November 12 — Saint Martin Pope and Martyr

What a solace to the mind, to see the imperial lucubrations returned, with the qualification of wicked and impious? to the Byzantine Caesar, who held the defenceless Pontiff at his mercy in still dependent Rome! Martin I. like St. Paul, could take the Church of God to witness 2 that he had not neglected his duty of enlightening the flock ; he could remind the pastors of the price at which Christ had purchased the sheep committed to their care : he himself was ready for everything. His martyrdom was to secure the final triumph, of which the sixth general Council and St. Leo II. were destined to gather the fruits.

The Greeks celebrate on the 13 th April the feast of this glorious Pope, whom they call a " corypheus " of divine dogmas, the honour of Peter's See, the pon- " tiff who maintained the Church unshaken on the " divine Bock." 3

Rome gives the following brief notice of him in her Liturgy.

Martinus, Tuderti in Umbria natns, initio pontificatus, et litteris et legationibus missis operam dedit, ut Paulum Constantinopolitanuui Con- Patriarcham a nefaria hse- stantinople resi ad catholicse fidei veritatem revocaret. Qui Constante imperatore hseretico Constans, fretus, eo amentise progressus fuerat, ut Sedis apostolicaB legatos varie in insulas relegarit. Quo ejus scelere commotus Pontifex, coacto Bomae concilio centum quinque episcoporum, eum condemnavit.

Martin was born at Todi in Umbria. Upon ascending the pontifical throne, he strove by letters and embassies to recall Paul, Patriarch of from his wicked heresy to the true Catholic faith. But, supported by the heretical emperor Paul was so carried away as to exile the legates of the Apostolic See to various islands. The Pope, indignant at this outrage, summoned a council of one hundred and five bishops at Eome, in which he condemned Paul.

1 Impiissimam ecthesim, scelerosttm typum. Canon xviii. Mansi, x. 1158. 2 Epist. encyclica promulgations concilii. Ibid. 1178. 3 Mensea. 13 Aprilis.

Quae causa fuit Oonstanti mittendi in Italiam Olympium exarchum, ut Martinum Pontificem interficiendum, aut ad se perducendum curaret. Igitur Olympius Bomam veniens lictori mandat, ut Pontificem, dum in basilica sanctae Mariae ad Prsesepe Missarum solemnia celebraret, occideret. Quod ubi lictor aggreditur, csecus repente factus est.

Constanti autem imperatori ex eo tempore multae calamitates inciderunt : quibus nihilo melior factus, Thedorum Calliopam ad Urbem mittens, imperat ut Pontifici manu injiciat. A quo per fraudem captus Martinus, et Constantino-

Solim perductus, deinde in hersonesum relegatus, ibi ob catholicam fidem aerumnis confectus, pridie idus novembris cessit e vita clarus miraculis. Cujus corpus Eomam postea translatum, in ecclesia conditum est, quae sanctorum Silvestri et Martini nomine dedicata erat. Praefuit Ecclesiae annos sex, mensem unum, dies viginti sex. Habuit ordinationes duas mense decembri, quibus creavit presbyteros undecim, diaconos quinque, episcopos per diyersa loca triginta tres.

If it is just that the its members in proportioi them, thou, 0 holy P<

Upon this Constans sent the exarch Olympius into Italy, with orders either to kill Pope Martin or else to bring him to the emperor. Olympius, on reaching Eome, charged a lictor to assassinate the Pope as he waa celebrating Mass in St. Mary's at the Crib. But the man, attempting to do so, was suddenly struck blind.

From that time many calamities befel the emperor Constans, which however made him no better; and he sent Theodore Calliopus to Eome to seize the Pope. By his deceitful dealing Martin was arrested and led prisoner to Constantinople. Thence he was banished into the Chersonesus ; where, on the eve of the Ides of November, he died worn out by his sufferings for the Catholic faith, and not without the glory of miracles. His body was afterwards translated to Eome, and placed in the church dedicated to Saints Sylvester and Martin. He governed the church six years, one month, and twenty -six days. He held two ordinations in the month of December, and ordained eleven priests, five deacons, and thirty-three bishops for divers places. human raoe should honour 1 as it has been honoured by ontiff, deservest a glorious memory. For, not only were thy wonderful virtues such as cause the very powers of heaven to admire our earth, but thou didst likewise compel Satan to humble himself before our human nature. Deified entirely in the Person of God the Son, it is through thee that it was fully recognized as such, in spite of contradictions, in spite of the powerful ones of this world leaguing with the spirits of wickedness to overcloud this incomparable nobility of the sons of Adam.

How comes it, that man is ever ready to join hands with Satan, for his own destruction P JBut Luoifer himself was at first his own only enemy; and surely his folly is more difficult to explain, than that of the frail creature he strives to draw after him along the path of pride which led him to perdition. It is pride that made him the prince of folly and the father of lies. His intellect, though the loftiest in heaven, was not proof against self-love, which induced him to take complacency in his created nothingness, to detain the truth of God in injustice, 1 and to prefer darkness to the light. Thus it is that men, following Satan's example, and dishonouring God to exalt themselves, become vain in their thoughts, 2 till such a darkness oomes over their mind and heart and senses, as strikes with astonishment the soul that remains simple and upright in its humility.

