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St. Ambrose

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To avoid dissensions we should be ever on our guard, more especially with those who drive us to argue with them, with those who vex and irritate us, and who say things likely to excite us to anger. When we find ourselves in company with quarrelsome, eccentric individuals, people who openly and unblushingly say the most shocking things, difficult to put up with, we should take refuge in silence, and the wisest plan is not to reply to people whose behavior is so preposterous. Those who insult us and treat us contumeliously are anxious for a spiteful and sarcastic reply: the silence we then affect disheartens them, and they cannot avoid showing their vexation; they do all they can to provoke us and to elicit a reply, but the best way to baffle them is to say nothing, refuse to argue with them, and to leave them to chew the cud of their hasty anger. This method of bringing down their pride disarms them, and shows them plainly that we slight and despise them. – Saint Ambrose, Offices

December 7 – Commemoration of SAINT AMBROSE
Ambrose was Roman governor of northern Italy and still a catechumen when a popular assembly chose him to be bishop of Milan in 374. After his baptism and episcopal consecration he fearlessly resisted the encroachment of civil authorities and defended the Faith against contemporary heretics backed by successive Emperors. Ambrose was a great preacher; many of his sermons and hymns have enriched our Liturgy. He is also responsible for the “Ambrosian Rite,” still used in Milan. The most illustrious of his converts was St. Augustine. According to an ancient tradition, when St. Augustine was baptized, he and St. Ambrose composed together the Te Deum, now the solemn hymn of thanksgiving of the Universal Church.

O God, may blessed Ambrose intercede for us in heaven as he once instructed Your faithful on earth and directed them in the way of eternal salvation. Through Our Lord . . . 

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Pictorial Lives of the Saints – Saint Ambrose, Bishop

Ambrose was of a noble family, and was governor of Milan A.D. 374, when a bishop was to be chosen for that great see. As the Arian heretics were many and fierce, he was present to preserve order during the election. Though only a catechumen, it was the will of God that he should himself be chosen by acclamation; and, in spite of his utmost resistance, he was baptized and consecrated. He was unwearied in every duty of a pastor, full of sympathy and charity, gentle and condescending in things indifferent, but inflexible in matters of principle. He showed his fearless zeal in braving the anger of the Empress Justina, by resisting and foiling her impious attempt to give one of the churches of Milan to the Arians, and by rebuking and leading to penance the really great Emperor Theodosius, who in a moment of irritation had punished most cruelly a sedition of the inhabitants of Thessalonica. He was the friend and consoler of Saint Monica in all her sorrows, and in 387 he had the joy of admitting to the Church her son, Saint Augustine. Saint Ambrose died A.D. 397, full of years and of honors, and is revered by the Church of God as one of her greatest doctors.

Reflection – Whence came to Saint Ambrose his grandeur of mind, his clearness of insight, his intrepidity in maintaining the faith and discipline of the Church? Whence but from his contempt of the world, from his fearing God alone?

Pictorial Lives of the Saints, 1922. 

Fr. Weninger’s Lives of the Saints – Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan

Saint Ambrose, one of the greatest doctors of the Church, a fearless defender of her rights, a terrible scourge to heresy, a most perfect example for all prelates, a miracle of Christian wisdom and eloquence, was the son of a Roman nobleman, who presided in Gaul as imperial governor. One day, while Ambrose was yet in his cradle, a swarm of bees alighted on his mouth without in the least harming the sleeping infant. It is believed that God by this announced the future sweet and yet powerful eloquence of Saint Ambrose. After his father’s death, the Saint went to Rome with his mother, brother and sister. There he, one day, saw the people kiss the hand of a bishop, and, on his return home, he offered his hands to some children to kiss, saying: “Kiss my hands; for, when I grow up I shall be a bishop.” These words, spoken in childish jest, were prophetic. Ambrose was endowed by the Almighty with unusual facility for acquiring knowledge. Untiring in his studies, he became so excellent an orator, and so celebrated a jurist, that he was made governor of Aemilia and Liguria when he was hardly thirty-two years old. Probus, the imperial chancellor, said to him, before his departure: “Go, and administer your functions, not as a judge, but as a bishop.” He meant by this that Ambrose should not govern by severity but with love and mildness; heaven’s signification of these words, however, was different. When Ambrose, invested with this high dignity, arrived at Milan, he so completely gained all hearts by his wise and mild government, that the people obeyed him implicitly, and loved him most devotedly. Hardly had he been two years at Milan when Auxentius, the Arian bishop, whom the Emperor Constantius had placed in the episcopal chair, died. The Catholics desired a Catholic, the Arians, an Arian bishop, and the conflict of contending parties produced a dangerous excitement. Ambrose, as imperial officer, thought it his duty to prevent greater mischief, and hence, going into the church, he endeavored by his eloquence to calm the people. Hardly had he ended his speech, when a child cried aloud: “Ambrose, bishop I” This came like a call from heaven, and all the people, together with the clergy, rejoiced and repeated three times: “Ambrose, our bishop!” This sudden accordance of so many different minds could only be regarded as providential, the more so, as Ambrose was still a layman, and not even baptized; as, at that period, some delayed their baptism until they had become quite old. Ambrose, inexpressibly amazed at this unexpected turn of affairs, employed all his eloquence to change the thoughts of the people; he mingled his tears with his words, and when he found that all was of no avail, he secretly fled. Being soon found and brought back, he twice attempted to escape again, but was each time found. Valentinian, the emperor, was greatly pleased with the choice, and when Ambrose recognized that it was the will of the Almighty that he should fill the vacant See, he made no further resistance. After having prepared himself, he was baptized, ordained priest, and consecrated bishop; and then entered upon his high ecclesiastical functions with the most holy intentions.

He who would endeavor to relate all that the bishop, so miraculously elected, performed for the welfare of the Church, and the holy life he led, would have to write many volumes. Let it suffice to say, that he exercised himself in all kinds of good works. Early in the morning he passed a long time in prayer. He often exhorted others to do the same, saying: “Do you not know, O man, that you owe your first thoughts, the first words of your mouth to the Lord your God? Daily must you make Him this offering.” His severity in fasting was extremely great, and when advised to moderate it, for the reason that it would occasion his early death, he said: “Many have found death from too much eating, no one from fasting.” Unbounded was his charity to the poor, and his episcopal revenues were almost all employed to assist the needy. Three points he had determined to observe most strictly: to say Mass every day; to preach to the people every Sunday, and to leave nothing undone to spread the true faith, abolish heresy, and correct the morals of the people. In his sermons, he spoke so frequently of the merit and worth of virginal purity, that the number of those can scarcely be counted who made the vow of chastity, and received from his hands the consecrated veil. Still greater was the number of hardened sinners and heretics whom he converted by his sermons. Among the latter was Augustine, who afterwards became so shining a light in the Church. Saint Ambrose baptized him with his own hand, to his great consolation. The knowledge of the divine mysteries which Ambrose manifested in his preaching and writings, was imparted to him by heaven; hence he is represented with a dove at his ear, as a symbol of the Holy Ghost, who inspired him when he spoke or wrote. An Arian heretic testified that he had seen an angel speaking to Saint Ambrose in the pulpit; and this miracle converted the heretic. The fortitude with which he protected the rights and privileges of the Church against the heretics and against crowned heads, was almost more than human. The Arians persecuted him in every possible manner, especially after the death of the pious emperor Gratian, when the wicked empress Justina, wife of Valentinian the younger, ruled the land. The holy man, however, always resisted bravely. One day, the emperor Valentinian, counselled by the empress Justina, sent an order to him to give up a church to the Arians at Milan. The bearer of this order menaced the bishop with death in case he refused; but Ambrose paid no attention to the menace, refused to obey the order, and reprimanded the emperor. Among other things he said to him: “Do not imagine that you possess an imperial right over that which belongs to God. To the emperor belong the palaces, but the churches to the priests. You have power over the walls of the churches, but not over the sanctuary.” To this subject belongs, also, what he wrote at another time to the emperor Theodosius: “The purple makes one a king or an emperor, but not a priest.” Justina raged with anger, and hired a man to carry the bishop off secretly out of the city, that she might deal with the Catholics according to her own pleasure. The hired ruffian waited in the neighborhood of the church with a carriage, into which he was forcibly to place the bishop; but the Saint was accompanied by so many people, that the plan of the empress could not be executed. God even so ruled it that, a year later, this godless man was taken out of the city in the same vehicle, on account of his crimes. At another time, the Arians sent an assassin into the episcopal palace to murder the Saint; but when the wretch raised the sword for the deadly stroke, his arm suddenly stiffened in such a manner that he was unable to move it. He then repented of his evil design, knelt at the feet of the bishop, and begged pardon. Ambrose not only forgave him, but also restored the use of his arm, and admonished him to reform his life. At another time, they bribed a magician to strangle the Saint in his own room by his witchcraft. Although this magician conjured several demons of hell, and commanded them to strangle the Saint, they could not harm him, nor even go near his dwelling, as it was surrounded by angelic hosts. The bishop, thus miraculously protected, was not to be frightened by the persecutions of the Arians, but continued in his zeal to work against them, so that many of them became converted. He strove with equal fortitude against the heresiarch Jovinian and his followers, whom he banished entirely out of his diocese.

