• August 13th - St. Radegund

    From rich@1:15/0 to All on Sat Aug 12 09:58:34 2017
    From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

    August 13th - St. Radegund
    (Also known as Radigunde, Radegundes)
    (518-587)

    Radegund of the =E2=80=9CWagnerian=E2=80=9D name was the daughter of a king=
    of
    Thuringia in those tumultuous days when other Germanic peoples, having
    swept across the boundaries of the crumbling Roman Empire, were
    establishing themselves in the old Roman territories.

    Clovis, head of the Franks, had taken over Gaul and accepted
    Christianity. His son, Clotaire I, was also a Christian, but still
    much of a barbarian. In 531 he invaded Thuringia and brought home
    spoils and prisoners. Among the prisoners were Radegund, then aged 12,
    and her brother. The king saw to it that she was properly raised in
    France. She grew up into a beautiful and devout young woman. Clotaire
    married her when she was 18.

    But King Clotaire was a flagrant womanizer. He married five times, and
    it is likely that some of his spouses were still living when he wedded Radegund. The young queen tried, nevertheless, to fulfill her duties
    as a King's wife, but at the same time she cultivated a serious
    prayer-life and spent much time taking care of the poor and sick. For
    example, she founded a hospital for lepers, tended them with her own
    hands, and on occasion even kissed them. A friend who saw this warned
    her that henceforth nobody would dare kiss her. =E2=80=9CIf you don=E2=80=
    =99t want to
    kiss me,=E2=80=9D she replied tartly, =E2=80=9CI really do not mind at all!= =E2=80=9D

    The king sensibly refrained from interfering with his wife's
    charities, and for six years she patiently bore his infidelities. But
    when Clotaire killed her brother, that was the limit. She asked his
    permission to leave the court, and she persuaded the bishop of Noyon
    to confer on her the religious veil. He also blessed her as a
    deaconess, an office of service for women, not clearly sacramental,
    that would be abolished in western Europe in the later Middle Ages.
    After six months of penitential life, Radegund renewed her program of charities.

    Ultimately she moved to Poitiers, and there founded a =E2=80=9Cdouble monastery=E2=80=9D (a section for nuns and a section for priests), choosing=
    a
    qualified nun as its abbess. Not long afterward, the king demanded
    that his separated wife return to court. Fortunately, Bishop Germanus
    of Paris was able to persuade Clotaire to leave her alone. It is said
    that the Frankish monarch died repentant of his sins. At least he did
    bring himself to contribute to the upkeep of his wife's monastic
    foundation.

    In her Poitiers abbey, the erstwhile queen set high religious
    standards. Well-educated herself, she insisted that the sisters learn
    to read, spend two hours a day in study, and learn by heart the 150
    psalms to be chanted in the divine office. Because of Radegund's
    interest in learning, her monastery was a rendezvous for scholars. It
    likewise became a center and agency for peace. Whenever the saint
    heard rumors of war (and these were battlesome days), she would
    communicate with the belligerents and urge a peaceful settlement. Her
    royal position gave added authority to these pleas.

    The queen loved to enrich her abbey church with relics of the saints.
    They were a constant reminder of the union between the Church Militant
    and the Church Triumphant. When in response to her special request,
    Emperor Justin I sent her from Constantinople, cased in rich
    reliquary, a portion of his relic of the True Cross, Radegund received
    it with devout solemnity. It was for this reception that St. Venantius Fortunatus, one of the queen's learned associates, composed his
    stirring hymn, still used on Good Friday, the Vexilla Regis. (=E2=80=9CThe Royal Banners forward go; The Cross shines forth in mystic glow; Where
    He in flesh, our flesh who made; Our sentence bore, our ransom paid.=E2=80= =9D)

    St. Gregory of Tours, who attended the wake of the dead queen, in 587,
    said her face shone bright. Miracles, too, were soon attributed to her intercession. But St. Radegund is best known as the majestic and
    long-suffering queen who was one of the leading women intellectuals of
    the early =E2=80=9CDark Ages.=E2=80=9D


    Saint Quote:
    "The Church is bathed in the light of the Lord, and pours her rays
    over the whole world; but it is one light that is spread everywhere,
    and the unity of her structure is undivided."
    --St. Cyprian [251AD], The Unity of the Catholic Church

    Bible Quote:
    that God's knowledge of human destiny is an unfathomable mystery: "How
    rich and deep are the wisdom and knowledge of God! We cannot reach to
    the root of his decisions or his ways. Who has ever known the mind of
    the Lord?" [Romans 11:33-34a]


    <><><><>
    From The Friends Of the Cross
    by Saint Louis de Montfort

    Therefore, if anyone wants to come after Me, annihilated and
    crucified, he must glory as I did only in the poverty, humiliation and suffering of My Cross: "let him deny himself" (Matt. 16, 24).
    Far be from the Company of the Friends of the Cross those who
    pride themselves in suffering, the worldly-wise, elated geniuses and self-conceited individuals who are stubborn and puffed-up with their
    lights and talents. Far be they from us, those endless talkers who
    make plenty of noise but bring forth no other fruit than vain glory.
    Far from us those high-browed devotees everywhere displaying the self-sufficient pride of Lucifer: "I am not like the rest!" (Luke 18,
    11). Far be from us those who must always justify themselves when
    blamed resist when attacked and exalt themselves when humbled.
    Be careful not to admit into your fellowship those frail,
    sensitive persons who are afraid of the slightest pin-prick, who sob
    and sigh when faced with the lightest suffering, who have never
    experienced a hair-shirt, a discipline or any other penitential
    instrument, and who with their fashionable devotions, mingle the most
    artful delicacy and the most refined lack of mortification.
    --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
    # Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)
    * Origin: Region 15 HQ (1:15/0)