TheStation is at the church of Saint Laurence in Lucina. In this venerable and celebrated church is kept the gridiron, on which the holy archdeacon consummated his martyrdom.
Collect
Jejunia nostra, quæsumus, Domine, benigno favore prosequere: ut, sicut ab alimentis abstinemus in corpore, ita a vitiis jejunemus in mente. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Let thy kind favour, O Lord, accompany our fast, that as we abstain from corporal food, so we may likewise refrain from all vice. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle
Lectio libri Numeri.
Cap. xx.
In diebus illis: Convenerunt filii Israël adversum Moysen et Aaron: et versi in seditionem, dixerunt: Date nobis aquam, ut bibamus. Ingressusque Moyses et Aaron, dimissa multitudine, tabernaculum fœderis, corruerunt proni in terram, clamaveruntque ad Dominura, atque dixerunt: Domine Deus, audi clamorem hujus populi, et aperi eis thesaurum tuum, fontem aquæ vivæ, ut satiati, cesset murmuratio eorum. Et apparuit gloria Domini super eos. Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen, dicens: Tolle virgam, et congrega populum, tu et Aaron frater tuus, et loquimini ad petram coram eis, et ilia dabit aquas. Cumque eduxeris aquam de petra, bibet omnis multitudo, et jumenta ejus. Tulit igitur Moyses virgam, quæ erat in conspectus Domini, sicut præceperat ei, congregata multitudine ante petram, dixitque eis: Audite, rebelles et increduli: num de petra hac vobis aquam poterimus ejicere? Cumque elevasset Moyses manum, percutiens virga bis silicem, egressæ sunt aquæ largissimæ, ita ut populus biberet, et jumenta. Dixitque Dominus ad Moysen et Aaron: Quia non credidistis mihi, ut sanctificaretis me coram filiis Israël, non introducetis hos populos in terram quam dabo eis. Hæc est aqua contradictionis, ubi jurgati sunt filii Israël contra Dominum, et sanctificatus est in eis.
Lesson from the Book of Numbers.
Ch. xx.
In those days: The children of Israël came together against Moses and Aaron: and making a sedition they said: Give us water to drink. And Moses and Aaron leaving the multitude, went into the tabernacle of the oovenant, and fell flat upon the ground, and cried to the Lord and said: O Lord God, hear the cry of this people, and open to them thy treasure, a fountain of living water, that being satisfied, they may cease to murmur. And the glory of the Lord appeared over them. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Take the rod, and assemble the people together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak to the rock before them, and it shall yield waters. And when thou hast brought forth water out of the rock, all the multitude and their cattle shall drink. Moses therefore took the rod which was before the Lord, as he had commanded him, and having gathered together the multitude before the rock, he said to them: Hear, ye rebellious and incredulous; can we bring you forth water out of this rock? And when Moses had lifted up his hand, and struck the rock twice with the rod, there came forth water in great abundance, so that the people and their cattle drank. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: Because you have not believed me, to sanctify me before the children of Israël, you shall not bring these people into the land which I will give them. This is the water of contradiction, where the children of Israël strove with words against the Lord, and he was sanctified in them.
Here we have one of the most expressive figures of the old Testament: it symbolizes the Sacrament of Baptism, for which our catechumens are now preparing. A whole people asks for water; if it be denied them, they must perish in the wilderness. St. Paul, the sublime interpreter of the types of the old Testament, tells us that the rock is Christ,[1] from whom came forth the fountain of living water, which quenches the thirst of our souls, and purifies them. The holy fathers observe that the rock yielded not its waters until it had been struck with the rod, which signifies the Passion of our Redeemer. The rod itself, as we are told by some of the earliest commentators of the Scriptures, is the symbol of the cross; and the two strokes, wherewith the rock was struck, represent the two parts of which the cross was formed. The paintings which the primitive Church has left us in the catacombs of Rome, frequently represent Moses in the act of striking the rock, from which flows a stream of water; and a glass, found in the same catacombs, bears an inscription, telling us that the first Christians considered Moses as the type of St. Peter, who, in the new Covenant, opened to God’s people the fountain of grace, when he preached to them on the day of Pentecost; and gave also to the Gentiles to drink of this same water when he received Cornelius, the centurion, into the Church. This symbol of Moses striking the rock, and the figures of the old Testament which we have already come across, or shall still meet with, in the lessons given by the Church to the catechumens, are not only found in the earliest frescoes of the Roman catacombs, but we have numerous proofs that they were represented in all the Churches both of the east and of the west. Up to the thirteenth century and even later, we find them in the windows of our cathedrals, and in the traditional form or type which was given to them in the early times. It is to be regretted that these Christian symbols, which were so dear to our Catholic forefathers, should now be so forgotten as to be almost treated with contempt. Let us love them, and, by the study of the holy liturgy, let us return to those sacred traditions, which inspired our ancestors with heroic faith, and made them undertake such grand things for God and for their fellow-men.
