Mary Mother of GOD   
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!)
RDeo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
August is the month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary;
2022
22,600  Lives Saved Since 2007
 

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

Romæ, in Exquíliis, Dedicátio sancti Petri Apóstoli ad Víncula.
At Rome, on the Esquiline, Dedication of the Church of St. Peter
in Chains.



1787 St. Alphonsus Marie Liguori Bishop, Doctor of the Church,
and the founder of the Redemptorist Congregation;
St. Alphonsus Theologians Patron he experienced visions,
performed miracles, and gave prophecies.


-166 b.c. The seven holy Maccabee martyrs Abim, Antonius, Gurias, Eleazar, Eusebonus, Alimus and Marcellus, their mother Solomonia and their teacher Eleaza  Saint Solomonia mother of the 7 Maccabee brothers; encouraged her sons to remain faithful to the Law of God even when threatened with death.

-2 B.C.Saint Eleazar a scribe; at  ninety he voluntarily endured torture and death rather than violate the Law of God by eating swine's flesh.
By suffering  death for the Law of Moses,
he left young men, and the whole nation, an example of virtue and courage.

                                                       
We are the defenders of true freedom.
  May our witness unveil the deception of the "pro-choice" slogan.
40 days for Life Campaign saves lives Shawn Carney Campaign Director www.40daysforlife.com
Please help save the unborn they are the future for the world

It is a great poverty that a child must die so that you may live as you wish
 -- Mother Teresa

 Saving babies, healing moms and dads, 'The Gospel of Life'


Pope Francis Prayer INTENTIONS FOR AUGUST 2022

Small Businesses
We pray for small and medium-sized businesses; in the midst of economic and social crisis, may they find ways to continue operating, and serving their communities.


If Children Are Seen as a Burden, Something Is Wrong
A society that does not like to be surrounded by children and considers them a concern, a weight, or a risk, is a depressed society.   “When life multiplies, society is enriched, not impoverished.
Children are a gift of society, never a possession. Pope Francis

Our Bartholomew Family Prayer List

Joyful Mystery on Monday Saturday   Glorius Mystery on Sunday Wednesday
  
Sorrowful Mystery on Friday Tuesday   Luminous Mystery on Thursday Veterens of War


Acts of the Apostles

Nine First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

How do I start the Five First Saturdays?

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

15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary
Mary's Divine Motherhood

The most holy name of Mary has particular power against demons
 
Of all devotions, none is so pleasing to our mother, as recurring often to her intercession, by asking help of her in all special necessities, as in taking or giving counsel, in dangers, afflictions, and temptations,
particularly in temptations against purity.   
The divine mother will certainly deliver us if we have recourse to her with the Antiphon: We fly to thy patronage:
"Sub tuum presidium," etc, or with a "Hail Mary," or only invoking the most holy name of Mary,
which has particular power against demons.   
The blessed Saint Francis, in a temptation against purity, had recourse to Mary, and she immediately appeared to him, and placing her hand upon his breast, delivered him. It is useful to kiss or press the Rosary, or the scapular, or even to look on some image of the Virgin. And be it known that Benedict XIII granted fifty days indulgence
 to those who pronounce the name of Jesus and Mary.

 
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.

Prayer to My Mother Mary: by
Saint Alphonsus de Liguori
Most Holy Virgin Immaculate, my Mother Mary, to you who are the Mother of my Lord, the Queen of the universe, the advocate, the hope, the refuge of sinners, I who am the most miserable of all sinners, have recourse this day.
I venerate you, great Queen, and I thank you for the many graces you have bestowed upon me even unto this day; in particular for having delivered me from the hell which I have so often deserved by my sins.
I love you, most dear Lady; and for the love I bear you, I promise to serve you willingly forever and to do what I can to make you loved by others also. I place in you all my hopes for salvation; accept me as your servant and shelter me under your mantle, you who are the Mother of mercy.
And since you are so powerful with God, deliver me from all temptations, or at least obtain for me the strength to overcome them until death. From you I implore a true love for Jesus Christ. Through you I hope to die a holy death. My dear Mother, by the love you bear to Almighty God, I pray you to assist me always, but most of all at the last moment of my life. Forsake me not then, until you shall see me safe in heaven, there to bless you and sing of your mercies through all eternity. Such is my hope. Amen. Saint Alphonsus de Liguori >From The Glories of Mary

O Mother of Mercies August 1 - Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary - Saint Alphonsus of Liguori
Most holy and immaculate Virgin Mary, my Mother, I, the most miserable of all sinners,
have recourse to you today, the Mother of my Lord.
I venerate you, O great Queen, and thank you for all the graces you have obtained for me,
especially for having delivered me from hell, which I have so often deserved.
I love you, O my very kind sovereign, and for your love, I commit myself to serve you forever,
and tend all my efforts to make you loved by others too. I place all my hopes and all my salvation in you.
Accept me as your servant, and receive me under your protection, O Mother of mercies. And since you are so powerful over God, deliver me from all temptations or obtain for me the strength to conquer them until death.

O my Mother, by the love that you have for God, I pray that you will always assist me, but most of all at the last moment of my life. Do not abandon me until you see me safe in heaven, occupied to bless you and to sing your mercies for all eternity. This is my hope.  Saint Alphonsus of Liguori
 -166 b.c. The seven holy Maccabee martyrs Abim, Antonius, Gurias, Eleazar, Eusebonus, Alimus and Marcellus, their mother Solomonia and their teacher Eleazar Saint Solomonia mother of the 7 Maccabee brothers; encouraged her sons to remain faithful to the Law of God even when threatened with death.
-2 B.C.Saint Eleazar a scribe; at  ninety he voluntarily endured torture and death rather than violate the Law of God by eating swine's flesh. By suffering  death for the Law of Moses, he left young men, and the whole nation, an example of virtue and courage.
Procession of the Venerable Wood of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord:  In the Russian Church this Feast is combined also with the remembrance of the Baptism of Rus, on August 1, 988. In the "Account of the Order of Services in the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Great Church of the Dormition,"

         Joseph von Arimathäa
  40 St. Peter in Chains
SS. Hope Sofia Charity According to an Eastern allegory explaining the cult of Divine Wisdom, Faith, Hope, and Charity were the daughters of Wisdom, a widow in Rome; The daughters suffered martyrdom
284-305 Martyrs Leontius, Attius, Alexander, Cindeus, Mnesithius, Cyriacus, Menaeus, Catunus and Eukleus
 
314 St. Verus Bishop of Vienne, Gaul. He attended the Synod of Aries in 314
  432  Petri Kettenfeier Die Kirche wurde am 1.8.432 von Papst Sixtus III. geweiht.
549 St. Arcadius Bishop of Bourges, in France. Arcadius took part in the Council of Orléans, France, in 538. His relics are at Saint Ursin.
6th v St. Almedha Welsh virgin and martyr
6th v St. Secundel A hermit who lived with St. Friard on the island of Vindomitte, near Nantes. They share the same feast day.
 643 St. Peregrinus of Modena  a Celtic monk, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land Hermit (AC)
 984 St  Ethelwold, Bishop Of Winchester priest a native of Winchester restore monasticism and studies was fittingly called "the father of monks"
1605 Bl. Thomas Welbourne English martyr. Born in Hutton Bushel, Yorkshire, worked as schoolmaster until arrest for preaching Catholic faith; arrested condemned with Blesseds John Fuithering and William Brown was hanged
1787 St. Alphonsus Marie Liguori Bishop, Doctor of the Church, and the founder of the Redemptorist Congregation; St. Alphonsus Theologians Patron he experienced visions, performed miracles, and gave prophecies
1838 St. Bernard Due Martyr of Vietnam; born 1755 ordained priest in his homeland; spent many years in missionary work  before retiring' age 83, declared his faith and priesthood to group of soldiers, where upon he was beheaded
1838 St. Dominic Van Honh Dieu A Dominican priest and native of Vietnam. He was martyred at 67 canonized 1988.
1887 Gustav Werner Ein Teil des erzielten Überschusses in den Wirtschaftsbetrieben floß aber weiter in die Rettungshäuser, so daß das Werk Werners auch nach seinem Tod 1887 fortgeführt werden konnte und auch heute noch besteht.

For Jesus himself, fulfilling the Isaiah prophecy, was, for our salvation, seized, imprisoned, "pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins."Yet, "though He was harshly treated, He submitted and opened not His mouth." (Isiah 53:5,7).  
 --Father Robert F. McNamara
1787 St. Alphonsus Theologians Patron; law graduate; God called him to found the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer; object of laboring for the salvation of the most abandoned souls  Few saints have labored as much, either by word or by writing; he experienced visions, performed miracles, and gave prophecies
 August 1, 2009 St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)
    Moral theology, Vatican II said, should be more thoroughly nourished by Scripture, and show the nobility of the Christian vocation of the faithful and their obligation to bring forth fruit in charity for the life of the world. Alphonsus, declared patron of moral theologians by Pius XII in 1950, would rejoice in that statement. In his day, he fought for the liberation of moral theology from the rigidity of Jansenism. His moral theology, which went through 60 editions in the century following him, concentrated on the practical and concrete problems of pastors and confessors. If a certain legalism and minimalism crept into moral theology, it should not be attributed to this model of moderation and gentleness.
At the University of Naples he received, at the age of 16, a doctorate in both canon and civil law by acclamation, but soon gave up the practice of law for apostolic activity. He was ordained a priest and concentrated his pastoral efforts on popular (parish) missions, hearing confessions, forming Christian groups.
He founded the Redemptorist congregation in 1732. It was an association of priests and brothers living a common life, dedicated to the imitation of Christ, and working mainly in popular missions for peasants in rural areas. Almost as an omen of what was to come later, he found himself deserted, after a while, by all his original companions except one lay brother. But the congregation managed to survive and was formally approved 17 years later, though its troubles were not over.
Alphonsus’ great pastoral reforms were in the pulpit and confessional—replacing the pompous oratory of the time with simplicity, and the rigorism of Jansenism with kindness. His great fame as a writer has somewhat eclipsed the fact that for 26 years he traveled up and down the Kingdom of Naples, preaching popular missions.
He was made bishop (after trying to reject the honor) at 66 and at once instituted a thorough reform of his diocese.
His greatest sorrow came toward the end of his life. The Redemptorists, precariously continuing after the suppression of the Jesuits, had difficulty in getting their Rule approved by the Kingdom of Naples. Alphonsus acceded to the condition that they possess no property in common, but a royal official, with the connivance of a high Redemptorist official, changed the Rule substantially. Alphonsus, old, crippled and with very bad sight, signed the document, unaware that he had been betrayed. The Redemptorists in the Papal States then put themselves under the pope, who withdrew those in Naples from the jurisdiction of Alphonsus. It was only after his death that the branches were united.
At 71 he was afflicted with rheumatic pains which left incurable bending of his neck; until it was straightened a little, the pressure of his chin caused a raw wound on his chest. He suffered a final 18 months of “dark night” scruples, fears, temptations against every article of faith and every virtue, interspersed with intervals of light and relief, when ecstasies were frequent.
Alphonsus is best known for his moral theology, but he also wrote well in the field of spiritual and dogmatic theology. His Glories of Mary is one of the great works on that subject, and his book Visits to the Blessed Sacrament went through 40 editions in his lifetime, greatly influencing the practice of this devotion in the Church.
Comment: St. Alphonsus was known above all as a practical man who dealt in the concrete rather than the abstract. His life is indeed a “practical” model for the everyday Christian who has difficulty recognizing the dignity of Christian life amid the swirl of problems, pain, misunderstanding and failure. Alphonsus suffered all these things. He is a saint because he was able to maintain an intimate sense of the presence of the suffering Christ through it all.  Quote: Someone once remarked, after a sermon by Alphonsus, "It is a pleasure to listen to your sermons; you forget yourself and preach Jesus Christ."
God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique, for each is 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 that is 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.
God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heaven:  saints are allowed into heaven.
The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.


