June 27, 2008

Will Have Ecumenical Dimension

From: (Zenit.org)

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 28, 2007.- Benedict XVI has declared June 2008-June 2009 the year of St. Paul in celebration of the 2,000th anniversary of the saint's birth. The Pope decreed the year in a vespers celebration held today at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. The Holy Father explained during his homily: "This 'Pauline Year' will take place in a special way in Rome, where for 2,000 years under the papal altar of this basilica, lies the tomb that according to experts and undisputed tradition has conserved the remains of the apostle Paul." The Pontiff said: "In the papal basilica and Benedictine abbey attached to it, there can take place a series of liturgical, cultural and ecumenical events, as well as various pastoral and social initiatives, all of them inspired by Pauline spirituality. "Special attention can also be given to pilgrims who from various places will want to go to the tomb of the Apostle in a penitential way in order to find spiritual benefits. "Meetings for study will be promoted and there will be special publications on Pauline texts, to promote the immense richness of the teaching contained in them, true patrimony of humanity redeemed by Christ. "Also, in every part of the world, similar initiatives will be organized in dioceses, sanctuaries and places of prayer by religious institutions, institutions of study and assistance, which carry the name of St. Paul or which have been inspired by him and his teaching." Benedict XVI explained that this year must have an important "ecumenical dimension." "The Apostle of the Gentiles, who dedicated himself to the spreading of the good news to all peoples, spent himself for the unity and harmony of all Christians," the Pope said. "May he guide us and protect us in this bimillenary celebration," he added, "helping us to advance in the humble and sincere search for the full unity of all the members of the mystical body of Christ."

June 25, 2008

Homilies from the Monastery

Wednesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
From: Daily Devotion (Homilies from the Monastery) -  


Click Here


2 Kgs 22:8-13; 23:1-3; Ps119:33-37,40; Mt 7:15-20

"I long for your precepts."

By our very nature we long for the word of the LORD. From our conception within the womb we long for his precepts. Without the knowledge of his ways we are lost and insecure. Like King David in today's psalm, we, too, plead with the LORD, "Teach me the way of your decrees." Many in our day resist what they perceive as direction from the outside. Yet, if we are true to our nature, if we are honest, we cannot find our own way. The revelation of God is not from the outside; God's word is spoken within us, and his truth reveals the truth of who we are. We are created beings; we are not self-made men. We are contingent beings; we are not the source of our own life. We are dependant beings, and we absolutely need the LORD. We need to have the LORD instruct us in the way of his statutes, that we may exactly observe them. If the LORD teaches us his decrees, then we have discernment of heart. With this wisdom we can deal with all the difficulties and challenges we encounter in life. When the LORD leads us in the paths of his commands, then we delight and do not despair. Indeed, it is the grace of God that inclines our hearts to his decrees and not to self-assertion and personal gain. Only then will we be able to love God and love our neighbor faithfully. We humbly ask that the LORD turn our eyes away from seeing what is vain. We need divine help to become those who give life by pouring ourselves out in loving service. Only when our deepest longing becomes our conscious will, only then will we long for his precepts and learn to live in justice and truth. Such a heart felt desire for God's ways ignited the hearts of those who found the book of the covenant hidden in the temple. Such a bold and singular desire for God's will is the only way to be rooted in the word of the LORD and to bear good fruit. Once we have found what is lost and hidden in our tradition will we be found secure in the mystery of God's call to holiness. Indeed, it is the mysteries of this liturgy that secure and strengthen our true identity hidden with Christ in God.


For many reasons the law of the LORD had been ignored and lost from among his chosen people. In today's first reading we hear about the surprise discovery of the book of the law in the temple of the LORD. When the high priest, Hilkiah, gave this book to King, and read it aloud for his instruction, the King was quick to repent and respond to the law of the LORD. He tore his garments and humbled himself before the LORD. After his personal repentance, he summoned the priests, prophets and people to a public reading of the decrees of the LORD. "He had the entire contents of the book of the covenant that had been found in the temple of the LORD, read out to them." Sometimes we lose our way and we need to hear the instructions of the LORD to stir our hearts to repentance and reform. This is why we proclaim the word of the LORD in every liturgy, so that we have no excuse to continue in our selfish and destructive ways. However, we do not always receive the wisdom from ages past with an open and willing heart. Sometimes we resist and rebel against the LORD's commands. We deceive ourselves into thinking that the LORD's ways are not compassionate, that God just doesn't understand the needs of our time. We think that the church is out of touch, and our traditions are irrelevant. At times like this we gladly take the comfort that the Word seems to offer, but reject any challenge that comes from the mouth of God. We think we know what is best and ignore the wisdom of God. We fool ourselves into thinking that the law of the LORD is too harsh and not sensitive to our real situation. At times like these the LORD surprises us, and we discover that which seems hidden and lost in the very temple of our liturgy. At times like these the LORD summons us to revive the terms of the covenant written so long ago for our instruction. The LORD never abandons us, even when we hide from his wisdom. Again and again, we are called into the light of truth and taste that the LORD is good. Today, we pray for the ordained among us to be bold and faithful in announcing the truth we have so long resisted and yet so deeply need.

Our Divine Teacher, the Lord Jesus, instructs us in today's gospel how to discern true prophets from false prophets. We need this kind of wisdom in order to know how to listen deeply and discern the truth that will set us free. The Lord Jesus warns us to beware of false prophets who come in sheep's clothing but underneath are ravenous wolves. Indeed such teachers have devoured the sheep whose clothing they wear. These ravenous wolves hide behind the mask of those who are mislead by their teaching. They appeal to the majority to bolster their public image, "Look at all those who have believed in my teaching!" They try to deceive us by pointing out all who have affirmed their teaching. Just because the majority believes something does not make it true. The Lord Jesus does not want us to get caught up in the noise of the crowd. He wants us to get beyond political controversy and inform our conscience so that we can make moral decisions. It is the truth of natural law and revealed law that must guide our decisions and actions in the world. Indeed we are in the world but not of the world. The lies of our culture have no claim on those who live and move and have their being in Christ who is the way, the truth and the life. The true test of a prophet is the fruits of his life. No one picks grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles. Even so, no one can find good fruit and be nourished from those who are not rooted in the truth. "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit." Only this wisdom will enable us to follow those who will lead us out of our divisions and into the unity and freedom that comes from the truth, from the very mouth of God.

June 22, 2008

This is Getting Serious!!!

Here is some advice for guys who may be at the level of calling and visiting religious orders or diocesan discernment programs:

(The Importance of Daily Prayer)
 

1) Holy Mass every Sunday - and if possible, try to attend Mass during the week. What better way is there to hear the Lord speaking to you than during the Mass?

