Friday, July 26, 2024

Saint Anne and Maria Cleophae and Maria Salomae


Anne (Hebrew, Hannah, grace; also spelled Ann, Anne, Anna) is the traditional name of the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

All our information concerning the names and lives of Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary, is derived from apocryphal literature, the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Protoevangelium of James. Though the earliest form of the latter, on which directly or indirectly the other two seem to be based, goes back to about A.D. 150, we can hardly accept as beyond doubt its various statements on its sole authority. In the Orient the Protoevangelium had great authority and portions of it were read on the feasts of Mary by the Greeks, Syrians, Copts, and Arabians. In the West, however, it was rejected by the Fathers of the Church until its contents were incorporated by Jacobus de Voragine in his "Golden Legend" in the thirteenth century. From that time on the story of St. Anne spread over the West and was amply developed, until St. Anne became one of the most popular saints also of the Latin Church.

The Protoevangelium gives the following account: In Nazareth there lived a rich and pious couple, Joachim and Hannah. They were childless. When on a feast day Joachim presented himself to offer sacrifice in the temple, he was repulsed by a certain Ruben, under the pretext that men without offspring were unworthy to be admitted. Whereupon Joachim, bowed down with grief, did not return home, but went into the mountains to make his plaint to God in solitude. Also Hannah, having learned the reason of the prolonged absence of her husband, cried to the Lord to take away from her the curse of sterility, promising to dedicate her child to the service of God. Their prayers were heard; an angel came to Hannah and said: "Hannah, the Lord has looked upon thy tears; thou shalt conceive and give birth and the fruit of thy womb shall be blessed by all the world". The angel made the same promise to Joachim, who returned to his wife. Hannah gave birth to a daughter whom she called Miriam (Mary). Since this story is apparently a reproduction of the biblical account of the conception of Samuel, whose mother was also called Hannah, even the name of the mother of Mary seems to be doubtful.

The renowned Father John of Eck of Ingolstadt, in a sermon on St. Anne (published at Paris in 1579), pretends to know even the names of the parents St. Anne. He calls them Stollanus and Emerentia. He says that St. Anne was born after Stollanus and Emerentia had been childless for twenty years; that St. Joachim died soon after the presentation of Mary in the temple; that St. Anne then married Cleophas, by whom she became the mother of Mary Cleophae (the wife of Alphaeus and mother of the Apostles James the Lesser, Simon and Judas, and of Joseph the Just); after the death of Cleophas she is said to have married Salomas, to whom she bore Maria Salomae (the wife of Zebedaeus and mother of the Apostles John and James the Greater). The same spurious legend is found in the writings of Gerson (Opp. III, 59) and of many others. There arose in the sixteenth century an animated controversy over the marriages of St. Anne, in which Baronius and Bellarmine defended her monogamy. The Greek Menaea (25 July) call the parents of St. Anne Mathan and Maria, and relate that Salome and Elizabeth, the mother of St. John the Baptist, were daughters of two sisters of St. Anne. According to Ephiphanius it was maintained even in the fourth century by some enthusiasts that St. Anne conceived without the action of man. This error was revived in the West in the fifteenth century. (Anna concepit per osculum Joachimi.) In 1677 the Holy See condemned the error of Imperiali who taught that St. Anne in the conception and birth of Mary remained virgin (Benedict XIV, De Festis, II, 9). In the Orient the cult of St. Anne can be traced to the fourth century. Justinian I (d. 565) had a church dedicated to her. The canon of the Greek Office of St. Anne was composed by St. Theophanes (d. 817), but older parts of the Office are ascribed to Anatolius of Byzantium (d. 458). Her feast is celebrated in the East on the 25th day of July, which may be the day of the dedication of her first church at Constantinople or the anniversary of the arrival of her supposed relics in Constantinople (710). It is found in the oldest liturgical document of the Greek Church, the Calendar of Constantinople (first half of the eighth century). The Greeks keep a collective feast of St. Joachim and St. Anne on the 9th of September. In the Latin Church St. Anne was not venerated, except, perhaps, in the south of France, before the thirteenth century. Her picture, painted in the eighth century, which was found lately in the church of Santa Maria Antiqua in Rome, owes its origin to Byzantine influence. Her feast, under the influence of the "Golden Legend", is first found (26 July) in the thirteenth century, e.g. at Douai (in 1291), where a foot of St. Anne was venerated (feast of translation, 16 September). It was introduced in England by Urban VI, 21 November, 1378, from which time it spread all over the Western Church. It was extended to the universal Latin Church in 1584.

