Mary the Mother of Jesus Miracles_BLay Saints 
 Miracles
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Alradus  (also known as Abrad, Araldus)
Alradus was a knight who laid down his arms to become a lay-brother of the Cistercian abbey of Isenhagen
Brother Alphonsus
proves Mother Teresa's axiom that small things done with great love is the call of the Christian.
Every day Alphonsus Rodriguez prayed to more than 20 confessors, martyrs, and Church Fathers. He had a great veneration for Saint Ursula, and though modern scholarship has done much to revise and alter the story of her martyrdom, the fact remains that a liturgy might be clumsy and inaccurate and yet represent a far more fertile and living expression of religious life than one which has been cleaned and scoured to the point of rendering it sterile.
258 St Romanus, Martyr doorkeeper of the Roman church; baptized by him in prison by St Laurence
284-305 The Holy Martyr Neophytus red-hot oven holy martyr remained unharmed 3 days and 3 nights in it dies at 16
         wonderworker
Martyr Ananias of Persia tortured for his belief in Christ a layman
 510 St. Eugendus Jan 1; 4th abbot of Condat, near Geneva Switzerland. Also called Oyand, Eugendus was never ordained, but he was a noted Scripture scholar.
560 St Equitius, Abbot;  Zeal for the salvation of souls so burned in his heart that, in spite of his responsibility for so
      many monasteries, he
travelled about diligently, visiting churches, towns, villages, and particularly men's houses,
      to stir up the hearts of those that heard him
to a love of heavenly joys; St Equitius flourished in the Abruzzi at the
      time when St Benedict was establishing his rule at Monte Cassino,
and in his youth suffered greatly from
      temptations of the flesh

564 St. Abundius Confessor sacristan St. Peter's in Rome humble many graces spiritual gifts Romæ sancti Abúndii, Mansionárii Ecclésiæ  sancti Petri.  At Rome, St. Abundius, sacristan of  the church of St. Peter.
6th v. Musa of Rome favored with visions and other mystical experiences referenced by Saint Gregory the Great, her contemporary V
6th v. St. Deusdedit Shoemaker in Rome in the era of Pope St. Gregory the Great. Every Saturday Deusdedit gave all his weekly earnings to the poor. Pope St. Gregory I the Great praised Deusdedit.

860 Paschasius Radbertus abandoned at convent asked to be forgotten simply asks for prayers to God left works
    dealing with the body and
blood of Christ the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist (De Corpore et Sanguine
   Christe) commentary on Saint Matthew's Gospel
  (12 volumes) composed treatise on the Virgin defend her perpetual
  virginity long exposition on Psalm 44 and another on the
Lamentations of Jeremiah wrote biographies of 2
  abbots-Corbie Abbot

909 Gerald of Aurillac Confessor gave much time to meditation, study, and prayer piety generosity to the poor a
    layman who devoted
  himself to his neighbors and dependents founded the monastery at Aurillac
912 Notker Balbulus originator of the liturgical sequences composed both words and music OSB (AC)

1050 Bruno a Benedictine lay-brother at Ottobeuren Abbey OSB (AC)
        Bruno was a Benedictine lay-brother at Ottobeuren Abbey in Bavaria (Germany) (Benedictines).
1073 Saint John Gaulbert, Abbot entered the Order of St. Benedict laid the foundation of the Order of Vallombrosa founded several monasteries, reformed others eradicated simony no indigent person sent away without alms  dedicated to poverty and humility. He never became a priest, in fact, he declined even to receive minor orders  known for his wisdom, miracles, and prophecies
In monastério Passiniáno, prope Floréntiam, sancti Joánnis Gualbérti Abbátis, qui fuit Institútor Ordinis Vallis Umbrósæ.
    In the monastery of Passignano, near Florence, Abbot St. John Gualbert, founder of the Order of Vallombrosa.
1111 St. Berthold Benedictine lay brother service of the nuns Oct 21
1126 Blessed Conrad of Seldenbüren founded and endowed Engelberg Abbey at Unterwalden Switzerland Benedictine
       lay-brother martyr
1135  St. Leopold Known for his piety and charity lay saint  founded three monasteries
1199 Homobonus of Cremona Nov 13 life of the utmost rectitude integrity known for his charity concern for poor devoted profits to relief some he looked after in his own house.(RM)
1205 Blessed William of Fenoli Carthusian lay-brother many miracles both during his life and after his death
1226 St. Francis of Assisi Founder of the Franciscan Order, born at Assisi in Umbria, in 1181 or 1182 --; died there
1239 St. Albert of Genoa Cistercian hermit; born in Genoa and entered the nearby Cistercian abbey of Sentri da
         Ponente as a lay brother.   He lived as a hermit on the abbey grounds.
1240 Bd Peregrine of  Falerone; a lay-brother; In this humble condition he persevered to the end. Both before and after
        death he was famous for miracles.

1243 St. Hedwig Duchess widow LAY Cistercain patroness of Silesia
1250 Blessed Alradus of Isenhagen knight who laid down his arms to become a lay-brother of the Cistercian abbey
1280 Blessed Nevolo of Faenza; He married and led a frivolous life until at the age of 24 he experienced a complete
       conversion. He became first Franciscan tertiary later enter the Camaldolese monastery at San Maglorio at Faenza
       as a lay-brother (Benedictines).
1289 May 21 Blessed Benvenutus of Recanati Franciscan lay brother favored with ecstasies and visions OFM AC
1304 Blessed Raynerius of Arezzo a Franciscan lay- brother OFM (AC)
1305 Blessed Joachim Piccolomini singular devotion to the Blessed Virgin charity for poor perfect model of
         conspicuous virtue OSM (RM)
1310 St. Alexis Falconieri became a lay brother one The "Seven Holy Founders" of the Servites
1315 Bd Henry of Treviso; 276 miracles, wrought by his relics, recorded within days of death by notaries appointed by the magistrates: they occupy thirty-two closely printed columns of the Acta Sanctorum
1319 Blessed Simon Ballachi  Dominican lay-brother at age 27 visitors came to him in the silence of the night: Saint
        Catherine of Alexandria, to whom he had a special devotion, Saint Dominic and Saint Peter Martyr, and
        sometimes the Blessed Virgin herself. His  little cell was radiant with heavenly lights, and sometimes angelic voices
        could be heard within OP (AC)
1329 Blessed Frederick of Ratisbon (Regensburg)  lay-brother by the Augustinian hermits OSA (AC)
1347 St. Flora Patron abandoned converts Oct 5 single laywomen betrayal victims many miracles worked at her tomb.
1348 Blessed Silvester Ventura age of 40 he joined Camaldolese Santa Maria degli Angeli at Florence as a lay brother
        cook favored with ecstasies heavenly visions, angels were wont to come and cook for him spiritual advice was in
        great demand, OSB Cam. (AC)
1367 Blessed John (Giovanni) Colombini, Founded Gesuati lay brothers approved in 1367; rich Sienese merchant held position of 1st magistrate (gonfalionere); ambitious, avaricious, ill-tempered man converted while reading conversion story of Saint Mary of Egypt in the The Lives of the Saints (RM)
Senis, in Túscia, natális beáti Joánnis Columbíni, qui fuit Institútor Ordinis Jesuatórum, et sanctitáte ac miráculis cláruit.
    At Siena in Tuscany, the birthday of blessed John Colombini, founder of the Order of Gesuati, renowned for sanctity and miracles.

1380 St. Catherine of Siena illiterate one of the most brilliant theological minds of her day mystical experiences when
        only 6 visions of Christ Mary and the saints gift of healing Stigmata visible only after her death Dr of the Church
1377 Bl. Villana hideous demon in mirror wonderful visions olloquies our Lady and saints gift of prophecy
1380 St. Aventanus Carmelite mystic lay brother gift of ecstasies, miracles, and visions

1399 Blessed Queen St. Jadwiga of Poland cultural institutions to both state and church Pope John Paul II canonized Blessed Jadwiga
1447 Blessed Thomas Bellaci Fransciscan lay-brother made novice master. When over 70, he went to preach in Syria
       and Abyssinia where, to his sorrow, he narrowly escaped martyrdom by the Islamics.
1447 BD THOMAS OF FLORENCE; Oct 25; a Franciscan lay brother; the gift of miracles; Many urged that Bd Thomas should be canonized with St Bernardino of Siena, whose cause was then in process. To prevent the delay that would have resulted, St John of Capistrano, it is said, went to Thomas’s tomb at Rieti and commanded him in the name of holy obedience to cease his miracles until the canonization of Bernardino should be achieved. They stopped for three years, but Bd Thomas has never been canonized. His cultus was approved in 1771.
1463 Saint Didacus or Diego lay-brother guardian of the chief convent of the Canary Islands
1485 Blessed Michael Gedroye famous for his gifts of prophecy and miracles: his cell adjoining church of the
        Augustinian canons regular at Cracow OSA (AC)
1503  St Tikhon of Lukh, and Kostroma copied books with skill, and was a fine lathe turner. Out of humility he did
         not become a priest

1504 Blessed Vincent of Aquila Vincent was a Franciscan lay-brother who was famous for his mystical gifts , OFM
1508 Blessed  Gratia light seen above his cell miracles at intercession lay-brother at Monte Ortono, near Padua gift of
        infused knowledge

1508 Blessed Jacobinus de'Canepaci Carmelite lay-brother OC (AC)
1537 Bl. Robert Salt Carthusian martyr a lay brother in the Carthusian community of London who, with six other
        members of the order
starved to death at Newgate by order of King Henry VIII of England  after they resisted his
        Dissolution of the Monasteries.

1537 Bl. William Greenwood Carthusian martyr of England with six companions; A lay brother in the Carthusian
       London Charterhouse, he was arrested for opposing the policies of King Henry VIII (r. 1509-1547) and starved to
       death in Newgate Prison with six companions.

1572 St. Peter of Asche Franciscan lay brother member of the Gorkum Martyrs participated in the efforts of the
         Franciscans to convert the
local Calvinists hanged at the ruined monastery of Ruggen
1592 St. Paschal Baylon Franciscan lay brother mystic labored as shepherd for father performed miracles distinguished
      for austerity spent
most of his life as a humble doorkeeper rigorous asceticism deep love for the Blessed Sacrament
      defended the doctrine of the Real
Presence against a Calvinists born and died on Whitsunday
1600 Blessed Sebastian Aparicio Franciscan lay brother at Puebla de los Angeles 26 years OFM (AC)
1604 St. Seraphinus Capuchin spiritual gifts wisdom spiritual advisor
1606 Blessed Julian of Saint Augustine Dominican Order as a lay-brother at Santorcaz, OFM (AC)
1617 St. Alphonsus Rodriguez Obedient penintent experienced many spiritual consolations he died in 1617 still a porter saying only one word: Jesus; the reputation he had was summed up once for all by Father Michael Julian in his exclamation, “That brother is not a man—he is an angel!”; Especially in his later years he suffered from long periods of desolation and aridity, and with terrifying regularity he was seized with pain and sickness whenever he set himself formally to meditate. Added to this, he was beset with violent temptations, just as though for years he had not curbed his body by fierce austerities, which now had to be made even more rigorous. But he never despaired, carrying out every duty with exact regularity, knowing that in God’s own time he would be seized again in an ecstasy of love and spiritual delight; trials of ill-health and physical suffering; at last he was practically confined to his bed. But his invincible perseverance and patience brought consolations “to such a degree that he could not raise his eyes in spirit to Jesus and Mary without their being at once before him”.
1627 Bl. Bartholomew Laurel martyr Nagasaki Aug 17
Born at Mexico City he joined the Franciscans as a lay brother and was sent to the Philippines in 1609. He studied medicine at Manila and in 1622 was sent to Japan where he suffered for his faith by being burned to death at Nagasaki. Beatified in 1867
.
1622 Bl. Bartholomew Shikiemon layman martyrs of Japan
dying with Blessed Charles Spinola. Bartholomew was a Japanese layman. He was beheaded at Nagasaki
.
1627 St. Frances Bizzocca Martyr of Japan  Aug 17
A Third Order Dominican, the wife of Blessed Leo Bizzocca, Frances sheltered missionaries in her home, an act that brought about her arrest. She was burned alive in Nagasaki, Japan. Frances was beatified in 1867
.
1627 Bl. Francis Kuloi native Martyr of Japan  Aug 17
A Japanese, he was a Franciscan tertiary who sheltered missionaries. He was beheaded beatified in 1867
.
1627 Bl. Francis Kurobiove native Martyr of Japan
A Dominican tertiary and a Japanese, Francis was burned alive at Nagasaki, Japan. He was beatified in 1867
Bl. Martin Gomez Martyr of Japan native of Japan Portuguese descent
He was a Franciscan tertiary, was arrested for his faith and beheaded at Nagasaki. Martin was beatified in 1867.
1627 Bl. Louis Someyon Martyr of Japan
He was a Franciscan tertiary who was beheaded at Nagasaki, Japan. He was beatified in 1867.
1627 Bl. Michael Kiraiemon Martyr of Japan and a Franciscan tertiary Aug 17
        Michael was beheaded at Nagasaki and was beatified in 1867 by Pope Pius IX.
1627 Bl. Thomas Vinyemon Japanese martyr A layman Aug 17
        He was beheaded at Nagasaki after being condemned for giving aid and shelter to missionaries
.
1637 St. Lorenzo Ruiz; first Filipino saint & martyred in Japan; Layman; he told his executioner that he was "ready to
        die for God and give himself for many thousands of lives if he had them!"

1637 Blessed Humilis of Bisignano Observant Franciscan lay-brother so widely known for his sanctity that he was
        called to Rome, where
both Pope Gregory XV and Urban VIII consulted him OFM (AC)
1645 Saint John Masias Marvelous Dominican Gatekeeper of Lima, Peru truly a "child of God." saint of simplicity
        charity levitated Many miracles were attributed saved souls in Purgatory

1694 Bd Bernard Of Offida; humble Capuchin door keeper; "Now, my good St Felix, this is the time to help me", set himself to prayer.  And the dead child became alive and well. It is also said that our Lady appeared to him one day and told him that all his faults had been forgiven.

1755  St. Gerard Majella Redemptorists patron of expectant mothers  gift of reading consciences
1771 St. Marguerite d'Youville Canada "Mother of Universal Charity."
1847 Bl. Matthew Gam Vietnamese martyr transported Catholic priests of the Paris Foreign Missions Society from
        Singapore to Vietnam
1853 Blessed Frederick Ozanam served poor of Paris  9/7/09
1857 Dominic Savio Bosco would write Dominic's biography  known for cheerfulness, friendliness, careful observation,
        and good advice (RM)
1866 St Francis Of Camporosso: Capuchin Friars Minor lay brother; able to give correct information about people in
        distant lands, whom he had never seen. Miracles of healing attributed before and after death

1879 St. Bernadette Mary appeared to Bernadette 18 times and spoke with her above a rose bush in a grotto called
         Massabielle dressed in
blue and white with a rosary of ivory and gold
1885 Saint Joseph Mkasa prefect of the royal pages of Uganda M (RM)
1894 St. Conrad of Parzham Franciscan mystic lay brother Marian devotions gift of prophecy read people’s hearts
1902 Blessed Contardo Ferrini patron of universities
1927  St. Joseph Moscati Celebrated physician of Naples a model of piety and faith long periods of reflective prayer

1927  St. Joseph Moscati Celebrated physician of Naples a model of piety and faith long periods of reflective prayer
 Italy, noted for medical research. Joseph gave his wages and skills to caring for the sick and the poor and was a model of piety and faith. He was beatified in 1975 and canonized in 1987.

Giuseppe Moscati (RM) (also known as Joseph Moscati) Born in Benevento, Italy, 1860; beatified in 1975; canonized in 1987 by Pope John Paul II. Saint Giuseppe studied medicine at the University of Naples and later joined the school's medical faculty. His work led to the modern study of biochemistry. But Giuseppe was not canonized because he had a great scientific mind; rather his vow of chastity and loving care of the incurables at Santa Maria del Populo drew him to a life of sanctity. His charity was further proven during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906 and the cholera outbreak in 1911. Throughout his professional life he continued his medical research to relieve suffering, not to earn acclaim or wealth. He regularly withdrew for long periods of reflective prayer. Three years after his death, his relics were translated to the church of Gesu Nuovo (Farmer).
St. Joseph Moscati
1880-1927

"Remember that, following Medicine, you undertook upon yourself the responsibility of a teachings always in your memory, with love and pity for the abandoned, with faith and enthousiasm, deaf to praises and criticisms, to envry, inclined only to God."
[from a letter to Dr.Giuseppe Biondi, Sept. 4th, 1921.]

Joseph Moscati was born in Benevento, Italy, on July 25, 1880. He was born to virtuous Catholic parents being the seventh of nine children. His father was a lawyer and President of the Court of Assize in Naples. He was a very friendly and well-liked person. He was extremely intelligent, pious and prayerful.
He went to medical school at the University of Naples. He studied rigorously and frequented daily Mass. He suffered much grief when his beloved father died during his first year in medical school. He pressed on and graduated with a degree in Medicine and Surgery, summa cum laude, when he was only 23 years old in 1903. In 1906, he heroically saved many patients who could have died in the hospital when the roof was collapsing during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. He also was known to save many during a cholera epidemic in 1911. Later that same year, he became holder of the Naples University Chair in Chemical Physiology. Around 1912 or 1913, he made a vow of chastity, consecrating himself to a life of celibacy. He then aspired to be a Jesuit but was discourage by the Jesuit priests who discerned that God's will was for Dr. Moscati to remain in the world as a physician. In 1914, the start of World War I, his mother died. He volunteered in the Italian Army and became a major. He cared for the wounded soldiers and helped them become good Catholics.
Dr. Moscati's philosophy for medical practice was to save souls by caring for the body. He believed that the health of the body depended upon the soul remaining in the state of grace. He is quoted in saying that "one must attend first to the salvation of the soul and only then to that of the body." Through his practice, he helped many lapsed Catholics to return to the Sacraments. His favorite patients were the poor, the homeless, the religious and the priests-all from whom he would never accept payment. He actually went as far as secretly leaving his money within a patient's prescription or under a patient's pillow.
One day he even refused payment from all his patients saying "These are working folk. What have we that has not been given us by Our Lord? Woe to us if we do not make good use of God's gifts!"
He was always good to his patients. When one of his patients complained about the strict diet the good doctor prescribed, Dr. Moscati replied "God make us suffer here in order to reward us in the heavenly Kingdom; by resigning ourselves to dietary restrictions, and suffering, we shall have greater merit in the eyes of the Almighty."
Professionally, he commanded the highest admiration and respect from his peers and his students. Some of his pupils would accompany him to Mass. He received communion everyday and had a great devotion to Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception.
Though he saved many, he knew that he himself would not live long. After doing his normal hospital rounds and visiting the poor and examining patients in his home, he felt ill, stopped work, went to his room, sat in his chair and expired. He died at the age of 46. Pope John Paul II canonized Joseph Moscati during the Marian Year of 1987-1988 on October 25, 1987. Dr. Moscati's feastday is November 16.
Summarized and adapted from:  Joan Carroll Cruz, "Secular Saints: 250 Canonized and Beatified Lay Men, Women, and Children.
1902 Blessed Contardo Ferrini patron of universities
Contardo Ferrini was the son of a teacher who went on to become a learned man himself, one acquainted with some dozen languages. Today he is known as the patron of universities. Born in Milan b. 1859, he received a doctorate in law in Italy and then earned a scholarship that enabled him to study Roman-Byzantine law in Berlin. As a renowned legal expert, he taught in various schools of higher education until he joined the faculty of the University of Pavia, where he was considered an outstanding authority on Roman law.
Contardo was learned about the faith he lived and loved. "Our life," he said, "must reach out toward the Infinite, and from that source we must draw whatever we can expect of merit and dignity." As a scholar he studied the ancient biblical languages and read the Scriptures in them. His speeches and papers show his understanding of the relationship of faith and science. He attended daily Mass and became a lay Franciscan, faithfully observing the Third Order rule of life. He also served through membership in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
His death in 1902 at the age of 43 occasioned letters from his fellow professors that praised him as a saint; the people of Suna where he lived insisted that he be declared a saint. Pope Pius XII beatified Contardo in 1947.
Comment:  Thanks to people like Contardo, our Church long ago laid to rest the idea that science and faith are incompatible. We thank God for the many ways science has made our lives better. All that remains to us is to help ensure that the rest of the world, especially impoverished nations, gets to enjoy the fruits of scientific advance.
1894 St. Conrad of Parzham Franciscan mystic lay brother Marian devotions gift of prophecy read people’s hearts
Born Carl Birndorfer in Parzham, Bavaria, Germany, on December 22, 1818, he became a Capuchin lay brother in 1849. For more than thirty years, Conrad served as porter or doorkeeper of the shrine of Our Lady of Altotting, and he was known for his Marian devotions. Conrad had the gift of prophecy and of reading people’s hearts. He died in Altotting on April 21. He was canonized in 1934.
1885 Saint Joseph Mkasa prefect of the royal pages of Uganda M (RM)
Died in Uganda, 1885; canonized 1964. Saint Joseph, the prefect of the royal pages of Uganda, was baptized in 1881 and beheaded in witness to his faith just four years later (Benedictines).
JOSEPH MUKASA [Saint Joseph Mukasa]
Also known as Joseph Mkasa; Joseph Mkasa Balikuddembe; Joseph Balikuddembe; Yosefu Mukasa Balikuddembe; Josef Mukasa; Yosefu Mkasa
Memorial    3 June
Profile    Kayozi clan. Major-domo to King Mwanga of Uganda, and captain of the king's pages. Convert, joining on 15 November 1885. Rebuked the 18 year old king for his dissolute lifestyle, his drinking, his advances to the male court pages, and the martyrdom of Anglican missionary bishop James Hannington. Not the first Christian killed in Uganda, but the first Catholic martyr in the country. One of the Martyrs of Uganda who died in the Mwangan persecutions.
Born  1860 at Buganda, Uganda
Died  beheaded on 15 November 1885 at Nakivubo, Uganda; his body was burned
Name Meaning whom the Lord adds (Joseph)
Canonized 18 October 1964 by Pope Paul VI at Rome, Italy
1879 St. Bernadette: Mary appeared to Bernadette 18 times and spoke with her above a rose bush in a grotto called Massabielle dressed in blue and white with a rosary of ivory and gold
St. Bernadette patron saint of shepherds
On April 16, 1879, Bernadette -- or Sister Marie - Bernard, as she was known within her order -- died in the Sainte Croix (Holy Cross) Infirmary of the Convent of Saint-Gildard. She was thirty-five.
Born into a humble family which little by little fell into extreme poverty, Bernadette had always been a frail child. Quite young, she had already suffered from digestive trouble, then after having just escaped being a victim of the cholera epidemic of 1855, she experienced painful attacks of asthma, and her ill health almost caused her to be cut off for ever from the religious life. When asked by Monsignor Forcade to take Bernadette, Louise Ferrand, the Mother Superior of the Sisters of Nevers, replied: "Monsignor, she will be a pillar of the infirmary".
At least three times during her short life-time, she received the last Sacraments. She was gradually struck by other illnesses as well as asthma: among them, tuberculosis of the lung and a tubercular tumor on her right knee. On Wednesday, April 16, 1879, her pain got much worse. Shortly after eleven she seemed to be almost suffocating and was carried to an armchair, where she sat with her feet on a footstool in front of a blazing fire. She died at about 3.15 in the afternoon.
The civil authorities permitted her body to remain on view to be venerated by the public until Saturday, April 19. Then it was "placed in a double coffin of lead and oak which was sealed in the presence of witnesses who signed a record of the events". Among the witnesses were "inspector of the peace, Devraine, and constables Saget and Moyen".
The nuns of Saint-Gildard, with the support of the bishop of Nevers, applied to the civil authorities for permission to bury Bernadette's body in a small chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph which was within the confines of the convent. The permission was granted on April 25, 1879, and on April 30, the local Prefect pronounced his approval of the choice of the site for burial. Immediately they set to work on preparing the vault. On May 30, 1879, Bernadette's coffin was finally transferred to the crypt of the chapel of Saint Joseph. A very simple ceremony was held to commemorate the event.
Additional Info:  St. Bernadette was born at Lourdes, France. Her parents were very poor and she herself was in poor health. One Thursday, February 11, 1858, when she was sent with her younger sister and a friend to gather firewood, a very beautiful Lady appeared to her above a rose bush in a grotto called Massabielle.
The lovely Lady was dressed in blue and white. She smiled at Bernadette and then made the sign of the cross with a rosary of ivory and gold. Bernadette fell on her knees, took out her own rosary and began to pray the rosary. The beautiful Lady was God's Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. She appeared to Bernadette seventeen other times and spoke with her.
She told Bernadette that she should pray sinners, do penance and have a chapel built there in her honor. Many people did not believe Bernadette when she spoke of her vision. She had to suffer much. But one day Our Lady told Bernadette to dig in the mud. As she did, a spring of water began to flow. The next day it continued to grow larger and larger. Many miracles happened when people began to use this water. When Bernadette was older, she became a nun. She was always very humble. More than anything else, she desired not to be praised. Once a nun asked her if she had temptations of pride because she was favored by the Blessed Mother. "How can I?" she answered quickly. "The Blessed Virgin chose me only because I was the most ignorant." What humility!
St. Bernadette Soubirous 1879 Famed visionary of Lourdes, baptized Mary Bernard. She was born in Lourdes, France, on January 7, 1844, the daughter of Francis and Louise Soubirous. Bernadette, a severe asthma sufferer, lived in abject poverty. On February 11, 1858, she was granted a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a cave on the banks of the Gave River near Lourdes. She was placed in consider able jeopardy when she reported the vision, and crowds gathered when she had futher visits from the Virgin, from February 18 of that year through March 4.The civil authorities tried to frighten Bernadette into recanting her accounts, but she remained faithful to the vision.
On February 25, a spring emerged from the cave and the waters were discovered to be of a miraculous nature, capable of healing the sick and lame. On March 25, Bernadette announced that the vision stated that she was the Immaculate Conception, and that a church should be erected on the site. Many authorities tried to shut down the spring and delay the construction of the chapel, but the influence and fame of the visions reached Empress Eugenie of France, wife of Napoleon Ill, and construction went forward.
Crowds gathered, free of harassment from the anticlerical and antireligious officials. In 1866, Bernadette was sent to the Sisters of Notre Dame in Nevers. There she became a member of the community, and faced some rather harsh treatment from the mistress of novices. This oppression ended when it was discovered that she suffered from a painful, incurable illness. She died in Nevers on April 16,1879, still giving the same account of her visions. Lourdes became one of the major pilgrimage destinations in the world, and the spring has produced 27,000 gallons of water each week since emerging during Bernadette's visions. She was not involved in the building of the shrine, as she remained hidden at Nevers. Bernadette was beatified in 1925 and canonized in 1933 by Pope Pius XI.

Bernadette Soubirous V (RM) (also known as Mary Bernarda Soubirous) Born in Lourdes, France, January 7, 1844; died in Nevers, France, on April 16, 1879; canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1933; also honored on February 18 in France. Marie Bernarde (called Bernadette by family and friends) Soubirous, was the oldest of six children born to the impoverished miller François Soubirous, and his much-younger wife, Louise Casterot. The family lived in the basement of a damp building in the rue des Petits Fossés after her father rented a mill of his own. Bernadette was not a strong child; the dampness of their home and the vestiges of the cholera she contracted in 1854 aggravated the asthma and other ailments from which the young girl suffered.
"I am the Immaculate Conception"
  At age 14, she was considered to be ailing, undersized, of pleasant disposition, sensitive, and a slow student -- even stupid -- but was a kind, helpful and obedient child.
On February 11, 1858, the teenaged Bernadette was collecting scraps of wood on the bank of the River Gave when she was initially granted a vision of the Blessed Virgin, who did not identify herself at first.
For the next six months Bernadette saw a light-enhaloed female form of indescribable beauty, near a cave in the Massabielle cliff. In total, Bernadette had 18 visions of the Virgin Mary at the grotto, which principally concerned prayer and penance.
 
Bernadette showed people the grotto in which the BVM appeared. Most of them mocked her but from February 18 until March 4, Bernadette continued to see and talk with Our Lady every day. The clerical and civic officials who subjected Bernadette to numerous interrogations found her to be veracious and completely disinterested in self-advancement.
People followed Bernadette. The saw the girl fall into ecstasy; they heard her speak, but they saw nothing. The unknown 'lady' said to Bernadette:
"I wish to see people here"; "Pray for sinners"; "Tell the priests I wish to have a chapel here"; "Processions are to come here"; "Go, drink from the spring and wash in its water."
In obedience to this last injunction, the saint dug with her hands into the earth of the grotto, and there gushed forth a spring, unknown until that day--February 25, that for years has yielded 27,000 gallons weekly. Cures effected by drinking of the water mobilized pilgrimages of thousands which streamed to the grotto.
By March 4, about 200,000 people were accompanying Bernadette to the site. When Bernadette begged the lady for a name on March 25, she replied three times using the local dialect: "I am the Immaculate Conception--" a name that the girl did not understand because word of the definition had not yet reached the people of Lourdes.
The last vision occurred on July 16, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
The Church met these beginnings of the Lourdes pilgrimages with great reserve, almost with hostility. In part this was because after the appearances ceased, there was an epidemic of copycat visionaries and morbid religiosity in the district, which increased the reserved attitude of the church authorities towards Bernadette's experiences.
But Lourdes became a symbol. In an age in which the existence of or at all events the possibility of knowing a supra-mundane God was denied, a permanent medical bureau had to be opened in Lourdes, which has collected, with the help of thousands of physicians of all creeds, an immense documentation of professionally attested, inexplicable cures.
Bernadette's simplicity and integrity were never questioned. Although the publicity that accompanied her visions had helped her father to find work, Bernadette gained little more than the spiritual consolation of a few months. For some years she suffered greatly from the suspicious disbelief of some and the tactless enthusiasm and insensitive attentions of others; these trials she bore with impressive patience and dignity. She resided with the nuns at the hospice for five years (1861-1866) in order to escape the publicity, but people sought her out even there. 
In 1866 Bernadette joined the Sister of Notre-Dame at Saint Gildard in Nevers, France; she had wished for entrance two years earlier but had been prevented by bad health. She was happy with the nuns. Her health remained fragile, and she was given the last sacraments within four months of her arrival; she was allowed to take her first vows through a special dispensation. She recovered, however, and worked first as an infirmarian and later as a sacristan.
Here she was more sheltered from trying publicity, but not from the 'stuffiness' of the convent superiors nor from the tightening grip of asthma.
 "I am getting on with my joy," she would say. "What is that?" someone asked. "Being ill," was the reply.
The nuns, disappointed by the simplicity of this child of nature, in whom they had expected to find a second Teresa of Ávila or another Catherine of Siena, made the peasant girl feel bitterly the scant esteem in which they held her; and even her superiors, with the aim of protecting the visionary of Lourdes from the sin of pride, were not sparing in humiliations.
With the excuse that she was a "stupid, good-for-nothing little thing," her profession was continually delayed. God gave to the despised creature, who was punished for 13 years because of her visions, the strength to say:
 "You see, my story is quite simple. The Virgin made use of me, then I was put into a corner. That is now my place. There I am happy and there I remain."

