On the Feast of Saint Anthony the First Hermit

Today is the Feast of Saint Paul the First Hermit and the Commemoration of Saint Maurus, the very first disciple of Saint Benedict of Nursia. It is also the Feast of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in some places here in the United States of America.

Saint Paul the First Hermit sought to escape the business of the world to focus entirely on the things of Heaven, finding an intimacy with the Divine Redeemer that led him to embrace all manner of austere fasting and penances to more closely conform himself to Him and His Holy Passion.

Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., provided a detailed hagiography of Saint Paul in The Liturgical Year:

Today, the Church honours the memory of one of those men, who were expressly chosen by God to represent the sublime detachment from all things, which was taught to the world by the example of the Son of God, born in a Cave, at Bethlehem. Paul the Hermit so prized the poverty of his Divine Master, that he fled to the desert, where he could find nothing to possess and nothing to covet. He had a mere cavern for his dwelling; a palm-tree provided him with food and clothing; a fountain gave him wherewith to quench his thirst; and heaven sent him his only luxury, a loaf of bread brought to him daily by a crow. For sixty years did Paul thus serve, in poverty, and in solitude, that God, who was denied a dwelling on the earth He came to redeem, and could have but a poor Stable wherein to be born.

But God dwelt with Paul in his cavern; and in him began the Anchorites, that sublime race of men, who, the better to enjoy the company of their God, denied themselves, not only the society, but the very right, of men. They were the Angels of earth, in whom God showed forth, for the instruction of the rest of men, that he is powerful enough, and rich enough, to supply the wants of his creatures, who, indeed, have nothing but what they have from Him. The Hermit, or Anchoret, is a prodigy in the Church, and it behoves us to glorify the God who has produced it. We ought to be filled with astonishment and gratitude, at seeing how the Mystery of a God made Flesh has so elevated our human nature, as to inspire a contempt and abandonment of those earthly goods, which heretofore had been so eagerly sought after.

The two names, Paul and Antony, are not to be separated; they are the two Apostles of the Desert; both are Fathers--Paul of Anchorites, and Antony of Cenobites; the two families are sisters, and both have the same source, the Mystery of Bethlehem. The sacred Cycle of the Church's year unites, with only a day between their two Feasts, these two faithful disciples of Jesus in his Crib.

The Church reads in her Office, the following abridgment of St . Paul's wonderful Life.

Paul, the institutor and master of Hermits, was born in Lower Thebais. He lost his parents when he was fifteen years of age. Not long after that, in order to escape the persecution of Decius and Valerian, and to serve God the more freely, he withdrew into the desert, where he made a cave his dwelling. A palmtree afforded him food and raiment, and there he lived to the age of a hundred and thirteen. About that time, he received a visit from Antony, who was ninety-years old. God bade him visit Paul. The two Saints, though they had not previously known each other, saluted each other by their names. Whilst holding a long conversation on the kingdom of God, a crow, which every day brought half a loaf of bread, carried them a whole one. When the crowhad left them, Paul said: "See! our truly good and truly merciful Lord has sent us our repast. For sixty years, I have daily received a half loaf; now, because thou art come to see me, Christ has doubled the portion for his soldiers."

Wherefore, they sat near the fountain, and, giving thanks, they eat the bread; and when they were refreshed, they again returned the accustomed thanks to God, and spent the night in the divine praises. At daybreak, Paul tells Antony of his approaching death, and begs him go and bring the cloak, which Athanasius had given him, and wrap his corpse in it. As Antony was returning from his cell, he saw Paul's soul going up into heaven, amidst choirs of Angels, and a throng of Prophets and Apostles.

