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;
2024
23,658  Lives Saved Since 2007


Cáthedra sancti Petri Apóstoli, qua primum Romæ sedit.
The Chair of St. Peter the Apostle, who established the Holy See at Rome.

Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China {whole article here }

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

January 18 – Second apparition of Mary in Banneux (Belgium, 1933) 
A Muslim child’s prayer to the Virgin Mary
 A supernatural event Before a statue of Our Lady of Pontmain occurred on August 21, 2004, in Bechouate, a small city north of Lebanon, in the Bekaa plain, a border area where the various warring factions sell cannabis and poppy, in an isolated Christian enclave among Shiite villages.
Before a statue of Our Lady of Pontmain, a young boy pronounced a prayer "bigger than himself": "Hail to you, Virgin Mary, Queen of the world, of peace and of love. Old men, children and women are dying violent deaths all around the world. Bring peace, love and freedom over the face of the earth, O Queen of the World."

Because of the child’s identity – a Jordan Sunni, the Virgin acted as a bridge between the Christian and Muslim communities, divided by wars and political loyalties. The child's prayer contains an act of faith and expresses that through Mary can come three gifts needed for the entire region: peace, love and freedom.

Christians and Muslims come to pray in this small church. Mary's presence, manifested by signs and healings, reassures and brings a sense of safety, helping all sides to envision the possibility of living the called-for "reconciliation" together as one nation. www.mariedenazareth.com

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 .

 373 Saints Athanasius and Cyril were Archbishops of Alexandria
16th v. Righteous Athanasius of Navolotsk
1937 St Jaime Hilario Barbal, religious Brother teaching the poor executed during the Spanish Civil War: "The day you learn to surrender yourself totally to God, you will discover a new world, just as I am experiencing. You will enjoy a peace and a calm unknown, surpassing even the happiest days of your life."   “To die for Christ, my young friends, is to live.”

15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary
Historic Background of the Rosary - Mother of Reconciliation

Most historians trace the origin of the Rosary as we know it today back to the so-called Dark Ages of ninth-century Ireland. In those days, as is still true today, the 150 Psalms of David were one of the most important forms of monastic prayer. Monks recited or chanted the Psalms day after day as a source of inspiration.

The lay people who lived near a monastery could see the beauty of this devotion, but because very few people outside the monasteries knew how to read in those days, the lay people were unable to adapt this prayer form for their own use.
So one day in about the year 800 A.D., an Irish monk suggested to the neighboring lay people that they pray a series of 150 Our Fathers in place of the 150 Psalms. At first, in order to count their 150 Our Fathers,
people carried around leather pouches which held 150 pebbles.
Soon they switched to ropes with 150 or 50 knots; eventually they began to use strings strung with 50 wooden beads.

In other parts of Europe, the Angelic Salutation, the first part of our Hail Mary, was recited as a repetitive prayer.
Saint Peter Damian (d. 1072) was the first to mention this prayer form.
Then during the thirteenth century another prayer form, which would soon give the Rosary its Mysteries, began to develop.
Soon Psalters devoted to 150 praises of Mary were also composed.
When a Psalter of Marian praises numbered 50 instead of 150 it was commonly called a rosarium, or bouquet of roses.
January 18 - Our Lady of Dijon (France)
  God's Secret (I)
Because Mary remained hidden during her life she is called by the Holy Spirit and the Church "Alma Mater", Mother hidden and unknown. So great was her humility that she desired nothing more upon earth than to remain unknown to herself and to others, and to be known only to God.

In answer to her prayers to remain hidden, poor and lowly, God was pleased to conceal her from nearly every other human creature in her conception, her birth, her life, her mysteries, her resurrection and assumption. Her own parents did not really know her; and the angels would often ask one another, "Who can she possibly be?", for God had hidden her from them, or if he did reveal anything to them, it was nothing compared with what he withheld.
Saint Louis de Montfort Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin #2 & 3
Saints_Athanasius_and_Cyril.jpg
ST PETER’S CHAIR AT ROME
 250 St. Ammonius and a fellow soldier Moseus Martyrs
 Ibídem sancti Athenógenis, antíqui Theólogi, qui, per ignem consummatúrus martyrium, hymnum lætus cécinit, quem et discípulis scriptum relíquit.
       In the same country, St. Athenogenes, an aged divine, who, on the point of being martyred by fire, joyfully sang a hymn, which he left in writing to his disciples.
  270  St Prisca of Rome ST PRISCA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR
  293 St. Archelais and Companions Martyr with Thecla and Susanna

