| SPECIAL ENVOY FOR 475TH ANNIVERSARY OF FIRST DIOCESE IN SOUTH AMERICA Vatican City, 18 October 2012 (VIS) - Made public today was a letter, written in Latin and dated 3 October, in which the Holy Father appoints Cardinal Raul Eduardo Vela Chiriboga, archbishop emeritus of Quito, Ecuador, as his special papal envoy to celebrations marking the 475th anniversary of the first diocese of South America, now the archdiocese of Cuzco, Peru, due to take place from 24 to 28 October. In his letter the Pope recalls that the celebrations will coincide with the International Marian Eucharistic Congress and, quoting from Blessed John Paul II's Encyclical "Ecclesia de Eucharistia", he notes that "Mary can guide us towards this most holy Sacrament, because she herself has a profound relationship with it". |
| LETTERS OF CREDENCE OF HAITIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE HOLY SEE Vatican City, 18 October 2012 (VIS) - Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States, today received the Letters of Credence of Carl-Henri Guiteau, as ambassador of Haiti to the Holy See. On 6 July 2009, Mr Guiteau presented his Letters of Credence to the Holy Father, as envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Haiti to the Holy See. |
| OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS Vatican City, 18 October 2012 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed: - Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin C.SS.R., secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, as archbishop of Indianapolis (area 35,768, population 2,595,000, Catholics 246,000, priests 236, religious 715), U.S.A. - Fr. Paul Terrio of the clergy of the archdiocese of Edmonton, Canada, pastor of Holy Trinity parish in Villeneuve and archdiocesan director for vocations, as bishop of Saint Paul in Alberta (area 155,916, population 131,500, Catholics 57,635, priests 30, permanent deacons 10, religious 29), Canada. The bishop-elect was born in Montreal, Canada in 1943 and ordained a priest in 1970. He has worked in pastoral care in a number of parishes, as professor at Montreal College and as formator at the Saint Joseph Seminary of Edmonton. |
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EUROPE : DIOCESE GIVES OUT 40000 CARDS - CROSSES FOR YEAR OF FAITH
IND. CATH. NEWS REPORT
In preparation for the Mass, volunteers had prepared 40,000 lapel crosses and prayer cards. After the congregation had renewed their baptismal promises, crosses were distributed to representatives from the 180 parishes in the diocese who later collected packs of crosses and booklets containing information about events in the Year of Faith to take back to their communities.
In his homily, Bishop Séamus referred to the well-loved Northern Saints whose relationship with Christ had inspired them so powerfully to share it with others. Recalling the priests and religious who had taken the faith out into the wider world in his youth, the Bishop spoke of the changed emphasis drawn from the Second Vatican Council that clergy, religious and lay people now shared that responsibility. In fact, he pointed out, “lay people have a special vocation – they are now the ones mainly responsible for evangelising – that is to introduce people to the love and goodness of God who is at work in their lives and ours – to touch the world with our lives and transform it.”
Placing the Year under the patronage of Mary, the Bishop echoed the prayer in Ephesians, that God would give power for people’s hidden selves to grow strong and that, knowing the love of Christ, they would, with him, give glory to God “whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine."
The event was one of great beauty and joy and, even though many had found standing room only, the Mass ended with a sense of excitement and common purpose to make the most of the possibilities opened up by the Year of Faith. In the words of a young person who attended: “We got totally lost in the one-way system and ended up just looking for a church with its lights on – but I am so glad we made it! It was amazing to see so many people – brilliant!”
Download Bishop Cunningham’s homily: http://catholicnews.org.uk/Home/News-Releases/Year-of-Faith-Mass
|
Around 700 people joined Bishop Séamus Cunningham, Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, for a special Mass at St Benet’s RC Church in Sunderland on Thursday 11 October to launch the Year of Faith which Pope Benedict XVI has called to mark the 50th anniversary of the start of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
In preparation for the Mass, volunteers had prepared 40,000 lapel crosses and prayer cards. After the congregation had renewed their baptismal promises, crosses were distributed to representatives from the 180 parishes in the diocese who later collected packs of crosses and booklets containing information about events in the Year of Faith to take back to their communities.
In his homily, Bishop Séamus referred to the well-loved Northern Saints whose relationship with Christ had inspired them so powerfully to share it with others. Recalling the priests and religious who had taken the faith out into the wider world in his youth, the Bishop spoke of the changed emphasis drawn from the Second Vatican Council that clergy, religious and lay people now shared that responsibility. In fact, he pointed out, “lay people have a special vocation – they are now the ones mainly responsible for evangelising – that is to introduce people to the love and goodness of God who is at work in their lives and ours – to touch the world with our lives and transform it.”
