Under renewed persecution, Cornelius went into exile at Civita Vecchia. Though there is no evidence that he became a martyr, Cyprian described him as such. Visitors may still see his tomb in Rome.
SEPTEMBER 17
Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179)
Religious insight
We may summarize the character and achievement of Hildegard of Bingen with three terms: Benedictine abbess, intellectual, and mystic. But this hardly does justice for one of the most remarkable German women of her times.
Hildegard was born in 1098. She grew up near a Benedictine abbey and became a nun while still in her teens. By 1136, she was its superior and relocated the growing community to Rupertsberg near Bingen about a decade later.
Mystical experiences were part of her life from childhood. “My visions were not like the dreams of sleep,” she wrote. “I did not see them with my eyes or ears in hidden places. I saw them in full view when I was wide-awake and mentally alert. I perceived them with the eyes of the spirit and the inward ears.” Hildegard’s superiors instructed her to write down her experiences. With the help of a monk as a secretary, she devoted ten years of her life to preparing Scivias (“Know the Ways”).
In the manner of other visionaries, Hildegard wrote letters to various leaders and rulers, criticizing their policies and offering better alternatives. Henry II of England heard from her, as did the emperor Frederick Barbarossa and Pope Eugenius III. She developed a concept of the “greenness” of God’s life-giving force, and was an ecologist before anyone had coined the word.
One of her books was in the field of medicine. Hildegard dealt with the circulatory system, headaches, dizziness, insanity, and other maladies. She was knowledgeable regarding herbal therapy, and wrote about flora and fauna with a biologist’s interest. She prepared commentaries on the Gospels, on the Athanasian Creed, and on the Rule of St. Benedict. Musicians are still performing her twelfth-century compositions and recording them on modern compact discs. Hildegard was an extraordinarily gifted woman with the widest imaginable range of interests built on a foundation of careful study.
Hildegard had almost reached her eightieth birthday when she died in 1179.
SEPTEMBER 18
Joseph of Cupertino (1602–63)
Patience and humility
Cupertino is an Italian town where the dim-witted Joseph was born in a garden shed. Other children did not enjoy playing with him, nicknaming him “the Gaper” (Boccaperta) because he walked around with his mouth open. He failed as a kitchen helper with a Capuchin community, and then worked as a stable hand until it became clear to others that he was spiritually astute.
Although an exceptionally poor student, Joseph performed well on final examinations and became an ordained priest in 1628. He then began a unique ministry of healing and performed attentiongetting miraculous stunts. Worshipers insisted they saw him fly over their heads from the church door to the altar. On one occasion, reliable witnesses reported seeing him levitate into an olive tree and kneel on one of its branches. The record of Joseph’s life lists more than seventy instances of levitation. When ten workers failed to erect a cross thirty-six feet high, Joseph of Cupertino lifted it into place through the air “as if it were a straw.” A new nickname, “The Flying Friar,” replaced his unhappy childhood name. With all of that, Joseph remained humble, gentle, and cheerful. His demeanor was such that birds did not fly away when he approached.
We may smile at the credulity and pious exaggerations of seventeenth-century people, but historians do not doubt that his behavior embarrassed many religious people. Disturbing phenomena followed Joseph of Cupertino, disturbing enough for church authorities to put him out of sight in remote places during the final thirty-five years of his life. He died in strict seclusion in 1663. His canonization is not based on his startling displays, but on his extreme patience and humility.
SEPTEMBER 19
Januarius of Benevento (d. 304)
Martyred for faith
Januarius, also known as Gennaro, did not make it very far into the pages of reliable history. We remember him chiefly because of a remarkable container of what is believed to be his blood.
Januarius was a fourth-century bishop of Benevento, Italy. He visited some imprisoned Christians during the Diocletian persecution and ended up in jail himself. The Romans martyred him along with the others about 304. Legend holds that they threw Januarius and his companions to the bears, but the animals refused to attack. Their captors then decapitated each of them. A woman named Eusebia collected some of the blood from the stone on which Januarius died and presented it to the bishop of Naples.
