Mary Mother of GOD
Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
R.  Deo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
January is the month of the Holy Name of Jesus since 1902;
2023
22,260 lives saved since 2007
Quote: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church” (Tertullian).


Ascetical struggles and unceasing prayer a pillar of fire would rise up into the sky at night above his place of refuge. During the day, the grace of God was made manifest by a fragrant cloud of smoke, gifts of clairvoyance and wonderworking from God

Janvier 19 – Our Lady of Gimont (Toulouse, France)


– Third apparition of Mary in Banneux (Belgium, 1933)
 On a Friday 13th, Our Lady showed the three young shepherds of Fatima a vision of Hell  
Sister Lucia of Fatima recalls in her Memoirs: "… we saw, as it were, a vast sea of fire. Plunged in this fire, we saw the demons and the souls. The latter were like transparent burning embers… having human forms. They were floating about in that conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames… without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fright."
"We then looked up at Our Lady, who said to us so kindly and so sadly: ‘You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.’ …"

Hell is a terrorist attack that never ends. We have been warned: the apparitions of La Salette (1846), Lourdes (1858) and Fatima (1917) constitute a kind of prophetic summary of the contemporary world. They were preceded by the apparition of Our Lady of Graces to Saint Catherine Laboure in 1830. The only difference is that her first apparition in modern times took place in the city of Paris, on the Rue du Bac. Of these four apparitions of the Virgin Mary, three happened on French soil. This is no accident, but a warning.   fr.aleteia.org

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 .


January 19: Building Christian unity with Jesus in our midst - daily ecumenism.
"You also ought to wash one another's feet" (John 13: 14).

January 19 - Third Apparition at Banneux (Belgium, 1933)
As a Reminder and a Sign of My Connection to Mary Our Lady of the Quarry (Italy, 1518)
Since the age of twelve, I have happily worn the Miraculous Medal of Our Lady. I understand that there are a number of promises made to those who wear it with faith. I am not concerned with such promises; I trust that the Lord will bestow his blessings and graces where he sees fit. Rather, I wear it as a reminder -a sign of my connection to the Mother of Jesus.
There is no question in my mind that I owe my vocation to the priesthood to the intercession of Mary, and that I serve God in imitation of Christ under her protection. I wish to echo the motto of the great John Paul II, "Totus tuus."
Rev. Msgr. Stephen J. Rossetti Excerpt from "Behold Your Mother" Ave Maria Press, p. 129, 2007.
The Seat of Wisdom
Mary, the all-holy ever-virgin Mother of God, is the masterwork of the mission of the Son and the Spirit in the fullness of time.
   For the first time in the plan of salvation and because his Spirit had prepared her, the Father found the dwelling place where his Son and his Spirit could dwell among men.
In this sense the Church's Tradition has often read the most beautiful texts on wisdom in relation to Mary.
Mary is acclaimed and represented in the liturgy as the "Seat of Wisdom."    Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 721
January 19 – Our Lady of Gimont (Toulouse, France) –
3rd Apparition of Banneux (Belgium, 1933)
  “She said, ‘I will see you soon,’ so I will see her again!”
The beautiful Lady of Banneux's meeting with Mariette Beco in the small garden often ended with the Lady saying:
“I will see you soon.” That Mariette faithfully returned there the next day is understandable, as the apparition never uttered empty promises. “She said ‘I will see you soon,’ so I will see her again!”

But on January 20th, Mariette briefly lost consciousness at the end of the vision. She remembered that the Lady laid her hands on her in blessing. She did not hear her say goodbye. Father Jamin drew this conclusion: “It's over, you will not see her again. Stop going outside at night, and obey your mother and father when they tell you to stay inside.”

However, Mariette would only follow her heart. For three long weeks, she kept going outside and praying every night, sometimes saying up to seven rosaries. And on February 11th, the beautiful Lady came back.
Father Leo Palm Rector of the Shrine of Banneux
January 19 - Our Lady of Gimont (Toulouse, France)
  God's Secret (II)
God the Father willed that she should perform no miracle during her life, at least no public one, although he had given her the power to do so.
God the Son willed that she should speak very little although he had imparted his wisdom to her.
Even though Mary was his faithful spouse, God the Holy Spirit willed that his apostles and evangelists should say very little about her and then only as much as was necessary to make Jesus known.

Mary is the supreme masterpiece of Almighty God and he has reserved the knowledge and possession of her for himself. She is the glorious Mother of God the Son who chose to humble and conceal her during her lifetime in order to foster her humility. He called her "Woman" as if she were a stranger, although in his heart he esteemed and loved her above all men and angels. Mary is the sealed fountain and the faithful spouse of the Holy Spirit where only he may enter. She is the sanctuary and resting-place of the Blessed Trinity where God dwells in greater and more divine splendor than anywhere else in the universe, not excluding his dwelling above the cherubim and seraphim.
No creature, however pure, may enter there without being specially privileged.
Saint Louis de Montfort Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin #4 & 5

God, the Creator of all things, is so full of mercy and compassion that
whatever may be the grace for which we stretch out our hands, we shall not fail to receive it.
-- St Bernard

Saint_Macarius_the_Great_of_Egypt
1st v.  Marius wife Martha, their sons Audifax and Habbakuk, noble Persians, who came to Rome through devotion in the time of Emperor Claudius
St. Paul, Gerontius and Companions martyrs of Africa  
156 St. Germanicus Martyr of Smyrna
169 St. Pontianus martyred at Spoleto 
250 St. Fabian  Roman layman a dove settled on his head
251 St. Messalina Virgin martyr disciple of St. Felician 
260 SS. MARIUS, MARTHA, AUDIFAX, and ABACHUM, MARTYRS
257 or 288 St. Sebastian; Nothing is historically certain about St. Sebastian except that he was a Roman martyr, was venerated in Milan even in the time of St. Ambrose and was buried on the Appian Way, probably near the present Basilica of St. Sebastian. Devotion to him spread rapidly, and he is mentioned in several martyrologies as early as a.d. 350.
303 The Holy Virgin Martyr Euphrasia refused offer sacrifice to idols
395 Saint Macarius of Alexandria great ascetic and monastic head, worked many miracles
400 Saint Macarius the Great of Egypt worked many healings Abba Anthony received him
       with love, and Macarius became his devoted disciple and follower
Saint_Macarius_of_Alexandria >.jpg
413 St. Bassian Bishop of Lodi in Lombardy, Italy 
510 St. Contentius bishop of Bayeux
6th v. St. Branwallader Bishop of Jersey
7th v? ST ALBERT OF CASHEL, BISHOP (SEVENTH CENTURY?) But the whole story is fabulous
678 St. Nathalan Hermit bishop of Tullicht, best known for his miracles 
772  St. Remigius Bishop of Rouen introduction Roman rite into Gallic {French Church}
8th 9th v.  St. Arcontius Bishop and martyr of Viviers
       St. Catellus Bishop of Castellamore
8th v. ST FILLAN, OR FOELAM, ABBOT (EIGHTH CENTURY) extravagant incidents  
959 St. Arsenius 1st bishop of Corfu convert from Judaism 
       St. Firminus Third bishop of Gabales, in France    
1095 St. Wulfstan Bishop reformer died while daily ritual wash feet of 12 poor men
1086 St. Canute IV Martyred king of Denmark
1157 St. Henry of Sweden an Englishman Bishop of Uppsala residing at Rome miracles at tomb 
        St. Fillan monk hermit abbot reknowned for his most extravagant miracles 
1392 Blessed Theodore of Novgorod possessed gift of clairvoyance; spend his time in unceasing prayer
1457 Saint Mark Eugenikos, Archbishop of Ephesus admired and honored by all
1652 Saint Sava of Storozhev and Zvenigorod Today we commemorate opening of incorrupt relics of
1485 BD ANDREW OF PESCHIERA Some miracles attributed are of a rather extravagant character
        Saint Macarius the Faster of the Near Caves of Kiev was a deacon
1667 BD BERNARD OF CORLEON extraordinary graces levitations, and of prophecies and miracles innumerable.
1670 ST CHARLES OF SEZZE extreme simplicity, company was sought by cardinals and other eminent ecclesiastics
1700 BD MARGARET BOURGEOYS, VIRGIN, FOUNDRESS OF THE CONGREGATION OF NOTRE DAME OF MONTREAL
1924 Saint Joseph Sebastian Pelczar; Bishop of Przemysl in 1900 until his death in 1924. He made frequent visits to the parishes, supported the religious orders, conducted three synods, and worked for the education and religious formation of his priests. He encouraged devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, Eucharistic devotions, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Virgin Mary. He built and restored churches, built nurseries, kitchens, homeless shelters, schools for the poor, and gave tuition assistance to poor seminarians. He worked for the implentation of the social doctrine described in the writings of Pope Leo XIII. He left behind a large body of work including books, pastoral letters, sermons, addresses, prayers and other writings. 


European Jesuit Martyrs European Martyrs of the Society of Jesus (memorial)
This common feast commemorates 67 Jesuit martyrs who died in religious conflicts after the Reformation and have been beatified.  Most were French and some were Portuguese.
These fourteen Jesuits, with nine others, were beatified by Pope Pius XI on 17 October 1926 together with 168 other French priests.

These martyrs are remembered for their fidelity to Christ, their allegiance to the Catholic Church, and their sufferings at the hands of fellow Christians and fellow citizens.

Fr Jacques (James) Sales and Brother Guillaume (William) Saultemouche, both French, died in Aubenas, France, in February 1593 during France’s War of Religion.

Jacques Sales wanted to be a missionary and wrote Father General Claudio Acquaviva to be accepted anywhere - America, China or Japan. The response was negative; Father General reminded him that France itself was a mission territory, given the conflict between Catholics and Huguenots (French Calvinists).

Brother William Saultemouche (1557-1593) served as porter at Pont-à-Mousson and was known for his simplicity and gentle character. He was chosen to accompany Fr Jacques Salés on a mission to give sermons in Aubenas, a town that the Catholics had regained control of from the Huguenots. The baron of Montréal wanted someone who could refute the Calvinist ministers. Salés began preaching in Aubenas and other places on 29 November 1592 explaining Catholic belief in an ecumenical way. He returned with Saultemouche on 5 February 1593 because tension between Catholics and Huguenots was increasing.  On the same day they were grilled by Huguenots to deny their faith but refused.  They were shot and stabbed and their bodies dragged through Aubenas and then dumped.  Catholics retrieved the bodies and buried them.

