1459
Bl. Anthony della Chiesa miracle worker with an
ability to read the consciences
Dominican superior and companion of St. Bernardino of Siena. Anthony was
born in 1394, the son of the Marquis della Chiesa, in San Germano, Italy. At the age of twenty, despite his
family's objections, Anthony became a Dominican, gaining recognition
as a preacher and confessor. He accompanied St. Bernardine on missions and served in various
capacities in the Dominican monasteries. Anthony was also one of the leaders
opposing the last of the antipopes, Felix V While journeying from Savona
to Genoa, Italy, Anthony was captured by pirates but was released unharmed.
He was a known miracle worker with an ability to read the consciences of
men and women. |
1562 Peter of Alcántara
practiced asceticism from 16 until death apared to Teresa patron of Brazil
OFM (RM)
Born at Alcántara,
Estremadura, Spain, in 1499; died at Arenas, 1562; canonized in 1669.
Sixteenth century
Spain provided the Church with a wealth of heroes--most of whom seemed to
know one another. I hope you enjoy this story of a man who truly fell in
love with God at an early age.
Peter Garavito's
father, who was a lawyer and governor of the province, died in 1513 and two
years later, after studying law in Salamanca, 16-year-old Peter entered the
Observant Franciscans at Manxarretes (Manjaretes). At 22 he was sent to Badajoz
to found a friary.
He was ordained
at the age of 25 (1524), and preached missions in Spain and Portugal. After
serving as superior at Robredillo, Plasencia, and Estremadura, Peter finally
had his request for solitude granted with an appointment to the friary at
Lapa, though he was also named its superior. For a time he served as chaplain
to the court of King John III of Portugal. This period of his life is uneventful,
but all the time he was longing for a yet more rigorous following of the
Franciscan rule.
After he was
elected provincial for Saint Gabriel at Estremadura in 1538, he was able
to take definite steps to begin the reform, but his efforts were not well
received during the provincial chapter at Placensia in 1540. So,
he resigned as minister provincial. For two years (1542-44) he lived as a
hermit with Friar Martin of Saint Mary on Arabida Mountain near Lisbon and
was named superior of Palhaes community for novices when numerous friars
were attracted to their way of life. During that period he had become convinced
of the need for a vigorous Catholic reform, a Counter-Reformation with which
to oppose the Protestant Reformation.
Unable to secure
approval for a stricter congregation of friars from his provincial, his idea
was accepted by the bishop of Coria. Finally, with the approval of Pope Julius
III, c. 1556, he founded the Reformed Friars Minor of Spain, usually called
the Alcatarine Franciscans, which established not only monasteries but also
Houses of Retreat where anyone could go and try to live according to the
Rule of Saint Francis. The friars lived in small groups, in great poverty
and austerity, going barefoot, abstaining from meat and wine, spending much
time in solitude and contemplation.
Three years
later, in 1559, the new order was enlarged with the addition of a new province,
that of Saint Joseph. But the Reformed Franciscans failed to
win the support of the other Franciscans; Conventuals and Observants, both
jealous of their privileges, continued to quarrel over the inheritance of
Saint Francis.
At the time
of his death in 1562, Saint Peter was still uncertain of the future of his
work, which had been placed under the Conventuals. But the example which
he set was followed
by Saint Teresa of Ávila and there was
thus born Saint Joseph of Ávila, the first Reformed Carmel in Spain. Even if Peter's work
was surpassed by that of Saint Teresa, it was instrumental in releasing in
Spain, and then throughout Europe, a movement of vigorous revival which gave
strength to the Church at a time when it was sorely needed.
Teresa
and Peter were
intimate friends for the last four years of her life. After they met in 1560,
he became her confessor, advisor, and admirer. His ferocious and almost unbelievable
asceticism is not myth, but rather described by Teresa in a celebrated chapter
of her autobiography. She wrote with awe that his penances were "incomprehensible
to the human mind." They had reduced him, she tells us, to a condition in
which he looked as if "he had been made of the roots of trees."
He practiced
asceticism from the age of 16 until his death, opposing a will of iron against
the doubtlessly acute temptations of his body. He slept for no more than
two hours each night, and even then he did not lie down, but slept either
in a hard wooden chair or kneeling against the wall. His cell was no more
than 4- ½ feet long. He ate extremely little, at first going for three
days, and then for a week without food. When he did eat, he destroyed the
taste of the food by sprinkling it with ashes or earth. He never drank wine.
He never wore
shoes, or even sandals, and went about barefoot. He never wore a hat or a
hood, and exposed his head to the icy rains of winter or the scorching sun
of summer. He wore a hair shirt, and though he possessed a cloak, he never
wore it in cold weather. He went everywhere on foot, or at the most would
ride on a donkey.
Consumed with
fever, he refused a glass of water, saying "Jesus was ready to die of thirst
on the cross." For three years he never raised his eyes from the ground.
And yet, "With all his holiness," wrote Saint Teresa of Ávila, "he
was very kindly, though spare of speech except when asked a question, and
then he was delightful, for he had a keen understanding."
Such asceticism
may seem self-centered and excessive to us today. Some may think that there
are sufficient mortifications in the normal course of life without adding
to them. But asceticism has been in the Church since the days of the Desert
Fathers, and though the practices of the ascetics might seem horrible, unnecessary,
or even ridiculous to us, the Church has never reproved them; indeed, they
are to be recommended for the active as well as for the contemplative. And
who is to say that the present unhappy state of the world would not be greatly
changed for the better if people did follow ascetic practices?
Peter's asceticism,
however, is only one aspect of his life of great holiness and incessant labor
devoted to the restoration in Spain of the primitive Franciscan rule.
Saint Peter
was one of the great Spanish mystics and his Treatise on Prayer and Meditation
(1926 English translation) was said by Pope Gregory XV to be "a shining
light to lead souls to heaven and a doctrine prompted by the Holy Spirit."
This treatise was used later by Saint Francis de Sales. His mystical works,
intended purely for edification, follow traditional lines.
"He had already
appeared to me twice since his death," wrote Teresa of Ávila, "and
I witnessed the greatness of his glory. Far from causing me the least fear,
the sight of him filled me with joy. He always showed himself to me in the
state of a body which was glorious and radiant with happiness; and I, seeing
him, was filled with the same happiness. I remember that when he first appeared
to me he said, to show me the extent of his felicity, 'Blessed be the penitence
which has brought me such a reward'" (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia,
Underhill).
In art he is
depicted as a Franciscan in radiance levitated before the Cross, angels carry
a girdle of nails, chain, and discipline. Sometimes he is shown (1) walking
on water with a companion, a star over his head; (2) praying before a crucifix,
discipline (scourge), and hairshirt; or (3) with a dove at his ear, cross
and discipline in the picture. He is venerated at Alcántara and Pedrosa
(Roeder).
In 1862, he
was declared the patron of Brazil (Delaney).
|
1231 b. 1195 St.
Anthony Of Padua
Few of the medieval saints
adopted into the Romish calendar have attained to such lasting celebrity
as St. Anthony,
or Antonio, of Padua. All over Italy his memory is held
in the highest veneration; but at Padua in particular, where his festival
is enthusiastically kept, he is spoken of as Il Santo, or the saint, as if
no other was of any importance.
Besides larger memoirs
of St. Anthony, there are current in the north of Italy small chap-books
or tracts describing his character and his miracles. From one of these, purchased
within the present year from a stall in Padua, we offer the following as
a specimen of the existing folk-lore of Venetian Lombardy. St. Anthony was
born at Lisbon on the 15th of August 1195. At twenty-five years of age he entered
a convent of Franciscans, and as a preaching friar most zealous in checking
heresy, he gained great fame in Italy, which became the scene of his labours.
In this great work the power of miracle came to his aid.
On one occasion,
at Rimini, there was a person who held heretical opinions, and in order to
convince him of his error, Anthony caused
the fishes in the water to lift up their heads and listen to his discourse.
This miracle, which
of course converted the heretic, is represented in a variety of cheap prints,
to be seen on almost every stall in Italy, and is the subject of a wood-cut
in the chap-book from which we quote, here faithfully represented. On another
occasion, to reclaim a heretic, he caused the man's mule, after three days' abstinence from
food, to kneel
down and venerate the host, instead of rushing to a bundle of
hay that was set before it. This miracle was equally efficacious.
Then we are told
of St. Anthony causing a new-born babe to speak, and tell who was its father;
also, of a wonderful miracle he wrought in saving the life of a poor woman's
child. The woman had gone to hear St. Anthony preach, leaving her child
alone in the house, and during her absence it
fell into a pot on the fire; but, strangely enough, instead of finding
it scalded to death, the mother found it standing
up whole in the boiling cauldron.
What with zealous
labours and fastings, St. Anthony cut short his days, and died in the odour
of sanctity on the 13th of June 1231. Padua, now claiming him as patron saint
and protector, set about erecting a grand temple to his memory. This large
and handsome church was completed in 1307. It is a gigantic building, in
the pointed Lombardo-Venetian style, with several towers and minarets of
an Eastern character. The chief object of attraction in the interior is the
chapel specially devoted to Il Santo. It consists of the northern transept,
gorgeously decorated with sculptures, bronzes, and gilding. The altar is
of white marble, inlaid, resting on the tomb of St. Anthony, which is a sarcophagus
of verd antique. Around it, in candelabra and in suspended lamps, lights burn
night and day; and at nearly all hours a host of devotees may be seen kneeling
in front of the shrine, or standing behind with hands devoutly and imploringly
touching the sarcophagus, as if trying to draw succour and consolation from
the marble of the tomb. The visitor to this splendid shrine is not less struck
with the more than usual quantity of votive offerings suspended on the walls
and end of the altar. These consist mainly of small framed sketches in oil
or water colours, representing some circumstance that calls for particular
thankfulness.
St. Anthony of Padua,
as appears from these pictures, is a saint ever ready to rescue persons from
destructive accidents, such as the over-turning of wagons or carriages, the
falling from windows or roofs of houses, the upsetting of boats, and such
like; on any of these occurrences a person has only to call vehemently and
with faith on St. Anthony in order to be rescued. The hundreds of small pictures
we speak of represent these appalling scenes, with a figure of' St. Anthony
in the sky interposing to save life and limb. On each are inscribed the letters
P. G. R., with the date of the accident;—the letters being an abbreviation
of the words Per Grazzia Ricevuto—for grace or favour received. On visiting
the shrine, we remarked that many are quite recent; one of them depicting
an accident by a railway train. The other chief object of interest in the
church is a chapel behind the high altar appropriated as a reliquary. Here,
within a splendidly deco-rated cupboard, as it might be called, are treasured
up certain relics of the now long deceased saint. The principal relic is
the tongue of Il Santo, which. is contained within an elegant case of silver
gilt, as here represented. This with other relics is exhibited once a year,
at the great festival on the 13th of June, when Padua holds its grandest holiday.
It is to
be remarked that the article entitled 'St. Anthony and the Pigs,' inserted
under January 17, ought properly to have been placed here, as the patronship
of animals belongs truly to St. Anthony of Padua, most probably in consequence
of his sermon to the fishes. |
1250-1350(?) Blessed Peter
Ghisengi many miracles were reported at his tomb OSA (AC)
(also known as Peter of
Gubbio) Born at Gubbio, Umbria, Italy; died c. 1250-1350(?); cultus confirmed
by Pope Pius IX. Blessed Peter was a scion of the distinguished Ghisleni
family. He became an Augustinian hermit and later the provincial of his congregation.
He is venerated at Gubbio, where his relics rest and where many miracles
were reported at his tomb (Attwater2, Benedictines). |
1307 St. Albert of Trapani miracles
Carmelite
hermit and missionary.
He was born in Trapani,
Sicily, and joined the Carmelite Order.
After ordination, he was sent to nearby Messina, where he gathered thousands
with his preaching and miracles. After serving as a missionary, Albert
entered a monastic hermitage near Messina. He remained there until his death.
|
1220 Blessed Reginald of
Saint-Gilles Queen of Heaven cured him he taught canon law , OP (AC)
(also known as Reginald
of Orléans)
Born at Saint-Gilles, Languedoc,
France, c. 1183; died 1220; cultus confirmed in 1885.
Reginald received his training
at the University of Paris and thereafter taught canon law from 1206 to 1211
with great success. Because of his evident talents and virtues, he was appointed
dean of the cathedral chapter (Saint-Agnan) of Orléans. Here as in
Paris, he was renowned for the brilliance of his mind and the eloquence of
his preaching, as well as for his tender devotion to the Mother of God.
