was released.  According to tradition, after the trip to Spain, be revisited the churches he had established in the East and returned to Rome.  During the persecution under the emperor Nero, about 67, he was arrested and beheaded.