The Venerable Bede (673 A.D.-735 A.D.). Saint. Confessor. Doctor Of The Church. (Part Four).

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Bede, translating the Gospel

of Saint John on his deathbed.

Date: 1902.

Source: http://www.bible-researcher.com/bede.jpg.

Author: James Doyle Penrose.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The fifth book brings the story up to Bede's day, and includes an account of missionary work in Frisia, and of the conflict with the British Church over the correct dating of Easter. Bede wrote a Preface for the work, in which he dedicates it to Ceolwulf, King of Northumbria. The Preface mentions that Ceolwulf received an earlier draft of the book; presumably, Ceolwulf knew enough Latin to understand it, and he may even have been able to read it. The Preface makes it clear that Ceolwulf had requested the earlier copy, and Bede had asked for Ceolwulf's approval; this correspondence with the King indicates that Bede's Monastery had excellent connections among the Northumbrian nobility.

The Monastery at Wearmouth - Jarrow had an excellent Library. Both Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrith had acquired books from the Continent, and in Bede's day the Monastery was a renowned centre of learning. It has been estimated that there were about 200 books in the Monastic Library.

The Altar in the Crypt of Lastingham Church, Yorkshire,

probably the site of the Early-Anglo-Saxon Monastery.

Bede wrote to Lastingham Monastery 

to enquire about Cedd and his brother, Chad.

This File: 14 June 2007.

User: Sjwells53.

(Wikipedia)

Lastingham is a village and Civil Parish, which lies in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Southern fringe of the North York Moors. It was home to the early Missionaries to the Angles, Saint Cedd and his brother, Saint Chad. 
At the 2001 Census, the Parish had a population of ninety-six.

Not much is known of this Monastery, though all who spoke of it spoke well. Perhaps the best indication of its standards is that, in 687 A.D., one of its graduates, Trumbert, transferred to Wearmouth-Jarrow Monastery and became Scriptural Tutor to a youthful Bede.

For the period prior to Augustine's arrival in 597 A.D., Bede drew on earlier writers, including Solinus. He had access to two works of Eusebius: the Historia Ecclesiastica, and also the Chronicon, though he had neither in the original Greek; instead, he had a Latin translation of the Historia, by Rufinus, and Saint Jerome's translation of the Chronicon. He also knew Orosius's Adversus Paganus, and Gregory of Tours' Historia Francorum, both Christian histories, as well as the work of Eutropius, a pagan historian. 

He used Constantius's "Life of Germanus" as a source for Germanus's visits to Britain. Bede's account of the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons is drawn largely from Gildas's De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae. Bede would also have been familiar with more recent accounts such as Eddius Stephanus's "Life of Wilfrid", and anonymous Lives of Gregory the Great and Cuthbert. He also drew on Josephus's "Antiquities", and the works of Cassiodorus, and there was a copy of the Liber Pontificalis in Bede's Monastery. 

Bede quotes from several classical authors, including Cicero, Plautus, and Terence, but he may have had access to their work via a Latin Grammar, rather than directly. However, it is clear he was familiar with the works of Virgil and with Pliny the Elder's "Natural History", and his Monastery also owned copies of the works of Dionysius Exiguus. He probably drew his account of Saint Alban from a Life of that Saint, which has not survived. He acknowledges two other Lives of Saints, directly; one is a Life of Fursa, and the other of Saint Æthelburh; The latter no longer survives. He also had access to a Life of Ceolfrith. Some of Bede's material came from oral traditions, including a description of the physical appearance of Paulinus of York, who had died nearly 90 years before Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica was written.

Saint Bede Catholic Church,

La Canada, California, America.

Photo: April 2008.

Source: Self-made.

Transferred from en.wikipedia.

Author: Cbl62 (talk).

(Wikimedia Commons)

Bede also had correspondents, who supplied him with material. Albinus, the Abbot of the Monastery in Canterbury, provided much information about the Church in Kent, and with the assistance of Nothhelm, at that time a Priest, in London, obtained copies of Gregory the Great's correspondence from Rome relating to Augustine's mission. Almost all of Bede's information, regarding Augustine, is taken from these Letters. Bede acknowledged his correspondents in the Preface to the Historia Ecclesiastica; he was in contact with Daniel, the Bishop of Winchester, for information about the history of the Church in Wessex, and also wrote to the Monastery at Lastingham for information about Cedd and Chad. Bede also mentions an Abbot Esi, as a source for the affairs of the East Anglian Church, and Bishop Cynibert, for information about Lindsey.

The historian, Walter Goffart, argues that Bede based the structure of the Historia on three works, using them as the framework around which the three main sections of the work were structured. For the early part of the work, up until the the Gregorian mission, Goffart feels that Bede used Gildas's De excidio. The second section, detailing the Gregorian mission of Augustine of Canterbury, was framed on the anonymous "Life of Gregory the Great", written at Whitby. The last section, detailing events after the Gregorian mission, Goffart feels were modelled on Stephen of Ripon's "Life of Wilfrid".

Most of Bede's informants, for information after Augustine's mission, came from the Eastern part of Britain, leaving significant gaps in the knowledge of the Western areas, which were those areas likely to have a native Briton presence.

Saint Bede's Roman Catholic Church,

Appin, New South Wales, Australia.

Photo: 14 June 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: Bluedawe.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Bede's stylistic models included some of the same authors from whom he drew the material for the earlier parts of his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. His introduction imitates the work of Orosius, and his title is an echo of Eusebius's Historia Ecclesiastica. Bede also followed Eusebius in taking the Acts of the Apostles as the model for the overall work: Where Eusebius used the Acts as the theme for his description of the development of the Church, Bede made it the model for his history of the Anglo-Saxon Church.