Since he was a very zealous
young man, Reginald was not content with his life as it was. He was in truth
leading a very holy life, but he yearned for more. He determined on a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land, perhaps to pray for light to know his vocation, and on
his way to Jerusalem he visited Rome. Here he discussed his desires with
Cardinal Hugh de Segni, explaining that he felt a great call to the primitive
poverty and preaching of the apostles but knew of no way to realize his hopes.
The cardinal replied that
he knew the exact answer to his seeking and sent him to Saint Dominic, who was in Rome at the time. Reginald
hastened to open his heart to the holy founder, and at Saint Dominic's words
he knew he had come to the end of his seeking.
Reginald had scarcely made
his decision to enter the Dominican order when he became so ill that his
life was in danger. Saint Dominic, who was greatly attracted to the young
man and knew what an influence for good he would be in the order, prayed
earnestly for his recovery. It was said of Dominic that he never asked anything
of God that he did not obtain. In any case, it was the Queen of Heaven herself
who came to cure the dying man and ransom him a little time on earth.
Our Lady, accompanied by
Saint Cecilia and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, appeared at Reginald's bedside
and anointed him with a heavenly perfume. The Blessed Mother showed him a
long white scapular and told him it was to be a part of the habit of the
order. Going away, she left him completely cured and filled with great joy.
The friars, who until that time, 1218, had worn the garb of he canons regular,
gladly changed to the scapular especially designed for them by the Mother
of God. Reginald was himself clothed with the Dominican habit, and in fulfillment
of his vows proceeded to the Holy Land.
On his return, Reginald
embarked on his brief but brilliant career of preaching. In Bologna and in
Paris, his eloquence and the shining beauty of his life drew hundreds to
follow him into the order. Among these were not only students but many famous
professors and doctors of law. One of his greatest conquests was the young
German dynamo, Jordan of Saxony, who was to be like Reginald himself--a kidnapper
of souls for the service of God.
The first to be given the
scapular and the first to wear the Dominican habit in the Holy Land, Reginald
was also the first Dominican to die in it. Consumed with the fiery zeal of
his work, he died in 1220, mourned by the entire order, when he had worn
the habit scarcely two years. He displayed no fear of death--perhaps Our
Lady had told him, on the occasion of the cure, that he was only loaned to
life and the order--but received the last sacraments with touching devotion
(Benedictines, Dorcy).
In art, Reginald is generally
portrayed in his sick bed being attended by Saint Dominic, at whose prayer
the Blessed Virgin appears with two female saints to anoint Reginald. He
may also be shown as a Dominican offering his scapular to the Virgin (Roeder).
|
1287 Ambrose Sansedoni
of Siena unknown pilgrim said, "Do not cover that child's face. He will one
day be the glory of this city." A few days later the child suddenly stretch
out his twisted limbs, pronounced the name "Jesus", and all deformity left
him.
Mystic
with deep contemplative prayer life. Received ecstacies. Visionary. Known
to levitate when preaching, and was seen circled in a mystic light in which
flew bright birds.
Also known as Ambrogio
Sansedoni Ambrose Sansedone
Profile The son of a book illuminator, he
was born so badly deformed that his mother gave him off to the care of a
nurse. The nurse claimed that the only time the child was peaceful was in
the local Dominican church, especially when near the altar of relics. Legend
says that one day in church, the nurse covered the baby's face with a scarf;
an unknown pilgrim told her, "Do not cover that child's face. He will one
day be the glory of this city." A few days later the child suddenly stretch
out his twisted limbs, pronounced the name "Jesus", and all deformity left
him.
A pious child, getting
up during the nights to pray and meditate. At age two he was given the choice
of two of his father's books - and chose the one about saints. From age seven
he daily recited the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. Charitable, and
even when young he worked with the poor, the abandoned, and the sick.
When he announced he wanted
to join the preaching friars, his parents and friends tried to talk him out
of it. But Ambrose had heard the call, and joined the friars in Siena in
1237 on his 17th birthday.
Studied in Paris, France,
and Cologne, Germany with Saint Thomas Aquinas and Blessed Pope Innocent
V under Saint Albert the Great. Taught in Cologne. Ambrose wanted to write,
but saw the greatness of Saint Thomas, decided he could not match it, and
devoted himself to preaching.
Worked on diplomatic missions
for popes and secular rules. Evangelized in Germany, France, and Italy. Mystic
with deep contemplative prayer life. Received ecstacies. Visionary. Known
to levitate when preaching, and was seen circled in a mystic light in which
flew bright birds.
Born 1220 at Siena, Italy
Died 20 March 1287 at Siena, Italy of natural causes
Beatified 8 October 1622
by Pope Gregory XV (cultus confirmed)
Patronage betrothed couples,
affianced couples, engaged couples, Siena Italy
Prayers Merciful God, may
this feast of Blessed Ambrose bring joy to the Church, that she may be strengthened
with spiritual help and be made worthy to enjoy everlasting happiness. We
ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. - General Calendar of
the Order of Preachers
Representation Dominican
with a dove at his ear; holding a model of Siena, Italy; holding a book;
preaching |
1267
St. Parisius miracles and gift of prophecy
A beloved Camaldolese
spiritual director, also called Parisio. A native of either Treviso or Bologna,
Italy, he entered the Camaldolese at the age of twelve. Ordained a priest, he was appointed chaplain
and spiritual director to the Camaldolese nuns of the St. Christina Convent
at Treviso in 1191. He apparently held this post for seventy seven years,
reportedly performing
miracles and
possessing the gift of prophecy. His body is enshrined in the cathedral of
Treviso. |
1270 Blessed Ilona of
Hungary mistress Vesprim Dominican convent trained Saint Margaret of
Hungary contemplative
prayer often led to ecstasy crufixes would come to life for her first Dominican
marked with the stigmata The lilies of light that appeared during her prayer
is unique in the annals of the Church When Ilona was at the point of death,
she was rapt in ecstasy. Her body glowed with a radiance that made it impossible
for her sisters to determine the exact moment of her passing. At some point
she also received wounds in her side and feet, which healed; however, when
her tomb was opened 17 years after her death, the wound in her side reopened
of its own volition and rays of light poured forth from it.OP V (PC)
(also known
as Helen).
Ilona was the
novice mistress of the Dominican convent of Vesprim, where she trained the
future Saint Margaret of Hungary in the ways of holiness. She was one of
the first sisters in the community founded by Paul of Hungary in 1222. Ilona
was known for her gift of contemplative prayer that often led to ecstasy.
Sometimes God
gave visible signs of her sanctity, which were not always understood by her
community. Once she was watched by another sister as she prayed alone. The
corpus on the crucifix came to life, reached down, and took her hand in His.
It took a full day for the sisters to pry her hand from that of the corpus.
Another time the large crucifix from the altar suspended itself over her
until she finished her prayer, at which time she replaced it.
Ilona is reputed
to have been the first Dominican marked with the stigmata. Before 1237, she
received a mark in her right hand on the Feast of Saint Francis about 10
years after his death as she prayed for some of the saint's intense love
for heavenly things. As she went into a state of ecstasy, her hand sparkled
and gave off rays of light. In the center of her palm a circle of gold appeared
and from this a dazzlingly bright lily grew. When she returned to a normal
state of consciousness, she prayed that the wound would be invisible. Later
a similar wound appeared in her left hand. God did not answer that prayer
until near the time of her death. The lilies of light that appeared during
her prayer is unique in the annals of the Church.
Ilona was dearly
loved within her community, which she served as novice mistress and then
as prioress. Her great desire was that her sisters might remain faithful
to the rule and the offering of penance. She also had a "green thumb" with
houseplants --her touch could restore withered plants. Other miracles are
recorded of her: she levitated; candles lit themselves on the altar at her
passing; and she revived a dead, pet goat. Saint Ilona lived for 30 years
after Saint Margaret was removed to the more protected monastery at Budapest.
When Ilona
was at the point of death, she was rapt in ecstasy. Her body glowed with
a radiance that made it impossible for her sisters to determine the exact
moment of her passing. At some point she also received wounds in her side
and feet, which healed; however, when her tomb was opened 17 years after
her death, the wound in her side reopened of its own volition and rays of
light poured forth from it.
Ilona is venerated
in Hungary and within the Dominican Order although she has never been formally
beatified (Benedictines, Dorcy, Harrison).
|
1295 Thomas Hales of Dover
Miracles occurred at his tomb OSB M (AC)
feast day formerly on August
5. The near contemporary vita of Saint Thomas, a Benedictine monk of Saint
Martin's Priory in Dover, a cell of Christ Church in Canterbury, concentrates
on a conventional list of virtues and omits any biographical details of his
early life.
On August 5, 1295, the
French raided Dover and all the monks went into hiding except Thomas, who
was too old and too infirm to run. The raiders, who are described in detail
in the vita, found him in bed and ordered him to disclose the location of
the church plate. He was murdered for his refusal to answer them. Miracles
occurred at his tomb, which led to his veneration as a martyr. His cultus
was encouraged by indulgences from the bishop of Winchester and the archbishop
of Canterbury for pilgrimages to his tomb. King Richard II and "several noble
Englishmen" petitioned Rome for his canonization. In 1380 Urban VI established
a commission to enquire into Thomas's life and miracles. The work was delegated
to the priors of Christ Church and Saint Gregory's in Canterbury, but nothing
ever happened. There was an altar dedicated to him ("blessed Thomas de Halys")
in the Dover Priory church in 1500, which was probably the altar of Our Lady
and Saint Catherine in front of which he was buried. Thomas's his image figured
among those of the English saints at the English College in Rome (Benedictines,
Farmer). |
1292 Blessed Benvenuta
Bojani an early age Dominican tertiary on the Vigil of the Feast of Saint
Dominic he and Saint Peter Martyr, Mary and Jesus-Child appeared; severe
penances; miracle worker OP Tert. V (AC)
Born in Cividale,
Friuli, Italy, 1254; cultus approved in 1763.
Benvenuta was
the last of seven daughters. Her parents, too, must have been amazing people
in comparison with so many in our time. When the silence of the midwife proclaimed
that her father had been disappointed once again in his desire for a son,
he exclaimed, "She too shall be welcome!" Remembering this she was christened
by her parents Benvenuta ("welcome"), although they had asked for a son.
A vain older
sister unsuccessfully tried to teach the pious little Benvenuta to dress
in rich clothing and use the deceits of society. Benvenuta hid from such
temptations in the church where she developed a tender devotion to the Blessed
Virgin. By the age of 12, Benvenuta was wearing hairshirts and a rope girdle.
As she grew the rope became embedded in her flesh. When she realized the
rope must be removed, she couldn't get it off, so she prayed and it fell
to her feet. For this reason she is often pictured in art holding a length
of rope in her hands.
Having become
a Dominican tertiary at an early age, she added the penances practiced by
the sisters to those she had appropriated for herself. All her disciplines,
fasting, and lack of sleep soon caused her health to fail and she was confined
to bed for five years. Thereafter, she was too weak to walk, so a kind older
sibling carried her to church once a week for Compline (Night Prayer) in
the Dominican church, her favorite liturgy after the Mass.
After evening
prayer on the Vigil of the Feast of Saint Dominic, Dominic and Saint Peter
Martyr appeared to Benvenuta. Dominic had a surprise for her. The prior was
absent at the Salve procession, but at the beginning of Compline she saw
Dominic in the prior's place. He passed from brother to brother giving the
kiss of peace, then went to his own altar and disappeared. At the Salve procession,
the Blessed Virgin herself came down the aisle, blessing the fathers while
holding the Infant Jesus in her arms.
Benvenuta spent
her whole life at home in Cividale busy with her domestic duties, praying,
and working miracles. She was often attacked by the devil, who sometimes
left her close to discouragement and exhaustion. When someone protested against
the death of a promising young child, Benvenuta commented, "It is much better
to be young in paradise than to be old in hell." The devil often appeared
to her in horrifying forms but was banished when Benvenuta called upon the
Virgin.
Benvenuta's
companions called her "the sweetest and most spiritual of contemplatives,
so lovable in her holiness that her touch and presence inspired gladness
and drove away temptations." This is amazing in light of the severe penances
that she imposed upon herself--and another sign of blessedness that she didn't
judge others by her standards for herself (Benedictines, Dorcy). |
1463 St. John of Sahagun experienced
visions, was famous for his miracles, and had the gift of reading men's souls.
