Maria was the daughter of Angiolo Corsini, a military officer. Because of his occupation, the family moved frequently. Maria was born in Florence, Italy, and by the time she was nine she had lived in four cities. Her education began in one of Rome’s parochial schools, but her father took her out and placed her in a public school when he heard a report that one of the nuns had been critical of the king.
Maria married Luigi Quattrocchi and became the mother of four children. They opened their home as a refugee shelter during the Second World War. She became a college professor and wrote about education. Italian women’s gatherings often responded enthusiastically to her talks on religious subjects.
Maria died of natural causes in 1965, and Pope John Paul II officially beatified her in 2001.
NOVEMBER 26
Umile da Bisignano (1582–1637)
Infused knowledge
Luca Antonio Pirozzo was born in Bisignano, Italy. His religious name was Umile (humble), an entirely fitting name for this Franciscan who prayed fervently and possessed remarkable mystical gifts. Other Franciscans called him the “ecstatic friar.”
His ecstatic religious experiences began to be noticed by the public, and this brought him difficult times. He was accused of fraud, and of responding to the devil. Umile quietly bowed his head during this period of misunderstanding and distrust.
Never a good student and unable to read, Umile demonstrated the gift of “infused knowledge.” His understanding of Scripture and doctrine amazed noted scholars. The archbishop of Reggio Calabria and a team of theology professors examined Umile with regard for his supernatural wisdom. Without hedging, he gave clear, precise answers to their questions.
Umile died as he had lived—in prayer.
NOVEMBER 27
James Intercisus (d. 421)
Confession of faith
James was a fifth-century Persian Christian military officer and courtier of high rank. In order to maintain political privilege, he renounced his faith. When the king he served died, members of the family reprimanded James for his apostasy. “Where is this king you made such a sacrifice for? He is dead like any other man. He is dust. Can he save you from eternal torture?” Responding to a nagging conscience, James told the new king that he was a Christian.
King Bahram showed little mercy and condemned him for his faith. He died a martyr by being slowly cut into twenty-eight pieces. His name, Intercisus, means “cut to pieces.” A final blow of the sword to his neck ended his life in 421.
NOVEMBER 28
Joseph Pignatelli (1737–1811)
Devoted service
The trouble began on April 2, 1767. Spanish soldiers surrounded Jesuit houses all over the country, awakened the residents, and read them an edict from King Charles III of Spain, expelling every member of the Society of Jesus. He considered Jesuits to be standing in the way of his control and power, both in Spain and in Spanish colonies in the New World. King Charles and his advisors determined to eradicate the Jesuits and seize their property.
That the Jesuits survived is largely credited to Joseph Pignatelli, the “second founder” of the Society of Jesus. He joined five thousand other Jesuits from Spain at the Catalan border. They sailed in overcrowded ships for three weeks, looking for a port that would accept them. For a while, they set up shop in Corsica, but soon were adrift at sea again. Italy, France, and Portugal did not want them. Under political pressure, Pope Clement XIV formally disbanded the Jesuits in every part of the world. In essence, he fired twenty-three thousand Jesuit priests. Unemployed, Pignatelli went to Bologna and became a student-in-residence for about twenty years.
One stubborn woman kept the Society alive. Empress Catherine the Great of Russia refused to permit the reading or implementation of the pope’s brief of suppression. In her territory of the world, Jesuits continued to function. Pignatelli received news of this turn of events and asked the Russians to receive him as an affiliate. They agreed, and in 1797, Pignatelli became the only Jesuit in Italy. By 1804, conditions had improved.
Joseph Pignatelli died three years before the Jesuits were fully restored.
NOVEMBER 29
Cuthbert Mayne (1544–77)
Religious persecution
Cuthbert grew up in one of England’s Protestant families and became an Anglican minister. While studying for a degree in arts at Oxford he came under the influence of Edmund Campion, and through that influence converted to Roman Catholicism. Ordained a priest in 1575, he received a bachelor of theology degree in 1576.
