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!)
RDeo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
July is the month of the Precious Blood since 1850;
2022
23,000  Lives Saved Since 2007

St. Maria Goretti, Virgin, Martyr (Optional Memorial)

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


"And one cried to another, and said, 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory" Isaias>
 
CAUSES OF SAINTS

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

Octava sanctórum Apostolórum Petri et Pauli.
The Octave of the holy apostles Peter and Paul.

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

"The Rosary and the sign (of the cross) are the only weapons you will have"
 
In Akita, Japan, five nuns from a secular institute had a chapel with the Real Presence. Near the tabernacle was a replica statue of the Virgin who appeared in Amsterdam, known as the "Lady of All Nations."
On Thursday evening of July 5, 1956, Sister Agnes Sasagawa Azuma started praying. Suddenly she felt a cross-shaped wound in the palm of her left hand.
The sensation of a deep puncture kept her awake in pain all night.

At three in the morning, she heard a voice (her guardian angel):
"Don’t just pray for your own sins, but pray in reparation for those of all mankind.
Today’s world hurts the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord by its ingratitude.
Mary's wounds are much deeper than yours. Let’s go together to the chapel."
... In the chapel, Agnes saw on the hands of the Virgin wounds very similar to hers. On Saturday, October 13, 1973, she received a new message: "Fire will fall from heaven and consume a large part of humanity...
The Rosary and the sign (of the cross) are the only weapons you will have that the Son left."
Bishop Shojiro Ito, the local Bishop, officially declared the authenticity of the facts on April 22, 1984.

 
It Makes No Sense Not To Believe In GOD
Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel
St. Maria Goretti, Virgin, Martyr (Optional Memorial)
July is the month of the Precious Blood since 1850;

THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST  

 701 BC Jesaja ist neben Jeremia, Ezechiel und anderen einer der großen Schriftpropheten des Tanach, der Hebräischen Bibel. Er wirkte im damaligen Südreich Juda zwischen 740 und 701 v. Chr. in der Zeit der Bedrohung durch die antike Großmacht Assyrien.
  90 St Romulus, Bishop Of Fiesole, Martyr a Roman convert of St Peter

   303 St Dominica, Virgin And Martyr
 429 St Sisoes After death of St Antony, St Sisoes was one of the most shining lights of the Egyptian deserts; Egyptian by birth; quit the world in his youth he retired to the desert of Skete.

 518 St. Monenna Irish abbess also called Darerca resided at Sliabh Cuillin Ireland noted for  austerities
 575 St. Goar Priest of Aquitaine, France, honored by Charlemagne. A parish priest,

 699 St Sexburga, Abbess Of Ely, Widow daughter of Anna, King of the East Angles; sister of SS. Etheldreda, Ethelburga and Withburga, and half-sister of St Sethrida
1070 St  Godeleva, Martyr The scene of the murder of Godeleva soon had a reputation for miracles
1433 Johannes Hus Evangelische Kirche: 6. Juli 1990 bedauerte Papst Johannes Paul II. den grausamen Tod von Johannes Hus.
1535 Thomas More mit Kardinal John Fisher
1794 Blessed Mary Rose entered Benedictine convent of Caderousse in 1762 French Revolution martyr,
1902 St. Maria Goretti Devotion grew, miracles, and in less than half a century she was canonized


July 6 – Lacrymations and messages of Our Lady to Sister Agnes Sasagawa Katsuko,
approved by Bishop Ito in 1984 (Akita, Japan) 
 You who wish to belong without reserve to the Lord, to become the spouse worthy of the Spouse
 In August 1973, Sister Agnes, in Akita, Japan, started her day with a time of prayer longer than usual.
In her own words, ‘I had barely begun, when all of a sudden I heard coming from the statue of Mary, for the second time, a voice of indescribable beauty’:

“My daughter, my novice, do you love the Lord? If you love the Lord, listen to what I have to say to you.
It is very important… I have intervened so many times to appease the wrath of the Father.
I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering Him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross,
His Precious Blood, and beloved souls who console Him and form a cohort of victim souls.

Prayer, penance, and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father's anger.”
After a silence: “Is what you think in your heart true? (…) My novice, you who wish to belong without reserve to the Lord, to become the spouse worthy of the Spouse, make your vows knowing that you must be fastened to the Cross with three nails.
These three nails are poverty, chastity, and obedience.
Of the three, obedience is the foundation. In total abandon, let yourself be led by your superior.
He will know how to understand you and to direct you.”
 Words spoken by Our Lady in Akita
The apparitions of Akita (Japan) have been approved by the local bishop.
www.catolico.org


July 6 - Sr Agnes Sasagawa at Akita: Crying Statue and Messages (Japan)
At Akita, the Virgin Cries Over the Sins of the World
On July 6, 1973, Sr Agnes Sasagawa receiving messages from Heaven at Akita, Japan.
These messages asked her to make reparation for the sins of mankind.
"Do not fear. Pray with fervor not only because of your sins, but in reparation for those of all men.
The world today deeply wounds the most Sacred Heart of Our Lord  by its ingratitude and injuries.
The wounds of Mary are much deeper and more sorrowful than yours." -
"Pray very much for the Pope, the bishops, and priests." -
"Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him, to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father.
I seek, with my Son, souls who will make reparation, by their suffering and their poverty, for sinners and ingrates."
"As I told you, if men do not repent & better themselves,
the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity."
Two years later on January 4, 1975, the statue began to weep. It wept 101 times until September 15, 1981.
Scientific examination proved the liquid to be human tears.
In 1984, Bishop Ito declared that the events of Akita were of supernatural origin and worthy of belief.

Ah! What years and centuries of torment to punish us! ...
How dearly we shall pay for all those faults that we look upon as nothing at all, like those little lies that we tell to amuse ourselves, those little scandals, the despising of the graces which God gives us at every moment, those little murmurings in the difficulties that He sends us!
No, my dear brethren, we would never have the courage to commit the least sin if we could understand how much it outrages God and how greatly it deserves to be rigorously punished, even in this world.
God is just, my dear brethren, in all that He does.
When He recompenses us for the smallest good action, He does so over and above all that we could desire.
 A good thought, a good desire, that is to say, the desire to do some good work even when we are not able to do it,
He never leaves without a reward.
But also, when it is a matter of punishing us, it is done with rigor, and though we should have only a light fault,
we shall be sent into Purgatory. -- St. John Vianney

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

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

 701 BC Jesaja ist neben Jeremia, Ezechiel und anderen einer der großen Schriftpropheten des Tanach, der Hebräischen Bibel. Er wirkte im damaligen Südreich Juda zwischen 740 und 701 v. Chr. in der Zeit der Bedrohung durch die antike Großmacht Assyrien.
  90 St Romulus, Bishop Of Fiesole, Martyr a Roman convert of St Peter
 268-270 The Holy Martyrs Marinus, Martha, Audifax, Habakkuk, Cyrenus, Valentinus the Presbyter, Asterius, and many others with them at Rome.
 283-284 The Holy Martyrs Isaurius the Deacon, Innocent, Felix, Hermias, Basil, Peregrinus were Athenians, suffering for Christ in the Macedonian city of Apollonia & two city officials, Rufus and Ruphinus
 288 St. Tranquillinus Roman martyr. He is affiliated with the legends surrounding St. Sebastian
 300 Holy Martyrs Lucy (Lucia) the Virgin, Rexius, Antoninus, Lucian, Isidore, Dion, Diodorus, Cutonius, Arnosus, Capicus and Satyrus: twenty-four martyrs suffered with Sts Lucy and Rexius
  Martyrdom of the Seven Ascetic Saints in Tounar Mount. {Coptic}
  Martyrdom of Sts. Abba Hour and his Mother Theodora.   {Coptic}
   303 St Dominica, Virgin And Martyr
 429 St Sisoes After death of St Antony, St Sisoes was one of the most shining lights of the Egyptian deserts; Egyptian by birth; quit the world in his youth he retired to the desert of Skete.
 518 St. Monenna Irish abbess also called Darerca. She resided at Sliabh Cuillin in Ireland noted for her austerities
 575 St. Goar Priest of Aquitaine, France, honored by Charlemagne. A parish priest, Goar became a hermit at Oberwesel, Germany, on the Rhine River. 575 St Goar was born in Aquitaine and for years worked as a parish priest in his own country
St. Noyala Virgin martyr. A much revered martyr in Brittany said to have crossed to Brittany on the leaf of a tree, accompanied by her nurse
 699 St Sexburga, Abbess Of Ely, Widow daughter of Anna, King of the East Angles; sister of SS. Etheldreda, Ethelburga and Withburga, and half-sister of St Sethrida
St. Rixius Varus

       St. Merryn hermitess on the island of Andresey in the Trent River in England
1070 St  Godeleva, Martyr The scene of the murder of Godeleva soon had a reputation for miracles
1433 Johannes Hus Evangelische Kirche: 6. Juli 1990 bedauerte Papst Johannes Paul II. den grausamen Tod von Johannes Hus.
1535 Thomas More mit Kardinal John Fisher
1585 Bl. Thomas Alfield English martyr native of Gloucester educated at Eton and Cambridge; raised as an Anglican convert left England to study for the priesthood at Douai and Reims, France, ordination in 1581
1599-1624 Virgin Juliana, Princess of Olshansk Uncovering of the Relics of; Many miracles have been worked by St Juliana, and she helps those who venerate her holy relics with piety and faith
1794 Blessed Mary Rose entered Benedictine convent of Caderousse in 1762 French Revolution martyr, OSB M (AC)
1902 St. Maria Goretti Devotion to the young martyr grew, miracles, and in less than half a century she was canonized

