St. Paphnutius and Companions, Martyrs

Today the Church honors St. Paphnutius and his 546 Companions in Egypt, Martyrs.

Orate pro nobis.

St. Paphnutius (not the same Paphnutius honored on 11 September) was a famed hermit living in the desert around Dendara, Egypt. During the persecution against Christians under Diocletian (AD 303-313), the governor Arianus was eager to follow the imperial order to root out Christians, initially from the military or public office, but later all Christians. Upon hearing of the famous hermit, Arianus commanded that Saint Paphnutius be brought to him. 

The ascetic, being told by an angel the night before that soldiers were coming the next day to arrest him, did not wait for those soldiers sent to bring him. Instead, he appeared before the governor willingly, confessed his faith in Christ, and was then subjected to torture. He was hung on the local pagan temple and subjected to terrible tortures.

The soldiers involved in his torture, Dionysius and Callimachus, seeing how the power of God preserved the martyr, believed in Christ the Savior themselves, for which they were then beheaded. Cast into prison after the tortures failed to kill him, Saint Paphnutius was soon joined by forty prisoners, all men in public office convicted of withholding collected taxes from the local government. Within a few days, after his preaching the Gospel of Jesus to them, all forty of them embraced the Faith. When Arianus called them each to trial, they all professed the Faith, and would not be deterred.  Enraged, Arianus had them all burned alive.

After a while, Saint Paphnutius was set free, and a Christian named Nestorius gladly took him in. He and all his family, after spiritual guidance, became steadfast in the Faith after coming to fear for their lives and considering offering sacrifice to idols to preserve their lives. They ultimately endured martyrdom. 

The famous saint strengthened many other local Christians to not fear the pains of torture but to be strong in the crucified and resurrected Savor Jesus, and to confess our Lord Jesus Christ before the governor, and many died as martyrs. Some were cut with swords, others were burned. There were ultimately 546 martyrs in Dendara in all.

Saint Paphnutius himself was once again brought before the governor, who ordered that he be thrown by the torturers into a river with a stone about his neck, but he miraculously floated to shore with the stone. Finally, Arianus sent the holy martyr and the records of his trial, tortures, his preaching to and strengthening the Christians of Dendara, and how many had been martyred because of this hermit, to the emperor Diocletian himself, who commanded him to be crucified on a date palm tree in the year AD 303.

Almighty God, who gave to your servant Paphnutius and his Companions boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

Sts. Andrew, John, Peter, and Antoninus, Martyrs

Today the Church honors The Holy Martyrs Andrew and John, and John’s children Peter and Antoninus.

Orate pro nobis.

Andrew and John, and John’s children Peter and Antoninus, suffered in the ninth century AD in the time of the cruel Muslim North African ruler Ibrahim II. The siege of Syracuse from AD 877 to 878, which was part of the larger campaign to conquer Christian Sicily beginning in AD 802, led to the fall of the city of Syracuse, the Byzantine Empire’s capital of Sicily, to the Aghlabids, a Muslim dynasty that ruled the northern coast of modern Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The siege lasted from August 877 to 21 May 878 when the city, effectively left without assistance by the central Byzantine government, was sacked by the Aghlabid forces.

The Muslims were unable to capitalize upon this success due to internal rivalries, which even led to a full-scale civil war. Small-scale warfare with the Byzantines continued without any side gaining a decisive advantage until the arrival of the deposed Aghlabid emir Ibrahim II, who in 902 rallied the Sicilian Muslims and captured Taormina, effectively completing the Muslim conquest of Sicily, although a few fortresses remained in Byzantine hands until AD 965. The events of the siege are described in some detail by the eyewitness Theodosios the Monk, who included an account of it in a letter written during his subsequent captivity. Most of the population of the city was massacred during the sack; St. Theodosios writes that among the notables alone, over 4,000 were killed.

After the capture and destruction of the Sicilian city of Syracuse, Ibrahim captured and brought to Africa many slaves, among whom were Saint Andrew, Saint John, and his two children Peter and Antoninus. That they were singled out by Ibrahim likely indicates that they were nobles. Ibrahim compelled Peter and Antoninus to study the Arab language and sciences, the Qur’an and the Muslim religion, intending that they become Muslims.

When the youths had grown, the emir Ibrahim was so fond of them for their wisdom and virtuous life, that he named Antoninus his kinsman, and he appointed Peter as his chief steward. However, he learned that the youths secretly confessed faith in Christ from other slaves jealous of the preferential treatment being given to them. Ibrahim flew into a furious rage, ordering them to be bound with iron shackles and beaten with knotted rods.

After prolonged scourging, they put Saint Antoninus on a donkey, tied him on with straps, then drove him through the city, beating and ridiculing him with abuse. The martyr endured all the insults and gave thanks to God. Saint Peter was thrown into prison after a fierce beating with the rods. Both sons died in prison from their tortures.

An order was then issued to arrest John, the father of the holy martyrs. The brutal Ibrahim grabbed him by the neck with his left hand, and with his right he thrust a knife into his throat. They cast the dead body of the father, together with the bodies of his sons, into a large fire.

As for Saint Andrew, the torturer wore him down with hunger, and then ran him through with a spear in the chest. When the martyr prayerfully began to give thanks to God, Ibrahim ran him through a second time. As he lay dying from loss of blood, they beheaded the righteous martyr with a sword.

They were martyred on this day in AD 900, and are honored by the Churches of the East and West.

Almighty God, who gave to your servants Andrew and John, and John’s children Peter and Antoninus boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

St. Phocus the Gardener, Martyr

Today the Church honors St. Phocus the Gardener, Martyr.

Ora pro nobis.