Thus, she lived out her self-effacing life, dying at the age of 35 as did Saint Benedict Labre. The events of 1858 resulted in Lourdes becoming one of the most important pilgrim shrines in the history of Christendom, ending with the consecration of the basilica in 1876. But Saint Bernadette took no part in these developments; nor was it for her visions that she was canonized, but for the humble simplicity and religious trust that characterized her whole life (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Sandhurst, Schamoni, Trochu, Walsh, White).
Saint Bernadette is the patron saint of shepherds (White).
1866 St Francis Of Camporosso: Capuchin Friars Minor lay brother; able to give correct information about people in distant lands, whom he had never seen. Miracles of healing attributed before and after death
     Camporosso is a small town on the coast of Liguria, and there was living there at the beginning of the last century a family called Croese, who were farmers and olive-cultivators in a small way. To the master and mistress was born in 1804 a son, whom they had baptized John. He was one of four children and had a simple and religious upbringing, and as a matter of course began to work on his father’s farm. When he was about eighteen, however, John met a lay brother of the Conventual Friars Minor, who gave him the idea of the same vocation. John presented himself at the friary at Sestri Ponente and was accepted as a tertiary and given the name of Antony.
    He spent two years in the service of that house, and then, desiring a life of greater austerity, he offered himself to the Capuchin Friars Minor. He was sent to their novitiate at Genoa and in 1825 was clothed as a lay brother, with the names Francis Mary. In the following year he was professed and set to work in the infirmary, from whence he was taken to be questor, whose office it is to beg food from door to door for the community. This was a new experience for Brother Francis, and he disliked it so much that he thought of asking to be relieved of it. But instead, when the guardian asked him if he would undertake to beg in the city of Genoa itself, he accepted with alacrity. The Genoese were not invariably well disposed towards the religious, and Brother Francis sometimes received stones instead of bread, but he persevered for ten years and became the best-known and most welcome questor in the place.
    He was a particularly familiar figure in the dockyard, where people would come to ask of him news of their friends and relatives overseas, for he was reputed to be able to give correct information about people in distant lands, whom he had never seen. Miracles of healing too were attributed
to him and, though there were some still who insulted and jeered at him, to the majority he was known as “Padre santo”. It was in vain that he protested that he was a lay brother and not a priest—“good father” he remained, and he was indeed a father to the poor and afflicted who flocked to him.
   During two years Brother Francis suffered from varicose veins, of which he told nobody till his limp betrayed him, and he was found to be in a most shocking state. By the time he was sixty he was nearly worn out, and his leg had to be operated on, without much effect. In August 1866 Genoa was devastated by cholera. The Capuchins and other religious of the city were out among the sufferers at once, and Bd Francis was so moved by all he saw around him that he solemnly offered his own life to God that the epidemic might cease; and he accurately predicted the circumstances of his approaching death.
  On September 15 he was himself smitten by the disease, and two days later he was called to God. From that time the cholera began to abate. The tomb of St Francis became famous for miracles. He was beatified in 1929 and canonized in 1962.
  On September 15 he was himself smitten by the disease, and two days later he was called to God. From that time the cholera began to abate. The tomb of St Francis became famous for miracles. He was beatified in 1929 and canonized in 1962.

The decree of beatification, printed in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. xxi (1929), pp. 485—488, includes a biographical sketch of his life. Several biographies were issued or republished at the same time. The most considerable is one in Italian by Fr Luigi da Porto Maurizio another, also of some length, is in French, by Fr Constant de Pélissanne (1929).
1857 Dominic Savio; Bosco would write Dominic's biography  known for cheerfulness, friendliness, careful observation, and good advice (RM)
   Born in Riva, Piedmont, Italy, in 1842; died at Mondonio, Italy, on March 9, 1857; beatified in 1950; canonized in 1954.  Dominic was one of ten children of a peasant blacksmith and a seamstress. He grew up with a desire to be a priest. When Saint John Bosco began to train youths as clergy to help him care for neglected boys at Turin, Dominic's parish priest recommended today's saint. Bosco, who would write Dominic's biography, was impressed upon meeting him.
In October 1854, at the age of twelve, Dominic became a student at the Oratory of Saint Francis de Sales in Turin. He is best known for the group he organized there, called the Company of the Immaculate Conception. In addition to its devotional measures, it handled various jobs, from sweeping the floors to taking special care of boys who were misfits.
Early in his stay at the oratory, Dominic halted a fight with stones between two boys. Holding a crucifix between them he said, "Before you fight, look at this, both of you, and say 'Jesus Christ was sinless, and He died forgiving His executioners; I am going to outrage Him by being deliberately revengeful.' Then you can start- -and throw your first stone at me."
    He scrupulously followed the discipline of the house, incurring resentment from some other boys from whom he expected the same behavior. Nevertheless, he never repaid ill-treatment in kind. Bosco's guidance probably curbed Dominic from becoming a young fanatic. He forbade Dominic to perform bodily mortification without his permission, believing that with ". . . heat, cold, sickness (and) the tiresome ways of other people--there is quite enough mortification for boys in school life itself."
He found Dominic shivering in bed one cold night with only a thin sheet. "Don't be crazy. You'll get pneumonia," he said. "Why should I?" replied Dominic. "Our Lord didn't get pneumonia in the stable at Bethlehem."
    On one occasion when Dominic was missing from morning until after dinner, Bosco found him in the choir of the church, standing in a cramped position by the lectern, deep in prayer. He had been there for six hours, yet he thought that early Mass was not yet over. Dominic referred to these times of intense prayer as "my distractions."
    Bosco reports that in one strong 'distraction,' Dominic saw a wide, mist-shrouded plain, with a multitude of people groping about in it. To them came a pontifically vested figure carrying a torch that lighted up the whole scene, and a voice seemed to say, "This torch is the Catholic faith which shall bring light to the English people."
   Bosco reported this to Pope Pius IX at Dominic's request, and the pope said that it confirmed his intention to give attention to England. (You may recall that England became a primary preoccupation of Don Bosco's later life.) Some say this was the impetus for Pope Pius IX to restore a hierarchy to England in 1850.
   Dominic became known for his cheerfulness, friendliness, careful observation, and good advice. Though only a boy, he was blessed with spiritual gifts far beyond his age--knowledge of people in need, knowledge of the spiritual needs of those around him, and the ability to prophesy. Dominic's fragile health worsened, and in 1857, he was sent home to Mondonio for a change of air. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and was bled, which probably hastened his death.
He received the last sacraments and asked his father to read the prayers for the dying. Toward the end, he tried to sit up. "Good- bye, Father," he said, "the priest told me something . . . but I can't remember what. . . ." Suddenly he smiled and exclaimed, "I am seeing the most wonderful things!" and died. Soon afterwards John Bosco wrote his vita, which contributed to his canonization. He was the youngest (15 years old) non-martyr to receive official canonization in the history of the Church (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer, White).
Dominic Savio is the patron saint of Pueri Cantors, choirs, choirboys, boys, and juvenile delinquents (White).

1853 Blessed Frederick Ozanam served poor of Paris 9/7/09
A man convinced of the inestimable worth of each human being, Frederick served the poor of Paris well and drew others into serving the poor of the world. Through the St. Vincent de Paul Society, his work continues to the present day.
Frederick was born 1813 the fifth of Jean and Marie Ozanam’s 14 children, one of only three to reach adulthood. As a teenager he began having doubts about his religion. Reading and prayer did not seem to help, but long walking discussions with Father Noirot of the Lyons College clarified matters a great deal.
Frederick wanted to study literature, although his father, a doctor, wanted him to become a lawyer. Frederick yielded to his father’s wishes and in 1831 arrived in Paris to study law at the University of the Sorbonne. When certain professors there mocked Catholic teachings in their lectures, Frederick defended the Church.
A discussion club which Frederick organized sparked the turning point in his life. In this club Catholics, atheists and agnostics debated the issues of the day. Once, after Frederick spoke on Christianity’s role in civilization, a club member said: "Let us be frank, Mr. Ozanam; let us also be very particular. What do you do besides talk to prove the faith you claim is in you?"
Frederick was stung by the question. He soon decided that his words needed a grounding in action. He and a friend began visiting Paris tenements and offering assistance as best they could. Soon a group dedicated to helping individuals in need under the patronage of St. Vincent de Paul formed around Frederick.
Feeling that the Catholic faith needed an excellent speaker to explain its teachings, Frederick convinced the Archbishop of Paris to appoint Father Lacordaire, the greatest preacher then in France, to preach a Lenten series in Notre Dame Cathedral. It was well attended and became an annual tradition in Paris.
After Frederick earned his law degree at the Sorbonne, he taught law at the University of Lyons. He also earned a doctorate in literature. Soon after marrying Amelie Soulacroix on June 23, 1841, he returned to the Sorbonne to teach literature. A well-respected lecturer, Frederick worked to bring out the best in each student. Meanwhile, the St. Vincent de Paul Society was growing throughout Europe. Paris alone counted 25 conferences.
In 1846, Frederick, Amelie and their daughter Marie went to Italy; there Frederick hoped to restore his poor health. They returned the next year. The revolution of 1848 left many Parisians in need of the services of the St. Vincent de Paul conferences. The unemployed numbered 275,000. The government asked Frederick and his co-workers to supervise the government aid to the poor. Vincentians throughout Europe came to the aid of Paris.
Frederick then started a newspaper, The New Era, dedicated to securing justice for the poor and the working classes. Fellow Catholics were often unhappy with what Frederick wrote. Referring to the poor man as "the nation’s priest," Frederick said that the hunger and sweat of the poor formed a sacrifice that could redeem the people’s humanity
In 1852 poor health again forced Frederick to return to Italy with his wife and daughter. He died on September 8, 1853. In his sermon at Frederick’s funeral, Lacordaire described his friend as "one of those privileged creatures who came direct from the hand of God in whom God joins tenderness to genius in order to enkindle the world."
Frederick was beatified in 1997. Since Frederick wrote an excellent book entitled Franciscan Poets of the Thirteenth Century and since Frederick’s sense of the dignity of each poor person was so close to the thinking of St. Francis, it seemed appropriate to include him among Franciscan "greats."

Comment:    "Those who mock the poor insult their Maker" (Proverbs 17:5). Frederick Ozanam never demeaned the poor in offering whatever service he could. Each man, woman and child was too precious for that. Serving the poor taught Frederick something about God that he could learn only there.
Quote:    Professor Bailly, the spiritual leader of the first St. Vincent de Paul conference, told Frederick and his first companions in charity, "Like St. Vincent, you, too, will find the poor will do more for you than you will do for them."
1847 Bl. Matthew Gam Vietnamese martyr transported Catholic priests of the Paris Foreign Missions Society from Singapore to Vietnam
Sailor of Vietnam, he transported Catholic priests of the Paris Foreign Missions Society from Singapore to Vietnam. He was arrested in 1846, imprisoned, tortured, and then beheaded. Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1988.
1781 Saint Ignatius of Laconi Capuchin questor for 40 years as a child  found daily at church doors before dawn waiting in prayer to be opened levitation in prayer gifts of prophecy and miracles of healing (AC)
Cálari, in Sardínia, sancti Ignátii a Lacóni, Confessóris, ex Ordine Minórum Capuccinórum, humilitáte, caritáte et miráculis præclári; quem Pius Papa Duodécimus Sanctórum honóribus decorávit.
              At Cagliari in Sardinia, St. Ignatius of Laconi, confessor, of the Minor Order of Capuchins, distinguished for his humility, charity and miracles.  He was accorded the honour of canonization by Pope Pius XII.
 
Born in Laconi, Sardinia, in 1701; died at Cagliari, Italy, in 1781; canonized in 1951; feast day formerly May 12. I would like to be more like this Saint Ignatius because I think he is a wonderful role model. Vincent Peis' parents were of modest means, but his was not a modest devotion to God. In fact, his childlike devotion was so remarkable that he would be found daily at the church doors before dawn, waiting in prayer, for them to be opened.    
Saint Ignatius
With some difficulty he was received into the Capuchin branch of the Franciscan Order at Buoncammino (near Cagliari) in 1722 as a lay-brother, taking the name Ignatius. He passed his life doing mundane tasks and, at age 40 (1741), was entrusted with the work of questor, that is, begging for his convent at Cagliari. This office, which was his occupation for 40 years, gave him an opportunity to exercise his gentle love of children, the poor, and the sick. He travelled about on foot in all kinds of weather, meeting with refusals and contradictions but he never gave up.
An unusual legend tells us that he would never beg alms from an unscrupulous moneylender, who complained of this neglect. The local guardian ordered Ignatius to call upon him. The saint returned with a sack of food, but when it was opened, it dripped with blood.

More reliable accounts tell of his levitation in prayer and miracles of healing wrought through his intercession.

Though he was illiterate, he loved to listen to the Gospels, especially the Passion accounts, and was favored with the gifts of prophecy and miracles. He would pass whole hours in prayer before the tabernacle. The particulars about his Christ-centered life that have survived show a determined, gentle character like those in the Little Flowers of Saint Francis. A contemporary portrait of the saint at Cagliari confirms a written description of him as medium height with slight features, a white beard and hair, upright in gait, and easy in manner (Attwater, Benedictines, Farmer).
1755  St. Gerard Majella Redemptorists patron of expectant mothers  gift of reading consciences
He was born at Muro, Italy, in 1726.
As a little boy he brought home to his mother and sister some wonderful, tasty bread.  He said his friend gave it to him. On the third day his mother sent his older sister to follow Gerard and see who was giving him this bread.  She saw Gerard slip between the alter rails and began playing with a little boy on the alter.  After a while they stopped playing and the little child went back up into the arms of his mother:  the statue of Mary and the child was Jesus. 
A sacristan dropped the church building key into a well and went to Gerard for help. Gerard took the baby Jesus statue from near the church door, went to the well, lowered the Jesus statue down the well; waiting for a minute or two, and pulled the statue back up (dry) with the key firmly held in Jesus statue hand.
Some carpenters accidently cut the church studs at seven feet instead of 8 feet.  Horrified, they turned to Gerard and told him the story.  Gerard prayed and the studs turned back into 8 footers!.
He joined the Redemptorists after the Capuchins thought him too skinny and frail to follow these "Giants that roamed the Earth". At the age of 23, he finally became a professed lay brother in 1752. He served as sacristan, gardener, porter, infirmarian, and tailor. However, because of his great piety, extraordinary wisdom, and his gift of reading consciences, he was permitted to counsel communities of religious women.
This humble servant of God also had the faculties of levitation and bi-location associated with certain mystics. His charity, obedience, and selfless service as well as his ceaseless mortification for Christ, made him the perfect model of lay brothers. He was afflicted with tuberculosis and died in 1755 at the age of twenty-nine.
This great saint is invoked as a patron of expectant mothers as a result of a miracle effected through his prayers for a woman in labor.  There are instances of this today you can find on the internet by simply typing Saint Gerard in the search bar.
Prayer: O Great Saint Gerard, beloved servant of Jesus Christ, perfect imitator of your meek and humble Savior, and devoted Child of the Mother of God: enkindle within my heart one spark of that heavenly fire of charity which glowed in your heart and made you an angel of love. O glorious Saint Gerard, because when falsely accused of crime, you did bear, like your Divine master, without murmur or complaint, the calumnies of wicked men, you have been raised up by God as the Patron and Protector of expectant mothers. Preserve me from danger and from the excessive pains accompanying childbirth, and shield the child which I now carry, that it may see the light of day and receive the lustral waters of baptism through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(1726-1755) Gerard Majella came to be invoked particularly as patron saint of pregnant women, for reasons hard to discern.  He was only a humble Redemptorist lay brother.  Yet he did have a strong spiritual influence on women as well as men, something unusual for one who was not a priest.
Gerard was born at Muro Lucano in southern Italy.  He grew up a very pious child.  Perhaps because of his goodness he was often ill-treated by the fellow craftsmen with whom he studied tailoring, and even by the choleric Bishop of Lacedogna, in whose service he spent some time.
Actually, Majella aspired to join a religious order, but when the Capuchins rejected him as too young and of too uncertain health, he returned to his fatherless family and set up on his own as a tailor.  Meanwhile, he devoted an increasing amount of time to prayer and self-denial.  He earned enough, but two thirds of his earnings went to the poor or to Masses for the souls in purgatory.
Around 1749, when he was 23, the young tailor was deeply impressed by a mission preached by priests of a new religious order, the Redemptorists.  He asked that community if he might join them as a lay brother.  The Redemptorists, too, hesitated because of his poor health, but finally they accepted him.  The founder of the Redemptorists, St. Alphonsus de Liguori, was impressed by the young man, and shortened the required novitiate.  Gerard made his profession as a lay brother in 1752, adding to the three usual vows one that bound him always to do what seemed most pleasing to God.
His career as a lay brother was brief but brisk.  For the first three years his chief tasks were tailoring and working in the infirmary.  But he also became noted for the spiritual contacts that he made while he accompanied the missionary fathers on their rounds.  It seems that he had unusual charismatic abilities.  Thus he could read the hearts of people, and brought a score of them back to God through this insight.  He had the gift of prophecy.  He had the gift of levitation as well: he could be lifted into the air in the midst of ecstatic prayer.  Most extraordinary of these gifts, however, were his "bilocations".  He could be, or seem to be, in two places at the same time.
Not only did the Redemptorist superiors recognize Brother Gerard's singular gifts, they even named him spiritual director to several communities of nuns - an appointment seldom given to a non-priest.  He also carried on correspondence with priests and religious superiors, giving them sound advice.  Furthermore, he won a reputation for working miracles.  When the crowds seeking cures became too great at one house where he was stationed, he had to be transferred to another house.  There he was appointed to tend the door, but soon he was feeding and clothing countless beggars.  Nobody knew where the food and clothing came from, except him.
We have mentioned Brother Gerard's illness that had twice deferred his admission to a religious order. It was tuberculosis, and it overtook him after only three years as a Redemptorist.  He announced that he would die on the night of October 15-16, 1755, and he did precisely that.
Pope Pius IX would call him "a perfect model for… lay brothers." In 1904 Pope St. Pius X canonized this "most famous wonderworker of the 18th century."
It was shortly after his death that St. Gerard became the popular patron of the pregnant.  A story is told that suggests why this patronage may have developed.
On one occasion a young woman named Neria Caggiano, whom Gerard had befriended but who was of wanton disposition, accused him of immoral behavior.  St. Alphonsus, incredulous, summoned Brother Gerard to Nocera for questioning.  In keeping with his vow to do the more perfect thing, the Brother neither affirmed nor denied the charge.  St. Alphonsus, therefore, punished him by forbidding him to receive Holy Communion and to have further dealings with outsiders.
This situation went on for several weeks.  Then Neria confessed that she and her accomplice had lied in preferring the charge.
"Why didn't you protest your innocence?" Liguori then asked Brother Gerard.  "Father, Gerard replied, "doesn't our rule forbid us to excuse ourselves?"  St. Gerard Majella Catholic Encyclopedia

Born in Muro, about fifty miles south of Naples, in April, 1726; died 16 October, 1755; beatified by Leo XIII, 29 January, 1893, and canonized by Pius X, 11 December, 1904. His only ambition was to be like Jesus Christ in his sufferings and humiliations. His father, Dominic Majella, died while Gerard was a child. His pious mother, owing to poverty, was obliged to apprentice him to a tailor. His master loved him, but the foreman treated him cruelly. His reverence for the priesthood and his love of suffering led him to take service in the house of a prelate, who was very hard to please. On the latter's death Gerard returned to his trade, working first as a journeyman and then on his own account. His earnings he divided between his mother and the poor, and in offerings for the souls in purgatory. After futile attempts first to become a Franciscan and then a hermit, he entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer in 1749. Two years later he made his profession, and to the usual vows he added one by which he bound himself to do always that which seemed to him more perfect. St. Alphonsus considered him a miracle of obedience. He not only obeyed the orders of superiors when present, but also when absent knew and obeyed their desires. Although weak in body, he did the work of three, and his great charity earned for him the title of Father of the Poor. He was a model of every virtue, and so drawn to Our Lord in the tabernacle that he had to do violence to himself to keep away. An angel in purity, he was accused of a shameful crime; but he bore the calumny with such patience that St. Alphonsus said: "Brother Gerard is a saint". He was favoured with infused knowledge of the highest order, ecstatsies, prophecy, discernment of spirits, and penetration of hearts, bilocation, and with what seemed an unlimited power over nature, sickness, and the devils. When he accompanied the Fathers on missions, or was sent out on business, he converted more souls than many missionaries. He predicted the day and hour of his death. A wonderworker during his life, he has continued to be the same since his death.
1771 St. Marguerite d'Youville Canada "Mother of Universal Charity." b.1701 
We learn compassion from allowing our lives to be influenced by compassionate people, by seeing life from their perspective and reconsidering our own values.
Born in Varennes, Canada, Marie Marguerite Dufrost de Lajemmerais had to interrupt her schooling at the age of 12 to help her widowed mother. Eight years later she married Francois d'Youville; they had six children, four of whom died young. Despite the fact that her husband gambled, sold liquor illegally to Native Americans and treated her indifferently, she cared for him compassionately in the two years before his death in 1730.
Even though she was caring for two small children and running a store to help pay off her husband's debts, Marguerite still helped the poor. Once her children were grown, she and several companions rescued a Quebec hospital which was in danger of failing. She called her community the Institute of the Sisters of Charity of Montreal; the people called them the "Grey Nuns" because of the color of their habit. In time, a proverb arose among the poor people of Montreal, "Go to the Grey Nuns; they never refuse to serve." In time, five other religious communities traced their roots to the Grey Nuns.
The General Hospital in Montreal became known as the Hotel Dieu (House of God) and set a standard for medical care and Christian compassion. When the hospital was destroyed by fire in 1766, she knelt in the ashes, led the Te Deum (a hymn to God's providence in all circumstances) and began the rebuilding process. She fought the attempts of government officials to restrain her charity and established the first foundling home in North America.

Pope John XXIII, who beatified her in 1959, called her the "Mother of Universal Charity." She was canonized in 1990.

Comment:   Saints deal with plenty of discouragement, plenty of reasons to say, "Life isn't fair" and wonder where God is in the rubble of their lives. We honor saints like Marguerite because they show us that, with God's grace and their cooperation, suffering can lead to compassion rather than to bitterness.
Quote:  "More than once the work which Marguerite undertook was hindered by nature or people. In order to work to bring that new world of justice and love closer, she had to fight some hard and difficult battles" (John Paul II, canonization homily).

1750 Crispin (patron of cobblers) of Viterbo the admirable quaestor (the brother who requests alms) taught
        basics of the catechism,
then noted for his prophecies, his miracles of multiplication of food, and his wise sayings, some of which have been preserved. OFM Cap. (AC) 
1750 Crispin (patron of cobblers) of Viterbo the admirable quaestor (the brother who requests alms) taught basics of the catechism, then noted for his prophecies, his miracles of multiplication of food, and his wise sayings, some of which have been preserved. OFM Cap. (AC)
1750 BD CRISPIN OF VITERBO
THE Romans have a great devotion to Bd Crispin of Viterbo, whose relics rest under a side altar in the church of the Immaculate Conception in the City. At an early date he learnt from his mother the deep veneration to our Blessed Lady which characterized him throughout his life. After he had received a little schooling at the Jesuit College, Peter—as he was named in baptism—served his apprenticeship with an uncle, from whom he learnt the trade of a shoemaker. The Franciscan Order attracted him greatly, and when he was about twenty-five he obtained admission to the Capuchin convent at Viterbo, choosing the name of Crispin because of his trade. In the novice house at Paranzana the father guardian hesitated to receive him because he looked so delicate and was diminutive in stature; but the minister provincial, who had previously admitted him, overruled all objections. As it turned out, Brother Crispin proved equal to the heaviest tasks, and loved to call himself the Capuchin ass, deeming himself unfit to be regarded as anything more than a beast of burden. At Viterbo he dug the garden and acted as cook, and at Tolfa, where he was infirmarian during an epidemic, he effected some wonderful cures.
A short residence in Rome was followed by a stay at Albano and another at Bracciano, where he again nursed the sick during an epidemic and seems to have healed many of them miraculously. At Orvieto, where he was questor—charged with soliciting alms—he was so greatly beloved that the citizens were determined to keep him. When the time came for his departure the housewives with one consent decided to close their doors to his successor, and as the convent depended on the charity of the faithful, the guardian was compelled to re-appoint Brother Crispin rather than allow the brethren to starve. The holy friar’s last years, however, were spent in Rome. He was then noted for his prophecies, his miracles of multiplication of food, and his wise sayings, some of which have been preserved. He died in his eighty-second year on May 19, 1750, and was beatified in 1806.

There is an anonymous Vita del B. Crispino da Viterbo printed at the time of the beatification, and there have been many others since, notably two in French, by Ildephonsus de Bard (1889) and by Pie de Langogne (1901), and two in Italian, by P. Pacilli (1908) and by Paolo di Campello (1923). See also Léon, Auréole Séraphique
(Eng. trans.), vol. ii, pp. 280—285.

(also known as Peter Fioretti) Born in Viterbo, Italy, November 13, 1668; died at Rome on May 19, 1750; beatified in 1806; canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1982; feast day was May 23. Small, fragile Peter Fioretti was an apprentice shoemaker under his uncle's tutelage when he heard God's call to the religious life. Although joined the Capuchins at Orvieto about 1693 and took the name Crispin (patron of cobblers), he bore a resemblance to Blessed Benvenutus in that he too worked in the kitchen as a lay brother. His services in the kitchen, garden, and infirmary were used at the friaries of Viterbo, Tolfa, Bracciano, Rome, and Albano. He loved to call himself "the little beast of burden of the Capuchins."

For many years at Orvieto he was the admirable quaestor (the brother who requests alms). Those contacts allowed him to listen and help the unhappy, despairing, and discouraged. He was always joyful and so well liked that when another brother was appointed as quaestor in his place, the housewives refused to receive him or support his community. The guardian was thus obliged to restore Crispin to that role. In addition to counselling the townsfolk, Crispin taught the basics of the catechism to them and the peasants in the nearby mountains.

During his canonization, Pope John Paul II praised Crispin as a "humble brother without any history, who simply accomplished his mission and understood the true value of our earthly pilgrimage" (Benedictines, Farmer).

1694 Bd Bernard Of Offida; Aug 26; humble Capuchin door keeper; "Now, my good St Felix, this is the time to help me", set himself to prayer.  And the dead child became alive and well. It is also said that our Lady appeared to him one day and told him that all his faults had been forgiven.

