Mary Mother of GOD
Saint of the Day July 13 Tértio Idus Júlii 
Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum. And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins. Gabriel
The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible. 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary Never Forget to Say Your Rosary Everyday Our Lady of All Graces In travelling
the countryside or while you are crossing the street, driving your car, taking
the subway, bedridden in the hospital or stuck in prison, don't forget to
say your Rosary every day. Let the beads slip between your fingers; they
also slip between the fingers of the Holy Father at the Vatican, those of
a grandmother in Alaska, a child on a hill in Rwanda, a football player on
a field in Rio, a Carthusian monk in his cell, a Carmelite in her cloister,
or young evangelists on a mission ...
The Rosary
is the certainly the prayer of the poor and the small, the sick and the suffering,
par excellence. Yes, always and everywhere; not only in space, but also in
time. The latitudes of the planet and longitudes of history crisscross.
The Hail Mary has moistened
the lips of millions of all ages, races and nations. How many children learned it as their first prayer? How many of the dying whispered it as their ultimate testament? The Hail Mary is a synthesis of two first names: Mary and Jesus. Father Daniel Ange
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. Our Lady of
the Mystical Rose Our Lady of the Road
Our Lady of the Road, Teach us not to rush to external roads And to sometimes wait in silence for “The One who must come, the One who cannot not come.” Our Lady of the Road I entrust myself to you, after having heard in silence the call of “The One who must come, the One who cannot not come.” Our Lady of the Road When we must make a choice, When we must journey outwards in order to fulfill our call, Pray for us. Patrice Garczinski (1925-1950) |
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| Archangel
Gabriel The Synaxis of the celebrated on the day after the Annunciation,
and a second time on July 13 St. Silas One of Church of Jerusalem leaders; sent with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch to communicate decisions of the Council of Jerusalem to the Gentile community in Syria Saint Julian,
Bishop of Cenomanis, elevated to bishop by Apostle Peter; sent to preach
Gospel in Gaul (Cenomanis-region of River Po) great wonders accompanied preaching
of the saint healing bodily infirmities-also the souls, blind, lame
and To end of his days he preached about Christ completely eradicating idolatry
Cenomanis land
St. Aoulimpas,
the Apostle martyrdom one of the seventy apostles ministered to the disciples;
carried epistles of St. Peter to the Gentiles; took Saint Peters body off
the cross, shroud him, took him to the house of the believers; martyred just
like Peter {Coptic}
91 Romæ sancti
Anacléti, Papæ et Mártyris, qui, post sanctum Cleméntem
Ecclésiam Dei regens, eam gloriósomartyrio decorávit. 195 St. Serapion Martyr. He was put to death in Macedonia presented himself before the judge completely healed by the Lord Jesus Christ 251 St. Myrope Martyr of the island of Chios, in Greece, She recovered the body of St. Isidore after his martyrdom 258 Marcian The Holy Martyr a native of Lyceian Iconium, while still at a youthful age converted many to Christ by his fiery preaching; gave thanks to God for his fate St. Theodosia mother of St. Proconius Martyrdom of St. Theodosia mother of St. Proconius and her companions {Coptic} 5th v. St. Dogfan Welsh martyr, descended from chieftain Brychan of Brecknock. He was slain by pagan invaders at Dyfed, Wales. A church there honors his memory. "It is Truly Meet" Icon of the Mother of God is in the high place of the altar of the cathedral church of the Karyes monastery on Mount Athos. 5th
v. SS. MAURA
AND BRIGID
solitaries at Ariacum (now Sainte-Maure), and had died in the fifth century,
not long after St Martin. The relics were found, the chapel built, and
a cultus begun in Touraine which still exists their feast is kept at Tours
on January 28.
750 St. Turiaf
Bishop of Dol, in Brittany, France. successor of St. Samson in
that see and is also called Turiav505 ST EUGENIUS, BISHOP OF CARTHAGE “If the good shepherd must lay down his life for his sheep, can it be excusable for me to trouble about the passing needs of my body?” 700 St Mildred, Abbess Of Minster-In-Thanet, Virgin 794 Saint Stephen Sabbaites, nephew of St John of Damascus entered St Sava Lavra at 10 spent his life there; given gifts of wonderworking and clairvoyance; healed the sick, cast out devils Arno von Würzburg war Bischof von 855 bis 892 1024 St. Henry son of Duke of Bavaria, and Gisella, daughter of Conrad, King of Burgundy; made numerous pious foundations, gave liberally to pious institutions and built the Cathedral of Bamberg 1033 Kunigunde Nachfolgers 1025 zog sie sich in das von ihr 1017 gestiftete Kloster Kaufungen (bei Kassel) zurück und wurde Benediktinerin 1298 BD JAMES OF VORAGINE, ARCHBISHOP OF GENOA; author of Legenda Sanctorum, now everywhere known as Legenda Aurea, "The Golden Legend" 1610 St. Francis
Solano Franciscan Observance priest; survived Granada plague of 1583; in Peru refused to leave shipwrecked
slaves baptized them most survived; 20 years untiring ministry among Indians
and Spanish colonists; he had "gift of tongues", called "wonder-worker of the New World for miracles"; died at moment of consecration,
saying with last breath, "Glory be to God"
1616 Bl. Thomas
Tunstal English martyr priesthood at Douai; six years in confinement
joined Benedictines there untilfinally murdered 1620 Monk Antonii of Leokhovo Transfer of the Relics of . The account about the saint is located under 17 October 1920 St. Teresa de los Andes Discalced Carmelite mystic; 1st Chilean beatified or canonized; model for young people |
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Mary
the Mother of God
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On
Death and Life"Man Needs Eternity -- and Every Other Hope, for Him, Is All Too Brief" 
Saint of the Day July 13 Tértio Idus Júlii
The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible. BENEDICT XVI'S PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR July 2012 General Intention: Work Security. That everyone may have work in safe and secure conditions. Missionary Intention: Christian volunteers in mission territories may witness to the love of Christ. 
The Rosary
html
Mary
Mother
of GOD -- Her Rosary Here
Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary 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 Mary's Divine Motherhood Pope Benedict XVI Catholic Church In China {article here} 1648 to1930 St. Augustine Zhao Rong and 120 Companions Christianity arrived in China by way of Syria -- 600s. Depending on China's relations with outside world, Christianity for centuries was free to grow or forced to operate secretly. How do I start the Five First Saturdays? 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.
“The Blessed
Virgin
was eternally predestined,
in conjunction with
the incarnation of the
divine Word, to be
the Mother of God. By decree of
divine Providence, she served
on earth as the loving mother of the divine
Redeemer, an associate
of unique nobility, and the
Lord's humble handmaid. She
conceived, brought forth, and
nourished Christ.” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 61).
Mary Mother of GOD Mary's Divine Motherhood: FEASTS OF OUR LADY of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary
Saint of the Day July 13 Tértio Idus Júlii
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.
breviary.net/martyrology/mart07
13 stlukeorthodox.com/html/saints/
usccb.org
ewtn.com St Patricks 0713These 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. domcentral.org/life/martyr Mar syriac oca.org glaubenszeugen.de/tage/kai/13 Serbian http://www.copticchurch.net Melkite Monthly Saints with pics here http://www.stfrancisenid.com/memorials.htm antiochian.org/AW-WomenSaints--wonderful icons Lutheran Saints One Saint per day stthomasirondequoit.com/SaintsAlive/index.htm stjohndc.org God's Humourous Saints
THE EUCHARIST,
A MYSTERY
TO BE
BELIEVED POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
Morning
Prayer
and Hymn
Meditation
of the
Day
Prayer
for Priests
Our
Bartholomew Family
Prayer List
HereSACRAMENTUM CARITATIS OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI Miracles by Century 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 Miracles_BC Lay Saints How to Stay Out of PURGATORY -- How to Get others Out POPES html Parents of Saints html The_Litany_of_the_Blessed_Virgin.html Patron_Saints.html Angels and Archangels html Marian Apparitions. html Doctors_of_the_Church
We are
called upon with the whole Church
militant on earth to join
in praising and thanking
God for the grace and glory he
has bestowed on his saints. At the
same time we earnestly implore Him
to exert His almighty power and mercy
in raising us from our miseries and sins,
healing the disorders of our souls
and leading us by the path of repentance
to the company of His saints, to which
He has called us.
THE saints and just,
from
the beginning of time and throughout
the world, who have
been made perfect, everlasting
monuments of God’s infinite
power and clemency, praise His
goodness without ceasing; casting
their crowns before His throne they
give to Him all the glory of their
triumphs: “His gifts alone in us He
crowns.” They were once what we are now, travellers on earth they had the same weaknesses, which we have. We have difficulties to encounter so had the saints, and many of them far greater than we can meet with; obstacles from kings and whole nations, sometimes from the prisons, racks and swords of persecutors. Yet they surmounted these difficulties, which they made the very means of their virtue and victories. It was by the strength they received from above, not by their own, that they triumphed. But the blood of Christ was shed for us as it was for them and the grace of our Redeemer is not wanting to us; if we fail, the failure is in ourselves. |
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“The saints must be honored as friends of Christ
and children and heirs of
God, as John the theologian and evangelist
says: ‘But as many as received
him, he gave them the power to be
made the sons of God....’ Let us carefully
observe the manner of life of all the apostles,
martyrs, ascetics and just men who announced
the coming of the Lord. And let us emulate
their faith, charity, hope, zeal, life,
patience under suffering, and perseverance
unto death, so that we may also share their crowns
of glory” Exposition of the Orthodox Faith
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. |
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Nine First Fridays Devotion
to the Sacred Heart ... From
the writings of St. Margaret
Mary Alacoque
On Friday during Holy Communion, He said these words to me, His unworthy slave, if I mistake not: “I promise you
in the excessive mercy of my
Heart that its all-powerful love
will grant to all those who receive
Holy Communion on nine first Fridays
of consecutive months the grace of final
repentance; they will not die under my
displeasure or without receiving their
sacraments, my divine Heart making itself
their assured refuge at the last moment.”
Margaret Mary
was inspired by Christ to
establish the Holy Hour and to pray
lying prostrate with her face to the
ground from eleven till midnight on the
eve of the first Friday of each month,
to share in the mortal sadness.
