Tuesday Saints of 14 decimo sexto kalendas martii  
Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
RDeo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
February is dedicated to the Holy Family since the 17th century and by Copts from early times.
2023
22,600 lives saved since 2007
http://www.haitian-childrens-fund.org/

For the Son of man ... will repay every man for what he has done.

Most_Holy_Theotokos_vilno.jpg

The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”,
showing us that a life of Christian perfection is not impossible.


Our Bartholomew Family Prayer List
Joyful Mystery on Monday Saturday   Glorius Mystery on Sunday Wednesday
   Sorrowful Mystery on Friday Tuesday   Luminous Mystery on Thursday Veterens of War

Acts of the Apostles

Nine First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
How do I start the Five First Saturdays?
Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary

February 14 – Our Lady of Roses (Pellevoisin, France, 1876) – 2nd apparition of Lourdes  
 
The Virgin Mary answers a letter 
 In 1875 in Pellevoisin (a small town near Bourges, France), a 32-year-old woman named Estelle Faguette, suffering from an incurable illness, wrote a simple letter to the Virgin Mary, with a childlike trust, in which she asked Mary to intercede with her divine Son for her recovery so she could financially support her elderly parents.
Mary responded to that letter with fifteen apparitions between February and December 1876.
During her visits she taught Estelle about holiness and delivered a message of mercy.

On February 19, 1876, Estelle was fully healed. In 1877, the Archbishop of Bourges authorized the public devotion to Our Lady of Pellevoisin, and Estelle's room was made into a chapel.
In April 1900, Pope Leo XIII formally recognized the scapular of the Sacred Heart as Estelle saw it worn by the Virgin Mary, and encouraged all the faithful who wished to wear it. Estelle’s recovery was officially declared miraculous in 1983 by Bishop Vignancour, then Archbishop of Bourges.
 www.pellevoisin.net


Constantine {St Cyril} and Methodius were dedicated to the ideal of expression in a people's native language.
Throughout their lives they would battle against those who saw value only in Greek or Latin.  Before they even left on their mission, tradition says, Constantine constructed a script for Slavonic -- a script that is known today as glagolithic. Glagolithic is considered by some as the precursor of cyrillic which named after him.
". . . We pray Thee, Lord, give to us, Thy servants, in all time of our life on earth, a mind forgetful of past ill-will, a pure conscience and sincere thoughts, and a heart to love our brethren; for the sake of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord and only Savior."     --From the Coptic Liturgy of Saint Cyril.

February 14 – Our Lady of Roses (Pellevoisin, France, 1876) – 2nd apparition of Lourdes 
 Heaven takes sides 
 In Fort Christi, India, in 1536, an army of Muslims and their leader Mahmoud were besieging a fortress built by the Portuguese. Here is what happened:  “The assailants were already near the citadel and preparing to storm it, when John de Castro, Viceroy of India, came with 30,000 men to relieve the fortress. Leading his troops, he made a strong attack and pushed back the enemy, killing 4,000, only losing about 60 men.
The defeated army declared after the battle that heaven had been on the side of the besieged against the besiegers, for they said that in the heat of the action, they had seen a woman of ravishing beauty who blinded them with rays of light standing above the chapel of the fortress in the clear and cloudless sky.”

 
February 14 - Our Lady of Pellevoisin (France) Your Letter Touched My Mother's Heart
In the year 1875, in Pellevoisin, France, Estelle Faguette, suffering from an incurable disease,
wrote a letter to Mary and deposited it near one of her statues:
"Oh my good Mother, here I am again kneeling at your feet. You can not refuse to hear me. You have not forgotten that I am your daughter and I love you. Allow me to recover, through your Divine Son, the health of my poor body for His glory. See the suffering of my parents; you know that they have only me to take care of them..."
Our Lady appeared to Estelle and said, "I am all Mercy... Your good deeds and fervent prayers have touched my heart. I was especially moved by the short letter that you wrote to me in September. What touched me the most was this sentence: 'See the suffering of my parents if I pass away. They are on the brink of begging in the street. Remember how much you suffered when Jesus, your Son, was on the Cross.'
I showed your letter to my Son. It's true, your parents need you."
Estelle had the simplicity of writing to the Blessed Virgin to ask for her intercession. In "response" to that letter, Our Lady appeared to her 15 times from February 14, 1876. On February 19th, after the fifth apparition, Estelle recovered.
See: http://www.pellevoisin.net

The origin of Saint Valentine's Day is obscure, as is the custom of sending valentines. It was supposed, according to the rural tradition (dating in England at least to the time of Chaucer), to be the time of the mating of birds, and among young people the practice grew of choosing on this day, by lot or otherwise, a friend or lover for the ensuing year.
Upon Maro's death, a pious contest ensued among the neighboring provinces about his burial. A spacious church was built over his tomb adjoining the monastery of Saint Maro in the diocese of Apamea between Apamea and Emesa (Homs).
The people in Lebanon and Syria called Maronites (a rite united to the Universal Church) are said to derive their name from this monastery, Bait-Marun, and look on Saint Maro as their patriarch and patron saint
112 St. Eleuchadius Bishop of Ravenna
  Item Romæ sanctórum Mártyrum Vitális, Felículæ et Zenónis.
Alexandríæ sanctórum Mártyrum Cyriónis, Presbyteri, Bassiáni Lectóris, Agathónis Exorcístæ, et Móysis; qui omnes, igne combústi, evolavérunt ad cælum.

Alexandríæ sanctórum Mártyrum Bassi, Antónii et Protólici, qui demérsi sunt in mare.
Item Alexandríæ sanctórum Dionysii et Ammónii decollatórum.
Neápoli, in Campánia, sancti Nostriáni Epíscopi, qui in cathólica fide contra hæréticam pravitátem tuénda éxstitit insígnis.

12 Greeks Who Built the Dormition Cathedral in the Kiev Caves

269 Valentine of Terni Valentine patron of beekeepers
      engaged couples travellers youth 

273 Proculus, Ephebus & Apollonius MM (RM) 
4th v Lienne (Leone) of Poitiers Confidant of Saint
     Hilary (Encyclopedia)

422 St. Abraham of Carrhae Hermit bishop missionary

Saint Cyril
  Item Alexandríæ sanctórum Dionysii et Ammónii decollatórum.       Also at Alexandria, the Saints Denis and Ammonius, who were beheaded.
433 ST MARO, ABBOT God rewarded his labours with most abundant graces and with the gift of healing infirmities
       both of mind and body

435 St. Maro trained many hermits and monks and founded three monasteries
450 St. Nostrianus Bishop of Naples who was a vocal opponent of Arianism and Pelagianism
473 St. Auxentius Hermit founder healed many sick and infirm in name of the Lord
5th v Saint Abraham Bishop of Charres s deep piety suffered much great sympathy for his flock
554 St. Theodosius Bishop of Vaison, France. St. Quinidius succeeded him in this see
660 Paulien First bishop of Frankish birth


7th v St. Conran bishop of the Orkney Islands
830 St. Antoninus of Sorrento St. Michael Archangel visit Benedictine abbot body daily glorified many miracles esp
      deliverance of possessed persons
Michael Archangel visited him on mountain Benedictine abbot
Sorrento  patron
869 Sts. Cyril and Methodius
1073 The Kiev Caves Icon of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos glorified by numerous miracle
        St. Dionysius Martyr of Egypt with Ammonius
1154 BD CONRAD OF BAVARIA his sanctity being revealed by the marvels which occurred at his tomb
1224 ST ADOLF, BISHOP OF OSNABRUCK
1255 Blessed Nicholas Palea companion of Saint Dominic miracle worker OP (AC)
1325 Blessed Angelus of Gualdo Camaldolese lay-brother lived 40 years a hermit walled up in his cell OSB Cam. (AC)
1442 Blessed Vincent of Siena Franciscan for 22 years Vitalis, Felicula & Zeno MM (RM)
1572 Relics of holy martyrs Michael and councilor Theodore transferred to Moscow to the temple dedicated to them
1613 John Baptist of the Conception, C. Trinitarian reform, called the Discalced Trinitarians

"All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him"
(Psalm 21:28)

February 14 - Pellevoisin 1st Apparition (France, 1876)   Our Loving Mother of Mercy (II)
The second part of the apparitions in Pellevoisin began on the 1st of July 1876. At 10:15 p.m., as Estelle kneeled saying her evening prayers, she suddenly saw the Blessed Virgin completely surrounded by light. She was dressed in white. She looked ahead, her hands crossed over her chest and smiled, saying, “Stay calm my child. Be patient, it will be difficult for you, but I am with you. Be brave, I shall return.” Then she disappeared.
The third part began on September 9th. For several days, Estelle had felt an urge to return to the bedroom where she had been cured. At long last on this day she was able to do so. She had just finished reciting her rosary when the Blessed Virgin came to her.
Mary looked around in silence before speaking, and then she said, “You deprived yourself of my visit on August 15th because you were not calm enough. You have a real French character - they want to know everything before learning, and understand everything before knowing…”  
   
Adapted from http://www.pellevoisin.net/

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 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
The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as benefit of others.

112 St. Eleuchadius Bishop of Ravenna
Ravénnæ sancti Eleuchádii, Epíscopi et Confessóris.
At Ravenna, St. Eleuchadius, bishop and confessor.
Italy, converted to the faith by St. Apollinaris. A Greek, Eleuchadius succeeded St. Adheritus as bishop about 100.
Eleuchadius of Ravenna B (RM) Born in Greece; died 112. Saint Eleuchadius was converted by Saint Apollinaris, first bishop of Ravenna. In his absence Eleuchadius governed the church there. He succeeded Saint Adheritus as the third bishop of Ravenna (Benedictines).

Eleuchadius of Ravenna B (RM) Born in Greece; died 112. Saint Eleuchadius was converted by Saint Apollinaris, first bishop of Ravenna. In his absence Eleuchadius governed the church there. He succeeded Saint Adheritus as the third bishop of Ravenna (Benedictines).

St. Dionysius Martyr of Egypt with Ammonius unknown
Item Alexandríæ sanctórum Dionysii et Ammónii decollatórum.
Also at Alexandria, the Saints Denis and Ammonius, who were beheaded.
Dionysius and Ammonius MM (RM) Date unknown. Dionysius and Ammonius were beheaded, probably at Alexandria, Egypt (Benedictines).

Neápoli, in Campánia, sancti Nostriáni Epíscopi, qui in cathólica fide contra hæréticam pravitátem tuénda éxstitit insígnis.
At Naples, in Campania, St. Nostrian, bishop, who was outstanding for his defence of the Catholic faith against heretical errors.

 Item Romæ sanctórum Mártyrum Vitális, Felículæ et Zenónis.
      Also at Rome, the holy martyrs Vitalis, Felicula and Zeno.
Vitalis, Felicula & Zeno MM (RM) Date unknown. These martyrs are listed in the Roman Martyrology as suffering at Rome but nothing else is known about them, except that the connection of Zeno with Vitalis and Felicula seems slight. Saint Zeno is the patron of an ancient basilica on the Appian Way mentioned by William of Malmesbury. Some hagiographers have made Zeno the brother of Saint Valentine, but that seems to be an error (Benedictines, Farmer).

269 Valentine of Terni Valentine patron of beekeepers engaged couples travellers youth BM (RM)
  Romæ, via Flamínia, natális sancti Valentíni, Presbyteri et Mártyris, qui, post multa sanitátum et doctrínæ insígnia, fústibus cæsus et decollátus est, sub Cláudio Cǽsare.
   
   At Rome, on the Flaminian Way, in the time of Emperor Claudius, the birthday of St. Valentine, priest and martyr, who after having cured and instructed many persons, was beaten with clubs and beheaded.

269 ST VALENTINE, MARTYR
THE commemoration of St Valentine on February 14 affords an interesting example of the peculiar difficulties which beset the student of early hagio­graphy and of the mixture of truth and fiction which is commonly to be found in such abstracts of traditional belief as the notices in the Roman Martyrology. Alban Butler, who deserves credit for using the best sources available in his day, based his account of St Valentine upon Tillemont, an authority who was far from uncritical. From the data thus supplied, Butler, nearly 200 years ago, drew up his summary in the following terms:

Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He was appre­hended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith ineffectual, commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards to be beheaded, which was executed on February 14, about the year 270. Pope Julius I is said to have built a church near Ponte Mole to his memory, which for a long time gave name to the gate now called Porta del Popolo, formerly Porta Valentini. The greatest part of his relics are now in the church of St Praxedes His name is celebrated as that of an illustrious martyr in the sacramentary of St Gregory, the Roman Missal of Thomasius, in the calendar of F. Fronto and that of Allatius, in Bede, Usuard, Ado, Notker and all other martyrologies on this day. To abolish the heathen’s lewd superstitious custom of boys drawing the names of girls, in honour of their goddess Februata Juno, on the 15th of this month, several zealous pastors substituted the names of saints in billets given on this day.
That the practice of sending valentines on February 14 is connected with any pagan observances of classical times in honour of Februata Juno seems exceedingly doubtful, and when Butler speaks of zealous pastors substituting the names of saints in billets given on this day “ he is speaking of a pious device introduced at what was relatively a very late date and of which we read, for example, in the life of St Francis de Sales. But our immediate concern here is with the martyr St Valentine, and the first objection that might be raised against the celebration of a feast in his honour is the fact that the Roman Martyrology on this day makes mention, not of one, but of two St Valentines, both martyrs put to death by decapitation and both on the Flaminian Way, though one died at Rome and the other is located some sixty miles from Rome at Interamna (Terni). Moreover, when we study the so-called acts “ of the Roman martyr, who is alone re­ferred to by Butler, we find that the greater part of his story has been taken over bodily from a similar narrative dealing with the martyrdom of SS. Marius and Martha.

