Patron Saints
Saint Bede the Venerable is the patron saint of this blog. This amazing man was a Benedictine monk, priest, historian, and a Doctor of the Church, all while dealing with Viking attacks.
I took the name Bede when I made my final oblation as a Benedictine.
Bede occupies an important niche in Church history by bridging the gap between patristic and early medieval times, the era when the Germanic nations had just been Christianized. Through him Christian tradition and Roman culture came to the Middle Ages.
He is also honored as the “father of English history.” His writings were read publicly in churches while he was still alive; but since he could not be called “Saint,” the title of Venerable was attached to his name, a usage which continued down through the centuries.
True Benedictine that he was, his life revolved around prayer and work.
(Pius Parsch, The Church’s Year of Grace)
As an historian and writer, Saint Bede seems the natural choice for a patron of blogs.
Before the unavoidable journey there, no one
becomes wiser in thought than him who, by need, ponders,
before his going hence, what good and evil within his soul,
after his day of death, will be judged.(Saint Bede the Venerable, “Death Song”)
His feast is 25 May.
Saint Bede, pray for us!
Personally, I have often sought the intercession of a small cohort of saints. These are listed below in no particular order.
Saint Benedict was a monk and abbot, founder of western monasticism, and author of The Holy Rule.
The Holy Rule is without doubt one of the greatest instructions for living the Christian life ever written.
His biography appears in Pope Saint Gregory the Great’s Dialogues. Although his work is firmly in the genre of hagiography, Saint Gregory was able to interview many people who had know the saint personally.
In the perilous times that followed Rome’s fall, it was Benedictine monks who preserved the ancient learning and created the Christian communities around their monasteries that eventually led to the cultural revival of the continent. It was for this reason that Pope Saint Paul VI proclaimed him a patron saint of Europe.
His feast is celebrated on 11 July on the General Roman Calendar. The Benedictine calendar also includes a feast on 21 March commemorating his death.
Santiago, Saint James the Greater, was one of Christ’s Twelve Apostles. He and his brother John were natives of Galilee, sons of the fisherman Zebedee and his wife Salome, whom the Eastern Christians name Myrrh-bearer.
They were disciples of John the Baptist, but the Baptist sent them to Jesus.
So fiery were these two brothers, Saints James and John, that Christ named them “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17).
Along with Saint Peter, James and John made up Christ’s closest disciples. These three were with Him at many key moments in His ministry, including the Transfiguration (Matt 17, Mark 9, Luke 9:28ff) and even to Gethsemane (Mark 14:33).
After the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ, Saint Luke tells us how Herod had James killed with the sword (Acts 12:2).
Legend has it that prior to his martyrdom, James embarked on a missionary journey to northwestern Hispania. It was not particularly successful, and the Medieval Golden Legend records that he only made nine disciples.
After this mission, he returned to Jerusalem. The fiery-tempered James ran afoul of King Herod, and met his death.
His disciples brought his remains back to Spain, where they repose at Saintiago de Compostela.
His feast day is 25 July.
Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist is one of Christ’s first apostles, the beloved disciple, younger brother of James. With James and Peter, John forms the inner circle of the apostles, closest to their Master’s confidence.
He is the fiery son of a fisherman, and he was known to the High Priest in Jerusalem. He was certainly educated, and he may well have moved through the upper circles of Jewish religious life.
At the last supper, he lay his head on his Saviour’s breast.
He was the only apostle to witness the crucifixion. He was one of the first to confirm the resurrection. It was to him that Christ entrusted His mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Saint John was a magnificent witness to Christ, penning the Gospel that begins with these thundering words that echo throughout the heavens:
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
He wrote more of the canon: the Book of Revelation and at least one letter, and possibly all three that bear his name.
Two of the verses he wrote are probably the most quoted verses in the entire Bible:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
and
“God is love.” (1 John 4:8)
Either one would make a pretty good summary sentence of the entire Bible.
Alone of the apostles, John did not suffer a martyr’s death. Instead, he died an old man in Ephesus, having spent much of his life in a prison exile on the island of Patmos.
At my confirmation, I took his name as my own.
His feast day is 27 December.
Saint Hugh the Great the sixth abbot of Cluny, a position he was elected to at the tender age of twenty-five and held for more than sixty years.
He was born of the sovereign house of the dukes of Burgundy at Semur in 1024, and he died at Cluny on 28 April, 1109.
Abbot Hugh built the third abbey church at Cluny, the largest structure in Europe at the time.
With the Congregation of Cluny reaching now even into Spain, the funds for the construction were provided by King Ferdinand I of León.
In fact, under his stewardship, nearly 2,000 Cluniac monasteries were founded throughout western Europe.
A friend and ally of Pope Saint Gregory VII, Abbot Hugh played a key role in the reform of the clergy, and he was widely recognized for his sanctity even during his lifetime.
His feast day, the Feast of the Holy Abbots of Cluny, is 29 April.
And others to whom I have had recourse:
And, of course, our Blessed Mother. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners!
