Gabriel the Archangel

CONCERNING ST. GABRIEL THE ARCHANGEL

Gabriel the Archangel (St.)

§ I His feast among the Greeks on the day after the Annunciation.

[1] The Typicon of the Holy Church of Jerusalem, received from the ordinance of the great Archimandrite of those places, The solemn Office of the Greeks in the Menaia, that is, of St. Sabas, and now common to all the Churches of the Greeks, after the mystery of the Incarnate Word announced, celebrated with fitting solemnity on the 25th day of March, dedicates the next day following to Gabriel, the Messenger, Mediator, and Paranymph of such great happiness, to be honored with the greatest festivity. Therefore in the great Menaia of the Greeks you may see an entire Office full of congratulation and reverence toward this holy Prince of the heavenly host, and, as the title says, Archistrategus: after the third versicle, this canticle of John the Monk is introduced.

Gabriel the Archangel was sent from heaven to the Virgin to announce her conception, adorned with verses by John the Monk, and coming to Nazareth spoke thus within himself, astonished at the magnitude of the miracle: How is it that he who is incomprehensible in the highest heavens is born of a Virgin? He who has heaven as his throne and earth as his footstool is contained in a woman's womb? He upon whom the creatures equipped with six wings and many eyes cannot gaze, deigns to be incarnate from her by a single word? It is the Word of God that is being accomplished at this moment: why then do I delay? Why do I not speak to the Virgin? Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you; hail, most pure Virgin; hail, Bride knowing no mingling; hail, Mother of life: blessed is the fruit of your womb.

[2] That this John the Monk is Damascenus is the opinion of our Simon Wagnereck, number 27 of the Prolegomena to the Marian piety of the Greeks collected from the Menaia: perhaps Damascenus; just as under the name of John the Archbishop in the same works, none other than Chrysostom is meant. And it is established that Damascenus completed the restoration of the sacred Office, which had been nearly extinguished by the Saracens, begun by Patriarch Sophronius, by composing many new hymns and odes: but I would not dare deny that this monk is simply so called, as long as I have not found the cognomen of Damascenus elsewhere in the Menaia: but if I should find it, I would suspect him to be another, and perhaps the one who on the 26th of July himself also has a name among the Saints, a Monk of Palaeolaurita or the Old Laura: for indeed after Damascenus no other more suitable person occurs to me, to whom those canticles might be attributed: since there was the greatest communication between the Great Laura of St. Sabas and the Old Laura of St. Chariton, distant only three miles.

Whoever he was, he was certainly a writer of polished and elegant talent, as you may recognize even from this fragment. and the Odes of Joseph. One of the two Josephs composed the odes, whose acrostic is:

Ὡς παμμέγιςον τὸν Γαβριὴλ αἰνέσω.

I shall sing of Gabriel as the greatest of Angels.

Then he adds the final part, whose initial letters at each strophe express his own name in his customary manner: and in them there is nothing to which similar and more elegant things may not be read in the Latin hymns to be presented below.

[3] Commemoration on June 11, Passing over those, then, we add only this: that on the 11th day of June the Synaxis of St. Gabriel the Archangel ἐν τῷ ᾄδειν is noted by the Menaia: and on the 26th day of the month of July the Encaenia of the same πέραν ἐν χάλδαις. But the manuscript Synaxarion of our Paris College dissents from the printed editions, and says those are of Michael πέραν ἐν χάλλαις: so that although there is no doubt July 26, that the part of the city of Constantinople situated across the inlet of the sea flowing in, called Pera by the Latins, is signified; it nevertheless remains doubtful of which Archangel, and in which church of Pera itself, or by what name those encaenia are celebrated. But the memory of the Archangel Gabriel on this day is expressly contained in the Arab-Egyptian Martyrology, recently sent to us from Rome. December 28. The Menologium of the Copts also, which exists in manuscript in our Roman College of the Maronite people, at the 22nd of the month of Chihac, which corresponds to the 18th of our December, has the commemoration of the Archangel Gabriel.

[4] As regards the primary feast itself in the month of March, we observe that it is sufficiently established from the most ancient manuscript Typicon, Is the feast itself among the most ancient? whose copy came to us from the library of Frederick Lindenbrog; that that feast was either entirely absent from the calendar at the beginning, or had very little celebration: certainly no proper part in the sacred Office of this day, which ought to be noted in the Typicon. For besides the Holy Forty Martyrs, who suffered on the 9th day of March, and the celebration of the Annunciation of the Lord itself, no other is noted in the said Typicon; because the ancients did not wish the time of Lent to be occupied by feasts of Saints except most sparingly. Nor should you think that those two alone are placed there because the Typicon has only the feasts to be observed by the people with cessation from servile works: for that such a feast among the Greeks in March was only the Annunciation appears from the fact that, before the other, the feast of the Forty Martyrs is noted with a rubric in the aforesaid manuscript, in the same manner as the other feasts of this kind throughout the whole year. Nevertheless, that the feast of St. Gabriel was ancient, even if not most ancient, or at least not common to all the Churches of the East from the beginning, is proved by the Synaxarion of our Paris College, which we cited above, speaking thus on this day: On the morrow of the feast of the Annunciation we celebrate the synaxis of the holy and divine Archangel Gabriel, certainly ancient. ἐξ αρχῆς καὶ ἄνωθεν, already from the beginning handed down of old, as the one who ministered to the divine, ineffable, and superexcellent mystery: which same words are also found in the Anthologion printed at Rome. Rightly moreover it said that this feast had been handed down from the very beginning, that is, from an almost immemorial time of the fourth or fifth century, if they truly pertain to this and not to the feast of the Annunciation, the things which are read from John the Faster, Archbishop of Constantinople under Justin, Maurice, and Phocas, in the oft-mentioned Menaia on this day.