John Gonzales de Castrillo
was born at Sahagun, Leon Spain. He was educated by the Benedictine
monks of Fagondez monastery there and when twenty, received a canonry from
the bishop of Burgos, though he already had several benefices. He was ordained
in 1445; concerned about the evil of pluralism, he resigned all his benefices
except that of St. Agatha in Burgos. He spent the next four years studying
at the University of Salamanca and then began to preach. In the next decade
he achieved a great reputation as a preacher and spiritual director, but after recovering
after a serious operation, became an Augustinian friar in 1463 and was professed
the following year. He served as master of novices, definitor, prior at Salamanca,
experienced visions, was famous for his miracles, and had the gift of reading
men's souls. He denounced evil in high places and several attempts were made
on his life. He died at Sahagun on June 11, reportedly poisoned by the mistress
of a man he had convinced to leave her. He was canonized in 1690 as St. John
of Sahagun. |
1567 St. Salvatore Franciscan
of the Observance specially devoted to our Lady and to St. Paul who appeared
to him on several occasions many and severe austerities
St. Salvatore is usually
described as "of Horta" because he spent many years in the Franciscan Friary
of that place. He was born at Santa Columba in the diocese of Gerona in Spain.
He came of a poor family, and lost both his parents while still a child.
Migrating to the town, he worked as a shoemaker in Barcelona. At the age
of twenty, as his heart was set on the religious life, he became a Franciscan
of the Observance.
Employed in the kitchen,
his virtue quickly matured in these humble surroundings, but he thirsted
for greater austerity, and passed on, first to the convent of St. Mary of
Jesus at Tortosa, and then to the solitude of St. Mary of the Angels at Horta
in the same diocese. In that house of very strict observance, he made a protracted
stay but eventually he returned to Barcelona, where his supernatural gifts
attracted much notice, and where the blind, lame and deaf came to him to
be healed. He always walked barefoot, scourged himself daily, and kept long
and rigorous fasts. He was specially devoted to our Lady and to St. Paul
who appeared to him on several occasions, notably on his death-bed.
St. Salvatore had gone
to Sardinia in compliance with the orders of his superiors when he was seized
with an illness which proved fatal. He died at Cagliari, being forty-seven
years of age, in 1567. He was venerated as a saint during his lifetime and
was eventually canonized in 1938. |
1601 St. Germaine Cousin
400 miracles parted waters{see below
for more}
Her remains were buried
in the parish church of Pibrac in front of the pulpit. In 1644, when the
grave was opened to receive one of her relatives, the body of Germaine was
discovered fresh and perfectly preserved, and miraculously
raised almost to the level of the floor of the church. It was exposed for public view
near the pulpit, until a noble lady, the wife of François de Beauregard,
presented as a thanks-offering a casket of lead to hold the remains. She had
been cured of a malignant and incurable ulcer in the breast, and her infant son
whose life was despaired of was restored
to health on her
seeking the intercession of Germaine. This was the first of
a long series of
wonderful
cures wrought at her relics. The leaden casket was placed in
the sacristy, and in 1661 and 1700 the remains were viewed
and found fresh and intact
by the vicars-general of Toulouse, who have left testamentary depositions
of the fact. Expert medical evidence deposed that the body had not been embalmed,
and experimental tests showed that the preservation was not due to any property
inherent in the soil.
In 1700 a movement was
begun to procure the beatification of Germaine, but it fell through owing
to accidental causes. In 1793 the
casket was desecrated by a revolutionary tinsmith, named Toulza, who with three accomplices
took out the remains
and buried them in the sacristy, throwing quick-lime and water on them. After the Revolution,
her body was found to be still intact save where the quick-lime had done
its work. The private veneration of Germaine had continued from the original
finding of the body in 1644, supported and encouraged by numerous cures and
miracles. The cause of beatification was resumed in 1850. The documents attested
more than 400 miracles or extraordinary graces, and thirty
postulatory letters from archbishops and bishops in France besought the beatification
from the Holy See. The miracles attested were cures of every kind (of
blindness, congenital
and resulting from disease, of hip and spinal disease), besides the multiplication
of food for the distressed community of the Good Shepherd at Bourges in 1845. On 7 May, 1854, Pius IX proclaimed
her beatification, and on 29 June, 1867, placed her on the canon of virgin
saints. Her feast is kept in the Diocese of Toulouse on 15 June. She is represented in art with a shepherd's
crook or with a distaff; with a watchdog, or a sheep; or with flowers in
her apron.
Her feast is kept in the Diocese of Toulouse on 15 June. |
1601 St. Germaine
Cousin
Born in 1579 of humble
parents at Pibrac, a village about ten miles from Toulouse; died in her native
place.
When Hortense decided to
marry Laurent Cousin in Pibrac, France, it was not out of love for his infant
daughter. Germaine was everything Hortense despised. Weak and ill, the girl
had also been born with a right hand that was deformed and paralyzed. Hortense
replaced the love that Germaine has lost when her mother died with cruelty
and abuse. Laurent, who had a weak character, pretended not to notice that
Germaine had been given so little food that she had learned to crawl in order
to get to the dog's dish. He wasn't there to protect her when Hortense left
Germaine in a drain while she cared for chickens -- and forgot her for three
days. He didn't even interfere when Hortense poured boiling water on Germaine's
legs. With this kind of treatment, it's no surprise that Germaine became
even more ill. She came down with a disease known as scrofula, a kind of tuberculosis
that causes the neck glands to swell up. Sores began to appear on her neck
and in her weakened condition to fell prey to every disease that came along.
Instead of awakening Hortense's pity this only made her despise Germaine
more for being even uglier in her eyes.
Germaine found no sympathy
and love with her siblings. Watching their mother's treatment of their half-sister,
they learned how to despise and torment her, putting ashes in her food and
pitch in her clothes. Their mother found this very entertaining. Hortense
did finally get concerned about Germaine's sickness -- because she was afraid
her own children would catch it. So she made Germaine sleep out in the barn.
The only warmth Germaine had on frozen winter nights was the woolly sheep
who slept there too. The only food she had were the scraps Hortense might
remember to throw her way.
The abuse of Germaine tears
at our hearts and causes us to cry for pity and justice. But it was Germaine's
response to that abuse and her cruel life that wins our awe and veneration.
Germaine was soon entrusted with the sheep. No one expected her to have any
use for education so she spent long days in the field tending the sheep.
Instead of being lonely, she found a friend in God. She didn't know any theology
and only the basics of the faith that she learned the catechism. But she
had a rosary made of knots in string and her very simple prayers: "Dear God,
please don't let me be too hungry or too thirsty. Help me to please my mother.
And help me to please you." Out of that simple faith, grew a profound holiness
and a deep trust of God.
|
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 |
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). |
1645 St. John de Massias Dominican
monk at Lima austerities, miracles, and visions
Peru. He was born in Ribera,
Spain, to a noble family and was orphaned
at a young age. John went to Peru to work on a cattle ranch before entering
the Dominicans at Lima as a lay brother, assigned to serve as a doorkeeper,
or porter. He was known for his austerities, miracles, and visions. John
cared for all the poor of Lima, dying there on September 16. Pope Paul VI
canonized him in 1975 .
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 urgatory
(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.
|
1642 Saint Simeon of Verkhoturye
led beggars life worked many miracles after death
was a nobleman, but he concealed his origin and led the life of a beggar.
He walked through the villages and for free sewed half-coats and other clothes,
primarily for the poor. While doing this he deliberately failed to sew something,
either a glove, or a scarf, for which he endured abuse from his customers.
The ascetic wandered much, but most often he lived at a churchyard of the
village of Merkushinsk not far from the city of Verkhoturye (on the outskirts
of Perm). St Simeon loved nature in the Urals, and while joyfully contemplated
its majestic beauty, he would raise up a thoughtful glance towards the Creator
of the world. In his free time, the saint loved to go fishing in the tranquility
of solitude. This reminded him of the disciples of Christ, whose work he
continued, guiding the local people in the true Faith. His conversations
were a seed of grace, from which gradually grew the abundant fruits of the
Spirit in the Urals and in Siberia, where the saint is especially revered.
St Simeon of Verkhoturye died in 1642, when he was 35 years of age. He was
buried in the Merkushinsk graveyard by the church of the Archangel Michael.
On September 12, 1704, with the blessing of Metropolitan Philotheus of Tobolsk,
the holy relics of St Simeon were transferred from the church of the Archangel
Michael to the Verkhoturye monastery in the name of St Nicholas.
St Simeon worked many miracles after his death. He frequently appeared to
the sick in dreams and healed them, and he brought to their senses those
fallen into the disease of drunkenness. A peculiarity of the saint's appearances
was that with the healing of bodily infirmities, he also gave instruction
and guidance for the soul.
The memory of St Simeon of Verkhoturye is celebrated also on December 18,
on the day of his glorification (1694). |
1645 St. Mariana the lily of Quito gift of prophesy
Mariana was born at Quito, Ecuador (then part of Peru), of noble Spanish
parents. She was orphaned as a child and raised by her elder sister and her
husband. Mariana early was attracted to things religious and became a solitary
in her sister's home under the direction of Mariana's Jesuit confessor. Mariana
practiced the greatest austerities, ate hardly anything, slept for only three
hours a night for years, had the gift of
prophesy, and reputedly performed miracles. When an earthquake followed
by an epidemic shook Quito in 1645, she offered herself publicly as a victim
for the sins of the people. When the epidemic began to abate, she was stricken
and died on May 26th. She is known as Mariana of Quito and is often called
"the lily of Quito." She was canonized in 1950. |
1663 St. Joseph of Cupertino
b.1603 levitating at prayer temptations chains
Already as a child, Joseph
showed a fondness for prayer. After a short career with the Capuchins, he
joined the Conventuals. Following a brief assignment caring for the friary
mule, Joseph began his studies for the priesthood. Though studies were very
difficult for him, Joseph gained a great deal of knowledge from prayer. He
was ordained in 1628.
Joseph’s tendency to levitate
during prayer was sometimes a cross; some people came to see this much as
they might have gone to a circus sideshow. Joseph’s gift led him to be humble,
patient and obedient, even though at times he was greatly tempted and felt
forsaken by God. He fasted and wore iron chains for much of his life.
The friars transferred
Joseph several times for his own good and for the good of the rest of the
community. He was reported to and investigated by the Inquisition; the examiners
exonerated him.
Joseph was canonized in
1767. In the investigation preceding the canonization, 70 incidents of levitation
are recorded.
Comment: While levitation
is an extraordinary sign of holiness, Joseph is also remembered for the ordinary
signs he showed. He prayed even in times of inner darkness, and he lived
out the Sermon on the Mount. He used his "unique possession" (his free will)
to praise God and to serve God’s creation.
Quote: "Clearly,
what God wants above all is our will which we received as a free gift from
God in creation and possess as though our own. When a man trains himself
to acts of virtue, it is with the help of grace from God from whom all good
things come that he does this. The will is what man has as his unique possession"
(St. Joseph of Cupertino, from the reading for his feast in
the Franciscan breviary). |
1669-1739 Bl. Angelus
Capuchin of Acri many miracles of healing gifts prophecy bilocation see into
men's souls
Born at Acri,
Italy, he was refused admission to the Capuchins twice but was accepted on
his third attempt in 1690, and was ordained. Unsuccessful in his first sermons,
he eventually became a famous preacher after a tremendous success preaching
in Naples during Lent in 1711.
For the rest
of his life, he preached missions in Calabria and Naples, converting thousands
and performing many miracles of healing. He was reputed to have had the gifts
of prophecy and bilocation, experienced visions and ecstasies and was a sought
after confessor with the ability to see into men's souls. He died in the
friary at Acri on October 30, and was beatified in 1825.
Blessed Angelus
of Acri, OFM Cap. (AC) Born at Acri (diocese of Bisignano), Calabria, Italy,
in 1669; died in 1739; beatified in 1825. Angelus twice attempted unsuccessfully
to become a religious. The third time, after a tempestuous novitiate, he
was professed as a Capuchin. His public life as a preacher was again quite
unsuccessful in the beginning and "tempestuously successful" afterwards (Benedictines). |
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)
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). |
1783 St. Benedict Joseph Labré
"the Beggar of Rome," a pilgrim recluse devoted to the Blessed Sacrament
miracles levitated.
Called "the Beggar of Rome,"
a pilgrim recluse. He was born in Amettes, France, on March 25, 1748, the
eldest of eighteen children. Studying under his uncle, a parish priest, at
Erin, France, Benedict tried to join the Trappists, Carthusians, and Cistercians
but was refused by these orders.
In 1770, he made a pilgrimage
to the major shrines of Europe, settling in Rome in 1774. There he lived
near the Colosseum and earned fame for his sanctity. Benedict was devoted
to the Blessed Sacrament and attended the Forty Hours devotion in the city.
He died in Rome on April 16, and was beatified in 1860. He was canonized
in 1883.
