Memorial of Saints (January 26)

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

Memorial of Saints (January 25)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• Conversion of Paul, Apostle
• Artemas, martyr
• Juventinus and Maximinus, martyrs
• Publius, abbot
• Apollo, abbot
• Praejectus or Prix, bishop
• Poppo, abbot

St. Paul the Apostle (ca. 1/5-62/67 A.D.) was a prominent early Christian missionary. Originally a persecutor of those who follow the Christian faith, he had an encounter with Christ on his way to Damascus. Blinded by the experience, his conversion to the faith began. Pious stories, religious paintings and other art forms describe his encounter with Christ as falling from the horse after a blinding light. However, the Scripture account of his encounter with Jesus in the Acts of the Apostles does not mention anything about his travelling on a horse. This may have been interpretations of a plausible truth: he was on a long trip to Damascus. But the point of his conversion was this: St. Paul was called by Christ to preach the gospel to the Gentiles.

Being healed from his blindness and after being integrated gradually into the faith communities of the apostles, St. Paul began his missionary journeys to establish Christian communities around the eastern Mediterranean. He wrote letters (or epistles) to these communities and the manuscripts that survived from then on now form part of the canon of the New Testament. After much preaching and mission work, he was eventually arrested, imprisoned and executed sometime between 62 or 67 A.D.

As a Jew and a Pharisee, Paul believed in the oneness of God and the revelation of God in the Hebrew Scriptures. Then from his conversion experience, he became convinced about the centrality of Jesus Christ and the truth of His death and resurrection. He believed and preached that "in Christ" there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile (letters to the Galatians 3:28, and Romans 3:22). This Christian conviction extended to the belief that all are saved through faith in Christ rather than the law of Moses (Romans 3:21-30). No longer under the Mosaic law, Christians were now to be guided by the Holy Spirit and by faith working through love and service to one another, in the life and example of Christ and His apostles.

St. Paul is the patron saint of Greece and Malta, and the Cursillo movement.

Saints in the Byzantine Calendar [January 25]

• Gregory, the Theologian

Memorial of Saints (January 24)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor of the Church
• Babylas, bishop and martyr
• Felician, bishop and martyr
• Messalina, martyr
• Macedonius

Related blog posts:

• St. Francis de Sales, [bishop and doctor of the Church]
• Francis de Sales, Proponent of the French School of Spirituality

St. Francis de Sales' advice to recall God's presence during the day

"...in this practice is contained one of the most sure means of your spiritual progress...In the course of the day, recall to mind the presence of God, as often as you can...Become aware of what God is doing and of what you are doing: you will realize that his eyes are turned toward you and, with unparalleled love, fixed on you all the time...keep in mind...always to recollect yourself again and again in the solitude of your heart, while outwardly dealing with others and your occupations. This spiritual solitude cannot be prevented by the many people who are around you. They are not around your heart but only around your body. So your heart can remain by itself all alone, in the presence of God alone." (Introduction to the Devout Life, II, 12)

St. Macedonius (ca. 340-430 A.D.) was a Syrian anchoret who is reputed to have performed numerous miracles of healing. One miracle attributed to him was when his prayers caused a childless mother, who had been without child for thirteen years of married life, to bear a child. That child was named Theodoret. St. Macedonius was surnamed "the Barley Eater" because he was said to have lived on barley for forty years. More on St. Macedonius at Wikipedia.org

Saints in the Byzantine Calendar [January 24]

• Xenia of Saint Petersburg

Saint Xenia (ca. 1732-1803 A.D.) lived about forty-five years after the death of her husband, and departed to the Lord at the age of seventy-one. By the 1820s A.D., many people flocked to her grave and ask her to intercede with God for them. The visitors to her grave took the earth from her grave that it had to be replaced every year. Later on, a chapel was built over her grave. Those who ask St. Xenia for her intercession receive healing from illness, and deliverance from their afflictions. She is also known for helping people who seek jobs. More on St. Xenia of Petersburg at OCA.org and at Wikipedia.org