“True and Living Friendship Can Not Thrive Amid Sin” ~ Saint Francis de Sales and the crisis of post-Christian friendship

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A lamentable feature of modern post-Christian life in the West is the inability of many people to form strong, lasting friendships. This observation has popped up with increasing frequency in the secular media, particularly as it relates to the Millennial generation. A recent poll that made the rounds last year indicated that 22% of Millennials who responded said that they had no friends at all, 27% said that they had no close friends, and 30% said that they had no best friends.

The article accompanying the poll suggests that social media usage has been a major driver of this phenomenon. Online "friends" may be myriad, but they are also distant and illusory—not really friends at all in the traditional sense. Most young people seem to understand that implicitly.

As families shrink, and young people grow up without knowing the joys of a multitude of siblings and cousins, this lack of friends means that more and more people are feeling isolated, lonely and are lacking any sort of social safety net to help them when they encounter financial, health, or emotional problems.

But this sad dilemma should not be left at the doorstep of social media alone. Rather, I posit that the problem is at least partially due to a general loss of the traditional Christian virtues as a given among most people, and the tendency to fill that void by congregating together based on vain and trivial interests or worse, outright sinful desires and activities. As St. Francis de Sales taught in his excellent work, Philothea: Introduction to the Devout Life, such trivialities can never form the basis of a true friendships. Instead, true friendship requires that we bear with the trivial, actively discourage the sinful, and encourage virtue in our friends. It should go without saying that the same should be true of married couples and family members.

In Philothea, Saint Francis explains the difference between true and false friendship in great detail:

“Friendship demands very close correspondence between those who love one another, otherwise it can never take root or continue. And together with the interchange of friendship, other things imperceptibly glide in, and a mutual giving and receiving of emotions and inclinations takes place; especially when we esteem the object of our love very highly, because then we so entirely open our heart to him, that his influence rules us altogether, whether for good or evil.”

The distorted modern concept of “love” is often rendered as being unconditional and all-accepting. That is, we are enjoined to demonstrate our love for each other by accepting, celebrating, or even adopting the faults and sins of our friends and family members. Saint Francis continues, saying, to the contrary:

“Of course we should love him notwithstanding his faults, but without loving those faults. True friendship implies an interchange of what is good, not what is evil….Saint Gregory Nazianzen tells us how certain persons who loved and admired Saint Basil were led to imitate even his external blemishes, his slow, abstracted manner of speaking, the cut of his beard, and his peculiar gait. And so we see husbands and wives, children, friends, who, by reason of their great affection for one another, acquire—either accidentally or designedly—many foolish little ways and tricks peculiar to each. This ought not to be, for everyone has enough imperfections of their own without adding those of anybody else, and friendship requires no such thing. On the contrary, it rather constrains us to help one another in getting rid of all sorts of imperfections. Of course we should bear with our friend's infirmities, but we should not encourage them, much less copy them.”

It should be pointed out that St. Francis is only talking about small flaws here—personal idiosyncrasies and imperfections. As to actual sinful behaviors and desires, he speaks without any equivocation: these should never be encouraged or tolerated in our friends. To do so renders the friendship a perverse fiction that can not be maintained without considerable self-deception:

“Of course, I am speaking of imperfections only, for, as to sins, we must neither imitate nor tolerate these in our friends. That is but a sorry friendship which would see a friend perish, and not try to save him, would watch him dying of an abscess without daring to handle the knife of correction which would save him. True and living friendship cannot thrive amid sin....Friendship will banish a casual sin by brotherly correction, but if the sin be persistent, friendship dies out—it can only live in a pure atmosphere.”

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As to those who attempt to lead their friends into sinful behavior, St. Francis says adamantly that we should not consider anyone who does so a friend:

“Much less can true friendship ever lead any one into sin. Our friend becomes an enemy if he seeks to do so, and deserves to lose our friendship, and there is no surer proof of the hollowness of friendship than its profession between evil-doers. If we love a vicious person, our friendship will be vicious too. It will be like those to whom it is given. Those who draw together for mere temporal profit, have no right to call their union friendship. It is not for love of one another that they unite, but for love of gain.” [de Sales: Philothea, Part III, Chapter 22]

In a previous chapter, St. Francis describes what a true friendship should look like:

“Love every one with the pure love of charity, but have friendship only with those whose interactions are good and true, and the purer the bond which unites you so much higher will your friendship be. If your relationship is based on science it is praiseworthy, still more if it arises from a participation in goodness, prudence, justice and the like. But if the bond of your mutual liking be charity, devotion and Christian perfection, God knows how very precious a friendship it is! Precious because it comes from God, because it tends to God, because God is the link that binds you, because it will last forever in Him. Truly it is a blessed thing to love on earth as we hope to love in Heaven, and to begin that friendship here which is to endure for ever there. I am not now speaking of simple charity, a love due to all mankind, but of that spiritual friendship which binds souls together, leading them to share devotions and spiritual interests, so as to have but one mind between them. Such as these may well cry out, ‘Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in unity!’” [de Sales: Philothea, Part III, Chapter 22]

Today, January 29, is the feast day of St. Francis de Sales on the traditional calendar. This great saint and Doctor of the Church had many profound things to say about friendship, love, and other aspects of life that are sadly forgotten today. Click here to read more from his Philothea: Introduction to the Devout Life.

Of course, this is a book that every Catholic should have on their bookshelves, so go ye and order a copy here.

"The Actual Remains of the Great Doctor Were Conveyed to the Imperial City" ~ January 27, Feast of the Translation of Relics of Saint John Chrysostom

The translation of the relics of Saint John Chyrsostom to the Church of the
Holy Apostles in Constantinople, taken from the 11th century work known
as the Menologion of Basil II, now contained in the Vatican Library.

On this date in AD 438, the remains of Saint John Chrysostom were returned to Constantinople to be re-buried following a pious procession and public honors granted by the Emperor Theodosius II and his sister, Saint Pulcheria.

Saint John had been exiled from Constantinople in AD 404 after getting on the bad side of the Empress Eudoxia and squabbling with political and religious factions in the capital. He eventually perished in exile in the city of Comana in eastern Asia Minor.

About thirty years later, one of John’s disciples became patriarch of Constantinople. This man was Saint Proclus who offered a moving homily praising his mentor. This speech, and the apparent sympathy it generated among the people, convinced Theodosius II to command that the relics of St. John be allowed to return from exile. By this act, Proclus and Theodosius II reconciled the Christian factions in Constantinople which had remained bitterly divided since John’s banishment.