The Saint never manifested greater strength of mind than at the time when the pious emperor, Theodosius, at the instigation of some wicked courtiers, had cruelly slaughtered several thousand inhabitants of Thessalonica, in reprisal for the assassination of one of his generals. When, some time afterwards, the emperor wished to enter the Church, the bishop, clad in his episcopal robes, went to meet him, and commanded him to stop and not enter the sacred building until he had done penance. The emperor, awestruck at this proceeding, said: “Did not King David sin?” The holy bishop replied: “You have followed King David in his sin; follow him also in doing penance;” – and permitted him not to enter the church until he had done penance during eight months. Much that the holy man did for the honor of God and the welfare of the true Church and of his flock, we must omit, and say a few words of his happy departure from this life. Saint Ambrose became enfeebled by the unceasing labor imposed upon him, and also by his rigorous fasting and other penances, and his soul longed to see God, the end and aim of his being. The day of his death was revealed to him, and when he was seized by his last illness, he was begged to pray that his life might be prolonged for the benefit of the Church and the salvation of souls; but he replied: “I have lived in such a manner among you that I need not be ashamed; and I fear not to die, because we have a merciful Lord.” Saint Honoratus, bishop of Vercelli, was at that time in the palace of the bishop. During the night he was suddenly awakened by a voice saying to him: “Honoratus, rise quickly; the Saint is dying.” Honoratus repaired hastily to the sick bishop, administered once more the holy sacraments to him, after which the Saint, his arms folded over his breast, gave his soul to our Lord, in the year 397 of the Christian era, at the dawn of Easter Sunday. Oh! how’ happy a dying day! God, who had glorified His faithful servant during life by miracles and especial graces, ceased not to increase his glory after his death. The many eloquent works which still exist of this great Father of the Church, are witnesses of his perfect holiness and heavenly wisdom.

Practical Considerations

• Remember the words of Saint Ambrose: “In too much eating many have found their death; but none in fasting.” Heed this sentence well; especially if you belong to those poor and deluded beings who imagine that the fasts, ordained by the Church, are injurious to health. Even the word of God assures us, that many have shortened their lives by intemperance in eating and drinking, and the experience of almost every day is another overwhelming evidence of this fact. But where can you point out to me any one who shortened his life, by observing the fasts ordained by the Church? The word of God assures us that those who are temperate in eating and drinking, prolong their lives. Whom do you believe, the word of God, or the evil Spirit, who, through the mouth of the free-thinkers, the heretics, or of those wicked persons, whose life makes them despicable, says, that fasting and abstaining is hurtful to man, that it is the cause of many infirmities and that it shortens life. The true Church, by whose mouth God speaks, prays: “O Lord, who, by holy fasting and abstinence, dost help both soul and body:” which means: curest soul and body as by a remedy. I believe in this prayer, and with me all those who are true Catholic Christians.

• “I fear not to die, because we have a merciful Lord,” says Saint Ambrose. So it is; we have a merciful, a most kind Lord. All who endeavor to serve Him faithfully during their life, can and may comfort themselves with the thought of the divine mercy in their last hour. Satan sometimes tries to frighten and drive to despondency even pious souls, but recollecting that they have served the Lord rightly, and confessed their sins, they ought not to listen to the Evil One; but, contemplating the infinite mercy of God, comfort themselves and say: “We have a merciful Lord.” In Him will I trust; He will not forsake me. But those who during their life, have abused the divine goodness in order to be more wicked; who sinned because God, so infinitely good and merciful, would forgive them; these, I say, have reason to fear the temptations of Satan in their last hour; for, he generally comes then to throw us into gloom and despair by representing the severity , of the divine Justice. Take care not to be of the number of these unhappy people. Serve God faithfully during your life; do not offend Him: and if you have done wrong, do penance and seek to regain the grace of the Almighty. In this manner, you will be able to comfort yourself on your death-bed with the thought of His goodness, and say: “I have a merciful God; in Him will I trust.” Exercise yourself today in this hope, and say with King David: “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? If armies in camp should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear. Turn not away thy face from me. Be you my helper, forsake me not, do not you despise me, O God, my Saviour!” (Psalm 26) And again: “I cried to thee, O Lord, I said: you art my hope, my portion in the land of the living.” (Psalm 141)

Father Francis Xavier Weninger, DD, SJ. “Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan”. Lives of the Saints, 1876. 

The Liturgical Year: Saint Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Saint Ambrose of Milan

7 December

This illustrious Pontiff was deservedly placed in the Calendar of the Church side by side with the glorious Bishop of Myra. Nicholas confessed, at Nicaea, the divinity of the Redeemer; Ambrose, in his city of Milan, was the object of the hatred of the Arians, and, by his invincible courage, triumphed over the enemies of Christ. Let Ambrose, then, unite his voice, as Doctor of the Church, with that of Saint Peter Chrysologus, and preach to the world the glories and the humiliations of the Messias. But, as Doctor of the Church, he has a special claim to our veneration: it is, that among the bright luminaries of the Latin Church, four great Masters head the list of sacred Interpreters of the Faith; Gregory, Augustine, Jerome; and then our glorious Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, makes up the mystic number.

Ambrose owes his noble position in the Calendar to the ancient custom of the Church, whereby, in the early ages, no Saint’s feast was allowed to be kept in Lent. The day of his departure from this world and of his entrance into heaven was the fourth of April, which, more frequently than not, comes during Lent: so that it was requisite that the memory of his sacred death should be solemnised on some other day, and the seventh of December naturally presented itself for such a feast, inasmuch as it was the anniversary day of Ambrose’s being consecrated Bishop.

But, independently of these considerations, the road which leads us to Bethlehem could be perfumed by nothing so fragrant as by this feast of Saint Ambrose. Does not the thought of this saintly and amiable Bishop impress us with the image of dignity and sweetness combined? of the strength of the lion united with the gentleness of the dove? Time removes the deepest human impressions; but the memory of Ambrose is as vivid and dear in men’s minds as though he was still among us. Who can ever forget the young, yet staid and learned governor of Liguria and Emilia, who comes to Milan as a simple catechumen, and finds himself forced, by the acclamations of the people, to ascend the episcopal throne of this great city? And how indelibly impressed upon us are certain touching incidents of his early life! For instance, that beautiful presage of his irresistible eloquence, the swarm of bees coming round him as he was sleeping one day in his father’s garden, and entering into his mouth, as though they would tell us how sweet that babe’s words would be? and the prophetic gravity with which Ambrose, when quite a boy, would hold out his hand to his mother and sister, bidding them kiss it, for that one day it would be the hand of a Bishop!

But what hard work awaited the neophyte of Milan, who was no sooner regenerated in the waters of baptism, than he was consecrated Priest and Bishop! He had to apply himself, there and then, to a close study of the sacred Scriptures, that so he might prepare himself to become the defender of the Church, which was attacked, in the fundamental dogma of the Incarnation, by the false science of the Arians. In a short time he attained such proficiency in the sacred sciences, as to become, like the Prophet, a wall of brass, which checked the further progress of Arianism: not only so, but the works written by Ambrose possessed that plenitude and surety of doctrine, as to be numbered by the Church among the most faithful and authoritative interpretations of her teaching.

But Ambrose had other and fiercer contests than those of religious controversy to encounter in his very life was more than once threatened by the heretics whom he had silenced. What a sublime spectacle that of a Bishop blockaded in his church by the troops of the Empress Justina, and defended within by his people, day and night! Pastor and flock, both are admirable. How had Ambrose merited such fidelity and confidence on the part of this people? By a whole life spent for the welfare of his city and his country. He had never ceased to preach Jesus to all men; and now, the people see their Bishop become, by his zeal, his devotedness, and his selfsacrificing conduct, a living image of Jesus.

In the midst of these dangers which threatened his person, his great soul was calm and seemingly unconscious of the fury of his enemies. It was on that very occasion that he instituted, at Milan, the choral singing of the Psalms. Up to that time, the holy Canticles had been given from the Ambo by the single voice of a Lector; but Ambrose, shut up in his Basilica with his people, takes the opportunity, and forms two choirs, bidding them respond to each other the verses of the Psalms. The people forgot their trouble in the delight of this heavenly music; nay, the very howling of the tempest, and the fierceness of the siege they were sustaining, added enthusiasm to this first exercise of their new privilege. Such was the chivalrous origin of Alternate Psalmody in the Western Church. Rome adopted the practice, which Ambrose was the first to introduce, and which will continue to be observed to the end of time. During these hours of struggle with his enemies, the glorious Bishop has another gift wherewith to enrich the faithful people who are defending him at the risk of their own lives.

