The Immaculate Heart Of Mary; found in some early commentaries on the Song of Songs; first considerably fostered by St John Eudes 17th v.; Pope Pius VII gave permission for a feast of the Pure Heart of Mary in 1805; words attributed to our Lady at Fatima had strong influence in popularizing devotion; Oct 31, 1942, Pope Pius XII consecrated the whole world to her immaculate heart; on May 4, 1944, he directed that the corresponding feast should be observed throughout the Western church on the octave day of the Assumption.
Fast of St. Mary (August 7-22)
The Coptic Church venerates St. Mary as the "Theotokos," the Mother of God, whom the Divine Grace chose to bear the Word of God in her womb by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). Since she is considered to be the exemplary member in the church, and the interceding mother on behalf of her spiritual children, she is exalted above heavenly and earthly creatures. Therefore, the church does not cease glorifying (blessing) her, and celebrating her feasts in order that we imitate her and ask her intercessions on our behalf.

Devotion to our Lady's heart is analogous to that to the sacred heart of Jesus, and consists in veneration of her heart of flesh, united to her person, as representing her love, especially her love for her divine Son, her virtues and her inner life. Adumbrations of this devotion can be found in some early commentaries on the Song of Songs, but it was first considerably fostered by St John Eudes in the seventeenth century, and Pope Pius VII gave permission for a feast of the Pure Heart of Mary in 1805. In more recent times words attributed to our Lady at Fatima have had very strong influence in popularizing the devotion, and on October 31, 1942, Pope Pius XII consecrated the whole world to her immaculate heart; shortly afterwards, on May 4, 1944, he directed that the corresponding feast should be observed throughout the Western church on the octave day of the Assumption.
Mary's office is universal; "her natural title is that she is the mother of the Word made flesh, and her acquired title is that she gave her all with her Son in the anguish of her sorrows for the redemption of the world. In that work she was admitted as a partner in a very true sense, though we must always remember that she herself differs from her Son as the finite from the infinite, as the created from the uncreated. Moreover, she herself was redeemed and was full of grace at her conception precisely because of the redeeming merit of the Word Incarnate, whose mother she had been chosen to be. It is well to repeat these truths lest we offend the heavenly Mother by untoward exaggeration and careless expression which hinder rather than promote true Catholic piety and devotion." (Archbishop Godfrey).

See Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. xxxiv (1942), pp. 313-319, 345-346; vol. xxxvii (1945), pp. 44-52; and an article by Archbishop William Godfrey in the Clergy Review, vol. xxiii (1943), no. s, pp. 193-199 Mgr Messner, The Immaculate Heart (1950) ; H. Keller, The Heart of Mary (1950).

Maria Königin Katholische Kirche: 22. August
Maria wird auf zahlreichen Gemälden und Ikonen als (Himmels)königin dargestellt. Ein Festtag bildete sich aber erst im 19. Jahrhundert heraus. 1870 wurde in Spanien und Lateinamerika der Festtag 'Maria Königin aller Heiligen' als Abschluß des Marienmonats Mai eingeführt. Papst Pius XII. erweiterte 1954 zum Abschluß des marianischen Jahres am 31. Mai das Fest Maria Königin auf die ganze Kirche. Bei der Kalenderreform wurde das Fest auf den 22.8. gelegt. An dem Oktavtag von Mariä Himmelfahrt wurde seit 1944 das Fest vom unbefleckten Herzen Mariens gefeiert (heute am Samstag nach dem Herz-Jesu-Fest).

Queenship of Mary Pius XII established this feast in 1954; Mary’s queenship roots in Scripture
At the Annunciation Gabriel announced that Mary’s Son would receive the throne of David and rule forever. At the Visitation, Elizabeth calls Mary “mother of my Lord.” As in all the mysteries of Mary’s life, Mary is closely associated with Jesus: Her queenship is a share in Jesus’ kingship. We can also recall that in the Old Testament the mother of the king has great influence in court.
In the fourth century St. Ephrem called Mary “Lady” and “Queen” and Church Fathers and Doctors continued to use the title. Hymns of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries address Mary as queen: “Hail, Holy Queen,” “Hail, Queen of Heaven,” “Queen of Heaven.”

The Dominican rosary and the Franciscan crown as well as numerous invocations in Mary’s litany celebrate her queenship.

The feast is a logical follow-up to the Assumption and is now celebrated on the octave day of that feast. In his encyclical To the Queen of Heaven, Pius XII points out that Mary deserves the title because she is Mother of God, because she is closely associated as the New Eve with Jesus’ redemptive work, because her preeminent perfection and her intercessory power.

Comment: As St. Paul suggests in Romans 8:28–30, God has predestined human beings from all eternity to share the image of his Son. All the more was Mary predestined to be the mother of Jesus. As Jesus was to be king of all creation, Mary, in dependence on Jesus, was to be queen. All other titles to queenship derive from this eternal intention of God. As Jesus exercised his kingship on earth by serving his Father and his fellow human beings, so did Mary exercise her queenship. As the glorified Jesus remains with us as our king till the end of time (Matthew 28:20), so does Mary, who was assumed into heaven and crowned queen of heaven and earth.

Quote: “Let the entire body of the faithful pour forth persevering prayer to the Mother of God and Mother of men. Let them implore that she who aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers may now, exalted as she is in heaven above all the saints and angels, intercede with her Son in the fellowship of all the saints.

May she do so until all the peoples of the human family, whether they are honored with the name of Christian or whether they still do not know their Savior, are happily gathered together in peace and harmony into the one People of God, for the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity”

(Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 69).

186 Martyr St. Antoninus a public executioner in Rome. Involved in the trial of St. Eusebius, Antoninus had a vision and announced that he was a Christian in the reign of Emperor Commodus.
Romæ sancti Antoníni Mártyris, qui cum se Christiánum líbera voce faterétur, senténtia capitáli a Júdice Vitéllio damnátus est, et a Rufíno Presbytero via Aurélia sepúltus.
At Rome, St. Antoninus, martyr, who, openly declaring himself a Christian, was condemned to capital punishment by the judge Vitellius, and buried on the Aurelian Way.
Antoninus was a public executioner in Rome. Involved in the trial of St. Eusebius, Antoninus had a vision and announced that he was a Christian. He was beheaded for his faith.

2nd-4th v. Ss. Timothy, Hippolytus And Symphorian, Martyrs
Romæ, via Ostiénsi, natális sancti Timóthei Mártyris, qui, a Præfécto Urbis Tarquínio tentus, et longa cárceris custódia macerátus, et, cum sacrificáre idólis noluísset, tértio cæsus et gravíssimis supplíciis attrectátus, ad últimum decollátus est.
    At Rome, on the Ostian Way, the birthday of the holy martyr Timothy. After he had been arrested by Tarquin, prefect of the city, and kept for a long time in prison, because he refused to sacrifice to idols, he was scourged three times, subjected to the most severe torments, and finally beheaded.
In Portu Románo sancti Hippóloyti Epíscopi, eruditióne claríssimi, qui, sub Alexándro Imperatóre, ob præcláram fídei confessiónem, mánibus pedibúsque ligátis in altam fóveam, aquis plenam, præcipitátus, martyrii palmam accépit; cujus corpus apud eúndem locum a Christiánis sepúltum fuit.
    At Porto, St. Hippolytus, bishop, most renowned for learning. Having gloriously confessed the faith, in the time of Emperor Alexander, he was bound hand and foot, thrown into a deep ditch filled with water, and thus received the palm of martyrdom. His body was buried by the Christians at that place.
Augustodúni sancti Symphoriáni Mártyris, qui, témpore Aureliáni Imperatóris, cum sacrificáre nollet idólis, primo verbéribus afflíctus est, deínde cárceri mancipátus; atque ad últimum, cæso cápite, martyrium consummávit.
    At Autun, St. Symphorian, a martyr, in the time of Emperor Aurelian. Refusing to offer sacrifice to the idols, he was first scourged, then confined to prison, and finally ended his martyrdom by being beheaded.
On this day the Church commemorates three martyrs totally unconnected with one another. ST TIMOTHY was a martyr under Diocletian, who was buried on the Ostian Way at Rome, opposite the basilica of St Paul-outside-the-Walls.
ST HIPPOLYTUS is described both in the lesson at Matins and in the Roman Martyrology as a bishop of Porto, a "man greatly renowned for his learning who, either at that place or at Ostia, was for his confession of the faith put to death by drowning; and was buried in the place of his martyrdom. There is uncertainty as to who this martyr was, but it is possible that he is identical with the St Hippolytus who has been mentioned on the thirteenth of this month.
ST SYMPHORIAN suffered at Autun in the second or third century. The city of Autun was one of the most ancient and famous of Gaul, but at that time particularly, addicted to the worship of Berecynthia (Cybele), Apollo and Diana. On a certain day of the year, the statue of Cybele was with great pomp carried through the streets in a chariot. Symphorian, because he had treated the image with disrespect, was seized by the mob and carried before Heraclius, governor of the province. Heraclius asked him why he refused to honour the image of the mother of the gods. He answered, because he was a Christian and worshipped the true God and that, moreover, if someone would give him a hammer he was prepared to break up their idol. To the judge this reply savoured of rebellion, as well as being impious, and he inquired of the officers whether he was a citizen of the place. One of them answered, "He is, and of a noble family". The judge said to Symphorian, "You flatter yourself on account of your birth, or are perhaps unacquainted with the emperor's orders". He then ordered the imperial edict to be read, and said to him, "What say you to this, Symphorian?" The martyr continuing to express his abhorrence of the idol, Heraclius commanded him to be beaten, and sent him to prison. Later he was brought out and presented before the tribunal when, Symphorian still being firm, Heraclius condemned him to die by the sword for treason towards gods and men. As he was led out of the town to execution, his mother, standing on the wall of the city to see him pass by, cried out to him, "My son, my son Symphorian I remember the living God and be of good courage. Fear not! You go to a death which leads to certain life." His head was struck off and his body buried in a cave, near a fountain, and in the middle of the fifth century St Euphronius, Bishop of Autun, built over it a church in his honour. The village and church of Veryan in Cornwall have their name from this martyr (Sci Simphoriani in 1278, Severian in 1545), the only church in Great Britain dedicated under his name.

