December 27th - Fabiola of Rome, Widow (AC)
Died c. 400. Not even a bad marriage can stop us from becoming saints. In
fact, it may be the impetus to reach for Christian perfection. Fabiola was
divorced, remarried, explained, praised by Saint Jerome. Fabiola was a
Roman
patrician of the Fabii family who married a very young man of equal rank
but
of debauched habits. She divorced him. Then she united herself to another
man, causing great scandal in Rome, because this was contrary to the
ordinances of the Church. Both men died soon after and Fabiola was
re-admitted into communion after she performed public penance. Not only
did
she complete the required penance, Fabiola completely changed her life.
She
forsook her luxurious lifestyle and devoted her great wealth to good
works.
With the help of Saint Paula's widowed son-in-law Saint Pammachius,
Fabiola
founded the first hospital of its kind to care for indigent patients
brought
in from the streets and alleyways of Rome. Here Fabiola personally tended
to
the needs of the sick.
In 395, she visited her friend Saint Jerome in the Holy Land with the
intention of entering the convent at Bethlehem and sharing in Jerome's
biblical work. Whether she returned to Rome because Jerome dissuaded her
from staying or because she was temperamentally unsuited for the quiet
life,
we don't know. Jerome says that her idea of the solitude of the stable of
Bethlehem was that it should not be cut off from the crowded inn.
Nevertheless, she travelled with Jerome and his companions when they fled
to
Jaffa to escape the dissension building among the leading Palestinian
Christians and the threatened invasion of the Huns.
Upon his advice, she returned to Rome from Jaffa and founded and
enthusiastically superintended a hostel for sick and needy pilgrims near
the
city at Porto. This is another of Fabiola's innovations; one which Jerome
says soon became known from Parthia to Britain. Apparently not even this
undertaking was enough to sap Fabiola's abundant energies. At the time of
her death she was planning a new enterprise that would take her abroad.
The
veneration in which she is held in Rome was demonstrated by the great
multitudes that followed her funeral with chants of Alleluia.
Jerome dedicated to Fabiola a treatise on Aaron's priesthood and another
on
the 'stations' of the Israelites in the desert. This wandering of the
chosen
people seemed to him a type of Fabiola's life and death (Attwater,
Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer).
Saint Quote:
Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? Here is the true token of a soul
absolutely perfect: when one has succeeded in leaving behind his own will
to
such a degree as no longer to seek, to aim, or to desire to do what he
would
will, but only what God wills.
-St. Bernard
Bible Quote
26 For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer
the
loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?
(Matthew 16:26)
Also Today:
December 27th - St. John, Apostle, Evangelist, and Prophet
(d. 103)
Saint John, brother of Saint James the Greater, the Apostle of Spain, is
the
beloved disciple. He was privileged, with his brother and Saint Peter, to
behold the Saviour raise up a dead child to life, then saw Him
transfigured
on the mountaintop; he alone reposed his head on His breast at the Last
Supper. After the crucifixion it is he who, with Saint Peter, hastened to
the empty tomb on the morning of the Resurrection. Standing beside Mary at
the Cross, he had heard his Master confide that Blessed Mother to him to
be
henceforth his Mother also. He took his precious treasure for refuge to
Ephesus when the persecution of the Jerusalem Christians became too
intense;
and from there he went out to evangelize Asia Minor, of which he became
the
first Archbishop. He was later exiled to the Island of Patmos, where he
wrote the Apocalypse, but afterwards returned to Ephesus.
Compared with an eagle by his flights of elevated contemplation, Saint
John
is the supreme Doctor of the Divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. Endowed with
an
astounding memory, he was able even in his later years, to reproduce the
discourses of Christ in such a way as to make the reader experience their
power and impact on their audiences as if present to hear them. He is the
author of five books of the New Testament, his Gospel, three Epistles, and
the last canonical prophecy, the Apocalypse or Revelation of Saint John -
all of which were composed after the ruin of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
In his extreme old age he continued to visit the churches of Asia, and
Saint
Jerome relates that when age and weakness grew upon him so that he was no
longer able to preach to the people, he would be carried to the assembly
of
the faithful by his disciples, with great difficulty; and every time said
to
his flock only these words: "My dear children, love one another."
Saint John died in peace at Ephesus in the third year of Trajan, that is,
the hundredth of the Christian era, or the sixty-sixth from the
crucifixion
of Christ, Saint John then being about ninety-four years old, according to
Saint Epiphanus.
Reflection: Saint John is a living proof of Our Lord's beatitude: "Blessed
are the pure of heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8)
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In Time of Suffering
A thought of Sister Faustina:
Oh, if only the suffering soul knew how much God loves it, it would die of
joy and excess of happiness! Some day, we will know the value of
suffering,
but then we will no longer be able to suffer. The present moment is ours.
Jesus, do not leave me alone in suffering. You know, Lord, how weak I am.
I
am an abyss of wretchedness, I am nothingness itself; so what will be so
strange if You leave me alone and I fall? I am an infant, Lord, so I
cannot
get along by myself. However, beyond all abandonment I trust, and in spite
of my own feeling I trust, and I am being completely transformed into
trust-often in spite of what I feel. Do not lessen any of my sufferings,
only give me strength to bear them. Do with me as You please, Lord, only
give me the grace to be able to love You in every event and circumstance.
Lord, do not lessen my cup of bitterness, only give me strength that I may
be able to drink it all. - Amen.
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