PART FIVE FOLLOWS

The Blessing Of The Candles On The Feast Of The Purification Of Mary. Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B. "The Liturgical Year".

This Article was initiated by reading the excellent Blog, TRANSALPINE REDEMPTORISTS

The Text is taken from The Liturgical Year by Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.,

unless otherwise stated.

English: The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.

Français: La présentation de Jésus au Temple.

Artist: James Tissot (1836–1902).

Date: Between 1886 and 1894.

Current location: Brooklyn Museum,

New York, United States of America.

Credit line: Purchased by public subscription.

Source/Photographer: Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum;

Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2006, 00.159.27_PS1.jpg.

(Wikimedia Commons)

"We Must Hold As A Principle Of Our Spiritual Life, 

That The Mysteries Brought Before Us, Feast After Feast, 

Are Intended To Work In Us The Destruction Of The Old, 

And The Creation Of The New Man." 

Dom Guéranger — The Liturgical Year.

THE BLESSING OF THE CANDLES.

The blessing before the Mass: “that as these candles, by their visible light, dispel the darkness of the night, so our hearts burning with invisible fire, and enlightened by the grace of the Holy Ghost, may be delivered from all blindness of sin; that the eye of our soul being purified, we may discern those things that are pleasing to thee, and beneficial to our souls.”

Illustration and Caption from TRANSALPINE REDEMPTORISTS

After Terce, follows The Blessing of the Candles, which is one of the three principal Blessings observed by the Church during the year; the other two are those of the Ashes and of the Palms. The signification of this ceremony bears so essential a connection with the Mystery of Our Lady's Purification, that, if Septuagesima, Sexagesima, or Quinquagesima Sunday fall on 2 February, the Feast is deferred to 3 February; but the Blessing of the Candles, and the Procession which follows it, always takes place on this precise day.

In order to give uniformity to the three great Blessings of the year, the Church prescribes, for that of the Candles, the same colour for the Vestments of the Sacred Ministers as is used in the two other Blessings, of the Ashes and of the Palms — namely, Purple.

Thus, this Solemn function, which is inseparable from the day on which Our Lady's Purification took place, may be gone through every year on 2 February, without changing the colour prescribed for the three Sundays just mentioned.

English: Three red candles at Christmas-Tide.

Deutsch: Drei brennende rote Kerzen in der Weihnachtszeit

Photo: 25 December 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: 4028mdk09.

(Wikimedia Commons)

It is exceedingly difficult to say what was the origin of this ceremony. Baronius, Thomassin, and others, are of the opinion that it was instituted towards the close of the 5th-Century, by Pope Saint Gelasius, in order to give a Christian meaning to certain vestiges still retained by the Romans of the old Lupercalia.

Saint Gelasius certainly did abolish the last vestiges of the feast of the Lupercalia, which, in earlier times, the pagans used to celebrate in the month of February. Pope Innocent III, in one of his Sermons for the Feast of the Purification, attributes the institution of this ceremony of Candlemas to the wisdom of the Roman Pontiffs, who turned, into the present religious rite, the remnants of an ancient pagan custom, which had not quite died out among the Christians.

The old pagans, he says, used to carry lighted torches in memory of those which the fable gives to Ceres, when she went to the top of Mount Etna in search of her daughter, Proserpine. But, against this, we have to object that, on the pagan Calendar of the Romans, there is no mention of any feast in honour of Ceres for the month of February.

We, therefore, prefer adopting the opinion of Dom Hugh Menard, Rocca, Henschenius, and Pope Benedict XIV: That an ancient feast, which was kept in February, and was called the Amburbalia, during which the pagans used to go through the City with lighted torches in their hands, gave occasion to the Sovereign Pontiffs to substitute, in its place, a Christian ceremony, which they attached to the Feast of that Sacred Mystery, in which Jesus, the Light of the World, was presented in the Temple by His Virgin-Mother.

The Mystery of today's ceremony has frequently been explained by Liturgists, dating from the 7th-Century. According to Saint Ivo of Chartres [in his Second Sermon on the Purification], the was, which is formed from the juice of the flowers, by the bee, always considered as the emblem of virginity, signifies the virginal flesh of the Divine Infant, who diminished not, either by His Conception or His Birth, the spotless purity of his Blessed Mother.

The same Holy Bishop would have us see, in the flame of our Candle, a symbol of Jesus, Who came to enlighten our darkness. Saint Anselm [Commentary on Saint Luke], Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking on the same Mystery, bids us consider the three things in the Blest Candle: The wax; the wick; and the flame. The was, he says, which is the production of the virginal bee, is the Flesh of Our Lord; the wick, which is within, is His Soul; the flame, which burns on the top, is His Divinity.

Formerly, the Faithful looked upon it as an honour to be permitted to bring their wax tapers to the Church, on this Feast of the Purification, that they might be Blessed, together with those which were to be borne in the Procession by the Priests and Sacred Ministers; and the same custom is still observed in some Congregations. It would be well if Pastors were to encourage this practice, retaining it where it exists, or establishing it where it is not known.

[Editor: The following paragraph, written by Abbot Guéranger in the Late-19th-Century, can readily be applied to today's situation, whereby many Catholic practices, rites and traditions are under attack from several quarters. The saliency of these attacks warrants the following paragraph to be italicised, in order to draw Readers' attention to the veracity of its contents.]

