August
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
At that time, Herod sent and apprehended John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, the wife of Philip his brother, because he had married her. For John said to Herod: “It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife.” Now Herodias laid snares for him, and was desirous to put him to death, and could not. For Herod feared John, knowing him to be a just and holy man, and kept him, and when he heard him did many things; and he heard him willingly. And when a convenient day was come, Herod made a supper for his birthday, for the princes, and tribunes, and chief men of Galilee. And when the daughter of the same Herodias had come in, and had danced, and pleased Herod, and them that were at table with him, the king said to the damsel: “Ask of me what thou wilt, and I will give it thee.” And he swore to her, “Whatsoever thou shalt ask, I will give thee; though it be the half of my kingdom.” Who, when she was gone out, said to her mother: “What shall I ask?” But she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” And when she was come in immediately with haste to the king, she asked, saying, “I will that forthwith thou give me in a dish the head of John the Baptist.” And the king was struck sad; yet because of his oath, and because of them that were with him at table, he would not displease her; but sending an executioner he commanded that his head should be brought in a dish. And he beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head in a dish, and gave it to the damsel, and the damsel gave it to her mother. Which his disciples hearing, came, and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.[1]
Thus died the greatest of ‘them that are born of women:’ without witnesses, the prisoner of a petty tyrant, the victim of the vilest of passions, the wages of a dancing girl! Rather than keep silence in the presence of crime, although there were no hope of converting the sinner, or give up his liberty, even when in chains: the herald of the Word made flesh was ready to die. How beautiful, as St. John Chrysostom remarks, is this liberty of speech, when it is truly the liberty of God’s Word, when it is an echo of heaven’s language! Then, indeed, it is a stumbling-block to tyranny, the safe-guard of the world and of God’s rights, the bulwark of a nation’s honour as well as of its temporal and eternal interests. Death has no power over it. To the weak murderer of John the Baptist, and to all who would imitate him to the end of time, a thousand tongues, instead of one, repeat in all languages and in all places: ‘It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife.’
‘O great and admirable mystery!’ cries out Saint Augustine:
He must increase, but I must decrease, said John, said the voice which personified all the voices that had gone before announcing the Father’s Word Incarnate in His Christ. Every word, in that it signifies something, in that it is an idea, an internal word, is independent of the number of syllables, of the various letters and sounds; it remains unchangeable in the heart that conceives it, however numerous may be the words that give it outward existence, the voices that utter it, the languages, Greek, Latin and the rest, into which it may be translated. To him who knows the word, expressions and voices are useless. The prophets were voices, the apostles were voices; voices are in the psalms, voices in the Gospel. But let the Word come, the Word who was in the beginning, the Word who was with God, the Word who was God; when we shall see Him as He is, shall we hear the Gospel repeated? Shall we listen to the prophets? Shall we read the Epistles of the apostles? The voice fails where the Word increases. . . .Not that in Himself the Word can either diminish or increase. But He is said to grow in us, when we grow in Him. To him, then, who draws near to Christ, to him who makes progress in the contemplation of wisdom, words are of little use; of necessity they tend to fail altogether. Thus the ministry of the voice falls short in proportion as the soul progresses towards the Word; it is thus that Christ must increase and John decrease. The same is indicated by the decollation of John, and the exaltation of Christ upon the cross; as it had already been shown by their birthdays: for, from the birth of John the days begin to shorten, and from the birth of our Lord they begin to grow longer.[2]
The holy doctor here gives a useful lesson to those who guide souls along the path to perfection. If, from the very beginning, they must respectfully observe the movements of grace in each of them, in order to second the Holy Ghost, and not to supplant Him; so also, in proportion as these souls advance, the directors must be careful not to impede the Word by the abundance of their own speech. Moreover, they must discreetly respect the ever-growing powerlessness of those souls to express what our Lord is working in them. Happy to have led the bride to the Bridegroom, let them learn to say with John: ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’
The sacred cycle itself seems to convey to us too a similar lesson; for, during the following days, we shall see its teaching as it were tempered down, by the fewness of the feasts, and the disappearance of great solemnities until November. The school of the holy liturgy aims at adapting the soul, more surely and more fully than could any other school, to the interior teaching of the Spouse. Like John, the Church would be glad to let God alone speak always, if that were possible here below; at least, towards the end of the way, she loves to moderate her voice, and sometimes even to keep silence, in order to give her children an opportunity of showing that they know how to listen inwardly to Him, who is both her and their sole love. Let those who interpret her thought, first understand it well. The friend of the Bridegroom, who, until the nuptial-day, walked before Him, now stands and listens; and the voice of the Bridegroom, which silences his own, fills him with immense joy: ‘This my joy therefore is fulfilled,' said the precursor.[3]
Thus the feast of the Decollation of St. John may he considered as one of the landmarks of the liturgical year. With the Greeks it is a holiday of obligation. Its great antiquity in the Latin Church is evidenced by the mention made of it in the martyrology called St. Jerome’s, and by the place it occupies in the Gelasian and Gregorian sacramentaries. The precursor’s blessed death took place about the feast of the Pasch; but, that it might be more freely celebrated, this day was chosen, whereon his sacred head was discovered at Emesa.
