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August 13
Spiritual Bouquet: You shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. St. John 16:20
THE DORMITION of MARY,
MOTHER of CHRIST
(First Century)
Father Bourdaloue, a famous preacher of the 17th century French court, said in a sermon on the Assumption:
“Never was there a death more precious in the sight of God than that of the Virgin, because there was never a life more filled with merits than Hers. The death of the Blessed Virgin was precious not only by the merits which preceded it, but also by the graces and favors which accompanied it. But what made it precious in God’s sight is above all the dispositions of mind and heart with which She received it... What then was Her disposition of mind? She envisaged death in the light of the purest faith, as the fulfillment of her wishes, as the means of being promptly reunited with Her Son and Her God, whose absence had for so long been a source of sorrow for Her. Her disposition of heart? Seeing death in this light, She desired it with all the ardor of the most fervent charity. Far more fervently than Saint Paul She longed to be disengaged from the bonds of the flesh, to live with Jesus Christ...”
The bishop of Meaux, Bossuet, preaches in the same vein: “If the great Apostle wants to break the bonds of the flesh to go to meet his Master at the Father’s right hand, what must the emotion of a maternal heart be? ... And what regret had the Virgin not experienced, seeing Herself separated for so long from a Son whom She loved as She alone could love? ... She prayed, ‘Ah, my Lord! permit my love to act! It will soon detach my soul from my mortal body, and transport me to You, in whom alone I live.’ If you believe me, holy souls, you will not labor long to seek any other cause for Her death. This love, so ardent, so strong, so inflamed, could not utter a single sigh incapable of breaking all the bonds of that body; it did not send forth a single desire to heaven which did not take with it the soul of Mary. Ah! I said earlier that the death of Mary was miraculous; now I speak a little differently, and say that it is not so much Her death that is a miracle; Her death is rather the cessation of a miracle. The continuous miracle was that Mary could live, separated from Her Beloved.”
We see from these texts why the departure of the soul of Our Lady is not termed a “death” like that of other mortals, but rather a “dormition” — a “falling asleep in the Lord”, as the early Christians called it. (Cf. Acts 7:60) All writers on the subject are unanimous — it was Her supreme love for God, nothing else, which was its cause. Tradition affirms that She knew in advance that Her departure was at hand, and prepared with incredible fervor for the holy moment, when She would hear the voice of Her Son say: “Come to Your eternal repose, O blessed Mother: arise and come, You who are My Heart’s friend, the most beautiful of women. The winter is over, the springtime begins; come, My all-beautiful one, My beloved; there is no stain in You; I prefer Your perfumes to all others.”
Source: Somme des Grandeurs de Marie, by Abbé Z.-C. Jourdain (H. Walzer: Paris, 1900), Vol. II.
SAINT RADEGUNDES
Queen of France
(†587)
Born in 519, Saint Radegundes was the daughter of a king of Thuringia who was assassinated by his brother. A war ensued, and the little girl, at the age of twelve, was made prisoner and carried away captive by Clotaire, King of the Franks. He had her instructed in the Christian religion and baptized. The great mysteries of our Faith made such an impression on her young and tender soul that she gave herself to God with her whole heart, and desired to consecrate to Him her virginity. She was obliged, however, to yield to the king’s wish that she become his wife.
As a great queen, she continued to remain an enemy to laxity and vanity, and divided her time chiefly between her oratory, the Church, and her devoted care of the poor. She also kept long fasts, and during Lent wore a hair cloth under her rich garments. Clotaire was at first pleased with her devotions, and allowed her full liberty in them. Afterward, however, he began frequently to reproach her for her pious exercises, saying with some of her enemies at his court, that he had married a nun rather than a queen, who had converted his court into a monastery. After six years, seeing that Clotaire was inflamed by bad passions, our Saint asked and obtained his leave to retire from court. She went to Noyon, where Saint Medard, its bishop, hesitated to receive from her a formal consecration and vows, despite the king’s permission. She herself therefore cut off her hair, and after donning the rough habit of the nuns, placed her royal ornaments on the altar. Finally she was consecrated to the Lord as a deaconess by Saint Medard.
After a pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint Martin of Tours, she lived at Chinon for a time as a hermit. She continued to care for the sick and for lepers, sometimes performing miracles. Then, at Poitiers, with the king’s consent, she built a large Monastery of the Holy Cross for women, and a church, with an adjoining monastery of monks for its maintenance. She named a holy virgin, Agnes, to be the first Abbess of her convent, and entering there herself, submitted to her in all things with perfect obedience, not reserving to herself the disposal of the slightest thing. She lived in extreme austerity and abstinence. She obtained from the emperor of Constantinople a major relic of the true Cross, and many other relics of Saints for her monastery. The relic of the Cross was the first to enter France, and it was then that the monastery received the name it has since borne. During the Saint’s lifetime, her monastery followed the Rule of Saint Cesarius of Arles; some time after her death that of Saint Benedict was introduced and maintained.
King Clotaire, after repenting of his evil conduct, desired the Queen to return to his court, but through the intercession of Saint Germanus of Paris, she was allowed to remain in her retirement until her death. Clotaire died sometime before this holy spouse, who gave up her soul to God on the 13th of August, 587.
Sources: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894); Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 9.