Silence

[Rich]

Silence

Let us leave a little room for reflection, room too for silence. Enter
into yourself, and leave behind all noise and confusion. Look within
yourself. See whether there be some delightful hidden place in your
consciousness, where you can be free of noise and argument, where you
need not be carrying on your disputes and planning to have your own
stubborn way. Hear the word in quietness, that you may understand it.
--St. Augustine-- Sermon 52, 22

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June 29th - SS. Salome and Judith
9th century.

ABOUT the middle of the 9th century, Walter, the abbot of the double
monastery of Ober Altaich in Bavaria, caused an anchoress-cell to be
built at the west end of the church with an aperture into the choir.
In it he enclosed with the customary rites a relation of his own, a
stranger from England named Salome. According to a tradition which
became current at Altaich, she was an unmarried princess, the niece of
a king of England. On her way back from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem she
had the misfortune to lose her two attendants, all her possessions,
and--temporarily--her sight. After many sufferings and much wandering
she arrived at Passau, where she found a temporary home, and from
thence she went to Altaich to end her days in seclusion and prayer.
Some time later she was joined by a cousin or aunt, a widow called
Judith, who--it was popularly believed--had been sent in search of
Salome by the king of England. Altaich proved as attractive to her as
to her kinswoman, and she also decided to remain there. For her
accommodation, a 2nd cell was built, adjoining that of Salome. Thus
they lived until Salome's death left Judith in solitude. At times she
suffered from diabolical attacks and night terrors, and the shrieks
which came from her cell sometimes brought the monks running from the
neighbouring abbey to find out if she was being murdered. She was
buried beside her niece at Ober Altaich. It is stated that in 907,
when the monastery was destroyed by the Hungarians, the relics of both
recluses were translated to Nieder Altaich, where they are still
venerated.

No contemporary English princess known to history seems to tally with
either Salome or Judith, unless, as has been suggested, it be Edburga,
the beautiful and wicked daughter of Offa of Mercia. She married
Beorhtric, King of the West Saxons, and, after murdering a number of
his nobles, she accidentally killed her husband with the poison she
had prepared for someone else. She was driven out of England, and she
took refuge at the court of Charlemagne. That monarch, in the words of
William of Malmesbury, “on account of her wickedness and exceeding
beauty, gave her a noble nunnery for women". Her conduct there,
however, was so disgraceful that she was ejected with ignominy, and
was reduced to wandering from one city to another with a maidservant
as her sole companion. Asser states that he knew people who had seen
her begging in the streets of Patavium, i.e. Pavia. If Patavium is,
indeed, as has been suggested, a copyist's erroneous rendering of
Patavia, or Passau, a city within easy reach of Altaich, then Judith
the recluse may well have been Edburga; she would naturally change her
name on entering religion, to sever so tangible a link with her
discreditable past.

There is a detailed Latin narrative dealing with what purports to be
the history of these two recluses, written seemingly by a monk of
Nieder Altaich. The Bollandists in 1709 describe him as almost a
contemporary of what he records (see the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol.
vii), but later critics are satisfied that the document which we
possess cannot have taken shape earlier than the close of the twelfth
century. Moreover, the Walter referred to in the story as abbot of
Altaich seems more likely to belong to the eleventh century, in the
time of William the Conqueror. See Holder-Egger in MGH., Scriptores,
vol. xv, pp. 847 seq., who quotes the text in part, and cf.
Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, vol. xviii (1878), pp. 551 seq.
For Edburga, see R. M. Wilson, The Lost Literature of Medieval England
(1952), pp. 37 seq.


Reflection.
The Church takes delight in styling her founder “Jesus most amiable",
and He indeed says of Himself, “I am meek and humble of heart.”
His true followers can all be characterized in the same way.

Saint Quote:
Every time we come into the presence of the Eucharist we may say:
This precious Testament cost Jesus Christ His life. For the Eucharist
is a testament, a legacy which becomes valid only at the death of the testator.
Our Lord thereby shows us His boundless love, for He Himself said there
is no greater proof of love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.
-- Saint Peter Julian Eymard

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"Knowledge comes like light from the sun. The foolish man through
lack of faith or laziness deliberately closes his eyes--that is, his faculty of
choice--and at once consigns the knowledge to oblivion because in his
indolence he fails to put it into practice. For folly leads to indolence,
and this in turn begets inertia and hence forgetfulness. Forgetfulness
breeds self-love--the love of one's own will and thoughts which is
equivalent to the love of pleasure and praise. From self-love comes
avarice, the root of all evils (cf. 1 Tim. 6:10), for it entangles us in
worldly concerns and in this way leads to complete unawareness of
God's gifts and of our own faults."
--St. Peter of Damaskos.