What Are We to Think of the New Composition of the International Theological Commission?

As long as it's under the Presidency of the Heretic-in-Chief, I have little hope for orthodoxy. I pray every day that Fernández will be sacked!

From Rorate Cæli

By Serre Verweij

The International Theological Commission: A Reboot - Is It a Compromise Between Pope Leo and Cardinal Fernández?

The International Theological Commission, an important auxiliary body linked to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, has undergone its customary membership renewal, which occurs every five years. This time, however, it does so while Cardinal Fernández remains officially its Prefect.

According to the Commission's statutes, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith proposes the candidates, whom the Pope then appoints. A certain degree of influence by Fernández is therefore unavoidable. The question now is to what extent Pope Leo appears to be constraining him.

The six persons who received renewed mandates include the Commission's secretary, Archbishop Piero Coda — a moderate progressive who has spoken extensively of synodality and expanded roles for women in the Church, without calling for doctrinal change — and Sister Josée Ngalula from Africa, who strongly opposes homosexuality while supporting the ordination of women to the diaconate. The remainder are the mainstream figures Father Alberto Cozzi and Father Simon Francis Gaine (a Thomist), together with two orthodox members: Professor Reinhard Huetter and Sister Isabell Naumann.

The twenty-four new members constitute a markedly uneven composition.

A Handful of Radical Modernists

Cardinal Fernández appears to have secured the appointment of a few fellow radicals, but only a very few — three to four clearly problematic choices.

Claudia Leal Luna, from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family (following that institution's takeover by radical modernists), stands out as the most concerning appointment, specifically on matters of sexual ethics. She has championed a modernist pastoral approach grounded in Amoris Laetitia while formally declining to reject Catholic doctrine, and she has worked to undermine the 2021 Vatican Responsum that rejected the blessing of homosexual unions.

Luna is the only new member known to have flirted with LGBT advocacy. Sara Parvis from Scotland, however, appears to be the most openly dissident voice on the question of female ordination. While she has not called explicitly for female priests, she has defended an ordained female diaconate as a genuinely distinct possibility — a position that the Church largely settled in the negative under Francis.

The Brazilian theologian Tiago de Fraga Gomes has rightly been criticized for his embrace of religious pluralism, including the claim that no "historical religion" is absolute — a position difficult to reconcile with the Catholic teaching on the uniqueness of Christ as Savior.

These three stand out as particularly poor choices, though they remain, thankfully, a small minority.

Enablers of Modernism

A few figures with more obscure intellectual profiles have so far largely escaped scrutiny. They are not themselves open activists on key doctrinal questions, but their expressed views on pastoral care or canon law suggest that they are likely sympathizers with, or fellow travelers of, more programmatic modernists.

The Spaniard Ángel Cordovilla, Dean of Theology at the Pontifical University Comillas in Madrid, has spoken of how Francis helped him to move beyond "rigidity" — a remark whose implications are quite suggestive and may explain why Fernández would have wished to see him appointed.

Father Gaston Ogui Cossi, a theologian and priest from Benin, has placed himself at odds with the orthodox bishops and clergy of Africa by criticizing the exclusion from the Eucharist of Catholics living in sinful extramarital relationships, including polygamous unions — a practice recently reaffirmed by the African episcopate in coordination with Pope Leo. It is fair to ask whether Fernández was seeking a more progressive African voice.

Father Patrick Mwania from Kenya is a potentially similar case, though with less certainty. In an interview given during the conclave, he described Francis as having always been deeply progressive and pastorally open — including toward persons of different ideologies and orientations — even as a cardinal, while suggesting that Francis nevertheless remained loyal to Church doctrine. He implied that the cardinals would want a Pope who would build upon what Francis had accomplished.

Mediocrity and Banality

Several of the new members have confined themselves to cautious, centrist statements capable of satisfying multiple constituencies — praising synodality, for instance, without pushing radical reforms, and pursuing ecumenism that is neither purely relativist nor robustly doctrinal. With due respect to those involved, some of their preferred themes have a certain banal and studied safety about them in a moment of genuine ecclesial gravity.

The Korean theologian Teresa Hyeon Soon Choi, of Sogang University, has written on synodality and spirituality, and in 2016 spoke of implementing the mercy of Amoris Laetitia — without, however, specifying what that implementation would concretely entail.

Sister Shu Chin Hu from Taiwan has championed Karl Rahner's concept of the "anonymous Christian" and has focused chiefly on holistic spirituality and religious experience.

