Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
R.  Deo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
January is the month of the Holy Name of Jesus since 1902;
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The third day of the Afterfeast of Theophany
Philomena.html HERE

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

Acts of the Apostles

Nine First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

 How do I start the Five First Saturdays?

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

The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life and Ministry of the Priest
Mary Mother of GOD
15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary
 
December 31  Saint Maria Odigitria Church (Rome) Catherine Labouré d. 1876

 Mary's Divine Motherhood
Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China {whole article here }

Nine First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart
From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.

January 9 – Virgin of the Annunciation (Italy, 1490) - Pauline Jaricot (d. 1862) 
 The spectacular spread of the Living Rosary
Pauline Marie Jaricot (born in Lyons, France, on July 22, 1799; died on January 9, 1862), is the foundress of the Catholic Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Born into a family of wealthy industrialists, she decided to serve God only, ready to devote her life to the cause of the faith. She made a vow of perpetual virginity and adopted the poor lifestyle of the working class.

In the 1820s, the Church had to defend herself against the surge of anticlerical views linked to the popularization of the philosophical works of the 18th century. The only antidote to atheism for Pauline was a life of prayer. She then founded the Association of the Living Rosary in 1826 along the same organizational structure used for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the following way. The fifteen decades of the Rosary were divided among fifteen members, each of whom pledged to recite one particular decade daily. Each group agreed to hold a monthly prayer meeting.

At the time of Pauline’s death, there were 150,000 groups, totaling 2.5 million members! She had bought a house on Fouvière hill in Lyons, calling it Loreto, to use as her headquarters, surrounding herself with pious girls she called the "Daughters of Mary."  rosarium.op.org

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.

January 9 – Virgin of the Annunciation (Italy, 1490) - Pauline-Marie Jaricot (d. 1862), Foundress of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith and the Association of the Living Rosary
 
  For the Renewal of Social Life: The Living Rosary
The Living Rosary started in France in 1826, thanks to Pauline-Marie Jaricot. Her Association of The Living Rosary was founded for the defense and renewal of the faith. Its mission is to help Christian life grow in individuals, families and society. The Living Rosary is about uniting hearts by virtue of the merits of Jesus and Mary; obtaining the conversion of sinners; praying for the Church and the preservation of the faith in Christian countries, and to promote the faith everywhere.  Consequently, we can pray for those who do not pray, and love Jesus through Mary on behalf of those who do not know or love him. (…)  The Living Rosary spreads itself naturally, since it is easy to learn and accessible to everyone. For example, the French city of Lyons already has 14 Living Rosary teams, a total of 280 people who pray the Living Rosary daily!  http://www.mariereine.com/
 
Saint John, Son of Mary (IX) - Our Lady Beyond the Tiber (Rome, Italy)
   After the miracle of the boiling oil, Domitian, possibly shocked or frightened, banished John to the island of Patmos, where he received 96 visions and wrote the Book of Revelation and evangelized the island with his scribe Prochorus.
Some modern exegetes have raised doubts over the attribution of the Book of Revelation to John, but Tradition (Justin, Irenaeus, Jerome, Clement, etc.) is unanimous and the minimal discrepancies that existed in this regard in the 4th century were concluded by the Fourth Council of Toledo (633): "The authority of many councils and holy synod decrees by the Holy Roman College of Cardinals establish the Book of Revelation to John the Evangelist and decide that it should be kept among the final Holy Books.
However, many are those who do not receive its authority and refuse to proclaim the Revelation in the Church of God.
Anyone who now receives this decree and does not recognize it publicly in the Church during Mass between Easter and Pentecost will be subject to excommunication." (Ch 17, Dnz 486)
(Therefore, until the nineteenth century, Tradition was absolutely unanimous in all apostolic Churches as well as on the island of Patmos.) Returning again to Ephesus, John lived his most active period, in apostolic terms, according to the Apocrypha (Acts of John, Acts of Prochorus). He eventually published in Greek, with the help of his scribe Prochorus, the refined substance of his oral teaching. This Gospel is all-spiritual, centered on the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word and the divinity of Christ.
"The acuity of his spiritual intelligence makes us compare the Apostle Saint John to an eagle. (...)
the Apostle spoke of the divinity of the Lord as no one has ever talked about it since.
He truly depicted what he had seen himself, as his own Gospel relates that he rested his head on the Lord's chest during the Last Supper." (St Augustine, Treaty 36.1)

January 9 - Our Lady Beyond the Tiber (Rome, Italy)   I Place my Hand in Yours
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Who am I, Lord, to begin to talk about the sacrament of your love? I have already tried so many times. As many times, bedazzled by the magnificence of your wonders, I have remained silent without being able to express anything. Will I be any better today? Will I remain silent for having too much to say? I dare hope that you will be the fire of my expressions, the intelligence of my mind, the love of my heart, the support of my weakness, and that I will faithfully carry out your intentions.
O Mary! Throne of wisdom, safe in your arms and in the shadow of your protection, I will gaze at the Sun of Justice.
I place my hand in yours; please lead me according to the Spirit of truth.
Pauline Jaricot (d. January 9, 1862)
Excerpt from the introduction of the Infinite Love in the Divine Eucharist (Amour infini dans la Divine Eucharistie)
 
His Gospel is unique and very important and it reflects the singular personality of its author:
"We must admit that of all the Scriptures, the Gospel is the beginning and, among the Gospel stories, the Gospel according to Saint John is the beginning. No one can understand the meaning of John's Gospel without resting his head on Jesus' chest and receiving Mary from Jesus for mother." (Origen)

Every aspect of priestly formation can be referred to Mary as to the human being who better than anyone has corresponded to the vocation of God; who has become the servant and disciple of the Word up until conceiving in her heart and in her flesh the Word made man in order to give him to humanity; who has been called to educate the unique and eternal Priest, docile and submissive to her motherly authority. With her example and through her intercession, the Blessed Virgin continues watching over the development of vocations and of the priestly life of the Church.
To her, the Mother of the Eternal High Priest, we want to entrust our priestly vocation, received with the imposition of hands on the day of our ordination, with which we are given the unmerited gift of being Alter Christus.
To her, who keeps her priests in her heart and in the Church,
we want to entrust our pastoral work and the abundant harvest of the Lord.
To her, who welcomed us from the beginning, who protected us in our formation,
we raise our petition, that she may accompany us in our priestly lives and ministries.
Excerpt from the Conference of Mons. Norberto Rivera, Archbishop, Primate of Mexico (Yamoussoukro, July 9, 1997)

 Be careful to give no credit to yourself for anything;
 if you do, you are stealing from God, to whom alone every good thing is due.  -- St Vincent de Paul

      
 303 St. Marciana Virgin martyr in Caesarea amphitheater in Mauretania
       St. Paschasia virgin martyr in the area of modern Dijon, France 
 250 St.  Epicharis bishop Martyr of Africa with 7 companions
3rd v. Saint Polyeuctus first martyr in the Armenian city of Meletine; soldier
 302  St. Julian Basilissa & Companions Martyr with Anastasius 
        St. Vitalicus bishop martyrs at Smyrna Revocatus Fortunatus deacons
 391 ST PETER, Bishop OF SEBASTEA; In this family three brothers were at the same time eminently holy bishops, St Basil, St Gregory of Nyssa and St Peter of Sebastea; their eldest sister, St Macrina, was the spiritual mother of many saints and excellent doctors; and their father and mother, St Basil the Elder and St Emmelia, were banished for their faith in the reign of the Emperor Galerius Maximian, and fled into the deserts of Pontus.  Finally, the grandmother was the celebrated St Macrina the Elder, who was instructed in the science of salvation by St Gregory Thaumaturgus.
 683 St. Waningus Benedictine abbot entered a monastery founded Holy Trinity Church and Convent of Fecamp
 700 St. Maurontus Benedictine abbot founder of Saint-Florentle-Vieil in Anjou
 710 St. Adrian, African Abbot near Naples tomb famous for miracles 
 731 St. Brithwald Benedictine Archbishop of Canterbury from 692 until 37 years;  friendly relations with St Aldhelm, St Boniface and other prominent and holy ecclesiastics; letter written to Berhtwald by Waldhere, Bishop of London, is the first extant letter from one Englishman to another
8th v. St. Foellan Irishman with his mother to Scotland became monk; missionary
1569 Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow
1622 Bl. Alix Le Clercq nun founded Augustinian Canonesses Congregation of Our Lady from Rome
1975 St. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer God showed him his specific mission: he was to found Opus Dei.
1975 St. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer God showed him his specific mission: he was to found Opus Dei, an institution within the Catholic Church dedicated to helping people in all walks of life to follow Christ, to seek holiness in their daily life and grow in love for God and their fellow men and women.
June 26, 1975
St. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer
Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer was born in Barbastro, Spain, on January 9, 1902, the second of six children of Jose and Dolores Escriva. Growing up in a devout family and attending Catholic schools, he learned the basic truths of the faith and practices such as frequent confession and communion, the rosary, and almsgiving. The death of three younger sisters, and his father's bankruptcy after business reverses, taught him the meaning of suffering and brought maturity to his outgoing and cheerful temperament. In 1915, the family moved to Logrono, where his father had found new employment.

