Now Catherine began a wider public ministry, dictating hundreds of letters to people in positions of church and state responsibility. “I tell you in the name of Christ crucified that you must use your authority to do important things.” She wrote her principal book during this period of her life. Mystics ordinarily find human language inadequate for expressing their experiences of the divine. The Dialogue between herself and God is exciting, but difficult reading. It is not always easy to follow Catherine’s line of thought, but it is obvious that it results from a lively personal faith in a loving God. “Love transforms you into what you love.” Though uneducated and barely able to read and write, Catherine is the first woman ever declared a “Doctor of the Church,” an eminent and reliable teacher.
Catherine developed quite a reputation as a peacemaker, mediating family feuds. Eventually, she traveled across Italy to negotiate peace among armies at war. She made her way to Pope Gregory XI in Avignon and told him he needed to return to Rome. Impressed by her divinely inspired boldness, the Pope did exactly that.
The Church, unfortunately, continued to deteriorate. Catherine became convinced that she must atone for its sins. Her final mystical vision placed the burden of the church on her back, as though it were a large ship. She collapsed in great pain and lay paralyzed. A few weeks later, when she died at the age of thirty-three, people found peculiar marks on her body: the stigmata representing the wounds of her crucified Lord, and a “wedding band” placed on her finger by her spiritual spouse. Before her death, Catherine was the only one who could perceive these marks.
APRIL 30
Pius V (1504–72)
Vaith in action
Anthony Ghislieri became a Dominican in 1518 and was ordained a priest in 1540. A philosophy and theology professor, he became Pope Pius V in 1565. The church and its leadership had fallen into bad times and needed serious reformation. The Council of Trent made decrees and put reforms in writing, but Pius V was required to enforce them. He worked on this for six years.
There were political stresses. At this time Pope Pius V excommunicated Queen Elizabeth of England, resulting in a torrent of aggression against Catholics. He also struggled against the ambitions of King Philip II of Spain, the Ottoman Empire, and the increasing number of Protestants. He sponsored a fleet of more than two hundred European ships that defeated the Turkish navy in the Battle of Lepanto, thus preventing a Turkish invasion. In this conflict, Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, received a wound at sea.
In many ways, the circumstances of his times influenced the ideas and motives of Pius V. Critics point out the negative aspects of his almost fanatical conservative faith. As those who evaluate athletic coaches after a game realize, it is easier to make decisions later, than in the midst of disorder and turmoil.
MAY 1
Philip (first century)
Practical enthusiasm
A Jew with a Greek name, Philip grew up on the north end of the Sea of Galilee in a place called “Fish House” (Bethsaida). He may have been named for the Roman tetrarch Philip who had governed the area for a decade and turned Bethsaida into a prosperous international community.
Though he certainly spoke Aramaic, he probably also spoke Greek. He did not grow up in a rigidly orthodox home that resisted change, but as his Greek name suggests, his father was broad-minded and open to new ideas and ways of doing things.
Philip was a faithful Jew who waited expectantly for the promised Messiah from God. With other fishermen, he went down to the Jordan River to hear John the Baptist (August 29). Philip was spiritually prepared to respond to Jesus Christ’s invitation, “Follow me.”
It was the new apostle Philip who ran breathlessly to Nathanael, saying, “We have found him!” Fresh enthusiasm did not dampen Philip’s practicality. Before the miraculous feeding of the five thousand who had gathered to hear Jesus on a Galilean hillside, Philip asked Jesus a very logical question: “How can we buy food for all of these people?” And again, at the Last Supper, Philip listened to Christ talk about returning to his heavenly Father to prepare a place for others. His unimaginative response, “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied,” startled Jesus. “Have I been with you so long and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’” Philip is not one of the major apostles, but every time he appears in the Gospel record, he is associated with major religious issues.
A letter dated about 195 from Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, yields information beyond the New Testament narrative: “Philip, also one of the twelve apostles, died in Hierapolis along with his two daughters.”
MAY 2
Athanasius (ca. 296–373)
Religious orthodoxy
The divinity of Jesus consumed the thought and activity of Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt, in the fourth century. Strong challenges to this concept were rampant in the church. Athanasius took a firm and unshakable stand in favor of the doctrine that God was in Christ. The personal costs for him were high. He attended endless church meetings and councils, often traveling great distances. He was politically exiled five times over a thirty-year period, some of the time being spent in the Egyptian desert among hermits.
Athanasius was born to Christian parents near the end of the third century. In 328, he became a bishop and was immediately embroiled in the controversies among Christians of his day. He adamantly supported the summary of faith in the Nicene Creed, and became a target for its opponents. Misunderstandings, lawsuits, and harassment became familiar to Athanasius. In the fourth century, theological questions were also political issues of the greatest importance.
Athanasius prepared the first list of books to be included in the Christian Bible. When Jerome (September 30) translated Holy Scripture into the Latin Vulgate, he accepted the choices of Athanasius as the canonical books. These books, and no others, were included.