 <<373 Saints Athanasius and Cyril were Archbishops of Alexandria

 388 Saint Marcian of Cyrrhus gift of wonderworking many other miracles on behalf of the brethren
 496 St. Volusian Bishop of Tours France A senator
 625 Deicolus, Abbot known for the peace and joy radiated from his soul miracles spring
       St Diarmis, Abbot founder spiritual director and teacher of Saint Kieran
 593 St. Leobard Hermit disciple of St. Gregory of Tours
 580 Sts Faustina and Liberata sisters founded convent of Santa Margarita in Como
        Paul & 36 Christian Soldiers evangelized Egypt
1028 St. Ulfrid Missionary martyr from England great learning and virtue
1270 St. Margaret, virgin, from the royal family of Arpad, and a nun of the Order of St. Dominic
1272 St Fazzio of Verona goldsmith founded charitable society in Cremona Order of the Holy Spirit
1262 Blessed Beatrix II of Este founded Benedictine convent of Saint Antony at Ferrara
1337 Saint Cyril and his wife Maria
1516 Saint Maximus the New life of great spiritual endeavors
1543 Blessed Christina Ciccarelli extraordinary humility and love of the poor
1550 Saint Athanasius of Synadem and Vologda incorrupt relics
       St. Day (Dye), Abbot Cornish church is dedicated
16th v. Righteous Athanasius of Navolotsk
1670 St. Charles of Sezze Franciscan Pope Clement IX called Charles to his bedside for a blessing
1890 St. Vincenza Mary Lopez y Vicuna Foundress of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate
1937 St Jaime Hilario Barbal, religious Brother teaching the poor executed during the Spanish Civil War: "The day you learn to surrender yourself totally to God, you will discover a new world, just as I am experiencing. You will enjoy a peace and a calm unknown, surpassing even the happiest days of your life."   “To die for Christ, my young friends, is to live.”
Mary the Mother of Jesus
Saint Athanasius_of_Synadem_and_Vologda.jpg

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.




ST PETER’S CHAIR AT ROME
ST PETER, having triumphed over Satan in the East, pursued the enemy to Rome with unabated energy. He who had formerly trembled at the voice of a servant-maid, now feared not the stronghold of idolatry and superstition. The capital of the empire of the world, and the centre of impiety, called for the zeal of the leader of the Apostles. The Roman empire had extended its dominion beyond that of any former monarchy, and the influence of its metropolis was of the greatest human importance for the spread of Christ’s gospel.
St Peter claimed that province for himself; and repairing to Rome, there preached the faith and established his episcopal chair, and from him the bishops of Rome in all ages have derived their succession. That SS. Peter and Paul founded that church is expressly asserted by Cams, a priest of Rome under Pope St Zephyrinus (quoted by Eusebius, Hist. eccl, bk ii, c. 25), who relates also that his body was then on the Vatican hill, and that of his fellow-labourer, St Paul, on the Ostian road. That he and St Paul planted the faith in Rome, and were both crowned with martyrdom there, is affirmed by St Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, in the second century. St Irenaeus, in the same century, calls the church at Rome “The greatest and most ancient church, founded by the two glorious apostles, Peter and Paul.”
Nevertheless, doubt has been cast upon the historical fact of St Peter’s presence in Rome. It is pointed out that no clear contemporary statement can be adduced in proof of his residence there, that the Acts of the Apostles suggest nothing of the kind, that the only thing we know concerning his later life is that his own first epistle was written from “Babylon”, that the so-called Roman tradition is inextricably mixed up with fabulous legends about Simon Magus which no serious scholar would now dream of defending, and that the twenty-five years’ Roman episcopate, attributed to St Peter with a quite suspicious unanimity by later historians such as Eusebius, cannot be reconciled with the other data they supply and with the complete silence of St Paul concerning his fellow apostle in his Epistle to the Romans. But these difficulties have been duly considered and answered not only by Catholic apologists, but by eminent Anglicans such as Bishop Lightfoot, Professor C. H. Turner and Dr George Edmundson, as well as by Lutherans of the standing of Harnack and Zahn. The grounds upon which the Roman tradition is based are stated concisely and clearly by the Anglican Dr F. H. Chase, Bishop of Ely, in the following passage:
The strength of the case for St Peter’s visit to and martyrdom at Rome lies not only in the absence of any rival tradition, but also in the fact that many streams of evidence converge to this result. We have the evidence of official lists and documents of the Roman church, which prove the strength of the tradition in later times, and which, at least in some cases, must rest on earlier documents. The notice of the transference of the apostle’s body to a new resting-place in 258, and the words of Caius, show that the tradition was definite and unquestioned at Rome in the first half of the third century. The fact that Caius is arguing with an Asiatic opponent, the evidence of the [gnostic] Acts of Peter, the passages quoted from Origen, Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian, show that at the same period the tradition was accepted in the churches of Asia, of Alexandria and Carthage. The passage of Irenaeus carries the evidence backward well within the second century, and is of special importance, as coming from one who had visited Rome, whose list of Roman bishops suggests that he had had access to official documents, and who through Polycarp was in contact with the personal knowledge of St John and his companions.

Further, Dr Chase went on to point out that the close association of the mar­tyrdom of St Peter with that of St Paul in the reference made to them by St Clement, pope at the end of the first century, in the unquestionably genuine letter he wrote to the church of Corinth, forms a strong presumption that he, who must have known the truth, identified both apostles equally with Rome. Dr Chase’s article was written in 1900, and since then much fresh evidence has come to light. It will be noticed that he refers to the transference of the apostle’s body to a new resting place in 258. We cannot affirm that this translation, which was in any case only temporary, is a certain fact.