Beginning in 1918, Josemaria sensed that God was asking something of him, although he didn't know exactly what it was. He decided to become a priest, in order to be available for whatever God wanted of him. He began studying for the priesthood, first in Logrono and later in Saragossa. At his father's suggestion and with the permission of his superiors at the seminary he also began to study civil law. He was ordained a priest and began his pastoral ministry in 1925.

In 1927, Fr. Josemaria moved to Madrid to study for a graduate degree in law. He was accompanied by his mother, sister, and brother, as his father had died in 1924 and he was now head of the family. They were not well-off, and he had to tutor law students to support them. At the same time he carried out a demanding pastoral work, especially among the poor and sick in Madrid, and with young children. He also undertook an apostolate with manual workers, professional people and university students who, by coming into contact with the poor and sick to whom Fr. Josemaria was ministering, learned the practical meaning of charity and their Christian responsibility to help out in the betterment of society.

On October 2, 1928, while making a retreat in Madrid, God showed him his specific mission: he was to found Opus Dei, an institution within the Catholic Church dedicated to helping people in all walks of life to follow Christ, to seek holiness in their daily life and grow in love for God and their fellow men and women. From that moment on, he dedicated all his strength to fulfilling this mission, certain that God had raised up Opus Dei to serve the Church. In 1930, responding to a new illumination from God, he started Opus Dei's apostolic work with women, making clear that they had the same responsibility as men to serve society and the Church.

The first edition of The Way, his most widely read work, was published in 1934 under the title Spiritual Considerations. Expanded and revised, it has gone through many editions since then; more than four million copies in many different languages are now in print. His other spiritual writings include Holy Rosary; The Way of the Cross; two collections of homilies, Christ Is Passing By and Friends of God; and Furrow and The Forge, which like The Way are made up of short points for prayer and reflection.

The development of Opus Dei began among the young people with whom Fr. Josemaria had already been in contact before 1928. Its growth, however, was seriously impeded by the religious persecution inflicted on the Catholic Church during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The founder himself suffered severe hardships under this persecution but, unlike many other priests, he came out of the war alive. After the war, he traveled throughout the country giving retreats to hundreds of priests at the request of their bishops. Meanwhile Opus Dei spread from Madrid to several other Spanish cities, and as soon as World War II ended in 1945, began starting in other countries. This growth was not without pain; though the Work always had the approval of the local bishops, its then-unfamiliar message of sanctity in the world met with some misunderstandings and suspicions-which the founder bore with great patience and charity.

While celebrating Mass in 1943, Fr. Josemaria received a new foundational grace to establish the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, which made it possible for some of Opus Dei's lay faithful to be ordained as priests. The full incorporation of both lay faithful and priests in Opus Dei, which makes a seamless cooperation in the apostolic work possible, is an essential feature of the foundational charism of Opus Dei, affirmed by the Church in granting Opus Dei the canonical status of a personal Prelature. In addition, the Priestly Society conducts activities, in full harmony with the bishops of the local churches, for the spiritual development of diocesan priests and seminarians. Diocesan priests can also be part of the Priestly Society, while at the same time remaining clergy of their own dioceses.

Aware that God meant Opus Dei to be part of the mission of the universal Church, the founder moved to Rome in 1946 so as to be close to the Holy See. By 1950 the Work had received pontifical approvals affirming its main foundational features-spreading the message of holiness in daily life; service to the Pope, the universal church, and the particular churches; secularity and naturalness; fostering personal freedom and responsibility, and a pluralism consistent with Catholic moral, political, and social teachings.

Beginning in 1948, full membership in Opus Dei was open to married people. In 1950 the Holy See approved the idea of accepting non-Catholics and even non-Christians as cooperators-persons who assist Opus Dei in its projects and programs without being members. The next decade saw the launching of a wide range of undertakings: professional schools, agricultural training centers, universities, primary and secondary schools, hospitals and clinics, and other initiatives, open to people of all races, religions, and social backgrounds but of manifestly Christian inspiration.

  During Vatican Council II (1962-1965), Monsignor Escriva worked closely with many of the council fathers, discussing key Council themes such as the universal call to holiness and the importance of laypersons in the mission of the Church. Deeply grateful for the Council's teachings, he did everything possible to implement them in the formative activities offered by Opus Dei throughout the world.

Between 1970 and 1975 the founder undertook catechetical trips throughout Europe and Latin America, speaking with many people, at times in large gatherings, about love of God, the sacraments, Christian dedication, and the need to sanctify work and family life. By the time of the founder's death, Opus Dei had spread to thirty nations on six continents. It now (2002) has more than 84,000 members in sixty countries.

Monsignor Escriva's death in Rome came suddenly on June 26, 1975, when he was 73. Large numbers of bishops and ordinary faithful petitioned the Vatican to begin the process for his beatification and canonization. On May 17, 1992, Pope John Paul II declared him Blessed before a huge crowd in St. Peter's Square.
He was canonized-formally declared a saint-on October 6, 2002.

2nd v. St. Paschasia virgin martyr in the area of modern Dijon, France
A who was put to death during the last half of the second century. She was long an object of veneration at the time of St. Gregory of Tours, who mentioned her in his writings.
250 St.  Epicharis bishop Martyr of Africa with 7 companions.
In Africa sanctórum Mártyrum Epictéti, Jucúndi, Secúndi, Vitális, Felícis et aliórum septem.
       In Africa, the holy martyrs Epictetus, Jucundus, Secundus, Vitalis, Felix, and seven others.
Felix, Jucundus, Secundus, Vitalis, and seven other companions. Epictetus was recorded by St. Cyprian.
 St. Vitalicus bishop martyrs at Smyrna Revocatus Fortunatus deacons.
 Smyrnæ sanctórum Mártyrum Vitális, Revocáti et Fortunáti.
       At Smyrna, the holy martyrs Vitalis, Revocatus, and Fortunatus.
 (modern Izmir, Turkey). Vitalicus was a bishop and the other two his deacons.
3rd v. Saint Polyeuctus was the first martyr in the Armenian city of Meletine;  soldier
He was a soldier under the emperor Decius (249-251) and he later suffered for Christ under the emperor Valerian (253-259).
The saint was friend also of Nearchos, a fellow-soldier and firm Christian, but Polyeuctus, though he led a virtuous life, remained a pagan.

When the persecution against Christians began, Nearchos said to Polyeuctus, "Friend, we shall soon be separated, for they will take me to torture, and you alas, will renounce your friendship with me." Polyeuctus told him that he had seen Christ in a dream, Who took his soiled military cloak from him and dressed him in a radiant garment. "Now," he said, "I am prepared to serve the Lord Jesus Christ."

Enflamed with zeal, St Polyeuctus went to the city square, and tore up the edict of Decius which required everyone to worship idols. A few moments later, he met a procession carrying twelve idols through the streets of the city. He dashed the idols to the ground and trampled them underfoot.

His father-in-law, the magistrate Felix, who was responsible for enforcing the imperial edict, was horrified at what St Polyeuctus had done and declared that he had to die for this. "Go, bid farewell to your wife and children," said Felix. Paulina came and tearfully entreated her husband to renounce Christ. His father-in-law Felix also wept, but St Polyeuctus remained steadfast in his resolve to suffer for Christ.

 With joy he bent his head beneath the sword of the executioner and was baptized in his own blood.

Soon, when the Church of Christ in the reign of St Constantine had triumphed throughout all the Roman Empire, a church was built at Meletine in honor of the holy Martyr Polyeuctus. Many miracles were worked through the intercession of St Polyeuctus. In this very church the parents of St Euthymius the Great (January 20) prayed fervently for a son. The birth of this great luminary of Orthodoxy in the year 376 occurred through the help of the holy Martyr Polyeuctus.