Today, an ornate reliquary contains hermetically sealed glass vials purported to contain the blood of Januarius. Thousands gather at the Naples Cathedral three times a year to witness the liquefaction of blood that is centuries old. The ritual itself began in the fourteenth century, a thousand years after Januarius was martyred. Skeptics point to the fact that the “blood” liquefied several times when jewelers repaired the reliquary. Chemists at the University of Pavia and colleagues in Milan have duplicated the phenomenon in their laboratories with chemicals that would have been readily available to medieval artists and alchemists. They created a gel that turns solid when undisturbed and liquefied when agitated. Regardless of such investigations, there is no proof that the substance in the reliquary is not blood, and Januarius remains the patron saint of Naples—a saint who died for his faith.
SEPTEMBER 20
Korean Martyrs (nineteenth century)
Faith as risk
Christianity is growing rapidly in South Korea today, and many churches are filled to overflowing. This was not the case in the nineteenth century. State-sponsored Confucianism officially banned Christianity. The first Korean Christian was actually baptized in China in 1784. Korean Christians returning home brought books with them. When a Chinese priest arrived in 1794, he discovered about four thousand Koreans who had been secretly attracted to Christ. Missionaries gradually arrived, and the number of “closet” Christians continued to increase.
It was impossible to keep such a large number of Christians hidden from official eyes indefinitely, even though they made heroic attempts to stay out of sight. Violent persecution broke out in the mid-nineteenth century, with many missionaries and their converts becoming martyrs. Of the thousands who were killed, one hundred and three were officially canonized in 1984, all but ten of them Korean.
SEPTEMBER 21
Matthew (first century)
Beyond the apparent
Matthew the tax collector worked for the Roman occupiers in a lucrative and unpopular occupation. Jesus made a point about God’s love by being kind to Matthew, when the general population tended to snub him. Zaccheus, who climbed a sycamore tree in Jericho to see Jesus pass by, was also a tax collector. The fact that Christ wanted a tax collector as an apostle must have been shocking and scandalous in his cultural context. Religious people made the charge against Jesus that he ate with “tax collectors and sinners.” Jesus made a sensible reply that reveals the depth of his spirituality. “Those who are well do not need a physician.”
The inclusion of Matthew will forever remind Christians that though it may be easier to love the saint than the sinner, every sinner is a potential saint.
SEPTEMBER 22
Maurice and Companions (d. 287)
Allegiance to God
It is necessary to distill the account of Maurice and his fellow soldiers to free it from enthusiastic exaggerations and thick layers of piety. But even after reducing the numbers involved, there is still a moving story of martyrdom.
In 287, the Roman army recruited a legion from Thebes in Upper Egypt. Every one of the new soldiers was a Christian. Rome sent them to help control rebellious Gauls near the lake of Geneva. The night before a decisive battle, all the combatants received instructions to sacrifice to the Roman gods. The Theban Legion declined pagan worship. The army considered this insubordination and used a standar
d technique to get compliance—decimation. Ten percent of the soldiers in the legion would be chosen by lot for execution. The remaining ninety percent should then be willing to sacrifice to the gods.
Because of the Theban Christians’ strong religious convictions, the Roman plan failed to work. The officers used a second lottery and the soldiers continued to resist. “We are your soldiers, but we are also servants of the true God. We will obey your orders in every regard except in that which is against God’s law. We took an oath to God before we took one to you.”
Christians were causing problems for the Roman Empire in other parts of the world and could become military targets. The Theban legion knew this and did not want to fight against others who shared their faith in Christ. The Romans martyred the entire Theban legion. They offered no resistance as they were slain.
