Vol 9 Issue 24 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
June 11, 2016 ~ Saint Barnabas, opn!

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (72)
2. Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
3. St John of San Facundo
4. Christ in the Home (46)
5. Articles and notices

Dear Reader:

How far has present civilization progressed in the last 50 years? In 1960 one positive note for John F. Kennedy was that he inspired Americans to put man on the moon by the end of the decade as one of his great achievements. Today Barack Obama has conspired against Americans to put man in the women’s bathroom as his only “great achievement.” And despite this Emperor’s New Clothes scenario, the media hail it as the greatest achievement of the century—One can only blush in shame if this is all the present generation can offer for the greatness of America. As Catholics, there is only the continued acts of reparation one can offer to the Sacred Heart when He gave mankind the greatest example of love and yet in return mankind continues to mock and reject that love. It is this month dedicated by the Church to the Sacred Heart that the world, inspired by the author of hate and father of lies, dedicates to sodomites—inverted realities: The Truth and un-truth.

Visiting Father Carlos Munoz in Tijuana during the week one is reminded of the need that the faithful have a clear understanding that the Church is not just a building where someone reads the Tridentine Mass in Latin; it is membership in the Church that is universal and must express that universality, i.e., Catholicism and that unity within the Church. The Bishop and priests devoted to the people of Tijuana have suffered much by mercenaries who came and led many from the sheepfold away. Now the priests are busy increasing the flock and rebuilding the Church for the faithful who have a true love for Christ and holy Mother Church. Besides caring for Tijuana, there is also the Church in Mexicali that is located approximately 115 miles east. It was only later after Fr. Junipero Serra started the (Alta) California Missions in 1769 to secure California for Spain, that the Domincans were sent to northern Baja California (Norte). The land was fertile, though arid, and soon became a place for vineyards and grazing cattle. Though Tijuana region was originally part of Alta California and the Franciscans, the present border places Tijuana in Baja California. These priests who are holding to the Catholic faith are truly missionary in their endeavor once more to provide not only faithful Catholics the sacraments, but convert those who have been led astray through the post-Conciliar Church back into a neo-paganism that de-civilizes humanity because of the lack of grace no longer present with the seeming eclipse of the Catholic Church which has caused a darkness to cover the minds of men. May the Catholic Community in Tijuana, those who are members of Sacred Heart Church, be graced for their fidelity and be rewarded for their zeal.

As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit. —The Editor

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Baptism

Means of Salvation

Sacrament of Baptism

Post Trent

Most of the answers from the Holy Office are re-statements of past teaching that has been asked in previous centuries, but they are provided to show the never changing doctrine of the Church even though the culture or age may change. Therefore, the following is another situation answering a question from the Archbishop of Utrecht, Hendrik van de Wetering, about the matter of baptism which was given by a Decree of the Holy Office, August 21, 1901:

“Many medical doctors in hospitals and elsewhere in cases of necessity are accustomed to baptize infants in their mother’s wombs with water mixed with hydrargyrus bichloratus corrosives (in French: chloride de mercure). This water is compounded approximately of a solution of one part of this chloretus hydrargicus in a thousand parts of water, and with this solution of water the potion is poisonous. Now the reason why they use this mixture is that the womb of the mother may not be infected with disease.”

Therefore the questions:

1. Is a baptism administered with such water certainly or dubiously valid?
2. Is it permitted to avoid all danger of disease to administer the sacrament of baptism with such water?

III. Is it permitted also to use this water when pure water can be applied without any danger of disease?

The answers are (with the approbation of Leo XIII):

To I. This will be answered in. II

To II. It is permitted when real danger of disease is present.

To III. No. (Cf. DB 1977)

In all effects, the water is still water, though treated. There is not a question of validity, but of liceity to the negative response. The aspect of baptizing with pure water is lost if it doesn’t matter—therefore the caution that there is real danger to excuse the use. Yet, to say it was invalid would also raise questions when one considers that the baptismal water consecrated on Holy Saturday is mixed with the Oil of the Catechumens and Sacred Chrism.

