Mary Mother of GOD
Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
R.  Deo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
August is the month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary;
2023
22,013  Lives Saved Since 2007

  Vladimir_Theotokos.jpg


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

                   
 

                                                                           
       
40 Days for Life  11,000+ saved lives in 2015
We are the defenders of true freedom.
  May our witness unveil the deception of the "pro-choice" slogan.
40 days for Life Campaign saves lives Shawn Carney Campaign Director www.40daysforlife.com , 
Please help save the unborn they are the future for the world

 It is a great poverty that a child must die so that you may live as you wish -- Mother Teresa
 Saving babies, healing moms and dads, 'The Gospel of Life'
Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China here
The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”,
showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.
15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary

Our Lady of Czestochowa Queen of Poland Aug 26
At the time of the major Swedish invasions in Poland (1655) (...) when all seemed lost and the king and his army had been routed, the monks of Yasna Gora faced up to the challenge. They resolved not to surrender, and the powerful Swedish army never managed to dislodge the few Polish monks cooped up in an old monastery. The spiritual resistance that held sway was such that the Swedes were soon forced to retire. This unbelievable victory was ascribed to Our Lady, whose famous icon of the Black Virgin looked down upon the monastery of Yasna Gora. King John Casimir proclaimed the Mother of God to be Queen of the Kingdom of Poland.  Since that time, the sanctuary in Yasna Gora is where the whole of Polish history has been summed up: "You need to listen to the pulse of this place to feel how the heart of the nation beats in the heart of Mary" (John Paul II, June 4, 1979).
Mary's Divine Motherhood
Called in the Gospel "the Mother of Jesus," Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the Mother of my Lord" (Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55; et al.). In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh,
was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" (Theotokos).
Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, quoting the Council of Ephesus (431): DS 251.
How Our Lady Delivered Me From Marianism August 26 -
OUR LADY OF CZESTOCHOWA (Poland, 1382)
I had been a Catholic for about ten years--a very enthusiastic adult convert from an American Jewish background--but I had never really warmed up to Mary. I believed all the right things and tried to practice various "devotions" (rosary, brown scapular, etc.) but somehow it all seemed unreal. I envied cradle Catholics who had a loving relationship with Our Lady from childhood and really felt that they had a Mother in Heaven. For a while I fell under the influence of Catholics whose whole spiritual life revolved around the Blessed Virgin Mary. They put a lot of pressure on me to join their group and make a consecration to Mary according to the way of Saint Louis de Montfort. I felt this path to be very foreign to me and the whole thing made me unhappy, but I did ask Our Lord to show me if it was what He wanted. In the midst of my confusion someone brought a pilgrim image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to our Church and I went to see her. As the life-sized image was carried past me I felt a stream of love going from my heart to Our Lady, and without words or even ideas, something was communicated to me. Put into words, it might sound like this:
"You already have a devotion to me in your heart, even if you don't usually feel it.
You don't have to express it the way the de Montfort people do, or follow the spirituality that works for them.
Your relationship with me is just fine-nothing is the matter with it."
After that I relaxed, and little by little Our Lady found her proper place in my life, inwardly and outwardly, without my having to worry about it. By Marilyn Prever (contact phil.prever@myfairpoint.net)
Read: Roy Schoeman, Honey From the Rock, Sixteen Jews find the Sweetness of Christ, Ignatius Press, 2004
  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.
August 26 – Our Lady of Czestochowa (Poland)
The religious heart of Poland and symbol of its political freedom
Czestochowa is a city in southern Poland, known worldwide for the Pauline Fathers’ Monastery of Jasna Góra, home of a Marian shrine where the miraculous image of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the icon of the Black Madonna, is venerated.
Czestochowa is a pilgrimage center visited annually by 4 to 5 million pilgrims coming from 80 countries.
The icon, placed there by Władysław Opolczyk (Ladislaus of Opole) in 1382, is easy to recognize from the "scars" on the cheek of the Virgin, left by the looting of the shrine by Hussite heretics on April 14, 1430, Easter Day.
Jasna Góra is the religious heart of the country and the symbol of its political freedom.
In 1920, the Red Army threatened Warsaw. The Polish Episcopate then met in Jasna Góra on July 27, and renewed the consecration to Mary. Thousands of pilgrims flocked to the shrine to ask their Queen for the liberation of the country. On August 15th, Assumption Day, their prayers were answered—this is known as the "miracle on the Vistula."
In May 1936, 25,000 students consecrated themselves to Mary and vowed to build a new Poland.
Among them was a certain Karol Wojtyla (better known as Saint John Paul II).  Mary of Nazareth Team
 
138-161 Saints Simplicius, and sons Constantius and Victorian Among the Marcians
  217 St Zephyrinus called the principal defender of Christ's divinity; Pope And Martyr 199-217
        SS Irenaeus and Abundius At Rome
  252 Seven Young Men of Ephesus Martyrdom of the Maximus, Malchus, Martinianus, Dionysius, John, Serpion and Constantine bodies uncorrupted for about two hundred years.
         St. Adrian, son of Emperor Probus {272-286} At Nicomedia
   286 St. Secundus Theban Legion; Christian soldiers during reign of Diocletian All 6600 martyred for Jesus Christ
       St. Alexander Theban Legion; Bergamo Patron beheaded for constant confession the name our Lord Jesus Christ
305-311 Adrian and Natalia Martyrs married in their youth for one year prior to martyrdom; lived in Nicomedia; encouraged her husband saying: "You are blessed, my lord, because you have believed in Christ. You have obtained a great treasure. Do not regret anything earthly, neither beauty, nor youth (Adrian was then 28), nor riches. Everything worldly is dust and ashes. Only faith and good deeds are pleasing to God."
5th v. St. Rufinus Bishop of Capua
 660 St. Elias Benedictine bishop of Syracuse Italy. He sponsored monastic expansion in the region.
  764 St. Bregwin 12th Canterbury archbishop
9th v St. Felix of Pistoia A hermit of Pistoia
10th v. St. Pandwyna Scottish or Irish saint also called Pandonio; church dedicated to her in Cambridgeshire, England.   950 St. Victor Martyr; Passia composed in 15th century declares martyrdom came in Spain at the hands of Moors.
1078 Bd Herluin, Abbot; abandoned knightly service to become a monk, 5 years later founded abbey of Bec, which was to become one of the most famous and influential intellectual centres of the middle ages. Through Lanfranc (also often called Blessed), St Anselm and others it had an important effect on the ecclesiastical history of England.
1131, the Vladimir Theotokos icon sent from Constantinople to Rus; The Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was painted by the Evangelist Luke on a board from the table at which the Savior ate together with His All-Pure Mother and Righteous Joseph. The Mother of God, upon seeing this image, exclaimed, "Henceforth, all generations shall call Me blessed. The grace of both My Son and Me shall be with this icon."
1240 St Raymond Nonnatus the birthday of; Master-general of Mercedarian Order;
1504  Saint Adrian of Uglich was one of the first ten disciples of St Paisius of Uglich (June 6), for whom he was the closest cell-attendant, disciple and co-ascetic. Together with St Paisius, St Adrian was accounted woryour of a vision of the Most Holy Theotokos in 1472. St Paisius was in one of the cells together with St Cassian of Uglich (October 2), and Sts Gerasimus and Adrian.
1504 Bd Timothy Of Montecchio; worked many miracles, visited by our Blessed Lady and St Francis and our Saviour spoke to him audibly from the sacramental species

 1542 The Pskov Caves Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God, named the "Tenderness"  is famous particularly for the defense of Pskov and the Pskov Caves monastery from the army of Stephen Bathory in 1581. Its celebration is also on May 21, June 23 and October 7. The Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God is of the Eleousa (Umilenie) type.
1549 Saint Adrian of Andrusov ; owner of a rich estate; 9 versts from the monastery of St Alexander of Svir; encountered St Alexander of Svir during a stag hunt in 1493, and after this he went often to him for guidance, and supplied bread for the ascetics.
1572 Bd Thomas Percy, Martyr;  born in 1528. Earl of Northumberland from 1537, Thomas initially enjoyed an excellent relationship with Queen Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603). Thomas also served Queen Mary  (r. 1542-1587). Queen Elizabeth bestowed the Order of the Garter on him in 1563. He then became involved in the Rising of the North and fled to Scotland but was sold to Queen Elizabeth for two thousand pounds. For three years he languished in a prison, refusing fervently to abjure his faith in return for his freedom. Thomas was finally beheaded at York and was beatified in 1896.