July 6 - Tears and Messages to Sister Agnes Sasagawa (Akita, Japan, recognized by Bishop Shojiro Ito in 1984)
Fight Against Death With a Hail Mary (I)
   In the year 1958, we lived in a poor working suburb. Life was miserable for everyone and the second halves of the month were especially hard. On the evening of July 12th sadness came into my own home. I had put my two little girls to bed: Jeannine, 28 months, was already asleep, but Suzy, 17 months, in spite of the late hour, had not yet fallen to sleep. She was agitated… and suddenly the drama happened. My little girl went into convulsions. Her tiny body became stiff and unrecognizable. She no longer looked like a human being. What was I to do?…
   I called the doctor, who saw at once the gravity of the case and spent the entire night with us, trying to use, without success, all the resources of medical science. I thought of asking the Blessed Virgin for help, but I did not dare. I had been such a blasphemer! In fact, I belonged to a sect that prohibited us to honor Mary, forbid us to make the sign of the cross and to enter a Catholic church. However, I had spent a year as a girl in a parochial school where I had learned some elements of religion. But, I was so little enlightened; I still wondered where the truth was.
   I addressed God, “My God, You made the earth and the sky; I only know only one prayer for the dying. It is “Hail Mary”.
Am I wrong to ask the One that Catholics call the Virgin for help? Have mercy on us Lord! …”
Adapted from The Call of the Painful and Immaculate Heart, #60, from the Marian Collection #11, 1979
The great psalm of the Passion, Psalm 21, whose first verse
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psalm 21:28)
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"
Mary the Mother of God

Isaiah_Michelangelo
701 BC Jesaja ist neben Jeremia, Ezechiel und anderen einer der großen Schriftpropheten des Tanach, der Hebräischen Bibel. Er wirkte im damaligen Südreich Juda zwischen 740 und 701 v. Chr. in der Zeit der Bedrohung durch die antike Großmacht Assyrien.
Hierosólymis sancti Isaiæ Prophétæ, qui, sub Manásse Rege, in duas sectus partes occúbuit, sepultúsque est sub quercu Rogel, juxta tránsitum aquárum.
    In Jerusalem, the holy prophet Isaias.  During the reign of King Manasses he was put to death by being sawn in two and was buried beneath the oak of Rogel, near a running stream.
        





         Isaiah
The prophet Isaiah was born in about 765 B.C. In the year of King Uzziah’s death, 740, he received his prophetic vocation while in the Temple of Jerusalem: his mission was to proclaim the fall of Israel and of Judah, the punishment  of the nation’s infidelity, 6:1-13. His earliest pronouncements, ch. 1-5, for the  most part belong to the following years until the beginning of the reign of Ahaz in 736. Rezin, king of Damascus, and Pekah, king of Israel, tried to  persuade the young king of Judah to form an alliance against Tiglath-pileser III, king of Assyria. Ahaz refused and, when war was declared, appealed to Assyria.
         Isaiah tried in vain to discourage a policy so based on human expediency; as the pledge of God’s intentions he foretold the mysterious birth of Immanuel and made the first of his messianic prophecies. Most of the oracles contained  in ch. 6-12 (the ‘Book of Immanuel’), belong to this period. The appeal of Ahaz to Tiglath-pileser put Judah under Assyrian protection and hastened the fall of the Northern Kingdom, part of the territory of which was annexed by Assyria  in 734; by 721 Samaria itself had fallen.


 In Judah, Hezekiah who succeeded  Ahaz (716) was a devout man, bent on reform. There was a resumption, however,  of political intrigue, this time for Egyptian support against Assyria. Isaiah,  true to his principles, pleaded for trust in God, not in a military alliance. In this period  just before and after the fall of Samaria, Isaiah delivered most of the  oracles of ch. 28-32, and also the oracles against the nations 14:24-23:18.
         Hezekiah allowed himself to be drawn into an anti-Assyrian revolt and Sennacherib, in 701, devastated Palestine.
 The king of Judah resolved to defend   Jerusalem; Isaiah supported his decision, assuring him of God’s help, and the  capital, in fact, was saved. The details are recorded in ch. 36-39, parallel to  2 K 18-20, and bring the first part of the book to a close. We know nothing  of Isaiah’s career after 700. According to Jewish tradition he was martyred  under Manasseh.
         The prominent part played by Isaiah in his country’s affairs made him a  national figure, but he was also a poet of genius. Brilliance of style and freshness of imagery make his work pre-eminent in the literature of the Bible; he wrote  a concise, majestic and harmonious prose unsurpassed by any of the biblical  writers who were to follow him. But his greatness lies above all in the religious  order. The vision in the Temple at the time of his vocation, a revelation of the  transcendence of God and the unworthiness of man, left a lasting mark on the  prophet. His monotheism has a note of exultation in it but also of awe;
God is the Holy, the Strong, the Mighty On; the King. Man is a creature deified by  sin for which God demands reparation.  For God insists on justice between men and sincerity in divine worship. God looks for faithfulness and Isaiah is the prophet of faith; in times of crisis all he prescribes is trust in God and in no one else; by this alone will salvation be won. He knows clearly how hard  the test will be, but his hope is that a ‘remnant’ will be spared, with the Messiah  for its king. Isaiah is the greatest of the messianic prophets. The Messiah he  foretells is a descendant of David who will establish peace and justice on earth  and propagate the knowledge of God, 2:1-5; 7:10-17; 9:1-6; 11:1-9; 28:16-17.
     A religious genius of this quality inevitably made an impression on his period and secured a following. The prose passages in the third person which conclude the first part of the book, ch. 36-39, are the work of Isaiah’s disciples.   From time to time the prophet’s spiritual descendants made further additions
to his own work and in particular they inserted the oracles against Babylon,  ch. 13-14, the apocalypse of ch. 24-27, and the poems of ch. 33-35.
    The second part of the book, ch. 40-55, is of a very different kind, and modern criticism does not admit it to be the work of the 8th century prophet. The Biblical Commission, on 28th June 1908, warned Catholic exegetes against this  view, opposed as it is to ancient traditional opinion and setting bounds, it  might seem, to the free range of prophetic inspiration.
 The Commission asserted that the arguments so far adduced were not strong enough to dismiss the Isaian authorship of these chapters. It was a cautionary measure, not forbidding further inquiry. Subsequent investigations have now added weight to the earlier arguments, and a growing number of Catholic interpreters now hold that these chapters are a later addition; not merely because the name of Isaiah is never mentioned but because the historical setting itself is about two centuries after his time: Jerusalem has fallen, the nation is in exile in Babylonia, Cyrus the liberator is already on the horizon.
The oracles in the first part of the book were for the most part threatening, and alluded constantly to events under Ahaz and Hezekiah; the oracles of the second part are consoling and remote from this historical context. The style is still very fine, but is different, more rhetorical, diffuse, repetitive. The thought has also developed, and is more theologically expressed. Monotheism is not merely affirmed, but expounded; the impotence of the false gods is used as an argument for their insignificance.
Emphasis is laid on the fathomless wisdom and providence of God. For the first time religious universalism receives clear expression.
    Almighty God could, of course, have conveyed the prophet into the distant future, severing him from his own time, transforming his imagery and cast of thought. This would mean, however, a duplication of the author’s personality and a disregard for his contemporaries—to whom, after all, he was sent—for which the Bible provides no parallel. It is therefore highly probable that ch. 40-55 are the work of an unnamed writer at the end of the exilic period, a disciple of Isaiah and like him a prophet of the first order. The collection is introduced, ch. 40, by a prefatory poem which epitomises this prophet’s mission: 'Be comforted, be comforted, my people’, cf. Si 48:24. The book is known as ‘the Book of the Consolation of Israel’.
     Embedded in this book are four lyrical passages, the 'Songs of the Servant of Yahweh’, 42:1-7; 49:1-9; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12. They depict a perfect disciple of Yahweh; he proclaims the true faith and suffers to atone for the sins of his people, but God exalts him in the end. In all of this, the Christian tradition sees a foreshadowing of the true Servant of God, of the life and redeeming death of Jesus.
           The last section of the book, ch. 56-66, is composite. Ch. 57 may be pre-exilic but ch. 56, 58, 66 read as if the exiles were home again. Ch. 63-65 are markedly apocalyptic in tone. The ideas and style of ch. 60-62 bring them very close to ch. 40-55, and the whole third section reads very much like a sequel of the second, confirming traditional matter and composed by disciples of the prophet-comforter of the exilic period.
 This is the final production of the Isaian school extending the ministry of the great prophet of the 8th century. 
      

Orthodoxe Kirche: 09. Mai Katholische Kirche: 06. Juli
Jesaja wurde wohl um 739 in das Prophetenamt berufen. Aus seinen Worten läßt sich entnehmen, daß er der gebildeten Oberschicht Jerusalems entstammte, verheiratet war (auch seine Frau war wohl Prophetin) und mehrere Kinder hatte. Seine Aufzeichnungen wurden von Schülern kommentiert und erweitert. So besteht das Buch Jesaja aus mehreren Teilen, die in einem langen Zeitraum entstanden sind. Von dem Buch Jesaja liegt aber auch die älteste erhaltene Handschrift vor, die in Qumran gefunden wurde und auf das 2. Jahrhundert vor Christus datiert werden kann.
Nach orthodoxer Tradition wurde Jesaja unter König Manasse hingerichtet. Sein Leichnam wurde nahe dem Teich Siloah begraben. Von hier gelangten die Reliquien unter Kaiser Theodosius in die Laurentiuskirche in Blacherna (Konstantinopel). Der Kopf Jesajas wird heute im Chilandarionkloster auf dem Athos bewahrt.
Jesaja ist neben Jeremia, Ezechiel und anderen einer der großen Schriftpropheten des Tanach, der Hebräischen Bibel. Er wirkte im damaligen Südreich Juda zwischen 740 und 701 v. Chr. in der Zeit der Bedrohung durch die antike Großmacht Assyrien.
Er verkündete Juda, Israel und Assur Gottes Gericht, aber auch eine endzeitliche Wende zu universalem Frieden, Gerechtigkeit und Heil. Als erster Prophet Israels verhieß er den Israeliten einen zukünftigen Messias als gerechten Richter und Retter der Armen (vgl. Jesaja-Apokalypse).
Das gleichnamige biblische Buch wurde im Mittelalter in 66 Kapitel unterteilt. Davon weist historisch-kritische Bibelforschung die ersten 39 Kapitel dem Propheten Jesaja zu, Kapitel 40 bis 55 führt sie auf einen spätexilischen Propheten zurück, den sie Deuterojesaja nennt, die restlichen Kapitel auf den nachexilischen Tritojesaja.