Fr Joseph Imbert and Fr John-Nicholas Cordier, also French, died on prison ships in Rochefort in 1794 during the French Revolution.

Joseph Imbert was born about 1720 in Marseilles, France, and joined the Jesuits in Avignon.  He was in Grenoble when the Jesuits were suppressed in 1762.  He became a diocesan priest but had to step down when he refused to accept the 1790 Civil Constitution on the Clergy and then worked underground.  As vicar apostolic he was arrested in 1793 during the Reign of Terror.  He was condemned to be deported on a former slave ship to Africa.  On 13 April he was put on a prison ship anchored near the Charante River.  Four hundred priests were crammed below decks in appalling conditions.  After two months Joseph died of typhoid.  He was buried on a nearby island with 226 other priest-victims.

John Nicholas Cordier was born in 1710 in Souilly, in the Duchy of Lorraine, and joined the Jesuits in 1728.  He taught philosophy at Strasbourg and then theology at Pont-à-Mousson. He later was prefect of studies and superior of the Jesuit residence in Saint-Mihiel. After the Jesuits were suppressed, he became chaplain to a convent of nuns.

In 1790 the government suppressed all religious orders in France, and Cordier was taken in by and accepted shelter from a priest in Verdun. On 28 October 1793 he was arrested and ordered to be deported.  He waited for six months to be sent to Africa and, on 19 June 1794, was put on a slave ship which could not leave because of an English blockade.  The living conditions were beyond endurance.  When Cordier became ill, he was moved to a temporary hospital, which was better than the ship but he died there and was buried with 254 other victims.

Fr Ignatius de Azevedo, born in Portugal, and 39 Jesuit companions were martyred off the Canary Islands in July 1570, while sailing for the Brazil mission.

Ignatius de Azevedo had been an educationalist in Portugal when Fr General Francis Borgia made him Visitor to Brazil where he arrived in 1566.  He was then made Provincial of Brazil and told to recruit more missionaries from Portugal and Spain.  He gathered 70 volunteers - priests, scholastics and even novices.  On 5 June 1570 they left in eight ships passing by the Canary Islands.  Fr Azevedo was on a ship with 43 companions.  Approaching Sta Cruz de La Palma, they were intercepted by French Huguenot pirates.  The pirates boarded the missionaries’ ship and set about killing all in cassocks, beginning with Ignatius.  Only one Jesuit survived because he could cook.  When the ship reached La Rochelle in France, he escaped and brought the news to Portugal.

James Julius Bonnaud, born in 1740, was a native of Haiti who joined the Jesuits in France in 1758.  After his theology studies and ordination in Flanders, he returned to Paris to work in the diocese. He wrote against the revolutionaries and their anti-papal Civil Constitutions, making himself a target for the revolutionaries.

As it progressed the French Revolution became rabidly anti-Catholic.  Property was seized, religious orders suppressed. Priests were then required to sign an oath for a national church independent of Rome, with severe penalties for those who refused.  Then on 2 September 1792, with invading Prussians and Austrians near the gates of the city, the Paris Commissar decided to kill all priests.  Among those martyred were James Bonnaud and 13 other Jesuits among 95 priests at a Carmelite friary.  They were locked into a chapel and, those who refused to sign the oath, were thrown down a flight of stairs to a mob who attacked them with all kinds of weapons.  Altogether14 Jesuits were martyred. With James Bonnaud were: William Anthony Delfaud, Francis Balmain, Charles Berauld du Perou, Claude Cayx-Dumas, John Charton de Millou, James Friteyre-Durve, Claude Laporte, Mathurin Le Bous de Villeneuve, Claude Le Gue, Vincent Le Rousseau de Rosancoat, Loup Thomas-Bonnotte and Francis Vareilhe-Duteil.
1st v.  Marius wife Martha, their sons Audifax and Habbakuk, noble Persians, who came to Rome through devotion in the time of Emperor Claudius -- Edict or Rome 48-50, Banishing Christians from Rome.
 Romæ, via Cornélia, sanctórum Mártyrum Márii et Marthæ cónjugum, et filiórum Audífacis et Abachum, nobílium Persárum; qui Romam, tempóribus Cláudii Príncipis, ad oratiónem vénerant.  Ex eis vero, post tolerátos  fustes, equúleum, ignes, ungues férreos manuúmque præcisiónem, Martha in Nympha necáta est; céteri sunt decolláti, et córpora eórum incénsa.
       At Rome, on the Cornelian Road, the holy martyrs Marius and his wife Martha, with their sons Audifax and Habbakuk, noble Persians, who came to Rome through devotion in the time of Emperor Claudius.  After they had been beaten with rods, tormented on the rack and with fire, lacerated with iron hooks, and had endured the cutting off of their hands, Martha was put to death in the place called Nympha; the others were beheaded and cast into the fire.
3nd v. St. Paul, Gerontius and Companions martyrs of Africa
 In Africa sanctórum Mártyrum Pauli, Geróntii, Januárii, Saturníni, Succéssi, Júlii, Cati, Piæ et Germánæ.
      In Africa., the holy martyrs Paul, Gerontius, Januarius, Saturninus, Successus, Julius, Catus, Pia, and Germana.
Martyrs during he Roman persecutions. Paul and Gerontius were put to death with Pia, Germana, Januarius, Saturninus, Successus, Catus, and Julius in Numidia, one of the Roman provinces of Africa.
156 St. Germanicus Martyr of Smyrna
 Smyrnæ natális beáti Germánici Mártyris, qui, sub Marco Antoníno et Lúcio Aurélio, cum primævæ ætátis venustáte floréret, damnátus a Júdice, et, per grátiam virtútis Dei, metum corpóreæ fragilitátis exclúdens, præparátum sibi béstiam sponte provocávit; cujus déntibus comminútus, vero pani Dómino Jesu Christo, pro ipso móriens, méruit incorporári.
       At Smyrna, under Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius, the birthday of blessed Germanicus, martyr, who, in the bloom of youth, being strengthened by the grace of God, and banishing all fear, provoked the beast which, by order of the judge, was to devour him.  Being ground by its teeth, he deserved to be incorporated into the true Bread of Life, Christ Jesus, for whom he died.
155? ST GERMANICUS, MARTYR 
WE know nothing of St Germanicus beyond what we learn from the letter of the Christians of Smyrna who, writing of the persecution which led to the arrest of St Polycarp, tell us: “But thanks be to God; for He verily prevailed against all. For the right noble Germanicus encouraged their timorousness through the constancy which was in him, and he fought with the wild beasts in a signal way. For when the proconsul wished to prevail upon him, and bade him have pity on his youth, he used violence and dragged the wild beast towards him, desiring the more speedily to obtain release from their unrighteous and lawless way of living. So, after this, all the multitude marvelling at the bravery of the God-beloved and God-fearing people of the Christians, raised a cry, ‘Away with the atheists! I Look for Polycarp!’”

This narrative, however, may count as one of the most authentic memorials now extant of the history of the early Christian Church. Eusebius, in his Historia Ecclesiastica, quotes the passage, and we possess the complete text independently.
It is also noteworthy that Germanicus actually did what St Ignatius of Antioch expresses his intention of doing (ad Rom. 5)—viz. he provoked the wild beast to attack him that he might be released the sooner from the ungodly companionship of the pagans and Jews amongst whom he lived.
It is noteworthy that the Roman Martyrology also directs our thoughts to the example of St Ignatius by saying that Germanicus, “ who was ground by the teeth of the beast, merited to be one with the true bread, the Lord Jesus Christ, by dying for His sake”.
           See Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, part ii, vol. iii, p. 478 Delehaye, Les passions des
         martyrs . . . (1921), pp. 12 seq., and Acta Sanctorum, January 19. On the date, see note
         to St Polycarp herein, under January 19.
He was thrown to wild animals in a local amphitheater. When the beasts did not attack, Germanicus provoked them into attacking, gaining the admiration of the pagans of the arena.
A letter describing his martyrdom and that of St. Polycarp is extant.
169 St. Pontianus martyred at Spoleto
 In Africa sanctórum Mártyrum Pauli, Geróntii, Januárii, Saturníni, Succéssi, Júlii, Cati, Piæ et Germánæ.
 Apud Spolétum pássio sancti Pontiáni Mártyris, qui, témpore Antoníni Imperatóris, a Fabiáno Júdice, pro Christo vehementíssime virgis cæsus, jussus est super carbónes nudis pédibus ambuláre, sed a carbónibus nil læsus, equúleo et uncínis férreis jussus est suspéndi, et sic in cárcerem trudi, ubi Angélica visitatióne méruit confortári; postque leónibus expósitus et plumbo fervénti perfúsus, tandem gládio percússus est.
       At Spoleto, in the days of Emperor Antoninus, the passion of St. Pontian, martyr, who was barbarously scourged for Christ by the command of the judge Fabian, and then compelled to walk barefoot on burning coals.  As he was uninjured by the fire, he was put on the rack, was torn with iron hooks, then thrown into a dungeon, where he was comforted by the visit of an angel.  He was afterwards exposed to the lions, had melted lead poured over him, and finally died by the sword.
St. Pontianus (English for Pontian) is very brief due to the date. Died in 169 a martyr. He was put to death at Spoleto, It during the reign of Marcus Aurelius {161-180}
250 St. Fabian  Roman layman a dove settled on his head
Fabian who came into the city from his farm one day as clergy and people were preparing to elect a new pope.
Eusebius, a Church historian, says a dove flew in and settled on the head of Fabian. This sign united the votes of clergy and laity and he was chosen unanimously.
He led the Church for 14 years and died a martyr’s death during the persecution of Decius{249-251 1/5} in a.d. 250.

St. Cyprian wrote to his successor that Fabian was an “incomparable” man whose glory in death matched the holiness and purity of his life. In the catacombs of St. Callistus, the stone that covered Fabian’s grave may still be seen, broken into four pieces, bearing the Greek words, “Fabian, bishop, martyr.”

Comment: We can go confidently into the future and accept the change that growth demands only if we have firm roots in the past, in a living tradition. A few pieces of stone in Rome are a reminder to us that we are bearers of 20 centuries of a living tradition of faith and courage in living the life of Christ and showing it to the world.

