Jerome: "To be a Christian"

“TO be a Christian is the great thing, not merely to seem one. And somehow or other those please the world most who please Christ least.”

~St. Jerome: Letters, 58, 7.

On St. Augustine

“WE have ever had in communion with us Augustine of holy memory for the sake of his life and merits; never has the breath of evil suspicion tarnished his name. We have always kept him in memory as a man of such great learning that my predecessors ranked him with the foremost masters. Unanimously they held him in high esteem, for all loved him and paid him honor.”

~Pope St. Celestine I


“CATHOLICS venerate you as the restorer of the ancient faith, and while they look up to you, the heretics—an even more testimony—detest you.”

~St. Jerome: Letter to St. Augustine (No. 195 among letters of St. Augustine).

Gregory I: Scripture

“I beg you, and meditate daily on the words of your Creator. Learn the heart of God in the words of God, that you may sigh more eagerly for things eternal, that your soul may be kindled with greater longings for heavenly joy.”

~Pope St. I: Letters, 5, 46.

Assumption of Our Lady

Assumption of the Virgin, by Andrea Del Sarto.
Oil on wood, 1526-29;
Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence.

“THE grave and death could not retain the Mother of God, who is unceasing in prayers, our stalwart hope by her protection; for as she is the Mother of Life, He Who dwelt in the ever Virgin hath taken her away unto life.” 

—Byzantine Menaea, Kontakion for the Feast. (ca. 6th cent.)

“MARY hath been taken to heaven; the angels rejoice; they praise and bless the Lord.” 

—Roman Breviary, Antiphon at Lauds for the Feast. (Liber Respons., 7th cent.)

“AS the most glorious Mother of Christ, our Savior and God and the Giver of life and immortality, has been endowed with life by Him, she has received an eternal incorruptibility of the body together with Him Who has raised her up from the tomb and has taken her up to Himself in a way known only to Him.”

—Homily on the Assumption, 14. (Attr. to St. Modestus of Jerusalem; 7th cent.)

“IT was fitting that she, who had kept her virginity intact in childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruptibility even after death. It was fitting that she, who had carried the Creator as a Child at her breast, should dwell in the divine tabernacles. It was fitting that the spouse, whom the Father had taken to Himself, should live in the divine mansions. It was fitting that she, who has seen her Son upon the Cross and who had thereby received into her heart the sword of sorrow which she had escaped in the act of giving birth to Him, should look upon Him as He sits at the right hand of the Father. It was fitting that God’s Mother should possess what belongs to her Son, and that she should be honored by every creature as the Mother and as the Handmaid of God.”

—St John of Damascus: Homily 2 on the Assumption, 14. (8th cent.)