Memorial of Saints (December 31)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• Sylvester I, pope
• Melania the Younger, widow
• Columba of Sens, virgin and martyr

St. Sylvester I (died ca. 335 A.D.) became Pope in 314 A.D. He experienced the freedom which the Emperor Constantine granted to all adherents of the Christian faith and was able to contribute much to the spread of Christianity.

Pope Sylvester I sent a delegate to the Council of Nicaea to approve the dogma about the divinity of Christ. The General Council of Nicaea condemned two heresies: Donatism and Arianism. During St. Sylvester I's pontificate, many new churches were built: the basilicas of St. Peter and St. John Lateran.

More on Saints in the Roman Calendar - December 31

Saints in the Byzantine Calendar - December 31

• Venerable Melania

St. Melania (383-439 A.D.) is both commemorated on December 31 in the Roman Calendar and the Byzantine Calendar. She is the daughter of a Roman senator, who was the son of Melania the Elder. Melania the Younger was married against her will by her father when she was only fourteen years old. After the two children she gave birth to died, her father agreed to respect her desire to devote her life to God. And then when her father passed away, leaving her with enormous wealth, she, her husband, and her mother, turned their country villa into a religious center.

In 417 A.D., they made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Melania's mother died 14 years later and her husband died in the following year. St. Melania died at Jerusalem on December 31. Venerable Melania has been venerated in the Eastern Church for many centuries and she began to have a cult in the West when Pope Pius X approved the observance of her feast in 1908 A.D. for the Somaschi - an observance followed by the Latin Catholics of Constantinople and Jerusalem.

Memorial of Saints (December 30)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• Egwin of Worcester, bishop
• Sabinus and Companions, martyrs
• Anysia, martyr
• Anysius, bishop

St. Egwin of Worcester (died ca. 717 A.D.) was a descendant of the Mercian kings. He became a religious in his youth and in 692 or 693 A.D., was named bishop of Worcester, England. Committed to the reform of the clergy, he evoked the enmity of a faction in his diocese. As a consequence, Egwin was forced to withdraw from his see for a time. He made a penitential pilgrimage to Rome to defend himself against the charges of overturn and received papal vindication. Upon his return to England, with the help of the king of Mercia, Egwin founded Evesham Monastery. This monastery developed into one of the great Benedictine monasteries in medieval England. St. Egwin died at Evesham and was buried in the monastery.

December 30 - Saints in the Byzantine Calendar

• Anysia
• Venerable Zoticus

Feast of the Holy Family (C)

(Edited) Sunday Reflections (from) Liturgical Years 2011 (A), 2012 (B), and 2013 (C)

Feast of the Holy Family (C), December 30, 2012
Liturgical readings
Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14
Psalm 128
Colossians 3:12-21
Luke 2:41-52

"On the third day they came upon him in the temple."

Like all Jewish families, St. Joseph and the Blessed Mother brought the Lord Jesus with them for the feast of the Passover. The Lord was twelve years of age at the time. So they went to Jerusalem for that very purpose. When the feast had ended, Joseph and Mary journeyed back home not knowing that Jesus was not with them. As soon as Joseph and Mary realized this, they returned to Jerusalem in search of him. On the third day of their search, they found him in the temple. Jesus was sitting among the teachers of the Law. When Mary approached Jesus and expressed her anxiety at not having him by their side, Jesus replied in words his parents did not understand.

St. Joseph and the Blessed Mother were responsible parents. Although the Lord Jesus may have known the way back home - since it was their yearly custom to do so - his parents nevertheless wanted to be certain that he was safe. Both of them knew in faith generally, that they were entrusted with someone of divine origin because of the many events related to his birth: the angel Gabriel; the miraculous conception of Elizabeth; the angel's messages to Joseph in his dreams; the visit of the shepherds; the visit and gifts of the Magi. However, Joseph and Mary's limited human understanding cannot comprehend the words Jesus spoke to them upon finding Him at the Temple. The Lord's wisdom and knowledge are beyond any human of His age and also beyond any understanding at the level of His parents.

Jesus, like any Jewish boy, was obedient to his parents. After that event in the finding at the Temple of Jerusalem, traditional stories report that Jesus spent thirty years in Nazareth growing up with the people of his own generation. His mother kept all the events related to her Son in her memory and contemplated them in her heart. Jesus also learned the trade of his foster-father Joseph: carpentry. Nothing much is known about this hidden years, except that Jesus progressed steadily in wisdom before God and his townmates in Nazareth. This story of the Finding in the Temple, and mention of their hidden family life, reminds all the faithful of the many good qualities each one of them exemplifies for every member of the Christian family.