Mary Mother of GOD On the fourth day of the Afterfeast of the Dormition, the Church continues to honor the passage of the Most Holy Theotokos from death to life. Just as Christ once dwelt in the virginal womb of His Mother, now He takes Her "to dwell in His courts."
 Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins. Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)

 The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
St. Louis, Bishop (Optional Memorial)
First Reading:
Psalm:
Gospel:
 Ezekiel 36:23-28
Psalm 51:12-15, 18-19
Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus Christ said, " This is my Body. " You say, " No. It is not His Body!" Who am I to believe? I prefer to believe Jesus Christ.

-- St. Dominic Barberi
“Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make his spirit, his devotion, his affections, his desires and his disposition live and reign there. All our religious exercises should be directed to this end. It is the work which God has given us to do unceasingly”
(St. John Eudes, The Life and Reign of Jesus in Christian Souls).
15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary
Mary's Divine Motherhood
Called in the Gospel "the Mother of Jesus," Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the Mother of my Lord" (Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55; et al.). In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh,
was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" (Theotokos).
Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, quoting the Council of Ephesus (431): DS 251.
190 St. Julius Roman senator martyr Recorded by Sts. Eusebius and Pontian.
        Anágniæ sancti Magni, Epíscopi et Mártyris, qui in persecutióne Décii necátus est.
        At Anagni, St. Magnus, bishop and martyr, who was put to death in the persecution of Decius.
 300 St. Andrew Stratelates the Tribune lead converts in Roman army
304-306 Sts. Timothy, Thecla, & Agapius martyrs
            Romæ sancti Xysti Tértii, Papæ et Confessóris.
 440 ST SIXTUS, OR XYSTUS, III, POPE  and confessor.
 535 St. Donatus Hermit born in Orleans, France. He lived as a recluse on Mount Jura near Sisteron in Provence.
 535 St. Mochta Bishop of Ireland last disciple of St. Patrick
 580 St. Elaphius Bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne, France. Sent to Spain as an ambassador
 640 St. Bertulf Abbot famous for miracles
 656 St. Magnus born in Avignon, France, which he ruled as governor; Benedictine bishop father of St. Agricola
 7th v. St. Guenninus Bishop of Vannes, Brittany, France. His relics are revered there.
 690 St. Calminius hermit-founder Also called Calmilius; lived in France founded of Villars and Mauzac, near Riom.
 770 St. Sebald Hermit, missionary assisting in the work. of St. Willibald in the Reichswald; miracles
 780 St. Credan Benedictine abbot Evesham, England, in the reign of King Offa of Mercia.
 850 St. Badulfus A Benedictine abbot mentioned in the Proprium of Lyons. He was abbot of Ainay, Lyons, France.
1297 St Louis of Anjou, Bishop of Toulouse; “Jesus Christ is my kingdom. If I possess Him alone, I shall have all
        things if I have not Him, I lose all.”
        St. Marinus Benedictine bishop and abbot; governed abbey of St. Peter at Besalu, in Catalonia, Spain.
        St. Rufinus Martyred priest at Mantua, Italy; suffered during persecutions of the Church by the Roman Empire.
        St. Namadia Widow and nun Wife of St. Calminius, she entered a convent after his death and lived at Marsat.
1314 Blessed Emily Bicchieri frequent ecstasies visions miracles
1380 The Don Icon of the Mother of God painted by Theophanes the Greek The wonderworking icon
1456 Saint Pitirim, Bishop of Great Perm; composer of Canon to St Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow (February 12),
        and wrote his Life
16th v. St Theophanes the New native of Ioannina city; founded monasteries; worked miracles
1622 Bl. Peter Zuniga Martyr in Japan
1622 Bl. Louis Flores Dominican martyr Japan
1622 Bl. Thomas Koyanangi Japanese martyr
1622 Bl. Bartholomew Monfiore native Martyr  of Japan
1622 St. James Denshi, Blessed
1622 Bl. Lawrence Rokuyemon Martyr of Japan
1622 Bl. Leo Suchiemon Martyr of Japan
1622 Bl. Michael Diaz martyr of Japan
1622 Bl. Paul Sanchiki Martyr of Japan
1632  Bl. Anthony native Martyr of Japan
1662 Bl. John Foyamon Martyr of Japan
1662 Bl. John Nangata Martyr of Japan
1662 Bl. John Yano Martyr of Japan
1670 St. John Eudes studied at Paris and Aubervilliers, ordained 1625; missionary;  shared with St. Mary Margaret Alacoque honor of initiating devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (composed Mass for the Sacred Heart in 1668) and the Holy Heart of Mary, popularizing devotions with his "The Devotion to the Adorable Heart of Jesus" (1670) and "The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God"

August  19  On the Fitness of Our Lady's Assumption Venerable Cardinal John Henry Neuman
Sermon Notes July 1, 1849
http://www.newmanreader.org/works/sermonnotes/file1.html#return13
1. Recollect Luke xxiv. 26, 'Ought not Christ,' etc.; Hebrews ii. 10, 'It became him,' etc.; Rom. xii., 'Analogy of Faith.'
2. In like manner it became our Lord to raise His mother, and her so sinless. Let us think of this.
3. Doctrine from the first—that God was her Son, lay in her womb, was suckled by her, etc. She enjoyed His voice, smile, etc.
4. Esther vi. 6, 'What should be done to the man whom the king is desirous to honour?' 'He ought to be clothed in royal robes,' etc. And so of our Lady—she should be the Mirror of Justice, the Mystical Rose, etc. Thus has King Solomon risen up to meet his mother.
5. Now go into details—sanctity and spiritual office or work go commonly together: (1) the angels; (2) seraphim. Exceptions: (i) Balaam, Caiaphas, overruled; (ii) many shall say in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name,' and He shall answer, 'I never knew you'; (3) They may have fallen away; (4) gifts are [imparted] separately from sanctity, but gifts are not offices. On the contrary (5) Enoch, Noe, Moses, Samuel, David, etc.—except Judas. [These are instances where, according to the general rule, 'sanctity and spiritual office go together.']
6. If such to whom the word was made, much more [does sanctity go with spiritual office] in [her, in] whom He was born. Was it not fitting? Do human parents otherwise? Do they give their children to suckle to common persons? Nature says that the fount of truth should be holy. Here is the difference [as between] miracles and sacraments. Prophets receive, beget, and bear the Divine Word. Scripture-writers different from each other, and so the Fathers. As the tree, so the fruit. 'Beware of false prophets' [says our Lord, and then He adds, 'from their fruits ye shall know them']. Mary not a mere instrument—as the first-fruit, so the mass. The Word did not pass through [her]. He took a body from her, therefore she was worthy of the Creator—full of grace.
7. Hence doctrine of Immaculate Conception—grace before Gabriel [i.e. before the Annunciation], before vow of virginity, before Temple, before birth, before St. John the Baptist [i.e. at an earlier period in her existence than that in which it was bestowed upon the Baptist]. She must surpass all saints.
8. Again with her co-operation—this her merit. She was peccable; she grew in grace, etc. Enoch merited, Noe merited, Abraham merited, Levites merited, David, Daniel [merited]; how much more Mary since her reward was such!
9. Her glories were not simply from her being Mother of God: it implies something before it.
The feast of Annunciation implies feast of Conception and of Assumption.
10. Come then (I would not weary you) to Assumption—more difficult not to believe Assumption than to believe it after the Incarnation. Human Sons sustain their mothers. She died; she saw no corruption, for she had no original sin. 'Dust thou art,' etc.
11. Therefore she died in private. Give history of Assumption.
12. What is it fitting that we should be with such a mother?
August 19: OUR LADY OF THE DON   Two Loves Have Merged in One (IV)
The continual miracle was that Mary could live separated from her beloved. (...)
But could I tell you how this miracle ended? (...) If I may say, O Christians, what I think, I attribute this last effect not to extraordinary movements, but to the sole perfection of the Blessed Virgin's love.
For as this divine love was reigning in her heart, without any obstacles, filled all her thoughts, it grew each day by its actions, becoming more perfect through its desires, by multiplying itself; so that it eventually reached such a perfection that earth couldn't contain it anymore.   Jacques Bénigne Bossuet
First Homily for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, point one.

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.
So Many Souls Go to Hell Because No One Prays for Them
Aug 19 - 4th Apparition of Fatima: the Announcement of the Great Miracle (Portugal)
On that bright Sunday of August 19, 1917, Lucia, Francisco and his brother John, took their flock out to graze.
On the way, Lucia felt something supernatural approach. Feeling that Our Lady was about to appear,
John hurried away to get his sister Jacinta. Our Lady did appear, in a gleam of light,
but she waited for little Jacinta before becoming visible above the oak tree.
She then said to them, "I want you to continue to come to Cova da Iria on the 13th day of the month,
and to recite the rosary daily. The last month, I will do the miracle so everyone believes.
If they hadn't imprisoned you in town, the miracle would have been far more known.
Saint Joseph will come with the Child Jesus to give peace to the world. Our Lord will come to bless the people.
Then Our Lady of the Rosary and Our Lady of Sorrows will come as well."
Lucia asked what should be done with all the money that people left at the foot of the green oak of Cova da Iria.
"I want two procession floats to be made. You will carry one with Jacinta and two other little girls dressed in white, the other Francisco will carry the other with three boys like him, dressed in white albs. It will be for the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary."
"I would like to ask you to cure some sick people," asked Lucia. "Yes, I will cure some this year."
 Then, with a sad expression, Mary added, "Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners,
since so many souls go to hell because no one make sacrifices and prays for them."
Saints of this Day August  19 Quartodécimo Kaléndas Septémbris
Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”,
showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.
Papal Intention: for August  2010, Benedict XVI pray especially
The Unemployed and the Homeless
General:  That those who are without work or homes or who are otherwise in serious need may find understanding and welcome, as well as concrete help in overcoming their difficulties.
Victims of Discrimination, Hunger and Forced Emigration
Missionary: That the Church may be a “home” for all people, ready to open its doors to any who are suffering from racial or religious discrimination, hunger, or wars forcing them to emigrate to other countries.
Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary
Mary's Divine Motherhood
Called in the Gospel "the Mother of Jesus," Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the Mother of my Lord" (Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55; et al.). In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" (Theotokos).
Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, quoting the Council of Ephesus (431): DS 251.
breviary.net/martyrology/mart08/mart0819 stlukeorthodox.com/html/saints/  usccb.org  ewtn.com  St Patricks 0819
domcentral.org/life/martyrAugust   syriac    oca.org   glaubenszeugen.de/tage/Aug/19   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

