From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   To the Holy Archangel Who Strengthened Our Lord in His Agony   
      
   I salute thee, holy Angel who didst comfort my Jesus in His   
   agony, and with thee I praise the most holy Trinity for having   
   chosen thee from among all the holy Angels to comfort and   
   strengthen Him who is the comfort and strength of all that   
   are in affliction. By the honor thou didst enjoy and by the   
   obedience, humility and love wherewith thou didst assist the   
   sacred Humanity of Jesus, my Savior, when He was fainting   
   for very sorrow at seeing the sins of the world and   
   especially my sins, I beseech thee to obtain for me perfect   
   sorrow for my sins; deign to strengthen me In the afflictions   
   that now overwhelm me, and in all the other trials, to which I   
   shall be exposed henceforth and, in particular, when I find   
   myself in my final agony. Amen.   
      
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   November 12th – St. Astrik, Archbishop of the Hungarians   
   (Also known as Anastasius)   
      
    (c. A.D. 1040)   
      
   It is agreed that the first archbishop in Hungary was called Astrik,   
   but there is a great deal of uncertainty about his identity. There are   
   three "candidates", all associated with St Adalbert of Prague: viz.   
   Anastasius, the first abbot of Brevnov in Bohemia, Astericus, one of   
   Adalbert's clergy, and Radla, Adalbert's fellow student at Magdeburg   
   and his close friend. The first two of these may be really one person.   
      
   On the whole it seems likely to have been Radla, a Czech or Croat from   
   Bohemia who is known to have been a monk in Hungary. He probably   
   received the habit at Brevnov, taking the name of Anastasius, of which   
   Astrik seems to be an equivalent. Then, when St Adalbert failed to   
   consolidate his position in Bohemia, and left Prague, Astrik Radla   
   went to help the missionaries among the Magyars. He is known to have   
   been in the service of the wife of Duke Geza in 997; and he was almost   
   certainly the first abbot of St Martin's (Pannonhalma), the first   
   ecclesiastical institution of Hungary, founded by Geza. On the duke's   
   death and the accession of his son St Stephen I the evangelization of   
   the Magyars was taken seriously in hand, and St Astrik was active in   
   the work of preaching the gospel and establishing an ecclesiastical   
   organization. In connection with this Stephen sent him to Rome to   
   confer with Pope Silvester II, and soon after his return the sovereign   
   was crowned with a royal crown, granted no doubt at the instance of   
   the Emperor Otto III, in 1001. There is a good case for Radla being   
   the Astrik who was now promoted to be archbishop of the new Hungarian   
   church.   
      
   When Astrik attended a synod at Frankfurt in 1006 he was styled simply   
   Ungarorum episcopus, and it seems that his seat was not at Esztergom,   
   which before long became the primatial see; Veszprem is the first   
   Hungarian diocese for which there is documentary evidence, but   
   Astrik's see may have been at Kalocsa. Throughout the remainder of his   
   long life he worked hand in hand with King St Stephen for the proper   
   settlement of the Church in his dominions and for the conversion of   
   the fierce Magyars to the faith of Christ. He died soon after his   
   royal master, about the year 1040.   
      
   Of the personality and personal life of St Astrik nothing is known;   
   but it is significant that St Adalbert of Prague had so much affection   
   for and trust in him: Adalbert wrote to Geza's wife asking her to send   
   "his master" back to him in Poland and to Astrik Radla himself he   
   wrote saying that if the duchess would not release him, he should slip   
   away secretly and rejoin "your Adalbert". But to Astrik his duty was   
   clear that he must stay among the Magyars.   
      
   The best examination of the problem is doubtless that of F. Dvornik in   
   his Making of Central and Eastern Europe (1949), pp. 159-166, which   
   shows clearly how confused and uncertain is the history of the   
   conversion of Hungary, even for scholars who are natives of Eastern   
   Europe. Cf. C. Kadlec in the Cambridge Medieval History, vol. iv, p.   
   214. See also St Bruno's Life of St Adalbert in Fontes rerum   
   Bohemicarum (1871), vol. i; the Life of St Stephen in MGH.,   
   Scriptores, vol. xi, and cf. vol. iv, pp. 547, 563; and Lexikon für   
   Theologie und Kirche, vol. i (1930), c. 394.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   It is not possible ever to exhaust the mind of the Scriptures. It is a   
   well that has no bottom.   
   --St. John Chrysostom   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Him, who knew no sin, he hath made sin for us: that we might be made   
   the justice of God in him. Sin for us... That is, to be a sin   
   offering, a victim for sin.  [2 Co 5:21   
      
      
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    -- Ephesians 4:30-32 --    
      
   And grieve not the holy Spirit of God: whereby you are sealed unto the   
   day of redemption. Let all bitterness and anger and indignation and   
   clamour and blasphemy be put away from you, with all malice. And be ye   
   kind one to another: merciful, forgiving one another, even as God hath   
   forgiven you in Christ.  DRB   
   =================================   
   UNFORGIVENESS = "You owe me! I'm going to make you pay by hating you,   
   by slandering you, by returning in kind, by recruiting others to   
   bitterness toward you. I'm holding this over you."   
      
   FORGIVENESS = "You don't owe me. I release your debt to me, God has   
   paid it in full. I'm not trying to get even. I'm not looking for a   
   chance to get back at you. God didn't make me this way. I CHOOSE to   
   forgive you."   
      
   Unforgiveness destroys everything in its path. It is like a tornado in   
   a wheat field.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)