Saints of this Day April 21  Undécimo Kaléndas Maji
Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас! 
(Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)

The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”,
showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.

"O Lord our God, grant us grace to desire Thee with our whole heart; that, so desiring, we may seek, and, seeking, find Thee; and so finding Thee, may love Thee; and loving Thee, may hate those sins from which Thou hast redeemed. Amen."--Saint Anselm

Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary

April 21 - OUR LADY OF THE SLAP (Italy, 1200)
Mary is a Woman who Loves (II)
Benedict XVI Deus est caritas # 4
The Magnificat - a portrait, so to speak, of her soul - is entirely woven from threads of Holy Scripture, threads drawn from the Word of God. Here we see how completely at home Mary is with the Word of God, with ease she moves in and out of it. She speaks and thinks with the Word of God; the Word of God becomes her word, and her word issues from the Word of God. Here we see how her thoughts are attuned to the thoughts of God, how her will is one with the will of God. Since Mary is completely imbued with the Word of God, able to become Mother of the Word Incarnate.
Thursday, April 21, 2011   Holy Thursday Evening – Mass of the Lord's Supper
First Reading:
Psalm:
Second Reading:
Gospel:
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15

After you have made a decision that is pleasing to God, the Devil may try to make you have second thoughts. Intensify your prayer time, meditation, and good deeds. For if Satan's temptations merely cause you to increase your efforts to grow in holiness, he'll have an incentive to leave you alone.

-- St. Ignatius of Loyola

160 The Holy Martyrs Theodore, his mother Philippa, Dioscorus, Socrates and Dionysius
 302 St.  Isaac, Apollos and Quadratus Martyrs spectators who witnessed sufferings of the Holy Great Martyr George
        (April 23).  His faith, valor and miracles caused them to believe in Christ
  303 St. Apollo & Companions Martyrs Nicomedíæ sanctórum Mártyrum Apóllinis, Isácii et Codráti
  305 Hieromartyr Januarius Bishop of Beneventum deacons Proculus, Sossius and Faustus, Desiderius the Reader,
        Eutychius and Acution
 341 Simeon Barsabae B and 1000 Companions martyred in Persia under King Shapur MM (RM)
       St. Arator priest Martyr with Fortunatus, Felix, Silvius, and in Alexandria, Egypt
       Antiochíæ sancti Anastásii Sinaítæ Epíscopi.    At Antioch, St. Anastasius the Sinaite, bishop.
 434 St. Maximian Patriarch of Constantinople priest
 582 Cyprian of Brescia B (AC)
 599 St. Anastasius XI Antioch Patriarch learning holiness comforting afflicted observed perpetual silence except for
        charity
 630 Beuno of Wales founder  Abbot (AC)
 678 Anastasius the Sinaite hermit on Mount Sinai left ascetical and theological writings of considerable value (RM)
721-724 Malrubius priest Abbot austere monastic life known for piety learning miracles M (AC)
 750 St. Frodulphus Benedictine monk hermit
       St. Beuno effective preacher evangelized North Wales
1109 Anselm of Canterbury Doctor of the Church OSB B Cur Deus Homo, the most famous treatise on the
        Incarnation ever written

1158 Blessed Walter of Mondsee in Upper Austria OSB Abbot
1163 Blessed Fastred of Cambron abbot-founder of Cambron obligation to poverty OSB Cist. Abbot (AC)
Œttingæ Véteris, in Bavária, sancti Conrádi a Parzham, Confessóris, Ordinis Minórum Capuccinórum, caritáte et oratióne insígnis; quem, miráculis clarum, Pius Papa Undécimus Sanctórum número adscrípsit.
    At Wertingen in Bavaria, St. Conrad of Parzham, confessor, of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, outstanding both for prayer and for love of neighbour.  Being renowned for miracles, Pope Pius XI enrolled him among the number of the saints.

1466 Blessed Bartholomew of Cervere PhD. precocious solemnity pious converted many heretics worked steadfastly to
        eradicate heresy OP M (AC)
1894 St. Conrad of Parzham Franciscan mystic lay brother Marian devotions gift of prophecy read people’s hearts
If We Ignore the Mother, We Can't See the Child (I) April 21 - Our Lady of the Slap (Italy, 1200)
     At the time of the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel prophesied that all generations would call Mary blessed. In our generation, we need to fulfill that prophesy. We need to call her blessed. We need to honor her again, because God did.

   Jesus himself, as a faithful Jew, kept the Fourth Commandment and honored His mother. Since Christ is our brother, she is our mother too. Indeed, at the end of John's Gospel, Jesus named her as the mother of all of us beloved disciples. So we too have a duty to honor her. If we look back into the biblical history of ancient Israel, we discover that the Chosen People always paid homage not only to their king, but also to the mother of the king. The gebirah, the queen mother, loomed large in the affections of Israelites.

   In Matthew's Gospel especially, we find Jesus portrayed as the royal Son of David and Mary as the queen mother. The Wise Men, for example, traveled far to find the Child King with his mother.

   We find the mother of the Son of David portrayed in a similar way in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 12. There she is shown to be crowned with 12 stars, for the 12 tribes of Israel. The New Testament writers, you see, were careful to show us Mary's important place in the kingdom, and how we should love and honor her.
Excerpt from Scott Hahn,
If We Ignore the Mother, We Can't See the Child, Zenit, Dec. 25, 2002.
See: http://www.mariedenazareth.com/2470.0.html?&L=1
"O Lord our God, grant us grace to desire Thee with our whole heart;
that, so desiring, we may seek, and, seeking, find Thee;

and so finding Thee, may love Thee; and loving Thee may hate those sins from which Thou hast redeemed Amen." Saint Anselm; Anselm countered rudeness with gentleness, hatred with clarity, anger with an unchangeable patience

Mary's Divine Motherhood
Called in the Gospel "the Mother of Jesus," Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the Mother of my Lord" (Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55; et al.). In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" (Theotokos).
Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, quoting the Council of Ephesus (431): DS 251.

The voice of the Father is heard, the Son enters the water, and the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove.
     THE spirit and example of the world imperceptibly instil the error into the minds of many that there is a kind of middle way of going to Heaven; and so, because the world does not live up to the gospel, they bring the gospel down to the level of the world. It is not by this example that we are to measure the Christian rule, but words and life of Christ. All His followers are commanded to labour to become perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect, and to bear His image in our hearts that we may be His children. We are obliged by the gospel to die to ourselves by fighting self-love in our hearts, by the mastery of our passions, by taking on the spirit of our Lord.
    These are the conditions under which Christ makes His promises and numbers us among His children, as is manifest from His words which the apostles have left us in their inspired writings. Here is no distinction made or foreseen between the apostles or clergy or religious and secular persons. The former, indeed, take upon themselves certain stricter obligations, as a means of accomplishing these ends more perfectly; but the law of holiness and of disengagement of the heart from the world is general and binds all the followers of Christ.
"All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him"
(Psalm 21:28)
Saints of this Day April 21  Undécimo Kaléndas Maji
Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)

The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.

BENEDICT XVI'S Holy Father's Prayer Intentions For 2011  April   2011
General Intention: That the Church may offer new generations, through the believable proclamation of the Gospel, ever-new reasons of life and hope.
Missionary Intention: That missionaries, with the proclamation of the Gospel and their witness of life, may bring Christ to all those who do not yet know Him.


The Rosary html Mary Mother of GOD -- Her Rosary Here
Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary
Mary's Divine Motherhood
Called in the Gospel “the Mother of Jesus,” Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as “the Mother of my Lord” (Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55; et al.). In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly Mother of God (Theotokos). 
Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, quoting the Council of Ephesus (431): DS 251.
“The Blessed Virgin was eternally predestined, in conjunction with the incarnation of the divine Word, to be the Mother of God. By decree of divine Providence, she served on earth as the loving mother of the divine Redeemer, an associate of unique nobility, and the Lord's humble handmaid. She conceived, brought forth, and nourished Christ.”
 (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 61).
breviary.net/martyrology/mart04/mart0421 stlukeorthodox.com/html/saints/  usccb.org  ewtn.com  St Patricks 0421
domcentral.org/life/martyr March  syriac   oca.org   glaubenszeugen.de/tage/Apr/21 Serbian   http://www.copticchurch.net  Melkite
Monthly Saints with pics here http://www.stfrancisenid.com/memorials.htm  antiochian.org/AW-WomenSaints--wonderful icons
Lutheran Saints  One Saint per day stthomasirondequoit.com/SaintsAlive/index.htm    stjohndc.org  God's Humourous Saints

Join Mary of Nazareth Project help us build the International Marian Center of Nazareth.

http://www.worldpriest.com/
THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY TO BE BELIEVED POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI
Morning Prayer and Hymn    Meditation of the Day    Prayer for Priests    Our Bartholomew Family Prayer List  Here
How to Stay Out of PURGATORY -- How to Get others Out     POPES html    Parents of Saints html   
The_Litany_of_the_Blessed_Virgin.html
   We are called upon with the whole Church militant on earth to join in praising and thanking God for the grace and glory he has bestowed on his saints. At the same time we earnestly implore Him to exert His almighty power and mercy in raising us from our miseries and sins, healing the disorders of our souls and leading us by the path of repentance to the company of His saints, to which He has called us.
   They were once what we are now, travellers on earth they had the same weaknesses, which we have. We have difficulties to encounter so had the saints, and many of them far greater than we can meet with; obstacles from kings and whole nations, sometimes from the prisons, racks and swords of persecutors. Yet they surmounted these difficulties, which they made the very means of their virtue and victories. It was by the strength they received from above, not by their own, that they triumphed. But the blood of Christ was shed for us as it was for them and the grace of our Redeemer is not wanting to us; if we fail, the failure is in ourselves.
   THE saints and just, from the beginning of time and throughout the world, who have been made perfect, everlasting monuments of God’s infinite power and clemency, praise His goodness without ceasing; casting their crowns before His throne they give to Him all the glory of their triumphs: “His gifts alone in us He crowns.”
Miracles 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000  
 
1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800   1900 Lay Saints
The POPES HTML
“The answers to many of life's questions can be found by reading the Lives of the Saints. They teach us how to overcome obstacles and difficulties, how to stand firm in our faith, and how to struggle against evil and emerge victorious.”  1913 Saint Barsanuphius

Popes mentioned in articles of Saints today
590-604 Pope St. Gregory I ("the Great") Doctor of the Church; born at Rome about 540;
St. Anastasius XI Antioch Patriarch learning holiness comforting afflicted observed perpetual silence except for charity his friend Gregory and correspondent.
Doctor of the Church; born at Rome about 540; died 12 March 604. Gregory is certainly one of the most notable figures in Ecclesiastical History. He has exercised in many respects a momentous influence on the doctrine, the organization, and the discipline of the Catholic Church. To him we must look for an explanation of the religious situation of the Middle Ages; indeed, if no account were taken of his work, the evolution of the form of medieval Christianity would be almost inexplicable. And further, in so far as the modern Catholic system is a legitimate development of medieval Catholicism, of this too Gregory may not unreasonably be termed the Father. Almost all the leading principles of the later Catholicism are found, at any rate in germ, in Gregory the Great. (F.H. Dudden, "Gregory the Great", 1, p. v).