-166 b.c. The seven holy Maccabee martyrs Abim, Antonius, Gurias, Eleazar, Eusebonus, Alimus and Marcellus, their mother Solomonia and their teacher Eleazar
Antiochíæ pássio sanctórum septem fratrum Machabæórum Mártyrum, qui, cum matre sua, passi sunt sub Antíocho Epíphane Rege.  Eórum relíquiæ, Romam translátæ, in eádem Ecclésia sancti Petri ad Víncula cónditæ fuérunt.
    At Antioch, the martyrdom of the seven brothers, the holy Machabees, martyrs, and their mother, who suffered under King Antiochus Epiphanes.  Their relics were transferred to Rome, and placed in the church or St. Peter in Chains.

Orthodoxe und Katholische Kirche: 1. August

suffered in the year 166 before Christ under the impious Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. This foolish ruler loved pagan and Hellenistic customs, and held Jewish customs in contempt. He did everything possible to turn people from the Law of Moses and from their covenant with God. He desecrated the Temple of the Lord, placed a statue of the pagan god Zeus there, and forced the Jews to worship it. Many people abandoned the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but there were also those who continued to believe that the Savior would come. A ninety-year-old elder, the scribe and teacher Eleazar, was brought to trial for his faithfulness to the Mosaic Law. He suffered tortures and died at Jerusalem. The story of Eleazar is found in II Maccabees, chapter 6.
The disciples of St Eleazar, the seven Maccabee brothers and their mother Solomonia, also displayed great courage. They were brought to trial in Antioch by King Antiochus Epiphanes. They fearlessly acknowledged themselves as followers of the True God, and refused to eat pig's flesh, which was forbidden by the Law. The eldest brother acted as spokesmen for the rest, saying that they preferred to die rather than break the Law. He was subjected to fierce tortures in sight of his brothers and their mother. His tongue was cut out, he was scalped, and his hands and feet were cut off. Then a cauldron and a large frying pan were heated, and the first brother was thrown into the frying pan, and he died. The next five brothers were tortured one after the other. The seventh and youngest brother was the last one left alive. Antiochus suggested to St Solomonia to persuade the boy to obey him, so that her last son at least would be spared. Instead, the brave mother told him to imitate the courage of his brothers.
The martyric death of the Maccabee brothers inspired Judas Maccabeus, and he led a revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes.
 With God's help, he gained the victory, and then purified the Temple at Jerusalem. He also threw down the altars which the pagans had set up in the streets. All these events are related in the Second Book of Maccabees (Ch. 8-10).Various Fathers of the Church preached sermons on the seven Maccabees, including St Cyprian of Carthage, St Ambrose of Milan, St Gregory Nazianzus and St John Chrysostom.

THE HOLY MACHABEES,
MACHABEE was the surname of Judas, the third son of that Mathathias who was the first leader of the Jews in their revolt against King Antiochus IV Epiphanes; the name was afterwards extended to the whole family and descendants of Mathathias, and was applied to those who followed them in their rising against the king of Syria, among them the martyrs who are celebrated on the first day of August.  These Machabean martyrs are the only saints of the Old Law who are commemorated liturgically throughout the Universal Church, and the only ones to figure in the general calendar of the Western church;  feasts of Old Testament saints are common in the East, but, apart from the Machabees, are unknown in the West, except for a few proper to religious orders or places, e.g. SS. Elias and Eliseus among the Carmelites, and others in the Latin diocese of Jerusalem.
   The cause of the rebellion of the Jews was the efforts of Antiochus to impose Greek paganism upon them; but the occasion of the first actual outbreak was a persecution of the Jews undertaken by Antiochus in rage and mortification when his second campaign against Egypt was stopped by the Roman senate in 168 b.c. He sent a general, Apollonius, with twenty-two thousand men to Jerusalem, whose orders were to hellenize the city by killing the Jews who would not apostatize and importing foreigners in their place.
    Among the martyrs who preferred torments and death to violation of the divine law one of the most eminent was St Eleazar.  He was one of the chief among the Scribes or doctors of the law, an aged man of a comely aspect. The persecutors thought that they could gain the rest if they succeeded in perverting this holy man, and they therefore tried by bribery, threats, and violence to make him commit an act of apostasy, but he remained firm.  Certain bystanders, moved with pity for the old man, desired that flesh might be brought which it was lawful for him to eat, that the people might believe that he had eaten swine's flesh, and the king be satisfied by such a pretended
obedience. He rejected the subterfuge, saying that by such dissimulation the young would be tempted to transgress the law, thinking that Eleazar, at the age of fourscore and ten years, had gone over to the rites of the heathen, and that if he should be guilty of such a crime he could not escape the hand of the Almighty, either alive or dead. He was forthwith carried to execution, and as he was dying under the stripes he exclaimed, "0 Lord, whose holy light pierces the most secret recesses of our hearts, thou seest the pains I endure; but my soul feels joy in suffering these things for the sake of thy law, because I fear thee."
   The confession of St Eleazar was followed by the martyrdom of seven brothers, who suffered tortures one after another with invincible courage, whilst their heroic mother stood by, encouraging and strengthening them.  The youngest brother was put to death with yet more cruelty than the others, and last of all their mother, having given the lives of all her children, yielded up her own rather than desert the law of the Most High. Neither the names of these martyrs nor the place of their suffering are known.

See the second Book of Machabees, vi 18-31 and vii; CMII., pp. 408-409; DAC. vol. xi, cc. 12-13. Presumably because they typified and in some sense were taken to represent the vast army of Christian martyrs who amid similar torments were to follow their example, the Machabees seem to have been honoured in every part of the Church at a very early date. We find them mentioned and connected with Antioch in the "Syriac breviarium" of the first years of the fifth century. They are also in the Fasti of Polemius Sylvius, in the Carthaginian calendar and in the Hieronymianum.
It is curious that in the church of St Peter ad vincula, just mentioned, there should be preserved a great stone sarcophagus divided into seven compartments and bearing an inscription which says that the bones and ashes of the seven brothers with their parents had been buried therein.  It should be noted also that St Leo the Great preaching on August 1, probably in that church, mentions the double celebration of the dedication of the building and the passion of the seven brothers. One difficulty which defies solution is that raised by St Jerome. He had seen the relics of the Machabees at Modin, and he asks how they could be exposed for veneration at Antioch. Cf. Delehaye, La origines des culte des martyrs, pp. 201-203
-2 B.C.Saint Eleazar a scribe; at  ninety he voluntarily endured torture and death rather than violate the Law of God by eating swine's flesh.  By suffering death for the Law of Moses, he left young men, and the whole nation, an example of virtue and courage.
The story of Eleazar is found in II Maccabees, chapter 6.

Joseph von Arimathäa
Orthodoxe Kirche: 31. Juli Katholische Kirche: 17. März
Der Ratsherr Joseph von Arimathäa (vermutlich Ramatajim, der Geburtsort Samuels) wird in allen vier Evangelien genannt. Über sein weiteres Leben nach der Bestattung Jesu gibt es mehrere Berichte in apokryphen Schriften. So soll Joseph gefangengesetzt worden sein. er wurde aber von Jesus befreit, berichtet das Nikodemusevangelium. Nach dem Gamalielevangelium aus dem 5. Jahrhundert befreitet ihn der Engel Gabriel aus dem Gefängnis. Nach späteren Legenden gründete Joseph die Kirche von Lydda und missionierte dann in Gallien und Britannien. In England soll er dann gestorben sein. Ein Benediktiner aus dem 13. Jahrhundert berichtete, Joseph habe in der Schale, die Jesus beim letzten Abendmahl benutzte, Jesu Blut am Kreuz aufgefangen. Diese Schale (der heilige Gral) soll um 1247 nach England gekommen sein. Der Leichnam von Joseph soll in Moyenmoutier (Nordfrankreich) beerdigt sein, ein Arm wurde als Reliquie im Petersdom aufbewahrt.
Procession of the Venerable Wood of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord:  In the Russian Church this Feast is combined also with the remembrance of the Baptism of Rus, on August 1, 988. In the "Account of the Order of Services in the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Great Church of the Dormition,"
In the Greek Horologion of 1897 the derivation of this Feast is explained: "Because of the illnesses that occur in August, it was customary, in former times, to carry the Venerable Wood of the Cross through the streets and squares of Constantinople for the sanctification of the city, and for relief from sickness. On the eve (July 31), it was taken out of the imperial treasury, and laid upon the altar of the Great Church of Hagia Sophia (the Wisdom of God). From this Feast until the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, they carried the Cross throughout the city in procession, offering it to the people to venerate. This also is the Procession of the Venerable Cross."
In the Russian Church this Feast is combined also with the remembrance of the Baptism of Rus, on August 1, 988. In the "Account of the Order of Services in the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Great Church of the Dormition," compiled in 1627 by order of Patriarch Philaret of Moscow and All Rus, there is the following explanation of the Feast: "On the day of the Procession of the Venerable Cross there is a church procession for the sanctification of water and for the enlightenment of the people, throughout all the towns and places."
Knowledge of the day of the actual Baptism of Rus was preserved in the Chronicles of the sixteenth century: "The Baptism of the Great Prince Vladimir of Kiev and all Rus was on August 1."
In the present practice of the Russian Church, the Lesser Sanctification of Water on August 1 is done either before or after Liturgy. Because of the Blessing of Water, this first Feast of the Savior in August is sometimes called 'Savior of the Water." There may also be a Blessing of New Honey today, which is why the Feast is also called "Savior of the Honey." From this day the newly gathered honey is blessed and tasted
.
SS. Hope Sofia Charity According to an Eastern allegory explaining the cult of Divine Wisdom, Faith, Hope, and Charity were the daughters of Wisdom, a widow in Rome;  mentioned in the Acts of Pope St. Stephen.
Romæ, via Latína, sanctórum Mártyrum Boni Presbyteri, Fausti et Mauri, cum áliis novem; qui in Actis sancti Stéphani Papæ describúntur.
    At Rome, on the Latin Way, the holy martyrs Bonus, a priest, Faustus and Maur, with nine others, mentioned in the Acts of Pope St. Stephen.
 
