Happy Mother's Day.
Kaitlyn:This is every single saint. Happy Mother's Day Monday. Every single saint family. Happy Mother's Day. It is the Monday after Mother's Day.
Winston:Happy Mother's Day.
Kaitlyn:It is the Monday after Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day everyone out there. If you're tuning in, you're listening to a podcast called Every Single Saint. In this podcast we are telling the life stories of all the saints, every single one of them, from the very beginning up to today. We have about a century completed, but in today's episode we're kind of going back and doing some ones that were kind of skipped over. Sometimes we're going chronologically, but not exact, because sometimes it's a little helpful to kind of take some here and there and put them together to make the episode a little more coherent, like for today. For instance, we'll explain all the saints we're going to get into. But I cannot continue without my co-host and introducing her. She's here, she's my wife.
Winston:Here I am. It's me Caitlin Winston's wife. You're my husband.
Kaitlyn:That's right. So your mother is my mother.
Winston:And your mother is my mother, because we are family.
Kaitlyn:Happy Mother's Day to our mothers.
Winston:I just want to give a shout out to my mom, who's so wonderful and amazing and beautiful. She is like our favorite fan of this podcast. She is our number one fan. She listens to every single episode they drop at 6 am. Number one fan. She listens to every single episode they drop at 6am on Mondays.
Kaitlyn:She listens to every single episode.
Winston:And I picture her in the morning. She loves a good iced coffee or hot coffee in the morning from the Keurig and she sits down 6am with her fresh brew and listens to our podcast. And I am so grateful, we are so grateful. Shout out, kathy, what's up, kathy?
Kaitlyn:Kathleen Trombetta Callahan yes did she keep Trombetta as her middle name?
Winston:she did well. No, I mean no, she still has her middle name so she didn't keep it no so you said yes I said yes, because it's like that on facebook, but she just says that so that people can find her better my mother. Ann horn hunter is my mother she kept it as her middle name I'm pretty sure so.
Kaitlyn:Ann horn hunter? I'm pretty sure I've always heard her say yeah, ann horn hunter, horn Hunter. Her maiden name is Horn.
Winston:Nice.
Kaitlyn:Nice.
Winston:We have wonderful mothers. They're so amazing let's say a fun fact about them. So my mom also your mom as well. But my mom loves to garden and we come from a family of florists. My mom is really skilled in the garden and she's really great at our landscaping. She'll just make it look so beautiful this time of year. Really, any time of year she does a great job at the front of our house, looking spectacular.
Kaitlyn:That's a skill that I envy.
Winston:Decked out in the best agriculture of the season. And what else about?
Kaitlyn:Kathy, did she win best lawn in Northborough 2024?
Winston:I think so, 2023?
Kaitlyn:2022?.
Winston:Yeah, she was on paper and loves tulips, so she's got a green thumb. That, kathy, what about?
Kaitlyn:Ann. Well, one of the most fun facts about Ann is that she has the same birthday as you yes, and your dad.
Winston:Scott, we'll talk more about.
Kaitlyn:Scott, maybe when we get to Father's Day. And Pat. Another fun fact about Anne she's the oldest of three sisters. No, not just like your mom, your mom's the middle.
Winston:My mom. Fun fact about Kathy, middle child of three sisters. Middle of three sisters. Yeah, she's one of three sisters as well, wow.
Kaitlyn:Yeah, and my mom and I went to the same college, university of North Georgia. Except when she was there it was called North Georgia College and the same alma mater. It's pretty cool, mm-hmm.
Winston:Well, georgia. Except when she was there, it was called North Georgia.
Kaitlyn:College and the same alma mater. It's pretty cool, well, great. So today we're doing four saints, caitlin has two, I have two, and the first two we're going to do are the second and third bishops of the church in Alexandria and reminder that the church in Alexandria was founded by Mark, the writer of the gospel, and it's in Egypt, so we're talking an Egyptian church. And then the saints we do after that are the third and fourth bishops of the church in Rome, so that would mean the line of Peter, we consider them popes, even though that word pope didn't come along for another few centuries, but bishops of Rome come along for another few centuries, but bishops of Rome. So that's why that's a good example of moving some of these saints around and putting them together in an episode. So, caitlin, hand it over to you.
Winston:And I heard there was a new segment on the podcast.