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http://www.worldpriest.com/
THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY TO BE BELIEVED POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI
Morning Prayer and Hymn    Meditation of the Day    Prayer for Priests    Our Bartholomew Family Prayer List  Here
   We are called upon with the whole Church militant on earth to join in praising and thanking God for the grace and glory he has bestowed on his saints. At the same time we earnestly implore Him to exert His almighty power and mercy in raising us from our miseries and sins, healing the disorders of our souls and leading us by the path of repentance to the company of His saints, to which He has called us.
   They were once what we are now, travellers on earth they had the same weaknesses, which we have. We have difficulties to encounter so had the saints, and many of them far greater than we can meet with; obstacles from kings and whole nations, sometimes from the prisons, racks and swords of persecutors. Yet they surmounted these difficulties, which they made the very means of their virtue and victories. It was by the strength they received from above, not by their own, that they triumphed. But the blood of Christ was shed for us as it was for them and the grace of our Redeemer is not wanting to us; if we fail, the failure is in ourselves.
   THE saints and just, from the beginning of time and throughout the world, who have been made perfect, everlasting monuments of God’s infinite power and clemency, praise His goodness without ceasing; casting their crowns before His throne they give to Him all the glory of their triumphs: “ His gifts alone in us He crowns.”
Miracles 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000  
 1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800   1900 Lay Saints
The 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.
God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heaven.
Paul VI_Athenagoras_05_01_1964
Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction on the Contemplative Life includes this passage:   Benedict_XVI_Patriarch_Bartholomew
 "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).
"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 benefit of others.
Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China {whole article here} 2000 years of the Catholic Church in China
The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible. Patron_Saints.html

THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 102
Bless, O my soul, the Mother of Jesus Christ: and all that is within me, glorify her name.
Forget not her benefits: nor her grace and consolation.
By her grace sins are forgiven: and by her mercy maladies are healed.
Bless her, all ye powers of Heaven: glorify her, ye choirs of the Apostles and Prophets.
Bless her, O ye sea, and the islands of the nations: sing a hymn to her, all ye heavens and the dwellers therein.
Glory be to the Father who created the Universe, and the Son who gave up His life so that we may live forever,
and the Holy Spirit the Lord giver of life, Who proceeds from the Father and Son, with the Father and Son He is Worshiped and Glorified, and He has spoken through the prophets:  Amen.

August 19 – OUR LADY OF THE DON – Saint John Eudes
Mary did everything Out of Love
Love was everything and did everything in her and through her.  If she prayed, it was love that prayed in her and through her.  If she adored and praised God, it was love that adored and praised him in her.  If she spoke, it was love that spoke in her and through her.  If she was silent, it was love that kept her silent.  If she worked, it was love that kept her at work.  If she rested, it was love that let her rest.         Saint John Eudes

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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; toward evening, meditate on the Passion of Christ for a half hour, 6.  Conclude the day with evening prayer & an examination of conscience over all the faults & sins of the day.
7.  Every month make a review of the month in confession.
8. Choose a special patron every month & imitate that patron in some special virtue.
9. Precede every great feast with a novena that is nine days of devotion. 10. Try to begin & end every activity with a Hail Mary
My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love Thee.  I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not
O most Holy trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly.  I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the Tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended, and by the infite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  I beg the conversion of poor sinners,  Fatima Prayer, Angel of Peace
The voice of the Father is heard, the Son enters the water, and the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove.
THE spirit and example of the world imperceptibly instil the error into the minds of many that there is a kind of middle way of going to Heaven; and so, because the world does not live up to the gospel, they bring the gospel down to the level of the world. It is not by this example that we are to measure the Christian rule, but words and life of Christ. All His followers are commanded to labour to become perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect, and to bear His image in our hearts that we may be His children. We are obliged by the gospel to die to ourselves by fighting self-love in our hearts, by the mastery of our passions, by taking on the spirit of our Lord.
These are the conditions under which Christ makes His promises and numbers us among His children, as is manifest from His words which the apostles have left us in their inspired writings. Here is no distinction made or foreseen between the apostles or clergy or religious and secular persons. The former, indeed, take upon themselves certain stricter obligations, as a means of accomplishing these ends more perfectly; but the law of holiness and of disengagement of the heart from the world is general and binds all the followers of Christ.
Nine First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
Decrees of Vatican's Saint Congregation
Testify to 10 Miracles; 10 Cases of Heroic Virtue; 1 Martyrdom
“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
NINE BEATIFICATIONS APPROVED BY THE POPE 6/8/10
God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique each the result of a new idea.
As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike.
It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints.
Dear Lord, grant us a spirit not bound by our own ideas and preferences.
 Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves.
O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory.
 Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.
Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.
The 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary ) Revealed to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan)
1.    Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces. 2.    I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. 3.    The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. 4.    It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things.  Oh, that soul would sanctify them by this means.  5.    The soul that recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish. 6.    Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying themselves to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune.  God will not chastise them in His justice, they shall not perish by an unprovided death; if they be just, they shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. 7.    Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church. 8.    Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise. 9.    I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. 10.    The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.  11.    You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. 12.    I shall aid all those who propagate the Holy Rosary in their necessities. 13.    I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. 14.    All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ. 15.    Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac
The exact date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa {Armenian Ourhaï in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name} is not known. It is certain, however, that the Christian community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legend, King Abgar V, Ushana, was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples. In fact, however, the first King of Edessa to embrace the Christian Faith was Abgar IX (c. 206) becoming official kingdom religion.
  Christian council held at Edessa early as 197 (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., V,xxiii).
In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed ("Chronicon Edessenum", ad. an. 201).
In 232 the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written.
Under Roman domination martyrs suffered at Edessa: Sts. Scharbîl and Barsamya, under Decius; Sts. Gûrja, Schâmôna, Habib, and others under Diocletian.
In the meanwhile Christian priests from Edessa evangelized Eastern Mesopotamia and Persia, established the first Churches in the kingdom of the Sassanides.  Atillâtiâ, Bishop of Edessa, assisted at the Council of Nicæa (325). The "Peregrinatio Silviæ" (or Etheriæ) (ed. Gamurrini, Rome, 1887, 62 sqq.) gives an account of the many sanctuaries at Edessa about 388.
Although Hebrew had been the language of the ancient Israelite kingdom, after their return from Exile the Jews turned more and more to Aramaic, using it for parts of the books of Ezra and Daniel in the Bible. By the time of Jesus, Aramaic was the main language of Palestine, and quite a number of texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls are also written in Aramaic.
Aramaic continued to be an important language for Jews, alongside Hebrew, and parts of the Talmud are written in it.
After Arab conquests of the seventh century, Arabic quickly replaced Aramaic as the main language of those who converted to Islam, although in out of the way places, Aramaic continued as a vernacular language of Muslims.
Aramaic, however, enjoyed its greatest success in Christianity. Although the New Testament wins written in Greek, Christianity had come into existence in an Aramaic-speaking milieu, and it was the Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac, that became the literary language of a large number of Christians living in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and in the Persian Empire, further east. Over the course of the centuries the influence of the Syriac Churches spread eastwards to China (in Xian, in western China, a Chinese-Syriac inscription dated 781 is still to be seen), to southern India where the state of Kerala can boast more Christians of Syriac liturgical tradition than anywhere else in the world.
Meeting of the Saints  walis (saints of Allah)
Great men covet to embrace martyrdom for a cause and principle.
So was the case with Hazrat Ali. He could have made a compromise with the evil forces of his time and, as a result, could have led a very comfortable, easy and luxurious life.  But he was not a person who would succumb to such temptations. His upbringing, his education and his training in the lap of the holy Prophet made him refuse such an offer.
Rabia Al-Basri (717–801 C.E.) She was first to set forth the doctrine of mystical love and who is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets. An elderly Shia pointed out that during his pre-Partition childhood it was quite common to find pictures and portraits of Shia icons in Imambaras across the country.
Shah Abdul Latif: The Exalted Sufi Master born 1690 in a Syed family; died 1754. In ancient times, Sindh housed the exemplary Indus Valley Civilisation with Moenjo Daro as its capital, and now, it is the land of a culture which evolved from the teachings of eminent Sufi saints. Pakistan is home to the mortal remains of many Sufi saints, the exalted among them being Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, a practitioner of the real Islam, philosopher, poet, musicologist and preacher. He presented his teaching through poetry and music - both instruments sublime - and commands a very large following, not only among Muslims but also among Hindus and Christians. Sindh culture: The Shah is synonymous with Sindh. He is the very fountainhead of Sindh's culture. His message remains as fresh as that of any present day poet, and the people of Sindh find solace from his writings. He did indeed think for Sindh. One of his prayers, in exquisite Sindhi, translates thus: "Oh God, may ever You on Sindh bestow abundance rare! Beloved! All the world let share Thy grace, and fruitful be."
Shia Ali al-Hadi, died 868 and son Hassan al-Askari 874. These saints are the 10th and 11th of Shia's 12 most revered Imams. Baba Farid Sufi 1398 miracle, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki renowned Muslim Sufi saint scholar miracles 569 A.H. [1173 C.E.] hermit gave to poor, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti greatest mystic of his time born 533 Hijri (1138-39 A.D.), Hazrat Ghuas-e Azam, Hazrat Bu Ali Sharif, and Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia Sufi Saint Hazrath Khwaja Syed Mohammed Badshah Quadri Chisty Yamani Quadeer (RA) 1236-1325 welcomed people of all faiths & all walks of life
To Save A Life is Earthly; Saving A Soul is Eternal Donation by mail, please send check or money order to:
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Mother Angelica saving souls is this beautiful womans journey Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament
Colombia was among the countries Mother Angelica visited. 
In Bogotá, a Salesian priest - Father Juan Pablo Rodriguez - brought Mother and the nuns to the Sanctuary of the Divine Infant Jesus to attend Mass.  After Mass, Father Juan Pablo took them into a small Shrine which housed the miraculous statue of the Child Jesus. Mother Angelica stood praying at the side of the statue when suddenly the miraculous image came alive and turned towards her.  Then the Child Jesus spoke with the voice of a young boy:  "Build Me a Temple and I will help those who help you." 