The supposed relics of St. Anne were brought from the Holy Land to Constantinople in 710 and were still kept there in the church of St. Sophia in 1333. The tradition of the church of Apt in southern France pretends that the body of St. Anne was brought to Apt by St. Lazarus, the friend of Christ, was hidden by St. Auspicius (d. 398), and found again during the reign of Charlemagne (feast, Monday after the octave of Easter); these relics were brought to a magnificent chapel in 1664 (feast, 4 May). The head of St. Anne was kept at Mainz up to 1510, when it was stolen and brought to Düren in Rheinland. St. Anne is the patroness of Brittany. Her miraculous picture (feast, 7 March) is venerated at Notre Dame d'Auray, Diocese of Vannes. Also in Canada, where she is the principal patron of the province of Quebec, the shrine of St. Anne de Beaupré is well known. St. Anne is patroness of women in labour; she is represented holding the Blessed Virgin Mary in her lap, who again carries on her arm the child Jesus. She is also patroness of miners, Christ being compared to gold, Mary to silver.



Here is what Lope de Vega says in his 1614 work, Pastores de Belen.

Mary, most holy Virgin, is of Royal lineage, and of the house of David and the other kings of Judea, and of the Priestly Tribe. Joachim, his father, a native of the city of Nazareth in Galilee, was the son of Mathat, who came from father to son of Nathan, son of David. They called her mother Está, who was descended from Solomon through her first husband. Ana, her mother, was from Bethlehem and daughter of Emerencia and Estolano, from the same family and house as David. These holy parents had first had Esmeria, who from Aprano the Priest gave birth to Elisabet, now the wife of the mute Zechariah, from whom you will easily understand the relationship she has with the Virgin...

...While in the Temple, Joachim slept in the Lord and descended to the limbo of the holy Fathers, happy that he was leaving in the world the one who was to be the Mother of his shelter and life. The most chaste widow would have wished to remain in that state until her death; but by divine will she married a second and a third time Cleophas and Salome, holy men, by whom she had two more daughters, and out of the tender love of the first she called the second by the same name as the first, and the third: Mary of Cleophas, Mary of Salome.


—María, Virgen santísima, es de linaje Real, y de la casa de David y de los otros reyes de Judea, y de la Tribu Sacerdotal. Joaquín, su padre, natural de la ciudad de Nazaret en Galilea, fue hijo de Mathat, que venia de padre a hijo de Natán, hijo de David. Está llamaron a su madre, que por su primero marido descendía de Salomón. Ana, su madre, era de Belén y hija de Emerencia y de Estolano, de la misma familia y casa de David. Habían estos santos padres tenido primero a Esmeria, que de Aprano Sacerdote parió a Elisabet, mujer ahora del mudo Zacarías, de donde con facilidad entenderéis el parentesco que con la Virgen tiene... (p.134)

Estando, pues, en el Templo, durmió Joaquín en el Señor y bajó al limbo de los santos Padres, alegre de que dejaba en el mundo la que había de ser Madre de su reparo y vida. Quisiera la viuda castísima conservar aquel estado hasta su muerte; pero por voluntad divina se casó segunda y tercera vez con Cleofás y Salomé, varones santos, de quien tuvo otras dos hijas, y por el entrañable amor de la primera llamó del mismo nombre a la segunda y tercera. Tuvo Joaquín tantas virtudes, que me detuviera a contarlas si no supiérades que había merecido ser padre de tal Señora, que nos ha de dar tan presto el fruto deseado y prometido tantos siglos antes. A cuyo intento habrá pocos días que Fileno hizo estos versos que, por no cansaros con la continuada narración de mi historia, puesto que es imposible que a nadie canse, os los quiero referir cantando. (p.141)