The vengeance of God fell heavily upon Herod Antipas. Josephus relates how he was overcome by the Arabian Aretas, whose daughter he had repudiated in order to follow his wicked passions; and the Jews attributed the defeat to the murder of St. John.[4] He was deposed by Rome from his tetrarchate, and banished to Lyons in Gaul, where the ambitious Herodias shared his disgrace. As to her dancing daughter Salome, there is a tradition gathered from ancient authors,[5]that, having gone out one winter day to dance upon a frozen river, she fell through into the water; the ice, immediately closing round her neck, cut off her head, which bounded upon the surface, thus continuing for some moments the dance of death.
From Macherontis, beyond the Jordan, where their master had suffered martyrdom, John’s disciples carried his body to Sebaste (Samaria), out of the territory of Antipas; it was necessary to save it from the profanations of Herodias, who had not spared his august head. The wretched woman did not think her vengeance complete, till she had pierced with a hairpin the tongue that had not feared to utter her shame; and that face, which for seven centuries the church of Amiens has offered to the veneration of the world, still bears traces of the violence inflicted by her in her malicious triumph. In the reign of Julian the Apostate, the pagans wished to complete the work of this unworthy descendant of the Machabees,[6] by opening the saint’s tomb at Sebaste, in order to burn and scatter his remains. But the empty sepulchre continued to be a terror to the demons, as St. Paula attested with deep emotion a few years later. Moreover, some of the precious relics were saved, and dispersed throughout the east. Later on, especially at the time of the Crusades, they were brought into the west, where many churches glory in possessing them.
Let us make our own the following formulæ found in the Gregorian sacramentary for the feast of the Decollation.
Prayer
Sancti Joannis Baptistæ et martyris tui, Domine, quæsumus, veneranda festivitas, salutaris auxilii nobis præstet effectum. Per Dominum.
We beseech thee, O Lord, that the venerable festival of St. John Baptist, thy precursor and martyr, may procure for us the effect of salutary help. Who livest &c.
Super Oblata
Munera tibi, Domine, pro sancti martyris tui Joannis Baptistæ passione deferimus, qui dum finitur in terris, factus est cœlesti sede perpetuus;quæsumus, ut ejus obtentu nobis proficiant ad salutem. Per Dominum.
We present our offerings to thee, O Lord, in honour of the passion of thy holy martyr John Baptist, who, closing his life on earth began to live eternally in heaven; we beseech thee, that by his intercession these gifts may profit us unto salvation. Through our Lord.
Preface
Vere dignum et justum est, æquum et salutare, nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere, Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens, aiterne Deus: Qui præcursorem Filii tui tanto munere ditasti, ut pro veritatis præconio capite plecteretur: Et qui Christum aqua baptizaverat, ab ipso in Spiritu baptizatus, pro eodem proprio sanguine tingeretur. Præco quippe veritatis, quæ Christus est, Herodem a fraternis thalamis prohibendo, carceris obscuritate detruditur, ubi solius divinitatis tuæ lumine frueretur. Deinde capitalem sententiam subiit, et ad inferna Dominum præcursurus descendit. Et quem in mundo digito demonstravit, ad inferos pretiosa morte præcessit. Et ideo cum angelis.
It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that we should always and in all places give thanks to thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, eternal God: who didst enrich the Precursor of thy Son with so great a grace, that he was beheaded for proclaiming the truth: and he who had baptized Christ with water, was baptized by Christ in the Spirit, and for his sake was washed in his own blood. For having, as a herald of the truth which is Christ, forbidden Herod to keep his brother’s wife, he was cast into a dark prison, where he enjoyed no light but that of thy divinity. Afterwards he endured the punishment of death, and went down to limbo as the precursor of the Lord, preceding thither, by his precious death, him whom on earth he had pointed out with the finger. And therefore with the angels.
