Author: janeen

Caesarius of Arles was born around 468 in France to Roman parents in the last years of the Western Empire. His sister, Caesaria, to who he called his Rule for Virgins presided over the convent he founded. At the time of his birth, Germanic kings governed Burgundy with little oversight from Rome. Unlike his parents, Caesarius was born with an intense feeling for religion.  This separated him from his family for most of his time Caesarius left home at seventeen and studied under Bishop Sylvester for a few years. Afterwards, he found his way to Lérins, an island monastery, which was known to be a creative force in the Catholic Church in Gaul. After training as a monk at Lérins he read and applied the scripture to improve the quality of Christian life and serve the poor. He was unpopular at Lérins because he withheld food from monks when he felt they weren’t strict enough or weren’t denying themselves enoch.   The abbot Porcarius removed Caesarius from his job and he began starving himself.  The abbot sent him for medical care. After living at Lérins for over a decade his health declined from monastic over-exertion.  Caesarius sought out a different Catholic community in Arles.

The Catholic community he joined brought him back to health. He provided ransom for prisoners and helped the sick and the poor. Caesarius was consecrated as a bishop in 502. He was probably about 33. He asked the laity to ask about points not clear in his sermons. He brought the Divine Office into the local parishes He ordered people to study Holy Scripture at home, and treat the word of God with the same reverence as the sacraments.

As bishop, Caesarius lived in a political world. The aftermath of war in 507/508 was devastating to its citizens. Peasants had no food supply and were in danger of enslavement, exile and death. Although Caesarius saved and ransomed many citizens, He also ransomed many barbarians and enemies. stating they were human beings and had the potential to enter heaven.

Caesarius was a  faithful champion of St. Augustine of Hippo in the early middle ages. Thus Augustine’s writings are seen to have profoundly shaped Caesarius’ vision of human community,

Catholics in the late Roman and Early Medieval West were slow, inconsistent, and incomplete social and religious change. It required the building of churches, conversion of elites, and widespread adoption of Catholic identity with a system of Christian values, practices, and beliefs. The church was constantly struggling against superstitions and pagan practices that were common in communities and among common people Only with the consent and participation of local populations did often contend with pagan practices. 
Caesarius has over 250 surviving sermons. His sermons reveal him as a pastor dedicated to the formation of the clergy and the moral education of the laity. He preached on Christian beliefs, values, and practices against paganism He emphasizes the life of a Christian as well as the love of God, reading the scriptures, asceticism, love for one’s neighbor, and the judgment that would come

The most important local council over which Caesarius presided was the Council of Orange in 529. Its statements on the subject of grace and free agency have been written about  by modern historians (The following propositions are laid down in the Council of Orange’s canon 25:

“This also do we believe, in accordance with the Catholic faith, that after grace received through baptism, all the baptized are able and ought, with the aid and co-operation of Christ, to fulfill all duties needful for salvation, provided they are willing to labor faithfully. But that some men have been predestinated to evil by divine power, we not only do not believe, but if there be those who are willing to believe so evil a thing, we say to them with all abhorrence anathema. This also do we profess and believe to our soul’s health, that in every good work, it is not we who begin, and are afterwards assisted by Divine mercy, but that God Himself, with no preceding merits on our part, first inspires within us faith and love.”

Caesarius’ Regula virginum, also known as the Rule for Virgins, is the first western rule written exclusively for women. He begins his  “Rule” by saying  the virgins for which he was writing this rule were the “gems of the Church” as they, “with God’s help, evade the jaws of spiritual wolves Caesarius argues the complete containment of women in the monastery from their entry until death. Caesarius also created a strict regime for women in the monasteries to adhere to, specifying times for prayer, limits on earthly luxuries such as fine clothes and elaborate decoration, and standards of modesty and piety.  Caesarius was captured and later returned from Bordeaux. After he returned he began to build a monastery for women outside of Arles. The monastery was built for a group of ascetic women living under the spiritual direction of his sister Caesaria.  

When the Franks captured Arles in 536, Caesarius retired to St. John’s Convent. He was revered for his more than forty years of service and for presiding over Church synods and councils, including the Council of Orange in 529. He died on August 27.

Saint Brioc died was a 5th-century Welsh holy man who became the first abbot of Saint-Brieuc in Brittany. He is one of the seven founder saints of Brittany.
He came from Ceredigion where the church was dedicated to him. He received his education in Ireland and he spent time in Scotland. He most likely returned to France early in 431, accompanied by Saint Illtud. 

In 480, he founded a monastery at Landebaeron. He then established an oratory at St Brieuc-des-Vaux, where he became the abbot.