   This Bernard was born at Appignano in the Marches in the year 1604 of humble parents, and when he was seven years old was set to tend sheep. But he heard the call of God to the religious life, and in 1626 was accepted as a lay-brother by the Capuchins.  When he had made his profession he was sent to Fermo and put in charge of the infirmary, and afterwards to other houses of his order, in all of which he laboured with fervour and zeal. Sometimes, some of his brethren thought, with too much zeal, for on one occasion he was reported to the minister provincial for imprudent lavishness in the distribution of alms, whereby his community suffered damage.
   The provincial called him before a chapter of the house and administered a severe rebuke, which was a matter of great satisfaction to the Franciscan heart of Brother Bernard.  When he was sixty years old he was appointed quaestor, to beg alms in the streets and from door to door for the friary at Offida, and in this duty he gave more than he received; people came to him for advice and consolation and help, for his wisdom could not be hid.  He had an especial gift for composing quarrels and restoring peace to distracted families, and the most hardened sinners would listen to him and be converted.
  Bd Bernard's reputation among the people was such that they would come to him and quite simply and confidently ask for a miracle.  This sometimes caused difficulties for him.  It is said that once a woman came with a very sick baby to be cured, so sick that it died in Bernard's arms. The mother seized his habit and begged and implored him to restore it to life, or she would not let him go.  Bernard led her into the church, lay the body on the altar dedicated in honour of St Felix of Cantalice, and exclaiming, "Now, my good St Felix, this is the time to help me", set himself to prayer. And the child became alive and well. It is also said that our Lady appeared to him one day and told him that all his faults had been forgiven.
    Bd Bernard died when he was ninety years old, having spent the last years of his life as door-keeper to his convent, where the poor and unhappy never ceased to crowd to him, on August 22, 1694.   He was beatified in 1795.
See Léon, Auréole Séraphique
(Eng. trans.), vol. iii, pp. 121-123; and E. M. de Beaulieu, Deux Stales de St Felix de Cantalice 1910
1645 Saint John Masias Marvelous Dominican Gatekeeper of Lima, Peru truly a "child of God." saint of simplicity charity levitated Many miracles were attributed saved souls in Purgatory
(1585-1645) Some saints have been brilliant leaders who steered their way through complicated courses.  Others have been renowned rather for their childlike simplicity.  St. John Masias of Lima, Peru, a friend and fellow Dominican of St. Martin de Porres, was like Martin, truly a "child of God."
John, a native of Rivera, Plasencia, Spain, is said to have been descended from a noble family that had become impoverished.  Whatever his lineage, he was orphaned at an early age, and raised by an uncle, who made him tend sheep to support himself and his brothers and sisters.  With no opportunity for schooling, Juan grew up illiterate.  The solitude of shepherding, however, gave him, as it has given to other saints, ample opportunity for recollection and prayer.  Sometimes as he recited the rosary, he sensed the presence of Our Lady and St. John the Evangelist.
When he was 21, he felt inspired by St. John the Evangelist to migrate to South America--a popular choice of many Spaniards in those days when Spain was colonizing Latin America.  The merchant who took him across the Atlantic abandoned him at Cartagena, Colombia, because he could neither read nor write.  Making his way gradually to Lima, John entered the employ of a landholder who assigned him to work with his cattle and sheep.  "On retreat" again among the animals, Masias resumed his old devotional schedule.
Around 1621, Juan decided to apply for entry into the Dominicans as a lay brother.  Giving away what remained of his savings, he was clothed in the Dominican habit at the Lima convent of St. Mary Magdalen.  During his Dominican career Brother John held only one post, that of porter of the convent, but it was in this role that he earned heaven.
The monastic life suited John to a "T".  He embraced penitential practices so harsh that his prior ordered him to tone them down.  Though he had lost the sheepfold as a favored place of private prayer, he found a hidden corner in the monastery garden that he called his Gethsemane.
But John became noted particularly for his works of charity.  Every day the poor, the sick and the abandoned would come to the door to receive bread from him. (The convent still preserves the basket he used to hold the loaves.) If his beloved poor were too shy to come begging at the convent, he would search them out in their own homes.
Collecting the food to give was his preliminary duty.
To save himself time in begging door to door, he trained the priory's donkey to go about town alone with baskets on its back.  When the people saw it coming, they would put food and clothing into its baskets for Brother Juan to distribute.  Nor did John content himself with silent almsgiving.  His contact with the needy gave him an opportunity to advise them and encourage them to love God and live good lives.  There is no doubt that Blessed Juan copied this style of apostolate from his good friend, fellow-Dominican lay brother and fellow townsman, the holy mulatto St. Martin de Porres.  Many miracles were attributed to Brother John.
Historians have often criticized the Spaniards who colonized Peru and other parts of Latin America for greed and harshness.  But we must not forget the bright side, the holy side of their colonial efforts.
Thus, Lima itself could boast of two saints early canonized: St. Rose of Lima and Archbishop St. Toribio de Mogrovejo.  More recent popes have added to that calendar two more, saints of simplicity and charity: St. Martin de Porres (canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII) and St. John Masias (canonized in 1975 by Pope Paul VI).  Of such is the kingdom of heaven.
--Father Robert F. McNamara

Name/Title: Saint John Masias - Marvelous Dominican Gatekeeper of Lima, Peru
Author:      Mary Fabyan Windeatt No. Pages:     156
"I'm going to see Father Prior about this!" sputtered old Father Francis, as the little group of priests and brothers peered into the chapel at Brother John. Brother John was praying ardently-several feet off the floor! "There is no need to have these... these acrobatics! And right in the sanctuary, too!"
The others did not know what to say. `Brother John is a saint," ventured one brother.
Father Francis, however, dismissed the wonder with a wave of his hand. "I'm quite sure that Brother John is a saint," he declared, "but I still see no reason for him to float about in the air! Some of our younger brothers may think they should be able to float in the air too!"
"Oh, no!" exclaimed one young priest. "That won't happen!"
"That's what you think!" came the reply. "I shall speak to Father Prior and ask him to put a stop to all such exhibitions. Brother John will have to obey him!"
What would the Prior say? Would he agree with Father Francis?
This book gives the answer. It also tells how John Masias came from Spain to the New World, how he was fired from a job because of his poor education, how he went on miraculous travels, how he fought the Devil, and how he freed over a million souls from Purgatory. All in all, this is the wonderful story of St. John Masias, the marvelous Dominican gatekeeper of Lima. Peru.
1637 Blessed Humilis of Bisignano Observant Franciscan lay-brother so widely known for his sanctity that he was called to Rome, where both Pope Gregory XV and Urban VIII consulted him OFM (AC)
Born in Bisignano, Calabria, Italy, 1582;  beatified in 1882. Humilis was an Observant Franciscan lay-brother so widely known for his sanctity that he was called to Rome, where both Pope Gregory XV and Urban VIII consulted him. In addition to his wisdom, Humilis possessed the gift of working miracles (Attwater 2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
1637 St. Lorenzo Ruiz; first Filipino saint & martyred in Japan; Layman; he told his executioner that he was "ready to die for God and give himself for many thousands of lives if he had them!"
Lorenzo Ruiz is the first Filipino saint. He is also the first Filipino martyred for the Christian Faith. Lorenzo Ruiz was a layman, married, and had two sons and a daughter. Born in Binondo, Manila, about 1600's, he was educated in the school of the Dominicans there. He served as an altar boy and later was a helper and clerk-sacristan in the church of Binondo. He was a member of the Confraternity of the Rosary. He made his living probably as a calligrapher, one who renders documents in beautiful penmanship for private or official use. To be sure, that work denoted an accomplished and educated person, especially at a time when many an illustrious personage were far from excelling in this art. An adverse event made him leave the Philippines in 1636. When he was in his late twenties or early thirties, he became involved or was accused of being involved in a criminal case, the circumstances of which are far from clear. Whether he was involved or not, one thing was clear, he was afraid that, as a consequence of a trial or mistrial, he might be given a death sentence. Upon landing in Japan where Christians were being persecuted, he was arrested and imprisoned together with his companions. He underwent inhuman tortures and valiantly confessed his Christian Faith. Refusing to renounce his Faith, he told his executioner that he was ready to die for God and give himself for many thousands of lives if he had them. On September 27, 1637, he was hung from a gallows by his feet, his body falling into a pit. After two days of agony, he died of bleeding and suffocation. His body was cremated and the ashes thrown into the sea. He and fifteen companions, martyred in the same persecution, were beatified by Pope John Paul II in Manila on February 18, 1981 and elevated to full honors of the altar by canonization on October 18, 1987 in Rome
.
1618 St. John Berchmans miracles were attributed to him after his death
Eldest son of a shoemaker, John was born at Diest, Brabant. He early wanted to be a priest, and when thirteen became a servant in the household of one of the Cathedral canons at Malines, John Froymont. In 1615, he entered the newly founded Jesuit College at Malines, and the following year became a Jesuit novice. He was sent to Rome in 1618 to continue his studies, and was known for his diligence and piety, impressing all with his holiness and stress on perfection in little things. He died there on August 13. Many miracles were attributed to him after his death, and he was canonized in 1888. He is the patron of altar boys.
1617 St. Alphonsus Rodriguez Obedient penintent experienced many spiritual consolations he died in 1617 still a porter saying only one word: Jesus; the reputation he had was summed up once for all by Father Michael Julian in his exclamation, “That brother is not a man—he is an angel!”; Especially in his later years he suffered from long periods of desolation and aridity, and with terrifying regularity he was seized with pain and sickness whenever he set himself formally to meditate. Added to this, he was beset with violent temptations, just as though for years he had not curbed his body by fierce austerities, which now had to be made even more rigorous. But he never despaired, carrying out every duty with exact regularity, knowing that in God’s own time he would be seized again in an ecstasy of love and spiritual delight; trials of ill-health and physical suffering; at last he was practically confined to his bed. But his invincible perseverance and patience brought consolations “to such a degree that he could not raise his eyes in spirit to Jesus and Mary without their being at once before him”.

1617 ST ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ
THERE are two well-known canonized lay brothers commemorated this month, but in other external circumstances there were considerable differences between St Gerard Majella and St Alphonsus Rodriguez. For instance, at the age when Gerard was dead, Alphonsus was still a married man, living with his family while the one died before he was thirty, the other lived to be nearly ninety during his three years of profession Gerard served in several houses of his congregation and was employed in a variety of ways, but Alphonsus was porter at the same college for forty-five years.

Diego Rodriguez was a well-to-do wool-merchant in Segovia, and Alphonsus, born about 1533 was his third child in a big family. When Bd Peter Favre and another Jesuit came to preach a mission at Segovia they stayed with Diego, and at the end accepted his offer of a few days’ holiday at his country house. Young Alphonsus, then about ten, went with them and was prepared for his first communion by Bd Peter.

When he was fourteen he was sent with his elder brother to study under the Jesuits at Alcala, but before the first year was out their father died, and it was decided that Alphonsus must go into the business, which his mother was going to carry on. She retired and left him in sole charge when he was twenty-three, and three years later he married a girl called Mary Suarez.

The business had been doing badly and his wife’s dowry did not do much to improve it Alphonsus was not an incapable businessman, but “times were bad”.  Then he lost his little daughter, and, after a long illness following the birth of a boy, his wife too. Two years later his mother died, and this succession of mis­fortunes and losses made Alphonsus give very serious thought to what God was calling him to do in the world.

   He had always been a man of devout and righteous life, but he began to realize that he was meant to be something different from the numerous commercial men who led exemplary but unheroic lives in Segovia. If he sold his business he would have enough for himself and his little son to live on, so he did this and went to live with his two maiden sisters. These two, Antonia and Juliana, were a pious couple and taught their brother the rudiments of mental prayer, so that he was soon meditating two hours every morning and evening on the mysteries of the rosary.

    Alphonsus began to see his past life as very imperfect when regarded in the light of Christ and, following a vision of the glories of Heaven, he made a general confession and set himself to practise considerable austerities, Confession and communion every week. After some years his son died, and the edge of Alphonsus’s sorrow was turned by the consideration that the boy had been saved from the danger and misery of ever offending God.

He now contemplated, not for the first time, the possibility of becoming a religious and applied to the Jesuits at Segovia. They unhesitatingly refused him he was nearly forty, his health was not good, and he had not finished an education good enough to make him fit for sacerdotal studies. Undaunted, he went off to see his old friend Father Louis Santander, s.j., at Valencia. Father Santander recommended him to get ordained as soon as possible, and as a first step to learn Latin. So, like St Ignatius Loyola before him, and with like mortifications, he put himself to school with the little boys. As he had given nearly all his money to his sisters and to the poor before leaving Segovia, he had to take a post as a servant and supplement his earnings by begging to support himself.

   He met at the school a man of his own age and inclinations, who induced him to consider giving up all idea of becoming a Jesuit and to be instead a hermit. Alphonsus went to visit this man at his hermitage in the mountains, but suddenly seeing the suggestion as a temptation to desert his real vocation, he returned to Valencia and confessed his weakness to Father Santander, saying, I will never again follow my own will for the rest of my life. Do with me as you think best.” In 1571 the Jesuit provincial, over-ruling his official consultors, accepted Alphonsus Rodriguez as a lay brother, or temporal coadjutor, as such is called in the Society. Six months later he was sent from Spain to the College of Montesione in the island of Majorca, and soon after his arrival was made hall-porter.
   St Alphonsus carried out the duties of this post till he became too old and infirm, and the reputation he had in it was summed up once for all by Father Michael Julian in his exclamation, “That brother is not a man—he is an angel!”  Every minute left free by his work and what it entailed was given to prayer, but though he achieved a marvellous habitual recollection and union with God his spiritual path was far from an easy one.
   Especially in his later years he suffered from long periods of desolation and aridity, and with terrifying regularity he was seized with pain and sickness whenever he set himself formally to meditate. Added to this, he was beset with violent temptations, just as though for years he had not curbed his body by fierce austerities, which now had to be made even more rigorous. But he never despaired, carrying out every duty with exact regularity, knowing that in God’s own time he would be seized again in an ecstasy of love and spiritual delight.
   Priests who had known him for forty years used to say that they had never noticed a word or action of Brother Alphonsus that could justly receive adverse criticism. In 1585 when he was fifty-four years old, he made his final vows, which he used to renew every day at Mass. A hall-porter is not to be envied at the best of times, and when a boys’ school is part of the establishment he needs to have a firm hand and an extra fund of patience; but the job has its compensations the porter meets a variety of people and is a link between the public world without and the private world within.

   At Montesione, in addition to the students, there was a constant coming and going of clergy of all sorts, of nobles and professional men and members of their families having business with the Jesuit fathers, of the poor wanting help and merchants and tradesmen from Palma wanting orders. All these people got to know, to respect and to love Brother Alphonsus, whose opinions and advice were sought and valued as well by the learned and holy as by the simple, and his reputation was known far beyond the boundaries of the college. The most famous of his “pupils” was St Peter Claver, who was studying at the college in 1605. For three years he put himself under the direction of St Alphonsus who, enlightened by Heaven, fired his enthusiasm for and urged him on to that work in America which was eventually to gain for St Peter the title of “Apostle of the Negroes”.
St Alphonsus had always a very deep devotion towards the Mother of God as conceived free from original sin, a truth that had been defended in Majorca three hundred years before by Bd Raymund Lull.
For a time it was believed by many that Al­phonsus had composed the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception; he had a great regard for this office and popularized its use among others, from which arose the mistake that he was its author.
Nor did he write the famous treatise on the Practice of Perfection and Christian Virtues this was the work of another Jesuit of the same name, who has not been canonized.
   But St Alphonsus left some fugitive writings, set down at the command of his superiors, full of the simple, solid doctrine and exhortation that one would look for from such a man, showing too that he was indeed a mystic favoured of Heaven. When he was over seventy and very infirm, his rector told him one day, just to see what he would do, to go on duty to the Indies. St Alphonsus went straight down to the gate and asked for it to be opened for him. “I am ordered to the Indies”, he said, and was going there and then to look for a ship at Palma, but was told to go back to the rector.

  That during the later part of his life he suffered from spiritual dereliction and diabolical assaults has been mentioned above, and to these were added the trials of ill-health and physical suffering; at last he was practically confined to his bed. But his invincible perseverance and patience brought consolations “to such a degree that he could not raise his eyes in spirit to Jesus and Mary without their being at once before him”.

    In May of 1617 the rector of Montesione, Father Julian, was down with rheumatic fever, and asked for the prayers of St Alphonsus. He spent the night interceding for him, and in the morning Father Julian was able to celebrate Mass. In October Alphonsus knew that his end was at hand, and after receiving Holy Communion on the 29th all pain of mind and body ceased. He lay as it were in an unbroken ecstasy until, at midnight of the 31st, a terrible agony began. At the end of half an hour composure returned, he looked around lovingly at his brethren, kissed the crucifix, uttered the Holy Name in a loud voice, and died. The Spanish viceroy and nobility of Majorca, by the bishop, and by crowds of the poor, sick and afflicted whose love and faith were rewarded by miracles, attended his funeral. He was canonized in 1888 with St Peter Claver.

  The documents printed for the Congregation of Sacred Rites in view of the beatification and canonization of St Alphonsus are very copious owing to the objections raised by the promotor fidei in connection with the saint’s early occupations and his writings. These documents, with the autobiographical notes, which he wrote down by order of obedience between the years 1601 and 1616, supply the most valuable materials for his life. The notes in question are printed at the beginning of his Obras Espirituales, which were edited in three volumes by Fr J. Nonell at Barcelona in 1885—1887. The same Fr Nonell wrote in Spanish what is still perhaps the best biography of the saint, Vida de San Alonso Rodriguez (1888) and Father Goldie largely used this in the English life that he published in 1889. In the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. xiii, is reprinted the earliest published life of Alphonsus, that by Father Janin which appeared in 1644 and was written in Latin.  On the saint’s connection with the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception, often errone­ously printed under his name, see Uriarte, Obras anonimas y seudonimas, S.J., vol. i, pp. 512—515 and on his ascetical teaching see Viller, Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, vol. i (1933), cc. 395—402. The latest biographies seem to be that of M. Dietz, Der hl. Alfons Rodriguez (1925), and a popular account by M. Farnum, The Wool Merchant of Segovia (1945).
 
Confessor and Lay brother, also called Alonso. He was born in Segovia, Spain, on July 25, 1532, the son of a wealthy merchant, and was prepared for First Communion by Blessed Peter Favre, a friend of Alphonsus' father. While studying with the Jesuits at Alcala, Alphonsus had to return home when his father died. In Segovia he took over the family business, was married, and had a son. That son died, as did two other children and then his wife. Alphonsus sold his business and applied to the Jesuits. His lack of education and his poor health, undermined by his austerities, made him less than desirable as a candidate for the religious life, but he was accepted as a lay brother by the Jesuits on January 31, 1571. He underwent novitiate training and was sent to Montesion College on the island of Majorca. There he labored as a hall porter for twenty-four years. Overlooked by some of the Jesuits in the house, Alphonsus exerted a wondrous influence on many. Not only the young students, such as St. Peter Claver, but local civic tad and social leaders came to his porter's lodge for advice tad and direction. Obedience and penance were the hallmarks of his life, as well as his devotion to the Immaculate Conception. He experienced many spiritual consolations, and he wrote religious treatises, very simple in style but sound in doctrine. Alphonsus died after a long illness on October 31, 1617, and his funeral was attended by Church and government leaders. He was declared Venerable in 1626, and was named a patron of Majorca in 1633. Alphonsus was beatified in 1825 and canonized in September 1888 with St. Peter Claver.

Alphonsus Rodriguez, SJ (RM) (also known as Alonso) Born in Segovia, Spain, July 25, 1533; died at Palma de Majorca in 1617; beatified 1825; canonized 1888; feast formerly on October 31."The difference between adversity suffered for God and prosperity is greater than that between gold and a lump of lead." --Saint Alphonsus.

Brother Alphonsus proves Mother Teresa's axiom that small things done with great love is the call of the Christian. Every day Alphonsus Rodriguez prayed to more than 20 confessors, martyrs, and Church Fathers. He had a great veneration for Saint Ursula, and though modern scholarship has done much to revise and alter the story of her martyrdom, the fact remains that a liturgy might be clumsy and inaccurate and yet represent a far more fertile and living expression of religious life than one which has been cleaned and scoured to the point of rendering it sterile.

Surely the candor and devotion of Saint Alphonsus is of greater value than the scientific researches of our professors of liturgy. He was a bit mad perhaps--when he was told to eat his plate, he took his knife and tried to cut it into pieces and swallow them. Perhaps that sounds stupid, but it was he who was in the right for he had, on entering the Jesuits, made his vow of obedience, and his obedience was so perfect that he obeyed hasty or perhaps joking orders to the letter .

Alphonus was the third child of a large family of wool merchants. When Blessed Peter Favre and another Jesuit came to preach a mission at Segovia, they stayed with Alphonus's family and took up the invitation for a short holiday at their country house. Young Alphonsus, then about 10, went with them and was prepared for his First Communion by Blessed Peter.
When he was 14, Alphonsus was sent with his elder brother to study under the Jesuits at Alcala. Before the year was out, their father Diego was dead and it fell to Alphonsus interrupt his studies to manage the family business. When he was 23, his mother retired and Alphonus inherited his father's business. Like Saint Francis of Assisi, he sold cloth all day long, buying with one hand and selling with the other.

He married Maria Suarez when he was 27. Soon the business was failing due to hard economic times. Then his little daughter died. When he was about 35, his wife died shortly after giving birth to their only son. Two years later his mother died. The business didn't prosper either. This succession of misfortunes forced Alphonsus to seriously consider God's plan for his life. He began to realize that he was meant to do something different from the numerous businessmen who led exemplary but unheroic lives in Segovia. So he sold his business and took his son to live with the boy's two maiden aunts, Antonia and Juliana.
From these two ladies, Alphonsus learned to meditate for at least two hours a day. He was an assiduous communicant. His life was austere and happy, though he still longed to devote himself to God. So, after abandoning his business, he resumed his studies at the point where he had broken them off. He had always taken religion seriously so when his son died, Alphonsus decided it was finally time to become a Jesuit, if possible, as an ordained priest.

Alphonsus was nearly 40, barely literate, and his health tenuous. It's no wonder that the Jesuits of Segovia unhesitatingly refused him entry. Undaunted, Alphonsus presented himself to Father Luis Santander, SJ, at the novitiate of the Jesuits of Aragon at Valencia. Father Santander recommended him to be ordained as soon as possible, and requested that he learn Latin. He had given away most of his money by now, so he became a hired servant, hoping to pay for his necessary extra education by this and by begging. Thus, he put himself through school with the young boys.  Happily the provincial of the order spotted the saintliness of Alphonsus's life, and, in 1571, overruled those who had refused him permission to join them. He was admitted as a lay brother and six months later was sent to Palma de Majorca, where, after serving in various capacities, he became door-keeper at Montesión College.
He was diligent in carrying out his assignments, but every spare moment was given to prayer. Though he achieved a marvelous habitual recollection and union with god, his spiritual path was far from an easy one. Especially in his later years he suffered from long periods of aridity. Yet he never despaired, knowing that in God's own time he would be seized again in an ecstasy of love and spiritual delight. Persevering, Brother Alphonsus professed his final vows in 1585, at the age of 54. Many of the varied people who were thus brought into contact with him learned to respect him and value his advice; in particular Saint Peter Claver as a student used to consult him frequently and received from Brother Alphonsus the impetus for his future work among the slaves of South America.

In May 1617, the rector of Montesión, Father Julian, was struck with rheumatic fever. Alphonsus spent the night interceding for the priest. In the morning, Father Julian was able to celebrate Mass. After receiving Communion on October 29, Alphonsus lay as if dead, but he was in ecstasy. At midnight on October 31, the ecstasy ended and the final death pangs began. One-half hour later the brother regained his composure, lovingly looked at his brethren, and kissed the crucifix. Still a porter, he died in 1617, saying only one word: Jesus.
A collection of his notes, reflections, thoughts, which he wrote down at the request of his superiors, along with some quotations that he borrowed from the spiritual classics but which were mistakenly attributed to him, was frequently copied and widely circulated during his lifetime. Many people found true spiritual nourishment in them.
There is a sonnet on Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez among Gerard Manley Hopkins' Poems (2nd ed., 1930).
Alphonsus bears considerable resemblance to the Carmelite Brother Lawrence, of the next generation. He was a man of practically no education, but he had deep religious sensibility of a mystical kind. His faith was uncomplicated and simple, untroubled either by Protestantism or the threat of Islam. He had cultivated the Spanish faith of his father and mother, he believed in Jesus Christ, the Holy Church, and in the communion of saints (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Encyclopedia, Walsh, Yeomans).
This Alphonsus Rodriguez must not be confused with two Jesuit contemporaries of the same names, one a writer of well-known religious books, the other a martyr in Paraguay. Neither of these has been canonized, though the second is venerated as a beatus.   In art he is depicted as an old Jesuit with two hearts on his breast, connected by rays of light to Christ and the Virgin. Venerated at Majorca (Roeder) .
1606 Blessed Julian of Saint Augustine Dominican Order as a lay-brother at Santorcaz, OFM (AC)
Born at Medinaceli (diocese of Segovia), Castile, Spain; beatified in 1825. Julian was rejected twice before finally gaining admittance to the Dominican Order as a lay-brother at Santorcaz. He accompanied the Franciscan preachers on their missions. It was his custom to ring the bell through the streets to summon people to the sermon (Benedictines).
1604 St. Seraphinus Capuchin spiritual gifts wisdom spiritual advisor
Asculi, in Picéno, sancti Seraphíni Confessóris, ex Ordine Minórum Capuccinórum, vitæ sanctimónia et humilitáte conspícui; quem Clemens Décimus tértius, Póntifex Máximus, Sanctórum fastis adscrípsit.
    At Ascoli in Piceno, St. Seraphinus, confessor, of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, distinguished by his humility and holiness of life.  He was enrolled among the saints by the Sovereign Pontiff Clement XIII.
also called Seraphino. Born at Montegranaro, Italy, in 1540, he worked as a shepherd in his youth and was reportedly much abused by his older brother. At the age of sixteen he entered the Capuchins as a lay brother at Ascoli Piceno, earning a reputation for his holiness. He was graced with considerable spiritual gifts and wisdom, as well as devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. Seraphinus gave counsel to ecclesiastical and secular leaders. He was canonized in 1767.
Seraphinus (Serafino) of Ascoli-Piceno, OFM Cap. (RM) Born at Montegranaro, Italy, 1540; died 1604; canonized in 1767. At the age of 16, Saint Seraphinus took the Capuchin habit as a lay-brother. He spent the whole of his uneventful life during good works at the Ascoli-Piceno friary, where he became famous for his charity to the poor and his power to heal sickness. He is also said to have been the spiritual advisor to dignitaries of both the church and the state (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia).

St. Seraphin of Montegranaro (1540-1604)
Born into a poor Italian family, young Seraphin lived the life of a shepherd and spent much of his time in prayer. Mistreated for a time by his older brother after the two of them had been orphaned, Seraphin became a Capuchin Franciscan at age 16 and impressed everyone with his humility and generosity.
Serving as a lay brother, Seraphin imitated St. Francis in fasting, clothing and courtesy to all. He even mirrored Francis' missionary zeal, but Seraphin's superiors did not judge him to be a candidate for the missions.

Faithful to the core, Seraphin spent three hours in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament daily. The poor who begged at the friary door came to hold a special love for him. Despite his uneventful life, he reached impressive spiritual heights and has had miracles attributed to him.

Seraphin died on October 12, 1604, and was canonized in 1767.
Comment: For many people these days, work has no significance beyond providing the money they need to live. How many share the belief expressed in the Book of Genesis that we are to cooperate with God in caring for the earth? The kind of work Seraphin did may not strike us as earth-shattering. The work was ordinary; the spirit in which he did it was not.

Quote: In Brothers of Men, Rene Voillaume of the Little Brothers of Jesus speaks about ordinary work and holiness: "Now this holiness [of Jesus] became a reality in the most ordinary circumstances of life, those of work, of the family and the social life of a village, and this is an emphatic affirmation of the fact that the most obscure and humdrum human activities are entirely compatible with the perfection of the Son of God." Christians are convinced, he says, "that the evangelical holiness proper to a child of God is possible in the ordinary circumstances of a man who is poor and obliged to work for his living."
1600 Blessed Sebastian Aparicio Franciscan lay brother at Puebla de los Angeles 26 years OFM (AC)
Born in Galicia, Spain; beatified in 1787. Sebestian was a farm laborer and then valet to a gentleman of Salamanca. He emigrated to Mexico, where he was engaged by the government in building roads and in conducting the postal service between Mexico and Zacateca. After the death of his second wife, he became a Franciscan lay brother at Puebla de los Angeles. He lived there for another 26 years begging alms for the community (Benedictines).
1592 St. Paschal Baylon Franciscan lay brother mystic labored as shepherd for father performed miracles distinguished for austerity spent most of his life as a humble doorkeeper rigorous asceticism deep love for the Blessed Sacrament defended the doctrine of the Real Presence against a Calvinists born and died on Whitsunday

Patron of shepherds, the Eucharist and Eucharistic guilds, societies and congresses

Born to a peasant family at Torre Hermosa, in Aragon, on Whitsunday, he was christened Pascua in honor of the feast. According to accounts of his early life, Paschal labored as a shepherd for his father, performed miracles, and was distinguished for his austerity. He also taught himself to read. Receiving a vision which told him to enter a nearby Franciscan community, he became a Franciscan lay brother of the Alcantrine reform in 1564, and spent most of his life as a humble doorkeeper.
He practiced rigorous asceticism and displayed a deep love for the Blessed Sacrament, so much so that while on a mission to France, he defended the doctrine of the Real Presence against a Calvinist preacher and in the face of threats from other irate Calvinists. Paschal died at a friary in Villareal, and was canonized in 1690. In 1897 Pope Leo XIII declared him patron of all eucharistic confratemities and congresses. Since 1969, his veneration has been limited to local calendars.

Paschal Baylon, OFM (RM) Born in Torre Hermosa, Aragon, Spain, in 1540; died Villareal, Spain, 1592; beatified in 1618; canonized in 1690; declared patron of all Eucharistic congresses and confraternities in 1897.
Saint Paschal Baylon, son of the peasants Martin Baylon and Elizabeth Jubera, received his name from the day on which he was born: Whitsunday. He worked as a shepherd for his father and others until the age of 24. At 18, after a vision, he had applied to join the Franciscans at Loreto, 200 miles away, but the monks turned him down, knowing nothing of him personally. He applied again, a few years later (1564), and was accepted, and he lived a strict life according to the recently initiated reforms of Saint Peter of Alcantara.
He served primarily as a doorkeeper at various friaries in Spain. His intense devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is obvious from the long hours he spent kneeling before the tabernacle, with his clasped hands outstretched.
He was sent to France with a message to Father Christopher de Cheffontaines, the minister general of the Observants, and travelled wearing his habit during a dangerous time of religious wars. He was accosted several times and once narrowly escaped with his life, after he defended the doctrine of the Real Presence of the Holy Eucharist to a Calvinist preacher and a crowd. He was stoned by a party of Hugenots and suffered from the injury for the rest of his life.

This miracle worker died on a Whitsunday, just as the bell was tolling to announce the consecration at the high Mass.

