Mary Mother of GOD
Fatima and the Last Times Remedies
 
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.

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


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

Institutes of Consecrated Life Rediscover the Missionary Dimension

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

Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China {whole article here }
The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.
Vigília sancti Matthíæ Apóstoli. The Vigil of St. Matthias the Apostle.

<Matthias_2.gif
Mary's Divine Motherhood
Called in the Gospel "the Mother of Jesus," Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the Mother of my Lord" (Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55; et al.). In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" (Theotokos).

Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, quoting the Council of Ephesus (431): DS 251.

       Prayer to Mary for Our Families - Our Lady of the Rocks (Spain, 434)
O Mary, our holy Virgin, intercede for us,  We pray for our families. May they be made up of people rich in faith, eager to serve others, who acknowledge the worth of all those dedicated to education.




156 Saint Polycarp a disciple of Saint John the Evangelist
Polycarp was, as was his friend St. Ignatius of Antioch, one of the most important intermediary links between the apostolic and the patristic eras in the Church, especially in Christian Asia Minor.
430 St. Alexander Akimetes Hermit founder of religious houses Sleepless Ones (akoimetoi)
1072 St. Peter Damian stern figure recall men in lax age from error of ways  declared doctor of the Church in 1828.
1473 St. John Cantius patron saint of Poland and Lithuania "Fight all false opinions, but let your weapons be patience, sweetness and love.  Roughness is bad for your own soul and spoils the best cause."
1771 St. Marguerite d'Youville allowed no obstacle of her helping others canonized December 9, 1990.

We ask you to beg the Father to spread the Holy Spirit among our young people, so that they may be attracted to the contemplation of Jesus and walk with him, and experience the joy of a freedom that is an offering of obedience and zeal for the faith of our brethren.
We pray to you to turn toward your Son so he spreads the Holy Spirit in all of us, so that we can be stronger and more intelligent in the struggle against the temptations of our time.
May we persevere along the path of goodness, to fulfil the completion of our mission and achieve the eternal and perfect joy God is preparing for his beloved children.

Poor human reason, when it trusts in itself, substitutes the strangest absurdities for the highest divine concepts.
-- St. John Chrysostom



Polycarp was, as was his friend St. Ignatius of Antioch, one of the most important intermediary links
between the apostolic and the patristic eras in the Church, especially in Christian Asia Minor.
"To change your mind from good to bad is the height of absurdity.
True goodness changes from evil to righteousness."

"I thank God that I am being allowed my share in the sufferings of his martyrs.
He who gives me strength to endure fire will enable me to stand unmoved to the end."

"God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, increase us in faith and truth and gentleness, and grant us part and lot among His saints."--Prayer of Saint Polycarp
(d. ca. 155), bishop and martyr.

"Fight all false opinions, but let your weapons be patience, sweetness and love.  Roughness is bad for your own soul and spoils the best cause."   1473 St. John Cantius patron saint of Poland and Lithuania

Jesus, Saint John and His Mother February 23 - Our Lady of the Rocks (near Salamanca, Spain) -
"Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, 'Woman, this is your son.' Then to the disciple he said, 'This is your mother.' And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
After this, Jesus knew that everything had now been completed and,
so that the Scriptures should be completely fulfilled, he said: I am thirsty.
A jar full of sour wine stood there; so, putting a sponge soaked in the wine on a hyssop stick,
they held it up to his mouth. After Jesus had taken the wine he said,
'It is fulfilled'; and bowing his head he gave up his spirit" (John 19: 25-30).

Saint Polycarp was a disciple of John the Apostle and Evangelist. It is possible that he also knew the Blessed Virgin as she lived with Saint John. Polycarp became bishop of Smyrna (in present-day Turkey) ca. 107 and one of the most important Christian leaders in all of Roman Asia. He also had a great influence
over Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (d. ca. 200), through whom the faith was transmitted to much of Western Europe.
See: Robert Bennett, Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words, Ignatius Press, 2002.
February 23 - Apparition of Mary the Immaculate Mother of Victory to Caecilia Geyer
(Wangen-Wigratzbad, Germany, 1938), a devotion approved by the Church  
 
"Build a chapel for me here and I will trample the head of the infernal serpent"
 
At Wigratzbad in Swabia (southern Germany), on February 22, 1938, around 6:30 am, the Virgin appeared to Caecilia Geyer and said:
"Build a chapel for me here and I will trample the head of the infernal serpent. People will come here in droves, and I will pour torrents of graces upon them … Go now, before the Blessed Sacrament to worship my Divine Son."
"Where should I go? At this time, the Blessed Sacrament is nowhere exposed," I answered… Then, before my astonished eyes a chapel appeared at the place that had been designated. Inside, on the altar, Jesus was enthroned in a magnificent monstrance which projected marvelous rays of dazzling light from all sides."

Wigratzbad had already received a visit from the Virgin Mary in 1936, when she appeared to a sick woman, Antonie Radler, who was miraculously cured in the octave of the Immaculate Conception, on December 15, 1936.
Since then, Our Lady has been venerated under the title of The Immaculate Conception, Mother of Victory.
 nouvl.evangelisation.free.fr
 
A version of Polycarp's prayer of martyrdom:
"Lord God Almighty, Father of your beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have received knowledge of you, God of angels and powers, of the whole creation and of the whole race of the righteous who live in your sight, I bless you, for having made me worthy of this day and hour, I bless you, because I may have a part, along with the martyrs, in the chalice of your Christ, to resurrection in eternal life, resurrection both of soul and body in the incorruptibility of the Holy Spirit.

For this and for all benefits I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you, through the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, through whom be to you with him and the Holy Spirit glory, now and for all the ages to come. Amen."

February 23 - Our Lady of the Rocks (Spain, 434)
Seat of Wisdom (I)  Maurice Zundel (1897-1975)
Before the Annunciation, Mary had already given herself entirely to God.
She is an offering, giving herself completely, she is poor, and she waits.
But she is still unaware to what extent the words of the Song of Songs will be carried out: "I belong to my love, and his desire is for me” (Sg 7:11).

She undoubtedly knew the Scriptures by heart; she understood their secret meaning, the Christocentric orientation of each word, where the burning breath of the Spirit consumes all the impure dross of humanity to which the gestures of God are entrusted. She seeks a Presence and she finds a Person, in whom all hope is contained. Her heart beats only in this call, "The young woman is with child and will give birth to a son" (Is 7:14).
She never thought that there would be any question of her. His glance had only one direction in which He never renounced. Her glance was simple never looked at herself.
 156 Saint Polycarp a disciple of Saint John the Evangelist
3rd v  St. Cerneuf Serenus, the Gardener martyr refused to sacrifice to pagan gods
       Birthday of seventy-two holy martyrs, who suffered martyrdom in the same city and who took possession of the
       everlasting kingdom

252 St. Martha Virgin martyr Spain led holy life in dens/caves, glorious miracles baptized by Pope St. Sylvester
324 St. Romana  Roman virgin
372 Saint Gorgonia sister of St Gregory the Theologian distinguished for great virtue, piety, meekness, sagacity, toil
430 St. Alexander Akimetes Hermit founder of religious houses Sleepless Ones (akoimetoi)
430 Saint Alexander, Founder of the Monastery of the "Unsleeping Ones," monastery of 400 monks
485 St. Florentius martyred in Seville, Spain
5th v. 5th v. SS John, Antiochus and Antoninus lived in asceticism disciple of St Limnaeus (Feb 22), lived in Syria
5th v  St. Zebinus Syrian hermit  trained Saint Maro Polychronius, and others who lived in Syria
5th v. St Moses lived in Syria Iimitating St John the very model of an austere ascetical life
5th v. St Zebinas lived in Syria lived an ascetical life on the same mountain as St Moses
5th v. Saint Polychronius lived in Syria disciple of St Zebinas and imitated the life of his Elder
5th v. Saint Damian lived in Syria withdrew to a monastery named Ieros
530 St. Dositheus Convert monk at Gaza, Israel cared for the sick
7th v  St. Jurmin Prince a confessor of East Anglia, England
650 St. Felix of Brescia Bishop of Brescia Itlay opponent of the Lombard Arians
661 St. Boswell Abbot of Melrose, England gift of prophecy
715 St. Milburga Benedictine abbess veil from St. Theodore of Canterbury miracles performed gift of levitation
850 St. Medrald Benedictine abbott
867 St. Lazarus Zographos Monk painter of Constantinople
1011 St. Willigis Bishop missionaries to Scandinavia, founded churches chaplain to Emperor Otto II
1066 St. Ordonius  Benedictine bishop monk in Sahagiin, Leon
1072 St. Peter Damian stern figure recall men in lax age from error of ways  declared doctor of the Church in 1828.
1456 Blessed Nicholas of Prussia novice-master and prior, OSB (PC)
1473 St. John Cantius patron saint of Poland and Lithuania
1568 Saint Damian of Philotheou was a disciple of St Dometius (August 7) preacher martyr by Turks
1771 St. Marguerite d'Youville allowed no obstacle in the way of her helping others canonized December 9, 1990.

69-155 St. Polycarp of Smyrna Bishop of Smyrna
  Smyrnæ natális sancti Polycárpi, qui, beáti Joánnis Apóstoli discípulus, et ab eo ejúsdem civitátis Epíscopus ordinátus, totíus Asiæ Princeps fuit.  Póstea, sub Marco Antoníno et Lúcio Aurélio Cómmodo, sedénte Procónsule et univérso pópulo in theátro advérsus eum personánte, igni tráditus est; et, cum ab igne mínime læderétur, martyrii corónam, gládio confóssus, accépit.  Cum illo étiam álii duódecim, qui ex Philadelphía vénerant, in eádem Smyrnénsi urbe, martyrio consummáti sunt.  Ipsíus tamen Polycárpi festum séptimo Kaléndas Februárii celebrátur.
      At Smyrna, the birthday of St. Polycarp, a disciple of St. John the Apostle, by whom he was consecrated bishop of that city, and appointed primate of all Asia.  Under Marcus Antonius and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, when the proconsul and all those assembled in the amphitheatre cried out against him, he was delivered to the fire, but since it did not harm him, he received the crown of martyrdom by the sword.  With him, twelve others who came from Philadelphia met their death by martyrdom in the same city.  The feast of St. Polycarp is kept on the 26th of January.
Martyr, and one of the foremost leaders of the Church in the second century. Few details of his life are extant with any reliability beyond his famous martyrdom, which was recounted in the Martyrium Polycarpi.

It is believed, however, that he was converted to the faith by St. John the Evangelist about 80 A.D. and became bishop of Smyrna about 96 A.D.

He was, as was his friend St. Ignatius of Antioch, one of the most important intermediary links between the apostolic and the patristic eras in the Church, especially in Christian Asia Minor. A defender of orthodoxy, he opposed such heretical groups as the Marcionites and Valentinians. He also authored a surviving epistle to the Philippians, exhorting them to remain strong in the faith. The letter is of great interest to scholars because it demonstrates the existence of New Testament texts, with quotes from Matthew and Luke, the Acts of the Apostles, and the first letters of Peter and John. When Ignatius was being taken to Rome to be put to death, he wrote of Polycarp being clothed “with the garment of grace."
Polycarp was himself arrested by Roman officials in Smyrna soon after returning from a trip to Rome to discuss the date for Easter. He refused to abjure the faith, telling his captain that he had served Christ for eighty six years. The Romans burned him alive with twelve companions. The year of his death has been put at 155 or 156, although Eusebius of Caesarea places the year at 167 or 168, meaning it would have fallen in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. If so, changes in the year of his birth would be necessary. The most detailed account of his death was the Martyrium Polycarpi.

Polycarp, and the presbyters with him, to the Church of God sojourning at Philippi: Mercy to you, and peace from God Almighty, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, be multiplied.

CHAPTER I.--PRAISE OF THE PHILIPPIANS.
I have greatly rejoiced with you in our Lord Jesus Christ, because ye have followed the example of true love [as displayed by God], and have accompanied, as became you, those who were bound in chains, the fitting ornaments of saints, and which are indeed the diadems of the true elect of God and our Lord; and because the strong root of your faith, spoken of in days long gone by, endureth even until now, and bringeth forth fruit to our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sins suffered even unto death, [but] "whom God raised froth the dead, having loosed the bands of the grave." "In whom, though now ye see Him not, ye believe, and believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; " into which joy many desire to enter, knowing that "by grace ye are saved, not of works," but by the will of God through Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER II.--AN EXHORTATION TO VIRTUE.
"Wherefore, girding up your loins," "serve the Lord in fear" and truth, as those who have forsaken the vain, empty talk and error of the multitude, and "believed in Him who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, and gave Him glory," and a throne at His right hand. To Him all things" in heaven and on earth are subject. Him every spirit serves. He comes as the Judge of the living and the dead. His blood will God require of those who do not believe in Him. But He who raised Him up from the dead will raise up us also, if we do His will, and walk in His commandments, and love what He loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness, covetousness, love of money, evil speaking, falsewitness; "not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing," or blow for blow, or cursing for cursing, but being mindful of what the Lord said in His teaching: "Judge not, that ye be not judged; forgive, and it shall be forgiven unto you; be merciful, that ye may obtain mercy; with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again; and once more, "Blessed are the poor, and those that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God."

