Forefeast of the Procession of the Honorable and Lifegiving Cross of the Lord
Mary Mother of GOD
Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
RDeo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
July is the month of the Precious Blood since 1850;
2023
22,600  Lives Saved Since 2007

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

Honorable and Lifegiving Cross of the Lord

CAUSES OF SAINTS

Our Bartholomew Family Prayer List  Here
Joyful Mystery on Monday Saturday   Glorius Mystery on Sunday Wednesday
  
Sorrowful Mystery on Friday Tuesday   Luminous Mystery on Thursday Veterens of War

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


15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary
July 31- Our Lady of Slain (Lorban, Portugal)  The Fruits of the Vision of the Virgin

July 31 – Ethiopian Church: Feast of the Densata (Conception of Mary) - Saint Ignatius of Loyola

                                                       
       
40 Days for Life  11,000+ saved lives in 2015
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'

 
He felt two strong hands helping him up
In the 1980s, Nasser, a young Muslim paratrooper in the Jordanian army in Amman, displaced one of his vertebrae during a jump, and could no longer stand up on his feet. The doctors were able to do nothing for him.
He was engaged to a young Muslim girl, a student at the school of the Sisters of the Rosary.
The betrothed were both devastated. Nasser was sent to London where, after an unfortunate injection, he returned paralyzed for life.
Back in Amman, parents of the bride wanted the girl to break the engagement and Nasser himself agreed with them.


However, a friend of the girl, Sister L. of the Rosary, came to visit Nasser, and moved by the Holy Spirit, gave him a Miraculous Medal. Nasser kissed it and put it around his neck. Sister L. said, "What doctors cannot do, God will do, and he will heal you." That night, Nasser heard a voice within him:
"Nasser, I am the Mother of Jesus, in His name, I have healed you, get up."
At the same time, he felt two strong hands helping him up. He was cured.
He awoke in the hospital bursting with joy and fully healed, to the amazement of the medical staff.

Nasser became a defender of Mary. Bishop Sinnaan, the bishop of Amman, was informed of the inexplicable healing and received Nasser’s request to become a Christian.
Article from Message et Messagers, issue #163, December 1984
Story told in the Recueil marial – 1986, by Brother Albert Pfleger, Marist


It Makes No Sense Not To Believe In GOD 
Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel
St. Ignatius Of Loyola founder of the Jesuits
  Monday Saints of this Day July 31 Prídie Kaléndas Augústi  
St. Ignatius of Loyola, Priest (Memorial)
July 31, 2018 2021
THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST  
Righteous Joseph of Arimathea a secret disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ; As a Sanhedrin member he didn't participate "counsel and deed" of Jews passing death sentence for Jesus Christ.
190 St. Calimerius Martyred bishop of Milan, Greek Rome educated disciple of Pope St. Telesphorus;
St. Democritus Martyr with Secundus and Dionysius in either Africa or Phrygia
300 St. Fabius of Mauritania Roman soldier martyred  refusing to carry standard emblems of idols
448 Germanus bishop of Auxerre; high Roman official before priesthood ordination in 418; consecrated
876 St. Neot Hermit counseler to & relative of King Alfred the Great; monk of Glastonbury, England;
9th v. Saint Eudocimus native of Cappadocia (Asia Minor) governor of Chorziane, Armenia.
11th v. Arsenius of Ninotsminda Georgia; an ascetic; a brilliant translator, writer, calligrapher, and theologian, and indeed one of the greatest Church figures of his time.
1367 Blessed John (Giovanni) Colombini, Founded Gesuati lay brothers approved in 1367;
1556 St. Ignatius Of Loyola founder of the Jesuits "Give me only your love and your grace. With this I am rich enough, and I have no more to ask."

Saint Ignatius of Loyola spent nine months in convalescence from March 1522 to February 1523, in Manresa, close to the Benedictine monastery of Montserrat (Spain, diocese of Barcelona), a war wound. Ignatius had a vision told in his autobiography.
One night, he was awoken and he saw the Blessed Virgin with the Holy Child; during this vision, which lasted a good length of time, he received great spiritual consolation and memory of past life became distasteful to him, especially concerning
of the flesh.
He had the impression that all the images that had been imprinted in his heart before had been completely removed.
From that moment until August 1533, when he wrote these words, he never again gave even the smallest consent to the flesh.

Without indicating the origin of this vision, he simply recorded the fruits, which in their sobriety, were never doubted.
Saint Ignatius of Loyola (d. 1556) From the saint’s autobiography, known as The Account of the Pilgrim
Quoted in the Dictionary of Apparitions by Father Laurentin, Fayard Press 2007

1922 Benjamin (Kazansky) The New Hieromartyr one of the few people in Russia with no interest in politics. He was more concerned with caring for his diocese and his flock; did not resist turning over the Church's valuables to the Communists confiscating Church treasures, for he believed it was his duty to help save people's lives; He wanted this sacrifice to be voluntary; dressed in rags so that the firing squad would not know that they were shooting members of the clergy.
Righteous Joseph of Arimathea a secret disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ;
As a
Sanhedrin member he didn't participate "counsel and deed"
of Jews passing death sentence for Jesus Christ.


