Pope Saint Sixtus II. Saint Felicissimus. Saint Agapitus. Martyrs. Feast Day 6 August. Red Vestments.

Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

Pope Saint Sixtus II.
   Saint Felicissimus.
   Saint Agapitus.
   Martyrs.
   Feast Day 6 August.

Simple.

Red Vestments.

Pope Saint Sixtus II and companions.

(Cote Français 185, Fol. 96v. Vies de saints,

Paris, XIVe siècle,

Richard de Montbaston et collaborateurs.)

Pope Saint Sixtus II was Consecrated Bishop of The Church 

of Rome in 257 A.D. The following year, while Celebrating the Sacred Liturgy, over the tomb of a Martyr, in the Cemetery, or Catacombs, of Saint Callistus, he was arrested by soldiers carrying out the edict of the Emperor, Valerian.

On the same day, 6 August, he was put to death 

and buried in the same Cemetery, along with “The Holy Martyrs Felicissimus and Agapitus, Deacons of Blessed Sixtus; Januarius, Magnus, Vincent, and Stephen, Sub-Deacons, all of whom were beheaded with him and buried in the Cemetery of Prætextatus. With them suffered also Blessed Quartus, as is related by Saint Cyprian”. (Roman Martyrology).

Three days later, his famous Arch-Deacon, Saint Lawrence, was Martyred.

Illustration and Caption: CHRIST BEARERS

Laurence, his first Deacon, seeing him led to death, exclaimed: “Why do you abandon me, Father, you who never offer 

The Holy Sacrifice without your Deacon ?”

“You will follow me in three days,” replied Sixtus.

The Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Saint Laurence 

will be Solemnised in three days.

Mass: Sapiéntiam.

The Transfiguration Of Jesus. The Terrible Beauty Of God.

The Transfiguration Of Jesus.

Artist: Carl Bloch (1834–1890).

Date: 1800s.

Source: 1ST-ART-GALLERY

(Wikimedia Commons)

This Article is taken from, and can be read in full at,

RORATE CÆLI

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent: The Terrible Beauty of God.

“Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother, John, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. He was Transfigured before their eyes. His face became as dazzling as the Sun and his clothes radiant as the light”. (Matthew 17: 1-3).

From an ancient Letter, dated 90 A.D., from Saint John the Evangelist, to Lydia.

Dear Lydia,

You ask me in your letter to tell you what we saw that day on the mountain, what the experience was like. I am old now and near death. Much has happened to me, and for all that I have been given, and it is so much, I thank the Lord Jesus Christ. But even in death I shall never forget what happened on that mountain.

We climbed in silence, for we were in a state of gloom. The Lord had told us three times that He had to suffer and die and then rise again. Peter became almost violent, and told Jesus that this talk must be stopped. And Jesus rebuked him with anger, one of the few times I saw him truly angry. And so we retreated into silence, a silence of fear and despair, unrelieved by the harsh landscape of that mountain.

When we reached the summit, it was deathly quiet. There was no wind, no sound. We knelt down to Pray, for we said to ourselves, that is why He brought us up here, to Pray. 

But when we looked up — I cannot adequately describe what I saw, but the Lord seemed to radiate an intense light, it was as if He was bathed in the sparkle of a diamond, a light that was as bright as the Sun but at which we could look directly.

And within this light which came from Him were Moses and Elijah. The three were talking to each other, but the talking did not break the silence. The talk came out of the silence and was silence. I said I could not describe to you in words what happened on that mountain, and as I write this down, I see that I cannot.

Fear seized us all. We trembled as we gazed on this sight. Our hearts seemed to be trying to leap out of our bodies as we heard the voice, the voice again from and in the silence: “This is My beloved Son.” And then it was over. The Lord came to us to help us up off the ground and told us: “Do not be afraid.”

What did we see on that mountain ? When we talked about it later, for we did, we talked perhaps too much about it, we spoke of it in different ways. But we agreed on one thing: That the experience on that mountain somehow prepared us for the rest, that the fear we felt — and it was fear — had somehow been transformed into an inner peace, a peace that did at times seem to retreat but always finally came back.

Whatever we saw there, the Lord allowed us to see it to strengthen us for what He had to endure and what most of us had to endure. But what did I see on that mountain ? What I told Peter, what I tell you now is this: We saw the beauty of God. Yes, that is the term that I used then, and it is even more true to me today: What we saw on that mountain was the terrible beauty of God.

