Today is the date when the American church celebrates the Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) (Alleluia!). Today is the Optional Memorial of Saint Erasmus (or Elmo) of Formia, Bishop and Martyr (died 303), and the Optional Memorial of Saint Marcellinus and Saint Peter, Martyrs (died 304). On this first Sunday in June we have the annual Day of Remembrance for Victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as mandated by the State of Louisiana.
The Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Alleluia!) honors the Eucharist, which believers hold to be the actual body and blood of Christ, and as such it does not commemorate a particular event in Jesus’ life. At the end of the Mass for this Solemnity, it is customary to have a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament (often outdoors), followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Until the two feasts were combined in 1970, separate feasts existed for the Body of Christ, held on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, and for the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, with a feast on July 1st. And until 1955 the Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) was followed by a privileged octave; not only on the eighth day from the feast but on all the intervening days, the liturgy was the same as on the feast itself, with exactly the same prayers and Scripture readings (except for certain highly ranked feasts). The traditional date of the Feast is on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday; in the American church and some other jurisdictions, it is held on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday, and thus on the Second Sunday after Pentecost. Starting next Sunday, the Sundays will be numbered by Ordinal Numbers (unless that Sunday is a superseding Feast), beginning with the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, until the First Sunday of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas. Our Gospel reading (Year B) comes from Mark 14:12-16, 22-26: “On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water. Follow him. Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”‘ Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.” The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover. While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” Saint Erasmus (or Elmo) of Formia, Bishop and Martyr (died 303), was Bishop of Formia, Italy. According to the Golden Legend (1260), during the persecution against Christians under the emperors Diocletian (284-305) and Maximian Hercules (284-305), Erasmus left his diocese and went to Mount Libanus, where he hid for seven years. However, an angel is said to have appeared to him, and counseled him to return to his city. On the way, he encountered some soldiers who questioned him. Erasmus admitted that he was a Christian and they brought him to trial at Antioch before the emperor Diocletian. After suffering terrible tortures, he was bound with chains and thrown into prison, but an angel appeared and helped him escape. He passed through Lycia, where he raised up the dead son of an illustrious citizen. This resulted in a number of baptisms, which drew the attention of the Western Roman Emperor Maximian who, according to the Golden Legend, was “much worse than was Diocletian.” Maximian ordered his arrest and Erasmus continued to confess his faith. They forced him to go to a temple of the idol, but along the saint’s route all the idols fell and were destroyed, and from the temple there came fire which fell upon many of the pagans. That made the emperor so angry he had Erasmus enclosed in a barrel full of protruding spikes, and the barrel was rolled down a hill. But an angel healed him. Further tortures ensued. When he was recaptured, he was brought before the emperor and beaten and whipped, then coated with pitch and set alight (as Christians had been in Nero’s games), and still he survived. Thrown into prison with the intention of letting him die of starvation, Erasmus managed to escape. He was recaptured and tortured some more in the Roman province of Illyricum, after boldly preaching and converting numerous pagans to Christianity. Finally, according to this version of his death, his stomach was slit open and his intestines wound around a windlass. (It should be noted that virtually none of this hagiography can be backed up by history; his story confuses him with a Syrian bishop Erasmus of Antioch.) Pope Saint Gregory the Great recorded in the 6th century that the relics of Erasmus were preserved in the cathedral of Formia. When the old Formiae was razed by the Saracens in 842, the cult of Erasmus was moved to Gaeta. There is an altar to Erasmus in the north transept of St Peter’s Basilica, where a copy of Nicolas Poussin’s Martyrdom of St Erasmus serves as the altarpiece. Erasmus is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, and he is the patron of Gaeta, Santeramo in Colle and Formia (all in Italy), and of mariners (he is said to have continued preaching even after a thunderbolt struck the ground beside him. This prompted sailors, who were in danger from sudden storms and lightning, to claim his prayers. The electrical discharges at the mastheads of ships were read as a sign of his protection and came to be called “Saint Elmo’s Fire”), and his aid is invoked against colic in children, abdominal pain, intestinal ailments and diseases, cramps and the pain of women in labor, as well as cattle pests. Very little is known about the lives of Saint Marcellinus and Saint Peter, Martyrs (died 304). Marcellinus, a priest, and Peter, an exorcist (one of the minor orders leading up to becoming a priest, which were, in order, porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte), died during the persecution of Diocletian. Pope Damasus I (died 384) gave the earliest account of their deaths, and claimed that he heard the story of these two martyrs from their executioner who became a Christian after their deaths. He further stated that they were killed at an out-of-the-way spot by the magistrate Severus (or Serenus), so that other Christians would not have a chance to bury and venerate their bodies. The two saints happily cleared the spot chosen for their death themselves, in a thicket overgrown with thorns, brambles, and briers three miles from Rome. They were beheaded and buried in that spot. Two women, Lucilla and Firmina, assisted by divine revelation, found the bodies, however, and had them properly buried near the body of Saint Tiburtius on the Via Labicana in what became known as the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter. The martyrs were venerated by the early Christian church. Their sepulcher is mentioned in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (late 6th century), which gives their feast day as June 2nd, and from the seventh century onward, their sepulcher became a site of pilgrimage, and their feast day is recorded in local liturgies and hagiographies. They are both named in the Roman Canon of the Mass. Regarding the Day of Remembrance for Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita (2005), in 2008 the Louisiana Legislature added LA Rev Stat § 1:58.4, stating, “The first Sunday after the commencement of hurricane season of every year shall be recognized as a day of remembrance for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita Day shall be observed as a memorial of one of the greatest tragedies in the state of Louisiana.”