[5] We have found in certain Typica concerning the manner of chanting on this day of this venerable solemnity the "Dirigatur." Whether with the prerogative of relaxing the fast But this I know not how to define: for some from heresy and ignorance attempt many things. But as I think, that is not contained in the complete Liturgy of Chrysostom, and at the Sixth Hour after the oblation has been made: for he says: On whatever weekday the feast of the divine Annunciation falls, Chrysostom offers the sacrifice, and at table admits delicacies on whatever day it may be: for we have received from the divine Fathers that fish is to be eaten on the day of the divine Annunciation.

But it is prescribed that the "Dirigatur" be attempted in the Liturgy of the Presanctified, and at the Ninth Hour. Nor indeed is it fitting that a symbol of mourning be chanted on this day, which we venerate as the beginning of our salvation. To which consequently in the rubrics it is said: Also at table great consolation for the Brethren, eating fish to the glory of God.

On which observe, first, that the Greeks were accustomed to fast during Lent in such a way that they did not take food except after the Office of the Ninth Hour had been chanted, that is, around evening; and they did not even offer sacrifice, but used only the Presanctified on Sunday, and that after the same Ninth Hour, whatever feast of a Saint occurred: but the more devout, such as Bishops, Clergy, and Monks were, even abstained from fish: which strictness however Chrysostom thought should be relaxed on so joyful a day, being accustomed to offer the perfect sacrifice at noon, and to admit fish for the meal. But whether these things so expressly mentioning the Annunciation the Greeks have transferred without cause to the following day's feast of St. Gabriel, let them see to it: it is sufficient for us to have shown that at least seven hundred years ago, in the time when both Josephs the Hymnographer lived, it was a joyful and solemn feast for the Greeks.

§ II The cultus and Office of St. Gabriel in Spain.

[7] Among the Latins, that solemnity does not everywhere universally obtain, The more recent cultus of the Latins on March 18 from the Martyrologies and seems to be much more recent: for there is no ancient Martyrology that mentions it. The first of the printed editions, Hermann Greven in his additions to Usuard in the year 1521 and Molanus in the year 1537 have this: The 15th day before the Kalends of April, The venerable memory of the Archangel Gabriel, Paranymph of our redemption.

The Florarium moreover, a manuscript of about the same time, has: The Feast of St. Gabriel the Archangel, which the same Molanus also has, and from Molanus, Ferrari and Canisius. Yet there can be scarcely any doubt that for at least two centuries the Spanish Churches have recognized this feast, and in missals since we are persuaded that the more ancient missals, that of Piacenza and of Astorga, are not vainly cited by Tamayo de Salazar, from the Mixed Missal, called Mozarabic, reprinted in the year 1551, in which we have the same Mass which is said to be elsewhere, whose Introit is: Bless the Lord, all his Angels. The Collect: O God, who among your other Angels chose the Archangel Gabriel to announce the mystery of your Incarnation, mercifully grant that we who celebrate his feast on earth may experience his patronage in heaven. The Lesson from the 9th chapter of Daniel: Behold the man Gabriel. The Gospel: The Angel Gabriel was sent. The Offertory: The Angel stood, etc.

[8] To these corresponds a Breviary of the same kind, the Mozarabic, as George Colvener testifies in his Marian Calendar: and Breviaries where he also cites a Roman Missal printed in Gaul by Jacques Mareschal alias Roland in the year 1511, in whose calendar these words are read: Of the Archangel Gabriel, a greater double, just as on the following day, namely of St. Joseph: and so, as Colvener says, for March 19 there exist lessons on certain feasts of the year separately printed in octavo at Antwerp in the establishment of Jean Steelsius in the year 1543, in which immediately before the feast of St. Joseph are placed nine lessons on the feast of the Archangel Gabriel; of which the first six are taken from Homily 34 of St. Gregory the Pope on the Gospels: the last three from the Homily of St. Bernard on the Missus.

Tamayo de Salazar says: A similar Office, with a proper Mass approved by Paul V, was granted by Popes Pius V, Gregory XIII, Clement VIII, and Paul V to the universal Church, as we have observed. And although the ancient rite fell into disuse in our Churches through the diploma of Pius V on the reduction of Offices; nevertheless I find it preserved in some Cathedrals and Dioceses, as in the Church of Toledo, in which, as appears from its very ancient Breviary of the year 1507, this hymn is sung.

Let us venerate Gabriel, Messenger of the Most High King, Hymns from the Toledan Breviary: Through whom God delegated his ministry, Announcing to the fallen world Jesus, the Son of God.

Gabriel, divine power, strengthen the weak: That we may conquer the enemy, do you yourself fortify us: And that our sins may be forgiven, do you yourself obtain for us.

The Angel sent into the world to the chamber of Mary, God chose you alone as his Secretary, Present our prayers before the Lord of heaven.

Glory and honor to God on high, One to the Father and to the Son, and to the glorious Paraclete, Who bestowed so many gifts upon the Angel Gabriel.

Amen.

[10] In the Breviaries likewise of the Church of Seville and of Compostela of the year 1539, there is a double Office with hymns, versicles, from the Sevillan and Compostelan: lessons and proper orations. We give the hymns here as Tamayo transcribed them; for Vespers indeed:

Gabriel, resplendent among his companions, Strong and able for various deeds, Let him be praised today.