Pope Saint Pius X (1903-1914), like Pius IX, confronted a formidable enemy that grew from Rationalism and Liberal Protestantism. It affected especially Catholics who attended studies at Universities in the nineteenth century as most northern European Professors would not be of the Catholic Faith and Catholics attending their lectures would be instructed along modern vogues of philosophy. Attempting to systematize Catholic Theology along these modern philosophical trends what would be called Modernism developed. Alfred F. Loisy wrote several works based on this higher criticism that were placed on the index in 1903, but adherents were becoming more numerous. The Decree of the Holy Office, Lamentabili was issued on July 3, 1907, to condemn the errors Modernists proposed based on Alfred Loisy and Albert Houtin, among others. The following are errors concerning the Sacrament of Baptism:

42. The Christian community has introduced the necessity of baptism, adopting it as a necessary rite, and adding to it the obligation of professing Christianity. (cf. DB 2042)
43. The practice of conferring baptism on infants was a disciplinary evolution, which was one reason for resolving the sacrament into two, baptism and penance. (cf. DB 2043)
44. There is no proof that the rite of the sacrament of confirmation was practiced by the apostles; but the formal distinction between the two sacraments, namely, baptism and confirmation, by no means goes back to the history of primitive Christianity. (cf. DB 2044)

These propositions result from the denial of the authorship of the New Testament being that of the Apostles, but merely a development of ideas evolving from the Apostles and therefore a denial of the Sacraments being instituted by Christ. The first rejects the necessity of baptism, the second and third that Confirmation and Penance grew from Baptism to meet the needs of the Christian community as different circumstances arose.

The Council of Trent had decreed in Session 24 (De Ref. Matr., Tametsi—November 11, 1563.), chapter 1, that as the Church considers all validly baptized under her authority and bound to her laws, that all must be married in the presence of a priest and two witnesses (except in territories where the decree was not promulgated.) This presented difficulties as to where the decree was promulgated and who was bound to Tametsi as also for those having never been raised in the Catholic faith after being baptized because it was not done by a Catholic, yet being declared not married—and the consequences. Pope Pius X, in beginning the reform of Canon Law, addressed this confusing situation.  As all Catholics ought to be informed and as the Church understood she had no direct power over those not baptized in a Catholic Church, he released non-Catholics, but made it obligatory for all Catholics, that is all baptized in or received in the Church. In addition it was necessary because in a society that became more secular and rejected acknowledgement of Church rights, it was easy for Catholics and Converts to Catholicism to find relief to their infidelities in the secular anti-Catholic State. He reminded the faithful that the Church holds all rights over the Sacrament of Matrimony and all baptized are bound to her authority—yet, as such, knowing that non-Catholics, usually from ignorance, though baptized, would not know and that a decision could not necessarily be absolutely ascertained regarding that knowledge—declared in the Decree Ne temere of the Holy Council, August 2, 1907, the following:

1. Sec. 1. All who have been baptized in the Catholic Church and have been converted to her from heresy or schism, even if one or the other has afterwards apostasized, as often as they enter upon mutual betrothal or marriage, are bound by the laws above established.

Sec. 2. They also hold for the same Catholics mentioned above, if they contract betrothal or marriage with non-Catholics, whether baptized or not baptized, even after having obtained dispensation from the impediment of mixed marriage, or of difference of worship, unless it has otherwise been established by the Holy See for some particular place or region.

Sec. 3. Non-Catholics, whether baptized or not baptized, if they make contracts between themselves, are nowhere bound to keep the Catholic form of betrothal or of marriage. (Cf. DB 2070)

The decree, then, enforces the truth that Baptism makes one a member of the Church and is thereby bound by her laws.

Returning to those who still questioned Church teaching derived from Scripture and in conflict with so-called higher Biblical criticism, the Biblical Commission provided numerous responses. One that questioned even the form of baptism (I baptize you in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost) as authentically the words of Christ is found in this response of the Biblical Commission on June 19, 1911:

[Question] VII. Whether in particular the opinions of those persons should be rightly considered as devoid of solid foundation, who call into question the historical authenticity of the two first chapters, in which the genealogy and infancy of Christ are related; as also of certain opinions on dogmatic matters of great moment, as are those which have to do with the primacy of Peter [Matt. 16:17-19], the form of baptizing, together with the universal mission of preaching handed over to the apostles [Matt. 28:19-20], the apostles’ profession of faith in the divinity of Christ [Matt. 14:33], and other such matters which occurred in Matthew announced in a special way?—

Reply: In the affirmative. (Cf. DB 2154)

