June 19th - Sts. Gervase and Protase & Juliana Falconieri

[Stone]

June 19 – Sts. Gervase and Protase, Martyrs

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

There being but a simple commemoration made to day of these two glorious brethren, whose names were formerly so celebrated throughout the West, must not lessen their merit in our eyes. The Holy Spirit, whose function it is to maintain within the Bride of Jesus that divine mark of Holiness, whereby she is to be, up to the day of doom, forever recognisable both to angels and to men, ceases not in every generation to raise up new saints, who more especially attract the devout homage of that particular period to which their virtues have served as an example, and of which they are the distinctive glory. But while in thus honoring these children of hers, whose brilliant virtues add fresh jewels to her vesture, holy Church is moved by a sentiment of gratitude to the Paraclete for present benefits; these his later manifestations can never make her forgetful of those wrought within her by the same divine Spirit in her earlier days. Gervase and Protase are indeed no longer honored by a solemn feast, preceded as heretofore by a Vigil, whereof the Sacramentary of Gelasius preserves the memory; but they still occupy an important place in the Roman Litanies as representatives of the great Martyr host; which position none have been allowed to assume in their stead. To these two in preference to a vast array of Martyrs whose festivals are now of a rite superior to theirs, does Holy Church turn in the more solemn of all her supplications; whether it be in holy processions to implore the averting of scourges and the obtaining blessings of this present life; or whether the sacred assembly of the whole Christian people, prostrate together with the Pontiff, unite in imploring the grace of abundant consecration to flow upon altars and temples or upon future priests, virgins, or kings.

We learn from the historians of sacred rites, that the Introit of the Mass of our two holy Martyrs: The Lord will give peace unto his people, is a monument of the confidence of Saint Gregory the Great in their powerful succor. Filled with gratitude for results already obtained. he committed to their care, in the selection of this antiphon, the complete pacification of Italy, then a prey to Lombard invasion and to the petty vengeance of the Byzantine Court.

Two centuries previously, Saint Ambrose had a first experience of the special power of pacification which it seemed Our Lord Christ had attached to the very bones of these his glorious witnesses in return for their having given their life for Him. The empress Justina and the Arian Auxentius now for a second time directed against the Bishop of Milan a united assault of the powers of earth and of hell; and Ambrose, thus again ordered to abandon his Church, replied: “It were unseemly in a priest to deliver up the temple.” Upon the soldiers sent to lend main force to the invaders of the sacred precincts he denounced sentence of excommunication, if they passed one step farther; and they, knowing that they had been engaged to God by their baptism before being so to their prince, thereupon made fitting estimate of such a proposed act of sacrilege. To the court, terrified at the universal indignation that had ensued and now praying him to quell the popular excitement aroused by these odious measures, he replied: “It is in my power not to excite it; but to appease it, belongs only to God.” When such troops as could be assembled composed exclusively of Arians, were at length surrounding the Basilica wherein was Ambrose, his faithful people were there to be seen gathered around him in the name of the undivided and ever tranquil Trinity, sustaining by the sole force of divine psalmody and sacred hymns a novel kind of siege. But the last act of this two years’ war levied against a disarmed man, the event which completed the overthrow of heresy, was the discovery of the relics of Gervase and Protase, precious treasures unconsciously possessed by Milan and now revealed to their bishop by a heavenly inspiration.

Let us hearken to the bishop himself recounting to his sister Marcellina these facts, in all the sweet simplicity of his great soul. Long consecrated by the Supreme Pontiff himself to the Spouse of virgins, Marcellina was one of those all-powerful in humility, who are almost invariably placed by Our Lord side by side with the great historic names of holy Church, to be their stay and support before God; ignored co-operatrices in deeds the most brilliant, whose intervention by prayer and suffering must, for the most part, remain concealed until the day when eternal realities shall be revealed. Ambrose had already kept his sister informed of the details of the first campaign directed against him: “In almost every letter,” he says, “thou dost anxiously inquire about what affecteth the Church; well, then, here it is. The day after that on which thou didst send me the account of thy dreams, the weight of heavy disquietude fell upon us.”

