From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Of a low estimation of self in the sight of God   
      
    The Disciple:   
   4. Blessed be Thou, O my God, because though I be unworthy of all   
   Thy benefits, Thy bountiful and infinite goodness never ceaseth   
   to do good even to ingrates and to those who are turned far from   
   Thee. Turn Thou us unto Thyself, that we may be grateful,   
   humble, and godly, for Thou art our salvation, our courage, and   
   our strength.   
      
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 3, Chapter 8   
      
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   December 27th - St. Fabiola, Matron   
   d. 399   
      
   FABIOLA, of the gens Fabia, was one of the patrician Roman ladies who   
   entered the path of holiness and renunciation under the influence of   
   St. Jerome, but her life was for the most part very different from   
   that of St. Marcella or St. Paula or St. Eustochium, and she was not a   
   member of the circle that gathered round Jerome while he was living in   
   Rome. Or at least a coolness sprang up between them, for Fabiola was   
   of a lively, passionate and headstrong disposition, and when the   
   dissolute courses of her husband made married life impossible she   
   obtained a civil divorce and, her husband yet living, united herself   
   with another man. Upon the death of her second consort Fabiola   
   submitted to the canons of the Church, presenting herself for public   
   penance at the Lateran basilica, and was readmitted to communion with   
   the faithful by Pope St. Siricius. She now devoted her great wealth to   
   works of charity, gave large sums to churches, and communities in   
   Italy and the adjoining islands, and founded a hospital for the sick   
   whom she gathered from the streets and alleys of Rome, waiting on them   
   in person. It was a great moment in the history of our civilization,   
   for this was the first Christian public hospital in the West of which   
   there is record.   
      
   In the year 395 Fabiola went to visit St. Jerome at Bethlehem, in   
   company with a relative named Oceanus, and stayed there with SS. Paula   
   and Eustochium. Jerome was on bad terms with the bishop of Jerusalem,   
   John, on account of the controversy with Rufinus about the teaching of   
   Origen, and attempts were made, even fraudulently, to enlist the   
   sympathy and influence of Fabiola on the side of the bishop, but they   
   failed to shake her loyalty to her teacher. Fabiola wanted to spend   
   the rest of her days at Bethlehem, but the life of the consecrated   
   women was not suited to her: she needed company and activity, and St.   
   Jerome remarks that her idea of the solitude of the stable of   
   Bethlehem was that it should not be cut off from the crowded inn. A   
   threatened incursion of the Huns finally determined her to quit   
   Palestine. They had overrun Syria, and Jerusalem itself seemed in   
   danger, so St. Jerome retreated with his followers to the coast for a   
   while. When the peril was past and they returned to Bethlehem, Fabiola   
   went back to Rome.   
      
   At this time a priest named Amandus put a dubium to St. Jerome: Might   
   a woman, who by force had been made to take another man while her   
   dissolute husband was still living, be received to the communion of   
   the Church without doing canonical penance? This question ostensibly   
   referred to the sister of Amandus, but is generally supposed to have   
   been put on behalf of Fabiola as a “feeler” before taking a third   
   partner. St. Jerome made no mention of her in his reply, but was   
   contemptuous of the “force” alleged in the case: “If your sister   
   wishes to receive Christ’s body and not to be accounted an adulteress,   
   she must do penance”, he answered.   
      
   Anyway, for the remaining 3 years of her life Fabiola continued her   
   works of public and private charity, notably being associated with St.   
   Pammachius in the foundation at Porto of a large hospice for poor and   
   sick pilgrims. It was the first of its kind and within a year of its   
   opening “became known”, says St. Jerome, “from Parthia to Britain”.   
   But Fabiola continued to be restless, and was on the point of setting   
   out on another long journey when death overtook her. The whole of Rome   
   attended the funeral of their beloved benefactress. St. Jerome was in   
   touch with St. Fabiola till the end, and wrote two treatises for her:   
   one, on the priesthood of Aaron and the mystical significance of the   
   sacerdotal vestments, he completed while her ship was being got ready   
   to sail from Jaffa; the other, on the “stations” of the Israelites in   
   the wilderness, was not finished till after her death. It was   
   eventually sent to Oceanus together with an account of Fabiola’s life   
   and death, the one wandering journey being a type or image of the   
   other.   
      
   What we know of St. Fabiola is mainly from St. Jerome, Epist., 77,   
   which is printed in Migne, PL. vol. xxii, cc. 690-698. See also A.   
   Thierry, Saint Jérôme, vol. ii, and F. Cavallera, S. Jérôme, sa vie et   
   son oeuvre, vol. ii, with Leclercq in DAC., vol. vii, cc. 2274-2275 ;   
   and DCB., vol. ii, pp. 442-443.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "I fear the good opinion which my friends have formed of me: they will   
   believe me in Heaven and leave me to suffer."   
   --St. Francis de Sales   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect hospitality, for through it   
   some have unknowingly entertained angels.  (Hebrews 13:1-2)   
      
   <><><><>   
   Mary and Joseph Prayer:   
      
   O Jesus, Lamb of God, may the prayers of Mary and   
   Joseph help us to stay close to you all the days of our lives,   
   growing ever deeper in our understanding and   
   appreciation of what you have done and will continue to do   
   for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.   
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)