Evangelisation no longer makes sense because the world is a globally interconnected village. That's what the document says.
17 September 2026
This Creature Caused So Much Chaos, Courts Had to Get Involved
From Modern History TV
Modern History TV explores how medieval communities managed the chaos caused by free-roaming domesticated boars in towns. Discover the municipal swineherd system, stringent urban regulations, and unique exceptions for keeping these valuable yet destructive animals.
Jason Kingsley, CBE, the Modern Knight, discusses one of the most disruptive and useful medieval animals. What is it and why was it so important?
This history documentary explores a medieval beast that caused significant mayhem in communities, according to court records from the middle ages. We investigate this creature, which could almost be part of a bestiary of strange creatures, inviting viewers to guess its identity. This dive into weird history will surprise you!
Explore the terrifying medieval beast that terrorized communities, using actual court records to understand the chaos caused. Learn how historical accounts document this creature and its impact on the local population.
This video examines the intersection of folklore and reality by analyzing specific medieval court records. It is designed for history enthusiasts who want to look past the myths and see how ancient legal documents describe genuine threats that plagued medieval communities. By focusing on primary source accounts, we can separate fact from fiction regarding this mysterious entity.
We break down the evidence left behind by contemporaries to determine what this medieval beast might actually have been. You will gain a clearer picture of how people in the Middle Ages perceived threats and recorded them for posterity, providing a unique perspective on medieval history that goes beyond standard textbook narratives.
Traditional Catholic Morning Prayers in English | September
Traditional Catholic morning prayers to help start your day in a holy way! The month of September is dedicated to the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady. I hope these prayers increase your devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary this month, to share in her sorrows and to and draw you closer to her Divine Son, Jesus Christ. Begin each day with morning prayer! 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 morning prayers.
The Angel Who Came to Fatima Before Our Lady — And Nobody Talks About Him
From Totus Catholica
Everyone knows how the story of Fatima begins. Before our Lady, the Angel of Fatima appeared to three shepherd children with a chalice. Calling himself the Angel of Peace and the Angel of Portugal, he visited them three times during the dark days of 1916. He bowed his face to the ground, placed holy Communion upon their lips, and taught them the very prayers that shaped everything that followed. Yet modern accounts have almost completely forgotten him. Why would a messenger from heaven prostrate in the dust before the host, and what does his prologue reveal about the real message of Fatima?
The answer is rooted deep in the Hebrew Scriptures. In the book of Daniel, heavenly princes stand guard over nations, and biblical history reveals an unbroken pattern: God never sends a great mission without first sending a messenger to prepare the way. Just as an angel woke the prophet Elijah with bread in the wilderness, and an angel strengthened Christ in Gethsemane before the chalice of His Passion, this heavenly guardian came to prepare Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta for a mission that would demand their entire lives. When you recover this forgotten prologue, Fatima is transformed from a distant miracle into an immediate summons to Eucharistic adoration, silent sacrifice, and faithful reparation before the altar.
In this video:
• The forgotten 1916 apparitions of the Angel of Peace to Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco
• How an angel gave two shepherd children their first Holy Communion from a suspended chalice
• The biblical roots of guardian angels over nations in Daniel 10 to 12
• Why heaven sends an angel and a chalice before sending the mission
• Responding to skeptic, Protestant, and Jewish objections to the Fatima angel
⏱ CHAPTERS
0:00 The Angel Who Appeared Before Mary
2:20 First Apparition of the Angel of Peace
3:02 Second Visit and Call to Sacrifice
3:27 The Miraculous Host and Chalice Apparition
4:32 Guardian Angels of Nations in Daniel 10
6:57 Answering Skeptic, Protestant, and Jewish Objections
8:56 The Angel of Fatima Prayer and Reparation
π SCRIPTURE REFERENCED
• Daniel 10:13-21: The archangel Michael and heavenly princes standing guard over nations.
• 1 Kings 19:5-7: An angel awakens Elijah and provides bread to strengthen him for the journey.
