A Community of Love, Unity and Service

St. Clement Mary Hofbauer

Born in 1751, the youngest of twelve children, Clement was six years old when his father died. Hisgreat desire was to become a priest, but since his family was unable to give him the necessaryeducation, he became a baker’s assistant, devoting all his spare time to study. He was a servant inthe Premonstratensian monastery of Bruck from 1771 to 1775, then lived for some time as a hermit. He made three pilgrimages to Rome, and during the third, accompanied by a good friend, he enteredwith the same friend the Redemptorist novitiate at San Giuliano. The two were professed in 1785and ordained a few days later.

The two priests were sent in the same year to found a house north of the Alps, and Saint Alphonsus,Founder of the Redemptorist Order, prophesied their success. They were granted a church inWarsaw by King Stanislaus Poniatowski, and labored under incredible difficulties from 1786 to 1808. A larger church was also reserved for them, where daily instructions were given for non-Catholics. Saint Clement also founded in Warsaw an orphanage and a school for boys. His great friend,Thaddeus Habul, died in 1807; the following year four houses founded by Saint Clement weresuppressed and the Redemptorists expelled from the Grand Duchy.

Saint Clement went with one companion to Vienna, where for the last twelve years of his life heacted as chaplain and director at an Ursuline convent. There he exercised a veritable apostolateamong all classes in the capital. He devoted himself in a special way to the conversion andformation of young men. When he died in 1821, Pius VII said, “Religion in Austria has lost its chiefsupport.”

St. Zachary

Saint Zachary, a native of Syria, was a Benedictine monk before being created a Cardinal-priest bySaint Gregory II. He succeeded to Pope Gregory III in 741, and was a man of singular meeknessand goodness. He was elected at a time of troubles besetting all of Italy, during an invasion ofRome under the military conduct of the Lombardian king Luitprand. That king, dissatisfied withRome’s favor for certain sovereigns who were his own enemies, pillaged the Church of Saint Peter,and his warriors were pursuing their depredations in the Church’s domains. The Pope had appealedfor aid to Charles Martel in France against the invaders, but died before any assistance could reachthe mother Church.

Saint Zachary, when chosen to replace the deceased Pontiff, at once sent a letter of conciliation tothe Lombard king, who was touched and conceived much respect for the new Vicar of Christ, andapparently was ready to accede to all he proposed. The new Pontiff went in person to the king, whowas troubling other regions, and a treaty of peace was concluded. The Pope invited the king to adinner which greatly pleased him, and Luitprand restored to the Church of Rome all the domainswhich belonged to it, and sent back the captives without ransom. He nonetheless began invadingagain in the north, but again Saint Zachary left Rome to go to Ravenna and meet with him. Heappeased the king’s resentments and settled the problems temporarily. When Luitprand died not longafterwards, the Lombards, who wanted peace, for twenty years ceased their wars.

The zeal and prudence of this holy Pope appeared in many wholesome regulations which heinstituted to reform or settle the discipline and peace of several churches. It was Saint Zachary whosent Saint Boniface as papal legate to the Franks of Gaul and Germany, and through him theyrecognized the high moral power of the papacy. Certain Venetian merchants having bought at Romemany slaves to sell to the Moors in Africa, Saint Zachary forbade such iniquitous traffic, and, payingthe merchants their price, gave the slaves their liberty. He arrested three new heresies in northernregions, and found time to translate the Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great. Two princes of highrank were converted, one the son of Charles Martel, who became a monk and built a monastery inhonor of Saint Sylvester. The other was the successor to Luitprand as king of the Lombards; tobetter serve God, he descended from the throne and with his wife and daughter entered religious lifeat the monastery of Monte Cassino.

Saint Zachary was very zealous in the restoration of the churches of Rome, to which he made costlygifts. He also restored the Lateran palace and established several large domains as settled landedpossessions of the Church of Rome. He adorned Rome with sacred buildings and with greatfoundations on behalf of pilgrims and the poor. He died on March 3, 752, and was interred in theChurch of Saint Peter on March 15^th of that year.

St. Louise de Marillac

St. Abraham

Abraham was a rich nobleman of Edessa, born in the year 300. Ceding to his parents’ desire, whilestill very young he married, but escaped to a cell near the city as soon as the feast was over. Hisfamily searched for him for seventeen days, and were still more astonished when they found him.“Why are you surprised?” he asked them. “Admire instead the favor God has granted me, the graceto bear the yoke of His service, which He has wanted to impose on me without regard to myunworthiness.” He walled up his cell door, leaving only a small window open for the food whichwould be brought to him from that time on.