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

Brief History of our Beloved Holy Priest Here and his published books of Catholic History in North America
Reardon, J.M. Archbishop Ireland; Prelate, Patriot, Publicist, 1838-1918.
A Memoir (St. Paul; 1919); George Anthony Belcourt Pioneer Catholic Missionary of the Northwest 1803-1874 (1955);
The Catholic Church IN THE DIOCESE OF ST. PAUL from earliest origin to centennial achievement 1362-1950 (1952);
The Church of Saint Mary of Saint Paul 1875-1922;  (1932)
The Vikings in the American Heartland;
The Catholic Total Abstinence Society in Minnesota;
James Michael Reardon Born in Nova Scotia, 1872;  Priest, ordained by Bishop Ireland;
Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.
Affiliations and Indulgences  Litany of Loretto in Stained glass windows here.  Nave Sacristy and Residence Here
Sanctuary spaces between them filled with grilles of hand-forged wrought iron the life of our Blessed Lady After the crucifixon
Apostle statues Replicas of those in St John Lateran--Christendom's earliest Basilica.
Ordered by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, Popes' cathedral and official residence first millennium of Christian history.
The only replicas ever made:  in order from west to east {1932}.
Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel
 It Makes No Sense Not To Believe In GOD
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM
By Father John Corapi, SOLT Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Site http://www.fathercorapi.com
As we watch the spectacle of the world seeming to self-destruct before our eyes, we can’t help but be saddened and even frightened by so much evil run rampant. Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Somalia, North Korea—It is all a disaster of epic proportions displayed in living color on our television screens.  These are not ordinary times and this is not business as usual. We are at a crossroads in human history and the time for Catholics and all Christians to act is now. All evil can ultimately be traced to its origin, which is moral evil. All of the political action, peace talks, international peacekeeping forces, etc. will avail nothing if the underlying sickness is not addressed. This is sin. One person at a time hearts and minds must be moved from evil to good, from lies to truth, from violence to peace.
Islam, an Arabic word that has often been defined as “to make peace,” seems like a living contradiction today. Although it is supposed to be a religion of peace, Islam has been hijacked by Satan and now operates in the dark space of international terrorism.  As we celebrate the birthday of Our Lady, I am proposing that each one of us pray the Rosary for peace. Prayer is what must precede all other activity if that activity is to have any chance of success. Pray for peace, pray the Rosary every day without fail.  There is a great love for Mary among Muslim people. It is not a coincidence that a little village named Fatima is where God chose to have His Mother appear in the twentieth century. Our Lady’s name appears no less than thirty times in the Koran. No other woman’s name is mentioned, not even that of Mohammed’s daughter, Fatima. In the Koran Our Lady is described as “Virgin, ever Virgin.”
Archbishop Fulton Sheen prophetically spoke of the resurgence of Islam in our day. He said it would be through the Blessed Virgin Mary that Islam would be converted. We must pray for this to happen quickly if we are to avert a horrible time of suffering for this poor, sinful world. Turn to our Mother in this time of great peril. Pray the Rosary every day. Then, and only then will there be peace, when the hearts and minds of men are changed from the inside.
Talk is weak. Prayer is strong. Pray!  God bless you, Father John Corapi
A New Series by Fr. Corapi! The Moon Under Her Feet CD-Audio Set: $39.00 DVD-Video Set: $45.00  call 1-888-800-7084 or go to Site http://www.fathercorapi.com
In this four part series Father John Corapi goes to the heart of the contemporary world's many woes and wars, whether the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, or the Congo, or the natural disasters that seem to be increasing every year, the moral and spiritual war is at the basis of everything. "Our battle is not against human forces," St. Paul asserts, "but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness..." (Ephesians 6:12). 
The "War to end all wars" is the moral and spiritual combat that rages in the hearts and minds of human beings. The outcome of that  unseen fight largely determines how the battle in the realm of the seen unfolds.  The title talk, "With the Moon Under Her Feet," is taken from the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation, and deals with the current threat to the world from radical Islam, and the Blessed Virgin Mary's role in the ultimate victory that will result in the conversion of Islam.  Few Catholics are aware of the connection between Islam, Fatima, and Guadalupe. Presented in Father Corapi's straight-forward style, you will be both inspired and educated by this four part series on topics more timely than ever.The four titles are:  1. The Real War We Fight 2. The Battle for Hearts & Minds 3. Leadership: Essential for Victory 4. With the Moon Under Her Feet.
2010     LOCATION     THEME/TITLE
September 10th -- Meet and Greet w/ Father Corapi: Friday, Where: Hilton Omaha, 1001 Cass St, Omaha, NE
         Time: 9am - noon, 1pm - 4pm FREE and Open to the Public!
September 11, 2010 Spiritual Warfare, Part I -- Saturday, TIME: Doors open at 8 a.m.
         LOCATION: Qwest Arena, 455 S. 10th St., Omaha, NE 68102 TICKETS: ($35-55) Ticketmaster (800-745-3000)
October 29th -- Meet and Greet with Father Corapi When: Friday, Where: Hilton Penn Station, Gateway Center -
         Raymond Blvd, Newark, NJ Time: 9am - noon, 1pm - 4pm FREE and Open to the Public!
October 30, 2010 -- Saturday, Spiritual Warfare, Part II: TIME: Doors open at 7:30 a.m. LOCATION: Prudential Center,
         165 Mulberry St., Newark, NJ 07102 TICKETS: ($30-65) Ticketmaster (800-745-3000) or www.ticketmaster.com
         Prudential Center Box Office www.prucenter.com Discounted Tickets for Group Sales (20 or more)
         email fathercorapinj@domesticchurchmedia.org MORE INFO: www.domesticchurchmedia.org
LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858 
China Marian shrines May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798  
Links to Related Marian Websites  Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates
190 St. Julius  Roman senator martyr
Romæ sancti Júlii, Senatóris et Mártyris; qui, Vitéllio Júdici tráditus et ab eo in cárcerem trusus, támdiu, jubénte Cómmodo Imperatóre, fústibus cæsus est, donec emítteret spíritum.  Ipsíus autem corpus in cœmetério Calepódii, via Aurélia, sepúltum fuit.
    At Rome, St. Julius, senator and martyr, who was delivered up to the judge Vitellius, and thrown into prison by him.  By order of Emperor Commodus, he was beaten with rods until he expired.  His body was buried in the cemetery of Caleposius on the Aurelian Way.
Recorded by Sts. Eusebius and Pontian.
300 St. Andrew the Tribune lead converts in Roman army
In Cilícia natális sancti Andréæ Tribúni, et Sociórum mílitum; qui, victória de Persis divínitus obténta, ad Christi fidem sunt convérsi, et, hoc nómine accusáti, sub Maximiáno Imperatóre, in angústiis Tauri montis, a Seléuci Præsidis exércitu trucidáti sunt.
    In Cilicia, the birthday of St. Andrew, tribune, and his military companions, who were converted to Christianity through a miraculous victory they had gained over the Persians.  Being accused on this account, they were massacred in the Mount Taurus pass, by the army of the governor Seleucus, under Emperor Maximian.
The "Great Martyr," and the leader of converts in the Roman army. While serving as a tribune in the army of General Galerius, Andrew and his men faced a battle with a Persian host. Calling upon Christ for aid, the Romans were victorious. Andrew and some of his troops became Christians as a result and were discharged from military service. Baptized by Bishop Peter of Caesarea, they were arrested by the military governor and executed in the Taurus Mountains of Cilicia.

The Martyr Andrew Stratelates was a military commander in the Roman army during the reign of the emperor Maximian (284-305). They loved him in the Roman army because of his bravery, invincibility and sense of fairness. When a large Persian army invaded the Syrian territories, the governor Antiochus entrusted St Andrew with the command of the Roman army, giving him the title of "Stratelates" ("Commander"). St Andrew selected a small detachment of brave soldiers and proceeded against the adversary.

His soldiers were pagans, and St Andrew himself had still not accepted Baptism, but he believed in Jesus Christ. Before the conflict he persuaded the soldiers that the pagan gods were demons and could not help them in battle. He proclaimed to them Jesus Christ, the omnipotent God of Heaven and earth, giving help to all who believe in Him.

The soldiers went into battle, calling on the help of the Savior. The small detachment routed the numerous host of the Persians. St Andrew returned from the campaign in glory, having gained a total victory. But jealous men denounced him to the governor Antiochus, saying that he was a Christian who had converted the soldiers under his command to his faith.

St Andrew was summoned to trial, and there he declared his faith in Christ. For this they subjected him to torture. He laid himself upon a bed of white-hot copper, but as soon as he sought help from the Lord, the bed became cool. They crucified his soldiers on trees, but not one of them renounced Christ. Locking the saints away in prison, Antiochus sent the report of charges on to the emperor, unable to decide whether to impose the death sentence upon the acclaimed champion. The emperor knew how the army loved St Andrew, and fearing a rebellion, he gave orders to free the martyrs. Secretly, however, he ordered that each be executed on some pretext.

After being freed, St Andrew went went to the city of Tarsus with his fellow soldiers. There the local bishop Peter and Bishop Nonos of Beroea baptized them. Then the soldiers proceeded on to the vicinity of Taxanata. Antiochus wrote a letter to Seleucus, governor of the Cilicia region, ordering him to overtake the company of St Andrew and kill them, under the pretext that they had deserted their military standards.

Seleucus came upon the martyrs in the passes of Mount Tauros, where they were evidently soon to suffer. St Andrew, calling the soldiers his brothers and children, urged them not to fear death. He prayed for all who would honor their memory, and asked the Lord to create a curative spring on the place where their blood would be shed.