St Polyeuctus was also venerated by St Acacius, Bishop of Meletine (March 31), a participant in the Third Ecumenical Council, and a great proponent of Orthodoxy. In the East, and also in the West, the holy Martyr Polyeuctus is venerated as a patron saint of vows and treaty agreements.

The Polyeucte Overture of French composer Paul Dukas is only one of many pieces of classical music inspired by the saints. It premiered in January of 1892. French dramatist Pierre Corneille has also written a play, Polyeucte (1642), based on the martyr's life.
302  St. Julian, Basilissa {married} & Companions Martyr with Anastasius
What purport to be the acts of these saints are mere romances abounding in contradictions. See the Acta Sanctorum for January 9. The historical existence of any such couple is more than doubtful. One of the versions of the legend of St Alexis (July 17) seems to he simply a transcription of the first paragraphs of their long passio.

 Antiochíæ, sub Diocletiáno et Maximiáno, natális sanctórum Juliáni Mártyris, et Basilíssæ Vírginis, ipsíus Juliáni uxóris.  Hæc, virginitáte cum viro suo serváta, in pace vitam finívit; Juliánus vero (postquam multitúdo Sacerdótum et Ministrórum Ecclésiæ Christi, quæ, propter immanitátem persecutiónis, ad eos confúgerat, igne cremáta est), Marciáni Præsidis jussu, plúrimis torméntis cruciátus, capitálem senténtiam accépit.  Cum ipso étiam Antónius Présbyter, et Anastásius, quem idem Juliánus, a morte suscitátum, grátiæ Christi partícipem fécerat, et Celsus puer cum hujus matre Marcionílla, ac septem fratres, aliíque plúrimi passi sunt.
       At Antioch, in the reign of Diocletian and Maximian, the birthday of the Saints Julian, martyr, and Basilissa, his virgin wife.  She, having lived in a state of virginity with her husband, reached the end of her days in peace.  But Julian, after the death by fire of a multitude of priests and ministers of the Church of Christ, who had taken refuge in his house from the severity of the persecution, was ordered by the governor Marcian to be tormented in many ways and executed.  With him there suffered Anthony, a priest, and Anastasius, whom Julian raised from the dead, and made partaker of the grace of Christ; also Celsus, a boy, with his mother Marcionilla, seven brothers, and many others.
Anthony {priest}Marcionilla-mother  Celsus-son.
Julian and Basilissa were married and used their home as a Christian hospital for the poor. Anthony was a priest, and Anastasius was a new convert. Marcionilla was the mother of young Celsus.They were martyred at Antioch.
304 SS. JULIAN AND BASILISSA, AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
ACCORDING to their “acts” and the ancient martyrologies, Julian and Basilissa, though engaged in the married state, lived by mutual consent in perpetual chastity, sanctified themselves by the exercises of an ascetic life, and employed their revenues in relieving the poor and the sick. For this purpose they converted their house into a kind of hospital, in which, if we may credit their acts, they sometimes entertained a thousand indigent persons Basilissa attended those of her sex; Julian, on his part, ministered to the men with such charity that he was later on confused with St Julian the Hospitaller. Egypt, where they lived, had then begun to abound with examples of persons who, either in the cities or in the deserts, devoted themselves to charity, penance and contemplation. Basilissa, after having endured severe persecution, died in peace; Julian survived her many years, and received the crown of a glorious martyrdom, together with Celsus a youth, Antony a priest, Anastasius and Marcianilla, the mother of Celsus.
What purport to be the acts of these saints are mere romances abounding in contradictions. See the Acta Sanctorum for January 9. The historical existence of any such couple is more than doubtful. One of the versions of the legend of St Alexis (July 17) seems to he simply a transcription of the first paragraphs of their long passio.
303 ST MARCIANA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR; courageously despising all worldly advantages to secure the possession of heavenly grace, she bid defiance to the pagan idolaters
 In Mauritánia Cæsariénsi sanctæ Marciánæ Vírginis, quæ, béstiis trádita, martyrium consummávit.
       In Algeria, St. Marciana, virgin, who received her martyrdom after being condemned to the beasts.
 SHE was a native of Rusuccur, a place in Mauritania, and, courageously despising all worldly advantages to secure the possession of heavenly grace, she bid defiance to the pagan idolaters in the persecution of Diocletian. Marciana was beaten with clubs, and her chastity exposed to the rude attempts of gladiators, in which danger God miraculously preserved her, and she became the happy instrument of the conversion of one of them to the faith. At length she was torn in pieces by a wild bull and a leopard in the amphitheatre at Caesarea in Mauritania, about 100 miles west of the modern city of Algiers.
She is probably also commemorated on July 12 in the ancient breviary of Toledo, and in the Roman and some other martyrologies both on July 12 and January 9. See a beautiful ancient hymn in her praise in the Mozarabic breviary, and her acts in the Acta Sanctorum, though their authority is more than questionable. She was especially honoured in Spain, where she is patron of Tortosa, unless, indeed, there is really another martyr, likewise called Marciana, who, according to the Roman Martyrology, suffered at Toledo on July 12 (BHL., n. 780).
St. Marciana Virgin martyr in Caesarea amphitheater in Mauretania
She was ac­cused of vandalizing a statue of the goddess Diana. After torments, Marciana was gored by a bull and mauled by a leopard in the amphitheater of Caesarea, also in Mauretania.

Mauretania was a Berber kingdom on the Mediterranean coast of north Africa (named after the Mauri tribe, after whom the Moors were named), corresponding to western Algeria and northern Morocco. The kingdom of Mauretania was not sited where modern Mauritania lies, on the Atlantic coast south of Morocco.

With the rise of the Roman Empire, it became a Roman client kingdom. The Romans placed Juba II of Numidia there as client-king. When Juba died in AD 23, his Roman-educated son Ptolemy of Mauretania succeeded him on the throne, but Caligula killed him in AD 40 and annexed Mauretania directly as a Roman province. The province was divided into Mauretania Tingitana, named after its capital Tingis (now Tangier) corresponding to Morocco, and Mauretania Caesariensis, comprising western and central Algeria as far as Kabylie.
391 ST PETER, Bishop OF SEBASTEA; In this family three brothers were at the same time eminently holy bishops, St Basil, St Gregory of Nyssa and St Peter of Sebastea; their eldest sister, St Macrina, was the spiritual mother of many saints and excellent doctors; and their father and mother, St Basil the Elder and St Emmelia, were banished for their faith in the reign of the Emperor Galerius Maximian, and fled into the deserts of Pontus.  Finally, the grandmother was the celebrated St Macrina the Elder, who was instructed in the science of salvation by St Gregory Thaumaturgus.
 Sebáste, in Arménia, sancti Petri Epíscopi, fílii sanctórum Basilíi et Emméliæ, atque fratris item sanctórum Basilíi Magni et Gregórii Nysséni Episcopórum, ac Macrínæ Vírginis.
      At Sebaste in Armenia, St. Peter, bishop, the son of Saints Basil and Emmelia, and also the brother of Saints Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, bishops, and Macrina, virgin.
 THE family to which St Peter belonged was ancient and illustrious, but the names of his ancestors are long since buried in oblivion, whilst those of the saints whom his parents gave to the Church are immortal in the records of our Christian faith.

In this family three brothers were at the same time eminently holy bishops, St Basil, St Gregory of Nyssa and St Peter of Sebastea; their eldest sister, St Macrina, was the spiritual mother of many saints and excellent doctors; and their father and mother, St Basil the Elder and St Emmelia, were banished for their faith in the reign of the Emperor Galerius Maximian, and fled into the deserts of Pontus.
   Finally, the grandmother was the celebrated St Macrina the Elder, who was instructed in the science of salvation by St Gregory Thaumaturgus.

Peter of Sebastea was the youngest of ten children and lost his father in his cradle, so that his eldest sister, Macrina, took charge of his education. In this duty her only aim was to instruct him in religion: profane studies she thought of little use to one whose thoughts were set upon the world to come. Neither did he resent these restrictions, confining his aspirations to the monastic state.
  His mother had founded two monasteries, one for men, the other for women; the former she put under the direction of her son Basil, the latter under that of Macrina. Peter joined the house governed by his brother, situated on the bank of the River Iris. When St Basil was obliged to surrender that charge in 362 he appointed St Peter his successor, who discharged this office for many years with great prudence and virtue.
When the provinces of Pontus and Cappadocia were visited by severe famine, he gave proof of his charity. Human prudence would have advised him to be frugal in the relief of others till his own community were secured against that calamity; but Peter had studied the principles of Christian charity in another school, and liberally disposed of all that belonged to the monastery to supply with necessaries the destitute people who daily resorted to him in that time of distress.