Gospel
Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Joannem.
Cap. iv.
In illo tempore: Venit Jesus in civitatem Samariæ, quæ dicitur Sichar, juxta prædium quod dedit Jacob Joseph filio suo. Erat autem ibi fons Jacob. Jesus ergo fatigatus ex itinere, sedebat sic supra fontem. Hora erat quasi sexta. Venit mulier de Samaria haurire aquam. Dicit ei Jesus: Da mihi bibere. (Discipuli enim ejus abierant in civitatem ut cibos emerent.) Dicit ergo ei mulier illa Samaritana: Quomodo tu, Judaeus cum sis, bibere a me poscis, quæ sum mulier Samaritana? Non enim coutuntur Judæi Samaritanis. Respondit Jesus, et dixit ei: Si scires donum Dei, et quis est qui dicit tibi: Da mihi bibere: tu forsitan petisses ab eo, et dedisset tibi aquam vivam. Dicit ei mulier: Domine, neque in quo haurias, habes, et puteus altus est: unde ergo habes aquam vivam? Numquid tumajor es patre nostro Jacob, qui dedit nobis puteum, et ipse ex eo bibit, et filii ejus, et pecora ejus? Respondit Jesus, et dixit ei: Omnis qui bibit ex aqua hac, sitiet iterum: qui autem biberit ex aqua, quam ego dabo ei, non sitiet in æteraum; sed aqua, quam ego dabo ei, fiet in eo fons aquæ salientis in vitam ætemam.Dicit ad cum mulier: Domine, da mihi hanc aquam, ut non sitiam, neque veniam huc haurire. Dicit ei Jesus: Vade, voca virum tuum, et veni huc. Respondit mulier, et dixit: Non habeo virum. Dicit ei Jesus: Bene dixisti, quia non habeo virum: quinque enim viros habuisti, et nunc quem habes, non est tuus vir: hoc vere dixisti. Dicit ei mulier: Domine, video quia propheta es tu. Patres nostri in monte hoc adoraverunt, et vos dicitis, quia Jerosolymis est locus, ubi adorare oportet. Dicit ei Jesus: Mulier, crede mihi, quia venit hora, quando neque in monte hoc neque in Jerosolymis adorabitis Patrem. Vos adoratis quod nescitis: nos adoramus quod scimus, quia salus ex Judæis est. Sed venit hora, et nunc est, quando veri adoratores adorabunt Patrem in spiritu et veritate. Nam et Pater tales quærit, qui adorent eum. Spiritus est Deus: et eos qui adorant eum, in spiritu et veritate oportet adorare. Dicit ei mulier: Scio quia Messias venit (qui dicitur Christus). Cum ergo venerit ille, nobis anmmtiabit omnia. Dioit ei Jesus: Ego sum, qui loquor tecum. Et continuo venerunt discipuli ejus: et mirabantur quia cum muliere loquebatur. Nemo tamen dixit: Quid quæris, aut quid loqueris cum ea? Reliquit ergo hydriam suam mulier, et abiit in civitatem, et dicit illis hominibus: Venite, et videte hominem qui dixit mihi omnia quæcumque feci: numquid ipse est Christus? Exierunt ergo de civitate, et veniebant ad eum. Interea rogabant cum discipuli dicentes: Rabbi, manduca. Ille autem dicit eis: Ego cibum habeo manducare, quem vos nescitis. Dicebant ergo discipuli ad invicem: Numquid aliquis attulit ei manducare? Dicit eis Jesus: Meus cibus est ut faciam voluntatem ejus qui misit me, ut perficiam opus ejus. Nonne vos dicitis, quod adhuc quatuor menses sunt, et messis venit? Ecce dico vobis: Levate oculos vestros, et videte regiones, quia albæ sunt jam ad messem. Et qui metit, mercedem accipit, et congregat fructum in vitam æternam: ut et qui seminat, simul gaudeat, et qui metit. In hoc enim est verbum verum: quia alius est qui seminat, et alius est qui metit. Ego misi vos metere, quod vos non laborastis: alii laboraverunt, et vos in labores eorum introistis. Ex civitate autem ilia multi crediderunt in cum Samaritanorum, propter verbum mulieris testimonium perhibentis: Quia dixit mihi omnia quæcumque feci. Gum venissent ergo ad ilium Samaritani, rogaverunt cum ut ibi maneret. Et mansit ibi duos dies. Et multo plures crediderunt in cum propter sermonem ejus. Et mulieri dicebant: Quia jam non propter tuam loquelam credimus: ipsi enim audivimus, et scimus quia hic est vere Salvator mundi.
Sequel of the holy Gospel according to John.
Ch. iv.
