Mary Mother of GOD
Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
R.  Deo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
July is the month of the Precious Blood since 1850;
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 Acts of the Apostles

Nine First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
 How do I start the Five First Saturdays? .
Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary

                                                 
We are the defenders of true freedom.
  May our witness unveil the deception of the "pro-choice" slogan.
40 days for Life Campaign saves lives Shawn Carney Campaign Director www.40daysforlife.com , 
Please help save the unborn they are the future for the world

 It is a great poverty that a child must die so that you may live as you wish -- Mother Teresa
 Saving babies, healing moms and dads, 'The Gospel of Life'

July 29 - Our Lady of Deliverance (Madrid, Spain)
Mary Watches Over You
We ought to love the Blessed Virgin very much. If you invoke the Blessed Virgin when you are tempted, she will come at once to your help, and Satan will leave you. The Blessed Virgin is like a good mother who, not content with looking after all her children in general, watches over each one separately.   Saint John Vianney, Cure of Ars

  80 St. Martha, Mary and their brother Lazarus close friends of Jesus; St. Martha said to him, ‘Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world’”
 
A Miraculous Medal for a Jesuit priest 
 When I bought my present car, someone gave me two Miraculous Medals, which I carelessly dropped in the glove compartment and forgot about.  Two years later, as I was trying to pass a car on the highway on top of a high bridge, I hit another car and fell over the bridge. My car rolled over 7 times as it fell 100 feet. All witnesses thought that both occupants of the car were surely dead.
After my car came to a crashing stop, I asked my passenger: “Are you hurt?” He answered: “No, I'm fine!”
We were extremely moved and amazed when we both noticed a Miraculous Medal on our laps!
The Virgin Mary had saved our lives…A missionary Jesuit priest
In Fioretti de la Vierge Marie, Frère Albert Pfleger, Ephèse Diffusion
 
Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China {whole article here }
  Greeting to the Blessed Virgin Mary: The Angelus Pope Callistus III
Ordered Ringing of the bells for the Angelus (this day, 1456)
 V. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary. R. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit. Hail Mary, etc.
V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord. R. Be it done unto me according to Thy word. Hail Mary, etc.
V. And the Word was made Flesh.  R. And dwelt among us. Hail Mary, etc.
V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God. R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
LET US PRAY Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made known by message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection. We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen
15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary
There She is Again! July 29 - Our Lady of Deliverance (Madrid, Spain)
The following account was told by Father Sineux, during a spiritual retreat given on July 29, 1964:
A Protestant pastor from Scotland had a large number of Irish families in his parish and, consequently, some fervent Catholics. He was extremely annoyed by these people and, being fervent himself in his religion, tried to fight against their beliefs in any way he could. He went readily to children with his ideas.
One day he came across a young Irish girl of about eight years of age on the roadside. He stopped her, spoke a few nice words to her and then asked her to recite a few prayers, promising to give her two pennies if she recited them well. At once, the girl recited the "Our Father" and the pastor congratulated her. "Do you know any others? Can you say another one?" he asked her. The child began the "Hail Mary," but the pastor interrupted her. "That one is not a prayer, because you mustn't pray to a woman, you should only pray to the Good Lord." The small girl was a little embarrassed, but she continued and recited the Creed and the pastor encouraged her this time. However, when she arrived to the words "was born of the Virgin Mary", the child sighed in annoyance and said, "There she is again! What am I to do?"
The pastor later acknowledged that he was stunned when he heard the words of the young Irish girl.
He gave her two pennies, sent her home and returned to his own abode very upset. There she is again, that Virgin Mary, even in the Creed, which he had recited so many times without noticing the words he was pronouncing! There she is in the center of our Christian faith! This marked the beginning of long reflections, which resulted in his own abjuration, shortly afterwards. He himself told this story many times, which was so decisive for his vocation, when he had later become a Catholic priest.
F.J.E. Marian Collection # 25, 1991
  80 St. Martha, Mary and their brother Lazarus close friends of Jesus; St. Martha said to him, ‘Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world’”
St. Lazarus The disciple and friend of Jesus raised from the dead by Jesus; brother of Martha and Mary; resided in Bethany suburb of Jerusalem, Israel
 119 St. Serapia A slave and martyr, also called Seraphia; the servant of St. Sabina responsible for the Roman noblewoman’s conversion to Christianity. Both were subsequently beheaded during Emperor hadrian persecutions
 260 St. Lucilla & Companions Martyr with Antoninus, Eugene, Flora, Theodore, Aucejas, and 18 other companions
284-305 Theodota The Holy widow martyr with her three young children; natives of the city of Nicea, Bithynia; spiritual friendship with St Anastasia;
3rd v. Callinicus Kallinikos (Καλλίνικος) The Holy Martyr , a native of Cilicia, raised from childhood in the Christian Faith. Grieving that many misguided people would perish for  eternity because they worshiped idols, he went through the cities and villages to proclaim Jesus Christ and His teachings to the pagans, and with the Word of God; he converted many to Christianity; God caused a miraculous spring of water to gush forth from a stone.
303 Simplicius, Faustinus & Beatrice The record of these two brothers and their sister who were martyred in Rome under Diocletian is known from the Martyrology of Jerome. (Viatrix)
  365 Felix (Felice) II, may have been an anti-pope (?) (RM)
4th v. Faustinus of Spello; a disciple of Bishop Saint Felix of Martano (Spello) near Spoleto, Italy, and the bishop's attendant at his martyrdom. Faustinus himself suffered for Christ before passing peacefully at Todi, Umbria, Italy
426 St. Seraphina A saint listed in the pre-1970 Roman Martyrology as belonging to Civitas Mamiensis, a site attributed to various locations by scholars
453 Prosper of Orléans Bishop Prosper of Orléans is often confused by the saints of the same name from Aquitaine and Reggio (Benedictines). B (RM)
  478 St. Lupus , called in French "Loup", born at Toul, Gaul; married sister of St. Hilary of Arles after six years marriage they parted by mutual agreement; gave his wealth to the poor,  entered Lerins Abbey under St. Honoratus; named Bishop of Troyes; accompanied St. Germanus of Auxerre to Britain to combat Pelagianism; devoted himself to his episcopal duties
6th v. Sulian (Silin) may be identical with the Breton Saint Sulien of Cornouaille and Domonée;  founder and abbot of Luxulyan in Cornwall (AC)
7th v St. Kilian An Irish abbot wrote the life of St. Brigid; He ruled a monastery on the island of Iniscaltra, Ireland
       Saint Eustathius, a Persian by descent, fire-worshipper named Gvirobandak prior to Christian baptism Faith.
821 Saint Michael the Confessor The Hosiomartyr disciple of St Theodore of Edessa (July 9), was beheaded during the ninth century for his confession of faith in Christ
1030  St. Olaf son of Harold Grenske, a lord in Norway. Olaf Haraldsson, often called "the Fat", spent his youth as a pirate. He was baptized in Rouen, and in 1013, went to England to aid King Ethelred against the Danes. He returned to Norway in 1015, captured most of Norway back from the Danes and Swedes, defeated Earl Sweyn at the battle of Nesjar in 1016, became king. He set about unifying and Christianizing his realm miracles were reported at his shrine
1099 Blessed Urban II Pope, Odo of Lagery studied under Saint Bruno at Rheims, became archdeacon there, and, about 1070, became a Benedictine monk at Cluny. Saint Hugh named Odo prior; sent to Rome to assist Pope Gregory VII's Church reform, became chief adviser; named cardinal-bishop of Ostia 1078; succeeded Blessed Pope Victor III
1234 St. William of Saint-Brieuc Bishop; native of Brittany, France; priest soon canon then bishop of Saint Bricuc;
Known as a staunch defender of the poor and  ecclesiastical rights; banished for a time by the duke of Brittany 
going to Poitiers returning in 1230;  body was deposited in his cathedral and taken up incorrupt in 1248
1240 Sts Constantine and Cosmas monastic followers of St Barlaam of Khutyn; between the Rivers Polista and Smezhnya they founded a monastery there in the name of St Nicholas
1268 Blessed Beatrix of Valfleury cultus not yet approved; a Cistercian nun of Valfleury, became prioress of Our Lady of Nazareth near Lier in Brabant (Benedictines), OSB Cist. V (PC)
1392  Saint Roman of Kirzhachsk a coascetic and student of St Sergius, Igumen of Radonezh
1629 Bl. Mancius of the Holy Cross Martyr of Japan, a Dominican tertiary. An elderly native of Japan, he was burned alive at Omura with Blessed Louis Bertran. He was beatified in 1867
1629 Bl. Louis Bertran Dominican martyr of Japan. A relative of St. Louis Bertran, this Louis was born in Barcelona, Spain, and became a Dominican. He was sent to the Philippines in 1618 and then to the Japanese mission. He was burned alive with two companions in Omura, Japan. He was beatified in 1867
1629 Bl. Peter of the Holy Mother of God Japanese martyr native; entered the Dominicans and served as a catechist before being arrested by Japanese authorities. With Blessed Louis Bertran, he was burned alive at Omura
1667 Child Schemamonk Bogolep was the son of a Moscow nobleman Iakov Lukich Ushakov and his wife Katherine the holy child repeatedly appeared to many either in sleep, or awake while walking along the river bank, or coming down the hill. He consoled them, promising that he would be present spiritually with believers.
1861  Bl. John Baptist Lo Martyr of China. Originally a humble servant, he was converted to the Christian faith and slain because he refused to recant When tortured by officials
1861  Bl. Joseph Tshang Martyr of China. a native seminarian who, along with three companions, was beheaded. Pope St. Pius X beatified him in 1909
1861 St. Martha Wang Martyr of Tonkin, Vietnam, who was arrested carrying letters from the imprisoned martyrs, Blesseds Joseph Tshang and Paul Tcheng. She was beheaded with them at Tsingai. Martha was beatified in 1909.
1861 Bl. Paul Tcheng Martyr of China. He was a Catholic seminarian when arrested by Chinese authorities and beheaded at Tsingai. He was beatified in 1909
1099 Blessed Urban II Pope, Odo of Lagery studied under Saint Bruno at Rheims, became archdeacon there, and, about 1070, became a Benedictine monk at Cluny. Saint Hugh named Odo prior; sent to Rome to assist Pope Gregory VII's reform of the Church, became chief adviser; named cardinal-bishop of Ostia in 1078; succeeded Blessed Pope Victor III
"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

God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heaven.
The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.