Proteot us, then, 0 holy Pontiff ! keep up in us the understanding of God's gift. May we never deserve the reproach of the Psalmist : Man when he was in honour, did not understand; he is compared to senseless beasts, and is become like to them} May eternal Wisdom, to whose alliance we are called, never have the grief of seeing us prefer death. At the same time, teach us that, for the honour of God, as well as of man, the integrity of Our Lord's Inoar-

1 Rom. i. 18. 2 Rom. i. 21 . 3 Psalm xlviii. 13.

PENT. VI. tJ nation does not require the authentication of politicians, nor the approbation of the would-be wise ; for it is of this mystery the Apostle says, that we must believe it with the heart in order to beoome just, and confess it with the mouth in order to be saved. 1 Spare the Church the sorrow of ever again finding herself in suoh a situation as that from which thy heroio martyrdom was alone able to deliver her.

1 Bom. x. 10.

November 13. SAINT DIDACUS.

CONFESSOR.

A humble lay-brother, Didacus of St. Nioholas, is welcomed to-day by his father St. Francis into the company of Bernardino of Siena and John Capistran, who preceded him by a few years to heaven. The two latter left Italy and the whole of Europe still echoing with their voices, the one making peace between cities in the name of the Lord Jesus, the other urging on the Christian hosts to battle with the victorious Orescent. The age which they contributed so powerfully to save from the results of the great schism and to restore to its Christian destinies, knew little of Didacus but his unbounded charity. It was the year of the great Jubilee, 1450. Rome having beoome once more, practically as well as theoretically, the holy city in the eyes of the nations, not even the most terrible scourgos could keep her children at a distance. From every quarter of the globe, crowds, urged by the evils of the time, flocked to the sources of salvation ; and Satan's work of ruin was retarded by seventy years.

Men doubtless attributed but a very small share of such results to the humble brother, who was spending himself in the Ara-Caeli, in the service of the plague-stricken ; especially if they compared him with his brethren, the great Franciscan apostles. And yet the Church pays to Didacus to-day the very same honours as we have seen her pay to Bernardino and John Capistran. What is this but asserting that before God heroic aots of hidden virtue are not inferior to the noble deeds that dazzle the world, if, proceeding from the same ardent love, they produoe in the soul the same increase of divine charity.

The Pontificate of Nioholas V., which witnessed the imposing concourse of people to the tombs of the Apostles in 1450, was also, and still is, justly admired for the new impetus given to the culture of letters and the arts in Kome ; for it belongs to the Church to adorn herself, for the honour of her Spouse, with all that men rightly deem great and beautiful. Nevertheless, who is there now of all the humanists, as the learned men of that age were called, who would not prefer the glory of the poor, unlettered Friar Minor, to that which vainly held out to them the hope of immortality ? In the fifteenth century, as at all other times, God chose the foolish and the weak to confound the wise and the strong. The Gospel is always in the rig;ht.

Let us read the luminous life of this unlearned man, as given in the book of holy Church.

Didacus Hispanus, ex op- Didacus 1 was a Spaniard, pido sancti Nicolai de Por- born at the little town of St. tu dicecesis Hispalensis, ab Nicholas de Porto in the dio- ineunte aetate pii sub sacer- cese of Seville. From his ear- dotis disciplina, sanctions ly youth he began the prac- vitae solitaria in ecclesia, tice of a perfect life, under the tyrociniuni exercuit. De- guidance of a pious priest in inde ut firmius Deo se con- a solitary church. Then, in jungeret, in conventu de order to bind himself more

Arizzafa fratrum Minorum closely to God, he made pro-

1 This name is merely a Latin form of the Spanish Diego, i.e. James.

NOT. 13. SAINT DTDACTJS.

(quos Observantes vocant) eancti Francisci regulam in statu laicali professus est. Magna ibi alacritate humilis obedientiae et regularis observantiaB jugum subiens, contemplationi in primis deditus, mira Dei luce perfundebatur, adeo ut de rebus coelestibus, litterarum expers, mirandum in modam et plane divinitus loqueretur.

Canariis in insulis, ubi fratribu sui Ordinis praefuit, multa perpessus, martyrii aestuans desiderio, plures infideles verbo et exemplo ad Christi fidem convertit. Romam veniens 'anno

1'ubilaei, Nicolao quinto tontifice, aegrotorum curae in couventu Arae Coeli destinatus, eo caritatis affectu munus hoc exercuit, ut Urbe annoniae inopia laborante, aegrotis tamen, quorum aliquando ulcera etiam lambendo abstergebat, nihil penitus nece8sarium defecerit. Eximia quoque fides et gratia curationum in eo eluxit, cum lampadis, quae colluoebat ante imaginem beatissimae Dei Genitricis, quam summa devotione colebat, oleo ragros inungens, signo crucis mipresso, multorum morbos mirabiliter sanaverit.

