Of the Good, Peaceable Man (3)

[Weedy]

Of the Good, Peaceable Man (3)

It is no great thing to associate with the good and gentle, for
such association is naturally pleasing. Everyone enjoys a peaceful
life and prefers persons of congenial habits. But to be able to live
at peace with harsh and perverse men, or with the undisciplined and
those who irritate us, is a great grace, a praiseworthy and manly
thing.
--Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 2, Chapter 3

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2 August – Saint Serenus of Marseilles

The 10th Bishop of Marseilles. Died in c 606 near Biandrate, Piedmont,
Italy of natural causes. Also known as – Sereno, Clear (translation of
his name). Patronages – for good weather, for good harvests, of
Biandrate, Italy.

Serenus is known through an exchange of letters with Pope Gregory the
Great (540-604). The correspondence between the Pope and the Bishop of
Marseilles concerned the position of the Church in regard to the
images in the Churches and the journey undertaken by Saint Augustine,
the future Archbishop of Canterbury and the Monks who accompanied him
to England.

He would have died near Biandrate in the Diocese of Vercelli on his
return from Rome where he had been to discuss his iconoclastic
positions regarding the veneration of images. We know little else but
this Saint except that he was a zealous and holy Bishop sincerely
aiming to foster the faith of his flock and adherence to Holy Mother
Church.
He was buried in a field near the Benedictine Abbey of San Nazzaro.
His body was found in the Middle Ages, by a farmer working the field,
and his relics were then re-enshrined in the St Columba of Biandrate.
The Bishop had destroyed the holy images by strictly applying the
commandment given by God to Moses.

In 599, the Pope sent Father Cyriaque to Gaul. Having to go through
Marseilles, he had given Cyriaque a letter he had written to the
Bishop:

I learned a long time ago that seeing a few people worshiping the
pictures of the Church you broke them and threw them out. I praise
your zeal to prevent man-made things from being worshiped but I
believe you should not shatter these images. Because we put paintings
in Churches so that those who cannot read can see, on the walls, what
they cannot learn from books. So you had to keep them and divert the
people from sinning by worshiping paintings.

Serenus replied to the Pope, doubting that this letter was from him.
The Pope replied to him the following year:

You must have had no suspicion of Father Cyriaque, who was the bearer
of my letters.

Then talking about pictures:
Tell me, my brother, what Bishop have you ever heard of who did the
same? Should not this consideration only hold you back so as not to
appear alone, pious and wise, in contempt of your brothers? … It is
said that by shattering these images you scandalised your people so
much that most of them broke away from your community. We must remind
them of them and show them, that through the Holy Scriptures, that it
is not allowed to worship what is made by hand. Then add, that seeing
the legitimate use of the images, turned into worship, you were
outraged and made them break. You will add – if you want to have
images in the Church, for your instruction, for which they were made
in the past, I will gladly allow you. So you will soften them and
bring them back to union. If someone wants to make images, do not
prevent him: only forbid worshiping them. The sight of the stories
must excite in them compunction but they must prostrate themselves
only to adore the Holy Trinity. I tell you all this only out of my
love for the Church, not to weaken your zeal but to encourage you in
your duty.“

Saint Gregory the Great, after Basil the Great (329-379), Gregory of
Nazianze (330-390), Gregory of Nyssa (335-394) and PaulinE of Nola
(353-431), resumes in his letters that the images are useful for those
who cannot read books.
Gregory the Great sets three roles for images in his two letters to Serenus

1. educate the illiterate,
2. to fix the memory of holy history,
3. arouse a feeling of compunction among the faithful.“
But the Bishop must teach that pictures cannot be worshiped.

https://anastpaul.com/2021/08/02/


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August: Diligence--He did all things well. [Mark 7:37 ]

5. Endeavor not to appear singular, but to be so. This is done by
leading, in all respects, the common life, doing all things that are
enjoined, but with exactness in the time, place, and manner
prescribed. We must do common things not in a common matter, but in a
manner more sublime and perfect than that in which they are commonly
done. This is to appear externally like all the rest, and to be
interiorly singular, which is a greater virtue and a treasure of
merit.
--St. Bernard

This great praise is given to the same Saint himself: "Erat in
ordinariis non ordinarius--In ordinary things he was not ordinary." It
is said of St. Francis de Sales that he was the most exact of men--not
only at the altar and in choir, where he observed even the smallest
ceremonies punctually and faithfully, but also in private, in reciting
the Office and in all his duties.
("A Year with the Saints". August: Diligence)

Saint Quote:
Those who attend to the regulation of their own consciences are not
much given to form rash judgments; far from wasting their reflections
in dissecting the actions and intentions of their neighbors, whose
conduct may appear cloudy and obscure, they enter into themselves, and
use their utmost endeavors to reform and perfect their own lives, like
bees which, in misty and cloudy weather, return to their hive to
pursue their home labors. Rash judgment produces detraction, which is
the bane of conversation. Were detraction banished from the world,
numberless other sins would be banished together with it.
-- St. Francis de Sales