80 St. Martha, Mary and their brother Lazarus close friends of Jesus; St. Martha said to him, ‘Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world’”
Tarásci, in Gállia Narbonénsi, sanctæ Marthæ Vírginis, hóspitæ Salvatóris nostri ac soróris beatórum Maríæ Magdalénæ et Lázari.
    At Tarascon, in the province of Narbonne in France, St. Martha, virgin, the hostess of our Saviour and sister of blessed Mary Magdalene and St. Lazarus.
 He came to their home simply as a welcomed guest, rather than as one celebrating the conversion of a sinner like Zacchaeus or one unceremoniously received by a suspicious Pharisee. The sisters feel free to call on Jesus at their brother’s death, even though a return to Judea at that time seems almost certain death.
No doubt Martha was an active sort of person. On one occasion (see Luke 10:38-42) she prepares the meal for Jesus and possibly his fellow guests and forthrightly states the obvious: All hands should pitch in to help with the dinner.
Yet, as Father John McKenzie points out, she need not be rated as an “unrecollected activist.” The evangelist is emphasizing what our Lord said on several occasions about the primacy of the spiritual: “...Do not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your body, what you will wear….But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:25b, 33a); “One does not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:4b); “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” (Matthew 5:6a).
Martha’s great glory is her simple and strong statement of faith in Jesus after her brother’s death. “Jesus told her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world’” (John 11:25-27).
Comment:  Scripture commentators point out that in writing his account of the raising of Lazarus, St. John intends that we should see Martha’s words to Mary before the resurrection of Lazarus as a summons that every Christian must obey. In her saying “The teacher is here and is asking for you,” Jesus is calling every one of us to resurrection—now in baptismal faith, forever in sharing his victory over death. And all of us, as well as these three friends, are in our own unique way called to special friendship with him.
Quote:  “Even in this life the Spirit transforms us.... When Moses turned towards the Lord, his face shone in the reflection of God: when the believer turns towards the Lord Jesus and contemplates his glorious face, he is transformed into an ever brighter image of that same glory. And this irradiating power which transforms us into beings of light only comes from Christ because he himself is wholly penetrated by that Spirit” (Durrwell, The Resurrection).
Martha V (RM). Martha was the sister of Mary (usually identified in the West as the Magdalene) and Lazarus. She lived with them in Bethany, a small town near Jerusalem. Jesus preached in Judea and visited their home often.  Martha may have been the eldest, for she directed the household and took special pains to make Jesus comfortable. Active in her ministrations, she asked Jesus to direct her sister, the more contemplative Mary, to help her serve him, and he replied, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her" (Luke 10:38-42). Thus, Jesus reminds us that active works can distract us from God, while contemplation brings one closer.
It was Martha who went out to meet Jesus after the death of Lazarus. She met him when he was still a few miles outside their village. Martha said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." She added that she still believed God would grant whatever Jesus asked.
In response to this act of faith, she was the first to hear one of Jesus' deepest revelations. As Jesus continued to question her, Martha said she believed her brother would rise again on the last day. Then Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" Martha replied, "Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God" (John 11:1-44).
According to medieval legend, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus went to France after the death of Jesus and evangelized Provence (Attwater, Bentley, Delaney, White).

In art, Saint Martha is portrayed as a housewife with a dragon and an aspergillus. At times the image may include (1) a book and aspergillus; (2) keys and an aspergillus; (3) keys and a ladle; (4) a ladle; (5) with Martha veiled and her hands folded in lamentation by the Magdalene; (6) Mary in scenes from the Gospel; or (7) with Lazarus and Mary, crossing the sea to Marseilles (Roeder). White says that she is often bearing a distaff or any symbol of housework, such as a bunch of keys.
Martha is venerated in Provence, especially in Aix and Tarsacon.
She is patroness of housewives, innkeepers (Roeder), house servants, waiters, and cooks (White).
80 St. Martha was sister to Mary (who is usually identified with Magdalen)  and Lazarus, and lived with them at Bethany, a small town two miles distant from Jerusalem, a little beyond Mount Olivet.
Our blessed Redeemer had made His residence usually in Galilee, till in the third year of His public ministry He preached frequently in Judaea, during which interval he frequented the house of these three disciples, who perhaps had removed from Galilee to be nearer Him.   St John particularly tells us that "Jesus loved Martha and her sister Mary and Lazarus".
  Martha seems to have been the eldest, and to have had the chief care and direction of the household, for, when Jesus visited them, St Luke tells us that Martha showed great solicitude to entertain and serve Him, to be herself busy in preparing everything for their guest.  Mary sat all the while at our Saviour's feet, feeding her soul with heavenly doctrine. With so great love did Martha wait on our Redeemer that, as we cannot doubt, she thought that if the whole world were occupied in attending to so great a guest, all would be too little.  She wished that all men would employ their hands, feet and hearts, all their faculties and senses, with their whole strength, in serving their Creator who was made for us our brother. Therefore she asked Him to bid her sister Mary help her.    Our Lord was indeed well pleased with the affection and devotion wherewith Martha waited on Him; yet He commended more the quiet repose with which Mary attended only to that which is of the greatest importance, the attendance of the soul on God.
  "Martha, Martha," said He, "thou art careful and troubled about many things; but one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part."  In active works the soul is often distracted or entirely drawn off, whereas in heavenly contemplation the heart is wholly taken up in God, and united to Him by worship and love. This is the novitiate of Heaven, where it is the uninterrupted occupation of the blessed.  In this sense Christ so highly commends the choice of Mary, affirming that her happy employment would never be taken from her.
He added, "One thing is necessary ", that is, "Eternal salvation is our only concern".
  See Luke x 38-42, and John xi and xii. In the Provençal legend referred to under St Mary Magdalen on the 22nd of this month, St Martha accompanied her sister to France and evangelized Tarascon, where her alleged relics were found in 1187 and enclosed in a shrine where they ale still venerated. Most of what is said in the note appended to the account of St Mary Magdalen above applies to the legends connecting St Martha with Provence and particularly with Tarascon.
St. Lazarus The disciple and friend of Jesus raised from the dead by Jesus; brother of Martha and Mary; resided in Bethany suburb of Jerusalem, Israel
No mention is made in the New Testament of his activities after being brought back to life; several traditions survive. In one, Lazarus, Martha, and Mary go to France, where he became the first bishop of Marseilles, before being martyred.
In other traditions, Lazarus and his sisters went to Cyprus, where he became bishop of Kition, or Lamaka.
Still another legend reports that he went to Syria. His supposed relics were translated to Constantinople and numerous churches were built in his honor.
Devotion to Lazarus was commonplace in the early Church.
119 St. Serapia A slave and martyr, also called Seraphia servant of St. Sabina and was responsible for the Roman noblewoman’s conversion to Christianity. Both Sabina and Serapia were subsequently beheaded during the persecutions of Emperor hadrian
Item Romæ sanctæ Serápiæ Vírginis, quæ, sub Hadriáno Príncipe, cum esset trádita duóbus lascívis juvénibus et mínime potuísset illúdi, nec póstmodum ardéntibus fácibus inflammári.  Derílli Júdicis jussu fústibus cæsa est, dehinc gládio decolláta.  Ejus corpus a beáta Sabína in suo monuménto, juxta áream Vindiciáni, sepúltum est; sed memória ipsíus martyrii tértio Nonas Septémbris celébrior habétur, quo die ambárum sarcóphagum ibi compósitum et ornátum fuit, et locus oratiónis condígne dicátus.
    Again at Rome, St. Serapia, virgin.  Under Emperor Hadrian, she was delivered to two lustful young men, and as she could not be corrupted, nor afterwards burned with lighted torches, she was beaten with rods, and finally beheaded by order of the judge Derillus.  She was buried by blessed Sabina in her own tomb, near the field of Vindician.  But the commemoration of her martyrdom is celebrated more solemnly on the 3rd of September, when their common tomb was finished and adorned, and dedicated as a place of prayer.
Serapia of Syria VM (RM) Saint Serapia (Seraphia) was a Syrian slave who converted Saint Sabina and was martyred with her under Hadrian (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). In art, Saint Serapia holds a tablet or book; sometimes she appears with Saint Sabina (Roeder).
Seraphima the Virgin, a native of Antioch The Holy martyr lived at Rome during the reign of the emperor Hadrian (117-138) with the illustrious Roman Sabina, whom the saint converted to Christianity. During the persecution against Christians begun by order of the emperor, the governor Virilus gave orders to bring St Seraphima to trial. Desiring a crown of martyrdom from the Lord, she fearlessly went to the executioner at the first summons.
The devoted Sabina accompanied her. Seeing that illustrious lady, Virilus at first set the maiden free, but after several days he again summoned St Seraphima and began the trial.
260 St. Lucilla & Companions Martyr with Antoninus, Eugene, Flora, Theodore, Aucejas, and eighteen other companions.
Romæ prætérea sanctórum Mártyrum Lucíllæ et Floræ Vírginum, Eugénii, Antoníni, Theodóri, et Sociórum decem et octo; qui sub Galliéno Imperatóre martyrium obiérunt.
    At Rome, likewise the holy martyrs Lucilla and Flora, virgins, Eugenius, Antoninus, Theodore, and eighteen companions, who underwent martyrdom in the reign of Emperor Gallienus.
 Lucilla, Flora, Eugene, Antony, Theodore & Comp. MM (RM). Twenty-three Christians suffered under Gallienus. Their martyrdoms are recorded on four separate days: today's group; SS. Faustus and companions; SS. Lucy and Companions; and SS. Lucy, Antonius, and Companions (Benedictines).






