Also
known as Elizabeth of Thuringia, she was born in Hungary in 1207. She
was a daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary and his wife Gertrude, a
member of the family of the Counts of Andechs-Meran; Elizabeth’s brother
succeeded his father on the throne as Bela IV; St. Hedwig, the wife of
Duke Heinrich I, the Bearded, of Silesia was her mother’s sister, while
another saint, Queen St. Elizabeth of Portugal, the wife of the
tyrannical King Diniz, was her great-niece.
In 1211 a formal
embassy was sent by Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia to Hungary to
arrange a marriage between his eldest son Hermann and Elizabeth, who was
then four years old. This marriage was the result of political
considerations and intended as a ratification of an alliance against the
German Emperor Otto IV, a member of the house of Guelph, who had
quarreled with the Church. Not long after the little girl was taken to
the Thuringian court to be brought up with her future husband and, in
the course of time, to be betrothed to him.
The court of
Thuringia was at this period famous for its magnificence. Its centre was
the stately castle of the Wartburg, splendidly placed on a hill in the
Thuringian Forest near Eisenach, where the Landgrave Hermann lived.
Notwithstanding the turbulence and purely secular life of the court and
the pomp of her surroundings, little Elizabeth grew up a very religious
child with an evident inclination to prayer and pious observances and
small acts of self-mortification. These religious impulses were
undoubtedly strengthened by the sorrowful experiences of her life.
In
the year 1213, Elizabeth’s mother was murdered by Hungarian nobles,
probably out of hatred of the Germans. On December 31, 1216, the oldest
son and heir of the landgrave, Hermann, who Elizabeth was to marry,
died; after this she was betrothed to Ludwig, the second son. It was
probably in these years that Elizabeth had to suffer the hostility of
the more frivolous members of the Thuringian court, to whom the
contemplative and pious child was a constant rebuke. Ludwig, however,
must have soon come to her protection against any ill-treatment and his
mother, the Landgravine Sophia, a member of the reigning family of
Bavaria and a deeply religious and very charitable woman, became a
kindly mother to the little Elizabeth.
The political plans of the
old Landgrave Hermann involved him in great difficulties and reverses;
he was excommunicated, lost his mind towards the end of his life, and
died on April 25, 1217, still unreconciled with the Church. He was
succeeded by his son Ludwig IV, who, in 1221, was also made regent of
Meissen and the East Mark. The same year, Ludwig and Elizabeth were
married, the groom being twenty-one years old and the bride fourteen.
The marriage was in every respect a happy and exemplary one, and the
couple were devotedly attached to each other. Ludwig proved himself
worthy of his wife. He gave his protection to her acts of charity,
penance, and her vigils, and often held Elizabeth’s hands as she knelt
praying at night beside his bed. He was also a capable ruler and brave
soldier.
They had three children: Hermann II (1222-41), who died
young; Sophia (1224-84), who married Henry II, Duke of Brabant, and was
the ancestress of the Landgraves of Hesse; and Gertrude (1227-97),
Elizabeth’s third child, who was born several weeks after the death of
her father and later in life became abbess of the convent of Altenberg.
The
followers of St. Francis of Assisi had made their first permanent
settlement in Germany the year of Elizabeth’s marriage to Ludwig. For a
time, the German Franciscan Caesarius of Speier was her spiritual
director and through him she became acquainted with the ideals of St.
Francis. These strongly appealed to her and she began to put them into
practice: she observed chastity, according to her state of life, and
practiced humility, patience, prayer, and charity. Her position,
however, prevented her from living one she ardently desired: voluntary
and complete poverty. In 1225, with Elizabeth’s assistance, the
Franciscans founded a monastery in Eisenach.
Shortly
after their marriage, Elizabeth and Ludwig made a journey to Hungary;
Ludwig was often after this employed by the Emperor Frederick II, to
whom he was much attached, in the affairs of the empire. During the
spring of 1226, when floods, famine, and the plague wrought havoc in
Thuringia, Ludwig was in Italy attending the Diet at Cremona on behalf
of the emperor. Under these disastrous circumstances Elizabeth assumed
control of affairs, distributed alms, giving even state robes and
ornaments to the poor. In order to care personally for the unfortunate
she built below the castle of Wartburg a hospital with twenty-eight beds
and visited the inmates daily to attend to their needs; at the same
time she aided nine hundred poor daily. It is this period of her life
that has preserved Elizabeth’s renown as the gentle and charitable
chételaine of the Wartburg. Upon his return, Ludwig confirmed all that
she had done in his absence.
The following year he set out with
Emperor Frederick II on a crusade to Palestine but died of the plague on
September 11 at Otranto. The news did not reach Elizabeth until
October, just after she had given birth to her third child. Upon hearing
the news the queen, who was only twenty years old, cried out: “The
world with all its joys is now dead to me.” In that winter of 1227,
Elizabeth directed the Franciscans to sing a Te Deum and left the castle
of Wartburg, accompanied by two female attendants. Her brother-in-law,
Heinrich Raspe, now acted as regent for her son Hermann, then only five
years old.
