Vol 9 Issue 25 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
June 18, 2016 ~ Saint Ephrem, opn!

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (73)
2. Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
3. St Juliana Falconieri
4. Christ in the Home (47)
5. Articles and notices

Dear Reader:

The third Sunday of June has been designated as Father’s Day. It is near impossible to find true fathers, but those who are should be honored and given the respect they deserve. Today’s society does everything to destroy the role of the father and unfortunately fathers are only too willing to neglect their responsibility. Saint Joseph received the role of being a foster father to the Christ Child and there is nothing other that he is known for except that of what he did to provide for the Holy Family: a carpenter. It is the same for all true Fathers. Taking on the responsibility to be a husband and father means taking on the responsibility to guide, provide and protect for the rest of his life. His whole sanctification, i.e, eternal salvation, is bound up in fulfilling that obligation. He decides—yes, with his wife but not absolutely dependent on her assent—the daily life of the family, knowing that he has this obligation to bring his family up in a descent domestic atmosphere that engenders sanctity. The pressure is upon him and he must not fail to see that there is everything the family needs every day. As it is addressed to our Father in heaven, Give us this day our daily bread, so it is addressed by the children and wife the same, to provide that daily bread. A father who does not do so fails his family and the examples of fathers who do the most strenuous work and humblest tasks to make sure their family has those basic needs expected from him are the men that are respected. The father who teaches and leads his children in the various tasks and life skills, including prayer and attendance at holy Mass, is found beloved by his children because they understand that the only concern of the father is they, the children. The father who gives his life to protect his family is honored as the hero in the life of the children. Fathers must never let the world take away their role. The wife should never attempt to take away from the man his role. The wife is not the husband, the woman is not the man, the mother is not the father and cannot be. A man must understand, then, that a woman expects that a true man will take care of her for the rest of her life once he becomes a father. Those men who betray this trust negate even the most innate qualities of humanity—but this is where the world, the flesh and the devil has led far too many. These men are not fathers, but the cruelest of monsters.  That is why they abandon their children, force mothers to abort, and don’t stop at just one woman, but feel impelled to continue their horrendous acts. The devil and his world might portray these monsters as normal, but it shows the hideousness of the world itself. May our true fathers have the grace to live up to fatherhood, teach their sons to be true men and inspire their daughters to seek out a real man that will also be a father and husband. Saint Joseph, pray for our fathers!

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

Pope Pius XII, in his encyclical, Mystici Corporis, of June 29, 1943, brings forth the effects of Baptism:

Now we see that the human body is given the proper means to provide for its own life, health and growth, and for that of all its members. Similarly, the Savior of mankind out of His infinite goodness has provided in a wonderful way for His Mystical Body, endowing it with the Sacraments, so that, as though by an uninterrupted series of graces, its members should be sustained from birth to death, and that generous provision might be made for the social needs of the Church. Through the waters of Baptism those who are born into this world dead in sin are not only born again and made members of the Church, but being stamped with a spiritual seal they become able and fit to receive the other Sacraments. By the chrism of Confirmation, the faithful are given added strength to protect and defend the Church, their Mother, and the faith she has given them. In the Sacrament of Penance a saving medicine is offered for the members of the Church who have fallen into sin, not only to provide for their own health, but to remove from other members of the Mystical Body all danger of contagion, or rather to afford them an incentive to virtue, and the example of a virtuous act. (Par. 18)

He continues to elaborate that Baptism makes one a member of the Mystical Body of Christ unless one afterwards separates oneself by grave sin, schism or heresy: 

Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed. “For in one spirit” says the Apostle, “were we all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free.”[ I Cor., XII, 13.] As therefore in the true Christian community there is only one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one Baptism, so there can be only one faith. [Cf. Eph., IV, 5.] And therefore, if a man refuse to hear the Church, let him be considered – so the Lord commands – as a heathen and a publican. [Cf. Matth., XVIII, 17.] It follows that those who are divided in faith or government cannot be living in the unity of such a Body, nor can they be living the life of its one Divine Spirit. (Par. 22; cf. DB 2286)

