August
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
In that clime
Where springs the pleasant west wind to unfold
The fresh leaves, with which Europe sees herself
New-garmented; nor from those billows far,
Beyond whose chiding, after weary course,
The sun doth sometimes hide him; safe abides
The happy Calaroga under guard
Of the great shield, wherein the lion lies
Subjected and supreme. And there was born
The loving minion of the Christian faith,
The hallowed wrestler, gentle to his own,
And to his enemies terrible. So replete
His soul with lively virtue, that when first
Created, even in the mother's womb,
It prophesied. When, at the sacred font,
The spousals were complete 'twixt faith and him,
Where pledge of mutual safety was exchanged,
The dame, who was his surety, in her sleep
Beheld the wondrous fruit, that was from him
And from his heirs to issue. And that such
He might be construed, as indeed he was,
She was inspired to name him of his owner,
Whose he was wholly; and so called him Dominic.
O happy father! Felix rightly named.
O favoured mother! rightly named Joanna;
If that do mean as men interpret it.[1]
Then, with sage doctrine and goodwill to help,
Forth on his great apostleship he fared,
Like torrent bursting from a lofty vein;
And dashing 'gainst the stocks of heresy,
Smote fiercest, where resistance was most stout.
Thence many rivulets have since been turned,
Over the garden Catholic to lead
Their living waters, and have fed its plants.[2]
This eulogium, truly worthy of heaven, is placed by Dante, in his ‘Paradiso,’ on the lips of the most illustrious son of the poor man of Assisi. In the great poet’s journey through the upper world, it was fitting that Bonaventure should extol the patriarch of the Preachers as in the preceding canto Thomas Aquinas, Dominic’s son, had celebrated the father of the family humbly girt with the cord.
The Providence that governeth the world,
In depth of counsel by created ken
Unfathomable, to the end that she,
Who with loud cries was spoused in precious Blood,
Might keep her footing towards her well-beloved,
Safe in herself and constant unto him,
Hath two ordained, who should on either hand
In chief escort her: one, seraphic all
In fervency; for wisdom upon earth,
The other, splendour of cherubic light.[3]
O Wisdom of the Father, thou wast the one love of both; Francis’ poverty, the true treasure of the soul, and Dominic’s faith, the incomparable light of our exile, are but two aspects of Thee from below, expressing to us, in our time of trial and shadow, Thy adorable beauty. Speaking with no less profoundness and with greater authority, the immortal pontiff Gregory IX says: ‘ The Fountain of Wisdom, the Word of the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, whose nature is goodness, whose work is mercy, does not abandon in the course of ages the vine He has brought out of Egypt; He comes to the aid of wavering souls by new signs, He adapts His wonders to the weakness of the incredulous. When therefore the day was declining towards evening, and while charity was becoming frozen by the abundance of wickedness, the light of justice was beginning to wane, the Father of the family gathered together workmen fitted for the labours of the eleventh hour; to clear His vineyard of the thorns that had overgrown it, and to drive away the multitude of mischievous little foxes that were doing their best to destroy it, He raised up the companies of Friars Preachers and Minors with the chiefs armed for battle.’[4] In this expedition of the Lord of hosts, Dominic was 'His glorious charger, full of fire in his faith, fearlessly neighing by preaching the divine word.’[5] In October we shall see the great share in the combat taken by his brother-at-arms, who appeared as a living standard of Christ crucified, in the midst of a society where the triple concupiscence was in league with every error, striving to overthrow Christianity itself.
Finding everywhere this union of sensuality with heresy, which was henceforth to be the principal strength of false preachers, Dominic, like Francis, prescribed to his sons the most absolute renunciation of this world's goods, and he too became a beggar for Christ's sake. The time was past when the people, rejoicing in all the consequences of the Incarnation, made over to the Man-God the most extensive territorial domain that ever was, and at the same time placed his Vicar at the head of kings. The unworthy descendants of these highminded Christians, after having vainly attempted to humiliate the Bride by subjecting the priesthood to the empire, reproached the Church with possessing those goods of which she was but the depository in the name of our Lord; the time had come for the Dove of the Canticle to begin, by abandoning the earth, her return journey towards heaven.
But if the two leaders of the campaign which arrested for a time the progress of the enemy were but one in their love of holy poverty, this last was the special choice of the Assisian Patriarch. Dominic's more direct means for obtaining the glory of God and the salvation of souls was science; this was his excellent portion, more fertile than that of Caleb's daughter. Less than fifty years after Dominic had bequeathed this inheritance to his descendants, the wisely combined irrigation, by the upper and the nether waters of faith and reason, had brought to full growth the tree of theological science, with its powerful roots and branches loftier than the clouds, whereon the birds of all tribes under heaven loved to perch without fear and gaze upon the sun.
‘The father of the Preachers,’ said the Eternal Father to St. Catherine of Siena, ‘established his principle on the light, by making it his aim and his armour; he took upon him the office of the Word My Son, sowing My word, dispelling darkness, enlightening the earth; Mary, by whom I gave him to the world, made him the extirpator of heresies.’[6] In the same way, as we have already seen, spoke the Florentine poet half a century earlier. The order, called to become the chief support of the sovereign pontiff in uprooting pernicious doctrines, ought, if possible, to justify that name even more than its patriarch: the first of the tribunals of Holy Church, the Holy Roman Universal Inquisition, the Holy Office, truly invested with the office of the Word with His two-edged sword, to convert or to chastise, could find no instrument more trusty or more sure.
Little thought the virgin of Siena, or the illustrious author of the ‘Divina Commedia,’ that the chief title of the Dominican family to the grateful love of the people would be discussed in a certain apologetic school, and there discarded as insulting, or dissembled as unpleasant. The present age glories in a liberalism which has given proofs of its power by multiplying ruins, and which rests on no better philosophical basis than a strange confusion between licence and liberty; only such intellectual grovelling could have failed to understand that, in a society which has faith for the basis of its institutions as well as the principle of salvation for all, no crime could equal that of shaking the foundation on which thus rest both social interest and the most precious possession of individuals. Neither the idea of justice, nor still less that of liberty, could consist in leaving to the mercy of evil or evil men the weak who are unable to protect themselves: this truth was the axiom and the glory of chivalry: the brothers of Peter the Martyr devoted their lives to protect the safety of the children of God against the surprises of the strong armed one, and the business that walketh about in the dark:[7] it was the honour of the 'saintly flock led by Dominic along a way where they thrive well who do not go astray.'[8]
Who could be truer knights than those athletes of the faith,[9] taking their sacred vow in the form of allegiance,[10] and choosing for their Lady her who, terrible as an army, alone crushes heresies throughout the whole world? To the buckler of truth and the sword of the word, she who keeps in Sion the armour of valiant men, added for her devoted liegemen the Rosary, the special mark of her own militia; she, as being their true commander-in-chief, assigned them the habit of her choice, and in the person of Blessed Reginald, anointed them with her own hands for the battle. She herself, too, watched over the recruiting of the holy band, attracting to it from among the élite youth of the universities souls the purest, the most generously devoted, and of the noblest intellect. At Paris, the capital of theology, and Bologna, of law and jurisprudence, masters and scholars, disciples of every branch of science, were pursued and overtaken by the sweet Queen amid incidents more heavenly than earthly. How graceful were those beginnings, wherein Dominic's virginal serenity seemed to surround all his children! It was indeed in this the Order of light that the Gospel word was seen verified: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.[11] Eyes enlightened from above beheld the foundations of the Friars Preachers under the figure of fields of lilies; and Mary, by whom the Splendour of eternal Light came down to us, became their heavenly mistress and led them from every science to Wisdom, the friend of pure hearts. She came, accompanied by Cecilia and Catherine, to bless their rest at night, and covered them all with her royal mantle beside the throne of our Lord. After this we are not astonished at the freshness and purity, which continued even after St. Dominic, under the generalship of Jordan of Saxony, Raymund of Pennafort, John the Teuton, and Humbert de Romans, in those 'Lives of the Brethren,' and 'Lives of the Sisters,' so happily handed down to us. It is instructive to note that in the Dominican family, apostolic in its very essence, the Sisters were founded ten years before the Brethren, which shows how, in the Church of God, action can never be fruitful unless preceded and accompanied by contemplation, which obtains for it every blessing and grace.
Notre Dame de Prouille, at the foot of the Pyrenees, was not only by this right of primogeniture the beginning of the whole order; it was here also that the first companions of St. Dominic made with him their choice of a rule, and divided the world amongst them, going from here to found the convents of St. Romanus at Toulouse, St. James at Paris, St. Nicholas at Bologna, St. Sixtus and St. Sabina in the Eternal City. About the same period the establishment of the Militia of Jesus Christ placed under the direction of the Friars Preachers secular persons, who undertook to defend, by all the means in their power, the goods and liberty of the Church against the aggressions of heresy; when the sectaries had laid down their arms, leaving the world in peace for a time, the association did not disappear: it continued to fight with spiritual arms, and changed its name into that of the Third Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance of St. Dominic.
