A Couple of Old Saints and a Mother

Today we celebrate the Biblical couple of Zachariah and Elizabeth.  I also added to my saintly pegs and saint from the early Church, St. Sylvia.

The story of Zachariah and Elizabeth is a touching story of faithfulness which led to the great prophet who would herald the true coming of the Lord and Savior.  The knowledge we have of this couple can be found in the Gospel of Luke.  I cannot tell the story better than Luke:

Zachariah is the work of Henry
and Elizabeth was painted by another mother last summer

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.

Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”
Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.

When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.” (Luke 1:  5-25)

The story continues after Gabriel presents himself to Mary and announces the coming of the Messiah through her yes to the Lord!  Mary is also told of her cousin's child and hurries to help Elizabeth in her time of need.

Mary entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” (Luke 1:  39-45)

The months pass and the birth of John the Baptist takes place.  All are amazed by the turn of events and what happens:

When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.

On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”

They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”

Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him. (Luke 1:  57-66)

The rest of the story of John the Baptist is told in all the Gospels (Matthew  3; Mark 1; Luke: 3; John 1) , but we never hear any more of his parents.

St. Zachariah and St. Elizabeth, pray for us!


St. Sylvia

Feast Day:  November 5
Born:  515
Death:  594
Patron:  Expectant mothers
Sicily

Little is known of the early life of Sylvia.  However, we do know that she was most likely born to a prominent family in Sicily.  She married Gordian (whose life would end as a martyr) and she was the mother of two sons.  Her own son would later present her to

the Church as a saint as he would be raised to the position of pope as Pope Gregory the Great.

Upon Gordian's death, Gregory would turn their home into a monastery and Sylvia spent the remainder of her days in a small home near a church.  She was happy to lift up her prayers for the Church.  She would live another twenty years lifting her prayers up to the Lord for all the needs of the Church and those around her.

St Sylvia, pray for us!

The Two Who Stayed Together

St Jude painted by another mother and  St Simon painted by our Henry

Saints Simon and Jude were brothers and were often grouped together in the Bible and in stories of them after the Resurrection.  We do not know much about their lives; however, we can presume that they carried on the message of Salvation through the spread of their devotion.

St. Simon (the Zealot)

Feast Day:  October 29
Born:  ??
Death:  65 AD
Patron: Curriers; sawmen; sawyers; tanners

The Zealots were a Jewish sect that represented an extreme of Jewish nationalism. For them, the messianic promise of the Old Testament meant that the Jews were to be a free and independent nation. God alone was their king, and any payment of taxes to the Romans was a blasphemy against God.  Simon ended his association with this group upon his following of Jesus but this is a distinction to set set him apart from the other apostles.

It is believed that he preached in Egypt and then went to Persia with St. Jude, where both suffered martyrdom.  St. Simon is represented in art with a saw, the instrument of his martyrdom by being sawn in half.

St. Jude (also known as Thaddeus to distinguish from the traitor Iscariot)

Feast Day:  October 29
Patron: Desperate situations; forgotten causes; hospital workers; hospitals; impossible causes; lost causes

In iconic pictures of St. Jude, he holds a square to depict his role as an architect of the house of God.  This is likely because of the epistle attributed to him to the Churches of the East, particularly the Jewish converts, directed against the heresies of the Simonians, Nicolaites, and Gnostics.

It is known that Jude was the nephew of St. Joseph, yet he was called to the inner circle with his brother James the Lesser.

At the Last Supper, Jude's conversation with Jesus is recorded in the Gospel of John:

Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me." (21-23)

Images of St. Jude often include a flame around his head, which represent his presence at Pentecost, when he accepted the Holy Spirit alongside the other apostles. Another attribute is St. Jude holding an image of Christ.  It is believed that the king of Edessa was ill, and Jude placed an image of Jesus on the king and he was miraculously healed.

Jude is believed to have been martyred either in Armenia or Beirut.  Following his death, Jude's body was brought to Rome and left in a crypt in St. Peter's Basilica. Today his bones can be found in the left transept of St. Peter's Basilica under the main altar of St. Joseph in a tomb he shares with the remains of the apostle Simon the Zealot.

The prayer of the liturgy of the Catholic Church thus prays to our Lord today: "O God, through the work of the apostles you have spoken your Word of love, your Son, into our world's deafness. Open our ears to hear; open our hearts to heed; open our will to obey, that we may proclaim the good news with our lives."

The Gospel Writer for the Gentiles

Of the four Gospels, St. Luke is clear that he writes with the desire to bring the fullness of the truth to the Gentiles.  However, there are other themes in his Gospel as well, such as:

• Christ's ancestry to the first man, Adam
• Women as valuable followers, especially Mary
• Gospel of the poor and of social justice
• Prayer has a distinctive role for believers
• God longs to forgive sinners 
• Human leaders can resist but cannot overcome God's will
• The Role of the Holy Spirit

These themes continue in his account of the Acts of the Apostles.



But who was Luke?

Feast day: October 18
Patron of Physicians and Surgeons
Born: Antioch, Turkey
Death: A.D. 70 due to natural causes

Very little is known about him directly, however, we can gather some information from his writings and from others of his time.

Most likely, Luke was a Greek Gentile as he is not mentioned among the Jews.  This would also explain why he had a desire to witness to the overall Gentile community.  According to the early Church historian Eusebius Luke was born at Antioch in Syria.

We know with little doubt that Luke was a physician (Colossians 4:14).  However, do not be fooled into thinking he led a life of leisure and wealth.  Some believe that Luke was actually a slave, as it was common in those days to have a servant to be trained to care for the family illnesses.

Looking at the narrative in Acts, we can conclude that he joined Paul in his journeys in Troas at about the year 51 and accompanied him into Macedonia where they traveled first to Samothrace, Neapolis, and finally Philippi.   On a second journey, they traveled together through Miletus, Tyre, Caesarea, to Jerusalem.  In Paul's final imprisonment, Luke is the only one who stays with him. (2 Timothy 4:11)

We also know that Luke was not present during the events of Jesus life; however, Luke gathered the information from many sources to understand more fully to be able to present the information in an orderly fashion.  (Luke 1:1-3)

We do not know what happened to Luke after the martyrdom of Paul.  However, some believe that he died at 84 after settling in Greece to write his Gospel.  He is often shown with an ox or a calf because these are the symbols of sacrifice, which Luke portrayed the sacrifice Jesus made for all the world in his Gospel.

SIDE NOTE:  I enjoyed painting this saint peg doll.  I even had a little help from my Little Miss.  She told me she was finishing his eyes!  I took a picture along with his front because I wanted to show his traditional bull symbol.