St. Matthias (Matthew) was, according to the Acts of the Apostles, the apostle chosen by lot to replace Judas Iscariot following Judas’ betrayal of Jesus and his subsequent death. His calling as an apostle is unique, in that his appointment was not made personally by Jesus, who had already ascended into heaven, and it was also made before the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the early Church.
According to the canonical Book of Acts, Matthias (so called to avoid confusion with the other Apostle St. Matthew) had been with Jesus from his baptism by John until his Ascension. In the days following, Peter proposed that the assembled disciples, who numbered about one hundred-twenty, nominate two men to replace Judas. They chose Joseph called Barsabas (whose surname was Justus) and Matthias. Then they prayed, “Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all people, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.” [Acts 1:24–25] Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
The tradition of the Greeks says that St. Matthias planted the faith about Cappadocia (modern Turkey) and on the coasts of the Caspian Sea, residing chiefly near the port Issus.
According to Nicephorus, Matthias first preached the Gospel in Judaea, then in the region of Colchis, now in modern-day Georgia, and was there stoned to death. It should be noted that modern Georgia is almost entirely Christian, a testament to the faithful preaching of the true Gospel of Jesus there by Matthias. He died around 80 AD as a martyr.
Today the Church remembers St. Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr of Smyrna.
Ora pro nobis.
Polycarp (AD 69 – 155) was a 2nd-century AD Christian bishop of Smyrna. According to the Martyrdom of Polycarp he died a martyr, bound and burned at the stake, then stabbed when the fire refused to touch him. Polycarp is regarded as a saint and Church Father in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches.
It is recorded by St. Irenaeus, who heard him speak in his youth, and by Tertullian, that he had been a disciple of St. John the Apostle. St. Jerome wrote that Polycarp was a disciple of John and that John had ordained him bishop of Smyrna.
Polycarp is recorded as saying on the day of his death, “Eighty and six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong”, which could indicate that he was then eighty-six years old or that he may have lived eighty-six years after his conversion. Polycarp goes on to say “How then can I blaspheme my King and Savior? You threaten me with a fire that burns for a season, and after a little while is quenched; but you are ignorant of the fire of everlasting punishment that is prepared for the wicked.”
Polycarp was bound to a stake to be burned to death, but eyewitness, including his murderers, recount that the flames billowed out like a sail and refused to touch him. The soldiers were then ordered to end his life by piercing him through with a spear. His crime was refusing to burn incense to the Roman Emperor. On his farewell, he said “I bless you Father for judging me worthy of this hour, so that in the company of the martyrs I may share the cup of Christ.”
With Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp is regarded as one of three chief Apostolic Fathers, that is, those who were disciples of one of Jesus’ 12 Apostles, and so provided a living link to the eyewitnesses of Jesus.
O God, the maker of heaven and earth, you gave your venerable servant, the holy and gentle Polycarp, boldness to confess Jesus Christ as King and Savior, and steadfastness to die for his faith: Give us grace, following his example, to share the cup of Christ and rise to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Christian season of Lent. Historically, Lent is the period of preparation for those new disciples of Jesus Christ who were seeking to become part of his Body through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.
The season of Lent is set aside for remembering our mortality, for self-examination for all Christian disciples, certainly; but even more importantly Lent is a time set aside for us to re-open our hearts and lives to receiving the wondrous message of love, redemption, and renewal in Jesus Christ.
As we prayerfully and intentionally contemplate his great love for us as revealed in the Holy Scriptures and in the the Holy Eucharist for the 40 days of Lent, we will discover those places in our lives where we have shut ourselves off from the Holy Spirit, our source of our aliveness, hope, and faith. This is where we are invited to seek the help of the Holy Spirit to remove all those things in our lives that choke off the fullness of the life of Jesus in us, and to renew our first love with Jesus.
My prayer for all of us who are part of the Body of Christ is that we will be renewed in our commitments as disciples of Jesus, be filled anew with hope and joy, and discover just how much aliveness and grace he has to offer to us as we embrace his great love for us.
Our worship liturgies will begin with the Great Litany, a series of prayers and petitions sung back and forth between the congregation, choir, and the priest, prayers that come down to us from the early first centuries of the Church.