2) Daily personal prayer - Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Holy Rosary, and the Liturgy of the Hours (If you are busy, try praying at least morning and evening prayer). It is also highly recommended that you try to take 15-20 minutes a day a prayerfully read the Scriptures (Lectio Divina) which is a staple of the Monastic Benedictine Life.

3) Spiritual Direction - (Spiritual direction is a "gathering together" of two in the name of Jesus, the spiritual director and the directee, to help a person to develop a closer relationship with God and to better discern how the Holy Spirit is leading in their life.) For someone discerning the call seriously it is important to meet with your director (either a trusted priest or religious) once a month.

4) The Sacrament of Reconciliation - Again, I recommend monthly taking advantage of the Sacrament.


(Get Involved)
If you are not so already, get involved in your local parish (I'm sure the local priest would love your help). Also, take advantage of groups like the Knights of Columbus who are a wonderful group of Catholic men who practice all sorts of great community outreach programs (Most parishes have a group of knights who could give you more information about the lay order - click here for their website). As the priest, the monk, and the religious is called to be a servant to the servants like Jesus, it is important to start serving people faithfully now in order to understand the importance of selflessness and charity when discerning the call to the religious way of life.

(No Dating)

Another important factor in discerning whether or not the Lord is calling you to the religious state of life is keeping your mind, heart, and soul, completely focused and attentive to the Lord. This is impossible to do when you are dating a young lady. As many spiritual directors will tell you, dating (being involved in a relationship with another person), seriously clouds the discerning heart for it is not fully able to listen to the voice of the Lord - As St. Benedict instructs us in the Holy Rule, "Listen carefully, my son, to the master's instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart." (RB Prologue 1) "You need interior freedom to discern between the state of marriage and the religious state. We all have a normal and natural desire for women and marriage. A religious calling is an invitation to give up that great good for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven." (Fr. Luke Mary Fletcher, CFR)

Finally, the importance of being free from addictions to drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, and PORNOGRAPHY!!! As you may already know, any addiction, especially pornography will make it extremely hard for you offer the Lord a free and complete "YES" to the divine call. This is not to say that religious orders and diocese are only looking for saints, that's not the case at all. All people, are bound to have the occasional slip-up and sin, yet we rely on the Mercy of God and the Sacrament of Reconciliation which allows us to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and continue on the straight and narrow path which leads to Heaven!!!

Our Lady's Rosary




Dear Mother, I bring Thee roses
Because they are so sweet,
But lilies, my favorite flowers
I am placing at Thy feet.
Accept with each Hail Mary
A rose for Thy crown so bright;
Please don't forget the lilies,
The lilies so pure and white.
Let them be a bond of love
And understanding rare,
And send a blessing from above
In answer to my prayer.
Loneliness would be unknown
If more people came to Thee,
With their trials and sorrows
And said their Rosary.
With each Hail Mary, they would find
Their load much lighter grow,
And in humility, kiss the cross
In peace, would onward go.

Alice W. Sparks
Robert, Cyril. Our Lady's Praise in Poetry.
Poughkeepsie, New York: Marist Press, 1944.

June 21, 2008

The Monastic Beard: Part II

The following is taken from the great book on our founder: An American Abbot (Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., 1809-1887) by Jerome Oetgen. The book can be purchased by clicking here, it is a great gift or read for anyone interested in Monasticism, American History, or just in inspirational stories of people who overcame human limitations and worldly hardships by putting their total trust in Jesus our Lord. For part one of these series click here. Hopefully, after reading this short selection, one can see why the monastic beard has been embraced American Benedictines from the very beginning:
 

Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B. (as a young abbot and probably close to what he what have looked like when he met with Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1865)
The prior watched the emaciated face with its long white beard and perhaps recalled the sensation the flowing whiskers had caused among the clean-shaven cardinals of Rome when the abbot visited the Vatican in 1865. He had been reluctant to arrive in Rome with a full beard and even wrote to the abbot of Metten asking what he thought of the idea. Not much, it seems. The Bavarian prelate recommended prudence. Things were done differently in Rome, the officials there didn't always understand, or appreciate, innovation. That abbot of Metten told him to keep in mind that when in Rome he should do as the Romans, but Abbot Boniface decided to take a chance. He arrived unshaven. People gawked at him in the streets. The nuns of a convent he visited were frightened by his "shaggy appearance." The Italian cardinals raised their bushy eyebrows. But in the end the abbot's audacity was vindicated. He was received in audience by the Holy Father, and after hearing of his success in spreading the Benedictine Order throughout North America and bringing the Gospel to the immigrants who were daily arriving on the shores of the new land, Pope Pius IX gave his blessing to the work and dismissed him with the words "Long live Abbot Wimmer and his magnificent beard." From that day on he never shaved, and he urged his monks to follow his example.
Blessed Pope Pius IX

--------------------------------------------------
As a follow up to the last article which mentioned some of our bearded brethren occasionally being confused for grey robed Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (a group founded in the South Bronx in 1987 by Fr. Benedict Groeschel and 6 other Capuchin friars as a renewal of the Capuchin way of life. I though this history about where the Capuchin beard and their order was interesting due to their roots to the Benedictine Camaldolese monks which we discussed a few days ago on the Feast of St. Romuald...click here for that article.


The order arose in 1520 when Matteo da Bascio, an "Observant" Franciscan friar native to the Italian region of Marche, became inspired by God with the idea that the manner of life led by the Franciscans of his day was not the one which St. Francis had envisaged. He sought to return to the primitive way of life in solitude and penance as practiced by the founder of his order.


His superiors tried to suppress these innovations, and Friar Matteo and his first companions were forced into hiding from Church authorities, who sought to arrest them for having abandoned their religious duties. They were given refuge by the Camaldolese monks, in gratitude for which they later adopted the hood or capuccio worn by that order--which was the mark of a hermit in that region of Italy--and the practice of wearing a beard. The popular name of their order originates from this feature of their religious habit, and after this the Capuchin monkey and the cappuccino coffee are also named by visual analogy. In 1528, Friar Matteo obtained the approval of Pope Clement VII and was given permission to live as a hermit and to go about everywhere preaching to the poor. These permissions were not only for himself, but for all such as might join him in the attempt to restore the most literal observance possible of the Rule of St. Francis. Matteo and the original band were soon joined by others. Matteo and his companions were formed into a congregation, called the Hermit Friars Minor, as a branch of the Conventual Franciscans, but with a vicar of their own, subject to the jurisdiction of the general of the Conventuals. The Observants continued to oppose the movement.

