VATICAN: POPE: RECEIVES STUDENTS OF TERESIANUM
EUROPE: ENGLAND: CARDINALS CALL FOR END OF SUCCESSION LAW- BANNING CATHOLICS ON THRONE
TODAY'S SAINT: MAY 19: ST. CRISPIN OF VITERBO
TODAY'S SAINT: ST. CELESTINE V: POPE
"TERESIANUM" OF ROME CELEBRATES 75TH ANNIVERSARY
VATICAN CITY, 19 MAY 2011 (VIS) - This afternoon the Holy Father received students of the "Teresianum" Pontifical Theology Faculty of Rome on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the foundation of their faculty.
Referring to the academic institution's Carmelite spirituality, the Pope highlighted the "vast movement of renewal that began in the Church as the fruit of the witness of St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John of the Cross. It aroused that resurgence of ideals and fervor of contemplative life that in the 1500s enflamed, so to speak, Europe and the entire world". (IMAGE SOURCE: RADIO VATICANA)
Addressing the students, Benedict XVI emphasized that "your work of anthropological and theological research is also situated in the wake of this influence, the task of penetrating the mystery of Christ, with intelligence of the heart, which is in turn a knowing and a loving. This demands that Jesus be located at the center of everything, of your feelings and thoughts, of your prayer, study, and work, of your entire life".
"Be aware", he continued, "that these years of study are a precious gift of Divine Providence, a gift that should be embraced with faith and diligently lived as an unrepeatable opportunity to grow in the knowledge of the mystery of Christ".
The Pope noted that "in today's context, an in-depth study of Christian spirituality is very important upon which to base your anthropological presuppositions. The specific preparation that it provides is certainly important because it makes one adapt for and capable of teaching this discipline, but it is an even greater grace for the wise cultural background that it brings with it for the delicate task of spiritual direction".
While recalling that "the Church continues to recommend the practice of spiritual direction", the Holy Father asserted that "each person, and in particular those who have welcomed God's call to follow Him more closely, need to be personally accompanied by a guide who is sure in the doctrine and expert in the things of God; a guide who can help protect against simple subjectivism, making available their own wealth of knowledge and lived experience in following Jesus".
The Holy Father asked the students to make the most of what they have learned in these years of study "to accompany those whom Divine Providence entrusts to you, helping them discern the spirits and follow the movements of the Holy Spirit, with the goal of leading them to the fullness of grace".
Commenting on the fact of their meeting in Rome, Benedict XVI encouraged the students "to open yourselves to the universal dimension of the Church, ... to 'sentire cum Ecclesia', in profound harmony with the Successor of Peter" and urged them "to love and serve the Church every day with a greater and more passionate ability".
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YOUTH, PROTAGONISTS OF 45TH WORLD DAY OF PEACE
VATICAN CITY, 19 MAY 2011 (VIS) - According to a communique issued today by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, "Educating Young People in Justice and Peace" is the theme that Benedict XVI has chosen for the 45th World Day of Peace this coming 1 January, 2012.
"The theme", reads the text, "engages an urgent need in the world today: to listen to and enhance the important role of new generations in the realization of the common good, and in the affirmation of a just and peaceful social order where fundamental human rights can be fully expressed and realized".
"In fact, there is a duty incumbent upon the present generation to prepare future ones, and creating for them the conditions that will allow these future generations to express freely and responsibly the urgency for a 'new world'. The Church welcomes young people and sees them as the sign of an ever promising springtime, and holds out Jesus to them as the model of love who 'makes all things new'".
"Those responsible for public policy are called to work for the creation of institutions, laws, and environments of life that are permeated by a transcendent humanism that offers new generations opportunities to fully realize themselves (e.g. decent job, education etc.) and to build a civilization of fraternal love directed toward a more profound awareness of truth, freedom, of love, and of justice for all persons".
"This, then, is the prophetic dimension of the theme chosen by the Holy Father in the path of the 'pedagogy of peace' indicated by John Paul II in 1985 ('Peace and Youth Go Forward Together'), in 1979 ('To Reach Peace, Teach Peace'), and in 2004 ('An Ever Timely Commitment: Teaching Peace')".