Kaitlyn:Yeah, we have a new segment. We'll get there.
Winston:Later.
Kaitlyn:Later.
Winston:All right. Well, let's kick it off. Thanks to pronounce namescom, I was able to say this name correctly.
Winston:We're going with saint anionis today of alexandria saint anionis anionis was the second patriarch, aka bishop, of alex Alexandria, and he was ordained by St Mark the Evangelist. He was also the first convert that Mark won to Christianity in that region. So that's a pretty big deal, and I have a short story about how they met each other. So St Mark was entering Rakotis, which is a suburb of Alexandria, and after a long trip the strap of his sandal fell off.
Kaitlyn:He said lost his shoe.
Winston:I need help in repairing this. So he found a cobbler, and that cobbler was Saint Anionis. He asked him to repair it and, while he was working on the sandal, the tool that he was using slipped in his hand and pierced his hand, and saint anionist cried god is one in response to the pain god is one god is one mark what everyone says when they hurt themselves well, most people take the lord's name in vain when they hurt themselves, but saint anionist actually said something true about god.
Winston:god is one. So this was striking to mark because people in that region were mostly pagan and didn't and weren't monotheistic, basically. But it looks like saint anionist grew up with jewish roots, or it's believed that he had some Judaism upbringing or teaching, and so he, mark, took the opportunity to explain the gospel of Christianity to him and then at that same time he reportedly received miraculous healing of his hand. So that is how they came to know each other, and Ananias was a nobleman and invited Mark to come to his house so that he could teach his family the gospel too, and that's where he baptized his entire family.
Winston:A large number of natives in the area were quickly converted by Mark and his followers. Area were quickly converted by mark and his followers in big for uh, because also of anias is witness to the faith to them. And then mark went on a journey for a little bit, so he left the area, and when he left he ordained anionist to be bishop in his absence, and then he also ordained three priests and seven deacons at the same time charging the group of them with watch over the church in his absence. So then, dun-dun-dun-dun, the Church of Alexandria came about.
Kaitlyn:There you go.
Winston:Mark was gone for two years is what the research told me and when he came back the church of Alexandria had grown significantly and then they were able to build a physical church for themselves there, on the eastern harbor of Alexandria. Mark was martyred, which we know. Ananias then became the patriarch of the church, because Mark was the first patriarch, so he was the first bishop, and then ananias took his place. He remained bishop for over 17 and a half years. During that time the christian area grew significantly. He ordained new priests and deacons for the church, but the extent of the evangelization is unknown and kind of kept under wraps, because it wasn't very covert, because there was a lot of pagan hostility towards them in the area still. But, alas, anionis died in bed though, so he didn't die a martyr's death. He was buried next to Mark as well.
Winston:Oh, wow so that's a fun fact.
Kaitlyn:Shout out to Anionis for having a peaceful death.
Winston:Yes, and his feast is April 25th in the Catholic Church. He is regarded in the Orthodox Church as well. He is regarded in the Orthodox Church as well.
Kaitlyn:So after Ananias, the next bishop was Avilius of Alexandria, so we are now at the third bishop of this church in this city. Avilius was also known as at least in the notes that I was reading here interestingly also known as Abilius or Sibelius or Abitius or Milius or Melios I don't know what all that comes from.
Winston:Imagine having that many nicknames, yeah.
Kaitlyn:Very popular.
Winston:Very popular.
Kaitlyn:So he became, after the death of Annias, the priests in that area, probably all the ones that Annias ordained. They came together and unanimously elected Avilius. So it must have been popular, must have been well thought of. What I have here is that Avilius was known for his chastity, which is great. He was pious and caring towards people. He continued to establish the church, as you mentioned you know, continued the evangelization of that church and the number of Christians in Egypt grew a lot. And you mentioned earlier kind of one of the provinces. The church grew into some of those provinces and grew out of Egypt and Africa. So that's great. The church is growing.
Kaitlyn:As you also mentioned, the main religion in Egypt was pagan, it said. There was a lot of worshiping of idols, obviously, but there was also a lot of converting to Christianity from that. So shout out to Avelius in leading the church there and growing it and converting a lot. Supposedly during his time as bishop it was not as hostile. It just says it was a time of peace for the church in Alexandria, so maybe things had become more tolerant. So apparently he was bishop for 12 years and he died in the year 95 and is also buried with St Mark and Ananias. So there you go. His feast day is 29th of March.
