Saint Norbert, bishop and Confessor

Norbert is not officially recognized by the Orthodox Church but his great virtues are praiseworthy and his birth and ministry occurred just subsequent to the official date of the Schism, so as a matter of charity I am including this post regarding his holy life.

Saint Norbert, bishop and Confessor
　
Norbert was born in the year 1080, at Xanten, in the Duchy of Cleves, of parents of the highest rank. He was thoroughly educated in his youth in worldly knowledge, and as a member of the imperial court, became a worldly young man, much given to the pleasures of life. But one day he was thrown from his horse, and lay for a long time insensible. Whereupon, when he came to his senses, and realized the uncertainty of life, he enlisted as a soldier of the Church. Being ordained priest, he made the preaching of the Word of God the one object of his life. He had the right to rich revenues of the Church, but these he renounced ; and the ample fortune which he had from his father he gave to the poor. He fasted often, and ever lived a life of singular hardness, whence came that mighty power of his words and deeds, whereby he was able to turn countless hereticks to the true Faith, sinners to repentance, and enemies to peace and brotherly love. * Being one-while in France, the Bishop of Laon besought him not to leave his diocese, and he therefore made choice of a wilderness at a place called Premontre, whither he withdrew himself with thirteen disciples, and thus founded the Order of the Promonstratensian Canons. When, however, the fame of his holy life became every day more and more noised abroad, and great numbers sought to become his disciples, the Institute was wonderfully extended. To these Norbertine Canons, form the teaching of blessed Norbert, the Church is indebted much for that devotion to the Reserved Sacrament which began in the north of Europe and spread south, even to Italy. Being called Antwerp, he gave the death-blow to the shameful heresy which had there grown up, which same denied the need of either the sacraments or the priesthood. * He was thereafter created (albeit he would rather not have had it so) Archbishop of Magdeburg, and as such was a strong upholder of the discipline of the Church, specially contending against the concubinage of the clergy. After the death of Honorius II an unhappy schism divided the Church, whereupon he was a great help to Innocent II, for whom he got recognition as the lawful Bishop of Rome throughout much of Europe. It was at last at Magdeburg that this mighty man of God, full of good works and of the Holy Ghost, fell asleep in the Lord, on June 6^th, in 1134, in the fifty-third year of his life, and the eighth year of his episcopate.

Collect:

O God, who didst appoint Saint Norbert, thy Confessor and Bishop, to be an excellent preacher of thy holy word, and through him hast enriched thy Church with a new offspring : grant, we beseech thee ; that, by the intercession of his merits, we may of thee be enabled to perform those things which he taught both in word and in deed, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Saint Martin I Pope and Martyr, November 12

Saint Martin I Pope and Martyr



Martin, concerning whose life we know much from the Liber Pontificalis and from his letters, was born at Todi in Tuscany. In those days it was customary, before the consecration of a Pope, to get the confirmation of the election from the Emperor ; but when Martin was elected, he did not seek it, because this same, Constans II, had placed himself outside the Church through heresy. At the beginning of his Popedom, however, in the year 649, he was careful to send an ambassage with letters to Paul, Patriarch of Constantinople, to call upon him to return to the truth of the Orthodox Faith from the blasphemous heresy of the Monothelites. But Paul, backed up by the heretical Emperor, banished the Legates of the Roman See into divers places in the Islands. This evil deed moved the Pope to gather together at the Lateran a council of one hundred and five bishops, by whom Paul was condemned, and certain heretical edicts of the Emperor were censured. * Thereupon Constans sent his Chamberlain Olympius into Italy, as Exarch, straitly commanding him to bring to naught this resistance of Pope Martin to the Monothelites. But Olympius found no way to bring harm to Martin, and soon departed. Whereupon Constans sent the Exarch Theodore Calliopas to Rome, with command to lay hands on the Pope. By him Martin was treacherously taken to the Island of Naxos. Later he was brought to Constantinople, where he was kept in prison till he was sent to the Crimea. * There his sufferings for the Orthodox Faith utterly broke him down ; and he left this life in the eighth year of his pontificate, on September 16^th, 655. November 12^th is reputed to be the day of his translation, for his body was afterwards brought to Rome, and buried in the Church dedicated under the names of Saints Sylvester and Martin of Tours. He sat Saint Peters Chair for six years, one month, and twenty-six days, and was the last the Popes to be honored with the Martyr’s title. He held two ordinations in the month of December, wherein he made eleven priests, five deacons, and thirty-three bishops divers  places. 　

Pope Saint Martin I

　
A Homily by St. Gregory the Pope

Dearly beloved brethren, if we consider what and how great things are promised us in heaven, all things which are upon earth grow poor in our mind. For when this world’s goods are reckoned against heavenly rewards, they are found to be a hindrance rather than a help. Earthly life, being compared to life eternal, ought rather to be called death than life. For what is the daily failing of our corruptible body but, as it were, a slow death? And what tongue can tell, or what mind comprehend, how great is the rejoicing in the city above? For there they have part with the choirs of Angels, and stand with those blessed spirits before the glory of the Creator, and see God face to face, and gaze upon Light Incomprehensible, and have no fear of death, but rejoice in the gift of an incorruption which is eternal.

