A Community of Love, Unity and Service

St. Marcellinus

Saint Marcellinus was born in Africa of a noble family; with two other Christians desiring toevangelize Gaul, Vincent and Domninus, he went to Pope Saint Damasus. The young men weresent to Eusebius, bishop of Verceil, who encouraged them for their mission and announced tothem that they would have much to suffer. The three were ordained, and Marcellinus wasconsecrated bishop of Embrun by Eusebius and the bishop of Valencia. The gift of miraclesfortified the preaching of Marcellinus at Embrun, in a region bordering on the Alps, while hiscompanions continued their labors at Digne. Saint Domninus was later consecrated bishop ofDigne by Saint Marcellinus, and energetically protected his flock from the errors of Arius;eventually Saint Vincent succeeded him there.

 Marcellinus built at Embrun a chapel in which he passed his nights in prayer, after laboring all dayin the exercise of his sacred calling. By his pious example, as well as by his earnest words and hismiracles, he converted many of the pagans among whom he lived. A striking miracle, added tothese influences, brought the entire population of Embrun into the church, with the exception ofone idolater, who later also abandoned his gods. The waters in the nearby baptistry wereincreased, without the human intervention which had been proposed, to accommodate greatnumbers of catechumens who, during the feast of Christmas, would be baptized. The same eventoccurred again at Easter, and the sick were healed by the waters. For as long as the ancientbaptistry remained standing, the miracle was renewed, as Saint Gregory of Tours and Saint Adonof Vienne attest — that is, for more than five hundred years.

Saint Marcellinus died at Embrun about the year 374, and was interred there. Saint Gregory ofTours, who speaks of him in terms of highest praise, narrates some of the countless miracleswhich multiplied at his tomb.

St. Agnes of Monte Pulciano

Saint Agnes was born in Italy in 1274, a gentle future glory of the Order of Saint Dominic. Herfather was an eminent Christian who dwelt in the village of Gracciano Vecchio, near the Lake ofPerugia in central Italy. On the very day of her birth a first miracle announced to those presentthat this was a predestined child: mysterious burning torches appeared, shining brilliantly near hercrib. Already at the age of four the little girl used to retire in solitude to pray to Jesus, her love.

When she was nine she asked her parents to enter a monastery; they opposed this wish, notcertain of the will of God. But after she had prayed fervently that opinions might be changed, shewas allowed to join the Sisters of Monte Pulciano who were living under the Rule of SaintAugustine. They soon venerated her as resembling an angel of paradise. When she reached theage of fourteen, to test her they assigned to her the prosaic duties of stewardess of her monastery,an office in which she would have to provide for the material needs of the Sisters and keepaccounts; they wanted to see whether these occupations would detach her from her spirit ofuninterrupted prayer. They were edified to see her carry out her duties cheerfully, in perfectobedience, without murmuring in any way and without her piety being in any way altered. Whenever a Sister needed any service, the response of Saint Agnes was always characterized bygrace and charity.

Saint Agnes already had the reputation of sanctity; a number of persons had seen her raised in theair nearly two feet above ground. And when the residents of Procena, a neighboring town,decided to build a monastery for their daughters, they came to ask for her as its first Superior. She was at that time fifteen years old, and her humility was affrighted by this request. But shewas commanded by the Sovereign Pontiff to accept the office as proposed. This experiencewould prepare her for a later important work, that of founding a large monastery in honor of theMother of God at Monte Pulciano; the Blessed Virgin had already appeared to her and told herthat it would be founded on faith in the Most High and undivided Trinity.

As the years passed, it occurred sometimes that where she knelt in prayer, flowers sprang up —violets, lilies and roses. One year, during the night of the Assumption, the Mother of the Saviourappeared to her again and placed the Infant Jesus in her arms. Saint Agnes succeeded in foundingthe foretold monastery, in which she presided over twenty cloistered Dominican Sisters; an Angelhad told her to establish it under the Rule of Saint Dominic.

During her last illness, she was sent to bathe in curative waters; during her journey there shebrought back to life a child who had drowned. Her health did not improve, but a spring welled upnearby which cured others and was named the water of Saint Agnes. Saint Agnes returned to hermonastery and prepared for death. She died at the age of 43 on April 20, 1317. Miraclesoccurred at her tomb, as they had during her lifetime, and she was beatified in 1534, canonized in1726. Her first biographer was Raymond of Capua, the confessor of Saint Catherine of Siena.

St. Anselm

Saint Anselm was a native of Piedmont. When as a boy of fifteen he was forbidden to enterreligion after the death of his good Christian mother, for a time he lost the fervor she hadimparted to him. He left home and went to study in various schools in France; at length hisvocation revived, and he became a monk at Bec in Normandy, where he had been studying underthe renowned Abbot Lanfranc.

The fame of his sanctity in this cloister led King William Rufus of England, when dangerously ill,to take him for his confessor and afterwards to name him to the vacant see of Canterbury toreplace his own former master, Lanfranc, who had been appointed there before him. He wasconsecrated in December, 1093. Then began the strife which characterized Saint Anselm’sepiscopate. The king, when restored to health, lapsed into his former sins, continued to plunderthe Church lands, scorned the archbishop’s rebukes, and forbade him to go to Rome for thepallium.