When he had reached the hermit's cell, he found the lifeless body: the knees were bent, the head erect, and the hands stretched out and raised towards heaven. He wrapped it in the cloak, and sang hymns and psalms over it, according to the custom prescribed by Christian tradition. Not having a hoe wherewith to make a grave, two lions came at a rapid pace from the interior of the desert, and stood over the body of the venerable Saint, showing how, in their own way, they lamented his death. They began to tear up the earth with their feet, and seemed to strive to outdo each other in the work, until they had made a hole large enough to receive the body of a man. When they had gone, Antony carried the holy corpse to the place, and covering it with the soil, he arranged the grave after the manner of the Christians. As to the tunic, which Paul had woven for himself out of palm-leaves, as baskets are usually made, Antony took it away with him, and, as long as he lived, wore it on the great days of Easter and Pentecost. (From Matins, Divine Office, Feast of Saint Paul the First Hermit.)

Father and Prince of Hermits! thou art now contemplating in all his glory that God, whose weakness and lowliness thou didst study and imitate during the sixty years of thy desert-life: thou art now with him in the eternal union of the Vision. Instead of thy cavern, where thou didst spend thy life of unknown penance, thou hast the immensity of the heavens for thy dwelling; instead of thy tunic of palm-leaves, thou hast the robe of Light; instead of the pittance of material bread, thou hast the Bread of eternal life; instead of thy humble fountain, thou hast the waters which spring up to eternity, filling thy soul with infinite delights. Thou didst imitate the silence of the Babe of Bethlehem by thy holy life of seclusion; now, thy tongue is for ever singing the praises of this God, and the music of infinite bliss is for ever falling on thine ear. Thou didst not know this world of ours, save by its deserts; but now, thou must compassionate and pray for us who live in it; speak for us to our dear Jesus; remind Him how He visited it in wonderful mercy and love; pray his sweet blessing upon us, and the graces of perfect detachment from transitory things, love of poverty, love of prayer, and love of our heavenly country. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Paul the First Hermit, January 15.)

We must imitate the virtues of Saint Paul the First Hermit and retreat, as far as is possible given the duties from our state-in-life, from the distractions of the world and to long for the glories of Heaven as we meditate upon the Sacred Mysteries of our Redemption.

We have not here a permanent dwelling. The madness of a world gone mad without Christ the King is not going to end even after President-elect Donald John Trump takes the oath of office for second, nonconsecutive term on Monday, January 20, 2025, which is why we must turn to Our Lady of Prompt Succor on this her feast day.

Our Lady came to the aid of Catholics in New Orleans during the Battle of New Orleans, fought about six weeks after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812 between the United Kingdom and the United States of America, on January 8, 1815. Our Lady came to the aid of the forces of Colonel Andrew Jackson, a wretched demagogue of a man who was a partisan of the principles of the French Revolution and a Freemason who did not have a particularly high regard for Catholics prior to this time—and who always had contempt for the American Indians, as he defended the City of New Orleans from the British onslaught while Catholics prayed Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary before the miraculous statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor. Prayers to Our Lady of Prompt Succor had saved the Ursuline Convent in New Orleans a few years before.

Andrew Jackson, however, never converted to the Faith, remaining true to his "republican" principles to the end of his life. He witnessed a miracle but was unmoved to convert to the Faith whose adherents had prayed for him to turn back the British military onslaught.

It must not be that way with us.

We must cooperate with the graces that Our Lady showers upon us to change us so that we can plant the seeds for the conversion of our nation to the true Faith.

As I have noted before, it may not be within the Providence of God for such a conversion to occur. We must, however, do our work to this end as this is what is expected of us. True patriotism wills the good of one's nation, the ultimate expression of which is her Catholicization in every aspect of her social life and public policies without any exception whatsoever. Our Lady is the Heavenly aid sent us to by her Divine Son to help us in this regard. 

You want real change in your own soul and in our nation?

Pray the Rosary faithfully and fervently and offer up everything in your daily life to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through her own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart as we fulfill her Fatima Message in our own homes, enthroned as they should be to those same Twin Hearts of matchless Love.

Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!

Our Lady of Prompt Succor, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint Paul the Abbot, pray for us.

Saint Maurus, pray for us.

