Saints of the Week: John Baptist, Czestochowa, Augustine, Monica, Moses, Bible Heroes, Cyprian, Aidan, Giles &More
Today in the Byzantine Catholic Church is the beginning of the new liturgical year. As we examine our lives and vow to dedicate ourselves afresh to God and His Will, we can take inspiration from the lives of the saints we celebrated this past week.
This week was the Beheading of St. John the Baptist (Aug. 29), Jesus’s cousin, the last prophet of the Old Covenant, and the one who baptized Christ. John condemned King Herod Antipas for marrying his brother’s wife Herodias, so Herod imprisoned him. Herod, delighted by the dancing of Herodias’s daughter Salome, promised her anything, and she requested John’s head, so the Baptist was martyred. Read more here. Our Lady of Czestochowa (Aug.26) is the name of an icon of Mary and Jesus honored in Poland. The damage marks on Mary’s face come from a Hussite raider, and prayers to Our Lady of Czestochowa were credited with saving the Jasna Gora Monastery from invading Swedes. Our Lady of Czestochowa was crowned queen and protectress of Poland in 1652.
St. Augustine of Hippo (Aug. 28) went from a life of heresy and sexual sin to becoming a priest, bishop, and one of the greatest theologians of the Catholic Church. You can read about Augustine’s journey toward holiness through his mother’s prayers in my previous article. Among Augustine’s many inspiring sayings was, “Quia fecisiti nos ad te et inquietem est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te (Because You made us for Yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee).” St. Monica (Aug. 27), his mother, was married to an adulterous pagan, Patricius, with whom she had two children. A reformed alcoholic, her prayers brought about the conversion of both her husband and her son Augustine, who warmly praised her. Spiritual student of St.Ambrose.
St. Moses the Black (Aug. 28), also called the Ethiopian (due to his skin color), was a physically strong fourth century Egyptian. He was a slave who committed a murder and then fled, taking up with and eventually leading a band of robbers. Once, he hid from authorities in a monastery, and was converted by the monks there. He struggled for a while to overcome his old vices and suffered demonic attacks. Moses’s old robber band came to attack him, but he tied them up and took them to his superiors, who said the robbers should be released; the robbers all converted. Moses became a wise spiritual leader and miracle worker but was martyred by bandits.
From the New Testament, August 31 was the feast of Sts. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Joseph was a wealthy Israelite who provided his tomb for Jesus after the Crucifixion. After the Ascension, Joseph is said to have taken the Holy Grail, the chalice from the Last Supper, with him to England, where he evangelized. Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin and a secret disciple of Jesus who helped bury Christ after the Crucifixion; tradition says he was a martyr. Our Lady of Montevergine (Sept. 1) is an icon or image of Mary and Jesus in Italy, which draws thousands of yearly pilgrims.
There were many Biblical saints and Old Testament figures this week, including the Judges Abdon and Ibzan. Joshua, son of Nun (Sept. 1), was the successor of the great Moses as leader of the Israelites, the man who led them into the Promised Land, and namesake of the Biblical book of Joshua. Famous episodes involving Joshua include the miraculous taking of the city of Jericho (Josh. 6) and his intercession with God that caused the sun to stand still, prolonging the daylight so the Israelites could win a battle (Josh. 10). Sept. 1 we honored Abigail the Matriarch, a prophetess and one of the wives of King David. Melchisedech the Patriarch (Aug. 26) was the priest-king of Salem who came out to offer a sacrifice of bread and wine after Abraham’s victory over Chodorlahomor in Genesis 14. He has been identified with Noah’s son Sem in the Jewish tradition. As a priest-king whose parentage is not given he is considered a type or prefigurement of Jesus Christ.
St. Cyprian of Carthage (Aug. 31) was born to wealthy pagans, and taught rhetoric and literature before his conversion in 246 AD. The Bishop of Carthage, he secretly ministered to his flock during the persecutions of Decius and later argued apostates could be readmitted to the Faith. He supported the true Pope Cornelius against an anti-pope, was one of the most important Latin Fathers of the Church, and was exiled and later martyred. His name is in the Mass’s Communicantes prayer.
St. Aidan of Lindisfarne (Aug. 31) was a bishop in Ireland who resigned his office to become a monk at Iona, Scotland, around 630 AD. He evangelized in Northumbria and miraculously rescued his friend King St. Oswald’s troops. He was an expert Biblical scholar and excellent preacher who founded the Lindisfarne monastery that became a “storehouse” of literature and learning during the so-called “Dark Ages.” St. Bede warmly praised Aidan. St. Giles (Sept. 1) was born wealthy (possibly in Greece) but gave up riches to be a hermit in France. A royal hunter once shot at a deer that had run into Giles’s cave, and the saint was crippled by the shot. The French king thus discovered Giles. The king was so impressed by Giles he built the saint a monastery. Giles became famous for his wisdom—followers flocked to his monastery and a town grew up around it before his death in the early 700s. One of the 14 Holy Helpers.