A prolific writer, Athanasius wrote many books and treatises that continue to be studied. He died of natural causes in 373..
MAY 3
James the Less (first century)
Supporting role
Two of Christ’s apostles were named James. James the son of Zebedee (July 25) figures prominently in the Gospels. One of the Marys present at the Crucifixion was the mother of the James called “the less.” His father was Alphaeus.
The Gospel of Mark refers to James as “the less,” which is sometimes translated into English as “the younger.” Some believe that “the less” implies he was a small man, but that is only speculation. A respected dictionary of the Bible lists five possible individuals named James in the New Testament and then notes that they “are considered by many to be the same person.”
The secular Jewish historian Josephus reports that James was stoned to death in the year 61.
MAY 4
Florian (d. 304)
Brave faith
Apart from legendary material, we know little about Florian. He was a Roman army officer who held an important administrative position in the northern area of modern Austria. During the Diocletian persecution, Florian was a hunted Christian who gave himself up to the governor’s soldiers. His acta says that Florian made a bold statement of faith and received a Roman scourging. After this he was set on fire and thrown from a bridge into the Enns River, near its junction with the Danube, with a stone around his neck. A woman recovered his body, and others took it to the Augustinian Abbey of St. Florian, which is near Linz.
MAY 5
Hilary of Aries (ca. 400–49)
Making a choice
Hilary grew up a fifth-century pagan in Lorraine, France. Well-educated and affluent, he held a high position in local government when his relative Honoratus (January 16) extended an invitation for him to visit his newly opened monastery in Lérins. What Hilary discovered there appealed to him, but also created a personal struggle. “On the one hand,” he wrote, “I felt that the Lord was calling me, while on the other hand the seductions of the world
held me back. My will swayed backward and forward, now consenting, now refusing. But in the end, Christ triumphed in me.” Hilary asked the monks to baptize him, and he remained at Lérins as a brother.
When Honoratus became archbishop of Arles, he took Hilary with him as his secretary. Upon the death of Honoratus, Hilary, at the age of twenty-nine, replaced him as archbishop. A quarrel with Rome regarding the boundaries and persons of authority in Gaul resulted in accusations that lead to Hilary’s excommunication. After a passage of time and a cooling of emotions, Hilary was reinstated. Though the written record of this is sparse, there was never any question about his personal integrity or the quality of his religious devotion.
MAY 6
Petronax (d. ca. 747)
Rebuilding
Petronax was a rebuilder, a restorer. Because of his restoration work, he is called the “second founder” of the abbey of Montecassino. A resident of Brescia, Italy, Petronax responded in the year 717 to a request by Pope Gregory II to visit St. Benedict’s (July 11) old monastery that the Lombards had destroyed about a hundred and forty years previously. Petronax found a few solitary hermits residing in the ruins. Recognizing his leadership and organizational ability, they elected Petronax their abbot and began to live as a Benedictine community. The Lombard duke of Beneventum generously contributed funds for restoration of the abbey distroyed by his relatives.
Some notable monks then passed through Montecassino, including Willibald (July 7), bishop of Eichstatt, and Sturmius, founder of the abbey of Fulda. Petronax continued to lead the monastery until his death.
MAY 7
Agostino Roscelli (1818–1902)
Activity and prayer
Agostino Roscelli grew up in a poor family that lived in Casarza Ligure, Italy. A quiet child, intelligent and sensitive, Agostino helped take care of the family’s sheep. Like many other shepherds of a religious inclination, he found the solitude and silence of the hillsides an excellent setting for a deepening relationship with God.
When he began his studies for the priesthood at Genoa in 1835, he had more faith than cash. Financial constraints almost made it impossible for him to stay in school, but his determination and the support of others sustained him. He was ordained in 1846 and became curate of St. Martin d’Albaro.
Eight years later, Agostino accepted responsibility for pastoral care at the Church of the Consolation. He performed the classical duties of the confessional with a grace that attracted droves of people, young and old. For four or five hours a day, Agostino would sit behind the grate, paying no attention to cold or heat, ignoring fatigue, welcoming everyone who came.
In 1847, Agostino began a twenty-two-year labor as chaplain of an orphanage. The record shows that he baptized more than eight thousand newly born babies and offered a father’s guidance to their unmarried teenage mothers. While doing this, Agostino also actively ministered to condemned prisoners. He founded the Institute of Sisters of the Immaculata in 1867 to take care of the women’s homes he had established.
Serious attention to prayer provided the basis for busy days. “Prayer was his life. If you wanted to find him you had to look in the chapel.” Agostino spent long hours praying, and, like his Lord, sometimes devoted entire nights to prayer. The impression of his left knee can still be seen in his wooden kneeler. Managing to keep out of the glare of publicity, Agostino experienced “a genuine mystical and contemplative life.”
He died on May 7, 1902, but his work continues in Italy and Argentina.