The daughters suffered martyrdom during Hadrian's persecution of Christians: Faith, twelve, was scourged and went unharmed when boiling pitch was poured on her, was beheaded; Hope, ten, and Charity, nine, were also beheaded after emerging unscathed, from a furnace; and Wisdom died three days later while praying at their graves.
According to an Eastern allegory explaining the cult of Divine Wisdom, Faith, Hope, and Charity were the daughters of Wisdom (known as Sofia in the Roman Martyrology on September 30th), a widow in Rome. The daughters suffered martyrdom during Hadrian's
{A.D. 117-138} persecution of Christians: Faith, twelve, was scourged and went unharmed when boiling pitch was poured on her, was beheaded; Hope, ten, and Charity, nine, were also beheaded after emerging unscathed, from a furnace; and Wisdom died three days later while praying at their graves.
The Roman widow, St. Wisdom, and her three daughters are said to have suffered for the Faith under the Emperor Hadrian. According to spurious legend, St. Faith, age 12, was scourged, thrown into boiling pitch, taken out alive, and beheaded; St. Hope, age 10, and St. Charity, age 9, being unhurt in a furnace, were also beheaded; and their mother, St. Wisdom, suffered while praying over the bodies of her children.

SS. FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITY, AND THEIR MOTHER WISDOM,  MARTYRS  
THE Roman widow St Wisdom and her three daughters are said to have suffered for the faith under the Emperor Hadrian.     According to a spurious legend St Faith, aged twelve, was scourged, thrown into boiling pitch, taken out alive, and beheaded; St Hope, aged ten, and St Charity, aged nine, being unhurt in a furnace, were also beheaded; and their mother suffered while praying over the bodies of her children.  That the whole story is a myth is very likely, the legend spreading to the East from Rome, where there is reference to two groups  a family martyred under Hadrian and buried on the Aurelian Way, where their tomb under the church of St Pancras was afterwards resorted to  their names were Greek, Sophia, Pistis, Elpis and Agape; and another group of martyrs of an unknown date, Sapientia, Fides, Spes and Caritas, buried in the cemetery of St Callistus on the Appian Way. The Roman Martryology names Faith, Hope and Charity on August 1, and their mother (of whose martyrdom it says nothing) on September 30. The great church of St Sophia at Constantinople has nothing to do with this saint or with any other of her name; it is dedicated in honour of the Holy Wisdom , that is, to Christ as the Word of God.
Father Delehaye, commenting upon these supposed martyrs, remarks: "Every one will agree that it would need very strong evidence to lend verisimilitude to even a single group of this kind, but no such evidence is here forthcoming" (La origines des culte des martyrs, pp. 286-287); J. P. J. Cirsch also, in the Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, vol. iii, CC. 1035-1036, seems to concur in this verdict.  The cult cannot be called ancient. No earlier evidence has been adduced than the Index oleorum, which dates only from the end of the sixth century .
40 St. Peter in Chains
Romæ, in Exquíliis, Dedicátio sancti Petri Apóstoli ad Víncula.
    At Rome, on the Esquiline, the Dedication of the Church of St. Peter in Chains.
To please the enemies of the Christians, Herod Agrippa {37-44} had put St. James to death, and now he planned to do the same to St. Peter, the Head of the Church. Once he had him in prison, he set a heavy guard about him to make sure he would not escape. But all the Christians of Jerusalem were begging the Lord to save St. Peter, and their prayers were answered. The night before he was to be condemned, St. Peter was peacefully sleeping in his prison cell between his two guards bound tightly by two chains. He was unafraid of death and ready to do God's will. Suddenly an angel appeared and tapped him on the side to awaken him. He told him to get up at once, put on his cloak and sandles and follow him. At the same moment, both the chains fell from his hands! Out the two went, past two sets of guards, to the gate. This iron gate opened to them by itself and the angel led St. Peter out to the street. Then he disappeared. Up to then, Peter had thought he might be dreaming, but now he new that God had really sent an angel to free him! What joy and gratitude filled his heart! At once, the Apostle went to the home of Mary, St. Mark's mother, where many Christians were praying for his safety. He knocked at the door and a young woman named Rhoda came to ask who it was, without opening the door. When she heard St. Peter's voice, she ran joyfully to tell the others. They, however, could not believe the news. "It must be his angel," they said when she kept insisting. Meanwhile St. Peter knocked again. At last they let him in, and their happiness was immense when they saw it was truly St. Peter himself! He told them how the angel had freed him, and altogether they blessed and thanked the Lord.

The great domed basilica of St. Peter on Vatican Hill is not the only Roman church dedicated to the first bishop of Rome. There is another on the Esquiline Hill across the Tiber called S. Pietro in Vincoli, or St. Peter in Chains. It, too, is an ancient church. A Christian chapel is said to have stood on the site as early as the year 117, which probably means that it was a house-church; that is, a home turned into a church in the days of the Roman persecutions. Hence St. Peter in Chains was one of the earliest parish churches or "titles" in the Eternal City. Even today, it is assigned to one of the Cardinals who rank as "Cardinal priests" as his official Roman parish church.
     The present building, we are told, was constructed in 442 by Roman Empress Eudoxia, although the Empress's church building has been reconstructed more than once.  The feast of this church used to be commemorated on August 1. That was probably the date of its formal consecration.
     Those who visit St. Pietro in Vincoli today are especially interested to see one of its treasures--the great statue of Moses by Michelangelo.  But what of the chains in the church's name?
     Under the high altar, in a chasse of plate glass and silver-gilt, there are two ancient iron chains fastened together. Tradition has it that Pope Alexander I enshrined here as a precious relic the chain that bound St. Peter in the year 67, when he was imprisoned, prior to his Roman martyrdom in the Mamertine Prison, a dungeon still visitable in the Roman Forum.  The second chain is said to be that which bound him in Jerusalem until he was rescued from jail by the angel. Reread the exciting and graphic account of that liberation in the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 12. There it is stated that when the angel appeared to the imprisoned Peter and told him to follow him into freedom, "the chains dropped from Peter's wrists."
     The second chain, perhaps brought from the Holy Land by Empress Eudoxia, was joined to the first chain, whether by a metalsmith or, as some think, by a miracle.
These double bonds were much venerated in past centuries. But even if their history has legendary elements, the very name, St. Peter in Chains, symbolizes something that has always been true of the first bishop of Rome and the popes who have succeeded him.  Persecution has always been an occupational hazard for those who have been elected to the Chair of Peter.  All have been more or less "in chains."
The popes have often been oppressed, hampered, harassed, and even imprisoned, exiled or executed just because they were vicars of Christ. As St. Peter was jailed at least three times and then executed, so the seventh-century pope, St. Martin I, was arrested in Rome, carried off to a prison in Constantinople, and then sent into an exile where he died of mistreatment. 
In the eleventh century, Pope Gregory VII had to flee Rome because of the persecution of German Emperor Henry IV, and also died in exile. 
In the fourteenth century Pope Boniface VIII was taken captive by the henchmen of the king of France. 
Even in the 19th century, Napoleon Bonaparte arrested Pope Pius VII in Rome and carried him off to France.
One could list many other popes who have suffered chains or death.  Perhaps all of St. Peter's successors were included somehow in Jesus' prophecy to Peter, just before his ascension:
"When you are older you will stretch out your hands, and another will tie you fast and carry you off against your will." (John 21:18).
It is a harsh prophecy, but an honorable one.  So whether it is St. Peter who is manacled and crucified, or John Paul II who is shot by an assassin, the bishops of Rome can even rejoice when they are called on to share the persecution of their Leader. For Jesus himself, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, was, for our salvation, seized, imprisoned, "pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins." Yet, "though He was harshly treated, He submitted and opened not His mouth." (Is. 53:5,7).--Father Robert F. McNamara

ST PETER AD VINCULA
It has been related in the life of St James the Greater that Herod Agrippa, having put to death that apostle in order to please his people, by an action still more agreeable to them caused St Peter to be cast into prison. It was his intention to put him to death after the Passover. The whole church at Jerusalem sent up its prayers to God without ceasing for the deliverance of the chief pastor of His flock. The king took all precautions possible to prevent the escape of his prisoner, as he and the other apostles had once before been delivered out of prison by an angel. St Peter, in complete tranquillity of mind and entire resignation of himself, lay fast asleep on the very night before the day on which he was to be brought before the people, when it pleased God to deliver him out of the hands of his enemies.  He was fastened by two chains, and slept between two soldiers. In the middle of the night a bright light shone in the prison and an angel appeared and, striking him on the side, awaked him out of his sleep, and bade him instantly arise, gird his coat about him, put on his sandals, and follow him. The chains dropped off from his hands, and Peter rose up and went after the angel, thinking that he was in a vision. He passed after him through the first and second ward, and through the iron gate which led into the city, which opened to them of its own accord. The angel conducted him through one street; then suddenly disappeared. Till then the apostle doubted whether the whole thing was not a dream, but now he knew in very deed that the Lord had sent His angel and delivered him from Herod and from the expectation of the Jews.  He went directly to the house of Mary the mother of John Mark, where several disciples were together, praying for his deliverance. As he stood knocking, a young woman came to the door, and, perceiving it was his voice, ran in and told the others that Peter was outside; and when she persisted, they thought it must be his angel sent by God, until, being let in, he told them the whole manner of his escape. And having enjoined them to tell what had happened to St James and the rest of the brethren, he withdrew to a place of more security. The next day, when he was not to be found, Agrippa commanded the keepers to be put to death, supposing them to be, either by connivance or carelessness, accessory to St Peter's escape.

It would be gathered from the proper of the Mass and Office of today's feast that it commemorates the event of St Peter's life that has just been narrated.  It is, however, in origin the commemoration of the dedication in Rome of a church on the Esquiline Hill in honour of SS. Peter and Paul. The notice of it in the "Martyrology of Jerome" runs: "At Rome the dedication of the first church which was built and consecrated by blessed Peter." This is, of course, a misconception. The titulus Apostolorum, the earliest name by which the parish was known, possibly came into existence at the end of the fourth century, it had reference to the two apostles Peter and Paul, as inscriptions prove.  The church having been rebuilt, it was consecrated between 432 and 440 by Pope St Sixtus III, and was then known as the titulus Eudoxiae, in honour of the Byzantine princess who was the principal benefactress.
It is not till nearly a century later that we first find it referred to as "St Peter ad Vincula," St Peter's where the Fetters are with reference to the chains wherewith the apostle had been bound when a prisoner in Rome. Later these came to be regarded as the chains which had fallen from his hands in Jerusalem, and the legend grew up that the Empress Eudoxia had sent one of these chains from Jerusalem to Rome, where it had miraculously united with its fellow already there. This story still figures in the second nocturn of Matins on August 1, in lessons which Pope Benedict XIV intended to have removed from the office.

