Liturgical Note: III Class Feast of St. Sylvester the Abbot, with Commemoration at Lauds only of St. Peter of Alexandria, Martyr.
In the quiet sanctity of the monastic choir on this day, the Church turns our attention to two luminous figures: St. Sylvester, the great Abbot of the Marches, exemplar of contemplative sanctity, and St. Peter of Alexandria, the martyr-bishop who gave his life for the purity of the faith. These saints embody the twofold dimension of today’s scripture lessons: the call to divine intimacy and the costly generosity of discipleship.
Let us contemplate Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 45:1–6 and Matthew 19:27–29, paired liturgically with deliberate intent, illumined by the tradition of the Church Fathers.
✠ I. The Elect of the Lord: A Meditation on Ecclesiasticus 45:1–6
“Beloved of God and men, Moses, whose memory is in benediction… He gave him glory in the sight of kings, and gave him commandments for his people.” — Ecclus. 45:1,3
These verses from Ecclesiasticus form part of the great encomium to the fathers of the Old Covenant, a litany of holy men who stood as types of Christ. Moses, above all, is exalted as amatus Deo et hominibus — “beloved of God and of men” — a man formed in secret, exalted in humility, and glorified not for his own sake, but for the glory of God.
St. John Chrysostom notes in his Homilies on the Old Testament that Moses was “a man who conversed with God as with a friend” and yet was “more humble than any who dwelt upon the earth.” The paradox of Moses — leader yet servant, lawgiver yet mystic — reveals the mystery of the saints: that those exalted in God’s sight are always first lowly in their own.
Likewise, St. Gregory the Great, in his Moralia in Job, teaches us that “those whom the Lord chooses, He first humbles, that being laid low before men, they may be lifted up before God.” Moses, who spent forty years in the obscurity of the desert, prefigures those monastic fathers like St. Sylvester, who chose the wilderness not to escape men, but to find God.
The holy abbot Sylvester, whose feast we keep today, mirrors this calling. From the world he withdrew, not from disdain, but from love — to become truly a man of God. Like Moses, he received the law not on tablets of stone, but written on the heart, in the silence of prayer and the discipline of the Rule.
✠ II. Leaving All for the Kingdom: A Meditation on Matthew 19:27–29
“Then Peter said to Him: Behold, we have left all things and have followed Thee: what therefore shall we have?” — Matt. 19:27
The question of St. Peter, so simple, so human, draws from Christ one of the most striking promises of the Gospel: “And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters… for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting.”
Here we are given the paradox of the evangelical life: in giving all, we lose nothing. The Apostles, like St. Peter of Alexandria whose martyrdom we commemorate today, gave not merely property but peace, security, reputation, and even life. What they gained was a hundredfold — not in this world’s coin, but in the divine currency of grace and glory.
St. Augustine, commenting on this passage in Sermon 329, says:
“Thou hast not lost, O Peter, but found: for what thou didst leave was perishable, but what thou didst receive is everlasting.”
St. Bede the Venerable, likewise, sees in Peter’s words not a complaint, but a confession of love. “Peter speaks not in boastfulness, but in longing: ‘We have left all’—not for our merit, but for Thy sake.”
In the monastic tradition, this Gospel has a central place. It is the lifeblood of the vita contemplativa, the soul of the Benedictine and Eastern rules, and the path trod by saints like St. Sylvester. His cave, his silence, his hidden discipline — all were answers to Peter’s question: “What shall we have?” And the answer is clear: union with Christ. A hundredfold and life everlasting.
✠ III. Saints as Fulfilled Types
The alignment of Moses and Peter, of lawgiver and apostle, of prophet and martyr, is not coincidental. The Church holds up these texts today precisely because the lives of St. Sylvester and St. Peter of Alexandria are their fulfillment.
- St. Sylvester, in his hidden obedience and spiritual authority, mirrors Moses: drawing water from the rock of solitude, interceding for the people, establishing schools of prayer in the wilderness.
- St. Peter of Alexandria, as bishop and martyr under Diocletian, follows Peter the Apostle — laying down his life for Christ, guarding orthodoxy against the rising tide of Arianism.
Their union today in the liturgy — one commemorated with Mass and Office, the other remembered in Lauds alone — shows the Church’s wisdom in honoring both the hidden life of holiness and the public witness of martyrdom. Both are necessary. Both are fruitful. Both are royal roads to Heaven.
✠ Conclusion: Let Us Also Leave All
As we meditate on these texts today, we are invited to the same radical generosity. We may not all be called to leave our homes or die as martyrs. But we are all called to give all — our time, our hearts, our attachments — into the hands of Christ.
Let us imitate Moses in humility, Sylvester in hidden sanctity, Peter in bold surrender, and Peter of Alexandria in fidelity unto death.
May the words of the Lord echo in our souls:
“Every one that hath left… for My name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting.”
Amen.
Collect (St. Sylvester, Abbot – III Class):
Deus, qui beatum Silvestrum Confessorem tuum atque Abbatem, in solitudine ad supernae contemplationis summitates evehere dignatus es: concede, quaesumus; ut eius in caelis intercessione, cuius vitam in terris imitari conamur, ad aeternae beatitudinis praemia pervenire valeamus. Per Dominum nostrum…
Commemoration: St. Peter of Alexandria, Bishop and Martyr (Lauds only):
Deus, qui nos beati Petri Martyris tui atque Pontificis annua solemnitate laetificas: concede propitius; ut, cujus natalitia colimus, de ejus etiam protectione gaudeamus. Per Dominum nostrum…