At that time: Jesus came to a city of Samaria which is called Sichar, near the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith to her: Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone into the city to buy meats. Then that Samaritan woman saith to him: How dost thou, being a Jew, ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans. Jesus answered, and said to her: If thou didst know the Gift of God, and who he is that saith to thee, Give me to drink: thou perhaps wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith to him: Sir, thou hast nothing wherein to draw, and the well is deep; from whence then hast thou living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered, and said to her: Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again: but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst for ever. But the water that I will give him, shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting. The woman saith to him: Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come hither to draw. Jesus saith to her: Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered, and said: I have no husband. Jesus said to her: Thou hast said well, I have no husband; for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast, is not thy husband. This thou hast said truly. The woman saith to him: Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers adored on this mountain, and you say that at Jerusalem is the place where men must adore. Jesus saith to her: Woman, believe me, that the hour cometh, when you shall neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, adore the Father. You adore that which you know not; we adore that which we know, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore him. God is a spirit; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith to him: I know that the Messias cometh, who is called Christ; therefore when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith to her: I am he, who am speaking with thee. And immediately his disciples came; and they wondered that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said: What seekeet thou, or why talkest thou with her? The woman therefore left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men there: Come, and see a man who has told me all things whatsoever I have done. Is not he the Christ? They went therefore out of the city, and came unto him. In the meantime the disciples prayed him, saying: Rabbi, eat. But he said to them: I have meat to eat which you know not. The disciples therefore said one to another: Hath any man brought him to eat? Jesus saith to them: My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, that I may perfect his work. Do not you say, there are yet four months and then the harvest cometh? Behold I say to you, lift up your eyes, and see the countries, for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life everlasting; that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth may rejoice together. For in this is the saying true: that it is one man that soweth, and it is another that reapeth. I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labour; others have laboured, and you have entered into their labours. Now of that city many of the Samaritans believed in him, for the word of the woman giving testimony: He told me all things whatsoever I had done. So when the Samaritans were come to him, they desired him that he would tarry there. And he abode there two days. And many more believed in him because of his own word. And they said to the woman: We now believe, not for thy `saying; for we ourselves have heard him, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.
Our Gospel shows us the Son of God continuing the ministry of Moses, by revealing to the Samaritan woman, who represents the Gentiles, the mystery of the water that gives life everlasting. We find this subject painted on the walls of the catacombs, and carved on the tombs of the Christians, as far back as the fifth, and even the fourth century. Let us, then, meditate upon this event of our Lord’s life, for it tells us of His wonderful mercy. Jesus is wearied with His journey; He, the Son of God, who had but to speak and the world was created, is fatigued seeking after His lost sheep. He is obliged to rest His wearied limbs; He sits; but it is near awell. He finds a Samaritan woman there; she is a Gentile, an idolatress; she comes to draw water from the well; she has no idea of a water of eternal life: Jesus intends to reveal the mystery to her. He begins by telling her that He is tired and thirsty. A few days hence, when expiring on His cross, He will say:’I thirst’: and so now, He says to this woman: Give me to drink. So true is it that, in order to appreciate the grace brought us by our Redeemer, we must first know this Redeemer in His weakness and sufferings.
