SAINT BRIDE OF KILDARE

Saint Bride, Bridget, or Brigid, is a fascinating Saint. The ancient poem about her declares;

IT WAS BRIDE THE FAIR WHO WENT ON HER KNEES.

IT IS THE KING OF GLORY WHO IS IN HER LAP.

CHRIST THE PRIEST ABOVE.

The legend links Bride to Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Bride followed behind Mary as she carried the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem for his ritual circumcision. The force of the winds caused people to stumble and fall. Bride carried two lit tapers, one on each hand. The fire shone brightly in the candles as she ascended all the steps leading to the Temple.

Bride was born in 451 A. D. in Ireland (but of course). She founded several houses and convents, the most important and imposing one was in Kildare in Leinster. She lit a flame outside the convent to inspire and guide people. No blizzard or tempest ever doused the flame. It saved many a shepherd and hunter. She died in 525 A. D. and the flame was kept alight until the 13th century, 1220 A. D. to be exact. The Archbishop of Dublin, eaten away by envy commanded that it be extinguished.

The horrified people refused to comply but he threatened excommunication. One man who was thought to be a Sorcerer recited spells and put out Bride's flame. The Archbishop died a short time later and the people rushed to rekindle Bride's flame. It continued to burn until Henry VIII, in the 16th century, issued a proclamation suppressing all Monasteries. Many of them suffered plunder, pillage and sacking - the monks and nuns slaughtered.  Bride's flame and altar was razed to the ground and her monastery as well as her convents were destroyed.

In Gaelic legends Bride lived in pre-Christian and in Christian times. I think the two Brides with the passing of the centuries meshed.

She presides over fire. Indeed, during the time of the Caesars she was the Queen of Fire.
She rules over all the Arts and Beauty. She protects life beneath the sky and the sea. Bride presides at man's birth and dedicates him to the Holy Trinity.

Perhaps the truth is that she was the essence of simplicity, a virgin damsel who found joy in homey chores and duties. Bride took pleasure in tending the fire and the byre. She had a beautiful voice and she sang continuously.

The echo of her songs as she brought cattle, sheep and goats across the moorland still ring in the ears of all Gaels.

Saint Bride is revered in Scotland and Wales although she never set foot in both countries. Do we know that for certain?

N. B. The pagan and demonic celebrations of Bride as the Fire Goddess take place on the 2 of February (Candlemas).

Today, many satanic and demonic cults throughout the world, hold rituals where young people,  adolescents and children of both genders, are sacrificed to the Fire Goddess. They are murdered first and then burnt.

Saint Bride, protect us from these iniquities.

SANTA FRANCESCA ROMANA: SAINT FRANCES OF ROME

Many believers and non–believers are devoted to Francesca of Rome. They celebrate her feast day just a day after the International Day of the Woman – March 9th.

She was a beauty and a rich heiress. Her father, who had Patria Potesta, literally meaning power of life and death from ancient Roman law arranged for her to be married to the son of one of his business associates. Francesca was twelve. She did not like it but she obeyed. Three children came in quick succession. Two died just as rapidly. In her grief and in her pain she prayed for something to do, which would give meaning to her life.

“I am not interested in all these balls, outings and endless romances with cavaliers and courtiers.”

Her prayers were answered. She was thankful that God had granted her what she had prayed for. She paid no mind to the expression that answered prayers could prove to be a burden.

Francesca persuaded some of her friends bored with the Renaissance high life of endless parties and fornicating, to give up their frivolous and worldly existence to care for the poor and the sick of Rome. Then as now, sexually transmitted diseases abounded. Children with syphilitic ulcers and sores roamed the streets. Francesca knew that these children had been abused by their families, other relatives, or by prelates.

It was rare to find an abandoned child who had not been sexually assaulted by travelers or pilgrims. Rome was a city of 30,000 people and 100,000 male and female prostitutes and transvestites.

Francesca opened the first Emergency Room in modern history. She and her women became the Benedictine Oblate Congregation in a slum of Rome called Tor di Specchi. Bordellos could be found chocka-block, hence the name Tor di Specchi. Towers of Mirrors.

After her husband’s death she moved from his Palazzo into the convent. The nuns elected her Prioress. All of the nuns had knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants, herbs, trees and insects. Their wealthy doctors with mercury and silver usually treated the rich afflicted with syphilis and gonorrhea. Some survived until their forties.

Alas! The children in the care of the Oblates did not last a year. Tuberculosis was ever present as was leprosy. All Francesca and her nuns could do was wash them, feed them, make them comfortable and see that they did not suffer needlessly.

