• Our Lady, Queen of the Universe. (Traditional) the Saturday after Ascension Thursday
• St. Brendan the Navigator (578). Abbot or Abbess, Patron or Patroness. Patron of of sailors. (Historical)
• St. john Nepomucene (1393). Martyr, Patron or Patroness, Priest. Patron of of confessors. (Historical)
• St. Simon Stock (1265). Religious. (Historical) received the brown scapular from Our Lady
• St. Ubaldus (1160). Bishop. (Traditional)

ST. JOHN was born, in answer to prayer, A.D. 1330, of poor parents, at Nepomuc in Bohemia. In gratitude they consecrated him to God; and his holy life as a priest led to his appointment as chaplain to the court of the Emperor Wenceslas, where he converted numbers by his preaching and example. Amongst those who sought his advice was the empress, who suffered much from her husband’s unfounded jealousy. St. John taught her to bear her cross with joy; but her piety only incensed the emperor, and he tried to extort her confessions from the Saint. He threw St. John into a dungeon, but gained nothing; then, inviting him to his palace, he promised him riches if he would yield, and threatened death if he refused. The Saint was silent. He was racked and burnt with torches; but no words, save Jesus and Mary, fell from his lips. At last set free, he spent his time in preaching, and preparing for the death he knew to be at hand. On Ascension-eve, May 16th, Wenceslas, after a final and fruitless attempt to move his constancy, ordered him to be cast into the river, and that night the martyr’s hands and feet were bound, and he was thrown from the bridge of Prague. As he died, a heavenly light shining on the water discovered the body, which was buried with the honors due to a Saint. A few years later, Wenceslas was deposed by his own subjects, and died an impenitent and miserable death. In 1618, the Calvinist and Hussite soldiers of the Protestant Elector Frederick tried repeatedly to demolish the shrine of St. John at Prague. Each attempt was miraculously frustrated; and once the persons engaged in the sacrilege, among whom was an Englishman, were killed on the spot. In 1620, the imperial troops recovered the town by a victory which was ascribed to the Saint’s intercession, as he was seen on the eve of the battle, radiant with glory, guarding the cathedral. When his shrine was opened, three hundred and thirty years after his decease, the flesh had disappeared, and one member alone remained incorrupt, the tongue; thus still, in silence, giving glory to God.

REFLECTION: St. John, who by his invincible sacramental silence won his crown, teaches us to prefer torture and death to offending the Creator with our tongue. How many times each day do we forfeit grace and strength by sins of speech!

WORD OF THE DAY

HUSSITES. Followers of John Hus (1369-1415), who formed a religious sect in southern Bohemia in the early fifteenth century. They professed Utraquism, i.e., the necessity of receiving Communion under both species. This was preached by Hus, who told his followers that the true followers of Christ and St. Paul must receive the chalice. The Council of Constance ordered the extirpation of this heresy. The Bohemian and Moravian nobles thought the insinuation of heresy offensive and insulting, and they formed a dissenting league. With divergent views the Hussites divided into Taborites and Calixtines. Under Jan Ziöka they united to fight the imperial armies, and the papal crusaders were sent to subdue them. For fifteen years they ravaged Bohemia. Finally in 1433 peace was obtained by the Compactata, which permitted Communion under both species provided the recipient declared that the whole Christ was present both under the form of bread and under the form of wine. This was to be a retraction of the basic Hussite thesis that Communion under both forms was necessary for salvation. Some were satisfied but not the Taborites, who finally disappeared from the scene after their defeat at the Battle of Lipany in 1434. The Compactata was adopted in 1436. Trouble continued, however, with armed conflict, so that Pope Pius II had to nullify the Utraquist rite. In 1485 King Wladislau granted equal civil rights to all parties. But the seeds of discord had been sown, to be reaped in the next century with the rise of the Reformation.

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

May, Month of the Immaculate Heart

Maria Magnificata. Short Meditations for May, the Month on Our Lady’s Life. 16th Day — Simeon’s Prophecy to Mary.