MEMORIAL OF SAINT PONTIAN, POPE AND SAINT HIPPOLYTUS, PRIEST, MARTYRS; SAINT CASSIAN OF IMOLA, BISHOP; SAINT RADEGUNDE, QUEEN OF FRANCE; SAINT JOHN BERCHMANS, SEMINARIAN AND BLESSED MICHAEL McGIVNEY, PRIEST ~ FEAST DAY – AUGUST 13TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Pontian, Pope and Saint Hippolytus, Priest, Martyrs; Saint Cassian of Imola, Bishop; Saint Radegunde, Queen of France and Saint John Berchmans, Seminarian and Blessed Michael McGivney. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for all Altar Servers and Seminarians, may God’s guidance and blessings be upon them as they serve Him and we continue to pray for the safety and well-being of our children, students, youths, teachers and staff all over the world as they begin the new school year. We pray for the sick and dying, especially those who are suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We pray for the poor and needy, for peace, love and unity in our families and our world. And we pray for our Holy Father, the Clergy, for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted Christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world.🙏🏾
SAINT PONTIAN, POPE AND SAINT HIPPOLYTUS, PRIEST, MARTYRS: St. Pontian became Pope in the year 230. He was elected Pope in 230 to 235. Shortly afterwards, the Roman emperor began persecuting Christians. Five years later, after succeeding Pope Urban I, he was exiled by the Emperor Maximus to the mines of the Italian island of Sardinia, which was known for its harsh conditions during the period of Christian persecution. Before his arrest, Pope Pontian decided to resign from his papal office, he stepped down from his role as pope so that the Christian community could select another leader in his absence. He bore his suffering and persecution patiently for Christ and attained the crown of martyrdom for the faith in that same year.
Saint Hippolytus was a learned priest and well-respected theologian in the early third century. He was one of the most important writers and thinkers in the Church before the fourth century. St. Hippolytus was born about 170, he was already a priest and a personage of note when Origen heard him preach at Rome in 202, he was renowned for his eloquence. He became overzealous, however, and spoke out against several popes for being too lax with people who strayed from the faith, or for not denouncing a certain heresy forcefully enough. He thought the faithful should be an undefiled body of people. After becoming involved in unfortunate controversies and even regarded as a kind of antipope, because he was elected as a rival pope. St. Hippolytus returned to the fold and continued to defend the Church against all her enemies. But in 217 he rebelled against the Church when Callistus became Pope. He, too, was exiled in 235 to the Sardinian mines, where he met Pope Pontian. Pope Pontian helped Hippolytus reconcile with the Church before he died, and Hippolytus, too, died as a martyr. St. Hippolytus’ writings were important, during the first part of his life he produced the Scriptural writings that constitute the best part of his works (he wrote the earliest commentary on Scripture, that of the Book Daniel), and defended the faith. About 215 he wrote the “Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus” (for which he is probably best known), which contains the earliest known ritual of ordinations and is the equivalent of a Roman Ritual. “A Refutation of All Heresies”and the “Song of Songs”.
Both men labored in the Sardinian mines and finally gave their lives for the faith, they died there due to exhaustion about year 236. The bodies of both men were retrieved and returned to Rome for burial and veneration as martyrs for the faith. Relics of both saints rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica. The Saints are Patron Saint of Montaldo Scarampi, Italy (St. Pontian) and prison guards (St. Hippolytus).
PRAYER: Lord, may the outstanding constancy of Your Martyrs increase our love for You and fill our hearts with ever greater firmness of faith. Amen. Sts. Pontian and Hippolytus, you were bitter rivals who reconciled before your exile and death—pray for us! 🙏🏾
SAINT CASSIAN OF IMOLA, BISHOP: St. Cassian of Imola (4th c.) was the Bishop of Brescia near Milan, Italy. When a wave of persecution erupted under the Roman Emperor, St. Cassian fled to Imola, Italy, where he found work as a schoolmaster teaching children how to read and write. He was a disciplined and effective educator. In addition to instructing his students in the Christian faith, he also taught them a form of shorthand that allowed them to write as fast as they could speak. A city official discovered that St. Cassian was a Christian and denounced him to the government authorities. St. Cassian was arrested and ordered to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods, which he refused. As punishment the local judge ordered that he be stripped, bound, and tied to a stake. He was then turned over to his pagan students, numbering about 200, to be tortured to death. His students used their iron styli (writing instruments) to mercilessly carve into his skin and slowly stab him to death. St. Cassian died from the many wounds inflicted all over his body. St. Cassian of Imola is the Patron Saint of students, school teachers, shorthand writers, court reporters, stenographers, and parish clerks. His feast day is August 13th.