Ambrose is a poet, and he has frequently sung, in verses full of sweetness and sublimity, the greatness of the God of the Christians, and the mysteries of man’s salvation. He now gives to his devoted people these hymns, which he had only composed for his own private devotion. The Basilicas of Milan soon echoed these accents of the sublime soul which first uttered them. Later on, the whole Latin Church adopted them; and in honour of the holy Bishop who had thus opened one of the richest sources of the sacred Liturgy, a Hymn was, for a long time, called after his name, an Ambrosian. The Divine Office thus received a new mode of celebrating the divine praise, and the Church, the Spouse of Christ, possessed one means more of giving expression to the sentiments which animate her.

Thus our Hymns, and the alternate singing of the Psalms, are trophies of Ambrose’s victory. He had been raised up by God not for his own age only, but also for those which were to follow. Hence, the Holy Ghost infused into him the knowledge of Christian jurisprudence, that he might be the defender of the rights of the Church at a period when paganism still lived, though defeated; and imperialism, or cesarism, had still the instinct, though not the uncontrolled power, to exercise its tyranny. Ambrose’s law was the Gospel, and he would acknowledge no law which was in opposition to that. He could not understand such imperial policy as that of ordering a Basilica to be given up to the Arians, for quietness’ sake! He would defend the inheritance of the Church; and in that defence, would shed the last drop of his blood. Certain courtiers dared to accuse him of tyranny: “No,” answered the Saint, “Bishops are not tyrants, but have often to suffer from tyranny.” The eunuch Calligonus, high chamberlain of the Emperor Valentinian the Second had said to Ambrose: “What! you dare, in my presence, to care so little for Valentinian! I will cut off your head.” “I would it might be so,” answered Ambrose, “I should then die as a Bishop, and you would do what eunuchs do.”

This noble courage in the defence of the rights of the Church, showed itself even more clearly on another occasion. The Roman Senate, or rather that portion of the Senate, which, though a minority, was still Pagan, was instigated by Symmachus, the Prefect of Rome, to ask the Emperor for the re-erection of the altar of Victory in the Capitol, under the pretext of averting the misfortunes which threatened the empire. Ambrose, who had said to these politicians, “I hate the Religion of the Neros,” vehemently opposed this last effort of idolatry. He presented most eloquent petitions toValentinian, in which he protested against an attempt, whose object was to bring a Christian Prince to recognise that false doctrines have rights, and which would, if permitted to be tried, rob Him, who is the one only Master of nations, of the victories which he had won. Valentinian yielded to these earnest remonstrances, which taught him “that a Christian Emperor can only honour one Altar, the Altar of Christ.” And when the Senators had to receive their answer, the prince told them that Rome was his mother, and he loved her; but that God was his Saviour, and he would obey Him.

If the Empire of Rome had not been irrevocably condemned by God to destruction, the influence which Saint Ambrose had over such well-intentioned princes as Valentinian would probably have saved it. The Saint’s maxim to the Rulers of the world was this, though it was not to be realised in any of them until new kingdoms should spring up out of the ruins of the Roman Empire, and those new kingdoms and peoples organised by the Christian Church: but Saint Ambrose could have no other, and he therefore taught the Emperors of those times, that “an Emperor’s grandest title is to be a Son of the Church. An Emperor is in the Church, he is not over her.”

It is beautiful to see the affectionate solicitude of Saint Ambrose for the young Emperor Gratian, at whose death he shed floods of tears. How tenderly, too, did he not love Theodosius, that model Christian prince, for whose sake God retarded the fall of the Empire, by the uninterrupted victory over all its enemies! On one occasion, indeed, this Son of the Church showed in himself the Pagan Caesar; but his holy father Ambrose, by a severity, which was inflexible because his affection for the culprit was great, brought him back to his duty and his God. “I loved,” says the holy Bishop, in the funeral oration which he preached over Theodosius, “I loved this Prince, who preferred correction to flattery. He stripped himself of his royal robes, and publicly wept in the Church for the sin he had committed, and into which he had been led by evil counsel. In sighs and tears he sought to be forgiven. He, an Emperor, did what common men would be ashamed to do, he did public penance; and for the rest of his life, he passed not a day without bewail- ing his sin.”

But we should have a very false idea of Saint Ambrose, if we thought that he only turned his attention to affairs of importance like these, which brought him before the notice of the world. No pastor could be more solicitous than he about the slightest details which affected the interests of his flock. We have his life written by his deacon, Paulinus, who knew secrets which intimacy alone can know, and these fortunately he has revealed to us. Among other things, he tells us that when Ambrose heard confessions, he shed so many tears that the sinner was forced to weep: “You would have thought,” says Paulinus, “that they were his own sins that he was listening to.” We all know the tender paternal interest he felt for Augustine, when he was a slave to error and his passions; and if we would have a faithful portrait of Ambrose, we must read in the Confessions of the Bishop of Hippo the fine passage where he expresses his admiration and gratitude for his spiritual father. Ambrose had told Monica, that her son Augustine, who gave her so much anxiety, would be converted. That happy day at last came; it was Ambrose’s hand which immersed into the cleansing waters of Baptism him who was to be the prince of the Doctors of the Church.

A heart thus loyal in its friendship, could not but be affectionate to those who were related by ties of blood. He tenderly loved his brother Satyrus, as we may see from the two funeral orations which he has left us upon this brother, wherein he speaks his praises with all the warmth of enthusiastic admiration. He had a sister, too, named Marcellina, who was equally dear to her saintly brother. From her earliest years, she had spurned the world and its pomps, and the position which she might expect to enjoy in it as being a Patrician’s daughter. She had received the veil of virginity from the hands of Pope Liberius, but lived in her father’s house at Rome. Her brother Ambrose was separated from her, but he seemed to love her the more for that; and he communicated with her in her holy retirement by frequent letters, several of which are still extant. She deserved all the esteem which Ambrose had for her; she had a great love for the Church of God, and she was heart and soul in all the great undertakings of her brother the Bishop. The very heading of these letters shows the affection of the Saint: “The Brother to the Sister;” or, “To my sister Marcellina, dearer to me than mine own eyes and life.” Then follows the letter, in a style of nerve and animation, well suited to the soul- stirring communications he had to make to her about his struggles. One of them was written in the midst of the storm, when the courageous Pontiff was besieged in his Basilica by Justina’s soldiers. His discourses to the people of Milan, his consolations and his trials, the heroic sentiments of his great soul, all is told in these despatches to his sister, and where every line shows how strong and holy was the attachment between Ambrose and Marcellina. The great Basilica of Milan still contains the tomb of the brother and sister: and over them both is daily offered the divine sacrifice.

Such was Ambrose, of whom Theodosius was one day heard to say: “There is but one Bishop in the world.” Let us glorify the Holy Spirit, who has vouchsafed to produce this sublime model in the Church, and let us beg of the holy Pontiff to obtain for us, by his prayers, a share in that lively faith and ardent love which he himself had, and which he evinces in those delicious and eloquent writings, which he has left us on the mystery of the Incarnation. During these days, which are preparing us for the Birth of our Incarnate Lord, Ambrose is one of our most powerful patrons.

His love towards the Blessed Mother of God teaches us what admiration and devotion we ought to have for Mary. Saint Ephrem and Saint Ambrose are the two Fathers of the fourth century, who are the most explicit upon the glories of the office and the person of the Mother of Jesus. To confine ourselves to Saint Ambrose, he has completely mastered this mystery, which he understood, and appreciated, and defined in his writings. Mary’s exemption from every stain of sin; Mary’s uniting herself, at the foot of the Cross, with her Divine Son for the salvation of the world; Jesus’ appearing, after his resurrection, to Mary first of all; on these and so many other points Saint Ambrose has spoken so clearly as to deserve to be considered as one of the most prominent witnesses of the primitive traditions respecting the privileges and dignity of the holy Mother of God.

This his devotion to Mary explains Saint Ambrose’s enthusiastic admiration for the holy state of Christian Virginity, of which he might justly be called the Doctor. He surpasses all the Fathers in the beautiful and eloquent manner in which he speaks of the dignity and happiness of Virginity. Four of his writings are devoted to the praises of this sublime state. The Pagans would fain have an imitation of it, by instituting seven Vestal Virgins, whom they loaded with honours and riches, and to whom they in due time restored liberty. Saint Ambrose shows how contemptible these were, compared with the innumerable Virgins of the Christian Church, who filled the whole world with the fragrance of their humility, constancy, and disinterestedness. But on this magnificent subject, his words were even more telling than his writings; and we learn from his contemporaries, that when he went to preach in any town, mothers would not allow their daughters to be present at his sermon, lest this irresistible panegyrist of the eternal nuptials with the Lamb, should convince them that that was the better part, and persuade them to make it the object of their desires.

But our partiality and devotion to the great Saint of Milan has made us exceed our usual limits: it is time to read the account of his virtues given lis by the Church.

Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, was the son of a Roman citizen, whose name was also Ambrose, and who held the office of Prefect of Cisalpine Gaul. It is related that when the saint was an infant, a swarm of bees rested on his lips; it was a presage of his future extraordinary eloquence. He received a liberal education at Rome, and not long after was appointed by the Prefect Probus to be Governor of Liguria and Emilia, whence, later on, he was sent, by order of the same Probus, to Milan, with power of Judge; for the people of that city were quarrelling among themselves about the successor of the Arian Bishop, Auxentius, who had died. Wherefore, Ambrose, having entered the Church that he might fulfill the duty that had been imposed on him, and quell the disturbance that had arisen, delivered an eloquent discourse on the advantages of peace and tranquillity in a State. Scarcely had he finished speaking than a boy exclaimed: Ambrose, Bishop! The whole multitude shouted: Ambrose, Bishop!

On his refusing to accede to their entreaties, the earnest request of the people was presented to the Emperor Valentinian, who was gratified that they whom he selected as Judges were thus sought after to be made Priests. It was also pleasing to the Prefect Probus, who, as though he foresaw the event, said to Ambrose on his setting out: Go, act not as Judge, but as Bishop. The desire of the people being thus seconded by the will of the Emperor, Ambrose was baptised (for he was only a catechumen), and was admitted to sacred Orders, ascending by all the degrees of Orders as prescribed by the Church; and on the eighth day, which was the seventh of the Ides of December (December 7th), he received the burden of the Episcopacy. Being made Bishop, he most strenuously defended the Catholic faith, and ecclesiastical discipline. He converted to the true faith many Arians, and other heretics, among whom was that brightest luminary of the Church, Saint Augustine, the spiritual child of Ambrose in Christ Jesus.

When the Emperor Gratian was killed by Maximus, he was twice deputed to go to this murderer, and insist on his doing penance for his crime; which he refusing to do, Ambrose refused to hold communion with him. The Emperor Theodosius having made himself guilty of the massacre at Thessalonica, was forbidden by the Saint to enter the church. On the Emperor’s excusing himself by saying that King David had also committed murder and adultery, Ambrose replied: You have imitated his sin, now imitate his repentance. Upon which, Theodosius humbly performed the public penance which the Bishop imposed upon him. The holy Bishop having thus gone through the greatest labours and solicitudes for God’s Church, and having written several admirable books, foretold the day of his death, before even he was taken with his last sickness. Honoratus, the Bishop of Vercelli, was thrice admonished by the voice of God to go to the dying Saint: he went, and administered to him the Sacred Body of our Lord. Ambrose having received it, and placing his hands in the form of the cross, prayed, and yielded his soul up to God, on the vigil of the Nones of April (April 4th), in the year of our Lord 397.

Let us salute this great Doctor in the words which the holy Church addresses to him in the Office of Vespers:

O most admirable Doctor, Light of the holy Church, Blessed Ambrose, lover of the divine law, pray for us to the Son of God.

The Ambrosian Liturgy is not so rich in its praises of Saint Ambrose as we might naturally expect it to be. Even the Preface of the Mass is so short and so wanting in any especial allusion to the Saint that we think it useless to insert it. We will content ourselves with giving two of the Responsaries of the Night Office, the Hymn, and the Collect, which strikes us as being the finest. With regard to the Hymn, it is well to mention that almost the whole of it is a modern composition, having been, like a great many other Hymns of the Ambrosian Breviary, subjected to very considerable corrections. The ancient Hymn began with the verse Miraculum laudabile; but is extremely poor both in sentiment and expression.

Responsory

R: Upon whom shall I rest, says the Lord, but upon him that is humble and meek,
   Who trembles at my words?

V: I have found David my servant, and with my holy oil have I anointed him.
   Who trembles at my words?

R: This illustrious man was sent that he might destroy Arius: he was the glory of the Church, the ornament of Pontiffs;
   While wearing an earthly mitre, he gained that of heaven.

V: It was said to him as he set out: Go, act not as Judge, but as Bishop.
   While wearing an earthly mitre, he gained that of heaven.

Hymn

• Let us all sing the praise of our august Father, who drove from the land the turbid storms of a tempestuous age.
• A babe, he sleeps; when lo! a swarm of bees light on his flowery lips; these honey makers thus telling us that here was one would captivate men by the sweetness of his eloquence.
• Prescient of the future, he must have his infant hand honoured with kisses; and he who had scarce been freed from swathing bands, plays with the fillets of a mitre.
• A boy cries out, and Milan would have Ambrose receive the mitre: Ambrose flees from it, but honours ever pursue them that run from them.
• At last, the sacred mitre crowns this head where wisdom sits: the helmet once on, our warrior gives Arius battle.
• Unflinching, he fears neither sceptres, nor a haughty empress; and when a blood stained Csesar attempts to enter the church, he closes the doors against him and repels him from the holy spot.
• He washes away the sins of Augustine in the heavenly laver of baptism: companion to the martyrs by his faith, he discovers the relics of Martyrs.
• Holy Pontiff, now with your scourge drive away far from us the furious wolf of hell: that flock which you once didst govern, let it for ever enjoy your protection.
• To God the Father, and to his Only Son, and to the Holy Paraclete, be glory now and for all ages.
• Amen.

Prayer

O Almighty and everlasting God, who has given the Blessed Ambrose, the Confessor of your holy name, to be a Doctor of heavenly truth, not to this Church (of Milan) alone, but to all the Churches throughout the world: grant, that the doctrine he taught by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, may be ever firmly fixed in our hearts, and that he whom we tenderly love as the Patron you have given to us, may be to us a defender, powerful to obtain us your mercy. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Mozarabic Liturgy has nothing proper on Saint Ambrose. The Greeks, on the contrary, honour the memory of the great Bishop of Milan by Hymns replete with the most magnificent praises. We give a few of the most striking passages.

Hymn to Saint Ambrose

• You who did adorn with two-fold virtue the throne of the Prefecture, did meritoriously fill the throne of the hierarchy on which divine inspiration placed you: faithful steward, therefore, in both dignities, you have inherited a double crown.
• You did purify your soul and body by continency, and labours, and much watching, and intense prayer, O divinely wise one, O vessel of election of our God! you were like to the Apostles, you did receive, like them, the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
• As heretofore Nathan reproved David, so did you boldly chide the good Emperor after his sin, O most blessed Ambrose! You did wisely subject him to excommunication. and taught him to do contrite penance, restoring him to your fold.
• Holy Father, most saintly Ambrose, sweet sounding lute, refreshing melody of true dogmas, attracting the souls of believers, sweet harp of the Holy Spirit, organ of God, incomparable trumpet of the Church, most limpid fountain which cleanses the turbid passions! offer your prayers to Christ, and beseech him to bestow on his Church unanimity and peace and plentiful mercy.
• Following the examples of the Prophet Elias and of the Baptist, you did fearlessly reprove Kings for their evil doings; you did admirably adorn the throne of the hierarchy; you did enrich the world with the multitude of your miracles; and therefore you did strengthen the faithful and convert the unbelievers, by the nourishment of the divine Scriptures. O Ambrose! O holy Priest! pray to Christ our Lord that he grant the forgiveness of their sins to them that celebrate with love your holy memory.
• You, O Blessed Pastor, did defend your flock from all their enemies; and by the splendour of your teachings, did dissipate every error of Arius.
• The assembly of the priests rejoices in celebrating your holy memory, and the choirs of the faithful, united with the Angelic spirits, exult and are glad; the Church today is spiritually nourished by your words, O Father Ambrose!
• You are the husbandman who tills the field, which is open to all men of faith and doctrine; you there sow the dogmas of truth, for you are filled with heavenly wisdom; and the grain being multiplied, you distribute to the Church the heavenly bread of the Holy Spirit.
• Rome celebrates your glorious deeds, for, bright as a star, you shoot forth everywhere the great blaze of your miracles. O truly admirable Pontiff!
• From the earliest dawn you did approach to Christ, richly bright with his rays upon you: therefore, having reached the divine light, you enlighten them that, through the world, honour you with faith.
• You did consecrate your body and soul to God; and your heart, O Father, which was made for great gifts, you did fasten to his sweet love, and there it clung intensely.
• Intrusted with the talent of the Word, you did, as a wise and prudent servant, put it out to usury and multiply it and bring it and its interest to your Lord, O Ambrose!
• The holy robe of the pontiff you adorned with your labours; you were the wise shepherd on intellectual flock, and with your pastoral staff you led them before you into the pastures of doctrines.

– from the Menoea of the Greeks, 7 December

And we, too, O Immortal Ambrose, unworthy though we be to take a part in such a choir, we, too, will praise thee! We will praise the magnificent gifts which our Lord bestowed upon you. You are the Light of the Church and the Salt of the earth by your heavenly teachings; you are the vigilant Pastor, the affectionate Father, the unyielding Pontiff; oh! how must your heart have loved that Jesus, for whom we are now preparing! With what undaunted courage you did, at the risk of your life, resist them that blasphemed this Divine Word! Well indeed have you thereby merited to be made one of the Patrons of the faithful, to lead them, each year, to Him who is their Saviour and their King! Let, then, a ray of the truth, which filled your sublime soul while here on earth, penetrate even into our hearts; give us a relish of your sweet and eloquent writings; get us a sentiment of devoted love for the Jesus who is so soon to be wuth us. Obtain for us, after your example, to take up his cause with energy, against the enemies of our holy faith, against the spirits of darkness, and against ourselves. Let everything yield, let everything be annihilated, let every knee bow, let every heart confess itself conquered, in the presence of Jesus, the eternal Word of the Father, the Son of God, and the Son of Mary, our Redeemer, our Judge, our All.