Benedict Joseph Labre (RM)
Born at Amettes (near Boulogne), Arras, France, March 26 (25?), 1748; died
in Rome, April 17 (16?), 1783; beatified in 1860; canonized in 1881.
Since God leads each of
us in our own way, our spiritual life will assume an pattern totally different
from that of anyone else. Each of us is one of a kind. Our spirituality then
should also be one of a kind. This is shown dramatically in various people's
lives.
The story of Saint Benedict
caught my eye and my heart. He was born in 18th century France in Amettes,
then in the diocese of Boulogne-sur-Mer, to a family of prosperous shopkeepers.
His mother claimed to feel his sanctity while she carried him in her womb.
Because of his piety he was sent to an uncle who was a parish priest at Erin
for his education in Latin, grammar, and mathematics to prepare him for the
religious life.
A domestic servant in his
uncle's house, probably jealous, used to knock Benedict about when they were
alone and forced the youngster to perform chores beyond the strength of his
years. Since Benedict seemed to find this odious treatment amusing, the bully
was disarmed.
In freedom from the prying
eyes of his preoccupied elders, little Benedict tried his hand at austerities,
the recipes for which he found in the dusty library of the presbytery. In
addition to almsgiving that gives so much pleasure to the giver, he adopted
a minor practice in austerity that was more sane than them all: every night
he would replace his pillow with a plank of oakwood. Once upon being surprised
while sleeping in this way, he explained, without ostentation: "I do it in
order not to sleep too deeply."
He made steady progress
in his studies until he was 16. Then, suddenly, he was unable to learn any
more. His uncle died of cholera after he and Benedict had ministered to other
victims in the parish. Is this the reason he could learn no more? Or was
it because Benedict was overcome by the dark night of the soul, as Saint
John of the Cross calls this state, in which God forms the soul and prepares
it for union with himself?
After his uncle's death,
he walked 60 miles to La Trappe to become a monk. He was irresistibly drawn
to the very austere order. But he was denied entry. He vainly applied numerous
times between 1766 and 1770 for entry into the Trappists, Carthusians, and
Cistercians, but each time was sent home. For some of the communities he
was too young; others, after admitting him, found him to be suffering such
spiritual tortures that they couldn't let him stay; to still others, the
failure of his physical health was proof that he could not observe the rule
and, therefore, must be rejected.
Finally, Benedict realized
that God must have something else in store for him. He went home and told
his parents that he felt God was calling him to Rome. Perhaps because he
was the eldest of 15 children, they were reluctant but finally gave him their
blessing. Off he went on foot to Rome, begging his way.
Those who have never begged
say that it's painful only the first time, but this isn't true. One does
not knock on all doors in the same way. It is not true that the same words
invariably come to mind in front of different faces. Each time is the first
time. How tempting then to deprive yourself of a stale piece of bread which
even the dogs would forego and to not ask. Begging is not easy. Try stretching
out your own hand and you will see how difficult it is to swallow pride and
ask for help.
Saint Vincent de Paul understood
that the beggar needs us and deprives himself of us because we deprive ourselves
of him. A beggar is a man who is completely at our mercy, and whom we never
thank for the opportunity to act in God's Name.
The saint wandered to Italy
to seek admission there into a strict monastery or community of hermits.
In Italy he experienced inner enlightenment and clearly recognized that it
was God's will that, like Saint Alexis,
he was to leave his home, his father and mother, and everything that was
agreeable in the world, in order to lead a new life, a life of rigorous penance,
in the midst of the world, as an eternal pilgrim.
From the moment of this
recognition, his soul was filled with perfect peace, and all attempts made
by confessors to bring him back to an ordered life, with work, failed.
Benedict Joseph wandered.
For the next three or four years he wandered about western Europe, going
from shrine to shrine. He went to Santiago de Compostella in Spain, to Aix-en-Provence
and Paray-le-Monial in France, to Assisi, Loreto, and Bari in Italy. He paid
repeated visits to Einsiedeln and to German sanctuaries, made a pilgrimage
every year to Loretto, and continued to make Rome his city of perpetual pilgrimage.
He always travelled on foot, slept in the open or in some corner, his clothing
rags, his body filthy, picking up food where he could, and sharing any money
given to him.
As he travelled in his
sack-cloth cinched with a rope, he carried with him only his perpetual nourishment:
the Imitation of Christ, the New Testament, and a breviary. His rosary was
made from the berries of wild rose bushes, which he would eat when they began
to wear out.
He finally settled in Rome
in 1774, where he found his vocation as a tramp, wandering the streets with
other vagrants. How could this be a vocation? He dressed in rags and wandered
from shrine to shrine. Eventually he became widely known as one of the homeless
who roamed the streets accepting crumbs of food and clothes that the charitable
would give him.
During the day he spent
most of his time in churches with perpetual adoration; at night he wandered
to the seven major basilicas. He quenched his thirst at the fountains; he
lived from remnants of food found in the streets. He slept for a few hours
under an arch of the Colosseum at the station of the Cross named "Simon of
Cyrene helps Jesus to carry the Cross." As time went on people began to realize
that there was something different about this tramp. He became known as the
'beggar of the Colosseum' or the 'beggar of the perpetual adoration.'
It was rumored that he
was of high birth but had committed a murder or other heinous crime and now
sought atonement. Alms given to him burned in his hand; he passed them on
to other who he deemed more needy. He was once beaten by a man who thought
Benedict had spurned his offer of money because he gave it away.
His soul hovered constantly
over the greatest mysteries of the faith. And, just as all water streams
to the sea, so everything carried him on to the mysteries of the Most Holy
Trinity. "When I contemplate the crowning of thorns," he said to the priest
who examined him, "I feel myself elevated to the Trinity of God."
"What do you, a man without
education, understand about this mystery?" the priest asked.
"I understand nothing about
it," Benedict answered, "but I feel myself transported to it." And this transport
was sometimes so strong that his soul was carried away and his body lay as
though dead.
One day as he was praying
at Saint
Ignatius' and had fallen
into ecstasy, an anxious visitor to the church asked the sacristan in alarm:
"What has happened to this beggar?"
Benedict seemed to be swaying
in the air. He was in a position that mocked the laws of equilibrium and
gravity. "The saint is in ecstasy," said the sacristan, as though this were
the most natural thing in the world, and went on sweeping with his broom.
Such soaring over the ground,
as well as bilocation, is frequently attested in Benedict's case. As he worked
in painting the interior of the church, Antonio Cavallucci was so impressed
by the sight of the saint that he once took him to his studio and painted
him. This painting can still be seen at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica
in Rome, Italy.
Image of Saint Benedict
Labre courtesy of Saint Charles Borromeo Church
This painting
and his death mask reveal that Benedict was a handsome man with deep-set
eyes, strong cheek bones, a perfectly straight and noble nose, high forehead,
and gently protruding upper lip. Not only was his soul beautiful, so was
his physical body. Perhaps the one transformed the other?
He is reputed to have multiplied
bread for the hungry, and on another occasion to have cured an invalid.
One day some friends found
him in a quiet glen on his knees absorbed in prayer. He stayed that way for
the longest time. His companions were deeply impressed. They also found out
that he had the rare gift of counseling people with the most complex problems
and bringing them peace.
His reputation spread throughout
Rome and soon strangers from all walks of life came to talk to him: lawyers,
doctors, judges, women in society, bishops, cardinals, as well as just ordinary
folks. His wisdom and understanding enabled him to bring peace to the most
troubled souls.
He neglected his body and
his fragile health finally obliged him to seek refuge in a hospice for poor
men. There he was known to give away his portion of the soup.
The man who had spent long
hours before the Blessed Sacrament collapsed from exhaustion on the steps
of his favorite Roman church, Santa Maria dei Monti, during Holy Week and
died, consumed by the inner flame of ceaseless prayer, in the back room of
a butcher's shop to which he had been carried.
Since burial of Saint Philip Neri,
there had been no such crowd pressing to see the mortal remains of a servant
of God as at the Requiem Mass for Benedict Joseph. The military summoned
to the scene had difficulty preserving order.
After his burial, people
came from all over Europe to visit his grave and ask his intercession with
God. In less than three months after his death, 136 miracles had already
been protocoled. The healings and graces people received were so overwhelming
that the Vatican was forced to start the process for his canonization as
a saint. In record time, in 1883, he was proclaimed a person of rare heroic
holiness.
The people of Rome had
no doubt about the holiness of this 'new Saint Francis.' He is a late Western
example of an ascetical vocation better known in the East, that of the pilgrim
or wandering holy man. He also has points of resemblance with the Greek saloi
and Russian yurodivy, 'fools for Christ's sake' (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines,
Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Girzone, de la Gorce, Schamoni, White).
On the day of his canonization
Mass, in the crowded Saint Peter's Basilica way above the heads of the congregation
was the glorious painting of this sainted tramp dressed in his rags, held
up for the veneration and admiration of all the faithful.
"What a strange vocation!
And you cannot help but ask why. But it was a time when the whole Christian
world had become so materialistic that spiritual things meant little to people.
So God called this young man to give up everything and wander the streets
of Rome with other homeless people, dressed in the stinking rags of a tramp.
"All the while God molded
in the depths of his soul a holiness that transcended anything people had
ever witnessed, and held up the remarkable spirituality of this lowly beggar
for the admiration and example of all. It was no doubt a difficult vocation
for one to follow, but Saint Benedict was always a happy man, so he must
have found a strange satisfaction in the realization that he was following
where God was leading him" (Girzone).
Where is God leading you?
Have you heard His voice yet? It's a small voice that cannot be heard except
in the stillness of your heart. You, too, are called to be a saint--but how?
And how many of those nameless,
faceless souls that we pass on the street are really God's Presence among
us? How often do we recognize Him in them? Which one(s) is the saint we have
failed to recognize?
In art, Saint Joseph Labre
is depicted as a beggar with his bowl and the tricorn hat of a pilgrim sharing
his alms with other poor (Roeder, White). He is the patron saint of tramps
and the homeless (White).
|
1484 Blessed Damian dei
Fulcheri Hundreds of sinners repented by the force of his preaching miracles
worked at his tomb OP (AC)
(also known
as Damian of Finario)
Born in Finario
(Finale or Finarium near Genoa), Liguria, Italy; died near Modena at Reggio
d'Emilia, Italy, in 1484; cultus approved in 1848.
Damian was
born of rich and noble parents at the end of the 14th century. The only thing
we know of his childhood was that as a baby he was kidnapped by a madman.
His parents prayed to the Blessed Virgin, and Damian was returned unharmed.
He took the
Dominican habit at Savona, where he was a diligent student. Once ordained,
Damian became famous for his preaching, which he did in nearly all the cities
of Italy. Hundreds of sinners repented and returned to God by the force of
his preaching. Almost immediately upon his death he became the object of
pious veneration because of the miracles worked at his tomb (Benedictines,
Dorcy). |
1837
Anne Mary Taigi Endowed with the gift of prophecy, she read thoughts and
described distant events incorruptible.
Born at Siena 1769 daughter of a druggist named
Giannetti, whose business failed, she was brought to Rome and worked
for a time as a domestic servant. In 1790 she married Dominic Taigi,
a butler of the Chigi family in Rome, and lived the normal life of a married
woman of the working class. In the discharge of these humble duties and in
the bringing up of her seven children she attained a high degree of holiness.
Endowed with the
gift of prophecy, she read thoughts and described distant events. Her home became the rendezvous of
cardinals and other dignitaries who sought her counsel. She was beatified
in 1920.
She frequented the Sacraments
of Penance and the Holy Eucharist, and it was observed that her piety increased
on the approach of every feast of Our Lady. The Rosary was her only book,
and her devotion to the Angelus was so great that she used to fall on her
knees at the first sound of the bell, even though she heard it when crossing
a stream.
And she had the most important
prayer of all -- the Mass. Every day, without fail, she would leave her sheep
in God's care and go to Mass. Villagers wondered that the sheep weren't attacked
by the wolves in the woods when she left but God's protection never failed
her. On several occasions the swollen waters were seen to open and afford
her a passage without wetting her garments..
No matter how little Germaine
had, she shared it with others. Her scraps of food were given to beggars.
Her life of prayer became stories of God that entranced the village children.
But most startling of all
was the forgiveness to showed to the woman who deserved her hatred.
Hortense, furious at the
stories about her daughter's holiness, waited only to catch her doing wrong.