The historical weight of this tradition was affirmed in eloquent terms by another Anglican divine, Dr George Edmundson, in a Bampton lecture given before the University of Oxford in 1913, wherein he states that “a tradition accepted univer­sally and without a single dissentient voice associates the foundation and organiza­tion of the church of Rome with the name of St Peter, and speaks of his active connection with the church as extending over a period of some twenty-five years.  “It is needless,” he goes on, “to multiply references, in Egypt and in Africa, in the East and in the West, no other place ever disputed with Rome the honour of being the see of St Peter no other place ever claimed that he died there, or that it possessed his tomb. Most significant of all is the consensus of the oriental, non-Greek-speaking churches. A close examination of Armenian and Syriac manuscripts . . . through several centuries has failed to discover a single writer who did not accept the Roman Petrine tradition.”

It was undoubtedly an ancient custom throughout the West to keep as a festival the anniversary of the consecration - of the bishop. St Augustine has a treatise de natali episcopi, and St Leo three sermons of which the subject is the natalis cathedrae, “the birthday”, or anniversary, “of the chair” (i.e. of his installation as bishop). That some commemoration of St Peter’s enthronement as bishop of Rome should have been observed from an early date was to be expected. In point of fact, our calendar now contains, and has contained for more than a thousand years past, two entries which recall the memory of St Peter’s connection with the episcopal office. That of the day with which we are now concerned is expressly referred to “the chair on which he first sat in Rome” that of February 22 professes to com­memorate his earlier ministry in Antioch. As the result of much investigation and debate the conclusion now more generally adopted is that there was originally only one feast of St Peter’s chair further, that this was kept on February 22, and had no reference to Antioch, but only to the beginning of his episcopate at Rome.* * In the Benedictine calendar, approved in 1915, the two “chair “ feasts have been subsumed in one, St Peter’s Chair, on February 22.

It seems, then, that any discussion of the rather complicated problem of the duplication of the feast may most fittingly be reserved for February 22.

For the present it will be sufficient to point out that, in the view of some archaeologists, the material relic known as “St Peter’s chair”, which is now pre­served in a casing of bronze by Bernini over the apsidal altar of St Peter’s basilica in Rome, must be regarded as an important element in the development of these feasts. Some lay stress upon the fact that St Paul (Rom. xvi 5) sends greetings to “the church which is at the house of Prisca and Aquila”, seeming to point to some primitive meeting-place of a community of Roman Christians, and they urge that such a portable chair as the relic in question might naturally have been used as an improvised bishop’s stool in a private house. This might, then, have been “the chair on which St Peter first sat in Rome”, though after a few years some more spacious place of assembly may have been provided in which a permanent seat could be constructed. It is, in any case, curious that the house of Prisca and Aquila seems to have developed in course of time into the still existing church of St Prisca on the Aventine, and that the feast of the dedication of this church was kept on February 22. On the other hand, a St Prisca, martyr, is commemorated on this day, January 18. But obviously nothing more than vague conjectures can be based on indications of this kind. All that we definitely know is that since the end of the sixth century, when the Auxerre redaction of the so-called Martyrologium Hiero­nymianum was compiled, the feast of “St Peter’s chair at Rome” has been honoured pretty generally throughout the West on this day.

 In a Motu Proprio of John XXIII dated July 25, 1960, this feast was dropped from the Roman Calendar.

See F. Cabrol in DAC., vol. iii, cc. 76—90; CMH., pp. 45—46, 109; and L. Duchesne, Christian Worship (1919), pp. 277—280. Cf. herein St Peter, June 29, and his Chair at Antioch, February 22.
 250 St. Ammonius and a fellow soldier Moseus Martyrs.
 In Ponto natális sanctórum Mártyrum Moséi et Ammónii, qui, cum essent mílites, primo ad metálla damnáti sunt, ac novíssime igni tráditi.
      In Pontus, the birthday of the holy martyrs Mosseus and Ammonius, soldiers, who were first condemned to work in the metal mines, then cast into the fire.
in the persecutions of Emperor Trajanus Decius (249-251 A.D.). They were taken prisoner for having hired Christians and were condemned to labor in the mines of Bithynia. They were reportedly burned to death.
270  St Prisca of Rome VM (RM) (also known as Priscilla)
 Ibídem pássio sanctæ Priscæ, Vírginis et Mártyris; quæ sub Cláudio Imperatóre, post multa torménta, martyrio coronáta est.
      In the same place, under Emperor Claudius, the passion of St. Prisca, virgin and martyr, who, after undergoing many torments, was crowned with martyrdom.
ST PRISCA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR
Great confusion and uncertainty prevail regarding the saint who is commemorated on this day under the name of Prisca. On the one hand, it is unquestionable that the so-called “acts”, dating at earliest from the tenth century, are historically worthless, for they simply reproduce, with slight changes, the legendary Passion of St Tatiana. On the other hand, there was, beyond doubt, a genuine and early cultus in Rome of at least one St Prisca, or Priscilla. The itineraries nearly all mention her as a martyr, and indicate the place of her interment in the catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria. Moreover, as stated above in connection with St Peter’s chair, there is a church on the Aventine dedicated to St Prisca which furnishes a cardinalitial title, and which, from the fourth to the eighth century, was known as the titulus S. Priscae, but later (c. 8oo) as titulus Aquilae et Priscae. This last designation clearly refers to the Aquila and his wife, Prisca, of whom we read more than once in the New Testament in connection with St Paul. The husband and wife, however, are commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on July 8, and are there assigned to Asia Minor. Many conjectures have been made to elucidate the problem, and in particular it has been pointed out that Prisca seems to have been a favourite name among the Acilii Glabriones, and also that the name which is written in Latin as Aquila appears in Greek as Aknlaz; but no clear solution has yet been arrived at.

