• St. Adrian of Canterbury (710). Abbot or Abbess. (Historical)
• Sts. Julian (Martyred) & Basilissa (304). (Historical) husband and wife

ST. JULIAN AND ST. BASILISSA, though married, lived, by mutual consent, in perpetual chastity; they sanctified themselves by the most perfect exercises of an ascetic life, and employed their revenues in relieving the poor and the sick. For this purpose they converted their house into a kind of hospital, in which they sometimes entertained a thousand poor people.

Basilissa attended those of her sex, in separate lodgings from the men; these were taken care of by Julian, who from his charity is named the Hospitalarian. Egypt, where they lived, had then begun to abound with examples of persons who, either in the cities or in the deserts, devoted themselves to the most perfect exercises of charity, penance, and mortification. Basilissa, after having stood seven persecutions, died in peace; Julian survived her many years and received the crown of a glorious martyrdom, together with Celsus, a youth, Antony, a priest, Anastatius, and Marcianilla, the mother of Celsus.

Many churches and hospitals in the East, and especially in the West, bear the name of one or other of these martyrs. Four churches at Rome, and three out of five at Paris, which bear the name of St. Julian, were originally dedicated under the name of St. Julian, the Hospitalarian and martyr. In the time of St. Gregory the Great, the skull of St. Julian was brought out of the East into France, and given to Queen Brunehault; she gave it to the nunnery which she founded at Basilissa, at Paris.

REFLECTION: God often rewards men for works that are pleasing in his sight, by giving them grace and opportunity to do other works higher still. St. Augustine said, “I have never seen a compassionate and charitable man die a bad death.

WORD OF THE DAY

ANARCHISM. The theory that laws are an invasion of the rights of free, intelligent beings; that individuals have the right to unlimited self-expression; and that the self-interest of the individual, if intelligently pursued, will best serve the common good. Its origins are traceable to the French Revolution, and to Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809-65). Some anarchists are evolutionary, believing that propaganda and the ballot will gradually eliminate (or make obsolete) most laws. Others are revolutionary, urging the establishment of anarchism by violence. Nihilists are extreme revolutionary anarchists. The basis of anarchism is an unreasoning optimism about the goodness of unrestrained human nature. Anarchism has been more than once condemned by the Catholic Church, e.g., in the Syllabus of Errors of Pope Pius IX in 1864. (Etym. Latin anarchia; from Greek anarchos, having no ruler.)

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!)

Christmastide Meditations

Daily devotional meditations on the Birth of Our Savior and Christmastide: The Magi’s Stay at Jerusalem – Christmas Meditation Day 16 (Jan 9)