Mary Mother of GOD

Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
R.  Deo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
January is the month of the Holy Name of Jesus since 1902;
2023
22,269 lives saved since 2007

 
"Each year on JANUARY 16, we celebrate Religious Freedom Day in commemoration of the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom,"
President George W. Bush in his 2003 Proclamation.

42 Veneration of the Honorable Chains of Holy All-Praised Apostle Peter
Peters_chains.jpg
Eudokia, wife of the emperor Theodosius the Younger,
 She transferred them from Jerusalem to Constantinople in either the year 437 or 439.

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 .


42 Veneration of the Honorable Chains of Holy All-Praised Apostle Peter
Eudokia, wife of the emperor Theodosius the Younger,  She transferred them from Jerusalem to Constantinople in either the year 437 or 439.
98 ST PRISCILLA, MATRON the mother of the senator St Pudens, and through him, the ancestress of SS. Praxedis and Pudentiana. St Peter, the apostle, is believed to have used a villa belonging to St Priscilla on the Via Salaria, beneath which the catacomb was afterwards excav­ated, as the seat of his activities in Rome
309 Marcellus I, Pope M (RM) reorganized Church in Rome 
648 St. Fursey Irish monastic founder brother of Sts. Foillan and Ulan  THERE are few of the early Irish saints whose lives are better  known to us than that of St Fursey (Fursa). 
1127 St. Henry of Cocket Danish hermit gifts of prophecy telekinesis read souls

January 16 – Our Lady Refuge of Sinners (Paris, France)
   An inner voice urged him to consecrate his parish to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
In the same year that Archbishop Hyacinth de Quelen of Paris authorized the striking of the Miraculous Medal (1832), Father Desgenettes was appointed pastor of Notre Dame des Victoires church. He was often discouraged by the pervasive unbelief among many of his parishioners who cared more about business and the pursuit of wealth than God.
On December 3rd, while celebrating Mass, he heard an inner voice urging him to consecrate his parish to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He started a new prayer group devoted to this intention and conversions began happening, more and more often. The All-pure Virgin was revealing herself as the Refuge of Sinners.

King Louis XIII had previously changed the name of the church of Discalced Augustinians to Notre Dame des Victoires (Our Lady of Victories) in thanksgiving for the capture of La Rochelle (1628).
The name evokes the victory of Mary over sin and the maternal care that she reserves for sinners.
Excerpt from the Liturgy of Hours
in use in the dioceses of Paris, Créteil, Nanterre and Saint-Denis

Mary Mother - Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners
May Mary shield you when there's danger near; May Mary comfort you when skies are drear;
May Mary guide you on the upward ways; May Mary bless you all the future days.  Brian O'Higgins

January 16 - Immaculate Heart of Mary, Refuge of Sinners (Paris, France)
  You are So Beautiful
You are so beautiful, O Mary, and there is no spot in you. You are so beautiful, so sweet and delightful in your Immaculate Conception! Come, come from Lebanon; come, come and you will be crowned! Come shining like the dawn, Bringing the joys of salvation. Through you, O brilliant Gate of Light, Christ the Lord, the Sun of Justice, has risen! As a lily among thorns, Among girls you are the Blessed Virgin. Your clothing shines as white as snow,
Your face is bright like the sun. Closed Garden, Sealed Fontaine, Mother of God and Paradise of Grace! The rain has stopped and gone, the winter is over and flowers have already sprung up.On our earth a voice is heard, A very soft voice, the voice of a dove. Take flight, O infinitely beautiful dove!
Rise, make haste and come!  Anonymous Prayer (France, fourteenth century)
 

January 16 – Feast of Our Lady of Victories (Paris, France - 35,000 ex votos) 
 One of the most visited Marian centers
 The church Basilica of Our Lady of Victories in Paris, France, is a spiritual center that has continued to attract world leaders and ordinary people alike. In the early 17th century, a community of monks lived there, under the rule of St Augustine.
Wishing to build a chapel, the monks appealed to King Louis XIII for a grant and agreed to the royal condition to dedicate their new chapel to Our Lady of Victories (1629). One of the monks, Brother Fiacre, began to pray for the royal couple who was still childless. After six years, his prayer was answered with the birth of the future Louis XIV.
Later, in 1832, a new priest was appointed to the church of Our Lady of Victories. His name was Father Charles Desgenettes. Seeing that many local residents had abandoned the religious practice, the priest was assailed by thoughts of discouragement. One day, in the middle of Mass on December 3, 1836, he heard an inner voice telling him to consecrate his parish to the Holy and Immaculate Heart of Mary.
When this decision was made public on December 11, 1836, more than 400 people came to vespers! Within weeks, this church became one of the most important Marian pilgrimage centers in the Catholic world.
On all continents, hundreds of churches have since been dedicated to Our Lady of Victories.
Father Hervé Soubias  Zenit.org October 11, 2013
 
January 16 – Feast of Our Lady of Victories
(35,000 ex votos in testimony of answered prayers left by the faithful in Paris, France) 
 
“My child, this is not my Son, it is the child that God wants to give to France”
The King of France Louis XIII founded the church of Notre-Dame des Victoires (Our Lady of Victories) in Paris in 1629, in thanksgiving for the victory of the royal troops in La Rochelle against the Protestant Huguenots,
whose surrender the king attributed to the intervention of the Virgin.
On December 8, 1629, the eve of the laying of the first stone of the church, and feast of the Immaculate Conception, Brother Fiacre, an Augustinian friar, saw the Virgin Mary in a vision. She presented to him the child that God wanted to give France, the future Louis XIV, saying: "My child, do not be afraid, I am the Mother of God… My child, this is not my son, it is the child that God wants to give to France."
In this vision, reported to the King and the Queen, the Virgin asked for three novenas to be offered to Our Lady of Graces (a Marian shrine located in Cotignac, southern region of Provence), Our Lady of Paris and Our Lady of Victories. Brother Fiacre prayed these three novenas himself from November 8 to December 5, 1637.