Saint Phokas came from Sinope, a city on the Black Sea. He was a poor man, and his only possession was a garden, which he cultivated with great diligence. In order to use his crops to feed the poor and aided persecuted Christians, he willingly embraced a life of austerity. His income from the garden was very small. But since he was a good steward and frugal in his needs, he would always have something for the poor. Saint Phokas studied the Holy Scriptures with pleasure. He even told those who saw him studying that our soul is also a garden, which requires care, so that it does not produce thorns and thistles. The gardener Phokas also desired that everyone's souls should become spiritual gardens. So wherever he could, he contributed to their purification and cultivation. While he was selling vegetables and fruits, he spoke words of great spiritual profit at the same time. Not only did he benefit Christians, but he also converted many pagans.

During the persecutions of Diocletian (AD 244-311), though he was widely known as a man of good deeds and who helped the poor out of his own poverty, Phokas was denounced as a Christian and the rulers of the city sent soldiers to arrest him. The Saint's home was near the castle gate which guarded the port, and he was known to welcome travelers and the needy, and so he often had many visitors. So, when the soldiers came seeking a place to stay the night, he welcomed them as guests. After some time had passed, he asked them the purpose of their visit. Obliged by his hospitality they disclosed their secret, that they were seeking the Christian Phokas in order to behead him. They even told him that he would be doing them a great favor if he would help them.

Unperturbed, while the soldiers slept, Saint Phokas made arrangements for all his possessions to be distributed to the poor after his death, came out of his house during the night to dig and prepare his own grave, and the next day he told the soldiers who he was. They were astonished and ashamed, because they had been received by Saint Phokas with so much love that they did not want to kill him. The Saint understood their difficulty and told them not to hesitate, but to carry out their orders since it was not they who would be responsible for his murder, but rather those who sent them. By speaking in this way he persuaded the soldiers to behead him. He was beheading on this day in AD 303.

An accurate account of the Martyr’s death was written by Asterios, bishop of Amasea (c. AD 350 – c. 410). He is venerated as a martyr by the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Almighty God, who gave to your servant Phocus boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

Today, the Church honors St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist.

Ora pro nobis.

Matthew the Apostle (also known as Levi) was, according to the Bible, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and, according to Christian tradition, one of the four Gospel writers (Evangelists). Among the early followers and apostles of Jesus, Matthew is mentioned in Matthew 9:9 and Matthew 10:3 as a publican, or tax collector, who, while sitting at the "receipt of custom" in Capernaum, was called to follow Jesus. He is also listed among the twelve, but without identification of his background, in Mark 3:18, Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13. In passages parallel to Matthew 9:9, both Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27 describe Jesus' calling of the tax collector Levi, the son of Alphaeus, but Mark and Luke never explicitly equate this Levi with the Matthew named as one of the twelve.

We do not know much with certainty about Matthew himself beyond what is mentioned in the Scriptures. He was born some time in the 1st c. AD, probably in Galilee, and was the son of Alpheus. As a tax collector he would have had to  have been literate in Hebrew Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. His fellow Jews would have despised him, and all tax collectors, for what was seen as collaborating with the Roman occupation force and being therefore a traitor.

According to the Gospel, Matthew was working at a collection booth in Capernaum when Christ came to him and asked, "Follow me." With this simple call, Matthew became a disciple of Christ. After his call, Matthew invited Jesus home for a feast. On seeing this, the Scribes and the Pharisees criticized Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners. This prompted Jesus to answer, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Mark 2:17, Luke 5:32)

The New Testament records that as a disciple, he followed Jesus, and was one of the witnesses of the Resurrection and the Ascension of Jesus. Afterwards, the disciples withdrew to an upper room (Acts 1:10–14) (traditionally the Cenacle) in Jerusalem to await the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, after which the disciples remained in and about Jerusalem and proclaimed that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and performed many miracles. The Scriptures record that many came to the Faith, including a large number of priests.

In the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 43a) "Mattai" (a nickname for Matthew in Hebrew Aramaic) is named as one of five disciples of "Jeshu". Later Church fathers such as Irenaeus (Against Heresies 3.1.1) and Clement of Alexandria claim that Matthew preached the Gospel to the Jewish community in Judea, before going to other countries. Ancient writers are not agreed as to what these other countries are. The Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church each hold the tradition that Matthew died as a martyr. The Babylonian Talmud appears to report his execution in Sanhedrin 43a.

According to Church tradition, while preaching in Ethiopia, Matthew converted, and then consecrated to God, Ephigenia of Ethiopia, the virgin daughter of the Aethiopian King Egippus. When King Hirtacus succeeded Egippus, he asked the apostle if he could persuade Ephigenia, his neice, to marry him. Matthew thus invited King Hirtacus to a worship service the following Sunday where he rebuked the king for lusting after the girl, as had consecrated herself to God and therefore was the bride of Christ. The enraged King ordered his bodyguard to kill Matthew who stood at the altar, making him a martyr.

Early Church tradition holds that the Gospel of Matthew was written by the apostle Matthew, sometime between AD 40-51. This tradition is first attested, among the extant writings of the first and second centuries, with the early Christian bishop Papias of Hierapolis (c. AD 60–163), who is cited by the Church historian Eusebius (AD 260–340), as follows: 

"Matthew collected the sayings of or about Jesus in the Hebrew Aramaic language, and each one interpreted them as best he could." Likewise, early Christian theologian Origen (c. 184–c. 253) indicates that the first gospel was written by Matthew, and that his gospel was composed in Hebrew Aramaic near Jerusalem for Hebrew Christians, which he then translated it into Greek. The Hebrew Aramaic original was kept at the Library of Caesarea. Sometime in the late fourth or early fifth century, the Nazarene Community transcribed a copy for Jerome, which he used in his work. This Gospel was called the Gospel according to the Hebrews or sometimes the Gospel of the Apostles, and it was once believed that it was the original to the 'Greek Matthew' found in the Bible.

We thank you, heavenly Father, for the witness of your apostle and evangelist Matthew to the Gospel of your Son our Savior, Jesus; and we pray that, after his example, we may with ready wills and hearts obey the calling of our Lord to follow him; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. 

Amen.

Martyrs of Korea

Today the Church honors the Martyrs of Korea, especially Kim Tae-gon, Chong Ha-sang, Yun Ji-chung, and Companions. 

Orate pro nobis.