August 1 was formerly called in England Lammas-day, i.e. Loaf-Mass, from Old English hlàfmaesse, it being a sort of early harvest-thanksgiving, at which a Mass of thanksgiving for the first-fruits of the earth, or of the corn, was celebrated and loaves made from the new flour blessed. The blessing of new grapes was common both among the Greeks and Latins, in some places on the ist, in others on the 6th day of August, and is mentioned in ancient liturgical books.
  In a Motu Proprio of John XXIII dated July 25, 1960, this feast was dropped from the Roman Calendar.
See H. Grisar, History of Rome and the Popes, vol. i, p. 590; also H. Grisar in the Civiltâ Cattolica, vol. iii of 1898, pp. 204-221 ; DAC., vol. iii, cc. 3-59; J. P. Kirsch, Die römischen Titelkirchen, pp. 45-52; and CMII., pp. 409 Seq.
284-305 Martyrs Leontius, Attius, Alexander, Cindeus, Mnesithius, Cyriacus, Menaeus, Catunus and Eukleus
Perge, in Pamphylia, sanctórum Mártyrum Leóntii, Attii, Alexándri, et aliórum sex agricolárum; qui, in persecutióne Diocletiáni, sub Flaviáno Præside, decolláti sunt.
    At Perge in Pamphylia, the holy martyrs Leontius, Attius, Alexander, and six peasants, who were beheaded in the persecution of Diocletian, under the governor Flavian.
Lived in the Pamphylian city of Perge during the reign of the emperor Diocletian (284-305). All of them were baptized in childhood. St Menaeus was a carpenter, and the rest were farmers.
314 St. Verus Bishop of Vienne, Gaul. He attended the Synod of Aries in 314.
Viénnæ, in Gállia, sancti Veri Epíscopi.      At Vienne in France, St. Verus, bishop.
432  Petri Kettenfeier Die Kirche wurde am 1.8.432 von Papst Sixtus III. geweiht.
Orthodoxe Kirche: 16. Januar Katholische Kirche: 1. August
Petri KettenDieses Fest zur Erinnerung der Befreiung des Apostels Petrus aus dem Gefängnis (Apg. 12, 1-11) wird in der katholischen Kirche seit dem 8. Jahrhundert gefeiert. Die Ketten, mit denen Petrus gefesselt war, wurden von Christen bewahrt. Sie halfen bei Krankheit. Sie wurden in Jerusalem aufbewahrt, bis Eudokia sie 437 oder 439 nach Konstantinopel brachte. Hier wurden die Ketten am 16. Januar zur Verehrung ausgestellt.

Eudokia gab eine Kette ihrer Tochter Eudoxia, die diese Papst Leo dem Großen schenkte. In der Kirche S. Pietro in Vincoli in Rom befinden sich diese Kette sowie die Ketten, mit denen Petrus vor seinem Märtyrertod gefesselt war. Die Kirche wurde am 1.8.432 von Papst Sixtus III. geweiht. In der Kirche befinden sich seit dem 6. Jahrhundert auch Reliquien der 7 Makkabäer, deren Fest ebenfalls am 1. August begangen wird. Offiziell wurde das Fest in der katholischen Kirche 1960 gestrichen
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549 St. Arcadius Bishop of Bourges, in France. Arcadius took part in the Council of Orléans, France, in 538. His relics are at Saint Ursin.
6th v St. Secundel A hermit who lived with St. Friard on the island of Vindomitte, near Nantes. They share the same feast day.
6th v St. Almedha Welsh virgin and martyr also called Ellyw
  
She is honored in Lianelly and Llanelieu.  Virgin and martyr, also called Aled or Filuned. The Welsh tradition reports that Almedha was the daughter of King Brychan. Having taken a vow of virginity and dedicated to Christ, Almedha fled from her father's royal residence to escape marriage to the prince of a neighboring kingdom. She went to three Welsh villages - Llandrew, Llanfillo, and Llechfaen - but the people turned her away, despite her promise warning that dreadful thing calamaties would befall anyone who denied her sanctuary. Almedha reached Brecon, where she took up residence in a small hut, but the king arrived and demanded her return. When she refused him, he beheaded her. Tradition states that a spring of water appeared on the site of her murder. The three villages that refused her were visited by disasters.

ST ALED, ELLUNED OR ALMEDHA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR
"NOT far from Brecon is the church called St Almedha's, after the holy maiden who, refusing an earthly husband, was wedded to the Eternal King, and there triumphed in a happy martyrdom.  A solemn feast is held in her honour every year at the beginning of August, and it is attended by many people from distant parts; those who suffer from various diseases receive wished-for health through the merits of the blessed maiden.   Certain things which happen at this anniversary seem remarkable to me.  In the church or in the churchyard, during the dance which is led round the churchyard with a song, you may see men and girls suddenly fall to the ground as in a trance; then, as if frenzied, they jump up and represent to the people with their hands and feet whatever work they have unlawfully done on great feasts.  You may see one man put his hand to the plow, and another as it were goad on the oxen, lightening their labour with the usual uncouth song; one imitates the trade of a cobbler, another that of a tanner.  You may see a girl with a distaff, drawing out the thread and winding it again on the spindle; another as she walks arranges the threads for the web; another throws the shuttle and seems to weave. Then, on coming into the church and being led to the altar with their offerings, you will be astonished to see them suddenly come to their senses again. Thus, by the divine mercy which rejoices not at the death of sinners but at their conversion, many, convicted by their own actions, are corrected and amended on these feast days."
  This interesting passage comes from the Itinerary through Wales of Giraldus Cambrensis, who was archdeacon of Brecon from 1175 for over twenty years and lived at Llanddew only a couple of miles away; he was therefore well placed for verifying the details of the phenomena which he describes.   The passage is well known, and has often raised questions about the identity and story of St Almedha, or Aled as she was more usually called locally-the name is found in a score of forms.   Gerald himself states that she was one of the children of Brychan, that prolific father of saints, but the name figures in only some lists of these children; and it is odd that, while she appears in at least one Latin calendar, she is unknown to the Welsh ones.
  The legend of St Med as it was current in the seventeenth century has a suspicious resemblance to the story of St Winifred (November 3).  While still young she dedicated herself completely to God, and when a young prince, supported by her family, urged her to marry him, she fled away in disguise to Llanddew.  Here she was so badly treated that she withdrew to Llanfillo, and then again to Llechfaen, where she had to sleep in the street as nobody would give her a bed.  So she took refuge in the wood on Slwch Tump, by Brecon itself, where the lord of the place helped her to build a cell, and she settled down there, prophesying that a chastisement would rest on the village of Llanddew for the injuries done to her; that the village of LlanfIllo should be plagued with thieves (as they are to this day above all others) ; and the village of Llechfaen with envy, as indeed they are almost continually in contention and law with one another" (Hugh Thomas, c. 1698).
   It is not recorded that Med also foretold her own misfortunes, but soon after her princely suitor sought her out in her retreat. Directly she saw him she ran away down the hill; he followed, caught her up, and in baffled rage smote off her head with his sword. Where Aled's head fell, a spring of water miraculously welled up from the rock; and thereafter the maiden was venerated as a saint and martyr.
The legend of St Aled is set out in a late seventeenth-century manuscript of Hugh Thomas, the Breconshire herald (Harleian MS. 4181) see Archacologia Cambrensis for 1883, pp. 46-47, 168, and for 1903, pp. 214-223. Gerald the Welshrnan's Itinerary through Wales, bk i, cap. a  Jones's History of Brecknock, vol.1, pp. 4344 (edition of 1909); Cressy's Church History of Brittany (i.e. Britain), published at Rouen in 1668. William of Worcester says that "St Elevetha" was buried at Usk, but other writers agree that it was in her cell, which became the first St Med's chapel on Slwch hill.  This in turn became a small church of some importance in the middle ages by 1698 it was roofless and disused, and today its site can with difficulty be identified.
643 St. Peregrinus of Modena , a Celtic monk, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land Hermit (AC)
Peregrinus, a Celtic monk, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On his return he settled in the quiet Apennines near Modena where he spent the rest of his life (Benedictines, Encyclopedia)
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984 St  Ethelwold, Bishop Of Winchester priest a native of Winchester restore monasticism and studies was fittingly called "the father of monks"
Viénnæ, in Gállia, sancti Veri Epíscopi.      At Vienne in France, St. Verus, bishop.   
  Being moved in his youth to devote himself to the divine service, he submitted himself to St Alphege the Bald, bishop of his native city, who gave him the priesthood, at the same time as St Dunstan, about his equal in age. When Dunstan became abbot of Glastonbury in 944 and introduced strict Benedictine observance there, Ethelwold took the habit and was made one of the deans of the house.
   He was a practitioner of the useful arts, especially bell-founding, and at the same time his zeal for knowledge made him study also the sacred sciences.   About 954 Ethelwold was appointed abbot of Abingdon in Berkshire, which with the help of monks from Glastonbury he rendered a model of regular discipline and a nursery of good monks.   He procured from Corbie a master of church music, and sent Osgar to Fleury, a monastery which at that time surpassed all others in the reputation of strict observance, to learn its discipline for the benefit of Abingdon.
    Danes had made such havoc of religious houses that practically no monks were then left in all England, and the education of youth and every other support of learning and virtue was almost banished by the ravages of the barbarians.  These deplorable circumstances awakened the zeal especially of St Dunstan, St Ethelwold and St Oswald of York, and these three set themselves with great industry to restore monasticism and studies.

  St Ethelwold was consecrated bishop of Winchester by St Dunstan in 963.  The disorders and ignorance which reigned among many of the clergy of England had produced some very scandalous states of affairs, and Ethelwold found these evils obstinate and past recovery among the canons of the cathedral of Winchester.  He therefore expelled them, with the approval of King Edgar, placing monks from Abingdon in their room, with whom he kept choir as their bishop and abbot. Three of the former canons took the monastic habit and continued to serve God in that church.  The year following, St Ethelwold expelled the seculars out of the  Newminster monastery at Winchester, and placed there Benedictine monks under an abbot, and was the means of peopling Chertsey with monks also. He repaired the nunnery dedicated in honour of our Lady in his cathedral city, and bought of the king the lands and ruins of the great nunnery of St Etheldreda in the isle of Ely, which had been burnt by the Danes a hundred years before, and he established on the same spot an abbey of monks.  He likewise purchased the ruins of Thorney in Cambridgeshire, which he restored in like manner about the year 972. He directed and assisted Alduif to buy the ruins of Peterborough Abbey, and rebuilt and peopled it as well; this monastery, after having flourished two hundred years, was destroyed by the Danes in 870.   Aldulf, chancellor to King Edgar, having buried his only son, gave his whole estate to this house, took the monastic habit in it, and was chosen the first abbot.  Ethelwold's reforming activities, in particular the displacing of slack canons by strict monks, met with a deal of opposition, but to malcontents he was "terrible as a lion", while the good-willed and persevering found in him a benevolent shepherd, "more gentle than a dove".  He who was fittingly called "the father of monks" and who laboured so strenuously for the divine honour and the sanctification of others, was always solicitous first to adorn his own soul with all virtues, and to make himself a sacrifice agreeable to God; for it is only the humility and charity of the heart that give a value to exterior actions: without these, to give our goods to the poor and our bodies to the flames would not avail us. The fervour of devotion and compunction must be always nourished and increased, or it grows lukewarm; in this great bishop interior devotion and exterior actions of virtue supported and gave strength to each other.
  He rested front his labours on August 1, 984, and buried in the cathedral of Winchester. Authentic proofs of miracles wrought through his intercession having been made, his body was taken up and solemnly deposited under the altar by St Alphege, his immediate successor, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury and martyr.  Several written works are credited to St Ethelwold, of which one was a translation into English of the Rule of St Benedict.