Isaias (Isaiah), Prophet (RM) Died c. 681 BC. Isaiah is the great poet and believer of the Old Testament, and one of the four major prophets of the Old Testament. He lived at a time when the people of Israel had settled in Canaan; David and Solomon had formed the Hebrew religion, the temple had been built and Josiah had just ended a long and useful reign.
In 740 BC, the year of Josiah's death, Isaiah had a vision of the Lord sitting on a throne surrounded by seraphim.
Each had six wings: "And one cried to another, and said, 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory"--words which today form part of the Mass.
The God of Isaiah was a God of Holiness, and the beginnings of his vocation were marked by majesty, piety, and grandeur.

Tradition tells us that Isaiah was sawn in two by order of King Manassas of Judah, and buried under an oak tree.
His tomb was still venerated in the 5th century AD (Benedictines)
.
St. Noyala Virgin martyr. A much revered martyr in Brittany said to have crossed to Brittany on the leaf of a tree, accompanied by her nurse.
She was originally from Britain and was beheaded at Beignan, Brittany Noyala walked from the site of her martyrdom to Pontivy, holding her head in her hands.One rather striking instance of miraculous crossing is that of St Noyala, who is said to have crossed to Brittany on the leaf of a tree, accompanied by her nurse.
A chapel at Pontivy is dedicated to her, and was remarkable in the eighteenth century for several interesting paintings on a gold ground depicting this legend
.
90 St Romulus, Bishop Of Fiesole, Martyr a Roman convert of St Peter
Fæsulis, in Túscia, sancti Romuli, Epíscopi et Mártyris, qui fuit beáti Petri Apóstoli discípulus.  Hic, ab eódem Apóstolo missus ad prædicándum Evangélium, in multis Itáliæ locis Christum annuntiávit; ac tandem, Fæsulas regréssus, ibi, sub Domitiáno Príncipe, martyrio coronátus est cum áliis Sóciis.
    At Fiesole in Tuscany, St. Romulus, bishop and martyr, disciple of the blessed apostle Peter, who commissioned him to preach the Gospel.  After announcing Christ in many parts of Italy, he returned to Fiesole, and was crowned with martyrdom along with other Christians in the reign of Domitian.
Acording to a late tradition, the apostle and first bishop of Fiesole was Romulus, a Roman convert of St Peter, who was martyred under Domitian. Nothing is known of him historically, and his name was added to the Roman Martyrology only in the sixteenth century.

St Romulus is the hero of a rather tiresome romance, of uncertain provenance, but seemingly a work of fiction of not earlier than the eleventh century. In this we are told that a certain citizen of Rome had a daughter named Lucerna who gave her affections and herself to one of her father's slaves, Cyrus. By him a son was born to her, whom she abandoned in a wood, where the baby was adopted and suckled by a wolf. The unnatural sight, was seen by some verderers of the Emperor Nero, who reported it to him and were ordered to capture the child. For three days the hunt pursued the couple without catching them, whereupon the emperor consulted St Peter. Peter provided himself and some fellow Christians with fishing nets and went into the wood, where they were confronted by the child and his foster-mother. Peter adjured the boy, " If you are born of a wolf, go hence; but if of a human woman, come to me". The quarry did not stir, the Christians shot their nets, and the two were caught and safely shut up. To eat they gave them a sheep, which the wolf straightway killed and both fed on its raw flesh. Thereupon St Peter ordered the wolf to be liberated and driven off, and the child was baptized; at the suggestion of Peter's companion Justin it was, with a nice appropriateness, given the name of Romulus. He was civilized and educated first by a noble Roman lady and then by the same justin, and at eight years of age this prodigy was preaching, exorcizing and working miracles. Romulus was later consecrated bishop, he evangelized at Fiesole, Sutri, Nepi, Florence, Pistoia, etc., and after sundry adventures and doing of marvels he was ordered to be put to death by the governor Repertian. On the way to execution Romulus begged a drink of water from a girl at a wayside spring; she, for fear of the soldiers, refused, and the martyr rebuked her and ordained that for the future the spring should still run fresh water for Christians, but to every heathen man drinking of it should be turned to blood. With St Romulus were executed Carissimus, Dulcissimus and Crescentius.
It is a curious fact that despite the wild extravagance of the above legend, there is evidence of the historical existence and early cultus of a St Romulus at Fiesole. The story has been critically studied by A. Cocchi, San Romolo, vescovo di Fiesole; Storia e Leggende (1905). The one element of historical interest is a fragmentary epitaph said to be of the end of the fourth century. But cf. M. C. Cipolla in Rivista storico-critica delle scienze teologiche, vol. i, pp. 422-428
90 St. Romulus and Companions
A group of martyrs put to death by Emperor Domitian. According to tradition, Romulus was named by St. Peter to be bishop of the community of Christians at Fiesole, Italy. He was the subject of many legends during the Middle Ages.
Romulus of Fiesole BM and Companions (RM). According to tradition, Romulus was a Roman converted by Saint Peter who became the first bishop of Fiesole, Italy, and suffered martyrdom there with Carissimus, Dulcissimus, and Crescentius during the reign of Emperor Domitian.
A worthless 11th-century fiction has him the illegitimate son of Lucerna and her father's slave Cyrus. Romulus was abandoned, suckled by a wolf, and captured by Saint Peter when Emperor Nero was unable to do so. Romulus later performed all kinds of extravagant miracles after being instructed by Peter's companion Justin. After evangelizing much of central Italy, Romulus was put to death by the governor, Repertian (Benedictines, Delaney).
In art, Saint Romulus is portrayed as a bishop with an arrow broken above his breast.
He may also be shown at their martyrdom or enthroned among four martyrs (Roeder).
268-270 The Holy Martyrs Marinus, Martha, Audifax, Habakkuk, Cyrenus, Valentinus the Presbyter, Asterius, and many others with them at Rome.
During the reign of the emperor Claudius II (268-270), St Marinus together with his wife Martha and their sons Audifax and Habakkuk journeyed from Persia to Rome, to pray at the graves of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul. During this time fierce persecutions and executions befell the Roman Church. St Marinus and his wife and sons helped Christians locked up in the prisons, and also to request the bodies of executed martyrs. At one of these jails they met a prisoner named Cyrenus and they helped him, since he had endured many torments for faith in Christ.

The persecution spread, and even more Christians were arrested. During this time 260 Christians, among whom was the tribune Vlastus, had been sent under the court sentence to dig ground along the Salerian Way, and were executed by archers. When they learned about this vicious murder, Marinus, his family, and the presbyter John went by night and took the bodies of the martyrs to be buried in the catacombs. They returned later to the prison where St Cyrenus was incarcerated, but did not find him. He had been executed the day before and his body was thrown into the Tiber River. Doing their holy duty, Sts Marinus and Martha and their sons took the body of the holy martyr from the river and committed it to the earth.
The holy workers were among Christians, who continued secretly to perform the divine services under the leadership of the holy Bishop Callistus, and hid them from their pursuers.

In consummation of their great charitable deeds the holy family was deemed worthy to glorify the Lord by martyrdom. The pagans beheaded the courageous confessor Valentinus the Presbyter, and the imperial gardener Asterius who had been converted by him, and the holy ascetics from Persia were arrested and given over to torture. By order of the emperor, Sts Marinus, Audifax and Habakkuk were beheaded in the year 269, and St Martha was drowned in a river.
The relics of the holy saints are in Rome at the Church of St John the Hut-Dweller, a
nd the relics of St Valentinus are in the Church of the holy Martyr Paraskeva.
283-284 The Holy Martyrs Isaurius the Deacon, Innocent, Felix, Hermias, Basil, Peregrinus were Athenians, suffering for Christ in the Macedonian city of Apollonia & two city officials, Rufus and Ruphinus
under the emperor Numerian (283-284). Beheaded with them for believing in Christ were two city officials, Rufus and Ruphinus.

288 St. Tranquillinus Roman martyr. He is affiliated with the legends surrounding St. Sebastian.
Romæ natális sancti Tranquillíni Mártyris, patris sanctórum Marci et Marcelliáni, qui, ad prædicatiónem sancti Sebastiáni Mártyris convérsus ad Christum, a beáto Polycárpo Presbytero baptizátus est, et a sancto Cajo Papa Présbyter ordinátus.  Ipse, die Octavárum Apostolórum, cum ad confessiónem beáti Pauli oráret, ibídem, sub Diocletiáno Imperatóre, a Pagánis tentus est, et, ab eis lapidátus, martyrium consummávit.
    At Rome, the birthday of St. Tranquillinus, martyr, father of Saints Mark and Marcellianus, who had been converted to Christ by the preaching of the martyr St. Sebastian.  Baptized by the blessed priest Polycarp, he was ordained priest by Pope St. Caius.  As he prayed at the tomb of blessed Paul on the octave of the apostles, he was arrested and stoned to death by the pagans, and thus completed his martyrdom.
Tranquillinus of Rome M (RM). The Roman Saint Tranquillinus is connected with the legend of Saint Sebastian (Benedictines).