CHAPTER III.--EXPRESSIONS OR PERSONAL UNWORTHINESS.
These things, brethren, I write to you concerning righteousness, not because I take anything upon myself, but because ye have invited me to do so. For neither I, nor any other such one, can come up to the wisdom" of the blessed and glorified Paul. He, when among you, accurately and stedfastly taught the word of truth in the presence of those who were then alive. And when absent from you, he wrote you a letter, which, if you carefully study, you will find to be the means of building you up in that faith which has been given you, and which, being followed by hope, and preceded by love towards God, and Christ, and our neighbour, "is the mother of us all." For if any one be inwardly possessed of these graces, he hath fulfilled the command of righteousness, since he that hath love is far from all sin.

CHAPTER IV.--VARIOUS EXHORTATIONS.
"But the love of money is the root of all evils." Knowing, therefore, that "as we brought nothing into the world, so we can carry nothing out," let us arm ourselves with the armour of righteousness; and let us teach, first of all, ourselves to walk in the commandments of the Lord. Next, [teach] your wives [to walk] in the faith given to them, and in love and purity tenderly loving their own husbands in all truth, and loving all [others] equally in all chastity; and to train up their children in the knowledge and fear of God. Teach the widows to be discreet as respects the faith of the Lord, praying continually for all, being far from all slandering, evil-speaking, false-witnessing, love of money, and every kind of evil; knowing that they are the altar s of God, that He clearly perceives all things, and that nothing is hid from Him, neither reasonings, nor reflections, nor any one of the secret things of the heart.

CHAPTER V.--THE DUTIES OF DEACONS, YOUTHS, AND VIRGINS.
Knowing, then, that "God is not mocked," we ought to walk worthy of His commandment and glory. In like manner should the deacons be blameless before the face of His righteousness, as being the servants of God and Christ, and not of men. They must not be slanderers, double-tongued, or lovers of money, but temperate in all things, compassionate, industrious, walking according to the truth of the Lord, who was the servant of all. If we please Him in this present world, we shall receive also the future world, according as He has promised to us that He will raise us again from the dead, and that if we live worthily of Him, "we shall also reign together with Him," provided only we believe. In like manner, let the young men also be blameless in all things, being especially careful to preserve purity, and keeping themselves in, as with a bridle, from every kind of evil. For it is well that they should be cut off from the lusts that are in the world, since "every lust warreth against the spirit; " and "neither fornicators, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, shall inherit the kingdom of God," nor those who do things inconsistent and unbecoming. Wherefore, it is needful to abstain from all these things, being subject to the presbyters and deacons, as unto God and Christ. The virgins also must walk in a blameless and pure conscience.

CHAPTER VI.--THE DUTIES OF PRESBYTERS AND OTHERS.
And let the presbyters be compassionate and merciful to all, bringing back those that wander, visiting all the sick, and not neglecting the widow, the orphan, or the poor, but always "providing for that which is becoming in the sight of God and man ; " abstaining from all wrath, respect of persons, and unjust judgment; keeping far off from . all covetousness, not quickly crediting [an evil re port] against any one, not severe in judgment, as knowing that we are all under a debt of sin. If then we entreat the Lord to forgive us, we ought also ourselves to forgive; for we are before the eyes of our Lord and God, and "we must all appear at the judgment-seat of Christ, and must every one give an account of himself." Let us then serve Him in fear, and with all reverence, even as He Himself has commanded us, and as the apostles who preached the Gospel unto us, and the prophets who proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Lord [have alike taught us]. Let us be zealous in the pursuit of that which is good, keeping ourselves from causes of offence, from false brethren, and from those who in hypocrisy bear the name of the Lord, and draw away vain men into error.

CHAPTER VII.--AVOID THE DOCETAE, AND PERSEVERE IN FASTING AND PRAYER.
"For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist;" and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, is of the devil; and whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says that there is neither a resurrection nor a judgment, he is the first-born of Satan. Wherefore, forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from the beginning; "watching unto prayer," and persevering in fasting; beseeching in our supplications the all-seeing God "not to lead us into temptation," as the Lord has said: "The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak."

CHAPTER VIII.--PERSEVERE IN HOPE AND PATIENCE.
Let us then continually persevere in our hope, and the earnest of our righteousness, which is Jesus Christ, "who bore our sins in His own body on the tree," "who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth," but endured all things for us, that we might live in Him. Let us then be imitators of His patience; and if we suffer for His name's sake, let us glorify Him. For He has set us this example s in Himself, and we have believed that such is the case.

CHAPTER IX.--PATIENCE INCULCATED.
I exhort you all, therefore, to yield obedience to the word of righteousness, and to exercise all patience, such as ye have seen [set] before your eyes, not only in the case of the blessed Ignatius, and Zosimus, and Rufus, but also in others among yourselves, and in Paul himself, and the rest of the apostles. [This do] in the assurance that all these have not run in vain, but in faith and righteousness, and that they are [now] in their due place in the presence of the Lord, with whom also they suffered. For they loved not this present world, but Him who died for us, and for our sakes was raised again by God from the dead.

CHAPTER X.--EXHORTATION TO THE PRACTICE OF VIRTUE.
Stand fast, therefore, in these things, and follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith, loving the brotherhood, and being attached to one another, joined together in the truth, exhibiting the meekness of the Lord in your intercourse with one another, and despising no one. When you can do good, defer it not, because "alms delivers from death."" Be all of you subject one to another? having your conduct blameless among the Gentiles," that ye may both receive praise for your good works, and the Lord may not be blasphemed through you. But woe to him by whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed! Teach, therefore, sobriety to all, and manifest it also in your own conduct.

CHAPTER XI.--EXPRESSION OF GRIEF ON ACCOUNT OF VALENS.
I am greatly grieved for Valens, who was once a presbyter among you, because he so little understands the place that was given him [in the Church]. I exhort you, therefore, that ye abstain from covetousness, and that ye be chaste and truthful. "Abstain from every form of evil." For if a man cannot govern himself in such matters, how shall he enjoin them on others ? If a man does not keep himself from covetousness, he shall be defiled by idolatry, and shall be judged as one of the heathen. But who of us are ignorant of the judgment of the Lord ? "Do we not know that the saints shall judge the world ?" as Paul teaches. But I have neither seen nor heard of any such thing among you, in the midst of whom the blessed Paul laboured, and who are commended in the beginning of his Epistle. For he boasts of you in all those Churches which alone then knew the Lord; but we [of Smyrna] had not yet known Him. I am deeply grieved, therefore, brethren, for him (Valens) and his wife; to whom may the Lord grant true repentance! And be ye then moderate in regard to this matter, and "do not count such as enemies," but call them back as suffering and straying members, that ye may save your whole body. For by so acting ye shall edify yourselves.

CHAPTER XII.--EXHORTATION TO VARIOUS GRACES.
For I trust that ye are well versed in the Sacred Scriptures, and that nothing is hid from you; but to me this privilege is not yet granted. It is declared then in these Scriptures, "Be ye angry, and sin not," and, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." Happy is he who remembers this, which I believe to be the case with you. But may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ Himself, who is the Son of God, and our everlasting High Priest, build you up in faith and truth, and in all meekness, gentleness, patience, long-suffering, forbearance, and purity; and may He bestow on you a lot and portion among His saints, and on us with you, and on all that are under heaven, who shall believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in His Father, who "raised Him from the dead. Pray for all the saints. Pray also for kings, and potentates, and princes, and for those that persecute and hate you, and for the enemies of the cross, that your fruit may be manifest to all, and that ye may be perfect in Him.

CHAPTER XIII.--CONCERNING THE TRANSMISSION OF EPISTLES.
Both you and Ignatius wrote to me, that if any one went [from this] into Syria, he should carry your letter with him; which request I will attend to if I find a fitting opportunity, either personally, or through some other acting for me, that your desire may be fulfilled. The Epistles of Ignatius written by him to us, and all the rest [of his Epistles] which we have by us, we have sent to you, as you requested. They are subjoined to this Epistle, and by them ye may be greatly profited; for they treat of faith and patience, and all things that tend to edification in our Lord. Any more certain information you may have obtained respecting both Ignatius himself, and those that were with him, have the goodness to make known to us.

CHAPTER XIV.--CONCLUSION.
These things I have written to you by Crescens, whom up to the present time I have recommended unto you, and do now recommend. For he has acted blamelessly among us, and I believe also among you. Moreover, ye will hold his sister in esteem when she comes to you. Be ye safe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with you all. Amen. 
156 Saint Polycarp a disciple of Saint John the Evangelist
 Smyrnæ natális sancti Polycárpi, qui, beáti Joánnis Apóstoli discípulus, et ab eo ejúsdem civitátis Epíscopus ordinátus, totíus Asiæ Princeps fuit.  Póstea, sub Marco Antoníno et Lúcio Aurélio Cómmodo, sedénte Procónsule et univérso pópulo in theátro advérsus eum personánte, igni tráditus est; et, cum ab igne mínime læderétur, martyrii corónam, gládio confóssus, accépit.  Cum illo étiam álii duódecim, qui ex Philadelphía vénerant, in eádem Smyrnénsi urbe, martyrio consummáti sunt.  Ipsíus tamen Polycárpi festum séptimo Kaléndas Februárii celebrátur.
       At Smyrna, the birthday of St. Polycarp, a disciple of St. John the Apostle, by whom he was consecrated bishop of that city, and appointed primate of all Asia.  Under Marcus Antonius and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, when the proconsul and all those assembled in the amphitheatre cried out against him, he was delivered to the fire, but since it did not harm him, he received the crown of martyrdom by the sword.  With him, twelve others who came from Philadelphia met their death by martyrdom in the same city.  The feast of St. Polycarp is kept on the 26th of January.
Imagine being able to sit at the feet of the apostles and hear their stories of life with Jesus from their own lips. Imagine walking with those who had walked with Jesus, seen him, and touched him. That was what Polycarp was able to do as a disciple of Saint John the Evangelist.  Being part of the second generation of Church leaders had challenges the first generation could not teach about. What did you do when those eyewitnesses were gone? How do you carry on the correct teachings of Jesus? How do you answer new questions that never came up before?
With the apostles gone, heresies sprang up pretending to be true teaching, persecution was strong, and controversies arose over how to celebrate liturgy that Jesus never laid down rules for.

Polycarp, as a holy man and bishop of Smyrna, found there was only one answer -- to be true to the life of Jesus and imitate that life. Saint Ignatius of Antioch told Polycarp "your mind is grounded in God as on an immovable rock."
When faced with heresy, he showed the "candid face" that Ignatius admired and that imitated Jesus' response to the Pharisees. Marcion, the leader of the Marcionites who followed a dualistic heresy, confronted Polycarp and demanded respect by saying, "Recognize us, Polycarp." Polycarp responded, "I recognize you, yes, I recognize the son of Satan."
On the other hand when faced with Christian disagreements he was all forgiveness and respect. One of the controversies of the time came over the celebration of Easter.

The East, where Polycarp was from, celebrated the Passover as the Passion of Christ followed by a Eucharist on the following day. The West celebrated Easter on the Sunday of the week following Passover.
When Polycarp went to Rome to discuss the difference with Pope Anicetus, they could not agree on this issue. But they found no difference in their Christian beliefs.
Anicetus asked Polycarp to celebrate the Eucharist in his own papal chapel.

