December 1- Blessed Marie-Clementine Anuarite Negapeta (1064 virgin and martyr, a member of the Holy Family Sisters in Kinshasa, Zaire, martyred by the Simba rebels).

Anuarite was a virgin and martyr. She was a member of the Holy Family Sisters in Kinshasa, Zaire. Anuarite was of the Babudu tribe, born in Wamba, and passed all her religious life in Bafwabaka, the first mission in that area. At birth, she received the name of Nengapeta, which in the language of the Babudu means, “wealth is deceptive.”

When she started primary school she was registered by error with the Anuarite. That was the name of her sister. In her language the name meant, “I laugh to myself about war.” The error was providential. At baptism, she received the name of Alfonsina, and in religious life, the name Marie-Clemintine. She was raped and killed by the Simba rebels on December 1, 1964.

Pope John Paul II went to Kinshasa, Zaire and celebrated the beatification ceremony on August 15, 1985. She was the first Bantu woman elevated to the altars, and like in the first centuries Christianity, a virgin consecrated to the Lord. She followed in the footsteps of great women like Saints Cecilia, Agnes, Lucy, and so many others.

Anuarite’s life was a lesson of modesty, love, fidelity and valor. In her life one sees a wonderful example of the freedom of the children of God, freed from all manner of disagreements and impositions. She demonstrated how God chose the weak of this world to shame the strong.

December 3- St. Cassian of Tangiers (298 a lawyer who resigned and became a Christian and died as a martyr).

Martyr mentioned in a hymn by St. Prudentius, also called Cassian of Tangiers. He was a court recorder at the trial of St. Marcellus the Centurion. Aurelius Agricola, deputy prefect in the Roman province in North Africa, conducted the trial. When the death penalty was imposed on St. Marcellus, Cassian threw down his pen and declared that he was a Christian. He was arrested immediately and put to death. Cassian is patron of modern stenographers.

December 10- St. Miltiades (one of the Church’s Black Popes). Miltiades occupied the papacy from 311 to 314 A.D. serving four years, seven months and eight days. Miltiades decreed that none of the faithful should fast on Sunday or on the fifth day of the week… because this was the custom of the pagans. He also found residing in Rome a Persian based religion call Manichaenism. He furthered decreed that consecrated offerings should be sent throughout the churches from the pope’s consecration. This wa called leaven. It was Miltiades who led the church to final victory over the Roman Empire. Miltiades was buried on the famous Appian Way.

January

January 3-(533 Bishop of Ruspe, Tunisia) Fulgentius was a follower of St. Augustine’s ideal of community life, a student of St. Augustine’s theological; teachings and a Bishop in the African Church.

Born in Thelpte (now call Medinet-el-Kedima), Tunisia, in 462, Fulgentius served as a young man in the government of the Vandals in northern Africa. He was named Procurator, which gave him the duty of collecting taxes.

After reading Augustine’s Exposition of Psalm 36, and feeling a call to enter religious life, he initially planned in 499 to join a group of hermits in Egypt. He changed him mind, though, when he learned that Egyptian monasticism had fallen under the influence of theological errors.

Fulgentius was elected Bishop of Ruspe in 502. As a Bishop, he followed Augustine’s example of living in community with the clergy of his Diocese. He founded several other monasteries in Africa. When he was exiled to Sardinia, not wanting to be away from the monastic community life, he even founded monasteries there.

Because of his devotion to the Augustinian ideal of community life and his knowledge of Augustine’s writings, especially on the topic of Grace, Fulgentius was know as the Pocket Augustine. Fulgentius died in Ruspe January 1, 527.

January 10- St. Paul the Hermit (342 Egyptian hermit and founder of monastic life in Thebes) St. Paul is taken as the first hermit (that is, one who chooses to life a solitary life, totally apart and usually in a desert place, for the sake of Christ). He dwelt in the Egyptian desert in the late 3 rd and early 4 th centuries, having originally take refuge there in the persecution of Christians ordered by the Roman Emperor Decius in 250. The Egyptian desert was to become a favorite place for hermitages some of which grouped together, under the influence of St. Anthony of Egypt, to become semi-monasteries. In fact St. Anthony is regarded as the first Abbot. St. Anthony cast a protecting eye over the hermits, and certainly knew St. Paul. Paul died in advanced age (as did Anthony both being over 100).

January 17- St. Anthony the Abbot (356 founder of monastic life in the desert of Egypt) Following the death of his parents when he was about 20, he insured that his sister completed her education, then sold his house, furniture, and the land he owned, gave the proceeds to the poor, joined the anchorites who lived nearby, and moved into an empty sepulcher. At age 35 he moved alone to the desert, living 20 years in an abandoned fort.

Anthony barricaded the place for solitude, but admirers broke in. He miraculously healed people, and agreed to be the spiritual counselor of others. His recommendation was to base life on the Gospel. Word spread, and so many disciples arrived that Anthony founded two monasteries on the Nile, one at Pispir, one at Arsinoe. Many of those who lived near him supported themselves by making baskets and bruses, and from that came his patronage of those trades.

Anthony briefly left his seclusion in 311, going to Alexandria to fight Arianism, and to comfort the victims of Maximinus’ persecution. At some point in his life, je met with his sister again. She, too, had withdraws from the world, and directed a community of nuns. Anthony retired to the desert, living in a cave on Mount Colzim.

January 23- St. John the Almsgiver (619 Patriarch of Alexandria) St. John was a widower probably over 50 when he was appointed or acclaimed Patriarch of Alexandria. He was a wealthy man whose children had also died, and he sought to serve his masters, the poor, through the direct giving of alms and the establishing of hospitals. He is said to have sat openly available in church on Wednesdays and Fridays so that the poor could speak with him. John opposed Monophysitism and employed Sophronius (later Patriarch of Jerusalem) and John Moschus in his battle against the followers of Severus of Antioch. When the Persians invaded Alexandria, John returned to Cyprus, where he died peacefully.