What Vocation Shortage?

By Russell Shaw
March 29, 2004
Originally posted at: Intentional Disciples



The Brothers and retreatants on the annual "In the Footsteps of St. Benedict" Pilgrimage. This program allows men discerning the Monastic vocation a chance to walk and live where our Holy Father St. Benedict did 1500 years ago. (Note: 2 of our Novices, Br. Maximilian and Br. Michael entered the monastery shortly after this experience, Alleluia!!!)


Despite all the talk about a vocation shortage, there is in fact no such thing in the Catholic Church. The real shortage is that of vocational discernment, and that is a very different problem. The shortfall in the number of candidates for the priesthood, the consecrated life and other forms of Christian witness and service would quickly disappear if many more Catholics, and ideally all, made it a practice to discern, accept and live out their unique, irreplaceable callings from God—their personal vocations.

The idea of personal vocation and the practice of discernment are also the key to removing clericalism from Catholic life once and for all and replacing it with a healthy understanding of clergy-lay relationships. Personal vocation and vocational discernment also are crucial to helping the laity, along with everyone else, understand and embrace their proper roles in carrying out the church’s mission.

These are large claims, of course. In weighing them, it is useful to begin with the three distinct but related senses that the word “vocation” has in religious talk.

The first of these is the common Christian vocation received in baptism and strengthened by confirmation. In very general terms, the common vocation consists in what follows from the commitment of faith: loving and serving God above all else and loving and serving one’s neighbor as oneself, and so collaborating in the redemptive work of Christ that is the mission of the church. In 1964 the Second Vatican Council offered a succinct but clear statement of the idea when it said the baptized are “appointed by their baptismal character to Christian religious worship” and have an obligation to “profess before people the faith they have received” (“Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,” No. 11).

The second meaning of the word refers to what traditionally is called “state in life.” The clerical state, the consecrated life, Christian marriage, the life of the single lay person in the world—these are states in life. They are specifications of the common Christian vocation, chosen by overarching commitments that set us on long-term paths that shape our lives by the countless specific choices and actions needed to see them through to the end. Christian states in life are meant to complement and reinforce one another, not to compete.

The third sense in which “vocation” is used is that of personal vocation. It is the unique combination of commitments, relationships, obligations, opportunities, strengths and weaknesses through which the common Christian vocation and a state in life are concretely expressed in the case of someone trying to discern, accept and live out God’s will; it is the particular role intended by God for each of us in his redemptive plan. “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10). Or, as Pope John Paul II said in a message for World Vocations Day in 2001, “Every life is a vocation.”

When Catholics speak of vocation, they usually mean state in life. In fact, they usually mean priesthood or religious life. A “vocations director” is someone in a diocese or religious institute responsible for recruiting and screening those who think they may be called to be priests or religious; a “vocations program” is a program with this purpose. From one point of view, there is nothing wrong with speaking of vocation in this way. Priesthood and religious life really are states of life and, for some people, central parts of their callings from God. From another point of view, however, exclusive emphasis on vocation as state of life—and, practically speaking, as a call to be a priest or religious—can do much harm.

The most obvious harm is in communicating to those not called to be priests or religious the message, “You don’t have a vocation.” That may be disappointing for some and welcome news for others; but in either case it is a disincentive to continuing discernment, acceptance and living out of God’s will for oneself. Here is one of the root causes of the clericalist mentality still so widespread among Catholics.

The idea of personal vocation is the antidote. Everybody has one—God calls every member of the church by name. Seen in this light, the challenge is not to find out whether you have a vocation but to identify the vocation you unquestionably have.

The idea of personal vocation is unfamiliar to most Catholics today, but it is hardly new. It is rooted in the Pauline doctrine of charisms and of the church as the body of Christ. Other classic sources of Christian wisdom have developed the insight further. St. Francis de Sales, for instance, spoke of personal vocation in his Treatise on the Love of God, though he did not use the term. It is not God’s will that everyone live the evangelical counsels, he points out, “but only such counsels as are suitable according to differences in persons, times, occasions, and abilities.” Writers like St. Ignatius Loyola and Jean Pierre de Caussade, S.J., suggest the same.

Cardinal John Henry Newman
Cardinal John Henry Newman offered a particularly insightful exposition of personal vocation in one of the sermons he gave while still an Anglican, “Divine Calls.” Newman emphasized the here-and-now, ongoing character of this uniquely personal call: “For in truth we are not called once only, but many times; all through our life Christ is calling us. He called us first in baptism; but afterwards also.... He works through our natural faculties and circumstances of life. Still what happens to us in providence is in all essential respects what His voice was to those whom He addressed when on earth.”

Given the existence of this powerful and persuasive testimony, why have Catholics been slow to grasp the idea of personal vocation? One probable reason is that Martin Luther was an enthusiastic exponent of this truth. “Everyone must tend his own vocation and work,” he wrote. But Luther also rejected the idea of mediation in the spiritual realm and, with it, priesthood and religious life. The reaction this provoked among Catholics helped make the idea of personal vocation suspect in Catholic circles for centuries.

In modern times, nevertheless, the concept can be found in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and in many postconciliar documents of the magisterium. No one has analyzed the idea more carefully or promoted it more vigorously than Pope John Paul II, who wrote about personal vocation long before becoming pope (in Love and Responsibility, which appeared in Poland in 1960) and has returned to it time and again during his pontificate. In his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, published in 1979, he said:

For the whole of the community of the People of God and for each member of it what is in question is not just a specific social membership; rather, for each and every one what is essential is a particular “vocation.” Indeed, the church as the People of God is also “Christ’s Mystical Body.” Membership in that body has for its source a particular call, united with the saving action of grace. Therefore, if we wish to keep in mind this community of the People of God...we must see first and foremost Christ saying in a way to each member of the community: “Follow me.” (No. 21)

The Servant of God, Pope John Paul II
The idea of personal vocation is an important complement to Vatican II’s teaching about the universal call to holiness. All members of the faithful, not just a select few, are called “to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love,” the council declares (“Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,” No. 39). But there is not much guidance for living this out, and even less incentive to do so, in telling people that if God has not called them to be clerics or religious, they do not have a vocation in any meaningful sense.

Personal vocation puts this matter in a radically different light. Everyone has a personal vocation, an unrepeatable call from God to play a particular role in his redemptive plan and the mission of the church. The task of each is to discern God’s will, accept it and live it out. That is responding to the universal call to be holy.

Contrary to an elitist view of vocational discernment, which tends to treat it as an exercise for a select few, discernment is for everybody. “The fundamental objective of the formation of the lay faithful is an ever-clearer discovery of one’s vocation and the ever-greater willingness to live it out,” Pope John Paul II says in his post-synod document on the laity, Christifideles Laici (1989).