Nevertheless there seems no conclusive reason for doubting the real existence of either of these two martyrs. The evidence of early local cultus in both cases is strong. The Roman Valentine seems to have been a priest. He probably did suffer on February 14 in the persecution of Claudius the Goth about the year 269. He was buried on the Flaminian Way, a basilica was erected as early as 350, a catacomb was later on formed on this spot, the location of his remains was known, and they were subsequently translated. On the other hand, the connection with Interamna of a St Valentine, martyr, who is also described as bishop of that town, is attested by the martyrology known as the “Hieronymianum”, and there is some other evidence of a similar nature. It might, of course, have happened that in the persecution of the Emperor Claudius the Goth, Valentine, Bishop of Interamna, was taken to Rome after his arrest and was there put to death.

Although the story of Valentine the bishop is just as fabulous as that of Valentine the priest, it does contain an isolated fragment of what looks like genuine tradition. The acts make mention of a high official “Furiosus Placidus” who was concerned in the martyrdom, and we happen to know that a certain Furius Placidus was consul in 273. It is not, of course, necessary to suppose that if there were two martyrs named Valentine they both suffered on February 14. The mere fact that the memory of a saint was definitely associated with a particular day led in a number of cases to the inclusion of other saints of the same name among the elogia belonging to that day. If the Roman church honoured the memory of their St Valentine in his basilica on February 14, that would be sufficient reason for the people of Terni, if they were in any doubt as to the actual day on which their martyr suffered, to keep his festival at the same time that the Romans honoured his namesake. But clearly also it is possible that a Valentine of Interamna having actually suffered at Rome, the Romans may have venerated him with a special cultus, though Terni also claimed him and invented a separate legend concerning him. This is the solution which Father Delehaye seemed to favour, though Professor 0. Marucchi holds fast to his belief in two separate St Valentines.

The custom, which at the present time is hardly more than a memory, for young men and maidens to choose each other for Valentines on this day, is probably based on the popular belief which we find recorded in literature as early as the time of Chaucer, that the birds began to pair on St Valentine’s Day. The sending of a missive of some kind was only a natural development of this choosing. One of the earliest references to the custom of choosing a Valentine is to be found in The Paston Letters (no. 783). In February, 1477 Elizabeth Drews, who had a marriage­able daughter and who wished to arrange a match for her with their relative John Paston, wrote to the prospective bridegroom:

And, Cousin, upon Friday is St Valentine’s Day and every bird chooseth him a mate, and if it like you to come on Thursday at night, and so purvey you that you may abide there till Monday, I trust to God that you shall speak to my husband, and I shall pray that we shall bring the matter to a conclusion. For, cousin,

It is but a simple oak
That is cut down at the first stroke.

During the same month, Margery, the marriageable daughter in question, addressed the following letter to John Paston as her Valentine

Unto my right well beloved Valentine John Paston, Squyer, be this bill delive
red.

Right reverend and worshipful and my right well beloved Valentine, I recommend me unto you, full heartily desiring to hear of your welfare, which I beseech Almighty God long for to preserve unto His pleasure and your heart’s desire.
Her next letter is not quite so formal, and in the course of it she says:
If ye could be content with that good [her small dowry] and my poor person, I would he the merriest maiden on ground; a good true and loving Valentine, that the matter may never more be spoken of, as I may be your true lover and bedewoman during my life.
Although on account of the custom connected with his feast the name of St Valentine was very familiar in England, no church is known to have been dedicated in his honour in this country.

The supposed “acts” of the two Valentines are in the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. ii. See also 0. Marucchi, Il cimitero e la basilica di S. Valentino (1890). Cf. Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xi (1892), p. 472 Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs (1933), Pp. 270, 315—316, his CMH., pp. 92—93, and in Bulletin d’ancienne littérature et d’archéologie chrétiennes, vol. i (1911) pp. 161 seq.; and especially Grisar, Geschichte Roms und der Papste, vol. i, pp. 655—659.

At Rome, on the Flaminian Way, in the time of Emperor Claudius, the birthday of St. Valentine, priest and martyr, who after having cured and instructed many persons, was beaten with clubs and beheaded.
Valentine of Terni (Interamna) and of Rome are probably the same martyr according to the Bollandists.
The origin of Saint Valentine's Day is obscure, as is the custom of sending valentines. It was supposed, according to the rural tradition (dating in England at least to the time of Chaucer), to be the time of the mating of birds, and among young people the practice grew of choosing on this day, by lot or otherwise, a friend or lover for the ensuing year. It was a light-hearted custom. A folded paper would bear the name of one's secret friend, or through the post would go a card of sentimental verse and fanciful emblems.Elia tells a story about an artist, who, living across from a young girl whom he did not know, but whose daily passing gave him pleasure, resolved to send her, unknown, a valentine, for she was all happiness and innocence and just the right age to enjoy receiving one. He painted a picture for her one fine, gilt paper, then posted it. From his window the next day he saw his precious gift delivered. He watched her open it with delight, and saw her wonder as she unfolded it, and as she danced and clapped her hands; for she had no lover, and took it as a fairy gift, a God-send, as they used to say when the benefactor was unknown. "It would do her no harm," says Elia, "it would do her good for ever after. It is good to love the unknown." So God sends His gifts to us from His own secret store. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father."
Others claim that the custom of St. Valentine's Day records the survival of elements of the pagan Roman Lupercalia festival, which took place on the Ides of February. To abolish the heathen's lewd superstitious custom of boys drawing the names of girls, in honor of their goddess February Juno, several zealous pastors substituted the names of saints in billets given on this day.
But this day really celebrates sadder memories--and more glorious-- for it marks the martyrdom of the faithful.The Roman Martyrology celebrates the bishop of Interamna (Terni) about 60 miles from Rome, who was scourged, imprisoned, then beheaded there by order of Placidius, prefect of Interamna.Many scholars believe that Valentine of Rome is identical with Valentine of Terni. It is suggested that the bishop of Interamna had been a Roman priest who became bishop, was sentenced in his diocese, and brought to Rome for his execution.After his death his relics were translated to Terni. The stories of the two bishop martyrs, however, are remarkably similar.There is no other record of Valentine. Though far removed from the saccharine customs and fancies that now surround his name, his memory shines in the darkest age of persecution as one who helped the followers of Jesus, as one who proclaimed the Good News. Out of the night would come a secret message or through the darkness an unknown hand, bringing hope and comfort. We can imagine what it would mean to some imprisoned or tormented spirit, and the thrill it would bring, that someone loved and cared. Valentine was that unknown benefactor, the secret friend of the martyrs, who gloried in the work of their rescue.It is interesting to note that, since 1835, the Carmelite church in Dublin has claimed his relics (Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Gill, White).In art, Saint Valentine is portrayed as a bishop with a crippled or epileptic child at his feet. At times (1) there may be a cock near him, (2) he may be shown refusing to adore an idol, or (3) his martyrdom by beheading may be depicted (Roeder).Valentine is the patron of beekeepers, engaged couples, travellers, and young people. He is invoked against epilepsy, fainting, plague, and for a happy marriage (Roeder).

273 Proculus, Ephebus & Apollonius MM (RM)
Protectors of the body of Saint Valentine (below) according to his untrustworthy acta, martyred by decapitation. The Bollandists have identified this Proculus with the bishop Proculus of Terni (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
 Alexandríæ sanctórum Mártyrum Cyriónis, Presbyteri, Bassiáni Lectóris, Agathónis Exorcístæ, et Móysis; qui omnes, igne combústi, evolavérunt ad cælum.
At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Cyrion, priest; Bassian, lector; Agatho, exorcist; and Moses, who perished in the flames and took their flight to heaven.
Cyrion, Bassian, Agatho, and Moses MM (RM)
Date unknown. These Alexandrian martyrs are listed together because all perished at the stake. Cyrion was a priest, Bassian a lector, Agatho an exorcist, and Moses a layman (Benedictines).

Alexandríæ sanctórum Mártyrum Bassi, Antónii et Protólici, qui demérsi sunt in mare.
At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Bassus, Anthony, and Protolicus, who were drowned in the sea.
Bassus, Antony, & Protolicus MM (RM). These martyrs were cast into the sea at Alexandria, Egypt. Some ancient accounts add nine fellow-sufferers to this group (Benedictines).

 In Bithynia sancti Auxéntii Abbátis.       In Bithynia, St. Auxentius, abbot. 
4th v century Lienne (Leone) of Poitiers Confidant of Saint Hilary (Encyclopedia)
422 St. Abraham of Carrhae Hermit bishop missionary
422 ST ABRAHAM, BISHOP OF CARRHAE
A NATIVE of Cyrrhus in Syria, St Abraham (Abraames) became a solitary. Fired with zeal for the spreading of the gospel, he went to a village on Mount Lebanon, the inhabitants of which were pagans. He is said to have appeared amongst them at first as a fruit-seller, but as soon as he began to preach Christianity they rose against him and ill-treated him. However, he gradually won his way by meekness and patience.
   After he had narrowly escaped death at their hands, he borrowed money with which to satisfy the collector of taxes who was about to cast the villagers into prison on account of their failure to pay these dues. He thus gained them all to Christ. After instructing them for three years, he left them in the care of a priest and returned to his desert.
     Some time afterwards he was ordained bishop of Carrhae in Mesopotamia, and succeeded in clearing that place of idolatry, dissensions and other evils. St Abraham combined the recollection and penance of a monk with the vigorous execution of his episcopal duties and died in 422 at Constantinople, whither he had been summoned by the Emperor Theodosius II, who esteemed him highly and treated him with the greatest honour. The emperor kept one of his garments of haircloth and wore it himself on certain days out of veneration for the saint.
Our main authority is the historian Theodoret, a contemporary, who speaks of St Abraham both in his Ecclesiastical History and in his Philotheus. ‘The passages are cited in the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. ii. Cf. also Tillemont and DCB., vol. i, p. 8. Carrhae is the Haran of the Bible, where Jacob served seven years for Rachel.

Born in Cyrrhus, Syria. He became a recluse in the desert near Mount Lebanon and tried to convert the local people. Reviled for his efforts, Abraham continued his apostolate, eventually winning over his neighbors to the faith. Unable to pay their taxes, the locals were saved by Abraham, who used his own funds to settle their debts. He was named the bishop of Carrhae, in Mesopotamia, where he again converted the local people. While visiting Emperor Theodosius II in Constantinople, now Istanbul, Turkey, Abraham died.
Abraham of Harran B (AC) also known as Abraames Died at Constantinople, c. 422. Saint Abraham was a hermit in Syria, who succeeded in converting a village on Mount Libanus in Lebanon by borrowing money to pay its taxes (and who said goodness doesn't pay!) and, thus, keeping its citizens out of prison. After instructing them for three years, he left them in the care of a holy priest and returned to his solitude. Eventually he became bishop of Harran (Charres or Carres) in Mesopotamia, which he helped to form in the Christian ways. As bishop, he combined the discipline, recollection, and penance of a monk with the labors of his vocation as a pastor. He influenced Theodosius the Younger and his court, in fact, he died at Constantinople while on a visit to the emperor, who kept and wore one of Abraham's garments (Benedictines, Husenbeth). Abraham of Harran B (AC) (also known as Abraames). Saint Abraham was a hermit in Syria, who succeeded in converting a village on Mount Libanus in Lebanon by borrowing money to pay its taxes (and who said goodness doesn't pay!) and, thus, keeping its citizens out of prison. After instructing them for three years, he left them in the care of a holy priest and returned to his solitude. Eventually he became bishop of Harran (Charres or Carres) in Mesopotamia, which he helped to form in the Christian ways. As bishop, he combined the discipline, recollection, and penance of a monk with the labors of his vocation as a pastor. He influenced Theodosius the Younger and his court, in fact, he died at Constantinople while on a visit to the emperor, who kept and wore one of Abraham's garments (Benedictines, Husenbeth).

433 ST MARO, ABBOT God rewarded his labours with most abundant graces and with the gift of healing infirmities both of mind and body

ST MARO chose a solitary abode not far from the city of Cyrrhus in Syria, and there, in a spirit of mortification, he lived mainly in the open air. He had indeed a little hut covered with goatskins to shelter him in case of need, but he very seldom made use of it. Finding the ruins of a heathen temple, he dedicated it to the true God, and made it his house of prayer. St John Chrysostom, who had a great regard for him, wrote to him from Cucusus, the place of his banishment, and, recommending himself to his prayers, begged to hear from him as often as possible.

