Month: April 2022

Pope Anicetus was the bishop of Rome from around 157 to his death in April 168. Anicetus actively opposed Gnosticism and Marcionism. He welcomed Polycarp of Smyrna to Rome to discuss the Easter date controversy.
Anicetus was a Syrian from the city of Emesa, now known as Homs.  According to Irenaeus, it was during his pontificate that the aged Polycarp of Smyrna, a disciple of John the Evangelist, visited Rome to discuss the celebration of Easter with Anicetus. Polycarp and his Church of Smyrna celebrated the crucifixion on the fourteenth day of Nisan, which coincides with Passover regardless of which day of the week upon this date fell, while the Roman Church celebrated Easter on Sunday—the weekday of Jesus’s resurrection. The two did not agree on a common date, but Anicetus conceded to Polycarp and the Church of Smyrna the ability to keep the date they had been using.  The disagreement would get heated in the following centuries. 

Papal records show Anicetus decreed that priests are not allowed to have long hair, perhaps because the Gnostics wore long hair.

According to church tradition, Anicetus suffered martyrdom during the reign of Emperor Lucius Verus, but there are no historical records from this time.  April  16, 17, and 20 April are all cited as the date of his death, but 20 April is currently celebrated as his feast day.

Saint Athanasia of Aegina was a saint who worked in the Byzantine Empire and was an adviser to Empress Theodora II. She served as an abbess and was known for her miraculous healing of the sick and possessed.

St. Athanasia was the daughter of Christian nobles, Niketas and Irene, born around 790.  She wanted a spiritual life, but an imperial law required all single women of marriageable age to marry soldiers. When she was 16 years old, at her parent’s urging, she married a young officer. Sixteen days after her wedding, her husband was killed in a battle with raiding Arabs. She again married, this time to a deeply religious man who wished to become a monk.  He left to do so with her blessing.

St. Athanasia then gave away the bulk of her possessions, converted their home into a convent, and began building churches. She served as an abbess and was known for her miraculous healing of the sick and those seen as possessed. Her community later moved to Timia near the ancient church of Stephen. Crowds flocked to see her. As her fame grew, she moved to Constantinople looking for solitude as an anchoress in a cell for seven years. While walled away, she was an adviser to Empress Theodora II. After seven years, she returned to Aegina where she died of natural causes three days later at Timia on August 14, 860.

Galdino della Sala was born in Milan around 1096,  into the della Sala family which was considered to be minor nobility of the city.

He was a strong supporter of the Roman papacy in the schism that erupted in 1159 after the death of Pope Adrian IV. Pope Alexander III was the Roman candidate, while Antipope Victor IV was supported by Frederick Barbarossa and his cardinals. Galdino’s Milanese church supported Alexander III, and Galdino, as archdeacon of the church, took a very public stand. Frederick came to besiege Milan destroying it within six months.

Galdino joined Alexander III in Genoa and followed him to Maguelonne, Montpellier, and Clermont. He later followed him to Sicily and Rome upon his return in 1165. When Alexander returned to the papacy in 1165, he named Galdino as the Cardinal Priest of the church of Santa Sabina, and a year later made him the Archbishop of Milan. The year after that, Alexander III made Galdino the apostolic legate for Lombardy.

When the Lombard League expelled Barbarossa, Galdino took possession of his diocese and began deposing any Lombard priests who were faithful to Victor IV. He consecrated new bishops at Lodi, Alba, Cremona, Vercelli, Asti, Turin, Novara, Brescia, and Alessandria.

On April 18, 1176, Galdino della Sala died in his pulpit, having just completed a sermon against the Cathars, who were seen by orthodox Catholics as ‘heretics’.

Pope Alexander III canonized Galdino as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church during his pontificate.

Robert de Turlande was a French Roman Catholic priest and a member of the Order of Saint Benedict. He was related to Saint Gerald of Aurillac. He is known for the Benedictine convent of La Chaise-Dieu (‘Home of God’) and for his commitment to the poor.

He became a spiritual inspiration for Pope Clement VI, whose religious life was based at that convent. Robert de Turlande was born in 1000 as the last child of the nobles Géraud de Turlande and Raingarde His mother went into labor while in the forests near the castle she lived in and so gave birth to him there, this was seen as a sign he would become a hermit. Robert was educated through the Church of Saint-Julien in Brioude where he later became its canon.  He was ordained to the priesthood in 1026,  At the Church of Saint-Julien in Brioude, he founded a hospice for the poor.  He later became a monk at Cluny and placed himself under the direction of Odilo of Cluny.

He traveled to Rome and the Papal States to learn about the rule of Benedict of Nursia who established the Benedictines. On December 28, 1043, with the knights Stephen Chaliers and Dalmas, he traveled to a vacant area of land around a ruined chapel that was to become his future Benedictine convent.

In 1046 he and two of his companions received the permission of Pope Gregory VI to establish a hermitage and begin a life of commitment to the poor. Gregory VI suggested the trio consider the contemplative life as a greater method of achieving their aim of providing for the poor.  This made him to move to Auvergne. He was credited with the construction and restoration of around a total of 50 churches in his region.Around 1049, he had enough followers to use donations from the faithful given to him to construct a new Benedictine convent.  Construction began in 1049 and finished in 1050. The convent received the blessing of the Bishop of Clermont. He then asked King Henry I and requested protection and approval for the new convent.
Robert de Turlande died on April 17, 1067.  His funeral was set for April 24, because of the large number of people who wanted to attend. Hundreds of miracles were reported to have been performed due to his intercession.  There were 300 monks at the convent at the time of his death.
On September 19, 1351, he was proclaimed a saint in a celebration that Pope Clement VI presided over in Avignon.

During the Age of Enlightenment, parishes and monasteries were well managed and people were devout. Many people were educated. However, the French Revolution was just around the corner. Violence seemed inevitable. 

Benedict Joseph Labre was born March 26, 1748, in a small village in northwest France. He studied under his uncle to become a priest. He was the oldest of 15 children. His parents wanted him to stay nearby, but when he was 18 he got consent from his parent to go to a Trappist monastery. 

This was a long series of disappointments. Benedict felt he was called to a minimalist form of religious life. There were always conflicts that kept Benedict from this kind of life. God did not want Benedict to live that kind of life. 

He feels like he has failed. God finally revealed what was wanted from him. Benedict was ready for God’s will. He never returned home. He abandoned his country, and his parents and lived like a hermit. He carried only a few religious books, no food, and no extra clothing. He slept on the ground, usually in the open air, but occasionally in a barn or shed. He ate bits of bread and scraps of vegetables either given to him by charity or taken from a garbage heap. He never accepted the money. He gave away everything that he did not need to the poor. 

People asked who was the beggar, who would accept no money? Who was this ragged man who read Latin? People who met him wondered and thought he was someone important.

God knew men were entering a time of individualism. Benedict told people to turn away from their foolish ways. Benedict never made speeches. He was an example of being about God’s will.

Two years before the French Revolution Benedict Joseph Labre collapsed on the steps of a church in Rome. He died there of malnutrition and exhaustion on April 16, 1783, during Holy Week, and was buried in the Church of Santa Maria ai Monti.