284-305 Theodota The Holy widow martyr and her three young children native of the city of Nicaea, Bithynia; spiritual friendship with St Anastasia;
They lived during the reign of the emperor Diocletian (284-305). She was a Christian, a native of the city of Nicaea, Bithynia. After being widowed, St Theodota led a pious life and raised her sons in the Christian Faith. She had a spiritual friendship with St Anastasia (December 22).
When the persecution against Christians began, they arrested the holy women. At the trial, the dignitary Leucadius was captivated by the beautiful Theodota and he decided to take her home with him, intending to marry her. Finding herself in the home of Leucadius with her children, St Theodota kept herself in purity, yielding neither to inducements nor charms, nor threats by the pagan.  Angered at the steadfastness of the saint, Leucadius sent her and her children to Bithynia, to the Nicetas district governor. At the interrogation, when the judge began to threaten her with torture, St Theodota's eldest son Evodus said that Christians do not fear tortures, but rather fear being forsaken by God. They cruelly beat the boy before the eyes of his mother, so that his blood began to flow. St Theodota prayed that the Lord would strengthen her son in his sufferings, and rejoiced in that he was being given a martyr's death for the sake of truth.  They gave St Theodota over to be defiled, but the Lord preserved her. An angel of the Lord held back everyone who tried to approach the saint. Imputing this miracle to sorcery, the judge sentenced the saint and her children to death by fire.
The memory of the holy Martyrs Theodota, the child Evodus and her other two small sons is celebrated also on December 22, together with the memory of St Anastasia the Deliverer from Potions.
303 Simplicius, Faustinus & Beatrice The record of these two brothers and their sister who were martyred in Rome under Diocletian is known from the Martyrology of Jerome. (Viatrix) MM (RM)
Item Romæ, via Portuénsi, sanctórum Mártyrum Simplícii, Faustíni et Beatrícis, tempóribus Diocletiáni Imperatóris.  Horum duo primi, post multa et divérsa supplícia, jussi sunt capitálem subíre senténtiam; Beátrix vero, eórum soror, in confessióne Christi est in cárcere præfocáta.
    Also at Rome, on the Via Portuensis, the holy martyrs Simplicius, Faustinus, and Beatrice, in the time of Emperor Diocletian.  The first two, after being subjected to many different torments, were condemned to suffer death;  Beatrice, their sister, was smothered in prison for the confession of Christ.
Their acta say that the brothers were cruelly tortured before they were beheaded. Beatrice retrieved their bodies from the Tiber River and buried them. Thereafter she was given refuge in the home of a pious widow named Lucina. Together they engaged in acts of charity and fervent prayer throughout the day and night. Seven months later Beatrice's hiding place was discovered by a pagan kinsman, who turned her into the authorities in order to gain control of her estate. She resolutely refused to pay tribute to lifeless gods; therefore, she was strangled in prison.
Lucina buried her body next to that of her brothers in the Ad Ursum Pileatum cemetery on the highway to Porto. Pope Saint Leo (died 461) translated their relics to a church he built in their honor in Rome. (Another source says that the relics were translated to Saint Bibiana's in Rome, but omits the time.) In 1868, the cemetery of Generosa was discovered beside this road; it had a small church dating from the time of Pope Saint Damasus (died 384), with contemporary frescoes and inscriptions. These list Simplicius, Faustinus, and Beatrix together with an unknown Rufinianus. The relics of this trio now rest in Saint Mary Major (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth).
304 Simplicius, Faustinus & Beatrice Of these martyrs in Rome no reliable particulars are known. The legend relates that Simplicius and Faustinus were brothers who refused to sacrifice to the gods; they were therefore beaten, tortured, beheaded and their bodies thrown into the Tiber; another version says that they were drowned therein.
     The bodies were recovered by their sister Beatrice (Viatrix) and buried in the cemetery of Generosa on the road to Porto.    For seven months after she lived with a woman called Lucina, but was then denounced as a Christian by her neighbour Lucretius, who coveted her estate.   When brought before the judge she was ordered to sacrifice, but she replied boldly that she would do no act of worship towards demons, for she was a Christian.
   On the night of May 11she received her crown, being strangled in prison, and was buried with her brothers.
Retribution overtook Lucretius in miraculous fashion. On the strength of his ill-gotten property, he gave a feast to his friends, and while they were all enjoying themselves a suckling babe suddenly jumped up in its mother's lap and denounced the host:
"You, Lucretius, are a thief and a murderer and the Devil's own!"
  And after being in agony for three hours Lucretius died, and all those present were converted. The relics of these three martyrs were translated by Pope St Leo II in the seventh century to the church of Santa Bibiana, and later to St Mary Major's; joined to them in their liturgical commemoration is St Felix, martyr.
This is another case in which the uncertainty or the extravagance of later accounts create no presumption against the genuineness of the cult or the fact of the martyrdom.  In the Hieronymianum we find the bare entry that on "July 29 on the road to Porto at Sextum Philippi" was celebrated the memory of Simplicius, Faustinus and Viatrix (not Beatrix). But in 1868 the cemetery of Generosa was discovered beside the road to Porto with a little basilica dating from the time of Pope Damasus, which preserved frescoes and fragments of inscriptions. These give the names Simplicius, Faustinianus, Viatrix, and add another martyr, Rufinianus. See J. B. de Rossi, Roma  Sotterranea, vol. iii, pp. 647-697; or more compendiously in Leclercq, DAC., vol. vi, cc. 866-900.  The brief "acts "of these saints are in the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. vii .
Callinicus Kallinikos (Καλλίνικος) The Holy Martyr, a native of Cilicia, was raised from childhood in the Christian Faith. Grieving that many misguided people would perish for eternity because they worshiped idols, he went through the cities and villages to proclaim Jesus Christ and His teachings to the pagans, and with the Word of God he converted many to Christianity; God caused a miraculous spring of water to gush forth from a stone.