To carry out this mandate, parishes need to become schools of vocational discernment—places where liturgy, catechesis and spiritual direction encourage parishioners to engage in continuing, prayerful reflection on what God is asking of them. The effort should start with children (in an age-appropriate manner) and continue with adolescents, young adults and adults at every stage of their life journey. Special opportunities—retreats, days of recollection—should be provided for those who have major vocational choices to make. The aim is discernment, not recruitment.

But, someone might object, won’t emphasizing personal vocation distract people from heeding calls to the priesthood and consecrated life? Won’t it make the real-life vocation shortage worse?

The answer is no. If many more Catholics practiced ongoing discernment regarding their personal vocations, many more would discover that they are called to the priesthood or consecrated life. The best solution to the dearth of new candidates—and to many other problems in contemporary Catholic life as well—is personal vocation. Indeed, it may be the only one.

June 19, 2008

Great Video on the Holy Priesthood

Check out this great DVD on the priesthood, produced by the Midwest Theological Forum. Speakers include St. Vincent Seminary's own, Dr. Scott Hahn.

For the Windows Media Version: Click here For the Quicktime Version: Click here

June 17, 2008

Sacred Reading (Lectio Divina)

From: "The Cloud of Unknowing"
 

 
That without imperfect meekness coming before, it is impossible for a sinner to come to the perfect Virtue of meekness in this life.

For although I call it imperfect meekness, yet I had liefer have a true knowing and a feeling of myself as I am, and sooner I trow that it should get me the perfect cause and virtue of meekness by itself, than it should an all the saints and angels in heaven, and all the men and women of Holy Church living in earth, religious or seculars in all degrees, were set at once all together to do nought else but to pray to God for me to get me perfect meekness. Yea, and yet it is impossible a sinner to get, or to keep when it is gotten, the perfect virtue of meekness without it. 120

And therefore swink and sweat in all that thou canst and mayest, for to get thee a true knowing and a feeling of thyself as thou art; and then I trow that soon after that thou shalt have a true knowing and a feeling of God as He is. Not as He is in Himself, for that may no man do but Himself; nor yet as thou shalt do in bliss both body and soul together. But as it is possible, and as He vouchsafeth to be known and felt of a meek soul living in this deadly body.
 
And think not because I set two causes of meekness, one perfect and another imperfect, that I will therefore that thou leavest the travail about imperfect meekness, and set thee wholly to get thee perfect. Nay, surely; I trow thou shouldest never bring it so about. But herefore I do that I do: because I think to tell thee and let thee see the worthiness of this ghostly exercise before all other exercise bodily or ghostly that man can or may do by grace. How that a privy love pressed in cleanness of spirit upon this dark cloud of unknowing betwixt thee and thy God, truly and perfectly containeth in it the perfect virtue of meekness without any special or clear beholding of any thing under God. And because I would that thou knewest which were perfect meekness, and settest it as a token before the love of thine heart, and didst it for thee and for me. And because I would by this knowing make thee more meek.

121For ofttimes it befalleth that lacking of knowing is cause of much pride as me thinketh. For peradventure an thou knewest not which were perfect meekness, thou shouldest ween when thou hadst a little knowing and a feeling of this that I call imperfect meekness, that thou hadst almost gotten perfect meekness: and so shouldest thou deceive thyself, and ween that thou wert full meek when thou wert all belapped in foul stinking pride. And therefore try for to travail about perfect meekness; for the condition of it is such, that whoso hath it, and the whiles he hath it, he shall not sin, nor yet much after.

June 14, 2008

Feast of St. Romuald (founder of the Benedictine Camaldolese Monks)

Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch.
 

St. Romuald, the founder of the Camaldolese Order, could not decide for a considerable time whether to serve God in a religious life or to remain in the world. After his father killed a relative in a duel at which Romuald was forced to be present, he went to the monastery of St. Apollinaris, near Ravenna, and did penance for forty days. Later, he entered this same monastery as a monk. Then he became a follower of the hermit Marinus in Venice. In the course of time he founded an order of hermits which received its name after the most famous of his foundations, Camalduli in Tuscany.

Romuald's was one of the strictest orders for men in the West (a branch of the Benedictine Order). Members live isolated in small huts, observing strict silence and perpetual fasting, constantly praying or engaged in manual labor. Our saint enjoyed the grace of bringing sinners, particularly those of rank and power, back to God. When he died, he was a little over seventy years; he had never used a bed, had always sought out ways of practicing severe penances. 15 years later his pupil, the holy doctor of the Church, St. Peter Damian, wrote his biography.

"His greatness lies in the rigorous and austere character of his interpretation of monastic life-an approach that was quite singular and unique. In the deepest recesses of his being, Romuald was an ascetic, a monk; not perhaps, a monk of that serene peace and self-possession exemplified by St. Benedict in his life and described by him in his Rule. Nor was Romuald an organizer who through prudent legislation enabled his spirit to flourish and affect great numbers. He reminds us of the stolid figures inhabiting the Eastern deserts, men who by most rigorous mortification and severest self-inflicted penances gave a wanton world a living example of recollection and contemplation. Their very lives constituted the most powerful sermon. It is in company with men like these that St. Romuald continues to live."

Romuald was not at all a fluent reader. Whenever he made another of his many mistakes, Marinus, his teacher, beat him on his left cheek. Finally it became too much for Romuald. "But, dear master," he said modestly, "hit me on the right cheek in the future. My left ear is almost deaf." The master was surprised at such patience and thereafter acted more considerately.

The saint loved to say, "Better to pray one psalm with devotion and compunction than a hundred with distraction."

When the holy man felt his end was near, he retired to the monastery at Val di Castro. After so many journeys he was eager to begin his final pilgrimage to an eternal resting place. Before the reform of the Calendar in 1969 his feast was celebrated on February 7, the anniversary of the translation of his relics in 1481. His feast is now June 19, the day he died in 1027. In the Calendar reform the Church has tried to move the feasts of the saints to their "birthday" — referring to the day on which the saint died and celebrated his/her birth into heaven.