Exactly nine months later, on September 5, 1638, the queen gave birth to son, Louis, called “Dieudonné” (God Given). On account of the vision of Brother Fiacre, Louis XIII consecrated France to the Virgin Mary. On January 6, 1638, the text of the Royal Vow was adopted, and it was signed on February 10th. This document fixed the date of the official consecration of France to August 15th of the same year in the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris.  www.notredamedesvictoires.com

42 The Veneration of the Honorable Chains of the Holy and All-Praised Apostle Peter
98 ST PRISCILLA, MATRON the mother of the senator St Pudens, and through him, the ancestress of SS. Praxedis and Pudentiana. St Peter, the apostle, is believed to have used a villa belonging to St Priscilla on the Via Salaria, beneath which the catacomb was afterwards excav­ated, as the seat of his activities in Rome
309 Marcellus I, Pope M (RM) reorganized Church in Rome 
 Romæ sanctæ Priscíllæ, quæ se súaque pio Mártyrum obséquio mancipávit.
       At Rome, St. Priscilla, who devoted herself and her goods to the service of the martyrs.
385 St. Melas Bishop of Rhinocolura, near the boundary between Egypt and Palestine on the Mediterranean Sea.  He was cruelly abused and imprisoned by the Arian heretics.
429 James of Tarentaise B (AC)
429 Honoratus of Arles archbishop blessedly joyful B (RM)
5th v. St. Liberata Virgin sister of St. Honorata and St. Epiphanius of Pavia, Italy.
453 St. Valerius Hermit bishop reputation for goodness and wisdom 
550 St. Triverius Hermit native of Neustria Gaul 
6th v. St. Honoratus of Fondi abbot-founder (RM)  
633 St. Fulgentius Bishop in Spain brother of Sts'. Isidore St. Leander and St. Florentina 
648 St. Fursey Irish monastic founder brother of Sts. Foillan and Ulan intense ecstasies  
650 St. Titian Bishop 30 yrs in outlying regions near Venice  
670 St. Ferreolus bishop of Grenoble BM
           Karantoc same as Saint Carantog (Carantoc) (Benedictines).
988 St. Dunchaid O'Braoin Abbot on Clanmocnoise 
1105 Blessed Jane of Bagno Camaldolese lay-sister OSB Cam. V (AC)  
1127 St. Henry of Cocket Danish hermit gifts of prophecy telekinesis read souls
1145 Blessed Conrad martyred abbot of Mondsee
1220 ST HENRY OF COCKET THE Danes were indebted in part for the light of faith, under God, to the example and labours of English missionaries. Henry was born in that country, and from his youth gave himself to the divine service with his whole heart.
1220 Berard, Peter, Otto, first martyrs of Franciscan order 
1259 Blessed Gundisalvus of Amarante miracles appears 40 yrs after death  


42 The Veneration of the Honorable Chains of the Holy and All-Praised Apostle Peter
In about the year 42, on the orders of Herod Agrippa, the Apostle Peter was thrown into prison for preaching about Christ the Savior. In prison he was held secure by two iron chains. During the night before his trial, an angel of the Lord removed these chains from the Apostle Peter and led him out from the prison (Acts 12:1-11).

Christians who learned of the miracle took the chains and kept them as precious keepsakes. For three centuries the chains were kept in Jerusalem, and those afflicted with illness and approached them with faith received healing. Patriarch Juvenal (July 2) presented the chains to Eudokia, wife of the emperor Theodosius the Younger, and she in turn transferred them from Jerusalem to Constantinople in either the year 437 or 439.
98 ST PRISCILLA, MATRON St Priscilla was the mother of the senator St Pudens, and through him, the ancestress of SS. Praxedis and Pudentiana. St Peter, the apostle, is believed to have used a villa belonging to St Priscilla on the Via Salaria, beneath which the catacomb was afterwards excav­ated, as the seat of his activities in Rome.
IT is tantalizing to know so little of St Priscilla, who is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on this day and who has given her name as foundress to what is probably the most ancient and interesting of the catacombs. She seems to have been the wife of Manius Acilius Glabrio, who, as we learn from the pagan historians Suetonius and Dion Cassius, was put to death by Domitian on the pretext of some crime of sedition or blasphemous impiety, under which charge we may perhaps recognize a conversion to Christianity. It is likely that St Priscilla was the mother of the senator St Pudens, and through him, the ancestress of SS. Praxedis and Pudentiana. St Peter, the apostle, is believed to have used a villa belonging to St Priscilla on the Via Salaria, beneath which the catacomb was afterwards excav­ated, as the seat of his activities in Rome. There can be no doubt that the Acilii Glabriones were intimately connected with this spot, and that many of the family in the second and third centuries were Christians and were buried in the catacombs.
See De Rossi in Bullettino di archeologia cristiana, 1888—1889, pp. 15 and 103; Marucchi in Nuovo bullettino… vol. viii (1902), pp. 217—232 H. Leclercq in DAC., s.v. “Glabrion”, vol. vi, cc. 1259—1274.
250 St. Fusca (young girl) and Marura ( nurse) Martyrs of Ravenna.
Italy. Fusca was a young girl. Maura, her nurse, shared her martyrdom.
309 Died Marcellus I, Pope M (RM) reorganized Church in Rome
Marcellus is another of those saints for whom fact is so overlaid by myth that it is difficult to tell much at all about his life.

309 ST MARCELLUS I, POPE AND MARTYR
ST MARCELLUS had been a priest under Pope St Marcellinus, and succeeded him in 308, after the see of Peter had been vacant for three years and a half. An epitaph written of him by Pope St Damasus says that by enforcing the canons of penance he drew upon himself the hostility of many tepid and refractory Christians, and that for his severity against a certain apostate, he was banished by Maxentius. He died in 309 at his unknown place of exile. The Liber Pontificalis states that Lucina, the widow of one Pinian, who lodged St Marcellus when he lived in Rome, after his death converted her house into a church, which she called by his name. His false acts relate that, among other sufferings, he was condemned by the tyrant to keep cattle. He is styled a martyr in the early sacramentaries and martyrologies, but the fifth-century account of his martyrdom conflicts with the earlier epitaph. His body lies in Rome under the high altar in the ancient church which bears his name and gives its title to a cardinal.

The difficult question of the chronology of the brief pontificate of Pope St Marcellus has been discussed at length by Mgr Duchesne (Liber Pontificalis, vol. i, pp. xcix and 164) and Father Grisar (Kirchenlexikon, vol. viii, cc. 656—658) cf. also Duchesne in Mélanges d’arch.. 1898, pp. 382—392, and CMH., pp. 42-43.
According to the legend, one day in 309, an old man was pushed through the half-open door of the Emperor Maxentius's stables in Rome. Wearing nothing but rags, disfigured by fatigue and beatings, a pitiful sight, more scorned than the dust of the road-- this man is Marcellus, successor of the Apostle Peter to the papal throne, guardian of the keys of the Kingdom, arbiter of the churches.

Because of the vengeance of a tyrant, Marcellus had been turned into a slave and a stable-boy. Maxentius laughed at the ignominy of the pontiff to whom he had given a broom to replace his scepter, a bucket for a throne. And the companions of Marcellus, knowing that he is an important person, treated him with scornful irony; at the dinner table the worst rascal had permission to spit in his bowl.