He is also known as Gregory Dialogus (the Dialogist) in Eastern Orthodoxy because of the Dialogues he wrote. He was the first of the Popes from a monastic background. Gregory is a Doctor of the Church and one of the four great Latin Fathers of the Church (the others being Ambrose, Augustine, and Jerome). Of all popes, Gregory I had the most influence on the early medieval church.
Bl Urban II 1088-1099
1088-1099 Pope Bl. Urban II Under St. Bruno (afterwards founder of the Carthusians) Otho studied at Reims, where he later became canon and archdeacon. About 1070 he retired to Cluny and was professed there under the great abbot St. Hugh. After holding the office of prior he was sent by St. Hugh to Rome as one of the monks asked for by Gregory VII, and he was of great assistance to Gregory in the difficult task of reforming the Church. In 1078 he became Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and Gregory's chief adviser and helper. During the years 1082 to 1085 he was legate in France and Germany. While returning to Rome in 1083 he was made prisoner by the Emperor Henry IV, but was soon liberated. Whilst in Saxony (1084-5) he filled many of the vacant sees with men faithful to Gregory and deposed those whom the pope had condemned. He held a great synod at Quedlinburg in Saxony in which the antipope Guibert of Ravenna and his adherents were anathematized by name. Victor III had already been elected when Otho returned to Rome in 1085. Otho appears to have opposed Victor at first, not through any animosity or want of good will, but because he judged it better, at so critical a time, that Victor should resign the honour he was unwilling to retain. After Victor's death a summons was sent to as many bishops of the Gregorian party as possible to attend a meeting at Terracina. It was made known at this meeting that Otho had been suggested by Gregory and Victor as their successor. Accordingly, on 12 March, 1088, he was unanimously elected, taking the title of Urban II.
Pope Paschal II Succeeded Urban II, and reigned from 13 Aug., 1099, till he died at Rome, 21 Jan., 1118.  He gave his approval to the new orders of Cîteaux and Fontevrauld. On his numerous journeys he brought the papacy into direct contact with the people and dedicated a large number of churches. If it was not given to him to solve the problem of Investitures, he cleared the way for his more fortunate successor.

The holiness of Pope John XXIII was clearly manifest in his benevolence and striking humility.  His bestselling autobiography, The Journal of a Soul, details his spiritual growth from his seminary days to the final days of his life.  Proclaimed Blessed by Pope John Paul II, Pope John XXIII now lies incorrupt in the main sanctuary of St. Peter's basilica.
1700 1721 Pope Clement XI Giovanni Francesco was sent to Rome in his 11th year to prosecute studies at the Roman College. He made rapid progress; known as an author at 18, translating from the Greek into elegant Latin. He attracted the notice of the patroness of Roman literati, Queen Christina of Sweden, who before he became of age enrolled him in her exclusive Accademia. With equal ardour and success, he applied himself to the profounder branches, theology and law, and was created doctor of canon and civil law. So brilliant an intellect, joined with stainless morals and piety, secured for him a rapid advancement at the papal court. At the age of twenty-eight he was made a prelate, and governed successively Rieti, Sabina, and Orvieto, everywhere acceptable on account of his reputation for justice and prudence. Recalled to Rome, he was appointed Vicar of St. Peter's, and on the death of Cardinal Slusio succeeded to the important position of Secretary of Papal Briefs, which he held for thirteen years, and for which his command of classical latinity singularly fitted him. On 13 February, 1690, he was created cardinal-deacon and later Cardinal-Priest of the Title of San Silvestro, and was ordained to the priesthood.

Christianity is not a moral code or a philosophy, but an encounter with a person -- Benedict XVI

Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction on the Contemplative Life includes this passage:  
 To withdraw into the desert is for Christians tantamount to associating themselves more intimately with Christ’s passion, and it enables them, in a very special way, to share in the paschal mystery and in the passage of Our Lord from this world to the heavenly homeland(#1).
Benedict_XVI_Patriarch_Bartholomew



Benedict XVI_Archbishop_Hilarion
Benedict XVI receives Orthodox Archbishop Hilarion n September 18th, Pope Benedict XVI;  Archbishop Hilarion, president of the Department for External Church Affairs of the Patriarchate of Moscow.
The Orthodox Archbishop is currently visiting the Vatican at the invitation of Cardinal Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
This Pontifical Council underlined that the visit will confirm the ties of friendship between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, with a view to closer collaboration and to favor the presence of the Church in the lives of the peoples of Europe and the world.
In addition, a further step in ecumenical relations is scheduled for the month of October in Cyprus: the meeting of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, which will address the theme of Petrine Primacy.
Benedict XVI met with Aram I Catholicos of Cilicia, the highest authority of the Orthodox Church.  The Pope remembered the martyrs of the Armenian Church and the Armenian genocide, without explicitly mentioning it, and denounced the persecution of Christians in modern times.  Benedict XVI
That testimony culminated in the twentieth century, which proved a time of Unspeakable suffering for your people. Most recently we have all been saddened by the escalation of persecution and violence against Christians in parts of the Middle East and elsewhere.
The Catholicos is based in Lebanon. That is why, the Pope said, he prays every day for peace in this country and throughout the Middle East. Benedict XVI said there will only be peace in the region when each country is free to decide its own destiny and when every ethnic and religious group accepts and respects the others. Aram I emphasized that the churches must be means for peace and to achieve that they must recognize all genocides, even the Armenian.. The Catholicos recalled his meeting with John Paul II, adding that this visit represents a new step for ecumenical dialogue.
Aram I Catholicos
Our meeting is an opportunity to pray and reflect together, and to renew our commitment and efforts for Christian unity.
Armenian church members from all over the world join with Catholicos in making pilgrimages to Rome.
The great psalm of the Passion, Chapter 22, whose first verse “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Jesus pronounced on the cross, ended with the vision: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him
For kingship belongs to the LORD, the ruler over the nations. All who sleep in the earth will bow low before God; All who have gone down into the dust will kneel in homage. And I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you. The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.
Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China {whole article here} 2000 years of the Catholic Church in China
The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible. Patron_Saints.html

THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 35

The unjust man said that he would sin in secret: by thee let him depart from his impious purpose, O Mother of God.
Incline towards us the countenance of God: impel Him to have mercy.
O Lady, in heaven is thy mercy: and thy grace is spread abroad in the earth.
Power and strength are in thy arm: vigor and fortitude in thy right hand.
Blessed be thy empire over the heavens: blessed be thy magnificence upon the earth

Glory be to the Father who created the Universe, and the Son who gave up His life so that we may live forever,
and the Holy Spirit the Lord giver of life, Who proceeds from the Father and Son, with the Father and Son He is Worshiped and Glorified, and He has spoken through the prophets:  Amen.

April 21 - Saint Anselm, Doctor of the Church (+1109)
The Mother of God is Our Mother
Saint Anselm's great love for Mary is recorded in Alloquia Caelestia, a treatise in her praise. He says:
“O woman admirably unique and uniquely admirable, grant me the grace that your love be constantly in my heart and that you bear me forever within your heart.”
Her sanctity surpasses that of all other creatures and gains her the dignity of becoming the restorer of the world, Anselm taught. He also believed that her sufferings were greater than those of any of the martyrs and that being raised so high, nothing but God is greater than Mary. Anselm declared that his mind failed him and his tongue was dumb when he wished to contemplate the immensity of Mary's grace and glory.
Taken from www.doctorsofthecatholicchurch.com (O'Carroll, 33)

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Saint Frances Xavier Seelos  Practical Guide to Holiness
1. Go to Mass with deepest devotion. 2. Spend a half hour to reflect upon your main failing & make resolutions to avoid it.
3. Do daily spiritual reading for at least 15 minutes, if a half hour is not possible.  4. Say the rosary every day.
5. Also daily, if at all possible, visit the Blessed Sacrament; toward evening, meditate on the Passion of Christ for a half hour, 6.  Conclude the day with evening prayer & an examination of conscience over all the faults & sins of the day.
7.  Every month make a review of the month in confession.
8. Choose a special patron every month & imitate that patron in some special virtue.
9. Precede every great feast with a novena that is nine days of devotion. 10. Try to begin & end every activity with a Hail Mary

My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love Thee.  I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not
O most Holy trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly.  I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the Tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended, and by the infite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  I beg the conversion of poor sinners,  Fatima Prayer, Angel of Peace
The voice of the Father is heard, the Son enters the water, and the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove.
THE spirit and example of the world imperceptibly instil the error into the minds of many that there is a kind of middle way of going to Heaven; and so, because the world does not live up to the gospel, they bring the gospel down to the level of the world. It is not by this example that we are to measure the Christian rule, but words and life of Christ. All His followers are commanded to labour to become perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect, and to bear His image in our hearts that we may be His children. We are obliged by the gospel to die to ourselves by fighting self-love in our hearts, by the mastery of our passions, by taking on the spirit of our Lord.
These are the conditions under which Christ makes His promises and numbers us among His children, as is manifest from His words which the apostles have left us in their inspired writings. Here is no distinction made or foreseen between the apostles or clergy or religious and secular persons. The former, indeed, take upon themselves certain stricter obligations, as a means of accomplishing these ends more perfectly; but the law of holiness and of disengagement of the heart from the world is general and binds all the followers of Christ.
Nine First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
DECREES OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE CAUSES OF SAINTS
VATICAN CITY, 2 APR 2011 (VIS)
Today, during a private audience with Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Pope authorised the congregation to promulgate the following decrees:
MIRACLES
 - Venerable Servant of God Serafino Morazzone, Italian diocesan priest (1747-1822).
 - Venerable Servant of God Clemente Vismara, Italian professed priest of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (1897-1988).
 - Venerable Servant of God Elena Aiello, Italian foundress of the Minim Sisters of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1895-1961).
 - Venerable Servant of God Maria Catalina Irigoyen Echegaray (Sr. Maria Desposorios), Spanish professed nun of the Congregation of Servants of Mary, Ministers of the Sick (1848-1918).
 - Venerable Servant of God Enrica Alfieri (nee Maria Angela), Italian professed nun of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of St. Jeanne-Antide Thouret (1891-1951).

MARTYRDOM
 - Servant of God Peter Adrian Toulorge, French professed priest of the Premonstratensian Regular Canons, killed in hatred of the faith at Coutances, France (1757-1793).
 - Servants of God Francisco Esteban Lacal, Spanish professed priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and twenty-one companions, and Candido Castan San Jose, Spanish layman, killed in hatred of the faith in Spain in 1936.

