Archbishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio recently gave the keynote address at the Missouri Catholic Conference Annual Assembly. He spoke on the Catholic contribution to immigration reform. And he told his listeners the story of Julian the Apostate.

I want to go back in history a little bit. To the short reign of the Emperor Julian, who ruled the Roman Empire from 361 to 363 A.D.

You remember your history, I’m sure. After centuries of persecution, Christianity became first a “tolerated” religion, and then the official state religion under the Roman Emperor Constantine, beginning in the early fourth century. Well, Julian was the son of Constantine’s half-brother, Julius Constantius, and he came to power after a series of bloody struggles.

Julian came to be known for all time as “Julian the Apostate.” He got that notorious label because, although he had been baptized and raised a Christian, he abandoned his faith immediately upon becoming emperor. Julian then used his “bully pulpit” as emperor to scorn the Church and Christianity and to promote devotion to the pagan gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome—Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite, and the rest.

Julian called the Christians “Galileans.” It was a kind of ethnic and class slur. And he wrote a big book against the Church. He said his aim was to strip that “new-fangled Galilean god” of “the divinity falsely ascribed to him” (Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, 177).

But there was something that Julian couldn’t shake about the Christians. Something he couldn’t get out of his mind. And that was the Christians’ virtue. Their charity. And especially their hospitality to those they didn’t even know. In fact, Julian once issued an order to try to get pagan believers to start imitating the Christians in what he called their “benevolence toward strangers.”

Here’s a quote from a letter he wrote, and you can tell he’s not very happy. He complains that Christians’ care for strangers and their holiness is contributing to the spread of “atheism.” (He called Christians “atheists” because they didn’t believe in the pagan gods.)

Here’s what Julian wrote: “Why do we not observe that it is their benevolence to strangers … and the pretended holiness of their lives that have done the most to increase atheism. … It is disgraceful that when … the impious Galileans support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men should see how our people lack aid from us.” (Macmullen and Lane, Paganism and Christianity, 100–425 C.E.: A Sourcebook, 271–272).

You see he’s embarrassed. Ashamed. The Christians are so generous that they’re helping the poor Romans and that exposes how the Romans themselves don’t take care of their poor.

My friends, my point in this little history lesson is this: From the beginning there was something very different about Christians. Something even their enemies, like Julian, couldn’t help but notice—and admire, no matter how reluctantly.

It’s true there was a tradition of welcoming the stranger in other cultures and religions. Philosophers like Plato wrote about the importance of hospitality. But for the first Christians it became an original and central element of their religious identity. To be a Christian was to practice hospitality to the stranger.

Julian the Apostate is worth getting to know. See here. Or cut to the chase and buy Adrian Murdoch’s The Last Pagan: Julian the Apostate and the Death of the Ancient World.

Archbishop Gomez is always worth reading. See his collected works here.

Now that the United States has elected its first African-American president, Archbishop Wilton Gregory and others have wondered aloud whether we might some day see an African pope. I find future-pope speculation distasteful — like wondering aloud whom Mom might marry should Dad ever get around to kicking off. But I’m grateful to the London Times‘ Richard Owen for noting that

three early Popes came from North Africa, at a time when it formed part of the Roman Empire: Pope Victor, who reigned from 189-198; Pope Melchiades, or Militiades (311-314); and Pope Gelasius (492-496). All three are saints.

Pope Victor was born in Africa and served as pontiff during the reign of the Emperors Commodus and Septimus Severus (who was also an African), persuading them to release persecuted Christians, including a future pope, Calistus I.

Pope Militiades was the first Pope to benefit from greater tolerance of Christianity under the Emperor Maxentius, regaining confiscated holy properties. He was given the first official papal residence, later to become the Lateran Palace. Pope Gelasius, born in Rome to African parents, revised the rules for the clergy, permitting the use of wine at the Holy Communion.

He covered the issue in greater detail three years ago, in Africans Led Church During Roman Empire.

Here’s an update on a major underwater recovery, the first Byzantine port of Constantinople, on the Sea of Marmaris.