We have brothers and sisters who have “gone before us marked with the sign of faith,” the First Eucharistic Prayer puts it, to light the way for us.
Quote: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church” (Tertullian).
260 SS. MARIUS, MARTHA, AUDIFAX, and ABACHUM, MARTYRS.
MARIUS (Maris), a nobleman of Persia, with his wife Martha, and two sons, Audifax and Abachum, being converted to the faith, distributed his fortune among the poor, as the primitive Christians did at Jerusalem, and came to Rome to visit the tombs of the apostles. The Emperor Claudius was then persecuting the Church, and by his order a great number of Christians were driven into the amphitheater, shot to death with arrows, and their bodies burnt.
         Our saints gathered and buried their ashes with respect; for which they were apprehended, and after many torments under the governor Marcian, Marius and his two sons were beheaded ; Martha was drowned, thirteen miles from Rome, at a place now called Santa Ninfa. They were buried on the Via Cornelia, and they are mentioned with distinction in all the western martyrologies on January 20; but their feast is kept to-day.
           We cannot place any great confidence in the “acts” of these martyrs, but the document
         is not contemptible; they have been printed in the Acta Sanctorum, January 19. See also
         Allard, Histoire des Persecutions, vol. iii, pp. 214 seq.; and BHL., n. 5543.
251 St. Messalina Virgin martyr disciple of St. Felician
the bishop of Foligno, Italy. She received the veil from St. Felician and visited him in prison. Denounced as a Christian, she was ordered to sacrifice to the pagan gods. Refusing, Messalina was beaten to death.
257 or 288 St. Sebastian; Nothing is historically certain about St. Sebastian except that he was a Roman martyr, was venerated in Milan even in the time of St. Ambrose and was buried on the Appian Way, probably near the present Basilica of St. Sebastian. Devotion to him spread rapidly, and he is mentioned in several martyrologies as early as a.d. 350.

The legend of St. Sebastian is important in art, and there is a vast iconography. Scholars now agree that a pious fable has Sebastian entering the Roman army because only there could he assist the martyrs without arousing suspicion. Finally he was found out, hauled before Emperor Diocletian and delivered to Mauritanian archers to be shot to death. His body was pierced with arrows, and he was left for dead. But he was found still alive by those who came to bury him. He recovered, but refused to flee. One day he took up a position near where the emperor was to pass. He accosted the emperor, denouncing him for his cruelty to Christians. This time the sentence of death was carried out. Sebastian was beaten to death with clubs.

Comment:    The fact that many of the early saints made such a tremendous impression on the Church—awakening widespread devotion and great praise from the greatest writers of the Church—is proof of the heroism of their lives. As has been said, legends may not be literally true. Yet they may express the very substance of the faith and courage evident in the lives of these heroes and heroines of Christ.
303 The Holy Virgin Martyr Euphrasia refused offer sacrifice to idols
born at Nicomedia into an illustrious family. She was a Christian, and was noted for her beauty. During the persecution of Christians by Maximian, the pagans tried to compel Euphrasia to offer sacrifice to idols. When she refused, she was beaten, and then given to a certain barbarian to be violated.

The saint prayed tearfully to the Lord that He would preserve her virginity, and God heard her prayer. St Euphrasia suggested to the barbarian that if he would not defile her, she would give him a special herb which would protect him from enemy weapons and death. But this herb, she explained, held its power only when received from a virgin and not from a woman.

The soldier believed St Euphrasia and went with her into the garden. The holy virgin picked the herb, then offered to demonstrate its power. She placed the herb on her neck and told the man to strike her with his sword. With a mighty blow, he cut off her head. Thus her prayer was answered, and the wise virgin offered her soul to God in 303, safeguarding her bodily purity.
395 Saint Macarius of Alexandria great ascetic and monastic head, and he worked many miracles
a contemporary and friend of St Macarius of Egypt (January 19). He was born in the year 295, and until the age of forty he was occupied in trade. Later, he was baptized and withdrew into the desert, where he spent more than sixty years.

After several years of ascetic life he was ordained to the holy priesthood and made head of the monastery the Cells in the desert between Nitria and Skete, where hermits silently lived in asceticism, each separately in his own cell. There were three deserts in northern Egypt: the first was the Cells (the inner desert), so designated because of the many cells carved into the rocks. The second was called Skete (utter desert). The third was the Nitrian desert which reached the western bank of the Nile.

St Macarius of Alexandria, like Macarius of Egypt, was a great ascetic and monastic head, and he worked many miracles. Learning about some monk's ascetic feat, he attempted to imitate it. Thus, when he heard that someone ate only one pound of bread a day, he would eat only that much or even less. Wishing to shorten his sleep, he stayed for twenty whole days under the open sky, enduring heat by day and cold by night.

St Macarius once received a bunch of newly-picked grapes. He very much wanted to eat them, but he conquered this desire in himself and gave the grapes to another monk who was sick. That monk, wanting to preserve his abstinence, gave the grapes to another, and he gave them to a third and so forth. In the end the bunch of grapes returned to St Macarius. The ascetic was astonished at the abstinence of his disciples and gave thanks to God.

Once, a proud thought came to the saint to go to Rome and heal the sick. Struggling with the temptation, the saint filled up a sack of sand, loaded it on himself and walked into the desert until he exhausted his body. Then the proud thought did not leave him.

By his ascetic life, fasting, and renunciation of earthly things, St Macarius acquired the gifts of wonderworking and of discerning the inner thoughts of people, and he also saw many visions. He once saw how one of the ascetics of the holy monastery, St Mark, received the Holy Mysteries from the hands of angels, and how during Communion the careless brethren received burning coals from the demons instead of the Body of Christ.

St Macarius was glorified by many miracles of healing the sick and casting out devils. St Macarius of Alexandria died in about 394-395 at age of one hundred. He wrote a Discourse on the Origin of the Soul included in the text of the Annotated Psalter.
400 Saint Macarius the Great of Egypt worked many healings Abba Anthony received him with love, and Macarius became his devoted disciple and follower
born around 331 in the village of Ptinapor in Egypt. At the wish of his parents he entered into marriage, but was soon widowed. After he buried his wife, Macarius told himself, "Take heed, Macarius, and have care for your soul. It is fitting that you forsake worldly life."

The Lord rewarded the saint with a long life, but from that time the memory of death was constantly with him, impelling him to ascetic deeds of prayer and penitence. He began to visit the church of God more frequently and to be more deeply absorbed in Holy Scripture, but he did not leave his aged parents, thus fulfilling the commandment to honor one's parents.

Until his parents died, St Macarius used his remaining substance to help them and he began to pray fervently that the Lord might show him a guide on the way to salvation. The Lord sent him an experienced Elder, who lived in the desert not far from the village. The Elder accepted the youth with love, guided him in the spiritual science of watchfulness, fasting and prayer, and taught him the handicraft of weaving baskets. After building a separate cell not far from his own, the Elder settled his disciple in it.

The local bishop arrived one day at Ptinapor and, knowing of the saint's virtuous life, ordained him against his will. St Macarius was overwhelmed by this disturbance of his silence, and so he went secretly to another place. The Enemy of our salvation began a tenacious struggle with the ascetic, trying to terrify him, shaking his cell and suggesting sinful thoughts. St Macarius repelled the attacks of the devil, defending himself with prayer and the Sign of the Cross.

Evil people slandered the saint, accusing him of seducing a woman from a nearby village. They dragged him out of his cell and jeered at him. St Macarius endured the temptation with great humility. Without a murmur, he sent the money that he got for his baskets for the support of the pregnant woman.

The innocence of St Macarius was manifested when the woman, who suffered torment for many days, was not able to give birth. She confessed that she had slandered the hermit, and revealed the name of the real father. When her parents found out the truth, they were astonished and intended to go to the saint to ask forgiveness. Though St Macarius willingly accepted dishonor, he shunned the praise of men. He fled from that place by night and settled on Mt. Nitria in the Pharan desert.

Thus human wickedness contributed to the prospering of the righteous. Having dwelt in the desert for three years, he went to St Anthony the Great, the Father of Egyptian monasticism, for he had heard that he was still alive in the world, and he longed to see him. Abba Anthony received him with love, and Macarius became his devoted disciple and follower. St Macarius lived with him for a long time and then, on the advice of the saintly abba, he went off to the Skete monastery (in the northwest part of Egypt). He so shone forth in asceticism that he came to be called "a young Elder," because he had distinguished himself as an experienced and mature monk, even though he was not quite thirty years old.

St Macarius survived many demonic attacks against him. Once, he was carrying palm branches for weaving baskets, and a devil met him on the way and wanted to strike him with a sickle, but he was not able to do this. He said, "Macarius, I suffer great anguish from you because I am unable to vanquish you. I do everything that you do. You fast, and I eat nothing at all. You keep vigil, and I never sleep. You surpass me only in one thing: humility."

When the saint reached the age of forty, he was ordained to the priesthood and made the head of the monks living in the desert of Skete. During these years, St Macarius often visited with St Anthony the Great, receiving guidance from him in spiritual conversations. Abba Macarius was deemed worthy to be present at the death of St Anthony and he received his staff. He also received a double portion of the Anthony's spiritual power, just as the prophet Elisha once received a double portion of the grace of the prophet Elias, along with the mantle that he dropped from the fiery chariot.

St Macarius worked many healings. People thronged to him from various places for help and for advice, asking his holy prayers. All this unsettled the quietude of the saint. He therefore dug out a deep cave under his cell, and hid there for prayer and meditation.

St Macarius attained such boldness before God that, through his prayers, the Lord raised the dead. Despite attaining such heights of holiness, he continued to preserve his unusual humility. One time the holy abba caught a thief loadng his things on a donkey standing near the cell. Without revealing that he was the owner of these things, the monk began to help tie up the load. Having removed himself from the world, the monk told himself, "We bring nothing at all into this world; clearly, it is not possible to take anything out from it. Blessed be the Lord for all things!"

Once, St Macarius was walking and saw a skull lying upon the ground. He asked, "Who are you?" The skull answered, "I was a chief priest of the pagans. When you, Abba, pray for those in hell, we receive some mitigation."

The monk asked, "What are these torments?" "We are sitting in a great fire," replied the skull, "and we do not see one another. When you pray, we begin to see each other somewhat, and this affords us some comfort." Having heard such words, the saint began to weep and asked, "Are there still more fiercesome torments?" The skull answered, "Down below us are those who knew the Name of God, but spurned Him and did not keep His commandments. They endure even more grievous torments."