Pope Pius XI, who was prompt in reminding Catholics salvation only resided within the Catholic Church, wrote in his encyclical on the Kingship of Christ (Quas primas) of December 11, 1925:

Nevertheless, that such a kingdom is spiritual in a special way, and pertains to spiritual things, not only do the words which we have quoted above from the Bible show, but Christ the Lord by His manner of action confirms. For, on more than one given occasion, when the Jews, or rather the apostles themselves were of the opinion through error that the Messias would deliver the people into liberty and would restore the kingdom of Israel, He Himself destroyed and dispelled their vain opinion and hope; when He was about to be proclaimed king by a surrounding multitude, He declined the name and honor by fleeing and hiding; in the presence of the Roman governor He declared that His kingdom was not “of this world” [John 18:36]. Indeed. this kingdom is presented in the Gospels as such, into which men prepare to enter by doing penance; moreover, they cannot enter it except through faith and baptism, which, although an external rite, yet signifies and effects an interior regeneration; it is opposed only to the kingdom of Satan and to the powers of darkness, and demands of its followers not only that, with mind detached from wealth and earthly things, they prefer gentleness of character, and hunger and thirst after justice, but also that they renounce themselves and take up their cross. Moreover, since Christ as Redeemer has acquired the Church by His blood, and as Priest has offered and continues to offer Himself as a victim for our sins, does it not seem right that He assume the nature of both offices and participate in them? (Par. 15; cf. DB 2195)

In addressing the Christian education of youth and the responsibilities of parents and teachers, the same Pius XI wrote his encyclical, Divini illius magistri, of December 31, 1929. Reminding the secular powers of the world the right of the Church to teach through the command of Christ (cf. Matt. 28:18-20), and that society, the Church, which those who are baptized must be instructed to obtain its end, the salvation of its members, Pius XI points out:

On the other hand so jealous is she of the family’s inviolable natural right to educate the children, that she never consents, save under peculiar circumstances and with special cautions, to baptize the children of infidels, or provide for their education against the will of the parents, till such time as the children can choose for themselves and freely embrace the Faith. [Cod. I. C., c. 750, & 2. S. Th., 2, 2. Q. X., a. 12.] (Par. 39.)

Pius XI’s encyclical Casti connubii on Christian Marriage (remembering Christian refers to Catholics, not the Protestant sectarians) of December 31, 1930, continues the theme of union with the Mystical Body of Christ and salvation:

For, although Christian spouses even if sanctified themselves cannot transmit sanctification to their progeny, nay, although the very natural process of generating life has become the way of death by which original sin is passed on to posterity, nevertheless, they share to some extent in the blessings of that primeval marriage of Paradise, since it is theirs to offer their offspring to the Church in order that by this most fruitful Mother of the children of God they may be regenerated through the laver of Baptism unto supernatural justice and finally be made living members of Christ, partakers of immortal life, and heirs of that eternal glory to which we all aspire from our inmost heart. (Par. 14)

In paragraph 39, Pius XI, reiterates that as baptized, Catholics without exception receive the Sacrament of Matrimony when they validly marry one another: And since the valid matrimonial consent among the faithful was constituted by Christ as a sign of grace, the Sacramental nature is so intimately bound up with Christian Wedlock that there can be no true marriage between baptized persons “without it being by that very fact a Sacrament” (Codex Iuris Canonici, can. 1012; cf. DB 2237). But because the Sacrament Matrimony is for the sanctification and salvation of souls, Catholics are reminded that they are not to marry baptized persons who are not willing to practice the Catholic faith:

They, therefore, who rashly and heedlessly contract mixed marriages, from which the maternal love and providence of the Church dissuades her children for very sound reasons, fail conspicuously in this respect, sometimes with danger to their eternal salvation. This attitude of the Church to mixed marriages appears in many of her documents, all of which are summed up in the Code of Canon Law: “Everywhere and with the greatest strictness the Church forbids marriages between baptized persons, one of whom is a Catholic and the other a member of a schismatical or heretical sect; and if there is, add to this, the danger of the falling away of the Catholic party and the perversion of the children, such a marriage is forbidden also by the divine law” (can. 1060). If the Church occasionally on account of circumstances does not refuse to grant a dispensation from these strict laws (provided that the divine law remains intact and the dangers above mentioned are provided against by suitable safeguards), it is unlikely that the Catholic party will not suffer some detriment from such a marriage. (Par. 82)

(To be continued)

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Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Benedict Baur, O.S.B. 

