Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints
- Timothy and Titus, bishops
- Robert of Molesmes, Alberic, & Stephen Harding, abbots
- Paula, widow
- Conan, bishop
- Eystein, bishop
- Margaret of Hungary, virgin
St. Timothy (d. ca. 97 A.D.) was living in Lystra when St. Paul visited in the year 47 A.D. He joined St. Paul for the second and third missionary journeys and is frequently mentioned in both the Acts of the Apostles and in Paul's letters. According to tradition, St. Timothy became the first bishop of Ephesus and was stoned to death when he opposed a pagan festival.
St. Titus (1st century A.D.) accompanied St. Paul on his third missionary journey and acted as St. Paul's secretary at the council in Jerusalem. Both of them travelled to Crete where Paul consecrated Titus as its first bishop. When St. Paul left Titus at Crete, he sends a letter to Titus that is similar to Timothy. The letter instructs St. Titus to conduct his mission as a bishop who is called: to be God's steward; blameless; and with a firm grasp of God's Word. St. Paul instructs Titus to make his preaching based on sound doctrine which no one can dispute.
The Cistercian Story at Citeaux, France (ca. 1112 A.D.)
Pope Alexander II named St. Robert of Molesmes (ca. 1024-1110 A.D.) superior of a group of hermits. St. Robert moved this group from Collan to Molesmes in 1075 A.D. However, there was a great influx of not-so-good candidates to the monastery. When St. Robert was unsuccessful in raising the standards of Benedictine ideals in this group, he, St. Alberic (d. 1109 A.D.), and St. Stephen Harding (d. 1134 A.D.), left and founded a new community at Citeaux in 1098 A.D. This monastery was dedicated to a strict observance of the rule of St. Benedict of Nursia.
The strict observance of the Benedictine rule exacted quite a toll on the population at Citeaux. When both St. Robert and St. Alberic already passed away, the responsibility for Citeaux was left in the hands of St. Stephen Harding. St. Stephen Harding did not give up even when there was a dearth of vocations to the novitiate. He kept on with the remaining members of the community following the rule as before.
One day, while St. Stephen Harding was working in the fields, the soul of a departed member of the community appeared to St. Stephen. That brother assured Stephen that the community will not die and that the Lord has been pleased by the way of life of the brethren. The grief of Stephen at the want of vocations to the novitiate began to disappear.
That vision of Stephen while working at the fields assured him that the Cistercian way of life was acceptable to God and seemed to prophesy an increase of numbers in the monastery. Other signs also came from other members of the community. One day in the year 1112 A.D., the iron hammer which hung at the lowly gate of the monastery sounded, and 31 men entered, and upon meeting Stephen, begged to be admitted as novices. They were of the noblest houses of Burgundy. The whole troop was led by one young man of about 23 years old. That leader of the whole troop of 31 men was to become St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
Abbaye Notre-Dame de Cîteaux at Google Maps
Saints in the Byzantine Calendar [January 26]
- Xenophon, his wife, Mary and sons, Arcadius and John
- Theodore, Hegumen-Abbot of Monks of Studites, and his brother, John
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