One cold winter day, after throwing out a beggar that Germaine had let sleep
in the barn, Hortense caught Germaine carrying something bundled up in her
apron. Certain that Germaine had stolen bread to feed the beggar, she began
to chase and scream at the child. As she began to beat her, Germaine opened
her apron. Out tumbled what she had been hiding in her apron -- bright beautiful
flowers that no one had expected to see for months. Where had she found the
vibrant blossoms in the middle of the ice and snow? There was only one answer
and Germaine gave it herself, when she handed a flower to her mother and
said, "Please accept this flower, Mother. God sends it to you in sign of
his forgiveness."
As the whole village began
to talk about this holy child, even Hortense began to soften her feelings
toward her. She even invited Germaine back to the house but Germaine had
become used to her straw bed and continued to sleep in it.
At this point, when men
were beginning to realize the beauty of her life, God called her to Himself.
One morning in the early summer of 1601, her father finding that she had
not risen at the usual hour went to call her; he found her dead on her pallet
of vine-twigs. She was then twenty-two years old, overcome by a life of suffering.
With all the evidence of
her holiness, her life was too simple and hidden to mean much beyond her
tiny village -- until God brought it too light again. When her body was exhumed
forty years later, it was found to be undecayed, what is known as incorruptible.
As is often the case with incorruptible bodies of saints, God chooses not
the outwardly beautiful to preserve but those that others despised as ugly
and weak. It's as if God is saying in this miracle that human ideas of beauty
are not his. To him, no one was more beautiful than this humble lonely young
woman. After her body was found in this state, the villagers started to speak
again of what she had been like and what she had done. Soon miracles were
attributed to her intercession and the clamor for her canonization began.
In this way, the most unlikely
of saints became recognized by the Church. She didn't found a religious order.
She didn't reach a high Church post. She didn't write books or teach at universities.
She didn't go to foreign lands as a missionary or convert thousands. What
she did was live a life devoted to God and her neighbor no matter what happened
to her. And that is all God asks.
In Her Footsteps:
Do you make excuses not to help others because you have so little yourself?
Share something this week with those in need that may be painful for you
to give up.
Prayer:
Saint Germaine, watch over
those children who suffer abuse as you did. Help us to give them the love
and protection you only got from God. Give us the courage to speak out against
abuse when we know of it. Help us to forgive those who abuse the way you
did, without sacrificing the lives of the children who need help. Amen |
December 1531
The Miracle
Of Guadalupe
For more than three hundred
years, the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe has been celebrated and revered in Mexico
as the Patroness of Mexican and Indian peoples, and as the Queen of the Americas.
She stands on home altars,
lends her name to men and women alike, and finds herself at rest under their
skin in tattoos. Guadalupe’s image proliferates on candles, decals, tiles,
murals, and old and new sacred art. Churches and religious orders carry her
name, as do place names and streets. Far from vulgarizing her image, these
items personalize her and maintain her presence in daily life. She is prayed
to in times of sickness and war and for protection against all evils.
The story of Guadalupe
begins in December 1531 in Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) when the Virgin Mary
appeared four
times to the Indian peasant
Juan Diego.
(First) He was
on his way to mass when
a beautiful woman surrounded by a body halo appeared to him with the music of
songbirds in the background.
As the birds became quiet, Mary announced “I
am the Entirely and Ever Virgin, Saint Mary”. Assuring Juan Diego that she was
his “Compassionate
Mother” and that she had
come out of her willingness to love and protect "all
folk of every kind," she
requested that he build a temple in her honor at the place where she stood,
Tepeyac
Hill, on the eastern edge
of Mexico City. (This spot has been identified as the site where once stood
a temple to the Aztec goddess
Tonantzin.)
Juan Diego went directly
to the bishop
of Mexico, Zumarraga, to
relate this wondrous event.
The churchman was skeptical
and dismissed the humble peasant, who then returned
to Tepeyac Hill to beseech the Virgin Mary to find a more prominent person
who was less “pitiably poor” than he to do her bidding.
Rejecting his protestations,
the Virgin urged him to return to the bishop
and (Second)“indeed say to
him once more how it is I Myself, the Ever Virgin Saint Mary, Mother of God,
who am commissioning you.”
Juan Diego returned to
the churchman’s palace after mass, waited, and was finally able to enter
his second plea on behalf of the Virgin. This time, Zumarraga
asked the humble
native to request
a sure sign directly from the “Heavenly Woman” as to her true identity. The bishop
then had some members of his staff follow Juan Diego to check on where he
went and whom he saw.
The next day, Juan Diego
hastened to the bedside of his dying uncle, Juan Bernadino. The old man,
gravely ill, begged his nephew to fetch a priest for the last rites of the
church. The following
morning, before dawn, Juan Diego set off on this mission. He tried to avoid
the Virgin because of his uncle’s worsening condition, but she intercepted
him and asked “Whither are you going?” He confessed that it was on behalf
of his uncle that he was rushing to summon a priest.
During this (third)
meeting, she assured him
that the uncle was “healed up”, as she had already made a separate appearance
to him.
This visitation would start
a tradition of therapeutic miracles associated with Our Lady of Guadalupe.
She also comforted Juan
Diego with the assurance that she would give him sure proof of her real identity.
Fourth)
On December
12, 1531 the Virgin appeared to Juan Diego for the fourth time and bade him
to go to the top of Tepeyac Hill and pick “Castilian garden flowers” from
the normally barren summit.
She helped him by “taking them up in her own hands” and folded them into his cloak woven
of maguey
plant fibers. Juan Diego
then set off to Zumarraga’s palace with this sure sign of the Virgin Mary
of Guadalupe’s identity. As he unwrapped his cloak, the flowers tumbled at
the churchman’s feet, and “suddenly, upon that cloak, there flashed a Portrait,
where sallied into view a Sacred Image of that Ever Virgin Holy Mary, Mother
of God.” This imprint of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, the “Miraculous
Portrait” as it is often
called, hangs today in the Basilica
of Gudalupe in Mexico
City. |
Maddern Or Madron Well.
"Plunge thy right hand in St Maciron's spring, If true to its troth be the
palm you bring; But if a false digit thy fingers bear, Lay them at once on
the burning share."
OF the holy well at St Maddern, Carne [a] writes thus --
"It has been contended that a virgin was the patroness of this
church--that she was buried at Minster--and that many miracles were performed
at her grave. A learned commentator, however, is satisfied that it was St
Motran, who was one of the large company that came from Ireland with St Buriana,
and he was slain at the mouth of the Hayle; the body was begged, and afterwards
buried here. Near by was the miraculous Well of St Maddern, over which a
chapel was built, so sacred was it held, (This chapel was destroyed by the
fanaticism of Major Ceely in the days of Cromwell.) It stood at no great
distance on the moor, and the soil around it was black and boggy, mingled
with a gray moorstone. . .
"The votaries bent awfully and tremblingly over its sedgy bank,
and gazed on its clear bosom for a few minutes ere they proved the fatal ordeal;
then an imploring look was cast towards the figure of St Motran, many a crossing
was repeated, and at last the pin or pebble held aloof was dropped into the
depth beneath. Often did the rustic beauty fix her eye intently on the bubbles
that rose, and broke, and disappeared; for in that moment the lover was lost,
or the faithful husband gained. It was only on particular days, however,
according to the increase or decrease of the moon, that the hidden virtues
of the well were consulted." [b]
Of this well we have the following notice by William Scawen, Esq., Vice-Warden
of the Stannaries. The paper from which we extract it was first printed by
Davies Gilbert, Esq., F.R.S., as an appendix to his "Parochial History of
Cornwall." Its complete title is, "Observations on an Ancient Manuscript,
entitled 'Passio Christo," written in the Cornish Language, and now preserved
in the Bodleian Library; with an Account of the Language, Manners, and Customs
of the People of Cornwall, (from a Manuscript in the Library of Thomas Artle,
Esq., 1777)" --"Of St Mardren's Well (which is a parish west
to the Mount), a fresh true story of two persons, both of them lame and decrepit,
thus recovered from their infirmity. These two persons, after they had applied
themselves to divers physicians and chirurgeons, for cure, and finding no
success by them, they resorted to St Mardren's Well, and according to the
ancient custom which they had heard of, the same which was once in a year--to
wit, on Corpus Christi evening--to lay some small offering on the altar there,
and to lie on the ground all night, drink of the water there, and in the
morning after to take a good draught more, and to take and carry away some
of the water, each of them in a bottle, at their departure. This
course these two men followed, and within three weeks they found the effect
of it, and, by degrees their strength increasing, were able to move themselves
on crutches. The year following they took the same course again, after which
they were able to go with the help of a stick; and at length one of them,
John Thomas, being a fisherman, was, and is at this day, able to follow his
fishing craft. The other, whose name was William Cork, was a soldier under
the command of my kinsman, Colonel William Godolphin (as he has often told
me), was able to perform his duty, and died in the service of his majesty
King Charles. But herewith take also this :-- "One Mr Hutchens,
a person well known in those parts, and now lately dead, being parson of
Ludgvan, a near neighbouring parish to St Mardren's Well,
he observed that many of his parishioners often frequented, this well superstitiously,
for which he reproved them privately, and sometimes publicly, in his sermons;
but afterwards he, the said Mr Hutchens, meeting with a woman coming from
the well with a bottle in her hand, desired her earnestly that he might drink
thereof, being then troubled with colical pains, which accordingly he did,
and was eased of his infirmity. The latter story is a full confutation of
the former; for, if the taking the water accidentally thus prevailed upon
the party to his cure, as it is likely it did, then the miracle which was
intended to be by the ceremony of lying on the ground and offering
is wholly fled, and it leaves the virtue of the water to be the true cause
of the cure. And we have here, as in many places of the land, great variety
of salutary springs, which have diversity of operations, which by natural
reason have been found to be productive of good effects, and not by miracle,
as the vain fancies of monks and friars have been exercised in heretofore."
Bishop Hale, of Exeter, in his "Great Mystery of Godliness," says --
"Of which kind was that noe less than miraculous cure, which,
at St Maddern's Well, in Cornwall, was wrought upon a poore cripple; whereof,
besides the attestation of many hundreds of the neighbours, I tooke a strict
and impartial examination in my last triennial visitation there. This man,
for sixteen years, was forced to walke upon his hands, by reason of the sinews
of his Ieggs were soe contracted that he cold not goe or walke on his feet,
who upon monition in a dream to wash in that well, which accordingly he did,
was suddainly restored to the use of his limbs; and I sasve him both able
to walk and gett his owne maintenance. I found here was neither art nor collusion,--the
cure done, the author our invisible God," &c.
In Madron Well--and, I have no doubt, in many others--may
be found frequently the pins which have been dropped by maidens desirous
of knowing "when they were to be married." I once witnessed the whole ceremony
performed by a group of beautiful girls, who had walked on a May morning
from Penzance. Two pieces of straw, about an inch long each, were crossed
and the pin run through them. This cross was then dropped into the water,
and the rising bubbles carefully counted, as they marked the number of years
which would pass ere the arrlval of the happy day. This practice also prevailed
amongst the visitors to the well at the foot of Monacuddle Grove, near St
Austell. On approaching the Waters, each visitor is expected
to throw in a crooked pin; and, if you are lucky, you may possibly see the
other pins rising from the bottom to meet the most recent offering. Rags
and- votive offerings to the genius of the waters are hung around many of
the wells. Mr Couch says :-- "At Maciron Well, near Penzance, I observed
the custom of hang-jog rags on the thorns which grew in the enclosure."
Crofton Croker tells us the same custom prevails in Ireland;
and Dr O'Connor, in his "Travels in Persia," describes the prevalence of
this custom.
Mr Campbell,[c] on this
subject, writes :--" Holy healing wells are common all over the Highlands,
and people still leave offerings of pins and nails, and bits of rag, though
few would confess it. There is a well in Islay where I myself have, after
drinking, deposited copper caps amongst a hoard of pins and buttons, and
similar gear, placed in chinks in the rocks and trees at the edge of the
'Witches' Well.' There is another well with similar offerings freshly placed
beside it, in an island in Loch Maree, in Ross-shire, and many similar wells are to be
found in other places in Scotland. For example, I learn from Sutherland that
a well in the Black Isle of Cromarty., near Rosehaugh, has miraculous healing
powers. A country woman tells me, that abput forty years ago, she remembers
it being surrounded by a crowd of people every first Tuesday its June, who
bathed and drank of it before sunrise. Each patient tied a string or rag
to one of the trees that overhung it before leaving. It was sovereign for
headaches. Mr--remembers to have seen a well here, called Mary's Well, hung
round with votive rags.'"
Well-worship is mentioned by Martin. The custom, in his day,
in the Hebrides, was to walk south round about the well.
Sir William Betham, in his "Gael and Cymbri" (Dublin:
W. Curry, Jun., & Co., 1834), says, at page 235 :-- "The Celtae were
much addicted to the worship of fountains and rivers as divinities. They
had a deity called Divona, or the river-god."