Gangris in Paphlagónia, sancti Calliníci Mártyris, qui, virgis férreis verberátus aliísque supplíciis afflíctus, tandem, in fornácem injéctus, spíritum Deo réddidit.
    At Gangra in Paphlagonia, St. Callinicus, martyr, who was scourged with iron rods, and given over to other torments.  Being finally cast into a furnace, he gave up his soul to God.
 In the Galatian city of Ancyra the holy confessor was arrested and brought to trial before a governor named Sacerdonus, a fierce persecutor of Christians. The governor, threatening tortures and death, ordered the saint to offer sacrifice to the idols. The saint fearlessly declared that he was not afraid of martyrdom, since every believer in Christ receives from Him strength in ordeals, and through death inherits an eternal blessed life.
They cruelly beat the saint with ox thongs and tore at his body with iron hooks, but he endured everything with patience and calm. This aroused still greater fury in Sacerdonus, and he ordered that sandals with sharp nails be placed on the saint's feet, and that they should drive the martyr with whips to the city of Gangra to be burned.
The pathway was arduous, and the soldiers who accompanied the condemned man were weak from thirst. In despair they began to implore the saint to pray the Lord for water. The saint, taking pity on his tormentors, with the help of God caused a miraculous spring of water to gush forth from a stone. The astonished soldiers were filled with sympathy for their rescuer, and they wanted even to set him free. Fear of execution, however, compelled them to bring the martyr farther. In Gangra, St Callinicus joyfully offered thanks to the Lord, Who had vouchsafed him the crown of martyrdom. He went into the blazing fire and gave up his soul to God. His body, remaining unharmed, was reverently buried by believers.
365 Felix (Felice) II, may have been an anti-pope (?) (RM)
Romæ, via Aurélia, sancti Felícis Secúndi, Papæ et Mártyris; qui, ab Ariáno Imperatóre Constántio, ob cathólicæ fídei defensiónem, e sede  sua dejéctus, et Ceræ, in Túscia, occúlte gládio necátus, glorióse occúbuit.  Ejus corpus, inde a Cléricis raptum, eádem via sepúltum fuit; póstea vero, ad Ecclésiam sanctórum Cosmæ et Damiáni delátum, ibídem, Gregório Décimo tértio Summo Pontífice, repértum est sub altári, una cum relíquiis sanctórum Mártyrum Marci, Marcelliáni et Tranquillíni, atque in eódem loco, prídie Kaléndas Augústi, simul cum eis recónditum.  In quo étiam altári invénta fuérunt córpora sanctórum Mártyrum Abúndii Presbyteri, et Abundántii Diáconi; quæ, non multo post, ad Ecclésiam Societátis Jesu solémniter transláta sunt prídie natális eórum.
    At Rome, on the Aurelian Way, St. Felix II, pope and martyr.  Being expelled from his See by the Arian emperor Constantius for defending the Catholic faith, and being put to the sword privately at Cera in Tuscany, he died gloriously.  His body was taken away from that place by clerics, and buried on the Aurelian Way.  It was afterwards brought to the Church of the Saints Cosmas and Damian, where, under the Sovereign Pontiff Gregory XIII, it was found beneath the altar with the relics of the holy martyrs Mark, Marcellian, and Tranquillinus, and with the latter was put back in the same place on the 31st of July.  In the same altar were also found the bodies of the holy martyrs Abundius, a priest, and Abundantius, a deacon, which were shortly after solemnly transferred to the church of the Society of Jesus, on the eve of their feast.
 Other feasts on March 1 and November 1. This is another confusing saint--one who is highly controversial. The accounts of his life are conflicting. He appears neither to have been a martyr nor a pope--in fact, he may have been an anti-pope. Felix was intruded into the see of Rome in 355, when Pope Liberius was exiled by the Arian emperor Constantius II. The reasons why he was listed in the Roman Martyrology are still heatedly debated (Benedictines). In art, Saint Felix is a pope with a banner picturing a griffin (arms of Lucignano). He is the patron of Lucignano (Roeder)
Felix II Pope (more properly Antipope), 355-358; d. 22 Nov., 365. In 355 Pope Liberius was banished to Beraea in Thrace by the Emperor Constantius because he upheld tenaciously the Nicene definition of faith and refused to condemn St. Athanasius of Alexandria. The Roman clergy pledged itself in solemn conclave not to acknowledge any other Bishop of Rome while Liberius was alive. ("Marcellini et Fausti Libellus precum", no.1 : "Quae gesta sunt inter Liberium et Felicem episcopos" in "Collectio Avellana", ed. Gunter; Hieronymus, "Chronicon", ad an. Abr. 2365). The emperor, however, who was supplanting the exiled Catholic bishops with the bishops of Arian tendencies, exerted himself to install a new Bishop of Rome in place of the banished Liberius. He invited to Milan Felix, archdeacon of the Roman Church; on the latter's arrival, Acacius of Caesarea succeeded in inducing him to accept the office from which Liberius had been forcibly expelled, and to be consecrated by Acacius and two other Arian bishops. The majority of the Roman clergy acknowledged the validity of his consecration but the laity would have nothing to do with him and remained true to the banished but lawful pope.
    When Constantius visited Rome in May, 357, the people demanded the recall of their rightful bishop Liberius who, in fact, returned soon after signing the third formula of Sirmium. The bishops, assembled in that city of Lower Pannonia, wrote to Felix and the Roman clergy advising there to receive Liberius in all charity and to put aside their dissensions; it was added that Liberius and Felix should together govern the Church of Rome. The people received their legitimate pope with great enthusiasm, but a great commotion rose against Felix, who was finally driven from the city. Soon after, he attempted, with the help of his adherents to occupy the Basilica Julii (Santa Maria in Trastevere), but was finally banished in perpetuity by unanimous vote of the Senate and the people. He retired to the neighbouring Porto, where he lived quietly till his death. Liberius permitted the members of the Roman clergy, including the adherents of Felix, to retain their positions. Later legend confound the relative positions of Felix and Liberius. In the apocryphal "Acta Felicis" and "Acta Liberii", as well as in the "Liber pontificalis", Felix was portrayed as a saint and confessor of the true Faith. This distortion of the true facts originated most probably through confusion of this Felix with another Felix, a Roman martyr of an earler date.
    According to the "Liber Pontificalis", which may be registering here a reliable tradition, Felix built a church on the via Aurelia. It is well known that on this road was buried a Roman martyr, Felix; hence it seems not improbable that apropos of both there arose a confusion (see FELIX I) through which the real story of the antipope was lost and he obtained in local Roman history the status of a saint and a confessor. As such he appears in the Roman Martyrology on 29 July .
365 Felix (Felice) II  history of this individual is confused, uncertain and surprising.
  When in the year 355 the Emperor Constantius dragged Pope Liberius to Milan and thence banished him to Thrace for upholding the definitions of the Council of Nicaea and refusing to condemn St Athanasius ("Who are you to stand up for Athanasius against the world?"), he caused to be intruded in the pope's place the senior deacon of Rome, one Felix, who was quietly consecrated by three Arian bishops. Felix accepted the office, but he was acknowledged by only some of the clergy of the City and by very few of the laity, and by nobody at all outside except at the imperial court; when Constantius visited Rome he was petitioned to reinstate Liberius.
In 357 the true pope was allowed to return and was enthusiastically received by the people; Felix fled, after vainly trying to maintain his position, and was forbidden by the senate ever to return.   He died near Porto on November 22, 365.
  This is not very promising material for the life of one honoured as a pope, saint and martyr, as he is represented in certain spurious documents of the early sixth century,the Gesta Felicis and Gesta Liberli. The measure of the error and confusion may be seen in the Roman Martyrology, which has on this day:
 "At Rome,on the Aurelian Way, the burial-day of the holy Felix the Second, pope and martyr, who was cast out of his see for his defence of the Catholic faith by the Arian Emperor Constantius, and died gloriously, being secretly slain by the sword at Cera in Tuscany.  His body was taken thence by the clergy and buried on the same road, but having been afterwards taken to the church of SS. Cosmas and Damian, it was found there under the altar by Pope Gregory XIII, together with the relics of the holy martyrs Mark, Marcellian and Tranquillinus, and all together buried in the same place again on July 31."
Here Felix has clearly been confounded with Pope Liberius (or their respective roles deliberately exchanged). The Liber Ponteficalis speaks of the archdeacon Felix building a church on the Aurelian Way, a road on which there was the tomb of a martyred St Felix, and this doubtless has been a further source of mistake and derangement.
Since 1947 the Annuario Pontificio in its list of popes has noted "Felix" among the antipopes.
The surprising entry in the Roman Martyrology quoted above is a sad memorial to the still backward state of critical scholarship at the time when Cardinal Baronius was editing this official service book. The insertion of Felix as Pope and Martyr was not any oversight, for Baronius in his annotated edition of the martyrology refers his readers for an elucidation of the matter to the volume of his great work, the Annales, which was on the point of appearing. Mgr Duchesne has discussed the whole subject at length in the introduction to his edition of the Liber Pontificalis, §§ 59-66.  It is plain that the text of the Liber Pontificalis is the source of all the trouble. In the middle ages this book passed for authoritative its strange inversion of the roles of Felix and Liberius consequently imposed themselves upon the first compilers of the martyrology. It may be that the account of Felix in the Liber Pontificalls is simply an interpolation, or that it is due to a confused memory of the Gesta Liberii. Upon this last document, see Abbot Chapman in the Revue Benédictine, vol. xxvii (1910), pp. 191-199.  See also Saltet, "La Formation de la legende des papes Libere et Felix", in Bulletin de litter. ecclis., 1905, pp. 222 seq., and J. P. Kirsch, "Die Grabstatte der Felices duo pontifices et martyres an der Via Aurelia", in Rom. Quartalschrift, vol. xxviii (1925), pp. 1-20.
4th v. Faustinus of Spello; a disciple of Bishop Saint Felix of Martano (Spello) near Spoleto, Italy, and the bishop's attendant at his martyrdom. Saint Faustinus himself suffered for Christ before passing away peacefully at Todi, Umbria, Italy
Apud Tudértum, in Umbria, sancti Faustíni Confessóris. (RM)
Saint Faustinus was a disciple of Bishop Saint Felix of Martano (Spello) near Spoleto, Italy, and the bishop's attendant at his martyrdom. Saint Faustinus himself suffered for Christ before passing away peacefully at Todi, Umbria, Italy (Benedictines).
426 St. Seraphina A saint listed in the pre-1970 Roman Martyrology as belonging to Civitas Mamiensis, a site attributed to various locations by scholars.
In civitáte Mamiénsi sanctæ Seraphínæ.    At Mamia, St. Serafina.
Seraphina (RM). The Roman Martyrology ascribes this saint to a Civitas Mamiensis, which some writers place in Armenia, others in Spain or Italy (Benedictines).
453 Prosper of Orléans Bishop Prosper of Orléans is often confused by the saints of the same name from Aquitaine and Reggio (Benedictines). B (RM)
Item deposítio beáti Prósperi, Aurelianénsis Epíscopi.    Also, the death of blessed Prosper, bishop of Orleans.
478 St. Lupus Lupus, called in French "Loup", was born at Toul, Gaul. He married the sister of St. Hilary of Arles, but after six years of marriage they parted by mutual agreement. He gave his wealth to the poor, entered Lerins Abbey under St. Honoratus, and about 426 was named Bishop of Troyes. In 429, he accompanied St. Germanus of Auxerre to Britain to combat Pelagianism there, and on his return, devoted himself to his episcopal duties. When Attila invaded Gaul, he persuaded him in 453 to spare Troyes, though he took Lupus with him as hostage.
Trecis, in Gállia, sancti Lupi, Epíscopi et Confessóris; qui, cum beáto Germáno, ad expugnándam Pelagianórum hæresim, in Británnia perréxit, urbémque Trecas a furóre Attilæ, Gálliam omnem devastántis, assídua oratióne deféndit; demum, quinquagínta duóbus annis sacerdótio venerabíliter functus, in pace quiévit.
    At Troyes in France, St. Lupus, bishop and confessor, who went with blessed Germanus to England to exterminate the Pelagian heresy, and by diligent prayer defended the city of Troyes from the wrath of Attila, who was devastating all of France.  At length, having religiously discharged the functions of the priesthood for fifty-two years, he rested in peace.
478 St  Lupus, Bishop Of Troyes  St Lupus, called in French Loup, was born at Toul about the year 383.   He married a sister of St Hilary of Arles, but after six years spent in wedlock, desirous of serving God with greater perfection, they parted by mutual consent. Lupus sold his estate for the benefit of the poor and went to the famous abbey of Lérins, then governed by St Honoratus; but very shortly afterwards, about the year 426, he was chosen as bishop of Troyes.   In this position he continued the same humility, mortification, and as much as possible poverty as in the monastery.  He never wore any other than the most simple garments, slept upon bare boards, passed many hours in private prayer and many days in voluntary fasts.  Thus he lived for over fifty years, labouring at the same time in all his pastoral functions with unremitting zeal.
  When in 429 St Germanus of Auxerre passed over into Britain to combat the Pelagian heresy, St Lupus was appointed to accompany him.   The two bishops accepted the commission the more willingly as it seemed laborious and painful, and by their prayers, preaching and miracles put down the false teaching, at any rate for a time.   Lupus after his return set himself with fresh vigour to reform his own flock, and displayed so great prudence and piety that St Sidonius Apollinaris calls him "The father of fathers and bishop of bishops, chief of the prelates of Gaul, the rule of morals, the pillar of truth, the friend of God, and intercessor to Him for men".
He spared no pains to save one lost sheep, and he often had a success which seemed miraculous. Among other instances it is recorded that a man of his diocese, named Gallus, had deserted his wife and gone to live at Clermont.  St Lupus wrote to St Sidonius, Bishop of Clermont, a strong letter, but so prudently tempered with sweetness that Gallus by reading it was at once persuaded, and set out to return to his home.  Upon which Sidonius remarked, "What is more wonderful than a single reprimand which both moves a sinner to repentance and makes him love his reprover!"
  At that time Attila with a numberless army of Huns overran Gaul, so that he came to be called "the scourge of God ", sent to punish the sins of the people. Rheims, Cambrai, Besançon, Auxerre and Langres had already felt his fury, and Troyes was the next place threatened.  The bishop, after fervent prayer to God on behalf of his people, went out to meet the invader, and prevailed on him to spare the whole province. But Lupus was forced to accompany Attila as a hostage, and after the barbarians had been beaten on the plains of Châlons he was accused of having favoured the escape of Attila, and he was obliged to leave Troyes for two years-an early victim of " anti-collaborationist " hysteria.   He spent that time as a hermit among the mountains, in great austerity and contemplation; when his charity and patience had overcome the malice of men, he went back to his church, which he governed with renewed enthusiasm until his death in 478.
  On account of his association with St Germanus, St Lupus was formerly venerated in England.  Some doubt has been cast on the story of his resistance to Attila and its consequences; but the moral to be drawn from it is unimpaired it was by prayer that the saints became holy and performed great wonders.  By it Moses could ward off the destruction of many thousands.  By it Elias called down fire and rain from the heavens; Manasses in chains found mercy; Ezechias saw his health restored; the Ninivites were preserved from destruction; Judith and Esther saved God's people; Daniel was delivered from the lions, St Peter from his chains.
The document which purports to be the earliest Life of St Lupus has long been regarded with suspicion, and Bruno Krusch in a definitive edition of the text (MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. vii, 1920, pp. 284-302) claims to have demonstrated that it is no older than the eighth century.  If so, it can have little authority in bearing witness to incidents alleged to have occurred three hundred years earlier. It was written, Krusch avers, in the Carolingian era to defend the temporal possessions of the see of Troyes. For Lupus's relations with his contemporaries see the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. vii.
When Attila was defeated at Chalons, Lupus was accused of helping him escape and was forced to leave Troyes
He lived as a hermit for two years and then was allowed to return to Troyes. Many scholars doubt the veracity of the account of the Attila incident.
Lupus (Leu, Loup) of Troyes B (RM) Born at Toul, France, c. 383; died at Troyes, c. 478. The noble, eloquent, and erudite Saint Lupus had all the qualities needed to succeed in his chosen profession of law. He practiced for some time and earned a good reputation as a barrister. Lupus married Pimeniola, a sister of Saint Hilary of Arles. Six years later (426) husband and wife took a mutual vow of perpetual continence and Lupus became a monk at Lérins with his wife's blessing. He sold much of his estate and gave it to the poor. For about a year he lived under obedience to Saint Honoratus until he was named bishop of Troyes and Honoratus, bishop of Arles.
It is said that when Honoratus was named bishop, Lupus returned to Maçon in Burgundy to dispose of an estate. En route back to Lérins, he was met by deputies of the Church of Troyes, bringing news of the death of Saint Ursus and his own selection to the see. In his humility, he initially refused but finally compromised by receiving consecration at the hands of the prelates of Sens and continuing the practices of a monk. Even as bishop he wore only sackcloth and a single tunic, lay upon boards, prayed throughout every other night, often fasted completely for three days and then ate only barley bread.
Throughout his episcopate, he labored with apostolic zeal despite his austerities. Lupus displayed such prudence and piety that Saint Sidonius Apollinaris calls him, "The father of fathers and bishop of bishops, the chief of the Gallican prelates, the rule of manners, the pillar of truth, the friend of God, and the intercessor to him for men." He spared no pains to save one lost sheep, and his work was often crowned with a success which seemed miraculous. For example, when a man named Gallus forsook his wife and withdrew to Clermont, Lupus wrote to him through Bishop Sidonius of Clermont. After Gallus read the prudent letter that was tempered with sweetness he immediately returned to his wife. Upon witnessing this, Sidonius cried out, "What is more wonderful than a single reprimand, which both affrights a sinner into compunction and makes him love his censor!"
This saint is commonly identified with the Lupus who accompanied Saint Germanus of Auxerre on his first visit to Britain to rid the country of Pelagianism. Near the end of the 4th century, the British monk Pelagius and the Scottish Celestius introduced their heresy into Africa, Italy, and the East. They denied the corruption of human nature by original sin, and the necessity of Divine grace. The British prelates asked those of Gaul for assistance in eradicating this evil, and, during the council of Arles in 429, Germanus and Lupus were deputed. They accepted the commission with zeal and ended the heresy through their prayers, preaching, and miracles.
It was said that when Attila, calling himself 'the Scourge of God,' and his Huns overran Rheims, Cambray, Besançon, Auxerre, and Langres in 451, and was threatening Troyes, Lupus took a decisive part in saving his province from the invaders, but the story is almost certainly a fiction. It says that Lupus prostrated himself in prayer for many days, fasted, and wept that God might spare his people. Then he dressed in the full episcopal regalia and went to meet Attila. The story continues that Attila was moved by reverence at the sight of the bishop at the head of a procession of his clergy. After a conversation in which Lupus reminds Attila that he can do only what God allows, Attila spared the city. It goes on to say that when Attila was defeated by the Roman general Aetius at Chalons, Attila requested that Lupus accompany him in retreat as far as the Rhein because he believed that the presence of the prelate would protect him and his army. The Romans, believing that Lupus was helping the Huns to escape, forced the bishop to leave Troyes for two years during which time he lived as a hermit in the mountains.
   He died after having governed the see of Troyes for 52 years.
At first he was buried in the Augustinian church of Saint Martin in Areis, then out of the walls of Troyes. The head of Saint Lupus is housed in one of the richest shrines in France. It is in the form of a bishop made of silver and adorned with jewels, including diamonds. The rest of his relics are in another silver shrine in the Augustinian abbey church of Saint Lupus. Many churches in England bear his name, as do the members of the family surnamed 'Sentlow,' which is derived from 'Saint Leu' (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth).
In art, Saint Lupus is depicted with a diamond falling from heaven as he celebrates Mass. He may be shown (1) holding a chalice with a diamond in it or (2) at the altar, giving a diamond to a king (Roeder).
6th v. Sulian (Silin) may be identical with the Breton Saint Sulien of Cornouaille and Domonée;  founder and abbot of Luxulyan in Cornwall (AC)
Saint Sulian may be identical with the Breton Saint Sulien of Cornouaille and Domonée. He was the founder and abbot, but not the patron, of Luxulyan in Cornwall. There is considerable, but understandable, confusion between Sulian and another Saint Sulinus of East Brittany and the Welsh Saint Tysilio (Suliau). There appears to be three separate saints (Farmer).
7th v St. Kilian An Irish abbot who wrote the life of St. Brigid. He ruled a monastery on the island of Iniscaltra, Ireland
Kilian, Abbot (AC). Saint Kilian, an Irish abbot of a monastery in the island of Inishcaltra, authored one of the lives of Saint Brigid of Kildare (Benedictines, Montague).
Saint Eustathius, a Persian by descent, was a fire-worshipper named Gvirobandak prior to his baptism into the Christian Faith.