1556 St. Ignatius Of Loyola founder of the Jesuits "Give me only your love and your grace. With this I am rich enough,  and I have no more to ask."



At the Hour of Our Death July 31 - Ethiopian Church: Feast of the Densata (Conception of Mary)
     Saint Alphonsus of Liguori is the author of The Glories of Mary, an absolute best-seller which was published in 1750 (one thousand abridged editions have been printed, but only sixteen were published in Italy during his lifetime). He mainly wrote about the Virgin, but also promoted a certain spirituality, as well as popular prayers and devotions of other saints. Each chapter ends with an edifying example: usually the story of an apparition or a miracle. In total he told forty different such stories. His intention was to demonstrate the role of the Blessed Virgin in the Church and among the faithful, using facts void of a negative historical slant. On July 31, 1787, at about 6:00 pm, while he endured his final agony, Alphonsus held an image of the Blessed Virgin in his hands, now kept in the Redemptorists' convent in Paris, at 170, boulevard du Montparnasse. "All of a sudden we saw his face light up and become resplendent as he spoke and smiled down at the Madonna. An hour later, in the presence of three other priests, the same meeting was repeated." Excerpt from the Dictionnaire des Apparitions by Fr. R. Laurentin, Fayard 2007
Mary's Divine Motherhood
Called in the Gospel "the Mother of Jesus," Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the Mother of my Lord" (Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55; et al.). In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" (Theotokos).
Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, quoting the Council of Ephesus (431): DS 251.

Righteous Joseph of Arimathea a secret disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ; As a Sanhedrin member he didn't participate "counsel and deed" of Jews passing death sentence for Jesus Christ.
190 St. Calimerius Martyred bishop of Milan, Italy; Greek educated in Rome; disciple of Pope St. Telesphorus; appointed bishop of Milan, preached in the area, and was called “the Apostle of the Valley of the Pa River.”
St. Firmus of Tagaste Bishop tortured for defending the whereabouts of one of his Christian members in hiding. Firmus died while protecting his flock; praised by St. Augustine.
St. Democritus Martyr with Secundus and Dionysius in either Africa or Phrygia
300 St. Fabius of Mauritania a Roman soldier martyred  for refusing to carry standard bearing emblems of idols
Marytrs of Syria group of 350 monks martyred by Monophysite heretics; monks refused to deny the decree of the Council of Chalcedon that condemned Monophysites 

448 Germanus (Germain) of Auxerre; high Roman official before priesthood ordination in 418; consecrated bishop of Auxerre' relations with the church in Britain-429 and 447- succeeded completely eradicating Pelagianism; led the Britons to their great "Alleluia" victory over the Saxons
876 St. Neot Hermit counseler to & relative of King Alfred the Great; monk of Glastonbury, England; ordained before departed to become a hermit in Cornwall
9th v. Saint Eudocimus native of Cappadocia (Asia Minor) governor of Chorziane, Armenia. Fulfilling his duty as a servant of God, St Eudocimus governed the people justly and with kindness. He concerned himself with the unfortunate, and with orphans and widows, and he was a defender of the common people. His personal Christian exploits which he did in secret, were known only to God.
11th v. Arsenius of Ninotsminda Georgia; an ascetic; a brilliant translator, writer, calligrapher, and theologian, and indeed one of the greatest Church figures of his time.
1175 St. Helen of Skovde Widow; gave all her possessions to the poor; Like Jesus, the innocent Lamb, St. Helen was put to death; many miracles were reported at her tomb
1367 Blessed John (Giovanni) Colombini, Founded Gesuati lay brothers approved in 1367; rich Sienese merchant held position of 1st magistrate (gonfalionere); ambitious, avaricious, ill-tempered man converted while reading conversion story of Saint Mary of Egypt in the The Lives of the Saints (RM)
1556 St. Ignatius Of Loyola founder of the Jesuits "Give me only your love and your grace. With this I am rich enough, and I have no more to ask."
IgnatiusLoyola.jpg
1859 Blessed Emmanuel Phung  native catechist and Peter Qui priest MM (AC)
1859 St. Emmanuel Phung Martyr of Vietnam; born in Dannuoc Vietnam became a Christian catechist. Emmanuel was strangled to death near Chaudoc. He was canonized in 1988.
1859 St. Peter Quy Vietnamese martyr; native of Vietnam, Peter devoted Christian ordained  priest. Arrested for being a Christian priest by anti-Catholic forces,  beheaded. Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1988
1860 St. Justin de Jacobis; first prefect and vicar apostolic to the new Catholic mission at Adua, Ethiopia; Vincentians
1922 Benjamin (Kazansky) The New Hieromartyr one of few people in Russia with no interest in politics; more concerned with caring for his diocese and his flock; did not resist turning over the Church's valuables to the Communists confiscating Church treasures; he believed it was his duty to help save people's lives; He wanted this sacrifice to be voluntary; dressed in rags so the firing squad would not know they were shooting clergy
1922 Archimandrite Sergius (Shein) was executed along with Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd on July 31, 1922; "Does this tribunal imagine," he said, "that severing this thread which connects me with life could frighten me? Do your deed. I pity you, and I pray for you."
1922  Yuri (George) a layman executed along with Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd on July 31, 1922
The New Martyr John was executed along with Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd, Archimandrite Sergius, and the layman Yuri on July 31, 1922. They were taken to a place a few miles from Petrograd and shot. These saints are also commemorated at the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia (January 25 or the Sunday after the 25th).


