A Community of Love, Unity and Service

St. Avitus

Saint Avitus was the child of a poor family of Orleans, France. From his youth he desired toconsecrate himself to God, and he received the monastic habit at the abbey of Micy or Saint-Maximin in the diocese of Orleans, at that time still very small. Its first Superior, Saint Maximin,remarked the young monk’s virtue when he observed that he deprived himself of a great portionof his food each day in order to nourish the poor.

After serving as steward for the monastery, Saint Avitus decided to leave in secret to go and live in solitude in a deserted place. Saint Maximin recognized in this flight a secret design of God andmade no attempt to have him return. But when the holy Abbot died, Saint Avitus was chosen tosucceed him by the unanimous consent of the religious. He was brought back despite hisprotestations of unworthiness, and was obliged to receive the episcopal consecration and hisinvestiture from the bishop of Orleans.

He labored at his new duties with great assiduity, but saw with sorrow that the religious were becoming lax. He again thought of flight, considering himself the cause of the difficulties, and didindeed find a solitude in the diocese of Chartres, far from all village life, where he lived severalyears on fruits growing wild in the forest.

One day a poor mute herdsman lost a pig in the forest, and when a severe storm broke out, lost his way until he saw a light in the distance. When he approached, he found himself facing theSaint. The latter not only lit his torch again for him and showed him the way to go, but made thesign of the cross on his mouth and restored to him the use of speech, which he had not had forlong years. When this miracle was divulged, the hermit became known everywhere in the region,and the desert was soon transformed, as it were, into a city. The monastery which Saint Avitusbuilt there and governed later bore his name.

He left it from time to time to go to the city of Orleans for his works of mercy; his prayers cured many sick and handicapped persons. When he failed to persuade the cruel king Clodomir toliberate Saint Sigismond, king of Burgundy, with his wife and children whom he had captured andheld prisoner and was intending to put to death, Saint Avitus told him that if he committed thatcrime, he himself would perish miserably in the first battle he would undertake. This indeed iswhat occurred.

Saint Avitus one day resurrected one of his brethren who had died during his absence; all themonks saw the dead religious rise from his coffin and begin to sing with the others the infinitemercies of Our Lord. Saint Lubin or Leobin, bishop of Chartres, assured his people in a sermonthat he had learned of this fact from the very monk who had been resurrected.

Three famous religious, one of them the same Saint Leobin, who at that time was a simple monk, attended our Saint at his blessed death, which happened about the year 530. His body was carriedto the church of Saint George in Orleans and interred there with great pomp. Afterwards kingChildebert built a magnificent temple over this tomb, out of gratitude for the prayers of SaintAvitus.

St. Ephrem

Many wonderful lessons can be derived from the life of this Saint, known in particular for his unfailing and remarkable humility. Born at Nisibe in Syria, his forebears were poor folk, and he asa child tended the herds in the fields. Saint Ephrem would be baptized only as a young adult.

One day, while still an adolescent, he pursued the only cow of a neighbor, throwing stones at the poor beast to see it run, until it fell exhausted and died. To add to his fault, he denied having seenthe animal when its owner came to look for it. All his life he wept over this double prevarication,and later he related to the religious who were his followers how he was punished for it: About amonth later, he was with a shepherd who drank too much one evening, and through neglect lostthe sheep of the owner’s flock when wolves entered into the fold. Ephrem was taken to prisonwith the shepherd and confined there. From the stories his companions there narrated, he realizedthat they too were detained for crimes not committed, but that they had committed others whichhad remained unpunished. Recognizing in these facts the effects of Divine Justice, he was warnedto do penance by a severe Angel who appeared to him several times, helping him also to accepthis chastisement. He was released after two months, but never forgot the lessons in humility hehad received.

Never did Saint Ephrem think himself anything other than a great sinner; we can read in hisvarious writings his self-accusations and his confessions. He had the gift of tears and for years hewept, literally without ceasing, according to the testimony of Saint Gregory of Nyssa, who wrote: “At times he was weeping over the sins of men, and again over his own. His sighs succeeded histears, and then brought them forth again.” It was also said that the tears he shed so profusely,instead of disfiguring his face, seemed to augment its serenity and grace; all who had seen orheard Saint Ephrem were inspired to venerate his holiness.