Polycarp faced persecution the way Christ did. His own church admired him for following the "gospel model" -- not chasing after martyrdom as some did, but avoiding it until it was God's will as Jesus did. They considered it "a sign of love to desire not to save oneself alone, but to save also all the Christian brothers and sisters."
One day, during a bloody martyrdom when Christians were attacked by wild animals in the arena, the crowd became so mad that they demanded more blood by crying, "Down with the atheists; let Polycarp be found." (They considered Christians "atheists" because they didn't believe in their pantheon of gods.) Since Polycarp was not only known as a leader but as someone holy "even before his grey hair appeared", this was a horrible demand. Polycarp was calm but others persuaded him to leave the city and hide at a nearby farm. He spent his time in prayer for people he knew and for the Church. During his prayer he saw a vision of his pillow turned to fire and announced to his friends that the dream meant he would be burned alive.
As the search closed in, he moved to another farm, but the police discovered he was there by torturing two boys. He had a little warning since he was upstairs in the house but he decided to stay, saying, "God's will be done."
Then he went downstairs, talked to his captors and fed them a meal. All he asked of them was that they give him an hour to pray. He spent two hours praying for everyone he had every known and for the Church, "remembering all who had at any time come his way -- small folk and great folk, distinguished and undistinguished, and the whole Catholic Church throughout the world."
Many of his captors started to wonder why they were arresting this holy, eighty-six-year-old bishop.  But that didn't stop them from taking him into the arena on the Sabbath. As he entered the arena, the crowd roared like the animals they cheered. Those around Polycarp heard a voice from heaven above the crowd, "Be brave, Polycarp, and act like a man."
The proconsul begged the eighty-six-year-old bishop to give in because of his age. "Say 'Away with the atheists'" the proconsul urged. Polycarp calmly turned to the face the crowd, looked straight at them, and said, "Away with the atheists." The proconsul continued to plead with him. When he asked Polycarp to swear by Caesar to save himself, Polycarp answered, "If you imagine that I will swear by Caesar, you do not know who I am. Let me tell you plainly, I am a Christian." Finally, when all else failed the proconsul reminded Polycarp that he would be thrown to the wild animals unless he changed his mind. Polycarp answered, "Change of mind from better to worse is not a change allowed to us."
Because of Polycarp's lack of fear, the proconsul told him he would be burned alive but Polycarp knew that the fire that burned for an hour was better than eternal fire.
When he was tied up to be burned, Polycarp prayed, "Lord God Almighty, Father of your beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have received knowledge of you, God of angels and powers, of the whole creation and of the whole race of the righteous who live in your sight, I bless you, for having made me worthy of this day and hour, I bless you, because I may have a part, along with the martyrs, in the chalice of your Christ, to resurrection in eternal life, resurrection both of soul and body in the incorruptibility of the Holy Spirit. May I be received today, as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, among those who are in you presence, as you have prepared and foretold and fulfilled, God who is faithful and true. For this and for all benefits I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you, through the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, through whom be to you with him and the Holy Spirit glory, now and for all the ages to come. Amen."
The fire was lit as Polycarp said Amen and then the eyewitnesses who reported said they saw a miracle. The fire burst up in an arch around Polycarp, the flames surrounding him like sails, and instead of being burned he seemed to glow like bread baking, or gold being melted in a furnace. When the captors saw he wasn't being burned, they stabbed him. The blood that flowed put the fire out.
The proconsul wouldn't let the Christians have the body because he was afraid they would worship Polycarp. The witnesses reported this with scorn for the lack of understanding of Christian faith: "They did not know that we can never abandon the innocent Christ who suffered on behalf of sinners for the salvation of those in this world." After the body was burned, they stole the bones in order to celebrate the memory of his martyrdom and prepare others for persecution. The date was about February 23, 156.
In His Footsteps:  When faced with challenges to your Christian life, try a version of Polycarp's prayer of martyrdom: "Lord God Almighty, Father of your beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have received knowledge of you, God of angels and powers, of the whole creation and of the whole race of the righteous who live in your sight, I bless you, for having made me worthy of this day and hour, I bless you, because I may have a part, along with the martyrs, in the chalice of your Christ, to resurrection in eternal life, resurrection both of soul and body in the incorruptibility of the Holy Spirit. For this and for all benefits I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you, through the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, through whom be to you with him and the Holy Spirit glory, now and for all the ages to come. Amen."
Prayer:  Saint Polycarp, sometimes Christ seems so far away from us. Centuries have passed since he and the apostles walk the earth. Help us to see that he is close to us always and that we can keep him near by imitating his life as you did. Amen

Polycarp of Smyrna BM (RM) Died 2:00 p.m., February 23, c. 156; feast day formerly January 26.
"To change your mind from good to bad is the height of absurdity. True goodness changes from evil to righteousness."    --Saint Polycarp
"I thank God that I am being allowed my share in the sufferings of his martyrs. He who gives me strength to endure fire will enable me to stand unmoved to the end." --Saint Polycarp
"God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, increase us in faith and truth and gentleness, and grant us part and lot among His saints."    --Prayer of Saint Polycarp.

The earliest record of Christian martyrdom outside the Bible is that of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. It speaks of the sufferings of the Christians: "Who can fail to admire their nobleness of mind, and their patience, with that love towards their Lord which they displayed?-- who when they were so torn with scourges, that the frame of their bodies, even to the very inward veins and arteries, was laid open, still patiently endured, while even those that stood by pitied and bewailed them."
Polycarp had known those who had known Jesus and was a disciple of the beloved Apostle John the Divine, who had converted him about 80 AD. He taught, says his own pupil Irenaeus of Lyons, the things that he learned from the Apostles, which the Church hands down, which are true.
Irenaeus, who as a young boy knew Polycarp, praised his gravity, holiness, and majesty of countenance.

He kissed the chains of Saint Ignatius of Antioch on his way to martyrdom in Rome. Saint Ignatius wrote a special letter to encourage Polycarp when he was a young bishop and asked him to watch over his church at Antioch and to write in his name to the churches of Asia that he could not attend himself. Polycarp was probably the leading Christian in Roman Asia in the second century and an important link between the apostolic age and the great Christian writers of the second century.
He had lived near Jerusalem and was proud of his early associations with the Apostles. "I can tell," he wrote, "the very place in which the blessed Saint Paul used to sit when he discoursed, and his goings out and his comings in, and the stamp of his life, and his bodily appearance, and the discourses which he held towards the congregation, and how he would describe his intercourse with those who had seen the Lord, and how he would relate their words."
Polycarp became bishop of Smyrna c. 96 and ruled the see for 70 years. He was a staunch defender of orthodoxy and an energetic opponent of heresy, especially Marcionism and Valentinianism (the most influential of the Gnostic sects). A letter to him from Saint John has survived, as has his Epistle to the Philippians, in which he quotes from 1 John 4:3 and warns the Philippians against the false teachings of Marcion, whom he once called "the first-born of Satan," and which was so esteemed that it was widely read in Asian churches even during Saint Jerome's lifetime, but was not included in the canon of Scripture.
Toward the end of his life he visited Pope Saint Anicetus in Rome, and when they could not agree on a date for Easter decided each would observe his own date. To testify his respect and ensure that the bonds of charity were unbroken, Anicetus invited Polycarp to celebrate the Eucharist in the papal chapel on this occasion.
Soon after he returned to Smyrna, a youth called Germanicus was killed at a pagan festival.

The crowd cried out: "Away with the atheists [meaning the Christians who refused to worship the state gods]. Fetch Polycarp." And so, at age 90 (or 80 according to Eusebius), when the persecution under Marcus Aurelius was at its height and men marvelled at the incredible resistance of the Christians, he suffered grievously, despite his great age and feebleness, at the hands of the mob. He had refused to sacrifice to the gods and acknowledge the emperor's divinity.
He had been warned that they would arrest him, and had been persuaded to retire to a farm outside the city, where he was betrayed by one of his own household, who had been threatened with torture. The police came armed as against a robber, and when they saw him marvelled at his age and calmness. "Was so much effort needed," they said, "to capture such a venerable man?" It was the evening and Polycarp had retired to rest, but he came down and, with great courtesy and hospitality, offered them food and wine.
He then asked leave that he might pray, and stood and prayed for all whom he had known and for the whole Church throughout the world.

Seating him on an ass, they brought him to Smyrna, where the governor, on meeting him, took him into his own chariot, begging him to recant, and on his refusal cast him out upon the road so that he dislocated his leg. Lame and exhausted, he was dragged to the crowded arena and was met by the deafening tumult of the spectators, who, seeing before them the most eminent of the Christians, called upon him to blaspheme.
To this he replied: "For eighty and six years I have served Christ and he has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior now! If you require of me to swear by the genius of Caesar, as you call it, hear my free confession: I am a Christian; if you wish to learn the Christian doctrine, choose a day and hear me." The proconsul said, "Persuade the people." To which Polycarp joyfully and confidently answered, "I address myself to you; for we are taught to give due honor to princes, so far as it is consistent with religion. But before these people I cannot justify myself."

The proconsul admired his courage, but already the herald had thrice proclaimed in the stadium: "Polycarp has confessed that he is a Christian," and the crowd called for him to be thrown to the lions, but the time of the games was already over. The Roman proconsul threatened to throw him into a fire. To which Polycarp responded, "You threaten me with a fire that will certainly die out. You know nothing of the eternal fire that is reserved for the wicked." So, as he had already foretold, Polycarp was ordered to be burned alive. He uttered a prayer of praise and glory to God, and offered up himself.
In 155 AD the Christians of Smyrna described the attempted execution of Saint Polycarp by burning. The funeral pyre was made ready, the multitude gathering wood and faggots, and the aged father of the Christians laid aside his garments; but when they were about to nail him to the stake he said: "It is unnecessary. He who gives me strength to endure in the flame will enable me to stand firm," and as the fire reached him he broke into praise and prayer.
Initially the fires failed to harm the bishop and witnesses later described how 'the flames made a sort of arch, like a ship's sail filled with the wind, and they were like a wall round the martyr's body; and he looked, not like burning flesh, but like bread in the oven or gold and silver being refined in a furnace.' They watched Polycarp surrounded by flames but unharmed and perceived 'such a fragrant smell, as if it were the wafted odor of frankincense or some other precious spice.
In the end the bishop was dispatched by an executioner with a dagger. It is said that a dove came forth as well as enough blood to quench the fire. His body was burned to ashes to prevent the Christians from taking it.
The Martyrium Polycarpi, written in the name of the church of Smyrna, addressed to the church of Philomelius in Pisidia, and evidently from eyewitness accounts of his arrest, trial, and martyrdom, is the oldest authentic example of the acta of a martyr (introductory note to the epistle). Twelve others of his flock were martyred with Polycarp. The translated narrative of his martyrdom can be found in Ancient Christian Writers series, no. 6 (1957). The date of his death is debated; it may have been 166 or 177; but the earlier date seems more likely.
The account of his martyrdom is precious evidence for the cultus of saints as early as the 2nd century; and his vita of the variation in the dates of Easter from an early period (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Farmer, Gill, Harrison, Walsh, White).
In art, Saint Polycarp is represented as a bishop roasted inside a brazen bull. At times he may be shown refusing to sacrifice to an idol or roasted in an oven (Roeder). He may also be depicted trampling on a pagan; with a funeral pyre near him; stabbed and burned to death; or being burned in various ways (White). Polycarp is invoked against earache (Roeder).

St. Polycarp (d. 156) February 23, 2010
Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey), disciple of St. John the Apostle and friend of St. Ignatius of Antioch was a revered Christian leader during the first half of the second century.  St. Ignatius, on his way to Rome to be martyred, visited Polycarp at Smyrna, and later at Troas wrote him a personal letter. The Asia Minor Churches recognized Polycarp’s leadership by choosing him as a representative to discuss with Pope Anicetus the date of the Easter celebration in Rome—quite a controversy in the early Church.
Only one of the many letters written by Polycarp has been preserved, the one he wrote to the Church of Philippi, Macedonia.
At 86, Polycarp was led into the crowded Smyrna stadium to be burned alive. The flames did not harm him and he was finally killed by a dagger. The centurion ordered the saint’s body burned. The “Acts” of Polycarp’s martyrdom are the earliest preserved, fully reliable account of a Christian m artyr’s death. He died in 156.

Comment:  Polycarp was recognized as a Christian leader by all Asia Minor Christians—a strong fortress of faith and loyalty to Jesus Christ. His own strength emerged from his trust in God, even when events contradicted this trust. Living among pagans and under a government opposed to the new religion, he led and fed his flock. Like the Good Shepherd, he laid down his life for his sheep and kept them from more persecution in Smyrna. He summarized his trust in God just before he died: “Father... I bless Thee, for having made me worthy of the day and the hour...” (Martyrdom, Chapter 14).
Quote: “Stand fast, therefore, in this conduct and follow the example of the Lord, ‘firm and unchangeable in faith, lovers of the brotherhood, loving each other, united in truth,’ helping each other with the mildness of the Lord, despising no man” (Polycarp, Letter to the Philippians).
252 St. Martha Virgin martyr of Spain
 In civitáte Asturicénsi, in Hispánia, sanctæ Marthæ, Vírginis et Mártyris, quæ, sub Décio Imperatóre et Patérno Procónsule, dire ob Christi fidem est cruciáta et gládio tandem occísa.
       In the city of Astorga in Spain, St. Martha, virgin and martyr, under Emperor Decius and the proconsul Paternus.  She was cruelly tortured for the faith of Christ and was finally slain by the sword.
She was beheaded at Astorga, Spain, and her relics were enshrined in the abbey of Ribas de Sil and at Ters.

Martha of Astorga VM (RM) Beautiful Spanish virgin and a true Christian, Saint Martha was beheaded for the faith in Astorga under Decius. Her relics are enshrined in the old Benedictine abbey of Ribas de Sil and at Ters, diocese of Astorga (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
3rd v St. Cerneuf Serenus, the Gardener martyr refused to sacrifice to pagan gods
 Apud Sírmium beáti Siréni, Mónachi et Mártyris, qui, jubénte Maximiáno Imperatóre, reténtus est, et, cum se Christiánum esse confiterétur, cápite obtruncátus.
      At Sirmio, blessed Sirenus, monk and martyr.  He was arrested by order of Emperor Maximian and beheaded for confessing that he was a Christian.
Also known as Cerneuf, according to his probably fictious legend, but possibly based on some historic foundation.

302 St Serenus The Gardener, Martyr
St Serenus
is also known as St Cerneuf at Billom in Auvergne, where some of his relics are said preserved. A Greek by birth, he left all that he had to serve God in the ascetic life of celibacy, penance and prayer. Coming with this intention to Sirmium in what is now Yugoslavia (its present name is Mitrovica), he bought a garden, which he cultivated, living on the fruit and vegetables it pro­duced. When a persecution broke out against the Christians, he hid for several months, but afterwards returned to his garden. One day he found a woman walking about in it, and he asked her gravely what she was doing there within the enclosure of an ascetic. “I particularly enjoy walking in this garden”, she replied. “A lady of your position ought not to be wandering about here at an unbecoming time”, retorted the saint, and he would not allow her to stay. It was the hour of siesta, when it was not usual for persons of quality to be abroad, and Serenus suspected that she had come with no good intention. The lady, however, was furious at the rebuke, and immediately wrote to her husband, who belonged to the guards of the Emperor Maximian, and complained that she had been insulted by Serenus.