Mary the Mother of God

Righteous Joseph of Arimathea a secret disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ. As a member of the Sanhedrin he did not participate in the "counsel and deed" of the Jews in passing a death sentence for Jesus Christ.
After the Crucifixion and Death of the Savior he made bold to go to Pilate and ask him for the Body of the Lord, to Which he gave burial with the help of Righteous Nicodemus, who was also a secret disciple of the Lord.

They took down the Body of the Savior from the Cross, wrapped it in a winding-cloth, and placed it in a new tomb, in which no one had ever been buried, in the Garden of Gethsemane, in the presence of the Mother of God and the holy Myrrh-Bearing Women (St Joseph had prepared this tomb for himself). Having rolled a heavy stone before the entrance of the tomb, they departed (John. 19: 37-42; Mt. 27: 57-61; Mark 15: 43-47; Luke. 24: 50-56).

St Joseph traveled around the world, proclaiming the Gospel of Christ. He died peacefully in England.

190 St. Calimerius Martyred bishop of Milan, Italy; Greek educated in Rome; disciple of Pope St. Telesphorus; appointed bishop of Milan, preached in the area, and was called “the Apostle of the Valley of the Pa River.”
Medioláni sancti Calimérii, Epíscopi et Mártyris; qui, in Antoníni persecutióne, comprehénsus, vulnéribus confóssus, cervicibúsque gládio transverberátis, præceps in púteum dejéctus, martyrii cursum confécit.
    At Milan, during the persecution of Antoninus, St. Calimerius, bishop and martyr, who was arrested, covered with wounds, and his throat transfixed with a sword.  He completed his martyrdom by being cast into a well.
 
In the persecutions started by the Emperor Commodus, Calimerius was flung head first into a well.  His relics are buried under the high altar of his church in Milan.
Calimerius of Milan BM (RM) Born in Greece; died c. 190. Saint Calimerius was educated in Rome by Pope Saint Telesphorus. He became bishop of Milan and evangelized the Po Valley. He was martyred under Emperor Commodus by being cast headlong into a deep well. Calimerius is buried under the high altar of his church at Milan (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).

St. Democritus Martyr with Secundus and Dionysius in either Africa or Phrygia.
Synnadæ, in Phrygia Pacatiána, sanctórum Mártyrum Demócriti, Secúndi et Dionysii.
    At Synnada in Phrygia Pacatiana, the holy martyrs Democritus, Secundus, and Denis.