Benedictio
Deus, qui nos beati Joannis Baptistæ concedit solemnia frequentare, tribuat vobis et eadem devotis mentibus celebrare, et suæ benedictionis dona percipere.
℟. Amen.
Et qui pro legis ejus præconio carceralibus est retrusus in tenebris, intercessione sua a tenebrosorum operum vos liberet incentivis.
℟. Amen.
Et qui pro ventate, quæ Deus est, caput non est cunctatus amittere, suo interventu ad caput nostrum, quod Christus est, vos faciat pervenire.
℟. Amen.
Quod ipse præstare dignetur.
May God, who permitteth us to keep the solemnity of blessed John Baptist, grant you to celebrate it with devout minds, and to receive the gifts of his blessing.
℟. Amen.
And may he, who for proclaiming the law of God was shut up in a darksome prison, deliver you from the influence of the works of darkness,
℟. Amen.
And through the intercession of him who hesitated not to give his head for the truth which is God, may we attain unto Christ our head.
℟. Amen.
Which may he deign to grant, who reigneth for ever.
Ad Complendum
Conferat nobis, Domine, sancti Joannis utrumque solemnitas: ut et magnifica sacramenta quæ sumpsimus, digne veneremur, et nobis salutaria sentiamus. Per Dominum.
May the solemnity of Saint John procure for us, O Lord, that we may both worthily venerate the magnificent mysteries we have received, and also experience their salutary effect within us. Through our Lord.
[1] Gospel of the feast, St. Mark vi. 17-29.
[2] Aug Sermon cclxxxviii, In Natali S. J. Bapt. II. De voce et rerbo.
[3] St. John iii. 29.
[4] Joseph. Antiquit. Jud. xviii. 6.
[5] Pseudo-Dexter, chronicon, adænn. Christi 31; Niceph. Call. i. xx.
[6] By her grand-mother, Mariamne, grand-daughter of Hyrcanus.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
Let us greet the noble martyr Sabina, whose triumph completes the glories of this day. The very ancient church of St. Sabina on the Aventine is one of the gems of the eternal city. It shared with St. Sixtus the Old the honour of sheltering Saint Dominic and his first children.
Prayer
Deus, qui inter cetera potentiæ tuæ miracula, etiam in sexu fragili victoriam martyrii contulisti: concede propitius; ut qui beatæ Sabiniæmartyris tuæ natalitia colimus, per ejus ad te exempla gradiamur. Per Dominum.
O God, who among other miracles of thy power, hast granted even to the weaker sex the victory of martyrdom, grant, we beseech thee, that we who celebrate the festival of thy blessed martyr Sabina, may walk to thee by her example. Through our Lord, &c.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
The fragrance of holiness is wafted to-day across the dark ocean, renewing the youth of the old world, and winning for the new the good will of heaven and earth.
A century before the birth of St. Rose, Spain, having cast out the crescent from her own territory, received as a reward the mission of planting the cross on the distant shores of America. Neither heroes nor apostles were wanting in the Catholic kingdom for the great work; but there was also, unhappily, no lack of adventurers, who, in their thirst for gold, became the scourge of the poor Indians, instead of leading them to the true God. The speedy decadence of the illustrious nation that had triumphed over the Moors, was soon to prove how far a people, prevented with the greatest blessings, may yet be answerable for crimes committed by its individual representatives. It is well known how the empire of the Incas in Peru came to an end. In spite of the indignant protestations of the missionaries: in spite of orders received from the mother country: in a few years, Pizarro and his companions had exterminated one third of the inhabitants of these flourishing regions; another third perished miserably under a slavery worse than death; the rest fled to the mountains, carrying with them a hatred of the invaders, and too often of the Gospel as well, which in their eyes was responsible for atrocities committed by Christians. Avarice opened the door to all vices in the souls of the conquerors, without, however, destroying their lively faith. Lima, founded at the foot of the Cordilleras, as metropolis of the subjugated provinces, seemed as if built upon the triple concupiscence. Before the close of the century, a new Jonas, Saint Francis Solano, came to threaten this new Ninive with the anger of God.