The German theologian Jan-Heiner Tück is a genuinely complex case. He has defended priestly celibacy and simultaneously called for married priests; he has criticized both the German Synodal Way and Traditionis Custodes; he has defended the controversial passages of Amoris Laetitia while opposing female ordination and expressing skepticism about progressive reform on sexual ethics.

Father Clarence Devadass from Malaysia represents centrism in concentrated form. In 2016 he spoke of mercy toward marginalized LGBT and divorced-and-remarried persons, while also insisting that doctrine is not in conflict with mercy. He has focused on interreligious dialogue and synodality, yet has also been outspokenly pro-life. Father Gilbert De Lima from India similarly represents the theological mainstream of the Indian subcontinent; he has been involved in interreligious dialogue, ecumenism, the Christian understanding of suffering grounded in the theology of John Paul II, and priestly formation.

The Dominican Father Jorge Scampini has promoted rapprochement with Lutheran theology while maintaining the traditional doctrine on the Eucharist; the German Jesuit Father Bernhard Knorn appears to have largely avoided controversy, concentrating on themes such as reconciliation. Anne-Sophie Vivier-Muresan, Dean of the Theologicum at the Catholic Institute of Paris, has engaged extensively with interreligious dialogue while steering clear of doctrinal controversy.

Maria Teresa Fattori, a researcher at the University of Teramo, is associated with the Bologna school — a center of progressive historical revisionism regarding Vatican II — yet appears herself to work primarily as a descriptive historian. Fabricio Leonel Forcat from Argentina is linked to the so-called theology of the people, yet is not known to advocate for radical doctrinal change on that basis.

Ratzingerian Orthodoxy

At the same time, several voices ranging from moderately to robustly orthodox have been added — though most are of the Ratzingerian rather than the traditionalist variety. They in fact outnumber the progressive voices, while centrists appear to form the plurality.

Two recipients of the Ratzinger Prize — Father Michel Fédou and Father Paul Béré, both ironically Jesuits — have been appointed, as have orthodox historians such as Father Carlo Dell'Osso and Professor Boyd Taylor Coolman. Even Fédou, while defending dogma against pure subjectivism, has tended to present dogma as a "liberating expression of the faith" — a characteristically moderate Ratzingerian framing.

Father Csaba Török, a priest from Cardinal Erdő's Archdiocese and spokesman for the Hungarian Bishops' Conference, has also been appointed, as has Professor Khaled Emmanuel Anatolios, Chair of the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. Father Lubomír Žák from the Czech Republic is noteworthy for his resistance to relativistic ecumenism with Lutherans.

The Mexican theologian Father Julián López Amozurrutia deserves particular mention. Under Francis, he had the courage to defend the indissolubility of marriage and to reaffirm that second civil marriages constitute adultery in the eyes of the Church. Cardinal Fernández was likely less than enthusiastic about his inclusion on the Commission.

Conclusion

Even Infovaticana reports having found nothing objectionable in the work of eleven of the new members. The overall renewal is not radical in character and is not, on its surface, openly activist in orientation. Fernández was not permitted to pack the Commission in the manner he almost certainly would have been able to do under Francis.

At the same time, he did succeed in placing a handful of allies and enablers on the Commission. He is not a dominant force, but he has not been entirely sidelined either. He will in all likelihood complete his five-year term through 2028. The decisive question remains what will happen after that.

Art as a Bridge Back to Ourselves

"I can offer a small light showing the way out, and, hopefully, a permanent reminder etched into hearts of who we have been and who we can still become."

From The Imaginative Conservative

By Kay Clarity

I cannot, by myself, eclipse the darkness of disconnection, growing illiteracy, and lives filled with an infinite scroll. But in my work as an artist and especially in these sincere, thoughtful encounters with art, I can offer a small light showing the way out, and, hopefully, a permanent reminder etched into hearts of who we have been and who we can still become.

We are becoming illiterate.

For many older demographics, this is true in a kind of atrophied or analogous way. The pre-internet age grew up differently, and now we are becoming less intellectually muscular as our attention frays due to the rapid influx of stimuli in our online worlds.

For the young, however, “illiterate” is becoming an increasingly literal, accurate term.

The conversation around this phenomenon is growing everywhere, in person and online. Anecdotally, professors and teachers are stumbling into new thresholds of shock at the degrading of the interior life and intellectual formation in those they teach.

