February 21--St. Peter Damian, Monk, Bishop, and Doctor of the Church

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The Church is holy due to Jesus, not us. We are still sinners. We live in a time when some priests and bishops have committed grave public sins. In the eleventh century, there were also serious sins of sexual immorality and crimes of corruption committed by the clergy. One who championed the good and right against such deviations from chastity and holiness was our saint, St. Peter Damian.

Born about 1007 in Ravenna, Italy, Peter was the youngest of a noble, but poor family. Poorly treated by one brother, he was adopted by another brother who was archpriest of Ravenna, who provided him with an education. Peter Damian was gifted in academics and became a university teacher at the age of 25. He left teaching to become a monk. As a monk he was dedicated to austerity and penance, including the discipline of self-flagellation, which he later moderated due to the imprudent zeal of others. He then assisted the Church in opposing the sins of his time as bishop and cardinal.

He was also a great advocate of clerical reform, especially against the corruption of simony, or the buying and selling of Church offices, and clerical sexual license, including concubinage and sodomy. He wrote the book Liber Gomorrhianus, or the Book of Gomorrah, which railed against clerical sins against chastity. Pope Leo IX wrote in response to St. Peter’s work: “Therefore, lest the unrestrained license of filthy lust should spread abroad, it is necessary that it be repelled by a suitable reprimand of apostolic severity and that some attempt at more austere discipline should be made [with them].” St. Peter Damian is a model of how our priests, bishops, and laity should live the gift of chastity. He died about 1072 and was named a Doctor of the Church in 1828.

*https://www.catholic.org/files/images/saints/780.jpg

February 5--St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr

St. Agatha—February 5

St. Agatha is one of the virgin-martyrs of the early Church in 251.  As with many virgin-martyrs, she attracted the attention of a Roman official, who wanted to marry her.  She refused because she vowed herself to Christ.  Thus, she was tortured and eventually killed.  Her name is in the first Eucharistic prayer along with the other virgin-martyrs:  Lucy, Anastasia, Agnes, and Cecilia.

Virginity was a way of life in the early Church, even to the point of being set apart through consecration.  They were not nuns, but rather, women who lived their everyday lives dedicated to God.  The Church honored their choice and celebrates their purity and chastity.  Today, the Church has a rite of consecration for virgins and there are over 3000 consecrated virgins in the world today and in about 86 U.S. dioceses.

Virginity and the sanctity of sexuality are not well respected in our society today.  The Centers for Disease Control regularly issue reports on sexual activity and sexually transmitted diseases.  Virginity is often scoffed at and sexual activity is often promoted as an inalienable right of the individual.  However, Jesus calls us to a higher standard, the standard of love.  The Catechism states:  “Both the sacrament of Matrimony and virginity for the Kingdom of God come from the Lord himself.  It is he who gives them meaning and grants them the grace which is indispensable for living them out in conformity with his will” (par. 1620).  We would do well to be joyful for the gift of sexuality as it is lived out in marriage and virginity.