The conjunction of these three wholly unconnected saints in one common prayer, such as that said in the Roman office and Mass on this day, is a curious liturgical feature. Originally the same prayer was said with the name of Timothy alone as may be seen in the Gregorian sacramentary the two other names have been subsequently inserted. Whatever may be thought of the story of St Timothy's martyrdom as recounted in the Acts of St Silvester, his name and his burial on the Ostian Way are entered in the Depositio martyrum of AD 354, not to speak of other early testimonies which Father Delehaye has set out in CMH., pp. 456-457. A mention of Timothy on this day in the famous Carthaginian calendar, and a statement in the chronicle known as "The Barbarus of Scaliger" that "Timothy the bishop gloriously suffered martyrdom at Carthage" has raised a doubt whether there may not be two Timothei just as the question of a second Hippolytus (of Porto) has been much discussed. Symphorian again is a martyr whose existence is established by very early allusions and dedications. On his respectable "acts", printed by Ruinart and elsewhere, see W. Meyer, "Fragmenta Burana", in the Festschrift published for the Gottingen Academy in 1901, pp. 161-163. Further references will be found in Delehaye's commentary just mentioned, pp. 456-458. See also G. H. Doble, St Symphorian (1931), in his Cornish Saints series.

257 St. Athanasius Bishop and martyr with Anthusa the elder
Tarsi, in Cilícia, commemorátio sanctórum Athanásii, Epíscopi et Mártyris, Anthúsæ, nóbilis féminæ, quam ipse baptizáverat, ac simul Charísii et Neóphyti Mártyrum, ejúsdem Anthúsæ servórum, qui sub Valeriáno Imperatóre passi sunt.
At Tarsus in Cilicia, the commemoration of Saints Athanasius, bishop and martyr, Anthusa, a noble woman he had baptized , and two of her servants, Charisius and Neophytus, martyrs who suffered under the Emperor Valerian.

The Hieromartyr Athanasius, bishop of the Cilician city of Tarsus, who baptized the holy Nun Anthusa, was beheaded by the sword under the emperor Aurelian (270-275).
St Anthusa, a native of the city of Seleucia (in Syria), was the daughter of illustrious pagans. Learning of the teachings of Christ, she under pretense of visiting her benefactress, journeyed instead to Tarsus to St Athanasius and received Baptism from him.
Her parents were enraged at their daughter for becoming a Christian. She received monastic tonsure from St Athanasius, then settled in the desert, where she spent 33 years at ascetic deeds. She died at the end of the third century while she was praying. The Martyrs Charisimos and Neophytus, who had been baptized together with the Nun Anthusa, were her servants, and they too accepted death for Christ.

Charisius, and Neophytus. Athanasius was the bishop of Tarsus in Cilicia. Anthusa was a noble from Seleucia. Charisius and Neophytus were slaves of Anthusa.

They were caught up in the persecution of Emperor Valerian. Athanasius and the two male slaves were martyred.
Anthusa appears to have survived for twenty-three years.

Eulalia.jpg

Agathonikos und Gefährten
Orthodoxe Kirche: 22. August
Agathonikos, Akyndinos, Severian, Theoprepios, Zenon, Zotikos und andere wurden unter Maximian Ende des 3. Jahrhunderts hingerichtet. Agathonikos soll ein Patrizier gewesen sein, der viele Menschen zu Christus bekehrte. Zotikos, ein christlicher Philosoph aus Bithynien wurde in der Gegend des Schwarzen Meers verhaftet und viele seiner Schüler wurden dort hingerichtet. Zotikos wurde nach Nikomedien gebracht, wo Agathonikos und die weiteren Gefährten verhaftet wurden. Sie wurden gefoltert und sollten zu Kaiser Maximian gebracht werden. Auf dem Weg wurden sie nacheinander getötet, da sie nicht mehr weiter marschieren konnten. In Konstantinopel wurde eine Kirche zu ihren Ehren errichtet.

Orthodoxe und Katholische Kirche: 12. Februar Eulalia von Merida: Orthodoxe Kirche: 22. August Katholische Kirche: 10. Dezember

Eulalia The Martyr lived in Spain, near the city of Barcionum (now Barcelona), and she was raised by her parents in piety and the Christian faith. Already at fourteen, the maiden spent a solitary life in her parental home with others of her own age, occupied in prayer, the reading of Holy Scripture, and handicrafts.

During the time of a persecution against Christians under the emperors Diocletian (284-305) and Maximian (305-311), the governor Dacian arrived in the city of Barcionum to rid it of Christians. Hearing of this, the maiden secretly left her home at night, and by morning had made her way into the city. Pushing her way through the throng of people, the girl made a bold denunciation of the judge for forcing people to renounce the True God in order to offer sacrifice to devils instead.
Dacian gave orders to strip the girl and beat her with rods, but she steadfastly endured the torment and told the judge that the Lord would deliver her from the pain. They tied the martyr to a tree and tore her skin with iron claws, and they then burned her wounds with torches.
During her torment, Dacian asked the saint,"Where then is your God, Whom you have called upon?" She answered that the Lord was beside her, but that Dacian in his impurity could not see Him. During the saint's prayer: "Behold, God helps me, and the Lord is the defender of my soul" (Ps. 53/54:4), the flames of the torches turned back upon the torturers, who fell to the ground.
The Martyr Eulalia began to pray that the Lord would take her to Heaven to Himself, and with this prayer she died. People saw a white dove come from her mouth and fly up to Heaven. Then a sudden snowstorm covered the martyr's naked body like a white garment (the saint's commemoration is sometimes given as December 10, which may be more correct, in view of the snow).

Three days later, the martyr's parents came and wept before her hanging body, but they were also glad that their daughter would be numbered among the saints. When they took St Eulalia from the tree, one of the Christians, named Felix, said with tears of joy: "Lady Eulalia, you are the first of us to win the martyr's crown!"

St Felix himself soon accepted death for Christ, and is also commemorated on this day.

Eulalia von Barcelona:
Orthodoxe und Katholische Kirche: 12. Februar Eulalia von Merida: Orthodoxe Kirche: 22. August Katholische Kirche: 10. Dezember

Eulalia (griech.: die Redegewandte/keltisch: Sieg) (von Barcelona) soll schon als Kind das Martyrium ersehnt haben und als 14 jähriges Mädchen um 305 in der Verfolgung unter Diokletian gekreuzigt worden sein, nachdem sie sich freiwillig als Christin offenbarte. Es gab schon früh eine Kirche zur hl. Eulalia in Barcelona, seit dem 7. Jahrhundert ist ihre Verehrung besonders in Barcelona nachgewiesen. Da Quellen vor dem 7. Jahrhundert sie nicht kennen und ihre Leidensgeschichte sehr ähnlich ist, ist sie vielleicht die gleiche Person wie Eulalia von Merida, die im Alter von 12 Jahren am 10.12.304 gefoltert und auf dem Scheiterhaufen verbrannt wurde, nachdem sie von ihrem elterlichen Gut nach Merida (Nordspanien) geflohen war und sich dort vor dem Richter als Christin offenbarte. Sie ist wohl die volkstümlichste Märtyrerin Spaniens. Erstmals wird ihr Martyrium um 400 erwähnt. Die orthodoxe Kirche gedenkt auch des Märtyrers Felix, der mit Eulalia hingerichtet wurde.

284-305 Agathonicus, Zoticus, Theoprepius, Acindynus, Severian, Zeno and other Martyrs accepted death for Christ:

relics of

Agathonicus were in a church named for him at Constantinople,
Acindynus_of_Nicomedia.jpg Agathonikos.jpg
seen in 1200 by Russian pilgrim Anthony; in the fourteenth century Philotheus, archbishop of Selymbria, devoted an encomium to the Martyr Agathonicus.
Nicomedíæ pássio sanctórum Agathoníci, Zótici et Sociórum Mártyrum, sub Maximiáno Imperatóre et Eutólmio Præside.

At Nicomedia, the passion of Saints Agathonicus, Zoticus, and their fellow-martyrs, under Emperor Maximian and the governor Eutholomius. during the reign of the emperor Maximian.

The Martyr Agathonicus was descended from the illustrious lineage of the Hypasians, and he lived at Nicomedia. Well versed in Holy Scripture, he converted many pagans to Christ, including the most eminent member of the Senate (its "princeps" or leader). Comitus Eutolmius was sent to the Pontine (lower Black Sea) region, where he crucified the followers of the Christian Zoticus, who had refused to offer sacrifice to idols. He took Zoticus with him.