The death of Saint James of Nisibe and of another Saint who had lived in a cell near his ownsolitary dwelling, decided him to make a pilgrimage to Edessa, a very Christian city, to honor therelics of the Apostle Saint Thomas, venerated there. While in Edessa he was ordained a deaconand attached permanently to the church of Edessa, then obliged under obedience to preach. Theministry of preaching is not usually that of deacons, but his virtue and capacities were recognizedat once. He had not studied and knew only his own language, but he had absorbed Holy Scriptureand profited from his intelligence of it. It is he who wrote: “You do not understand all that youread there? If you were traveling and, being thirsty, came upon a spring of fresh water, wouldyou be incensed because you could not drink all of it? No, you would be happy that, on anotherjourney, the spring would still be there to quench your thirst.”

Saint Gregory of Nyssa remarked of the preaching of Saint Ephrem: “Although his tongue was prompt and the words flowed from his mouth like a torrent, these were too slow to express histhoughts. For this reason he prayed God: ‘Hold back, Lord, the waves of Your grace!’ The sea of understanding which was seeking an outlet through his tongue bore heavily upon him, because the organs of speech did not suffice for what his mind presented to him, for the benefit of others.” In the Syrian Liturgy, Saint Ephrem still is called the Harp of the Holy Spirit.

After many years of good works, preaching and writing, for he also had great gifts of poetry and written discourse, he died a holy death in the year 378. This occurred one month after the deathof Saint Basil, whom he had visited in Caesarea, wanting to profit from the renowned bishop’sconversation and sermons. They had found great consolation in one another’s company. SaintEphrem was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XV in October of 1920.

St. Marcus and St. Marcellianus

Saint Marcus and Saint Marcellianus were twin brothers of an illustrious family in Rome, who had been converted to the Faith in their youth and were honorably married.

When Diocletian ascended the imperial throne in 284, the pagans raised persecutions; the brothers were then thrown into prison and condemned to be beheaded. Their friends obtained a delay ofthe execution for thirty days, that they might prevail on them to worship the false gods. Tranquillinus and Martia, their afflicted pagan parents, accompanied by their sons’ wives and theirlittle babes, endeavored to move them by the most tender entreaties and tears. But SaintSebastian, an officer of the emperor’s household, arriving in Rome soon after their confinement,daily visited and encouraged them.

The issue of the conferences was the happy conversion of the father, mother, and wives, also of Nicostratus, the public stenographer, and soon afterwards of Chromatius, the judge, who set theSaints at liberty and abdicating the magistracy, retired into the country. Marcus and Marcellianuswere concealed by a Christian officer of the imperial household, in his apartments in the palace,but they were betrayed by an apostate and reimprisoned. Fabian, a judge who had succeededChromatius, condemned them to be bound to two pillars, their feet nailed to them. In this posturethey remained a day and a night, and on the following day were stabbed with lances. Theirmartyrdom occurred in the year 286. Their tomb and that of their father, Saint Tranquillinus, wasfound in Rome, in 1782, in the church of Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian, adjoining that of themartyred pope, Saint Felix II. They are honored particularly in Spain, where the city of Badajozescaped destruction by their intercession.

St. Juliana Falconieri

Saint Juliana Falconieri was born in 1270, in answer to prayer. Her father was the builder of the splendid church of the Annunziata in Florence, while her uncle, Saint Alexis Falconieri, becameone of the seven Founders of the Servite Order. Under his surveillance Juliana grew up “morelike an angel than a human being,” as he said. Her great modesty was remarkable; never duringher entire lifetime did she look at her reflection in a mirror. The mere mention of sin made hershudder and tremble, and once, on hearing of a scandal, she fainted.

Her devotion to the sorrows of Our Lady drew her to the Servants of Mary or Servite Order, and at the age of fourteen, after refusing an offer of marriage, she received the habit from Saint PhilipBenizi, General of the Order. Her sanctity attracted many novices, for whose direction she wasbidden to draw up a rule, and thus she became foundress of the Mantellate.