Glorious Saint! humble us, as you did Theodosius; raise us up again contrite and converted, as you did lovingly raise up this your strayed sheep and carry him back to your fold. Pray, too, for the Catholic Hierarchy, of which you were one of the brightest ornaments. Ask of God, for the Priests and Bishops of his Church, that humble yet inflexible courage, wherewith they should resist the Powers of the world, as often as they abuse the authority which God has put into their hands. Let their face, as our Lord himself speaks, become hard as adamant against the enemies of the Church, and may they set themselves as a wall for the house of Israel; may they consider it as the highest privilege, and the greatest happiness, to be permitted to expose their property, and peace, and life, for the liberty of this holy Spouse of Christ.

Valiant champion of the Truth! arm yourself with your scourge, which the Church has given you as your emblem; and drive far from the flock of Christ the wolves of the Arian tribe, which, under various names, are even now prowling round the fold. Let our ears be no longer shocked with the blasphemies of these proud teachers, who presume to scan, judge, approve, and blame, by the measure of their vain conceits, the great God who has given them everything they are and have, and who, out of infinite love for his creatures, has deigned to humble himself and become one of ourselves, although knowing that men would make this very condescension an argument for denying that he is God.

Remove our prejudices, O you great lover of truth! and crush within us those time-serving and unwise theories, which tend to make us Christians forget that Jesus is the King of this world, and look on the law, which equally protects error and truth, as the perfection of modern systems. May we understand that the rights of the Son of God and his Church do not cease to exist, because the world ceases to acknowledge them; that to give the same protection to the true religion and to those false doctrines, which men have set up in opposition to the teaching of the Church, is to deny that all power has been given to Jesus in heaven and on earth; that those scourges which periodically come upon the world are the lessons which Jesus gives to those who trample on the Rights of his Church, Rights which he so justly acquired by dying on the Cross for all mankind; that, finally, though it be out of our power to restore those Rights to people that have had the misfortune to resign them, yet it is our duty, under pain of being accomplices with those who would not have Jesus reign over them, to acknowledge that they are the Rights of the Church.

And lastly, dear Saint, in the midst of the dark clouds which lower over the world, console our holy Mother the Church, who is now but a stranger and pilgrim amid those nations which were her children, but have now denied her; may she cull the flowers of holy Virginity among the faithful, and may that holy state be the attraction of those fortunate souls who understand how grand is the dignity of being a Spouse of Christ. If, at the very commencement of her ministry, during the ages of persecution, the holy Church could lead countless Virgins to Jesus, may it be so even now in our own age of crime and sensuality; may those pure and generous hearts, formed and consecrated to the Lamb by this holy Mother, become more and more numerous; and so give to her enemies this irresistible proof that she is not barren, as they pretend, and that it is she that alone preserves the world from universal corruption, by leavening it with this angelic purity.

–  The Liturgical Year: Advent, by the Very Reverend Dom Prosper Gueranger, Abbot of Solesmes, translated from the French by the Revered Dom Laurence Shepherd, Monk of the English-Benedictine Congregation, 2nd edition; published in Dublin Ireland by James Duffy, 15 Wellington-Quay, 1870

St. Nicholas

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Pictorial Lives of the Saints – Saint Nicholas of Bari

Pictorial Lives of the Saints illustration for Saint Nicholas of Bari

Saint Nicholas, the patron Saint of Russia, was born toward the end of the third century. His uncle, the Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, ordained him priest, and appointed him abbot of a monastery; and on the death of the archbishop he was elected to the vacant see. Throughout his life he retained the bright and guileless manners of his early years, and showed himself a special protector of the innocent and the wronged. Nicholas once heard that a person who had fallen into poverty intended to abandon his three daughters to a life of sin. Determined, if possible, to save their innocence, the Saint went out by night, and, taking with him, a bag of gold, flung it into the window of the sleeping father and hurried off. He, on awaking, deemed the gift a godsend, and with it dowered his eldest child. The Saint, overjoyed at his success, made like venture for the second daughter; but the third time, as he stole away, the father, who was watching, overtook him and kissed his feet, saying: “Nicholas, why dost thou conceal thyself from me? Thou art my helper, and he who has delivered my soul and my daughters from hell.” Saint Nicholas is usually represented by the side of a vessel, wherein a certain man had concealed the bodies of his three children whom he had killed, but who were restored to life by the Saint. He died A.D. 342. His relics were translated in 1807, to Bari, Italy, and there, after fifteen centuries, “the manna of Saint Nicholas” still flows from his bones and heals all kind of sick.

Reflection – Those who would enter heaven must be as little children, whose greatest glory is their innocence. Now, two things are ours to do: first, to preserve it in ourselves, or regain it by penance; secondly, to love and shield it in others.

Pictorial Lives of the Saints, 1922. 

Fr. Weninger’s Lives of the Saints – Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra

detail of a stained glass window of Saint Nicholas of Bari; by James Powell and Sons, 1904; chapel of Saint Nicholas, cathedral of Saint David, Wales; photographed on 21 July 2011 by Wolfgang Sauber; swiped from Wikimedia Commons

Saint Nicholas, whom the Almighty honored with numberless miracles, was born at Patara, in Lycia, of rich and pious parents, who having lived a long time without issue, at last, after many prayers, were rejoiced by the Lord with a son. It was a remarkable fact that Nicholas, when an infant, on Wednesdays and Fridays, refused to take nourishment from his mother’s breast until nightfall; and this custom of partaking of no food on those days, he observed as long as he lived. When sent to school, he carefully avoided all intercourse with frivolous young men, and still more with the other sex. He shunned all occasions of evil, chastised his body by watching, fasting, wearing a penitential girdle, and read only such books as aided him to acquire virtue and knowledge. In this manner he preserved his innocence inviolate through all dangers. Having made great progress in virtue and knowledge, he was ordained priest by the bishop of Myra, who was his God-father. As he felt himself obliged by the sacredness of his station to strive to attain greater virtue, he redoubled his austerities, his fervor in prayer, and his zeal in doing good. The rich inheritance which came into his possession after the death of his parents, was employed only to relieve and comfort the needy. Among these were three young virgins whom their father, impoverished by misfortune, had advised to maintain themselves at the cost of their virtue, as he saw no means to provide for them. Saint Nicholas, having heard this, went, during the night and threw into the father’s room, through the window, as much money as was necessary to give one of the three maidens a marriage dower. The same was done, after a lapse of some time, for the second and the third; and, by this noble work of charity, the father and the daughters were saved from temporal and eternal ruin. After some time, by order of the bishop of Myra, Nicholas was charged with the care of a monastery, and performed this task with great prudence and care.

Meanwhile, his heart was filled with the desire to visit the Holy Land, and to pass the remainder of his life in solitude. The day on which he set sail he prophesied to the sailors, that they would soon encounter a severe storm. The sailors, thinking they were better skilled in such matters, laughed at him, but the issue showed that the Saint was right; for so terrific a storm arose that all on board thought themselves lost. Hence they begged the Saint, as God had revealed to him the danger, to implore Him to turn it from them. Hardly had the holy man begun to pray when the winds abated and the storm ceased. Similar miracles the holy man performed frequently; hence he is honored and invoked as a special patron of sailors. In Palestine he visited the holy places with great devotion, and made the resolution to remain there in some retired spot, where he might serve the Almighty undisturbed. But, by divine admonition, he returned to his monastery, where he did not remain long, as God inspired him to go to Myra, the capital of Lycia. The bishops of that country had just assembled at Myra, to elect a successor to the late bishop, and while they were praying to be guided by heaven in their choice, God revealed to one of them that they should choose him who, on the following morning, should first enter the church, and whose name was Nicholas. Saint Nicholas, knowing nothing of what had passed, was the first who entered the church the next morning. A bishop who had been appointed to be there, having asked his name, took him by the hand and led him to the assembled prelates, who informed him of the divine will and consecrated him bishop in spite of the tears he shed and the objections he offered.