There is a fair amount of historical material for the life of St Ethelwold. The biography by Aelfric has been printed by Stevenson in the Chronicon de Abingdon (Rolls Series); another, attributed to Wolstan, has been more often printed, but Dean Armitage Robinson was inclined to question the authorship and early date. There are also references in the Historia Eliensis, William of Malmesbury, etc. Ethelwold is now generally recognized as the author of the Regularis Concordia which was formerly assigned to St Dunstan. See U. W. Keini, "Ethelwold mad die Monchsreform in England" in Anglia, vol. xxxix (1917), pp. 405-443; Armitage Robinson, The Times of St Dunstan (1923); D. Knowles, The Monastic Order in England (1949), pp. 38-59 and passim; and T. Symons, Regularis Concordia (1954).
1605 Bl. Thomas Welbourne English martyr. Born in Hutton Bushel, Yorkshire, he worked as a schoolmaster until his arrest for preaching the Catholic faith. He was arrested and condemned with Blesseds John Fuithering and William Brown. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered at York.
 
THE little that is known of these martyrs is narrated by Challoner thus: "Thomas Welbourn was a schoolmaster, a native of Kitenbushel ftlutton Bushel], in Yorkshire, and John Fuithering was a layman of the same county, who being zealous Catholics, and industrious in exhorting some of their neighbours to embrace the Catholic faith, were upon that account arraigned and condemned to suffer as in cases of high treason; as was also William Brown, a native of Northamptonshir; convicted of the same offence.  They were all executed according to sentence [by hanging, drawing and quartering];   Mr Welbourn and Mr Fulthering at York, the 1st of August, r6o5 ;  Mr Brown at Ripon, the 5th of September, the same year."
The Venerable John Fulthering's cause is among those postponed in 1929. Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests (at p. 280 in the edition of 1924).
1787 St. Alphonsus Ligouri Theologians Patron  law graduate; God called him to found the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer; object of laboring for the salvation of the most abandoned souls  Few saints have labored as much, either by word or by writing he experienced visions, performed miracles, and gave prophecies.  Pope Gregory XVI added him to the canon of saints, and Pius IX declared him to be a doctor of the Universal Church.  Pius XII established him as heavenly patron of all moral theologians and of those who hear Confession. 
Nucériæ Paganórum, in Campánia, item natális sancti Alfónsi-Maríæ de Ligório, Fundatóris Congregatiónis a sanctíssimo Redemptóre nuncupátæ, Epíscopi sanctæ Agathæ Gothórum et Confessóris, zelo animárum, scriptis, verbo et exémplo insígnis; quem Summus Póntifex Gregórius Décimus sextus albo Sanctórum adscrípsit, et Pius Nonus Doctórem universális Ecclésiæ declarávit, et Pius Duodécimus ómnium Confessariórum ac Moralistárum cæléstem apud Deum Patrónum constítuit.  Ipsíus vero festívitas sequénti die celebrátur.
    At Nocera dei Pagani in Campani, the birthday also of St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, founder of the Congregation of our most Holy Redeemer, bishop of Santa Agata dei Goti, and confessor.  Noted for his zeal for souls, his writings, and his example, Pope Gregory XVI added him to the canon of saints, and Pius IX declared him to be a doctor of the Universal Church.  Pius XII established him as heavenly patron of all moral theologians and of those who hear Confession.  His feast, however, is observed on the day following.

St. Alphonsus was born in the village of Marianella near Naples, Italy, September 27, 1696. At a tender age his pious mother inspired him with the deepest sentiments of piety. The education he received under the auspices of his father, aided by his own intellect, produced in him such results that at the early age of sixteen, he graduated in law. Shortly after, he was admitted to the Neopolitan bar. In 1723, he lost a case, and God made use of his disappointment to wean his heart from the world.
In spite of all opposition he now entered the ecclesiastical state. In 1726, he was ordained a priest. He exercised the ministry at various places with great fruit, zealously laboring for his own sanctification. In 1732, God called him to found the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, with the object of laboring for the salvation of the most abandoned souls. Amid untold difficulties and innumerable trials, St. Alphonsus succeeded in establishing his Congregation, which became his glory and crown, but also his cross. The holy founder labored incessantly at the work of the missions until, about 1756, he was appointed Bishop of St. Agatha, a diocese he governed until 1775, when broken by age and infirmity, he resigned this office to retire to his convent where he died. Few saints have labored as much, either by word or by writing, as St. Alphonsus. He was a prolific and popular author, the utility of whose works will never cease. His last years were characterized by intense suffering, which he bore with resignation, adding voluntary mortifications to his other pains. His happy death occurred at Nocera de Pagani, August 1, 1787.

1787 St. Alphonsus Marie Liguori Bishop, Doctor of the Church, and the founder of the Redemptorist Congregation.
He was born Alphonsus Marie Antony John Cosmos Damien Michael Gaspard de Liguori on September 27, 1696, at Marianella, near Naples, Italy. Raised in a pious home, Alphonsus went on retreats with his father, Don Joseph, who was a naval officer and a captain of the Royal Galleys. Alphonsus was the oldest of seven children, raised by a devout mother of Spanish descent. Educated at the University of Naples, Alphonsus received his doctorate at the age of sixteen. By age nineteen he was practicing law, but he saw the transitory nature of the secular world, and after a brief time, retreated from the law courts and his fame. Visiting the local Hospital for Incurables on August 28, 1723, he had a vision and was told to consecrate his life solely to God. In response, Alphonsus dedicated himself to the religious life, even while suffering persecution from his family. He finally agreed to become a priest but to live at home as a member of a group of secular missionaries. He was ordained on December 21, 1726, and he spent six years giving missions throughout Naples. In April 1729, Alphonsus went to live at the "Chiflese College," founded in Naples by Father Matthew Ripa, the Apostle of China. There he met Bishop Thomas Falcoia, founder of the Congregation of Pious Workers. This lifelong friendship aided Alphonsus, as did his association with a mystic, Sister Mary Celeste. With their aid, Alphonsus founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer on November 9, 1732. The foundation faced immediate problems, and after just one year, Alphonsus found himself with only one lay brother, his other companions having left to form their own religious group. He started again, recruited new members, and in 1743 became the prior of two new congregations, one for men and one for women. Pope Benedict XIV gave his approval for the men's congregation in 1749 and for the women's in 1750. Alphonsus was preaching missions in the rural areas and writing.

He refused to become the bishop of Palermo but in 1762 had to accept the papal command to accept the see of St. Agatha of the Goths near Naples. Here he discovered more than thirty thousand uninstructed men and women and four hundred indifferent priests. For thirteen years Alphonsus fed the poor, instructed families, reorganized the seminary and religious houses, taught theology, and wrote.
His austerities were rigorous, and he suffered daily the pain from rheumatism that was beginning to deform his body. He spent several years having to drink from tubes because his head was so bent forward. An attack of rheumatic fever, from May 1768 to June 1769, left him paralyzed. He was not allowed to resign his see, however, until 1775. In 1780, Alphonsus was tricked into signing a submission for royal approval of his congregation. This submission altered the original rule, and as a result Alphonsus was denied any authority among the Redemptorists. Deposed and excluded from his own congregation, Alphonsus suffered great anguish. But he overcame his depression, and he experienced visions, performed miracles, and gave prophecies. He died peacefully on August 1,1787, at Nocera di Pagani, near Naples as the Angelus was ringing. He was beatified in 1816 and canonized in 1839. In 1871, Alphonsus was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX. His writings on moral, theological, and ascetic matters had great impact and have survived through the years, especially his Moral Theology and his Glories of Mary. He was buried at the monastery of the Pagani near Naples. Shrines were built there and at St. Agatha of the Goths. He is the patron of confessors, moral theologians, and the lay apostolate. In liturgical art he is depicted as bent over with rheumatism or as a young priest.

Rochesterians owe much to St. Alphonsus de'Liguori.  He was the founder of the Redemptorist Fathers, who have contributed so much to the Diocese of Rochester over the past 150 years.
     Alphonsus was born near Naples of a distinguished family. A brilliant youth, he won his doctorate of civil and church law when only 16, and then for several years engaged in a successful legal law practice. One day, however, when he was triumphantly defending a client in a lawsuit, it was shown to him that he had made an error in reading the law and had defended an unjust cause. He, therefore, not only gave up the case, he gave up his legal practice. Actually Alphonsus, though up to then a layman, had been lately attracted towards becoming a priest. He now took priestly studies and in 1726 was ordained. Then he began to work as a missionary throughout rural southern Italy. An able missionary he was, too. In an age in which it was stylish to preach bombastically, he could say, "I have never preached a sermon which the poorest old woman in the congregation could not understand." In an age in which the errors of "Jansenism" demanded unreasonable strictness in moral behavior, Alphonsus preached common sense Christian morality. This was also the kind of moral doctrine that he wrote volumes about, for he was the greatest moral theologian of his age - a fact that would win him after canonization the title of a doctor of the church.
     While engaged in home missionary work as a diocesan priest, Alphonsus assisted in the foundation of the Redemptoristine nuns. A year or so later he established the Redemptorist Fathers as a missionary organization. When de'Liguori was sixty-six, Pope Clement XIII named him bishop of the diocese of Sant' Agata dei Goti. He tried to get out of it, but the pope insisted. It was a small diocese, but needed reform very badly. Bishop de'Liguori gave it that reform. Meanwhile he was stricken with a rheumatic arthritis so severe that his chin was almost buried in his chest. He asked the pope permission to resign as bishop in 1775. By that time he had such a reputation for goodness and zeal that, as one churchman said of the man still alive, "If I were pope, I would canonize him without any process."
     If Alphonsus, on retiring, thought he could live out his life in peace, he was mistaken. Now began for this 80-year-old priest, his years of greatest trial - largely because of red tape.
     Naples was a separate kingdom in those days. King Charles III, a Bourbon, shared the idea of the Enlightenment that a King should keep close control over church affairs. Now he required that the Redemptorists, already approved by the Pope, be given state approval, too. But his policy would not allow him to approve any religious orders (these he considered old-fashioned and unprogressive), - only societies of secular priests. Unfortunately, St. Alphonsus's advisors just showed the saint the state regulations when they asked for his signature. Poor Bishop Alphonsus at that point could not read more than the initial words, because of poor eyesight. Thus he unwittingly approved of a law that the pope had to denounce. Pope Pius VI, therefore, declared that the Naples Redemptorists were no longer Redemptorists because they had changed the rule and that only those in the Roman province of the order were such. He named another priest, located in Rome, as Redemptorist general superior. Thus Alphonsus, the founder of the order, found himself demoted from office and his order abolished in the Kingdom of Naples.
     In addition to this martyrdom to red tape, Alphonsus was at the same time suffering severe temptations against faith; yet these dark hours were intermittently lighted by hours of great prayerfulness and grace. More importantly, he accepted his double burden with supreme patience. In peace of soul, he foretold that the divided order would be reunited after his death. He died at 90. Three years later the Neapolitan Redemptorists were readmitted to membership; and in 1796 Pius VI, who had felt obliged to exclude Alphonsus from his order, introduced the cause for his canonization.     Being a saint is not easy, you see!    -Father Robert F. McNamara