The revelation of our sonship of God

1. In the mystery of Pentecost we received the baptism of the Spirit in order that we might preserve the life of grace, which we received at our baptism and which we are to bring to maturity in our daily lives. The Masses for the Sundays following Pentecost offer us a powerful means for accomplishing this perfection of grace in us, for they admonish us to desire the coming of the Lord. On the day when the Lord comes, He will renew within us the brightness of grace and remind us that we are the sons of God.

The Epistle for the fourth Sunday after Pentecost reminds us of the beauty of Christian virtue and of a life of self-sacrifice and suffering. To live the Christian life means to expect the coming of the Lord.

2. “We ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God” (Epistle). “For we are saved by hope” (Rom. 8: 24). Our hope is well founded. The fact that we are the sons of God is our pledge of the glory that is to come. There are four witnesses who pledge that our hopes will be fulfilled: First, there is the visible creation, which, though it is subject to many infirmities because of our sins, bears testimony to the hope that someday it will be delivered from corruption and will share in the glory of the sons of God; but now it “groaneth and travaileth in pain,” expecting to bring forth a new creation, a new heaven and a new earth.

The second witness is the Holy Spirit, who has been poured forth into our hearts, who “helpeth our infirmity. . . [and] asketh for us with unspeakable groanings” (Rom. 8:26), putting the necessary prayers on our lips. Being within us, He bears witness to the glory that will be revealed in us. It is by sanctifying grace, by the grace received in the sacraments, by the illuminations and inspirations which He gives us daily, that He operates within our souls and we possess the “first fruits of the spirit” (Rom. 8:23).

The third witness is the Father, He who in unmistakable terms has promised us the glorification that awaits us. “To them that love God all things work together unto good. . . . For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be made conformable to the image of His son. . . . And whom He predestined, them He also called. And whom He called, them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He also glorified” (Rom. 8: 28 ff.).

The fourth witness is Christ Jesus, who died, “yea, that is risen also again; who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Rom. 8:34). Since Christ’s love for us places our hope on such a firm foundation, it is only we who can fail. Nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39). The Father himself loves us, since we are branches of the vine, who is Christ Jesus. As the children of God we are entitled to share in His eternal glory, for since we are children, we are heirs, heirs of God and coheirs of Christ. The glory to come has not been made manifest to us, but we have the infallible hope of being made the children of God. We therefore await with fervent longing the day when the Lord will come, who will vest us, even according to our flesh, with the garments of His eternal glory. We are to be elevated above all things temporal and above the things of this world. We were made for eternity, for the life of eternal glory.

But “we suffer with Him that we may be also glorified with Him” (Rom. 8: 17). Here we see a picture of the Church on earth. “If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20). Jesus continues His life in us. His life on earth was one of suffering, of humiliation, and of misrepresentation. Men did not cease to persecute and calumniate Him until they had crucified Him. He died and was buried, and on the third day He arose from the dead vested in the garments of His glory. That life He continues to live in His Church and in us who are the members of His mystical body. The more we become one with Him, the more we must share His suffering. “We suffer with Him that we may be also glorified with Him.” Let us bear our cross cheerfully and in the spirit of fortitude, expecting the glory that will be revealed in us and being grateful that we have been allowed to walk the way of the cross with Christ. The crosses which we must carry are those of poverty, self-denial, humiliation, and rejection by the world. But Christ will return to fill us with His glory, and the promise of His coming will enlighten us and support us.

3. “We groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God, the redemption of our body.” Such is the attitude of the liturgy during the season after Pentecost. During this season the Church awaits the coming of her bridegroom and the time of her heavenly nuptials. Accepting the invitation of the Church, we raise our eyes above all that is temporal and fix them on the Lord, longing for His coming and for the brightness of His glorified body. “I expect the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come” (Credo).

The daily descent of our Lord in the Sacrifice of the Mass gives us a pledge of His second coming and of the manifestation of the glory that shall be revealed to us as the children of God. He comes in the fullness of His majesty, hidden as yet to our mortal eyes. During Holy Communion He impresses His glorified nature ever more deeply upon our souls, and we wait patiently and with holy longing for the day of the eternal communion, when we shall participate in the revelation of His glory. “The Lord is my firmament, and my refuge, and my deliverer; my God is my helper” (Communion).