Once, while he was praying, St Macarius heard a voice: "Macarius, you have not yet attained such perfection in virtue as two women who live in the city." The humble ascetic went to the city, found the house where the women lived, and knocked. The women received him with joy, and he said, "I have come from the desert seeking you in order to learn of your good deeds. Tell me about them, and conceal nothing."

The women answered with surprise, "We live with our husbands, and we have not such virtues." But the saint continued to insist, and the women then told him, "We married two brothers. After living together in one house for fifteen years, we have not uttered a single malicious nor shameful word, and we never quarrel among ourselves. We asked our husbands to allow us to enter a women's monastery, but they would not agree. We vowed not to utter a single worldly word until our death."

St Macarius glorified God and said, "In truth, the Lord seeks neither virgins nor married women, and neither monks nor laymen, but values a person's free intent, accepting it as the deed itself. He grants to everyone's free will the grace of the Holy Spirit, which operates in an individual and directs the life of all who yearn to be saved."

During the years of the reign of the Arian emperor Valens (364-378), St Macarius the Great and St Macarius of Alexandria was subjected to persecution by the followers of the Arian bishop Lucius. They seized both Elders and put them on a ship, sending them to an island where only pagans lived. By the prayers of the saints, the daughter of a pagan priest was delivered from an evil spirit. After this, the pagan priest and all the inhabitants of the island were baptized. When he heard what had happened, the Arian bishop feared an uprising and permitted the Elders to return to their monasteries.

The meekness and humility of the monk transformed human souls. "A harmful word," said Abba Macarius, "makes good things bad, but a good word makes bad things good." When the monks asked him how to pray properly, he answered, "Prayer does not require many words. It is needful to say only, "Lord, as Thou wilt and as Thou knowest, have mercy on me." If an enemy should fall upon you, you need only say, "Lord, have mercy!" The Lord knows that which is useful for us, and grants us mercy."

When the brethren asked how a monk ought to comport himself, the saint replied, "Forgive me, I am not yet a monk, but I have seen monks. I asked them what I must do to be a monk. They answered, 'If a man does not withdraw himself from everything which is in the world, it is not possible to be a monk.' Then I said, 'I am weak and cannot be as you are.' The monks responded, 'If you cannot renounce the world as we have, then go to your cell and weep for your sins.'"

St Macarius gave advice to a young man who wished to become a monk: "Flee from people and you shall be saved." That one asked: "What does it mean to flee from people?" The monk answered: "Sit in your cell and repent of your sins."

St Macarius sent him to a cemetery to rebuke and then to praise the dead. Then he asked him what they said to him. The young man replied, "They were silent to both praise and reproach." "If you wish to be saved, be as one dead. Do not become angry when insulted, nor puffed up when praised." And further: "If slander is like praise for you, poverty like riches, insufficiency like abundance, then you shall not perish."

The prayer of St Macarius saved many in perilous circumstances of life, and preserved them from harm and temptation. His benevolence was so great that they said of him: "Just as God sees the whole world, but does not chastize sinners, so also does Abba Macarius cover his neighbor's weaknesses, which he seemed to see without seeing, and heard without hearing."

The monk lived until the age of ninety. Shortly before his death, Sts Anthony and Pachomius appeared to him, bringing the joyful message of his departure to eternal life in nine days. After instructing his disciples to preserve the monastic Rule and the traditions of the Fathers, he blessed them and began to prepare for death. St Macarius departed to the Lord saying, "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit."

Abba Macarius spent sixty years in the wilderness, being dead to the world. He spent most of his time in conversation with God, often in a state of spiritual rapture. But he never ceased to weep, to repent and to work. The saint's profound theological writings are based on his own personal experience. Fifty Spiritual Homilies and seven Ascetic Treatises survive as the precious legacy of his spiritual wisdom. Several prayers composed by St Macarius the Great are still used by the Church in the Prayers Before Sleep and also in the Morning Prayers.

Man's highest goal and purpose, the union of the soul with God, is a primary principle in the works of St Macarius. Describing the methods for attaining mystical communion, the saint relies upon the experience of the great teachers of Egyptian monasticism and on his own experience. The way to God and the experience of the holy ascetics of union with God is revealed to each believer's heart.

Earthly life, according to St Macarius, has only a relative significance: to prepare the soul, to make it capable of perceiving the heavenly Kingdom, and to establish in the soul an affinity with the heavenly homeland.

"For those truly believing in Christ, it is necessary to change and transform the soul from its present degraded nature into another, divine nature, and to be fashioned anew by the power of the Holy Spirit."

This is possible, if we truly believe and we truly love God and have observed all His holy commandments. If one betrothed to Christ at Baptism does not seek and receive the divine light of the Holy Spirit in the present life, "then when he departs from the body, he is separated into the regions of darkness on the left side. He does not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but has his end in hell with the devil and his angels" (Homily 30:6).

In the teaching of St Macarius, the inner action of the Christian determines the extent of his perception of divine truth and love. Each of us acquires salvation through grace and the divine gift of the Holy Spirit, but to attain a perfect measure of virtue, which is necessary for the soul's assimilation of this divine gift, is possible only "by faith and by love with the strengthening of free will." Thus, the Christian inherits eternal life "as much by grace, as by truth."

Salvation is a divine-human action, and we attain complete spiritual success "not only by divine power and grace, but also by the accomplishing of the proper labors." On the other hand, it is not just within "the measure of freedom and purity" that we arrive at the proper solicitude, it is not without "the cooperation of the hand of God above." The participation of man determines the actual condition of his soul, thus inclining him to good or evil. "If a soul still in the world does not possess in itself the sanctity of the Spirit for great faith and for prayer, and does not strive for the oneness of divine communion, then it is unfit for the heavenly kingdom."

The miracles and visions of Blessed Macarius are recorded in a book by the presbyter Rufinus, and his Life was compiled by St Serapion, bishop of Tmuntis (Lower Egypt), one of the renowned workers of the Church in the fourth century. His holy relics are in the city of Amalfi, Italy.
413 St. Bassian Bishop of Lodi in Lombardy, Italy
 Laudæ, in Insúbria, sancti Bassiáni, Epíscopi et Confessóris; qui advérsus hæréticos, una cum sancto Ambrósio, strénue decertávit.
       At Lodi in Lombardy, St. Bassian, bishop and confessor, who, in conjunction with St. Ambrose, courageously combatted the heretics.
and friend of St. Ambrose of Milan. Bassian was Sicilian by birth.
He attended the Council of Aquilcia in 381. He was also at the deathbed of St. Ambrose.

St. Firminus Third bishop of Gabales, in France

510 St. Contentius bishop of Bayeux, in Normandy, France, from 480 until his death.

St. Fillan monk hermit abbot reknowned for his most extravagant miracles
son of Feriach and St. Kentigerna
 was also known as Foelan. He became a monk in his youth and accompanied his mother from Ireland to Scotland where he lived as a hermit near St. Andrew's monastery for many years, and then was elected abbot. He later resigned and resumed his eremitical life at Glendochart, Pertchire, where he built a church and was reknowned for his miracles. Various legends attribute the most extravagant miracles to him, such as the one in which his prayers caused a wolf that had killed the ox he was using to drag materials to the church he was building, to take the ox's place. Fillan died on January 19.
6th v. St. Branwallader Bishop of Jersey.
England. A part of his remains were translated by King Athelstan in 935.
7th v. ST ALBERT OF CASHEL, BISHOP (SEVENTH CENTURY?) But the whole story is fabulous
THE greatest obscurity shrouds the history of this saint. He is commonly called archbishop of Cashel and is honoured as patron of that diocese, but it is almost certain that no such see existed at the date assigned to him. A Latin life, written apparently in the twelfth century, describes him as natione Anglgs, conversatione angelus (an Englishman by race, an angel in conduct). We are told that he was visited in England by St Erhard, himself an Irishman and already bishop of Ardagh.
         Albert accompanied him back to Ireland, and in passing through Cashel, which for two years had been without a bishop, the people by acclamation elected Albert to that dignity. He had, however, only been consecrated for a short time when, during a council at Lismore, he was induced by an eloquent sermon to renounce all his honours and possessions. Together with his friend Erhard and a band of disciples he fled away to lead a pilgrim’s life on the continent. They came to Rome in the time of Pope Formosus (891—896), and were welcomed by him and encouraged in their good purposes. Then they separated, and Albert for his part travelled to Jerusalem. On his return he had a longing to see his friend Erhard again, but on coming to Ratisbon found him already dead. Albert prayed that God might take him also, and he died there not many hours afterwards. In this narrative there is no mention of any actual relationship with Erhard, but other accounts represent him as Albert’s brother, and in fact mention a third brother, Hildulf, who was archbishop of Trier.

