October 5 — Saint Bruno

Among the divers religious families, none is held in higher esteem by the Church than the Carthusian ; the prescriptions of the corpus juris determine that a person may pass from any other Order into this, without deterioration. 1 And yet it is of all the least given to active works. Is not this a new, and not the least convincing, proof that outward zeal, how praiseworthy soever, is not the only, or the principal thing in God s sight P The Churoh, in her fidelity, values all things acoording to the preferences of her divine Spouse. Now, our Lord esteems His elect not so much by the aotivity of their works, as by the hidden perfection of their lives ; that perfection which is measured by the intensity of the divine life, and of which it is said: * Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect/ 2 Again it is said of this divine life: ' Tou are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God/ 8 The Churoh, then, considering the solitude and silence of the Carthusian, his abstinence even unto death, his freedom to attend to God through complete disengagement from the senses and from the world — sees therein the guarantee of a perfection whioh may indeed be met with elsewhere, but here appears to be far more seoure. 4 Henoe, though the field of labour is ever widening, though the necessity

1 Cap. Viam ambit™, i. tit. viii. Extrav. com, lib. iii. * St. Matt. v. 48. 8 Col. iii. 3. * Suarez. J)e Religion. Tract, ix. lib. ii. cap. iv. 6.

SAINT BRUNO of warfare and struggle grows ever more urgent, she does not hesitate to shield with the protection of her her laws, and to encourage with the greatest favours, all who are called by grace to the life of the desert. The reason is not far to seek. In an age, when every effort to arrest the world in its headlong downward career seems vain, has not man greater need than ever to fall back upon God P The enemy is aware of it; and therefore the first law he imposes upon his votaries is, to forbid all access to the way of the counsels, and to stifle all life of adoration, expiation, and prayer. For he well knows that, though a nation may appear to be on the verge of its doom, there is yet hope for it as long as the best of its sons are prostrate before the Majesty of God.

Look at the history of the west in the eleventh oentury. If there ever was a time when it seemed urgent that the cloister, far from increasing the number of its inmates, should send them forth to the last man, for the aotive servioe of the Churoh; it was surely the epoch when the flesh, victorious over the spirit, posted up its triumphs even in the sanctuary ; when, for each other's sate, Caesar and satan held the pastors of the people in bondage. Nevertheless, at that very time, not only Cluny became the stronghold of Christianity, but Camaldoli, Vallombrosa, the oharterhouse, and finally Citeaux, were founded and grew strong ; so great was the demand even in the monastic life itself, for still closer retreat, by souls athirst for immolation and penance. And yet, so far from complaining of being abandoned, the world reokoned among its most glorious deliverers Romuald, John Gualbert, Bruno, and Robert of Molesmes. Moreover the oentury was great in the faith, and in that energy of faith which knew how to apply fire and steel to the festering wounds of hu-

TIMS AFTER PEKTEOOST inanity; great in the uprightness wherewith it reoognized the neooessity of expiation for suoh crying evils. Society, represented by its ohoioest members before the feet of God, reoeived new life from Him.

This feast, then, is the world's homage to one of its greatest benefactors. The legend of the breviary is short ; but the reader may learn more about our saint by having reoourse to his works; his letters, breathing the fragrance of solitude, and written in the beautiful style known to the monks of that heroio age, and his commentaries on St. Paul and on the psalms, whioh are clear and ooncise, revealing at onoe his science and his love of Jesus and of the Church.

Aooording to the custom of the time, the breve depositionis announcing his death was sent round from church to ohuroh, and returned covered with testimonies of universal veneration. Nevertheless his disciples were more intent on imitating his holiness, than on having it recognized by the apostolio See. Four oenturies after his death, Leo X without any process, on the simple evidence of the cause, authorized the Carthusians to pay public honour to their father. A hundred years later, in 1622, Gregory XV extended his feast to the entire world.

The following is the legend given in the holy liturgy.