At the time of this prayer the steadfast martyrs were beheaded with swords. During this time, a spring of water issued forth from the ground. Bishops Peter and Nonos, with their clergy, secretly followed the company of St Andrew, and buried their bodies. One of the clergy, suffering for a long time from an evil spirit, drank from the spring of water, and at once he was healed. Reports of this spread among the local people and they began to come to the spring. Through the prayers of St Andrew and the Martyrs suffering with him, they received gracious help from God.

300 ST ANDREW THE TRIBUNE, MARTYR
So far as the story can be plausibly reconstructed, Andrew was a captain under Antiochus in the army of Galerius sent by Diocletian against the Persians. During an engagement with the enemy Andrew called on the name of Christ (of whom he had heard as a mighty protector) and told his men to do the same; when their arms were successful they attributed the victory to these prayers, and Andrew and some others resolved to become Christians. For this they were denounced to Antiochus, who was not certain what steps he ought to take with regard to this breach of discipline among his troops, and wrote to Galerius to enquire. The general was unwilling to risk spoiling the morale of the army by executing brave soldiers at a moment of victory and so ordered Antiochus to discharge the offenders from the service, but to punish them later on when a more suitable opportunity should arise. Andrew therefore with the other converts made his way to Peter, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, by whom they were baptized. Seleucus, the military governor of Cilicia, heard of what had happened and sent a detachment to arrest the neophytes, who fled for refuge into the Taurug mountains. Here they were tracked, sur­rounded and put to death. St Andrew is the object of a great devotion in the East, where he is one having the title of “the Great Martyr”. The number of his companions is not known.

There is no early evidence for the cult of this St Andrew, though the fictitious story of the martyrdom was popular at a later date. The Greek text is given in the Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. iii. There is an Andrew in the “Hieronymianum” on July 22, but there is nothing to connect him with this date or with the story told in the alleged “acts”.
304-306 Sts. Timothy, Thecla, & Agapius Three martyrs
In Palæstína sancti Timóthei Mártyris, qui, in persecutióne Diocletiáni, sub Urbáno Præside, post multa superáta supplícia, lento igne combústus est.  Passi sunt étiam ibídem Thecla et Agápius, e quibus Thecla, feris expósita, eárum laniáta déntibus transívit ad Sponsum; Agápius vero, plúrima torménta perpéssus, ad majóra certámina fuit dilátus.
    In Palestine, St. Timothy, a martyr in the persecution of Diocletian, under the governor Urbanus.  After overcoming many torments, he was consumed with a slow fire.  In the same country there suffered also Thecla and Agapius.  The former, being exposed to the beasts, was torn to pieces by their teeth, and went to her Spouse; but Agapius, after enduring many torments, was reserved for greater trials.
Were slain over a period of two years. Timothy was the bishop of Gaza, Israel, and was burned alive in 304 by order of Urban, the governor of Palestine. Thecla was thrown into an arena with wild animals; and Agapius was imprisoned for two years then exposed to wild animals. When a bear wounded him but did not kill him, he was hurled into the sea.

The Martyrs Timothy, Agapius and Thekla suffered martyrdom in the year 304. The Martyr Timothy was a native of the city of Caesarean Palestine. He studied the Holy Scripture, and having received a special gift of eloquence, he became a teacher of the Christian Faith.

During the time of persecution against Christians under the co-emperors Diocletian (284-305) and Maximian (305-311), the martyr was brought to trial by the governor Urban. St Timothy fearlessly declared himself a Christian and spoke about the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for mankind and of His coming into the world for their salvation. The martyr was subjected to cruel torture, and when they saw that he remained down, they killed him.

And in this same town and year the Martyrs Agapius and Thekla were condemned. They were thrown to be eaten by wild beasts, and suffering in this manner, they received their heavenly crowns.

304 Ss. Timothy, Agapius And Thecla, Martyrs
Whilst Diocletian signalized his rage and cruelty against the Christians, in the second year of the general persecution, orders were received by Urban, the governor of Palestine, to proceed against Christians in his province. St Timothy for having boldly confessed his faith was inhumanly scourged, his sides were torn with iron combs, and he was at length burnt to death at a slow fire at Gaza. SS. Agapius and Thecla were condemned by the same judge to be exposed to wild beasts. Thecla was despatched by the beasts in the amphitheatre; but Agapius was kept back for the time being, and detained two years longer in prison. In the amphi­theatre at Caesarea he was brought out in company with a common felon, a slave who had murdered his master. This man, not being at once killed by the beasts, was pardoned and set free; clemency was likewise offered to the innocent Agapius if he would sacrifice to the gods. He refused. He was therefore left mauled by a bear, but as the animal did not kill him outright he was taken back to prison, and on the next day drowned in the sea.

Eusebius’s De mart Palaestinae is a trustworthy authority for the martyrdom of this group. The cultus of Timothy is well attested a basilica was built at Gaza in which his remains were venerated.
440 ST SIXTUS, OR XYSTUS, III, POPE
Sixtus was one of the principal clergy of the Roman church before his pontificate, and when he succeeded Pope St Celestine I in 432 St Prosper of Aquitaine wrote that, “We trust in the protection of the Lord, and that what He has done for us in Innocent, Zosimus, Boniface and Celestine He will do also in Sixtus; and as they guarded the flock against declared and openly professed wolves, so he may drive off the hidden ones”, referring to the teachers of Semi-Pelagianism. He was not disappointed; but St Sixtus was of a peace-loving nature and conciliatory in his policy, so that some of the hot-heads of orthodoxy were dissatisfied and did not scruple to accuse the pope of Pelagian and Nestorian leanings.
Among other buildings in the City, St Sixtus III restored the Liberian basilica, now called St Mary Major, and in it he set up this noble inscription “0 Virgin Mary, I, Sixtus, have dedicated a new temple to thee, an offering worthy of the womb that brought to us salvation. Thou, a maiden knowing not man, didst bear and bring forth our Salvation. Behold! These martyrs, witnesses to Him who was the fruit of thy womb, bear to thee their crowns of victory, and beneath their feet lie the instruments of their passion—sword, flame, wild beast, water and cruel poison: one crown alike awaits these divers deaths.” Over the arch of the apse can still be read the words in mosaic: “Sixtus the bishop for the people of God.”
This pope consecrated a number of churches, and the dedications of two of them are feasts universal in the Western church, St Peter ad Vincula (August 1) and St Mary Major (August 5).
The Liber, Pontificalis, with Duchesne’s notes, vol. i, pp. 232—237, is the most important source. See also Grisar, Geschichte Roms und der Päpste, §§ 224—226, and cf. § 468. Some further references are given above in the bibliographical notes to St Peter ad Vincula and Our Lady of the Snow.
535 St. Donatus Hermit born in Orleans, France. He lived as a recluse on Mount Jura near Sisteron in Provence
In pago Sigistérico, in Gállia, beáti Donáti, Presbyteri et Confessóris; qui, ab ipsis usque infántiæ rudiméntis mira Dei grátia præditus, anachoréticam vitam multis annis exégit, et miraculórum glória clarus migrávit ad Christum.
    In the neighbourhood of Sisteron in France, blessed Donatus, priest and confessor.  Being from his very infancy endowed with the grace of God in an extraordinary manner, he lived the life of an anchoret for many years, and after having been renowned for glorious miracles, went to Christ.
535 St. Mochta Bishop of Ireland last disciple of St. Patrick
 He was born in Britain but was brought to Ireland as a child. There he became a disciple of St. Patrick. During a visit to Rome, Mochta was made a bishop by Pope St. Leo I. He founded Louth Monastery with twelve companions and was probably consecrated by St. Patrick. He died at the age of ninety, the last known disciple of St. Patrick.

535 St Mochta, Abbot
Mochta is mentioned in the lives of St Patrick and there is a late Latin life of himself which is “crammed with fables”. He was a Briton by birth and while still a child was brought over to Ireland by his Christian parents. With them travelled a heathen bard, one Hoa, who when a grievous storm sprang up during the voyage wanted to throw young Mochta overboard as a propitiatory sacrifice; but the tempest was miraculously calmed and later on Mochta converted Hoa.

Mochta became a disciple of St Patrick and was sent to Rome where, according to the vita, he was made bishop by Pope St Leo I, and he presented to the pope a tablet on which he had learned writing under the tuition of an angel. When he had collected twelve suitable young men as missionaries he returned to Ireland one of these got left behind en route, so he put to sea on the bough of a tree—and got there first.

St Mochta settled eventually at Louth, where a large community soon surrounded him: but the actual figures given are unbelievable—they include 200 bishops. It is recorded that he never uttered a false word nor a foolish one, and that he never ate a morsel of fat—not from finicalness but by way of curbing his appetite for such food. Among the fables told of St Mochta is that he lived for three hundred years: this was in accordance with a sentence pronounced on him by St Patrick because, when reading the Bible, Mochta had questioned the accuracy of the ages attributed to the antediluvian patriarchs. If the evidence, which we have, may be trusted he probably lived to be ninety, and was the last of St Patrick’s personal disciples.

The best text of the Latin life referred to above is that edited by Fr De Smedt from the Codex Salmanticensis, pp. 903-914; but it is also printed after Colgan in the Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. iii.
580 St. Elaphius Bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne, France. Sent to Spain as an ambassador
Elaphius died on the way. He was noted by St. Gregory of Tours.
640 St. Bertulf Abbot famous for miracles
Successor of St. Attala. Bertulf, or Bertuiph, was a Frank who was professed as a monk in the abbey of Luxeuil, France, by St. Eustace. He became the abbot of Bobbio, Italy, following St. Attala's death in 627. Bertulf obtained exemption for this monastery from episcopal jurisdiction from Pope Honorius I; the first such case in history. This stemmed from his dispute with a local bishop, Probus. Bertuif was famous for miracles.

640 St Bertulf, Abbot
Among the many relatives of St Arnoul of Metz who were venerated as saints Bertulf was one of the chief; he had been brought up a pagan, but the example and teaching of Arnoul brought him to the Church of Christ, and in 620 (at what age is not known) he became a monk at Luxeuil. Bertulf remained there for several years, learning the principles of the religious life and the discipline of St Columban from his successor, St Eustace. Then he attracted the attention of St Attala, who had succeeded Columban as abbot of Bobbio; he was given permission to migrate to that monastery, and in 627 became its abbot on the death of Attala. St Bertulf was worthy of his predecessors in holiness, learning and apostolic zeal. Within the monastery he rigorously maintained the austere rule of St Columban; outside it he vigorously opposed Arianism, which was rife in northern Italy.

