Trivia Thread

[Paul S]

Speaking of categories of saints... Does "Apostle" only refer to the original twelve for canonization purposes? For example, I've heard St. Patrick referred to as the "Apostle of Ireland," but I'm not sure if this counts as an official title recognized by the Church.

There are 14 men who are called "Apostles" on the Roman Calendar - the Eleven, St. Paul, St. Matthias (who replaced Judas), and St. Barnabas (who lost the drawing of lots to Matthias). Acts has "Barsabas", but there's a tradition that Barsabas and Barnabas are the same person.

 

[Paul S]

Thank you. Now please wait whilst I go find the panadol

When you get back, you can find the rest of the Gospels for Advent.

 

[Ann M]

When you get back, you can find the rest of the Gospels for Advent.

No I can't!!

 

[Paul S]

No I can't!!

Can too!

I even told you where to look!

 

[Ann M]

this site doesn't give me any more readings than I've already told you!

 

[Ann M]

December 8 - The Immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

[bible]Luke 1:26-28[/bible]

That's the only other gospel reading I can find.


Please note that this IS a pout on my face

 

[Paul S]

this site doesn't give me any more readings than I've already told you!

Ah... I see what you did now.

You moved Ember Friday to Thursday and Ember Saturday to Friday, so I thought you were missing Saturday (which is repeated for the Fourth Sunday).

But there's one more Gospel reading (and this is kind of a trick question - it's not in the Proper of the Season).

 

[Ann M]

Have I answered this now?

 

[Paul S]

Have I answered this now?

Almost. There's still one more Gospel reading at Mass. Try here.

The next question will be easier.

Today's feast day is for St. Athanasius. What heresy did he fight, and what crimes did his enemies falsely accuse him of (and how did he show they were false)?

 

[Ann M]

Almost. There's still one more Gospel reading at Mass. Try here.

O I thought I finished with that Dec 8 reading, bummer...

 

[Ann M]

In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum. Hoc erat in principio apud Deum. Omnia per ipsum facta sunt: et sine ipso factum est nihil quod factum est: in ipso vita erat, et vita erat lux hominem: et lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt.


In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was made nothing that was made: in Him was life, and the life was the Light of men; and the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.


Fuit homo missus a Deo, cui nomen erat Ioannes. Hic venit in testimonium, ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine, ut omnes crederent per illum. Non erat ille lux, sed ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine. Erat lux vera quae illuminat omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to testify concerning the Light, taht all might believe through Him. He was not the Light, be he was to testify concerning the Light. That was the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.


In mundo erat, et mundus per ipsum factus est et mundus eum non cognovit. In propria venit, et sui eum non receperunt. Quotquot autem receperunt eum, dedit eis potestatem filios Dei fieri, his, qui credunt in nomine eius: qui non ex sanguinibus, neque ex voluntate carnis, neque ex voluntate viri, sed ex Deo nati sunt.


He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him to them He gave power to become sons of God, to them that believe in His Name, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Here all kneel.


Et Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis: et vidimus gloriam eius, gloriam quasi Unigeniti a Patre, plenum gratiae et veritatis.


And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us: and we saw His glory, the glory as of the Only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.


M. Deo gratias. S. Thanks be to God.

 

[Paul S]

That's the one.

The beginning of the Gospel of John is always read as the Last Gospel. Before 1962, it was replaced sometimes with the Commemoration of a Feast, but they changed it.

 

[Ann M]

Today's feast day is for St. Athanasius. What heresy did he fight, and what crimes did his enemies falsely accuse him of (and how did he show they were false)?

St. Athanasius

Feastday: May 2

373


St. Athanasius, the great champion of the Faith was born at Alexandria, about the year 296, of Christian parents. Educated under the eye of Alexander, later Bishop of his native city, he made great progress in learning and virtue. In 313, Alexander succeeded Achillas in the Patriarchal See, and two years later St. Athanasius went to the desert to spend some time in retreat with St. Anthony.

In 319, he became a deacon, and even in this capacity he was called upon to take an active part against the rising heresy of Arius, an ambitious priest of the Alexandrian Church who denied the Divinity of Christ. This was to be the life struggle of St. Athanasius.

In 325, he assisted his Bishop at the Council of Nicaea, where his influence began to be felt. Five months later Alexander died. On his death bed he recommended St. Athanasius as his successor. In consequence of this, Athanasius was unanimously elected Patriarch in 326.

His refusal to tolerate the Arian heresy was the cause of many trials and persecutions for St. Athanasius. He spent seventeen of the forty-six years of his episcopate in exile. After a life of virtue and suffering, this intrepid champion of the Catholic Faith, the greatest man of his time, died in peace on May 2, 373. St. Athanasius was a Bishop and Doctor of the Church.