300 Holy Martyrs Lucy (Lucia) the Virgin, Rexius, Antoninus, Lucian, Isidore, Dion, Diodorus, Cutonius, Arnosus, Capicus and Satyrus: twenty-four martyrs suffered with Sts Lucy and Rexius
Eódem die sanctæ Lúciæ Mártyris, quæ, natióne Campána, a Ríxio Varo Vicário tenta et ácriter cruciáta, eúndem convértit ad Christum; quibus adjúncti sunt Antonínus, Severínus, Diodórus, Dion, et álii decem et septem, qui in passióne collégæ et in coróna fuére consórtes.
    The same day, St. Lucia, martyr, a native of Campania.  Being arrested and severely tortured by the lieutenant-governor Rictiovarus, she converted him to Christ.  To them were added Antoninus, Severinus, Diodorus, Dion, and seventeen others who shared their sufferings and their crowns.
    St Lucy, a native of the Italian district of Campania, from the time of her youth dedicated herself to God and lived in an austere and chaste manner. While still quite young, she was taken captive and carried off into a foreign land by Rexius, who had the title of Vicarius (a substitute for a dead or absent provincial governor). Rexius at first tried to compel St Lucy to sacrifice to idols but, she remained firm in her faith and was ready to accept torture for the sake of Christ. Rexius was inspired with profound respect for her and even permitted her and her servants the use of a separate house, where they lived in solitude, spending their time in unceasing prayer. Whenever he left to go on military campaigns, Rexius reverently asked for St Lucy's prayers, and he returned victorious.
    After 20 years St Lucy, having learned that the emperor Diocletian had begun a persecution against Christians, entreated Rexius to send her back to Italy. She wanted to glorify the Lord together with her fellow countrymen. Rexius, under the influence of St Lucy, had already accepted Christianity by this time, and even longed for martyrdom. Leaving behind his retinue and family, he went to Rome with St Lucy. The Roman prefect Aelius sentenced them to be beheaded with a sword. After them the holy martyrs Antoninus, Lucian, Isidore, Dion, Diodorus, Cutonis, Arnosus, Capicus and Satyrus were also beheaded. In all, twenty-four martyrs suffered with Sts Lucy and Rexius.
This St Lucy should not be confused with the Virgin Martyr Lucy of Syracuse (December 13).
Martyrdom of the Seven Ascetic Saints in Tounar Mount.
On this day, the seven ascetic saints in Tounar Mount (Tona), were martyred. These were:
Basadi, Cotolus, Ardama, Moses, Esey, Parkalas (Mikalas), and a monk called Cotolus.
   The angel of the Lord had appeared to Sts. Basadi and Cotolus and commanded them to confess the name of the Lord Christ. They rose up straightway to go to the governor. They met the five saints embarking a ship going to the governor to also confess the Lord Christ. They all agreed together on receiving the crown of martyrdom. They went to the governor and confessed the Lord Christ. He tortured them excessively, then hung stones from their necks, and shut them up in prison. The Lord appeared to them, comforted, strengthened, and promised them the kingdom.
   The governor then sent them to Alexandria, where they were tortured severely. He threw them into cauldrons full of sulphur and pitch, and lighted a great fire under them, then he took them out and threw them away.
   The Lord sent His angel who healed them. They came back to the governor and confessed the Lord Christ before him. One hundred thirty persons witnessed that. They confessed the Lord Christ, were martyred, and they received the crown of martyrdom. The Governor intensified the torture on the seven saints, and finally cut off their heads with the sword, and they received the crown of martyrdom.  May their intercession be with us. Amen
.
Martyrdom of Sts. Abba Hour and his Mother Theodora.
On this day also, Sts. Abba Hour and his mother Theodora, were martyred. Abba Hour was a soldier in the army of Antioch. He came to Alexandria, and confessed the Lord Christ before its governor. He commanded that Abba Hour's hands be cut off, that he be tied to the tail of an ox and dragged through the city. Then he was thrown into a pit filled with snakes which did not harm him. During all that torture, he cried out to the Lord Christ, who healed and strengthened him. His mother came to see him and she rejoiced in his strife.
They told the governor about her, and he had her brought to him. He asked her to sacrifice to the idols but when she refused he became enraged at her, and frightened her but she was not afraid of his raging. He commanded to put red-hot iron rods in her sides. When they did so she rejoiced and sang hymns to venerate the Lord for He made her worthy to suffer for His Holy Name. Later on she delivered up her soul and received the crown of martyrdom.
As for St. Abba Hour (Hor), they placed him in a cauldron of boiling oil and tar, and he praised God until he delivered up his soul and received the crown of martyrdom. His brother Abba Bishai (Pishai) was martyred on the 1st day of Nasi (Intercalary days).  May their prayers be with us and Glory be to God forever. Amen
.
303 St Dominica, Virgin And Martyr
In Campánia sanctæ Domínicæ, Vírginis et Mártyris, quæ, sub Diocletiáno Imperatóre, cum fregísset idóla, hinc ad béstias damnáta, sed ab illis nil læsa, demum, cápite obtruncáta, migrávit ad Dóminum.  Ipsíus vero corpus Tropéæ, in Calábria, summa veneratióne asservátur.
    In Campania, St. Dominica, virgin and martyr, in the time of Emperor Diocletian.  For having destroyed idols, she was condemned to the beasts, but being left uninjured by them, she was beheaded and departed for heaven.  Her body is kept with great veneration at Tropea in Calabria. 
This is the best known of several saints of the name, but her existence, so far as the Western legend is concerned, is more than doubtful. Baronius inserted her name in the Roman Martyrology with this notice: "In Campania, of the holy Dominica, virgin and martyr, who was a breaker of idols under the Emperor Diocletian and was therefore condemned to the beasts; but being not at all hurt by them she was at last beheaded and passed to the Lord. Her body is preserved with great honour at Tropea in Calabria." The lessons of her office tell us further that she was born in the Campagna, suffered on the banks of the Euphrates, and that her body was carried by angels to Tropea. But in that city it is said that she was born, lived and died there-whereas actually she seems to have been unheard of there before the sixteenth century. It is possible that she must be identified with St Cyriaca (Kvp'aK7} = Dominica), a virgin martyr whom the Byzantines venerate on July 7; her acts are worthless, but they state that she suffered by beheading at Nicomedia in Bithynia. What started her cultus at Tropea, or whether there is a confusion of two Dominicas, is not known.
See the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. ii. What little can be said in defence of the legend will be found in a booklet of Mgr Taccone-Gallucci, Memoria storica di Santa Domenico (1893).
300 St. Dominica Martyr in Campania, Italy, during the reign of co-Emperor Diocletian . She is venerated in the East as having been martyred in Nicomedia. After wild beasts refused to harm her, she was beheaded .
429 St Sisoes After death of St Antony, St Sisoes was one of the most shining lights of the Egyptian deserts; Egyptian by birth; quit the world in his youth he retired to the desert of Skete.
After the death of St Antony, St Sisoes was one of the most shining lights of the Egyptian deserts. He was an Egyptian by birth, and having quitted the world inhis youth he retired to the desert of Skete. The desire of finding a more unfrequented retreat induced him to cross the Nile and hide himself in the mountain where St Antony died. The memory of that great man's virtues wonderfully supported his fervour and encouraged him to persevere. He imagined he saw him and heard the instructions he was wont to deliver to his disciples. He strained every nerve to imitate his most heroic exercises: the austerity of his penance, the rigour of his silence, the ardour of his prayer, so that the reputation of Sisoes spread among the neighbouring solitaries, and some came a great distance to be guided in the ways of perfection, and he was forced to submit his love of silence and retreat to the greater duty of charity.

Saint Sisoes, Schemamonk of the Kiev Caves (XIII), is commemorated in the general service of the Monastic Fathers of Kiev Caves whose relics rest in the Far Caves. He is mentioned together with St Gregory the Faster: "Sisoes the wondrous and Gregory, a name courageous, having by fasting both restrained their passions, humble the fierce lust of our flesh: for unto you is given the grace to help us in our passions" (5th Ode of the Canon).

His zeal against vice was without bitterness; and when his disciples fell into faults he did not affect astonishment or the language of reproach, but helped them to rise again with patience and tenderness. Sisoes in all his advice and instruction held out humility constantly as a most necessary virtue. A recluse saying to him one day, " Father, I always place myself in the presence of God ", he replied. "It would be much better for you to put yourself below every creature, in order to be securely humble." Thus, while he never lost sight of the divine presence, it was ever accompanied with the consciousness of his own worthlessness. To another who complained that he had not yet arrived at the perfection of St Antony, he said, " Ah! if I had but one only of that man's feelings, I should be one flame of divine ?love". On a visit of three solitaries wanting instruction, one of them said, " Father, what shall I do to avoid hell-fire?" Sisoes made no reply. " How shall I ", asked another, "escape the gnashing of teeth and the worm that dieth not? " " What will become of me ? " asked the third, " for every time I think of outer darkness I am ready to die with fear." Then the saint answered: "I confess that these are subjects which I never think about, and as I know that God is merciful, I trust He will have compassion on me. You are happy", he added, " and I envy your virtue. You speak of the torments of Hell, and your fears must be strong guards against sin. It is I should exclaim, What shall become of me? for I am so insensible as never even to reflect on the place of torment. This perhaps is the reason I am guilty of so much sin." He said another time: "I am now thirty years praying daily that my Lord Jesus may preserve me from saying an idle word, and yet I am always relapsing."

Being at length worn out with sickness and old age, Sisoes yielded to his disciple Abraham's advice, and went to reside a while at Clysma, a town near the Red Sea. Here he received a visit from Ammon, abbot of Raithu, who, seeing him miserable at being absent from his retreat, tried to comfort him by pointing out that his present state of health wanted the remedies which could not be had in the desert. "What do you say?" replied the saint. "Was not the ease of mind I enjoyed there everything for my comfort?" and he was not at ease till he returned to his retreat.