Now the heavenly messenger of the mystery of Jesus, The famous messenger of Christ's company, Renders faith.

In so many ranks of heavenly spirits, He above all others for the arduous task Of the work is chosen.

What greater sign of excellence, Than that the mystery of such great mercy Is entrusted to him?

Since this embassy is his, above others He is worthy of praise, and loveable With reverence.

May he guard, establish, and free from the enemy, Make us joyful, and unite us to God, Gabriel the resplendent. Amen.

[11] For Matins moreover and Lauds, this hymn is prescribed to be sung:

The life which Lucifer took away through Eve, Gabriel sweetly brought through Mary Full of grace.

Strong in name, stronger in virtue, Having conquered the devil, more victorious, Crowned with flowers.

May he dispatch for us the great message, May he prepare a dwelling for the King, In the chamber of the Virgin.

Come, announce, say: Hail, Lady. Say: Full of grace. Say: The Lord is with you. And say: Fear not.

O Virgin, receive the treasure of heaven; Guard the manna stored within you: Restore it enclosed.

She hears and receives the message, the maiden, She believes and conceives, and bears a son Called Emmanuel.

May he guard, etc.

[12] Salazar continues: The Church of Avila and others sang the Toledan hymn; to the Churches of Cordoba and Toledo in their new Offices there was granted by Gregory XIII that common hymn: Christe Sanctorum, decus Angelorum: and the same is sung in the Religious Orders. But in the ancient Breviary of the Order of St. Benedict, according to the custom of the Congregation of Valladolid, a very different Office is recited than in other secular and regular communities, as may be seen; here we shall transcribe only the hymns of that Office, for the other things that constitute it would generate tedium rather than illumination of the subject. For Vespers therefore they sang thus:

With joyful minds let us all rejoice, from the Benedictine and Franciscan. Let us venerate the messenger of high heaven, When the renowned Gabriel shines From lofty Olympus.

Messenger of heaven, likewise mediator Gabriel stands forth everywhere supreme, And alone reveals to the world the secret Commands of the Thunderer.

Announce to us, Gabriel, we pray, The special gift of eternal peace: That we may at last hold the court of heaven, Ever rejoicing.

The Office of the Friars Minor, which has everything in common with the Benedictine, after the first strophe additionally has these two:

The Paranymph of the highest Virgin is present Today to us, together with the Angels, Venerating Christ with many triumphs, The whole assembly.

Therefore let our choir sing the praises Of the Prince Gabriel; since he is One of the seven who stand before the Lord, Following his commands.

[13] At Matins also they continued with reference to the mystery, and an invocation of favor in this manner:

Behold the middle of the night: arise quickly, Let us sing new canticles to the Lord: For at this hour Gabriel was to all The best Messenger of Life.

At this hour the womb of the Virgin Brought forth the Lord to the human race; moreover, Having conquered the enemies utterly, He rises victorious from hell.

Rising therefore, with gentle prayers Let us mutually pray; let us ask heavenly gifts, Especially of the Lord, who gave us the Angel, Who has the care of all.

Therefore, O renowned Prince, we beseech you, Ask grace for us wretched ones; And make propitious him who can do all things, For us at the last end.

And here indeed is the end of the Benedictine hymns: the Friars Minor before the conclusion add one strophe:

What human power suffices to declare, What gifts Gabriel bestows upon the world? He readily leads holy souls to see the Lord Into heaven.

[14] Since moreover the Office of the Friars Minor has here been mentioned, in which a solemn Office is held on March 24 it should not be passed over at this point that the entire Order of St. Gabriel celebrates the Office with double rite on the 24th day of March, the day before the Annunciation of the Lord, with Antiphons and Responsories everywhere proper and nearly all relating to the interpretation of the name Gabriel, signifying the strength of God, or explaining the history of the Incarnation. Since these are readily available everywhere in the booklet of Proper Offices of the said Order, repeatedly reviewed and more correctly reprinted by Pontifical authority, we refrain from adding them here, and omitting those, we only observe that in the Calendar before the Roman Breviary of the year 1522 and 1524 printed at Venice, the same feast of St. Gabriel is noted on March 24 among the more celebrated feasts with rubrics, approved in 1515, and in the first edition indeed the Office is placed in its order before the Office of the Annunciation; but in the second it is indicated that it is to be sought at the end of the book, printed in last place, and it is the same Office of the Order of Friars Minor already mentioned, approved, as is added, by our Most Holy Lord Pope Leo X, 1515, on the 8th of the Ides of November, in the castle of Viterbo in the chamber of his residence. And thus we learn what Arthur du Moutier thought was unknown, namely when and by whom the feast was transferred to this day: which had been decreed for March 18 in the year 1499. which he asserts had been decreed by the General Chapter at Mechlin in the year 1499 for the Order on the 18th day of March, and conceded by Alexander VI. The aforesaid Leo X also inserted the same feast in the Missal, from which Boniface Constantine recites this postcommunion prayer: May the Sacraments which we have received strengthen us, we beseech you, O Lord, and by the favor of your Archangel Gabriel may we be found effective in work and fervent in your love.

§ III The cultus and Office of St. Gabriel in France.