Saint Paschal Baylon is the patron of shepherds, the Eucharist and Eucharistic guilds, societies and congresses, and of Italian women (there seems no obvious explanation of this except that his name-- "Baylonna," in Italian--rhymes with "donna"). He is portrayed in art in the act of adoration before the Host; or watching sheep (Attwater2, Benedictines, White).
1572 St. Peter of Asche Franciscan lay brother member of the Gorkum Martyrs participated in the efforts of the Franciscans to convert the local Calvinists hanged at the ruined monastery of Ruggen
Also called Peter van Asche, he was a native of Asche, near Brussels, Belgium. Entering the Franciscans as a lay brother, he served as Guardian of the Franciscan house at Gorkum, Holland, and participated in the efforts of the Franciscans to convert the local Calvinists. He was seized by Protestant forces when Gorkum fell into Calvinist hands and, with four priests, was taken to Briel. There he endured severe tortures before being hanged at the ruined monastery of Ruggen.
1537 Bl. William Greenwood Carthusian martyr of England with six companions; A lay brother in the Carthusian London Charterhouse, he was arrested for opposing the policies of King Henry VIII (r. 1509-1547) and starved to death in Newgate Prison with six companions.
1537 Bl. Robert Salt Carthusian martyr a lay brother in the Carthusian community of London who, with six other members of the order starved to death at Newgate by order of King Henry VIII of England  after they resisted his Dissolution of the Monasteries.
1508 Blessed  Gratia mysterious light seen above his cell miracles at his intercession lay-brother at Monte Ortono, near Padua  gift of infused knowledge
According to tradition, Gratia was a native of Cattaro (Kotor) in Dalmatia who followed the trade of the sea till he was thirty years old. Coming one day into a church at Venice, he was deeply impressed by a sermon from an Augustinian friar, Father Simon of Camerino. Gratia determined to enter that order and was accepted as a lay-brother at Monte Ortono, near Padua. Here, brother Gratia was employed in the gardens, and soon earned the respect and veneration of the whole convent.
When he was transferred to the friary of St. Christopher at Venice, a mysterious light was seen above his cell, and miracles took place at his intercession. When the church was being repaired and he was working on the building, his cistern was marvelously supplied with water all through a dry summer, and the water remained fresh even when the sea got into it. In his seventy-first year, Gratia was taken seriously ill, and insisted in getting out of bed to receive the last Sacraments on his knees. He died on November 9, 1508. The cultus of Blessed Gratia was confirmed in 1889.

Blessed Gratia of Cattaro, OSA (AC) Born in Cattaro, Dalmatia; died 1509; beatified in 1889. The Venetian fisherman, Gratia, was converted at the age of 30 on hearing a sermon. He then entered the Augustinians as a lay brother, where he became a gardener famous for his gift of infused knowledge (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).

THE BLESSED GRACE [GRATIA, GRACIJA] OF MUL
Augustinian, Hermit (Mul in Boka Kotorska, November 27, 1438 - Venice, November 9, 1508)
Blessed Grace of Mul     In the small village of Mul in Boka Kotorska, a child was born who was christened Grace [Gracija]. This name seemed to characterize his entire life as a fisherman, sailor, monk and saint.
As the child of a poor fisherman, he spent his youth on the sea as a fisherman and working the barren land as a farmer. He soon became a sailor. On one voyage across the Adriatic Sea from his native village to Venice, he found not material but spiritual gain. In 1468, he heard the inspired preaching of the Blessed Simon of Camerine, an Augustinian who was a famous popular missionary of the time. The word of the Blessed Simon was like a seed planted in Grace's heart, which would soon yield fruit. Grace decided to abandon his way of life and devote himself entirely to God.
He knocked on the door of the Augustinian monastery and began a monastic life in the impoverished monastery on Mt. Ortona near Padua. After fifteen years of penitential life, from Ortona he went to a monastery on the island of San Kristoforo in Venice. There he spent the last years of his life and died in holiness at the age of 70. His body was initially buried in a common grave. After a short time, it was placed in a new marble sarcophagus and exhibited to the veneration of believers. Many claimed that they received numerous graces through his intercession.

After the fall of Napoleon, the hermits of St. Augustine left the island of San Kristoforo and returned the body of the Blessed Grace to his native village. Thus, after 250 years, the greatest son of this coastal village returned home by boat to a magnificent celebration. Pope Leo XIII approved the permanent veneration of this modest monk. In 1889, Grace was beatified.

Grace was a man of humble family origins. He went out into the world as a sailor. When he chose the monastic life, he did not want to study books and become a priest but live as a humble friar. Grace worked in the sacristy, monastery and monastery garden with devoted love and sacrifice. He cultivated special reverence toward Christ who is present in the Holy Eucharist. During the Mass, he would submerge himself in the Eucharistic Mystery and nourish himself with Christ's body during Holy Communion. In his free time, he would spend hours kneeling before the Most Holy Altar of the Sacrament. He was a eucharistic soul, distinguished by a childlike sincere piety toward Mary. The poor and beggars who came to the monastery gates had a special place in his heart. He never refused them. He offered each "a crust of bread" and word of encouragement, which often meant more to them than a material gift.
1508 Blessed Jacobinus de'Canepaci Carmelite lay-brother OC (AC)
Born near Vercelli, Piedmont, Italy, in 1438; cultus confirmed in 1845. A Carmelite lay-brother in Vercelli (Benedictines).
1504 Blessed Vincent of Aquila Vincent was a Franciscan lay-brother who was famous for his mystical gifts,
Born in Aquila, Italy; cultus approved in 1785. Vincent was a Franciscan lay-brother who was famous for his mystical gifts (Benedictines).
OFM (AC)
1503  St Tikhon of Lukh, and Kostroma copied books with skill, and was a fine lathe turner. Out of humility he did not become a priest
In the world Timothy, was born within the bounds of the Lithuanian princedom and was in military service there. In the year 1482, not wanting to accept Uniatism, he went from Lithuania to Russia. The saint gave away everything that he had, accepted monastic tonsure with the name Tikhon, and settled in the Kostroma diocese in the Lukhov region. The city of Lukh was at that time given to Prince Theodore Belsky, with whom St Tikhon had come from Lithuania. On the banks of the boundary of the Kopitovka St Tikhon built his cell. When two monks, Photius and Gerasimus, came to him in the wilderness, because of them Tikhon moved three versts from the Koptovka to a more satisfactory location.

become a priest. St Tikhon died on June 16, 1503 in such poverty that his disciples did not know how they would bury him. But to their comfort the Archbishop of Suzdal sent a monastic burial shroud, in which to bury him. Soon after his death, at the place of his labors, a monastery was built in honorThe monks earned their living by the work of their hands. St Tikhon copied books with skill, and was a fine lathe turner. Out of humility he did not of St Nicholas the Wonderworker.

In 1569 there were healings of the sick at the grave of St Tikhon, and his relics were found to be incorrupt. But the igumen Constantine, who uncovered the relics, was struck blind. After repenting and then recovering his eyesight, he placed the relics of St Tikhon back into the ground. The veneration of St Tikhon dates from this time. His Life and an account of 70 posthumous miracles was compiled in the year 1649.

1612 St. Kaikhosro the Georgian The life of has been passed down to our century in the works of Archbishop Timote (Gabashvili), a famous Church figure and historian of the 18th century.

In a passage describing the frescoes and commemoration books of the Holy Cross Monastery in Jerusalem, Bishop Timote writes that an image of St. Kaikhosro the Georgian is among the sacred frescoes.

According to the commemoration books of the Holy Cross Monastery, St. Kaikhosro the Georgian was tortured to death by Shah Abbas I in 1612 for his pious veneration of the holy icons.
1485 Blessed Michael Gedroye famous for his gifts of prophecy and miracles: his cell adjoining church of the Augustinian canons regular at Cracow OSA (AC) (also known as Michael Giedroyć)
Born near Vilna, Lithuania; Of noble lineage, Michael was a cripple and a dwarf. He took up his abode in a cell adjoining the church of the Augustinian canons regular at Cracow, Poland, and there he lived his entire life. He was famous for his gifts of prophecy and miracles (Attwater2, Benedictines).
1463 Saint Didacus or Diego lay-brother guardian of the chief convent of the Canary Islands  several miracles restoring patients eremite kind gentle
- another Franciscan Observant, he became guardian of the chief convent of the Canary Islands, even though he was only a lay-brother.1463 St. Didacus several miracles restoring patients eremite kind gentle  the young Diego lived for a time as a solitary and then joined the Franciscans as a lay brother at Arrizafa.
Didacus was a native of the little town of San Nicolas of del Puerto in the diocese of Seville, and his parents were poor folk. Near that town a holy priest led an eremitical life. Didacus obtained his consent to live with him and, though very young, he imitated the austerities and devotions of his master. They cultivated together a little garden, and also employed themselves in making wooden spoons, trenchers and such like utensils. After having lived thus a recluse for some years he was obliged to return to his home, but he soon after went to a convent of the Observant Friar Minors at Arrizafa, and there took the habit among the lay brothers.
After his profession he was sent to the mission of his Order in the Canary Islands, where he did a great work in instructing and converting the people. Eventually, in 1445, he, though a lay brother, was appointed chief guardian of a chief convent in those islands, called Fuerteventura. After four years he was recalled to Spain, and lived in several friaries about Seville with great fervor and recollection. In the year 1450 a jubilee was celebrated at Rome and, St. Bernardine of Siena being canonized at the same time, very many religious of the Order of St. Francis were assembled there. Didacus went there with FAther Alonzo de Castro, and at Rome he had to attend his companion during a dangerous illness. His devotion in this duty attracted the notice of his superiors and he was put in charge of the many sick friars who were accommodated in the infirmary of the convent of Ara Caeli.
St. Didacus was thus engaged for three months, and is said to have miraculously restored some of his patients. He lived for another thirteen years after his return to Spain, chiefly at the Friaries of Salcedo and Alcala in Castille. In 1463 he was taken ill at Alcala and in his last moments asked for a cord (such as the Friars wear); he put it about his neck and, holding a cross in his hands begged the pardon of all his brethren assembled about his bed. THen, fixing his eyes on the crucifix, he repeated with great tenderness the words of the hymn on the cross, "Dulce lignum, dulces clavos, dulce pondus sustinet", and peacefully died on November 12. Several miracles were attributed to him in his lifetime and many more through his intercession after his death.
King Philip II, out of gratitude for one in favor of his son, solicitated the saint's canonization which was decreed in 1588.

Didacus of Alcalà, OFM (RM)
(also known as Diego, Diaz)
Born near Seville, Spain, c. 1400; died at Alcalà de Henares, 1463; canonized 1588. Born of poor parents, the young Diego lived for a time as a solitary and then joined the Franciscans as a lay brother at Arrizafa.

Although remaining a lay brother, Diego was appointed doorkeeper of Fuerteventura friary in the Canary Islands because of his ability and goodness. Here he did great work among the poor, and earned such a reputation for holiness that in 1445 he was chosen as superior of the house for a term.

Later he was recalled to Spain, and passed the last 13 years of his life in humble duties at various houses of his order in Spain. After a pilgrimage to Rome in 1450, died at the friary of Alcalà in Castile. Diego's chief devotion was to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
1447 Blessed Thomas Bellaci Fransciscan lay-brother made novice masterWhen over 70, he went to preach in Syria and Abyssinia where, to his sorrow, he narrowly escaped martyrdom by the Islamics  OFM
Born in Florence, Italy, in 1370; cultus approved 1771. Thomas joined the Franciscan friary at nearby Fiesole, where, though only a lay-brother, he was made novice master. Later he worked successfully to introduce the Franciscan Observance into Corsica and southern Italy, and combatted the condemned Fraticelli in Tuscany. When over 70, he went to preach in Syria and Abyssinia where, to his sorrow, he narrowly escaped martyrdom by the Islamics (Benedictines).

1447 BD THOMAS OF FLORENCE; a Franciscan lay brother; the gift of miracles; Many urged that Bd Thomas should be canonized with St Bernardino of Siena, whose cause was then in process. To prevent the delay that would have resulted, St John of Capistrano, it is said, went to Thomas’s tomb at Rieti and commanded him in the name of holy obedience to cease his miracles until the canonization of Bernardino should be achieved. They stopped for three years, but Bd Thomas has never been canonized. His cultus was approved in 1771.

THOMAS BELLACCI, a native of Florence, was a Franciscan lay brother, who as a young man had led a wild and disorderly life. Realization of the futility of it all and the wise words of a friend wrought a change in him and he was accepted—with some trepidation, for his excesses were notorious—by the friars of the Observance at Fiesole. But his penitence equaled his former sinfulness, and in time, for all he was a lay brother, he was made master of novices, whom he trained in the strictest ways of the Observance.

When in 1414 Friar John of Stroncone went to spread the reform in the kingdom of Naples he took Bd Thomas with him. He laboured there for some six years, strengthened with the gift of miracles, and then, authorized by Pope Martin V, he undertook, in company with Bd Antony of Stron­cone, to oppose the heretical Fraticelli in Tuscany. While engaged in this cam­paign he made a number of new foundations, over which St Bernardino gave him authority, his own headquarters being at the friary of Scarlino. Here he established a custom of going in procession after the night office to a neighbouring wood, where each friar had a little shelter of boughs and shrubs wherein they remained for a time in prayer.

As a result of the “reunion council” at Florence in 1439, Friar Albert of Sarzana was sent as papal legate to the Syrian Jacobites and other dissidents of the East, and he took Thomas with him, although he was in his seventieth year. From Persia Albert commissioned him to go with three other friars into Ethiopia. Three times on their way the Turks, who treated them with great cruelty, seized them. But Bd Thomas insisted on preaching to the Mohammedans, and eventually they had to be ransomed by Pope Eugenius IV, just before their captors were going to put them to death. Bd Thomas could not get over that God had refused the proffered sacrifice of his life, and in 1447, aged as he was, he set out for Rome to ask permission to go again to the East. But at Rieti he was taken ill, and died there on October 31.  Many urged that Bd Thomas should be canonized with St Bernardino of Siena, whose cause was then in process. To prevent the delay that would have resulted, St John of Capistrano, it is said, went to Thomas’s tomb at Rieti and commanded him in the name of holy obedience to cease his miracles until the canonization of Bernardino should be achieved. They stopped for three years, but Bd Thomas has never been canonized. His cultus was approved in 1771.
See Wadding, Annales Minorum; Mazzara, Leggendario francescano and the summary in Leon, Aureole Seraphique (Eng. trans.), Vol. iv

1399 Blessed Queen St. Jadwiga of Poland cultural institutions to both state and church Pope John Paul II canonized Blessed Jadwiga
(1371-1399)
     There are two Polish women of royal blood who have long been venerated by Polish Catholics.  Up to 1997 they were referred to as Saint Jadwiga and Blessed Jadwiga.  (Hedwig is the form of their name in German.)  Now both are called saints, for in June 1997, on a solemn visit to Krakow, where he had formerly been archbishop, Pope John Paul II canonized Blessed Jadwiga. 
     Jadwiga of Krakow was a ranking figure in the history of Poland and Lithuania.  She was the youngest daughter of King Louis of Poland, the last member of the Piast dynasty.  After Louis' death in 1382, Jadwiga's counselors urged the thirteen-year-old princess to accept the hand of Jagiello, Duke of Lithuania, who aspired to the Polish throne.  Jagiello was still a pagan; but he was ready not only to become a Christian if Jadwiga would have him, but to bring all of Lithuania into the Church.
     The princess faced a crisis of conscience.  She would have preferred another suitor, yet this one presented great advantages both to the Polish nation and the Church.  In her dilemma, it is said that she donned a black veil and walked to the cathedral of Krakow.  There she knelt for three hours in prayer before the crucifix in a side chapel.  Finally she decided to renounce her own will and accept the offer; and rising, she draped the crucifix with her veil as a symbol of her openness to God's will.  Even today, we are told, the veil covers "Jadwiga's Crucifix" in the cathedral chapel.
     Jagiello seems to have been sincere.  He was baptized with the Christian name Ladislaus, and the wedding was celebrated, and he was crowned, thus beginning the Jagiellonian dynasty.  He did indeed see to the conversion of Lithuania, which was thereafter united with Poland, extending its boundaries far to the east.  The conversion of the Lithuanians was also slowly but effectively accomplished.
     Jadwiga was not a mere queen-consort.  She wielded a moderating influence on the governance of the turbulent double-kingdom, tempering her husband's tendency to jealousy and extreme measures.  The people found in her a protector, and the nation and the Church a far-sighted benefactor.  She was a good wife to Ladislaus, who really loved her deeply but also looked upon her with a certain awe.  Her only fault seems to have been a lack of prudence in penance and prayer.
     Not content with expanding Poland and Christianizing it, Ladislaus II and Jadwiga made Krakow a leading intellectual center by refounding its university.  The Jagiellonian University has since then made Krakow "a bridge between the Christian West and East."  So declared Pope John Paul, one of its most distinguished alumni.  At the canonization he praised Jadwiga's appreciation of the value of cultural institutions to both state and church.
     The queen was long unable to bear a child to her husband.  When she finally did conceive, Ladislaus made enthusiastic plans to surround the birthing with jewels and rich drapes.  Jadwiga took no stock in such splendor.  She had long since renounced the pomps of the world.  Now she simply wanted to thank God for the gift of a child by making His will her own.  She now revisited the Jadwiga chapel of the cathedral on the anniversary of her "great renunciation" and was discovered several hours later in an ecstasy or perhaps a swoon.  The child, a girl, was born shortly afterward, but lived only a few days.  Its birth also cost the Queen her life.  However, her good influence on the King continued even after her death.
     Devotion to their model queen inspired crowds to visit her tomb, and miracles were recorded through her intercession.  Although the process for her beatification foundered, she was popularly referred to as "Blessed."  Pope John Paul II made her formal beatification unnecessary by canonizing her.  Poland has had few more influential religious, political and cultural leaders.
1380 St. Catherine of Siena illiterate one of the most brilliant theological minds of her day mystical experiences when only 6 visions of Christ Mary and the saints gift of healing Stigmata visible only after her death Doctor of the Church
Romæ natális sanctæ Catharínæ Senénsis Vírginis, ex tértio Ordine sancti Domínici, vita et miráculis claræ, quam Pius Secúndus, Póntifex Máximus, sanctárum Vírginum número adscrípsit.  Ipsíus tamen festum sequénti die celebrátur.
 At Rome, the birthday of St. Catherine of Siena, virgin of the Third Order of St. Dominic, renowned for her holy life and her miracles.  She was inscribed among the canonized virgins by Pope Pius II.  Her feast, however, is celebrated on the following day.

Patron Fire prevention 1347 - 1380
St. Catherine of Siena

The 25th child of a wool dyer in northern Italy, St. Catherine started having mystical experiences when she was only 6, seeing guardian angels as clearly as the people they protected. She became a Dominican tertiary when she was 16, and continued to have visions of Christ, Mary, and the saints.

St. Catherine was one of the most brilliant theological minds of her day, although she never had any formal education. She persuaded the Pope to go back to Rome from Avignon, in 1377, and when she died she was endeavoring to heal the Great Western Schism.

In 1375 Our Lord give her the Stigmata, which was visible only after her death. Her spiritual director was Blessed Raymond of Capua. St, Catherine's letters, and a treatise called "a dialogue" are considered

Saint Catherine of Siena, Doctor (Memorial) April 29
Born in Siena, Italy, March 25, 1347, in Florence, Italy; died there on April 29, 1380; canonized in 1461; declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970. Saint Catherine cutting off her hair to convince her mother (seated) that she did not want any earthly spouse. 
Image by Boeri Boeri © 1997
    "Those in union with God when aware of the sins of others live in this gentle light. . . . Therefore they are always peaceful and calm, and nothing can scandalize them because they have done away with what causes them to take scandal, their self-will. . . . They find joy in everything.
    "They do not sit in judgement on my servants or anyone else, but rejoice in every situation and every way of living they see. . . . Even when they see something that is clearly sinful, they do not pass judgement, but rather feel a holy and genuine compassion, praying for the sinner."
    --Saint Catherine of Siena.
"Whenever you think God has shown you other people's faults, take care: your own judgment may well be at fault. Say nothing. And if you do attribute any vice to another person, immediately and humbly look for it in yourself also. Should the other person really possess that vice, he will correct himself so much the better when he sees how gently you understand him, and he will say to himself whatever you would have told him."  --Saint Catherine.
Fourteenth century Italy was desolated by plague, schism, and political turmoil.

When we are tempted to think that we live in the worst of times, we should remember the life of Saint Catherine. Those days were so black that many saints and scholars believed it heralded the end of the world. The popes deserted Rome for Avignon in 1305. Rome itself was in anarchy. Yet in the midst of confusion and dissent within the Church, God raised up Catherine, one of many saints who prove that our hope in the Lord is never in vain.among the most brilliant writings in the history of the Catholic Church. She died when she was only 33, and her body was found incorrupt in 1430.

Siena had established itself as a military power by conquering Florence in 1260. The city, which possessed a university with a school of medicine and superb cathedral, was governed by the Governo dei Nove (Government of Nine). Art was closely bound to life in Siena. Sienese artists were the most faithful interpreters of the sentiments and ideas of its great mystics. Legend says that Siena was founded by Romulus and Remus or by Remus's sons Ascius and Senius, who created its black and white flag.

Giacomo di Benincasa had a thriving cloth dying business on the Vicolo del Tiratoio (Street of the Dyers) with three of his sons: Bartolommeo, Orlando, and Stefano, plus two journeymen and two apprentices. The family lived upstairs. The also had a family farm.
When Benincasa's domineering and shrewish wife Lapa, daughter of a now forgotten poet, gave birth to twin daughters, Catherine and Giovanna, she already had 22 children. Lapa kept Catherine and breastfed her, but didn't have enough milk for her twin, who was given to another's care and eventually died. A 25th child was born and named Giovanna also, though she lived only a few years. Thirteen of the children lived to adulthood and all remained at home until they were married. Eventually eleven grandchildren were included in the household, which was big enough to include a foster son Tommaso della Fonte, whose parents died in the plague of 1348.

Though Catherine was not a pretty child, she was popular in the neighborhood because of her gaiety and wise little sayings. According to her first biographer Blessed Raymond of Capua she always had the ability to charm others. She was slight and pale, her features delicate, the texture of her skin exquisite, and her hair long, thick, lustrous, and golden. She was animated, cheerful, friendly, sensitive, and charming. All her movements were swift and graceful.

Prayer came naturally to her. At the age of five she would kneel on each step of the stairs of her home and say a prayer. She was only seven when she reported her first vision--of Jesus seated on a throne surrounded by saints, when returning with a younger brother from visiting one of her married sisters. The young child dragged at her hand, but she was lost in ecstasy. From that day she was consecrated to His service and engaged herself entirely in prayer, meditation, and acts of penance in which she encouraged her friends to join her.

Raymond of Capua, her confessor and biographer, wrote "... taught entirely by the Holy Spirit, she had come to know and value the lives and way of life of the holy Fathers of Egypt and the great deeds of other saints, especially Blessed Dominic, and had felt such a strong desire to do what they did that she had been unable to think about anything else."

The Benincasas owned a small farm out the outskirts of San Rocca a Pilli, 14 km from Siena, where Catherine spent time. She had a passion for flowers and wove them into little crosses for her early confessor Padre Tommaso. She often dreamed that angels descended from Heaven and crowned her with white lilies.

    Her parents wanted her to marry and encouraged her to enhance her looks. For a time she submitted to the ministrations of a hair dresser and to be decked out in fashionable clothes, but she soon repented of her concession meant to please her mother and sister Bonaventura. At age 16, when a real courtship was imminent, however, she told her mother she had taken a vow of perpetual virginity when she was seven. When her mother didn't take her seriously, she cut off her luxurious golden hair (Saint Rose of Lima did the same in a similar situation).
Her mother was enraged, discharged their maid, and decided Catherine should dress like a servant and perform a servant's tasks. Catherine accepted her tasks cheerfully and performed them capably. The men of the family objected but were overruled by Lapa; however, her father promised her that she would not be forced into marriage and he insisted that she be given a room to herself and time to pray because he had seen a white dove hovering above her head.
She dreamed that she encountered Saint Dominic and was overcome with a desire to enter the Third Order of the Dominican Sisters of Penance. At that time there were about 100 devout older women and spinsters in Siena who were known as Mantellates, because of the black capes they wore over their white habits.

Still unpersuaded that her daughter would not marry, Lapa took her to the spa at Vignone hoping to fatten her up in preparation for marriage. A week later they returned. Catherine had scalded herself at the source of the hot springs in order to disfigure herself. She had also contracted smallpox.  During her illness she extracted a promise from Lapa to ask the sisters to accept her daughter. The Mother Superior said Catherine was too young (pleasing Lapa) but Catherine insisted that the order had no rule about it. Lapa assured her that Catherine had cut off her hair, scalded herself, and now had smallpox, so that she would no longer be attractive. Then the Mother agreed to visit Catherine. Several weeks later Catherine received the mantle and habit.

For three years she left her bare room only to attend Mass, broke her silence only for confession or to meet an emergency, ate sparingly and alone, and recited the Divine Office during the hours when she knew that the Dominican friars slept.
She underwent periods of aridity, but was never subject to temptation. On Shrove Tuesday, 1367, she prayed for the "fullness of faith" and had a vision in which she saw Jesus, Mary, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Paul, and Saint Dominic, the founder of her order. During this vision, the Blessed Virgin presented her to Jesus, who espoused Himself to her. He placed on her finger a gold ring with four pearls set in a circle in it and a wonderful diamond in the middle, saying to her, "receive this ring as a pledge and testimony that you are mine and will be mine for ever." No one else could see the ring but it was always before her eyes.
She had many marvelous religious experiences.
At the age of 26, she first felt the pain of Christ's suffering in her own body. Two years later during a visit to Pisa, she received Communion in the little church of Santa Christina. As she meditated in thanksgiving upon the crucifix, five blood-red rays seemed to come from it which pierced her hands, feet, and heart. Thus, she received the five visible wounds of His suffering--the stigmata. It caused such acute pain that she swooned. Unable or unwilling to eat, Catherine went for eight years without food or liquid other than the Blessed Sacrament. She prayed that the marks not be conspicuous, though they are traceable on her incorruptible body by a transparency in the tissues.

Oftentimes she was seen levitated in the air during her prayer. Once, as she was being given Holy Communion, the priest felt the Host become agitated and fly, as if of its own volition, from his fingers into her mouth. In the Life of Saint Catherine, Mother Francis Raphael relates that the saint was immune to fire. She tells of a time that Catherine fell forward into a fire in the kitchen during a religious ecstasy. The fire was large and fierce, but when Catherine was pulled out of the smoking embers neither she nor her clothes were damaged.

But none of these divine favors would have meant much to a needy world if Catherine had remained hidden in her home. In 1370, she heard a divine voice that commanded her to leave the cell and enter His service in the world to promote the salvation of her neighbors. Thousands came to see her, to hear her, and to be converted by her. A mystical circle of members of religious orders, secular priests, and lay people gathered around her.
Of course, public opinion in Siena was sharply divided about Catherine. It may have been in consequence of accusations made against her that she was summoned to Florence to appear before the chapter general of the Dominicans. If any charges were made, they were certainly disproved, and shortly thereafter the new lector of Siena, Blessed Raymond, was appointed as her confessor.

The core of her teaching was: Man, whether in the cloister or in the world, must live in a cell of self-knowledge, which is the stall in which the pilgrim must be reborn from time to eternity. The press of the repentant was so great that the three priests of her neighborhood, who had been provided by the pope to hear the confessions of those who were induced by her to amend their lives, could hardly cope with it.
She dispatched letters that often had been dictated in ecstasy, to men and women of all ranks, entered into correspondence with kings and princes and with the Italian city-states. She took part also in public affairs, and Catherine welcomed all who came to call--the curious, the seeking, the devout. She collected information from them all.

Even the pope relied upon her good judgment. At this time the papacy was tragically weakened by contested papal elections, pope and antipope denouncing each other. Catherine supported the true Pope Urban VI against his opponents; but he was a somewhat graceless man, and her letters to him never hesitated to reprove the pope for this fault, while remaining entirely loyal to him.

Twice at least she successfully intervened in matters of high politics. Catherine made peace between cities torn by factional strife: she made peace between the pope and the city of Florence. On June 18, 1376, Catherine arrived in Avignon as unofficial ambassadress, and induced the pope to return to Italy, and--this was the greatest work of her life--brought to an end the Babylonian captivity of the popes. Thus, on September 13, 1376, Pope Gregory XI started from Avignon to travel by water to Rome. Choosing Thorns Image by Boeri Boeri © 1997

It was a month before Catherine arrived back in Siena, from where she continued to exhort the pope to contribute to the peace of Italy. By his special request, she went again to Florence, still rent by factions and obstinate in its disobedience and under interdict. There she remained for some time amid daily murders and confiscations, in danger of her life but never daunted, even when swords were drawn against her. Finally, she established peace between Florence and the Holy See.

Catherine dictated from memory The Dialogue in five days before she left Siena forever. It is her account of her visions. She was clairaudient and clairvoyant, also awareness of communion with Jesus. She was illiterate, but yearning to be able to read the breviary, when suddenly she could read--either through the help of Father Tommaso della Fonte or Alessia Saracini (her friend), or through a miracle.

Her foster brother Tommaso della Fonte became a priest and her confessor during the time of her novitiate. He provided her with other books, such as a short history of the Church, lives of the saints, the Psalms and other portions of the Bible. She later astonished learned ecclesiastics with her grasp of these subjects.

She loved music and to sing, was passionately fond of children. She began to make friends again, first among the Mantellate and Dominicans, then among the priests and physicians at the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, where she began her nursing career, then among the intelligentsia. She had the gift of healing. Much of what she did was met with ingratitude.

Catherine loved working amongst the sick. Unlike most other volunteers, she would care for those with the most repulsive diseases, such as leprosy, which was then virtually incurable. She gathered round her many friends, and when a fearful plague broke out in Siena, she led them boldly among those who had caught it sometimes even digging graves and burying the dead herself.

Catherine also suffered moral temptations, and often it seemed that God had deserted her. Was it for this that she had forsaken all to follow Him? A woman suffering from cancer, to whom she had given devoted care, pursued her with a vicious tongue and poured out upon her all the irritability and despair which were provoked by her hopeless condition, but Catherine remained incredibly patient and forbearing; her visions returned and her heart was strengthened. "O my Savior, my Lord," she cried, "why did You forsake me?" "My child," came the answer, "I have been with you through all. I was in your heart all the while."