Many of their students, increasingly, can barely read or comprehend what they are reading.

The effect seems to worsen every year.

Corporately, our attention is fading, as every age group grips onto short-form video like a kind of life ring in a sea of chaos, blocking out “wars and rumors of wars,” both real and symbolic, and signaling a constant, numbing, apocalyptic threat while we sip our lattes.

Reading time, even among the academics and previously avid readers and writers, is plummeting. Everyone is disappearing into a cloud of incessant noise and simulacra. We are Odysseus without the mast, with our entire lives passing us by as we are spellbound by our technological sirens.

While I believe I have some solutions, I am not immune to this, and have become fascinated by the extended experiment my life has become.

As iPhones first began to enter human social life, I was digging through Aristotle and Aquinas and Bernanos, ravenously underlining difficult passages of Kant, learning and teaching polyphony, and wandering over cobblestone and through art museums in Vienna on the occasional day off. Despite the full schedule, when we needed a break, we met for time-indulgent dinners. We froze in the brutal cold of winter, speaking through chattering teeth as we huddled over mulled wine at the Adventmarkt. We stopped to chat on the gravel walkway, even when late for class. We got milk and sauerkraut from the local farms. We prayed. Somewhere in those 80-hour, all-consuming weeks, I still regularly wrote songs.

I had no sense whatsoever of the tectonic shifting taking place away from my infinitesimally small castle-turreted corner of the world.

I was shocked the first time someone took a phone out mid-conversation some time in 2014 after I had moved on from my studies and returned to Canada. Immediately, without a blink or warning, this little handheld machine had incinerated the human connection.

I learned that day that a machine could be more important than the sentence I was forming specifically for the person in front of me. I learned how rapidly the glitter of the machine could rob us of everything that mattered.

I fought to keep the attention I had remarkably not lost in a time when it had already rapidly faded for others. Not only had I not lost it, but the opposite was the case: I had been strictly and deeply cultivating it for years on end prior. My entire life was focused attention, even to the point of exhaustion. I knew it was hard won, and precious.

By the time I got to Los Angeles in 2018, still trying to hold the line of my attention, I was relieved to be in a place with so much going on so that my free time could be filled with people, artistic projects, and the buzz of the city rather than the growing Goliath temptation to scroll away my life.

But with the virus shut downs of 2020, and my truly human life utterly dependent on relationships and locations outside of my home, I caved. I have since watched the rot enter and transform my own time, life, and ways of relating.

I, too, am slowly becoming less literate.

I, too, am slowly becoming less human—less deeply engaged with reality.

There is no easy way out of this. All we have is the hard road of consistently re-wiring our brains around intentional reality, presence, and the work of the mind, heart, and body. It is not lost on me that the stakes have become almost infinitely higher with the ubiquitous use of AI.

(It is also not lost on me, either, that I struggled notably to access the word “ubiquitous”—what’s that word again?—and asked AI for help.)

I believe meaningful encounters with the deeply human, but especially the things which point even deeper toward our own essence and into the Divine, is the most effective way to re-engage our desire for more out of life and re-wire our brains and hearts away from compulsive entertainment. Thoughtful artistic avenues, especially those with a heavy emphasis on audio and visual to start, seem to be a real route back. Where the mind may lag in lethargy due to the atrophy of attention, the heart can yet burst forth from the depths, responding from a place less easily and immediately wrecked by the war on our vulnerable neuroplastic synapses.

Directed engagement with art, especially that of others which whets our own unique desire to create, seems to be a critical bridge back.

To this end, although more from intuition than stark intentional contrast, I created my Art Episodes a few years back: a guided encounter with mixed media to allow, for a brief half hour, the choice of attention, reflection, presence, and a personal response.

Filmed monthly during Covid with limited studio possibilities in my home space, they carry an unmistakable mark of the imperfect real. There is little sheen. This lack of veneer has become, I believe, only more of a feature and less of a bug as many grow weary of the dominant artificial.

I have now formed them into a course format, believing that a few small but focused and sincere encounters with the world of art can help claw back some of our humanity again. A meaningful encounter with something deep, beautiful, and real, calling on the truest parts of ourselves, can transform a life forever. Bringing about that encounter in our current milieu is a worthy challenge.

While all of us are increasingly in need of this encounter of the heart with reality, it is especially true for the very young.