 When St Basil was made bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia in 370 he promoted Peter to the priesthood. Basil died on January 1 in 379, and Macrina in the November of the same year. Eustathius, Bishop of Sebastea in Armenia, an Arian and a persecutor of St Basil, seems to have died shortly after them; for Peter was consecrated bishop of Sebastea in 380 to root out the Arian heresy in that diocese. The evil had taken such deep root that the zeal of a saint was necessary to deal with it. A letter which St Peter wrote, and which is prefixed to St Gregory of Nyssa’s books against Eunomius, has entitled him to a place among the ecclesiastical writers; and it is a standing proof that though he had confined himself to sacred studies, yet by good conversation and reading, and by his own natural gifts, he was inferior to none but his incomparable brother Basil and his colleague Gregory Nazianzen in solid eloquence. In 381 St Peter attended the general council held at Constantinople. Not only his brother St Gregory of Nyssa but also Theodoret, and all antiquity, bear testimony to his sanctity, prudence and zeal. His death occurred in summer about the year 391, and his brother of Nyssa mentions that his memory was hon­oured at Sebastea (probably the very year after his death) by a solemn celebration, together with that of some other martyrs of the same city. His name occurs in the Roman Martyrology on January 9.

It is a wonderful thing to meet with a whole family of saints. This prodigy of grace, under God, was owing to the example, prayers and exhortations of the elder St Macrina. From her they learned to imbibe the true spirit of self-denial and humility that all Christians confess to be the fundamental maxim of the gospel. Unfortunately it generally happens that the principle is accepted as a matter of speculation only, whereas it is in the heart that this foundation is to be laid.
We have little information about St Peter of Sebastea beyond the casual allusions contained in St Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Macrina (in Migne, PG., vol. xlvi, pp. 960 seq.). His letter addressed to his brother Gregory of Nyssa, entreating him to complete his treatise against Eunomius, is printed in PG., vol. xlv, pp. 241 seq. See also Acta Sanctorum, January 9 DCB., vol. iv, pp. 345—346 ; and Bardenhewer, Patrology (Eng. trans.), pp. 295—297.
683 St. Waningus Benedictine abbot entered a monastery founded Holy Trinity Church and Convent of Fecamp
also listed as Vaneng. A native of Rouen, France, he was a nobleman of the court of King Clotaire III (r. 613-629) of Neustria (parts of modern France) when he gave up a worldly life and entered a monastery, supposedly after receiving a dream in which Saint Eulalia of Barcelona told him of the difficulties faced by the rich in entering the Kingdom of Heaven. He became an assistant to St. Wandrille in the founding of Fontenelle Abbey and was singularly responsible for the establishing of the Holy Trinity Church and Convent of Fecamp.

683 ST WANINGUS, OR VANENG
FROM various Merovingian sources it appears that Vaneng was made by Clotaire III governor of that part of Neustria, or Normandy, which is called Pays de Caux, at which time he took great pleasure in hunting. Nevertheless, he was particularly devout to St Eulalia of Barcelona, called in Guienne St Aulaire. One night he seemed in a dream to hear that holy virgin and martyr repeat to him those words of our Redeemer in the Gospel, that “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved”. This was the turning point in his life. He was entirely converted to God. He assisted St Wandrille in founding the abbey at Fontenelle, and founded in the valley of Fécamp a church in honour of the Holy Trinity, with a great nunnery adjoining, under the direction of St Ouen and St Wandrille. Hildemarca, a very virtuous nun, was called from Bordeaux and appointed the first abbess. Under her three hundred and sixty nuns served God in this house, and were divided into as many choirs as were sufficient, in relays, to continue the divine office night and day without interruption.
See the Acta Sanctorum, January 9 and also Vacandard, Vie de Saint Ouen. The Vie de Saint Vaneng, by C. Labbé, was re-edited by Michael Hardy in 1873 (cf. BHL., n. 1272). 
700 St. Maurontus Benedictine abbot founder of Saint-Florentle-Vieil in Anjou.
He is also listed as Mauruntius or Maurontius.
710 St. Adrian, African Abbot near Naples tomb famous for miracles incorrupt
Born in Africa, Adrian became abbot of the monastery at Nerida, near Naples. He declined an appointment as archbishop of Canterbury, but accompanied St. Theodore to England when the latter was appointed Archbishop. Theodore appointed him Abbot of SS. Peter and Paul Monastery (later changed to St. Augustine's) in Canterbury, and during his thirty-nine years' abbacy, the monastery became renowned as a center of learning.
Adrian taught at the school for 40 years.
Adrian was serving as an abbot in Italy when the new Archbishop of Canterbury appointed him abbot of the monastery of Sts. Peter and Paul in Canterbury. Thanks to his leadership skills, the facility became one of the most important centers of learning. The school attracted many outstanding scholars from far and wide and produced numerous future bishops and archbishops. Students reportedly learned Greek and Latin and spoke Latin as well as their own native languages.

He died there, probably in the year 710, and was buried in the monastery. Several hundred years later, when reconstruction was being done, Adrian’s body was discovered in an incorrupt state. As word spread, people flocked to his tomb, which became famous for miracles. Rumor had it that young schoolboys in trouble with their masters made regular visits there.

710 ST ADRIAN, ABBOT OF CANTERBURY
ADRIAN was an African by birth, and was abbot of Nerida, not far from Naples, when Pope St Vitalian, upon the death of St Deusdedit, the archbishop of Canterbury, judged him for his learning and virtue to be the most suitable person to be the teacher of a nation still young in the faith. The humble servant of God found means to decline that dignity by recommending St Theodore in his place, but was willing to share in the more laborious part of the ministry. The pope therefore enjoined him to be the assistant and adviser of the archbishop, to which Adrian readily agreed.
St Theodore made him abbot of the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul, afterwards called St Augustine’s, at Canterbury, where he taught Greek and Latin, the learning of the fathers, and, above all, virtue. Under Adrian and Theodore this monastic school at Canterbury had a far-reaching influence—St Aldhelm came there from Wessex, Oftfor from Whitby, and even students from Ireland. Roman law could be studied as well as the ecclesiastical sciences; and Bede says that there were pupils of St Adrian who had a good knowledge of Greek and spoke Latin as well as they did English. St Adrian had illuminated this island by his doctrine and the example of his holy life, for the space of thirty-nine years, when he departed to our Lord on January 9 in the year 710.
Goscelin of Canterbury has left an extremely interesting account of the discovery of St Adrian’s body, incorrupt and fragrant, in 1091 (see Migne, PL., vol. civ, cc. 36—38). The account is at least indirectly confirmed by later excavations; see Archaeologia Cantiana (1917), vol. xxxii, p. 18. His tomb was famed for miracles, as we are assured by Goscelin, quoted by William of Malmesbury and Capgrave; and his name was inserted in English calendars. See the Acta Sanctorum for January 9, where passages from Bede and Capgrave are reproduced; and BHL., n. 558.
731 St. Brithwald Benedictine Archbishop of Canterbury 37 years;  friendly relations with St Aldhelm, St Boniface and other prominent and holy ecclesiastics; letter written to Berhtwald by Waldhere, Bishop of London, is the first extant letter from one Englishman to another
Also called Berhtwald, Berthwald, Beretuald, or Brihtwald, he was of Anglo-Saxon lineage, educated at Canterbury, in England. Entering the Benedictines, Brithwald served as the abbot of Kent until 692, when he succeeded Theodore as archbishop of Canterbury. He served Canterbury for decades in a difficult era.

