A Community of Love, Unity and Service

St. John of the Cross

Saint John of the Cross was born near Avila in Spain. As a child, he was playing near a pondone day. He slid into the depths of the water, but came up unharmed and did not sink again. A tall and beautiful Lady came to offer him Her hand. “No,” said the child, “You are toobeautiful; my hand will dirty Yours.” Then an elderly gentleman appeared on the shore andextended his staff to the child to bring him to shore. These two were Mary and Joseph. Another time he fell into a well, and it was expected he would be retrieved lifeless. But hewas seated and waiting peacefully. “A beautiful lady,” he said, “took me into Her cloak andsheltered me.” Thus John grew up under the gaze of Mary.

One day he was praying Our Lord to make known his vocation to him, and an interior voice said to him: “You will enter a religious Order, whose primitive fervor you will restore.” Hewas twenty-one years old when he entered Carmel, and although he concealed his exceptionalworks, he outshone all his brethren. He dwelt in an obscure corner whose window openedupon the chapel, opposite the Most Blessed Sacrament. He wore around his waist an ironchain full of sharp points, and over it a tight vestment made of reeds joined by large knots. His disciplines were so cruel that his blood flowed in abundance. The priesthood onlyredoubled his desire for perfection. He thought of going to bury his existence in theCarthusian solitude, when Saint Teresa, whom God enlightened as to his merit, made him theconfidant of her projects for the reform of Carmel and asked him to be her auxiliary.

John retired alone to a poor and inadequate dwelling and began a new kind of life, conformedwith the primitive Rules of the Order of Carmel. Shortly afterwards two companions came tojoin him; the reform was founded. It was not without storms that it developed, for hell seemedto rage and labor against it, and if the people venerated John as a Saint, he had to accept, fromthose who should have seconded him, incredible persecutions, insults, calumnies, and evenprison. When Our Lord told him He was pleased with him, and asked him what reward hewished, the humble religious replied: “To suffer and to be scorned for You.” His reform,though approved by the General of the Order, was rejected by the older friars, who condemnedthe Saint as a fugitive and an apostate and cast him into prison, from which he only escaped,after nine months’ suffering, with the help of Heaven and at the risk of his life. He tookrefuge with the Carmelite nuns for a time, saying his experience in prison had been anextraordinary grace for him. Twice again, before his death, he was shamefully persecuted byhis brethren, and publicly disgraced.

When he fell ill, he was given a choice of monasteries to which he might go; he chose the one governed by a religious whom he had once reprimanded and who could never pardon him for it. In effect, he was left untended most of the time, during his last illness. But at his death the room was filled with a marvelous light, and his unhappy Prior recognized his error, and that he had mistreated a Saint. After a first exhumation of his remains, they were found intact; many others followed, the last one in 1955. The body was at that time found to be entirely moistand flexible still.

Saint John wrote spiritual books of sublime elevation. A book printed in 1923 which has now become famous, authored by a Dominican theologian,* justly attributed to Saint John and to Saint Thomas Aquinas, whom the Carmelite Saint followed, the indisputable foundations for exact ascetic and mystical theology. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1926 by Pope Pius XI.

St. Catherine of Alexandria

Catherine was a noble virgin of Alexandria, born in the fourth century. Before her Baptism,she saw in a dream the Blessed Virgin asking Her Son to receive her among His servants, butthe Divine Infant turned away, saying she was not yet regenerated by the waters of Baptism. She made haste to receive that sacrament, and afterwards, when the dream was repeated,Catherine saw that the Saviour received her with great affection, and espoused her before thecourt of heaven, with a fine ring. She woke with it on her finger.

She had a very active intelligence, fit for all matters, and she undertook the study of philosophy and theology. At that time there were schools in Alexandria for the instruction of Christians, where excellent Christian scholars taught. She made great progress and became able to sustain the truths of our religion against even very subtle sophists. At that timeMaximinus II was sharing the empire with Constantine the Great and Licinius, and had as hisdistrict Egypt; and this cruel Christian-hater ordinarily resided in Alexandria, capital of theprovince. He announced a gigantic pagan sacrifice, such that the very air would be darkenedwith the smoke of the bulls and sheep immolated on the altars of the gods. Catherine beforethis event strove to strengthen the Christians against the fatal lures, repeating that the oraclesvaunted by the infidels were pure illusion, originating in the depths of the lower regions.