HEROIC VIRTUES
 - Servant of God Thomas Kurialacherry, Indian, first bishop of Changanacherry and founder of the Sisters of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (1873-1925).
 - Servant of God Adolphe Chatillon (Br. Theophanius-Leo), Canadian professed religious of the Brothers of Christian Schools (1871-1929).
 - Servant of God Maria Chiara of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus (nee Vincenza Damato), Italian professed nun of the Order of St. Clare (1909-1948).
 - Servant of God Maria Dolores Inglese (nee Maria Libera Italia), Italian professed nun of the Congregation of Sisters Servants of Mary Reparatrix (1866-1928).
 - Servant of God Irene Stefani (nee Aurelia), Italian professed nun of the Institute of Missionary Sisters of the Consolata (1891-1930).
 - Servant of God Bernhard Lehner, German layman (1930-1944).
CSS/   VIS 20110404 (340

God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique each the result of a new idea.
As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike.
It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints.

Dear Lord, grant us a spirit not bound by our own ideas and preferences.
 
Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves.

O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory.
 
Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.
Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.
The 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary ) Revealed to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan)
1.    Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces. 2.    I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. 3.    The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. 4.    It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things.  Oh, that soul would sanctify them by this means.  5.    The soul that recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish. 6.    Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying themselves to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune.  God will not chastise them in His justice, they shall not perish by an unprovided death; if they be just, they shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. 7.    Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church. 8.    Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise. 9.    I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. 10.    The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.  11.    You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. 12.    I shall aid all those who propagate the Holy Rosary in their necessities. 13.    I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. 14.    All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ. 15.    Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac
The exact date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa {Armenian Ourhaï in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name} is not known. It is certain, however, that the Christian community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legend, King Abgar V, Ushana, was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples. In fact, however, the first King of Edessa to embrace the Christian Faith was Abgar IX (c. 206) becoming official kingdom religion.
  Christian council held at Edessa early as 197 (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., V,xxiii).
In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed (“Chronicon Edessenum”, ad. an. 201).
In 232 the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written.
Under Roman domination martyrs suffered at Edessa: Sts. Scharbîl and Barsamya, under Decius; Sts. Gûrja, Schâmôna, Habib, and others under Diocletian.
In the meanwhile Christian priests from Edessa evangelized Eastern Mesopotamia and Persia, established the first Churches in the kingdom of the Sassanides.  Atillâtiâ, Bishop of Edessa, assisted at the Council of Nicæa (325). The “Peregrinatio Silviæ” (or Etheriæ) (ed. Gamurrini, Rome, 1887, 62 sqq.) gives an account of the many sanctuaries at Edessa about 388.
Although Hebrew had been the language of the ancient Israelite kingdom, after their return from Exile the Jews turned more and more to Aramaic, using it for parts of the books of Ezra and Daniel in the Bible. By the time of Jesus, Aramaic was the main language of Palestine, and quite a number of texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls are also written in Aramaic.
Aramaic continued to be an important language for Jews, alongside Hebrew, and parts of the Talmud are written in it.
After Arab conquests of the seventh century, Arabic quickly replaced Aramaic as the main language of those who converted to Islam, although in out of the way places, Aramaic continued as a vernacular language of Muslims.
Aramaic, however, enjoyed its greatest success in Christianity. Although the New Testament wins written in Greek, Christianity had come into existence in an Aramaic-speaking milieu, and it was the Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac, that became the literary language of a large number of Christians living in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and in the Persian Empire, further east. Over the course of the centuries the influence of the Syriac Churches spread eastwards to China (in Xian, in western China, a Chinese-Syriac inscription dated 781 is still to be seen); to southern India where the state of Kerala can boast more Christians of Syriac liturgical tradition than anywhere else in the world.
Meeting of the Saints  walis (saints of Allah)
Great men covet to embrace martyrdom for a cause and principle.
So was the case with Hazrat Ali. He could have made a compromise with the evil forces of his time and, as a result, could have led a very comfortable, easy and luxurious life.  But he was not a person who would succumb to such temptations. His upbringing, his education and his training in the lap of the holy Prophet made him refuse such an offer.
Rabia Al-Basri (717–801 C.E.) She was first to set forth the doctrine of mystical love and who is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets. An elderly Shia pointed out that during his pre-Partition childhood it was quite common to find pictures and portraits of Shia icons in Imambaras across the country.
Shah Abdul Latif: The Exalted Sufi Master born 1690 in a Syed family; died 1754. In ancient times, Sindh housed the exemplary Indus Valley Civilisation with Moenjo Daro as its capital, and now, it is the land of a culture which evolved from the teachings of eminent Sufi saints. Pakistan is home to the mortal remains of many Sufi saints, the exalted among them being Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, a practitioner of the real Islam, philosopher, poet, musicologist and preacher. He presented his teaching through poetry and music - both instruments sublime - and commands a very large following, not only among Muslims but also among Hindus and Christians. Sindh culture: The Shah is synonymous with Sindh. He is the very fountainhead of Sindh's culture. His message remains as fresh as that of any present day poet, and the people of Sindh find solace from his writings. He did indeed think for Sindh. One of his prayers, in exquisite Sindhi, translates thus: “Oh God, may ever You on Sindh bestow abundance rare! Beloved! All the world let share Thy grace, and fruitful be.”
Shia Ali al-Hadi, died 868 and son Hassan al-Askari 874. These saints are the 10th and 11th of Shia's 12 most revered Imams. Baba Farid Sufi 1398 miracle, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki renowned Muslim Sufi saint scholar miracles 569 A.H. [1173 C.E.] hermit gave to poor, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti greatest mystic of his time born 533 Hijri (1138-39 A.D.), Hazrat Ghuas-e Azam, Hazrat Bu Ali Sharif, and Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia Sufi Saint Hazrath Khwaja Syed Mohammed Badshah Quadri Chisty Yamani Quadeer (RA)
1236-1325 welcomed people of all faiths & all walks of life
To Save A Life is Earthly; Saving A Soul is Eternal Donation by mail, please send check or money order to:
Eternal Word Television Network 5817 Old Leeds Rd. Irondale, AL 35210  USA
  Catholic Television Network  Supported entirely by donations from viewers  help  spread the Eternal Word, online Here
Mother Angelica saving souls is this beautiful womans journey Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament
Colombia was among the countries Mother Angelica visited. 
In Bogotá, a Salesian priest - Father Juan Pablo Rodriguez - brought Mother and the nuns to the Sanctuary of the Divine Infant Jesus to attend Mass.  After Mass, Father Juan Pablo took them into a small Shrine which housed the miraculous statue of the Child Jesus. Mother Angelica stood praying at the side of the statue when suddenly the miraculous image came alive and turned towards her.  Then the Child Jesus spoke with the voice of a young boy:  “Build Me a Temple and I will help those who help you.” 

Thus began a great adventure that would eventually result in the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, a Temple dedicated to the Divine Child Jesus, a place of refuge for all. Use this link to read a remarkable story about
The Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament
Father Reardon, Editor of The Catholic Bulletin for 14 years Lover of the poor; A very Holy Man of God.
Monsignor Reardon Protonotarius Apostolicus
 
Pastor 42 years BASILICA OF SAINT MARY Minneapolis MN
America's First Basilica Largest Nave in the World
August 7, 1907-ground broke for the foundation
by Archbishop Ireland-laying cornerstone May 31, 1908
James M. Reardon Publication History of Basilica of Saint Mary 1600-1932
James M. Reardon Publication  History of the Basilica of Saint Mary 1955 {update}

Brief History of our Beloved Holy Priest Here and his published books of Catholic History in North America
Reardon, J.M. Archbishop Ireland; Prelate, Patriot, Publicist, 1838-1918.
A Memoir (St. Paul; 1919); George Anthony Belcourt Pioneer Catholic Missionary of the Northwest 1803-1874 (1955);
The Catholic Church IN THE DIOCESE OF ST. PAUL from earliest origin to centennial achievement
1362-1950 (1952);

The Church of Saint Mary of Saint Paul 1875-1922;
  (1932)
The Vikings in the American Heartland;
The Catholic Total Abstinence Society in Minnesota;
James Michael Reardon Born in Nova Scotia, 1872;  Priest, ordained by Bishop Ireland;
Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.
Affiliations and Indulgence Litany of Loretto in Stained glass windows here.  Nave Sacristy and Residence Here
Sanctuary
spaces between them filled with grilles of hand-forged wrought iron the
life of our Blessed Lady After the crucifixon
Apostle statues Replicas of those in St John Lateran--Christendom's earliest Basilica.
Ordered by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, Popes' cathedral and official residence first millennium of Christian history.

The only replicas ever made:  in order from west to east {1932}.
Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel
 
It Makes No Sense
Not To Believe In GOD
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM
By Father John Corapi, SOLT Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Site http://www.fathercorapi.com
As we watch the spectacle of the world seeming to self-destruct before our eyes, we can’t help but be saddened and even frightened by so much evil run rampant. Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Somalia, North Korea—It is all a disaster of epic proportions displayed in living color on our television screens.  These are not ordinary times and this is not business as usual. We are at a crossroads in human history and the time for Catholics and all Christians to act is now. All evil can ultimately be traced to its origin, which is moral evil. All of the political action, peace talks, international peacekeeping forces, etc. will avail nothing if the underlying sickness is not addressed. This is sin. One person at a time hearts and minds must be moved from evil to good, from lies to truth, from violence to peace.
Islam, an Arabic word that has often been defined as “to make peace,” seems like a living contradiction today. Although it is supposed to be a religion of peace, Islam has been hijacked by Satan and now operates in the dark space of international terrorism.  As we celebrate the birthday of Our Lady, I am proposing that each one of us pray the Rosary for peace. Prayer is what must precede all other activity if that activity is to have any chance of success. Pray for peace, pray the Rosary every day without fail.  There is a great love for Mary among Muslim people. It is not a coincidence that a little village named Fatima is where God chose to have His Mother appear in the twentieth century. Our Lady’s name appears no less than thirty times in the Koran. No other woman’s name is mentioned, not even that of Mohammed’s daughter, Fatima. In the Koran Our Lady is described as “Virgin, ever Virgin.”
Archbishop Fulton Sheen prophetically spoke of the resurgence of Islam in our day. He said it would be through the Blessed Virgin Mary that Islam would be converted. We must pray for this to happen quickly if we are to avert a horrible time of suffering for this poor, sinful world. Turn to our Mother in this time of great peril. Pray the Rosary every day. Then, and only then will there be peace, when the hearts and minds of men are changed from the inside.
Talk is weak. Prayer is strong. Pray!  God bless you, Father John Corapi
A New Series by Fr. Corapi! The Moon Under Her Feet CD-Audio Set: $39.00 DVD-Video Set: $45.00  call 1-888-800-7084 or go to Site http://www.fathercorapi.com
In this four part series Father John Corapi goes to the heart of the contemporary world's many woes and wars, whether the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, or the Congo, or the natural disasters that seem to be increasing every year, the moral and spiritual war is at the basis of everything. “Our battle is not against human forces,” St. Paul asserts, “but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness...” (Ephesians 6:12). 
The “War to end all wars” is the moral and spiritual combat that rages in the hearts and minds of human beings. The outcome of that  unseen fight largely determines how the battle in the realm of the seen unfolds.  The title talk, “With the Moon Under Her Feet,” is taken from the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation, and deals with the current threat to the world from radical Islam, and the Blessed Virgin Mary's role in the ultimate victory that will result in the conversion of Islam. Few Catholics are aware of the connection between Islam, Fatima, and Guadalupe. Presented in Father Corapi's straight-forward style, you will be both inspired and educated by this four part series on topics more timely than ever.
The four titles are:  1. The Real War We Fight 2. The Battle for Hearts & Minds 3. Leadership: Essential for Victory 4. With the Moon Under Her Feet.

