From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   January 8th - St. Severinus of Noricum, Hermit (RM)   
      
   Died at Favianae in Noricum (Austria), c. 476-78. Severinus was a Roman   
   citizen who gave all his worldly goods to live for a time in the deserts of   
   Egypt. Here he was torn between his desire to live alone and God's call for   
   him to evangelize unbelievers. Guess who's will triumphed? Severinus   
   followed God's call to Austria, which at that time was a highway of invading   
   barbarians, its towns plundered and beleaguered.   
      
   About 453, Severinus came as a mysterious and unknown man sent by God in   
   that unhappy hour to bring help to Noricum's suffering people. He gave no   
   information as to who he was beyond his name, which indicated his high rank,   
   and it was obvious from his manner that he was a man of scholarship and   
   distinction. He appeared to be an African Roman from Carthage and a   
   fellow-countryman of Saint Augustine of Hippo. Attila, the Scourge of God,   
   had just died, leaving behind him, with the break-up of his empire,   
   confusion and chaos, and the fair and fertile lands of central and southern   
   Europe were at the mercy of leaderless armies and plundering tribes.   
      
   Into this scene of wretchedness and distress came Severinus, who settled as   
   a hermit near Vienna. The work was not easy. Many people ignored all that he   
   preached, but-knowing that God doesn't ask us to be successful, only   
   obedient-Severinus continued to preach and found monasteries along the   
   Danube, seeing these as oases of Christianity in an evil land.   
      
   He warned the inhabitants of approaching invasion, but his words went   
   unheeded. They replied with scorn that the proud city of Vienna would never   
   surrender and that they had no fear of the barbarian hordes. But when his   
   words proved only too true, in their helplessness they sent for him, and   
   quietly and calmly he came to their rescue and organized relief. He   
   discovered that a rich woman had hidden away vast quantities of food, which   
   Severinus persuaded her to give to the starving.   
      
   He put new heart into the people, gave them courage to go out to meet the   
   wild German horsemen, and strengthened the defenses of the city. Then,   
   providentially, the ice melted on the Danube and the river was filled with   
   ships of food. Thus Severinus stood in the path of the Goths, and the fear   
   of him was to them, we are told, as the hand of God.   
      
   During this time Severinus was a great apostle of penance. He redeemed   
   captives, helped to comfort the oppressed and the poor, tended the sick, and   
   undertook many efforts for the instruction of the Catholic people of the   
   Danube valley near Vienna. He also worked miracles. It seems that he drove   
   away a plague of locusts that threatened to bring another famine. Slowly   
   many Austrians accepted his faith. He was saddened that he never managed to   
   heal the blindness of one of his greatest friends, but Severinus continued   
   to trust in God.   
      
   When the cloud of terror lifted, he retired to his hermit's cell, but still   
   continued his relief work of securing food, redeeming captives, and   
   conciliating enemy tribes; and to this he added many other works of sanctity   
   and charity. His difficulty was how to preserve a life of detachment amid so   
   much pressure of activity, for the more he longed to dwell in solitude and   
   lead a simple life, the greater were the demands made upon him.   
      
   Even the enemies of Austria came under this influence. The proud and   
   desperate Odoacer, the boldest of the barbarians, sought his counsel, but on   
   reaching the cell of the hermit, found it too small for his great height.   
   "Stoop low," said Severinus, and the ambitious Goth willingly stooped and   
   entered to receive his blessing.   
      
   Severinus also built many churches and evangelized widely in Austria and   
   Bavaria. To Saint Severinus is attributed the honor of establishing many   
   monasteries, though he himself remained a contemplative, living apart in a   
   spirit of great penance and prayer.   
      
   He became the popular saint of that area. He went barefoot, even in   
   mid-winter when the Danube was frozen, and he insisted on possessing only   
   one tunic. It is said that he never ate until sunset and that in Lent he   
   permitted himself only one meal weekly. To the end he preserved a simple and   
   austere life. He refused a bishopric, though it is doubtful whether he was   
   even ordained.   
      
   For 30 years this saintly and active man, whose origin remained unknown,   
   carried on his noble and enterprising work, conferring with kings and   
   commoners. It is said that he predicted the day of his death. As he lay   
   dying of pleurisy those around him could hear him singing the words of the   
   Psalmist: "Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord." And so he died   
   happily in peace and tranquility. Six years after his death, his monks were   
   driven from Austria and carried his relics to Naples, Italy, where the great   
   Benedictine monastery of San Severino was built to enshrine them (Attwater,   
   Benedictines, Bentley, Encyclopedia, Gill).   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "Very many wish to be vouchsafed the Kingdom without labors, without   
   struggles, without sweat; but this is impossible.   
   If you love the glories of men, and desire to be worshipped, and seek   
   comfort, you are going off the path. You must be crucified with the   
   Crucified One, suffer with Him that suffered, that you may be   
   glorified with Him that is glorified."   
   -St. Macarius of Egypt   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   15 I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her   
   seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.   
   (Genesis 3:15)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   From The Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, by Saint Alphonsus Liguori:   
      
   We read in history of a proof of love so prodigious that it will be the   
   admiration of all ages.   
      
   There was once a king, lord of many kingdoms, who had one only son, so   
   beautiful, so holy, so amiable, that he was the delight of his father, who   
   loved him as much as himself. This young prince had a great affection for   
   one of his slaves; so much so that, the slave having committed a crime for   
   which he had been condemned to death, the prince offered himself to die for   
   the slave; the father, being jealous of justice, was satisfied to condemn   
   his beloved son to death, in order that the slave might remain free from the   
   punishment that he deserved: and thus the son died a malefactor's death, and   
   the slave was freed from punishment.   
      
   This fact, the like of which has never happened in this world, and never   
   will happen, is related in the Gospels, where we read that the Son of God,   
   the Lord of the universe, seeing that man was condemned to eternal death in   
   punishment of his sins, chose to take upon Himself human flesh, and thus to   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)