From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Control of the Heart (II)   
      
   CHRIST:.   
   Take care, therefore, not to rely overmuch on any preconceived desire   
   without asking My counsel, lest you regret or become displeased at   
   what first pleased you, and for which you were eager. For not every   
   feeling that seems good is at once to be acted upon, nor is every   
   feeling that runs contrary to your inclinations to be immediately   
   rejected. It is sometimes necessary to restrain even your good   
   intentions and endeavors, lest by over-eagerness your mind becomes   
   distracted; lest by lack of discipline you cause offence to others; or   
   lest you suddenly become confused and upset by the opposition of   
   others.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ, Bk 3, Ch 11   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   15 January – Saint Maurus OSB   
      
    Benedictine Abbot and Deacon, miracle-worker. Maurus was the first   
   disciple of Saint Benedict of Nursia (512–584). He is mentioned in   
   Saint Gregory the Great’s biography of the latter as the first oblate,   
   offered to the Monastery by his noble Roman parents as a young boy, to   
   be brought up in the monastic life. Born in c 512 in Rome, Italy and   
   died on 15 January 584 of natural causes. Patronages – Benedictine   
   Novices and Oblates (co-patron with St Placidus), cripples, invoked   
   against rheumatism, epilepsy, gout, hoarseness, cold, charcoal   
   burners, cobblers, coppersmiths, shoemakers, porters, tinkers,   
   tailors, latern and candle makers, of the Azores, Badajoz, Spain,   
   Casoria, Italy, Saint-Bonnet-de-Vieille-Vigne, France.   
      
   Four stories involving Maurus recounted by St Gregory formed a pattern   
   for the ideal formation of a Benedictine Monk. The most famous of   
   these involved Saint Maurus’s rescue of Saint Placidus, a younger boy   
   offered to Saint Benedict at the same time as Saint Maurus. The   
   incident has been reproduced in many medieval and Renaissance   
   paintings.   
      
   “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, St Paul, the   
   honours of this 15th day of January.” (From the Benedictine Liturgy).   
   The Benedictines today, liturgically honour the first companions of   
   Saint Benedict, Saint Maurus and Saint Placidus. They are the Patron   
   saints of Benedictine Novices and Oblates.   
      
   St Maurus, Abbot and Deacon, son of Equitius, a nobleman of Rome, was   
   born about the year 510 and died in 584. When he was about twelve   
   years old, his father placed him under the care of St Benedict at   
   Subiaco, to be educated in piety and learning. When he had grown up,   
   St Benedict chose him as his co-adjutor in the government of the   
   Monastery. He was a model of perfection to all his brethren but   
   especially in the virtue of obedience.   
      
   St Placidus, one of his fellow disciples, the son of the Senator   
   Tertullus, going one day to draw water, fell into the lake and was at   
   once carried away by the current. St Benedict saw this in spirit in   
   his cell and bade Maurus run and draw him out. Having asked and   
   received the holy Father’s blessing, Maurus hastened down to the lake,   
   walked upon the waters, thinking he was on dry land and dragged Placid   
   out by the hair, without sinking in the least himself. He attributed   
   the miracle to the command and prayers of St Benedict but the holy   
   Abbot, to the obedience of the disciple.   
      
   St Maurus was sent to France in 543 to propagate the order of St   
   Benedict in that country. He founded the famous Abbey of Glanfeuil,   
   over which he ruled as Abbot for thirty-eight years. In 581 he   
   resigned the Abbacy, built for himself a small cell near the Church,   
   lying on sackcloth before the Altar of St Martin and in that posture   
   expired on 15 January 584.   
      
   Maurus was originally buried in the Abbey Church at Glanfeuil. When,   
   in 868, Odo and the monks of Glanfeuil were obliged to flee to Paris   
   in the face of Vikings marauding along the Loire, the  remains of St   
   Maurus were translated to the Abbey of Saint-Pierre-des-Fossés, later   
   renamed Saint-Maur-des-Fossés. In 1750 the relics were relocated to   
   Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where they remained until dispersed by a   
   Parisian mob during the French Revolution. Saint Maurus is still   
   venerated by Benedictine congregations today, many Monks adopting his   
   name and dedicating Monasteries to his patronage.   
      
   The cult of Saint Maurus slowly spread to Monasteries throughout   
   France and by the 11th century had been adopted by Monte Cassino in   
   Italy, along with a revived cult of Saint Placidus. By the late Middle   
   Ages, the cult of Saint Maurus, often associated with that of Saint   
   Placidus, had spread to all Benedictine Monasteries. Saint Maurus is   
   venerated even as far as in India, where he is highly honoured in   
   certain areas of the southern state of Kerala.   
      
   St Maurus was favoured by God with the gift of miracles. To show in   
   what high degree the Saint possessed the gift of miracles, it will be   
   sufficient to cite a few examples of how he miraculously cured the   
   sick and restored to health those who were stricken with a grievous   
   affliction. It has already been stated, according to the testimony of   
   St Pope Gregory the Great, in the Second Book of his Dialogues, how   
   when a youth, St Maurus rescued St Placidus from drowning.   
      
   A few more examples of miracles wrought by the Saint, as related by   
   the Monk St Faustus (Bollandists, Vol. 2), who accompanied St Maurus   
   to France and later wrote his life, will be given here. They were   
   invariably wrought by means of the Sign of the Cross and the relic of   
   the true Cross, which he had taken along to France.   
      
   When St Maurus, at that time Prior of the Abbey of Monte Cassino, was   
   returning with the brethren from gathering the harvest in the fields,   
   he met a boy who was mute and crippled, accompanied by his parents.   
   When the father and mother of the boy cast themselves at the feet of   
   the Saint and implored him to cure their child of his maladies, St   
   Maurus, having for some time given himself to prayer, imposed upon the   
   head of the boy his levitical stole, for he was a Deacon and made the   
   sign of the Cross over him, saying to him: “In the name of the most   
   holy and undivided Trinity and supported by the merits of the-most   
   holy Father Benedict, I bid you to rise, stand upon your feet and be   
   cured.” And forthwith the boy arose, walked about and with a loud   
   voice praised and glorified God.   
      
   A certain Vicar, Ardenard, had been sent by Innocent, the Bishop of   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)