Subj : =?UTF-8?Q?May_21st_=E2=80=93_St=2E_Serapion_the_Sindonite?=
To   : All
From : rich
Date : Mon May 20 2019 08:53:37

From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

May 21st =E2=80=93 St. Serapion the Sindonite 

Born in Egypt; died c. 356. Serapion's moniker, the Sindonite, comes
from the garment of coarse linen which he always wore. Like other
desert monks, he led a life of extreme austerity. Though he traveled
into several countries, he always lived in the same poverty,
mortification, and recollection. In one town, recognizing the
spiritual blindness of comedian, he sold himself to the idolater for a
small sum. His only sustenance in this servitude was bread and water.
He accomplished every duty belonging to his servitude with the utmost
diligence and fidelity, joining with his labor prayer. Having
converted his master and the whole family to the faith, and induced
him to quit the stage, Serapion was freed. His former master tried to
return the sum he had paid, but Serapion refused it, even to
distribute to the poor.

Soon after this Serapion sold himself a second time, to relieve a
distressed widow. Having spent some time with his new master, in
recompense of signal spiritual services, he was given his liberty, a
cloak, a tunic, and a book of the Gospels.

He was scarcely out the door when he met a poor man to whom he gave
his cloak. Shortly thereafter he gave his tunic to a man shivering in
the cold. Thus he was again reduced to his single linen garment. A
stranger asked who had stripped him and left him naked. Showing the
man his book of the Gospels, he said: "This it is that hath stripped
me." Not long after, he sold the book itself to relieve someone in
extreme distress.

When an old acquaintance asked what had happened to the book, Serapion
replied: "Could you believe it? This gospel seemed continually to cry
to me: 'Go, sell all thou hast, and give it to the poor.' Wherefore I
have also sold it and given the price to the indigent members of
Christ." Having nothing left but his own person, he sold himself again
on several other occasions, when the corporal or spiritual necessities
of his neighbor called for relief. Once he became slave to a certain
Manichee at Lacedaemon whom he served for two years. Again he brought
the man and his whole family over to the true faith.

Saint Serapion went from Lacedaemon to Rome to study the most perfect
models of virtue, but returned to Egypt where he died before Palladius
visited in 388. Upon reading the story of Serapion, Saint John the
Almsgiver called for his steward, and, weeping, said: "Can we flatter
ourselves that we do anything great because we give our estates to the
poor? Here is a man who could find means to give himself to them, and
so many times over" (Benedictines, Husenbeth)

Saint Quotes:
"Lose yourself wholly; and the more you lose, the more you will find."
--St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church

Charity is the sweet and holy bond which links the soul with its
Creator: it binds God with man and man with God.
-- Saint Catherine of Siena

<><><><>
St Augustine, the Holy Trinity, the Child and the Sea Shell

The great Doctor of the Church St. Augustine of Hippo spent over 30
years working on his treatise De Trinitate [about the Holy Trinity],
endeavouring to conceive an intelligible explanation for the mystery
of the Trinity.
He was walking by the seashore one day contemplating and trying to
understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity when he saw a small boy
running back and forth from the water to a spot on the seashore. The
boy was using a sea shell to carry the water from the ocean and place
it into a small hole in the sand.
The Bishop of Hippo approached him and asked, =E2=80=9CMy boy, what are doi=
ng?=E2=80=9D
=E2=80=9CI am trying to bring all the sea into this hole,=E2=80=9D the boy =
replied
with a sweet smile.
=E2=80=9CBut that is impossible, my dear child, the hole cannot contain all
that water=E2=80=9D said Augustine.
The boy paused in his work, stood up, looked into the eyes of the
Saint, and replied, =E2=80=9CIt is no more impossible than what you are try=
ing
to do =E2=80=93 comprehend the immensity of the mystery of the Holy Trinity
with your small intelligence.=E2=80=9D
The Saint was absorbed by such a keen response from that child, and
turned his eyes from him for a short while. When he glanced down to
ask him something else, the boy had vanished.

Some say that it was an Angel sent by God to teach Augustine a lesson
on pride in learning. Others affirm it was the Christ Child Himself
who appeared to the Saint to remind him of the limits of human
understanding before the great mysteries of our Faith.

--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)

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