My Cough Is My Cross, What’s Yours?
Saint Martin
Today is the liturgical feast of the great Saint Martin who was buried today in AD 397. Our Father Saint Benedict honoured him with a chapel built over the former temple of Apollo on Monte Cassino. Saint Martin was a soldier, a monk, and then a bishop. He is especially dear to monks since he became an early monastic founder, well before our Holy Father Benedict had perfected the Rule for Monks. The famous story of Saint Martin dividing his “cape” (or cloak) is the origin of the word cappellani or chaplain. The term originally referred to the priest who cared for the relic of Saint Martin’s “cape” , but its meaning was greatly expanded over time, as too was the word capella, or chapel, which, originally the place where the capella or “little cloak” was kept, soon came to refer to any little oratory.
Those who pray the traditional form of the Divine Office have a special appreciation for today since the hymn, Iste Confessor, used for almost all Confessors, repeated throughout the year (sometimes more than once in a week!) was originally written for today. The third stanza, as it is recited in Benedictine monasteries (Pope Urban VIII changed it for the Roman Breviary) refers to the popularity of his shrine, at which it was apparently a frequent occurrence to see remarkable miracles.
Ad sacrum cujus túmulum frequenter
Membra languentum modo sanitáti,
Quólibet morbo fúerint graváti,
Restituuntur.At whose sacred tomb
the (diseased) members of those that languish
are frequently now restored to health
from whatever sickness they had been weighed down.
This reflects the situation at the time the hymn was composed. We can think of places where this is still the case today, where people go in order to be healed. Obviously, however, this stanza fits some confessors better than others.
It is always moving to hear Saint Martin’s First Vespers Antiphon.
O blessed man! His soul possesses paradise. There the angels exult, the archangels are gladdened, the chorus of Saints proclaim and the company of virgins invite: Remain with us forever.
Peter Gerard Joseph Hartnett
It is not hard for us monks to imagine another person whose memory is on our mind today being received by the heavenly throng with the very words the Church sings in reference to Saint Martin: Mane nobiscum in aeternum. Remain with us forever. We refer to Peter Hartnett.
Last year, we wrote about the seven year old lad, Peter Gerard Joseph Hartnett, who died 35 years ago today, showing a remarkable faith and fervor. He is most famous for the time he asked the nurse between coughs: “My cough is my cross. What’s yours?”
Peter’s mother tells a story in conjunction with the picture above. Peter was almost four years old, and they were on the way to Lourdes where they would stay in the Grand Hotel Jeanne D’Arc. While they were in the hotel, Peter nearly died. His mother’s doctor said Peter may have to be airlifted to Harefield Hopsital in the United Kingdom. His mother rushed to the grotto of the apparitions at Massabielle. There she cried out before the Blessed Virgin, “Please, Mother, don’t let let him die. I’ll die if he dies.”
A conviction came upon her that she must accept God’s will.
“Yes. Fiat,” she said. “You said ‘yes’ to your Son’s death, and I must say ‘yes’ to mine.” When she went to receive the news about Peter, and whether he had to be airlifted to the Harefield Hospital, a nurse rushed towards her to tell her Peter was better! God was only asking at that moment for the offering. His mother had an inner knowledge that Peter would have three more years on this earth.
Abandonment
At Peter’s wake, someone brought a relic of Saint
According to the Saint, this offering [to Merciful Love that Saint Thérèse made] is not the equivalent of asking for an avalanche of supererogatory sufferings; it is, rather, a question of abandoning self with unparalleled confidence to God’s Infinite Mercy.
Abandonment was the height of Saint Thérèse’s holiness. The highest offering a trusting child of God can make is to say to God: You take care of it! This is what Peter’s mother did with tremendous bravery!
Saint Martin’s Abandonment
The Divine Office tells us in the antiphons of today about Saint Martin’s own abandonment.
His disciples said unto Blessed Martin: Father, why wilt thou go away from us? or with whom wilt thou leave us orphans? For ravening wolves will break in upon thy flock.
Saint Martin replies:
“Lord, if I be still needful to Thy people, I refuse not to work. Thy will be done.”
The voice of the Church breaks forth in wonder at these words!
O ineffable man! Neither overcome by labor nor one to be conquered by death! He neither feared to die nor refused to live!
Surrounded By So Great a Cloud of Witnesses
And therefore we also having so great a cloud of witnesses over our head, laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us: looking on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who having joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and now sitteth on the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1)
In Saint Martin, Saint Thérèse, and the example of wee Peter’s mum, rewarded by three more years with her son, we are as if surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses that can teach us to hold back nothing from God, but to trust Him to take care of everything. If this abandonment seems outside of our reach, let us as God to take us in His arms and place us there.
