April VIII

St. Dionysius of Corinth, B. C.

From Eusebius, b. 4, c. 23. St. Jerom, Cat. c. 30.

second age

St. Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, flourished under the emperor Marcus Aurelius, and was one of the most holy and eloquent pastors of the church in the second age. Not content assiduously to instruct his own flock with the word of life, he comforted and exhorted others at a distance. Eusebius mentions several of his instructive letters to other churches, and one of thanks to the church of Rome, under the pontificate of St. Soter, for the alms received from them according to custom. “From the beginning,” says he, “it is your custom to bestow your alms in all places, and to furnish subsistence to many churches. You send relief to the needy, especially to those who work in the mines; in which you follow the example of your fathers. Your blessed bishop Soter is so far from degenerating from your ancestors in that respect, that he goes beyond them; not to mention the comfort and advice he, with the bowels of a tender father towards his children, affords all that come to him. On this day we celebrated together the Lord’s day, and read your letter, as we do that which was heretofore written to us by Clement.” He means that they read these letters of instruction in the church after the reading of the holy scriptures, and the celebration of the divine mysteries. This primitive father says that SS. Peter and Paul, after planting the faith at Corinth, went both into Italy, and there sealed their testimony with their blood. He in another place complains that the ministers of the devil, that is, the heretics, had adulterated his works, and corrupted them by their poison. The monstrous heresies of the first three centuries sprang mostly, not from any perverse interpretation of the scriptures, but from erroneous principles of the heathenish schools of philosophy; whence it happened that those heresies generally bordered on some superstitious notions of idolatry. St. Dionysius, to point out the source of the heretical errors, showed from what sect of philosophers each heresy took its rise. The Greeks honor St. Dionysius as a martyr on the 29th of November, because he suffered much for the faith, though he seems to have died in peace: the Latins keep his festival on this day, and style him only Confessor. Pope Innocent III. sent to the abbey of St. Denys, near Paris, the body of a saint of that name brought from Greece. The monks, who were persuaded that they were before possessed of the body of the Areopagite, take this second to be the body of St. Dionysius of Corinth, whose festival they also celebrate.

We adore the inscrutable judgments of God, and praise the excess of his mercy in calling us to his holy faith, when we see many to whom it was announced with all the reasonable proofs of conviction, reject its bright light, and resist the voice of heaven: also others who had so far despised all worldly considerations as to have embraced this divine religion, afterwards fall from this grace, and become the authors or abettors of monstrous heresies, by which they drew upon themselves the most dreadful curses. The source of their errors was originally in the disorder of their hearts, by which their understanding was misled. All those who have made shipwreck of their faith, fell because they wanted true simplicity of heart This virtue has no affinity with worldly simplicity, which is a vice and defect, implying a want of prudence and understanding. But Christian simplicity is true wisdom and a most sublime virtue. It is a singleness of heart, by which a person both in his intention and all his desires and affections has no other object but the pure holy will of God. This is grounded in self-knowledge, and in sincere humility and ardent charity. The three main enemies which destroy it, are, an attachment to creatures without us, an inordinate love of ourselves, and dissimulation or double-dealing. This last, though most infamous and base, is a much more common vice than is generally imagined, for there are very few who are thoroughly sincere in their whole conduct towards God, their neighbor, and themselves. Perfect sincerity and an invariable uprightness is an essential part, yet only one ingredient of Christian simplicity. Nor is it enough to be also disengaged from all inordinate attachments to exterior objects: many who are free from the hurry and disturbance of things without them, nevertheless are strangers to simplicity and purity of heart, being full of themselves, and referring their thoughts and actions to themselves, taking an inordinate complacency in what concerns them, and full of anxieties and fear about what befalls, or may befall them. Simplicity of the heart, on the contrary, settles the soul in perfect interior peace: as a child is secure in the mother’s arms, so is such a soul at rest in the bosom of her God, resigned to his will, and desiring only to accomplish it in all things. The inexpressible happiness and advantages of this simplicity can only be discovered by experience. This virtue disposes the heart to embrace the divine revelation when duly manifested, and removes those clouds which the passions raise, and which so darken the understanding, that it is not able to discern the light of faith

St. Ædesius, M.

