Sunday, January 9
SOLEMNITY OF THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD
Illustrations, from left: Medieval Russian icon; Bellini, 1426; Fra Angelico, 1441; Verrochio/Da Vinci, 1472; El Greco, 1608; Murillo, 1655.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/011011.shtml
Today's saint:
Center, St. Augustine's Abbey today, a World Heritage site along with Canterbury Cathedral.
ST. ADRIAN (HADRIAN) OF CANTERBURY (b North Africa ca. 635, d England 710)
Benedictine Abbot and Scholar
A Berber like St. Augustine, his family left Africa for Italy where he became a Benedictine monk and abbot of a monastery
near Naples. Pope St. Vitalian twice offered to make him Archbishop of Canterbury but he declined. The second time, he
recommended his friend Theodore of Tarsus (who would become St. theodore of Canterbury), then already 67. The Pope
agreed, provided Adrian accompanied him to Canterbury, where Theodore made him head the abbey founded by Saint
Augustine of Canterbury in the 6th century. Adrian, a gifted scholar, made the abbey one of the great centers of learning
in his time. To this day, the 'books of Theodore and Hadrian', including their commentaries on the Bible, are still issued
in modern editions as source material for Anglo-Saxon England. Adrian died peacefully in the abbey. The Normans completely
rebuilt the Anglo-Saxon abbey, and during the work, St. Adrian's remains were unearthed in 1091 and found to be incorrupt.
His tomb became an object of pilgrimage where many miracles were said to take place.
No papal news in today's OR, but there is a background story on the tradition of the papal Golden Rose offered these days to Martian images venerated in major shrines. Page 1 international news: Thousands of young persons clash with police forces in major Algerian cities as they protest in several cities against continued unemployment (70% of the population are 25 years or younger) and rising food prices - similar protests have been taking place in neighboring Tunisia; South Sudan votes in a referendum today on whether to become independent from the Muslim-dominated main territory - violent clashes on the eve, Cardinal Napier of South Africa heads an interfaith delegation of election observers; severe drought aggravates the tragedy of civil war-torn Somalia; and US Federal Reserve chairman warns it will take at least five years to bring unemployment down to 8% from its present 9.4%.
PAPAL EVENTS TODAY
Mass of the Baptism of the Lord at the Sistine Chapel, with the baptism of 21 children. Homily.
Sunday Angelus - After the prayers, he recalled the disastrous Haiti earthquake one year ago, and
said he was sending the president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, Cardinal Robert Sarah, to Haiti
as his personal representative to offer concrete help.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/01/2011 00:33]