So far, 32 wooden ships, Stone Age skeletons, coins, amphorae and even a basket full of ancient cherries have been uncovered … Dating from the time of the Roman emperor Theodosius I, in the fourth century AD, the finds are an unprecedented glimpse into the ancient trade and maritime life of one of the world’s longest-inhabited cities…

They include a woman’s shoe with an ancient Greek inscription: “Use it in health, lady, be in beauty and happiness and wear it.”

I can’t help but think of the Empress Eudoxia. Perhaps it was a gift from St. John Chrysostom? If so, we can be sure it’s a sensible shoe.

The site also bears relics of continued Byzantine presence after the harbour had been filled in. A Byzantine tannery and charnel house were discovered at the western end of the excavation, as well as human skulls – perhaps those of executed criminals – thrown into a well.

Lots of candidates for those. Too many to list.

Roger Pearse is having trouble translating a curious passage in Eusebius. If you’ve got the Greek, stop by and help.

In today’s mail came a press release from the Fraternity of St Genesius, which unites “members of the faithful in prayer and support for those involved in the theatrical and cinematic arts.” The organization was founded in Ireland in 2007 and now has hundreds of members. Late last month, its founder, Father John Hogan, received a blessing from Pope Benedict XVI.

I congratulate Father Hogan. And I can’t pass up an opportunity to celebrate St. Genesius the Comedian, a martyr whose life I told in an earlier post titled “Take My Life, Please.”

Genesius (d. 286 or 303) was the leader of a theatrical troupe in Rome, performing one day before the Emperor Diocletian The script called for these wise guys to make fun of the Christian rites, and Genesius was supposed to pretend to receive the Sacrament of Baptism. But a funny thing happened on the way to the punch line: When the water had been poured out on him, he proclaimed himself a Christian. Diocletian at first thought it was all part of the joke. But gradually it became clear that Genesius meant it. Suddenly, the emperor was not amused. For spoiling the party, Diocletian ordered the comedian to be tortured and then beheaded. Genesius must have had quite a following, though. We know that he was venerated at Rome as early as the fourth century: a church was built in his honor, and was repaired and beautified centuries later by Gregory III in 741.

On the Byzantine calendar, today’s the feast of St. Michael the Archangel and the Angelic Hosts. Devotion to my heavenly namesake was very well developed, very early in the Church’s history. Before Constantine’s peace, there were churches dedicated to St. Michael in Rome and in Egypt. And he appears often in early Coptic art. For the goods, see this book — and prepare to be wowed.

St. Michael is the patron of my ancestral city of Caltanissetta, Sicily.

In your kindness, pray today for all bloggers named Michael who happened to be born on Byzantine St. Michael’s day.

We at the St. Paul Center were pleased to see that Zenit posted a nice article on last week’s conference. Now we’re preparing for next week’s conference. I hope you can join us …

The 2008 Letter & Spirit Conference
St. Paul: Mission and Mystery
Sponsored by the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology
Nov. 14-15, 2008, St. Paul Seminary, Crafton, PA

Friday, November 14
Keynote Address:
“St. Paul: Mission and Mystery”
Dr. Scott Hahn, Founder and President, St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology

Saturday, November 15
“The Biblical Basis for Bishops in Paul’s Pastoral Epistles”
Dr. Mike Sirilla, Associate Professor of Theology
Franciscan University of Steubenville

“The Mystery of Marriage in Paul”
Dr. John Bergsma, Associate Professor of Theology, Franciscan University of Steubenville

“The Mystery of Christ in Ephesians”
Dr. William Bales, Professor of Sacred Scripture, Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary

“The Mystery of the Spirit in First Corinthians”
Dr. Mary Healy, Associate Professor of Sacred Scripture, Sacred Heart Major Seminary

Panel Discussion
All scholars

Holy Mass
Celebrant & Homilist: Bishop David A. Zubik, Diocese of Pittsburgh

4th Annual Father Ronald Lawler, OFM Cap,
Memorial Lecture:
Sex, Marriage & Original Sin:
A Defense of Augustine’s Reading of St. Paul
Dr. John Cavadini, Chairperson of the Department of Theology
University of Notre Dame

REGISTER NOW!