We all know that language changes over time, and that the meanings of words shift. I invite us all to bear in mind as we pray “Lord have mercy” that the word “mercy” also means “lovingkindness”. When we pray “Lord have mercy”, we are not just asking for God to turn aside his wrath; we are turning to the Lord, our loving Father, asking him to sweep us up into his arms as a mother gathers up her child who runs to her for comfort and assurance of love. “Gather us up into the arms of your lovingkindness, O Lord”.
Today the Church remembers Saint Onesimus, Bishop.
Ora pro nobis.
Saint Onesimus was a slave of Philemon, a person of note of the city of Colossae in Phrygia who had been converted to the Faith by St. Paul. Having robbed his master, and being obliged to fly, he met with St. Paul, then a prisoner for the faith at Rome, who converted and baptized him, and entrusted him with his canonical letter of recommendation to Philemon.
By him, it seems, Onesimus was pardoned, set at liberty and sent back to his spiritual father, whom he afterwards faithfully served, for apparently St. Paul made him, with Tychicus, the bearer of his epistle to the Colossians, and afterwards, as St. Jerome and other Early Church Fathers witness, a preacher of the gospel and a bishop.
It is he who succeeded Saint Timothy as bishop of Ephesus.
He was cruelly tortured in Rome, for eighteen days, by a governor of that city, infuriated by his preaching on the merit of celibacy. His legs and thighs were broken with bludgeons, and he was then stoned to death. His martyrdom occurred under Domitian during the persecution of Christians under Trajan in the year AD 95.
We thank you, Lord Jesus, for men like Onesimus who were willing to give their lives as living witnesses to the Faith. We pray, Lord, that St. Onesimus and St. Paul and all the saints in heaven will pray for us that we also may be strong in our faith and always ready to be put to the test.
Today, the Church remembers these 21 brave modern martyrs, 20 Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christians men and one Orthodox Christian man from Ghana, whose murder by Muslim militiamen for their refusal to renounce Jesus on a beach in Libya on this date in 2015 was recorded and broadcast as an act of terror.
Orate pro nobis.
We give thanks to you, O Lord our God, for all your servants and witnesses of time past: for Abraham, the father of believers, and Sarah his wife; for Moses, the lawgiver, and Aaron, the priest; for Miriam and Joshua, Deborah and Gideon, and Samuel with Hannah his mother; for Isaiah and all the prophets; for Mary, the mother of our Lord; for Peter and Paul and all the apostles; for Mary and Martha, and Mary Magdalene; for Stephen, the first martyr, and all the martyrs and saints in every age and in every land. In your mercy, O Lord our God, give us, as you gave to them, the hope of salvation and the promise of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, the first-born of many from the dead.
Today, the Church remembers Sts. Cyril, Priest and Monk, and Methodius, Bishop, both Missionaries.
Orate pro nobis.
Saints Cyril and Methodius (AD 826–869, 815–885) were two brothers who were Byzantine Christian theologians and Christian missionaries. Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they received the title “Apostles to the Slavs”.
They are credited with devising the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet used to transcribe Old Church Slavonic. After their deaths, their pupils continued their missionary work among other Slavs. Both brothers are venerated in the Orthodox Church as saints with the title of “equal-to-apostles”. In 1880, Pope Leo XIII introduced their feast into the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1980, Pope John Paul II declared them co-patron saints of Europe, together with Benedict of Nursia.
The two brothers were born in Thessalonica (located in present-day Greece) – Cyril in about AD 827–828 and Methodius about 815–820. Cyril was reputedly the youngest of seven brothers; he was born Constantine, but was given the name Cyril upon becoming a monk in Rome shortly before his death, according to the Vita Cyrilli (“The Life of Cyril”). Methodius was born Michael and was given the name Methodius upon becoming a monk at Mysian Olympus (present-day Uludağ), in northwest Turkey. Their father was Leo, a droungarios of the Byzantine theme of Thessalonica, and their mother was Maria.
The exact ethnic origins of the brothers are unknown, there is controversy as to whether Cyril and Methodius were of Slavic or Byzantine Greek origin, or both. The two brothers lost their father when Cyril was fourteen, and the powerful minister Theoktistos, who was logothetes tou dromou, one of the chief ministers of the Empire, became their protector. He was also responsible, along with the regent Bardas, for initiating a far-reaching educational program within the Empire which culminated in the establishment of the University of Magnaura, where Cyril was to teach. Cyril was ordained as priest some time after his education, while his brother Methodius remained a deacon until AD 867/868.