The Martyrs of Korea are a diverse group of martyrs and saints beginning in 1791, with the first known Korean Christian martyr Yun Ji-chung. 

The evangelization of Korea began during the early 1600s, when Christian literature was introduced by Korean Confucian scholars who visited China and brought back Western books translated into Chinese. The Catholic ideas espoused in them were debated by court scholars and were denounced as contrary to the traditions of Korea as early as 1724. In 1777, further Christian literature obtained from Jesuits in China led other Korean scholars to study the faith, and some became Christians. At this point some Koreans started to be converted to Christianity. As word of Jesus spread, ordinary people flocked to the new religion. The new believers called themselves Chonju Kyo Udul, literally "Friends of the Teaching of God of Heaven". The term "friends" was the only term in the Confucian understanding of relationships which implied equality. Around 1789, a Chinese priest managed to secretly enter the country, where he found 4,000 Christians, none of whom had ever seen a priest. The Christian communities were led almost entirely by educated laypeople from the aristocracy, as they were the only ones who could read the books that were written in Hanja.

It was only in 1784 that the first known Korean was baptized after traveling to China to seek out Jesuit missionaries. This same community sent a delegation on foot to Beijing, 750 miles away, to ask the city's bishop for their own bishops and priests. Eventually, two Chinese priests were sent, but their ministry was short-lived. It was these lay Christians who brought the Gospel to Korea and formed Catholic communities even without priests. 

During the Joseon Dynasty, Christianity was suppressed and many Christians were persecuted and executed in waves of persecution and martyrdom, in 1791, 1801, 1827, 1839, 1846, and 1866. Yun Ji-chung is recognized as Korea’s first martyr. Korean leaders saw Christianity as a disruptive force that undermined their rigidly hierarchical society and the Confucian ideals of the political system. Some Christians openly renounced ancestor worship, a scandal in Korean society. The Christian priority on God was perceived to be treason to the king, especially under the ruling Joseon dynasty. Some Korean Christians also turned to foreign powers to establish trade links and encourage religious freedom, actions that the Korean government found suspicious. Christians had to practise their faith covertly. Chong Ha-sang, Yu Chin-gil, and Cho Shin-chol had made several secret visits to Beijing in order to find ways of introducing missionaries into Korea. In 1836, Korea saw its first consecrated missionaries (members of the Paris Foreign Missions Society) arrive, who were surprised to find out that the people there were already practicing Korean Christians. 

Since the Sinhae persecution of 1791-1801, there had been no priest to care for the Christian community. Serious dangers awaited the missionaries who dared to enter Korea. The bishops and priests who confronted this danger, as well as the laypeople who aided and sheltered them, were in constant threat of losing their lives. Saint Laurent-Marie-Joseph Imbert, M.E.P. Bishop Laurent Imbert and ten other French missionaries were the first Paris Foreign Missions Society priests to enter Korea. During the daytime, they stayed in hiding, but at night they traveled about on foot attending to the spiritual needs of the faithful and administering the sacraments.

Fr. Kim (21 August 1821 – 16 September 1846) was born into an aristocratic Korean family that eventually included three generations of Catholic martyrs. Kim’s great-grandfather died for his Catholic faith in 1814. After being baptized at age 15, Kim studied at a seminary in the Portuguese colony of Macau. He also spent time in study at Lolomboy, Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines, where today he is also venerated. He was ordained a priest in Shanghai after nine years (1844) by the French bishop Jean Joseph Jean-Baptiste Ferréol. While Kim attended seminary in China, his father was martyred for the faith in 1839. Kim was ordained in Shanghai in 1845 and returned to Korea to catechize Christians in secret. He was arrested 13 months later, tortured, and beheaded. Kim Taegon was the first Korean-born Catholic priest and is the patron saint of Korean clergy.

Paul Chong Hasang was a layman who helped unite Christians under persecution and encouraged them to be strong in the Faith. His appeals to Pope Gregory X directly led the pope to recognize Korea’s Catholic community and to send more priests. Chong died by martyrdom in 1839 after penning a letter in prison defending the Catholic faith to the Korean government. 

Another martyr, 17-year-old Agatha Yi, and her brother were falsely told that their parents had denied the faith. She responded: “Whether my parents betrayed or not is their affair. As for us, we cannot betray the Lord of heaven whom we have always served.” Her words were reported widely and inspired six other adult Christians to report themselves to the magistrate. Yi, her parents, and these six are among those canonized.

Fr. Kim, Chong Ha-sang, Yun Ji-chung, and Agatha Yi are numbered amongst the estimated 8,000 to 10,000 Korean Christians who were executed during this time. The vast majority of the martyrs were laypeople. Among the other martyrs were a few bishops and priests, some of the first French missionaries to Korea, and many more to be recognized, and many forgotten by history, but for the most part it was lay people, men and women, married and unmarried, children, young people, and the elderly. All suffered greatly for the Faith and consecrated the rich beginnings of the Church of Korea with their blood as martyrs.

Pope Saint John Paul II, during his trip to Korea, canonized 103 martyrs on May 6, 1984, and inserted their feast into the Calendar of the Universal Church. When he canonized the Korean martyrs in his 1984 visit to South Korea, he noted their great diversity, saying, 

“From the 13-year-old Peter Yu to the 72-year-old Mark Chong, men and women, clergy and laity, rich and poor, ordinary people and nobles, many of them descendants of earlier unsung martyrs — they all gladly died for the sake of Christ.”  

Pope Francis beatified another 124 martyrs during his August 2014 visit to South Korea. These included Paul Yun Ji-chung, Korea’s first martyr. The cause for the beatification of another 213 martyrs is under way.

Almighty God, who gave to your servants Kim Tae-gon, Chong Ha-sang, Yun Ji-chung, and Companions boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Theodore of Tarsus

Today, the Church remembers Theodore of Tarsus (602– 19 September 690 AD), who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 668 to 690 AD, and is best known for his reform of the English Church and establishment of a school in Canterbury.

