A Community of Love, Unity and Service

St. John Gualbert

Saint John Gualbert was born in Florence in the year 999. He was raised with care in piety and the study of the humanities, but no sooner had he entered adult life than he acquired a taste forpleasures. God, desiring to save and sanctify him, found a means to open his eyes. He wasfollowing the profession of arms at that troubled period, when on Good Friday, as he was ridinginto Florence accompanied by armed men, he encountered his brother’s murderer in a place whereneither could avoid the other. John would have slain him, according to the customary vengeanceof those times; but his adversary, who was totally unprepared to fight, fell upon his knees with hisarms outstretched in the form of a cross, and implored him, for the sake of Our Lord’s holyPassion, to spare his life. Saint John said to his enemy, “I cannot refuse what you ask in Christ’s name. I grant you not only your life, but my friendship. Pray that God may forgive me my sin!” They embraced and parted; grace had triumphed.

A humble and changed man, he went to a nearby abbatial church, and while he prayed with fervor for forgiveness, the figure of our crucified Lord, before which he was kneeling, bowed its headtoward him, as if to confirm His pardon and manifest His gratitude for the generous pardon Johnhimself had granted. Abandoning the world then, Saint John devoted himself to prayer andpenance in the Benedictine Order. His virtue and austerity were so great that when his abbotdied, he was unanimously chosen to replace him; but he could not be prevailed upon to acceptthat honor. He retired to Vallombrosa, which became the cradle of a new Order which followedthe Rule of Saint Benedict in all its austerity. It was from this shady valley, a few miles fromFlorence, that the Order spread over Italy.

Once during a time of famine, he went to the nearly empty storeroom, and at his prayer theprovisions multiplied to the point that he could distribute grain to all his houses and to all the poorwho presented themselves. On an occasion when he found one of the monasteries too rich, heprayed a stream flowing past it to take on the violence of a torrent and overturn the building. This was done without delay. Another time, the enemies of the Saint came to his convent ofSaint Salvi, plundered it and set fire to it and, after treating the monks with ignominy, beat themand injured them. Saint John rejoiced. “Now,” he said, “you are true monks. Oh, how I envy your lot!”

Saint John Gualbert fought vigorously against simony, and in many ways promoted the interestsof the Faith in Italy. After a life of great austerity, he died while Angels were singing near hisbed, on July 12, 1073.

St. Anacletus

Saint Anacletus was the second successor to Saint Peter, by whom he was converted to the faith. He was also ordained a deacon and consecrated priest by Christ’s own first Vicar, as SaintIgnatius of Antioch affirms. He was Greek by origin, born in Athens; in the year 83 he waschosen to succeed Saint Cletus, who had been martyred. The emperor Domitian had begun aviolent persecution which increased in fury as time passed; but the faith of the Christians did notdiminish, only receiving new force from the blood of the martyrs.

This holy Pontiff omitted no solicitude which could animate the faithful to expose their lives generously for the glory of Jesus Christ. During his nine years of reign, he consecrated sixbishops. The last of these bishops was Saint Evaristus, who would succeed him; Saint Anacletus consecrated him the year before his death, foreseeing he could not long escape the fate of all the first Vicars of Christ.

One of his enduring ordinances was the law that for the consecration of a bishop, three bishops must participate; that practice had been established by Saint Paul. He also required that allordinations be accomplished in public. He built a church in honor of Saint Peter, to whom heowed his conversion, at the site of Saint Peter’s burial; the original structure was conserved byProvidence amid many tempests. He reserved burial sites for future martyrs in the Christiancemeteries, because multitudes were being condemned under Domitian. He also designated andadorned sites for the interment of future Pontiffs in the Vatican. Saint Anacletus was highlypraised by Saint Ignatius of Antioch in a well-known letter. He died on July 13^th in the year 96,and was buried in the Vatican.

Certain authors would confound Saint Cletus and Anacletus and make of them one person. Theirfather’s names are known, however, as well as their place of birth — the one in Italy, the other in Greece; moreover, Saint Cletus was consecrated bishop by Saint Peter, saint Anacletus wasordained a priest by him.