• Luke 22:42,43: An angel from heaven strengthens Christ in Gethsemane as He faces the chalice.
• Revelation 19:10: The angel refuses worship from John, commanding him to worship God alone.
• Romans 11:29: God's gifts and calling to Israel are irrevocable and never revoked.
⛪ FROM THE CHURCH FATHERS
• Ancient Church Tradition: Early Christian tradition recognised guardian angels assigned over nations as revealed in Daniel 10.
π SOURCES & FURTHER READING
• Sister Lucia dos Santos: Memoirs under obedience regarding the three angelic visits.
• Order of the Wing of St. Michael: Founded by King Afonso Henriques; confirmed by Rome in 1171.
• Monastery of Batalha: Altar dedicated to the Guardian Angel of Portugal.
• Pope Julius II: Apostolic feast approved for the Custodian Angel of Portugal in 1504.
π EXPLORE MORE
π Website: https://totuscatholica.org/
Rosary Guide: https://totuscatholica.org/rosary
✉️ Contact: https://totuscatholica.org/contact
π Examination of Conscience: https://catholicexaminationofconscien...
π Free eBooks: https://buymeacoffee.com/totuscatholi...
π₯ Become a Totus Insider: https://buymeacoffee.com/totuscatholi...
Why St Francis’ Stigmata Is Celebrated on September 17
St Clare, Foundress of the Second Order of the Franciscans, wrote prayers in honour of the Five Holy Wounds, which you may read here.
From Aleteia
By Philip Kosloski
Early records attest to St. Francis' reception of the stigmata around the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.
While St. Francis is widely known for his love of animals and his radical poverty, he is also one of the earliest saints to have received the stigmata of Jesus Christ.
The stigmata is a miraculous reception of the wounds of Jesus on a saint's body. It could be a single wound, or all five major wounds that Jesus suffered on the cross. Very few saints are recorded to have received the stigmata, as it is an extraordinary gift.
Shortly after his death, various biographers wrote about St. Francis of Assisi's stigmata and how he bore Jesus' wounds for a time before his death.
Exaltation of the Cross
St. Bonaventure wrote about it in his Life of St. Francis, sometimes called the Legenda Major.
[O]n a certain morning about the Feast of the Exaltation of Holy Cross, while he was praying on the side of the mountain, he beheld a Seraph having six wings, flaming and resplendent, coming down from the heights of heaven...as the vision disappeared, it left in his heart a wondrous glow, but on his flesh also it imprinted a no less wondrous likeness of its tokens. For forthwith there began to appear in his hands and feet the marks of the nails, even as he had just beheld them in that Figure of the Crucified.
It is certainly providential that St. Francis received the wounds of Jesus on a feast day that commemorates the Holy Cross.
This miraculous event continues to be celebrated by the Franciscan Order as a special liturgical feast on September 17.
The reason why September 17 was chosen was because the Exaltation of the Cross is on September 14, and the closest available liturgical date at the time was September 17.
September 17 remains the only liturgical feast that honors the reception of the stigmata by a holy man or woman.
How Young, Convert Bishops in Norway Are Charting the Course for Traditionalism
From AdVaticanum
What’s the future of traditionalism in the Catholic Church? For years, we’ve had strong personalities on both the traditional and modernist side of the spectrum, who have made loud and emphatic statements about how they view the faith. However, I’ve noticed a quieter sort of traditionalism cropping up amongst younger prelates, specifically in Norway. So what’s behind this? And is their style the best path forward for the preservation of the deposit of the faith?
Ember Days: Pre-55, 1962, and Today
Mr Plese discusses the changes made to the calculation of the Ember Days since Bugnini's so-called "Reform" of the Liturgy beginning in 1955.
From One Peter Five
By Matthew Plese, TOP
The pre-55 counting made the Ember Days coincide with the Cross.
Ember Days: Sanctifying the Seasons of Nature and Work
Among the most ancient observances of the Roman Rite are the Ember Days: the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday fasts occurring four times each year, at the turning points of the seasons. Though largely forgotten by Catholics today, these days once stood among the most important recurring penitential observances of the Church. They joined prayer, fasting, thanksgiving, ordinations, the fruits of the earth, and the sanctification of human labor into a single liturgical pattern.