731 ST BERHTWALD, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
THE claim of Berhtwald (whose name is variously spelt Berctuald, Brithwald, etc.) to be counted as a saint is somewhat questionable, and there is next to no evidence of cultus. He was certainly abbot of Reculver in Kent, and was elected archbishop in 692, but only consecrated a year later, in Gaul by the archbishop of Lyons; he probably then went on to Rome for the pallium.
Berhtwald was tactful and energetic during the course of his long episcopate—thirty-seven years—and we find him in friendly relations with St Aldhelm, St Boniface and other prominent and holy ecclesiastics; but his attitude towards St Wilfrid was not sympathetic. He died in January 731. A letter written to Berhtwald by Waldhere, Bishop of London, is the first extant letter from one Englishman to another.
See Acta Sanctorum, January 9 DNB., vol. vi, p. 343 ; and Plummer’s Bede, vol. ii, p. 283. 
8th v. St. Foellan Irishman with his mother to Scotland became monk missionary.
Irishman who went with his mother, St. Kentigem, to Scotland, where he became a monk. His other relative was St. Comgan. Foellan died at Strathfillan after missionary activity.
1569 Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow
in the world Theodore, was descended from the illustrious noble lineage of the Kolichevi, occupying a prominent place in the Boyar duma at the court of the Moscow sovereigns. He was born in the year 1507. His father, Stephen Ivanovich, "a man enlightened and filled with military spirit," attentively prepared his son for government service. Theodore's pious mother Barbara, who ended her days as a nun with the name Barsanouphia, implanted in the soul of her son a sincere faith and deep piety. Young Theodore Kolichev applied himself diligently to the Holy Scripture and to the writings of the holy Fathers. The Moscow Great Prince Basil III, the father of Ivan the Terrible, brought young Theodore into the court, but he was not attracted to court life. Conscious of its vanity and sinfulness, Theodore all the more deeply immersed himself in the reading of books and visiting the churches of God. Life in Moscow repelled the young ascetic. The young Prince Ivan's sincere devotion to him, promising him a great future in government service, could not deter him from seeking the Heavenly City.

On Sunday, June 5, 1537, in church for Divine Liturgy, Theodore felt intensely in his soul the words of the Savior: "No man can serve two masters" (Mt.6:24), which determined his ultimate destiny. Praying fervently to the Moscow wonderworkers, and without bidding farewell to his relatives, he secretly left Moscow in the attire of a peasant, and for a while he hid himself away from the world in the village of Khizna, near Lake Onega, earning his livelihood as a shepherd.

His thirst for ascetic deeds led him to the renowned Solovki monastery on the White Sea. There he fulfilled very difficult obediences: he chopped firewood, dug the ground, and worked in the mill. After a year and a half of testing, the igumen Alexis tonsured him, giving him the monastic name Philip and entrusting him in obedience to the Elder Jonah Shamina, a converser with St Alexander of Svir (August 30).

Under the guidance of experienced elders Philip grew spiritually, and progressed in fasting and prayer. Igumen Alexis sent him to work at the monastery forge, where St Philip combined the activity of unceasing prayer with his work with a heavy hammer.

He was always the first one in church for the services, and was the last to leave. He toiled also in the bakery, where the humble ascetic was comforted with a heavenly sign. In the monastery afterwards they displayed the "Bakery" image of the Mother of God, through which the heavenly Mediatrix bestowed Her blessing upon the humble baker Philip. With the blessing of the igumen, St Philip spent a certain while in wilderness solitude, attending to himself and to God.

In 1546 at Novgorod the Great, Archbishop Theodosius made Philip igumen of the Solovki monastery. The new igumen strove with all his might to exalt the spiritual significance of the monastery and its founders, Sts Sabbatius and Zosimus of Solovki (September 27, April 17). He searched for the Hodigitria icon of the Mother of God brought to the island by the first head of Solovki, St Sabbatius. He located the stone cross which once stood before the saint's cell. The Psalter belonging to St Zosimus (+1478), the first igumen of Solovki, was also found. His robe, in which igumens would vest during the service on the days when St Zosimus was commemorated, was also discovered.

The monastery experienced a spiritual revival. A new monastic Rule was adopted to regulate life at the monastery. St Philip built majestic temples: a church of the Dormition of the Mother of God, consecrated in the year 1557, and a church of the Transfiguration of the Lord. The igumen himself worked as a simple laborer, helping to build the walls of the Transfiguration church. Beneath the north portico he dug himself a grave beside that of his guide, the Elder Jonah. Spiritual life in these years flourished at the monastery: struggling with the brethren with the disciples of Igumen Philip were Sts John and Longinus of Yarenga (July 3) and Bassian and Jonah of Pertominsk (July 12).

St Philip often withdrew to a desolate wilderness spot for quiet prayer, two versts from the monastery, which was later known as the Philippov wilderness.

But the Lord was preparing the saint for other work. In Moscow, Tsar Ivan the Terrible fondly remembered the Solovki hermit from his childhood. The Tsar hoped to find in St Philip a true companion, confessor and counsellor, who in his exalted monastic life had nothing in common with the sedition of the nobles. The Metropolitan of Moscow, in Ivan's opinion, ought to have a certain spiritual meekness to quell the treachery and malice within the Boyar soul. The choice of St Philip as archpastor of the Russian Church seemed to him the best possible.

For a long time the saint refused to assume the great burden of the primacy of the Russian Church. He did not sense any spiritual affinity with Ivan. He attempted to get the Tsar to abolish the Oprichniki [secret police]. Ivan the Terrible attempted to argue its civil necessity. Finally, the dread Tsar and the holy Metropolitan came to an agreement: St Philip would not meddle in the affairs of the Oprichniki and the running of the government, he would not resign as Metropolitan in case the Tsar could not fulfill his wishes, and that he would be a support and counsellor of the Tsar, just as former Metropolitans supported the Moscow sovereigns. On July 25, 1566 St Philip was consecrated for the cathedra of Moscow's hierarch saints, whose number he was soon to join.

Ivan the Terrible, one of the greatest and most contradictory figures in Russian history, lived an intensely busy life. He was a talented writer and bibliophile, he was involved in compiling the Chronicles (and himself suddenly cut the thread of the Moscow chronicle writing), he examined the intricacies of the monastic Rule, and more than once he thought about abdicating the throne for the monastic life.

Every aspect of governmental service, all the measures undertaken to restructure civil and social life, Ivan the Terrible tried to rationalize as a manifestation of Divine Providence, as God acting in history. His beloved spiritual heroes were St Michael of Chernigov (September 20) and St Theodore the Black (September 19), military men active with complex contradictory destinies, moving toward their ends through whatever the obstacles before them, and fulfilling their duties to the nation and to the Church.

The more the darkness thickened around Ivan, the more resolutely he demanded cleansing and redemption of his soul. Journeying on pilgrimage to the St Cyril of White Lake monastery, he declared his wish to become a monk to the igumen and the brethren. The haughty autocrat fell on his knees before the igumen, who blessed his intent. Ivan wrote, "it seems to me, an accursed sinner, that I am already robed in black."

Ivan imagined the Oprichnina in the form of a monastic brotherhood, serving God with weapons and military deeds. The Oprichniki were required to dress in monastic garb and attend long and tiring church services, lasting from 4 to 10 o'clock in the morning. "Brethren" not in church at 4 o'clock in the morning, were given a penance by the Tsar. Ivan and his sons fervently wished to pray and sing in the church choir. From church they went to the trapeza, and while the Oprichniki ate, the Tsar stood beside them. The Oprichniki gathered leftover food from the table and distributed it to the poor at the doorway of the trapeza.

Ivan, with tears of repentance and wanting to be an esteemer of the holy ascetics, the teachers of repentance, he wanted to wash and burn away his own sins and those of his companions, cherishing the assurance that even his terribly cruel actions would prove to be for the welfare of Russia and the triumph of Orthodoxy. The most clearly spiritual action and monastic sobriety of Ivan the Terrible is revealed in his "Synodikon." Shortly before his death, he ordered full lists compiled of the people murdered by him and his Oprichniki. These were then distributed to all the Russian monasteries. Ivan acknowledged all his sins against the nation, and besought the holy monks to pray to God for the forgiveness of his tormented soul.

The pseudo-monasticism of Ivan the Terrible, a dark most grievous oppression over Russia, tormented St Philip, who considered it impossible to mix the earthly and the heavenly, serving the Cross and serving the sword. St Philip saw how much unrepentant malice and envy was concealed beneath the black cowls of the Oprichniki. There were outright murderers among them, hardened in lawless bloodletting, and profiteers seeking gain, rooted in sin and transgressions. By the sufferance of God, history is often made by the hands of the impious, and Ivan the Terrible wanted to whiten his black brotherhood before God. The blood spilled by its thugs and fanatics cried out to Heaven.

St Philip decided to oppose Ivan. This was prompted by a new wave of executions in the years 1567-1568. In the autumn of 1567, just as the Tsar was setting out on a campaign against Livonia, he learned about a boyar conspiracy. The plotters intended to seize the Tsar and deliver him to the Polish king, who already was on the move with an army towards Russian territory.