Let us read in the Church's book the abridged life of the holy patriarch:
Dominicus, Calarogæ in Hispania ex nobili Guzmanorum familianatus, Palentiæ liberalibus disciplinis et theologiæ operam dedit: quo in studio cum plurimum profecisset, prius Oxomensis ecclesiæ canonicus regularis, deinde ordinis Fratrum Prædicatorum auctor fuit. Hujus mater gravida sibi visa est in quiete continere in alvo catulum ore præferentem facem, qua editus in lucem, orbem terrarum incenderet Quo somnio significabatur, fore ut splendore sanctitatis ac doctrinæ, gentes ad christianam pietatem inflammarentur. Veritatem exitus comprobavit: id enim et præstitit per se, et per sui ordinis socios deinceps est consecutus.
Hujus autem ingenium ac virtus maxime enituit in evertendis hæreticis, qui perni ciosis erroribus Tolosates pervertere conabantur. Quo in negotio septem consumpsit annos. Postea Romam venit ad Lateranense concilium cum episcopo Tolosano, ut ordo, quem instituerat, ab Innocentio tertio confirmaretur. Quæ res dum in deliberatione versatur, Dominicus hortatu pontificis ad suos revertitur, ut sibi regulam deligeret. Romani rediens, ab Honorio tertio, qui proximus Innocentio successerat, confirmationem ordinis Prædicatorum impetrat Romæ autem duo instituit monasteria, alterum virorum, mulierum alterum. Tres etiam mortuos ad vitam revocavit, multaque alia edidit miracula, quibus Ordo Prædicatorum mirifice propagari cœpit.
Verum cum ejus opera ubique terrarum monasteria jam ædifìcarentur, innumerabilesque homines religiosam ac piam vitam instituerent, Bononiæ anno Christi ducentesimo vigesimo primo supra millesimum, in febrem incidit: ex qua cum se moriturum intelligeret, convocatis fratribus et alumnis suæ disciplinæ, eos ad innocentiam et integritatem cohortatus est. Postremo caritatem, humilitatem, paupertatem, tamquam certum patrimonium eis testamento reliquit: fratribusque orantibus, in illis verbis, Subvenite sancti Dei, occurrite Angeli, obdormivit in Domino, octavo idus Augusti: quem postea Gregorius nonus pontifex retulit in sanctorum numerum.
Dominic was born at Calaruega, in Spain, of the noble family of the Guzmans, and went through his liberal and theological studies at Palencia. He made great progress in learning, and became a Canon Regular of the church of Osma, and afterwards instituted the order of Friars Preachers. While his mother was with child, she dreamt she was carrying in her womb a little dog holding a torch in his mouth, with which, as soon as he was born, he would set fire to the world. This dream signified that he would enkindle Christian piety among the nations by the splendour of his sanctity and teaching. Events proved its truth: for he fulfilled the prophecy both in person and later on by the brethren of his order.
His genius and virtue shone forth especially in confounding the heretics who were attempting to infect the people of Toulouse with their baneful errors. He was occupied for seven years in this undertaking. Then he went to Rome for the Council of Lateran, with the Bishop of Toulouse, to obtain from Innocent III the confirmation of the order he had instituted. But while the matter was under consideration that Pope advised Dominic to return to his disciples, and choose a rule. On his return to Rome, he obtained the confirmation of the Order of Preachers from Honorius III, the immediate successor of Innocent. In Rome itself he founded two monasteries, one for men and the other for women. He raised three dead to life, and worked many other miracles, in consequence of which the Order of Preachers began to spread in a wonderful manner.
Monasteries were built by his means in every part of theworld, and through his teaching numbers of men embraced a holy and religious manner of life. At length, in the year of Christ 1221, he fell into a fever at Bologna. When he saw he was about to die, calling together his brethren and children, he exhorted them to innocence and purity of life, and left them as their true inheritance the virtues of charity, humility, and poverty. While the brethren were praying round him, at the words, 'Come to his aid, ye saints of God, run to meet him, O ye angels,' he fell asleep in the Lord, on the eighth of the Ides of August. Pope Gregory IX placed him among the saints.
How many sons and daughters surround thee on the sacred cycle! This very month, Rose of Lima and Hyacinth keep thee company, and thy coming has long since been heralded in the liturgy by Raymund of Pennafort, Thomas Aquinas, Vincent Ferrer, Peter the Martyr, Catherine of Siena, Pius V, and Antoninus. And now at length appears in the firmament the new star whose brightness dispels ignorance, confounds heresy, increases the faith of believers. O Dominic, thy blessed mother, who preceded thee to heaven, now penetrates in all its fulness the happy meaning of that mysterious vision which once excited her fears. And that other Dominic, the glory of ancient Silos, at whose tomb she received the promise of thy blessed birth, rejoices at the tenfold splendour given by thee for all eternity to the beautiful name he bequeathed thee. But what a special welcome dost thou receive from the Mother of all grace, who heretofore, embracing the feet of her angered Son, stood surety that thou wouldst bring back the world to its Saviour! A few years passed away; and error, put to confusion, felt that a deadly struggle was engaged between itself and thy family; the Lateran Church saw its walls, which were threatening to fall, strengthened for a time; and the two princes of the apostles, who had bidden thee go and preach, rejoice that the word has gone forth once more into the whole world.
Stricken with barrenness, the nations, which the Apocalypse likens to great waters, seemed to have become once for all corrupt; the prostitute of Babylon was setting up her throne before the time; when, in imitation of Eliseus, putting the salt of Wisdom into the new vessel of the order founded by thee, thou didst cast this divine salt into the unhealthy waters, neutralize the poison of the beast so soon risen up again, and, in spite of the snares which will never cease, didst render the earth habitable once more. How clearly thy example shows us that they alone are powerful before God and over the people, who give themselves up to Him without seeking anything else, and only give to others out of their own fulness. Despising, as thine historians tell us, every opportunity and every science where eternal Wisdom was not to be seen, thy youth was charmed with her alone; and she, who prevents those that seek her, inundated thee from thy earliest years with the light and the anticipated sweetness of heaven. It is from her that overflowed upon thee that radiant serenity, which so struck thy contemporaries, and which no occurrence could ever alter. In heavenly peace thou didst drink long draughts from the everflowing fountain springing up into eternal life; but while thine inmost soul was thus slaking the thirst of its love, the divine source produced a marvellous fecundity; and its streams becoming thine, thy fountains were conveyed abroad in the streets, thou didst divide thy waters. Thou hadst welcomed Wisdom, and she exalted thee; not content to adorn thy brow with the rays of the mysterious star, she gave thee also the glory of patriarchs, and multiplied thy years and thy works in those of thy sons. In them thou hast not ceased to be one of the strongest stays of the Church. Science has made thy name wonderful among the nations, and because of it their youth is honoured by the ancients; may it ever be for them, as it was for their elders, both the fruit of Wisdom and the way that leads to her; may it be fostered by prayer; for thy holy order so well keeps up the beautiful traditions of prayer as to approach the nearest, in that respect, to the ancient monastic orders. To praise, to bless, and to preach will be to the end its loved motto; for its apostolate must be, according to the word of the Psalm, the overflowing of the abundance of sweetness tasted in communication with God. Thus strengthened in Sion, thus blessed in its glorious rôle of propagator and guardian of the truth, thy noble family will ever deserve to hear, from the mouth of our Lady herself, that encouragement above all praise: ' Fortiter, fortiter, viri fortes!—Courage, courage, ye men of courage!'
[1] Dominic, belonging to the Lord; Felix, happy; Joanna, grace.
[2] Dante, Divina Commedia, Paradiso, Canto xii. (Cary’s translation).
[3] Dante, Paradiso, Canto xi.
[4] Bulla Fons Sapientiæ, de canonizatione S. Dominici.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Dialogue, clviii.
[7] Ps. xc. 6.
[8] Dante, Paradiso, Canto x.
[9] Honorius III., Diploma confirmans ordinem.
[10] Promitto obedientiam Deo et B. Mariæ, Constitutiones Fratr. Ord. Prædicat. 12 Distinctio, cap. xv. de Professione.
[11] St. Matt. v. 8.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
ROME, delivered from slavery by Peter on the first of this month, offers to the world a wonderful spectacle. O Wisdom, who, since the glorious Pentecost, hast spread over the whole world, where could it be more true to sing of thee that thou hast trodden the proud heights under thy victorious feet? On seven hills had pagan Rome set up her pageantry and built temples to her false gods; seven churches now appear at the summits on which purified Rome rests her now truly eternal foundations.
By their very site, the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul, of St. Laurence and St. Sebastian, placed at the four outer angles of the city of the Cæsars, recall the long siege continued for three centuries around the ancient Rome, while the new Rome was being founded. Helena and her son Constantine, recommencing the work of the foundations of the Holy City, carried the trenches further out; nevertheless, the churches which were their own peculiar work—viz., Holy Cross in Jerusalem, and St. Saviour's on the Lateran, are still at the very entrance of the pagan stronghold, close to the gates, and leaning against the ramparts; just as a soldier, setting foot within a tremendous fortress which has been long invested, advances cautiously, surveying both the breach through which he has just passed, and the labyrinth of unknown paths opening before him.
