Leo Loyalist Wants You To Stop Watching Independent Catholic Media (See Note)

This is all part of the Synodality that the cardinals are meeting to talk about in Rome as the SSPX consecrations draw near.

Nota Bene ~ This is just another form of the Index Websitorum Prohibitorum that Francis proposed back in 2018.

Meet The Normans With Eleanor Janega: The Strongest Conquerors Of The Medieval World

From Chronicle – Medieval History Documentaries

They were the Northmen who changed history. Starting as heathen Viking warriors who plundered and settled in Northern France and forged the new Duchy of Normandy, becoming the most ferocious conquerors that medieval Europe had ever seen, and giving England its most famous date: 1066. In this two-part series, Dr Eleanor Janega sets off across Normandy to discover who this band of rugged warriors, settlers and rulers were. In episode 1, Eleanor follows the route of Viking raiders along the great waterways of Northern France, investigating the destruction left in their wake. She gets up close to the single most important technological development of the period: the Viking Longboat.

Traditional Catholic Morning Prayers in English | June

Traditional Catholic morning prayers to help start your day in a godly way! The month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. May our devotion to the mystery of the Sacred Heart of Jesus increase more and more each day. We've included the Memorare of the Sacred Heart and the Litany of the Sacred Heart. Begin your June with daily morning prayer. This video is a compilation of many traditional morning prayers Catholics say, and should not be considered a replacement for those who have an obligation to pray the Divine Office morning prayers.

This Jewish Prayer Weapon Terrifies Demons (and They Mock It)

From Totus Catholica

They Mock the Rosary – But This Jewish Weapon TERRIFIES Demons!

What if the Rosary isn’t just a string of beads or repetitive prayers—but a spiritual weapon rooted in Jewish tradition that terrifies demons? In this powerful video, we uncover the profound truth behind the Rosary. From its biblical roots to its role as a tool for spiritual warfare, you’ll discover why saints, mystics, and even modern exorcists call the Rosary one of the most potent weapons against evil. 📌 Watch until the end to learn how the Rosary connects you to Christ through Mary and becomes a lifeline for your soul in times of spiritual battle. ✨ What You’ll Learn in This Video: 📖 The Jewish roots of the Rosary and how it mirrors ancient prayer traditions 🌟 Why the Rosary is not about Mary worship but about meditating on the life of Christ 👑 How the Rosary terrifies demons and strengthens your faith 🙏 Practical steps to deepen your devotion to the Rosary ⏳ Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction: The Rosary as a Spiritual Weapon 1:05 - Why the Rosary Is Mocked Today 2:57 - The Biblical and Jewish Roots of the Rosary 4:02 - Why Demons Fear the Rosary 4:52 - Addressing Objections: Vain Repetitions and Intercession 6:36 - How to Live Out the Rosary in Your Daily Life 8:01 - Even Martin Luther Acknowledged Mary’s Role 9:07 - Practical Takeaways: Praying the Rosary with Intention 📖 Key Scripture & References: Luke 1:28, 42 – The Hail Mary is rooted in scripture. Matthew 6:7 – Jesus warns against vain repetitions, not meditative prayer. Revelation 5:8 – Saints and angels intercede for us in heaven. John 2:5 – Mary’s words: “Do whatever He tells you.” James 5:16 – “The prayer of a righteous person has great power.” 🔗 Additional Resources: 📖 Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 964): Mary’s role in the Church flows from her union with Christ. 📖 St. Louis de Montfort: The Rosary is formidable to the devil when prayed together. 📖 Dr. Brant Pitre’s Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary: Mary as the new Eve, Queen Mother, and Ark of the Covenant. 📖 CCC 971: Devotion to Mary expresses itself in imitation of her virtues. Have you ever experienced the power of the Rosary in your life? How does understanding its biblical and Jewish roots deepen your appreciation for this devotion?

Ss John and Paul, Roman Officials Who Became Martyrs

Today is the Feast of Ss John and Paul, retired Roman soldiers who were martyred under Julian the Apostate when they refused his call to return to military service.

