From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   April 19th -  St. Geroldus   
      
   The little village of Sankt-Gerold near Mitternach in the Wallgau continues   
   to draw numbers of pilgrims to venerate the tomb of the tenth-century hermit   
   who, with his two sons, lies buried in the church. Various legends have   
   grown up about him but a few details of his life seem to be well   
   established. Geroldus came of the Rhetian family of the counts of Sax, and   
   he was a middle-aged man when he decided to retire from the world to live as   
   a recluse. For years he occupied a hermitage which he had erected in the   
   forest, on a plot of ground given him by his friend and neighbour Count   
   Otto.   
      
   His own land he had bestowed upon the Benedictine abbey of Einsiedeln, in   
   which his sons Cuno and Ulric were monks, the gift having been sealed by the   
   placing of a basketful of the soil upon our Lady's altar. After the death of   
   Geroldus, his Sons obtained permission to occupy their father's cell and to   
   watch over his tomb. In later years, when the forest was cleared, the abbots   
   of Einsiedeln, several of whom were members of the hermit's family,   
   established a church upon the spot. The building was desecrated and reduced   
   to ruin at the Reformation, but in 1663 Abbot Placid of Einsiedeln enshrined   
   the saint's body in a new church beside the relics of Cuno and Ulric.   
      
   There is no ancient biography, but an account has been pieced together from   
   various sources in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. ii; and see Ringholz,   
   Geschichte von Einsiedeln, vol. i.   
      
   A nobleman who became a hermit in Switzerland. He was born into the Rhaetian   
   family of Saxony counts. Becoming a recluse, Gerold gave his lands to   
   Einsiedeln Monastery in Switzerland, where his sons were monks. Gerold then   
   became a hermit in a forest near Mitternach in the Waalgu.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "Kiss frequently the crosses which the Lord sends you, and with all your   
   heart, without regarding of what sort they may be; for the more vile and   
   mean they are, the more they deserve their name. The merit of crosses does   
   not consist in their weight, but in the manner in which they are borne. It   
   may show much greater virtue to bear a cross of straw than a very hard and   
   heavy one, because the light ones are also the most hidden and contemned,   
   and therefore least comfortable to our inclination, which always seeks what   
   is showy"   
   --St. Francis de Sales   
      
    In the many long and painful journeys made by this Saint, he was never   
   heard to complain of cold, or wind, or the heat of the sun or the quality of   
   his food; but he took all things peacefully from the hand of God, and was   
   particularly pleased with the worst and most inconvenient articles-and when   
   he could, he always chose them for himself.   
      
   (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints".  April - Patience)   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his   
   glory?  (Luke 24:26)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer to Jesus Suffering   
      
   (Our Lord said to Saint Mechtilde: "Behold, I make over to thee all the   
   bitterness of My passion, that thou mayest offer it to me again as though it   
   were thine own possession. And whoever shall do this, shall receive double   
   at my hand, and whenever he renews this offering he shall surely receive the   
   double; and this is that hundredfold which a man receives in this life, and   
   in the world to come, life everlasting.")   
      
   O most gracious Jesus, Redeemer and Savior of the whole human race, I recall   
   to Thy mind with gratitude and love all the sorrow and anxiety which Thou,   
   my Creator and my God, didst feel in Thine agony, when Thou didst pray yet   
   longer, and didst bedew the earth with the sweat of Blood, wrung from Thee   
   by Thine exceeding anguish, desire and love, beseeching Thee by all and each   
   of those most sacred drops, all which I here offer Thee with devout   
   affection, that Thou wouldst wash away all the stains of my sins. I recall   
   to Thy mind Thy being unjustly bound with heavy chains.   
      
   Thy innumerable stripes and blows, and all the contumely and the blasphemy   
   wherewith Thou wast assailed, when all proclaimed Thee a deceiver of the   
   people; when Thou wast falsely accused before Pilate, ignominiously mocked   
   by Herod, and set aside for an impious robber; and when all the whole   
   multitude clamorously demanded that Thou shouldst be crucified.   
      
   All this Thou didst endure with such love and such patience that although   
   Thou couldst by one look have appalled Thine adversaries, and with one word   
   convicted the false witnesses against Thee, yet Thou didst submit to be led   
   like a sheep to the slaughter, and stand before Thy judge with Thy head   
   bowed in humility, Thine eyes fixed on the ground, not once opening Thy   
   mouth to speak one word of complaint at the lying accusations brought   
   against Thee.   
      
   Wherefore I give Thee thanks on behalf of all mankind, and offer Thee all   
   the outrages and insults heaped on Thee, in satisfaction for all the insults   
   I have offered Thee by my sins.   
      
   I give Thee thanks also and I recall to Thy mind Thy most cruel and   
   excessive scourging, wherewith Thy whole body was so gashed and torn, that   
   from the sole of Thy foot to the top of Thy head there was no soundness in   
   Thee. I set forth now before Thee, likewise, that intolerable anguish Thou   
   didst feel when the crown of thorns was so harshly forced upon Thy kingly   
   head, when the sharp thorns pierced Thy head and Thy brow, and were thrust   
   into Thy brain, and Thy most gentle loving face, into which the angels   
   desire to look, was covered with slow trickling drops of Thy roseate Blood.   
      
   O most pitiful Jesus, I now recall to Thy mind, the unutterable anguish   
   which thrilled through Thy whole body, when Thou wast fastened to the cross   
   with iron nails, when Thou wast lifted up on high on Thy cross, and   
   blasphemed by the Jews, mocked in Thy thirst with vinegar and gall, and hung   
   up between two robbers, as the refuge and off-scouring of all creatures.   
      
   Lastly, O most gracious Jesus, I recall to Thy mind with gratitude and   
   compassion all and each of the sorrows Thou didst feel throughout Thy whole   
   most sacred body and especially in Thy sweetest Heart, by reason of Thy fore   
   knowledge that Thy most bitter, most shameful, most guiltless Passion would   
   be of no avail to so many; and when Thy deified Heart itself broke with   
   excessive love and grief, and Thy most holy soul quitted Thy blessed body   
   with an inconceivable pang!   
      
   For all these, Thy sorrows, I give Thee infinite thanks; and through Thy   
   sweetest Heart, in the power of the Holy Spirit, in behalf of, and with the   
   love of all creatures, I offer Thee all Thy grief, and pain, and torment of   
   body and soul, throughout all the time of Thy Passion, for all the sins I   
   have committed, for all the good I have left undone or done negligently, and   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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