Many of us still have the memory of a world where attention was the default; where boredom was common and offered a precious vacuum for inspiration; where we hadn’t been so conditioned to immediate return and gratification from things that demand nothing of us. We sense a choice before us, even while we usually override the good inspirations to read, pray, slow down, deeply live. We need something to help us regain what has been lost and help us choose the good we know.

But for someone raised on the machine, in a degrading commons, at a fever pitch of politics and division, and by the inattention of many of the adults around them—as most of our young have been—we need to give them this gift of our memory while it is still in view.

I cannot, by myself, eclipse the darkness of disconnection, growing illiteracy, and lives filled with an infinite scroll. But in my work as an artist and especially in these sincere, thoughtful encounters with art, I can offer a small light showing the way out, and, hopefully, a permanent reminder etched into hearts of who we have been and who we can still become.

I would love to see many—individuals, parents, teachers—benefit from these encounters as a tool to begin the hard work of tilling the soil of souls: our own and those of whom we love.

__________

The featured image is “An Art Lover (1868), by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Bishop Challoner's Meditations ~ October 22nd

ON PRESCRIPTIONS AGAINST INTEMPERANCE

Consider first, that in order to overcome the vice of intemperance, one of the first and most necessary prescriptions is to fly the occasions of it, and to keep as much as possible at a distance from the danger which is always at hand, in the revellings or drinking hours of worldlings, and ought always to be apprehended in such places and companies where excess is promoted and encouraged by common practice and example. Let not him that has already experienced his own weakness, by falling into sin on such occasions, venture himself any more there. The burnt child ought to dread the fire. Much less should he that has unhappily contracted a habit of intemperance expose himself to such places or companies, whatever the consequence of his refusal may be; he will never get the better of that pernicious habit as long as he frequents such places and such company. Let no man here deceive himself with pretexts of civility or necessity - his soul is at stake, eternity is at stake. O let him not risk his all for fear of displeasing drunken companions. The plague is amongst them; let him fly far away from the infection. The devil is amongst them; there is death in their cups, a mortal poison that reaches even to the soul. Hell is following them close at the heels; let him keep off from them, lest he be also involved in their destruction.

Consider 2ndly, that the arms which are to be employed against the vice of intemperance are particularly prayer and mortification. Fervent prayer, frequently repeated, draws down the powerful assistance of God's grace, without which this evil, which is too natural to our corruption, is not to be overcome. And mortification disarms the enemy, by restraining the sensual appetite and bringing it into due order and subjection. Every Christian as such, ought to aim at leading a mortified life, in quality of a disciple of a crucified God; he must endeavour to walk in the narrow way by a general self-denial, if he expects to arrive at true life, and would be acknowledged by his Lord and master for one of his. How much more is every sinner - if he hopes to secure to himself the remission of his sins, by being a penitent indeed, - obliged to expiate them by fasting and other mortifications, and penitential exercises? Now the putting in practice this mortification and penance, which is so general a duty, will effectually deliver us from the tyranny of intemperance, and even cut off all the approaches of this enemy. O let us embrace then this happy means of gaining a complete victory over this mortal evil and all its wretched train of sins. 

Consider 3rdly, that the most sovereign means of all for subduing intemperance, and indeed all other vices, is a daily application of the soul to the study of true wisdom, by the exercise of recollection and mental prayer, and the contemplation of heavenly truths. This helps the soul to another kind of appetite, which will grow daily upon her for the things of God, and give her a loathing and disgust for all sensual and carnal satisfactions. The relish of truth, the sweet savour of the heavenly manna, found in the conversation with God in our interior; the consideration and meditation on his eternal feast, where he shall inebriate his guests with the never-failing plenty of his house, and make them drink of the torrent of his pleasure, at the very head of the fountain of life, which is with him is sufficiently abundant to wean the soul that accustoms herself to this kind of diet from all sensual affections, and to give her an effectual and eternal abhorrence for all those husks of swine that keep earthly-minded Christians both from the table and from the kingdom of their heavenly Father.

Conclude to follow these prescriptions, if thou wouldst effectually be preserved from, or cured of, this mortal disease of intemperance. Even in thy ordinary meals and necessary refreshments let not sensuality hurry thee away to indulge thyself in eating and drinking, merely for the pleasure of it, but take that necessary support of nature with a pure intention, in obedience to the will of God, as a medicine for the preserving of thy health, and season it with the remembrance of the gall and vinegar of thy Saviour.