About the year 860, Byzantine Emperor Michael III and the Patriarch of Constantinople Photius (a professor of Cyril’s at the University and his guiding light in earlier years), sent Cyril on a missionary expedition to the Khazars who had requested a scholar be sent to them who could converse with both Jews and Saracens. After his return to Constantinople, Cyril assumed the role of professor of philosophy at the University while his brother had by this time become a significant player in Byzantine political and administrative affairs, and an abbot of his monastery.
In 862, the brothers began the work which would give them their historical importance. That year Prince Rastislav of Great Moravia requested that Emperor Michael III and the Patriarch Photius send missionaries to evangelize his Slavic subjects. His motives in doing so were probably more political than religious. Rastislav had become king with the support of the Frankish ruler Louis the German, but subsequently sought to assert his independence from the Franks. It is a common misconception that Cyril and Methodius were the first to bring Christianity to Moravia, but the letter from Rastislav to Michael III states clearly that Rastislav’s people “had already rejected paganism and adhere to the Christian law.” Rastislav is said to have expelled missionaries of the Roman Church and instead turned to Constantinople for ecclesiastical assistance and, presumably, a degree of political support. The Emperor quickly chose to send Cyril, accompanied by his brother Methodius. Their first work seems to have been the training of assistants. In AD 863, they began the task of translating the Bible into the language now known as Old Church Slavonic and travelled to Great Moravia to promote it. They enjoyed considerable success in this endeavour. However, they came into conflict with German ecclesiastics who opposed their efforts to create a specifically Slavic liturgy.
For the purpose of this mission, they devised the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet to be used for Slavonic manuscripts. The Glagolitic alphabet was suited to match the specific features of the Slavic language. Its descendant script, the Cyrillic, is still used by many languages today.
The brothers wrote the first Slavic Civil Code, which was used in Great Moravia. The language derived from Old Church Slavonic, known as Church Slavonic, is still used in liturgy by several Orthodox Churches and also in some Eastern Catholic churches.
It is impossible to determine with certainty what portions of the Bible the brothers translated. The New Testament and the Psalms seem to have been the first, followed by other lessons from the Old Testament. The “Translatio” speaks only of a version of the Gospels by Cyril, and the “Vita Methodii” only of the “evangelium Slovenicum,” though other liturgical selections may also have been translated.
The mission of Cyril and Methodius had great success among Slavs in part because they used the people’s native language rather than Latin or Greek. In Great Moravia, Constantine and Methodius also encountered missionaries from East Francia, representing the western or Latin branch of the Church, and more particularly representing the Carolingian Empire as founded by Charlemagne, and committed to linguistic, and cultural uniformity. They insisted on the use of the Latin liturgy, and they regarded Moravia and the Slavic peoples as part of their rightful mission field.
When friction developed, the brothers, unwilling to be a cause of dissension among Christians, decided to travel to Rome to see the Pope, and seek a solution that would avoid quarreling between missionaries in the field. In 867, Pope Nicholas I (858-867) invited the brothers to Rome. Their evangelizing mission in Moravia had by this time become the focus of a dispute with Archbishop Adalwin of Salzburg (859–873) and Bishop Ermanrich of Passau (866-874), who claimed ecclesiastical control of the same territory and wished to see it use the Latin liturgy exclusively.
The brothers sought support from Rome, and arrived there in 868, where they were warmly received. This was partly due to their bringing with them the relics of Saint Clement; the rivalry with Constantinople as to the jurisdiction over the territory of the Slavs would incline Rome to value the brothers and their influence.
New Pope Adrian II (867-872) gave Methodius the title of Archbishop of Sirmium (now Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia) and sent him back in 869, with jurisdiction over all of Moravia and Pannonia, and authorisation to use the Slavonic Liturgy. The brothers were praised for their learning and cultivated for their influence in Constantinople. Anastasius Bibliothecarius would later call Cyril “a man of apostolic life” and “a man of great wisdom”. Their project in Moravia found support from Pope Adrian II, who formally authorized the use of the new Slavic liturgy. Subsequently Methodius was ordained as priest by the pope himself, and five Slavic disciples were ordained as priests (Saint Gorazd, Saint Clement of Ohrid and Saint Naum) and as deacons (Saint Angelar and Saint Sava) by the prominent bishops Formosus and Gauderic. Cyril and Methodius along with these five disciples are collectively venerated (mainly by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church) as “Seven Saints”. The newly made priests officiated in their own languages at the altars of some of the principal churches. Feeling his end approaching, Cyril became a Basilian monk, was given the new name Cyril, and died in Rome fifty days later (AD 14 February 869).