Who will plant the standard of Sion in the centre of Babylon? Who will force the enemy into his last retreat, and casting out the vain idols, set up his palace in their temples? O thou to whom was said this word of the Most High: Thou art My Son, I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, thou mighty One with thy sharp arrows routing armies, listen to the cry reechoing from the whole redeemed world: With thy comeliness and thy beauty set out, proceed prosperously, and reign! But the Son of the Most High has a Mother on earth; the song of the Psalmist inviting Him to the triumph extols also the Queen standing at His right hand in a vesture of gold; if it is from His Father that He holds His power, it is from His Mother that He receives His crown, and He leaves her in return the spoils of the mighty. Go forth, then, ye daughters of the new Sion, and behold King Solomon in the diadem wherewith his Mother crowned him on the joyful day, when, taking possession through her of the capital of the world, he espoused the Gentile race.
Truly that was a day of joy, when Mary, in the name of Jesus, claimed her right as sovereign and heiress of the Roman soil! To the East, at the highest point of the Eternal City, she appeared on that blessed morning literally like the rising dawn; beautiful as the moon shining by night; more powerful than the August sun, surprised to see her tempering his heat, and doubling the brightness of his light with her mantle of snow; more terrible than an army; for from that date, daring what neither apostles nor martyrs had attempted, and what Jesus Himself would not do without her, she dispossessed the deities of Olympus of their usurped thrones. As was fitting, the haughty Juno whose altar disgraced the Esquiline, the false queen of these lying gods, was the first to flee before Mary's face, leaving the splendid columns of her polluted sanctuary to the only true Queen of earth and heaven.
Forty years had passed since the days of St. Sylvester, when the ' image of our Saviour, depicted on the walls of the Lateran, appeared for the first time to the Roman people.’[1] Rome, still half pagan, beheld to-day the Mother of our Saviour; under the influence of the pure symbol, at which she gazed in surprise, she felt die down within her the evil ardour which made her once the scourge of nations, whereas now she was to become their mother; and in the joy of her renewed youth she beheld her once sullied hills covered with the white garment of the Bride.
Even from the times of the apostolic preaching, the elect, who gathered in large numbers in Rome in spite of herself, knew Mary and paid to her in those days of martyrdom a homage such as no other creature could ever receive; witness in the catacombs those primitive frescoes of our Lady, either alone or holding her divine Child, but always seated, receiving from her place of honour the praise, messages, prayers, or gifts of prophets, archangels, and kings.[2] In the Trastevere, where in the reign of Augustus a mysterious fountain of oil had sprung up, announcing the coming of the Anointed of the Lord, Callixtus in 222 had built a church in honour of her who is ever the true fons olei, the source whence sprang Christ, and together with him all unction and all grace. The basilica raised by Liberius, the beloved of our Lady, on the Esquiline, was not, then, the most ancient monument dedicated by the Christians of Rome to the Mother of God; but it at once took, and has always kept, the first place among our Lady's churches in the city, and indeed in the world, on account of the solemn and miraculous circumstances of its origin.
Hast thou entered, said the Lord to Job, into the storehouses of the snow, or hast thou beheld the treasures of the hail; which I have prepared for the time of the enemy, against the day of battle and war?[3] On August 5, then, at God's command, the treasures were opened and the snow was scattered like birds lighting upon the earth, and its coming was the signal for the lightnings of His judgments upon the gods of the nations. The Tower of David now dominates over all the towers of the earthly city; from her impregnable position our Lady will never cease her victorious sallies till she has taken the last hostile fort. How beautiful will thy steps be in these warlike expeditions, O daughter of the prince, O Queen, whose standard, by the will of thine adorable Son, must wave over the whole world rescued from the power of the cursed serpent! The ignominious goddess, overthrown from her impure pedestal by one glance of thine, left Rome still dishonoured by the presence of many vain idols. But thou, all conquering Lady, didst continue thy triumphal march. The Church of St. Mary in Ara cœli replaced, on the Capitol, the odious temple of Jupiter; the sanctuaries and groves dedicated to Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, and Proserpine hastened to take the title of one who had been shown in their fabulous history under disfigured and degraded forms. The deserted Pantheon awaited the day when it was to receive the noble and magnificent name of St. Mary ad Martyres. What a preparation for thy glorious Assumption is the series of earthly triumphs which this day inaugurates! The basilica of St. Mary of the Snow, called also of Liberius, from its founder, and also of Sixtus, after Sixtus III, who restored it, owed to this last the honour of becoming the monument of the divine Maternity proclaimed at Ephesus; the name of St. Mary Mother, which it received on that occasion, became, under Theodore I, who enriched it with the most precious relic, St. Mary of the Crib: all these noble titles were afterwards gathered into that of St. Mary Major, which is amply justified by the facts we have related, by universal devotion, and by the pre-eminence always assigned to it by the sovereign pontiffs. Though the last in order of time of the seven churches upon which Christian Rome is founded, it nevertheless ranked in the middle ages next to that of St. Saviour; in the procession of the greater Litanies on April 25 the ancient Roman Ordo assigned to the Cross of St. Mary’s its place between that of St. Peter’s and that of the Lateran.[4] The important and numerous liturgical Stations appointed at the basilica on the Esquiline testify to the devotion of the Romans and of all Catholics towards it. It was honoured by having councils celebrated and Vicars of Christ elected within its walls; the pontiffs for a time made it their residence, and were accustomed on the Ember Wednesdays, when the Station is always held there, to publish the names of the Cardinal Deacons or Cardinal Priests whom they had resolved to create.[5]
As to the annual solemnity of its dedication, which is the object of the present feast, there can be no doubt that it was celebrated on the Esquiline at a very early date. It was, however, not yet kept by the whole Church in the thirteenth century; for Gregory IX, in the bull of canonization of St. Dominic, whose death occurred on August 6, anticipated his feast on the fifth of the month, as being at that time vacant, whereas the sixth was already occupied, as we shall see to-morrow, by another solemnity. It was Paul IV who in 1558 definitely fixed the feast of the holy founder on August 4; and the reason he gives is, that the feast of St. Mary of the Snow having since been made universal and taking precedence of the other, the honour due to the holy patriarch might be put in the shade if his feast continued to be kept on the same day. The breviary of St. Pius V soon after promulgated to the entire world the office, of which the following is the legend:
Liberio summo Pontifice, Joannes patricius Romanus, et uxor pari nobilitate, cum liberos non suscepissent, quos bonorum hæredes relinquerent, suam hæreditatem sanctissimæ Virgini Dei Matri voverunt, ab ea summis precibus assidue petentes, ut in quod pium opus eam pecuniam potissimum erogari vellet, aliquo modo significaret. Quorum preces et vota exanimo facta beata Virgo Maria benigne audiens, miraculo comprobavit.
Nonis igitur augusti, quo tempore in urbe maximi calores esse solent, noctu nix partem collis Exquilini contexit. Qua nocte Dei Mater separatim Joannem et conjugem in somnis admonuit, ut quem locum nive conspersum viderent, in eo ecclesiam ædificarent, quæ Mariæ Virginis nomine dedicaretur: se enim ita velie ab ipsis hæredem institui. Quod Joannes ad Liberium pontificem detulit, qui idem per somnium sibi contigisse affirmavit.
Quare solemni sacerdotum et populi supplicatione ad collem venit nive coopertum, et in eo locum ecclesiædesignavit, qua Joannis et uxoris pecunia exstructa est, postea a Xysto tertio restituta. Variis nominibusprimum est appellata, basilica Liberii, sancta Maria ad Præsepe. Sed cum multa jam essent in urbe ecclesia sub nomine sanctæ Maria Virginis: ut qua basilica novitate miraculi ac dignitate cæteris ejusdem nominis basilicis præstaret, vocabuli etiam excelientia significaretur, ecclesia sanctæ Maria majoris dicta est. Cujus dedicationis memoria ex nive, quæ hac die mirabiliter cecidit, anniversaria celebritate colitur.
Under the pontificate of Liberius, John, a Roman patrician, and his wife, who was of an equally noble race, having no children to whom they might leave their estates, vowed their whole fortune to the Blessed Virgin Mother of God, begging her most earnestly and continually to make known to them by some means in what pious work she wished them to employ the money. The Blessed Virgin Mary graciously heard their heartfelt prayers and vows, and answered them by a miracle.
On the Nones of August, usually the hottest time of the year in Rome, a part of the Esquiline hill was covered with snow during the night. That same night the Mother of God appeared in a dream to John and his wife separately, and told them to build a church on the spot they should find covered with snow, and to dedicate it to the Virgin Mary; for it was in this manner that she wished to become their heiress. John related this to Pope Liberius, who said he had dreamt the same thing.
He went, therefore, with a solemn procession of priests and people to the snow-clad hill, and chose the site of a church, which was built with the money of John and his wife. It was afterwards rebuilt by Sixtus III. At first it was called by different names, the Liberian basilica, St. Mary at the Crib. But, since there are many churches in Rome dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and as this one surpasses all other basilicas in dignity and by its miraculous beginning, it is distinguished from them also by its title of St. Mary Major. On account of the miraculous fall of snow, the anniversary of the dedication is celebrated by a yearly solemnity.