Symbols: Crutch; ladder.
Often Portrayed as: Monk pointing at a ladder on which other monks are ascending to heaven indicative his founding of his Order.
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CAMALDOLITES (called also Camaldolensians, Camaldolese, Camaldules, Camaldulians, from the monastery at Camaldoli near Arezzo): A religious order springing from the movement for monastic reform which also gave rise to the congregations of Cluny and Lorraine, with which it is allied in some respects, though it differs from them in others. The Italian movement is wholly independent of the French, and began later�not before the close of the tenth century, after the Cluniac monks had already reformed numerous monasteries in upper and central Italy. It was more enthusiastic than the French, and had for its object not so much the strict enforcement of the Benedictine rule as the commendation, in opposition to the moral corruption which was even deeper in the south than in the north, of the severest form of the ascetic life, that of hermits. This recalls the Greek monastic originators; and the fact is easily explicable by the strong influence of Greek traditions in Italy, especially in the south.

St. Romuald.

St. Romuald is the most prominent, but by no means the only, representative of this idea. Before or with him were working for the same end the Armenian hermit Simeon, St. Dominic of Foligno, the founder of Fonte Avellana, and the Greek Nilos of Rossano. Romuald was born at Ravenna, of the ducal family there, about 950. He was startled out of a worldly life when his father Sergius killed a kinsman in a duel arising out of a dispute over a piece of property, and retired to the monastery of S. Apollinare in Classe near Ravenna to do penance forty days on his father's behalf. His ascetic zeal was not satisfied here, although the monastery had been reformed not long before by Majolus of Cluny. He began to live a hermit's life near Venice, continued it in Catalonia, and then returned to the neighborhood of Ravenna. Wherever he went, a group of disciples formed around him; but as soon as they were sufficiently numerous in any one place, he gave them into the charge of a superior and left them. Most of these colonies were in central Italy; the three most important were Val di Castro, Monte Sitrio in Umbria, and Camaldoli, where he established a monastery in 1012. His organization shows a combination of the Western cenobite system with the Eastern anchorite life. The brothers lived in single cells, with an oratory in the midst. The whole Psalter was recited every day; the only written memorial left by Romuald was an exposition of the Psalms, which, however, is taken almost word for word from that of Cassiodorus. Meals were taken in common, but they were exceedingly scanty; the brothers went barefoot and wore their hair and beards long; the rule of silence was strictly observed. They busied themselves with agriculture and various handicrafts, those near the sea especially with the making of baskets and nets. We meet for the first time in these hermit colonies with famuli, the later lay brothers, who relieved the monks of the more burdensome household duties The rule of fasting and silence was not so strict for them, but apparently, as at Fonte Avellana, they had to take lifelong monastic vows. This institution was borrowed by Gualberto, a disciple of Romuald's, for his order of Vallombrosa and further developed by him. Romuald's activity was not confined to the founding of these communities. He made a deep impression upon the most variedclasses, and exercised a great influence over the emperor Otto III., who, it is asserted not improbably, promised him to exchange the crown for the cowl after he had conquered Rome. Though Romuald disclaimed any intention of taking part in ecclesiastical politics, he raised his voice loudly in Italy against simony and the marriage of the clergy. His zeal called him to the mission-field; disciples of his penetrated into Russia and Poland, there to meet death for their faith, and the desire of the martyr's crown finally took the aged hermit himself to Hungary. Ill health hindered his work there, and he returned to die in 1027.

The Camaldolese.

His zeal for a reform of monasticism remained active in his followers. They did not, however, emphasize the hermit ideal to the same extent, and the Italian movement gradually approximated to that of Cluny. Romuald's spirit was best followed in the community of Camaldoli, which received papal confirmation from Alexander II. in 1072. Its rule was first written in 1080 by the fourth prior, Rudolph, who modified in some respects the extreme strictness of Romuald's prescriptions, and also founded (1086) the first convent of nuns under this rule, San Pietro di Luco at Mogello. Camaldoli received many rich gifts, and the congregation spread throughout Italy, without, however, producing any very notable men except the famous jurist Gratian. The transition from the hermit to the community life became more marked, in spite of the efforts of Ambrose the Camaldolite of Portico, "major" or head of the congregation in 1431, supported by Pope Eugenius IV., to restore the old ideals. In 1476 the community of St. Michael at Murano near Venice renounced the obedience of Camaldoli, and formed a group of distinctly cenobitic Camaldolese houses, confirmed as a congregation by Innocent VIII. In 1513 Leo X. reunited all the Camaldolese monks under the headship of Camaldoli, providing that the major should hold office for but three years, and be chosen alternately from the hermits and the cenobites. But in 1520 he allowed Paolo Giustiniani to draw up new statutes and to form the new communities of hermits which he was to found into an independent congregation of St. Romuald. This new congregation, which took its name from Monte Corona near Perugia, had a very strict rule; it spread through Germany, Austria, and Poland. A fourth congregation, that of Turin, was founded in 1601 by Alessandro di Leva (d. 1612), to take in the hermits of Piedmont. A breach of this became practically a separate congregation on account of the political views of Richelieu, who was unwilling that the French hermitages should be subject to Italian superiors. By a brief of Urban VIII. (1635), its head was always to be a Frenchman, and directly subject to the pope. From 1642 Gros-Bois near Paris was its mother house. All the French communities perished at the Revolution. The congregation of Camaldoli has now six houses, including Camaldoli itself and one famous for its picturesque site high above Naples. The principal house of the Murano congregation is San Gregorio in Rome, from which came the only Camaldolese monk who has occupied the papal throne, Gregory XVI. (1831-46). Outside of Italy there is only the community of Bielany in the diocese of Cracow, belonging to the congregation of Monte Corona. The total membership of the order is not more than 200. Convents of nuns exist only in Rome and Florence.
(G. GR�TZMACHER.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Petrus Damianus, Vita Romualdi is in Damianus, Opera, ed. C. Cajetanus, ii. 255 sqq., Rome, 1608, and MPL cxliv. 953 sqq. Another Vita is in ASB 7th Feb., ii. 124-140. Consult: G. B. Mittarelli and G. D. Costadoni, Annales Camaldulenses, 9 vols., Venice, 1755-1773; W. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, i. 436, Berlin, 1893; C. W. Currier, Hist. of Religious Orders, pp. 118-123, New York, 1896; P. Helyot, Ordres monastiques, vol. v.; Heimbucher, Orden and Kongregationen, i. 203-208.

June 13, 2008

The Monastic Tonsure

newadvent.org


(Latin tondere, "to shear")


Since the founding of St. Vincent Archabbey by Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, the tradition of the monastic tonsure during the rite of the reception of the holy monastic habit has been a special tradition retained at St. Vincent even after the Second Vatican Council. This year, six men, on July 10th, will continue this sacred monastic tradition when our Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, O.S.B. using the same pair of scissors Father Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B. used in 1846, will cut our new Novices hair in the sign of the cross to symbolize their complete abandonment to the will of God and to be seen as a poor man (a slave for Jesus Christ) in the world. With that being stated, here is another article on the history of the cleric tonsure.