But the whole story is fabulous. Whatever authentic information we have about St Erhard points to his having lived in the seventh century. He cannot, therefore, have visited Rome in the time of Pope Formosus nearly two hundred years later. St Albert’s feast is kept throughout Ireland.
           The Life of St Albert has been edited by W. Levison in the MGH., Scriptores Merov.,
         vol. vi, pp. 21—23. See also the Acta Sanctorum, January 8; and LIS., vol.1, pp. 102—113.
678 ST NATHALAN, BISHOP curiously extravagant legend with miacles.
         THE curiously extravagant legend of St Nathalan, whose cult was confirmed by Pope Leo XIII in 1898, and whose feast is now kept at Aberdeen on January 19, cannot be better given than in the words of the Aberdeen breviary:
“Nathalan is believed to have been born in the northern parts of the Scotti, in ancient times, at Tullicht in the diocese of Aberdeen ; a man of great sanctity, who, after he had come to man’s estate and been imbued with the liberal arts, devoted himself and his wholly to divine contemplation. And when he learned that amongst the works of man’s hands the cultivation of the soil approached nearest to divine contemplation, though educated in a noble family with his own hands he practised the lowly art of tilling the fields, abandoning all other occupations that his mind might never be sullied by the impure solicitations of the flesh. Meanwhile, as he warred against the Devil and the perishing world, a terrible famine broke out among his neighbours, relations and friends, so that almost the whole people were in danger of perishing by hunger. But God’s saint, Nathalan, moved by the greatest pity, distributed all his grain and whatever else he had, for the name of Christ, to the poor; but when the time of spring came, when all green things are committed to the bowels of the earth, not having aught to sow in the land which he cultivated, by divine revelation he ordered it all to be strewn and sown with sand, from which sand thus sown a great crop of all kinds of grain grew up and was greatly multiplied.
“But in the time of harvest, when many people of both sexes were collected by him to gather in the crop, there came a tempest of rain and a whirlwind, so that these husbandmen and women were forced to abstain from labour. Therefore he, excited by anger, along with the other reapers murmured a little against God ; but on the tempest abating, feeling that he had offended Him, in a spirit of penance he bound his right hand to his leg with an iron lock and key, and forthwith threw the key into the river Dee, making a solemn vow that he would never unlock it until he had visited the thresholds of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul which actually took place.
“Having entered the City, approaching in meditation the monuments of the saints which are there on every side, and bewailing his sin, he worshipped the Creator whom he had heretofore offended. As he went through the chief places of the city he met a naked boy carrying a little fish for sale, which he purchased at a low price. By the divine power he found in its belly the key, unrusted, which he had flung into the Dee, and with it he opened the lock upon his leg. But the Supreme Pontiff, informed of this mighty wonder, summoned him as a man of superior holiness into his presence, and made him, in spite of his reluctance, a bishop. Rendering himself dear to all in Rome where he practised divine contemplation for many years, Nathalan, not forgetful even to extreme old age of his native soil, by permission of the Roman pontiff returned to that part of Scotland whence he sprang. Having built the churches of Tullicht, Bothelin and Colle at his own expense, he dedicated them to Almighty God, and they still exist in these provinces, dedicated in his honour. After many remarkable miracles blessed Nathalan, full of the grace of God, on the 6th of the Ides of January (January 8) commended his soul to our Lord, and went up into Heaven on high; and being  buried with great veneration at Tullicht, he affords health to the sick who piously come to invoke his aid.”
           St Nathalan is commemorated in the Irish martyrologies, e.g. those of Oengus and
         Gorman. See KSS., pp. 417—419; and LIS., vol. i, pp. 121 seq.
8th v. ST FILLAN, OR FOELAM, ABBOT (EIGHTH CENTURY) extravagant incidents.
         ST FILLAN’S name is famous in the Scottish and Irish calendars, and his feast is still kept in the diocese of.Dunkeld, now on this day. The example and instructions of his parents, Feriach and St Kentigerna, inspired him from the cradle with an ardent love of virtue. In his youth, despising the worldly prospects to which high birth entitled him, he received the monastic habit and passed many years in a cell at some distance from a monastery not far from Saint Andrew’s. He was constrained to leave this solitude by being elected abbot. His sanctity in this office shone forth with a bright light. After some years he resigned this charge, and retired to a mountainous part of Glendochart in Perthshire, where with the assistance of seven others he built a church, near which he served for several years. God glorified him by a wonderful gift of miracles, and called him to the reward of his labours on January 9, probably early in the eighth century. He was buried in Strathfillan, and his relics were long preserved there with honour.
           This account, as Butler tells us, is based upon that given in the Aberdeen Breviary. He does not, however, reproduce any of the very extravagant incidents which are there connected with the saint. For example, we are told that Fillan immediately after his birth was thrown by his father into a lake, and remained there a whole year tended by angels, also that when he was building his church a wolf killed the ox that used to drag the materials to the spot, whereupon through Fillan’s prayers the wolf returned and drew the cart in the ox’s place.
Evidently not much trust can be placed in historical materials of this description.
On the other hand, it must be said that St Fillan’s name appears on January 9 in the Martyrology of Oengus (AD. 804), and in nearly all other Irish and Scottish martyrologies and calendars; that the honour paid to him was very widespread, for Robert Bruce had with him a relic of the saint at the battle of Bannockburn, to which, according to Hector Boece, he attributed the victory; and that the crosier and bell believed to have belonged to him are still in existence. The name is spelt in several ways.
           Fillan’s mother, ST KENTIGERNA, is commemorated on January 7 in the Aberdeen Breviary, from which we learn that she was of royal blood, daughter of Ceilach, Prince of Leinster. After the death of her husband she left Ireland, and consecrated herself to God in a religious state. After living in great austerity and humility, she died on January 7, in the year 734 according to the Annals of Ulster.
       See KSS., pp. 341-346 US., vol.1, pp. 134—144; and the Acta Sanctorum, January 9.
         As for St Kentigerna, Adam King informs us that a famous parish church bears her name
         on Tuch Cailleach (in Loch Lomond), a small island to which she retired some time before
         her death. See the Aberdeen Breviary Colgan, Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae, vol. i, p. 22
         and KSS., p. 373. The “  Martyrology ”—Félire-—-of Oengus referred to above is often
         mentioned in these notes: cf. St Oengus on March 11.        
8th 9th v. St. Arcontius Bishop and martyr of Viviers 8th, 9th century.
France. A mob of people in Viviers killed Arcontius for having defended the rights of the Church in a local matter.
772  St. Remigius Bishop of Rouen introduction Roman rite into Gallic {French Church}
France, and the natural son of  Charles Martel of the powerful Frankish leader. Appointed bishop in 755, he chose as his special objective the introduction of the Roman rite into the Gallic or French Church.
St. Catellus Bishop of Castellamore 9th century
Italy, and friend of St. Antoninus. Catellus served Castellamore, south of Naples, and he is the principal saint of the city and diocese.
959 St. Arsenius 1st bishop of Corfu convert from Judaism.
patron of Corfu A native of Constantinople and a convert from Judaism, Arsenius became the first bishop of Corfu, Greece.
Saint Arsenius, Archbishop of Kerkyra (Corfu) defender of widows, a father to orphans, and a comfort for the sorrowful, and so God rewarded him with the gift of miracles
a native of Palestine and lived in the ninth century. He led a strict ascetic life, and was a highly educated man and renowned spiritual writer. He was glorified by wisdom, and by the constantly defended his flock from the wrath of the emperor Constantine (979-1028).

Because of his great virtue, St Arsenius was consecrated as Archbishop of Kerkyra. He became a defender of widows, a father to orphans, and a comfort for the sorrowful, and so God rewarded him with the gift of miracles.

He fell asleep in the Lord toward the end of the ninth century. His relics were placed in the cathedral at Kerkyra, and many miracles and healings took place at his tomb.

St Arsenius composed the Canon chanted during the Sanctification of Oil, a Panegyric on the Apostle Andrew, and a Discourse on the Suffering of the Great Martyr Barbara. Several of his letters to St Photius (February 6) still survive.
1086 ST CANUTE OF DENMARK, MARTYR miraculous healings of the sick at his tomb.
         ST CANUTE (Cnut) of Denmark was a natural son of Swein Estrithson, whose uncle Canute had reigned in England. He advanced a claim to the crown of that country, but his attempt on Northumbria in 1075 was a complete failure; in 1081 he succeeded his brother Harold as king of Denmark. The Danes had received the Christian faith some time before, but, as has been said of Canute of England, their “religious enthusiasm was quaintly tinged with barbarian naïveté”. Perhaps the word “tinged” is hardly strong enough. Canute II married Adela, sister of Robert, Count of Flanders, by whom he had a son, Bd Charles the Good. He enacted several laws for the administration of justice and in restraint of the jarls, granted privileges and immunities to the clergy, and exacted tithes for their subsistence; unfortunately one effect of his activities was to make some churchmen feudal lords who gave more attention to their temporal than to their spiritual profit and duties. Canute showed a royal magnificence in building and endowing churches, and gave the crown which he wore to the church of Roskilde, which became the burial-place of the Danish kings.
           In 1085 Canute reasserted his claim to England, and made extensive preparations for invasion, in concert with Robert of Flanders and Olaf of Norway. The enterprise was brought to nothing by disputes with his jarls and people. They were becoming more and more restive under his imposition of taxes, tithes and a new social order, and under his brother Olaf they broke into open rebellion.
         Canute fled to the island of Funen, and took refuge in the church of St Alban at Odense (said to have its name from a relic brought from England by Canute).
         When the insurgents surrounded the church he confessed his sins and received communion; an attack was begun, bricks and stones being thrown through the windows, and eventually the king was killed as he knelt before the altar. His brother Benedict and seventeen others perished with him. This happened on July 10, 1086.
           Aelnoth, Canute’s biographer, a monk of Canterbury who had spent twenty-four years in Denmark, goes on to tell us that God attested the sanctity of the slain monarch by many miraculous healings of the sick at his tomb, for which reason his relics were taken up and honourably enshrined. Canute’s second successor, Eric III, having sent to Rome evidence of the miracles wrought there, Pope Paschal II authorized the veneration of St Canute, though it is not easy to see upon what his claim to martyrdom rests. Aelnoth adds that the first preachers of Christianity in Denmark and Scandinavia were Englishmen, and that the Swedes were the most difficult to convert.
           See the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. iii; C. Gertz, Vitae Sanctorum Danorum, pp. 27—168,
         531—558; and B. Schmeidler in Neues Archiv, 1912, pp. 67-97.  also E. A. Freeman’s
         Norman Conquest, vol. iv, pp. 249. 586, 689; and F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England
         (1934), pp. 603, 608—609.
1095 St. Wulfstan Bishop reformer died while daily ritual wash feet of 12 poor men
 Wigórniæ, in Anglia, sancti Wulstáni, Epíscopi et Confessóris, méritis et miráculis conspícui; qui ab Innocéntio Papa Tértio inter Sanctos relátus est.
      At Worcester, England, St. Wulfstan, bishop and confessor, conspicuous for merits and miracles.  He was ranked among the saints by Innocent III.

1095 ST WULFSTAN, BISHOP OF WORCESTER (A.D.) WULFSTAN (Wulstan) was a native of Long Itchington, in Warwickshire. From early youth he loved purity, and on one occasion, believing himself to have offended by watching a woman dancing, he withdrew into a thicket and, lying prostrate, bewailed his fault with such sorrow that henceforth he had such constant watchfulness over his senses that he was nevermore troubled with the like temptations. He made his studies in the monastery of Evesham and afterwards at Peterborough, and put himself under the direction of Brihtheah, Bishop of Worcester, by whom he was advanced to the priesthood. Having been distracted while celebrating Mass by the smell of meat roasting in the kitchen, he bound himself never to eat of it again. Not long after he became a novice in the great monastery at Worcester, where he was remarkable for the innocence and sanctity of his life. The first charge with which he was entrusted was instructing the children. He was afterwards made precentor, and then treasurer of the church, but he continued to devote himself to prayer, and watched whole nights in the church. It was only in despite of his strenuous resistance that he was made prior of Worcester and, in 1062, bishop of that see.