Last night I started rereading One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters
I did not wake up until 9:00 am, after Richard had fed the cats, gone to drink coffee, and came home again. I posted to Facebook that today was the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as mandated by the State of Louisiana. Richard went to Dollar General for milk (which I will use for my breadmaking tomorrow), and I did my Book Devotional Reading. I set up my medications for the week starting next Sunday, making sure to alter as directed before my Sigmoidoscopy procedure on Thursday of that week, and I renewed a prescription on the Walmart Pharmacy App. I then ate my breakfast toast and read the Sunday papers out on the porch, and I did my Internet Devotional Reading. I then continued reading The Double by José Saramago, Translated by Margaret Jull Costa. At the NCAA Regionals (Double Elimination) in Chapel HIll, North Carolina, our LSU Tigers won their College Baseball game with the Wofford Terriers by the score of 13 to 6. Again at the NCAA Regionals (Double Elimination) in Chapel HIll, North Carolina, our LSU Tigers won their College Baseball game with the North Carolina Tar Heels by the score of 8 to 4. For dinner, while watching the game, we ate meatloaf (which Richard smoked on the grill), whole new potatoes, and green beans. And I will now finish this Daily Update, do some reading, and go to bed.
Tomorrow is the Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga (died 1886) and Companions, Martyrs (died 1885 – 1887). In the secular world it is also Jefferson Davis’s Birthday (1808), the Celebration of Confederate Memorial Day in the State of Louisiana, and Billie Joe MacAllister Day. I plan to make bread, and I hope to be able to pick up at least one of my prescriptions at Walmart; I will also get a new check register at the bank. At the NCAA Regionals (Double Elimination) in Chapel HIll, North Carolina, our LSU Tigers will be playing a College Baseball game with the North Carolina Tar Heels; the winner of this game moves on, and the loser goes home.
Our Parting Quote on this evening of the Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Alleluia!) comes to us from Peter Sallis, English actor (died 2017). Born in 1921 in Twickenham, Middlesex, his father was a bank manager, and he was raised in London. After his schooling he went to work in a bank, working on shipping transactions. After the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the RAF. He was unable to serve as aircrew because of a serum albumin disorder and was told he might black out at high altitudes, so instead he became a wireless mechanic instead and went on to teach radio procedures at RAF Cranwell. While in the RAF one of his students offered him the lead in an amateur production of Noël Coward’s Hay Fever. After his success in the role, he resolved to become an actor after the war, winning a Korda scholarship and training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He made his first professional appearance on the London stage in September 1946 in a walk-on part in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 1775 play The Scheming Lieutenant. Sallis then spent three years in repertory theatre before appearing in his first speaking role on the London stage in 1949. Other roles followed in the 1950s and 1960s including a role Orson Welles’ 1955 production of Moby Dick—Rehearsed, where he played the Stage Manager / Flask. He and actress Elaine Usher married in 1957 and had one son. Sallis’ first extended television role was as Samuel Pepys in the BBC serial of the same name in 1958. He was in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), Doctor in Love (1960), and The Curse of the Werewolf (1961). He appeared in Danger Man in the episode “Find and Destroy” (1961) as Gordon. Sallis appeared in the Hal Prince-produced musical She Loves Me in 1963. Prince was producer of a musical based on the work of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes called Baker Street. Sallis was asked by Prince to take the role of Dr. Watson to Fritz Weaver’s Sherlock Holmes. The show ran for six months on Broadway. Just before Baker Street ended he was offered the role of Wally in John Osbourne’s Inadmissible Evidence, which had been played by Arthur Lowe in London with Nicol Williamson reprising the lead role. The production was troubled with Williamson hitting producer David Merrick with a bottle and walking out before being persuaded to continue. The show was a minor success and ran for six months in New York, opening at the Belasco Theater before transferring to the Shubert Theater. He was then in The V.I.P.s (1963) and Charlie Bubbles (1967). He and his wife divorced in 1965; it was a turbulent relationship, with Usher leaving him sixteen times before their divorce; they eventually reconciled and lived together until 1999. He appeared in the BBC Doctor Who story “The Ice Warriors” (1967), playing renegade scientist Elric Penley. In 1968 he again played Wally in the film version of Inadmissible Evidence, was cast as the well-intentioned Coker in a BBC Radio production of John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids, and