Following is a contemporary account of the event from the 5th century historian Socrates Scholasticus:

Proclus the bishop brought back to the Church those who had separated themselves from it on account of Bishop John's deposition, he having soothed the irritation by a prudent expedient. What this was we must now recount. Having obtained the emperor's permission, he removed the body of John from Comana, where it was buried, to Constantinople, in the thirty-fifth year after his deposition. And when he had carried it in solemn procession through the city, he deposited it with much honor in the church termed The Apostles. By this means the admirers of that prelate were conciliated, and again associated in communion with the [catholic] Church. This happened on the 27th of January, in the sixteenth consulate of the Emperor Theodosius. [Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, Book VII, Chapter 45]

More details of the actual translation of the relics, including how they were personally welcomed to the capital by Theodosius II and his sister, Saint Pulcheria, may be found in the 5th century Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret of Cyrrhus, as follows:

At a later time the actual remains of the great doctor were conveyed to the imperial city, and once again the faithful crowd turning the sea as it were into land by their close packed boats, covered the mouth of the Bosphorus towards the Propontis with their torches. The precious possession was brought into Constantinople by the present emperor, who received the name of his grandfather and preserved his piety undefiled. After first gazing upon the bier he laid his head against it, and prayed for his parents and for pardon on them who had ignorantly sinned, for his parents had long ago been dead, leaving him an orphan in extreme youth, but the God of his fathers and of his forefathers permitted him not to suffer trial from his orphanhood, but provided for his nurture in piety, protected his empire from the assaults of sedition, and bridled rebellious hearts. Ever mindful of these blessings he honors his benefactor with hymns of praise. Associated with him in this divine worship are his sisters [Pulcheria, Arcadia and Marina], who have maintained virginity throughout their lives, thinking the study of the divine oracles the greatest delight, and reckoning that riches beyond robbers' reach are to be found in ministering to the poor.[Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History, Book V, Chapter 36]

Later sources have claimed that when the coffin of St. John was opened, his body was found to be incorrupt. I have not been able to discover any ancient references to this miraculous event. However, there is an anonymous late medieval Russian source entitled Dialogue on the Shrines and Other Points of Interest in Constantinople, which says the following:

The tomb of St. John Chrysostom, however, is at the high altar in the sanctuary of Saint Sophia, and is covered with a slab worked in gold and precious stones. [His body] was still whole, and reposes there as if alive. There is nothing dismal about his vestments or hair, but to this day [the body] exudes a strong sweet fragrance. [Majeska: Russian Travelers to Constantinople in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, pg. 134]

It is said that the incorrupt ear of St. John may be found at a monastery on Mount Athos. Also at Mount Athos is a relic purporting to be the incorrupt right hand of St. John as pictured below.

A relic believed to be the right hand of St. John Chrysostom.

"Never was the encouragement of the gods more sure..." ~ The elevation of Honorius as Co-Augustus, January 23, AD 393

Image of Honorius from the consular diptych of Anicius Petronius Probus, AD 406.

January 23 is the anniversary of the elevation of Honorius as Co-Augustus of the Roman Empire by his father, Theodosius the Great. He was a mere boy of nine years-old at the time. Theodosius raised him in AD 393 on the eve of his great conflict with the Western usurpers, Eugenius and Arbogast which would culminate in the Battle of the River Frigidus. After winning the battle and reunifying the empire, Theodosius soon fell ill. On his deathbed, he bequeathed the empire to his two sons, dividing it between Arcadius in the East and Honorius in the West.

Knowing that a boy of eleven could not possibly rule the Western Empire, Theodosius provided Honorius with a supremely capable protector – the half-barbarian general, Stilicho. It was well that he did so because even as he matured, Honorius proved to be among the most inept men ever to attain the imperial purple. In modern parlance, he seemed to be something of a doofus.

The late-Roman Latin poet and panegyricist, Claudian, has provided an obsequious, ridiculous, and unintentionally ironic description of the elevation of Honorius, followed by a stylized oration delivered by Theodosius to his young son offering advice. I will excerpt parts of it below, but when reading it, it is well to remember that Claudian was writing as much for Stilicho as he was for Honorius—if not more so. The poem was written as a Panegyric on the Fourth Consulship of Honorius in AD 398, a mere five years after his elevation. Honorius would have been fourteen at the time, having ruled the West in his own right for three years. Perhaps Claudian still had hope that the young prince would grow out of the indecisive fecklessness which was, no doubt, already beginning to show itself. 

First, we see that the elevation of Honorius was apparently accompanied by a strange astral phenomenon. The allusions to the pagan pantheon and heavenly omens would likely not have seemed strange to a Late Roman Christian prince like Honorius:

Thou, then Caesar, didst become emperor and wert straightway made equal with thy brother. Never was the encouragement of the gods more sure, never did heaven attend with more favoring omens. Black tempest had shrouded the light in darkness and the south wind gathered thick rain-clouds, when of a sudden, so soon as the soldiers had borne thee aloft with customary shout, Phoebus scattered the clouds and at the same moment was given to thee the sceptre, to the world light.…Even at midday did a wondering people gaze upon a bold star ('twas clear to behold) — no dulled nor stunted beams but bright as Boötes' nightly lamp. At a strange hour its brilliance lit up the sky and its fires could be clearly seen though the moon lay hid. May be it was the Queen mother's star or the return of thy grandsire's now become a god, or may be the generous sun agreed to share the heavens with all the stars that hasted to behold thee. The meaning of those signs is now unmistakable.

Then follows Theodosius’s lengthy speech as crafted by Claudian. It includes the following interesting passage which sounds almost didactic in nature as if intending to educate and overawe Claudian's audience who may not have been particularly well versed in Roman history:

“Show no scorn of thine inferiors nor seek to overstep the limits established for mankind. Pride joined thereto defaces the fairest character. They are not submissive Sabaeans whom I have handed over to thy rule, nor have I made thee lord of Armenia; I give thee not Assyria, accustomed to a woman's rule. Thou must govern Romans who have long governed the world, Romans who brooked not Tarquin's pride nor Caesar's tyranny. History still tells of our ancestors' ill deeds; the stain will never be wiped away. So long as the world lasts the monstrous excesses of the Julian house will stand condemned. Will any not have heard of Nero's murders or how Capri's foul cliffs were owned by an agèd lecher [that is, Tiberius]? The fame of Trajan will never die, not so much because, thanks to his victories on the Tigris, conquered Parthia became a Roman province, not because he brake the might of Dacia and led their chiefs in triumph up the slope of the Capitol, but because he was kindly to his country. Fail not to make such as he thine example, my son.”

Claudian goes on at length about the heroes of the Roman Republic, but then puts the following response into young Honorius’s mouth which, frankly, must have seemed absurd to his audience. One can almost hear the barbarian federate troops snickering:

"All this will I do, so God favor my attempts. The peoples and kingdoms committed to my care shall find me not unworthy of thee nor of my brother. But why should I not experience in action what thou hast taught in words? Thou goest to the wintry Alps: take me with thee. Let mine arrows pierce the tyrant's body, and the barbarians pale at my bow. Shall I allow Italy to become the prey of a ruthless bandit? Rome to serve one who is himself but a servant? Am I still such a child that neither power profaned nor just revenge for an uncle's blood shall move me? Fain would I ride through blood. Quick, give me arms. Why castest thou my youth in my teeth? Why thinkest me unequal to the combat? I am as old as was Pyrrhus when alone he o'erthrew Troy and proved himself no degenerate from his father Achilles. If I may not remain in thy camp as a prince I will come even as a soldier."

Returning to the present, Claudian declares that Theodosius’s prayers for his son have been answered in full...but not merely in the person of his son alone...

Behold now, great father, in whatsoever part of heaven thou shinest, be it the southern arch or the cold constellation of the Plough that has won the honour of thy presence; see, thy prayer has been answered; thy son now equals thee in merit, nay, a consummation still more to be desired, he surpasseth thee, thanks to the support of thy dear Stilicho whom thou thyself at thy death didst leave to guard and defend the brothers twain. For us there is nought that Stilicho is not ready to suffer, no danger to himself he is not willing to face, neither hardships of the land nor hazards of the sea.

