A Litany of Elderly Saints

St. Jerome (photo by Fr Lawrence Lew, OP)

The “International Day of Older Persons” is observed every year on October 1, as per a United Nations resolution in 1990 that went into effect in 1991. I don’t really know how many people observe it or, frankly, know about its existence. At a time when there are so many “days of XYZ” (some of them rather absurd), it’s impossible to keep track, or even to wish to do so. And anything emanating from the United Nations is not typically going to win approval from the orthodox or the rational. Nevertheless, no one reading this will disagree that the modern West—with the secular hedonism of the capitalist-socialist juggernaut that slaughters infants and walls up the elderly in order to free the young and strong from their human responsibilities—is guilty of failing to love, care for, and appreciate the elderly on a scale never before seen in history.

As one who reads the Roman Martyrology daily with the Office of Prime, I have been struck, at this or that moment, by various “categories” or “types” of saints who pass by in triumphal procession. I refer not only to the classic categories of the Missal, such as virgins, martyrs, confessors, bishops, but also to more distinctive attributes: iconophiles, senators, soldiers, matrons, hermits, teachers, children, the elderly. While it’s clear that the Martyrology makes no attempt to be consistent in offering descriptions (that is, it does not go out of its way to identify all the attributes of a saint—there are many who died in a ripe old age but whose age will not be mentioned), nevertheless there are a considerable number of saints whose elderly status is noted, sometimes with a touch of amazement at the longevity. I decided to make a list of such saints to see how many there were, and it turns out to be quite suitable as a Litany of Elderly Saints for private devotional use, either to pray for oneself or for loved ones.

A Litany of Elderly Saints

(for private use)

Lord, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us. Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.
Holy Mother, pierced with seven swords, pray for us.
Holy Mother, assumed body and soul into heaven, pray for us.

St John, Apostle and Evangelist, founder and ruler of churches, pray for us.
St Jerome, devastator of heresies and sage of Scripture, pray for us.
St Simeon, privileged to hold the Divine Child in the temple, pray for us.
St Simeon, kinsman of the Saviour and wondrous in constancy, pray for us.
St Felician, crowned with martyrdom in thine extreme old age, pray for us.
St Alexander, glorious for thy repeated professions of the faith, pray for us.
St Alexander of Alexandria, ejector of the accursed Arius, pray for us.
St Alexander of Constantinople, by whose prayer Arius was struck down, pray for us.
St Alexander of Cappadocia, devout pilgrim of the holy places, pray for us.
St Alexis Falconieri, comforted by the presence of Christ and of angels, pray for us.
St Theodulus, nailed to a cross to merit the martyr’s palm, pray for us.
St Pacian, remarkable for thy life and preaching, pray for us.
St Dorotheus, triumphant victim of Julian the Apostate, pray for us.
St Eusignius, courageous rebuker of Julian the Apostate, pray for us.
St Onuphrius, who sought the face of God in the desert wilderness, pray for us.
St Domitian, hermit and inspiration to other God-seekers, pray for us.
St Simeon, monk and hermit, pray for us.
St Marinus, scourged, hung upon a tree, lacerated, and cast to the beasts, pray for us.
St Mamas, lifelong sufferer for the Name of Jesus, pray for us.
St Fantin, who suffered much at the hands of the Saracens, pray for us.
St Zachary, faithful prophet of Israel, pray for us.
St Narcissus, praiseworthy for holiness, patience, and faith, pray for us.
St Licinius, a holy old Bishop, pray for us.
St Faustus, sent into exile and finally slain with the sword, pray for us.
St Columban, founder of monasteries and father of a multitude of monks, pray for us.
St Saturninus, enfeebled in prison, racked, scourged, burned, and beheaded, pray for us.
St Valerian, protector of the sacred vessels, pray for us.
St Asella, virgin dedicated to fasting and prayer, pray for us.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

V. Thou hast taught me, O God, from my youth:
R. And unto old age and grey hairs, forsake me not. (cf. Ps 70:17–18)

Let us pray. Grant, we beseech Thee, O almighty God, Ancient of Days, that the intercession of Holy Mary, Mother of God, St. Joseph, her most chaste Spouse, and all the venerable and God-loving saints now reigning in Thy Kingdom, may everywhere gladden us, so that, while we commemorate their merits, we may experience their protection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, who livest and reignest with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God for ever and ever. Amen.

Sources in the Martyrology

January 24. At Foligno in Umbria, St Felician, who was ordained bishop of that city by Pope Victor the First, and in his extreme old age was crowned with martyrdom, under Decius, after many labours.

January 30. Also of blessed Alexander, who was arrested in the persecution of Decius, and gave up his spirit amid the torments of the torturers, glorious for his venerable age and his repeated professions of the faith.

February 17. At Florence, the birthday of St Alexis Falconieri, Confessor, one of the seven founders of the Order of Servants of Blessed Mary the Virgin, who in the 110th year of his life fell asleep in blessedness, comforted by the presence of Christ Jesus and of angels. His feast, with that of his companions, is kept on February 12.

February 17. At Caesarea in Palestine, St Theodulus, an old man, who was of the household of Firmilian the governor. Roused by the example of the martyrs, he confessed Christ with constancy, was nailed to a cross, and by his noble triumph merited the martyr's palm.

February 18. At Jerusalem, the birthday of St Simeon, Bishop and Martyr, who is said to have been the son of Cleophas, and a kinsman of the Saviour according to the flesh. He was ordained Bishop of Jerusalem after James the Lord's brother, and was afflicted in the persecution of Trajan with many punishments, and died a martyr. All who were present, and the very judge himself, marveled that a man 120 years old should bear the torment of the cross so bravely with such constancy.