In Nicomedia, Eutolmius arrested the Martyr Agathonicus (together with the princeps), and also Theoprepius, Acindynus and Severian. After tortures, Eutolmius ordered that the martyrs be taken to Thrace for trial by the emperor.

But along the way, in the vicinity of Potama, the Martyrs Zoticus, Theoprepius and Acindynus were unable to proceed further behind the chariot of the governor because of wounds received duringtorture. Therefore, they were put to death. The Martyr Severian was put to death at Chalcedon, and the Martyr Agathonicus together with others was beheaded with the sword by order of the emperor, in Selymbria.
The relics of the Martyr Agathonicus were in a church named for him at Constantinople, and were seen in the year 1200 by the Russian pilgrim Anthony. And in the fourteenth century Philotheus, the archbishop of Selymbria, devoted an encomium to the Martyr Agathonicus.

690 St. Sigfrid deacon at Wearmouth Abbey known for his knowledge of scripture and for his frail health; elected coadjutor abbot in 688 at death of St. Erstwine while Abbot St. Benedict Biscop was in Rome; died soon after St. Benedict
St Sigfrid, Abbot Of Wearmouth
While St Benedict Biscop was away on his fifth visit to Rome his coadjutor abbot at Wearmouth, St Esterwine, died, and the monks, together with St Ceolfrid, coadjutor abbot of Jarrow, elected in his place the deacon Sigfrid. He was says St Bede, a man well skilled in the knowledge of Holy Scripture, of admirable behaviour and perfect continence, but one in whom vigour of mind was somewhat depressed by bodily weakness and whose innocence of heart went along with a distressing and incurable affection of the lungs." Some three years after St Sigfrid's promotion and St Benedict's return to his monasteries both saints were stricken with sickness and had to take to their beds they knew that death was upon them and wished for a last conference about one another's welfare and that of their monks. Sigfrid therefore was carried on a stretcher to Benedict's cell and laid on his bed, "with their heads on the same pillow", but they were too weak even to embrace one another unaided. After consultation with Sigfrid, Benedict sent for Ceolirid and, with the approval of all, appointed him abbot of both monasteries, that so peace, unity and concord might be preserved. Two months later St Sigfrid, "having passed through the fire and water of temporal tribulation, was taken to the place of everlasting rest sending up to the Lord the offerings of praise which his righteous lips had vowed, he entered the mansion of the heavenly Kingdom". He was buried in the abbey-church of St Peter beside his master, St Benedict, and his predecessor, St Esterwine.

All our information comes from Bede's Historia Abbatum and the anonymous history which covers the same ground. See the text in C. Plummer and his notes. It is very questionable how far saintship can be claimed in this and many similar cases. There is no trace of any liturgical commemoration, not even as an entry in church calendars. Cf. Stanton's Menology, p. 405 .

9th v. St. Arnulf Hermit venerated at Arnulphsbury or Eynesbury, in England

St. Martial Martyr with Epictetus Felix, Maprilis, and Saturninus; These martyrs are recorded in the Passio of St. Aurea.

St. Maurus & Companions Chief martyr group of 50 who suffered at Reims. Maurus was a priest

877 St. Andrew the Scot Archdeacon & companion St. Donatus
Andrew and his sister, St. Bridget the Younger, were born in Ireland of noble parents.They were educated by St. Donatus, and when Donatus went on a pilgrimage to Italy, Andrew accompanied him. In Fiesole, through a miracle, Donatus was elected bishop. Andrew was ordained the archdeacon of Fiesole, serving Donatus for forty-seven years. He also founded a monastery in Mensola, Italy. Andrew died shortly after Donatus, but his sister, St. Bridget the Younger, was carried by an angel to his bedside, all the way from Ireland.
880 St. Andrew Founder and companion of St. Donatus
St Andrew Of Fiesole
According to his worthless acta of the fourteenth or fifteenth century this Andrew was a young Irishman who went on a pilgrimage to Rome with his teacher, St Donatus. On their way back they stopped at Fiesole, where the episcopal see was vacant, and Donatus was miraculously designated to fill it; he thereupon ordained Andrew deacon and made him his archdeacon. In this office he served the Church faithfully and holly for some years. He restored the church of St Martin, which had been destroyed by the Magyars, and founded the monastery there.
St Andrew had a sister called Brigid to whom he was greatly attached and who also is venerated near Fiesole; she is said to have followed him to Italy and to have lived as a solitary among the mountains of Tuscany, but according to the legend of Andrew she was miraculously transplanted from Ireland to her brother's bedside while he lay dying.

The document which purports to recount the history of St Andrew is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. iv. It may he noted that Dom Gougaud in his Gaelic Pioneers of Christianity (1923) makes no mention of Andrew; cf. his Les saints irlandais hors d'Irlande (1936), p. 77. No Andrew is mentioned in the life of Donatus.

An Irishman, Andrew was taught by St. Donatus and accompanied him to Rome on a pilgrimage. At Fiesole, in Italy, Donatus was made a bishop, and he ordained Andrew as a deacon. Andrew is reported to have become a monk, founding a monastery and rebuilding a church. There is no historical documentation of Andrew's life

St. Gunifort A martyr of Pavia Italy He was either Irish, Scottish, or English

Papíæ sancti Gunifórti Mártyris. At Pavia, St. Gunifort, martyr.

Tudérti, in Umbria, natális sancti Philíppi Benítii, Confessóris, Florentíni, qui Ordinis Servórum beátæ Maríæ Vírginis éxstitit propagátor et exímiæ humilitátis vir; atque a Cleménte Décimo, Pontífice Máximo, Sanctórum número adscríptus est. Ipsíus autem festívitas sequénti die celebrátur.
At Todi in Umbria, the birthday of St. Philip Beniti, confessor, of Florence. He was a zealous promoter of the Order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and was a man of great humility. He was canonized by Pope Clement X; his feast, however, is observed on the day following

philip_beniti.jpg

1504 Saint Bogolep was a disciple of St Paisius of Uglich (June 6) wonderworking icon of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos appeared before him
In the world St Bogolep was a baker of bread, and then in the monastery he had this as his obedience.
A wonderworking icon of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos appeared before him when he went early in the morning for water to the Volga. He saw the icon standing on the riverbank and gleaming with a heavenly light (from whence it came was unknown).
Forgetting about the water, St Bogolep quickly ran back to the monastery and reported everything to St Paisius. Sts Adrian, Vassian, Bogolep and Paisius, in company with all the monastery brethren, carried the icon to the monastery.
St Bogolep was a hieromonk. Before his death he became a schemamonk.

His memory is celebrated on August 22, the day commemorating his namesake St Theoprepius (which in Russian translation is "Bogolep," meaning "God-worthy").

1582 Bl. Richard Kirkman English studied at the famous Catholic school of Douai, France, the preparatory institution for English Catholics; martyr for denying the supremacy of Queen Elizabeth I as head of the Church of England
Born in Addingham, Yorkshire, he left England and studied at the famous Catholic school of Douai, France, the preparatory institution for English Catholics who would then return home and work for the reconversion of the isle. Ordained in 1579, in Reims, he sailed to England and served as a tutor for Richard Dymake’s family in Scrivelsby. Richard then went to Yorkshire and Northumberland and he was arrested near Wakefield. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered near York with Blessed William Lacey, on August 22, for denying the supremacy of Queen Elizabeth I as head of the Church of England.

1582 Bl. William Lacey Martyr of England distinguished himself as a lawyer and as an ardent Catholic, using his house as a refuge for the much-oppressed Catholics of the time. Following the death of his second wife in 1579, he left England and studied at Reims, France, in preparation for his eventual ordination at Rome
Bb. William Lacey And Richard Kirkman, Martyrs
William Lacey was born at Horton, near Settle, in the West Riding of Yorkshire; he was married to the widow of a man of county family named Creswell, and was a lawyer holding an official position. For long he was reputed to be a Papist at heart and after the visit of Dr (afterwards Cardinal) William Allen to the north of England in 1565 that suspicion became a certainty. He almost at once lost his office and for fourteen years was subjected to bitter persecution, in which his wife nobly bore her part; he was repeatedly fined, visited, examined, and once was imprisoned at Kingston-on-Hull, till he eventually fled from his house with his family, and was hunted from place to place.
At last Mrs Lacey broke down under the strain and was taken seriously ill; this did not deter the archbishop of York, Dr Sandys, from taking steps to have her arrested as a recusant, but the good lady died first. The next year, 1580, Lacey, already a man of considerable age, entered himself as a student at Rheims, and finally went to Rome, where he was ordained. He arrived in England in 1581, but was destined to work only some twelve months for the Catholics of his native Yorkshire. He, together with Bd William Hart, Mr Thomas Bell, and other priests, was in the habit of visiting the Catholic prisoners in York castle. Now Mr Bell had, before his ordination, been imprisoned and tortured for the faith in that castle, and he conceived the project of now singing a high Mass there, as an act of thanksgiving. In those days prisons were not the efficient institutions they are today and a little money, carefully distributed to turnkeys, would go a long way.
Early on Sunday, July 22, 1582, that Mass was sung in one of the prisoners' cells, with Mr Lacey and Mr Hart assisting as deacon and subdeacon. Just as it was over, an alarm was given and the authorities began to search the building; Hart and Bell got away, but Lacey was captured. He was examined first by the mayor and then by Dr Sandys, by whom he was committed to solitary confinement in irons, and after three weeks was brought up for trial. His letter of orders was put in against him, and he openly avowed his priesthood (it was not at that time high treason for a priest to come into the country); when asked if he acknowledged the queen as head of the Church, he replied, "in this matter, as well as in all other things, I believe as the Catholic Church of God and all good Christians believe". Whereupon he was convicted and sentenced. On August 22, Bd William Lacey was hanged, drawn and quartered at the Knavesmire, outside the city of York.
There suffered at the same time and place (they confessed to one another on the way to the scaffold) Bd Richard Kirkman, also a secular priest and a Yorkshireman. He was born at Addingham, near Skipton, and was ordained at Rheims in 1579. He appears to have been taken into the household of Robert Dymoke, hereditary Champion of England, at Scrivelsby in Lincolnshire, where he was tutor to Dymoke's three younger sons and pastor to the Catholics of the neighbourhood. After eleven months his patron and his wife were indicted for not going to the Protestant service (Dymoke died in prison for the faith), and Mr Kirkman had to leave Scrivelsby and seek refuge elsewhere. He worked in Yorkshire and Northumberland until he was arrested near Wakefield merely as a suspected person, but his chalice was found on him and he admitted that he was a priest. The very next day he was brought up at the York assizes, and sentenced to death. For 4 days he shared the cell of Bd William Lacey, but after a private interview with the sheriff and two ministers he was put into a dungeon alone, without light, food or bed. And here he was left till he was brought out to die.