 

[Ann M]

The Bishop of Nicomedia thereupon brought various ecclesiastical and political charges against Athanasius, which, though unmistakably refuted at their first hearing, were afterwards refurbished and made to do service at nearly every stage of his subsequent trials. Four of these were very definite, to wit: that he had not reached the canonical age at the time of his consecration; that he had imposed a linen tax upon the provinces; that his officers had, with his connivance and authority, profaned the Sacred Mysteries in the case of an alleged priest names Ischyras; and lastly that he had put one Arenius to death and afterwards dismembered the body for purposes of magic.

 

[Ann M]

For this reason he was honoured with so much of their hatred by the Arians, that their vindictiveness never forsook him from that time forward. They called together a Council at Tyre, composed for the most part of Arian bishops, where they suborned a wretched woman to charge Athanasius with having raped her when she had received him as a guest into her house. Athanasius therefore came into the assembly, and with him a certain priest, whose name was Timothy. This Timothy arose as though he were Athanasius, and asked her, saying : Woman, was it I that raped thee? She cried out indignantly : Yea, thou it was that didst rape me, the which she attested with an oath, and called on the honour of the judges to punish such iniquity. Upon this discovery of her perjury, they drave the shameless woman from their presence.

The Arians also accused Athanasius of having murdered the Bishop Arsenius. This Arsenius they kept shut up, and brought into the court a dead man's hand, which they declared had been his, and had been cut off by Athanasius to use in sorcery. But Arsenius escaped in the night, and when he appeared before all the Council whole and sound, the brazen-faced crime of the enemies of Athanasius was exposed. This appearance nevertheless they attributed to Athanasius being a warlock, and persisted still in their attack on him.

 

[Paul S]

That was quick. Now you see why I don't give more easy questions - you find the answers too fast and then I have to think up more.

Tomorrow's feast (May 3) is the Invention of the Holy Cross. What does this celebrate?

 

[Ann M]

The Golden Legend
The Invention of the Holy Cross

Of the invention of the Holy Cross, and first of this word invention.

The invention of the holy cross is said because that this day the holy cross was found. For tofore it was found of Seth in Paradise terrestrial, like as it shall be said hereafter, and also it was found of Solomon in the Mount of Lebanon, and of the Queen of Sheba in the temple of Solomon, and of the Jews in the water of Piscine, and on this day it was found of Helena in the Mount of Calvary.

Of the Holy Cross.