The above excerpts were taken from here: Panegyric on the Fourth Consulship of Honorius.

There is much more to tell about the eventful but ultimately disastrous reign of Honorius, but let one anecdote recorded by Procopius in his Vandalic Wars about the sack of the city of Rome in AD 410 serve to indicate how sadly incapable he eventually proved to be:

Emperor Honorius in Ravenna received the message from one of the eunuchs, evidently a keeper of the poultry, that Rome had perished. And he cried out and said, "And yet it has just eaten from my hands!" For he had a very large cock, Rome by name; and the eunuch comprehending his words said that it was the city of Rome which had perished at the hands of Alaric, and the emperor with a sigh of relief answered quickly: "But I, my good fellow, thought that my fowl Rome had perished." So great, they say, was the folly with which this emperor was possessed. [Procopius: The Vandalic Wars, Book III, Chapter 2]

Honorius feeding his fowl in The Favorites of the Emperor Honorius
by John William Waterhouse (1883).

Saint Maurus Walks on Water ~ As told by Pope Saint Gregory the Great

Saint Maurus rescues Saint Placidus by Bartolomeo di Giovanni, ca. AD 1485.

In about AD 530, when Italy was ruled by the unstable successors of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric immediately prior to the Byzantine re-conquest, many noblemen of Rome entrusted their young sons to Benedictus, a holy monk who lived in the mountains of nearby Subiaco. One such boy was Maurus who is identified by Saint Gregory the Great as the son of a noble named Evitius. Another was Placidus, who was brought by Tertullius, a senator.

These two were among earliest disciples of a man who would be known to history as St. Benedict of Nursia.

Writing about 60 years after the fact in his Dialogues, Pope Saint Gregory the Great tells us that Maurus, “growing to great virtue, began to be his master's coadjutor.” Maurus is mentioned as part of several episodes in Gregory’s biography of Benedict as contained in the Dialogues. The best known of these anecdotes runs as follows:

On a certain day, as venerable Benedict was, in his cell, the foresaid young Placidus, the holy man's monk, went out to take up water at the lake, and putting down his pail carelessly, fell in himself after it, whom the water forthwith carried away from the land so far as one may shoot an arrow. The man of God, being in his cell, by and by knew this, and called in haste for Maurus, saying: "Brother Maurus, run as fast as you can, for Placidus, that went to the lake to fetch water, is fallen in, and is carried a good way off." 

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A strange thing, and since the time of Peter the Apostle never heard of! Maurus, craving his father's blessing, and departing in all haste at his commandment, ran to that place upon the water, to which the young lad was carried by force thereof, thinking that he had all that while gone upon the land: and taking fast hold of him by the hair of his head, in all haste he returned back again: and so soon as he was at land, coming to himself he looked behind him, and then knew very well that he had before run upon the water: and that which before he durst not have presumed, being now done and past, he both marveled, and was afraid at that which he had done.

Coming back to the father, and telling him what had happened, the venerable man did not attribute this to his own merits, but to the obedience of Maurus: but Maurus on the contrary, said that it was done only upon his commandment, and that he had nothing to do in that miracle, not knowing at that time what he did. But the friendly contention proceeding of mutual humility, the young youth himself that was saved from drowning did determine: for he said that he saw when he was drawn out of the water the Abbot's garment upon his head, affirming that it was he that had delivered him from that great danger. 

Saint Maurus would later become famous in his own right. According to tradition, he was sent by Benedict, in company with several other monks, to found a community in the kingdom of the Franks nearby the Loire River. This became Glanfeuil Abbey and the village which grew up around it became known as Saint-Maur-sur-Loire. In the late 19th century, archaeological excavations were undertaken around the modern abbey, which had been destroyed and rebuilt several times over its history, revealing Gallo-Roman sub-structures.

Sadly, the modern abbey was abandoned in 1901 after the monks were driven out of France. It now seems to be privately owned without much external evidence of what it once was. Alas.

On the traditional calendar, the feast of Saint Maurus is commemorated on January 15 along with that of Saint Placidus. These saints are often confused with others of the same or similar names.

Pope Vigilius Celebrates Christmas by Jumping from a Window to Escape Justinian's Henchmen ~ December 23, AD 551

Scene from the life of Joseph the Patriarch as taken from the mid-6th century
throne of Maximian, bishop of Ravenna. The late-Roman garb of the figures,
particularly the soldiers, is notable.

Two days before Christmas, on 23 December 551 AD, a most curious scene took place which involved a Pope squeezing out of a palace window in the middle of the night, boarding a boat, and fleeing pell-mell across the Bosporus to seek sanctuary from the menaces of the Christian Roman emperor.

In a previous post, I provided a summary of the miserable reign of Pope Vigilius, who reigned from AD 537 to 555. At the time of the abovementioned episode, Vigilius had already been detained in Constantinople by the emperor Justinian for several years. The Pope and the Emperor had been squabbling over the so-called “Three Chapters” controversy—part of a debate over the nature of Christ during which accusations, threats and excommunications had roiled the Church for decades. Elected to the papacy as a pawn of the empress Theodora, Vigilius had been spirited away to Constantinople when he had refused to do the bidding of the Empress and lift the excommunications on her monophysite allies.

Vigilius was no stranger to Justinian’s strong-arm tactics. A few years before, he had been man-handled by the emperor’s guardsmen who attempted to remove him physically from a place of sanctuary at the church of Saint Peter in Constantinople. He was only saved by the reticence of Justinian’s soldiers who felt the duty unseemly and fled, spurred on by an angry mob that had gathered in support of the Pope. Vigilius had later been convinced to emerge and negotiate with the emperor again, taking up residence in the Palace of Placidia after oaths were given ensuring his personal safety. But after additional diplomacy produced no good fruit, Justinian again lost patience. Writing in the late 19th century, Thomas Hodgkin describes the situation of Vigilius, drawn directly from the Pope’s encyclical letter to the Catholic world written a few months after the event:

Notwithstanding all this swearing, the situation of the Pope after his return became daily more intolerable. His servants and ecclesiastics who remained faithful to him were publicly insulted. Every entrance to the palace was blocked by armed men. He had reason to think that a violent attack was about to be made upon his person. After making a vain appeal to the imperial envoys whose plighted oath was thus being violated, he quitted the palace again by night two days before Christmas-day. The shouts of men-at-arms penetrated even to his bed-chamber, and only the urgent terror, as he himself says, could have impelled him to the hardships and dangers of a nocturnal expedition. [Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, p. 599]

According to Hodgkin’s footnote on the above passage, it seems that the Roman Pontiff was forced to squeeze his not inconsiderable person through a small window or hole in order to escape. Once out of the palace, Vigilius boarded a boat and made a perilous night-crossing of the Bosporous, taking refuge at the church of Saint Euphemia in Chalcedon. This was a symbolic move on the Pope’s part – Saint Euphemia was the Church where the Council of Chalcedon had met nearly a century before. It was this Council that Vigilius was defending against attempts by the emperor to water down its authority.

The Pope remained in St. Euphemia for a little over a month before Justinian sent a delegation of the most illustrious Romans to attempt to coax him forth. These included no less than the master of soldiers Belisarius, the Roman senator Cethegus, Peter the Patrician, the emperor’s great-nephew Justin, and the emperor’s secretary Marcellinus.