About Father John Corapi, S.O.L.T.
Father Corapi is a perpetually professed priest member of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity:  S.O.L.T.
The pillars of father's preaching are basically:
Love for and a relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary 
Leading a vibrant and loving relationship with Jesus Christ
Great love and reverence for the Most Holy Eucharist from Holy Mass to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
An uncompromising love for and obedience to the Holy Father and the teaching of the Magisterium of the Church

Father Corapi's Biography

Father John Corapi is what has commonly been called a late vocation. In other words, he came to the priesthood other than a young man. He was 44 years old when he was ordained. From small town boy to the Vietnam era US Army, from successful businessman in Las Vegas and Hollywood to drug addicted and homeless, to religious life and ordination to the priesthood by Pope John Paul II, to a life as a preacher of the Gospel who has reached millions with the simple message that God's Name is Mercy!

Father Corapi's academic credentials are quite extensive. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Pace University in the seventies. Then as an older man returned to the university classrooms in preparation for his life as a priest and preacher. He received all of his academic credentials for the Church with honors: a Masters degree in Sacred Scripture from Holy Apostles Seminary and Bachelor, Licentiate, and Doctorate degrees in dogmatic theology from the University of Navarre in Spain.

Since his ordination to the priesthood in 1991 Fr. Corapi has traveled over 2,000,000 miles preaching the Gospel. He has preached in 49 of the 50 states, all of the Canadian provinces except NewFoundland, and several other foreign countries. He is currently engaged in preaching and teaching the Catholic faith by way of the means of social communication: television, radio, the internet, and various other multi-media formats.

LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858 
China
Marian shrines
May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798  
Links to Related
Marian Websites  Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates
160 Holy Martyrs Theodore, his mother Philippa, Dioscorus, Socrates and Dionysius
They suffered during the reign of the emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161) in Perge, Pamphylia. When they were conscripting robust and healthy young men for military service, then they led the youth Theodore and the others to the military commander Theodotus.  The military commander ordered the youth to offer sacrifice to idols, but the martyr submitted neither to persuasion nor threats. Then the military commander had him placed on a red-hot plate and poured liquid tar on him. Suddenly, there was an earthquake, and a torrent of water gushed forth from the ground and extinguished the fire.  The martyr Theodore remained unharmed, and gave praise to God.
The commander ascribed his deliverance to sorcery, so St Theodore suggested that he test the power of his gods by putting the pagan priest Dioscorus through the same trials.

The commander told Dioscorus to lie upon the red-hot plate, and call on the help of Zeus. St Dioscorus replied that he believed in Christ, and he was prepared to throw the idol of Zeus into the fire. Again the military commander commanded him to get on the heated plate. St Dioscorus fell at the knees of St Theodore, asking that he pray for him. Then he got onto the plate, crying out: "I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, that You have numbered me among Your servants. Accept my soul in peace." Then he died, having been delivered from terrible torment.

They continued to torture St Theodore. They tied him to wild horses, which began to run. But at the city walls the horses fell down and collapsed, and the martyr Theodore remained unharmed.
Two soldiers, Socrates and Dionysius, saw how a fiery chariot came down from the heavens to St Theodore, on which the martyr was carried off.

The astonished soldiers shouted: "Great is the God of the Christians!" They seized them and on the next day threw them into a fiery furnace with the martyr Theodore.  But a heavenly dew cooled the furnace, and the saints remained alive.

In the morning, the military commander ordered soldiers to look upon the burned bodies of the martyrs. The soldiers returned and reported that the three youths were unharmed. St Theodore's mother, Philippa, encouraged the martyrs in their act.
The military commander told St Philippa to save her son, by urging him to offer sacrifice to the idols. St Philippa said that when her son was born it was revealed to her that he would be crucified for Christ. Hearing this, the military commander commanded them to crucify St Theodore, and to cut off the heads of the other martyrs.
St Theodore hung on the cross for three days, offering prayers to God until he finally died.
isaac_appolos
303 St.  Isaac, Apollos and Quadratus Martyrs spectators who witnessed sufferings of the Holy Great Martyr George (April 23).  Quadratus of Nicomedia
His faith, valor and miracles  caused them to believe in Christ

Nicomedíæ sanctórum Mártyrum Apóllinis, Isácii et Codráti; e quibus, sub Diocletiáno Imperatóre, últimus cápite plexus, et, paucis post illum diébus, duo primi in vínculis fame confécti, martyrii corónam meruérunt.

At Nicomedia, the holy martyrs Apollo, Isacius, and Codratus, who suffered under the Emperor Diocletian.  The last of these was slain by the sword, and a few days later the other two died from starvation in prison, meriting also the crown of martyrdom.

The Holy Martyrs Isaac, Apollos and Quadratus were pagans who served at the court of the emperor Diocletian (284-305).
They were among the spectators who witnessed the sufferings of the Holy Great Martyr George (April 23). His faith, valor and miracles caused them to believe in Christ. The saints openly declared themselves Christians, and reproached the emperor for his impiety and cruelty. They were sentenced to death. The martyr Quadratus was beheaded with a sword, and the martyrs Apollos and Isaac perished by starvation (+ 303).

Apollo, Isacius & Crotates (Codratus) MM (RM) Died c. 302. This trio of servants of Alexandra, wife of Diocletian, died for the faith. Crotates was beheaded and the other two starved to death in prison (Benedictines).
305 Hieromartyr Januarius Bishop of Beneventum deacons Proculus, Sossius and Faustus, Desiderius the Reader, Eutychius and Acution
They suffered martyrdom for Christ about the year 305 during the persecution ordered by the emperor Diocletian (284-305).

They arrested St Januarius and led him to trial before Menignus, the governor of Campagna (central Italy). Because of his firm confession of Christianity, they threw the saint into a red-hot furnace. But like the Babylonian youths, he came out unharmed. Then at Menignus's command, they stretched him out on a bench and beat him with iron rods until his bones were exposed.

In the crowd were Deacon Faustus and the Reader Desiderius, who wept at the sight of their bishop's suffering. The pagans surmised that they were Christians, and threw them into prison with the hieromartyr Januarius, in the city of Puteolum. At this prison were two deacons who had been jailed for confessing Christ: Sts Sossius and Proculus, and also two laymen, Sts Eutychius and Acution.

On the following morning they led out all the martyrs into the circus to be torn to pieces by wild beasts, but the beasts would not touch them. Menignus claimed that all the miracles were due to sorcery on the part of the Christians, and immediately he became blinded and cried out for help. The gentle hieromartyr Januarius prayed for his healing, and Menignus recovered his sight. The torturer's blindness of soul, however, was not healed. He accused the Christians of sorcery, and ordered the martyrs beheaded before the walls of the city (+ 305).

Christians from surrounding cities took up the bodies of the holy martyrs for burial, and those of each city took one, in order to have an intercessor before God. The inhabitants of Neapolis (Naples) took the body of the hieromartyr Januarius. With the body, they also collected his dried blood.

Since the fifteenth century, the blood liquifies when the container is placed near another relic, believed to be the martyr's head. Many miracles proceeded from the relics of the hieromartyr Januarius. During an eruption of Vesuvius around 431, the inhabitants of the city prayed to St Januarius to help them. The lava stopped, and did not reach the city.

341 Simeon Barsabae B and 1000 Companions martyred in Persia under King Shapur MM (RM)
In Pérside natális sancti Simeónis, Epíscopi Seleucíæ et Ctesiphóntis, qui, jubénte Rege Persárum Sápore, comprehénsus ferróque onústus, iníquis tribunálibus exhíbitus, et, cum Solem ipsum adoráre nollet et de Jesu Christo voce líbera et constantíssima testarétur, primum carceráli ergástulo, cum áliis centum (ex quibus álii Epíscopi, álii erant Presbyteri, álii diversórum órdinum Clérici), longo témpore macerátus est.  Deínde, cum Usthazánes, Regis nutrítius, qui ante jam lapsus a fide, sed per eum ad pæniténtiam fúerat revocátus, martyrium constánter subiísset, postrídie, qui erat ánnuus Domínicæ passiónis dies, ómnibus ante Simeónis óculos, qui unumquémque eórum strénue exhortabátur, gládio jugulátis, novíssime et ipse decollátus est.  Passi sunt étiam cum ipso claríssimi viri Abdéchalas et Ananías, qui ejus erant Presbyteri, Pusícius quoque, Præféctus artíficum Regis, eo quod Ananíam titubántem corroborásset, ídeo, collo circa téndinem perforáto et lingua exínde extrácta, crudéli morte occúbuit; post quem et fília cruciátibus ac demum ense decollátus est.
    In Persia, the birthday of St. Simeon, bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon.  He was arrested by order of Sapor, king of Persia, loaded with irons, and presented to the iniquitous tribunals.  As he refused to adore the sun, and openly and constantly bore testimony to Jesus Christ, he was confined for a long time in a dungeon with one hundred other confessors, some of whom were bishops. others priests, others clerics of various ranks.  Afterwards, Usthazanes, the king's foster-father, who had been converted from apostasy by Simeon, endured martyrdom with great constancy.  The day after, which was the anniversary of our Lord's Passion, the companions of Simeon whom he had feelingly exhorted, were beheaded before his eyes, after which he met the same fate.  With him suffered also several distinguished men: Abdechalas and Ananias, his priests, with Pusicius, the head of the royal workmen.  This last having encouraged Ananias, who seemed to falter, died a cruel death, having his tongue drawn out through a perforation made in his neck.  After him, his daughter, who was a consecrated virgin, was put to death.

341 SS. SIMEON BARSABAE, Bishop Of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, And Companions, Martyrs
PERHAPS the longest individual notice which occurs in the Roman Martyrology is that devoted to a group of Persian martyrs on this day. It runs as follows: “In Persia the birthday of St Simeon, Bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, who was taken by command of Sapor, King of the Persians, loaded with chains, and brought before iniquitous tribunals. As he refused to worship the sun, and bore testimony to Jesus Christ with clear and constant voice, he was first of all kept for a long time in prison with a hundred others, whereof some were bishops, others priests, others clerics of divers ranks; then when Usthazanes, the king’s tutor, who some time before had lapsed from the faith, but whom the bishop had recalled to repentance, had suffered martyrdom with constancy, on the next day, which was the anniversary of the Lord’s passion, the others were all beheaded before the eyes of Simeon, who meanwhile zealously exhorted each of them; and lastly he himself was beheaded. With him there suffered moreover the men of renown Abdechalas and Ananias, his priests; Pusicius also, the overseer of the king’s workmen, fell by a cruel death, because he had sttengthened Ananias when he was wavering, wherefore his neck was severed and his tongue removed; and after him his daughter also was slain who was a holy virgin.”
A hardly less lengthy eulogy is accorded on the next day to another group of Persian martyrs. St Simeon, called Barsabae, i.e. son of the fuller, is mentioned in the first place among the martyrs in the little supplement annexed to the Syriac “Breviarium” of 412 under the heading “The Names of our Masters the Confessors, Bishops of Persia”. There can be no question as to the reality and the cruelty of the persecution which was renewed by Sapor II in 340 or 341, for we hear much about it in Sozomen and other authorities.
The best text of the Passion of St Simeon Barsabae is probably that edited by M. Kmosko in vol. ii o. Patrologia Syriaca, pp. 661—690. The document had been published long ago by E. Assemani in his Acta martyrum orientalium, and there is also an Armenian translation. As has been pointed out by Fr Peeters in the Analecta Bollandiana (vol. xxix, pp. 151—156, and vol. xliii, pp. 264—268) as well as in the Acta Sanctorum, November, vol. iv, pp. 419—421, several interesting problems arise out of these acts. In particular the name which appears in the Roman Martyrology as Usthazanes and in the Syriac as Guhistazad is probably identical with the name Azadas which figures in the list of Persian martyrs on the next day. A French translation of the acts is printed in Dom Leclercq’s Les Martyrs, vol. iii, pp. 145—162.

