Mar/Apr 2000

It is an arid fight, with neither palpable beauty nor defined poetry.
In this fight, one sometimes advances in the night of anonymity,
in the mud of indifference or misunderstanding
amidst storms and bombardments unleashed by the combined forces of
the devil, the world and the flesh. But fear not,
this fight fills the angels of Heaven with admiration
and attracts the blessings of God.

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

PLEDGE REPARATION TO OUR LADY HERE!

Clement of Okhrida was a convert of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the apostles of Moravia and Pannonia.

At the invitation of the Bulgarian ruler, Boris, who had accepted Christianity in 865, Clement and his other companions including St. Nahum, St. Sabas and St. Angelarius, helped evangelize Bulgaria. Sts. Cyril and Methodius are also counted as two of the seven apostles of Bulgaria because though their official jurisdiction was over Moravia and Pannonia, they also kept an eye on the Bulgars, most of whom were heathens until formal evangelization began with the acceptance of Christianity by Boris.

Clement seems to have been the first man of the Slavic race to receive the episcopate. He became Bishop of Velitsa, close to Okhrida where he established a monastery. He was regarded as the founder of that see which became very important in subsequent history.

St. Clement is venerated in Bulgaria as well as Russia as a wonder-worker.

In his book, The Secret of the Rosary, St. Louis de Montfort relates that a Dominican, Father Jean Amat, was once giving a Lenten Mission in the Kingdom of Aragon, Spain, when a young girl, possessed by the devil was brought to him.

Father Amat began the exorcism. After several unsuccessful attempts, the priest had an idea; taking his Rosary, he looped it around the girl’s neck. 

No sooner had he done this, the girl began to squirm and scream and the devil, shouting through her mouth shrieked, “Take if off, take off; these beads are tormenting me!”

At last, moved to pity for the girl, the priest lifted the Rosary beads off her neck.

The next night, while the good Dominican lay in bed, the same devils who possessed the young girl entered his room. Foaming with rage, they tried to seize him, but he had his Rosary clasped in his hand and no efforts from the infernal spirits could wrench the blessed beads from him.

Then, going on the offensive and using the Rosary as a physical weapon, Fr. Amat scourged the demons crying out, “Holy Mary, Our Lady of the Rosary, help me, come to my aid!” at which the demons took flight.

The next day on his way to church, the priest met the poor girl, still possessed. One of the devils within her taunted him, “Well, brother, if you had been without your Rosary, we should have made short work of you…”

With renewed trust and vigor, the priest unlaced his Rosary from his belt, and flinging it around the girl’s neck commanded, “By the sacred names of Jesus and Mary His Holy Mother, and by the power of the holy Rosary, I command you, evil spirits, leave the body of this girl at once.”

The demons were immediately forced to obey him, and the young girl was freed.

“These stories,” concludes St. Louis de Montfort, “show the power of the holy Rosary in overcoming all sorts of temptations from the evil spirits and all sorts of sins because these blessed beads of the Rosary put devils to rout.”

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