Her husband went to the emperor to demand justice, and said, “Whilst we are waiting on your Majesty’s person, our wives in distant lands are insulted”. Where­upon the emperor gave him a letter to the governor of the province to enable him to obtain satisfaction. With this letter he set out for Sirmium, and, presenting it to the governor, charged him to avenge the affront offered. “And who is the insolent man who has dared to insult the wife of such a gentleman as yourself?” inquired the magistrate. “A vulgar fellow—a gardener called Serenus.” The governor at once sent for him and asked him his name. “Serenus”, was the reply.

Thy occupation?”—“I am a gardener”. The governor said, “How then hast thou the insolence to affront this officer’s wife in your garden?” Serenus an­swered, “I have never, to my knowledge, insulted a woman in all my life. But I do remember a lady coming to my garden some time ago at an unseemly hour. She said she had come to take a walk, and I own that I told her it was improper for one of her sex and quality to be wandering abroad at such an hour.”

This defence caused the officer to look at the matter from another point of view: it seemed that it was his wife who was in fault and he therefore withdrew, dropping the prosecution.

The governor, however, had had his suspicions aroused: he thought that so scrupulous a man must of necessity be a Christian. Consequently he proceeded to cross-examine him on that point, and asked him what his religion was. “I am a Christian”, was the unhesitating reply. The governor asked him where he had been lurking that he had not offered sacrifice to the gods. “It has pleased God to reserve me for this time,” replied Serenus. “It seemed for a while that he had rejected me as being a stone unfit for His building, but now that He calls me to be placed in it I am ready to suffer that I may have a part in His Kingdom with His saints.” The governor exclaimed, “Since thou hast sought by flight to elude the emperor’s decrees and hast refused to offer sacrifice to the gods, I condemn thee to suffer death by decapitation”. The sentence was immediately carried out.

The so-called Acts of Serenus have been printed by the Bollandists (Feb., vol. iii). Although Ruinart includes them in his Acta Sincera, the details of the story are quite unre­liable Delehaye (Légendes hagiographiques, p. 115) classifies them as fictitious, but possibly based on some historic foundation.

He imigrated to Sirmium (Metrovica, Yugoslavia), and was known for his gardening. He went into hiding for a time to escape a persecution of Christians that had just begun, and on his return, rebuked a lady for walking in his garden at an unseemly time. She reported to her husband that he had insulted her, and the husband, a member of the imperial guards, reported the matter to Emperor Maximian. Upon orders from the Emperor the governor investigated the matter, found Serenus innocent of insulting the woman, but while examining him, found that he was a Christian.
When Serenus refused to sacrifice to pagan gods, he was beheaded.
 Ibídem natális sanctórum septuagínta duórum Mártyrum, qui, martyrii certámen in præfáta urbe consummántes, mansúra percepérunt regna.       In the same place, the birthday of seventy-two holy martyrs, who suffered martyrdom in the same city and who took possession of the everlasting kingdom.
324 St. Romana  Roman virgin led holy life in dens/caves, wrought glorious miracles baptized by Pope St. Sylvester
 Tudérti, in Umbria, sanctæ Románæ Vírginis, quæ, a sancto Silvéstro Papa baptizáta, in antris et spelúncis cæléstem vitam duxit, et miraculórum glória cláruit.
       At Todi in Umbria, St. Romana, virgin, who was baptized by Pope St. Sylvester, led a life of holiness in dens and caves, and wrought glorious miracles.
Almost certainly a legendary figure, she supposedly lived as a hermitess in a cave on the banks of the river Tiber in Rome. She figures in the doubtful life of Pope St. Sylvester.
Romana of Todi V (RM) Died 324. A spurious legend reports that the virgin Saint Romana was baptized by Pope Saint Sylvester. She died at the age of 18 while living in seclusion in a cave on the banks of the Tiber (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). Sometimes Saint Romana is painted together with Pope Saint Sylvester (Roeder).
372 Saint Gorgonia sister of St Gregory the Theologian distinguished for her great virtue, piety, meekness, sagacity, and toil
Her house was a haven for the poor. The mother of five children, she died around the year 372 at the age of thirty-nine. Her last words were, "In peace I will both lie down and sleep" (Psalm 4:8).

430 St. Alexander Akimetes Hermit founder of religious houses Sleepless Ones (akoimetoi).
430 St Alexander Akimetes
Although the name of Alexander, who was a restless and somewhat turbulent archimandrite, has never found a place in the Roman Martyrology, he is honoured in certain Eastern provinces, and his biography is given on January 15 in the Acta Sanctorum. Alexander was born in Asia, but in early manhood he studied in Constantinople, where he was converted through his earnest reading of the gospels, and then retired to Syria to practise asceticism. After eleven years’ experience of the religious life, both as a cenobite and as an anchoret, he devoted himself to a missionary career in Mesopotamia, and is said to have converted the famous Rabulas, afterwards bishop of Edessa. After this he founded a large monastery beside the Euphrates, but before long he was on the move again, taking with him a large company of his monks. He settled for a while in Antioch, where his visit caused great disturbances, but finally established a new monastery at Constantin­ople. There, once more, violent animosities were aroused, and his enemies procured his banishment. After crossing the Hellespont, Alexander was mobbed and severely maltreated, but by the help of some powerful protector he managed to build another monastery at Gomon, on the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus, where he eventually died in 430.

The fame of Alexander is mainly due to his institution of a form of choral service, the execution of which was carried on night and day without interruption, the monks being divided into relays for the purpose. They were hence called sleepless ones, and it is now recognized that this type of cursus, which Alexander created, has had a considerable indirect influence upon the divine office in the Western church. So far as there was any liturgical cultus of St Alexander in the East, his feast seems to have been kept either on February 23 or July 3.

See the excellent article of J. Pargoire in DAC., vol. i, cc. 307—321 and also the Revue des questions historiques, January, 1899. A Latin version of the life is printed in the Acta Sanctorum for January 15 the Greek text was edited by E. De Stoop in 1911 in the Patrologia Orientalis, vol. vi, part 5. cf. also S. Vailhé in DHG., vol. i, cc. 274—282. For the laus perennis, cf. herein St Sigismund, May 5.

He was born in Asia Minor and studied in Constantinople. There he became a convert to Christianity and began a life of retreat and prayer. Alexander remained a hermit for eleven years in Syria and then started missionary work. He founded a monastery in Mesopotamia and another one in Constantinople. He visited Antioch but found opposition there, which forced him to leave Constantinople and go to Gomon, where he founded a monastery. Alexander is believed to have converted Rabulas, who became the bishop of Edessa. Alexander is also credited with initiating the liturgical service in which his four-hundred monks sang the Divine Office continuously day and night. He died in Gomon.
Alexander Akimetes, Abbot (AC) Died 430; feast day formerly on January 15.  The story of Alexander is that of a Greek army officer who, moved by Christ's words to the rich young ruler, sold his possessions and became a monk. But he was too energetic for a solitary life. After seven years, in a fit of enthusiasm he left his retreat and set fire to a pagan temple. For this he was imprisoned, but, like Saint Paul, succeeded in converting the governor, who was baptized with all his household.
Securing his freedom, Alexander returned to the desert and fell in with a band of robbers. The result was remarkable, for under his influence they also accepted the Christian faith, and when their leader died, Alexander turned them into a band of monks and their robber's den into a monastery. Appointing one of them as abbot, he went on his way, this time to Mesopotamia, where he established a monastery on the Euphrates.
Alexander was a somewhat restless archimandrite, fond of new places and faces. So, he formed a travelling monastery. With 150 monks he journeyed from place to place, until his followers numbered 300. These he divided into six choirs, to sing in turn the divine office and thus maintain, day and night, unceasing praise, and hence came their name of the Sleepless Ones (akoimetoi). One of these houses he established at Constantinople (Benedictines, Gill).

430 Saint Alexander, Founder of the Monastery of the "Unsleeping Ones," monastery of 400 monks
Born in Asia and received his education at Constantinople. He spent some time in military service but, sensing a calling to other service, he left the world and receivedmonastic tonsure in one of the desert monasteries near Antioch under the guidance of Igumen Elias.

Having advanced through all the degrees of monastic obedience, he received a blessing from the igumen to dwell in the wilderness. The saint lived an ascetical life in the wilderness, taking only the Holy Gospel with him. Afterwards, the Lord summoned him to preach to pagans. He converted to the faith the local city-head Rabbul, who afterwards prospered in the service of the Church, attaining the rank of bishop and for thirty years he occupied the bishop's cathedra in the city of Edessa.

Finally, St Alexander settled not far from the Euphrates River. Monks gathered around him, attracted by the loftiness of his prayerful asceticism and spiritual experience. A monastery of 400 monks eventually sprang up there.

Then the holy igumen in his prayerful zeal decided to offer never-ceasing praise to the Lord at the monastery both by day and by night. For three years the holy abba prayed that God might reveal to him whether it was pleasing to Him to establish such a monastic rule. He received an answer by divine revelation. All the monks were divided into twenty-four watches of prayer. Changing shifts each hour, two choirs sang the holy Psalms both day and night, except when divine services were celebrated in church. Hence the name "Monastery of Unsleeping Ones," since the ascetics offered unceasing praise to God.

St Alexander guided the monastery on the Euphrates for twelve years. Thereafter, having left the experienced Elder Trophimus as igumen, he set off with some chosen brethren through the cities bordering on Persia, to preach the Gospel. Having arrived at Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, he also established a monastery there with his Rule of unceasing praise. The abba died at a great old age after fifty years of monastic struggles. His death occurred in the year 430.
St Alexander is also commemorated on July 3.
5th v. SS John, Sts Antiochus and Antoninus also lived in asceticism  disciple of St Limnaeus (February 22), lived in Syria
Chose for himself the ascetic struggle of "a shelterless life." He settled on a hill, sheltered from the wind on all sides, and lived there for twenty-five years. He ate only bread and salt, and he exhausted his body under heavy chains. When one of the nearby ascetics planted an almond tree on the hill so that St John could enjoy its shade and get out of the vicious heat, the saint told him to cut it down. This he did in order to deny his body any respite.
Sts Antiochus and Antoninus also lived in asceticism with St John. They continued their ascetical struggles until they reached an advanced age, offering an example of spiritual strength, and overcoming every obstacle.
5th v. St Moses lived in Syria Iimitating St John the very model of an austere ascetical life
he settled on a high mountain near the village of Rama. He was a disciple of St Polychronius, and lived with him. Emulating his Elder in everything, St Moses was the very model of an austere ascetical life.
5th v. St Zebinas lived in Syria lived an ascetical life on the same mountain as St Moses
He never sat down during his Rule of prayer, but sometimes he leaned on his staff. The neighboring inhabitants venerated St Zebinas, and they received great help in their sorrows and needs through his prayers.  He reached a great old age, then departed to the Lord.

5th v. Saint Polychronius lived in Syria disciple of St Zebinas and imitated the life of his Elder
Spending both day and night in fasting and vigil. St Polychronius had no chains, but he dug up a heavy oaken root from the earth and carried it on his shoulders when he prayed.
St Polychronius asked God to send rain during a drought, and he filled up a stone vessel with oil for the needy.
5th v. Saint Damian lived in Syria withdrew to a monastery named Ieros
Lived there in asceticism. In his cell he had only a small box of lentils from which he ate.

485 St. Florentius Saint martyred in Seville, Spain.
Florentius of Seville (RM) Died c. 485. Saint of Seville who is much venerated there and nearby (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
530 St. Dositheus Convert monk at Gaza, Israel cared for the sick with incomparable vigilance, charity, and sweetness
He was a wealthy young man who visited Jerusalem, where he was baptized as a Christian. After becoming a monk, Dositheus cared for the sick until his poor health took its toll

530 St Dositheus
Dositheus was brought up a
pagan, entirely ignorant of the doctrines of Christian­ity, but he used to hear much talk about Jerusalem, and was induced, out of curiosity, to visit it. He went to see the chief sights of the city including Geth­semane, where he was impressed by a painting representing the lost being tormented in Hell. He did not understand what he saw until a stranger, an elderly lady, explained the picture and told him about the last judgement, Heaven and Hell. Greatly impressed, he asked what he should do to avoid the terrible punishment and she replied that he must fast and pray. He set about following her advice, but his friends laughed at him and told him that he had better become a monk; so making his way to the monastery at Gaza ruled by the Abbot Seridos he asked to be admitted. At first the abbot hesitated on account of his youthful appearance, but the young man’s earnestness was reassuring and he accordingly accepted him with the approval of St Barsanuphius, committing him to the care of one of his monks called Dorotheus. This experienced ascetic, aware of the difficulty of passing from one extreme to another, and seeing that Dositheus was not robust, left him pretty much to his own devices at first, so far as the external practices of asceticism were concerned, but he taught him to discipline his tongue and to conquer irregular impulses. He impressed upon him the necessity of a perfect renunciation of his own will in everything, great or small, and then, as he found his strength would permit, he daily diminished his supply of food till the quantity of six pounds of bread a day, with which he had begun, became reduced to eight ounces.

