From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Pride--the Beginning of All Sin   
      
   "No other cause but pride could have been the beginning of our first   
   parents' evil will? For pride is the beginning of all sin. What is   
   pride but the desire of a height out of proportion to our state.   
      
   Furthermore, it is a height out of proportion to our state to leave   
   God--to whom the soul should cling as its basis--and to become and to be   
   in some way our own basis."   
   --St. Augustine--City of God 14, 13   
      
   Prayer: You, Lord, are the unseen power that brings decline upon the proud.   
   --St. Augustine--Confessions 1, 4   
      
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   February 27th - St. Leander   
      
   St. Leander, a close friend of St. Gregory the Great, was born in   
   Carthagena to a family of high nobility. He was the eldest brother of   
   several saints. His brother, St. Isidore, succeeded him as Bishop of   
   Seville. Another brother, St. Fulgentius, became Bishop of Carthagena,   
   and his sister, St. Florentina became an Abbess in Carthagena.   
      
   When he was still young, Leander retired to a Benedictine monastery   
   where he became a model of learning and piety. In 579 he was raised to   
   the episcopal see of Seville, where he continued to practice his   
   customary austerities and penances.   
      
   At that time, a part of the territory of Spain was dominated by the   
   Visigoths. Those barbarians were Arians and had spread their errors in   
   the cities they had conquered. The Iberian Peninsula had been infected   
   by that heresy for 170 years when St. Leander was chosen Bishop of   
   Seville. He began to combat it immediately. With the help of God, to   
   Whom he had recourse, his efforts were successful and the heresy began   
   to lose hold on its followers. He also played an important role in the   
   conversion of Hermenegild, the eldest son of the Visigoth King.   
      
   King Leovigild, however, became angry over his son's conversion and   
   St. Leander's activity. He exiled the Saint, and condemned his son to   
   death. Later, he repented, recalled the Saint to Spain and asked him   
   to educate and form his other son and successor, Reccared, who became   
   a Catholic and helped the Saint to convert the rest of his subjects.   
      
   St. Leander played a central role at two councils, the Council of   
   Seville and the Third Council of Toledo, where Visigothic Spain   
   abjured Arianism in all its forms. He also wrote an influential Rule   
   for his sister with instructions on prayer and renunciation of the   
   world. He reformed the liturgy in Spain, adding the Nicene Creed to   
   the Mass in order to make an express profession of the Faith against   
   Arianism. Later, this practice passed to other Catholic countries. He   
   died in 596.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   This is a very rich selection that allows many comments.   
      
   First, one's attention is caught by the extraordinary blossoming of   
   saints in that period. In a family of high nobility, there were at the   
   same time St. Isidore of Seville, who was one of the greatest saints   
   of Spanish history, St. Fulgentius, Bishop of Carthagena, St.   
   Florentina, an Abbess, and St. Leander. That is, four saints from the   
   same house, coming from a single noble family of that time. You can   
   see how beautiful it is that all were from the same lineage. It is a   
   way God shows how a family line is useful for His plans.   
      
   Second, the vitality of sanctity in that epoch is also remarkable.   
   That puissance of sanctity did not come from this or that religious   
   order, but straight from the Holy Ghost. There was no apparent   
   connection between St. Gregory the Great in Italy, these saintly   
   brothers and sisters in Spain, and other holy figures in Gaul, Germany,   
   England, etc. These were Saints who often did not even know each   
   other. It does not seem that they were the fruit of a particular   
   movement, but rather, issued from a general and universal action of   
   the Holy Ghost.   
      
   This blossoming of saints which inaugurated the Kingdom of Our Lord   
   Jesus Christ in the Middle Ages is one of the most beautiful phenomena   
   in History. That such a marvelous harvest of saints took place in the   
   past leads us to think that there will be another similar blooming of   
   saints that will inaugurate the Reign of Mary.   
      
   Third, St. Leander had to face a difficult problem: the heretical   
   barbarians had dominated Spain for 170 years. Those barbarians were   
   not pagans, as many people think. Before the barbarians invaded the   
   Western Roman Empire, a reprobate bishop named Ulfilas had taught   
   among the Germanic tribes in various lands and perverted them to   
   Arianism. So when these tribes invaded Europe, they spread Arianism   
   everywhere. This is what had happened in Spain.   
      
   The Catholics in Spain were the descendants of the old citizens of the   
   Roman Empire. They had been defeated and submitted to the Visigoths,   
   who represented the new people full of energy ready to replace the old   
   Romans. The Catholics were oppressed under the yoke of those Arian   
   Visigoths. From a historic perspective, 170 years can appear a short   
   time, but in reality it is not. It represented almost two centuries of   
   consolidated Arian dominion in Spain.   
      
   St. Leander was called to overthrow that dominion. How did he carry   
   out his mission? In an admirable way. First of all, by praying to God   
   through the mediation of Our Lady, asking for the necessary   
   supernatural help, aware that without grace, no man relying on only   
   his own means can be successful in his apostolate. Assisted by special   
   graces, he began to preach against Arianism, and the conversions came   
   in colossal numbers. The power of Arianism began to weaken.   
      
   The King, furious over such an attack, exiled St. Leander and killed   
   his own son, who became a martyr. Then the King repented, brought back   
   St. Leander and asked him to educate his other son. When Reccared rose   
   to the throne, he helped consolidate the work of St. Leander. It is an   
   admirable example of collaboration between Church and State. The   
   Church, by the voice of a Saint, prepared the situation; the State   
   entered to fully resolve the problem with the cooperation of a   
   faithful King. With this, Arianism disappeared from Spain forever.   
      
   These are several aspects of the historic reality that we can discern   
   reading the life of St. Leander of Seville, one of the greatest   
   figures of Spanish history.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   A man who has embraced poverty offers up prayer that is pure, while a   
   man who loves possessions prays to material images.   
   -- Saint John Climacus   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did   
   esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)