[a] "Tales of the West," by the author of "Letters from the East,"
[b] The tale of "The Legend of Pacorra."
[c] "Popular Tales of the West Highlands," by J. F. Campbell. (See page 234,
vol. ii.)
|
1367 Blessed Sibyllina
Biscossi blind (at 12) but saw Saint Dominic in ecstasy worked MANY GOOD
miracles as an anchorite for 67 years OP Tert. (AC)
(also known as Sybillina)
Born in Pavia, Italy, in 1287; cultus approved in 1853; beatified in 1854.
"All things work for the
good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose"
(Romans 8:28). How many of us would have the faith to trust in God's providence
as did this holy woman? As Mother Angelica has witnessed, true faith is knowing
that when the Lord asks you to walk into the void, He will place a rock beneath
your feet. True faith is to be able to praise God in all things; to say with
Job, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the
Lord" (Job 1:21).
Sybillina's parents died
when she was tiny and as soon as she was old enough to be of use to anyone,
the neighbors, who had taken her in at the time she was orphaned, put her
out to work. She must have been very young when she started to work, because
at the age of 12, when she became blind and could not work any more, she
already had several years of work behind her.
The cause of her blindness
is unknown, but the child was left doubly destitute with the loss of her
sight. The local chapter of the Dominican tertiary sisters took compassion
on the child and brought her home to live with them. After a little while
of experiencing their kind help, she wanted to join them. They accepted her,
young though she was, more out of pity than in any hope of her being able
to carry on their busy and varied apostolate.
They were soon agreeably
surprised to find out how much she could do. She learned to chant the Office
quickly and sweetly, and to absorb their teaching about mental prayer as
though she had been born for it. She imposed great obligations of prayer
on herself, since she could not help them in other ways. Her greatest devotion
was to Saint Dominic, and it was to him she addressed
herself when she finally became convinced that she simply must have her sight
back so that she could help the sisters with their work.
Praying earnestly for this
intention, Sybillina waited for his feast day. Then, she was certain, he
would cure her. Matins came and went with no miracle; little hours, Vespers--and
she was still blind. With a sinking heart, Sybillina knelt before Saint Dominic's
statue and begged him to help her. Kneeling there, she was rapt in ecstasy,
and she saw him come out of the darkness and take her by the hand.
He took her to a dark tunnel
entrance, and she went into the blackness at his word. Terrified, but still
clinging to his hand, she advanced past invisible horrors, still guided and
protected by his presence. Dawn came gradually, and then light, then a blaze
of glory. "In eternity, dear child," he said. "Here, you must suffer darkness
so that you may one day behold eternal light."
Sybillina, the eager child,
was replaced by a mature and thoughtful Sybillina who knew that there would
be no cure for her, that she must work her way to heaven through the darkness.
She decided to become a anchorite, and obtained the necessary permission.
In 1302, at the age of 15, she was sealed into a tiny cell next to the Dominican
church at Pavia. At first she had a companion, but her fellow recluse soon
gave up the life. Sybillina remained, now alone, as well as blind.
The first seven years were
the worst, she later admitted. The cold was intense, and she never permitted
herself a fire. The church, of course, was not heated, and she wore the same
clothes winter and summer. In the winter there was only one way to keep from
freezing--keep moving--so she genuflected, and gave herself the discipline.
She slept on a board and ate practically nothing. To the tiny window, that
was her only communication with the outside world, came the troubled and
the sinful and the sick, all begging for her help. She prayed for all of
them, and worked many miracles in the lives of the people of Pavia.
One of the more amusing
requests came from a woman who was terrified of the dark. Sybillina was praying
for her when she saw her in a vision, and observed that the woman--who thought
she was hearing things--put on a fur hood to shut out the noise. The next
day the woman came to see her, and Sybillina laughed gaily. "You were really
scared last night, weren't you?" she asked. "I laughed when I saw you pull
that hood over your ears." The legend reports that the woman was never frightened
again.
Sybillina had a lively
sense of the Real Presence and a deep devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.
One day a priest was going past her window with Viaticum for the sick; she
knew that the host was not consecrated, and told him so. He investigated,
and found he had indeed taken a host from the wrong container.
Sybillina lived as a recluse
for 67 years. She followed all the Masses and Offices in the church, spending
what few spare minutes she had working with her hands to earn a few alms
for the poor (Attwater2, Benedictines, Dorcy).
|
1394 St. Dorothy of Montau
visions and spiritual gifts patroness of Prussia
Widow and hermitess.
She was born a peasant on February 6, 1347, in Montau, Prussia. After marrying
a wealthy swordsmith, Albrecht of Danzig, Poland, she bore him nine children
and changed his gruff character. He even accompanied her on pilgrimages.
However, when she went to Rome in 1390, Albrecht remained at home and died
during her absence. A year later Dorothy moved to Marienswerder, where she
became a hermitess. She had visions and spiritual gifts. Dorothy died on
June 25 and is the patroness of Prussia. She was never formally canonized.
Dorothy of
Montau, Widow (PC) Born at Montau near Marienburg,
Prussia, Germany, on February 6, 1347; died June 25, 1394. Though she was
never canonized, Saint Dorothy is widely venerated in central Europe, particularly
among the Prussians, who have selected her as their patron saint. Like Saint
Catherine of Siena and Saint Bridget of Sweden, who were her contemporaries,
she was favored by divine grace with many visions, revelations, and ecstasies,
especially during the last years of her life.
As a 17-year-old
peasant girl, she married a wealthy swordsmith from Danzig named Albert (Albrecht)
by whom she had nine children. Of these only the youngest survived, a daughter
who later became a Benedictine nun. Albert appears to have been surly and
bad- tempered, and it seems likely that their married life, at least in its
early years, was far from ideal. However, Dorothy's gentleness, fortitude,
and kindness gradually softened him, and in 1384, he agreed to accompany
her on a pilgrimage to Aachen.
After other
pilgrimages to Einsiedeln and Cologne, they planned to make one to Rome for
the jubilee that was to be held in 1390; but while they were making their
preparations, Albert fell ill and so Dorothy went alone, travelling on foot
and begging her food. By the time she returned from Rome, where she had been
delayed by a sickness, her husband had died.
Now that she
had become a widow, Dorothy was able to fulfill a dream she had long cherished
of retiring from the world. In 1391, she went to Marienwerder where, after
spending two years on probation, she became a recluse in the church of the
Teutonic Knights.
On May 2, 1393,
she had herself walled up in a cell that measured 6' x 6' and was about 9'
tall. Of the three windows one opened to the sky, the second to a cemetery
(and through which she also received food) and the third on to the altar
of the church where, as was often the custom in those regions, the Blessed
Sacrament was exposed all day.
Like many others,
Dorothy had an intense devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and was often favored
with mystic visions of it. Her reputation for holiness grew rapidly and many
people came to her seeking counsel or miraculous cures.
However, the
rigors of her mode of life, added to the severe austerities she practiced,
soon broke her health and she died in May 1394, after living only a little
more than a year in her cell. Many miracles were attributed to her, and an
account of her visions and ecstasies has been left by her confessor (Benedictines,
Delaney, Encyclopedia).
Dorothy's emblem
is a lantern and a rosary. Sometimes she is surrounded by arrows in paintings
of her. Venerated at Montau and Marienwerder, Prussia (Roeder).
|
1420 Blessed Elisabeth the
Good, OFM Tert. mystical experiences including the stigmata V (AC)
Born in Waldsee, W&uouml;rtemberg, Germany, 1386; died there, ; cultus
confirmed in 1766. Elisabeth lived her whole life in a small community of
Franciscan tertiaries near Waldsee. She was subject to mystical experiences
including the stigmata, and went for long periods without any natural food
(Benedictines). |
|
1431 Blessed Mary of Pisa Widow
miraculous favors saw guardian angel from childhood OP Tertiary (AC) (also known as Catherine Mancini)
Born in Pisa, Italy, 1355; died 1431; cultus confirmed
by Pius IX in 1855; feast day formerly on December 22.
Almost from the moment
Catherine Mancini was born into that noble family she began enjoying the
miraculous favors with which her life was filled. At the age of three, she
was warned by some heavenly agency that the porch on which she had been placed
by her nurse was unsafe. Her cries attracted the nurse's attention, and they
had barely left the porch when it collapsed. She also was able to see her
guardian angel from her childhood.
When she was 5, she beheld
in an ecstasy the dungeon of a palace in Pisa in which Blessed Peter Gambacorta, one of the leading citizens, was
being tortured. At Catherine's prayer, the rope broke and the man was released.
Our Lady told the little girl to say prayers every day for this man, because he
would one day be her benefactor. |
1452 Blessed Peter de Geremia
heard a knock at the window no church large enough to hold crowds countless
miracles: fish, stopped Aetna w/veil of Saint Agatha, raised dead etc. OP (AC)
Born in Palermo, Sicily,
Italy, in 1381; cultus approved in 1784. God has a mission for each
of us and has given us the gifts to successfully complete the purpose for
which He created us. Our job is to discern our role in His creation. The
gifts He has given us can be the instrument of our damnation when used against
His purposes; when we discern correctly through prayer and spiritual direction
these same talents and abilities can sanctify us and those around us. It's
not too late to seek God's will for your life--in fact, we should attempt
to understand His will for our every action, each day, using all the gifts
his has given us.
Peter Geremia was unusually
gifted. He was sent early to the University of Bologna, where he passed his
studies brilliantly, and attracted the attention and praise of all. On the
brink of a successful career as a lawyer, he experienced a sudden and total
conversion.
Having retired one night,
he was pleasantly dreaming of the honors that would soon come to him in his
work, when he heard a knock at the window. As his room was on the third floor,
and there was nothing for a human to stand on outside his window, he sat
up, in understandable fright, and asked who was there.
A hollow voice responded
that he was a relative who had just died, a successful lawyer who had wanted
human praise so badly that he had lied to win it, and now was eternally lost
because of his pride. Peter was terrified, and acted at once upon the suggestion
to turn, while there was still time, from the vanity of public acclaim. He
went the next day to a locksmith and bought an iron chain, which he riveted
tightly about him. He began praying seriously to know his vocation.
Soon thereafter, God made
known to him that he should enter the Dominican Order. He did so as soon
as possible. His new choice of vocation was a bitter blow to his father,
who had gloried in his son's achievements, hoping to see him become the most
famous lawyer in Europe. He angrily journeyed to Bologna to see his son and
demanded that he come home. The prior, trying to calm the excited man, finally
agreed to call Peter. As the young man approached them, radiantly happy in
his new life, the father's heart was touched, and he gladly gave his blessing
to the new undertaking.
Peter's brilliant mind and great spiritual gifts found room for development
in the order, and he became known as one of the finest preachers in Sicily.
He was so well known that Saint Vincent Ferrer asked to see him, and they
conversed happily on spiritual matters. He always preached in the open air,
because there was no church large enough to hold the crowds that flocked
to hear him.
Being prior of the abbey,
Peter was consulted one day when there was no food for the community. He
went down to the shore and asked a fisherman for a donation. He was rudely
refused. Getting into a boat, he rowed out from the shore and made a sign
to the fish; they broke the nets and followed him. Repenting of his bad manners,
the fisherman apologized, whereupon Peter made another sign to the fish,
sending them back into the nets again. The records say that the monastery
was ever afterwards supplied with fish.
Peter was sent as visitator
to establish regular observance in the monasteries of Sicily. He was called
to Florence by the pope to try healing the Greek schism. A union of the opposing
groups was affected, though it did not last. Peter was offered a bishopric
(and refused it) for his work in this matter.
At one time, when Peter
was preaching at Catania, Mount Etna erupted and torrents of flame and lava
flowed down on the city. The people cast themselves at his feet, begging
him to save them. After preaching a brief and pointed sermon on repentance,
Peter went into the nearby shrine of Saint Agatha, removed the veil of the saint, which
was there honored as a relic, and held it towards the approaching tide of
destruction. The eruption ceased and the town was saved.
