Feasts & Saints

Sunday, August 11
Saints Tiburtius and Susanna, Martyrs
Tiburtius, a subdeacon, was beheaded in 286, after betrayal by an apostate. Susanna, a niece of Pope St. Caius, was beheaded in her father's house because she refused to marry a pagan, 295.

Reflection.—Sufferings were to the martyrs the most distinguishing mercy, extraordinary graces, and sources of the greatest crowns and glory. All afflictions which God sends are in like manner the greatest mercies and blessings; they are the most precious talents to be improved by us to the increasing of our love and affection to God, and the exercise of the most heroic virtues of self-denial, patience, humility, resignation, and penance.

Monday, August 12
Saint Clare, Virgin & Abbess
Foundress of the Poor Clares; born at Assisi, 1194; died, 1253. The first of the holy virgins whom St. Francis consecrated to God; noted for her mortifications, love of poverty, devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.

Tuesday, August 13
Saint Radegundes
As a great queen, she continued no less an enemy to sloth and vanity than she was before, and divided her time chiefly between her oratory, the Church, and the care of the poor. She also kept long fasts, and during Lent wore a hair-cloth under her rich garments.

Wednesday, August 14
St. Eusebius
Eusebius, a Roman patrician, became a priest and was so zealous for orthodoxy that the Arian Emperor Constantius imprisoned him seven months in his own house; died 371.

Reflection.—Let us learn, from the example of the Saints, courage in the service of God. He calls upon us to endure suffering of body and of mind, if it is necessary, to prove our fidelity to Him; and He promises to support us by His strength, His light, and His heavenly consolation.

Thursday, August 15
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
From early times the Assumption, or Taking up into Heaven, of the Blessed Virgin has been venerated as the greatest of her feasts and one of the chief solemnities of the Church year. The tradition of the Church, which this oldest of Mary's festivals commemorates, is that the Mother of God departed from this life and was taken body and soul into heaven.

Introit. Let us all rejoice in the Lord, keeping a festival day in honor of the blessed Virgin Mary, for whose Assumption the angels rejoice and give praise to the Son of God. Ps 44. My heart hath uttered a good theme; I speak my works to the king. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the Beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Collect. Forgive, O Lord, we pray, the sins of thy servants; that we, who by our own deeds are unable to please thee, may be saved by the intercession of the mother of thy Son, our Lord. Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost One God world without end. Amen.

Lesson. Ecclus 24. 11-13, 15-20.. And by my power I have trodden under my feet the hearts of all the high and low: and in all these I sought rest, and I shall abide in the inheritance of the Lord. Then the creator of all things commanded, and said to me: and he that made me, rested in my tabernacle, And he said to me: Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thy inheritance in Israel, and take root in my elect. And so was I established in Sion, and in the holy city likewise I rested, and my power was in Jerusalem. And I took root in an honourable people, and in the portion of my God his inheritance, and my abode is in the full assembly of saints. I was exalted like a cedar in Libanus, and as a cypress tree on mount Sion. I was exalted like a palm tree in Cades, and as a rose plant in Jericho: As a fair olive tree in the plains, and as a plane tree by the water in the streets, was I exalted. I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon. and aromatical balm: I yielded a sweet odour like the best myrrh.

Gradual. Ps. 44. For the sake of truth, and meekness, and justice, may thy right hand conduct thee wonderfully. Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear: for the king hath greatly desired thy beauty.
Alleluia. Alleluia. Mary is assumed into heaven; the angel hosts rejoice. Alleluia.

Gospel. Luke 10:38-42. Now it came to pass as they went, that he entered into a certain town: and a certain woman named Martha, received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sitting also at the Lord' s feet, heard his word. But Martha was busy about much serving. Who stood and said: Lord, hast thou no care that my sister hath left me alone to serve? speak to her therefore, that she help me. And the Lord answering, said to her: Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and art troubled about many things: But one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Offertory. Mary hath been taken up into heaven; the angels rejoice, and, blessing God, praise him with one voice, alleluia.

Secret. May the prayer of the mother of God aid thy people, O Lord; and although we know that following the condition of mortal flesh, she passed away from this life, may we nevertheless feel that in the glory of heaven she is interceding for us with thee. Through the same Lord, Jesus Christ, Thy Son Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost, One God world without end. Amen.

