Nov. 8 BL. John Duns Scotus

Blessed Duns Scotus (1265/66-1308)

November 8

John Duns Scotus was one of the most important and influential philosopher-theologians of the High Middle Ages, within the school of Scholasticism. His brilliantly complex and nuanced thought earned him the nickname “the Subtle Doctor.” Certain saints are given the title of and identified as Doctors of the Church due to their theological contributions. The title "doctor" means "important teacher." “Scotus” identifies John as a Scot, with Scotia being Latin for Scotland. His family name was Duns, which was also the name of the Scottish village in which he was born, just a few miles from the English border. We do not know the precise date of his birth, but we do know that Scotus was ordained to the priesthood in the Order of Friars Minor—the Franciscans—at Saint Andrew’s Priory in Northampton, England, on 17 March 1291.

Scotus studied philosophy and then theology at Oxford & Cambridge beginning sometime in the 1280s. He apparently spent about 13 years there (1288–1301) preparing for inception as master of theology. Scotus left Oxford for Paris, probably in 1302. Scotus became Doctor of Theology in 1305 and was Franciscan regent master at Paris in 1306–07. Scotus's great work is his commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. His other works bear the names of the places he taught: The Works of Oxford (Opus Oxoniense) the Cambridge lectures (Reporatio Cambrigensis), and the Paris lectures (Reportata Parisiens). Thus, in his academic career and as an intellectual, he immediately follows fellow Franciscan Bonaventure and Dominican Thomas Aquinas, who both died in 1274: Thomas at age 48–49 and Bonaventure at age 52-53.

In an age when too many people adopted whole systems of thought without qualification, John pointed out the richness of the Augustinian-Franciscan tradition, appreciated the wisdom of Aquinas, Aristotle, and the Moslem philosophers, while still managing to be an independent thinker.

Duns Scotus was also known as the “Cantor of the Incarnate Word” because of his dedication to the central mystery of the faith. In 1307 he very ably defended the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pope Pius IX solemnly defined the Immaculate Conception in 1854, drawing on the work of John Duns Scotus.

“Dunce” in the early 1500s/16^th century became an epithet for the followers of Scotus. Scotus's opponents criticized his ideas as too confusing and pedantic. During the Protestant Reformation, Catholic teachings were criticized, and followers of Scotus were labeled as intellectually inferior.

John Duns Scotus was not only brilliant, but he was also very humble and prayerful: the exact combination St. Francis wanted in any friar who studied. Ideas are important. Scotus placed his best thinking at the service of the human family and of the Church.

Father Charles Balie, OFM, the foremost 20^th-century authority on Scotus, wrote: “The whole of Scotus’s theology is dominated by the notion of love. The characteristic note of this love is its absolute freedom. As love becomes more perfect and intense, freedom becomes more noble and integral both in God and in people.”

In 1307 Duns Scotus was appointed professor at Cologne. Some have suggested that Scotus was sent to Cologne for his own safety. Scotus died there on Nov. 8, 1308, and his German gravesite is adorned with a poem, in Latin, that reads:

Scotland brought me forth.
England sustained me.
France taught me.
Cologne holds me.

Beatified on March 20, 1993, by Pope John Paul II.

Nov. 7 San Diego/St. Didacus

 

November 7^th St. Didacus/San Diego

Back in May I posted about St. Didacus and San Diego Mission, being the first in the CA series of missions. The Tuesday morning “Coffee with the Saints” group began reviewing the 21 CA Missions with the first one established. It is worth revisiting today on the patronal feastday of the diocese. Especially after celebrating “Doorkeepers Day” with Martin de Porres and Solanus Casey just a few days ago. Didacus was also a humble porter, and like Martin, a lay brother.