Ora pro nobis.

Theodore's life can be divided into the time before his arrival in Britain as Archbishop of Canterbury, and his archiepiscopate. Until recently, scholarship on Theodore had focused on only the latter period since it is attested in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English, and also in Stephen of Ripon's Vita Sancti Wilfrithi, whereas no source directly mentions Theodore's earlier activities.

Theodore was of Byzantine Greek descent, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, a Greek-speaking diocese of the Byzantine Empire. Theodore's childhood saw devastating wars between Byzantium and the Persian Sassanid Empire, which resulted in the capture of Antioch, Damascus, and Jerusalem in 613-614 AD. Persian forces captured Tarsus when Theodore was 11 or 12 years old, and evidence exists that Theodore had experience of Persian culture. It is most likely that he studied at Antioch, the historic home of a distinctive school of exegesis, of which he was a proponent. Theodore also knew Syrian culture, language and literature, and may even have travelled to Edessa, Armenia.

Though a Greek could live under Persian rule, the Muslim conquests, which reached Tarsus in 637, certainly drove Theodore from Tarsus; if he did not flee earlier, Theodore would have been 35 years old when he left his birthplace. Having returned to the Eastern Roman Empire, he studied in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, including the subjects of astronomy, ecclesiastical computus (calculation of the date of Easter), astrology, medicine, Roman civil law, and Greek rhetoric and philosophy.

At some time before the 660s, Theodore had travelled west to Rome, where he lived with a community of Eastern monks, probably at the monastery of St. Anastasius. At this time, in addition to his already profound Greek intellectual inheritance, he became learned in Latin literature, both sacred and secular. In 664 AD, The Synod of Whitby confirmed the decision in the Anglo-Saxon Church to follow the Roman practice for calculating the date for Easter, as well as certain reforms to monastic and other ecclesiastical customs rather than the Celtic traditions of the earlier British Church. In 667 AD, when Theodore was 66, the see of Canterbury happened to fall vacant. Wighard, the man chosen to fill the post, unexpectedly died. Wighard had been sent to Pope Vitalian by Ecgberht, king of Kent, and Oswy, king of Northumbria, for consecration as archbishop. Following Wighard's death, Theodore was chosen by Pope Vitalian upon the recommendation of Hadrian (later abbot of St. Peter's, Canterbury). Theodore was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury in Rome on 26 March 668 AD, and sent to England with Hadrian, arriving on 27 May 669 AD. Saint Adrian, an African who was the abbot of a monastery near Naples, was sent to assist Saint Theodore.

Archbishop of Canterbury

Theodore conducted a survey of the English church, appointed various bishops to sees that had lain vacant for some time, and then called the Synod of Hertford In AD 673 to institute reforms concerning the proper calculation of Easter, episcopal authority, itinerant monks, the regular convening of subsequent synods, marriage and prohibitions of consanguinity, and other matters. Not only was this the first church council in England, it was the first assembly of any kind attended by representatives from all over the country. In AD 679 he convened another synod at Hatfield to maintain the purity of Orthodox doctrine and to condemn the heresy of Monothelitism. He also proposed dividing the large diocese of Northumbria into smaller sections, a policy which brought him into conflict with Wilfrid, who had become Bishop of York in 664 AD. Theodore deposed and expelled Wilfrid in 678 AD, dividing his dioceses in the aftermath. The conflict with Wilfrid continued until its settlement in 686–687.

In 679 AD, Aelfwine, the brother of King Ecgfrith of Northumbria, died in battle against the Mercians. Theodore's intervention prevented the escalation of the war and resulted in peace between the two kingdoms, with King Æthelred of Mercia paying weregild compensation for Ælfwine's death.

Canterbury School

Theodore and Hadrian established a school in Canterbury, providing instruction in both Greek and Latin, resulting in a "golden age" of Anglo-Saxon scholarship:

“They attracted a large number of students, into whose minds they poured the waters of wholesome knowledge day by day. In addition to instructing them in the Holy Scriptures, they also taught their pupils poetry, astronomy, and the calculation of the church calendar...Never had there been such happy times as these since the English settled Britain.” - Bede

Theodore also taught sacred music, introduced various texts, knowledge of Eastern saints, and may even have been responsible for the introduction of the Litany of the Saints, a major liturgical innovation, into the West. Some of his thoughts are accessible in the Biblical Commentaries, notes compiled by his students at the Canterbury School. Of immense interest is the text, recently attributed to him, called Laterculus Malalianus. Overlooked for many years, it was rediscovered in the 1990s, and has since been shown to contain numerous interesting elements reflecting Theodore's trans-Mediterranean formation. A record of the teaching of Theodore and Adrian is preserved in the Leiden Glossary.

Pupils from the school at Canterbury were sent out as Benedictine abbots in southern England, disseminating the curriculum of Theodore. Theodore called other synods, in September 680 AD at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, confirming English orthodoxy in the Monothelite controversy, and circa 684 AD at Twyford, near Alnwick in Northumbria. Lastly, a penitential composed under his direction is still extant.

Theodore died in 690 AD at the age of 88, having held the archbishopric for twenty-two years. He was buried in Canterbury at the church known today as St. Augustine's Abbey; at the time of his death it was called St. Peter's church. Under his leadership, the English Church became united in a way that the various tribal kingdoms did not. The diocesean structures which he established continue to serve as the basis for Church administration in England. He is one of the great saints venerated by all the world’s Christian Churches. 

Almighty God, you called your servant Theodore of Tarsus from Rome to the see of Canterbury, and gave him gifts of grace and wisdom to establish unity where there had been division, and order where there had been chaos: Create in your Church, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, such godly union and concord that it may proclaim, both by word and example, the Gospel of Jesus, the Prince of Peace; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Hildegard of Bingen, Abbess

Today the Church remembers Hidegard of Bingen, abbess and visionary.

Ora pro nobis.

Hildegard of Bingen OSB (German: Hildegard von Bingen; Latin: Hildegardis Bingensis; 1098 – 17 September 1179 AD), also known as Saint Hildegard and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, and polymath. She is considered to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.

