Mary Mother of GOD    St Peter advincularome.jpg
Saints of this Day August 01 Kaléndas Augústi
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!)

Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China {whole article here }

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

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

Holy Father's Prayer Intentions For 2009 BENEDICT XVI'S PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR AUGUST
VATICAN CITY, 31 JUL 2008 (VIS) - Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for August is:
"That public opinion may be more aware of the problems of millions of displaced persons and refugees,
and that concrete solutions may be found for their often tragic situation".
  His mission intention is: "That those Christians who are discriminated against and persecuted in many countries because of the name of Christ may have their human rights, equality and religious freedom recognised,
in order to be able to live and profess their own faith freely".

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


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY  PSALM 43

O Lady, we have heard with our ears: and our fathers have told it unto us.
For thy merits are ineffable: and thy wonders exceedingly stupendous.
O Lady, innumerable are thy virtues: and inestimable are thy mercies.

Exult, O my soul, and rejoice in her: for many good things are prepared for those who praise her.
Blessed be thou, O Queen of the Heavens and the angels: and let those who praise thy magnificence be blessed by God.

Glory be to the Father, etc.

 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
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
THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY TO BE BELIEVED POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI

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) missio ns, 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.

“The saints must be honored as friends of Christ and children and heirs of God, as John the theologian and evangelist says: ‘But as many as received him, he gave them the power to be made the sons of God....’ Let us carefully observe the manner of life of all the apostles, martyrs, ascetics and just men who announced the coming of the Lord. And let us emulate their faith, charity, hope, zeal, life, patience under suffering, and perseverance unto death, so that we may also share their crowns of glory” Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

 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.

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

Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China {whole article here }
The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.

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THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY TO BE BELIEVED POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI
Morning Prayer and Hymn   Meditation of the Day  Prayer for Priests
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.

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;
and 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

 breviary.net/martyrology/mart08/mart0801 stlukeorthodox.com/html/saints/july/ usccb.org  ewtn.com  St Patricks 0801
domcentral.org/life/martyrAugustuly  syriac    oca.org   glaubenszeugen.de/tage/August/   Serbian   http://www.copticchurch.net  Melkite
Monthly Saints with pics here http://www.stfrancisenid.com/memorials.htm
 One Saint per day stthomasirondequoit.com/SaintsAlive/index.htm    stjohndc.org  God's Humourous Saints
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:  only 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.
Mary the Mother of Jesus Miracles_BC  Lay Saints  Miraculous_Icons  Miraculous_Medal_Novena Patron Saints
100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000    1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800   1900
God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heaven.
The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.
"The answers to many of life's questions can be found by reading the Lives of the Saints. They teach us how to overcome obstacles and difficulties, how to stand firm in our faith, and how to struggle against evil and emerge victorious."  1913 Saint Barsanuphius of Optina
 Paul VI_Athenagoras_05_01_1964
Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction on the Contemplative Life includes this passage:  
 "To withdraw into the desert is for Christians tantamount to associating themselves more intimately with Christ’s passion, and it enables them, in a very special way, to share in the paschal mystery and in the passage of Our Lord from this world to the heavenly homeland" (#1).
Benedict_XVI_Patriarch_Bartholomew I
"Christianity is not a moral code or a philosophy,
but an encounter with a person" -- Benedict XVI

"Evil, is only eradicated by holiness, not by harshness. And holiness introduces into society a seed that heals and transforms.  It is like the tectonic plates of the earth’s crust: The deepest layers need only shift a few millimeters to shatter the world’s surface. Yet for this spiritual revolution to occur, we must experience radical 'metanoia'--a conversion of attitudes, habits and practices--for ways that we have misused or abused God’s Word, God’s gifts and God’s creation. The challenge before us is the discernment of God’s Word in the face of evil, the transfiguration of every last detail and speck of this world in the light of Resurrection." "The victory is al ready present in the depths of the Church, whenever we experience the grace of reconciliation and communion."
Patriarch_Bartholomew I: SYNOD OF BISHOPS VATICAN CITY, OCT. 17, 2008

"The answers to many of life's questions can be found by reading the Lives of the Saints.
They teach us how to overcome obstacles and difficulties,how to stand firm in our faith,
and how to struggle against evil and emerge victorious." 
1913 Saint Barsanuphius of Optina
God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heaven.
The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.
Non est inventus similis illis
His Holiness Aram I, current (2008) 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.
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.
Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac: The exact date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa {Armenian Ourhaï in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name} is not known. It is certain, however, that the Christian community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legend, King Abgar V, Ushana, was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples. In fact, however, the first King of Edessa to embrace the Christian Faith was Abgar IX (c. 206) becoming official kingdom religion.Christian council held at Edessa early as 197 (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., V,xxiii). In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed ("Chronicon Edessenum", ad. an. 201). In 232 the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written. Under Roman domination martyrs suffered at Edessa: Sts. Scharbîl and Barsamya, under Decius; Sts. Gûrja, Schâmôna, Habib, and others under Diocletian.

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.
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 1236-1325 welcomed people of all faiths & all walks of life Sufi Saint Hazrath Khwaja Syed Mohammed Badshah Quadri Chisty Yamani Quadeer (RA)
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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
Father Reardon, Editor of The Catholic Bulletin for 20 years
Lover of the poor; "A very Holy Man of God"
Monsignor Reardon P.A.  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 5/31/1908
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 B. 1872, Nova Scotia; Priest, ordained by Bishop Ireland; Member  St. Paul Seminary faculty
Litany of Loretto in Stained glass windows Here.  Nave Sacristy and Residence Here
Sanctuary spaces filled between with grilles of hand-forged wrought iron  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.  It became the Popes' own cathedral and official residence for the first millennium of Christian history. The only replicas ever made:  in order from west to east {1932}. Saints Simon (saw), Bartholomew (knife), James the Lesser (book), John (eagle),  Andrew (transverse cross), Peter (keys), Paul (sword), James the Greater (staff),
Thomas (carpenter's square), Philip (serpent), Matthew (book), and Jude (sword).
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 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.
By Father John Corapi, SOLT
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.

THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM
As we watch the spectacle of the world seeming to self-destruct before our eyes, we can’t help but be saddened and even frightened by so much evil run rampant. Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Somalia, North Korea—It is all a disaster of epic proportions displayed in living color on our television screens.  These are not ordinary times and this is not business as usual. We are at a crossroads in human history and the time for Catholics and all Christians to act is now. All evil can ultimately be traced to its origin, which is moral evil. All of the political action, peace talks, international peacekeeping forces, etc. will avail nothing if the underlying sickness is not addressed. This is sin. One person at a time hearts and minds must be moved from evil to good, from lies to truth, from violence to peace.
Islam, an Arabic word that has often been defined as “to make peace,” seems like a living contradiction today. Although it is supposed to be a religion of peace, Islam has been hijacked by Satan and now operates in the dark space of international terrorism.  As we celebrate the birthday of Our Lady, I am proposing that each one of us pray the Rosary for peace. Prayer is what must precede all other activity if that activity is to have any chance of success. Pray for peace, pray the Rosary every day without fail.  There is a great love for Mary among Muslim people. It is not a coincidence that a little village named Fatima is where God chose to have His Mother appear in the twentieth century. Our Lady’s name appears no less than thirty times in the Koran. No other woman’s name is mentioned, not even that of Mohammed’s daughter, Fatima.
In the Koran Our Lady is described as “Virgin, ever Virgin.”

Archbishop Fulton Sheen prophetically spoke of the resurgence of Islam in our day. He said it would be through the Blessed Virgin Mary that Islam would be converted. We must pray for this to happen quickly if we are to avert a horrible time of suffering for this poor, sinful world. Turn to our Mother in this time of great peril. Pray the Rosary every day. Then, and only then will there be peace, when the hearts and minds of men are changed from the inside.
Talk is weak. Prayer is strong. Pray!  God bless you,
Father John Corapi

A New Series by Fr. Corapi! The Moon Under Her Feet CD-Audio Set: $39.00 DVD-Video Set: $45.00  call 1-888-800-7084 or go to Site http://www.fathercorapi.com
In this four part series Father John Corapi goes to the heart of the contemporary world's many woes and wars, whether the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, or the Congo, or the natural disasters that seem to be increasing every year, the moral and spiritual war is at the basis of everything. "Our battle is not against human forces," St. Paul asserts, "but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness..."
(Ephesians 6:12).  The "War to end all wars" is the moral and spiritual combat that rages in the hearts and minds of human beings. The outcome of that  unseen fight largely determines how the battle in the realm of the seen unfolds.  The title talk, "With the Moon Under Her Feet," is taken from the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation, and deals with the current threat to the world from radical Islam, and the Blessed Virgin Mary's role in the ultimate victory that will result in the conversion of Islam.  Few Catholics are aware of the connection between Islam, Fatima, and Guadalupe. Presented in Father Corapi's straight-forward style, you will be both inspired and educated by this four part series on topics more timely than ever.
The four titles are:  1. The Real War We Fight 2. The Battle for Hearts & Minds 3. Leadership: Essential for Victory 4. With the Moon Under Her Feet
DECREES OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE CAUSES OF SAINTS
VATICAN CITY, 17 JAN 2009 (VIS) - Today, during a private audience with Archbishop Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Pope authorised the congregation to promulgate the following decrees:
All Servants of God
MIRACLES:
- 1909 Ciriaco Maria Sancha y Hervas, Spanish cardinal archbishop of Toledo, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of
          Charity of Cardinal Sancha (1833-1909).
- 1956 Carlo Gnocchi, Italian diocesan priest and founder of the "Pro Juventute" Foundation (1902-1956).
- 1735 Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos, Spanish professed priest of the Company of Jesus (1711-1735).
- 1919 Raphael Rafiringa (ne Louis), Madagascan professed religious of the Institute of Brothers of Christian Schools
          (1856-1919).
- 1946 Eustachio Kugler, (ne Joseph), German professed religious of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God (1867-1946).
 
HEROIC VIRTUES
- 1659 Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Spanish bishop of Osma (1600-1659).
- 1888 Robert Spiske, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of Sisters of St. Hedwig (1821-1888).
- 1932 Carolina Beltrami, Italian foundress of the Institute of "Immaculatine" Sisters of Alessandria (1869-1932).
- 1998 Mary of the Immaculate e Conception Salvat y Romerio (nee Maria Isabella), Spanish superior general of the Institute of
          Sisters of the Company of the Cross (1926-1998).
- 1842 Liberata Ferrarons y Vives, Spanish laywoman of the Third Order of Carmelites (1803-1842).
  In the course of a private audience with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. on 22 December 2008, the Pope authorised the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate a decree regarding the heroic virtues of
1871 Jose Tous y Soler, Servant of God Spanish professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchins and founder of the
        Capuchin sisters of the Mother of the Divine Shepherd (1811-1871).
CSS/DECREES/AMATO VIS 090119 (320)
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-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 s.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.

   Sec 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;
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. JCirsch also, in the Lexikon für Theologis 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 hldfmasse, 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 romischen 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 .
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).
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
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.

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, Aiphonsus 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 m issions 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 l988.
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 .