Santorale anglicano

[Dreyer]

January 30

Charles, King and Martyr, 1649

[Dreyer]

February 2

The Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple

[Dreyer]

February 3

Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary in Denmark and Sweden, 865

Anskar (in Latin, Ansgarius) was a monk of Saxon family, born in 801 (the
year after the crowning of Charlemagne). In 826, when King Harald of
Denmark asked Charlemagne's successors for missionaries, Anskar led a group
to Denmark, and a few years later to Sweden. Because of unsettled political
conditions, his work ran into difficulties, and Anskar withdrew into Germany,
where he served as first Archbishop of Hamburg. Later, however, he helped to
consecrate Gotbert, the first bishop of Sweden. The Church of Sweden honors him as its apostle, and he serves as symbol of the historic friendship and present-day connection between the Anglican Churches and the Church of Sweden. [James Kiefer]

[Dreyer]

February 4

Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189

Born in 1083 in Sempringham, the son of the squire, Gilbert became the parish
priest in 1131. He encouraged the vocation of seven women of the town and
formed them into a company of lay sisters. A group of lay brothers also came
into being and they all kept the Benedictine Rule. Gilbert was unsuccessful in
his bid to obtain pastoral guidance from C teaux for the incipient
communities and they came under the ambit of Augustinian canons, Gilbert himself becoming the Master. At Gilbert's death in 1189, aged 106, there were nine double monasteries in England and four of male canons only. It was the only purely English monastic foundation before the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the sixteenth century. [Exciting Holiness]

[Dreyer]

February 5

The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

[Dreyer]

February 10

Scholastica, sister of Benedict, Abbess of Plombariola, c.543

Our only source of information on the life of Benedict of Nursia (480?-547?) is the second book of the Dialogues of Pope Geogory the Great (540-604). This work dates from less than 50 years after the death of Benedict and is based upon the reminiscences of persons who knew the Abbot, yet it is not history or biography in our modern sense. Instead it is intended as an edifying and didactic tale illustrating the means by which humans journey towards God.

Benedict, whose name in Latin means "Blessed," was born to a Christian
family in the mountains to the northeast of Rome. The Roman Empire was
crumbling and the Goths and Vandals controlled Italy. As a youth, he was
sent to Rome for schooling and there experienced a religious awakening
which caused him to renounce corrupt secular society and to join a band of
Christian ascetics. He later became a hermit, living in the hill region of
Subiaco. His fame as a holy person grew until he was importuned to become
the abbot of a group of monks, who eventually became so peeved by his
reforming zeal that they attempted to poison him. Benedict left them to
their evil ways and began organizing groups of his own followers into small
monasteries. In about A.D. 529, he and a few disciples came to the mountain
above the city of Cassino where they established the monastery now known as Montecassino. This is probably where he wrote the monastic Rule, the only
document which remains to us from his hand. Benedict's death occurred about
547, and tradition tells us he died standing before the altar, supported by
his brothers, a model of fidelity and perseverance for all of his followers.

Scholastica is, according to tradition, the twin sister of Benedict. She is
a shadowy figure whom we know from a single charming story in the
Dialogues. She led some form of consecrated life with a group of Christian
women. Gregory tells us that yearly she journeyed to meet her brother at a
small house midway between their residences. On one momentous occasion, as evening fell, Benedict packed up his monks to return to the monastery from
which, according to his own Rule, he was not permitted to be absent
overnight. Scholastica begged him to make an exception and stay over so
that they could continue their holy conversation. When Benedict refused,
Scholastica wept and prayed and immediately such a torrent of rain fell
that no one could leave the house. As Gregory says, the woman's prayers
prevailed with God because her love was the greater. When Scholastica died,
Benedict had her body brought to Montecassino and placed in his own tomb.
Scholastica's name means "she who has leisure to devote to study." Some
skeptical historians have suggested that she is only a literary device: a
personification of the Benedictine practice of reflective study. She
remains very real, however, to Benedictine women, with the reality which
can transcend simple historical existence, as a model of the feminine
aspects of Benedictine monasticism, and an example of the power of the soul
who loves God. [Sr. Margaret Clarke, O.S.B.; College of Saint Scholastica,
http://news.css.edu/about/benandschol.shtml]

[Dreyer]

February 12

The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

[Dreyer]