Nor must one imagine that the Body of the Church, just because it bears the name of Christ, is made up during the days of its earthly pilgrimage only of members conspicuous for their holiness, or that it consists only of those whom God has predestined to eternal happiness. It is owing to the Savior’s infinite mercy that place is allowed in His Mystical Body here below for those whom, of old, He did not exclude from the banquet. [Cf. Matth., IX, 11; Mark, II, 16; Luke, XV, 2.] For not every sin, however grave it may be, is such as of its own nature to sever a man from the Body of the Church, as does schism or heresy or apostasy. Men may lose charity and divine grace through sin, thus becoming incapable of supernatural merit, and yet not be deprived of all life if they hold fast to faith and Christian hope, and if, illumined from above, they are spurred on by the interior promptings of the Holy Spirit to salutary fear and are moved to prayer and penance for their sins. (Par. 23)

. . . . For while fulfilling His [Christ] office as preacher He chose Apostles, sending them as He had been sent by the Father [John, XVII, 18.]—namely, as teachers, rulers, instruments of holiness in the assembly of the believers; He appointed their Chief and His Vicar on earth; [Cf. Matth., XVI, 18-19.] He made known to them all things and whatsoever He had heard from His Father; [John, XV, 15; XVII, 8 and 14.] He also determined that through Baptism [Cf. John, III, 5.] those who should believe would be incorporated in the Body of the Church; and finally, when He came to the close of His life, He instituted at the Last Supper the wonderful Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Eucharist. (Par. 23)

Finally, Pius XII later returns to that union with Christ through Baptism:

There never was a time, Venerable Brethren, when the salvation of souls did not impose on all the duty of associating their sufferings with the torments of our Divine Redeemer. But today that duty is more clear than ever, when a gigantic conflict has set almost the whole world on fire and leaves in its wake so much death, so much misery, so much hardship; in the same way today, in a special manner, it is the duty of all to fly from vice, the attraction of the world, the unrestrained pleasures of the body, and also from worldly frivolity and vanity which contribute nothing to the Christian training of the soul nor to the gaining of Heaven. Rather let those weighty words of Our immortal predecessor Leo the Great be deeply engraven upon our minds, that by Baptism we are made flesh of the Crucified: [Cf. Serm., LXIII, 6; LXVI, 3: Migne, P.L., LIV, 357 and 366.] and that beautiful prayer of St. Ambrose: “Carry me, Christ, on the Cross, which is salvation to the wanderers, sole rest for the wearied, wherein alone is life for those who die.”[ In Ps., 118, XXII, 30: Migne, P.L., XV, 1521.]

An error that was being introduced by the New Modernists, a rejection of the absolute institution of the Seven Sacraments by Christ, was the universal priesthood of those who were baptized, and from whose consent—i.e., the baptized—certain members were chosen to perform certain actions, but of which all participate and therefore without the presence of other baptized no “ordained” priest could offer the Eucharist. Here are Pius XII’s words from his encyclical, Mediator Dei, of November 20, 1947:

Yet, because the faithful in Christ participate in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, they do not on this account enjoy sacerdotal power. It is indeed quite necessary that you keep this clearly before the eyes of your flocks.

For there are those . . . who today revive errors long since condemned, [Cf. Council of Trent, Sess. 23. c. 4.] and teach that in the New Testament the name “priesthood” includes all who have been cleansed by the water of baptism; and likewise that that precept by which Jesus Christ at the Last Supper entrusted to the apostles the doing of what He Himself had done, pertained directly to the entire Church of the faithful in Christ; and that hence, and hence only, has arisen the hierarchical priesthood. Therefore, they imagine that the people enjoy true sacerdotal power, but that the priest acts only by virtue of an office delegated by the community. So they believe that the Eucharistic Sacrifice is truly called a “concelebration,” and they think that it is more expedient for priests standing together with the people to “concelebrate” than to offer the Sacrifice privately in the absence of the people. (Par. 82-83; cf. DB 2300.)

As baptism separates those who are baptized from those who are not, so sacred orders separates those who can offer sacrifice from those who cannot properly speaking.