See the Acta Sanctorum for January 18 Marucchi in Nuovo Bullettino di arched. crist., vol. xiv (1908), pp. 5 seq.; Duchesne, Liber Pontificalis, vols. i, pp. 501, 517; ii, 201; Pio Franchi de’ Cavalieri in the Römische Quartalschrift, 1903, p. 223 and De Rossi, Roma Sotterranea, vol. i, p. 176.

Died 1st century or c. 270 (?). Saint Prisca seems to have had a very early cultus in Rome, who has not been satisfactorily identified. From the 9th century, the martyr buried on the Aventine was identified with the Priscilla, wife of Aquila, of the Acts of the Apostles.

But according to her acta, which were not written until the 10th century, Prisca was a 13-year-old girl who was exposed in the amphitheatre and, to the amazement of all, the fierce lion was loosed upon her, licked her feet. She was therefore returned to prison and beheaded. An eagle watched over her body until it was buried in the catacomb of Priscilla, where a church has been dedicated as titulus Aquilae et Priscae on the Aventine hill since at least the 4th century. Her existence has lately been subject to scrutiny; she may be identical to Saint Tatiana and/or Saint Martina (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Gill, Tabor).

Saint Prisca is pictured as an early Christian maiden martyr with a lion (or two lions), sword, and eagle near her (Farmer, Roeder, Tabor). The tamed lion signified a conquered paganism, in addition to an element in the story (Appleton). She is venerated in Rome, where her relics remain on the Aventine (Roeder) and on the calendars of 16 English monasteries (Farmer) 
293 St. Archelais and Companions Martyr with Thecla and Susanna
They were virgins of the Romagna region of Italy who traveled to Nola, in Campania, because of the persecutions. In Nola, they were arrested and taken to Salerno. All three were cruelly tortured and slain. Benedictines
St_Cyril.jpg
373 Saints Athanasius and Cyril were Archbishops of Alexandria
These wise teachers of truth and defenders of Christ's Church share a joint Feast in recognition of their dogmatic writings which affirm the truth of the Orthodox Faith, correctly interpret the Holy Scripture, and censure the delusions of the heretics.

St Athanasius took part in the First Ecumenical Council when he was still a deacon. He surpassed everyone there in his zeal to uphold the teaching that Christ is consubstantial (homoousios) with the Father, and not merely a creature, as the Arians proclaimed.  This radiant beacon of Orthodoxy spent most of his life in exile from his See, because of the plotting of his enemies. He returned to his flock as he was approaching the end of his life. Like an evening star, he illumined the Orthodox faithful with his words for a little while, then reposed in 373. He is also commemorated on May 2 (the transfer of his holy relics).

St Cyril was the nephew of Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria, who educated him from his youth. He succeeded to his uncle's position in 412, but was deposed through the intrigues of the Nestorian heretics. He later resumed his See, however.

St Cyril presided at the Third Ecumenical Council in 441, which censured the Nestorian blasphemy against the Most Holy Theotokos. His wise words demonstrated the error of their false doctrine .
388 Saint Marcian of Cyrrhus gift of wonderworking many other miracles on behalf of the brethren
lived in the desert near the city of Cyrrhus. He built a small hut and settled in it, passing his time in prayer, singing Psalms and reading spiritual books. He ate very little food, just enough to keep him alive. Reports of his holy life attracted to him many zealous ascetics, and St Marcian established a monastery for them.

God's blessing rested upon the saint, and he possessed the gift of wonderworking. Once, a serpent crawled into his cell. The saint made the Sign of the Cross and the serpent perished, burned up by flames. At night, when the ascetic read, a heavenly light shone for him. The monk also worked many other miracles on behalf of the brethren. He died in peace about the year 388.
496 St. Volusian Bishop of Tours France A senator at Tours,
 Turónis, in Gállia, sancti Volusiáni Epíscopi, qui, a Gothis captus, in exsílio spíritum Deo réddidit.
       At Tours in France, St. Volusian, bishop, who was made captive by the Goths, and in exile gave up his soul unto God.

 496      ST VOLUSIAN, BISHOP OF TOURS
VOLUSIAN, who was, it is stated, of senatorial rank, occupied the see of Tours from 488 to 496. From a letter addressed to him by Ruricius, Bishop of Limoges, which is couched in not very friendly terms, it would seem that Volusian was married (it must be remembered that the discipline of sacerdotal celibacy had not at this date been enforced even in the West), and that his wife had a temper which was a terror to all their acquaintance. Volusian had apparently complained that he lived in fear of the Goths. Ruricius replied, with an obvious reference to this early Mrs Proudie, that a man who could encourage an enemy in his own household had no business to be afraid of enemies from outside (timere hostem non debet extraneum qui consuevit sustinere domesticum). We learn from Gregory of Tours that Volusian was in the end driven from his see by the Goths, who suspected him of wishing to come to terms with the Franks, and that going into exile in Spain he died soon afterwards. Later accounts state that he was further attacked by his persecutors and decapitated, and it is probably on the ground of this supposed martyrdom that he has been honoured as a saint.