There has been such a systematic effort to destroy, or at least to impoverish, the exterior rites and practices of religion, that we find, throughout the world, thousands of Christians who have been insensibly made strangers to those admirable sentiments of Faith, which the Church alone, in her Liturgy, can give to the Body of the Faithful.

Thus, we shall be telling many what they have never heard before, when we inform them that the Church Blesses the Candles, not only to be carried in the Procession, which forms part of the ceremony on 2 February, but also for the use of the Faithful, inasmuch as they draw, upon such as use them with respect, whether on sea or on land, as the Church says in the Prayer, special Blessings from Heaven.

These Blest Candles ought also to be lit near the bed of the dying Christian, as a symbol of the immortality merited for us by Christ, and of the protection of Our Blessed Lady.

As soon as all is prepared, the Priest goes up to the Altar, and thus begins the Blessing of the Candles. The Prayers having been said, the Celebrant sprinkles the Candles with Holy Water, saying the Asperges in secret, and then incenses them; after which, he distributes them to both Clergy and Laity [in receiving the Candle, the Faithful should kiss first the Candle and then the Priest's hand].

During the distribution, the Church, filled with emotion at the sight of these Sacred Symbols, which remind her of Jesus, shares in the joyous transports of the aged Simeon, who, whilst holding the Child in his arms, confessed Him to be The Light of the Gentiles. She chants his sweet Canticle, separating each verse by an Antiphon, which is formed out of the last words of Simeon.

Antiphon.

Lumen ad revelationem gentium,

et gloriam plebis tuae Israel.

A Light to the revelation of the Gentiles,

and the glory of Thy people Israel.

Canticle of Simeon.

Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine: *

secundum verbum tuum in pace . . .

THE PROCESSION.

Filled with Holy Joy, radiant with the mystic light, excited, like the venerable Simeon, by the impulse of the Holy Spirit, the Church goes forth to meet her Emmanuel. It is this meeting which the Greek Church calls the Hypapante, under which name she also designates the Feast on 2 February. The Church would imitate that wondrous Procession, which was formed in the Temple of Jerusalem on the day of Mary's Purification. Let us listen to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.

"On this day, the Virgin-Mother brings the Lord of the Temple into the Temple of the Lord; Saint Joseph presents to the Lord a Son, Who is not his own, but the Beloved Son of that Lord, Himself, and in Whom He is well pleased; Simeon, the Just Man, confesses Him for Whom he had been so long waiting; Anna, too, the widow, confesses Him.

"The Procession of this Solemnity was first made by these four, which afterwards was to be made, to the joy of the whole Earth, in every place and by every nation. Let us not be surprised at its then being so little; for He they carried was little ! Besides, all who were in it were just, and Saints, and perfect — there was not a single sinner." [First Sermon On The Purification.]

And yet let us join the Holy Procession. Let us go to meet Jesus, the Spouse of our Souls, as did the Wise Virgins, carrying in our hands lamps burning with the flame of Charity. Let us remember the command given us by Our Lord: "Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands: And you yourselves like to men who wait for their Lord [Saint Luke xii 35, 36]. Guided by Faith, and enlightened by Charity, we shall meet and know Him, and He will give Himself to us.

The Holy Church opens her Chants in this Procession with the following Antiphon, which is found, word for word, in the Greek Liturgy of this same Feast.

Antiphon.

Adorna thalamum tuum, Sion, 
et suscipe Regem Christum . . .

Adorn thy bride-chamber, O Sion,
and receive Christ, thy King . . .

After the Procession, the Celebrant and his Ministers put off their Purple Vestments, and vest in White for the Mass of the Purification. But if it be any of the three Sundays, Septuagesima, Sexagesima, or Quinquagesima, the Mass of the Feast is Deferred till the morrow, as has already been explained.

THE MASS.

In the Introit, the Church sings the glory of Jerusalem's Temple, that was this day visited by Emmanuel. Great is the Lord in the City of David, great is He on His mount of Sion. Simeon, the representative of the whole human race, receives into his arms Him that is the Mercy sent us by God.

In the Collect, the Church Prays that her children may be presented, as Jesus was, to the Eternal Father; but, in order that they may meet with a favourable reception, she asks Him to give them purity of heart.

All the Mysteries of the Man-God have for their object the purifying of our hearts. He sends his Angel, that is, His Precursor, before His Face, that he may prepare His way; and we have heard this Holy Prophet crying out to us, in the wilderness: Be humbled, O ye hills ! and ye valleys, be ye filled up ! At length, He that is the Angel of the Testament comes in person to seal the alliance with us.

He comes to His Temple, and this temple is our heart.  But He is like a refining fire, that takes away the dross of metals. He wishes to renew us, by purifying us; that thus we may be worthy to be offered to Him, and with Him, by a perfect sacrifice. We must, therefore, take care, and not be satisfied with admiring these sublime Mysteries.

WE MUST HOLD AS A PRINCIPLE OF OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE, THAT THE MYSTERIES BROUGHT BEFORE US, FEAST AFTER FEAST, ARE INTENDED TO WORK IN US THE DESTRUCTION OF THE OLD, AND THE CREATION OF THE NEW MAN.

We have been spending Christmas; we ought to have been born together with Jesus; this new Birth is now at its fortieth day. On 2 February, we must be offered by Mary, who is also our Mother, to the Divine Majesty, as Jesus was. The moment is come for our offering, for it is the hour of the Great Sacrifice; let us redouble the fervour of our preparation.

Saint Agatha. Died 251 A.D. Virgin And Martyr. Feast Day 5 February.

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Saint Agatha.

Attended in Prison by Saint Peter and an Angel.

Artist: Alessandro Turchi (1578–1649).