Placing the Year under the patronage of Mary, the Bishop echoed the prayer in Ephesians, that God would give power for people’s hidden selves to grow strong and that, knowing the love of Christ, they would, with him, give glory to God “whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine."
The event was one of great beauty and joy and, even though many had found standing room only, the Mass ended with a sense of excitement and common purpose to make the most of the possibilities opened up by the Year of Faith. In the words of a young person who attended: “We got totally lost in the one-way system and ended up just looking for a church with its lights on – but I am so glad we made it! It was amazing to see so many people – brilliant!”
Download Bishop Cunningham’s homily: http://catholicnews.org.uk/Home/News-Releases/Year-of-Faith-Mass
SHARED FROM IND. CATH. NEWS
AUSTRALIA : NEW BISHOP OF BALLARAT
ARCHDIOCESE OF MELBOURNE
Fr Bird ordained as the eighth Bishop of Ballarat
Thursday 18 October 2012
IN a joyful ceremony at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat on Tuesday 16 October 2012, Fr Paul Bird CSsR was ordained as the eighth Bishop of the Diocese of Ballarat. His Grace Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne was the Principal Consecrator with Co-consecrators Most Rev Peter Connors, Bishop Emeritus of Ballarat and Most Rev Les Tomlinson, Bishop of Sandhurst. Concelebrating were 30 Bishops and 100 priests. The cathedral was filled to capacity and another large group of people watched the event live on a big screen in the adjacent St. Patrick’s Hall.
Addressing the people at the end of the Mass, Bishop Bird commented: “My appointment as bishop of Ballarat was announced on 1 August, the feast of St Alphonsus Liguori, the founder of the Redemptorists. Today is the feast of another Redemptorist saint, Gerard Majella. I feel a great sense of support in the prayers of these saintly confreres who have gone before us.” Witnessing the Ordination were many Redemptorists, both religious and lay, who had travelled from around Australia and overseas to be in Ballarat with their recently retired Province Leader as he became Bishop.
The music of the Ordination Mass was under the musical direction of Mr Roger Hillman, Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts at Australian Catholic University, Ballarat, with choir and instrumentalists assembled especially for the occasion. Fittingly the sung parts of the Mass were from the Mass of St. Alphonsus, composed by the new Bishop himself in preparation for the introduction of the new translation of the Roman Missal.
In a deeply moving moment, Bishop Connors, who retires after 15 years of service as Bishop of Ballarat, handed the crozier to Bishop Bird. Together they walked around the Cathedral as Bishop Bird blessed all who were there.
In his address, Bishop Bird said: “When Jesus met his disciples after his resurrection, he said to them: ‘Peace be with you.’ I have chosen these words of Christ as my motto as bishop. I hope my ministry will foster the peace of Christ – the kind of peace that is built on justice and crowned by love. I pray that each one of you might be blessed with this peace. I pray that each person and each parish in this diocese might know this peace of Christ. I pray that each person in our troubled world might come to know such peace in their hearts and in their communities.”
Photos by Trav Munro
IN a joyful ceremony at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat on Tuesday 16 October 2012, Fr Paul Bird CSsR was ordained as the eighth Bishop of the Diocese of Ballarat. His Grace Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne was the Principal Consecrator with Co-consecrators Most Rev Peter Connors, Bishop Emeritus of Ballarat and Most Rev Les Tomlinson, Bishop of Sandhurst. Concelebrating were 30 Bishops and 100 priests. The cathedral was filled to capacity and another large group of people watched the event live on a big screen in the adjacent St. Patrick’s Hall.Addressing the people at the end of the Mass, Bishop Bird commented: “My appointment as bishop of Ballarat was announced on 1 August, the feast of St Alphonsus Liguori, the founder of the Redemptorists. Today is the feast of another Redemptorist saint, Gerard Majella. I feel a great sense of support in the prayers of these saintly confreres who have gone before us.” Witnessing the Ordination were many Redemptorists, both religious and lay, who had travelled from around Australia and overseas to be in Ballarat with their recently retired Province Leader as he became Bishop.
The music of the Ordination Mass was under the musical direction of Mr Roger Hillman, Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts at Australian Catholic University, Ballarat, with choir and instrumentalists assembled especially for the occasion. Fittingly the sung parts of the Mass were from the Mass of St. Alphonsus, composed by the new Bishop himself in preparation for the introduction of the new translation of the Roman Missal.
In a deeply moving moment, Bishop Connors, who retires after 15 years of service as Bishop of Ballarat, handed the crozier to Bishop Bird. Together they walked around the Cathedral as Bishop Bird blessed all who were there.In his address, Bishop Bird said: “When Jesus met his disciples after his resurrection, he said to them: ‘Peace be with you.’ I have chosen these words of Christ as my motto as bishop. I hope my ministry will foster the peace of Christ – the kind of peace that is built on justice and crowned by love. I pray that each one of you might be blessed with this peace. I pray that each person and each parish in this diocese might know this peace of Christ. I pray that each person in our troubled world might come to know such peace in their hearts and in their communities.”