After a time Dositheus was entrusted with the care of the sick—an office that he discharged to the satisfaction of all: he was so kind and cheerful that the sick loved his presence. At first, when they were unreasonable, he would sometimes lose patience and speak crossly. Then, overcome with remorse, he would run to his cell and throw himself on the ground weeping bitterly until his master came to comfort him and to assure him of God’s forgiveness. After a time physical symptoms seem to have developed, and he suffered constant haemorrhages from the lungs, but he continued to the last to deny his own will. Unable to do anything but pray, he continually asked the direction of his master and followed it in all that he attempted. Dorotheus said, “Be instant in prayer—lose not hold of that”, and Dositheus replied, “Master, it is well—pray for me”. When he grew weaker he murmured, “Forgive me, master, but I cannot continue”. “Give up the effort, then, my son but keep God in mind as ever present beside thee.” He asked Dorotheus to pray that God would soon take him, and was assured that the end was near: “Depart in peace; thou shalt appear in joy before the Holy Trinity, and there pray for us”.

Some of the other monks murmured at Dorotheus for promising Dositheus Heaven, and for asking the intercession of one who had done nothing in the way of fasting and had moreover performed no miracles, but Dorotheus replied, “He did not fast, it is true, but he completely surrendered his own will”.

Shortly after the death of Dositheus, there came to the monastery a very holy old man who greatly desired that God would show him those departed monks of the house who had entered into glory. His wish was granted, and he saw in a vision a number of aged saints forming a choir and amongst them there was one quite young man. Relating the vision afterwards he asked who the young man could be, and described him so exactly that none could doubt that it was Dositheus.
He has been described as a forerunner of St John Berchmans and St Stanislaus Kostka.

See the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. iii. Dositheus has never been officially recognized as a saint in either the East or the West, but there is a seemingly contemporary life that the Bollandists have translated and he is spoken of by Dorotheus the Archimandrite in the first of his “Twenty-four Discourses”. See also P. M. Brun, “La vie de St Dosithée”, in Orientalia Christiana, vol. xxvi (1932), pp. 89—523, text and translation.

Dositheus of Gaza, Monk (AC)
Dositheus, who had spent his youth in worldly pursuits and gross ignorance of spiritual matters, went to Jerusalem out of curiosity because he had heard it mentioned so often in discourse. In Jerusalem he became so strongly affected by the sight of a picture representing hell, and by the exposition given to him about it, that he immediately forsook the world and entered a monastery at Gaza.  The abbot Seridon gave him the monastic habit and commended him to the care of a monk named Dorotheus, an experienced director. Dorotheus understood the difficulty of extreme swings of fervor and left Dositheus to his own devices regarding food, but was careful to instill in him the necessity of perfect renunciation of his own will in all things great and small.
Dositheus went from eating six pounds of bread daily to eight ounces. Thus Dorotheus proceeded with his pupil in other monastic duties and by a constant and unreserved denial of his own will, and a perfect submission to his director, he surpassed in virtue the greatest fasters of the monastery. All his actions seemed to have nothing of choice, nothing of his own will in any circumstances; the will of God alone reigned in his heart.
At the end of five years he was entrusted with the care of the sick, an office he discharged with incomparable vigilance, charity, and sweetness.

The sick were comforted by the very sight of him. Dositheus himself became sick with a lung disease (spitting up blood, possibly consumption), but continued to the end to deny his own will and was extremely vigilant to prevent any of its suggestions taking place in his heart, unlike most of us who when sick think we should be allowed everything.

Dositheus's poor health prevented him from fasting, and moreover he did not work any miracles; these facts scandalized his fellow monks. Nevertheless, his abbot considered him a saint, since he had completely given up his own will. Unable to do anything but pray, he asked continually, and followed, in all his devotions, the directions of his master; and when he could no longer perform his long exercises of prayer, he declared this with his ordinary simplicity to Saint Dorotheus, who said to him, "Be not uneasy, only have Jesus Christ always present in your heart."

Dositheus begged Dorotheus to pray for an early release from his sufferings. Dorotheus answered, "Have a little patience. God's mercy is near." Soon after he said to him, "Depart in peace and appear in joy before the blessed Trinity, and pray for us." After Dositheus's death, Dorotheus declared that he had surpassed the rest in virtue without the practice of any extraordinary austerity (Benedictines, Husenbeth).
5th v St. Zebinus hermit  trained Saint Maro Polychronius, and others who lived in Syria
Zebinus of Syria, Hermit (AC) 5th century.
As a hermit in Syria, Saint Zebinus trained Saint Maro, Saint Polychronius, and others in the monastic life (Benedictines).

7th v St. Jurmin Prince a confessor of East Anglia, England
A relative of King Anna . He is honored as a confessor, and his relics were enshrined at Bury St. Edmunds.
Jurmin (AC) 7th century. Saint Jurmin was an east Anglian prince--either the son or nephew of King Anna. It is more likely that he was a nephew because modern historians doubt the Anna had any sons. He may have been the son of Æthelhere, the brother and successor of Anna. His relics were laid at Blythburgh in Suffolk before being enshrined at Bury Saint Edmunds in 1095. William of Malmesbury mentions his tomb at Bury (with Botulf's) but reports that he could learn nothing more about him than that he was a brother of Saint Etheldreda (Benedictines, Farmer).
650 St. Felix of Brescia Bishop of Brescia Itlay opponent of the Lombard Arians
 Bríxiæ sancti Felícis Epíscopi.       At Brescia, St. Felix, bishop.
He governed Brescia for more than forty years.
Felix of Brescia B (RM). The 20th bishop of Brescia, Saint Felix governed the diocese for over 40 eventful years during which he was occupied in combatting Lombard Arians and other heretics (Benedictines).
661 St. Boswell Abbot of Melrose, England  sublime virtues gift of prophecy
Also called Boisil. Boswell trained as a monk under St. Aidan. As abbot, Boswell served as a biblical scholar. He was given a gift of prophecy and was known for his preaching, and he trained Sts. Cuthbert and Eghert. Boswell died of the plague.

664 St Boisil, Or Boswell, Abbot of Melrose
The famous abbey of Melrose, which at first followed the Rule of St Columba but afterwards the Cistercian, was situated on the river Tweed in a great forest which, in the seventh century, was included in the kingdom of Northumbria. Boisil, who would appear to have been trained in his youth by St Aidan, was a priest and monk of Melrose under St Eata, whom he succeeded as abbot there.
Bede says that he was a man of sublime virtue richly endowed with the prophetic spirit, and his contemporaries were greatly impressed with his powers of prevision, as well as by his profound knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. His fame determined St Cuthbert to go to Melrose rather than to Lindisfarne to be trained, and in later years Cuthbert often confessed how much he owed to the teaching and example of his spiritual master. When Cuthbert first arrived at Melrose and was dismounting from his horse, Boisil said to the bystanders, “Behold a servant of God”, and Cuthbert afterwards declared that the holy abbot had foretold to him the chief events of his after life. He loved to repeat the names of the Blessed Trinity, and had a special veneration for the holy name of Jesus, which he pronounced with such devotion as moved the hearts of all who heard him. Boisil made frequent excursions into the villages to preach to the poor and to bring back erring souls to the paths of truth and light.

Three years beforehand he foretold the great pestilence of 664, adding that he himself would die of the Yellow Plague, but that Eata would survive it. St Cuthbert first contracted the malady, and no sooner had he recovered than Boisil said to him, “You see, brother, that God has delivered you from this illness, and you will not get it again, nor will you die at present, but since my own death is at hand learn of me as long as I shall be able to teach you—which will not be more than seven days.”— “And what will be best for me to read that may be finished in seven days?” asked St Cuthbert. “The Gospel of St John. I have a copy in ten sheets which we will finish in that time”—for they were only seeking to read it devotionally, Bede tells us, and not to treat of profound questions. It came to pass as he foretold that at the end of seven days Boisil was taken ill and passed away in great jubilation on account of his earnest wish to be with Christ. He had always had a great love for the Gospel of St John, reading from it every day, for which purpose he divided it into seven portions. St Cuthbert inherited this devotion from him, and a Latin copy of St John’s Gospel, now preserved at Stonyhurst College, was found in his tomb. After his death St Boisil appeared to a follower of St Egbert and told him that it was not God’s will that Egbert should go as a missionary to Germany, but that he was to labour amongst the children of Columba in Iona. In the eleventh century the relics of St Boisil were translated to Durham.

Our chief authority is Bede, who speaks of St Boisil both in his Ecclesiastical History and in his Life of St Cuthbert. Saint Boswell’s, Roxburghshire, takes its name from him and a church at Lessuden in the same county is dedicated to him. See also the Acta Sanctorum, January, vol. iii. It is by no means clear why Butler notices St Boisil on this day. The Bollandists treat of him on January 23 and March 20. From certain late Durham calendars he would seem to have been commemorated there on July 7 or 8, as Stanton, Menology, points out, pp. 318, 658, and September 9 is also said to have been his date.  
Boisil (Boswell) of Melrose, Abbot (AC) Died c. 664.
Saint Boisil was the prior of the famous abbey of Melrose (Mailross), situated on the Tweed River in a great forest in Northumberland, while Saint Eata was abbot. Both were English youths trained in monasticism by Saint Aidan.
Saint Bede says that Boisil was a man of sublime virtues, imbued with a prophetic spirit.
His eminent sanctity drew Saint Cuthbert to Melrose rather than to Lindisfarne in his youth.
It was from Boisil that Cuthbert learned the sacred scriptures and virtue.


Saint Boisil had the holy names of the adorable Trinity ever on his lips. He repeated the name Jesus Christ with a wonderful sentiment of devotion, and often with such an abundance of tears that others would weep with him. With tender affection he would frequently say, "How good a Jesus we have!" At the first sight of Saint Cuthbert, Boisil said to bystanders, "Behold a servant of God!"

Bede produces the testimony of Saint Cuthbert, who declared that Boisil foretold to him the chief things that afterwards happened to him. Three years beforehand he foretold of the great pestilence of 664, and that he himself should die of it, but that Eata the abbot should survive.

In addition to continually instructing his brothers in religion, Boisil made frequent excursions into the villages to preach to the poor, and to bring straying souls on to the paths of truth and life. He was also known for his aid to the poor.

Again, Boisil told Cuthbert, recovering from the plague, "You see, brother, that God has delivered you from this disease, nor shall you ever feel it again, nor die at this time; but my death being at hand, neglect not to learn something from me so long as I shall be able to teach you, which will be no more than seven days." So Cuthbert asked, "And what will be best for me to read which may be finished in seven days." To which Boisil replied, "The Gospel of Saint John, which we may in that time read over, and confer upon as much as shall be necessary."

Having accomplished the reading in seven days, the man of God, Boisil, became ill and died in extraordinary jubilation of soul, out of his earnest desire to be with Christ.

During his life he repeatedly instructed his brothers, "That they would never cease giving thanks to God for the gift of their religious vocation; that they would always watch over themselves against self-love and all attachment to their own will and private judgment, as against their capital enemy; that they would converse assiduously with God by interior prayer, and labor continually to attain to the most perfect purity of heart, this being the true and short road to the perfection of Christian virtue."

Bede relates that Saint Boisil continued after his death to interest himself particularly in obtaining divine mercy and grace for his country and his friends. He appeared twice to one of his disciples, giving him a charge to assure Saint Egbert, who had been hindered from preaching the Gospel in Germany, that God commanded him to repair the monasteries of Saint Columba on Iona and in the Orkneys, and to instruct them in the right manner of celebrating Easter.

The relics of Boisil were translated to Durham, and deposited near those of his disciple, Saint Cuthbert, in 1030 (Benedictines, Delaney, Husenbeth).

715 St. Milburga Benedictine abbess veil from St. Theodore of Canterbury miracles performed gift of levitation
 In Anglia sanctæ Milbúrgis Vírginis, fíliæ Regis Merciórum.
       In England, St. Milburga, virgin, the daughter of the king of Mercia.

700 St Milburga, Abbess of Wenlock, Virgin
St Milburga
was St Mildred’s elder sister, and she founded the nunnery of Wen­lock in Shropshire—now known as Much Wenlock. Her father Merewald and her uncle Wulfhere, King of Mercia, assisted her greatly and endowed the house. Archbishop St Theodore consecrated her abbess and the monastery is said to have flourished like a paradise under her rule. She was remarkable for her humility, but the more she humbled herself the more did God favour her with wonderful graces. She was endowed with the gift of healing, and is said to have restored sight to the blind. She had also great spiritual power and brought numerous sinners to repentance by her exhortations.

Many stories are told of her: one tells how one night she remained so long in prayer that she fell asleep and did not awake until next morning when the rays of the sun roused her. She started up so quickly that her veil fell from her head, but before it could touch the ground it was caught by a sunbeam which kept it poised in the air until she could compose herself and resume it. On another occasion we are told that a widow came to her, bringing a dead child whom she entreated the saint to restore to life. Although Milburga reproved her, the woman refused to go. Then Milburga threw herself down in prayer beside the child, and was immediately surrounded by fire from Heaven. One of the sisters who entered the room at that moment cried out to her to fly, but even as she spoke the fire disap­peared, and the saint, rising from the ground, gave the child alive into its mother’s arms. After a life of holiness and good works, St Milburga was attacked by a painful and lingering disease that she bore with complete serenity. Her last words were, “Blessed are the pure in heart: blessed are the peacemakers”.