22 October, Antonio, Cardinal Bacci: Meditations For Each Day

“Forgive Us Our Debts”

1. When we have asked God for nourishment for soul and body, we go on to implore forgiveness for our debts, whether they have been contracted in the course of nature, or of grace, or of sin. We owe everything to God. There was a time when we did not exist, and in His divine omnipotence He created us from nothing. Our bodily powers and spiritual faculties are His gifts to us. If we enjoy health, it is He Who has given it to us. If we have any ability, it comes from Him. Anything which we have been able to achieve as the result of mental or manual labour has been made possible by His help.

Who is it but God Who rescues us from the many perils which surround us? Who but He enables us to overcome so many difficulties? How many times we should have died if He had not sustained us!

Let us think back over our past lives. How much reason we have to be grateful to God, Who has watched over us continually like a loving Father. The conservation of life is a continuous act of creation. When we recite the Pater Noster, therefore, we should express our filial gratitude to God and ask for His continued protection. Every moment of life is a new gift of God and an act of His infinite love in our regard. Let us be grateful and love Him generously in return.

2. Over and above these natural debts, we are also indebted to God for His grace. Not only has God created us, but He has also raised us to the supernatural order. By His grace He has made us His friends and His adopted children. As a result of original sin we lost this supernatural life and were unable to regain it by our own efforts.

God was moved with compassion for us, however, and sent His own divine Son to sacrifice Himself for love of us in order to redeem us and to restore to us the supernatural life of the soul. We are greatly indebted in the supernatural order, therefore, to our Creator and our Redeemer. The only way in which we can adequately satisfy our obligation is by offering up the infinite merits of Jesus Christ.

We have been born, moreover, in the Catholic Church and have received a Christian education. God has always been close to us with His Sacraments. By means of Baptism He caused us to be born again to a life of grace. Whenever we fell, He raised us up again through the Sacrament of Penance, and when we were weak and faltering He nourished us with His Eucharistic food. Let us adore Him and acknowledge that we can never thank Him enough for all that He has done for us. That is why we need to repeat time and time again: Forgive us our debts.

3. Finally, we owe God a great deal on account of our sins. Unfortunately, our only return for God’s continual favours has been negligence, ingratitude, and sin. How many failings we have been guilty of throughout our lives. Since it is an offence against God, Who is infinitely good and amiable, even venial sin cannot properly be atoned for by the merits of all the Angels and of all the Saints of Heaven. Therefore it was necessary for the Son of God made man to offer Himself as a victim of expiation on our behalf.

Remembering His infinite merits, we should humbly ask God: Forgive us our debts, that is, our many sins and failings and whatever punishment is owing to us, for every sin demands some expiation either in this life or in the next. Meanwhile, we should accept with resignation all the sufferings which God sends us in reparation for our sins, and we should promise never to offend Him any more.

Byzantine Saints: 7 Holy Youths “Seven Sleepers” of Ephesus

Byzantine Saints: Saint Averkios the Wonderworker, Bishop of Hieropolis

Eastern Rite ~ Feasts of 22 October AM 7534

Today is the Feasts of the Holy Wonderworker and Equal-to-the-Apostles Abercius, Bishop of Hieropolis & of the Seven Holy Youths or Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.

✠✠✠✠✠

Saint Abercius, Bishop and Wonderworker of Hieropolis lived in the second century in Phrygia. The city of Hieropolis was inhabited by many pagans and very few Christians. The saint prayed to the Lord for the salvation of their souls and that they might be numbered among God’s chosen flock. An angel appeared and bade Saint Abercius to destroy the idols in the pagan temple. He fulfilled the command of God with zeal. Hearing that the idol-worshippers wanted to kill him, the saint went to the place where the people had gathered and openly denounced the failings of the pagans. The pagans tried to seize the saint.

At this moment three demon-possessed youths in the crowd cried out. The people were dumbfounded, as the saint expelled the devils from them by his prayers. Seeing the youths restored to normal, the people of Hieropolis asked Saint Abercius to instruct them in the Christian Faith, and then they accepted Holy Baptism.

After this the saint went to the surrounding cities and villages, healing the sick and preaching the Kingdom of God. With his preaching he made the rounds of Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, he visited Rome and everywhere he converted multitudes of people to Christ. For many years he guarded the Church against heretics, he confirmed Christians in the Faith, he set the prodigal upon the righteous path, he healed the sick and proclaimed the glory of Christ. Because of his great works, Saint Abercius is termed “Equal of the Apostles.”