Photos by Trav Munro
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF MELBOURNE
AFRICA : BURKINA FASO : PRIEST - DO NOT BE AFRAID TO THE LORD
Agenzia Fides REPORT - The Camillian priest, Father Paul Ouedraogo, a doctor, has just finished his specialization in pediatrics in Italy and is preparing to return to Burkina Faso, his country of origin, where he will be responsible for the Camillian medical center in Ouagadougou. In an interview given to father Danio Mozzi, a Camillian of the Lombardo-Veneta Province, sent to Fides Agency, Father Paul gives his testimony as a doctor and a priest.
"I started my studies in Burkina Faso, but unfortunately in 1999, due to political problems, I could not finish the first year of study - says Father Paul -. Therefore the superiors asked me to come to Europe, where there was greater social and political stability, so I did the test in Rome to enter the Gemelli Hospital. At the end of six years of study I went back to my country, where I was asked to work in the surgical ward and pediatrics, community priorities. I had experience in both areas, but I felt that I would have been 100% useful in the pediatric field. In that period I met a doctor in Italy who asked me to do the specialization at the Hospital in Brescia, who already cooperated with the Camillians in Burkina. I was welcomed in Italy in the Lombardo-Veneta Province of Camillians and I did my 5 years of specialization. Now I have finished, and I am glad to go back home to put myself at the service of my country or elsewhere."
Since I have been in Burkina Faso the Camillians are very careful about the health of a child and mother, who are the weaker sections of society in Burkina Faso. "When I return to Ouagadougou, I will work, together with my community, at the medical center St. Camillus - says the priest - which will gradually become a hospital. After 40 years it would need new services and greater internal organization. Connected to this structure, there are also active food projects in the medical center. It is a program of nutritional recovery for malnourished children."
Launching a special appeal to young people, Father Paul exhorts them: "For young people who are already working to serve the sick, such as nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, and maybe inside they feel the desire to serve the Lord in a special way, I would say do not be afraid to give to the Lord, because it is not something thrown away but 'offered' to God. One must not be afraid because it is great to to put oneself at the service of others."
In his thesis, Father Paul deepened Sickle Cell desease in children. It is a hematologic hereditary disease that affects 3% of the population in Burkina Faso in its severe forms. "Every year, 12,000 children are born with this disease, and about half of them do not exceed 5 years of age. At the St. Camillus in Ouagadougou 1400 children who have this disease are followed, so this is why I decided to create a day hospital for patients who do not know where to go when they have a crisis. Our center is in fact the biggest in the whole of Burkina and offers major assistance," adds the Camillian. (AP/DM) (Agenzia Fides 18/10/2012)
"I started my studies in Burkina Faso, but unfortunately in 1999, due to political problems, I could not finish the first year of study - says Father Paul -. Therefore the superiors asked me to come to Europe, where there was greater social and political stability, so I did the test in Rome to enter the Gemelli Hospital. At the end of six years of study I went back to my country, where I was asked to work in the surgical ward and pediatrics, community priorities. I had experience in both areas, but I felt that I would have been 100% useful in the pediatric field. In that period I met a doctor in Italy who asked me to do the specialization at the Hospital in Brescia, who already cooperated with the Camillians in Burkina. I was welcomed in Italy in the Lombardo-Veneta Province of Camillians and I did my 5 years of specialization. Now I have finished, and I am glad to go back home to put myself at the service of my country or elsewhere."
Since I have been in Burkina Faso the Camillians are very careful about the health of a child and mother, who are the weaker sections of society in Burkina Faso. "When I return to Ouagadougou, I will work, together with my community, at the medical center St. Camillus - says the priest - which will gradually become a hospital. After 40 years it would need new services and greater internal organization. Connected to this structure, there are also active food projects in the medical center. It is a program of nutritional recovery for malnourished children."
Launching a special appeal to young people, Father Paul exhorts them: "For young people who are already working to serve the sick, such as nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, and maybe inside they feel the desire to serve the Lord in a special way, I would say do not be afraid to give to the Lord, because it is not something thrown away but 'offered' to God. One must not be afraid because it is great to to put oneself at the service of others."