The year following St Bertulf’s election, Probus, Bishop of Tortona, taking advantage of a new abbot, claimed a wide jurisdiction over the monastery. Bertulf appealed to Ariovald, the Lombard king, who advised that the matter be carried to Rome and paid the expenses of the abbot to go there to state his case; he took with him the monk Jonas; his secretary, who afterwards wrote the life of St Bertulf. Pope Honorius I, knowing the great reputation of the monastery and the exactness of its observance, declared it to be exempt from episcopal control and immediately subject to the Holy See; this was the first recorded exemption of its kind and began a new era in the relationship of the “regular” clergy to the bishops. Jonas relates that on the way home Bertulf was stricken down with a fever, from which he seemed likely to die; but on the vigil of SS. Peter and Paul he fell into a deep sleep, during which he had a vision of St Peter, and upon waking up was completely recovered. Jonas also records a number of miracles of the saint, of which he claims to have been a witness.

There is a short Latin life by Jonas I, abbot of Bobbio, which was printed both by Mabillon and the Bollandists, and finally has been edited by B. Krusch in MCII., Scriptores Merov., vol. iv, pp. 280 seq. There is also an encomium in verse by Hodoard. Cf. Cipolla and Buzzi, Codice diplomatico del Monastero di Bobbio (1918), vol. i.
656 St. Magnus  born in Avignon, France, which he ruled as governor; Benedictine bishop father of St. Agricola
He was born in Avignon, France, widowed, Magnus became a Benedictine at Lerins and bishop in 656.
7th v. St. Guenninus Bishop of Vannes, Brittany, France. His relics are revered there.
690 St. Calminius hermit-founder Also called Calmilius; lived in France founded of Villars and Mauzac, near Riom.
770 St. Sebald Hermit, missionary assisting in the work. of St. Willibald in the Reichswald; miracles
Patron saint of Nuremberg. Most likely an Anglo-Saxon from England, he arrived on the Continent and became a hermit near Vicenza, Italy, and then participated in the missionary enterprise of the times, assisting in the work. of St. Willibald in the Reichswald. Many miracles were attributed to him, including turning icicles into firewood.

8th v, ST SEBALD a hermit in the Reichswald, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ among his neighbours; numerous miracles

ST SEBALD, patron of Nuremberg in Bavaria, lived as a hermit in the Reichswald, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ among his neighbours, and already in 1072 was recognized as the patron of Nuremberg. His biography is of uncertain date, and full of anachronisms and inconsistencies. According to it he was a solitary near Vicenza for some time and was in Rome both during the pontificate of St Gregory II and when SS. Willibald and Winebald were there; when St Gregory III sent Willibald into Germany he accompanied him. One of the reliefs on the base of his shrine at Nuremberg, the best-known work of Peter Vischer, on which he was working from 1505 to 1519, represents the miracle of the icicles attributed to St Sebald: one snowy night he took shelter in a peasant’s cottage, but found it almost as cold within as without, for the fire was low and small. Sebald suggested that more fuel might be put on, but the man answered that he was too poor to keep up a decent fire, so Sebald turned to the housewife and asked her to bring in a bundle of the long icicles hanging from the eaves; this she did, Sebald threw them on the fire, and they blazed up merrily. Other miracles of his are recorded on the shrine, namely, giving sight to a blind man, filling a jug with wine from nowhere, and causing a mocker to be swallowed up by the earth.

The very unsatisfactory life mentioned above is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. iii. See also the Kirchenlexikon, vol. xi, cc. 24—26; and Stamminger, Franconia Sancta, pp. 534 seq.
780 St. Credan Benedictine abbot Evesham, England, in the reign of King Offa of Mercia.
850 St. Badulfus A Benedictine abbot mentioned in the Proprium of Lyons. He was abbot of Ainay, Lyons, France.
1297 St Louis of Anjou, Bishop of Toulouse; “Jesus Christ is my kingdom. If I possess Him alone, I shall have all things if I have not Him, I lose all.”
Apud castrum Bríncolam, in Província, deposítio sancti Ludovíci, ex Ordine Minórum, Epíscopi Tolosiáni, vitæ sanctitáte et miráculis clari; cujus corpus, inde Massíliam translátum, in Ecclésia Fratrum Minórum honorífice cónditum fuit, ac póstea Valéntiam, in Hispánia, devéctum est, atque in cathedráli Ecclésia collocátum.
    In Provence, at the village of Brignoles, the death of St. Louis, bishop of Toulouse, of the Order of Friars Minor, renowned for holiness of life and miracles.  His body was taken to Marseilles, and buried with due honours in the Church of the Friars Minor, but afterwards it was taken to Valencia in Spain, and enshrined in the cathedral.
   The son of Charles II of Anjou, King of Naples. He was also related to King St. Louis IX of France and St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Louis was held for seven years as a hostage for his father. Ordained at twenty-three, he became a Franciscan and later served as bishop of Toulouse, France, but only for six months. He died at a young age. Louis was canonized in 1317.

1297 St Louis of Anjou, Bishop of Toulouse; “Jesus Christ is my kingdom. If I possess Him alone, I shall have all things if I have not Him, I lose all.”
This saint was born in 1274, second son to Charles II surnamed the Lame, King of Naples and Sicily, and Mary, daughter of Stephen V, King of Hungary; he was therefore a grand-nephew of St Louis of France and connected with the family of St Elizabeth of Hungary.
In 1284 Louis’s father Charles, then prince of Salerno, was taken prisoner in a sea-fight by the king of Aragon. His father, Charles I, died within a few months, and he was saluted by his friends as king of Sicily, but he remained four years prisoner and was only released on hard conditions: being, moreover, obliged to send into Aragon as hostages three of his sons, of whom Louis was one. He remained seven years at Barcelona in captivity, under which he was always cheerful and encouraged his companions, and as he grew older he took an active part in the sports and manly exercises with which the brothers and other prisoners passed the time. But Louis imposed strict regulations: chess, for instance, was encouraged, but gambling forbidden. He himself gave much time to study and came under the influence of the Friars Minor, so that when he was attacked by a severe illness at the castle of Sciurana he made a vow to join that order if he should recover. He got leave for two Franciscan friars, who were appointed to attend him, to live with him in his own apartments; he rose to pray with them in the night, and under them he applied himself diligently to the studies of philosophy and theology.

(*It is interesting to note that Richard Middleton (de Media Villa), an English Franciscan who was also a famous theologian, became one of St Louis’s tutors; also that St Aloysius Gonzaga’s extreme, and as some may well think exaggerated, modesty in avoiding all relations with the opposite sex was apparently imitated from the conduct of his patron, St Louis of Anjou. See The Month for August 1924, pp. 158—160.)

St Louis was set at liberty in 1295, by a treaty concluded between his father and James II, King of Aragon, and it was proposed that James’s sister should be united in marriage with Louis. But the saint’s resolution of dedicating himself to God was inflexible, and he resigned his right to the crown of Naples, which his father conferred on his next brother, Robert. Thus it was his ambition to follow Jesus Christ poor and humble, rather than to be raised to honour in the world:
“Jesus Christ”, said he, “is my kingdom. If I possess Him alone, I shall have all things if I have not Him, I lose all.”
   The opposition of his family obliged the superiors of the Friars Minor to refuse for some time to admit him into their body, wherefore he retired to a castle near Naples, where he befriended a poor scholar of Cahors, James d’Euse, who afterwards became Pope John XXII and canonized his benefactor. Pope Boniface VIII gave him a dispensation to receive priestly orders in the twenty-third year of his age, and afterwards for the episcopate, together with his nomination to the bishopric of Toulouse, and a severe injunction in virtue of obedience to accept it. He first went to Rome to fulfil his vow, and made his religious profession among the Friars Minor, in their convent of Ara Caeli, on Christmas eve 1296, and received episcopal consecration in St Peter’s five days later.
   Louis travelled to his bishopric as a poor religious, but was received at Toulouse with the veneration due to a saint and the magnificence that became a prince. His modesty and devotion inspired love in all that beheld him. He banished the use of plate and jeweled vessels from his episcopal dwelling, substituting for them pewter and wooden bowls, and wore an old darned habit, as befitting a Franciscan and as an example to his clergy, who gave too much thought to dress. As a bishop he abated nothing of his austerities, celebrated Mass every day, and preached frequently. But within a few months he found the episcopal office too much for him, and asked leave to resign it. He answered to some that opposed his inclination, “Let the world call me mad; provided I may be discharged from a burden which is too heavy for my shoulders, I am satisfied. Is it not better for me to try to throw it off than to sink under it?” God was pleased to grant him what he desired by calling him to Himself. Returning from a visit to his sister in Catalonia he fell sick at Brignoles. Finding his end draw near, he said to those about him, “After a dangerous voyage I am arrived within sight of the port which I have long desired. I shall now enjoy my God whom the world would rob me of; and I shall be freed from the heavy charge which I am not able to bear.”  St Louis died on August 19, 1297, being only twenty-three years and a half old. He was buried in the convent of the Franciscan friars at Marseilles, as he had ordered. Pope John XXII canonized him at Avignon in 1317, and addressed a brief thereupon to his mother, who was still living.

There is a valuable book by Miss Margaret R. Toynbee on St Louis of Toulouse and the Process of Canonization in the Fourteenth Century (1929). We possess in fact a record of the depositions of witnesses in the process of canonization, and this important source, long ago utilized by the Bollandists (Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. iii), is now being critically edited by the Franciscans of Quaracchi. Another principal source, the life written by St Louis’s confessor, John de Orta, has been printed in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol ix (1890), pp. 278—353 (cf. also vol. xlvi, pp. 344—354). There is a sketch in French by L. Chancerel (1943), and an ample bibliography in U. Chevalier, Bio-bibliographie.
1314 Blessed Emily Bicchieri frequent ecstasies visions miracles
Born at Vercelli in 1238, and having lost her mother at an early age, put herself under the special protection of the all-holy Mother of God. She refused her father's plans for her to marry and convinced him to build a convent, the first of Dominican regular tertiaries, of which she became abbess when twenty. Having been elected prioress against her will, Blessed Emily governed with tact and ability, and was careful to tell no one to do what she would not do herself. She was noted for her frequent communions (uncommon in those days), her ecstasies and visions, and the miracles attributed to her. She died on her birthday, May 3, at the age of seventy-six, and her cult was approved in 1769.

