JULY 13
Henry II (973–1024)
Influence of Christ
Henry, the last of the Saxon emperors, was born in Bavaria, Germany. The pope crowned him in 1014. As Henry struggled to bring order and strength to Germany, he also worked to reform and to reorganize the Christian Church. He built a cathedral in Bamberg, and established monasteries. The Rule of Benedict (July 11) appealed to him and he enthusiastically supported it because he received a miraculous cure at the monastery of Montecassino in Italy.
Henry died, a splendid example of a Christian political leader, in 1024.
JULY 14
Camillus de Lellis (1550–1614)
Changing things
The mother of Camillus was a mature sixty when he was born. Everyone considered her pregnancy a miracle. She went into labor while she was attending public worship in Bocchianico in Abruzzi, Italy, and decided that she would walk to a nearby stable and provide her child with a manger of straw for his first cradle, like someone else she knew of. Certainly, this infant of her maturity was a holy child and destined to become a saint.
How many holy women have watched in despair as their children grew up to make poor choices for themselves? Camillus developed a nasty temper and a fondness for gambling. A good fighter six-anda-half feet tall, he joined the Venetian army and set out with his father to battle the Turks. A painful sore on his leg (that never healed) took him out of action and put him in San Giacamo Hospital in Rome. While receiving treatment, Camillus worked as an orderly to help pay bills. His quick temper annoyed the hospital staff, and they quickly returned him to the military.
His addiction to gambling and alcohol became his downfall. He lost everything, even the shirt off his back, and had to take a job as a laborer for a Capuchin religious community. This environment triggered a suppressed awareness of God, and he determined that he would change his behavior. He tried to become a Capuchin friar when construction at the church was completed two years later, but the problem with his leg made that impossible.
Returning to San Giacamo, Camillus worked feverishly to redeem his reputation as he cared for the patients there. Our modern idea of a hospital is not appropriate when we consider the conditions of a sixteenth-century medical facility in Italy. Often, such hospitals were filthy places. No one really expected much of a cure. The poorly trained staff had little medical knowledge. They were tough people, and mistreatment of patients was commonplace. Camillus decided it was time to show the sick and dying some love and respect. He saw Christ in each hospital patient. He began a program of good nutrition for the sick, and he encouraged fresh air, sunshine, cleanliness, and the isolation of infectious patients. The results appeared to be miraculous. Camillus became the hospital’s superintendent.
Camillus became a priest in 1584. On the advice of his advisor, Philip Neri (May 26), he founded a congregation of male nurses. The “Clerks Regular of a Good Death, Ministers to the Sick” vowed to serve the sick in hospitals, homes, and prisons. Some of these “Camillans” served on the battlefields of Hungary and Croatia at the turn of the seventeenth century, becomimg the first military medics in history. Many sacrificed their own lives while caring for people with communicable diseases.
In spite of his own chronic and painful illness, Camillus continued to give personal attention to the sick until his own death at Genoa in 1614. By then, he had received enough contributions to build eight hospitals and to found fifteen houses of his order. His mother would have needed to live until she was one hundred and twentyfour to see how his life turned out. We have no record of the time of her death, but we can hope that she at least lived to see him turn to a better life at San Giacamo.
JULY 15
Bonaventure (ca. 1218–74)
Following and leading
According to legend, Francis of Assisi (October 4) named Bonaventure. Actually, his name was Giovanni di Fidanza. He became seriously ill when he was four years old, and his parents took him to the famous saint for possible healing. When the boy’s health returned, Francis exclaimed ”Buona ventura” (good fortune).
Bonaventure entered the Franciscan Order in 1238 and rose to a position of leadership. It is difficult to imagine that Franciscans should have internal rivalries and opposition, but that was the case when Bonaventure joined them. Francis had died a decade earlier, and the Franciscans had split into factions. One group called themselves “Spirituals,” because they wanted to maintain the kind of poverty Francis practiced, and felt little need for centralized authority. Another group wanted to tone down the austerities and take a more casual approach. Bonaventure worked hard to pull both extremes toward an agreeable middle. His achievement was significant enough for him to attract the label of “second founder” of the Franciscans.
