JUNE 16TH, FERIA OF THE FIRST WEEK AFTER PENTECOST (OCTAVE)

Month in honor of the Most Sacred Heart of OLJC.

On this dies non [festiva] (day without a Saint who is celebrated liturgically), rememberer in the Roman Martyrology is

St. Aurelian, the holy Archbishop of Arles and Confessor. Of him, Father Butler's Lives relates —

Being promoted to that See in AD 546, he founded in that city a great monastery for monks, in which he was seconded by the munificence of King Childebert [of the Franks]. He enriched the same with relics of the Holy Cross, St. Stephen, SS. Peter and Paul, St. John, St. James, St. Andrew, St. Gennesius, St. Symphorianus, St. Victor, St. Hilary, St. Martin, St. Cæsarius, &c. He compiled a rule for these monks, and another for the nunnery of St. Mary, which he also built in the same city. Both these rules are extant in the Code of St. Benedict of Anian, and in Le Cointe’s Annals. He mentions the commemoration of the faithful departed at the altar [All Souls]; and also of the living: in that of the Saints, he adds in particular those martyrs and confessors whose relies that church was possessed of. The Saint usually styles himself: Aurelian the Sinner. He assisted at the Synod [Council] of Orleans in AD 549; and according to the inscription upon his tomb in the chapel of St. Nizier in Lyons, he died in that city on the 16th of June, AD 552, or, as the inscription runs, in the eleventh year after the consulate of Justin the Younger, in 540. He is commemorated on this day in the Roman Martyrology.