Memorial of Saints (December 5)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• Sabas
• Philip Rinaldi
• Crispina
• Nicetius of Trier
• Birinus
• Sigiramnus
• John Almond

St. Sabas was the son of an army office and had a hard life as a youth. He felt drawn to monastic life and so, he ran away to a monastery near his birth place. When his family wanted him back home, he chose to remain in the monastery.

He then became a hermit under the guidance of St. Euthymius. He founded a hermitage which would be called after him, Mar Saba.

In 491 A.D., the patriarch of Jerusalem ordained him a priest and made him responsible for all hermits in Palestine. As a hermit, he attracted a number of followers, and thus organized them into a laura - (hermit huts in circular form around a chapel).

He then left the country at 91 years old and went to see the emperor in Constantinople to ask him favors for his monks and for the population in Palestine which suffered under heavy taxes. He died after a fulfilled life, well-balanced between prayer and activity.

St. Sabas is considered one of the founders of Eastern monasticism. His monastery is one of the four oldest inhabited monasteries in the world (died ca. 532 A.D.).

More on Saints - December 5

Saints in the Byzantine Calendar

• St. Sabas, Hegumen-Abbot

St. Sabas' feast is also observed this day by the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches and by the Benedictines and Cistercians.

From Google Gemini

A hegumen-abbot is the head of a monastery in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. The term "hegumen" comes from the Greek word meaning "leader" or "one who is in charge." It is similar to the title of "abbot" in Western Christianity.

Here are some key points about hegumen-abbots:

Role: They are responsible for the spiritual and administrative leadership of their monastery. This includes overseeing daily prayers, spiritual guidance of the monks, and managing the monastery's finances and property.

Appointment: Hegumen-abbots are typically appointed by a bishop or other higher church authority.

Rank: The rank of hegumen-abbot is considered higher than that of a simple monk but lower than that of an archimandrite, another monastic title.

Attire: Hegumen-abbots wear distinctive clothing, including a black monastic mantle and a pectoral cross.

Memorial of Saints (December 4)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• John Damascene, priest and doctor
• Maruthas, bishop
• Anno, bishop
• Osmund, bishop
• Bernard of Parma, bishop
• Barbara, virgin and martyr

St. John Damascene (675-749 A.D.). John was born in Damascus, Syria, of a Christian Arab family. For a while he was a financial officer for a Muslim Caliph in the city before he resigned, went to Jerusalem, and entered the monastery of Mar Saba. In 726 A.D., he was ordained and spent much of his time with study and writing. John was known for his encyclopedic knowledge and theological method, both of which inspired St. Thomas of Aquinas, the Dominican. John was not only gifted in writing, but also had talent in music. His more important contribution to the Church of his time was his defense of the veneration of sacred images against the iconoclasts (died ca. 749 A.D.).

More on Saints for December 4

Saints in the Byzantine Calendar - December 4

• St. Barbara, Great Virgin-Martyr
• St. John Damascene

Related blog posts:

• December 4 is the feast of St. Barbara in both the Calendars of the Roman Catholic Church and the Byzantine Calendar. She is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, Learn more
• The Doctors of the Church: Teachers of the Catholic Faith, Learn more
• St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctor of the Church, Learn more

Details from the History of the Catholic Church

There were 32 Doctors of the Church before St. John Paul II raised St. Therese of Lisieux and declared her with this title on October 19, 1997 A.D.

Pope Benedict XVI added two more with St. Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th century A.D. Benedictine abbess and mystic, and St. John of Avila, a 16th century A.D. priest.

Pope Francis also added two more with the title Doctor of the Church for St. Irenaeus of Lyons and St. Gregory of Narek. As of this writing, the Catholic Church has named 37 Doctors of the Church.

Citations from Google Gemini:

18 of those named as Doctors of the Church lived and died before the Great Schism of 1054 A.D. These 18 are also held in high esteem by the Eastern Orthodox Church, although it does not use the formal title Doctor of the Church.

• Doctor of the Church, Wikipedia.org

Memorial of Saints (December 3)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• Francis Xavier, priest
• Lucius
• Claudius, Hilaria & Companions, martyrs
• Cassian, martyr
• Sola

Francis Xavier: (died 1552 A.D. at age 46). Francis Xavier was from Navarre and was born of a noble Basque family. He then went to Paris in 1525 A.D. to study there. In the University of Paris, he met Ignatius of Loyola, and became one of the founding Jesuits of the Society of Jesus. After his ordination, Francis Xavier went as a missionary to Asia and preached in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Japan. While waiting for a boat to bring him to China, he died of exhaustion and fever on the island of Shangchwan near Canton. He is the patron saint of all foreign missions.

Related blog posts:

• O Deus Ego Amo Te, is a poem used as an alternative to the hymn of Thursday, Night Prayer. The poem is composed by Gerard Manley Hopkins, who made St.Francis Xavier's original prayer into this contemporary version and translation. Learn more.

December 3 Saints in the Byzantine Calendar

• St. Sophonias, Prophet
• Theodulus

The Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches celebrate the feast of St. Sophonias or Zephaniah, a seventh-century B.C. minor prophet who may have been the cousin of the major prophet Jeremiah.