From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

February 29th - SS. Romanus and Lupicinus, Abbots
On leap years, the feast day is celebrated on February 29.

St. Romanus died in 460. His younger brother, St. Lupicinus, died in 480.

ST. ROMANUS had reached the age of 35 when he withdrew into the
forests of the Jura Mountains between Switzerland and France to live
there as a hermit. He took with him Cassian's Lives of the Fathers =
of
the Desert, a few tools and some seeds, and found his way to an
uninhabited spot at the confluence of the Bienne and the Ali=C3=A8re,
enclosed between steep heights and difficult of access. Here under the
shelter of an enormous fir tree he spent his time praying, reading and cultivating the soil. At first his solitude was disturbed only by the
beasts and an occasional huntsman, but before long he was joined by
his brother Lupicinus and by one or two more. Other recruits soon
flocked to them, including their sister and a number of women.

The two brothers soon built the monastery of Condat and then that of
Leuconne, two miles to the north, whilst for the women they
established the nunnery of La Beaume (the site of the present village
of Saint-Romain-de-la-Roche). The brothers ruled as joint abbots in
perfect harmony, although Lupicinus was inclined to be the stricter;
he generally lived at Leuconne, and when at one time the brethren at
Condat were making their food more palatable, he came over and forbade
the innovation. Although they strove to imitate the anchorites of the
East, they were obliged to modify some of their austerities owing to
climatic and other differences. The Gauls were naturally great eaters,
and these monks spent much of their time in very hard manual labour,
but they never touched flesh-meat and were only allowed milk and eggs
when they were ill. They wore wooden sabots and the skins of animals
sewn together, which protected them from the rain, but not from the
bitter cold in winter or from the summer rays of the sun reflected
from the perpendicular rocks.

St. Romanus made a pilgrimage to what is now Saint-Maurice in the
Valais, to visit the place of martyrdom of the Theban Legion. He cured
two lepers on the way, and, the fame of this miracle reaching Geneva,
the bishop, the clergy and the whole town turned out to greet him as
he was passing through. He died about the year 460, and was buried, as
he had desired, in the church of the nunnery where his sister ruled.
Lupicinus survived his elder brother by some 20 years. In the longer
Latin biography the austerity of Lupicinus is much dilated on, but
there are also wonderful things told of his compassion for his monks
and of his spirit of faith. When starvation seemed to threaten he
obtained from God by his prayers a multiplication of the corn which
remained to them; and when his subjects, yielding to temptation,
planned to leave or actually quitted the monastery, he did not deal
harshly with them, but was only intent on animating them with courage
to persevere in their vocation.

The historical value of the Lives of Romanus, Lupicinus and Eugendus
(January 1), which had gravely been called in question not only by
Bruno Krusch, but also by Quesnel and Papebroch, was vindicated by Mgr
Duchesne in a remarkable paper called =E2=80=9CLa Vie des P=C3=A8res du Jur= a=E2=80=9D in
M=C3=A9langes d'arch=C3=A9ologie et d'histoire, vol. xviii =
(1898), pp. 3-16. M.
Poupardin in Le Moyen Age, vol. xi (1898), pp. 31-48, pronounced in a
similar sense. Cf. M. Besson, Nos origines chr=C3=A9tiennes. The text of
the Life of Romanus and Lupicinus may be found in the Acta Sanctorum,
February, vol. iii, but it has been more recently edited by Krusch in
MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. iii, pp. 131-153.


Saint Quote:
We must not content ourselves with liberty and consolation and gust in
prayer. We must come out from prayer the most rapturous and sweet,
only to do harder and ever harder works for God and our neighbors.
Otherwise the prayer is not good, and the gusts are not from God.
--Saint Teresa of Avila

Bible Quote:
"In the power of the same Holy Spirit, Peter, both the chief of the
apostles and the keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, in the
name of Christ healed Aeneas the paralytic at Lydda, which is now
called Diospolis" [Acts 9:32-34] (ibid., 17:27).


<><><><>
Sing, my tongue, the Savior's glory,
Of His Flesh the mystery sing;
Of the Blood, all price exceeding,
Shed by our immortal King,
Destined, for the world's redemption,
From a noble womb to spring.

Of a pure and spotless Virgin
Born for us on earth below,
He, as Man, with man conversing,
Stayed, the seeds of truth to sow;
Then He closed in solemn order
Wondrously His life of woe.

On the night of that last Supper
Seated with His chosen band,
He, the Paschal victim eating,
First fulfills the Law's command;
Then as Food to His apostles
Gives Himself with His own hand.

Word-made-Flesh, the bread of nature
By His word to Flesh He turns;
Wine into His Blood He changes:=E2=80=94
What though sense no change discerns?
Only he the heart in earnest,
Faith her lesson quickly learns.

Roman Breviary and Missal, Feast of Corpus Christi and Holy Thursday, Hymn Pange lingua glorisi Corporis mysterium. (Tr. Caswall) (St. Thomas Aquinas, 13th cent.)

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