August 30--St. Fiacre, Priest and Abbot

St. Fiacre, Stained glass window, Notre-Dame, Bar-le-Duc, France

The Catholic Church recognizes patron saints from Academics–St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Albert the Great to Zoology–St. Albert the Great again! Today’s saint is the patron saint of Gardeners. St. Fiacre was born in Ireland about A.D. 600 and died in A.D. 670 in France. He grew up in a monastery, was ordained a priest, and eventually became an abbot. As people came to him because of his reputation for holiness and healing he went to France to become a hermit. He built a hermitage for himself and a hospice for travelers about 50 miles northeast of Paris. There he planted a vegetable and herb garden and an oratory in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He lived a life of self-denial, prayer, fasting, vigils and healing by laying on of hands. Veneration towards him seems to be based on his healing abilities as well as his holiness. His patronage of gardeners is based on his gardening abilities.

Every good act we do can be an act of love for God and others. Gardening may bring joy through the beauty of flowers and health through the nourishment of fruits, and vegetables. Tilling the soil may allow us to focus our minds and hearts on prayer to God in praise and on behalf of others. Tending the yard may bring peace. Scripture envisioned earthly paradise as a garden: “The LORD God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it” (Gn. 2:15). Furthermore: “You make the grass grow for the cattle and plants for people’s work to bring forth food from the earth, wine to gladden their hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread to sustain the human heart” (Ps. 104:14-15). St. Fiacre, pray for us.

March 16–St. Abbán, Abbot

 

Andreas F. Borchert, New Ross Church of St. Mary and St. Michael Nave West End Relief of Saint Abban 2012 09 04, CC 4.0.

When we think of March saints we usually think of St. Patrick, whose feast day is March 17. Nonetheless, the Martyrology of Donegal lists 1000 saints of Ireland. Today’s saint was also an Irish saint who founded a monastery in Ireland. Three versions of the Life of St. Abbán show a lot of variation and confusion about him. However, according to the Martyrology, St. Abbán had great devotion to God as a child and he worked saintly miracles, such as when his maternal uncle, a bishop, took him to Rome, he was said to have power over “men, monsters, and supernatural phenomena” and “special authority over rivers and seas.” He died about A.D 520.

This sounds like a lot of Irish exaggeration, except that scholars have studied and documented his life and impact throughout Ireland. So what makes a person a saint? As stated in this column before, men, women, and children are saints because of their holiness. They dedicate themselves to knowing, loving, and serving God so they may give greater glory to God and bring others closer to him. St. Abbán was thus such a man.

St. Abbán was one of the many abbots, abbesses, and monks that helped Christianize Ireland. Irish Christianity was primarily monastic with the spread of “networks of monastic ‘city-states’ throughout Ireland that served as centers of learning for religious men and women.” Irish monasticism was influential in re-Christianizing northern Europe after the fall of the Roman empire in the West.

The impact of Irish Catholicism is worthwhile. Many of us can remember the Irish priests who taught us as children and established parishes in our dioceses. We are grateful for the Irish Catholics like St. Abbán, who, by their holiness, spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. St. Abbán, pray for us.

June 20--Martyrs of Ireland, Bishops, Priests, and Laity

 

Singhson67, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1992 Pope John Paul II beatified seventeen martyrs killed under English rulers, including Elizabeth I and Oliver Cromwell, between 1584 and 1654. They included three bishops, seven priests, one brother, five laymen and one laywoman. The pope proclaimed:

“And how can we fail to sing the praises of the seventeen Irish Martyrs being beatified today?…

“We admire them for their personal courage. We thank them for the example of their fidelity in difficult circumstances, a fidelity which is more than an example: it is a heritage of the Irish people and a responsibility to be lived up to in every age.

“In a decisive hour, a whole people chose to stand firmly by its covenant with God: ‘All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do’.… The religious and political turmoil through which these witnesses lived was marked by grave intolerance on every side. Their victory lay precisely in going to death with no hatred in their hearts. They lived and died for Love. Many of them publicly forgave all those who had contributed in any way to their martyrdom.

“The Martyrs' significance for today lies in the fact that their testimony shatters the vain claim to live one's life or to build a model of society without an integral vision of our human destiny, without reference to our eternal calling, without transcendence.…

“To the Martyrs' intercession I commend the whole people of Ireland: their hopes and joys, their needs and difficulties. May everyone rejoice in the honor paid to these witnesses to the faith. God sustained them in their trials. He comforted them and granted them the crown of victory. May he also support those who work for reconciliation and peace in Ireland today!

“Blessed Irish Martyrs, intercede for the beloved Irish people!”

June 19—Venerable Matt Talbot, Holy Man and Third Order Franciscan

“Hi, my name is Matt and I am an alcoholic.” That may be the greeting today’s saint would give if he were to go to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. Ven. Matt Talbot was an Irishman born in 1856 and died in 1925. He was a laborer and a man of modest means. He started drinking at about the age of 15 when he was a messenger for liquor merchants and, for almost 15 years he was an active alcoholic. Finally, he decided to “take the pledge” to give up drinking for three months, and then six months, and then for his whole life, which he did, albeit with great difficulty at times. He went to daily Mass, read religious books, and repaid debts incurred when he was drinking. He became a Third Order Franciscan, which means that he followed the example of St. Francis of Assisi as a layman, and modeled himself on the sixth century Irish monks. He died of heart failure on his way to Mass on Trinity Sunday.

Venerable Matt Talbot is the patron of alcoholics and those seeking sobriety. Alcoholism can ensnare anyone and render life miserable to the point of poverty, homelessness, abandonment by family, and despair of God. Talbot received God’s grace to overcome his alcoholism. We all need God’s grace to overcome our own “addictions”, those habits that pull us away from God and into our own selfishness. Sin itself is the ultimate addiction, whereby we turn in on ourselves in self-hatred and reject God’s love and mercy. Mercy requires repentance so we may turn back to God, who receives us as a forgiving prodigal father.

March 17--St. Patrick, Bishop

March 17—St. Patrick, Bishop

 

St. Patrick’s influence is amazing.  This saintly bishop who converted Ireland in the fifth century also influenced the Catholic Church in America and Europe.  St. Patrick was abducted by raiders and taken to Ireland as a slave.  After six years he escaped, went to the continent and was ordained priest and eventually bishop to be a missionary.  While in Ireland he preached the Gospel, endured suffering and hardship, ordained priests, and more.  There are many legends that have grown up around him, including casting snakes out of Ireland.  This probably refers to the symbolism of snakes for the devil, and thus casting them out symbolizes casting out the devil.

However, St. Patrick’s influence is felt far beyond the shores of a small island in the North Atlantic.  The Irish Catholics went out as missionaries to Scotland, England, and the European continent, bringing private confession as a new way for forgiveness of sins.  They also reestablished Catholicism in the areas that were overrun by pagans after the fall of the Roman Empire.  In America, too, we have been greatly influenced by the Irish.  When the Irish came over in the mid-19^th century, there were limited opportunities for their advancement in a Protestant country.  Their faith became a source of consolation and also of evangelization. 

The Irish Catholics of America became dominant in the clergy well into the 20^th century.  Venerable Fr. Michael J. McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus, now 1.8 million strong.  Servant of God Fr. Edward J. Flanagan founded Boys Town here in Omaha.  Without St. Patrick these men and many others may not have been around to continue to do God’s will and spread God’s word.