Alfons Maria von Liguori Katholische Kirche: 01. August
Alfonso, Sohn eines intalienischen Edelmannes, wurde am 27.9.1696 nahe Neapel geboren. Er studierte die Rechte und wurde 1713 Rechtsanwalt. Als er 1723 einen wichtigen Prozeß verlor, wandte er sich von der Juristerei ab und wurde Priester. 1726 wurde er ordiniert. Er war in der Volksmission tätig, wirkte besonders unter den armen Menschen und schulte Laienapostel. 1731 gründete er den kontemplativen Redemptoristinnenorden und ein jahr später dn Orden der Redemptoristen, einen Missionsorden. 1762 wurde er Bischof von Sant' Agata de' Goti. An seinem Lebensende zog er sich in seine Klostergründung Pagani (bei neapel) zurück. Hier starb er am 1.8.1787 und hier ist er begraben. Liguori veröffentlichte insgesamt 111 Schriften, wobei ihm besonders die Ausbildung von Beichtvätern am Herzen lag. 1871 wurde er als der "hervorragendsten und mildesten unter den Moraltheologen" zum Kirchenlehrer ernannt.
1838 St. Bernard Due Martyr of Vietnam. Bernard was born in 1755 and was ordained a priest in his homeland. He spent many years in missionary work before retiring. At age eighty-three, he declared his faith and his priesthood to a group of soldiers, where upon he was beheaded. He was canonized in 1988.
1838 St. Dominic Van Honh Dieu A Dominican priest and native of Vietnam. He was martyred at the age of sixty-seven. Dominic was canonized in 1988.
1887 Gustav Werner Ein Teil des erzielten Überschusses in den Wirtschaftsbetrieben floß aber weiter in die Rettungshäuser, so daß das Werk Werners auch nach seinem Tod 1887 fortgeführt werden konnte und auch heute noch besteht.
Evangelische Kirche: 01. August
Gustav Werner wurde am 12.3.1809 in Zwiefalten geboren. Während des Theologiestusdiums in Tübingen lernt er Swedenborgs Schriften kennen und beschloß, seinen Glauben in der Liebe zu erweisen. Er ging zum weiteren Studium nach Straßburg. Hier kam er mit dem Freundeskreis, der unter Oberlin entstanden war, zusammen. Von einem Freund Oberlins erhielt er dessen Ring mit dem Auftrag, das Werk der Liebe fortzuführen. Von 1832 bis 1840 war er Vikar in Waldorf bei Tübingen. Hier setzte er sich gegen den Widerstand seiner Gemeinde für die Kinder einer armen Witwe ein. Nur eine Frau unterstützte ihn und richtete auf seinen Rat eine Kinderschule ein. Freunde aus Reutlingen gaben finanzielle Unterstützung. Als publik wurde, daß Werner auch Erbauungsstunden hielt, wurde ihm dies untersagt. Er legte daraufhin sein Vikariat nieder und ging nach Reutlingen. Hier gründete er ein Waisenhaus und konnte zahlreiche ehrenamtliche Helfer für dieses Werk gewinnen. Er sah die Industrie als Ort, an dem der Sieg Christi erkämpft werden müsse und meinte, nur die Liebe könne eine gerechte Ordnung auch im Arbeitsleben erreichen. Um seine Ideen in die Tat umzusetzen, kaufte er 1849 die Reutlinger Papierfabrik. Die Hausgenossen lebten in freiwilliger Gütergemeinschaft, andere gaben den Zehnten zur Unterstützung des Werkes. Zu dem Stammhaus kamen im Laufe der Jahre 30 Betriebe hinzu, wirtschaftliche Betriebe, die auch für schwer vermittelbare Menschen Arbeitsplätze anboten und Waisen- und Rettungshäuser. Auf die Dauer konnten die Wirtschaftsbetriebe die soziale Arbeit nicht tragen, da viele Helfer wieder absprangen oder unbrauchbar waren. 1861 kam es zur Krise, der Staat griff helfend ein, forderte aber die Trennung der Wirtschaftsbetriebe von den Rettungshäusern. Ein Teil des erzielten Überschusses in den Wirtschaftsbetrieben floß aber weiter in die Rettungshäuser, so daß das Werk Werners auch nach seinem Tod 1887 fortgeführt werden konnte und auch heute noch besteht
.



THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARPSALM 13

How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lady of hosts: how delightful are the tents of thy redemption.

Honor her, O ye sinners: and she will obtain grace and salvation for you.

Her prayer is incense above frank-incense and balsam: her supplications will not return to her bare, void, or empty.

Intercede for me, O Lady, with thy Christ: neither do thou forsake me in death or in life.

For thy spirit is kind: thy grace fills the whole world.


Rejoice, ye Heavens, and be glad, O Earth: because Mary will console her servants and will have mercy on her poor.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost as it was in the beginning and will always be.

God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique, for each is 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 that is 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.   God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heavenonly saints are allowed into heaven. The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.
There are over 10,000 named saints beati  from history
 and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources

Patron_Saints.html  Widowed_Saints htmIndulgences The Catholic Church in China
LINKS: Marian Shrines  
India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes 1858  China Marian shrines 1995
Kenya national Marian shrine  Loreto, Italy  Marian Apparitions (over 2000Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
 
Links to Related MarianWebsites  Angels and Archangels  Saints Visions of Heaven and Hell

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

Mary the Mother of Jesus Miracles_BLay Saints  Miraculous_IconMiraculous_Medal_Novena Patron Saints
Miracles by Century 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000    1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800  1900 2000
Miracles 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000  
 
1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800   1900 Lay Saints

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.

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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.
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.
His Holiness Aram I, current (2013) Catholicos of Cilicia of Armenians, whose See is located in Lebanese town of Antelias. The Catholicosate was founded in Sis, capital of Cilicia, in the year 1441 following the move of the Catholicosate of All Armenians back to its original See of Etchmiadzin in Armenia. The Catholicosate of Cilicia enjoyed local jurisdiction, though spiritually subject to the authority of Etchmiadzin. In 1921 the See was transferred to Aleppo in Syria, and in 1930 to Antelias.
Its jurisdiction currently extends to Syria, Cyprus, Iran and Greece.
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. Ecc7V,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.

680 Shiite saint Imam Hussein, grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad Known as Ashoura and observed by Shiites across the world, the 10th day of the lunar Muslim month of Muharram: the anniversary of the 7th century death in battle of one of Shiite Islam's most beloved saints.  Imam Hussein died in the 680 A.D. battle fought on the plains outside Karbala, a city in modern Iraq that's home to the saint's shrine.  The battle over a dispute about the leadership of the Muslim faith following Muhammad's death in 632 A.D. It is the defining event in Islam's split into Sunni and Shiite branches.  The occasion is the source of an enduring moral lesson. "He sacrificed his blood to teach us not to give in to corruption, coercion, or use of force and to seek honor and justice."  According to Shiite beliefs, Hussein and companions were denied water by enemies who controlled the nearby Euphrates.  Streets get partially covered with blood from slaughter of hundreds of cows and sheep. Volunteers cook the meat and feed it to the poor.  Hussein's martyrdom recounted through a rich body of prose, poetry and song remains an inspirational example of sacrifice to many Shiites, 10 percent of the world's estimated 1.3 billion Muslims.
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.
801 Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya Sufi One of the most famous Islamic mystics
(b. 717). This 8th century saint was an early Sufi who had a profound influence on later Sufis, who in turn deeply influenced the European mystical love and troubadour traditions.  Rabi'a was a woman of Basra, a seaport in southern Iraq.  She was born around 717 and died in 801 (185-186).  Her biographer, the great medieval poet Attar, tells us that she was "on fire with love and longing" and that men accepted her "as a second spotless Mary" (186).  She was, he continues, “an unquestioned authority to her contemporaries" (218).
Rabi'a began her ascetic life in a small desert cell near Basra, where she lost herself in prayer and went straight to God for teaching.  As far as is known, she never studied under any master or spiritual director.  She was one of the first of the Sufis to teach that Love alone was the guide on the mystic path (222).  A later Sufi taught that there were two classes of "true believers": one class sought a master as an intermediary between them and God -- unless they could see the footsteps of the Prophet on the path before them, they would not accept the path as valid.  The second class “...did not look before them for the footprint of any of God's creatures, for they had removed all thought of what He had created from their hearts, and concerned themselves solely with God. (218)
Rabi'a was of this second kind.  She felt no reverence even for the House of God in Mecca:  "It is the Lord of the house Whom I need; what have I to do with the house?" (219) One lovely spring morning a friend asked her to come outside to see the works of God.  She replied, "Come you inside that you may behold their Maker.  Contemplation of the Maker has turned me aside from what He has made" (219).  During an illness, a friend asked this woman if she desired anything.
"...[H]ow can you ask me such a question as 'What do I desire?'  I swear by the glory of God that for twelve years I have desired fresh dates, and you know that in Basra dates are plentiful, and I have not yet tasted them.  I am a servant (of God), and what has a servant to do with desire?" (162)
When a male friend once suggested she should pray for relief from a debilitating illness, she said,
"O Sufyan, do you not know Who it is that wills this suffering for me?  Is it not God Who wills it?  When you know this, why do you bid me ask for what is contrary to His will?  It is not  well to oppose one's Beloved." (221)
She was an ascetic.  It was her custom to pray all night, sleep briefly just before dawn, and then rise again just as dawn "tinged the sky with gold" (187).  She lived in celibacy and poverty, having renounced the world.  A friend visited her in old age and found that all she owned were a reed mat, screen, a pottery jug, and a bed of felt which doubled as her prayer-rug (186), for where she prayed all night, she also slept briefly in the pre-dawn chill.  Once her friends offered to get her a servant; she replied,
"I should be ashamed to ask for the things of this world from Him to Whom the world belongs, and how should I ask for them from those to whom it does not belong?"  (186-7)
A wealthy merchant once wanted to give her a purse of gold.  She refused it, saying that God, who sustains even those who dishonor Him, would surely sustain her, "whose soul is overflowing with love" for Him.  And she added an ethical concern as well:
"...How should I take the wealth of someone of whom I do not know whether he acquired it lawfully or not?" (187)
She taught that repentance was a gift from God because no one could repent unless God had already accepted him and given him this gift of repentance.  She taught that sinners must fear the punishment they deserved for their sins, but she also offered such sinners far more hope of Paradise than most other ascetics did.  For herself, she held to a higher ideal, worshipping God neither from fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise, for she saw such self-interest as unworthy of God's servants; emotions like fear and hope were like veils -- i.e., hindrances to the vision of God Himself.  The story is told that once a number of Sufis saw her hurrying on her way with water in one hand and a burning torch in the other.  When they asked her to explain, she said:
"I am going to light a fire in Paradise and to pour water on to Hell, so that both veils may vanish altogether from before the pilgrims and their purpose may be sure..." (187-188)
She was once asked where she came from.  "From that other world," she said.  "And where are you going?" she was asked.  "To that other world," she replied (219).  She taught that the spirit originated with God in "that other world" and had to return to Him in the end.  Yet if the soul were sufficiently purified, even on earth, it could look upon God unveiled in all His glory and unite with him in love.  In this quest, logic and reason were powerless.  Instead, she speaks of the "eye" of her heart which alone could apprehend Him and His mysteries (220).
Above all, she was a lover, a bhakti, like one of Krishna’s Goptis in the Hindu tradition.  Her hours of prayer were not so much devoted to intercession as to communion with her Beloved.  Through this communion, she could discover His will for her.  Many of her prayers have come down to us:
       "I have made Thee the Companion of my heart,
        But my body is available for those who seek its company,
        And my body is friendly towards its guests,
        But the Beloved of my heart is the Guest of my soul."  [224]