Methodist, by now an archbishop, dies on AD 6 April 885. After decades of missionary work by the brothers, translating the Holy Scriptures, they helped the Slavic peoples to remain linguistically, culturally, and ecclesiastically distinct during a period when they were pawns in the territorial rivalry between Constantinople and Rome. The Cyrillic alphabet gradually replaced Glagolitic as the alphabet of the Old Church Slavonic language, which became the official language of the Bulgarian Empire and later spread to the Eastern Slav lands of Kievan Rus’. Cyrillic eventually spread throughout most of the Slavic world to become the standard alphabet in the Eastern Orthodox Slavic countries. Hence, Cyril and Methodius’ efforts also paved the way for the spread of Christianity throughout Eastern Europe.
Methodius’ body was buried in the main cathedral church of Great Moravia.
Almighty and everlasting God, by the power of the Holy Spirit you moved your servant Cyril and his brother Methodius to bring the light of the Gospel to a hostile and divided people: Overcome all bitterness and strife among us by the love of Christ, and make us one united family under the banner of the Prince of Peace; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
We are used to thinking of our Holy Scriptures as the Word of God, and rightfully so, but in a very particular way of understanding that phrase. Our Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are inspired by God and contain all that is necessary to lead us to salvation, so we affirm in our catechism. But there’s a greater truth at stake here about what, or more accurately, who is the Word of God. We believe in the Episcopal Church, with all orthodox and catholic Christians, that Jesus is, was, and has eternally been the Son of the Father, begotten from eternity of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father, through him all things were made. Then we have John’s account of the Gospel that begins with those resonant, majestic words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” These are central, core beliefs in what it means to be a Christian. The deeper truth is that Jesus is himself the Word of God, the definitive and final revelation of the nature and character of God the Father, prior to and greatest of all other revelations about God.
Yet we often hear, don’t we, especially in theological debates, the phrase “well, the word of God says…” followed by a proof-text to affirm one perspective over another, usually with the intent to debase or cudgel someone into submission. But there can be no more odious and sinful use of the Holy Scriptures than to wound dominate or to wound another soul made in the image of God.
So, just what does it mean that Jesus is the Word of God?
Over the last several Sundays, we’ve heard the Gospel proclaimed to us:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free, and
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And:
Jesus came down with the twelve apostles and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them who came to him.
And again:
Jesus said, “I say to you that listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
In the first reading I just quoted, Jesus freely edits the words of the prophet Isaiah, exchanging “day of God’s wrathful vengeance” for “the year of the Lord’s bounteous favor”. In the second, Jesus freely heals even those whom the Holy Scriptures declared to be unclean and enemies to the covenant people of God. And in the third Jesus commends to us a way of living that freely gives up the right of vengeance and judgement.
In these, and in so many other passages from the Gospels, Jesus freely and confidently takes the Holy Scriptures and corrects them and reinterprets them in ways that both enraged and confused people. His hometown neighbors tried to throw him over a cliff in his home town over it! Yet he goes on in Sovereign majesty, revealing God the Father to the delight and the dismay of those who heard him speak or witnessed his miracles. He used his prerogative as the Son of God, the Living Word of God, to proclaim the inner councils of God.
In today’s gospel reading, we find Jesus with Peter, James, and John, gone to the top of a great hill to pray, and to the utter bewilderment of the disciples, Jesus is transfigured before them, revealed in his eternal glory as the Son of God, the living Word of God – God’s most intimate and ultimate self-revelation in the flesh. And to show the apostles that Jesus has the authority to reinterpret their words, Moses and Elijah show up, too.
The gospel writer notes how they are speaking with Jesus. It is often understood that they have come to give Jesus courage to face his coming persecution and death. But there is something more subversive, more life changing going on here.
Elijah and Moses both were great heroes of faith, and did miraculous things; but they are also indelibly marked by acts of vengeance and sacrificial violence expressed towards other humans.