The following letter, on the contrary, breathes already of triumph and liberty regained:

“The Brother to the Lady, his Sister, dearer to him than are his eyes and his life. It is my wont to leave thy holiness ignorant of nothing that passeth here in thine absence: know also then, that we have found Martyrs. For of a truth, when I was engaged about the dedicating of the Basilica which thou knowest, many began to call upon me with one voice, saying: Dedicate it after the manner of the Roman Basilica. I replied: I will do so, if I find relics of Martyrs. Thereupon there came upon me, as it were, the glowing heat of a presage. What shall I say? The Lord hath bestowed his grace. Despite the fears of the very clerics themselves, I ordered the earth to be dug up about the spot facing the balustrade of Saints Felix and Nabor. I found the wished-for signs. Men even came forward bringing possessed persons on whom we might impose hands; and it so fell out, that at the very first sight of the holy Martyrs, while we as yet had not broken silence, a [Urna in the Latin text, is taken for una by the best interpreters.] woman from among them was instantly seized and thrown to the ground before the holy tomb. We found therein two men of wondrous stature, as in the times of the ancients; all the bones entire, and a quantity of blood. There was a vast concourse of people during these two days. Wherefore these details? Towards evening we transported the holy bodies (in their entirety and laid out in a fitting manner) to the Basilica of Fausta; there vigil was kept all night, and imposition of hands. On the morrow, the translation to the Basilica that they call the ‘Ambrosian.’ During the transit, a blind man was cured.”

Ambrose then goes on to relate to Marcellina the discourse pronounced by him on this occasion. We can cite only one passage: “O Lord Jesus, I give thee thanks for having raised up in our midst the spirit of thy holy Martyrs, at a time in which thy Church is in need of greatest succour. Be it known unto all what kind of defenders I desire; such as can defend and yet attack not. Holy people, lo! I have gained such for you, they are useful to all, hurtful to none! Such are the guardians I ambition, such my soldiers. On their account I have no envy to fear; yea, I wish their succour to be profitable to those even who are jealous of me. So then let them come, let them behold my guards: I deny not my being surrounded by arms such as these! Even as in the case of the servant of Eliseus, when the Syrian army was besieging the prophet,—God hath opened our eyes. Behold us, Brethren, freed from no light shame: to have had defenders and not to have known it! … Behold how from an ignoble sepulchre, noble remains have been taken, trophies at last brought to light. Gaze upon this tomb still wet with blood, glorious stains marks of victory! See these relics inviolable in their hiding place, laid just in the very same order wherein they were placed the first day! Look at this head separated from the shoulders! Our old men now begin to remember having formerly heard these Martyrs named, and to have read the inscription on their tomb. Our city had lost her own Martyrs, she who had borne away those of foreign cities! Although this is God’s gift, still I cannot refuse to see therein a great grace, whereby our Lord Jesus has vouchsafed to render the time of my episcopacy illustrious. Not deserving to be myself a Martyr, I have procured these Martyrs for you. Let them be brought in then; bring hither these victorious victims, let them take their place there where Christ is the Victim; but, on the Altar be He who suffered for all, and under the Altar be they whom His Passion redeemed. I had destined this spot for myself; since fitting it is. that the Pontiff should repose there where he hath been wont to present the Oblation; but I cede my right to sacred victims: this place was due unto Martyrs.”

In fact, Ambrose did come, ten years later, to take his own place under the altar of the Ambrosian Basilica; he occupied the Epistle side, leaving that of the Gospel to the two Martyrs. In the ninth century, one of his successors, Angilbert, placed the three venerable bodies together in one same sarcophagus of porphyry, which was placed length-ways of the altar, above the two primitive tombs. There, after the lapse of a thousand years, on August the 8th in the year 1871 owing to necessary repairs being made in the Basilica, they once more reappeared; not this time amidst blood, as the fourth century had disclosed our Martyrs, but under a sheet of water, deep and limpid; a touching image of that water of Wisdom that flowed so copiously from the lips of Ambrose himself, now the principal occupant of this holy tomb. There, not far from the tomb of Saint Marcellina, itself also an altar, the pilgrim of these days, with soul brimful of by-gone memories, may still venerate these precious relics; for they are united together in one crystal shrine where, placed under the immediate protection of the Roman Pontiff, Pius IX, they await the glorious day of resurrection.

