May 19, 2004 Wednesday vol 15, no. 138

Double Feast of Pope Saint Celestine V WHITE Vestments

   Saint Peter Celestine was the eleventh of the twelve children of a poor Italian farmer. As a child, Peter had visions of our Blessed Lady, Angels and Saints. His Heavenly visitors encouraged him in his prayers and chided him when he fell into any fault. His mother, though only a poor widow, sent him to school, feeling sure that he would one day be a Saint.

   At the age of twenty, he left his home in Apulia to live in a mountain solitude. Here he passed three years, assaulted by the evil spirits and beset with temptations of the flesh, but consoled by the visits of Angels. After this his seclusion was invaded by disciples who refused to be sent away; and the rule of life which he gave them formed the foundation of the Celestines, a branch of the Order of Saint Benedict. Angels assisted in the church which Peter built; unseen bells rang peals of surpassing sweetness, and Heavenly music filled the sanctuary when he offered the Holy Sacrifice; he had consented to be ordained, to find in the Holy Eucharist assistance against temptation.

   Suddenly the poor anchorite found himself torn from his loved solitude, having been named by acclamation to the Papal throne, which had remained vacant for twenty-seven months. Resistance was of no avail. He took the name of Celestine, to remind him of the Heaven he was leaving and for which he sighed. He was seventy-two years old. After a reign of five months, Peter judged himself unfit for the office, and summoning the cardinals to his presence, he solemnly resigned his trust.

   During the remaining three years of his life he worked many and great miracles. On the day after his abdication, his blessing after Mass healed a lame man. Saint Peter left the palace, desiring seclusion, but was brought back by the papal guards, for his successor feared a schism; crowds had followed Saint Peter. Lest he be prevailed upon to take back his office, he was put under surveillance at Anagni. Content, he remarked: “I desired nothing but a cell, and a cell they have given me.” And there he enjoyed his former loving intimacy with the Saints and Angels, and sang the Divine praises almost continually.

   At length, on Pentecost Sunday he told his guards he would die within the week, and immediately fell ill. He received the Last Sacraments, and the following Saturday, as he finished the concluding verse of Lauds, “Let every spirit bless the Lord!” he closed his eyes to this world and opened them to the vision of God.

There is a commemoration of St. Pudentiana. She was a Roman virgin and the daughter of the Senator Pudens, who had been converted by Sts. Peter and Paul. Pudentiana and her sister, St. Praxedes, passed their lives in good works.

   The Rogation Days are a time when we ask God for protection. It is most appropriate this year when the moral and physical fabric of society is collapsing that we turn to the Almighty. The Rogation Days evolved from the fifth century when earthquakes and other calamities afflicted the diocese of Vienne in Dauphiné (France), and St. Mamertus, who was bishop of that diocese, instituted a penitential procession with public supplications on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Day. The latter is also the Vigil of the Ascension. In 816, Pope Leo III introduced it into Rome, and soon after it became a general observance throughout the Church. The Litany of the Saints, the psalms and prayers sung during the procession on these days are supplications: hence the name of Rogation days (rogare, to ask) applied to them. The object of these "rogation" supplications is to appease the anger of God and avert the scourges of His justice, and to pray for the harvest. A similar function is observed on April 25th, on the Feast of St. Mark, but this of Roman origin. It is called the Greater Litanies in contrast to the Lesser Litanies of the Rogation Days: but in practice there is no difference between them.

   For Rogation Day Processions the officiating priest wears a purple stole and cope. The cantors stand as they sing the following:

Exsúrge, Dómine, ádjuva nos, et líbera nos propter nomen tuum. Allelúia. (Ps. 43: 2) Deus á uribus nostris audívimus: patres nostri annuntiavérunt nobis. V.Glória Patri, et Fílio et Spirítui Sancto. Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper: et in sæcula sæculórum. Amen.--- Exsúrge, Dómine, ádjuva nos, et líbera nos propter nomen tuum. Allelúia.

Arise, O Lord, help us and deliver us for Thy Name's sake. (Alleluia). (Ps. 43: 2) We have heard, O God, with our ears; our fathers have told us, V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Arise, O Lord, help us and deliver us for Thy Name's sake. Alleluia.

   They then all kneel and the Litany of the Saints is begun. Once Our Lady is invoked at the Sancta Maria, the procession begins as the cantors continue the Litany.

LITANY OF THE SAINTS

Resources: We are grateful to Friends of Our Lady of Fatima for providing the Propers for the faithful. Sources: Saint Andrew Daily Missal and the Marian Missal , 1945