St Maro had had for his master St Zebinus, whose assiduity in prayer was such that he is said to have devoted to it whole days and nights without experiencing any weariness. He generally prayed standing, though in extreme old age he had to support himself on a staff. He gave advice in the fewest possible words to those who came to consult him, so desirous was he to spend all his available time in converse with God.

St Maro imitated his master in his constancy in prayer, but he treated his visitors differently. Not only did he receive them with great kindness, but he encouraged them to stay with him—although few were willing to pass the whole night in prayer standing. God rewarded his labours with most abundant graces and with the gift of healing infirmities both of mind and body; it is consequently not surprising that his fame as a spiritual adviser spread far and wide. This drew great multitudes to consult him, and he trained many holy solitaries and founded monasteries; we know that at least three great convents afterwards bore his name. Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus, says that the great number of monks who peopled his diocese were the fruit of the saint’s instructions. St Maro was called to his reward after a short illness which, says Theodoret, revealed to all the great weakness to which his body was reduced. A contest for his remains ensued amongst the neighbouring provinces. The body was finally secured by the inhabitants of a relatively populous centre who built over his tomb a spacious church with an adjoining monastery near the source of the Orontes, not far from Apamea.

It is generally said that the people called Maronites, who now mostly live in the Lebanon and have a long and honourable history among the Catholics of Eastern rite, received their name from this monastery, Bait-Marun. They venerate St Maro as their patriarch, and name him in the canon of the Mass according to their rite. They also venerate a St John Maro, who is said to have been their bishop in the late seventh century, but his very existence is problematical.

Almost all that is known about St Maro is derived from the Philotheus of Theodoret and from St John Chrysostom. On the origins of the Maronites see S. Vailhe in Échos d’Orient for 1901, 1902 and 1906; and P. Bib in PTC., vol. x, cc. 1 seq
450 St. Nostrianus Bishop of Naples who was a vocal opponent of Arianism and Pelagianism
 Neápoli, in Campánia, sancti Nostriáni Epíscopi, qui in cathólica fide contra hæréticam pravitátem tuénda éxstitit insígnis.
       At Naples, in Campania, St. Nostrian, bishop, who was outstanding for his defence of the Catholic faith against heretical errors.

 In Bithynia sancti Auxéntii Abbátis.  
Nostrianus of Naples B (RM) . Bishop Nostrianus of Naples valiantly opposed Arianism and Pelagianism (Benedictines).

5th v Saint Abraham Bishop of Charres;  deep piety suffered much great sympathy for his flock
Lived during the mid-fourth and early fifth centuries, and was born in the city of Cyrrhus. In his youth he entered a monastery. Later he became a hermit in Lebanon, a place where many pagans lived.

St Abraham suffered much vexation from the pagans, who wanted to expel him from their area.  He once saw tax-collectors beating those who were unable to pay. Moved to pity, he paid the taxes for them, and those people later accepted Christ. 
The Christian inhabitants of this village built a church and they fervently besought St Abraham to accept the priesthood and become their pastor. The monk fulfilled their wish. Having encouraged his flock in the faith, he left them in place of himself another priest, and he again retired to a monastery.

For his deep piety he was made bishop of Charres; his pastors the saint constantly taught by his God-pleasing life. From the time of his accepting of the priesthood, he never used cooked food.

Emperor Theodosius the Younger wanted to meet the bishop and made him an invitation.

After he arrived in Constantinople, St Abraham soon died. His remains were solemnly transferred to the city of Charres and there given over to burial.
435 St. Maro  obtained from God the gift of healing the sick and casting out demons trained many hermits and monks and founded three monasteries city of Cyrrhus in Syria friend of St John Chrysostom
St. Maro chose a solitary abode not far from the city of Cyrrhus in Syria, and there in a spirit of mortification, he lived mainly in the open air. He had indeed a little hut covered with goatskins to shelter him in case of need, but he very seldom made use of it. Finding the ruins of the heathen temple, he dedicated it to the true God, and made it his house of prayer. St. John Chrysostom, who had a great regard for him, wrote to him from Cucusus, the place of his banishment, and, recommending himself to his prayers, begged to hear from him as often as possible.
Maro was a disciple of St. Zebinus. He drew great crowds by his spiritual wisdom. He trained many hermits and monks and founded three monasteries.
It is believed the Maronites take their name from Bait-Marun monastery near the source of the Orantes river, where a church was erected over his tomb.

Maro of Beit-Marun, Abbot (AC) (also known as Maron)  Saint Maro was a hermit on a mountain in Syria near the Orontes River, where he had a little hut covered with sheep skins to shelter him from the weather, but lived in a spirit of mortification in the open air most of the time. When he found a pagan temple nearby, he dedicated it to God and made it his oratory. In 405 Maro was ordained to the priesthood.
Saint John Chrysostom had a singular regard for Maro.
During one of his banishments, John wrote from Cucusus and commended himself to Maro's prayers and begged to hear from him at every opportunity (Chrysostom's epistle 36).

Under the direction of Saint Zebinus, Maro learned to pray without ceasing. Zebinus surpassed all the solitaries of his time in his assiduity to prayer to which he devoted whole days and nights without any weariness or fatigue.
His ardor for prayer seemed to increase, rather than slacken with time. Zebinus gave advice to those who sought it in as few words as possible in order to spend more time in heavenly contemplation.

Maro imitated Zebinus's constancy in prayer, yet he not only received all visitors with great tenderness but also encourage them to stay with him. Few, however, were willing to pass the night standing in prayer. God rewarded Maro's charity and constancy with abundant graces including the gift of healing. He prescribed admirable remedies against all vices, which drew crowds to him.
So great were the number of people drawn to God by Maro's words and example that he erected many monasteries in Syria and trained many holy monks, including Saint James of Cyr who received his first hair-cloth from Maro.
Upon Maro's death, a pious contest ensued among the neighboring provinces about his burial. A spacious church was built over his tomb adjoining the monastery of Saint Maro in the diocese of Apamea between Apamea and Emesa (Homs). The people in Lebanon and Syria called Maronites (a rite united to the Universal Church) are said to derive their name from this monastery, Bait-Marun, and look on Saint Maro as their patriarch and patron saint (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).

Saint Maron was born in the fourth century near the city of Cyrrhus in Syria. He spent almost all his time beneath the open sky in prayer, vigil, ascetical works and strict fasting. He obtained from God the gift of healing the sick and casting out demons. He counselled those who turned to him for advice to be temperate, to be concerned for their salvation, and to guard against avarice and anger.
St Maron, a friend of St John Chrysostom, died before 423 at an advanced age.
Some of St Maron's disciples were James the Hermit (November 26), Limnius (February 23), and Domnina (March 1). St Maron founded many monasteries around Cyrrhus, and converted a pagan temple near Antioch into a Christian church.

Maro of Beit-Marun, Abbot (AC) (also known as Maron). Saint Maro was a hermit on a mountain in Syria near the Orontes River, where he had a little hut covered with sheep skins to shelter him from the weather, but lived in a spirit of mortification in the open air most of the time. When he found a pagan temple nearby, he dedicated it to God and made it his oratory. In 405 Maro was ordained to the priesthood.
Saint John Chrysostom had a singular regard for Maro. During one of his banishments, John wrote from Cucusus and commended himself to Maro's prayers and begged to hear from him at every opportunity (Chrysostom's epistle 36).
Under the direction of Saint Zebinus, Maro learned to pray without ceasing. Zebinus surpassed all the solitaries of his time in his assiduity to prayer to which he devoted whole days and nights without any weariness or fatigue. His ardor for prayer seemed to increase, rather than slacken with time. Zebinus gave advice to those who sought it in as few words as possible in order to spend more time in heavenly contemplation.
Maro imitated Zebinus's constancy in prayer, yet he not only received all visitors with great tenderness but also encourage them to stay with him. Few, however, were willing to pass the night standing in prayer. God rewarded Maro's charity and constancy with abundant graces including the gift of healing. He prescribed admirable remedies against all vices, which drew crowds to him.
So great were the number of people drawn to God by Maro's words and example that he erected many monasteries in Syria and trained many holy monks, including Saint James of Cyr who received his first hair-cloth from Maro.
Upon Maro's death, a pious contest ensued among the neighboring provinces about his burial. A spacious church was built over his tomb adjoining the monastery of Saint Maro in the diocese of Apamea between Apamea and Emesa (Homs). The people in Lebanon and Syria called Maronites (a rite united to the Universal Church) are said to derive their name from this monastery, Bait-Marun, and look on Saint Maro as their patriarch and patron saint (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
Saint_Auxentius_1of_5_Companions
473 St. Auxentius Hermit founder  healed many of the sick and the infirm in the name of the Lord son of a Persian named Addas
Auxentius was a member of the entourage of Emperor Theodosius II in Constantinople. He retired from military service to become a hermit at Mount Oxia near Constantinople. He was accused of heresy by the Council of Chalcedon but cleared himself. He then went to Mount Skopa, near Chalcedon and attracted many disciples to his hermitage. Auxentius also formed a congregation of women on Mount Skopa.

473 ST AUXENTIUS
ALTHOUGH it seems that Auxentius was the son of a Persian named Addas, he spent the greater part of his long life as a hermit in Bithynia. In his youth he was one of the equestrian guards of Theodosius the Younger, but his military duties, which he discharged with entire fidelity, did not hinder him from making the service of God his main concern. All his spare time was spent in solitude and prayer, and he often visited the holy recluses who occupied hermitages in the neighbourhood in order that he might pass the night with them in penitential exercises and in singing the praises of God. Finally, the desire of greater perfection, or the fear of vainglory, induced him to adopt the eremitical life himself. He took up his abode on the desert mountain of Oxia, only about eight miles from Constantinople but on the other side of the Hellespont in Bithynia. There he seems to have been much consulted and to have exercised considerable influence on account of his reputation for holiness austerity and instructing the disciples who flocked to him, until his death, which probably took place on February 14Even while St Auxentius was yet living at court the historian Sozomen wrote with enthusiasm of his steadfast faith, the purity of his life and his intimacy with fervent ascetics. Amongst those who sought his direction in his later days were a number of women. These formed a com­munity and lived together at the foot of Mount Skopa, and they were known as the Trichinaraeae, the nuns dressed in haircloth.” It was they who, after a long contest, were successful in obtaining possession of his mortal remains which were enshrined in the church of their convent.
There are several recensions of the Life of St Auxentius (for which see BHG., and edn., nn. 199—203) though these all seem to he dependent on one primitive source. The whole question has been studied with very great care by J. Pargoire in the Revue de l’Orient: chrétien, vol. viii (1903), pp. 1, 240, 426, and 550. The information there collected supersedes all such earlier notices as may be found in the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. ii, or in the DCB.

When the fourth oecumenical council had met at Chalcedon to condemn the Eutychian heresy, Auxentius was summoned by the Emperor Marcian, not, as some of the saint’s biographers would seem to suggest, as a tribute to his high character and learning, but rather under an unjust suspicion of entertaining Eutychian sympathies. Auxentius in any case cleared himself of the imputation, but when he was again left free he did not return to Oxia, but chose another cell nearer to Chalcedon on the mountain of Skopa. There he remained, leading a life of great austerity and instructing the disciples who flocked to him, until his death, which probably took place on February 14, 473.  Even while St Auxentius was yet living at court the historian Sozomen wrote with enthusiasm of his steadfast faith, the purity of his life and his intimacy with fervent ascetics. Amongst those who sought his direction in his later days were a number of women. These formed a com­munity and lived together at the foot of Mount Skopa, and they were known as the Trichinaraeae, “the nuns dressed in haircloth.” It was they who, after a long contest, were successful in obtaining possession of his mortal remains which were enshrined in the church of their convent.
There are several recensions of the Life of St Auxentius (for which see BHD., 2nd edn., nn. 199—203) though these all seem to be dependent on one primitive source. The whole question has been studied with very great care by J. Pargoire in the Revue de l’Orient chrétien, vol. viii (1903), pp. 1, 240, 426, and 550. The information there collected supersedes all such earlier notices as may be found in the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. ii, or in the DCE.

Auxentius of Bithynia, Hermit (RM) Born in Syria; died on Mount Skopa on February 14, 473. Auxentius, son of the Persian Addas, was an equestrian guard of Emperor Theodosius the Younger. He served God in the position by serving his prince faithfully and providing witness to his fellows by spending his free time in solitude and prayer. During this portion of his life, Auxentius often visited the holy hermits to spend the nights with them in tears and singing the divine praises, prostrate on the ground. Finally, he left his position to become a hermit in the desolate area around Mount Oxia (Oxea), about eight miles from Constantinople. He was accused of heresy at the Council of Chalcedon but cleared himself of charges of Eutychianism before Emperor Marcion. Thereafter, he resumed his eremitical life on Mount Skopa (Siope) near Chalcedon, where he attracted numerous disciples by his austerity and holiness and assisted troubled souls who came to drink at the fountain of his wisdom. He also attracted a group of women who formed a community of nuns at the foot of the mountain. While he was still living, Sozomen highly commended his sanctity and had his monastery's church placed under the protection of Auxentius (Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
Saint Auxentius, by origin a Syrian, served at the court of the emperor Theodosius the Younger (418-450). He was known as a virtuous, learned and wise man, and he was, moreover, a friend of many of the pious men of his era.