Marcellus had become pope during a dangerous time for Christians in Rome.
After the death of Saint Marcellinus in 304, the papacy had remained vacant for over three years because the intensity of Emperor Diocletian's persecutions prevented the election of a new pope. It was not until Diocletian abdicated in 305 and Maxentius became emperor in 306, that a new election could be contemplated.
In May or June 308, Marcellus, a Roman priest, was elected.

Marcellus reorganized the Church in Rome, dividing the city into 25 parishes, the embryo of the Sacred College, and gave them the name of cardinals. And these priests, during his absence, celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the entire people of God prayed for his deliverance.

Marcellus undertook to rule and fix the destiny of the universal church. He ruled with justice upon the old quarrel about the backsliders: those Christians who yielded under the violence of torture, and who repented, tearfully seeking to be readmitted into communion with the faithful.

At Carthage, Novatus spoke for the forgiveness of all the apostates. At Rome, Novatian refused any pardon at all. Marcellus, sovereign judge, solved the problem wisely. He neither renounced punishment nor pity. He censured the guilty and imposed penances according to the gravity of their errors. He closed to no one his paternal arms. Of course, this made him unpopular with everyone.

Unfortunately, Marcellus's decision caused widespread civil disorders that forced Maxentius to exile Marcellus, who died shortly after leaving Rome on January 16 (although this may be the date of his burial). It's unclear whether he reigned nine or 18 months, however, it was definitely a very short tenure.

The story continues that after nine months of hard work in Maxentius's stable, Marcellus was able to escape to his awaiting flock. Emaciated and bent, shivering under his rags, he was recognized by a pious woman--Saint Lucina, who had buried Saint Sebastian. In haste she led him to her home, cared for him, and comforted him. Soon the good pope was again distributing Communion, teaching and baptizing. The faithful assemble about him in secrecy and the house that sheltered him, consecrated by incense and prayers, became a new Roman church.

Soon Maxentius discovered the whereabouts of the fugitive. He meditated upon a fearful punishment. Under his order slave hangmen broke down the door of the oratory, pushing ahead of them the cattle, horses, and other livestock from Maxentius's stables. They chased out and mistreated the faithful and replaced the tabernacle with a trough (a doubtful detail, since it is unlikely that they had tabernacles during this period). Marcellus was once again obliged to tend his animals.

The Encyclopedia correlates the treatment of Marcellus with that of many priests in this century by the Nazis. Several passages are cited (from Eugen Kogan's Le systeme des camps de concentration, Ed. la Jeune Parque and from Alfons Erb's Documents) regarding the treatment of an unnamed Franciscan priest and Msgr. Bernhard Lichtenberg.

Marcellus was simply one of the prime examples of man's inhumanity to man. One of the many who died in silence or unknown exile, tortured and brutally killed. Apparently, though, Marcellus did not meet a violent death; however, he is called a martyr in early liturgical books. The body of Saint Marcellus, however, was buried in the Roman cemetery of Saint Priscilla, though he may not have been killed by the persecution.

Maxentius was defeated in battle three years later by Emperor Constantine, who embraced Christianity. The oratory became a regular place of worship, and in the sixth century was enlarged. Meanwhile, the memory of Marcellus was preserved. After 300 years his remains were placed under the high altar of the Church named for him that stood where he had opened his oratory. Although the Church of San Marcello al Corso has been rebuilt many times since then, the saint's bones remain under its high altar to this day. (Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer).

In art Saint Marcellus is shown as a pope with a donkey and a crib near him, sometimes in a stable (Roeder) .
385 St. Melas Bishop of Rhinocolura, near the boundary between Egypt and Palestine on the Mediterranean Sea. He was cruelly abused and imprisoned by the Arian heretics.
 Rhinocolúræ, in Ægypto, sancti Melæ Epíscopi, qui, sub Valénte exsílium et ália grávia pro fide cathólica passus, in pace quiévit.
       At Rhinocolura in Egypt, the holy bishop St. Melas, who rested in peace after suffering exile and other painful trials for the Catholic faith during the reign of Emperor Valens.
429 Honoratus of Arles archbishop blessedly joyful B (RM) (also known as Honore)
 Areláte, in Gállia, sancti Honoráti, Epíscopi et Confessóris; cujus vita tam doctrína quam miráculis fuit illústris.
       At Arles in France, St. Honoratus, bishop and confessor, whose life was renowned for learning and for miracles.
Born in Trèves (Trier), Germany, (or Lorraine, France), c. 350; died at Arles, France, 429.

 429 ST HONORATUS, BISHOP OF ARLES
HONORATUS was of a consular Roman family settled in Gaul, and was well versed in the liberal arts. In his youth he renounced the worship of idols and gained to Christ his elder brother Venantius, whom he also inspired with a contempt for the world. They desired to forsake it entirely, but their father put continual obstacles in their way. At length they took with them St Caprasius, a holy hermit, to act as their instructor, and sailed from Marseilles to Greece, intending to live there unknown in some desert.

Venantius soon died at Modon; and Honoratus, having also fallen ill, was obliged to return with his conductor. He first led an eremitical life in the mountains near Fréjus. Two small islands lie in the sea near that coast one larger and nearer the continent, called Lero, now St Margaret’s; the other smaller and more remote, two leagues from Antibes, named Lérins, at present Saint-Honorat, from our saint. There he settled; and being followed by others he founded the famous monastery of Lérins about the year 400. Some he appointed to live in community; others in separate cells as anchorets. His rule was chiefly borrowed from that of St Pachomius. Nothing can be more attractive than the description St Hilary of Arles has given of the virtues of this company of saints, especially of the charity and devotion which reigned amongst them.

A charming legend, unfortunately of much later date, recounts how Margaret, the sister of Honoratus, converted at last from paganism by his prayers, came to settle on the other island, Lero, in order to be near her brother. With some reluctance he was induced to promise that he would visit her once a year, when the mimosa was in bloom. But on one occasion Margaret in great distress of soul longed for his guidance. It was still two months from the time appointed, but she fell upon her knees and prayed. Suddenly all the air was filled with an unmistak­able perfume; she looked up, and there, close beside her, was a mimosa tree covered with its fragrant blossom. She tore off a bough and sent it to her brother, who understood her appeal and tenderly acceded to the summons. It was their last meeting, for she passed away soon afterwards. Honoratus was by compulsion consecrated archbishop of Arles in 426, and died exhausted with austerities and apostolic labours in 429. The style of his letters, so St Hilary, his successor, assures us, was clear and affecting, penned with an admirable delicacy, elegance and sweetness. The loss of all these is much to be regretted. His tomb is shown empty under the high altar of the church which bears his name at Arles, his body having been translated to Lérins in 1391.