"Young persons must labor for justice and peace in a complex and globalized world. It is therefore necessary to establish a new 'pedagogical alliance' among all those responsible for the education and formation of young people. The theme indicates an important area of concern in the teaching of Benedict XVI in his Messages for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace, beginning with the need for the truth (2006: 'In Truth, Peace'), followed with the reflections on human dignity (2007: 'The Human Person: The Heart of Peace'), on the human family (2008: The Human Family: A Community of Peace'), on poverty (2009: 'Fighting Poverty to Build Peace'), on the care for creation (2010: 'If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation'), on religious freedom (2011: 'Religious Freedom: The Path to Peace), and now talking to the minds and beating hearts of young people: 'Educating Young People in Justice and Peace'".
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CARDINAL SARDI TO TAKE POSSESSION OF DIACONATE CHURCH
VATICAN CITY, 19 MAY 2011 (VIS) - Today the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff announced that on Tuesday, 24 May, at 6:15pm, Cardinal Paolo Sardi, patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, will take possession of the diaconate of Santa Maria Ausiliatrice in Via Tuscolana at Piazza di Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, 54.
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VATICAN CITY, 19 MAY 2011 (VIS) - Today, in separate audiences, the Holy Father received eight prelates from the Bishops' Conference of India on their ad limina visit:
- Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi, India with Auxiliary Bishop Binay Kandulna,
- Bishop William D'Souza of Patna,
- Bishop Gabriel Kujur of Daltonganj,
- Bishop Julius Marandi of Dumka,
- Bishop Paul Alois Lakra of Gumla,
- Bishop Charles Soreng of Hazaribag, and
- Bishop Felix Toppo of Jamshedpur.
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VATICAN CITY, 19 MAY 2011 (VIS) - Today the Holy Father appointed as consultors of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization: Msgr. Fernando Ocariz, vicar general of Opus Dei; Fr. Pascual Chavez Villanueva, rector major of the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco and president of the Union of Superiors General; Fr. Julian Carron, president of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation and ecclesiastical assistant to the Association "Memores Domini"; Fr. Francois-Xavier Dumortier, S.J., rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome; Fr. Pierangelo Sequeri, vice rector and professor of Fundamental Theology at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy and lecturer in Aesthetics of the Holy at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brera, Milan; Sr. Sara Butler, M.S.B.T., professor of dogmatic theology at St. Joseph's Seminary in New York; Sr. Mary Lou Wirtz, F.C.J.M., general superior of the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and president of the Union of Superior Generals (UISG); Dr. Chiara Amirante, founder and president of the New Horizons Association of the diocese of Anagni-Alatri, Italy; Mr. Kiko Arguello, a co-initiator of the Neo-Catechumenal Way; Prof. Lucetta Scaraffia, professor of contemporary history in the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy at "La Sapienza" University in Rome.
Today the Holy Father appointed Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany, as special envoy to the celebrations for the 350th anniversary of the Marian Sanctuary in Werl (Archdiocese of Paderborn) that will take place on 2 July 2011.
EUROPE: ENGLAND: CARDINALS CALL FOR END OF SUCCESSION LAW- BANNING CATHOLICS ON THRONE
Cardinal George Pell of Sydney is backing calls to scrap the 310 year-old law banning Catholics from the British throne.
“I would welcome a change,” the Australian cardinal told CNA.
Just a few weeks ago the manager of the predominantly Catholic-supported soccer club, Glasgow Celtic was assaulted during a match by an opposing supporter and sent a parcel bomb in the mail. Arrests have followed each incident.
Meanwhile, Cardinal O’Brien has revealed that he received a bullet in the mail prior to the September 2010 papal visit to Scotland.
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has said that “in principle” he supports reforming the law on royal succession to allow Catholics to become king or queen or marrying the heir to the throne. However, he also says the decision would have to be approved by all Commonwealth countries – hence the significance of Cardinal Pell’s opinion.
“I would welcome a change. It is not a first order issue, and there is no great urgency about it, but I anticipate that the law will be changed at some time,” the Australian archbishop said.
“It would certainly be welcomed in Australia.”
At present, there is no similar prohibition on the British royal family marrying members of other faiths such as Islam or Judaism, or those who profess to be agnostic or atheist.
The Act was originally passed to prevent the descendants of the Catholic King James II from ascending the throne. He was deposed in the 1688 "glorious revolution" by supporters of the Protestant William and Mary. Mary was the eldest Protestant daughter of James II and was married to William of Orange, who later became William III.
In recent years, the Act has effected several members of the British royal family.
In 2001, Lord Nicholas Windsor, the youngest son of the Duke and Duchess of Kent, permanently forfeited his right to the royal succession by converting to Catholicism.