He endured when abandoned by His Apostles in His Agony, and to receive holy Communion on the first Friday of every month. In the first great revelation, He made known to her His ardent desire to be loved by men and His design of manifesting His Heart with all Its treasures of love and mercy, of sanctification and salvation. He appointed the Friday after the octave of the feast of Corpus Christi as the feast of the Sacred Heart; He called her “the Beloved Disciple of the Sacred Heart”, and the heiress of all Its treasures. The love of the Sacred Heart was the fire which consumed her, and devotion to the Sacred Heart is the refrain of all her writings. In her last illness she refused all alleviation, repeating frequently: “What have I in heaven and what do I desire on earth, but Thee alone, O my God”, and died pronouncing the Holy Name of Jesus. With regard to this promise it may be remarked: (1) that our Lord required Communion to be received on a particular day chosen by Him; (2) that the nine Fridays must be consecutive; (3) that they must be made in honor of His Sacred Heart, which means that those who make the nine Fridays must practice the devotion and must have a great love for our Lord; (4) that our Lord does not say that those who make the nine Fridays will be dispensed from any of their obligations or from exercising the vigilance necessary to lead a good life and overcome temptation; rather He implicitly promises abundant graces to those who make the nine Fridays to help them to carry out these obligations and persevere to the end; (5) that perseverance in receiving Holy Communion for nine consecutive First Firdays helps the faithful to acquire the habit of frequent Communion, which our Lord eagerly desires; and (6) that the practice of the nine Fridays is very pleasing to our Lord He promises such great reward, and all Catholics should endeavor to make nine Fridays. |
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First Saturdays? by
Fr. Tom O'Mahony On July 13,1917, Our Lady appeared
for the third time to the
three children of Fatima an showed
them the vision of hell and
made the now - famous thirteen prophecies.
In this vision Our Lady said that 'GOD
WISHES TO ESTABLISH IN THE WORLD DEVOTION
to Her Immaculate Heart and that She would come
TO ASK FOR THE COMMUNION OF REPARATION
ON THE FIRST SATURDAYS...'
Eight years later, on December
10, 1925, Our Lady did indeed come
back. She appeared (with the Child Jesus)
to Lucia in the convent of the Dorothean
Sisters in Pontevedra.
The Child Jesus spoke first: 'HAVE COMPASSION ON THE HEART OF YOUR MOST HOLY MOTHER WHICH IS COVERED WITH THORNS WITH WHICH UNGRATEFUL MEN PIERCE IT AT EVERY MOMENT, WHILE THERE IS NO ONE TO REMOVE THEM WITH AN ACT OF REPARATION.' THE GREAT PROMISE Our Lady then said: 'MY DAUGHTER LOOK AT MY HEART SURROUNDED WITH THORNS WITH WHICH UNGRATEFUL MEN PIERCE IT AT EVERY MOMENT BY THEIR BLASPHEMIES AND INGRATITUDE. YOU, AT LEAST, TRY TO CONSOLE ME, AND SAY THAT I PROMISE TO ASSIST AT THE HOUR OF DEATH WITH ALL THE GRACES NECESSARY FOR SALVATION, ALL THOSE WHO, ON THE FIRST SATURDAY OF FIVE CONSECUTIVE MONTHS GO TO CONFESSION AND RECEIVE HOLY COMMUNION, RECITE FIVE DECADES OF THE ROSARY AND KEEP ME COMPANY FOR A QUARTER OF AN HOUR WHILE MEDITATING ON MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY, WITH THE INTENTION OF MAKING REPARATION TO ME.' The Five Reasons Lucia once asked this question
of Our Lord and received
as an answer: 'MY DAUGHTER, THE
MOTIVE IS SIMPLE, THERE ARE FIVE
KINDS OF OFFENCES AND BLASPHEMIES UTTERED
AGAINST THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY:
(1) BLASPHEMIES AGAINST THE IMMACULATE
CONCEPTION: (2) BLASPHEMIES AGAINST HER
VIRGINITY: (3) BLASPHEMIES AGAINST HER DIVINE
MATERNITY: (4) BLASPHEMIES OF THOSE WHO
OPENLY SEEK TO FOSTER IN THE HEARTS OF CHILDREN
INDIFFERENCE OR EVEN HATRED FOR THIS
IMMACULATE MOTHER: (5) THE OFFENCES OF THOSE
WHO DIRECTLY OUTRAGE HER IN HOLY IMAGES.'
From the above, it is easy to see that each of the Five Saturdays can correspond to a specific offence. By offering the graces received during each First Saturday as reparation for the offence being prayed for, the participant can hope to help remove the thorns from Our Lady's Heart. What Do I Have To Do? The devotion of First Saturdays, as requested by Our Lady of Fatima, carries with it the assurance of salvation. However, to derive profit from such a great promise of Our Lady, the devotion must be properly understood and duly performed. The requirements as stipulated by Our Lady are as follows: (1) CONFESSION, (2) COMMUNION, (3) FIVE DECADES OF THE ROSARY, (4) MEDITATION ON ONE OR MORE OF THE ROSARY MYSTERIES FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES, (5) TO DO ALL THESE THINGS IN THE SPIRIT OF REPARATION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY, and (6) TO OBSERVE ALL THESE PRACTICES ON THE FIRST SATURDAY OF FIVE CONSECUTIVE MONTHS. (1) CONFESSION: A reparative confession means
that the confession should
not only be good (valid and licit),
but also be offered in the spirit
of reparation, in this case, to
Mary's Immaculate Heart. This confession
may be made on the First Saturday
itself or some days before or after the First
Saturday within the preceding octave
would suffice.
(2) COMMUNION: The communion of reparation must be sacramental duly received with the intention of making reparation. This offering, like the confession, is an interior act and so no external action to express the intention is needed. (3) THE ROSARY: The Rosary mentioned
here was indicated by the
Portuguese word 'terco' which
is commonly employed to denote a Rosary
of five decades, since it forms a fourth
of the full Rosary of 20 decades. This
too must recited in a spirit of reparation.
(4) MEDITATION FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES: Here the meditation on one mystery or more is to be made without simultaneous recitation of the Rosary decade. As indicated, the meditation may be either on one mystery alone for 15 minutes, or on all 20 mysteries, spending about one minute on each mystery, or again, on two or more mysteries during the period. This can also be made before each decade spending three minutes or more in considering the mystery of the particular decade. This meditation has likewise to be made in the spirit of reparation to the Immaculate Heart. (5) THE SPIRIT OF REPARATION: All these acts, as said above, have to be done with the intention of offering reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the offences committed against Her. Everyone who offends Her commits, so to speak, a two-fold offence, for these sins also offend her Divine Son, Christ, and so endanger our salvation. They give bad example to others and weaken the strength of society to withstand immoral onslaughts. Such devotions therefore make us consider not only the enormity of the offence against God, but also the effect of sins on human society as well as the need for undoing these social effects even when the offender repents and is converted. Further, this reparation emphasises our responsibility towards sinners who, themselves, will not pray and make reparation for their sins. (6) FIVE CONSECUTIVE FIRST SATURDAYS: The
idea of the Five First Saturdays
is obviously to make us persevere
in the devotional acts for these
Saturdays and overcome initial difficulties.
Once this is done, Our Lady knows
that the person would become devoted
to Her immaculate Heart and persist in practising
such devotion on all First Saturdays,
working thereby for personal self-reform
and for the salvation of others.
Unless Russia is converted, the movement against God and for sin will continue to spread, promoting wars and persecutions, and making the attainment for peace and justice impossible for this world. One means of obtaining Russia's conversion is to practise the Fatima Message. The stakes are so great that to encourage Catholics to practise the devotion of the First Saturdays, Our Lady has assured us that She will obtain salvation for all those who observe the first Saturdays for five consecutive months in accordance with Her conditions. At the supreme moment the departing person will be either in the state of grace or not. In either case Our Lady will be by his side. If in the state of grace, She will console and help him to resist whatever temptations the devil might put before him in his last attempt to take the person with him to hell. If not in the state of grace, Our Lady will help the person to repent in a manner agreeable to God and so benefit by the fruits of redemption and be saved. |
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Miracles
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 Lay Saints |
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The POPES HTML
Pius IX 1846--1878 • Leo XIII 1878-1903 • Pius X 1903-1914• Benedict XV 1914-1922 • Pius XI 1922-1939 • Pius XII 1939-1958 • John XXIII 1958-1963 • Paul VI 1963 to 1978 • John Paul • John Paul II 10/16/1975-4/2/2005 Benedict XVI "The answers to many of life's questions can be found by reading the Lives of the Saints. They teach us how to overcome obstacles and difficulties, how to stand firm in our faith, and how to struggle against evil and emerge victorious." 1913 Saint Barsanuphius of Optina The more "extravagant" graces
are bestowed NOT for the
benefit of the recipients so much
as FOR benefit of others.
Non est inventus similis illis God calls each one of us to be a saint in
order to get into heaven.
Popes mentioned
in articles of Saints today
91 Romæ sancti
Anacléti, Papæ et Mártyris, qui, post sanctum Cleméntem
Ecclésiam Dei regens, eam glorióso martyrio decorávit.At Rome, St. Anacletus, pope and martyr, who governed the Church of God after St. Clement, and shed lustre upon it by a glorious martyrdom. Pope St. Anacletus The second successor of St. Peter. Whether he was the same as Cletus, who is also called Anencletus as well as Anacletus, has been the subject of endless discussion. Cross Not
Optional, Says Benedict
XVI
Reflects
on Peter's "Immature" Faith CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 31, 2008 (Zenit.org).-
The
Pope said this today
before reciting the midday Angelus with
several thousand people gathered
in the courtyard of the papal
summer residence at Castel Gandolfo,
south of Rome.Taking up one's cross isn't an option, it's a mission all Christians are called to, says Benedict XVI. Referring to the Gospel reading for today's
Mass, the Holy Father
reflected on the faith of Peter,
which is shown to be "still immature
and too much influenced by the 'mentality
of this world.'” He
explained that when Christ
spoke openly about how he was to
"suffer much, be killed and rise again,
Peter protests, saying: 'God forbid, Lord!
No such thing shall ever happen to
you.'"
Christ also knew that "the
resurrection would be the
last word," Benedict XVI added."It is evident that the Master and the disciple follow two opposed ways of thinking," continued the Pontiff. "Peter, according to a human logic, is convinced that God would never allow his Son to end his mission dying on the cross. "Jesus, on the contrary, knows that the Father, in his great love for men, sent him to give his life for them, and if this means the passion and the cross, it is right that such should happen." Serious illness
The Pope continued, "If to save us the Son of God had to suffer and die crucified, it certainly was not because of a cruel design of the heavenly Father. "The cause of it is the gravity of the sickness of which he must cure us: an evil so serious and deadly that it will require all of his blood. "In fact, it is with his death
and resurrection that
Jesus defeated sin and death,
reestablishing the lordship
of God."
Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction
on the Contemplative Life includes
this passage:
"To withdraw
into the desert is for Christians
tantamount to associating
themselves more intimately with
Christ’s passion, and it enables them, in a
very special way, to share in the paschal mystery
and in the passage of Our Lord from this
world to the heavenly homeland" (#1).God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heaven.
"The
answers to many of life's questions can be found
by reading the Lives of the Saints.
They teach us how to overcome obstacles
and difficulties, how to stand
firm in our faith, and how to struggle against
evil and emerge victorious."
1913 Saint
Barsanuphius of Optina
The more "extravagant" graces
are bestowed NOT for the benefit
of the recipients so much as FOR benefit
of others.
Non est inventus similis illis Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction
on the Contemplative Life includes
this passage:
"To withdraw
into the desert is for Christians
tantamount to associating
themselves more intimately
with Christ’s passion, and it enables them,
in a very special way, to share in the paschal
mystery and in the passage of Our Lord
from this world to the heavenly homeland"
(#1).
Paul VI_Athenagoras_05_01_1964 
Quote:
Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction
on the Contemplative
Life includes
this passage:
"To
withdraw into the desert
is for Christians tantamount
to associating themselves more
intimately with Christ’s passion,
and it enables them, in a very special
way, to share in the paschal mystery and
in the passage of Our Lord from this world
to the heavenly homeland" (#1).
Christianity is not a moral code or a philosophy,
but an encounter
with
a person”
-- Benedict XVI Benedict_XVI_Patriarch_Bartholomew
Benedict XVI_Archbishop_Hilarion 
Benedict
XVI receives
Orthodox Archbishop
Hilarion n September
18th, Pope Benedict XVI;
Archbishop Hilarion,
president of the Department for External
Church Affairs
of the Patriarchate of Moscow.The Orthodox Archbishop is currently visiting the Vatican at the invitation of Cardinal Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. This Pontifical Council underlined that the visit will confirm the ties of friendship between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, with a view to closer collaboration and to favor the presence of the Church in the lives of the peoples of Europe and the world. In addition, a further step in ecumenical relations is scheduled for the month of October in Cyprus: the meeting of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, which will address the theme of Petrine Primacy. 
Benedict
XVI met with
Aram I Catholicos of
Cilicia, the highest
authority of the Orthodox
Church.
The Pope remembered
the martyrs of the
Armenian Church and the Armenian
genocide, without
explicitly mentioning it,
and denounced the persecution
of Christians in modern
times. Benedict
XVIThat testimony culminated in the twentieth century, which proved a time of Unspeakable suffering for your people. Most recently we have all been saddened by the escalation of persecution and violence against Christians in parts of the Middle East and elsewhere. The Catholicos is based in Lebanon. That is why, the Pope said, he prays every day for peace in this country and throughout the Middle East. Benedict XVI said there will only be peace in the region when each country is free to decide its own destiny and when every ethnic and religious group accepts and respects the others. Aram I emphasized that the churches must be means for peace and to achieve that they must recognize “all” genocides, even the Armenian.. The Catholicos recalled his meeting with John Paul II, adding that this visit represents a new step for ecumenical dialogue. Our meeting is an opportunity to pray and reflect together, and to renew our commitment and efforts for Christian unity. Armenian church members from all over the world join with Catholicos in making pilgrimages to Rome. |
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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. |
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| 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. THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
MARY
PSALM 118E
My soul hath fainted in thy ways, O Lady: and unless thou didst have the greatest compassion on me, I should indeed have perished in my weakness. My eyes have failed in thy contemplation: like a bottle in the frost my soul has been before thee. According to thy goodness quicken thou me: and I shall not forget thy words, because to cling to thee is good. By thy ruling the world goes on: which thou together with God hast founded from the beginning. I am all thine, o Lady; save me: for thy praises were desirable to me in the time of my pilgrimage. Glory be to the Father who created Heaven and earth; His only Son who lived and died for all of us; and the Holy Spirit the Lord giver of life, Who proceeds from the Father and Son, with the Father and Son He is Worshiped and Glorified, and He has spoken through the prophets: Amen. Join us on CatholicVote.org. Be part of a new
movement
committed to using powerful
media projects to create
a Culture of Life. We can
help shape the movement and have
a voice in its future. Check it out
at www.CatholicVote.org
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.
|
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|
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.
|
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|
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.
|
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|
His Holiness Aram I, current (2008) 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. Eccl.,
V,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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|
To Save
A Life is Earthly; Saving A Soul is Eternal Donation
by mail, please send check or money order to: Catholic Television Network Supported entirely by donations from viewers help spread the Eternal Word, online Here 
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
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;
Affiliations
and
Indulgences
Litany of Loretto in Stained glass
windows
here.
Nave
Sacristy
and Residence Here
Member -- St. Paul Seminary
faculty.
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}.
Saints Simon (saw),
Bartholomew
(knife),
James
the Lesser
(book),
John
(eagle),
Andrew
(transverse
cross),
Peter
keys),
Paul
(sword), James
the Greater (staff), Thomas (carpenter's
square),
Philip
(serpent),
Matthew
(book),
and Jude
sword
It Makes No Sense Not To Believe In GOD |
||
| THE BLESSED
MOTHER AND ISLAM
By Father
John Corapi.
Site http://www.fathercorapi
June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under
Pope John Paul
II;
By Father
John Corapi, SOLTthen 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so. 
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. Although it is supposed to be a religion of peace, Islam has been hijacked by Satan and now operates in the dark space of international terrorism. 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.
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 |
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| LINKS: Marian Apparitions (over 2000) India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858 China Marian shrines May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798 Links to Related Marian Websites Angels and Archangels |
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| Doctors_of_the_Church Acts_Of_The_Apostles
Roman Catholic
Popes
Purgatory
Uniates
|
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| DECREES
OF THE CONGREGATION
FOR THE CAUSES OF SAINTS VATICAN
CITY, 19 DEC 2011 (VIS)
The Holy Father today received in audience Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and authorised the promulgation of decrees concerning the following causes: MIRACLES - Blessed Giovanni Battista Piamarta, Italian priest and founder of the Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth and of the Congregation of the Humble Sister Servants of the Lord (1841-1913). - Blessed Jacques Berthieu, French martyr and priest of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) (1838-1896). - Blessed Maria del Carmen (born Maria Salles y Barangueras), Spanish foundress of the Conceptionist Missionary Sisters of Teaching (1848-1911). - Blessed Maria Anna Cope, nee Barbara, German religious of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis in Syracuse U.S.A. (1838-1918). - Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, American laywoman (1656-1680). - Blessed Pedro Calungsod, Filipino lay catechist and martyr (1654-1672). - Blessed Anna Schaffer, German laywoman (1882-1925). - Servant of God Louis Brisson, French priest and founder of the Oblates of St. Francis of Sales (1817-1908). - Servant of God Luigi Novarese, Italian diocesan priest and founder of the Silent Workers of the Cross (1914-1984). - Servant of God Maria Luisa (nee Gertrude Prosperi), Italian abbess of the convent of the Order of St. Benedict of Trevi (1799-1847). - Servant of God Mother St. Louis (nee Maria Luisa Elisabeth de Lamoignon, widow of Mole de Champlatreux), French foundress of the Sisters of St. Louis (1763-1825). - Servant of God Maria Crescencia (nee Maria Angelica Perez), Argentinean professed religious of the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Orchard (1897-1932). MARTYRDOM - Servant of God Nicola Rusca, Swiss diocesan priest, killed in hatred of the faith (1563-1618). - Servants of God Luis Orencio (ne Antonio Sola Garriga) and eighteen companions of the Institute of Brothers of Christian Schools; Antonio Mateo Salamero, diocesan priest, and Jose Gorostazu Labayen, layman, all killed in hatred of the faith in Spain in 1936. - Servants of God Alberto Maria Marco y Aleman and eight companions of the Order of Carmelites of the Ancient Observance, and Agustin Maria Garcia Tribaldos and fifteen companions of the Institute of Brothers of Christian Schools; all killed in hatred of the faith in Spain between 1936 and 1937. - Servants of God Mariano Alcala Perez and eighteen companions of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, killed in hatred of the faith in Spain between 1936 and 1937. HEROIC VIRTUES - Servant of God Donato Giannotti, Italian diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of Sisters Handmaidens of the Immaculate Conception (1828-1914). - Servant of God Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus (ne Henri Grialou), French professed priest of the Order of Discalced Carmelites and founder of the Institute of Notre-Dame de Vie (1894-1967). - Servant of God Alphonse-Marie (nee Elisabeth Eppinger), French foundress of the Congregation of Sisters of the Blessed Saviour (1814-1867). - Servant of God Marguerite Lucia Szewczyk, Polish foundress of the Congregation of the Daughters of the Sorrowful Mother of God - Seraphic Sisters (1828-1905). - Servant of God Assunta Marchetti, Italian co-foundress of the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles (1871-1948). - Servant of God Maria Julitta (nee Teresa Eleonora Ritz), German professed sister of the Congregation of Sisters of the Redeemer (1882-1966). - Servant of God Maria Anna Amico Roxas, Italian laywoman and foundress of the Society of St. Ursula (1883-1947). VIS 20111219 (580) |
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Archangel Gabriel The
Synaxis of the celebrated on the day after the Annunciation, and a second
time on July 13
Erzengel Gabriel Orthodoxe
Kirche: Synaxis des Erzengels Gabriel -13. Juli (und
26. März ) Synaxis aller Engel
- 8. November It was instituted in the ninth century, perhaps to celebrate the dedication of a church at Constantinople. Originally, the Feast was observed on October 16 (Juan Mateos, LE TYPIKON DE LA GRANDE EGLISE). An account of the Holy Archangel Gabriel is found under March 26 and November 8. Katholische, Anglikanische und Evangelische Kirche: Erzengel Michael und alle Engel - 29. September Michael und Gabriel Am Tage nach
der Verkündigung der Geburt des Herrn an Maria gedenkt die orthodoxe
Kirche des Verkünders, des Erzengels Gabriel.(hebr.: starker Gott). In
der Bibel wird Gabriel außerdem als Ausleger der Gesichte Daniels genannt
(Dan. 8, 16 f./9, 21). Nach orthodoxer Tradition hat Gabriel Mose bei der
Abfassung des Pentateuch inspiriert; er verkündete Anna die Geburt Mariens
und Zacharias die Geburt des Johannes. Auch Josef ist Gabriel zweimal erschienen
(Matth. 1, 20/2, 13). Er stärkte Jesus im Garten Genezareth und überbrachte
den Frauen die Botschaft von der Auferstehung. Er trägt wie Michael
in der orthodoxen Kirche den Beinamen Archistrategos (Oberster Feldherr der
himmlischen Heere).