Cf. Gallia Christiana novissima, vol. iii (1901), p. 26; Revue Bénédictine, vol. iv, pp. 180—184 Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. i, p. 256. See also his panegyric by his disciple, kinsman and successor, St Hilary of Arles, and especially A. C. Cooper-Marsden, The History of the Islands of the Lérins (1913), illustrated with excellent photographs. B. Munke and others have edited a medieval Latin life of St Honoratus (1911), but like the Provençal Vida de Sane Honorat it contains nothing of historical value. Hilary’s discourse is translated in F. R. Hoare, The Western Fathers (1954).

Saint Honoratus was born into a Gallo-Roman family of consular rank. He was well-versed in the liberal arts. He converted from paganism to Christianity in his youth and won his older brother, Venantius, to Christ. The two brothers desired to forsake the world entirely; but their father put continual temptations in their way. Finally, they secured the services of Saint Caprasius, a holy hermit, who acted as their instructor in the ways of holiness.

The three sailed from Marseilles to Greece, intending to live there in some unknown desert and learn more about monasticism. Venantius died at Modon; Honoratus was also ill. He and his mentor were forced to return home via Rome. He intended to live the life of a hermit, but God had other plans for him. At first he lived as one near Fréjus. Two small islands were just off the coast near Cannes: a larger one called Lero (now St. Margaret's); the other, smaller and further out called Lérins (now Saint- Honorat).

Around 410 (400?), he established himself on this smaller desert island, where he was joined by SS. Lupus of Troyes, Eucherius of Lyons, and Hilary of Arles, as well as others. This was the beginning of the celebrated monastery of Lérins, whose history lasted for nearly 1,400 years. Some of the monks lived in community; others were anchorites. The Rule was that of Saint Pachomius.

About 426-427, he was forced to become archbishop of the important see of Arles. However, he labors in the field he did not want lasted less than three years. Honoratus died exhausted by his austerities and apostolic labors in 429.

His relative Hilary, who succeeded him as bishop of Arles, wrote a panegyric of Saint Honoratus that speaks of the trouble taken by the saint to ensure that no one in this island community should be dispirited, overworked, or idle; and 'it is astonishing how much work he got through himself, of poor health as he was.' Many visitors found their way to the island (including Saint John Cassian), and no one left it 'without a perfectly carefree mind.' Honoratus is one of those blessedly joyful saints (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Hoare, Walsh).

Saint Honoratus is generally portrayed as driving serpents from the island of Lérins, whose monastery he founded. He is shown at times (1) as a bishop over the island of Lérins with a phoenix below, or (2) drawing water from a rock with his mitre near him (Roeder).
429 James of Tarentaise B (AC)
Born in Syria; died at Tarentaise, France, c. 429. Saint James was a disciples of Saint Honoratus at Lérins and venerated at Chambery as an apostle of Savoy and the first bishop of Tarentaise (Benedictines). Saint James is generally portrayed as a bishop with a bear drawing a plough (Roeder).
453 St. Valerius Hermit bishop reputation for goodness and wisdom
He lived for many years as a hermit in the area around Sorrento, Italy, but owing to his reputation for goodness and wisdorn, he was proclaimed bishop by the people of the City.
5th v. St. Liberata Virgin sister of St. Honorata and St. Epiphanius of Pavia, Italy.
6th v. Honoratus of Fondi abbot-founder (RM)
 Fundis, in Látio, sancti Honoráti Abbátis, cujus méminit beátus Gregórius Papa.
       At Fondi in Lazio, St. Honoratus, abbot, mentioned by Pope St. Gregory.
Honoratus was the of the monastery of Fondi on the confines of Latium and Campania in present-day Italy.
Saint Gregory the Great gives a pleasing, though all too short, account of his life in Dialogos, Book I (Benedictines).
550 St. Triverius Hermit native of Neustria Gaul
he became a hermit at a young age, residing for most of his life near the monastery of Therouanne and Dombes. The French village of Saint Trivier {Benedictines} is named in his honor.
633 St. Fulgentius Bishop in Spain brother of Sts'. Isidore St. Leander and St. Florentina
Fulgentius was the bishop of Ecija, in Andalusia, Spain and one of the leaders of the Spanish Church at that time. He is often confused with Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). In art, Saint Fulgentius is likely to be shown with his brothers and sister (Roeder).
648 St. Fursey Irish monastic founder brother of Sts. Foillan and Ulan intense ecstasies -- praised by St. Bede.
 In castro cui nomen Macériæ, ad Altéjam flúvium, in Gállia, sancti Furséi Confessóris; cujus corpus ad monastérium Perónæ póstmodum translátum est.
       At Froheins, in the diocese of Amiens in France, St. Fursey, confessor, whose body was afterwards transferred to the monastery of Peronne.
648 ST FURSEY, ABBOT
THERE are few of the early Irish saints whose lives are better known to us than that of St Fursey (Fursa). He seems to have been born near Lough Corrib—possibly upon the island of Inisquin itself. Though conflicting accounts are given of his parentage, he was certainly of noble birth, but, as we are told, he was more noble by virtue than by blood. His gifts of person and mind are dilated on by his biographer, but in order to equip himself better in sacred learning he left his home and his own people, and eventually erected a monastery at Rathmat (? Killursa), which was thronged by recruits from all parts of Ireland.
After a time, returning home to his family, he experienced the first of some wonderful ecstasies, which being detailed by his biographer and recounted after­wards by such writers as Bede and Aelfric, became famous throughout the Christian world.

During these trances his body seems to have remained motionless in a cataleptic seizure, and his brethren, believing him to be dead, made preparations for his burial.
   The principal subject of these visions was the effort of the powers of evil to claim the soul of the Christian as it quits the body on its passage to another life: A fierce struggle is depicted, in which the angels engage in conflict with the demons, refuting their arguments, and rescuing the soul from the flames with which it is threatened.
In one particular vision we are told that St Fursey was lifted up on high and was ordered by the angels who conducted him to look back upon the world. Whereupon, casting his eyes downward, he saw as it were a dark and gloomy valley far beneath. Around this were four great fires kindled in the air, separate one from the other, and the angel told him that these four fires would consume all the world, and burn the souls of those men who through their misdeeds had made void the confession and promise of their baptism.