Finally the king sent envoys to Rome for the pallium; a legate returned with them to England,bearing it. The Archbishop received the pallium not from the king’s hand, as William would haverequired, but from that of the papal legate. For Saint Anselm’s defense of the Pope’s supremacyin a Council at Rockingham, called in March of 1095, the worldly prelates did not scruple to callhim a traitor. The Saint rose, and with calm dignity exclaimed, “If any man pretends that I violatemy faith to my king because I will not reject the authority of the Holy See of Rome, let him stand,and in the name of God I will answer him as I ought.” No one took up the challenge; and to thedisappointment of the king, the barons sided with the Saint, for they respected his courage andsaw that his cause was their own. During a time he spent in Rome and France, canons werepassed in Rome against the practice of lay investiture, and a decree of excommunication wasissued against offenders.

When William Rufus died, another strife began with William’s successor, Henry I. This sovereignclaimed the right of investing prelates with the ring and crozier, symbols of the spiritualjurisdiction which belongs to the Church alone. Rather than yield, the archbishop went into exile,until at last the king was obliged to submit to the aging but inflexible prelate.

In the midst of his harassing cares, Saint Anselm found time for writings which have made himcelebrated as the father of scholastic theology, while in metaphysics and in science he had fewequals. He is yet more famous for his devotion to our Blessed Mother, whose Feast of theImmaculate Conception he was the first to establish in the West. He died in 1109.

St. Leonides

The Emperor Severus, in the year 202, the tenth of his reign, raised a bloody persecution whichfilled the entire empire with martyrs, but especially Egypt. The most illustrious of those who bytheir triumphs ennobled and edified the city of Alexandria was Leonides, father of the greatOrigen. He was a Christian philosopher and excellently versed both in the profane and sacredsciences. He had seven sons; the eldest was Origen, whom he brought up with very great care,returning thanks to God for having blessed him with a son of such an excellent disposition forlearning, and so remarkable a piety. After his son was baptized, he would come to his bedsidewhile he was asleep and, bending over the child, would kiss his breast respectfully, as the templeof the Holy Spirit.

When the persecution reached Alexandria in 202, under Laetus, governor of Egypt, Leonides wascast into prison. Origen, who was then only seventeen years of age, burned with a fervent desirefor martyrdom, and sought every opportunity of facing it. His ardor redoubled at the sight of hisfather’s chains, and his mother was forced to lock up all his clothes to oblige him to stay at home. She conjured him not to forsake her; thus, unable to do more, he wrote a letter to his father invery moving terms, strongly exhorting him to look at the crown that was offered him withcourage and joy. He added this exhortation: “Take heed that for our sakes you do not changeyour mind!” Leonides was indeed beheaded for the faith in 202.

St. Soter

Saint Soter was raised to the papacy upon the death of Saint Anicetus in 161. By the sweetnessof his discourses he comforted all afflicted persons with the tenderness of a father, and assistedthe indigent with liberal alms, especially those who suffered for the Faith. He liberally extendedhis charities, according to the custom of his predecessors, to remote churches. He aided inparticular that of Corinth, to which he addressed an excellent letter. Saint Dionysius of Corinth inhis letter of thanks to Saint Soter, adds that the Pontifical letter together with the letter of SaintClement, Pope, was read for the edification of the faithful on Sundays, during their assemblies tocelebrate the divine mysteries.

One of Saint Soter’s ordinances required all Christians except those in public penance to receiveCommunion on Holy Thursday. Saint Soter vigorously opposed the heresy of Montanus, andgoverned the Church up to the year 170. He was martyred on April 22, 170, under the emperorMarcus Aurelius, and buried on the Appian Way in the cemetery of Callixtus.

Pope Saint Caius, born in Dalmatia, was a relative of the emperor Diocletian. The cruel emperordid not for that reason spare him or his family during the bloody persecution of the years 283 to296, during which the Christians of Rome were obliged to conceal themselves in caverns andcemeteries.

Saint Caius counseled a patrician named Chromatius to receive the tracked disciples of Christ inhis country residence. He himself went to visit them on a Sunday, and said to the faithfulassembled there that Our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing the fragility of human nature, establishedtwo degrees in the practice of Christianity, confession and martyrdom. Our Saviour did so, hesaid, “so that those who do not believe they could stand up under torment, may nonethelessconserve the grace of the faith by their confession.” Our Lord had indeed specified, “When youare persecuted in one city, flee to another...” Then he said, “Those who wish to stay in the houseof Chromatius, remain with Tiburtius, while those who prefer to return with me to the city,come.” Several followed him back to Rome; among them are the martyrs of the samepersecution, the brothers Saints Marcus and Marcellinus, and Saint Sebastian.

Saint Caius himself received the crown of martyrdom in the final year of the persecution, 296, andwas buried in the cemetery of Callixtus, where his body was found in 1622, with an inscriptionidentifying him as Vicar of Christ.

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