Demum Compluti finem sibi^vitoo adesse intelligens, Jucera et obsoleta indutus fession of the rule of St. Francis, in the convent of the Observantine Friars Minor at Arizzafa. There he bore the yoke of humble obedience and regular observance with great alacrity ; and devoted himself especially to contemplation, in which he received wonderful lights from God, so that, illiterate as he was, he spoke of heavenly things in an admirable manner, evidently by a divine gift.

He was sent to the Canary Isles to govern the brethren of his Order ; and there he had much to suffer. He was burning with the desire of martyrdom ; and by his words and example, he converted many infidels to the faith of Christ. Coming to Rome in the Jubilee year, in the pontificate of Nicholas V., he was entrusted with the care of the sick in the co n vent of Ara Coeli, With such loving charity did he acquit himself of this duty, that the sick wanted for nothing even during a famine in the city ; he also sometimes cleansed their ulcers by sucking them. He was remarkable for his great faith and his gift of healing ; for by signing the cross upon the sick with oil from a lamp burning before an image of the Mother of God, to whom he had the greatost devotion, he miraculously cured many of them.

At length, when at Alcala, he understood that the end of his life was at hand. Clad in, tunica, oonjectis in cracem oculis, singulari devotione illis verbis ex sacro hymno pronuntiatis : Dulce lignum, dulces clavos, dulcia ferens pondera, quae fuisti digna portare Eegem coelorum et Dominum, animam Deo reddidit, pridie idus novembris, anno Domini supra millesimum quadringentesimo sexagesimo tertio. Ejus corpus cum menses non paucos (ut pio confluentium desiderio fieret satis) insepultum mansisset, quasi jam inoorruptionem induerit, odorem suavissimum efflavit. Ilium multis et illustrious miraculis clarum Sixtus quintus Pontifex Maxim us Sanctorum numero adscripsit. an old torn tunic, with his eyes fixed on the cross, he devoutly pronounced these words of the sacred hymn : O sweet wood, sweet are thy nails, and sweet thy burden ; thou wast worthy to bear the King and Lord of heaven ! He then gave up his soul to God, on the day before the Ides of November, in the year of our Lord 1463. His body was left unburied for several months, in order to satisfy the pious devotion of the numbers who came to see it ; and, as though already clothed with immortality, it exhaled a sweet odour. He was renowned for many striking miracles, and was enrolled among the Saints by Pope Sixtus V.

" 0 Almighty, everlasting God, who by an admir- " able erder dost choose the weak things of the "world, that thou mayest confound whatever is " strong ; mercifully grant to our lowliness, that by " the pious prayers of blessed Didacus, thy Confessor, " we may be made worthy to be exalted to everlast- " ing glory in heaven. " l Such is the prayer addressed to God by the Church at all the liturgical Hours on this thy feast, 0 Didacus. Second her supplications ; for thou art in high favour with him whom thou didst follow so lovingly along the way of humility and voluntary poverty. A royal road indeed, since it brought thee to a throne whioh far outshines all earthly thrones. Even here below, thou dost far surpass in renown many of thy contemporaries, who are now as forgotten as they were

1 Collect of the feast,

NOT. 13. SAINT DIDACUS. onoe illustrious. Sanctity alone merits orowns that endure through all ages of time and for all eternity ; for God is the final awarder, as he is the supreme reason, of all glory, just as in him lies the principle of all true happiness both for this world and for the next. May we all, after thine example and by thine assistance, learn this by our own blessed experience !

TIMB AFTER PENTECOST.

November 14. SAINT JOSAPHAT.

BISHOP AND MARTYR.

Josaphat Kuncewicz, contemporary with St. Francis de Sales and St. Vincent de Paul, might have been taken for a Greek monk of the eleventh century, or an ascetio of the Thebaid. A stranger to the intellectual culture of the West, he knew only the liturgical books and sacred texts used in his own church ; as a priest, an archimandrite, a reformer of his Order of St. Basil, and lastly as Archbishop, he combated all his life against the consequences of the schism of Photius, and closed the struggle by culling the palm of martyrdom. Tet all this took place in the heart of Europe, in the countries then subjeot to Catholic Poland, during the reign of the most pious of its kings. How is this mystery to be explained ?

Immediately after the Mongolian invasions, Poland received into her arms, rather than conquered, the Euthenian nation, that is to say the Slavs of the Greek rite from the Dnieper and the Dwina, who had formed around their capital and religious metro-

S)lis, Kiev, the nuoleus of the power now known as ussia. Had she granted a participation in her own national life to these brethren separated from, but not enemies to, the Roman unity, who came to her full of oonfidenoe in her strength and her justioe,