From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

November 21st =E2=80=93 St. Gelasius I, Pope

Born in Rome; died there on November 21, 496. Born in Rome the son of
an African named Valerius, Pope Gelasius I, ruled the papal see from
492 to 496. Prior to his elevation on March 1, 492, he had been
secretary to the two previous popes (Saint Felix II and Saint
Simplicius), and as a pope he still liked to dash off letters in his
own hand--many of which still exist. Although he governed the Church
for only 4 years, 8 months, and 18 days, he showed himself a vigorous,
active, and capable pontiff=E2=80=94in fact, one of the greatest in a centu=
ry
of great popes--and a great Christian. According to Dionysius Exiguus,
Gelasius was known for his holiness, justice, charity to the poor, and learning. Facundus of Hermione wrote a few years after the pope's
death, "He was famous over the whole world for his learning, and the
sanctity of his life."

Gelasius ordered the reception of the Eucharist in both forms, thus
opposing the Manichaeans, who preached that wine was impure and
sinful. Among many rules which he established for the ministers of the
church, Gelasius declares that its revenues are to be exactly divided
into four parts: one is for the bishop, another for his clergy, the
third for the poor, and the fourth for building. He also attempted to
suppress simony

He tried to compile a trustworthy list of saints and martyrs. He drew
up a compendium of the important decrees of the synods of the church,
not only including western ones but incorporating judgments of eastern
synods where he thought them relevant. Gennadius tells us that
Gelasius composed many sacred hymns, but these have been lost. The
Decretum de libris . . . , listing the canonical books of the Bible,
also long attributed to him, is no longer credited to him.

Although he is not the author of the Gelasian Sacramentary, published
in Rome in 1680 from a 900-year-old manuscript, it probably contains
many of the reforms he researched and instituted. Among other things
found in the ancient sacramentary are the solemn veneration of the
cross on Good Friday; the reservation of the Eucharist offered on Holy
Thursday for communion on Good Friday; the blessing of the holy oils,
the anointing, and other ceremonies used at baptism; blessing of holy
water; prayers for entering new houses and other blessings; several
Masses for the feasts of saints, expressing their invocation, and the veneration of their relics; votive Masses for travelers, for obtaining
charity and other virtues, for marriage with the nuptial benediction,
for birthdays, for the sick, and for the dead.

Gelasius was convinced that the supreme power of earth was the Church.
This he saw summed up in the power of the papacy. Alongside the
papacy, the role of the Byzantine emperor was nothing.

Gelasius made little attempt to heal the split between Rome and the
East, started when Acacius was Patriarch of Constantinople (471- 489)
and ended only in 518. His aim was different: to assert the
superiority of the bishop of Rome over the patriarch of
Constantinople. In fact, soon after his election, Gelasius ran into difficulties with Euphemius, patriarch of Constantinople, over the
matter of the Acacian heresy when Euphemius refused to remove
Acacius's name from the diptychs (registers of dead bishops named at
the altar) in the churches of his see. (The name of Acacius was erased
from the diptychs in 518 by Patriarch John of Constantinople.)

Saint Gelasius also defended the rights of the patriarchates of
Alexandria and Antioch against the encroachments of Constantinople and eloquently defended the rights of the Church against Emperor
Anastasius in a famous letter to the emperor.

In his day, as the pope realized, Christianity remained only
superficial among many converts. For instance, each February
Christians still celebrated the feast of Lupercalia in honor of the
Roman god Pan. Through it they hoped to influence for good the animal
and vegetable world. Gelasius vigorously tried to suppress it,
publicly writing a refutation of a senator named Andromachus who
supported the rites (Against Andromachus).
=C2 (Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).


Saint Quote:
=C2 Allow me, brothers, to look toward heaven rather than at the earth,
so that my spirit may set on the right course when the time comes for
me to go on my journey to the Lord.
--Saint Martin of Tours

Bible Quote:
=C2 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his
sheep. But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own
the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and
flieth: and the wolf catcheth, and scattereth the sheep, And the
hireling flieth, because he is a hireling: and he hath no care for the
sheep. (John 10:11-13) DRB


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The Wound in the Shoulder:

It is related in the annals of Clairvaux that St. Bernard asked Our
Lord which was His greatest unrecorded suffering and that Our Lord
answered, "I had on my shoulder while I bore My cross on the Way of
Sorrows a grievous wound which was more painful than the others which
is not recorded by men. Honor this wound with devotion, and I will
grant thee whatsoever thou dost ask through its virtue and merit, and
in return to all who venerate this wound I will remit to them all
their venial sins and will no longer remember their mortal sins.

O most loving Jesus, meek lamb of God, I a miserable sinner, salute
and worship the most sacred wound of Thy shoulder. Alone thou didst
bear Thy heavy cross which so tore Thy flesh and laid bare Thy bones
as to inflict on Thee an anguish greater than any other wound on Thy
Blessed Body.

I adore Thee, O Jesus, Most Sorrowful, I praise and glorify Thee and
give Thee thanks for this most secret painful wound, beseeching Thee
by the merit and pain of Thy heavy cross to be merciful to me a sinner
and to forgive me my mortal and venial sins and to lead me on towards
heaven along the Way of the Cross. Amen.

Three Our Father's and three Hail Mary's

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