Why do I call it terrible ? Because it filled us with terror when we were in its presence, but it was not the terror of battle or of illness, or anything like that, but the — what shall I call it ? — the holy terror of knowing that one is in the presence of God.

To behold the beauty of God as we did changes one’s life forever, for after one has seen that beauty, everything else has little appeal. We walk through life looking and hearing and using all of our sense. 

We see the beautiful sunsets, we look at the perfection of a rose and smell its perfume, we see the beauty of a lovely woman or a handsome man, we hear the beauty of music: But they mean nothing to us, nothing not because they are not beautiful and to be enjoyed and marvelled at: But nothing because we have seen the beauty of God and nothing else will every satisfy us again.

But I have to write you this as well. I experienced that beauty again, this time not on a mountain but on a hill. You know the hill I am talking about. I need not say more. It was where I least expected to be once again confronted with the beauty of God, for it was a time of the deepest sorrow.

My heart was wrenched and drained of its lifeblood, it seemed to me. The stench of death, the dirt, the blood, the jeering crowd, the gathering storm, the darkness, all spoke of the darkness that I felt. Oh, God, forgive that darkness that I felt, for I forgot the light !

But standing there after He had died, standing there with Mary, I look up at the Lord hanging from that Cross, the blood still flowing down in a trickle from His hands and His feet and His side. And what I saw — and Mary saw this too as she told me when we spoke later — was the beauty of God.

There was no intense light, no Moses and Elijah, but what I saw, what I saw, as I looked on Jesus hanging dead on that Cross, I saw in my deepest being, in my very Soul, I saw there what I saw on the mountain, I saw the terrible beauty of God.

But this time there was no terror, there was no fear. There was an emptiness, a calm, a feeling of knowing. Am I explaining this in a sensible way at all to you, dear Lydia ? Does it make sense to you that the Cross of Christ, even more than what we experienced on the mountain, is where the terrible beauty of God is seen, where I saw it ?

You know, when I first saw the Lord after His Resurrection, I laughed. I laughed because I knew what I would see, and I was not wrong. I laughed with the laughter of a man who is so happy that if he did not laugh, he would cry and die of happiness.

For when the Lord came into that room through the locked doors where we were all assembled, the mountain and the hill came together, and I saw there what I knew I would see, but this time in a way that was total, that was real, was forever, never to be taken away again, for when He came into that room, I knew I was in the presence of the beauty of God. 

Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla.

The Transfiguration Of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Feast Day 6 August. White Vestments.

Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
   Feast Day 6 August.

Double of The Second-Class.

White Vestments.

“This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased:

Hear ye Him.”

Artist: René de Cramer.

“Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium”.

Used with Permission.

Illustration: UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY

The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Available on YouTube

HERE

To Commemorate the Victory which arrested, near Belgrade, in 1456, the invading tide of Islam, and which was announced at Rome on 6 August, Pope Callistus III extended The Feast to the whole Church.

It is The Feast of many Churches under The Title of Saint Saviour. This is why Pope Saint Pius X raised it to the Rank of Double of The Second-Class, for it is the old Title of the Cathedral of Rome, Saint John Lateran, formerly called the Basilica of Saint Saviour (Feast Day 9 November).

Mass: Illuxérunt.
Commemoration: (In Low Masses). The Holy Martyrs, Pope Saint Sixtus II, Saint Felicissimus, and Saint Agapitus.
Creed: Is said.
Preface: Of The Nativity.

THE SAINT ANDREW DAILY MISSAL

THE SAINT ANDREW DAILY MISSAL

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Our Lady Of The Snow. Feast Day 5 August. White Vestments.

Miracle of Our Lady of the Snows.

Establishment of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome.

Artist: Matthias Grünewald (1480–1528).

Date: 1517 - 1519.

Collection: 

Augustinermuseum, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Germany.

Source/Photographer: Web Gallery of Art.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Text from “The Liturgical Year”.
   By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
   Volume 13.
   Time After Pentecost.
   Book IV.

Rome, delivered from slavery by Peter on the first of August (Feast of Saint Peter’s Chains), offers to the World a wonderful spectacle.

O Wisdom, who, since the glorious Pentecost, hast spread over the whole World, where could it be more true to sing of thee that thou hast trodden the proud heights under thy victorious feet ?

On Seven Hills had pagan Rome set up her pageantry and built temples to her false gods; seven Churches now appear at the summits on which purified Rome rests her now truly eternal foundations.