What recollections, O Mary, does this feast of thy greatest basilica awaken within us! And what worthier praise, what better prayer, could we offer thee to-day than to remind thee of the graces we have received within its precincts, and implore thee to renew them and confirm them for ever? United with our MotherChurch in spite of distance, have we not, under its shadow, tasted the sweetest and most triumphant emotions of the cycle now verging on to its term?
On the first Sunday of Advent it was here that we began the year, as in the place 'most suitable for saluting the approach of the Divine Birth, which was to gladden heaven and earth and manifest the sublime portent of a Virgin Mother.’[6] Our hearts were overflowing with desire on that holy Vigil, when from early morning we were invited to the bright basilica where the ‘mystical Rose was soon to bloom and fill the world with its fragrance. The grandest of all the churches which the people of Rome have erected in honour of the Mother of God, it stood before us rich in its marble and gold, but richer still in possessing, together with the portrait of our Lady painted by St. Luke, the humble yet glorious Crib of Jesus, of which the inscrutable designs of God have deprived Bethlehem. During that blessed night an immense concourse of people assembled in the basilica awaiting the happy moment when that monument of the love and the humiliation of a God was to be brought in, carried on the shoulders of the priests as an ark of the New Covenant, whose welcome sight gives the sinner confidence and makes the just man thrill with joy.’[7] Alas! a few months passed away, and we were again in the noble sanctuary, this time compassionating our ‘holy Mother, whose heart was filled with poignant grief at the foresight of the sacrifice which was preparing.’[8] But soon the august basilica was filled once more with new joys, when Rome 'justly associated with the Paschal solemnity the memory of her who, more than all other creatures, had merited its joys, not only because of the exceptional share she had had in all the sufferings of Jesus, but also because of the unshaken faith wherewith, during those long and cruel hours of His lying in the tomb, she had awaited His Resurrection.’[9] Dazzling as the snow which fell from heaven to mark the place of thy predilection on earth, O Mary, a white-robed band of neophytes coming up from the waters formed thy graceful court and enhanced the triumph of that great day. Obtain for them and for us all, O Mother, affections as pure as the white marble columns of thy loved church, charity as bright as the gold glittering on its ceiling, works shining as the Paschal Candle, that symbol of Christ the conqueror of death, which offered thee the homage of its first flames.
[1] Lectiones ii. Noct in Dedic. Basilicæ Salvatoris.
[2] Cemeteries of Priscilla, of Nereus and Achilleus, etc.
[3] Job xxxviii. 22, 23.
[4] Museum Italicum: Joan. Diac. Lib. de Eccl., Lateran XVI, de Episcopis et Cardinal, per patriarchatus dispositis; Romani Ordin. xi., xii.
[5] Paulus de Angelis, Basilicæ S. Mariæ Maj., descriptio vi, v.
[6] Advent, p. 123.
[7] Christmas, Vol. I., pp. 140, 141.
[8] Passiontide, p. 276. Station of Wednesday in Holy Week.
[9] Paschal Time, Vol. I, p. 157.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
O GOD, who in the glorious Transfiguration of Thine only-begotten Son, didst confirm the mysteries of the faith by the testimony of the fathers: and who, in the voice which came from the bright cloud, didst in a wonderful manner fore-signify our adoption as sons: mercifully vouchsafe to make us fellow-heirs of that King of glory, and the sharers of His bliss.' Such is the formula which sums up the prayer of the Church and shows us her thoughts on this day of attestation and of hope.
We must first notice that the glorious Transfiguration has already been twice brought before us on the sacred cycle—viz., on the second Sunday of Lent, and on the preceding Saturday. What does this mean, but that the object of the present solemnity is not so much the historical fact already known, as the permanent mystery attached to it; not so much the personal favour bestowed on Simon Peter and the sons of Zebedee, as the accomplishment of the great message then entrusted to them for the Church? Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of Man be risen from the dead.[1] The Church, born from the open side of the Man-God on the Cross, was not to behold Him face to face on earth; after His Resurrection, when He had sealed His alliance with her in the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, it is on faith alone that her love was to be fed. But by the testimony which takes the place of sight, her lawful desires to know Him were to be satisfied. Wherefore, for her sake, giving truce, one day of His mortal life, to the ordinary law of suffering and obscurity He had taken upon Him for the world’s salvation, He allowed the glory which filled His blessed soul to transpire. The King of Jews and Gentiles revealed Himself upon the mountain, where His calm splendour eclipsed for evermore the lightnings of Sinai; the covenant of the eternal alliance was declared, not by the promulgation of a law of servitude engraven upon stone, but by the manifestation of the Lawgiver Himself, coming as Bridegroom to reign in grace and beauty over hearts. Elias and Moses, representing the prophets and the Law whereby His coming was prepared, from their different starting-points, met beside Him like faithful messengers reaching their destination; they did homage to the Master of their now finished mission, and effaced themselves before Him at the voice of the Father: This is My beloved Son! Three witnesses the most trustworthy of all assisted at this solemn scene: the disciple of faith, the disciple of love, and that other son of thunder who was to be the first to seal with His blood both the faith and the love of an apostle. By His order they kept religiously, as beseemed them, the secret of the King, until the day when the Church could be the first to receive it from their predestined lips.
But did this precious mystery take place on August 6? More than one doctor of sacred rites affirms that it did.[2] At any rate, it was fitting to celebrate it in the month dedicated to Eternal Wisdom. It is she, the brightness of eternal light, the unspotted mirror and image of God's goodness,[3] who, shedding grace upon the Son of man, made Him on this day the most beautiful amongst all His brethren, and dictated more melodiously than ever to the inspired singer the accents of the Epithalamium: My heart hath uttered a good word: I speak my works to the king.[4]
Seven months ago the mystery was first announced by the gentle light of the Epiphany; but by the virtue of the mystical seven here revealed once more, the ‘beginnings of blessed hope’[5] which we then celebrated as children with the Child Jesus, have grown together with Him and the Church; and the latter, established in unspeakable peace by the full growth which gives her to her Spouse, calls upon all her children to grow like her by the contemplation of the Son of God, even to the measure of the perfect age of Christ. We understand, then, why the liturgy of to-day repeats the formulas and chants of the glorious Theophany: Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee:[6] it is because on the mountain together with our Lord the Bride also is glorified, having the glory of God.
While the face of Jesus shone as the sun, His garments became white as snow.[7] Now these garments so snowwhite, as St. Mark observes, that no fuller on earth could have bleached them so, are the just men, the royal ornament inseparable from the Man-God, the Church, the seamless robe woven by our sweet Queen for her Son out of the purest wool and most beautiful linen that the valiant woman could find. Although our Lord personally has now passed the torrent of suffering and entered for ever into His glory, nevertheless the bright mystery of the Transfiguration will not be complete until the last of the elect, having passed through the laborious preparation at the hands of the Divine Fuller and tasted death, has joined in the Resurrection of our adorable Head. O Face of our Saviour that dost ravish the heavens, then will all glory, all beauty, all love shine forth from Thee. Expressing God by the perfect resemblance of true Son by nature, Thou wilt extend the good pleasure of the Father to that reflection of His Word which constitutes the sons of adoption, and reaches in the Holy Ghost even to the lowest fringes of His garment which fills the temple below Him. According to the doctrine of the Angel of the schools, the adoption of sons of God, which consists in being conformable to the image of the Son of God by nature, is wrought in a double manner: first by grace in this life, and this is imperfect conformity; and then by glory in patria, and this is perfect conformity, according to the words of St. John: We are now the sons of God; and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like to Him: because we shall see Him as He is.[8] The word of eternity, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee, has had two echoes in time, at the Jordan and on Thabor; and God, who never repeats Himself, did not herein make an exception to the rule of saying but once what He says. For although the terms used on the two occasions are identical, they do not tend, as St. Thomas says, to the same end, but show the different ways in which man participates in the resemblance of the eternal filiation. At the baptism of our Lord, where the mystery of the first regeneration was declared, as at the Transfiguration which manifested the second, the whole Trinity appeared: the Father in the voice, the Son in His Humanity, the Holy Ghost under the form, first of a dove, and afterwards of a bright cloud; for if in baptism this Holy Spirit confers innocence symbolized by the simplicity of the dove, in the Resurrection he will give to the elect the brightness of glory and the refreshment after suffering which are signified by the luminous cloud.