1648 St. Joseph Calasanz  educating the poor; founded Clerks Regular of Religious Schools (Piarists or Scolopi)
1694 Bd John Wall, Martyr; took the Franciscan habit at St Bonaventure's friary at Douay in 1651, receiving the religious name of Joachim-of-St-Anne, and served there until 1626, when he returned to England.  After he had ministered to the Catholics of Worcestershire for over twenty-two years, his headquarters being at Harvington Hall, seized in Dec. 1678
1694 Bd Bernard Of Offida; humble Capuchin door keeper; "Now, my good St Felix, this is the time to help me", set himself to prayer.  And the dead child became alive and well. It is also said that our Lady appeared to him one day and told him that all his faults had been forgiven.
1838 St Elizabeth Bichier Des Ages, Virgin, Co-Foundress of The Daughters of The Cross or Sisters of St Andrew; Louis Veuillot, whatever objections can be brought against some of his theology and politics, at any rate knew a saint when he saw one, and he said of her, " She is one of the finest-tempered characters ever seen, gentle, resolute, strict, intelligent, industrious, but above all contrite and humble.  No difficulty daunts her courage, no lack of strength stops her superhuman labours, no interior distress troubles her outward serenity, no success puffs her up.  Whatever happens, she remains undisturbed.  Hardships, setbacks, successes, respect, insults-they are all the same to the supreme tranquillity that is rooted in an understanding that sees God in everything, and so must obey."
1897 St. Teresa of Jesus Jornet Ibars 1897 St. Teresa of Jesus Jornet Ibars Foundress Little Sisters of the Poor Beatified in 1958, she was canonized in 1974 by Pope VI.
1942 Werner Sylten Evangelische Kirche: 26. August

138-161 Apud Marsos sanctórum Simplícii, et ejus filiórum Constántii et Victoriáni, qui, sub Antoníno Imperatóre, várie primum excruciáti, tum demum, secúris ictu percússi, martyrii corónam, adépti sunt.
    saints Simplicius, and his sons Constantius and Victorian Among the Marcians, the saints Simplicius, and his sons Constantius and Victorian, who were first tortured in different manners, and lastly, struck with the axe, obtained the crown of martyrdom, in the time of Emperor Antoninus.
Nobody, not even Christian writers, blamed Antoninus. for anti-Christian movements.  But he could not control conduct of the provincial governors and the fury of the people against an illegal religion who blamed clamaties on Christians.
217 St Zephyrinus called the principal defender of Christ's divinity; Pope And Martyr 199-217
Sancti Zephyríni, Papæ et Mártyris; cujus dies natális tertiodécimo Kaléndas Januárii recensétur.
    At Rome, St. Zephyrinus, pope and martyr, whose birthday falls on the 20th of December.
 St Zephyrinus succeeded St Victor I in the pontificate about the year 199. 
    The Church at Rome was disturbed internally during his time of office by the Montanists, by two sectaries both called Theodotus, and by a Christological dispute between two parties, one of which was led by the learned priest Hippolytus (August 13).  Hippolytus opposed himself strongly to Zephyrinus and his deacon and adviser Callistus, the pope refusing to countenance his teaching on the person of Christ.  For this reason the statement that Zephyrinus was an uneducated man of weak character, a mere tool in the hands of Callistus, can hardly be accepted on the bare authority of Hippolytus in the Philoso-phoumena: the writer's prejudice is manifest.    Eusebius tells us that this pope exerted his zeal so strenuously against the blasphemies of the two Theodoti that their followers treated him in the most contumelious manner:   But it was his glory that they called him the principal defender of Christ's divinity.
   During the later years of the Emperor Septimius Severus the toleration of Christians ceased, though it is not known what was the effect in Rome itself of the edict which laid heavy penalties upon conversion, except that there were many confessors of the faith.  But St Zephyrinus is venerated as a martyr, which title he might deserve by what he suffered in the persecution, though he probably did not die by the hand of the executioner.
We know little of St Zephyrinus beyond what may be gathered from a passage or two in Eusebius and a rather perplexing notice in the Liber Pontificalis. Mgr Duchesne has striven without much success to elucidate the latter (vol. i, pp. 139-140).  For the rest see the Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. v; and DCB., vol. iv, pp. 121 5-1220.  On the pope's place of burial see Marucchi in the Nuovo bullettino di arch. crist., 1910, pp. 205-225.
Zephyrinus, Pope + Pope from 199-217. According to the Liber Pontificalis , he was a Roman by birth. His reign, as succcssor to St. Victor I (r. 189-199), was dominated by the troubles caused by several heretical groups and the severe persecution of the Church launched by Emperor Septimius Severus (r. 193-211) around 202. The antipope Hippolytus criticized his vacillation in dealing with the Monarchian heretics. According to tradition, Zephyrinus was martyred. His cult was suppressed in 1969 .
252 Seven Young Men of Ephesus Martyrdom of the Maximus, Malchus, Martinianus, Dionysius, John, Serpion and Constantine bodies uncorrupted for about two hundred years.
   On this day, of the year 252 A.D., the seven holy young men of the city of Ephesus: Maximus, Malchus, Martinianus, Dionysius, John, Serpion and Constantine, were martyred.  They were soldiers of Emperor Decius, who appointed them to guard the royal treasury. When the emperor established the worship of idols, certain men made accusation against them. They hid themselves in a cave, lest they become weakened and deny the Lord Christ. When the emperor knew that, he ordered the blocking of the cave's entrance, shutting them in. One of the soldiers was a believer in the Lord Christ. He engraved their life story on a tablet of brass and left it inside the cave. Thus the seven holy young men delivered up their pure souls.
   God wanted to honor them as His faithful servants, so He inspired the bishop of Ephesus about the place of the cave. The Bishop went and opened the entrance to the cave, and found their bodies uncorrupted. He knew from the brass tablet that they had been there for about two hundred years. That was during the reign of the Emperor Theodosius the Less. As they knew also from the coins, which they found with them that they were during the time of emperor Decius, because it had his picture on them.   May their prayers be with us and Glory be to our God forever. Amen .
Nicomedíæ pássio sancti Hadriáni, e Probo Cæsare progéniti, qui, Licínio persecutiónem in Christiános commótam éxprobrans, ab eódem jussus est occídi.  Ipsíus corpus Domítius, Byzántii Epíscopus, ejus pátruus, in ipsíus civitátis subúrbio cui nomen Argyrópolis sepelívit.
    St. Adrian, son of Emperor Probus {272-286} At Nicomedia, the martyrdom of .  For reproaching Licinius because of the persecution of Christians, he was put to death by his order.  His body was buried at Argyropolis by his uncle Domitius, bishop of Byzantium.
 286 St. Secundus Theban Legion a Christian legion of soldiers during the reign of Diocletian All 6600 were martyred for Jesus Christ
Apud Albintimélium, Ligúriæ civitátem, sancti Secúndi Mártyris, viri spectábilis et Ducis ex legióne Thebæórum.
    At Ventimiglia, a city of Liguria, St. Secundus, martyr, a distinguished man and officer in the Theban Legion.
 Martyred Roman soldier who, according to legend, was a member of the Theban Legion. The Theban Legion was a Christian legion of soldiers during the reign of Diocletian. All 6600 were martyred for Jesus Christ in the year 286 AD.
Romæ sanctórum Mártyrum Irenǽi et Abúndii, qui, in persecutióne Valeriáni, eo quod corpus beátæ Concórdiæ, in cloácam projéctum, leváverant, in eándem cloácam demérsi fuérunt; quorum córpora, a Justíno Presbytero inde extrácta, in crypta, juxta beátum Lauréntium, sepúlta sunt.
    Irenaeus and Abundius At Rome, during the persecution of Valerian, the holy martyrs, who were thrown into a sewer from which they had taken the body of blessed of Concordia.  Their bodies were drawn out by the priest Justin, and buried in a crypt near St. Lawrence.
St. Alexander Theban Legion Patron of Bergamo beheaded for the constant confession of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Bérgomi sancti Alexándri Mártyris, qui, et ipse unus ex eádem legióne, cum nomen Dómini Jesu Christi constantíssime faterétur, cápitis abscissióne martyrium complévit.
    At Bergamo in Lombardy, St. Alexander, martyr, who was one of the same legion, and endured martyrdom, being beheaded for the constant confession of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
subject of a legend. He is identified as part of the martyred Theban Legion who escaped but were then taken prisoner .
305-311 Adrian and Natalia Martyrs were married in their youth for one year prior to their martyrdom, and lived in Nicomedia; encouraged her husband saying: "You are blessed, my lord, because you have believed in Christ. You have obtained a great treasure. Do not regret anything earthly, neither beauty, nor youth (Adrian was then 28 years of age), nor riches. Everything worldly is dust and ashes. Only faith and good deeds are pleasing to God."
During time of the emperor Maximian (305-311). The emperor promised a reward to whomever would inform on Christians to bring them to trial. Then the denunciations began, and twenty-three Christians were captured in a cave near Nicomedia.