Bonaventure’s writing fills a nine-volume collection today. His work includes two biographies of St. Francis. Bonaventure does not report that he actually knew the saint, but he does provide the source for the legend of his healing. “When I was a boy, as I still vividly remember, I was snatched from the jaws of death by his invocation and merits.”
Bonaventure’s The Mind’s Journey into God attempts to express the experience of Francis in the form and language of philosophy
”Happiness is the enjoyment of the highest good. Because the highest good is above us, we must rise above ourselves before we can be happy. This is a spiritual rather than a physical ascent, and we cannot rise above ourselves unless we are lifted by a power greater than ourselves.”
The Tree of Life is a small devotional guidebook that leads readers in a meditation on the life of Christ. The experiences of Jesus, he writes, are like the branches of a tree from which we can pluck valuable fruit, such as humility, holiness, patience, and faithfulness. Bonaventure prayed, Good Jesus, even though I do not deserve it, grant me the ability to ponder your experiences in my mind. I was not present at the cross, but let me ponder the hour of your passion even as it was felt by your mother and the penitent Magdalene.
There is a wonderful moment a year before Bonaventure’s death that tells us as much about his personal character as any other single event. In 1273, Pope Gregory X appointed him cardinal-bishop of Albano. When the delegation arrived to deliver his red hat and other accoutrements of the office, Bonaventure was in the friary kitchen, washing dishes. He kept the astonished legates waiting until he finished his turn at kitchen duty. His working principle: “Religion is doing ordinary things perfectly.” If we cannot do great things, we can do regular things in a great way.
JULY 16
Eustathius of Antioch (d. ca. 335)
Opposition
Eustathius became bishop of Beroea, Syria, in 270. He grew up in Pamphylia, but other than that, we know little of his early life. After fifty-three years as bishop, Eustathius accepted an appointment as the patriarch of Antioch. In that capacity, he attended the famous Council of Nicea where he joined others in opposing the heretical teachings of Arius.
Unfortunately, the Arians gained control of the church at Antioch and deposed Eustathius. He died about 335, an exile in Thrace. The struggle for the control of power and doctrine at Antioch continued for years after his death.
JULY 17
Pavol Gojdic (1888–1960)
Courageous faith
Presov is located among impressive, snow-covered mountains in East Slovakia. Peter Gojdic was born near this city in 1888, the son of a Greek-Catholic priest. In 1907, he began his study of theology at Presov before finishing at Budapest in 1911 and being ordained. For a while, he served as an assistant parish priest in his father’s church.
He made his vows in the Order of St. Basil the Great at Cernecia Hora in 1922, taking the name of Pavol. He said, “With God’s help, I want to be a father to orphans, a support for the poor, and a consoler to the afflicted.” He became bishop of Presov in 1927.
Pavol’s accomplishments in Presov were impressive. He built orphanages, founded the Greek-Catholic school, established new parishes, and us
ed the printing press effectively in promoting the work of the Church. In 1946, he was confirmed as bishop of Czechoslovakia.
When the Communists seized power in 1948, they began serious suppression of the Greek-Catholic Church. For political reasons, they wanted to eliminate all relationship with Rome. Bishop Gojdic refused to cooperate with the plan, turning down offers of political preferential treatment. Like so many others through history, he firmly declared, “I will not deny my faith. Do not even come to me.” The Communist Party responded by banning the Greek Catholic Church in 1950 and putting Pavol in jail. A trial, designed for public display, convicted him of treason the next year. The authorities sentenced him to life without possibility of parole, stripped him of all civil rights, and began years of abusive treatment. Pavol was told that he would be released from prison if he would agree to become patriarch of the Orthodox church of Czechoslovakia. He replied that his conscience would not permit it. Pavol remained in jail, and the difficult conditions continued to weaken his health. His final months on earth were spent in the prison hospital at Leopoldov, where he died on July 17, 1960. He was buried in the prison cemetery under a plain marker bearing only the number 681. In 1968, his body was exhumed and reburied. In 1990, his relics were placed in the chapel of the Greek-Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Presov. He was beatified in 2001, and the process for canonization continues.