February 26. At Alexandria, St Alexander, Bishop, a glorious old man, full of zeal for the faith, who, having succeeded blessed Peter, bishop of the same city, cast out of the Church Arius, a priest of his, depraved by heretical impiety, and by divine truth convicted. Later, with 318 fathers in the Council of Nicaea, he condemned the same Arius.

March 9. At Barcelona in Spain, St Pacian, Bishop, remarkable both for his life and his preaching, who reached the end of his days in extreme old age under the Emperor Theodosius.

March 18. At Caesarea in Palestine, the birthday of blessed Alexander, Bishop, who came from his own city in Cappadocia, where he was bishop, with the desire of visiting the holy places in Jerusalem; and as Narcissus, the bishop of that city, who ruled its church, was now an old man, Alexander, by divine inspiration, took upon himself its government. Shortly after, in the persecution of Decius, when he was already honored for his venerable old age, he was taken to Caesarea where he was imprisoned, and finished his martyrdom for the faith of Christ.

June 5. At Tyre in Phoenicia, St Dorotheus, Priest, who suffered much under Diocletian, but survived until the time of Julian, and during his reign, when 107 years old, glorified his venerable old age with martyrdom.

June 12. In Egypt, St Onuphrius, an anchorite, who for sixty years lived a religious life in a vast desert, and, famous for great virtues and merits, passed into heaven. His mighty deeds were recorded by the Abbot Paphnutius.

July 1. In the district of Lyons, the death of St Domitian, Abbot, who there first led the life of a hermit, and after gathering together many in the service of God, and being very famous for great virtues and glorious miracles, was gathered to his fathers at a ripe old age.

July 26. In the monastery of St Benedict in the district of Mantua, St Simeon, monk and hermit, who, renowned for many miracles, fell asleep in a good old age.

August 5. At Antioch, St Eusignius, a soldier, who in his 110th year reproached Julian the Apostate with the faith of Constantine the Great, under whom he had fought, and accused him of having forsaken the piety of his fathers; wherefore. the emperor commanded that he be beheaded.

August 8. At Anazarbus in Cilicia, St Marinus, an old man, who under the Emperor Diocletian and the governor Lysias was scourged, hung upon a tree, and lacerated. Finally, he was cast to the beasts and died.

August 17. At Caesarea in Cappadocia, the birthday of St Mamas, Martyr, the son of SS. Theodotus and Rufina, Martyrs, who suffered a prolonged martyrdom from childhood to old age, and at length happily consummated it, under the governor Alexander, at the command of Aurelian. The holy fathers Basil and Gregory Nazianzen gave him the highest praise.

August 28. At Constantinople, St Alexander, Bishop, a renowned old man, by the power of whose prayer Arius, condemned by the judgment of God, burst asunder and his entrails gushed out.

August 30. At Thessalonica, St Fantin, Confessor, who suffered much at the hands of the Saracens and was driven from the monastery where he had lived in amazing abstinence. After he had brought many to the way of salvation, at last he died at a good old age.

September 6. In Palestine, St Zachary, Prophet, who returned from Chaldea to his native land when he was an old man, and dying there lies buried near the prophet Aggeus.

September 30. In Bethlehem of Judah, the death of St Jerome, Priest, Confessor and Doctor of the Church. He was very learned and, becoming an imitator of the monks he approved, he overthrew by the sword of his doctrine many monstrous heresies. At last, when he had lived to extreme old age, he rested in peace, and was buried near the Crib of the Lord; afterwards his body was translated to Rome, and buried in the Basilica of St Mary Major.

October 8. On the same day, the birthday of blessed Simeon, the old man, who, as is related in the Gospel, took the Lord Jesus in his arms and prophesied about him, when he was presented in the temple.

October 29. At Jerusalem, the birthday of blessed Narcissus, Bishop, a man praiseworthy for holiness, patience and faith, who passed to the Lord when 116 years old.

November 1. At Angers in France, the burial of St Licinius, Bishop, a holy old man.

November 19. On the same day, St Faustus, Deacon of Alexandria, who was first sent into exile, with St Denis, in Valerian's persecution, and later, in his old age, suffered martyrdom, being slain with the sword in Diocletian's persecution.

November 21. In the monastery of Bobbio, the death of St Columban, Abbot, who founded many monasteries, was the father of a multitude of monks and renowned for many virtues, died in a good old age.

November 29. At Rome, on the Via Salaria, the birthday of the holy martyrs Saturninus, an old man, and Sisinnius, a Deacon, under the Emperor Maximian: after they had been enfeebled for a long time in prison, the prefect of the city ordered them to be placed on the rack and stretched with straps, scourged with whips and scorpions, and then that fire should be applied to them, and they should be taken from the rack and beheaded.

December 6. At Rome, St Asella, Virgin. St Jerome in his writings bears witness that she was blessed from her mother's womb and spent her life in fasting and prayer until her old age.

December 15. In the same place, St Valerian, Bishop, who when more than eighty years old, in the Vandal persecution, under the Arian King Genseric, was ordered by him to give up the sacred vessels of his church. On his constant refusal to do so, he was ordered to be driven forth from the city alone: and, when it was commanded that no man should permit him to dwell either in his house or in his field, he lay exposed in the public street under the open sky for a long time, and in his confession and defense of Catholic truth ended the course of his blessed life.