Saint Abercius returned home to Hieropolis, where he soon rested from his labours. After his death, many miracles took place at his tomb. He wrote his own epitaph, and it was carved on his tombstone, which is now in the Lateran Museum.

Troparion — Tone 4

You appeared to your flock as a rule of faith, / an Image of humility and a teacher of abstinence. / Because of your lowliness, Heaven was opened to you, / because of your poverty, riches were granted to you. / O Holy Bishop Abercius, pray to Christ our God to save our souls!

Troparion — Tone 5

You emulated the zeal of the Apostles / and shone forth like a morning star, / and your works showed your God-given power: / you guided the erring to God, / O hierarch Abercius.

Kontakion — Tone 4

All the Church honours you, Abercius, / the Great Bishop equal to the Apostles! / O blessed one worthy of all praise, / through your intercession / keep the Church victorious, calm and unshaken.

Kontakion — Tone 8

The whole Church honours you as a great hierarch / and as a companion to the Apostles. / By your prayers keep the Church unconquered and unshaken by heresy, glorious Abercius.

✠✠✠✠✠

The Seven Youths of Ephesus: Maximilian, Iamblicus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodianus (Constantine) and Antoninus, lived in the third century. Saint Maximilian was the son of the Ephesus city administrator, and the other six youths were sons of illustrious citizens of Ephesus. The youths were friends from childhood, and all were in military service together.

When the emperor Decius (249-251) arrived in Ephesus, he commanded all the citizens to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. Torture and death awaited anyone who disobeyed. The seven youths were denounced by informants and were summoned to reply to the charges. Appearing before the emperor, the young men confessed their faith in Christ.

Their military belts and insignia were quickly taken from them. Decius permitted them to go free, however, hoping that they would change their minds while he was off on a military campaign. The youths fled from the city and hid in a cave on Mount Ochlon, where they passed their time in prayer, preparing for martyrdom.

The youngest of them, Saint Iamblicus, dressed as a beggar and went into the city to buy bread. On one of his excursions into the city, he heard that the emperor had returned and was looking for them. Saint Maximilian urged his companions to come out of the cave and present themselves for trial.

Learning where the young men were hidden, the emperor ordered that the entrance of the cave be sealed with stones so that the saints would perish from hunger and thirst. Two of the dignitaries at the blocked entrance to the cave were secret Christians. Desiring to preserve the memory of the saints, they placed in the cave a sealed container containing two metal plaques. On them were inscribed the names of the seven youths and the details of their suffering and death.

The Lord placed the youths into a miraculous sleep lasting almost two centuries. In the meantime, the persecutions against Christians had ceased. During the reign of the holy emperor Theodosius the Younger (408-450) there were heretics who denied that there would be a general resurrection of the dead at the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some of them said, “How can there be a resurrection of the dead when there will be neither soul nor body since they are disintegrated?” Others affirmed, “The souls alone will have a restoration since it would be impossible for bodies to arise and live after a thousand years when even their dust would not remain.” Therefore, the Lord revealed the mystery of the Resurrection of the Dead and of the future life through His seven saints.

The owner of the land on which Mount Ochlon was situated, discovered the stone construction, and his workers opened up the entrance to the cave. The Lord had kept the youths alive, and they awoke from their sleep, unaware that almost two hundred years had passed. Their bodies and clothing were completely undecayed.

Preparing to accept torture, the youths once again asked Saint Iamblicus to buy bread for them in the city. Going toward the city, the youth was astonished to see a cross on the gates. Hearing the name of Jesus Christ freely spoken, he began to doubt that he was approaching his own city.

When he paid for the bread, Iamblicus gave the merchant coins with the image of the emperor Decius on them. He was detained, as someone who might be concealing a horde of old money. They took Saint Iamblicus to the city administrator, who also happened to be the Bishop of Ephesus. Hearing the bewildering answers of the young man, the bishop perceived that God was revealing some sort of mystery through him, and went with other people to the cave.

At the entrance to the cave, the bishop found the sealed container and opened it. He read upon the metal plaques the names of the seven youths and the details of the sealing of the cave on the orders of the emperor Decius. Going into the cave and seeing the saints alive, everyone rejoiced and perceived that the Lord, by waking them from their long sleep, was demonstrating to the Church the mystery of the Resurrection of the Dead.