Died at Ctesiphon, Persia. One of the longest entries in the Roman Martyrology is devoted to Saint Simeon and his companions, who were martyred in Persia during the extremely cruel and violent persecution of Christians under King Shapur. Simeon was appointed metropolitan of Persia (Seleucia and Ctesiphon) by the Council of Nicaea.
He was accused by Shapur of treasonable correspondence with the Christian Roman emperor, Constantius II, and of other offenses. He was ordered to conform to the Zoroastrian religion and worship the sun.

He protested his loyalty to the crown, but refused to apostatize: "The sun," he said, "went into mourning when its Creator and Master died on the cross." For refusing Simeon was tortured and imprisoned.
On Good Friday, Simeon was forced to witness the beheading of some 100 of his flock, including Abdechalas (priest), Ananias (priest), Usthazanes (the king's tutor and repentant apostate), Pusicius (oversee of the king's workmen who had encouraged Ananias), and others. Then, he himself was beheaded. Some time later Simeon's sister, Saint Pherbutha (Tarbula), a dedicated virgin, was charged with witchcraft. She, her sister, and another woman were sawn to death.
Simeon's successors in the see of Seleucia-Ctesiphon--Saint Shahdost and Saint Barba'shmin--were both martyred.
Thereafter, the see was vacant for nearly 40 years. Thousands of Christians perished and many fled abroad during the persecution (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia).
St. Arator priest Martyr with Fortunatus, Felix, Silvius, and in Alexandria, Egypt
Alexandríæ sanctórum Mártyrum Aratóris Presbyteri, Fortunáti, Felícis, Sílvii et Vitális, qui in cárcere quievérunt.
    At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Arátor, a priest, Fortunatus, Felix, Silvius, and Vitalis, who all died in prison.

He and his companions were martyred in an early persecution and were listed in the Roman Martyrology.

Arator, Fortunatus, Felix, Silvius, & Vitalis MM (RM). Saint Arator was a priest in Alexandria, Egypt, put to death with 4 others in one of the earlier persecutions. No particulars are now extant (Benedictines).
Nicomedíæ sanctórum Mártyrum Apóllinis, Isácii et Codráti; e quibus, sub Diocletiáno Imperatóre, últimus cápite plexus, et, paucis post illum diébus, duo primi in vínculis fame confécti, martyrii corónam meruérunt.
    At Nicomedia, the holy martyrs Apollo, Isacius, and Codratus, who suffered under the Emperor Diocletian.  The last of these was slain by the sword, and a few days later the other two died from starvation in prison, meriting also the crown of martyrdom.
434 St. Maximian Patriarch of Constantinople priest
Patriarch of Constantinople. He was a Roman priest and a friend of Pope Celestine I, who esteemed him.
Saint Maximian, Patriarch of Constantinople, was born in Rome from wealthy and pious parents. Upon receiving his inheritance, he provided tombs to bury those who led holy lives.

St Maximian was a plain man and he preferred to live far from worldly vanity. Because of his pure and virtuous life, Patriarch Sisinius of Constantinople (426-427) ordained him presbyter. When the heretic Nestorius (428-431) was deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople, St Maximian replaced him on the patriarchal throne on October 25, 431, during the reign of the holy emperor Theodosius the Younger (408-450).  The holy Patriarch Maximian died peacefully on April 12, 434, on Great and Holy Thursday.
582 Cyprian of Brescia B (AC)

The relics of Bishop Cyprian of Brescia, Lombardy, Italy, are enshrined in the church of San Pietro in Oliveto at Brescia (Benedictines).
599 St. Anastasius XI Antioch Patriarch learning holiness comforting afflicted observed perpetual silence except for charity
Antiochíæ sancti Anastásii Epíscopi.  At Antioch, St. Anastasius, bishop.
599 ST ANASTASIUS I, PATRIARCH OF ANTIOCH
ST ANASTASIUS I was a man of much learning and piety. According to Evagrius he was little given to speech, and when people discussed temporal affairs in his presence he seemed to have neither ears to bear nor tongue to make answer; yet he had a great gift for comforting the afflicted. Anastasius was banished from his see for twenty-three years for opposing erroneous teaching that had the support of the Emperors Justinian I and Justin II, but was restored by the Emperor Maurice at the instance of his friend and correspondent Pope St Gregory I. Several of the bishop’s letters and sermons have survived.
This Anastasius is often confused (e.g., apparently, in the Roman Martyrology) with St Anastasius the Sinaite, who was a hermit on Mount Sinai a century later. He was afterwards called the “New Moses”, and some of his writings against Monophysism and other works are extant. He died C. 700.

Most of what is known concerning the Patriarch Anastasius is recorded by Evagrius and Theophanes. For both saints see the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. ii, DCB., vol. i, DTC., vol. i, and DHG., vol. ii.
Distinguished for his learning and holiness. Anastasius opposed Emperor Justinian, who was issuing imperial documents about the faith. Justinian commanded that Anastasius be exiled but died before the sentence could be carried out by the court. Justin II, who succeeded his uncle Justinian, exiled Anastasius five years later. In 593 Anastasius was restored to his see by Pope St. Gregory the Great.

Anastasius I of Antioch B (RM) Died 599. This patriarch of Antioch is often confused with his namesake, "the Sinaite." Anastasius, a man of singular learning and piety, believed in total detachment from the temporal world. Evagrius (Eccl. Hist., 1.4, c. 38, 39) reports that he observed perpetual silence except when charity or necessity compelled him to speak. Anastasius was particularly adept at comforting the afflicted.

One would think that a man who did not speak would not get into trouble. Nevertheless, he was a resolute opponent of the imperial politico-theological rule. He vigorously opposed Emperor Justinian's heretical insistence that Jesus, during his mortal life, suffered no pain, i.e., that Christ simply appeared to be a man. For his opposition, Anastasius was threatened with deposition by Justinian, and actually banished from his see for 23 years by Justin II. Anastasius was finally restored to Antioch by Saint Gregory the Great and Emperor Maurice, but died five years later leaving us a legacy of several letters and pious sermons (Benedictines, Husenbeth).
630 Beuno of Wales founder  Abbot (AC)
640 ST BEUNO, ABBOT
As in the case of so many of the Celtic saints, the Life of Beuno is a fantastic narrative which merits no confidence.
  At the very beginning an angel comes to announce to his parents, who had long given up any hope of offspring, that a son is to be born to them. The boy grows up, quits them to be educated in a monastery, and then founds a community himself. But one would judge from the confused record presented to us that he was never long resident in any one place. He moves about and obtains grants of land, upon which he builds churches or founds monasteries. He is thus brought into relation with such prominent figures in Welsh history as Iddon ab Ynyr Gwent and Cadwallon. The most famous incident in the legend is the restoration of St Winifred after her head had been cut off by Caradoc. But this marvel does not stand alone. There are two other occasions on which it is narrated that the dead were brought back to life again by the prayers of the saint.
    There can, however, be no doubt that the example and the energetic preaching of St Beuno made a deep impression upon his countrymen in North Wales. He was especially honoured at Clynnog Fawr, where he is believed to have founded some sort of monastery, and which seems most probably to have been the place of his burial. For centuries afterwards, practices, sometimes of a more or less superstitious nature, survived in districts where St Beuno’s memory was still revered, Lambs and calves bearing a particular mark were given to the saint’s representatives and then redeemed for a price; so that an informer writing in the days of Queen Elizabeth complains that people were very eager to buy these beasts because, as they held, “Beyno his cattell prosper marvellous well”. Even two centuries later this still went on, and the money so realized was put by the church-wardens into a great chest, called “Cyff Beuno”, for charitable uses. At the same period (c. 1770) Pennant records how people venerated what was believed to be St Beuno’s tomb at Clynnog Fawr. “It was customary”, he says, “to cover it with rushes and leave on it till morning sick children, after making them first undergo ablution in the neighbouring holy well; and I myself once saw on it a feather bed, on which a poor paralytic from Merionethshire had lain the whole night, after undergoing the same ceremony.” In excavations carried out at Clynnog shortly before 1914, an ancient square-headed oblong chamber was discovered with walls three feet thick, and we are told that this probably was “a specimen of the earliest type of tiny basilica such as might well have been erected in the seventh century”. St Beuno’s feast is kept in the diocese of Menevia.

We have a Welsh life of St Beuno, the earliest copy of which dates only from 1346. The translation of this by A. W. Wade-Evans, printed in the Archaeologia Cambrensis, vol. lxxxv (1930), pp. 315—341, with the notes appended, is the most valuable contribution which has been made to St Beuno’s history. The Welsh text is printed in Mr Wade-Evans’s Vitae Sanctorum Brittaniae (1944), and see his Welsh Christian Origins (1934), pp. 170—176. See also J. H. Pollen in The Month, vol lxxx (1894), pp. 235—247; LBS., vol. i, pp. 208—221; and Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lxix, pp. 428—431.

(also known as Beunor) he has another feast on January 14. There is evidence that Beuno was a Welsh man of importance, founder of several monasteries. His story that has been handed down to us is a legend written in 1346, but it may contain elements of truth. According to the legend, Beuno was the son of Beugi (Hywgi) and grandson of a Welsh prince. He was educated in Herefordshire, perhaps at Bangor Abbey, near which there is still a village called Llanfeuno. Beuno was the uncle of Saint Winifred, who was restored to life after her suitor severed her head.

The legend says that Cadvan was king of North Wales, and had recently been victorious over King Ethelred of Northumberland, who, about 607, had massacred the monks of Bangor. Saint Beuno gave the king a golden sceptre, and the prince in turn assigned a spot for Beuno's monastery near Fynnon Beuno (Beuno's Well), in the parish of Llanwunda, of which he is titular saint. But as he was laying the foundation, a woman came to him with a child in her arms, saying that the ground was this infant's inheritance. Troubled by this, the holy man took the woman with him to the king and told him that he could not devote to God another's patrimony. The king refused to pay any attention to his remonstrances. So the saint left. But Gwyddeiant, the king's cousin, immediately went after him, and bestowed on him the township of Clynnog Fawr, his undoubted patrimony, where Beuno built his church about the year 616. King Cadvan died about that time; but his son and successor Cadwallon surpassed him in his liberality to the saint and his monastery.

