Ordinary Time: September 22nd
Friday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time; Ember Friday
Other Commemorations: Sts. Maurice and Companions, Martyrs (RM); The Theban Legion, Martyrs (RM)
MASS READINGS
September 22, 2023 (Readings on USCCB website)
COLLECT PRAYER
Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time: Look upon us, O God, Creator and ruler of all things, and, that we may feel the working of your mercy, grant that we may serve you With all our heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
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The Roman Martyrology commemorates Sts. Maurice and Companions (d. 287), Christian soldiers who were massacred in Switzerland around the year 287 A.D. because they refused to offer sacrifices to pagan gods. They are also called the Theban Legion or Forty Martyrs.
Today is Ember Friday of the Autumn or September Embertide. The September Ember Days fall after the third Sunday of September near the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14), and are days of thanksgiving for the completed harvest of fruits and grapes, being historically commemorated as a "wine-press feast." But these Ember Days are also days of penance and atonement since the traditional liturgy connected them with the Jewish celebration of the New Year and Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. The Stational churches were part of the Ember Days, with Ember Fridays always being the Station with the Twelve Holy Apostles (Santi Dodici Apostoli, also Santi Apostoli).
See September or Fall Ember Days and Contemporary Observation of Ember Days.
St. Maurice and Companions
St. Maurice was an officer in the Theban Legion, a unit in the army of the Emperor Maximian Herculius. This Legion, from Upper Egypt, was entirely Christian, and when Maximian ordered his soldiers at Octodurum (now called Martigny, Switzerland) to sacrifice to the gods as a way of ensuring victory in battle, Maurice and two other officers led the Theban Legion in refusing, and thelegion with drew to Agaunum (now St.-Maurice, in the Swiss Canton of Valais). With Maurice encouraging the legionnaires to remain constant, even after the Emperor had the legion decimated (every tenth man killed), the legionnaires answered, "We have arms in our hands, but we do not resist because we would rather die innocent than live by any sin." Maximian ordered the rest of his army to kill the Christian legionnaires. This happened around the year 287 A.D.. The Theban Legion numbered about 6,600 men, but the actual number killed remains unclear. Others were martyred for refusing to share in the spoils of the legionnaires. St. Eucherius, a fifth-century bishop of Lyons, noted that many miracles took place at the shrine of these martyrs. They are buried under the Basilica of St.-Maurice-en-Valais in Switzerland.
Devotion to St. Maurice spread throughout Europe. He is the patron of places in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. Eight ancient English churches are dedicated to him.
—Excerpted from 2020 Saints Calendar & Daily Planner, Tan Books
Patronage: Against gout; against cramping; against arthritis; Alpine troops (proclaimed on 22 September 1941 by Pope XII, and on 16 February 1961 by Pope John XXIII); armies; Austria; cloth makers; cloth dyers; infantrymen; soldiers; swordsmiths; weavers; Austria; Counts of Savoy; Dukes of Savoy; Pontifical Swiss Guards; United States Army Infantry; diocese of Angers, France; diocese of Magdeburg, Germany; city of Angers, France; Stadtsulza, Germany; in Italy: Borgofranco d’Ivrea, Calasetta, Cassano Magnago, Castelnuovo di Ceva, Pianello Val Tidone, Piedmont, Sardinia; Manresa, Spain; Appenzell, Switzerland
Symbols and Representation: Armor; banner with lion rampant; sword; seven stars; eagle on a shield; red cross;
Often Portrayed As: soldier; soldier being executed with other soldiers; knight (sometimes a Moor) in full armour, bearing a standard and a palm; knight in armor with a red cross on his breast, which is the badge of the Sardinian Order of Saint Maurice
Highlights and Things to Do:
- Read more about St. Maurice:
- Some accounts say that St. Maurice was black. Read One of the most revered men in medieval Europe was this black saint you have never heard about.
- Observe the painting of Saint Maurice, ca. 1520–25, by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Workshop found at The Met.
The Theban Legion
The Theban legion numbered more than six thousand men. They marched from the East into Gaul, and proved their loyalty at once to their Emperor and to their God. They were encamped near the Lake of Geneva, under the Emperor Maximian, when they got orders to turn their swords against the Christian population, and refused to obey. In his fury Maximian ordered them to be decimated. The order was executed once and again, but they endured this without a murmur or an effort to defend themselves.
St. Maurice, the chief captain in this legion of martyrs, encouraged the rest to persevere and follow their comrades to heaven. "Know, O Emperor," he said, "that we are your soldiers, but we are servants also of the true God. In all things lawful we will most readily obey, but we cannot stain our hands in this innocent blood. We have seen our comrades slain, and we rejoice at their honor. We have arms, but we resist not, for we had rather die without shame than live by sin."
As the massacre began, these generous soldiers flung down their arms, offered their necks to the sword, and suffered themselves to be butchered in silence.
—Excerpted from Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
The commemoration of these martyrs has also been called The Feast of the Forty Martyrs.
Highlights and Things to Do:
- CatholicSaints.info lists the names of other known saints that are part of these Theban Legion martyrs.
- Read The New Liturgical Movement for more information about the Forty Martyrs.