PRAYER

We beseech Thee, O Lord, deign to accept our sacrifices so that having been reconciled to Thee, all our desires may by Thy mercy be conformed to Thy will. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The sufferings of this time

1. This week is a preparation for the feast of SS. Peter and Paul. As we follow them through their arduous apostolic careers, and when we see them suffering their cruel martyrdom at Rome, we become aware that their life of suffering for Christ was the source of their eternal glory. “The sufferings of this time are not worthy to ‘be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us” (Epistle).
2. The liturgy for the fourth Sunday after Pentecost tells us that the Church is hard pressed, for she herself speaks of being troubled by her enemies (Introit). The spirit of the world is restless and uneasy, and it resists the work of the Church. Although the Church labors ceaselessly, casting out her nets for the souls of men through the hands of her priests, missionaries, lay apostles, and manifold institutions, she yet appears to encounter failure after failure. She seeks to capture the souls of men that she may sanctify them and save them; but humanly speaking, she, like Peter, appears to have failed in her fishing. “We have labored all night and have taken nothing.” Among her own children there are many scandals, many apostates, much unfaithfulness, many traitors, many faithless ones, many sinners. These are some of the sufferings of the Church, the “sufferings of this time.” How manifold are the sufferings of her children! How great are the trials that beset the Christian from the cradle to the grave! Sometimes those who are least deserving of pain suffer the most. The nearer they approach God, the more thoroughly they are purified by the fire of suffering. The more earnestly they strive to serve God, the more they are misunderstood, despised, repudiated, and persecuted by the world. Sometimes they receive like treatment even from their friends. “Because … I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15: 19). Even those who are nearest to us and whom we justly hold in high esteem, desert us. Even those in whom we trusted consider themselves justified in deserting and rejecting us. These sufferings are certainly the deepest and most bitter.

Sometimes God Himself seems to have taken the side of our enemies. He often allows those who strive most honestly to serve Him to succumb to human frailty, commit foolish mistakes, contract imperfections, and compromise themselves in the eyes of others, so that their few remaining friends begin to waver. Within their souls they experience that fearful condition which makes them think that evil has re-entered their souls and brought ten other devils with it, and all good seems to have fled. Their power of resistance seems to have vanished; their imagination is plagued with vile pictures; their understanding of God and things spiritual is weakened; their will is indolent; their mind is dull; and their heart is devoid of devotion. To all this there is often added the feeling of having been forsaken by God. Such sufferings cannot be understood by anyone who has not experienced them; but we should not be surprised if they should come to us, for by our baptism we have committed ourselves to suffer and die with Christ that we might also rise with Him.

3. Compared to the glory we are to experience in the next world, the sufferings of this world are insignificant. Let us consider the life of St. Peter. During his earthly pilgrimage there was little in his life that was pleasing or beautiful. After the hard years of his life as a poor fisherman, he enjoys for a short time his close association with Christ. Those were his best years. His life as a missionary in Jerusalem, Antioch, and Rome was difficult, filled with bitter disappointments, beset by humiliation and persecution. Under the Emperor Nero his career is culminated by the crucifixion which Christ had foretold to him. “When thou wast younger, thou didst gird thyself and didst walk where thou wouldst. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee and lead thee whither thou wouldst not” (John21:18). But today he triumphs in the glory of eternal life, and the time of suffering is past. What he once considered a loss, has become his most precious gain. Through his crosses and sufferings he has merited a crown of everlasting glory. Therefore he stands before us and encourages us: “And who is he that can hurt you, if you be zealous of good? But if also you must suffer any thing for justice sake, blessed are ye. . . .

Dearly beloved, think not strange the burning heat which is to try you as if some new thing happened to you. But if you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that when his glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy” (I Peter, 3:13; 4:12).

Having been crucified with Christ in baptism, we offer ourselves daily, while assisting at Mass, as living sacrifices together with our Lord. His power is communicated to us daily in Holy Communion and in the many actual graces which we receive. Opportunities for taking up the cross and following Him are never wanting. But we have not yet learned to “glory in the cross” (Gal. 6: 14) and to rejoice in drinking of the chalice of suffering of Christ. In us the cross will not “be made void” (I Cor. 1: 17). It should influence our thoughts, our hearts and our lives. The spiritual life of the Church, of religious communities and of individual souls thrives on suffering. In the cross is salvation.