From Aleteia

By Marinella Bandini

The Basilica of Sts. John and Paul is located on the Caelian Hill, a stone’s throw from the Colosseum. It is dedicated to two Roman officials, John and Paul, fervent Christians and victims of the persecution under the emperor Julian the Apostate. They were killed on June 26, 362, and buried in their own home. The emperor died a year later, on the same day …

The place of martyrdom soon became a place of worship, as excavations also confirm. The relics of the martyrs are still preserved today under the high altar. The basilica was built at the beginning of the 5th century. It has suffered looting, destruction and earthquakes, and has undergone several reconstructions.

The tomb of St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionists, who serve this church, is also located here.

The basilica is now a coveted wedding venue and is also known as the “church of the chandeliers” because of the 35 crystal chandeliers that hang in the nave. They arrived from New York in the mid-1900s during restorations ordered by Cardinal Francis J. Spellman, archbishop of New York and Cardinal Priest of this church.

Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of injustice,

to undo the thongs of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?

Isaiah 58:6

Astonishing Missions From God: Joan of Arc, the Cristeros, & More Unbreakable Saints | Kimberly Begg

From The Conor Gallagher Show

How did the Catholic martyrs find the courage they needed to die for their faith? Kimberly Begg joins Conor to discuss the extraordinary courage of Joan of Arc, José Sánchez del Río, Jerzy Popiełuszko, and more. From Joan leading armies at 16 years old to young martyrs dying for Christ under communist persecution, this episode explores how courage, holiness, and steadfast faith are formed — and why these stories matter now more than ever.

The Challenge of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus – the Americas & the World

"The true reparation asked by the Heart of the Saviour will come when the civilisation of the Heart of Christ can be built upon the ruins heaped up by hatred and violence." ~ Pope John Paul II

From One Peter Five

By Charles Coulombe, STM, KCSS

The Eucharistic Heart spread everywhere.

To Jesus’ Heart all burning
With fervent love for men,
My heart with fondest yearning
Shall raise its joyful strain.

Chorus:
While ages course along,
Blest be with loudest song,
The Sacred Heart of Jesus,
By every heart and tongue.

O Heart for sinners riven
By sheer excess of love,
The spear thro’ Thee was driven,
‘Twas sin of mine that drove.

Chorus

This hymn to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is often attacked, and even mocked by musical experts of all ideologies in the Church.  But whatever its defects, it certainly has deep place in American devotion to the Sacred Heart.  Of course, as with most things in these Unites States, it comes from elsewhere.  Originally written in German by Fr. Aloys Schlor (1805-52), shortly before his death in 1852.  Bearing the title Dem Herzen Jesu Singe, it had 11 stanzas.  Translated to English by English academic, playwright,  and Jesuit priest, Albany James Christie (1817-91), it was first published in 1876 in his The First Christmas: A Mystery Play.

But as with everything Catholic in the Americas, devotion to the Sacred Heart long predates the United States.  Although Spain opened up the Evangelisation of the Western Hemisphere, it was in New France that this devotion took root, with the arrival of St. Marie de l’Incarnation, who founded the Ursuline Order in Canada in 1632, half a century before Our Lord began appearing to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.  Nine years later, Catherine Symon de Longpré, Mother Catherine of Saint Augustine in religion, brought devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary to Canada, along with her veneration for Marie des Vallées, with whom she was in contact.

On March 17, 1727, King Philip V of Spain, grandson of Louis XIV, wrote to Benedict XIII, asking him to approve the Office and Mass of the Sacred Heart for the kingdoms and states of the Spanish  Crown – the bulk of these were of course Spanish America and the Philippines; from this time on, the cultus of the Sacred Heart had official approbation in the Viceroyalties of the Americas.

In the newly independent United States, the Jesuit Mission at Conewago, Pennsylvania was renamed in honour of the Sacred Heart in 1787, when a new church was built.  A minor Basilica to-day, it was the first parish church named after the Sacred Heart in the United States – and possibly in the Western Hemisphere.

Inspired by the French Voeu Nationale, Gabriel García Moreno (1821-1875), President of the Republic of Ecuador, consecrated his country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  He was assassinated two years later, as he left the cathedral of Quito where he had just completed his customary adoration.  But he established what became the template for National Consecrations to the Sacred Heart across the globe.  In keeping with St. Margaret Mary Alacoque’s request to Louis XIV, it was done by both the Head of State, the Legislature, and the Bishops of the Country.  This emphasises that the Faith ought to encompass both Church and State.  Following Ecuador’s example, several Central and South American countries undertook this national consecration in the following years – the first being the Republic of El Salvador in 1874.

