From: trudie.Miller@cox.net   
      
   January 3rd - Saint Fulgentius   
    (468-533)   
      
   Born in Africa of illustrious and Catholic parents, Fulgentius was an excellent   
   student of languages and of various other practical disciplines. His father had   
   died while still young, and Fulgentius soon became the support of his mother   
   and   
   younger brother. He was appointed at an early age procurator of his province at   
   Carthage; but this elevation in the world's esteem was distasteful to him, and   
   he was enlightened by the Spirit of God to see the vanity of the world.   
      
   At the age of twenty-two, having read Saint Augustine's treatise on the Psalms,   
   he resolved to embrace monastic life, and began to prepare for it by mental   
   prayer, fasting, and other penances practiced in secret. When he was accepted   
   into a monastery by a holy bishop named Faustus, his mother hoped to change his   
   mind; but when she arrived he remained firm and did not consent to see her.   
   Such   
   are the austerities of the Saints, called to accomplish much for God. He later   
   renounced all his goods on behalf of his mother and younger brother.   
      
   After six years of peace, his monastery was attacked by Arian heretics, and   
   Faustus, Fulgentius and the other monks were driven out, destitute, into the   
   desert. Fulgentius entered another monastery on his Superior's advice, and   
   there   
   he shared the duties of the Superior, to the latter's great consolation, until   
   that house was attacked by barbarians. In the refuge to which he then repaired   
   he was persecuted, held captive, and tortured by an Arian priest, but sought no   
   vengeance when authorities offered him support if he would enter a complaint.   
   Fulgentius and his Superior, who was with him, decided to build another   
   monastery in the province they had abandoned.   
      
   For a time Fulgentius remained there, but he desired solitude and set out on a   
   journey to the holy places of Rome. There the imperial splendors he beheld   
   spoke   
   to him of the greater glory of the heavenly Jerusalem, his final goal. And at   
   the first lull in the persecution, he returned to his African cell in the year   
   500.   
      
   Elected bishop of Ruspe in 508, he was summoned to face new dangers, and was   
   shortly afterwards banished by the Arian king, with some sixty other Catholic   
   prelates, to Sardinia. Though the youngest of the exiles, he became the   
   spokesman of his brethren and the support of their orphaned flocks. By his   
   books   
   and letters, which are still extant, he confounded both Pelagian and Arian   
   heresiarchs, and strengthened the Catholics in Africa and Gaul. He prayed for   
   all his compatriots in exile: "You know, Lord, what is most expedient for the   
   salvation of our souls; assist us in our corporal necessities, that we may not   
   lose the spiritual goods." On the death of the Arian king, the bishops returned   
   to their flocks. Saint Fulgentius was welcomed amid the greatest joy, after   
   eighteen years of exile. He labored with his fellow bishops in the synods as   
   their chosen leader, and re-established discipline. When he felt his end was   
   near, he retired to an island monastery, where after a year's preparation he   
   called for his clergy and religious, and with their aid distributed all his   
   goods to the poor. He died in peace in the year 533.   
      
   Reflection. Each year may bring us new changes and trials; let us learn from   
   Saint Fulgentius to receive all that happens as appointed for our salvation,   
   and   
   from the hand of God.   
      
   Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud   
   et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 1; Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a   
   compilation based on Butler's Lives of the Saints and other sources by John   
   Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship   
   being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to   
   abandons ship but to keep her on her course.   
   Let us stand fast in what is right, and prepare our souls for trial. Let us   
   wait   
   upon God's strengthening aid and say to him: "O Lord, you have been our refuge   
   in all generations."   
   Let us trust in him who has placed this burden upon us. What we ourselves   
   cannot   
   bear let us bear with the help of Christ. For he is all-powerful, and he tells   
   us: "My yoke is easy, and my burden light."   
   Let us continue the fight on the day of the Lord. The days of anguish and of   
   tribulation have overtaken us; if God so wills, "let us die for the holy laws   
   of   
   our fathers," so that we may deserve to obtain an eternal inheritance with   
   them.   
   --from a letter by Saint Boniface   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer Against Covetousness   
      
   O Lord Jesus Christ, who though Thou wast rich yet for our sakes didst   
   become poor, grant that all over-eagerness and covetousness of earthly goods   
   may die in us, and the desire of heavenly things may live and grow in us;   
   keep us from all idle and vain expenditures, that we may always have to give   
   to him that needeth, and that giving not grudgingly nor of necessity, but   
   cheerfully, we may be loved of Thee, and be made through Thy merits   
   partakers of the riches of Thy heavenly treasure. Amen.   
      
   Taken from: Manual of Prayers (pg 312)   
   Compiled by: Third Plenary Council of Baltimore   
   Imprimatur: James Cardinal Gibbons. Archbishop. Baltimore   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)