Soon the emperor himself arrived in Ephesus and spoke with the young men in the cave. Then the holy youths, in sight of everyone, lay their heads upon the ground and fell asleep again, this time until the General Resurrection.

The emperor wanted to place each of the youths into a jewelled coffin, but they appeared to him in a dream and said that their bodies were to be left on the ground in the cave. In the twelfth century, the Russian pilgrim Igumen Daniel saw the holy relics of the seven youths in the cave.

There is a second commemoration of the seven youths on October 22. According to one tradition, which entered into the Russian Prologue (of Saints’ Lives), the youths fell asleep for the second time on this day. The Greek Menaion of 1870 says that they first fell asleep on August 4, and woke up on October 22.

There is a prayer of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in the Great Book of Needs (Trebnik) for those who are ill and cannot sleep. The Seven Sleepers are also mentioned in the service for the Church New Year, September 1.

Troparion — Tone 4

Your holy martyrs, O Lord, / through their sufferings have received their incorruptible crowns from You, our God. / For having Your strength, they laid low their adversaries, / and shattered the powerless boldness of demons. / Through their intercessions, save our souls!

Kontakion — Tone 4

Those who renounced the perishing comforts of this world, / preferring the eternal things of Heaven, / were incorrupt after death and rose from the dead / and buried the snares of the devils! / O Faithful, let us then honour them, singing a hymn of praise to Christ!

22 October, The Chesterton Calendar

OCTOBER 22nd

Watts proved no doubt that he was not wholly without humour by this admirable picture ("The First Oyster"). Gladstone proved that he was not wholly without humour by his reply to Mr. Chaplin, by his singing of "Doo-dah," and by his support of a grant to the Duke of Coburg. But both men were singularly little possessed by the mood or the idea of humour. To them had been in peculiar fullness revealed the one great truth which our modern thought does not know, and which it may possibly perish through not knowing. They knew that to enjoy life means to take it seriously. There is an eternal kinship between solemnity and high spirits, and almost the very name of it is Gladstone. Its other name is Watts. They knew that not only life, but every detail of life, is most a pleasure when it is studied with the gloomiest intensity.... The startling cheerfulness of the old age of Gladstone, the startling cheerfulness of the old age of Watts, are both redolent of this exuberant seriousness, this uproarious gravity. They were as happy as the birds because, like the birds, they were untainted by the disease of laughter. They are as awful and philosophical as children at play: indeed, they remind us of a truth true for all of us, though capable of misunderstanding, that the great aim of a man's life is to get into his second childhood.

'Watts.'

22 October, The Holy Rule of St Benedict, Patriarch of Western Monasticism

CHAPTER XVIII. In what order the Psalms are to be said

21 Feb. 22 June. 22 Oct.

First of all let this verse be said: “O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me,” and the Gloria, followed by the hymn proper to each Hour. At Prime on Sunday four parts of the hundred and eighteenth Psalm are to be said. At the other Hours, that is, Tierce, Sext and None, let three parts of the same Psalm be said. At Prime on Monday let three Psalms be said, namely, the first, second and sixth and so in the same way every day until Sunday let three Psalms be said at Prime in order, up to the nineteenth; the ninth and seventeenth, however, being divided into two Glorias. It will thus come about that at the Night-Office on Sunday we shall always begin with the twentieth Psalm.