A few days after this meeting, Pope Vigilius wrote the encyclical letter mentioned above. Here are the Pope’s own words from the introduction of the encyclical, as translated in Fr. Hugo Rahner’s book, Church and State in Early Christianity:

We sought asylum in this church for no financial or personal reasons but solely because of the scandal afflicting the Church, which, because of our sins, is known to all. Therefore, if the controversy rending the Church is resolved, and the peace which our most religious sovereign negotiated in his uncle’s [Justin I] time is restored, then I have no need of oaths—I will leave immediately. But if the controversy is not ended, then oaths are of no avail, for I will never agree to leave the Church of St. Euphemia until the Church is rid of this scandal. [Rahner: Church and State in Early Christianity, p. 175]

The balance of this letter is well worth reading. Regardless of what one thinks of Vigilius and his subsequent knuckling-under to the emperor’s wishes, one is forced to admire his steadfastness here in the face of an irresistible political will and threats of physical compulsion. The letter also gives us an idea of the complexity of the political and religious situation in the Roman Empire at the time—when Christian doctrine could be confected and enforced using the most naked partisan tools including threats, intimidation, bribery, intrigue, forgery and even brute force.

One might also wish that our modern Church leaders would show even a fraction of this type of steadfastness when defending traditional Christian doctrine against diabolical innovations.

Wishing you a Happy Coup Day

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At this festive time of year, when the Generic Winter Holiday spirit is swelling, and non-cisgendered, positive body image Parent/Guardian of the Season brings carbon-neutral gifts to all the children of the world without judging them, we are proud to offer a new re-educational product from Leftist Banana Republic Games: Coup! 

This new game joyfully celebrates the sad, somber and wholly constitutional attempt to overthrow an elected but deplorable president by a body of non-partisan Democrat heroes, fully supported by an objective, unbiased media. We are fortunate to live in these historic times when those who are critical of the antiquated, racist, living document known as the Constitution, are keen to appeal to it as the motivation behind their noble and completely legal obligation to subvert the Constitution.

So be sure to get a copy of Coup!, one of a series of Partisan Witchhunt Games sponsored by Leftist Banana Republic. It will help bring a solemn, reflective sense of savage political euphoria to the season, whether you be celebrating Festivus, Saturnalia or the Winter Solstice.

"He will make me, Damasus, arise from my ashes" ~ The epitaphs of Pope Saint Damasus

Pope Saint Damasus I in the Catacombs, taken from Shea's Pictorial Lives of the Saints. 

“He who stilled the raging waves of the sea by walking thereon, He who makes the dying seeds of the earth to live, He who could loose for Lazarus the chains of death, and give back again to the world above her brother to his sister Martha after three days and nights. He, I believe, will make me, Damasus, arise from my ashes.”

—Epitaph of Pope Saint Damasus, composed by himself and placed on his tomb. 

Pope Saint Damasus I reigned as bishop of Rome for eighteen years from AD 366 through 384. The Liber Pontificalis records that he was a Spaniard and the son of Antonius. Based on the epitaph written for his father by Damasus himself, Antonius was a Church record-keeper, lector and later bishop.

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According to the Liber Pontificalis, Damasus, “searched out many bodies of the saints and found them and marked them with verses.” He further, “built two basilicas, one near the theater to the holy Lawrence, and the other on the Via Ardeatina where he is buried in the catacombs, and he dedicated the marble slab whereon lay the bodies of the apostles, that is, the blessed Peter and Paul, and he beautified it with verses.”

His father’s original profession probably explains Damasus’s passion to restore the tombs of the martyrs and commemorate them in stone as best he could. It should be remembered that sixty years before his reign, the Christian Church in Rome was nearly annihilated during the persecution under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. At that time, it seems that most of the records of the Roman Church, including grave sites, were sought out and obliterated by the persecutors.

To restore as much as he could for posterity, Damasus undertook to mark the graves of his predecessors. Many of his epitaphs (like the one above) have survived to this day. Inscribed in the mid-4th century, these epitaphs represent some of the earliest records of the saints and popes of Rome. Here are a few examples:

Epitaph on a niche which once held the bodies of Saints Peter and Paul in the Catacombs (as mentioned above):

Here, you must know, the saints dwelt aforetime. Their names, if you ask, were Peter and Paul. The East sent the disciples, as we gladly admit. On account of the merit of their blood—and having followed Christ through the stars, they sought the ethereal havens and the realms of the just—Rome rather deserved to defend her citizens. Let Damasus thus recall your praises, ye new constellations.

Epitaph of Pope Sixtus II, martyred during the reign of Valerian in AD 258:

At the time when the sword severed the holy bowels of our mother, I, the ruler, was seated here teaching the Divine laws: those come suddenly who are to seize me on my throne. Then the people gave their necks to the soldiers who were sent, but when the elder knew who wished to bear away the palm, he offered himself and his life of his own accord first of all, lest their impatient frenzy should injure anyone. Christ, who awards the prizes of life, shows the merit of the Shepherd. He Himself keeps the number of the flock.

Epitaph of the martyrs Peter and Marcellinus who are mentioned to this day in the Roman Canon of the Mass:

When I was a boy, your executioner made known to me thy triumphs, O Marcellinus, and thine also, O Peter. The mad butcher gave him this commandment—that he should sever your necks in the midst of the thickets in order that no one should be able to recognize your grave, and he told how you prepared your sepulcher with eager hands. Afterwards you lay hid in a white cave, and then Lucilla was caused to know by your goodness that it pleased you rather to lay your sacred limbs here.

This epitaph is especially interesting because it demonstrates the emphasis placed by the Roman persecutors on preventing Christians from finding and commemorating the bodies of their martyrs. It is also a good indication of how the oral tradition was passed down during the dangerous years before the history could be written again on paper or carved into stone.

Epitaph of Saint Eutychius by Pope St. Damasus I. Read the translation here. 

Finally, here is an epitaph for Pope Saint Marcellus who advocated tough discipline for those who had apostatized during the Great Persecution and was later banished from Rome by the usurper, Maxentius:

The truth-telling ruler, because he bade the lapsed weep for their crimes, became a bitter enemy to all these unhappy men. Hence followed rage and hate, and discord and strife, sedition and slaughter. The bonds of peace are loosed. On account of the crimes of another, who denied Christ in time of peace, he was driven from the borders of his fatherland by the savagery of the tyrant. Damasus wishes briefly to tell these things which he had found out, that the people might know the merit of Marcellus.

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Other saints whose epitaphs of Damasus survive include: Nereus, Achilleus, Pope Callixtus, Gordianus, Tiburtius, Felicitas, Felix, Philippus, Hippolytus, Pope Cornelius, Tarsacius, Pope Eusebius, Lawrence, and Agnes.

All of these may be found in the book, I Am a Christian: Authentic Accounts of Christian Martyrdom and Persecution from the Ancient Sources. These epitaphs, along with explanatory text, are included as an appendix.

As part of his drive to preserve Christian antiquity for all time and transmit it faithfully to the future, Damasus encouraged Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus (aka, Saint Jerome) to undertake his monumental Latin Vulgate translation of Sacred Scripture. Indeed, Jerome mentions Pope Damasus by name in his preface on the Gospels.