They were tortured, urged to worship idols, and then brought before the Praetor, in order to record their names and responses. Adrian, the head of the praetorium, watched as these people suffered with such courage for their faith. Seeing how firmly and fearlessly they confessed Christ, asked: "What rewards do you expect from your God for your suffering?"
 The martyrs replied: "Such rewards as we are not able to describe, nor can your mind comprehend." St Adrian told the scribes,"Write my name down also, for I am a Christian and I die gladly for Christ God."
The scribes reported this to the emperor, who summoned St Adrian and asked: "Really, have you gone mad, that you want to die? Come, cross out your name from the lists and offer sacrifice to the gods, asking their forgiveness."
St Adrian answered: "I have not lost my mind, but rather have I found it." Maximian then ordered Adrian to be thrown into prison. His wife, St Natalia, knowing that her husband was to suffer for Christ, rejoiced, since she herself was secretly a Christian.
She hastened to the prison and encouraged her husband saying: "You are blessed, my lord, because you have believed in Christ. You have obtained a great treasure. Do not regret anything earthly, neither beauty, nor youth (Adrian was then 28 years of age), nor riches. Everything worldly is dust and ashes. Only faith and good deeds are pleasing to God."
On the pledge of the other martyrs, they released St Adrian from prison to tell his wife about the day of his execution. At first St Natalia thought that he had renounced Christ and thus had been set free, and she did not want to let him into the house. The saint persuaded his wife that he had not fled from martyrdom, but rather had come to give her the news of the day of his execution.
They tortured St Adrian cruelly. The emperor advised the saint to have pity on himself and call on the gods, but the martyr answered: "Let your gods say what blessings they promise me, and then I shall worship them, but if they cannot do this, then why should I worship them?" St Natalia did not cease to encourage her husband. She asked him also to pray to God for her, that they would not force her into marriage with a pagan after his death.
The executioner ordered the hands and the legs of the saints to be broken on the anvil. St Natalia, fearing that her husband would hesitate on seeing the sufferings of the other martyrs, asked the executioner to begin with him, and permit her to put his hands and legs on the anvil herself.
They wanted to burn the bodies of the saints, but a storm arose and the fire went out. Many of the executioners even were struck by lightning. St Natalia took the hand of her husband and kept it at home. Soon an army commander asked the emperor's approval to wed St Natalia, who was both young and rich. But she hid herself away in Byzantium. St Adrian appeared to her in a dream and said that she would soon be at rest in the Lord. The martyr, worn out by her former sufferings, in fact soon fell asleep in the Lord.
5th v. St. Rufinus Bishop of Capua
Cápuæ sancti Rufíni, Epíscopi et Confessóris.    At Capua, St. Rufinus, bishop and confessor.
Italy His relics are enshrined in the cathedral of Capua.
660 St. Elias Benedictine bishop of Syracuse Italy. He sponsored monastic expansion in the region.
764 St. Bregwin 12th Canterbury archbishop
Also Breguivine, the twelfth archbishop of Canterbury, England. He served from 761 until his death. His letters to St. Lullus of Mainz are extant and Eadmer wrote his life.
9th v St. Felix of Pistoia A hermit of Pistoia
Pistórii, in Túscia, sancti Felícis, Presbyteri et Confessóris.    At Pistoia, St. Felix, priest and confessor.
Italy No details of his life are extant.
10th v. St. Pandwyna; Scottish or Irish saint also called Pandonio; church dedicated to her in Cambridgeshire, England.
950 St. Victor Martyr Passia composed in the fifteenth century declares his martyrdom to have come in Spain at the hands of the Moors.
In Hispánia sancti Victoris Mártyris, qui pro Christi fide, a Mauris occísus, martyrii coróna donátus est.
    In Spain, St. Victor, martyr, who merited the crown of martyrs by being slain by the Moors for the faith of Christ.
 According to tradition, he was martyred at Caesarea, Mauretania, in Africa during the persecutions of the first century. A Passia composed in the fifteenth century declares his martyrdom to have come in Spain at the hands of the Moors.
1078 Bd Herluin, Abbot; abandoned knightly service to become a monk, and some five years later founded abbey of Bec, to become one of the most famous and influential intellectual centres of the middle ages. Through Lanfranc (also often called Blessed), St Anselm and others it had an important effect on the ecclesiastical history of England.

Herluin is commonly given the title" Blessed" but he received no known cultus, and the Bollandists do not include him in their Acta Sanctorum.  This great monk is therefore here passed over with a bare mention.
  He was born at Brionne in Normandy in 994. About 1034 he abandoned knightly service to become a monk, and some five years later founded the abbey of Bec, which was to become one of the most famous and influential intellectual centres of the middle ages.  Through Lanfranc (also often called Blessed), St Anselm and others it had an important effect on the ecclesiastical history of England.  Herluin, the rough Norman soldier who desired only to serve God under the Rule of St Benedict yet fathered so great a foundation, died on August 26, 1078. His abbey was despoiled at the French Revolution, but it was repeopled by monks in 1948.
Two lives of Herluin have been printed by Mabillon. The earlier is by Gilbert Crispin, abbot of Westminster, a contemporary who had himself been a monk of Bec. Tooting-Bec in south London a manor of this abbey, as was Weedon Beck in Northamptonshire .
1131, the icon was sent from Constantinople to Rus The Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was painted by the Evangelist Luke on a board from the table at which the Savior ate together with His All-Pure Mother and Righteous Joseph. The Mother of God, upon seeing this image, exclaimed, "Henceforth, all generations shall call Me blessed. The grace of both My Son and Me shall be with this icon."

In the year 1131, the icon was sent from Constantinople to Rus to holy Prince Mstislav (April 15) and was installed in the Devichi monastery in Vyshgorod, the ancient appanage city of the holy Equal of the Apostles Princess Olga.

The son of George Dolgoruky, St Andrew Bogoliubsky, brought the icon to the city of Vladimir in 1155 and installed it in the renowned Dormition cathedral which he built. At this time the icon received its name of "the Vladimir Icon." The icon was first brought to Moscow in the year 1395. Thus, the blessing of the Mother of God established the spiritual bonds of Byzantium and Rus via Kiev, Vladimir and Moscow.

The festal celebration of the Vladimir Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos occurs several times during the year (21 May, 23 June and 26 August). The most solemn celebration occurs on August 26, the Feast established in honor of the Meeting of the Vladimir Icon upon its Transfer from Vladimir to Moscow.

In the year 1395, the fearsome conqueror Khan Tamerlane (Temir-Aksak) reached the Ryazan frontier, took the city of Elets and advancing towards Moscow he came near the banks of the River Don. Great Prince Basil Dimitrievich went with an army to Kolomna and halted at the banks of the River Oka. He prayed to the holy Hierarchs of Moscow and St Sergius for the deliverance of the Fatherland, and he wrote to the Metropolitan of Moscow St Cyprian (September 16), that the pending Dormition Fast should be devoted to zealous prayers for mercy and repentance.

Clergy were sent to Vladimir, where the famed wonderworking Vladimir Icon was. After Divine Liturgy and a Molieben on the feast of the Dormition, they clergy took the icon and brought it to Moscow. Along the way, on both sides of the road, countless people prayed kneeling: "O Mother of God, save the land of Russia!" At that same hour, when the people of Moscow were meeting the Vladimir Icon on Kuchkov Field, Tamerlane was sleeping in his tent. Suddenly, he saw in a dream a great mountain, at the summit of which were the holy hierarchs with golden staffs coming towards him. Above them, in a brilliant radiance, was a Majestic Woman. She commanded him to leave the domains of Russia.

Awakening in fright, Tamerlane asked the meaning of the vision. The experts answered that the Radiant Lady was the Mother of God, the great Protectress of Christians. Tamerlane then gave the order for his troops to retreat. In memory of this miraculous deliverance of the Russian Land from Tamerlane, they built the monastery of the Meeting on Kuchkov Field, where the Meeting of the Vladimir Icon took place. On August 26, the all-Russian celebration in honor of the Meeting of the Vladimir Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God was established.