Canonized on July 10, 1588, by Pope Sixtus V, he was the first Franciscan lay brother to be canonized. Didacus is a Latin given name that means "teacher" or "instructor" and is derived from the Greek word "didaktos" (διδακτός). Also note the early Christian text of the Didachē. Diego is the Spanish form. He is the namesake of the City of San Diego, California—named by explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno in 1602—and the co-patron of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego. (Our Lady of Refuge is the other co-patron.) Didacus is also the patron saint of Franciscan lay brothers, those engaged in manual “blue collar” work.

Didacus/Diego’s life reminds us of the important place of humble, manual labor. As Saint Francis said in the Rule of the Friars Minor:

The brothers should exercise that trade which they know, if it is not against the good of their soul and can be performed honestly. For the prophet says: “You shall eat the fruits of your labors. . .”

In his Testament, Francis reminded his brothers:

And I worked with my hands, and I still desire to work; and I earnestly desire all the brothers to give themselves to honest work. Let those who do not know how to work, learn!!

 

I have a personal connection to St. Didacus parish in Sylmar in that my cousins, aunt, and uncle attended church there, so it was the location of various family baptisms, first communions, and weddings in the Seventies. And then a couple of decades later, it was the home parish for good friends of mine. 

Nov. 4 St. Charles Borromeo -CA Mission

St. Charles Borromeo/San Carlos Borromeo de [Rio] Carmelo (1538-84)

November 4

            Charles was born into a prominent family: his mother was a Medici and Pope Pius IV was his uncle. Destined by his parents to be a cleric, he received clerical tonsure at age twelve! At the same time, he became the pro forma abbot of an abbey whose revenues were at his disposal, which he channeled to the poor.  At twenty-two he became a cardinal, without being a priest or bishop at the time. After getting doctorates in canon and civil law from the University of Pavia, Charles was appointed the Pope’s Secretary of State. In that capacity Charles could have easily turned out to be a self-indulgent officeholder. Instead, he gave his life a religious orientation and became an ordained priest.  He focused his energies on the job and helped complete the Council of Trent in 1563.

            At the age of 25 he was consecrated Archbishop of Milan. His priority was to implement the reforms instituted by the Council. He was especially known for promoting religious education through the establishment of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) throughout the archdiocese, as well as establishing seminaries to provide for the theological education and the religious formation of future priests.

            Thus did St. Charles renew religious life in his diocese, not as a cool administrative manager or as a politician for church renewal, but as a priest and bishop, conscious of having been taken into service by Jesus Christ, and desirous of being a good shepherd for people after the example of Christ.

Not everyone was happy with Bishop Borromeo; he survived an assassination attempt. Charles simplified his life so that he would have the time and energy to care for God’s people as best he could. Very interested in social problems, Charles did not let his position prevent him from ministering to the victims of an epidemic that swept through Milan in 1576. When others fled the city, he stayed to organize the care of the sick and dying. He extended personal ministry and was available as pastor to the seriously ill.

            Charles Borromeo became a Secular Franciscan (or Third Order) early in life and later served as Cardinal Protector of the Franciscans. These factors probably influenced his love for simplicity and his penitential spirit. He is a prominent figure in the era of Catholic Counter-Reformation.  He died at the age of 46 and was canonized in 1610.

St. Charles Borromeo Parish in North Hollywood is the home parish of Roger Cardinal Mahoney and of my grandparents, Clara & Bill Hertan, as well as Delores & Bob Hope, who contributed to the church’s renovation. My parents were married at St. Charles in 1944.

San Carlos was the second California Mission established in Monterey and became the “headquarters” for Padre Serra while President of the Missions. Although named after the Franciscan Saint, it was also named in honor of King Carlos III of Spain, as well as the Viceroy of California, also named Carlos. The nearby river was named El Río Carmelo earlier in 1602 by Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno and his Carmelite friars, who were reminded of Mount Carmel in the Holy Land; thus, the Mission was later situated in the Carmel River Valley.