JULY 18
Philastrius (d. ? 387)
Gentleness
After beginning his life in Spain, Philastrius moved to Italy, where he accepted an appointment as bishop of Brescia. His tenure came during the height of the Arian heresy contest regarding the nature and work of Christ. His book refuting Arianism still exists. He also prepared a complete listing of heresies that had plagued the first three centuries of church doctrine. Augustine (August 28) met Philastrius in Milan about 383 and mentions him in one of his books. His death occurred late in the fourth century. The bishop who followed Philastrius praised him for his “modesty, quietness, and gentleness toward others.”
JULY 19
Macrina the Younger (ca. 327–79)
Christian influence
Macrina is an example of the value of religious family life. Her parents became canonized saints, as did two of her brothers Gregory the Great (January 2) and St. Peter of Sebatea. Another of Macrina’s brothers St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote a memoir of their life together, recalling his older sister’s sterling faith and devotion.
Macrina was born early in the fourth century in Caesarea. When she was twelve, her parents betrothed her to a young man who died before the wedding day. Macrina declared herself a widow and did not encourage other young men to take interest in her. She persuaded her widowed mother to live a simple life rather than enjoying the luxury of their inheritance. When her mother died, Macrina turned their family estate into a convent for women of all social classes.
Her brother Gregory returned home in 379 to discover Macrina ill and confined to the boards she used as a bed. Brother and sister conversed at length on life and death. She amazed the great theologian with the profundity of her insight into spiritual matters. Her comments seemed to him to be “more than human.” He stayed with her until she died, hearing her prayer: O God everlasting, towards whom I have directed myself from my mother’s womb, send a shining angel to lead me to the place of refreshment where restful waters flow near the bosom of the holy fathers. May I be found before you once I have put off my body. May my soul be received into your hands, blameless and spotless, as an offering before you.
After her death Gregory the Great conducted Macrina’s funeral.
JULY 20
Aurelius of Carthage (d. 429)
Strength of faith
No one is sure where or when Aurelius was born. His story begins for us around 388 when he was bishop of Carthage. As head of the Church in North Africa, he probably had as many as five hundred local bishops under his direction.
St. Augustine (August 28) was a friend and confident of Aurelius. Their conversations regarding Christian doctrine no doubt contributed to the opposition Aurelius directed toward various heresies that were troubling the church early in the fifth century. Some of his doctrinal opponents behaved violently, causing Aurelius to call in civil authorities against them. He died in his maturity. Contemporaries heaped praise upon his character and actions.
JULY 21
Laurence of Brindisi (1559–1619)
Valuable scholarship
Laurence of Brindisi was a Capuchin priest who was an outstanding Bible student and preacher. Both of his parents died soon after he was born in Brindisi, Italy. When Laurence grew up, his uncle arranged for him to attend the College of St. Mark in Venice. He went on to study at the University of Padua and demonstrated a natural ability to learn languages. Laurence received his ordination at the age of twenty-three in Venice.
Laurence’s linguistic skills led him to intense study of the Scriptures in their original texts, where he derived insights that many scholars before him had missed. With his natural facility for Hebrew, he began to preach to the Jewish communities in Italy with favorable response. Laurence also attempted a mission for the Lutherans.
As chaplain of the imperial army fighting the Turks in Hungary, Laurence made some tactical suggestions that turned out to be successful. We are told that he led troops into battle, carrying a crucifix. Understanding that the best solutions were not the result of military conflict, Laurence was also a successful negotiator and peacemaker.