Bruno Carthusian® religionis institutor, Colonic Agrippinae natus est. Ab ipsis incunabulis specimen futures sanctitatis praeferens, morum gravitate puerilia illius aatatis, divina favente gratia, declinans adeo excelluit, ut jam inde monachorum pater vitaeque anachoreticaa futurus in-

Bruno, the founder of ithe Carthusian Order, was born at Cologne, and from his very cradle gave great promise of future sanctity. Favoured by divine grace, the gravity of his character made him shun all childishness; so that, even at that age, one might have foreseen in him the future father of monks and restorer

SAINT BRUNO staurator agnosceretur. A parentibus genere ac virtute claris Lutetiam Parisiorum missus, tantum ibi in philosophise ac theologiffl studiis profecit, ut doctoris ac magistri munus in utraque facultate sit adeptus: nec multo post, ob egregias ipsius virtutes, ecclesiae Rhemensis canonicatu potitus.

Elapsis aliquot annis, cum sex aliis familiaribus mundo renuntians, sanctum Hugonem episcopum Gratianopolitanum adiit. Qui causa eorum adventus cognita, eosdemque intelligens esse, quos eadem nocte veluti septem stellas ad suos pedes corruentes in somnis viderat, montes suae dioecesis asperrimos quos Carthusianos appellant, illis concessit. Illuc Bruno cum sociis, ipso Hugone comitante, secedens, cum per aliquot annos eremiticam vitam egisset, ab Urbano Secundo, qui ejusdem Brunonis discipulus fuerat, Bomam accersitur. Ejus consilio ac doctrina Pontifex, in tot illis Ecclesiae calamitatibus, per aliquot annos usus est, donee Bruno, recusato Rhegiensi archiepiscopatu, discedendi facultatem obtinuit.

Igitur solitudinis amore erenram quamdam apud of the anachoretical life. Hia parents, who were distinguished for virtue and nobility, sent him to Paris, where he made great progress in philosophy and theology, and took the degrees of doctor and master in both faculties. Soon after this, he was, for his remarkable virtue, appointed to a canonry in the church of Rheims.

After some years, Bruno, with six of his friends, renounced the world, and betook himself to Hugh, bishop of Grenoble. On learning the cause of their coming, the bishop understood that they had been signified by the seven stars he had seen falling at his feet in his dream of the previous night. He therefore made over to them some wild mountains called the Chartreuse, belonging to his diocese, and himself conducted them thither. After having there led an eremitical life for several years, Bruno was summoned to Rome by Urban II who had been his disciple. In the great trials through which the Church was then passing, the Pontiff gladly availed himself of the saint's prudence and knowledge for some years, until Bruno, refusing the archbishopric of Reggio,obtained leave to retire.

Attracted by the love of solitude he went to a desert

TIME AFTER PENTECOST

Bquillacum in Calabriae finibUft petiit. Quo in loco, cum lpsum ©rantem Bogerhli comes Calabrue inter ?ertfta<tam, latrantibus ad illiu* speluncam canibus, feperisset, sanctitate viri permotus, ilium ac socios fovere ac colere impense coBpit. Nec liberalitas sine prsemio fuit. Gum enim idem Rogerius Capuam obsideret, eumque Sergius quidam excubiarum magi- Ster prodere statuisset, Bruno adhuc in dicta eremo vivens, in somnis illi omnia aperiens, ab imminenti periculo comitem liberavit. Tandem virtutibus ac meritis plenus, nec sanctitate minus quam doctrinsa fama clarus, obdormivit in Domino, sepultusque est in monasterio sancti Stephani, ab ipso Rogerio constructo, ubi hactenus honorifice colitur. place near Squillace in Calabria. Count Roger of Calabria was one day hunting, when his dogs began to bark round the saint's cave. The Count entered and found BrUno at his prayers, and was so struck by his holiness, that thenceforward he greatly honoured him and his companions and supplied their wants. His generosity met with its reward. A little later, when this same Count Roger was besieging Capua, and Sergius, an officer of his guard, had determined to betray him, Bruno, who was still living in his desert, appeared to the Count in sleep, revealed the whole treason to him, and thus saved him from imminent peril. At length, full of virtues and merits, and as renowned for holiness as for learning, Bruno fell asleep in our Lord, and was buried in the monastery of St. Stephen built by Count Roger, where he is greatly honoured to this day.