But mercy had already been beforehand with wrath; ‘justice and peace had met’,[1] in the soul of a child, who was ready, in her insatiable love, to suffer every expiation. H ere we should like to pause and contemplate the virgin of Peru, in her self-forgetful heroism, in her pure and candid gracefulness: Rose, who was all sweetness to those who approached her, and who kept to herself the secret of the thorns without which no rose can grow on earth. This child of predilection was prevented from her infancy with miraculous gifts and favours. The flowers recognized her as their queen; and at her desire they would blossom out of season. At her invitation, the plants joyfully waved their leaves; the trees bent down their branches; all nature exulted; even the insects formed themselves into choirs; the birds vied with her in celebrating the praises of their common Maker. She herself, playing upon the names of her parents, Gaspard Flores and Maria Oliva, would sing: ‘O my Jesus, how beautiful Thou art among the olives and the flowers, and Thou dost not disdain Thy Rose!’
Eternal Wisdom has, from the beginning, delighted to play in the world.[2] Clement X relates, in the Bull of canonization, how one day when Rose was very ill, the Infant Jesus appeared and deigned to play with her; teaching her in a manner suitable to her tender age, the value and the advantages of suffering. He then left her full of joy, and endowed with a life-long love of the cross. Holy Church will tell us in the legend how far the saint carried out, in her rigorous penance, the lesson thus divinely taught. In the superhuman agonies of her last illness, when someone exhorted her to courage, she replied: ‘All I ask of my Spouse is, that He will not cease to burn me with the most scorching heat, till I become a ripe fruit that He will deign to cull from this earth for His heavenly table.’ To those who were astonished at her confidence and her assurance of going straight to heaven, she gave this answer which well expresses her character: ‘I have a Spouse who can do all that is greatest, and who possesses all that is rarest, and am I to expect only little things from Him?’ And her confidence was rewarded. She was but thirty-one years of age, when, at midnight on the feast of St. Bartholomew in the year 1617, she heard the cry: ‘Behold the Bridegroom cometh!’ In Lima, in all Peru, and indeed throughout America, prodigies of conversion and miracles signalized the death of the humble virgin, hitherto so little known. ‘It has been juridically proved,' said the Sovereign Pontiff,[3] ‘that, since the discovery of Peru, no missionary has been known to obtain so universal a movement of repentance.’ Five years later, for the further sanctification of Lima, there was established in its midst the monastery of St. Catharine of Siena, also called Rose’s monastery, because she was in the eyes of God its true foundress and mother. Her prayers had obtained its erection, which she had also predicted; she had designed the plan, pointed out the future religious, and named the first superior, whom she one day prophetically endowed with her own spirit in a mysterious embrace.
Let us read the Church’s beautiful account of her life.
Primus Americæ Meridionalis flos sanctitatis, virgo Rosa, christianis parentibus Limæ progenita, mox ab incurnabulis claruit futuræ sanctimonæindiciis. Nam vultus infantis mirabiliter in rosai effigiem transfiguratus, huic nomini occasionem dedit: cui postea Virgo Deipara cognomen adjecit, jubens vocari deinceps Rosam a sancta Maria. Quinquennis votum perpetuævirginitatis emisit. Adultior, ne a parentibus ad nuptias cogeretur, clam sibimet venustissimam capitis cæsariem præscidit. Jejuniis supra humanum modum addicta, integras Quadragesimas transegit, pane abstinens, ac dietim solis quinque granulis mali citrini victitans.
Habitu tertii Ordinis sancti Dominici assumpto, pristinas vitæausteritates duplicavit: oblongo asperrimoque cilicio sparsim minusculas acus innexuit: sub velo coronam densis aculeis introrsus obarmatam interdiu noctuque gestavit. Sanctæ Catharinæ Senensis ardua premens vestigia, catena ferrea, triplici nexu circumducta, lumbos cinxit. Lectulum sibi e truncis nodosis composuit, horumque vacuas commissuras fragminibus testarum implevit. Cellulam sibi angustissimam struxit in extremo horti angulo, ubi cœlestium contemplationi dedita, crebris disciplinis, inedia, vigiliis, corpusculum extenuans, at spiritu vegetata, larvas dæmonum, frequenti certamine victrix, impavide protrivit ac superavit.