But not Jesus!
Jesus did not come with a spirit of wrath or a willingness to sacrifice others. He came with the Holy Spirit of loving and humble self-sacrifice, and to confront the spiritual powers of wickedness that continue to this day to hold the human family locked in never-ending conflict. Jesus did not give free reign to wrath or the desire to dominate others; rather, he let himself be sacrificed by those who practiced such abominations in the name of God, and God’s raised him from the dead to bear witness to the love of God, and the futility and grotesqueness of such sacrificial ways of being.
Think back to the gospel just proclaimed to us; when God the Father speaks, he does not say of Moses or Elijah “this is my beloved son, listen to him”. No, God in Jesus reveals himself again once and for all time. Only by listening to him, to Jesus the Word of God incarnate, may the way to our salvation and joy be opened. It remains the express purpose of the earthly body of Jesus, the Church, we who are gathered here this morning, to continue his ministry of reconciling all people to God, confronting boldly that which we allow to separate us, to name that which possesses us and our cultures. And by following his example of self- offering love, we are called to draw all people to God in Jesus Christ.
To do this, we must make a central priority of learning to read the Scriptures and the Christian tradition through the lens of Jesus, the only one of whom God ever said from the heavens “this is my beloved son, listen to him”.
We must learn to interpret all of life and all scriptures in a way that is faithful to Jesus, the living Word of God, and finally prune from our understanding of God all violence and the desire to create winners and losers, insiders and outsiders, or his approval of it.
This is the challenge to proclaiming a loving, completely nonviolent God through the Holy Scriptures, the right relationship between God’s self-revelation in Jesus and our Scriptures. We must read the Law and the Prophets, and the New Testament, in the light of Jesus. So, if Moses instructs capital punishment and Elijah models violent retribution, we must remember the Transfiguration and the voice from heaven that said of Jesus, ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to him.’
The final testimony of Moses and Elijah is to hear the voice of God and to recede into the background so that Jesus stands alone in the end, revealed in glorious splendor as the full and true Word of God. Jesus is what God has to say. Jesus is God’s perfect word spoken into human life, and that word is Agape, self-sacrificing love, and only in this, in Jesus, can God be truly known.
How do we do bear witness to God’s self-revelation in Jesus our Lord? How do we sustain this pilgrimage of following Jesus, which is often counter- intuitive or seemingly irrational at times, or even self- defeating? We do it by committing to coming together each and every Sunday, to sing, pray, and receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and then to go out into the world transformed and empowered by love so that Jesus might become known, adored, and loved by all, a love made so winsome to the soul by revealing the love of Jesus that is made visible in us through our love for God and for each other. What an amazing calling that God has placed on our lives. My prayer is that today, we may make a new start of living into this amazing vocation.
The Martyrs of Japan (日本の殉教者 Nihon no junkyōsha) were Christian missionaries and Japanese disciples who were persecuted and executed for being more loyal to Jesus than the Shogunate, beginning in the 16th century then at its height in the Tokugawa shogunate period in the 17th century.
Christian missionaries arrived with Francis Xavier and the Jesuits in the 1540s and briefly flourished, with over 100,000 converts, including many daimyōs in Kyushu. The shogunate and imperial government at first supported the Catholic mission and the missionaries, thinking that they would reduce the power of the Buddhist monks, and help trade with Spain and Portugal. However, the Shogunate was also wary of colonialism, seeing that the Spanish had taken power in the Philippines, after converting the population. It soon met resistance from the highest office holders of Japan. Emperor Ogimachi issued edicts to ban Catholicism in 1565 and 1568, but to little effect. Beginning in 1587 with imperial regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s ban on Jesuit missionaries, Christianity was repressed as a threat to national unity. After the Tokugawa shogunate banned Christianity in 1620, it ceased to exist publicly. Many Catholics went underground, becoming hidden Christians (隠れキリシタン kakure kirishitan), while others lost their lives. Only after the Meiji Restoration, was Christianity re-established in Japan.
The Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan refers to a group of Christians who were executed by crucifixion on February 5, 1597 at Nagasaki.
The 205 Martyrs of Japan (1598–1632)
Persecution continued sporadically and over a period of 15 years, between 1617 and 1632, 205 missionaries and native Christians were executed for their faith. Christian teaching disintegrated until the arrival of Western missionaries in the nineteenth century.