300 Fabius of Mauritania a Roman soldier who was martyred  for refusing to carry a standard bearing the emblems of idols M (RM)
Cæsaréæ, in Mauritánia, pássio beáti Fábii Mártyris, qui, cum ferre vexílla præsidália recusáret, primo in cárcerem trusus est, ibíque diébus áliquot deténtus; deínde, cum in confessióne Christi, interrogátus semel et íterum, immóbilis perduráret, senténtia capitáli a Júdice condemnátur.
    At Caesarea in Mauretania, the martyrdom of the blessed martyr Fabius.  Because he refused to carry the banners of the governor of the province, he was thrown into prison for some days, and as he persisted twice in confessing Christ when brought before the judge, he was condemned to death.
Fabius was a Roman soldier who was beheaded at Caesarea in Mauritania, during the reign of Diocletian, for refusing to carry a standard bearing the emblems of idols (Benedictines, Encyclopedia)
St. Firmus of Tagaste; Bishop tortured for defending the whereabouts of one of his Christian members in hiding. Firmus died while protecting his flock; praised by St. Augustine.
Tagáste, in Africa, sancti Firmi Epíscopi, confessiónis glória conspícui.
    At Tagaste in Africa, St. Firmus, bishop, illustrious by a glorious confession of the faith.
Firmus of Tagaste B (RM)  Saint Augustine says that this saint was firm by name but firmer yet by faith. He endured the most frightful tortures rather than betray the hiding place of a member of his flock.
Saint Augustine's laus led Baronius to insert the name of Saint Firmus in the Roman Martyrology, although no extant acts were available (Benedictines).
Marytrs of Syria A group of 350 monks martyred by the Monophysite heretics of the region; monks refused to deny the decree of the Council of Chalcedon that condemned Monophysites
In Syria sanctórum trecentórum quinquagínta Monachórum Mártyrum, qui, ob defensiónem Synodi Chalcedonénsis, ab hæréticis sunt occísi.
    In Syria, three hundred and fifty monks, who became martyrs by being slain by the heretics for defending the Council of Chalcedon.
448 Germanus (Germain) of Auxerre a high Roman official before his ordination to the priesthood in 418. Shortly thereafter he was consecrated bishop of Auxerre. He had relations with the church in Britain, to which he travelled in 429 and 447, and where he succeeded in completely eradicating Pelagianism. He led the Britons to their great "Alleluia" victory over the Saxons B (RM)
Ravénnæ tránsitus sancti Germáni, Antisiodorénsis Epíscopi, génere, fide, doctrína et miraculórum glória claríssimi; qui Británniam a Pelagianórum hærésibus pénitus liberávit.
    At Ravenna, the death of St. German, bishop of Auxerre, a man most renowned for his birth, faith, learning, and glorious miracles, who freed England completely from the heretical doctrines of the Pelagians.
Born in Auxerre, France, c. 378; died at Ravenna, Italy, 448. Saint Germanus studied civil law in Rome and embarked upon a secular career. He was a high Roman official before his ordination to the priesthood in 418. Shortly thereafter he was consecrated bishop of Auxerre. He had relations with the church in Britain, to which he travelled in 429 and 447, and where he succeeded in completely eradicating Pelagianism. He led the Britons to their great "Alleluia" victory over the Saxons. He died in Ravenna, Italy, while on a mission for his people (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). In art, Saint Germanus is a bishop with an ass at his feet. Sometimes the image may contain huntsmen and wild game around him, or Germanus leading a dragon with seven heads (Roeder).
Saint Germanus was born at Auxerre around 389, and studied rhetoric and law at Rome. There he practiced as a lawyer.  The emperor Honorius sent him back to Gaul as a provincial governor, with his headquarters at Auxerre. He also married about this time. In 418 he was chosen to succeed St Amator (May 1) as Bishop of Auxerre. From that time on, his faith became deeper, and his prayer more fervent. He gave away his possessions to the poor, and ate coarse barley bread only in the evening. He often fasted for several days, and dressed in simple monastic garb.
Pope Celestine I sent him to Britain in 429 with St Lupus of Troyes (July 29) to fight the Pelagian heresy, where they defeated the teachers of this false doctrine. During one of his two trips to Britain St Germanus took command of an army and defeated a combined force of Saxons and Picts.
When savage barbarians threatened the city of Armorica (now Brittany), St Germanus met their leader, seized his horse's bridle, and turned him around. After defusing the threat, the saint traveled to Ravenna seeking pardon for the rebels from the emperor Valentian III. He was received with honor, and died there on July 31, 448.
The body of St Germanus was brought back to Auxerre for burial. Centuries later, his holy relics were scattered by the Huguenots.
9th v. Saint Eudocimus native of Cappadocia (Asia Minor) governor of Chorziane, Armenia. Fulfilling his duty as a servant of God, St Eudocimus governed the people justly and with kindness. He concerned himself with the unfortunate, and with orphans and widows, and he was a defender of the common people. His personal Christian exploits which he did in secret, were known only to God.
He lived during the ninth century during the reign of Emperor Theophilus (829-842). He was the son of the pious Christians Basil and Eudokia, an illustrious family known to the emperor. They raised their son "in discipline and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6: 4), planting in his soul a sincere faith and holy virtues.

The righteous life of St Eudocimus was devoted to pleasing God and serving his neighbor. Having given a vow to remain unmarried and chaste, he avoided conversation with women and did not look at them. He would speak only with his own mother, whom he greatly respected. The emperor valued his virtue and talents, so he appointed St Eudocimus as governor of Chorziane, Armenia. Fulfilling his duty as a servant of God, St Eudocimus governed the people justly and with kindness. He concerned himself with the unfortunate, and with orphans and widows, and he was a defender of the common people. His personal Christian exploits which he did in secret, were known only to God.

Eudocimus pleased God by his blameless life, and the Lord called him at age 33. Lying on his deathbed, St Eudocimus gave final instructions to place him in the grave in those clothes in which he would meet death. Then he sent everyone out of the room and entreated the Lord that no one would see his end, just as no one saw his secret efforts during life. His attendants buried him as he had instructed them. Right after the death of St Eudocimus miracles took place at his grave. Many sick people were healed, and the news of the miraculous healings spread.

After 18 months, the mother of St Eudocimus came from Constantinople to venerate his relics. She gave orders to remove the stone, dig up the ground, and open the grave. Everyone beheld the face of the saint, bright as if alive, altogether untouched by decay. A great fragrance came from him. They took up the coffin with the relics from the earth, and they dressed the saint in new clothes. His mother wanted to take the relics of her son to Constantinople, but the Kharsian people would not clear a path for their holy one. After a certain time the hieromonk Joseph, having lived and served at the grave of the saint, transported the relics of St Eudocimus to Constantinople. There they were placed in a silver reliquary in the church of the Most Holy Theotokos, built by the parents of the saint.

St Eudocimus is considered by the Russian Church to be one of the special protectors and intercessors before God of the family hearth. He was, as his name implies, truly successful in every virtue
.
876 St. Neot Hermit counseler to & relative of King Alfred the Great; monk of Glastonbury, England; ordained before departed to become a hermit in Cornwall.
Neot of Cornwall, OSB Hermit (AC) Died c. 877-880. According to tradition, Saint Neot was a monk of Glastonbury and a priest, who became a hermit in Cornwall at the place now called after him. His relics were subsequently taken to Saint Neot's in Huntingdonshire (Benedictines).
In art, Saint Neot is an old Benedictine with a pilgrim's staff and hat. He may be sitting with his feet in a pool as a hind runs to him for protection (Roeder). Neot is venerated in Glastonbury, Malvern, and Saint Neot's (Cornwall) (Roeder).