Ægritudinum tormentis, domesticorum insultibus, linguarum morsibus dire agitata, nondum satis pro merito se affiigi querebatur. Per quindecim annos ad plusculas horas desolatione spiritus et additate miserrime contabescens, forti animo tulit agones omni morte amariores. Exinde cœpit supernis abundare deliciis, illustrai visionibus, colliquescere seraphicis ardoribus. Angelo tutelari, sanctæ Catharinæ Senensis, Virgini Deiparæ inter assiduas apparitiones mire familiaris, a Christo has voces audire meruit: Rosa cordis mei, tu mihi sponsa esto. Denique Sponsi hujus paradiso feliciter invectam, plurimisque ante et post obiturn miraculis coruscam, Clemens decimus Poutifex .Maximus sauctarum virginum catalogo ritu solemni adscripsit.
The first flower of sanctity that blossomed in South America, the virgin Rose was born of Christian parents at Lima. From her very cradle she gave clear signs of her future holiness. Her baby face appeared one day changed in a wonderful way into the image of a rose, and from this circumstance she was called Rose. Later on the Virgin Mother of God gave her also her own name, bidding her to be called thenceforward Rose of St. Mary. At five years of age she made a vow of perpetual virginity, and when she grew older, fearing her parents would compel her to marry, she secretly cut off her hair which was very beautiful. Her fasts exceeded the strength of human nature. She would pass whole Lents without eating bread, living on five grains of a citron a day.
She took the habit of the third Order of St. Dominic and after that redoubled her austerities. Her long and rough hair-shirt was armed with steel points, and day and night she wore under her veil a crown studded inside with sharp nails. Following the arduous example of St. Catharine of Siena, she wound an iron chain three times round her waist, and made herself a bed of the knotty trunks of trees, filling up the vacant spaces between them with potsherds. She built herself a narrow little cell in a distant corner of the garden, and there devoted herself to the contemplation of heavenly things, subduing her feeble body by iron disciplines, fasting and watching. Thus she grew strong in spirit, and continually overcame the devils, spurning and dispelling their deceits.
Though she suffered greatly from severe illnesses, from the insults offered her by her family and from unkind tongues, yet she would say that she was not treated so badly as she deserved. During fifteen years, she suffered for several hours a day a terrible desolation and dryness of spirit; but she bore this suffering, worse than death itself, with undaunted courage. After that period, she was given an abundance of heavenly delights, she was honoured with visions, and felt her heart melting with seraphic love. Her angel-guardian, St. Catharine of Siena and our Lady used often to appear to her with wonderful familiarity. She was privileged to hear these words from our Lord: ‘Rose of my heart, be thou my bride.’ At length she was happily introduced into the paradise of this her Spouse, and being famous for miracles both before and after her death, Pope Clement X. solemnly enrolled her among the holy virgins.
Patroness of Peru, ever watch over the interests of thy fatherland. Respond to its people’s confidence in thee by warding off from them the calamities of even this present life: the earthquakes which spread terror through the land, and political convulsions such as have already so severely tried its recently gained independence. Extend thy guardianship to the neighbouring young republics; for they too love and honour thee. Hide from them, and from thy native land, the Utopian mirages which rise from the old world. Preserve them from the rash impulses and illusions, to which their youth is liable. Guard them against the poisonous teachings of condemned sects, lest their hitherto lively faith should be corrupted. Lastly, O thou our Lord’s beloved Rose, smile upon the whole Church, who is enraptured to-day at the sight of thy heavenly beauty. Like her, we all desire to 'run in the fragrancy of thy sweetness.’[4]
Teach us to let ourselves be prevented, like thee, by the dew of haven. Show us how to respond to the advances of the divine sculptor, who one day allowed thee to see Him making over to His loved ones the different virtues in the form of blocks of choice marble, which He expects them to polish with their tears, and to fashion with the chisel of penance. Above all, fill us with love and confidence. All that the material sun accomplishes in the vast universe, causing the flowers to bloom, ripening the fruits, forming pearls in the depth of the ocean, and precious stones in the heart of the mountains; all this, thou didst say, thy divine Spouse effected in the boundless capacity of thy soul, causing it to bring forth every variety of riches, beauty and joy, warmth and life. May we profit, even as thou didst, of the coming of the Sun of justice into our hearts in the Sacrament of union; may we lay open our whole being to the influence of His blessed light; and may we become, in every place, the good odour of Christ.
[1] Ps. lxxxiv. 11.
[2] Prov. viii. 30, 31.
[3] Bull of Canonization.
[4] Collect of the feast.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
The holy martyrs Felix and Adauctus won their palms in the reign of Diocletian. Their tomb, which lies close to that of the Apostle of the Gentiles, is adorned by one of the beautiful epitaphs of Pope Saint Damasus. Let us address to God the prayer, wherein the Church implores their powerful protection.