December 27. At Ephesus, the birthday of St John, Apostle and Evangelist, who, after writing his Gospel, suffering banishment and composing the divine Apocalypse, survived even to the time of Trajan, founded and ruled Churches over all Asia, and, worn out with old age, died in the sixty-eighth year after the Lord's Passion, and is buried near the city.

(Just a little note at the end: I find it fascinating that St John has been depicted so much less frequently in art as an old man on Patmos than as the virgin disciple at the foot of the Cross, which has dominated iconography. In fact, even depictions of him receiving the revelations that make up the book of that name tend to show him looking a lot younger than he would have been. Here is a stained glass window from Ireland that shows the elderly John beholding Christ.)

Loughrea, St. Brendan's Cathedral, East Aisle: John the Evangelist by Michael Healy

Benedictine Martyrology Back in Print after a Century

La Gloria di S.Benedetto by Pietro Annigoni (1979), showing the Patriarch surrounded by his multitudinous offspring.

I am excited to share with readers the latest reprint offered by my modest publishing enterprise Os Justi Press. (It has been awhile since we’ve added titles, as I’ve been busy with other projects, but don’t forget to have a look at the online catalogue—including the anthology John Henry Newman on Worship, Reverence, and Ritual, Parsch’s The Breviary Explained, Guardini’s Sacred Signs, Fr. Willie Doyle’s incomparable pamphlet Vocations, the illustrated Missal for Young Catholics, the best editions of Robert Hugh Benson’s The King’s Achivement and By What Authority?, the pocket edition Roman Martyrology, and many others!)

Speaking of martyrologies, many NLM readers will know that the great religious orders preserve records not only of all their members who have gone over to the eternal country, but also and in a more particular way of those who have died in the odor of sanctity and are venerated either universally or locally as models and intercessors.

For obvious reasons—it has been around for much longer, and its contemplative and liturgical way of life is entirely structured for prioritizing the pursuit of sanctity—the Benedictine Order numbers more saints, blesseds, venerables, and reputed holy men and women than any other in the Church, especially if we include the many later branches and reform movements that, called by various names, take Benedict’s Holy Rule as their own.

This is why it gives me extraordinary joy to announce the republication, for the first time in nearly a hundred years, of A Benedictine Martyrology. Published in 1922 and basically impossible to find on the used book market, this book is Alexius Hoffman’s English translation and adaptation of the Rev. Peter Lechner’s Ausführliches Martyrologium des Benedictiner-Ordens und Seiner Verzweigungen [Detailed Martyrology of the Benedictine Order and its Branches], published in Munich in 1855. The original was published in cloth; this reprint is paperback, but with a simple and formal cover design:

The volume is catholic in its criteria, containing not only the “classic” black monks but members of reforms and branches such as the Order of Citeaux, of Camaldoli, of Vallombrosa, of Monte Oliveto, of Monte Vergine, of Fiore, of Pulsano, and of La Trappe, the Celestines, the Humiliati, and the Congregations of Cava and Cluny, as well as military Orders and eminent benefactors. Weighing in at a substantial 350 pages, with over 1,500 entries, it is a worthy supplement to the Roman Martyrology, a moving testament to the greatness of the spiritual family inaugurated by the holy twins Benedict and Scholastica.

The book gathers succinct biographies of men and women who lived according to or in the ambit of the Rule of St. Benedict and who died with a reputation for heroic virtue and sanctity, including both those officially beatified or canonized and those who received local veneration. Note that, unlike the Roman Martyrology, which is little more than a list of names, places, and a salient fact or two, the Benedictine Martyrology devotes anywhere from one paragraph to a whole page to the life of each man or woman recorded. In that sense, it is a sort of “mean” between the Roman Martyrology’s pithiness and the multi-page treatments in The Golden Legend or Butler’s Lives. Each day has usually four or five entries, covering three quarters of a page to a little over a page. In this way, it would serve admirably for daily reading after the Office of Prime or at some other convenient moment.

The Benedictine Martyrology is available from Amazon.com (link) and its affiliates.

Here are the first three pages from the month of December:

Continue Reading this Article. . .

How to Incorporate the Traditional Roman Martyrology into Daily Prayer

A brilliant example of manuscript illumination: the Martyrology of Usuard

Earlier today, I posted about four new reprints from Os Justi Press, one of which is a pocket edition of the Roman Martyrology in the English translation of its last preconciliar edition, which is once more in demand as Summorum Pontificum continues its unstoppable progress.

I recommended incorporating the Martyrology” into one’s daily prayer life. But how exactly do we do this?

The Roman Martyrology is an official liturgical book of the Catholic Church that has a simple ritual of its own. While only a relatively small number of saints are celebrated or commemorated with full liturgical honors (so to speak) at Holy Mass and in the Divine Office, a great many other Saints [1] are carefully recorded in, remembered through, and called upon by the reading of the Martyrology each day after the canonical hour of Prime, [2] as part of the so-called “capitular office.” It is a long-standing custom to read the following day’s saints, because the Church is preparing us to celebrate First Vespers that evening, which begins the observance of those saints. (E.g., on the morning of September 13, we announce the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, because its First Vespers will take place that evening, and historically, First Vespers bore even more “weight” than Second Vespers.)

After praying the final oration of Prime (“Domine, Deus omnipotens” / “O Lord God almighty, Who hast brought us to the beginning of this day”) and the “Benedicamus Domino / Deo gratias,” one opens the Martyrology to tomorrow’s date.