Though not very learned, he delivered the word of God so impressively and feelingly as often to move his audience to tears. To his energy in particular is attributed the suppression of a scandalous practice which prevailed among the citizens of Bristol of kidnapping men into slavery and shipping them over to Ireland. He always recited the psalter whilst he travelled, and never passed by any church or chapel without going in to pray before the altar.
When the Conqueror deprived the English of their ecclesiastical and secular dignities in favour of his Normans, Wulfstan retained his see, an exception which later writers explain by a supposed miraculous intervention of Providence. In a synod held at Westminster, over which Archbishop Lanfranc presided, Wulfstan was called upon to surrender his crosier and ring, upon pretext of his simplicity and unfitness for business. The saint owned himself unworthy of the charge, but said that King Edward the Confessor had compelled him to take it upon him, and that he would deliver his crosier to him alone. Thereupon, going to the king’s tomb, he struck his crosier into the stone; and then went and sat down among the monks. No one was able to draw the crosier out till the saint was ordered to take it again, when it followed his hand with ease.
Be that as it may, after an initial uncertainty King William recognized WuIfstan’s worth and treated him with respect and trust. Lanfranc even commissioned him to make the visitation of the diocese of Chester as his deputy. When any English complained of the oppression of the Normans, Wulfstan used to tell them,
         “This is a scourge of God for our sins, which we must bear with patience”.
He caused young gentlemen who were brought up under his care to carry in the dishes and wait on the poor at table, to teach them the true spirit of humility, in which he himself set an example. Wulfstan rebuilt his cathedral at Worcester, c. 1086, but he loved the old edifice which had to be demolished. “The men of old”, he said, “if they had not stately buildings were themselves a sacrifice to God, whereas we pile up stones, and neglect souls.”
He died in 1095, having sat as bishop thirty-two years, and lived about eighty-seven. Dr W. Hunt, in the Dictionary of National Biography, writes: “Wulfstan was, so far as is known, a faultless character, and, save that he knew no more than was absolutely necessary for the discharge of his duties, a pattern of all monastic and of all episcopal virtues as they were then understood”.

He was canonized in 1203, and his feast is now kept in the dioceses of Birmingham, Clifton and Northampton.      
           The details of St Wulfstan’s life are fairly well known to us from a number of short
         biographies. Those by Hemming and William of Malmesbury are printed by Wharton in
         his Anglia Sacra, that of Capgrave by the Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum for January 19.
         We also obtain a good deal of information from chroniclers like Florence of Worcester and
         Simeon of Durham. See also Freeman’s Norman Conquest, vols. iv and v passim; D.
         Knowles, The Monastic Order in England (1949), pp. 159—161 and passim; K. K.
         Darlington,The Vita Wulfstani of William of Malmesbury (Camden Society, 3rd series,
         vol. xl, 1928) an English version of the same by J. H. F. Peile (1934) and J. W. Lamb, St
        Wulstan, Prelate and Patriot (1933).
Wulfstan (1008-1095)+, also called Wulstan and Wolstan. Born at Long-Itchington, Warwickshire, England, he studied at the abbeys of Evesham and Peterborough, received ordination, and joined the Benedictines at Worcester. Wulfstan served as treasurer of the church at Worcester, was prior of the monastery, and finally was named bishop of Worcester in 1062. After overcoming initial doubts about his ability to hold the office of bishop, he demonstrated such skill after the Norman Conquest that he was the lone bishop to be kept in his post by William the Conqueror (r. l066-l087). For the next three decades, Wulfstan rebuilt his cathedral, cared for the poor, and struggled to alleviate the harsh decrees of the Normans upon the vanquished Saxons. Wulfstan died while engaged in the daily ritual of washing the feet of a dozen poor men. He was canonized in 1203.
1160 St. Henry of Sweden an Englishman Bishop of Uppsala residing at Rome miracles at tomb of the twelfth century.
 Item sancti Canúti, Regis et Mártyris.       Also St. Canute, king and martyr.

1156?  ST HENRY, BISHOP OF UPPSALA, MARTYR
         FOR lack of reliable contemporary records only a bare outline can be given of the history of St Henry.
He was an Englishman, and it is possible that he was already resident in Rome when Cardinal Nicholas Breakspear, afterwards Pope Adrian IV, was sent in 1151 as papal legate to Scandinavia. Henry seems to have accompanied him and to have been consecrated bishop of Uppsala by the legate himself in 1152.
         The new bishop won the favour of St Eric, King of Sweden, and when the king sailed to undertake a sort of crusade against the pagan marauders of Finland, the new bishop went with him. The Swedish warriors gained a great victory and as a result some of the Finns accepted Christian baptism. Eric sailed back to Sweden, but the bishop remained behind to continue his work, “with apostolic zeal, though occasionally hardly with apostolic wisdom”.
           A convert named Lalli having committed a murder, St Henry required him to do penance, but Lalli, resentful of the indignity, lay in wait for the bishop and slew him (but there is another and quite different story of his death).

Several miracles of healing and others were recorded of Henry, and although there seems to be no evidence for the assertion that the martyred bishop was formally canonized by Pope Adrian himself, he has from an early date been recognized as the patron saint of Finland. It appears from an indulgence letter of Boniface VIII in 1296 that the cathedral of Abo was already dedicated to St Henry, and when in the sixteenth century the series of paintings depicting English saints and martyrdoms was set up in the English College at Rome, the patron of Finland duly figured therein.

Of much greater interest and artistic merit is a wonderful brass, still in existence, engraved (c. 1440) to cover the cenotaph at Nousis where his relics first rested, with twelve subordinate plaques descriptive of his legend and miracles.  In 1300 the remains of St Henry were translated to the cathedral at Abo (now called Turku) and a second festival commemorating this translation was kept in Finland on June 18. In Sweden January 19 was the day of St Henry’s principal feast, but the Finnish calendars assign it to January 20.
          A full account of St Henry is given in an article by Professor T. Borenius in the
         Archaeological Journal, vol. lxxxvii (1930), pp. 340—358; and further liturgical details are
         supplied by Aarno Malin, Der Heiligenkalender Finnlands (1925), pp. 179 and 208—223.
         The thirteenth-century legend of St Henry is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, January, vol. ii,
         as well as elsewhere. See also C. J. A. Oppermann, English Missionaries in Sweden and
         Finland (1937), pp. 200—205 ; but cf. the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lvii (1939), pp. 162—164.
 In 1152, he was consecrated Bishop of Uppsala, Sweden, by the Papal Legate Nicholas Breakspear, who later became Pope Adrian IV. In 1154, St. Eric, King of Sweden, led a punitive expedition against the Finns in retaliation for their marauding activity into Sweden, and Henry accompanied him. Eric offered peace and the Christian Faith to the people of Finland, but they refused. A battle ensued and the Swedes won.  Henry baptized the defeated people in the Spring of Kuppis near Turku. When Eric returned to Sweden, Henry remained behind, working to convert more of the Finns. To this end he built a church at Nousis, which became his headquarters. In time, Henry met a violent death on account of his love of God. A converted Finnish soldier named Lalli had murdered a Swedish soldier. After careful consideration of the facts and assiduous prayer, Henry imposed the penalty of excommunication on the murderer. Lalli became enraged and slew the saintly bishop with an ax. Henry was buried at Nousis, and miracles were reported at his tomb.

Ancient See of Upsala Catholic Encyclopedia
When St. Ansgar, the Apostle of the North, went to Sweden in 829 the Swedes were still heathen and the country contained many sacrificial groves and temples for the worship of idols. One of the most celebrated of the latter was the temple at Upsala in what is now called Old Upsala, the centre of idolatrous worship not only for Sweden but for all Scandinavia. Even after Christianity had spread through Sweden, heathen sacrifices were still maintained at Upsala. The "Bishops' Chronicle", written by Adam of Bremen in the years 1072-76, says, "The Swedes have a well-known heathen temple called Upsala", and adds, "Every ninth year, moreover, a great feast is celebrated at Upsala, which is observed in common by all the provinces of Sweden. None is permitted to avoid participation in the feast...More horrible than any punishment is that even those who have become Christians must purchase exemption from participation in the feast...The sacrifices are made thus: Nine heads are offered for every living creature of the male sex. By the blood of these the gods are appeased. The bodies are hung up in a grove not far from the temple. Dogs and horses may be seen hanging close by human beings; a Christian told me he had seen seventy-two bodies hanging together."

An episcopal see was established at Old Upsala. One of the bishops was St. Henry, who took part in the Crusade to Finland led by St. Eric and suffered martyrdom there in 1157. The bishops of Sweden were first suffragans of the Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen, of which see St. Ansgar was archbishop when he died. Afterwards the Swedish bishops were suffragans of the Archbishop of Lund, Primate of Scandinavia. In 1152 Cardinal Nicholas of Albano, later Pope Adrian IV, visited Sweden and held a provincial synod at Linköping. He had been commissioned to establish an independent Church province in Sweden, but the matter was deferred, as the Swedes could not agree upon the see of the archbishop.

However, in 1164, Pope Alexander III established a separate ecclesiastical province of Sweden with the see at Upsala. The suffragans were the Bishops of Skara, Linköping, Strengnäs, and Westerås; at a later date the dioceses of Wexiö and Åbo in Finland were added. The first Archbishop of Upsala was Stephen, a Cistercian monk from the celebrated monastery of Alwastra. Cardinal William of Sabina came as papal legate to Sweden during the archiepiscopate of Jarler, a Dominican monk (1235-55). The legate had been commissioned, among other things, to establish cathedral chapters wherever such were lacking, and to grant them the exclusive right of electing the bishops. Another important matter which the legate had been ordered to carry out was the enforcement of the law of clerical celibacy. At a provincial synod held at Skenninge in 1248 under the presidency of the cardinal, the rules as to celibacy were made more severe. The pious and energetic Archbishop Jarler and his successor Laurentius (1257-67), a Franciscan, constantly strove to elevate the clergy and to enforce the law of celibacy. A century later the great saint of Sweden, St Bridget (d. 1373), laboured zealously for the enforcement of the same law.