At Pope Gregory IX’s recommendation, Master Conrad of
Marburg, a well known preacher of the crusade and inquisitor, had become
Elizabeth’s spiritual guide. He directed her by the road of
self-mortification to sanctity, and after her death was very active in
her canonization. Although he forbade her to follow St. Francis in
complete poverty as a beggar, by the command to keep her dower she was
enabled to perform works of charity and tenderness.
Elizabeth’s
aunt, Matilda, Abbess of the Benedictine convent of Kitzingen near
Würzburg, took charge of the widowed landgravine and sent her to her
uncle Eckbert, Bishop of Bamberg. The bishop, however, was intent on
arranging another marriage for her, although during the lifetime of her
husband Elizabeth had made a vow of chastity in the event of his death;
the same vow had also been taken by her attendants.
While
Elizabeth was maintaining her position against her uncle the remains of
her husband were brought to Bamberg by his faithful followers who had
carried them from Italy. Weeping bitterly, she buried his body in the
family vault of the landgraves of Thuringia in the monastery of
Reinhardsbrunn. With the aid of Conrad she now received the value of her
dower in money, namely two thousand marks; of this sum she divided five
hundred marks in one day among the poor. On Good Friday, 1228, in the
Franciscan house at Eisenach Elizabeth formally renounced the world;
then going to Master Conrad at Marburg, she and her maids received from
him the dress of the Third Order of St. Francis, thus being among the
first tertiaries of Germany. In the summer of 1228 she built the
Franciscan hospital at Marburg and on its completion devoted herself
entirely to the care of the sick, especially to those afflicted with the
most loathsome diseases. Conrad of Marburg still imposed many
self-mortifications and spiritual renunciations, while at the same time
he even took from Elizabeth her devoted domestics. Constant in her
devotion to God, Elizabeth’s strength was consumed by her charitable
labors, and she passed away in 1231 at the age of twenty-four.
Very
soon after the death of Elizabeth miracles began to be worked at her
grave in the church of the hospital. By papal command examinations were
held of those who had been healed and at Pentecost of the year 1235, the
solemn ceremony of canonization of the “greatest woman of the German
Middle Ages” was celebrated by Pope Gregory IX at Perugia.
The
Apostle continued by saying that he had “ardently awaited” the cross.
Today men flee far from any kind of suffering, any kind of fight against
their own passions, any kind of renunciation. For them to live is to
enjoy a good life. Andrew, however, ardently awaited his own cross
because he understood that what counts in life is not the pleasure he
has, but the sacrifice he makes. This is what gives meaning to life.
Therefore, the truly supernatural man is a friend of the cross, as St.
Louis Marie de Montfort said so well.
The
last pagan king of the Frisians was noted for saying that he preferred
to be in Hell with his ancestors than in Heaven without them. However,
his great-grandson and namesake became a saint.
Catherine
was born Zoé Labouré on May 2, 1806, the ninth of eleven children born
to a farm family in Fain-les-Moutiers, France. When only eight years
old, her mother died and Catherine was made responsible for the running
the house and helping her father. Although she would remain illiterate
her whole life, she was allowed to enter the convent of the Sisters of
Charity of St. Vincent de Paul on the Rue du Bac in the French capital
when she was twenty-two and took the name Catherine upon her profession.
This son of the soil became one of the most illustrious preachers in the history of the Franciscan Order.
Widely
regarded in his own lifetime as a second St. Francis of Assisi, he died
in 1742 just as he was beginning the solemn novena for the feast of the
Immaculate Conception. Upon hearing of his death, the poor children of
Lucera ran through the streets, crying "The saint is dead! The saint is
dead!" In this humble Franciscan they had lost a true father and
protector.
Sylvester
was born in 1177 to a noble and prestigious Italian family. When he was
of age, he was sent to Bologna and then Padua to study law, but feeling
within himself a call to the ecclesiastical state, he left off the
study of jurisprudence to pursue that of theology and the Sacred
Scriptures. This course of action so angered his father upon Sylvester’s
return to his native city of Osimo, that it is said his father refused
to speak to him for ten years on that account.
The
Emperor Maximinus, who was violently persecuting the Christians at the
time, was astounded when the young maiden presented herself to him and
boldly admonished him for his cruelty and persecution, and endeavored to
prove to him by the strength and logic of her arguments how iniquitous
was the worship of false gods. Completely taken aback by Catherine’s
audacity but unable to counteract any of her arguments himself, the
Emperor summoned numerous scholars to the imperial palace to compel the
young girl, by sophistic counter arguments and devious subterfuges, to
apostatize against the Faith. However, not only did Catherine emerge
from the contest victorious, but she conquered several of her
adversaries by the eloquence and resounding veracity of her words.
Declaring themselves won over to the Christian Faith, these new
adherents were immediately put to death by the enraged Emperor and
Catherine was most brutally scourged and imprisoned.
In
the US, Thanksgiving dates back to the first colonists in Plymouth,
M.A. in 1621, who organized a feast in thanks for a good harvest.