Am 13.07. wird sein Tag ein zweites Mal gefeiert - dieses Datum
ist wohl auf die Weihe der Kirche Gabriel Archistrategos bei Konstantinopel
im 17. Jahrhundert zurückzuführen.Bis 1969 hatte der Erzengel Gabriel
auch in der katholischen Kirche seinen eigenen Festtag am 24. März, dem
Tag vor Mariä Verkündigung.
Dieses Fest war erst 1921 von
Papst Benedikt XV. für die katholische Kirche festgesetzt worden.
The Sobor of the ArchAngel Gabriel is celebrated on the day
following after the Annunciation/Blagoveschenie, ie. 26 March. This feast
is celebrated a second time 13 July. The reason for its being established
probably served the dedication in the XVII Cent. of a church at Constantinople,
constructed in the name of the Holy Archi-Strategos / Chief of the Heavenly
Hosts.An account of the Holy ArchAngel is located under 26 March and 8 November. |
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St. Silas One of the
leaders of the Church of Jerusalem; sent with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch
to communicate decisions of the Council
of Jerusalem to the Gentile community
in Syria
Silas, Silvanus, Crescens,
Epenetus und Andronikus Orthodoxe Kirche: 30. Juli Katholische
Kirche: Crescens - 27. Juni Katholische Kirche: Silas - 13. Juli
Andronikus siehe 17. Mai1st v. ST SILAS IN the Roman Martyrology under July 13 is the entry: “In Macedonia, the death of the blessed Silas, who, being one of the first brethren and sent by the Apostles to the churches of the Gentiles with Paul and Barnabas, was full of the grace of God and readily fulfilled the office of preaching; and, glorifying Christ in His sufferings, was afterwards at rest.” Silas is first mentioned in chapter xv of the Acts of the Apostles, when he was chosen with Judas as “chief men among the brethren” to go with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch bearing the letter from the Council of Jerusalem to the Gentile converts in Syria. Judas and Silas, “being prophets also themselves”, took part in the exhortation and confirming of the brethren, and Silas remained with Paul and Barnabas at Antioch until the disagreement arose between those two, when he was chosen by Paul to go with him in his visitation of the other churches of Syria and Cilicia, and ultimately into Macedonia. At Philippi he shared St Paul’s beating and imprisonment, and with him was miraculously delivered. He stopped behind with Timothy at Berea, but they received a message from the apostle at Athens that they should join him again, and they overtook him at Corinth. Here St Paul wrote his two letters to the Thessalonians, in each of which he refers to Silas in the full form of his name, Silvanus. Nothing more is known of him, but traditionally he lived the rest of his life in Europe and died, as the martyrology says, in Macedonia. It is possible that St Peter’s secretary, Silvanus (1 Peter v 12), is the same disciple. We know nothing
of St Silas beyond what is told us in the New Testament. See the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. iii, and cf. Vigouroux,
Dictionnaire de la Bible, and Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible.
When Paul and Barnabas quarreled over Mark, Silas was chosen
by Paul to accompany him on his second missionary journey to Syria, Cilicia,
and Macedonia. Silas was beaten and imprisoned with Paul at Philippi, was
involved with Paul in the riot of Jews at Thessalonica that drove Paul and
Silas from the city to Beroea, remained at Beroea with Timothy when Paul left,
but rejoined him at Corinth. The Silvanus mentioned with Timothy by Paul
and who helped him preach at Corinth is believed to be the same as Silas,
since Silvanus is a Greek variant of the Semitic Silas. Silvanus is also mentioned
as the man through whom Peter communicated and is considered by some scholars
to be the author of that epistle. Tradition says he was the first bishop
of Corinth and that he died in Macedonia.Crescens (Kreszens), ein Schüler
des Apostels Paulus (2. Tim. 4, 10) wurde von diesem demnach nach Galatien
gesandt. Gemeint ist aber möglicherweise Gallien. Crescens soll nach
verschiedenen Legenden Bischof von Chankedon, Vienne und Mainz gewesen sein.
Er soll auch nach Wien gekommen sein, wo er Zacharias als ersten Bischof einsetzte.
Er starb unter Trajan (98-117) den Märtyrertod in Gallien.
In Mainz wird auch des Bischofs Crescens von Mainz am 27.06.
gedacht. Dieser Bischof starb bei einem Germaneneinfall um 406 als Märtyrer.Silas hat Paulus lange begleitet.
Er wird mehrmals in der Apostelgeschichte erwähnt 15, 22 ff/16,12 ff/18,5).
nach der Legende wurde Silas von Paulus zum Bischof von Korinth geweiht. Dort
starb er auch.
Epenetus, den Paulus in Röm 16, 5 erwähnt, soll Bischof
von Karthago gewesen sein.Silvanus inst nach heutiger katholischer Auffassung mit Silas identisch. Er wird in dn beiden Thessalonicherbriefen erwähnt und war nach 1. Petr. 5, 12 an der Abfassung des Briefes beteiligt. Nach orthodoxer Überlieferung war Silvanus Bischof von Thessaloniki, wo er den Märtyrertod starb. |
| St. Aoulimpas, the
Apostle martyrdom one of the seventy apostles ministered to the disciples;
carried epistles of St. Peter to the Gentiles; took his body off the cross,
shroud him, took him to the house of the believers; martyred just like Peter On this day, St. Aoulimpas, who was called Paul, one of the seventy apostles, was martyred. This Apostle ministered to the disciples and carried the epistles of St. Peter to the Gentiles. He went with him to the city of Rome, preached there, taught and converted many to the Faith. When St. Peter was martyred, this Apostle was the one to take his body off the cross, shroud him, and take him to the house of one of the believers. Someone accused him, before the Emperor Nero, of being one of the disciples of Peter. Nero brought him and questioned him. The Saint confessed that the Lord Christ is the true God. Nero tortured him severely. Then he asked him, "How do you wish to die?" The Saint replied saying, "I only wish to die for the Name of Christ. Kill me any way you wish, and bring me speedily to my desire." Nero ordered to beat him and to crucify him, head downwards, like his teacher St. Peter. They did so and he received the crown of martyrdom. May his prayers be with us. Amen. |
Saint Julian,
Bishop of Cenomanis, elevated to bishop by Apostle Peter; sent to preach
Gospel in Gaul (Cenomanis-region of River Po) great wonders accompanied preaching
of the saint healing bodily infirmities-also the souls, blind, lame and to
the end of his days he preached about Christ completely eradicating idolatry
Cenomanis landSome believe that he is the same person as Simon the Leper (Mark 14:3), receiving the name Julian in Baptism. The Apostle Peter sent St Julian to preach the Gospel in Gaul. He arrived in Cenomanis (the region of the River Po in the north of present day Italy) and settled into a small hut out beyond a city (probably Cremona), and he began to preach among the pagans. The idol-worshippers at first listened to him with distrust, but the preaching of the saint was accompanied by great wonders. By prayer St Julian healed many of the sick. Gradually, a great multitude of people began to flock to him, asking for help. In healing bodily infirmities, St Julian healed also the souls, enlightening those coming to him by the light of faith in Christ. In order to quench the thirst of his numerous visitors, St Julian, having prayed to the Lord, struck his staff on the ground, and from that dry place there came forth a spring of water. This wonder converted many pagans to Christianity. One time the holy bishop wanted to see the local prince. At the gate of the prince's dwelling there sat a blind man whom St Julian pitied, and having prayed, gave him his sight. The prince came out towards the holy bishop, and having only just learned that he had worked this miracle, he fell down at the feet of the bishop, requesting Baptism. Having catechized the prince and his family, St Julian imposed on them a three-day fast, and then he baptized them. On the example of the prince, the majority of his subjects also converted to Christ. The prince donated his own home to the bishop to build a temple in it, and he provided the Church with means. St Julian fervently concerned himself with the spiritual enlightenment of his flock, and he healed the sick as before. Deeply affected by the grief of parents, the holy bishop prayed that God would restore their dead children to life. The holy Bishop Julian remained long on his throne, teaching his flock the way to Heaven. The holy bishop died in extreme old age. Sainted Julian, Bishop of Cenomanea, was elevated to bishop by the Apostle Peter. There exists the opinion that he -- is one and the same person with Simon the Leper (Mk. 14, 3), in Baptism receiving the name Julian. The Apostle Peter sent Saint
Julian to preach the Gospel in Gaul.
He arrived in Cenomanea (the
region of the River Po in the north of present-day Italy) and settled into
a small hut out beyond a city (probably Cremona), and he began to preach among
the pagans. The idol-worshippers at first listened to him with distrust, but
the preaching of the saint was accompanied by great wonders. By prayer Sainted
Julian healed various of the sick. Gradually there began to flock to him
a great multitude of people, asking for help. In healing bodily infirmities,
Sainted Julian healed also the souls, enlightening those coming to him by
the light of faith in Christ.
In order to quench the thirst of his numerous visitors, Sainted Julian,having prayed to the Lord, struck his staff on the ground and from that dry place there came forth a spring of water. This wonder converted many pagans to Christianity. One time the Sainted Bishop wanted to see the local prince. At the gate of the prince's dwelling there sat a blind man whom Saint Julian took pity on, and having prayed, gave him his sight. The prince came out towards the Sainted Bishop, and having only just learned that he had worked this miracle, he fell down at the feet of the bishop, requesting Baptism. Having catechised the prince and his family, Saint Julian imposed on them a three-day fast, and then he fulfilled over them the mystery of Baptism. On the example of the prince, the majority of his subjects also converted to Christ. The prince donated his own home to the bishop for the constructing of a temple in it and he provided the Church with means. Saint Julian fervently concerned himself with the spiritual enlightening of his flock and as before he healed the sick. Deeply affected by the grief of parents, the sainted bishop by his own prayer entreated of God the raising up of their dead children to life. The holy Bishop Julian remained long on his throne, teaching his flock the way to Heaven. The Sainted Bishop died in extreme old age (I Cent.). To the end of his days he preached
about Christ and he completely eradicated idol-worship in the land of Cenomanea.