Winston:All right, I'll lead us in prayer In the name of the Father, son, holy Spirit, almighty God, we come before you today to honor Saints Ananias and Avelius, holy men who dedicated their lives to your service. We thank you for their humility and unwavering faith, the way that they accepted your call and we're courageous evangelists spreading your word to all people, even in times of hostility. We thank you for that witness of tremendous courage and ask that in our own lives, with care and responsibility, we may also spread the gospel with love and speak your truth. Give us the wisdom to guide those who look to us and seek your light, and may these examples of these holy men continue to inspire us and, through their intercession, may we grow closer to you, lord jesus, and share your love with the world. In your holy name, we pray amen saints anionis and avilius pray All right, I have next up Pope Anacletus.
Winston:He was the third bishop of Rome, making him our third pope.
Kaitlyn:Nice and with Caitlin's introduction there, I will jump in and introduce a new segment of the Every Single Saint podcast, and the segment is going to be called Pope Party. It's a Pope party, it's a Pope party, it's a Pope party, it's a Pope party.
Winston:Is it a Pope party?
Kaitlyn:It is. So now, just Obviously, it won't be every episode, maybe every few episodes. We'll arrive at the next Bishop of Rome, the next in the line of Peter, and we'll just throw a quick little Pope party and have a quick celebration. You know that, the line of Peter, and we'll just throw a quick little pope party and have a quick celebration that the line is being continued. Not every pope was a saint or is a saint. There were some that were not good, but all the ones that were devoted to our Lord, a lot of them, became saints. I think I actually saw somewhere that for the first 300 years of Christian history, every single bishop of Rome was martyred makes sense imagine that for the entire history of the United States, every president we had was assassinated.
Kaitlyn:That would be interesting anyways the seat of the church.
Winston:That's what Tertullian says, and Jesus said the gates of the church. That's what Tertullian says there you go. And Jesus said the gates of hell will never prevail against his church.
Kaitlyn:That's right, no matter how many were martyred.
Winston:We've had an incredible succession of men leaving the church.
Kaitlyn:That's right.
Winston:As Christ did. So tell us about.
Kaitlyn:Anacletus Also. He was one of my favorite names because he also goes by Cletus, right.
Winston:Yeah, he does. He does so. St Cletus, anacletus, those are the same people, so they're often spoken of interchangeably. For the purpose of this episode, I'm going to call him St Cletus, because that's the way that he's referred to in the roman canon in the mass we hear.
Kaitlyn:In the eucharistic prayer they say linus cletus yeah, yeah, cletus, clement sixes yeah I don't know how or when or where or why that the name cletus became like a southern stereotype hick name is it. I, and I'll tell you how it came to become popular is from the hit song cletus take the real oh, I've never seen that gosh. I don't want to see that comedian, then he's saying the song instead of jesus, take the wheel, he's saying the song cletus, take the real not and cletus was. They were out fishing and he was losing it. So he had to say, cletus, take the real.
Winston:Wow. Well, maybe that changes how I feel about this, and I'm going to call him Anacletus from now on. I don't think I like that Cletus.
Winston:But in the Eucharistic prayer we do call him Cletus, and so you hear him probably said at most every Mass in that prayer. He was Roman by birth, with Greek ancestry. The apostles were baptizing converts in the Tiber River that surrounds modern-day Vatican City, and he came to believe through the preaching of both Peter and Paul. According to St Ignatius of Antioch, who we'll get to soon, st Cletus, or whatever I'm going to call him St Cletus. St Cletus was ordained first a deacon and then a priest by St Peter. Later he was installed as bishop by St Peter in Rome In the year 80 AD. He was chosen to be the third pope of Rome, so the third bishop of Rome, after the martyrdom of St Linus, who had also worked closely with Cletus.
Kaitlyn:They're also buried together in the catacombs of saint peter's basilica in rome I'd be curious to know how many relics of the popes we have, and do we have like every grave of every one of them? Isn't there a specific catacomb of just the line of peter? Peter's tomb, right next to lionus, right next to Cletus?
Winston:Yeah, there is actually, and I've been there.
Kaitlyn:Oh cool.
Winston:Which is really cool, and I want to take you there sometime.
Kaitlyn:I want to go.