Appendix

Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., on the Feast of Saint Maurus the Abbot

Saint Maurus—one of the greatest masters of the Cenobitical Life, and the most illustrious of the Disciples of St. Benedict, the Patriarch of the Monks of the West—shares with the First Hermit the honours of this fifteenth day of January. Faithful, like the holy Hermit, to the lessons taught at Bethlehem, Maurus has a claim to have his Feast kept during the forty days, which are sacred to the sweet Babe Jesus. He comes to us each January to bear witness to the power of that Babe’s humility. Who, forsooth, will dare to doubt of the triumphant power of the Poverty, and the obedience shown in the Crib of our Emmanuel, when he is told of the grand things done by those virtues in the Cloisters of Fair France?

It was to Maurus that France was indebted for the introduction into her territory of that admirable Rule, which produced the great Saints, and the great Men, to whom she owes the best part of her glory. The children of St. Benedict, by St. Maurus, struggled against the barbarism of the Franks, under the first race of her kings; under the second, they instructed, in sacred and profane literature, the people, in whose civilization they had so powerfully co-operated; under the third—and even in modern times, when the Benedictine Order, enslaved by the system of Commendatory-Abbots, and decimated by political tyranny or violence, was dying out amidst every kind of humiliation—they were the fathers of the poor by the charitable use of their large possessions, and the ornaments of literature and science by their immense contributions to ecclesiastical science and archaeology, as also to the history of their own country.

St. Maurus built his celebrated Monastery of Glanfeuil, and Glanfeuil may be considered as the mother house of the principal Monasteries in France, Saint Germain and Saint Denis of Paris, Marmoutier, Saint Victor, Luxeuil, Jumieges, Fleury Corbie, Saint Vannes, Moyen-Moutier, Saint Wandrille, Saint Waast, La Chaise-Dieu, Tiron, Cheza, Benoit, Le Bec, and innumerable other Monasteries in France gloried in being daughters of Monte-Cassino by the favourite Disciple of St. Benedict. Cluny, which gave several Popes to the Church—and among them, St. Gregory the Seventh, and Urban the Second—was indebted to St. Maurus for that Rule, which gave her her glory and her power. We must count up the Apostles, Martyrs, Bishops, Doctors, Confessors, and Virgins, who were formed, for twelve hundred years, in the Benedictine Cloisters of France; we must calculate the services, both temporal and spiritual, done to this great country by the Benedictine Monks, during all that period; and we shall have some idea of the results produced by the mission of St. Maurus—results, whose whole glory redounds to the Babe of Bethlehem, and to the mysteries of his humility, which are the source and model of the Monastic Life. When, therefore, we admire the greatness of the Saints, and recount their wonderful works, we are glorifying our Jesus, the King of all Saints.

The Monastic Breviary, in the Office of this Feast, gives us the following sketch of the Life of St. Maurus.

Maurus was by birth a Roman. His father, whose name was Eutychius, and a Senator by rank, had placed him, when a little boy, under the care of St. Benedict. Trained in the school of such and so great a Master of holiness, he attained to the highest degree of monastic perfection, even before he had ceased to be a child; so that Benedict himself was in admiration, and used to speak of his virtues to every one, holding him forth to the rest of the house as a model of religious discipline. He subdued his flesh by austerities, such as the wearing a hair-shirt, night watching, and frequent fasting; giving, meanwhile, to his spirit the solace of assiduous prayer, holy compunction, and reading the Sacred Scriptures. During Lent, he took food but twice in the week, and that so sparingly, as to seem rather to be tasting than taking it. He slept standing, or, when excessive fatigue obliged him to it, sitting, or, at times, lying down on a heap of lime and sand, over which he threw his hair-shirt. His sleep was exceedingly short, for he always recited very long prayers, and often the whole of the Psalms, before the midnight Office.