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205 St. Serapion Martyr. He was put to
death in Macedonia probably presented himself
before the judge completely healed by the Lord Jesus Christ
The Holy Martyr Serapion, suffered for Christ before the Emperor Severus (193-211). As a Christian he was brought to judgment before the governor Achilles. The holy martyr firmly proclaimed to the pagans his faith in Christ, and he was subjected to inhuman torments. Afterwards, he was thrown into prison. Healed by the Lord Jesus Christ, he was brought to the judgment place and he presented himself before the judge completely healthy. The enraged pagans sentenced the saint to be burned alive. In the midst of the flames, he gave up his soul to God (+ ca. 205). |
| 251 St. Myrope Martyr
of the island of Chios, in Greece, She recovered the body of St. Isidore after
his martyrdom She and a Roman soldier, Ammianus, were arrested for recovering the sainted remains. Myrope was scourged and died in prison. Ammianus was also martyred. |
91 Romæ sancti
Anacléti, Papæ et Mártyris, qui, post sanctum Cleméntem
Ecclésiam Dei regens, eam glorióso martyrio decorávit.At Rome, St. Anacletus, pope and martyr, who governed the Church of God after St. Clement, and shed lustre upon it by a glorious martyrdom. Pope St. Anacletus The second successor of St. Peter. Whether he was the same as Cletus, who is also called Anencletus as well as Anacletus, has been the subject of endless discussion. Irenaeus, Eusebius, Augustine, Optatus, use both names indifferently as of one person. Tertullian omits him altogether. To add to the confusion, the order is different. Thus Irenaeus has Linus, Anacletus, Clement; whereas Augustine and Optatus put Clement before Anacletus. On the other hand, the "Catalogus Liberianus", the "Carmen contra Marcionem" and the "Liber Pontificalis", all most respectable for their antiquity, make Cletus and Anacletus distinct from each other; while the "Catalogus Felicianus" even sets the latter down as a Greek, the former as a Roman. Among the moderns, Hergenröther (Hist. de l'église, I 542, note) pronounces for their identity. So also the Bollandist De Smedt (Dissert. vii, 1). Döllinger (Christenth. u K., 315) declares that "they are, without doubt, the same person"and that "the 'Catalogue of Liberius' merits little confidence before 230." Duchesne, "Origines chretiennes", ranges himself on that side also but Jungmann (Dissert. Hist. Eccl., I, 123) leaves the question in doubt. The chronology is, of course, in consequence of all this, very undetermined, but Duchesne, in his "Origines", says "we are far from the day when the years, months, and days of the Pontifical Catalogue can be given with any guarantee of exactness. But is it necessary to be exact about popes of whom we know so little? We can accept the list of Irenaeus -- Linus, Anacletus, Clement, Evaristus, Alexander, Xystus, Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius, and Anicetus. Anicetus reigned certainly in 154. That is all we can say with assurance about primitive pontifical chronology." That he ordained a certain number of priests is nearly all we have of positive record about him, but we know he died a martyr, perhaps about 91. |
| 258 Marcian Youth;
The Holy Martyr a native of Lyceian Iconium, while still at a youthful age
converted many to Christ by his fiery preaching; gave thanks to God for
his fate For his zeal the idol-worshippers subjected the saint to bodily punishment, and then sent him to Cappadocia to the governor Perennias. Now by persuasion, now by threats, he attempted to turn the youth away from the Truth, Christ. St Marcian fearlessly testified about the truthfulness of the Christian Faith, and he accused Perennias of worshipping inanimate idols. The enraged governor gave orders to subject the saint to severe torments, but in his sufferings the saint remained steadfast in his faithfulness to Christ. They cut off his head while he prayed, giving thanks to God for his fate (+258). |
"It is Truly Meet"
Icon of the Mother of God is in the high place of the altar of the cathedral
church of the Karyes monastery on Mount Athos.One Saturday night an Elder went to Karyes for the all-night Vigil. He left, instructing his disciple to remain behind and read the service in their cell. As it grew dark, the disciple heard a knock on the door. When he opened the door, he saw an unknown monk who called himself Gabriel, and he invited him to come in. They stood before the icon of the Mother of God and read the service together with reverence and compunction. During the Ninth Ode of the Canon, the disciple began to sing "My soul magnifies the Lord…" with the Irmos of St Cosmas the Hymnographer (October 14), "More honorable than the Cherubim..." The stranger sang the next verse, "For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden..." Then he chanted something the disciple had never heard before, "It is truly meet to bless Thee, O Theotokos, ever-blessed and most pure, and the Mother of our God..." Then he continued with, "More honorable than the Cherubim..." While the hymn was being sung, the icon of the Theotokos shone with a heavenly light. The disciple was moved by the new version of the familiar hymn, and asked his guest to write the words down for him. When the stranger asked for paper and ink, the disciple said that they did not have any. The stranger took a roof tile and wrote the words of the hymn on its surface with his finger. The disciple knew then that this was no ordinary monk, but the Archangel Gabriel. The angel said, "Sing in this manner, and all the Orthodox as well." Then he disappeared, and the icon of the Mother of God continued to radiate light for some time afterward. The Eleousa Icon of the Mother of God, before which the hymn "It Is Truly Meet" was first sung, was transferred to the katholikon at Karyes. The tile, with the hymn written on it by the Archangel Gabriel, was taken to Constantinople when St Nicholas Chrysoberges (December 16) was Patriarch. Numerous copies of the "It Is Truly Meet" Icon are revered in Russian churches. At the Galerna Harbor of Peterburg a church with five cupolas was built in honor of the Merciful Mother of God, and into it they put a grace-bearing copy of the "It Is Truly Meet" icon sent from Athos. |
| Martyrdom of St. Theodosia mother of St. Proconius
and her companions {Coptic} On this day also, St. Theodosia, mother of St. Proconius, along with two prefects and twelve other women, were martyred. When Theodosia heard that her son became Christian, and the Emperor had tortured him severely until he was close to death, she went to see him. She found them bringing him out of prison and all his wounds were healed. She and all those who were with her marvelled. They all cried saying, "We believe in the God of Proconius." The Emperor ordered their heads cut off and they received the crown of martyrdom. May their prayers be with us, and Glory be to God forever. Amen. |
| 5th v. St. Dogfan Welsh martyr, descended from chieftain Brychan of Brecknock. He was slain by pagan invaders at Dyfed, Wales. A church there honors his memory. |
| 5th v. SS. MAURA AND BRIGID
solitaries at Ariacum (now Sainte-Maure),
and had died in the fifth century, not long after St Martin. The relics were
found, the chapel built, and a cultus begun in Touraine which still exists
their feast is kept at Tours on January 28. THERE is an old cultus of these maidens in Picardy, but scholars have found it impossible to give a satisfactory account of them from the sources available. According to these legends they were British princesses from Northumbria, who made a pilgrimage to Rome; on their way home through Gaul they were set upon by heathen outlaws or Frankish raiders and put to death at Balagny-sur-Thérain. Here they were buried and there arose a cultus of them as martyrs. In the middle of the seventh century St Bathildis, the queen of King Clovis II, who came from England and (especially as she was a slave-girl) may have been a Briton, attempted to translate their relics to her monastery at Chelles; she was prevented by divine intervention, and forced to leave them at Nogent-les-Vierges (Oise), where they were solemnly enshrined in 1285. St Louis IX had a great devotion to these saints and was a benefactor of their shrine and church, to which he made pilgrimage, and a cessation of the plague at Beauvais attributed to their intercession further endeared them to the people. St Gregory of Tours relates of his predecessor, St Euphronius, that, having heard of a mysterious light seen over a bramble-covered hill and of a vision of two maidens asking for a chapel to be built on the hill because two holy virgins were buried there, he himself visited the spot, and it was revealed to him that the maidens were called Maura and Britta; they had been solitaries at Ariacum (now Sainte-Maure), and had died in the fifth century, not long after St Martin. The relics were found, the chapel built, and a cultus begun in Touraine which still exists their feast is kept at Tours on January 28. Because of the likeness in names and era attempts have been made to show them identical with the saints of Nogent. See the Acta Sanctorum, January, vol. ii; Stanton,
Menology, pp. 659—660 Renet,
S. Lucien et les autres SS. du Beauvaisis
(1895), vol. iii, pp. 573—579 Mémoires
de la Soc. des Antiquaires de Picardie, vol. x, pp. 117—119.