The Augustine Recollects Martyrs (1632)
Two Spanish Augustinians arrived in Japan in the later half of 1632 from Manila to evangelize the Japanese. Upon arrival, the Japanese authorities were notified by Chinese traders that gave them passage. They fled to mountains, where Dominican missionaries instructed them in the language of the country. As these two priests descended to the city, they were recognized and arrested during November 1632. On 11 December 1632, they were martyred for their faith.
The 16 Martyrs of Japan (1633–1637)
The martyrdom continued on with a group of missionaries and natives that belonged to the Philippine Province of the Dominican Order, called the Holy Rosary Province.
The 188 Martyrs of Japan (1603–1639)
These martyrs are additional religious priests and laity murdered for their faith between the years 1603 and 1639.
O God our Father, source of strength to all your saints, you brought the holy martyrs of Japan through the suffering of the cross to the joys of eternal life: Grant that we, encouraged by their example, may hold fast the faith we profess, even to death itself; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Cornelius was a Roman centurion who is considered by Christians to be one of the first Gentiles to convert to the faith, as related in Acts of the Apostles.
Cornelius was a centurion in the Cohors II Italica Civium Romanorum, mentioned as Cohors Italica in the Vulgate. He was stationed in Caesarea, the capital of Roman Iudaea province. He is depicted in the New Testament as a God-fearing man who always prayed and was full of good works and deeds of alms. Cornelius receives a vision in which an angel of God tells him that his prayers have been heard, he understands that he’s chosen for a higher alternative. The angel then instructs Cornelius to send the men of his household to Joppa, where they will find Simon Peter, who is residing with a tanner by the name of Simon (Acts 10:5ff).
The conversion of Cornelius comes after a separate vision given to Simon Peter (Acts 10:10–16) himself. In the vision, Simon Peter sees all manner of beasts and fowl being lowered from Heaven in a sheet. A voice commands Simon Peter to eat. When he objects to eating those animals that are unclean according to Mosaic Law, the voice tells him not to call unclean that which God has cleansed.
When Cornelius’ men arrive, Simon Peter understands that through this vision the Lord commanded the Apostle to preach the Word of God to the Gentiles. Peter accompanies Cornelius’ men back to Caesarea. When Cornelius meets Simon Peter, he falls at Peter’s feet. Simon Peter raises the centurion and the two men share their visions. Simon Peter tells of Jesus’ ministry and the Resurrection; the Holy Spirit descends on everyone at the gathering. The Jews among the group (presumably they were all Jews if Cornelius was the first gentile convert, see Jewish Christians) are amazed that Cornelius and other uncircumcised should begin speaking in tongues, praising God. Thereupon Simon Peter commands that Cornelius and his followers be baptized. The controversial aspect of Gentile conversion is taken up later at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15).
Cornelius was one of the first Gentiles converted to Christianity. The baptism of Cornelius is an important event in the history of the early Christian church, along with the conversion and baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch. The Christian church was first formed around the original disciples and followers of Jesus, all of whom were Jewish. All males in that community were circumcised and observed the Law of Moses. The reception of Cornelius sparked a conversation among the Jewish leaders of the new Christian church, culminating in the decision to allow Gentiles to become Christians without conforming to Jewish requirements for circumcision, as recounted in Acts 15 (Acts 15). Certain traditions hold Cornelius as becoming either the first bishop of Caesarea or the bishop of Scepsis in Mysia.
O God, by your Spirit you called Cornelius the Centurion to be the first Christian among the Gentiles: Grant to your Church such a ready will to go where you send and to do what you command, that under your guidance it may welcome all who turn to you in love and faith, and proclaim the Gospel to all nations; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Today the Church remembers Saint Ansgar (8 September 801 – 3 February 865 AD), who was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen in the northern part of the Kingdom of the East Franks. Ansgar became known as the “Apostle of the North” because of his travels and the See of Hamburg received the missionary mandate to bring Christianity to Northern Europe.
Ora pro nobis.