See MMP., pp. 66-70; and B. Camm, LEM., vol. ii, pp. 564-388, with the authorities there cited.

Born in Horton, West Riding, Yorkshire; William returned to England and worked in the area of Yorkshire until his arrest. He was arrested in York Prison while participating in the Eucharistic ceremony being sung in the cell of Blessed Thomas Bell. Condemned, he was executed at Knavesmaire just outside York with Blessed Richard Kirkman. William was beatified in 1886.

1622 Georgian Icon of the mother of God:
Persian Shah Abbas conquered Georgia. Many Christian holy things were stolen, and many were sold to the Russian merchants in Persia. Thus, the Georgian Icon of the Mother of God came to a certain merchant named Stephen, who piously kept it. In Yaroslavl, the merchant George Lytkin, on whose business Stephen was in Persia, received a revelation in a dream about the holy object found by Stephen, and he was commanded to send it to the Chernogorsk monastery in the Arkhangelsk diocese, founded in 1603.
When Stephen returned home in 1629 and showed the icon to George Lytkin, he remembered his vision and he set off to the Dvina outskirts to the Chernogorsk monastery (so called because it was built on a hilly and somber place. From of old it had been named "Black Hill", but afterwards the monastery changed the name to "Pretty Hill". The icon was glorified there by miracles.
In 1654, during a pestilential plague, the icon was transferred to Moscow, and those praying before it escaped the deadly plague. The numerous copies of the icon testify to its deep veneration.
In 1658, with the blessing of Patriarch Nikon, there was established an annual feastday of the Georgian Icon of the Mother of God.
The service was written in 1698 under the supervision of Theodore Polykarpov of the Moscow printing office.

The Gruzinian (Georgian) Icon of the mother of God: In 1622 the Persian shah Abbas conquered Gruzia. Many Christian holy things were plundered and many such were sold to the Russian merchants that were in Persia. Thus, the Gruzinian Icon of the Mother of God came the way of a certain merchant named Stefan, who piously kept it. During this time in Yaroslavl' the merchant Georgii Lytkin -- on whose trade-business Stefan was in Persia -- received in a dream a revelation about the holy article found by Stefan, and he was commanded to send it off to the Chernogorsk monastery in the Arkhangelsk diocese, founded in 1603. When Stefan returned home in 1629 and showed the icon to Georgii Lytkin, who remembered about his vision and he set off to the Dvina outskirts to the Chernogorsk monastery (called such since it was built on an hilly and somber place, and from of old had been named "Black Mount" ("Chernaya Gora"), but afterwards the monastery was changed in name to "Pretty Hill" ("Krasnaya Gora"). The icon was glorified there by miracles. In 1654 during the time of a pestilential plague the icon was transferred to Moscow, and those praying before it escaped the deadly plague. The many copies of the icon testifies to its deep veneration. In 1658, with the blessing of Patriarch Nikon, there was established an annual feastday of the Gruzinian Icon of the Mother of God. The service was compiled in 1698 under Feodor Polikarpov supervision--Moscow printing-office.

1679 St. John Kemble 1/ 40 Martyrs of England and Wales; several miracles; annual pilgrimage uninterrupted since martyrdom; studied at Douai ordained 1625; falsely charged in the Titus Qates Plot and condemned for being Catholic
   This martyr was the son of John Kemble, gentleman, of a family originally of Wiltshire, and Anne, one of the Morgans of Skenfrith, and was born in 1599 traditionally at Rhydicar farm in the parish of Saint Weonards, Herefordshire, though some say at Pembridge Castle nearby. They were a Catholic family, and there were four other related Kemble priests at this time.
In some year unknown John was smuggled abroad to Douay, where he was ordained in 1625 and in the same year sent on the mission to work in and around his birthplace. Of these labours nothing at all is known except that they extended over a period of fifty-three years, apparently unbroken save that in the archives of the Old Brotherhood of the Secular Clergy there is an entry in or about the year 1649 which suggests that he was then for a time in London; it is known from the Westminster archives that in 1643 he was recommended as a suitable person to be made archdeacon of South Wales.   During these years he gained that reputation for goodness which persisted among the folk of Monmouthshire almost to our own day and, with the help of the Jesuits at the Cwm in Llanrothal, he formed those mission centres, at the Llwyn, the Graig, Hilston, and elsewhere, which lingered on into the nineteenth century and are now represented only by a desolate burying-ground and a ruined chapel at Coed Anghred on a hill above Skenfrith. During most, if not all, of this time he made his headquarters at Pembridge Castle, the home first of his brother George, and then of his nephew, Captain Richard Kemble. In 1678 the "Oates Plot" terror began and in the autumn it reached Herefordshire: the Cwm was sacked and John Kemble's friend David Lewis, s.j., was taken. He was urged to fly, but he would not: "According to the course of nature I have but a few years to live [he was just on eighty]; it will be an advantage to suffer for my religion, and therefore I will not abscond."
   In November Captain Scudamore of Kentchurch, for all his wife and children were Catholics and ministered to by Mr Kemble, went to Pembridge Castle, arrested the old priest, and dragged him off through the snow to Hereford gaol. There he remained four months, till the March assizes, at which he was condemned to be hanged, drawn and quartered, pro Sacerd' Seminar., "for being a seminary priest", as it is recorded in the Crown Book of the Oxford Circuit. On April 23 an order was signed for him and Bd David Lewis to be sent to London for examination by the Privy Council; on the journey he "suffered more than a martyrdom on account of a great indisposition he had, which would not permit him to ride but sideways; and it was on horseback he was compelled to perform the journey, at least a great part of the way". "He was strapped like a pack to his horse going there, but allowed to walk most of the way on his journey back", which he made a few weeks later as he said at his execution, "Oates and Bedloe not being able to charge me with anything when I was brought up to London (though they were with me) makes it evident that I die only for professing the old Roman Catholic religion, which was the religion that first made this kingdom Christian. That execution was ordered by Scroggs L.C.J., at the summer assizes, and its date fixed for August 22. When the under-sheriff, one Digges, arrived at the jail Bd John asked for time first to finish his prayers and then to smoke a pipe of tobacco and have a drink. The governor and under-sheriff joined him, Digges in his turn delaying in order to finish his pipe.* {* This curious and pleasing incident originated the Herefordshire custom of calling the last pipe of a sitting "the Kemble pipe", a custom now fallen into disuse. Cf. the footnote on p. 394 of Sir John Hawkins's edition of Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler (1808), where Bd John Kemble is made a Protestant martyr under Queen Mary.}

Towards evening he was dragged on a hurdle to Widemarsh Common, where before a huge crowd he denied all knowledge of any plot and made a final profession of faith. He was allowed to hang till he was dead before the remainder of the sentence was carried out, but the hangman's work was so ill done that, old as he was, he lived for half-an-hour after the cart was withdrawn. With the exception of the left hand, now enshrined in the Catholic church at Hereford, Bd John's remains were buried under a flat stone in Welsh Newton churchyard, where they still lie. The first miracle recorded at the intercession of Bd John was in favour of the daughter of his denouncer, Captain Scudamore, who was cured of an affection of her throat by applying to it the rope with which the martyr was hanged; and Mgr Matthew Pritchard, Vicar Apostolic for the Western District in 1715, was present when Mrs Catherine Scudamore was cured of long-standing deafness while praying at his graveside. Protestant witnesses of his execution "acknowledged that they never saw one die so like a gentleman and so like a Christian", and Bd John Kemble has never been without local veneration; the annual pilgrimage to his grave is said to have been uninterrupted since his martyrdom.

See MMP., pp. 555-557 T. P. Ellis, Catholic Martyrs of Wales (1932), pp. 126-129 B. Camm, Forgotten Shrines (1910), pp.333-342 and an excellent C.T.S. pamphlet by J. H. Canning. Sarah Siddons, née Kemble, was a great- great- grandniece of the martyr.

He was born in Herefordshire, England, in 1599, and studied at Douai, where he was ordained in 1625. Returning to England, John labored in missions for fifty-three years. At the age of eighty-one, he was arrested at Pembridge Castle, the home of his brother. He was falsely charged in the Titus Qates Plot and condemned for being a Catholic. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Hereford. Pope Paul VI canonized him in 1970.