was in the first West End production of Cabaret opposite Judi Dench. He was cast in the BBC comedy series The Culture Vultures (1970), which saw him play stuffy Professor George Hobbs to Leslie Phillips’s laid-back rogue Dr Michael Cunningham. During the production, Phillips was rushed to hospital with an internal hemorrhage and as a result, only five episodes were completed. Sallis appeared in Scream and Scream Again (1969), Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), and Wuthering Heights (1970). He acted alongside Roger Moore and Tony Curtis in an episode of The Persuaders! (“The Long Goodbye”, 1971). He played a priest in the TV film Frankenstein: The True Story (1973), and the following year he played Mr Bonteen in the BBC period drama The Pallisers. Sallis was cast in a pilot for Comedy Playhouse which became the first episode of Last of the Summer Wine (retrospectively titled “Of Funerals and Fish”, 1973), as the unobtrusive lover of a quiet life, Norman Clegg. The pilot was successful and the BBC commissioned the series. Sallis had already worked on stage with Michael Bates, who played the unofficial ringleader Blamire in the first two series. Sallis played the role of Clegg from 1973 to 2010, and was the only cast member to appear in every episode. He also appeared, in 1988, as Clegg’s father in First of the Summer Wine, a prequel to Last of the Summer Wine set in 1939. Meanwhile, he was in The Incredible Sarah (1976), and Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978). He appeared in the children’s series The Ghosts of Motley Hall (1976–78), in which he played Arnold Gudgin, an estate agent who did not want to see the hall fall into the wrong hands, and he played Rodney Gloss in the BBC series Murder Most English (1977). In the same period, he starred alongside Northern comic actor David Roper in the ITV sitcom Leave it to Charlie as Charlie’s pessimistic boss. The program ran for four seasons, ending in 1980. Sallis also played the part of the ghost-hunter Milton Guest in the children’s paranormal drama series The Clifton House Mystery (1978). Sallis was the narrator on Rocky Hollow (1983), a show produced by Bumper Films, who later produced Fireman Sam, and he alternated with Ian Carmichael as the voice of Rat in the British television series The Wind in the Willows (1984–89), based on the book by Kenneth Grahame and produced by Cosgrove Hall Films. Alongside him were Michael Hordern as Badger, David Jason as Toad and Richard Pearson as Mole. Also in 1983 he played the lead character Jim Bloggs, alongside Brenda Bruce as Hilda, in a BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Raymond Briggs’ When the Wind Blows. He was due to play the role of Striker in a 1988 Doctor Who episode, “Enlightenment”, but had to withdraw. In 1983 student animator Nick Park wrote to Sallis asking him if he would voice his character Wallace, an eccentric inventor. Sallis agreed to do so for a donation of £50 to his favourite charity. The work was eventually released in 1989 and Aardman Animations’ Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out went on to win a BAFTA award. Sallis reprised his role in the Oscar- and BAFTA Award-winning films The Wrong Trousers in 1993 and A Close Shave in 1995. Though the characters were temporarily retired in 1996, Sallis returned to voice Wallace in several short films and in the Oscar-winning 2005 motion picture Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, for which he won an Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production. In 2008, Sallis voiced a new Wallace and Gromit adventure, A Matter of Loaf and Death. After Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Sallis’s eyesight began to fail as a result of macular degeneration and he used a talking portable typewriter with a specially illuminated scanner to continue working. His last role as Wallace was in 2010’s Wallace and Gromit’s World of Invention. Sallis then retired due to ill health, with Ben Whitehead taking over the role. Meanwhile, Sallis appeared in the last episode of Rumpole of the Bailey (1992) and he later starred alongside Brenda Blethyn, Kevin Whately and Anna Massey in the one-off ITV1 drama Belonging (2004). in 2005 he recorded an appeal on BBC Radio 4 on behalf of the Macular Society of which he was a patron. In 2006 Sallis published an autobiography entitled Fading into the Limelight. Sallis was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2007 Birthday Honours for services to Drama. He recorded on behalf of the Macular Society a television appeal, which was broadcast on BBC One on March 8th, 2009. On May 17th, 2009, he appeared on the BBC Radio 4 program Desert Island Discs, selecting Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major as his favorite. He was buried next to fellow Last of the Summer Wine actor Bill Owen in the churchyard of St John’s Parish Church, Upperthong, near the town of Holmfirth in Yorkshire, the home of Last of the Summer Wine (died 2017): “I’ve been lucky enough to keep going and I realize now, though it’s taken me nearly 100 years, that my voice is distinctive. I’m very lucky indeed.”
From The Recamier 