Pope St. Soter succeeded Pope St. Anicetus as the head of the Holy Catholic Church in 167 and served as the Vicar of Christ until his martyrdom in 175 AD.
We possess a fragment of an interesting letter addressed to him by St. Dionysius of Corinth, who writes: "From the beginning it has been your custom to do good to all the brethren in many ways, and to send alms to many churches in every city, refreshing the poverty of those who sent requests, or giving aid to the brethren in the mines, by the alms which you have had the habit of giving from old, Romans keeping up the traditional custom of the Romans; which your blessed Bishop Soter has not only preserved, but has even increased, by providing the abundance which he has sent to the saints, and by further consoling with blessed words with brethren who came to him, as a loving father his children. Today, therefore, we have kept the holy Lord's day, on which we have read your letter, which we shall always have to read and be admonished, even as the former letter which was written to us by the ministry of Clement" (Eusebius, Church History IV 24).The Roman Breviary reading during Matins writes: "He ordered that consecrated virgins should not touch the sacred vessels and palls, nor act as thurifers in the church. He also decreed that all Christian should receive the body of Christ on Holy Thursday, except those forbidden to do so by grave sin."
St. Caius served as the holy pontiff from December 17, 283, until April 22, 296. The Roman Breviary writes: "Caius was a Dalmatian, of the kindred of the emperor Diocletian. He decreed that these several orders and grades of honor in the Church should lead up to the episcopate, namely: doorkeeper, lector, exorcist, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon, and priest. Fleeing from the cruelty of Diocletian towards the Christians, he hid himself for some time in a cave; then... received the crown of martyrdom together with this brother Gabinus and was buried in the cemetery of Callistus."
Like all the Vicars of Christ in the first centuries, Sts. Soter and Caius were constant in uniting their sufferings to those of the Divine Redeemer and "in Him bore much fruit".
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SS Soter and Anicetus pray for us, in need of trustworthy and loving fathers in the gospel.
Like him or not, please pray for Michael Voris and his ministry; God bless him. The recent petty - and I trust fruitless - assault on him only convinces me that he is a 'saint' living among us .. and, God's grace willing with final perseverance, one day shall be recognised as one more honoured Saint on the altars of the Church (like so many other culturally 'difficult' souls, in the feisty spirit of his hero Ven John Fulton Sheen). His so very human flaws only make him more likable .. to those who understand the real difference between a flaw repented of and a wrong magnified as if a right.
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