Saints of the Week: Christ the King, Jude& Simon, Alfred, Boethius, Raphael, Crispin, Juan, Elesbaan, Anthony Claret, & More
Happy Sunday! Today is the traditional feast of Christ the King, a reminder that God should be the center of our lives, as He was for all the saints we celebrated this past week.
There were two feasts specifically celebrating different titles of Jesus Christ this week, Holy Redeemer (Oct. 23) and Christ the King (Oct. 29, traditional calendar). Because of the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, Heaven was closed to mankind until the God-man Jesus came through God’s Chosen People (the Jews) to redeem all mankind and open Heaven again. St. Paul wrote (Titus 2:14) that Jesus “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and might cleanse to himself a people acceptable, a pursuer of good works.” Jesus affirmed (Jn. 8:36) that, “If therefore the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” The Redeemer had to be both fully God and fully man because only God could atone for offenses against the infinitely good Divinity, and a man had to suffer for men’s sins. Jesus was perfectly innocent, but He suffered and died for us, so we could gain eternal life in Heaven.
Jesus Christ is the Divine King of Heaven and Earth. He was born into the Jewish royal family of David, and the Angel Gabriel predicted Christ’s eternal reign to Christ’s mother Mary (Lk. 1:32-33), “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end.” For Americans, this feast is particularly meaningful, since we rejected an earthly monarch altogether and only recognize Christ’s kingship; hence we rewrote Britain’s song “God Save the King” with lyrics that end, “Protect us by thy might, great God our King.”
Sts. Simon and Jude the Apostles are celebrated together on Oct. 28. St. Simon the Zealot, called so because of his enthusiasm (some traditions say he was also a member of the Zealot party of Jews), evangelized in Egypt and Mesopotamia after Jesus’s ascension and was martyred. St. Jude or Judas Thaddeus was the son of Cleophas (see Luke 24, the Road to Emmaus) and the second Mary who stood at the foot of Jesus’s cross (John 19:25, “Mary of Cleophas”), and was thus a cousin of Jesus’s. Tradition says Jude even looked like his cousin Jesus. After Jesus’s Ascension, Jude wrote the Epistle of Jude included in the New Testament and preached the Gospel in Syria, Persia, and Mesopotamia with Simon. Jude was a healer, and also an exorcist, particularly of idols, from which he would drive the demons fooling pagan worshippers. Martyred by being clubbed and beheaded. Tradition says Jesus sent Jude with an image of Jesus’s face to heal the king of Edessa. The similarity of Jude’s name to traitorous Judas Iscariot’s name caused devotion to Jude to lag for many years, leading to his becoming the patron saint of impossible or lost causes.
King St. Alfred the Great (Oct. 26) was the youngest of King Ethelwulf’s sons but succeeded to the throne of Wessex (England). Considered an ideal Christian king, Alfred had to defeat a powerful Danish invasion to establish his rule. He fostered the growth of Christianity in England and was a patron of learning, gathering scholars at the school he founded. He personally translated religious works into the Anglo-Saxon language. “His laws made no distinction between British and Welsh subjects, a first.” Alfred’s exploits against the Danes are recounted and glorified in G.K. Chesterton’s great poem “Ballad of the White Horse.”
Bl. Severinus Boethius (Oct. 23) was a famous and influential Roman philosopher who was martyred in 6th century Italy. Boethius, born in the late 400s AD, was from a Roman consular family. Both he and his two sons served as Roman consuls (chief magistrates), and he was a confidant to King Theodoric. His life changed dramatically when political rivals falsely accused him of various crimes, including disloyalty to the king; he was imprisoned without trial and eventually executed. Boethius’s great gift to posterity was the book he wrote in prison, “De Consolatione Philosophiae (Concerning/On the Consolation of Philosophy),” where his trials enabled him to have a very clear understanding of the shallowness of worldly prosperity—and the depths to which human nature can sink.
St. Raphael the Archangel (Oct. 24) is featured in the Biblical book of Tobit, assisting the young Tobias to wed Sara and to exorcise the demon plaguing her, before healing the elder Tobias.
Sts. Crispin and Crispian (or Crispinian) (Oct. 25) were brothers who evangelized in Gaul (France) in the 3rd century. Cobblers by profession, Crispin and Crispian would preach during the day and make shoes during the night. Their virtues, their charity, their humility, their religious fervor, and their detachment from material wealth were so impressive that they converted many people. The brothers were eventually martyred for their Christianity, however, during the persecutions of Emperor Maximian Herculeus.
St. John of Capistrano or Juan Capistrano (Oct. 23) became a lawyer and then governor of Perugia, Italy. After being imprisoned during a war, he became a Franciscan in 1416, developed a devotion to Jesus’s Holy Name and the Blessed Virgin, and began a “brilliant preaching apostolate.” After being ordained a priest, he traveled in Italy, Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, and Russia, preaching and founding Franciscan communities. With Vienna and Rome under the threat of a Muslim Turkish army, John preached and led a crusade against the Muslims, marching at the head of an army of some seventy thousand Christian soldiers. They won a great victory at Belgrade against the Muslims, but John himself died only a few months later.
St. Elesbaan of Ethiopia (Oct. 27): “Christian King in Ethiopia in the early 6th century. With the support of Byzantine emperors Justin I and Justinian, he invaded the southern Arabian peninsula where Christian[ity] was under attack. Late in life he abdicated his throne to live as a prayerful, penitent hermit and then a monk in Jerusalem [catholicsaints.info].”
