SAINTS OF THE DAY: FEAST DAY: MARCH 27TH

MEMORIAL OF SAINT RUPERT OF SALZBURG, BISHOP AND SAINT JOHN OF EGYPT, HERMIT: FEAST DAY: MARCH 27TH: As we continue to reflect on the final journey of our Lord Jesus Christ, today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Rupert of Salzburg, Bishop known as the “Apostle to the Bavarians” and first Bishop  of Salzburg (Patron Saint of the Austrian state of Salzburg and Austria, salt miners) and Saint John of Egypt, Hermit. Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the conversion of sinners and for all missionaries around the world today who reach people and spread the Gospel. We pray for God’s grace upon them and for their safety and protection. Amen🙏

SAINT RUPERT OF SALZBURG, BISHOP: St. Rupert (660-710), a Frank by nationality, was a monk and Bishop of Worms until the last years of the 7th century (697) when he became a missionary to Regensburgh in Bavaria. He was also the first Bishop of Salzburg and abbot of St. Peter’s in Salzburg. He was a contemporary of the Frankish king Childebert III. His missionary labors built up the Church in two of its historic strongholds, Austria and Bavaria. During his lifetime, the “Apostle of Bavaria and Austria” was an energetic founder of churches and monasteries, and a remarkably successful evangelist of the regions – which include the homeland of the Bavarian native Pope Benedict XVI. Little is known about Rupert’s early life, which is thought to have begun around 660 in the territory of Gaul in modern-day France. There is some indication that he came from the Merovignian royal line, though he embraced a life of prayer, fasting, asceticism and charity toward the poor. This course of life led to his consecration as the Bishop of Worms in present-day Germany. Although St. Rupert was known as a wise and devout bishop, he eventually met with rejection from the largely pagan population, who beat him savagely and forced him to leave the city. After this painful rejection, St. Rupert made a pilgrimage to Rome. Two years after his expulsion from Worms, his prayers were answered by means of a message from Duke Theodo of Bavaria, who knew of his reputation as a holy man and a sound teacher of the faith. Bavaria, in St. Rupert’s day, was neither fully pagan nor solidly Catholic. Although missionaries had evangelized the region in the past, the local religion tended to mix  portions of the Christian faith – often misunderstood along heretical lines – with native pagan beliefs and practices. The Bavarian duke sought St. Rupert’s help to restore, correct, and spread the faith in his land. After sending messengers to report back to him on conditions in Bavaria, St. Rupert agreed. The bishop who had been brutally exiled from Worms was received with honor in the Bavarian city of Regensburg. With the help of a group of priests he brought with him, St. Rupert undertook an extensive mission in Bavaria and parts of modern-day Austria. His missionary journeys resulted in many conversions, accompanied by numerous miracles including the healing of diseases.

In Salzburg, St. Rupert and his companions built a great church, which they placed under the patronage of St. Peter, and a monastery observing the Rule of St. Benedict. St. Rupert’s niece became the abbess of a Benedictine convent established nearby. St. Rupert served as both the bishop of Salzburg and the abbot of the Benedictine monastery he established there. This traditional pairing of the two roles, also found in the Irish Church after its development of monasticism, was passed on by St. Rupert’s successors until the late 10th century. In addition to Christianizing the people and building churches and monasteries for them, this holy man also civilized his converts and promoted the development of the salt mines of Salzburg. He thus contributed to the bodies and souls of his flock. The Lord called this devoted servant, St. Rupert to his reward on March 27, Easter Sunday of the year 718, after preaching and celebrating Mass. After St. Rupert’s death, churches and monasteries began to be named after him – including Salzburg’s modern-day Cathedral of St. Rupert (also known as the “Salzburg Cathedral”), and the Church of St. Rupert which is believed to be the oldest surviving church structure in Vienna. St. Rupert is the Patron Saint of the Austrian  state of Salzburg and Austria, salt miners.

PRAYER: God, you built up Your Church by means of the religious zeal and apostolic care of St. Rupert. Grant by his intercession that she may ever experience a new increase of Faith and holiness. Amen🙏

SAINT JOHN OF EGYPT,  HERMIT: St. John of Egypt (4th c.), also known as John the Hermit or John the Anchorite, was known for walling himself up in a cave and staking his survival upon God and the goodness of others. St. John was born in Egypt around the year 305, and worked alongside his father, a carpenter, until he was twenty-five years old. When he was 25, receiving a divine call he left everything he knew to seek God in the desert with prayer and become a hermit. He spent over a decade in spiritual training under the care of a religious superior who commanded him to perform difficult and unreasonable tasks, which St.  John obeyed with childlike simplicity. The hermit, for example, had him water a dry stick every day for a year. St. John learned obedience and humility, and when the hermit died, St. John traveled and visited other monasteries for five years. After this time of spiritual training,  he finally withdrew into greater solitude in a small cell at the top of a cliff, a steep hill near Lycopolis, Egypt, and carved three small cells out of rock. He slept in one, used another for work and living space, and prayed in the third. Then he walled these cells up with himself inside, praying incessantly and avoiding contact with people. He avoided seeing women, in particular, to avoid temptation, but he avoided all people for the last fifty years of his life and lived this way until he died in his 90s.

St. John of Egypt left a small window in his cell through which he could speak to people and receive food and water they might bring him. He only ate after sunset, and his diet was mostly dried fruit and vegetables—nothing cooked over a fire. He spent five days a week in conversation with God alone, and two days a week, he conversed with people seeking spiritual direction and advice from a tiny window in his cell. People traveled from afar and crowds would gather on those two days for his counsel or blessings, and to hear him preach. Other ascetics and hermits saw him as an example and a father, and many people sought him out for wisdom, including the emperor. St. John was given the gift of prophecy and miracles and gift of seeing the future and knowing details from the lives of people he had never met. He could discern what was secretly hidden in people’s hearts. He foretold to Emperor Theodosius his future victories as well as the time of his death. He was known and admired by the great saints of his time, including St. Augustine and St. Jerome. St. John of Egypt became so famous for his holiness that St. Augustine wrote of him, making reference to the devils who came to tempt St. John continually and he performed miraculous cures. He cured a woman, according to St. Augustine, of blindness and then appeared to her in a vision to avoid seeing her in person. Foreseeing his own death, he asked that no one visit him for three days, and he sealed off his window. He spent the last three days of his life without food or drink or any interactions but prayer and died peacefully of natural causes, and his body was found in a position of prayer. The cell he lived in was discovered in the early 1900s.

PRAYER: St. John of Egypt, you were the hermit whose life of prayer and self-surrender inspired other great saints—pray for us!🙏