From the Second book from the series Light of Christ—Georgia Page 271 regarding The grave of Saint Eustathius of Mtskheta
 When he arrived in Georgia and settled in Mtskheta, he was deeply drawn to the morals and traditions of the Georgian people, and he resolved to convert to Christianity.
His decision entailed a great risk, as the Persians dominated eastern Georgia, persecuting Christians and forcing all to worship fire, as they did. Catholicos Samoel himself baptized Gvirobandak and called him Eustathius. The new convert soon married a Georgian woman and was fully assimilated into Georgian society and the life of the Church.
Once the Persians who were occupying Mtskheta invited Eustathius to a celebration, but he declined, saying, “I am stamped with the seal of Christ and far removed from every darkness!”  After the celebration the fire-worshippers reported Eustathius to Ustam, the chief of the Mtskheta Fortress. The chief summoned Eustathius and threatened him, saying, “You will not remain a Christian without punishment. If you do not voluntarily turn back from this way of misfortune, severe tortures will await you!”
St. Eustathius calmly answered him, saying, “For the sake of Christ I am prepared to endure not only torture but even death itself with rejoicing!”
Since he himself did not have the authority to punish Eustathius, Ustam sent the accused to the marzban Arvand Gushnasp. Then the informers appeared again before Ustam and reported that seven more fire-worshippers had converted to Christianity. All eight of them were bound in chains and escorted to Tbilisi.  The furious marzban ordered his servants to shave the captives’ heads and beards, bore holes in their noses, hang weights round their necks, fetter their bodies in chains and cast them into prison.
Anyone who denied Christ was to be pardoned. Two of the victims, Bakhdiad and Panagushnasp, could not bear the suffering and denied Christ.
The marzban freed them, while the six holy men—Gushnaki, Eustathius, Borzo, Perozak, Zarmil and Steven—remained in confinement.
Six months later Arvand Gushnasp was summoned to Persia, so Catholicos Samoel, the chieftain Grigol of Mtskheta and the nobleman Arshusha took advantage of the opportunity and requested that he release the imprisoned Persian Christians. Arvand Gushnasp yielded to the request of the Georgian dignitaries, but warned that the Christian converts would soon meet their deaths.
  Meanwhile, the betrayer Bakhdiad fell ill with epilepsy and died, while Panagushnasp lived on in terrible poverty.  Three years later Vezhan Buzmir was appointed the new marzban of Kartli, and the pagan priests again reported on Sts. Eustathius’s and Steven’s conversion. St. Eustathius asked to see his family and said to them: “Farewell, for I am not destined to return home again. I will not betray Christ, and for this they will not forgive me. Imprisonment and beheading await me in Tbilisi. My remains will be brought here according to God’s will.”
   Eustathius and Steven were escorted to the new marzban, and Eustathius declared before him that he would not deny Christ. The enraged marzban ordered that he be cast into prison and that his head be chopped off that night and his body thrown behind the fortress wall, to be torn to pieces by the birds. As directed, the marzban’s servants beheaded the saint and cast his body into the abyss behind the fortress wall. A group of faithful Christians located St. Eustathius’s body and carried it in secret to Mtskheta.
Catholicos Samoel met the holy relics when they arrived, and with great honor they were buried in Svetitskhoveli Cathedral under the altar table.
821 Saint Michael the Confessor The Hosiomartyr disciple of St Theodore of Edessa (July 9), was beheaded during the ninth century for his confession of faith in Christ. His memory is celebrated also on May 23.
From his youth he longed for the monastic life and was sent by Patriarch Tarasius (784-806) to a monastery on the coast of the Black Sea. St Theophylactus (March 8), the future Bishop of Nicomedia also entered the monastery together with him.
At the monastery both monks engaged in spiritual struggles and were soon glorified by gifts from the Lord. Once, during a harvest, when the people were weakened by thirst, an empty metal vessel was filled with water by the prayer of the monks.
Patriarch Tarasius consecrated St Michael as bishop of the city of Synada. Through his holy life and wisdom, St Michael won the love of believers, and the notice of the emperors Nicephorus I (802-811) and Michael I Rangabe (811-813). St Michael was present at the Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicea in 787.
When the Iconoclast heretic Leo the Armenian (813-820) assumed the throne, he began to expel Orthodox hierarchs from their Sees, appointing heretics in their place.
St Michael defended Orthodoxy, bravely opposing the heretics and denouncing their error. Leo the Armenian brought St Michael to trial, but not fearing torture he answered resolutely, "I venerate the holy icons of my Savior Jesus Christ and the All-Pure Virgin, His Mother, and all the saints, and it is to them I bow down. I shall not obey your decrees to remove icons from churches."
Leo then banished St Michael to the city of Eudokiada, where the confessor died about the year 821.
The head of St Michael is preserved in the Great Lavra of St Athanasius on Mount Athos, and part of the relics are at the Iveron monastery.
1030  St. Olaf son of Harold Grenske, a lord in Norway. Olaf Haraldsson, often called "the Fat", spent his youth as a pirate. He was baptized in Rouen, and in 1013, went to England to aid King Ethelred against the Danes. He returned to Norway in 1015, captured most of Norway back from the Danes and Swedes, defeated Earl Sweyn at the battle of Nesjar in 1016, and became king. He set about unifying and Christianizing his realm; miracles were reported at his shrine.
In Norvégia sancti Olávi, Regis et Mártyris.   In Norway, St. Olaf, king and martyr.
But the harshness of Olaf 's rule precipitated a revolt of the nobles in 1029, and aided by Canute of Denmark, they defeated him and forced him to flee to Russia.
   He returned in 1030 and attempted to recover his kingdom, but was slain at the Battle of Stiklestad in Norway on July 29th. Though not too popular during his lifetime, miracles were reported at his shrine, and a chapel was built, which became the cathedral of Trondheim; it became a great pilgrimage center for all Scandinavia. He is one of the great heroes of Norway for his efforts to unify and Christianize Norway, of which he is patron. He was canonized in 1164
1030  St. Olaf  the son of Harold Grenske, a lord in Norway, and after eight years of piracy and lighting succeeded to his father in 1010 at the age of twenty, at a time when most of Norway was in the hands of the Danes and Swedes.  These parts he conquered and then set about the subjection of the realm to Christ, for he himself had already been baptized at Rouen by Archbishop Robert; the work had been begun, but had not made much real progress, by Haakon the Good and by Olaf Tryggvason, whose methods of "evangelization" seem to have been preposterous and wicked.   In 1013 Olaf Haraldsson had sailed to England and assisted King Ethelred against the Danes, and he now turned to that country for help in his more peaceable task.  He brought over from England a number of priests and monks, one of whom, Grimkel, was chosen bishop of Nidaros, his capital.
   Olaf relied much on the advice of this prelate, and by his counsel published many good enactments and abolished ancient laws and customs contrary to the gospel.  Unfortunately, like St Vladimir of Russia and other princes who sought to convert their people, he was not content with exhortation, his zeal was often more than his prudence, and he used force without compunction. To his enemies he was merciless, added to which some of his legislation and political objects were not everywhere approved. Therefore many rose in arms, and, with assistance of Canute, King of England and Denmark, defeated and expelled him.   St Olaf fled, but returned with a few Swedish troops to recover his kingdom; he was slain by his rebellious and infidel subjects in a battle fought at Stiklestad, on July 29, 1030.
  The king's body was buried in a steep sandbank by the river Nid, where he had fallen; here a spring gushed out whose waters became credited with healing power and the bishop, Grimkel, in the following year ordered that he was to be there venerated as a martyr and a chapel built over the place.  Miracles were reported at the shrine, and on the return of his son Magnus to power the veneration of St Olaf became widespread; in 1075 the chapel was replaced by a bishop's church, dedicated to Christ and St Olaf, which in time became the metropolitan cathedral of Nidaros (Trondhjem), which was, both as a building and a shrine, to Scandinavia what Canterbury was to England: and just as pilgrims to the one dismounted on Harbledown Hill to greet the first sight of England's greatest shrine, so pilgrims to the other did the like on what is still known as Feginsbrekka, the Hill of Joy.   During the middle ages the cultus of "the perpetual King of Norway" spread to Sweden, Denmark, the British Isles and beyond, and he is still regarded by Norwegians as the patron and national hero of his country.
The name Tooley of a London street is a corruption of St Olaf's, and marks the former Scandinavian and Danish colony in Southwark; and the churches of St Olave in Hart Street and of St Olive Upwell in Old Jewry were named after him.
See the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. vii, where a text of the life by Archbishop Eystein is printed. This and other documents are also given in Metcalfe, Passio et miracula b. Olavi (1881). There is an English account by F. Vicary, Olav the King...(1887); a short life in French by C. Riesterer (1930);  a translation into French by 0. Sautreau of Snorre Sturluson's Saga of St Olaf (1930); and S. Undset's Saga of Saints (1934), pp. 87-148. See also F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (1943), pp. 396-399, etc.; and for Olaf's cultus in the British Isles articles by Professor Bruce Dickins in Saga Book of the Viking Society, vol. xii (1939), pp. 53-80, and in The Norseman, vol. ii (1944) no. 5.
Olaf of Norway, King M (RM) (also known as Olave, Ola, Olao, Tola, Tooley) Born 995; died at Stiklestad, July 29, 1030; canonized in 1164. Saint Olaf was the son of a Norwegian jarl, Harald Grenske. At a precociously early age (about 12), Olaf was allowed to join a band of viking pirates. In the course of his rovings he fought for Richard of Normandy, and for Ethelred II in England against the Danes in 1013. In 1010, Olaf the Fat received baptism in Rouen, France, at the hands of Archbishop Robert. In 1015, at the age of 20, he returned to Norway and succeeded his father. He then proceeded to capture most of Norway back from the Danes and Swedes, defeated Earl Sweyn at the battle of Nesje in 1016, and became ruler of Norway. After his brilliant military conquest, the recently baptized Olaf set about subjecting his realm to Christ. He brought Christian clergy from England and elsewhere into the country. One of these foreigners, Grimkel, was chosen bishop of Nidaros (Trondheim), his capital. On Grimkel's advice, Olaf published many good enactments and abolished ancient laws and customs contrary to the Gospel.
Unfortunately, like Saint Vladimir of Russia and Olaf Tryggvesson before him, he used force and bribery to destroy paganism and impose the new religion on his people. He attempted to unify the country, but some of his legislation and political objectives were not everywhere accepted. In fact, his rule caused widespread discontent. He was merciless to his enemies and so it was not long before the nobles revolted in 1029 and he was driven out by the Anglo-Danish King Knut (Canute). Olaf fled to Russia but returned to Norway in 1031 with a few Swedish troops in an attempt to regain his kingdom, but was killed in battle at Stiklestad on the Trondheim fjord.
In circumstances somewhat resembling those of Saint Eric of Sweden, Olaf Haraldsson became the national hero-saint of Norway. He was unpopular in his lifetime, but miracles were reported at his tomb on a steep sandbank by the River Nid, where he had fallen. Here a spring gushed out whose waters became credited with healing power and other miracles were reported. The following year Bishop Grimkel ordered that he was to be venerated as a martyr and that a chapel be built over the place.
He had been zealous for Christianity, albeit crudely, he had died what was called a martyr's death, and his name was made to stand for Norwegian independence. In 1075, his incorrupt body was enshrined in what became the cathedral of Nidaros (Trondheim), which replaced the chapel, and became a site of pilgrimage. During the Reformation his body was removed and reburied. His cultus was aided by the unpopular rule of Swein, Canute's son; Canute's death in 1035 resulted in the flight of many Danes from Norway and the accession of Olaf's son Magnus. Thereafter his cultus spread rapidly. Adam of Bremen (c. 1070) wrote that his feast was celebrated throughout Scandinavia.
In England, more than 40 ancient churches were dedicated in his honor (Saint Olave's) in London, York, Exeter, Lincoln, and elsewhere, especially in Viking areas, and his feast can be found on many English calendars including London, Norwich, Exeter, Winchester, York, and the monasteries of Ramsey, Sherbourne, Abbotsbury, Launceston, and Syon.
Olaf was a Christian name in England before the Conquest. In Gaelic it became Amlaibh (Aulag), from which the Hebridean surname 'Macaulay' derives. In English, the name was corrupted by the addition of a 'T' (elided from the final sound of 'saint') to become 'Tooley' (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Walsh).
In art, Saint Olaf is depicted as a king with a lance and covered cup or ciborium, who tramples on a crowned demon. Sometimes he is shown (1) enthroned, a man under his feet; (2) standing on an armed man; (3) with a halberd and dagger; (4) with a halberd and loaf; or (5) with a halberd and axe (Roeder). In English iconography Olaf is included on the seals of Grimby Abbey and Herringfleet Priory in Suffolk, on the 15th-century screen at Barton Turf in Norfolk, on an ivory crozier in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and in glass at York Minster. The most complete example is six medallions from Olaf's life in the Beatus initial of the 13th-century Carrow Psalter, which was written in East Anglia and can be found in the Walter's Art Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. 
He is venerated in East Anglia (Roeder) and the patron of Norway (Farmer).
1099 Blessed Urban II, Odo of Lagery studied under Saint Bruno at Rheims, became archdeacon there, and, about 1070, became a Benedictine monk at Cluny. Saint Hugh named Odo prior. Then he was sent to Rome to assist Pope Gregory VII's reform of the Church, became his chief adviser, and was named cardinal-bishop of Ostia in 1078; succeed Blessed Pope Victor III:  OSB Pope (RM)
Romæ beáti Urbáni Papæ Secúndi, qui, sancti Gregórii Séptimi vestígia secútus, doctrínæ et religiónis stúdio enítuit, et fidéles Cruce signátos ad sacra Palæstínæ loca ex infidélium domínio rediménda excitávit.  Cultum autem, ab immemorábili témpore eídem exhíbitum, Leo Décimus tértius, Póntifex Máximus, ratum hábuit et confirmávit.
    At Rome, blessed Pope Urban II who followed in the path of St. Gregory VII.  He was resplendent for his zeal for learning and religion, and aroused the faithful, signed with the sign of the cross, to recover the holy places of Palestine from the power of the infidels.  Pope Leo XIII ratified and confirmed the veneration shewn him from time immemorial. 
Born at Châtillons-sur-Marne, Champagne, France, c. 1042; died in Rome on July 29, 1099; beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1881. Odo of Lagery was born of a noble family of the counts of Semur. He studied under Saint Bruno at Rheims, became archdeacon there, and, about 1070, became a Benedictine monk at Cluny. Saint Hugh named Odo prior. Then he was sent to Rome to assist Pope Gregory VII's reform of the Church, became his chief adviser, and named cardinal-bishop of Ostia 1078.
   Odo was legate to Germany, 1082-85, was briefly imprisoned there by Emperor Henry IV, and on March 12, 1088, he was elected pope to succeed Blessed Pope Victor III and took the name Urban II. Urban was faced by antipope Clement III, who held Rome and whom he had anathematized at the Synod of Quedlinburg in Saxony he had held in 1085 and who was supported by Emperor Henry IV.
   Urban held a synod at Melfi in 1089 that decreed against lay investiture, simony, and clerical marriages, but it was not until 1094 that he was able to sit on the papal throne in Rome. In 1095, he summoned a council at Clermont-Ferrand, France, at which the Gregorian decrees requiring clerical celibacy and denouncing lay investiture and simony were reiterated and "the Truce of God" was proclaimed a law of the Church. It also anathematized King Philip I of France for putting aside his wife, Bertha, and marrying Bertrada, wife of the count of Anjou.
   As a result of the request from Eastern Emperor Alexis I, Urban preached the First Crusade. His appeal was greeted with tremendous enthusiasm; launched in 1097, the crusade led to the capture of Jerusalem in 1099.
   When Emperor Henry IV left Italy in 1097 and the party of antipope Clement III (Guibert) left Rome the following year, Urban was finally triumphant over his most persistent opponents. He called a council at Bari in 1098 that was unsuccessful in an attempt to effect a reconciliation between Rome and Constantinople.
   His entire pontificate was marked by conflicts with secular rulers, especially Emperor Henry IV; Urban excommunicated Henry, King Philip I of France, and would have excommunicated William Rufus of England except for the intercession of Saint Anselm (Benedictines, Delaney).