This composite picture shows the mature Catherine choosing the Crown of Thorns. The lower left image of the saint is a detail of a larger work showing the young Catherine at the time her father saw a dove hovering over her head as she prayed. 
She gave freely from her father's resources to the poor beggars, some of whom she claimed were saintly visitors in disguise.
Through all her arduous life she remained gentle and forgiving, serving Christ in the lives of the poor, following Him into mean streets and crowded hovels, taking upon herself the burden of pain and sin that she met with, nourished and sustained by her frequent visions. Our Lord appeared to her holding in one hand a crown of gold and in the other a crown of thorns, and asked which she would choose. Without hesitation she reached out her hand for the crown of thorns.

Francesco di Vanni Malavolti, a famous philanderer, so desired Catherine's friendship that he went immediately to confession. They had an spontaneous and lasting friendship because of their mental harmony. After the death of his wife, he entered the monastery and spent the remainder of his days in prayer and contemplation.

Andrea Vanni was a friend whose portrait of her remains in the Church of San Domenico in Siena. He and Catherine's brother Bartolo led the revolution that toppled the government.
For thirty years this brave and devoted soul showed how there is a Power that transcends our earthly life, and awakened many, by conversion, to a sense of the Eternal. "Her prayers," we are told by an eyewitness, "were of such intensity, that one hour of prayer more consumed that poor little body than two days upon the rack would have done another."

When the great Western schism broke out following the death of Pope Gregory in 1378, the new pope, Urban VI, called her to Rome. A rival pope was established at Avignon by some cardinals who declared Urban's election was illegal.
Christendom was divided into two camps. She spoke to the cardinals in open consistory, wrote to the chief sponsors of the schism, to foreign princes, and through her influence, helped to overcome the French anti-pope in Italy. She also continued to write to Urban, sometimes urging him to remain patient in trials and other times admonishing him to abate his harshness that was alienating even his supporters.

Instead of resenting her reproofs, Urban invited her to come to Rome to advise and assist him. In obedience, she left Siena forever and took up residence in the Eternal City. There she labored indefatigably by her prayers and exhortations to gain new adherents to the true pontiff.

After she had offered her life as a sacrifice to God, and had seen and felt in a vision the Almighty God pressing out her heart as a balm over the Church, she fell mortally ill and died in the arms of Alessia Saracini after eight weeks of most acute suffering at the age of 33--the age at which her Master had died. And when she died, she was merry and joyful.

Catherine is one of the greatest mystics of all time. In her, the extraordinary mystical states that are the preparation for true sanctifying graces and the counterpart of the burdens of sainthood, became particularly evident. The history of literature gives the saint a place of honor beside Dante and Petrarch (Bentley, Gill, Harrison, Keyes, Schamoni, Walsh).

In art, Saint Catherine is always portrayed as a Dominican tertiary (white habit, black mantle, white veil) with a stigmata, lily, and book. Sometimes she is portrayed (1) with a crown of thorns and a crucifix; (2) with her heart on a book; (3) with her heart at her feet and a scourge or skull, book, and lily; (4) with the devil under her feet; (5) crowned by angels with three crowns; (6) celebrating her mystic marriage with Christ; (7) giving clothes to a beggar, who is really Christ (Roeder). Catherine is the patron of Italy together with Saint Francis of Assisi (Roeder).
1380 St. Aventanus Carmelite mystic lay brother gift of ecstasies, miracles, and visions
A native of Limoges, France, he joined the Carmelites as a lay brother. With another Carmelite, Romaeus, Aventanus started on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Crossing the Alps they encountered many difficulties, including an outbreak of plague. Aventanus, who had a gift of ecstasies, miracles, and visions, succumbed to the plague near Lucca, Italy. His cult was approved by Pope Gregory XVI.
1377 Bl. Villana hideous demon in mirror wonderful visions olloquies our Lady and saints gift of prophecy
Blessed Villana was the daughter of Andrew de'Botti, a Florentine merchant, and was born in 1332. When she was thirteen she ran away from home to enter a convent but her attempts were unsuccessful and she was forced to return. To prevent any repetition of her flight, her father shortly afterwards gave her in marriage to Rosso di Piero. After her marriage she appeared completely changed; she gave herself up to pleasure and dissipation and lived a wholly idle and worldly life. One day, as she was about to start for an entertainment clad in a gorgeous dress adorned with pearls and precious stones, she looked at herself in a mirror. To her dismay, the reflection that met her eyes was that of a hideous demon. A second and a third mirror showed the same ugly form. Thoroughly alarmed and recognizing in the reflection the image of herself sin-stained soul, she tore off her fine attire and, clad in the simplest clothes she could find, she betook herself weeping to the Dominican Fathers at Santa Maria Novella to make a full confession and to ask absolution and help. This proved the turning point of her life, and she never again fell away.
Before long Villana was admitted to the Third Order of St. Dominic, and after this she advanced rapidly in the spiritual life.
Fulfilling all her duties as a married woman, she spent all her available time in prayer and reading. She particularly loved to read St. Paul's Epistles and the lives of the saints. At one time, in a self-abasement and in her love for the poor, she would have gone begging for them from door to door had not her husband and parents interposed. So completely did she give herself up to God that she was often rapt in ecstacy, particularly during Mass or at spiritual conferences; but she had to pass through a period of persecution when she was cruelly calumniated and her honor was assailed.
Her soul was also purified by strong pains and by great bodily weakness.
However, she passed unscathed through all these trials and was rewarded by wonderful visions and olloquies with our Lady and other saints. Occasionally the room in which she dwelt was filled with supernatural light, and she was also endowed with the gift of prophecy. As she lay on her deathbed, she asked that the Passion should be read to her, and at the words "He bowed His head and gave up the ghost", she crossed her hands on her breast and passed away.
   
Her body was taken to Santa Maria Novella, where it became such an object of veneration that for over a month it was impossible to proceed with the funeral. People struggled to obtain shreds of her clothing, and she was honored as a saint from the day of her death. Her bereaved husband use to say that, when he felt discouraged and depressed, he found strength by visiting the room in which his beloved wife had died. Blessed Villana's cultus was confirmed in 1824.
1367 Blessed John (Giovanni) Colombini, Founded Gesuati lay brothers approved in 1367; rich Sienese merchant held position of 1st magistrate (gonfalionere); ambitious, avaricious, ill-tempered man converted while reading conversion story of Saint Mary of Egypt in the The Lives of the Saints (RM)
Senis, in Túscia, natális beáti Joánnis Columbíni, qui fuit Institútor Ordinis Jesuatórum, et sanctitáte ac miráculis cláruit.
    At Siena in Tuscany, the birthday of blessed John Colombini, founder of the Order of Gesuati, renowned for sanctity and miracles.
Born in Siena, Italy, c. 1300; beatified by Pope Gregory XIII. If John Colombini can win God's favor, there is hope for all of us. By all accounts, this rich Sienese merchant who held the position of first magistrate (gonfalionere) was an ambitious, avaricious, and ill-tempered man. He himself was converted while reading the story of the conversion of Saint Mary of Egypt in the The Lives of the Saints. Thereafter, he devoted himself to works of charity and founded a society of lay brothers called the Gesuati, which were approved in 1367--just 37 days before his death (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
In art, Blessed John has a short beard, white habit, dark leather belt, and bare feet. Generally, he has IHS on his breast (Roeder). He is venerated in Siena (Roeder).

More than two-thirds of this saint's years on earth had passed before he began to live other than a worldly life ; he inclined to avarice, was ambitious, and gave way to a bad temper without scruple.  He was born about 1304 in Siena, and as a successful merchant married Biagia Cerretani, by whom he had two children. One day, after being taken up the whole morning with business he came home, much fatigued, and not finding dinner ready, flew into a rage.  His wife (perhaps from a human point of view a little tactlessly) put a book of saints' lives into his hands; but he threw it on the ground.  The next moment, being ashamed of his temper, he took it up again, and sitting down to read, fell on the life of St Mary of Egypt.   He read it with so much interest that he forgot his dinner, and his wife in her turn was kept waiting, but she had the sense not to draw attention to the fact.  The reading did its work and made a way for the grace of God, and he found his heart pierced with remorse for his past sins and unthinking conduct.

   Being sensible that the first sacrifice which God requires of a sinner is that of a contrite and humble heart, he spent much time in prayer and penitential exercises.  He sold his rich clothes and furniture, giving the money to the poor; he slept on a bench, and his house seemed converted into a hospital, so great was the number of the poor and sick that he caused to be brought thither and attended.  In defiance of the iron laws of economics and the general custom of traders, he even bought goods for more than was asked and sold them for less than market price.  Naturally, every one was astonished at so great a change.  One day seeing a leper lying at the door of the church, the saint carried him to his own home, attending him till he had overcome the abhorrence which naturally besets man at the sight of so loathsome a disease, and continued his care of this patient till he was able to be removed.  It was said by some that the leper disappeared miraculously, leaving only a heavenly fragrance.
     But John's good wife was by no means pleased at the excess of his conversion, and would often remonstrate with him to be more prudent. And when he answered, "You prayed to God that I might become charitable and good, and now you are annoyed because I make a little amends for my avarice and other sins", she replied, "I prayed for rain, but this is a flood".  After some years, their son having died and their daughter become a nun, Biagia agreed to let him go his ways without hindrance.  He thereupon divided his fortune between a convent, a hospital and a confraternity of women, the gifts being first charged with the proper maintenance of his wife, and having thus reduced himself to poverty he gave himself up to serve the poor in the hospitals, and to the exercises of devotion and penance.
   Bd John was joined in this renunciation by Francis Vincenti, who had been his partner in good works, and several others became his faithful imitators and companions.  There seems to have been a strong element of "fools for Christ's sake " in their earlier practices.  They exhorted to repentance and fervour in the divine service; and the charity and disinterestedness with which they ministered corporal relief and comfort gave great force to their instructions.  When members of respectable families threw in their lot with them, the Sienese authorities became alarmed and John was banished.  He therefore left the city with some followers and visited Arezzo, Città di Castello, Viterbo and other places: in the last-named they were given the nickname Gesuati, "Jesuats", because of their devotion to the Holy Name and frequent ejaculation of "Praise be to Jesus Christ".  They converted many to a Christian life (including an episcopal notary, who joined the band), brought about the restitution of goods and reputations, and composed long-standing quarrels.

    Bd John had been recommended to obtain ecclesiastical sanction for his activities, but on being assured by the bishop of Città di Castello that they were doing nothing irregular, the matter was let drop: "they were poor, simple, and right-minded men, with no material cares, and so they might well leave all in God's hands".  In 1367, however, Pope Urban V came to Viterbo on his way back from Avignon, and John and his followers, crowned with garlands and carrying olive branches, but dressed in rags, went to meet him, soliciting an audience.  This was granted and the pope was greatly impressed, but considered it advisable to order Cardinal William Sudre and others to examine John and the life of the brothers, as they were now accused by some of holding the errors of the Fraticelli.   Of this they were acquitted, and Pope Urban approved the Jesuats as a new congregation under the formal title of Apostolic Clerics of St Jerome, because of their particular veneration for that saint. In spite of this name they were to be an institute of lay-brothers, whose life was to be one of great physical austerity and devoted to the care of the sick and burial of the dead, and they were to be dispersed among the towns and villages. Only a few days later, when the brothers were gathered together by the Lake of Bolsena, their founder was taken ill; he was taken to Acquapendente, where he received the last sacraments, and then they tried to remove him to Siena, but he died on the way. In the presence of his wife and his spiritual children he was buried at the convent of SS. Abundio and Abundanzio ("Santa Bonda "), wherein his daughter had died and which by his influence had been brought back to the observance of common life. His friend and companion, Francis Vincenti, died a fortnight later.
  John Colombini's name was inserted in the Roman Martyrology by Pope Gregory XIII. His congregation flourished for a time, and then began to languish; in 1606 an attempt was made to revive it by allowing members to be in priest's orders, but sixty-two years later it was entirely suppressed by Pope Clement IX, it being no longer useful to the Church because of the fewness of its members.

Some of Bd John's letters are still extant, and in his life of the saint, written in 1449, Feo Belcari, a Florentine citizen, has reported some of his exhortations. They are full of evangelical fervour and show strongly the influence of the earlier Franciscans.
   A short life by Bd John Tossignano (see above, July 24), has been printed by Mansi among the Miscellanea of Baluzius (vol. iv, pp. 566-571). In the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. vii, is a seventeenth -century biography compiled by Fr J. B. Rossi, together with much other illustrative matter.  The Florentine poet Feo Belcari in 1449 also wrote a life of Bd John in Italian prose of great literary merit-see R. Chiarini, who in 1904 brought out a new edition-which is not without some historical value.   It is possible even that Belcari had previously translated Tossignano's Compendio, though L. Albertazzi thinks otherwise. P. Misciatelli has published 114 letters written by John Colombini, many of them previously unknown; they appeared as vol. viii in the series of Libri della Fede issued at Florence under the direction of G. Papini. There are some modern popular lives, notably that by the Countess de Rambutesu in French (1893). Father Delehaye in his Legendes Hagiographiques has called attention to the curious coincidence that July 31 is the heavenly birthday both of St Ignatius Loyola and Bd John Colombini, the one the founder of the Jesuitae, the other of the Jesusate. Both were converted from a worldly career by reading the lives of the saints, both established a religious order, and while the earlier order was suppressed by Clement IX that of St Ignatius was suppressed by Clement XIV, though it was subsequently restored by Pius VII .
1348 Blessed Silvester Ventura age of 40 he joined Camaldolese at Santa Maria degli Angeli at Florence as a lay brother cook favored with ecstasies heavenly visions, angels were wont to come and cook for him spiritual advice was in great demand, OSB Cam. (AC)
Born in Florence, Italy; Silvester was a carder and bleacher of wool by trade. At the age of 40 he joined the Camaldolese at Santa Maria degli Angeli at Florence as a lay brother and served the community as cook. He was favored with ecstasies and heavenly visions, and the angels were wont to come and cook for him. His spiritual advice was in great demand (Benedictines).
1347 St. Flora Patron abandoned converts single laywomen betrayal victims many miracles were worked at her tomb.
St. Flora, Virgin, Patron of the abandoned, of converts, single laywomen, and victims of betrayal
Flora was born in France about the year 1309. She was a devout child and later resisted all attempts on the part of her parents to find a husband for her.
In 1324, she entered the Priory of Beaulieu of the Hospitaller nuns of St. John of Jerusalem. Here she was beset with many and diverse trials, fell into a depressed state, and was made sport of by some of her religious sisters. However, she never ceased to find favor with God and was granted many unusual and mystical favors.
One year on the feast of All Saints, she fell into an ecstasy and took no nourishment until three weeks later on the feast of St.
Cecelia.
On another occasion, while meditating on the Holy Spirit, she was raised four feet from the ground and hung in the air in full view of many onlookers.
She also seemed to be pierced with the arms of Our Lord's cross, causing blood to flow freely at times from her side and at others, from her mouth.
Other instances of God's favoring of his servant were also reported, concerning prophetic knowledge of matters of which she could not naturally know.
 Through it all, St. Flora remained humble and in complete communion with her Divine Master, rendering wise counsel to all who flocked to her because of her holiness and spiritual discernment. In 1347, she was called to her eternal reward and
many miracles were worked at her tomb.
1329 Blessed Frederick of Ratisbon (Regensburg)  lay-brother by the Augustinian hermits OSA (AC)
1329 BD FREDERICK OF REGENSBURG
PRACTICALLY nothing is known of the life of this servant of God, whose uninter­rupted cultus from the time of his death was confirmed in 1909. He was born of poor parents at Regensburg (Ratisbon) and was received as a lay brother in the friary of Augustinian hermits in that city. He was employed by the Community principally as a carpenter and to chop wood for fuel; he used to thank God that there was any job that he was found capable of doing. Among the marvels related of him is that he received Holy Communion at the hands of an angel. The inscription of his name in calendars, the title Blessed given to him, and the special place of his tomb shows the veneration with which he was regarded by his con­temporaries. Bd Frederick died on November 30, 1329, but his feast is observed by the Augustinian friars and at Regensburg on the previous day.

A short biography, largely made up of miracles of a very conventional type, together with an imposing folio page engraving of the holy brother, stands in M. Rader’s Bavaria Sancta (1702), vol. i, p. 298. As the book was first published in 1615, it at least serves as evidence of a cultus which in some sense goes back to time immemorial, The decree of conflrmatio cultus will be found in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. i (1909), pp. 496—498.   

Cultus approved in 1909. Born to poor parents in Ratisbon (now known as Regensburg, Germany), Blessed Frederick was received as a lay-brother by the Augustinian hermits in his hometown, where he was employed as a carpenter and wood-chopper (Attwater 2, Benedictines).
1319 Blessed Simon Ballachi  Dominican lay-brother at age 27 visitors came to him in the silence of the night: Saint Catherine of Alexandria, to whom he had a special devotion, Saint Dominic and Saint Peter Martyr, and sometimes the Blessed Virgin herself. His little cell was radiant with heavenly lights, and sometimes angelic voices could be heard within OP (AC)
1319    BD SIMON OF RIMINI

SIMON BALLACHI at the age of twenty-seven offered himself to God as a lay-brother in the Dominican friary of Rimini, his native place. Not content with this humble position he still further mortified himself by volunteering to do all the lowliest tasks, and he disciplined his body with an iron chain, offering his pain for the conversion of sinners. He is said to have suffered greatly from diabolical visitations. Simon was principally employed in the garden, but he was also entrusted with the cultivation of young human plants, and would go through the streets with a cross in his hand calling the children to catechism. When he was fifty-seven he was stricken with blindness, and so lived for twelve years, during the last few of which he had to keep to his bed entirely. Bd Simon bore these afflictions with courage and cheerfulness, and was rewarded with the gift of miracles, so that from the day of his death he was venerated as a saint. This cultus was confirmed in 1821.

See the Acta Sanctorum, November, vol ii, where a brief account has been compiled from the very slender materials available and cf. Procter, Liver of Dominican Saints, pp. 306-309.  

Born at Sant'Arcangelo near Rimini, Italy, 1250; died November 3, 1319; declared blessed in 1817 (cultus confirmed in 1821?).
The son of Count Ballachi, nephew of two archbishops of Rimini, and brother of a priest, Simon Ballachi became a Dominican lay-brother at age 27. His family was none too happy about this decision because he was supposed to administer the family property and had been trained as a soldier. They couldn't understand why he would abandon the many opportunities life had provided for him. Not only was he throwing away a prestigious position in society, he was not even becoming a priest, which would provide him with a chance for ecclesiastical preferences.

Oblivious to the criticism of his family, Simon readily undertook the life of a lay brother. His principal work, to his great delight, was tending the garden. Having been preoccupied with military training, Simon may never have seen a garden prior to entering the Dominicans. He probably had to learn all the details of the art by trial and error.

But while he tended the friary garden, he continued to plant prayers for his soul. He was adept at seeing God in everything. It is written that he meditated on every act, "so that, while his hands cultivated the herbs and flowers of the earth, his heart might be a paradise of sweet-smelling flowers in the sight of God." He tried to find in everything he handled in the garden some lesson it could teach him about the spiritual life. When the weather was too bad for him to work outside, he swept and cleaned the monastery. Wherever his work took him, he tried to do it well and to efface himself completely, so that no one would even notice that he was there.

Under the placid exterior of a gardener, Simon concealed a spiritual life of extraordinary austerity and prayer. He worked hard during the day yet he never excused himself from rising for the night office, nor from severe penance. For 20 years he wore an iron chain around his waist. In Lent, he lived on bread and water. He found extra time for prayer by foregoing sleep. Like Saint Dominic, he scourged himself every night. Of course, all this growth in holiness attracted the devil, who would attempt to distract Simon.

Other visitors came to him in the silence of the night: Saint Catherine of Alexandria, to whom he had a special devotion, Saint Dominic and Saint Peter Martyr, and sometimes the Blessed Virgin herself. His little cell was radiant with heavenly lights, and sometimes angelic voices could be heard within.

Simon was blinded at age 57 and became helpless for the last years of his life, yet he never despaired (Benedictines, Dorcy).

1315 Bd Henry of Treviso; 276 miracles, wrought by his relics, recorded within days of death by notaries appointed by the magistrates: they occupy thirty-two closely printed columns of the Acta Sanctorum

Henry of Treviso, or San Rigo as he is often called in Italy, was born at Bolzano in the Trentino. His parents were very poor, and he never learnt to read or write. He went as a young man to Treviso, where he supported himself as a day labourer, secretly giving away to the poor whatever he could save from his scanty wages. Throughout his whole life his one object was the service of God. He heard Mass daily, frequently making his communion, and every day he went to confession—not from scrupulosity, but to preserve the utmost purity of conscience. All the time that was not employed in labour and in necessary duties he spent in devotion, either at church or in private; the penitential instruments he used for the discipline of his body were preserved after his death in the cathedral. Men marvelled at his extraordinary equanimity, which nothing could ever ruffle. Foolish people and children sometimes mocked or molested the shabby, thick-set little man, with his sunken eyes, long nose, and crooked mouth, but he never resented their treatment or replied to it, except to pray for them.

When he could no longer work, a citizen called James Castagnolis gave him a room in his house and, when necessary, food. Usually, however, Bd Henry subsisted on the alms of the charitable, which he shared with beggars, never holding anything over from one day to the next. Even extreme bodily weakness in ad­vancing age could not keep him from God’s house and from visiting all the churches within walking distance of Treviso. He died on June 10, 1315. His little room was immediately thronged with visitors eager to venerate him and to secure some fragment of his possessions, which consisted of a hair-shirt, a wooden log which had been his pillow, and some cords and straw that had served as his bed. Extra­ordinary scenes were witnessed after his body had been removed to the cathedral. The people broke into the basilica at night, and the bishop and the podestà, roused from their sleep, were obliged to go and protect the body by putting a wooden palisade round it. No fewer than 276 miracles, said to have been wrought by his relics, were recorded within a few days of Bd Henry’s death by the notaries appointed by the magistrates: they occupy thirty-two closely printed columns of the Acta Sanctorum. The cultus of Bd Henry was confirmed by Pope Benedict XIV.

A life of Bd Henry, by his contemporary Bishop Pierdomenico de Baone, has been printed by the Bollandists, June, vol. ii. See also R. degli Azzoni Avogaro, Memorie del Beato Enrico (2 vols., 1760); A. Tschöll (1887); Austria Sancta, Die Heiligen und Seligen Tirols, vol. ii (1910), pp. 41 seq. ; and II B. Enrico . . . (Treviso, 1915).
1310 St. Alexis Falconieri became a lay brother one The "Seven Holy Founders" of the Servites
Apud montem Senárium, in Etrúria, natális sancti Amidǽi Confessóris, e septem Fundatóribus Ordinis Servórum beátæ Maríæ Vírginis, flagrantíssima in Deum caritáte præclári.  Ipsíus tamen ac Sociórum festum prídie Idus Februárii celebrátur.
    On Mount Senario in Tuscany, St. Amadeo, confessor, one of the seven founders of the Order of Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary, famous for his ardent love for God.  His feast, together with that of his companions, is kept on the 12th of February.
was the only one to live to see the order approved by Pope Benedict XI in 1304.
The "Seven Holy Founders" of the Servites were canonized in 1887 by Pope Leo XIII.

Born in Florence, 1200; died 17 February, 1310, at Mount Senario, near Florence. He was the son of Bernard Falconieri, a merchant prince of Florence, and one of the leaders of the Republic. His family belonged to the Guelph party, and opposed the Imperialists whenever they could consistently with their political principles. Alexis grew up in the practice of the most profound humility. He joined the Laudesi, a pious confraternity of the Blessed Virgin, and there met the six future companions of his life of sanctity. He was favoured with an apparition of the Mother of God, 15 August, 1233, as were these companions. The seven soon afterwards founded the Order of the Servites. With consistent loyalty and heroism Alexis at one abandoned all, and retired to La Camarzia, a house on the outskirts of the town, and the following year to Mt. Senario. With characteristic humility, he traversed, as a mendicant, in quest of alms for his brethren, the streets of the city through which he had lately moved as a prominent citizen. So deep and sincere was him humility that, though he lived to the great age of hundred and ten years, he always refused to enter the priesthood, of which he deemed himself unworthy. The duties of our Saint were confined principally to the material needs of the various communities in which he lived. In 1252 the new church at Cafaggio, on the outskirts of Florence, was completed under his care, with the financial assistance of Chiarissimo Falconieri. The miraculous image of the Annunciation, still highly venerated in Italy, had its origin here. St. Juliana Falconieri, his niece, was trained in sanctity under his personal direction. The influence exerted on his countrymen by Alexis and his companions may be gathered from the fact that in a few years ten thousand persons had enrolled themselves under the banner of the Blessed Virgin in the Servite Order. At his death he was visited by the Infant Jesus in visible form, as was attested by eye-witnesses. His body rests near the church of the Annunciation, in Florence. Clement XI declared Alexis worthy of the veneration of the faithful, 1 December, 1717, and accorded the same honour to his six companions, 3 July 1725.

1310 St. Alexis Falconieri Founder mystic 1233 on the Feast of the Assumption group experienced a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary
One of the first Servants of Mary or Servites. The son of a wealthy merchant in Florence, Italy, Alexis and six companions joined the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin in Florence in 1225.

Gathered together on the Feast of the Assumption in 1233, the group experienced a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary which inspired them to found a new religious community dedicated to prayer. They founded such a group at La Camarzia, near Florence, moving eventually to Monte Senario, on the outskirts of the city.

Another vision inspired Alexis and his companions to form the Servites, or the Servants of Mary. All in the group were ordained priests, except for Alexis, who believed he was not worthy of such an honor. He helped build the Servite church at Cafaggio, and he managed the day-to-day temporal affairs of the congregation. The Servites received papal approval from Pope Benedict XI in 1304. Alexis was the only founding member still alive. He died at Monte Senario on February 17, 1310, recorded as 110 years old. Alexis and his companions are called the Seven Holy Founders. They were canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1888.

1310 Seiben Gründer, Alexius Falconieri Gründer des Servitenordens 1888 wurden die sieben Servitengründer, Bonfilius, Bonajuncta, Manettus, Amideus, Hugo, Sosteneus und Alexius, "als ob sie eine Person wären", von Leo XIII. heiliggesprochen
Katholische Kirche: 17. Februar
Sieben befreundete Kaufleute in Florenz, die einer marianischen Bruderschaft angehörten, beschlossen 1233 ein gemeinsames Leben im Dienst der Armen und Kranken zu führen. Sie versorgten ihre Familien, verschenkten ihre Habe und lebten in einem einfachen Haus am Rande der Stadt Florenz. Sie wurden allgemein Diener Mariens - Servi Mariae - genannt.

1241 gründeten die sieben ein Kloster auf dem Monte Senario nahe Florenz. Sie beschlossen, hier nach der Regel Augustins zu leben und ein schwarzes Ordensgewand zu tragen. Der Orden fand großen Zulauf. 1299 gab es in Deutschland bereits vier Klöster. 1304 wurde der Orden von Papst Benedikt XI. bestätigt. Im Bestätigungsschreiben heißt es: "Ihr pflegt eine besondere Hingabe an die glorreiche und selige Jungfrau Maria; von ihr nahmt ihr euren Namen, indem ihr euch demütig ihre Diener nanntet."

Bei der Anerkennung des Ordens lebte nur noch einer der sieben Gründer, Alexius Falconieri, der am 17. Februar 1310 im Alter von 110 Jahren starb. 1888 wurden die sieben Servitengründer, Bonfilius, Bonajuncta, Manettus, Amideus, Hugo, Sosteneus und Alexius, "als ob sie eine Person wären", von Leo XIII. heiliggesprochen. Diese Heiligsprechung ist ein - bisher - einmaliger Vorgang in der Kirchengeschichte.
1305 Blessed Joachim Piccolomini singular devotion to the Blessed Virgin charity for poor perfect model of conspicuous virtue OSM (RM)
(also known as Joachim of Siena) Born in Siena, Italy; beatified by Paul V. Joachim, a member of the illustrious Piccolomini family, was blessed by piety from his youth.
He had a singular devotion to the Blessed Virgin. His greatest childhood pleasure was to pray the sweet Ave Maria before her image.

His charity for the poor was no less extraordinary than his devotion. He stripped himself to clothe and relieve them: whatever pocket money he was given, he bestowed in alms. Moreover, he urged his parents to increase their aid to the distressed. His father one day remonstrated with Joachim that prudence ought to set bounds to his liberality, or he would reduce his whole family to poverty. The compassionate youth modestly replied: "You have taught me that an alms is given to Jesus Christ, in the persons of the poor: can we refuse him any thing? And what is the advantage of riches, but that they be employed in purchasing treasures in heaven?"
The father wept for joy to hear such generous sentiments of virtue from one of so tender an age, and so dear to him.

When he was 14, Joachim joined the Servites as a lay-brother under Saint Philip Benizi. In that community, he became a perfect model of conspicuous virtue.
Early in life, Joachim would often be found at midnight praying while the rest of the household slept. Now his fervor grew and instilled in him a still greater degree extraordinary humility.

