MEMORIAL OF SAINT PIUS I, POPE AND MARTYR; SAINT BENEDICT, ABBOT; SAINT JAMES, BISHOP OF NISIBIS AND SAINT OLGA OF KIEV, PRINCESS OF KIEVAN RUS ~ FEAST DAY: JULY 11TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Pius I, Pope and Martyr; Saint Benedict, Abbot; Saint James, Bishop of Nisibis and Saint Olga of Kiev, Princess of Kievan Rus. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for our children, Youths and Students all over the world, we pray for their protection and well-being. We pray for those going through difficulties especially during these challenging times, for the poor and the needy, for peace, love and unity in our families and our world. We pray for the sick and dying, especially those suffering from terminal diseases. And we continue to pray for the Church, the Clergy, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world.🙏
SAINT PIUS I, POPE AND MARTYR: Pope Pius I, a native of Aquileia was born on September 7, 81 AD, Aquileia, Italy. He was elected pope c. 140. He was the bishop of Rome from c. 140 to his death in c. 154 according to the Annuario Pontificio. Successor was Anicetus. He is considered to have opposed both the Valentinians and Gnostics during his papacy. The Holy See remained vacant for three days, then Pope Pius, an Italian from Aquileia, stepped into the shoes of the Fisherman. His father’s name was Rufinus, and his brother Hermas was a former slave and the author of the early Christian document, The Shepherd, whose contents would seem to indicate that a monarchial episcopate was now recognized in Rome. Pope Pius was preoccupied with the challenge of the Gnostic leaders who by this time had been joined by Marcion of Pontus, and who continued to disseminate their system of belief widely. In July of 144, Pius presided over the assembly of presbyters that excommunicated Marcion from the orthodox community. But just as tormented as Pope Pius was with the Gnostics, he was comforted in his friendship with Justin Martyr, that tremendous defender of Christ’s doctrines, who now resided in Rome. A converted pagan, Justin sought the truth and through various schools of philosophy found it in Christianity.
According to Catholic tradition, Pope Pius I governed the Church in the middle of the 2nd century during the reigns of the Emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is held to be the ninth successor of Saint Peter, who decreed that Easter should only be kept on a Sunday. Although credited with ordering the publication of the Liber Pontificalis, compilation of that document was not started before the beginning of the 6th century. He is also said to have built one of the oldest churches in Rome, Santa Pudenziana. Saint Justin taught Christian doctrine in Rome during the pontificate of St Pius I but the account of his martyrdom does not name him, an unsurprising occurrence, considering the brevity of the account. The heretics Valentinus, Cerdon, and Marcion visited Rome during that period. Catholic apologists see this as an argument for the primacy of the Roman See during the 2nd century. Pope Pius I is believed to have opposed the Valentinians and Gnostics under Marcion, whom he excommunicated.
There is some conjecture that Pius was a martyr in Rome, a conjecture that entered earlier editions of the Roman Breviary. The study that had produced the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar stated that there were no grounds for his consideration as a martyr, and he is not presented as such in the Roman Martyrology. Pope Pius died c. 154 AD, Rome, Italy and was buried on Vatican Hill. Tradition holds that he died a martyr and is first mentioned as a martyr in the IX Century. In 1862, Mariano Rodríguez de Olmedo, bishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico, attempted to bring the remains of Pius to the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista after these were gifted to him by Pope Pius IX during Rodríguez Olmedo’s visit to the Vatican City. They were finally exported to the cathedral from Madrid, Spain in 1933. The remains are coated in wax skin and are kept in a glass structure in the church, which is the second oldest in the Americas, and Pope Pius persists as the only pope whose remains are kept outside of Europe. Pope Pius I’s feast day is July 11th.