The brief legend of these two Martyrs runs as follows:

Gervase and Protase were the sons of Vitalis and Valeria, who both testified even unto death, for the Lord Christ’s sake, by martyrdom,—the father at Ravenna, and the mother at Milan. After the victory of their parents, Gervase and Protase gave all their inheritance to the poor, and set free their slaves. This act of theirs stirred up against them savage hatred, on the part of the heathen priests, and when the Count Astasius was about setting forth to war, they believed they had got a good occasion for the destruction fo the two holy brethren. They persuaded Astasius that their gods had revealed to them that they had no chance of conquering in the war, unless he had first made Gervase and Protase to deny Christ, and to offer sacrifice to the gods. Being commanded so to do, they refused with horror, and Astasius then ordered Gervase to be beaten with rods until he died under the stripes, and Protase to be beaten with clubs, and his head to be struck off. A servant of Christ named Philip took away their dead bodies by stealth and buried them in his own house; and in after times, St. Ambrose, being warned of God, found them, and bestowed them in a hallowed and honorable place. They suffered at Milan, on the thirteenth of the kalends of July.

Though short is the account of your combat, O holy Martyrs, because few are the details handed down to us concerning you, still may we cry out with Saint Ambrose when he first presented you to the populace: “That eloquence is best that springs from blood; for blood is a voice of thunder, re-echoing from earth to heaven.” Oh! make us to understand its potent accents! Ever must the veins of a Christian be ready to pour forth testimony to God, our Redeemer! Say, is there no blood left in our impoverished veins? Oh! cure our generation of such a hopeless state of lingering decline; what physicians may not, Jesus Christ can always do!

Up then, glorious Brethren; teach us the royal road of devotedness and suffering! Surely not in vain have our feeble eyes been granted to contemplate you in these our days even as did Ambrose; if God, after the lapse of so many ages, has once more revealed the sight of you, he must therein have intentions not unlike those he had in by gone times! Therefore, dear Saints, may he perchance vouchsafe to raise up, through your intercession, mankind and our present society from the degradation of a fatal servility; to banish error, to save the Church who cannot indeed perish, but whom he loves to deliver by means of her Saints. Doth it not behoove you, generous Martyrs, to recognize by signal favors, the protection lavished by the successor of Peter on your relics, despite his own captivity? Be Milan worthy of you and of her Ambrose! Deign lovingly to visit the various lands both near and afar, formerly enriched with the blood found near your tomb. France was specially devout to you, placing no fewer than five of her cathedrals under your glorious invocation; may she not look for particular help at your hands? Oh! rouse up once more her piety of by-gone days; free her from false sects, from traitors! Let the day soon come when she may step forth once again the soldier of God!

[Stone]

June 19 – St. Juliana Falconieri, Virgin

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

This day witnesses the close of the pilgrimage of the one who was miraculously supplied with the divine Viaticum. Juliana presents herself at heaven’s gate, showing upon her heart the impress of the Sacred Host. The lily emblazoned on the city escutcheon of Florence glistens with fresh radiance today, for it was she gave birth to our Saint, as well as to so many others, some of whom have already beamed across our path, and some are about to follow,—all of them brilliant in sublime virtues practiced within the ancient walls of this “City of Flowers,” under the delighted glance and the urging influence of the Spirit of Love. But what shall we say of the glory of yonder mountain, which nobly crown this fair city, a diadem lovely in men’s eyes, and still more so to Angels’ gaze? What of Vallombrosa, and further in the blue distance, of Camaldoli, of Alberno? all sacred fortresses, at whose foot hell trembling howls, all sacred reservoirs of choicest grace, guarded by Seraphim, whence flow in gushing streams more abundant and more pure than Arno’s tide, living waters of salvation on all the smiling land around!