Ansgar was the son of a noble Frankish family, born near Amiens. After his mother’s early death, Ansgar was brought up in Corbie Abbey, and was educated at the Benedictine monastery in Picardy. According to the Vita Ansgarii (“Life of Ansgar”), when the little boy learned in a vision that his mother was in the company of Saint Mary, his careless attitude toward spiritual matters changed to seriousness. His pupil, successor, and eventual biographer Rimbert considered the visions (of which this was the first) to have been Ansgar’s main life motivator. Ansgar was a product of the phase of Christianization of Saxony (present day Northern Germany) begun by Charlemagne and continued by his son and successor, Louis the Pious. In 822 AD, Ansgar became one of many missionaries sent to found the abbey of Corvey (New Corbie) in Westphalia, where he became a teacher and preacher. A group of monks including Ansgar were sent further north to Jutland with the king Harald Klak, who had received baptism during his exile. With Harald’s downfall in 827 and Ansgar’s companion Autbert having died, their school for the sons of courtiers closed and Ansgar returned to Germany. Then in 829, after the Swedish king Björn at Hauge requested missionaries for his Swedes, King Louis sent Ansgar, now accompanied by friar Witmar from New Corbie as his assistant. Ansgar preached and made converts, particularly during six months at Birka, on Lake Mälaren, where the wealthy widow Mor Frideborg extended hospitality. Ansgar organized a small congregation with her and the king’s steward, Hergeir, as its most prominent members. In 831 Ansgar returned to Louis’ court at Worms and was appointed to the Archbishopric of Bremen. This was a new archbishopric, combining the bishoprics of Bremen and Verden and with the right to send missions into all the northern lands, as well as to consecrate bishops for them. Ansgar received the mission of evangelizing pagan Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The King of Sweden decided to cast lots as to whether to admit the Christian missionaries into his kingdom. Ansgar recommended the issue to the care of God, and the lot was favorable. Ansgar was consecrated as a bishop in November 831, with the approval of Gregory IV. Before traveling north once again, Ansgar traveled to Rome to receive the pallium directly from the pope’s hands, and was formally named legate for the northern lands. Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims had previously received a similar commission, but would be deposed twice before his death in 851, and never actually traveled so far north, so the jurisdiction was divided by agreement, with Ebbo retaining Sweden for himself. For a time Ansgar devoted himself to the needs of his own diocese, which was still missionary territory and had few churches. He founded a monastery and a school in Hamburg. Although intended to serve the Danish mission further north, it accomplished little.
After Louis the Pious died in 840, his empire was divided and Ansgar lost the abbey of Turholt, which Louis had given to endow Ansgar’s work. Then in 845, the Danes unexpectedly raided Hamburg, destroying all the church’s treasures and books. Ansgar now had neither see nor revenue, and many helpers deserted him. The new king, Louis’ third son, Louis the German, did not re-endow Turholt to Ansgar, but in 847 he named the missionary to the vacant diocese of Bremen, where Ansgar moved in 848. However, since Bremen had been suffragan to the Bishop of Cologne, combining the sees of Bremen and Hamburg presented canonical difficulties. After prolonged negotiations, Pope Nicholas I would approve the union of the two dioceses in 864.
Through this political turmoil, Ansgar continued his northern mission. The Danish civil war compelled him to establish good relations with two kings, Horik the Elder and his son, Horik II. Both assisted him until his death; Ansgar was able to secure permission to build a church in Sleswick north of Hamburg and recognition of Christianity as a tolerated religion. Ansgar did not forget the Swedish mission, and spent two years there in person (848–850 AD), averting a threatened pagan reaction. In 854, Ansgar returned to Sweden when king Olof ruled in Birka. According to Rimbert, he was well disposed to Christianity. On a Viking raid to Apuole (current village in Lithuania) in Courland, the Swedes plundered the Curonians.
Ansgar was buried in Bremen in 865 AD. His successor as archbishop, Rimbert, wrote the Vita Ansgarii. He noted that Ansgar wore a rough hair shirt, lived on bread and water, and showed great charity to the poor. Pope Nicholas I declared Ansgar a saint shortly after the missionary’s death. The first actual missionary in Sweden and the Nordic countries (and organizer of the Catholic church therein), Ansgar was later declared “Patron of Scandinavia”.
Almighty and everlasting God, you sent your servant Ansgar as an apostle to the people of Scandinavia, and enabled him to lay a firm foundation for their conversion, though he did not see the results of his labors: Keep your Church from discouragement in the day of small things, knowing that when you have begun a good work you will bring it to a fruitful conclusion; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
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