Sunday, August 25
ST. LOUIS, King
Louis IX, born, 1215; died 1270; became a Franciscan tertiary. Louis was crowned King of France at the age of eleven and ruled under the direction of his mother, Blanche of Castile, until 1236; he was a just and kind ruler, devout and austere in his private life; led two Crusades against the infidels, one in 1248, the other in 1270; died in camp near Tunis of dysentery in the eighth and last Crusade. (Missal)
Reflection.—If we cannot imitate St. Louis in dying for the honor of God, we can at least resemble him in resenting the blasphemies offered against God by the infidel, the heretic, and the scoffer. (Lives of Saints)
Monday, August 26
ST. ZEPHYRINUS, Pope and Martyr.
Pope, 199-217; he condemned the doctrine of Theodotus that Christ became divine only at his baptism. (Missal)
Reflection.—God has always raised up holy pastors zealous to maintain the faith of His Church inviolable, and to watch over the purity of its morals and the sanctity of its discipline. We enjoy the greatest advantages of the divine grace through their labors, and we owe to God a tribute of perpetual thanksgiving and immortal praise for all those mercies which He has afforded His Church on earth. (Lives of Saints)
Tuesday, August 27.
ST. JOSEPH CALASANCTIUS
Founder of the Piarist; born in Aragon (Spain), 1556; died in Rome, 1647. He was, for a time, parish priest and Vicar-General in Spain; established his Order in Rome to provide for the religious education of children, especially of the working classes and the poor; suffered much from sickness and persecutions. (Missal)
Reflection.—"My children," said the Curé of Ars, "I often think that most of the Christians who are lost are lost for want of instruction; they do not know their religion well." (Lives of Saints)
Wednesday, August 28
ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO.
St. Augustine, Father of the Canons of St. Augustine and of the Augustinian Friars; born at Tagaste (Algeria) in Africa, 354; died at Hippo in Africa, 430. He was converted from Manicheism and vice through the prayers of his mother, St. Monica, the preaching of St. Ambrose of Milan, and the Epistles of St. Paul; taught rhetoric in Rome and Milan. After his conversion and Baptism (387), he returned to Africa; became Bishop of Hippo, 395; wrote his rule and established his institute. St. Augustine is the greatest of the Latin Fathers and one of the greatest geniuses of the world. (Missal)
"The unlearned rise and storm heaven, and we, with all our learning, for lack of heart lie wallowing here." (Lives of Saints)
Reflection.—Read the lives of the Saints, and you will ill find that you are gradually creating a society about you to which in some measure you will be forced to raise the standard of your daily life. (Lives of Saints)
Thursday, August 29
THE BEHEADING OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST
...he was directed by the Holy Ghost to lead an austere and contemplative life in the wilderness, in the continual exercises of devout prayer and penance, from his infancy till he was thirty years of age. (Lives of Saints)
The Precursor was imprisoned in the fortress of Machaerus on the east coast of the Dead Sea by the tetrarch Herod Antipas, whose unlawful marriage he had publicly censured. Here John was beheaded at the request of the revengeful Herodias. (Missal)
Reflection.—All the high graces with which St. John was favored sprang from his humility; in this all his other virtues were founded. If we desire to form ourselves upon so great a model, we must, above all things, labor to lay the same deep foundation. (Lives of Saints)
Friday, August 30
ST. ROSE OF LIMA
Dominican; born at Lima (Peru), 1586; died there 1617. Her parents were natives of Puerto Rico; her life was one of great austerity and prayer offered for those in need; first canonzeed saint of the New World (1671). (Missal)
When the Dutch fleet prepared to attack the town, Rose took her place before the tabernacle, and wept that she was not worthy to die in its defense. (Lives of Saints)
Reflection.—Rose, pure as driven snow, was filled with deepest contrition and humility, and did constant and terrible penance. Our sins are continual, our repentance passing, our contrition slight, our penance nothing. How will it fare with us? (Lives of Saints)
ST. FIAKER, Anchorite
Divine Providence conducted him to St. Faro, who was the Bishop of Meaux, and eminent for sanctity. When St. Fiaker addressed himself to him, the prelate, charmed with the marks of extraordinary virtue and abilities which he discovered in this stranger, gave him a solitary dwelling in a forest called Breuil which was his own patrimony, two leagues from Meaux. In this place the holy anchorite cleared the ground of trees and briers, made himself a cell, with a small garden, and built an oratory in honor of the Blessed Virgin, in which he spent a great part of the days and nights in devout prayer. He tilled his garden and labored with his own hands for his subsistence. The life he led was most austere, and only necessity or charity ever interrupted his exercises of prayer and heavenly contemplation... St. Fiaker died about the year 670, on the 30th of August. (Lives of Saints)
Reflection.—Ye who love indolence, ponder well these words of St. Paul: "If any man will not work, neither let him eat." (Lives of Saints)
Saturday, August 31
ST. RAYMUND NONNATUS
Mercedarian; orn at Portobellow (Spain), 1204; died at Cardona (Spain); called Nonnatus (unborn), because cut from the womb after his mother's death; gave himself into slavery to ransom Christian captives in Africa; made a Cardinal, but died on the way to Rome as a result of the hardships he had endured. (Missal)
His father perceiving in him an inclination to a religious state, took him from school, and sent him to take care of a farm which he had in the country. Raymund readily obeyed, and, in order to enjoy the opportunity of holy solitude, kept the sheep himself, and spent his time in the mountains and forests in holy meditation and prayer. (Lives of Saints)
Reflection.—This Saint gave not only his substance but his liberty, and even exposed himself to the most cruel torments and death, for the redemption of captives and the salvation of souls. But alas! do not we, merely to gratify our prodigality, vanity, or avarice, refuse to give the superfluous part of our possessions to the poor, who for want of it are perishing with cold and hunger? Let us remember that "He that giveth to the poor shall not want. (Lives of Saints)
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