Very important events in Russian Church history have occurred before the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God: the election and elevation of St Jonah, advocate of an Autocephalous Russian Church (1448), and of St Job, first Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (1589), and of His Holiness Patriarch St Tikhon (1917). The enthronement of His Holiness Pimen, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, occurred on a day of celebration in honor of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God on May 21 (O.S.), 1971.
Historical days of 21 May, 23 June & 26 August, connected with this holy icon, memorable days for Russian Orthodox Church.
1240 St Raymond Nonnatus the birthday of ; Master-general of Mercedarian Order;
Cardónæ, in Hispánia, tránsitus sancti Raymúndi Nonnáti, Cardinális et Confessóris, ex Ordine beátæ Maríæ de Mercéde redemptiónis captivórum, vitæ sanctitáte et miráculis clari.  Ipsíus tamen festum recólitur prídie Kaléndas Septémbris.
    At Cardona in Spain, the birthday of St. Raymund Nonnatus, cardinal and confessor, of the Order of our Lady of Ransom for the Redemption of Captives, renowned for holiness of life and for miracles, whose feast is observed on the 31st of August.
Also known as Raymund Nonnatus; Raimundo Nonato Memorial 31 August
Profile Spanish nobility. Well educated, his father planned a career for Raymond in the royal court in Aragon. When Raymond felt drawn to religious life, his father ordered him to manage one of the family farms. However, Raymond spent his time with the shepherds and workers, studying and praying until his father gave up the idea of making his son a wordly success.
Mercedarian priest, receiving the habit from Saint Peter Nolasco, the order's founder. Master-general of Mercedarian Order. Spent his entire estate ransoming Christians, then surrended as a hostage to free another. Sentenced to death by impalement, he was spared because of his large ransom value. Imprisoned and tortured, he still managed to convert some of his guards. To keep him from preaching the faith, his captors bored a hole through his lips with a hot iron, and attached padlock. Eventually ransomed, returning to Barcelona in 1239.

St Raymond Nonnatus Created cardinal by Pope Gregory IX, Raymond continued to live as a mendicant monk. He died while en route to Rome to answer a papal summons. Born 1204 at Portella, diocese of Urgel, Catalonia, Spain. Died 31 August 1240 at Cardona, Spain of a fever; buried at the chapel of Saint Nicholas near his family farm he was supposed to manage.  Canonized 5 November 1625 by Pope Urban VIII (cultus confirmed); 1657 by Pope Alexander VII (canonized)
Name Meaning not born (= non-natus) as he was delivered by ceasarian.
Patronage Baltoa, Dominican Republic; childbirth; children; expectant mothers; falsely accused people; fever; infants; midwives; newborn babies; obstetricians; pregnant women
Representation : Mercedarian surrounded by Moors and prisoners; Mercedarian surrounded by ransomed slaves; Mercedarian with a cardinal's red hat; Mercedarian with a padlock on his lips .
1504 Bd Timothy Of Montecchio; worked many miracles, visited by our Blessed Lady and St Francis and our Saviour spoke to him audibly from the sacramental species.
Very little seems to be recorded concerning the life of this holy Franciscan priest, although his cultus was formally confirmed by Pope Pius IX in 1870.  He was, we are told, of good family and came from the neighbourhood of Aquila in the Abruzzi.  He entered the Franciscan noviceship at an early age and was remarkable from the first for his austerity of life and for his scrupulous observance of the rule. What seems most of all to have impressed his contemporaries was the efficacy of the prayers which he said for those in need of help.  He worked many miracles, and it is alleged that he was visited by our Blessed Lady and St Francis and that our Saviour spoke to him audibly from the sacramental species. He died, aged 60, in the friary of St Angelo at Ocra, where his remains are still honoured.
See Mazzara, Leggendario Francescano (1680), vol. iii, p. 540 and Leon, Auréole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. iii, p. 88.
1542 The Pskov Caves Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God, named the "Tenderness"  is famous particularly for the defense of Pskov and the Pskov Caves monastery from the army of Stephen Bathory in 1581. Its celebration is also on May 21, June 23 and October 7.  The Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God is of the Eleousa (Umilenie) type.
1549 Saint Adrian of Andrusov (in the world the nobleman Andrew Zavalushin), was the owner of a rich estate (Andreevschina), 9 versts from the monastery of St Alexander of Svir (August 30). He accidentally encountered St Alexander of Svir during a stag hunt in 1493, and after this he went often to him for guidance, and supplied bread for the ascetics.

Forsaking his estate, he took monastic tonsure at the Valaamo monastery with the name Adrian. Several years later, with the blessing of St Alexander of Svir, St Adrian settled in a solitary place on the peninsula of Lake Ladoga. There he built a church in honor of St Nicholas the Wonderworker. Opposite the settlement of monks in the deep forest was an island, Sala (the Thicket), where there was a gang of robbers under the leadership of Ondrusa as their ataman. Encountering the monks, the ataman demanded that they get off his land. St Adrian, knowing that he did not have money to buy the place, promised the ataman to intercede for him before God. The robber laughed at the monk, but he entreated him so long and so humbly, that the ataman softened and said, "Live."

This ataman was soon taken captive by another gang, hidden not far from the stoney Cape of Storozhev. The hapless fellow knew that after suffering, torture death awaited him, and he bitterly repented of his former life. Suddenly, he saw St Adrian before him. He said, "You are freed through the mercy of the Lord, for Whose sake you were asked to show mercy to the wilderness brethren," and he vanished.

The ataman saw himself without fetters at the shore, and with no one around. Astonished, he rushed to the monastery of St Adrian and found all the ascetics chanting Psalms. It seemed that St Adrian had not left the monastery. The robber fell at the knees of the saint and begged to be accepted as one of the brethren. He finished his life in repentance at the monastery. The robber of another gang also repented. Through the prayers of St Adrian, he was tonsured with the name Cyprian. Afterwards, at the place of a tributary, he built a monastery and was glorified by miracles.

The monastery of St Adrian received an endowment from Tsar Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584). In August 1549, St Adrian was godfather for Anna, daughter of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. When the saint was returning from Moscow to the monastery, robbers killed him near the village of Obzha, hoping to find money. The brethren waited for a long time for their Superior, and two years later, he appeared one night in a vision to a few Elders and told them of his death. On another day, May 17, the brethren found his incorrupt body in a swamp and committed it to burial in the wall of his church in honor of St Nicholas.

The memory of St Adrian, having received the martyr's crown, has come to be celebrated twice: on the day of the finding and transfer of his relics (May 17), and on the day of his repose, which he shares with his namesake, the holy Martyr Adrian .
1504  Saint Adrian of Uglich was one of the first ten disciples of St Paisius of Uglich (June 6), for whom he was the closest cell-attendant, disciple and co-ascetic. Together with St Paisius, St Adrian was accounted woryour of a vision of the Most Holy Theotokos in 1472. St Paisius was in one of the cells together with St Cassian of Uglich (October 2), and Sts Gerasimus and Adrian.

They were singing an Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos. Suddenly, throughout all the monastery there shone an extraordinary light, and the monks heard a voice calling them to come out of the cell. The ascetics came out in fear and in confusion, and an angel showed them the Mother of God, sitting on an airy throne and holding the Divine Infant in Her arms. The ascetics fell frightened to the ground, but the angel raised them up and related to St Paisius the command of the Mother of God to build on this place a church in honor of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos. The vision ended, and the monks spent the whole night in vigil and praise.

In 1482, St Adrian participated in the building of the stone church in honor of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos at the place indicated by the angel. Afterwards, an icon of the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God was found. In 1489, St Adrian assisted St Paisius in building a monastery dedicated to St Nicholas, near the Grekhova stream, on the right bank of the Volga.

As an experienced and virtuous Elder, St Adrian was put there as its Superior and was made a hieromonk. He was at the funeral of St Paisius on June 6, 1504 and later, according to his last wishes, he was himself buried near the grave. The memory of St Adrian is celebrated on August 26 (because of his namesake, the holy Martyr Adrian), and also on Cheesefare Saturday .
1572 Bd Thomas Percy, Martyr;  born in 1528. Earl of Northumberland from 1537, Thomas initially enjoyed an excellent relationship with Queen Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603). Thomas also served Queen Mary (r. 1542-1587). Queen Elizabeth bestowed the Order of the Garter on him in 1563. He then became involved in the Rising of the North and fled to Scotland but was sold to Queen Elizabeth for two thousand pounds. For three years he languished in a prison, refusing fervently to abjure his faith in return for his freedom. Thomas was finally beheaded at York and was beatified in 1896.