[15] Thus far the Spanish Churches: concerning the French, in his Martyrology Saussay has this for the aforesaid March 18. The feast of the veneration of St. Gabriel the Archangel, The feast among almost all religious: guardian of the most holy Mother of God, and also the paranymph of our Redemption, has long been very celebrated among the religious families of almost all the Orders in France. Certainly the celebration was already long ago famous in the Churches of Gaul: an ancient oratory in Auvergne for there exists in Venantius Fortunatus, book 10, this poem about the Oratory of Artanne, consecrated in honor of Blessed Archangel Gabriel:

Whoever hasten to the threshold of this venerable temple, About to seek the gifts which God gives out of love: These all shine in honor of the holy Gabriel, Who as a minister duly carries out the pious commands of God: He who came to Zacharias, bearing tidings from the stars, When Elizabeth was given a powerful prophet: And who declared that the Redeemer, the omnipotent King, from heaven Would afterwards be given to the earth from Mary's womb. What the holy Bishop Gregory offers as a new building, That heavenly riches may be restored to him.

That is, St. Gregory of Tours, at Artonne: who in chapter 5 of the Glory of the Confessors made this place of Artanne or Artonne in Auvergne famous to posterity, commemorating the reasons for which already from the time of St. Martin, through the miracles, sepulchre, and cultus of the Virgin Vitalina, it had deserved to be celebrated, as we saw on the 21st of February. Here also could be referred that altar which Alcuin Flaccus celebrated in verse as sacred to the three Archangels, to be found among his poems at number 202. elsewhere others. And if one wished to go beyond France, there could also be commemorated from Joseph Bonfilio the chapel dedicated to the Paranymph of the Virgin at Messina on Monte Capenina, where the hermit living there was told by Mary in a dream that she wished a temple, and she circumscribed the area by the flight of a most white dove: likewise from Antonio Paolo Masini the church of the Discalced Carmelite nuns at Bologna at the gate of St. Stephen could be described here, sacred to the same heavenly Messenger, and in it the solemn feast customarily celebrated annually on March 24.

[16] I pass to the Office. There exists a booklet printed at Paris in the year 1627, in which after the Office of the Solemnity of the Lord Jesus, with lessons arranged through the Octave, and approved and conceded two years before by the Sacred Congregation of Rites to the Church and Diocese of Toulouse, is contained another for St. Gabriel for the 23rd day of March, with particular antiphons, chapters, and responsories; the lessons of the first Nocturn from the 9th chapter of Daniel the Prophet, of the second from Homily 34 of St. Gregory on the Gospels, A new Office: of the third from the Homily of St. Bernard on the Missus: which may appear to be the same one indicated above by Colvener: but

from Molanus, Ferrari, and Canisius. Yet there can scarcely be any doubt that for at least two centuries the Spanish Churches have recognized this feast, and in missals since the more ancient missals, that of Piacenza and of Astorga, are not vainly cited by Tamayo de Salazar, as we are persuaded from the Mixed Missal, called Mozarabic, reprinted in the year 1551, in which we have the same Mass which is said to be elsewhere, whose Introit is: Bless the Lord, all his Angels. The Collect: O God, who among your other Angels chose the Archangel Gabriel to announce the mystery of your Incarnation, mercifully grant that we who celebrate his feast on earth may experience his patronage in heaven. The Lesson from Daniel chapter 9: Behold the man Gabriel. The Gospel: The Angel Gabriel was sent. The Offertory: The Angel stood, etc.

[8] To these corresponds a Breviary of the same kind, the Mozarabic, as George Colvener testifies in his Marian Calendar: and Breviaries where he also cites a Roman Missal printed in Gaul by Jacques Mareschal alias Roland in the year 1511, in whose calendar these words are read: Of the Archangel Gabriel, a greater double, just as on the following day, namely of St. Joseph: and so, as Colvener says, for March 19 there exist lessons on certain feasts of the year separately printed in octavo at Antwerp in the establishment of Jean Steelsius in the year 1543, in which immediately before the feast of St. Joseph are placed nine lessons on the feast of the Archangel Gabriel; of which the first six are taken from Homily 34 of St. Gregory the Pope on the Gospels: the last three from the Homily of St. Bernard on the Missus.

Tamayo de Salazar says: A similar Office, with a proper Mass approved by Paul V, was granted by Popes Pius V, Gregory XIII, Clement VIII, and Paul V to the universal Church, as we have observed. And although the ancient rite fell into disuse in our Churches through the diploma of Pius V on the reduction of Offices; nevertheless I find it preserved in some Cathedrals and Dioceses, as in the Church of Toledo, in which, as appears from its very ancient Breviary of the year 1507, this hymn is sung.

Let us venerate Gabriel, Messenger of the Most High King, Hymns from the Toledan Breviary: Through whom God delegated his ministry, Announcing to the fallen world Jesus, the Son of God.

Gabriel, divine power, strengthen the weak: That we may conquer the enemy, do you yourself fortify us: And that our sins may be forgiven, do you yourself obtain for us.

The Angel sent into the world to the chamber of Mary, God chose you alone as his Secretary, Present our prayers before the Lord of heaven.

Glory and honor to God on high, One to the Father and to the Son, and to the glorious Paraclete, Who bestowed so many gifts upon the Angel Gabriel.

Amen.

[10] In the Breviaries likewise of the Church of Seville and of Compostela of the year 1539, there is a double Office with hymns, versicles, from the Sevillan and Compostelan: lessons and proper orations. We give the hymns here as Tamayo transcribed them; for Vespers indeed:

Gabriel, resplendent among his companions, Strong and able for various deeds, Let him be praised today.

Now the heavenly messenger of the mystery of Jesus, The famous messenger of Christ's company, Renders faith.

In so many ranks of heavenly spirits, He above all others for the arduous task Of the work is chosen.