The Church teaching regarding baptism is once more given when, even though sects contain nothing closely resembling the Catholic Faith except that of fulfilling the command of Christ to baptize do baptize, the baptized cannot be re-baptized. That is, they do not need a clear concept of Original Sin or of the Church teaching regarding Baptism. The Response of the Holy Office, December 28, 1949, answered in this understanding and as has always been taught:

To this Supreme Sacred Congregation . . . the question has been proposed: 

“Whether, in judging matrimonial cases, baptism conferred in the sects of the Disciples of Christ, the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists, when the necessary matter and form have been used, is to be presumed as invalid because of the lack of the required intention in the minister of doing what the Church does, or what Christ instituted; or whether it is to be presumed as valid unless in a particular case it is proven to the contrary.” 

The reply: In the negative to the first part; in the affirmative to the second.(Cf. DB 2304)

In this teaching it is not possible to re-baptize even those baptized in the Conciliar Church, for as they may error in faith, they do not error in matter and form. Those who do so must understand that they are doing so in opposition to Church teaching, which professes one baptism for the forgiveness of sins and has condemned, since St. Cyril of Carthage and Donatus, all who would dare re-baptize.

It would be proper to also return to the decision of the Holy Office regarding Leonard Feeny and the St. Benedict Center regarding Baptism and Salvation in its decree of July 27, 1949 (Suprema haec Sacra):

We are bound by divine and Catholic faith to believe all those things which are contained in the word of God, whether it be Scripture or Tradition, and are proposed by the Church to be believed as divinely revealed, not only through solemn judgement but also through the ordinary and universal teaching office (Denziger, n. 1792).

Now, among those things which the Church has always preached and will never cease to preach is contained also that infallible statement by which we are taught that there is no salvation outside the Church.

However, this dogma must be understood in that sense in which the Church herself understands it. For, it was not to private judgments that Our Saviour gave for explanation those things that are contained in the deposit of faith, but to the teaching authority of the Church.

Now, in the first place, the Church teaches that in this matter there is question of a most strict command of Jesus Christ. For He explicitly enjoined on his apostles to teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever He Himself had commanded (Matt., 28:19-20). Now, among the commandments of Christ, that one holds not the least place, by which we are commanded to be incorporated by Baptism into the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, and to remain united to Christ and to His Vicar, through whom He Himself in a visible manner governs the Church on earth.

Therefore, no one will be saved who, knowing the Church to have been divinely established by Christ, nevertheless refuses to submit to the Church or withholds obedience from the Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ on earth.

Not only did the Savior command that all nations should enter the Church, but He also decreed the Church to be a means of salvation, without which no one can enter the kingdom of eternal glory.

In His infinite mercy God has willed that the effects, necessary for one to be saved, of those helps to salvation which are directed toward man’s final end, not by intrinsic necessity, but only by divine institution, can also be obtained in certain circumstances when those helps are used only in desire and longing. This we see clearly stated in the Sacred Council of Trent, both in reference to the Sacrament of Regeneration and in reference to the Sacraments of Penance (Denziger, nn. 797, 807).

The same in its own degree must be asserted of the Church, in as far as she is the general help to salvation. Therefore, that one may obtain eternal salvation, it is not always required that he be incorporated into the Church actually as a member, but it is necessary that at least he be united to her by desire and longing.

However, this desire need not always be explicit, as it is in catechumens; but when a person is involved in invincible ignorance, God accepts also an implicit desire, so called because it is included in that good disposition of soul whereby a person wishes his will to be conformed to the will of God.

These things are clearly taught in that dogmatic letter which was issued by the Sovereign Pontiff, Pope Pius XII, on June 29, 1943, “On the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ.” (AAS, Vol. 35, an. 1943, p. 193 ff.) For in this letter the Sovereign Pontiff clearly distinguishes between those who are actually incorporated into the Church as members, and those who are united to the Church only by desire.

Discussing the members of which the Mystical Body is composed here on earth, the same August Pontiff says: “Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed.”

Toward the end of this same Encyclical Letter, when most affectionately inviting to unity those who do not belong to the body of the Catholic Church, he mentions those who “are related to the Mystical Body of the Redeemer by a certain unconscious yearning and desire,” and these he by no means excludes from eternal salvation, but on the other hand states that they are in a condition “in which they cannot be sure of their salvation” since “they still remain deprived of those many heavenly gifts and helps which can only be enjoyed in the Catholic Church” (AAS, loc. cit., 342)

With these wise words he reproves both those who exclude from eternal salvation all united to the Church only by implicit desire, and those who falsely assert that men can be saved equally well in every religion (cf. Pope Pius IX, Allocution “Singulari quadam,” in Denziger, nn. 1642, ff. – also Pope Pius IX in the Encyclical Letter “Quanto conficiamur mœrore” in Denzinger, n. 1677).