Her tomb was long venerated, but the Danes destroyed the abbey, and it was almost forgotten till the Norman conquest when Cluniac monks built a monastery on the spot. Whilst the building was going on, two boys at play there found themselves sinking into the ground, and when the monks started excavation they discovered the bones of St Milburga.
    The beautiful ruins at Much Wenlock are those of the later house. St Milburga was credited with having power over the birds of the air, and was invoked for the protection of the crops against their ravages. Her feast is still observed in the diocese of Shrewsbury. Of the third sister of this family, St Mildgytha, all that is recorded is that she was a nun, at whose tomb in Northumbria “miraculous powers were often exhibited”.

What we know of St Milburga comes to us mainly through the not very satisfactory channels of John of Tynemouth, Capgrave, William of Malmesbury and William Thorn. It is curious, however, that while many native saints of more historical importance are little noticed in our English calendars, Milburga’s name appears in quite a number of them, beginning with the Bosworth Psalter, written c. 950. See also the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. iii and Stanton, Menology, pp. 81—82.

She was the daughter of a king of Mercia and sister of Sts. Mildred of Thanet and Mildgytha. Milburga was abbess of Wenlock Abbey in Salop, Shropshire, England. Her father and her uncle, King Wulfhere, provided funds for the abbey. Among the remarkable abilities she evidenced were levitation and power over birds.
Milburga of Wenlock, OSB Abbess (RM)
(also known as Milburgh)
Died c. 700 or 722; feast of the translation of her relics, June 25. The ruins of Wenlock Abbey in Shropshire, dating from the 11th century, remind us of Saint Milburga, whose name still lingers in that area. She was one of a family of eminent saints and belonged to the royal house of Mercia.

How often a good mother is blessed in her children! Her mother Domneva (Domna Ebba or Ermenburga), princess of Kent, had three daughters: Milburga, Mildred, and Mildgytha, each of whom grew up to follow the pattern of her mother's faith, and each, after a life wholly devoted to Christ, was canonized as a saint.

Those were the days when the daughters of kings were proud and eager to dedicate their wealth and talents in Christian leadership and to pour out their youth and strength in the service of the Church. They founded and ruled great abbeys, taught the young, cared for the sick, and relieved the poor.

Milburga, like her mother before her, surrendered her high estate, forsook the luxury and comfort of her home, and counted it her highest privilege to serve God in a consecrated Christian life. Helped by her father, Merewald, an Anglian chieftain, and her uncle Wulfhere, king of Mercia, she founded the monastery of Wenlock, which was placed under the direction of Saint Botulf of East Anglia. Its first abbess was Liobsynde, a French nun from Chelles. Its second was Milburga, who was consecrated abbess by Archbishop Saint Theodore. It was no ordinary monastery; everything about it reflected the grace and fragrance of her own pure spirit. The gardens were full of the choicest flowers, the orchards bore the sweetest fruits, and within its walls was found, we are told, the very peace of heaven.

By her sheer goodness Milburga converted many to the Christian faith, and this in a dark and primitive age when, outside the monastery walls, the countryside was wild and remote, and full of unknown dangers. One day, for example, on one of her errands of mercy, she was terrified by a neighboring princeling who, wishing to marry her, intercepted her with a band of soldiers, but she providentially escaped. In her flight she crossed a small stream called the Corve, and he, following, found when he reached it that the waters had risen and his plan was thwarted. The place where it happened it called to this day Stoke Saint Milburgh.

She loved flowers, birds (over which she had a mysterious power), country life, and country people, to sit and work in the sun and tend the herbs in her garden, and to visit in the villages around. People came to her with their troubles and ailments and even ascribed to her miraculous cures. Milburga was venerated for her humility, holiness, the miracles she performed, and for the gift of levitation she is said to have possessed.

According to Boniface, the famous Vision of the Monk of Wenlock occurred during Milburga's abbacy. Goscelin also preserved her testament, which is a long, apparently authentic list of lands that belonged to her at her death.

When she was on her deathbed, she said to her followers, "I have been mother to you. I have watched over you like a mother, with pious care. And in mercy, I go the way of all flesh. A higher call invites me." One by one they said farewell, gave her the sacraments, and after her death buried her body near the altar of the abbey.

Her tomb was long venerated but its site was unknown when the Cluniac monks from La-Charité-sur-Loire refounded Wenlock in 1079. The church had a silver casket that contained her relics and documents describing the site of her grave, near an altar then unknown. Apparently, the church was destroyed by the Danes.

After consulting Saint Anselm, the monks excavated an old, disused church. Thus, centuries later, two boys who were playing among its ruins fell through the pavement by the broken altar, as a result of which her tomb was rediscovered. When opened, according to legend, there came from it a heavenly sweetness, and the lost garden of the monastery seemed filled again with the fragrance of the flowers she had planted.
Details of this discovery and of cures in 1101 were described by Cardinal-Bishop Otto of Ostia the following year.

Among the miracles documented were the healing of lepers and the blinds, and, the vomiting of a worm that had caused a wasting disease. The approval of so distinguished a personage, ensured the revival of Milburga's cultus.
Goscelin wrote her vita in the late 11th century. Her feast was common in English calendars from the Bosworth Psalter (c. 1000) onwards (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer, Gill, Husenbeth).

In art, Saint Milburgh holds the abbey of Wenlock. There may be geese near her. She is venerated at Stoke (Roeder).
850 St. Medrald Benedictine abbot  Medrald of Vendôme, OSB Abbot (AC)
(also known as Mérald, Méraut) Died c. 850. Saint Medrald was a monk of Saint-Evroult (Ebrulfus) of Ouche.
He later became abbot of Vendôme (Benedictines) also called Merald and Merault. He was abbot of Vendome, France.
867 St. Lazarus Zographos Monk painter of Constantinople
 Constantinópoli sancti Lázari Mónachi, qui, cum sacras Imágines píngeret, idcírco, Imperatóris Iconoclástæ Theóphili jussu, diris suppliciis excruciátur, et ei manus candénti ferro combúritur; sed, Dei virtúte sanátus, abrásas Imágines sanctas pingéndo restítuit, ac demum in pace quiévit.
       At Constantinople, St. Lazarus, monk.  The Iconoclast emperor Theophilus commanded him to be tortured with severe punishments because he had painted some sacred pictures.  His hand was burned with a hot iron, but it was healed by the power of God, after which he repainted the holy pictures that had been destroyed.  He ended his life in peace.
 He defended sacred images against the Iconoclasts.
Lazarus the Painter (RM) (also known as Lazarus Zographos) Saint Lazarus was a monk of Constantinople, and a skilled painter, who in the time of Theophilus (829-842), one of the iconoclast emperors, busied himself in restoring the sacred images defaced by the heretics. For this he was cruelly tormented by the emperor. Later he was restored to honor and sent as ambassador to Rome (Benedictines). In art, Saint Lazarus is shown with his hands burned but still painting for churches and/or restoring damaged paintings (Roeder).
1011 St. Willigis Bishop missionaries to Scandinavia, founded churches chaplain to Emperor Otto II (r. 973-983)
Born at Schoningen, Germany, he was the son of a wheelwright. After studying and receiving ordination, he was named a canon at Hildesheim and then received appointment as a chaplain to Emperor Otto II. The ruler made Willigis chancellor of Germany in 971 and then archbishop of Mainz in 973. About the same time, Pope Benedict VII  (r. 974-983) named him vicar apostolic for Germany. In 983, he crowned the infant emperor Otto III (r. 996-1002) at Aachen and was one of the chief figures in the regency with Otto's mother, Empress Theophano (d. 991) and then Empress Adelaide (d. 999). Following Otto's death in 1002, Willigis was instrumental in securing the election of Henry (r. king, 1002-1024, emperor, 1014-1024) of Bavaria, whom he consecrated as Henry II. A brilliant statesman, he always strove first to a be Church man. He sent missionaries to Scandinavia, founded churches, was careful in the prelates that he appointed to the sees of Germany, and rebuilt the cathedral of Mainz.

1011 St Willigis, Archbishop Of Mainz
St Willigis a great statesman and one of the most eminent churchmen of his age, was born of humble parents in the little town of Schöningen. Quite early he showed remarkable ability and was educated for the priesthood. He was a canon of Hildesheim when the Emperor Otto II appointed him first of all his chaplain-in-chief and then chancellor of Germany in 971. His outstanding qualities caused Otto to nominate him archbishop of Mainz and chancellor, as just mentioned, in spite of great opposition from those who resented his humble origin. Willigis was indefatigable in his energy. It was to him that Otto III, a minor, owed the crown which the archbishop placed on his head at Aachen in 983, and it was he who, after the death of the Empress Theophano, carried on the government with the Empress Adelaide. When the promising young emperor died without issue at the age of twenty-one, it was Willigis who contrived to get his cousin Henry of Bavaria elected as his successor—a most judicious choice, for Henry is numbered among the saints. These early emperors protected Germany from the anarchy that prevailed elsewhere in central Europe: as heads of the Holy Roman Empire they represented the unity of western Christendom, and much of their success they owed directly to St Willigis.

Absorbed as he might seem to be in politics, the saint never lost sight of his ecclesiastical duties. He helped on the spread of Christianity in Schleswig, Holstein, Denmark and Sweden, and at all times he was careful that none but worthy men should be appointed bishops. He consecrated the great church of Halberstadt, established the collegiate churches of St Stephen and St Victor and entirely rebuilt the cathedral in Mainz; when it was burnt down on the very day of consecration, he patiently accepted the trial and immediately set about re-erecting it, though it was not completed until the reign of his successor.

Several great bishops were consecrated by him—notably St Adalbert of Prague, Rathgar of Paderborn, St Bernward of Hildesheim, Bd Burchard of Worms, and Eberhard, first bishop of Bamberg. In the midst of worldly cares and successes, Willigis maintained a simple and childlike fear of God and an extraordinary humility. A contemporary and one who knew him wrote: “His countenance remained ever unruffled, but even more remarkable was his inward peace. He spoke little, but his few words carried more weight than many oaths from other people.” All he did was performed punctually and carefully. He so arranged his recital of the offices that they occupied him until noon, after which he transacted business, and if any time of leisure were left over he would spend it happily in studying the Holy Scriptures. Every day his steward had to provide food and drink for thirty poor persons and thirteen others were fed from his own table and given a present in money.

The only unedifying episode in the life of St Willigis was a dispute he had with the bishop of Hildesheim, St Bernward, over the nunnery and church of Ganders­heim which stood on the boundary between their dioceses. The contention, which was caused by the mischief-making of a nun called Sophia, a sister of the emperor, caused grave scandal, and was eventually settled in favour of Hildesheim. At once the archbishop withdrew his claim, and did not hesitate to do so openly. “Brother and fellow bishop”, he said, “I resign all pretensions regarding the church and I hand over to you this staff as a token that neither I myself nor any of my successors will ever revive the claim.”

That he spoke and acted in good faith can be seen from the words of his opponent’s biographer, who, speaking of the death of Willigis, remarks that he passed to the Lord full of years and of good works. He was honoured as a saint immediately after his death, and in the church of St Stephen a special Mass is offered on the anniversary of his death. Some of his Mass vestments are preserved, but the so-called chalice of St Willigis which was formerly used on his feast does not date from his time. The saint is chiefly known in England through the old tradition which the Rev. S. Baring-Gould popularized in his poem, “The Arms of Mayence”. It describes how the archbishop at his investment and enthronization, perceiving the empty escutcheon for his arms and having none of his own, asked that he might be allowed to choose a wheel—as a reminder of his father’s trade—and it goes on to relate how the burgesses, who had sneered at him for his plebeian origin, decided after his death to adopt a wheel as the emblem of the city in thanksgiving for his peaceful and glorious reign. But the story is quite anachronistic.

No ancient biography of St Willigis is known to exist, although a brief summary of his life, corresponding to what may usually be found in the Breviary lessons, has been printed by G. Waitz in MGH., Scriptores, vol. xv, pp. 743—745. Abundant material concerning him may, however, be found in the chroniclers of the time, all which F. Falk has turned to good account in a series of articles in the periodical Der Katholik of Mainz for 1869, 1871 and 1881. There are modern biographies by H. Böhmer (1895) and J. Schmidt, the latter of which appeared as articles in Der Katholik for 1911 and 1952, and deals particularly with the attitude of St Willigis to the Holy See. See also H. K. Mann, Lives of the Popes, vols. iv and v.

Willigis of Mainz B (AC) Born at Schöningen, Brunswick; died at Mainz, Germany, in 1011. Saint Willigis was a man of humble origin, son of a wheelwright, who by 975 was imperial chancellor to Otto II, and archbishop of Mainz. As a canon of Hildesheim (near Hanover), Willigis attracted the attention of Otto II through Otto's precentor Wolkold, who became archbishop of Meissen in 969. Willigis also served Otto III as chaplain and chancellor, and left his mark as a capable and conscientious ecclesiastical statesman.

Through his efforts Christianity increased in Schleswig-Holstein and southern Scandinavia; he consecrated a succession of excellent bishops, provided for the building of several great churches and other public works, and established or restored collegiate churches in Mainz and Halberstadt. His personal life included daily study of the Scriptures and the organized relief of the poor. Willigis was a notable patron of the arts; his motto was "by art to the knowledge and service of God."