She foresaw that soon it would be the Christians’ turn to be immolated, when they refused toparticipate in the ceremonies. She therefore went to the emperor himself, asking to speak withhim, and her singular beauty and majestic air won an audience for her. She said to him that itwas a strange thing that he should by his example attract so many peoples to such anabominable cult. By his high office he was obliged to turn them away from it, since reasonitself shows us that there can be only one sovereign Being, the first principle of all else. Shebegged him to cease so great a disorder by giving the true God the honor due Him, lest hereap the wages of his indifference in this life already, as well as in the next. The consequencesof her hardy act extended over a certain time; he decided to call in fifty sophists of his suite, to bring back this virgin from her errors. A large audience assembled to hear the debate; theemperor sat on his throne with his entire court, dissimulating his rage.

Catherine began by saying she was surprised that he obliged her to face, alone, fifty individuals,but she asked the grace of him, that if the true God she adored rendered her victorious, hewould adopt her religion and renounce the cult of the demons. He was not pleased and repliedthat it was not for her to lay down conditions for the discussion. The head of the sophistsbegan the orations and reprimanded her for opposing the authority of poets, orators andphilosophers, who unanimously had revered Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Minerva and others. Hecited their writings, and said she should consider that these persons were far anterior to thisnew religion she was following. She listened carefully before answering, then spoke, showingthat the ridiculous fables which Homer, Orpheus and other poets had invented concerning theirdivinities, and the fact that many offered a cult to them, as well as the abominable crimesattributed to them, proved them to be gods only in the opinion of the untutored and credulous. And then she proved that the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures had clearly announced thetime and the circumstances of the life of the future Saviour, and that these were now fulfilled. Prodigy; the head of the sophists avowed that she was entirely correct and renounced hiserrors; the others said they could not oppose their chief. Maximinus had them put to death byfire, but the fire did not consume their remains. Thus they died as Christians, receiving theBaptism of blood.

The story of Saint Catherine continues during the time of the emperor’s efforts to persuade herto marry him; he put to death his converted wife and the captain of his guards who hadreceived Baptism with two hundred of his soldiers. He delivered Catherine up to prison andthen to tortures as a result of her firmness in refusing his overtures. The famous wheel ofSaint Catherine — in reality several interacting wheels — which he invented to torment her, was furnished with sharp razor blades and sharp points of iron; all who saw it trembled. Butas soon as it was set in movement it was miraculously disjointed and broken into pieces, andthese pieces flew in all directions and wounded the spectators. The barbaric emperor finallycommanded that she be decapitated; and she offered her neck to the executioner, after prayingthat her mortal remains would be respected.

The story of Saint Catherine continues with the discovery of the intact body of a young and beautiful girl on Mount Sinai in the ninth century, that is, four centuries later. The Church, in the Collect of her feast day, bears witness to the transport of her body. A number of proofs testified to the identity of her mortal remains found in the region of the famous monasteryexisting on that mountain since the fifth century. Her head is today conserved in Rome.

St. John Berchmans

Born in 1599 in Diest, a town of northern Belgium near Brussels and Louvain, this angelic young Saint was the oldest of five children. Two of his three brothers became priests, and his father, after the death of John’s mother when he was eleven years old, entered religion and became a Canon of Saint Sulpice.

John was a brilliant student from his most tender years, manifesting also a piety which farexceeded the ordinary. Beginning at the age of seven, he studied for three years at the localcommunal school with an excellent professor. And then his father, wanting to protect thesacerdotal vocation already evident in his son, confided him to a Canon of Diest who lodgedstudents aspiring to the ecclesiastical vocation. After three years in that residence, the family’sfinancial situation had declined owing to the long illness of the mother, and John was told hewould have to return and learn a trade. He pleaded to be allowed to continue his studies. And his aunts, who were nuns, found a solution through their chaplain; he proposed to takeJohn into his service and lodge him.