In 1233, just thirty-seven years previous to Juliana’s birth, Florence seemed destined to be, under the holy influence of such a neighborhood, a very paradise of sanctity; so common did the higher Christian life become, of such everyday occurrence were supernatural prodigies. The Mother of Divine Grace was then multiplying her gifts. Once on a certain festival of the Assumption, seven of the citizens, the most distinguished for nobility of blood, fortune, and public offices of trust, were suddenly inflamed by a heavenly desire to consecrate themselves unreservedly to the service of Our Lady. Presently, as these men passed along, bidding adieu to the world, babes at the breast cried out, all over the city, “Behold the Servants of the Virgin Mary!” Among the innocents whose tongue was thus unloosed to announce divine mysteries, was the new-born son of the illustrious family of Benizii. He was named Philip, and had first seen the light on the very feast of the Assumption, whereon Mary had just founded for her glory and that of her divine Son, the Order of the Servites.

We shall have to return to this child, who was to be the chief propagator of the new order; for holy Church celebrates his birthday into heaven on the morrow of the Octave of the Assumption. He was destined to be Juliana’s spiritual father. In the meanwhile, the seven invited by Mary to the festival of penitence, who all, persevering faithful unto death, are inscribed on the catalogue of the Saints, had retired three leagues from Florence to the desert of Monte Senario. There Our Lady, during seven years, formed them to the great work, of which they were the predestined though unwitting instruments. According to his wont, the Holy Ghost, during all this preparatory season, though of long duration, kept from them every idea save that of their own sanctification, employing them in the mortification of the senses, and in a spirit of exclusive contemplation of the sufferings of Our Lord and those of his divine Mother. Two amongst them daily came down to the city to beg bread for themselves and their companions. One of these illustrious mendicants was Alexius Falconieri, the most eager for humiliations amongst all the seven. His brother, who, still continuing in the world, held one of the highest positions amongst the citizens, was in every way worthy of this blessed man, and paid homage to his heroic self-abasement. He likewise took an honorable share in the united gift bestowed, with the concurrence of all classes of these religious citizens, upon the solitaries of Monte Senario, whereby a magnificent church was added to the poor retreat they had been induced to accept, for greater convenience, at the gates of Florence.

To honor the mystery wherein their sovereign Lady declared herself to be the humble servant of the Lord, this church and monastery of the Servites of Mary received the title of the “Annunziata.” Among the marvels which wealth and art, in succeeding ages, have lavished upon its interior, the principal treasure which puts all the rest in the shade is a primitive fresco of the angelical salutation, dating from the life-time of the founders, the painter whereof, more devout to Mary than skilful with his pencil, deserved to be aided by the hands of angels. Signal favours obtained without interruption from this sacred picture, still attract flocks of devout visitors. If the city of the Medici and of the Tuscan Grand-Dukes, though swallowed up by the universal brigandage of the house of Savoy, has preserved better than many others the lively piety of better days, she owes it to this her ancient Madonna as well as to her numerous saints, who seem gathered within her walls, to serve as a cortège of honor for Our Lady.

These details seem necessary to throw light on the abridged account given in the Liturgy, regarding our saint. Juliana, born of a sterile mother and of a father advanced in years, was the reward of the zeal displayed for the Annunziata by her father, Carissimo Falconieri. Beside this picture of the Madonna was she to spend her life and to yield up her last breath. Close by it, her sacred relics now repose. Educated by her uncle, Saint Alexius, in the love of Mary and of humility, she devoted herself from her very youth to the Order founded by Our Lady, ambitioning no title save one, that of Oblate, which would entail upon her the serving, in the lowest rank, the Servites of God’s Mother. For this reason, she was later on acknowledged to be the foundress of the Third Order of the Servites, and was superioress of the first community of these female tertiaries, surnamed “Mantellatæ.” But her influence extended further still, so that the whole Order, both the men and the women alike hail her as their mother; for it was indeed she who put the finishing stroke to the work of its foundation, and gave it the stability it has been possessed of for centuries.