What greater sign of excellence, Than that the mystery of such great mercy Is entrusted to him?

Since this embassy is his, above others He is worthy of praise, and lovable With reverence.

May he guard, establish, and free from the enemy, Make us joyful, and unite us to God, Gabriel the resplendent. Amen.

[11] For Matins moreover and Lauds, this hymn is prescribed to be sung:

The life which Lucifer took away through Eve, Gabriel sweetly brought through Mary Full of grace.

Strong in name, stronger in virtue, Having conquered the devil, more victorious, Crowned with flowers.

May he dispatch for us the great message, May he prepare a dwelling for the King, In the chamber of the Virgin.

Come, announce, say: Hail, Lady. Say: Full of grace. Say: The Lord is with you. And say: Fear not.

O Virgin, receive the treasure of heaven; Guard the manna stored within you: Restore it enclosed.

She hears and receives the message, the maiden; She believes and conceives, and bears a son Called Emmanuel.

May he guard, etc.

[12] Salazar continues: The Church of Avila and others sang the Toledan hymn; to the Churches of Cordoba and Toledo in their new Offices granted by Gregory XIII, that common hymn was given: Christe Sanctorum, decus Angelorum: and the same is sung in the Religious Orders. But in the ancient Breviary of the Order of St. Benedict, according to the custom of the Congregation of Valladolid, a very different Office is recited than in other secular and regular communities, as may be seen; here we shall transcribe only the hymns of that Office, for the other things that constitute it would generate tedium rather than illumination of the subject. For Vespers therefore they sang thus:

With joyful minds let us all rejoice, from the Benedictine and Franciscan. Let us venerate the messenger of high heaven, When the renowned Gabriel shines From lofty Olympus.

Messenger of heaven, likewise mediator Gabriel stands forth everywhere supreme, And alone reveals to the world the secret Commands of the Thunderer.

Announce to us, Gabriel, we pray, The special gift of eternal peace: That we may at last hold the court of heaven, Ever rejoicing.

The Office of the Friars Minor, which has everything in common with the Benedictine, after the first strophe additionally has these two:

The Paranymph of the highest Virgin is present Today to us, together with the Angels, Venerating Christ with many triumphs, The whole assembly.

Therefore let our choir sing the praises Of the Prince Gabriel; since he is One of the seven who stand before the Lord, Following his commands.

[13] At Matins also they continued with reference to the mystery, and an invocation of favor in this manner:

Behold the middle of the night: arise quickly, Let us sing new canticles to the Lord: For at this hour Gabriel was to all The best Messenger of Life.

At this hour the womb of the Virgin Brought forth the Lord to the human race; moreover, Having conquered the enemies utterly, He rises victorious from hell.

Rising therefore, with gentle prayers Let us mutually pray; let us ask heavenly gifts, Especially of the Lord, who gave us the Angel, Who has the care of all.

Therefore, O renowned Prince, we beseech you, Ask grace for us wretched ones; And make propitious him who can do all things, For us at the last end.

And here indeed is the end of the Benedictine hymns: the Friars Minor before the conclusion add one strophe:

What human power suffices to declare, What gifts Gabriel bestows upon the world? He readily leads holy souls to see the Lord Into heaven.

[14] Since moreover the Office of the Friars Minor has here been mentioned, in which a solemn Office is held on March 24 it should not be passed over at this point that the entire Order celebrates the Office of St. Gabriel with double rite on the 24th day of March, the day before the Annunciation of the Lord, with Antiphons and Responsories everywhere proper and nearly all relating to the interpretation of the name Gabriel, signifying the strength of God, or explaining the history of the Incarnation. Since these are readily available everywhere in the booklet of Proper Offices of the said Order, repeatedly reviewed and more correctly reprinted by Pontifical authority, we refrain from adding them here, and omitting those, we only observe that in the Calendar before the Roman Breviary of the years 1522 and 1524 printed at Venice, the same feast of St. Gabriel is noted on March 24 among the more celebrated feasts with rubrics, approved in 1515, and in the first edition indeed the Office is placed in its order before the Office of the Annunciation; but in the second it is indicated that it is to be sought at the end of the book, printed in last place, and it is the same Office of the Order of Friars Minor already mentioned, approved, as is added, by our Most Holy Lord Pope Leo X, 1515, on the 8th of the Ides of November, in the castle of Viterbo in the chamber of his residence. And thus we learn what Arthur du Moutier thought was unknown, namely when and by whom the feast was transferred to this day: which had been decreed for March 18 in the year 1499. which he asserts had been decreed by the General Chapter at Mechlin in the year 1499 for the Order on the 18th day of March, and conceded by Alexander VI. The aforesaid Leo X also inserted the same feast in the Missal, from which Boniface Constantine recites this postcommunion prayer: May the Sacraments which we have received strengthen us, we beseech you, O Lord, and by the favor of your Archangel Gabriel may we be found effective in work and fervent in your love.

§ III The cultus and Office of St. Gabriel in France.

[15] Thus far the Spanish Churches: concerning the French, in his Martyrology Saussay has this for the aforesaid March 18: The feast of the veneration of St. Gabriel the Archangel, The feast among almost all religious: guardian of the most holy Mother of God, and also the paranymph of our Redemption, has long been very celebrated among the religious families of almost all the Orders in France. Certainly the celebration was already long ago famous in the Churches of Gaul: an ancient oratory in Auvergne for there exists in Venantius Fortunatus, book 10, this poem about the Oratory of Artanne, consecrated in honor of Blessed Archangel Gabriel:

Whoever hasten to the threshold of this venerable temple, About to seek the gifts which God gives out of love: These all shine in honor of the holy Gabriel, Who as a minister duly carries out the pious commands of God: He who came to Zacharias, bearing tidings from the stars, When Elizabeth was given a powerful prophet: And who declared that the Redeemer, the omnipotent King, from heaven Would afterwards be given to the earth from Mary's womb. What the holy Bishop Gregory offers as a new building, That heavenly riches may be restored to him.