SEPTEMBER 23
Padre Pio (1887–1968)
Lnexplicable experience
Padre Pio, as he is known today, was a poor boy who became a Capuchin friar in modern times. He lived at a Franciscan monastery, San Giovanni Rotundo, in the Apulian region of southern Italy. He would have preferred to blend anonymously into the community, but the very opposite happened when he became marked with the stigmata on his hands, feet, and side, similar to St. Francis of Assisi (October 4). These inexplicable open wounds appeared on his body in 1910 and remained there, bleeding, for fifty years.
Thousands came to see him and talk with him. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina was living proof of God’s activity in the world, gifted with the complete range of supernatural gifts associated with a medieval saint. He performed miraculous healings, even giving sight to a man born without pupils in his eyes. He could “read” the hearts and minds of others so that they had no secrets with him. There are many reports that he could be in two places at once. These things were not happening in a gullible age of faith, but in our skeptical modern world that is suspicious of anything that defies scientific analysis.
Even religious experts responded negatively to Padre Pio. Church leaders did not want a monk who was a celebrity. They applied much effort to discredit and debunk the bizarre reports of his supernatural experiences. He was a troubling embarrassment, and they asked him to stay out of sight as much as possible.
Padre Pio, meanwhile, was truly suffering. The stigmata actually hurt and the notoriety caused him personal grief. The reaction of church officials brought him extraordinary stress. The wounds of the stigmata closed and healed shortly before his death on September 23, 1968. He became a canonized saint in 2002. Many books have been written about him.
SEPTEMBER 24
Gerard Sagredo (d. 1046)
Evangelistic service
“The Apostle of Hungary” began life in Venice, where he became a monk at San Giorgio Maggiore. While on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he passed through Hungary and met King Stephen, who wanted his country Christianized. Gerard agreed to tutor the king’s son, Emeric. In 1035, Gerard became the first bishop of Csanad.
When King Stephen died in 1038, the forces of paganism broke out again. In 1046, soldiers killed Gerard in the area that in modern times has become Budapest. His murderers threw his body into the Danube River. Venetians venerate him as their first martyr.
SEPTEMBER 25
Sergius of Radonezh (1315–92)
Simplicity
There are two lists of official saints, Eastern and Western, reflecting the ancient division between Rome and Constantinople. Sergius is among the Russian Orthodox Church’s most popular saints, and he is one of the very few who also appears on the Catholic calendar.
Sergius and his family settled down in Radonezh, near Moscow, early in his life. Civil war had stripped them of their position and wealth, forcing them to survive as peasants. When his parents died, Sergius and his brother Stephen became Christian hermits, living in the forest, struggling against the forces of the wild and their own human nature. Others gradually joined them to restore the dilapidated monastery of the Holy Trinity. Life at the monastery was simple and beautiful, if a little rough. Sergius was a mystic who also became involved in politics, but he steadfastly refused to depart from his life of prayer and devotion at the monastery.
SEPTEMBER 26
Cosmas and Damian (d. ? 303)
Christian service
Here are two saints who exemplify the many who are “known only to God.” All we know about them are their names. Some authorities are not even willing to place them in a particular century. Legend states that they were Arab brothers who were physicians. Famous for offering their services freely, they gained the nickname “Moneyless.” Tradition holds that they were martyred near Antioch while Diocletian was Emperor of Rome. Fra Angelico and other artists left excellent paintings of their legendary experiences.
SEPTEMBER 27
Vincent de Paul (1581–1660)
Selfless giving
Vincent’s name will always be associated with charity for the poor. A French farm boy, Vincent de Paul became a priest when he was only nineteen or twenty. For the first decade of his seventeenthcentury ministry, he enjoyed a comfortable life far from the dirt and heavy labor of his rural beginnings. The challenge of serving the poor waited for him in the future as he fulfilled a dream of rising above his early circumstances. He became a chaplain in the service of Queen Margaret of Valois, and gained the social skills to be at home among the affluent. He tutored in one of the wealthiest homes in Paris and grew familiar with eating well and dressing well.
