Ex-Feminist Apologizes for 2013 Anti-Catholic Protest at Notre Dame Cathedral

God does certainly work in mysterious ways! From a member of the radical, anti-Catholic FEMEN to a fighter on the side of morality and sanity!

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

In an October 31 video, Marguerite Stern, who has become a leading figure in the fight against LGBT indoctrination, extended her remorse to Catholics for running topless in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris following the resignation of Benedict XVI in 2013. 

Marguerite Stern, a former radical feminist turned pro-family advocate, has apologized for running through Notre Dame Cathedral while topless in 2013 as part of a left-wing protest, revealing that her behavior destroyed part of herself.  

In an October 31 video, Stern, who has now become a leading figure in the fight against LGBT indoctrination in France, extended her remorse to Catholics for running topless in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris following the resignation of Benedict XVI in 2013.  

In 2013, Stern was part of eight feminists who ran topless through Notre Dame Cathedral, celebrating the news of Benedict XVI’s resignation, who they considered “homophobic.”

In the video, Stern explained that she was baptized Catholic but eventually rejected the religion, which ultimately culminated in her left-wing activism and the event at Notre Dame, which she now sees “was a way of damaging a part of France, which is to say a part of myself. At 22, I didn’t realize it.” 

Stern’s beliefs have completely changed since that day. After years of embracing radical feminism and the LGBT agenda, Stern realized that transgender ideology in particular “does not create but destroys,” and is rooted in “self-hatred.”

Following this realization, Stern turned her passion and dedication to protecting children from the worst effects of the LGBT agenda.  

During her journey, Stern realized that the Catholic faith is crucial to the survival of French culture, explaining that, “Rites bring us together. They soothe, sometimes repair, and regulate our emotions; they anchor us in the present by reminding us of what has gone before.”  

While she has still yet to return to the Catholic faith, she did explain that Notre Dame Cathedral is a central aspect of French heritage and culture, and ultimately a place she has not stopped loving.

“I remember that the day after the fire [in 2019], I went to cry in a church,” she recalled, explaining of her past that while she never actually stopped loving her country’s Catholic heritage, “sometimes we love badly.”

Stern said she recognizes the sacredness and richness of the Catholic culture in France which is inseparable from her fight against transgenderism.  

“And then there’s something else: There’s what’s beyond us,” she continued. “The steeples that tower over us and dress our soundscapes. The majesty of the buildings. The wonder of entering a church. The beauty. And the faith of believers. I’m sorry I trampled on that.”  

“Without believing in God, on certain points I ultimately come to the same conclusions as Catholics,” she said.   

“It’s fashionable these days to denigrate Catholics and make them out to be old-France idiots, insufficiently hip to deserve the status of human beings,” Stern concluded. “In the past, I have used this climate to act immorally, while helping to reinforce it. I sincerely apologize for that.” 

Russia Suspected of “Test Run” After Packages Explode in European Transport Hubs

"[A]uthorities now believe the planting of the bombs 'appear[s] to have been a test run to figure out how to get such incendiary devices aboard planes bound for North America'."

From The European Conservative

By Tamás Orbán

Security officials believe saboteurs were preparing to place incendiary devices on planes bound for America.

Citing Western security officials, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Monday, November 4th, that the two explosions this summer at package delivery hubs in Germany and Britain are now strongly suspected to be part of a covert Russian operation, intended as a “test run” on how to get bombs aboard commercial aircraft flying to the United States.

In July, two incendiary devices ignited spontaneously at DHL logistics hubs in Leipzig, Germany, and Birmingham, UK, prompting an international investigation to find the culprits. 

The devices were reportedly electric massagers implanted with a magnesium-based flammable substance, and were sent to Britain and Germany from Lithuania. No injuries or significant damage was reported from either site.

According to the WSJ report, authorities now believe the planting of the bombs “appear[s] to have been a test run to figure out how to get such incendiary devices aboard planes bound for North America.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the allegations, calling them “traditional insinuations from the media” and claimed no official accusation has yet been made.

Last month, Polish authorities arrested four individuals who are believed to have been involved in the “sabotage campaign,” according to the national prosecutor’s office, and international arrest warrants were sent out for two more suspects.

Poland did not reveal the name of the group it believes is responsible for the explosions, nor the country or government behind it, but the statement made it clear that the arrests were made in connection to the two DHL incidents. The statement also admits the risk of similar explosions in the future—not only on land, but also during “air transport.”

It says the four people were arrested over “parcels containing camouflaged explosives and dangerous materials” that were sent via a package delivery agency to the UK and EU countries, which then “spontaneously ignited or detonated during land and air transport.”

The Polish prosecutors came to the same conclusion as the WSJ’s sources, namely that the campaign might have been a ‘rehearsal’ for a larger operation. The group’s goal, they said, “was to test the transfer channel for this type of shipments which were ultimately to be sent to the United States of America and Canada.”