The wealth which fell to Saint Abraham by the death of his parents ten years after his retirement,he gave to the poor by the good offices of a friend, to whose probity he entrusted the commission. Since many were seeking him out for advice and consolation, the Bishop of Edessa ordained himpriest, overruling his humility. Soon after his ordination, he was sent to an idolatrous city which hadhitherto been deaf to every messenger. He was insulted, beaten, and three times banished, but hereturned each time with fresh zeal. For three years he pleaded with God for those souls, and in theend prevailed. Every citizen came to him for Baptism. After providing for their spiritual needs hewent back to his cell, more than ever convinced of the power of prayer.

In that cell, then, for fifty years, he would continue to sing God’s praises and implore mercy forhimself and for all men. Saint Ephrem wrote of him that a day did not pass without his sheddingtears; but that despite his constant and severe penance, he always maintained an agreeable dispositionand a healthy and vigorous body. He never reproved anyone with sharpness, but all he said wasseasoned with the salt of charity and gentleness.

His brother on dying left an only daughter, Mary, to the Saint’s care. He placed her in a cell nearhis own, and devoted himself to training her in perfection. After twenty years of innocence she grewlax and fled to a distant city, where she drowned the voice of her conscience in sin. For two yearsthe Saint and his friend Saint Ephrem prayed earnestly for her. Then Abraham went in disguise toseek the lost sheep, and had the joy of bringing her back to the desert a true penitent. She receivedthe gift of miracles, and her countenance after death shone as the sun. Saint Abraham died five yearsbefore her, in about 360. All of Edessa came for his last blessing and to secure his relics.

St. Patrick

If the virtue of children reflects honor on their parents, much more justly is the name of Saint Patrickrendered illustrious by the innumerable lights of sanctity which shone in the Church of Ireland duringmany ages, and by the colonies of Saints with which it peopled many foreign countries. The Apostleof Ireland was born in Scotland towards the close of the fourth century, in a village which seems tobe the present-day Scotch town of Kilpatrick, between Dumbarton and Glasgow. He calls himselfboth a Briton and a Roman, that is, of mixed extraction, and says his father was of a good familynamed Calphurnius. Some writers call his mother Conchessa, and say she was the niece of SaintMartin of Tours.

In his sixteenth year he was carried into captivity in Ireland by barbarians. There he was obliged toshepherd cattle on the mountains and in the forests, in hunger and nakedness, amid snow, rain, andice. The young man had recourse to God with his whole heart, in fervent prayer and fasting, andfrom that time faith and the love of God acquired a constantly renewed strength in his tender soul. After six months spent in slavery, Saint Patrick was admonished by God in a dream to return to hisown country, and was informed that a ship was then ready to sail there. He went at once to theseacoast, though at a great distance, and found the vessel, but he could not obtain his passage —probably for want of money. Patrick was returning to his hut, praying as he went, when the sailors,though pagans, called him back and took him on board.

Some years afterwards he was again taken captive, but recovered his liberty after two months. Whilehe was at home with his parents, God manifested to him, by divers visions, that He destined him forthe great work of the conversion of Ireland. His biographers say that after his second captivity hetraveled into Gaul and Italy, and saw Saint Martin, Saint Germanus of Auxerre, and Pope SaintCelestine, and that he received his mission and the apostolical benediction from this Pope, who diedin 432. It is certain that he spent many years in preparing himself for his sacred calling. Greatopposition was raised to his episcopal consecration and mission, both by his own relatives and by theclergy. They made him great offers in order to detain him among them, and endeavored to affrighthim by exaggerating the dangers to which he exposed himself amid the enemies of the Romans andBritons, who did not know God. All these temptations cast the Saint into great perplexity; but theLord, whose Will he consulted by earnest prayer, supported him and he persevered in his resolution.

He therefore left his family, sold his birthright and dignity, and consecrated his soul to God, to servestrangers and carry His name to the ends of the earth. In this disposition he passed into Ireland, topreach the Gospel where the worship of idols still generally reigned. He traveled over the island,penetrating into the remotest corners, and such was the fruit of his preaching and sufferings that hebaptized an infinite number of persons. Everywhere he ordained clergymen, induced women to live inholy widowhood and continence, consecrated virgins to Christ, and founded monasteries, not withoutmany persecutions.

Saint Patrick held several councils to regulate the discipline of the Church he had planted. SaintBernard and the tradition of the country testify that he fixed his metropolitan see at Armagh. Heestablished other bishops, as appears by the acts of a council and various other documents. He notonly converted the whole country by his preaching and wonderful miracles, but also cultivated thisvineyard with so fruitful a benediction from heaven as to render Ireland a flourishing garden in theChurch of God, and a land of Saints. He converted and baptized the kings of Dublin and Munsterand the seven sons of the king of Connaught, with the majority of their subjects, and before his deathalmost the whole island. He founded three monasteries and filled the countryside with churches andschools of piety and learning. He died and was buried at Down in Ulster. His body was found therein a church of his name in 1185, and moved to another part of the same church.

Daily Mass