According to ancient traditions, George was a soldier under the Roman Emperor Diocletian. He was sent on expeditions to Persia and possibly Britain. In 298, when the emperor required all soldiers to worship Roman gods, George left the army. Later, Diocletian outlawed Christianity, and George confronted the emperor to plead for his fellow Christians.

It is likely that George is indeed the unidentified hero who publicly tore up the emperor’s edict against Christians. His intercession was implored especially in battles, as he is said to have been a soldier. For his defiance, George was brutally tortured and finally beheaded around the year 303.

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St. Anselm was born of noble parentage in Piedmont about the year 1033. At the age of twenty-seven, St. Anselm adopted the monastic state in the monastery of Bec, studied under Lanfranc, and was made Prior in 1063 and Abbot in 1078. Various voyages to England in the interest of his Abbey made him known in that country, and in 1093 he succeeded his old master, Lanfranc, as Archbishop of Canterbury. His resistance to the unjust measures of King William Rufus drew up- on him the anger of that monarch. In 1097-98, he made a voyage to Rome, and spent some time in a monastery of Calabria, where he composed a work on the Incarnation. In the same year he assisted at the Council of Bari, and by his prayers prevented the Pope from excommunicating the King of Eng- land.

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On Christmas, we celebrate the Incarnation—God becoming human-with Jesus’s birth. During Lent, we recall the cross—Jesus’s crucifixion and his death.

At Easter, we rejoice in the empty tomb—Jesus’s resurrection. Easter is the day Jesus rose from the dead after being crucified.

The empty tomb means that Jesus’s words rang true. He fulfilled the promises of Scripture and conquered sin and death.

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