The first fire, it was explained, will burn the souls of those who are forsworn and untruthful; the second, those who give themselves up to greed; the third, those who stir up strife and discord; the fourth, those who think it no crime to deceive and defraud the helpless. Then the fires seemed all to coalesce and to threaten him with destruc­tion, so that he cried out in alarm. But the angel answered, “That which you did not kindle shall not burn within you, for though this appears to be a terrible and great fire, yet it tries every man according to the merits of his works”.

Bede, after giving a long summary of these visions, writes “An elderly brother of our monastery is still living who is wont to narrate how a very truthful and religious man told him that he had seen Fursey himself in the province of the East Angles, and heard these visions from his own lips; adding, that though it was most sharp winter weather and a hard frost, and this man was sitting in a thin garment when he related it, yet he sweated as if it had been the greatest heat of summer, either through the panic of fear which the memory called up, or through excess of spiritual consolation”.

This is certainly a very remarkable tribute to the vividness of St Fursey’s descriptions. One other curious detail in connection with the visions is the statement that the saint, having jostled against a condemned soul, carried the brand-mark of that contact upon his shoulder and cheek until the day of his death.

After twelve years of preaching in Ireland, St Fursey came with his brothers, St Foillan and St Ultan, to England, and settled for a while in East Anglia, where he was cordially welcomed by King Sigebert, who gave him land to build a monas­tery, probably at Burgh Castle, near Yarmouth. This migration must have taken place after the year 630; but somewhere between 640 and 644 the Irish monk determined to cross over to Gaul. Establishing himself in Neustria, he was honourably received by Clovis II. He built a monastery at Lagny, but died, when on a journey, shortly afterwards, probably in 648. His remains were transferred to Péronne. The feast of St Fursey is celebrated throughout Ireland and also in the diocese of Northampton.

See the Acta Sanctorum for January 16; Plummer’s edition of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii, pp. 169—174; M. Stokes, Three Months in the Forests of France, pp. 134—177 Moran, Irish Saints in Great Britain, p. 315 Healy, Ireland’s Ancient Schools, p. 266; Gougaud, Gaelic Pioneers of Christianity, and Christianity in Celtic Lands Grützmacher in Zeitschrift Kirchengesch., vol xix (1898), pp. 190—196.

Fursey was born on the island of Inisguia en Lough Carri, Ire­land, as a noble. He founded Rathmat Abbey, now probably Killursa. In 630 Fursey and his friends went to East Anglia, England, where he founded a monastery near Ugremouth on land donated by King Sigebert. In his later years, Fursey went to France to build a monastery at Lagny, near Paris, France.
He was buried in Picardy. St. Bede and others wrote about Fursey’s intense ecstasies.

St. Fursey - Catholic Encyclopedia on CD-ROM 
An Abbot of Lagny, near Paris, d. 16 Jan., about 650. He was the son of Fintan, son of Finloga, prince of South Muster, and Gelgesia, daughter of Aedhfinn, prince of Hy-Briuin in Connaught. He was born probably amongst the Hy-Bruin, and was baptized by St. Brendan the Traveller, his father's uncle, who then ruled a monastery in the Island of Oirbsen, now called Inisquin in Lough Corrib. He was educated by St. Brendan's monks, and when of proper age he embraced the religious life in the same monastery under the Abbot St. Meldan, his "soul-friend" (anam-chura). His great sanctity was early discerned, and there is a legend that here, through his prayers, twin children of a chieftain related to King Brendinus were raised from the dead. After some years he founded a monastery at Rathmat on the shore of Lough Corrib which Colgan identifies as Killursa, in the deanery of Annadown. Aspirants came in numbers to place themselves under his rule, but he wished to secure also some of his relatives for the new monastery. For this purpose he set out with some monks for Munster, but on coming near his father's home he was seized with an apparently mortal illness. He fell into a trance from the ninth hour of the day to cock-crow, and while in this state was favoured with the first of the ecstatic visions which have rendered him famous in medieval literature.

In this vision were revealed to him the state of man in sin, the beauty of virtue. He heard the angelic choirs singing "the saints shall go from virtue to virtue, the God of Gods will appear in Sion". An injunction was laid on him by the two angels who restored him to the body to become a more zealous labour in the harvest of the Lord. Again on the third night following, the ecstasy was renewed. He was rapt aloft by three angels who contended six times with demons for his soul. He saw the fires of hell, the strife of demons, and then heard the angel hosts sing in four choirs "Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts".
Among the spirits of the just made perfect he recognized Sts. Meldan and Beoan. They entertained him with much spiritual instruction concerning the duties of ecclesiastics and monks, the dreadful effects of pride and disobedience, the heinousness of spiritual and internal sins. They also predicted famine and pestilence. As he returned through the fire the demon hurled a tortured sinner at him, burning him, and the angel of the Lord said to him: "because thou didst receive the mantle of this man when dying in his sin the fire consuming him hath scarred thy body also." The body of Fursey bore the mark ever after.

His brothers Foillan and Ultan then joined the community at Rathmat, but Fursey seems to have renounced the administration of that monastery and to have devoted himself to preaching throughout the land, frequetly exorcising evil spirits. Exactly twelve months afterwards he was favoured with a third vision. The angel remained with him a whole day, instructed him for his preaching, and prescribed for him twelve years of apostolic labour. This he faithfully fulfilled in Ireland, and then stripping himself of all earthly goods he retired for a time to a small island in the ocean. Then he went with his brothers and other monks, bringing with him the relics of Sts. Meldan and Beoan, through Britain (Wales) to East Anglia where he was honourably received by King Sigebert in 633. The latter gave him a tract of land at Cnobheresburg on which he built a monastery within the enclosure of a Roman fort--Burghcastle in Suffolk--surrounded by woods and overlooking the sea. Here he laboured for some years converting the Picts and Saxons. He also received King Sigebert into the religious state. Three miracles are recorded of his life in this monastery. Again he retired for one year to live with Ultan the life of an anchorite.

When war threatened East Anglia, Fursey, disbanding his monks until quieter times should come, sailed with his brothers and six other monks to Gaul. He arrived in Normandy in 648. Passing through Ponthieu, in a village near Mézerolles he found grief and lamendation on all sides, for the only son of Duke Hayson, the Lord of that country, lay dead. At the prayer of Fursey the boy was restored.

Pursuing his journey to Neustria he cured many infirmities on the way, by miracles he converted a robber and his family, who attacked the monks in the wood near Corbie, and also the inhospitable worldling Ermelinda, who had refused to harbour the weary travellers.

