A Community of Love, Unity and Service

St. John and St. Paul, martyrs

These two Saints were brothers and were officers of the Roman army in the days of Constantinethe Great. They served in the house of Constance, daughter of Constantine, who was consecratedto God; their virtues and services to her father rendered them very dear to her. They would soonglorify God by a great moral victory; after despising the honors of the world, they triumphed bytheir martyrdom over its threats and torments.

With the aid of the liberality of the Christian princess, they were practicing many works of charity and mercy, until the deaths of both Constantine and Constance. Then, at the accession of Julianthe Apostate to the imperial throne, they resigned their position in the palace. Julian had returnedto the cult of idols and was attempting to re-establish it in the empire. The Christian brothers sawmany wicked men prosper in their impiety, but were not dazzled by their example. Theyconsidered that worldly prosperity accompanied by impunity in sin is the most dreadful of all judgments, indicating reprobation. And history reveals how false and short-lived was the glitteringprosperity of Julian.

While still in power the apostate attempted to win back these influential officers into active service. When he was refused, he gave them ten days to reconsider. The officer Terentianus,who at the end of that time brought to their house a little idol of Jupiter for their adoration, foundthem in prayer. In the middle of that night they were decapitated secretly in their own garden,since the emperor feared their execution might cause a sedition in Rome. He instigated a rumorthat they had been exiled, but the demons took hold of possessed persons in Rome, andpublished the fact of their martyrdom everywhere.

The son of the officer who had slain them also became possessed, and it was only after theirfather, Terentianus, had prayed at the tomb of the martyrs that the child was liberated. This soimpressed him that he became a Christian, with all his family, and wrote the history we have reported.

The martyrs, by their renouncement of favors and their heroic resistance, purchased an immense weight of never-fading glory, and were a spectacle worthy of God. Their house became amagnificent Christian basilica already at the end of the fourth century.

St. Ladislas

Ladislas I was the grandson of the cousin of Saint Stephen of Hungary and the second son of his father, King Bela. It was only with sadness that as a young man he had seen his father ascend thethrone, since it was by a war against his father’s own brother that he did so. Bela’s virtuous son would gladly have escaped the honors of royalty, but his cousin Solomon, legitimate heir, wascruel and had been driven out by Ladislas’ older brother, Geiza, who after taking his place hadreigned for only three years before his death. The people of Hungary knew of Ladislas’s braveryin combat, his chastity, and his sobriety, above all his charity; everywhere the poor were showingthe clothing and the silver he had given them from his own house. He knew many of them byname, and they had named him the pious Prince, for he had built magnificent Christian churchesin a land where many still honored the pagan idols. It was with joy that the people chose Ladislasto replace his brother as King of Hungary.

He soon showed himself to be a perfect Christian king by the moderation of his judgments, hisaffability in receiving even the least of his vassals, his fatherly kindness to all. He restored thegood laws and discipline which Saint Stephen had established, and which seem to have beenobliterated by the confusion of the times. Chastity, meekness, gravity, charity, and piety werefrom his infancy the distinguishing traits of his character. Avarice and ambition were hissovereign aversion, so perfectly had the maxims of the Gospel extinguished in him all propensityto those base passions. His life in the palace continued to be very austere; he was very frugal andmortified personally, but very liberal to the Church and the poor. Vanity, pleasure, or idleamusements had no share in his actions or time, because all his moments were consecrated to theexercises of religion and the duties of his station. He had only the divine will in view, and alwayssought God’s greater honor. Generous and merciful to his enemies, he was vigorous in thedefense of his country and the Church.

During his reign his kingdom was attacked by numerous neighboring peoples. Before going outto repulse them he always commanded public prayers and a fast of three days, then at the head ofhis armies fought and was invariably victorious with the help of God, whom he did not cease toimplore.  He was preparing to depart, at the request of the princes of France, Spain and England,as General-in-chief of the 300,000 recruits of the great first crusade of the Christians against theSaracens for the recovery of the Holy Land, when God called him to Himself, on July 30, 1095, atthe age of fifty-four years. Miracles were numerous at his tomb, and he was canonized onehundred years later, in 1199. The same day a small child born without hands and feet was curedby the invocation of Saint Ladislas.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help

The image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help measures around 50 centimeters (25 inches)high. It is in the Byzantine style, painted on wood with a gold leaf background. The Virgin isthere with Her divine Child; each of them has a golden halo. Two Angels, one on the right andthe other on the left, present the instruments of the Passion to the Child Jesus who is frightened,whereas the Blessed Virgin looks at the pathetic scene with calm, resigned sorrow.

The image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help had long been venerated on the Isle of Crete. The inhabitants of that island, fleeing a Turkish invasion, took it with them to Rome. By theinvocation of Mary under the title of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the ship transporting Her holyimage was saved from a terrible storm.

On March 27, 1499, the portrait of the Virgin of Perpetual Help was carried in triumphthrough the streets of Rome. Preceded by the clergy and followed by the people, it was placedover the main altar of St. Matthew’s church, near St. Mary Major. Thanks to the care of theAugustinian friars, the holy image became the object of a very popular devotion which Godrewarded for several centuries with many miracles.

During the disturbances of the French Revolution (1789-1793), the French troopsoccupying Rome destroyed St. Matthew’s church. One of the friars serving in that sanctuary hadthe time to secretly remove the miraculous Madonna. He hid it so well that for sixty years, noone knew what had become of the famous painting.

God permitted a concourse of providential circumstances which led to rediscovery of thevenerated image. In 1865, in order to return the holy picture to the same spot it had been prayedto before, Pius IX gave orders to have it taken to the Esquiline Hill, in St. Alphonsus Liguori’schurch, built on the site of old St. Matthew’s. On April 26, 1866, the Redemptorists solemnlyenthroned Our Lady of Perpetual Help in their chapel.