February 13

Absalom Jones, Priest, 1818

In 1786 the membership of St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in
Philadelphia included both blacks and whites. However, the white members
met that year and decided that thereafter black members should sit only in the balcony. Two black Sunday school teachers, Absalom Jones (1746-1818) and Richard Allen (1760-1830), learned of the decision only when, on the
following Sunday, ushers tapped them on the shoulder during the opening
prayers, and demanded that they move to the balcony without waiting for the
end of the prayer. They walked out, followed by the other black members.
Absalom Jones conferred with William White, Episcopal Bishop of
Philadelphia, who agreed to accept the group as an Episcopal parish. Jones
would serve as lay reader, and, after a period of study, would be ordained and
serve as rector. Allen wanted the group to remain Methodist, and in 1793 he
left to form a Methodist congregation. In 1816 he left the Methodists to form a new denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Jones
(ordained deacon and priest in 1795 and 1802) and Allen (ordained deacon and elder in 1799 and 1816) were the first two black Americans to receive formal ordination in any denomination.

[Dreyer]

February 14

Cyril and Methodius, Missionaries to the Slavs, 869 and 885

Cyril (originally Constantine) and Methodius were brothers, from a noble
family in Thessalonika, a district in northeastern Greece. Constantine was the
younger, born in about 827, and his brother Methodius in about 825. They
both entered the priesthood. Constantine undertook a mission to the Arabs,
and then became a professor of philosophy at the imperial school in
Constantinople and librarian at the cathedral of Santa Sophia. Methodius
became governor of a district that had been settled by Slavs. Both brothers
then retired to monastic life. In about 861, the Emperor Michel III sent them to work with the Khazars northeast of the Black Sea in the Dnieper-Volga region of what was later Russia. They learned the Khazar language and made many converts, and discovered what were believed to be relics of Clement, an early Bishop of Rome.

In about 863, Prince Rotislav, the ruler of Great Moravia (in today's Czech
Republic), asked the emperor for missionaries, specifying that he wanted
someone who would teach his people in their own language (he had western
missionaries, but they used only Latin). The emperor and the Patriarch Photius
sent Methodius and his brother Constantine, who translated the Liturgy and
much of the Scriptures into Slavonic.
Since Slavonic had no written form, they invented an alphabet for it, the
Glagolitic alphabet, which gave rise to the Cyrillic alphabet (named for Cyril),
which is used to write Russian and (with modifications) several related
languages today. Thus the brothers were the first to produce written material in the Slavic languages, and are regarded as the founders of Slavic literature.
The brothers encountered missionaries from Germany, representing the
western or Latin branch of the Church, and more particularly representing the
Holy Roman Empire as founded by Charlemagne, and committed to linguistic,
and cultural uniformity. They insisted on the use of the Latin liturgy, and they
regarded Moravia and the Slavic peoples as their rightful mission field. When
friction developed, the brothers, unwilling to be a cause of dissension among
Christians, went south toward Venice, and then from Venice to Rome to see
the Pope, hoping to reach an agreement that would avoid quarreling between
missionaries in the field. They brought with them the above-mentioned relics of Clement, third bishop of Rome after the Apostles (see 23 November). They
arrived in Rome in 868 and were received with honor. Constantine entered a
monastery there, taking the name Cyril, by which he is now remembered.
However, he died only a few weeks thereafter. He is buried in Rome in the
Church of San Clemente.

The Pope (Adrian II) gave Methodius the title of Archbishop of Sirmium (now
Sremska Mitrovica in Yugoslavia) and sent him back in 869, with jurisdiction
over all of Moravia and Pannonia, and authorization to use the Slavonic
Liturgy. Soon, however, Prince Rotislav, who had originally invited the
brothers to Moravia, died, and his successor did not support Methodius. In 870 the Frankish king Louis and his bishops deposed Methodius at a synod at
Ratisbon, and imprisoned him for a little over two years. The pope (John VIII)
secured his release, but told him not to use the Slavonic Liturgy any more. In
878 he was summoned to Rome on charges of heresy and using Slavonic. This
time Pope John was convinced by his arguments and sent him back cleared of
all charges, and with permission to use Slavonic. He died 6 April 885 in
Velehrad, the old capitol of Moravia. The Carolingian bishop who succeeded
him, Wiching, suppressed the Slavonic Liturgy and forced the followers of
Methodius into exile. Many found refuge with King Boris of Bulgaria (852-889), under whom they reorganized a Slavic-speaking Church.

Meanwhile, Pope John's successors adopted a Latin-only policy which lasted
for centuries.
Today Cyril and Methodius are honored by Eastern and Western Christians
alike, and the importance of their work in preaching and worshiping in the
language of the people is recognized on all sides. [James Kiefer, abridged]