Following the report from WSJ, a UK counter-terrorism police spokesman said the investigation into the Birmingham explosion was still ongoing, and that they are “liaising with other European law enforcement partners to identify whether this may or may not be connected to any other similar-type incidents across Europe.”

UK’s National Weather and Climate Service Caught “Inventing” Data

They are "cooking" the data to push an unpopular and unscientific solution to a possibly non-existent problem, but it increases control, which is what they really want.

From The European Conservative

By Graham Barnfield

Met Office reports of temperature stats from non-existent weather stations are informing the government drive for Net Zero.

Britain's official meteorological service appears to be making up a worrying proportion of its published temperature readings, according to a new investigation. The most serious implication is that science could beis being corrupted in pursuit of green ideology; at the very least, it shows that UK weather-recoding infrastructure is in need of a serious upgrade.

When citizen journalist Ray Sanders made Freedom of Information requests to the Met Office and visited individual stations, he discovered that 103 weather stations, out of 302 sites supplying temperature averages, do not exist. This poses serious questions about how they are being used to collect useful scientific data, which in turn is used to inform climate policy.

For instance, in his English home county of Kent, Sanders observed that half of the eight official Met Office sites are in his words, “fiction.”. While Dungeness station closed in 1986, it apparently keeps on producing rolling temperature averages to the second decimal place of a degree. Like the stations alleged to be at Folkestone, Dover, and Gillingham, it does not have a classification from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), in contrast to various other recognised and listed Met Office sites.

Online inquiries about Dover are redirected to Dover Harbour (Beach)—the “nearest climate station”—yet Dover still manages to provide a full set of rolling 30-year temperature averages. A physical visit to the official site coordinates on Dover beach takes you to a place that would be submerged by the tide on a regular basis.

According to Sanders, the Met Office “declined to advise” him exactly how ‘data’ were being derived from 103 non-existent sites (out a total of 302). He asks

How would any reasonable observer know that the data was not real and simply ‘made up’ by a Government agency?

Demanding an “open declaration” of the likely inaccuracy of existing published data, Sanders hopes “to avoid other institutions and researchers using unreliable data and reaching erroneous conclusions.”

Taking to X, social commentator Toby Young posted:

Shocking evidence has emerged that points to the U.K. Met Office inventing temperature data from over 100 non-existent weather stations. One such ‘ghost’ station, Dungeness, closed in 1986 but still reports “observations”.

While the Met Office publishes the historical data from some of its shuttered or ‘ghost’ stations, it then continues the figures by using estimates. For instance, Lowestoft, Nairn Druim, Paisley and Newton Rigg are closed, but still report temperature estimates data. “No scientific purpose can possibly be served by fabrication,” Sanders declares.

Earlier investigations, including one by Sanders, have also queried the locations of some of the Met Office’s weather stations. Historic technological difficulties with guaranteeing a reliable electricity supply haves led to an inbuilt bias against using certain rural sites; in turn, such choices mean that the artificially raised temperatures at local microclimates such as airports, car parks, and electricity substations are included in the national average. Despite these ‘heat corruptions,’ the data continues to feed climate alarmism and inform official policy.

Sanders has now submitted his report to Labour’s science minister Peter Kyle MP. 

Leading African Cardinal Claims Catholics Are ‘Morally Obligated To Support’ Synod Decisions

I'm very sorry, Your Eminence, but I am a Catholic. I refuse to go along with the "democratic", neo-pagan "religion" invented by the Synod.

From LifeSiteNews

By Michael Haynes

Cardinal Cristóbal Romero made a stunning statement that a consensus decision by the Synod is 'morally' binding on those who oppose it.

The president of the Northern African bishops’ conference welcomed the Synod on Synodality’s conclusions as a “prophetic sign” for the world, adding that opponents of its decisions are “morally obligated to support” them.

“Synodality is a prophetic sign that can enlighten the world because it is not just about bringing democracy to the Church, as many have stated, but it goes much further,” Cardinal Cristóbal Romero of the Archdiocese of Rabat, Morocco said in an interview with Religión Digital.

Romero was a voting member of the recently concluded session of the Synod on Synodality and is a staunch proponent of the endeavor. Speaking to the press in Rome last month, Romero predicted the Church would emerge from the Synod “more catholic, more universal.”

Interviewed by Religión Digital, Romero said the Synod was “worthwhile not only for the Church but for everyone.”

Moral obligation for all

Expanding on the remark that the Synod “goes much further” than “bringing democracy,” Romero commented that the Synod offers something better.

“Democracy,” he said, “is the struggle for the majority and consists of several forces in dispute to win the elections and govern according to the common good.” But the system is not perfect, he added, since “the government does not usually consider what the opposition says, and the other way around: the opposition often criticizes negatively everything the government does.”