He was brother to St. Apian, who received his crown at Cæsarea, on the 2d of April, and a native of Lycia, had been a professed philosopher, and continued to wear the cloak after his conversion to the faith. He was long a scholar of St. Pamphilus at Cæsarea. In the persecution of Galerius Maximianus he often confessed his faith before magistrates, had sanctified several dungeons, and been condemned to the mines in Palestine. Being released from thence, he went into Egypt, but there found the persecution more violent than in Palestine itself, under Hierocles, the most barbarous prefect of Egypt, for Maximinus Daia, Cæsar. This governor had also employed his pen against the faith, presuming to put the sorceries of Apollonius of Tyana upon a level with the miracles of Christ, whom Eusebius confuted by a book entitled, Against Hierocles. Ædesius being at Alexandria, and observing how outrageously the judge proceeded against the Christians, by tormenting grave men, and delivering women of singular piety, and even virgins, to the infamous purchasers of slaves, he boldly presented himself before this savage monster, rather than a man, and reproached him with his crying inhumanity, especially in exposing holy virgins to lewdness. He endured courageously the scourge, and the greatest torments which the rage of such a tyrant was capable of inventing, and was at length cast into the sea, in 306, after the same manner as his brother, who obtained his crown a little while before, as the Chaldaic acts expressly inform us, though Henschenius is of the contrary opinion. See Eusebius on the martyrs of Palestine, ch. 5, and the martyr’s Chaldaic acts in Assemani, t. 2, p. 195.

St. Perpetuus, B. C.

He was the eighth bishop of Tours from St. Gatian, and governed that see above thirty years, from 461 to 491, when he deceased on the 8th of April. During all which time he labored by zealous sermons, many synods, and wholesome regulations, to lead souls to virtue. St. Gregory of Tours mentions his prudent ordinances, prescribing the manner of celebrating vigils before great festivals in the different churches in the city. All Fridays and Wednesdays he commanded to be observed fasts of precept, except during Easter time, from Christmas to St. Hilary’s day, that is, the 14th day of January, and from St. John Baptist’s day to the end of August. He added a third fast day every week, probably Monday, from St. Martin’s to Christmas, which proves the antiquity of Advent. These regulations were all religiously observed one hundred and twenty years after, when St. Gregory of Tours wrote his history. St. Perpetuus had a great veneration for the saints, and respect for their relics; adorned their shrines, and enriched their churches. As there was a continual succession of miracles at the tomb of St. Martin, Perpetuus finding the church built by St. Bricius too small for the concourse of people that resorted thither, directed its enlargement, causing it to be built one hundred and fifty-five feet in length, sixty broad, and forty-five in height. When the building was finished, the good bishop solemnized the dedication of this new church, and performed the translation of the body of St. Martin, on the 4th of July, in 473. Our saint was of a senatorian family, and possessed very large estates in several provinces; but consecrated the revenues to the service of the church, and the relief of the necessitous. He made and signed his last will, which is still extant, on the 1st of March, 475 fifteen years before his death. By it he remits all debts that were owing to him; and having bequeathed to his church his library and several farms, and settled a fund for the maintenance of lamps, and the purchase of sacred vessels, as occasion might require, he declares the poor his heirs. It begins thus: “In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen I, Perpetuus, a sinner, priest of the church of Tours, would not depart without a last will and testament, lest the poor should be neglected.… You, my bowels, my most beloved brethren, my crown, my joy, my lords, my children, O poor of Christ, needy, beggars, sick, widows, orphans; you I declare, name, and make my heirs. Excepting what is above disposed of whatever I am possessed of in goods, in fields, in pasturage, in meadows, in groves, in vineyards, in dwellings, in gardens, in waters, in mills, or in gold silver, and garments, and other things, I appoint you my heirs. It is my will that as soon as possible, after my departure, they be sold, and the money divided into three parts; of which two shall be distributed among poor men, at the discretion of the priest Agrarius and count Agilo: and the third among widows and poor women, at the discretion of the virgin Dadolena,” &c. He adds most pathetic exhortations to concord and piety; and bequeaths to his sister, Fidia Julia Perpetua, a little gold cross, with relics; he leaves legacies to several other friends and priests, to one a silver case of relics of saints, to others gold or silver crosses or chalices, begging of each a remembrance of him in their prayers. His ancient epitaph equals him to the great St. Martin: St. Apollinaris Sidonius calls him the true copy of the virtues of that wonderful saint. St. Perpetuus died either on the 30th of December, in 490, or on the 8th of April, 491. In the martyrologies of Florus, and some others, his festival is placed on the first of these days: but in that of Usuard, and in the Roman, on the second. See his testament published by D’Achery, Spicileg. t. 5, p. 105; also St. Gregory of Tours, Hist. b. 10, ch. 31, and De Mirac. S. Martini, b. 1, c. 6; Tillemont, 16, p. 393; Dom. Rivet. t. 2, p. 619.