Medium: Oil on Slate.

According to an early Christian legend, when a 3rd-Century Roman official of Sicily desired the Christian woman, Agatha, and she refused to yield to his advances, he had her tortured, and even ordered her breasts cut off. At night in prison, she was visited by a vision of Saint Peter and an Angel, and her breasts were miraculously restored. The gray stone of the prison wall was created by letting the slate show through, and it forms a background for the night scene, illuminated by a torch. As opposed to canvas and wood, slate gave a painting almost unlimited durability 

and the same kind of permanence as sculpture.

Date: Between, circa, 1640 and 1645 (Baroque).

Current location: Walters Art Museum, Baltimore,

Maryland, United States of America.

Credit line: Acquired by Henry Walters, before 1909.

Source/Photographer: Walters Art Museum.

(Wikimedia Commons)

English: The Parish Church of Saint Agatha of Sicily,

Bischofstetten, Austria.

Deutsch: Pfarrkirche Bischofstetten, Österreich.

Photo: 8 February 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: BSonne.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Agatha of Sicily is a Christian Saint. Feast Day 5 February. Agatha was born at Catania, Sicily, and Martyred circa 251 A.D. She is one of seven women, who, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, are commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass.

She is the Patron Saint of: Catania, Sicily; Molise, Italy; Malta; San Marino; and Zamarramala, a municipality of the Province of Segovia, Spain. She is also the Patron Saint of breast cancer patients, Martyrs, wet nurses, bell-founders, bakers, fire, earthquakes, and eruptions of Mount Etna.

Agatha is buried at the Abbey Church of Saint Agatha (Badia di Sant'Agata), Catania. She is listed in the Late-6th-Century Martyrologium Hieronymianum, associated with Jerome, and the Synaxarion, the Calendar of the Church of Carthage, circa 530 A.D.

English: The Martyrdom of Saint Agatha.

Italiano: Martirio di Sant'Agata.

Artist: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

This File: 17 April 2006.

User: Crux. This image was 

copied from wikipedia:de.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Agatha also appears in one of the carmina of Venantius Fortunatus. Two early Churches were dedicated to her in Rome, notably the Church of Sant'Agata dei Goti, in via Mazzarino, a Titular Church with Apse mosaics of circa 460 A.D., and traces of a fresco cycle, over-painted by Gismondo Cerrini, in 1630. In the 6th-Century, the Church was adapted to Arian Christianity, hence its name, "Saint Agatha of Goths" (Sant'Agata dei Goti), and later reconsecrated by Pope Gregory the Great, who confirmed her traditional Sainthood. 

Agatha is also depicted in the mosaics of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, where she appears, richly dressed, in the procession of female Martyrs along the North Wall. Her image forms an initial "I" in the Sacramentary of Gellone, from the end of the 8th-Century.

Italiano: Giovanni Battista Vaccarini (1702-1768), 

la Chiesa della Badia di Sant'Agata a Catania (1767).

English: Giovanni Battista Vaccarini (1702-1768), 

the Abbey Church of Saint Agatha, Catania, Sicily, Italy.

Photo: 4 July 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: Giovanni Dall'Orto.

(Wikimedia Commons)

One of the most-highly-venerated Virgin Martyrs of Christian antiquity, Agatha was put to death during the persecution of Decius (250 A.D. - 253 A.D.) in Catania, Sicily, for her steadfast profession of Faith.

Her written legend comprises "straightforward accounts of interrogation, torture, resistance, and triumph, which constitute some of the earliest hagiographic literature", and are reflected in later recensions, the earliest surviving one being an illustrated Late-10th-Century passio, bound into a composite volume, in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, originating, probably, in Autun, Burgundy; in its margin illustrations, Magdalena Carrasco detected Carolingian or Late Antique iconographic traditions.

According to Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda Aurea, of circa 1288, having dedicated her virginity to God, fifteen-year-old Agatha, from a rich and noble family, rejected the amorous advances of the low-born Roman Prefect, Quintianus, who then persecuted her for her Christian Faith. He sent Agatha to Aphrodisia, the keeper of a brothel.

English: Church of Saint Agatha, Rabat, Malta.

Italiano: Chiesa di Sant'Agata, Rabat, Malta.

Photo: 31 August 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Cruccone.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Madam, finding her intractable, Quintianus sends for her, argues, threatens, and finally has her put in prison. Among the tortures she underwent was the cutting off of her breasts. After further dramatic confrontations with Quintianus, represented in a sequence of dialogues in her passio that document her fortitude and steadfast devotion. Saint Agatha was then sentenced to be burned at the stake, but an earthquake saved her from that fate; instead, she was sent to prison where Saint Peter the Apostle appeared to her and healed her wounds. Saint Agatha died in prison, according to the Legenda Aurea, in "the year of our Lord two hundred and fifty-three, in the time of Decius, the Emperor of Rome."

Osbern Bokenham, A Legend of Holy Women, written in the 1440s, offers some further detail.

English: Internal view of Saint Agatha's Chapel, Mdina, Malta.

Italiano: Interno della cappella di Sant'Agata, Mdina, Malta.

Photo: 31 August 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Cruccone.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Agatha's Church, 

Yorkshire, England. 

The Church is next to Easby Abbey.

Photo: 15 June 2008.

Source: Own work by uploader.

Author: Greenjettaguy.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

Saint Agatha. 

Virgin and Martyr.

Feast Day 5 February.

Double.

Red Vestments.

Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Collect), was born in Sicily of noble parentage, but she estimated that, for her, the highest nobility would be to belong to Jesus, whom she took as her Spouse (Gospel).