By their very site, the Basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, of Saint Laurence and Saint Sebastian, placed at the four outer angles of the City of the Cæsars, recall the long siege continued for three Centuries around the ancient Rome, while the new Rome was being Founded.

Helena and her son, Constantine, recommencing the work of the Foundations of the Holy City, carried the trenches further out; nevertheless, the Churches which were their own peculiar work — viz., Holy Cross in Jerusalem, and Saint Saviour’s on the Lateran, are still at the very entrance of the pagan stronghold, close to the gates, and leaning against the ramparts; just as a soldier, setting foot within a tremendous fortress which has been long invested, advances cautiously, surveying both the breach through which he has just passed, and the labyrinth of unknown paths opening before him.

Who will plant the Standard of Sion in the centre of Babylon ? Who will force the enemy into his last retreat, and, casting out the vain idols, set up his Palace in their temples ?

O thou to whom was said this word of the Most High: “Thou art My Son, I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thy inheritance”, thou Mighty One with thy sharp arrows routing armies, listen to the cry re-echoing from the whole redeemed World: “With thy comeliness and thy beauty set out, proceed prosperously, and reign !”

But the Son of the Most High has a Mother on Earth; the song of the Psalmist inviting Him to the triumph extols also the Queen standing at His Right Hand in a Vesture of Gold; if it is from His Father that He holds His power, it is from His Mother that He receives His Crown, and He leaves her in return the spoils of the mighty.

Go forth, then, ye daughters of the new Sion, and behold King Solomon in the diadem wherewith his Mother crowned him on the joyful day, when, taking possession through her of the Capital of the World, he espoused the Gentile race.

Truly, that was a day of joy, when Mary, in the name of Jesus, claimed her right as Sovereign and Heiress of the Roman soil !

To the East, at the highest point of the Eternal City, she appeared on that Blessed morning literally like the rising dawn; beautiful as the Moon shining by night; more powerful than the August Sun, surprised to see her tempering his heat, and doubling the brightness of his light with her mantle of snow; more terrible than an army; for from that date, daring what neither Apostles nor Martyrs had attempted, and what Jesus Himself would not do without her, she dispossessed the deities of Olympus of their usurped thrones.

As was fitting, the haughty Juno whose altar disgraced the Esquiline, the false queen of these lying gods, was the first to flee before Mary’s face, leaving the splendid columns of her polluted sanctuary to the only true Queen of Earth and Heaven.

Forty years had passed since the days of Saint Sylvester, when the “image of Our Saviour, depicted on the walls of the Lateran, appeared for the first time to the Roman people”.

Rome, still half-pagan, beheld today the Mother of Our Saviour; under the influence of the pure symbol, at which Rome gazed in surprise, she felt die down within her the evil ardour which made her once the scourge of Nations, whereas now she was to become their mother and, in the joy of her renewed youth, she beheld her once-sullied hills covered with the White Garment of the Bride.

Our Lady Of The Snows.

Jesus Crowns His Beloved Mother.

Mosaic in the Apse, Our Lady of The Snows

(Basilica of Saint Mary Major,

“Basilica Sanctæ Mariæ Maioris”).

Text and Illustrations: FSSPX NEWS

This Article is taken from FSSPX NEWS

“Our Lady of the Snows” is an old name for Saint Mary Major, a Church that is a Major Papal Basilica in Rome and the biggest Marian Shrine of ancient Christianity, being originally constructed by Pope Liberius around 360 A.D.

It was embellished with beautiful mosaics of Mary and Christ in commemoration of the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. 

There, in the presence of the Papal Legate, Catholic Orthodoxy triumphed over heresy in the great cry of dogmatic Faith: “Holy Mary, Mother of God” – Theotokos.

Thus, the second part of the Hail Mary, wherein we say: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us sinners”, is a sign of universal Catholic Unity of The East and The West, sanctioned and affirmed by Papal authority. The Vicar of Christ is truly Mary’s son.

But, in the Liturgical Rite of a Marian Feast that celebrates the building of a great Church in Mary’s honour, we are also given a sign of Catholic Orthodoxy and authenticity.

Firstly, the whole meaning of Mary is to bring mankind, Soul and body, to Christ, and to mould mankind anew in Christ’s image. 

This continuation and repetition of the Incarnation has its place, its instruments, and its doctrine, in every Catholic Church.

Secondly, nearly every Marian Apparition is culminated by a Church, so that, under the impulse of Marian Devotion, the work of the Incarnation may continue in the most perfect Catholic Sacramental and Doctrinal Orthodoxy. 