Collect
Majestatem tuam, Domine, supplices exoramus: ut, sicut nos jugiter sanctorum tuorum commemoratione lætificas, ita semper supplicatione defendas. Per Dominum.
We suppliantly beseech thy Majesty, O Lord, that as thou dost ever rejoice us by the commemoration of thy saints, so thou wouldst always defend us by their supplication. Through our Lord etc.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
August closes as it began, with a feast of deliverance; as though that were the divine seal set by eternal Wisdom upon this month—the month when holy Church makes the works and ways of divine Wisdom the special object of her contemplation.
Upon the fall of our first parents and their expulsion from paradise, the Word and Wisdom of God, that is, the second Person of the blessed Trinity, began the great work of our deliverance—that magnificent work of human redemption which, by an all-gracious, eternal decree of the three divine Persons, was to be wrought out by the Son of God in our flesh. And as that blessed Saviour, in His infinite wisdom, made spontaneous choice of sorrows, of sufferings, and of death on a cross, as the best means of our redemption, so has He always allotted to His best loved friends, the kind of life which He had deliberately chosen for Himself, that is, the way of the cross. And the nearest and dearest to Him were those who were predestined, like His blessed Mother, the Mater Dolorosa, to have the honour of being most like Himself, the Man of sorrows. Hence the toils and trials of the greatest saints; hence the great deliverances wrought by them, and their heroic victories over the world and over the spirits of wickedness in the high places.
On the feasts of St. Raymund of Pennafort and St. Peter Nolasco, we saw something of the origin of the illustrious Order, to which Raymund Nonnatus added such glory. Soon the august foundress herself, our Lady of Mercy, will come in person to receive the expression of the world’s gratitude for so many benefits. The following legend recounts the peculiar merits of our saint of to-day.
Raymundus, Nonnatus cognomento dictus, quia præter communem naturæ legem e mortuæ matris dissecto latere in lucem eductus fuit, Portelli in Catalaunia piis et nobilibus parentibus ortus, ab ipsa infantia futuræsanctitatis indicia dedit. Nam puerilia oblectamenta, mundique illecebras respuens, ita pietati operam dabat, ut omnes in puero adultam virtutem admirarentur. Crescente vero ætate, litterarum studiis incubuit: sed mox jubente patre vitam ruri agens, sacellum sancti Nicolai in Portelli finibus situm crebro adibat, ut sacram Deiparæ imaginem, quæ in eo summa fideli um veneratione etiam nunc colitur, visitaret. Ibi effusus in preces, ipsam Dei parentem, ut se in filium adoptare viamque salutis ac scientiam sanctorum edocere dignaretur, enixe deprecabatur.
Nec defuit votis ejus benignissima Virgo. Ab ipsa enim intellexit gratissimum sibi fore, si religionem sub titulo de Mercede, seu de Misericordia redemptionis captivorum, ea suggerente nuper fundatain, ingrederetur. Qua monitione percepta, Barcinonem statim profectus, illud tam præcellentis erga proximum cantatis institutum amplexus est. Regulari igitur militiæ adscriptus, virginitatem, quam pridem beatæ Virgini consecraverat, perpetuo coluit, ceterisque virtutibus enituit, caritate præsertim erga christianos, qui sub potestate paganorum miserarti in captivitate vitam degebant. Hos ut redimeret, in Africana missus, cum jam multos a servitute liberasset, ne, consumpta pecunia, aliis item in proximo abnegandæ fidei discrimine constitutis deesset, se ipsum pignori dedit; sed cum ardentissimo salutis animarum desiderio succensus, plures mahometanos suis concionibus ad Christum converteret, in arctam custodiam a barbaris conjectus, variisque suppliciis cruciatus, mox labiis perforatis et sera ferrea clausis, crudele martyrium diu sustinuit.
