The Wisdom of the Saints…......…..about the Church (part 4)
“The angel spoke to me, saying, 'Come here. I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.' He took me in spirit to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. It gleamed with the splendor of God. It's radiance was like that of a precious stone, like jasper, clear as crystal. It had a massive, high wall, with twelve gates where twelve angels were stationed and on which names were inscribed, the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. There were three gates facing east, three north, three south, and three west. The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation, on which were inscribed the twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.” St. John the Apostle and Evangelist (1st century)
“But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the successions of all the churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner...assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient Church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul – that Church which has the Tradition and which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the Apostles. For with this Church, because of its superior origin, all churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world. And it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the Apostolic Tradition.” St. Irenaeus of Lyon (2nd-3rd centuries)
“From her womb we are born, by her milk we are nourished, by her Spirit we are made alive.” St. Cyprian of Carthage (3rd century)
“It is the peculiar property of the Church that when she is buffeted, she is triumphant; when she is assaulted with argument she proves herself in the right; when she is deserted by her supporters, she holds the field.” St. Hilary of Poitiers (4th century, Doctor of the Church)
“Christian is my name, and Catholic my surname. The one designates me, while the other manifests me for what I am. Thus am I attested and set apart...When we are called Catholics, it is by this name that our people are kept apart from any heretical name.” St. Pacianus of Barcelona (4th century)
“He is a true and genuine Catholic who loves the truth of God, the Church, and the Body of Christ; who puts nothing else before divine religion and the Catholic faith, neither the authority nor the love nor the genius nor the eloquence nor the philosophy of any man whatsoever; but despising all that and being fixed, stable, and persevering in his faith, is determined in himself to hold and believe that only which he knows the Catholic Church has held universally and from ancient times.” St. Vincent of Lerins (5th century)
“About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they're just one thing, and we shouldn't complicate the matter.” St. Joan of Arc (15th century)
“A fragment of the Catholic Church, splitting itself away from the whole body, could not hear that voice [of God], for a fragment was not party to the revelations of the whole any more than a severed arm shares in the life of the body it has left behind.” St. Thomas More (15th-16th centuries)
“To love the Church is to love Jesus Christ, and vice versa.” St. Eugene de Mazenod (18th-19th centuries)
“Divine assistance for the Church is not restricted to the first centuries of the Church, but is continued and will be continued to the end of time. This reflection has calmed my spirit on more than one occasion. May it serve to calm yours when you witness error worming its way about.” Bl. Dominic Barberi (18th-19th centuries)
“Do not be afraid to defend God, the Church, the Pope and priests. It is just the moment for action. Against this anti-religious and immoral campaign one cannot be indifferent.” St. Gianna Molla (20th century)
Saint of the Month
May 2012
St. Joan of Arc
St. Joan of Arc, also known as Jeanne d'Arc, was a mystic, a warrior, a teenage martyr, and one of the most mysterious and unique women in history. Joan was born in 1412 to peasant farmer Jacques d'Arc and his wife at Domremy, in northeastern France. She was the youngest of five children and spent much of her childhood helping with domestic chores, tending animals, and attending to devotional practices. She was a prayerful and devout child and was illiterate. Joan's story takes place in the midst of the Hundred Years War, which was a prolonged series of conflicts between France and England over the succession to the kingship of France and ownership of provinces. When Joan was thirteen, she first heard a voice enveloped in light speak to her, and this experience began to occur more and more frequently. After a time of discernment, Joan understood these voices to belong to St. Michael the Archangel, and the virgin martyrs Sts. Catherine of Alexandria and Margaret of Antioch and these visits or locutions became more and more frequent. Joan was eventually able to see her interlocutors as well as hearing them. The voices were asking her to be good and to go to church and Joan made a vow to remain a virgin. The voices indicated to Joan that she was chosen to save her country and their words began to take on more urgency, even commanding her to assist the rightful heir to the French throne. This young man was known as the Dauphin or eldest son of the deceased king Charles VI. He had been prevented from assuming his throne by the British and had fallen into a life of a immaturity and frivolity. When Joan was sixteen, she persuaded her uncle to accompany her to Vaucouleurs, where she appeared before the French commander Robert Baudricourt. After she asked to speak to the Dauphin, Baudricourt dismissed her and suggested to her uncle that she be thrashed. After she returned home, Joan's voices became ever more insistent that she return to see the Dauphin, which she did in 1429. Again rebuffed, she remained in Vaucouleurs, determined to follow her mission. Joan finally prevailed and set off to Chinon.
Joan arrived at Chinon dressed as a man and prepared to explain her mission to the Dauphin. He disguised himself in order to trick her, which proved useless, for her voices revealed his identity to her. In what must have been one of the most remarkable scenes in the history of the lives of the saints, Joan announced to the Dauphin that God had sent her to him to help him assume his kingship. After a thorough inquiry by religious, medical and military leaders, Joan was granted permission to lead a campaign against the British. Wearing a white suit of armor and bearing an ancient sword and a banner emblazoned with the names of Jesus and Mary, Joan led her soldiers to the British at Orleans. When the British refused her daring call for their withdrawal from France, Joan and her troops attacked and retook the entire area for France in May of 1429. At this battle Joan sustained an arrow wound which she had predicted would occur. Igniting the courage and determination of the French troops, Joan also went on to victories at Patay and Tours. After these sensational victories, Joan went to Baudricort, who sent her to the Dauphin. He at last decided to accept the responsibility for kingship and was crowned Charles VII with Joan at his side at Rheims in July. Unfortunately, Charles was still distracted and immature, not seeing to the protection of his great advocate, Joan. When she continued her quest to rid the remainder of France from British domination, she was eventually captured at Compiegne in May of 1430. In November of that year, she was sold to the British and imprisoned. Fearing her supernatural powers and military skills, the British decided to try her as a heretic and witch at Rouen. Beginning in February 1431, the procedings of her trial were shameful and spurious and presided over by the ambitious Bishop Pierre Cauchon. Joan had no defense but her own testimony. Her voices were declared to be of demonic origin and she was deemed a heretic and sentenced to burning at the stake. On May 30, she was granted to hold a crucifix and repeated Jesus' name while she was being burned to death at age nineteen.
Twenty five years after her death, Joan's family petitioned the Vatican to reexamine her case. Pope Callistus III formed a commission which formally overturned her guilty verdict in 1456. She was popularly believed to be a saint for centuries before finally being canonized in in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV. St Joan of Arc is certainly one of the most remarkable women in history, especially notable for her courage at such a young age. Her fascinating life story has inspired many paintings, movies and books. Along with Sts. Denis, Martin of Tours and Therese of Lisieux, she is the patron saint of France. Also known as the Maid of Orleans, St. Joan of Arc is remembered on her feast day of May 30.