23 October, The Roman Martyrology

Décimo Kaléndas Novémbris Luna duodécima. Anno Dómini 2026

October 23rd 2026, the 12th day of the Moon,
On the morrow we keep the solemn feast of Our Most Holy Redeemer, whose venerable image was taken by barbarians and carried off into Africa, where it was treated with mocking and insults, and then was cast away into a lion's den. It was bought back for money by the bare-footed Friars of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity, and brought to Spain, where it is distinguished everywhere for signs and wonders, and is worshipped and honoured with great earnestness by the people under the Most Holy Name of Jesus of Nazareth.
Upon the same 23rd day of October, were born into the better life:
At Willach, in Pannonia, the holy Confessor John of Capistrano, of the Order of Friars Minor, illustrious for the holiness of his life and for his zeal for the propagation of the Catholic faith, who by his prayers and miracles procured the defeat of a vast army of Turks, and delivered the fortress of Belgrade from beleaguerment. We keep his feast upon the 28th day of March.
At Antioch, in Syria, the holy Priest Theodore. In the persecution under the Emperor Julian, the impious apostate, he was arrested and racked, and after many and terrible sufferings, wherein he was partly burnt by the putting of lamps to his sides, he was beheaded, and so finished his martyrdom, still steadfast in the confession of Christ.
At Granada, in Spain, is commemorated the blessed martyr Peter Paschal, Bishop of Jaen, of the Order of the Blessed Mary of Ransom for the Redemption of Captives, who suffered upon the 6th day of December, (in the year 1300.)
At Osuna, near Cadiz, in Spain, the holy martyrs Servandus and Germanus. Under the Imperial Vicar Viator, in the persecution under the Emperor Diocletian, they suffered stripes, a foul imprisonment, hunger and thirst, and a long and toilsome journey, which they were forced to make loaded with irons, and in the end finished the course of their martyrdom by being beheaded. Germanus is buried at Merida and Servandus at Seville.
At Constantinople, (in the year 878,) the holy Archbishop Ignatius, who suffered much at the hands of the Caesar Bardas, because he rebuked him for having put away his wife, and was sent into exile, but was restored by Nicholas I., Pope of Rome, and in the end fell asleep in peace.
At Bordeaux, (in the fifth century,) the holy Confessor Severinus, Bishop of Cologne, (and afterward of Bordeaux.)
At Rouen, (in the seventh century,) holy Romanus, Bishop (of that see.)
At Salerno, (in the fifth century,) holy Verus, Bishop (of that see.)
In the country of Amiens, (in the eighth century,) the holy Priest Domitius.
At Poitiers, the holy Confessor Benedict.
℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
℟. Thanks be to God.

Meme of the Moment

Today is the 107th anniversary of her birth.

Traditional Catholic Evening Prayers in English | October

Traditional Catholic evening devotional prayers to close your day with your mind, heart, tongue, and soul on our Lord! The month of October is dedicated to the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Begin and end each day with prayer and make a sincere commitment this month to pray the Rosary every day! This video is a compilation of many traditional evening prayers Catholics say, and should not be considered a replacement for those who have an obligation to pray the Divine Office evening prayers.

Compline

From St Thomas Aquinas Seminary. You may follow the Office at Divinum Officium.

Byzantine Saints: Martyrs Gaius, Dasius, & Zoticus at Nicomedia

Prayers for the Canonisation of Bld Karl of Austria, Emperor & King, & the Beatification of the Servant of God Zita, Empress & Queen

Today is the Feast of Bld Karl, and it will be the Feast of his Consort when she is beatified, the Servant of God Zita, Empress & Queen, since it is the anniversary of their wedding day.

Heavenly Father, through Blessed Emperor Karl, Thou hast given Thy Church and the people of God an example of how we can live a discerning and spiritual life in a convincing and courageous way.

His public actions as emperor and king, and his personal acts as a family man, were firmly based in the teachings of the Catholic Faith. His love for his Eucharistic Lord grew in times of trial and helped him to unite himself to Christ’s sacrifice through his own life’s sacrifice for his peoples. Emperor Karl honoured the Mother of God, and loved to pray the rosary throughout his life.

Strengthen us by his intercession when discouragement, faintheartedness, loneliness, bitterness and depression trouble us. Let us follow the example of Your faithful servant, and unselfishly serve our brothers and sisters according to Your will.

Hear my petitions and grant my request [mention your intention here].

Grant that Blessed Karl of Austria be deemed worthy of canonisation, for the glory of Thy Name, the praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and for blessings upon the Church.

God our Father, you redeemed the world by the humility of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He who was King became a Servant and gave his life as a ransom for many, therefore you have exalted Him.

We ask Thee that Thy servant Zita, Empress and Queen, will be raised to the altars of Thy Church.  In her, Thou hast given us an admirable example of faith and hope in the face of trials, as well as an unshakeable confidence in Thy Divine Providence.

We beseech Thee that alongside her husband, the Blessed Emperor Charles, Zita will become, for couples, a model of conjugal fidelity and love, and, for families, a guide in the ways of a truly Christian upbringing.  May she who in all circumstances opened her heart to the needs of others, especially the very poor, be for us all an example of service and love of neighbour.

Through her intercession, grant our petition [mention here the graces you are asking for]. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

One Our Father, three Hail Marys and a Glory Be.

Kindly inform the Abbaye Saint-Pierre (F-72300 Solesmes) of any grace or favour obtained through the intercession of the Servant of God Zita.

Imprimatur : 09/07/2009
† Mgr. Yves Le Saux
Bishop of Le Mans (France).