It is related, among other miracles, that when a certain man had lost his eyebrow by some hurt, Saint Beuno healed it by applying the iron point of his staff: and that from this circumstance a church four miles from Clynnog, perhaps built by the person so healed, retains to this day the name of Llanael Hayarn, i.e., church of the iron brow.

His name is particularly associated with Clynnog in Caernarvonshire, where he may well have had a small monastery. There are many other foundations (including Aberffraw and Trefdraeth on Anglesey Island), both in central East Wales and in Clwyd, dedicated to him that may have be established by his disciples. Clynnog Fawr later passed into the hands of Benedictines of the congregation of Cluny (Clugni), from which it gets its name; previously it was named after its founder.

Beuno died and was buried at Clynnog Fawr, where a stone oratory was built over his tomb. Later his relics were translated to a new church (Eglwys y Bedd), where miracles were reported. The beautiful stone church is large and magnificent as is Saint Beuno's chapel, which is joined to the church by a portico. In this chapel, the fine painted or stained glass in the large windows is much effaced and destroyed, except a large figure of our blessed Savior extended on the cross. Opposite this crucifix, about three yards from the east window, is Saint Beuno's tomb, raised above the ground, and covered with a large stone, upon which people still lay sick children, in hopes of being cured.

Beuno's cultus survived the Reformation. During the reign of Elizabeth I, there were complaints that lambs and calves were offered at his tomb and later brought back because Beuno's cattle "prospered marvelous well." Sick people were still brought to the supposed grave towards the end of the 18th century, where they bathed in his holy well and spent the night in his tomb. The ruins of his primitive oratory were excavated in 1914. In our age, Beuno's memory has been revived by the Jesuits' establishment of Saint Beuno's College in northern Wales (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Gill, Husenbeth). In art, Beuno is shown restoring his niece's head (Roeder). He is chiefly venerated at Clynnog (Roeder).
678 Anastasius the Sinaite hermit on Mount Sinai left ascetical and theological writings of considerable value (RM)

A Palestinian hermit on Mount Sinai, Anastasius participated in all the Christological controversies of his time, in Syria, Egypt, and elsewhere. He has left ascetical and theological writings of considerable value (Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia).

700 St. Anastasius the Sinaite Abbot He wrote "The Guide" faith defender  He was a Greek writer born in Alexandria. The abbot of the monastery of Mount Sinai, he was called "the New Moses" because of his outstanding attacks on the various groups trying to influence the Church. He wrote "The Guide", a book defending the faith. This work remained popular for centuries.
721-724 Malrubius priest Abbot austere monastic life known for piety learning miracles M (AC)
722 ST MALRUBIUS, OR MAELRUBHA, ABBOT
LIKE so many other saints who laboured in Scotland, St Maelrubha was by birth an Irishman, and it was at St Comgall’s monastery of Bangor in County Down that he became a monk. When twenty-nine years of age he went to Scotland, spending some time, it is said, at Iona before proceeding to the mainland. At Applecross in Ross he established a mission station with a church and monastery, and this became his headquarters for the rest of his life.
     He preached the gospel zealously to the Picts, extending his labours even to Skye, where his memory was long honoured. The whole coast between Applecross and Loch Broom came to regard Maelrubha as its patron saint, and the great impression made by his austerity and teaching is clear from the number of places which are called after him, such as Maree, Mulruby, Mary, Mury, Murray, Summuruff, Summereve. The beautiful island of Eilean Maree in Loch Maree upon which he built a church contains a spring, known as St Maelrubha’s well, which was famous until quite recent times for its healing properties, especially in cases of insanity.
  For fifty-one years the holy man ruled as abbot of Applecross, dying at the age of eighty a death which was probably a natural one, though some accounts call him a martyr. A hillock called Claodh Maree at Applecross is pointed out as his grave. His feast is observed in the diocese of Aberdeen.

See Forbes, KSS., pp. 382—383 Reeves in Proceedings of Soc. Antiquaries, Scotland, vol. iii (1861), pp. 258 seq.; and O’Hanlon, LIS., vol. iv, pp. 255 seq.; and also W. J. Watson, History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland (1926), passim.

(also known as Maelrubha) Descended from the princely line of Niall, Saint Malrubius was a member of Saint Comgall's glorious company at Bangor Abbey, where he was ordained to the priesthood. He migrated to Scotland to spread the Gospel among the Picts much as Saint Columba did in the 6th century. There he led an austere monastic life and was known for his piety, learning, and miracles.

He founded a church at Applecross in County Ross on the Isle of Skye from which he led a revival of the Celtic Church. It is said that, at the age of 80, he was massacred by Norwegian pirates whom he tried to evangelize. According to legend, the parish church at Urquhart is said to have been the site of the chapel built over the site of his execution. A six-mile area around his burial mound outside Applecross, Cloadh Maree, was accorded all the rights and privileges of a sanctuary.

Place names throughout the western highlands, particularly between Loch Carron and Loch Broom, note Malrubius as titular patron. Twenty-one known parishes were dedicated to Malrubius under names such as Maree, Mulruby, Mary, Murry, Summuruff, and Summereve. He is invoked for the cure of insanity, because so many were healed at his holy well and spring near his cemetery and oratory on Inis Maree in Loch Maree. Malrubius is venerated especially in Aberdeen and Connaught (Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson, D'Arcy, Husenbeth, Montague, Montalembert, Moran, Mould, Simpson, Skene).
750 St. Frodulphus Benedictine monk hermit

Also listed as Frou. He was a disciple of St. Madericus(700) and be­came a monk at Autun, France. The Saracen invasion compelled him to flee to Barj on, on the Cote d’ Or.

Frodulphus of Barjon, OSB Hermit (AC) (also known as Frou) Died at Barjon, c. 750. Frodulphus, disciple of Saint Medericus (Morry or Merry), became a monk at Saint Martin's in Autun, from which he was driven by the Saracen invasion. Thereafter, he settled in Barjon, Côte d'Or.
He is buried next to Saint Merry in Paris (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
St. Beuno effective preacher evangelized North Wales

Beuno's untrustworthy legend has him a monk in Wales who founded his own community and performed numerous miracles, among them, restoring St. Winifred's head after she was beheaded.
However, he does seem to have been an effective preacher who evangelized much of North Wales and founded a monastery at Clynnog Fawr (Carnavonshire)
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1109 Anselm of Canterbury Doctor of the Church OSB B Doctor of the Church by Pope Clement XI in 1720 (RM)
Cantuáriæ, in Anglia, sancti Ansélmi Epíscopi, Confessóris et Ecclésiæ Doctóris, sanctitáte et doctrína conspícui.
    At Canterbury, England, St. Anselm, bishop, confessor, and doctor of the Church, renowned for sanctity and learning.
Born in Aosta, Piedmont, Italy, c. 1033; died at Canterbury, England, on Holy Wednesday, April 21, ; canonized and included among the Doctors of the Church by Pope Clement XI in 1720.

1109 ST ANSELM, Archbishop of Canterbury And Doctor Of The Church
IF the Norman invaders deprived the English nation of its liberty and of many temporal advantages, it must be owned that they brought into it some of its greatest leaders in church and state. Amongst these must be numbered the two archbishops of Canterbury, Lanfranc and his immediate successor.

   St Anselm was born at Aosta in Piedmont about the year 1033. He wished to enter a monastery when he was fifteen years old, but the abbot to whom he applied refused to accept him, apprehending his father’s displeasure. The desire which had been thus thwarted left him for a time, he grew careless about religion, and lived a worldly, if not dissipated, life, of which in after years he never ceased to repent. There was no sympathy between him and his father, who by his harshness practically drove him from home, after his mother’s death, to prosecute his studies in Burgundy. Three years later he went to Bec in Normandy attracted by the fame of its great abbot Lanfranc, whose pupil, disciple and friend he became, and also a monk at Bec at the age of twenty-seven in 1060. He had only been a religious for three years when Lanfranc was appointed abbot of St Stephen’s at Caen, and he himself was elected prior of Bec. At this promotion several of the monks murmured on account of his youth; but his patience and gentleness won the allegiance of all, including his bitterest opponent, an undisciplined young man called Osbern whom he gradually led on to strictness of life and whom he nursed with the utmost tenderness in his last illness.
     An original and independent thinker, endowed with profound learning, St Anselm was the greatest theologian of his age and the “father of Scholasticism” as a metaphysician he surpassed all Christian doctors since the days of St Augustine. Whilst still prior of Bec, he wrote his Monologium, in which he gave metaphysical proofs of the existence and nature of God, his Proslogium, or contemplation of God’s attributes, as well as treatises on truth, on freewill, on the origin of evil, and a work on the art of reasoning. With regard to the training of the young, he held quite modern views. To a neighbouring abbot, who was lamenting the poor success which attended his educational efforts, he said:
“ If you planted a tree in your garden, and bound it on all sides, so that it could not spread out its branches, what kind of a tree would it prove when in after years you gave it room to spread ? Would it not be useless, with its boughs all twisted and tangled?  But that is how you treat your boys cramping them with fears and blows, debarring them also from the enjoyment of any freedom.”
   In 1078, after he had been prior for fifteen years, Anselm was chosen abbot of Bec. This entailed occasional visits to England, where the abbey possessed property and where his friend Lanfranc was now archbishop of Canterbury. Eadmer, an English monk, from that time forward his devoted disciple and afterwards his biographer, says that he had a method of his own of giving very simple instructions, pointed with homely illustrations, which even the simplest could understand.
  Anselm was in England in 1092, three years after Lanfranc’s death, when the see of Canterbury was being kept vacant for the sake of its revenues by King William Rufus, who in reply to all requests to appoint Anselm swore “By the Holy Face of Lucca”—his favourite oath—that neither Anselm nor anyone else should be archbishop of Canterbury as long as he himself lived. He was, however, induced to change his mind by a sudden illness that brought him to death’s door. Stricken with fear, he promised that in future he would govern according to law and nominated Anselm to the archbishopric. The good abbot pleaded his age, ill-health and unfitness for the management of public affairs; but the bishops and others present forced the pastoral staff into his hand and bore him away to the church where they sang a Te Deum.
  But the heart of Rufus, though temporarily softened by the fear of death, had not really changed. The new archbishop had not long been installed when the king, with a view to wresting the duchy of Normandy out of his brother Robert’s hands, began to make large demands for supplies. Not content with Anselm’s offer of five hundred marks (a large sum in those days) the monarch required him to pay a thousand, as the price of his nomination to the see. St Anselm absolutely refused to comply. Moreover, he did not hesitate to urge the king to fill the vacant abbeys and to sanction the convening of those synods whose office it was to repress abuses among clergy and laity. The king angrily replied that his abbeys were no more to be extorted from him than his crown, and from that moment he sought to deprive Anselm of his see. He succeeded in detaching from their obedience a number of time-serving bishops, but when he bade the barons disavow the action of the primate he was met with a blank refusal. An attempt to persuade Pope Urban II to depose the saint was equally futile. The very legate who was charged to tell William that his desire could not be granted brought the pallium which rendered Anselm’s position unassailable.
     Finding that King William was determined on every possible occasion to oppress the Church unless the clergy would yield to his will, St Anselm sought permission to leave the country that he might consult the Holy See. Twice he was met with refusal, but eventually he was told by the monarch that he might depart if he liked, but that if he did so his revenues would be confiscated and he would never be allowed to return. Nevertheless he set out from Canterbury in October 1097, accompanied by Eadmer and another monk called Baldwin. On his way, he stayed first with St Hugh, abbot of Cluny, and then with another Hugh, archbishop of Lyons. Upon his arrival in Rome, he laid his case before the pope, who not only assured him of his protection, but wrote to the English king to demand Anselms re-establishment in his rights and possessions. It was while the archbishop was staying in a Campanian monastery, whither he had betaken himself from Rome for the benefit of his health, that he completed his famous book, Cur Deus Homo, the most famous treatise on the Incarnation ever written. Despairing of doing any good at Canterbury, and convinced that he could serve God better in a private capacity, he asked the pope to relieve him of his office, but his request was refused, although, as it was obviously impossible for him to return to England at the moment, he was allowed to remain in his Campanian retreat. While there Anselm attended the Council of Bari in 1098, to deal with the difficulties raised by the Greeks in regard to the procession of the Holy Ghost, and distinguished himself by his dealing with the difficulties of the Italo-Greek bishops on the matter of the Filioque. The council proceeded to denounce the king of England for his simony, his oppression of the Church, his persecution of Anselm and his personal depravity. A solemn anathema was only prevented by the entreaties of the archbishop, who persuaded Pope Urban to confine himself to a threat of excommunication.