Instead, synodality is aimed at “consensus,” he stated. “Synodality is a process of discernment so that decision-making is consensual to the maximum.”

Romero continued by making the striking statement that a decision made with the majority consensus in the Synod is “morally” binding on those who oppose it:

And when a decision is made, even those who disagreed are morally obligated to support something that has been decided after a process in which we have all been able to participate and express opinions and even pray together to ask for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.

In the end, it is the pope, the bishop, the parish priest who, after having listened to everyone, and not capriciously, makes a decision and everyone goes that way. Democracy is little, we want more: we want fraternity, joint work, search for the common good.

The cardinal’s comments are notable for a number of reasons, not least of which is his depiction of the Synod as somewhat akin to a parliament, even though Pope Francis has repeatedly tried to distance the Synod from such an image. Traditionally and legally, the Synod of Bishops is an advisory body offering counsel to the Pope. (Canon 342)

At the conclusion of a synod, the secretariat submits the synod’s final document to the Pope, who decided whether to write his own text based on it. For Romero to argue that those who oppose a certain proposal of any synod are morally bound to abide by it, if the proposal receives a majority consensus of votes, would appear to be a rejection of the theology and Canon Law behind the purpose of the Synod of Bishops.

In October, however, Francis made the striking move to adopt the Synod on Synodality’s final text as his own, meaning that under the 2018 Apostolic Constitution Episcopalis communio, once the final document of a synod “is expressly approved by the Roman Pontiff, the Final Document participates in the ordinary Magisterium of the Successor of Peter.”

READ: Synod final text calls for continued ‘process’ with synodal ‘listening’ and dialogue

But the Synod’s final document remains full of open questions, suggestions for future actions, and outlines of proposals for continued “discernment.” The greatest objection was to paragraph 60 (258 for/97 against) dealing with certain questions relating to the role of women in the Church, and including the statement that “the question of women’s access to diaconal ministry remains open.”

Romero’s argument would hold that all who opposed this statement are morally bound to believe it since the Synod’s majority decided upon it.

However, Church teaching infallibly states that the matter is closed and that women cannot be ordained to Holy Orders. One such pronouncement is found in Pope John Paul II’s 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, where he wrote, “I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”

In 2018, Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., then-prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, defended the teaching of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis as bearing the mark of “infallibility,” with John Paul II having “formally confirmed and made explicit, so as to remove all doubt, that which the Ordinary and Universal Magisterium has long considered throughout history as belonging to the deposit of faith.”

Romero himself has emerged during the last two years as somewhat of a more notable figure in the Church due to his prominent support for the Pope’s Synod on Synodality and his warm welcome of Fiducia Supplicans blessing for same-sex couples.

He famously led the Northern African bishops in their acceptance of Fiducia just days after Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo declared that the text would not be implemented in the entire continent of Africa.

Pictured: His Eminence Cristóbal, Ló Cardinalpez Romero, SDB, Archbishop of Rabat

Vespers of the Dead

From the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem. You may follow the Office at Divinum Officium.

The Holy Rosary

Wednesday, the Glorious Mysteries, in Latin with Cardinal Burke.

The Archduke’s Last Journey: End of an Era

The death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife was known as “the shot heard round the world.”

Hope: The Virtue of Spiritual Desire Made Possible in Christ

With Fr Michael Sherwin, OP, MDiv, PhD, Professor of Fundamental Moral Theology at the Pontifical University of Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome.

St. Paul affirms that charity “hopes all things” (1 Cor 13.7) while the Letter to the Hebrews asserts that “faith is the substance of things hoped for” (11.1). What exactly, however, is hope’s relationship to faith and charity? Indeed, what does it mean to hope? What is hope’s proper act? Moreover, what is hope’s object: in whom and for what do Christians hope? With the Scriptures and Thomas Aquinas as our guides, these are the questions that this lecture will pursue.

All the Saints of Ireland

The story of the Feast of All the Saints of Ireland, which is today,  and why Ireland only has four Saints canonised by Rome, not including St Patrick or St Bridget.

From Catholic Ireland

Summary: All the Saints of Ireland. The early Irish Martyrologies and the Stowe Missal give a firm basis to devotion to the saints of Ireland. The feast celebrates the gifts and the glory of God in his saints, their sharing in the paschal mystery of Christ, our communion with them in Christ, their example and their intercession for us, the pilgrim Church, the sustaining power of the Eucharist, the hope of eternal life.

Pope Benedict XV beatified Oliver Plunkett in 1920 and during his papacy also (1914-22) and the Feast of All the Saints of Ireland was instituted. Oliver was canonised in 1975, thus becoming the first new Irish saint for almost seven hundred years. It recalls especially the seventeen Irish Martyrs of the 16th and 17th centuries who were beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1992 and many others who died as a result of persecution during what in Ireland are known as the “Penal Times“.