Ivan dealt severely with the conspirators, and again he shed much blood. It was bitter for St Philip, and the conscience of the saint compelled him boldly to enter into defense of the executed. The final rift occurred in the spring of 1568. On the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross, March 2, 1568, when the Tsar with his Oprichniki entered the Dormition cathedral in monastic garb, as was their custom, St Philip refused to bless him, and began openly to denounce the lawless acts committed by the Oprichniki. The accusations of the hierarch shattered the harmony of the church service. In a rage Ivan retorted, "Would you oppose us? We shall see your firmness! I have been too soft on you."

The Tsar began to show ever greater cruelty in persecuting all those who opposed him. Executions followed one after the other. The fate of the saintly confessor was sealed. But Ivan wanted to preserve a semblance of canonical propriety. The Boyar Duma obediently carried out his decision to place the Primate of the Russian Church on trial. A cathedral court was set up to try Metropolitan Philip in the presence of a diminished Boyar Duma, and false witnesses were found. To the deep sorrow of the saint, these were monks of the Solovki monastery, his former disciples and novices whom he loved. They accused St Philip of a multitude of transgressions, including sorcery.

"Like all my ancestors," the saint declared, "I came into this world prepared to suffer for truth." Having refuted all the accusations, the holy sufferer attempted to halt the trial by volunteering to resign his office. His resignation was not accepted, however, and new abuse awaited the martyr.

Even after a sentence of life imprisonment had been handed down, they compelled St Philip to serve Liturgy in the Dormition cathedral. This was on November 8, 1568. In the middle of the service, the Oprichniki burst into the temple, they publicly read the council's sentence of condemnation, and then abused the saint. Tearing his vestments off, they dressed him in rags, dragged him out of the church and drove him off to the Theophany monastery on a simple peasant's sledge.

For a long while they held the martyr in the cellars of the Moscow monasteries. They placed his feet into stocks, they held him in chains, and put a heavy chain around his neck. Finally, they drove him off to the Tver Otroch monastery. And there a year later, on December 23,1569, the saint was put to death at the hands of Maliuta Skuratov. Only three days before this the saint foresaw the end of his earthly life and received the Holy Mysteries. At first, his relics were committed to earth there at the monastery, beyond the church altar. Later, they were transferred to the Solovki monastery (August 11, 1591) and from there to Moscow (July 3, 1652).

Initially, the memory of St Philip was celebrated by the Russian Church on December 23, the day of his martyric death. In 1660, the celebration was transferred to January 9.
1622 Bl. Alix Le Clercq nun founded Augustinian Canonesses Congregation of Our Lady from Rome {see larger article in Butlers} La fiesta de la Beata Alix se celebra el 22 de octubre.
 Alix Le Clercq was born at Remiremont in the duchy of Lorraine in 1576. Her family was a solid one, of good position, but little is known about her life until she was nearly seventeen. Alix was attractive and intelligent, what the French call "spirituelle." About this time, she became a nun. When her family moved to Hymont, she met Peter Fourier, who became her spiritual director, and in 1597 she and three other women formed a new foundation under his direction. At her father's insistence, she went to a convent at Ormes, was unimpressed by its secular atmosphere, and in 1598 the wealthy Judith d'Apremont gave Alix and her group a house on her estate, which they used as their Motherhouse in the founding of a new congregation dedicated to the education of children. Despite opposition from Alix's father and others, and the lack of formal ecclesiastical approval, they established several new foundations.
   In 1616 they received two papal bulls formally approving the Augustinian Canonesses of the Congregation of Our Lady from Rome. Differences about what the bulls granted and internal strife caused Father Fourier to replace Alix as superioress of the Congregation, and the last years of her life were bitter, as even Father Fourier seemed to turn against her. She died in her convent at Nancy on January 9, and was beatified in 1947.

1622 Bd Alix Le Clercq, Virgin, Co-Foundress of The Augustinian Canonesses Regular of The Congregation of Our Lady
On of the outstanding achievements of the Counter-Reformation—like some of its others, long overdue—was the beginning of proper provision for the schooling and education of girls. In 1535 St Angela Merici had founded the Ursulines for this work; the teaching Religious of Notre Dame were begun by St Joan de Lestonnac in 1606; in 1609 Mary Ward opened her first school for poor children; and to these must be added the establishment by St Peter Fourier of the Augustinian Canonesses of the Congregation of Our Lady, an undertaking in which Alix Le Clercq came to be associated as co-foundress.
She was born at Remiremont in the duchy of Lorraine in 1576. Her family was a solid one, of good position, but little is known about her life until she was nearly seventeen. By that time she was a tall, good-looking girl, fair in colouring, of a somewhat delicate constitution, attractive and intelligent: in a word Alix was, as Mgr Francis Gonne remarks, what the French call spirituelle. Another account, written by herself, tells us that she revelled in such pleasures as music and dancing, and being very popular was subjected to a good deal of flattery. The implication is that she “revelled” too much: perhaps she did; but it should be remembered that, when once people have become convinced that they have any faults at all, they are apt to exaggerate them. And there is good evidence, her own, that even at this time Alix Le Clercq was not devoid of “seriousness” : “amid all the gaiety her heart was sad”, and gradually her harmless pleasures seemed to her to be no more than frivolity.
Then, when she was nineteen, she had the first of the striking dreams that became so marked a feature in her life. In this dream she was in church and approaching the altar, when beside it she saw our Lady, dressed in a strange religious habit, who beckoned her, saying, “Come, daughter, and I will welcome you”. Soon after, the Le Clercq family moved to Hymont, and Alix first met St Peter Fourier, who was parish priest of Mattaincourt, near by. It was in the church of this village, at Mass on three Sundays running, that she seemed to hear the seductive music of a dance-drum, and then seemed to see its player, an evil spirit, followed by a crowd of young people, “full of sprightly merriment”. There and then her conversion to a different sort of life was complete: “I resolved on the spot that I would not belong to such a company”.
Alix straightway cast aside her fine clothes and wore a simple peasant dress; she hardly left her home; and, under the careful direction of Father Fourier, she set herself to discover—not without much spiritual suffering—what it was that God required of her. Both her father and the priest proposed that she should go into a convent: but she said “No” to this, for from another dream she had learned that it was in no existing order that her vocation lay. She told St Peter Fourier that she was obsessed by the idea of a new, “active”, foundation. He was very properly sceptical about this, but at length told her to see if she could find other girls of like mind—unlikely enough in a remote village of the Vosges. But sure enough Alix found them.
And so at the midnight Mass of Christmas 1597 Alix Le Clercq, Ganthe André, and Isabel and Joan de Louvroir were allowed publicly to dedicate themselves wholly to God. Four weeks later it was made clear to St Peter Fourier that these neophytes were to found a community under his direction. But meanwhile they were the subject of adverse criticism. “The unassuming behaviour of these girls was called singularity; their zeal, religiosity; their simple dress, hypocritical affectation; and their humble bearing, silliness.” This gossip naturally upset Mr Le Clercq; but he lacked imagination, and could think of nothing better than to order his daughter to go as a boarder to a convent of Tertiaries of St Elizabeth at Ormes. She obeyed; and found this relaxed convent to be something like what we should call a women’s residential club. But her father would not let her come home.
A way out of the impasse was opened from an unexpected quarter. Three miles from Mattaincourt, at the village of Poussay, there was an abbey of secular canonesses, aristocratic and wealthy ladies who led a form of the conventual life mercifully no longer existing in the Church. One of these good ladies, Madame Judith d’Apremont, made up her mind to sponsor Alix Le Clercq and her three companions and to lodge them in a small house on her estate. Accordingly they took up their quarters there on the eve of Corpus Christi 1598; and after a retreat they unanimously and independently declared to Father Fourier that they believed themselves called to begin a new congregation, that for them this was what would be most pleasing to God. It was decided that their work should be education, “to teach children to read and write and sew, and especially to love and serve God”; that they should never give up this work; and that it should be done, whether for rich or poor, without charge, “as that is more pleasing to God”.