Saint Pius I, Pope ~ Pray for us 🙏
SAINT BENEDICT, ABBOT: St. Benedict of Nursia (480-547 A.D.) known as the the Patriarch and Founder of Western Monasticism established the greatest and most famous of all monasteries at Monte Cassino, which became the home of the Benedictine Order. St. Benedict and his twin sister, St. Scholastica, were born to a Roman nobleman and his wife in Nursia, Italy in about the year 480 A.D. He spent his childhood with his parents in Rome. St. Benedict was sent to Rome to study the humanities. However, he soon became disgusted with the loose morals that prevailed among the students. In his youth, as a young man seeing the corruption of the world, he found in himself a strong desire to escape the trifling things of the world and serve God. He left his family and wealth and settled in a cave in the mountainous region of Subiaco, near Rome, living a hermit’s life of penance and prayer, where he was instructed in Christian asceticism by St. Romanus, a Solitary of the vicinity. After three years living in solitude as a cave-dwelling hermit, facing and overcoming severe temptations through prayer and asceticism. He was asked to lead a monastery in the place of an abbot who had died. St. Benedict did as they asked, but his way of life was too extreme for the monks and they tried to poison him. He thwarted their evil designs by blessing the poisoned cup, rendering it ineffective. St. Benedict returned to his cave, where news of his sanctity and miracles began to spread. Soon a community of men surrounded him wanting to adopt his way of life. St. Benedict’s reputation for sanctity gathered a large number of disciples around him, for whom he erected monasteries in which they lived a community life under a prescribed rule. His first monasteries were established in the Anio valley outside Subiaco. St. Benedict’s monasteries in Subiaco became centers of education for children, a tradition which would continue in the order during his lifetime and beyond. His monastic movement, like its forebears in the Christian East, attracted large numbers of people who were looking to live their faith more deeply. During 529, St. Benedict left Subiaco for Monte Cassino, 80 miles south of Rome and there founded the great Abbey that became the center of religious life in Europe. The move was geographically and spiritually significant, marking a more public emergence of the Western monastic movement. St. Benedict destroyed a pagan temple atop the mountain, and built two oratories in its place. It was most likely at Monte Cassino that the abbot drew up a rule of life, the famous “Rule of St. Benedict,” it became the basis of religious life for all Western religious orders and congregations after his time. It shows the way to religious perfection by the practice of self-conquest, mortification, humility, obedience, prayer, silence, retirement, and detachment fro the world and its cares. It emphasised prayer, work, simplicity, and hospitality. Though known as a rule for monks, it is addressed to all those who seek “to do battle for Christ the Lord, the true King.” St. Benedict’s life was marked by various intrigues and miraculous incidents, which are described in his biography written by Pope St. Gregory the Great. One of the most remarkable was his meeting in 543 with Totila, King of the Goths, in which the abbot rebuked the king’s lifestyle and prophesied his death.
St. Scholastica, St. Benedict’s twin sister, also embraced religious life as a nun. She was the first Benedistine nun. She presided over a monastery of nun near Monte Cassino. She most likely died shortly before him, around the year 543. In his final years, the abbot himself had a profound mystical experience, which is said to have involved a supernatural vision of God and the whole of creation. Around the age of 63, St. Benedict suffered his final illness. He was carried into the church by his fellow monks, where he received the Eucharist for the last time as he stood before the altar of Monte Cassino held up by his disciples, he raised his hands in prayer for the last time, before dying in their arms. St. Benedict died March 21, 547. When he died there were 14 Benedictine communities, and by the 14th century there were over 30,000. There established his famous Rule which changed and renewed the monastic life of Europe. For his historic role as the “Father of Western Monasticism,” St. Benedict was declared a co-patron of Europe (along with Saints Cyril and Methodius). St. Benedict is also the patron saint of Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate. In a 2005 general audience, Pope Benedict XVI said St. Benedict was a “powerful reminder of the indispensable Christian roots” of Europe. He cited the monk’s instruction to “prefer nothing to the love of Christ,” and asked his intercession “to help us keep Christ firmly at the heart of our lives.” Saint Benedict is also the Patron Saint of students, and Benedictine monasticism, monks, farmers, all of Europe, and more. He is also especially known for his intercession against poison, temptations, and witchcraft. His feast day is July 11th in the Latin rite, while the Benedictines celebrate his feast on March 21st. Although his influence was primarily felt in Western Europe, St. Benedict is also celebrated by the Eastern Catholic churches, and by Eastern Orthodox Christians, on March 14.
PRAYER: God, You established St. Benedict the Abbot as an admirable teacher in the school of Divine servitude. Teach us never to prefer anything to Your love and always to run the way of Your Commandments with most generous dispositions. Amen🙏
SAINT JAMES, BISHOP OF NISIBIS: Saint James, Bishop of Nisibis and Doctor of the Syrian Church († 350) was a native of Nisibis, a city near the border of the Roman Empire and Persia. St. James was a Syrian monk and first cousin of St. Gregory, was appointed the bishop of the Christian city Nisibis in Mesopotamia in 308 A.D. St. James was the son of prince Gefal (Armenia) and received a fine upbringing. From the time of his youth he loved solitude, entering the world, he trembled at the sight of its vices and the slippery downhill path of its pleasures. He thought it wise to adopt retirement, that he might gain strength and afterwards be better able to stand his ground in the field. He therefore chose the highest and most inaccessible mountain for his dwelling place, with a cave for shelter in winter, while for the rest of the year he lived in the forest, continually exposed to the open air. Notwithstanding his desire to live unknown to men, he was discovered. He was highly favored with the gifts of prophecy and miracles, and many were not afraid to climb the rugged rocks that they might recommend themselves to his prayers, and receive the comfort of his spiritual advice. After a number of years he left his solitude to enter Persia, where he knew that there was a virtually infinite multitude of idolaters. For a long time he lived in the mountains around about the city of Niziba (on the border of the Persian and Roman Empires), where he carried out strict ascetic exploits: he lived under the open sky, fed himself with tree fruits and greens, and dressed himself in goat-skins. The monk passed all this time in prayerful conversations with God. There his prayers wrought miracles which changed the attitude of a considerable number. When he returned to Nisibis, he found the bishop’s palace vacant after the death of the prelate. The clergy and people unanimously chose Saint James to replace him, overcoming his humility by their persistent persuasion.