His fame preceded him to Péronne, where he was joyfully received by Erkinoald, and through his prayers obtained the reprive of six criminals. He was offered any site in the king's dominions for a monastery. He selected Latiniacum (Lagny), close to Chelles and about six miles from Paris, a spot beside the Marne, covered with shady woods and abounding in fruitful vineyards. Here he built his monastery and three chapels, one dedicated to the Saviour, one to St. Peter, and the third, an unpretending structure, afterwards dedicated to St. Fursey himself.

Many of his countrymen were attracted to his rule at Lagny, among them Emilian, Eloquius, Mombulus, Adalgisius, Etto, Bertuin, Fredegand, Lactan, Malguil. Having certain premonitions of his end, he set out to visit his brothers Foillan and Ultan who had by this time recruited the scattered monks of Cnobheresburg and re-established that monastery but his last illness struck him down in the very village in which his prayer had restored Duke Haymon's son to life. The village was thence-forward called Forsheim, that is, the house of Fursey.

In accordance with his own wish his remains were brought to Péronne, many prodigies attending their transmission,and deposited in the portico of the church of St. Peter to which he had consigned the relics of Sts. Meldan and Beoan. His body lay unburied there for thirty days pending the dedication of the church, visited by pilgrims from all parts, incorrupt and exhaling a sweet odour. It was then deposited near the altar. Four years later, on 9 February, the remains were translated with great solemnity by St. Eligius, Bishop of Noyon, and Cuthbert, Bishop of Cambrai, to a chapel specially built for them to the east of the altar. In the "Annals of the Four Masters", Péronne is called Cathair Fursa.

In art St. Fursey is represented with two oxen at his feet in commemoration of the prodigy by which, according to legend, Erkinoald's claim to his body was made good; or he is represented striking water from the soil at Lagny with the point of his staff; or beholding a vision of angels, or gazing at the flames of purgatory and hell. It is disputed whether he was a bishop; he may have been a chorepiscopus. A litany attributed to him is among the manuscripts in Trinity College Dublin. An Irish prophecy is attributed to him by Harris .
650 St. Titian Bishop 30 yrs in outlying regions near Venice
 Opitérgii, in Venetórum fínibus, sancti Titiáni, Epíscopi et Confessóris.
       At Oderzo near Venice, St. Titian, bishop and confessor.
Italy, in a see that no longer exists.
He served in the office for more than thirty years.
670 Ferreolus bishop of Grenoble BM (AC).
(also known as Fergéol) cultus confirmed in 1907. Ferreolus is said to have been bishop of Grenoble, France (Benedictines).
670 BD FERREOLUS, BISHOP OF GRENOBLE, MARTYR
ALTHOUGH the cult of Bd Ferreolus was confirmed by Pope Pius X in 1907, practically nothing is known of the facts of his life. He is said to have been the thirteenth bishop of Grenoble, but, as Mgr Duchesne points out, nothing connects him with the see but a feeble liturgical tradition. Later accounts describe him as resisting the demands of the tyrannical mayor of the palace, Ebroin, and as having been, in consequence, driven from his see, and eventually put to death.
See Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. i, p. 232, and the Acta Sanctorum for January 12.
  Karantoc same as Saint Carantog (Carantoc) (Benedictines).  
988 St. Dunchaid O'Braoin Abbot on Clanmocnoise
near Westmeath, Ireland. anchorite until 969, when he was chosen abbot of Clonmacnoise Monastery. In his old age he retired to Armagh, where he died (Benedictines).
1105 Blessed Jane of Bagno Camaldolese lay-sister OSB Cam. V (AC)
Born in Fontechiuso, Tuscany, Italy; died 1105; cultus approved in 1823. Blessed Jane became a Camaldolese lay-sister at Santa Lucia near Bagno, Tuscany (Benedictines).
1127 St. Henry of Cocket Danish hermit gifts of prophecy telekinesis read souls
island off the coast of Northumbria, England. He lived under the director of the monks of Tynemouth.

Born in Denmark; died 1127. The Danish Henry went abroad because he wanted to live as a hermit. If he had remained at home, he would have been duty-bound to marry. He settled on Cocket Island, off the coast of Northumberland, under the obedience of the monks of Tynemouth, daughter-house of Saint Alban's, to whom the island belonged. On this same island Saint Cuthbert used to meet Saint Elfleda, abbess of Whitby.

Henry lived the typical life of a hermit: gardening to provide his own food and practicing austerities. After many years on the island, a party of Danes tried to persuade him to return to Denmark. There were many suitable places in his homeland where he could practice his eremitical life. But after a night of prayer in which Henry experienced a locution from the corpus on the cross, he decided to stay where he was.

Word of his holiness spread. More and more visitors flocked to the island, attracted by his special gifts of prophecy, telekinesis, and reading souls. One interesting example of the last: He reproved and punished a man who had refused his wife sexual intercourse during Lent, although the man had not confessed it.

When Henry fell ill and his state continued to deteriorate due to lack of care, he became increasingly cheerful and endured his suffering alone. Finally, he rang his hermit's bell for help. By the time help arrived, Henry was dead, holding the bellrope in one hand and a candle in the other. In spite of strong resistance from the islanders, who wanted to keep their saint, the monks of Tynemouth took his body back to the monastery and buried him in the sanctuary, near their patron Saint Oswin. There is no early reference to his cultus, but his name can be found in later martyrologies (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer).
1145 Blessed Conrad martyred abbot of Mondsee OSB M (PC)
Born near Trèves (Trier), Germany; died near Mondsee, Austria, 1145. Conrad Bosinlother became a Benedictine at Siegburg. In 1127, he was appointed abbot of Mondsee (Lunaelacensis), Upper Austria. His firmness in reclaiming the alienated possessions of the abbey led some nobles to murder him at Oberwang nearby. From the time of his death, he was publicly venerated at his abbey as a martyr (Benedictines).
1220 {butler sts mistake see 1127) ST HENRY OF COCKET THE Danes were indebted in part for the light of faith, under God, to the example and labours of English missionaries. Henry was born in that country, and from his youth gave himself to the divine service with his whole heart.
When he came to man’s estate he sailed to the north of England. The little island of Cocket, which lies on the coast of Northumberland, near the mouth of the river of the same name, had been the home of anchorets even in St Bede’s time, as appears from his life of St Cuthbert. This island belonged to the monastery of Tynemouth, and St Henry undertook to lead in it an eremitical life. His only daily meal, which he took after sunset, was bread and water; and this bread he earned by tilling a little garden. He died in his hermitage on January 16, 1127, and was buried by the monks at Tynemouth in their church.
His life by Capgrave is printed in the Acta Sanctorum for January 16. Cf. also Stanton,  Menology, pp. 22—23. There seems to be no evidence of public cultus.
1220 Berard, Peter, Otto, first martyrs of Franciscan order Accursius & Adjutus, OFM MM (RM)
 Marróchii, in Africa, pássio sanctórum quinque Protomártyrum Ordinis Minórum, scílicet Berárdi, Petri atque Othónis Sacerdótum, Accúrsii et Adjúti Laicórum; qui, ob Christiánæ fídei prædicatiónem ac Mahuméticæ reprobatiónem legis, post vária torménta et ludíbria, a Saracenórum Rege, scissis gládio capítibus, enecáti sunt.
       In Morocco in Africa, the martyrdom of the five Protomartyrs of the Order of Friars Minor, Berard, Peter, and Otto who were priests, and Accursius and Adjutus who were lay brothers.  For preaching the Catholic faith, and because of their hatred of the Mohammedan Law, after various torments and mockeries by the Saracen king, they were beheaded.
Died in Morocco 1220; canonized 1481. In 1219, Saint Francis of Assisi sent Berard and four other friars--Otto, Peter, Accursio, and Aiuto--to preach the Gospel to the Islamics in western North Africa. They travelled from Italy to Aragon, then to Coimbra, Portugal and began their mission with the Moors in Seville, Spain; they were imprisoned immediately and then banished. They then made their was to Marrakesh, where they preached in the streets, though Berard was the only one who spoke any Arabic.