Their decline is especially important in a series on the pre-1955 Roman Rite because the Ember Days show how the twentieth-century reforms did not merely remove individual feasts or ceremonies. They also weakened the Church’s older way of inhabiting time. The Ember Days remained in the 1962 Missal, but the discipline surrounding them had already been weakened, their calculation was altered in certain years, and after the Second Vatican Council their obligatory fasting disappeared almost entirely. What survived in name became increasingly detached from the liturgical and ascetical framework that had once given it meaning.
What Are Ember Days?
The English word “Ember” is commonly connected with the Latin Quatuor Tempora, the “four times.” These four seasonal fasts occur in winter, spring, summer, and autumn. In the traditional Roman reckoning, they fall on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after St. Lucy’s Day in December, after Ash Wednesday, after Pentecost, and after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in September. The familiar mnemonic was: “Lenty, Penty, Crucy, Lucy.”
Their purpose was threefold: thanksgiving, petition, and ordination. The Church thanked God for the blessings of the past season, implored His mercy for the season to come, and prayed for those to be ordained. The Angelus Press 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal summarizes their purpose well, stating that the Ember Days were instituted “to consecrate to God the various seasons in nature” and “to prepare by penance those who are about to be ordained.”[1]
This connection with ordination is essential. The Ember Days were not merely agricultural fasts. They were priestly fasts. The faithful fasted and prayed as the Church prepared men for Holy Orders. Canon 1006 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law preserved this ancient connection by stating that ordinations were to be held on Ember Saturdays, Holy Saturday, and the Saturday before Passion Sunday, though a bishop could ordain on other days for serious cause.[2]
The Ember Days therefore united creation, labor, penance, and priesthood. The fruits of the earth were offered back to God in thanksgiving, and the men who would offer the Holy Sacrifice were commended to Him through fasting and prayer.
Ancient, Roman, and Penitential
The Ember Days are Roman in origin and extremely ancient. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that Rome first observed seasonal fasts in June, September, and December, with the precise days announced by the clergy. The Liber Pontificalis attributes legislation concerning them to Pope Callistus in the early third century, while Pope St. Leo the Great regarded them as apostolic in origin.[3] By the time of Pope St. Gregory the Great, the four seasonal fasts were part of the Roman observance, and later medieval legislation fixed their dates more uniformly.
Dom Prosper GuΓ©ranger also connected the Ember Days with the seasonal fasts of the Old Testament, writing that they may be regarded as one of those practices the Church received from the synagogue and transformed in the worship of Christ.[4] The Ember Days thus show the Church’s instinct to sanctify what is natural and human. The passing of the seasons, the harvest, the vintage, the winter stores, and human labor were not left to secular custom. They were claimed for God through fasting.
For centuries, the Ember Days were obligatory days of fast and abstinence. The discipline varied by time and place, but the essential fact remained: the changing of the seasons was to be marked by penance. Catholics did not merely admire nature. They fasted as they entered each new season, recognizing that the earth’s fruitfulness depends on divine providence.
The Mid-Century Weakening of Ember Discipline
The Ember Days were not abolished in 1955. That is important to state clearly. Their decline came through a series of weakenings before and after the mid-century reforms. By the time of the 1962 books, the Ember Days still existed liturgically, and they still retained their penitential character, but the older discipline was already compromised.
In the United States, a notable change came in 1949, when the American bishops, following a ruling from the Sacred Congregation of the Council, modified the abstinence discipline. Partial abstinence replaced complete abstinence on Ember Wednesdays and Ember Saturdays, while Ember Fridays remained days of complete abstinence.[5] Thus, even before the 1955 Holy Week changes and the 1960 rubrical reform, the ascetical force of the Ember Days had already been reduced in practice.