The Mantle of Elijah Through the Ages


Elijah and the Carmelite Order – The Mantle of Elijah through the Ages

The solemn march of history tends to link the symbolism of certain places to personages who lived and worked there. But in considering the figure of Elijah, we are surprised to realize that the greatness of his prophetism surpassed the limits of time and space…

The solitude and recollection of Carmel led Elijah to choose this location for the community of his disciples, the “sons of the prophets”
Prophet Elijah - Basilica of Our Lady of Carmel, São Paulo; in background, view from Mount Carmel (Israel)


Carmel!… A word that resounds through history like a bell! It evokes great events; it brings to mind prophetic deeds and extraordinary accomplishments of chosen men. Mountain of the prophets, where the fiery Elijah confronted the priests of Baal and slew them in the valley of Kishon (cf. 1 Kgs 18:18-40). The Mount of Promises, where the same prophet saw and greeted the Blessed Virgin Mary from afar (cf. Heb 11:13), prefigured in the little cloud that rose from the sea foretelling torrential rain on Israel (cf. I Kgs 18:42-46).

But Mount Carmel also holds a mystical symbolism. When referring to the bride in the Song of Songs, the sacred author says that her head “rises like Carmel” (7:6); and Isaiah prophesies that the “splendour of Carmel” (35:2) will be given to her who, like virgin land, will make the lily bloom. For this reason, some medieval authors claimed that the word Carmel could mean praises to the Bride, and the Carmelite would be the one who sings them.1
The mountain of Carmel

Elevated sites have always played an important role in salvation history. The Holy Scriptures show us this by mentioning Mount Sinai as the sacred place of Revelation and the Law, or Mount Zion, where the Lord God established his Sanctuary. The same is true of Carmel.

This mountain is located in Israel, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea to the south of the Bay of Haifa. The mountain is covered in leafy vegetation, which gives it the name Karmel, which in Hebrew means vineyard or garden,2 or, as Dom Guéranger proposes, “plantation of the Lord.”3

In Elijah’s time, access to Mount Carmel was extremely difficult, which favoured solitude and seclusion. Centuries later, St. John of the Cross would relate it to the ascent of a soul in the spiritual life when he wrote his famous work Ascent of Mount Carmel. All these characteristics probably led the Thesbite to choose this place to form a community of disciples who were to be called “sons of the prophets” (2 Kgs 2:3).

The lineage of the prophets

Elijah spent his days exercising God’s vengeance against the evil that was spreading in Israel and reconciling the heart of father with son (cf. Sir 48:1-10). Blessed are those who knew him and were honoured by his friendship! (cf. Sir 48:11).

However, the Lord of Hosts, for whose sake the prophet burned with zeal, took him to himself in the presence of Elisha, who remained on earth as the holder of his master’s spirit and prophetism.

The sons of the prophets gathered around Elisha and, recognizing in him the spirit of Elijah (cf. 2 Kgs 2:15), chose him as the first among them. Elisha then became for that prophetic nucleus and its posterity what Peter would be for the Church4: possessing a primacy like Elijah, “nothing was too hard for him” (Sir 48:13a). Having received his master’s mantle, he perpetuated prophecy on earth and “when he was dead his body prophesied” (Sir 48:13b).
The origins of the Order of Carmel

As early as the time of Elisha, the sons of the prophets built a dwelling on Carmel so that they could live together (cf. 2 Kgs 6:1-7), retired as hermits. From then on, the Carmelite tradition is full of mystery. How did the existence of this elitist branch continue to develop until the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ? Did they give rise to other forms of life, such as the Essenes? Did they know, perhaps by revelation, that the time of the Messiah had come? Little is known about this…

One beautiful tradition says that the spiritual sons of Elijah and Elisha became Christians during the first preaching of the Apostles, at which time they met the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose coming their ancestors had prophesied on the mountain of Carmel. For this reason, they returned with greater fervour to the holy mountain and built a chapel to Our Lady in the same place where Elijah had seen the little cloud. This gave them the title of Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.5