Distressed by worldly vanity, St Auxentius was ordained to the holy priesthood, and then received monastic tonsure. After this he went to Bithynia and found a solitary place on Mount Oxia, not far from Chalcedon, and there he began the life of a hermit (This mountain was afterwards called Mt. Auxentius). The place of the saint's efforts was discovered by shepherds seeking their lost sheep. They told others about him, and people began to come to him for healing. St Auxentius healed many of the sick and the infirm in the name of the Lord.
In the year 451 St Auxentius was invited to the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon, where he denounced the Eutychian and Nestorian heresies. Familiar with Holy Scripture and learned in theology, St Auxentius easily bested those opponents who disputed with him. After the end of the Council, St Auxentius returned to his solitary cell on the mountain. With his spiritual sight he saw the repose of St Simeon the Stylite (459) from a great distance.

St Auxentius died about the year 470, leaving behind him disciples and many monasteries in the region of Bithynia. He was buried in the Monastery of St Hypatius at Rufiananas, Syria.

Saint Cyril Equal of the Apostles, Teacher of the Slavs (Constantine in the schema), and his older brother Methodius (April 6), were Slavs, born in Macedonia in the city of Thessalonica.
St Cyril received the finest of educations, and from the age of fourteen he was raised with the son of the emperor. Later, he was ordained as a priest. Upon his return to Constantinople, he worked as a librarian of the cathedral church, and as a professor of philosophy. St Cyril successfully held debates with iconoclast heretics and with Moslems.

Yearning for solitude, he went to Mount Olympos to his older brother Methodius, but his solitude lasted only a short while. Both brothers were sent by the emperor Michael on a missionary journey to preach Christianity to the Khazars in the year 857. Along the way they stopped at Cherson and discovered the relics of the Hieromartyr Clement of Rome (November 25).

Arriving at the territory of the Khazars, the holy brothers spoke with them about the Christian Faith. Persuaded by the preaching of St Cyril, the Khazar prince together with all his people accepted Christianity. The grateful prince wanted to reward the preachers with rich presents, but they refused this and instead asked the prince to free and send home with them all the Greek captives. St Cyril returned to Constantinople together with 200 such captives set free.

In the year 862 began the chief exploit of the holy brothers. At the request of Prince Rostislav, the emperor sent them to Moravia to preach Christianity in the Slavic language. Sts Cyril and Methodius by a revelation from God compiled a Slavonic alphabet and translated the Gospel, Epistles, the Psalter and many Service books into the Slavonic language. They introduced divine services in Slavonic.
The holy brothers were then summoned to Rome at the invitation of the Roman Pope. Pope Adrian received them with great honor, since they brought with them the relics of the Hieromartyr Clement. Sickly by nature and in poor health, St Cyril soon fell ill from his many labors, and after taking the schema, he died in the year 869 at the age of forty-two. Before his death, he expressed his wish for his brother to continue the Christian enlightenment of the Slavs. St Cyril was buried in the Roman church of St Clement, whose own relics also rest there, brought to Italy from Cherson by the Enlighteners of the Slavs.

Auxentius of Bithynia, Hermit (RM) Born in Syria; died on Mount Skopa on February 14, 473. Auxentius, son of the Persian Addas, was an equestrian guard of Emperor Theodosius the Younger. He served God in the position by serving his prince faithfully and providing witness to his fellows by spending his free time in solitude and prayer. During this portion of his life, Auxentius often visited the holy hermits to spend the nights with them in tears and singing the divine praises, prostrate on the ground. Finally, he left his position to become a hermit in the desolate area around Mount Oxia (Oxea), about eight miles from Constantinople. He was accused of heresy at the Council of Chalcedon but cleared himself of charges of Eutychianism before Emperor Marcion. Thereafter, he resumed his eremitical life on Mount Skopa (Siope) near Chalcedon, where he attracted numerous disciples by his austerity and holiness and assisted troubled souls who came to drink at the fountain of his wisdom. He also attracted a group of women who formed a community of nuns at the foot of the mountain.
While he was still living, Sozomen highly commended his sanctity and had his monastery's church placed under the protection of Auxentius(Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
554 St. Theodosius Bishop of Vaison, France. St. Quinidius succeeded him in this see.
7th v St. Conran bishop of the Orkney Islands
6th v. ST CONRAN, BISHOP
The isles of Orkney are twenty-six in number, besides the lesser, called Holmes, which are uninhabited and serve only for pasture. The faith was planted here by St Palladius and St Silvester, one of his fellow-labourers, who was appointed by him the first pastor of this church, and was honoured in it on February 5.
In these islands formerly stood a great number of monasteries, the chief of which was Kirkwall. This place was the bishop’s residence, and is at this day the only remarkable town in these islands. It is situated in the largest of them, which is thirty miles long, called anciently Pomonia, now Mainland. This church is much indebted to St Conran, who was bishop here in the seventh century, and whose name, for the austerity of his life, zeal and eminent sanctity, was no less famous in those parts, so long as the Catholic religion flourished there, than those of St Palladius and of St Kentigern. The cathedral of Orkney was dedicated under the invocation of St Magnus, King of Norway. On St Conran, see Bishop Lesley, Hist. Scot., 1, 4.

The above notice, which is here copied unaltered from Alban Butler, has a certain interest as illustrating the process by which pure fiction becomes accepted as fact in records of this kind. Where the name of Conran ultimately came from it is hard to tell; possibly it was borrowed from Hector Boece or from Arnold Wion, but Boece, Wion and Bishop John Leslie were quite uncritical and are valueless as authorities for the remote past. The Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum refer to the Conran legend on this day, but in the absence of any satisfactory material for discussion the name is only entered among the “Praetermissi et in alios dies rejecti”. What is certain is that in such standard works as Skene’s Celtic Scotland and Dietrichson’s Monumenta Orcadica not a shadow of evidence is to be found for the statement that the name of any St Conran was famous in the Orkneys. Diet­richson mentions eight early Celtic churches in the Orkneys, but no one of these dedications makes allusion to St Conran, though several were known as St Colms­kirker. It is conceivable that the Colum or Colm thus honoured was a missionary in the Orkneys, and not the famous Columba of Iona. But Colm is something quite different from Conran.

See the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. ii; Skene, op. cit. Dietrichson, op. cit. (Christiania, 1906); and J. Mooney, Eynhallow, the Holy Island of the Orkney: (1949); but cf. Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lxix (1951), pp. 168—169.

A traditional figure, believed to have served as bishop of the Orkney Islands, Scotland. No details of his life have survived
Conran B Died 7th century(?). The legend of an apostle and holy bishop of the Orkney Islands (especially of Kirkwall) by this name lacks any historical basis. There are no place names or church dedications connected with him there, although there are several to Saint Columba. While the venerable Bollandists consider him among the praetermissi . . . et rejecti, his legend still connects him with Saints Palladius and Sylvester (Benedictines, Farmer, Husenbeth).

660 Paulien First bishop of Frankish birth (Encyclopedia).
830 St. Antoninus of Sorrento St. Michael Archangel visited him Benedictine abbot patron of Sorrento  body is daily glorified by many miracles, especially by the deliverance of possessed persons
Apud Surréntum sancti Antoníni Abbátis, qui e monastério Cassinénsi, a Longobárdis devastáto, in solitúdinem ejúsdem urbis secéssit; ibíque, sanctitáte célebris, obdormívit in Dómino.  Ipsíus corpus multis quotídie miráculis, et præsértim in energúmenis liberándis effúlget. 
<antony_abbot_Sorrento.JPG
830 ST ANTONINUS OF SORRENTO, ABBOT
ST ANTONINUS
appears to have been born at Picenum, in the district of Ancona in southern Italy, and to have entered when still young a monastery under the rule of Monte Cassino—not Monte Cassino itself, as some writers have erroneously supposed. The ravages of Duke Sico of Benevento forced him to leave his convent, and he went to Castellamare near Sorrento, to the bishop St Catellus, who received him very cordially and with whom he soon formed the closest friendship. They lived and worked together, and when St Catellus felt drawn to lead for a while a solitary life on a lonely mountain-top he entrusted St Antoninus with the care of his diocese.

Antoninus, however, soon followed his friend, and the two had a vision of St Michael which led them, later on, to build an oratory there, dedicated to the archangel. When St Catellus was recalled on a charge of neglecting his diocese, and then summoned to Rome and imprisoned on a false accusation, St Antoninus continued to live on his peak, which commanded an extensive view over the sea and land and which, under the name of Monte Angelo, soon became a favourite place of pilgrimage. After a time, the inhabitants of Sorrento begged him to come and live in their midst, as their bishop was in prison and they felt that Antoninus would be a help and support to them. He therefore abandoned his solitary life and entered the monastery of St Agrippinus, of which he afterwards became abbot. When he lay dying, he was understood to say that he wished to be buried neither within nor without the city wall. Accordingly his monks decided to bury him in the city wall itself.

Tradition adds that when Sicard of Benevento (the son of Sico) besieged Sorrento, he tried with battering rams to break down that portion of the city wall which contained the saint’s tomb, but all in vain. During the night St Antoninus appeared to Sicard and, after upbraiding him, beat him severely with a stick. In the morning he was covered with weals and, as he was taking counsel with his advisers, word was brought him that his only daughter had become possessed with devils and was rending her garments like a madwoman. He discovered upon inquiry that this had come upon her at the very hour when he had begun his attack upon the wall. Convinced that he was withstanding the will of God, Sicard abandoned the siege and sought the intercession of St Antoninus, who obtained the girl’s restoration to health. Twice more—in 1354 and in 1358—Sorrento was invested, but by the Saracens, and each time the successful repulse of the enemy was attributed to the intercession of St Antoninus, who is therefore con­sidered the chief patron of Sorrento.

The anonymous author of the Latin life of St Antoninus lived shortly after his time, and his account is probably trustworthy in its main features. This document was first printed by A. Caracciolo in his Antonini coenobii Agrippinensis abbatis vita (1626). The same life with other material will be found in the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. ii, and also in Mabillon.
At Sorrento, St. Anthony, abbot, who, when the monastery of Monte Cassino was devastated by the Lombards, withdrew into a solitude of the neighbourhood, where, celebrated for his holiness, he went calmly to his repose in God.  His body is daily glorified by many miracles, especially by the deliverance of possessed persons.
While serving as a monk, Antoninus had to leave his monastery when local wars threatened. He became a hermit recognized by the local people as a man of holiness. The people of Sorrento invited him to become the abbot of St. Agrippinus Monastery. While on Monte Angelo as a hermit, he lived with St. Catellus, former bishop of Castellamare. St. Michael the Archangel visited him on the mountain. He repelled an attack by the Saracens on Sorrento by a miracle after his death.

Antoninus of Sorrento, OSB Abbot (RM). Antonius was a Benedictine monk in one of the daughter houses of Monte Cassino. When he was forced to leave his monastery because of the wars raging in the country around him, he became a hermit until he was invited by the people of Sorrento to live among them. He did so as an abbot of Saint Agrippinus.
He is now venerated as the patron of Sorrento (Benedictines). In art, Saint Antonius is a Benedictine holding a standard and the city wall (Roeder).
869 Sts. Cyril and Methodius
 Ibídem deposítio sancti Cyrílli, Epíscopi et Confessóris; qui, una cum sancto Methódio, simíliter Epíscopo et fratre suo, cujus dies natális octávo Idus Aprílis recensétur, multas Slávicas gentes earúmque Reges ad fidem Christi perdúxit.  Horum tamen Sanctórum festívitas Nonis Júlii celebrátur.
In the same place, St. Cyril, bishop, who together with his brother Methodius, also a bishop, whose birthday is the 6th of April, brought many people and the rulers of Moravia to the faith of Christ.  Their feast is celebrated on the 7th of July.


Cyril and Methodius must have often wondered, as we do today, how God could bring spiritual meaning out of worldly concerns. Every mission they went on, every struggle they fought was a result of political battles, not spiritual, and yet the political battles are forgotten and their work lives on in the Slavic peoples and their literature.

Tradition tells us that the brothers Methodius and Constantine (he did not take the name Cyril until just before his death) grew up in Thessalonica as sons of a prominent Christian family. Because many Slavic people settled in Thessalonica, it is assumed Constantine and Methodius were familiar with the Slavic language. Methodius, the older of the two brothers, became an important civil official who would have needed to know Slavonic. He grew tired of worldly affairs and retired to a monastery. Constantine became a scholar and a professor known as "the Philosopher" in Constantinople. In 860 Constantine and Methodius went as missionaries to what is today the Ukraine.

When the Byzantine emperor decided to honor a request for missionaries by the Moravian prince Rastislav, Methodius and Constantine were the natural choices; they knew the language, they were able administrators, and had already proven themselves successful missionaries.  But there was far more behind this request and the response than a desire for Christianity. Rastislav, like the rest of the Slav princes, was struggling for independence from German influence and invasion.
Christian missionaries from the East, to replace missionaries from Germany, would help Rastislav consolidate power in his own country, especially if they spoke the Slavonic language.