By the early 1960s, the discipline remained but in weakened form. Father Heribert Jone’s Moral Theology, adapted for the laws and customs of the United States, summarized the then-current practice: complete abstinence was observed on Fridays, Ash Wednesday, and the Vigils of the Immaculate Conception and Christmas; partial abstinence was observed on Ember Wednesdays and Saturdays and on the Vigil of Pentecost; and days of fast included the weekdays of Lent, the Ember Days, and the Vigil of Pentecost.[6]
This meant that the Ember Days were still recognized as fast days in the 1962 period, but the older simplicity and severity of the discipline had been softened. The faithful were still told that these days mattered, but the way they were asked to observe them had already been reduced.
The 1955 Reform and the Loss of Context
The 1955 Holy Week reform did not directly suppress the Ember Days, but it did alter one of the liturgical contexts most closely connected with them: the Vigil of Pentecost.
In the older Roman Rite, the Vigil of Pentecost closely resembled Holy Saturday. It included baptismal elements and prepared the faithful for the descent of the Holy Ghost. The Ember Days after Pentecost then followed within the Octave of Pentecost, forming a richly layered sequence: the Church received the Holy Ghost, celebrated the octave of His coming, and then fasted and prayed for the sanctification of the new season and for those to be ordained.
The 1955 reform drastically reduced the ancient Vigil of Pentecost, removing the ceremonies that had made it one of the great baptismal vigils of the year. The Ember Days after Pentecost remained, but the liturgical doorway leading into that week had been narrowed. The structure survived, but its surrounding architecture had been weakened.
This is a recurring pattern in the mid-century reforms. A practice may not have been abolished outright, yet its context was altered so significantly that its meaning became less visible. The Ember Days after Pentecost still existed in the 1962 Missal, but they stood in a liturgical world already changed by the reduction of the Pentecost Vigil. Later, with the post-conciliar suppression of the Octave of Pentecost, even more of that context would disappear.
The 1960 Change in Dating
The most concrete difference between the pre-1955 calendar and the 1962 books concerns the calculation of the September Ember Days.
Under the older reckoning, the autumn Ember Days were tied to the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14. This is why the old mnemonic says “Crucy”: the September Ember Days follow the Cross. In the 1960 revision, however, the calculation was altered so that the September Ember Days would fall after the third Sunday of September according to the revised method of counting the Sundays of the month.
The difference appears technical, but it has practical consequences. Before 1960, the “first Sunday” of September in the liturgical books was the Sunday closest to September 1, even if that Sunday fell at the end of August. After the 1960 revision, the first Sunday of September was always the first Sunday actually occurring within the calendar month.[7]
This means that in certain years Catholics following the pre-1955 calendar and Catholics following the 1962 books observe the September Ember Days on different dates.
For example, when August 31 falls on a Sunday, the older reckoning can count that day as the first Sunday of September. The third Sunday of September is then September 14, and the Ember Days follow on September 17, 19, and 20. Under the 1962 reckoning, however, the first Sunday of September would be September 7, the third Sunday would be September 21, and the Ember Days would fall on September 24, 26, and 27.
This change is more than a calendrical curiosity. It reveals a shift in the handling of liturgical time. The older system was tied to the structure of the Divine Office and to inherited liturgical reckoning. The newer system regularized the calendar according to a more straightforward civil-month logic. As with other reforms of the period, inherited liturgical time was simplified and standardized, but something of the older internal logic was lost.
Later Confusion
This alteration still causes confusion today. Traditional Catholics may all speak of “the September Ember Days,” yet mean different dates depending on whether they follow the pre-1955 calendar or the 1962 books. The same observance, preserved in both systems, no longer always occurs at the same time.
The confusion is compounded by the fact that most Catholics no longer know Ember Days at all. In the post-conciliar calendar, the “Four Times” are mentioned only in a greatly reduced and adaptable form. The 1970 Missal refers to days on which the Church prays for various human needs, especially the fruits of the earth and human labor, but leaves their arrangement to episcopal conferences. In practice, this meant that one of the most ancient recurring observances of the Roman Rite became optional, localized, and widely forgotten.