See the Acta Sancrum, January 18 ; MGH., Auctores antiquissimi, vol. viii, p. 350 Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. ii, p. 301 and H. Thurston in The Month, June, 1911, pp. 642—644.

He was initially married, supposedly to a most unpleasant wife. Named bishop of the city in 488, he was forced to leave the see in 496 by the Arian Visigoths, and went to Spain. He died perhaps in Toulouse, or in Spain, possibly as a martyr.

Volusian of Tours BM (RM)
Died in Toulouse, France, 496. Saint Volusian was a senator of Tours, France, who suffered the trials of a very bad-tempered wife. He was chosen as bishop of Tours and shortly thereafter driven from his see by the Arian Visigoths. The temper of the bishop's wife was so evil that Bishop Ruricius of Limoges advised Volusian to fear her more than the Goths. He died in exile--perhaps a martyr's death (Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson).
580 Sts Faustina and Liberata sisters founded convent of Santa Margarita in Como VV (AC)
 Novocómi sanctæ Liberátæ Vírginis.       At Como, St. Liberata, virgin.
Born in Como, Italy; died 580. Saint Faustina and Liberata were sisters who together founded the convent of Santa Margarita in Como and who both died the same year. Their relics repose in Como Cathedral (Benedictines).

 593 St. Leobard Hermit disciple of St. Gregory of Tours
 Turónis, in Gállia, sancti Leobárdi reclúsi, qui mira abstinéntia et humilitáte refúlsit.
       At Tours in France, St. Leobard, anchoret, a man of wonderful abstinence and humility.
France.(also known as Liberd)
Died 593. Saint Leobard was an anchorite in a cell near Marmoutier in Tours, France, where he lived for 22 years under the spiritual direction of Saint Gregory of Tours (Benedictines).

St. Day (Dye), Abbot Cornish church is dedicated (RM)
Date unknown. A Cornish church is dedicated to Saint Day, otherwise, nothing is known. He may possibly be identical to Abbot Saint Deicola below (Benedictines).
625 Deicolus, Abbot known for the peace and joy radiated from his soul miracles spring (RM)
 In monastério Lutrénsi, in Burgúndia, sancti Deícolæ Abbátis, qui, natióne Hibérnus, discípulus fuit beáti Columbáni.
       In the monastery of Lure in Burgundy, St. Deicola, abbot, a native of Ireland and a disciple of St. Columban.
(also known as Deel, Deicola, Deicuil, Delle, Desle, Dichul, Dicuil)

 625 ST DEICOLUS, or DESLE, ABBOT
HE quitted Ireland, his native country, with St Columban and lived with him at Luxeuil; but when his master left France, he founded the abbey of Lure, in the diocese of Besançon, where he ended his days as a hermit. Amidst his austerities the joy and peace of his soul appeared in his countenance. St Columban once said to him in his youth, “Deicolus, why are you always smiling?” He answered in simplicity, “Because no one can take God from me.” He died probably in the year 625.

See his life and the history of his miracles in Mabillon, vol. 11, pp. 102—116, and MGH., Scriptores, vol. xvi pp. 675—682, both written by a monk of Lure in the tenth century. This saint is often called Deicola, but in ancient MSS. Deicolus. In Franche-Comté the French version of his name, Desle, used frequently to be given in baptism. See also Gougaud, Gaelic Pioneers of Christianity, pp. 134—135 M. Stokes, Forests of France, p. 177, etc. LIS., vol. i, p. 301 ; and J. Giradot, La vie de St Desle (1947).

Born in Leinster, Ireland, c. 530; died in Lure (diocese of Besançon), France, c. 625.
Deicolus, the elder brother of Saint Gall, was one of the 12 disciples of Saint Columbanus who accompanied him to France in 576 and helped to found the great abbey of Luxeuil. Deicolus worked with Columbanus in Austrasia and Burgundy. Though life was not easy, Deicolus was known for the peace and joy that radiated from his soul and could be seen on his face. Columbanus once asked him, "Why are you always smiling?" He simply answered, "Because no one can take God from me."

When Columbanus was expelled by Thierry in 610, Deicolus succumbed to fatigue just a few miles from Luxeuil. Columbanus blessed the monk who was unable to accompany him into exile because of his age. Deicolus wandered a bit in the forest region. When he became thirsty with no water in sight, he knelt down in prayer. Miraculously, a spring gushed forth under his walking sticke.
He settled where the water arose at Lure (Lutra) in the Vosges.

But the spring is not the only miracle attributed to Deicolus. The pastor of the nearby chapel of Saint Martin objected to the saint coming there each night to pray. He was troubled by the stranger for whom "doors opened without keys." Soon, however, a community gathered around the ancient monk. King Clothaire provided funds for the monastery he founded on the site. There Deicolus retired to live as a hermit until his death.