A sacred rite instituted by the Church by which a baptized and confirmed Christian is received into the clerical order by the shearing of his hair and the investment with the surplice. The person thus tonsured becomes a partaker of the common privileges and obligations of the clerical state and is prepared for the reception of orders. The tonsure itself is not an ordination properly so called, nor a true order. It is rather a simple ascription of a person to the Divine service in such things as are common to all clerics. Historically the tonsure was not in use in the primitive Church during the age of persecution. Even later, St. Jerome (in Ezech., xliv) disapproves of clerics shaving their heads. Indeed, among the Greeks and Romans such a custom was a badge of slavery. On this very account, the shaving of the head was adopted by the monks. Towards the end of the fifth, or beginning of the sixth, century, the custom passed over to the secular clergy.

As a sacred rite, the tonsure was originally joined to the first ordination received, as in the Greek Church it still is to the order of lector. In the Latin Church it began as a separate ceremony about the end of the seventh century, when parents offered their young sons to the service of God. Tonsure is to be given by a candidate's ordinary, though mitred abbots can bestow it on their own subjects. No special age for its reception is prescribed, but the recipient must have learnt the rudiments of the Faith and be able to read and write. The ceremony may be performed at any time or place. As to the monastic tonsure, some writers have distinguished three kinds: (1) the Roman, or that of St. Peter, when all the head is shaved except a circle, of hair; (2) the Eastern, or St. Paul's, when the entire head is denuded of hair; (3) the Celtic, or St. John's, when only a crescent of hair is shaved from the front of the head. In Britain, the Saxon opponents of the Celtic tonsure called it the tonsure of Simon Magus. According to canon law, all clerics are bound to wear the tonsure under certain penalties. But on this subject, Taunton (loc. cit. inf.) says: "In English-speaking countries, from a custom arising in the days of persecution and having a prescription of over three centuries, the shaving of the head, the priestly crown, seems, with the tacit consent of the Holy See, to have passed out of use. No provincial or national council has ordered it, even when treating of clerical dress; and the Holy See has not inserted the law when correcting the decrees of those councils."

June 12, 2008

The Monastic Beard

http://www.newadvent.org/


One of the most common questions our bearded brethren hear is, "Hey are you guy's CFR's?" In which we politely respond, "No, we are Benedictines," to which they respond back, "But you guys have the beard thing." Although it is a true compliment to be confused with the Friars of the Renewal, the truth is that we Benedictines, especially here at St. Vincent have had the "Beard thing" going on for quite some time. Here is interesting article on the clerical beard and its history. Look for more about our founder, Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, and his "magnificent beard" in the next couple of days.

Among the Jews, as among most Oriental peoples, the beard was especially cherished as a symbol of virility; to cut off another man's beard was an outrage (2 Sam. 10:4); to shave or to pluck one's own beard was a sign of mourning (Jeremiah 41:5; 48:37); to allow the beard to be defiled constituted a presumption of madness (1 Sam. 21:13). Certain ceremonial cuttings of the beard which probably imitated pagan superstition were strictly forbidden (Lev. 14:9). These usages which we learn from the Bible are confirmed by the testimony of monuments, both Egyptian and Assyrian, in which the Jews are invariably depicted as bearded. The Egyptian themselves commonly shaved, and we are told that Joseph, on being taken from his prison, was made to shave before appearing in the presence of the king (Gen 41:14).
Similarly in Greece and in Rome, shortly before the time of Christ, it was the fashion to shave, but from the accession of Hadrian onwards, as we may see from the existing statues of the Roman emperors, beards once more became the order of the day. With regard to the Christian clergy, no clear evidence is available for the early centuries. The Apostles, in our most ancient monuments, are for the most part represented as bearded, but not uniformly so. (See Weiss-Liebersdorff, Christus- und Apostelbilder, Freiburg, 1902.) St. Jerome seems to censure the practice of wearing long beards, but no very definite conclusion can be drawn from his allusions or from those of his contemporary, St. Augustine. The positive legislation on the subject for clerics appears to be Canon 44 of the so-called Fourth of Carthage, which in reality represents the synodal decrees of some council in Southern Gaul in the time of St. Cæsarius of Arles (c. 503). There it enjoined that a cleric is to allow neither hair nor beard to grow freely (Clericus nec comam nutriat nec barbam) though this prohibition is very probably directed only against beards of excessive length. Still this canon, which was widely quoted and is included in the "Corpus juris" had great influence in creating a precedent. (See for example the "Penitential" of Halitgar and the so-called "Excerptions" attributed to Egbert of York.) So far as concerns England in particular it was certainly regarded throughout the Middle Ages as uncanonical to allow the beard to grow. A cleric was known as a shorn man (bescoren man, Laws of Wihtred, A.D. 96), and if it should seem that this might refer to the tonsure, we have a law of King Alfred "If a man shave off another's beard let him make amends with twenty shillings. If he bind him first and then shave him like a priest (hine to preoste bescire) let him make amends with sixty shillings." And under Edgar we find the canon: "Let no man in holy orders conceal his tonsure, nor let himself be misshaven nor keep his beard for any time, if he will have God's blessing and St. Peter's and ours." A similar practice obtained generally throughout the West and it was one of the great subjects of reproach on the part of the Greek Church , from the time of Phoius onwards, that the Roman clergy systematically cut off their beards. But as Ratramnus of Corbie protested, it was foolish to make an outcry about a matter which concerned salvation so little as this barbæ detonsio aut conservatio

The legislation requiring the beard to be shaved seems to have remained in force throughout the Middle Ages. Thus an ordinance of the Council of Toulouse, in 1119, threatened with excommunication the clerics who "like a layman allowed hair and beard to grow", and Pope Alexanderordained that clerics who nourished their hair and beard were to be shorn by their archdeacon, by force if necessary. This last decree was incorporated in the text of the canon law (Decretals of Gregory IX, III, tit. i, cap. vii). Durandus, finding mystical reasons for everything, according to his wont, tells us that "length of hair is symbolical of the multitude of sins. Hence clerics are directed to shave their beards, for the cutting of the hair of the beard, which is said to be nourished by the superfluous humours of the stomach, denotes that we ought to cut away the vices and sins which are a superfluous growth in us. Hence we shave our beards that we may seem purified by innocence and humility and that we might be like the angels who remain always in the bloom of youth." (Rationale, II, lib. XXXII.)