1679 St. John Wall 1 of 40 Martyrs of England and Wales educated at Douai and Rome and ordained in 1645 became a Franciscan, called Father Joachim of St. Anne
He was born near Preston, England, and was educated at Douai and Rome and ordained in 1645. In 1651 he became a Franciscan, called Father Joachim of St. Anne, returning to Worcester, England, in 1656. There he was arrested in December 1678 and imprisoned for five months. He was martyred by being hanged, drawn, and quartered at Redhill. Pope Paul VI canonized him in 1970.

1894 Saint Isaac (Antimonov) fell asleep in the Lord on August 22
The Moscow Patriarchate authorized local veneration of the Optina Elders on June 13,1996, glorifying them for universal veneration on August 7, 2000.

Gorazd_of_Prague_Bohemia_Moravo_Cilezsk_martyr.jpg
1942 St Gorazd Bishop; a Moravian and linguist, one of the seven disciples of Sts Cyril and Methodius. Bishop Gorazd did not try to save himself, but wishing to avert repression of the Czech Church, took all responsibility on himself. It is now nearly sixty years since the martyrdom and birth into eternal life of Bishop Gorazd of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. In this ever darkening age, the image of this martyred Bishop now shines forth ever brighter.

Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Hebrews 13,7

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour. John 12, 24-26

The future Bishop Gorazd (Pavlik) was born on 26 May 1879 in the Moravian town of Hrubavrbka in the Czech Rupublic and was baptised Matthias. After schooling he finished the Roman Catholic theological faculty in Olomouc and was ordained priest. During his studies he had become interested in Orthodox Christianity and the mission of Sts Cyril and Methodius and visited Kiev.

With the formation of Czechoslovakia in 1918 and freedom from Austro-Hungarian Catholic tyranny, hundreds of thousands of people left the Catholic Church, among them Matthias Pavlik. Some of these people turned for help to the Serbian Orthodox Church (parts of which had also suffered from the same tyranny 1 ). As a result the Serbian Church consented to consecrate Fr Matthias bishop with the monastic name of Gorazd.
When the Serbian Bishop responsible, Bishop Dositheus, made Fr Gorazd an archimandrite in the monastery of Hopovo in Serbia, he uttered the following words:

'In history the successor to St. Methodius, the Archbishop of Moravia, was Bishop Gorazd. Through the intrigues of those who hated Orthodoxy, he was chased out of his native land and went to the south Slavs 2. And in you, Fr Gorazd, the Lord is raising up in Moravia a new Gorazd, the renewer of Orthodoxy amid the Czech people'.

On the 24 September 1921, now aged 42, Archimandrite Gorazd was named Bishop of Moravia and Silesia at the Vigil Service in the Cathedral of the Holy Archangel Michael in Belgrade. On the next day Patriarch Dimitri of Serbia consecrated Fr Gorazd bishop. His concelebrants were Metropolitan Antony (of Kiev) 3 and Bishops Barnabas 4, Dositheus and Joseph. Entrusting the new bishop with his staff, Patriarch Dimitri exhorted him to follow the example of Sts Cyril and Methodius and their successor St Gorazd. Much moved and in a trembling voice, Bishop Gorazd expressed his profound gratitude to the Serbian Orthodox Church for its help to the Czechs who wished to return to the faith of their forebears of the time of Sts Cyril and Methodius.

Thus began the selfless labours of a new worker in the harvest-field of Christ.

The spiritual meadows made fruitful and sown by the work of grace of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius and their disciples had long since become thick with the weeds of various heresies and vain philosophies. Bishop Gorazd was to suffer many attacks, trials and tribulations from those who fell into temptation at 'the foolishness of the cross'. Vladyka suffered everything patiently, saying that every truth must be tried in the fire of temptation. Unfortunately, most Czechs in the movement towards Orthodoxy did not remain in the truth; holy Orthodoxy seemed to them too heavy a burden. They did not wish to believe in the words of the Saviour, that 'strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life' (Matthew 7, 14). But once Bishop Gorazd had come to believe in the saving truth of Orthodoxy, he kept faith with it even unto death. This consistent standing in the truth and personal integrity were very characteristic of him. They are a reproach to our times when there are so many lies, compromises and bad consciences. When still a child, his father had said to him: 'Never be afraid of anyone, and when you are right, do not give up'. . He always acted so, even when the price was at times very high.

Together with those who had remained faithful to Orthodoxy, the Bishop set to work. Churches were built and parishes organised in various parts of Bohemia. In all eleven churches and two chapels were built under him. Services were in Czech. Essential church books were published, for example the Book of Needs, catechisms and so on. Using his knowledge, experience and contacts, Bishop Gorazd also helped those who had returned to their ancestral Orthodox Faith in Slovakia and Subcarpathian Russia, which was then part of Czechoslovakia. He was keenly interested in the monastery at Ladomirovo in Slovakia, founded by Archimandrite Vitaly Maximenko, later an Archbishop in the USA who valued and supported Bishop Gorazd. Thus in 1934 Bishop Gorazd took part in the twentieth anniversary commemoration of the shameful Marmarosh-Sigotsky trial. This had taken place in 1914 when 94 Orthodox together with Fr Alexei Kabaliuk had been condemned for renouncing Uniatism and returning to the faith of their fathers. At the time the Hungarian judge had severely fined them and imprisoned them 5.

Bishop Gorazd was to carry his heavy cross for twenty one years in all.

But just as during the Passion of Christ, signs of His future glorification began to appear (for example when the wife of Pilate called the Lord righteous after her pre-monitory dream, or when Judas said that he had spilt innocent blood), so in the many trials of Bishop Gorazd's life, some began to see something of the spiritual greatness of this faithful servant of Christ. When many Roman Catholic priests rose up against Bishop Gorazd, even the Catholic Bishop Stoian said: 'Leave Pavlik alone, you are not worthy to tie his laces, it would be good if everyone were like Pavlik'. The Catholics tried to persuade Bishop Gorazd to return to Catholicism, while remaining in bishop's orders and with the choice of rites.

Bishop Gorazd understood that Orthodox life is the way of the cross, a daily bloodless martyrdom 6. He took this truth into his life and this helped him when the time came to accept the martyr's crown. It is impossible not to be moved by his words in a work he devoted to Jan Hus 7: 'For far too long we have failed to give much value to martyrdom. We think that it is better to live and toil for a great cause than to die for it. But there is nothing greater than to lay down one's life for the Gospel of Christ'.

When the Second World War broke out, Bishop Gorazd asked Metropolitan Seraphim (Liade) of Berlin to oversee his diocese until such time as normal relations could be resumed with Serbia. The Metropolitan supplied Bishop Gorazd with myrrh, antimensia and helped him to strengthen his position in Bohemia and Moravia 8.

In 1942 the Czech Resistance assassinated the Nazi governor Heydrich in Prague.
The resistance fighters were allowed to hide in the crypt of Sts Cyril and Methodius Orthodox Cathedral. When Bishop Gorazd learned of this a few days later, he was greatly troubled, realising that if the occupying Germans found out, then the whole Czech Orthodox Church would suffer repression. Before leaving for Berlin to take part with the Metropolitan in consecrating Fr Philip (Gardner) 9 to the episcopate, he asked that the resistance fighters be moved elsewhere as soon as possible. However the Nazis found the Czech hiding-place and on 18 June 1942, seven of them were shot there. The two Cathedral priests and other Orthodox were arrested. Bishop Gorazd did not try to save himself, but wishing to avert repression of the Czech Church, took all responsibility on himself.

He wrote three letters to the Germans with the words: 'I am giving myself up to the authorities and am prepared to face any punishment, including death'.

On the 27 June 1942 Bishop Gorazd was arrested and tortured. He was executed by firing squad on 4 September 1942. He was aged 63. The two Cathedral priests were also shot. The Orthodox Church in Bohemia and Moravia was forbidden to operate and its churches and chapels closed. Orthodox priests were exiled to forced labour camps in Germany. For his part Metropolitan Seraphim courageously refused to issue any statement condemning Bishop Gorazd.

Bishop Gorazd was truly a good shepherd, always guiding his flock. He showed his love to the end and by his death was counted worthy of fulfilling the Saviour' s words: 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends'. (John 15, 13).
The martyred bishop was recognised as a New Martyr by decision of the Serbian Orthodox Church on 4/17 May 1961. On 24 August/ 6 September 1987 he was glorified in the Cathedral of St Gorazd in Olomouc in Moravia. He is feasted by the Czechoslovak Orthodox Church on the day of his martyrdom 22 August/ 4 September.

Of particular interest in the missionary context are the relations between the martyred bishop and Metropolitan Antony 3. The following details are taken from an article by Fr Dr Pavel Alesha in, 'The attitude of the holy Bishop Gorazd to Russian Orthodoxy' (An Anthology of Orthodox Theology, Prague 1989).

Metropolitan Antony reposed on 10 August 1936 in Serbia at the age of 73 'in the brotherly arms of Patriarch Barnabas' - in the words of Bishop Gorazd, he passed away, 'like a lamp that had burnt down to its last drop of oil'. Bishop Gorazd wrote an article dedicated to his radiant memory in The Herald of the Czech Orthodox Diocese (1936, No 9).