In his thesis, Father Paul deepened Sickle Cell desease in children. It is a hematologic hereditary disease that affects 3% of the population in Burkina Faso in its severe forms. "Every year, 12,000 children are born with this disease, and about half of them do not exceed 5 years of age. At the St. Camillus in Ouagadougou 1400 children who have this disease are followed, so this is why I decided to create a day hospital for patients who do not know where to go when they have a crisis. Our center is in fact the biggest in the whole of Burkina and offers major assistance," adds the Camillian. (AP/DM) (Agenzia Fides 18/10/2012)
ASIA : CHINA : BISHOP SENDS MESSAGE TO ROME ON SYNOD
UCAN REPORT
Message to Rome comes amid absence of bishops from China
Bishop Li (center) at a meeting in 2011
A 90-year-old Chinese bishop Bishop Lucas Li Jingfeng has sent a special message to the Synod of Bishops in Rome. The 90-year-old Bishop of Fengxiang in Shaanxi province, along with other prelates from China, has not been able to attend the Synod personally.
His message was received by the gathering of 200 bishops from across the world in Rome on Tuesday and read aloud by Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, secretary-general of the Synod.
It stated that waning strongholds of Catholicism like Europe and North America should look to China to rekindle their faith, despite the persecution clergy suffer there from the Communist Party.
“I want to say that our Church in China, in particular the laity, has always maintained the piety, faithfulness, sincerity and devotion of the first Christians, even while undergoing 50 years of persecution,” the message said.
Stressing that he would not talk about politics because they are “transient,” Bishop Li said he believed that “our faith as Chinese can console the Pope” as he described the “tepidness” of other faithful when compared to the lay people of China more pious.
“I am very sad that you could not listen to any of the voices of the Chinese Church,” he added.
Bishop Li’s message was received amid a long-running disagreement between the Vatican and the government in Beijing over jurisdiction of the Church in China.
The Holy See invited two mainland bishops to the Asian Synod in 1998 and four others – including Bishop Li – to the World Synod in 2005.
None attended either event as the Chinese government would not allow them to leave the country. For the World Synod in 2008, both sides disagreed over the selection of five Chinese bishops.
A Church source said the Holy See had considered inviting a Chinese bishop to Rome this week but later decided against the idea as it would be “meaningless” amid the ongoing impasse.
SHARED FROM UCAN NEWS
His message was received by the gathering of 200 bishops from across the world in Rome on Tuesday and read aloud by Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, secretary-general of the Synod.
It stated that waning strongholds of Catholicism like Europe and North America should look to China to rekindle their faith, despite the persecution clergy suffer there from the Communist Party.
“I want to say that our Church in China, in particular the laity, has always maintained the piety, faithfulness, sincerity and devotion of the first Christians, even while undergoing 50 years of persecution,” the message said.
Stressing that he would not talk about politics because they are “transient,” Bishop Li said he believed that “our faith as Chinese can console the Pope” as he described the “tepidness” of other faithful when compared to the lay people of China more pious.
“I am very sad that you could not listen to any of the voices of the Chinese Church,” he added.
Bishop Li’s message was received amid a long-running disagreement between the Vatican and the government in Beijing over jurisdiction of the Church in China.
The Holy See invited two mainland bishops to the Asian Synod in 1998 and four others – including Bishop Li – to the World Synod in 2005.
None attended either event as the Chinese government would not allow them to leave the country. For the World Synod in 2008, both sides disagreed over the selection of five Chinese bishops.
A Church source said the Holy See had considered inviting a Chinese bishop to Rome this week but later decided against the idea as it would be “meaningless” amid the ongoing impasse.
SHARED FROM UCAN NEWS
TODAY'S MASS ONLINE : THURS. OCT. 18, 2012
Luke 10: 1 - 9
1After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to come.2And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.3Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.4Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and salute no one on the road.5Whatever house you enter, first say, `Peace be to this house!'6And if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you.7And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages; do not go from house to house.8Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you;9heal the sick in it and say to them, `The kingdom of God has come near to you.'
1After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to come.2And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.3Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.4Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and salute no one on the road.5Whatever house you enter, first say, `Peace be to this house!'6And if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you.7And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages; do not go from house to house.8Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you;9heal the sick in it and say to them, `The kingdom of God has come near to you.'