His lonely mountain cell was the beginning of the city of Lure in northeastern France. The abbots of Lure were made princes of the Holy Roman Empire more than 1,000 years later. Deicolus's cultus is still strong around Lure, where even at the end of the 19th century children's clothes were washed in the spring because it was reputed to cure childhood illnesses. Deicolus teaches us that joyful souls delight the Lord and others (Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson, D'Arcy, Daniel-Rops, Delaney, Dubois, Encyclopedia, Gougaud, McCarthy, Montague, Tommasini, Walsh).

Saint Deicolus is pictured as a hermit. A wild boar hunted by King Clothair takes refuge at his feet. Sometimes there is a ray of light on him (Roeder).

Monk and companion of St. Columbanus, also called Deicolus, Desle, Dichul, Deel, Delle, or Deille. He was an elder brother of St. Gall, born in Leinster, Ireland. As one of St. Columbanus’ twelve disciples, Deicola accompanied him to France in 567 and worked with him in Austrasia and in Burgundy, France. In 610, St. Columbanus was exiled by Thierry II. Deicola, too old to accompany him, founded the monastery of Lure in the Vosges, France, and lived there as a hermit.
Diarmis, Abbot founder spiritual director and teacher of Saint Kieran 6th century(AC)
(also known as Diermit, Dermot)
Saint Diarmis was the spiritual director and teacher of Saint Kieran of Clonmacnois and later abbot-founder of a monastery on Innis-Clotran Island (Benedictines).
1028 St. Ulfrid Missionary martyr from England great learning and virtue
he journeyed to the Continent to participate in the missionary efforts of the era in Germany and Sweden. He was martyred by pagans after chopping down an idol of the god Thor, an act also performed by St. Boniface.
Ulfrid M (AC) (also known as Wolfred, Wilfrid, Wulfrid)
Born in England; died 1029. Saint Ulfrid, like Saint Sigfrid, was an Englishman of great learning and virtue, who quit his homeland to preach the Gospel in Germany and Sweden during the reign of the pious Olav II, the first king of Sweden. His mission was effective until he was martyred for destroying a tree (or statue) dedicated to the Norse god Thor with an axe. He was lynched by the crowd who had gathered to see him destroyed by the angry gods, and his body was thrown into the marsh (Attwater2, Benedictines, Farmer, Husenbeth).
1262 Blessed Beatrix II of Este founded Benedictine convent of Saint Antony at Ferrara (AC)
Died 1262; cultus confirmed in 1774. There are two beatae named Beatrix of Este. This one is the niece of the first whose feast is celebrated on May 10. Beatrix II lost her husband (or possibly her financé) at an early age and thereafter founded the Benedictine convent of Saint Antony at Ferrara, Italy, in the face of much opposition (Attwater2, Benedictines).

 1262 BD BEATRICE D’ESTE OF FERRARA, Widow
THIS nun was the niece of another Bd Beatrice d’Este, of Gemmola, whose feast is kept on May 10. We have no full account of the life of Beatrice the younger, and it is not even quite certain whether she had been married or not before she consecrated her life to God in the Benedictine convent of St Antony at Ferrara, a convent which appears to have been requested at her special desire by the powerful family to which she belonged. She lived and died in the repute of great holiness, and it was stated in the seventeenth century that from the marble tomb in which her remains were enshrined an oily liquid still exuded which worked many surprising miracles of healing. The cultus of this Beatrice, which had always been maintained was confirmed in 1774.
In an appendix to the January section of the Acta Sanctorum the Bollandists printed such fragments of information as they were able to collect concerning Bd Beatrice. See also the Analecta Juris Pontificii for 1880, p. 668.
1270 St. Margaret, virgin, from the royal family of Arpad, and a nun of the Order of St. Dominic
Budæ, in Hungária, sanctæ Margarítæ Vírginis, e régia Arpadénsium família, Ordinis sancti Domínici Moniális, virtúte castitátis et arctíssima pæniténtia insígnis, quam Pius Duodécimus, Póntifex Máximus, sanctárum Vírginum catálogo adscrípsit. At Buda in Hungary, St. Margaret, virgin, from the royal family of Arpad, and a nun of the Order of St. Dominic, endued with the virtues of chastity and a burning penitence.  The Supreme Pontiff, Pius XII, added her to the list of holy virgins.

  .
1272 St Fazzio of Verona goldsmith founded charitable society in Cremona Order of the Holy Spirit(AC)
(also known as Fatius, Fazius, Facius)
Born in Verona, Italy, 1190; died 1272. Saint Fazzio was a goldsmith who founded a charitable society in Cremona called the Order of the Holy Spirit. He made several pilgrimages on foot to Rome and to Compostella (Spain) (Benedictines).