On the twentieth anniversary of his episcopal consecration, Bishop Gorazd also recalled the bishops who had consecrated him, men who 'were distinguished by their living faith, wisdom, love and holy life'. These were 'Patriarch Dimitri of Serbia and Metropolitan Antony of Kiev of the Russian Church, both great men of prayer, the latter also the foremost luminary of Russian theology and the kindest of advisors in missionary work, as well as my constant defender against various reproaches made against me' (The Herald, 15 September 1991, No 8).

Bishop Gorazd wrote about the activities of Metropolitan Antony in Volhynia in Western Russia, where he had been bishop for twelve years. Then he had met the 60,000 or so Orthodox Czechs who lived there. The Volhynian Czechs had immediately attracted his attention as an ethnic island. They lived differently from those who surrounded them with their own traditions, brought by the previous generation from Bohemia and kept by the new generation. These were reflected in their Orthodox Church life. As a good psychologist, missionary and a spiritual pastor, he took action against local church activists who, imbued with a strict ritualistic spirit, wanted to do away with the differences of the Orthodox Czechs 10. He made sure that as far as possible the Czechs had priests from their own midst, priests who understood the soul of the Czech people with its strengths and its failings.

Further Bishop Gorazd wrote: 'Metropolitan Antony did our Orthodox mission great service; from the beginning he was interested in it. Without interfering in the authority of the Synod of the Serbian Church, he gave fatherly or rather brotherly advice as to how I should operate in my missionary work. And this in such a way that the Czech and Slovak people, for whom the movement to enlighten the Slavs was in fact created by Sts Cyril and Methodius, would once more come to love their ancestral faith, strive to know it and return to it. His starting-point was the conviction that the Czechs would not be attracted to the Orthodox Church, if it were immediately presented to them in a historically set form in all its fullness, and at the same time in a purely formal, ritual way. He said that no mission should act in this way, especially in an Orthodox mission, since Orthodoxy in principle respects the ways each people thinks and feels...Orthodoxy has certain special forms among each people which naturally do not affect its dogmatic essence 11.
Metropolitan Antony asked: 'Which ready form of Orthodoxy would you offer to your fellow-countrymen - Serbian Russian, Bulgarian, Greek, or another? If you wished to set out from such a viewpoint, which is in fact alien to Orthodoxy, taking into consideration your conditions, then I would advise you to accept the Serbian form, because your canonical ties with the Serbian Church would cause the least hurt. But I would not advise you to act thus. On the contrary, you must start from what there is in your people, as always happens in matters of upbringing and education. First of all look at the confessional views of your compatriots and find what is Orthodox and what is not Orthodox in them. Then restricting yourself to the main points alone, try to eradicate from religious life what does not appear to be part of the Orthodox confession of faith. A lot of work will have to be done before you overcome prejudices...proceed slowly and step by step as you introduce Orthodoxy into liturgical life. Acting thus, let no one who is not competent in these matters trouble you. The opinion of the Patriarch, the Synod and the Council of Bishops of the Serbian Church must be decisive in all things. In their representatives they wholly understand your Czech conditions and the tasks that await you. Those who are unable to rise above mere formal ritualism will probably criticise you and perhaps condemn you 12, but do not worry. You are not responsible to them. Work according to your understanding and trust in God's help. I will personally accompany your work with my prayers, for I know what a great and holy task you are accomplishing. I will follow with interest your successes and your failures, not as your master - which I am not - but as a bishop and elder brother who is always ready to help you with advice' (The Herald, pp 4, 7-8).

Bishop Gorazd said that at his every meeting with Metropolitan Antony in Yugoslavia he always asked many questions about the successes and the difficulties of the Czech Orthodox mission and encouraged him to be patient and constant. In his letter of 14 January 1926, Metropolitan Antony wrote:
'You will have found just the right method for your missionary work when you strive to bring to the conscience of your flock at first only that which is essential in Orthodoxy. In this way souls that are lit up by the grace of God, with love and patience will deepen their understanding of organisation and ritual, and will raise their minds to the spirituality of the faith, and then without pride and protest will accept it not as something alien, but as their own. If it is God's Will that Orthodoxy take root and spread among the Czech people, then this will take place thanks to you. I am not writing this to make you proud, God forbid, and I am sure that you keep in your heart the words of St Paul, 'not I, but the grace of God within me' (I Corinthians 15, 10). It is better when the preaching of Orthodoxy moves ahead slowly, not too fast, and not according to the slogan, "I came, I saw, I conquered". I was afraid that the Russians who understand very little as to what is faith and what is ritual, will be unpleasant to you, as in Apostolic times the Jewish-Christians behaved with Gentile neophytes. I set great store by the ritual and the canons of the Church, but I well understand that the creations accumulated through history cannot be adopted all at once'.

Bishop Gorazd added: 'This was the speech worthy of a great man of God, who knew to perfection the problem of missionary work in general, and among the Czechs in particular'.
In conclusion we would like to turn to the words of prayer once uttered by the disciples of St Methodius to his faithful follower and successor, the holy martyr Gorazd: 'O Thou, holy and all honourable prelate, through thy prayers look down upon us who love thee from above! Deliver thy disciples from attack, spreading the Orthodox teaching and chasing away heresies, that we who dwell here may be worthy of our calling and that we thy flock will stand together with thee on the right hand of Christ our God and will receive eternal life from Him, to Whom belong all glory, honour and worship unto the ages of ages! Amen.'

Editor's Notes
1 It was the tyranny of the Austro-Hungarian Empire against Orthodox in Serbia that sparked off the First World War.
2 St Gorazd was a Moravian and linguist, one of the seven disciples of Sts Cyril and Methodius. Despite initial Papal support, in the ninth century he was chased out of Moravia by Frankish political machinations and persecutions of Orthodoxy. He then went to the south Slavs (Yugoslavs) in Ochrid in southern Serbia.
Feast: 27 July.
3 Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky) of Kiev (1863-1936) was the great renewer of theology and Church life in Russia before the Revolution and also the main organiser of the 1918 Russian Church Council. Probably the finest theological mind the Russian Church produced in the twentieth century, he was the leading advocate of the restoration of the freedom of the Russian Church and the Patriarchate, after the decadent period instituted by Peter I. After the 1918 Council he was imprisoned in a Uniat monastery. Released, he went to Constantinople and then Serbia, and with the blessing of the holy Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow, he founded the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. The seventeen volumes of his works total 6,000 pages. Although some have found him overzealous in stamping out Russian Scholasticism and renewing genuine Patristic theology in Russia, he has been accorded the title 'Blessed'
4 (1880-1937). He was elected Patriarch of Serbia in 1930.
5 The vicious Austro-Hungarian persecution of Orthodox in the East of their Empire went on for hundreds of years until the First World War. During that War in well-documented war-crimes, hundreds of Orthodox were hanged by Austro-Hungarian authorities because of their Faith.
6 'A daily bloodlesss martyrdom'. Until these words have been taken to heart by Orthodox converts, they will remain but converts.
7 Jan Hus (1369-1415) was an early Czech reformer who was inspired by Orthodoxy and in turn inspired the English reformer Wyclif. Both men, but especially Hus by reason of his knowledge of early Czech history, knew that the Orthodox alone had kept the Faith. Hus was burnt at the stake by the Catholic Church. Sadly, later reformers both in Bohemia and elsewhere in Western Europe overlooked Orthodoxy and invented Protestantism.
8 Metropolitan Seraphim was a German convert to Orthodoxy and had studied theology in Russia well before the First World War. During the Second World War he was the Orthodox bishop in Germany and stood up valiantly to German Fascism. The Felixstowe parish serves the liturgy on an antimension signed by him. (The antimension is a special cloth signed by the former or present diocesan bishop, without which no liturgy can be served).
9 Bishop Philip Gardner was the foremost Russian Orthodox musicologist of the twentieth century.
10 As a very young bishop in Western Russia in the 1900's, the future Metropolitan was also particularly active in stopping the anti-Jewish pogroms of unchurched Russian and Ukranian racists. His protection of the Orthodox Czechs and his appreciation of their customs against local Russian racism and ritualist bigotry shows his true stature as an Orthodox churchman, rising above the level of those around him. No wonder he later became the foremost churchman and theologian not only in Russia but all over the cosmopolitan Orthodox world and consecrated St John the Wonderworker bishop. His biography for this period is extremely interesting since it well illustrates both the spiritual depth but also the extreme decadence of the Russian Church before the Revolution - which in itself explains that Revolution. Perhaps one day this biography will be translated and made obligatory reading for all converts. His spirit is sorely lacking in the international Orthodox church of today.

11 This may seem obvious to us, and yet the main Orthodox Patriarchates seem to believe in practice that Orthodox missions are all about hellenisation or russification - the sad results of such a way of acting are known to all.
12 And they do!

To Save A Life is Earthly; To Save A Soul is Eternal

THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 42

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.

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

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

God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique, for each is the result of a new idea. As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike. It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints. Dear Lord, grant us a spirit that is not bound by our own ideas and preferences. Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves. O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory. Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives. Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts. God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heaven: only saints are allowed into heaven. The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.