St. Anthony Mary Claret (Oct. 24) was a weaver and then a priest, sent as a missionary to Catalonia (Spain) and the Canary Islands. He directed retreats, founding the congregation now called the Claretians and the Teaching Sisters of Mary Immaculate, and was appointed archbishop of Cuba. Anthony later returned to Spain and was exiled along with Queen Isabella II while serving as her confessor. Anthony was a miracle-worker, zealous preacher, devotee of the Eucharist and Our Lady, and possessed of the gift of prophecy. He reportedly preached 10,000 sermons and published 200 works.
St. Tabitha (Oct. 25): “Widow of Joppa (in modern Israel), who was mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (9:36-42) as one who ‘was completely occupied with good deeds and almsgiving.’ She fell ill and died and was raised from the dead by St. Peter. Tabitha is sometimes called Dorcas.”
Pope St. Evaristus (Oct. 26/27) was the son of a Hellenic Jew from Bethlehem and the fifth pope of the Catholic Church; traditionally considered a martyr. Bl. Thaddeus McCarthy or Tadhg Mac Cárthaigh (Oct. 25), a 15th century Irishman, “was twice appointed bishop but, due to political intrigue, he never took possession of his diocese,” and his long trials led to his being given the title “White Martyr of Munster.” The 40 Martyrs of England and Wales (Oct. 25) were Catholics killed between 1535 and 1679 by Protestant British monarchs Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, James I, and Charles II. The Douai Martyrs (Oct. 29) were all the English priests who studied in Douai and were martyred for ministering to Catholics in England during Protestant persecution.
The “Lord of Miracles” (Oct. 28) is a Peruvian image of Jesus’s Crucifixion painted by an African slave, with which multiple miracles are associated. St. Demetrius of Thessalonica (Oct. 26, Byzantine calendar) was a soldier martyred in the Roman Empire with St. Nestor (Oct. 27) for preaching the Gospel. St. Abraham of Rostov (Oct. 29) was a Russian monk and then a traveling evangelist who built a church over the site of a pagan temple, started charities, taught children, and became an abbot. St. Abraham Kidunaia (Oct. 29) fled an arranged marriage to become a hermit, then a successful missionary, and finally a hermit again. He brought his niece St. Mary of Edessa (Oct. 29) to conversion from a life of sexual sin, and she lived the rest of her life as a prayerful anchoress.
St. Abdias of Babylon (Oct. 28) was one of Jesus’s 72 disciples and the first bishop of Babylon. St. Juan Alcober Figuera and companions (Oct. 28) were missionaries to and martyrs in China in the 1700s. St. Anne of Mt. Olympus (Oct. 29) was a widow who, disguised as a man, was such an exemplary monk that she was asked to be abbot. St. Neonila, her husband Terence, and all their children (Oct. 28) were martyred for the faith. St. Cedd (Oct. 26) was a 7th century Irish missionary to and bishop in England. St. Proclus of Constantinople (Oct. 24) was the patriarch of Constantinople, a preacher against heresy, and a disciple of St. John Chrysostom.
Bl. Arnold Reche (Oct. 23) was a coachman and mule driver who became a LaSalle Brother and earned an award for his work as a medic during the Franco-Prussian War. St. Phaolô Tong Viet Buong (Oct. 23) was a captain of the guard for the Vietnamese emperor, martyred in 1833. Sts. Chrysanthus and Daria (Oct. 25) were a Roman married couple whose preaching was so effective they were martyred. St. Ignatius of Constantinople (Oct. 23) was a prince who became a monk and then Patriarch of Constantinople.
St. Emilina of Boulancourt (Oct. 27) was a Cistercian nun who practiced harsh penances and had the gift of prophecy. St. Bonaventura of Potenza (Oct. 26) was a healer, miracle-worker, and friar. St. Achahildis (Oct. 29) was a married noblewoman, mother, and miracle-worker (d. 970). St. Gaetano Errico (Oct. 29) was a school teacher and parish priest who founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (d. 1860). Bl. Edmund Daniel (Oct. 25) was an Irish seminarian and the first Jesuit martyr in Europe. St. Lucian (Oct. 26) was a demon worshipper who converted and was martyred.
St. Faro of Meaux (Oct. 28) was a married courtier and then a monk and bishop in 7th century France. Bl. Damian dei Fulcheri (Oct. 26) was a Dominican preacher and miracle-worker. St. Abraham the Poor (Oct 27) was an Egyptian hermit. St. Bartholomew of Vicenza (Oct. 27) was an Italian Dominican bishop. St. Colman of Kilmacduagh (Oct. 29) was a chieftain’s son, an Irish monk and bishop (d. 632). Bl. Celina Chludzinska (Oct. 26) was a Polish wife, mother, widow, and foundress of the Congregation of Sisters of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ (d. 1913). St. Senoch (Oct. 24) was a French Benedictine abbot and friend of St. Gregory of Tours.
You can also read about Narcissus of Jerusalem, Chiara Badano, and Honoratus of Vercelli (Oct. 29); Germain of Talloires, Francisco Díaz del Rincón, Gioan Ðat, Cyril and Anastasia, Ferrutius, Remigius of Lyons, Rodrigo Aguilar Alemán, and Eadsin (Oct. 28); Odrian of Waterford, Capitolina, and Erotheides (Oct. 27); Fulk of Pavia, Arnold of Queralt, Gwinoc and father, and Engratia and Valentine (Oct. 26); Maurus of Pécs, Marcian and Martyrius, Gaudentius of Brescia, Cruz Cubierta Martyrs, and Bernard of Calvo (Oct. 25); Martin of Vertou, Luigi Guanella, Benigna Cardoso da Silva, Cadfarch, and Najran Martyrs (Oct. 24); and Allucio, John Buoni, and Valenciennes Martyrs (Oct. 23).
Have a blessed week!