But the Americas were not the only area where the Sacred Heart was making inroads.  On December 8, 1875 St. Daniele Comboni, Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa, consecrated his vicariate to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

January of 1892 saw the publication of the first issue of the Canadian Messenger of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Under the direction of Father J.R.B. Nolin SJ, Senior Director of the League of the Sacred Heart and of Reparative Communion at the Sacred Heart offices in the Gesù, Montreal.  The Papal Zouaves of Quebec, after fighting for Bl. Pius IX, 1860-70, became as instrumental in spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart in Quebec and Canada as their brethren were throughout Europe.

In 1896, Marie de la Rousselière (1840-1924), who had joined her sister’s family in Canada, founded the Sanctuary of “La Réparation” at Pointe-aux-Trembles, Montreal.  She had the first chapel built at her own expense.  It quickly became a place of pilgrimage dedicated to the Sacred Heart, where the Holy Face and the Virgin of Pellevoisin were particularly venerated.  She returned to France in 1901 and entered the Carmelite convent in Angers the following year, taking the name Marie-Clémentine of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Newark, New Jersey, was the scene in 1899 of the laying of the cornerstone of what is now the extraordinarily beautiful Cathedral-Basilica of the Sacred Heart.  Any number of churches were dedicated to the Sacred Heart throughout the United States during this era.

The Republic of Venezuela was consecrated to the Blessed Sacrament on Sunday, July 2, 1899, three weeks after the Consecration of humankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Pope Leo XIII—on Sunday, June 11, 1899—and one week before the closing of the Plenary Council of Latin America—on Sunday, July 9, 1899.  The Consecration of Venezuela to the Blessed Sacrament was like an echo of the Consecration of humankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, except that the Consecration of the Republic of Venezuela was not to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but to the Blessed Sacrament.  Nevertheless, it was very much an expression of the ideal of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.  It was however a strictly ecclesiastical act, without participation of the secular authorities.

 In Colombia, on the other hand, things were very different.  For a decade impetus had been gathering for such a consecration – to include civil authorities.  In 1881, the building of the Basilica of the National Vow began in Bogota.  At last, on June 22, 1902, during the midst of a civil war, the action was accomplished.  The president being away directing the fighting, his place was taken by the vice president.  But in addition, there were the Ministers of the Executive Cabinet, the Supreme Court of Justice, the Council of State, the Attorney General of the Nation, the Court of Accounts, the Governor of the Department with his Secretaries, the Mayor of the city with the Municipal Council, and the General Staff of the Army.  As in France and Ecuador, the cornerstone was laid for a national church dedicated to reparation to the Sacred Heart.

On August 24, 1907, while on pilgrimage in Paray-le-Monial, the Peruvian priest Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey was inspired to found the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in Families, inspired during a night of adoration.  In Rome, where he was received in private audience that same year, Pius X encouraged him in this apostolate and asked him to dedicate his life to it.  The aim was to introduce the Sacred Heart into every family, “so that, with its image placed in the most prominent place in the home, as if on a throne, Jesus Christ Our Lord might visibly reign in Catholic homes.”  This devotion first spread through Latin America, than the North, and finally has become World-wide.  In Valparaiso, while giving numerous lectures and retreats, Father Mateo inaugurated the preaching of the Holy Hour.  It is a call to an hour of public adoration before the Sacred Heart.  In 1914, he published Twelve Exercises for the Holy Hour.  The Archconfraternity of the Holy Hour, affiliated with Paray-le-Monial, was established in the Church of the Sacred Hearts of Valparaiso, and he was appointed its director.

In 1911, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Tismaru, on the South Island of New Zealand was and is a testimony to the poor Irish parishioners of the area, who raised the money to build and furnish this amazing structure.

On October 24, 1920, Bishop Larocque blessed a small chapel dedicated to the Sacred Heart, built according to the wishes of Father Joseph-Arthur Laporte (1857-1921), a priest of the Clerics of Saint Viator.  He had acquired land for this purpose on Beauvoir Hill in the Diocese of Sherbrooke as early as 1915.  A statue of the Sacred Heart, erected in 1916, preceded the construction of the chapel, attracting the first pilgrims.  Managed first by the secular clergy of Sherbrooke, then by the Daughters of Charity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Shrine was expanded in 1945 with a new church, intended to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims.  The Sacred Heart Sanctuary of Beauvoir was entrusted to the Assumptionist religious order from 1948 to 1996; it’s now looked after by the Marists.