Winston:But yeah. So something that's fun about St Cletus was that he introduced the concepts of parishes to the Catholic Church and divided Rome into 25 parishes. It was 25.
Kaitlyn:Rome was huge.
Winston:He felt that, having parishes, people would be able to focus better on the mass and the shepherds, the priests and the deacons that were being ordained at the time. There were a lot of them and he thought, you know, this would be a good opportunity to teach the people and better take care of their needs in each place. So he introduced that and while serving as Pope we don't know exactly how many there are, but it's thought that he consecrated six bishops, ordained at least 25 priests, seven deacons, and continued to just build structure and organization into the infant Catholic Church at the time, which I'm so grateful for. Have you ever been to an ordination?
Kaitlyn:I have never. Really I'd like to go to Peter Chacon's deacon ordination.
Winston:We have to go Shout out to Peter In a couple years, I think one or two years. Yeah, oh, it's really powerful.
Winston:It's powerful to see the way that they give their lives fully to the lord. Obviously they lay on the ground and the laying of hands and the how many um priests, like all the priests in the diocese, come. Another thing about cletus is that he said hey, when we do ordinations, it needs to be public, like the church needs to see how this is happening, how these men are living lives like Christ and, right from the very beginning of their ordination, giving their whole lives over to him. What that is like a power, but like the, what the beautiful witness of that is to have the priesthood there in full, basically, typically ordinations like the whole diocese, like all the priests come. It's just really, really beautiful.
Winston:So anyway, saint cletus believed his days were numbered as a result of the edict of emperor domitian. Domitian had a terrible persecution against Christians throughout the Roman Empire and St Cletus did contend for the faith, giving his life for his flock. He was a martyr, just like you said, all the popes for the first 300 years were martyrs, and it was on a quiet day, hidden in the passage of time, without fanfare. We don't know exactly how he was martyred, but he was and his sacrifice is still remembered. Like I said in the Roman canon of the Mass, and we can go visit his tomb, like I mentioned in St Peter's. He died in 88, and and his feast is April 26. But I do want to mention, just really quick, some fun facts. Another quick fun fact is that if you've ever read the Divine Comedy by Dante, I never have.
Winston:I recommend reading it, but like with somebody who knows how to interpret Dante, like someone who's a trusted interpreter. But he mentions Cletus as being placed in the heaven of the fixed stars in his Paradiso account. So he talks to him as a martyr whose blood nurtures the church. Like I said earlier, tertullian said the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, referring to the fact that martyrs' willingness to die for the faith is often an opportunity for conversion for other people. So thank you, pope Anacletus, for being such a wonderful saint and a wonderful successor, successor of christ amen.
Kaitlyn:Next, the successor of cletus is clement. Clement was the fourth bishop of Rome, and so we have another pope. So do you know what that means?
Winston:I know what that means it's a pope party. It's a pope party. It's a pope party. It's a pope party. It's a pope party. It's a pope party.
Kaitlyn:It's a pope party. It's a pope party. It's a pope party, pope Clement of Rome. That's right. The fourth bishop of Rome is who we got here, clement, which is an adjective. What does it mean to be Clement? So Clement, so loving, just, nice, kind.
Winston:I've heard of Clement meaning merciful or mild, mild. Yeah, like it's a very clement day today.
Kaitlyn:Okay. Well, clement, I'm sure maybe he was mild, he probably was merciful Fourth bishop of Rome. He was also converted and baptized by peter shout out peter and when cletus died in 88 he became bishop of rome. So clement succeeded cletus. Interestingly, some ancient lists of the bishop of rome have him at second actually. But we trust Eusebius, not wholly, but a lot. We trust Jerome, and they have him at fourth. And actually the oldest list of bishops of Rome comes from Irenaeus, comes from the late 100s. So about 100 years after Clement is the bishop of Rome is when we have our first list that survived to today. That's Irenaeus, and he has Clement at fourth too. So safe to say he probably was fourth instead of second. He's actually mentioned in Scripture In Philippians Paul's letter to the Philippians, paul is writing and he says therefore this is in chapter four.
