JUNE 15 – SS. VITUS, CRESCENTIA, AND MODESTUS, MARTYRS.
VITUS was a child nobly born, who had the happiness to be instructed in the faith, and inspired with the most perfect sentiments of his religion, by his Christian nurse, named Crescentia, and her faithful husband, Modestus. His father, Hylas, was extremely incensed when he discovered the child’s invincible aversion to idolatry; and finding him not to be overcome by stripes and such like chastisements, he delivered him up to Valerian, the governor, who in vain tried all his arts to work him into compliance with his father’s will and the emperor’s edicts. He escaped out of their hands, and, together with Crescentia and Modestus, fled into Italy. They there met with the crown of martyrdom in Lucania, in the persecution of Diocletian. The heroic spirit of martyrdom which we admire in St. Vitus was owing to the early impressions of piety which he received from the lessons and example of a virtuous nurse. Of such infinite importance is the choice of virtuous preceptors, nurses, and servants about children.
REFLECTION: What happiness for an infant to be formed naturally to all virtue, and for the spirit of simplicity, meekness, goodness, and piety to be moulded in its tender frame! Such a foundation being well laid, further graces are abundantly communicated, and a soul improves daily these seeds, and rises to the height of Christian virtue often without experiencing severe conflicts of the passions.
WORD OF THE DAY
ANTHROPOSOPHY. A religious philosophy developed by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) of Germany, by revising Hindu theosophy through the substitution of the human for God as the center of the new system. The method is essentially disciplined meditation that leads to one’s lower self arriving at a vision of the higher self, not unlike the discovery of the Atman, or divine Self, characteristic of Vedanta Hinduism. Its doctrine includes belief in various epochs of the human race, reincarnation, Christ as the Sonnenwesen (sun being) of the universe, and karma. Anthroposophy was condemned in 1919 by the Holy Office, which declared that its tenets could not be reconciled with Catholic doctrine.
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!)
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