St. Eugenius

In the year 481, the episcopal see of Carthage had been vacant for twenty-four years, whenHuneric, barbarian King of the African Vandals, decided to allow the Catholics to fill it, providedcertain conditions be met. The people, impatient to enjoy the consolation which a pastor wouldbring to the church, chose Eugenius, a citizen of Carthage, eminent for his learning, zeal, pietyand prudence. His charities to the distressed had already been very abundant, and in his newoffice he refused himself the slightest convenience, in order to be able to give all he had to thepoor.

His virtue gained him the respect and esteem even of the Arians; but at length envy and blind zeal overcame their better sentiments, and Huneric sent Saint Eugenius an order never to sit on theepiscopal throne, preach to the people, or admit into his chapel any Vandals, even if Catholic. The Saint courageously replied that the laws of God commanded him not to shut the door of Hischurch to any who desired to serve Him there. The Vandal king, enraged at this answer,persecuted the Catholics in various ways. Many nuns were so cruelly tortured that they died onthe rack. Great numbers of bishops, priests, deacons, and eminent Catholic laymen were banishedto a desert filled with scorpions and venomous serpents. Many also were put to death.

During this persecution the people followed their bishops and priests to execution with lighted tapers in their hands. Mothers carried their little infants in their arms and laid them at the feet of the confessors, crying out with tears, “On your way to receiving your crowns, to whom do youleave us? Who will baptize our children? Who will impart to us the benefit of penance, and freeus from the bonds of sin by the grace of reconciliation and pardon? Who will bury us with solemnprayers at our death? By whom will the divine Sacrifice be offered?” By the intervention ofProvidence, Saint Eugenius was liberated on the very scaffold, but exiled to an uninhabited desertin the province of Tripoli and committed to the guard of Anthony, an inhuman Arian bishop. Thelatter treated him with the utmost barbarity, shutting him up in a narrow cell and allowing no oneto visit him. Before entering that prison, however, he had found a way to write to his diocesans asplendid letter, in which he said: “If I return to Carthage, I will see you in this life; if I do notreturn, I will see you in the other. Pray for us and fast, because fasting and almsgiving havealways obtained the mercy of God; but remember above all, that it is written we must not fearthose who can kill only the body.”

When a new king named Gontamund succeeded to Huneric, he recalled Saint Eugenius toCarthage, opened the Catholic churches, and allowed all the exiled clergy to return. Afterreigning twelve years, Gontamund died, and his brother Thrasimund was called to the crown. Under that prince Saint Eugenius was again banished. He died in exile in France on July 13, 505,in a monastery which he had built and governed, at Albi, near Toulouse. Saint Gregory of Toursassures that many miracles occurred at his sepulchre.

St. Bonaventure

Born in Tuscany in 1225, this frail child was given the name of John at his baptism. He soon fell so ill that his cure was despaired of, and his sorrowing mother had recourse to Saint Francis,recognized everywhere in Italy as a Saint. She promised God she would endeavor to have thechild take the habit of the Franciscan Order, if he were cured. Her prayer was granted, the childwas cured, and Saint Francis himself gave him his new name. In reference to the miraculous cure,he prophetically exclaimed of the infant, “O buona ventura!— O good fortune!” Saint Francis died a few months later, not without foreseeing the future of this little one, destined to be a seraph of love like himself. Saint Bonaventure is titled “the Seraphic Doctor,” from the fervor of divine love which breathes in his writings.

Sanctity and learning raised Bonaventure to the Church’s highest honors, yet at heart he was ever the poor Franciscan friar, who practiced and taught humility and mortification. He was the friendof Saint Thomas Aquinas; they received the Doctor’s cap together in Paris. Saint Thomas askedhim one day from what source he drew his great learning; he replied by pointing to his crucifix. Another time Saint Thomas found him in ecstasy while writing the life of Saint Francis. TheAngelic Doctor said, while retiring quietly, “Let us leave a Saint in peace, to write of a Saint!”

At the age of thirty-six Saint Bonaventure was made General of his Order. In 1265 he onlyescaped another dignity, the Archbishopric of York, by dint of tears and entreaties to the HolyFather Clement IV. When he learned of Pope Gregory X’s resolve to create him a Cardinal, hequietly made his escape from Italy, and in France began to compose a book. But Gregory senthim a summons to return to Rome. On his way, he stopped to rest at a convent of his Order nearFlorence; and there two Papal messengers, sent to meet him with the Cardinal’s hat, found himwashing the dishes. The Saint asked them to hang the hat on a nearby bush, and take a walk inthe garden until he had finished what he had begun. Then taking up the hat with unfeignedsorrow, he joined the messengers, and paid them the respect due to their character.