Damasus died on December 11, AD 384 and his feast is commemorated on that date.

Resolution to Impeach the President

Presenting the actual articles of impeachment to be considered against Mr. Trump by Mr. Nadler's kangaroo court...

Veni, redemptor gentium! The feast day of Saint Ambrose of Milan ~ December 7

Saint Ambrose absolving Theodosius the Great by French artist
Pierre Subleyras, ca. 1745.

December 7 is the feast day of Saint Ambrose of Milan—one of the most celebrated and brilliant of the early Church fathers. Born around the year AD 340, Ambrose would rise through the ranks of the secular Roman world, only to find himself hailed to the bishopric of Milan by popular acclamation. He would hold that position through the turbulent period at the end of the 4th century until his death in AD 397.

Click here for more information.

To help celebrate the feast day of Saint Ambrose, check out this reprint of The Life of Saint Ambrose—an ancient biography written by Paulinus of Milan.

I have spent a considerable quantity of pixels on Saint Ambrose in the past. In previous posts, we saw a prodigy involving bees that covered him as an infant, the unusual circumstances surrounding his consecration as bishop, his miraculous discovery of the relics of saints Gervasius and Protasius, how he eulogized Valentinian II and his public rebuke of the emperor Theodosius the Great.

For this post, let's take a look at how Ambrose's consecration as bishop of Milan put put him on a collision course with the Empress Justina, mother of Valentian II.

Justina was originally the wife of a man named Magnus Magnentius, who rose to become a western usurper in the mid 4th century. He would be defeated and slain by Constantinus II and Justina, his widow, would go on to marry another powerful man, Valentinian I. While Valentinian I tended to favor orthodoxy Christianity, though without much apparent zeal, Justina was an ardent Arian. After the death of her husband, Justina ruled from behind the throne of her six-year old son, Valentinian II, and was keen to promote Arianism at every turn.

When Ambrose was made bishop at the insistence of the people of Milan, he soon made it clear that he would uphold the orthodox Christian beliefs. As a result, Justina began seeking ways to get rid of him. As recorded by Paulinus:

[Ambrose] returned to Milan and there withstood countless insidious attacks of the above mentioned woman Justina who, by bestowing offices and honors, aroused the people against the holy man. And the weak were deceived by such promises, for she promised tribuneships and various other offices of authority to those who would drag him from the church and lead him into exile.

While many tried this but through the protection of God were not strong enough to accomplish it, one more wretched than the rest, Euthymius by name, was incited to such a pitch of fury that he bought a house for himself near the church and in it placed a wagon in order that he might the more easily seize him and, having placed him in the cart, carry him into exile. But his iniquity came down upon his own head, for a year from that very day on which he planned to seize him, he himself, placed in the same cart, was sent from the same house into exile, reflecting that this had been turned upon him by the just judgment of God, that he was being taken into exile on that very cart which he himself had prepared for the bishop. And the bishop offered him no little consolation by giving him expenses and other things which were necessary.

The failure of Euthymius to seize the bishop did not lessen the desire of the Arian faction to have him removed, however:

...Roused with greater madness, [the Arians] endeavored to break into the Portian Basilica, even an army under arms was sent to guard the doors of the church that no one might dare to enter the Catholic church. But the Lord, who is wont to grant triumphs to His Church over its adversaries, moved the hearts of the soldiers to the defense of His church, so that turning their shields, they guarded the doors of the church, not permitting anyone to go out but also not preventing the Catholic people from entering the church. But not even this could suffice for the soldiers who had been sent, for they too acclaimed the Catholic faith along with the people.

At this time antiphons, hymns, and vigils began first to be practiced in the church of Milan. The devotion to this practice continues even to this very day not only in the same church but almost through all the provinces of the West.

Justina would never manage to lay hands on Ambrose, and would eventually perish after fleeing to Theodosius the Great when the usurper Magnus Maximus took over most of her son's domain.

The last paragraph from Paulinus above refers, of course, to Ambrose's subsequent fame as a hymnodist. Amazingly, some of Ambrose's hymns have survived to this day including this one which is quite fitting for the Advent season:


Here is the text as taken from the preces-latina.org website (see English translation there):

Veni, redemptor gentium,
ostende partum Virginis;
miretur omne saeculum:
talis decet partus Deum.

Non ex virili semine,
sed mystico spiramine
Verbum Dei factum est caro
fructusque ventris floruit.

Alvus tumescit Virginis,
claustrum pudoris permanet,
vexilla virtutum micant,
versatur in templo Deus.

Procedat e thalamo suo,
pudoris aula regia,
geminae gigas substantiae
alacris ut currat viam.

Aequalis aeterno Patri,
carnis tropaeo cingere,
infirma nostri corporis
virtute firmans perpeti.

Praesepe iam fulget tuum
lumenque nox spirat novum,
quod nulla nox interpolet
fideque iugi luceat.

Sit, Christe, rex piissime,
tibi Patrique gloria
cum Spiritu Paraclito,
in sempiterna saecula. Amen.

Saint Francis Xavier, Destroyer of Pagan Idols

Saint Francis Xavier Healing and Preaching. An oil painting similar to one
by Peter Paul Rubens, early 17th century. 

On this feast day of Saint Francis Xavier, let us recall in particular his missionary zeal.

In our own age, we too often hear that the Gospel of Jesus Christ needs to be adapted to appeal to the modern world. We are told that traditional Christian practices are out of step with reality, and that Christian morality practiced for millennia now impose an impossible burden upon both sophisticated city-dwellers and the simple painted people of the jungle alike.

Saint Francis Xavier, perhaps the greatest Jesuit missionary of them all, had no such qualms. He preached the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ to all men without prejudice. He understood that it wasn’t the Gospel that needed adaptation, but the world that needed to be transformed by the Gospel. He believed that all were entitled to the truth of the Catholic Church without varnish, dumbing-down, or odd pastoral approaches that result in confusion and disunity.

Above all, he certainly did not countenance any sort of idolatry under the pretense of cultural diversity. This is how classical Jesuits behaved and brought millions to Christ—exactly the opposite of how too many of the heirs of this heroic patrimony tend to act in our own time.

Following is an excerpt from one of St. Francis Xavier’s letters explaining his method for bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the villages of 16th century India:

When I have done my instruction, I ask one by one all those who desire baptism if they believe without hesitation in each of the articles of the faith. All immediately, holding their arms in the form of the Cross, declare with one voice that they believe all entirely.

Then at last I baptize them in due form, and I give to each his name written on a ticket. After their baptism the new Christians go back to their houses and bring me their wives and families for baptism. When all are baptized I order all the temples of their false gods to be destroyed and all the idols to be broken in pieces.

I can give you no idea of the joy I feel in seeing this done, witnessing the destruction of the idols by the very people who but lately adored them. In all the towns and villages I leave the Christian doctrine in writing in the language of the country, and I prescribe at the same time the manner in which it is to be taught in the morning and evening schools. When I have done all this in one place, I pass to another, and so on successively to the rest.

In this way I go all round the country, bringing the natives into the fold of Jesus Christ, and the joy that I feel in this is far too great to be expressed in a letter, or even by word of mouth.

The above is taken from the book entitled The Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier, Volume 1 by Henry James Coleridge. Click the link above to read more.