One day, as the bishop was traveling, he was accosted by a gang of beggars intending to extort money from him under the pretext of having to bury one of their companions. The latter had stretched out on the ground as though dead. The holy man gave them what they asked, and offering up supplications to God as for a soul departed, he prayed that His Divine Majesty would pardon that man the sins he had committed while he lived, and admit him into the company of the Saints. As soon as the Saint had passed on, the beggars called out to their companion to get up and receive his share of the booty. How amazed they were to find him genuinely dead! Seized with sudden fear and grief, they cried out in the utmost consternation and immediately ran after the man of God, casting themselves at his feet and confessing their fraud. They begged his forgiveness and besought him by his prayers to restore their unhappy companion to life, and this the Saint did.
The most famous miracle of our Saint was that by which he protected his native city from the barbarians. According to his disciple, St. Ephraem, St. James founded the basilica and theological School of Nisibis. Additionally, he was recorded as a signatory for the canons produced at the first of three ecumenical councils accepted by the Armenian Church: the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. St. James played a leading role among the 318 Christian leaders present during the sessions of the Council of Nicaea, and merited the attention of St. Athanasius and other bishops of the Eastern as well as the Western churches. The most important canon created at the Nicaean Council was the Nicaean Creed, or the official declaration of the principal doctrines of the Armenian Church. We solemnly chant the Creed at every Divine Liturgy as a formal declaration that we are unified by the same understanding of who God is, and who we are relative to Him—a declaration of faith that has united Christians throughout the world for 1,700 years. We affirm that our own faith is rooted and nourished by the “one, catholic and apostolic holy Church” with Jesus Christ as its head (Colossians 1:18). St. James is also known for his divine vision on Mount Ararat, where he found the sacred relic of Noah’s Ark and brought it to the Armenian people. Saint James died peacefully in about the year 350.
Saint James, Bishop of Nisibis ~ Pray for us 🙏
SAINT OLGA OF KIEV, PRINCESS OF KIEVAN RUS: St. Olga of Kiev (879-969) called by the honorific Isapóstolos, “Equal to the Apostles”, was the 10th-century princess of Kievan Rus who enacted bloodthirsty revenge on the tribe that killed her husband, the Grand Prince Igor I. Saint Olga of Kiev was born in 879 at Pskov, Russia into a family of Varyag origin according to tradition. Varyags were also known as Vikings or Norsemen, who came to the territory of current Russia, Ukraine and Belarus during the 8th and 9th centuries. This theory about Olga’s birth also explains the origin of her name, which is derived from the Scandinavian “Helga.” Other historical versions state that Olga was either a daughter of Oleg Veshchy, the founder of the state of Kievan Rus, or had Bulgarian roots. Oleg Veshchy initiated Olga’s marriage with Prince Igor, who was the son of the Novgorod Prince Rurik, a founder of the Rurik Dynasty of Russian tsars. After the death of Oleg in 912, Igor became the ruler of Kievan Rus. In 945 Prince Igor went to the Slavic tribe of the Drevlyans to gather tributes. After he demanded a much higher payment, the Drevlyans killed him. The death of the Kievan Prince raised a question about the next ruler of the country. Igor’s son, Svyatoslav, was only three years old, and hence Olga took the power into her hands. Interestingly, she had the full support of the Rus army, which attests to the great respect she held among the people. After killing Igor, the Drevlyans sent their matchmakers to propose that Olga marry their Prince Mal. The Princess took revenge upon her husband’s death, killing all of the ambassadors. There are stories of her being quite the warrior queen.
St. Olga ruled Kievan Rus after Igor’s assassination in 945. Following her conversion and baptism in 957 in Constantinople, when she took the name Helena, she tried to introduce Christianity to the Ukraine on a wide scale, but failed. When her son Sviatoslav reached adulthood, she handed the throne to him, c.963. Apparently, she had a big influence on her grandson, Vladimir the Great, who in 988 made Christianity the official religion of Kievan Rus. She is the grandmother of Saint Vladimir, great-grandmother of Saint Boris and Saint Gleb. Saint Olga died on July 11, 969 in Kiev, Kievan Rus of natural causes. St. Olga is the Patron Saint of widows and converts.
St. Olga of Kiev, Princess of Kievan ~ Pray for us 🙏
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