A new era arose in the history of the archdiocese when Archbishop Folke (1274-77) transferred the see from Old Upsala to Aros, a town near by on the Fyris which was given the name of Upsala. This change was approved by the pope, the king, and the bishops. The relics of the national saint, St. Eric, were also transferred to the new see. The cathedral of Upsala, the most important church of Sweden and the largest in Scandinavia, was built by the French architect Etienne de Bonnuille in 1287. It was a masterpiece of the Gothic style, and is a monument of what Catholic art and Catholic self-sacrifice were able to create under the leadership of zealous archbishops and prelates. The labours of the archbishops extended in all directions. Some were zealous pastors of their flocks, such as Jarler and others; some were distinguished canonists, such as Birger Gregerson (1367-83) and Olof Larsson (1435-8); others were statesmen, such as Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstjerna (d. 1467), or capable administrators, such as Jacob Ulfsson Örnfot, who was distinguished as a prince of the Church, royal councillor, patron of art and learning, founder of the University of Upsala, and an efficient helper in the introduction of printing into Sweden. He died in the Carthusian monastery of Mariefred (Mary's Peace) in 1522. There were also scholars, such as Johannes Magnus (d. 1544), who wrote the "Historia de omnibus gothorum sueonumque regibus" and the "Historia metropolitanæ ecclesiæ upsaliensis", and his brother Olaus Magnus (d. 1588), who wrote the "Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus" and who was the last Archbishop of Upsala.

The archbishops and secular clergy found active co-workers among the regulars. Among the orders represented in Sweden were the Benedictines, Cistercians, Dominicans, Franciscans, Brigittines (with the mother-house at Wadstena), Carthusians, etc. The monks not only laboured in things spiritual, but were also the teachers of the people in agriculture and gardening. Still greater credit is due the members of the orders, both men and women, for their services in the intellectual training of the people of Sweden. A Swedish Protestant investigator, Carl Silfverstolpe, writes: "The monks were almost the sole bond of union in the Middle Ages between the civilization of the north and that of southern Europe, and it can be claimed that the active relations between our monasteries and those in southern lands were the arteries through which the higher civilization reached our country." The beneficial labours of the Catholic Church were forgotten in the stormy days of the Reformation, but in the present era they have been once more recognized by more dispassionate investigators. Dr. Claes Annerstedt, the historian of the University of Upsala, says: "One of the finest results of modern research is that the highly important labours of the Roman Church have received proper recognition by the exhibition of its services in the preservation and spread of civilization."
1392 Blessed Theodore of Novgorod possessed the gift of clairvoyance spend his time in unceasing prayer
the son of pious parents, wealthy citizens of Novgorod. Having been raised in strict Christian piety, and having reached the age of maturity, he took on himself the ascetic deed of foolishness for Christ's sake. He gave all his possessions to the poor, and he lived in great poverty until the end of his life, not even having a roof over his head, nor warm clothes on cold days.

When he discovered a mutual enmity between the Novgorod citizens of the Torgov quarter and the inhabitants of the Sophia quarter, Blessed Theodore pretended to be feuding with Blessed Nicholas Kochanov (July 27) who lived in asceticism on the opposite Sophia side. When Blessed Theodore happened to cross over the Volkhov Bridge to the Sophia side, then Blessed Nicholas pushed him over to the Torgov side. Theodore did the same thing when Nicholas chanced upon on the Torgov side. The blessed ones, spiritually in agreement with each other, by their unusual behavior reminded the people of Novgorod of their own internecine strife, which often ended in bloody skirmishes.

The blessed one possessed the gift of clairvoyance. By warning people to see to their bread, he was actually predicting an impending famine. Another time he said, "This will be bare, it will be fine for sowing turnips." This was his prediction of a fire that devastated the streets of the Torgov quarter. Blessed Theodore foresaw his own end and said to the Novgorod people, "Farewell, I'm going far away."

During his life, the citizens of Novgorod saw him as a saint pleasing to God, and had a high regard for him. After his death in the year 1392, the holy fool was buried, at his request, in the Torgov quarter, at Lubyanitsa in the church of the holy Great Martyr George, at the porch where the saint usually loved to spend his time in unceasing prayer. A chapel was built over his holy relics.
1457 Saint Mark Eugenikos, Archbishop of Ephesus admired and honored by all
a stalwart defender of Orthodoxy at the Council of Florence. He would not agree to a union with Rome which was based on theological compromise and political expediency (the Byzantine Emperor was seeking military assistance from the West against the Moslems who were drawing ever closer to Constantinople).

St Mark countered the arguments of his opponents, drawing from the well of pure theology, and the teachings of the holy Fathers. When the members of his own delegation tried to pressure him into accepting the Union he replied, "There can be no compromise in matters of the Orthodox Faith."

Although the members of the Orthodox delegation signed the Tomos of Union, St Mark was the only one who refused to do so.

When he returned from Florence, St Mark urged the inhabitants of Constantinople to repudiate the dishonorable document of union. He died in 1457 at the age of fifty-two, admired and honored by all.
1485 BD ANDREW OF PESCHIERA Some of the miracles attributed to him are of a rather extravagant character.  
         NOT very much authentic detail seems to be preserved to us concerning the life of this Andrew. His family name was Gregho (their origin was Greek), and he was born at Peschiera upon the Lago di Garth. At an early age he entered the Dominican Order at Brescia, and was sent to the famous friary of San Marco at Florence to make his studies. After ordination he was bidden by his superiors to evangelize the Valtelline, a district of Switzerland and northern Italy, where heresy was rife and the people fierce and godless. An attractive picture is painted of the missionary’s untiring labours amongst these unsympathetic people, of his tender devotion to the Passion, of the austerity of his life, and of his spirit of humility and poverty. Some of the miracles attributed to him are of a rather extravagant character, as when we are told that when a book was produced by the heretics to confute him in argument, he bade his opponents open their book and “an enormous viper” came out of it, typical of the poison which the book contained. He was instrumental in founding the Dominican house at Morbegno, to serve as a sort of outpost, and it was here, on January 18, 1485, that Bd Andrew died. He had spent forty-five years of his life in the Valtelline. His cultus was confirmed in 1820.
           See the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iv, pp. 627—631; Procter, Short Lives of the
           Dominican Saints, pp. 7—50.
1550 Saint Macarius the Roman ascetical struggles and unceasing prayer a pillar of fire would rise up into the sky at night above his place of refuge. During the day, the grace of God was made manifest by a fragrant cloud of smoke gifts of clairvoyance and wonderworking from God

born at the end of the fifteenth century into a wealthy family of Rome. His parents raised him in piety and gave him an excellent education. He might have expected a successful career in public service, but he did not desire honors or earthly glory. Instead, he focused on how to save his soul.

He lived in an age when the Christian West was shaken by the Protestant Reformation. While others around him were pursuing luxury and lascivious pleasures, he studied the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers.
St Macarius was grieved to see so many darkened by sin and worldly vanity, and was disturbed by the rebellions and conflicts within the Western Church.
With tears, he asked God to show him the path of salvation, and his prayer did not go unanswered.
He came to realize that he would find the safe harbor of salvation in the Orthodox Church.


St Macarius left Rome secretly, and set out for Russia without money, and wearing an old garment. After many sufferings on his journey, he arrived in Novgorod, where he rejoiced to see so many churches and monasteries. One of these monasteries had been founded three centuries before by his fellow countryman, St Anthony the Roman (August 3).

St Macarius came to the banks of the River Svir, where St Alexander of Svir (April 17 and August 30) had founded the monastery of the Holy Trinity. St Alexander received Macarius into the Orthodox Church and tonsured him as a monk. Macarius, however longed for the solitary life. He moved to an island on the River Lezna, forty-five miles from Novgorod, where he engaged in ascetical struggles and unceasing prayer.

The winters were very cold, and the summers were hot and humid. The marshy area was also a breeding ground for mosquitos, which tormented the saint. St Macarius survived on berries, roots, and herbs. Sometimes bears would come to him for food, and they allowed him to pet them.

Such a great lamp of the spiritual life could not remain hidden for long. One rainy night someone knocked on his door and asked him to open it. Several people, who seemed to be hunters, entered his cell. Astonished by his appearance, and the divine light shining from his face, the men asked for his blessing. They told him they had come to the forest to hunt, and only by the prayers of the saint did God permit them to find him.
"It is not my sinful prayers," he told them, "but the grace of God which led you here."
After feeding them, he spoke and prayed with them, then showed them the way out of the marsh. St Macarius was concerned that his peace would be disturbed, now that his dwelling place was known. His fears were justified, because many people sought him out to ask for his advice and prayers.

The holy ascetic decided to move even farther into the wilderness, choosing an elevated place on the left bank of the Lezna. Even here, however, he was not able to conceal himself for very long. Sometimes a pillar of fire would rise up into the sky at night above his place of refuge. During the day, the grace of God was made manifest by a fragrant cloud of smoke. Drawn by these signs, the local inhabitants of the region were able to find him once more.

Some of his visitors begged St Macarius to permit them to live near him and to be guided by his counsels. Seeing that this was the Lord's will, he did not refuse them. He blessed them to build cells, and this was the foundation of his monastery.

In 1540, they built a wooden church dedicated to the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. St Macarius was ordained to the holy priesthood by Bishop Macarius of Novgorod, who later became Metropolitan of All Russia. The hierarch also appointed St Macarius as igumen of the monastery.

St Macarius was an example to the others, and was given the gifts of clairvoyance and wonderworking from God. He wore himself out with his labors and vigils, encouraging others not to become faint-hearted in their own struggles.

After several years, he entrusted the monastery to one of his disciples, and returned to the island where he had first lived. There he fell asleep in the Lord on August 15, 1550. His disciples buried him outside on the left side of the Dormition church which he had founded.

The Hermitage of St Macarius was never a prosperous monastery with many monks, but it was distinguished by the high level of spiritual life. In the seventeenth century, many of the monasteries near Novgorod were plundered by Swedish invaders. The Hermitage of St Macarius was also burned in 1615, and some of the monks were put to the sword.

By the eighteenth century, the monastery had become a dependency of the St Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St Petersburg. The Empress Catherine closed it in 1764, just as she had closed other monasteries, and it was designated as a parish church. Although pilgrims still came to venerate the saint's relics and to celebrate his Feast Day, the buildings soon fell into ruin.