There are over 10,000 named saints beati from history
and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources
Patron_Saints.html Widowed_Saints html Indulgences The Catholic Church in China
LINKS: Marian Shrines India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East Lourdes 1858 China Marian shrines 1995
Kenya national Marian shrine Loreto, Italy Marian Apparitions (over 2000) Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
Links to Related MarianWebsites Angels and Archangels Saints Visions of Heaven and Hell
Widowed Saints html
Doctors_of_the_Church Acts_Of_The_Apostles Roman Catholic Popes Purgatory Uniates Chalcedon

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

The great psalm of the Passion, Chapter 22, whose first verse “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Jesus pronounced on the cross, ended with the vision: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him” For kingship belongs to the LORD, the ruler over the nations. All who sleep in the earth will bow low before God; All who have gone down into the dust will kneel in homage. And I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you. The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.

Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China {whole article here} 2000 years of the Catholic Church in China
The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.

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Saint Frances Xavier Seelos Practical Guide to Holiness

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

My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love Thee. I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not

O most Holy trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the Tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended, and by the infite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I beg the conversion of poor sinners, Fatima Prayer, Angel of Peace

The voice of the Father is heard, the Son enters the water, and the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove.

THE spirit and example of the world imperceptibly instil the error into the minds of many that there is a kind of middle way of going to Heaven; and so, because the world does not live up to the gospel, they bring the gospel down to the level of the world. It is not by this example that we are to measure the Christian rule, but words and life of Christ. All His followers are commanded to labour to become perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect, and to bear His image in our hearts that we may be His children. We are obliged by the gospel to die to ourselves by fighting self-love in our hearts, by the mastery of our passions, by taking on the spirit of our Lord.

These are the conditions under which Christ makes His promises and numbers us among His children, as is manifest from His words which the apostles have left us in their inspired writings. Here is no distinction made or foreseen between the apostles or clergy or religious and secular persons. The former, indeed, take upon themselves certain stricter obligations, as a means of accomplishing these ends more perfectly; but the law of holiness and of disengagement of the heart from the world is general and binds all the followers of Christ.

God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique each the result of a new idea.

As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike.
It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints.
Dear Lord, grant us a spirit not bound by our own ideas and preferences.
Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves.
O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory.
Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.

Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.

The 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary ) Revealed to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan)

1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces. 2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. 3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. 4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that soul would sanctify them by this means. 5. The soul that recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish. 6. Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying themselves to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise them in His justice, they shall not perish by an unprovided death; if they be just, they shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. 7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church. 8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise. 9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. 10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven. 11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. 12. I shall aid all those who propagate the Holy Rosary in their necessities. 13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. 14. All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ. 15. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.

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

Its jurisdiction currently extends to Syria, Cyprus, Iran and Greece.

Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac

The exact date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa {Armenian Ourhaï in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name} is not known. It is certain, however, that the Christian community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legend, King Abgar V, Ushana, was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples. In fact, however, the first King of Edessa to embrace the Christian Faith was Abgar IX (c. 206) becoming official kingdom religion.

Christian council held at Edessa early as 197 (Eusebius, Hist. Ecc7V,xxiii).

In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed (“Chronicon Edessenum”, ad. an. 201).

In 232 the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written.

Under Roman domination martyrs suffered at Edessa: Sts. Scharbîl and Barsamya, under Decius; Sts. Gûrja, Schâmôna, Habib, and others under Diocletian.

In the meanwhile Christian priests from Edessa evangelized Eastern Mesopotamia and Persia, established the first Churches in the kingdom of the Sassanides. Atillâtiâ, Bishop of Edessa, assisted at the Council of Nicæa (325). The “Peregrinatio Silviæ” (or Etheriæ) (ed. Gamurrini, Rome, 1887, 62 sqq.) gives an account of the many sanctuaries at Edessa about 388.

Although Hebrew had been the language of the ancient Israelite kingdom, after their return from Exile the Jews turned more and more to Aramaic, using it for parts of the books of Ezra and Daniel in the Bible. By the time of Jesus, Aramaic was the main language of Palestine, and quite a number of texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls are also written in Aramaic.

Aramaic continued to be an important language for Jews, alongside Hebrew, and parts of the Talmud are written in it.

After Arab conquests of the seventh century, Arabic quickly replaced Aramaic as the main language of those who converted to Islam, although in out of the way places, Aramaic continued as a vernacular language of Muslims.

Aramaic, however, enjoyed its greatest success in Christianity. Although the New Testament wins written in Greek, Christianity had come into existence in an Aramaic-speaking milieu, and it was the Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac, that became the literary language of a large number of Christians living in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and in the Persian Empire, further east. Over the course of the centuries the influence of the Syriac Churches spread eastwards to China (in Xian, in western China, a Chinese-Syriac inscription dated 781 is still to be seen); to southern India where the state of Kerala can boast more Christians of Syriac liturgical tradition than anywhere else in the world.

680 Shiite saint Imam Hussein, grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad Known as Ashoura and observed by Shiites across the world, the 10th day of the lunar Muslim month of Muharram: the anniversary of the 7th century death in battle of one of Shiite Islam's most beloved saints. Imam Hussein died in the 680 A.D. battle fought on the plains outside Karbala, a city in modern Iraq that's home to the saint's shrine. The battle over a dispute about the leadership of the Muslim faith following Muhammad's death in 632 A.D. It is the defining event in Islam's split into Sunni and Shiite branches. The occasion is the source of an enduring moral lesson. "He sacrificed his blood to teach us not to give in to corruption, coercion, or use of force and to seek honor and justice." According to Shiite beliefs, Hussein and companions were denied water by enemies who controlled the nearby Euphrates. Streets get partially covered with blood from slaughter of hundreds of cows and sheep. Volunteers cook the meat and feed it to the poor. Hussein's martyrdom recounted through a rich body of prose, poetry and song remains an inspirational example of sacrifice to many Shiites, 10 percent of the world's estimated 1.3 billion Muslims.

Meeting of the Saints walis (saints of Allah)

Great men covet to embrace martyrdom for a cause and principle.

So was the case with Hazrat Ali. He could have made a compromise with the evil forces of his time and, as a result, could have led a very comfortable, easy and luxurious life. But he was not a person who would succumb to such temptations. His upbringing, his education and his training in the lap of the holy Prophet made him refuse such an offer.
Rabia Al-Basri (717–801 C.E.) She was first to set forth the doctrine of mystical love and who is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets. An elderly Shia pointed out that during his pre-Partition childhood it was quite common to find pictures and portraits of Shia icons in Imambaras across the country.
Shah Abdul Latif: The Exalted Sufi Master born 1690 in a Syed family; died 1754. In ancient times, Sindh housed the exemplary Indus Valley Civilisation with Moenjo Daro as its capital, and now, it is the land of a culture which evolved from the teachings of eminent Sufi saints. Pakistan is home to the mortal remains of many Sufi saints, the exalted among them being Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, a practitioner of the real Islam, philosopher, poet, musicologist and preacher. He presented his teaching through poetry and music - both instruments sublime - and commands a very large following, not only among Muslims but also among Hindus and Christians. Sindh culture: The Shah is synonymous with Sindh. He is the very fountainhead of Sindh's culture. His message remains as fresh as that of any present day poet, and the people of Sindh find solace from his writings. He did indeed think for Sindh. One of his prayers, in exquisite Sindhi, translates thus: “Oh God, may ever You on Sindh bestow abundance rare! Beloved! All the world let share Thy grace, and fruitful be.”
Shia Ali al-Hadi, died 868 and son Hassan al-Askari 874. These saints are the 10th and 11th of Shia's 12 most revered Imams. Baba Farid Sufi 1398 miracle, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki renowned Muslim Sufi saint scholar miracles 569 A.H. [1173 C.E.] hermit gave to poor, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti greatest mystic of his time born 533 Hijri (1138-39 A.D.), Hazrat Ghuas-e Azam, Hazrat Bu Ali Sharif, and Hazrat Nizamuddi n Aulia Sufi Saint Hazrath Khwaja Syed Mohammed Badshah Quadri Chisty Yamani Quadeer (RA) 1236-1325 welcomed people of all faiths & all walks of life.

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

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Mother Angelica saving souls is this beautiful womans journey

Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament

Colombia was among the countries Mother Angelica visited.
In Bogotá, a Salesian priest - Father Juan Pablo Rodriguez - brought Mother and the nuns to the Sanctuary of the Divine Infant Jesus to attend Mass. After Mass, Father Juan Pablo took them into a small Shrine which housed the miraculous statue of the Child Jesus. Mother Angelica stood praying at the side of the statue when suddenly the miraculous image came alive and turned towards her. Then the Child Jesus spoke with the voice of a young boy: “Build Me a Temple and I will help those who help you.”

Thus began a great adventure that would eventually result in the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, a Temple dedicated to the Divine Child Jesus, a place of refuge for all. Use this link to read a remarkable story about The Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament

Father Reardon, Editor of The Catholic Bulletin for 14 years Lover of the poor; “A very Holy Man of God.”

Monsignor Reardon Protonotarius Apostolicus
Pastor 42 years BASILICA OF SAINT MARY Minneapolis MN

America's First Basilica Largest Nave in the World

August 7, 1907-ground broke for the foundation

by Archbishop Ireland-laying cornerstone May 31, 1908

James M. Reardon Publication History of Basilica of Saint Mary 1600-1932

Index to Part I and Part II 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}.

Saints Simon (saw), Bartholomew (knife), James the Lesser (book), John (eagle), Andrew (transverse cross), Peter keys), Paul (sword), James the Greater (staff), Thomas (carpenter's square), Philip (serpent), Matthew (book), and Jude sword

Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel
It Makes No Sense Not To Believe In GOD

THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi.

June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.

By Father John Corapi
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi.