Constantine and Methodius were dedicated to the ideal of expression in a people's native language.
Throughout their lives they would battle against those who saw value only in Greek or Latin. Before they even left on their mission, tradition says, Constantine constructed a script for Slavonic -- a script that is known today as glagolithic. Glagolithic is considered by some as the precursor of cyrillic which named after him.
     Arriving in 863 in Moravia, Constantine began translating the liturgy into Slavonic. In the East, it was a normal procedure to translate liturgy into the vernacular. As we know, in the West the custom was to use Greek and later Latin, until Vatican II. The German hierarchy, which had power over Moravia, used this difference to combat the brothers' influence. The German priests didn't like losing their control and knew that language has a great deal to do with independence.
So when Constantine and Methodius went to Rome to have the Slav priesthood candidates ordained (neither was a bishop at the time), they had to face the criticism the Germans had leveled against them. But if the Germans had motives that differed from spiritual concerns, so did the pope. He was concerned about the Eastern church gaining too much influence in the Slavic provinces. Helping Constantine and Methodius would give the Roman Catholic church more power in the area. So after speaking the brothers, the pope approved the use of Slavonic in services and ordained their pupils.
Constantine never returned to Moravia. He died in Rome after assuming the monastic robes and the name Cyril on February 14, 869. Legend tells us that his older brother was so griefstricken, and perhaps upset by the political turmoil, that he intended to withdraw to a monastery in Constantinople. Cyril's dying wish, however, was that Methodius return to the missionary work they had begun.
He couldn't return to Moravia because of political problems there, but another Slavic prince, Kocel, asked for him, having admired the brothers' work in translating so much text into Slavonic. Methodius was allowed by the pope to continue saying Mass and administering baptism in the Slavonic tongue. Methodius was finally consecrated bishop, once again because of politics -- Kocel knew that having a Slavonic bishop would destroy the power of the Salzburg hierarchy over his land. Methodius became bishop of Sirmium, an ancient see near Belgrade and given power over Serbo-Croatian, Slovene, and Moravian territory.
The German bishops accused him of infringing on their power and imprisoned him in a monastery. This lasted until Germany suffered military defeats in Moravia. At that time the pope intervened and Methodius returned to his diocese in triumph at the same time the Germans were forced to recognize Moravian independence.
There was a loss involved -- to appease the Germans a little, the pope told Methodius he could no longer celebrate liturgy in the vernacular.

In 879 Methodius was summoned to Rome to answer German charges he had not obeyed this restriction. This worked against the Germans because it gave Methodius a chance to explain how important it was to celebrate the liturgy in the tongue people understood. Instead of condemning him, the pope gave him permission to use Slavonic in the Mass, in Scripture reading, and in the office. He also made him head of the hierarchy in Moravia.
The criticism never went away, but it never stopped Methodius either. It is said that he translated almost all the Bible and the works of the Fathers of the Church into Slavonic before he died on April 6 in 884.
Within twenty years after his death, it would seem like all the work of Cyril and Methodius was destroyed. Magyar invasions devastated Moravia. And without the brothers to explain their position, use of the vernacular in liturgy was banned. But politics could never prevail over God's will. The disciples of Cyril and Methodius who were driven out of Moravia didn't hide in a locked room. The invasion and the ban gave them a chance to go to other Slavic countries. The brothers' work of spreading Christ's word and translating it into Slavonic continued and laid the foundation for Christianity in the region.
What began as a request guided by political concerns produced two of the greatest Christian missionaries, revered by both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, and two of the fathers of Slavonic literary culture.
In Their Footsteps:
Cyril and Methodius believed in the importance of celebrating liturgy in our own language, a privilege we have only had in last twenty years. If this change took place before your time, ask older Catholics about the differences that have taken place in their worship because of this change. If you were worshipping during the change, reflect on how celebrating in the vernacular has helped your worship and your spiritual life.
Prayer:
Saints Cyril and Methodius, watch over all missionaries but especially those in Slavic countries. Help those that are in danger in the troubled areas. Watch over the people you dedicated your lives to. Amen
Cyril, Monk, and Methodius B (RM) Born in Thessalonika, Greece; Cyril in 827, Methodius in 815 (some say 826); died respectively in Rome on February 14, 869 and probably at Stare Mesto (Velehrad, Czechoslovakia) on April 6, 884; feast day formerly on July 7 (or March 9); Pope John Paul II in 1981 declared them joint patrons of Europe with Saint Benedict.
". . . We pray Thee, Lord, give to us, Thy servants, in all time of our life on earth, a mind forgetful of past ill-will, a pure conscience and sincere thoughts, and a heart to love our brethren; for the sake of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord and only Savior."
--From the Coptic Liturgy of Saint Cyril.
Cyril and Methodius were brothers, born into a senatorial family, who both rose to high positions in the world--Methodius became governor of a colony in the Slav province of Opsikion; Cyril, a leading philosopher at the University of Constantinople. Cyril, the younger of the two, was baptized Constantine and sent at an early age to study at the imperial university at Constantinople under Leo the Grammarian and Photius, was ordained deacon, and in time took over Photius's position at the university. Cyril also served as librarian at the church of Santa Sophia, where he earned the reputation and surname 'the Philosopher.' Methodius was also ordained. Both renounced the life of this world and went to live in a monastery on the Bosphorus.
In 861, Emperor Michael III sent Cyril deep into the Dnieper-Volga regions of Russia to convert the Khazars, who were Jews. His brother accompanied him. Both brothers were brilliant linguists and soon familiarized themselves with the Khazar language. They came back to their monastery after a successful mission, and Methodius became abbot of an important monastery in Greece.
Almost immediately (863) they were sent by the then Patriarch Photius of Constantinople to convert the Moravians at the request of Prince Rostislav. German missionaries had been unsuccessful in their attempts to convert the Moravians; Cyril and Methodius met with success because of their knowledge of the Slavonic tongue.
They invented an alphabet called glagolitic, which marked the beginning of Slavonic literature (the Cyrillic alphabet traditionally ascribed to Cyril was probably the work of his followers in Bulgaria, although both could have been inventions of Saint Cyril).
Cyril, with the help of his brother, translated the liturgical books into Slavonic.
Meanwhile, they incurred the enmity of the German clergy because of their free use of Slavonic in Church services and because they were from Constantinople, which was suspect to many in the West because of the heresy rife in the East. Further, their missionary efforts were hampered by the refusal of the German bishop of Passau to ordain their candidates for the priesthood.
In Rome the pope had heard of their good work. Pope Nicholas I summoned them to meet him, but when they reached Rome he had died. The travelled at an unfortunate time; Photius had incurred excommunication (because he had been illegally appointed) and their liturgical use of Slavonic was strongly criticized. Nicholas's successor, Adrian II, received them warmly. They presented him with the alleged relics of Pope Saint Clement, which Cyril was said to have miraculously recovered from the sea in Crimea on his was back from the Khazars.
Adrian was convinced of their orthodoxy, approved their use of Slavonic in the liturgy, and was so delighted and impressed by Cyril and Methodius that he determined that they should be consecrated bishops. It is believed that before this could happen, Constantine became a monk at SS. Boniface and Alexus in Rome and took the name Cyril, but probably died before his consecration as bishop. He was buried in the beautiful church of San Clemente on the Coelian in Rome, where there is an ancient fresco depicting Cyril's funeral. (His earthly remains were discovered in the lower part of the church in 1880 and now lie in a chapel dedicated to him and his brother, set off the right aisle of this church.)
Methodius was consecrated bishop and struggled on alone, often in dangerously hostile lands. He bore a letter from the Holy See commending him as a man of "exact understanding and orthodoxy." At the request of Prince Kosel of Moravia and Pannonia, Pope Adrian revived the ancient archdiocese of Sirmium (now Mitrovitsa), consisting of Moravia and Pannonia, independent of the German hierarchy, and made Methodius archbishop at Velehrad, Czechoslovakia (I don't know which two of the countries this is now part of).
Although he was supported by the pope, many German bishops resented his work among the Moravians (and probably the loss of territory). King Ludwig (Louis the German), urged on by the bishops, deposed Methodius at a synod at Ratisbon (Regensburg) and actually imprisoned him for two years in 870. Pope John VIII secured his release and returned him to his see, but thought it politic to forbid his use of Slavonic in the liturgy, although Methodius was authorized to use it in preaching. At the same time John reminded the German bishops that Pannonia and the disposition of sees throughout Illyricum belonged to the Holy See.
During the following years, Methodius continued his work of evangelization in Moravia, but he made an enemy of Rostislav's nephew, Svatopluk, who had driven his uncle out. Methodius rebuked Svatopluk for his wicked ways. Accordingly, in 878, the archbishop was reported to the Holy See for continuing to hold Mass in Slavonic and for heresy, in that he omitted the words "and the Son (filioque)" from the creed, which at that time had not been introduced everywhere in the West, not even in Rome. Methodius was summoned again to Rome in 879. John was convinced that he was not heterodox, and impressed by Methodius's arguments, again permitted the use of Slavonic in the Mass and public prayers.
  Saints Cyril & Methodius from Saint Charles Borromeo Church
 Finally, Methodius returned to Constantinople to complete a translation of the Bible that he and Cyril had begun together. Methodius's struggle with the Germans continued throughout the balance of his life. Methodius was subjected to serious vexations, especially from his suffragan Bishop Wiching of Nitra, who was so unscrupulous as to forge a papal letter in his own favor. After Methodius's death, Wiching drove out his principal followers, including Saint Clement Slovensky, who took refuge in Bulgaria.

 These two heroes of the faith are considered the "Apostles of the Slavs" or "of the Southern Slavs." Even today the liturgical language of the Russians, Serbians, Ukranians, and Bulgars is that designed by the two brothers. Their feast was extended to the universal Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1880. Methodius is regarded as a pioneer in the use of the vernacular in the liturgy and as a patron of ecumenism (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Farmer, Schamoni, Walsh, White).
In art, the two can be identified as an Oriental bishop and monk (anonymous Russian icon) holding up a church between them.
Sometimes Bulgarian converts surround them; at other times Methodius holds up a picture of the Last Judgement (Roeder). Cyril is sometimes portrayed in a long philosopher's coat (White).
They are especially venerated by the Bulgarians (Roeder). Their patronage includes Europe and the former Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia (White).
Cyril, Monk, and Methodius B (RM) Born in Thessalonika, Greece; Cyril in 827, Methodius in 815 (some say 826); died respectively in Rome on February 14, 869 and probably at Stare Mesto (Velehrad, Czechoslovakia) on April 6, 884; feast day formerly on July 7 (or March 9); Pope John Paul II in 1981 declared them joint patrons of Europe with Saint Benedict.
". . . We pray Thee, Lord, give to us, Thy servants, in all time of our life on earth, a mind forgetful of past ill-will, a pure conscience and sincere thoughts, and a heart to love our brethren; for the sake of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord and only Savior."    --From the Coptic Liturgy of Saint Cyril.
Cyril and Methodius were brothers, born into a senatorial family, who both rose to high positions in the world--Methodius became governor of a colony in the Slav province of Opsikion; Cyril, a leading philosopher at the University of Constantinople. Cyril, the younger of the two, was baptized Constantine and sent at an early age to study at the imperial university at Constantinople under Leo the Grammarian and Photius, was ordained deacon, and in time took over Photius's position at the university. Cyril also served as librarian at the church of Santa Sophia, where he earned the reputation and surname 'the Philosopher.' Methodius was also ordained. Both renounced the life of this world and went to live in a monastery on the Bosphorus.

In 861, Emperor Michael III sent Cyril deep into the Dnieper-Volga regions of Russia to convert the Khazars, who were Jews. His brother accompanied him. Both brothers were brilliant linguists and soon familiarized themselves with the Khazar language. They came back to their monastery after a successful mission, and Methodius became abbot of an important monastery in Greece.

Almost immediately (863) they were sent by the then Patriarch Photius of Constantinople to convert the Moravians at the request of Prince Rostislav. German missionaries had been unsuccessful in their attempts to convert the Moravians; Cyril and Methodius met with success because of their knowledge of the Slavonic tongue.

They invented an alphabet called glagolitic, which marked the beginning of Slavonic literature (the Cyrillic alphabet traditionally ascribed to Cyril was probably the work of his followers in Bulgaria, although both could have been inventions of Saint Cyril). Cyril, with the help of his brother, translated the liturgical books into Slavonic.

Meanwhile, they incurred the enmity of the German clergy because of their free use of Slavonic in Church services and because they were from Constantinople, which was suspect to many in the West because of the heresy rife in the East. Further, their missionary efforts were hampered by the refusal of the German bishop of Passau to ordain their candidates for the priesthood.

In Rome the pope had heard of their good work. Pope Nicholas I summoned them to meet him, but when they reached Rome he had died. The travelled at an unfortunate time; Photius had incurred excommunication (because he had been illegally appointed) and their liturgical use of Slavonic was strongly criticized. Nicholas's successor, Adrian II, received them warmly. They presented him with the alleged relics of Pope Saint Clement, which Cyril was said to have miraculously recovered from the sea in Crimea on his was back from the Khazars.