The holy cross was found two hundred years after the resurrection of our Lord. It is read in the gospel of Nicodemus that, when Adam waxed sick, Seth his son went to the gate of Paradise terrestrial for to get the oil of mercy for to anoint withal his father's body. Then appeared to him Saint Michael the angel, and said to him: Travail not thou in vain for this oil, for thou mayst not have it till five thousand and five hundred years be past, how be it that from Adam unto the passion of our Lord were but five thousand one hundred and thirtythree years. In another place it is read that the angel brought him a branch, and commanded him to plant it the Mount of Lebanon. Yet find we in another place that he gave to him of the tree that Adam ate of, and said to him that when that bare fruit he should be guerished and all whole. When Seth came again he found his father dead and planted this tree upon his grave, and it endured there unto the time of Solomon. And because he saw that it was fair, he did do hew it down and set it in his house named Saltus. And when the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon, she worshipped this tree, because she said the Saviour of all the world should be hanged thereon, by whom the realm of the Jews shall be defaced and cease. Solomon for this cause made it to be taken up and dolven deep in the ground. Now it happed after, that they of Jerusalem did do make a great pit for a piscine, whereas the ministers of the temple should wash their beasts that they should sacrifice, and there found this tree, and this piscine had such virtue that the angels descended and moved the water, and the first sick man that descended into the water, after the moving, was made whole of whatsoever sickness he was sick of. And when the time approached of the passion of our Lord, this tree arose out of the water, and floated above the water, and of this piece of timber made the Jews the cross of our Lord. Then, after this history, the cross by which we be saved came of the tree by which we were damned, and the water of that piscine had not his virtue only of the angel but of the tree. With this tree, whereof the cross was made, there was a tree that went overthwart, on which the arms of our Lord were nailed, and another piece above, which was the table wherein the title was written, and another piece wherein the socket or mortice was made, wherein the body of the cross stood in, so that there were four manner of trees, that is of palm, of cypress, of cedar, and of olive. So each of these four pieces was of one of these trees. This blessed cross was put in the earth, and hid by the space of a hundred years and more, but the mother of the emperor, which was named Helena, found it in this manner. For Constantine came with a great multitude of barbarians nigh unto the river of the Danube, which would have gone over for to have destroyed all the country. And when Constantine had assembled his host he went and set them against that other party, but as soon as he began to pass the river he was much afeard because he should on the morn have battle. And in the night, as he slept in his bed, an angel awoke him, and showed to him the sign of the cross in heaven, and said to him: Behold on high in heaven. Then saw he the cross made of right clear light, and was written thereupon with letters of gold: In this sign thou shalt overcome the battle. Then was he all comforted of this vision and on the morn he put in his banner the cross and made it to be borne tofore him and his host, and after, smote in the host of his enemies and slew and chased great plenty. After this he did do call the bishops of the idols, and demanded them to what God the sign of the cross appertained. And when they could not answer, some christian men that were there told to him the mystery of the cross, and informed him in the faith of the Trinity. Then anon he believed perfectly in God and did do baptize him, and after it happed that Constantine his son remembered the victory of his father, and sent to Helena his mother for to find the holy cross. Then Helena went in to Jerusalem and did do assemble all the wise men of the country, and when they were assembled they would fain know wherefore they were called. Then one Judas said to them: I wot well that she will know of us where the cross of Jesu Christ was laid, but beware you all that none of you tell her, for I wot well, then shall our law be destroyed. For Zacheus, mine old father, said to Simon my father, and my father said to me at his death: Be well ware that for no torment that ye may suffer, tell not where the cross of Jesu Christ was laid, for after that it shall be found the Jews shall reign no more, but the christian men that worshipped the cross shall then reign; and verily this Jesus was the son of God. Then demanded I my father wherefore had they hanged him on the cross sith it was known that he was the son of God. Then he said to me: Fair son, I never accorded thereto, but gainsaid it always, but the Pharisees did it because he reproved their vices; but he arose on the third day and, his disciples seeing, he ascended into heaven; then because that Stephen, thy brother, believed in him the Jews stoned him to death. Then, when Judas had said these words to his fellows, they answered: We never heard of such things, nevertheless keep thee well, if the queen demand thee thereof, that thou say no thing to her. When the queen had called them and demanded them the place where our Lord Jesu Christ had been crucified, they would never tell ne enseign her. Then commanded she to burn them all, but then they doubted and were afraid, and delivered Judas to her and said: Lady, this man is the son of a prophet and of a just man, and knoweth right well the law, and can tell to you all things that ye shall demand him. Then the queen let all the others go and retained Judas without more. Then she showed to him his life and death, and bade him choose which he would. Show to me, said she, the place named Golgotha where our Lord was crucified, because and to the end that we may find the cross. Then said Judas: It is two hundred years passed and more, and I was not then yet born. Then said to him the lady: By him that was crucified, I shall make thee perish for hunger if thou tell not to me the truth. Then made she him to be cast into a dry pit and there tormented him by hunger and evil rest. When he had been seven days in that pit, then said he: If I might be drawn out, I should say the truth. Then he was drawn out, and when he came to the place, anon the earth moved, and a fume of great sweetness was felt, in such wise that Judas smote his hands together for joy, and said: In truth, Jesu Christ, thou art the Saviour of the world.

It was so that Adrian the emperor had do make, in the same place where the cross lay, a temple of a goddess, because that all they that came in that place should adore that goddess, but the queen did do destroy the temple. Then Judas made him ready and began to dig, and when he came to twenty paces deep he found three crosses and brought them to the queen, and because he knew not which was the cross of our Lord, he laid them in the middle of the city and abode the demonstrance of God; and about the hour of noon there was the corps of a young man brought to be buried. Judas retained the bier, and laid upon it one of the crosses, and after the second, and when he laid on it the third, anon the body that was dead came again to life.

Then cried the devil in the air: Judas, what hast thou done? Thou hast done the contrary that the other Judas did, for by him I have won nany souls, and by thee I shall lose many, by him I reigned on the people, and by thee I have lost my realm, nevertheless I shall yield to thee this bounty, for I shall send one that shall punish thee. And that was accomplished by Julian the apostate, which tormented him afterward, when he was bishop of Jerusalem. And when Judas heard him, he cursed the devil and said to him: Jesu Christ damn thee in fire perdurable. After this Judas was baptized and was named Quiriacus, and after was made bishop of Jerusalem.