The Order, which had become marvellously extended during forty years of miraculous existence, was just then, under the government of Saint Philip Benizi, passing through a dangerous crisis, the more to be feared because the storm had taken rise in Rome itself. There was question of everywhere carrying into effect the canons of the Councils of Lateran and Lyons, prohibiting the introduction of new Orders into the Church. Now, the institute of the Servites being posterior to the first of these councils, Innocent V was resolved on its suppression. The superiors had already been forbidden to receive any novice to profession or to clothing; and while awaiting the definitive sentence, the goods of the Order were considered, beforehand, as already devolved on the Holy See. Philip Benizi was about to die, and Juliana was but fifteen years of age. Nevertheless, enlightened from on high, the Saint hesitated not; he confided the Order to Juliana’s hands, and so slept in the peace of our Lord. The event justified his hopes: after various catastrophes, which it were long to relate, Benedict XI, in 1304, gave to the Servites the definitive sanction of the Church. So true is it that, in the counsels of divine Providence, nor rank, nor age, nor sex, count for aught! The simplicity of a soul that has wounded the Heart of the Spouse is stronger in her humble submission than highest authority; and her unknown prayer prevails over powers established by God Himself.

Juliana, of the noble family of Falconieri, was daughter of that illustrious nobleman who founded and built the church of Our Lady of the Annunciation, still to be seen in Florence. When she was born, in the year 1270, both he and Reguarda his wife were already advanced in years, and up to this, quite childless. From her very cradle, she gave tokens of the holiness of life to which she afterwards attained. And from the lisping of her baby lips was caught that sweet sound of the names of Jesus and Mary. As she entered on her girlhood, she delivered herself up entirely to the pursuit of Christian virtues, and so excellently shone therein, that her uncle, the blessed Alexius, scrupled not to tell her mother that she had given birth to an angel rather than to a woman. So modest, indeed, was her countenance, and so pure her soul from the slightest speck of indiscretion, that she never in her whole life raised her eyes to a man’s face, and that the very mention of sin made her shiver; and when the story of a grievous crime was told her, she dropped down fainting and almost lifeless. Before she had completed her fifteenth year, she renounced her inheritance, although a rich one, and all prospect of earthly marriage, solemnly making to God a vow of virginity, in the hands of St. Philip Benizi, from whom she was the first to receive the religious habit of what are called the “Mantellatæ.”

Thus in a little while, their number increased, and she became foundress of the Order of the Mantellatæ, to whom she gave a rule of life, full of wisdom and holiness. St. Philip Benizi having thorough knowledge of her virtues, being at the point of death, thought that to none better than her could he leave the care not only of the women but of the whole Order of Servites, of which he was the propagator and head: yet of herself she ever deemed most lowly; even when she was the mistress of others, ministering to her sisters in the meanest offices of the household work. She passed whole days in incessant prayer, and was often rapt in spirit; and the remainder of her time, she toiled to make peace among the citizens, who were at variance amongst themselves; to recall sinners from evil courses; and to nurse the sick, to cure whom she would sometimes use even her tongue to remove the matter that ran from their sores, and so healed them. It was her custom to afflict her body with whips, knotted cords, iron girdles, watching, and sleeping upon the bare ground. Upon four days in the week, she ate very sparingly, and that only of the coarsest food; on the other two she contented herself with the Bread of Angels alone, except Saturday whereon she took only bread and water.