The solitaries assisting at his death-bed heard him cry out, "Behold! Abbot Antony, the choir of prophets, and the angels are come to take my soul!" At the same time his countenance shone, and being some time interiorly recollected with God, he cried out anew, "Behold! our Lord comes for me!" And so he died, about the year 429, after a retreat of at least sixty-two years in St Antony's Mount. His feast is observed in the Byzantine calendar.

This saint must not be confused with another SISOES, surnamed the Theban, who lived in the same age at Calamon, in the territory of Arsinoe. It is related of him that a certain recluse, having received some offence, went to tell him that he must be avenged. The holy old man recommended him to leave his revenge to God, to pardon his brother, and forget the injury. But seeing that his advice had no weight, "At least", said he, "let us both join in speaking to God". Then, standing up, he prayed thus aloud: "0 Lord, we no longer want your care of our interests or your protection, since this monk maintains that we can and ought to be our own avengers."
What we know of St Sisoes comes to us mainly through the Apophthegmata Patrum, a collection of utterances of the fathers of the desert, to which of late years much attention has been devoted. See particularly W. Bousset, Apophthegmata; Studien zur Geschichte des ältesten Mônchtums (1923), with the review of this in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xlii (1924), pp. 430-435; Wilmart in Revue Bénédictine, vol. xxxiv (1922), pp. 185-198. The Greek text is in Migne, PG., vol. lxv, cc. 71-440. The Latin, differently arranged, is in Migne, PL., vol. lxxiii, cc. 855-1022 .

Saint Sisoes the Great a solitary monk, pursuing asceticism in the Egyptian desert in a cave sanctified by the prayerful labors of his predecessor, St Anthony the Great (January 17).
For his sixty years of labor in the desert, St Sisoes attained to sublime spiritual purity and he was granted the gift of wonderworking, so that by his prayers he once restored a dead child back to life.
Extremely strict with himself, Abba Sisoes was very merciful and compassionate to others, and he received everyone with love. To those who visited him, the saint first of all always taught humility. When one of the monks asked how he might attain to a constant remembrance of God, St Sisoes remarked, "That is no great thing, my son, but it is a great thing to regard yourself as inferior to everyone else. This leads to the acquisition of humility." Asked by the monks whether one year is sufficient for repentance if a brother sins, Abba Sisoes said, "I trust in the mercy of God that if such a man repents with all his heart, then God will accept his repentance in three days."
When St Sisoes lay upon his deathbed, the disciples surrounding the Elder saw that his face shone like the sun.

They asked the dying man what he saw. Abba Sisoes replied that he saw St Anthony, the prophets, and the apostles. His face increased in brightness, and he spoke with someone. The monks asked, "With whom are you speaking, Father?" He said that angels had come for his soul, and he was entreating them to give him a little more time for repentance. The monks said, "You have no need for repentance, Father" St Sisoes said with great humility, "I do not think that I have even begun to repent."
After these words the face of the holy abba shone so brightly that the brethren were not able to look upon him. St Sisoes told them that he saw the Lord Himself.
Then there was a flash like lightning, and a fragrant odor, and Abba Sisoes departed to the Heavenly Kingdom.
518 St. Monennaa Irish abbess also called Darerca. resided at Sliabh Cuillin in Ireland noted for her austerities.
ST MODWENNA, VIRGIN  (SEVENTH CENTURY?)

THE St Modwenna, or Monenna, formerly venerated at Burton-on-Trent and elsewhere, may have lived in the middle of the seventh century and been a recluse on an islet called Andresey in the Trent.
       But not only are other and conflicting things alleged of her, but her legend has been conflated with that of the Irish St Darerca, or Moninne, said to have been the first abbess of Killeavy, near Newry, and to have died in 517; and she has perhaps been confused with others as well. Capgrave and others speak of St Modwenna as having charge of St Edith of Polesworth, which were it true would throw no useful light on either saint.
       The most valuable information we possess about St Moninne seems to be the entry in the Félire of Oengus:  "Moninne of the mountain of Cuilenn was a fair pillar; she gained a triumph, a hostage of purity, a kinswoman of great Mary ", with the gloss.

It would seem hopeless to unravel the tangle.  Baring-Gould and Fisher (LBS., vol. iii, pp. 490-497, and cf. i, pp. 286-287) only seem to make confusion worse confounded.  Two Latin lives are printed in the Acta Sanctorun, under July 6-the one is anonymous, from the Codex Salmanticensis, the other attributed to Conchubranus. The latter has been again edited by M. Esposito in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxxviii (1910), pp. 202-251.  There is a later vita in manuscript by Geoffrey of Burton. For those who can read Anglo-Norman texts "le romanz de la vie seinte Modwenne noneyne", ed. A. T. Baker and A. Bell (St Modwenna; 1947), will be of interest.  See also KSS., pp. 404-407; and for Moninne, J. Ryan, Irish Monasticism (1931), p. 136 .
St. Modwenna The St. Modwenna, or Monenna, formally venerated at Burton-on-Trent and elsewhere, may have lived in the middle of the seventh century and been a recluse on an islet called Andresey in the Trent. But not only are other and conflicting things alleged of her, but her legend has been confused with that of the Irish saint Darerca, or Moninne, said to have been the first abbess of Killeavy, near Nerwy and to have died in 517; and she has perhaps been confused with others as well. Capgrave and others speak of St. Modwenna as having charge of St. Edith of Polesworth, which were it true would throw no useful light on either saint. The most valuable information we possess about St. Moninne seems to be the entry in the Felire of Oengus: "Moninne of the mountain of Cuilenn was a fair pillar; she gained a triumph, a hostage of purity, a kinswoman of great Mary", with the gloss.
St. Merryn hermitess on the island of Andresey in the Trent River in England
Modwenna is believed to have been a hermitess on the island of Andresey in the Trent River in England and also known as Monenna. The facts of her life are hopelessly confused with those of other saints, among them, the Irish Darerea (also known as Moninna and is said to be the first Abbess of Killeavy, who died about 517), Modwenna (St. Hilda's successor as Abbess of Whitby, who died about 695), and Modwenna (Abbess of Polesworth, Warwickshire, who died about 900). The name is also spelled Moninne and Merryn
.
575 St. Goar Priest of Aquitaine, France, honored by Charlemagne. A parish priest, Goar became a hermit at Oberwesel, Germany, on the Rhine River.
In pago Trevirénsi sancti Góaris, Presbyteri et Confessóris.    In the vicinity of Treves, St. Goar, priest and confessor.
The local bishop, Rusticus of Trier, accused him falsely of sorcery, but Goar was cleared of the charge by King Sigebert I of Austrasia in Metz. Rusticus was deposed because of this attack and because he lived luxuriously. Goar was offered Rusticus’ see but returned to his hermitage. Emperor Charlemagne later erected a church over St. Goar’s former hermitage.

