Historical Notes for Lent

Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Dominus, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.

   I love Church history. The Lenten "stations" in Rome deserve some explanation.  Each Mass in Lent has its own Station. In the course of a year, the Pope used to celebrate solemn Mass in one after another of the great basilicas, the twenty-five parish churches of Rome, and in certain other sanctuaries, surrounded by clergy and people. It was called "making the Station." This name reminds us that Rome is the center of worship and stands to us for a liturgy more than thirteen centuries old. Lent is one of the most ancient liturgical seasons and most important of the whole year, anticipating the Passion, Death and Resurrection.

   In Lent during olden days, the faithful assembled in one church (church of the "collects" or gathering) and went in procession, singing the Litany or Psalms to the church of the "Station." Mass was said then either by the Pope or a representative of the Pope. These churches, which already existed in the fifth century, were called "titles" (tituli). The parish priests of Rome who served them were called Cardinals (incardinali), which means attached to these churches. So it is today, when a new Cardinal is named, he is still assigned one of the churches of Rome as his titular parish.  The first Christians, for the honor of their martyrs, built sanctuaries over their tombs and placed their bodies under the High Altar. From this the custom of placing relics in the altar stone of churches is taken. The twenty-five parish churches above noted are those mostly of early Christian martyrs.

   I thought of giving this bit of history when I was reading today's Mass. The Station is a sanctuary situated on the Esquiline Hill. A holy priest had given his house to Pope St. Sylvester to turn into a church. It was one of the twenty-five churches in the fifth century. In the sixth, Pope St. Symmachus built a new church next to the first one, on a higher level, dedicated both to St. Sylvester and to *St. Martin of Tours, the Church of Saints Sylvester and Martin.

   This church was chosen for today because the Gospel (Luke 7: 11-16) speaks of Christ's resurrection, and because in the name of the Blessed Trinity, St. Martin had raised three persons from the dead; a symbol of the baptized, who are born to a new life in the name of the Trinity.

   Both Epistle (4 Kings 4:25-38) and Gospel announce the resurrection of Christ and in the celebration of which, at Easter, public penitents participated. The Sunamite woman in the Old Testament and the widow of Naim in the New, both had lost sons. Eliseus, a "figure" of Christ in the Old Testament, raised the first and Jesus raised the widow's son. This reminds us that God in His mercy restores our souls to life with the Sacrament of Penance. St. Ambrose (d. 397 A.D.) says, "This widow resembles the Church which intervenes in favor of each of her children, as a widow for her only son, because she is full of compassion, and feels a spiritual sorrow, when she sees any of her children being dragged down to eternal death by mortal sins."

* About St. Martin of Tours: In the first three centuries the saints were mostly martyrs. St. Martin is the first bishop and confessor honored by the Church in the West. The liturgy on his feast day (November 11) gives him a rank equal to the apostles, it is said, for he was the principal apostle of Gaul. He began as a soldier. While still studying for his Baptism he gave part of his cloak to a poor man who asked alms in the name of Christ. The following night Our Lord appeared to him clothed in this half and said to him, "Martin, a simple catechumen, covered me with this garment."  At 18 he was baptized, became a disciple of St. Hilary of Poitiers, built a monastery in the desert and retired there with a few disciples. He founded the monastic life in Gaul. God had other plans for Martin. He was made Bishop of Tours and founded the famous abbey, Marmoutiers. He had then around him some eighty monks, living as hermits.  He died in 397 A.D. There is much more to the story of St. Martin of Tours. For centuries he has been a specially honored Saint in France.

The information for this snippet of Church History is found in the 1945 edition of the Saint Andrew Daily Missal.