The work was hard and unceasing yet young socialites kept coming to Francesca’s convent to work as volunteers and to join her Order of Oblates.

When Francesca died on the 9th of March 1440, snow was falling, yet the many rose bushes she had planted were blooming. She was buried near the Roman Forum, not far from the Senate where Julius Caesar’s assassination took place. The church, which housed her remains, was then known as Santa Maria Nova. Today the church is called Santa Francesca Romana.

On her feast day, the 9th of March, the Oblate nuns hold an open house. They open the doors of their convent to the public for three days. They can visit the Saint’s room and the main hall, which served as the ER. This great hall is now decked with astounding frescoes depicting Francesca’s life as a workingwoman and a healer. In 1480, just think, twelve years before Columbus sailed to the Americas, the Renaissance painter Antonuzzo Romano was commissioned by the wealthy and noble families of Rome to do the frescoes in memory of Francesca. The Oblate Sisters accepted only on condition that they showed Francesca as she really was.

“Cara Santa Francesca, pray for us women and for our children. Amen.”

For more information about St. Frances of Rome, I recommend: http://www.umilta.net/francesca.html

Thy Kingdom Come

Initiating after the Epiphany, the 6th of January 2008, this writer will post a series of essays, observations and analysis on the Vatican, Christian Saints, mystics and other inspiring personalities. For those of you who are tired of reading about war, death, and the carrying ons of young celebrities … and who hunger for something deeper, more lasting, and satisfying – I encourage you to join me and share your own thoughts and comments.

Doubtless many chapters of the Vatican’s story lie silent under her ancient soil. Even today, some of us are intimidated if not a bit frightened and overtly hostile by the intense secrets of these fascinating folk.

What institutions have formed them to such ruthless strength in character and policy? What moral and ethical codes have guided them for over two thousand years? Have they always possessed these codes and did they apply them religiously? By what economic organization and skill do they mold to their uses, the wealth and manpower required to equip their missions, hospitals, humanitarian institutions, monasteries, schools, convents and banks?
What are they like in their private lives? In their old age and death?

What about its past? Glorious, Magnificent, Shady and Murky. Chiaroscuro might be the perfect description. The smoldering passions of the Renaissance Popes, who prayed, fornicated and lead armies?

Who are some of the key people that shaped the past?

There is Rabbi Saul of Tarsus. Hunter and Persecutor of the followers of Jesus. The Christian world would know him as Saint Paul. He joined a Middle Eastern cult and transformed it with his overflowing love for Jesus and his admiration for Greek philosophy, thought and logic into a globalized religion.

The fire and purity of spirit of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux who almost single handedly brought on the Crusades. Would the Knights Templar have existed without his all-important benediction?

The Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc, still enigmatic in many was to us, inspiring and leading men to battle at age nineteen.

The unequaled sanctity of Saint Francis of Assisi. Today, his austerity towards himself and his fellow priests coupled with his love for all creatures great and small would cause him to be judged quite mad and most probably institutionalized. ‘Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Cousin Wolf, Beloved beasts and Much loved fellow humans,” exactly what would the fundamentalist, Bible thumping and rabid New Age Christians do to a man like that?

The brilliance, discipline and discoveries of Hildegarde von Bingen whose multi faceted personality made her Mystic, Abbess, Artist, Agronomist, Composer, and Medical Doctor in Medieval times.

The asceticism and charisma of Saint Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus - the Jesuits.

Saint Francis Xavier, Jesuit Apostle of India, Japan and China. Larger than Life itself, he received no gold, gems or glory for his sacrifices.

The mysticism of Saint Teresa of Avila, the beauteous and learned Doctor of the Church.

The iron will of the young and sickly Saint Caterina of Siena, another Doctor of the Church who scolded Popes.

The sweetness and love of Saint Philip Neri who cared for the homeless youth, the syphilitics and the addicts.

There is saintliness and stealth, lust and asceticism, spirituality and greed, Self-abnegation and nepotism, knowledge and wisdom all in one place - the Vatican. There is their love of Humanity and their love of Peace.

Unless we visualize, scene by scene, this Vatican with all its contradictions, we shall never understand that vast evolution of customs, morals, traditions, ideas, and ideals, which transformed the Rome of the Caesars into the Rome of Christ.

Since the world honors Form as well as Substance, Power as well as Knowledge, there is no place on this planet quite like the Vatican. Nowhere on earth does spirituality struggle to co-exist with the day to day running of an Empire than the Vatican.

Jesus’ mandate to Peter, his Apostles and Disciples, to over a billion people who believe in one, holy, Apostolic, and Universal Church reassured and promised “and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.”

AMDG! Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. To the greater glory of God.