Saint Samuel, Prophet and Judge of Israel

One day, Hannah began to weep; she would not eat. Elkanah, who loved her, said to her: "Why do you weep and why do you not eat? And why is your heart afflicted? Am I not better to you than ten sons?"

Hannah took some food to please her husband. Then she came, her heart still filled with anguish, to pray at the door of the temple; there, she shed many tears, and, in the fervor of her desire, she made this vow to the Lord: "Lord of hosts, if you look upon your afflicted servant, if you deign to remember her and give her a son, I will dedicate him to you for all the days of his life, and no razor shall pass over his head."

At that time, Eli held the office of high priest in Israel. His ministry had called him to the temple w hen Héli High Priest of Israel and mentor to Samuel at Shiloh. Hannah came there to pray. He saw her, and, observing the movement of her lips without hearing any words, he thought she had taken too much wine. Doubtless, the face of the weeping Hannah, her sudden and troubled movements as great passions draw from us, the very fervor of her prayer, all authorized a false suspicion in the mind of the pontiff: he reprimanded the poor woman. She was fleeing domestic strife, she was fleeing her own affliction, another storm much harsher than the insults of a rival, and, instead of a refuge and calm, she found in the holy house reproach and anger.

Hannah answered the pontiff with moderation: "Forgive me, my lord, I am a very unfortunate woman; I have drunk neither wine nor anything that could intoxicate; I have only poured out my soul in the presence of God. Do not treat your servant as an impious and corrupt woman, for it is only the excess of my sorrow and my affliction that has made me speak until this hour." "Go in peace," replied the old man, "and may the God of Israel grant you the request you have made of him." Hannah added: "May your servant find favor in your eyes!" Then she went away, took food from then on, and, filled with confidence in God, ceased to wear a sad and dejected face.

The next day, after worshipping the Lord, Elkanah, his wives, and his children returned to their home in Ramah. God had listened to Hannah's vows and ratified the high priest's blessing. In the year following her prayer, she gave birth to a son whom she named Samuel, to signify that she had obtained him from the Lord. This name was to be for the parents a memorial of a long-desired grace, and for the young man a perpetual lesson in living well.

When Samuel was born, his father went to Shiloh with his whole household to offer thanks to God. Hannah did not follow him then: "I will not go to the temple," she said, "until the child is weaned and I bring him to be consecrated to the Lord and leave him in His presence." She wanted to give him entirely and without return, an image of those generous hearts who, in the name of duty, sacrifice their dearest affections and complete without reservation what they began without selfishness. Elkanah consented to this desire: "Do what seems good to you, and remain until the child is weaned. I pray God to fulfill His word upon us." Hannah therefore remained at home. She nursed Samuel herself with her milk, like all mothers faithful to the views of Providence and the counsels of true tenderness.

Finally, the time having come, Hannah brought Samuel to Shiloh and presented him to the high priest Eli. "It is I, my lord," she said as she approached him; "I am the woman you saw here praying to the Lord. I begged Him to give me this child, and He has granted the request I made of Him. Therefore, I come to return to Him and leave with Him forever the son I received from Him." She worshipped; then, moved by gratitude and joy, and seized by a prophetic spirit, she uttered this beautiful prayer: "My heart has exulted in the Lord, and my glory is exalted by the strength of my God; my mouth has opened to answer my enemies, because I have rejoiced, O God! in Your saving favor. There is no one holy like the Lord; no one equals You and is powerful like You, O our God! — Cease to boast and to speak insolent words; let your mouth silence its former discourse; for the Lord is the God of all knowledge, and all thoughts are laid bare before Him."

They returned to Ramah. The young Samuel remained in Shiloh to serve the Lord under the orders of the high priest. It was a great act of courage for Hannah to leave in this way the only son who had cost her so many prayers and tears; the anxieties of hope were now to be succeeded by the worries that arise from a painful separation. It is true that she kept for Samuel that tender love which rejoices even in absence and is nourished by distance itself, like a fertile vine, which, in extending its branches, also extends its nourishing juices to the clusters furthest from its root. Then she would visit the young child on feast days, coming to Shiloh to offer the customary sacrifices; she would then bring him a tunic she had made with her own hands. The maternal tenderness of this woman was rewarded by heaven: the high priest blessed Hannah and Elkanah, wishing them numerous prosperity. Indeed, three sons and two daughters were given to them, and their old age was crowned with glory, just as the already old palm tree surrounds itself with shoots that turn green at its feet.

Samuel, dressed in the robe of the Levites, was occupied in the service of the Temple. All the Fathers have praised, on the faith of ancient traditions, his childhood spent in the exercises of piety, his pure morals, his gentle character, and his fine qualities. He grew in age and in wisdom, equally pleasing to God and to men; for men have hearts that are more righteous than their conduct is courageous, and, while sometimes exiling virtue from their works, they nevertheless grant it hospitality in their esteem.