Nicholas considering that so high an office required high virtues, endeavored to lead a still more perfect life than before. He practised severe penance, partook daily of one meal only, and never touched meat; took his short rest on the bare floor, gave all the time left to him from the administration of his functions to prayer, daily said holy Mass, at which he often shed many tears; visited the prisoners, the sick, and the poor of the city, among whom he divided almost all his income; preached on all Sundays and Holy days, and frequently visited the churches and parishes of his diocese, providing all with able priests and a sufficient income. In one word, he did all that could be expected of a bishop, who perfectly fulfilled his sacred duties. At that period there were still many pagans in Myra, besides an idolatrous temple, and the emperor sent his officers to exterminate Christianity and restore the pagan worship. On this occasion our holy bishop showed his generous zeal. He went through all the streets and into all the houses exhorting the Christians to remain faithful to Christ, without fearing for himself either danger, persecution or death. He was seized, dragged out of the city, and cast into a dungeon, where he remained until Constantine the Great ascended the throne. The holy bishop experienced the greatest joy when this emperor gave orders to demolish the idolatrous temples and to build churches in their places. He himself assisted at the work and rested not until all pagan temples had disappeared from his diocese. Some time later an opportunity presented itself to him to fight against the Arian heresy, which he condemned in the Council of Nice.

The many and great miracles that he performed and the fame of his holiness gave him great consideration. Eustathius, an avaricious officer, had condemned to death three innocent citizens, living not far from Myra, in order that he might take possession of their property. No sooner had Saint Nicholas been informed of this than he hastened to the place, where he found the three men already in the hands of the executioner. The Saint ran towards him and took the sword from him; he then reproved the wicked judge with severe words, and thus freed the innocent persons, amid the great rejoicings of the people.

Still more remarkable is the following: Constantine, the emperor, had condemned three of his most renowned generals to death, on false accusations. These, having heard much of the holiness of the Bishop of Myra, called on God to come to their aid for the sake of His servant. In the night before the day on which the sentence on the three prisoners was to be executed, Constantine saw Saint Nicholas standing before him, threatening him with divine vengeance if he did not immediately recall the sentence against the innocent men. In the same manner the Saint appeared to the unjust accuser. Both, greatly frightened, set the prisoners free, and sent them with many rich gifts to Saint Nicholas, to thank him for having thus protected them. Almost at the same time the Saint appeared to some sailors who were in great danger of being wrecked, and had invoked him. They saw him at the helm, guiding the ship safely to land. When they expressed their gratitude to him, he said: “My children, give honor to God; I am but a poor sinner.” Taking them aside, he said that their sins, which he named to them, had been the cause of the danger they experienced, admonished them to repent, and then dismissed them. On account of this and numberless other miracles, the holy bishop was called the Thaumaturgus, or Wonder-worker of his age. All his biographers unite in saying that he raised many dead to life. Among these were three children who had been- cruelly murdered and cast into a tub; and this miracle is frequently represented by artists in their pictures of the Saint.

Although Saint Nicholas was gifted with such high graces, and administered his episcopal functions so well, he yet feared that he did not do enough, and frequently prayed to God to release him from this burden. A voice from heaven, however, encouraged him, saying: “Fear not, Nicholas, I will recompense thy faithful services/’ God also revealed to him the day and hour of his death, and the Saint, rejoicing soon to see the Lord, received with great devotion, the holy Sacraments, and after a short sickness ended his holy life. In his last moments he saw heaven open, and a great multitude of angels came to accompany his soul to heaven. His last prayer was the Psalm, “In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped.” When he came to the words, “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit,” he calmly expired. From his body emanated a miraculous oil, which restored the health of many sick. This oil is still flowing at Bari, in Apulia, where the holy body is enshrined, and is yearly visited by many devout pilgrims.

Practical Considerations

• Saint Nicholas was very generous to the poor, but endeavored to hide his good deeds as much as possible, from men. Hence, in the darkness of night, he threw money into the house of the poor father of three daughters who stood so greatly in need of being protected. By thus acting, he obeyed the words of Christ, who said: “Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them; otherwise you shall not have a reward from your Father who is in heaven.” And again: “Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand does.” (Matthew 6) If you do good to the poor, or perform other pious works, never do it with the desire to earn human praise; but let your motive be holy. Do not boast of the good deeds you have performed. The vain honor which you seek robs you of the reward that you would have received from God. “Those who seek their reward on this earth,” says Saint Ambrose, “lay nothing by for the next life; and as they have already received their reward here, they cannot expect one in the other world.”

• God revealed to Saint Nicholas the time of his death. You have no such revelation, and probably never will have it. It must be sufficient that God has revealed to us all, that we all must die. The time and the manner of your death God has concealed from you, for the reason that you should be always prepared to die. “The last day has been concealed from us,” says Saint Augustine, “that we may live well every day.” “Watch ye therefore,” says Christ, “for ye know not when the Lord of the house comes, at even, or at midnight” (Mark 13). Happy is he whom death finds prepared. This Our Saviour says, in the following words: “Blessed is that servant, whom when his Lord shall come, he shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, he will set him over all he possesses.” (Luke 12) To this end, it is very useful to think frequently of death, as this thought will urge us to prepare ourselves for it in time, and to be constantly prepared. “It is quite certain,” says Saint Bernard, “that you will die; but you know not when, how and where! As, therefore, death waits for you everywhere, if you wish to act wisely, be ready everywhere for him.” Saint Gregory writes: “We ought to have the hour of our death continually before us and al- ways think of the words of Christ: ‘Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour.’”

MLA Citation

Father Francis Xavier Weninger, DD, SJ. “Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra”. Lives of the Saints, 1876.

The Liturgical Year: Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, and Confessor

Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, and Confessor

6 December

Divine Wisdom has willed that on the way which leads to the Messias, our Great High Priest, there should be many Pontiffs to pay him the honour due to him. Two Popes, Saint Melchiades and Saint Damasus; two Holy Doctors, Saint Peter Chrysologus and Saint Ambrose; two Bishops, Saint Nicholas and Saint Eusebius: these are the glorious Pontiffs who have been entrusted with the charge of preparing, by their prayers, the way of the Christian people towards Him, who is the Sovereign Priest according to the order of Melchisedecb. As each of their feasts comes, we will show their right to have been thus admitted into the court of Jesus. Today the Church celebrates with joy the feast of the great Thaumaturgus Nicholas, who is to the Greek Church what Saint Martin is to us. The Church of Rome has honoured the name of Nicholas for nearly a thousand years. Let us admire the wonderful power which God gave him over creation; but let us offer him our most fervent congratulations in that he was permitted to be one of the three hundred and eighteen Bishops, who proclaimed, at Nicaea, that the Word is Consubstantial to the Father. The humiliations of the Son of God did not scandalise him. Neither the lowliness of the flesh, which the Sovereign Lord of all things assumed to himself in the womb of the Virgin, nor the poverty of the crib, hindered him from confessing to be Son of God, equal to God, Him who is the Son of Mary: and for this reason, God has glorified this his servant, and given him the power to obtain, each year, for the children of the Church, the grace of receiving this same Jesus, the Word, with simple faith and fervent love. Let us now listen to the eulogy of Saint Nicholas, which the Roman Church has inserted in her Liturgy.

About Saint Nicholas

Nicholas was born in the celebrated city of Patara, in the province of Lycia. His birth was the fruit of his parents’ prayers. Evidences of his great future holiness were given from his very cradle. For when he was an infant, he would only take his food once on Wednesdays and Fridays, and then not till evening, but on all other days he frequently took the breast: he kept up this custom of fasting during the rest of his life.

Having lost his parents when he was a boy, he gave all his goods to the poor. Of his Christian kindheartedness there is the following noble example. One of his fellow-citizens had three daughters; but being too poor to obtain them an honourable marriage, he was minded to abandon them to a life of prostitution. Nicholas having learned of the case, went to the house during the night and threw in by the window a sum of money sufficient for the dower of one of the daughters; he did the same a second and a third time; and thus the three were married to respectable men.

Having given himself wholly to the service of God, he set out for Palestine, that he might visit and venerate the holy places. During this pilgrimage, which he made by sea, he foretold to the mariners, on embarking, though the heavens were then serene and the sea tranquil, that they would be overtaken by a frightful storm. In a very short time, the storm arose. All were in the most imminent danger, when he quelled it by his prayers.

His pilgrimage ended, he returned home, giving to all men example of the greatest sanctity. He went, by an inspiration from God, to Myra, the Metropolis of Lycia,which had just lost its Bishop by death, and the Bishops of the province had come together for the purpose of electing a successor. Whilst they were holding council for the election, they were told by a revelation from heaven, that they should choose him who, on the morrow, should be the first to enter the church, his name being Nicholas. Accordingly, the requisite observations were made, when they found Nicholas to be waiting at the church door: they took him, and, to the incredible delight of all, made him the Bishop of Myra.

During his episcopate, he never flagged in the virtues looked for in a bishop; chastity, which indeed he had always preserved, gravity, assiduity in prayer, watchings, abstinence, generosity, and hospitality, meekness in exhortation, severity in reproving. He befriended widows and orphans by money, by advice, and by every service in his power. So zealous a defender was he of all who suffered oppression, that, on one occasion, three Tribunes having been condemned by the Emperor Constantine, who had been deceived by calumny, and having heard of the miracles wrought by Nicholas, they recommended themselves to his prayers, though he was living at a very great distance from that place: the saint appeared to Constantine, and angrily looking upon him, obtained from the terrified Emperor their deliverance.