Nov. 3 BLESSED Solanus Casey

 

Blessed Solanus Casey (1870-1957)

November 3 / July 30

Bernard Francis Casey (nicknamed "Barney") was born on November 25, 1870, on a farm in Oak Grove, Wisconsin. He was the sixth of 16 children of Bernard James Casey and Ellen Elizabeth Murphy, both Irish immigrants. Bernard was baptized on December 18, 1870. The family lived in a three-room log cabin on a farm.

At age 17, he dropped out of school and left home to earn money, working as a logger in a lumberyard, a hospital orderly, and a streetcar operator. While employed as a prison guard in Minnesota, he befriended the Younger brothers, who were former accomplices of the outlaw Jesse James. During this period, he proposed marriage to a young girl, but the relationship ended when her mother suddenly sent her away to a boarding school.

At the age of 21 he entered St. Francis High School Seminary in Milwaukee—where he found studies very difficult. He left there and, while praying before a statue of Our Lady, heard a female voice tell him, “Go to Detroit!” It was on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, December 8^th. So in 1897 he joined the Capuchins in Detroit on Christmas Eve. He took the name Solanus, after Saint Francis Solanus (San Francisco de Solano).

On July 24, 1904, he was ordained as a “simplex” priest. Because he was judged to be weak in the knowledge of theology, Father Solanus was not given permission to hear confessions or to preach.  A Capuchin who knew him well said this annoying restriction “brought forth in him a greatness and a holiness that might never have been realized in any other way.” During his 14 years as porter and sacristan in Yonkers, New York, the people there recognized him as a fine speaker. “For, though he was forbidden to deliver doctrinal sermons,” writes his biographer, James Patrick Derum, “he could give inspirational talks or “feverinos,” as the Capuchins termed them.” (from Porter of St. Bonaventure’s).

Fr. Solanus was also known for quirky habits such as playing his harmonica to the monastery bees; for singing in a loud squeaky voice as he played his violin; and for eating his food all mixed together as a penance. His breakfast might consist of cereal, prune juice, coffee, and milk, all in the same bowl.

Father Solanus served at parishes in Manhattan and Harlem before returning to Detroit, where he was porter and sacristan for 20 years at St. Bonaventure Monastery. Solanus is known for helping to start the Capuchin Soup Kitchen in 1931 during the Great Depression, which to this day cares for Detroit’s poor.  Every Wednesday afternoon he conducted services for the sick, which were very well attended. Many people considered him instrumental in cures and other blessings they received. “Blessed be God in all God’s designs” was one of his favorite expressions.

He soon became renowned as “the doorkeeper” who gave gentle counsel and miraculous intercession. He would listen to anyone at any time, day or night. People would line up for blocks just to have a moment with him. He told them to “thank God ahead of time.” One story of his miraculous intercession is told about a friar who came to see Solanus on his way to have emergency dental work done. Fr. Solanus blessed him and told him to trust God. While the friar was at the dentist, a lady who came to visit the monastery brought Fr. Solanus two ice cream cones. Too busy to eat them, Fr. Solanus shoved the cones into his desk drawer, much to the dismay of his secretary. After more than half an hour, the friar returned from the dentist, his tooth found miraculously healthy. He went to thank Father Solanus, who pulled out perfectly frozen ice cream cones from his drawer on the hot summer day, which he offered to the friar to celebrate.

Due to failing health in 1946, he was transferred to the Capuchin novitiate of St. Felix in Huntington, Indiana, where he lived until 1956. This was supposed to be designed as retirement for him, but Solanus was not the retiring type! He suffered from a skin condition nicknamed St. Anthony’s Fire that left his skin highly irritated and scaly. He returned to Detroit in January 1956 and died on July 31, 1957. An estimated 20,000 people passed by his coffin before burial. 

At the funeral Mass, the Franciscan Provincial Father Gerard said: “His was a life of service and love for people like me and you. When he was not himself sick, he nevertheless suffered with and for you that were sick. When he was not physically hungry, he hungered with people like you. He had a divine love for people. He loved people for what he could do for them—and for God, through them.”