He likely died in 502, in his own monastery at St. Brieuc-des-Vaux.  He is considered the patron saint of purse makers.

Saint Adjutor was born in France on July 24, 1073.  He was a knight in the First Crusade.  Stories are told of how he was captured by Muslims during the First Crusade.  They tried to make him give up his faith.  He refused.   Angels freed Adjutor from his prisoners.  He is said to have thrown Holy water into a whirlpool.  The chains he wore fell into that whirlpool.  He made the sign of the cross and escaped by swimming all the way back to France.  Once there he entered the Abbey of Trio.  He became a recluse and hermit until he died on April 30, 1131.

Hugh was sometimes called Hugh the Great or Hugh of Semur, and was the Abbot of Cluny from 1049 until his death. He was one of the most influential leaders of the monastic orders from the Middle Ages.  Hugh came from the noblest families in Burgundy. He was the oldest son of Seigneur Dalmas I of Semur and Aremberge of Vergy, daughter of Henry I, Duke of Burgundy born May 13, 1024.  His father wanted him to be a knight. But when he was fifteen, he took monastic vows and later became an abbot.
Abbot Hugh built the third abbey church at Cluny.  It was the largest building in Europe for many centuries.  It was funded by Ferdinand I of León. Hugh was the driving force behind the Cluniac monastic movement during the last quarter of the 11th century, which had priories throughout southern France and northern Spain.
Pope Urban II made Hugh one of the most powerful and influential figures of the late 11th century.  He was also the godfather of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV.  He tried to mediate conflict between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV, but he was not successful. He was also diplomat to Germany and Hungary for the church. He died on  April 28, 1109. Many of his relics were pillaged or destroyed by the Huguenots in 1575.

His feast day is April 29.

Saint Vitalis of Milan was an early Christian martyr and saint.  Legend says Vitalis was a wealthy citizen of Milan, maybe a soldier. He was married to Valeria of Milan. They are supposed to have been the parents of Saints Gervasius and Protasius. Vitalis was an officer who went with the judge Paulinus from Milan to Ravenna. He encouraged Saint Ursicinus of Ravenna to be faithful at his execution.  He gave Ursicinus an honorable burial. Vitalis was discovered to be a Christian. Paulinus ordered Vitalis to be racked and then thrown into a deep pit and covered with stones and earth.  He was buried alive. The exact date of his martyrdom is unknown.  Some sources say that he was a victim of Nero, others of Marcus Aurelius. He was martyred in Ravenna

Valeria was from a noble family.  She was baptized at an early age.  Her family was some of the first converts to Christianity in the city of Milan. The reigning Pope commanded the priests of the area to organize nine groups, each consisting of five men and five virgins. Their duty was to gather the corpses of Christians who had been martyred in the Coliseum –  Flavian Amphitheatre –  and other places of martyrdom the day before.  She was martyred for burying Christian martyrs and then refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods.  After terrible tortures, Valeria was beheaded in the Coliseum with several other martyrs. Her remains were gathered by other Christians and were deposited in the Catacombs of Saint Sebastian.

Canon Charles M. Ménard pastor of St. Joseph Church, now Co-Cathedral, in Thibodaux, Louisiana, made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1867, to remember the anniversary of the martyrdom of Saint Peter the Apostle. He wanted to bring back an important relic for the veneration of his parishioners.  He asked to meet with Cardinal Costantino Patrizi Naro. Patrizi had two relics, one of Saint Prosper, as well as part of the arm bone of Saint Valeria. The Cardinal agreed to relinquish the relic of Saint Valeria.  The relic was placed in a pasteboard box and sealed with Cardinal Patrizi’s coat of arms. The relic was then sealed in a waxen statue which represented a young woman. It was dressed in a robe of silk embroidered with gold and a crimson, velvet tunic with gold fringe. It was laid in a coffin-like reliquary of oak and glass from The Netherlands and decorated with gilded copper.  On April 18, 1868, the steamboat Nina Simmes arrived from New Orleans, by way of Bayou Lafourche, with the reliquary of Saint Valeria. It was placed on the altar of St. Joseph Church, with solemn ceremonies attended by more than four thousand people.  Since then, Valeria has been known as the Patroness of Thibodaux and is especially invoked for protection from storms and floods.

On May 25, 1916, a fire began in the sacristy of St. Joseph’s, and within minutes it was realized the church would not be saved. People cried “Save Saint Valérie! Save Saint Valérie!” The reliquary was one of the few objects saved from the fire.  The reliquary was then brought to the Mount Carmel Convent Chapel until the new church was built, where it was installed with due reverence.  The British Museum has a reliquary sometimes misidentified as that of St. Valeria of Milan, but it is actually Valerie of Limoges, a different saint.