October 27—St. Frumentius of Ethiopia, Bishop

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The Catholic Church was in Africa in ancient times. As a matter of Scripture, the first to evangelize Ethiopia was the court official in Acts (Acts 8:26-39) baptized by the Deacon Philip. However, today’s saint was the first bishop of Aksum, in the northern part of Ethiopia. Born in Tyre, Lebanon in the 4th century, St. Frumentius and his brother were taken as slaves to the King of Aksum from a Red Sea port. Freed shortly before the king’s death, the boys remained at court to educate his son. St. Frumentius later went to Alexandria, Egypt, and was consecrated bishop by St. Athanasius around 328 and returned to Aksum and spread Christianity throughout Ethiopia. Ethiopian tradition credits him with the first translation of the New Testament into the language of the people. He died in 383. 

Missionary efforts by the Church stretch all the way to the time of the apostles. According to tradition, St. Matthew originally evangelized in Ethiopia. Pope St. Paul VI stated in his encyclical Evangelii nuntiandi, that the Church exists to evangelize others: “Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ's sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection” (EN, 14). Jesus commissioned his followers to “make disciples of all nations” (Mt. 28:19). So what about us? We are called to spread the Word of God to others, especially those around us. Do they know our faith by the way we act and talk? We may not need to go to Ethiopia, but perhaps to our neighbor next door.

*https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/St_Frumentius.jpg

May 29: St. Paul VI, Pope

St. Pope Paul VI is a much-misunderstood pope. He was elected after the death of Pope St. John XXIII in 1963 and continued Vatican II. He then implemented the reforms until his death in 1978. The reforms of Vatican II included reforming all the sacraments so that they were better understood and celebrated by the people; the understanding of who we are as Church; what the Church’s relationship with the world is; and relations with non-Catholic Christians and non-Christians.

St. Pope Paul VI also served the Church during the times of great social upheaval and changes in social and sexual mores throughout the world. He issued his last encyclical, Humanae Vitae to help the Church and the world deal with many issues concerning sexual behavior and family life. Many in Europe and America opposed it. It condemned artificial birth control as intrinsically evil on the grounds that it is opposed to the generation of life in the act of contracepting, which is contrary to Catholic Church teaching as well as natural law. Sacramental marriage is about being in union with God as well as one’s spouse: “Love is total—that very special form of personal friendship in which husband and wife generously share everything, allowing no unreasonable exceptions and not thinking solely of their own convenience. Whoever really loves his partner loves not only for what he receives, but loves that partner for the partner's own sake, content to be able to enrich the other with the gift of himself” (8,9).

St. Pope Paul VI also reaffirmed other doctrines of the Church, including a male priesthood, which was declared dogma by St. John Paul the Great in 1994. He may have been misunderstood, but that is the lot of prophets, and Saint Pope Paul VI is our modern-day prophet.