The father of this martyr was Sir Thomas Percy, brother and heir-presumptive to the sixth earl of Northumberland, who, if not formally himself a martyr, died for the denial of the ecclesiastical supremacy of King Henry VIII in that he was one of the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace, and was hanged at Tyburn in 1537.  His elder son, Thomas, was then nine years old and with his brother Henry was removed from the care of his " treasonable " mother.  In 1549 the attainder under which they suffered as a result of their father's action was to a certain extent removed, they were "restored in blood", and eight years later Queen Mary permitted Sir Thomas Percy to succeed to the now vacant earldom of Northumberland. He served the queen well in military and civil affairs on the Scottish border, and in 1558 married Anne Somerset, daughter of the earl of Worcester. During the years following the accession of Elizabeth, while she was consolidating her position and settling the foundations of the Anglican Church, Thomas Percy became a suspect person he was "considered very Catholic", and this in spite of the fact that he used considerable prudence in opposing the queen and, partly on account of his duties in the northern marches, played only a minor part therein; indeed, the queen gave him the Order of the Garter in 1563, and certain words of the earl during his trial suggest that he was not satisfied with his own behaviour at this time. But he was soon to come to the forefront of affairs.
   The north of England was still fairly solidly Catholic:  a Protestant observer said of Yorkshire that, "There were scarcely ten gentlemen of note that favour the queen's proceedings in religion" and when Queen Mary of the Scots had to take refuge at Carlisle in 1568 she was soon regarded as the Catholic champion. The Earl of Northumberland espoused her cause, hoping by her liberation "to have some reformation in religion, or at the least some sufferance for men to use their conscience as they were disposed".  His support of her attracted attention and he was peremptorily ordered to leave Carlisle, a "gross disrespect" at which he was very indignant.  In 1569 the gentlemen of the north began to plan a rising in her favour as next heir to the throne and in order "to restore the Crown, the nobility, and the worship of God to their former estate."  Northumberland was doubtful about the project, and wished it to be clear that it was not a political one "we are seeking, I imagine, the glory not of men but of God".  He, therefore, with the earl of Westmorland, Charles Neville, sent a letter to Pope St Pius V asking for his advice and direction, but they were forced into action before his reply could be received.*  The pope's eventual answer was approving and encouraging, and referred to the example of St Thomas Becket. It was dated three days before his bull of deposition of Elizabeth, "Regnans in excelsis".
The movement was known, and only a few days after they had written to the pope the two earls were summoned to appear before Elizabeth a hasty meeting of the leaders was called at Brancepeth Castle, they decided (against Northumberland's will and judgement) to ignore the summons, on November 14 they marched into Durham at the head of their forces. They were welcomed by the townsmen and the cathedral was at once restored to Catholic worship.  However inopportune and regrettable the Rising of the North may have been, it at least shows that, after eleven years of forced apostasy, the people of northern England were Catholic at heart, for not only at Durham was the restoration of the religion received with enthusiasm. Mass was celebrated in the parish-churches of Bishop Auckland, Darlington, Ripon, Staindrop, Stokesby and Whitby, and a joyous revival was chronicled at many other places.
   Meanwhile the earls' forces, under the banner of the Five Wounds and with Bd Thomas Plumtree as chief chaplain, marched into Yorkshire as far as Wetherby, collecting recruits and encouraging the people, but then had to turn back north, where they captured Hartlepool and Barnard Castle.  But that was the limit of their success. At the end of a month Elizabeth's troops, under the Earl of Sussex, were in control, the earls disbanded their men at Durham, and with the other leaders fled across the border into Scotland.
   The Earl of Sussex took bloody vengeance. People of substance were let off with a good fine, but the common people were hanged in hundreds: every village between the Wear and the Tyne suffered. Westmorland escaped into Flanders the Countess of Northumberland, who had been one of the leading spirits of the rebellion, and entirely without her husband's scruples and fears, eventually came under the protection of Lord Home; and Northumberland himself was captured by the Scottish regent, the Earl of Moray, to whom he was betrayed.  He was not willing to hand him over to Elizabeth, but his successor, the Earl of Mar, sold him for £2000-not the first nor the last time in history that a refugee in Scotland was given up for gold. Before this haggling was concluded, the earl had been shut up for two and a half years in Lochleven castle.  Dr. Nicholas Sander, a leading Catholic divine of the day, records that he bore this imprisonment and his separation from his wife and four small children with exemplary patience; he observed all the fasts of the Church, spent much time in prayer and meditation (a book of prayers which he wrote out still exists), and resolutely refused to purchase his pardon (which was offered him) by apostasy.  His keeper at Lochkven, William Douglas, was also negotiating for the sale of his prisoner-to the countess his wife, who was scouring Scotland and the Netherlands to raise the ransom. Elizabeth closed first; the earl was handed over; eventually conveyed to York, lodged in the castle on August 21 1572.
   On the queen's instructions Northumberland had been examined on the way, at Berwick a last offer of release on condition of apostay was made to him; and when he refused he was told to prepare for death on the very next day.   He spent all the night, except for a brief space when sleep overcame him, in prayer, and the next afternoon was marched to The Pavement, where the scaffold was set up. He told the people that he died a Catholic, "as for this new Church of England, I do not acknowledge it";  and expressed sorrow that he had been the occasion of so many meeting their death in following him for the furtherance of religion, "yet I have no fear but that their souls have obtained the glory of Heaven"...Then his head was struck off, and every drop of his blood was gathered up with handkerchiefs, "for throughout his life he was beyond measure dear to the whole people".
   He was forty-four years old.  The Countess of Northumberland died in exile at Namur in 1596; two years later their youngest daughter, Mary Percy, whom her father probably never saw, founded at Brussels a monastery of Benedictine nuns, now at Haslemere in Surrey.  Bd Thomas Percy was equivalently beatified in 1896, and his feast is observed in the dioceses of Hexham, Leeds and Middlesbrough.
A full account of this martyr was contributed by G. E. Phillips to the second volume of Camm, LEM., pp. 111-186. His information is largely drawn, apart from the state papers at the Record Office, from De Fonbianque's Annals of the House of Percy (1887), vol. ii, pp. 3-123, and from a Surtees Society publication, Depositions and Ecclesiastical Proceedings from the Courts of Durham (1845). A description of the martyrdom of the earl, written by Nicholas Sander, is in Bridgewater's Concertatio.  See also M. M. Merrick, Thomas Percy, Seventh Earl (1949). 
1648 St. Joseph Calasanz educating the poor; founded Clerks Regular of Religious Schools (Piarists or Scolopi) see Aug 25 and 27th
From Aragon, where he was born in 1556, to Rome, where he died 92 years later, fortune alternately smiled and frowned on the work of Joseph Calasanz.
   A priest with university training in canon law and theology, respected for his wisdom and administrative expertise, he put aside his career because he was deeply concerned with the need for education of poor children. When he was unable to get other institutes to undertake this apostolate at Rome, he and several companions personally provided a free school for deprived children. So overwhelming was the response that there was a constant need for larger facilities to house their effort. Soon Pope Clement VIII gave support to the school, and this aid continued under Pope Paul V. Other schools were opened; other men were attracted to the work and in 1621 the community (for so the teachers lived) was recognized as a religious community, the Clerks Regular of Religious Schools (Piarists or Scolopi). Not long after, Joseph was appointed superior for life.
A combination of various prejudices and political ambition and maneuvering caused the institute much turmoil. Some did not favor educating the poor, for education would leave the poor dissatisfied with their lowly tasks for society! Others were shocked that some of the Piarists were sent for instruction to Galileo (a friend of Joseph) as superior, thus dividing the members into opposite camps.
   Repeatedly investigated by papal commissions, Joseph was demoted; when the struggle within the institute persisted, the Piarists were suppressed. Only after Joseph’s death were they formally recognized as a religious community.
Comment:  No one knew better than Joseph the need for the work he was doing; no one knew better than he how baseless were the charges brought against him. Yet if he were to work within the Church, he realized that he must submit to its authority, that he must accept a setback if he was unable to convince authorized investigators. While the prejudice, the scheming, and the ignorance of men often keep the truth from emerging for a long period of time, Joseph was convinced, even under suppression, that his institute would again be recognized and authorized. With this trust he joined exceptional patience and a genuine spirit of forgiveness.
Quote: Even in the days after his own demotion, Joseph protected his persecutors against his enraged partisans; and when the community was suppressed, he stated with Job, to whom he was often compared: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21b).
1694 Bd John Wall, Martyr; took the Franciscan habit at St Bonaventure's friary at Douay in 1651, receiving the religious name of Joachim-of-St-Anne, and served there until 1626, when he returned to England.  After he had ministered to the Catholics of Worcestershire for over twenty-two years, his headquarters being at Harvington Hall, he was seized in December 1678,
   John Wall (alias Francis Johnson, Webb, Dormer) belonged to a good Lancashire family and was born in that county (perhaps at Chingle Hall, near Preston) in 1620.  He was sent when young to Douay, entered the Roman College in 1641 and was ordained there in 1645.  After a few years on the mission he took the Franciscan habit at St Bonaventure's friary at Douay in 1651, receiving the religious name of Joachim-of-St-Anne, and served there until 1626, when he returned to England.  After he had ministered to the Catholics of Worcestershire for over twenty-two years, his headquarters being at Harvington Hall, he was seized in December 1678, at Rushock Court, near Bromsgrove, by a sheriff's officer who had come there to look for a defaulting debtor.  After five months in prison he was tried before Mr Justice Atkins as a priest unlawfully come into the realm; of the four witnesses brought against him, three had to be subpoenaed, and he defended himself with great prudencc. However, he was sentenced, whereupon he bowed to the judge and said, "Thanks be to God!  God save the king I  And I beseech God to bless your lordship and all this honourable bench."  To which the judge made answer,
   "You have spoken very well. I do not intend you shall die, at least not for the present, until I know the king's further pleasure."  "I was not, I thank God for it," wrote Bd John, "troubled with any disturbing thoughts either against the judge for his sentence, or the jury that gave in such a verdict, or against any of the witnesses...And I was, I thank God, so present with myself whilst the judge pronounced the sentence that, without any concern for anything in this world, I did actually at the same time offer myself and the world to God."
  In spite of the good will of Mr Justice Atkins,- the innocent and beloved Franciscan was not to be reprieved, although after being carefully examined in London for several times by Oates, Bedloe, Dugdale and Prance he was declared by Bedloe in public to be free from any complicity in the Oates "plot". He would not renounce his religion, which was what they really wanted, so after a month he was returned to Worcester for execution. The day before, he was visited in prison by a fellow-Franciscan, Father William Leveson (brother of the venerable martyr, Father Francis Leveson, O.S.F.), who was allowed to spend several hours there and so was able to hear his confession and give him viaticum. The same friar stood by the scaffold at Redhill the next day and gave him the final absolution when the martyr was hanged and quartered, "thirsting after nothing more than the shedding of his blood for the love of his God; which he performed with a courage and cheerfulness becoming a valiant soldier of Christ, to the great edification of all Catholics and admiration of all Protestants".
Bd John Wall was the only one of the English martyrs executed at Worcester; his feast is kept in the archdiocese of Birmingham.
See Challorier, MMP., pp. 550-555;  B. Camm, Forgotten Shrines (1910), pp. 253-280, and Bd John Wall (1932).
1694 Bd Bernard Of Offida; humble Capuchin door keeper; "Now, my good St Felix, this is the time to help me", set himself to prayer.  And the dead child became alive and well. It is also said that our Lady appeared to him one day and told him that all his faults had been forgiven.
   This Bernard was born at Appignano in the Marches in the year 1604 of humble parents, and when he was seven years old was set to tend sheep. But he heard the call of God to the religious life, and in 1626 was accepted as a lay-brother by the Capuchins.  When he had made his profession he was sent to Fermo and put in charge of the infirmary, and afterwards to other houses of his order, in all of which he laboured with fervour and zeal. Sometimes, some of his brethren thought, with too much zeal, for on one occasion he was reported to the minister provincial for imprudent lavishness in the distribution of alms, whereby his community suffered damage.Fon
   The provincial called him before a chapter of the house and administered a severe rebuke, which was a matter of great satisfaction to the Franciscan heart of Brother Bernard.  When he was sixty years old he was appointed quaestor, to beg alms in the streets and from door to door for the friary at Offida, and in this duty he gave more than he received; people came to him for advice and consolation and help, for his wisdom could not be hid.  He had an especial gift for composing quarrels and restoring peace to distracted families, and the most hardened sinners would listen to him and be converted.
  Bd Bernard's reputation among the people was such that they would come to him and quite simply and confidently ask for a miracle.  This sometimes caused difficulties for him.  It is said that once a woman came with a very sick baby to be cured, so sick that it died in Bernard's arms. The mother seized his habit and begged and implored him to restore it to life, or she would not let him go.  Bernard led her into the church, lay the body on the altar dedicated in honour of St Felix of Cantalice, and exclaiming, "Now, my good St Felix, this is the time to help me", set himself to prayer. And the child became alive and well. It is also said that our Lady appeared to him one day and told him that all his faults had been forgiven.
    Bd Bernard died when he was ninety years old, having spent the last years of his life as door-keeper to his convent, where the poor and unhappy never ceased to crowd to him, on August 22, 1694.   He was beatified in 1795.
See Léon, Auréole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. iii, pp. 121-123; and E. M. de Beaulieu, Deux émules de St Felix de Cantalice 1910
1838 St Elizabeth Bichier Des Ages, Virgin, Co-Foundress of The Daughters of The Cross or Sisters of St Andrew; Louis Veuillot, whatever objections can be brought against some of his theology and politics, at any rate knew a saint when he saw one, and he said of her, "She is one of the finest-tempered characters ever seen, gentle, resolute, strict, intelligent, industrious, but above all contrite and humble.  No difficulty daunts her courage, no lack of strength stops her superhuman labours, no interior distress troubles her outward serenity, no success puffs her up. Whatever happens, she remains undisturbed.  Hardships, setbacks, successes, respect, insults-they are all the same to the supreme tranquillity that is rooted in an understanding that sees God in everything, and so must obey."
Pódii, in diœcési Pictaviénsi, sanctæ Joánnæ-Elisabeth Bichier des Ages, Vírginis, Congregatiónis Filiárum a Cruce una cum sancto Andréa Hubérto Fournet Fundatrícis, jugi mortificatióne et vitæ innocéntia claræ, quam Pius Papa Duodécimus sanctárum Vírginum fastis accénsuit.
    In the diocese of Poitiers, St. Joan-Elizabeth Bichier des Ages, virgin, who with St. André Hubert Fournet co-founded the Congregation of the Daughters of the Cross, and who was renowned for her spirit of mortification and life of innocence.  Pope Pius XII added her name to the list of holy virgins.

