From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   In Christ we have peace   
      
      "When [Jesus] says, 'These things have I spoken to you, that in me   
   you might have peace,' he refers not only to what he has just said but   
   also to what he had said all along, either from the time that he first   
   had disciples, or since the supper, when he began this long and   
   wonderful discourse... He declares this to be the object of his whole   
   discourse, that is, that in him they might have peace. And this peace   
   will have no end but is itself the end of every godly action and   
   intention."   
   --St. Augustine--(excerpt from TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 104.1.15)   
      
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   June 6th - Saint Claudius of Besançon   
   (French: Saint Claude, sometimes called Claude the Thaumaturge)   
      
    (b. ca. 607 - d. June 6, 696 or 699 AD)   
      
   St. Claudius was a priest, monk, abbot, and bishop. A native of   
   Franche-Comté, Claudius became a priest at Besançon and later a monk.   
   Georges Goyau in the Catholic Encyclopedia wrote that “The Life of St.   
   Claudius, Abbot of Condat, has been the subject of much controversy.”   
   Anglican Henry Wace has written that "on this saint the inventors of   
   legends have compiled a vast farrago of improbabilities."   
      
   Nevertheless, Wace did not find reason to doubt that Claudius had come   
   from the nobility. According to a long tradition from   
   Salins-les-Bains, Claudius was born in the castle of Bracon near   
   Salins, of a Gallo-Roman family named Claudia. This family had   
   produced another Saint Claudius in the 6th century.   
      
   One of his biographers, Laurentius Surius, writes that Claudius was   
   entrusted to tutors at a young age and that in addition to studying   
   academic subjects, Claudius spent hours reading devotional works,   
   particularly the lives of the saints. Until the age of twenty, he   
   served as a border guard, but in 627 he was appointed as a canon by   
   Donatus (Donat), bishop of Besançon. Donatus had written regulations   
   for his canon priests; Claudius followed them assiduously. He became   
   famous as a teacher and ascete, eating only one frugal meal per day.   
      
   After serving as a priest at Besançon, Claudius entered the abbey of   
   Condat, at Saint-Claude, Jura (which was named after him after his   
   death), in the Jura mountains. He was then elected to succeed as the   
   twelfth abbot at Condat at the age of 34 in 641 or 642, during the   
   pontificate of Pope John IV. He brought the Benedictine Rule to   
   Condat. He obtained support from Clovis II (whose wife, Balthild, had   
   persuaded him to do so), obtaining from the monarch an annuity. Under   
   Claudius' rule, the abbey thrived. Claudius had built new churches and   
   reliquaries, and fed the poor and the pilgrims in the area.   
      
   On the death of Saint Gervase (Gervasius), bishop of Besançon, the   
   clergy of that city elected Claudius as their archbishop in 685. He   
   thus served, rather reluctantly, as 29th bishop of Besançon, according   
   to the episcopal catalogues.   
      
   However, upon seeing that discipline had become lax at Condat,   
   Claudius decided to abdicate his see and return as abbot at Condat. He   
   then died in 696 or 699.   
      
   After his death Claudius became one of the popular saints of France.   
   In the 9th century, Rabanus Maurus mentions Claudius in his   
   Martyrologium as an intercessor, with the words VII idus junii,   
   depositio beati Claudii, episcopi. His body, said to have been in an   
   incorruptible state, and which had been hidden during the Arab   
   invasions, was rediscovered in 1160, and visited in 1172 by St. Peter   
   of Tarentaise. The relics were solemnly carried throughout Burgundy   
   before being brought back to Condat.[2] However, a document from the   
   ninth century does state that his body was already kept in the abbey   
   of Saint-Claude (Saint Oyend, Oyand).   
      
   The town of Saint-Claude was originally named Saint-Oyand or   
   Saint-Oyend after Saint Eugendus. However, when Claudius had, in 687,   
   resigned his Diocese of Besançon and had died, in 696, as twelfth   
   abbot, the number of pilgrims who visited Claudius' grave was so great   
   that, since the thirteenth century, the name "Saint-Claude" came more   
   and more into use and superseded the other name. Saint-Claude   
   Cathedral, in the town, was dedicated to him.   
      
   Claudius's relics were burned in March 1794, during the French Revolution.   
   Queen Claude of France, first wife to Francis I, was named after him.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The divinely inspired Scriptures affirm that the Word of God was made   
   flesh, that is to say, he was united to a human body endowed with a   
   rational soul. He undertook to help the descendants of Abraham,   
   fashioning a body for himself from a woman and sharing our flesh and   
   blood, to enable us to see in him not only God, but also, by reason of   
   this union, a man like ourselves.   
   -- Saint Cyril of Alexandria   
      
   Bible Quote:   
    "so you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to our Lord, or ashamed   
   of me for being his prisoner; but share in my hardships for the sake   
   of the gospel, relying on the power of God who has saved us and called   
   us to be holy, not because of anything we ourselves had done but for   
   his own purpose and by his own grace.  This grace had already been   
   granted to us, in Christ Jesus, before the beginning of time, but it   
   has been revealed only by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus."   
   [2 Timothy 1:8-10a]   
      
      
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   Direction of Intention of St. Francis de Sales:   
      
   My God, I yield myself to Thee this day; and offer Thee, now, all of the   
   good that I shall do and I promise to accept--for love of Thee--all of   
   the difficulty that I shall meet. Help me to conduct myself during this day   
   in a manner pleasing to Thee.  Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)