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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250917
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SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - St Martin of Finojosa
DESCRIPTION:SAINT MARTIN OF FINOJOSA \nBy Thomas Merton \n◊◊◊ \nSaint Martin Sacerdos of Finojosa\, Abbot of Huerta\, Bishop of Siguenza\, \nSpain\, was born in the year 1139 and grew up under the care of a most loving and \npious Christian mother with his brother\, a courtier and knight\, and his two \nsisters Theresa and Eve. Instead of following the usual aspirations to \nknighthood\, Martin was fonder of books and meditation and solitude\, and this \nbent of his was definitely turned into a vocation to the cloister when his father \ndied. The shock of this loss fixed his mind on eternity\, and despising all that the \nworld had to offer\, he made known his intentions to his mother and brother. He \nwas then twenty years old. \nAt first he met with nothing but opposition. However\, when they saw that \nhe was firm in his purpose\, his family did not have the impiety to resist him \nfurther\, and his mother made a most generous and willing sacrifice of him\, \ntaking him to the Abbey of Cantavos and there leaving him with all the \nceremonies prescribed by Saint Benedict for presenting the children of the rich \nto the monastery. Martin\, meanwhile\, took the Mother of God in exchange for \nhis earthly mother and adopted as his motto for the novitiate: “What you begin\, \nbegin perfectly”… \nAlthough he was only twenty-six\, Sacerdos was elected by the monks to \nsucceed the abbot… <His history as abbot> comes to us through official \ndocuments which tell us less of his virtues than of the fame of them and the \neffects of that fame. We read everywhere of the veneration in which he was held \nby the royalty and nobility of all Spain… \nIt was with the greatest distaste that Saint Sacerdos learned\, in 1186\, that \nhe had been elected bishop of Siguenza. He only accepted this position under \norders from Rome… In 1194\, however\, Saint Sacerdos persuaded the Pope to \naccept his resignation and was able to return to the peace and tranquility of \nHuerta\, where he could fill his soul with the infinite sweetness of the presence of \nGod and hide himself in the secret of His face\, of whom the psalmist said: “Thou \ndost protect them in Thy tabernacle against the contradiction of tongues.” \nAnd that Face\, of which we read in the same Psalm…is nothing else but \nthe divine Essence\, in which we lose ourselves in the luminous darkness of faith\, \nwhich covers us and makes us invisible to our enemies – and sometimes to \nourselves. And so\, in these years\, Saint Sacerdos was often rapt out of himself in \nthe ecstasy of divine contemplation. \nDeath finally overtook him in 1210 when he was on a visitation of his \nmonastery of Óvila. He felt the end approaching and set out for Huerta but did \nnot complete his journey\, for he died on the way. His venerated body was \nreceived with great circumstance by his grieving children and buried in the great \nchurch of the abbey. \nIn 1558 his body was found completely uncorrupted\, along with the \nclothing and crozier with which he had been buried. He was formally beatified \nwith the title of saint and inscribed in the Roman Martyrology in 1584.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-martin-of-finojosa/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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