Hildegard was elected magistra by her fellow nuns in 1136 AD; she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 AD and Eibingen in 1165 AD. One of her works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play. She wrote theological, botanical, and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, and poems, while supervising miniature illuminations in the Rupertsberg manuscript of her first work, Scivias. She is also noted for the invention of a constructed language known as Lingua Ignota.

Although the history of her formal consideration is complicated, she has been recognized as a saint by branches of the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. On 7 October 2012 AD, Pope Benedict XVI named her a Doctor of the Church.

Visions

Hildegard said that she first saw "The Shade of the Living Light" at the age of three, and by the age of five she began to understand that she was experiencing visions. She used the term 'visio' to this feature of her experience, and recognized that it was a gift that she could not explain to others. Hildegard explained that she saw all things in the light of God through the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Hildegard was hesitant to share her visions, confiding only to Jutta, who in turn told Volmar, Hildegard's tutor and, later, secretary. Throughout her life, she continued to have many visions, and in 1141 AD, at the age of 42, Hildegard received a vision she believed to be an instruction from God, to "write down that which you see and hear." Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations recorded in the book of Scivias were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering and tribulations. In her first theological text, Scivias ("Know the Ways"), Hildegard describes her struggle within:

“But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct [the nun Richardis von Stade] and of that man whom I had secretly sought and found, as mentioned above, I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, as I mentioned before, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years. (...) And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, 'Cry out therefore, and write thus!'”

It was between November 1147 and February 1148 AD at the synod in Trier that Pope Eugenius heard about Hildegard's writings. It was from this that she received Papal approval to document her visions as revelations from the Holy Spirit, giving her instant credence.

Before Hildegard's death, a problem arose with the clergy of Mainz. A man buried in Rupertsburg had died after excommunication from the Church. Therefore, the clergy wanted to remove his body from the sacred ground. Hildegard did not accept this idea, replying that it was a sin and that the man had been reconciled to the church at the time of his death.

On 17 September 1179 AD, when Hildegard died, her sisters claimed they saw two streams of light appear in the skies and cross over the room where she was dying.

On May 10, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI laid down the groundwork for naming her a Doctor of the Church. Five months later, she officially became a Doctor of the Church, making her the fourth woman of 35 saints to be given that title by the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XVI called Hildegard, "perennially relevant" and "an authentic teacher of theology and a profound scholar of natural science and music."

God of all times and seasons: Give us grace that we, after the example of your servant Hildegard, may both know and make known the joy and jubilation of being part of your creation, and show forth your glory not only with our lips but in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. 

Amen.

Pope St. Cornelius, Martyr

Today the Church honors Pope St. Cornelius.

Ora pro nobis. 

Pope Saint Cornelius was a Roman priest who was elected pope during the lull in the persecution of Christians under Emperor Decius (AD 249–251). 

During the period of persecution under Emperor Decius, and after the martyrdom of Pope Saint Fabian, the Roman Church was unable to elect a new pope. During the persecution it proved impossible to elect a successor, and the papal seat remained vacant for over a year. In the fourteen months without a pope, the leading candidate, Moses, had died under the persecution. In AD June 251, Decius was killed in battle with the Goths, which provided a brief window for the election of a new bishop of Rome. 

Although Novatian was the pre-eminent theologian in Rome, and the first Roman theologian who used the Latin language rather than Greek in his writings, and who had largely administered the Church of Rome during the period of persecution (for which he expected to be elected pope), the moderate Roman Cornelius was elected over Novatian and others as the twenty-first pope in AD March 251. Novatian then proclaimed himself pope, and the Church of Rome fell into schism. 

Those who supported Novatian and his rigorist position, that the lapsed could not be re-admitted to the Church under any circumstances, had Novatian consecrated bishop and refused to recognize Cornelius as Bishop of Rome. Both sides sent out letters to other bishops seeking recognition and support. Cornelius had the support of Cyprian, Dionysius, and most African and Eastern bishops while Novatian had the support of a minority of clergy and laymen in Rome. Cornelius's next action was to convene a synod of 60 bishops to acknowledge him as the rightful pope. The synod excommunicated Novatian as well as all Novatianists. Also addressed in the synod was that Christians who stopped practising during Emperor Decius's persecution could be re-admitted into the Christian community only after doing penance.

The verdict of the synod was sent to the Christian bishops, most notably the bishop of Antioch, a fierce Novatian supporter, in order to convince him to accept Cornelius as bishop of Rome. The letters that Cornelius sent to surrounding bishops provide information of the size of the church in Rome at that time. Cornelius mentions that the Roman Church had, "forty six priests, seven deacons, seven sub-deacons, forty two acolytes, fifty two ostiarii, and over one thousand five hundred widows and persons in distress." His letters also inform that Cornelius had a staff of over 150 clergy members and the church fed over 1,500 people daily. From these numbers, it has been estimated that there were at least 50,000 Christians in Rome during the papacy of Pope Cornelius.

As a side note, all Christian worship throughout the world was originally offered in Greek (the language of the New Testament), the Scriptures were read in Greek, and all scholarly theological writing was in Greek. Translations of the Gospels began to appear in the 4th c. AD in regional languages, such as Syriac, Gothi, Ge’ez, Armenian, Coptic, and Georgian, which also shaped growing provincial changes in the liturgy. In the Western Church, translations of the Gospels into Latin began to be made piecemeal by various translators in the early 4th c. AD, which collectively are called the Vetus Latina. It was not until the Vulgate translation (vulgate meaning “vulgar”, the Latin word for “common”, referring to the common language of Rome, Latin) was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in AD 382 that a singular, authoritative Latin version of the Holy Scriptures that Latin began to replace Greek as the language of worship and scholarship in Western half of the Roman Empire. It is a sad note of history that in the 16th c. translations began to be made into regional languages because very few could read Latin, just as had been commissioned by Pope Damasus in AD 382. Latin was a dead language, and mostly only scholars could read or speak it. Even the average clergy not trained as scholars could barely read it, and in the liturgy the people were reciting prayers with little to no comprehension. The response of the Roman Church was regrettably intolerant and violent, and was no small part of what precipitated the Protestant Reformation. Today, no matter the language used in Western Christianity, during the liturgy we can still see the vestiges of the Greek liturgy, such as when we pray “Kyrie Eleison, Christie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison”. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in AD 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina Gospels used by the Roman Church. Later, on his own initiative, Jerome extended this work of revision and translation to include most of the books of the Bible. The Vulgate became progressively adopted as the Bible text within the Western Church. 