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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
  June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.
By Father John Corapi
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi
  June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.
By Father John Corapi
Among the most important titles we have in the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom. The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.

Today we have a similar spiritual battle in progress—a battle between the forces of good and evil, light and darkness, truth and lies, life and death. If we do not soon stop the genocide of abortion in the United States, we shall run the course of all those that prove by their actions that they are enemies of God—total collapse, economic, social, and national. The moral demise of a nation results in the ultimate demise of a nation. God is not a disinterested spectator to the affairs of man. Life begins at conception. This is an unalterable formal teaching of the Catholic Church. If you do not accept this you are a heretic in plain English. A single abortion is homicide. The more than 48,000,000 abortions since Roe v. Wade in the United States constitute genocide by definition. The group singled out for death—unwanted, unborn children.

No other issue, not all other issues taken together, can constitute a proportionate reason for voting for candidates that intend to preserve and defend this holocaust of innocent human life that is abortion.

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. Islam is a religion of peace.  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

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.

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 him.

About Father John Corapi.
Father Corapi is a Catholic priest .
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


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


Records on life of Father Flanagan, founder of Boys Town, presented at Vatican
Jul 23, 2019 - 03:01 am .- The cause for canonization of Servant of God Edward Flanagan, the priest who founded Nebraska's Boys Town community for orphans and other boys, advanced Monday with the presentation of a summary of records on his life.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen to be beatified
Jul 6, 2019 - 04:00 am .- Pope Francis approved the miracle attributed to Archbishop Fulton Sheen Friday, making possible the American television catechist's beatification.

Brooklyn diocese advances sainthood cause of local priest
Jun 25, 2019 - 03:01 am .- The Bishop of Brooklyn accepted last week the findings of a nine-year diocesan investigation into the life of Monsignor Bernard John Quinn, known for fighting bigotry and serving the African American population, as part of his cause for canonization.

Fr. Augustus Tolton, former African American slave, advances toward sainthood
Jun 12, 2019 - 05:03 am .- Fr. Augustus Tolton advanced along the path to sainthood Wednesday, making the runaway slave-turned-priest one step closer to being the first black American saint.

Pope Francis will beatify these martyred Greek-Catholic bishops in Romania
May 30, 2019 - 03:01 pm .- On Sunday in Blaj, Pope Francis will beatify seven Greek-Catholic bishops of Romania who were killed by the communist regime between 1950 and 1970.
 
Woman who served Brazil’s poorest to be canonized
May 14, 2019 - 06:53 am .- Pope Francis Tuesday gave his approval for eight sainthood causes to proceed, including that of Bl. Dulce Lopes Pontes, a 20th-century religious sister who served Brazil’s poor.

Seven 20th-century Romanian bishops declared martyrs
Mar 19, 2019 - 12:01 pm .- Pope Francis declared Tuesday the martyrdom of seven Greek-Catholic bishops killed by the communist regime in Romania in the mid-20th century.

Pope advances sainthood causes of 17 women
Jan 15, 2019 - 11:12 am .- Pope Francis approved Tuesday the next step in the canonization causes of 17 women from four countries, including the martyrdom of 14 religious sisters killed in Spain at the start of the Spanish Civil War.
 
Nineteen Algerian martyrs beatified
Dec 10, 2018 - 03:08 pm .- Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, were beatified Saturday during a Mass in Oran.

The Algerian martyrs shed their blood for Christ, pope says
Dec 7, 2018 - 10:02 am .- Ahead of the beatification Saturday of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, Pope Francis said martyrs have a special place in the Church.
Algerian martyrs are models for the Church, archbishop says
Nov 16, 2018 - 03:01 am .- Archbishop Paul Desfarges of Algiers has said that Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, are “models for our lives as disciples today and tomorrow.”
 
Francesco Spinelli to be canonized after healing of a newborn in DR Congo
Oct 9, 2018 - 05:01 pm .- Among those being canonized on Sunday are Fr. Franceso Spinelli, a diocesan priest through whose intercession a newborn was saved from death in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Algerian martyrs to be beatified in December
Sep 14, 2018 - 06:01 pm .- The Algerian bishops' conference has announced that the beatification of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in the country between 1994 and 1996, will be held Dec. 8.

Now a cardinal, Giovanni Angelo Becciu heads to congregation for saints' causes
Jun 28, 2018 - 11:41 am .- Newly-minted Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu will resign from his post as substitute of the Secretariat of State tomorrow, in anticipation of his appointment as prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints later this summer.

Pope Francis creates new path to beatification under ‘offering of life’
Jul 11, 2017 - 06:22 am .- On Tuesday Pope Francis declared a new category of Christian life suitable for consideration of beatification called “offering of life” – in which a person has died prematurely through an offering of their life for love of God and neighbor.
 
Twentieth century Polish nurse among causes advancing toward sainthood
Jul 7, 2017 - 06:14 am .- Pope Francis on Friday approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Hanna Chrzanowska, a Polish nurse and nursing instructor who died from cancer in 1973, paving the way for her beatification.
 
Sainthood causes advance, including layman who resisted fascism
Jun 17, 2017 - 09:22 am .- Pope Francis on Friday recognized the heroic virtue of six persons on the path to canonization, as well as the martyrdom of an Italian man who died from injuries of a beating he received while imprisoned in a concentration camp for resisting fascism.
 
Solanus Casey, Cardinal Van Thuan among those advanced toward sainthood
May 4, 2017 - 10:47 am .- Pope Francis on Thursday approved decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints advancing the causes for canonization of 12 individuals, including the American-born Capuchin Solanus Casey and the Vietnamese cardinal Francis Xavier Nguen Van Thuan.
 
Pope clears way for canonization of Fatima visionaries
Mar 23, 2017 - 06:44 am .- On Thursday Pope Francis approved the second and final miracle needed to canonize Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the shepherd children who witnessed the Fatima Marian apparitions.
Surgeon and father among sainthood causes moving forward
Feb 27, 2017 - 11:03 am .- Pope Francis recognized on Monday the heroic virtue of eight persons on the path to canonization, including an Italian surgeon and father of eight who suffered from several painful diseases throughout his life.

Records on life of Father Flanagan, founder of Boys Town, presented at Vatican
Jul 23, 2019 - 03:01 am .- The cause for canonization of Servant of God Edward Flanagan, the priest who founded Nebraska's Boys Town community for orphans and other boys, advanced Monday with the presentation of a summary of records on his life.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen to be beatified
Jul 6, 2019 - 04:00 am .- Pope Francis approved the miracle attributed to Archbishop Fulton Sheen Friday, making possible the American television catechist's beatification.

Brooklyn diocese advances sainthood cause of local priest
Jun 25, 2019 - 03:01 am .- The Bishop of Brooklyn accepted last week the findings of a nine-year diocesan investigation into the life of Monsignor Bernard John Quinn, known for fighting bigotry and serving the African American population, as part of his cause for canonization.

Fr. Augustus Tolton, former African American slave, advances toward sainthood
Jun 12, 2019 - 05:03 am .- Fr. Augustus Tolton advanced along the path to sainthood Wednesday, making the runaway slave-turned-priest one step closer to being the first black American saint.

Pope Francis will beatify these martyred Greek-Catholic bishops in Romania
May 30, 2019 - 03:01 pm .- On Sunday in Blaj, Pope Francis will beatify seven Greek-Catholic bishops of Romania who were killed by the communist regime between 1950 and 1970.
 
Woman who served Brazil’s poorest to be canonized
May 14, 2019 - 06:53 am .- Pope Francis Tuesday gave his approval for eight sainthood causes to proceed, including that of Bl. Dulce Lopes Pontes, a 20th-century religious sister who served Brazil’s poor.

Seven 20th-century Romanian bishops declared martyrs
Mar 19, 2019 - 12:01 pm .- Pope Francis declared Tuesday the martyrdom of seven Greek-Catholic bishops killed by the communist regime in Romania in the mid-20th century.

Pope advances sainthood causes of 17 women
Jan 15, 2019 - 11:12 am .- Pope Francis approved Tuesday the next step in the canonization causes of 17 women from four countries, including the martyrdom of 14 religious sisters killed in Spain at the start of the Spanish Civil War.
 
Nineteen Algerian martyrs beatified
Dec 10, 2018 - 03:08 pm .- Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, were beatified Saturday during a Mass in Oran.

The Algerian martyrs shed their blood for Christ, pope says
Dec 7, 2018 - 10:02 am .- Ahead of the beatification Saturday of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, Pope Francis said martyrs have a special place in the Church.
Algerian martyrs are models for the Church, archbishop says
Nov 16, 2018 - 03:01 am .- Archbishop Paul Desfarges of Algiers has said that Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, are “models for our lives as disciples today and tomorrow.”
 
Francesco Spinelli to be canonized after healing of a newborn in DR Congo
Oct 9, 2018 - 05:01 pm .- Among those being canonized on Sunday are Fr. Franceso Spinelli, a diocesan priest through whose intercession a newborn was saved from death in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Algerian martyrs to be beatified in December
Sep 14, 2018 - 06:01 pm .- The Algerian bishops' conference has announced that the beatification of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in the country between 1994 and 1996, will be held Dec. 8.