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| 505 ST EUGENIUS, BISHOP OF
CARTHAGE “If the good shepherd must lay down his life for
his sheep, can it be excusable for me to trouble about the passing needs
of my body?” THE Roman provinces in Africa were for a long time one of the richest and most noble portions of the empire, but when its rulers, to preserve Italy, abandoned its extremities, Genseric, King of the Vandals, in 428, passed into this country and in a short time became master of those fertile provinces. The Vandals, who were mostly Christians but infected with the Arian heresy, laid the country waste, plundered churches and monasteries, burned alive two bishops and tortured others to extort from them the treasures of their churches, razed the public buildings at Carthage, and banished St Quodvultdeus, bishop of that city, with many others. But for the brief episcopate of St Deogratias, the episcopal see of Carthage had remained vacant for fifty years, when in 481 Huneric, who had succeeded Genseric, permitted the Catholics on certain conditions to choose one who should fill it. The people pitched upon Eugenius, a citizen of the place, eminent for his learning, zeal, piety and prudence; and he became so dear to his flock that every one of them would have thought it a happiness to lay down his life for him. His charities to the distressed were very great, especially considering his poverty. But he always found resources for their necessities in the hearts of his people, and he refused himself everything that he might give all to the poor. When others reminded him that he ought to reserve something for his own necessities, his answer was, “If the good shepherd must lay down his life for his sheep, can it be excusable for me to trouble about the passing needs of my body?” The influence of St Eugenius was so strong that the king became alarmed, and he ordered the bishop not to occupy his episcopal chair or to preach in public or to allow any Vandals into his churches. Eugenius replied that the law of God commanded him not to shut the door of a church against any who wished to enter it. Huneric then posted guards at the doors of the Catholic churches, who when they saw any man or woman going in recognizable as a Vandal by his clothes and long hair, used forked sticks which, twisted into the hair and violently drawn back, tore off hair and skin together. Some thus lost their eyes, others died, and women who had been scalped in this way were led through the streets as a warning to others. A fierce persecution was thus initiated. Bishop Eugenius was spared in the first storm, and he was soon informed by Huneric that the orthodox Catholics were to meet in a conference with the Arian bishops at Carthage. Eugenius answered that the terms were not equal, seeing their enemies’ were to be judges; and that as it was the common cause of all churches, other churches ought to be invited and consulted, “especially the Church of Rome, which is the head of all churches. I will write to my fellow bishops, who will be able with me to show you our common faith.” It is said that about this time one Felix, who had been long blind, addressed himself to St Eugenius, desiring him to pray over him that he might recover his sight, saying he had been told in a vision so to do. The bishop showed great reluctance, but at length, after blessing the font for the administration of baptism on the eve of the Epiphany, he turned and said to the blind man, “I have told you that I am a sinner, and the least of all men; but I pray God that He show you mercy according to your faith, and restore to you your sight.” Then he made the sign of the cross on his eyes, and the blind man saw. Huneric sent for Felix, and examined the circumstances of the miracle, which he found too evident to be called in question; but the Arian bishops told him that Eugenius had performed it by magic. The conference, when it assembled in 484 to discuss the divisions between Catholics and Arians, was a farce; and Huneric took the opportunity of so many bishops assembled in Carthage to plunder them, and then deport them to forced labour. St Eugenius, after having long encouraged others to the conflict, was himself suddenly carried into exile, without being allowed to take leave of his friends. He found means, however, to write a letter to his flock, which St Gregory of Tours has preserved. In it he says: “I with tears beg, exhort and implore you, by the dreadful day of judgement and the aweful light of the coming of Christ, that you hold fast the Catholic faith. Keep the grace of baptism and the anointing of chrism. Let no man born again of water return to the water.” This he mentions, because the Arians in Africa, like the Donatists, rebaptized those that came over to their sect. St Eugenius protests to his flock that, if they remain constant, no distance nor death could separate him from them in spirit; but that he was innocent of the blood of those that should perish, and that this his letter would be read before the tribunal of Christ at the last day for the condemnation of apostates. “If I return to Carthage” says he, “I shall see you in this life; if not, I shall meet you in the other. Pray for us, and fast; fasting and almsdeeds have never failed to move God to mercy. Above all things, remember that we are not to fear those who can only kill the body.” St Eugenius was carried into the desert country in the province of Tripoli and committed to the care of Antony, an Arian bishop who treated him with barbarity. At this time apostates signalized themselves above others by the cruelties which they exercised upon the orthodox. Elpidophorus, one of this number, was appointed judge at Carthage; and St Muritta, the deacon who had assisted when he was baptized in the Catholic Church, being brought before him, took with him the white garment with which ‘he had clothed the apostate coming out of the font. Holding it up before the whole assembly, he said, “This robe will accuse you when the Judge shall appear in majesty at the last day. It will bear testimony against you to your condemnation.” This Muritta, with the archdeacon St Salutaris, is mentioned together with St Eugenius in the Roman Martyrology on this day. King Huneric died in 484, and his nephew Gontamund who succeeded him recalled St Eugenius to Carthage in 488; some years later the orthodox churches were reopened and the other clergy allowed to return. But the next king, Thrasimund, was again a persecutor. He eventually condemned Eugenius to death; but he was reprieved and, banished to Languedoc, which was then subject to Alaric, King of the Visigoths, who was also an Arian. He died in exile in 505 in a monastery near Albi. The principal authority is Victor
of Vita, Historia persecutionis Vandalicae
(the best edition is that of Petschenig in the Corpus ss. eccles. Lat., vol. vii) but
the more relevant matter is reprinted in the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. iii, together
with a few passages from Gregory of Tours, etc. See also S. Mesnage, L’Afrique chrétienne (1912)
Ludwig Schmidt, Geschicte der Vandalen
(1901); Hefele-Leclercq, Conciles,
vol. U, pp. 930-933 and Duchesne, Histoire
ancienne de l’Église, vol. iii.
|
| 700 St Mildred, Abbess of Minster-In-Thanet, Virgin Our forefathers had an extraordinary veneration for St Mildred, though the scanty records we have of her life give no due to the reason for this popular devotion. William of Malmesbury says that her remains, which were translated (or rather carried off by stratagem) in 1033 to St Augustine’s at Canterbury, were venerated above all the relics in that holy place. Furthermore, the rock which received St Augustine’s first footprints was known until comparatively recent times, not as his, but as St Mildred’s rock. She was the second daughter of Merewald, an Anglian ruler, and of St Ermenburga or Domneva, a Kentish princess, and she had two sisters, Milburga and Mildgytha, as well as a brother, who were also reckoned as saints. Egbert, King of Kent, had caused two nephews to be secretly murdered in the Isle of Thanet. He was filled with compunction, and sending for their sister Ermenburga from western Mercia, he paid her the wergild, the penalty for murder which the law ordained should be paid to the relatives of the victim. In satisfaction for the crime he settled land on her, upon which she founded a monastery in which prayers should be continually offered for the souls of the two princes. The monastery was called Minster, in the Isle of Thanet, and Ermenburga at first took charge of it herself. As her daughter Mildred gave evidence of a vocation for the religious life, she sent her to the convent of Chelles in France to be educated. Here she was persecuted by the unwelcome attentions of a young nobleman, who sought to induce her to marry him. She stood firm and eventually returned to England and rejoined her mother. St Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, received her into the community. Soon St Ermenburga gave over her charge to her daughter, who appears to have been the first abbess of Minster, under which title she attended a council in Kent. Her aunt Ermengytha served God in the same house with such fervour that she was ranked among the saints and her tomb became a place of pilgrimage. Of St Mildred’s life we are told that “she fasted often and was intensely humble. She was merciful to widows and orphans, and a comforter to all the poor and afflicted, and in all respects of easy temper and tranquil” She died of a lingering and painful illness probably towards the close of the seventh century, but the date is quite uncertain. During the reign of Canute her relics were taken, more or less forcibly, to St Augustine’s abbey at Canterbury, whence some portion of them later found their way to Deventer in Holland. Thence a small relic was sent in 1882 to the Catholic church at Minster, where her feast is observed as its titular saint. In 1937 Minster Court, on the site of the successor of St Mildred’s monastery, was occupied by Benedictine nuns from the ancient St Walburga’s abbey at Eichstätt, thus reviving monastic life there after a thousand years. It is curious that
Bede seems nowhere to mention St Mildred, but lives of her were written at
a much later date by Goscelin, Thorn and Capgrave. See the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. iii, and
especially Stanton’s Menology, pp.
332—333. St Augustine’s Abbey, Ramsgate,
publishes a useful pamphlet on St Mildred and her sisters.
|
| 750 St. Turiaf Bishop of Dol, in Brittany, France. He was the successor of St. Samson in that see and is also called Turiav. |
794 Saint Stephen
Sabbaites, nephew of St John of Damascus entered Lavra of St Sava at 10 spent
his life there; given gifts of wonderworking and clairvoyance; healed the
sick, cast out devilsBorn in the year 725. The ten-year-old boy entered the Lavra of St Sava and spent his whole life at this monastery, sometimes going out into the desert for solitary ascetic deeds. The venerable Stephen was given the gifts of wonderworking and clairvoyance. He healed the sick, cast out devils, and discerned the thoughts of those coming to him for counsel. He died in the year 794, foretelling in advance the day of his death. The Life of the monk was compiled by his student Leontius. Stephanus der Sabait Orthodoxe Kirche: 13. Juli Katholische Kirche: 31. März Stephanus wurde 725 geboren. Mit 10 Jahren trat er in das Sabakloster ein, das er bis zu seinem Tod 794 nicht mehr verließ. Er zog sich zeitweise in die Einöde zurück und wurde mit den Gaben der Heilung, Teufelsaustreibung und Prophetie beschenkt. |
| Arno war von 855 bis
892 Bischof von Würzburg Orthodoxe und Katholische Kirche: 13. Juli Arno (Arndt) war von 855 bis 892 Bischof von Würzburg. Fränkische Siedler rückten auf der Suche nach neuem Land in sorbische Gebiete ein und siedelten hier. Es kam zu blutigen Auseinandersetzungen, in die auch Arno mit einem Heer eingriff. Arno unterlag im Sommer 892 in einer Schlacht am Sandberg den Sorben und wurde kurz darauf am 13.7.892 in seinem Feldlager von eingedrungenen Sorben ermordet. Ob die Bluttat während der Feier der Messe geschah, ist fraglich. |
|
1024 St. Henry son of
Duke of Bavaria and Gisella, daughter of Conrad, King of Burgundy; made
numerous pious foundations, gave liberally to pious institutions and built
the Cathedral of Bamberg
Heinrich II. Orthodoxe, Katholische
und Evangelische Kirche: 13. JuliBorn in 972. He received an excellent
education under the care of St. Wolfgang, Bishop of Ratisbon. In 995,
St. Henry succeeded his father as Duke of Bavaria, and in 1002, upon the
death of his cousin, Otho III, he was elected emperor. Firmly anchored upon
the great eternal truths, which the practice of meditation kept alive in
his heart, he was not elated by this dignity and sought in all things, the
greater glory of God. He was most watchful over the welfare of the Church
and exerted his zeal for the maintenance of ecclesiastical discipline through
the instrumentality of the Bishops.