Thus, Guadalupe, Lourdes, La Salette, Pontmain, and Fatima, have Marian Churches explicitly requested by Our Lady to continue Her vital function of bringing mankind, Soul and body, to Christ. 

Wherever Mary appears, there appears Christ in all His Glory, Sacramental Presence and Teaching.

Thus, we see two important qualities of Marian Devotion: It is Doctrinal, and it is Priestly.

Doctrinal, because to know Mary is to know Christ; but, to know Christ, is to acknowledge and affirm His Divinity.

Priestly, because to know and love Christ is to join oneself whole and entire to His Sacrifice, continued and applied in the Seven Sacraments. 

Thus, The Catholic Church, in Priest and people, Worship the Triune God in a Divine Liturgy which takes place in the Sacred space of a Consecrated Church under the guidance and patronage of the Great Mother of God.

This ethos of a Consecrated Church requires the concourse of the Catholic hierarchy through the Bishop as the head of the Catholic Clergy. 

And, with this concourse of Clergy, the Teaching of authentic Catholic Doctrine, in solid Orthodoxy and Unity in time and space with Rome and the Tradition of the Apostles, is guaranteed. 

This Theology is most clear in Saint Mary Major.

It is impossible to restore all things in Christ without recourse to Mary. 

And this recourse to Mary, in the latter times, will have its power by the Marian movement nourished by the Marian Shrines.

Doesn’t the special promise of Our Blessed Mother concerning Portugal, and assuring that “the Dogma of The Faith will be preserved there”, mean that Marian Devotion, which introduces to the perfect knowledge of Christ, will survive all storms ?

It is a sign of hope that one day God will restore through it the glory of His Son and His Mother, especially in Russia, and to Saint Mary Major in Rome.

Dedication Of The Basilica Of Our Lady Of The Snow, Mother Of God, Mediatrix Of All Graces. Feast Day 5 August. White Vestments.

Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

Dedication of The Church of Our Lady of The Snow.
   Feast Day 5 August.

Greater-Double.

White Vestments.

The Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major

(The Basilica of Our Lady of The Snow).

Photo: March 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: Sixtus

(Wikimedia Commons)

This Church was built at Rome, on Mount Esquiline, in the 4th-Century A.D., during the Pontificate of Pope Liberius. In the Middle Ages, a graceful and popular Tradition ascribed its Foundation to a noble Patrician, who, having been favoured with a vision of Our Lady, caused the Church to be built on a spot covered by a miraculous fall of snow.

This Sanctuary was rebuilt in the following Century and Dedicated, by Pope Sixtus III, in 432 A.D., to Mary, whom the Council of Ephesus (431 A.D.), had just proclaimed “The Mother of God”. 

[Editor: In a Papal Encyclical of 8 September 1894, Pope Leo XIII said: “The recourse we have to Mary in Prayer, follows upon the Office she continuously fills by the side of the Throne of God as Mediatrix of Divine Grace.”][2]

The mosaics of the Triumphal Arch glorify this Divine Maternity, and the representations of the two Cities, of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, recall the Birth of Christ in the City of David, and that of The Church in the Cenacle of the Last Supper. 

These mosaics were restored in 1931-1934. The Basilica is also called Saint Mary of the Crib, because portions of the Crib are preserved here.

Saint Mary’s, called “Major” because it is the largest and most important of the Churches Dedicated to The Blessed Virgin, is a Patriarchal Basilica. The great Nave is formed by two rows of forty-four Columns of White Marble and the Ceiling is covered with the first Gold brought from America.

In this Church, whose Dedication is Solemnised on this day, takes place many Celebrations, including: The inauguration of The Liturgical Year on The First Sunday in Advent; the Stations at Christmas; the Feast of Saint John; at Easter; on Rogation Monday; and on all Wednesdays in Ember Weeks.

Mass: Salve Sancta Parens.
The Creed: Is said.
Preface: Of The Blessed Virgin: “Et te in Festivitáte”.

“The Miracle of The Snow”, by Masolino da Panicale. Christ and The Blessed Virgin Mary observe Pope Liberius, who marks in the legendary snowfall the outline of the Basilica.

Artist: Masolino da Panicale (1383-1440).

Date: 15th-Century.

Current location: 

Galleria Nazionale d9i Capodimonte,

Naples, Italy.

Source: The Yorck Project:

10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei.

DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202.

Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Dedication Of The Basilica Of Our Lady Of The Snow.

Available on YouTube

HERE

The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia.

The Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, previously known as Dedicatio Sanctae Mariae ad Nives (Dedication of The Church of Our Lady of The Snow) is a Liturgical Feast Celebrated on 5 August in The Latin Form of The Catholic Church.

In The Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, it has the Rank of Optional Memorial, and, in The General Roman Calendar of 1962, it is a Third-Class Feast. It Commemorates the Dedication of the restored Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, by Pope Sixtus III, just after The First Council of Ephesus.

This Major Basilica, located on the summit of The Esquiline Hill, in Rome, Italy, is called the Basilica of Saint Mary Major (Latin: Sancta Mariae Majoris) because it is the largest Church in Rome that is Dedicated to The Blessed Virgin Mary.

Basilica of Saint Mary Major, Rome.

Photo Credit: Fr Kevin Estabrook

The Church was built during the Pontificate of Pope Liberius and is sometimes known as the “Basilica Liberii” or “Liberian Basilica”.

Pope Pius V inserted this Feast into the General Roman Calendar in 1568, when, in response to the request of the Council of Trent, he reformed the Roman Breviary. Before that, it had been Celebrated at first only in the Church, itself, and, beginning in the 14th-Century, in all the Churches of the City of Rome.

Thus, it appears in the Tridentine Calendar for Celebration as a Double. 

In Pope Clement VIII’s Missal of 1604, it was given the newly-invented Rank of Greater-Double. 

In Pope Saint John XXIII’s classification, it became a Third-Class Feast. This 1960 Calendar, included in the 1962 Edition of the Roman Missal, is the Calendar whose private and continued use, under certain conditions publicly, is authorised by the Motu Proprio “Summorum Pontificum”. Nine years later, the Celebration became an Optional Memorial. 

[Editor: One wonders whether, during this period of utter Modernisation and degradation and “dumbing down”, that is equivalent to being “downgraded” ?]

Saint Mary Major, Rome.

Photo: 15 February 2013.

Source: Own work.

Author: Ben Skála, Benfoto

(Wikimedia Commons)

Until 1969, this Feast was known as “Dedicatio Sanctæ Mariæ ad Nives” (“Dedication of The Church of Our Lady of The Snow”), a name that had become popular for the Basilica in the 14th-Century, in connection with a legend about its origin. 

That the Catholic Encyclopedia summarises: During the Pontificate of Liberius, the Roman Patrician, John, and his wife, who were without heirs, made a vow to donate their possessions to The Virgin Mary.

They Prayed that she might make known to them how they were to dispose of their property in her honour. 

On 5 August, at the height of the Roman Summer, snow fell during the night on the summit of the Esquiline Hill.

In obedience to a vision of The Virgin Mary, which they had the same night, the couple built a Basilica in honour of Mary, on the very spot which was covered by snow.

English: Basilica of Saint Mary Major.

Deutsch: Basilika Santa Mario Maggiore.

Photo: 13 May 2003.

Source: Own work.

Author: Dnalor 01

(Wikimedia Commons)

No Catholic Church can be honoured with the Title of Basilica unless by Apostolic Grant, or from Immemorial Custom. Saint Mary Major is one of only four Basilicas that, today, hold the Title of Major Basilica.

The other three Basilicas are Saint John Lateran, Saint Peter’s and Saint Paul-outside-the-Walls. All other Catholic Churches that, either by Grant of the Pope or by Immemorial Custom, hold the Title of Basilica, are Minor Basilicas [Editor: As opposed to Major Basilicas].

Saint Mary Major, Rome.

Photo: 15 February 2013.

Source: Own work.

Author: Ben Skala, Benfoto

(Wikimedia Commons)

Until 2006, the four Major Basilicas, together with the Basilica of Saint Lawrence-outside-the-Walls, were referred to as the five “Patriarchal Basilicas” of Rome, associated with the five ancient Patriarchal Sees of Christendom (see Pentarchy).

Saint Mary Major was associated with the Patriarchate of Antioch. In the same year (2006), the Title of “Patriarchal” was also removed from the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi.

The former five Patriarchal Basilicas, with the Basilica of The Holy Cross in Jerusalem and San Sebastian-outside-the-Walls, formed the Traditional Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome, which are visited by Pilgrims to Rome and who are following the twenty kilometres (twelve miles) itinerary, established by Saint Philip Blacks on 25 February 1552, especially when seeking the Plenary Indulgence in Holy Years.

For the Great Jubilee of 2000, Pope Saint John Paul II replaced Saint Sebastian’s Church with the Shrine of Our Lady of Divine Love.