Born
in 1795 in the Tonkinese town of Bac-Nihh in North Vietnam, Tran An
Dung was the son of pagan parents. In search of work for themselves in
1807, his parents moved to the ancient citadel of Hanoi. Here their
twelve-year-old son was taken care of by a catechist and for three years
was instructed in the Catholic faith. Baptized in Vinh-Tri, he received
the Christian name Andrew (Anrê) in baptism and went on to learn both
Chinese and Latin and himself became a catechist. He was selected for
further studies in theology and was ordained to the priesthood on March
15, 1823.
To
avoid further persecution by the authorities, Andrew Dung changed his
name to Lac and relocated to a different region. While visiting a fellow
priest, in order to confess himself, Dung-Lac was arrested with Father
Peter Thi on November 10, 1839. In exchange for a monetary ransom paid
to their captors, the two priests were liberated, but their freedom was
short-lived. Re-arrested not long afterwards, they were taken to Hanoi
and severely tortured. They were beheaded shortly before Christmas Day
on December 21, 1839.
Columban
was born about the year 543 in County Meath, in the Irish province of
Leinster, to respectable parents. He was well-educated in grammar,
rhetoric, geometry, and the Holy Scriptures. The young Columban resolved
early to embrace monastic asceticism and dedicate himself to a strict
and disciplined life, abstaining from many of the pleasures of the
world. However, he struggled with purity, and desperate to dedicate
himself wholly to God, asked the advice of a religious woman who had
lived as a hermit for many years.
Cecilia
was a devout Christian maiden of noble Roman birth who lived during the
early part of the third century. At a very young age, she secretly
dedicated herself to God, resolving to remain a virgin to her death. She
fasted and prayed often, and wore a coarse shift under her clothes as a
perpetual penance.
St.
Urban and his deacons buried her among the bishops in the catacomb of
St. Callixtus along the Apian Way. As she had requested, her house was
transformed into a church by the Holy Pontiff and it has remained in the
service of the Church until this day.
On
the feast of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary, we celebrate the fact
that Our Lady’s parents brought her to the Temple at the age of three
and handed her over to live there for a long period as a consecrated
virgin where she might exclusively contemplate God.
Born
in 1814, Alphonse Ratisbonne was from a family of wealthy, well-known
Jewish bankers in Strasbourg, France. In 1827, Alphonse’s older brother,
Thèodore, converted to Catholicism and entered the priesthood, thus
breaking with his anti-Catholic family whose hopes now lay in the young
Alphonse. At 27, Alphonse was
intelligent and well mannered. He had already finished his law degree,
and decided to travel to Italy before marrying and assuming his
responsibilities in the family business. However, God had other plans
for him.
kneeling
close to an altar, weeping. Alphonse himself tells us what happened in
those few minutes he waited for the Baron: “I had only been in the
church a short while when, all of a sudden, I felt totally uneasy for no
apparent reason. I raised my eyes and saw that the whole building had
disappeared. Only one side chapel had, so to say, gathered all the
light. In the midst of this splendor, the Virgin Mary appeared standing
on the altar. She was grandiose,
brilliant, full of majesty and sweetness, just as she is in the
Miraculous Medal. An irresistible force attracted me to her. The Virgin
made a gesture with her hand indicating I was to kneel.”
During
His life in this world, Our Lord exercised aspects of all professions
fit for man—from the highest to the lowest. To even begin to appreciate
the perfection of His Person, we would have to imagine the archetype of
every licit profession known to man.
Our Lord personified the fulfillment of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. He was Priest and Pontiff
par excellence. The priests of the Old Testament prefigured His
priesthood, and every priest after Him would share His priesthood as an
"alter Christus" - another Christ. On Holy Thursday, Christ was the
Priest and Victim of the first Mass, which prefigured His sacrificial
offering on the altar of the cross.
Opening Prayer:
The Cross will be despised
Born
of royal descent, Nerses was the son of At'anagenes and his mother was
the sister of King Tigranes VII and a daughter of King Khosrov III. His
paternal grandfather was St. Husik I whose paternal grandfather was St.
Gregory the Illuminator, who converted the Armenian king to Christianity
and became the first Patriarch of Armenia.
Born
on August 29, 1769 in the French city of Grenoble, Rose Philippine was
baptized in the Church of St. Louis. She was educated at the Convent of
the Visitation of Ste. Marie d'en Haut and, against her father’s wishes,
became a novice there when she was eighteen years old. However, the
French Revolution caused much disruption for the nuns, and when the
Sisters of the Visitation were expelled from their convents, Rose
returned home.
Born
around the year 1046, Margaret was a pious and virtuous English
princess of the House of Essex. She and her family fled north to the
court of the Scottish King Malcolm Canmore to take refuge from William
the Conqueror. Malcolm was captivated by Margaret’s goodness and beauty,
and in the year 1070, they were married at the castle of Dunfermline.
At the name of Mary, the angels rejoice and the demons scramble.