Owing to the fact that they lived only on that elevation, these hermits were unknown in the West until the 12th century. At that time, due to the formation of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem which began with the Crusades, they were joined by some Europeans. It was then that St. Berthold of Calabria was elected as the first Prior General of the Carmelites, by mandate of the pontifical legate Aimeric Malafaida, and the solitaries of Carmel began to acquire the conventual customs already established in the West.6
The breath of grace: from East to West

Meanwhile, a new form of religious life was emerging in medieval Europe: the Mendicant Orders. Franciscan and Dominican friars were attracting vocations everywhere. At the same time, in the East, Saracen invasions threatened the lives of Christians and the hermits of Carmel were forced to abandon that sacred place, the cradle of prophetism and of their vocation. Providence, however, had a design in allowing such vicissitudes: the spread of Carmel throughout the West!

Thus, in 1238, the first Carmelite monks arrived in Sicily, Cyprus and Spain.7 However, such was the number of mendicant religious in those regions that it was routine to find two friars fulfilling their evangelical ideal by going from house to house asking for alms or food, and they were always generously answered. However, men wearing different habits began to appear, causing something of a stir: a brown tunic with a drawstring at the waist and a banded cloak, that is, white with beige or brown stripes. When asked the name of their Order or who their founder was, the monks replied, according to the rule, that they were the successors of Elijah and Elisha and that they came from Mount Carmel…8
The habit is reformed and the scapular appears

Thus began the Carmelite epic in Western Christendom. European customs forced them to change their cape for a white one, as it remains today. But the Blessed Virgin still wanted to confirm her predilection for her Carmelite sons.

The spirit of Elijah has animated many souls throughout the history of the Church and the manifestations of his prophetism shine with ever-renewed hues in his spiritual children
St. Elijah, St. John the Baptist, St. Simon Stock and St. John of the Cross

The first general chapter of the Carmelites in the West, which met in England, chose for its prior St. Simon Stock, who began to strive for the approval of the Order with the Supreme Pontiff. On the night of July 15-16, 1251, Our Lady appeared to the Saint and gave him the scapular as a sign of election, saying: “Whoever dies wearing this habit shall not suffer the eternal fire.”

From then on, this Marian garment would be the Carmelite’s chief insignia. Just as Elijah gave his cloak to Elisha, a gesture that symbolizes not only discipleship, but also that the disciple is the property of the master, in the same way the Blessed Virgin clearly demonstrated for all time that whoever wears her scapular is her property! And she once again confirmed to the members of the Order of Carmel – they who had lived in hope of her since the days of the prophet Elijah, had loved her even before her birth and had sung her praises at the fountain on Mount Carmel to announce her arrival – that they belonged to her; they were her disciples and her prophets!
Where is Elijah?

Our Lord Jesus Christ came to fulfil the law and the prophets, being himself the Law and Prophecy fulfilled. His words, however, are also shrouded in the mysteries of prophetism…

The Transfiguration had just taken place. Astonished, the Apostles Peter, James and John had contemplated Moses and Elijah enveloped in glory, conversing with the Master. The disciples, gathered around Him, then heard these sublime words: “Elijah indeed shall come, and restore all things” (Mt 17:11).

In fact, the spirit of Elijah has animated many souls throughout the history of the Church, and the manifestations of his prophetism have gleamed with ever-renewed hues in his spiritual children. The Baptist, pointed out by the Redeemer himself as a new Elijah (cf. Mt 11:14), had already caused astonishment in Israel. And in the era of the New Law, how can we fail to see him in the mystical raptures of a St. John of the Cross or in the fiery prophecies of a Blessed Francisco Palau? Humanity has also discerned the glory of the Thesbite in the incomparable gest of St. Simon Stock, in the heroic military deeds of St. Nuno Alvares Pereira and in the miraculous protection of Anne of St. Bartholomew in confronting the Calvinist heretics.