According to the medieval legends St Neot was a monk of Glastonbury in the ninth century, who while there received holy orders.  Desiring greater solitude he went into the western country and settled at the place now called Saint Neot, in Cornwall, where he was visited by King Alfred, who greatly valued his counsel.  According to some he was a relative of the king, and it is to a work called the Chronicle of the Sanctury of St Neot that we owe the story of Alfred and the burnt cakes.  He went on pilgrimage to Rome, and by his intercession Alfred triumphed over the Danes.
   After his death he appeared in a vision to the custodian of his shrine in Cornwall and commanded him to remove his relics and take them to a certain place; this the man did and the relics found a resting-place in a monastery at the place we call Saint Neots in Huntingdonshire.
  This in brief outline is the story of St Neot as told, with variations and additions of miraculous and other incidents, in an Old English homily and two Latin lives of the saint.  The austerities attributed to him are those associated with most Celtic saints, e.g. the reciting of psalms while immersed in icy water, and it has been pointed out that his life is a collection of some of the most distinguishing features of Celtic hagiology.
     None of the lives are in any degree trustworthy, and nothing certainly true is known of Neot: it has, indeed, been suggested, with some reason, that there were two holy men of that name, a British saint (Niet) in Cornwall and an English one in Huntingdon.
It seems impossible to disentangle the confusions and contradictions which beset the so-called biographies of St Neot. The best attempt to cope with the difficulties of the problem is that made by G. H. Doble in his little book, St Neot (1929), in which he had the assistance of another expert, C. Henderson.  The texts are to be found in the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. vii, and G. C. Gorham, History of Eynesbury and Saint Neots (1820).  Cf. also LBS., vol. iv, pp. 4 seq .
11th v. Arsenius of Ninotsminda Georgia; an ascetic History tells us that he was a brilliant translator, writer, calligrapher, and theologian, and indeed one of the greatest Church figures of his time.
St. Arsenius was tonsured a monk in Jerusalem, and after some time he returned to Georgia, where he was consecrated bishop of Ninotsminda. But the venerable Arsenius longed to lead a life of solitude, so he approached King Davit Kuropalates for permission to resign from the bishopric and settle at a monastery. The king honored Arsenius’s request, and the pious man set off for the monastery with John Grdzeslidze, a man of letters and another great figure in the Church.  When the news of his decision reached the Iveron Monastery on Mt. Athos, Sts. John and Ekvtime invited the fathers to Mt. Athos, and the next year Arsenius and John arrived at the Holy Mountain. There they assisted St. Ekvtime in his translations of the Holy Scriptures and many theological books.
St. Arsenius labored fruitfully at the Iveron Monastery for many years and reposed peacefully at an advanced age.
He was buried on Mt. Athos at the monastery’s church of St. Simeon the Stylite. St. George of the Holy Mountain later translated his relics to the ossuary of the monastery’s catholicon.
1160 St. Helen of Skovde Widow.
ST HELEN was a lady of noble birth of Vastergotland in Sweden, who after the death of her husband gave her time and goods to the service of the poor and of religion.  She made a pilgrimage to Rome, and upon her return was put to death by the relatives of her son-in-law on a false charge that she had connived at his death, he having been murdered by his servants on account of his cruel tyranny.  Her body was brought from Gotene and interred in the church she had built at Skovde, and on the strength of the miracles of healing there reported Pope Alexander III authorized her cultus in 1164.  She was honoured on July 31, as a martyr, in her country, and also at Tusvilde on the island of Zealand in Denmark, which claimed to have her relics; but, though there is a worthless legend of their miraculous transportation, there is no record of their having been translated thither. At both places her veneration persisted after the Reformation, being in either case associated with a healing well.
A Latin life, partly reproduced in the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. vii, has been critically edited in the Scriptores rerum Suecicarum, vol. iii, Pt. 2, PP. 135-138.  See, in Swedish, T. Schmid, Den hl. Sigfrid (1931). Of J. Dunney's Saint of the Snows (1937), Fr P. Grosjean, Bollandist, writes, "surely the last word in American romantic hagiography"
1175 St. Helen of Skovde Widow; gave all her possessions to the poor; Like Jesus, the innocent Lamb, St. Helen was put to death; many miracles were reported at her tomb,
Born in Vastergotland, Sweden, in the twelfth century. She belonged to a noble family. However, after the death of her husband, she gave all her possessions to the poor. Following this, Helen made a pilgrimage to Rome. When she returned home, she found herself accused of involvement in the death of her son-in-law. It was later proved that the deed had been perpetrated by mistreated servants, but by that time, Helen had been executed. Following Helen's death, many miracles were reported at her tomb, and public devotion to her was approved in 1164, just four years after her death. Like Jesus, the innocent Lamb, St. Helen was put to death. Her goodness was preserved through the manifestation of God's power at her tomb.
Although we may be suspect but innocent here in this life, God will provide sure justice hereafter.
Helen of Skövde (Sköfde), Widow M (AC) Died c. 1145-1160; canonized in 1164 by Alexander III. Saint Sigfrid, apostle of Sweden, brought the noble matron Helen of Vastergötland to the faith. When she was widowed at a youthful age, she dedicated her wealth to the service of the poor and the Church. Thereafter, Helen made a pilgrimage to Rome (or the Holy Land), and upon her return she was murdered as the result of a family feud--her son-in-law's relatives believed that she had plotted to kill him. Helen was buried at Skövde in the church which she had built and was canonized on the strength of the miracles that occurred there. Until the Reformation, Saint Helen was highly honored in Sweden and on the isle of Zeeland in Denmark, which claimed some of her relics. Her body was richly enshrined in a church dedicated to her eight miles from Copenhagen. There a miraculous well, called Saint Lene Kild or Saint Helen's Well, still draws even Lutherans.
Helen is regarded as the patroness of Vastergötland and, by some, of all Sweden (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth).
1367 Blessed John (Giovanni) Colombini, Founded Gesuati lay brothers approved in 1367; rich Sienese merchant held position of 1st magistrate (gonfalionere); ambitious, avaricious, ill-tempered man converted while reading conversion story of Saint Mary of Egypt in the The Lives of the Saints (RM)
Senis, in Túscia, natális beáti Joánnis Columbíni, qui fuit Institútor Ordinis Jesuatórum, et sanctitáte ac miráculis cláruit.
    At Siena in Tuscany, the birthday of blessed John Colombini, founder of the Order of Gesuati, renowned for sanctity and miracles.
Born in Siena, Italy, c. 1300; beatified by Pope Gregory XIII. If John Colombini can win God's favor, there is hope for all of us. By all accounts, this rich Sienese merchant who held the position of first magistrate (gonfalionere) was an ambitious, avaricious, and ill-tempered man. He himself was converted while reading the story of the conversion of Saint Mary of Egypt in the The Lives of the Saints. Thereafter, he devoted himself to works of charity and founded a society of lay brothers called the Gesuati, which were approved in 1367--just 37 days before his death (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
In art, Blessed John has a short beard, white habit, dark leather belt, and bare feet. Generally, he has IHS on his breast (Roeder). He is venerated in Siena (Roeder).
More than two-thirds of this saint's years on earth had passed before he began to live other than a worldly life; he inclined to avarice, was ambitious, and gave way to a bad temper without scruple. He was born about 1304 in Siena, and as a successful merchant married Biagia Cerretani, by whom he had two children. One day, after being taken up the whole morning with business he came home, much fatigued, and not finding dinner ready, flew into a rage. His wife (perhaps from a human point of view a little tactlessly) put a book of saints' lives into his hands; but he threw it on the ground. The next moment, being ashamed of his temper, he took it up again, and sitting down to read, fell on the life of St Mary of Egypt. He read it with so much interest that he forgot his dinner, and his wife in her turn was kept waiting, but she had the sense not to draw attention to the fact. The reading did its work and made a way for the grace of God, and he found his heart pierced with remorse for his past sins and unthinking conduct.
   Being sensible that the first sacrifice which God requires of a sinner is that of a contrite and humble heart, he spent much time in prayer and penitential exercises.  He sold his rich clothes and furniture, giving the money to the poor; he slept on a bench, and his house seemed converted into a hospital, so great was the number of the poor and sick that he caused to be brought thither and attended.  In defiance of the iron laws of economics and the general custom of traders, he even bought goods for more than was asked and sold them for less than market price.  Naturally, every one was astonished at so great a change. One day seeing a leper lying at the door of the church, the saint carried him to his own home, attending him till he had overcome the abhorrence which naturally besets man at the sight of so loathsome a disease, and continued his care of this patient till he was able to be removed.  It was said by some that the leper disappeared miraculously, leaving only a heavenly fragrance.