PRAYER

Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by Thee that Thy Church may joyfully serve Thee in quiet devotion. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

12: ST JOHN OF SAHAGUN (A.D. 1479)

THERE was an early Spanish martyr named Facundus, and he seems to have been adopted as patron by the abbey of Sahagun or San Fagondez in the kingdom of Leon. This locality was the birthplace of this John, and from it he derives his distinctive surname. His early education he received from the monks in the Benedictine monastery just mentioned. While he was yet a boy, his father, Don Juan Gonzalez de Castrillo, procured for him a small benefice, and when he was twenty the bishop of Burgos gave him a canonry in his cathedral, although the abbot of San Fagondez had already presented him with three other livings. Pluralism was one of the chief abuses of the age, but was leniently regarded in many quarters as being a necessary evil in view of the alleged meagreness of many stipends. John from his early youth led a moral, upright life-exemplary in the eyes of ordinary Christians-but as he grew older he was led by divine grace to see much that was imperfect in his conduct and to set himself seriously to amend. He had received the priesthood in 1445, and his conscience reproached him for disobeying the Church’s ordinances against pluralities. He accordingly resigned all his benefices except the chapel of St Agatha in Burgos. There he daily celebrated Mass, frequently catechized the ignorant, and preached, leading the while a very mortified life in evangelical poverty. Realizing the necessity for a sounder knowledge of theology, he then obtained the bishop’s permission to go to Salamanca University, where he studied for four years.

His course completed, he soon won a great reputation as a preacher and director of souls in the parish of St Sebastian, Salamanca, which he seems to have worked while holding one of the chaplaincies in the College of St Bartholomew. Nine years were thus spent, and then St John, faced with the ordeal of a severe operation, vowed that if his life were spared he would receive the religious habit. The operation having proved successful, he made his application to the superior of the local community of Augustinian friars, who admitted him with alacrity, for his merits were known to all. A year later, on August 28, 1464, he was professed. He had already so fully acquired the spirit of his rule that no one in the convent was more mortified, /526/ more obedient, more humble or more detached than he. He spoke with such eloquence and fervour that his sermons, coupled with his private exhortations, produced a complete reformation of manners in Salamanca. He had a wonderful gift for healing dissensions and succeeded in ending many of the feuds which were the bane of society, especially amongst the young nobles. Not only did he induce his penitents to forgive injuries and to forego revenge, but he led many of them to return good for evil.

Soon after his profession St John was appointed novice-master, an office he discharged with great wisdom. Seven times in succession he was definitor and he also became prior of Salamanca. It was a house which was famous for its discipline, and that discipline St John maintained far more by his example than by severity, for the high opinion everyone had of his sanctity lent the greatest weight to his advice and admonitions. He was, moreover, endowed with a judicious discernment and with a remarkable gift for reading the thoughts of his penitents. He heard the confessions of all who presented themselves, but was rigid in refusing, or at least deferring, absolution in the case of habitual sinners, or of ecclesiastics who did not live in accordance with the spirit of their profession. His fervour in offering the divine sacrifice edified all present, although his superior sometimes reproved him for the length of time he took in celebrating Mass. We are also told that he was one of those to whom it has been granted to behold with bodily eyes the human form of our Lord at the moment of consecration. The graces he received in his prayers and communions also gave him courage and eloquence in the pulpit. Without respect of persons he reproved vice in high places with a vigour which sometimes drew upon him persecution and even physical violence.

A sermon at Alba, in the course of which he sternly denounced rich landlords who oppressed their poor tenants, so enraged the Duke of Alba that he sent two assassins to kill the bold preacher, In the presence of their intended victim, however, the men were struck with remorse, confessed their errand and humbly implored his forgiveness. On another occasion certain women of the city whose loose life he had reproved attempted to stone him, and were only prevented from causing him grievous injury by the appearance of a patrol of archers. A prominent personage whose unblushing association with a woman not his wife was causing grave scandal in Salamanca was induced by St John to sever the connection entirely. The woman vowed vengeance on the holy man and it was generally believed that the disorder of which he died was occasioned by poison administered at her instigation. He passed away on June 11, 1479. He was glorified by many miracles, both before and after his death, and was canonized in 1690.

(Butler’s Lives of the Saints)

CHRIST IN THE HOME

BY RAOUL PLUS, S.J.

(1951)

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