1314 Bd Emily Of Vercelli, Virgin
Emily Bicchieri was born at Vercelli in 1238, and having lost her mother at an early age put herself under the special protection of the all-holy Mother of God. She combined a healthy aversion from worldliness with an efficient care for her widowed father’s household, and he, good man, seeing only the one, planned for her a respectable marriage by which his daughter, himself and the husband-to-be would all benefit. But when she was sixteen Emily upset all this by telling him she wanted to be a nun; at first Peter Bicchieri would not hear of such a thing, but he was a Christian and reasonable man and at length gave in to his daughter’s importunities. He went further, and built and endowed a convent at Vercelli, of which Sister Emily became prioress at the age of twenty.
   These nuns were under the direction of the Friars Preachers, and according to one of several theories of the origins of third orders, this was the first convent of Dominican regular tertiaries. Having been elected prioress against her will, Bd Emily governed with tact and ability, and was careful to tell no one to do what she would not do herself—except that she would never interview the fashionable ladies of Vercelli in the parlour if she could possibly help it. In directing her sisters she laid particular stress on “knowing what you were after” and on the purity of that intention: otherwise, she would say, one is like a person going to market who does not know with whom to deal or what price to pay and God’s glory must be the last end of all their actions and the motive of their religious obedience.
   Those were the days, albeit the “ages of faith”, when frequent communion was not customary, and Bd Emily was remarkable in the practice and privilege of receiving the Blessed Sacrament three times a week and on all great feast-days. She was distinguished by a notable spirit of gratitude both to God and man, and by her love for liturgical prayer. She is reputed to have had the gift of miracles and to have stopped by her prayers and the sign of the cross a disastrous fire in the convent (though that is almost a commonplace of hagiology, and must often be put down to “common form”); to have had frequent visions of our Lord and His Mother; and to have participated in the sufferings of the Passion, especially those caused by the crown of thorns. lid Emily died on her birthday, May 3, at the age of seventy-six. Her cultus was approved in 1769.

See the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. vii, in the appendix; Ganay, La bienheureuses dominicaines, pp. 121 seq. Mortier, Maîtres généraux O.P., vol. ii, p. 9 and P. B. Berro, La beata Emilia (1914). A fuller bibliography will be found in Taurisano, Catalogus hagiographicus OP., p. 17.
1380 The Don Icon of the Mother of God painted by Theophanes the Greek The wonderworking icon
On the day of the Kulikovo Battle (September 8, 1380, the Feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos), the Icon was with the Russian army, giving it help, but after the victory it was passed on by the Don Cossacks as a gift to their commander, Great Prince Demetrius of the Don (1363-1389), who then transferred it to Moscow.

The Icon at first was at the Kremlin's Dormition Cathedral, and later at the Annuniciation Cathedral (the Icon is now in the Tretiakov State Gallery).
In commemoration of the victory on the banks of the River Don it was called the Don Icon.
In the year 1591, the Crimean Khan Nuradin and his brother Murat-Girei invaded Russia with a numerous army. Advancing on Moscow, they positioned themselves on the Vorobiev hills. A church procession was made around Moscow with the Don Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos in order to guard the city from the enemy.

On the day of battle it was in the military chapel in the ranks of the soldiers, and set the Tatars to flight. In thanksgiving to the Most Holy Theotokos for Her mercy, manifest through the Don Icon. In 1592, the Don monastery was founded at the very place where it stood amid the soldiers. The wonderworking icon was placed in this monastery, and its feastday was established as August 19.

By established custom, once every four years His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia performs the rite of the preparation of Holy Chrism in the small cathedral in honor of the Don Icon of the Mother of God.
1456 Saint Pitirim, Bishop of Great Perm; composer of Canon to St Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow (February 12), and wrote his Life
Pitirim was chosen and consecrated to the See of Perm after the suffering and death of St Gerasimus of Perm (January 24). Before becoming bishop, Archimandrite Pitirim was head of the Chudov monastery. He later became known as the composer of the Canon to St Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow (February 12), and also wrote his Life.

As bishop, St Pitirim first occupied himself with establishing friendly relations between the Zyryani and Voguli peoples. He circulated admonitory letters and messages, seeking to defend the Zyryani from pillage. The Voguli leader Asyka however, taking advantage of princely dissention and the remoteness of the bishop from the capital, plundered Christian settlements and killed defenseless people.

Novgorod landowners held lands at the Rivers Vyg and Dvina, suffering death from the constant pillaging. In the year 1445, they marched out against the Voguli and took Asyka captive. The crafty pagan swore friendship to Perm and vowed to harass Christians no longer. Set free, Asyka waited for a convenient moment to attack Ust'-Vym with the aim of killing St Pitirim, to whom he attributed his defeat by the Novgorodians.

During this time St Pitirim was twice in Moscow: in 1447 to address an encyclical to Prince Demetrius Shemyaka, having broken a treaty (it is supposed that the writer was St Pitirim); and again in the year 1448 for the consecration of St Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow (March 31). Taking advantage of St Pitirim's absence, Asyka again made an attack on a Zyryani settlement near the Pechora, robbing and killing the inhabitants. Not only the Zyryani, but also the Voguli living their nomadic life near the Pechora tributary, had become convinced of the truth of the preachings of St Pitirim, and they had begun to accept Baptism.

Embittered by this, Asyka committed a new crime. On August 19, 1456 he murdered St Pitirim, when he was out blessing the waters at the point of land formed by the confluence of the Rivers Vaga and Vychegda. The body of the saint remained for 40 days in a grave at the place of his death (since they awaited an answer to the sad news of his death). In spite of the hot weather, decay did not touch him. The saint was buried in the Ust'-Vym cathedral church of the Annunciation next to his predecessor St Gerasimus. The memory of his repose was already entered into a typikon in the year 1522. In the year 1607 the joint commemoration of the three Great Perm holy Hierarchs: Gerasimus, Pitirim and Jonah, was established (January 29). They succeeded one another at the Ust'-Vym cathedral.
16th v. St Theophanes the New native of Ioannina city; founded monasteries; worked miracles
As a young man, he received monastic tonsure on Mount Athos at the Docheiariou monastery. He was later chosen igumen of this monastery because of his lofty virtue. In giving refuge to his own nephew (who had been forcibly converted to Islam) from the Turks who had captured Constantinople, St Theophanes, with the help of God, freed the youth, hid him in his own monastery and blessed him to enter the monastic life.

The brethren, fearing revenge on the part of the Turks, began to grumble against the saint. He, not wanting to be the cause of discord and dissension, humbly withdrew with his nephew from the Docheiariou monastery, quit the Holy Mountain and went to Beroea. There, in the skete monastery of St John the Forerunner, St Theophanes built a church in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos. And as monks began to gather, he gave them a cenobitic monastic rule.

When the monastery flourished, the saint withdrew to a new place at Naousa, where he made a church in honor of the holy Archangels and founded there also a monastery. To the very end of his days St Theophanes did not forsake guiding the monks of both monasteries, both regarding him as their common father.

In a revelation foreseeing his own end and giving his flock a final farewell, the saint died in extreme old age at the Beroeia monastery. Even during life the Lord had glorified his humble saint: saving people from destruction, he calmed a storm by his prayer, and converted sea water into drinking water. Even after death, the saint has never forsaken people with his grace-filled help.
1622 Bl. Bartholomew Monfiore native Martyr of Japan Bartholomew was a Japanese crew member of Blessed Joachim Firayama's ship.  Arrested for his Christian faith, he was beheaded at Nagasaki. He was beatified in 1867.
1622 Bl. Louis Flores Dominican martyr Japan
Louis was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and moved with his family to Mexico. After becoming a Dominican, he went to the Philippines mission in 1602. Captured by the Dutch while he was on a journey in 1620, he was handed over to the Japanese. Held for two years and then burned alive in Nagasaki, he was beatified in 1867.
1622 Bl. Thomas Koyanangi Japanese martyr
Arrested as a passenger on the ship of Blessed Joachim Firayama-Diz, he was beheaded at Nagasaki, He was beatified in 1867.
1622 St. James Denshi, Blessed  Japanese martyr
A sailor, he was a member of the crew of the ship which carried Blessed Joachim Firayama to Japan. Protestant allies of the Japanese Shogunate took possession of the vessel, and the crew and passengers were arrested and condemned. James was executed by beheading at Nagasaki.
1622 Bl. Lawrence Rokuyemon Martyr of Japan
A Japanese merchant, he was beheaded at Nagasaki, Japan and was beatified in 1867.
1622 Bl. Leo Suchiemon Martyr of Japan
He was a pilot of the vessel of Blessed Joachim Firayama and was beheaded at Nagasaki, Japan.
1622  Bl. Anthony native Martyr of Japan
Anthony was a crew member on board the ship of Blessed Joachim Firayama. Two priests were being transported to Japan on the ship when it was taken by Japanese authorities after being captured by Dutch Protestant pirates. Anthony and the entire crew were members of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. They were beheaded in Nagasaki.
1622 Bl. Michael Diaz martyr of Japan
He was a Spanish merchant on board the Japanese ship carrying Blessed Joachim Firayama. Michael and oth­ers were arrested by Protestant Europeans who turned them over to the Japanese authorities. Everyone on the ship was martyred at Nagasaki. Michael, who had been beheaded, was beatified in 1867.
1622 Bl. Paul Sanchiki Martyr of Japan
He was a sailor on board the vessel owned by Blessed Joachim Firayama and was arrested for transporting Christian missionaries. Paul was beheaded at Nagasaki. He was beatified in 1867 by Pope Pius IX.
1622 Bl. Peter Zuniga  Martyr in Japan
A Spaniard from Seville, he grew up in Mexico, where his father was the sixth Viceroy of the Spanish colony. Upon his return to Spain, he joined the Augustinians, and, after ordination, he requested to be sent to Japan and the missions there. Going first to the Philippines in 1610, he was later assigned to Japan, arriving there in 1620. Two years later, he was arrested and, with Blesseds Louis Flores, Joachim, Firayama, and the captain and crew which had transported them, was put to death. The crew was beheaded while the others were burned alive.
1662 Bl. John Foyamon  Martyr of Japan
A scribe on the ship carrying Blessed Peter Zufliga, he was beheaded at Nagasaki with Blesseds John Yano and John Nangata. He was beatified in 1867.
1662 Bl. John Nangata Martyr of Japan
Sailor on the ship carrying Blessed Peter Zuniga. The ship was intercepted, and the passengers and crew arrested by the Japanese government in anti-Christian persecutions Beheaded in Nagasaki with Blesseds John Yano and Joim Foyamon, he was beatified in 1867.
1662 Bl. John Yano Martyr of Japan
with Blesseds John Nangata and John Foyamon. He was a sailor on the ship carrying Blessed Peter Zufiiga and was beheaded at Nagasaki. He was beatified in 1867.
1670 St. John Eudes studied at Paris and Aubervilliers, ordained 1625; missionary;  shared with St. Mary Margaret Alacoque honor of initiating devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (composed Mass for the Sacred Heart in 1668) and the Holy Heart of Mary, popularizing devotions with his "The Devotion to the Adorable Heart of Jesus" (1670) and "The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God"