He gained several victories over his enemies, both at home and abroad, but he used these with great moderation and clemency. In 1014, he went to Rome and received the imperial crown at the hands of Pope Benedict VIII. On that occasion he confirmed the donation, made by his predecessors to the Pope, of the sovereignty of Rome and the exarchate of Ravenna. Circumstances several times drove the holy Emperor into war, from which he always came forth victorious. He led an army to the south of Italy against the Saracens and their allies, the Greeks, and drove them from the country. The humility and spirit of justice of the Saint were equal to his zeal for religion. He cast himself at the feet of Herebert, Bishop of Cologne, and begged his pardon for having treated him with coldness, on account of a misunderstanding. He wished to abdicate and retire into a monastery, but yielded to the advice of the Abbot of Verdun, and retained his dignity. Both he and his wife, St. Cunegundes, lived in perpetual chastity, to which they had bound themselves by vow. The Saint made numerous pious foundations, gave liberally to pious institutions and built the Cathedral of Bamberg. His holy death occurred at the castle of Grone, near Halberstad, in 1024. He is the patron saint of the childless, of Dukes, of the handicapped and those rejected by Religious Order. Heinrich II. Orthodoxe, Katholische und Evangelische Kirche: 13. Juli Der Sohn des bayrischen Herzogs Heinrich wurde am 6.5.973 geboren. Seit 995 war er Herzog von Bayern. Als Otto III. 1002 in Italien starb, war er der einzige erwachsene Verwandte, der als Nachfolger in Frage kam. Er zog dem Leichenzug bis an die Alpen entgegen und nahm dort die kaiserlichen Insignien von Heribert entgegen. Er führte zahlreiche Kriege und reiste in Friedenszeiten durch die deutschen Lande, um nach dem Rechten zu sehen. Heinrich sah sein Kaisertum als christliches Amt und stütze sich in der Regierung auf die Bischöfe als in Gott verbundene Gemeinschaft. Gottesdienst und kirchliche Festzeiten waren ihm wichtiger als die Alltagsgeschäfte und er spielte auch mit dem Gedanken, abzutreten und Domherr zu werden. Seine Stiftungen ermöglichten den Ausbau vieler Kirchen. Heinrich starb am 13.7.1024. In dem Dom seiner Stiftung Bamberg ist er mit seiner Ehefrau begraben. Die berühmten Figuren des Kaiserpaares wurden von Riemenschneider geschaffen . July 13, 2008 St. Henry
(972-1024)
As German king and Holy Roman Emperor, Henry was a practical man of affairs. He was energetic in consolidating his rule. He crushed rebellions and feuds. On all sides he had to deal with drawn-out disputes so as to protect his frontiers. This involved him in a number of battles, especially in the south in Italy; he also helped Pope Benedict VIII quell disturbances in Rome. Always his ultimate purpose was to establish a stable peace in Europe. According to eleventh-century custom, Henry took advantage of his position and appointed as bishops men loyal to him. In his case, however, he avoided the pitfalls of this practice and actually fostered the reform of ecclesiastical and monastic life. Comment: All in all, this saint was a man of his times. From our standpoint, he may have been too quick to do battle and too ready to use power to accomplish reforms. But, granted such limitations, he shows that holiness is possible in a busy secular life. It is in doing our job that we become saints. Quote: “We deem it opportune to remind our children of their duty to take an active part in public life and to contribute toward the attainment of the common good of the entire human family as well as to that of their own political community. They should endeavor, therefore, in the light of their Christian faith and led by love, to insure that the various institutions—whether economic, social, cultural or political in purpose—should be such as not to create obstacles, but rather to facilitate or render less arduous man’s perfecting of himself in both the natural order and the supernatural.... Every believer in this world of ours must be a spark of light, a center of love, a vivifying leaven amidst his fellow men. And he will be this all the more perfectly, the more closely he lives in communion with God in the intimacy of his own soul” (Blessed Pope John XXIII, Peace on Earth, 146, 164). |
| 1033 Kunigunde
Nachfolgers. 1025 zog sie sich in das von ihr 1017 gestiftete Kloster Kaufungen
(bei Kassel) zurück und wurde Benediktinerin Orthodoxe Kirche: 3. März Katholische Kirche: 13. Juli (auch 3. März) Evangelische Kirche: 13. Juli Kunigunde (aus germanisch kunni=Sippe und gund=Kampf), Tochter aus einem armen bayrischen Grafengeschlecht, wurde 978 geboren. Auch als Ehefrau Heinrichs II. führte sie ein einfaches Leben und gab großmütig an Bedürftige, an Kirchen und Hospitäler. Sie begleitete ihren Ehemann auf seinen Reisen und bei Kriegszügen. Begab sich Heinrich auf weite Reisen, führte sie auch für ihn die Regierung. 1007 gründete sie mit ihrem Mann das Bistum Bamberg und ließ den Dom erbauen. Ihre Ehe blieb kinderlos und wurde deshalb später als gewollte Josefsehe angesehen. So erzählt eine bekannte Legende, Kunigunde sei über 12 glühende Pflugscharen gegangen, um so ihre Jungfräulichkeit zu beweisen. Nach dem Tod ihres Ehemannes führte Kunigunde die Reichsgeschäfte bis zur Wahl eines Nachfolgers. 1025 zog sie sich in das von ihr 1017 gestiftete Kloster Kaufungen (bei Kassel) zurück und wurde Benediktinerin. Hier starb sie am 3.3.1033. Schon Vor 1099 entstand ihre weitgehend legendarische Biographie. Ihre Gebeine wurden am 9.9.1201 in den Bamberger Dom übertragen. Kunigunde ist Patronin der Diözese Bamberg. Hier wird ihr Fest am 3.3. begangen. Die katholische und evangelische Kirche gedenken ihrer mit ihrem Ehemann Heinrich II. am 13.7. |
| 1298
BD JAMES OF VORAGINE, ARCHBISHOP OF GENOA;
author of Legenda Sanctorum, now
everywhere known as Legenda Aurea,
"The Golden Legend" THIS James took his name from the village of Viraggio, now Varazze, near Genoa, where he was born about the year 1230. He entered the Order of Preachers at the age of fourteen, and after some years of the most devoted study and spiritual exercises began to preach in the churches of Lombardy and was soon famous for his power. He taught theology and Sacred Scripture in various houses of his order, became prior at Genoa, and in 1267 was elected prior provincial of the Lombard province. To be given this office when only thirty-seven years old gave rise to some adverse comment which he silenced by the prudence and ability with which he discharged it: so much so that he held it for an unbroken period of nineteen years, and when he laid it down was appointed definitor. On the death of Charles Bernard, Archbishop of Genoa, in 1286, the chapter wished Bd James to succeed to the see, but he refused. Two years later he was entrusted by Pope Nicholas IV with the duty of raising the interdict and removing the censures imposed on the same city for having helped the revolting Sicilians against the king of Naples. In 1292 the see again became vacant, again the chapter elected Bd James, and again he refused; but this time he was obliged to withdraw his refusal and he was consecrated at Rome. His episcopate of six years was troubled by continuous hostilities between Guelfs and Ghibellines, represented respectively by the rampini and the mascarati, and the new archbishop laboured without ceasing to bring about political and social peace; in this he did not succeed, for an apparent reconciliation in 1295 proved to be only a truce, and in the following year the feud broke out as badly as ever. Bd James did not forget his religious vow of poverty, and liberally bestowed the revenues of his great see on the needy and those suffering from civil strife, in the endowment of hospitals and monasteries, and for the repair of churches; he was a model to the bishops of northern Italy, some of whom adopted his measures to maintain the discipline. of their clergy. But it is as a writer that James of Voragine is chiefly famous. One work attributed to him, the translation of the Bible into Italian, cannot by any means be proved; if he did it, every copy has perished. It is as the author of Legenda Sanctorum, now everywhere known as Legenda Aurea, "The Golden Legend", that his name is known and venerated; it is the most famous, and for the mind of the people the most influential, collection of legends or "lives" of the saints that has ever been put together. From the point of view of history it is entirely uncritical and worthless-except as a sidelight on the unsophistication and simple mentality of the folk for whom it was written. But as a book of devotion, of edification, it is a superb work of art: the author perfectly accomplished what he set out to do, to write a book which people would read and whose message of love for God and hatred for sin they could not misunderstand; but for the Reformation, Caxton's beautiful translation might have had the same effect on English thought and writing as the Jacobean Bible and the Imitation of Christ have had, or as other versions had in other countries. It is illustrative of the narrowness of historical Humanism when contrasted with the true scientific spirit that, whereas Luis Vives, Melchior Cano and others roundly condemned the Legenda Aurea, the Bollandists have shown a nice appreciation of it. Father Delehaye says: For a long
time the Golden Legend, which is so accurately representative of the hagiographic
labours of the middle ages, was treated with supreme disdain, and scholars
showed no mercy towards the worthy James of Voragine. "The man who wrote the
Legend", declared Luis Vives, "had a mouth of iron and a heart of lead."
It would in fact be hard to speak
of it too severely if it were conceded that popular works are to be judged
according to the standards of historical criticism. But people are beginning
to realize that this is an injudicious method, and those who have penetrated
into the spirit of the Golden Legend are very far from referring to it in
scornful terms.
I confess that, when reading it,
it is somewhat difficult at times to refrain from a smile. But it is a sympathetic
and tolerant smile, and in no way disturbs the religious emotion excited by
the picture of the virtues and heroic actions of the saints.
In this picture God's friends are
represented for us as what is greatest on earth; they are human creatures
lifted up above matter and above the miseries of our little world. Kings and
princes honour and consult them, mingling with the people in order to kiss
their relics and implore their protection. They live, even here on earth,
in God's intimacy, and God bestows upon them, with His consolations, something
also of His power; but they only make use of it for the good of mankind, and
it is to them that men have recourse in order to be delivered from sufferings
both of body and soul. The saints practice all the virtues in a superhuman
degree; gentleness, mercy, the forgiveness of injuries, mortification, renunciation,
and they render these virtues lovable, and they urge Christians to practise
them. Their life is, in truth, the concrete realization of the spirit of the
Gospel, and from the very fact that it brings home to us this sublime ideal,
legend, like all poetry, can claim a higher degree of truth than history itself"
(The Legends of the Saints, cap.
vii, pp. 229-231).
The book was exceedingly popular and widely distributed in the
middle ages, and in 1470 the first printed edition of the original Latin was
published at Basle; within ten years printed versions had appeared in Low
German, Italian, French and Czech. Caxton made the first edition printed in
English at Westminster in 1483. No other book was reprinted more often between
1470 and 1530; by 1500 there were over seventy editions in Latin, fourteen
in Low German, eight in Italian, five in French and three each in English
and Czech-it was indeed the first printed best-seller. The cultus of Bd James began at once
after his death in 1298 and was confirmed in 1816. For a devotional account of the
incidents of the life of Bd James, the illustrated biography by M. de Waresquiel,
Le B. Jacques de Voragine (1902),
may be recommended. Most other books and essays deal predominantly with the
literary side of his career. Among these may be mentioned the two articles
of E. C. Richardson in the Princeton Theological
Review, 1903 and 1904; P. Butler, Legenda aurea, Légende dorée, Golden
Legend (1899); and the article in DTC. For a fuller bibliography see
Taurisano, Catalogus hagiographicus O.P.