The life of the embryonic congregation was notable in these early days for a measure of physical austerity that was later to be found incompatible with the hard discipline of teaching the young. But the spectacle of such devotion at their very door inspired some of the younger canonesses of the abbey to ask to be transferred to the new foundation—they wanted to stop having “all the privileges of the conventual life with none of its hardships”. Their lady abbess, Madame d’Amoncourt, was alarmed—many monasteries in France had learned nothing from the impact of the Reformation on monasticism in other lands—fearing that her own community might be broken up; and for some weeks there was a rather critical situation. But again Madame d’Apremont solved the difficulty, by providing another house, this time at Mattaincourt. It was to be the first proper convent of the new congregation.
But as yet the sisters were not formally religious, and their anomalous position upset Mr Le Clercq, who again interfered with his daughter, telling her that she was to withdraw to the Poor Clare house at Verdun. St Peter Fourier told Alix she must obey, and in great anguish of spirit she got ready. But her father, moved as he said by some power beyond his understanding, withdrew his order and ceased to interfere. There then occurred a determined attempt on the part of a Franciscan Recollect friar, Father Fleurant Boulengier, to “capture” the community for the Poor Clares. Peter Fourier’s belief in the divine acceptance of his foundation wavered: he recommended, with a force only short of a direct command, that they should regularize their position by joining the Clares—Alix and her companions refused. “We have banded together”, they said, “to look after neglected children:  why should we be dragged away from this and sent to a convent that God does not want us to go to?”
Father Fourier, in equal good faith, interpreted the will of God in the opposite sense. It is an old dilemma. Or was he just trying them? In any case, after months of uncertainty, he accepted the sisters’ decision, and so did Father Fleurant.
In 1601 St Peter Fourier and Bd Alix made their second foundation, at Saint-Mihiel; Nancy, Pont-à-Mousson, Saint-Nicolas de Port, Verdun and Châlons followed, the last, in 1613, being the first outside Lorraine. All this time there was no sign from Rome of official approval for the new congregation. The novel request that day-pupils should be taken, and therefore admitted into the enclosure, roused hostility (“The Church is going to the dogs, sir!”); and the delay in approbation lent an edge to wagging tongues and endangered the existence of the convents. Fourier sent Bd Alix and another sister to the Ursulines in Paris to learn more about monastic life and teaching methods and again they were invited to give up a separate existence. This time Alix seriously considered if it were not the best thing to do. Father (afterwards cardinal) de Bérulle settled it. “I don’t believe”, he declared to her bluntly, “that God is asking for this fusion. Dismiss it from your mind.”
It was not till 1616 that in two bulls the Holy See signified its first approval of the Augustinian Canonesses of the Congregation of Our Lady.* {* Their style as “canonesses “ was confirmed in 1628; it carried with it of course the obligation and privilege of reciting the Divine Office in choir.} Subsequently the Bishop of Toul approved their constitutions; and St Peter Fourier then proceeded to clothe thirteen of them with the habit, designed in accordance with what Bd Alix had seen our Lady wearing in the dream recorded above; and then they all had to begin a twelve months’ novitiate, in spite of the fact that some of  them had been leading a conventual life for twenty years. But all was not well. The papal bulls of approbation had not mentioned the congregation as a whole, but only its convent at Nancy. Now there was already a certain “feeling” between this house and the others, for Nancy was under the protection of Cardinal Charles of Lorraine, and the primate of Lorraine, Antony de Lénoncourt, had practically taken its direction out of Father Fourier’s hands into his own. The apparent partiality of the bulls aggravated this spirit of dissension, and a very unhappy state of affairs resulted. In the upshot Bd Alix had to yield her rightful place as superioress in the congregation to Mother Ganthe André, “without whom”, in the words of Father Fourier, “our order would never have been established”, though she and Alix were far from being in agreement about its organization.
That sort of trial heroic sanctity seems to take in its stride. But that was not all. Bd Alix was subjected to personal attack and the venom of slanderous rumour. At the same time she had to face spiritual dryness, temptations and a “dark night” of great severity. And as, in the words of one of her nuns, “she entered into the sufferings of others so feelingly that she made them her own”, her burden was indeed heavy: she had plenty of opportunity to put into practice her own axiom— common to all saints, and mystics—“I value one act of humility more than a hundred ecstasies”. St Peter Fourier himself provided further opportunities. Bd Alix is now recognized as the co-foundress of the Augustinian Canonesses of Our Lady; but it was not so while she lived, and Father Fourier did not allow it to appear so. He consistently and openly “kept her in her place”. It is possible that he was, in a sense, a little afraid of her, for in contrast with his own solid, cautious temperament, Alix Le Clercq must often have seemed to him alarmingly “imaginative”.
In December 1621 she was allowed to resign the office of local superioress at Nancy, and she entered upon a few weeks of radiant peace, which was in fact a prelude to death a month later. She had been seriously ill for a long time, and now when it was known the doctors had given up hope all Nancy was grieved, from the duke and duchess of Lorraine to the schoolgirls and the beggar-women. St Peter Fourier hurried to Nancy, but he would not enter the conventual enclosure till the bishop ordered him to do so. Then he heard Alix’s confession and prepared her for the passage “from death to life”. On the Epiphany she took a solemn farewell of her community, exhorting them to love and unity, and on January 9, after a searching agony, the end came. Bd Alix was not quite forty-six.
High and low acclaimed her as a saint, and steps were taken to collect evidence for the prosecution of her cause. But nothing was done more definitely, war pushed it out of sight, and it was not till 1947 that Alix Le Clercq was beatified. Her body was buried in the crypt under the convent chapel at Nancy. During the Revolution this convent was sacked; it is said that Bd Alix’s body was hastily buried in the garden for safety, but all efforts to find it have failed. That would have pleased her humility, she whose deeds of love and spiritual insights and visions were so far as possible concealed. She was completely at ease only when she could be humble and obedient, teaching the ABC and simple addition to half-a-dozen little children at Poussay or Mattaincourt, for instance. But in the long disagreements and uncertainties about the organization of the congregation, in such matters she was mistress of herself and of the policies she believed right; and she was always an excellent superior. But a Protestant historian, Professor Pfister, has acutely remarked that, “When she was appointed to direct the Nancy house, she had only one ambition; and that was again to be a simple sister, teaching their letters to the four and five-year-olds in the bottom class”. The last word about Bd Mix Le Clercq is with Mother Angelique Milly—“she was the child of deep silence”.
In 1666 the Nancy convent published what purported to be a life of Alix le Clercq but was in fact an extremely valuable collection of documents bearing on that life. It was due to a copy of this book coming into the hands of the young Count Gandelet that the cause of her beatification was begun by the Bishop of Saint-Die in 1885. The first biography proper to be published appeared at Nancy in 1773 (one of 1766 remains in manuscript), and then not another till 1858, after which there were several. La Mere Alix Le Clercq (1935), by Canon Edmond Renard, is the standard modern work, full, critical and well written. In English there is a short but very good biography by Margaret St L. West (1947). Reference can also be made to the standard lives of St Peter Fourier by Father Bedel (1645), Dom Vuillemin (1897), and Father Rogie, of which the last is the best. The writer of the preface to the English life of Bd Alix speaks of the excellent methods used in the schools conducted by her congregation. Fourier himself used to instruct his canonesses in pedagogy, and brief reference to some of his enlightened educational ideas is made in the notice accorded to him herein on December 9. The feast of Bd Alix is now kept on October 22.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 229

I will exalt thee, O Lady, for thou hast taken me up: thou wilt deliver me from the wicked enemy.

Turn to me and quicken me, from the gates of death lead me back:
and from the rivers of tribulation which have surrounded me.

For the sake of thy empire and the magnificence of thy right hand: break and scatter all my enemies.

And I will offer thee a sacrifice of praise: and I will most devoutly exalt thy glory.

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

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 heaven:  only saints are allowed into heaven.
The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.
There are over 10,000 named saints beati  from history
 and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources
Patron_Saints.html  Widowed_Saints html  Indulgences The Catholic Church in China
LINKS: Marian Shrines   India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes 1858  China Marian shrines 1995
Kenya national Marian shrine  Loreto, Italy  Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
  Links to Related MarianWebsites  Angels and Archangels  Saints Visions of Heaven and Hell
Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates  Chalcedon
Mary the Mother of Jesus Miracles_BC  Lay Saints  Miraculous_Icons  Miraculous_Medal_Novena Patron Saints
Miracles by Century 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000    1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800  1900 2000
Miracles 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000  
 1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800   1900 Lay Saints