He heard the call of solitude and eventually settled down on the banks of the Rhine near the small town of Oberwesel. Here he lived for years in quietness till it happened to him as it has happened to so many other solitaries-he was" discovered" and people came to consult him. The peasants of the neighbourhood were particularly fond of him: they listened to his preaching, wondered at his way of life, marvelled at his holiness and patience, and then went away and attributed all sorts of miracles to him. Probably no notice would have been taken had he not been a priest, but some busybody reported his irregular ministry to the bishop of Trier, and evil-disposed persons added the information that the holy hermit was a humbug, who over-ate himself, got drunk, and deceived the people. The bishop, Rusticus, thereupon sent for Gear, who obediently came and was accused not only of hypocrisy but of sorcery and other crimes. How he cleared himself is not known: according to the legend God Himself interfered and caused a three-day-old child not only to vindicate the hermit but also to convict the bishop of most irregular living. There was at once an outcry, and Sigebert I, King of Austrasia, hearing what had happened, sent for St Goar to come to him at Metz. The hermit's modesty and innocence greatly impressed the king, and having deposed the unworthy Rusticus, he wished to put him in his place. But the idea of being a bishop so upset Goar that he was taken ill; he asked for time to think it over, and went back to his cell, where death overtook him before the king succeeded in getting his acceptance. His home became a place of pilgrimage, and is now marked by a small town which bears his name and has a church dedicated in his honour.
The curious legend of St Goar, in the form in which we have it, is probably older than 768, but it cannot be regarded as a historical document. There can have been no Rusticus, bishop of Trier, in the time of Childebert and Sigebert I. The primitive text, in very barbarous Latin, has been critically edited by B. Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. iv, pp. 402-423; a more readable recension is in the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. ii, See also J. Depoin, La legende de S. Goar in the Revue des Etudes historiques, vol. lxxv (1909), pp. 369-385 .
699 St Sexburga, Abbess Of Ely, Widow daughter of Anna, King of the East Angles; sister of SS. Etheldreda, Ethelburga and Withburga, and half-sister of St Sethrida
She was given in marriage to Erconbert, King of Kent, a prince of excellent dispositions which she contributed for twenty-four years to improve by her counsels and example. Her virtue commanded the reverence, and her humility and devotion raised the admiration, of her subjects; and her goodness and charity gained her the love of all. She became the mother of two princes and of two saints, Ercongota and Ermenilda. Because she had a longing to consecrate herself wholly to God in religious retirement, and that others might attend divine service without impediment, she began in her husband's lifetime to found a monastery at Minster in the isle of Sheppey, which she finished after his death in 664. Here she assembled seventy-four nuns, and herself joined them. After some years she appointed her daughter Ermenilda to rule the house, and, being desirous to live in greater obscurity and to be more at liberty to employ all her thoughts on Heaven, she left Kent and went to the abbey of Ely, where she was chosen to succeed her sister St Etheldreda in the government of that house. Sixteen years after she caused the body of that saint to be taken up, when it was found incorrupt, and was enshrined in a white marble coffin found at Cambridge. Sexburga herself passed to bliss in a good old age, on July 6, at the end of the seventh century. Her monastery of Minsterin-Sheppey was destroyed by the Danes, but rebuilt in 1130, and consecrated in honour of our Lady and St Sexburga, continuing to be occupied by Benedictine nuns until the dissolution.   She was also honoured in Sweden.
See Bede's Ecclesiastical History, bk iii, cap. 8 and iv, 19.  A Latin life of Sexburga described by Hardy, Catalogue of British History (vol. i, pp. 361-362), seems to be of no historical value apart from its quotation from Bede.  There is some mention of Sexburga in certain Anglo-Saxon fragments printed by Cockayne in vol. iii of his Leechdoms.  See also the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. ii, and Stanton's Menology, p. 313.
1070 St  Godeleva, Martyr The scene of the murder of Godeleva soon had a reputation for miracles
According to the narrative written by a contemporary priest, Drogo, the story of Godeleva is an example of that wanton persecution and cruelty shown towards an innocent victim which is as shocking to reasonable, not to say Christian, human beings as it is unexplainable; no adequate motive is given or even suggested for the behaviour of the offender at first, though afterwards his desire to get rid of his wife is clear enough.
Godeleva was born at Londefort-lez-Boulogne about 1049, of noble parentage. She grew up beautiful both in person and character, and was particularly beloved by the poor, to whose welfare she constantly devoted herself. At age eighteen she married a Flemish lord, Bertulf of Ghistelles, who conducted his bride home, where she was received with insults by his mother; apparently she had had other plans for her son, and was furious that he had disregarded them in favour of this girl from the Boulonnais.
Bertulf, the days of the wedding festivities yet unfinished, deserted Godeleva, leaving her in charge of his mother, who was not content with petty persecutions, but treated her who should have been mistress of the house with fanatic brutality. She at length contrived to escape and returned to her parents, who took the case to the count of Flanders and the bishop of Tournai. It was ruled that Bertulf should receive back his wite, and henceforward treat her properly, which he promised to do.
   But once she was back at Ghistelles, Bertulf was first indifferent and then again openly violent to her, and to get rid of her he resolved on more direct action. First of all he shammed penitence and a desire for reconciliation, with the object both of averting suspicion from himself and to enable him the more easily to entrap the girl.   Then at the appointed time Godeleva was induced by a trick to go out of the castle by a back-door at night; she was seized by two of Bertulf's servants and smothered by having her head held down in a pond, with a thong drawn tight round her neck.   When she was dead, the ruffians replaced her body in bed, meaning it to be supposed she had died a natural death.  It was obvious that she had not, but Bertulf had absented himself in Bruges at the time of the crime and Godeleva's parents were unable to bring it home to him. He at once married again, but his wickedness haunted him, and he ended his days in a monastery at Bergues- St-Winoc.
   The scene of the murder of Godeleva soon had a reputation for miracles, and the sudden recovery of sight by Bertulf's blind daughter by his second wife was attributed to her intercession.   In 1084 her body was dug up and enshrined in the church, which is still a place of pilgrimage, the people drinking the water of her well and appropriately invoking her intercession against sore throats.
    It is difficult to see why (except in popular estimation) Godeleva is venerated as a martyr: she did not endure death for any article of the faith or for the preservation of any Christian virtue or for any other act of virtue relating to God-unless indeed her supernatural patience finally provoked her husband to his wicked violence.
The Bollandists in the Acts Sanctorum (July, vol. ii) have treated St Godeleva at great length, printing not only the life by Drogo, but also another, more diffuse, narrative of her history. A copy of the formal verification of the saint's relics made when they were elevated in 1084, shortly after her death, has been preserved, and its authenticity has been established by the tattered fragments of a later deed which recites it.  This was found when the shrine was examined in 1907.  See the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xliv (1926), pp. 102-137, for an earlier text of the Drogo vita, ed. by Father Coens, and vol. lxii (1944), pp. 292-295; and also the charming little book of M. English, Les quatre couronnes de Ste Godelieve de Gistel (1953) .
1433 Johannes Hus Evangelische Kirche: 6. Juli 1990 bedauerte Papst Johannes Paul II. den grausamen Tod von Johannes Hus.
Hus wurde um 1370 in Tschechien geboren. Er war ein Anhänger Wyclifs und predigte unerschrocken das Evangelium. Er fand breite Unterstützung in der Bevölkerung und bei König Wenzel. Dadurch verbanden sich das Streben nach einer Reform der Kirche mit dem starken tschechischen Nationalbewußtsein. Als der Papst durch einen großen Ablaß Geld für einen Kriegszug des Vatikans einholen wollte, erhob Hus seine Stimme gegen den Ablaß. In seiner Schrift 'De ecclesia' kündigte er der Kirche den Gehorsam. Der Papst verhängte den Bann über ihn, aber er fand weiter breite Unterstützung in der Bevölkerung und übte deshalb sein Amt an der Bethlehemskirche in Prag auch nach der Verhängung des Bannes aus. Erst als der Bann über die ganze Stadt ausgesprochen wurde, verließ Hus Prag und zog sich nach Südböhmen zurück. Hier übersetzte er die Bibel in die Volkssprache. Seine Anhänger feierten indessen das Abendmahl in beiderlei Gestalt. Der deutsche König Siegmund, designierter Erbe Böhmens, wollte die Parteien versöhnen. Er drang deshalb in Hus, zum Konstanzer Konzil zu reisen und sicherte ihm sicheres Geleit zu. Hus wurde dort sofort verhaftet. Als Siegmund seine Freilassung forderte, drohten die Konzilsteilnehmer mit der Abreise. Der König gab nach, um das Konzil zu retten. Hus weigerte sich zu widerrufen und wurde daraufhin am 6.7.1415 verbrannt. 1420 begannen die Anhänger von Hus die Hussitenkriege. 1433 konnten sie auf dem Konzil von Basel einen Teilerfolg erringen: ihnen wurde die Komminikation in beiderlei Gestalt zugestanden. Nach dem Beginn der Reformation wechselten einige Hussiten zu den Lutheranern, andere bildeten die Böhmische Brüderkirche, die später in der Herrnhuter Gemeine aufging. 1990 bedauerte Papst Johannes Paul II. den grausamen Tod von Johannes Hus
.
1535 Thomas More mit Kardinal John Fisher
Londíni, in Anglia, sancti Thomæ More, regni Cancellárii, qui, pro fide cathólica ac beáti Petri primátu, jubénte Henríco Octávo Rege, decollátus est.
    At London in England, on Tower Hill, St. Thomas More, chancellor of the entire realm, who was beheaded by order of King Henry VIII for the defence of the Catholic faith and the primacy of blessed Peter.
Katholische Kirche: 22. Juni Anglikanische Kirche: 6. Juli
Thomas More (oder latinisiert Morus) wurde am 7.2.1478 in London geboren. Er studierte in Oxford zunächst Geisteswissenschaften, dann Rechtswisenschaften. Er wurde ein angesehner Jurist und bekannter Humanist. Er war verheiratet und lebte mit seiner Ehefrau und vier Kindern in Chelsea. 1504 wurde er in das Parlameent gewählt. Nachdm er sich wegen seines Freimuts das Mißfallen des Königs Heinrich VII. zugezogen hatte, zog er sich aus dem öffentlichen Leben zurück. Est nach dem Tod des Königs nahm er wieder öffentliche Äter wahr. Heinrich VIII. adelte ihn 1514 und ernannte ihn 1529 zum Lordkanzler. Nachdem More den König nicht von seinen kirchenfeindlichen Tendenzen abbringen konnte, legte er 1532 sein Amt nieder und zog sich zurück. Der König und Anna Boleyn versuchten seitdem, ihn zu beseitigen. Als More sich 1534 weigerte, den Suprematseid zu leisten, wurde er verhaftet und in einem Schauprozess wegen Hochverrats zum Tode verurteilt. More wurde am 6.7.1535 enthauptet. Die römisch-katholische Kirche begeht sein Gedächtnis gemeinsam mit Kardinal John Fisher am 22. Juni
.
1585 Bl. Thomas Alfield English martyr native of Gloucester educated at Eton and Cambridge; raised as an Anglican converted to Catholicism and left England to study for the priesthood at Douai and Reims, France, receiving ordination in 1581
Returning to England, he was soon arrested while handing out copies of the polemic True and Modest Defence by Dr. Allen. Condemned, he was hanged at Tybum. Thomas was beatified in 1929.
THOMAS ALFIELD (his name is variously spelt) was born in Gloucester and educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge.
    He was brought up a Protestant, and on becoming a Catholic went to Douay in 1576 to study for the priesthood. He was  ordained at Rheims in 1581 and sent on the English mission, where he was associated with Bd Edmund Campion.  By spring of 1582 he was already in the  Tower of London, and here he endured torture without failing; later for a  short time he succumbed to temptation and outwardly conformed to the Established Church.  After his release he withdrew to Rheims, where he made amends,  and then came back to England.
In the early part of 1584 Alfield was concerned in a curious episode.
He was  employed by John Davys, the navigator who explored for the NorthWest Passage, to communicate an offer of his (Davys's) services to the court of Spain-a proposal  that may be assumed not to have been seriously meant.  Later in the year, with  the help of Thomas Webley, also of Gloucester, and a dyer by trade, Alfield was busy circulating copies of Dr Allen's True and modest Defence, written in answer to Execution of Justice, in which Burghley had sought to prove that Catholics were being proceeded against in England not for their religion but for treason. This soon landed him in the Tower again, and both he and Webley were tortured, with the object of making them disclose to whom they had distributed the book. They were both tried and condemned for this offence, and were hanged at Tyburn on July 6, 1585, after being offered their freedom if they would acknowledge the queen's ecclesiastical leadership. A reprieve had in fact been issued for Bd Thomas-it is not known why-but it arrived too late. A third man who had been corrcerned with them, one Crabbe, purchased his life by apostasy; Alfield's brother, Robert, also became a renegade.
Bd Thomas Alfield was beatified in 1929; the Venerable Thomas Webley's cause is still under consideration. See MMP., pp. 105-106; Burton and PolIen, LEM.; and Catholic Record Society's Publications, vol. v.
1599-1624 Virgin Juliana, Princess of Olshansk Uncovering of the Relics of; Many miracles have been worked by St Juliana, and she helps those who venerate her holy relics with piety and faith
St Juliana lived during the first quarter of the sixteenth century. Her father, Prince Yurii Dubrovitsky-Olshansky, was one of the benefactors of the Kiev Caves Lavra. The God-pleasing virgin died at the age of sixteen. Her body, which was buried at the Kiev Caves Lavra near the great church, was found incorrupt during the time of Archimandrite Elisha Pletenets (1599-1624).
The holy relics were in a fire at the great church in the year 1718, and were put into a reliquary and placed in the church of the Near Caves.
St Juliana appeared to Archimandrite Peter Moghila (afterwards Metropolitan of Kiev) in a dream, reproaching him for the carelessness and lack of respect shown to her relics. He ordered a new reliquary to be made, for which a suitable covering was made by pious nuns. On the reliquary was the inscription: "By the will of the Creator of heaven and earth Juliana, patroness and great intercessor to Heaven, rests here for all time. Here are the bones ... healing against all passions ... You adorn Paradise, Juliana, like a beautiful flower ..."
Many miracles have been worked by St Juliana, and she helps those who venerate her holy relics with piety and faith. She is also commemorated on October 10 with the seven saints of Volhynia
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1794 Blessed Mary Rose entered Benedictine convent of Caderousse 1762 French Revolution martyr, OSB M (AC)
Born at Sérignan (near Orange), in 1741; beatified in 1925. Baptized Susanne-Agatha de Loye, she took the name Mary Rose when she entered the Benedictine convent of Caderousse in 1762. At the outbreak of the French Revolution, she was expelled from the convent and, in May 1794, she was arrested and guillotined, the first of a band of 31 martyrs put to death at Orange (Benedictines).
Orange, 32 Blessed Martyrs of (AC) Died 1794; beatified in 1925. Thirty-two nuns were imprisoned during the French Revolution at Orange for several months before their execution by guillotine. They included one Benedictine, two Cistercians, 13 members of the Institute of Perpetual Adoration, and 16 Ursulines (Benedictines)
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1902 St. Maria Goretti Devotion to the young martyr grew, miracles were worked, and in less than half a century she was canonized
Neptúni, in Látio, sanctæ Maríæ Gorétti, piíssimæ adolescéntis, in defendénda virginitáte crudelíssime necátæ, quam Pius Papa Duodécimus sanctárum Mártyrum catálogo solémniter accénsuit.
    At Nettuno in Lazio, St. Maria Goretti, a most devout young girl, who was savagely murdered for the defence of  her virginity, and whom Pope Pius XII solemnly added to the catalogue of holy martyrs.
One of the largest crowds ever assembled for a canonization—250,000—symbolized the reaction of millions touched by the simple story of Maria Goretti.
Born in 1890, the daughter of a poor Italian tenant farmer, had no chance to go to school, never learned to read or write. When she made her First Communion not long before her death at age 12, she was one of the larger and somewhat backward members of the class.
On a hot afternoon in July, Maria was sitting at the top of the stairs of her house, mending a shirt. She was not quite 12 years old, but physically mature. A cart stopped outside, and a neighbor, Alessandro, 18 years old, ran up the stairs. He seized her and pulled her into a bedroom. She struggled and tried to call for help, gasping that she would be killed rather than submit. “No, God does not wish it. It is a sin. You would go to hell for it.” Alessandro began striking at her blindly with a long dagger.
She was taken to a hospital. Her last hours were marked by the usual simple compassion of the good—concern about where her mother would sleep, forgiveness of her murderer (she had been in fear of him, but did not say anything lest she cause trouble to his family) and her devout welcoming of Viaticum. She died about 24 hours after the attack.
Her murderer was sentenced to 30 years in prison. For a long time he was unrepentant and surly. One night he had a dream or vision of Maria, gathering flowers and offering them to him. His life changed. When he was released after 27 years, his first act was to go to beg the forgiveness of Maria’s mother.
Devotion to the young martyr grew, miracles were worked, and in less than half a century she was canonized. At her beatification in 1947, her mother (then 82), two sisters and a brother appeared with Pope Pius XII on the balcony of St. Peter’s. Three years later, at her canonization, a 66-year-old Alessandro Serenelli knelt among the quarter-million people and cried tears of joy.
Comment:  Maria may have had trouble with catechism, but she had no trouble with faith. God's will was holiness, decency, respect for one's body, absolute obedience, total trust. In a complex world, her faith was simple: It is a privilege to be loved by God, and to love him—at any cost. As the virtue of chastity dies the death of a thousand qualifications, she is a breath of sweet fresh air. Quote:  "Even if she had not been a martyr, she would still have been a saint, so holy was her everyday life" (Cardinal Salotti).
MARY GORETT! was born in 1890 at Corinaldo, a village some thirty miles from Ancona, the daughter of a farm-labourer, Luigi Goretti, and his wife Assunta Carlini. They had five other children, and in 1896 the family moved to Colle Gianturco, near Galiano, and later to Ferriere di Conca, not far from Nettuno in the Roman Campagna. Almost at once after settling down here, Luigi Goretti was stricken with malaria and died. His widow had to take up his work as best she could, but it was a hard struggle and every small coin and bit of food had to be looked at twice. Of all the children none was more cheerful and encouraging to her mother than Mary, commonly called Marietta .
On a hot afternoon in July 1902 Mary was sitting at the top of the stairs in the cottage, mending a shirt. She was not yet quite twelve years old, and it must be remembered that in Italy girls mature earlier than in more northern countries. Presently a cart stopped outside, and a neighbour, a young man of eighteen named Alexander, ran up the stairs. He beckoned Mary into an adjoining bedroom; but this sort of thing had happened before and she refused to go. Alexander seized hold of her, pulled her in, and shut the door.
Mary struggled and tried to call for help, but she was being half-strangled and could only protest hoarsely, gasping that she would be killed rather than submit. Whereupon Alexander half pulled her dress from her body and began striking at her blindly with a long dagger. She sank to the floor, crying out that she was being killed: Alexander plunged the dagger into her back, and ran away.
An ambulance fetched Mary to hospital, where it was seen at once that she could not possibly live. Her last hours were most touching-her concern for where her mother was going to sleep, her forgiveness of her murderer (and she now disclosed that she had long been going in fear of him, but did not like to say anything lest she cause trouble with his family), her childlike welcoming of the holy viaticum. Some twenty-four hours after the assault, Mary Goretti died. Her mother, the parish priest of Nettuno, a Spanish noblewoman and two nuns, had watched by her bed all night.
Alexander was sentenced to thirty years' penal servitude. For long he was surly, brutal and unrepentant. Then one night he had a dream or vision in which Mary Goretti appeared gathering flowers and offering them to him. From then on he was a changed man, and so exemplary a prisoner that at the end of 27 years he was released. His first act when free was to visit Mary's mother to beg her forgiveness.
Meanwhile the memory of his victim had become more and more revered.
The sweetness and strength of her life before her untimely end was recalled, people prayed for her intercession in Heaven, answers, even miracles, were attributed to that intercession, and in response to a widespread wish the cause of her beatification was introduced. On April 27, 1947, Mary Goretti was declared blessed by Pope Pius XII. When he afterwards appeared on the balcony of St Peter's he was accompanied by Mary's mother, Assunta Goretti, then eighty-two years old, together with two of Mary's sisters and a brother. Pilgrims came from all over Italy and the pope addressed them, presenting Bd Mary as a new St Agnes and calling down woe on the corrupters of chastity in press and theatre and cinema and fashion-studios "in our day", he said, "women have been thrown even into military service-with grave consequences."
Three years later the same pope canonized Mary Goretti, in the piazza of St Peter's,
before the biggest crowd ever assembled for a canonization. Her murderer was still alive.