Pope Paul VI’s 1966 apostolic constitution Paenitemini completed the practical collapse of the older discipline by removing the universal obligation of fasting on Ember Days. The later 1983 Code of Canon Law preserved Ash Wednesday and Good Friday as universal fast days in the Latin Church, but not the Ember Days. What had once been a quarterly rhythm of penance for the entire Roman Church became, for most Catholics, invisible.
Thus, the Ember Days underwent three stages of decline: first, the weakening of fasting and abstinence discipline before the Council; second, the 1960 alteration of their calculation in September; and third, the post-conciliar removal of their obligatory penitential observance. The result was not a single dramatic abolition, but a gradual unraveling.
What Was Lost
The loss of the Ember Days is not merely the loss of twelve fast days. It is the loss of a Catholic way of sanctifying nature and work.
The traditional Roman Rite did not treat the seasons as spiritually neutral. It marked them with fasting. It taught the faithful to thank God for harvests, to beg His blessing on future crops, to use created goods with moderation, to assist the poor, and to pray for priests. The natural year was taken up into the ecclesiastical year.
This mattered because Catholicism is not a disembodied religion. Wheat, wine, oil, water, wax, fire, salt, ashes, palms, and human labor all enter the Church’s worship. The Ember Days reminded Catholics that the created world is ordered toward sacrifice and sanctification. The same earth that feeds man also provides the matter for the Sacraments and sacramentals.
The Ember Days also taught that labor must be consecrated. The farmer, craftsman, parent, scholar, merchant, and priest all work under God’s providence. By fasting at the turning of the seasons, Catholics acknowledged that their labor depends on grace. They did not simply work and then thank themselves for the result. They fasted, prayed, and offered the fruits of their work back to God.
Finally, the Ember Days kept before the faithful the need for holy priests. Since ordinations were traditionally connected with Ember Saturdays, the entire Church was drawn into prayer and penance for the priesthood. At a time when vocations and priestly perseverance are constant concerns, this aspect of the Ember Days is especially worth recovering.
Recovering the Ember Spirit
Even where the Ember Days are no longer obligatory, Catholics may still observe them voluntarily. The traditional practice is simple: fast and abstain according to one’s ability, attend Mass if possible, pray for priests and vocations, give thanks for the fruits of the earth, and ask God’s blessing upon the coming season.
This recovery is particularly fitting for Catholics attached to the pre-1955 Roman Rite. To observe the Ember Days according to their older dates and spirit is to recover one of the great rhythms of Roman Catholic life. It is also to resist the modern tendency to treat nature as raw material and work as mere productivity.
The Ember Days teach that the earth is the Lord’s. They teach that the seasons belong to Christ. They teach that fasting sanctifies labor and that the Church’s prayer extends to the fields, the workshop, the home, the seminary, and the altar.
Conclusion
The Ember Days survived the 1955 and 1960 reforms in outward form, but not without injury. Their penitential discipline was weakened, the September calculation was altered, and after the Council their obligatory observance virtually disappeared. As a result, one of the oldest seasonal structures of the Roman Rite became obscure and confused.
This matters because the Ember Days were never merely optional acts of private piety. They were part of the Church’s public sanctification of time. They consecrated the seasons, disciplined the body, gave thanks for creation, assisted the poor, and prepared for ordinations.
In losing them, Catholics lost more than fast days. We lost a rhythm by which nature and work were placed under the Cross. And in recovering them, even voluntarily, we begin to recover something of the older Roman sense that all time, all labor, all harvests, and all vocations belong to God.
[1] The Roman Catholic Daily Missal, 1962 edition, Angelus Press, summary of Ember Days.
[2] 1917 Code of Canon Law, canon 1006.
[3] Francis Mershman, “Ember Days,” The Catholic Encyclopedia (Robert Appleton Company, 1909), accessed via http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05399b.htm.
[4] Dom Prosper GuΓ©ranger, The Liturgical Year: Advent (Burns & Oates, 1910), p. 218.
[5] Maria C. Morrow, Sin in the Sixties (Catholic University of America Press, 2016), p. 121.