Cadómi, in Gállia, sancti Joánnis Eudes Confessóris, Missionárii Apostólici, Fundatóris Congregatiónis Presbyterórum Jesu et Maríæ necnon Ordinis Moniálium Dóminæ Nostræ a Caritáte, et promotóris litúrgici cultus erga Sacratíssima Christi ejúsque Genitrícis Corda; quem Pius Papa Undécimus fastis Sanctórum adscrípsit.
    At Caen in France, St. John Eudes, apostolic missionary, founder of the Congregation of Priests of Jesus and Mary and of the Order of Nuns of our Lady of Charity, and the promoter of the liturgical cult towards the most sacred Hearts of Christ and his Mother.  He was canonized by Pope Pius XI.

Born 1601 at Ri, Normandy, France, on November 14, , the son of a farmer. He went to the Jesuit college at Caen when he was 14, and despite his parents' wish that he marry, joined the Congregation of the Oratory of France in 1623. He studied at Paris and at Aubervilliers, was ordained in 1625, and worked as a volunteer, caring for the victims of the plagues that struck Normandy in 1625 and 1631, and spent the next decade giving Missions, building a reputation as an outstanding preacher and confessor and for his opposition to Jansenism. He became interested in helping fallen women, and in 1641, with Madeleine Lamy, founded a refuge for them in Caen under the direction of the Visitandines. He resigned from the Oratorians in 1643 and founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (the Eudists) at Caen, composed of secular priests not bound by vows but dedicated to upgrading the clergy by establishing effective seminaries and to preaching missions. His foundation was opposed by the Oratorians and the Jansenists, and he was unable to obtain Papal approval for it, but in 1650, the Bishop of Coutances invited him to establish a seminary in that diocese. The same year the sisters at his refuge in Caen left the Visitandines and were recognized by the Bishop of Bayeux as a new congregation under the name of Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge.
   John founded seminaries at Lisieux in 1653 and Rouen in 1659 and was unsuccessful in another attempt to secure Papal approval of his congregation, but in 1666 the Refuge sisters received Pope Alexander III's approval as an institute to reclaim and care for penitent wayward women. John continued giving missions and established new seminaries at Evreux in 1666 and Rennes in 1670. He shared with St. Mary Margaret Alacoque the honor of initiating devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (he composed the Mass for the Sacred Heart in 1668) and the Holy Heart of Mary, popularizing the devotions with his "The Devotion to the Adorable Heart of Jesus" (1670) and "The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God", which he finished a month before his death at Caen on August 19th. He was canonized in 1925.

 St. John Eudes (1601-1680) 
How little we know where God’s grace will lead. Born on a farm in northern France, John died at 79 in the next “county” or department. In that time he was a religious, a parish missionary, founder of two religious communities and a great promoter of the devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
He joined the religious community of the Oratorians and was ordained a priest at 24. During severe plagues in 1627 and 1631, he volunteered to care for the stricken in his own diocese. Lest he infect his fellow religious, he lived in a huge cask in the middle of a field during the plague.

At age 32, John became a parish missionary. His gifts as preacher and confessor won him great popularity. He preached over 100 parish missions, some lasting from several weeks to several months.

In his concern with the spiritual improvement of the clergy, he realized that the greatest need was for seminaries. He had permission from his general superior, the bishop and even Cardinal Richelieu to begin this work, but the succeeding general superior disapproved. After prayer and counsel, John decided it was best to leave the religious community.

 The same year he founded a new  religious community, ultimately called the Eudists (Congregation of Jesus and Mary), devoted to the formation of the clergy by conducting diocesan seminaries. The new venture, while approved by individual bishops, met with immediate opposition, especially from Jansenists and some of his former associates. John founded several seminaries in Normandy, but was unable to get approval from Rome (partly, it was said, because he did not use the most tactful approach).

In his parish mission work, John was disturbed by the sad condition of prostitutes who sought to escape their miserable life. Temporary shelters were found but arrangements were not satisfactory. A certain Madeleine Lamy, who had cared for several of the women, one day said to him, “Where are you off to now? To some church, I suppose, where you’ll gaze at the images and think yourself pious. And all the time what is really wanted of you is a decent house for these poor creatures.” The words, and the laughter of those present, struck deeply within him. The result was another new religious community, called the Sisters of Charity of the Refuge.

He is probably best known for the central theme of his writings: Jesus as the source of holiness, Mary as the model of the Christian life. His devotion to the Sacred Heart and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary led Pius XI to declare him the father of the liturgical cult of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

Comment:  Holiness is the wholehearted openness to the love of God. It is visibly expressed in many ways, but the variety of expression has one common quality: concern for the needs of others. In John’s case, those who were in need were plague-stricken people, ordinary parishioners, those preparing for the priesthood, prostitutes and all Christians called to imitate the love of Jesus and his mother.

Quote:  “Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make his spirit, his devotion, his affections, his desires and his disposition live and reign there. All our religious exercises should be directed to this end. It is the work which God has given us to do unceasingly” (St. John Eudes, The Life and Reign of Jesus in Christian Souls).

1610 St John Eudes, Founder of The Congregations of Jesus And Mary And Of Our Lady Of Charity Of The Refuge
In the second half of the sixteenth century there lived at Ri, in Normandy, a certain Isaac Eudes. He was what we should call a yeoman farmer, and he married Martha Corbin; when after two years they had no children the couple made a pilgrimage to a neighbouring shrine of our Lady, and nine months later a boy was born to them; subsequently they had five more children. The first-born  was baptized John, and he led an exemplary childhood; it is recorded of him that, when he was nine, a play-mate hit him in the face and he literally fulfilled the gospel precept and turned his other cheek to be slapped also. But such actions are by no means confined to children who will grow up to be saints, and too much significance must not be attached to them. When he was fourteen he was sent by his parents to the Jesuit College at Caen. They wished him to marry and carry on his father’s estate but John had taken a private vow of celibacy and in 1621 he received minor orders and returned to Caen to study theology, with the idea of enrolling himself among the parochial clergy. But he decided to offer himself to the Congregation of the Oratory of France, which had been founded in 1611 by M. (afterwards Cardinal) Peter de Bérulle, and after with difficulty obtaining the consent of his parents he was accepted by the superior general at Paris early in 1623. As he had been an exemplary child and youth, so was he an exemplary cleric, and he made so great an impression upon Bérulle that he permitted him to preach while yet in minor orders. After a year at Paris John Eudes was sent to Aubervilliers to be under the instruction of Charles de Condren, a priest who, in the words of St Jane Frances de Chantal, was “fit to instruct angels”. The aim of the Oratory is the perfection of sacerdotal life, and John Eudes was happy in having his first steps along that path directed by two such men as Condren and Bérulle.
  Two years later a virulent epidemic of plague broke out in Normandy and St John volunteered to go and work among the sufferers of his own countryside. He was given permission and Bérulle sent him to the bishop of Séez, with a letter of introduction in which he said, “The order of charity demands that his gifts should be used in the service of the province wherein he received life, grace and holy orders, and that his own diocese should be the first to have the fruits that are to be expected from his ability, goodness, wisdom, energy and life”.  Father Eudes spent two months ministering spiritually and medically to the sick, dying and endangered. He was then sent to the Oratory of Caen, where he remained quietly till a visitation of plague to that city in 1631 called him out again during that time, in order to avoid the danger of infecting his brethren, he lived in a large cask in the middle of afield, receiving his food daily from a nearby convent.
   For the following ten years St John was chiefly engaged in giving missions and incidentally gaining much experience for the work, which he was afterwards to undertake. It was a time in which were inaugurated popular missions as we now understand them and, amid many able and some pre-eminent mission-preachers, St John Eudes was the most distinguished and from the pulpit he went to the confessional for, as he said, “the preacher beats the bushes but the confessors catch the birds!” So competent a judge as Mgr Le Camus, Bishop of Belley, a friend of St Francis de Sales, said of him, “I have heard all the best preachers in Italy and France, but I have never heard anyone who touches the heart so deeply as does this good father”. He preached in his lifetime one hundred and ten missions.
  Among the matters that troubled St John during the course of his mission was the difficult position of women and girls who were reclaimed by God’s grace from a disorderly life. For a time he tried to deal with the problem by finding for these penitents’ temporary homes with religious people, but this arrangement was soon seen to be inadequate. A certain woman of humble origin, Madeleine Lamy, who had taken charge of several of these girls, strongly realized unsatisfactory the position and wanted St John to make some more permanent provision. “Where are you off to now?” she demanded of him one day, “To some church,  I suppose, where you’ll gaze at the images and think yourself pious. And all the time what is really wanted of you is a decent home for these poor creatures who are being lost for want of attention and guidance.” These words and the laughter of his companions made a deep impression on St John, and in 1641 a house was rented as a refuge for penitent women until honest work could be found for them. But he soon saw that it was necessary for the work to be in the hands of a religious congregation and offered it to the Visitandines of Caen, who accepted it.

