Tag: sthermenegild

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One Minute Reflection – 13 April – ‘ … we lose our way when we do not look at Christ …’

Posted on by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 13 April – Easter Thursday – The Memorial of St Hermenegild (Died 585) Martyr, Confessor – Acts 8:26-40, John 20:
11-18 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

“But Mary stood at the sepulchre without, weeping.” – John 20:11

REFLECTION – “Why are you weeping?” You yourself are the cause of your tears, you are the one who makes yourself cry … You cry because you do not believe in Christ: believe and you will see Him. Christ is there; He never misses those who look for Him. “Why are you weeping?” Tears do not serve you any good; you need to have faith, a living faith and worthy of God. Do not think about mortal things and you will stop crying … Why should you be weeping for what makes others rejoice?

“Whom are you looking for?” Can you not see that Christ is the Strength of God that Christ is the Wisdom of God that Christ is Holiness, Christ is Chastity, Christ is Purity, Christ was born of a Virgin, Christ comes from the Father and is with the Father and is always in the Father – born and, therefore, not created, not rejected but always loved, True God from True God? “They have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they laid Him” You are mistaken woman, you think that Christ has been taken away from the tomb by others and you do not believe that He has risen by His Own Power. But no-one can take away the Power of God, no-one takes away the Wisdom of God, no-one can take away His venerable Chastity. Christ is not taken away from the tomb of the just man, nor from the intimacy of the Virgin, nor from the secrecy of her faithful soul and even if there were someone who wanted to take Him away, they could not take Him away.

So the Lord tells her: “Mary, look at Me.” As long as she does not believe, she is called “woman” when she begins to turn towards Him, she is called “Mary.” She receives the same name as the one who gave birth to Christ; for it is the soul that spiritually gives birth to Christ. “Look at Me,” He says. Whoever looks at Christ, amends their life – we lose our way when we do not look at Christ. Therefore, as she turns around, she sees Him and says: “Rabbouni, which means Teacher.” The one who looks, turns around; the one who turns around, is better able to lay hold; the one who sees, progresses. This is why she calls “Teacher” the One she thought was dead, she found the One she thought was lost!” —St Ambrose (340-397) Bishop of Milan, Father and Doctor of the Church (Treatise on Virginity 17-21).

PRAYER – OGod, Who didst teach Thy blessed Martyr Hermenegild to choose a heavenly, rather than an earthly crown, grant, we beseech Thee, that we, like him, may so pass through temporal things that we finally miss not those which are eternal. Through esus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 13 April – St Hermenegild (Died 585) Martyr, Confessor

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint of the Day – 13 April – St Hermenegild (Died 585) Martyr, Confessor, King. Born in Toletum, Vmodern Spain and died on 13 April 585 by beheading. Also known as Hermengild, Ermengild, Ermengildo.

The Roman Martyrology reads: “At Seville in Spain, St Hermenegild, son of Leovigild, Arian King of the Visigoths, who was incarcerated for the confession of the Catholic Faith. By order of his wicked father, he was beheaded because he had refused to receive communion from an Arian Bishop, on the Paschal Solemnity and thus exchanging an earthly for a heavenly Kingdom, he entered the abode of the blessed, both as a King and as a Martyr.”

Leogild, King of the Visigoths, had two sons, Hermenegild and Recared, who reigned jointly with him. All three were Arians but Hermenegild married a. zealous Catholic, the daughter of Sigebert, King of France and by her holy example he was converted to theTrue Faith.

The Baptism of St Hermenegild attr to Guercino 17th Century

His father, on hearing the news, denounced him as a traitor and marched to seize his person. Hermenegild tried to rally the Catholics of Spain in his defence but they were too weak to make any stand and, after a two year fruitless struggle, he surrendered on the assurance of a free pardon.

When safely in the royal camp, his father the King had him loaded with fetters and cast into a foul dungeon at Seville. Tortures and bribes were in turn employed to shake his faith but Hermenegild wrote to his father that he held the Crown as nothing and preferred to lose sceptre and life. rather than betray the Truth of God.

At length, on Easter night, an Arian Bishop entered his cell and promised him his father’s pardon if he would but receive Communion at his hands. Hermenegild indignantly rejected the offer and knelt with joy for his death-stroke.

The same night a light streaming from his cell told the Christians who were watching near by that the Martyr had won his crown and was keeping his Easter with the Saviour and His Saints in glory.

El Triunfo de San Hermenegildo by Francisco Herrera the Younger (1654)

Leovigild on his death-bed, although still an Arian, bade Recared seek out St Leander, whom he had himself cruelly persecuted and, following Hermenegild’s example, be was received by St Leander into the Church. Recared did so too and on his father’s death, laboured so earnestly for the extirpation of Arianism that he brought over the whole nation of the Visigoths to the One True Church.

“Nor is it to be wondered,” says St Gregory, “that he came thus to be a preacher of the True Faith, seeing that he was brother of a Martyr, whose merits did help him to bring so many into the lap of God’s Church.”