St. Walter, Abbot of St. Martin’s, Near Pontoise

He was a native of Picardy, and took the habit of St. Bennet at Rebais in the diocese of Meaux. The counts of Amiens and Pontoise having lately founded the rich abbey of St. German, now called St. Martin’s, adjoining to the walls of Pontoise, king Philip I., after a diligent search for a person equal to so important a charge, obliged Walter to take upon him the government of that house, and he was appointed the first abbot in 1060. He was always highly honored by the king, and by other great personages; but this was what his humility could not bear. To escape from the dangers of vain-glory, he often fled secretly from his monastery, but was always found and brought oack again, and, to prevent his escaping, the pope sent him a strict order not to leave his abbey. There he lived in a retired small cell in great austerity, and in assiduous prayer and contemplation, never stirring out but to duties of charity or regularity, or to perform some of the meanest offices of the house. His zeal, in opposing the practice of simony, drew on him grievous persecutions: all which he bore not only with patience, but even with joy. His death happened on the 8th of April, in 1099. The bishops of Rouen, Paris, and Senlis, after a diligent scrutiny, declared several miracles wrought at his tomb authentic; and performed the translation of his relics on the 4th of May. The abbot Walter Montague made a second translation in 1655, and richly decorated his chapel. St. Walter, from the first day of his conversion to his death, made it a rule every day to add some new practice of penance to his former austerities; thus to remind himself of the obligation of continually advancing in spirit towards God. His life, written by a disciple, may be read in the Bollandists, with the remarks of Henschenius, t. 1, Apr. p. 753.

B. Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem,

compiler of the rule of the carmelites

He was born at Castro di Gualtieri, in the diocese of Parma, and of a noble Italian family. After having laid a solid foundation of learning and piety, and acquired a great reputation by his skill in the canon and civil laws, he put on the habit of a canon regular in the monastery of Mortura in the Milanese, and, though very young, was in a short time after his profession chosen prior, and, three years after, bishop of Bobio. While his humility found excuses to decline this dignity, the church of Vercelli falling also vacant, that city had the happiness to carry him off, and see him by compulsion placed in its episcopal chair. For twenty years he never ceased to procure the advantage of the flock committed to his charge, and by humility and sanctity raised to the highest degree the splendor of the see which he adorned. He was chosen by pope Clement III., and the emperor Frederick I., surnamed Barbarossa, umpire of their differences. Henry VI., successor to Frederick, created him prince of the empire, and granted many favors to his church He was employed by the pope in several commissions of the highest importance. In 1204 died Monachus, the eleventh Latin patriarch of Jerusalem: and the Christians in Palestine, who in their desolate condition stood extremely in need of a person whose consummate prudence, patience, and zeal, might be to them both a comfort and a support, moved by the great reputation of Albert, earnestly besought him to fill the vacant chair. Pope Innocent III. expressed great joy at their choice, being full of compassion for their situation and dangers, and called Albert to Rome, that he might receive the confirmation of his election, and the pall. The holy man obeyed the more readily, because this dignity at that time exposed him only to persecutions and afflictions, not without a prospect of martyrdom. He embarked in a Genoese vessel in 1206, and landed at Acon, in which city he resided, Jerusalem itself being in the hands of the Saracens. To his labors and persecutions he added the practice of assiduous mortification, and made prayer the chief employment of all his retired hours. His sanctity procured him the respect and veneration of the infidels themselves. Besides many other pious establishments and holy works of which he was the author, he became the legislator of the Carmelites, or White Friars. On mount Carmel lived certain anchorets, who regarded the prophet Elias as their founder and model, because he made that mountain the place of his retreat,¹ as did also Eliseus.² One Bertheld formed these anchorets into a community: and Brocard, superior of these hermits in 1205, or rather, as Papebroke proves, in 1209, addressed himself to the patriarch Albert, beseeching him to prescribe them a rule.* The holy man drew up a constitution of this order, in which the friars are enjoined to abide in their cells day and night in assiduous prayer, as it becomes hermits, unless they are otherwise lawfully occupied: to fast from the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross till Easter, except on Sundays: perpetual abstinence from flesh: to employ themselves in manual labor: keep silence from Vespers till Tierce the next day, &c. But several additions were made to this rule, and mitigations introduced by commissioners appointed by Innocent IV., in 1246. The White Friars did not wear a scapular before St. Simon Stock, in 1285, and began to use a mantle and hood in 1288. This order being in its origin eremitical, hence among the barefooted Carmelites every province has a desert or solitude, usually for three or four hermits, who lead there very austere lives, but after one year return again to their convent, or go to some other desert, with the leave of superiors.

