Showing posts with label Sign of the Ravens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sign of the Ravens. Show all posts

Friday 27 October 2017

#83 St. Vincent of Saragossa – The Body and the Soul – Beauty of Soul Increased during 'Spiritual Dryness'


St. Vincent of Saragossa reveals that the traditional account of his martyrdom by gridiron is true and gives details of his death – Baptism the Strength of Christians – The Difference between the Body and Soul - God increases the beauty of the soul by passing it through times of 'dryness'



Ecstasy date September 28, 1878


May the peace of the Lord be with you, dear brothers and sisters. May the love of Our Lord vivify you together in Holy Charity! My name is St. Vincent, Martyr. I was persecuted in the days of cruel persecutions of the Church. I suffered martyrdom for God, for His Holy Cross, in defence of the Holy Religion. I could have lived if I wanted to apostatize. I preferred to die for God, rather than deny His Holy Name and His Religion.


I was put to torture by the famous emperors who have made so many martyrs. I was put on a grill, the flames blown over my body. I had the grace to see a ray from Heaven that strengthened me and filled me with joy to give my life to save my soul. I received frightening insults and outrages.  My tears flowed so abundantly that three times, I put out the coals burning my flesh. This prodigy, this powerful miracle was of no avail to the barbarians who insulted my thrice-holy God. Following this prodigy that came from my God, I was treated with more violence.  My body was covered with coals. I was turned on a grill like another St. Lawrence. I felt a sweet freshness in my whole body, it was like the dew that put out the flames that made me suffer.  I suffered a terrible torture. My body was all broken, I was trampled underfoot by my tormentors. I felt the hour of triumph when I felt the pains in my heart. I expired on those terrible flames, tortured, made to drink the most infernal ignominies. How sweet it is to die for God! How sweet it is to keep the blessed seed of Faith when you love Him who has suffered to redeem our immortal souls! It gives us courage and, in the midst of courage, it give us a fire of charity.

 A word, now, on behalf of Our Lord.

Dear brethren, Our Lord has given us all the grace to be admitted to Holy Baptism. It is this grace that is the strength of the Christians. It makes us the Heirs to the gifts of our Heavenly Father. What strength! What generosity! What happiness! O what grace that fortifies you! The Lord has given us all an immortal soul. Oh! if we knew the treasure that lives among the dust of our bodies! This thought would be able to transport us (while) alive, to the ardours and heights, to the Throne of God, this thought has wings and these wings are flames (of love?) that are our transports.

Our Lord nourishes our souls. He ensures their needs. He provides the Food for the immortal soul and the soul lives only for God. What is the difference between soul and body! This body of dust lives on gross nourishments. The soul lives on the Divinity of God. There it finds its substance, it finds a Food of delights. Our adorable Lord, to increase the beauty of our souls seems at times to weaken His Nourishment and stay some distance away. (I.e. why God leaves us in a 'dry' state of spirit and He feels distant to us.) But in these moments, our Lord holds our souls in His Adorable Hands and He fills them with happiness. He enriches them with His unspeakable gifts. So do not say, "My soul, you are far from God" because, right now, He is at the door, He who dwells in Himself, in His All Adorable person.”


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Notes: the Life of St. Vincent from Wikipedia.

 
Saint Vincent of Saragossa, also known as Vincent Martyr, Vincent of Huesca or Vincent the Deacon, the Protomartyr of Spain, was a deacon of the Church of Saragossa. He is the patron saint of Lisbon and Valencia. His feast day is 22 January. (...) He was born at Huesca near Saragossa, Spain sometime during the latter part of the 3rd century; it is believed his father was Eutricius (Euthicius), and his mother was Enola, a native of Osca.     he was and martyred under the Emperor Diocletian around the year 304. The earliest account of Vincent's martyrdom is in a carmen (lyric poem) written by the poet Prudentius, who wrote a series of lyric poems, Peristephanon ("Crowns of Martyrdom"), on Hispanic and Roman martyrs.