Having, contrary to the edict of Dioclesian and Maximian, preached in Myra the truth of the Christian faith, he was taken up by the servants of the two Emperors. He was taken off to a great distance and thrown into prison, where he remained until Constantine, having become Emperor, ordered his rescue, and the Saint returned to Myra. Shortly afterwards, he repaired to the Council which was being held at Nicaea: there he took part with the three hundred and eighteen Fathers in condemning the Arian heresy.

Scarcely had he returned to his See than he was taken with the sickness of which he soon died. Looking up to heaven, and seeing Angels coming to meet him, he began the Psalm, In thee, O Lord, have I hoped; and having come to those words, Into your hands I commend my spirit, his soul took its flight to the heavenly country. His body, having been translated to Bari in Apulia, is the object of universal veneration.

Almost all the Breviaries of the Latin Church, up to the 17th century, contain most fervent praises of the virtues and miracles of Saint Nicholas, and give the beautiful Office of the holy Bishop, which was composed about the 12th century. We have spoken elsewhere upon this Office, as far as regards the music; at present we will only mention its being drawn up exclusively on the Acts of Saint Nicholas, and its being more explicit on some circumstances of the Saint’s life than is the Legend of the Roman Breviary. The following portions of this Office dwell with complacency on a fact which is not mentioned in our Liturgy: we mean the miraculous oil, which, for almost eight hundred years, has flowed without ceasing from the tomb of the holy Bishop, and by means of which God has frequently wrought miracles. The Responsory and Antiphon, which we give, are upon the miracle of the oil itself. They were formerly so familiar to the faithful, that in the 13th century their music was sung to the Responsory Unus Panis, and to the Antiphon quam suavis est, of the Office of Corpus Christi.

Responsory

R: From his marble tomb there flows a holy oil, wherewith the blind are annointed and healed: The deaf recover their hearing: and the weak return home strong.

V: The people rush in crowds, desiring to witness the wonderful works which are done by him. The deaf recover their hearing: and the weak return home strong.

Antiphon

O! the mercy of Christ, worthy of all our praise! which makes known, through the length and breadth of the world, the merits of his servant Nicholas: for from his tomb there flows an oil, and it heals all that are infirm.

Hymn I

• Tell, my tongue, the praise of the Pontiff Nicholas that so the sovereign Adonai, the King and Father of all creatures, may grant us to be brought by his Son, to the port of salvation.
• When yet a babe at his mother’s breast, he took it but once on each fourth and sixth feria, nor would the child break his fast by one drop of milk.
• Elevated to the dignity of Pontiff, Nicholas so abundantly gave to all men the dew of piety, that scarce could any age find a better or so good a Pastor.
• He gives his gold to secure virgins their treasure; he distributes corn to the people in a famine; he brings up from the depths of the sea a vase that had fallen in; he brings help to mariners who were well nigh to shipwreck.
• He brings to life a dead man who had committed a theft; the man is baptized and recovers what had been stolen from him; the one is restored to life; the other is brought to the faith.
• Nicholas! you fair gem, and honour, and glory of the priesthood! help by your gracious intercession the whole people, the whole clergy; that their minds, and hands, and lips, may pay their tribute to our God.
• Praise, power, and triumph, to the most High Trinity! May it give us to come, after this life, with our laurel wreaths upon us, to the joys which Nicholas the Blessed possesses in our country of heaven. Amen.

Hymn II

• Let the clergy joyfully raise their voice in song, and magnify Nicholas the father and patron of the clergy; and let their chants give fresh devotion to their already fervent and docile heart.
• Let the Greeks, and Latins, and every tongue and tribe and nation; let the sea, and land; let all, whatever their sex or condition, guest or citizen or stranger, sing the praises of Nicholas with one like enthusiasm.
• This Pontiff, whose name is immortal in the memory of men, ever gave, gives, and will give favours to all; he will make him, who was pining away in grief, bloom in joy as a lily.
• Whilst living in the flesh he spurned the deeds of the flesh; he did nothing and spoke nothing but what was unto salvation; and now, having been loosed from the bonds of the flesh, he has mounted to the starry realms.
• How great is the power of his charity, even in this very age, is plainly enough manifested by the oil which flows from his tomb, giving to all people, that ask it, the boon of health.
• Praise, power, and triumph to the most High Trinity! May it give us to come, after this life, with our laurel wreaths upon us, to the joys which Nicholas the Blessed possesses in our country of heaven. Amen.

It was impossible for Adam of Saint-Victor to remain silent in the praises of Saint Nicholas. The Churches, in the Middle Ages, received from him the following beautiful Sequence.

Sequence

• With our hearts and songs in unison, let us exult on this festive solemnity of Blessed Nicholas,
• When a babe in his cradle, he began to fast,
• And thus deserved, before weaned from the breast, the joys of heaven.
• He enters, when a boy, upon a course of studies,
• Yet follows not, yet knows not, impurity.
• Blessed Confessor indeed, whose worth was known by a message from heaven,
• At whose bidding he was promoted and exalted to the supreme dignity of Pontiff.
• There was in his soul the most tender compassion, which prompted him to bestow continual benefits on them who suffered oppression.
• He averted infamy from virgins by the gold he gave; and by the same he relieved their father’s poverty.
• There were some mariners had set sail; when a furious storm attacked them, and their bark was well-nigh wrecked:
• Despairing of life, and in this extreme danger, they cry out with one voice, saying:
• “O holy Nicholas! help us out of these straits of death, and lead us into harbour!
• “Yea, lead us into harbour, you whose kind heart is ever ready to help them that are in affliction.”
• They prayed; nor was it in vain: for lo! a voice was heard saying: ” I am here to help you.”
• Straightways arose a favourable wind: the storm was lulled: the sea was calm.
• From his tomb there flows an abundant oil:
• It heals all kinds of sickness, through the intercession of the Saint.
• We who are now living in this world, have already suffered shipwreck in the sea of sin:
• Ah! glorious Nicholas, lead us into the harbour of salvation,where there is peace and glory.
• There is an unction, which your merciful prayers must get us from the Lord:
• It is that unction which healed the wound of Magdalene’s many sins.
• May they that keep this feast, come to the eternal joys;
• And may Jesus crown them after this life is run. Amen.

But none of the Sequences of Saint Nicholas were so popular as the one we now give. It is to be found in a great many Processionals up to the 17th century, and on its model were composed innumerable others, which, though drawn up in praise of various Patrons, not only kept the measure and the melody, but the very expressions, ingeniously turned here and there, of the Sequence of Saint Nicholas.

Sequence

• The sick are restored to health by the miraculous oil.
• They who are in danger of shipwreck are delivered by Nicholas’ prayers.
• He raised from amongst the dead a corpse which lay on the road.
• A Jew asks for baptism, on witnessing the miraculous recovery of his money.
• A vase that had sunk in the deep sea, and a child that was lost to his father, are both recovered.
• O how great a saint did he not appear by the multiplying corn in a famine!
• Let, then, this congregation sing the hymns of Nicholas’ praise;
• For all who pray to him with earnest hearts, will go back cured of their spiritual ailments.
• Amen.

But no Church has evinced such enthusiasm for Saint Nicholas as the Greek Church in its Mensea. This illustrious Thaumaturgus was evidently one of the firmest hopes of the Byzantine Empire, and Constantinople transmitted the same confidence to Russia, which even to this day professes great devotion to Saint Nicholas. We extract, as usual, a few stanzas from the sacred chants which the Church of Saint Sophia anciently sang in the Greek language, and which the gilded domes of Moscow re-echo still, every year, in Sclavonic.