This and countless other
miracles he performed caused him to be revered as a saint. He raised the
dead to life, healed the crippled and the blind, and brought obstinate sinners
to the feet of God. Only after his death was it known how severely he had
punished his own body in memory of his youthful pride (Benedictines, Dorcy).
|
1463
St. Didacus several miracles restoring patients eremite kind gentle
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).
|
1481 Bl. Constantius a boy of extraordinary
goodness gift of prophecy or second sight miracles
Early in the fifteenth
century, there lived at Fabriano a boy of such extraordinary goodness that
even his parents would sometimes wonder whether he were not rather an angel
than a human child. Once, when his little sister was suffering
from a disease which the doctors pronounced incurable, Constantius Bernocchi
asked his father and mother to join him in prayer by her bedside that she
might recover. They did so, and she was immediately cured. At the age of
fifteen he was admitted to the Dominican convent of Santa Lucia and he seemed
to have received the habit from the hands of Blessed Laurence of Ripafratta,
at that time prior of this house of strict observance. Constantius was one
of those concerned with the reform of San Marco in Florence, and it was while
he was teaching in that city that it was discovered that he had the gift
of prophecy or second sight. Among other examples, the death of St. Antoninus was made known to him at
the moment it took place, and this is mentioned by Pope Clement VII in his
Bull for the canonization of that saint. He was also credited with the power
of working miracles, and besides the care of his office, he acted as peacemaker
outside the convent and quelled popular tumults. He was esteemed so holy
that it was reckoned a great favor to speak to him or even to touch his habit.
Upon the news of his death, the senate and council assembled, "considering
his death a public calamity", and resolved to defray the cost of a public
funeral. The cultus of Blessed Constantius was confirmed in 1821. His feast
day is February 25th. |
1492 Blessed Tadhg MacCarthy
Many cures have been reported at his under the high altar of the cathedral
of Ivrea B (AC)
Born 1455;
died in Ivrea, Savoy, Italy; beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1895.
Tadhg was born
into the ancient royal line of Munster; the MacCarthys were the most prominent
family in southern Ireland and inevitably were pitted against the Norman
Fitzgeralds who seized Irish lands during the reign of Henry II of England.
A bitter enmity existed between the two families that lasted for centuries.
When Pope Sixtus
IV consecrated Tadhg MacCarthy as bishop of Ross, the Fitzgeralds reacted
by contriving to place a rival claimant in the office. When Tadhg returned
from his consecration in Rome he found the see occupied. About that same
time Sixtus died and Tadhg's enemies seized the opportunity to vehemently
denounce him to the new Pope Innocent VIII. The charges were so outrageous
that the holy father immediately excommunicated the lawful bishop. An investigation,
however, revealed that Tadhg was innocent of the charges whereupon Innocent
issued three bulls that totally exonerated Tadhg and appointed him to the
bishopric of Cork and Cloyne.
The Fitzgeralds
still opposed him and refused to surrender the property of the see or to
allow him to occupy it. Innocent intervened by issuing such a strong decree
that the Fitzgeralds finally relented. Tadhg set out from Rome to assume
the leadership of his see. He travelled as a humble pilgrim and stayed overnight
in the hospice of Ivrea. The next morning he was found dead.
Tradition says
that the bishop of Ivrea was unable to sleep that night, disturbed by a vivid
dream of a bishop, unknown to him, being taken into heaven. When it was discovered
that Tadhg was a bishop, this dream was considered the first of numerous
miracles connected with him. Many cures have been reported at his under the
high altar of the cathedral of Ivrea, where he continues to be the
subject of veneration (Montague). |
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.
|
1511 Blessed John Liccio
Dominican habit 96 years cured the sick when he was a baby reciting daily
Office of the Blessed Virgin Office of the Dead, and the Penitential Psalms
as a child frequently in ecstasy withered hand made whole OP (AC)
(also known as John Licci) Born in Sicily in 1400; beatified in 1733.
The man who holds the all-time record for wearing the Dominican habit--96
years-- was also a person about whom some delightful stories are told. Perhaps
only in Sicily could so many wonderful things have happened to one man.
John was born to a poor family. His mother died at his birth and his father,
too poor to hire a nurse for the baby, fed him on crushed pomegranates and
other odds and ends. He was obliged to leave the baby alone when he went
out to work in the fields, and a neighbor women, who heard the child crying,
took the baby over to her house and fed him properly.
She laid the baby in bed beside her sick husband, who had been paralyzed
for a long time. Her husband rose up--cured, and the woman began to proclaim
the saintly quality of the baby she had taken in. When John's father came
home, however, he was not only unimpressed by her pious remarks, he was downright
furious that she had interfered in his household. He took the baby home again
and fed it more pomegranates.
At this point, the sick man next door fell ill again, and his wife came to
John's father and begged to be allowed to care for the child. Begrudgingly,
the father let the wonderful child go. The good woman took care of him for
several years, and never ceased to marvel that her husband had been cured
a second time--and that he remained well.
Even as a tiny baby, John gave every evidence that he was an unusual person.
At an age when most children are just beginning to read, he was already reciting
the daily Office of the Blessed Virgin, the Office of the Dead, and the Penitential
Psalms. He was frequently in ecstasy, and was what might be called an "easy
weeper"; any strong emotion caused him to dissolve in floods of tears.
At the age of fifteen, John went to Palermo on a business trip for his father,
and he happened to go to confession to Blessed Peter Geremia, at the church
of Saint Zita. The friar suggested that he become a religious. John believed
himself quite unworthy, but the priest managed to convince him to give it
a try. The habit, which he put on for the first time in 1415, he was to wear
with distinction for nearly a century.
Humble, pure, and a model of every observance, Brother John finished his
studies and was ordained. He and two brothers were sent to Caccamo to found
a convent, and John resumed his career of miracle-working, which was to bring
fame to the order, and to the convent of Saint Zita.
As the three friars walked along the road, a group of young men began ridiculing
them and finally attacked them with daggers. One boy attempted to stab John,
but his hand withered and refused to move. After the friars had gone on,
the boys huddled together and decided that they had better ask pardon. They
ran after the Dominicans and begged their forgiveness. John made the Sign
of the Cross, and the withered hand was made whole.
The story of the building at Caccamo reads like a fairy tale. There was,
first of all, no money. Since the friars never had any, that did not deter
John Liccio, but he knew it would be necessary to get enough to pay the workmen
to begin the foundations.
John went into the parish church at Caccamo and prayed. An angel told him
to "build on the foundations that were already built." All he had to do was
to find them. The next day, he went into the woods with a party of young
woodcutters and found the place the angel had described: foundations, strongly
and beautifully laid out, for a large church and convent. It had been designed
for a church called Saint Mary of the Angels, but was never finished.
John moved his base of operations to the woods where the angel had furnished
him with the foundations. One day, in the course of the construction, the
workmen ran out of materials. They pointed this out to John, who told them
to come back tomorrow anyway. The next day at dawn a large wagon, drawn by
two oxen, appeared with a load of stone, lime, and sand. The driver politely
inquired where the fathers would like the material put; he capably unloaded
the wagon, and disappeared, leaving John with a fine team of oxen--and giving
us a fascinating story of an angel truck-driver.
These oxen figured at least once more in the legends of John Liccio. Near
Christmas time, when there was little fodder, a neighbor insisted on taking
the oxen home with him "because they were too much care for the fathers."
John refused, saying that they were not too heavy a burden, and that they
had come a long way.
The man took them anyway, and put them into a pasture with his own oxen.
They promptly disappeared, and, when he went shamefacedly to report to the
fathers, the man found the team contentedly munching on practically nothing
in the fathers' yard. "You see, it takes very little to feed them," John
said.
During the construction, John blessed a well and dried it up, until they
were finished with the building. Whereupon, he blessed it again, and once
more it began to give fine sweet water, which had curative properties.
Beams that were too short for the roof, he simply stretched. Sometimes he
had to multiply bread and wine to feed his workers, and once he raised from
the dead a venturesome little boy who had fallen off the roof while watching
his uncle setting stones.
Word of his miraculous gift soon spread, of course, and all the neighbors
came to John with their problems. One man had sowed a field with good grain,
only to have it grow up full of weeds. John advised him to do as the Scriptures
had suggested--let it grow until the harvest. When the harvest came, it still
looked pretty bad, but it took the man ten days to thresh the enormous crop
of grain that he reaped from that one field.
John never let a day pass without doing something for some neighbor. Visiting
a widow whose six small children were crying for food, John blessed them,
and he told her to be sure to look in the bread box after he had gone. Knowing
there had been nothing in it for days, she looked anyway; it was full, and
it stayed full for as long as the need lasted.
Once when a plague had struck most of the cattle of the vicinity, one of
John's good friends came to him in tears, telling him that he would be ruined
if anything happened to his cattle. "Don't worry," John said, "yours won't
get sick." They didn't.
Another time a neighbor came running to tell him that his wife was dying.
"Go home," said John. "You have a fine new son, and you shouldn't waste any
time getting home to thank God for him."
John was never too famous as a preacher, though he did preach a good deal
in the 90 years of his active apostolate. His favorite subject was the Passion,
but he was more inclined to use his hands than his speech. He was provincial
of Sicily for a time, and held office as prior on several occasions.
John Liccio is especially invoked to help anyone who has been hit on the
head, as he cured no less than three people whose heads were crushed by accidents
(Dorcy).
|
1540 St. Angela Merici innovative
approach to education the Ursulines first teaching order of women Saint Ursula
appeared to her levitated
When she was 56, Angela
Merici said "No" to the Pope. She was aware that Clement VII was offering
her a great honor and a great opportunity to serve when he asked her to take
charge of a religious order of nursing sisters. But Angela knew that nursing
was not what God had called her to do with her life.
She had just returned from a trip to the Holy Land. On the way there she
had fallen ill and become blind. Nevertheless, she insisted on continuing
her pilgrimage and toured the holy sites with the devotion of her heart rather
than her eyes. On the way back she had recovered her sight. But this must
have been a reminder to her not to shut her eyes to the needs she saw around
her, not to shut her heart to God's call.
All around her hometown
she saw poor girls with no education and no hope.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth
century that Angela lived in, education for women was for the rich or for
nuns. Angela herself had learned everything on her own. Her parents had died
when she was ten and she had gone to live with an uncle. She was deeply disturbed
when her sister died without receiving the sacraments. A vision reassured
her that her sister was safe in God's care -- and also prompted her to dedicate
her life to God.
When her uncle died, she
returned to her hometown and began to notice how little education the girls
had. But who would teach them? Times were much different then. Women weren't
allowed to be teachers and unmarried women were not supposed to go out by
themselves -- even to serve others. Nuns were the best educated women but
they weren't allowed to leave their cloisters.
There
were no teaching orders of sisters like we have today.
But in the meantime, these
girls grew up without education in religion or anything at all.
These girls weren't being
helped by the old ways, so Angela invented a new way.
She brought together a
group of unmarried women, fellow Franciscan tertiaries and other friends,
who went out into the streets to gather up the girls they saw and teach them.
These women had little money and no power, but were bound together by their
dedication to education and commitment to Christ. Living in their own homes,
they met for prayer and classes where Angela reminded them, " Reflect that
in reality you have a greater need to serve [the poor] than they have of
your service." They were so successful in their service that Angela was asked
to bring her innovative approach to education to other cities, and impressed
many people, including the pope.
Though she turned him down,
perhaps the pope's request gave her the inspiration or the push to make her
little group more formal. Although it was never a religious order in her
lifetime, Angela's Company of Saint Ursula, or the Ursulines, was the first
group of women religious to work outside the cloister and the first teaching
order of women.
It took many years of frustration
before Angela's radical ideas of education for all and unmarried women in
service were accepted. They are commonplace to us now because people like
Angela wanted to help others no matter what the cost. Angela reminds us of
her approach to change: "Beware of trying to accomplish anything by force,
for God has given every single person free will and desires to constrain
none; he merely shows them the way, invites them and counsels them."
Saint Angela Merici reassured
her Sisters who were afraid to lose her in death: "I shall continue to be
more alive than I was in this life, and I shall see you better and shall
love more the good deeds which I shall see you doing continually, and I shall
be able to help you more." She died in 1540, at about seventy years old.
In Her Footsteps:
Take a look around you.
Instead of just driving or walking without paying attention today, open your
eyes to the needs you see along the way. What people do you notice who need
help but who are not being helped? What are their true needs? Make a commitment
to help them in some way.
Prayer: Saint Angela, you
were not afraid of change. You did not let stereotypes keep you from serving.
Help us to overcome our fear of change in order to follow God's call and
allow others to follow theirs. Amen
Copyright (c) 1996-2000
by Terry Matz. All Rights Reserved.
Angela de'Merici, OSU V
(RM) (also known as Angela
of Brescia) Born
in Desenzano (near Lake Garda and Brescia), Lombardy, Italy, March 21, 1470
or 1474; died in Brescia, Italy, January 27, 1540; canonized 1807; feast
day formerly on May 31.
"If any person, because
of his state in life, cannot do without wealth and position, let him at least
keep his heart empty of the love of them." --Saint Angela Merici.