   In 1643 Father Eudes, after much prayer, consideration and consultation with his superiors and high ecclesiastics, severed his connection with the Oratorians. He had learnt in the course of his missions that the clergy needed reform even more than their flocks, and became convinced that the first necessity was to establish seminaries, and that until this was done the Congregation of the Oratory could not hope to have its full effect.
His views were shared by Father de Condren, who had become superior general, but his successor Father Bourgoing would not countenance the plan of a seminary in connection with the Oratory of Caen.
   Father Eudes then formed the project of a new congregation of secular priests whose object should be the formation of a zealous and virtuous parochial clergy by the conduct of seminaries, and such a congregation was founded at Caen on the feast of the Annunciation, 1643. It was called the Congregation of Jesus and Mary and was modeled on that of the Oratory, consisting of secular priests who were not bound by vows. The first members were St John Eudes and five others, and they were consecrated to “the Most Holy Trinity as the first principle and last end of priestly dignity and holiness”. The badge by which they were to be distinguished was the hearts of Jesus and Mary regarded as mystically one, symbolizing the eternal love of Jesus. The new venture met with immediate criticism and opposition, particularly from the Jansenists and from the French Oratorians; and when in 1646 Father Eudes sent Father Maunoury to Rome to try and get papal approval for his foundation the opposition was so strong that he was unsuccessful.
In 1650 the bishop of Coutances invited St John to set up a seminary in that city and in the following year he was invited by M. Olier, who regarded him as “the marvel of his age”, to give a ten weeks’ mission at the parish-church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. During the course of it news was brought that the sisters at the refuge in Caen, having separated from the Visitandines, were recognized by the bishop of Bayeux as a separate congregation, under the name of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge.
   St John founded a seminary at Lisieux in 1653 and another at Rouen in 1659, and he then went to Rome, where he made personal representations for the formal approbation of his work; but even saints do not do everything properly and herein Father Eudes failed, in part through his own disregard for prudence and tact. But a year after his return, in 1666, the Refuge sisters by a bull of Pope Alexander VII were erected as a recognized institute to labour for the reclamation of unchaste women and to care for penitents from among them. This work begun by Father Eudes and the devoted Madeleine Lamy had then been going on for thirty years. St John continued to give long and successful missions and founded two more seminaries, at Evreux in 1666 and at Rennes in 1670.
In the latter year he published a book entitled The Devotion I the Adorable Heart of Jesus; he had already given a feast of the Holy Heart of Mary to his congregation, and in this book was included a proper Mass and Office of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. On August 31, 1670, this feast was first observed in the seminary chapel at Rennes, and other dioceses took it up. It will be seen therefore that while St John Eudes can hardly be called the first apostle of devotion to the Sacred Heart as we know it today, nevertheless he was “the institutor of the liturgical cultus of the sacred heart of Jesus and the holy heart of Mary”, as Pope Leo XIII called him in 1903 “He was the first to think—and that not without a divine inspiration—of rendering to them liturgical worship”, says his decree of beatifi­cation. In 1674, the year before St Margaret Mary’s “great revelation”, Pope Clement X issued six briefs of indulgences for the confraternities of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary erected in Eudist seminaries.

During the last years of his life St John spent much time on his treatise The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God, at which he had been working for many years and which he finished less than a month before his death. His last mission had been at Saint-Lô in 1675, where in wintry weather he had preached in the open place nearly every day for nine weeks; from this ordeal the old man never properly recovered and his days of active work were practically ended. He died on August 19, 1689, was canonized in 1925, and in 1928 his feast was added to the general calendar of the Western church.

  The most famous saying of St John Eudes is that to celebrate the holy sacrifice of the Mass properly three eter­nities would be required the first to prepare for it, the second to celebrate it, and the third to give thanks for it and in a book which he wrote during the early years of his ministry, The Life and Reign of Jesus in Christian Souls, he sums up in a sentence the principle of his own life and of his own works “Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make His spirit, His devotion, His affections, His desires and His disposition live and reign there. All our religious exercises should be directed to this end. It is the work which God has given us to do unceasingly.”

Later biographers of St John Eudes have done well to draw largely upon his corre­spondence, much of which still remains unpublished. The first formal life was written by one of his congregation, Fr Hérambourg, who had not personally known him, but who in joining the institute two years after the founder’s death had had abundant opportunities of conversing with those who had lived with him in the most intimate personal relation. No full bibliography can be attempted here. The most exhaustive study so far published is the life by Fr Boulay in four stout volumes (1905); Emile Georges, in his Saint Jean Eudes, missionaire apostolique (1925), has sketched on a less ample canvas a very thorough portrait of the saint and of his manifold activities. Excellent also is the still more handy volume of Henri Joly in the series “Les Saints”. It must suffice to add a reference to Henri Bremond’s chapters on Eudes in his Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en France, vol. iii, pp. 583—671; and to Emile Dermenghem, La Vie Admirable et lea Révélations de Marie des Vallées (1926). There is a good article also under the heading “Eudes” in DTC., vol. v, with an adequate bibliography; and a useful popular work in English by D. Sargent, Their Hearts be Praised (1949).

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 19, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered today during the general audience held at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. He reflected on St. John Eudes and the formation of the clergy.

Dear brothers and sisters: 
Celebrated today is the liturgical memorial of St. John Eudes, tireless apostle of devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who lived in France in the 17th century, a century marked by opposing religious phenomena and also by great political problems. It was the time of the Thirty Years War, which devastated not only a great part of Central Europe, but also devastated souls.

While contempt was being spread for the Christian faith by some currents of thought that were prevalent then, the Holy Spirit inspired a fervent spiritual renewal, with prominent personalities such as that of Berulle, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Louis Mary Grignion de Montfort and St. John Eudes. This great "French school" of holiness also had St. John Mary Vianney among its fruits. By a mysterious design of Providence, my venerated predecessor, Pius XI, proclaimed John Eudes and the Curé d'Ars saints at the same time, on May 31, 1925, offering the Church and the whole world two extraordinary examples of priestly holiness.
 
In the context of the Year for Priests, I wish to pause to underline the apostolic zeal of St. John Eudes, directed in particular to the formation of the diocesan clergy.

The saints have verified, in the experience of life, the truth of the Gospel; in this way, they introduce us into the knowledge and understanding of the Gospel. In 1563, the Council of Trent issued norms for the establishment of diocesan seminaries and for the formation of priests, as the council was aware that the whole crisis of the Reformation was also conditioned by the insufficient formation of priests, who were not adequately prepared intellectually and spiritually, in their heart and soul, for the priesthood.

This occurred in 1563 but, given that the application and implementation of the norms took time, both in Germany as well as in France, St. John Eudes saw the consequences of this problem. Moved by the lucid awareness of the great need of spiritual help that souls were feeling precisely because of the incapacity of a great part of the clergy, the saint, who was a parish priest, instituted a congregation dedicated specifically to the formation of priests. He founded the first seminary in the university city of Caen, a highly appreciated endeavor, which was soon extended to other dioceses.

The path of holiness he followed and proposed to his disciples had as its foundation a solid confidence in the love that God revealed to humanity in the priestly Heart of Christ and the maternal Heart of Mary. In that time of cruelty and loss of interior silence, he addressed himself to the heart so as to leave in the heart a word from the Psalms very well interpreted by St. Augustine. He wanted to remind people, men and above all future priests of the heart, showing the priestly Heart of Christ and the maternal Heart of Mary. A priest must be a witness and apostle of this love of the Heart of Christ and of Mary.
 
Today we also feel the need for priests to witness the infinite mercy of God with a life totally "conquered" by Christ, and for them to learn this in the years of their formation in the seminaries. After the synod of 1990, Pope John Paul II issued the apostolic exhortation "Pastores Dabo Vobis," in which he took up and actualized the norms of the Council of Trent and above all underlined the need for continuity between the initial and permanent moments of formation. For him, for us, this is a real point of departure for a genuine reform of priestly life and apostolate, and it is also the central point so that the "new evangelization" is not simply an attractive slogan, but rather is translated into reality.

The foundations of formation in the seminary constitute that irreplaceable "humus spirituale" in which it is possible to "learn Christ," allowing oneself to be progressively configured to him, sole High Priest and Good Shepherd. The time in the seminary should be seen, therefore, as the actualization of the moment in which the Lord Jesus, after having called the Apostles and before sending them out to preach, asks that they stay with him (cf. Mark 3:14).

When St. Mark narrates the vocation of the Twelve Apostles, he tells us that Jesus had a double objective: The first was that they be with him, the second that they be sent to preach. But in going always with him, they truly proclaim Christ and take the reality of the Gospel to the world.
 
In this Year for Priests, I invite you to pray, dear brothers and sisters, for priests and for those preparing to receive the extraordinary gift of the priestly ministry. I conclude by addressing to all the exhortation of St. John Eudes, who said thus to priests: "Give yourselves to Jesus to enter into the immensity of his great Heart, which contains the Heart of his Holy Mother and of all the saints, and to lose yourselves in this abyss of love, of charity, of mercy, of humility, of purity, of patience, of submission and of holiness" (Coeur admirable, III, 2).
 
With this spirit, we will now sing together the Our Father in Latin.  [Translation by ZENIT]
St. Marinus Benedictine bishop and abbot He governed the abbey of St. Peter at Besalu, in Catalonia, Spain.
In território Bituricénsi sancti Mariáni Confessóris, cujus virtútes et mirácula beátus Gregórius, Turonénsis Epíscopus, magnis láudibus celebrávit.
    In the territory of Bourges, St. Marianus, confessor, whose virtues and miracles were described with great praise by St. Gregory, bishop of Tours.
St. Rufinus Martyred priest at Mantua, Italy; suffered during persecutions of the Church by the Roman Empire.
Mántuæ sancti Rufíni Confessóris.    At Mantua, St. Rufina, confessor.
St. Namadia Widow and nun Wife of St. Calminius, she entered a convent after his death and lived at Marsat.