Hymn of Saint Nicholas

• You dwelled in Myra, and being spiritually anointed, you showed yourself to be truly a mystic myrrh, Saintly Nicholas, great High Priest of Christ! You anointest them that ever come with faith and love to celebrate your memory; for, by your prayers to God, O Father, you deliver them from every necessity, and peril, and tribulation.
• How well indeed have you fulfilled your name, The Peoples Victory! for, Saintly Nicholas, and High Priest of Christ, you are the powerful helper of them that are in temptation. Wheresoever you are invoked, you swiftly are with those that lovingly have recourse to your protection, for day and night you showed yourself to the eye of faith, and saved them from temptations and necessities.
• You appeared to the Emperor Constantine and to Ablavius in their sleep, terrifying them, and thus bidding them speedily set their prisoners free: “These men, whom you keep bound in prison, deserve not the death you have unjustly sentenced them to: and if you, O Prince, set my word at nought, I will beseechingly bear a petition against you to the Lord.”
• You fixed your keen vision on the heights of the Mystery, and looked down into the cloud-covered abyss of Wisdom. O Father, that enriched the world by your doctrines, pray for us to Christ, High Priest Nicholas!
• Christ our God showed you to your flock as the rule of faith and the model of meekness, you High Priest, you sainted Hierarch Nicholas! for you pour forth in Myra a delicious fragrance, and your splendid deeds give out their bright light, you the protector of the orphan and the widow: therefore, cease not to pray for the salvation of our souls.
• Rejoice, most holy soul, most pure abode of the Trinity, pillar of the Church, support of the faithful, help of the wearied, star, which by the vivid rays of your most efficacious prayers, dispel the darkness of every temptation, holy Priest Nicholas! most tranquil port, into which the tempest tossed run and find safety, beseech Jesus to show unto our souls his great mercy.
• Rejoice, O you that burnest with divine zeal, who, by your terrible threat spoken to men in their dream, rescued them that were unjustly condemned to death. O fount of Myra overflowing with sweetness, that refreshes souls, that cleans what passion defiles! Sword that cuts down the tares of error! come and winnow away the chaffy doctrines of Arius; and beseech Jesus to grant unto our souls his great mercy.
• O you the most high King of kings, Almighty Lord, O Divine Word, we beseech you hear the prayer of this your holy Pastor, and give to all Christians to pass their days in peace: grant to our good King victory and energy against the barbarians: that thus we may all and in all times hymn your power, and extol you for ever and ever.
– from the Menæa of the Greeks

Prayer of Petition to Saint Nicholas

Holy Pontiff Nicholas, how great is your glory in God’s Church! You confessed the name of Jesus before the proconsuls of the world’s empire, and suffered persecution for his name’s sake; afterwards, you were witness to the wonderful workings of God, when he restored peace to his Church; and a short time after this again, you opened your lips, in the assembly of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers, to confess with supreme authority the Divinity of our Saviour Jesus Christ, for whose sake so many millions of Martyrs had already shed their blood. Receive the devout felicitations of the Christian people throughout the universe, who thrill with joy when they think of your glorious merits. Help us by your prayers during these days when we are preparing for the coming of Him, whom you proclaimed to be Consubstantial to the Father. Vouchsafe to assist our faith and to obtain fresh fervour to our love. You now behold face to face that Word by whom all things were made and redeemed; beseech him to permit our unworthiness to approach him. Be our intercessor with him. You have taught us to know him as the sovereign and eternal God; teach us also to love him as the supreme benefactor of the children of Adam. It was from him, charitable Pontiff, that you learned that tender compassion for the sufferings of your fellow men, which made all your miracles to be so many acts of kindness: cease not, now that you are in the company of the Angels, to have pity on and to succour our miseries.

Stir up and increase the faith of mankind in the Saviour whom the Lord has sent them. May this be one of the fruits of your prayer, that the Divine Word may be no longer unknown and forgotten in this world, which he has redeemed with his Blood. Ask for the pastors of the Church that spirit of charity, which shone so brilliantly in thee; that spirit which makes them like their divine Master, and wins them the hearts of their people.

Remember, too, O holy Pontiff, that Church of the East which still loves you so fervently. When you were on this earth, God gave you power to raise the dead to life; pray now, that the true life, which consists in Faith and Unity, may return once more and animate that body which schism has robbed of its soul. By your supplications, obtain of God that the sacrifice of the Lamb, who is so soon to visit us, may be again and soon celebrated under the cupolas of Saint Sophia. May the sanctuaries of Kiev and Moscow become re-sanctified by the return of the people to unity. May the pride of the Crescent be humbled into submission to the Cross, and the majesty of leaders be brought to acknowledge the power of the Keys of Saint Peter; that thus there may be henceforth neither Scythian, nor Barbarian, but one fold under one Shepherd.

– from the book The Liturgical Year: Advent, by the Very Reverend Dom Prosper Gueranger, Abbot of Solesmes, translated from the French by the Revered Dom Laurence Shepherd, Monk of the English-Benedictine Congregation, 2nd edition; published in Dublin Ireland by James Duffy, 15 Wellington-Quay, 1870

Patronal Feast of the Altar Guild

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We celebrate the feast of St. Stephen the First Martyr with a great devotion. He is the first martyr and patron of our parish & the patron of the Confraternity that my boys are honored to be enrolled in.

Currently, we have four of our five boys serving at the altar. The oldest of the five was promoted to the highest honors of MC having studied diligently with Father’s guidance to serve as MC for Solemn High Mass. The next in line received his medal for Thurifier.  The third has advanced to Torch Bearer. The fourth is eagerly following in their footsteps.  We all look forward to when our littlest one can join them to serve at Holy Mass. 

We assisted at a Solemn High Mass for the special feast and ceremony. 

In the past, Father emphasized the next step for altar servers, the priesthood for those who answer the call to give their entire life for Christ.  And he addressed the general call for all — to serve. 

To further impress the significance of the guild and its patron to the young men and all the faithful, Father reviewed the guild’s rich symbolism. Below is a snippet of what was shared.

➕

Guild’s logo and motto:

Cui Servire Regnare Est

Latin for “He who serves reigns” or “To serve is to reign”.

It is in imitation of Our Lord, Who did not come to be served, but to serve. Blessed is he who serves the Lord at His Holy Altar.

CROWN OF MARTYRDOM

One of the symbols attributed to the Martyrs. It is the crowning triumph of giving one’s life completely to Christ. Saint Stephen has the distinction of being the Protomartyr, or the first Martyr to shed his blood and die for Christ and His Kingdom.

TWIN-SET OF PALMS

The Palm of Martyrdom is another symbol attributed to the Martyrs. The palm symbolizes the triumph of the spirit over the flesh in the earthly battle for eternal salvation.

CHI-RHO

An ancient monogram for the name of Christ, which combines the Greek letters X and P. It was the symbol of victory that Christ revealed to Constantine: In hoc signo vinces!” “In this sign you shall conquer!”

Red cord

The medal is hung from a red cord worn which symbolizes the blood that St. Stephen the Protomartyr shed for Christ.

➕We pray that our boys always offer themselves to God almighty, to blessed Mary, our Mother and to their holy patron, St. Stephen.

🎥An overview of the Medal Ceremony for the Guild on their patronal feast — not all altar boys were in attendance. #jffaltarguild

Star Boy for St. Lucy’s Feast

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He’s ready to be celebrate today’s feast of St. Lucy as Star Boy — serving all his siblings and leading the way.

I wasn’t sure it would happen today since I didn’t stick to my plans as I hoped and I didn’t even have supplies for the hat. But he was set on filling his big brother’s role from previous years, the girls have generously given up their role on today’s feastday.

With all the special touches and treats to provide an Advent break of sorts, we do not neglect to meditate further on the life of this powerful saint.

Below is practical consideration from #frweninger 1876:

Impress deeply into your heart three memorable sayings of Saint Lucy.

The first regards almsgiving before death. This is much more agreeable to the Almighty, and much more useful to you than to give after your death. May you choose what is most agreeable to God and most useful to yourself.

The second is the answer which she gave to Paschasius: “You obey the command of the Emperor, and I, the command of God. You fear a mortal man, and I fear the immortal God; Him I must obey.” May you act according to these words. Keep the commandments of the Lord, for He can truly be more useful to you, and harm you more than all mortal men.

The third is comprised in the following words: “Those whose life is chaste, are a temple of the Holy Ghost.” For whom then are the unchaste a dwelling? Surely, for no one else than the spirit of hell. Should not this thought alone awaken in you the greatest horror for the vice of unchastity, and an especial love for the virtue of purity?

Besides these three maxims, consider how miraculously Saint Lucy was strengthened and protected by the power of God, in such a manner that no force could move her from where she stood.

Endeavor, at least, to be immovable in your intention, to live more piously, and to shun sin, especially that sin to which you are most addicted.

In order not to become guilty of it again, you ought to stand as immovable as a rock in the sea.

Let prayer and trust in God be your help, as they were Saint Lucy’s.

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast and immovable,” says Saint Paul. (1 Corinthians 15)

St. Lucia

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Dad has Scandinavian & Italian blood but we celebrate this glorious feast day because we are Catholic and seek the intercession of our beloved St. Lucia.

We seek to use the beautiful customs which have been inspired by the liturgical customs to inspire our family to make a feast day marvelous — to give greater glory to God and a special saint.

And sometimes it’s super simple — store-bought donuts and a reading of the saint’s life (as pictured from last year’s celebration).

May it all lift our minds to Heaven where the Saint of Light sings in the glorious Choir of Virgins.

May all the feast day celebrations in our homes be a way to invite Heaven to work miracles again for the faithful through the intercession of the members of the Church Triumphant, the Saints — our modest attempt to restore Christendom within our own families.

SANTA LUCIA, ORA PRO NOBIS.

This year we will have a simple brunch at 10 am after our children’s first lessons of the day. We will turn on our tree lights in the house and the candles in the windows. We will offer our family rosary & Advent devotions earlier so we can make our first trip to see Christmas lights in town while enjoying a hot drink & treat.

The drive ended with Compline. Dad tucks them into bed and we will return to our normal Advent Plans – awaiting the Christ-child with our set out penance, devotions, and an exterior reflective of our interior.

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