In English:
The reader begins forthwith by announcing the day of the month, and the listing of saints. At the end he always says: 
And elsewhere, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
R. Thanks be to God.
V. Precious in the sight of the Lord:
R. Is the death of His saints.
(Then immediately, without saying “Let us pray”)
May holy Mary and all the Saints intercede for us with the Lord, that we may merit to be helped and saved by Him who lives and reigns forever and ever.
R. Amen.

In Latin:
R. Deo gratias.
V. Pretiosa in conspectu Domini:
R. Mors sanctorum ejus.
Sancta Maria et omnes Sancti intercedant pro nobis ad Dominum, ut nos mereamur ab eo adjuvari et salvari, qui vivit et regnat in saecula saeculorum.
R. Amen.

That’s all there is to it. (If you are looking to do the capitular office in full, I suggest picking up a copy of the Breviarium Romanum or, for those interested in the Benedictine tradition, the Monastic Diurnal, where you will find more information.)

May God bless us, and may all the holy angels and saints of God intercede for us!

NOTE

[1] Not all Saints are included in the Martyrology; there are a large number of saints on a multitude of Eastern calendars, both pre-schism and uniate, who are not to be found in the Roman Martyrology. On the other hand, there is a surprising amount of overlap between the traditional Roman calendar and many Eastern calendars, a feature that is sorely lacking in the reformed (Novus Ordo) calendar. This article is not the place to go into the question of the neo-Martyrology of 2001/2004 that has been extensively revised in accord with reformist principles. Interested readers may wish to consult a guest article by Dr Jeremy Holmes published six years ago at NLM: “Remembering the Saints.”

[2] Some readers might be wondering: “But hasn’t Prime been abolished?”
       As Wolfram Schrems explains in this important article, neither a pope nor an ecumenical council has authority to abolish a liturgical rite of immemorial tradition. Thus, the fact that Sacrosanctum Concilium “suppressed” the office of Prime (as opposed, e.g., to merely regulating who must say it or when and how it should be said) is sufficient to demonstrate the presence of a radical constructivism at the heart of this document, an authoritarian rationalism that subordinates tradition to the volitions of momentary hierarchs.
       It is therefore fitting that the Office of Prime, together with the capitular office that follows it, be recovered by Catholics today, not only because it is highly practical in its duration and themes, but also because it is a sign of refusing to accept the bad hermeneutic underlying Sacrosanctum Concilium. It goes without saying that Summorum Pontificum’s revival of the preconciliar Roman Breviary (which includes Prime) is a further application of Benedict XVI’s general principle: “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place” (Letter to Bishops, July 7, 2007).
       It bears mentioning that Prime is still part of the Eastern rites (proving once again that the reform moved the Latin Church further away from, not closer to, the East); fortunately, Prime continues to be celebrated by some Benedictines, since the Council did not dare to legislate directly against the Rule of St Benedict.

Visit www.peterkwasniewski.com for articles, sacred music, and classics reprinted by Os Justi Press (e.g., Newman, Benson, Scheeben, Parsch, Guardini, Chaignon, Leen, Roguet, Croegaert).

Islam in the Lex Orandi of the Old Roman Martyrology

As Catholics, the sacred liturgy is our theologia prima, our first and foundational knowledge of God and service of Him. That is why the axiom lex orandi, lex credendi is so basic to Catholicism: the “law of prayer” (how and what we pray) contains, expresses, and instills the “law of believing” (the faith we profess). It is true that creeds are drawn up outside of the liturgy at crisis moments, but those creeds formulate what is already received and venerated in the holy rites of the Church. [1]

The crisis of the modern Catholic Church has been fueled by massive changes to the lex orandi, the way we pray as a body. In the decade from about 1963 to 1973, the changes to the Mass, the other sacramental rites, the blessings, were immeasurably greater in quantity and quality than any others ever witnessed in the history of Christian liturgy. [2] Liturgy until the 20th century had generally developed slowly and in small steps, and almost always in the direction of augmentation or expansion. The 20th century reforms, on the other hand, were rapid and far-reaching, and almost always in the direction of abbreviation, simplification, or reduction. This was dictated by theories about how worship should be either restored to ancient “simplicity” or modernized to suit a new era. As a result, Catholics have been given a much less adequate, much smaller lex orandi on the basis of which to internalize the lex credendi; and, moreover, the intended lex credendi seems to be divergent, at least as regards systematic omissions.

Many Catholics in our days are aware of the kinds of changes that took place in connection with the Mass and who was the driving force behind them; some may be aware of the changes that were made to other sacramental rites, blessings, and the Divine Office. Rarer are those who know what was done to more specialized liturgical books, such as rites of profession for religious and the consecration of virgins, the rite of exorcism, and — my interest in this article — the Roman Martyrology.

The Roman Martyrology began as an ancient listing of the names of martyrs on their “dies natalis,” that is, their birthday into heavenly glory. It was added to, century after century, as confessors, doctors, monks, hermits, friars, virgins, widows, kings, queens, and others joined the procession of martyrs through the ages. This book is indeed a liturgical book because it is recited or chanted as part of the equally ancient office of Prime. (It is customary to read the following day’s list of saints, which mentally prepares us for First Vespers of any great feast that may be coming, and in general, puts us in mind ahead of time of the Saints we wish to remember.) It also transmits the Faith of the Church, and continues to be used by religious, clergy, and laity who adhere to the usus antiquior of the Roman Rite.