In this same book, we read how Francis preached primarily to the lower classes in India, and how in consequence, he was despised by the wealthy Brahmins. But despite the opposition of the wealthy...

He never made any compromise with them, and one of the first steps which he took after baptizing the inhabitants of a village was to destroy the idols and their pagodas. It is natural enough that frequent attempts should have been made on his life. The cottages in which he rested were burnt down, sometimes three or four in one day. Once he was saved, like Charles II, in the thick branches of a tree, around which his enemies were seeking to slay him. He always had a desire for martyrdom, and was almost reckless in exposing himself to danger.” [The Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier, Volume 1]

One wonders what our present-day Church would make of the missionary zeal of Saint Francis Xavier. Would he be denounced as a “proselytizer”? Would he be urged by his bishop to use a softer pastoral approach which enculturates the idols of his converts into their Christian worship? Would he be condemned as one who imposes impossible moral burdens upon his simple converts that not even the wealthy elites of New York, Madrid, and Rome can live up to?

Probably.

Yet, it is hard to argue with success. Men like Saint Francis Xavier expounded a clear, strong and authentic Christianity to the world and thereby brought millions into the Church of Jesus Christ in lands which had never heard of the Gospel. By contrast, our modern leaders seem intent on creating a confusing, soft, muddy Christianity which is intended to offer easy salvation to all, calling none to conversion, repentance or sacrifice.

Those of us who have been alive since the 1970s have seen the bitter fruit of that latter approach. May the Holy Spirit inspire more souls to imitate the counter-cultural boldness, love, and zeal for Christ of Saint Francis Xavier.

"I myself saw her incorrupt" ~ November 22, feast of St. Cecilia

Detail of Stefano Maderno's Saint Cecilia from AD 1600 —
a year after the sculptor had seen the saint's incorrupt remains.

November 22 is the feast day of one of the most ancient female martyrs of the Church – Saint Cecilia of Rome. Unlike many of the other early martyrs I have mentioned in this blog (eg. here, here, here, and here), Saint Cecilia’s Acts are considered by ecclesiastical scholars to be unreliable, having been composed two to three hundred years after her death. That said, there does seem to be broad agreement on some of the basic facts:

1. There was a Christian martyr named Cecilia. 
2. She was martyred in Rome. 
3. She was buried in the catacombs of St. Callixtus in Rome. 
4. She had a following in Rome that memorialized her from very early times. 
5. A basilica was built on the site of her house by Pope Urban in the 3rd century AD. 

As mentioned in previous posts on the destruction of Christian books under Diocletian (The Scriptures Destroyed by Fire) and the poetical remark of Prudentius on the same theme (The Oblivion of a Silent Age), the situation of Cecilia as an authentic Christian martyr with a legendary biography composed much later is far from unique. It seems clear that the Christians of the 6th century possessed only fragmentary details of the lives of many of the early martyrs, to which they added considerable pious embellishment.

St. Cecilia from the
6th century mosaics in
St. Apollinare Nuovo
in Ravenna.

The best and most comprehensive Life of Saint Cecilia (note, this link will open a PDF) was written by Abbé Prosper Guéranger and published in English in 1866. It contains her Acts set into a very broad context of the historical milieu in which Cecilia lived—presumably the 220s AD—and going in places very far afield from the main focus of the work. Abbé Guéranger seems to accept many of the romanticized aspects of the Vita, but includes numerous valuable references to Saint Cecilia from ancient ecclesiastical sources.

First among these is the Leonian Sacramentary which Abbé Guéranger calls the most ancient of the Church, the greater part of which was composed by Pope Saint Leo the Great (reigned, AD 440-461). This sacramentary contains a preface dedicated to Saint Cecilia which reads as follows:

“Cecilia, destined by the will of her parents to become the spouse of a mortal, scorned a union which was to last but a short time, and jealous of the crown of chastity, sought an immortal spouse, preferring the honors of everlasting life to the joys of maternity. Her glory is enhanced by her having prevailed upon Valerian to whom she was united in marriage, to join her in the practice of perpetual chastity, and to share with her the crown of martyrdom.” [Taken from Guéranger, Life of Saint Cecilia, page 159]

Cecilia is mentioned in the Liber Pontificalis, probably written sometime in the early 6th century but based on earlier sources, under the entry for Pope Urban I. This contains the following notice:

“[Urban] by his teaching turned many to baptism and faith, and among them Valerianus, a man of high nobility, husband of holy Cecilia.” [Taken from Loomis: Liber Pontificalis, page 21]

In the 1916 edition of the Liber, the editor, Louise Ropes Loomis, includes a helpful notice which indicates that the author of the Liber was probably familiar with the legendary Passion of St. Cecilia. In the same note, she also includes a translation of the earliest version of the Passion as provided in the Acta Sanctorum – the gigantic encyclopedic work begun by the Bollandists of the 17th century which compiles authentic acts of the saints:

Click for more info.

Cecilia, a virgin of lofty rank, carried always the Gospel of Christ hidden in her bosom….She was espoused to a young man, Valerianus….Valerianus found holy Urbanus, the bishop, who had already been twice a confessor and was in hiding among the tombs of the martyrs….

“Dost thouh call thyself that Urbanus whom the Christians entitle their pope? I hear that he is now condemned a second time and again he has betaken himself into hiding for the same cause.”

(Valerianus and Tiburtius, his brother,) were executed with the sword…. The holy Urbanus baptized in her (Cecilia’s) house more than four hundred of both sexes….

Almachius commanded that Cecilia should be brought before him and he asked her, saying…. “Of what state art thou?”

Cecilia said, “A free woman and a noble of high rank.” … The examiner beheaded (Cecilia). [Taken from Loomis: Liber Pontificalis, page 22, Footnote 1]

The above is probably all we can reliably know about the life and death of Saint Cecilia. However, events which transpired after her death related to her cult as a saint and martyr are manifold and more reliable. One such event, which confirms her veneration in Rome of the AD 540s, shows Pope Vigilius confronting the officers of the Empress Theodora in the basilica of St. Cecilia on her feast day:

When Augusta [Theodora] heard this, she sent Anthemius the scribe, with orders and great authority to Rome, saying: “If you find him in the basilica of Saint Peter, let him go. But if you find Vigilius in the Lateran or in the palace or any other church, set him immediately upon a ship and bring him to us. Else, by Him who liveth forever, I will have you flayed.”

And Anthemius the scribe came to Rome and found Vigilius in the Church of Saint Cecilia, November 22, for it was her birthday. And Anthemius took him while he was distributing gifts to the people [scholars interpret this to mean Holy Communion], and brought him down to the Tiber and set him on a ship. The people and the multitude followed him calling out that they would have a prayer from him. And when he had spoken a prayer, all of the people said: “Amen,” and the ship began to move.

The Romans saw that the ship in which Vigilius was seated had begun to move and then commenced to throw stones after him and sticks and dirty vessels and to cry out, “Your hunger go with you! Your pestilence go with you! You have done evil to the Romans; may you find evil where you go!” [Taken from Loomis: Liber Pontificalis, page 156]

More background on this fascinating episode may be found in a previous post: "I am receiving the reward for my deeds" ~ The Miserable Reign of Pope Vigilius, AD 537-555

Fresco of St. Cecilia in the
Catacombs of St. Callixtus.
Click image to enlarge.

