Hippolytus of Rome

Saint Hippolytus of Rome
Also known as;
Saint Hippolytus of Porto
Various other Hippolyti throughout the church

Memorial:
13 August

Our Saint today has been confused with many many other saints and has several feast days all of which have been suppressed because they now think they’re all the same fellow.

Our saint was a priest in Rome during the Reign of Pope Zephyrinus (199–217). He was distinguished by his learning and eloquence. While a young man Origen of Alexandria heard our saint speak and was quite impressed. Many of Hippolytus’ writings exist as fragments and or apocryphal remnants, but the amount of writings he churned out was quite prodigious. His apostolic traditions preserved in 2nd and 3rd century documents show rites and rituals almost identical to what we use today. Particularly the ordination rites and what we know as Eucharistic prayer II, the shortest one....”You are Holy indeed the fountain of all holiness....” It is said he was a disciple of Iraneus who was in turn a disciple of Polycarp, who was in turn a disciple of John the Apostle.

He was an outspoken critic of the Pope, Zephyrinus. He accused the Holy Father off the heresy of modalism, an early heresy which said God assumed different “roles” as father/Creator-Son/redeemer-Spirit/sanctifier, but in all this there was one person wearing different masks, not three distinct persons but one God. Our Saint was strong Trinitarian defender.

Pope Zephyrinus’ successor, Pope Callixtus I (217–222), got Hippolytus even more worked up. Our Saint was outraged when the new Pope extended absolution to Christians who had committed grave sins. I guess the “forgive your neighbor” thing was lost on Hippolytus.

Anyhoo, his being off base with this strict no forgive policy inspired him and another group of Priests to break away from the Pope, he seems to have allowed himself to be elected as a rival Bishop of Rome, and continued to attack the Pope. Because he was a rival claimant to the Chair of Saint Peter, Hippolytus is considered the first Antipope.

He continued in this role through the rules of Callixtus successors, Urban I (222–230) and Pope Pontian (230-235). In the time of Pope Pontian, both he and the Pope were exiled to Sardinia, from all accounts an extraordinarily unhealthy place, where they were forced to work the mines. Shortly afterward, in 235, both died there. Sometime before his death, Hippolytus was reconciled to the Pope. He renounced his Papal claim and returned to the Church. The two were martyrs, and their bodies were both brought back to Rome, where they were honorably buried. Hippolytus is the only Antipope to be honored as a Saint in the Catholic Church

His patronage of Horses, and equestrians is probably a confusion yet again, with the mythical Hippolytus, son of Theseus, who was ripped apart by hoses for refusing advances by his creepy stepmother. Our saint’s ancient pictures show him being pulled by horses. He died in the mines…..

Born:

170 Rome

Died:
Martyred 235 in Sardinia

Patronage:
Horses
Equestrians
Cowboys
Prison Guards

Clare of Assisi

 Saint Clare of Assisi

Memorial
11 August

Growing up in the Bronx, I lived around the corner from the Church named after Our Saint for today. My parents put my Sisters in that school to get a quality Catholic education. The Sisters who staffed that school were not really well versed in the English language so when my sister Marie (the dead one) came home calling the 16th president of the United States “Aboram O’Lincol,” they pulled them out of there in a big big hurry and enrolled them in Our Lady of Solace (OLS) where the nuns were Irish but at least spoke English. OLS was ½ a mile away from my house and I had to walk there every day. When I got older and no longer went to OLS I cheated and went around the corner to Saint Claire’s for Sunday Mass. Because the Boy Scout troop at Saint Claire’s didn’t require my Father to volunteer as an assistant on camping trips for me to join the program, like the other troops in the neighborhood did, that became the home to my Scout life. Dad didn’t like to work for anything that didn’t pay money.

Anyhoo…. Clare’s father was a count, her mother the countess both religious in their way, even though the Count checked out early when Claire was still very young. Once when Claire heard Saint Francis preach in the streets and became hooked, she found her calling. Francis and Claire became close friends.

In 1212 along with her cousin Pacifica, Clare ran away from the family palace in the middle of the night and joined the convent. She eventually took her final vows from Saint Francis himself at the Church of Our Lady of the Angels in Assisi, Italy.

Clare founded the Order of Poor Ladies now called the Poor Clares in the same town as Francis and led it for 40 years. In fact The Poor Claries followed the Franciscans wherever they went depending solely on the kindness of strangers; alms, forced to have complete faith on God to provide through people; this lack of land-based revenues was a new idea at the time.

Clare was a peaceful, holy, thoughtful, optimistic person…a real sweet lady it seems. She should speak to Sister Mary Muriel; my arch nemesis maybe. For example, she would get up late at night to check on her nuns and help them if they had kicked off their blankets or were distressed in any way. 

She was a deeply spiritual woman full of faith, once when her convent was about to be attacked by malcontents, she displayed the Sacrament in a monstrace at the convent gates, and prayed before it; the attackers left. Whenever you see Claire, she is holding the Monstrance.