     But John's good wife was by no means pleased at the excess of his conversion, and would often remonstrate with him to be more prudent.   And when he answered, "You prayed to God that I might become charitable and good, and now you are annoyed because I make a little amends for my avarice and other sins", she would reply, "I prayed for rain, but this is a flood". After some years, their son having died and their daughter become a nun, Biagia agreed to let him go his ways without hindrance. He thereupon divided his fortune between a convent, a hospital and a confraternity of women, the gifts being first charged with the proper maintenance of his wife, and having thus reduced himself to poverty he gave himself up to serve the poor in the hospitals, and to the exercises of devotion and penance.
   Bd John was joined in this renunciation by Francis Vincenti, who had been his partner in good works, and several others became his faithful imitators and companions. There seems to have been a strong element of "fools for Christ's sake" in their earlier practices. They exhorted to repentance and fervour in the divine service; and the charity and disinterestedness with which they ministered corporal relief and comfort gave great force to their instructions. When members of respectable families threw in their lot with them, the Sienese authorities became alarmed and John was banished. He therefore left the city with some followers and visited Arezzo, Città di Castello, Viterbo and other places: in the last-named they were given the nickname Gesuati, "Jesuats", because of their devotion to the Holy Name and frequent ejaculation of "Praise be to Jesus Christ". They converted many to a Christian life (including an episcopal notary, who joined the band), brought about the restitution of goods and reputations, and composed long-standing quarrels.
    Bd John had been recommended to obtain ecclesiastical sanction for his activities, but on being assured by the bishop of Città di Castello that they were doing nothing irregular, the matter was let drop: "they were poor, simple, and right-minded men, with no material cares, and so they might well leave all in God's hands".  In 1367, however, Pope Urban V came to Viterbo on his way back from Avignon, and John and his followers, crowned with garlands and carrying olive branches, but dressed in rags, went to meet him, soliciting an audience. This was granted and the pope was greatly impressed, but considered it advisable to order Cardinal William Sudre and others to examine John and the life of the brothers, as they were now accused by some of holding the errors of the Fraticelli.  Of this they were acquitted, and Pope Urban approved the Jesuats as a new congregation under the formal title of Apostolic Clerics of St Jerome, because of their particular veneration for that saint. In spite of this name they were to be an institute of lay-brothers, whose life was to be one of great physical austerity and devoted to the care of the sick and burial of the dead, and they were to be dispersed among the towns and villages. Only a few days later, when the brothers were gathered together by the Lake of Bolsena, their founder was taken ill; he was taken to Acquapendente, where he received the last sacraments, and then they tried to remove him to Siena, but he died on the way. In the presence of his wife and his spiritual children he was buried at the convent of SS. Abundio and Abundanzio ("Santa Bonda"), wherein his daughter had died and which by his influence had been brought back to the observance of common life. His friend and companion, Francis Vincenti, died a fortnight later.
  John Colombini's name was inserted in the Roman Martyrology by Pope Gregory XIII. His congregation flourished for a time, and then began to languish; in 1606 an attempt was made to revive it by allowing members to be in priest's orders, but sixty-two years later it was entirely suppressed by Pope Clement IX, it being no longer useful to the Church because of the fewness of its members.
Some of Bd John's letters are still extant, and in his life of the saint, written in 1449, Feo Belcari, a Florentine citizen, has reported some of his exhortations. They are full of evangelical fervour and show strongly the influence of the earlier Franciscans.
A short life by Bd John Tossignano (see above, July 24), has been printed by Mansi among the Miscellanea of Baluzius (vol. iv, pp. 566-571). In the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. vii, is a seventeenth -century biography compiled by Fr J. B. Rossi, together with much other illustrative matter. The Florentine poet Feo Belcari in 1449 also wrote a life of Bd John in Italian prose of great literary merit-see R. Chiarini, who in 1904 brought out a new edition-which is not without some historical value. It is possible even that Belcari had previously translated Tossignano's Compendio, though L. Albertazzi thinks otherwise. P. Misciatelli has published 114 letters written by John Colombini, many of them previously unknown; they appeared as vol. viii in the series of Libri della Fede issued at Florence under the direction of G. Papini. There are some modern popular lives, notably that by the Countess de Rambutesu in French (1893). Father Delehaye in his Legendes Hagiographiques has called attention to the curious coincidence that July 31 is the heavenly birthday both of St Ignatius Loyola and Bd John Colombini, the one the founder of the Jesuitae, the other of the Jesusate. Both were converted from a worldly career by reading the lives of the saints, both established a religious order, and while the earlier order was suppressed by Clement IX that of St Ignatius was suppressed by Clement XIV, though it was subsequently restored by Pius VII .
1556 St. Ignatius Of Loyola founder of the Jesuits "Give me only your love and your grace. With this I am rich enough, and I have no more to ask."
Romæ natális sancti Ignátii, Presbyteri et Confessóris, qui Fundátor éxstitit Societátis Jesu, atque vir fuit sanctitáte et miráculis clarus, ac religiónis cathólicæ ubíque dilatándæ studiosíssimus; quem Pius Undécimus, Póntifex Máximus, cæléstem ómnium Exercitiórum spirituálium Patrónum constítuit.
    At Rome, the birthday of St. Ignatius, priest and confessor, founder of the Society of Jesus, renowned for sanctity and miracles, and most zealous for propagating the Catholic religion in all parts of the world.  Pope Pius XI declared him to be the heavenly patron of all spiritual retreats.
Born 1491  from a Spanish noble family As a boy, he was sent to be a page at the royal court. There he lived on the desire to someday become a great soldier and marry a beautiful lady. Later, he did, indeed, win honor for his courage in the battle of Pamplona. However, a wound from a cannon ball forced him to spend months in bed at Loyola Castle. Ignatius asked for some books to read. He preferred stories of knights, but only biographies of Jesus and the saints were available. Having nothing else to do, he read them. Gradually, the books began to make an impression on him. His life began to change. He said to himself:  "These were men and women like me, so why can't I do what they have done?"
All the glory he had wanted before seemed worthless now. He began to imitate the saints in their prayers, penances and good works.
St. Ignatius had to suffer temptations and humiliations. Before he could begin his great work of starting the Society of Jesus, he had to go back to school. He had to study Latin grammar. The rest of the students were little boys and Ignatius was thirty-three. Yet Ignatius went to the class because he knew he would need this knowledge to help him in his ministry. With patience and even a laugh now and then, he took the boys' jeers and taunts. During this time, he tried to teach and encourage people to pray. For this he was suspected of heresy and put in jail for a while! But that was not going to stop Ignatius.
"The whole city does not contain as many chains as I desire to wear for love of Jesus," he said.
    Ignatius was forty-three when he graduated from the University of Paris. With six other students, he professed religious vows in 1534. Ignatius and his companions who were not yet priests were ordained in 1539. They promised to work for God in whatever way the Holy Father thought best. In 1540 their order was officially recognized by the pope. Before Ignatius died, there were one thousand members of the Society of Jesus or "Jesuits." They were doing much good work teaching and preaching. Ignatius often prayed, "Give me only your love and your grace. With this I am rich enough, and I have no more to ask."
St. Ignatius died in Rome, on July 31, 1556. Pope Gregory XV proclaimed him a saint in 1622.