At the same time, the connections Vincent were making opened doors that allowed him to perform valuable services for people in great need, such as working to improve prison conditions. He met Francis de Sales (January 24) and was profoundly influenced by him. Possibilities for a ministry focused on the world’s forgotten poor began to take shape in his thinking. Like all people, those outside the circle of upper-class society had both physical and spiritual needs. He decided to organize groups of lay people to become involved with the cause of the poor.
In 1625, Vincent founded the Congregation of the Mission (known also as Vincentians). Its members were secular priests who agreed to live in a community, train clergy, and serve in small towns and villages. He also began the Sisters of Charity, women who were committed to the poor and the sick. This was the first “unenclosed” congregation of women. “Their convent is the sickroom,” he wrote, “their chapel the parish church, their cloister the streets of the city.”
Vincent de Paul became a legendary figure while he remained at work. Wealthy people contributed funds and volunteered to help. The poor and victims of war benefited from his tireless service. He established hospitals, orphanages, and homes for the mentally ill, and raised funds to ransom Christian slaves in North Africa. Vincent told those who were sharing his ministry, “The poor are your masters and you are their servants.” His work had spread across Europe by the time of his death in 1660.
SEPTEMBER 28
Lioba (d. ca. 781)
Christian example
A relative of Boniface (June 5), Lioba was an English nun in Wimborne abbey in Dorset. She stands tall as an early missionary of the Christian Church. After several years of correspondence with her distant cousin Boniface, she received an invitation to join him in a mission to evangelize Germany in 748. Her assignment was to establish convents. A group of about thirty nuns traveled with her to Tauberbischofsheim.
Rudolf of Fulda wrote Lioba’s biography about fifty years after her death in 782. He had interviewed four nuns who knew her intimately. Lioba, they told him, was an attractive, intelligent, kind, and accessible woman. Her influence and example spread to other convents. People in responsible positions for both church and state came to her for advice.
SEPTEMBER 29
Richard Rolle (1300–49)
Life of prayer
England’s first great medieval mystic was born in Yorkshire in 1300, or possibly a few years earlier. Most of what we know about Richard Rolle is from the pages of his own books. He
dropped out of Oxford to become a religious hermit, causing his family to worry about his sanity. With financial support from a few enthusiastic patrons, Richard Rolle sustained life as a religious hermit for thirtyone years.
Richard wrote about his religious experiences in books, two of which remain in general circulation: Emendatio vitae (The Mending of Life) and Incendium amoris (The Fire of Love). ”Once I was sitting in a chapel, singing the Psalms as well as I could in the evening before supper. It seemed as though I could hear stringed instruments playing above me. With my prayers, I reached out to these heavenly sounds. I experienced a blending of the internal melodies I was improvising with the heavenly harmonies. My meditation was transformed into music.”
While Richard Rolle’s writings include descriptions of such personal rapture, he also gives clear instruction to those who would live a Christian life. He did not hesitate to criticize misdirected interests of clergy or shallow religious behavior.
“Not everyone who leaves the things of this world behind comes to Christ. When Christ says ‘sell everything,’ he means change your point of view. If you are proud, now you must become humble. If you are angry, learn how to forgive. If you are greedy, be transformed into a generous person.”
We would be mistaken to imagine Richard Rolle as one who lived a wild life in rags and avoided society. He enjoyed people and had a strong interest in seeing them grow spiritually.
The Black Death took Rolle’s life on September 29, 1349.
SEPTEMBER 30
Jerome (ca. 341–420)
Christian dedication
The word most frequently associated with Jerome is scholar. A consummate student and linguist, Jerome is one of the greatest scholars the Christian Church has ever produced. One of his contemporaries, St. Augustine (August 28), remarked, “If Jerome doesn’t know it, no one knows it.” Proficient in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, the original languages of sacred Scripture, he produced a Latin Bible known as the Vulgate. The Latin he used was the language of the common people in his day, the “vulgar,” everyday speech. Jerome’s thorough and careful translation became the standard version of the Bible for more than a thousand years.
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