But it must not be thought that any kind of desire of entering the Church suffices that one may be saved. It is necessary that the desire by which one is related to the Church be animated by perfect charity. Nor can an implicit desire produce its effect, unless a person has supernatural faith: “For he who comes to God must believe that God exists and is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Hebrews, 11:6). The Council of Trent declares (Session VI, chap. 8): “Faith is the beginning of man’s salvation, the foundation and root of all justification, without which it is impossible to please God and attain to fellowship of His children” (Denz., n. 801)

Having reviewed the numerous Church documents concerning Baptism, one can see the practical application in both Canon Law and in the Church Ritual regarding Baptism. This will be the topic of the next sections.

(To be continued)

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Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Benedict Baur, O.S.B. 

“Blessed are the peacemakers”

1. “If therefore thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee, leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother; and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift” (Gospel).
2. “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matt. 5:9). Our Lord and Savior knows no “eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” Rather He came into this world as the prince of peace. “On earth peace to men of good will” (Luke 2: 14), sang the angels on the holy night of His birth. “Peace be to you” (John 20:21), He greets His apostles. When leaving this world He leaves His peace with us. He commands His apostles to bring peace into the houses they enter (Matt. 10: 12). Their feet should be “shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Eph.6:15). “The peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding” (Phil. 4:7), is the end of their apostolic work. Christ Himself is the living peace. His soul knows no storms. but only the strong and deep peace of being safe in God. Even when His enemies speak evil against Him, even when they annoy Him and offend Him, even when they scourge Him, and crown Him with thorns, and crucify Him, He is neither excited nor disturbed. His life always is a life of peace. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Indeed, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

“If thou offer thy gift at the altar.” We daily offer our gift of bread and wine at the altar, and with bread and wine we offer ourselves and our will to live entirely for God. We are most sincere in our self-immolation. We expect, therefore, His countenance to shine graciously upon us, as it once shone upon Abel’s sacrifice. “For God loveth a cheerful giver” (II Cor. 9:7). But there is another dark shadow on our soul; perhaps we are troubled by some tension, some ill-feeling, some discord with our brother, perhaps on account of a mere trifle. The guilt is, to some degree at least, on our side. Neither will speak the first word of peace. The world is big enough that we can avoid each other and find our way to God without our brother. One enmity or friendship more or less can hardly matter. Thus we come to the altar asking God’s blessing; but there awaits us an unexpected reception: “Leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother.”

“Blessed are the peacemakers.” They alone will reap the full blessing of the Holy Sacrifice. No one can celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass and gain its blessing for his own self alone without his brother. The Mass is, by its very essence, the sacrifice of the entire body of Christ united in holy love, a sacrifice of the community. Together we pray; together we sacrifice; together the priest and the entire congregation offer to God this divine gift. We offer this sacrifice for all here present, for the entire Catholic Church in the whole world. How could we possibly offer this sacrifice worthily if we, through our own guilt, are the cause of discord with only one member of this community. If, during the day, we want to offer our efforts, work, and sufferings to God, but live, through our own guilt, in disharmony with a brother in Christ, we shall hear again: “Leave there thy offering. I am not inclined to accept it.” And coming to the tabernacle, offering Him our heart, we shall hear again: “Leave there thy offering. It cannot please Me. Go first to be reconciled to thy brother. Make peace.” The altar is a place of peace. He who lives in discord is not allowed to approach it.

3. How few there are who take the Lord’s warning seriously! “If thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee, leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother.” There is too much excitement, nervousness, tension, and discord among those who sacrifice even daily, too much of the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” attitude of the Old Testament. Is it not time for us to take our Lord’s warning seriously? Is He not bound to tell us, when we come to the Holy Sacrifice: Either have peace with thy brother, or keep thy offering? It is love toward our neighbor that counts.

“Except your justice abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Gospel). Wherein is our justice and piety tested? It is tested in our will to love our brother and work with him. Love opens the door to the altar, to the common sacrifice of Christ and His Church, to the reception of Holy Communion.