The death of William Rufus put an end to St Anselm’s exile, and he came back to England amid the rejoicings of king and people. The harmony did not last long. Difficulties arose as soon as Henry I wanted Anselm to be reinvested by him and to make the customary homage for his see. This was contrary to the enactments of a Roman synod in 1099 which had forbidden lay investiture in respect of cathedrals and abbeys, and the archbishop refused. But at this time great apprehension was being felt at the threatened invasion of England by Robert of Normandy, whom many of the barons were not indisposed to support. Eager to have the Church on his side, Henry made lavish promises of future obedience to the Holy See, whilst Anselm did his utmost to prevent a rebellion. Although, as Eadmer points out, Henry owed the retention of his crown in no small measure to St Anselm, yet, as soon as all danger of invasion was passed, he renewed his claim to the right of investiture. The archbishop, on the other hand, absolutely declined to consecrate bishops nominated by the king unless they were canonically elected; and the divergence grew daily more acute. At last Anselm was persuaded to go in person to lay the questions before the pope, Henry at the same time sending a deputy to state its own case.
   After due consideration Paschal II confirmed his predecessor’s decisions, and Henry thereupon sent word to St Anselm forbidding his return if he continued recalcitrant, and pronouncing the confiscation of his revenues. Eventually the rumour that St Anselm was about to excommunicate him seems thoroughly to have alarmed the English monarch, and at a meeting in Normandy some sort of reconciliation took place. Afterwards in England at a royal council the king renounced the right of investiture to bishoprics or abbeys, whilst Anselm, with the pope’s consent, agreed that English bishops should be free to do homage for their temporal possessions. The pact thus made was loyally kept by King Henry, who came to regard the saint with such confidence that he made him regent during an absence in Normandy in 1108. Anselm’s health, however, had long been failing— he was by this time an old man—and he died the following year, 1109, amongst the monks of Canterbury.

His was a character of singular charm. It was conspicuous for a sympathy and sincerity which won him the affection of men of all classes and nationalities.. His care extended to the very poorest of his people. He was one of the first to stand forward as an opponent of the slave trade. When in 1102 he held a national council at Westminster, primarily for settling ecclesiastical affairs, the archbishop obtained the passing of a resolution to prohibit the practice of selling men like cattle. St Anselm was in 1720 declared a doctor of the Church, though never formally canonized. In Dante’s Paradiso we find him among the spirits of light and power in the sphere of the sun, next to St John Chrysostom. Eadmer tells a story of him coming upon a boy who had tied a thread to a bird’s leg and was jerking it back when it tried to fly. Anselm indignantly snapped the thread and, “ecce filum rumpitur, avis avolat, puer plorat, pater exsultat”—“ the bird flies away, the boy howls, and the father rejoices”. The body of the great archbishop is believed still to be in the cathedral church at Canterbury, in the chapel known as St Anselm’s, on the south-east side of the high altar.
For our knowledge of the religious and personal character of St Anselm we are almost entirely indebted to the Historia Novorum and the Vita Anselmi of Eadmer (the best text is that edited in the Rolls Series by Martin Rule), and to the saint’s own most attractive letters (edited originally by Dom Gerberon and reprinted in Migne, PL., vols. clviii and clix). A full life of St Anselm in two volumes was published by Martin Rule in 1883, and there are other slighter sketches both in English and in French, such as J. Clayton’s (1933) and Cochin in “Les Saints” series. From a non-Catholic standpoint the sympathetic volume by Dean Church (1873), may be commended. For a bibliography of the many studies devoted to St Anselm from a literary, philosophical and theological point of view, see DTC., vol. i, and the Lexikon fur Theologie und Kirche, vol. i, cc. 467—468. A definitive edition of the saint’s opera omnia has been completed by Br Francis Schmitt, OFM., in 6 volumes, and Dom A. Stolz has made an excellent study of Anselm’s thought (Munich, 1937). Fr Ragey’s Histoire de S. Anselme (2 vols., 1892) must be used with caution.
St. Anselm  (1033-1109) 
Indifferent toward religion as a young man, Anselm became one of the Church's greatest theologians and leaders. He received the title "Father of Scholasticism" for his attempt to analyze and illumine the truths of faith through the aid of reason.

At 15, Anselm wanted to enter a monastery, but was refused acceptance because of his father's opposition. Twelve years later, after careless disinterest in religion and years of worldly living, he finally fulfilled his desire to be a monk. He entered the monastery of Bec in Normandy, three years later was elected prior and 15 years later was unanimously chosen abbot.

Considered an original and independent thinker, Anselm was admired for his patience, gentleness and teaching skill. Under his leadership, the abbey of Bec became a monastic school, influential in philosophical and theological studies.

During these years, at the community's request, Anselm began publishing his theological works, comparable to those of St. Augustine. His best-known work is the book Cur Deus Homo ("Why God Became Man").

At 60, against his will, Anselm was appointed archbishop of Canterbury in 1093. His appointment was opposed at first by England's King William Rufus and later accepted. Rufus persistently refused to cooperate with efforts to reform the Church.

Anselm finally went into voluntary exile until Rufus died in 1100. He was then recalled to England by Rufus's brother and successor, Henry I. Disagreeing fearlessly with Henry over the king's insistence on investing England's bishops, Anselm spent another three years in exile in Rome.

His care and concern extended to the very poorest people; he opposed the slave trade. Anselm obtained from the national council at Westminster the passage of a resolution prohibiting the sale of human beings.
Comment:  Anselm, like every true follower of Christ, had to carry his cross, especially in the form of opposition and conflict with those in political control. Though personally a mild and gentle man and a lover of peace, he would not back off from conflict and persecution when principles were at stake.
Quote: "No one will have any other desire in heaven than what God wills; and the desire of one will be the desire of all; and the desire of all and of each one will also be the desire of God" (St. Anselm, Letter 112). "O Lord our God, grant us grace to desire Thee with our whole heart; that, so desiring, we may seek, and, seeking, find Thee; and so finding Thee, may love Thee; and loving Thee, may hate those sins from which Thou hast redeemed. Amen."--Saint Anselm

In the days of the Normans, when the roads of Europe were crowded with pilgrims and when monasteries rose on every hand, a band of wandering Italian scholars from Lombardy under the leadership of Blessed Abbot Lanfranc of Bec, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, found their way to Avranches in Normandy where they founded the most famous school in Christendom. Among these scholars and by far the most distinguished was Anselm of Aosta, whose youth had been spent in the green Alpine valleys and clear mountain air.
Anselm was a poet and a dreamer, who carried always about him something of the grandeur of his native hills. It seemed that Anselm's native intelligence might have died on the vine had he continued his education at home, but he was allowed to study later at the abbey at Aosta, where he flowered.

This first phase of his monastic education was to instill into his life an indelible fragrance. Anselm prayed and sought God on the summit of the mountains that surrounded the city of Aosta. Already his whole personality was formed: a seeker always in search of God, posing questions to which only the faith gives answers and clarifying his faith through a mind that was ceaselessly avid for new insights.
At age 15, Anselm wished to enter a monastery, but his father Gondulf, a Lombard nobleman, disapproved and prevented it. (His mother, Ermenberge, was related to the marquis of Turin and the House of Savoy.) Anselm fell gravely ill as a result. Then, unable to fulfill his dream and without spiritual support after the death of his mother, Anselm turned to the worldly which his father introduced to him.  After his complete victory, Gondulf should have been satisfied. But life defies all hopes. Instead, Gondulf developed a tenacious hatred of his son, who had been progressing along the path on which his father had set him. It was this situation that Anselm left with his home in 1056 to study in Burgundy.

While studying in Burgundy under the abbot Blessed Herluin, he became a disciple of the then prior Lanfranc and became a monk at Bec in 1060. Despite his youth (age 30), succeeded Lanfranc as prior only three years later when Lanfranc was elected abbot of Saint Stephen's in Caen. It must have been hard for one so young and inexperienced in religious life to rule his elders.
But Anselm countered rudeness with gentleness, hatred with clarity, anger with an unchangeable patience.

He also had a keen and original mind. In 1078, upon the death of Herluin, founder of the abbey, the monks chose Anselm to succeed him. Anselm's marvelous erudition, his eminent virtue, and, above all, his gentleness and goodness conferred a striking prestige on him, so that many foreign monks came to place themselves under his direction. This was the origin of a vast correspondence that has been handed down to us, in which Anselm shows himself open to all needs, responds to all questions, understands all concerns.
He instructed, corrected, reformed, and proposed using all means, the exact conception of monastic life which he never ceased to live at its deepest level.

The position of abbot required him to travel often to England to inspect abbey property there. In 1092, the English clergy, who had come to know him over the years, nominated Anselm to succeed Lanfranc, who had died three years earlier, in the see of Canterbury. At first, Anselm, busy with his studies and absorbed in the writing of theology, resisted the call, until he was dragged to the sick-bed of the king at Gloucester, and the pastoral staff was forced into his unwilling hand.