[6] Father Heribert Jone, Moral Theology, adapted by Father Urban Adelman for the laws and customs of the United States (The Newman Press, 1961), pp. 261–262.
[7] Gregory DiPippo, “The Calculation of the September Ember Days,” New Liturgical Movement (2015), accessed via https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2015/08/the-calculation-of-september-ember-days.html.
The Stigmata of St Francis & St Hildegarde of Bingen, Virgin
From Dom Prosper GuΓ©ranger's Liturgical Year:
The great Patriarch of Assisi will soon appear a second time in the holy Liturgy, and we shall praise God for the marvels wrought in him by divine grace. The subject of today’s feast, while a personal glory to St. Francis, is of greater importance for its mystical signification.
The Man-God still lives in the Church by the continual reproduction of his mysteries in this his Bride, making her a faithful copy of himself. In the thirteenth century, while the charity of the many had grown cold (Collect of the feast), the divine fire burned with redoubled ardor in the hearts of a chosen few. It was the hour of the Church’s passion; the beginning of that series of social defections, with their train of denials, treasons and derisions, which ended in the proscription we now witness. The Cross had been exalted before the eyes of the world: the Bride was now to be nailed thereto with her divine Spouse, after having stood with him in the pretorium exposed to the insults and blows of the multitude.
Like an artist selecting a precious marble, the Holy Spirit chose the flesh of the Assisian seraph as the medium for the expression of his divine thought. He thereby manifested to the world the special direction he intended to give to the sanctity of souls; he offered to heaven a first and complete model of the new work he was meditating, viz: the perfect union, upon the very cross, of the mystical Body with its divine Head. Francis was the first to be chosen for this honor: but others were to follow; and henceforward, here and there through the world, the Stigmata of Our blessed Lord will ever be visible in the Church.
Let us read in this light the admirable history of the event, composed by the Seraphic Doctor in honor of his holy father St. Francis.
Two years before the faithful servant and minister of Christ, Francis, gave up his spirit to God, he retired alone into a high place, which is called Mount Alvernia, and began a forty-days’ fast in honor of the Archangel St. Michael. The sweetness of heavenly contemplation was poured out on him more abundantly than usual, till, turning with the flame of celestial desires, he began to feel an increasing overflow of these divine favors. While the seraphic ardor of his desires thus raised him up to God, and the tenderness of his love and compassion was transforming him into Christ the crucified Victim of excessive love; one morning, about the Feast of the Exaltation of holy Cross, as he was praying on the mountain-side, he saw what appeared to be a Seraph, with six shining and fiery wings, coming down from heaven. The vision flew swiftly through the air and approached the man of God, who then perceived that it was not only winged, but also crucified; for the hands and feet were stretched out and fastened to a cross; while the wings were arranged in a wondrous manner, two being raised above the head, two outstretched in flight, and the remaining two crossed over the veiling the whole body. As he gazed, Francis was much astonished, and his soul was filled with mingled joy and sorrow. The gracious aspect of him, who appeared in so wonderful and loving a manner, rejoiced him exceedingly, while the sight of his cruel crucifixion pierced his heart with a sword of sorrowing compassion.
He, who appeared outward to Francis, taught him inwardly that, although weakness and suffering are incompatible with the immortal life of a seraph, yet this vision had been shown to him to the end that he, Christ’s lover, might learn how his whole being was to be transformed into a living image of Christ crucified, not by martyrdom of the flesh, but by the burning ardor of his soul. After a mysterious and familiar colloquy, the vision disappeared, leaving the Saint’s mind burning with seraphic ardor, and his flesh impressed with an exact image of the Crucified, as though, after the melting power of that fire, it had next been stamped with a zeal. For immediately the marks of nails began to appear in his hands and feet, their heads showing in the palms of his hands and the upper part of his feet, and their points visible on the other side. There was also a red scar on his right side, as if it had been wounded by a lance, and from which blood often flowed, staining his tunic and underclothing.