Cuthbert went to Cornwall and worked incognito as a servant at Golden Manor, the household of Francis Tregian, all the while ministering secretly to Catholics who refused to participate in the public worship of the Church of England. On June 8, 1577, one hundred armed men arrested Cuthbert Mayne and most of Tregian’s household. He became a prisoner at Launceston Castle.
Cuthbert Mayne became the first English seminary priest to be tried. The authorities decided to make an example of him, “as a terror to the papists.” When he refused to agree that the queen was the head of the Church, he was executed. His skull is preserved at the Carmelite monastery of Lanherne in Cornwall.
NOVEMBER 30
Andrew (first century)
The importance of second place
“Simon Peter’s brother” is the phrase most often used to identify Andrew. It is never spoken in reverse. Peter (June 29) was a powerful personality and a natural leader whose activity and comments take a prominent position in the New Testament. Andrew receives mention in only a few places.
But it was Andrew who brought Peter to Jesus. The Fourth Gospel tells us that Andrew and another person were followers of John the Baptist (August 29) before meeting Jesus. When they heard John pronounce Jesus “the Lamb of God,” they followed Jesus home. Time with Jesus convinced Andrew that Jesus was the Messiah, and he eagerly sought Simon Peter. His enthusiastic behavior makes it reasonable to call Andrew the first Christian evangelist.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell the second part of the story. Simon, Andrew, and others were fishing on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus called them. Their immediate response suggests that they were spiritually prepared for this moment by an earlier conversation with Christ.
At the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, Andrew called attention to the boy with five barley loaves and two fish. Andrew was also among the disciples consulted when some Greeks wanted to meet Jesus.
Church tradition continues Andrew’s story by holding that he became a missionary to Russia, Greece, and Turkey. Tradition states that Andrew died a martyr’s death on November 30 in the year 69.
Although his brother’s reputation may have overshadowed Andrew’s, there is no trace of jealousy or antagonism in Andrew’s behavior. His only concern seems to have been serving Jesus Christ.
DECEMBER 1
Eligius of Noyon (588–660)
Holy crafts
Exceptional talent does not depend upon social status. Eligius is an example of an extraordinarily gifted craftsman born in poor circumstances in Limoges, France. King Clotaire commissioned him to construct a throne inlaid with gold and jewels, giving him a supply of precious metal and stones. Eligius determined that the generous supply of raw material exceeded what he needed to make the throne. With the extra gold and jewels, he produced a second throne for the king.
Impressed by such honesty, the king made Eligius his royal goldsmith. Eligius’s hands created the coinage of the realm and dazzling objects of art for the French court as well as for dozens of churches and religious houses.
Eligius resigned from his position with the government in 640 and became a priest. As bishop of Noyon, he worked to evangelize Flanders until his death in 660.
There were still examples of his golden art scattered around the country when the French Revolution began, but thoughtless revolutionaries destroyed it all. One fragment of his work possibly survived.
DECEMBER 2
Chromatius of Aquileia (d. ca. 407)
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Friendship
The enviable thing about Chromatius is the outstanding company he kept. Remarkable people were his friends. It was Ambrose (December 7) who consecrated him bishop. Jerome (September 30) and Rufinus headed the religious community in Aquileia mentioned above. When John Chrysostom (September 13) needed a defender, Chromatius stood up for him.
Of Chromatius, the scholars always state that he was a great theologian and interpreter of the Bible, but little of his writing remains today. Aside from the fact that he was bishop of Aquileia, Italy, from 387 until his death, and had something to do with a community of ascetics there, we have no record of his activity.
DECEMBER 3
Francis Xavier (1506–52)
Missionary journey
Cultural shock would be an understatement if used to describe the experience of a young European arriving in the Orient in the sixteenth century. Francis Xavier engaged in one of the greatest missionary journeys since Paul (June 29) evangelized the northeast Mediterranean area in the first century.
Francis was among the first half-dozen men to join Ignatius of Loyola’s Society of Jesus (July 31). These Basque Spaniards had been friends and fellow students at the University of Paris during the early 1530s. In 1534 they were ordained priests in Venice.