However, the sons of the high priest Eli, priests themselves, dishonored the priesthood through impious conduct and turned the people away from divine worship through their ignorance and contempt for the law. It was a great crime; for who can resist scandals that emerge from the sanctuary? And from where will help come when treason sits at the domestic hearth? Eli knew of the disorder of his sons; but, instead of punishing them with severity, he addressed to them only a few reproaches imbued with a soft and excessive gentleness. There is a time for mercy, no doubt; but there is never a time for weakness. Thus, the children of Eli took no account of his warnings, and, on the other hand, God, through the mouth of a prophet, accused him of guilty condescension and predicted for him harsh afflictions and the death of his sons. These threats were confirmed by the ministry of Samuel, who was, although still very young, about to enter into the brilliance of his destiny.

He was then twelve years old. One night, he was awakened by a voice that pronounced his name. Believing that Eli was calling him, he went to find the old man, who replied: "I did not call you, go back and sleep." Shortly after, the same voice made itself heard; Samuel ran to the high priest, who sent him away as before. The young Levite had not yet had direct and immediate commerce with the Lord, and he did not know, by experimental science, as he would learn later, by what sign one recognizes divine inspiration. He was called again; this time, the high priest said to him: "Go back and sleep, and, if you are called henceforth, you shall answer: Speak, Lord; for your servant is listening." The voice cried out again: "Samuel, Samuel!" He answered: "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." It was truly the Lord; and the voice added: "I am going to do, in Israel, a thing that one will not be able to hear without stupor. On that day, I will accomplish everything that I have said against Eli and his house, I will begin and I will finish. For I have threatened him to take from his house a vengeance without remedy, because of his crime, because, knowing the unworthy conduct of his sons, he did not punish them. That is why I have sworn that the iniquity of the house of Eli would never be expiated, neither by victims nor by gifts." Such was the word of the Lord, who used a child and a Levite to instruct an old man and a pontiff; for there is a maturity better than that of age and a priesthood that belongs to all men: it is the maturity and the priesthood of virtue.

After having received the heavenly communication, Samuel did not return to Eli; even the next day, he did not dare to make known to him the terrible vision. But Eli called him: "What did the Lord say to you? Do not hide it, I pray you. May the Lord treat you with all severity if you hide from me any of the words that were addressed to you." Samuel obeyed, and recounted everything he had heard. The high priest replied: "It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him." One may believe that Eli thus corrected, by the resigned acceptance of his future punishment, the vice of his paternal weakness; but the threats of the Lord nonetheless had their fulfillment.

Indeed, a little more than twenty years after Samuel's prophecy, the Israelites were twice defeated in a war against the Philistines, their implacable enemies; they lost thirty thousand men in the second battle. When this disaster was learned of in Shiloh, the city resounded with lamentable clamor. Eli asked the cause of the public tumult; he was told: "Israel has fled before the Philistines; a great part of the army has been cut to pieces; even your two sons are killed, and the ark of God is taken." Upon hearing the ark of God mentioned, Eli fell backward from his seat and broke his head. Such was the death of this unfortunate father, who seems to have had no other faults than a soft condescension toward his sons.

These events, announced in advance, and several other prophecies that were also verified, proved that Samuel was the faithful interpreter of the Lord. He was nearly forty years old; he was proclaimed judge of the peo ple in place o juge du peuple Prophet of Israel who anointed David. f Eli (1092 BC). Samuel thus became the political leader of Judea, as Jephthah, Samson, and others had become. To civil authority, he joined religious authority, as a Levite, perhaps even as a pontiff; for, although he was not of the race of Aaron, many have thought that he exercised, by extraordinary mission, the functions of the sovereign priesthood. Invested with this double power, he defended the cause of God and his country. He assembled the people in arms at Mizpah, not far from Ramah and Shiloh. He reassured his compatriots, exhorting them to defend their liberty compromised by the victory of the Philistines; he made them view the public misfortunes as a punishment for the idolatry and crimes of the nation, and brought their spirits back to the worship of the true God.

Great successes, where the hand of God showed itself more than once, glorified the government of Samuel: the ark was recovered, the audacity of the Philistines struck down in a bloody combat, and peace with its advantages was acquired for the Israelites. The peril passed, Samuel nevertheless continued to govern his homeland. He had fixed his principal residence at Ramah; from there, he went to visit the surrounding cities, in order to listen to the complaints of the people and to render them justice. Gilgal, Bethel, and Mizpah were the principal places where he exercised his peaceful functions.