Endowed with remarkable beauty, she had to resist the solicitations of the Roman Governor, Quintianus, who, unable to attain his end by persuasion, had recourse to violence. Her breast was torn by his order, but was healed on the following night, by the Apostle, Saint Peter, who appeared to her in prison (Communion).

Then the body of the Saint was rolled on pieces of broken pottery and on burning coals, and when she was brought back to her cell, she expired while praying.

This happened at Catana (Catania), Sicily, in 251 A.D., during the Persecution of the Emperor, Decius. God Almighty, by granting the victory of Martyrdom to a feeble woman (Collect), wished to show that He alone is our Redeemer, for it is with this "end in view that He chooses what is weak, in the world, to confound with their nothingness those who trust in their own strength" (Epistle).

English: Interior of the Church of Saint Agatha, Hausleiten, Austria.

Deutsch: Innenansicht der katholischen Pfarrkirche hl. Agatha

in der niederösterreichischen Gemeinde Hausleiten.

Photo: 29 September 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Bwag.

(Wikimedia Commons)

On several occasions, the virginal veil, which covered the tomb of Saint Agatha, held up the torrents of burning lava rushing down from Mount Etna and threatening to ruin the town. God thus honoured the resistance that her very pure Soul had shown to all the assaults of passion.

Her name is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass (Second List). Her Feast was already celebrated at Rome in the 6th-Century. The Church of Saint Agatha, in Rome, was made a Stational Church by Pope Pius XI, in 1934 (Third Tuesday in Lent).

Let us invoke Saint Agatha to preserve our homes from fire and to extinguish, through the spirit of penitence, the impure flames that consume our bodies and our Souls.

Saint Andrew Corsini (1302-1373). Confessor And Bishop. Feast Day 4 February.

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

Saint Andrew Corsini.
Bishop and Confessor.

Double.
White Vestments.

English: Saint Andrew Corsini, in Prayer.

Deutsch: Hl. Andreas Corsini, im Gebet.

Artist: Guido Reni (1575–1642).

Date: 1630-1635.

Current location: Deutsch: Galleria Corsini, now Uffizi Gallery, Florenz, Italien.

Current location: English: Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.

Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. 
DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. 
Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.

Permission: [1].

(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Andrew, of the noble family of Corsini, was born at Florence, and, from his birth, was consecrated to the Blessed Virgin. His mother dreamed that she had given birth to a wolf, which, on entering into the Carmelite Church, was suddenly changed into a lamb.

Her son, indeed, led a dissolute life in his youth. But Jesus exerted His redeeming power over him and Andrew entered the Carmelite Order and soon became its Head in Tuscany (Communion).

Having thus turned to good use the talents with which God had favoured him, he rose to a still higher dignity (Gospel) and, as Bishop of Fiesole, he had a share in the Priesthood of Christ, and accomplished His work of reconciling Souls, with God.

Thus, having been sent to Bologna, as Papal Legate, by Pope Urban V, he succeeded by his great prudence in extinguishing the burning hatred which had armed the citizens against each other (Epistle). The Blessed Virgin foretold him his death, which occurred in 1373.

Made wolves by sin, let us, like Saint Andrew Corsini, become lambs by Penance, in order that, "following in the footsteps of this Holy Confessor, we may obtain the same rewards" (Collect).

Mass: Státuit, of a Confessor Bishop.

The Church of Santa Maria del Carmine,

Florence, Italy,

which contains the Corsini Chapel.

This File: 9 July 2006.

User: Sailko.

(Wikimedia Commons)

English: 

The Corsini Chapel, 

Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, 

Florence, Tuscany, Italy.

Français: Église Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Toscane, Italie. La chapelle Corsini.

Photo: 23 September 2007.

Source: Own work.

Author: 

Tango7174.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,

unless otherwise stated.

Andrew Corsini, O.Carm. (1302 – 1373), was an Italian Carmelite Friar and Bishop of Fiesole, who is honoured as a Saint within the Catholic Church.

Corsini was born in Florence on 30 November 1302, a member of the illustrious Corsini family. Wild and dissolute in youth, he was startled by the words of his mother about what had happened to her before his birth, and, becoming a Carmelite Friar in his native city, began a life of great mortification. He studied at Paris and Avignon.

On his return, Corsini became the "Apostle of Florence". He was regarded as a prophet and a wonderworker. After being elected to the Office of Bishop of Fiesole, which he did not want, he fled. He was discovered by a child at the Charterhouse at Enna, and was subsequently compelled to accept the honour.

English: Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Tuscany, Italy. 

The Vault over the entire Nave, with the Apse on the left and the main entrance on the right.

Français: Église Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Toscane, Italie. La voûte au-dessus de la nef dans son intégralité, l'abside étant sur la gauche et l'entrée principale sur la droite.

Photo: 23 September 2007.

Source: Own work.

Author: 

Tango7174.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Corsini redoubled his austerities as a Bishop, was lavish in his care of the poor, and was sought for everywhere as a peacemaker, notably at Bologna, whither he was sent, as Papal Legate, to heal the breach between the nobility and the people.

After twelve years in the Episcopacy, Corsini died in his native Florence in 1373, at the age of seventy-one. In 1675, after his Canonisation, the members of the Corsini family had the Corsini Chapel built in the Carmelite Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, in Florence, Italy, to provide his Remains a more suitable resting place.

The Corsini Chapel, Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome.

San Giovanni in Laterano is the Cathedral Church of Rome.

Photo: October 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: Maros M r a z (Maros).

