The Lord has truly risen, alleluia.
Year: B(II). Psalm week: 2. Liturgical Colour: White.
Pope St Martin I (- 655)
He was born in Todi in Umbria and elected Pope in 649. He called a synod to combat the Monothelite heresy concerning the nature of Christ. One of the people whose teachings were condemned was supported by the Byzantine Emperor, who in 653 had Martin kidnapped from Rome, taken to Constantinople, imprisoned and eventually exiled to the Crimea, where he died on 1 September 655. See the articles on
Martin and
Monothelitism in the Catholic Encyclopaedia and the article on Martin in
Wikipedia.
Other saints: St. Margaret of Castello OP (1287 - 1320)
13 Apr (where celebrated)
Virgin and Lay Dominican.
Margaret was born at Città de Castello, Italy, in 1287. Blind from birth and abandoned by her parents at an early age, she faithfully placed her trust in God and lived under the Rule of Penance of the Order of Saint Dominic. She had great compassion for the poor and especially cherished the mystery of the Incarnation. She died on April 13, 1320.
Liturgical colour: white
White is the colour of heaven. Liturgically, it is used to celebrate feasts of the Lord; Christmas and Easter, the great seasons of the Lord; and the saints. Not that you will always see white in church, because if something more splendid, such as gold, is available, that can and should be used instead. We are, after all, celebrating.
In the earliest centuries all vestments were white – the white of baptismal purity and of the robes worn by the armies of the redeemed in the Apocalypse, washed white in the blood of the Lamb. As the Church grew secure enough to be able to plan her liturgy, she began to use colour so that our sense of sight could deepen our experience of the mysteries of salvation, just as incense recruits our sense of smell and music that of hearing. Over the centuries various schemes of colour for feasts and seasons were worked out, and it is only as late as the 19th century that they were harmonized into their present form.