At first the Moors were forebearing, thinking that they were mad; but when they would not go away, and continued openly to denounce the teachings of the Prophet, the three priests and two lay brothers (Accursio and Aiuto) were beaten and put to death by the hand of the sultan himself, becoming the first martyrs of the Franciscan order (Attwater, Benedictines).

1220 SS. BERARD AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
THESE five friars were sent by St Francis to the Mohammedans of the West whilst he went in person to those of the East. They preached first to the Moors of Seville, where they suffered much for their zeal, and were banished. Passing thence into Morocco, they began there to preach Christ, and tried to act as chaplains to the sultan’s Christian mercenaries. The friars were looked on as lunatics and treated accordingly. When they refused either to return whence they had come or to keep silent, the sultan, taking his scimitar, clove their heads asunder, on January 16, 1220. These formed the vanguard of that glorious army of martyrs which the Seraphic order has since given to the Church. When St Francis heard the news of their heroic endurance and triumph, he cried out, “Now I can truly say I have five brothers”. They were SS. Berard, Peter, Odo, Accursio and Adjutus.

They were canonized in 1481. See the Acta Sanctorum, January 16; Wadding, Annales Minonim, s.a. 1220; and in Analecta Franciscans, vol. iii, pp. 579—596. Cf also Karl Muller, Die Anfänge des Minoritenordens, pp. 207—210; Léon, Auréole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. i, pp. 99—111; and H. Koehler, L’Eglise du Maroc . . . (1934), pp. 320.

St. Berard and Companions 
Preaching the gospel is often dangerous work. Leaving one’s homeland and adjusting to new cultures, governments and languages is difficult enough; but martyrdom sometimes caps all the other sacrifices.

In 1219 with the blessing of St. Francis, Berard left Italy with Peter, Adjute, Accurs, Odo and Vitalis to preach in Morocco. En route in Spain Vitalis became sick and commanded the other friars to continue their mission without him.

They tried preaching in Seville, then in Muslim hands, but made no converts. They went on to Morocco where they preached in the marketplace. The friars were immediately apprehended and ordered to leave the country; they refused. When they began preaching again, an exasperated sultan ordered them executed. After enduring severe beatings and declining various bribes to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ, the friars were beheaded by the sultan himself on January 16, 1220.

These were the first Franciscan martyrs. When Francis heard of their deaths, he exclaimed, "Now I can truly say that I have five Friars Minor!" Their relics were brought to Portugal where they prompted a young Augustinian canon to join the Franciscans and set off for Morocco the next year.
That young man was Anthony of Padua. These five martyrs were canonized in 1481.
Comment: The deaths of Berard and his companions sparked a missionary vocation in Anthony of Padua and others. There have been many, many Franciscans who have responded to Francis’ challenge. Proclaiming the gospel can be fatal, but that has not stopped the Franciscan men and women who even today risk their lives in many countries throughout the world.
Quote: Before St. Francis, the Rules of religious orders made no mention of preaching to the Muslims. In the Rule of 1223, Francis wrote: "Those brothers who, by divine inspiration, desire to go among the Saracens and other nonbelievers should ask permission from their ministers provincial. But the ministers should not grant permission except to those whom they consider fit to be sent" (Chapter 12).
1259 Blessed Gundisalvus of Amarante miracles appears 40 yrs after death  OP (AC)
(also known as Gonsalvo, Gonzales)
Born in Vizella (near Braga), Portugal, in 1187; died c. 1259; cultus approved 1560.
1259? BD GONSALO OF AMARANTE
IT must be confessed that many of the incidents recorded in the life of Bd Gonsalo (Gundisalvus), a Portuguese of high family, are not of a nature to inspire confidence in the sobriety of his biographer’s judgement. At the very outset we are told that when carried to the font the infant fixed his eyes on the crucifix with a look of extraordinary love. Then, when he had grown up and been ordained priest, he is said to have resigned his rich benefice to his nephew, and to have spent fourteen years upon a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On his return, being repulsed by his nephew, who set the dogs on him as a vagrant, he was supernaturally directed to enter that order in which the office began and ended with the Ave Maria. He accordingly became a Dominican, but was allowed by his superiors to live as a hermit, during which time he built, largely with his own hands, a bridge over the river Tamega. When the labourers whom he persuaded to help him had no wine to drink, and he was afraid that they would go on strike, he betook himself to prayer; and then, on his hitting the rock with his stick, an abundant supply of excellent wine spouted forth from a fissure. Again, when provisions failed he went to the riverside to summon the fishes, who came at his call and jumped out of the river, competing for the privilege of being eaten in so worthy a cause. Similarly, we read that “when he was preaching to the people, desiring to make them understand the effect of the Church’s censures, upon the soul, he excommunicated a basket of bread, and the loaves at once became black and corrupt. Then, to show that the Church can restore to her communion those who humbly acknowledge their fault, he removed the excommunication, and the loaves recovered their whiteness and their wholesome savour” (Procter, p. 3). It is to be feared that legend has played a considerable part in filling in the rather obscure outlines of the biography. Bd Gonsalo died on January 10, but his feast is kept on this day by the Dominicans, his cultus having been approved in 1560.

