Saint Kilian, and Cillian
July 9th is the traditional feast of Saint Cilian, also Kilian (640 – 689), an Irish missionary monk who took the Catholic Faith from Ireland – already well established after the work of Saint Patrick two centuries before – to still-pagan Germany. In the summer of 686, he and eleven companions – a biblical twelve – traveled through Gaul to Rome, to receive the official mandate of Pope Conon to evangelize the Franks, who would soon themselves become bastions of the Catholic Faith under Pepin and Charlemagne. Like Saint John the Baptist, Kilian met his end when he criticized the marital situation of the Herzog (Duke) Gozbert, who had married his brother’s widow, Geilana. The incensed woman ordered his death, and Kilian was beheaded with two of his companions, Colman and Totnan. Their skulls are still on display in the Würzburg Cathedral, and are paraded through the streets on Saint Kilian’s day. I wonder if that custom still prevails, as Germany, like Ireland, lapses back into its old paganism. Or, rather, as Belloc predicted, adopts a neo-paganism which, like the swept rooms of the Gospels, brings is seven devils far worse than the first. For the early pagans at least had the mitigating factor of never having heard said the Good News of Christ. We pray for Ireland and Germany, that they see that without the Faith, we are lost. To Belloc again: Europe is the Faith, and the Faith is Europe.
A postscript: The au courant actor Cillian Murphy, who played Oppenheimer, shares the name of the saint, which can be spelled with one or two l’s. I know nothing of Mr. Murphy’s personal life, but the scenes in some of his films signify what has been lost, including full el fresco nudity. (And, no, that hyperlink does not lead you to said scenes, but to Eric Sammons’ reasoned defense for why he won’t see Oppenheimer, a position with which I heartily agree – at least, an unexpurgated version). Cillian was raised Catholic but at some point along the way, as with many of those of the Emerald Isle, lost the gift of Faith. According to his Wikipedia page – yes, I know – he claims that the research involved in his role of the scientist who developed the nuclear bomb helped move him from agnosticism to atheism, which is the opposite of what rightly-ordered reason should do. The order and structure of the world signifies a Mind behind that wonderful cosmos, as the Book of Wisdom, Saint Paul, and Saint Thomas, amongst untold others, aver. But the actor says his early Faith still shapes his morality, in some way, one may suppose. May he, and all the rest of our wayward world, build on whatever glimpses they still have or are given, to see the fullness of Truth.
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→
An Ideological and Improper Translation
I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→
Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle: A Teacher for Teachers
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651 – 1719), a French nobleman, ordained a priest, founded the first order in the Church’s history entirely without priests, and this came about almost by accident. I say ‘almost’, for, of course, there are no accidents with God. Destined for ordination from an early age, Jean-Baptiste never looked back, even[…]Continue reading→