Patrick Duffy comments on the significance of the feast.

Our Four Canonised Saints
Only four Irish saints: Ss Malachy (1094-1148), Lawrence O’Toole (1128-80) Oliver Plunkett (1625-81) and St Charles of Mount Argus (1821-93), have been officially canonised. All the other Irish saints, such as Ss Patrick, Brigid, and Colmcille, are saints, as it were, by acclamation of the local Church, before the official papal canonisation process was established. Recently we have quite a few beatifications.

Canonisation
“Canonisation” as a process can be said to have begun when the name of a martyr was included in the dyptichs (or prayer lists) proclaimed by the deacon during Mass. This process would have been overseen by the local Church authority, especially the bishop. Later the names of holy people who were not martyrs, such as Saints Hilarion and Ephrem the Syrian in the East, and Saints Martin of Tours and Hilary of Poitiers in the West, were included. But it was only in 1170 that Alexander III issued a decree arrogating to the Pope alone the right to declare a person a saint as regards the Church of the West. This was confirmed in 1200 by a bull of Pope Innocent III.

Other Irish ‘Saints’
The scope of this feast, while it includes canonised saints, is wider. It also includes those who had a reputation for holiness and whose causes for canonisation have not yet been completed, such as Bl. Thaddeus MacCarthy (1455-92), the seventeen Irish martyrs of the 16th and 17th centuries, Bl Edmund Ignatius Rice (1762-1844), Bl Columba Marmion (1858-1923) and the Servant of God Matt Talbot (1856-1925) and people like Legion of Mary envoys Edel Quinn and Alfie Lamb, whose causes have already been introduced. But it also includes those whose lives of sanctity were known only to their families, friends or members of their parish diocese or religious community.

Exchange of Spiritual Goods
Like All Saints (1 Nov) and All Souls (2 Nov), this is a celebration of the communio sanctorum, that is, a sharing, not only of the “holy persons” (sancti and sanctae), but also of the “holy things” (sancta). As the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium on the Church of Vatican II taught:

“So it is that the union of the wayfarers with the brethren who sleep in the peace of Christ is in no way interrupted, but on the contrary, according to the constant faith of the Church, this union is reinforced by an exchange of spiritual goods” (LG 49).

Island of Saints and Scholars
The reading from the Book of Ecclesiasticus 44:1-15 echoes the theme of “the island of saints and scholars” which was so strong in Ireland in the first half of the twentieth century

Let us praise illustrious men (and women),
our ancestors in their successive generations.
The Lord has created an abundance of glory,
and displayed his greatness from earliest times.

(The Book of Kells (image Right) is believed
to have been created sometime around 800A.D, when Ireland was said to be the of Saints and Scholars.)

An Unthinkable Reform Has Been Proposed by a Wicked Bishop

One Of The WORST Heretics In The Church Is Openly Embracing James Martin's Favorite Sin

Like a bad penny, this cardinal keeps popping up.

The Beatitudes of the Spiritual Life

"The French author l'Abbè Tanqueray offers an explanation of the beatitudes in relation to the spiritual life in his text The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology."

From One Peter Five

By Michael Haynes

The great feast of All Saints offers us the chance to dwell on two striking passages from Sacred Scripture: the Epistle being taken from the Apocalypse, and the Gospel of the sermon on the mount, regarding the beatitudes.

The Church calls on Her members in the Church Militant to set aside this particular day to honor all those souls who have attained the crown of glory but are yet unknown to us by name. It is also a day on which to dwell on the goal of all men, namely, to attain Heaven. 

The French author Abbè Tanqueray offers an explanation of the beatitudes in relation to the spiritual life in his text The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology. The great spiritual writers and doctors of the Church denote three specific stages or degrees in the spiritual life: the purgative, illuminative and unitive. These are not three contradictory or even different ways, but merely stages of progression in the same spiritual life.

Tanqueray also points to these and notes which beatitudes are proper to each stage in the spiritual life. He thus bases these three stages upon the beatitudes as a guide for all souls who wish to advance in the spiritual life and achieve the prize which Christ offers. 

Whilst the text below is not devoted to an explanation of the three ways, it is nevertheless particularly useful to avail ourselves of Tanqueray’s words regarding the beatitudes, since they are originally presented as a guide to holiness.