1099 Blessed Urban II, Odo of Lagery  It has been said that the Benedictine reform of Cluny was by far, "the most potent international influence of the eleventh century".  Not all this influence was directly effected by the various Cluniac houses and the activities of their inmates; much of it came through the popes, particularly in the first place St Gregory VII, who was brought up in the Cluniac monastery of St Mary on the Aventine and was a personal friend of St Odilo and St Hugh, and after him by the pontificate of Bd  Urban H. Odo (Eudes) of Lagery was born at Chatillon-sur-Marne in 1042, and made his studies in the school of Rheims under St Bruno, founder of the Carthusians; perhaps by him he was inspired with a love for the religious life, for after being canon and archdeacon of Rheims he retired to Cluny and there received the habit.  He afterwards wrote to his abbot, St Hugh: "You and yours do I love in particular, for through you I learnt the elements of the monastic life and in your monastery I was re-born by the life-giving grace of the Holy Spirit." He became prior of the house and was called from that office in 1078 to be cardinal-bishop of Ostia and one of the chief advisers of St Gregory VII. Hildebrand's successor, Bd Victor III, on death-bed named Cardinal-bishop of Ostia to succeed himself; such a nomination has no canonical effect, but it had great weight with the conclave, which on March 12, 1088 elected Odo pope by acclamation. He took the name of Urban, and announced to the world his intention of following closely in the footsteps of Gregory VII. Among others, he wrote to Bd Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, calling him "the most noble and truest of the distinguished sons of your mother, the Holy Roman Church", and asking for his support.
  He needed all he could get. When St Peter Damian wrote, urbanely congratulating him in a Latin epigram on being made a poor bishop at Rome, his statement that "[Peter] is ever cleaning his fishing-gear and ploughing through deep waters" was more than just rhetoric. Rome itself was in the hands of the antipope Guibert ("Clement III") and it was not till November that Urban was able to enter the city, and more military force had to be used before he could take possession of St Peter's. Soon afterwards the Emperor Henry IV invaded Italy:  Urban abandoned Rome, and the antipope Clement was again welcomed by the citizens.
   Urban retired to southern Italy, where he worked for the improvement of local ecclesiastical discipline and for the peace of the Church at large but the continued use of the sword by the principal of his adherents did not hasten an agreement, and Henry was egged on in his course by the bishops of Germany. At the end of 1093 Urban re-entered Rome, living in the fortified palace of the Frangipani family, for Guibert's followers still held the castle of Sant' Angelo and the pope was unwilling to take up arms against the Roman citizens. He was reduced to the direst poverty and indebtedness, from which he was rescued by the generosity and devotion of a French abbot, Geoffrey of Vendôme.
  In spring of 1095 a synod was convened at Piacenza. After the fathers dealt with two royal marriage cases, Urban promulgated the Gregorian decrees concerning clerical celibacy, lay investitures and simony, and first broached the subject of a crusade in consequence of an appeal from the Eastern emperor, Alexius I Comnenus, for help to drive out the Seljuk Turks.
  This matter was taken up seriously later in the year at the Council of Clermont-Ferrand in France, and it was received with immense enthusiasm. The idea of the Emperor Alexius was "to call in the barbarians of the West to destroy barbarians of the East". Among the considerations on the Western side was the appeal to churchmen of the prospect of finding a more distant outlet for the energies and ambitions of the feudal lords; while the people at large welcomed the aim of making the road across Asia Minor safe for pilgrims and traders and rescuing Jerusalem and the churches of Asia from the power of the Saracens.
  It was decided to raise an army; a plenary indulgence was granted to all who joined it solely from religious motives, and their goods were to be inviolable the "Truce of God" was extended; and clergy and young married men were discouraged from going. Bd Urban in an eloquent appeal to the religious spirit and military valour of the Franks carried the people away:  the multitude replied with shouts of "God wills it!" and large numbers there and then "took the cross."  The pope himself for the next nine months preached the crusade up and down France, and in the words of William of Malmesbury:
   "The Welshman left his hunting, the Scot his comradeship with lice, the Dane his drinking fellows, the Norwegian his raw fish. Lands were left by their husbandmen, houses by those who dwelt in them; even whole cities were on the move."
   During the spring of 1097 the four official armies of the First Crusade assembled at Coastantinople, and a fortnight before the death of Bd Urban, in July 1099, Jerusalem was taken.
  Thus began the Crusades, a series of expeditions which, had they all been undertaken and carried out in the spirit of the holy pope who initiated the first, might have been of permanent value to the Church and the cause of Christianity; as it was, the good they did was on the whole ephemeral, while some of their evil results subsist to this day. Before ever the first official army set out, bands of undisciplined enthusiasts had prejudiced its reputation by pillaging and murdering through the valley of the Danube, terrorizing Constantinople, and been left for the Turks to annihilate; while the capture of the Holy City was celebrated by a frightful massacre of Jews and Moslems.
   Before returning to Italy the pope reduced some of the French bishops to order and received a promise of amendment from the adulterous King Philip (which he did not keep), and in May 1097 the rebellious Emperor Henry IV finally returned to Germany; somewhat over a year later the antipope's party in Sant' Angelo surrendered the fortress, and at last the pope occupied the apostolic city in peace.
The antipope Guibert was at Ravenna. At the same time, to solve the problems of church and state in the south, Urban constituted Count Roger of Sicily and his heir his legate in Sicily; the exact terms of the commission are uncertain, but later the office was interpreted as residing in each and every successor to Roger as ruler of the Two Sicilies, and their privileges and "rights" were only finally extinguished by the Treaty of the Lateran in 1929.
  The last considerable act of Bd Urban's troubled but fruitful pontificate was the holding of a council at Ban, of which the ostensible object was the healing of the ecclesiastical divisions between Rome and Constantinople.
   But Emperor Alexius had his hands full at the time, and, though there seem to have been Byzantine bishops present, the council resolved itself into a successful attempt to resolve the difficulties of the Italo-Greek bishops of southern Italy; the question of the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son was thrashed out to their satisfaction, chiefly owing to the eloquence and learning of St Anselm of Canterbury, who, being in Italy to inform the pope of the iniquities of King William Rufus, was called on by Bd Urban to explain and defend the Catholic teaching.
    No account of Urban can end without further reference to his association with St Bruno, his former master, although so little is known about it.
   When Urban ascended the papal chair Bruno had been already four years in the wilds of the Grande Chartreuse, and two years after he was called away to be "at the service of the Apostolic See".  It may be safely assumed that until the end of his life the pope depended much on the counsels of Bruno, for he would never let him go again out of Italy. For some time he lived with Urban himself, and was then allowed to found and reside at a hermitage on the lands of Count Roger in Calabria; he makes no public appearances that are recorded in Urban's reign, but is always there at the pope's need-an outstanding example of religious obedience and of the function of the contemplative in the Church's life.
  Doubtless Bruno was at Urban's side when he had to deal with the delicate business of the relations of St Robert with his abbey of Molesme and the new foundation at Citeaux, whose monks "make profession of keeping the Rule of St Benedict in all particulars, [so] let them not by another change return to a system which they now hold in contempt"; and his influence, as well as his own upbringing, probably contributed to Urban's notable partiality for monks and the privileges he granted to monasteries everywhere.
  Urban held a last council at Rome after Easter in 1099, at which Guibert was once more condemned and at which the pope pleaded for the crusade with such effect that the antipope's own brother took the cross. Three months later he died, and his cultus seems to have been from the day of his death, but he was formally beatified only in 1881. His story is one of great events in which, from the circumstances of the case, secular politics played a distressingly large part; but what is known of Urban's private life bears out the uncompromising but not hard Christianity of his public life: in particular was he solicitous for the poor and devoted to our Lady-and his reliance on St Bruno and Bruno's faithful service have their own significance
Bd Urban's life involves the whole history of his times and no criticism of the sources would be possible here. There is a relatively full account of his pontificate in the Liber Pontificalis (Duchesne, vol. ii, 293-295) by Petrua Gulielmus; and Urban figures, of course, prominently in all the chronicles of the period.  English readers will find a painstaking narrative in Mann, The Lives of the Popes in the Middle Ages, vol. vii, pp. 245-346. The biography by Lucien Paulot Un Papa francais, Urbain II (1903), should be read in the light of Poncelet's comments in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxiii (1904), pp. 372-375. The estimate of Urban in such modern authorities as Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, vol. iii, pp. 858-881, and the Cambridge Medieval History, vol. iv, pp. 87-95, shows a not unappreciative sense of the services he rendered to the Church and to the political problems of his time.  Cf. also Fliche and Martin, Histoire de l'Eglise, t. viii, pp. 199-337, and S. Runciman, History of the Crusades, vol. i (1951) .
1234 St. William of Saint-Brieuc, Bishop, also called William Pinchon. A native of Brittany, France, he entered the priesthood and was soon made a canon and then bishop of Saint-Bricuc  (in 1220). Known as a staunch defender of the poor and of ecclesiastical rights, he was banished for a time by the duke of Brittany, going to Poitiers and returning in 1230 body was deposited in his cathedral and taken up incorrupt in 1248. He was canonized in 1247 or 1253.
In civitáte Briocénsi, in Gállia, sancti Guliélmi, Epíscopi et Confessóris.
    At St. Brieuc in France, St. William, bishop and confessor.
1234 St William Pinchon, Bishop Of Saint-Brieuc 
On this bishop, St William Pinchon, we are told that his virtues and miracles were remarkable, but of the actual events of his life very little is known.  He received holy orders at the hands of Josselin, Bishop of Saint-Brieuc, served that church under his two successors, Peter and Silvester, and succeeded himself to the see about the year 1220. The poor were his treasurers, and not content to exhaust on them whatever he possessed, he borrowed stores of corn and other necessary provisions for their relief; his application to all the duties of his charge was no hindrance to his nourishing within himself the spirit of recollection and holy prayer. Being pertinacious in defending the rights of the Church and its bishops against the encroachments of Peter Mauclerc, Duke of Brittany, he was expelled from his diocese for two years and took refuge at Poitiers. He returned in 1230 and died four years later at Saint-Brieuc.  His body was deposited in his cathedral and taken up incorrupt in 1248, the year after he was canonized.
See the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. vii, where a short life is printed, attributed to Godefrid Calvus. Cf. also Lobineau, Vies des saints de Bretagne, vol. ii, pp. 426-435, and J. Arnault, S. Guillaume, éveque de Saint-Brieuc (1934).
William Pinchon of Saint-Brieuc B (RM) Born in Brittany; canonized in 1253 by Pope Innocent IV. Although William was born into an illustrious Breton family, he possessed very admirable virtues: an innocence of manner, meekness, humility, chastity, charity, and devotion. Bishop Josselin of Saint-Brieuc both tonsured and ordained William as deacon, then priest. Thereafter he served as a canon of the diocese until his elevation to the bishopric in 1220. During the 14 years of his episcopate, he suffered banishment to Poitiers and other indignities because of his defense of the rights of the Church.
He made no show of his austerities: It was a long time before his domestic servants realized that he never used the soft bed that they prepared for him. Instead he sleep on bare boards to train his spirit to rise above the weakness of his body. The poor were his treasures. Whenever he had given away all he possessed, he would borrow the stores of others to relieve them. Despite an arduous schedule, he never deprived his spirit of nourishing prayer which gave meaning to all he did. Upon his death, William's body was buried in the cathedral. In 1248 it was taken up and found to be incorrupt (Benedictines, Husenbeth).
1240 Sts Constantine and Cosmas were monastic followers of St Barlaam of Khutyn (November 6) between the Rivers Polista and Smezhnya they founded a monastery there in the name of St Nicholas
St Barlaam of Khutyn (November 6) and his successor, St Anthony of Dymsk (January 17). About the year 1220, they left the Khutyn monastery and settled upon a wilderness peninsula, situated 3 versts from the city of Staraya Rus, between the Rivers Polista and Smezhnya. In time they founded a monastery there in the name of St Nicholas, headed by St Constantine until his death.
St Cosmas continued with the exploits of his mentor. He was buried in the same grave with St Constantine. Their bodies rest beneath the vestibule of the Nikolaev church, built in 1820 over the tomb of the saints.