   This holy woman was born at the Château des Ages, at Le Blanc, between Poitiers and Bourges, in the year 1773.  Her father was Antony Bichier, lord of the manor of Ages and a public official, and her mother Mary Augier de Moussac, whose father also held public office.  The child was christened Jean Elizabeth Mary Lucy, and was commonly called by her second name.   Little is known of her childhood, except that she was shy and impressionable, with a heart easily moved by the sight of a beggar or other unfortunate.  When she was ten she was sent for schooling to a convent at Poitiers.   Her maternal uncle, the Abbé de Moussac, was vicar general at Pottiera, and the superioress of the convent was a relative and Elizabeth seems to have been very happy there.   Her favourite game was building sandcastles, and when in after years she had to be much concerned with building she remembered this and remarked, "It looks as if this was meant to be my trade, seeing I began my apprenticeship to it so young".
   When Elizabeth was nineteen her father died, and a few weeks later, in February 1792, the National Assembly issued a decree against the property of those citizens, the émigrés, who had left France in face of the revolution.  Now her eldest brother was among these émigrés and, her mother being old and ill, Elizabeth took on herself the job of looking after his interests.  She asked the Abbé de Moussac to instruct her in the law of property and in the keeping of accounts, studies which did not come easy to her but which she was to find again useful later on, and she undertook the defence of her brother and the whole family in a long law case that was eventually decided in their favour.  The village shoemaker was overcome with admiration for Elizabeth's pertinacity, and declared delightedly to her, "Citizeness, all you have to do now is to marry a good republican!"  But she had no intention of marrying either a  good republican" or a "wicked aristocrat".  There is still in existence the little picture of our Lady of Help on the back of which she wrote, "I, Joan Elizabeth Mary Lucy Bichier, today dedicate and consecrate myself to Jesus and Mary for ever;  5 May, 1797".
   In the previous year she and her mother had left the Château des Ages and gone to live at La Guimetiére, on the outskirts of Béthines in Poitou. Here Elizabeth intensified her life of prayer and good works years later one of the servants said to some Daughters of the Cross, "You've got a great respect for your reverend mother.  But you'd have a twenty times greater respect if you had seen, as I have, what she did for God and His poor when she was young."  The local parish was in a bad way as a result of the revolution, for it had a' constitutional priest"; *The "constitutional clergy" were those who took the oath to maintain the civil constitution drawn up for the Church in France by the National Assembly in 1790.
The constitution and oath were condemned by Pope Pius VI.
  Every night Elizabeth used to collect the farmers and their wives at La Guimetière for prayers and hymns and spiritual reading.  And then she first heard of a priest in a parish twenty-five miles away who was grappling with a similar situation, and reopened his church in a barn.  It was the Abbé Fournet at Maillé, now known as St Andrew Fournet (May 13).
   Elizabeth made her way to Maillé, and the two at once took to one another.  She became a frequent visitor to the barn at Petits Marsillys, and Abbé Fournet devised for her a rule of life, at the same time discouraging her suggestion of joining the Trappistines:  "Your work is in the world", he said.  "There are ruins to be rebuilt and ignorance to be remedied."  And so she went on repairing the ravages of religious discord in Béthines, helped by her uncle and her new friend, visiting the sick and needy, and teaching the smaller children.
  During the summer months she was helped by two friends, Madeleine Moreau and Catherine Gaschard, and the services of her maid, Mary Anne Guillon, were also enlisted. Then, in autumn of 1804, her deeply loved mother died. The coarse peasant's mourning clothes which Elizabeth then put on, with the approval of Abbé Fournet, raised a curious storm-in-a-teacup. Her well-dressed and conventional relatives were outraged by it;  the grave vicar general, M. de Moussac, severely rebuked M. Fournet for allowing it: she must take them off.  Elizabeth refused, obstinately. The cousins went on chattering; M. de Moussac shrugged, and dropped his opposition, thinking there was probably more in the gesture than met the eye.
     St Andrew Fournet had had it in his mind for some time that that part of the country needed a small community of nuns to care for the sick and to teach the girls, especially in the rural districts, and that Miss Bichier should be in charge of it. Her reaction to the proposal was that she had never even been a novice, much less a mother superior; and as this was undeniable St Andrew sent her off to do a year's novitiate with the Carmelite nuns in Poitiers. But, perhaps because he thought she might never come out again, Abbé Fournet soon transferred her to the Society of Providence. Meanwhile he set about forming a community at La Guimetière, consisting of the Madeleine Moreau and Mary Anne Guillon named above and two other young women, and when she had been away hardly six months Elizabeth Bichier was called back to take charge in spite of her protests. As La Guimetière was so far from Maillé, in May 1806 they moved into the Château de Molante, which was quite close. Here they began to teach the children, to give shelter and care to the aged and sick, and to make reparation for the outrages of the revolution against Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
   At first neither St Andrew nor St Elizabeth had in mind anything more than a small local congregation. The foundation members made temporary vows early in 1807, and then looked around for a suitable established congregation to which they could affiliate themselves. But by the end of 1806 it was clear that they would have to stand on their own feet, and they moved into a bigger house, Rochefort, in Maillé itself, for they already numbered twenty-five sisters. Five years later their rule was approved by the diocesan authorities of Poitiers, with the name of Daughters of the Cross, *That is their official designation (there are other congregations with a similar name) but the foundress liked to refer to them as Sisters of St Andrew, after the apostle, patron saint of Andrew Fournet.