(Wikimedia Commons)

In 1373, while Corsini had been celebrating the Midnight Mass of Christmas Eve, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him and told him he would leave this world on the Feast of the Epiphany. It came to pass, as the vision had told him, and he died on that day.

Miracles were so multiplied at his death that Pope Eugene IV permitted a public devotion to him, immediately. It was only in 1629 that Pope Urban VIII formally confirmed this. His Feast is kept on 4 February, in the Carmelite Order, and in the Cities of Florence and Fiesole.

In the Early-18th-Century, Pope Clement XII, born Lorenzo Corsini, erected, in the Roman Basilica of Saint John Lateran, a magnificent Chapel dedicated to his 14th-Century kinsman.

English: The Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy,

which contains the Corsini Chapel.

Français: l'église Santa Maria del Carmine de Florence la nuit.

Photo: October 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: Emmanuel BRUNNER Manu25.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Blaise. Bishop And Martyr. Died 316 A.D. Feast Day 3 February.

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,

unless otherwise stated.

English: Saint Blaise confronting the Roman Governor.

Scene from the life of Saint Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste (Armenia).

Martyr under the Roman Emperor Licinius (4th-Century). 

Stained-Glass Window from the area of Soissons, Picardy, France.

Early-13th-Century.

Français: Saint Blaise devant le gouverneur romain : scène de la vie de saint Blaise, évêque de Sébaste en Arménie, martyr sous le règne de l'empereur Licinius (IVe siècle). Vitrail de la région de Soissons (Picardie, France), début du XIVe siècle. Versement de l'Office des biens privés, 1951.

Current location: Louvre Museum, Paris, France.

Credit line: Assigned by the Office of private goods and interests, 1951.

Source/Photographer: Jastrow (2005).

(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Blaise (Armenian: Սուրբ Բարսեղ, Sourb Barsegh; Greek: Άγιος Βλάσιος, Agios Vlasios), also known as Saint Blase, was a physician, and Bishop of Sebastea, in historical Armenia (modern Sivas, Turkey).

According to the Acta Sanctorum, he was Martyred, by being beaten, attacked with iron carding combs, and beheaded. In the Latin Church, his Feast falls on 3 February; in the Eastern Churches, on 11 February.

The first reference we have to him is in manuscripts of the medical writings of Aëtius Amidenus, a court physician at the very end of the 5th-Century, or the beginning of the 6th-Century; there, his aid is invoked in treating objects stuck in the throat.

Marco Polo reported the place where "Meeser Saint Blaise obtained the glorious Crown of Martyrdom", Sebastea; the Shrine near, the Citadel Mount, was mentioned by William of Rubruck in 1253. However, it appears to no longer exist.

English: Church of Saint Blaise, Alsace, France.

Français: Alsace, Bas-Rhin, Valff, Eglise Saint-Blaise, 

Maître-autel (XVIIIe) avec statues de Sainte-Marguerite 

et Saint-Jean de Népomucène, Tableau Saint-Blaise.

Photo: 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Rh-67.

(Wikimedia Commons)

From being a healer of bodily ailments, Saint Blaise became a physician of Souls, then retired for a time, by Divine Inspiration, to a cavern, where he remained in Prayer. As Bishop of Sebastea, Blaise instructed his people, as much by his example as by his words, and the great virtues and sanctity of the Servant of God were attested by many Miracles. From all parts, the people came flocking to him for the cure of bodily and spiritual ills.

In 316 A.D., the Governor of Cappadocia and Lesser Armenia, Agricolaus, began a Persecution, by order of the Emperor, Licinius. Saint Blaise was seized. After interrogation and a severe scourging, he was hurried off to prison, and subsequently beheaded. The legendary Acts of Saint Blaise were written 400 years later. The Acts of Saint Blaise, written in Greek, are Mediaeval.

The Legend, as given in the Grande Encyclopédie, is as follows:

Blaise, who had studied philosophy in his youth, was a doctor in Sebaste, in Armenia, the city of his birth, who exercised his art with miraculous ability, good-will, and piety. When the Bishop of the city died, he was chosen to succeed him, with the acclamation of all the people. His holiness was manifest through many Miracles: From all around, people came to him to find cures for their spirit and their body; even wild animals came in herds to receive his blessing. In 316 A.D., Agricola, the Governor of Cappadocia and of Lesser Armenia, having arrived in Sebastia at the order of the Emperor Licinius to kill the Christians, arrested the Bishop. As he was being led to prison, a mother set her only son, choking to death of a fish-bone, at his feet, and the child was cured straight away. Regardless, the Governor, unable to make Blaise renounce his Faith, beat him with a stick, ripped his flesh with iron combs, and beheaded him.

In many places, on the day of his Feast, the Blessing of Saint Blaise is given: Two candles are consecrated, generally by a Prayer, these are then held in a crossed position by a Priest over the heads of the Faithful or the people are touched on the throat with them. At the same time, the following Blessing is given: "May Almighty God at the intercession of Saint Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, preserve you from infections of the throat and from all other afflictions".

English: Valentino Rovisi, Saint Blaise, 1780, fresco, 

San Biagio church in Alleghe.

Polski: Chwała św. Błażeja i osiem epizodów z życia 

świętego, 1780, fresk, kościół w Alleghe.

Photo: 27 December 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: Stanisław Gurba.

(Wikimedia Commons)

One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers [Editor: Or, The Fourteen Auxiliary Saints], Blaise became one of the most popular Saints of the Middle Ages. His cult became widespread in Europe in the 11th- and 12th-Centuries and his legend is recounted in the 14th-Century Legenda Aurea. Saint Blaise is the Saint of the Wild Beast.

