BELLUM CONTRA HÆRÉTICOS

"God has given Mary such great power against the devils, they fear one of Her sighs for a soul more than the prayers of all the saints." - Saint Louis de Montfort

Dulce lignum dulces clavos dulce pondus sustinet

Sancte Athanase, Episcope Confessor et Ecclesiæ Doctor, ora pro nobis!

Dulce lignum dulces clavos dulce pondus sustinet

Saint Athanasius of Alexandria and the Roman Primacy It should be remembered that it was Pope Julius I who, having quashed the unjust deposition of Athanasius, returned him to his patriarchal throne. So much Socrates, and Sozomenus, in narrating the fact, expressly attribute it to the Pope's Prime Minister's Authority on the whole Church: "οἶα δὲ τῆς πάντων κηδεμονίας αὐτῷ προσηκούσης διὰ τὴν ἀηας τ mem that is, "Since the care of all belonged to him, due to the dignity of the see, he restored each their own church [Athanasius of Alexandria and Paul of Constantinople]"

Ops, yesterday was St. Athanasius

Introduced therefore to Athanasius together with him the priest Timothy, who, pretending to be Athanasius, said: I am, isn’t it, oh woman, who I have housed with you? I who violated you? To which she brazenly said: Yes, you violated me; and affirming it with oath, she invoked the authority of the judges to avenge so much infamy. Thus discovered the fraud, the impudence of the woman was confused. The Arians again pretended that Bishop Arsenius had been assassinated by Athanasius; and, keeping it hidden, they brought the hand of a dead man to trial, accusing Athanasius of having amputated it for use in magic operations. But Arsenius, having fled at night, presented himself before the whole council, thus foiling the most impudent wickedness of the enemies of Athanasius. But attributing this to the magical arts of Athanasius, they did not desist from conspiring against his life. Therefore condemned to exile in 335, he was relegated to Trier, in Gaul. Then, under the Emperor Constantius II, supporter of the Arians, beaten by storms raised against him and suffering incredible calamities, he traveled a large part of the world; and often expelled from his church, he was often returned there by the authority of Julius I, Roman Pontiff, for the protection of Emperor Constant I, brother of Constantius II, and also by decree of the council of Serdica (343 AD) and of Jerusalem, however, the Arians remain hostile to him; and to escape their obstinate fury and death, he remained hidden for five years in a dry cistern, knowing only a friend of Athanasius, who supported him in secret. Died Constantius II in 361, Julian the Apostate, who he succeeded in the Empire, having allowed the exiled bishops to return to their churches, Athanasius also returned to his see of Alexandria in 362, welcomed with the greatest honours. But not long after, persecuted by Julian, at the instigation of the Arians themselves, he was forced to leave again. Searched to death by his satellites, he turned back the boat in which he was fleeing on a river, and purposely met those who pursued him; and asked by them how far Athanasius was, he replied not to be very far: thus taking them the opposite way, he escaped it, and returned to Alexandria he remained hidden there until Julian's death. Shortly after, a new storm arose, he remained locked in his father's tomb for four months. Finally, miraculously freed from such and so many dangers, he died on the 2nd of May 373 in Alexandria, in his bed, under Valens; his life and death were illustrated by great miracles. He wrote many works full of piety and clarity to explain the Catholic faith, and most holyly ruled the church of Alexandria for forty years in the midst of the greatest vicissitudes. Saint Pius V in 1568 proclaimed him a Doctor of the Universal Church. His remains rest in Venice at the church of San Zaccaria.

SAINT ATHANASIUS, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, CONFESSOR AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH Athanasius, born in Alexandria of Egypt around 295, energetic defender of the Catholic religion, he was ordained deacon by Alexander bishop of Alexandria, to whom he succeeded in 328. Before, he also accompanied him to the council of Nicaea (325 AD), where he, after confusing the impiety of Arius, he attracted the total hatred of the Arians, who from that moment never ceased to set traps. Thus in a council gathered in Tyrus, largely Arian bishops, suborned a woman to accuse Athanasius of having done violence to her, abusing of her hospitality.

The Roman Breviary narrates the events concerning the discovery of the True Cross as follows: "After the distinguished victory, which the emperor Constantine won over Maxentius, when the banner of the Cross of the Lord was miraculously manifested to him, Helena, mother of Constantine, warned in a dream, she went to Jerusalem eager to find the Cross there; there she had a marble statue of Venus pulled down, placed there by the Gentiles, after about one hundred and eighty years right on the place of the Cross to make the memory of the Passion of Christ the Lord disappear. She also did the same at the Savior's crib and at the place of His resurrection, having the image of Adonis removed there and that of Jupiter here. Therefore, when the place of the Cross was cleared, three deeply buried crosses were discovered, and, separately, the title of the Cross of the Lord [Titulus Crucis]: not knowing which of the three had been affixed, a miracle put an end to the doubt. Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, after having raised prayers to God, subsequently approached the three crosses to a seriously ill woman; while two did not bring her any help, approached the third Cross she was immediately healed. Helena, having found the salutary Cross, built a truly magnificent church there, leaving a part of the Cross enclosed in a silver case, and another part she brought to her son Constantine, and was placed in Rome in the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, built in the Sessorian Palace. He also brought to his son the nails from which the most holy body of Jesus Christ was hung [and the Titulus Crucis and the cross of the good thief]. From that moment Constantine made a law that no one would be made to suffer the torture of the cross anymore. Thus the cross, which was previously the object of contempt and disgrace for men, began to be an object of veneration and glory ”.

FINDING OF THE HOLY CROSS OF THE LORD (Inventio sacrosanctae Crucis Dominicae) The 3rd of May, the Roman Church commemorates the Finding of the Holy Cross of the Lord at the time of Emperor Constantine (14th of September 329). In reality in origin such recurrence celebrated the recovery of the True Cross fallen into the hands of the Persians by the Emperor Heraclius in 692, but the Latins reversed the memory of the two events. The finding of the Cross by St. Helena was the originary occurrence the basis of the feast of the 14th of September - Exaltatio sanctæ Crucis - when the wood on which the Redeemer was stuck was shown to the Christian people by St. Macarius, then bishop of Jerusalem, an exhibition that was repeated annually.