TODAY'S SAINT: OCT. 18: ST. LUKE
APOSTLE
Feast: October 18
Information:
Feast Day:
October 18
Born:
Antioch, Turkey
Died:
Greece
Major Shrine:
Padua, Italy
Patron of:
Artists, Physicians, Surgeons
The great apostle of the Gentiles, or rather the Holy Ghost by his pen, is the panegyrist of this glorious evangelist, and his own inspired writings are the highest standing and most authentic commendation of his sanctity, and of those eminent graces which are a just subject of our admiration, but which human praises can only extenuate. St. Luke was a native of Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, a city famous for the agreeableness of its situation, the riches of its traffic, its extent, the number of its inhabitants, the politeness of their manners, and their learning and wisdom. Its schools were the most renowned in all Asia, and produced the ablest masters in all arts and sciences. St. Luke acquired a stock of learning in his younger years, which we are told he improved by his travels in some parts of Greece and Egypt. St. Jerome assures us he was very eminent in his profession, and St. Paul, by calling him his most dear physician, seems to indicate that he had not laid it aside. Besides his abilities in physic, he is said to have been very skillful in painting. The Menology of the Emperor Basil, compiled in 980, Nicephorus, Metaphrastes, and other modern Greeks quoted by Gretzer in his dissertation on this subject, speak much of his excelling in this art, and of his leaving many pictures of Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Though neither the antiquity nor the credit of these authors is of great weight, it must be acknowledged, with a very judicious critic, that some curious anecdotes are found in their writings. In this particular, what they tell us is supported by the authority of Theodorus Lector, who lived in 518, and relates that a picture of the Blessed Virgin painted by St. Luke was sent from Jerusalem to the Empress Pulcheria, who placed it in the church of Hodegorum which she built in her honour at Constantinople. Moreover, a very ancient inscription was found in a vault near the Church of St. Mary in via lata in Rome, in which it is said of a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary discovered there, "One of the seven painted by St. Luke." Three or four such pictures are still in being; the principal is that placed by Paul V in the Barghesian chapel in St. Mary Major.
St. Luke was a proselyte to the Christian religion, but whether from Paganism or rather from Judaism is uncertain; for many Jews were settled in Antioch, but chiefly such as were called Hellenists, who read the Bible in the Greek translation of the Septuagint. St. Jerome observes from his writings that he was more skilled in Greek than in Hebrew, and that therefore he not only always makes use of the Septuagint translation, as the other authors of the New Testament who wrote in Greek do, but he refrains sometimes from translating words when the propriety of the Greek tongue would not bear it. Some think he was converted to the faith by St. Paul at Antioch; others judge this improbable, because that apostle nowhere calls him his son, as he frequently does his converts. St. Epiphanius makes him to have been a disciple of our Lord; which might be for some short time before the death of Christ, though this evangelist says he wrote his gospel from the relations of those "who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word." Nevertheless, from these words many conclude that he became a Christian at Antioch only after Christ's ascension. Tertullian positively affirms that he never was a disciple of Christ whilst he lived on earth. No sooner was he enlightened by the Holy Ghost and initiated in the school of Christ but he set himself heartily to learn the spirit of his faith and to practice its lessons. For this purpose he studied perfectly to die to himself, and, as the church says of him, "He always carried about in his body the mortification of the cross for the honour of the divine name." He was already a great proficient in the habits of a perfect mastery of himself, and of all virtues, when he became St. Paul's companion in his travels and fellow-labourer in the ministry of the gospel. The first time that in his history of the missions of St. Paul he speaks in his own name in the first person is when that apostle sailed from Troas into Macedon in the year 51, soon after St. Barnabas had left him, and St. Irenaeus begins from that time the voyages which St. Luke made with St. Paul. Before this he had doubtless been for some time an assiduous disciple of that great apostle; but from the time he seems never to have left him unless by his order upon commissions for the service of the churches he had planted. It was the height of his ambition to share with that great apostle all his toils, fatigues, dangers, and sufferings. In his company he made some stay at Philippi in Macedon; then he travelled with him through all the cities of Greece, where the harvest every day grew upon their hands. St. Paul mentions him more than once as the companion of his travels, he calls him "Luke the beloved physician," his "fellow labourer." Interpreters usually take Lucius, whom St. Paul calls his kinsman, to be St. Luke, as the same apostle sometimes gives a Latin termination to Silas, calling him Sylvanus. Many with Origen, Eusebius, and St. Jerome say that when St. Paul speaks of his own gospel he means that of St. Luke, though the passage may be understood simply of the gospel which St. Paul preached. He wrote this epistle in the year 57, four years before his first arrival at Rome.
St. Luke mainly insists in his gospel upon what relates to Christ's priestly office; for which reason the ancients, in accommodating the four symbolical representations, mentioned in Ezekiel, to the four evangelists, assigned the ox or calf as an emblem of sacrifices to St. Luke. It is only in the Gospel of St. Luke that we have a full account of several particulate relating to the Annunciation of the mystery of the Incarnation to the Blessed Virgin, her visit to St. Elizabeth, the parable of the prodigal son, and many other most remarkable points. The whole is written with great variety, elegance, and perspicuity. An incomparable sublimity of thought and diction is accompanied with that genuine simplicity which is the characteristic of the sacred penman; and by which the divine actions and doctrine of our Blessed Redeemer are set off in a manner which in every word conveys his holy spirit, and unfolds in every tittle the hidden mysteries and inexhausted riches of the divine love and of all virtues to those who, with a humble and teachable disposition of mind, make these sacred oracles the subject of their assiduous devout meditation. The dignity with which the most sublime mysteries, which transcend all the power of words and even the conception and comprehension of all created beings, ate set off without any pomp of expression has in it something divine; and the energy with which the patience, meekness, charity, and beneficence of a God made man for us are described, his divine lessons laid down, and the narrative of his life given, but especially the dispassionate manner in which his adorable sufferings and death are related, without the least exclamation or bestowing the least harsh epithet on his enemies, is a grander and more noble eloquence on such a theme, and a more affecting and tender manner of writing' than the highest strains or the finest ornaments of speech could be. This simplicity makes the great actions speak themselves, which all borrowed eloquence must extenuate. The sacred penmen in these writings were only the instruments or organs of the Holy Ghost; but their style alone suffices to evince how perfectly free their souls were from the reign or influence of human passions, and in how perfect a degree they were replenished with all those divine virtues and that heavenly spirit which their words breathe.