Pilgrim and founder, also called Facius, Fatius, and Fazius. He was born in Verona, Italy, in 1190 and became a goldsmith. Fazzio made pilgrimages to Compostela, Spain, and Rome. He founded the Order of the Holy Spirit at Cremona, a charitable group for the care of pilgrims and the sick.
Paul & 36 Christian Soldiers evangelized Egypt MM (RM)
Dates unknown. A band of 36 other Christian noblemen decided to evangelize Egypt. They divided themselves in four groups headed by Paul, Recombus, Theonas, and Papias to go to each corner of the country. They labored zealously to extend the kingdom of Christ-- planting the faith, instructing the docile, and purifying the souls of penitents who confessed their sins.
But, as is generally the case in this world, most people preferred the darkness rather than light. The evangelists suffered many types of injuries before they were apprehended and put in irons. The governor had them brought before him and attempted to compel them to sacrifice. Answering in the name of his fellows, Paul said that it was better for them to die than to sacrifice. The judge condemned them all to death: those who went to the east and south, to be burned; those from the north, to be beheaded; and those from the west to be crucified. But he was affrighted and surprised beyond expression to see with what joy and courage this brave army marched out, and bowed their heads to death. They suffered on January 18, but the year is not mentioned in their acts (Gill, Husenbeth).
Saint_Cyril.jpg
 1337 Saint Cyril and his wife Maria
were the parents of St Sergius of Radonezh (September 25). They belonged to the nobility, but more importantly, they were devout and faithful Christians who were adorned with every virtue.

When the child in Maria's womb cried out three times in church during Liturgy, people were astonished. Although frightened at first, Maria came to see this event as a sign from God that her child would become a chosen vessel of divine grace. She and her husband agreed that if the child was a boy, they would bring him to church and dedicate him to God.

This child, the second of their three sons, was born around 1314. He was named Bartholomew at his baptism.

Because of civil strife, St Cyril moved his family from Rostov to Radonezh when Bartholomew was still a boy.  Later, when their son expressed a desire to enter the monastic life, Sts Cyril and Maria asked him to wait and take care of them until they passed away, because his brothers Stephen and Peter were both married and had their own family responsibilities. The young Bartholomew obeyed his parents, and did everything he could to please them. They later decided to retire to separate monasteries, and departed to the Lord after a few years. It is believed that Sts Cyril and Maria both reposed in 1337.

Forty days after burying his parents, Bartholomew settled their estate, giving his share to his brother Peter. He then went to the monastery when he was twenty-three years old, and was tonsured on October 7 with the name Sergius (in honor of the martyr St Sergius who is commemorated on that day). As everyone knows, St Sergius of Radonezh became one of Russia's greatest and most revered saints.

St Cyril was glorified by the Orthodox Church of Russia in 1992. He is also commemorated on September 28, and on July 6 (Synaxis of the Saints of Radonezh).

Saint Cyril was glorified by the Orthodox Church of Russia in 1992. He is also commemorated on September 28, and on July 6 (Synaxis of the Saints of Radonezh).
1516 Saint Maximus the New life of great spiritual endeavors
was the son of King Stephen of Serbia (December 10). He became a monk at Manasija, but had to flee into a mountainous region of Romania because of the Moslems. He was consecrated as Metropolitan of Wallachia.
After a life of great spiritual endeavors, he fell asleep in the Lord on January 18, 1516 in a monastery he had founded.
1543 Blessed Christina Ciccarelli  extraordinary humility and love of the poor; prioress of the Augustinian hermits at Aquila OSA V (AC) (also known as Christina of Aquila)
Born in Lucco, Abruzzi, Italy, in 1481; died in Aquila, Italy, 1543; cultus confirmed 1841. Blessed Christina, prioress of the Augustinian hermits at Aquila, was known for her extraordinary humility and love of the poor (Attwater2, Benedictines).

1543 BD CHRISTINA OF AQUILA, VIRGIN gave long hours to prayer, was often rapt in ecstasy, and seemed to possess a knowledge of future events. She is also said to have practised severe penance, and to have worked many miracles

THE family name of this Christina was Ciccarelli, and when she was born in the Abruzzi she received in baptism the name of Matthia. Entering the convent of Augustinian hermitesses at Aquila at an early age, she was there called Sister Christina. In the cloister she showed herself a model of virtue, but she was especially remarkable for her humility and love of the poor. She gave long hours to prayer, was often rapt in ecstasy, and seemed to possess a knowledge of future events. She is also said to have practised severe penance, and to have worked many miracles, but our information about her is scanty. When she died on January 18, 1543, it is stated that the children of Aquila went through the town proclaiming the news of her death by “shouting and singing”, with the result that an enormous concourse of people attended her obsequies. The cultist paid to her from time immemorial was confirmed in 1841.

See P. Seeböck, Die Herrlichkeit der Katholischen Kirche (1900), p. 297, and biographical details in the decree of confirmation.
1550 Saint Athanasius of Synadem and Vologda incorrupt relics
was a disciple of St Alexander of Svir (August 30). After the death of his mentor, he established the Dormition hermitage in the forests of Karelia, not far from the city of Olonets, on an island of Lake Synadem.