Bless, 0 Bruno, the grateful joy of God's ohildren. With their whole hearts they acquiesce in the judgment of their mother the Church, when, among the beautiful, rich fruit-trees in our Lord's garden, she hides not her predileotion for those whose silent shade attracts the preference of her divine Spouse. ' Show me, 0 Thou whom my soul loveth, where Thou f eedest, where Thou liest in the midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of Thy companions.' 1 Thus speaks

1 Cant. i. 6 ?

SAIHT BmtTNO the bride in the sacred Canticle. And hearing the divine answer extolling the better part, thou minglest thy voice with the song of our Lord and the Church, saying: * 0 solitude and silence of the desert ; hidden

I'oy; good things unknown to the multitude, but :nown to the valiant ! There are the young shoots of virtue carefully cultivated : there labour and rest are one and the same, and are nourished with fruits of paradise. There the eve acquires that look, whioh wounds the Bridegroom s heart, 1 and that purity, whioh beholds God. 2 There is Rachel in all her beauty, more loved by Jacob than Lia, although less fruitful; and her sons, Joseph and Benjamin, are their father's favourites.' 8

Thy sons cherish, in their hereditary peace, this privilege of the perfect even in these days of feverish excitement. Simple as themselves is the history of their Order ; full of the supernatural, yet seeming to eschew the marvellous and the miraoulous; while the heroism of all is so great, that very few stand out from the rest as remarkable for sanotity. Preserve this thine own spirit in thy children, 0 Bruno ; and make us profit by their example. For their life silently preaches to the world the apostle's doctrine: * Concerning spiritual things, ... I show unto you yet a more exoellent way. It I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not oharity, ... if I should have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, . . . and if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity never falleth away: whether propheoies shall be made void, or tongues

1 Cant. iv. 9. * $t. Matt v. 8. 8 Bruno, Epitt. ad RadtUphum,

TIME AFTER PBKTEC08T shall oease, or knowledge shall be destroyed. Do not beoome children in sense; but in malioe be ohildren, and in sense be perfect/ 1

October 7

SAINT MARK POPE AND CONFESSOR

AND SAINTS SERGIUS, BACCHUS, MAECELLUS

Mark, suooessor to Sylvester the Pontiff of peace, has been honoured on this day from time immemorial. According to the testimony of St. Damasus, his virtues no less than his name reoalled St. Mark the Evangelist. 2 He occupied the supreme See only eight months; but in that short time, he followed up the recent triumph of the Church by wise organizations. He built two new sanctuaries in Rome. He gave the pallium, of whioh this is the first mention in history, to the bishop of Ostia, to enhance his high privilege of being the appointed oonsecrator of the Roman Pontiffs.

This pontificate witnessed the awful death of Arius. Constantine had been deceived into ordering the reinstatement of this wicked man, who taught that the Word Incarnate was a mere creature. The heresiaroh, followed by his partisans, was proceeding in triumph through the streets of Constantinople, intending to force open the doors of the basilica, where the faithful, with their bishop St. Alexander, were beseeching God, with fasting and tears, to avert l 1 Cor. xi;. xiii. xiv. 2 Pe Rossi. Imcript. Christ, ii. 108,

AND APULEIUS, MARTYRS the profanation. Suddenly, seized with an ignominious trembling, Arius was obliged to retire to a secret place, where his flatterers soon afterwards found him stretched upon the floor with his bowels cast out. He had merited the death of a Judas, for having delivered up the Son of God to the disputes of the people, to the mockeries of the proud, to the contradictions of the pretorium.

Among the martyrs annually commemorated on this day, the names of Marcellus and Apuleius carry back the mind to apostolic times. They had been disciples of Simon Magus, but were oonvinoed of his lying deceit by the miracles of St. Peter, and shed their blood in testimony of their faith in the true God.

