The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints

Description

Depicting the lives of the saints in an array of factual and fictional stories, The Golden Legend was perhaps the most widely read book, after the Bible, during the late Middle Ages. It was compiled around 1260 by Jacobus de Voragine, a scholarly friar and later archbishop of Genoa, whose purpose was to captivate, encourage, and edify the faithful, while preserving a vast store of information pertaining to the legends and traditions of the church. In this translation, the first in English of the complete text, William Granger Ryan captures the immediacy of this rich work, which offers an important guide for readers interested in medieval art and literature and, more generally, in popular religious culture.

Arranged according to the order of saints' feast days, these fascinating stories are now combined into one volume. This edition also features an introduction by Eamon Duffy contextualizing the work. **

Luther wrote that all who have genitalia must use them! Thus he takes "Be fruitful and multiply" in a naturalistic sense as a precept binding on everyone today and thinks that virginity (and thus religious orders) is an assault against nature.

Super Sent., lib. 4 d. 44 q. 1 a. 2 qc. 1 arg. 1 ** / ad 1 (suppl. q. 80 a. 1) is an indirect refutation of Luther's heresy:

[arg. :] Videtur quod non omnia membra corporis humani resurgent. Remoto enim fine, frustra reparatur illud quod est ad finem. Finis autem cujuslibet membri est ejus actus. Cum ergo nihil sit frustra in operibus divinis, et quorumdam membrorum usus post resurrectionem non competat, praecipue genitalium, quia tunc nec nubent nec nubentur (Mt. 22:30); videtur quod non omnia membra resurgent.
…

[ad :] membra dupliciter possunt considerari in comparatione ad animam; vel secundum habitudinem materiae ad formam, vel secundum habitudinem instrumenti ad agentem. Eadem est enim comparatio totius corporis ad totam animam, et partium ad partes, ut dicitur in 2 de anima. Si ergo membrum accipiatur secundum primam comparationem, finis ejus non est operatio, sed magis perfectum esse speciei, quod etiam post resurrectionem requiretur. Si autem membrum accipiatur secundum secundam comparationem, sic finis ejus est operatio; nec tamen sequitur quod quando deficit operatio, frustra sit instrumentum; quia instrumentum non solum servit ad exequendam operationem agentis, sed ad ostendendum virtutem ipsius; unde oportebit ut virtus potentiarum animae instrumentis corporis demonstretur, etsi nunquam in actum prodeant, ut ex hoc commendetur Dei sapientia.

The part I underlined is interesting because instrumental causality seems little understood today, esp. in sacramental theology and in the "perverted faculty argument" against contraception. (I'm also not sure why Casti Connubii etc. argue against contraception by saying it frustrates the natural end of the act as opposed to saying that it is evil to seek pleasure over a marriage good, which is how [it seems] St. Thomas argues against it. [Pius XI's definition includes more cases, such as pleasure-less coitus.])

I've even heard some say Gal. 3:28 ("…non est masculus, neque femina…") means our resurrected bodies will be androgynous! And I've heard it claimed that our souls are male or female, yet St. Thomas denies this (Super Sent. , lib. 4 d. 25 q. 2 a. 1 qc. 1 arg. 3: "Sed sexus non est in anima.") and so does St. Ambrose (De Virginitate cap. 15: "anima enim sexum non habet"). (By the way, De Virginitate cap. 7 is interesting because St. Ambrose refutes the objection that his promoting virginity would depopulate the empire.)

Re: what you said about St. Alphonsus seeing Our Virgin Mother: from Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend [PDF p. 172]:

[D]espite Mary's exceeding beauty no man could ever [lustfully] desire her, for the reason that the power of her chastity penetrated all who looked upon her, and all lustful desires were quenched in them.

Also, little Jacinta repeatedly exclaimed: “Oh, what a beautiful Lady! Oh, what a beautiful Lady!” (cf. the demon of Medjugorje, who frightened Milka Pavloviv so much that, as Fr. Luigi Villa wrote, she "was terrorized to the extent that, seized by fear, she took off her shoes and fled, and, come close to the village, burst out sobbing.")

172. St. Catherine of Alexandria ** PDF pp. 743-50

60. Pope St. Marcellinus, who was deposed for having offered incense to idols out of fear but later recanted and was re-elected pope.

PDF p. 124:

The name Agnes comes from agna , a lamb, because Agnes was as meek and humble as a lamb. Or her name comes from the Greek word agnos , pious, because she was pious and compassionate; or from agnoscendo, knowing, because she knew the way of truth [no wonder St. Thomas was devoted to her!]. Truth, according to Augustine, is opposed to vanity and falseness and doubting, all of which she avoided by the virtue of truth that was hers.