This hardship of life caused her to fall ill of a stomach complaint, which increasing, brought her to the point of death, when she was seventy years of age. She bore the daily sufferings of this long illness with a smiling face and a brave heart; the only thing of which she was heard to complain being, that her stomach was so weak, that unable to retain food, she was withheld, by reverence for the holy Sacrament, from the Eucharistic Table. Finding herself in these straits she begged the Priest to bring her the Divine Bread, and as she dared not take It into her mouth, to put It as near as possible to her heart exteriorly. The Priest did as she wished, and to the amazement of all present, the Divine Bread at once disappeared from sight, and at the same instant, a smile of joyous peace crossed the face of Juliana, and she gave up the ghost. This matter seemed beyond all belief, until the virgin body was being laid out in the accustomed manner; for then there was found, upon the left side of the bosom, a mark like the stamp of a seal, reproducing the form of the Sacred Host, the mould of which was one of those that bear a figure of Christ crucified. The report of this and of other wonders procured for Juliana a reverence not only from Florence, but from all parts of the Christian world, which reverence so increased through the course of four hundred years, that Pope Benedict XIII commanded a proper Office in her honor to be celebrated by the whole Order of Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Clement XII, the munificent Protector of the same Order, finding new signs and wonders abedding luster upon her glory every day, inscribed the name of Juliana upon the catalogue of holy Virgins.

To serve Mary was the only nobility that had any attraction in thine eyes, O Juliana! To share her Dolours was the only recompense which thy generous soul, in its lowliness, could ambition. Thy desires were granted: but from that lofty throne where She reigns as Queen of angels and of men, She who confessed herself the Handmaid of the Lord and saw God to have regard to her humility, was also pleased to exalt thee, like herself, above all the mighty ones. Counteracting that hidden silence wherein thou wouldst fain have had the human brilliancy of thy pedigree forgotten and lost forever, she hath made thy holy glory eclipse the fair honor of thy sires, in Florence; so that if the name of Falconieri has now a world-wide fame, it is on thy account, O humble Tertiary, O lowly Servant of the Servites of Our Lady! Further still: in that fair home of true nobility in yonder City of God, where ranks are distinguished by the varying degree of radiance shed by the Lamb on the brow of each one of the Elect, thou dost shine resplendent with an aureola, which is nothing less than a participation of Mary’s glory. Just as she acted in regard of holy Church, after the Ascension of our Lord, so didst thou in respect of the Servite Order; for while leaving to others such action as appears externally, and such authority as must rule souls, thou wast nonetheless, in thy lowliness, the real mistress and mother of the new family formed of the men and the women chosen by God for that Order. More than once, in other centuries likewise, has the divine Mother been pleased thus to glorify her faithful imitatrices by making them become, beyond all calculation of their own, faithful copies of herself. Just as in the family confided to Peter by her Divine Son, Our Lady was the most submissive of all others to the rule of Christ’s Vicar and that of the other Apostles; whereas all knew right well that she was their Queen, and the very fountain-head of the graces of consolidation and growth that were inundating the Church; so, O Juliana, the weakness of thy sex and age in no way restrained a strong religious Order from proclaiming thee its light and its glory. This was because the Most High, ever liberal in His gifts, was pleased to grant to thy youthfulness, results which he refused to the greater maturity, to the genius, yea, to the sanctity of thy Father, Saint Philip Benizi!

Continue, then, to shield thy devout family of Servites of Mary stretch forth thy protecting mantle over every religious Order severely tried in these our days May Florence, through thine aid, ever hold in most precious remembrance the favours lavished on her by Our Lady and the saints, because of her faith, in the good days of old. May Holy Church ever have more and more cause to sing thy power as a Bride over the Heart of the Divine Spouse. In return for the signal grace he bestowed on thee, as the crown of thy life and the consummation of his Love in thee, be thou propitious to us in our last struggle: obtain for us that we may not die unhelped by the reception of the holy Viaticum. The whole of this portion of the cycle is illumined with the rays of the adorable Host, proposed to our prostrate worship in so special a manner, at this season, by another Juliana. Oh! may this sweet Host be the one Love of our life’s career. May it be our strong bulwark in life’s final combat! yea, may our death be nothing else than a passing from the divine banquet of earth’s land of shadows, up to the delivious festal board of Eternal Union!