WITHIN THE OCTAVE

FERIAL DAY
Mass from the preceding Sunday

[Saint Andrew Bobola (1657) Historical]

Jesuit missionary and martyr. He was born a member of a noble Polish family in 1590. Entering the Society of Jesus at Vilna in 1622, he preached in the church of St. Casimir there. He took solemn vows in 1630 and was made superior of the Jesuits in Brobuisk. There he preached and distinguished himself by his work of mercy during a plague. In 1636, Andrew was sent to the Lithuanian missions. A house was provided for him in Pinsk, Belarus, by Prince Radziwell, and he worked there despite attacks by Protestants and schismatics. On May 10, 1657, Andrew was kidnapped by two Cossacks who beat him and tied him to the saddles of their horses so they could drag him to a place of torture. He was partially flayed alive and finally decapitated. His remains were buried in Pinsk and then moved to Polosk. St. Bobola was canonized by Pius XI on April 17, 1938.

[Saint Godric of Finchale (1170) Historical]

Oldest three children born to a freedman Anglo-Saxon farmer. An adventurous seafaring man, he spent his youth in travel both on land and sea as a peddler and merchant mariner first along the coast of the British Isles, then throughout Europe. Sometime sailor, sometime ship's captain, he lived a seafarer's life of the day, and it was hardly a religious one. He was known to drink, fight, chase women, con customers, and in a contemporary manuscript, was referred to as a "pirate". Convertedupon visiting Lindisfarne during a voyage, and being touched by the life of Saint Cuthbert. 

Pilgrim to Jerusalem and the holy lands, Saintiago de Compostela, the shrine of Saint Gaul in Provence, and to Rome. As a self-imposed austerity, and a way to always remember Christ's lowering himself to become human, Godric never wore shoes, regardless of the season. Lived as a hermit in the holy lands, and worked in a hospital nearJerusalem. Hermit for nearly sixty years at Finchale, County Durham, England, first in a cave, then later in a more formal hermitage; he was led to its site by a vision of Saint Cuthbert. It was a rough life, living barefoot in mud and wattle hut, wearing a hair shirt under a metal breastplate, standing in icy waters to control his lust, living for a while off berries and roots, and being badly beaten by Scottish raiders who strangely thought he had a hidden treasure. 

Noted for his close familiarity with wild animals, his supernatural visions, his gift of prophecy, and ability to know of events occurring hundreds or thousands of miles away. Counseled Saint Aelred, Saint Robert of Newminster, Saint Thomas Beckett, and Pope Alexander III. Wrote poetry in Medieval English. The brief song Sainte nicholaes by Godric is one of the oldest in the English language, and is believed to be the earliest surviving example of lyric poetry. He was said to have received his songs, lyrics and music, complete during his miraculous visions. He died of natural causes on May 11, 1170.