Subj : March 21st - Saint Serapion To : All From : rich Date : Tue Mar 20 2018 10:08:18 From: rich March 21st - Saint Serapion the Scholastic (Also known as Serapion of Thmuis, Serapion the Scholar) SURNAMED =E2=80=9Cthe Scholastic=E2=80=9D on account of his learning both i= n sacred and in secular knowledge, St. Serapion for some time presided over the catechetical school of Alexandria; he afterwards retired into the desert, where he became a monk and formed a friendship with St Antony, who at his death left him one of his tunics. Serapion was drawn from his retreat to be placed in the episcopal seat of Thmuis, a city of Lower Egypt near Diospolis. He took part in the Council of Sardica in 347, was closely associated with St. Athanasius in defence of the Catholic faith, and is said by St. Jerome to have been banished by the Emperor Constantius. He informed Athanasius about the new Macedonian heresy which was being propagated and the four letters which Athanasius, from the desert where he lay concealed, wrote to Serapion were the first express confutation of that error to be published. St. Serapion laboured with great success against the Arians and the Macedonians, and he also compiled an excellent book against the Manicheans. He wrote several learned letters and a treatise on the titles of the Psalms, which are lost, but for us his most important work is the Euchologion, discovered and published at the end of last century. Socrates says that St. Serapion made a short epigram or summary of Christian perfection which he often repeated =E2=80=9CThe mind is purified = by spiritual knowledge (or by holy meditation and prayer), the spiritual passions of the soul by charity, and the irregular appetites by abstinence and penance.=E2=80=9D He is thought to have died in banishment, = but the exact date of his death is not known. See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. iii; DCB., vol. iv, p. 613 and CMII., pp. 154-155. There has been much confusion in the martyrology entries. There is a short account of Serapion's career in the prefa= ce to Bishop John Wordsworth's booklet Bishop Serapion's Praye= rbook (1910), being a translation of the prayers of his Euchologion. Saint Quote: Prayer is a wine which makes glad the heart of man. --St. Bernard of Clairvaux Bible Quote: 5 For even his brethren did not believe in him. 6 Jesus said to them, =E2=80=9CMy time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7 The worl= d cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil. RSVCE <><><><> Prayer In Sorrow God of all consolation, in your unending love and mercy for us, you turn the darkness of death into the dawn of new life. Show compassion to your people in sorrow. Be our refuge and our strength to lift us from the darkness of this grief to peace and joy in your presence. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4) .