In 2008, Autumn Kelly, the Canadian fiancee of the Queen's grandson Peter Philips, converted from Catholicism to Anglicanism, thus preserving her husband's chances of becoming king.
Today’s news coincides with Queen Elizabeth making the first trip to Ireland by a reigning U.K. monarch to predominately Catholic Ireland since it gained independence in 1922.
AMERICA: CANADA: DEATH OF BISHOP EMERITUS GRATTON- AGE 86
CCCB REPORT: The Most Reverend Jean Gratton, Bishop Emeritus of Mont-Laurier, died on Thursday, April 14, 2011, at the age of 86. Born in Wendover, Ontario, Bishop Gratton had been ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Ottawa, April 27, 1952. He had been the Bishop of Mont-Laurier from 1978 to 2001.
His funeral is being held on April 26 at 2:00 pm, at the Cathedral of Mont-Laurier.
AUSTRALIA: PRAYERS NEEDED FOR SCOTT RUSH IN INDONESIA
CATH NEWS REPORT: The former parish priest of Scott Rush, the Australian who has been spared the death sentence in Indonesia, has urged for prayer and support for him, saying it is needed "now more than ever", reports the Catholic Leader.
"The court decision is the end of one struggle and the beginning of another," Fr Harris said. "Scott's sentence still continues in that cell that has housed him for the past six or so years. Ideally Scott should serve the remainder of his term in Australia."Father Tim Harris made the appeal after receiving news that Scott's death sentence had been reduced to life imprisonment by the Indonesian Supreme Court. He was arrested at Bali's Denpasar Airport in April 2005 along with eight other Australians, and charged with heroin smuggling.
Fr Harris' call was echoed by Scott's father Lee Rush and Brisbane's Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (CJPC) executive officer Peter Arndt.
Mr Rush, in a statement to be released to The Catholic Leader, said "although Scott will escape execution, there is still a long way to go ... to have all brought back to Australian shores where their detainment should have taken place".
Mr Arndt, who has organised Good Friday vigils and monthly prayer vigils for Scott and the other two Bali Nine Australians on death row in Indonesia, said "we are, of course, happy that Scott Rush will not have to worry about facing a firing squad any more, but life in prison in Bali is still a dreadful prospect".
ASIA: PHILIPPINES: AQUINO ASKS CHURCH TO WORK WITH GOVERNEMENT
President Benigno Aquino yesterday urged the Catholic Church to work with his government on issues they “agree” on rather than engage in heated discussions over the controversialreproductive health (RH) bill now being debated in Congress.
“I urge the Church to work with us instead on the many areas where we do agree: poverty alleviation, peace and order, and perhaps, even responsible mining. Let us work together,” Aquino said.
Addressing the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) , he said the issue of legislated provisions for the reproductive health of women “does not have to be as divisive as it has become.”
In arguing for a reproductive health law, Aquino said he would not forget the boy he saw in a hospital in Manila on Tuesdayand the girl who already has two young children at the age of 16.
“I got the feeling that simply, from a simple lack of resources, this little kid probably had already lost his childhood,” he said.
On the teenage mother, he said she is supposed to be attending proms and studying for college entrance exams.
“[Instead,] she is already facing the challenge of raising two children. She went from childhood to motherhood with no decent high school education. Who is responsible for this? What brought about this situation?” Aquino said.
“This is why it is important for us to talk about responsible parenthood. We need legislation that prevents this tragedy from happening,” he added.
He said his administration had worked with the Catholic Church before, citing discussions on how to address the social concerns of the Basic Ecclesial Communities, for instance.
“Other than the RH, [they] have raised the issues about flooding, deforestation and crime, which my administration has addressed,” he said.
He declined to further comment on the bill and the discussions in the house of representatives.
http://www.ucanews.com/2011/05/19/drop-birth-control-focus-aquino-says/
AFRICA: BURKINA FASO: WOMEN ASK FOR NATIONAL DIALOGUE TO END VIOLENCE
In recent months, several groups of police and military units rebelled, going down the streets of the capital and other cities across the country, shooting in the air and looting shops (see Fides 15 and 16 April 2011). In turn, shopkeepers have staged demonstrations to denounce the abuses of members of the police and the military (see Fides 18 April 2011).
At the base of the protests, there are wage war reasons. Even operators of the national telephone company (the Office National des télécommunications, Onatel) had announced earlier this week a strike, blocking the telephone and Internet connections, to ask for a pay rise.