Regrettably, in spite of its antiquity and its integral role in the sevenfold daily praises of God, the office of Prime was summarily abolished, without explanation, at the Second Vatican Council — an astonishing decision about which Wolfram Schrems has written a fine article. The liturgical reform, which left no stone unturned, produced a new version of the Martyrology that bears about as much, or as little, connection with its predecessor of 1956 as the Novus Ordo Missae of 1969 does with its predecessor, the Missale Romanum of 1962. Due, moreover, to the abolition of Prime, the new Martyrology has never found a secure foothold, and is extremely rarely used today — one sign of which is the rarity of the Latin editio typica and the lack, even today, of an English translation. Ironically, the old Martyrology in its last edition from 1956 is widely available in multiple English editions (like this one, pictured here).

As a catalogue of victors, the Martyrology loudly proclaims the truth of the communion of Saints, exalts states of life lived with heroic virtue, and testifies to the prevalence of miracles in the life of the Church. Moreover, in a manner highly pertinent to the confusion in which we find ourselves today, the traditional Roman Martyrology bears witness to beliefs or attitudes that have become “forbidden” in the ecumenism and interreligious miasma of postconciliar ecclesiastical correctness. A notable example is the severe judgment on Islam found in its pages.

Today’s date, March 11, puts forward the following example of heroic virtue:

At Cordova in Spain, St Eulogius, Priest and Martyr. On account of his fearless and outstanding confession of Christ, he was scourged and beaten with rods, and finally beheaded in the Saracen persecution. He merited to have part with the martyrs of the city for he had written of their fight for the faith and wished to join them.

The most perfect of all such entries is that found under the date of February 21:

At Damascus, St Peter Mavimenus, who said to certain Arabs who came to him in his sickness: “Every man who does not embrace the Catholic Christian faith is damned as Mohammed, your false prophet, was.” and was slain by them. 

Unlike Pope Francis, who co-signed with a Moslem leader a declaration that asserts, inter alia, that God wills a plurality of religions, St Peter Mavimenus spoke the truth with simplicity and fortitude. In his words are condensed the only proper Christian attitude towards Islam: an unequivocal repudiation of its errors, which are all the more dangerous to the degree that some truths of natural religion and some fragmentary truths of revelation are mingled in with them. [3]

February 21’s entry is one among many entries that proclaim the necessary conflict between believing Catholics and Muslims committed to any standard form of Islam. [4] Indeed, every month of the year brings its reminders in the old Martyrology: Catholic Martyrs to Islam are commemorated on January 14, January 16, February 19, March 11, March 15, April 17, April 18, May 16, June 5, June 7, June 13, June 26, June 28, July 11, July 16, July 19, July 20, July 22, July 27, August 6, August 20, September 15, September 19, September 27, October 10, October 11, October 22, November 6, November 24, and December 17. Still other entries speak of Catholics who resisted the Saracens or the Arabs but did not lose their heads for it.

Here are the passages in order from January through December:

• On Mount Sinai, thirty-eight holy monks, slain by the Saracens for the faith of Christ. (January 14)
• In Morocco, Africa, the passion of five proto-martyrs of the Order of Friars Minor, namely, Berard, Peter and Otho, priests, and Accursius and Adjutus, lay-brethren; for preaching the Catholic faith and because of their rejection of Mohammedan Law, after divers torments and mockeries, were beheaded by the Saracen king. (January 16)
• In the town of Amatrice, in the diocese of Rieti, the death of St Joseph of Leonissa, Priest of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, who, for his preaching of the faith, suffered patiently torments inflicted by the Mohammedans. (February 4)
• In Palestine, the commemoration of the holy monks and other martyrs who were cruelly slain for the faith of Christ by the Saracens, under their duke Alamundar. (February 19)

St. Eulogius

• At Cordova in Spain, St Eulogius, Priest and Martyr. On account of his fearless and outstanding confession of Christ, he was scourged and beaten with rods, and finally beheaded in the Saracen persecution. He merited to have part with the martyrs of the city for he had written of their fight for the faith and wished to join them. (March 11)
• At Cordova in Spain, St Leocritia, Virgin and Martyr; she was subjected to different torments and beheaded in the Arabian persecution for the faith of Christ. (March 15)
• At Cordova in Spain, the holy martyrs Elias, a priest, Paul and Isidore, monks, who were slain in the Arab persecution on account of their profession of the Christian faith. (April 17)
• At Cordova in Spain, St Perfectus, Priest and Martyr, who was beheaded by the Moors for disputing against sect of Mohammed, and courageously professing his faith in Christ. (April 18)
• In Palestine, the passion of the holy monks slain by the Saracens at the laura of St Sabbas. (May 16)
• At Cordova in Spain, blessed Sancho, a youth who, although brought up at the royal court, yet hesitated not to undergo martyrdom for Christ’s faith in the Arab persecution. (June 5)
• At Cordova in Spain, the holy martyr monks Peter, a priest, Wallabonsus, a deacon, Sabinian, Wistremund, Habentius and Jeremias, who for Christ’s sake were slain in the Arab persecution. (June 7)
• At Cordova, St Fandila, Priest and monk, who underwent martyrdom for Christ’s faith in the Arab persecution by decapitation. (June 13)
• At Cordova in Spain, the birthday of St Pelagius, a youth, who for his confession of the faith, at the command of Abderrahman, King of the Saracens, was torn limb from limb by iron pincers, and consummated his glorious martyrdom. (June 26)
• At Cordova in Spain, St Argymirus, monk and Martyr, who was racked and slain by the sword for Christ’s faith in the Arab persecution. (June 28)
• At Cordova in Spain, St Abundius, Priest, who was crowned with martyrdom in the Arab persecution for preaching against the sect of Mohammed. (July 11)
• At Cordova in Spain, St Sisenand, Cleric and Martyr, whose throat was cut by the Saracens for the faith of Christ. (July 16)
• At Cordova in Spain, St Aurea, Virgin, sister of the holy martyrs Adulf and John; for a while she apostatized through the persuasion of a Mohammedan judge, but, quickly repenting of what she had done, she overcame the enemy in a second contest by the shedding of her blood. (July 19)
• At Cordova in Spain, St Paul, Deacon and Martyr, who rebuked the heathen princes for Mohammedan impiety and cruelty, and preached Christ with great courage: by their command he was slain, and passed to his reward in heaven. (July 20)
• In Cyprus, St Theophilus, Praetor, who was taken by the Arabs, and as he could neither by gifts nor by threats be brought to deny Christ, was slain with the sword. (July 22)
• At Cordova in Spain, the holy martyrs George, a Deacon, Aurelius and his wife, Natalia, Felix and his wife, Liliosa, in the Arab persecution. (July 27)