He gave a proof of his admirable spirit of obedience on the occasion of Placid’s having fallen into the lake, and being nearly drowned. Maurus, at the bidding of the Holy Father, ran to the lake, walked dry-shod upon the water, and, taking the child by the hair of his head, drew him safe to the bank; for Placid was to be slain by the sword as a martyr, and our Lord reserved him as a victim, which should be offered to him. On account of such signal virtues as these, the same Holy Father made Maurus share the cares of his duties; for, from his very entrance into the monastic life, he had had a part in his miracles. He had been raised to the holy order of Deaconship by St. Benedict’s command; and by placing the stole he wore on a dumb and lame boy, he gave him the power both to speak and walk.

Maurus was sent by his Holy Father into France. Scarcely had he set his foot on that land, than he had a vision of the triumphant entrance of that great saint into heaven. He promulgated in that country the Rule which St. Benedict had written with his own hand, and had given to him on his leaving Italy; though the labour and anxiety he had to go through in the accomplishment of his mission, were exceedingly great. Having built the celebrated Monastery, which he governed for forty years, so great was the reputation of his virtues, that several of the , noblest lords of King Theodobert’s court put themselves under Maurus’ direction, and enrolled in the holier and more meritorious warfare of the monastic life.

Two years before his death, he resigned the government of his Monastery, and retired into a cell near the Oratory of St. Martin. There he exercised himself in most rigorous penance, wherewith he fortified himself for the contest he had to sustain against the enemy of mankind, who threatened him with the death of his Monks. In this combat a holy Angel was his comforter, who, after revealing to him the snares of the wicked spirit, and the designs of God, bade him and his disciples win the crown prepared for them. Having, therefore, sent to heaven before him, as so many forerunners, a hundred and more of his brave soldiers, and knowing that he, their leader, was soon to follow them, he signified his wish to be carried to the Oratory, where, being strengthened by the Sacrament of Life, and lying on his hair-shirt, as a victim before the Altar, he died a saintly death. He was upwards of seventy years of age. It would be difficult to describe the success wherewith he propagated Monastic discipline in France, or to tell the miracles which, both before and after his death, rendered him glorious among men.

How blessed was thy Mission, O favourite and worthy disciple of the great Saint Benedict! How innumerable the Saints that sprang from thee and thy illustrious Patriarch! The Rule thou didst promulgate, was truly the salvation of that great country which thou and thy disciples evangelised; and the fruits of the Order thou didst plant there, have been indeed abundant. But now that from thy throne in heaven thou beholdest that fair France, which was once covered with Monasteries, and from which there mounted up to God the ceaseless voice of prayer and praise, and now thou scarce findest the ruins of these noble Sanctuaries—dost thou not turn towards our Lord, and beseech him that he make the wilderness bloom once more as of old? Oh! what has become of those Cloisters, wherein were trained Apostles of Nations, learned Pontiffs, intrepid defenders of the Liberty of the Church, holy Doctors and heroes of sanctity—all of whom call thee their second Father? Who will bring back again those vigorous principles of poverty, obedience, hard work, and penance, which made the Monastic Life be the object of the people’s admiration and love, and attracted tens of thousands of every class in society to embrace it? Instead of this holy enthusiasm of the ages of faith, we, alas! can show little else than cowardice of heart, love of this life, zeal for enjoyment, dread of the cross, and, at best, comfortable and inactive piety. Pray, great Saint! that these days may be shortened; that the christians of the present generation may grow earnest by reflecting on the sanctity to which they are called; that our sluggish hearts may put on the fortitude of knowing and doing, at least, our duty. Then, indeed, will the future glories of the Church be as great and bright as our love of her makes us picture them to ourselves—for, all the Church needs in order to fulfil her destinies, is courageous hearts. Oh! if our God hear thy prayer, and give us once more the Monastic Life in all its purity and vigour,—we shall be safe, and the evil of faith without earnestness, which is now producing such havoc in the spiritual world, will be replaced by christian energy. Teach us, O Maurus! to know the dear Babe of Bethlehem, and to get well into our hearts his life and doctrine; for we shall then understand the greatness of our christian vocation, and that the only way to overcome our enemy the world, is that which He, our Master and Guide, followed. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Maurus, Abbot, January 15.)