But without waiting for the day when our Saviour will renew our very bodies conformable to the bright glory of His own divine Body, the mystery of the Transfiguration is wrought in our souls already here on earth. It is of the present life that St. Paul says and the Church sings to-day: God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus.[9] Thabor, holy and divine mountain rivalling heaven,[10]how can we help saying with Peter: ‘It is good for us to dwell on thy summit P For thy summit is love; it is charity which towers above the other virtues, as thou towerest in gracefulness, and loftiness, and fragrance over the other mountains of Galilee, which saw Jesus passing, speaking, praying, working prodigies, but did not know Him in the intimacy of the perfect. It is after six days, as the Gospel observes, and therefore in the repose of the seventh which leads to the eighth of the resurrection, that Jesus reveals Himself to the privileged souls who correspond to His love. The Kingdom of God is within us; when, leaving all impressions of the senses as it were asleep, we raise ourselves above the works and cares of the world by prayer, it is given us to enter with the Man-God into the cloud: there beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, as far as is compatible with our exile, we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.[11]
‘Let us then,' cries St. Ambrose, ‘ ascend the mountain; let us beseech the Word of God to show Himself to us in His splendour, in His beauty; to grow strong and proceed prosperously, and reign in our souls. For behold a deep mystery! According to thy measure, the Word diminishes or grows within thee. If thou reach not that summit, high above all human thought, Wisdom will not appear to thee; the Word shows Himself to thee as in a body without brightness and without glory’[12]
If the vocation revealed to thee this day be so great and so holy, ‘reverence the call of God,’ says St. Andrew of Crete:[13]‘do not ignore thyself, despise not a gift so great, show not thyself unworthy of the grace, be not so slothful in thy life as to lose this treasure of heaven. Leave earth to the earth, and let the dead bury their dead; disdaining all that passes away, all that dies with the world and the flesh, follow even to heaven, without turning aside, Christ who leads the way through this world for thee. Take to thine assistance fear and desire, lest thou faint or lose thy love. Give thyself up wholly; be supple to the Word in the Holy Ghost, in order to attain this pure and blessed end: thy deification, together with the enjoyment of unspeakable goods. By zeal for the virtues, by contemplation of the truth, by wisdom, attain to Wisdom, who is the principle of all, and in whom all things subsist.'
The feast of the Transfiguration has been kept in the East from the earliest times. With the Greeks, it is preceded by a vigil and followed by an octave, and on it they abstain from servile work, from commerce, and from law-suits. Under the graceful name of Rose-flame, rosœ coruscatio, we find it in Armenia at the beginning of the fourth century supplanting Diana and her feast of flowers, by the remembrance of the day when the divine Rose unfolded for a moment on earth its brilliant corolla. It is preceded by a whole week of fasting, and counts among the five principal feasts of the Armenian cycle, where it gives its name to one of the eight divisions of the year. Although the Menology of this Church marks it on the sixth of August like that of the Greeks and the Roman Martyrology, it is nevertheless always celebrated there on the seventh Sunday after Pentecost; and by a coincidence full of meaning, they honour on the preceding Saturday the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, a figure of the Church.
The origin of to-day's feast in the West is not so easy to determine. But the authors who place its introduction into our countries as late as 1457, when Callixtus III promulgated by precept a new Office enriched with indulgences, overlook the fact that the pontiff speaks of the feast as already widespread and ‘commonly called of the Saviour.’[14] It is true that in Rome especially the celebrity of the more ancient feast of St. Sixtus II, with its double Station at the two cemeteries which received respectively the relics of the pontiff-martyr and those of his companions, was for a long time an obstacle to the acceptance of another feast on the same day. Some churches, to avoid the difficulty, chose another day in the year to honour the mystery. As the feast of our Lady of the Snow, so that of the Transfiguration had to spread more or less privately, with various offices and masses,[15] until the supreme authority should intervene to sanction and bring to unity the expressions of the devotion of different Churches. Callixtus III considered that the hour had come to consecrate the work of centuries; he made the solemn and definitive insertion of this feast of triumph on the universal Calendar the memorial of the victory which arrested, under the walls of Belgrade in 1456, the onward march of Mahomet II, conqueror of Byzantium, against Christendom.
Already in the ninth century, if not even earlier, martyrologies and other liturgical documents[16] furnish proofs that the mystery was celebrated with more or less solemnity, or at least with some sort of commemoration, in divers places. In the twelfth century Peter the Venerable, under whose government Cluny took possession of Thabor, ordained that ‘in all the monasteries or churches belonging to his order, the Transfiguration should be celebrated with the same degree of solemnity as the Purification of our Lady'; and he gave for his reason, besides the dignity of the mystery, the 'custom, ancient or recent, of many churches throughout the world, which celebrate the memory of the said Transfiguration with no less honour than the Epiphany and the Ascension of our Lord.’[17]
On the other hand at Bologna, in 1233, in the juridical instruction preliminary to the canonization of St. Dominic, the death of the saint is declared to have taken place on the feast of St. Sixtus, without mention of any other.[18] It is true, and we believe this detail is not void of meaning, that a few years earlier, Sicardus of Cremona thus expressed himself in his Mitrale: 'We celebrate the Transfiguration of our Lord on the day of St. Sixtus.’[19] Is not this sufficient indication that while the feast of the latter continued to give its traditional name to the eighth of the Ides of August, it did not prevent a new and greater solemnity from taking its place beside it, preparatory to absorbing it altogether? For he adds: ‘Therefore on this same day, as the Transfiguration refers to the state in which the faithful will be after the resurrection, we consecrate the Blood of our Lord from new wine, if it is possible to obtain it, in order to signify what is said in the Gospel: I will not drink from henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it with you new in the kingdom of My Father.[20] But if it cannot be procured, then at least a few ripe grapes are pressed over the chalice, or else grapes are blessed and distributed to the people.’[21]
The author of the Mitrale died in 1215; yet he was only repeating the explanation already given in the second half of the preceding century by John Beleth, Rector of the Paris University.[22] We must admit that the very ancient benedictio uvœfound in the Sacramentaries on the day of St. Sixtus has nothing corresponding to it in the life of the great pope which could justify our referring to him. The Greeks, who have also this blessing of grapes fixed for August 6,[23] celebrate on this day the Transfiguration alone, without any commemoration of Sixtus II. Be it as it may, the words of the Bishop of Cremona and of the Rector of Paris prove that Durandus of Mende, giving at the end of the thirteenth century the same symbolical interpretation,[24]did but echo a tradition more ancient than his own time.
St. Pius V did not alter the ancient office of the feast, except the lessons of the first and second Nocturns, which were taken from Origen,[25] and the three hymns for Vespers, Matins, and Lauds, which resembled somewhat in structure the corresponding hymns of the Blessed Sacrament.[26] The hymn now used for Vespers and Matins, which we here give, is borrowed from the beautiful canticle of Prudentius on the Epiphany in his Cathemerinon:
Hymn
Quicumque Christum quæritis
Oculos in aitimi tollite:
Illic licebit visere
Signum perennis gloriæ.
Illustre quiddam cernirmis,
Quod nesciat finem pati,
Sublime, celsum, interminum,
Antiquius cœlo et chao.
Hic ille Rex est Gentium,
Populique Rex Judaici,
Promissus Abrahæ patri,
Ejusque in ævum semini.
Hunc et prophetis testibus
Iisdemque signatoribus
Testator et Pater jubet
Audire nos et credere.
Jesu, tibi sit gloria,
Qui te revelas parvulis,
Cum Patre et almo Spiritu
In sempiterna sæcula.
Amen.
All ye who seek Christ,
lift up your eyes to heaven;
there ye may behold
the token of His eternal glory.
A certain brilliance we perceive
that knows no ending,
sublime, noble, interminable,
older than heaven and chaos.
This is the King of the Gentiles,
and King of the Jewish people,
who was promised to Abraham our father,
and to his seed for ever.
The prophets testify to Him,
and the Father, who testifies with them
for His witnesses, bids us
hear and believe Him.
O Jesus, glory be to Thee
who revealest Thyself to little ones,
with the Father and with the Holy Spirit,
through everlasting ages.
Amen.
Adam of St. Victor has also sung of this glorious mystery:
Sequence
Lætabundi jubilemus
Ac devote celebremus hæc sacra solemnia;
Ad honorem summi Dei
Hujus laudes nunc diei personet Ecclesia.
In hac Christus die festa
Suæ dedit manifesta gloriæ indicia;
Ut hoc possit enarrali
Hic nos suos salutari Repleat et gratia!
Christus ergo, Deus fortis,
Vitæ dator, victor mortis, verus sol justitiæ,
Quam assumpsit carnem de Virgine,
Transformatus in Thabor culmine, glorificat hodie.
O quam felix sors bonorum!
Talis enim beatorum erit resurrectio.
Sicut fulget sol pleni luminis,
Fulsit Dei vultus et hominis, Teste Evangelio.
Candor quoque sacræ vestis
Deitatis fuit testis et futuræ gloriæ.
Mirus honor et sublimis:
Mira, Deus, tuæ nimis virtus est potentiæ.
Cumque Christus, virtus Dei,
Petro, natis Zebedæi majestatis gloriam
Demonstraret manifeste,
Ecce vident, Luca teste, Moysen et Eliam.
Hoc habemus ex Matthæo,
Quod loquentes erant Deo Dei Patris Filio:
Vere sanctum, vere dignum
Loqui Deo et benignum, plenum omni gaudio.
Hujus magna laus diei,
Quæ sacratur voce Dei, honor est eximius;
Nubes illos obumbravit,
Et vox Patris proclamavit: Hic est meus Filius.
Hujus vocem exaudite:
Habet enim verba vitæ, Verbo potens omnia.
Hic est Christus, rex cunctorum.
Mundi salus, lux sanctorum, Lux illustrans omnia.
Hic est Christus, Patris Verbum,
Per quem perdit jus acerbum quod in nobis habuit
Hostis nequam, serpens dirus,
Qui, fundendo suum virus Evæ, nobis nocuit.