Now a cardinal, Giovanni Angelo Becciu heads to congregation for saints' causes
Jun 28, 2018 - 11:41 am .- Newly-minted Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu will resign from his post as substitute of the Secretariat of State tomorrow, in anticipation of his appointment as prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints later this summer.

Pope Francis creates new path to beatification under ‘offering of life’
Jul 11, 2017 - 06:22 am .- On Tuesday Pope Francis declared a new category of Christian life suitable for consideration of beatification called “offering of life” – in which a person has died prematurely through an offering of their life for love of God and neighbor.
 
Twentieth century Polish nurse among causes advancing toward sainthood
Jul 7, 2017 - 06:14 am .- Pope Francis on Friday approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Hanna Chrzanowska, a Polish nurse and nursing instructor who died from cancer in 1973, paving the way for her beatification.
 
Sainthood causes advance, including layman who resisted fascism
Jun 17, 2017 - 09:22 am .- Pope Francis on Friday recognized the heroic virtue of six persons on the path to canonization, as well as the martyrdom of an Italian man who died from injuries of a beating he received while imprisoned in a concentration camp for resisting fascism.
 
Solanus Casey, Cardinal Van Thuan among those advanced toward sainthood
May 4, 2017 - 10:47 am .- Pope Francis on Thursday approved decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints advancing the causes for canonization of 12 individuals, including the American-born Capuchin Solanus Casey and the Vietnamese cardinal Francis Xavier Nguen Van Thuan.
 
Pope clears way for canonization of Fatima visionaries
Mar 23, 2017 - 06:44 am .- On Thursday Pope Francis approved the second and final miracle needed to canonize Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the shepherd children who witnessed the Fatima Marian apparitions.
Surgeon and father among sainthood causes moving forward
Feb 27, 2017 - 11:03 am .- Pope Francis recognized on Monday the heroic virtue of eight persons on the path to canonization, including an Italian surgeon and father of eight who suffered from several painful diseases throughout his life.

8 Martyrs Move Closer to Sainthood 8 July, 2016
Posted by ZENIT Staff on 8 July, 2016

The angel appears to Saint Monica
This morning, Pope Francis received Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato. During the audience, he authorized the promulgation of decrees concerning the following causes:

***
MIRACLES:
Miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Luis Antonio Rosa Ormières, priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Guardian Angel; born July 4, 1809 and died on Jan. 16, 1890
MARTYRDOM:
Servants of God Antonio Arribas Hortigüela and 6 Companions, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart; killed in hatred of the Faith, Sept. 29, 1936
Servant of God Josef Mayr-Nusser, a layman; killed in hatred of the Faith, Feb. 24, 1945
HEROIC VIRTUE:

Servant of God Alfonse Gallegos of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, Titular Bishop of Sasabe, auxiliary of Sacramento; born Feb. 20, 1931 and died Oct. 6, 1991
Servant of God Rafael Sánchez García, diocesan priest; born June 14, 1911 and died on Aug. 8, 1973
Servant of God Andrés García Acosta, professed layman of the Order of Friars Minor; born Jan. 10, 1800 and died Jan. 14, 1853
Servant of God Joseph Marchetti, professed priest of the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Charles; born Oct. 3, 1869 and died Dec. 14, 1896
Servant of God Giacomo Viale, professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, pastor of Bordighera; born Feb. 28, 1830 and died April 16, 1912
Servant of God Maria Pia of the Cross (née Maddalena Notari), foundress of the Congregation of Crucified Sisters Adorers of the Eucharist; born Dec. 2, 1847 and died on July 1, 1919
Sunday, November 23 2014 Six to Be Canonized on Feast of Christ the King.

On the List Are Lay Founder of a Hospital and Eastern Catholic Religious
VATICAN CITY, June 12, 2014 (Zenit.org) - Today, the Vatican announced that during the celebration of the feast of Christ the King on Sunday, November 23, an ordinary public consistory will be held for the canonization of the following six blesseds, who include a lay founder of a hospital for the poor, founders of religious orders, and two members of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See:
-Giovanni Antonio Farina (1803-1888), an Italian bishop who founded the Institute of the Sisters Teachers of Saint Dorothy, Daughters of the Sacred Hearts
-Kuriakose Elias Chavara (1805-1871), a Syro-Malabar priest in India who founded the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate
-Ludovico of Casoria (1814-1885), an Italian Franciscan priest who founded the Gray Sisters of St. Elizabeth
-Nicola Saggio (Nicola da Longobardi, 1650-1709), an Italian oblate of the Order of Minims
-Euphrasia Eluvathingal (1877-1952), an Indian Carmelite of the Syro-Malabar Church
-Amato Ronconi (1238-1304), an Italian, Third Order Franciscan who founded a hospital for poor pilgrims

CAUSES OF SAINTS July 2015.
Pope Recognizes Heroic Virtues of Ukrainian Archbishop
Recognition Brings Metropolitan Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky Closer to Beatification
By Junno Arocho Esteves Rome, July 17, 2015 (ZENIT.org)
Pope Francis recognized the heroic virtues of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky. According to a communique released by the Holy See Press Office, the Holy Father met this morning with Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The Pope also recognized the heroic virtues of several religious/lay men and women from Italy, Spain, France & Mexico.
Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky is considered to be one of the most influential 20th century figures in the history of the Ukrainian Church.
Enthroned as Metropolitan of Lviv in 1901, Archbishop Sheptytsky was arrested shortly after the outbreak of World War I in 1914 by the Russians. After his imprisonment in several prisons in Russia and the Ukraine, the Archbishop was released in 1918.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic prelate was also an ardent supporter of the Jewish community in Ukraine, going so far as to learn Hebrew to better communicate with them. He also was a vocal protestor against atrocities committed by the Nazis, evidenced in his pastoral letter, "Thou Shalt Not Kill." He was also known to harbor thousands of Jews in his residence and in Greek Catholic monasteries.
Following his death in 1944, his cause for canonization was opened in 1958.
* * *
The Holy Father authorized the Congregation to promulgate the following decrees regarding the heroic virtues of:
- Servant of God Andrey Sheptytsky, O.S.B.M., major archbishop of Leopolis of the Ukrainians, metropolitan of Halyc (1865-1944);
- Servant of God Giuseppe Carraro, Bishop of Verona, Italy (1899-1980);
- Servant of God Agustin Ramirez Barba, Mexican diocesan priest and founder of the Servants of the Lord of Mercy (1881-1967);
- Servant of God Simpliciano della Nativita (ne Aniello Francesco Saverio Maresca), Italian professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Hearts (1827-1898);
- Servant of God Maria del Refugio Aguilar y Torres del Cancino, Mexican founder of the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (1866-1937);
- Servant of God Marie-Charlotte Dupouy Bordes (Marie-Teresa), French professed religious of the Society of the Religious of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (1873-1953);
- Servant of God Elisa Miceli, Italian founder of the Rural Catechist Sisters of the Sacred Heart (1904-1976);
- Servant of God Isabel Mendez Herrero (Isabel of Mary Immaculate), Spanish professed nun of the Servants of St. Joseph (1924-1953)
October 01, 2015 Vatican City, Pope Authorizes following Decrees
(ZENIT.org) By Staff Reporter
Polish Layperson Recognized as Servant of God
Pope Authorizes Decrees
Pope Francis on Wednesday authorised the Congregation for Saints' Causes to promulgate the following decrees:

MARTYRDOM
- Servant of God Valentin Palencia Marquina, Spanish diocesan priest, killed in hatred of the faith in Suances, Spain in 1937;

HEROIC VIRTUES
- Servant of God Giovanni Folci, Italian diocesan priest and founder of the Opera Divin Prigioniero (1890-1963);
- Servant of God Franciszek Blachnicki, Polish diocesan priest (1921-1987);
- Servant of God Jose Rivera Ramirez, Spanish diocesan priest (1925-1991);
- Servant of God Juan Manuel Martín del Campo, Mexican diocesan priest (1917-1996);
- Servant of God Antonio Filomeno Maria Losito, Italian professed priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (1838-1917);
- Servant of God Maria Benedetta Giuseppa Frey (nee Ersilia Penelope), Italian professed nun of the Cistercian Order (1836-1913);
- Servant of God Hanna Chrzanowska, Polish layperson, Oblate of the Ursulines of St. Benedict (1902-1973).
March 06 2016 MIRACLES authorised the Congregation to promulgate the following decrees:
Pope Francis received in a private audience Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, during which he authorised the Congregation to promulgate the following decrees:
MIRACLES

– Blessed Manuel González García, bishop of Palencia, Spain, founder of the Eucharistic Missionaries of Nazareth (1877-1940);
– Blessed Elisabeth of the Trinity (née Elisabeth Catez), French professed religious of the Order of Discalced Carmelites (1880-1906);
– Venerable Servant of God Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus (né Henri Grialou), French professed priest of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, founder of the Secular Institute “Notre-Dame de Vie” (1894-1967);
– Venerable Servant of God María Antonia of St. Joseph (née María Antonio de Paz y Figueroa), Argentine founder of the Beaterio of the Spiritual Exercise of Buenos Aires (1730-1799);
HEROIC VIRTUE

– Servant of God Stefano Ferrando, Italian professed priest of the Salesians, bishop of Shillong, India, founder of the Congregation of Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians (1895-1978);
– Servant of God Enrico Battista Stanislao Verjus, Italian professed priest of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, coadjutor of the apostolic vicariate of New Guinea (1860-1892);
– Servant of God Giovanni Battista Quilici, Italian diocesan priest, founder of the Congregation of the Daughters of the Crucified (1791-1844);
– Servant of God Bernardo Mattio, Italian diocesan priest (1845-1914);
– Servant of God Quirico Pignalberi, Italian professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1891-1982);
– Servant of God Teodora Campostrini, Italian founder of the Minim Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Sorrows (1788-1860);
– Servant of God Bianca Piccolomini Clementini, Italian founder of the Company of St. Angela Merici di Siena (1875-1959);
– Servant of God María Nieves of the Holy Family (née María Nieves Sánchez y Fernández), Spanish professed religious of the Daughters of Mary of the Pious Schools (1900-1978).

April 26 2016 MIRACLES authorised the Congregation to promulgate the following decrees:
Here is the full list of decrees approved by the Pope:

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia Paqualina Addatis), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Addolorata, Servants of Mary (1845-1900);
– Servant of God Maria of the Incarnation (née Caterina Carrasco Tenorio), founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of the Flock of Mary (1840-1917);
– Servant of God , founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Family of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1851-1923);
– Servant of God Ilia Corsaro, founder of the Congregation of the Little Missionaries of the Eucharist (1897-1977);
– Servant of God Maria Montserrat Grases García, layperson of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1941-1959).
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_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates, PSALTER  BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 13 2022