To the astonishment of the King William II (William Rufus), he met his match in Anselm. When Anselm finally left Bec in 1093 and arrived again in England, they king refused to allow Anselm to call the needed synods. Anselm also was confronted with a demand for a gift to the royal exchequer of 500 pounds for the king's approval of his nomination. Anselm rejected the request and rounded on the king. "Treat me as a free man," he said, "and I devote myself and all that I have to your service; but if you treat me as a slave, you shall have neither me nor mine." This resulted in Anselm's banishment from court. While some bishops supported the king, barons rallied to Anselm's cause. He left the country, and was not recalled until the following reign.

During this period Anselm retired to a mountain village where he spent the time happily in writing his great work on the Atonement, Cur Deus homo?, an attempt to explain why God had been obliged to become man in Jesus. Anselm argued that if God had merely forgiven men's sins, His mercy would have conflicted with the demands of justice. To reconcile mercy and justice an offering was needed greater than men's disobedience. Only God could make such an offering, argued Anselm, but only man ought to. Therefore, only a God-made-man could and should make it--as Jesus did on the Cross.

In 1097, Anselm travelled to Rome, where Pope Urban I upheld Anselm's nomination, refused Anselm's offered resignation, and ordered King William II to permit Anselm's return and yield back confiscated Church property.

At the pope's request, Anselm was present at the Council of Bari in 1098 and defended the filioque, the controversial doctrine on the procession of the Holy Spirit. He was instrumental in resolving the doubts of the Greek bishops in southern Italy about this issue.

At an Easter conference the indignation of Christendom was expressed at his enforced exile: "One is sitting among us from the ends of the earth, in modest silence, still and meek. But his silence is a loud cry. This one man has come here in his cruel wrongs to ask for the judgment and equity of the Apostolic See. And this is the second year, and what help has he found? If you do not all know what I mean, it is Anselm, Archbishop of England." And with these words, the bishop of Lucca, who was the speaker, struck his staff violently on the floor.

Anselm returned to Canterbury in 1100 at the request of King Henry II, successor to William Rufus, landing at Dover five months later. Almost immediately the king and Anselm were at odds over lay investiture--the new king demanded his re-induction as archbishop, but Anselm boldly refused. Anselm returned to Rome in 1103, where he confronted the pope on this issue. Pope Paschal II supported Anselm's refusal of lay investiture of bishops to King Henry. Nevertheless, Anselm remained in Rome until about 1106 or 1107.

A compromise was struck when Henry renounced his right to the investiture of bishops and abbots and Anselm agreed to pay homage to the king for temporal possessions. The reconciliation lasted for the rest of Anselm's life. The king grew to trust Anselm so much that he made him regent while he was away in Normandy in 1108.

In 1102, at a national council in Westminster, Anselm vigorously denounced slavery in emulation of Saint Wulfstan. As a pastor he encouraged the ordination of native Englishmen among his clergy, for whom he enforced celibacy; and he restored to the calendar the names of some of the English saints that he predecessor Lanfranc had removed.

Anselm stands out as a link between Saint Augustine of Hippo and Saint Thomas Aquinas and is called the 'father of Scholasticism.' He preferred to defend the faith by intellectual reason rather than scriptural arguments.

As the first to successfully incorporate the rationalism of Aristotlelian dialectics into theology, Anselm wrote on the existence of God in Monologium and Proslogium (deduces God's existence from man's notion of a perfect being, which influenced later great thinkers such as Duns Scotus, Descartes, and Hegel). His Cur Deus homo? was the most prominent treatise on the Atonement and Incarnation ever written. Other writings include De fide Trinitatis, De conceptu de virginali, Liber apologeticus pro insipiente, De veritate, letters, prayers, and meditations.

Anselm also rediscovered the precious maternal influence, lost since childhood, with her whom Jesus has given us for a mother. She inspired his most beautiful prayers. She gave him the soul of a child. She guided him in his constant search for God. One might think of Anselm as an old, dried up theologian. But that would be an error. Anselm's intellectual rigor was softened by the sensitivity of his mind and the generosity of his heart. He wrote, "I want to understand something of the truth which my heart believes and loves. I do not seek thus to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order that I may understand."

Anselm was one of the most human of saint and balanced of monks. Perhaps his early wanderings helped to form him so. Even after nine centuries, the charm of his personality still radiates. He himself was aware of the attraction that he held over those around him. He recognized it without any evasiveness: "All the good people who have known me have loved me, and all the more so when they knew me at close hand."

As a statesman he was deficient: the monastery, not the court, was where he was comfortable. Many incidents recorded of his life testify to the attractiveness of his personal character. In the Paradiso (canto XII), Dante mentions him among the spirits of light and power in the Sphere of the Sun.

Thus Anselm, the man who never wished to be archbishop and who refused it at first with clenched hands, secured the freedom of the Church against lawless tyranny and secular obstruction in a despotic age. As a statesman and scholar, by his courage and patience, and in grace and piety, he was the outstanding ecclesiastic of his day. His biography was written by his own secretary, the monk Eadmer of Christ Church, Canterbury, who recorded Anselm's life in meticulous detail (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Church, Encyclopedia, Gill, Southern, White).

In art, Anselm is depicted as an archbishop or a Benedictine monk, (1) admonishing an evildoer; (2) with Our Lady or Virgin and Child appearing to him; (3) with a ship; or (4) exorcising a monk (Roeder, White). He is venerated at Aosta and Turin (Roeder).
1158 Blessed Walter of Mondsee in Upper Austria OSB Abbot (AC)

Abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Mondsee in Upper Austria (Benedictines).
1163 Blessed Fastred of Cambron abbot-founder of Cambron obligation to poverty OSB Cist. Abbot (AC)
Œttingæ Véteris, in Bavária, sancti Conrádi a Parzham, Confessóris, Ordinis Minórum Capuccinórum, caritáte et oratióne insígnis; quem, miráculis clarum, Pius Papa Undécimus Sanctórum número adscrípsit.
    At Wertingen in Bavaria, St. Conrad of Parzham, confessor, of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, outstanding both for prayer and for love of neighbour.  Being renowned for miracles, Pope Pius XI enrolled him among the number of the saints.

(Also known as Fastrede de Cavamiez) Born in Hainault; Fastred de Cavamiez was received into the Cistercians by Saint Bernard (1153 Dr of the Church). In 1148, he was dispatched with a colony of monks to be abbot-founder of Cambron in Cambrai diocese. In 1157, he became abbot of Clairvaux and, in 1162, of Cîteaux itself. Nevertheless, he never released himself from the obligations of poverty (Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia)
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1466 Blessed Bartholomew of Cervere PhD. precocious solemnity pious converted many heretics worked steadfastly to eradicate heresy OP M (AC)
Born at Savigliano, Italy, in 1420; died at Cervere, Piedmont, 1466; beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1853.
In the venerable tradition of death in the cause of truth, Blessed Bartholomew of Cerverio was the fourth Dominican inquisitor to win his crown in the Piedmont--the stronghold of the Catharists, who had taken the lives of Saint Peter of Verona, Blessed Peter de'Ruffi, and Blessed Anthony of Pavonio.
Even in his early years Bartholomew displayed a precocious solemnity and piety. He entered the Order of Preachers in Savigliano and progressed rapidly in his studies. On May 8, 1452, Bartholomew received his licentiate, doctorate, and master's degree from the University of Turin; the only time in the history of the university that anyone had acquired three degrees in one day.
Bartholomew taught for a year at the university, then was made prior of his monastery. In his short apostolate of 12 years, he converted many heretics and worked steadfastly to eradicate heresy. He was appointed inquisitor in Piedmont, which made it clear to him that a martyr's death was marked out for him. Being a Dominican in Lombardy was a dangerous business, at best; to be appointed inquisitor meant that the heretics were given a target for their hatred.
In many ways the murder of Bartholomew and his companions repeats the martyrdom of Peter of Verona. Bartholomew knew beforehand that he was to die, and he made a general confession before starting out on his last trip. He remarked to his confessor, "They will call me Bartholomew of Cerverio, though I have never set foot there. Today I go there as inquisitor, and there I must die."
On the road to Cerverio in the diocese of Fossano, he and his party were attacked by five heretics. His companions were wounded, but escaped. Bartholomew died, riddled with dagger wounds, before they could get help.
Some people of Savigliano saw a bright light in the sky over Cerverio and surmised what had happened. They went out and brought home the relics, marveling that, despite all the wounds, the martyr had not bled. Laying him down in the church of the Dominicans, they saw his wounds bleed, and they hastily rescued the blood for relics. He was buried in the Dominican church of Savigliano, and, later, when the church was ruined by revolution, the relics were moved to the parish church.
A chapel was built at the site of the martyrdom and richly decorated with narrative frescoes. Processions were made there several times a year by the people of Savigliano and Cerverio, invoking Bartholomew against thunder and hail especially. At the same place, a fig tree was honored for many years for its connection with Blessed Bartholomew; it was supposed to have sprung up at the time of the martyrdom, at the very place the martyr fell (Benedictines, Dorcy).
1894 St. Conrad of Parzham Franciscan mystic lay brother Marian devotions gift of prophecy read people’s hearts
Œttingæ Véteris, in Bavária, sancti Conrádi a Parzham, Confessóris, Ordinis Minórum Capuccinórum, caritáte et oratióne insígnis; quem, miráculis clarum, Pius Papa Undécimus Sanctórum número adscrípsit.
    At Wertingen in Bavaria, St. Conrad of Parzham, confessor, of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, outstanding both for prayer and for love of neighbour.  Being renowned for miracles, Pope Pius XI enrolled him among the number of the saints.

1894 ST CONRAD OF PARZHAM
In its external aspects nothing could offer less of sensation or romantic interest than the life of this humble Capuchin lay-brother. Born in the Bavarian village of Parzham of pious parents, simple folk, but not indigent, Conrad was the ninth and youngest of the family.
In Ins early years he set an example of conscientious industry and of great devotion to the Mother of God. After his parents’ death, he entered the noviceship of the Capuchins, being then thirty-one years of age, took his solemn vows in 1852, and shortly afterwards was sent to Altötting, famous for a much venerated shrine of our Lady. There for forty years he discharged the duties of porter, an office which, owing to the multitude of pilgrims who were continually coming and going, offered endless opportunities for the exercise of charity, patience, tact and apostolic zeal. In all these respects he left an ineffaceable impression of self-abnegation and union with God. He seemed to have the gift of reading hearts, and there were occasions on which he manifested a strange knowledge of the future. Worn out with his labours he fell grievously ill in 1894 and died on April 21 of that year. Perhaps the most conclusive testimony to St Conrad’s exceptional virtue is the fact that, though the process of beatification was held up by the war of 1914-1918, he was canonized in 1934, only forty years after his death.
The decree of beatification containing a brief biographical sketch is printed in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. xxii (1930), pp. 319—323. See Fr Felice da Porretta, Il B. Corrado da Parzham (1930), and Fr Dunstan, St Conrad of Parzham (1934).

Born Carl Birndorfer in Parzham, Bavaria, Germany, on December 22, 1818, he became a Capuchin lay brother in 1849. For more than thirty years, Conrad served as porter or doorkeeper of the shrine of Our Lady of Altotting, and he was known for his Marian devotions. Conrad had the gift of prophecy and of reading people’s hearts. He died in Altotting on April 21. He was canonized in 1934.