Saint Maurus, Abbot, Disciple of St. Benedict

January 15, Saint Maurus, Abbot, Disciple of St. Benedict.

St.Maurus rescues St.Placidus

　
This Maurus was born of a noble Roman family, and as a child was offered to god by his father Equitius, to be under the personal teaching of Saint Benedict. And that in a short while the youth made such progress that he became a wonder to his master, who often held him up to his other disciples as a pattern of regular observance and all virtues. Pope Saint Gregory the Great, who hath preserved for us in his writings much sacred history, hath recorded, as a wonderful instance of his obedience, this following tale. Placidus the monk fell into a lake, and as he was being swept away by the current, the holy Patriarch called Maurus and bade him run to the rescue ; which same he did, walking on the water till he reached Placidus, whom he took by the hair of the head, and dragged to the shore. Holy Maurus was sent by Saint Benedict into France ; and that he there founded the celebrated monastery which bore his name ; and that he governed the same for many years ; and that he from thence passed to heaven, famous for holiness and miracles, when he was more than seventy years of age, which would be about the year 584.

Collect:

Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord, that the prayers of thy holy Abbot, blessed Maurus may commend us unto thee, that we, who have no power of ourselves to help ourselves, may by his advocacy find favour in thy sight, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Saint Kentigern, Bishop and Confessor

Saint Kentigern of Glasgow, Bishop and confessor

　
Kentigern (whom the Scots on account of the sweetness of his ways called Mungo, that is, Dearly-Beloved) is said to have been the grandson of King Loth, (from whom is named that part of Scotland known as the Lothians,) in which case he was of the royal stock of the Picts in North Britain. In boyhood he was given over to the Monastery of Culross, under the tutelage of its Bishop and Abbot Saint Serf ; from whose teaching he made headway in the study of letters, and also in the things of God. Hence he later withdrew into a solitary place at Glasgow in Scotland, where he led a hard life, in constant meditation upon the things of heaven, until the faithful of those parts, moved by the fame of his holiness, duly chose him for their bishop.
When he had been raised to the dignity of the episcopate, he forthwith shed around the bright rays of apostolic grace, like a candle set upon a candlestick. By his words and his example he so tended his flock that many were in such wise enkindled with the love of Jesus Christ as to keep nothing of their own, but to serve God with one heart and one mind like the first disciples of the Apostles. Kentigern himself relaxed nothing of the first way of his life. It was his use every day, besides other works of godliness and penance, to repeat the entire Psalter ; and every year, after the example of Christ, he passed in the desert the whole time of the fast of forty days, cut off altogether from the conversation of men.
God confirmed his preaching with many and great miracles ; and thus this holy bishop, mighty in word and in work, preserved his flock unhurt from the Pelagian heresy which crept all round about. And in his vast diocese, whereabouts he travelled many times on feet, he almost abolished the worship of false gods, and brought a countless multitude of heathen into the Church of Christ. With this, nevertheless, he was not content, but sent churchmen meet to preach the Gospel into northern Norway and Iceland. And he lacked not the merit of suffering hardship for Christ’s sake ; for he was driven into exile by a wicked tyrant, and betook himself to Wales, where he dwelt for a while with Saint David the Bishop ; and there hi is said by some historians to have founded, at the confluence of the Elwy and Clwyd, a famous monastery, where he trained up Saint Asaph as his disciple. About the year 603 he went to heaven, full of days and beloved of God and men. Hid body was buried in the Cathedral Church of Glasgow, where it was held in great honour.
　

Collect:

O God, who through thy blessed Confessor Saint Kentigern hast caused the light of the true Faith to shine forth among barbarous nations, grant, we beseech thee, that we, faithfully following the doctrine which he taught, may attain to the brightness of everlasting glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Octave Day of the Epiphany, January 13