The persecutions resumed in AD 251 under the new Emperor Trebonianus Gallus (AD June 251 to August 253). Cornelius was exiled to Centumcellae, Italy, where he died in AD June 253. The Liberian catalogue ascribes his death to the hardships of banishment; later sources say he was beheaded. 

Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr Cornelius triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death: Grant us, who now remember him in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

Sts., Theodotus, Asklepiodote, and Maximus, Martyrs

The Holy Martyr Theodotus suffered with Saints Maximus and Asklepiodote, at the beginning of the fourth century under the emperor Maximian Galerius (AD 305-311). Eminent citizens of the city of Marcianopolis (in modern Bulgaria), Maximus, and Asklepiodote led a devout Christian life. By their example they brought many to faith in Christ and to holy Baptism.

During the persecution, Tiris, the governor of Thrace, went around the city subject to him and persecuted those believing in Christ. He summoned Maximus and Asklepiodote before him and demanded they abandon the Christian Faith. When the martyrs refused, he ordered that they be beaten.

Then a certain pious man named Theodotus, began to reproach the governor for his inhumanity and cruelty. They seized him also, and hanging him on a tree, they tortured him with iron hooks. After this, they threw the three martyrs into prison. Tiris traveled for two weeks more and took the holy martyrs along with him.

In the city of Adrianopolis, he put them to still greater tortures, commanding that their bodies be scorched with white-hot plates. In the midst of their suffering they heard a Voice from Heaven encouraging them to persevere. After several days of torture they threw the martyrs to be eaten by wild beasts in the circus, but instead the she-bear released upon Saints Maximus and Theodotus began to cuddle up to them.Saint Asklepiodote was tied to a bull, but she seemed to be rooted to the spot, and did not budge. 

Tiris resumed the journey and stopped in the village of Saltis before reaching the city of Philippopolis. Again he urged the martyrs to renounce Christ. When they refused, he ordered them to be beheaded on this day in AD 310.

Almighty God, who gave to your servants Theodotus, Maximus, and Asklepiodote boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Cyprian of Carthage

Today the Church remembers St. Cyprian of Carthage, Bishop and Martyr.

Ora pro nobis.

Cyprian (Thaschus Cæcilius Cyprianus; c. 200 – September 14, 258 AD) was bishop of Carthage and a notable Early Christian writer of Berber descent, many of whose Latin works are extant. He is also recognised as a saint in the Christian churches. He was born around the beginning of the 3rd century AD in North Africa, perhaps at Carthage, where he received a classical education. Soon after converting to Christianity, he became a bishop in AD 249. A controversial figure during his lifetime, his strong pastoral skills, firm conduct during the Novatianist heresy and outbreak of the Plague of Cyprian (named after him due to his description of it), and eventual martyrdom at Carthage established his reputation and proved his sanctity in the eyes of the Church. His skillful Latin rhetoric led to his being considered the pre-eminent Latin writer of Western Christianity until Jerome and Augustine.

Cyprian was born into a rich, pagan, Berber (Roman African), Carthage family sometime during the early third century. His original name was Thascius; he took the additional name Caecilius in memory of the priest to whom he owed his conversion. Before his conversion, he was a leading member of a legal fraternity in Carthage, an orator, a "pleader in the courts", and a teacher of rhetoric. After a "dissipated youth", Cyprian was baptised when he was thirty-five years old, c. 245 AD. After his baptism, he gave away a portion of his wealth to the poor of Carthage, as befitted a man of his status.

In the early days of his conversion he wrote an Epistola ad Donatum de gratia Dei and the Testimoniorum Libri III that adhere closely to the models of Tertullian, who influenced his style and thinking. Cyprian described his own conversion and baptism in the following words:

“When I was still lying in darkness and gloomy night, I used to regard it as extremely difficult and demanding to do what God's mercy was suggesting to me... I myself was held in bonds by the innumerable errors of my previous life, from which I did not believe I could possibly be delivered, so I was disposed to acquiesce in my clinging vices and to indulge my sins... But after that, by the help of the water of new birth, the stain of my former life was washed away, and a light from above, serene and pure, was infused into my reconciled heart... a second birth restored me to a new man. Then, in a wondrous manner every doubt began to fade.... I clearly understood that what had first lived within me, enslaved by the vices of the flesh, was earthly and that what, instead, the Holy Spirit had wrought within me was divine and heavenly.”

Contested election as bishop of Carthage

Not long after his baptism he was ordained a deacon, and soon afterwards a priest. Some time between AD July 248 and April 249 he was elected bishop of Carthage, a popular choice among the poor who remembered his patronage as demonstrating good equestrian style. However his rapid rise did not meet with the approval of senior members of the clergy in Carthage, an opposition which did not disappear during his episcopate.

Not long afterward, the entire community was put to an unwanted test. Christians in North Africa had not suffered persecution for many years; the Church was assured and lax. Early in AD 250 the "Decian persecution" began. The Emperor Decius issued an edict, the text of which is lost, ordering sacrifices to the gods to be made throughout the Empire. Jews were specifically exempted from this requirement. Cyprian chose to go into hiding rather than face potential execution. While some clergy saw this decision as a sign of cowardice, Cyprian defended himself saying he had fled in order not to leave the faithful without a shepherd during the persecution, and that his decision to continue to lead them, although from a distance, was in accordance with divine will. Moreover, he pointed to the actions of the Apostles and Jesus himself: "And therefore the Lord commanded us in the persecution to depart and to flee; and both taught that this should be done, and Himself did it. For as the crown is given by the condescension of God, and cannot be received unless the hour comes for accepting it, whoever abiding in Christ departs for a while does not deny his faith, but waits for the time..."