St. Junípero Serra (Aug. 28) was born in Spain but, after joining the Franciscans, came as a missionary to the Americas. Despite health problems, he walked hundreds of miles across the area of modern Mexico and California founding missions, many of which later became famous cities, including San Diego, San Francisco, and San Juan Capistrano. By his death, “the number of baptized Indians at the first nine missions had reached 6,736.” Serra not only evangelized but helped his native converts to build a life for themselves in the missions. California chose him for one of its representative statues in the U.S. Capitol. The 12 Holy Brothers: “These saints, natives of Africa, were martyred at Beneventura (Italy) under the emperor Valerian in 258.”1
St. Fiacre (Aug. 30) was raised in an Irish monastery but moved to France to be a hermit. He was famed as a miraculous healer who could cure people just by touching them. It is said that St. Faro of Meaux promised him as much land as he could entrench in a day—Fiacre walked a long way dragging a spade, and, wherever he passed, plants and trees were miraculously uprooted and the soil entrenched. St. Raymond Nonnatus (Aug.31): “With…the Founders of the Order of Our Lady of Mercy, St. Raymond Nonnatus is the glory of his Congregation. He gave himself up to the Mohammedans in order to ransom a Christian. The Pope Gregory IX created him cardinal: he died on his return in 1240.”
St. Rose of Lima (Aug.30, Latin Mass) “was the first flower of holiness which bloomed in South America. She was born at Lima in Peru. Too feeble for the monastic life, she lived a life of severe mortification as a Tertiary of St. Dominic and died at the age of thirty years in 1617.” St. Margaret Ward (Aug. 30) was a lady’s companion in London, where she was arrested with her servant Bl. John Roche for helping Fr. Richard Watson escape prison during the Protestant persecutions of Queen Elizabeth I. Margaret was arrested and tortured, and she and Roche were martyred by being hanged, drawn, and quartered in 1588.
Pope St. Zephyrinus (Aug.26): “The holy successor of St. Victor governed the Holy See for eighteen years and defended the doctrine of the Trinity against the heretics of his time. He suffered martyrdom under Antoninus in 217.” St. Joseph Calasanctius (Aug.27, Latin Mass), “a Spaniard of noble family, famous for his charity towards children, founded the Piarists or the Order of Clerks Regular of the Poor Schools of the Mother of God for the education of youth. He died at the age of 92 in 1648.”
Sts. Felix and Adauctus (Aug.30): “Felix, a Roman priest, was martyred under the [co-]emperors Diocletian and Maximian. An unknown Christian joined him at the last moment. The Church called him Adauctus (Added). They were beheaded in 303.” St. Poemen (Aug. 27) was the leader of a group of hermits living in an abandoned pagan temple in the Egyptian desert of Skete, maintaining a disciplined schedule of work, study, prayer, and very little sleep. He survived the 407 AD barbarian raids and was famous for his wise sayings.
Bl. Dominic Barberi (Aug.27) was a 19th century Passionist priest, scholar, preacher, and home missioner. St. Sabina (Aug.29), “a noble Roman widow, suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Hadrian in 126.” St. Rosa Eluvathingal (Aug. 29) or Mother Euphrasia of the Sacred Heart was a nun in India. Sts. Theodotus and Rufina (Sept 1) were married, and Rufina gave birth to St. Mamas in prison before the couple were martyred with Ammia. St. Paulinus of Trier (Aug. 31) was a French missionary to Germany exiled to Asia Minor by an Arian heretic emperor. Bl. Sancja Szymkowiak (Aug. 29) was a Polish nun who died while doing forced labor for the Nazis.
St. Hermes (Aug.28), “a Roman Martyr, was beheaded by order of the judge Aurelian under the Emperor Hadrian in 133.” St. Mariam Baouardy (Aug. 26) was a mystic, visionary, and stigmatist (she bore the wounds of Christ’s Passion) from the Holy Land who survived having her throat slit by a Muslim and became a Carmelite nun. Bl. Ioachim Watanabe Jirozaemon (Aug.26) was a married Japanese layman martyred in 1606. Bl. Michael Ghebre (Sep.1) was an Ethiopian priest abused to death in 1855.
You can also read about Sts. Orontius of Lecce, Jeanne Elizabeth des Bichier des Anges, Maria Corsini Beltrame Quattrocchi, Anastasius the Fuller, and Levkadia Harasymiv (Aug. 26); Caesarius of Arles, David Lewis, and Juan Sánchez Molina (Aug. 27); Vicinius of Sarsina, Edmund Arrowsmith, and Hermes of Rome (Aug. 28); Edmund Rice, Jeanne Jugan, Bronislava of Poland, Peter of Sassoferrato, and John of Perugia (Aug. 29); Pammachius, Felix and Adauctus, Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, Eustáquio van Lieshout, and Yusuf Nehme (Aug. 30); Paulinus of Trier, Andrew Dotti, Pere Tarrés i Claret, Germán Martín y Martín, and Patrick O'Healy (Aug. 31); and Giuliana of Collalto, Lupus of Sens and Agia, Douceline, and Exiles of Campania (Sept. 1).
Have a blessed week!
Quotes without links are from the Latin Mass Missal.