Kaitlyn:He says, therefore, my brothers and sisters whom I, he says therefore, my brothers and sisters whom I love and long for my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. Then he says, interestingly, paul says I urge you, iodia, and I urge Sintich, to be of same mind in the Lord. I guess these two people are arguing and he says why don't you all come to an agreement? Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers. So he just mentions these two. He's writing a letter and says hey, by the way, you two, you need to come together on an agreement because you've been my loyal companions and I care about you. And here's also others, and Clement he mentions. Clement have been my loyal companions in spreading the gospel. So I thought that was interesting. Historians do believe that's the same person.
Kaitlyn:He is known for his letter, his epistle. He has an epistle. It's called the First Letter of Clement and it was written to the Corinthians and that has survived to today. This is an interesting piece of work, real piece of work, because it was in the centuries that followed it being written. It was read during church, it was spread, it was kept, it was read during Mass, it was studied and then, after a few centuries later, when we had the first canon, it was not included. So the church, when putting together the first New Testament canon, decided you know, as great as it may be, it is not divinely inspired, it is not the Word of God on the same level of Scripture as the rest of the New Testament. So that's interesting. I did read some of 1 Clement. It's really cool to read things that people wrote that long ago, things that people wrote that long ago.
Kaitlyn:So Clement's the Bishop of Rome. He's doing his thing as a Christian. If you listeners remember Trahan, he's our current resident bad guy, emperor, killing a lot of Christians. He banishes Clement and sends him to work in a stone quarry. So the story goes he gets there and upon arriving, he finds that all the prisoners are dying of thirst. There's a lack of water in this quarry, and he prayed, and he prayed and I guess the story goes. He looks up on a hill where he sees a lamb, and so he went up to the hill where the lamb was and he struck the ground with his pickaxe and water started gushing out, and then all the prisoners got water.
Winston:Wow.
Kaitlyn:Very interesting story. This miracle resulted in a lot of the prisoners converting, making a lot of people really upset, even more upset. So as punishment, this I'm pretty certain that the way that he dies is probably more reliable than some of these legend stories, because the way that he died there's multiple sources. But as punishment, clement was martyred. He was tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea. So sorry, clement, but thank you for being a witness. So so sorry, clement, but thank you for being a witness so strong enough to go through that death. In art he's often depicted with an anchor and there's like a cross that also looks like an anchor. That's kind of like a long time symbol of Clement, interestingly. So yeah, he died in 99 AD. I can anchor this kind of like a longtime symbol of Clement, interestingly. So yeah, he died in 99 AD.
Kaitlyn:His feast day is November 23rd, so I'm going to pray. Lord, let these churches, both the one in Alexandria and the ancient church in Rome, and their growth and their bravery and their courage be a witness to us and help us to look back on these ancient Christians and these churches and help us to be inspired by the love that they have for you and inspire us to grow in our love for you, because we can always grow closer to you every day. We can always grow in our love with you every single day. So that's what we ask, that we ask for the prayers of all the people in these churches. Please pray that we experience more deeply the love of Christ day after day. In your name we pray amen. Saints Cletus and Clement pray for us Today. I'm going to let my beautiful, wonderful wife Caitlin close us out because she has a message on her heart.
Winston:That's right. Well, when we're talking about Mother's Day, we cannot forget our Heavenly Mother, mary, and she is the mother of God, which means she is also the mother of all of us, because if we're sons and daughters of God, then we also are children of Mary, and wherever you are in your relationship to Mary and to Jesus, I will pray for you today, but invite you during this month of May to pray the rosary at least once and learn a little bit about Our Lady, to deepen your devotion to her. But I also wanted to show some gratitude for our mothers at the very end and say a prayer for all mothers. So, in the name of the Father, son, holy Spirit, amen, heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of motherhood.
Winston:Today we celebrate the loving sacrifice of mothers throughout the whole world, both biological and spiritual mothers who nurture us, who guide us, and I pray, lord, that these women may receive a hundredfold the reward, the heavenly reward, for the sacrifices, the true sacrifices, that they have made for all of us in this world and teaching us about you, jesus, and guiding us in your ways and leading us to heaven. May they feel deeply appreciated, jesus, and honored, not just today, but every single day. And, mother Mary, we ask that you would walk with all mothers, lead them to your son and continue to bestow your maternal care upon us. It is so beautiful, mary, that we would also hope to become like you, who said yes to Jesus first. So we say Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, as we say. Our Lady Theotokos, pray for us.
Kaitlyn:And patron saint of the podcast, St Nicholas, pray for us. Thank you for listening. See you next week. Thank you.