That is, St. Gregory of Tours, at Artonne: who in chapter 5 of the Glory of the Confessors made this place of Artanne or Artonne in Auvergne famous to posterity, commemorating the reasons for which already from the time of St. Martin, through the miracles, sepulchre, and cultus of the Virgin Vitalina, it had deserved to be celebrated, as we saw on the 21st of February. Here also could be referred that altar which Alcuin Flaccus celebrated in verse as sacred to the three Archangels, to be found among his poems at number 202. elsewhere others. And if one wished to go beyond France, there could also be commemorated from Joseph Bonfilio the chapel dedicated to the Paranymph of the Virgin at Messina on Monte Capenina, where the hermit living there was told by Mary in a dream that she wished a temple, and she circumscribed the area by the flight of a most white dove: likewise from Antonio Paolo Masini the church of the Discalced Carmelite nuns at Bologna at the gate of St. Stephen could be described here, sacred to the same heavenly Messenger, and in it the solemn feast customarily celebrated annually on March 24.

[16] I pass to the Office. There exists a booklet printed at Paris in the year 1627, in which after the Office of the Solemnity of the Lord Jesus, with lessons arranged through the Octave, and approved and conceded two years before by the Sacred Congregation of Rites to the Church and Diocese of Toulouse, is contained another for St. Gabriel for the 23rd day of March, with particular antiphons, chapters, and responsories; the lessons of the first Nocturn from the 9th chapter of Daniel the Prophet, of the second from Homily 34 of St. Gregory on the Gospels, A new Office: of the third from the Homily of St. Bernard on the Missus: which may appear to be the same one indicated above by Colvener: but

it has this proper collect: O God, who willed to announce the Incarnation of your Only-begotten Son to the most holy Virgin Mary through Blessed Gabriel, and exalted this your Archangel by a singular commerce with Jesus and with Mary his mother, grant us to enjoy the grace of so great a mystery, to be strengthened, directed and illumined by the assistance of so holy an Angel in the way of the Lord; and by his ministry to be introduced into the innermost sanctuary of the love of Jesus and Mary. Of equal elegance and most sweet efficacy for moving the affections of piety are the hymns, which we here also transcribe, previously likewise described by our Honoratus Nicquet at the end of his treatise on the Angel Gabriel, published at Lyon in 1653, with the author's name added, whom we would otherwise not have known to be Nicolas Bourbon, Priest of the Oratory of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

FOR VESPERS

O light, herald of the Light, hymns from it Messenger of the God of gods, Speak the words that precede the Word, And announce the Word to his mother.

O Archangel, lead the heavenly Soldiers to the manger Of the newborn Christ, And sound the hymn to Christ.

Raphael led Tobias; But you, Angel of salvation, Lead Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, Lead and bring back the Father's Only-begotten.

Advise whether he is to go, Indicate whether he is to stay; Assiduous minister of Jesus, Walk wherever he goes.

Conscious of the sorrows of Jesus, Visit Jesus in the garden: Him dripping with his own blood, Comfort the God with the power of God.

O blessed Gabriel, Among the blessed spirits: You who alone reveal to the world The mystery hidden through the ages:

On earth alone of the heavenly ones, Entrusted to your fidelity, O favor of the highest Divinity! You hold the eternal Son.

Who shall equal these things with praises? Who shall equal them with fitting tribute? You surpass heaven and earth, Comforting the Lord of heaven.

Glory to you, O Lord, Who were born of the Virgin, With the Father and the Holy Spirit For everlasting ages. Amen.

FOR MATINS

Burning Seraph of love, Messenger of the eternal Word, And guardian of the Virgin Mother, Inspire our canticles.

That Bridegroom of souls, Conscious of sacred love, Bade you reveal the hidden Mysteries of grace promised to the earth.

What favor of the highest Divinity Wills you alone among the heavenly ones As the messenger of eternal peace To bear to a lost world?

With you and his mother alone as witnesses, The Father of lights reveals himself And his own Son to the flesh, Joining them by an eternal covenant.

With what mind do you behold for mortals The Son of God emptied In the flesh, The Lord of heaven on earth?

With what feeling do you behold the earth Made fruitful by your message: Which containing Christ within itself Sees all things below itself:

Which, reversing the order of things, Surpassing the highest heaven; From the moment you descended to earth, Begins to move the heavens?

With what eye of the mind do you watch The heavenly seats being filled; The heavenly Spirits governed From earth by an infant?

O Gabriel, beloved of mother and son, Wound us your suppliants With the love of Jesus; Pierce us with the love of his mother. Amen.

FOR LAUDS

O Angel happy in your lot, Messenger of the great secret; Be present to our minds, Attend to our praises.

Our assembly looks up to you, O Gabriel Archangel, Proclaiming the Man and God Revealed in your name.

You, great among the greatest Princes of the supreme choir, The inhabitants of the heavenly court Celebrate with everlasting praise.

The Virgin Mother looks up to you As the guardian of her grace, The minister of her little one, The consolation of her son.

What you render to the Son of God, They repay with fitting tribute: The divine Mother of the child, The eternal Father of the Son.