The Order has received countless graces from Elijah’s loftly union with God. Undoubtedly, mystics such as St. Teresa Margaret Redi, St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi and St. Elizabeth of the Trinity are but scintillations of that same prophetic Elijah who on the peaks of Horeb ardently declared: “With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts” (1 Kings 19:14)!

What fruits might yet be expected from a spirit that has yielded souls ranging from the great St. Teresa to St. Therese of the Child Jesus, among many other mystics, warriors and martyrs?
St. Nuno Alvares Pereira, St. Teresa of Avila, Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew and St. Therese of the Child Jesus

Finally, the blood of Elijah has abundantly irrigated history, bringing countless martyrs to bloom for the glory of Heaven, inundating the lands of Compiègne, Guadalajara, Dachau, and Gora… How much fruit can yet be expected from a spirit that has brought forth souls ranging from the great St. Teresa to the virgin-warrior of Lisieux, St. Therese of the Child Jesus?

Nevertheless, in hearts burning with hope for the glory of God, the Lord’s prophecy still resounds: “Elijah indeed shall come!” Has the Elijah prophesied by the Divine Master arrived? Is the time coming when order will be restored in the world and in society? Could it be that, as St. Paul says, “there is a remnant, chosen by grace” (Rom 11:5) who have not bowed the knee to Baal (cf. 1 Kgs 19:18), a little cloud, a foretaste of Mary’s advent on earth?

Therefore, let us ascend the holy mountain of Carmel and scan the horizon for signs of the return of the prophet Elijah… Surely we will find them! ◊



Notes

1 CICCONETTI, O Carm, Carlo. El profeta Eliseo, primogénito y modelo de los carmelitas. In: VV.AA. Eliseo, o el manto de Elías. Burgos: Monte Carmelo, 2000, p.74.

2 Cf. VÁZQUEZ ALLEGUE, Jaime. כרמל. In: Diccionario bíblico hebreo-español español-hebreo. 2.ed. Estella: Verbo Divino, 2003, p.113; POLENTINOS, OSA, Valentín. Carmelo. In: DIEZ MACHO, MSC, Alejandro; BARTINA, SJ, Sebastián (Dir.). Enciclopedia de la Biblia. 2.ed. Barcelona: Garriga, 1969, v.II, col.149.

3 GUÉRANGER, OSB, Prosper. L’Année Liturgique. Le temps après la Pentecote. 10.ed. Paris: H. Oudin, 1913, t.IV, p.156.

4 Cf. CICCONETTI, op. cit., p.70.

5 Cf. GUÉRANGER, op. cit., p.149.

6 Idem, p.149-150.

7 Cf. ORTEGA, OCD, Pedro. Historia del Carmelo Teresiano. 3.ed. Burgos: Monte Carmelo, 2010, p.33.

8 The first Carmelite rule was written by St. Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the 12th century, when St. Berthold was already Prior General of Carmel. However, with the move to the West, it was necessary to reform the primitive rule, in which this detail was added about the request for alms and the answer to be given to questions about the Order.

Thursday, July 25, 2024

The Eucharist: the "Leap of Faith"


Eva Vlaardingerbroek

Here are my favorite quotes from the interview. I freely paraphrase.

Eva. Rome is my favorite city.

Q. Why did you, in your Christian faith search, settle on the Catholic Church?

Eva. The Eucharist.

...I considered that the only reason I had not to believe Jn. 6 was that I could not rationalize it, and thought that this was the "leap of faith" that was required. It is ironic that fundamentalist protestants will not accept this fundamental Christian tenant simply because they cannot philosophically accept it, when it is their claim that all should be accepted simply on faith without philosophical justification.

...Since I travel all the time, being a Catholic it is a great comfort to realize that I have a home everywhere in the world; I can seek counsel from a priest, go to confession, go to Mass every day, everywhere.

...In my political involvement the key question for me became: "...but what do I base my morality on. What's the source? What's the foundation? The Catholic faith.

Q. Are you concerned that your views and comments might be too harsh?

Eva. "I'd much rather be a radical in the fight against evil than a moderate."