He is the Patron of the Armenian Order of Saint Blaise. In Italy, he is known as San Biagio. In Spanish-speaking countries, he is known as San Blas, and has lent his name to many places (see San Blas). In Italy, Saint Blaise's Remains rest at the Basilica over the town of Maratea, shipwrecked there during Leo III the Isaurian's iconoclastic persecutions.

Many German Churches, including the former Abbey of Saint Blasius, in the Black Forest, and the Church of Balve, are dedicated to Saint Blaise/Blasius.

In Cornwall, England, the village of St Blazey derives from his name, where the Parish Church is still dedicated to Saint Blaise. Indeed, the Council of Oxford, in 1222, forbade all work on his Festival. There is a Church dedicated to Saint Blaise in the Devon, England, hamlet of Haccombe, near Newton Abbot (also one at Shanklin, on the Isle of Wight, and another at Milton, near Abingdon, in Oxfordshire), one of the country's smallest Churches. It is located next to Haccombe House, which is the family home of the Carew family, descendants of the Vice-Admiral on board the Mary Rose at the time of her sinking. One curious fact associated with this Church is that its "Vicar" goes by the title of "Arch-Priest".

English: Statue of Saint Blaise on the Holy Trinity Column 

in Olomouc in Olomouc (Czech Republic).

Čeština: Socha Svatého Blažeje na sloupu 

nejsvětější trojice v Olomouci.

Source: Own work.

Author: Michal Maňas.

(Wikimedia Commons)

There is a Saint Blaise's Well In Bromley, Kent, where the water was considered to have medicinal virtues. Saint Blaise is also associated with Stretford, in Lancashire. A Blessing of the Throats ceremony is held on 3 February at Saint Etheldreda's Church, in London, and in Balve, Germany.

In Bradford, West Yorkshire, a Roman Catholic Middle School, named after Saint Blaise, was operated by the Diocese of Leeds from 1961 to 1995. The name was chosen due to the connections of Bradford to the woollen industry and the method whereby Saint Blaise was Martyred (with the wool-comb).

Saint Blaise (Croatian: Sveti Vlaho or Sveti Blaž) is the Patron Saint of Dubrovnik and, formerly, the Protector of the independent Republic of Ragusa. At Dubrovnik, his Feast is celebrated on 3 February, when Relics of the Saint are paraded in Reliquaries. The festivities begin the previous day, Candlemas, when white doves are released. Chroniclers of Dubrovnik, such as Rastic and Ranjina, attribute his veneration there to a vision in 971 A.D., to warn the inhabitants of an impending attack by the Venetians.

English: Church of Saint Blaise, 

Montepulciano, Italy.

Italiano: Montepulciano - 

Chiesa di S. Biagio.

Photo: August 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: Geobia.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Blaise (Blasius) revealed the Venetians' pernicious plan to Stojko, a Canon of Saint Stephen's Cathedral. The Senate summoned Stojko, who told them in detail how Saint Blaise had appeared before him as an old man with a long beard and a Bishop's Mitre and Staff. In this form, the effigy of Blaise remained on Dubrovnik's State Seal and coinage until the Napoleonic era.

In England, in the 18th- and 19th-Centuries, Blaise was adopted as mascot of wool-workers' pageants, particularly in Essex, Yorkshire, Wiltshire and Norwich. The popular enthusiasm for the Saint is explained by the belief that Blaise had brought prosperity (as symbolised by the Woolsack) to England, by teaching the English to comb wool. According to the tradition, as recorded in printed broadsheets, Blaise came from Jersey, Channel Islands. Jersey was certainly a centre of export of woollen goods (as witnessed by the name jersey for the woollen textile). However, this legend is probably the result of confusion with a different Saint, Blasius of Caesarea (Caesarea being also the Latin name of Jersey).

In iconography, Blaise is represented holding two crossed candles in his hand (the Blessing of Saint Blaise), or in a cave surrounded by wild beasts, as he was found by the hunters of the Governor. He is often shown with the instruments of his Martyrdom, steel combs. The similarity of these instruments of torture to wool combs led to his adoption as the Patron Saint of wool combers, in particular, and the wool trade in general.

The following Text is from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

Saint Blaise.

Bishop and Martyr.

Feast Day 3 February.

Simple.

Red Vestments.

Saint Blaise, elected Bishop of Sebastea, Armenia (Introit), had a part in the Redemption of the Saviour. "The sufferings of the Saviour abounded in him" (Epistle), and, after a life of severe penance passed among wild beasts in a cave on Mount Argeus, "he gave his life for Jesus" (Gospel). Having suffered the most atrocious torments under Licinius, he was beheaded in 316 A.D.

Like the Redeemer, Saint Blaise healed bodies while healing Souls, wherefore his intercession was often prayed for. In consequence of his having saved the life of a child, who was dying choked by a bone which had stuck in his throat, the Church recognises his "prerogative for healing all diseases of the throat". She Blesses two candles to this effect and asks God for all those, whose necks the candles shall touch, that they may be delivered from throat diseases, or from any other ill, through the merits of this holy Martyr's passion. He is one of The Fourteen "Auxiliary Saints".

Let us, with Saint Blaise, take part in the sufferings of the Redeemer, so as to be able with him to take part in His triumph (Epistle).

Mass: Sacerdótes Dei, of a Martyr Bishop.

The Venerable Bede (673 A.D.-735 A.D.). Saint. Confessor. Doctor Of The Church. (Part Three).

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Bede, translating the Gospel 
of Saint John on his deathbed.

Date: 1902.