TODAY'S SAINT: MAY 19: ST. CRISPIN OF VITERBO
St. Crispin of Viterbo
FRANCISCAN LAY BROTHER
Feast: May 19
| Friar Minor Capuchin; b. at Viterbo in 1668; d. at Rome, 19 May, 1750. When he was five years old, his pious mother took him to a sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin, a short distance from Viterbo, where she consecrated him to the Mother of God and placed him under her special protection. The child grew beyond his years in virtue and science of the saints; so that the townsfold of Viterbo were wont to call him il Santarello, the little saint. As Crispin one day saw the Capuchin novices walking in procession, God inspired him with the desire to embrace the religious life. He was shortly afterwards received into the Franciscan Order as a simple lay brother. Having been employed for some time as cook in the convent at Viterbo, he was sent to Tolfa, a town not far distant from Civita Becchia, to fulfil the same office. Thence he was sent to Rome and finally to Albano. Here Crispin was visited by the men of the world, by bishops and cardinals, and even by the pope himself, who always took delight in conversing with the humble lay brother. It was Crispin's constant endeavour to imitate the virtues of his patron, St. Felix of Cantalice, whom he had chosen as his model of perfection at the beginning of his religious life. Like St. Felix, he used to call himself the ass or beat of burden of the Capuchins, and, having on one occasion been asked by a stranger why he went bare-headed, Crispin answered jocosely, that "an ass does not wear a hat." Enfeebled by old age and by his numerous austerities, he was sent to Rome by his superiors, there to end his holy life. His body, which even at the present time is still in a remarkable state of preservation, rests under one of the side altars in the church of the Capuchin Fathers in Rome. Blessed Crispin was solemnly beatified by Pope Pius VII in 1806. His feat is celebrated only by the Capuchins. |
SOURCE: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/C/stcrispinofviterbo.asp#ixzz1MqM0Tz8c
TODAY'S SAINT: ST. CELESTINE V: POPE
St. Celestine V
POPE
Feast: May 19
| Humility raised this saint above the world, and preserved his soul free from its poison, both amidst its flatteries and under its frowns. He was born in Apulia about the year 1221. His parents were very virtuous, and charitable to the poor to the uttermost of their abilities. After his father's death, his mother, though she had eleven other sons, seeing his extraordinary inclination to piety, provided him with a literary education. His progress gave his friends great expectations; but he always considered that he had only one affair in this world, and that an affair of infinite importance, the salvation of his soul: that no security can be too great where an eternity is at stake: moreover, that the way to life is strait, the account which we are to give of all our actions and thoughts most rigorous, the judge infinitely just, and the issue either sovereign happiness or sovereign misery. He therefore made the means, by which he might best secure to himself that bliss for which alone he was created, his constant study. An eremitical state is only the vocation of souls, which are already perfect in the exercises of penance and contemplation. Peter had made the practice of both familiar to him from his tender years; and by a long noviceship was qualified for such a state, to which he found himself strongly inclined. Therefore at twenty years of age he left the schools, and retired to a solitary mountain, where he made himself a little cell under ground, but so small that he could scarce stand or lie down in it. Here he lived three years in great austerities, during which he was often assailed by violent temptations; but these he overcame by the help of such practices and austerities as the grace of God suggested to him. Notwithstanding the care he took to sequester himself from the world, he was discovered, and some time after compelled to enter into holy orders. He was ordained priest at Rome; but in 1246 returned into Abruzzo, and lived five years in a cave on mount Morroni, near Sulmona. He received great favors from heaven, the usual recompense of contemplative souls who have crucified their affections to this world: but then they are purchased through severe interior trials; and with such Peter was frequently visited. He was also molested with nocturnal illusions during his sleep, by which he was almost driven to despair, insomuch that he durst not say mass, and once determined to abandon his solitude; but was encouraged by the advice of a religious man, his confessor, who assured him that it was no more than a stratagem of the enemy, by which he could not be hurt if he despised it. For further satisfaction, he determined to go to Rome to consult the pope on that subject, and received great comfort by a vision he was favored with on the road; a certain holy abbot lately deceased appearing to him, who gave him the same counsel, and ordered him to return to his cell and offer every day the holy sacrifice, which he accordingly did. The wood on his mountain being cut down in 1251, he with two companions removed to mount Magella. There, with the boughs of trees and thorns, these three servants of God made themselves a little enclosure and cells, in which they enjoyed more solid pleasure than the great ones of the world can find in their stately palaces and gardens. The devil sometimes endeavored to disturb them; but they triumphed over his assaults. Many