Persecution under Valerian

At the end of AD 256 a new persecution of the Christians broke out under Emperor Valerian, and Pope Sixtus II was executed in Rome.

In Africa, Cyprian prepared his people for the expected edict of persecution by his De exhortatione martyrii, and himself set an example when he was brought before the Roman proconsul Aspasius Paternus (AD August 30, 257). He refused to sacrifice to the pagan deities and firmly professed Christ.

The proconsul banished him to Curubis, modern Korba, whence, to the best of his ability, he comforted his flock and his banished clergy. In a vision he believed he saw his approaching fate. When a year had passed he was recalled and kept practically a prisoner in his own villa, in expectation of severe measures after a new and more stringent imperial edict arrived, and which Christian writers subsequently claimed demanded the execution of all Christian clerics.

On AD September 13, 258, Cyprian was imprisoned on the orders of the new proconsul, Galerius Maximus. The public examination of Cyprian by Galerius Maximus, on AD 14 September 258 has been preserved:

Galerius Maximus: "Are you Thascius Cyprianus?" Cyprian: "I am." Galerius: "The most sacred Emperors have commanded you to conform to the Roman rites." Cyprian: "I refuse." Galerius: "Take heed for yourself." Cyprian: "Do as you are bid; in so clear a case I may not take heed." Galerius, after briefly conferring with his judicial council, with much reluctance pronounced the following sentence: "You have long lived an irreligious life, and have drawn together a number of men bound by an unlawful association, and professed yourself an open enemy to the gods and the religion of Rome; and the pious, most sacred and august Emperors ... have endeavoured in vain to bring you back to conformity with their religious observances; whereas therefore you have been apprehended as principal and ringleader in these infamous crimes, you shall be made an example to those whom you have wickedly associated with you; the authority of law shall be ratified in your blood." He then read the sentence of the court from a written tablet: "It is the sentence of this court that Thascius Cyprianus be executed with the sword." Cyprian: "Thanks be to God.”

The execution was carried out at once in an open place near the city. A vast multitude followed Cyprian on his last journey. He removed his garments without assistance, knelt down, and prayed. After he blindfolded himself, he was beheaded by the sword. The body was interred by Christians near the place of execution.

Almighty God, who gave to your servant Cyprian boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Dositheus, Martyr

Today the Church honors St. Dositheus, Martyr.

Orate pro nobis

The Christian country of Georgia came under Muslim Persian vassalage beginning in AD 1502, and under intermittent Muslim rule and suzerainty since 1555, and had become de facto independent after the disintegration of the Iranian Afsharid dynasty in 1796. In this brief interval of self-rule, the Georgian king Erakle II (1762-1798) made a peace agreement with Russia. The new ruler of Persia, Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar (14 March 1742 – 17 June 1797), also known by his regnal name of Agha Mohammad Shah, was the founder of the new Qajar dynasty of Persia, ruling from AD 1789 to 1797 as Shah.

For Agha Mohammad Khan, the resubjugation and reintegration of Georgia into the Muslim Persian Empire was part of the same process that had brought other territories, such as Shiraz, Isfahan, and Tabriz, back under his rule. Finding an interval of peace amid their own internal quarrels and with northern, western, and central Persia secure, the Persians demanded the Georgian monarch Erakle II renounce his treaty with Russia and re-accept Muslim Persian suzerainty, in return for peace and the security of his kingdom. The Ottomans, Persia's neighboring rival, recognized Persia's rights over Kartli and Kakheti for the first time in four centuries. King Erakle II appealed then to his theoretical protector, Empress Catherine II of Russia, pleading for at least 3,000 Russian troops, but he was not listened to, leaving Georgia to fend off the Persian threat alone. Nevertheless, Erakle II still rejected the Khan's ultimatum.

Thirty-five thousand Persian soldiers marched toward Georgia in the year 1795. Erekle II and his two thousand soldiers declared war on the invaders as they were approaching the capital city of Tbilisi. The Georgians offered a desperate resistance and succeeded in rolling back a series of Iranian attacks on 9 and 10 September, but most perished in the fighting. The enemy was shaken and was preparing to flee the battleground, when several traitors reported to Aqa Muhammed Khan that King Erekle had lost nearly his entire army. This betrayal decided the fate of the battle: the one hundred fifty soldiers who remained in the Georgian army barely succeeded in saving the life of King Erekle, who had willed to perish on the battlefield with his soldiers.

All of Tbilisi was engulfed in flames. The plunderers murdered the people, set fire to the libraries, and vandalized the churches and the king’s palace. They slaughtered the clergy in an especially cruel manner. The Iranian army marched back laden with spoil and carrying off some 15,000 captives.

Unfortunately, history has not preserved the names of all those martyrs who perished in this tragedy, but we do know that a certain Metropolitan Bishop Dositheus of Tbilisi was killed because he would not abandon his flock. While the invaders simply killed most of the clergymen, from Saint Dositheus they demanded a renunciation of the Christian Faith. In the aftermath of the battle, a group of Qajar soldiers found the elderly Dositheus at the Sioni Cathedral kneeling before the icon of Virgin Mary. They commanded him to defile the True and Life-giving Cross of our Lord. But the holy hieromartyr Dositheus endured the greatest torments without yielding to the enemy, and he joyfully accepted death for Christ’s sake. The invaders slaughtered Christ’s devoted servant with their swords and threw his body into the Kira River.

Saint Dositheus was martyred on September 12 in the year AD 1795.

Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr Dositheus triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death: Grant us, who now remember him in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

St. Paphnutius the Confessor

Today the Church honors St. Paphnutius, Confessor of the Faith.

Ora pro nobis.