There was a name particularly meaningful for the "Good Sister", Elizabeth Bichier. The fatigues and trials incidental to her position and vocation were considerable; she did not spare herself in fasting and watching and other austerities; and St Andrew Foumet, as general superior, did not spare her either.
  In 1815 Sister Elizabeth had to go to Paris for an operation, the result of an accident with a vehicle, and the king, Louis XVIII, himself received her at the Tuileries.  When the Good Sister returned to Maillé she found her humility and obedience tested to the utmost.  The Abbé Fournet received her coldly and informed her she was removed from her office of superioress. It is said that he had been misled by malicious talk; but it is possible that he acted thus drastically because he feared Elizabeth's success in Paris might go to her head. However, she was restored within a week.
    During 1819-20 thirteen new convents were opened, but at this time a dispute arose about jurisdiction that threatened to disrupt the congregation entirely.  However, as things turned out, this unfortunate business did nothing to retard its continued progress. Civil authorities were in favour of small convents dotted about the countryside, their inmates working among the people, and between 1821 and 1825 the Daughters of the Cross opened some fifteen houses in a dozen dioceses. Then the bishop of Bayonne invited them to the Midi, and they spread to Beam, the Basque country, Gascony and Languedoc. Altogether by 1830 they had over sixty convents, and Sister Elizabeth's record of travelling challenged that of St Teresa herself.
    When the Basque house of Igon was opened, the spiritual director appointed was a young curate named Garicoits:  we now know him as St Michael Garicoits. Elizabeth Bichier greatly encouraged him in the foundation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Bétharram, so much so he declared, "It's all the Good Sister's doing. I had only to do what she told me." When the Good Father, St Andrew Fournet, died in 1834, "the biggest and saddest loss that could happen to us", wrote Sister Elizabeth, Father Garicoits became a second Father Fournet to the Daughters of the Cross, at any rate so far as the Basque convents were concerned and so he remained till his death.
   In autumn of 1836 St Elizabeth's health began seriously to fail. Over and above her state of extreme exhaustion she was afflicted with bad erysipelas of the face, and the hurt that had sent her to Paris over twenty years before broke out afresh. In the spring of 1838 her condition became alarming she suffered constant and acute pain, and was subject to fits of delirium. Then, after ten days of agony borne with heroic patience, she died peacefully in the evening of August 26.
   St Elizabeth Bichier des Ages was canonized in 1947. Numerous anecdotes are told of her goodness and devotion. One has special significance for a generation that has known professing Christians wrangle endlessly about whether hungry enemies should be fed, and so on. She once found a miserable-looking man lying ill in a barn, so she had him taken up and brought to the convent, where during the night he died. Next morning she had a visit from the superintendent of police, who told her that she was liable to arrest for sheltering a man who was wanted on a charge of arson. "As you like, sir ", the Good Sister replied.  "But allow me to point out that I have only done what you would do yourself in the same circumstances. I found this unfortunate man lying ill  I took him in; and I looked after him.  Now he is dead.  I'm quite ready to tell the magistrate just what happened." This was very characteristic of St Elizabeth's simple straightforwardness of action, the putting into effect of high ideals tenaciously held.
 Louis Veuillot, whatever objections can be brought against some of his theology and politics, at any rate knew a saint when he saw one, and he said of her, "She is one of the finest-tempered characters ever seen, "gentle, resolute, strict, intelligent, industrious, but above all contrite and humble. No difficulty daunts her courage, no lack of strength stops her superhuman labours, no interior distress troubles her outward serenity, no success puffs her up. Whatever happens, she remains undisturbed.  Hardships, setbacks, successes, respect, insults-they are all the same to the supreme tranquillity that is rooted in an understanding that sees God in everything, and so must obey."
The first biography of this saint was written by Father L. Rigaud (translated into Italian in 1934)  he also wrote a life of St Andrew Fournet 1885), who is accounted co-founder of the Daughters of the Cross. The most complete and fully documented biography is that of Father Jules Saubat, but the most handy one is Ste Jeanne-Elisabeth Bichier des Ages, by Father Etienne Domec (1947).  An essay on the saint by Father Domec appeared in La Vie Spirituelle, no. 320 (July 1947).
Born 1773 in the Chateau des Anges, near LeBlanc, France (her father was lord of the manor), she was sent at ten to a convent at Poitiers. On the death of her father in 1792 she met St. Andrew Fournet who was trying to reestablish his parish church at Maille and under his guidance she devoted herself to teaching and caring for the sick and needy. After her mother died in 1804 she joined the Carmelites at Poitiers; eight months later, the Society of Providence; in 1806 with four assistants who had been formed into a community by Abbe Fournet she moved into Chateau de Molante near Maille and the Daughters of the Cross also called the Sisters of St. Andrew came into being. The congregation received diocesan approval in 1816 and spread rapidly. In Igon in the Basque country she met Fr. Michael Garicoits spiritual adviser of the house there and encouraged him in founding the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Betharram. She was canonized in 1947.
1897 St. Teresa of Jesus Jornet Ibars Foundress Little Sisters of the Poor Beatified in 1958, she was canonized in 1974 by Pope VI.
Born in Catalonia, Spain, she overcame many difficulties in her youth and eventually became a teacher at Lerida. Desirous to enter the religious life, she failed to win entry into the convent at the advice of her spiritual director, decided to launch her own congregation. On January 27, 1872, at Barbastro, Spain, she began the Little Sisters of the Poor, called the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Age. Considerable zeal, she had founded by the time of death more than fifty houses for her congregation. Beatified in 1958, she was canonized in 1974 by Pope VI.
1942 Werner Sylten Evangelische Kirche: 26. August
Werner Sylten wurde am 9.8.1893 in Hergiswyl in der Schweiz geboren. Er war Pfarrer eines Mädchenerziehungsheims in Köstritz bei Gera. Wegen seiner jüdischen Abstammung wurde er aus dem Pfarrdienst entlassen. Nach längerer Arbeitslosigkeit erhielt er eine Stelle bei Pfarrer Heinrich Grüber, der in Berlin ein Büro zur Unterstützung nichtarischer Christen unterhielt. Sylten konnte hier vielen Verfolgten helfen. Zwei Monate nachdem Heinrich Grübler verhaftet und nach Dachau gebracht worden war, wurde auch Werner Sylten nach Dachau gebracht. Hier konnte er als Seelsorger und Vermittler wirken. Trotz schwerer Folter und quälender Wunden meldete er sich nicht krank. Es war allgemein bekannt, daß Krankmeldung letztlich den sicheren Tod bedeutete. Schließlich mußte er doch in das Krankenrevier gehen. Als er auf die Transportliste gesetzt wurde, konnte Grüber ihn durch Bestechung retten. Kurze Zeit später stand er aber erneut auf der Liste und wurde mit einem Invalidentransport nach Schloss Hartenstein bei Linz gebracht und hier am 28.8.1942 ermordet.