The discovery and translation of Cecilia’s relics is a story unto itself. She was apparently buried first in the ancient catacomb of Callistus nearby the tombs of Pope Urban I, Saint Sebastian, St. Quirinus. This portion of the catacomb contains numerous frescos painted between the 5th and 13th centuries, including the one of Cecilia at right. Her relics were lost after the Lombard invasions of the 6th through 8th centuries, and rediscovered by Pope Pascal I in the 9th century, whence they were translated to the Basilica of Saint Cecilia in Trastevere which is traditionally believed to have been built over Cecilia’s house. It was said at the time when Pascal discovered Cecilia’s remains that they were in a state of perfect preservation. About 800 years later, in AD 1599, the sarcophagus was opened again by Cardinal Sfrondrati in the presence of witnesses. Sabine Baring-Gould tells the rest of the story:

It contained a coffin or chest of cypress wood. The Cardinal himself removed the cover. First was seen the costly lining and the silken veil, with which nearly eight centuries before Paschal had covered the body. It was faded, but not decayed, and through the almost transparent texture could be seen the glimmer of the gold of the garments in which the martyr was clad. After a pause of a few minutes, the Cardinal lifted the veil, and revealed the form of the maiden martyr lying in the same position in which she had died on the floor of her father’s hall. Neither Urban nor Paschal had ventured to alter that. She lay there, clothed in a garment woven with gold thread, on which were the stains of blood; and at her feet were the rolls of linen mentioned by Paschal, as found with the body. She was lying on her right side, the arms sunk from the body, her face turned to the ground; the knees slightly bent and drawn together. The attitude was that of one in a deep sleep. On the throat were the marks of the wounds dealt by the clumsy executioner. 

Thus she had lain, preserved from decay through thirteen centuries. When this discovery was made, Pope Clement VIII was lying ill at Frascati, but he empowered Cardinal Baronius and Bosio, the explorer of the Catacombs, to examine into the matter, and both of these have left an account of the condition in which the body was found. 

For five weeks all Rome streamed to the church to see the body; and it was not until Saint Caecilia’s Day that it was again sealed up in its coffin and marble sarcophagus. [Baring-Gould: Virgin Saints and Martyrs, [1901] p. 35]

Cardinal Sfrondrati summoned a young sculptor named Stefano Maderno to immortalize the incorrupt form of St. Cecilia in marble. That sculpture may be seen to this day at the Basilica of St. Cecila. Beneath the statue are words of the artist himself: “So I show to you in marble the representation of the most holy virgin Caecilia, in the same position which I myself saw her incorrupt lying in her sepulchre.”

The Nine Greatest Rulers of the Christian Roman Empire

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The 4th through 7th centuries are often considered periods of decay and decline for the Roman Empire. I view them, however, as times of crisis and regeneration, as the previously pagan Empire was transformed into an amazingly resilient Christian Empire which persisted for another millennium despite attacks on all sides and myriad convulsions from within.

Who were the most effective rulers during this period? Opinions vary, but here are my choices. Portraits of all, taken from antiquity, may be found in the above image:

Constantine the Great (AD 306-337). Constantine may be considered the founder of the Christian Roman Empire. The story of his life is one of the great tales of triumph (at Rome and at Chyrsopolis) and tragedy, hinging on an episode of divine intervention which literally changed the course of human history—his vision of a Cross in the sky. By embracing Christianity and moving the imperial capital to Byzantium, Constantine created a solid foundation for a renewed Roman Empire which would endure for centuries to come. On his deathbed, he became the first Roman emperor to be baptized a Christian.

Constantius II (AD 337-361). Of the sons of Constantine the Great, Constantius proved to be the most effective. Though his methods left much to be desired, Constantius managed to protect and defend the empire from Persian aggression in the east, and from barbarian invasions in the west. He also crushed a major rebellion in the west under the usurper Magnus Magnentius who had previously slain his brother, Constans. A complicated man with a tendency toward brutality, Constantius swayed toward Arianism and caused the Church a great deal of theological and political upset.

Valentinian I (AD 364-375). Called “a good man and capable of holding the reins of the empire” by Hermias Sozomen, Valentinian rose through the ranks of the Roman military to become the leader of the elite Jovian and Herculean divisions. A steadfast Christian, he endured the hostility of the emperor Julian the Apostate and was elected emperor by the soldiers upon the death of Jovian in AD 364. He spent most of his reign effectively defending the imperial frontiers in the west and perished from a stroke after an angry confrontation with some barbarian ambassadors.

Theodosius I (AD 379-395). A Spaniard by birth, Theodosius was elevated to the imperial throne in the aftermath of the catastrophic Battle of Adrianople where the Roman field army was annihilated and the emperor Valens was killed. He faced the task of rebuilding the army and dealt admirably with the Gothic menace, putting the empire back on a sound footing. He also beat back a dangerous rebellion under Eugenius and Arbogast, and was the last man to rule a unified Eastern and Western Roman Empire. A devout Christian, Theodosius obeyed the command of Saint Ambrose of Milan to offer public repentance for his slaughter of innocent citizens in Thessalonika.

Pulcheria (AD 414-453). The daughter of the Eastern Emperor Arcadius, Pulcheria ruled as regent for her brother, the child-emperor Theodosius II, for many years. Having taken a vow of virginity, “she governed the Roman empire excellently and with great orderliness,” according to her contemporary, Hermias Sozomen. Her reign straddled the disastrous years of the barbarian invasions in both West and East, and under her guidance, the East was able to weather this storm successfully. She was also a driving force behind the Council of Chalcedon which helped unify the Christian Church which was rent with theological disputes.

Majorian (AD 457-461). Considered the last effective Western Roman Emperor, Majorian rose to power along with the barbarian Ricimer. Both men served under the powerful general Aetius, and together they navigated the chaotic political and military situation of mid-5th century Gaul. The two were strong enough to gain the imperial throne for Majorian in AD 457. Using a mixture of armed force and diplomacy, Majorian was able to reconstitute imperial authority in much of Gaul and Spain, and planned to re-conquer Vandal Africa. Ultimately, he was thwarted when his fleet was captured by the Vandals. Following this defeat, his one-time ally Ricimer had Majorian assassinated.

Justinian I (AD 527-565). After Constantine, Justinian is probably the best known of the Christian Roman Emperors. Having inherited the eastern Empire from his uncle, Justin I, Justinian conceived a grand plan for revitalizing the Roman Empire. Starting with the law, he successfully reformed and made clear over 1,000 years of Roman legal code. Though nearly toppled in a fiery rebellion early in his reign, Justinian used the opportunity to rebuild Constantinople and crown her with his great church, Hagia Sophia. Via his brilliant general, Belisarius, he re-conquered vast regions of the west that had been lost during the previous century. His efforts to bring harmony to the Church were less successful, however, and ultimately his efforts over-extended the resources of the empire, leaving it weaker though considerably larger upon his death.