He was the guest and adviser of Saint Louis, and the director of Saint Isabella, the king’s sister. He sat at the right hand of Pope Gregory X and presided all sessions at the Council of Lyons, assembled to provide for the reform of morals and the needs of the Holy Land, and to cement theunion of the Greeks with the Roman Church. The piety and eloquence of Saint Bonaventure wonover the Greeks to Catholic union, but his strength failed suddenly, the day after its closure. Hedied on the 15^th of July, 1274, and was buried by the assembly of the Council members, still inLyons; he was mourned by the entire Christian world.

St. Henry II

Henry the Pious or the Lame, Duke of Bavaria, was born in 972, and bore his father’s name. Saint Wolfgang, bishop of Ratisbonne, baptized him and afterward raised him in the practices ofvirtue fitting for a great sovereign. His father died when his son was 23 years old, and SaintHenry assumed the paternal title of Duke of Bavaria. It was at this time that he marriedCunegundes, the holy spouse whom God gave him, and who like himself is today a canonizedSaint. They observed perfect chastity all their lives, and rivaled one another in their zeal and lovefor their subjects.

One night Saint Henry had a dream and saw his very dear deceased master, Saint Wolfgang, whotold him to read the words written on a wall: “After six.” He supposed this meant he would die insix months, and then, after that did not occur, in six years, and he prepared himself for thateventuality by giving generous alms and initiating other good works. At the end of the sixth year,he found the prediction verified in an unexpected way, by his election as emperor and king ofGermany on the first day of the year 1002. It was an archbishop who consecrated him emperoron July 8^th of that same year. Trained in the fear of God, he ascended the throne with only onethought — that of reigning for God’s greater glory. By his happy combination of Christian, royaland military virtues, he proved that a good king is a true gift of heaven. He prayed often,meditated the law of God constantly, and to be armed against pride practiced humility in allcircumstances, and never let himself be fascinated by human glory.

The pagan Slavs were then despoiling the empire. He provided for the reparation of theepiscopal churches of six dioceses, which had been almost entirely destroyed by the invaders. Menaced by an army of one of these, he prayed to the patron of the ruined church of Merseburg,saying, “Great Saint Lawrence, illustrious martyr of Jesus Christ, if by your assistance I cansubmit these barbaric nations to the Christian religion, I will with the help of God re-establish inits original dignity, this church consecrated to your honor.” He prayed again before the battle,invoking three martyrs, and then attacked the invaders with a small force; but an Angel and thethree holy martyrs were seen leading his troops, and the heathen simply fled in despair. Polandand Bohemia, Moravia and Burgundy, were in turn annexed to his kingdom, and Pannonia andHungary won for the Church.

When the Faith was secure in Germany, Henry passed into Italy, drove out an antipope andbrought Benedict VIII back to Rome. He was crowned in Saint Peter’s Basilica by that Pontiff, in1014. It was Henry’s custom, on arriving in any town, to spend his first night in prayer, in somechurch dedicated to our Blessed Lady. As he was praying in Saint Mary Major’s, during the firstnight of his arrival in Rome, he saw “the Sovereign and Eternal Priest-Child Jesus” enter to sayMass. Saints Lawrence and Vincent assisted, as deacon and sub-deacon. Countless Saints filledthe church, and Angels sang in the choir. After the Gospel, an Angel was sent by Our Lady togive Henry the sacred book to kiss. Touching him lightly on the thigh, he said, “Accept this signof God’s love for your chastity and your justice,” and from that time on, the emperor alwayslimped.

Saint Henry employed the fruits of his conquests in the service of the temple, imitating in this the royal prophet-king. The forests and mines of the empire, all the best resources which his treasurycould provide, were consecrated to the sanctuary. Stately cathedrals, noble monasteries,innumerable churches enlightened and sanctified the once heathen lands. In 1024 Henry lay on hisdeathbed; he then gave back to her parents his wife, Saint Cunegundes, “a virgin still, as a virginhe had received her from Christ,” and at the age of 52 years surrendered his own pure soul toGod.

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