Purgative Way

He states that the first three beatitudes relate to the purgative way, or way of beginners. This way is described as being akin to a spiritual childhood, which is the necessary preparation for any advancement in the spiritual life. It is focused on purification of oneself and mortification in order to subdue our passions and desires. Such a purification entails that we purify the senses, the passions, the will and intellect. This is effected by further mortifications and prayer, for all means must be made use of in order to purge the soul from its attachment to sin and to strengthen it against temptations.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”: this beatitude calls us to be poor in all manner of riches or honor, and instead seek only God Who is the greatest treasure of all. It even counsels us about how to be desirous of great virtue, in case one begins to seek virtue out of a form of spiritual pride. Instead, Catholics are counseled to humbly resign ourselves to seeking the level of perfection which God has ordained, firm in the knowledge that any pursuit of perfection will entail great hardship. 

“Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land”: here Catholics are called to practice a spiritual meekness, to control desires and outbursts of selfish passions and to unite one’s soul to the meek and humble heart of Christ.

“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted”: it is better to suffer the ills of the world and endure these sorrows for the love of God, than to be filled with the joys and comforts of the world. The spiritual life is marked by suffering, both through personal mortification and through abnegation of the world. It is this persecution from the world which Christ warned of: “the servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”(John 15:20)

Illuminative Way

Moving forward, Fr. Tanqueray says the next two beatitudes denote the illuminative way. The souls in the illuminative way, having gained mastery of the passions, seek to practice the virtues more fully, in order to imitate Christ. The prayers and virtues which they practice are clearly those which stem from a deeper union with God.

“Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill”: justice demands that man give to God the honor which is properly His due, hence those who are filled with the desire for justice are called to love God for His own sake more perfectly.

“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy”: the Fathers of the Church teach that justice and mercy must always be united, that man should forgive his fellow man, just as God pardons the repentant sinner.

Unitive Way

Fr. Tanqueray then uses the final three beatitudes with particular reference to the unitive way, the highest degree of perfection. It is a way of contemplation, eminent charity and the practice of virtue to a heroic degree.

“Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God”: the temple of God cannot be impure, and only the clean of heart are those who can see God, for they have proved themselves worthy despite the temptations of life.

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God”: it is the peacemakers who have subdued all earthly desires and made themselves into the dwelling place of God, since God moves in peace and order.

“Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”: just as Christ suffered death, taking on Himself the sins of man, so we are called to suffer likewise.

This feast of All Saints presents the Church with the opportunity to properly dwell on this exposition of the beatitudes as they pertain to the spiritual life, for today the Church honors all saints, but especially those unknown souls who practiced these very beatitudes and virtues to a saintly degree. The Church’s liturgy offers this Gospel for such a reason, providing Her children with the prompts on how to attain Heaven whilst pointing them to the intercession of those who have already done so. 

In fact, the feast of All Saints represents in a special manner the true Catholicity of the Church. That is to say, that often the path to sainthood can seem untenable, and reserved only for the great saints, whom are well known and loved, and serve as models of heroic virtue. Yet, on this day, Catholics are called to contemplate the fact that Christ calls all, has given the means to answer to this call, and assists countless souls to do so. The path to sanctity is not reserved for a special few, but is offered to all.

It should be a feast day of great pomp and circumstance, but also of great hope – hope because Catholics can call upon the many unknown saints in Heaven to be our guide on the path to sanctity. Those men and women who were perhaps ‘normal’ in the eyes of the world – and possibly even in the daily life of the Church –cultivated the practice of the virtues and the beatitudes to a high degree. These can be our guides and intercessors and exemplars. 

The very first lessons of manyCatechisms present the answer to the question of why God made us. He did so out of pure love and “to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next” (Baltimore Catechism). The language seems somewhat simplistic, but it captures the essence of the call to perfection, which the saints grasped so well. 

The more we know God, the more we love Him, and the greater our love for Him then the more we will wish to follow Him in all things. This love is manifested by serving Him in our daily actions and prayers, which will ultimately lead to being united with God in heavenly beatitude should we remain faithful to Him. This is our final end, the goal which must be ever present in our mind throughout our life, orienting our choices so that we may one day achieve union with the Divine.

Consequently, this great feast of All Saints is an occasion for Catholics everywhere to renew the practice of the virtues and to take the beatitudes especially to heart, emulating the saints, both known and unknown.

Feria

Today's Holy Mass from Sacred Heart Church, Tynong AUS. You may follow the Mass at Divinum Officium.

Sixth Day Within the Octave of All Saints ~ Dom Prosper Guéranger

Sixth Day Within the Octave of All Saints

From Dom Prosper Guéranger's Liturgical Year:

Thou art my portion, O Lord, Alleluia, in the land of the living, Alleluia, Alleluia.—Bring forth my soul out of prison, to confess to thy Name; in the land of the living, Alleluia, Alleluia.—Glory and honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, world without end, Amen: in the land of the living, Alleluia, Alleluia. (Mozarabic Missal)

Such is the opening chant for the departed, in the Mozarabic Missal. With the Greeks, in like manner, no word is of more frequent recurrence in the Office of the Dead, than the Alleluia. (GOAR, nota 6 ad Officium Exsequiarum in Euchologio) Moreover, both Greece and Spain are but observing what was once a general practice throughout the Church.