1392  Saint Roman of Kirzhachsk a coascetic and student of St Sergius, Igumen of Radonezh
Sts Sergius (September 25 and July 5) and Roman built a church in the forests of Vladimir governia at the River Kirzhach in honor of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, and established a new monastery (in 1371). Three years later, with the blessing of St Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow (February 12), St Sergius returned to the Trinity monastery, and St Roman remained to head the newly-created wilderness monastery.
Ordained to the priesthood by St Alexis, the new head of the Annunciation monastery fulfilled the precepts of his spiritual father and teacher, St Sergius with great fervor. A zealous ascetic, a good and demanding instructor, St Roman was an example for all the brethren.
The saint died on July 29, 1392 and was buried in the Annunciation temple.
In the manuscripts, St Roman is numbered among the saints and is called a wonderworker.
1268 Blessed Beatrix of Valfleury cultus not yet approved, a Cistercian nun of Valfleury, became prioress of Our Lady of Nazareth near Lier in Brabant (Benedictines), OSB Cist. V (PC)
1629 Bl. Mancius of the Holy Cross Martyr of Japan, a Dominican tertiary. An elderly native of Japan, he was burned alive at Omura with Blessed Louis Bertran beatified in 1867.
1629 Bl. Louis Bertran Dominican martyr of Japan. A relative of St. Louis Bertran, this Louis was born in Barcelona, Spain, and became a Dominican. He was sent to the Philippines in 1618 and then to the Japanese mission. He was burned alive with two companions in Omura, Japan. He was beatified in 1867.
Blessed Louis Bertrán and Companions, OP MM (AC) Born in Barcelona, Spain; beatified in 1867. Blessed Louis is a relative of the more famous Saint Louis Bertrán (d.1581), apostle of Colombia, South America. After his profession in the Dominican Order, he was sent to the Philippine Islands in 1618 and then to Japan, where he worked until his martyrdom by being burned alive with two companions at Omura (Benedictines).
1629 Bl. Peter of the Holy Mother of God Japanese martyr native; entered the Dominicans and served as a catechist before being arrested by Japanese authorities. With Blessed Louis Bertran, he was burned alive at Omura.
1667 Child Schemamonk Bogolep was the son of a Moscow nobleman Iakov Lukich Ushakov and his wife Katherine; the holy child repeatedly appeared to many either in sleep, or awake while walking along the river bank, or coming down the hill. He consoled them, promising that he would be present spiritually with believers.
He was born in 1660 at Moscow At Baptism they gave him the name Boris, in honor of holy Passion-Bearer Boris (July 24).
Ushakov was appointed voevoda (military-commander) in the city of Chernyi Yar (Black Ravine), situated 250 versts from Astrakhan. He was known for his integrity. From infancy Boris displayed unusual traits. On Wednesdays and Fridays he would not drink milk from his mother's breasts. When the bells pealed at the church, he began to cry, and became quiet only when they brought him into the church. When they did not take the infant to church, he cried all day and ate nothing.
In 1662 a deadly pestilence spread about in Russia. The child fell ill, and the pestilence afflicted him in the legs. He became lame, but continued to walk to church. The parents prayed for the health of their son and they tried everything in their power to heal him. But no sooner had the one illness gone, than upon his face there appeared another, called scales.
Once during his illness the child saw a wandering monk who visited at their home. The angelic garb so impressed the child, that he began to implore his parents to sew him such clothing and permit him to receive monastic tonsure. The holy child proclaimed: "You will see for yourselves, when you tonsure and grant me the angelic garb, I shall be well." The parents consented. The child was invested in the schema with the name Bogolep (the Russian version of the Greek name Theoleptos, meaning "similar to God").
On the next day the child schemamonk was completely healthy, his face was clear and there remained no trace of the illness. But on the third day there was a new illness, he developed a fever, and it struck down the child. He died on August 1, 1667 and was buried at the left wall of the wooden Black Ravine church in honor of the Resurrection of Christ. (This church was built after a great fire in Black Ravine, on July 24, 1652 the Feast of St Boris). A chapel was built over the grave of the child.
The Life of the holy Schemamonk Bogolep was compiled under a vow by the Black Ravine merchant Sava Tatarinov during the years 1731-1732.
Icons of the saint, with the Troparion and Kontakion to him, were widely dispersed throughout the Astrakhan region.
In 1750 on the place of the wooden church a stone church was built with a side-altar in honor of the holy Martyr John the Warrior. The grave of the holy schemamonk was enclosed in this side altar.
The bank of the river, where the church of the Resurrection of Christ stood, was constantly eroding. By the mid-nineteenth century the structure of the church was threatened, and they removed all the holy things from it. For a long time the people of Black Ravine did not remove the chief holy object: the grave of the holy schemamonk. Finally, in 1851 when the water had already approached 4 ft. 8 inches, the people petitioned the Most Holy Synod with a request to transfer the holy relics of the Schemamonk Bogolep, and they received permission for this. The small child's coffin was laid bare, but just when the city head took it into his hands, it slid out of his hands and disappeared into the waters of the Volga.
This disappearance of the relics just at the opening of the grave was accepted as the Will of God, since the holy child had repeatedly appeared to many either in sleep, or awake while walking along the river bank, or coming down the hill. He consoled them, promising that he would be present spiritually with believers.
The simple life of the holy Schemamonk Bogolep, full of the mysteries of God, illustrates the words of the Savior concerning children: "Let the children come unto Me and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter therein. And He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them" (Mark 10: 14-16).
We pray to St Bogolep for children, and also for protection against lightning.
1861  Bl. John Baptist Lo Martyr of China. Originally a humble servant, he was converted to the Christian faith and slain because he refused to recant When tortured by officials.
1861  Bl. Joseph Tshang Martyr of China; a native seminarian who, along with three companions, was beheaded. Pope St. Pius X beatified him in 1909.
Blessed Joseph Tshang, John Baptist Lo, & Martha Wang MM (AC); beatified in 1909.  Joseph Tshang was a native seminarian born in the province of Su-tchuen, China, c. 1832. John Baptist Lo, born in 1825, was a Chinese servant. Martha Wang, a native of Tonkin, carried letters from Joseph and John to their bishop. She was arrested and all three were beheaded at Tsin-gai (Benedictines).
1861 St. Martha Wang Martyr of Tonkin, Vietnam, who was arrested carrying letters from the imprisoned martyrs, Blesseds Joseph Tshang and Paul Tcheng. She was beheaded with them at Tsingai. Martha was beatified in 1909.
1861 Bl. Paul Tcheng Martyr of China. He was a Catholic seminarian when arrested by Chinese authorities and beheaded at Tsingai. He was beatified in 1909.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 10