The Octave Day of the Epiphany , January 13^th

 From a Sermon by Saint Gregory Nazianzus
　
I cannot restrain the outburst of my happiness on this occasion. Yes, I am uplifted in mind, and my heart is deeply moved. And thereby I am in danger of forgetting mine own meanness, in my longing for the office of the great John Baptist. Or rather, I should say, I am filled with desire to undertake the service which he performed. It is true that I am not, as was he, Christ’s Forerunner ; but at least I come, as did he, from the desert. And like him, my joy is in Christ who was, as on this day, illuminated ; or I might better say, My joy is in Christ who now doth immediate us, and that with his own splendour. For Christ is baptized!
Therefore, let us go down together with him into the deep, that likewise together with him we may go up, enlightened with his splendour.
John is baptizing ; Jesus draweth nigh. And he is come thither that perchance he may sanctify the one that now acteth as the ministrant of Baptism; and that he may beyond all doubt bury the Old Adam beneath the flood ; and that he may hallow the baptismal streams, such as of Jordan, above all other water. For he who is both Spirit and Flesh would open, to all that should ever be baptized, the power of grace, whereby we may be born again, of the water and the Spirit. But lo! The Baptist putteth him off ; nevertheless Jesus insisteth. I, saith John, have need to be baptized of thee! So speaketh the Candle to the Sun ; so saith the Voice to the Word.
Jesus cometh up from the waters! In the Second Adam all mankind hath been washed. The whole world, which had been submerged, is uplifted. And thereupon the heavens were opened unto him. Not cleft merely, but set open wide! For those same heavens were, by the sin of the First Adam, closed to himself, and to us his posterity, what time the flaming swords of the Cherubim barred the gates of paradise. But the heavens were opened wide to the Second Adam. And then did the Holy Ghost himself bear witness. The Spirit beareth witness to one who is of the same substance as himself. For witness fitly cometh down from heaven unto one who is from thence.

Introit-Omnis terra adóret te

Songs of Thankfulness and Praise

Benedict Biscop, Abbot, January 12.

Saint Benedict Biscop, Abbot, January 12

The surname of this Benedict was Biscop. He was born in the year 628, of the highest Saxon nobility, and was ever very dear to the devout King Oswy of the Northumbrians, whose thane he was. At the age of twenty-five he restored his estates to the King, and put away all thought of marriage and of advancement in this world, and rather gave himself over to the things of God ; who made use of him in the establishment of learning and ecclesiastical decencies throughout England during the times when Saints Theodore and Hadrian were labouring to these ends. His first thought was to visit the shrines of the blessed Apostles at Rome, and gain there in the Christian capital of the world a wider learning than could be got in any other place. After his return home he did much to spread this learning in England. He returned to Rome again in the time of Saint Pope Vitalian ; but shortly after he went to the monastic Island of Lerins, where Saint Vincent had lived and taught, and there he took the monastic habit and vows.* After two years he returned to Rome, at the time when Saint Theodore, the Greek monk, was about to be sent as Archbishop to Canterbury. And Saint Vitalian, knowing his worth, ordained him, and sent him along with holy Theodore. When they came to Canterbury, Benedict was made Abbot of the Monastery of Saints Peter and Paul in that city, until Saint Hadrian was able to come from Rome to England and assume the government thereof. Whereupon Benedict undertook still another journey to Rome, and brought back a great library of books to England, some of which he had begged and others which he had bought. Then he betook himself to King Egfrid of the Northumbrians, the son of his former master and friend. The same made him an ample gift of ground at Wearmouth, for a monastery. After the founding of which, Benedict obtained masons from Gaul, to build him a stone church, and glaziers to glaze the windows ; for hitherto in England stone buildings were rare and glass-making unknown. After this he took for the fifth time the long and perilous journey to Rome ; and necessaries which he could not obtain in Gaul he brought back with. * In particular he brought back John, the Precentor of Saint Peter’s Church in Rome, to teach in England the true ecclesiastical chant and the principals liturgical prayer. After his return from this journey Benedict, by another benefaction of the same King Egfrid, founded another monastery, namely, at Jarrow upon the Tyne. When this foundation was secure, he went forth for the sixth time on a mission to Rome. But on his return therefrom he found that a pestilence had carried away many of his friends, and in the monastery of Jarrow no one was left but the Abbot, and a lad named Bede who lived to become known as The Venerable, Benedict soon afterwards lost his health and suffered for three years. During which he oftentimes impressed upon the brethren the necessity of keeping the rule, and of preserving the excellent and abundant library which he had brought together as a needful equipment for sacred learning. He fell asleep in the Lord upon January 12^th, 690, and was buried in the monastery at Wearmouth.
　

Collect:

O God, who to the blessed Abbot Benedict Biscop, gavest grace to imitate Christ in his poverty, and with humble heart to follow him to the end : grant that all who enter the path of Gospel may neither look back nor go astray from the way, but hastening to thee without stumbling, may attain the crown of eternal life whereunto thou dost call them, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
　

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