About the year 56 St. Paul sent St. Luke with St. Titus to Corinth with this high commendation, that his praise in the gospel resounded throughout all the churches. St. Luke attended him to Rome, whither he was sent prisoner from Jerusalem in 61. The apostle remained there two years in chains; but was permitted to live in a house which he hired, though under the custody of a constant guard; and there he preached to those who daily resorted to hear him. St. Luke was the apostle's faithful assistant and attendant during his confinement, and had the comfort to see him set at liberty in 63, the year in which this evangelist finished his Acts of the Apostles. This sacred history he compiled at Rome, by divine inspiration, as an appendix to his gospel, to prevent the false relations of those transactions which some published, and to leave an authentic account of the wonderful works of God in planting his church, and some of the miracles by which he confirmed it, and which were an invincible proof of the truth of Christ's resurrection and of his holy religion. Having in the first twelve chapters related the chief general transactions of the principal apostles in the first establishment of the church, beginning at our Lord's ascension, he from the thirteenth chapter almost confines himself to the actions and miracles of St. Paul, to most of which he had been privy and an eye-witness, and concerning which false reports were spread.
St. Luke did not forsake his master after he was released from his confinement. That apostle in his last imprisonment at Rome writes that the rest had all left him, and that St. Luke alone was with him. St. Epiphanius says that after the martyrdom of St. Paul, St. Luke preached in Italy, Gaul, Dalmatia, and Macedon. By Gaul some understand Cisalpine Gaul, others Galatia. Fortunatus and Metaphrastus say he passed into Egypt and preached in Thebais. Nicephorus says he died at Thebes in Boeotia, and that his tomb was shown near that place in his time; but seems to confound the evangelist with St. Luke Stiriote, a hermit of that country. St. Hippolytus says St. Luke was crucified at Elaea in Peloponnesus near Achaia. The modern Greeks tell us he was crucified on an olive tree. The ancient African Martyrology of the fifth age gives him the titles of Evangelist and Martyr. St. Gregory Nazianzen,St. Paulinus, and St. Gaudentius of Brescia assure us that he went to God by martyrdom. Bede, Ado, Usuard, and Baronius in the Martyrologies only say he suffered much for the faith, and died very old in Bithynia. That he crossed the straits to preach in Bithynia is most probable, but then he returned and finished his course in Achaia; under which name Peloponnesus was then comprised. The modern Greeks say he lived fourscore and four years; which assertion has crept into St. Jerome's account of St. Luke, but is expunged by Martianay, who found those words wanting in all old manuscripts. The bones of St. Luke were translated from Patras in Achaia in 357 by order of the Emperor Constantius, and deposited in the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople, together with those of St. Andrew and St. Timothy. On the occasion of this translation some distribution was made of the relics of St. Luke; St. Gaudentius procured a part for his church at Brescia.St. Paulinus possessed a portion in St. Felix's Church at Nola, and with a part enriched a church which he built at Fondi. The magnificent Church of the Apostles at Constantinople was built by Constantine the Great, whose body was deposited in the porch in a chest of gold, the twelve apostles standing round his tomb. When this church was repaired by an order of Justinian, the masons found three wooden chests or coffins in which, as the inscriptions proved, the bodies of St. Luke, St. Andrew, and St. Timothy were interred. Baronius mentions that the head of St. Luke was brought by St. Gregory from Constantinople to Rome, and laid in the church of his monastery of St. Andrew. Some of his relics are kept in the great Grecian monastery on Mount Athos in Greece.
