From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   How we must put our Whole Trust in God  [III]   
      
   THE DISCIPLE.   
    Lord, for Your sake I will gladly bear whatever You shall send to me.   
   From Your hand I will accept gladly both good and ill, (Job 2:10)   
   sweet and bitter, joy and sorrow; and for all that may befall me, I   
   will thank You. Only keep me, O Lord, from all sin, and I shall fear   
   neither Death nor Hell. (Ps. 23:4) Do not, I pray, reject me forever,   
   (Ps. 77:7) nor blot out my name from the book of life; (Rev. 3:5 )   
   then, whatever trials beset me can do me no harm.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 17   
      
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   February 15th - St. Sigefride, or Sigfrid, Bishop, Apostle of Sweden   
      
   OUR zealous ancestors having received the light of faith, propagated   
   the same throughout all the northern provinces of Europe. St.   
   Anscarius had planted the faith in Sweden, in 830; but it relapsed   
   soon after into idolatry. King Olas Scobcong entreated King Edred, who   
   died in 951, to send him missionaries to preach the gospel in this   
   country. Sigefride, an eminent priest of York, undertook that mission,   
   and on the 21st of June, in 950, arrived at Wexlow (Växjö), in   
   Gothland, in the territory of Smaland. He first erected a cross, then   
   built a church of wood, celebrated the divine mysteries, and preached   
   to the people. 12 principal men of the province were converted by him,   
   and one who died, was buried after the Christian manner, and a cross   
   placed upon his grave. So great numbers were in a short time brought   
   to the faith, that the cross of Christ was triumphantly planted in all   
   the 12 tribes into which the inhabitants of South-Gothland were   
   divided.   
      
   The fountain near the mountain of Ostrabo, since called Wexlow   
   (Växjö), in which St. Sigefride baptised the catechumens, long   
   retained the names of the 12 first converts, engraved on a monument.   
   King Olas was much pleased with the accounts he heard of the man of   
   God, and many flocked from remote parts, out of mere curiosity to hear   
   his doctrine, and to see him minister at the altar, admiring the rich   
   ornaments of linen, and over them of silk, which he wore in   
   celebrating the divine mysteries, with a mitre on his head, and a   
   crosier, or pastoral staff in his hands. Also the gold and silver   
   vessels which he had brought with him for the use of the altar, and   
   the dignity and majesty of the ceremonies of the Christian worship,   
   attracted their attention. But the sublime truths of our religion, and   
   the mortification, disinterestedness, zeal, and sanctity of the   
   apostolic missionaries, engaged them to give them a favourable   
   reception, and to open their eyes to the evidence of the divine   
   revelation.   
      
   St. Sigefride ordained two bishops, the one of East, the other of West   
   Gothland, or Lingkoping, and Scara. The see of Wexlow (Växjö) he   
   continued himself to govern so long as he lived. His three nephews,   
   Unaman a priest, and Sunaman and Wiaman, the one a deacon, the other a   
   subdeacon, were his chief assistants in his apostolic labours. Having   
   intrusted the administration of his see of Wexlow(Växjö) to Unaman,   
   and left his two brothers to assist and comfort him, the saint himself   
   set out to carry the light of the gospel into the midland and northern   
   provinces. King Olas received him with great respect, and was baptized   
   by him, with his whole court and his army.   
      
   St. Sigefride founded many churches, and consecrated a bishop of   
   Upsal, and another of Strengues. The former of these sees had been   
   founded by St. Anscharius in 830, and the bishop was declared by Pope   
   Alexander III. in 1160, metropolitan and primate of the whole kingdom.   
   During the absence of our saint, a troop of idolatrous rebels, partly   
   out of hatred of the Christian religion, and partly for booty,   
   plundered the church of Wexlow, and barbarously murdered the holy   
   pastor Unaman and his two brothers. Their bodies they buried in the   
   midst of a forest, where they had always remained hid. But the   
   murderers put the heads of the martyrs into a box, which, with a great   
   stone they had fastened to it, they threw into a great pond. But they   
   were afterwards taken out, and kept richly enshrined in the church of   
   Wexlow (Växjö) till their relics were removed by the Lutherans. These   
   three holy martyrs were honoured in Sweden. Upon the news of this   
   massacre St. Sigefride hastened to Wexlow (Växjö) to repair the ruins   
   of his church. The king resolved to put the murderers to death; but   
   Sigefride, by his earnest entreaties, prevailed on him to spare their   
   lives. However, he condemned them to pay a heavy fine, which he would   
   have bestowed on the saint, but he refused to accept a single farthing   
   of it notwithstanding his extreme poverty, and the difficulties which   
   he had to struggle with, in laying the foundation of that new church.   
   He had inherited the spirit of the apostles in an heroic degree.   
      
   Our saint died about the year 1002, and was buried in his cathedral at   
   Wexlow (Växjö), where his tomb became famous for miracles. He was   
   canonized about the year 1158, by Pope Adrian IV., [1] an Englishman,   
   who had himself laboured zealously, and with great success, in the   
   conversion of Norway, and other northern countries, about a 140 years   
   after St. Sigefride, who was honoured by the Swedes as their apostle,   
   till the change of religion among them. [2]   
      
   Note 1. Vastove, Vinea Aquilonis.   
   Note 2. In the life of St. Sigefride, published by Benzelius, it is   
   mentioned, that St. Sigefride, upon his first arrival in Sweden,   
   preached chiefly by interpreters.   
      
   From Joan. Magnus, Hist. Goth. l. 17. c. 20. quoted by Bollandus, and   
   chiefly from a life of this saint, compiled at Wexlow about the year   
   1205, published from an ancient MS. by the care of Ericus Benzelius,   
   junior, in his Monumenta Historica vetera Ecclesiæ Suevogothicæ,   
   printed at Upsal in 1709, p. 1. ad p. 14. and in Prolegom. sect. 1.   
   The editor was not able to discover the author’s name: upon which he   
   repeats the remark of the learned Maussac (in Diss. Critica ad   
   Harpocrat.) that “many monkish writers endeavoured to conceal their   
   names out of humility.” On which see Mabillon, Diar. Ital. p. 36.   
   Benzelius gives us a considerable fragment of a second life of this   
   holy prelate, ib. p. 21. ad 29. and some verses of Bishop Brynoth the   
   3rd, on St. Sigfrid and the other bishops of this province, ib. p.72.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   A man who has been assiduous in acquiring the fruits of love will not   
   cease loving even if he suffers a thousand calamities. Let Stephen,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)