Saint Cassian of Imola, Bishop ~ Pray for us 🙏🏾
SAINT RADEGUNDE, QUEEN OF FRANCE: St. Radegunde (520-587) was a sixth century Frankish princess, queen of the Merovingian king Chlotar I at Poitiers and her life was renowned for miracles and virtues. She left her husband to become a nun and later founded a monastery at Poitiers, Convent of Our Lady of Poitiers. She was one of the first of the Merovingian saints. Although St. Radegunde identified with the Romans, she was herself a member of a barbarian tribe, the Thurginians, who settled in eastern Germany around present-day Erfurt. St. Radegunde was born a pagan in 520, the daughter of King Berthar, one of the three kings of Thuringia (located in present day Germany). When she was a little girl her uncle, Hermanfrid, killed her father, King Berthar in battle, leaving St. Radegunde an orphan. Then the Franks conquered Thurginia and carried off 12-year-old Radegunde as a prize. In France St. Radegunde became a Christian, but she was still essentially a captive. At age 18 the king of the Franks, Clothaire, forced St. Radegunde to marry him. Although the king was nominally a Christian, it was probably a bigamous relationship since Clothaire had gone through at least five wives by this time, and it is unlikely that they had all died or that the church had granted him five annulments. St. Radegunde became one of King Clotaire six wives. She bore him no children. It was a wretched marriage. No matter how many wives he had Clothaire was always on the lookout for his next conquest. He was violent and beat St. Radegunde, blaming her because they had no children. Clotaire was “a man of shocking character.” As queen, despite her rank, she displayed great humility. St. Radegunde spent her time doing charitable work with the poor and the captives. She ministered to lepers and founded a hospital for them.
The antagonism between the royal couple came to a head in 550 when King Clothaire murdered St. Radegunde’s brother, then they had been married for six years. After Clothaire had her brother assassinated, she turned to God, she ran away, took vows as a nun, and sent St. Germanus, the bishop of Paris, to convince Clothaire to leave her in peace. Clothaire, who had always complained that he felt he was married to a nun rather than a queen, was happy to let Radegunde go. He even sent parting gifts to her convent. St. Radegunde founded a double monastery in Poitiers called Holy Cross. As the name of her convent suggests, she had a deep devotion to the Holy Cross and longed to have a fragment of the True Cross to venerate in her church. In 569 the Byzantine Emperor Justin II sent her a relic of the Holy Cross set in a reliquary of gold studded with jewels. To commemorate the arrival of so important a relic Venantius wrote a poem, “Vexilla regis prodeunt,” (The banners of the King go forth). The poem was set to music and is one of the loveliest hymns in the repertoire of Gregorian chant. St. Radegund was extensively written about by the poet, Venantius Fortunatus, and the bishop, hagiographer, and historian, Gregory of Tours.
Women looking for a secure, serene escape from the violence of their age flocked to Holy Cross; many of them were from noble families, and a significant number were royalty. St. Radegunde designed a routine of prayer, contemplation, study, silence, austerity and works of charity. When Clotaire decided to bring her back to court, St. Germanus interceded on her behalf, and the repentant Clotaire sent Germanus back to St. Radegunde to ask her forgiveness and prayers. After her death, Radegunde’s face shone “with a brightness surpassing the beauty of lilies and roses.”St. Radegund died on August 13, 587 (aged 66–67), Abbey of the Holy Cross, Poitiers, Aquitaine, Kingdom of the Franks. According to legend, not long after St. Radegunde died in 587, one of her servants was deep-sea fishing when a storm came up suddenly and giant waves swamped his boat. Before the poor man even had a chance to start bailing, his boat filled with water and sank. As the terrified fisherman went under, he invoked St. Radegunde. A moment later he and his boat bobbed to the surface, the storm vanished, the sky was clear and the sea was calm. It was said that St. Radegundes performed numerous miracles and that Christ appeared to her a year before her death on August 13, 587. She is the Patron Saint of several English churches and of Jesus College, Cambridge, which was founded on the site of the monastery of Saint Mary and Saint Radegunde.