In Mexico, thanks to the power of the anticlericals, consecration ceremonies were limited to the interior of churches, but they gained greater momentum during the post-revolutionary period of the 1920s.  There the monument dedicated to the Sacred Heart is located in the traditionally Catholic region of Guanajuato.  Cubilete Hill, a rugged mountain, first witnessed “consecration of the nation to the ‘King of Heaven” began to be celebrated in late 1919.  In 1923 a monument was erected, with numerous bishops supporting its consecration.  So far from any government official collaborating, the then-apostolic delegate, the Italian Ernesto Filippi was expelled from the country for presiding over the event.  This was the beginning of the Cristero Rebellion against the anti-clerical governments of the post-revolution, with the battle cry “Long live Christ the King!”  The statue, erected at the beginning of the decade and of small proportions, was dynamited on the orders of the government of Plutarco Elías Calles in January 1928.  A group of militiamen allegedly “executed” the statue, but the preservation of the remains of Christ’s head and heart on the Mexican hill was considered miraculous.  A new, more imposing monument was later built around these ruins.

Over the next few years, Nicaragua (1920), Costa Rica (1921), Brazil (1922), and Bolivia (1925) were all consecrated to the Sacred Heart.  Each was done with either the cooperation or the enmity of the civil authorities.  In the former case, it was because those in power at the moment were committed to retaining some elements of the Catholic order with their respective countries had been founded by the Spanish or (in the case of Brazil) the Portuguese.

In 1925, French Canada, thanks to Father Marie-Clément Staub AA (†1936), would see another Shrine dedicated to the Sacred Heart in Sillery, Quebec.  Linked to the “Montmartre” founded by the Augustinians of the Assumption in 1917, the Shrine became the centre of the Archconfraternity of Prayer and Penance in Canada.  The Canadian Montmartre is a place of pilgrimage and worship, affiliated with the Montmartre of Paris since 1953.  A magazine, L’Appel du Sacré-Cœur has been published since 1948.  Three years later, another such small Montmartre would be erected in Balata, near Fort-de-France in Martinique.

The “Sacred Heart Programme,” founded by Father Eugene Murphy SJ (1892-1973), began broadcasting on radio station WEW in St. Louis, USA in 1939.  It was an immediate success.  On June 17, 1955, the programme made its television debut.  By the time of Father Murphy’s death, the radio programme was being broadcast by 985 stations worldwide, and by nearly 2,000 when it was shut down by the Missouri Jesuits in 2005.

On January 11, 1998, renewing the consecration performed by García Moreno in 1874, the President of the Republic of Ecuador publicly consecrated his country to the Sacred Heart in the Quito Cathedral, in the presence of all the country’s bishops.

November 1, All Saints’ Day, 2020, saw church bells ring out on the day the nation and people of Paraguay were once again consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Virgin of Caacupé, in the Basilica of the same name, during a solemn religious ceremony attended by President Mario Abdo Benítez, accompanied by his family.

In addition to Conewago and Newark, there are basilicas and shrines dedicated to the Sacred Heart in places like Syracuse, Washington, DC, South Bend, Norfolk, Virginia, Atlanta, and elsewhere.  In this year of 2026, the Bishops of the United States of America consecrated their country to the Sacred Heart.  But of course, it was only the Bishops; the idea of the president, Congress, and the Supreme Court taking part was unthinkable.  Indeed, this has been a sticking point in Europe and around the world.  The Sacred Heart, the Blessed Sacrament, and the Kingship of Christ are all bound up together – and as we saw during COVID.

The truth is that while devotion to Our Eucharistic Lord, in His Holy Eucharist, His Sacred Heart, His Precious Blood, and His Kingship are seen as purely interior devotions, with little relevance to the external world, they are in reality quite different.  They are reminders that all earthly power that sets itself against the Social Reign of Jesus Christ is itself doomed. As Pope John Paul II declared on Oct. 27, 1986, at the convent of the Sisters of the Visitation in Paray-le-Monial: “The true reparation asked by the Heart of the Saviour will come when the civilisation of the Heart of Christ can be built upon the ruins heaped up by hatred and violence.”