But before the woman has time to give Jesus what He asks, He tells her of a water, of which he that drinks shall not thirst for ever: He invites her to draw from a fountain, that springeth up into life everlasting. The woman longs to drink of this water; she knows not who He is that is speaking with her, and yet she has faith in what He says. This idolatress evinces a docility of heart, which the Jews never showed to their Messias; and she is docile, notwithstanding that He who speaks to her belongs to a nation which despises all Samaritans. The confidence wherewith she listens to Jesus is rewarded by His offering still greater graces. He begins by putting her to the test. Go, He says, eall thy husband, and come hither. She was living in sin, and Jesus would have her confess it. She does so without the slightest hesitation; her humility is rewarded, for she at once recognizes Jesus to be a Prophet, and she begins to drink of the living water. Thus was it with the Gentiles. The apostles preached the Gospel to them; they reproached them with their crimes, and showed them the holiness of the God they had offended; but the Gentiles did not therefore reject their teaching; on the contrary, they were docile, and only wanted to know what they should do to render themselves pleasing to their Creator. The faith had need of martyrs; and they were found in abundance amidst these converts from paganism and its abominations.
Jesus seeing such simple-heartedness in the Samaritan, mercifully reveals to her who He is. He tells this poor sinner that the time has come when all men shall adore God; He tells her that the Messias has come upon the earth, and that He Himself is that Messias. It is thus that Christ treats a soul that is simple and obedient. He shows Himself to her without reserve. When the disciples arrived, they wondered; they had as yet too much of the Jew in them; they, therefore, could not understand how their Master could show anything like mercy to this Samaritan. But the time will soon come, when they will say with the great apostle St. Paul: ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female; for all are one in Christ Jesus.’[2]
Meanwhile, the Samaritan becomes an apostle, for she is filled with heavenly ardour. She leaves her pitcher at the well: what cares she for its water, now that Jesus has given her to drink of the living water? She goes back to the city; but it is that she may preach Jesus there, and bring to Him, if she can, all the inhabitants of Samaria. In her humility, she gives this proof of His being a great Prophet: that He has told her all the sins of her life! These pagans, whom the Jews despised, hasten to the well, where Jesus has remained speaking to His disciples on the coming harvest. They acknowledge Him to be the Messias, the Saviour of the world; and Jesus condescends to abide two days in this city, where there was no other religion than that of idolatry, with a fragment here and there of some Jewish practice. Tradition tells us that the name of the Samaritan woman was Photina. She and the Magi were the first-fruits of the new people of God. She suffered martyrdom for Him who revealed Himself to her at Jacob’s well. The Church honours her memory each year, in the Roman martyrology, on March 20.
Humiliate capita vestra Deo.
Præsta, quæsumus, omnipotens Deus: ut qui in tua protectione confidimus, cuncta nobis adversantia, te adjuvante, vincamus. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Bow down your heads to God.