In the mid-nineteenth century, some benefactors restored the two churches and the miraculous healing spring which the saint himself had dug. About this time an old priest was living there, and he celebrated the church services until his death. In 1894, the monastery began to function once more under the noted missionary Hieromonk Arsenius, who introduced the Athonite Typikon. The monastery was destroyed by the Soviets in 1932.

St Macarius the Roman is commemorated on August 15 (the date of his repose), and also on January 19 (his nameday).
1652 Today we commemorate opening of the incorrupt relics of Saint Sava of Storozhev and Zvenigorod on January 19, 1652.
St Sava is also also commemorated on December 3, as determined by the Moscow Council of 1547.
Saint Macarius the Faster of the Near Caves of Kiev was a deacon  gift of wonderworking
Saint Macarius the Deacon lived in the Far Caves of Kiev, and is commemorated on January 19 because of his namesake, St Macarius of Egypt. St Macarius lived during the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries, and was distinguished by his lack of covetousness.

He possessed great fervor for the temple of God and he continuously labored in reading Holy Scripture and in fasting.

According to Tradition, he was frequently ill as a child, and his parents vowed that they would offer their son to the Monastery of the Caves if he were made healthy.

By his mildness and humility he earned the love of the brethren, who taught him to read and to write. Because of his piety of life he was ordained as a deacon.
The Lord also granted him the gift of wonderworking.
St Macarius of the Far Caves is also commemorated on August 28. There is a general commemoration of all the wonderworkers of the Kiev Caves on the second Sunday of Great Lent.
1667 BD BERNARD OF CORLEON extraordinary graces levitations, and of prophecies and miracles innumerable.
         PHILIP LATINI, a young man who practised the trade of a shoemaker in the town of Corleone, about twenty miles from Palermo, seems also in his youth to have had a hankering after a career of arms, and, according to his biographer, was accounted the best swordsman in Sicily. Among many other encounters, having on one occasion come into conflict with the police and wounded an officer of the law, he, as the custom was in those days, took sanctuary in a church. There he was safe from arrest, but of course could not venture to leave his refuge until the coast was clear. Being thus virtually besieged for several days, Philip, who was by nature very devout, had time to enter into himself, and realized that in the wild and adventurous life he was leading he stood in grave danger of losing his soul. He accordingly in 1631 joined the Capuchins as a lay-brother, being then twenty-seven years old, receiving the name of Bernard. From this time forth the courage and enthusiasm which he had displayed in fighting were entirely given to the practice of austerity. His fastings, watchings and macerations of the flesh were incredibly severe, and the assaults which he sustained from the enemy of mankind, who, we are told, often appeared to him in hideous forms and offered him physical violence, make very sensational reading. On the other hand, the extraordinary graces which his biographer records are on much the same scale. We hear of ecstasies and levitations, and of prophecies and miracles innumerable.
           One special gift attributed to him, which makes a more attractive appeal to the feeling of our own day, was that of healing animals. He had great compassion for the poor suffering beasts, for, as he observed, they have neither doctors nor medicine nor speech to explain what is the matter with them. They were brought to him in numbers. He said the Lord’s Prayer over them, and then had them led three times round the cross which stood in front of the friary church. But he cured them all (tutte le risanava), and, what is even more surprising, we are told that at his death he bequeathed this same power of healing animals to another member of the community who was very attached to him. Brother Bernard of Corleone died at Palermo on January 12, 1667, and was beatified in 1768.

         See B. Sanbenedetti, Vita del . . . F. Bernardo da Corlione (1725), the first edition of
         which biography was apparently published in 1679, twelve years after Bd Bernard’s death
         Father Angelique’s complete biography (1901); Father Dionigi, Profilo, del B. Bernado.,
         (1934), with bibliography; and Léon, L’Auréole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. i, pp. 97-98.
         For an illustration of the abuses to which the privilege of sanctuary lent itself, see J. B.
         Labat, Voyage en Espagne et en Italic, 1703 et 1707, vol. iv, p. 19.
1670 ST CHARLES OF SEZZE extreme simplicity, his company was sought by cardinals and other eminent ecclesiastics
THERE is not much which calls for special comment in the life of Charles of Sezze, Franciscan lay-brother of the Observance. Though he was of humble birth, his parents hoped that he might be educated for the priesthood, but at school he was found a very dull pupil, and beyond learning to read and write he seems to have had no further education. He was, however, extremely responsive to all that spoke to him of God. Though the days of his youth were spent in labouring in the fields, he practised austere penance and took a vow of chastity. He had more than one serious illness, and once, when he was twenty, he promised to become a religious if he was cured. The friars of Naziano eventually accepted him as a lay-brother, and there in the noviceship his fervour redoubled. After his profession he begged to join some of his brethren who were going to the Indies as missionaries, but he again fell seriously ill, and after convalescence was sent to live in Rome. Here he gave a wonderful example of virtue and charity, and, despite his extreme simplicity, his company was sought by cardinals and other eminent ecclesiastics. He died on January 6, 1670, at the age of 57, beatified in 1882, and canonized in 1959.
         See the decree of beatification in the Analecta Juris Pontificii, 1883; Léon, L’Auréole Séraphique
         (Eng. trans.), vol. ii, pp. 64—68 Imbert-Gourbeyre, La Stigmatisation (1894), vol. i, pp. 315--316.
1700 BD MARGARET BOLJRGEOYS, VIRGIN, FOUNDRESS OF THE CONGREGATION OF NOTRE DAME OF MONTREAL         
MARGARET BOURGEOTS was the sixth of the twelve children of Abraham Bourgeoys, wax-chandler, and his wife, Guillemette Gamier, and was born at Troyes, the chief town of Champagne, in 1620. When she was twenty years old she offered herself as a postulant first to the Carmelites and then to the Poor Clares, and was refused—for reasons unknown—by both. She was well known in Troyes as president of the sodality of our Lady attached to the convent of the Augustinian canonesses of St Peter Fourier and Bd Mix Le Clercq; and the Abbé Gendret took these refusals to mean that Margaret was intended to lead an unenclosed community which he had long been considering. Such a community was in fact begun under his direction by Margaret and two others, but it came to nothing and she returned home. Amid these rebuffs she was saved from discouragement by a vision of the Child Jesus, which, she declared, “for ever turned my eyes from all the beauty of this world”.
            In 1652 there came to visit his sister in the canonesses’ convent at Troyes Paul de Maisonneuve, governor of the French settlement at Ville-Marie (Montreal).  He wanted a schoolmistress for his little colony; and Margaret, who had long been interested in Canada and recognized in Maisonneuve an intimation that this was her call, agreed to go. She landed at Quebec on September 22, 1653, and a month later was at Vile-Marie. It was simply a fort, wherein the couple of hundred souls all lived, with a little hospital and a chapel for the Jesuit missionary when he was there.
            For over four years Margaret made a sort of “uncanonical novitiate”. She housekept for the governor, looked after the few children, helped Joan Mance at the hospital and the wives of the garrison, got the great cross restored on Mount Royal (its predecessor had been destroyed by the Indians), and had a new chapel 

1924 Saint Joseph Sebastian Pelczar; Bishop of Przemysl in 1900 until his death in 1924. He made frequent visits to the parishes, supported the religious orders, conducted three synods, and worked for the education and religious formation of his priests. He encouraged devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, Eucharistic devotions, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Virgin Mary.
He built and restored churches, built nurseries, kitchens, homeless shelters, schools for the poor, and gave tuition assistance to poor seminarians. He worked for the implentation of the social doctrine described in the writings of Pope Leo XIII. He left behind a large body of work including books, pastoral letters, sermons, addresses, prayers and other writings.
 
Raised in a pious family. Studied in Rzeszów, and entered the seminary at Przemysl in 1860. Ordained on 17 July 1864. Parish priest at Sambor.

Transferred to Rome in 1866, he studied at the Collegium Romanum (Gregorian University) and the Institute of Saint Apollinaris (Lateran University). Doctor of theology and a canon lawyer. Professor at the seminary at Przemysl from 1869 to 1877, and at the University of Krakow from 1877 to 1899, he was known as a great educator who was always available to students. Dean of the Theology Department. Rector of the University of Krakow from 1882 to 1883.

All the while he was teaching Joseph was still involved at the parish level. He worked with the Saint Vincent de Paul Society and was president of the Society for the Education of the People for 16 years. He started hundreds of libraries, delivered free lectures, published over a thousand books, wrote several books of history, theology and canon law himself, and started a school for servants. He founded the Fraternity of Our Lady, Queen of the Polish Crown in 1891; the Fraternity cared for the poor, orphans, apprentices, servants, the sick and unemployed. Founded the Congregation of Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on 15 April 1894 in Krakow to work with the sick and spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Born 17 January 1842 at Korczyn bei Krosno, Poland :  Died 28 March 1924 at Przemysl, Poland; relics in Przemysl Cathedral
Name Meaning whom the Lord adds (Joseph) Venerated 18 February 1989 by Pope John Paul II Beatified 2 June 1991 by Pope John Paul II at Rzeszów, Poland Canonized 18 May 2003 by Pope John Paul II at the Vatican Basilica


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 239

Expecting, I have expected thy grace:
and thou hast done with me according to the multitude of the mercies of thy name.

Thou hast heard my prayers: and thou hast led me out of the den of misery, and from the pit of the enemy.

Manifold and wonderful are thy gifts, O Lady: incomparable are the gifts of thy graces.

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
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Kenya national Marian shrine  Loreto, Italy  Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
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The great psalm of the Passion, Chapter 22, whose first verse “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Jesus pronounced on the cross, ended with the vision: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him” For kingship belongs to the LORD, the ruler over the nations. All who sleep in the earth will bow low before God; All who have gone down into the dust will kneel in homage. And I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you. The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.
Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China {whole article here} 2000 years of the Catholic Church in China
The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia Paqualina Addatis), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Addolorata, Servants of Mary (1845-1900);
– Servant of God Maria of the Incarnation (née Caterina Carrasco Tenorio), founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of the Flock of Mary (1840-1917);
– Servant of God , founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Family of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1851-1923);
– Servant of God Ilia Corsaro, founder of the Congregation of the Little Missionaries of the Eucharist (1897-1977);
– Servant of God Maria Montserrat Grases García, layperson of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1941-1959).
LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858 
China Marian shrines May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798  
Links to Related Marian Websites  Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates, 239 2023