Ss John and Paul, Martyrs

Today's Holy Mass from SSPX Australia. You may follow the Mass at Divinum Officium.

John and Paul, Martyrs ~ Dom Prosper GuérangerSs

Ss John & Paul, Martyrs

From Dom Prosper Guéranger's Liturgical Year:

Amidst the numerous sanctuaries which adorn the capital of the Christian universe, the church of Saints John and Paul has remained from the early date of its origin one of the chief centers of Roman piety. From the summit of the Cœlian Hill it towers over the Coliseum, the dependencies of which stretch subterraneously even as far as the cellarage of the house once inhabited by our Saints. They, the last of the Martyrs, completed the glorious crown offered to Christ by Rome, the chosen seat of his power. The conflict in which their blood was spilt consummated the triumph whose hour was sounded under Constantine, but which an offensive retaliation on the part of hell seemed about to compromise.

No attack could be conceived more odious for the Church than that devised by the apostate Cæsar. Nero and Diocletian had violently and with hatred declared against the Incarnate God a war of sword and torture; and without recrimination, Christians by thousands had died, knowing that the testimony thus demanded was merely the order of things, just as it had been (1 Timothy 6:13) before a Pontius Pilate, and upon the cross. But with the clever astuteness of a traitor, and the affected disdain of a false philosopher, Julian purposed to stifle Christianity amidst the bulrushes of an oppression progressive to a nicety, and respectfully abhorrent of human blood. Merely to preclude Christians from public offices, and to prohibit them from holding chairs for the teaching of youth, that was all the apostate aimed at! However, the blood which he wanted to avoid shedding must flow, even though a hypocrite’s hands be dyed therewith; for, according to the divine plan, bloodshed alone can bring extreme situations to an issue, and never was Holy Church menaced with greater peril. They would now make a slave of her whom they had beheld still holding her royal liberty in face of executioners. They would now await the moment when, once enslaved, she would at last disappear of herself, in powerlessness and degradation. For this reason the bishops of that time found vent for their indignant soul in accents such as their predecessors had spared to princes whose brute violence was then inundating the empire with Christian blood. They now retorted upon the tyrant scorn for scorn; and the manifestations of contempt that consequently came showering in from every quarter upon the crowned fool, completely unmasked at last his feigned moderation. Julian was now shown up as nothing but a common persecutor of the usual kind; blood flowed, the Church was rescued.

Thus is explained the gratitude which this noble Bride of the Son of God has never ceased to manifest to these glorious Martyrs we are celebrating today: for amidst the many generous Christians whose outspoken indignation brought about the solution of this terrible crisis, none are more illustrious than they. Julian was most anxious to count them among his confidants: with this view, he made use of every entreaty, as we learn from the Breviary Lessons; nor does it appear that he even made the renouncing of Jesus Christ a condition. Well then, it may be retorted, why not yield to the Imperial whim? Could they not do so without wounding their conscience? Surely too much stiffness would be rather calculated to ill-dispose the prince, perhaps even fatally. Whereas to listen to him would very likely have a soothing effect upon him; nay, possibly even bring him round to relax somewhat of those administrative trammels unfortunately imposed upon the Church by his prejudiced government. Yea, for aught one knew, the possible conversion of his soul, the return of so many of the misled who had followed him in his fall, might be the result! Should not such things as these deserve some consideration? should they not impose, as a duty, some gentle handling? Ah! yes; such reasoning as this would doubtless appear to some people as wise policy. Such preoccupation for the apostate’s salvation could easily have had nothing in it but what was inspired by zeal for the Church and for souls; and indeed the most exacting casuist could not find it a crime for John and Paul to dwell in a court where nothing was demanded of them contrary to the divine precepts. Nevertheless the two brothers resolved otherwise; to the course of soothing and reserve-making, they preferred that of the frank expression of their sentiments, and this bold out-speaking of theirs put the tyrant in a fury and brought about their death. The Church has judged their case, and she has found them not in the wrong; hence, it is unlikely that the former path would have led them to a like degree of sanctity in God’s sight.