Saint John was ordinarily first in his classes at the “large school,” a sort of minor seminary,even when he had to double his efforts in order to rejoin his fellow students, all of excellenttalent, who sometimes had preceded him for a year or more in an assigned discipline. He oftenquestioned his Superiors as to what was the most perfect thing to say or do in the variouscircumstances in which he found himself. Such was the humility which caused the young toadvance without ceasing on the road to heaven. Later he continued his studies at Malines, alsonot distant from Diest, under the tutelage of another ecclesiastic, who assigned to him thesupervision of three young boys of a noble family. In all that John did he sought perfection,and he never encountered anything but the highest favor for his services, wherever he wasplaced.

He found his vocation through his acquaintance with the Jesuits of that city, and manifested hisdetermination to pursue his course, although his father and family opposed it for a time. It hadbeen decided that he would continue his studies at the Jesuit novitiate of Malines, with about70 other novices. With another young aspirant, he was waiting in the parlor to be introduced,when he saw in the garden a coadjutor Brother turning over the ground in the garden. Heproposed to his companion to go and help him, saying: “Could we begin our religious lifebetter than with an act of humility and charity?” And with no hesitation, both went to offer their assistance. How many young persons in that situation would have thought of such anoffer? This incident reveals the profound charity and interior peace which characterized thisyoung religious at all times.

As a novice he taught catechism to the children in the regions around Malines. He made his instructions so lively and interesting that the country folk preferred his lessons to the ordinary sermons. The children became attached to him, and in a troop would conduct him back to the novitiate, where he distributed holy pictures, medals and rosaries to them. At the end of his novitiate in 1619 he was destined to go to Rome to begin serious application to philosophy,but his superiors decided to send him home for a few days first. A shock awaited him at thetrain station of Malines, where he was expecting to meet his father; he had died a week earlier. John was given time to take the dispositions necessary to provide for the younger brothers andsister. When he departed, it was apparently with a premonition that he would perhaps neversee them again, for he said in a letter to the Canon of Diest with whom he had dwelt, to tellthe younger ones for him: “Increase in piety, in fear of God and in knowledge. Adieu.”

With a fellow novice he began the two months’ journey on foot to Rome, by way of Paris, Lyons and Loreto, where the two assisted at the Christmas Midnight Mass. Both of these two young Jesuits would die within three years’ time, his companion in a matter of several months. John had time during these three years to give unceasing proofs of his already perfected sanctity; nothing that he did was left to chance, but entrusted to the intercession of his Heavenly Mother, to whom his devotion continued to increase day by day. He made anextraordinary effort during an intense heat wave in the summer of 1621, participating splendidly in a debate, which took place at a certain distance from the Jesuit residence, despite thefact he did not feel well. Two days later he was felled by a fever, which continued implacablyto mine his already slight resistance, and he died in August of that year, after one week ofillness. The story of his last days is touching indeed; in a residence of several hundred priestsand students, there was none who did not follow with anxiety and compassion the progress ofhis illness. When the infirmarian told his patient that he should probably receive Communionthe next morning — an exception to the rule prescribing it for Sundays only, in those times — John said, “In Viaticum?” and received a sad affirmative answer. He himself was transported with joy and embraced the Brother; the latter broke into tears. A priest who knew John well went to him the next morning and asked him if there was anything troubling or saddening him, and John replied, “Absolutely nothing.”

He asked that his mattress be placed on the floor, and knelt to receive his Lord; when the Father Rector pronounced the words of the Ritual: “Receive, Brother, in viaticum, the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” all in attendance wept. Their angelic, ever joyous and affectionate young novice was called to leave them; no clearer tribute than their tears could have been offered to the reality of his sanctity, his participation in the effusive goodness of the divine nature. Devotion to his memory spread rapidly in Belgium; already in 1624 twelve engraving establishments of Anvers had published his portrait. He was canonized in 1888 by Pope Leo XIII, at the same time as two other Jesuits who lived during the first century of that Society’s existence, so fruitful in sanctity — Peter Claver and Alphonsus Rodriguez.

St. Peter of Alexandria

The Church of Alexandria, founded by the Evangelist Saint Mark in the name of the Apostle Saint Peter, was the head of the churches of Egypt and of several other provinces; it had lost its Metropolitan when Saint Thomas of Alexandria died at the end of the third century. SaintPeter, a priest of that city, replaced him, and soon was governing the church amid the terrorsof the persecution by Diocletian and Maximian. Two bishops and more than six hundredChristians were in irons and on the verge of torture; he sent to them pastoral letters to animatethem to fervor and perseverance, and rejoiced to learn that a number of them had won thegrace of martyrdom.