Moriendo nos sanavit
Qui surgendo reparavit
Vitam Christus et damnavit Mortis magisterium.
Hic est Christus, pax æterna,
Ima regens et superna,
Cui de cœlis vox paterna confert testimonium.
Cujus sono sunt turbati
Patres illi tres præfati
Et in terram sunt prostrati quando vox emittitur.
Surgunt tandem, annuente
Sibi Christo, sed intente
Circumspectant, cum repente Solus Jesus cernitur.
Volens Christus hæc celari
Non permisit enarrari,
Donec, vitæ reparator,
Hostis vitæ triumphator. Morte victa, surgeret.
Hæc est dies laude digna
Qua tot sancta fiunt signa;
Christus, splendor Dei
Patris Prece sancta suæ matris nos a morte liberet.
Tibi, Pater, tibi, Nate, Tibi, Sancte Spiritus,
Sit cum summa potestate Laus et honor debitus!
Amen.
Come, let us sing with joy,
and devoutly celebrate these sacred solemnities;
let the Church resound with the praises of this day
to the honour of the most high God.
For on this festal day did Christ
give manifest signs of His great glory;
that we may recount the same,
may He give us His aid and fill us with His grace.
Christ, then, the mighty God,
the giver of life, and conqueror of death, the true Sun of justice,
to-day transfigured on Thabor’s height,
did glorify the flesh He had taken of the Virgin.
O how happy the lot of the good!
For such will be the resurrection of the blessed.
As shines the sun in fulness of his light, so shone
the countenance of God and Man, as the Gospel testifieth.
The brightness, too, of His sacred robe
gave testimony of His Godhead and of the glory to come.
Wondrous the honour and sublime;
wondrous exceedingly, O God, is the power of Thine almightiness.
And when Christ, the power of God,
to Peter and the sons of Zebedee did clearly show
the glory of His majesty, lo!
they beheld, as Luke doth testify, Moses and Elias.
This we learn of Matthew,
that they were seen speaking with God, the Son of God the Father.
Oh! how noble and how holy,
how good and full of all joy, to speak to God!
Great is the glory of this day,
consecrated by the voice of God, and exceeding is its honour;
a cloud did overshadow them,
and the Father’s voice proclaimed: 'This is my Son.'
Hear ye His voice:
for the words of life hath He, Who can do all things by His word.
This is Christ, the King of all,
the world’s salvation and the light of saints, the light enlightening all things.
This is Christ, the Father's Word,
by whom He destroys the bitter law set in us
by the wicked enemy, the cruel serpent,
who, pouring out his poison upon Eve, did work our ruin.
Christ by dying healed us,
who by rising restored
our life and condemned the tyranny of death.
This is Christ, the eternal peace,
ruling both depths and height;
to whom from heaven the Father’s voice bore testimony.
At His voice
those three aforesaid fathers
were afraid, and prostrated on the earth when the word was uttered.
At length they rise,
Christ bidding them;
they gaze around intently, but at once see none but Jesus.
Wishing these things to be concealed, Christ
suffers them not to be uttered,
until the restorer of life
and conqueror of life’s enemy should rise triumphant over death.
This is the day so worthy of praise,
whereon are wrought so many holy signs;
may Christ, the splendour of God the Father,
by the prayer of His holy Mother, deliver us from death.
To Thee, O Father, Thee, O Son, and Thee, O Holy Ghost,
be, together with highest power, the praise and honour due!
Amen.
The Menæa of the Greeks offers us these stanzas from St. John Damascene:
Mensis Augusti Die VI
(In Matutino)
Qui manibus invisibilibus formasti secundum imaginem tuam, Christe, hominem, archetypam in figmento pulchritudinem ostendisti non ut in imagine, sed ut hoc ipse exsistens per substantiam, Deus simul et homo.
Quam magnum et terribile visum est spectaculum hodie! e cœlo sensibilis, e terra vero incomparabilis effulsit sol justitiæ, intelligibilis, in monte Thabor.
Regnantium es Rex pulcherrimus, et ubique dominantium Dominus, princeps beatus, et lumen habitans inaccessibile, cui discipuli stupefacti clamabant: Pueri, benedicite; sacerdotes, concinite; populus, superexaltate per omnia sæcula.
Tamquam cœlo dominanti, et terræ regnanti, et subterraneorum dominium habenti, Christe, tibi adstiterunt: e terra quidem apostoli: tamquam e cœlo autem, Thesbites Elias; Moyses vero ex mortuis, canentes incessanter: Pueri, benedicite; sacerdotes, concinite; populus, superexaltate per omnia sæcula.
Segnitiem parientes curæ in terra derelictæ sunt, apostolorum delectu, o humane, ut te secuti sunt ad sublimem e terra divinam politiam, unde et jure divinæ tuæ manifestationis participes effecti, canebant: Pueri, benedicite; sacerdotes, concinite; populus, superexaltate per omnia sæcula.
Agite mihi, parete mihi, populi ascendentes in montem sanctum, cœlestem: abjecta materia stemus in civitate viventis Dei, et inspiciamus mente divinitatem materias expertem Patris et Spiritus, in Filio unigenito effulgentem.
Demulsisti desiderio me, Christe, et alterasti divino tuo amore, sed combure igne a materia remoto peccata mea, et impleri eis quæ in te deliciis dignum fac, ut duos saltando magnificem, o bone, adventus tuos.
O Christ, who with invisible hands didst form man to Thine own image, Thou hast shown Thine original beauty in the human frame, not as in an image, but as being this Thyself, both God and Man.
How grand and awful was the spectacle beheld this day! from heaven the visible sun, but from earth the incomparable spiritual Sun of justice shone upon Mount Thabor.
Thou art the King of kings most beautiful, and Lord of all lords, O blessed Prince, dwelling in inaccessible light; to Thee the disciples, beside themselves, cried out: Ye children, bless Him; ye priests, sing to Him; ye people, exalt Him above all for ever.
As before the Lord of heaven and King of earth and Ruler of the regions under the earth, before Thee, O Christ, there stood the apostles as from the earth, Elias the Thesbite as from heaven, Moses as from the dead; and they sang unceasingly: Ye children, bless Him; ye priests, sing to Him; ye people, exalt Him above all for ever.
Leaving to the earth its wearying cares, the chosen apostles having followed Thee, O loving one, to the divine city far above the earth, are justly admitted to behold Thy divine manifestation, singing: Ye children, bless Him; ye priests, sing to Him; ye people, exalt Him above all for ever.
Come to me, attend to me, ye people, ascending the holy, heavenly mountain; casting away material things, let us stand in the city of the living God, and mentally behold the immaterial divinity of the Father and the Spirit, shining forth in the only-begotten Son.
Thou, O Christ, hast won me with desire, and inebriated me with Thy divine love; but burn away my sins with immaterial fire, and make me worthy to be satiated with the delights that are in Thee; that exulting I may sing Thy two comings, O Thou who art so good.
It will be well to borrow also from the Church of Armenia, which celebrates this feast with so much solemnity:
In Transfiguratione Domini
Qui transfiguratus in monte vim divinam ostendisti, te glorificamus, intelligibile Lumen.
Ast ipsum deitatis ineffabile Lumen propriis visceribus provide portasti, Maria Mater Virgoque; te glorificamus et benedicimus.
Lumine abbreviato chorus apostolorum terretur; ast in te plenius habuisti ignem divinitatis, Maria Mater Virgoque: te glorificamus et benedicimus.
Apostolis nubes lucida tenditur desuper; ast in te Spiritu Sanctus, virtus Altissimi, diffunditur obumbrans, sancta Dei Mater: te glorificamus et benedicimus.
Christe, Deus noster, da ut cum Petro et filiis Zebedæi tua divina visione digni habeamur.
Ultra montem terrenum aufer nos ad intelligibile tabernaculum cœlo Celsius.
Exsultant hodie montes Dei Creatori obviam procedentes, apostolorum agmina et prophetarum montibus æternis sociata.
Hodie sponsa Regis immortalis, Sion excelsa lætatur, adspiciens cœlestem Sponsum lumine decorumin gloria Patris.
Hodie virga de radice Jesse floruit in monte Thabor.
Hodie immortalitatis odore manat, inebrians discipulos.
Te benedicimus, consubstantialem Patri, qui venisti salvare mundum.
O Light intelligible, who, transfigured on the mountain, didst show Thy divine power, we glorify Thee.
But this ineffable Light of the Godhead thou didst happily bear in thy womb, O Mary, Mother and Virgin: we glorify and bless thee.
The choir of the apostles trembled before the diminished Light; but in thee dwelt fully the fire of the divinity, O Mary, Mother and Virgin: we glorify and bless thee.
A bright cloud was spread over the apostles; but upon thee was poured the Holy Spirit, the Power of the Most High, overshadowing thee, O holy Mother of God: we glorify and bless thee.
O Christ our God, grant that with Peter and the sons of Zebedee we may be deemed worthy of Thy divine vision.
Lift us above the earthly mountain to the spiritual tabernacle higher than the heavens.
To-day the mountains of God exult, going to meet the Creator, the troops of apostles and prophets associated to the divine mountains.
To-day the bride of the immortal King, the lofty Sion rejoices, beholding her heavenly Spouse adorned with light in the glory of the Father.