MAY 8
Boniface IV (d. 615)
Christian influence
An Italian doctor’s son, Boniface became pope in 608. He had been a student of Gregory the Great (September 3) as well as a Benedictine monk. Boniface IV will always be remembered for converting the Roman Pantheon into a Christian church, the first transformation of its kind. Boniface IV also gave oversight to the expansion of Christianity into England. He died of natural causes in 615.
MAY 9
Pachomius (ca. 290–346)
Inspiring example
Kindness inspired by Christ’s example can be a powerful evangelistic tool. Such kindness resulted in the conversion of Pachomius, a Roman military conscript from Egypt. Slated to serve the empire as a galley slave, he was being transported down the Nile River with other drafted men. When they docked at Latopolis, the Christians there were compassionate and helpful. Pachomius always remembered their kindness to strangers. After he had served his time, he returned home and began to study Christianity.
After his baptism, he asked a local Christian hermit, Paloemon, to teach him how to pray and meditate. For a while, they lived together in primitive conditions in the Egyptian desert, devoting much time to prayer and manual labor. Paloemon taught Pachomius how to lay stone and bricks.
His masonry skills came in handy when Pachomius helped to design and build a monastery on the east bank of the Nile in 320. Many others joined him, including his older brother, John. In time, several thousand Egyptian monks were following the “Rules for Monastic Life” that Pachomius had prepared. Jerome (September 30) translated this document into Latin, and it became a model for subsequent Rules. He founded additional monasteries in Egypt, a convent for his sister and other nuns, and built a chapel for shepherds near Thebes.
Pachomius died in an epidemic in 346.
MAY 10
John of Avila (d. 1569)
Dedicated life
A Spanish law student, John of Avila became a student of theology and philosophy. The sixteenth-century passion for exploration and discovery excited John, and he planned to leave for the New World after his ordination in 1525. He gave most of his inheritance to the poor and arranged to become a missionary to Mexico. The archbishop of Seville, however, had other ideas for him. For forty years John of Avila was a Christian evangelist in southern Spain’s Andalusia. The Moors had ruled this area a new generation needed to hear the gospel. He became popular among the people there, though he did get into some difficulty during the Inquisition. No charge against him had any substance.
John’s prolific writing reveals unusual spiritual depth and insight. His works are among Spanish literature’s most revered classics. He was a skillful spiritual director, and some well-known saints studied under him: Teresa of Avila, Francis Borgia, John of God, and Louis of Granada.
John was extremely ill during his final fifteen years. He died in 1569 at Montilla.
MAY 11
Francis di Girolamo (1642–1716)
Preaching Christ
Francis was the first of eleven children, born in a small Italian village. A precocious child, he began to study at the college of Taranto when he was only sixteen, and then went on to Naples for what we would call graduate courses. He was ordained at Naples in 1666, and after four years of teaching, entered the Society of Jesus. It soon became evident that Francis was a gifted preacher, and although he expressed a desire to become a missionary to Asia, others insisted his best mission was to communicate the gospel in Naples. He accepted the judgment of higher authority as an expression of the will of God. For the next forty years, he gave full energy to public preaching. He often spoke as many as forty times a day on the streets, in public squares, and in the churches of Naples, using brevity and eloquence to reach his hearers. Many conversions resulted from his preaching. Thousands gathered around him on Sundays. He was an imposing figure, and people crowded around him hoping for any kind of personal exchange. When engaging in conversation, Francis was soft spoken, but when he spoke in public, his voice boomed with resonance. A popular preacher, he used any device or object lesson imaginable to catch and hold people’s attention. People responded enthusiastically. Though he gave the impression of speaking extemporaneously, the notes he left behind reveal meticulous care in the organization of his thoughts.
Francis di Girolamo was seventy-four when he died, after prolonged suffering, in 1761.
MAY 12
Pancras (d. ? 304)
Extended influence<
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Little is known about many of the people who populate the catalog of saints. Pancras is one of the few of whom it can be said that we know nothing. And yet, he is not a fictional character, and he has achieved widespread popularity. Everything known regarding his life can be expressed in one sentence: Pancras was a Roman martyr early in the fourth century.
One untrustworthy biography fills in the gaps of knowledge with a mixture of stock piety and vivid imagination. There could be some truth to the tradition that he was a Phrygian orphan whose uncle took him to Rome, and that he was only fourteen years old when he was beheaded because of his faith in Christ.
The results of his martyrdom are truly remarkable. First, as a sign of things to come, the cemetery where his body was buried was later named after him. His influence continued.
• Gregory the Great (September 3) dedicated a monastery in Rome to Pancras.
• Pope Vitalian sent relics associated with Pancras to the king of Northumbria in the seventh century.
• Augustine of Canterbury (May 27) built his first church in England, naming it after Pancras.
• The Venerable Bede (May 25) included Pancras in his Old English Martyrology.
• Six churches in England were dedicated to Pancras. The one in North London passed along his name to the famous Saint Pancras Railway Station.
MAY 13
Julian of Norwich (1342–1416)
Mystical insight
Butler's Lives of the Saints Page 11