On the death of Otto, Willigis became one of the most important and influential people in the empire.
Confirmed by Benedict VII in the right to coronate emperors, Willigis crowned Otto III and later influenced him in favor of abandoning Italy and concentrating his resources north of the Alps. Otto III died young in 1002. The succession was disputed but ended with Willigis crowning Saint Henry II and his wife Saint Cunegund at Paderborn. He then served his third monarch faithfully.

Unhappily Willigis had a long disagreement with Saint Bernward of Hildesheim about jurisdiction over the convent of Gandersheim, a quarrel apparently provoked by one of the nuns, a sister of Otto III. At long last Willigis admitted he was in the wrong and gracefully withdrew his claims. This seems to have been the only blot on a vigorous and beneficent episcopate.

After he died of old age, Willigis's body was buried in St. Stephen's Church in Mainz. His cultus arose immediately and spontaneously. It is claimed that some of his Mass vestments have survived (Attwater, Benedictines, Farmer).

Saint Willigis is represented in art as a bishop with a wheel, which he chose as his insignia to symbolize his father's trade (Roeder). He is the patron of carters and wheelwrights, who is venerated at Hildesheim and Schoeningen (Roeder). 
1066 St. Ordonius  Benedictine bishop monk in Sahagiin, Leon
He served as a monk in Sahagiin, Leon, Spain, before receiving elevation to the office of bishop of Astorga in 1062.

1072 St. Peter Damian stern figure to recall men in a lax age from the error of their ways
Favéntiæ, in Æmília, natális sancti Petri Damiáni, Cardinális atque Epíscopi Ostiénsis et Confessóris, ex Ordine Camaldulénsi, doctrína et sanctitáte célebris, quem Leo Papa Duodécimus Doctórem universális Ecclésiæ declarávit.  Ipsíus autem festum sequénti die celebrátur.
 Sancti Petri Damiáni, ex Ordine Camaldulénsi, Cardinális et Epíscopi  Ostiénsis, Confessóris et Ecclésiæ Doctóris, qui evolávit in cælum prídie hujus diéi.       St. Peter Damian, a Camaldolese monk, cardinal bishop of Ostia, confessor and doctor of the Church, who died on the 22nd of February.

ST PETER DAMIAN, CARDINAL-BISHOP OF Ostia, Doctor OF THE CHURCH (A D. 1072)
ST PETER DAMIAN is one of those stern figures who seem specially raised up, like St John Baptist, to recall men in a lax age from the error of their ways and to bring them back into the narrow path of virtue. He was born at Ravenna and, having lost his parents when very young, he was left in the charge of a brother in whose house he was treated more like a slave than a kinsman. As soon as he was old enough he was sent to tend swine. Another brother, who was archpriest of Ravenna, took pity on the neglected lad and undertook to have him educated. Having found a father in this brother, Peter appears to have adopted from him the surname of Damian. Damian sent the boy to school, first at Faenza and then at Parma. He proved an apt pupil and became in time a master and a professor of great ability. He had early begun to inure himself to fasting, watching and prayer, and wore a hair shirt under his clothes to arm himself against the allurements of pleasure and the wiles of the Devil. Not only did he give away much in alms, but he was seldom without some poor persons at his table, and took pleasure in serving them with his own hands.
St. Peter Damian: Monk And Church Reformer Vatican City, 9 Sep 2009 (VIS) - Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI dedicated the catechesis of his general audience, held this morning in the Paul VI Hall, to St. Peter Damian (1007-1072), "a monk, lover of solitude and, overall, an intrepid man of the Church who played a leading role in the reforms undertaken by the Popes of his time".
  Peter Damian, who lost both his parents while still very young and was raised by his siblings, received a superlative education in jurisprudence and Greek and Latin culture. As a young man he dedicated himself to teaching and authored a number of literary works, but he soon felt the call to become a monk and entered the monastery of Fonte Avellana.
  The monastery "was dedicated to the Holy Cross, and of all the Christian mysteries the Cross would be the one that most fascinated Peter Damian", explained Pope Benedict, expressing the hope that the saint's example "may encourage us too always to look to the Cross as God's supreme act of love towards man".
  As an aid to monastic life Peter Damian "wrote a Rule in which he placed great emphasis upon the 'rigour of the hermitage'. ... For him hermitic life is the apex of Christian life. It is 'the highest state of life' because the monk, free from the ties of the world and of his own self, receives 'the pledge of the Holy Spirit and his soul felicitously unites with the heavenly Bridegroom'. Today too, even if we are not monks, it is important to know how to create silence within ourselves in order to listen to the voice of God. ... Learning the Word of God in prayer and meditation is the path of life".
  For this saint, who was also an accomplished theologian, "communion with Christ creates a unity of love among Christians. ... Peter Damian developed a profound theology of the Church as communion. ... Thus, service to the individual becomes an 'expression of universality'.
  "Yet nonetheless", the Holy Father added, "this ideal image of the 'holy Church' as illustrated by Peter Damian did not, as he knew, correspond to the reality of his own time. And he was not afraid to denounce the state of corruption that existed in the monasteries and among the clergy, the result, above all, of the practice of the civil authorities conferring investiture to ecclesiastical office".
  In order to combat this situation, in 1057 he left the monastery to accept appointment as a cardinal. "Thus he came to collaborate fully with Popes in the difficult task of reforming the Church", in which context "he courageously undertook many journeys and missions". Ten years later he returned to monastic life, but continued to serve the papacy. He died in 1072 on his return from a mission to re-establish peace with the archbishop of Ravenna.
  Peter Damian, the Holy Father concluded, "was a monk par excellence, practising forms of austerity which today we might even find excessive. Yet in this way he made monastic life an eloquent witness of God's primacy and a call to everyone to progress towards sanctity, free from any kind of worldly compromise. He expended himself with great coherence and severity for the reform of the Church of his time, and dedicated all his spiritual and physical energy to Christ and to the Church".  AG/PETER DAMIAN/..VIS 090909 (570)

After a time Peter resolved to leave the world entirely and embrace a monastic life away from his own country. Whilst his mind was full of these thoughts, two religious of St Benedict, belonging to Fonte Avellana of the reform of St Romuald, happened to call at the house where he lived, and he was able to learn much from them about their rule and mode of life. This decided him, and he joined their hermitage, which was then in the greatest repute. The hermits, who dwelt in pairs in separate cells, occupied themselves chiefly in prayer and reading, and lived a life of great austerity. Peter’s excessive watchings brought on a severe insomnia which was cured with difficulty, but which taught him to use more discretion. Acting upon this experience, he now devoted considerable time to sacred studies, and became as well versed in the Holy Scriptures as he formerly had been in profane literature. By the unanimous consent of the hermits he was ordered to take upon himself the government of the community in the event of the superior’s death. Peter’s extreme reluctance obliged the abbot to make it a matter of obedience. Accordingly after the abbot’s decease about the year 1043, Peter assumed the direction of that holy family, which he governed with great wisdom and piety. He also founded five other hermitages in which he placed priors under his own general direction. His chief care was to foster in his disciples the spirit of solitude, charity and humility. Many of them became great lights of the Church, including St Dominic Loricatus, and St John of Lodi, his successor in the priory of the Holy Cross, who wrote St Peter’s life and at the end of his days became bishop of Gubbio. For years Peter Damian was much employed in the service of the Church by successive popes, and in 1057 Stephen IX prevailed upon him to quit his desert and made him cardinal-bishop of Ostia. Peter constantly solicited Nicholas II to grant him leave to resign his bishopric and return to his solitude, but the pope had always refused.

His successor, Alexander II, out of affection for the holy man, was prevailed upon with difficulty to consent, but reserved the power to employ him in church matters of importance, as he might hereafter have need of his help. The saint from that time considered himself dispensed not only from the responsibility of governing his see, but from the supervision of the various religious settlements he had controlled, and reduced himself to the condition of a simple monk.

In this retirement he edified the Church by his humility, penance and com­punction, and laboured in his writings to enforce the observance of morality and discipline. His style is vehement, and his strictness appears in all his works— especially when he treats of the duties of the clergy and of monks. He severely rebuked the bishop of Florence for playing a game of chess. That prelate acknowledged his amusement to be unworthy, and received the holy man’s reproof meekly, submitting to do penance by reciting the psalter three times and by washing the feet of twelve poor men and giving them each a piece of money.

Peter wrote a treatise to the bishop of Besançon in which he inveighed against the custom by which the canons of that church sang the Divine Office seated in choir, though he allowed all to sit for the lessons. He recommended the use of the discipline as a substitute for long penitential fasts. He wrote most severely on the obligations of monks and protested against their wandering abroad, seeing that the spirit of retirement is an essential condition of their state. He complained bitterly of certain evasions whereby many palliated real infractions of their vow of poverty. He justly observed,

“We can never restore primitive discipline when once it is decayed; and if we, by negligence, suffer any diminution in what remains established, future ages will never be able to repair the breach. Let us not draw upon ourselves so foul a reproach; but let us faithfully transmit to posterity the example of virtue which we have received from our forefathers.”

St Peter Damian fought simony with very great vigour, and equally vigorously upheld clerical celibacy; and as he supported a severely ascetical, semi-eremitical life for monks, so he was an encour­ager of common life for the secular clergy. He was a man of great vehemence in all he said and did; it has been said of him, “his genius was to exhort and impel to the heroic, to praise striking achievements and to record edifying examples an extraordinary moral force burns in all that he wrote”.

In spite of his severity, St Peter Damian could treat penitents with mildness and indulgence where charity and prudence required it. Henry IV, the young king of Germany, had married Bertha, daughter of Otto, Marquis of the Marches of Italy, but two years later he sought a divorce under the pretence that the marriage had never been consummated. By promises and threats he won over the arch­bishop of Mainz, who summoned a council for the purpose of sanctioning the annulment of the marriage; but Pope Alexander II forbade him to consent to such an injustice and chose Peter Damian as his legate to preside over the synod. The aged legate met the king and bishops at Frankfurt, laid before them the order and instructions of the Holy See, and entreated the king to pay due regard to the law of God, the canons of the Church and his own reputation, and also to reflect seriously on the public scandal which so pernicious an example would give. The nobles likewise entreated the monarch not to stain his honour by conduct so un­worthy. Henry, unable to resist this strong opposition, dropped his project of a divorce, but remained the same at heart, only hating the queen more bitterly than ever.

Peter hastened back to his desert of Fonte Avellana. Whatever austerities he prescribed for others, he practised himself, remitting none of them even in his old age. He used to make wooden spoons and other little useful things that his hands might not be idle during the time he was not at work or at prayer. When Henry, Archbishop of Ravenna, had been excommunicated for grievous enormities, Peter was again sent by Alexander II as legate to settle the troubles. Upon his arrival at Ravenna he found that the prelate had just died, but he brought the accomplices of his crimes to a sense of their guilt and imposed on them suitable penance. This was Damian’s last undertaking for the Church. As he was returning towards Rome he was arrested by an acute attack of fever in a monastery outside Faenza, and died on the eighth day of this illness, whilst the monks were reciting Matins round about him, on February 22, 1072.

St Peter Damian was one of the chief forerunners of the Hildebrandine reform in the Church. His preaching was most eloquent and his writing voluminous, and he was declared a doctor of the Church in 1828.

Although the biography by his disciple John (who is almost certainly John of Lodi, later bishop of Gubbio) supplies a connected account of the life of St Peter Damian, still his history is very largely written in the chronicles of the times as well as in his own letters and diatribes. John’s biography is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. iii, as well as in Mabillon. See also the excellent study of R. Biron, St Pierre Damien in the series “Les Saints”, and Capecelatro, Storia di San Pier Damiano. For English readers Mgr Mann’s Lives of the Pope’s, vols. v and vi, provide much collateral information. cf. 0. J. Blum’s St Peter Damian (1947), in which his teaching is examined and D. Knowles, The Monastic Order in England (1949), pp. 193—197, with the references there given. There is a study in German by F. Dressier (1954).
At Faenza in Emília, the birthday of St. Peter Damian, cardinal bishop of Ostia and confessor.  He was a Camaldolese monk, famous for his learning and sanctity, whom Pope Leo XII declared a doctor of the universal Church. St. Peter Damian is one of those stern figures who seem specially raised up, like St. John Baptist, to recall men in a lax age from the error of their ways and to bring them back into the narrow path of virtue.
He was born at Ravenna and, having lost his parents when very young, he was left in the charge of a brother in whose house he was treated more like a slave than a kinsman. As soon as he was old enough he was sent to tend swine. Another brother, who was archpriest of Ravenna, took pity on the neglected lad and undertook to have him educated. Having found a father in this brother, Peter appears to have adopted from him the surname of Damian. Damian sent the boy to school, first at Faenza and then at Parma. He proved an apt pupil and became in time a master and a professor of great ability. He had early begun to inure himself to fasting, watching and prayer, and wore a hairshirt under his clothes to arm himself against the alurements of pleasure and the wiles of the devil. Not only did he give away much in alms, but he was seldom without some poor persons at his table, and took pleasure in serving them with his own hands.
After a time Peter resolved to leave the world entirely and embrace a monastic life away from his own country.