To-day the rod of the root of Jesse blossomed on Mount Thabor.
To-day it breathes forth the perfume of immortality, inebriating the disciples.
We bless Thee, O consubstantial Son of the Father, who didst come to save the world.
Let us conclude by addressing to God this prayer of the Ambrosian Missal:
Oratio Super Sindonem
Illumina, quæsumus Domine, populum tuum, et splendore gratiæ tuæ cor eorum semper accende: ut Salvatoris mundi, æterni luminis gloria famulante, manifestata celebritas mentibus nostris reveletur semper, et crescat. Per eumdem Dominum.
Enlighten, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy people, and ever kindle their hearts by the brightness of Thy grace: that through the glory of the Saviour of the world, the eternal Light, the mystery here manifested may be ever more and more revealed, and may grow in our souls. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
[1] St. Matt. xvii. 9.
[2] Sicard. Cremon. Mitrale, ix. 38; Beleth. Rationale, cxliv.; Durand, vii., xxii., etc.
[3] Alleluia verse fr. Wisd. vii. 26.
[4] Gradual fr. Ps. xliv. 2, 3.
[5] Leon. in Epiph., Sermo ii. 4.
[6] 1st Responsory of Matins from Isaias lx. 1.
[7] St. Matt xvii. 2.
[8] 1 John iii. 2.
[9] 8th Responsory of Matins fr. 2 Cor. iv. 6.
[10] Joan. Damasc. Orat. in Transfig. iii.
[11] Capit of Sext, fr. 2 Cor. iii. 18.
[12] Ambr. in Luc., lib. vii., 12.
[13] Andr. Hibrosolymitani, Archiepisc. Cretensis, Oratio in Transfig.
[14] Callixt. III Const. Inter Divinæ dispensationis arcana.
[15] Schulting, on this date; Tommasi, Antiphoner.
[16] Wandalbert; Eldefons.
[17] Statuta Cluniac. V.
[18] Deposition of the Prior of St Nicholas.
[19] Sicard. Mitrale, ix., xxxviii.
[20] St. Matt. xxvi. 29.
[21] Sicard. Ibid
[22] Beleth. Rationale, cxliv.
[23] Eucholog.
[24] Durand. Rationale, vii., xxii.
[25] Homil. xii. in Exod. De vultu Moysi gloriflcato et velamine quod ponebat in facie sua.
[26] Gaude, mater pietatis. Exultet laudibus sacrata concio. Novum sidus exoritur.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
XISTUM in cimiterio animadversum sciatis octavo iduum augustarum die. Know that Sixtus has been beheaded in the cemetery on the eighth of the Ides of August.[1]
These words of St. Cyprian mark the opening of a glorious period, both for the cycle and for history. From this day to the feast of St. Cyprian himself, taking in that of the deacon Laurence, how many holocausts in a few weeks does the earth offer to the most high God! One would think that the Church, on the feast of our Lord’s Transfiguration, was impatient to join her testimony as Bride to that of the prophets, of the apostles, and of God Himself. Heaven proclaims Him well-beloved, the earth also declares its love for Him: the testimony of blood and of every sort of heroism is the sublime echo awakened by the Father’s voice through all the valleys of our lowly earth, to be prolonged throughout all ages.
Let us, then, to-day salute this noble pontiff, the first to go down into the arena opened wide by Valerian to all the soldiers of Christ. Among the brave leaders who, from Peter down to Melchiades, have headed the struggle whereby Rome was both vanquished and saved, none is more illustrious as a martyr. He was seized in the catacomb lying to the left of the Appian Way, in the very chair wherein, in spite of the recent edicts, he was presiding over the assembly of the brethren; and after the sentence had been pronounced by the judge, he was brought back to the sacred crypt. There in that same chair, in the midst of the martyrs sleeping in the surrounding tombs their sleep of peace, the good and peaceful pontiff[2] received the stroke of death. Of the seven deacons of the Roman Church six died with him;[3] Laurence alone was left, inconsolable at having this time missed the palm, but trusting in the invitation given him to be at the heavenly altar in three days’ time.
Two of the pontiff’s deacons were buried in the cemetery of Prætextatus, where the sublime scene had taken place. Sixtus and his blood-stained chair were carried to the other side of the Appian Way into the crypt of the Popes, where they remained for long centuries an object of veneration to pilgrims. When Damasus, in the days of peace, adorned the tombs of the saints with his beautiful inscriptions, the entire cemetery of Callixtus, which includes the burial-place of the Popes, received the title ‘of Cæcilia and of Sixtus,’ two glorious names inscribed by Rome upon the venerable diptychs of the Mass. Twice over on this day did the holy Sacrifice summon the Christians to honour, at each side of the principal way to the Eternal City, the triumphant victims of the eighth of the Ides of August.[4]
Xystus secundus, Atheniensis, ex philosopho Christi discipulus, in persecutione Valeriani accusatus quod publice Christum prædicaret, comprehensus trahitur in templum Martis, proposita ei capitali poena, nisi illi simulacro sacrificaret. Qua impietate constantissimerecusata, cum ad martyrium duceretur, occurrenti sancto Laurentio, et dolenter in hunc modum interroganti: Quo progrederis sine filio pater? quo sacerdos sancte sine ministro properas? Respondit: Non ego te desero fili: majora te manent pro Christi fide certamina: post triduum me sequeris, sacerdotem levita: interea, si quid in thesauris habes, paupenbus distribue. Eodem igitur die interfectus est una cum Felicissimo et Agapito diaconis, Januario, Magno, Vincentio et Stephano subdiaconis, et in cœmeterio Callisti sepultus octavo idus Augusti:cæteri vero in cœmeterio Prætextati. Sedit menses undecim, dies duodecim. Quo tempore habuit ordinationem mense Decembri, creatis presbyteris quatuor, diaconis septem, episcopis duobus.
Sixtus II, an Athenian, was first a philosopher, and then a disciple of Christ. In the persecution of Valerian, he was accused of publicly preaching the faith of Christ; and was seized and dragged to the temple of Mars, where he was given his choice between death and offering sacrifice to the idols. As he firmly refused to commit such an impiety, he was led away to martyrdom. As he went, St. Laurence met him, and with great sorrow, spoke to him in this manner: 'Whither goest thou, Father, without thy son? Whither art thou hastening, O holy priest, without thy deacon Sixtus answered: 'I am not forsaking thee, my son, a greater combat for the faith of Christ awaiteth thee. In three days thou shalt follow me, the deacon shall follow his priest. In the meanwhile distribute amongst the poor whatever thou hast in the treasury.' He was put to death that same day, the eighth of the Ides of August, together with the deacons Felicissimus and Agapitus, and the subdeacons Januarius, Magnus, Vincent, and Stephen. The Pope was buried in the cemetery of Callixtus, but the other martyrs in the cemetery of Prætextatus. He sat eleven months and twelve days; during which time he held an ordination in the month of December, and made four priests, seven deacons, and two bishops.
The following Preface from the Leonine Sacramentary breathes the freshness of the Church's triumph over persecution:
Preface
Vere dignum cognoscimus enim, Domine, tuæ pietatis effectus, quibus nos adeo gloriosi sacerdotis et martyris tui Xysti semper honoranda solemnia, nec inter præteritas mundi tribulationes, omittere voluisti, et nunc reddita præstas libertate venerari.
It is truly just to return thanks to Thee, O Lord. For we know the effects of Thy loving-kindness, whereby Thou wouldst not suffer us to omit the ever honourable solemnity of Thy glorious pontiff and martyr, Sixtus, during the past tribulations of the world, and dost enable us to celebrate it now that liberty is restored.
The Prayer now in use is that found in the Gregorian Sacramentary for Saints Felicissimus and Agapitus, the name of Saint Sixtus having been placed before theirs:
Prayer
Deus, qui nos concedis sanctorum Martyrum tuorum Xysti, Felicissimi et Agapiti natalitia colere: da nobis in æterna beatitudine de eorum societate gaudere. Per Dominum.
O God, who permittest us to keep the festivals of Thy holy martyrs, Sixtus, Felicissimus and Agapitus, grant us to rejoice in their society in eternal happiness. Through our Lord, etc.
[1] Cyprian, Epist. lxxxii.
[2] Pontius Diac. De vita et passione S. Cypriani, xiv.
[3] Liber Pontific, in Sixt. II.
[4] Sacramentaria Leon, et Gregor.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
CAJETAN appeared in all his zeal for the sanctuary at the time when the false reform was spreading rebellion throughout the world. The great cause of the danger had been the incapacity of the guardians of the Holy City, or their connivance by complicity of heart or of mind with pagan doctrines and manners introduced by an ill-advised revival. Wasted by the wild boar of the forest, could the vineyard of the Lord recover the fertility of its better days? Cajetan learned from eternal Wisdom the new method of culture required by an exhausted soil.