June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.

By Father John Corapi

Among the most important titles we have in the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom. The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.

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

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

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

Talk is weak. Prayer is strong. Pray! God bless you, Father John Corapi

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

Father John Corapi goes to the heart of the contemporary world's many woes and wars, whether the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, or the Congo, or the natural disasters that seem to be increasing every year, the moral and spiritual war is at the basis of everything. “Our battle is not against human forces,” St. Paul asserts, “but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness...” (Ephesians 6:12).
The “War to end all wars” is the moral and spiritual combat that rages in the hearts and minds of human beings. The outcome of that unseen fight largely determines how the battle in the realm of the seen unfolds. The title talk, “With the Moon Under Her Feet,” is taken from the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation, and deals with the current threat to the world from radical Islam, and the Blessed Virgin Mary's role in the ultimate victory that will result in the conversion of Islam. Few Catholics are aware of the connection between Islam, Fatima, and Guadalupe. Presented in Father Corapi's straight-forward style, you will be both inspired and educated by him.

About Father John Corapi.

Father Corapi is a Catholic priest .

The pillars of father's preaching are basically:

Love for and a relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary
Leading a vibrant and loving relationship with Jesus Christ
Great love and reverence for the Most Holy Eucharist from Holy Mass to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
An uncompromising love for and obedience to the Holy Father and the teaching of the Magisterium of the Church

God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis will beatify these martyred Greek-Catholic bishops in Romania
May 30, 2019 - 03:01 pm .- On Sunday in Blaj, Pope Francis will beatify seven Greek-Catholic bishops of Romania who were killed by the communist regime between 1950 and 1970.

Woman who served Brazil’s poorest to be canonized
May 14, 2019 - 06:53 am .- Pope Francis Tuesday gave his approval for eight sainthood causes to proceed, including that of Bl. Dulce Lopes Pontes, a 20th-century religious sister who served Brazil’s poor.

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

Pope advances sainthood causes of 17 women
Jan 15, 2019 - 11:12 am .- Pope Francis approved Tuesday the next step in the canonization causes of 17 women from four countries, including the martyrdom of 14 religious sisters killed in Spain at the start of the Spanish Civil War.

Nineteen Algerian martyrs beatified
Dec 10, 2018 - 03:08 pm .- Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, were beatified Saturday during a Mass in Oran.

The Algerian martyrs shed their blood for Christ, pope says
Dec 7, 2018 - 10:02 am .- Ahead of the beatification Saturday of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, Pope Francis said martyrs have a special place in the Church.
Algerian martyrs are models for the Church, archbishop says
Nov 16, 2018 - 03:01 am .- Archbishop Paul Desfarges of Algiers has said that Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, are “models for our lives as disciples today and tomorrow.”

Francesco Spinelli to be canonized after healing of a newborn in DR Congo
Oct 9, 2018 - 05:01 pm .- Among those being canonized on Sunday are Fr. Franceso Spinelli, a diocesan priest through whose intercession a newborn was saved from death in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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

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

Pope Francis creates new path to beatification under ‘offering of life’
Jul 11, 2017 - 06:22 am .- On Tuesday Pope Francis declared a new category of Christian life suitable for consideration of beatification called “offering of life” – in which a person has died prematurely through an offering of their life for love of God and neighbor.

Twentieth century Polish nurse among causes advancing toward sainthood
Jul 7, 2017 - 06:14 am .- Pope Francis on Friday approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Hanna Chrzanowska, a Polish nurse and nursing instructor who died from cancer in 1973, paving the way for her beatification.

Sainthood causes advance, including layman who resisted fascism
Jun 17, 2017 - 09:22 am .- Pope Francis on Friday recognized the heroic virtue of six persons on the path to canonization, as well as the martyrdom of an Italian man who died from injuries of a beating he received while imprisoned in a concentration camp for resisting fascism.

Solanus Casey, Cardinal Van Thuan among those advanced toward sainthood
May 4, 2017 - 10:47 am .- Pope Francis on Thursday approved decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints advancing the causes for canonization of 12 individuals, including the American-born Capuchin Solanus Casey and the Vietnamese cardinal Francis Xavier Nguen Van Thuan.

Pope clears way for canonization of Fatima visionaries
Mar 23, 2017 - 06:44 am .- On Thursday Pope Francis approved the second and final miracle needed to canonize Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the shepherd children who witnessed the Fatima Marian apparitions.
Surgeon and father among sainthood causes moving forward
Feb 27, 2017 - 11:03 am .- Pope Francis recognized on Monday the heroic virtue of eight persons on the path to canonization, including an Italian surgeon and father of eight who suffered from several painful diseases throughout his life.

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis will beatify these martyred Greek-Catholic bishops in Romania
May 30, 2019 - 03:01 pm .- On Sunday in Blaj, Pope Francis will beatify seven Greek-Catholic bishops of Romania who were killed by the communist regime between 1950 and 1970.

Woman who served Brazil’s poorest to be canonized
May 14, 2019 - 06:53 am .- Pope Francis Tuesday gave his approval for eight sainthood causes to proceed, including that of Bl. Dulce Lopes Pontes, a 20th-century religious sister who served Brazil’s poor.

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

Pope advances sainthood causes of 17 women
Jan 15, 2019 - 11:12 am .- Pope Francis approved Tuesday the next step in the canonization causes of 17 women from four countries, including the martyrdom of 14 religious sisters killed in Spain at the start of the Spanish Civil War.

Nineteen Algerian martyrs beatified
Dec 10, 2018 - 03:08 pm .- Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, were beatified Saturday during a Mass in Oran.

The Algerian martyrs shed their blood for Christ, pope says
Dec 7, 2018 - 10:02 am .- Ahead of the beatification Saturday of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, Pope Francis said martyrs have a special place in the Church.
Algerian martyrs are models for the Church, archbishop says
Nov 16, 2018 - 03:01 am .- Archbishop Paul Desfarges of Algiers has said that Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, are “models for our lives as disciples today and tomorrow.”

Francesco Spinelli to be canonized after healing of a newborn in DR Congo
Oct 9, 2018 - 05:01 pm .- Among those being canonized on Sunday are Fr. Franceso Spinelli, a diocesan priest through whose intercession a newborn was saved from death in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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

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

Pope Francis creates new path to beatification under ‘offering of life’
Jul 11, 2017 - 06:22 am .- On Tuesday Pope Francis declared a new category of Christian life suitable for consideration of beatification called “offering of life” – in which a person has died prematurely through an offering of their life for love of God and neighbor.

Twentieth century Polish nurse among causes advancing toward sainthood
Jul 7, 2017 - 06:14 am .- Pope Francis on Friday approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Hanna Chrzanowska, a Polish nurse and nursing instructor who died from cancer in 1973, paving the way for her beatification.

Sainthood causes advance, including layman who resisted fascism
Jun 17, 2017 - 09:22 am .- Pope Francis on Friday recognized the heroic virtue of six persons on the path to canonization, as well as the martyrdom of an Italian man who died from injuries of a beating he received while imprisoned in a concentration camp for resisting fascism.

Solanus Casey, Cardinal Van Thuan among those advanced toward sainthood
May 4, 2017 - 10:47 am .- Pope Francis on Thursday approved decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints advancing the causes for canonization of 12 individuals, including the American-born Capuchin Solanus Casey and the Vietnamese cardinal Francis Xavier Nguen Van Thuan.

Pope clears way for canonization of Fatima visionaries
Mar 23, 2017 - 06:44 am .- On Thursday Pope Francis approved the second and final miracle needed to canonize Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the shepherd children who witnessed the Fatima Marian apparitions.
Surgeon and father among sainthood causes moving forward
Feb 27, 2017 - 11:03 am .- Pope Francis recognized on Monday the heroic virtue of eight persons on the path to canonization, including an Italian surgeon and father of eight who suffered from several painful diseases throughout his life.

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

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

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

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

Sunday, November 23 2014 Six to Be Canonized on Feast of Christ the King.

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

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

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

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

October 01, 2015 Vatican City, Pope Authorizes following Decrees
(ZENIT.org) By Staff Reporter
Polish Layperson Recognized as Servant of God
Pope Authorizes Decrees
Pope Francis on Wednesday authorised the Congregation for Saints' Causes to promulgate the following decrees:

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

HEROIC VIRTUES
- Servant of God Giovanni Folci, Italian diocesan priest and founder of the Opera Divin Prigioniero (1890-1963);
- Servant of God Franciszek Blachnicki, Polish diocesan priest (1921-1987);
- Servant of God Jose Rivera Ramirez, Spanish diocesan priest (1925-1991);
- Servant of God Juan Manuel Martín del Campo, Mexican diocesan priest (1917-1996);
- Servant of God Antonio Filomeno Maria Losito, Italian professed priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (1838-1917);
- Servant of God Maria Benedetta Giuseppa Frey (nee Ersilia Penelope), Italian professed nun of the Cistercian Order (1836-1913);
- Servant of God Hanna Chrzanowska, Polish layperson, Oblate of the Ursulines of St. Benedict (1902-1973).

March 06 2016 MIRACLES authorised the Congregation to promulgate the following decrees:
Pope Francis received in a private audience Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, during which he authorised the Congregation to promulgate the following decrees:
MIRACLES

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

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

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

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

LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000) India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858
China Marian shrines May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
Links to Related Marian Websites Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles Roman Catholic Popes Purgatory Uniates, 42 2022