Feast: October 18
Information:
Feast Day:
October 18
Born:
Antioch, Turkey
Died:
Greece
Major Shrine:
Padua, Italy
Patron of:
Artists, Physicians, Surgeons
The great apostle of the Gentiles, or rather the Holy Ghost by his pen, is the panegyrist of this glorious evangelist, and his own inspired writings are the highest standing and most authentic commendation of his sanctity, and of those eminent graces which are a just subject of our admiration, but which human praises can only extenuate. St. Luke was a native of Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, a city famous for the agreeableness of its situation, the riches of its traffic, its extent, the number of its inhabitants, the politeness of their manners, and their learning and wisdom. Its schools were the most renowned in all Asia, and produced the ablest masters in all arts and sciences. St. Luke acquired a stock of learning in his younger years, which we are told he improved by his travels in some parts of Greece and Egypt. St. Jerome assures us he was very eminent in his profession, and St. Paul, by calling him his most dear physician, seems to indicate that he had not laid it aside. Besides his abilities in physic, he is said to have been very skillful in painting. The Menology of the Emperor Basil, compiled in 980, Nicephorus, Metaphrastes, and other modern Greeks quoted by Gretzer in his dissertation on this subject, speak much of his excelling in this art, and of his leaving many pictures of Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Though neither the antiquity nor the credit of these authors is of great weight, it must be acknowledged, with a very judicious critic, that some curious anecdotes are found in their writings. In this particular, what they tell us is supported by the authority of Theodorus Lector, who lived in 518, and relates that a picture of the Blessed Virgin painted by St. Luke was sent from Jerusalem to the Empress Pulcheria, who placed it in the church of Hodegorum which she built in her honour at Constantinople. Moreover, a very ancient inscription was found in a vault near the Church of St. Mary in via lata in Rome, in which it is said of a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary discovered there, "One of the seven painted by St. Luke." Three or four such pictures are still in being; the principal is that placed by Paul V in the Barghesian chapel in St. Mary Major.
St. Luke was a proselyte to the Christian religion, but whether from Paganism or rather from Judaism is uncertain; for many Jews were settled in Antioch, but chiefly such as were called Hellenists, who read the Bible in the Greek translation of the Septuagint. St. Jerome observes from his writings that he was more skilled in Greek than in Hebrew, and that therefore he not only always makes use of the Septuagint translation, as the other authors of the New Testament who wrote in Greek do, but he refrains sometimes from translating words when the propriety of the Greek tongue would not bear it. Some think he was converted to the faith by St. Paul at Antioch; others judge this improbable, because that apostle nowhere calls him his son, as he frequently does his converts. St. Epiphanius makes him to have been a disciple of our Lord; which might be for some short time before the death of Christ, though this evangelist says he wrote his gospel from the relations of those "who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word." Nevertheless, from these words many conclude that he became a Christian at Antioch only after Christ's ascension. Tertullian positively affirms that he never was a disciple of Christ whilst he lived on earth. No sooner was he enlightened by the Holy Ghost and initiated in the school of Christ but he set himself heartily to learn the spirit of his faith and to practice its lessons. For this purpose he studied perfectly to die to himself, and, as the church says of him, "He always carried about in his body the mortification of the cross for the honour of the divine name." He was already a great proficient in the habits of a perfect mastery of himself, and of all virtues, when he became St. Paul's companion in his travels and fellow-labourer in the ministry of the gospel. The first time that in his history of the missions of St. Paul he speaks in his own name in the first person is when that apostle sailed from Troas into Macedon in the year 51, soon after St. Barnabas had left him, and St. Irenaeus begins from that time the voyages which St. Luke made with St. Paul. Before this he had doubtless been for some time an assiduous disciple of that great apostle; but from the time he seems never to have left him unless by his order upon commissions for the service of the churches he had planted. It was the height of his ambition to share with that great apostle all his toils, fatigues, dangers, and sufferings. In his company he made some stay at Philippi in Macedon; then he travelled with him through all the cities of Greece, where the harvest every day grew upon their hands. St. Paul mentions him more than once as the companion of his travels, he calls him "Luke the beloved physician," his "fellow labourer." Interpreters usually take Lucius, whom St. Paul calls his kinsman, to be St. Luke, as the same apostle sometimes gives a Latin termination to Silas, calling him Sylvanus. Many with Origen, Eusebius, and St. Jerome say that when St. Paul speaks of his own gospel he means that of St. Luke, though the passage may be understood simply of the gospel which St. Paul preached. He wrote this epistle in the year 57, four years before his first arrival at Rome.
