It’s the Feast of Advent Feria, 2nd Class, with the color of Violet. In this episode: the meditation: “The O Antiphons: O Emmanuel, Humility and Charity”, today’s news from the Church: “The Grotto of the Nativity to Receive a Makeover”, and today’s thought from the Archbishop.
Saint Servulus is one of the most quietly moving saints of the early Church, a man whose holiness was forged not through travel or public preaching, but through suffering accepted with love. He lived in sixth century Rome and was known to the city simply as a beggar, carried daily to the porch of the Basilica of Saint Clement. From birth he was paralyzed and unable to walk. He possessed no property, no education, and no worldly influence. Yet those who passed him each day soon learned that Servulus was rich in faith and unshakable joy.
Servulus survived entirely on alms, but he used what little he received to buy scrolls of Scripture and books of devotion. Because he could not read, he paid others to read aloud to him. He listened attentively, memorizing long passages and reflecting on them in prayer. People began to stop beside him not only out of pity, but because his words carried wisdom and peace. He spoke freely of God’s mercy and encouraged those burdened by illness or poverty to trust in Christ. His disability did not make him bitter. It made him attentive to suffering in others.
Saint Gregory the Great, who knew of him personally, recorded Servulus’s life in his Dialogues. Gregory described him as a man of continual prayer who filled the church porch with hymns and psalms, often singing loudly even when pain overwhelmed him. Toward the end of his life, Servulus sensed that death was near. He asked those around him to sing with him, praising God until his final breath. Gregory notes that as Servulus died, those present heard heavenly singing, as if the prayers he had offered for so many years were being answered at once.
Servulus never held...