ST  IGNATIUS was born, probably in 1491, in the castle of Loyola at Azpeitia, in Guipuzcoa, a part of Biscay that reaches to the Pyrenees. His father, Don Beltran, was lord of Ofiaz and Loyola, head of one of the most ancient and noble families of that country, and his mother, Marina Saenz de
Licona y Balda, was not less illustrious.  They had three daughters and eight sons, and Ignatius (Ifiligo he was christened) was the youngest child; he was trained to arms and saw some service against the French in northern Castile; but his short military career came to an abrupt end on May 20, 1521 when, in the defence of Pamplona, a cannon ball broke his right shin and tore open the left calf.  At his fall the Spanish garrison surrendered.
  The French used their victory with moderation, and sent him carried in a litter to the castle of Loyola. His broken leg had been badly set, and the surgeons therefore thought it necessary to break it again, which he suffered without any apparent concern.  But a violent fever followed the second setting, which was attended with dangerous symptoms; on the eve of the feast of SS. Peter and Paul it was believed he could not hold out till the next morning, but he suddenly took a turn for the better, though he was convalescent for many months.   After the second setting of his leg, the end of a bone stuck out under his knee; a visible deformity.  Though the surgeons told him the operation would be very painful, this protuberance he had sawn off, and would neither be bound nor held, and scarce ever changed countenance whilst the operation was performed. Because his right leg remained shorter than the left, he would be for many days together with weights attached to stretch it out.  It is not surprising that he limped for the rest of his life.
  While he was confined to his bed, finding the time tedious, Ignatius called for some book of romances, for he had always been much delighted with stories of knight-errantry. None such being then found in the castle of Loyola, a book of the life of our Saviour and another of legends of the saints were brought him.  He read them first only to pass away the time, but afterward began to relish them and to spend whole days in reading them.  He said to himself: "These men were of the same frame as I; why then should I not do what they have done?" and in the fervour of his good resolutions he thought of visiting the Holy Land and becoming a Carthusian lay-brother.  But these ideas were intermittent; and his passion for glory and inclination for a lady of high degree again filled his mind till, returning to the lives of the saints, he perceived in his own heart the emptiness of all worldly glory, and that only God could content the soul. This fluctuation of mind continued some time: but he observed this difference, that thoughts which were from God filled his soul with consolation, peace, and tranquillity; whereas the others brought indeed some sensible delight, but left a certain bitterness and heaviness in the heart.
   Taking at last a firm resolution to imitate the saints at least in some respects, he began to treat his body with all the rigour it was able to bear, and spent his retired hours in weeping for his sins.