Communion. Mary hath chosen for herself the best part, which shall not be taken from her forever.

IN this festival the Church commemorates the happy departure from life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and her translation into the kingdom of her Son, in which she received from Him a crown of immortal glory, and a throne above all the other Saints and heavenly spirits. After Christ, as the triumphant Conqueror of death and hell, ascended into heaven, His blessed Mother remained at Jerusalem, persevering in prayer with the disciples, till, with them, she had received the Holy Ghost. She lived to a very advanced age, but finally paid the common debt of nature, none among the children of Adam being exempt from that rigorous law. But the death of the Saints is rather to be called a sweet sleep than death; much more that of the Queen of Saints, who had been exempt from all sin. It is a traditionary pious belief, that the body of the Blessed Virgin was raised by God soon after her death, and taken up to glory, by a singular privilege, before the general resurrection of the dead. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the greatest of all the festivals which the Church celebrates in her honor. It is the consummation of all the other great mysteries by which her life was rendered most wonderful; it is the birthday of her true greatness and glory, and the crowning of all the virtues of her whole life, which we admire single in her other festivals.

Reflection.—Whilst we contemplate, in profound sentiments of veneration, astonishment, and praise, the glory to which Mary is raised by her triumph on this day, we ought, for our own advantage, to consider by what means she arrived at this sublime degree of honor and happiness, that we may walk in her steps. No other way is open to us. The same path which conducted her to glory will also lead us thither; we shall be partners in her reward if we copy her virtues.

Friday, August 16
St. Hyacinth
Dominican; born in Silesia; died at Cracow, 1257. His brother was Blessed Ceslas; he received the habit at Rome from St. Dominic; preached the Gospel in Poland, Russia, Prussia, Scandinavia, Tibet and China; known as the Apostle of the North.

Dominic sent him to preach and plant the Order in Poland, where he founded two houses. His apostolic journeys extended over numerous regions. Austria, Bohemia, Livonia, the shores of the Black Sea, Tartary, and Northern China on the east, and Sweden and Norway to the west, were evangelized by him, and he is said to have visited Scotland. Everywhere multitudes were converted, churches and convents were built; one hundred and twenty thousand pagans and infidels were baptized by his hands. He worked numerous miracles, and at Cracow raised a dead youth to life.

When St. Hyacinth was at Kiev the Tartars sacked the town, but it was only as he finished Mass that the Saint heard of the danger. Without waiting to unvest, he took the ciborium in his hands, and was leaving the church. As he passed by an image of Mary a voice said: 'Hyacinth, my son, why dust thou leave me behind? Take me with thee, and leave me not to mine enemies.' The statue was of heavy alabaster, but when Hyacinth took it in his arms it was light as a reed. With the Blessed Sacrament and the image he came to the river Dnieper, and walked dry-shod over the surface of the waters. On the eve of the Assumption he was warned of his coming death. In spite of a wasting fever, he celebrated Mass on the feast, and communicated as a dying man. He was anointed at the foot of the altar, and died the same day, 1257.

Reflection.—St. Hyacinth teaches us to employ every effort in the service of God, and to rely for success not on our own industry, but on the prayer of His Immaculate Mother.

Saturday, August 17
Saints Liberatus, Boniface, Servus, Rusticus, Rogatus, Septimus, and Maximus, Monks and Martyrs.
HUNERIC, the Arian Vandal king in Africa, in the seventh year of his reign, published fresh edicts against the Catholics, and ordered their monasteries to be everywhere demolished. Seven monks, named Liberatus, Boniface, Servus, Rusticus, Rogatus, Septimus, and Maximus, who lived in a monastery near Capsa, in the province of Byzacena, were at that time summoned to Carthage.

An old vessel was filled with dry sticks, and the seven martyrs were put on board and bound on the wood; and fire was put to it several times, but it went out immediately, and all endeavors to kindle it were in vain. The tyrant, in rage and confusion, gave orders that the martyrs’ brains should be dashed out with oars, which was done, and their bodies cast into the sea, which threw them all on the shore. The Catholics interred them honorably in the monastery of Bigua, near the Church of St. Celerinus. They suffered in the year 483.

Reflection.—'Let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a railer, or a coveter of other men's things; but if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.'