From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Jesus heals spiritually and physically   
      
   "When the Savior says to him, 'Man, your sins are forgiven you,' he   
   addresses this to humankind in general. For those who believe in him,   
   being healed of the diseases of the soul, will receive forgiveness of   
   the sins which they formerly committed. He may also mean this: 'I must   
   heal your soul before I heal your body. If this is not done, by   
   obtaining strength to walk, you will only sin more. Even though you   
   have not asked for this, I as God see the maladies of the soul which   
   brought on you this disease.'"   
    by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD) (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE,   
   HOMILY 12)   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   February 9th - St. Sabinus, Bishop of Canosa   
   (c. A.D. 566)   
      
     THE history of St. Sabinus is rather difficult to disentangle, not   
   only because it has been overlaid with legend, but also because there   
   are two other saints of the same name inscribed in the Acta Sanctorum   
   on February 9 and some points in their lives are so similar that it   
   seems as though they had been confused. One of them was a bishop who   
   assisted at the consecration of St. Michael’s sanctuary on Monte   
   Gargano in 493 and was buried at Atripaldo, but our saint lived later   
   and his body was interred elsewhere. He was born at Canosa* in Apulia.   
   * Canosa in Apulia (Canusium) is quite a different place from Canossa,   
   not far from Parma, famous in the life of Pope St. Gregory VII.   
      
   From his youth he only desired the things of God and cared nothing for   
   money, except as a means of helping the poor which he did most   
   generously. He became bishop of Canosa, and was on friendly terms with   
   the most prominent men of his time, including St. Benedict himself,   
   who appears to have foretold to him that Rome would not be destroyed   
   by Totila and the Goths. Pope St. Agapitus I sent him to the court of   
   the Emperor Justinian to support the newly-appointed patriarch, St.   
   Mennas, against the heretic Anthimus, and he attended the council   
   presided over by Mennas in the year 536. On his way back through   
   Lycia, he visited the tomb of St. Nicholas at Myra and saw the saint   
   in a vision.   
      
      In old age Sabinus lost his sight, but was endowed with great   
   inward light and with the gift of prophecy. It is related that Totila,   
   wishing to test it, persuaded the bishop’s cupbearer to let him   
   proffer the drinking-cup to the blind saint. No sooner had Sabinus   
   grasped the cup than he exclaimed, “Long live that hand;” and from   
   thenceforth Totila and his courtiers held him to be indeed a prophet.   
      
     Another occasion on which he displayed this power was when his   
   archdeacon, Vindimus, who was eager to obtain the bishopric, wishing   
   to hasten his death induced the cupbearer to put poison in the old   
   man’s cup. St. Sabinus said to the youth, “Drink it yourself:  I know   
   what it contains”. Then, as the cupbearer started back in terror, the   
   saint took the goblet and drained it, saying, “I will drink this, but   
   the instigator of this crime will never be a bishop”. The poison did   
   him no harm, but his would-be successor died that same hour, in his   
   own house three miles away. St. Sabinus died in his 52nd year, and his   
   body was eventually translated to Ban, where it seems to have been   
   forgotten for a time and rediscovered in 1901. In 1562, the marble   
   altar under which his relics lay was overlaid with silver and an   
   inscription engraved upon it, recording the saint’s chief actions.   
      
      See the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. ii; the Dialogues of St.   
   Gregory, bk ii, ch. Is, and bk iii, ch. 5 ; and Ughelli-Coletus,   
   Italia Sacra, vol. x (1722), p. 37.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Jesus honored her before all ages, and will honor her for all ages. No   
   one comes to Him, nor even near Him, no one is saved or sanctified, if   
   he too will not honor her. This is the lot of Angels and of men.   
   --Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, Martyr   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Wonder not at this: for the hour cometh wherein all that are in the   
   graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that have done   
   good things shall come forth unto the resurrection of life: but they   
   that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment. [John 5:28,29   
   ] DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
    When Macarius was returning one day to his cell, he met the devil,   
   who, with a scythe in his hand, tried to cut him in pieces. But he   
   could not do it, because as soon as he came near, he lost his   
   strength. Then, full of rage, he said, "Great misery do I suffer from   
   thee, O Macarius; for, though I wish so much to hurt thee, I am not   
   able. It is strange! I do all that thou doest, and even more; thou   
   dost fast sometimes, and I never eat; thou sleepest little, and I   
   never close my eyes; thou art chaste, and so am I. In one thing only   
   thou surpassest me." "And what is that one thing?" inquired Macarius.   
   "It is thy great humility" replied the demon. Saying this, he   
   disappeared, and was seen no more.   
      
   The devil once appeared to a monk in the form of the Archangel   
   Gabriel, and said that he was sent to him by God. The monk replied,   
   "See that thou be not sent by another!" And the devil immediately   
   disappeared.   
      
    When an old priest was exorcising a possessed person, the demon said   
   that he would never come out, if he did not first tell him what the   
   goats and what the lambs were like. The good priest quickly answered:   
   "The goats are all those who are like me. What the lambs may resemble,   
   God knows."  At these words, the devil cried out: "Through your   
   humility I can no longer remain here" and immediately departed.   
      
   ( "A Year with the Saints". February - Humility)<   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)