It seems Her patronage of sore eyes is not because she is also the patronage of Television like my mother told me; actually this patronage may have developed from her name which has overtones from clearness, brightness, brilliance – like healthy eyes.

On her deathbed, she became too ill to attend Mass, so the Lord provided an image of the service on the wall of her cell; the first widescreen TV and televised service. This is why Pius XII declared her patroness of television.

Born
16 July 1194 at Assisi, Italy

Died
11 August 1253 of natural causes

Patronage
against sore eyes
embroiderers
eyes
for good weather
gilders
gold workers
goldsmiths
laundry workers
needle workers
telegraphs
telephones
television
television writers

Representation
monstrance
woman with a monstrance in her hand

My guy Lawrence

Saint Lawrence of Rome

Also known as
Laurence
Laurent
Laurentius
Lorenzo

Memorial
10 August

Profile
I gotta say, I have a special place in my heart for our saint today, he is one of my personal protectors, and a good friend....

Laurence was the third-century archdeacon of Rome, distributor of alms, and "keeper of the treasures of the church" in a time when Christianity was outlawed. As we recounted earlier this week, on 6 August 258, by decree of Emperor Valerian, Pope Saint Sixtus II and six of the seven deacons in Rome were beheaded, leaving Lawrence as the ranking Church official.

While in prison awaiting execution Sixtus reassured Lawrence that he was not being left behind; they would be reunited in four days. Lawrence saw this time as an opportunity to disperse the material wealth of the church before the Roman authorities could lay their hands on it. On 10 August Lawrence was commanded to appear for his execution, and to bring along the treasure with which he had been entrusted by the pope. When he arrived, the archdeacon was accompanied by a multitude of Rome's crippled, blind, sick, and indigent. He announced that these were the true treasures of the Church…The Emperor Roasted Laurence on a gridiron for his snappy wit.

Lawrence's care for the poor, the ill, the neglected have led to his patronage of them. His work to save the material wealth of the Church, including its documents, and relics, including what many believe to be the actual Holy Grail, and the Cloth that wrapped the head of Jesus Christ in the Tomb brought librarians and those in related fields also under his patronage.

While being grilled to alive, pious legend tells us that he calmly told his murderers while being roasted, “I’m done on this side you may turn me over.”, led to his patronage of cooks and those who work in or supply things to the kitchen, as well as comedians and the witty.

Deacon Lawrence was buried in the cemetery of Saint Cyriacs on the road to Tivoli, Italy; later his tomb was opened by Pelagius to inter the body of brother deacon Saint Stephen the Martyr. Lawrence’s mummified head was removed to the Quirinal Chapel; the gridiron believed to have been his deathbed is in San Lorenzo in Lucina; his vestments are in Our Lady's Chapel in the Lateran Palace.

As I said, The Grail, rescued by Lawrence resides in Valencia now, along with the Sundarim, the burial head-cloth of Jesus Christ:

http://www.valenciavalencia.com/sights-guide/holy-grail-valencia.htm



The meteor shower that follows the passage of the Swift-Tuttle comet was known in the middle ages as the "burning tears of Saint Lawrence" because they appear around the same time as Lawrence's feast.



Born

at Huesca, Spain

Died

cooked to death on a gridiron on 10 August 258;

Patronage

against fire

Åhus, Sweden

Alaior, Menorca, Spain

archives

archivists

armories

armourers

Brissogne, Italy

brewers

butchers

Cabella Ligure, Italy

Camino, Italy

Cavatore, Alessandria, Italy

Ceylon

Chambave, Aosta, Italy

comedians

comediennes

comics

confectioners

cooks

cutlers

deacons

Denice, Italy

Gamalero, Italy

glaziers

Gross Gartach, Germany

Gyõrszemere község, Hungary

Il-Birgu, Malta

laundry workers

librarians

libraries

Limbazi, Latvia

lumbago

Lund, Sweden

Naurod, Germany

Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, Germany

paupers

Picuris Indian Pueblo

poor people

restauranteurs

Rome, Italy

Rotterdam, Netherlands, city of

Rotterdam, Netherlands, diocese of

San Lawrenz, Gozo, Malta

schoolchildren

seminarians

Seravezza, Italy

Sri Lanka

stained glass workers

students

tanners

Tivoli, Italy

vine growers

vintners

wine makers

Zagarolo, Italy

Representation

book of Gospels

cross

gridiron

deacon holding a book

deacon holding a gridiron

deacon holding a bag of money

purse of money

Edith Stein

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Also known as
Edith Stein
Teresia Benedicta

memorial
9 August

Profile

Our Saint for today has a lot of discussion around her by many critics and fans trying to figure out why she was martyred, for being Jewish or Being a Catholic, come on!

Edith was the youngest child born into a religious Jewish Family. By the time she was 13 she had lost all interest in “religion.” Tempered by the horrors of World War I, Edith became a nursing assistant and worked in a hospital for communicable diseases.