She was the servant of her Sisters rather than their mistress, while outside her convent she led a life of apostolic charity, converting sinners, reconciling enemies, and healing the sick. She wassometimes rapt for whole days in ecstasy, and her prayers saved the Servite Order when it was indanger of being suppressed.

Saint Juliana in her old age suffered various painful illnesses. She was wasting away through a disease of the stomach which prevented her taking food, and bore her silent agony with constantcheerfulness, grieving only for the privation of Holy Communion. At last, when in her seventiethyear she was at the point of death, she begged to be allowed once more to see and adore theBlessed Sacrament. It was brought to her cell and reverently laid on a corporal, which was placedover her heart. At this moment she expired, and the Sacred Host disappeared. After her deaththe form of the Host was found stamped upon her heart, at the exact spot over which the BlessedSacrament had been placed. Saint Juliana died in her convent in Florence in 1340. Miracles havebeen frequently effected through her intercession.

St. Silverius

Silverius was son of Pope Hormisdas, who had been married before he entered the ministry. Upon the death of Saint Agapetas, and after a vacancy of forty-seven days, Silverius, thensubdeacon, was elected Pope and consecrated on the 8^th of June, 536, despite maneuvers on thepart of heretics opposed to the Council of Chalcedon.

The heretical empress Theodora, resolved to win Silverius over to her interests, wrote to him, ordering that he should either acknowledge as lawful bishop the Eutychian heretic Anthimus, whohad been deposed as patriarch of Constantinople, or come in person to Constantinople andreexamine his cause. Without the least hesitation or delay, Silverius returned her a short answer,by which he gave her to understand that he neither could nor would obey her unjust demands,which would be to countermand his predecessor’s decision and betray the cause of the Catholicfaith.

The empress, finding that she could expect nothing from him, resolved to have him deposed. Vigilius, archdeacon of the Roman Church, a man of diplomacy, was then at Constantinople. Tothis ambitious ecclesiastic the empress exposed her wishes, and promised to make him pope andto bestow on him seven hundred pieces of gold, if he would engage himself to condemn theCouncil of Chalcedon and receive into Communion the three deposed Eutychian patriarchs. Vigilius assented to these conditions, and the empress sent him to Rome, charged with a letter tothe Roman general Belisarius, commanding him to drive out Silverius and contrive the election ofVigilius to the pontificate.

Vigilius urged the general to execute this project. In order to implement it, the Pope was accused of corresponding with the enemy, and a forged letter was produced, supposedly written by him tothe king of the Goths, inviting him to the city and promising to open the gates to him. Thesedealings succeeded; Vigilius was made Pope, and Silverius was banished to Patara in Lycia.

The bishop of Patara received the illustrious exile with all possible marks of honor and respect, and thinking himself bound to undertake his defense, journeyed to Constantinople and spokeboldly to the emperor Justinian. He terrified him with threats of divine judgments for theexpulsion of a bishop of so great a see, telling him, “There are many kings in the world, but thereis only one Pope over the Church of the whole world.” Justinian appeared startled at the atrocityof the proceedings and gave orders that Silverius be sent back to Rome. The enemies of the Popecontrived to prevent this, however, and he was intercepted on his road toward Rome and transported to the deserted island of Palmeria, where he died of hunger a year later, on the 20^th of June,538 and was buried.

It was perhaps in response to the martyred pope’s prayers that after his death the usurper of the pontifical throne, Vigilius, though he had wished to step down, was forced to remain in function and then transformed, like Saul of Tarsus, into another man. He exercised the pastoral dutieswith as much courage, piety, zeal and faith, as he formerly had used violence, avarice and crueltyduring his predecessor’s lifetime. The traitor Belisarius was accused of conspiracy against theemperor, stripped of all he had, and his eyes put out; he was obliged to beg for alms inConstantinople. But he too repented and built a church with an inscription over the door whichwas a public reparation for his fault.

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