The names of John and Paul inscribed on the sacred diptychs show well enough their credit in the eyes of the Divine Victim, who never offers Himself to the God Thrice-Holy without blending their memory with that of His own immolation. The enthusiasm excited by the noble attitude of these two valiant witnesses to the Lord, still re-echoes in the Antiphons and Responsories proper to the Feast. It was formerly preceded by a Vigil and fast; together with the sanctuary which encloses their tomb, it may be said to date as far back as the very morrow of their martyrdom. Granted by a singular privilege a place in the Leonian Sacramentary; whilst so many other martyrs slept their sleep of peace outside the walls of the Holy City, John and Paul reposed in Rome itself, the definitive conquest of which had been won for the God of armies by their gallant combat. That very same day of the year immediately succeeding their victorious death (June 26, 363), Julian fell dead, uttering against heaven his cry of rage: “Galilean, thou hast conquered!”

From the Queen City of the universe their renown, passing beyond the mountains, shone forth almost as soon and with nearly equal splendor in the Gauls. Returned from the scene of his own struggle in the cause of the Divinity of Jesus Christ, Hilary of Poitiers at once propagated their cultus. This great Bishop was called to our Lord scarce five years after their martyrdom; but he had already found time to consecrate to their name the church in which his loving hands had laid his sweet daughter Abra and her mother, awaiting the hour when he too should be joined to them in the same spot, expecting the day of the Resurrection. It was from this very church of Saints John and Paul, called later on St. Hilary the Great’s, that Clovis on the eve of the battle of Vouillé beheld streaming towards him that mysterious light, presage of the victory which would result in the expulsion of Arianism from the Gauls, and in the foundation of monarchical unity. These holy Martyrs continued, in after years, to show the interest they took in the advancement of the kingdom of God by the Franks. When the disastrous issue of the second Crusade was filling the soul of St. Bernard with bitterness (for he had preached it), they appeared to him, upraised his courage, and manifested by what secrets the King of Heaven had known how to draw His own glory out of events in which man saw only failure and disaster. (Bern. Ep. 386. al. 333. Joannis Casæ-Marii ad Bern.)

Let us now read the simple and touching Legend consecrated by the Church to the two Brethren.

John and Paul, Roman brethren, fed the poor of Christ out of the riches left to them by Constantia, Constantine’s daughter, whom they had faithfully and piously served. Being invited into the number of his familiars, by Julian the Apostate, they boldly refused, declaring that they had no wish to be in company of one who had forsaken Jesus Christ. “Whereupon, he gave them ten days for deliberation, at the end of which term, they must know for certain they were to die, unless they would consent to attach themselves to him and to sacrifice to Jupiter.

They, meanwhile, employed the time in distributing the remainder of their goods to the poor, so that they might the quicker go to the Lord, and that there might be more persons helped by them, through whose means they might be received into the eternal tabernacles. On the tenth day, Terentianus Prefect of the praetorian guard was sent to them, bringing with him the statue of Jupiter, that they might worship it, and he expounded unto them the Emperor’s mandate: to wit, that unless they would pay homage to Jupiter, they must forthwith die. They, still continuing their prayer, replied that they hesitated not to suffer death for the faith of Christ, whom they with both mind and mouth did adore as God.

Now Terentianus was afraid lest there should ensue a popular tumult were they executed in public, so there and then, on the sixth of the Kalends of July, and in their own house, their heads being struck off, they were secretly buried; whilst the rumor was spread abroad that John and Paul had been sent into banishment. But their death was published by the unclean spirits that began to torment a number of persons whose bodies they possessed: amongst whom was the son of Terentianus, who being troubled by a devil, was led to the sepulcher of the martyrs and there freed. By the which miracle, both he and his father Terentianus believed in Christ; Terentianus himself, as it is said, afterwards wrote the history of their blessed Martyrdom.

We give below, the proper Antiphons and Responsories, of which we spoke, and which are to be found just as we now use them, with but few variations, in the most ancient Responsorialia and Antiphonaria which have come down to us. The person mentioned in one of these Antiphons, by the name of Gallicanus, is a Consul who was drawn to the faith and to a saintly life by the influence of the two Brothers; he is even named in yesterday’s Martyrology.

ANTIPHONS AND RESPONSORIES

Paul and John said to Julian: We worship the one God who made heaven and earth.

Paul and John said to Terentianus: If thy Lord be Julian, keep thou at peace with him: ours is none other but the Lord Jesus Christ.