When we hear these things our hearts burn within us. And we long to be already there, where we hop to rejoice eternally. But we cannot attain unto great rewards save through great labour. Therefore saith the mighty preacher Paul: No man is crowned except he strive lawfully. If the greatness of the reward delighted the mind, then the pressure of the struggle cannot make the heart grow faint. Therefore the truth saith to all who would come to him : If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Collect:

Almighty God, mercifully look upon our infirmities: that whereas we are afflicted by the burden of our sins: the glorious intercession of thy Martyr and Pope, blessed Martin, may be our succour and defense, through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

A new video.

I have made and posted a new video on the saint commemorated yesterday, St. Jerome, on my youtube channel. It features the voice of yours truly chanting the propers and reading the lessons and collect for the day. You've been warned.

The brave can click this link to view the video.
St. Jerome Priest, Confessor & Doctor

Saint Jerome, Priest, Confessor and Doctor, 420

Jerome, who is reckoned among the four first Doctors of the West was the son of one Eusebius, and was born at Stridonium, a small town upon the confines of Dalmatia, about the year 342. He was baptized at Rome sometime after his eighteenth birthday, having been a catechumen up to that time. And in Rome he studied under the instruction of the famous pagan grammarian Donatus, and other very learned personages. He traveled in Gaul for the sake of improving his mind, and there sought the friendship of divers godly men learned in the Scriptures, and made with his own hand many copies of holy books. He afterwards betook himself to Grecian Asia Minor, where he attained eminence as a philosopher and orator, in the following of the most famous theologians. At Constantinople, in especial, he sat at the feet of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, from whom he professeth himself to have learnt his theology. Then, for godliness sake, he went to see the home of the Lord Christ, and so throughout all Palestine. He witnesseth that this pilgrimage, wherein he got the help of the most learned of the Jews for the understanding of the Holy Scriptures, did him much good.
He withdrew himself into the wild deserts of Syria, where he passed four years in studying the Bible, meanwhile neglecting in no wise constant meditation and prayer, and the meditation and prayer, and the mortification of his body in self-denial and chastisement of the flesh. As a special penance, he learnt Hebrew. By Paulinus, Patriarch of Antioch, he was finally ordained priest against his own inclination. Thereafter he went to Rome on account of the quarrelling of certain bishops with the aforesaid Paulinus. There, with Saint Epiphanius, he helped Pope Saint Damasus in the writing of his letters upon Church affairs. But the longing for his old solitude came upon him. And he went back to Palestine, where, in the monastery at Bethlehem, built beside the cradle of the Lord Christ by the Lady Paula of Rome, he set himself to enter on earth the life of heaven serving God in reading and writing without ceasing, regardless of the sufferings of a body tormented by divers diseases and pains, to which he added a most harsh treatment of himself for his sins, specially for his sharp tongue. For he never was a lover of moderation, either in virtue or against vice. For he never was a lover of moderation, either in virtue or against vice.
Hard questions upon the interpretation of the Holy Scripture were sent to him from all parts of the earth, as to an oracle. He was oftentimes consulted by Pope Saint Damasus, or by the holy Doctor Augustine, upon the meaning of the most obscure passages of the Scripture because of his extraordinary learning, and his knowledge, not only of the Latin and Greek tongues, but also of Hebrew and Chaldee ; for, as the same Augustine testifieth, he has read nearly all writers. He ever undertook the defence of the godly and Catholic, as he himself testifieth : I never spared hereticks, and have always done mine utmost to make the enemies of the Church mine own enemies. In his time there was in use a Latin version of the Bible which is now called The Vetus, the Old Testament whereof was based on the Greek Septuagint. Jerome made a new version, now known as the Vulgate ; for he translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin, and reformed, according to the original Greek, the existing version the New. Upon a great part of the Scriptures he wrote commentaries. He translated likewise into Latin the works of many learned men, and himself contributed to the Christian life many monuments of his own wit. He lived to an extreme old age, and passed away to heaven, famous for learning and holiness, in the reign of the Emperor Honorius, upon September 30^th, in the year of our Lord 420. His body was buried at Bethlehem, but afterwards was brought to Rome, where it is now, in the Church of Saint Mary-at-the-Manger.

Antiphon on the Benedictus:

Well done, good and faithful servant: + thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: * enter thou into the joy of thy Lord (Alleluia.)

Collect:

O GOD, who for the exposition of thy holy Scriptures didst bestow upon thy Church the wondrous teaching of blessed Jerome thy Confessor and Doctor: grant, we beseech thee; that by the intercession of his merits, we may of thee be enabled to perform those things which he taught in word and deed. Through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

Video Series I am hopeful will be edifying.

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