Having grown old, Samuel delegated a portion of his authority to his sons to judge Israel; but, by a fortune that seems to weigh upon most great men, he had the sorrow of seeing his sons unfaithful to his examples and his reputation. Their sentences and their conduct were so full of iniquity that the elders of the people came to complain to Samuel and ask him for a king. Samuel was wounded by this proposal, which tended to replace a purely divine work with a work of human hands. He consulted God in prayer and made known to his fellow citizens the future that was reserved for them. But the Israelites undoubtedly flattered themselves that they would be no more oppressed and would be as courageous as other nations. They therefore had a king: Saul , of Saül First king of Israel and persecutor of David. the tribe of Benjamin, was elected and consecrated (1080 BC). But he was no wiser than his people; he turned away from the known will of the Lord, and the Lord rejected him just as He had chosen him.

Samuel received the mission to announce to Saul that his reign was over: "Obedience," he told him, "is better than sacrifice; because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord rejects you from the kingship."

He was about to withdraw after these words; but the prince tried to hold him back by seizing his mantle; the mantle tore. Samuel said: "Today, the Lord tears the kingdom of Israel from your hands to give it to another who is better than you." From that day on, Samuel ceased to see Saul and to pay him public homage as his prince; but he always loved him, because of their long and ancient intimacy, and mourned him for the rest of his life. Nevertheless, he had to resign himself: upon a heavenly order, he chose David as the second king of Israel and David Second king of Israel, chosen by God to succeed Saul. gave him the holy anointing in secret. Various causes called the fury of the former monarch upon the new one; the latter escaped the constantly recurring perils only by flight. Samuel, who shared the bad fortune of David, nevertheless maintained until the end of his life a great influence on the public affairs of his country.

The illustrious prophet died at a very advanced age (1043 BC). He was buried in Ramah, in his family's sepulcher; all Israel mourned him. A child of prayer, and consecrated to God even before birth, he completed in piety a life begun under such religious auspices. A superior man, he showed himself modest without weakness and firm without harshness; kings listened to him with respect, and his voice retained authority even over a people agitated by the spirit of innovation. A skillful politician, he reformed the State and caused religion to flourish, the primary guarantee of order; an honest politician, he sought only in virtue a counterweight to license, and was able to challenge his fellow citizens to point out anything reprehensible in his life and judgments. Thus appeared Samuel; and, if he must be named the example of princes because of his fine qualities, his mother must be named the example of mothers because of her religious tenderness; for we shall dare to say that there would be more sons like Samuel if there were more mothers who would wish to imitate the piety of Hannah.

## CULT AND RELICS. — WRITINGS.

We have said that the body of the prophet Samuel was deposited at Ramatha, in his family sepulcher: his tomb was preserved, despite the revolutions of the country and the calamities of the Jewish people, until the beginning of the Church's century. A kind of mourning feast was instituted in the synagogue, where the anniversary of his death was publicly celebrated by a fast, especially after the return from the Babylonian captivity. But the Christians bestowed upon him other honors which deserve the name of feast all the more, as they were the same as those which the Church renders to the Saints. This is what was seen established, mainly after his relics had been transported from J udea to Consta Constantinople City where the saint exercised his ministry and patriarchate. ntinople. This translation took place by order of the Emperor Arcadius (May 19, 406). They were placed in deposit in the great church for some time. From there they were transported (June 28, 407) to the basilica that had been built in his honor and under his name in the Hebdomon, which was the suburb of Constantinople. This church of Saint Samuel was destroyed by an earthquake that shook the city twice (April 16 and October 19, 557). Some authors have claimed that the Emperor Justinian had immediately rebuilt the basilica of Saint Samuel; but the Greek historian Procopius (500-565) only says that Justinian had a fountain basin or a cistern made in the monastery of Saint Samuel, in Palestine, and apparently at the place from which his body had been taken. Indeed, it has always been continued, until these last centuries, to show in this place a monument called the *Tomb of the Prophet Samuel*, with a large fountain of very healthy water, a few steps away.

The Greeks and other peoples who follow their rite celebrate the feast of the prophet Samuel on August 20. This is what has been observed since among the Latins who have placed his name in their martyrologies, from that of the Venerable Be de, at the beg Vénérable Bède Hagiographer whose martyrology attests to the antiquity of the cult. inning of the 8th century, to the modern Roman.

Samuel is credited with the book of Judges, the book of Ruth, and the first twenty-four chapters of the first book of Kings.

We have drawn the history of the life of Saint Samuel from *Women of the Bible*, by Mgr Darboy; and that of his cult from the *Life of the Saints of the Old Testament*, by Bulliet. — Cf. *Acta Sanctorum*, and Dom Célestier.