Ob hæc et alia fortiter gesta, sanctitatis ejus fama longe lateque diffusa est. Qua permotus Gregorius nonus, in amplissimum sanctæ RomanæEcclesiæ cardinalium collegium Raymundum adscripsit: sed vir Dei in ea dignitate ab omni pompa abhorrens, religiosæ humilitatis tenacissimus semper fuit. Romam vero pergens, statim ac Cardonam pervenit, extremo morbo confectus, ecclesiasticis sacramentis muniri summis precibus postulavit. Cumque morbus ingravesceret, et sacerdos diutius tardaret, angelorum ministerio, sub specie religiosorum sui Ordinis apparentium, salutari viatico refectus fuit. Quo sumpto, et gratiis Deo peractis, migravit ad Dominum Dominica ultima Augusti, anno millesimo ducentesimo quadragesimo. Mortui corpus, cum circa locum sepulturæ contentio orta esset, arcæ inclusum, et mulæ cæcæ impositum, ad sacellum sancti Nicolai Dei nutu delatum fuit, ut ibi tumularetur, ubi prima jecerat sanctioris vitæ fundamenta. Illic constructo sui Ordinis cœnobio, a confluentibus voti causa ex universa Catalaunia fidelibus populis honoratur, variis miraculis et signis gloriosus.
Raymund, surnamed Nonnatus,[1] on account of his having been brought into the world in an unusual manner after the death of his mother, was of a pious and noble family of Portelli in Catalonia. From his very infancy he showed signs of his future holiness; for, despising childish amusements and the attractions of the world, he applied himself to the practice of piety so that all wondered at his virtue, which far surpassed his age. As he grew older he began his studies; but after a short time he returned at his father’s command to live in the country. He frequently visited the chapel of St. Nicholas, near Portelli, in order to venerate in it a holy image of the Mother of God, which is still much honoured by the faithful. There he would pour out his prayers, begging God’s holy Mother to adopt him for her son and to deign to teach him the way of salvation and the science of the saints.
The most benign Virgin heard his prayer, and gave him to understand that it would greatly please her if he entered the religious Order lately founded by her inspiration, under the name of the Order of 'Ransom, or of Mercy for the redemption of captives.’ Upon this Raymund at once set out for Barcelona, there to embrace that institute so full of brotherly charity. Thus enrolled in the army of holy religion, he persevered in perpetual virginity, which he had already consecrated to the blessed Virgin. He excelled also in every other virtue, most especially in charity towards those Christians who were living in misery, as slaves of the pagans. He was sent to Africa to redeem them, and freed many from slavery. But when he had exhausted his money, rather than abandon others who were in danger of losing their faith, he gave himself up to the barbarians as a pledge for their ransom. Burning with a most ardent desire for the salvation of souls, he converted several Mahometans to Christ hy his preaching. On this account he was thrown into a close prison, and after many tortures his lips were pierced through and fastened together with an iron padlock, which cruel martyrdom he endured for a long time.
This and his other noble deeds spread the fame of his sanctity far and near, so that Gregory IX. determined to enrol him in the august college of the cardinals of the holy Roman Church. When raised to that dignity the man of God shrank from all pomp and clung always to religious humility. On his way to Rome, as soon as he reached Cardona, he was attacked by his last illness, and earnestly begged to be strengthened by the Sacraments of the Church. As his illness grew worse and the priest delayed to come, angels appeared, clothed in the religious habit of his Order, and refreshed him with the saving Viaticum. Having received It he gave thanks to God, and passed to our Lord on the last Sunday of August in the year 1240. Contentions arose concerning the place where he should be buried; his coffin was therefore placed upon a blind mule and by the will of God it was taken to the chapel of St. Nicholas, that it might be buried in that place where he had first begun a more perfect life. A convent of his Order was built on the spot, and there famous for many signs and miracles he is honoured by the concourse of all the faithful of Catalonia, who come there to fulfil their vows.
To what a length, O illustrious saint, didst thou follow the counsel of the wise man! ‘The bands of wisdom,’ says he, ‘are a healthful binding.’[2] And, not satisfied with putting ‘thy feet into her fetters and thy neck into her chains,’[3] in the joy of thy love thou didst offer thy lips to the dreadful padlock, not mentioned by the son of Sirach. But what a reward is thine, now that this Wisdom of the Father, whose twofold precept of charity thou didst so fully carry out, inebriates thee with the torrent of eternal delights, adorning thy brow with the glory and grace which radiate from her own beauty! We would fain be for ever with thee near that throne of light; teach us, then, how to walk, in this world, by the beautiful ways and peaceable paths of Wisdom. Deliver our souls, if they be still captive in sin; break the chains of our self-love, and give us instead those blessed bands of Wisdom which are humility, abnegation, self-forgetfulness, love of our brethren for God’s sake, love of God for His own sake.
[1] That is, not born.
[2] Ecclus. vi. 31.
[3] Ibid. 25.