St. Jerome tells us how, at the death of Fabiola, all the Roman people assembled, the chant of psalms echoed on all sides, and the sublime Alleluia filled the temples till it shook their gilded roofs. (Jerome, ad Oceanum. De morte Fabiolæ) Two centuries later, the story of St. Radegonde’s funeral written by her daughter Baudonivia, proves that, if submissive tears were not forbidden to the survivors and might at times even flow abundantly, the custom in Gaul was, nevertheless, the same as that of Rome. (Baudonivia, Vita Radegundis 28),

And again with regard to a later period, the Manuscript of Rheims quoted by Dom Hugh Ménard in his notes on the Gregorian Sacramentary, (Nota 680) prescribes as a prelude to the burial prayers, the chanting of the Psalm In exitu Israel de Ægypto, with Alleluia and Antiphon.

When St. Anthony buried in the desert the body of St. Paul the first hermit, the biographer of the latter relates that, in accordance with Christian tradition, Anthony sang hymns as well as psalms. Such was actually the universal Christian tradition, identical in all lands. (Hieron. Life of St Paul, 16)

St. John Chrysostom remarks the same fact, and explains it thus: “Tell me, are they not conquerors, the dead whom we carry in procession with shining torches and the singing of hymns? Yes; we praise God and give him thanks; for he crowns the departed one; he has put an end to his labor; and he keeps him near himself, free from all fear. Seek no other explanation for these hymns and psalms: they are an expression of joy.” (Chrys. In epist. Ad Hebr. Homil. iv.)

St. Dionysius speaks in the same strain, in his book on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. After alluding to the joy of the dying Christian, as he sees approaching the end of his struggle and an eternal security, he adds: “The relatives of the deceased, his friends in God and in holiness, proclaim him blessed for having conquered at last; and they address their songs of thanksgiving to the heavenly Author of the victory. Praying that they themselves may obtain a similar lot, they bear him to the hierarch the distributor of the holy crowns, to whom it belongs to perform the sacred rites prescribed with regard to those who have slept in the Lord.” (Dionysius. De Eccles. Hierarch. Cap 7:1, 2:1-3)

Tomorrow we will give some examples of these last honors paid by the Church to her children.

Certain Churches borrow the following stanzas from the tenth Song of the Cathemerinon, which gave us yesterday the Mozarabic Hymn for the Dead.

HYMN

Cease now each sad complaint; ye mothers check your tears; let no man mourn the pledges he has given: for this death is the restoration of life.

What mean these sculptured marbles, and these fair monuments, save that what is committed to them is not dead, but laid to sleep?

For this body which we see lying lifeless, yet a little while and it will seek once more the companionship of the spirit that has fled on high.

Quickly shall the time come, when friendly life shall make these cold embers glow; and animating them with circling blood, shall take back her former dwelling.

The motionless corpses, that have lain corrupting in their graves, shall be caught up into the swift air, united to the same souls as before.

Even thus do the dry seeds, dead and buried, become green blades; and, springing up from the sward, recall the former ears.

Receive now, O earth, this deposit into thy care, and cherish it in thy tender bosom: ’tis the form of a man I place in thee, noble remains I entrust to thee.

This was once the home of a spirit breathed from the mouth of its Creator; Christ ruled these members, and his holy wisdom dwelt therein.

Then shelter the body confided to thee: he who made it will not forget it, but will ask back the gifts he had given, and the likeness of his own countenance.

Soon the promised time will come, when God shall fulfill all hope; then thou must needs open thy bosom, and restore this form such as I give it thee. Amen.

The following Responsory is the last of the third Nocturn in the short Office of the Dead per annum. After it we give an ancient prayer, found in the Ambrosian rite, and appropriated to deceased benefactors and relatives. (Oratio super sindonem, in Missa quotidiana pro defunctis fratribus, sororibus, propinquis et benefactoribus.)

RESPONSORY

℟. Deliver me, O Lord, from the ways of hell, who hast broken the brazen gates, and hast visited hell, and hast given light to them, that they might behold thee * who were in the pains of darkness.

℣. Crying, and saying: Thou art come, O our Redeemer. * Who were.

℣. Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them. * Who were.

PRAYER

O God, the life of the living, the hope of the dying, the salvation of all that trust in thee, mercifully grant that the souls of thy servants and handmaids, delivered from the darkness of our mortality, may rejoice with thy Saints in perpetual light. Through our Lord.

The following Prose by Adam of St. Victor, though often assigned to other feasts, was sung in several places to celebrate all the Saints.

SEQUENCE

Let the Church on earth commemorate the joys of her mother the Church in heaven: and while she celebrates annual feasts, let her sigh for those which are eternal.