A number of "popular" canonizations of early times notwithstanding, a violent and unjust death alone is not sufficient to constitute martyrdom. (The common idea that St Joan of Arc, for example, was a martyr is mistaken.) But St Mary Goretti was killed in defence of a Christian virtue, and so was every bit as much a martyr as if she had died for the Christian faith.  It was Cardinal Salotti's opinion that, "Even had she not been a martyr she would still have been a saint, so holy was her everyday life".
The case of Mary Goretti seems to be unique in hagiology, end at the time of the beatification her short and moving story was noticed in the newspaper press of the world, from the London Times downwards. Among the published accounts of her in English are those of Mother C. E. Maguire, Father J. Carr and Marie C. Buehrle. In L'art sacre, May-June 1951, p. 14, are printed some pictures illustrating the iconographical evolution of the saint. There is a good essay by Eric B. Strauss in Saints and Ourselves (1953)



THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 166

Have mercy on me, O Lady, have mercy on me: for my heart is prepared to seek out thy will.

And I will rest in the shelter of thine arms: for sweet to me is thy refreshment.

Thy hands have distilled the first myrrh: and thy fingers the unguents of graces.

And a fragment of pomegranate is thy throat: and thy breath is sweet as an amalgam of choice smelling herbs.

For thou art the mother of fair love and the anchor of hope:
the harbor of safety, indulgence or pardon, and the gate of salvation.

For it is not the dead, nor those in hell, who will praise thee, O Lady:

but those who by thy grace will obtain eternal life.