Many, however, had preferred apostasy to a cruel death. Saint Peter was obliged to instigate penances in order for them to return to the communion of the faithful. When he deposed a bishop who had incensed an idol during the persecution, his act of justice acquired for him the hostility of a certain Arius, the bishop’s favorite, who became thereafter the author of a schism and an instrument of the cruel emperor Maximian who persecuted the Christians. He in fact animated this tyrant against Saint Peter. The sentence of excommunication which Saint Peter was the first to pronounce against the two schismatics, Arius and Melitius, and which hestrenuously upheld despite the united efforts of powerful members of their parties, is proof thathe possessed firmness as well as sagacity and zeal.

The Patriarch was soon seized and thrown into prison. There he encouraged the confessors imprisoned with him to sing the praises of God and pray to their Saviour in their hearts, without ceasing. Saint Peter never ceased repeating to the faithful that, in order not to fear death, it is necessary to begin by dying to oneself, renouncing our self-will and detachingourselves from all things. He was soon to give proof of his own perfect detachment in hisglorious martyrdom.

While in prison he was advised in an apparition as to his successors in the Alexandrian church,and he recognized that the day of his eternal liberation was at hand. He informed these twofaithful sons that his martyrdom was imminent. In effect, the emperor passed sentence of deathon him, despite the fact that a crowd of persons had come to the prison with the intention ofpreventing by force the martyrdom of their patriarch; they remained all night for fear he mightbe executed in secret. But Saint Peter delivered himself up to his executioners, and died by thesword on November 26, 310. His appearance on the scaffold was so majestic that none ofthem dared to touch him; it was necessary to pay one of them in gold to strike the fatal blow.

St. Maximus

Saint Maximus, from his youth as the son of a noble Christian family, manifested a firm predilection for virtue. His austerities, undertaken to conserve his virtue at all costs, were so constant and determined that it seemed he merited the crown of martyrdom even without atyrant to persecute him. For seven years, after he made a private vow of virginity at the ageof eighteen and then entered into religion, he was a disciple of Saint Honoratus, Abbot of thefamous monastery on the island of Lerins; and in the year 426 he succeeded in that office hismaster, who had been chosen bishop of Arles.

For seven years, he governed this monastery, and under his guidance, solid piety and penanceflourished as well as excellent studies, which he established and directed himself. The demon,irritated, under various disguises persecuted him without respite, but the holy Abbot put him toflight by the sign of the Cross, our salvation. Saint Maximus was remarkable not only for thespirit of recollection, fervor, and piety familiar to him from childhood, but still more for thegentleness and kindliness with which he governed the fervent monks of this monastery. At thattime it contained a very large number of them. Exhibiting in his own person an example of themost sterling virtues, his exhortations could not fail to prove all-persuasive; loving all hisreligious, whom it was his delight to consider as composing one single family, he establishedamong them the sweet concord, union, and holy emulation in virtue which render the exerciseof authority virtually unnecessary, and make holy submission a pleasure.

The clergy and people of Antibes near Lerins, then those of Frejus, moved by such a shining example, elected Maximus for their bishop, but he refused this dignity verbally on the first occasion, and on the second took flight in a boat and then into a forest, where he prayed for three days and nights that the Lord would change the dispositions of the people of Frejus. Their emissaries did not succeed in finding him, and proceeded to another election. He fledagain after Saint Hilary joined his approbation to the election of the clergy and people of thecity of Riez in the French Alps, then large and heavily populated. This time he was found, andwas compelled to accept the see of Riez, his native diocese.

When one day a church was to be built on a hilltop and it was necessary to transport heavy columns to the elevated site, the oxen refused to move. The bishop was absent that day, although he had often come to encourage all concerned. The people attached two more animals to the yoke, but still none of them moved. The bishop was advised, and when he arrivedtold them he saw a demon standing before the oxen to prevent their advance. He put theenemy to flight once more with the sign of the Cross, and himself detached the two animalswho had been requisitioned; and the first two, with his blessing, had no difficulty in arriving atthe hilltop.

In the see of Riez Saint Maximus practiced virtue in all gentleness until he died in 460, regretted as the best of fathers.

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