others were desirous to put themselves under his direction; but the saint alleged his incapacity to direct others. However, his humility was at length overcome, and he admitted those who seemed the most fervent. Peter spent always the greatest part of the night in prayer and tears which he did not interrupt, while he was employed in the day in corporal labor or in copying books. His body he always treated as a most dangerous domestic enemy. He never ate flesh; he fasted every day except Sunday. He kept four lents in the year, during three of which, and on all Fridays, he took nothing but bread and water, unless it were a few cabbage leaves in lieu of bread. The bread which he used was so hard, that it could only be chopped in pieces. His austerities were excessive, till he was admonished in a vision not to destroy that body which his duty to God required him to support. If the Holy Ghost sometimes conducted the saints by extraordinary paths, we must learn from their fervor the condemnation of our sloth, who dare undertake nothing for the sake of virtue, and who shrink often under indispensable duties. St. Peter wore a shirt of horse-hair full of knots, and a chain of iron about his waist. He lay on the ground, or on a board, with a stone or log of wood for a pillow. It was his chiefest care always to nourish his soul with heavenly contemplation and prayer; yet he did not refuse to others the comfort of his spiritual succors. He gave advice, except on Wednesdays and Fridays, and during his rents, which he passed in inviolable silence. Finding his solitude too much disturbed, he went with some of his disciples to a cavern which was almost inaccessible on the top of mount Magella. This did but increase the ardor of others to pursue him. Wherefore he returned to mount Morroni, where many lived in scattered cells under his direction, till he assembled them in a monastery; and in 1271 obtained of pope Gregory X. the approbation of his religious order, under the rule of St. Bennet, which he restored to its primitive severity. The saint lived to see thirty-six monasteries, and six hundred monks and nuns; and this institute has been since propagated over all Europe, but is at present much mitigated. Upon the death of Nicholas IV. the see of Rome continued vacant two years and three months, when the cardinals assembled at Perugia unanimously chose our saint for his successor, out of pure regard for his eminent sanctity. This election, on account of its disinterestedness, met with a general applause, and the saint seemed the only person afflicted on the occasion. He was indeed alarmed beyond measure at the news; and finding all the reasons he could allege for his declining the charge ineffectual, betook himself to flight in company with Robert, one of his monks, but was intercepted. He would gladly have engaged Robert still to attend him, but the good monk excused himself by an answer worthy of a disciple of the saint: "Compel me not," says he, "to throw myself upon your thorns. I am the companion of your flight, not of your exaltation." Peter thereupon dropped his request, and sighing before God, returned to Morroni, where the kings of Hungary and Naples, besides many cardinals and princes, waited for him. Thence he proceeded to the neighboring cathedral of Aquila, to be ordained bishop of Rome, being accompanied by the two kings, and an incredible number of princes and others; yet could not be prevailed upon to travel any other way than riding on an ass: he even thought it a great deal that he did not go on foot, as he desired to do. He was consecrated and crowned at Aquila on the 29th of August, taking the name of Celestine V., from an allusion to the Latin name of heaven, where he always dwelt in his heart: his monks have been distinguished by the name of Celestines ever since. Charles, king of Naples, persuaded him to go with him to his capital, to regulate certain ecclesiastical affairs of that kingdom, and to fill the vacant benefices. The new pope disgusted many of the cardinals by employing strangers in the conducting matters, the care of which had been usually intrusted to them. He was sometimes led by others into mistakes, which gave occasion to complaints, and increased his own scruples for having taken upon him so great a charge, to which he found himself unequal; especially on account of his want of experience in the world, and his not having studied the canon law. He continued his former austerities, and built himself a cell of boards in the midst of his palace, where he lived in solitude amidst the crowds which surrounded him, humble on the pinnacle of honor, and poor in the midst of riches. He shut himself up to spend the Advent in retirement, that he might prepare himself for Christmas, having committed the care of the church to three cardinals. This again was an occasion of fresh scruples, when he reflected that a pastor is bound himself to a personal attendance on the duties of his charge. These fears of conscience, the weight of his dignity, which he felt every day more and more insupportable, and the desire of enjoying himself in solitude, moved him at length to deliberate whether he might not resign his dignity. He consulted cardinal Benedict Cajetan, a person the best skilled in the canon law, and others, who agreed in their advice, that it was in the power of a pope to abdicate. When this became public, many vigorously opposed the motion; but no solicitations or motives could make the holy man alter his resolution. Wherefore, some days after, he held