MAY 28, 2025 – ST. GERMANUS, BISHOP.

• St. Augustine of Canterbury (604). Bishop. (Traditional) Apostle of England
• St. Bernard of Montjoux (1081). Patron or Patroness, Priest, Religious. Patron of Mountain climbers. (Historical)
• St. Germanus (576). Abbot or Abbess, Bishop. (Historical)

ST. GERMANUS, the glory of the church of France in the sixth century, was born in the territory of Autun, about the year 469. In his youth he was conspicuous for his fervor. Being ordained priest, he was made abbot of St. Symphorian’s; he was favored at that time with the gifts of miracles and prophecy. It was his custom to watch the great part of the night in the church in prayer, whilst his monks slept. One night, in a dream, he thought a venerable old man presented him with the keys of the city of Paris, and said to him, that God committed to his care the inhabitants of that city, that he should save them from perishing. Four years after this divine admonition, in 554, happening to be at Paris when that see became vacant, on the demise of the bishop Eusebius, he was exalted to the episcopal chair, though he endeavored by many tears to decline the charge. His promotion made no alteration in his mode of life. The same simplicity and frugality appeared in his dress, table, and furniture. His house was perpetually crowded with the poor and the afflicted, and he had always many beggars at his own table. God gave to his sermons a wonderful influence over the minds of all ranks of people; so that the face of the whole city was in a very short time quite changed. King Childebert, who till then had been an ambitious, worldly prince, was entirely converted by the sweetness and the powerful discourses of the Saint, and founded many religious institutions, and sent large sums of money to the good bishop, to be distributed among the indigent. In his old age St. Germanus lost nothing of that zeal and activity with which he had filled the great duties of his station in the vigor of his life; nor did the weakness to which his corporal austerities had reduced him make him abate any thing in the mortifications of his penitential life, in which he redoubled his fervor as he approached nearer to the end of his course. By his zeal the remains of idolatry were extirpated in France. The Saint continued his labors for the conversion of sinners till he was called to receive the reward of them, on the 28th of May, 576, being eighty years old.

REFLECTION: “In the churches, bless ye God the Lord. From Thy temple, kings shall offer presents to Thee.”

WORD OF THE DAY

ICONOCLASM. A heresy that rejected as superstition the use of religious images and advocated their destruction. It was occasioned by the rise of Islam, which considers all sacred images idolatrous. Moslem pressure on those in political power precipitated the crisis, which came in two phases. The first phase began with Emperor Leo the Isaurian in 726 and closed with the seventh general council and Second Council of Nicaea in 787. The second phase started with Emperor Leo V, the Armenian, and ended when the Feast of Orthodoxy was established in 842 under Empress Theodora. Sts. John Damascene and Theodore were the principal defenders of sacred images. As defined by II Nicaea, these images may be lawfully displayed and venerated. The respect shown them really is given to the person they represent. (Etym. Greek eikōn, image + klaein, to break.)

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!)

EASTER MEDITATIONS

Enjoy daily meditations this Easter from Fr. Richard Clarke, SJ. Short and powerful, written in 1880 for busy lay people to reap rewards through Eastertide: 39 — The Ascension.

May, Month of the Immaculate Heart

Maria Magnificata. Short Meditations for May, the Month on Our Lady’s Life. 28th Day — Mary the Mother of the Infant Church.

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