Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

SAINT VINCENT, DEACON & MARTYR. The Feast Day of the courageous man we honor this week, Saint Vincent, Deacon and Martyr, was originally
January 22, which is now the annual Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of the Unborn in the USA. His Optional Memorial was permanently transferred to January 23, which is also the Optional Memorial of Saint Marianne Cope, Virgin who, like Saint Damien of Molokai, devoted her life to the lepers in Hawaii. The Orthodox Church and Anglican Community still honor Saint Vincent on January 22. After praying the Collect for Masses offered in his honor, I will reflect on Saint Vincent’s life.

Saint Vincent, Deacon & Martyr Almighty ever-living God, mercifully pour out your Spirit upon us, so that our hearts may possess that strong love by which the Martyr Saint Vincent triumphed over all bodily torments. Through our Lord Jesus … for ever and ever. Amen.

VICTORIOUS IN HIS SUFFERING. This phrase aptly describes Saint Vincent, who endured unspeakable tortures. Many ask how we know so many details about a martyr who died in 304. Unlike most of his contemporaries, who suffered under the brutal persecutions in the Church’s first three centuries, we have an accurate account of Saint Vincent’s long, drawn out execution. The source is Saint Augustine of Hippo [354-430], who used written secular sources to recount Saint Vincent’s death. It seems that civil authorities, who kept detailed records of their vile cruelties to scare others into rejecting the Faith, actually preserved his acts of martyrdom and bravery!

A THREEFOLD HIERARCHICAL CHURCH. Not to lessen the pains Saint Vincent endured, but one of his greatest gifts to the Church is his witness to the existence of the structure Christ ordained for His Church. Sacred Scripture attests that, from the start, the Church had Bishops, Priests or Presbyters and Deacons. Jesus made the Apostles the first Bishops and sent out others – the first Priests to assist them. As the Acts of the Apostles records: the Apostles ordained the first seven Deacons to serve at table, which enabled the first Bishops and Priests to preach and administer the  Sacraments. How did Saint Vincent witness to the existence of this threefold hierarchical ministry?

Saint Vincent’s Bishop, Saint Valerius, had a speech impediment; so, he had his Deacon, Vincent, speak FOR him. Catholicism professes that while Priests speak and act FOR or in the name of their Bishop, a Deacon ministers TO or assists his Bishop and Pastor. These different notions are stated in the Ordination Rite for Deacons and Priests. Only the Ordaining Bishop lays hands on the head of those being ordained a Deacon; all Deacons present only offer him a Sign of Peace. At the Ordination of Priests, the Ordaining Bishop – and all Priests present – lay hand on the heads of the newly ordained Priest. At the Ordination of a Bishop, only Bishops lay hands on the new Bishop.

In the 5th Century, there was a gradual decline in Permanent Deacons in Roman Catholicism. Those becoming Priests were ordained Deacons before being ordained Priests, but until the 1970‘s, they stayed in the seminary and did not function in public. In the 1970’s, the Roman Catholic Church restored the Permanent Diaconate, making Deacons ‘public’ once again. And so, the Office once held by one of the first seven Deacons, Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, and Saint Vincent, was restored. While some say that Office was mainly to ‘wait on tables,’ it was – from the start – a ministry of preaching and of action that led to the martyrdom of Saints Stephen, Vincent, Lawrence, and many others!

The image of Saint Vincent [above] captures his significance. Wearing a Deacon’s dalmatic, he rests on a two-beamed cross or the rack on which he suffered; he holds a Book of the Gospels and a palm branch, a symbol of victory; he stands on the emperor who ordered his execution – just as the Archangel Michael crushed Satan – flanked by two Angels, and an image of the man who paid Tomás Giner to create this 15th Century image. Saint Vincent, Deacon and Martyr, pray for us!

With God’s love and my prayers,

Very Rev. Michael J. Kreder, VF, KCHS