Foreign missions were a prime objective of the Society of Jesus. In 1541, Francis began his personal effort by sailing from Portugal to Goa in order to evangelize the East Indies. The voyage took thirteen months, and Francis had a distressing susceptibility to seasickness.
The remaining ten years of his life produced outstanding and lasting results. The Portuguese had already established a Christian foothold at Goa, but the church and Christian living were hardly recognizable. Many Portuguese Christians were more interested in profit and pleasure than in religious devotion. They were cruel to their slaves, neglected the poor, and took advantage of females.
The first task facing the newly arrived missionary and his companion, Simon Rodriguez, was correcting the poor example of these “nominal” Christians. By making every effort to make Christ visible in his behavior, by carefully learning the languages and dialects, by delivering appealing sermons, and by setting Bible verses to popular tunes, Francis Xavier began the slow process of winning good will and respect. He lived among the poor as a poor man himself. Conversions to Christianity among lower-caste Paravas resulted from his next seven years of labor in southern India, Ceylon, Malacca, the Molucca islands, and the Malay Peninsula.
Reports began to reach Francis about Japan, an island beyond the awareness of most of the Western world. Japan had no central government at that time. Several hundred local leaders ran the country, making immigration a simple task. In 1549 he disembarked on the shores of Japan and began the next stage of his missionary journey.
Francis translated a short statement of Christian doctrine into the Japanese language and within a year had converted a hundred citizens of Kagoshima, helped them form a congregation, and began to travel to other cities. Gaining respect for Japanese culture, he saw the necessity of changing his style of mission. Francis discovered he could not meet with the Mikado at Miyako (Kyoto today) unless he presented gifts that were more expensive than he could afford. Instead of continuing his life of obvious poverty, he began to clothe himself with fine robes and obtained unique items from Portugal to use as gifts. He associated with the indigenous culture, and as a result he received protection and the use of an abandoned Buddhist monastery.
Within a little over two years of personal ministry, Francis Xavier gathered a flock of about 2,000 dedicated new Christians who clung to their faith even in the face of life-threatening persecution in subsequent years (February 6). He prepared the spiritual soil of Japan for other missionaries who would follow to plant and harvest.
China beckoned as Francis looked for ways to extend his missionary journeys. Even though that great nation discouraged foreign travelers, he felt an overwhelming urge to take the gospel to China. In 1552, on a difficult and clandestine voyage to Canton, Francis became seriously ill with a fever. Because his seasickness made the illness unbearable, he asked to be put ashore on an island in sight of the Chinese coastline. Exhausted and increasingly weak, Francis Xavier died in this lonely spot at the age of forty-six. Four people attended his funeral.
DECEMBER 4
Giovanni Calabria (1873–1954)
Demonstrating love
From Verona, Italy, Giovanni Calabria was the seventh child of a shoemaker and a housemaid. The couple never seemed to have enough income to support their family. When Giovanni was in the fourth grade, his father died. As with many poor children, working became more important than getting an education. A local priest recognized the latent abilities of the boy and began to tutor him, with a plan to send him to seminary. Giovanni became a theological student and performed well. He was ordained in 1901 and began a ministry of charity to the poor and underprivileged. One of his best references came to Pope Paul VI in a letter from a Jewish woman physician he helped hide from Nazi-Fascist persecution. After his death she wrote: “Every instant of his life was a personification of St. Paul’s marvelous hymn on love,” a reference to the famous passage in 1 Corinthians 13.
A gifted organizer, Giovanni founded and led a variety of groups that rendered service to the poor and neglected. He guided laity into productive religious service, and continued his forwardthinking ministry until his death on this day in 1954.
DECEMBER 5
Sabas of Jerusalem (439–532)
Called apart
Sometimes called Sabas the Great, this Cappadocian devoted his long life of more than ninety years to the service of Christ. After having lived in a monastery for a decade, at the age of eighteen Sabas went to Jerusalem, where he became noteworthy for his hard manual labor in service to the Christian community. When he turned thirty, he began to live a solitary life in a cave, weaving baskets from palm fronds.