• At Burgos in Spain, in the Benedictine monastery of St Peter of Cardegna, the passion of 200 monks and their Abbot, Stephen, who were slain by the Saracens for the faith of Jesus Christ, and buried there in the cloister by the Christians. (August 6)
• At Cordova, Spain, the holy martyrs Leovigild and Christopher, monks, who were cast into prison for their belief in Christ during the Arab persecution, at once had their necks broken and were then burned and so obtained the crown of martyrdom. (August 20)
• At Thessalonica, St Fantin, Confessor, who suffered much at the hands of the Saracens and was driven from the monastery where he had lived in amazing abstinence. After he had brought many to the way of salvation, at last he died at a good old age. (August 30)
• At Cordova in Spain, the holy martyrs Emilas, Deacon, and Jeremy, who after long enfeeblement in prison suffered martyrdom for Christ’s sake in the Arab persecution. (September 15)
• At Monte Cassino, blessed Pope Victor III, who as the successor of Pope St Gregory VII shed a fresh lustre on the Apostolic See, and with God’s help gained a famous victory over the Saracens. (September 16)
• At Cordova in Spain, St Pomposa, Virgin and Martyr. In the Arab persecution she was beheaded because of her fearless witness to Christ and so obtained the palm of martyrdom. (September 19)
• At Cordova in Spain, the holy martyrs Adulf and John, brothers, who were crowned with martyrdom for Christ’s sake in the Arab persecution. Their sister, the blessed Virgin Aurea, was inspired by their example to return to the faith, and later suffered martyrdom bravely on July 19. (September 27)
• Near Ceuta in Morocco, the passion of the seven holy martyrs of the Order of Friars Minor, namely, Daniel, Samuel, Angelus, Leo, Nicholas, Ugolino and Domnus, all of whom were priests except Domnus. There they suffered insults, bonds and stripes from the Saracens because they preached the Gospel and put to silence the sect of Mahomet [Mohammed]; finally, they were beheaded and thus obtained the palm of martyrdom. (October 10)
• In the Thebaid, St Sarmatus, a disciple of St Antony the Abbot, who was slain for Christ’s sake by the Saracens. (October 11)
• At Huesca in Spain, the holy virgins Nunilo and Alodia, sisters, who were punished by death by the Saracens for confessing the faith, and consummated martyrdom. (October 22)
• At Theopolis, that is Antioch, ten holy martyrs who are said to have suffered at the hands of the Saracens. (November 6)
• At Cordova in Spain, the holy virgins and martyrs Flora and Mary, who after long imprisonment were slain by the sword in the Arab persecution. (November 24)
• At Eleutheropolis in Palestine, the holy martyrs Florian, Calanicus, and their fifty-eight companions, who were slain by the Saracens on account of their faith in Christ in the reign of the Emperor Heraclius. (December 17)

Perhaps most haunting of all of the above, given current circumstances, is the entry for September 16:

At Monte Cassino, blessed Pope Victor III, who as the successor of Pope St Gregory VII shed a fresh lustre on the Apostolic See, and with God’s help gained a famous victory over the Saracens. 

Like St Pius V, Bl. Victor III fought the Moslems, rather than capitulating to them as his successor Francis does with his attitudes on European immigration and his willingness to enter into agreements that only cause more confuse to Catholics who are already pickled to the gills in religious indifferentism. [5]

In Robert Reilly’s The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis, we learn of the great struggle within Islam from the 9th to the 11th centuries between the Hellenized Muslims who valued the role of reason or Logos and the fundamentalists (as we would recognize them today) who held it in suspicion or denigrated it. The latter prevailed, and since then, the phrase en sha’Allah denotes everything in Islam — “if God wills it.” As Pope Benedict XVI argued in his Regensburg Address, God is reduced to nothing but pure will.

There is a curious and disturbing connection here, as we watch the same reductionism happening to the office and role of the Pope. Instead of being seen as a voice of the Logos, a witness to reason and revelation as they echo through time in the Church, the papacy becomes a sheer exercise of volition: authority reduced to will-power. As in Islam, God is reduced from loving wisdom to almighty will, so in the Vatican, the Pope is reduced from a servant of perennial doctrine to a domineering engineer of change. No one, then, should be surprised that this Pope was able to sign the document on human fraternity in Abu Dhabi: a papacy of will enters smoothly into agreement with a religion of voluntarism.

We enter into dangerous waters indeed when our faith, founded upon Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the confident use of reason, is made subject to the will of an individual with an agenda, and treated as a commodity that can be negotiated at the table of interreligious dialogue.