Grant, we beseech thee, O almighty God, that we who confide in thy protection, may, through thy grace, overcome all the enemies of our salvation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Mozarabic liturgy celebrates the vocation of the Samaritan woman in the following beautiful Preface:
Illatio (In DominicaI. Quadrajesimæ)
Dignum et justum est nos tibi semper gratias agere, Domine sanete, Pater æterne, omnipotens Deus, per Jesum Christum Filium tuum Dominum nostrum. Qui ad salvationem humani generis veniens e cœlo: sitiens atque fatigatus sedisse ad puteum dicitur. Ille etenim in quo omnis plenitudo divinitatis corporaliter permanebat: quia nostræ mortalitatis corpus assumpserat: veritatem assumptæ carnis quibusdam significationibus demonstrabat. Fatigatum enim cum non aliter credimus ab itinere, nisi infirmatum in carne. Exivit quippe ad currendam viam, per significationem carnis assumptæ; ideo igitur etsi fatigatus ille in carne, non tamen uos sinit infirmari in suainfirmitate. Nam quod infirmum est iliius, fortius est hominibus. Ideoque per humilitatem veniens eripere mundum a potestate tenebrarum: sedit et sitivit quando aquam mulieri petivit. Ille etenim humiliatus erat in carne: quando sedens ad puteum loquebatur cum muliere: sitivit aquam, et exegit fidem ab ea. In ea quippe muliere, fidem quam quæsivit, quamque petivit, exegit: atque venientibus dicit de ea discipulis: Ego cibum habeo manducare quem vos nescitis. Ille jam qui in ea creaverat fidei donum: ipse poscebat aquæ sibi ab ea porrigi potum. Quique eam dilectionis suæ flamma cremabat: ipse ab ea poculum quo refrigeraretur sitiens postulabat. Ob hoc nos ad ista tantarum virtutum miracula quid apponemus, sancte et immaculate et piisime Deus: nisi conscientiam mundam et voluntatem dilectioni tuæ omni modo præparatam? Tuo igitur nomini offerentes victimam mundam: rogamus atque exposcimus: ut opereris in nobis salutem: sicut in muliere illa operatus es fidem. Operare in nobis extirpationem carnalium vitiorum, qui in illa idololatriæ pertulisti figmentum. Sentiamus quoque te in ilia futura examinatione mitissimum: sicut ilia te promeruit invenire placatum. Opus enim tuum sumus:qui nisi per to salvari non possumus. Subveni nobis, vera redemptio: pietatis indeficiens plenitudo. Non perdas quod tuum est: quibus dedisti rationis naturam, da æternitatis gloriamindefessam. Ut qui te in hac vita laudamus, in æterna quoque beatitudine multo magis glorificemus. Tu es enim Deus noster: non nos abjicias a facie tua: sed jam respice quos creasti miseratione gratuita: ut cum abstuleris a nobis omne debitum culpæ: et placitos reddideris aspectibus gratiæ tuæ: eruti ab illa noxialis putei profunditate facinorum, hydriam nostrarum relinquentes cupiditatum, ad illam æternam civitatem Hierusalem post hujus vitæ transitum convolemus.
It is meet and just that we should always give thanks to thee, O holy Lord, eternal Father, almighty God, through Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Who, having come from heaven for the salvation of mankind, sat near a well, thirsting and wearied. For this is he, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead corporally. But whereas he had assumed the body of our mortality, he wished to show, by certain signs, the reality of the flesh thus assumed; for when we say that he was wearied with a journey, we believe that this weakness was only in the flesh. He went forth to run the way, that he might show that he had taken a truo body; hence, although he was wearied in the flesh, yet would he not that ourfaith should grow weak at the sight of this his weakness; for that which is weak in him, is stronger than men. Having, therefore, come in humility, that he might deliver the world from the power of darkness, he sat and thirsted, when he asked the woman to give him to drink. For he was humbled in the flesh, when, sitting at the well, he spoke with the woman, and thirsted after water, and required of her her faith. Yea, he required from her the faith, which he sought and asked for; and when his disciples came he said to them concerning it: I have meat to eat which you know not of. He that had already created in her the gift of faith, asked her to give him water to drink: and he that had enkindled within her the fire of his love, asked her to give him a cup, whereby to refresh his thirst. Seeing these miracles of divine power, what else shall we offer unto thee, O holy and immaculate and most merciful God, but a pure conscience and a heart that is well prepared to receive thy love? Now, therefore, whilst offering to thy name this clean oblation, we pray and beseech thee, that thou mayst work salvation in us, as thou didst work faith in that woman. Thou didst destroy in her the delusion of idolatry; produce in us the extirpation of our carnal vices. May we find thee full of most tender mercy when thou comest tojudge us, as she deserved to find thee. We are the work of thy hands, neither can we be otherwise saved than by thee. Come to our assistance, O thou our true Redeemer, the fulness of whose mercy faileth not. Destroy not what is thine own. Thou hast given us a rational nature; bestow upon us exhaustless glory of eternity, that so we who praise thee in this life, may still more fervently glorify thee in a blessed eternity. Thou art our God; cast us not away from thy face, but look upon us, whom thou didst create out of thy pure mercy: that when thou hast taken from us the whole debt of out guilt, and rendered us worthy of thy gracious sight, we, being drawn out from the deep well of our sins, and leaving behind us the pitcher of our evil desires, may, after passing through this life, take our flight to Jerusalem, the eternal city.