The holy confessor Paphnutius was an Egyptian who, after having spent several years in the desert under the direction of St. Antony the Great, was made bishop in the Upper Thebaid in Egypt. He was one of those confessors who, under the persecution of Christians under Emperor Maximinus (AD 310-313), was blinded in the right eye and hamstrung in one leg, and were afterwards condemned to work in the mines. With the promulgation of the Edict of Milan by the Emperor Constantine in AD 313, Christianity became a legal religion in the Roman Empire, and all imprisoned Christians were set free. Paphnutius returned to his flock, bearing all the rest of his life the glorious marks of his sufferings for the name of his Crucified Master. 

He was one of the most zealous in defending the orthodox Faith of the Church against the Arian heresy. He was also highly regarded for his holiness of life. As one who had confessed the Faith before persecutors and under torments, he was an outstanding figure of the first General Council of the Church, held at Nicaea in the year AD 325. Paphnutius, a man who had observed the strictest continence all his life, is said to have distinguished himself at the Council by his opposition to a new requirement of clerical celibacy. Paphnutius said that it was enough to conform to the ancient tradition of the Church, which restricted the clergy from marrying after their ordination, but to require married clergy to abandon their wives was unacceptable to the Gospel of Jesus. His voice won the day, and to this day it is the law of the Eastern Churches, whether Catholic or Orthodox, that married men may be ordained deacon and priest, though bishops are chosen only from celibate monastics, and continue to live freely with their wives. 

St. Paphnutius is sometimes called "the Great" to distinguish him from other saints of the same name. The exact year of his death is not known, but was certainly in the early 4th c. AD.

Almighty God, you have surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses: Grant that we, encouraged by the good example of your faithful servant Paphnutius, may persevere in running the race that is set before us, until at last we may with him attain to your eternal joy; through Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

The Martyrs of Memphis

Today the church remembers the Martyrs of Memphis, Sr. Constance, Nun, and Her Companions.

Orate pro nobis.

Late in the summer of AD 1878, yellow fever struck Memphis, Tennessee. The populace all tried to flee, leaving behind those unable to escape, mostly the poor and those already ill. Within 10 days of the first yellow fever death in Memphis, more than half the population fled the city in a panic. They left “by every possible conveyance — by hacks, carriages, buggies, wagons, furniture vans, and street drays,” wrote Keating. “By anything that could float on the river, and by the railroads. The stream of passengers seemed endless, and they seemed to be as mad as they were many.”

Left behind were still some 20,000 men, women, and children, but Memphis faded into a ghost town. Shops and offices were boarded up, houses locked and shuttered. An eerie silence smothered the city, broken only by the occasional booming of cannons (fired to break up the “poisons” in the air), and the steady clop-clop of doctors’ wagons or carts hauling caskets. At night, smoldering fires of burning bedding and clothing — the last belongings of fever victims — lit the yellow-armbanded Howard Association members, who scurried from house to house aiding the sick.

Victims dropped dead in the streets, and bodies were discovered each morning in the city’s parks. Entries in the sister’s journals describe an abandoned town with the bodies of the dead lying where the fell, children in homes with their dead parents…scenes of pure horror. Sister Constance wrote: “Yesterday I found two young girls, who had spent two days in a two-room cottage with the unburied bodies of their parents, their uncle in the utmost suffering and delirium, and no one near them. It was twenty-four hours before I could get those fearful corpses buried, and then I had to send for a police officer … before any undertaker would enter that room.”

The Episcopal Cathedral of St. Mary’s, and its adjacent Church Home, were in the poor part of town, the center of the most infected area, and became shelters for victims. The cathedral staff and nuns of the Sisters of St. Mary, who operated the Church Home, faced enormous burdens in caring for the sick and dying. The Cathedral of St. Mary, then a plain wooden church, stood as a beacon of hope amid the gloom, and two priests there — Fr. Charles Parsons and Fr. Louis Schuyler — also played heroic roles during the epidemic. They joined dozens of other church members throughout the city who, along with the Howard Association, died at their posts during the ordeal.

Some of the sisters were on retreat in Peekskill, New York, when the epidemic broke out, and instead of keeping a safe distance they rushed back to Memphis. When the news of the deaths of the local priests got out, over 30 priests from all over the nation volunteered to come to Memphis. Father W.T. Dickinson Dalzell came from Shreveport, La., since he had already survived the disease and was immune—he was also a trained physician. With his arrival, daily Eucharist resumed and the Sacrament was carried to the dying Sisters.

Sister Constance was the first of the nuns to be stricken. As she died on September 9, her last words were “Alleluia, Hosanna,” simple words of praise remembered and inscribed on the cathedral"s high altar. 

Sister Constance’s companions in service to the sick and dying, Sisters Thecla and Ruth, soon followed her to the grave, as did Sister Frances, headmistress of the Church Home. She had nursed some thirty children at one time and had watched twenty-two die. Fr. Louis Schuyler, a chaplain to the Sisters of St. Mary, also died of the fever, as did Fr. Charles Parsons. Fr. Parsons was blessed with a vision of heaven as he lay dying and his last words were, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

When winter came and the mosquitoes died off, the epidemic ended, 200 towns and cities across the South lay wasted. Yellow fever had infected more than 100,000 people, causing some 20,000 deaths — more than 5,000 in Memphis alone.

5,150 people died in the Memphis Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878, and many of them were formerly healthy people who had stayed to help the sick until succumbing themselves. The city buried 1,500 of its dead in a mass grave on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi -- and pretty much forgot about them until January 3, 1971, when the grave site became Martyrs Park.

On this day we honor those who gladly risked their own lives in the name of Jesus in order to save the lives of many and to assuage the final suffering of others.

Embolden us to work for the healing of all those in need, seeking to love others as you have loved us, Lord Christ. 

We give you thanks and praise, O God of compassion, for the heroic witness of Constance and her companions, who, in a time of plague and pestilence, were steadfast in their care for the sick and dying, and loved not their own lives, even unto death; Insipre in us a like love and commitment to those in need, following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. 

Amen.