On a diplomatic mission to Spain, he contracted a serious illness and died in Lisbon.
JULY 22
Mary Magdalene (first century)
Devotion to Christ
Mary Magdalene was the first person to see the risen Lord. She had been in front of the group of women who discovered the empty tomb.
Mary Magdalene was one of the most prominent of the women who followed Jesus in his itinerant ministry and contributed to his support. Though some have suggested it, there is absolutely no evidence that she had ever been a prostitute. This notion probably goes back to a suggestion by Gregory the Great (September 3) who thought she could possibly be identified with the unnamed woman who washed Christ’s feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. Writers of fiction and songs have seized upon the false idea for years with the result that popular imagination simply accepts it as a fact. The Bible does not say Calvary was a hill, that there were three magi, or that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute.
Her name implies that she was from Magdala, a small village on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Magdala was a prosperous fishing, boat building, and trading center. “Mary” was, and remains, an often-used name for women. There are many Marys in the New Testament. By adding “Magdalene” to her name, the writers made it clear which Mary they meant.
She did have some problems before she met Jesus. The Gospel of Luke tells us that “seven demons” had gone out of her. Interpreting that phrase has led to much uninformed discussion. All we can conclude is that she probably had some kind of chronic difficulty.
The essence of Mary Magdalene’s importance as a saint is that Christ could depend upon her devoted support. She accompanied him to Jerusalem when he returned there for the last time. She stood at the cross. She went to the tomb. The first words the risen Lord spoke were to her. Distracted by grief, she thought he was the gardener. Mary did not recognize him until he spoke her name.
JULY 23
Bridget of Sweden (1303–73)
Activity and contemplation
Bridget had mystical experiences from childhood. Like Teresa of Avila (October 15), she blended both contemplation and activity into an extraordinarily productive life. When she was fourteen, Bridget married Ulf Gudmarsson, a Swedish nobleman. They had eight children who demonstrate that the influence of parents and home do not always determine the development of each child’s personality and character. One of their daughters Katherine of Vadstena became a canonized saint. A son Charle
s was notorious for his mistakes and poor choices, the source of much parental grief.
In 1335, Bridget became lady-in-waiting to the Queen of Sweden. For her work with the royal family, the king gave her some land and empty buildings she could use as a convent. When Ulf died in 1344, Bridget founded the religious Order for the Holy Savior at Vadstena.
Bridget moved to Rome and began to care for the poor and the sick while writing down the substance of her mystical experiences. Her religious order was in financial difficulty, but she labored on.
A shipwreck on a voyage to Jerusalem, combined with the news of her son’s tragic death, damaged her health. She died in 1373, soon after returning to Rome. Her daughter, Katherine, continued her work with what became known as the Brigettine Order. Today there are twelve Brigettine nunneries around the world.
JULY 24
Christina of Tuscany/Tyre (fourth century?)
Religious imagination
Several women by the name of Christina share this day. We include them here to illustrate a recurring problem historians have with stories of saints from the early centuries of Christianity.
The account Christina Mirabilis (which means Astonishing) is full of legendary thirteenth-century mystical phenomena, such as her sitting up in her casket and then flying to the rafters of the church.
The stories of two fourth-century Christinas blend in a mix that is impossible to separate. Christina of Tuscany and Christina of Tyre (Phoenicia) share similar life experiences. Scholars consider Christina of Tyre to be essentially a fictional character, while Christina of Tuscany was probably an actual martyr with an existing burial place and shrine. The accounts of the torture and suffering of these two Christinas are graphic and called “unlikely” by scholars. Specialists in the written acta of saints reach the conclusion that early hagiographers inflated existing stories of several other women martyrs to give fresh excitement to Christina. This sort of popular religious fiction continues to be produced in our time. Some of it is honest, and some of it leads to false expectations.
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