St. Sergius is regarded in the east as one of the most glorious witnesses to our Lord. He suffered in the tenth and last persecution, with his companion St. Bacchus, a soldier like himself of the Roman army in Syria. So illustrious became his sepulchre, that a city sprang up around it, which was called Sergiopolis, and became a metropolitan See. The west soon joined the east in honouring these holy martyrs, and a church was dedicated to them in Rome. Saint-Serge at Angers, founded by Clovis II, testifies to the veneration in which they were held by the Franks.

PRAYER

Exaudi, Domine, preces nostras, et interveniente beato Marco, conf essore tuo sion conatque pontifice, indulgen- feasor tiam nobis tribue placatus et pacem. Per Dominum.

Hear, 0 Lord, our prayers; and appeased by the intercesof blessed Mark, thy and bishop, grant us pardon and peace. Through our Lord,

Tim AFTE* FINTIOOST

PRAYER

Sanctorum martyrum tu-

May the blessed merits of oruffl nos, Domine, Sergii, thy holy martyrs, Sergius,

Bacchi, Marcelli et Apuleii Bacchus, Marcellus, and Apu- beata merita prosequantur: leius accompany us, 0 Lord, et tuo semper faciant amo- and make us ever fervent in re f erventes. Per Dominum. thy love. Through our Lord.

• Memor ero tut, Justina virgo. I will ever bear thee in mind, 0 virgin Justina.' This inscription Venice engraved on the coin of its republic, after the victory of Lepanto. On that day of triumph, the martyr, who had won her palm on October 7 fifteen centuries before, had united the power of her prayers with the strength of St. Mark's lion ; and the dukedom proclaimed Justina its second patron. But Lepanto is not her only claim upon the world's gratitude. In her native city, the sons of St. Benedict had gathered round the tomb where lay her precious relics. The great movement initiated by the Venetian, Luigi Barbo (1408), began at St. Justina's monastery in Padua: the Order was rescued from the disastrous consequences of having secular abbots in commendam; and thus Monte Cassino itself was restored to some part of its ancient splendour.

Honour, then, to this day of salvation! And glory to her, through whose intercession the heavens have rained down their dew of consolation upon the earth !

Dens, qui nos annua bea- 0 God, who givest us joy by tae Justinae virginis et mar- the annual solemnity of blessed tyris tuae solemnitate laeti- Justina thy virgin and martyr; ficas: da, ut quam venera- grant that we may follow the mur officio, etiam piaa con- example of her pious life, versationis sequamur exem- whom we venerate by this

PRAYER

Office, Through our Lord, . otm Lady of victor*

On the $ame day, in the Roman martyrology, the commemoration of our Lady of Victory, established under the oiroumstanoes mentioned on the first Sunday of this month. Although the Virgin of virgins gave to the youthful martyr J ustina a share in the triumph of Lepanto, nevertheless the ohief honour of the day redounds to Mary herself. It behoves us, then, to renew our homage to the Queen of the holy rosary, on the exact anniversary of her deliveranoe of Christendom under that title. Let us do so by offering her the three hymns of her Office, which recall the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries of the rosary, and whioh are epitomized in that of second Vespers given on the feast. 1

HYMN OF FIRST VESPERS

Coelestis aulas nuntius, Arcana pandens Numinis, Plenam salutat gratia Dei Parentem Virginem.

Virgo propinquam sanguine

Matrem Joannig visitat, Qui elausus alvo geetiens Adesse Christum nuntiat. Verbum, quod ante sbbeula

E mente Patris prodiit, E Matris alvo Yirginis Mortaiis iufans nascitur.

Templo puellus sistitur, Legique paret Legifer, Hie se Kedemptor paupere

The messenger of the heavenly court, disclosing the hidden mysteries of the Divinity, bails as full of grace the Virgin about to become Mother of God.

The Virgin visits her relative, the mother of John, who, though yet a captive in the womb, leaps with joy announcing the presence of Christ.

