Christmas Every Day

St John of Capistrano

“When the swallows come back to Capistrano” was a hit song for the Ink Spots in 1940. What do migrant birds in California have to do with an Italian soldier-saint honoured on this day?

Giovanni da Capestrano (1386-1456) was the son of a nobleman at the court of the King of Naples and was meant for the life of a soldier and administrator. He studied law at Perugia and was named governor of that city in his mid-20s. When war broke out between Perugia and Rimini he was made a prisoner of war. While in jail, he decided to become a priest and set himself to the study of theology. On his release he joined the Franciscan order, where he would always campaign for stricter discipline, and became a well-known itinerant preacher. Many of his fiery sermons were directed against Judaism, inciting cities to expel their Jewish populations. John was also a fierce opponent of the Hussite heresy which had broken out in the Czech lands. He developed a reputation as a miracle worker, curing the sick by making the sign of the cross and walking on water.

In 1453 the Ottoman Turks under Mehmet the Conqueror captured Constantinople, the last stronghold of the Byzantine, or Eastern Roman, Empire and threatened to press on farther into Christian Europe. John undertook to raise a crusade against the Muslim invaders and with the help of Hungarian general Janos Hunyadi, his army defeated the Turkish siege of Belgrade in 1456. John is said to have personally led troops in attacking the Ottoman lines. He died shortly thereafter of the plague.

John was canonized in 1690 and a number of Franciscan missions in Spanish America were named after him as San Juan Capistrano. His feast day was originally March 28, the date on which migratory swallows return to the area of one of those missions in California. This romantic reunion was celebrated in song by composer Leon René:

In 1969 the calendar reforms of Pope Paul VI moved John’s feast day from March to October 23, the date of the saint’s death.

Murder of  Jerzy Popiełuszko

Though Poland was occupied by the Soviet Red Army since 1944, the Catholic Church remained a powerful element in society. When discontented workers at the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk formed the Solidarity trade union, priest Jerzy Popiełuszko joined the movement. He became famous for his uncompromising anti-communist sermons (sermons which were recorded and broadcast into Poland by Radio Free Europe), his participation in strikes, and his exhortations to the Polish people to protest against their government.

Popiełuszko was arrested in 1983 but was released after pressure from the Church secured him an amnesty. The Security Police then determined that it would be best to eliminate him altogether. On October 19, 1984 he was ambushed by three members of the secret police, beaten to death, and his body dropped into the river. The discovery of his body outraged public opinion in Poland and abroad and helped to inspire continued Solidarity protests. When the Communist regime fell, his murderers were placed on trial and convicted.

The Catholic Church has beatified Popiełuszko and his supporters are confident that he will soon be canonized and become Saint Jerzy Popiełuszko.

1009 Caliph Hakim destroys the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

In 326 the Emperor Constantine, the first Christian ruler of Rome, ordered a church to be built over the recently-discovered site of the tomb of Jesus and the place of his execution on Golgotha. The rocky hill into which the tomb had been carved was removed and a marble covering enclosed the space. This Church of the Holy Sepulchre became the holiest spot in Christendom and thus a focus for attacks on the religion. In 614 the Persians conquered Jerusalem, removed the True Cross and set the church on fire. The building was repaired by Emperor Heraclius who recovered the Cross but fires, earthquakes, and Muslim attacks damaged the church again and again. In 966 the Patriarch of Jerusalem was murdered by an Islamic mob and the basilica set on fire.

The most thorough destruction took place in 1009 when the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim (an Egyptian Shiite of the Ismaili variety) ordered that Christian buildings throughout his territory be destroyed. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was levelled to the ground. Under his son, an agreement with the Byzantine empire allowed for the rebuilding of the church in return for the opening of a mosque in Constantinople.

St Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius of Antioch was the second bishop of that city, having been appointed to the position by the Apostle Peter. Early in the second century Ignatius was caught up in the Syrian persecution ordered by the Emperor Trajan and was sentenced to death in a Roman arena. He is considered an Apostolic Father; his collected letters provide an invaluable look into the heart and theology of the early church. He seems to have been the first to use the word “catholic” to refer to the Church and emphasized the virtues of martyrdom, begging his followers not to interfere with his scheduled death.

I am God’s wheat and shall be ground by the teeth of wild animals. I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God’s wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ’s pure bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God. No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire. 

The entry for this date in Chamber’s Book of Days, a wonderful 19th-century miscellany, includes a number of remarkable wills. Here is one that takes a pot-shot at non-Catholics from beyond the grave.

 True Copy of the Last Will and Testament of Mr. Benjamin Dod, Citizen and Linen Draper, who lately fell from his Horse, and Dy’d soon after.

‘In the Name of God, Amen. I, Benjamin Dod, citizen and mercer of London, being in health of body, and good and perfect memory, do make this my last will and Testament in manner and form following (that is to say): First, my soul I commend to Almighty God that gave it me, and my body to the earth from whence it came. I desire to be interr’d in the parish church of St. John, Hackney, in the county of Middlesex, about eleven o’clock at night, in a decent and frugal manner, as to Mr. Robert Atkins shall seem meet, the management whereof I leave to him. I desire Mr. Brown to preach my funeral sermon; but if he should happen to be absent or dead, then such other persons as Mr. Robert Atkins shall appoint: and to such minister that preaches my funeral sermon I give five guineas.

‘Item: I desire four and twenty persons to be at my burial, out of which Messrs J. Low, &c. naming six persons to be pall bearers: but if any of them be absent or dead, I desire Mr. Robert Atkins to appoint others in their room, to every of which four and twenty persons so to be invited to my funeral, I give a pair of white gloves, a ring of ten shillings’ value, a bottle of wine at my funeral, and half a crown to spent at their return that night, to drink my soul’s health, then on her journey to purification in order to eternal rest. I appoint the room where my corps shall lye, to be hung with black, and four and twenty wax candles to be burning. On my coffin to be affixed a cross, and this inscription –

Jesus Hominum Salvator

I also appoint my corps to be carried in a hearse, drawn with six white horses, with white feathers, and follow’d by six coaches, with six horses to each coach, to carry the four and twenty persons. I desire Mr. John Spicer may make the escutcheons, and appoint an undertaker, who shall be a noted churchman. What relations have a mind to come to my funeral may do it without invitation.

‘Item: I give to forty of my particular acquaintance, not at my funeral, to every of them a gold ring of ten shillings’ value; the said forty persons to be named by Mr. Robert Atkins. As for mourning, I leave that to my executors hereafter named; and I do not desire them to give any to whom I shall leave a legacy.’

After enumerating a number of legacies, &c., the testator concludes thus:

‘I will have no Presbyterians, moderate Low churchmen, or occasional Conformists, to be at, or have anything to do with, my funeral. I die in the faith of the true Catholick Church. I desire to have a Tombstone over me, with a Latin inscription; and a lamp, or six wax candles, to burn seven days and nights together thereon.’