As is often the case, it
was the number of burdens which Angela Merici had to endure that brought
her ever closer to God and moved her to order her existemce. Recalling her
life, we should thank God for every hardship He permits us and the strength
He gives us to endure them. Each trial is an opportunity to trust in God,
to realize His power and His movement within and around us.
Orphaned at age 10, Angela
and her sister and brother were raised by their wealthy uncle, Biancozi,
at Salo. In Angela's first ecstatic experience, the Blessed Mother appeared
with Angela's elder sister. Thus put her mind at rest regarding the salvation
of her sister, who had died suddenly without receiving the sacraments. Angela
became a Franciscan tertiary at 13 and lived austerely, sometimes eating
only bread, water, and vegetables once a week. From this time onward, she
wished to possess nothing, not even a bed (because the Son of Man had nowhere
to lay His head).
On the death of her uncle,
the 20-year-old Angela returned to her hometown and began giving catechism
lessons to the poor children in Desenzano. She discussed her horror at the
ignorance so many children had of their religion with her friends, who were
mostly tertiaries. They were eager to help if Angela could show them how.
Although Angela was small of stature, she had a great spirit, charm, and
beauty capable of attracting and leading others. She and her friends began
to regularly and systematically teach their young, female neighbors. Angela's
own success in teaching the catechism in Desenzano led to the invitation
from a wealthy couple, whom she had once helped, to begin a school in Brescia.
Angela had the special
gift of being able to remember everything she read. She spoke Latin well
and knew the meaning of some of the hardest passages of Scripture, which
led to her being sought out for counsel. In Brescia she was brought in touch
with the leading families and became the center of a circle of devout men
and women whom she inspired with her great ideals.
On a trip to the Holy Land,
she suddenly lost her sight in Crete. She continued her trip with devotion,
and on the return trip, regained her sight at the very spot where she'd lost
it.
During a visit to Rome
for the Holy Year 1525, Pope Clement VII asked her to take charge of a group
of nursing sisters in Rome, but she declined. She told him of a vision she
had experienced years before of maidens ascending to heaven on a ladder of
light, which was what led her to gather young women into an informal novitiate.
In the vision the holy virgins were accompanied up and down the ladder by
glorious angels who played sweet music on golden harps. All wore beautiful
crowns decorated with precious jewels. After a time the music stopped and
the Savior Himself called her by name to create a society of women. The Holy
Father gave her permission to form a community.
Shortly, thereafter, Saint
Ursula appeared to her,
which is why she became the community's patron. Assisting at Mass one day,
Angela fell into ecstasy and was said to have levitated.
Soon after her return to
Brescia, she was forced to withdraw to Cremona
because war had
broken out, and when Charles V was on the point of making himself master
of Brescia it was essential that non-combatants leave the city. When peace
again prevailed, Angela's return to Brescia was greeted with joy by the citizens
who already venerated her as a prophetess and saint.
In Saint Afra's Church at Brescia on November 25,
1535, Angela and 28 younger companions bound themselves before God to devote
the rest of their lives to his service, especially by the education of girls.
Angela placed herself and the novices under the protection of Saint Ursula,
the patroness of medieval universities and venerated as a leader of women.
This was the beginning of the Company of Saint Ursula (Ursuline nuns), the
first teaching order of women--a novel idea that needed time before it was
accepted.
The order had no habit
(members usually wore a simple black dress), took no vows, and pursued neither
an enclosed nor a communal life; they worked to oversee the religious education
of girls, especially among the poorer classes, and to care for the sick.
The Ursulines were formally recognized by Pope Paul III four years after
Angela's death (1544) and were organized into a Congregation in 1565. At
the start much of the teaching was done in the children's homes: but in her
conception of an uncloistered, flexible society of women Saint Angela was
before her time.
She survived to direct
the society for only four years.
During that time Angela
was noted for her patience to her sisters and kindness in her many acts of
mercy to the poor, sick, and ignorant. Soon there were 150 sisters to whom
Angela addressed her wise sayings in her Counsels. As her sisters surrounded
her in prayer at the hour of her death, a beautiful ray of light shone upon
the saint--a sign that God was welcoming her to her eternal home. Angela
died with the name of Jesus on her lips.
In 1568, Saint Charles Borromeo called the Ursulines to Milan and
persuaded them to assume a cloistered communal life. In a provincial synod
he explained to his suffragan bishops that he knew of no better means for
the reform of their dioceses than to introduce the Ursulines into populous
communities.
Later in France strict
enclosure was adopted and the teaching of young girls was made the chief
concern of the order. The Ursulines flourish today (Attwater, Attwater2,
Benedictines, Bentley, Caraman, Delaney, Farmer, Schamoni, Walsh, White).
In art Saint Angela is
represented by the image of virgins ascending a ladder; or with Saint Ursula
and companions appearing to her (White).
|
1568 Saint Theodosius
of Totma & founded Ephraimov wilderness monastery miracles incorrupt
born at Vologda about the year 1530.
In his youth he was raised in a spirit of Christian piety and the fear of
God. At the insistence of his parents he married, but family life did not
turn him away from God. He went fervently to church and prayed at home, particularly
at night. After the death of his parents and his wife, he withdrew to the
Priluki monastery not far from Vologda.
At the monastery Theodosius passed through the various obediences: he carried
water, chopped fire-wood, milled flour and baked bread. He went to Totma
on the igumen's orders to search for a salt-works for the monastery. He sought
the permission of Tsar Ivan Vasilevich and the blessing of Archbishop Nicander
to found a monastery at Totma.
Theodosius was appointed head of this newly-formed Totma monastery, which
in a grant of 1554 was declared free of taxation.
The saint founded the Totma Ephraimov wilderness monastery and brought brethren
into it. Eventually becoming the head of two monasteries, Theodosius continued
to lead an ascetic life. He wore down his body by wearing chains and a hairshirt,
and beneath his monastic cowl he wore an iron cap. Fond of spiritual reading,
he acquired many books for the monastery. St Theodosius reposed in the year
1568 and was buried in the monastery he founded, and miracles occurred at
his grave.
On September 2, 1796 during the reconstruction of the Ascension church, his
relics were found incorrupt, and their glorification took place on January
28, 1798, on the day of his repose. |
1580 Blessed John the
Merciful of Rostov long life of pursuing asceticism humility, patience and
unceasing 
prayer, he spiritually nourished many people many healings that occurred
at his grave
(also known as "the Hairy") struggled at Rostov in the exploit of holy foolishness,
enduring much deprivation and sorrow. He did not have a permanent shelter,
and at times took his rest at the house of his spiritual Father, a priest
at the church of the All-Holy, or with one of the aged widows.
Living in humility, patience and unceasing prayer, he spiritually nourished
many people, among them St Irenarchus,
Hermit of Rostov (January 13). After a long life of pursuing asceticism,
he died on September 3, 1580 and was buried, according to his final wishes,
beside the church of St Blaise beyond the altar.
He had "hair upon his head abundantly," therefore he was called "Hairy."
The title "Merciful" was given to Blessed John because of the many healings
that occurred at his grave, and also in connection with the memory of the
holy Patriarch John the Merciful (November 12), whose name he shared. |
1591
Bl. Alphonsus de Orozco vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary
born in 1500 in Oropesa,
Spain. He studied at Talavera, Toledo,
and Salamanca, and became an Augustinian at the age of twenty-two. St. Thomas of Villanova was one of his instructors, imbuing
him with a spirit of recollection and prayer. Alphonsus, a popular preacher
and confessor, served as prior of the Augustinians in Seville and then in
1554, at Valladolid. In 1556 he became a court preacher, and in 1561 accompanied
King Philip II of Spain to Madrid. Throughout his court life, he did not
engage in the pleasures or intrigues around him. His example of holiness
made a great impression on the royal family and the nobles of Madrid. Alphonsus
was given a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and wrote treatises on prayer
and penance as Our Lady instructed him. He was beatified in 1881.
|
1592 St. Alexander Sauli The Apostle
of Corsica bishop performed miracles of prophecy, healing, and calming
of storms both during his life and after his death
He came from a prominent
family of Lombard, Italy, born in Milan in 1533. At an early age he entered
the Barnabite Congregation
{ Anthony Mary Zaccaria, Priest Born in
Cremona, Italy, 1502; died there, July 15, 1539; canonized by Pope Leo XIII
in 1897. "That which God commands seems difficult and a burden. . .
. The way is rough; you draw back; you have no desire to follow it. Yet do
so and you will attain glory." Antony studied medicine at the University
of Padua. In 1524, at the age of 25, he set up his practice in his hometown.
As a medical man he found himself ministering not only to the sick but also
to the dying and the bereaved. He found man and women sick not only in the
body but spiritually, and so he turned to the study of theology to learn
more about the comfort and ways of God. By 1528, it seemed natural that the
young doctor should be ordained as a secular priest who pursued a spiritual
and corporeal ministry. Soon he moved to work in Metan near Milan. His zeal,
molded on that of Saint Paul, knew no bounds. In 1530, he and a few
other priests, including Venerable Bartholomew Ferrari and Venerable James
Morigia, founded the congregation of Clerks Regular of Saint Paul, the members
of which were neither monks nor friars but lived under a rule "to revive
the love of divine worship and a true Christian way of life by continual
preaching and faithfully administering the sacraments." They worked
among the plague-stricken Milanese, in the midst of wars, and during Luther's
reforms. The group so invigorated the city's spiritual life that it was approved
by Pope Clement VI in 1533 with Antony as its first provost general. The
order became known as the Barnabites when, in the last year of Antony's life,
the church of Saint Barnabas in Milan became the order's headquarters. Antony
resigned in 1536, helped spread the community, and worked ceaselessly to
reform the Church. Under his direction, Louisa Torelli founded the congregation
of women called Angelicals, who protected and rescued girls who had fallen
into disreputable lives. Antony was only 37 when he died as a result of his
unceasing apostolic toil (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia,
White).}
, and became a teacher
at the University of Pavia and superior general of the congregation. In 1571
he was appointed by Pope Pius V to Aleria on Corsica.
Taking three companions,
Alexander rebuilt churches, founded seminaries and colleges, and stood off
the pirate raids in the area. He became the bishop of Pavia after refusing
other sees, serving only a year before his death. Alexander was a noted miracle
worker. He was also spiritual advisor to St. Charles Borromeo
and to Cardinal Sfondrato, who became Pope Gregory XIV. He was canonized in 1904 by Pope
St. Pius X.
Alexander Sauli, Barnabite
B (RM)
Born at Milan, Italy, in
1534; died at Colozza (near Pavia) on October 11, 1593; beatified in 1741
or 1742; canonized by Pope Saint Pius X in 1904. At the age of 17, Saint
Alexander, son of an important Genoese family, joined the Barnabites, which
had been recently founded by Saint Antony Zaccharia, studied at the order's
college at Pavia, endowed the college with a library, and was ordained in
1556. He was the confessor of Saint Charles Borromeo and Cardinal Sfondrati
(later Pope Gregory XIV). Alexander earned the reputation as a zealous preacher
during the time he was teaching at the university in Pavia.
In 1567, he was elected
general of his congregation. About this time, Borromeo was given the mandate
to reform the Humiliati. With the support of Pope Saint Pius V, Borromeo
favored merging the group into the lively Barnabites. As provost general
Sauli resisted Borromeo's efforts to incorporate the Humiliati friars into
the Barnabites because he feared that they would reduce the discipline of
his congregation. The assassination attempt on the life of Charles Borromeo
in 1571, led to the complete suppression of the order soon afterwards.
Later (1570) he began his
20 years of service to the Church as a bishop of the Corsican diocese of
Aleria. There he carried out religious reforms that were as unwelcome as
they were necessary and overdue. The saint found that the clergy were ignorant
and the people irreligious, engaging in frequent vendettas and brigandage.
The bishop moved his cathedral from Aleria to Cervione and began a systematic
visitation. He promulgated the decrees of the Council of Trent assiduously.
Sauli refused translation
to the see of Tortona and then Genoa, but just before his death in 1592,
Bishop Sauli was transferred to the Italian see of Pavia at the command of
Pope Gregory XIV. His friend, Saint Philip Neri, considered that Sauli's
reforms had transformed the disreputable Corsican diocese into a model for
others. He died during a visitation of his new diocese.
The bishop was reputed
to have performed miracles of prophecy, healing, and calming of storms both
during his life and after his death. He was a learned man with a special
aptitude for canon law, preaching, and catechesis. Although he is not as
charismatic as some of the saints of the Counter-Reformation, Saint Alexander
Sauli was an exemplary pastor in an age of abuse and corruption (Attwater,
Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer, Orsenigo, Yeo). |