The urgent need of those unfortunate times was that the clergy should be raised up again by worthy life, zeal, and knowledge. For this object men were required who, being clerks themselves in the full acceptation of the word, with all the obligations it involves, should be to the members of the holy hierarchy a permanent model of its primitive perfection, a supplement to their shortcomings, and a leaven, little by little raising the whole mass. But where, save in the life of the counsels with the stability of its three vows, could be found the impulse, the power, and the permanence necessary for such an enterprise? The inexhaustible fecundity of the religious life was no more wanting in the Church in those days of decadence than in the periods of her glory. After the monks, turning to God in their solitudes and drawing down light and love upon the earth seemingly so forgotten by them; after the mendicant Orders, keeping up in the midst of the world their claustral habits of life and the austerity of the desert: the Regular Clerks entered upon the battle field, where by their position in the fight, their exterior manners of life, their very dress, they were to mingle with the ranks of the secular clergy; just as a few veterans are sent into the midst of a wavering troop, to act upon the rest by word and example and dash.
Like the initiators of the great ancient forms of religious life, Cajetan was the patriarch of the Regular Clerks. Under this name, Clement VII, by a brief dated June 24, 1524, approved the institute he had founded that very year in concert with the Bishop of Chieti, from whom the new religious were also called Theatines. Soon the Barnabites, the Society of Jesus, the Somaschans of St. Jerome Æmilian, the Regular Clerks Minor of St. Francis Caracciolo, the Regular Clerks Ministering to the Sick, the Regular Clerks of the Pious Schools, the Regular Clerks of the Mother of God, and others, hastened to follow in the track, and proved that the Church is ever beautiful, ever worthy of her Spouse; while the accusation of barrenness, hurled against her by heresy, rebounded upon the thrower.
Cajetan began and carried forward his reform chiefly by means of detachment from riches, the love of which had caused many evils in the Church. The Theatines offered to the world a spectacle unknown since the days of the apostles; pushing their zeal for renouncement so far as not to allow themselves even to beg, but to rely on the spontaneous charity of the faithful. While Luther was denying the very existence of God’s Providence, their heroic trust in it was often rewarded by prodigies.
Let us now read the life of this new patriarch:
Cajetanus, nobili Thienæa gente Vicentiæ ortus, statini a matre Deiparæ Virgini oblatus est. Mira a teneris annis morum innocentia in eo eluxit, adeo ut sanctus ab omnibus nuncuparetur. Juris utriusque lauream Patavii adeptus, Romani profectus est: ubi inter prælatos a Julio secundo collocatus, et sacerdotio initiatus, tanto divini amoris æstu succensus est, ut relicta aula se totum Deo mancipaverit. Nosocomiis proprio ære fundatis, etiam morbi pestilenti laborantibus, suis ipse manibus inserviebat. Proximorum saluti assidua cura incumbebat, dictus propterea venator animarum.
Collapsam ecclesiasticorum disciplinam ad formam apostolicæ vitæ instaurare desiderans, ordinem Clericorum Regularium instituit, qui, abdicata rerum omnium terrenarum sollicitudine, nec reditus possiderent, nec vitæ subsidia a fidelibus peterent, sed solis eleemosynis sponte oblatis viverent. Itaque approbante Clemente septimo ad aram maximam basilicæ Vaticanæ una cum Joanne Petro Carafa episcopo Theatino, qui postea Paulus quartus pontifex maximus fuit, et aliis duobus eximiæ pietatis viris, vota solemnia emisit. In urbis direptione a militibus crudelissime vexatus ut pecuniam proderet, quam dudum in cœlestes thesauros manus pauperum deportaverant, verbera, tormenta, et carceres invicta patientia sustinuit. In suscepto vitæ instituto constantissime perseveravit, soli divinæ providentiæ inhærens, quam sibi numquam defuisse aliquando miracula comprobarunt.
Divini cultus studium, nitorem domus Dei, sacrorum rituum observantiam, et sanctissimæ Eucharistiæ frequentiorem usum maxime promovit. Hæresum monstra et latebras non semel detexit, ac profligavit. Orationem ad octo passim horas jugibus lacrymis protrahebat: sæpe in exstasim raptus, ac prophetiæ dono illustris. Romæ nocte natalitia ad præsepe Domini, lnfantem Jesum accipere meruit a Deipara in ulnas suas. Corpus integras noctes interdum verberationibus affligebat; nec umquam adduci potuit, ut vitæ asperitatem emolliret, testatus, in cinere et cilicio velie se mori. Denique ex animi dolore conceptomorbo, quod offendi plebis seditione Deum videret, cœlesti visione recreatus, Neapoli migravit in cœlum: ibique corpus ejus in ecclesia sancti Pauli magna religione colitur. Quem multis miraculis in vita et post mortem gloriosum, Clemens decimus pontifex maximus sanctorum numero adscripsit.
Cajetan was born at Vicenza of the noble house of Tiene, and was at once dedicated by his mother to the Virgin Mother of God. His innocence appeared so wonderful from his very childhood that everyone called him 'the saint.' He took the degree of Doctor in canon and civil law at Padua, and then went to Rome, where Julius II made him a prelate. When he received the priesthood, such a fire of divine love was enkindled in his soul, that he left the court to devote himself entirely to God. He founded hospitals with his own money and himself served the sick, even those attacked with pestilential maladies. He displayed such unflagging zeal for the salvation of his neighbour that he earned the name of the 'hunter of souls.'
His great desire was to restore ecclesiastical discipline, then much relaxed, to the form of the apostolic life, and to this end he founded the Order of Regular Clerks. They lay aside all care of earthly things, possess no revenues, do not beg even the necessaries of life from the faithful, but live only on alms spontaneously offered. Clement VII having approved this institution, Cajetan made his solemn vows at the High Altar of the Vatican basilica, together with John Peter Caraffa, Bishop of Chieti, who was afterwards Pope Paul IV, and two other men of distinguished piety. During the sack of Rome, he was most cruelly treated by the soldiers, tc make him deliver up his money, which the hands of the poor had long ago carried into the heavenly treasures. He endured with the utmost patience stripes, torture, and imprisonment. He persevered unfalteringly in the kind of life he had embraced, relying entirely upon Divine Providence: and God never failed him, as was sometimes proved by miracle.
He was a great promoter of assiduity at the divine worship, of the beauty of the House of God, of exactness in holy ceremonies, and of frequent communion. More than once he detected and foiled the wicked subterfuges of heresy. He would prolong his prayer for eight hours, without ceasing to shed tears; he was often rapt in ecstasy and was famous for the gift of prophecy. At Rome, one Christmas night, while he was praying at our Lord’s crib, the Mother of God was pleased to lay the Infant Jesus in his arms. He would spend whole nights in chastising his body with disciplines, and could never be induced to relax anything of the austerity of his life; for he would say, he wished to die in sackcloth and ashes. At length he fell into an illness caused by the intense sorrow he felt at seeing the people offend God by a sedition; and at Naples, after being refreshed by a heavenly vision, he passed to heaven. His body is honoured with great devotion in the church of St. Paul in that town. As many miracles worked by him both living and dead made his name illustrious, Pope Clement X enrolled him amongst the saints.
Who has ever obeyed so well as thou, O great saint, that word of the Gospel: Be not solicitous therefore saying: What shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or wherewith shall we be clothed?[1] Thou didst understand, too, that other divine word: The workman is worthy of his meat,[2] and thou knewest that it applied principally to those who labour in word and doctrine.[3] Thou didst not ignore the fact that other sowers of the word had before thee founded on that saying the right of their poverty, embraced for God’s sake, to claim at least the bread of alms. Sublime right of souls eager for opprobrium in order to follow Jesus and to satiate their love! But Wisdom, who gives to the desires of the saints the bent suitable to their times, caused the thirst for humiliation to be overruled in thee by the ambition to exalt in thy poverty the holy Providence of God; this was needed in an age of renewed paganism, which, even before listening to heresy, seemed to have ceased to trust in God. Alas! even of those to whom the Lord had given Himself for their possession in the midst of the children of Israel, it could be truly said that they sought the goods of this world like the heathen. It was thy earnest desire, O Cajetan, to justify our heavenly Father and to prove that He is ever ready to fulfil the promise made by His adorable Son: Seek ye therefore the kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.[4]
Circumstances obliged thee to begin in this way the reformation of the sanctuary, whereunto thou wast resolved to devote thy life. It was necessary, first, to bring back the members of the holy militia to the spirit of the sacred formula of the ordination of clerks, when, laying aside the spirit of the world together with its livery, they say in the joy of their hearts: The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup: it is Thou, O Lord, that wilt restore my inheritance to me.[5]
The Lord, O Cajetan, acknowledged thy zeal and blessed thine efforts. Preserve in us the fruit of thy labour. The science of sacred rites owes much to thy sons; may they prosper, in renewed fidelity to the traditions of their father. May thy patriarchal blessing ever rest upon the numerous families of Regular Clerks which walk in the footsteps of thine own. May all the ministers of Holy Church experience the power thou still hast, of maintaining them in the right path of their holy state, or, if necessary, of bringing them back to it. May the example of thy sublime confidence in God teach all Christians that they have a Father in heaven, whose Providence will never fail His children.
[1] St Matt. vi. 31.
[2] Ibid. x. 10.
[3] 1 Tim. v. 17.
[4] St. Matt. vi. 33.
[5] Pontificale Romanum. De clerico faciendo, ex Ps. xv. 5.