PRAYER

We beseech Thee, O Lord, to look down upon our prayers and graciously accept these gifts of Thy servants and handmaids, that what each has offered to the honor of Thy name may profit all unto salvation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The love of God and our neighbor

1. Today’s liturgy combines the love of God and of our neighbor. The prayers of the Church earnestly ask for a love of God by which we can love Him above all things and in all things. The Epistle and Gospel urge us to love our neighbor, for the love of God and of our neighbor cannot be separated.
2. “If any man say: I love God, and hateth his brother; he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God, whom he seeth not?” (I John 4:20). Why must this be so? Because the love of God and of neighbor are one and the same love. We love our brother for the sake of God, that is, with the same love with which we love God and Christ. Taking more than a merely human viewpoint, we look at man with the eyes of God and see in him a child of God, in whom the Father is well pleased. We see in him the soul redeemed by the blood of the Savior, the soul for which the Son of God became man and was lifted up on the cross, the soul for which He instituted the Church and the sacraments. Seeing in our fellow man a member of the body of Christ, we know that whatever we do to the member we do to the head, which is Christ the Lord. “Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me.” And likewise: “Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me” (Matt. 25:40, 45). This is the chief characteristic of Christian charity: it is inseparably united with our love for God and Christ. Reminding us of this unity, the Mass for the fifth Sunday after Pentecost tells us that we can love God and the Savior only in so far as we love our brother. For he who does not love his brother, cannot love God.

“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). How faithfully and devotedly Jesus has loved us! So we, too, must love our brother and our sister, both as regards their temporal welfare and as regards the care of their soul and their eternal salvation. Who will fulfill this commandment of the Lord? Since self-love is evidently the greatest foe of charity, only he can fulfill this command who has conquered self-love, which makes us so self-centered that it causes us to look upon our neighbor as a stranger for whom we need have no concern. It stirs within us the spirit of egoism, jealousy, pride, envy, and hatred, rendering impossible any perfect love towards our fellow man. It leads us to commit a thousand offenses against charity, for it makes us insensible, cold, ill-disposed, unjust, partial, bitter. If we, therefore, wish to fulfill the commandment of Christian charity, we must die to the love of self; this we will do only in so far as we are filled with love for God and Christ. The love of God and the love of self are like the two arms of a scale; the one can go up only if the other goes down. The love of self disappears in the same degree as the love for God fills our soul. For this reason the love of our neighbor can be practised only if we have true love for God. The more perfectly we possess this love of God, the more perfectly we will also practise the love of our neighbor; these two belong so in separably together that the love of our neighbor will be possible only if we have the love of God within us.

3. “Pour forth Thy love into our hearts” that we may love Thee “in all things and above all things” (Collect). If the love of God is within us, we will also love our neighbor. Then we will be “all of one mind, having compassion one of another, being lovers of the brotherhood, merciful, modest, humble; not rendering evil for evil, nor railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing” each other, “for unto this [we] are called, that [we] may inherit a blessing.” Then we shall also “refrain [our] tongue from evil, and [our] lips that they speak no guile” (Epistle).

“Except your justice abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Gospel). What is it that makes Christian justice and perfection tower so far above the so-called justice of the scribes and Pharisees? Is it not that we take the proper attitude toward charity. “You have heard that it was said to them of old:

Thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment. . . . And whosoever shall say: Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire” (Gospel). “A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John13:34).

The measure of our love for God and our Savior, of our entire interior life, and of our piety, is determined by the degree of our charity towards our fellow man. “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not, abideth in death” (I John 3: 14).