His parents urged him to give up the monastic life, but he refused, moving down the Cedron brook to live for four years alone in the desert. In time, as many as a hundred and fifty others joined with him. With widespread encouragement, Sabas accepted ordination as a priest in 491, and his widowed mother arrived to run a guesthouse and hospitals.
On a visit by Sabas to Constantinople, the doorkeeper at the house of the emperor Anastasias turned Sabas away, thinking he was a beggar. But because he had a letter of recommendation, he finally gained admission and spent a winter there preaching and teaching. Sabas returned to Constantinople at the age of ninety, and the emperor Justinian received him warmly. He soon departed, having obtained the emperor’s promise to build a hostel for religious pilgrims to Jerusalem, a fort for the protection of monks against raiders, and to lower taxes in Palestine.
Sabas died soon after returning to Jerusalem. His monastery there, Mar Saba, is still in operation, inhabited by Eastern Orthodox monks. In 1965, a church in Venice made an ecumenical gesture by returning his remains to this location
DECEMBER 6
Nicholas (d. 350)
Beyond the record6
Few details exist regarding the life and experience of St. Nicholas. We know he was bishop of Myra, the capital city of Lycia, in Asia Minor. A history professor lecturing on the significant Council of Nicea, commented, “Santa Claus was there.” Legend reports the remainder of what we remember about him. Stories of Nicholas and children abound. There is a famous tale of how he secretly tossed gold coins at night through the open window of a poor father who was thinking of selling his daughters. The coins fell into the children’s stockings, which they had hung by their beds. It was enough to pay their dowry.
Hundreds of churches use the name of Nicholas, as many as four hundred in England alone. People in many parts of the world celebrate his feast day, December 6, enthusiastically exchanging gifts. Stained glass, sculptures, frescoes, and mosaics in widely scattered locations tell the adventures of his life. Many variations of his name continue to be popular
: Colin, Nicholson, Nixon, Nicola, Nicolette and others. The composer Benjamin Britten wrote a musical drama about him. The remains of Nicholas are found in Bari, Italy, where raiders took them in 1087 after the Saracens conquered Myra.
The metamorphosis of the saint into the commercial Christmas icon in a red suit is not difficult to trace. It began in New York when that city was still called New Amsterdam. The Dutch are very fond of St. Nicholas, who according to their tradition brings gifts to their children on this day each year. Dutch Protestants in America receive the most credit for mixing with “Father Christmas” the Scandinavian legends of a magical elf who punished naughty children and gave gifts as rewards to good children.
American advertising also played a part in the transformation. In the Victorian era, an artist named Thomas Nast drew pictures of Santa Claus that gradually became the accepted icon. In an attempt to secularize the person to fit a marketplace that wanted to attract all kinds of customers, the actual saint disappeared, and the rosycheeked plump fellow with a long white beard wearing a fur-trimmed red suit took over.
Like St. Valentine (February 14), St. Nicholas would be astonished by what has evolved.
DECEMBER 7
Ambrose (ca. 339–97)
Inspired leadership
Anyone who reads Augustine’s Confessions (August 28) will gain a profound respect for Ambrose. The meeting of these two men was one of the great moments in the history of the Christian Church. Here is a modern paraphrase of Augustine’s report of that event.
It was in Milan that I met Bishop Ambrose. He was widely known as one of the world’s best men, a devout and eloquent preacher. God led me to him in order that he might lead me to God. He welcomed me like a father. When I began to love him it was not because I expected to find any truth in him, but simply because he was kind to me.
I paid no particular attention to what Ambrose said. I only cared about how he said it. I began to see that Christianity could be rational. I was especially impressed with his figurative explanation of certain Old Testament passages which had killed my interest when I had taken them literally. His sermons convinced me that all those deceptive knots that others had tied around the Scripture could be untied. As I listened to him, I was ashamed that I had been barking all those years, not against Christianity, but against imaginary doctrines. The Church never taught the things I accused her of teaching. Ambrose drew aside the veil of mystery and made clear the spiritual meaning of things which could not be accepted literally.
Butler's Lives of the Saints Page 28