Der Präsident der ersten Kirchenversammlung der evangelischen Kirche nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, Gustav Heinemann, nannte 10 Pfarrer, die in KZs hingerichtet wurden: Treuherz Behrendt - Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Helmut Hesse - Ernst Kasenzer - Justus Perels - Paul Richter - Paul Schneider - Ludwig Steil - Werner Sylten - Friedrich Weißler. Diese Liste ist nicht fortgeführt worden und insbesondere das Schicksal der Christen jüdischer Abstammung ist bis heute nicht aufgearbeitet (vgl. das Buch von Ursula Büttner und Martin Greschat: Die verlassenen Kinder der Kirche - Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1998).
Die evangelische Kirche und der Holocaust (Dokumente) .


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 47

Give praise to the Lord, for He is good: give praise to His Mother, for her mercy endureth for ever.

Show us, O Lady, the innocence and the way of prudence: and point out the way of understanding to thy servants.

The fear of God enlightens the mind: and thy love rejoices it.

Blessed is the man whose speech is pleasing to thee: his bones shall be fattened with marrow and fatness.

Thy word shall uphold the feeble soul: and thy lips shall refresh the thirsty soul.

 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 Nizamuddin Aulia Sufi Saint Hazrath Khwaja Syed Mohammed Badshah Quadri Chisty Yamani Quadeer (RA) 1236-1325 welcomed people of all faiths & all walks of life.
801 Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya Sufi One of the most famous Islamic mystics
(b. 717). This 8th century saint was an early Sufi who had a profound influence on later Sufis, who in turn deeply influenced the European mystical love and troubadour traditions.  Rabi'a was a woman of Basra, a seaport in southern Iraq.  She was born around 717 and died in 801 (185-186).  Her biographer, the great medieval poet Attar, tells us that she was "on fire with love and longing" and that men accepted her "as a second spotless Mary" (186).  She was, he continues, “an unquestioned authority to her contemporaries" (218).
Rabi'a began her ascetic life in a small desert cell near Basra, where she lost herself in prayer and went straight to God for teaching.  As far as is known, she never studied under any master or spiritual director.  She was one of the first of the Sufis to teach that Love alone was the guide on the mystic path (222).  A later Sufi taught that there were two classes of "true believers": one class sought a master as an intermediary between them and God -- unless they could see the footsteps of the Prophet on the path before them, they would not accept the path as valid.  The second class “...did not look before them for the footprint of any of God's creatures, for they had removed all thought of what He had created from their hearts, and concerned themselves solely with God. (218)
Rabi'a was of this second kind.  She felt no reverence even for the House of God in Mecca:  "It is the Lord of the house Whom I need; what have I to do with the house?" (219) One lovely spring morning a friend asked her to come outside to see the works of God.  She replied, "Come you inside that you may behold their Maker.  Contemplation of the Maker has turned me aside from what He has made" (219).  During an illness, a friend asked this woman if she desired anything.
"...[H]ow can you ask me such a question as 'What do I desire?'  I swear by the glory of God that for twelve years I have desired fresh dates, and you know that in Basra dates are plentiful, and I have not yet tasted them.  I am a servant (of God), and what has a servant to do with desire?" (162)
When a male friend once suggested she should pray for relief from a debilitating illness, she said,
"O Sufyan, do you not know Who it is that wills this suffering for me?  Is it not God Who wills it?  When you know this, why do you bid me ask for what is contrary to His will?  It is not  well to oppose one's Beloved." (221)
She was an ascetic.  It was her custom to pray all night, sleep briefly just before dawn, and then rise again just as dawn "tinged the sky with gold" (187).  She lived in celibacy and poverty, having renounced the world.  A friend visited her in old age and found that all she owned were a reed mat, screen, a pottery jug, and a bed of felt which doubled as her prayer-rug (186), for where she prayed all night, she also slept briefly in the pre-dawn chill.  Once her friends offered to get her a servant; she replied,
"I should be ashamed to ask for the things of this world from Him to Whom the world belongs, and how should I ask for them from those to whom it does not belong?"  (186-7)
A wealthy merchant once wanted to give her a purse of gold.  She refused it, saying that God, who sustains even those who dishonor Him, would surely sustain her, "whose soul is overflowing with love" for Him.  And she added an ethical concern as well:
"...How should I take the wealth of someone of whom I do not know whether he acquired it lawfully or not?" (187)
She taught that repentance was a gift from God because no one could repent unless God had already accepted him and given him this gift of repentance.  She taught that sinners must fear the punishment they deserved for their sins, but she also offered such sinners far more hope of Paradise than most other ascetics did.  For herself, she held to a higher ideal, worshipping God neither from fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise, for she saw such self-interest as unworthy of God's servants; emotions like fear and hope were like veils -- i.e., hindrances to the vision of God Himself.  The story is told that once a number of Sufis saw her hurrying on her way with water in one hand and a burning torch in the other.  When they asked her to explain, she said:
"I am going to light a fire in Paradise and to pour water on to Hell, so that both veils may vanish altogether from before the pilgrims and their purpose may be sure..." (187-188)
She was once asked where she came from.  "From that other world," she said.  "And where are you going?" she was asked.  "To that other world," she replied (219).  She taught that the spirit originated with God in "that other world" and had to return to Him in the end.  Yet if the soul were sufficiently purified, even on earth, it could look upon God unveiled in all His glory and unite with him in love.  In this quest, logic and reason were powerless.  Instead, she speaks of the "eye" of her heart which alone could apprehend Him and His mysteries (220).
Above all, she was a lover, a bhakti, like one of Krishna’s Goptis in the Hindu tradition.  Her hours of prayer were not so much devoted to intercession as to communion with her Beloved.  Through this communion, she could discover His will for her.  Many of her prayers have come down to us:
       "I have made Thee the Companion of my heart,
        But my body is available for those who seek its company,
        And my body is friendly towards its guests,
        But the Beloved of my heart is the Guest of my soul."  [224]
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Mother Angelica saving souls is this beautiful womans journey  Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament
Colombia was among the countries Mother Angelica visited. 
In Bogotá, a Salesian priest - Father Juan Pablo Rodriguez - brought Mother and the nuns to the Sanctuary of the Divine Infant Jesus to attend Mass.  After Mass, Father Juan Pablo took them into a small Shrine which housed the miraculous statue of the Child Jesus. Mother Angelica stood praying at the side of the statue when suddenly the miraculous image came alive and turned towards her.  Then the Child Jesus spoke with the voice of a young boy:  “Build Me a Temple and I will help those who help you.” 

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

Brief History of our Beloved Holy Priest Here and his published books of Catholic History in North America
Reardon, J.M. Archbishop Ireland; Prelate, Patriot, Publicist, 1838-1918.
A Memoir (St. Paul; 1919); George Anthony Belcourt Pioneer Catholic Missionary of the Northwest 1803-1874 (1955);
The Catholic Church IN THE DIOCESE OF ST. PAUL from earliest origin to centennial achievement 1362-1950 (1952);
The Church of Saint Mary of Saint Paul 1875-1922;  (1932)
The Vikings in the American Heartland;
The Catholic Total Abstinence Society in Minnesota;
James Michael Reardon Born in Nova Scotia, 1872;  Priest, ordained by Bishop Ireland;
Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.
Affiliations and Indulgences  Litany of Loretto in Stained glass windows here.  Nave Sacristy and Residence Here
Sanctuary spaces between them filled with grilles of hand-forged wrought iron the life of our Blessed Lady After the crucifixon
Apostle statues Replicas of those in St John Lateran--Christendom's earliest Basilica.
Ordered by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, Popes' cathedral and official residence first millennium of Christian history.
The only replicas ever made:  in order from west to east {1932}.
Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel
 It Makes No Sense Not To Believe In GOD
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi. 
  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, 47 2023