Albert was called into the West by pope Innocent III., that he might be present at the general council of Lateran which met in 1215: but before he left Palestine, he was assassinated while he assisted at a procession of the holy cross, on the feast of its Exaltation, September 14th, 1214, at Acon, by an impious wretch whom he had reproved and threatened for his crimes. He is honored among the saints by his order on this 8th day of April. See the memoirs collected by Papebroke, t. 1, p. 769. Also Exhibitio Errorum quos Dan. Papebrochius suis in notis ad Acta Sanctorum commisit, per Sebast. a S. Paulo. Coloniæ Agrippinæ, 1693, 4to. Item, Examen Juridico-Theologicum Præambul. Sebastiani a S. Paulo ad Exhibitionem Errorum Dan. Papebrochio ab illo Imputatorum, Auctore Nic. Rayæo, cum Responsionibus Dan. Papebrochii, Antwerpiæ, 1698, four vols. in 4to Helyot, Hist. des Ordres Relig. t. 1, and Stevens, Monast. Anglic. t. 1, p. 156.

¹ 3 Kings 18:19, 20, 42.

² 1 Kings 4:25.

* Some writers have endeavored to prove that from Elias, and his successors, the sons of the prophets, an uninterrupted succession of hermits had inhabited mount Carmel down to the time of Christ and his apostles; and that, having embraced early the Christian faith, they continued their succession to the twelfth or thirteenth century, when having obtained this rule they introduced their order into Europe. The learned Papebroke, a continuator of the Acta Sanctorum commenced by Bollandus, treated his claim to so high an antiquity as chimerical, and dated the origin of the hermits of mount Carmel only in the twelfth century. The contest grew so warm, that the affair was laid before popes Innocent X. and XII. But neither of them chose to declare whether the monuments, produced in favor of the succession aforesaid, were decisive or not. And the latter, by a brief dated 29th of November, 1698, enjoined silence on that subject for the time to come.

Alan, the fifth general of the Carmelite friars, finding Palestine a troublesome residence under the Saracens, sought to obtain for his order some foreign settlements, and soon procured convents to be founded in Cyprus and Sicily. Soon after the year 1200, certain Englishmen, who had embraced that order, were brought over from Syria by Sir John de Vasey, lord of Alnwick in Northumberland, a great baron in those days, when he returned from the holy war. He founded their first house at Alnwick, and they soon procured convents is Ailsford. London. Oxford, and other places. This order has at present thirty-eight provinces, besides the congregation of Mantua, which has fifty-four houses under a vicar-general, and the congregations of the barefooted Carmelites in Spain and Italy, which have their own generals: on which see the life of St. Theresa.

 Butler, A., The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (New York 1903) II, 49-54.