May the mother assist her daughter in this valley of sorrows: and may our heavenly guardians be at our side in the battle.

The world, the flesh, and the devils wage their several warfares; at the onslaught of so many terrors, the heart’s tranquility is disturbed.

All this brood detests our feast-days, and with united force, endeavors to drive peace from the earth.

Here all is confusion; hope, fear, sadness, joy are commingled: in heaven, scarce half an hour of silence is kept.

Oh! how happy is that city, where there is unceasing festivity! and how joyful is that assembly where care is utterly unknown!

No sickness there, nor old age; no deceit, nor terror of foes; but all one voice of joyful souls, and all one burning love of hearts.

There the angelic citizens in their triple hierarchy rejoice to be subject to a Monarch who is both One and Three.

They admire, and faint not in contemplating, the God upon whom they gaze; they enjoy him, and are not satiated, for the enjoyment brings new thirst.

There are our fathers, ranked according to their merit; all darkness is now dispelled, and in God’s light they see light.

These Saints, whose solemnity is celebrated today, behold with unveiled face the king in his glory.

There is the Queen of virgins, far above the highest choirs; may she, before the Lord, excuse our guilty falls.

And after this present misery, may the grace of Christ, through the intercession of the Saints, lead us to the same glory! Amen.

St Winnoc of Wormhoult: Butler's Lives of the Saints

The Martyrs of Indochina: Butler's Lives of the Saints

St Winoc, Abbot

From Fr Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints:

AMONG the Britons, who, flying from the swords of the English Saxons took refuge in the maritime province of Armorica in Gaul, several turned their afflictions into their greatest spiritual advantage, and from them learned to despise transitory things, and to seek with their whole hearts those which are eternal. Hence Armorica, called from them Brittany, was for some ages a country particularly fruitful in saints. Conan founded this principality of Lesser Britain, in 383. His grandson and successor, Solomon1., was murdered by his own subjects, provoked by his zeal to reform their morals, in 434. Some think this prince, rather than the third of that name, to be the Solomon whose name has been inserted in some Armorican calendars. Gratton, the third prince, founded the abbey of Landevenec. Budic, the seventh of these princes, was defeated by the Franks, and seems to have been slain by king Clovis about the year 509. His son Riowald, or Hoel I., gathered an army of Britons dispersed in the islands about Great Britain, and returning in 513, recovered the principality in the reign of Childebert, and is called by many the first duke of Brittany. St. Winoc was of blood-royal, descending from Riowald, and kinsman to St. Judoc.† The example and instructions of holy tutors made a deep impression upon his tender soul. He learned very early to be thoroughly sensible of the dangers, instability, and emptiness of all worldly enjoyments, and understood how great watchfulness and diligence are required for a Christian to stand his ground, and daily to advance in virtue. The most excellent precepts which a person has received from his masters in a spiritual life, become useless to him, if he ever thinks himself sufficiently instructed, and ceases to preach these important lessons over and over again to himself, and to improve daily in spiritual knowledge and sentiments by pious attention and assiduous earnest meditation.

Winoc was careful by this method to nourish the good seed which had been sown in his soul. In company with three virtuous young noblemen of his country he made several journeys of devotion, in one of which he visited the new monastery of Sithiu or St. Peter’s, now St. Bertin’s, at St. Omer; and was so edified with the fervor and discipline of the monks, and the wisdom and sanctity of the holy abbot St. Bertin, that he and his three companions all agreed to take the habit together. This they did, not in 660, as Mabillon conjectured, but later than the year 670, perhaps nearer 690. St. Winoc’s three companions were, Quedenoc, Ingenoc, and Madoc. The edifying lives of these servants of God spread an odor of sanctity through the whole country: and the chronicle of St. Bertin’s testifies that St. Winoc shone like a morning star among the hundred and fifty fervent monks who inhabited that sanctuary of piety.

It was judged proper to found a new monastery in a remoter part of the vast diocese of Terouenne, which might be a seminary of religion for the instruction and example of the inhabitants of that part of the country. For the Morini who composed that diocese, comprised, besides Artois and part of Picardy, a considerable part of what was soon after called Flanders.* Heremar, a pious nobleman, who had lately embraced the faith, bestowed on St. Bertin the estate of Wormhoult, very convenient for that purpose, six leagues from Sithiu. St. Bertin sent thither his four illustrious British monks to found a new monastery, not in the year 660, as Mabillon imagined, but some years later; Stilting says, in his life of St. Bertin. in 690. Mabillon tells us, from the traditionary report of the monks, that St. Winoc first led a solitary life at Groenberg, where the monastery now stands: but no mention is made of this in his life. Having built their monastery at Wormhoult, Quedenoc, Ingenoc, and Madoc, who were elder in years, successively governed this little colony. After their demise St. Winoc was appointed abbot by St. Bertin. He and his brethren worked themselves in building their church and cells, together with an hospital for poor sick; for nothing in their whole lives was more agreeable to them than to labor for he service of God, and that of the poor.