Give ear to me, thou who rulest Israel: praise thy Mother with me.

Arise and shake thyself from the dust, O my soul: go forth to meet the Queen of Heaven.

Loose the bands of thy neck, O poor little soul of mine: and welcome her with glorious praises.

The odor of life comes forth from her: and all salvation springs out of her heart.

By the sweet fragrance of her spiritual gifts: dead souls are raised to life.

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

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

God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique, for each is the result of a new idea.  As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike. It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints. Dear Lord, grant us a spirit that is not bound by our own ideas and preferences.  Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves. O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory. Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.  Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.   God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heaven:  only saints are allowed into heaven. The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.
There are over 10,000 named saints beati  from history
 and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources
Patron_Saints.html  Widowed_Saints html  Indulgences The Catholic Church in China
LINKS: Marian Shrines   India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes 1858  China Marian shrines 1995
Kenya national Marian shrine  Loreto, Italy  Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
  Links to Related MarianWebsites  Angels and Archangels  Saints Visions of Heaven and Hell
Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates  Chalcedon
Mary the Mother of Jesus Miracles_BC  Lay Saints  Miraculous_Icons  Miraculous_Medal_Novena Patron Saints
Miracles by Century 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000    1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800  1900 2000
Miracles 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000  
 1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800   1900 Lay Saints

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia Paqualina Addatis), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Addolorata, Servants of Mary (1845-1900);
– Servant of God Maria of the Incarnation (née Caterina Carrasco Tenorio), founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of the Flock of Mary (1840-1917);
– Servant of God , founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Family of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1851-1923);
– Servant of God Ilia Corsaro, founder of the Congregation of the Little Missionaries of the Eucharist (1897-1977);
– Servant of God Maria Montserrat Grases García, layperson of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1941-1959).
LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858 
China Marian shrines May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798  
Links to Related Marian Websites  Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates, PSALTER  BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 10 2023