When Helena had the cross of Jesu Christ, and saw that she had not the nails, then she sent to the bishop Quiriacus that he should go to the place and seek the nails. Then he did dig in the earth so long that he found them shining as gold; then bare he them to the queen, and anon as she saw them she worshipped them with great reverence. Then gave Saint Helena a part of the cross to her son and that other part she left in Jerusalem, closed in gold, silver, and precious stones. And her son bare the nails to the emperor, and the emperor did do set them in his bridle and in his helm when he went to battle. This rehearseth Eusebius, which, was bishop of Cæsarea, how be it that others say otherwise.

Now it happed that Julian the apostate did do slay Quiriacus, that was bishop of Jerusalem, because he had found the cross, for he hated it so much that wheresomever he found the cross he did it to be destroyed. For when he went in battle against them of Persia, he sent and commanded Quiriacus to make sacrifice to the idols, and when he would not do it, he did do smite off his right hand, and said: With this hand hast thou written many letters by which thou repelled much folk from doing sacrifice to our gods. Quiriacus said: Thou wood hound, thou hast done to me great profit, for thou hast cut off the hand with which I have many times written to the synagogues that they should not believe in Jesu Christ, and now sith I am christian thou hast taken from me that which noyed me. Then did Julian do melt lead and cast it in his mouth, and after did do bring a bed of iron and made Quiriacus to be laid and stretched thereon, and after laid under burning coals and threw therein grease and salt for to torment him the more; and when Quiriacus moved not, Julian the emperor said to him: Either thou shalt sacrifice to our gods, or thou shalt say at the least thou art not christian. And when he saw he would do never neither, he did do make a deep pit full of serpents and venomous beasts, and cast him therein. And when he entered, anon the serpents were all dead. Then Julian put him in a caldron of boiling oil, and when he should enter into it he blessed it, and said: Fair Lord, turn this bath to baptism of martyrdom. Then was Julian much angry, and commanded that he should be riven through his heart with a sword, and in this manner finished his life.

The virtue of the cross is declared to us by many miracles; for it happed on a time that one enchanter had deceived a notary and brought him into a place where he had assembled a great company of devils, and promised to him that he would make him to have much riches; and when he came there he saw one person black, sitting on a great chair, and all about him all full of horrible people and black which had spears and swords. Then demanded this great devil of the enchanter who was that clerk. The enchanter said to him: Sir, he is ours. Then said the devil to him: If thou wilt worship me and be my servant and reny Jesu Christ, thou shalt sit on my right side. The clerk anon blessed him with the sign of the cross, and said that he was the servant of Jesu Christ his Saviour, and anon, as he had made the cross, that great multitude of devils vanished away. It happed that this notary, after this, on a time entered with his lord into the church of Saint Sophia and kneeled down on his knees tofore the image of the crucifix, the which crucifix, as it seemed, looked much openly and sharply on him. Then his lord made him to go apart on another side, and always the crucifix turned his eyes towards him; then he made him go on the left side, and yet the crucifix looked on him, then was the lord much amarvelled, and charged him and commanded him that he should tell him whereof he had so deserved that the crucifix so beheld and looked on him. Then said the notary that he could not remember him of no good thing that he had done, save that one time he would not reny ne forsake the crucifix tofore the devil. Then let us so bless us with the sign of the blessed cross that we may thereby be kept from the power of our ghostly and deadly enemy the devil, and by the merits of the glorious passion that our Saviour Jesu Christ suffered on the cross, after this life we may come to his everlasting bliss. Amen

Thank you catholic-forum.com

 

[Paul S]

When's the other feast of the Cross?

 

[Ann M]

New Advent

(3) B. The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, 14 September, though apparently introduced into the West somewhat later than the so-called "Invention" on 3 May, seems to preserve the true date of the discovery of the Cross by St. Helena. This festival has always been kept in the East, and especially at Jerusalem, on that day, under the name of , i. e. "elevation" which probably meant originally the "bringing to light".

(5) C. Other Feasts of the Cross.-We might in some sense regard such a festival as that of the Holy Lance and Nails as a festival of the Cross, but it should perhaps rather be grouped with feasts of the Passion. In the East, however, we find other celebrations strictly connected with the Cross. For example, on 1 August the Greeks commemorate the taking of the relic of the Holy Cross from the palace in Constantinople to the church of St. Sophia, and on 7 May, as we have seen, they recall an apparition of the Cross to St. Cyril of Jerusalem. The Armenians, on the other hand, observe one principal feast of the Cross, under the name Chatz, which occurs in autumn almost immediately after the feast of the Assumption. It is counted as one of the seven principal feasts of the year, is preceded by a week's fast, and followed by an octave or its Armenian equivalent.

 

[Paul S]

What happens when the Invention or the Exaltation falls on Sunday?