Here we have an obvious clash between the Faith of the Church, represented by the lex orandi of her  traditional Martyrology, and the novelties propounded by Pope Francis, who endeavors to introduce a new lex credendi on adultery, sacramental access, capital punishment, and religious pluralism — and who finds his triumphal march obstructed by a growing resistance that adheres to the older Roman liturgical books, which, like their Eastern Christian counterparts, faithfully inculcate the spirit of Catholicism.

(A condensed version of this article appeared at LifeSite News on Thursday, February 22. The present article adds a substantial introduction and many more examples.)

NOTES

[1] Even when Pius XII in a moment of weakness tried to flip the axiom and say that the Church’s lex credendi determines her lex orandi, his argument fails to deliver the goods, since even the new feasts instituted by the Church — such as Corpus Christi, instituted in 1264 by Pope Urban IV and, in point of fact, the first feast instituted by papal fiat, or the Kingship of Christ, instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI — are merely giving added emphasis to dogmas universally held by the faithful and already present in the liturgy.

[2] It is true, as I have argued, in line with many others, that the Pius X revision of the Roman breviary was also a major change in the lex orandi and a rupture with tradition. Nevertheless, it retained four crucial features of the Roman tradition that were abandoned by Paul VI: the structure of seven day hours and one night office; the principle of the weekly cursus of 150 psalms; the retention of the Latin language (and of chant if the office is sung); and a high degree of textual overlap with the preceding breviary. The Liturgy of the Hours fails in regard to all four of these, and therefore, like the Novus Ordo, is a rupture in the lex orandi of an entirely different order of magnitude than Pius X’s reform.

[3] The assertion to which Francis placed his signature is erroneous and heretical, as Dr John Lamont and Bishop Athanasius Schneider have shown.

[4] As opposed to those who have modified the Islamic religion to the extent of muting or dissenting from passages in the Koran deemed no longer true or applicable. Among Catholics, of course, we have the same problem with people — including, again, the pope — who seem to think that certain teachings of Christ, such as the prohibition of divorce and remarriage, are no longer true or applicable.

[5] It might be objected to my argument that, inasmuch as Pope Francis has canonized the 800 martyrs of Otranto, he has explicitly confirmed the principle that it is better to die than to embrace Islam. It is, of course, true that he did so, and that this message may be inferred; but it is utterly characteristic of this pope, as of Modernists in general (as Pius X explains in Pascendi), to say and do contradictory things, in order to sow further confusion and make the path of doctrinal change easier. More to the point, the old Martyrology shaped the prayer and belief of the Church in a far more profound way than most of the enormous numbers of canonizations from recent decades, which, with a few exceptions, have minimal liturgical impact, as explained above.

Useful Repetition in the Divine Office

On Thursday, February 14, I gave a lecture at St Mary’s parish, Norwalk, Connecticut, on “Poets, Lovers, Children, Madmen—and Worshipers: Why We Repeat Ourselves in the Liturgy.” (The full text of the lecture may be found here.)

Ever since I first read the words of Sacrosanctum Concilium §34 about how “useless repetitions” (repetitiones inutiles) needed to be removed from the traditional Roman liturgy, I have been on the lookout for instances of repetition as I pray the old Divine Office — or to be more precise, the monastic office as it stood in the 1940s — and as I attend Mass in the usus antiquior, and receive or observe other sacraments in the older use. After over twenty years of observation and reflection, I have still not been able to find a single example of a repetitio inutilis.

Yes, yes, I know the examples that people like to toss out, and in my foolish youth, I would do the same thing. It sounds sophisticated to be able to criticize liturgical practices that have endured for centuries: “You know, those poor Catholics were so conservative that they just kept these irrational customs in place, even though we now see clearly that they make no sense. Far better to streamline the rite, make it more logical.”

That juvenile point of view was replaced by a growing appreciation for the subtlety of the elements of the liturgy, small and large — even those that seem to have come about “by accident.” As Padre Pio once said: “With God, there’s no such thing as chance.” Such appreciation requires both the patience to await meaning and the imagination to see it, neither of which seem to be widespread in our times.

Examples from the Divine Office

After the hour of Prime [1] the Martyrology is read, and then prayers before the day’s work. These prayers commence with a triple “V. Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. R. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina,” followed by a Gloria Patri, a Kyrie/Christe/Kyrie, a Pater Noster, versicles, another Gloria Patri, and an oration.

There is a lot of repetition here. I have no elaborate rationale to offer, but my experience, having prayed it for a long time, is that this arrangement has a steadying effect and is well suited to begging God’s help at the start of the day's work. The one who begs asks for what he needs more than once, indeed insistently. This is the origin of the Jesus Prayer and of every litany that has ever existed. Praying the Lord’s Prayer a second time, only a few moments after having said it at the end of Prime, typically alerts me to the fact that I had not prayed it the first time with due attention, which prompts me to make my second go at it more earnest. The same is true of the doxology: resisting the temptation to rush through it, one enters more deeply into the origin and goal of all of our actions, the supreme actuality of the Blessed Trinity.

A second example, and one of the most familiar: the Benedicite. Talk about a repetitious prayer! But once one is familiar with it and realizes that we are standing in for the whole of creation, transforming its mute necessities into voluntary praise, there is a special privilege in uttering the verses and a comfort in their lilting succession, like the rolling of waves: “Benedicite omnia opera Domini, Domino: laudate et superexaltate eum in saecula. Benedicite, Angeli Domini, Domino: benedicite caeli, Domino.”