Maurice (AD 582-602). Maurice was described by his contemporary Evagrius Scholasticus as “a prudent and shrewd man, very precise in all matters and unperturbed.” He rose through the court in Constantinople and won fame as Magister Militum of the East. He would later write a military manual which would come down to us as the Strategikon of Maurice. Upon acceding to the throne, Maurice inherited an empty treasury and aggressive enemies on all sides. He nonetheless managed to secure the frontiers, even pushing the Avars out of the Balkan provinces and campaigning on the far side of the Danube. His caution with the imperial finances, however, was scorned by the soldiers, who eventually rose up, deposed and killed Maurice and his family, initiating the disastrous reign of the tyrant, Phocas.

Heraclius (AD 610-641). Heraclius rose to power as the son of the exarch of Carthage during the calamitous reign of Phocas. Along with his father, Heraclius rose in rebellion in AD 608 and captured Constantinople two years later, deposing and beheading Phocas. By that time, however, much of the empire had been overrun by the Persians in the east, and the Avars in the north. Heraclius spent practically all of his reign painstakingly reconquering the lost regions, achieving a final decisive victory over the Persians in AD 630. Sadly, his herculean efforts had utterly exhausted the Roman Empire. At the Battle of Yarmuk in AD 636, Heraclius’s army was crushed by the invading Arabs, leading to the conquest of Roman Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Mesopotamia by the forces of Islam.

After the death of Heraclius in AD 641, the Empire carried on, but it would never again regain the size, power or hegemony that it had originally possessed. It would, however, continue to transmit its wealth of culture, learning, religious heritage and history far into the future.

"Dread Gehenna, and hold fast to Christ" ~ November 13, feast of Sts. Arcadius, Paschasius, Probus and Eutychianus

Funerary mosaic of Natalica, a Christian girl of 10, from 5th century
Roman or Vandal north Africa.

November 13 is the feast day of Saints Arcadius, Paschasius, Probus and Eutychianus. These four Spanish Roman martyrs were put to death by the cruel Vandal king, Geiseric, after he had completed his conquest of Roman Africa. Their martyrdom took place about AD 437 and their crime was refusing to accept the Arian heresy which was favored by the Vandals.

Writing in the mid-5th century, not many years after the events described, the chronicler Prosper of Aquitaine recorded the following about these martyrs:

In Africa, Geiseric, King of the Vandals, wanted to use the Arian impiety to undo the Catholic faith within the regions where he resided. He persecuted some of our bishops….In the same period, four Spaniards, Arcadius, Paschasius, Probus and Eutychianus were formerly considered by Geiseric to be valued and distinguished by virtue of their wisdom and faithful service. To make them even more esteemed, he commanded them to convert to the Arian heresy. But as they most steadfastly rejected this wickedness, the barbarian was roused to a most furious anger. First, their property was confiscated. Next, they were driven into exile, then tortured severely, and finally, suffering death in various ways, they succumbed wonderfully to a most glorious martyrdom.” [Taken from Eric Fournier: "The Vandal Conquest of North Africa: The Origins of a Historiographical Persona" in The Journal of Ecclesiastical History]. 

To one of these martyrs, Saint Arcadius, a remarkable letter was sent by Honoratus Antoninus, Bishop of Constantina in Africa. This letter urged the tortured man to constancy and pleaded with him to set aside the allurements of the world in favor of the Heavenly Kingdom. It reads, in part, as follows:

"The company of martyrs, thy predecessors, are waiting for thee. They guard thee, they hold out to thee the crown. I beseech thee, hold fast to what thou hast and let no other take away thy crown….Fear, then, the eternal punishments, where the fire always burns, where both body and soul are tortured in the darkness, where, with the devil, soul and body are consumed eternally. Dread Gehenna, and hold fast to Christ."

The persecution of Catholics by the Vandals in their newly won north African kingdom was brutal and thorough-going, though little remembered in our own time. I hope to write more about it in forthcoming posts. In the mean time, here is a previous post on the Vandalic conquest of Rome's north African provinces, as recorded by an eye-witness:

• 5th century bishop, Possidius of Calama, describes the last days of St. Augustine and the Vandal Conquest of Roman Africa

"To banish war, he must a warrior be" ~ Remembering Sgt. Joyce Kilmer on Veteran's Day

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In honor of Veteran's Day, let us remember a soul so brave and so brilliant whose brief life-course flared too briefly across the early 20th century firmament before he met his merciful Maker. To this day, he is best known for his familiar poem entitled Trees which begins: “I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree…”

Joyce Kilmer was of a breed of men that seems practically extinct today. He was a New Jersey Catholic husband and father of an artistic and literary bent who, nonetheless, was able to summon courage and charity in the superlative as enunciated by Our Lord in John 15:13.

Though married with four children and widely regarded as one of the outstanding poets of his generation, Kilmer enlisted in the U.S. Army when war was declared between the United States and the Central Powers in 1917. He requested to be assigned to the infantry and though he was recommended for promotion to officer status, he refused and was deployed at the front in France as a sergeant. He was given dangerous duty, often acting as a scout operating in no-man’s land.

His division, the Fighting 69th, was immortalized after the war in a film of the same name starring James Cagney. Kilmer was portrayed in the movie by Jeffrey Lynn, and his poem, The Rouge Bouquet, is featured in this poignant scene, based on an actual event:


Kilmer wrote numerous charming letters from the front to his wife, Aline, which may be found collected here. Writing in one such letter on May 18, 1918, Kilmer draws a distinction between pacifism and peacemaking as follows:

P. C. ought to know the distinction between peacemakers and pacifists. I wonder he didn’t include St. Michael in his catalogue of pacifists. We are peace-makers, the soldiers of the 69th, we are risking our lives to bring peace to the simple, generous, gay, pious people of France, who anyone (knowing them as I have come to know them in the last six months) must pity and admire and love. They are an invaded people—and invaded people always are right….

Here are nice old ladies, fat babies, jovial humorous men, and little girls just making their First Communions. They’ve been driven out of their pretty sleepy little villages. They want to get back and mend the shell holes in the roof and go to school and take their place drinking red wine of an evening according to their tastes and ages. Well, we men of the 69th are helping to give these people back their homes—and perhaps to prevent our homes from one day being taken from us by the same Power—of whom nothing at all worse need be said than that it is an invader. And St. Patrick, and St. Bridgid, and St. Columkill and all the other Saints are with us—they are no more pacifists than they are Roycrofters! [an arts and crafts guild in New York around the turn of the 20th century founded by self-styled anarchist, Elbert Hubbard] ~ Taken from Joyce Kilmer: Prose Works

Perhaps not coincidentally, Kilmer's last poem was entitled The Peacemaker which I present here in full:

The Peacemaker by Sergeant Joyce Kilmer

Upon his will he binds a radiant chain,
For Freedom’s sake he is no longer free.
It is his task, the slave of Liberty,
With his own blood to wipe away a stain.
That pain may cease, he yields his flesh to pain.
To banish war, he must a warrior be.
He dwells in Night, eternal Dawn to see,
And gladly dies, abundant life to gain.

What matters Death, if Freedom be not dead?
No flags are fair, if Freedom’s flag be furled.
Who fights for Freedom, goes with joyful tread
To meet the fires of Hell against him hurled,
And has for captain Him whose thorn-wreathed head
Smiles from the Cross upon a conquered world.

[Taken from Joyce Kilmer: Memoir and Poems]

While on a scouting mission in no-man's land on July 30, 1918, Joyce Kilmer was shot and killed by a German sniper.

For more about Joyce Kilmer, click here.