The Word that before all ages had proceeded from the Father's Intellect, is born a mortal Babe of a Virgin Mother.

The little One is presented in the temple, the Legislator obeys the Law, the Redeemer

1 The four hymns are of the eighteenth century. Though now slightly modified, the three here given were composed by Thomas Ricehini, Master of the sacred Palace, and that of second Vespers by the Dominican Eustace $irena.

TIME AFTER PENTECOST

Pretio redemptus Immolat.

Quern jam dolebat perditum, Mox laeta Mater invenit Ignota doctis meutibus EdiaBerentem Filium.

Jesu, tibi sit gloria Qui natus es de Virgine, Gum Patre et almo Spiritu In aempiterna arocula.

Amen. offers himself in sacrifice, and is redeemed at a pauper's price.

And now the joyful Mother finds her Son, whom she had mourned as lost; finds him expounding to learned minds things unknown to them.

Glory be to thee, 0 Jesus born of the Virgin; together with the Father and the holy Spirit, through everlasting ages. Amen.

HYMN OF MATINS

In monte Olivis consito Redemptor oralis, procidit, Moeret, pavescit, deficit, Sudore manans^sanguinis.

A proditore traditus Raptatur in poenas Deus, Durisque vinctus nexibus Flagria cruentis cseditur.

Intexta acutis sentibus, Corona contumelies, Squallenti amictum purpura, Begem coronat gloria.

Molis crucem ter arduae, Sudans, anhelans, concidens, Ad montis usque verticem Gestare vi compellitur.

Oonfixus atro stipite Inter scelestos innocens, Orando pro tortoribus, Exsanguis efflat spiritum.

Jesu, tibi sit gloria, Qui natus es de Virgine, Cum Patre et almo Spiritu In aempiterna sacula.

On the mount with olives planted, prostrate the Redeemer prays; he grieves, he fears, he well-nigh faints, pouring forth a sweat of blood.

God, delivered up by a traitor, is dragged away to punishment; bound with tight bonds, he bleeds beneath the cruel scourges.

A crown of ignominy, woven of sharp thorns, adorns the King of glory clothed with purple tatters.

Labouring, breathless, thrice falling beneath the heavy cross, he is compelled by force to bear it to the mountain-top.

Nailed to the awful gibbet, the Innocent hangs between two criminals; till, praying for his torturers, he yields up his Spirit with the last drop of his Blood.

Glory be to thee, 0 Jesus born of the Virgin; together with the Father and the holy Spirit, through everlasting ages. Amen.

OUR LADY OP VICTOR*

HYMN OF LAUDS

Jam morte victor obruta Ab inf eris Christus redit, Fractisque culpae vinculis, Cceli recludit limina.

Visus satis mortalibus Ascendit ad ccelestia, Dextroque Patris assidet Consors patera© gloriae.

Quern jam suis promiserat,

Sanctum daturas Spiritum, Linguis amoris igneis Moestis alumnis impluit.

Soluta carnis pondere Ad astra Virgo tollitur, Excepta coeli jubilo, Et angelorum canticis.

Bis sena cingunt sidera Almae parentis verticem: Throno propinqua Filii Cunctis creatis imperat.

Jesu tibi sit gloria, Qui natus es de Virgine, Cum Patre et almo Spiritu In sempiterna saecula.

Amen.

Death overthrown, Christ rises victorious from limbo, and breaking the bonds of sin, throws open heaven's gate.

Having appeared long enough to men, he ascends to the heavenly dwellings, and is enthroned at his Father's right hand, a partner in his glory.

The holy Spirit, whom he had promised to give them, he sends down upon his sorrowing disciples in fiery tongues of love.

With her body set free from earthly weight, the Virgin is raised above the stars ; she is welcomed with heaven's jubilant delight, and with the songs of angels.

Twelve stars now crown the lovely Mother's brow ; and from her throne beside her Son, she reigns over all creation.

Glory be to thee, 0 Jesus born of the Virgin ; together with the Father and the holy Spirit, through everlasting ages. Amen.