She was a brilliant student studying philosophy at the University of Göttingen, Germany and in Breisgau, Germany. Earned a doctorate in philosophy by the time she was 25. Witnessing the strength of faith of Catholic friends led her to an interest in Catholicism, which led to studying a catechism on her own, mostly from reading the works of the reformer of the Carmelite Order, St. Teresa of Jesus; she was drawn more closely to the Catholic Faith.

On 1 January 1922 she was baptized in Saint Martin’s church, Bad Bergzabern, Germany. She then taught at a Catholic school of education. As a result of the requirement of an "Aryan certificate" for civil servants promulgated by the Nazi government in April 1933, she had to quit her teaching position.

She was admitted to the Discalced Carmelite monastery the following October. She received the religious habit of the Order as a novice in April 1934, taking the religious name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross ("Teresa blessed by the Cross").

In 1938 she and her sister Rosa, by then also a convert and a Sister of the monastery, were smuggled out of Germany, to the Carmelite monastery in the Netherlands for their safety; they were a double target for the Nazis both Jewish and Catholic. Despite the Nazi invasion of that state in 1940, they remained undisturbed until they were arrested by the Nazis on 2 August 1942 and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where they died in the gas chamber on 9 August 1942.

Born
12 October 1891 at Breslaw, Dolnoslaskie, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) as Edith Stein

Patronage
against the death of parents
Europe
martyrs

The Transfiguration

The Transfiguration

Feast 6 August 

This Feast celebrates this event recorded in the Gospels. The Nuns in Our Lady of Solace told me that Jesus allowed his three top men, Peter, James and John, to see him in his glorified state, IE as he looks in heaven. There he spoke to Moses and Elijah, representing the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah), confirming that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, and the beginning of the New and Everlasting Covenant,. In other words Jesus was on the same team as them, in fact he was the captain of that team.

It was not until the year 1456 when Pope Callixtus III made the transfiguration a universal feast in the west to be celebrated on this date.

As it goes, the city of Belgrade was under siege by the Ottoman Turks during the Crusades and in July of 1456, the siege was lifted militarily by the Hungarian nobleman Janos Hunyadi assisted by the Transylvanian nobleman Vlad (popularly known as “Count Dracula”), the siege was broken, their troops reinforced the Christians at Belgrade, the Muslim Turks were routed, and Islam was stopped from advancing further into Europe. 

 Dracula was able to guard the passes into Romania, cutting off the Turks. Interestingly, some Orthodox Christians venerate Dracula (as Vlad) as a saint for confronting the Islamic threat to Christian Europe. News of this victory made it back to Rome and the Pope on the August 6th. To commemorate this victory, the Pope made August 6th, the Feast of the Transfiguration, a universal feast for the Western Church as well

Our Lady of the Snows

Our Lady of the Snows
memorial
5 August

Profile
Today is the feast of the dedication of Saint Mary Major in Rome. St. Mary Major is the largest church dedicated to Our Lady in the whole wide world.. This incarnation, Our Lady of the Snows is wrapped up in that dedication and could be part legend, as it became popular a few centuries after the basilica was built.

A pious legend says that during the pontificate of the earliest Pope who has not yet been declared a saint, Liberius (r. 352-366), an aging aristocrat of the city named, John, and his wife, who were childless prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary. They petitioned that she might make an heir known to them, someone to whom they could will all their possessions. On the night of August 4-5 they were blessed with a dream in which Our Lady appeared to them. She asked if they would build a church in her honor, on the Esquiline Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome. They would find the exact spot for its location on the hill the next morning, and it would be outlined in snow in August in Rome!

That same night the pope, Liberius, was also visited by Our Blessed Mother in a dream, probably right after a heavy meal, directing him to the same location on the Esquiline Hill. In the morning, John and his wife hurried to the site, as Pope Liberius arrived in solemn procession. Together, and with many others who followed, they beheld a large area marked by freshly fallen, thick snow. I would guess there were tracks of the Yeti and the Piltdown Man there as well, I am surprised they didn’t dig it all up and sequester it in Area Cinquenta uno.

Anyhoo, upon hearing of Our Lady’s request, some of the men immediately staked off the area. A basilica was completed within two year’s time. John left all his wealth to this church; thus avoiding the State taking possession of it after his death, an early scam or a miraculous intervention? You decide.

Be that as it may, Pope Liberius consecrated it and, later on, Pope Sixtus III (432-442) included an eight-lined dedicatory inscription to Our Lady. But in this dedication there was no mention of any alleged snowfall at this time, you would think something like miraculous snow in August in Rome would note a mention at least. In spite of the lack of real evidence the legend of Our Lady of the Snows remained, and was for some time was even included in the Divine Office that clergy prays on this day. In 1741 it was removed from the Breviary in an early effort to make Roman Catholicism less fun.

Of all the Major Basilica, (there are only 4) Mary Major is my second favorite.