In 1960 a Father Solanus Guild was formed in Detroit to aid Capuchin seminarians. By 1967 it had grown to 5000 members, many of whom were grateful recipients of Solanus’s practical advice and his comforting assurance that God would not abandon them in their trials.

The cause for his sainthood commenced a few years after his death; he was officially recognized as Servant of God in 1982 and was declared Venerable in 1995. In September 2012, Paula Medina Zarate, a Panamanian visiting Detroit, walked into the Solanus Casey Center. Unfamiliar with Casey, she asked why people were gathered around his tomb. Told that he had been a healer, Medina Zarate knelt at the tomb and prayed for the health of the people in her village. She herself was suffering from ichthyosis vulgaris, a severe skin disease that restricted her mobility. She immediately felt a rush of heat, and her skin started clearing up overnight. After this miraculous healing attributed to him was approved by Pope Francis in 2017, he was beatified at Ford Field in Detroit on November 18, 2017.

From a letter that he wrote to his brother, Father Maurice Casey:

“God could have established the Church under supervision of angels that have no faults or weaknesses. But who can doubt that as it stands today, consisting of and under the supervision of poor sinners—successors to the ‘poor sinner fisherman of Galilee’—the Church is a more outstanding miracle than any other way?”

 

 

Prayer for Canonization of Blessed Solanus Casey

O God, I adore you. I give myself to you. May I be the person you want me to be, and may your will be done in my life today.

I thank you for the gifts you gave Father Solanus. If it is your holy will, bless us with the canonization of Father Solanus so that others may imitate and carry on his love for all the poor and suffering of our world.

As he joyfully accepted your divine plans, I ask you, according to your holy will, to hear my prayer for… [your intention] …through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

“Blessed be God in all God’s Designs!”

 

Imprimatur: The Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit, May 2017

Oct. 27 Alexander of Hales

October 27 Servant of God (SoG) Alexander of Hales (c.1185- August 21, 1245)

Alexander, known as Doctor Irrefragibilis, or "Irrefutable Teacher," Doctor Doctorum, or "Doctor of Doctors," and even as Theologorum Monarcha or "King of Theologians"— was a Franciscan friar, theologian, and philosopher instrumental to the development of scholasticism. He introduced the Sentences of Peter Lombard as the basic textbook for the study of theology, which was particularly important because it was the first time that a book other than the Bible was used as a basic text for theological study. Alexander was also significant in bringing Aristotle into the discussion of theology.

In 1236 or 1237, aged about 50, Alexander entered the Franciscan Order after considering both the Cistercians and the Dominicans. He thus became the first Franciscan friar to hold a university chair. His doctrinal positions became the starting point of the Franciscan school of theology. He continued to teach and to represent the university and participated in the First Council of Lyon in the winter of 1245.

Bonaventure, who may not have studied under Alexander directly, nevertheless referred to him as his "father and master" and wished to "follow in his footsteps." Alexander, Bonaventure, and the Franciscan developments within Scholasticism are sometimes overlooked due to the strength of Dominican scholarship, exemplified by Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas.

Alexander was born in Hales Owen, Shropshire, England, and died in Paris. Hales is in the West Midlands of England. The word “hales” means a nook or a remote valley. Franciscans honor him on October 27. So today, let’s remember Alexander of Hales as a great theologian, but also as a person humble enough to desire to live according to the Gospel in the footprints of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Oct. 23 & 24: Two CA Missions

October 23 and 24: Two CA Missions

I previously wrote about St. John of Capistrano and Mission San Juan Capistrano on June first, prior to my Tuesday morning group (“Coffee with the Saints”) going on a “field trip” train ride to the Mission.