The nearer the Church approaches to the end of her earthly existence, the more she seems to love to enrich her cycle with feasts that recall the glorious past. Indeed, one of the objects of the sacred Liturgy is to keep before our minds all that God has done for us. ‘Remember the days of old: think upon every generation,’[1] said God to His people in the alliance of Sinai. It was a law in Jacob that the fathers should hand on these traditions to their children, who were in their turn to transmit them to their descendants.[2] The Church has taken the place of the ancient Israel and her annals speak, even more than those of the Jewish people, of the manifestations of divine power. The children of the new Sion have more right than the sons and daughters of Juda to say, as they look back on the past: ‘Thou art thyself my king and my God, who commandest the saving of Jacob.’
At the time when the defeat of the Iconoclasts was being completed in the East, a new and most terrible war was beginning in which the West was to fight for the sake of civilization and for the cause of the Incarnate Word of God. Like a sudden torrent, Islam overwhelmed Eastern Europe, reaching even to Gaul, and for a thousand years it disputed, foot by foot, with Christ and His Chutch, the land occupied by the Latin races. The glorious Crusades of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which attacked this power in its very centre, only succeeded in paralyzing it for the time being. In Spain the struggle continued until the triumph of the Cross was complete, but in other parts of Europe Christian princes forgot the traditions of Charlemagne and St. Louis, grew weary of the holy war, and gave themselves up to the pursuit of their private ambition, so that the Crescent was able once more to defy the Christian powers and renew its plan of universal conquest.
In 1453 Byzantium, the capital of the Eastern empire, fell before the Turkish janissaries, and three years later Mahomet II. invested Belgrade on the very outskirts of the Western empire. It might have been expected that all Europe would hasten to the aid of the besieged fortress, for if this last dyke were to fall, Hungary, Austria and Italy would be overwhelmed and the peoples of the North and West would share the fate of the East, that life in death, that irremediable sterility of soil and intelligence which still holds captive the once brilliant Greece. But this imminent danger only resulted in deepening the breach in Christian unity, and the Christian nations were at the mercy of a few thousand infidels. Only the Papacy was true to itself in the midst of all this egoism and perfidy. Truly Catholic in its thoughts, its labours, its sufferings, as in its joys and triumphs, it took up the common cause which had been basely betrayed by kings and princes. The powerful were deaf to the Pope’s appeals, but he turned to the humble and, trusting more in prayer to the God of armies than in military tactics, he sought for the deliverers of Christendom among the poor.