On E. C. Richardson's Materials for a Life
of Jacopo da Varagine (1935), see Analecta Bollandiana, vol. liv (1936),
pp. 440-442. Several modernized versions of Caxton's Golden Legend have been published in recent
times, and a new translation appeared in New York (2 vols.) in 1941.
|
| 1610
St. Francis Solano Franciscan Observance priest; survived the plague of
1583 at Granada; in Peru refused to leave shipwrecked slaves baptized them
and most survived; 20 years of untiring ministry among Indians and Spanish
colonists;. he had the "gift of tongues", for miracles he was called "wonder-worker
of the New World"; died at moment of consecration, saying with last breath,
"Glory be to God" ST FRANCIS SOLANO (A.D. 1610) THIS saint was born at Montilla in Andalusia in 1549, did his studies in the school of the Jesuits, and in 1569 joined the Franciscan Observants at his birthplace. He was duly professed and in 1576 ordained priest. Full of zeal and charity and an ardent desire for the salvation of souls, he divided his time between silent retirement and the ministry of preaching. His sermons, though without the ornaments of studied eloquence, had a great effect in reforming his hearers. The saint was appointed master of novices, and when his charges were at fault he gave a penance not to them but to himself, for if they transgressed, he said, the blame must be his. Francis exercised his ministry in southern Spain for many years and heroically during the plague of 1583 at Granada, when he himself was struck down but made a quick recovery. After the epidemic was passed he asked to be sent as a missionary into Africa; this was refused, but when in 1589 King Philip II wanted more friars of the Observance in the West Indies, Francis was selected to go with Father Balthazar Navarro to Peru. The missionaries sailed to Panama, crossed the isthmus, and again took ship on the other side. But in approaching Peru they ran into a bad storm and were driven aground on a sandbank. The ship looked as if she were going to pieces, and the master ordered that she be abandoned, leaving aboard her a number of Negro slaves for whom there was no room in the single lifeboat. Francis had these men under instruction and he now refused to leave them, so he remained behind on the ship, which was breaking up. He gathered them around him, encouraged them to trust in the mercy of God and the merits of Jesus Christ, and then baptized them. This he had scarcely done when the vessel parted amidships, and some of the Negroes were drowned. The remainder were on the part of the hull that was firmly aground, and there they remained for three days, Francis keeping up their courage and rigging signals of distress. When the weather broke the ship's boat returned and took them off to join the others in a place of safety, whence they eventually were conveyed to Lima. Now began twenty years of untiring ministry among the Indians and Spanish colonists. First of all Francis was sent to Tucuman, in the north of what is now the Argentine Republic; he set himself to learn the Indian languages and dialects, and from thence went on a missionary journey through the Chaco to Paraguay, where in after years were to be the famous “reductions" of the Society of Jesus. In these days it is difficult to realize what such a journey meant in those; this friar not only did it, but made numerous converts as well. After a time he was made custos of the houses of his order in Tucuman and Paraguay, and so was able to supervise the missions he had planted, but when his term in that office was ended he was appointed guardian of the Lima friary. Here there was plenty of work of another kind for him to do among the Peruvian Spaniards of that port, of Trujillo, and other towns. In 1604 his preaching in the public square against the corruptions of Lima and his comparison of the fate of a sinful soul to that of a doomed city had so powerful an effect on the people that their consciences caused them to fear an impending calamity like to that of Ninive, and a panic threatened. The viceroy was alarmed and consulted St Turibius, archbishop of the city, who with the Franciscan commissary general required of St Francis that he should calm the people, who had already had examples of his gift of prophecy, by declaring his true meaning, which was not to foretell a material destruction of buildings but a spiritual loss of souls. It is said that St Francis had the gift of tongues, and for his miracles he was called the “Wonder-worker of the New World"; in his funeral sermon Father Sebastiani, S.J., said that God had chosen him to be "the hope and edification of all Peru. the example and glory of Lima, the splendour of the Seraphic order". A habit of his, very reminiscent of his religious father and namesake, was to take a lute and sing to our Lady before her altar. He died on July 14, 1610, while his brethren were singing the conventual Mass, at the moment of consecration, saying with his last breath, "Glory be to God". His whole life, says Alvarez de Paz, was a holy uninterrupted course of zealous action, yet at the same time a continued prayer. St Francis Solano was canonized in 1726. There is a very full account of
this great missionary in the Acta Sanctorum,
July, vol. v, which includes a reprint of the life by Tiburtio Navarro, together
with a number of documents submitted in the process of beatification. A still
more copious life by Fray Diego de Cordova appeared twenty years after the
saint's death. There are modem biographies in most languages: a translation
of the short sketch by F. Courtot was included in the Oratorian series in
1847, an English life appeared in New York in 1888, and a German one by O.
Maas in 1938. Some of these, notably that of A. M. Hiral in French (1906),
are devotional rather than critical. There is a sketch by J. Wilbois in the
series “Profils franciscains" (1942). The saint's feast is observed on differing
dates; he is named in the Roman Martyrology on the day of his death, July
14.
Born at Montilla in Andalusia in 1549, did his studies in the
school of the Jesuits, and in 1569, joined the Franciscan Observance at his
birth place. He was duly professed and in 1576 ordained priest. Full of zeal
and charity and an ardent desire for the salvation of souls, he divided his
time between silent retirement and the ministry of preaching. Francis exercised his ministry in southern Spain for many years and heroically during the plague of 1583 at Granada, when he himself was struck down but made a quick recovery. After the epidemic was passed, Francis was selected to go with Father Balthazar Navarro to Peru. The missionaries to Panama, crossed the Isthmus, and again took ship on the other side. But approaching Peru, they ran into a bad storm and were driven aground on a sand bank. The ship looked as if she were going to pieces, and the master ordered that she be abandoned, leaving aboard her, a number of negro slaves for whom there was no room in the single lifeboat. Francis had these men under instruction and he now refused to leave them, so he remained behind on the ship, which was breaking up. He gathered them around him, encouraged them to trust in the mercy of God and the merits of Jesus Christ, and then baptized them. This he had scarcely done when the vessel parted amidships and some of the negroes were drowned. The remainder were on the part of the hull that was firmly aground and there they remained for three days, Francis keeping up their courage and rigging signals of distress. When the weather broke, the ship's boat returned and took them off to join the others in a place of safety, where they eventually were conveyed to Lima, Peru. Now began twenty years of untiring ministry among the Indians and Spanish colonists. It is said that St. Francis had the "gift of tongues", and for his miracles he was called the "wonder-worker of the New World"; in his funeral sermon Father Sabastiani, S.J., said that God had chosen him to be "the hope and edification of all Peru, the example and glory of Lima, the splendor of the Seraphic order". A habit of his, very reminiscent of his religious father and namesake, was to take a lute and sing to Our Lady before her altar. He died on July 14, 1610, while his brethren was singing the conventual Mass, at the moment of consecration, saying with his last breath, "Glory be to God". His whole life, says Alvarez de Paz, was a holy uninterrupted course of zealous action, yet at the same time, a continued prayer. St. Francis Solano was canonized in 1726. |
| 1616 Bl. Thomas Tunstal
English martyr priesthood at Douai; six years in confinement joined Benedictines
there until finally murdered BD THOMAS TUNSTAL, MARTYR (A.D. 1616) THOMAS TUNSTAL was born at Whinfell, near Kendal. He entered the English College at Douay in 1606, was ordained priest, and sent on the mission in 1610. He was arrested almost at once and spent the rest of his life in various prisons. He contrived to escape from Wisbech Castle by sliding down a rope, and took refuge with a friend near King's Lynn; but he was immediately discovered, under the following circumstances. In sliding down the rope he had very badly skinned his hands, and for lack of attention the raw places had gone septic. His host recommended him to consult a certain kindly woman, who did many medical services for the poor, and this he did. Lady L'Estrange, for that was her name, cleaned and dressed his hands, not without some curiosity as to who the poorly dressed but well-bred stranger might be; unfortunately she did not keep her curiosity to herself but mentioned the man to her husband, Sir Hammond L'Estrange. He was a justice of the peace and knew that there was hue and cry for a priest escaped from Wisbech, and when he heard that the injured man was staying in the house of a recusant he at once ordered his arrest, in spite of the entreaties of his wife to forget what she had said. Bd Thomas was committed to Norwich gaol, and brought up at the next assizes in that city, when he was condemned on the evidence of a single false witness, one Symons. This fellow swore that the prisoner had reconciled two Protestants and tried to do the same with himself. The alleged converts were called and deposed that they were still Protestants, but that Mr Tunstal had urged them in general terms to holiness of life. Mr Justice Altham offered the oath of supremacy, which Bd Thomas refused, asking, however, that he might have opportunity to expose his faith and reasons before a minister. The request was disregarded and sentence pronounced. At the scaffold the next morning he was met by Sir Hammond L'Estrange, whom he heartily forgave, saying, "I beseech God that my guiltless blood may not lie heavy upon you and yours". When he was asked if he were a Jesuit he replied that he was not, but a secular priest who had made a vow to join the Order of St Benedict, and he therefore asked the sheriff that his head might be set up on St Benet's gate. He answered a nagging question from a minister about whether he expected salvation from his good works, called for a glass of water, and enquired the hour; when told eleven o'clock, he said, "Then it is near dinner-time. Sweet Jesus, admit me though most unworthy to be a guest this day at thy table in Heaven." He quietly blessed the fire and the rope, and with the prayer, " Jesu, have mercy on me!” upon his lips, he was turned off; he was left to hang till he was dead and his head was displayed on St Benet's gate of Norwich as he had wished. The account of Bd Thomas given
in Challoner, MMP., is not quite satisfactory owing to some confusion into
which he was betrayed by Raissius, but the difficulties have been cleared
up and all the available evidence collected in the account published by Dom
Bede Camm under the title of Nine Martyr
Monks (1931), pp. 238-257. But there is still some uncertainty about
the day of the month on which he suffered.
Born in Whinfell, near Kendal, Westmoreland, he
studied for the priesthood at Douai, France, and was ordained there in 1609.
The next year he returned to England but was arrested almost immediately upon
his arrival. Escaping, Thomas was recaptured and taken to Norwich where he
spent six years in confinement until finally being hanged, drawn, and quartered. While in prison, he joined
the Benedictine Order.
|
| 1620 The Transfer
of the Relics of the Monk Antonii of Leokhovo (1620). (The account about
the saint is located under 17 October). |
| 1920 St. Teresa de
los Andes Discalced
Carmelite mystic; first Chilean to be beatified or canonized; a model
for young people She was baptized Juanita Fernandez Solar, born in Santiago, Chile. on July 13.1900. Devoted to Christ from a very young age, she entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery at Los Andes. on May 7, 1919. There she was given the religious name of Teresa of Jesus. She died on April 12, of the following year, having made her religious profession as a Carmelite. A model for young people, Teresa was beatified in 1987 in Santiago, Chile, and canonized by Pope John Paul II March 21, 1993. |