Let the chosen band of Virgins Praise you with a heavenly song; You protect the Bridegroom of Virgins At the very threshold of life.

Let the choir of Martyrs praise you, And every band of the heavenly ones; You comfort the Lord of heaven In his final combat.

Love, creator of all, Love, redeemer of mankind, May your love wound us, May your Spirit anoint us.

Amen.

[20] Why some celebrate on the 23rd, Whoever they are who, as stated above, celebrate this feast on the 23rd of March, they doubtless intend by it to dispose their soul to celebrate more worthily the mystery of the Incarnation (whose Vigil occurs the following day, the solemnity itself on the third day); therefore placing it as close as possible to its principal feast. But others, who from a usage which we consider more ancient, chose the 18th day, seem to have done this so that they might prepare themselves for a full seven days; or March 18, intending after the feast of the Annunciation itself to spend an equal period of time in thanksgiving with the rest of the Church: and thus to have a sort of double Octave. But because neither day is universally received or prescribed in the Latin Church; so that that devotion is rather the private practice of certain particular Churches and religious houses, than the public practice of the Christian people; on the contrary, why others celebrate this feast on the 26th? in the Greek and Eastern Church it is received by absolutely universal usage; therefore we have preferred this 26th day, in establishing which the Greeks seem to have followed what the Latins did in placing the feast of St. Paul on the day after the one on which the glorious Martyrdom of both Princes of the Apostles occurs for celebration: because the first day, although common to both, is almost entirely devoted by us to Peter, as by them to the Virgin Mary, so that neither we seem to have done enough for Paul, nor they for Gabriel, unless they supply that deficiency with a special honor on the following day.

§ IV Encomia of St. Archangel Gabriel.

[21] The panegyric of Martin de Roa on St. Gabriel: Martin de Roa of the Society of Jesus, Reader of Sacred Scripture at Seville in the College of St. Hermenegild and Rector of the same College, published there in the year 1615 a book on the Feasts and Saints of Cordoba, commonly called the Flos-sanctorum of Cordoba: and in it an outstanding Panegyric for the 18th day of March, in which, having commended the excellence of the holy Angels and especially of Gabriel with many arguments, he demonstrates with great weight of reasons and examples how just and useful it is that the presiding Angels of kingdoms and provinces be honored by those who rule and those who are subject to them with special reverence of honor: and he concludes with what happened to Hubert Salonic, Hubert Salonic, devoted to him Treasurer of the King of Poland; a man indeed most avaricious and injurious to his masters through wicked arts of amassing money, and burdensome to the peoples; but nevertheless so piously devoted to the Archangel Gabriel and his companions, that in his service and honor he performed many outstanding works of generous piety throughout his whole life.

[22] This man, he says, when he had been brought to the final end of life and was now expecting death to come upon him at any moment, about to be damned for his avaricious administration of the treasury, such a sudden crash filled the room of the dying man that all fled in terror and left the dying man alone. Shortly after, as the noise subsided, he called his wife and children and explained that by divine judgment he had been condemned to eternal death for the offenses he had committed in the administration of his office. Then demons had rushed in, about to seize his unhappy soul and carry it to hell, had not the Archangel Gabriel and the Angel specially assigned to his personal guardianship, supported by a great company of heavenly spirits, hastened to his aid; and snatched from their power, they had obtained for him from the Judge, who granted it at their prayers, a space for doing penance and having obtained a space for penance, meriting salvation: admonishing him that before all else, he should make satisfaction to those to whom he had caused harm. Therefore, he said, I strictly command that my goods be divided in two: one part shall be restored to the King, from whom I unjustly accumulated it by fraud; of the other, one half shall be given to those to whom I acknowledge myself a debtor through unlawful contracts by a written codicil: the second half to the rest, to whomever I have caused damage in any way, whether by exacting sooner or more severely than was proper, or by delaying the owed payment longer than was just.

[23] But you, my sons, know that nothing of what I have acquired belongs to you: he orders the ill-gotten gains restored, live content with your mother's resources, and learn from my example to keep your hands and eyes from what belongs to others. Behold, I have served the King for fifty years, and of the fruit of so long a labor I find not a single coin that I can justly call my own, except what I have perhaps spent in honor of the Holy Angels. These alone were faithful friends to me: I leave to you as your hereditary right to undertake their devotion and cult. Thus Hubert, pleading with tears what he could not express in words; and dies piously. amid which he asked for and obtained the last sacraments of the Church, and finally on the eighth day, having cleansed the stains of his former life by wholesome penance, and having discharged his debts by fitting satisfaction, he happily closed this temporal life, to live forever in heaven with the Angels whom he had venerated.

[24] Other examples of angelic devotion. Martin relates this, and from him Louis de la Cerda of the same Society in his book on the excellence of Angels, chapter 49, cited by Honoratus Nicquet: We believe this story was received in good faith from reliable sources: for Roa does not name them, nor do we have leisure to turn through all who have published books about Polish affairs, and these mostly lacking necessary indices of notable events, to search out under which and whose Kings this Hubert lived and died. Whoever wishes more examples of this kind, but common either to guardian Angels or to all, may read the aforesaid Martin, or the booklet of our Jacques Hautin on the Guardian Angel, which will suggest many things of this kind pleasant to read and useful to imitate. Also the epitome of the history of Angels published at Lyon in the year 1652 by the aforesaid Boniface Constantine, and the above-cited treatise of Honoratus Nicquet: but above all these our volumes on the Acts of the Saints, whose moral index under the word Angel will suggest so many miracles, benefits, and services of Angels toward Saints of every kind, and in turn the confidence, observance, and cultus of the latter toward the former, illustrated by so many and such distinguished examples, as all books hitherto printed together.

