“I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.” “Our profession of faith begins with God, for God is the First and the Last, the beginning and the end of everything. The Credo begins with God the Father, for the Father is the first divine person of the Most Holy Trinity; our Creed begins with the creation of heaven and earth, for creation is the beginning and the foundation of all God's works” (CCC, 198). These words, which we say every Sunday during Mass, are an expression of our faith. This is the Niceno-Constantinopolitan, or Nicene Creed, formulated at the Councils of Nicea in 325 and Constantinople in 381.
We have today’s saint, St. Leander of Seville, to thank for this addition to the liturgy; he was bishop of Seville in the 6th century. The Visigoths had overrun Spain and were converted through the Arian heresy, which stated that Jesus was the first creation of God, but was not God. The Church was separated between Arian and Catholic bishops and peoples. St. Leander introduced the Creed as a way to help reinforce the orthodox Catholic faith among the people in 589 at the Third Council of Toledo. This brought about the conversion of the Visigoth King of Spain and the reconciliation of the Arian faction to the true faith of the Church. This version of the Creed also introduced the filioque clause, that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son, which spread to the rest of Latin-speaking Catholicism and was accepted throughout the Western Catholic Church by 1000.
It is necessary to know the faith in order to live the faith and to bring others to the truth, who is Jesus Christ. St. Leander, pray for us.
A few kings have made it into the calendar of saints, including St. Louis IX of France, St. Wenceslaus of Bohemia, and St. Stephen of Hungary. Among them we have today’s saint, St. Henry II of Bavaria, who was Holy Roman Emperor from 1014-1024. As emperor, St. Henry was responsible for maintaining the unity, peace, and stability of the empire. To that extent, he was involved in many military expeditions throughout central Europe and Italy. He established closer ties with the Church and employed clergy as checks to the secular nobility.
He stressed service to the Church, promoted monastic reform, missionary activity, and made many charitable foundations for the poor. He also supported clerical celibacy. At one point he tried to become a monk, but was denied permission by the abbot, being told that his role in life was to be emperor. He succeeded in persuading the pope to include the word “filioque” in the Nicene Creed, which means that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both God the Father and God the Son.
St. Henry seems to be a contradiction regarding sainthood. Although he was devout and supported the Church, he also was a man of his times, engaging in wars and putting down rebellions that attacked his power as king and emperor. This seems to be a contradiction, but it is more about what sainthood really means. It means being holy in the state of life one is in. St. Henry was ambitious. He was political. These are not inherently evil. He used the power of his office to bring about peace and justice to the best of his ability, even when he was wrong. To be a saint means being a disciple of Christ, whether one is a king or a ditch-digger, a queen or a seamstress.