See Castiglio, Historia Generale di S. Domenico e deli’ Ordine sub (1589), vol. i, pp. 299— 304 Procter, Short Lives of Dominican Saints, pp. 1—4; Acta Sanctorum for January 10. The miracle of the fishes is said to have occurred not once, but repeatedly molte e diverse volte.

Gonsalvo de Amarante was a true son of the Middle Ages, a man right out of the pages of the 'Golden Legend.' His whole life reads like a mural from the wall of a church--full of marvelous things and done up in brilliant colors.

In his boyhood Gonsalvo Pereira was gave wonderful indications of his holiness. While still small, he was consecrated to study for the Church, and received his training in the household of the archbishop of Braga. After his ordination he was given charge of a wealthy parish, an assignment that should have made him very happy. Gonsalvo was not as interested in choice parishes as some of his companions; he went to his favorite Madonna shrine and begged Our Lady to help him administer this office fairly.

There was no complaint with Gonsalvo's governance of the parish of Saint Pelagius. He was penitential himself, but indulgent with everyone else. Revenues that he might have used for himself were used for the poor and the sick. The parish, in fact, was doing very well when he turned it over to his nephew, whom he had carefully trained as a priest, before making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Gonsalvo would have remained his entire life in the Holy Land, but after 14 years his archbishop commanded him to return to Portugal. Upon his arrival, he was horrified to see that his nephew had not been the good shepherd that he had promised to be, the money left for the poor had gone to purchase a fine stable of thoroughbred horses and a pack of fine hounds. The nephew had told everyone that his old uncle was dead, and he had been appointed pastor in his place by an unsuspecting archbishop. When the uncle appeared on the scene, ragged and old, but very much alive, the nephew was not happy to see him. Gonsalvo seems to have been surprised as well as pained.

The ungrateful nephew settled the matter by turning the dogs on his inconvenient uncle. They would have torn him to pieces, but the servants called them off and allowed the ragged pilgrim to escape. Gonsalvo decided then that he had withstood enough parish life, and went out into the hills to a place called Amarante. Here he found a cave and other necessities for an eremitical life and lived in peace for several years, spending his time building a little chapel to the Blessed Virgin. He preached to those who came to him, and soon there was a steady stream of pilgrims seeking out his retreat.

Happy as he was, Golsalvo felt that this was not his sole mission in life, and he prayed to Our Lady to help him to discern his real vocation. She appeared to him one night as he prayed and told him to enter the order that had the custom of beginning the office with "Ave Maria gratia plena." She told him that this order was very dear to her and under her special protection. Gonsalvo set out to learn what order she meant, and eventually came to the convent of the Dominicans. Here was the end of the quest, and he asked for the habit.

Blessed Peter Gonzales was the prior, and he gave the habit to the new aspirant. After Gonsalvo had gone through his novitiate, he was sent back to Amarante, with a companion, to begin a regular house of the order. The people of the neighborhood quickly spread the news that the hermit was back. They flocked to hear him preach, and begged him to heal their sick.

One of the miracles of Blessed Gonsalvo concerns the building of a bridge across a swift river that barred many people from reaching the hermitage in wintertime. It was not a good place to build a bridge, but Gonsalvo set about it and followed the heavenly directions he had received. Once, during the building of the bridge, he went out collecting, and a man who wanted to brush him off painlessly sent him away with a note for his wife.

Gonsalvo took the note to the man's wife, and she laughed when she read it. "Give him as much gold as will balance with the note I send you," said the message. Gonsalvo told her he thought she ought to obey her husband, so she got out the scales and put the paper in one balance. Then she put a tiny coin in the other balance, and another, and another--the paper still outweighed her gold--and she kept adding. There was a sizeable pile of coins before the balance with the paper in it swung upwards.

Gonsalvo died about 1259, after prophesying the day of his death and promising his friends that he would still be able to help them after death. Pilgrimages began soon, and a series of miracles indicated that something should be done about his beatification. Forty years after his death he appeared to several people who were apprehensively watching a flood on the river. The water had arisen to a dangerous level, just below the bridge, when they saw a tree floating towards the bridge, and Gonsalvo was balancing capably on its rolling balk. The friar carefully guided the tree under the bridge, preserving the bridge from damage, and then disappeared (Benedictines, Dorcy).

Saint Gundisalvus is generally shown as a Dominican between two Franciscans (SS Francis and Bernardino. The Christ-child, holding an orb, showers light upon him. He holds monastery in his hands. At times he may be shown giving food to beggars (Roeder). He is venerated in Braga, Portugal, and Amarante (Roeder).



THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 236

Be not angry with the wicked, O Lady: sweeten their fury by thy grace.

O ye religious and cloistered souls, hope in her: confide in her, ye priests and seculars.

Take delight in her praises: and she will grant the petitions of your heart.

Better is a little with her grace: than treasures of silver and precious stones.

Glory be to thee forever, O Queen of Heaven: and never forget us at any time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis creates new path to beatification under ‘offering of life’
Jul 11, 2017 - 06:22 am .- On Tuesday Pope Francis declared a new category of Christian life suitable for consideration of beatification called “offering of life” – in which a person has died prematurely through an offering of their life for love of God and neighbor.
 
Twentieth century Polish nurse among causes advancing toward sainthood
Jul 7, 2017 - 06:14 am .- Pope Francis on Friday approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Hanna Chrzanowska, a Polish nurse and nursing instructor who died from cancer in 1973, paving the way for her beatification.
 
Sainthood causes advance, including layman who resisted fascism
Jun 17, 2017 - 09:22 am .- Pope Francis on Friday recognized the heroic virtue of six persons on the path to canonization, as well as the martyrdom of an Italian man who died from injuries of a beating he received while imprisoned in a concentration camp for resisting fascism.
 
Solanus Casey, Cardinal Van Thuan among those advanced toward sainthood
May 4, 2017 - 10:47 am .- Pope Francis on Thursday approved decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints advancing the causes for canonization of 12 individuals, including the American-born Capuchin Solanus Casey and the Vietnamese cardinal Francis Xavier Nguen Van Thuan.
 
Pope clears way for canonization of Fatima visionaries
Mar 23, 2017 - 06:44 am .- On Thursday Pope Francis approved the second and final miracle needed to canonize Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the shepherd children who witnessed the Fatima Marian apparitions.
Surgeon and father among sainthood causes moving forward
Feb 27, 2017 - 11:03 am .- Pope Francis recognized on Monday the heroic virtue of eight persons on the path to canonization, including an Italian surgeon and father of eight who suffered from several painful diseases throughout his life.
8 Martyrs Move Closer to Sainthood 8 July, 2016
Posted by ZENIT Staff on 8 July, 2016

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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