Francis, now a new man, honored by this new and amazing miracle, and, by a hitherto unheard-of privilege, adorned with the sacred stigmata, came down from the mountain bearing with the image of the Crucified, not carved in wood or stone by the hand of an artist, but engraved upon his flesh by the finger of the living God. The seraphic man well knew that it is good to hide the secret of the king: wherefore, having been thus admitted into his king’s confidence, he strove, as far as in him lay, to conceal the sacred marks. But it belongs to God to reveal the great things which he himself has done; and hence, after impressing these signs upon Francis in secret, he publicly worked miracles by means of them, revealing the hidden and wondrous power of the Stigmata by the signs wrought through them. Pope Benedict XI willed that this wonderful event, which is so well attested and in pontifical diplomas has been honored with the greatest praises and favors, should be celebrated by a yearly solemnity. Afterwards, Pope Paul V, wishing the hearts of all the faithful to be enkindled with the love of Christ crucified, extended the feast to the whole Church.
Standard-bearer of Christ and of his Church, we would fain, with the Apostle and with thee, glory in nothing save the Cross of Our Lord Jesus. We would fain bear in our souls the sacred Stigmata, which adorned thy holy body. To him whose whole ambition is to return love for love, every suffering is a gain, persecution has no terrors; for the effect of persecutions and sufferings is to assimilate him, together with his mother the Church, to Christ persecuted, scourged and crucified.
It is with our whole hearts that we pray, with the Church: “O Lord Jesus Christ, who, when the world was growing cold, didst renew the sacred marks of thy Passion in the flesh of the most blessed Francis, to inflame our hearts with the fire of thy love; mercifully grant that by his merits and prayers we may always carry the cross, and bring forth worthy fruits of penance. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.” (Collect of the feast)
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At Bingen, in the diocese of Mayence, Saint Hildegarde, Virgin. (Martyrology on this day) Let us salute the “great prophetess of the New Testament.” (Vita St. Gerlaci coΓ¦va) What St. Bernard’s influence over his contemporaries was in the first half of the twelfth century, that in the second half was Hildegarde’s; when the humble virgin became the oracle of popes and emperors, of princes and prelates. Multitudes from far and near flocked to Mount St. Rupert, where the doubts of ordinary life were solved, and the questions of doctors answered. At length, by God’s command, Hildegarde went forth from her monastery to administer to all alike, monks, clerics, and laymen, the word of correction and salvation.
The Spirit indeed breatheth where he will. (John 3:8) To the massy pillars that support his royal palace, God preferred the poor little feather floating in the air, and blown about, at his pleasure, hither and thither in the light. (Hildegarde, Epist. ad Eugenium Pontificem) In spite of labors, sicknesses, and trials, the holy Abbess lived to the advanced age of eighty-two, in the shadow of the living light. (Guibert, Vita Hildegardis, iv) Her precious relics are now at Eibingen. The writings handed down to us from the pen of this illiterate virgin, (Scivias; Lib. Vitæ meritorum; Lib. Divinorum operum; etc.) are a series of sublime visions embracing the whole range of contemporary science, physical and theological, from the creation of the world to its final consummation. May Hildegarde deign to send us and interpreter of her works and an historian of her life such as they merit!
PRAYER
O God, who didst adorn thy blessed virgin Hildegarde with heavenly gifts: grant, we beseech thee, that walking in her footsteps and according to her teachings, we may deserve to pass from the darkness of this world into thy lovely light. Through our Lord.
Stigmata of St Francis of Assisi: Conformed to Christ Crucified
A sermon for today. Please remember to say 3 Hail Marys for the Priest.