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

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Saint Frances Xavier Seelos  Practical Guide to Holiness
1. Go to Mass with deepest devotion. 2. Spend a half hour to reflect upon your main failing & make resolutions to avoid it.
3. Do daily spiritual reading for at least 15 minutes, if a half hour is not possible.  4. Say the rosary every day.
5. Also daily, if at all possible, visit the Blessed Sacrament; toward evening, meditate on the Passion of Christ for a half hour, 6.  Conclude the day with evening prayer & an examination of conscience over all the faults & sins of the day.
7.  Every month make a review of the month in confession.
8. Choose a special patron every month & imitate that patron in some special virtue.
9. Precede every great feast with a novena that is nine days of devotion. 10. Try to begin & end every activity with a Hail Mary
My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love Thee.  I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not
O most Holy trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly.  I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the Tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended, and by the infite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  I beg the conversion of poor sinners,  Fatima Prayer, Angel of Peace
The voice of the Father is heard, the Son enters the water, and the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove.
THE spirit and example of the world imperceptibly instil the error into the minds of many that there is a kind of middle way of going to Heaven; and so, because the world does not live up to the gospel, they bring the gospel down to the level of the world. It is not by this example that we are to measure the Christian rule, but words and life of Christ. All His followers are commanded to labour to become perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect, and to bear His image in our hearts that we may be His children. We are obliged by the gospel to die to ourselves by fighting self-love in our hearts, by the mastery of our passions, by taking on the spirit of our Lord.
   These are the conditions under which Christ makes His promises and numbers us among His children, as is manifest from His words which the apostles have left us in their inspired writings. Here is no distinction made or foreseen between the apostles or clergy or religious and secular persons. The former, indeed, take upon themselves certain stricter obligations, as a means of accomplishing these ends more perfectly; but the law of holiness and of disengagement of the heart from the world is general and binds all the followers of Christ.
God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique each the result of a new idea.
As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike.
It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints.
Dear Lord, grant us a spirit not bound by our own ideas and preferences.
 Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves.
O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory.
 Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.
Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.
The 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary ) Revealed to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan)
1.    Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces. 2.    I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. 3.    The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. 4.    It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things.  Oh, that soul would sanctify them by this means.  5.    The soul that recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish. 6.    Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying themselves to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune.  God will not chastise them in His justice, they shall not perish by an unprovided death; if they be just, they shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. 7.    Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church. 8.    Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise. 9.    I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. 10.    The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.  11.    You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. 12.    I shall aid all those who propagate the Holy Rosary in their necessities. 13.    I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. 14.    All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ. 15.    Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
His Holiness Aram I, current (2013) Catholicos of Cilicia of Armenians, whose See is located in Lebanese town of Antelias. The Catholicosate was founded in Sis, capital of Cilicia, in the year 1441 following the move of the Catholicosate of All Armenians back to its original See of Etchmiadzin in Armenia. The Catholicosate of Cilicia enjoyed local jurisdiction, though spiritually subject to the authority of Etchmiadzin. In 1921 the See was transferred to Aleppo in Syria, and in 1930 to Antelias.
Its jurisdiction currently extends to Syria, Cyprus, Iran and Greece.
Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac
The exact date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa {Armenian Ourhaï in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name} is not known. It is certain, however, that the Christian community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legend, King Abgar V, Ushana, was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples. In fact, however, the first King of Edessa to embrace the Christian Faith was Abgar IX (c. 206) becoming official kingdom religion.
Christian council held at Edessa early as 197 (Eusebius, Hist. Ecc7V,xxiii).
In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed (“Chronicon Edessenum”, ad. an. 201).
In 232 the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written.

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

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

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

Brief History of our Beloved Holy Priest Here and his published books of Catholic History in North America
Reardon, J.M. Archbishop Ireland; Prelate, Patriot, Publicist, 1838-1918.
A Memoir (St. Paul; 1919); George Anthony Belcourt Pioneer Catholic Missionary of the Northwest 1803-1874 (1955);
The Catholic Church IN THE DIOCESE OF ST. PAUL from earliest origin to centennial achievement 1362-1950 (1952);
The Church of Saint Mary of Saint Paul 1875-1922;  (1932)
The Vikings in the American Heartland;
The Catholic Total Abstinence Society in Minnesota;
James Michael Reardon Born in Nova Scotia, 1872;  Priest, ordained by Bishop Ireland;
Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.
Affiliations and Indulgences  Litany of Loretto in Stained glass windows here.  Nave Sacristy and Residence Here
Sanctuary spaces between them filled with grilles of hand-forged wrought iron the life of our Blessed Lady After the crucifixon
Apostle statues Replicas of those in St John Lateran--Christendom's earliest Basilica.
Ordered by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, Popes' cathedral and official residence first millennium of Christian history.
The only replicas ever made:  in order from west to east {1932}.
Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel
 It Makes No Sense Not To Believe In GOD
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi. 
  June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.
By Father John Corapi
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi. 
  June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.
By Father John Corapi
Among the most important titles we have in the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom. The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

Father Corapi's academic credentials are quite extensive. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Pace University in the seventies. Then as an older man returned to the university classrooms in preparation for his life as a priest and preacher. He received all of his academic credentials for the Church with honors: a Masters degree in Sacred Scripture from Holy Apostles Seminary and Bachelor, Licentiate, and Doctorate degrees in dogmatic theology from the University of Navarre in Spain.
Father John Corapi goes to the heart of the contemporary world's many woes and wars, whether the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, or the Congo, or the natural disasters that seem to be increasing every year, the moral and spiritual war is at the basis of everything. “Our battle is not against human forces,” St. Paul asserts, “but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness...” (Ephesians 6:12). 
The “War to end all wars” is the moral and spiritual combat that rages in the hearts and minds of human beings. The outcome of that  unseen fight largely determines how the battle in the realm of the seen unfolds.  The title talk, “With the Moon Under Her Feet,” is taken from the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation, and deals with the current threat to the world from radical Islam, and the Blessed Virgin Mary's role in the ultimate victory that will result in the conversion of Islam. Few Catholics are aware of the connection between Islam, Fatima, and Guadalupe. Presented in Father Corapi's straight-forward style, you will be both inspired and educated by him.

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

God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


Records on life of Father Flanagan, founder of Boys Town, presented at Vatican
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Pope advances sainthood causes of 17 women
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The Algerian martyrs shed their blood for Christ, pope says
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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
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Records on life of Father Flanagan, founder of Boys Town, presented at Vatican
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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
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Woman who served Brazil’s poorest to be canonized
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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
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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
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Algerian martyrs to be beatified in December
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Now a cardinal, Giovanni Angelo Becciu heads to congregation for saints' causes
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Pope Francis creates new path to beatification under ‘offering of life’
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Surgeon and father among sainthood causes moving forward
Feb 27, 2017 - 11:03 am .- Pope Francis recognized on Monday the heroic virtue of eight persons on the path to canonization, including an Italian surgeon and father of eight who suffered from several painful diseases throughout his life.
8 Martyrs Move Closer to Sainthood 8 July, 2016
Posted by ZENIT Staff on 8 July, 2016

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

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

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

On the List Are Lay Founder of a Hospital and Eastern Catholic Religious
VATICAN CITY, June 12, 2014 (Zenit.org) - Today, the Vatican announced that during the celebration of the feast of Christ the King on Sunday, November 23, an ordinary public consistory will be held for the canonization of the following six blesseds, who include a lay founder of a hospital for the poor, founders of religious orders, and two members of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See:
-Giovanni Antonio Farina (1803-1888), an Italian bishop who founded the Institute of the Sisters Teachers of Saint Dorothy, Daughters of the Sacred Hearts
-Kuriakose Elias Chavara (1805-1871), a Syro-Malabar priest in India who founded the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate
-Ludovico of Casoria (1814-1885), an Italian Franciscan priest who founded the Gray Sisters of St. Elizabeth
-Nicola Saggio (Nicola da Longobardi, 1650-1709), an Italian oblate of the Order of Minims
-Euphrasia Eluvathingal (1877-1952), an Indian Carmelite of the Syro-Malabar Church
-Amato Ronconi (1238-1304), an Italian, Third Order Franciscan who founded a hospital for poor pilgrims
CAUSES OF SAINTS July 2015.
Pope Recognizes Heroic Virtues of Ukrainian Archbishop
Recognition Brings Metropolitan Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky Closer to Beatification
By Junno Arocho Esteves Rome, July 17, 2015 (ZENIT.org)
Pope Francis recognized the heroic virtues of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky. According to a communique released by the Holy See Press Office, the Holy Father met this morning with Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia Paqualina Addatis), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Addolorata, Servants of Mary (1845-1900);
– Servant of God Maria of the Incarnation (née Caterina Carrasco Tenorio), founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of the Flock of Mary (1840-1917);
– Servant of God , founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Family of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1851-1923);
– Servant of God Ilia Corsaro, founder of the Congregation of the Little Missionaries of the Eucharist (1897-1977);
– Servant of God Maria Montserrat Grases García, layperson of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1941-1959).
LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858 
China Marian shrines May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798  
Links to Related Marian Websites  Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates, 229 2023