Subj : April 13th - St. Martin I, Pope To : All From : rich Date : Sun Apr 12 2020 08:56:21 From: rich April 13th - St. Martin I, Pope =C2 (d. 655) Born in Todi in Umbria, Italy; died in the Crimea, September 16, 655; feast day was previously November 12 (November 10 in York); the Eastern Church celebrates his feast on September 20. Martin became a deacon in Rome. He displayed a great intellect and charity, was sent by Pope Theodore I as nuncio (apocrisiarius) to Constantinople, and was elected pope in 649 to succeed Theodore I. At once, he convened the council at the Lateran that condemned Monothelitism (the denial that Christ had a human will), the Typos--the edict of the reigning Emperor Constans II, which favored it, and Heraclius's Ekethesis. Although he was supported by the bishops of Africa, England, and Spain, the imperial wrath fell upon the pontiff who was arrested by Constans and taken to Constantinople in 653. He had taken refuge in the Lateran, but the officers broke in to capture him. His own letters give an account of how his health broke down under the long voyage and a three-month imprisonment on the island of Naxos en route. He writes: "For 47 days, I have not been given water to wash in. I am frozen through and wasting away with dysentery. The food I get makes me vomit. But God sees all things and I trust in Him." He was so ill when he arrived in Constantinople that he had to be carried to jail on a stretcher. He was tried for treason, although he was clearly being incarcerated for not accepting the Typos. He was condemned to death during his trial without being able to speak in his own defense. He was insulted publicly, flogged, and imprisoned. The intercession of the dying Patriarch Paul of Constantinople saved his life, but he was exiled to Kherson in the Crimea. From exile he wrote of the bad treatment he received and berated the Romans for forgetting him while he had prayed steadily for their faith to remain in tact. It is likely that he died of starvation. He was the last pope to die a martyr. He is portrayed in art vested as a pope, holding money (alms); or with geese around him (possibly a confusion with Saint Martin of Tours); or seen through prison bars (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Farmer, White). <><><><> "We have never so much cause for consolation, as when we find ourselves oppressed by sufferings and trials; for these make us like Christ our Lord, and this resemblance is the true mark of our predestination" --St. Vincent de Paul No one has understood this great truth so well as St. Andrew the Apostle. At first sight of the cross on which he was to be crucified, he was filled with joy, and broke forth into this exclamation: "O cross so much desired, so much loved, and so much sought by me! behold how I come to thee full of security and joy! Do thou separate me from men, and restore me to my Master, so that by thy means He may receive me, who by thy means redeemed me." (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints".=C2 April - Patience) <><><><> MARIAN PRAYERS OF SAINT BERNARD # 3 Run, hasten, O Lady, and in your mercy help your sinful servant, who calls upon you, and deliver him from the hands of the enemy. Who will not sigh to you? We sigh with love and grief, for we are oppressed on every side. How can we do otherwise than sigh to you, O solace of the miserable, refuge of outcasts, ransom of captives? We are certain that when you see our miseries, your compassion will hasten to relieve us. O our sovereign Lady and our Advocate, commend us to your Son. Grant, O blessed one, by the grace which you have merited, that he who through you was graciously pleased to become a partaker of our infirmity and misery, may also through your intercession, make us partakers of his happiness and glory. --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4) .