St Hildegardis, Virgin & Abbess
From Fr Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints:
SHE was born of most noble parentage, in 1098, in the county of Spanheim, in the Lower Palatinate of the Rhine, and educated, from the eighth year of her age, in the monastery of the Mount of St. Disibode, under the care of a very pious nun called Jutta, her relation, and sister to the count of Spanheim. Hildegardis excited herself to a contempt of the world, by representing to herself the phrenzy which possesses a great part of mankind in the world, by what springs they are moved, how in pursuit of empty imaginary honor, or profit, they are driven into the most laborious and hazardous attempts, how easily they swallow the most bitter and poisonous pills when they are gilt over by ambition or avarice, how eagerly they hunt after the troubles of worldly greatness, and basely adore the gaudy nothings of this life. Full of gratitude to God who had rescued her out of that region of darkness, she gave herself to serve him with her whole heart. She was favored with heavenly visions, and St. Bernard, who preached the crusade in that country, examined and approved her prophetic spirit.* It belongs only to God to vouchsafe to certain souls such favors; which are to us more a subject of admiration than of edification. For any one to fall into foolish desires of walking in such wonderful ways, is a certain mark of pride and presumption, and a dangerous illusion. Simplicity and humility is the character of true piety, which aims not at extraordinary gifts above itself. Hence the patience, the mortification, the profound humility and devotion of which this saint set us the most wonderful examples, are what it concerns us chiefly to study in her life.
Being chosen abbess, she seemed still to live always in the presence of God, always united to God, always conversing interiorly with God; and with Mary at the feet of Jesus, listening to his divine instructions; yet applying herself with Martha to the active life, serving him in his spiritual daughters with so much sweetness, and attention, as if this care took up all her thought. Her community becoming much too numerous for the hermitage of Mount St. Disibode, she removed with it to Mount St. Rupert, near Binghem, so called because St. Rupert or Robert, duke of Binghem, there ended his mortal pilgrimage. St. Hildegardis wrote the life of that saint, that of St. Disibode, and several letters to the popes Eugenius III., Anastasius IV., Adrian IV., and Alexander III., the emperors Conrad III. and Frederic I., and other great personages. She changed the habit of St. Bennet for that of the Cistercians, and died on the 17th of September, in the year 1179, of her age eighty-two. See her life compiled by Theodoric, a monk, thirty years after her death: Cave, Hist. Littér, t. 2, p. 242, and her epistles Bibl. Patr. t. 23. See also Fabricius Bibl. med. et Infimæ Latinit. vol. 3, p. 773; Stilting the Bollandist, t. 5, Sept. p. 630,& c.
The Stigmata of Saint Francis of Assisi
From Catholicism.org
Two years before the great Saint Francis of Assisi died, and when he was forty-two years old — one year after he had built the first crib in honor of Our Lord — he went off to a lonely mountain called Mount Alvernia, to prepare himself by forty days of fasting and prayer for the feast of Saint Michael, the greatest of God’s angels, whose feast day is September 29. On the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14, Saint Francis received in his hands, feet and side the Sacred Wounds from Our Lord’s own body. Never was a saint more beautifully loved by Jesus than Saint Francis of Assisi. The wounds Jesus gave him stayed in his hands, feet and side, and continually bled for two more years, until he died in 1226. The day on which Saint Francis received the Five Wounds of Our Lord was September 14, but so that this beautiful event might have a feast day for itself, the Stigmata of Saint Francis are commemorated on September 17. The simple liturgy of this holy saint’s life might be put this way: the crib in 1223, and the Cross in 1224.
Collect of St Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin & Abbess - Indulgenced on the Saint's Feast (See Note)
According to the Apostolic Penitentiary, a partial indulgence is granted to those who on the feast of any Saint recite in his honour the oration of the Missal or any other approved by legitimate Authority.
V. O Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And let my cry come unto thee.
Let us pray.
Graciously hear us, O God, our Saviour, that as we rejoice in the festival of blessed Hildegard, Thy Virgin & Abbess, so may we be nourished by the food of her heavenly teaching that we may be enlightened by the fervour of her dedicated holiness.
Let us pray.
Graciously hear us, O God, our Saviour, that as we rejoice in the festival of blessed Hildegard, Thy Virgin & Abbess, so may we be nourished by the food of her heavenly teaching that we may be enlightened by the fervour of her dedicated holiness.
Who liveth and reigneth with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.
R. Amen
Nota bene ~ St Hildegard was not canonised until 2012 by equipollent canonisation, so I've taken her Collect from the Monastic Breviary.
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