St. Luke mainly insists in his gospel upon what relates to Christ's priestly office; for which reason the ancients, in accommodating the four symbolical representations, mentioned in Ezekiel, to the four evangelists, assigned the ox or calf as an emblem of sacrifices to St. Luke. It is only in the Gospel of St. Luke that we have a full account of several particulate relating to the Annunciation of the mystery of the Incarnation to the Blessed Virgin, her visit to St. Elizabeth, the parable of the prodigal son, and many other most remarkable points. The whole is written with great variety, elegance, and perspicuity. An incomparable sublimity of thought and diction is accompanied with that genuine simplicity which is the characteristic of the sacred penman; and by which the divine actions and doctrine of our Blessed Redeemer are set off in a manner which in every word conveys his holy spirit, and unfolds in every tittle the hidden mysteries and inexhausted riches of the divine love and of all virtues to those who, with a humble and teachable disposition of mind, make these sacred oracles the subject of their assiduous devout meditation. The dignity with which the most sublime mysteries, which transcend all the power of words and even the conception and comprehension of all created beings, ate set off without any pomp of expression has in it something divine; and the energy with which the patience, meekness, charity, and beneficence of a God made man for us are described, his divine lessons laid down, and the narrative of his life given, but especially the dispassionate manner in which his adorable sufferings and death are related, without the least exclamation or bestowing the least harsh epithet on his enemies, is a grander and more noble eloquence on such a theme, and a more affecting and tender manner of writing' than the highest strains or the finest ornaments of speech could be. This simplicity makes the great actions speak themselves, which all borrowed eloquence must extenuate. The sacred penmen in these writings were only the instruments or organs of the Holy Ghost; but their style alone suffices to evince how perfectly free their souls were from the reign or influence of human passions, and in how perfect a degree they were replenished with all those divine virtues and that heavenly spirit which their words breathe.
About the year 56 St. Paul sent St. Luke with St. Titus to Corinth with this high commendation, that his praise in the gospel resounded throughout all the churches. St. Luke attended him to Rome, whither he was sent prisoner from Jerusalem in 61. The apostle remained there two years in chains; but was permitted to live in a house which he hired, though under the custody of a constant guard; and there he preached to those who daily resorted to hear him. St. Luke was the apostle's faithful assistant and attendant during his confinement, and had the comfort to see him set at liberty in 63, the year in which this evangelist finished his Acts of the Apostles. This sacred history he compiled at Rome, by divine inspiration, as an appendix to his gospel, to prevent the false relations of those transactions which some published, and to leave an authentic account of the wonderful works of God in planting his church, and some of the miracles by which he confirmed it, and which were an invincible proof of the truth of Christ's resurrection and of his holy religion. Having in the first twelve chapters related the chief general transactions of the principal apostles in the first establishment of the church, beginning at our Lord's ascension, he from the thirteenth chapter almost confines himself to the actions and miracles of St. Paul, to most of which he had been privy and an eye-witness, and concerning which false reports were spread.
St. Luke did not forsake his master after he was released from his confinement. That apostle in his last imprisonment at Rome writes that the rest had all left him, and that St. Luke alone was with him. St. Epiphanius says that after the martyrdom of St. Paul, St. Luke preached in Italy, Gaul, Dalmatia, and Macedon. By Gaul some understand Cisalpine Gaul, others Galatia. Fortunatus and Metaphrastus say he passed into Egypt and preached in Thebais. Nicephorus says he died at Thebes in Boeotia, and that his tomb was shown near that place in his time; but seems to confound the evangelist with St. Luke Stiriote, a hermit of that country. St. Hippolytus says St. Luke was crucified at Elaea in Peloponnesus near Achaia. The modern Greeks tell us he was crucified on an olive tree. The ancient African Martyrology of the fifth age gives him the titles of Evangelist and Martyr. St. Gregory Nazianzen,St. Paulinus, and St. Gaudentius of Brescia assure us that he went to God by martyrdom. Bede, Ado, Usuard, and Baronius in the Martyrologies only say he suffered much for the faith, and died very old in Bithynia. That he crossed the straits to preach in Bithynia is most probable, but then he returned and finished his course in Achaia; under which name Peloponnesus was then comprised. The modern Greeks say he lived fourscore and four years; which assertion has crept into St. Jerome's account of St. Luke, but is expunged by Martianay, who found those words wanting in all old manuscripts. The bones of St. Luke were translated from Patras in Achaia in 357 by order of the Emperor Constantius, and deposited in the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople, together with those of St. Andrew and St. Timothy. On the occasion of this translation some distribution was made of the relics of St. Luke; St. Gaudentius procured a part for his church at Brescia.St. Paulinus possessed a portion in St. Felix's Church at Nola, and with a part enriched a church which he built at Fondi. The magnificent Church of the Apostles at Constantinople was built by Constantine the Great, whose body was deposited in the porch in a chest of gold, the twelve apostles standing round his tomb. When this church was repaired by an order of Justinian, the masons found three wooden chests or coffins in which, as the inscriptions proved, the bodies of St. Luke, St. Andrew, and St. Timothy were interred. Baronius mentions that the head of St. Luke was brought by St. Gregory from Constantinople to Rome, and laid in the church of his monastery of St. Andrew. Some of his relics are kept in the great Grecian monastery on Mount Athos in Greece.
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