From that time on, thanks to the zeal of the sons of Saint Alphonsus and the countless miraclesobtained in their pious sanctuary, devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help has had anextraordinary development. To acknowledge and perpetuate the remembrances of these preciousfavors, the Vatican Chapter crowned the holy image in great pomp on June 23, 1867.

In 1876, Pope Pius IX erected an Archconfraternity in St. Alphonsus’ church under thetitle of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Today the Blessed Virgin is invoked by this namethroughout the Western Church.

St. Irenaeus

Saint Irenaeus was born in the year 120; he was of the Greek tongue, and probably a native ofAsia Minor. His parents, who were Christians, placed him while still young under the care of thegreat Saint Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna. It was in this holy school that he learned the sacredscience which later made him a great ornament of the Church and the terror of her enemies. SaintPolycarp cultivated his rising genius and formed his mind to piety by his precepts and example,and the zealous young scholar was careful to reap all advantages offered him by the solicitude ofsuch a master. Such was his veneration for his tutor’s sanctity that he observed all the acts andvirtues he saw in that holy man, the better to copy his example and learn his spirit. He listened tohis instructions with an insatiable ardor, and so deeply did he engrave them in his heart that theimpressions remained vivid even in his old age. In order to confound the heresies of his age, thisDoctor of the Church acquainted himself with the conceits of the pagan philosophers, and therebybecame qualified to trace every error to its sources and set it in its full light. By his writings hewas already known to Tertullian, Theodoret and Saint Epiphanus, who speak of him as aluminous torch of truth in the darkness of those times.

After Irenaeus had spent a number of years in combat against the eastern gnostics andphilosophers of error, Saint Polycarp determined to send him to Gaul, where many of the hereticsof Asia Minor had already migrated to pursue the Catholic religion, which was beginning to findroots there. With a company of about forty Christians, the valiant soldier of Christ ascended theRhone to Lyons to rejoin and aid Saint Pothinus, its bishop. Saint Pothinus was already advancedin age, and his church’s neophytes could not always distinguish truth from the gnostic aberrations. Saint Pothinus received the apostles with joy and soon ordained Saint Irenaeus.

A hundred times he exposed himself to martyrdom by his zeal, acting as the right arm of the aging bishop, but God was reserving that crown for him twenty-five years later. When Saint Pothinushad glorified God by his splendid martyr’s death in the year 177, Ireneus was chosen to be thesecond bishop of Lyons. The persecutors imagined that Christianity had been stifled in Lyons,and they ceased their pursuits for a time.

This great Doctor of the Church wrote many important works, of which the most famous is hisAdversus Haereses, Against the Heresies, in explanation of the Faith. By his preaching, SaintIrenaeus in a short time converted almost the whole country to the Faith; the Christians of Lyonsbecame models by their candor, their estrangement from all ambition, their poverty, chastity andtemperance, and in this way confounded many adversaries of their religion. Saint Irenaeuscontinued to imitate what he had seen done by his beloved master, Saint Polycarp, himself thedisciple and imitator of Saint John the Apostle. One can readily imagine the excellence of theadministration and the breadth of charity reigning in the Church of Lyons.

Finally he suffered martyrdom there, with many others, in the year 202, under the Emperor Septimus Severus, after eighty years spent in the service of the Lord. The imperial decreesrenewing the persecutions arrived at Lyons at the time of the celebration of Severus’ tenth year ofreign; the pagans found amid the celebrations an opportunity to take vengeance on the Christians,who refused to participate in the debaucheries which accompanied these feastings. Assassinsarmed with daggers, stones and knives filled the city with blood, and thousands of Christians won,with their bishop, the crown they had always admired as the greatest glory God could grant Hisservants.

St. Paul

This feast day commemorates the martyrdom of the two great Apostles, assigned by tradition tothe same day of June in the year 67. They had been imprisoned in the famous Mamertine Prisonof Rome and both had foreseen their approaching death. Saint Peter was crucified; Saint Paul, aRoman citizen, was slain by the sword. Tomorrow the Church commemorates the Apostle of theGentiles; today is dedicated primarily to Saint Peter.

The Chief of the Apostles was a native of Galilee like Our Lord. As he was fishing on its large lake he was called by Our Lord to be one of His apostles. Peter was poor and unlearned, butcandid, eager, and loving. In his heart, first of all, his conviction grew, and then from his lipscame the spontaneous confession: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!” Our Lord chose him and prepared him to be the Rock on which He would build His Church, His Vicar onearth, the Head and Prince of His Apostles, the center and indispensable bond of the Church’sunity, the unique channel of all spiritual powers, the guardian and unerring teacher of His truth.

All Scripture is alive with Saint Peter; his name appears no fewer than 160 times in the NewTestament. But it is after Pentecost that he stands out in the full grandeur of his office. He seesto the replacement of the fallen disciple; he admits the Jews by thousands into the fold and in theperson of Cornelius, opens it to the Gentiles; he founds and for a time rules the Church atAntioch.

Ten years after the Ascension Saint Peter transferred his apostolic capital to Rome, going inperson to the center of the majestic Roman Empire, where were gathered the glories and riches ofthe earth, along with all the powers of evil. From there he sent Saint Mark, his valued secretary,to establish the Church of Alexandria in Egypt. In Rome Saint Peter’s Chair was placed; there fortwenty-five years he labored at building up the great Roman Church. He was crucified by orderof Nero and buried on the Vatican Hill, where now the Basilica stands which bears his name.

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