Tuesday, January 15, First Week in Ordinary Time
Center illustration: St. Anthony Abbot burying St Paul the Hermit.
ST. PAUL THE HERMIT (Paul of Thebes) (Egypt, 228-345)
Considered to be the first Christian hermit, Paul was in his 20s when he escaped the Christian
persecution under Emperor Dacian by fleeing to a cave in the desert outside Thebes. He found
the solitude and opportunity for prayer so right for him that he stayed for the next 90 years.
He subsisted on a nearby spring and palm tree, though it was said that when he was 43, a raven
started bringing him half a loaf of bread every day. When he was 112, he received a visit from
St. Anthony Abbot (Anthony the Great), already renowned as a pioneer of ascetic monasticism
and who had himself lived as a desert anchorite. It is said they spent a day and a night talking
to each other. Paul lived another year and died at age 113. St. Jerome wrote a biography which
has become the standard source about him.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011513.cfm
No events announced today for the Holy Father.
A VERY HAPPY AND MOST BLESSED 89TH BIRTHDAY
TO MONS. GEORG RATZINGER
May God grant you
many more years of grace
in loving companionship and support
of your beloved brother!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/01/2013 17:50]