Source: http://www.bible-researcher.com/bede.jpg.

Author: James Doyle Penrose.

(Wikimedia Commons)

At three o'clock, according to Cuthbert, he asked for a box of his to be brought, and distributed among the Priests of the Monastery "a few treasures" of his: "Some pepper, and napkins, and some incense". That night he dictated a final sentence to the scribe, a boy named Wilberht, and died soon afterwards. Cuthbert's Letter also relates a five-line poem, in the vernacular, that Bede composed on his death-bed, known as "Bede's Death Song". It is the most-widely copied Old English poem, and appears in forty-five manuscripts, but its attribution to Bede is not absolutely certain — not all manuscripts name Bede as the author, and the ones that do are of later origin than those that do not. Bede's remains may have been transferred to Durham Cathedral in the 11th-Century; his tomb there was looted in 1541, but the contents were probably re-interred in the Galilee Chapel at the Cathedral.

One further oddity, in his writings, is that in one of his works, the "Commentary on the Seven Catholic Epistles", he writes in a manner that gives the impression he was married. The section in question is the only one in that work that is written in first-person view. Bede says: "Prayers are hindered by the conjugal duty because as often as I perform what is due to my wife I am not able to pray." Another passage, in the "Commentary on Luke", also mentions a wife in the first person: "Formerly, I possessed a wife in the lustful passion of desire and now I possess her in honourable sanctification and true love of Christ." The historian, Benedicta Ward, argues that these passages are Bede employing a rhetorical device.

Whitby Abbey at Sunset.

Photo: 12 April 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Ackers72.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Synod of Whitby was a 7th-Century Northumbrian Synod, where King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter, and observe the Monastic Tonsure, according to the customs of Rome, rather than the customs practised by Iona and its satellite institutions. The Synod was summoned in 664 A.D., at Saint Hilda's Double Monastery of Streonshalh (Streanæshalch), later called Whitby Abbey. The Venerable Bede comments upon 

this Synod in the third book of his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, or, 

"An Ecclesiastical History of the English People", completed in about 731 A.D.

Bede wrote scientific, historical and theological works, reflecting the range of his writings from music and metrics to exegetical Scripture commentaries. He knew Patristic literature, as well as Pliny the Elder, Virgil, Lucretius, Ovid, Horace and other classical writers. He knew some Greek. His Latin is generally clear, but his Biblical commentaries are more technical.

Bede's scriptural commentaries employed the allegorical method of interpretation and his history includes accounts of miracles, which, to modern historians, has seemed at odds with his critical approach to the materials in his history. Modern studies have shown the important role such concepts played in the world-view of Early-Medieval scholars. He dedicated his work on the Apocalypse and the De Temporum Ratione to the successor of Ceolfrid, as Abbot, Hwaetbert.

Modern historians have completed many studies of Bede's works. His life and work have been celebrated by a series of annual scholarly lectures at Saint Paul's Church, Jarrow, from 1958 to the present. The historian, Walter Goffart, says of Bede that he "holds a privileged and unrivalled place among first historians of Christian Europe".

The Saint Petersburg Bede (Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, lat. Q. v. I. 18), formerly known as the Leningrad Bede, is an early surviving illuminated manuscript of Bede's 8th century history, the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People). It was taken to the Russian National Library of Saint Petersburg at the time of the French Revolution.

Although not heavily illuminated, it is famous for containing the earliest historiated initial (one containing a picture) in European illumination. The opening three letters of Book 2 of Bede are decorated, to a height of 8 lines of the text, and the opening h contains a bust portrait of a haloed figure carrying a cross and a book. This is probably intended to be St. Gregory the Great, although a much later hand has identified the figure as St. Augustine of Canterbury.

Date: Circa 731 A.D. - 746 A.D.

Source: HistoryofScience.com and Russian National Library, St Petersberg.

Author: Unknown Anglo-Saxon artist.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Although Bede is mainly studied as a historian, now, in his time, his works on grammar, chronology, and biblical studies were as important as his historical and hagiographical works. The non-historical works contributed greatly to the Carolingian Renaissance.

Bede's best-known work is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, or, "An Ecclesiastical History of the English People", completed in about 731 A.D. Bede was aided in writing this book by Albinus, Abbot of Saint Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. The first of the five books begins with some geographical background, and then sketches the history of England, beginning with Caesar's invasion in 55 B.C.

A brief account of Christianity in Roman Britain, including the Martyrdom of Saint Alban, is followed by the story of Augustine's mission to England in 597 A.D., which brought Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons. The second book begins with the death of Gregory the Great in 604 A.D., and follows the further progress of Christianity in Kent and the first attempts to evangelise Northumbria. These ended in disaster, when Penda, the pagan King of Mercia, killed the newly-Christian, Edwin of Northumbria, at the Battle of Hatfield Chase, in about 632 A.D.

A page from a copy of Bede's Life of Saint Cuthbert, 

showing King Athelstan presenting the work to the Saint. 

This manuscript was given to Saint Cuthbert's Shrine in 934 A.D.

Originally from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Source: Scanned from the book 

"The National Portrait Gallery History of the Kings and Queens of England" 

by David Williamson, ISBN 1855142287.

Author: See description.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The setback was temporary, and the third book recounts the growth of Christianity in Northumbria, under Kings Oswald of Northumbria and Oswy. The climax of the third book is the account of the Council of Whitby, traditionally seen as a major turning point in English history. The fourth book begins with the consecration of Theodore, as Archbishop of Canterbury, and recounts Wilfrid's efforts to bring Christianity to the Kingdom of Sussex.

PART FOUR FOLLOWS