It was then that John Capistran, the saint of to-day, attained the consummation of his glory and his sanctity. At the head of a few poor men of good-will, unknown peasants gathered together by the Franciscan Friars, this ‘poor man of Christ’ undertook to defeat the strongest and best organized army of the century. On July 14, 1456, he broke through the Ottoman lines with John Hunyades, the only one of the Hungarian nobles who would accompany him, and revictualled Belgrade; and on July 22, feeling that he could no longer endure the defensive, he threw himself, to the stupefaction of Hunyades, on the enemy entrenchments. His troops were armed only with flails and pitchforks, and their only strategy was the name of Jesus. John had inherited this victorious battle-cry from his master, Bernardine of Siena. The Psalmist said: ‘Some trust in chariots and some in horses: but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God.’[3] This name, so holy and so terrible, proved once more the salvation of the people. At the end of that memorable day twenty-four thousand Turks lay dead on the field of battle; three hundred cannon and all the spoils of the infidels were in the hands of the Christians, and Mahomet II. was seeking a distant hiding-place for his shame. The news of this victory, so like that of Gedeon,[4] reached Rome on August 6, and Pope Callistus III. decreed that henceforth the Universal Church should keep a solemn commemoration of the Transfiguration of Our Lord on that day, for it was with the soldiers of the Cross as with the heroes of Israel,[5] ‘they got not the possession of the land by their own sword: neither did their own arm save them, but thy right hand and thy arm and the light of thy countenance because thou wast pleased with them,’ as with Thy beloved Son on Mount Thabor.[6]
Let us read the life of St. John Capistran as related in the Liturgy:
Joannes Capistrani in Pelignis ortus, et Perusium studiorum causa missus, in christianis et liberalibus disciplinis adeo profecit, ut ob egregiam juris scientiam aliquot civitatibus a Neapolis rege Ladislao præfectus fuerit. Dum autem earum rempublicam sanctissime gerens perturbatis rebus tranquillitatem revocare studet, capitur ipse et in vincula conjicitur: quibus mirabiliter ereptus, Francisci Assisiensis regulam inter Fratres Minores profitetur. Ad divinarum litterarum studium progressus, præceptorem nactus sanctum Bemardinum Senensem, cuius et virtutis exempla, in cultu potissimum sanctissimi Nominis Jesu ac Deiparæ propagando, egregie est imitatus. Aquilanum episcopatum recusavit, et severiore disciplina atque scriptis, quæ plurima edidit ad mores reformandos, maxime enituit.
Prædicationi verbi Dei sedulo incumbens, Italiam fere universam lustravit, quo in muñere et virtute sermonis, et miraculorum frequentia innumeras prope animas in viam salutis reduxit. Eum Martinus Quintus ad exstinguendam Fraticellorum sectam inquisitorem instituit. A Nicolao Quinto contra Judæos et Saracenos generalis inquisitor in Italia constitutus, plurimos ad Christi fidem con vert it. In Oriente multa optime constituit et in Concilio Florentino, ubi veluti sol quidam fulsit, Armenos Ecclesiæ catholicæ restituit. Idem Pontifex postulante Friderico tertio imperatore, ilium apostolicæ sedis nuntium in Germaniam legavit, ut hæreticos ad catholicam fidem et principum animos ad concordiam revocaret. In Germania aliisque provinciis Dei gloriam sexennali ministerio mirifice auxit, Hussitis, Adamitis, Thaboritis, Hebræisque innumeris doctrinæ veritate ac miraculorum luce ad Ecclesiæ sinum traductis.
Cum Callistus tertius ipso potissimum deprecante, cruce signatos mittere decrevisset, Joannes per Pannoniam, aliasque provincias volitavit, qua verbo, qua litteris principum animos ita ad bellum accendit, ut brevi millia Christianorum septuaginta conscripta sint. Ejus consilio et virtute potissimum Taurunensis victoria relata est, centum ac viginti Turcarum millibus partim cæsis, partim fugatis. Cujus victoriæ cum Romam nuntius venisset octavo idus augusti, idem Callistus ejus diei memoriae solemnia Transfigurationis Christi Domini perpetuo consecravit. Lethali morboaegrotum et Villacum delatum viri principes plures visitarunt: quos ipse ad tuendam religionem hor ta tus, animam Deo sancte reddidit anno salutis millesimo quadringentesimo quinquagetsimo sexto. Ejus gloriam post mortem Deus multis miraculis confirmavit: quibus rite probatis, Alexander Octavus anno millesimo sexcentésimo nonagesimo Joannem in sanctorum numerum retulit, ejusque officium ac missam Leo decimus tertius, altero ab ej us canonizatione sæculo, ad universam extendit Ecclesiam.
John was born at Capistrano in the Abruzzi. He was sent to study at Perugia, and made such progress in learning, both sacred and profane, that on account of his eminent knowledge of law, he was made governor of many cities by Ladislaus, King of Naples. He was labouring piously to restore peace to these troubled states when he was kidnapped and put in chains. He was wonderfully delivered from this captivity and made his profession according to the Rule of St. Francis of Assisi among the Friars Minor. He devoted himself to the study of Divinity and had as master St. Bernardine of Siena, whom he zealously imitated in spreading devotion to the most holy name of Jesus and to the Mother of God. He refused the bishopric of Aquüa, and is most famous on account of his mortified life and his writings on the reformation of manners.