Adrian was convinced of their orthodoxy, approved their use of Slavonic in the liturgy, and was so delighted and impressed by Cyril and Methodius that he determined that they should be consecrated bishops. It is believed that before this could happen, Constantine became a monk at SS. Boniface and Alexus in Rome and took the name Cyril, but probably died before his consecration as bishop. He was buried in the beautiful church of San Clemente on the Coelian in Rome, where there is an ancient fresco depicting Cyril's funeral. (His earthly remains were discovered in the lower part of the church in 1880 and now lie in a chapel dedicated to him and his brother, set off the right aisle of this church.)

Methodius was consecrated bishop and struggled on alone, often in dangerously hostile lands. He bore a letter from the Holy See commending him as a man of "exact understanding and orthodoxy." At the request of Prince Kosel of Moravia and Pannonia, Pope Adrian revived the ancient archdiocese of Sirmium (now Mitrovitsa), consisting of Moravia and Pannonia, independent of the German hierarchy, and made Methodius archbishop at Velehrad, Czechoslovakia (I don't know which two of the countries this is now part of).

Although he was supported by the pope, many German bishops resented his work among the Moravians (and probably the loss of territory). King Ludwig (Louis the German), urged on by the bishops, deposed Methodius at a synod at Ratisbon (Regensburg) and actually imprisoned him for two years in 870. Pope John VIII secured his release and returned him to his see, but thought it politic to forbid his use of Slavonic in the liturgy, although Methodius was authorized to use it in preaching. At the same time John reminded the German bishops that Pannonia and the disposition of sees throughout Illyricum belonged to the Holy See.

During the following years, Methodius continued his work of evangelization in Moravia, but he made an enemy of Rostislav's nephew, Svatopluk, who had driven his uncle out. Methodius rebuked Svatopluk for his wicked ways. Accordingly, in 878, the archbishop was reported to the Holy See for continuing to hold Mass in Slavonic and for heresy, in that he omitted the words "and the Son (filioque)" from the creed, which at that time had not been introduced everywhere in the West, not even in Rome. Methodius was summoned again to Rome in 879. John was convinced that he was not heterodox, and impressed by Methodius's arguments, again permitted the use of Slavonic in the Mass and public prayers.

Finally, Methodius returned to Constantinople to complete a translation of the Bible that he and Cyril had begun together. Methodius's struggle with the Germans continued throughout the balance of his life. Methodius was subjected to serious vexations, especially from his suffragan Bishop Wiching of Nitra, who was so unscrupulous as to forge a papal letter in his own favor. After Methodius's death, Wiching drove out his principal followers, including Saint Clement Slovensky, who took refuge in Bulgaria.

These two heroes of the faith are considered the "Apostles of the Slavs" or "of the Southern Slavs." Even today the liturgical language of the Russians, Serbians, Ukranians, and Bulgars is that designed by the two brothers. Their feast was extended to the universal Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1880. Methodius is regarded as a pioneer in the use of the vernacular in the liturgy and as a patron of ecumenism (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Farmer, Schamoni, Walsh, White).

In art, the two can be identified as an Oriental bishop and monk (anonymous Russian icon) holding up a church between them.
Sometimes Bulgarian converts surround them; at other times Methodius holds up a picture of the Last Judgement (Roeder). Cyril is sometimes portrayed in a long philosopher's coat (White). They are especially venerated by the Bulgarians (Roeder). Their patronage includes Europe and the former Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia (White).
 
Sts. Cyril and Methodius
February 14, 2010 (d. 869; d. 884)
Because their father was an officer in a part of Greece inhabited by many Slavs, these two Greek brothers ultimately became missionaries, teachers and patrons of the Slavic peoples.

After a brilliant course of studies, Cyril (called Constantine until he became a monk shortly before his death) refused the governorship of a district such as his brother had accepted among the Slavic-speaking population. He withdrew to a monastery where his brother Methodius had become a monk after some years in a governmental post.

A decisive change in their lives occurred when the Duke of Moravia (present-day Czech Republic) asked the Eastern Emperor Michael for political independence from German rule and ecclesiastical autonomy (having their own clergy and liturgy). Cyril and Methodius undertook the missionary task.


Cyril’s first work was to invent an alphabet, still used in some Eastern liturgies. His followers probably formed the Cyrillic alphabet (for example, modern Russi an) from Greek capital letters. Together they translated the Gospels, the psalter, Paul’s letters and the liturgical books into Slavonic, and composed a Slavonic liturgy, highly irregular then.

That and their free use of the vernacular in preaching led to opposition from the German clergy. The bishop refused to consecrate Slavic bishops and priests, and Cyril was forced to appeal to Rome. On the visit to Rome, he and Methodius had the joy of seeing their new liturgy approved by Pope Adrian II. Cyril, long an invalid, died in Rome 50 days after taking the monastic habit.

Methodius continued mission work for 16 more years. He was papal legate for all the Slavic peoples, consecrated a bishop and then given an ancient see (now in the Czech Republic). When much of their former territory was removed from their jurisdiction, the Bavarian bishops retaliated with a violent storm of accusation against Methodius. As a result, Emperor Louis the German exiled Methodius for three years. Pope John VIII secured his release.

The Frankish clergy, still smarting, continued their accusations, and Methodius had to go to Rome to defend himself against charges of heresy and uphold his use of the Slavonic liturgy. He was again vindicated.

Legend has it that in a feverish period of activity, Methodius translated the whole Bible into Slavonic in eight months. He died on Tuesday of Holy Week, surrounded by his disciples, in his cathedral church.

Opposition continued after his death, and the work of the brothers in Moravia was brought to an end and their disciples scattered. But the expulsions had the beneficial effect of spreading the spiritual, liturgical and cultural work of the brothers to Bulgaria, Bohemia and southern Poland. Patrons of Moravia, and specially venerated by Catholic Czechs, Slovaks, Croatians, Orthodox Serbians and Bulgarians, Cyril and Methodius are eminently fitted to guard the long-desired unity of East and West. In 1980, Pope John Paul II named them additional co-patrons of Europe (with Benedict).

Comment: Holiness means reacting to human life with God’s love: human life as it is, crisscrossed with the political and the cultural, the beautiful and the ugly, the selfish and the saintly. For Cyril and Methodius much of their daily cross had to do with the language of the liturgy. They are not saints because they got the liturgy into Slavonic, but because they did so with the courage and humility of Christ.
Quote: “Even in the liturgy, the Church has no wish to impose a rigid uniformity in matters which do not involve the faith or the good of the whole community. Rather she respects and fosters the spiritual adornments and gifts of the various races and peoples.... Provided that the substantial unity of the Roman rite is maintained, the revision of liturgical books should allow for legitimate variations and adaptations to different groups, religions, and peoples, especially in mis sion lands” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 37, 38).
Vitalis, Felicula & Zeno MM (RM)
These martyrs are listed in the Roman Martyrology as suffering at Rome but nothing else is known about them, except that the connection of Zeno with Vitalis and Felicula seems slight. Saint Zeno is the patron of an ancient basilica on the Appian Way mentioned by William of Malmesbury. Some hagiographers have made Zeno the brother of Saint Valentine, but that seems to be an error (Benedictines, Farmer).

1154 BD CONRAD OF BAVARIA his sanctity being revealed by the marvels which occurred at his tomb

Ever since the death of Conrad honour has been paid him in the diocese of Molfetta in Apulia, where he ended his days, and also by his Cistercian brethren. This cultus was confirmed in 1832. Conrad was the son of Henry the Black, Duke of Bavaria, and seems to have been born about the year 1105. He came to Cologne to make his studies, but desiring a more perfect way of life he became a Cistercianat Clairvaux. A little later, with St Bernard’s permission, he journeyed to Palestine, wishing to settle as a hermit amid the scenes which the presence of our Saviour had sanctified. After a while, however, the disturbed conditions of the country and broken health induced him to return to Europe. He never reached his native land, but being put ashore somewhere in the neighbourhood of Ban or Molfetta—the exact locality and the length of his sojourn seem to be matters of uncertainty—he was unable to resume his journey. There, at any rate, worn out by his austerities and labours of charity, he is said to have died on March 15, 1154, his sanctity being revealed by the marvels which occurred at his tomb. We are told amongst other things that the lambs used to pay him reverence by coming to kneel beside the grave.

Reliable materials for his history are scanty, but there are lives of him by Giovene and Catacchino. See also Rader, Bavaria Sancta, vol. ii, p. 252 and J. E. Stadler’s Heilgen­Lexikon.
1073 The Kiev Caves Icon of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos glorified by numerous miracle (May 3)
One of the most ancient icons in the Russian Orthodox Church. The Mother of God entrusted it to four Byzantine architects, who in 1073 brought the icon to Sts Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves.
The architects arrived at the monks' cave and asked, "Where do you want to build the church?" The saints answered, "Go, the Lord will point out the place."

"How is it that you, who are about to die, have still not designated the place?" the architects wondered. "And they gave us much gold."
Then the monks summoned all the brethren and they began to question the Greeks, saying, "Tell us the truth. Who sent you, and how did you end up here?"

The architects answered, "One day, when each of us was asleep in his own home, handsome youths came to us at sunrise, and said, 'The Queen summons you to Blachernae.' We all arrived at the same time and, questioning one another we learned that each of us had heard this command of the Queen, and that the youths had come to each of us. Finally, we beheld the Queen of Heaven with a multitude of warriors. We bowed down to Her, and She said, 'I want to build Myself a Church in Rus, at Kiev, and so I ask you to do this. Take enough gold for three years.'"
"We bowed down and asked, 'Lady Queen! You are sending us to a foreign land. To whom are we sent?' She answered, 'I send you to the monks Anthony and Theodosius.'"
"We wondered, 'Why then, Lady, do You give us gold for three years? Tell us that which concerns us, what we shall eat and what we shall drink, and tell us also what You know about it.'"
"The Queen replied, 'Anthony will merely give the blessing, then depart from this world to eternal repose. The other one, Theodosius, will follow him after two years. Therefore, take enough gold. Moreover, no one can do what I shall do to honor you. I shall give you what eye has not seen, what ear has not heard, and what has not entered into the heart of man (1 Cor.2:9). I, Myself, shall come to look upon the church and I shall dwell within it.'"
"She also gave us relics of the holy martyrs Menignus, Polyeuctus, Leontius, Acacius, Arethas, James, and Theodore, saying, 'Place these within the foundation.' We took more than enough gold, and She said, 'Come out and see the resplendant church.' We went out and saw a church in the air. Coming inside again, we bowed down and said, 'Lady Queen, what will be the name of the church?'"
"She answered, 'I wish to call it by My own name.'
We did not dare to ask what Her name was, but She said again, 'It will be the church of the Mother of God.' After giving us this icon, She said, 'This will be placed within.' We bowed down to Her and went to our own homes, taking with us the icon we received from the hands of the Queen."
After hearing this account, everyone glorified God, and St Anthony said, "My children, we never left this place. Those handsome youths summoning you were holy angels, and the Queen in Blachernae was the Most Holy Theotokos. As for those who appeared to be us, and the gold they gave you, the Lord only knows how He deigned to do this with His servants. Blessed be your arrival! You are in good company: the venerable icon of the Lady." For three days St Anthony prayed that the Lord would show him the place for the church.
After the first night there was a dew throughout all the land, but it was dry on the holy spot. On the second morning throughout all the land it was dry, but on the holy spot it was wet with dew. On the third morning, they prayed and blessed the place, and measured the width and length of the church with a golden sash. (This sash had been brought long ago by the Varangian Shimon, who had a vision about the building of a church.) A bolt of lightning, falling from heaven by the prayer of St Anthony, indicated that this spot was pleasing to God. So the foundation of the church was laid.
The icon of the Mother of God was glorified by numerous miracles.
1090 Saint Isaac first person in northern lands to live as a fool for Christ relics rest in the Caves of St Anthony
His name in the world was Chern. Before becoming a monk, he was a rich merchant in the city of Toropets in the Pskov lands.  Having distributed all his substance to the poor, he went to Kiev and received the monastic tonsure from St Anthony (July 10).
He led a very strict life of reclusion, eating only a single prosphora and a little water at the end of the day. After seven years as a hermit, he was subjected to a fierce temptation by the devil. Having mistaken the Evil One for Christ, he worshipped him, after which he fell down terribly crippled.
Sts Anthony and Theodosius took care of him and nursed him. Only after three years did he begin to walk and to speak. He did not wish to attend church, but he was brought there by force.
Upon his return to health he took upon himself the exploit of holy foolishness, enduring beatings, nakedness and cold.  Before his death he went into seclusion, where again he was subjected to an onslaught of demons, from which he was delivered by the Sign of the Cross and by prayer.
After his healing he spent about twenty years in asceticism. He died in the year 1090.
His relics rest in the Caves of St Anthony, and part of them were transferred to Toropets by the igumen of the Kudin monastery in the year 1711. The Life of the Blessed Isaac was recorded by St Nestor in the Chronicles (under the year 1074).
The account in the Kiev Caves Paterikon differs somewhat from that of St Nestor.
In the Great Reading Menaion under April 27 is the "Account of St Isaac and his Deception by the Devil."
1224 ST ADOLF, BISHOP OF OSNABRUCK
EXCEPT for the date of his episcopate chronological details are scanty in the case of St Adolf. He belonged to the family of the Counts of Tecklenburg (Westphalia) and at a very early age was made a Canon of Cologne. Wishing, however, to serve God more perfectly he entered the neighbouring Cistercian monastery of Camp. He seems to have been still a young man when on the translation of Gerard, Bishop of Osnabruck, to the see of Bremen in 1216, he was elected to replace him. The new bishop is said to have been extremely active in every work of charity and to have made a deep impression upon the citizens by his virtues and the austerity of his life. At his death they paid every mark of respect to his last resting-place, and though he has never been formally canonized, the cultus which began in the thir­teenth century has lasted down to our own day, and is liturgically recognized in the diocese by a feast in his honour on February 14. The actual day of his death was June 30, 1224.
See the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. ii, but the account there given errs in attributing to him an episcopate of twenty-one years. This clearly appears from the documents printed in F. Philippi’s Osnabrücker Urkundenbuch, pp. 47—140, and cf. Strunck, Westphalia Pia Sancta, vol. ii, pp. 188—191.
1255 Blessed Nicholas Palea companion of Saint Dominic miracle worker OP (AC).
(also known as Nicholas the Prior) Born in Giovinazzo near Bari, Naples; died in Perugia, Italy, in 1255; cultus confirmed in 1828.
1255 BD NICHOLAS PAGLIA
THERE seems to be a good deal of legendary matter in what we are told of Bd Nicholas Paglia. What is best attested is the fact that as a young man studying at Bologna he heard St Dominic preach there, and was so impressed that he begged to be received into the Order of Preachers. He is said to have belonged to a noble family which had estates at Giovenazzo in Apulia, and it is possible that it was the resources which came to him by inheritance which enabled him to found a Domin­ican priory at Perugia in 1233 and another at Trani in 1254 or thereabouts. We know further that he was prior provincial of the Roman province as early as 1230 and again in 1255. In the Vitae Fratrum of Gerard de Frachet, he is described as “a holy and prudent man, well versed in sacred lore”, and two or three anecdotes are recounted of him which suggest that he was frequently the recipient of visions and other heavenly communications. He died at Perugia in August 1255, and on the ground that his remains were always held in honour there as those of a saint his cultus was confirmed in 1825.