Vincent spent most of his life in the city of Saragossa, where he was educated and ordained to the diaconate by Bishop Valerius of Saragossa, who commissioned Vincent to preach throughout the diocese.  Because Valerius suffered from a speech impediment, Vincent acted as his spokesman.   When the Roman Emperor Diocletian began persecuting Christians in Spain, both were brought before the Roman governor, Dacian in Valencia.  Vincent and his bishop Valerius were confined to the prison of Valencia. Though he was finally offered release if he would consign Scripture to the fire, Vincent refused. Speaking on behalf of his bishop, he informed the judge that they were ready to suffer everything for their faith, and that they could pay no heed either to threats or promises.

His outspoken manner so angered the governor that Vincent was inflicted every sort of torture on him. He was stretched on the rack and his flesh torn with iron hooks. Then his wounds were rubbed with salt and he was burned alive upon a red-hot gridiron. Finally he was cast into prison and laid on a floor scattered with broken pottery, where he died. (St. Vincent corrected this detail, reveal to Marie-Julie Jahenny that he died on the flames.)  During his martyrdom he preserved such peace and tranquillity that it astonished his jailer, who repented from his sins and was converted. Vincent's dead body was thrown into the sea in a sack, but was later recovered by the Christians and his veneration immediately spread throughout the Church.The aged bishop Valerius was exiled.

The story that Vincent was tortured on a gridiron is perhaps adapted from the martyrdom of another son of Huesca, Saint Lawrence -- (St. Vincent himself said to Marie-Julie this was true, he was like another St. Lawrence, it's not a borrowed history.)  Vincent, like many early martyrs in the early hagiographic literature, succeeded in converting his jailer.


According to legend, after being martyred, ravens protected St. Vincent's body from being devoured by vultures, until his followers could recover the body. His body was taken to what is now known as Cape St. Vincent; a shrine was erected over his grave, which continued to be guarded by flocks of ravens. In the time of Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula, the Arab geographer Al-Idrisi noted this constant guard by ravens, for which the place was named by him كنيسة الغراب "Kanīsah al-Ghurāb" (Church of the Raven). King Afonso I of Portugal (1139–1185) had the body of the saint exhumed in 1173 and brought it by ship to the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora in Lisbon.  This transfer of the relics is depicted on the coat of arms of Lisbon”

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Observation: Of interest, the descendants of the two ravens that accompanied his relics to Lisbon remained in the city and could be seen on the roof corners of the Sé until only recently, they have disappeared since the middle of the 20th century as one local travel site phrased it. The locals do not know what this means, but it cannot be a good sign. The coat of arms of Lisbon featuring the two ravens bears the following motto and may in fact give us a hint: "MUI NOBRE E SEMPRE LEAL CIDADE DE LISBOA" (most noble and always loyal city of Lisbon). It appears with the ravens gone the city has lost the meaning of loyalty, that is, loyalty to God and his precepts as Our Lady privately predicted to Jacinta, one of the little seers of Fatima.


Shortly before her death, Jacinta repeatedly requested to see her confessor, Canon Formigao, explaining that Our Lady had appeared to her and given a message to be related to him. Unfortunately, he was unable to come at once, and arrived a few days her her death. Meanwhile, Jacinta, knowing she was to die, gave the message to Mother Godinho, asking her to relate it to the Canon. The first part of Jacinta's message concerned a chastisement predicted for Portugal, especially the city of Lisbon, in punishment for the sins and crimes committed in that country.  As Mother Godinho later declared, Jacinta explained that the prophecy of the Blessed Mother was conditional: “Mother, tell the Holy Father that the world is troubled and Our Lady can no longer hold back the arm of Her beloved Son, Who is very offended by the sins committed in the world. If, however, the world decides to do penance, She would come to its aid again, but if not, chastisement would infallibly fall upon it, for its lack of obedience to the Holy Father.”

Jacinta also predicted the year 1972 would be a time when things would truly fall apart, the sins of impurity, vanity, and excessive luxury would eventually break forth and bring great chastisements to the world, which would cause great suffering to the Holy Father.

If the disappearance of St. Vincent's ravens are anything to go by which happened just leading up to the year of woe, 1972, it appears Lisbon, and indeed Portugal, is about to suffer the foretold punishments. Lisbon was destroyed once before by a great earthquake in 1755, and authorities warn the city is due another great quake,which strike every 200 to 250 years.

On October 13th 2017, the day of the 100th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, Portugal also held voluntary earthquake drills while still suffereing the worst ever fire season in living memory.  Preparatory warnings for earthquakes are still seen on television from time to time. Signs of the times.

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