A Community of Love, Unity and Service

St. John Climacus

Saint John, whose national origin remains unknown, was called Climacus because of a treatise hewrote called The Ladder (Climax) of Paradise. He made such progress in learning as a disciple ofSaint Gregory Nazianzen that while still young, he was called the Scholastic. At the age of sixteenhe turned from the brilliant future which lay before him, and retired to Mount Sinai, where he wasplaced under the direction of a holy monk named Martyrius. Once that religious journeyed toAntioch and took the young John with him; they visited Saint Anastasius, a future Patriarch ofAntioch, and the Saint asked Martyrius who it was who had given the habit to this novice? Hearingthat it was Martyrius himself, he replied, “And who would have said that you gave the habit to anAbbot of Mount Sinai?” Another religious, a solitary, made the same prediction on a similar visit,and washed the feet of the one who would some day be Abbot of Mount Sinai.

Never was there a novice more fervent, more unrelenting in his efforts for self-mastery. On thedeath of his director, when John was about thirty-five years old, he withdrew into a deeper solitude,where he studied the lives and writings of the Saints and was raised to an unusual height ofcontemplation. There he remained for forty years, making, however, a visit to the solitaries of Egyptfor his instruction and inspiration. The fame of his holiness and practical wisdom drew crowdsaround him for advice and consolation.

In the year 600, when he had reached the age of seventy-five, he was chosen as Abbot of MountSinai by a unanimous vote of the Sinai religious, who said they had placed the light upon itslampstand. On the day of his installation, six hundred pilgrims came to Saint Catherine’s Monastery,and he performed all the offices of an excellent hotel-master; but at the hour of dinner, he could notbe found to share the meal with them. For four years, said his biographer, a monk of the monasteryof Raithe, “he dwelt on the mountain of God, and drew from the splendid treasure of his heartpriceless riches of doctrine which he poured forth with wondrous abundance and benediction.” Hewas induced by a brother abbot to write the rules by which he had guided his life; and the bookwhich he had already begun, The Ladder, detailing thirty degrees of advancement in the pursuit ofperfection, has been prized in all ages for its wisdom, clearness, and unction.

At the end of that time, he retired again to his solitude, where he died the following year, as he hadforetold.

St. Benjamin

The Persian monarch Isdegerdes, son of Sapor III, put a stop to the cruel persecutions against theChristians begun by Sapor II, and the Church had been enjoying twelve years’ peace in that kingdom. Then, in 420, it was disturbed by the indiscreet zeal of a Christian bishop who burned down thePyraeum, or Temple of Fire, the great divinity of the Persians. King Isdegerdes thereupondemolished all the Christian churches in Persia, put to death the offending bishop, and raised ageneral persecution against the Church, which continued during forty years with great fury. Isdegerdes died the following year, but his son and successor carried on the persecution with greaterinhumanity.

The very recital of the cruelties he exercised on the Christians strikes us with horror. Among theglorious champions of Christ was Saint Benjamin, a deacon. The tyrant caused him to be beaten andimprisoned. He had lain a year in the dungeon, when an ambassador from the emperor obtained hisrelease on condition that he never speak to any of the courtiers about religion. The ambassador,wishing to save him, said on Benjamin’s behalf, that he would not do so; but Benjamin, who was aminister of the Gospel, declared that he would miss no opportunity of announcing Christ. The king,being informed that he still was preaching the Faith in his kingdom, ordered him to be apprehendedand tortured. Reeds were thrust with violence between the nails and flesh of his hands and feet andelsewhere, and this was frequently repeated. Finally a knotty stake was entered into his bowels torend and tear them; in that torment he expired for love of his God, in the year 424.

St. Nicholas of Flüe

Saint Nicholas of Flue was born in Switzerland of pious parents. One day, when he saw an arrowlaunched on a neighboring mountain, he was filled with a desire for Heaven and with love forsolitude. He married, to obey the formal will of his parents; he and his wife Dorothy became theparents of ten children. His merit and virtue caused him to be chosen by his fellow citizens toexercise very honorable public functions.

He was fifty years old when an interior voice said to him: “Leave everything you love, and God willtake care of you.” He had to undergo a distressing combat, but decided finally to leave everything— wife, children, house, lands — to serve God. He left, barefooted, clothed in a long robe ofcoarse fabric, in his hand a rosary, without money or provisions, casting a final tender and prolongedgaze on his loved ones. His habitual prayer was this: “My Lord and my God, remove from me allthat can prevent me from going to You. My Lord and my God, give me all that can draw me toYou.”

One night God penetrated the hermit with a brilliant light, and from that time on he never againexperienced hunger, thirst or cold. Having found a wild and solitary place, he dwelt there for a timein a hut of leaves, later in a cabin built with stones. The news of his presence, when it spread,brought him a great influx of visitors. Distinguished persons came to him for counsel in matters ofgreat importance. It may seem incredible that the holy hermit lived for nineteen years only by theHoly Eucharist; the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, startled by this fact, had his cabin surveyed andverified this fact as being beyond question.

When Switzerland for a moment was divided and threatened with civil war in 1480, Saint Nicholasof Flue, venerated by all, was chosen as arbiter, to prevent the shedding of blood. He spoke sowisely that a union was reached, to the joy of all concerned, and the nation was saved. Bells wereset ringing all over the country, and the concerted jubilation echoed across the lakes, mountains andvalleys, from the most humble cottage to the largest cities.

At the age of 70, Saint Nicholas fell ill with a very painful sickness which tormented him for eightdays and nights without overcoming his patience. He was beatified in 1669 by Pope Clement IX,canonized in 1947, by Pope Pius XII.

St. Simon, Infant Martyr

“Hail, flowers of the martyrs!” the Church sings in her Office of the Holy Innocents, who were thefirst to die for Christ; and in every age mere children and infants have gloriously confessed His name. The Jews of the city of Trent, assuredly possessed at that moment by the demons of hell, determinedin 1472 to vent their hatred for the Crucified by slaying a Christian child at the coming Passover. One of their number was commissioned to trap a victim, and found a bright, smiling boy namedSimon playing outside his home, with no one guarding him. The boy, who was not yet two yearsold, began to call and cry for his mother when he found himself being led from home; it wasapparently these cries which led later to the discovery of the kidnappers. At midnight on HolyThursday the work of butchery began. Having gagged his mouth, they held his arms in the form of across, while they pierced his tender body with sharp-pointed instruments, in blasphemous mockery ofthe sufferings of Jesus Christ. After an hour’s torture the little martyr lifted his eyes to heaven andgave up his innocent soul.

The murderers cast his body into a stream, after a search had begun for the child. Their crime wasdiscovered nonetheless, when they themselves, to appear innocent, advised the police that a child’sbody was floating in the water. A physician called to examine him wrote a report by order of thebishop, who afterwards transported his remains as a precious relic to the church of Saint Peter inTrent. A multitude of miracles followed, and the assassins were apprehended and punished.

William of Norwich is another child martyr. His parents were simple country folk, but his motherwas instructed by a vision to expect in her son a Saint. As a boy he fasted three times a week andprayed constantly. He was only an apprentice twelve years of age, at a tanner’s in Norwich, whenhe won his crown. A little before Easter in the year 1137, he was enticed into the house of anenemy of Christ, and there gagged, bound, and crucified in hatred of the Saviour of all men. Fiveyears passed before the body was found, then it was buried as a saintly relic in the cathedralchurchyard. A rose tree, planted close by, flowered miraculously in mid-winter, and many sickpersons were healed of their diseases at Saint William’s shrine.

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