See S. Razzi, Historia degli huomini illustri...(1596), vol. i, pp. 237 seq. Procter, Lives of the Dominican Saints Taurisano, Catalogus Hagiographicus OP., p. 14.
Born of a noble Neapolitan family, Nicholas was named for the great wonder-worker who had once lived in the kingdom. At 8 he was already practicing austerities. He would not eat meat, even on feast days, because he had been favored by a vision of a young man of great majesty who told him to prepare for a lifetime of mortifications in an order that kept perpetual abstinence.

Sent to Bologna for his studies, he met Saint Dominic and was won by him to the new order.
He was the companion of Saint Dominic on several of the founder's journeys to Italy, and warmed his heart at the very source of the new fire which was to mean resurrection to so many souls.

Saint Nicholas of Bari had been noted for his astounding miracles, and his young namesake began following in his footsteps while yet a novice. When on a journey with several companions, he met a woman with a withered arm. Making the Sign of the Cross over her, he cured her of the affliction.
At one time, as he entered his native Bari, he found a woman weeping beside the body of her child, who had been drowned in a well.

He asked the woman the name of the child, and being told it was Andrew, he replied, "After this, it's Nicholas. Nicholas, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, arise!" The little one revived, alive and well.
The child of his sister Colette, mute from birth, brought her famous uncle a basket of bread. "Who sent the bread, child?" Nicholas asked her. "My mother," she replied, and from then on she was cured.

As provincial of the Roman province, Nicholas was wise, prudent, and kind. He established priories in Perugia in 1233 and Trani in 1254. He received many novices and did much of his work among the young religious. Once he was called to the assistance of a novice who had been deceived by the devil and would not go to confession.
He showed the young man the true state of his soul and undid the work of the evil one.

Nicholas earned great fame as a preacher. On one occasion, when he was preaching in the cathedral of Brescia, two irreverent young men began disturbing the congregation and soon made such a commotion that Nicholas could not make himself heard. Nicholas left the cathedral to a neighboring hill and there called to the birds to come to listen to him.
Like the birds in the similar story of Saint Francis, flocks of feathered creatures fluttered down at his feet and listened attentively while he preached. At the end of the sermon they flew away singing.

After a lifetime of preaching and miracles, Nicholas, forewarned of is death by a visit from a brother who had been dead many years, went happily to receive the reward of the faithful. Miracles continued to occur at his tomb and through his intercession.
Among these was the miracle by which life was given to a baby born dead. His parents had promised to name the baby Nicholas if the favor were granted their great joy their child lived (Benedictines, Dorcy).

In art, Saint Nicholas is presented as a Dominican with a birch and a book (Roeder). He is venerated in Giovinazzo and Perugia, Italy (Roeder).
1325 Blessed Angelus of Gualdo Camaldolese lay-brother and for forty years lived as a hermit walled up in his cell OSB Cam. (AC)
Born at Gualdo, diocese of Nocera, Italy, c. 1265; died January 25, 1325; cultus confirmed in 1825.
In his youth, Angelus travelled barefoot from Italy to Compostella in northern Spain.
He was professed a Camaldolese lay-brother and for forty years lived as a hermit walled up in his cell. His entire life was distinguished by extreme simplicity, innocence, and gentleness (Benedictines).
1325 BD ANGELO OF GUALDO The miracles wrought at his tomb brought many to do him honour
THE information we possess concerning this servant of God is extremely scanty. He seems to have been born about 1265 at Gualdo on the borders of Umbria. He was distinguished all his life for his extreme simplicity, innocence and gentleness. One of the greatest crimes which troubled his conscience in youth was the giving away bread to the poor, a fault for which he was scolded, but as his mother died the same day he regarded himself as in some sense guilty of hastening her end. In early life he made many pilgrimages, travelling in particular barefoot from Italy to St James of Compostela in Spain. On his return he offered himself as a lay-brother to the Camaldolese monks, but after a very short time received permission to lead a solitary life according to his desire. In this vocation he faithfully persisted for nearly forty years. When he died on January 25, 1325 it is said that the church bells in the neighbouring district rang of themselves: the people scoured the country to discover the cause, and coming to his little cell they found him dead, kneeling in the attitude of prayer. The miracles wrought at his tomb brought many to do him honour, and Pope Leo XII approved the cultus in 1825.
See Mittarelli, Annales Camaldulenses, vol. v, pp. 237—241, 328—329 J. E. Stadler, Heiligen-Lexikon.
1442 Blessed Vincent of Siena Franciscan for 22 years, OFM (AC)
Vincent was a Franciscan for 22 years. He accompanied Saint Bernardinus of Siena in his travels throughout Italy (Benedictines).

1572 relics of the holy martyrs Michael and his councilor Theodore were transferred to Moscow to the temple dedicated to them
On February 14, 1572, at the wish of Tsar Ivan Vasilievich the Terrible, and with the blessing of Metropolitan Anthony, the relics of the holy martyrs Michael and his councilor Theodore were transferred to Moscow, to the temple dedicated to them.

From there in 1770 they were transferred to the Visitation cathedral, and on November 21, 1774 to the Archangel cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. See September 20 for their Life.


1613 John Baptist of the Conception, C. Trinitarian reform, called the Discalced Trinitarians (AC)
(also known as John Garcia) Born in Almodovar, Toledo, Spain, 1561; beatified in 1819.

John Garcia entered the Trinitarian Order at Toledo and 17 years later joined the party of reform in that order. As superior, he inaugurated such a revival at Valdepeñas in 1597.
The reform, called the Discalced Trinitarians, was approved by Rome and John had to endure on that account the bitter opposition of the 'unreformed.' At the time of his death, 34 houses had adopted the reform (Benedictines).

1613 BD JOHN BAPTIST OF ALMODOVAR
THERE seems good reason to believe that, as among the Carmelites and certain sections of the Order of Friars Minor, so among the Trinitarians towards the close of the sixteenth century there were some who realized that very great relaxations had been introduced in the discipline of religious observance, and that there was urgent need of reform. The leader of this movement in the Trinitarian Order was John Baptist-of-the-Conception. He had been born at Almodovar del Campo in 1561, had studied at Baeza and Toledo, and had taken the Trinitarian habit in the latter city. In 1594 a general chapter of the order passed a resolution that in every province two or three houses should be set aside for the purpose of observing the primitive rule in all its strictness. It appears, however, that nothing, or next to nothing, was done to carry this resolution into effect, and it was openly stated that the measure had only been drafted to please King Philip II who in his last days inclined more and more towards religious views of an extremely austere type.

The fervent piety of John Baptist took scandal at this slackness. With the aid of a generous benefactor, the Marquess of Santa Cruz, he founded in 1597 a new house of reformed Trinitarians at Valdepenas, and two years later was able to secure at Rome approbation for his new congregation of Barefooted Reformed

Though a serious breach resulted in the Trinitarian Order taken as a whole—the more so because the religious supervision of the new congregation was not confided to those who wore the same habit but to Discalced Carmelites and Franciscan Observants—still the zeal, devotion and disinterestedness of the reform made a great impression upon the laity. The generous alms contributed for the ransom of captives was now largely attracted to this new and more reliable channel. As a result the hostility of the unreformed members of the order reached such a pitch that a band of them came to Valdepeñas one night with the avowed intention of ridding themselves of this inconvenient rival. They did not actually put him to death, but they bound him, threw him into a ditch, and carried off a sum of 500 reales in spite of the opposition of their jealous brethren, the Discalced Trini­tarians steadily increased in numbers, and it is stated that when Father John Baptist died thirty-four monasteries had accepted the reform. After setting a great example of good observance and patience in suffering he passed away at Cordova on February 14, 1613. He was beatified in 1819.

See P. Deslandres, L’Ordre des Trinitaires (1903), vol. i, pp. 227—228; Seeböck, Die Herrlichkeit der Katholischen Kirche (1900), p. 65.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 263

A hymn becometh thee, O Lady, in Sion: praise and jubilation in Jerusalem.

The Lord hath given thee the blessing of all nations: praise and glory in the sight of all peoples.

The Lord hath blessed thee in His mercy: and hath set thy throne above all the orders of angels.

He hath placed grace and beauty in thy lips: and with a mantle of glory he hath clothed thy body.

He hath set a resplendent crown upon thy head: and hath adorned thee with the jewels of virtues.


Let every spirit praise Our Lady

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

Thunder, ye heavens, from above, and give praise to her: glorify her, ye earth, with all the dwellers therein.


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

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


God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique, for each is the result of a new idea. 
As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike. It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints. Dear Lord, grant us a spirit that is not bound by our own ideas and preferences. 
Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves.
O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory. Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.  Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.   God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heavenonly saints are allowed into heaven.
The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.
There are over 10,000 named saints beati  from history
 and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources

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

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

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

The great psalm of the Passion, Chapter 22, whose first verse “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Jesus pronounced on the cross, ended with the vision: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him
For kingship belongs to the LORD, the ruler over the nations. All who sleep in the earth will bow low before God; All who have gone down into the dust will kneel in homage. And I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you. The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.
Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China {whole article here} 2000 years of the Catholic Church in China
The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.

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

My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love Thee.  I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not
O most Holy trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly.  I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the Tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended, and by the infite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  I beg the conversion of poor sinners,  Fatima Prayer, Angel of Peace
The voice of the Father is heard, the Son enters the water, and the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove.
THE spirit and example of the world imperceptibly instil the error into the minds of many that there is a kind of middle way of going to Heaven; and so, because the world does not live up to the gospel, they bring the gospel down to the level of the world. It is not by this example that we are to measure the Christian rule, but words and life of Christ. All His followers are commanded to labour to become perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect, and to bear His image in our hearts that we may be His children. We are obliged by the gospel to die to ourselves by fighting self-love in our hearts, by the mastery of our passions, by taking on the spirit of our Lord.
   These are the conditions under which Christ makes His promises and numbers us among His children, as is manifest from His words which the apostles have left us in their inspired writings. Here is no distinction made or foreseen between the apostles or clergy or religious and secular persons. The former, indeed, take upon themselves certain stricter obligations, as a means of accomplishing these ends more perfectly; but the law of holiness and of disengagement of the heart from the world is general and binds all the followers of Christ.
God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique each the result of a new idea.
As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike.
It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints.

Dear Lord, grant us a spirit not bound by our own ideas and preferences.
 
Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves.

O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory.
 
Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.
Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.
The 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary ) Revealed to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan)
1.    Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces. 2.    I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. 3.    The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. 4.    It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things.  Oh, that soul would sanctify them by this means.  5.    The soul that recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish. 6.    Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying themselves to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune.  God will not chastise them in His justice, they shall not perish by an unprovided death; if they be just, they shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. 7.    Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church. 8.    Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise. 9.    I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. 10.    The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.  11.    You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. 12.    I shall aid all those who propagate the Holy Rosary in their necessities. 13.    I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. 14.    All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ. 15.    Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
His Holiness Aram I, current (2013) Catholicos of Cilicia of Armenians, whose See is located in Lebanese town of Antelias. The Catholicosate was founded in Sis, capital of Cilicia, in the year 1441 following the move of the Catholicosate of All Armenians back to its original See of Etchmiadzin in Armenia. The Catholicosate of Cilicia enjoyed local jurisdiction, though spiritually subject to the authority of Etchmiadzin. In 1921 the See was transferred to Aleppo in Syria, and in 1930 to Antelias.
Its jurisdiction currently extends to Syria, Cyprus, Iran and Greece.
Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac
The exact date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa {Armenian Ourhaï in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name} is not known. It is certain, however, that the Christian community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legend, King Abgar V, Ushana, was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples. In fact, however, the first King of Edessa to embrace the Christian Faith was Abgar IX (c. 206) becoming official kingdom religion.
Christian council held at Edessa early as 197 (Eusebius, Hist. Ecc7V,xxiii).
In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed (“Chronicon Edessenum”, ad. an. 201).
In 232 the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written.

Under Roman domination martyrs suffered at Edessa: Sts. Scharbîl and Barsamya, under Decius; Sts. Gûrja, Schâmôna, Habib, and others under Diocletian.
 
In the meanwhile Christian priests from Edessa evangelized Eastern Mesopotamia and Persia, established the first Churches in the kingdom of the Sassanides.  Atillâtiâ, Bishop of Edessa, assisted at the Council of Nicæa (325). The “Peregrinatio Silviæ” (or Etheriæ) (ed. Gamurrini, Rome, 1887, 62 sqq.) gives an account of the many sanctuaries at Edessa about 388.
Although Hebrew had been the language of the ancient Israelite kingdom, after their return from Exile the Jews turned more and more to Aramaic, using it for parts of the books of Ezra and Daniel in the Bible. By the time of Jesus, Aramaic was the main language of Palestine, and quite a number of texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls are also written in Aramaic.
Aramaic continued to be an important language for Jews, alongside Hebrew, and parts of the Talmud are written in it.
After Arab conquests of the seventh century, Arabic quickly replaced Aramaic as the main language of those who converted to Islam, although in out of the way places, Aramaic continued as a vernacular language of Muslims.
Aramaic, however, enjoyed its greatest success in Christianity. Although the New Testament wins written in Greek, Christianity had come into existence in an Aramaic-speaking milieu, and it was the Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac, that became the literary language of a large number of Christians living in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and in the Persian Empire, further east. Over the course of the centuries the influence of the Syriac Churches spread eastwards to China (in Xian, in western China, a Chinese-Syriac inscription dated 781 is still to be seen); to southern India where the state of Kerala can boast more Christians of Syriac liturgical tradition than anywhere else in the world.

680 Shiite saint Imam Hussein, grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad Known as Ashoura and observed by Shiites across the world, the 10th day of the lunar Muslim month of Muharram: the anniversary of the 7th century death in battle of one of Shiite Islam's most beloved saints.  Imam Hussein died in the 680 A.D. battle fought on the plains outside Karbala, a city in modern Iraq that's home to the saint's shrine.  The battle over a dispute about the leadership of the Muslim faith following Muhammad's death in 632 A.D. It is the defining event in Islam's split into Sunni and Shiite branches.  The occasion is the source of an enduring moral lesson. "He sacrificed his blood to teach us not to give in to corruption, coercion, or use of force and to seek honor and justice."  According to Shiite beliefs, Hussein and companions were denied water by enemies who controlled the nearby Euphrates.  Streets get partially covered with blood from slaughter of hundreds of cows and sheep. Volunteers cook the meat and feed it to the poor.  Hussein's martyrdom recounted through a rich body of prose, poetry and song remains an inspirational example of sacrifice to many Shiites, 10 percent of the world's estimated 1.3 billion Muslims.
Meeting of the Saints  walis (saints of Allah)
Great men covet to embrace martyrdom for a cause and principle.
So was the case with Hazrat Ali. He could have made a compromise with the evil forces of his time and, as a result, could have led a very comfortable, easy and luxurious life.  But he was not a person who would succumb to such temptations. His upbringing, his education and his training in the lap of the holy Prophet made him refuse such an offer.
Rabia Al-Basri (717–801 C.E.) She was first to set forth the doctrine of mystical love and who is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets. An elderly Shia pointed out that during his pre-Partition childhood it was quite common to find pictures and portraits of Shia icons in Imambaras across the country.
Shah Abdul Latif: The Exalted Sufi Master born 1690 in a Syed family; died 1754. In ancient times, Sindh housed the exemplary Indus Valley Civilisation with Moenjo Daro as its capital, and now, it is the land of a culture which evolved from the teachings of eminent Sufi saints. Pakistan is home to the mortal remains of many Sufi saints, the exalted among them being Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, a practitioner of the real Islam, philosopher, poet, musicologist and preacher. He presented his teaching through poetry and music - both instruments sublime - and commands a very large following, not only among Muslims but also among Hindus and Christians. Sindh culture: The Shah is synonymous with Sindh. He is the very fountainhead of Sindh's culture. His message remains as fresh as that of any present day poet, and the people of Sindh find solace from his writings. He did indeed think for Sindh. One of his prayers, in exquisite Sindhi, translates thus: “Oh God, may ever You on Sindh bestow abundance rare! Beloved! All the world let share Thy grace, and fruitful be.”
Shia Ali al-Hadi, died 868 and son Hassan al-Askari 874. These saints are the 10th and 11th of Shia's 12 most revered Imams. Baba Farid Sufi 1398 miracle, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki renowned Muslim Sufi saint scholar miracles 569 A.H. [1173 C.E.] hermit gave to poor, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti greatest mystic of his time born 533 Hijri (1138-39 A.D.), Hazrat Ghuas-e Azam, Hazrat Bu Ali Sharif, and Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia Sufi Saint Hazrath Khwaja Syed Mohammed Badshah Quadri Chisty Yamani Quadeer (RA)
1236-1325 welcomed people of all faiths & all walks of life.
801 Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya Sufi One of the most famous Islamic mystics
(b. 717). This 8th century saint was an early Sufi who had a profound influence on later Sufis, who in turn deeply influenced the European mystical love and troubadour traditions.  Rabi'a was a woman of Basra, a seaport in southern Iraq.  She was born around 717 and died in 801 (185-186).  Her biographer, the great medieval poet Attar, tells us that she was "on fire with love and longing" and that men accepted her "as a second spotless Mary" (186).  She was, he continues, “an unquestioned authority to her contemporaries" (218).
Rabi'a began her ascetic life in a small desert cell near Basra, where she lost herself in prayer and went straight to God for teaching.  As far as is known, she never studied under any master or spiritual director.  She was one of the first of the Sufis to teach that Love alone was the guide on the mystic path (222).  A later Sufi taught that there were two classes of "true believers": one class sought a master as an intermediary between them and God -- unless they could see the footsteps of the Prophet on the path before them, they would not accept the path as valid.  The second class “...did not look before them for the footprint of any of God's creatures, for they had removed all thought of what He had created from their hearts, and concerned themselves solely with God. (218)
Rabi'a was of this second kind.  She felt no reverence even for the House of God in Mecca:  "It is the Lord of the house Whom I need; what have I to do with the house?" (219) One lovely spring morning a friend asked her to come outside to see the works of God.  She replied, "Come you inside that you may behold their Maker.  Contemplation of the Maker has turned me aside from what He has made" (219).  During an illness, a friend asked this woman if she desired anything.
"...[H]ow can you ask me such a question as 'What do I desire?'  I swear by the glory of God that for twelve years I have desired fresh dates, and you know that in Basra dates are plentiful, and I have not yet tasted them.  I am a servant (of God), and what has a servant to do with desire?" (162)
When a male friend once suggested she should pray for relief from a debilitating illness, she said,
"O Sufyan, do you not know Who it is that wills this suffering for me?  Is it not God Who wills it?  When you know this, why do you bid me ask for what is contrary to His will?  It is not  well to oppose one's Beloved." (221)
She was an ascetic.  It was her custom to pray all night, sleep briefly just before dawn, and then rise again just as dawn "tinged the sky with gold" (187).  She lived in celibacy and poverty, having renounced the world.  A friend visited her in old age and found that all she owned were a reed mat, screen, a pottery jug, and a bed of felt which doubled as her prayer-rug (186), for where she prayed all night, she also slept briefly in the pre-dawn chill.  Once her friends offered to get her a servant; she replied,
"I should be ashamed to ask for the things of this world from Him to Whom the world belongs, and how should I ask for them from those to whom it does not belong?"  (186-7)
A wealthy merchant once wanted to give her a purse of gold.  She refused it, saying that God, who sustains even those who dishonor Him, would surely sustain her, "whose soul is overflowing with love" for Him.  And she added an ethical concern as well:
"...How should I take the wealth of someone of whom I do not know whether he acquired it lawfully or not?" (187)
She taught that repentance was a gift from God because no one could repent unless God had already accepted him and given him this gift of repentance.  She taught that sinners must fear the punishment they deserved for their sins, but she also offered such sinners far more hope of Paradise than most other ascetics did.  For herself, she held to a higher ideal, worshipping God neither from fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise, for she saw such self-interest as unworthy of God's servants; emotions like fear and hope were like veils -- i.e., hindrances to the vision of God Himself.  The story is told that once a number of Sufis saw her hurrying on her way with water in one hand and a burning torch in the other.  When they asked her to explain, she said:
"I am going to light a fire in Paradise and to pour water on to Hell, so that both veils may vanish altogether from before the pilgrims and their purpose may be sure..." (187-188)
She was once asked where she came from.  "From that other world," she said.  "And where are you going?" she was asked.  "To that other world," she replied (219).  She taught that the spirit originated with God in "that other world" and had to return to Him in the end.  Yet if the soul were sufficiently purified, even on earth, it could look upon God unveiled in all His glory and unite with him in love.  In this quest, logic and reason were powerless.  Instead, she speaks of the "eye" of her heart which alone could apprehend Him and His mysteries (220).
Above all, she was a lover, a bhakti, like one of Krishna’s Goptis in the Hindu tradition.  Her hours of prayer were not so much devoted to intercession as to communion with her Beloved.  Through this communion, she could discover His will for her.  Many of her prayers have come down to us:
       "I have made Thee the Companion of my heart,
        But my body is available for those who seek its company,
        And my body is friendly towards its guests,
        But the Beloved of my heart is the Guest of my soul."  [224]

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

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

Brief History of our Beloved Holy Priest Here and his published books of Catholic History in North America
Reardon, J.M. Archbishop Ireland; Prelate, Patriot, Publicist, 1838-1918.
A Memoir (St. Paul; 1919); George Anthony Belcourt Pioneer Catholic Missionary of the Northwest 1803-1874 (1955);
The Catholic Church IN THE DIOCESE OF ST. PAUL from earliest origin to centennial achievement
1362-1950 (1952);

The Church of Saint Mary of Saint Paul 1875-1922;
  (1932)
The Vikings in the American Heartland;
The Catholic Total Abstinence Society in Minnesota;
James Michael Reardon Born in Nova Scotia, 1872;  Priest, ordained by Bishop Ireland;
Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.
Affiliations and Indulgence Litany of Loretto in Stained glass windows here.  Nave Sacristy and Residence Here
Sanctuary
spaces between them filled with grilles of hand-forged wrought iron the
life of our Blessed Lady After the crucifixon
Apostle statues Replicas of those in St John Lateran--Christendom's earliest Basilica.
Ordered by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, Popes' cathedral and official residence first millennium of Christian history.

The only replicas ever made:  in order from west to east {1932}.
Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel
 
It Makes No Sense
Not To Believe In GOD
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi
  June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.
By Father John Corapi
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi
  June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.
By Father John Corapi
Among the most important titles we have in the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom. The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

About Father John Corapi.
Father Corapi is a Catholic priest .
The pillars of father's preaching are basically:
Love for and a relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary 
Leading a vibrant and loving relationship with Jesus Christ
Great love and reverence for the Most Holy Eucharist from Holy Mass to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
An uncompromising love for and obedience to the Holy Father and the teaching of the Magisterium of the Church


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia Paqualina Addatis), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Addolorata, Servants of Mary (1845-1900);
– Servant of God Maria of the Incarnation (née Caterina Carrasco Tenorio), founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of the Flock of Mary (1840-1917);
– Servant of God , founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Family of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1851-1923);
– Servant of God Ilia Corsaro, founder of the Congregation of the Little Missionaries of the Eucharist (1897-1977);
– Servant of God Maria Montserrat Grases García, layperson of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1941-1959).
LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858 
China
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May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798  
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Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates, 263 2023