at Naples a consistory of the cardinals, at which the king of Naples and many others were present: before them he read the solemn act of his abdication, then laid aside his pontifical robes and ornaments, put on his religious habit, came down from his throne, and cast himself at the feet of the assembly, begging pardon for his faults, and exhorting the cardinals to repair them in the best manner they were able, by choosing a worthy successor to St. Peter. Thus, having sat in the chair four months, he abdicated the supreme dignity in the church, on the 13th of December, 1294, with greater joy than the most ambitious man could mount the throne of the richest empire in the world. This the cheerfulness of his countenance evidenced, no less than his words. Cardinal Benedict Cajetan, the ablest civilian and canonist of his age, was chosen in his place, and crowned at Rome on the 16th of January following. Men, as it usually happens on such occasions, were divided in their sentiments with regard to this extraordinary action, of which we see a specimen in the writings of those great men who in that age began to restore at Florence the true taste of polite literature. Dante, who has stained his reputation with many blots in his moral and civil conduct, and his works with many falsities and unjust prepossessions, ascribes this cession of Celestine to pusillanimity. But this base censure is justly chastised by his country man Petrarch, who passed his unjust and glorious banishment at Vaucluse near Avignon, respected by the whole world, till he was courted by his fellow-citizens to honor his native country again with his presence, though he preferred to it a retirement to Papua. This great man, speaking of the abdication of our holy pope, says: "This action I call a sublime and heavenly fortitude, which he only possesses who knows the emptiness of all worldly dignities. The contempt of honors arises from a heroic courage, not from a want of that virtue; as the desire of them shows that a soul raiseth not herself above herself." St. Celestine immediately stole away privately to his monastery of the Holy Ghost, at Morroni. But several who were offended at some acts of justice and necessary severity in the new pope, raised various reports, as if he had by ambition and fraud supplanted Celestine: others advanced that a pope could not resign his dignity. Boniface, moreover, was alarmed at the multitudes which resorted to Morroni to see Celestine, on account of the great reputation of his sanctity; and fearing he might be made a handle of by designing men, the consequence whereof might be some disturbance in the church, he entreated the king of Naples to send him to Rome. The saint, seeing that he could not be permitted to return to his cell, betook himself to flight, and put to sea, with a view to cross the Adriatic gulf; but was driven back by contrary winds into the harbor of Vieste, where he was secured by the governor, pursuant to an order of the king of Naples, and conducted to pope Boniface at Anagni. Boniface kept him some time in his own palace, often discoursing with him, that he might discover if he had ever consented to those that called his abdication null and invalid. The saint's unfeigned simplicity bearing evidence to the contrary, many advised the pope to set him at liberty, and send him to his monastery. But Boniface, alleging the danger of tumults and of a schism, confined him in the citadel of Fumone, nine miles from Anagni, under a guard of soldiers. The authors of the life of the saint say, that he there suffered many insults and hardships, which yet never drew from his mouth the least word of complaint. On the contrary, he sent word to Boniface, by two cardinals who came to see him, that he was content with his condition, and desired no other. He used to say, with wonderful tranquillity: "I desired nothing in the world but a cell; and a cell they have given me." He sang the divine praises almost without interruption, with two of his monks who were assigned him for his companions. On Whit-Sunday, in 1296, after he had heard mass with extraordinary fervor, he told his guards that he should die before the end of the week. He immediately sickened of a fever, and received extreme unction. Even in that dying condition he would never suffer a little straw to be strewed on the hard boards upon which he always lay, and prayed without interruption. On Saturday, the 19th of May, finishing the last psalm of lauds at those words, Let every spirit praise the Lord, he calmly closed his eyes to this world, and his soul passed to the company of the angels, he being seventy-five years old. During his ten months' imprisonment he never abated any thing of his ordinary austerities. Pope Boniface, with all the cardinals, performed his funeral obsequies at St. Peter's. His body was sumptuously buried at Ferentino; but was afterwards translated to Aquila, and is kept in the church of the Celestines near that city. Many miracles are authentically recorded of him, and he was canonized by Clement V., in 1313. Boniface fell into great calamities. Philip the Fair, Icing of France, who was his declared enemy, sent a body of troops, under the command of William Noggret, to support the conspiracy of Stephen and Chiarra Colonna against him, by whom he was made prisoner at Anagni. After much ill-treatment, he was rescued out of their hands by the Ursini from Rome; but died soon after of grief, in 1303. |
source: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/C/stcelestinev.asp#ixzz1MqLnlEoT