In spite of this, the phrase barbam nutrire which was classical in the matter, and was still used by the Fifth Council of Lateran (1512), always remained somewhat ambiguous. Consequently usage in the sixteenth century began to interpret the prohibition as not inconsistent with a shortbeard. There are still many ordinances of episcopal synods which deal with the subject, but the point upon which stress is laid is that the clergy "should not seem to be aping the fashions of military folk" or wearing flowing beards like goats (hircorum et caprarum more), or allowing the hair on their upper lip to impede their drinking of the chalice. This last has always been accounted a solid reason in favour of the practice of shaving. To judge by the portraits of the popes, it was with Clement VII (1523) that a distinct beard began to be worn, and many among his successors, for example Paul III, allowed the beard to grow to considerable length. St. Charles Borromeo attempted to check the spread of the new fashion, and in 1576 he addressed to his clergy a pastoral "De barbâ radendâ" exhorting them to observe the canons. Still, though the length of clerical beards decreased during the seventeenth century, it was not until its close that the example of the French court and the influence of Cardinal Orsini Archbishop of Beneventum, contributed to bring about a return to the earlier usage. For the last 200 years there has been no change, and an attempt made by some of the clergy of Bavaria in 1865 to introduce the wearing of beards was rebuked by the Holy See.

As already noted, in Eastern lands a smooth face carries with it the suggestion of effeminacy. For this reason the clergy whether Catholic or Schismatic of the Oriental churches have always worn their beards. The same consideration, together with a regard for practical difficulties, has influenced the Roman authorities in according a similar privilege to missionaries, not only in the East but in other barbarous countries where the conveniences of civilization cannot be found. In the case of religious orders like the Capuchins and the Camaldolese Hermits the wearing of a beard is prescribed in their constitutions as a mark of austerity and penance. Individual priests who for medical or other reasons desire to exempt themselves from the law require the permission of their bishop.

June 8, 2008

What Monks are up to

Our Father Boniface Hicks, O.S.B. was recently in Austin, Texas were he conducted the Lay Missionaries of Charity National Retreat along with Fr. Sebastian Vazhakhala, MC (the superior of the MC Brothers Contemplative and the first priest ordained as an MC). As some of you may know, our monastic community has a special connection with Blessed Teresa as our wonderful college president, Jim Towey had worked for 12 years as legal counsel to Mother Teresa of Calcutta and lived two years in her missions caring for those dying with AIDS in Washington, D.C. and struggling to survive along the U.S.-Mexico border (Check out the picture at left of President Towey and Blessed Teresa). He now has taken the lessons learned from one of the great saints of our time (Blessed Teresa) and brought them to St Vincent. He has dedicated his presidency to Mother Teresa with the hope that Saint Vincent graduates will be prepared to make a living for themselves and a difference in the world. This being stated, we are pleased to share with you some of the pictures of our Father Boniface, O.S.B. and our Missionary of Charity brothers. Father Sebastian, MC and Father Boniface pose for a picture

Father Sebastian, MC and Father Boniface celebrate the Holy Mass
Blessed Teresa...pray for us!!!

June 4, 2008

SAINT BONIFACE MARTYR, APOSTLE OF GERMANY—680-754 A.D.

Isolated missionary groups had penetrated central Germany in earlier times, but not until the eighth century was there a systematic effort to Christianize the vast pagan wilderness. To the English monk Boniface belongs the honor of opening up this region and creating a hierarchy under direct commission from the Holy See. Thirty-six years of missionary labor under difficult and dangerous conditions, ending at last in martyrdom, entitle this good and courageous man to the designation, "Apostle of Germany."

Boniface, or Winfrid, to give him his baptismal name, was born into a Christian family of noble rank, probably at Crediton in Devonshire, about the year 680. The reorganized English Church, still under the inspiration brought to it from Rome two generations earlier by Augustine of Canterbury, was full of fervor and vitality. Winfrid was a very small boy when he found himself listening to the conversation of some monks who were visiting his home. He resolved then to enter the Church, and this resolution never weakened. Winfrid's father had other plans for his clever son, but a serious illness altered his attitude, and he sent the boy to the neighboring abbey of Exeter to be educated. Some years later, Winfrid went to the abbey of Bursling, in the diocese of Winchester. After completing his studies there, he was appointed head of the school.

His teaching skill attracted many students, and for their use he wrote a grammar which is still extant. The pupils diligently took notes at his classes, and these were copied and circulated in other monasteries, where they were eagerly studied. At the age of thirty he was ordained priest, and now added preaching to teaching and administrative work.

Winfrid was assured of rapid advancement in the English Church, but God revealed to him that his work was to be in foreign lands, where need was greater. Northern Europe and most of Central Europe were still in pagan darkness. In Friesland, which then included modern Netherlands and lands to the east, the Northumbrian missionary Willibrord had long been striving to bring the Gospel to the people. It was to this region that Winfrid felt himself called. Having obtained the consent of his abbot, he and two companions set out in the spring of 716. Soon after landing at Doerstadt they learned that Duke Radbold of Friesland, an enemy of Christianity, was warring with Charles Martel, the Frankish duke, and that Willibrord had been obliged to retire to his monastery at Echternacht. Realizing that the time was inauspicious, the missionaries prudently returned to England in the autumn. Winfrid's monks at Bursling tried to keep him there, and wished to elect him abbot, but he was not to be turned from his purpose.

This first attempt had shown him that to be effective as a missionary he must have a direct commission from the Pope, so in 718, with commendatory letters from the bishop of Winchester, he presented himself in Rome before Gregory II. The Pope welcomed him warmly, kept him in Rome until spring of the following year, when traveling conditions were favorable, and then sent him forth with a general commission to preach the word of God to the heathen. At this time Winfrid's name was changed to Boniface (from the Latin, , fortunate). Crossing the lower Alps, the missionary traveled through Bavaria into Hesse. Duke Radbold had died and his successor was more friendly. Going into Friesland, Boniface labored for three years under Willibrord, who was now very old. Boniface declined to become Willibrord's coadjutor and successor as bishop of Utrecht, saying that his commission had been general, "to the heathen," and he could not be limited to any one diocese. He now returned to work in Hesse.
 
Boniface had little difficulty in making himself understood as a preacher, since the dialects of the various Teutonic tribes closely resembled his native Anglo-Saxon. He won the interest of two powerful local chieftains, Dettic and Deorulf, who at some previous time had been baptized. For lack of instruction they had remained little better than pagans; now they became zealous Christians and influenced many others to be baptized. They also gave Boniface a grant of land on which he later founded the monastery of Amoeneburg. Boniface was able to report such remarkable gains that the Pope summoned him back to Rome to be ordained bishop.