While his mind was full of these thoughts, two religious of St. Benedict, belonging to Fonte Avellana of the Reform of St. Romuald, happened to call at the house where he lived, and he was able to learn much from them about their Rule and mode of life. This decided him and he joined their hermitage, which was then in the greatest repute. The hermits, who dwelled in pairs in separate cells, occupied themselves chiefly in prayer and reading, and lived a life of great austerity. Peter's excessive watchings brought on a severe insomnia which was cured with difficulty, but which taught him to use more discretion. Acting upon this experience, he now devoted considerable time to Sacred studies, and became as well versed in the Holy Scriptures as he formerly had been in profane literature. By the unanimous consent of the hermits he was ordered to take upon himself the government of the Community in the event of the superior's death. Peter's extreme reluctance obliged the abbot to make it a matter of obedience.
Accordingly after the abbot's decease about the year 1043, Peter assumed the direction of that holy family, which he governed with great wisdom and piety.

He also founded five other hermitages in which he place Priors under his own general direction. His chief care was to foster in his disciples the spirit of solitude, charity, and humility. Many of them became great lights of the Church, including St. Dominic Loricatus, and St. John of Lodi, his successor in the priory of the Holy Cross, who wrote St. Peter's life and at the end of his days became Bishop of Gubbio.

For years Peter Damian was much employed in the service of the Church by successive Popes, and in 1057 Stephen IX prevailed upon him to quit his desert and made him Cardinal-bishop of Ostia. Peter constantly solicited Nicholas II to grant him leave to resign his bishopric and return to the solitude, but the Pope had always refused. His successor, Alexander II, out of affection for the holy man, was prevailed upon with difficulty to consent, but reserved the power to employ him in Church matters of importance, as he might hereafter have need of his help.

The saint from that time considered himself dispensed not only from the responsibility of governing his See, but from the supervision of the various religious settlements he had controlled, and reduced himself to the condition of a simple monk. In this retirement he edified the Church by his humility, penance and compunction, and labored in his writings to enforce the observance of morality and discipline.
His style is vehement, and his strictness appears in all his works - especially when he treats of the duties of the clergy and of monks.

He severely rebuked the Bishop of Florence for playing a game of chess. That prelate acknowledged his amusement to be unworthy, and received the holy man's reproof meekly, submitting to do penance by reciting the psalter three times and by washing the feet of twelve poor men and giving them each a piece of money.
Peter wrote a treatise to the Bishop of Besancon in which he inveighed against the custom by which the Canons of that Church sang the Divine Office seated in choir, though he allowed all to sit for the lessons. He recommended the use of the discipline as a substitute for long penitential fasts. He wrote most severely on the obligation of monks and protested against their wandering abroad, seeing that the spirit of retirement is an essential condition of their state. He complained bitterly of certain evasions whereby many palliated real infractions of their vow of poverty. He justly observed,
"We can never restore primitive discipline when once it is decayed; and if we, by negligence, suffer any diminution in what remains established, future ages will never be able to repair the breach. Let us not draw upon ourselves so foul a reproach; but let us faithfully transmit to posterity the example of virtue which we have received from our forefathers."
St. Peter Damian fought simony with great vigor, and equally vigorously upheld clerical celibacy; and as he supported a severely ascetical, semi-eremitical life for monks, so he was an encourager of common life for the secular clergy. He was a man of great vehemence in all he said and did; it has been said of him that "his genius was to exhort and impel to the heroic, to praise striking achievements and to record edifying examples...an extraordinary force burns in all that he wrote". 
In spite of his severity, St. Peter Damian could treat penitents with mildness and indulgence where charity and prudence required it.

Henry IV, the young king of Germany, had married Bertha, daughter of Otto, Marquee of the Marches of Italy, but two years later he sought a divorce under the pretense that the marriage had never been consummated. By promises and threats he won over the archbishop of Mainz, who summoned a council for the purpose of sanctioning the annulment of the marriage; but Pope Alexander II forbade him to consent to such an injustice and chose Peter Damian as his legate to preside over the synod. The aged legate met the king and bishops at Frankfurt, laid before them the order and instructions of the Holy See, and entreated the king to pay due regard to the law of God, the Canons of the Church and his own reputation, and also to reflect seriously on the public scandal which so pernicious an example would give. The nobles likewise entreated the monarch not to stain his honor by conduct so unworthy. Henry, unable to resist this strong opposition, dropped his project of a divorce, but remained the same at heart, only hating the queen more bitterly than ever.

Peter hastened back to his desert of Fonte Avellana. Whatever austerities he prescribed for others, he practiced himself, remitting none of them even in his old age. He use to make wooden spoons and other little useful things that his hands might not be idle during the time he was not at work or at prayer. When Henry, Archbishop of Ravenna, had been excommunicated for grievous enormities, Peter was again sent by Alexander II as legate to settle the troubles. Upon his arrival at Ravenna he found that the prelate had just died, but he brought the accomplices of his crimes to a sense of their guilt and imposed on them suitable penance. This was Damian's last undertaking for the Church.
As he was returning towards Rome he was arrested by an acute attack of fever in a monastery outside Faenza, and died on the eighth day of this illness, while the monks were reciting Matins round about him, on February 22, 1072. St. Peter was one of the chief forerunners of the Hildebrandine reform in the Church.
His preaching was most eloquent and his writing voluminous, and he was declared a doctor of the Church in 1828.
1771 St. Marguerite d'Youville Catholic Canadians long honored as a saint this native daughter who allowed no obstacle to stand in the way of her helping others.
Marie-Marguerite Dufrost de Lajemmerais, born near Montreal in 1701, came from a notable French-Canadian family.  After two years of convent schooling, she returned home to help her widowed mother raise the five younger children.  At 20, Marguerite married François d'Youville, a confidential agent of the Governor.  She bore him six children.  But it was a sad marriage.  Four of the children died young.  Furthermore, her husband treated her with cool indifference.  Meanwhile, he was incurring the hatred of French-Canadians and Indians by his unethical business practices.  He died young, but Marguerite fell heir only to his debts.  She had to open a small shop to earn enough money to discharge the debts and to educate her two surviving sons who were eventually ordained priests.
Mme. d'Youville's own poverty only sharpened her natural sympathy for the poor.

As a widow she devoted ever more time to the corporal works of mercy.  She gave alms to the poor but of her own meager funds, and mended their threadbare clothing.  She visited the sick and jailed, and begged money for the burial of criminals.  Three other laywomen, impressed by her good deeds, asked to join her in this labor of love.  In 1737 all four made a profession to serve the needy.  A year later they began to live together, and welcomed several homeless persons as permanent guests.  But they remained laypersons. At the outset, these "ladies of charity" were unpopular, mostly because the avarice of François d'Youville was all too well remembered and his innocent wife was considered tarred by his misdeeds.  They were shouted at and stoned in the streets, and sometimes priests even denied them Holy Communion.  But the Widow d'Youville would not let her companions grow discouraged.
By 1749, the Montreal authorities, finally recognizing Marguerite's goodwill and talents, begged her to take over the management of the faltering General Hospital. 

King Louis XV confirmed the appointment.  Her duty involved paying off the whole great debt of the institution, and this she achieved.  Then she opened the hospital not only to whites and Indians but to epileptics, the mentally ill, lepers, the blind, the victims of contagious diseases, foundlings and the aged. In 1766, fire destroyed the hospital and all she had made it, but she accepted the disaster with resignation to God's will, and instead of complaining, led her associates in the recitation of a Te Deum in praise of God.  Then they started all over again.
In 1754, Mme. d'Youville took the now inevitable step of forming her women auxiliaries into a new religious order.
Their official title was "The Sisters of Charity of the General Hospital." For their religious habit she chose a grey material.  One reason for the choice was rather witty.  In their early years their enemies had sometimes called these women "les soeurs grises," which meant, "the drunken sisters." But it can also mean "the grey sisters." So ever since its foundation, Mother d'Youville's large congregation, today divided into several distinct communities, has been called by the nickname she adopted, the "Grey Sisters."
They rapidly expanded throughout Canada, always welcome because they were ready to undertake not only all the corporal works of mercy but also the spiritual works of mercy, including school teaching at all levels.  This comprehensive order eventually branched out into both Americas, Africa, and the Far East. (They made a foundation in Buffalo in 1857.  Out of this came D'Youville College.) From the start, the Grey Nuns were mission-minded.  In 1755, when the Indians of the Quebec Province were suffering a severe smallpox epidemic, Mother d'Youville and all 12 of her sisters volunteered to go nurse the Indian victims, willing to risk their own lives by so doing.  The Indians were touched by this devotion.
     These same Native Americans had earlier complained to the Governor about François d'Youville, who was disobediently selling them liquor.  "We cannot pray God because d'Youville made us drink every day.  If you don't expel him from this island, we don't want to go there again." Thus did Mother d'Youville make reparation for the sins of her husband.  Her nuns continued this restitution by becoming pioneer missionaries among the natives of Canada's West and Northwest. One cannot know St. Marguerite d'Youville without admiring her.  She was one of the most remarkable Catholic women in the history of the Western Hemisphere.   --Father Robert F. McNamara
1456 Blessed Nicholas of Prussia novice-master and prior, OSB (PC)
Born in Prussia in 1379; Nicholas was one of the original members of the reformed abbey of Saint Justina of Padua under the Venerable Ludovico Barbo, founder of the Benedictine Cassinese congregation. He lived successively at Padua, Venice, Padolirone, and finally at the abbey of San Niccolo del Boschetto near Genoa, where he was novice-master and prior. His cultus has not yet officially been approved (Benedictines).

1473 St. John Cantius patron saint of Poland and Lithuania "Fight all false opinions, but let your weapons be patience, sweetness and love.  Roughness is bad for your own soul and spoils the best cause."
Born 1390 in the village of Kanti near Auschwitz   His parents, Stanislaus and Anne Wacenga, finding their son extremely bright, saw to it that he attended the University of Krakow.  There he won many academic degrees, culminating in Master of Theology.  Except for a brief period in which he served as parish priest in Olkusz, Father John spent the major portion of his long career as a professor in  the University of Krakow
     John was a conscientious teacher, but he was more remembered for his holiness than for the originality of his scholarship.  A man of sweet and winning disposition, he became noted for his acts of self-denial and his care for the needy.  The two characteristics tied in with each other.  What he denied himself, he gave to the poor.  He slept on the floor, never ate meat, and when he made pilgrimages to Rome, he backpacked it all the way on foot.
     During his 83 years, Professor Kanti became a living legend at the University.  A story is told that once when he was dining in the university refectory, a hungry beggar passed by the door.  John at once jumped up and took all his own meal to the hungry man.  When he returned to his seat, he found his plate full again, miraculously.  It is said that in commemoration of this event, the university set aside each day a meal for a poor man.  When dinner was ready, the vice president would cry out in Latin:  "A poor man is coming."  The president would respond, "Jesus Christ is coming," and the hungry guest would then be served.
     Because of his reputation as a teacher, after his death St. John's doctoral gown was used to vest each candidate for the doctorate at later commencements.
     Another story about his clothes refers to his cassocks.  He was a welcome guest at the tables of the nobility, but once a nobleman's servants refused to admit him because he was wearing his usual threadbare cassock.  John simply went home, put on a new cassock that he had, and returned to the dinner.  During the meal somebody spilled food on the new cassock.  The even-tempered professor wittily replied, "No matter.  My clothes deserve some dinner because to them I owe the pleasure of being here at all."
     University life is and must be a peaceful life, far removed from politics and warfare.  But even an academic community can become a field for bitter intellectual battles.  St. John Cantius showed himself an ideal Christian scholar when he warned his students, as he did constantly, of the need of charity even when one is fighting against erroneous ideas.  "Fight all false opinions," he would say, "but let your weapons be patience, sweetness and love.  Roughness is bad for your own soul and spoils the best cause."
     Today we Catholics are engaged in battling many false ideas.  Conflict often tempts one to do and say violent things, to offend against charity by showing disrespect for the human dignity of those who hold the false opinions.  May we heed the advice of this Polish professor-saint, and defend the truth only by "patience, sweetness and love."
     --Father Robert F. McNamara
1568 Saint Damian of Philotheou was a disciple of St Dometius (August 7) preacher martyr by Turks
He was from the village of Richovon (Merichovon) near Agrapha. He went to Mt. Athos when he was quite young, and received the monastic tonsure at Philotheou Monastery. After spending some time there, he withdrew to a hermitage under the guidance of an Elder named Dometius.
After three years, he heard a voice telling him to go forth and teach. He obeyed these instructions, preaching in many areas of Greece. He urged his fellow Christians to repent of their sins, to abstain from all vices, to obey God's commandments, and to devote themselves to God-pleasing works.
As he was on his way to a village, St Damian was arrested by the Turks and thrown into prison. After fifteen days of torture, he was hanged and then thrown into a fire.
St Damian received the crown of martyrdom on February 23, 1568.



THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 273

O Lady, why hast thou cast us off? and why wilt thou not help us in the day of tribulation?

Let my prayer come into thy sight: and despise not the voices of those who groan.

The enemy hath stretched his bow against us: he has strengthened his right hand, and there is no consoler.

Break for us the bonds of his malicious doings: and deliver us by thy right hand.

Drive him back into the place of perdition: let eternal damnation possess him.


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

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