His religious brothers urged him to the priesthood, but he resisted because he believed himself absolutely unworthy; to serve at Mass was the height of his ambition. His whole life appears to be an attempt to hide himself from the eyes of others, to live in obscurity. Because of this, he requested to be moved to another house when he became too respected at Siena. Thus he assigned to Arezzo but when his impending departure became known, the people of Siena demurred and caused him to remain there until his death (Benedictines, Husenbeth).
Joachim is pictured as a Servite in a black habit holding a book and flower (Roeder). He is venerated at Arezzo and Siena, Italy (Roeder).
1304 Blessed Raynerius of Arezzo a Franciscan lay- brother OFM (AC)
(also known as Rasini or Raniero Mariani)
Born at Arezzo, Italy; died at Borgo Sansepolero, cultus confirmed in 1802. Blessed Raniero Mariani was a Franciscan lay- brother (Benedictines). He is portrayed as a Franciscan with beads appearing to a sleeping cardinal and pointing to a jar of balm. Venerated at Borgo San Sepolcro (Roeder).
1289 Blessed Benvenutus of Recanati Franciscan lay brother favored with ecstasies and visions OFM AC
1289 BD BENVENUTO OF RECANATI
FEW incidents marked the life of Bd Benvenuto Mareni. He was born at Recanati, a hill-town in the Marches of Ancona at a short distance from Loreto, and entered as a lay-brother amongst the Franciscan Conventuals of his native city. He was remarkable for his piety and for his humility, which made him always desirous of the lowliest offices. Often during Mass, and especially when he had received holy communion, he would fall into an ecstasy, his body at such times appearing to be completely insensible. From one of these trances he awoke to realize that it was long past the hour for him to begin to prepare the brethren’s meal. Hastily he made his way to the kitchen, where he was greeted by an angelic deputy who had been doing his work. All who partook of the repast that day agreed that they had never tasted better food. Bd Benvenuto had many other supernatural experiences and was, it is said, once permitted to hold the Infant Saviour in his arms.
The saintly friar died on May 5, 1289. Pope Pius VII confirmed his cultus
In the account which Fr Léon, Auréole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. ii, pp. 175—176, gives of this beatus he remarks that the annalists of the order have left few details of his life. This observation seems to be thoroughly borne out by an inspection of such chroniclers as Mazzara or Mark of Lisbon.
Born at Recanati (near Loreto), Italy; cultus confirmed by Pope Pius VII. Scion of the Mareni family, Benvenutus joined the Franciscans as a lay brother and was mostly employed in the kitchen, where he was constantly favored with ecstasies and visions (Benedictines).
1280 Blessed Nevolo of Faenza; He married and led a frivolous life until at the age of 24 he experienced a complete conversion. He became the first Franciscan tertiary and later enter the Camaldolese monastery at San Maglorio at Faenza as a lay-brother (Benedictines).  OSB Cam. Hermit (AC) Cultus approved in 1817. Nevolo was a shoemaker by trade.
1250 Blessed Alradus of Isenhagen knight who laid down his arms to become a lay-brother of the Cistercian abbey  OSB Cist. (PC)
(also known as Abrad, Araldus)
Alradus was a knight who laid down his arms to become a lay-brother of the Cistercian abbey of Isenhagen (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
1243 St. Hedwig Duchess widow LAY Cistercain patroness of Silesia
a region of eastern Europe. Also called Jadwiga in some lists, she died in a Cistercain convent, having taken vows. Hedwig was born in Andechs, Bavaria, Germany, the daughter of the Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia. She was the aunt of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. At the age of twelve, Hedwig was marrie to Duke Henry of Silesia, the head of the Polish Royal family. She bore him seven children, and they had a happy marriage. Henry founded a Cistercain convent at Trebnitz, as well as hospitals and monasteries. Henry died in 1238 and Hedwig became a Cistercain at Trebnitz. She had to leave her prayers to make peace among her offspring, and she buried a child who was killed fighting against the Mongols. She died in the convent on October 15.Many miracles were reported after her death, and she was canonized in 1266.

(1174?-1243) We have a right to expect noble deeds from a member of the nobility.  This does not always happen, to say the least.  But St. Hedwig (in Polish, Jadwiga) was not only of noble blood, she was outstanding for her noble deeds.
Hedwig was of Bavarian origin, the daughter of the Count of A-ndechs, and the aunt of St. Elizabeth of Hungary.  Having received her elementary training as a boarding student at the Monastery of Kitzingen, she was wedded at the age of twelve to the 18-year-old aristocrat Henry, who shortly fell heir to the dukedom of Silesia, an area then and today part of western Poland.
Duke Henry I and Duchess Hedwig proved to be ideally matched.  He was an earnest ruler and she an admirable counselor.  Through her influence Church life in the duchy was promoted.  On her recommendation, for instance, Henry, in one of his first official acts, founded the great Cistercian monastery of Trzebnica (Trebnitz) near Wroclaw (Breslau), the pioneer convent for woman in Silesia.  Through her persuasion also, other religious houses were founded or supported, and the new mendicant religious orders, the Dominicans and Franciscans, and other religious communities were encouraged to establish themselves in the country.  Henry opened a hospital in Wroclaw; she, a lazaretto for women lepers in Neumarkt.
Nor was this beneficence a mere show.  Both Hedwig and Henry were themselves devout Christians.  After the birth of their seventh child in 1208, the couple took a solemn vow of continence.  After that, she engaged even more actively in penitential practices; and it is said of him that he never shaved thereafter nor wore gold, silver or purple.
Hedwig's children caused her grief at one point.  In 1212, the duke divided his estates between their sons Henry and Conrad.  The sons, disappointed at the amount of land, declared war on each other.  Despite their mother's efforts at reconciliation, young Henry defeated Conrad; but the quarrel only further convinced Hedwig of the evils of the world's way.
Later on, her efforts as a peacemaker were more successful.  When her husband, engaged in armed conflict with Duke Conrad of Masovia, was taken captive, she followed him to his place of detention and persuaded him and Conrad to come to terms.  The agreement included a pledge to allow two of Hedwig's granddaughters to marry the sons of the Duke of Masovia.
Henry I died in 1238.  All mourned him.  But his widow's eyes were dry.  "Would you oppose the will of God?" she asked.  "Our lives are His.  Our will is whatever He is pleased to ordain, whether our own death or that of our friends."
After that, Duchess Jadwiga spent even more time than before at the Cistercian monastery of Trzebnica.  She followed its rule.  She wore the habit of its nuns.  But she did not take vows, since that would have deprived her of the right to administer her own property for the benefit of those in need.
A touching and typical story about her solicitude for the poor dates from this period.  Hedwig got acquainted with an impoverished old woman who did not know the Our Father, and was too slow of wit, it seems, even to learn it.  The duchess took on the task of teaching her the prayer.  For ten weeks she worked at it patiently.  Indeed, she had the woman sleep in her own room, so that they could spend every waking hour praying it together.  Finally this disciple was able to master the Lord's Prayer.
Jadwiga's son Henry had succeeded his father as Henry II of Silesia.  He held the dukedom only two years, for in 1240 he died in combat against the Tartar invaders.  His mother knew of his death three days before the tidings were brought to her.  Prophetically, she said to a companion, "He has gone from me like a bird in flight, and I shall never see him again in this life." When the news broke, it was she who comforted the others.  Miracles as well as prophecies were attributed to the Dowager Duchess during her lifetime.  Dying at Trzebnica on October 15, 1243, she was canonized in 1267.  She has continued to be one of Poland's favorite saints.
St. Hedwig, it seems to me, represents the ideal wife.  She was perfectly complementary to her husband in both private and public life.  He was the strong arm of the family; she was its heart.  --Father Robert F. McNamar
1240 Bd Peregrine of  Falerone; a lay-brother; In this humble condition he persevered to the end. Both before and after death he was famous for miracles.
Peregrine was a young man of good family who was studying with great success at Bologna when St Francis came to preach there in 1220. Both he and a fellow student, Bd Rizzerio, were deeply impressed, and desired to join the friars.  St Francis accepted them, but told Peregrine that, in spite of his learing, it was God's will that he should serve as a lay-brother. In this humble condition he persevered to the end. Both before and after death he was famous for miracles.
  The Friars Minor join this beatus in one feast with Bd Liberatus (below) and Bd SANTES of MONTE FABRI who, having killed a man in defending himself, became a lay-brother in the order.   After a most holy life he died in 1290 and miracles were wrought at his grave.
  The story of Peregrine is told in the documents which Sabatier calls the Speculum Vitae and the Actus b. Francisci et sociorum ejus (cap. 36).   See also Gentili, Saggio sopra l'ordine serafico, p. 27 seq.  and Leon, Aureole Seraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. i, pp. 527-529.  For Bd Santes, see Wadding, Annales Ord Minorum, vol. ix, pp. 94-96, and Leon, vol. iii
.
1239 St. Albert of Genoa Cistercian hermit; born in Genoa and entered the nearby Cistercian abbey of Sentri da Ponente as a lay brother. He lived as a hermit on the abbey grounds.
Also called Lambert. Albert was born in Genoa and entered the nearby Cistercian abbey of Sentri da Ponente as a lay brother. He lived as a hermit on the abbey grounds.
1226 St. Francis of Assisi Founder of the Franciscan Order, born at Assisi in Umbria, in 1181 or 1182 -- the exact year is uncertain; died there, 3 October, 1226.

His father, Pietro Bernardone, was a wealthy Assisian cloth merchant. Of his mother, Pica, little is known, but she is said to have belonged to a noble family of Provence. Francis was one of several children. The legend that he was born in a stable dates from the fifteenth century only, and appears to have originated in the desire of certain writers to make his life resemble that of Christ. At baptism the saint received the name of Giovanni, which his father afterwards altered to Francesco, through fondness it would seem for France, whither business had led him at the time of his son's birth. In any case, since the child was renamed in infancy, the change can hardly have had anything to do with his aptitude for learning French, as some have thought.

Francis received some elementary instruction from the priests of St. George's at Assisi, though he learned more perhaps in the school of the Troubadours, who were just then making for refinement in Italy. However this may be, he was not very studious, and his literary education remained incomplete. Although associated with his father in trade, he showed little liking for a merchant's career, and his parents seemed to have indulged his every whim. Thomas of Celano, his first biographer, speaks in very severe terms of Francis's youth. Certain it is that the saint's early life gave no presage of the golden years that were to come. No one loved pleasure more than Francis; he had a ready wit, sang merrily, delighted in fine clothes and showy display. Handsome, gay, gallant, and courteous, he soon became the prime favourite among the young nobles of Assisi, the foremost in every feat of arms, the leader of the civil revels, the very king of frolic. But even at this time Francis showed an instinctive sympathy with the poor, and though he spent money lavishly, it still flowed in such channels as to attest a princely magnanimity of spirit.

When about twenty, Francis went out with the townsmen to fight the Perugians in one of the petty skirmishes so frequent at that time between the rival cities. The Assisians were defeated on this occasion, and Francis, being among those taken prisoners, was held captive for more than a year in Perugia. A low fever which he there contracted appears to have turned his thoughts to the things of eternity; at least the emptiness of the life he had been leading came to him during that long illness. With returning health, however, Francis's eagerness after glory reawakened and his fancy wandered in search of victories; at length he resolved to embrace a military career, and circumstances seemed to favour his aspirations. A knight of Assisi was about to join "the gentle count", Walter of Brienne, who was then in arms in the Neapolitan States against the emperor, and Francis arranged to accompany him. His biographers tell us that the night before Francis set forth he had a strange dream, in which he saw a vast hall hung with armour all marked with the Cross. "These", said a voice, "are for you and your soldiers." "I know I shall be a great prince", exclaimed Francis exultingly, as he started for Apulia. But a second illness arrested his course at Spoleto. There, we are told, Francis had another dream in which the same voice bade him turn back to Assisi. He did so at once. This was in 1205.

Although Francis still joined at times in the noisy revels of his former comrades, his changed demeanour plainly showed that his heart was no longer with them; a yearning for the life of the spirit had already possessed it. His companions twitted Francis on his absent-mindedness and asked if he were minded to be married. "Yes", he replied, "I am about to take a wife of surpassing fairness." She was no other than Lady Poverty whom Dante and Giotto have wedded to his name, and whom even now he had begun to love. After a short period of uncertainty he began to seek in prayer and solitude the answer to his call; he had already given up his gay attire and wasteful ways. One day, while crossing the Umbrian plain on horseback, Francis unexpectedly drew near a poor leper. The sudden appearance of this repulsive object filled him with disgust and he instinctively retreated, but presently controlling his natural aversion he dismounted, embraced the unfortunate man, and gave him all the money he had. About the same time Francis made a pilgrimage to Rome. Pained at the miserly offerings he saw at the tomb of St. Peter, he emptied his purse thereon. Then, as if to put his fastidious nature to the test, he exchanged clothes with a tattered mendicant and stood for the rest of the day fasting among the horde of beggars at the door of the basilica.

Not long after his return to Assisi, whilst Francis was praying before an ancient crucifix in the forsaken wayside chapel of St. Damian's below the town, he heard a voice saying: "Go, Francis, and repair my house, which as you see is falling into ruin." Taking this behest literally, as referring to the ruinous church wherein he knelt, Francis went to his father's shop, impulsively bundled together a load of coloured drapery, and mounting his horse hastened to Foligno, then a mart of some importance, and there sold both horse and stuff to procure the money needful for the restoration of St. Damian's. When, however, the poor priest who officiated there refused to receive the gold thus gotten, Francis flung it from him disdainfully. The elder Bernardone, a most niggardly man, was incensed beyond measure at his son's conduct, and Francis, to avert his father's wrath, hid himself in a cave near St. Damian's for a whole month. When he emerged from this place of concealment and returned to the town, emaciated with hunger and squalid with dirt, Francis was followed by a hooting rabble, pelted with mud and stones, and otherwise mocked as a madman. Finally, he was dragged home by his father, beaten, bound, and locked in a dark closet.

Freed by his mother during Bernardone's absence, Francis returned at once to St. Damian's, where he found a shelter with the officiating priest, but he was soon cited before the city consuls by his father. The latter, not content with having recovered the scattered gold from St. Damian's, sought also to force his son to forego his inheritance. This Francis was only too eager to do; he declared, however, that since he had entered the service of God he was no longer under civil jurisdiction. Having therefore been taken before the bishop, Francis stripped himself of the very clothes he wore, and gave them to his father, saying: "Hitherto I have called you my father on earth; henceforth I desire to say only 'Our Father who art in Heaven.'" Then and there, as Dante sings, were solemnized Francis's nuptials with his beloved spouse, the Lady Poverty, under which name, in the mystical language afterwards so familiar to him, he comprehended the total surrender of all worldly goods, honours, and privileges. And now Francis wandered forth into the hills behind Assisi, improvising hymns of praise as he went. "I am the herald of the great King", he declared in answer to some robbers, who thereupon despoiled him of all he had and threw him scornfully in a snow drift. Naked and half frozen, Francis crawled to a neighbouring monastery and there worked for a time as a scullion. At Gubbio, whither he went next, Francis obtained from a friend the cloak, girdle, and staff of a pilgrim as an alms. Returning to Assisi, he traversed the city begging stones for the restoration of St. Damian's. These he carried to the old chapel, set in place himself, and so at length rebuilt it. In the same way Francis afterwards restored two other deserted chapels, St. Peter's, some distance from the city, and St. Mary of the Angels, in the plain below it, at a spot called the Porziuncola. Meantime he redoubled his zeal in works of charity, more especially in nursing the lepers.

On a certain morning in 1208, probably 24 February, Francis was hearing Mass in the chapel of St. Mary of the Angels, near which he had then built himself a hut; the Gospel of the day told how the disciples of Christ were to possess neither gold nor silver, nor scrip for their journey, nor two coats, nor shoes, nor a staff, and that they were to exhort sinners to repentance and announce the Kingdom of God. Francis took these words as if spoken directly to himself, and so soon as Mass was over threw away the poor fragment left him of the world's goods, his shoes, cloak, pilgrim staff, and empty wallet. At last he had found his vocation. Having obtained a coarse woolen tunic of "beast colour", the dress then worn by the poorest Umbrian peasants, and tied it round him with a knotted rope, Francis went forth at once exhorting the people of the country-side to penance, brotherly love, and peace. The Assisians had already ceased to scoff at Francis; they now paused in wonderment; his example even drew others to him. Bernard of Quintavalle, a magnate of the town, was the first to join Francis, and he was soon followed by Peter of Cattaneo, a well-known canon of the cathedral. In true spirit of religious enthusiasm, Francis repaired to the church of St. Nicholas and sought to learn God's will in their regard by thrice opening at random the book of the Gospels on the altar. Each time it opened at passages where Christ told His disciples to leave all things and follow Him. "This shall be our rule of life", exclaimed Francis, and led his companions to the public square, where they forthwith gave away all their belongings to the poor. After this they procured rough habits like that of Francis, and built themselves small huts near his at the Porziuncola. A few days later Giles, afterwards the great ecstatic and sayer of "good words", became the third follower of Francis. The little band divided and went about, two and two, making such an impression by their words and behaviour that before long several other disciples grouped themselves round Francis eager to share his poverty, among them being Sabatinus, vir bonus et justus, Moricus, who had belonged to the Crucigeri, John of Capella, who afterwards fell away, Philip "the Long", and four others of whom we know only the names. When the number of his companions had increased to eleven, Francis found it expedient to draw up a written rule for them. This first rule, as it is called, of the Friars Minor has not come down to us in its original form, but it appears to have been very short and simple, a mere adaptation of the Gospel precepts already selected by Francis for the guidance of his first companions, and which he desired to practice in all their perfection. When this rule was ready the Penitents of Assisi, as Francis and his followers styled themselves, set out for Rome to seek the approval of the Holy See, although as yet no such approbation was obligatory. There are differing accounts of Francis's reception by Innocent III. It seems, however, that Guido, Bishop of Assisi, who was then in Rome, commended Francis to Cardinal John of St. Paul, and that at the instance of the latter, the pope recalled the saint whose first overtures he had, as it appears, somewhat rudely rejected. Moreover, in site of the sinister predictions of others in the Sacred College, who regarded the mode of life proposed by Francis as unsafe and impracticable, Innocent, moved it is said by a dream in which he beheld the Poor Man of Assisi upholding the tottering Lateran, gave a verbal sanction to the rule submitted by Francis and granted the saint and his companions leave to preach repentance everywhere. Before leaving Rome they all received the ecclesiastical tonsure, Francis himself being ordained deacon later on.

After their return to Assisi, the Friars Minor -- for thus Francis had named his brethren, either after the minores, or lower classes, as some think, or as others believe, with reference to the Gospel (Matthew 25:40-45), and as a perpetual reminder of their humility -- found shelter in a deserted hut at Rivo Torto in the plain below the city, but were forced to abandon this poor abode by a rough peasant who drove in his ass upon them. About 1211 they obtained a permanent foothold near Assisi, through the generosity of the Benedictines of Monte Subasio, who gave them the little chapel of St. Mary of the Angels or the Porziuncola. Adjoining this humble sanctuary, already dear to Francis, the first Franciscan convent was formed by the erection of a few small huts or cells of wattle, straw, and mud, and enclosed by a hedge. From this settlement, which became the cradle of the Franciscan Order (Caput et Mater Ordinis) and the central spot in the life of St. Francis, the Friars Minor went forth two by two exhorting the people of the surrounding country. Like children "careless of the day", they wandered from place to place singing in their joy, and calling themselves the Lord's minstrels. The wide world was their cloister; sleeping in haylofts, grottos, or church porches, they toiled with the labourers in the fields, and when none gave them work they would beg. In a short while Francis and his companions gained an immense influence, and men of different grades of life and ways of thought flocked to the order. Among the new recruits made about this time by Francis were the famous Three Companions, who afterwards wrote his life, namely: Angelus Tancredi, a noble cavalier; Leo, the saint's secretary and confessor; and Rufinus, a cousin of St. Clare; besides Juniper, "the renowned jester of the Lord".

During the Lent of 1212, a new joy, great as it was unexpected, came to Francis. Clare, a young heiress of Assisi, moved by the saint's preaching at the church of St. George, sought him out, and begged to be allowed to embrace the new manner of life he had founded. By his advice, Clare, who was then but eighteen, secretly left her father's house on the night following Palm Sunday, and with two companions went to the Porziuncola, where the friars met her in procession, carrying lighted torches. Then Francis, having cut off her hair, clothed her in the Minorite habit and thus received her to a life of poverty, penance, and seclusion. Clare stayed provisionally with some Benedictine nuns near Assisi, until Francis could provide a suitable retreat for her, and for St. Agnes, her sister, and the other pious maidens who had joined her. He eventually established them at St. Damian's, in a dwelling adjoining the chapel he had rebuilt with his own hands, which was now given to the saint by the Benedictines as domicile for his spiritual daughters, and which thus became the first monastery of the Second Franciscan Order of Poor Ladies, now known as Poor Clares.

In the autumn of the same year (1212) Francis's burning desire for the conversion of the Saracens led him to embark for Syria, but having been shipwrecked on the coast of Slavonia, he had to return to Ancona. The following spring he devoted himself to evangelizing Central Italy. About this time (1213) Francis received from Count Orlando of Chiusi the mountain of La Verna, an isolated peak among the Tuscan Apennines, rising some 4000 feet above the valley of the Casentino, as a retreat, "especially favourable for contemplation", to which he might retire from time to time for prayer and rest. For Francis never altogether separated the contemplative from the active life, as the several hermitages associated with his memory, and the quaint regulations he wrote for those living in them bear witness. At one time, indeed, a strong desire to give himself wholly to a life of contemplation seems to have possessed the saint. During the next year (1214) Francis set out for Morocco, in another attempt to reach the infidels and, if needs be, to shed his blood for the Gospel, but while yet in Spain was overtaken by so severe an illness that he was compelled to turn back to Italy once more.

Authentic details are unfortunately lacking of Francis's journey to Spain and sojourn there. It probably took place in the winter of 1214-1215. After his return to Umbria he received several noble and learned men into his order, including his future biographer Thomas of Celano. The next eighteen months comprise, perhaps, the most obscure period of the saint's life. That he took part in the Lateran Council of 1215 may well be, but it is not certain; we know from Eccleston, however, that Francis was present at the death of Innocent III, which took place at Perugia, in July 1216. Shortly afterwards, i.e. very early in the pontificate of Honorius III, is placed the concession of the famous Porziuncola Indulgence. It is related that once, while Francis was praying at the Porziuncola, Christ appeared to him and offered him whatever favour he might desire. The salvation of souls was ever the burden of Francis's prayers, and wishing moreover, to make his beloved Porziuncola a sanctuary where many might be saved, he begged a plenary Indulgence for all who, having confessed their sins, should visit the little chapel. Our Lord acceded to this request on condition that the pope should ratify the Indulgence. Francis thereupon set out for Perugia, with Brother Masseo, to find Honorius III. The latter, notwithstanding some opposition from the Curia at such an unheard-of favour, granted the Indulgence, restricting it, however, to one day yearly. He subsequently fixed 2 August in perpetuity, as the day for gaining this Porziuncola Indulgence, commonly known in Italy as il perdono d'Assisi.

Such is the traditional account. The fact that there is no record of this Indulgence in either the papal or diocesan archives and no allusion to it in the earliest biographies of Francis or other contemporary documents has led some writers to reject the whole story. This argumentum ex silentio has, however, been met by M. Paul Sabatier, who in his critical edition of the "Tractatus de Indulgentia" of Fra Bartholi has adduced all the really credible evidence in its favour. But even those who regard the granting of this Indulgence as traditionally believed to be an established fact of history, admit that its early history is uncertain. (See PORTIUNCULA.)

The first general chapter of the Friars Minor was held in May, 1217, at Porziuncola, the order being divided into provinces, and an apportionment made of the Christian world into so many Franciscan missions. Tuscany, Lombardy, Provence, Spain, and Germany were assigned to five of Francis's principal followers; for himself the saint reserved France, and he actually set out for that kingdom, but on arriving at Florence, was dissuaded from going further by Cardinal Ugolino, who had been made protector of the order in 1216. He therefore sent in his stead Brother Pacificus, who in the world had been renowned as a poet, together with Brother Agnellus, who later on established the Friars Minor in England. Although success came indeed to Francis and his friars, with it came also opposition, and it was with a view to allaying any prejudices the Curia might have imbibed against their methods that Francis, at the instance of Cardinal Ugolino, went to Rome and preached before the pope and cardinals in the Lateran. This visit to the Eternal City, which took place 1217-18, was apparently the occasion of Francis's memorable meeting with St. Dominic. The year 1218 Francis devoted to missionary tours in Italy, which were a continual triumph for him. He usually preached out of doors, in the market-places, from church steps, from the walls of castle court-yards. Allured by the magic spell of his presence, admiring crowds, unused for the rest to anything like popular preaching in the vernacular, followed Francis from place to place hanging on his lips; church bells rang at his approach; processions of clergy and people advanced to meet him with music and singing; they brought the sick to him to bless and heal, and kissed the very ground on which he trod, and even sought to cut away pieces of his tunic. The extraordinary enthusiasm with which the saint was everywhere welcomed was equalled only by the immediate and visible result of his preaching. His exhortations of the people, for sermons they can hardly be called, short, homely, affectionate, and pathetic, touched even the hardest and most frivolous, and Francis became in sooth a very conqueror of souls. Thus it happened, on one occasion, while the saint was preaching at Camara, a small village near Assisi, that the whole congregation were so moved by his "words of spirit and life" that they presented themselves to him in a body and begged to be admitted into his order. It was to accede, so far as might be, to like requests that Francis devised his Third Order, as it is now called, of the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, which he intended as a sort of middle state between the world and the cloister for those who could not leave their home or desert their wonted avocations in order to enter either the First Order of Friars Minor or the Second Order of Poor Ladies. That Francis prescribed particular duties for these tertiaries is beyond question. They were not to carry arms, or take oaths, or engage in lawsuits, etc. It is also said that he drew up a formal rule for them, but it is clear that the rule, confirmed by Nicholas IV in 1289, does not, at least in the form in which it has come down to us, represent the original rule of the Brothers and Sisters of Penance. In any event, it is customary to assign 1221 as the year of the foundation of this third order, but the date is not certain.

At the second general chapter (May, 1219) Francis, bent on realizing his project of evangelizing the infidels, assigned a separate mission to each of his foremost disciples, himself selecting the seat of war between the crusaders and the Saracens. With eleven companions, including Brother Illuminato and Peter of Cattaneo, Francis set sail from Ancona on 21 June, for Saint-Jean d'Acre, and he was present at the siege and taking of Damietta. After preaching there to the assembled Christian forces, Francis fearlessly passed over to the infidel camp, where he was taken prisoner and led before the sultan. According to the testimony of Jacques de Vitry, who was with the crusaders at Damietta, the sultan received Francis with courtesy, but beyond obtaining a promise from this ruler of more indulgent treatment for the Christian captives, the saint's preaching seems to have effected little.

Before returning to Europe, the saint is believed to have visited Palestine and there obtained for the friars the foothold they still retain as guardians of the holy places. What is certain is that Francis was compelled to hasten back to Italy because of various troubles that had arisen there during his absence. News had reached him in the East that Matthew of Narni and Gregory of Naples, the two vicars-general whom he had left in charge of the order, had summoned a chapter which, among other innovations, sought to impose new fasts upon the friars, more severe than the rule required. Moreover, Cardinal Ugolino had conferred on the Poor Ladies a written rule which was practically that of the Benedictine nuns, and Brother Philip, whom Francis had charged with their interests, had accepted it. To make matters worse, John of Capella, one of the saint's first companions, had assembled a large number of lepers, both men and women, with a view to forming them into a new religious order, and had set out for Rome to seek approval for the rule he had drawn up for these unfortunates. Finally a rumour had been spread abroad that Francis was dead, so that when the saint returned to Italy with Brother Elias -- he appeared to have arrived at Venice in July, 1220 -- a general feeling of unrest prevailed among the friars.

Apart from these difficulties, the order was then passing through a period of transition. It had become evident that the simple, familiar, and unceremonious ways which had marked the Franciscan movement at its beginning were gradually disappearing, and that the heroic poverty practiced by Francis and his companions at the outset became less easy as the friars with amazing rapidity increased in number. And this Francis could not help seeing on his return. Cardinal Ugolino had already undertaken the task "of reconciling inspirations so unstudied and so free with an order of things they had outgrown." This remarkable man, who afterwards ascended the papal throne as Gregory IX, was deeply attached to Francis, whom he venerated as a saint and also, some writers tell us, managed as an enthusiast.

That Cardinal Ugolino had no small share in bringing Francis's lofty ideals "within range and compass" seems beyond dispute, and it is not difficult to recognize his hand in the important changes made in the organization of the order in the so-called Chapter of Mats. At this famous assembly, held at Porziuncola at Whitsuntide, 1220 or 1221 (there is seemingly much room for doubt as to the exact date and number of the early chapters), about 5000 friars are said to have been present, besides some 500 applicants for admission to the order. Huts of wattle and mud afforded shelter for this multitude. Francis had purposely made no provision for them, but the charity of the neighbouring towns supplied them with food, while knights and nobles waited upon them gladly. It was on this occasion that Francis, harassed no doubt and disheartened at the tendency betrayed by a large number of the friars to relax the rigours of the rule, according to the promptings of human prudence, and feeling, perhaps unfitted for a place which now called largely for organizing abilities, relinquished his position as general of the order in favour of Peter of Cattaneo. But the latter died in less than a year, being succeeded as vicar-general by the unhappy Brother Elias, who continued in that office until the death of Francis.

The saint, meanwhile, during the few years that remained in him, sought to impress on the friars by the silent teaching of personal example of what sort he would fain have them to be. Already, while passing through Bologna on his return from the East, Francis had refused to enter the convent there because he had heard it called the "House of the Friars" and because a studium had been instituted there. He moreover bade all the friars, even those who were ill, quit it at once, and it was only some time after, when Cardinal Ugolino had publicly declared the house to be his own property, that Francis suffered his brethren to re-enter it. Yet strong and definite as the saint's convictions were, and determinedly as his line was taken, he was never a slave to a theory in regard to the observances of poverty or anything else; about him indeed, there was nothing narrow or fanatical. As for his attitude towards study, Francis desiderated for his friars only such theological knowledge as was conformable to the mission of the order, which was before all else a mission of example. Hence he regarded the accumulation of books as being at variance with the poverty his friars professed, and he resisted the eager desire for mere book-learning, so prevalent in his time, in so far as it struck at the roots of that simplicity which entered so largely into the essence of his life and ideal and threatened to stifle the spirit of prayer, which he accounted preferable to all the rest.