The interruptions of the pattern prompt a reawakening of attention. After saying “Benedicite” 17 times, we say: “Benedicat terra Dominum.” After 8 more iterations of “Benedicite,” we say: “Benedicat Israël Dominum.” Then “Benedicite” is said 5 more times, until we reach “Benedicamus Patrem et Filium cum Sancto Spiritu” and “Benedictus es, Domine.” 30 times we say “Bless” as an imperative; 3 times we say “Let this or that bless” in the subjunctive; and 1 time we say “Blessed art Thou” in the indicative. A pronounced Trinitarian and Christological numerology undergirds this hymn, which is placed on our lips as a kind of litany of blessing admirably suited to Sundays and Holy Days.

A third example, also from Lauds, is the daily repetition of Psalms 148 to 150, which was done by everyone in the West for at least 15 centuries but now remains alive only among the monks and nuns who retain their ancient cursus. This trio of psalms puts on our lips some form of laus or laudare 23 times, giving Lauds its very name, and emphatically stamping it the principal office of pure praise in the Church. There is something captivatingly beautiful in a prayer that has no obvious “use value,” one that is not directed to obtaining a benefit or ridding oneself of an evil. The “gratuitous” repetition, as one might call it, both symbolizes that for-itselfness and serves as a vehicle for inculcating it in us impatient beings who are too often preoccupied with ulterior motives.

A fourth example is the refrain quoniam in aeternum misericordia ejus, repeated 27 times in the recitation or chanting of Psalm 135. A psalm praising the eternity of God’s mercy distantly echoes eternity in its unchanging refrain, like an anchor holding a ship in place, despite the churning waves. It may be hard at times to keep our minds from wandering as we repeat the phrase, but obviously the divine Teacher designed this psalm, as He did all the others down to their last letter, with the spiritual needs of each and every disciple in view.

A final example, and of a rather different character, is the indirect repetitiousness found in Psalm 118, recited daily in the Roman Breviary and once a week in the monastic (namely, divided over the little hours of Sunday and Monday). It takes no great intimacy with Psalm 118 to see that it is conceptually highly repetitive, weaving as many variations with “law, testimonies, commandments, statutes, precepts, judgments, justifications, and sayings” as the psalmist can devise. The Church puts this psalm consistently before us in order to fix our meandering minds and rebellious hearts on the unchanging law of the Lord, which is ultimately His eternal law, His very self, His mercy expressed to us as a rule of life in which we will find life. The layout of the psalm implies that in all the variety we see, in all the vicissitudes we suffer, and even in the seeming pointlessness of the neverending cycle to which Ecclesiastes bears witness, there is a single order of wisdom, a single manifestation of the mystery of God’s love.

So far I have spoken only of textual repetition, but a thorough treatment of our subject would have to include repetitions and seeming redundancies in personnel, ceremonial, gestures, and chant.

The Fate of Repetition

Some of these elements of repetition in the Divine Office were retained in St. Pius X’s breviary and later on in Paul VI’s Liturgy of the Hours, but sadly, many of them were lessened or abandoned. As the Mass was simplified by the reformers to make it briefer and self-explanatory, transparent and accessible, so too was the Office simplified and abbreviated for busy clergy — and this, in spite of the fact that a majority of the Council Fathers, judging from their speeches in the aula, supported neither major changes in the Mass nor a major reduction of the breviary.

Nevertheless, after decades of the new liturgy running alongside the somewhat unexpected survival of the old, it has been possible not only to conceptualize but to experience how the trend toward simplification, the abandonment of formalities, and the rude dismissal of aesthetic principles has brought about a damping of spiritual impact and a lessening of spiritual discipline.

Even the late Fr. Robert Taft, outspokenly anti-Tridentine though he was, admitted this point:

The West might learn from the East to recapture a sense of tradition, and stop getting tripped up in its own clichés. Liturgy should avoid repetition? Repetition is of the essence of ritual behavior. Liturgy should offer variety? Too much variety is the enemy of popular participation. Liturgy should be creative? But whose creativity? It is presumptuous of those who have never manifested the least creativity in any other aspect of their lives to think they are Beethoven and Shakespeare when it comes to liturgy. [2]

What he failed to note, however, is that the liturgy as it came down to us is already the equivalent, albeit on a far greater scale, of a symphony by Beethoven or a romance by Shakespeare. Like the cycles of medieval mystery plays, traditional Catholic worship has a depth, variety, color, and subtlety that defies simple explanation and resists simplification. Patterns of intelligent repetition are one of its most common and effective means for achieving a formal expression of earnestness and a mounting intensification of desire.

Whether, in practice, repetition always retains this value is a subject for the examination of conscience, but it is surely not difficult to see why it is a feature of every historic Christian liturgy, indeed of every religion known to man. From this perspective, the rather ruthless purge of repetitions from the Divine Office, the Mass, and many other rites is yet another angle from which to demonstrate the essentially unhistorical, unliturgical, and irreligious drive behind the liturgical reforms of the last century.

NOTES

[1] It may be noted in passing that the suppression of the very ancient office of Prime, in and of itself, is sufficient to prompt serious doubts about the entire campaign of revision announced in Sacrosanctum Concilium, and allows us to bury once and for all the lie that the liturgical reform was about “restoring ancient worship.” See Wolfram Schrems, “The Council’s Constitution on the Liturgy: Reform or revolution?,” published online at Rorate Caeli on May 3, 2018.

[2] “Return to Our Roots: Recovering Western Liturgical Traditions,” published online at America, May 26, 2008.

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