Saint Radegunde, Queen of France ~ Pray for us 🙏🏾
SAINT JOHN BERCHMANS, SEMINARIAN: St. John (1599 – 1621) was born in 1599 in Diest, Brabant, Belgium, the son of a shoemaker. At a very young age he wanted to become a priest. At the age of six he served as an altar boy with great enthusiasm and passion. The child would wake early each day and serve two to three masses. His love for the Church, Christ, and the Blessed Mother only intensified over time and his only goal was to do even the simplest or most difficult task with love and devotion to Christ. He studied for three years under a parish priest who prepared boys for the priesthood and after his mother’s death, he entered the newly-opened Jesuit College at Mechlin in 1615, and a year later joined their novitiate. And his father and 2 brothers entered religious life; his father later became a priest. St. John was known for his purity, obedience, and charity toward others. Popular among his friends, family and church officials. John studied to be a priest and eventually in 1618 he went to Rome for further education, he journeyed to Rome on foot to continue his studies at the Roman College.
After studying Philosophy for three years and having just graduated from his Jesuit studies, St. John was selected by his superiors to take part in public philosophy debate. While returning to Rome from the debate he contracted a cough and fever which eventually killed him. As this model Jesuit Seminarian lay on what turned out to be his deathbed, he clasped his rosary, his crucifix, and his book of rules and said: “These are my three treasures; with these I shall gladly die.” The very next day, August 13, 1621, St. John passed on to his heavenly reward. He died from dysentery and fever at the age of 22. He had a strong devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to Our Lady. He composed a Chaplet in honor of her Immaculate Conception. He also composed a poem called ‘To an Altar Boy’. So numerous are the miracles attributed to his intercession that his popularity became almost cult-like after his passing. He was beatified on May 28, 1865 and canonized on January 15, 1888 by Pope Leo XIII. He’s the Patron Saint of Altar Servers; Altar boys; Jesuit scholastics; Seminarians and Students.
PRAYER: God, You inspired St. John Berchmans to strive for perfect charity and so attain Your Kingdom at the end of his pilgrimage on earth. Strengthen us through his intercession that we may advance rejoicing in the way of love. Amen 🙏🏾
QUOTES OF SAINT JOHN BERCHMANS:
☆ “Our true worth does not consist in what human beings think of us. What we really are consists in what God knows us to be.” ☆ “If I do not become a saint when I am young, I shall never become one.” ☆ “To merit the protection of Mary, the smallest act of veneration would be enough, provided that it is performed with constancy.” ☆ “My penance is to live the common life… I will pay the greatest attention to the least inspiration of God.”
TO AN ALTAR BOY / ALTAR SERVER
A Poem by St. John Berchmans
To be Christ’s page at the altar, To serve Him freely there. Where even the Angels falter, Bowed low in reverent prayer.
To touch the throne most holy, To hand the gifts for the feast, To see Him meekly, lowly, Descend at the word of the priest.
To hear man’s poor petition, To sound the silver bell, When He in sweet submission, Comes down with us to dwell.
No grander mission surely Could Saints or men enjoy; No heart should love more purely, Than yours my altar boy.
God bless you, lad, forever, And keep you in His care, And Guard you that you never Belie the robes you wear.
For white bespeaks untainted A heart both tried and true; And red tolls love the sainted, The holy martyrs knew.
Throughout life, then, endeavor God’s graces to employ; And be in heart forever A holy altar boy.
Saint John Berchmans, be my Patron!
BLESSED MICHAEL McGIVNEY, PRIEST: Bl. Michael McGivney was eldest son of an immigrant Irish family in Connecticut, young Michael left school at 13 to work in a brass factory making spoons. At 16 he began studies for the priesthood in Quebec, but was obliged to leave to help support the family when his father died. Bl. Michael completed his education in Baltimore, Maryland, and was ordained for the diocese of Hartford in 1877. Assigned to St. Mary’s Parish in New Haven, Fr. McGivney was very active in parish and civic affairs, serving as director of public plays and fairs. He volunteered to become the guardian of Alfred Downes, a minor whose father had died leaving a large family in poverty. This situation as well as his own family’s circumstances and that of other immigrants impressed on Fr. McGivney the need for lay Catholic men to establish a mutual aid society to provide financial assistance for their families if the primary wage earner died. Protestant fraternal groups already provided this type of life insurance protection for their members.
In 1882, Fr. McGivney formed the Knights of Columbus among a small group of St. Mary’s parishioners to promote charity, unity, and fraternity, assisting widows and orphans. Because of the Knights’ emphasis on serving Church, community and family, the organization grew and did not remain strictly parish-based. Patriotism was added as a founding principle in 1900. Father McGivney died from pneumonia in 1890 and was buried in Thomaston, Connecticut. Later his body was moved back to St. Mary’s in New Haven where it remains today. He was beatified in 2020.
Blessed Michael McGivney, Priest ~ Pray for us 🙏🏾