Lives of the Saints, February 23, St. Peter Damian, St. Serenus

February 23

Spiritual Bouquet: No man can serve two masters. St. Matthew 6:24

SAINT PETER DAMIAN
Cardinal Bishop
(988-1072)

Saint Peter Damian, born in 988, lost both his parents at an early age. His eldest brother, to whose hands he was left, treated him so cruelly that another brother, a priest, moved by his piteous state, sent him to the University of Parma, where he acquired great distinction. His studies were sanctified by vigils, fasts, and prayers, until at last, thinking that all this was only serving God halfway, he resolved to leave the world. He joined the monks of Fonte Avellano, then in the greatest repute, and by his wisdom and sanctity rose to be Superior.

Saint Peter was called upon for the most delicate and difficult missions, among others the reform of ecclesiastical communities, which his zeal accomplished. Seven Popes in succession made him their constant adviser, and he was finally created Cardinal Bishop of Ostia. He withstood Henry IV of Germany, and labored in defense of Pope Alexander II against an antipope, whom he forced to yield and seek pardon. He was charged, as papal legate, with the repression of simony and correction of scandals; again, was commissioned to settle discords amongst various bishops; and finally, in 1072, to adjust the affairs of the Church at Ravenna. He had never paid attention to his health, which was at best fragile, and after enduring violent onslaughts of fever during the night, would rise to hear confessions, preach, or sing solemn Masses, always ready to sacrifice his well-being and life for the salvation of the souls entrusted to him.

After succeeding in this final mission as he ordinarily did, on his journey back to Ostia he was laid low by fever; he died at Faenza in a monastery of his Order, on the eighth day of his sickness, while the monks chanted Matins around him.

Reflection. The Saints studied, not in order to be accounted learned, but to become perfect before God.

Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 2; 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).

SAINT SERENUS
Martyr
(307)

Serenus was of the Greek nation by birth. He left estate, friends, and country to serve God in celibacy, penance, and prayer. With this design he bought a garden in Sirmium in Pannonia, now Hungary, which he cultivated with his own hands, and lived on the fruits and herbs it produced. During this time a persecution of the Christians was begun, and for a time he went elsewhere, but returned before long.

There came one night to his garden a woman with her two daughters, as if to walk about at leisure. Serenus, seeing them, advised them to withdraw, and to conduct themselves in the future as decency required of persons of their sex and condition, who should not be abroad at that late hour. The woman, stung at our Saint’s charitable remonstrance, retired in confusion, but resolved on revenging the supposed affront. She accordingly wrote to her husband, an army officer, that Serenus had insulted her. He, on receiving her letter, went to the emperor to demand justice, and the emperor gave him a letter to the governor of the province, authorizing him to obtain satisfaction.

The governor ordered Serenus to be brought before him at once. Serenus, on hearing the charge, answered, “I remember that, some time ago, a lady came into my garden at an unseasonable hour, and I admit I took the liberty to tell her it was against decency for one of her sex and quality to be abroad at such an hour.” This plea of Serenus caused the officer to blush for his wife’s conduct, and he dropped his suit. But the governor, suspecting by this answer that Serenus might be a Christian, began to question him, saying, “Who are you, and what is your religion?” Serenus, without hesitating, answered, “I am a Christian. It seemed to me when you dismissed me that God rejected me as a stone unfit to enter His edifice, but now He will perhaps have the goodness to take me for it. I am ready to suffer all things for His name, that I may have a part in His kingdom with His Saints.” The governor, hearing this, was furious and said, “Since you seek to elude the emperor’s edicts, and positively refuse to sacrifice to the gods, I condemn you for these crimes to lose your head.” The sentence was no sooner pronounced than the Saint was carried off and beheaded, on the 23^rd of February, in 307.

Reflection. The garden affords a beautiful emblem of a Christian’s continual progress in the path of virtue. Plants always mount upwards, and never stop in their growth till they have attained to that maturity which the Author of nature has prescribed. So in a Christian, every desire of his soul, every action of his life should be a step toward that final end.