In Rome on St. Andrew's Day, November 30, 722, Pope Gregory II consecrated him as regionary bishop with a general jurisdiction over "the races in the parts of Germany and east of the Rhine who live in error, in the shadow of death." The Pope also gave him a letter to the powerful Charles Martel, "The Hammer." When Boniface delivered it to the Frankish duke on his way back to Germany, he received the valuable gift of a sealed pledge of Frankish protection. Armed thus with authority from both the Church and the civil power, the prestige of Boniface was vastly enhanced. On his return to Hesse, he decided to try to root out the pagan superstitions which seriously affected the stability of his converts. On a day publicly announced, and in the midst of an awe-struck crowd, Boniface and one or two of his followers attacked with axes Thor's sacred oak. These German tribes, along with many other primitive peoples, were tree-worshipers. Thor, god of thunder, was one of the principal Teutonic deities, and this ancient oak, which stood on the summit of Mt. Gudenberg, was sacred to him. After a few blows, the huge tree crashed to earth, splitting into four parts. The terrified tribesmen, who had expected a punishment to fall instantly on the perpetrators of such an outrage, now saw that their god was powerless to protect even his own sanctuary.

To signalize the victory, Boniface built a chapel on the spot. From that time the work of evangelization in Hesse proceeded steadily.

Pope Gregory III sent Boniface the pallium in 731, appointing him archbishop and metropolitan of all Germany beyond the Rhine, with authority to found new bishoprics. A few years later Boniface made his third trip to Rome to confer about the churches he had founded, and at this time he was appointed apostolic legate. Stopping at Monte Cassino, he enlisted more missionaries. In his capacity as legate he traveled into Bavaria to organize the Church there into the four bishoprics of Regensburg, Freising, Salzburg, and Passau. From Bavaria he returned to his own field and founded new bishoprics at Erfurt for Thuringia, Buraburg for Hesse, Wurzburg for Franconia, and Eichstadt for the Nordgau. An English monk was placed at the head of each new diocese. In 741 the great Benedictine abbey at Fulda was founded in Prussia to serve as the fountainhead of German monastic culture. Its first abbot was Boniface's young Bavarian disciple, Sturm or Sturmio. In the early Middle Ages Fulda produced a host of scholars and teachers, and became known as the Monte Cassino of Germany.

While the evangelization of Germany was proceeding steadily, the Church in Gaul, under the Merovingian kings, was disintegrating. High ecclesiastical offices were either kept vacant, sold to the highest bidder, or bestowed on unworthy favorites. Pluralism, the holding by one man of many offices, each of which should demand his full time, was common. The great mass of the clergy was ignorant and undisciplined. No synod or church council had been held for eighty-four years. Charles Martel had been conquering and consolidating the regions of western Europe, and now regarded himself as an ally of the papacy and the chief champion of the Church, yet he had persistently plundered it to obtain funds for his wars and did nothing to help the work of reform. His death, however, in 74I, and the accession of his sons, Carloman and Pepin the Short, provided an opportunity which Boniface quickly seized. Carloman, the elder, was very devout and held Boniface in great veneration; Boniface had no trouble in persuading him to call a synod to deal with errors and abuses in the Church in Austrasia, Alemannia, and Thuringia.

The first assembly was followed by several others. Boniface presided over them all, and was able to carry through many important reforms. The vacant bishoprics and parishes were filled, discipline reestablished, and fresh vigor infused into the Frankish Church.
 
A heretic who had been creating much disturbance, one Adalbert of Neustria, was condemned by the synod of Soissons in 744. In 747 another general council of the Frankish clergy drew up a profession of faith and fidelity which was sent to Rome and laid upon the altar in the crypt of St. Peter's. After five years' labor Boniface had succeeded in restoring the Church of Gaul to its former greatness.

Now Boniface desired that Britain too should share in this reform movement. At his request and that of Pope Zacharias, the archbishop of Canterbury held a council at Clovesho, in 747, which adopted many of the resolutions passed in Gaul. This was also the year when Boniface was given a metropolitan see. Cologne was at first proposed as his cathedral city, but Mainz was finally chosen. Even when Cologne and other cities became archiepiscopal sees, Mainz retained the primacy. The Pope also made Boniface primate of Germany as well as apostolic legate for both Germany and Gaul.

Carloman now retired to a monastery, but his successor, Pepin, who brought all Gaul under his control, gave Boniface his support. "Without the patronage of the Frankish chiefs," Boniface wrote in a letter to England, "I cannot govern the people or exercise discipline over the clergy and monks, or check the practice of paganism." As apostolic legate, Boniface crowned Pepin at Soissons in 75I, thus giving papal sanction to the assumption of royal power by the father of Charlemagne. Boniface, beginning to feel the weight of his years, made Lullus his coadjutor. Yet even now, when he was past seventy, his missionary zeal burned ardently. He wished to spend his last years laboring among those first converts in Friesland, who, since Willibrord's death, were relapsing once more into paganism. Leaving all things in order for Lullus, who was to become his successor, he embarked with some fifty companions and sailed down the Rhine. At Utrecht the party was joined by Eoban, bishop of that diocese. They set to work reclaiming the relapsed Christians, and during the following months made fruitful contact with the hitherto untouched tribes to the northeast. Boniface arranged to hold a great confirmation service on Whitsun Eve on the plain of Dokkum, near the banks of the little river Borne.

While awaiting the arrival of the converts, Boniface was quietly reading in his tent.

Suddenly a band of armed pagans appeared in the center of the encampment. His companions would have tried to defend their leader, but Boniface would not allow them to do so. Even as he was telling them to trust in God and welcome the prospect of dying for Him, the Germans attacked. Boniface was one of the first to fall; his companions shared his fate. The pagans, expecting to carry away rich booty, were disgusted when they found, besides provisions, only a box of holy relics and a few books They did not bother to carry away these objects, which were later collected by the Christians who came to avenge the martyrs and rescue their remains. The body of Boniface was carried to Fulda for burial, and there it still rests. The book the bishop was reading and which he is said to have lifted above his head to save it when the blow fell is also one of Fulda's treasures.

Boniface has been called the pro-consul of the papacy. His administrative and organizing genius left its mark on the German Church throughout the Middle Ages.

Though Boniface was primarily a man of action, his literary remains are extensive.

Especially interesting and important from the point of view of Church dogma and history are his letters. Among the emblems of Boniface are an oak, an axe, a sword, a book.

Taken from "Lives of Saints", Published by John J. Crawley & Co., Inc.

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It may also interest you to know that our founder, Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B. took the religious name Boniface because of his great devotion to St. Boniface, apostle of Germany, and Wimmer's home. This is a great book "An American Abbot" about Archabbot Boniface and it can be purchased by clicking here