John of Capistrano, with armor over his habit and charging into battle, is something of an anomaly among Franciscans, at least as we picture them today. However, he and the earliest of the Franciscan martyrs, along with King Ferdinand, were all part of the historical “battle” against Islam. Francis is held as the ideal model in confronting the Sultan one-on-one, and Clare is depicted holding them off through the supernatural power of the Eucharist.  However, we have the involvement of Franciscans on all levels, primarily in preaching, but also engaging in the moral and spiritual support of the soldiers. The Crusades present a harsh reality in our history, which ended up pitting Christian (of the West) against Christian (of the East).

We can use these saints from the time of the Crusades to intercede on behalf of those engaged in dialogue between religious systems. As faithful witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ, such intercessors can join with us in prayers for peaceful coexistence, for conversion of hearts, for cessation of conflict and hatred, and for the promotion of the common good among all peoples.  

 

Oct. 24^th is the former date of Raphael the Archangel, and so I am posting about Mission San Rafael here. This is one of the northernmost establishments. For the September 29^th Tuesday morning group, I presented on all three Archangels and the three CA missions under their patronage. I waited until today to post the Mission San Rafael page from the Missions booklet for other readers of this blog.  

Oct. 19 St. Peter of Alcantara

St. Peter of Alcantara (1499-1562)

October 19

This saint is part of the Catholic Counter-Reformation that arose in response to Protestantism. He is among a whole group of 16th-century Spanish saints that includes Paschal Baylon, John of the Cross, Ignatius of Loyola, John of Ávila, Francis Solano, and Salvator of Horta. Peter for many years was a friend of and provided spiritual direction to St. Theresa of Ávila and encouraged her in pursuing the Carmelite reform.

In a letter to Teresa of Ávila, he wrote: “I do not praise poverty for poverty’s sake; I praise only that poverty which we patiently endure for the love of our crucified Redeemer and I consider this far more desirable than the poverty we undertake for the sake of poverty itself; for if I thought or believed otherwise, I would not seem to be firmly grounded in faith.”

He died on the 18^th, the feast of St. Luke, and is typically honored on the 19^th. However, in the USA, he is eclipsed by the celebration of the “North American” martyrs: Saints John de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues, and Companions. As we find with numerous Franciscan saints, their presence on the calendar is reduced to “local” observance solely within the Orders. On a personal note, my home parish of St. John Fisher on the Palos Verdes Peninsula was originally named after him. Honoring the Spanish saint was an appropriate choice, since much of the area had been developed since the 1920s as Mediterranean, with a particularly Spanish influence (e.g., Malaga Cove). However, given that several prominent Protestant churches in the area were already named “Peter,” the parish was changed to honor the English saint. (A parish in neighboring San Pedro was later established under Peter’s patronage.)

Peter was born into nobility, and his father was the governor of Alcantara. After studying at Salamanca University, he joined the discalced or barefoot Friars Minor in 1515. He exhibited very strong spiritual leadership.  Even before his priestly ordination in 1524, he was named superior of his house. At the age of 39, he was elected provincial. Despite this, he was not above washing dishes and cutting wood for his fellow friars.

He excelled at preaching and led many “missions” or times of renewal to correct errors, call to repentance, and enrich the faith of the laity. In fact, the custom of erecting a special cross to commemorate a parish mission began with Peter. His preaching brought many people to religious life, especially to the Secular Franciscan Order, as well as to the friars and the Poor Clares.

He lived the idea that reform starts in one’s own heart. His goal was to follow Christ in ever greater purity of heart. Whatever obstructed that path could be eliminated with no real loss.  He was very penitential in his personal life. It is said that he slept only for an hour and a half each night. Because he was awake most of the time when his brother friars were sleeping, he is the patron saint of night watchmen. He fasted regularly. According to St. Teresa, he sometimes only ate once every three days. He was also known for his extreme patience.

In 1554 Peter decided to follow The Rule of Francis with more rigor and set up a group of friars that became known as Alcantarines. Some of the Spanish friars who came to North and South America were members of this group. At the end of the 19^th century, the Alcantarines were joined with other Observant friars to form the Order of Friars Minor in its current configuration.  Peter died at age 63 and was canonized in 1669.