From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   We have been bought at a great price   
      
      Let us rejoice that we have been bought at a great price, the price   
   of the Lord's own blood, and that because of this we are no longer   
   worthless slaves. For there is a freedom that is baser than slavery,   
   namely, freedom from justice. Whoever has that kind of freedom is a   
   slave of sin and a prisoner of death. So let us give back to the Lord   
   the gifts he has given us; let us give to him who receives in the   
   person of every poor man or woman. Let us give gladly, I say, and   
   great joy will be ours when we receive his promised reward.   
   —Paulinus of Nola   
      
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   December 6th - Bl. Peter Pascual, Bishop of Jaén, Martyr   
   d. 1300   
      
   THE Valencian family of Pascual or Pascualez (latinized as Paschasius)   
   is said to have given the Church six martyrs under the Moors, of whom   
   Bl. Peter was the last. The child received his schooling from a tutor   
   at home, which tutor was a priest of Narbonne, a doctor of divinity of   
   Paris, whom Peter’s parents had ran­somed from the Moors. Peter went   
   with him to Paris, and having finished his studies there, took the   
   degree of doctor. He then returned to Valencia, and received holy   
   orders at the age of twenty-four. He was a professor of theology at   
   Barcelona until James I of Aragon chose him as tutor to his son,   
   Sancho, who was soon after made archbishop of Toledo. The prince being   
   too young to receive holy orders Bl. Peter was appointed administrator   
   of the diocese; later he was named titular bishop of Granada, which   
   was at that time in the hands of the Moors, but he did not receive   
   episcopal consecration until he was appointed bishop of Jaén in 1296,   
   when it was still under Moorish domination.   
      
      In spite of all dangers he not only ransomed captives and   
   instructed and comforted the Christians, but also preached to the   
   infidels and reconciled to the Church several apostates, renegades and   
   others, On this account he was seized while on a visitation, carried   
   to Granada, and shut up in a dungeon, with orders that no one should   
   be allowed to speak to him. He received money for his ransom, but with   
   it bought the freedom of some who, he feared, were in danger of   
   apostasy. In spite of solitary confine­ment he found means to write a   
   treatise against Islam and its prophet, which was circulated among the   
   people and stirred up the authorities to order his death. The night   
   before he suffered he was afflicted with great fear, and was comforted   
   by a vision of our Lord. The next morning whilst he was at prayer he   
   was murdered, receiving stabs in his body, after which his head was   
   struck off. He was 73 years old. This is the common tradition, but it   
   appears that he died from the hardships of his captivity.   
      
   In 1673 Pope Clement X confirmed the cultus of Bl. Peter Pascual, and   
   his name was also inserted in the Roman Martyrology, where he is   
   referred to as Beatus, though commonly called Saint.   
      
   The older lives, such as that of B. Amento y Peligero in folio (1676),   
   are by no means reliable. The best materials are those published by Fr   
   Fidel Fita in the Boletin of the Historical Academy of Madrid, vol.,   
   xx (1892), pp. 32-61; cf. vol. xli (1902), pp. 345-347. For the   
   general reader of Spanish the most thorough discussion of the problems   
   involved is that of R. Rodriguez de Galvez, San Pedro Pascual obispo   
   de Jaén y martir (1900), and see also the Estudios Criticos (1903) of   
   the same author. In these it is satisfactorily proved that Bl. Peter   
   was not a member of the Mercedarian Order, and it is shown that he   
   most probably died of the hardships of his captivity, not stabbed or   
   decapitated. Bollandist reviewers consider unconvincing a bulky work   
   published on the Mercedarian side by P. Armengol Valenzuela, Vida de   
   San Pedro Pascual (1901.   
      
      
   Saint Quote   
   Grace is nothing else but a certain beginning of glory in us.   
   --St. Thomas Aquinas   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "For the Lord Yahweh says this: Look, I myself shall take care of my   
   flock and look after it.  As a shepherd looks after his flock when he   
   is with his scattered sheep, so shall I look after my sheep." [Isaiah   
   34:11-12a]   
      
      
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   The Prayer for Courage   
      
   Dearest Lord, teach me to be generous,   
   teach me to serve You as You deserve:   
   to give and not count the cost,   
   to fight and not heed the wound,   
   to toil and not seek rest,   
   to labor and not seek reward,   
   save that of feeling that I do Your will. - Amen.   
   --Saint Ignatius of Loyola   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)