PRAYER

O God, who hast prepared invisible goods for those who love Thee, pour forth Thy love into our hearts, that loving Thee in all things and above all things, we may be worthy to receive Thy promises, which exceed all our desires. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

19: ST JULIANA FALCONIERI, Virgin, Foundress of the Servite Nuns (A.D. 1341)

ST JULIANA was one of the two glories of the noble family of the Falconieri, the other being her uncle, St Alexis, one of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order. Her father, Chiarissimo, and her mother, Riguardata, were a devout couple of great wealth who had built at their own cost the magnificent church of the Annunziata in Florence. They were childless and already well advanced in age when, in 1270, Juliana was born—the answer to prayer. After the death of her father, which occurred while she was still quite young, her uncle Alexis shared with Riguardata the direction of her upbringing. She never cared for the amusements and occupations which interested other girls, but loved to spend her time in prayer and in church. Sometimes, indeed, her mother would tell her that if she continually neglected her needle and spinning-wheel she would never find a husband. The threat, however, had no terror for Juliana, and when she found that her relations were trying to arrange a suitable match for her she expressed her determination to consecrate herself to God and to renounce the world. She was then fifteen. After being carefully instructed by her uncle Alexis, she was invested with the Servite habit by St Philip Benizi in the church of the Annunziata, and a year later she was professed a tertiary of the order.

The ritual employed on this occasion appears to have been identical with that used in the profession of a Servite brother. Juliana continued to live at home, and Riguardata, who had originally opposed her profession, ended by placing herself under her daughter’s direction. Bereft of her mother in 1304, when she was thirty-four, Juliana moved to another house, where she led a community life with a number of women who devoted themselves to prayer and works of mercy. Their habit resembled that of the men of the Servite Order, but to facilitate their work they wore short sleeves, which caused them to be nicknamed “Mantellate”, a term subsequently applied to women tertiaries in general. With great reluctance Juliana accepted the post of superior at the urgent desire of her companions. For /581/ them she drew up a code of regulations which was formally confirmed 120 years later for their successors by Pope Martin V. Just as the Order of the Servants of Mary is commonly ascribed to St Philip Benizi because he framed their constitutions, so also for the same reason St Juliana is honoured as a foundress by all the women religious of the Servite Order, although she was not the first to be admitted into its ranks.

Those who were her contemporaries and were privileged to live under her guidance testified that she outstripped them all in her zeal, her charity and her austerities. Her sympathies extended to all with whom she came into contact, nor did she ever let slip an opportunity of helping others, especially when it was a question of reconciling enemies, of reclaiming sinners and of relieving the sick. Her mortifications seriously impaired her health, and towards the close of her life she suffered much from gastric derangement. She had been in the habit of making her communion three times a week, and it was a source of deep sorrow to her in her last illness that her frequent attacks of sickness precluded her from receiving the sacrament of the altar. Juliana died in 1341, in her seventy-first year, and she was canonized in 1737.

In the collect appointed for St Juliana’s feast reference is made to the eucharistic miracle by which she is said to have been comforted in her last moments. In memory of this also the members of her order wear upon the left breast of their habit the device of a Host surrounded with rays. It is stated that a document is still in existence which claims to have been drawn up and witnessed eighteen days later by those who were present at her death-bed. The original is in Latin, but it may be translated as follows:

“He hath made a memorial of His wonderful works” [Ps. cx. 4]. Let it be placed on record how eighteen days ago our Sister Juliana died and flew to heaven with her spouse Jesus; and it was in this manner.

Being more than seventy years old her stomach had become so weakened from her voluntary sharp penances, from fasts, from chains, from an iron girdle, disciplines, nightly vigils and spare diet, that she was no longer able to take or retain food. When she knew that because of this she must be deprived of the viaticum of the most sacred Body of Christ, no one could believe how much she grieved and wept, so much so that they were afraid she would die from the vehemence of her sorrow.

She, therefore, most humbly begged Father James de Campo Reggio that at least he would bring the most holy sacrament in a pyx and set it before her, and this was done. But when the priest appeared carrying the Body of our Lord, she straightway prostrated herself upon the ground in the form of a cross and adored her Master.

Then her face became like the face of an angel. She desired, since she was not allowed to unite herself to Jesus, at least to kiss Him, but this the priest refused. She then begged piteously that over the burning furnace of her breast they would spread a veil upon which they might put the Host. This was granted her. But—O wonderful prodigy!—scarcely had the Host touched this loving heart than it was lost to sight and never more was found. Then Juliana, when the Host had disappeared, with a tender and joyous face, as if she were rapt in ecstasy, died in the kiss of her Lord, to the amazement and admiration of those who were present—to wit, of Sister Joanna, Sister Mary, Sister Elizabeth, Father James and others of the house. (Butler’s Lives of the Saints)

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