St. Winoc saw his community in a short time very numerous, and conducted them in the practices of admirable humility, penance, devotion, and charity. The reputation of his sanctity was enhanced by many miracles which be wrought. Such was his readiness to serve all his brethren, that he seemed every one’s servant; and appeared the superior chiefly by being the first and most fervent in every religious duty. It was his greatest pleasure to wait on the sick in the hospital. Even in his decrepit old age he ground the corn for the use of the poor and his community, turning the wheel with his own hand without any assistance. When others were astonished he should have strength enough to ply constantly such hard labor, they looked through a chink into the room, and saw the wheel turning without being touched, which they ascribed to a miracle. At work he never ceased praying with his lips, or at least in his heart; and only interrupted his manual labor to attend the altar or choir, or for some other devotions or monastic duties. His ardent sighs to be dissolved and to be with Christ were accomplished by a happy death, which put him in possession of his desired bliss on the 6th of November, before the middle of the eighth century. For fear of the Danish plunderers, who, in the following century, made a descent upon the coast of Flanders, his bones were carried to Sithiu. Baldwin the Bald, count of Flanders, having built and fortified the town of Berg, in 920, that it might be a strong barrier to his dominions; count Baldwin IV., or the Bearded, in 1028, built and founded there a stately abbey in honor of St. Martin and St. Winoc, which he peopled with a colony from St. Bertin’s, and he enriched it with the relics of St. Winoc; and the lands or estates of the monastery of Wormhoult, which were not far distant were settled by the founder upon this house, and the town bears the name of Berg-St.-Winoc.

Dom. de Cousser, actual prior of St. Winoc’s, in his MS. annals of his monastery, endeavors to prove that a succession of monks had continued to inhabit a cell at Wormhoult, from the destruction of that abbey to its restoration in the city of Berg. The walls of the fortress did not take in the abbey till, in 1420, the abbot Moer raised a wall round the hill. The abbey of Berg was burnt with the town, by the French in 1383, when twelve candlesticks of massy gold, of an incredible weight and size, and other immense riches, were consumed in the church, and with them many shrines and relics of saints, particularly of St. Oswald the English king and martyr, and his cousin the holy virgin St. Hisberga, whom Molanus by mistake confounds with the Flandrican St. Isberge. Nothing of these relics escaped the flames, except a small parcel of little bones of St. Oswald kept separate. They are still exposed in that church in a reliquary made in the figure of an arm.* The relics of St. Winoc were not damaged. They are now preserved in a triple shrine raised over the high altar, and the head in a large silver bust apart. See the life of St. Winoc, with a relation of many miracles after his death, written probably in the ninth century before the devastation of the Normans in 880, MSS. in the Library of Berg-St.-Winoc, published by Surius, and more correctly by Mabillon, sc. 3, Ben. p. 1. Also, see the Chronology of St. Winoc’s nearly of the same age. Thirdly Drogo or Dreuoc, a monk of St. Winoc’s in the middle of the eleventh century, in his history of the miracles of St. Winoc, to many of which he had been an eye-witness. He prefixed a life of St. Winoc, in Mabillon, sc. 3, p. 310. He likewise composed a life of St. Lewina, an English virgin, in Mabillon, ib. and the Bollandists, 24 Julii, p. 613, and of St. Oswald, king and martyr, in Surius, 5 Aug. Some make this writer the same who was bishop of Terouenne from 1031 to 1078, and who wrote the life of St. Godeleva, virgin. But the monk expressly mentions this bishop his namesake and contemporary. See also on St. Winoc, Thomas the Deacon, a monk of Berg, who wrote in the fourteenth century, was eye witness to the plunder and burning of the abbey and city by the French in 1383; a most faithful and accurate historian.

St. Winoc’s history is abridged by Anian de Coussere, monk of Berg, and abbot of St. Peter’s of Aldenburg, who wrote a chronicle from the birth of Christ, and the translation of St. Arnulph, abbot of Aldenburg, and died in 1468.

Likewise by Peter of Wallen Capelle, prior of Berg, abbot of Broin at Namur, from 1585 to 1592, while his brother Francis, a Franciscan, was bishop of that city. Peter returned to Berg, and there died. He is author of two excellent treatises on the monastic state, the one called Illustrationes the other Institutiones Monastic, to which the learned Vanespen was much indebted in what he wrote on this subject. Consult also on St. Winoc, Mirus in Fastis Belgicis, and Chron. Belgico. Meyer, Chronic; Gramaie Descr. Historica Winoci Bergens. Abbati, pp. 148–153, &c.