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

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost as it was in the beginning and will always be.

God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique, for each is the result of a new idea.  As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike. It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints. Dear Lord, grant us a spirit that is not bound by our own ideas and preferences.  Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves.
O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory. Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.  Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.   God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heavenonly saints are allowed into heaven. The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.
There are over 10,000 named saints beati  from history
 and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources

Patron_Saints.html  Widowed_Saints htmIndulgences The Catholic Church in China
LINKS: Marian Shrines  
India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes 1858  China Marian shrines 1995
Kenya national Marian shrine  Loreto, Italy  Marian Apparitions (over 2000Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
 
Links to Related MarianWebsites  Angels and Archangels  Saints Visions of Heaven and Hell

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

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

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Saint Frances Xavier Seelos  Practical Guide to Holiness
1. Go to Mass with deepest devotion. 2. Spend a half hour to reflect upon your main failing & make resolutions to avoid it.
3. Do daily spiritual reading for at least 15 minutes, if a half hour is not possible.  4. Say the rosary every day.
5. Also daily, if at all possible, visit the Blessed Sacrament; toward evening, meditate on the Passion of Christ for a half hour, 6.  Conclude the day with evening prayer & an examination of conscience over all the faults & sins of the day.
7.  Every month make a review of the month in confession.
8. Choose a special patron every month & imitate that patron in some special virtue.
9. Precede every great feast with a novena that is nine days of devotion. 10. Try to begin & end every activity with a Hail Mary

My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love Thee.  I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not
O most Holy trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly.  I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the Tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended, and by the infite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  I beg the conversion of poor sinners,  Fatima Prayer, Angel of Peace
The voice of the Father is heard, the Son enters the water, and the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove.
THE spirit and example of the world imperceptibly instil the error into the minds of many that there is a kind of middle way of going to Heaven; and so, because the world does not live up to the gospel, they bring the gospel down to the level of the world. It is not by this example that we are to measure the Christian rule, but words and life of Christ. All His followers are commanded to labour to become perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect, and to bear His image in our hearts that we may be His children. We are obliged by the gospel to die to ourselves by fighting self-love in our hearts, by the mastery of our passions, by taking on the spirit of our Lord.
   These are the conditions under which Christ makes His promises and numbers us among His children, as is manifest from His words which the apostles have left us in their inspired writings. Here is no distinction made or foreseen between the apostles or clergy or religious and secular persons. The former, indeed, take upon themselves certain stricter obligations, as a means of accomplishing these ends more perfectly; but the law of holiness and of disengagement of the heart from the world is general and binds all the followers of Christ.
God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique each the result of a new idea.
As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike.
It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints.

Dear Lord, grant us a spirit not bound by our own ideas and preferences.
 
Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves.

O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory.
 
Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.
Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.
The 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary ) Revealed to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan)
1.    Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces. 2.    I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. 3.    The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. 4.    It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things.  Oh, that soul would sanctify them by this means.  5.    The soul that recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish. 6.    Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying themselves to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune.  God will not chastise them in His justice, they shall not perish by an unprovided death; if they be just, they shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. 7.    Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church. 8.    Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise. 9.    I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. 10.    The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.  11.    You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. 12.    I shall aid all those who propagate the Holy Rosary in their necessities. 13.    I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. 14.    All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ. 15.    Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
His Holiness Aram I, current (2013) Catholicos of Cilicia of Armenians, whose See is located in Lebanese town of Antelias. The Catholicosate was founded in Sis, capital of Cilicia, in the year 1441 following the move of the Catholicosate of All Armenians back to its original See of Etchmiadzin in Armenia. The Catholicosate of Cilicia enjoyed local jurisdiction, though spiritually subject to the authority of Etchmiadzin. In 1921 the See was transferred to Aleppo in Syria, and in 1930 to Antelias.
Its jurisdiction currently extends to Syria, Cyprus, Iran and Greece.
Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac
The exact date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa {Armenian Ourhaï in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name} is not known. It is certain, however, that the Christian community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legend, King Abgar V, Ushana, was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples. In fact, however, the first King of Edessa to embrace the Christian Faith was Abgar IX (c. 206) becoming official kingdom religion.
Christian council held at Edessa early as 197 (Eusebius, Hist. Ecc7V,xxiii).
In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed (“Chronicon Edessenum”, ad. an. 201).
In 232 the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written.

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

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

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Mother Angelica saving souls is this beautiful womans journey  Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament
Colombia was among the countries Mother Angelica visited. 
In Bogotá, a Salesian priest - Father Juan Pablo Rodriguez - brought Mother and the nuns to the Sanctuary of the Divine Infant Jesus to attend Mass.  After Mass, Father Juan Pablo took them into a small Shrine which housed the miraculous statue of the Child Jesus. Mother Angelica stood praying at the side of the statue when suddenly the miraculous image came alive and turned towards her.  Then the Child Jesus spoke with the voice of a young boy:  “Build Me a Temple and I will help those who help you.” 

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

Brief History of our Beloved Holy Priest Here and his published books of Catholic History in North America
Reardon, J.M. Archbishop Ireland; Prelate, Patriot, Publicist, 1838-1918.
A Memoir (St. Paul; 1919); George Anthony Belcourt Pioneer Catholic Missionary of the Northwest 1803-1874 (1955);
The Catholic Church IN THE DIOCESE OF ST. PAUL from earliest origin to centennial achievement
1362-1950 (1952);

The Church of Saint Mary of Saint Paul 1875-1922;
  (1932)
The Vikings in the American Heartland;
The Catholic Total Abstinence Society in Minnesota;
James Michael Reardon Born in Nova Scotia, 1872;  Priest, ordained by Bishop Ireland;
Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.
Affiliations and Indulgence Litany of Loretto in Stained glass windows here.  Nave Sacristy and Residence Here
Sanctuary
spaces between them filled with grilles of hand-forged wrought iron the
life of our Blessed Lady After the crucifixon
Apostle statues Replicas of those in St John Lateran--Christendom's earliest Basilica.
Ordered by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, Popes' cathedral and official residence first millennium of Christian history.

The only replicas ever made:  in order from west to east {1932}.
Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel
 
It Makes No Sense
Not To Believe In GOD
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi
  June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.
By Father John Corapi
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi
  June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.
By Father John Corapi
Among the most important titles we have in the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom. The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.

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

No other issue, not all other issues taken together, can constitute a proportionate reason for voting for candidates that intend to preserve and defend this holocaust of innocent human life that is abortion.

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

Father Corapi's academic credentials are quite extensive. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Pace University in the seventies. Then as an older man returned to the university classrooms in preparation for his life as a priest and preacher. He received all of his academic credentials for the Church with honors: a Masters degree in Sacred Scripture from Holy Apostles Seminary and Bachelor, Licentiate, and Doctorate degrees in dogmatic theology from the University of Navarre in Spain.

Father John Corapi goes to the heart of the contemporary world's many woes and wars, whether the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, or the Congo, or the natural disasters that seem to be increasing every year, the moral and spiritual war is at the basis of everything. “Our battle is not against human forces,” St. Paul asserts, “but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness...” (Ephesians 6:12). 
The “War to end all wars” is the moral and spiritual combat that rages in the hearts and minds of human beings. The outcome of that  unseen fight largely determines how the battle in the realm of the seen unfolds.  The title talk, “With the Moon Under Her Feet,” is taken from the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation, and deals with the current threat to the world from radical Islam, and the Blessed Virgin Mary's role in the ultimate victory that will result in the conversion of Islam. Few Catholics are aware of the connection between Islam, Fatima, and Guadalupe. Presented in Father Corapi's straight-forward style, you will be both inspired and educated by him.

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


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8 Martyrs Move Closer to Sainthood 8 July, 2016
Posted by ZENIT Staff on 8 July, 2016

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

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

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

On the List Are Lay Founder of a Hospital and Eastern Catholic Religious
VATICAN CITY, June 12, 2014 (Zenit.org) - Today, the Vatican announced that during the celebration of the feast of Christ the King on Sunday, November 23, an ordinary public consistory will be held for the canonization of the following six blesseds, who include a lay founder of a hospital for the poor, founders of religious orders, and two members of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See:
-Giovanni Antonio Farina (1803-1888), an Italian bishop who founded the Institute of the Sisters Teachers of Saint Dorothy, Daughters of the Sacred Hearts
-Kuriakose Elias Chavara (1805-1871), a Syro-Malabar priest in India who founded the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate
-Ludovico of Casoria (1814-1885), an Italian Franciscan priest who founded the Gray Sisters of St. Elizabeth
-Nicola Saggio (Nicola da Longobardi, 1650-1709), an Italian oblate of the Order of Minims
-Euphrasia Eluvathingal (1877-1952), an Indian Carmelite of the Syro-Malabar Church
-Amato Ronconi (1238-1304), an Italian, Third Order Franciscan who founded a hospital for poor pilgrims

CAUSES OF SAINTS July 2015.
Pope Recognizes Heroic Virtues of Ukrainian Archbishop
Recognition Brings Metropolitan Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky Closer to Beatification
By Junno Arocho Esteves Rome, July 17, 2015 (ZENIT.org)
Pope Francis recognized the heroic virtues of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky. According to a communique released by the Holy See Press Office, the Holy Father met this morning with Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia Pasqualina Addatis), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Addolorata, Servants of Mary (1845-1900);
– Servant of God Maria of the Incarnation (née Caterina Carrasco Tenorio), founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of the Flock of Mary (1840-1917);
– Servant of God , founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Family of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1851-1923);
– Servant of God Ilia Corsaro, founder of the Congregation of the Little Missionaries of the Eucharist (1897-1977);
– Servant of God Maria Montserrat Grases García, layperson of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1941-1959).
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