John and Paul perceiving the tyranny of Julian began to distribute their riches among the poor.

Ye holy Spirits and souls of the just, sing ye a hymn to God. Alleluia.

John and Paul said to Gallicanus: Make thy vow unto the God of heaven, and thou shalt be victor greater than thou hast ever been.

ANTIPHON OF THE MAGNIFICAT (1st Vespers)

The just stood before the Lord and were not separated from one another: they drank the chalice of the Lord, and they were called the friends of God.

ANTIPHON OF THE MAGNIFICAT (2nd Vespers)

These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks giving light before the Lord: they have power to close heaven that the clouds rain not, and to open the gates thereof, for their tongues are made keys of heaven.

AT THE BENEDICTUS

These are the holy ones, who for Christ’s love contemned the threats of men: in the kingdom of heaven the holy martyrs exult with the Angels, oh! how precious is the death of the Saints who constantly stand before the Lord, and are never separated from one another!

℟. These are two men of mercy, who stand before the Lord, * The Sovereign of the whole earth.

℣. These are two olive trees and two candlesticks giving light before the Lord, * the Sovereign of the whole earth.

℟. I saw men standing together clad in shining raiment; and the Angel of the Lord spake unto me, saying: these men are holy, for they are made the friends of God.

℣. And I beheld a mighty Angel of God, flying through the midst of heaven, crying with a loud voice, and saying: * These men are holy, for they are made the friends of God.

Twofold is the triumph that thrills through heaven and twofold the gladness re-echoed on earth, this day, whilst your out-poured blood proclaims the victory of the Son of God! Verily, by the martyrdom of the Faithful, doth Christ triumph. The effusion of His own Blood marked the defeat of the prince of this world; the Blood of His mystical members possesses, alone and always, the power of establishing His reign. Contest has never been an evil for the Church Militant; the noble Bride of the God of armies delights in combat; for she knows right well, her Spouse came upon earth to bring not peace, but the sword. (Matthew 10:34) Therefore, unto the end of time, will she hold up as an example to her sons, your chivalrous courage and your bold frankness, which scorned to dissimulate your utter contempt for an apostate tyrant, or to suffer you to dwell for a moment on such considerations, as might perhaps, had you listened to him at the first, have just saved your conscience, together with life. Woe to the day, wherein the deceptive mirage of guileful peace, misleads minds; wherein, merely because sin, properly so called, does not stare them in the face, Christian souls stoop from the lofty standpoint of their Baptism, to compromises which even a pagan world would avoid. Glorious Brethren! make the children of holy Church to turn aside from that fatal error which would lead them to misconceptions of sacred traditions received by them in heritage; maintain the sons of God at the full height of those noble sentiments demanded by their heavenly origin, by the throne that awaits them, by the divine Blood they daily drink of; far from them be all such base-born notions, such vulgarity, — as would be calculated to excite against their heavenly Father, the blasphemies of the accursed city! Now-a-days there has arisen a persecution not dissimilar to that in which you gained the crown; Julian’s plan of action is once more in vogue; if these mimics of the apostate equal him not in intelligence, they at least surpass him in hatred and hypocrisy. But God is not wanting to His Church now, any more than He was then; obtain for us the grace to do our part in resistance, as was done by you, and the victory will be the same.

Your very names, O John and Paul, remind us of the Friend of the Bridegroom whose Octave is speeding its course; and of that Paul of the Cross who revived, in the last century, heroism of sanctity in your very house on Monte Cœlio. Vouchsafe to unite your protection, powerful as indeed it is, to that which the Precursor exercises over the Mother and Mistress of all Churches, become by the very fact of her primacy the chief butt of the enemies’ attack; uphold the new militia raised by the necessity of the times, and which is entrusted with the guardianship both of your sacred remains and of those of its glorious Founder. Remembering the power which the Church specially attributes to you, namely, that of opening or shutting the floodgates of heaven, be pleased to bless our harvest well-nigh ripe for the sickle. Be propitious to our reapers and assuage their painful labor. Preserve from lightning man and his possessions, the home that shelters him, the beasts that serve him. Too often, alas, ungrateful and forgetful man would indeed deserve to incur your wrath; but prove yourselves children of Him who maketh His sun to rise upon the wicked as well as upon the good, and giveth His rain to fall alike upon the just and upon sinners. (Matthew 5:45)