In 1221, so some writers tell us, Francis drew up a new rule for the Friars Minor. Others regard this so-called Rule of 1221 not as a new rule, but as the first one which Innocent had orally approved; not, indeed, its original form, which we do not possess, but with such additions and modifications as it has suffered during the course of twelve years. However this may be, the composition called by some the Rule of 1221 is very unlike any conventional rule ever made. It was too lengthy and unprecise to become a formal rule, and two years later Francis retired to Fonte Colombo, a hermitage near Rieti, and rewrote the rule in more compendious form. This revised draft he entrusted to Brother Elias, who not long after declared he had lost it through negligence. Francis thereupon returned to the solitude of Fonte Colombo, and recast the rule on the same lines as before, its twenty-three chapters being reduced to twelve and some of its precepts being modified in certain details at the instance of Cardinal Ugolino. In this form the rule was solemnly approved by Honorius III, 29 November, 1223 (Litt. "Solet annuere"). This Second Rule, as it is usually called or Regula Bullata of the Friars Minor, is the one ever since professed throughout the First Order of St. Francis (see RULE OF SAINT FRANCIS). It is based on the three vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity, special stress however being laid on poverty, which Francis sought to make the special characteristic of his order, and which became the sign to be contradicted. This vow of absolute poverty in the first and second orders and the reconciliation of the religious with the secular state in the Third Order of Penance are the chief novelties introduced by Francis in monastic regulation.

It was during Christmastide of this year (1223) that the saint conceived the idea of celebrating the Nativity "in a new manner", by reproducing in a church at Greccio the praesepio of Bethlehem, and he has thus come to be regarded as having inaugurated the popular devotion of the Crib. Christmas appears indeed to have been the favourite feast of Francis, and he wished to persuade the emperor to make a special law that men should then provide well for the birds and the beasts, as well as for the poor, so that all might have occasion to rejoice in the Lord.

Early in August, 1224, Francis retired with three companions to "that rugged rock 'twixt Tiber and Arno", as Dante called La Verna, there to keep a forty days fast in preparation for Michaelmas. During this retreat the sufferings of Christ became more than ever the burden of his meditations; into few souls, perhaps, had the full meaning of the Passion so deeply entered. It was on or about the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (14 September) while praying on the mountainside, that he beheld the marvellous vision of the seraph, as a sequel of which there appeared on his body the visible marks of the five wounds of the Crucified which, says an early writer, had long since been impressed upon his heart. Brother Leo, who was with St. Francis when he received the stigmata, has left us in his note to the saint's autograph blessing, preserved at Assisi, a clear and simple account of the miracle, which for the rest is better attested than many another historical fact. The saint's right side is described as bearing on open wound which looked as if made by a lance, while through his hands and feet were black nails of flesh, the points of which were bent backward. After the reception of the stigmata, Francis suffered increasing pains throughout his frail body, already broken by continual mortification. For, condescending as the saint always was to the weaknesses of others, he was ever so unsparing towards himself that at the last he felt constrained to ask pardon of "Brother Ass", as he called his body, for having treated it so harshly. Worn out, moreover, as Francis now was by eighteen years of unremitting toil, his strength gave way completely, and at times his eyesight so far failed him that he was almost wholly blind.

During an access of anguish, Francis paid a last visit to St. Clare at St. Damian's, and it was in a little hut of reeds, made for him in the garden there, that the saint composed that "Canticle of the Sun", in which his poetic genius expands itself so gloriously. This was in September, 1225. Not long afterwards Francis, at the urgent instance of Brother Elias, underwent an unsuccessful operation for the eyes, at Rieti. He seems to have passed the winter 1225-26 at Siena, whither he had been taken for further medical treatment. In April, 1226, during an interval of improvement, Francis was moved to Cortona, and it is believed to have been while resting at the hermitage of the Celle there, that the saint dictated his testament, which he describes as a "reminder, a warning, and an exhortation". In this touching document Francis, writing from the fullness of his heart, urges anew with the simple eloquence, the few, but clearly defined, principles that were to guide his followers, implicit obedience to superiors as holding the place of God, literal observance of the rule "without gloss", especially as regards poverty, and the duty of manual labor, being solemnly enjoined on all the friars.

Meanwhile alarming dropsical symptoms had developed, and it was in a dying condition that Francis set out for Assisi. A roundabout route was taken by the little caravan that escorted him, for it was feared to follow the direct road lest the saucy Perugians should attempt to carry Francis off by force so that he might die in their city, which would thus enter into possession of his coveted relics. It was therefore under a strong guard that Francis, in July, 1226, was finally borne in safety to the bishop's palace in his native city amid the enthusiastic rejoicings of the entire populace. In the early autumn Francis, feeling the hand of death upon him, was carried to his beloved Porziuncola, that he might breathe his last sigh where his vocation had been revealed to him and whence his order had struggled into sight. On the way thither he asked to be set down, and with painful effort he invoked a beautiful blessing on Assisi, which, however, his eyes could no longer discern. The saint's last days were passed at the Porziuncola in a tiny hut, near the chapel, that served as an infirmary. The arrival there about this time of the Lady Jacoba of Settesoli, who had come with her two sons and a great retinue to bid Francis farewell, caused some consternation, since women were forbidden to enter the friary. But Francis in his tender gratitude to this Roman noblewoman, made an exception in her favour, and "Brother Jacoba", as Francis had named her on account of her fortitude, remained to the last.

On the eve of his death, the saint, in imitation of his Divine Master, had bread brought to him and broken. This he distributed among those present, blessing Bernard of Quintaville, his first companion, Elias, his vicar, and all the others in order. "I have done my part," he said next, "may Christ teach you to do yours." Then wishing to give a last token of detachment and to show he no longer had anything in common with the world, Francis removed his poor habit and lay down on the bare ground, covered with a borrowed cloth, rejoicing that he was able to keep faith with his Lady Poverty to the end. After a while he asked to have read to him the Passion according to St. John, and then in faltering tones he himself intoned Psalm 141. At the concluding verse, "Bring my soul out of prison", Francis was led away from earth by "Sister Death", in whose praise he had shortly before added a new strophe to his "Canticle of the Sun". It was Saturday evening, 3 October, 1226, Francis being then in the forty-fifth year of his age, and the twentieth from his perfect conversion to Christ.

The saint had, in his humility, it is said, expressed a wish to be buried on the Colle d'Inferno, a despised hill without Assisi, where criminals were executed. However this may be, his body was, on 4 October, borne in triumphant procession to the city, a halt being made at St. Damian's, that St. Clare and her companions might venerate the sacred stigmata now visible to all, and it was placed provisionally in the church of St. George (now within the enclosure of the monastery of St. Clare), where the saint had learned to read and had first preached. Many miracles are recorded to have taken place at his tomb. Francis was canonized at St. George's by Gregory IX, 16 July, 1228. On that day following the pope laid the first stone of the great double church of St. Francis, erected in honour of the new saint, and thither on 25 May, 1230, Francis's remains were secretly transferred by Brother Elias and buried far down under the high altar in the lower church. Here, after lying hidden for six centuries, like that of St. Clare's, Francis's coffin was found, 12 December, 1818, as a result of a toilsome search lasting fifty-two nights. This discovery of the saint's body is commemorated in the order by a special office on 12 December, and that of his translation by another on 25 May. His feast is kept throughout the Church on 4 October, and the impression of the stigmata on his body is celebrated on 17 September.

It has been said with pardonable warmth that Francis entered into glory in his lifetime, and that he is the one saint whom all succeeding generations have agreed in canonizing. Certain it is that those also who care little about the order he founded, and who have but scant sympathy with the Church to which he ever gave his devout allegiance, even those who know that Christianity to be Divine, find themselves, instinctively as it were, looking across the ages for guidance to the wonderful Umbrian Poverello, and invoking his name in grateful remembrance. This unique position Francis doubtless owes in no small measure to his singularly lovable and winsome personality. Few saints ever exhaled "the good odour of Christ" to such a degree as he. There was about Francis, moreover, a chivalry and a poetry which gave to his other-worldliness a quite romantic charm and beauty. Other saints have seemed entirely dead to the world around them, but Francis was ever thoroughly in touch with the spirit of the age. He delighted in the songs of Provence, rejoiced in the new-born freedom of his native city, and cherished what Dante calls the pleasant sound of his dear land. And this exquisite human element in Francis's character was the key to that far-reaching, all-embracing sympathy, which may be almost called his characteristic gift. In his heart, as an old chronicler puts it, the whole world found refuge, the poor, the sick and the fallen being the objects of his solicitude in a more special manner.

Heedless as Francis ever was of the world's judgments in his own regard, it was always his constant care to respect the opinions of all and to wound the feelings of none. Wherefore he admonishes the friars to use only low and mean tables, so that "if a beggar were to come to sit down near them he might believe that he was but with his equals and need not blush on account of his poverty." One night, we are told, the friary was aroused by the cry "I am dying." "Who are you", exclaimed Francis arising, "and why are dying?" "I am dying of hunger", answered the voice of one who had been too prone to fasting. Whereupon Francis had a table laid out and sat down beside the famished friar, and lest the latter might be ashamed to eat alone, ordered all the other brethren to join in the repast. Francis's devotedness in consoling the afflicted made him so condescending that he shrank not from abiding with the lepers in their loathly lazar-houses and from eating with them out of the same platter.

But above all it is his dealings with the erring that reveal the truly Christian spirit of his charity. "Saintlier than any of the saint", writes Celano, "among sinners he was as one of themselves". Writing to a certain minister in the order, Francis says: "Should there be a brother anywhere in the world who has sinned, no matter how great soever his fault may be, let him not go away after he has once seen thy face without showing pity towards him; and if he seek not mercy, ask him if he does not desire it. And by this I will know if you love God and me." Again, to medieval notions of justice the evil-doer was beyond the law and there was no need to keep faith with him. But according to Francis, not only was justice due even to evil-doers, but justice must be preceded by courtesy as by a herald. Courtesy, indeed, in the saint's quaint concept, was the younger sister of charity and one of the qualities of God Himself, Who "of His courtesy", he declares, "gives His sun and His rain to the just and the unjust". This habit of courtesy Francis ever sought to enjoin on his disciples. "Whoever may come to us", he writes, "whether a friend or a foe, a thief or a robber, let him be kindly received", and the feast which he spread for the starving brigands in the forest at Monte Casale sufficed to show that "as he taught so he wrought".

The very animals found in Francis a tender friend and protector; thus we find him pleading with the people of Gubbio to feed the fierce wolf that had ravished their flocks, because through hunger "Brother Wolf" had done this wrong. And the early legends have left us many an idyllic picture of how beasts and birds alike susceptible to the charm of Francis's gentle ways, entered into loving companionship with him; how the hunted leveret sought to attract his notice; how the half-frozen bees crawled towards him in the winter to be fed; how the wild falcon fluttered around him; how the nightingale sang with him in sweetest content in the ilex grove at the Carceri, and how his "little brethren the birds" listened so devoutly to his sermon by the roadside near Bevagna that Francis chided himself for not having thought of preaching to them before. Francis's love of nature also stands out in bold relief in the world he moved in. He delighted to commune with the wild flowers, the crystal spring, and the friendly fire, and to greet the sun as it rose upon the fair Umbrian vale. In this respect, indeed, St. Francis's "gift of sympathy" seems to have been wider even than St. Paul's, for we find no evidence in the great Apostle of a love for nature or for animals.

Hardly less engaging than his boundless sense of fellow-feeling was Francis's downright sincerity and artless simplicity. "Dearly beloved," he once began a sermon following upon a severe illness, "I have to confess to God and you that during this Lent I have eaten cakes made with lard." And when the guardian insisted for the sake of warmth upon Francis having a fox skin sewn under his worn-out tunic, the saint consented only upon condition that another skin of the same size be sewn outside. For it was his singular study never to hide from men that which known to God. "What a man is in the sight of God," he was wont to repeat, "so much he is and no more" -- a saying which passed into the "Imitation", and has been often quoted.

Another winning trait of Francis which inspires the deepest affection was his unswerving directness of purpose and unfaltering following after an ideal. "His dearest desire so long as he lived", Celano tells us, "was ever to seek among wise and simple, perfect and imperfect, the means to walk in the way of truth." To Francis love was the truest of all truths; hence his deep sense of personal responsibility towards his fellows. The love of Christ and Him Crucified permeated the whole life and character of Francis, and he placed the chief hope of redemption and redress for a suffering humanity in the literal imitation of his Divine Master. The saint imitated the example of Christ as literally as it was in him to do so; barefoot, and in absolute poverty, he proclaimed the reign of love. This heroic imitation of Christ's poverty was perhaps the distinctive mark of Francis's vocation, and he was undoubtedly, as Bossuet expresses it, the most ardent, enthusiastic, and desperate lover of poverty the world has yet seen. After money Francis most detested discord and divisions. Peace, therefore, became his watchword, and the pathetic reconciliation he effected in his last days between the Bishop and Potesta of Assisi is bit one instance out of many of his power to quell the storms of passion and restore tranquility to hearts torn asunder by civil strife. The duty of a servant of God, Francis declared, was to lift up the hearts of men and move them to spiritual gladness. Hence it was not "from monastic stalls or with the careful irresponsibility of the enclosed student" that the saint and his followers addressed the people; "they dwelt among them and grappled with the evils of the system under which the people groaned". They worked in return for their fare, doing for the lowest the most menial labour, and speaking to the poorest words of hope such as the world had not heard for many a day. In this wise Francis bridged the chasm between an aristocratic clergy and the common people, and though he taught no new doctrine, he so far repopularized the old one given on the Mount that the Gospel took on a new life and called forth a new love.

Such in briefest outline are some of the salient features which render the figure of Francis one of such supreme attraction that all manner of men feel themselves drawn towards him, with a sense of personal attachment. Few, however, of those who feel the charm of Francis's personality may follow the saint to his lonely height of rapt communion with God. For, however engaging a "minstrel of the Lord", Francis was none the less a profound mystic in the truest sense of the word. The whole world was to him one luminous ladder, mounting upon the rungs of which he approached and beheld God. It is very misleading, however, to portray Francis as living "at a height where dogma ceases to exist", and still further from the truth to represent the trend of his teaching as one in which orthodoxy is made subservient to "humanitarianism". A very cursory inquiry into Francis's religious belief suffices to show that it embraced the entire Catholic dogma, nothing more or less. If then the saint's sermons were on the whole moral rather than doctrinal, it was less because he preached to meet the wants of his day, and those whom he addressed had not strayed from dogmatic truth; they were still "hearers", if not "doers", of the Word. For this reason Francis set aside all questions more theoretical than practical, and returned to the Gospel.

Again, to see in Francis only the loving friend of all God's creatures, the joyous singer of nature, is to overlook altogether that aspect of his work which is the explanation of all the rest -- its supernatural side. Few lives have been more wholly imbued with the supernatural, as even Renan admits. Nowhere, perhaps, can there be found a keener insight into the innermost world of spirit, yet so closely were the supernatural and the natural blended in Francis, that his very asceticism was often clothed in the guide of romance, as witness his wooing the Lady Poverty, in a sense that almost ceased to be figurative. For Francis's singularly vivid imagination was impregnate with the imagery of the chanson de geste, and owing to his markedly dramatic tendency, he delighted in suiting his action to his thought. So, too, the saint's native turn for the picturesque led him to unite religion and nature. He found in all created things, however trivial, some reflection of the Divine perfection, and he loved to admire in them the beauty, power, wisdom, and goodness of their Creator. And so it came to pass that he saw sermons even in stones, and good in everything.

Moreover, Francis's simple, childlike nature fastened on the thought, that if all are from one Father then all are real kin. Hence his custom of claiming brotherhood with all manner of animate and inanimate objects. The personification, therefore, of the elements in the "Canticle of the Sun" is something more than a mere literary figure. Francis's love of creatures was not simply the offspring of a soft or sentimental disposition; it arose rather from that deep and abiding sense of the presence of God, which underlay all he said and did. Even so, Francis's habitual cheerfulness was not that of a careless nature, or of one untouched by sorrow. None witnessed Francis's hidden struggles, his long agonies of tears, or his secret wrestlings in prayer. And if we meet him making dumb-show of music, by playing a couple of sticks like a violin to give vent to his glee, we also find him heart-sore with foreboding at the dire dissensions in the order which threatened to make shipwreck of his ideal. Nor were temptations or other weakening maladies of the soul wanting to the saint at any time.

Francis's lightsomeness had its source in that entire surrender of everything present and passing, in which he had found the interior liberty of the children of God; it drew its strength from his intimate union with Jesus in the Holy Communion. The mystery of the Holy Eucharist, being an extension of the Passion, held a preponderant place in the life of Francis, and he had nothing more at heart than all that concerned the cultus of the Blessed Sacrament. Hence we not only hear of Francis conjuring the clergy to show befitting respect for everything connected with the Sacrifice of the Mass, but we also see him sweeping out poor churches, questing sacred vessels for them, and providing them with altar-breads made by himself. So great, indeed, was Francis's reverence for the priesthood, because of its relation to the Adorable Sacrament, that in his humility he never dared to aspire to that dignity.

Humility was, no doubt, the saint's ruling virtue. The idol of an enthusiastic popular devotion, he ever truly believed himself less than the least. Equally admirable was Francis's prompt and docile obedience to the voice of grace within him, even in the early days of his ill-defined ambition, when the spirit of interpretation failed him. Later on, the saint, with as clear as a sense of his message as any prophet ever had, yielded ungrudging submission to what constituted ecclesiastical authority. No reformer, moreover, was ever, less aggressive than Francis. His apostolate embodied the very noblest spirit of reform; he strove to correct abuses by holding up an ideal. He stretched out his arms in yearning towards those who longed for the "better gifts". The others he left alone.

And thus, without strife or schism, God's Poor Little Man of Assisi became the means of renewing the youth of the Church and of imitating the most potent and popular religious movement since the beginnings of Christianity. No doubt this movement had its social as well as its religious side. That the Third Order of St. Francis went far towards re-Christianizing medieval society is a matter of history. However, Francis's foremost aim was a religious one. To rekindle the love of God in the world and reanimate the life of the spirit in the hearts of men -- such was his mission. But because St. Francis sought first the Kingdom of God and His justice, many other things were added unto him. And his own exquisite Franciscan spirit, as it is called, passing out into the wide world, became an abiding source of inspiration. Perhaps it savours of exaggeration to say, as has been said, that "all the threads of civilization in the subsequent centuries seem to hark back to Francis", and that since his day "the character of the whole Roman Catholic Church is visibly Umbrian".

It would be difficult, none the less, to overestimate the effect produced by Francis upon the mind of his time, or the quickening power he wielded on the generations which have succeeded him. To mention two aspects only of his all-pervading influence, Francis must surely be reckoned among those to whom the world of art and letters is deeply indebted. Prose, as Arnold observes, could not satisfy the saint's ardent soul, so he made poetry. He was, indeed, too little versed in the laws of composition to advance far in that direction. But his was the first cry of a nascent poetry which found its highest expression in the "Divine Comedy"; wherefore Francis has been styled the precursor of Dante. What the saint did was to teach a people "accustomed to the artificial versification of courtly Latin and Provencal poets, the use of their native tongue in simple spontaneous hymns, which became even more popular with the Laudi and Cantici of his poet-follower Jacopone of Todi". In so far, moreover, as Francis's repraesentatio, as Salimbene calls it, of the stable at Bethlehem is the first mystery-play we hear of in Italy, he is said to have borne a part in the revival of the drama. However this may be, if Francis's love of song called forth the beginnings of Italian verse, his life no less brought about the birth of Italian art. His story, says Ruskin, became a passionate tradition painted everywhere with delight. Full of colour, dramatic possibilities, and human interest, the early Franciscan legend afforded the most popular material for painters since the life of Christ. No sooner, indeed did Francis's figure make an appearance in art than it became at once a favourite subject, especially with the mystical Umbrian School. So true is this that it has been said we might by following his familiar figure "construct a history of Christian art, from the predecessors of Cimabue down to Guido Reni, Rubens, and Van Dyck".

Probably the oldest likeness of Francis that has come down to us is that preserved in the Sacro Speco at Subiaco. It is said that it was painted by a Benedictine monk during the saint's visit there, which may have been in 1218. The absence of the stigmata, halo, and title of saint in this fresco form its chief claim to be considered a contemporary picture; it is not, however, a real portrait in the modern sense of the word, and we are dependent for the traditional presentment of Francis rather on artists' ideals, like the Della Robbia statue at the Porziuncola, which is surely the saint's vera effigies, as no Byzantine so-called portrait can ever be, and the graphic description of Francis given by Celano (Vita Prima, c. lxxxiii). Of less than middle height, we are told, and frail in form, Francis had a long yet cheerful face and soft but strong voice, small brilliant black eyes, dark brown hair, and a sparse beard. His person was in no way imposing, yet there was about the saint a delicacy, grace, and distinction which made him most attractive.

The literary materials for the history of St. Francis are more than usually copious and authentic. There are indeed few if any medieval lives more thoroughly documented. We have in the first place the saint's own writings. These are not voluminous and were never written with a view to setting forth his ideas systematically, yet they bear the stamp of his personality and are marked by the same unvarying features of his preaching. A few leading thoughts taken "from the words of the Lord" seemed to him all sufficing, and these he repeats again and again, adapting them to the needs of the different persons whom he addresses. Short, simple, and informal, Francis's writings breathe the unstudied love of the Gospel and enforce the same practical morality, while they abound in allegories and personification and reveal an intimate interweaving of Biblical phraseology.

Not all the saint's writings have come down to us, and not a few of these formerly attributed to him are now with greater likelihood ascribed to others. The extant and authentic opuscula of Francis comprise, besides the rule of the Friars Minor and some fragments of the other Seraphic legislation, several letters, including one addressed "to all the Christians who dwell in the whole world," a series of spiritual counsels addressed to his disciples, the "Laudes Creaturarum" or "Canticle of the Sun", and some lesser praises, an Office of the Passion compiled for his own use, and few other orisons which show us Francis even as Celano saw him, "not so much a man's praying as prayer itself".

In addition to the saint's writings the sources of the history of Francis include a number of early papal bulls and some other diplomatic documents, as they are called, bearing upon his life and work. Then come the biographies properly so called. These include the lives written 1229-1247 by Thomas of Celano, one of Francis's followers; a joint narrative of his life compiled by Leo, Rufinus, and Angelus, intimate companions of the saint, in 1246; and the celebrated legend of St. Bonaventure, which appeared about 1263; besides a somewhat more polemic legend called the "Speculum Perfectionis", attributed to Brother Leo, the state of which is a matter of controversy. There are also several important thirteenth-century chronicles of the order, like those of Jordan, Eccleston, and Bernard of Besse, and not a few later works, such as the "Chronica XXIV. Generalium" and the "Liber de Conformitate", which are in some sort a continuation of them. It is upon these works that all the later biographies of Francis's life are based.

Recent years have witnessed a truly remarkable upgrowth of interest in the life and work of St. Francis, more especially among non-Catholics, and Assisi has become in consequence the goal of a new race of pilgrims. This interest, for the most part literary and academic, is centered mainly in the study of the primitive documents relating to the saint's history and the beginnings of the Franciscan Order. Although inaugurated some years earlier, this movement received its greatest impulse from the publication in 1894 of Paul Sabatier's "Vie de S. François", a work which was almost simultaneously crowned by the French Academy and place upon the Index. In spite of the author's entire lack of sympathy with the saint's religious standpoint, his biography of Francis bespeaks vast erudition, deep research, and rare critical insight, and it has opened up a new era in the study of Franciscan resources. To further this study an International Society of Franciscan Studies was founded at Assisi in 1902, the aim of which is to collect a complete library of works on Franciscan history and to compile a catalogue of scattered Franciscan manuscripts; several periodicals, devoted to Franciscan documents and discussions exclusively, have moreover been established in different countries. Although a large literature has grown up around the figure of the Poverello within a short time, nothing new of essential value has been added to what was already known of the saint. The energetic research work of recent years has resulted in the recovery of several important early texts, and has called forth many really fine critical studies dealing with the sources, but the most welcome feature of the modern interest in Franciscan origins has been the careful re-editing and translating of Francis's own writings and of nearly all the contemporary manuscript authorities bearing on his life. Not a few of the controverted questions connected therewith are of considerable import, even to those not especially students of the Franciscan legend, but they could not be made intelligible within the limits of the present article. It must suffice, moreover, to indicate only some of the chief works on the life of St. Francis.

The writings of St. Francis have been published in "Opuscula S. P. Francisci Assisiensis" (Quaracchi, 1904); Böhmer, "Analekten zur Geschichte des Franciscus von Assisi" (Tübingen, 1904); U. d'Alençon, "Les Opuscules de S. François d' Assise" (Paris, 1905); Robinson, "The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi" (Philadelphia, 1906).
1205 Blessed William of Fenoli Carthusian lay-brother many miracles both during his life and after his death
at the charterhouse Casularum in Lombardy  O. Cart. (AC)
1205 BD WILLIAM OF FENOLI many miracles both during his life and after his death
INFORMATION is lacking about this holy Carthusian lay-brother, whose cultus was confirmed by Pope Pius IX in 1860. It is known that he belonged to the charter-house Casularum in Lombardy and as he was in charge of the external business of the monastery his sanctity was a matter of more public knowledge than is usually the case among Carthusian monks. “He was untutored in theology, in philosophy and in worldly knowledge, but in spiritual life and good works he was most learned. His holiness was made known by very many miracles both during his life and after his death.” Accounts of some of the miracles attributed to him have been pre­served. One preposterous marvel is stated to have happened during his lifetime. When returning from his field work leading a mule William was attacked by robbers. Having no weapon to defend himself, he seized the leg of the mule, pulled it out of its socket, and brandishing it against his assailants, put them all to flight. This done he restored the leg to its place and the mule went on uninjured. It seems to be certain that in still existing paintings Bd William is represented with the leg of a mule or donkey in his hand.

An account of this good brother is given both in Le Couteulx, Annales Ordinis Cartusiensis vol. iii, pp. 293—302 and in the Analecta Juris Pontificii, vol. v, 1861, cc. 129-134. In both, the greater part of the space is taken up with attestations of miracles alleged to have been worked at the intercession of Bd William many centuries after his death.

cultus confirmed in 1860. William was a Carthusian lay-brother at the charterhouse Casularum in Lombardy (Benedictines).
1135  St. Leopold Known for his piety and charity lay saint  founded three monasteries
born Melk, Austria 1073  He was educated by Bishop Altman of Passau, and at the age of twenty-three, he succeeded his father as military governor of Austria. In 1106, Leopold married Emperor Henry IV's daughter, who bore him eighteen children, eleven of whom survived childhood. Known for his piety and charity, in 1106 he also founded three monasteries.

In 1125, Leopold refused to become Emperor upon the death of his brother-in-law, Henry V. He died in 1135 at one of the monasteries he had founded. He was canonized by Pope Innocent VIII in 1486.

When one carries out the duties of one's state of life with fairness, justice, and virtue, as did Leopold, many people are won over not only to a peaceful political scene, but also to a life of faith and virtue
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1126 Blessed Conrad of Seldenbüren founded and endowed Engelberg Abbey at Unterwalden Switzerland Benedictine lay-brother martyr OSB M (AC)

Died at Zürich, Switzerland, 1126. Conrad was born into the royal house of Seldenbüren. He founded and endowed Engelberg Abbey at Unterwalden, Switzerland, where he was professed as a Benedictine lay-brother. Conrad is venerated as a martyr because he was killed during a trip to Zurich to defend the rights of the abbey (Attwater2, Benedictines)
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1111 St. Berthold Benedictine lay brother service of the nuns
An Anglo-Saxon by descent, Berthold was born in Parma, Italy, where his parents resided. They had left England because of the Norman conquest. Berthold spent his entire life in the service of the nuns of St. Alexander Convent in Parma
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1073 Saint John Gaulbert, Abbot entered the Order of St. Benedict laid the foundation of the Order of Vallombrosa founded several monasteries, reformed others eradicated simony no indigent person sent away without alms  dedicated to poverty and humility. He never became a priest, in fact, he declined even to receive minor orders  known for his wisdom, miracles, and prophecies
In monastério Passiniáno, prope Floréntiam, sancti Joánnis Gualbérti Abbátis, qui fuit Institútor Ordinis Vallis Umbrósæ.
    In the monastery of Passignano, near Florence, Abbot St. John Gualbert, founder of the Order of Vallombrosa.
 The city of Florence gave to the world Saint John Gaulbert. Although he enjoyed the benefits of an early Christian education, his youthful heart was soon attracted to the vanities of the world. A painful incident was the means God made use of, to open his eyes. Hugo, his only brother, had been murdered and St. John had resolved to avenge his death. On a certain Good Friday he met his enemy in a place where there was no escape for the latter. St. John drew his sword and would have killed his adversary on the spot, but the latter threw himself on his knees begging him by the passion of Jesus Christ to spare his life. St. John was touched at the words, embraced his enemy, entered a church and prayed with many tears for the pardon of his sins.
He now entered the Order of St. Benedict, in which he made such great progress in virtue that after the death of the Abbot, the monks wished to impose this dignity upon him, but the Saint absolutely refused to accept it. Sometime later, he left the monastery with one companion in quest of greater solitude.
Having visited the hermitage of Camaldoli, he finally settled at Valle Ombrosa in Tuscany. Together with two hermits whom he found there, he and his companions built a small monastery, observing the primitive rule of St. Benedict. Thus was laid the foundation of the Order of Vallombrosa. The humility of the saint was such that he would never be promoted, even to Minor Orders. His charity for the poor caused him to make a rule that no indigent person should be sent away without an alms. He founded several monasteries, reformed others, and succeeded in eradicating the vice of simony from the part of the country where he lived. He died on July 12, 1073, at about 80 years of age.