He zealously devoted himself to preaching the word of God and travelled throughout nearly all Italy, where he recalled countless souls to the way of salvation by the power of his words and the number of his miracles. Martin V. made him Inquisitor against the sect of the Fraticelli and Nicolas V. appointed him InquisitorGeneral in Italy, against Judaism and Mohammedanism. He converted many souls to the faith of Christ. He did much good in the East and at the Council of Florence, where he shonelike a sun, he brought the Armenians back to the Catholic Church. The same Pope, at the request of the Emperor Frederic III., sent him into Germany as nuncio of the Apostolic See, in order that he might bring back heretics to the Catholic faith, and the minds of princes to peace and union. He did a wonderful work for God’s glory during the six years of his mission, and brought back to the Church by the fight of his teaching and miracles almost countless numbers of Hussites, Adamites, Thaborites, and Jews.
It was mainly at the entreaty of John that Callistus III. proclaimed a crusade, and John hastened through Pannonia and other provinces where by his words and letters he so roused the minds of princes that in a short time seventy thousand Christian soldiers were enrolled. It was mainly through his advice and courage that a victory was gained at Belgrade, where one hundred and twenty thousand Turks were either slain or put to flight. The news of this victory reached Rome on the sixth of August, and Pope Callistus consecrated this day for ever to the solemn commemoration of the Transfiguration of our Lord. When John was seized with his last illness and taken to Illak, many princes came to see him, and he exhorted them to protect religion. He piously yielded up his soul to God in the year of salvation 1456. God confirmed his glory by many miracles after his death, and when these had been duly proved, Pope Alexander VIII. enrolled his name among those of the saints. Two hundred years later Leo XIII. extended his office and mass to the Universal Church.
‘The Lord is with thee, O most valiant of men. Go in this thy strength and thou shalt deliver Israel out of the hand of Madian. Know that I have sent thee.’[7] Thus did the angel of the Lord salute Gedeon when he chose him from among the least of his people[8] to fulfil a high destiny. Thus do we in our turn salute thee, O glorious son of St. Francis of Assisi, and we beseech thee to be our constant aid. The enemy whom thou didst defeat on the field of battle is no longer an imminent peril for the West, but there is a greater danger, as Moses said to his people after their deliverance from Egypt: ‘Take heed and beware lest at any time thou forget the Lord thy God . . . lest after thou hast eaten and art filled, hast built goodly houses . . . and shalt have herds of oxen and flocks of sheep and plenty of gold and of silver, and of all things; thy heart be lifted up and thou remember not the Lord who brought thee out of the house of bondage.’[9] If the Turk had conquered in that struggle of which thou wert the hero, what would have become of the civilization of which we are so proud? Since thy day the Church has had once more to champion the cause of Society, which the heads of the nations no longer seem to understand. May the need of giving expression to the gratitude which is due to her preserve her children from the forgetfulness which is the great evil of the present generation. We thank God for the feast of to-day; it is a perpetual memorial of His goodness and of the noble deeds of His saints. Help us to conquer in that warfare which is being incessantly carried on within our own souls against the world, the flesh, and the devil. May the name of Jesus put our enemies to flight, may His Cross be our standard and lead us through the death of self-love to the triumph of the Resurrection.
[1] Deut. xxxii. 7. [2] Ps. lxxvii. 5. [3] Ps. xix. 8. [4] Judg. vii. [5] Ps. xliii. 4, 5. [6] St. Matt. xvii. 5. [7] Judg. vi. [8] Ibid. [9] Deut. viii. 11-14.
This email message is part of the Liturgical Year Project at LYP.network, a project of the FSSP apostolate, St. Lawrence Church, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. We are in the process of transcribing and formatting the text of Dom Prosper Guéranger's massive 15-volume series, The Liturgical Year. His many meditations on the history and faith behind the feasts and the seasons of the Church's year have edified many people over the years, and we hope to share these with more people through our website and via email.
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