[25] In the Library of the Preaching Fathers collected and published by Francis Combefis, volume 8, there is an outstanding oration on the Holy Archangels by St. Michael Syncellus, From the oration of St. Michael Syncellus to be commemorated on the 18th of December: whose most elegant epilogue, containing the invocation and praises of each of the three Princes of the celestial Hierarchy individually, of all the Orders, and of all commonly, and finally of the King of Angels himself, had long ago appeared in the great Library of the Fathers, with Theodore Peltanus as translator, ascribed to the name of Sophronius, Bishop of Jerusalem: in which such an apostrophe to St. Gabriel is found.

[26] You also, most divine and most excellent of Angels, Gabriel, you who are most longed for by the world, and the best giver of joy and gladness, you who are the most learned interpreter of divine mysteries, invocation of St. Gabriel and the primary administrator and procurator of all goods, you who are the most august leader and prince of sacred ministers; come, instruct my mind and heart, and direct them to all the judgments and justifications of God. You who revealed to Daniel at the Chobar that wholly divine vision, dissolve the stain of my barrenness. You who by God's command released from the bond that held it the previously barren womb of Elizabeth and made it fruitful, flood also my unhappy and afflicted soul with a pleasing beauty, and with inner gladness and light.

[27] You who filled the most blessed and blameless soul of our most holy and most pure Lady, the Mother of God Mary, with immense joy by your glad and saving announcement, and transformed the sorrow and mourning of Eve into gladness by a sure promise of salvation: in brief, you who turned the grief of the whole world into joy, and tearing away the garment of mourning, clothed all in a robe of gladness: you also, again and again, O Gabriel, reconciler and giver of true gladness, I beg and beseech, that you kindly visit me, weighed down with heavy affliction, and fill me with divine power and gladness of soul; and having freed me from the torments of Belial and the dangers of visible and invisible enemies, through your authority and intercession with God, join me to the company of the Just and Saints, and finally place me securely in those regions that abound in all riches.

[28] Let this prayer of Anthony Duca in his booklet on the seven Angels, as found in Nicquet, conclude these matters, fitting for the present subject: O God, lover of human salvation, who sent Blessed Gabriel, a prince standing before you and minister of your strength, to announce to the glorious and immaculate Virgin the sacrament of the Incarnation of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: we humbly ask that for us who take refuge under the protection of so great a paranymph, you may deign to grant strength against visible and invisible enemies. Another similar prayer is found in Christopher Phreislebius, in the memorial of Saints to be observed on the individual days of the year, printed at Vienna in Austria without the year of printing, which however from the formula of the prayer dedicated to the commemoration of St. Gabriel on March 24, you may understand to have been later than the year 1515.

CONCERNING THE SEVEN HOLY BOY MARTYRS OF LEONTINI IN SICILY.

UNDER DECIUS

The Seven Boys, Martyrs at Leontini in Sicily (SS.)

[1] The celebrated memory of the people of Leontini after the ruin of the city is preserved by many crowned with the laurel of martyrdom for the faith of Christ there: from these the Records of this Church present on this day the unconquered spirit of Seven boys, Sacred cultus: generously triumphing under the Emperor Decius; concerning whom the Ecclesiastical Office approved by Pope Paul V is recited. The same are mentioned by Octavius Caietanus in the Sicilian Martyrology, and Ferrari in the General Catalogue. Their Acts are contained in the Life and history of the martyrdom of SS. Alphius, Philadelphus, and Cyrinus, to be presented in full on their birthday, May 10. Here we offer as a foretaste what the aforesaid Caietanus extracted about these seven boys from that source, and they are as follows:

[2] In the persecution of the Emperor Decius and Valerian, under Tertullus the Governor of Sicily, eulogy. a helpless and innocent age experienced the ultimate in cruelty: for at Leontini seven holy Boys endured death, but were first tortured by Tertullus with torments, that by their severity faith might be extinguished. But the Tyrant's plan had the opposite effect: neither was faith and Christ extinguished in the boys; but childhood was crowned by Christ, the weakness of the body being transcended by the virtue of the soul. By which crime Tertullus was all the more savage, the more innocent the age that was torn apart by punishments: but the death of the Boys was more beautiful and their glory greater, the more tenderness and strength there was in their small bodies. Their names and acts, which we regret, have not come down to us at all; we drew this memorial from the Martyrdom of SS. Alphius, Philadelphus, and Cyrinus, whom the Consular Tertullus, when he had ordered them to be dragged naked over rough rocks, and then torn and dragged before him; addressed in this manner: Where is your God? Why did he not rescue you from my hand? Then the Holy Martyrs, reproaching the Governor for his cruelty, said: O impious one, are you not yet satiated with the blood of so many innocents, which you have shed from the very beginning of your magistracy, nor with such torments with which you have afflicted us? But in doing this, you have increased our crowns, just as those of the Seven Holy Boys who preceded us and died for the law of Christ: but flames await you, which there is no hope of extinguishing. Thus they spoke. Do not mourn, Sicily, the slaughter of your Boys: but rejoice that you have choirs of little ones who together praise God in heaven: nor should you mothers of Leontini dwell in grief. The loss of a small body and a life of few days is a small loss: but the reward of that loss is great, and the reward in heaven. Now celebrate the departure, or rather the passing, of your sons with song: for they have not died, but live in God with Christ, to whom be glory forever.