ST JOHN GUALBERT was born at Florence towards the end of the tenth  century, the son of a nobleman.  Hugh, his elder and only brother, was murdered by a man reputed to be his friend, and John conceived it to be his duty to avenge his brother.   Under the influence of his resentment, heightened by the sorrow and persuasion of his father, he listened to the voice neither of reason nor of religion.  The motive of revenge is criminal if it be present even in demanding the just punishment of an offender; much more if it push men to vindicate their own cause themselves by returning injury for injury and by wreaking wrongson those that inflict them.   But John was persuaded that his honour in the world required that he should not suffer so flagrant an outrage to pass unpunished.  One day he came upon the murderer in so narrow a passage that it was impossible for either to avoid the other.  John drew his sword and advanced upon the defenceless man, who fell upon his knees, his arms crossed on his breast.   The remembrance
of Christ, who prayed for His murderers on the cross seized the heart of the young man; he put up his sword, embraced his enemy, and they parted in peace.
  John went on his road till he came to the monastery of San Miniato, where, going into the church, he offered up his prayers before a crucifix.   And as he continued his prayer the crucifix miraculously bowed its head, as it were to give a token how acceptable were the sacrifice of his revenge and his sincere repentance.  Divine grace so took possession of his heart that he went to the abbot and asked to be admitted to the religious habit.  The abbot was apprehensive of his father's displeasure; but after a few days John cut off his hair himself, and put on a babit which he borrowed.
    John devoted himself to his new state in the dispositions of a true penitent, so that he became entirely a new man.  When the abbot of San Miniato died John, apparently on account of a scandal concerning the abbatial succession, left the house with one companion in quest of a closer solitude.  He paid a visit to the hermitage of Camaldoli, and while there decided to make a new foundation of his own.     This he did in a pleasant place near Fiesole, called Vallis Umbrosa, where with his companions he built a small monastery of timber and mud walls and formed a little community serving God according to the primitive austere rule and spirit of St Benedict.  The abbess of Saint Ellero gave them ground on which to build.  The saint added to the original Rule of St Benedict certain constitutions, one of which was the provision of conversi, lay-brothers, and the abolition of manual work for choir-monks.   Vallombrosa was perhaps the first monastery in which the institution of conversi appeared.
The life of this congregation was one of great austerity, and for some time it flourished and established other houses;
but though it still exists it now numbers but few monks.

  St John Gualbert feared no less the danger of too great lenience and forbearance than of harshness, and was a true imitator of both the mildness and zeal of Moses, whom the Holy Ghost calls "a man exceeding meek above all men that dwelt upon earth ".    His humbleness would not allow him to receive even minor orders; he was zealous for poverty, and would not allow any of his monasteries to be built
on a costly or imposing scale, thinking such edifices not agreeable to a spirit of poverty.  His kindness to the poor was not less active than his love for poverty.
He would have no poor person sent from his door without an alms, and often emptied the stores of his monasteries in relieving them; in a famine he supplied, sometimes by miracle, the multitudes of people that flocked to Rozzuolo.
       The saint was endowed with the spirit of prophecy, and by his prayers restored many sick persons to health.  Pope St Leo IX went to Passignano on purpose to converse with him and Stephen X had the greatest esteem for him.   Pope Alexander II testified that the whole country where he lived owed to his zeal the extinction of simony, for John's enthusiasm for the purely contemplative life did not prevent him and his monks from taking an active part in putting down that disorder, which was rife at the time.
  St John Gualbert died on July 12, 1073, the only certain date in his history, being eighty or more years old.     Pope Celestine III enrolled him among the saints in 1193.

  The materials for St John's life are in a sense abundant: see the long list in BHL., nn. 4397-4406.   Still we do not get from them much significant detail. The earliest is that by Bd Andrew of Strumi (d. 1097): unfortunately the only manuscript is mutilated.  Another biography, by Bd Atto, must have been written within half a century of the saint's death.   Perhaps another narrative belonging to the twelfth century, which was edited by Davidsohn in his Forschungen sur alteren Geschichte von Florenz (1896), is not the least valuable of our available sources.  Curiously enough this last omits all reference to the pardon accorded to the murderer, from which incident St John's conversion is said to date.  The two lives first named are printed in the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. iii, and that by Andrew of Strunii has been re-edited in the folio continuation of MGH., Scriptores, vol. xxx, part 2 (1929).  There is a popular sketch in Italian by D. F. Tarani (1903), and see Lugano, L'Italia Benedettina (1929). pp. 307-356.

John Gualbert (Gualberto), OSB Vall. Abbot (RM) Born in Florence, Tuscany, Italy, c. 993; died at Passignano (near Florence) in 1073; canonized in 1193.
    Because of his birth into the noble Visdomini family, John Gualbert had no more thought of following a life of austerity and humility than did his noble Florentine friends and companions. Bred to be a soldier, he spent his time in worldly amusements. Indeed, so far from intending to follow the precepts of Our Lord, his one over-riding ambition was to avenge the murder of his elder brother, Hugh. To him this was a matter of justice and, more importantly, a matter of honor.
   It happened that one Good Friday as he was riding through a narrow pass on his way to Florence, Gualbert came face to face with the man he had been seeking. The man was alone and there was no means of escape. Gualbert drew his sword and moved forward, but at his approach the murderer, in a gesture not so much of supplication as of despair, fell to his knees, threw out his arms and commended his soul to God.  Gualbert hesitated, and as he looked down on his victim he was suddenly reminded of the image of Christ suffering on the Cross and of the forgiveness which Our Lord had asked for those who murdered him. Sheathing his sword, he embraced and forgave the man. Having pardoned his brother's murderer, he saw the image of the crucifix miraculously bow its head in acknowledgement of Gualbert's good action and they separated in peace.
   Continuing his journey, Gualbert went to the monastery of San Miniato del Monte in Florence where, as he prayed before the crucifix, he was filled with divine grace. He asked the abbot for permission to be admitted. But the abbot delayed, fearing the anger and resentment of Gualbert's parents. To demonstrate the seriousness of his call, Gualbert shaved his head himself and put on a habit that he had borrowed.
    For the next few years he remained at San Miniato, leading the life of a penitent and hoping to end his days there; but when the abbot died and the new one bribed his way to office, he left in disgust. (Other sources say that he left with a companion to find solitude when it looked likely that he would be appointed abbot.) He wanted to find a life untouched by the current abuses in the Church: clerical concubinage, nepotism, and simony. For a while he stayed with the Camaldolesi at Saint Romuald's abbey, but then decided to make an entirely new foundation.

The abbess of Sant'Ellero gave him some land in the Vallis Umbrosa (Vallombrosa), about 20 miles east of Florence near Fiesole; and there, with the help of a few companions, he built a small and unpretentious monastery of timber. The monks followed the austere rule of Saint Benedict to the letter, except for a special provision admitting conversi, or lay- brothers who could take on the manual labor and free the choir monks for contemplation and more prayer.  He was dedicated to poverty and humility. He never became a priest, in fact, he declined even to receive minor orders. Vallombrosa inspired other communities with its hospices for the poor and sick. These became part of his new order under John's rule, in spite of rival claims to jurisdiction. In this and other ways John became involved in the reform movement in the Church, for which he was commended by popes.

1199 Homobonus of Cremona life of the utmost rectitude integrity known for his charity concern for poor devoted profits to relief some he looked after in his own house.(RM)
Cremónæ, in Insúbria, sancti Homobóni Confessóris; quem, miráculis clarum, Innocéntius Papa Tértius in Sanctórum númerum rétulit.
    At Cremona, in the duchy of Milan, St. Homobonus, confessor, renowned for miracles, whom Innocent III placed among the saints.

1197 ST HOMOBONUS: lay saint; honest merchant, prayer accompanied all his actions; not content with giving his tenths to the distressed members of Christ, he seemed to set no bounds to his alms; he sought out the poor in their homes and, whilst he relieved their corporal necessities, he exhorted them to a good life;

COMMERCE, as Alban Butler justly remarks, is often looked upon as an occasion of too great attachment to the things of this world and of too eager a desire of gain, as well as of lying, fraud and injustice. That these are the vices of men, not the faults of the profession, is clear from the example of this and other saints. Homo­bonus was son of a merchant at Cremona in Lombardy, who gave him this name (which signifies “good man”) at baptism. Whilst he trained his son up to his own mercantile business without any school education, he inspired in him both by example and instruction a love of probity, integrity and virtue. The saint from his childhood abhorred the very shadow of untruth or injustice. To honesty Homobonus added economy, care and industry. His business he looked upon as an employment given him by God, and he pursued it with diligence and a proper regard to himself, his family and the commonwealth of which he was a member. If a tradesman’s books are not well kept, if there is not order and regularity in the conduct of his business, if he does not give his mind seriously to it, he neglects an essential and Christian duty. Homobonus was a saint by acquitting himself diligently and uprightly, for supernatural motives, of all the obligations of his profession.

In due course St Homobonus married, and his wife was a prudent and faithful assistant in the government of his household. Ambition, vanity and ostentation are no less preposterous than destructive vices in the middle classes of society, whose characteristics should be modesty, moderation and simplicity. Whatever exceeds this in dress, housekeeping or other expenses is unnatural and affected, offensive to others, and uneasy and painful to the persons themselves. A man of low stature only becomes frightful by strutting upon stilts. The merchant may be an honour and support of society, but an ostentatious parade least of all suits his character or conduces to the happiness of his state. St Homobonus avoided such common rocks on which so many traders dash. And, moreover, not content with giving his tenths to the distressed members of Christ, he seemed to set no bounds to his alms; he sought out the poor in their homes and, whilst he relieved their corporal necessities, he exhorted them to a good life. The author of his life assures us that God often recognized his charity by miracles in favour of those whom he relieved. It was his custom every night to go to the church of St Giles, for prayer accompanied all his actions and it was in its exercise that he gave up his soul to God. For, on November 13, 1197, during Mass, at the Gloria in Excelsis he stretched out his arms in the figure of a cross and fell on his face to the ground, which those who saw him thought he had done out of devotion. When he did not stand up at the gospel they took more notice and, coming to him, found he was dead. Sicard, Bishop of Cremona, went himself to Rome to solicit his canonization, which Pope Innocent III decreed in 1199.

A short Medieval Latin life was printed in 1857 by A. Maini under the title S. Homoboni civis Cremonensis Vita antiquior, but besides this we have little more information than is provided by a few breviary lessons. St Homobonus is, however, mentioned by Sicard of Cremona, his contemporary, and he was canonized (Potthast, Regesta, vol. i, p. 55 less than two years after his death. As patron of tailors and cloth workers his fame spread not only over Italy, but into Germany (under the name “Gutman”) and into France. A volume of quite imposing dimension, was published about him in 1674 by 0. Belladori under the title of Il trafficante celeste, oceano di santità e tresoriero del cielo, Huomobuono iI Santo, cittadino Cremonese. More modern popular booklets have been written by F, Camozzi (1898), D. Bergamaschi (1899), R. Saccani (1938) and others. Marco Vida, the sixteenth-century neo-classical poet (who disapproved the “low style” of Homer), was a native of Cremona and honoured St Homobonus with a hymn, of which Alban Butler quotes four stanzas. He greatly admired Vida and here calls him “the Christian Virgil”.
(also known as Homobonius) Born in Cremona, Lombardy, Italy; died November 13, 1197; canonized on January 12, 1199, by Pope Innocent III. Son of a wealthy merchant, Homobonus Tucingo was prophetically baptized Uomobuono, 'good man.' His father taught him the business and he successfully managed it after his father's death. He married and led a life of the utmost rectitude and integrity. Homobonus was known for his charity and concern for the poor because he devoted a large part of his profits to the relief of those in want, some of whom he looked after in his own house. Morning and evening he could be found in Saint Giles Church in Cremona, where, in fact, he died suddenly on November 13 while attending Mass. His virtues were not appreciated by his wife until after his death, when the people of Cremona clamored for his canonization which was decreed two years later by Pope Innocent III (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Schamoni).

In art he is a merchant surrounded by beggars and the sick. At times there is a flask of wine near him or angels are shown making garments for him. He is the patron of burghers, merchants, smiths, tailors, clothworkers, and shoemakers. Venerated at Cremona (Delaney, Roeder).

1197 St. Homobonus Confessor patron of tailors cloth workers
He was born in Cremona, Italy, where he became a merchant. Married, he was a model of virtue beloved by all. Homobonus died on November 13 while attending Mass at St. Giles Church in Cremona. His fellow citizens petitioned the Holy See for his canonization, which was performed in 1199.

912 Notker Balbulus originator of the liturgical sequences composed both words and music OSB (AC)
(also known as Notker the Stammerer)
Born in Heiligau (Elk), Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, c. 840; died on April 6, 912; cultus confirmed in 1512.
   Saint Notker was placed in Saint Gall's Abbey as a child and remained there for the rest of his life as a lay brother. He held the offices of librarian, guest-master, and precentor.
   He excelled as a musician and was the originator of the liturgical sequences of which he composed both the words and the music. His literary works include an anthology of the writings of the Fathers of the Church and a method for learning Gregorian chant (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).

Notker's emblem in art is a rod. He can be recognized as a Benedictine with a book in one hand and a broken rod in the other with which he strikes the devil. He is venerated at Saint Gall.
Notker is the patron of musicians and invoked against stammering (Roeder).
909 Gerald of Aurillac Confessor gave much time to meditation, study, and prayer piety generosity to the poor a layman who devoted himself to his neighbors and dependents founded the monastery at Aurillac
Born 855 at Saint-Cirgues. He was of noble birth and suffered lengthy illness in his youth. For this reason, he gave much time to meditation, study, and prayer instead of the martial pursuits that ordinarily would have been expected.

When he succeeded his father as count of Aurillac in Auvergne, and owner of considerable estates, he continued his life of devotion and became noted for his piety and generosity to the poor. He was distinguished for the justice and efficiency with which he discharged the duties of a wealthy nobleman.

His personal life was no less virtuous, and markedly well-ordered and religious. He dressed modestly, ate little, rose every morning at 2:00 a.m.--even when travelling--to say the first part of the Divine Office, and then he assisted at Mass.

But it is possible that he would not have become well-known had he not founded the monastery at Aurillac. After a pilgrimage to Rome, he built a church under the invocation of Saint Peter, and, c. 890, a Benedictine abbey at Aurillac, which was to become famous when it was taken over by the Cluniac order.

He led a life of great goodness for someone of his rank during this rather immoral period in history. He considered becoming a monk at his monastery but was persuaded against it by Gausbert, the bishop of Cahors, who counseled that he would be more useful acting as a layman who devoted himself to his neighbors and dependents. He gave a great part of his revenue to the poor and endowed the monastery generously.

He was blind for the last seven years of his life. He died at Cezenac, Quercy, and was buried at his abbey. He is the patron saint of Upper Auvergne
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860 Paschasius Radbertus abandoned at convent asked to be forgotten simply asks for prayers to God left works dealing with the body and blood of Christ the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist (De Corpore et Sanguine Christe) commentary on Saint Matthew's Gospel (12 volumes) composed treatise on the Virgin defend her perpetual virginity long exposition on Psalm 44 and another on the Lamentations of Jeremiah wrote biographies of 2 abbots-Corbie OSB Abbot (AC)

Died April 26, 860. Radbertus was a monk who thought about the future, about eternity, to be sure, and equally about the time that would follow his death. He dictated a last will and testament that is considered precious. He had no possessions to bequeath. Instead, he requested only that no one write the story of his life. He asked to be forgotten, which makes him an original in a Church that forgets nothing. Radbertus simply asks for prayers to God.
 
Radbertus, who allowed himself to be called Paschasius, was probably born in Soissons, France, without a known father or mother. He was found one day on the doorstep of Notre Dame Convent in Soissons. He was a little baby who was waiting for someone to take him in. Thus, he was raised by the good sisters, educated by the monks at nearby Saint Peter's, received the Benedictine habit at an early age, and was ordained a deacon.

But he, thinking that the community was exaggerating the nature of the world, left the monastery to live his own life. He tried an easy lifestyle and was very uncomfortable with it, so, when he was about 22, he returned to the monastery of Corbie and began to pray, read, and write.

The abbot of the monastery was named Adebard (Adalard 753-827), the brother of Theodrade, the abbess who had given a home to the abandoned infant. Both of them were first cousins to Charlemagne(742-814) and belonged to the fashionable world.

Being educated--Radbertus knew Greek and Hebrew--he was involved in the Carolingian Renaissance. He was sent to Saxony on his first assignment, where Charlemagne spent 30 years trying to subdue the people.

Charlemagne organized 18 expeditions and beheaded 4,500 hostages in order to baptize the rest by force and in order to issue edicts, for example, mandating observance of fasts under pain of death. During this period, Radbertus and Adalard founded monasteries in Saxony.

After Charlemagne it was the turn of Louis the Pious to have recourse to Radbertus: it wasn't easy to get along with a man like Louis. He was big, strong, and trembled like a leaf; he was lost in pater nosters, and on the lookout for cosmic events.  Louis had hesitated to become a monk and to the detriment of his country, he did not follow his vocation. It was a difficult assignment to engage in missionary and political activities with a man of this kind, in perpetual conflict with his children who several times amused themselves by degrading him in public. It required an uncommon dose of common sense to attempt to calm down all these people .

Radbertus did not grow vain over his successes; although a simple deacon, in 822, he was sent to help found New Corbie in Westphalia.
Radbertus considered himself as dishwater, scrapings, or as the scum of monastic life: it is the translation of the word "Peripsema" which he used, the same word used by Paul in his splendid tirade addressed to the pride of the Corinthians.

Radbertus preached to the monks on Sundays and holidays, and gave public lectures daily on the sacred sciences.   Under his direction the schools of Corbie became famous. Among his scholars were Blessed Adalard the Younger (800-824), and Saints Anscharius(801-865), Hildemar(Died c. 700), and Odo(801-880), who were successively bishop of Beauvais.
His busy schedule never prevented him from assisting at the public office in the choir, and all other general observances of the rule.

Humble though he was, Radbertus helped make the Corbie schools famous while he served there as master of novices.
He then accepted the uncomfortable position as abbot in 844. The distractions of this station made him earnestly endeavor to resign, but he could not do so until seven years later, in 851. Being freed from administrative tasks, he retired to the abbey of Saint- Riquier to finish some of his works; but after some time he returned to Corbie to die.

When Radbertus was not busy pacifying the kings of France, he was engaged in writing. He had finished a treatise on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist (De Corpore et Sanguine Christe), which raised some questions about 15 years after its initial publication.  Some took offense at certain expressions, chiefly taken from the writings of Saint Ambrose (340-397), in which the author so strongly affirmed the body of Christ present in the Eucharist to be the same flesh which was born of the Virgin Mary and nailed to the cross that they imagined Radbertus taught a heresy.

They thought he meant that Christ in the Eucharist is in the same mortal state in which he suffered, and that he understood this sacred mystery in the carnal sense of the Capharnaits.
In a letter to the Brother Frudegard at New Corbie, Radbert defended the manner in which he had expressed himself and showed his orthodoxy.
Radbertus left other works dealing with the body and blood of Christ.

His principal work is a commentary on Saint Matthew's Gospel (12 volumes), which was preached before it was read. In it he refutes the errors assumed by Felix of Urgel, Claudius of Turin, Gotteschalk, and, especially, John Scotus Erigena against mystery of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

He also composed a treatise on the Virgin to defend her perpetual virginity: He was probably the author of epistle IX of Pseudo Jerome, which is an important document in the development of the doctrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin;
a long exposition on Psalm 44;
another on the Lamentations of Jeremiah, in order to practice crying over his own miseries. In general this last is a long, detailed work, very well documented.
He also wrote biographies of two abbots of Corbie: Adalard and his brother Wala, who had been Radbertus's friend and confidant.
In subscribing to the council of Paris, in 846, he took only his own name, Radbert; but in the works which he composed after that time, he always prefixed to it that of Paschasius.

This he took according to the custom which then prevailed among men of letters in France, for every one to adopt some Roman or scriptural name. Thus, in his epitaph or panegyric on his second abbot, Wala, he styles him Arsenius.
Radbertus was buried in Saint John's Chapel. His body was translated into the great church, in 1073, by authority of the Pope Saint Gregory VII
(1021-1085). From that time he has been honored as a saint at Corbie, and in the Gallican and Benedictine Martyrologies (Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
In art, angels bring a monstrance to Paschasius Radbertus. There will be books on a table (Roeder).

Paschasius was left as an infant upon the door of Notre Dame convent in Soissons, France, and was raised by the nuns there before receiving an education from the monks of St. Peter’s, Soissons.
After entering the Benedictine monastery of Corbie under St. Adalard, he was ordained a deacon. In 822, he was sent with other monks under Adalard to establish the monastery of New Corbie in Westphalia, Germany. He served for a number of years as master of novices and headmaster at both Corbie and New Corbie and in 844 was made abbot of Corbie. Never ordained a priest and finding the office against his nature, Paschasius resigned about 849. He went to the abbey of Saint Riquier, but returned to Corbie where he eventually died. A prolific writer, he was the author of several biblical commentaries, a Life of Abbot Adalhard, and the well known De Corpore et Sanguine Domini, the first ever treatise on the Eucharist.
He was also probably the author of epistle IX of Pseudo Jerome, which is an important document in the development of the doctrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.
6th v. St. Deusdedit Shoemaker in Rome in the era of Pope St. Gregory the Great . Every Saturday Deusdedit gave all his weekly earnings to the poor. Pope St. Gregory I the Great praised Deusdedit.
6th v. Musa of Rome favored with visions and other mystical experiences referenced by Saint Gregory the Great, her contemporary V (AC)
A child living in Rome who was favored with visions and other mystical experiences. She is referenced by Saint Gregory the Great, her contemporary (Benedictines)
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564 St. Abundius Confessor sacristan St. Peter's in Rome humble many graces spiritual gifts Romæ sancti Abúndii, Mansionárii Ecclésiæ sancti Petri.  At Rome, St. Abundius, sacristan of the church of St. Peter.
Abundius served in St. Peter's in Rome. Pope St. Gregory I the Great wrote of his life, which was filled with many graces and spiritual gifts.  Abundius the Sacristan (RM)(also known as Abonde) Saint Abundius was sacristan (mansionarius) of the Church of Saint Peter in Rome. His humble, but divinely favored life, is described by Saint Gregory the Great. His feast is kept as a major feast at Saint Peter's (Benedictines, Encyclopedia)
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560 St Equitius, Abbot;  Zeal for the salvation of souls so burned in his heart that, in spite of his responsibility for so many monasteries, he travelled about diligently, visiting churches, towns, villages, and particularly men's houses, to stir up the hearts of those that heard him to a love of heavenly joys; St Equitius flourished in the Abruzzi at the time when St Benedict was establishing his rule at Monte Cassino, and in his youth suffered greatly from temptations of the flesh
St Equitius flourished in the Abruzzi at the time when St Benedict was establishing his rule at Monte Cassino, and in his youth suffered greatly from temptations of the flesh.  He sought solitude in the province of Valeria, where by prayer and discipline he brought his body into subjection and attained the virtues of the spirit.  When he had learned to govern himself he undertook the direction of others and founded first a monastery at Terni (Amiternum) and then other houses, both of men and women.  St Gregory the Great describes Equitius from accounts he had received from Albinus, Bishop of Rieti, and others who knew him personally:  "Zeal for the salvation of souls so burned in his heart that, in spite of his responsibility for so many monasteries, he travelled about diligently, visiting churches, towns, villages, and particularly men's houses, to stir up the hearts of those that heard him to a love of heavenly joys.  His clothes were so poor and shabby that those who did not know who he was would not deign to salute him, even if he greeted them first.  He rode on the most forlorn beast he could find, with a halter for bridle and a sheep's skin for saddle.   He carried his books of divinity in leather bags, hung on either side of his horse, and to what place soever he came he opened there the spring of Sacred Scripture and refreshed the souls of his hearers with the heavenly water of his words. His grace in preaching was so great the fame thereof reached Rome itself."
   Like many of the early abbots St Equitius was not in holy orders, and a patrician called Felix challenged him for presuming to preach when he was neither ordained
nor licensed thereto by the bishop of Rome. " I myself have seriously considered the matter on which you speak," replied Equitius, "but on a certain night a young
man stood by me in a vision and touched my tongue with such an instrument as is used in letting blood, and said to me :    Behold  I have put my word into your mouth. Go your way and preach.' And since that day I can talk only of God, whether I would or no." This did not satisfy some of the Roman clergy, who complained to the pope that" this countrified fellow has taken on himself authority to preach and, ignorant as he is, usurps the office of our apostolic ruler ", and asked that he be sent for to be dealt with.  A cleric called Julian was therefore sent to his monastery to fetch Equitius, and he found the abbot in hobnailed boots, mowing grass, who, when he received the pope's message, prepared to set out at once.  Julian was tired with his journey and wanted to stay there the night, and St Equitius agreed, but, " I am very sorry ", he said, "for if we go not to-day, to-morrow we shall not ".  And so it fell out, for the next morning a messenger arrived from the pope to tell Julian that he had had a vision from God about Equitius and the holy man was not to be disturbed.    St Equitius died on March 7 about the year 560, and on this day his body was translated to the church of St Laurence at Aquila.
  The Bollandists have dealt with St Equitius on March 7 (Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. i)  there is a similar collection of fragmentary data in Mabillon, vol. i, pp. 655-658
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510 St. Eugendus 4th abbot of Condat, near Geneva Switzerland. Also called Oyand, Eugendus was never ordained, but he was a noted Scripture scholar.

510 ST EUGENDUS, or OYEND, ABBOT
AFTER the death of the brothers St Romanus and St Lupicinus, founders of the abbey of Condat, under whose discipline he had been educated from the age of seven, Eugendus became coadjutor to Minausius, their immediate successor, and soon after, upon his demise, abbot of that famous monastery. His life was most austere, and he was so dead to himself as to seem incapable of betraying the least emotion of anger. His countenance was always cheerful; yet he never laughed. He was well skilled in Greek and Latin and in the Holy Scriptures, and a great promoter of studies in his monastery, but no importunities could prevail upon him to consent to he ordained priest.
   In the lives of the first abbots of Condat it is mentioned that the monastery, which was built by St Romanus of timber, being consumed by fire, St Eugendus rebuilt it of stone; and also that he built a handsome church in honour of SS. Peter, Paul and Andrew.
   His prayer was almost continual, and his devotion most ardent during his last illness. Having called the priest among his brethren to whom he had committed the office of anointing the sick, Eugendus caused him to anoint his breast according to the custom then prevalent, and he breathed forth his soul five days after, about the year 510, and of his age sixty-one.*{* The rich abbey of Saint-Claude gave rise to a considerable town built about it, which was made an episcopal see by Pope Benedict XIV in 1748, who, secularizing the monastery, converted it into a cathedral. The canons to gain admittance were required to give proof of their nobility for sixteen degrees, eight paternal and as many maternal.}

 The great abbey of Condat, seven leagues from Geneva, received from this saint the name of Saint-Oyend, till in the thirteenth century it exchanged it for that of Saint-Claude, after the bishop of Besançon who is honoured on June 6.

See the life of St Eugendus by a contemporary and disciple of his, which has been critically edited in modern times by Bruno Krusch in the MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. iii, pp. 154—166.  Krusch, in his introduction and in a paper on “La falsification des vies des saints burgondes” in Mélanges Julien Havet, pp. 39—56, pronounces this life to be a forgery of much later date; but Mgr L. Duchesne, in Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire (1898), vol. xviii, pp. 3—16, has successfully vindicated its authenticity and trustworthiness.
Martyr Ananias of Persia tortured for his belief in Christ  a layman , he said, "I see a ladder leading to heaven, and radiant men calling me to a marvelous city of light.
While Saint Ananias was being tortured for his belief in Christ, he said, "I see a ladder leading to heaven, and radiant men calling me to a marvelous city of light. Ananias of Arbela M (RM) Dates unknown. Ananias, a martyr either at the Persian Arbela or the Assyrian Erbel, was a layman (Benedictines).
284-305 The Holy Martyr Neophytus red-hot oven holy martyr remained unharmed 3 days and 3 nights in it
a native of the city of Nicea in Bithynia, was raised by his parents in strict Christian piety.
For his virtue, temperance and unceasing prayer, it pleased God to glorify St Neophytus with the gift of wonderworking, while the saint was still just a child!
Like Moses, the holy youth brought forth water from a stone of the city wall and gave this water to those who were thirsty. In answer to the prayer of St Neophytus' mother, asking that God's will concerning her son might be revealed to her, a white dove miraculously appeared and told of the path he would follow. The saint was led forth from his parental home by this dove and brought to a cave on Mt. Olympus, which served as a lion's den. It is said that he chased the lion from the cave so that he could live there himself. The saint remained there from the age of nine until he was fifteen, leaving it only once to bury his parents and distribute their substance to the poor.
During the persecution by Diocletian (284-305), he went to Nicea and boldly began to denounce the impiety of the pagan faith. The enraged persecutors suspended the saint from a tree, they whipped him with ox thongs, and scraped his body with iron claws. Then they threw him into a red-hot oven, but the holy martyr remained unharmed, spending three days and three nights in it. The torturers, not knowing what else to do with him, decided to kill him.
One of the pagans ran him through with a sword (some say it was a spear), and the saint departed to the Lord at the age of sixteen
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258 St Romanus, Martyr doorkeeper of the Roman church; baptized by him in prison by St Laurence
Romæ sancti Románi, mílitis et Mártyris; qui, confessióne beáti Lauréntii compúnctus, pétiit ab eo baptizári, et, mox exhíbitus ac fústibus cæsus, ad últimum decollátus est.
    At Rome, St. Romanus, a soldier, who was moved by the torments of blessed Lawrence to ask for baptism from him.  He was immediately prosecuted, scourged, and finally beheaded.
According to the Liber Pontificalis Romanus was a doorkeeper of the Roman church who suffered martyrdom at the same time as St Laurence, whose unreliable acta make of him a soldier in Rome at the time of the martyrdom of Laurence.  Seeing the joy and constancy with which that holy martyr suffered persecution, he was moved to embrace the faith, and was instructed and baptized by him in prison.  Confessing aloud what he had done, he was arraigned, condemned and beheaded the day before the execution of St Laurence.  Thus he arrived at his crown before his guide and master. The body of St Romanus was buried on the road to Tivoli in the cemetery of Cyriaca, and his grave is mentioned as being there in the itineraries of the seventh century.
  Mgr Duchesne's note in his edition of the Liber Pontificalis, vol. i, p.156, supplies all the information which is available; and see CMH., p. 428
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