The slander and pettiness of the local inhabitants compelled St Athanasius to move back to the Svir monastery, where they chose him as igumen. Later returning to the Dormition hermitage, St Athanasius died in about the year 1550 in great old age, and was buried on one of the promontories of Roschinsk island. Afterwards, a church was built over his grave, named for Sts Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria.
The incorrupt relics of St Athanasius were placed in this church in 1720.
16th v. Righteous Athanasius of Navolotsk
went at the end of the sixteenth century from the Kargopol region to the Olonets land, where he founded a monastery 78 versts from what later became the city of Petrozavodsk. The saint died at a Verkholedsk suburb not far from Shenkursk.
1670 St. Charles of Sezze Franciscan Pope Clement IX called Charles to his bedside for a blessing
b.1613 
Charles thought that God was calling him to be a missionary in India, but he never got there. God had something better for this 17th-century successor to Brother Juniper.
Born in Sezze, southeast of Rome, Charles was inspired by the lives of Salvator Horta and Paschal Baylon to become a Franciscan; he did that in 1635. Charles tells us in his autobiography, "Our Lord put in my heart a determination to become a lay brother with a great desire to be poor and to beg alms for his love."

Charles served as cook, porter, sacristan, gardener and beggar at various friaries in Italy. In some ways, he was "an accident waiting to happen." He once started a huge fire in the kitchen when the oil in which he was frying onions burst into flames.

One story shows how thoroughly Charles adopted the spirit of St. Francis. The superior ordered Charles — then porter — to give food only to traveling friars who came to the door. Charles obeyed this direction; simultaneously the alms to the friars decreased. Charles convinced the superior the two facts were related. When the friars resumed giving goods to all who asked at the door, alms to the friars increased also.

At the direction of his confessor Charles wrote his autobiography, The Grandeurs of the Mercies of God. He also wrote several other spiritual books. He made good use of his various spiritual directors throughout the years; they helped him discern which of Charles’ ideas or ambitions were from God. Charles himself was sought out for spiritual advice. The dying Pope Clement IX called Charles to his bedside for a blessing.

Charles had a firm sense of God’s providence. Father Severino Gori has said, "By word and example he recalled in all the need of pursuing only that which is eternal" (Leonard Perotti, St. Charles of Sezze: An Autobiography, page 215).
He died at San Francesco a Ripa in Rome and was buried there. Pope John XXIII canonized him in 1959.
Comment: The drama in the lives of the saints is mostly interior. Charles’ life was spectacular only in his cooperation with God’s grace. He was captivated by God’s majesty and great mercy to all of us.
Quote: Father Gori says that the autobiography of Charles "stands as a very strong refutation of the opinion, quite common among religious people, that saints are born saints, that they are privileged right from their first appearance on this earth. This is not so. Saints become saints in the usual way, due to the generous fidelity of their correspondence to divine grace. They had to fight just as we do, and more so, against their passions, the world and the devil" (St. Charles of Sezze: An Autobiography, page viii).
1890 St. Vincenza Mary Lopez y Vicuna Foundress of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate
Born at Cascante, Navarre, Spain, March 22, 1847, she was the daughter of a lawyer. Vincenza took a vow of chastity, aided by her aunt, Eulolia de Vicuna, and she refused the arranged marriage which had been organized by her parents. In 1876, she established the Daughters in order to offer some protection to the vulnerable young women who worked as domestic servants. Papal approval was secured in 1888 from Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), and Vincenza died two years later in Madrld on December 26, after intense suffering from illness. Beatified in 1950, she was canonized in 1975 by Pope Paul VI (1963-1978).
1937 St Jaime Hilario Barbal, religious Brother teaching the poor executed during the Spanish Civil War: "The day you learn to surrender yourself totally to God, you will discover a new world, just as I am experiencing. You will enjoy a peace and a calm unknown, surpassing even the happiest days of your life."   “To die for Christ, my young friends, is to live.”
He believed proficing a strong education was the best way to help the poor.  In 1937 St. Jaime was arrested for being a religious Brother during the Spanish Civil War and executed by firing sqad.
Saint (Brother) Jaime Hilario, FSC (January 2, 1889 Enviny, Lleida Province – January 18, 1937) was a Spanish member of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Born Manuel Barbal Cosan in Enviny near the Pyrenees in northern Spain, he entered a minor seminary at age 12 for the diocese of Urgel. He soon, however, developed hearing problems and withdrew from the school.

In 1917 he was accepted by the Christian Brothers and began his novitiate in Irun, Spain, where he took the name Jaime Hilario. He spent the next 16 years in various teaching assignments and was regarded as an exceptional teacher. His hearing problems continued to persist and worsen and by the early 1930s he was forced to stop teaching completely and began work as a gardener at the formation house at San José, in Tarragona.

At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936, while traveling to visit his family at Enviny, Hilario was arrested for being a religious. By December he was transferred to a prison ship at Tarragona. Although he could have claimed that he was a gardener, he insisted that he was a religious and in January 1937 was tried and convicted for being a member of the Christian Brothers.

When two volleys from a firing squad failed to harm him, the firing squad commander shot Hilario at close range. His last words were: “To die for Christ, my young friends, is to live.” He was the first of 97 Christian Brothers killed in Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War.
He was beatified on April 29, 1990 and canonized on November 21, 1999 by Pope John Paul II.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 239

I said: I will keep my ways, O Lady: when by thee the grace of Christ was given to me.

By thy sweetness my soul was melted: my bowels are inflamed by thy love.

Hear my prayer, O Lady, and my supplication: and let mine enemies pine away.

Have mercy on me from Heaven and from the height of thy throne:
and permit me not to be troubled in the valley of misery.

Keep my foot, lest it should be injured: and may thy grace be with my end.

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).
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