    One night, Ignatius saw the Mother of God surrounded with light, holding the infant Jesus in her arms; this vision replenished his soul with delight and, being cured of his wounds, he went on pilgrimage to the shrine of our Lady at Montserrat, resolved thenceforward to lead a life of penance.
   Three leagues from Montserrat is the small town of Manresa, and here he stayed, sometimes with the Dominican friars, sometimes in a paupers' hospice; and there was a cave in a neighbouring hill whither he might retire for prayer and penance.  So he lived for nearly a year.
  After enjoying much peace of mind and heavenly consolation he was soon visited with the most terrible trial of fears and scruples.  He found no comfort in prayer, no relief in fasting, no remedy in disciplines, no consolation from the sacraments, and his soul was overwhelmed with sadness.
   He apprehended some sin in every step he took, and seemed often on the very brink of despair. During this time he began to note down material for what was to become the book of his Spiritual Exercises.   At length his tranquillity of mind was restored, and his soul overflowed with spiritual joy. From this experience he acquired a particular talent for curing scrupulous consciences, and a singular light to discern them. He afterward assured Father Laynez that he learned most of divine mysteries by prayer in one hour at Manresa than all the doctors of the schools could ever have taught him.  So imperfect was his knowledge of his duties when he first renounced the world, that hearing a Moor speak somewhat injuriously of the holy Mother of God, he deliberated whether, as a Christian knight, he ought not to kill him, but divine Providence preserved him from so criminal an action.

In February 1523 Ignatius started on his journey to the Holy Land; begging his way, he took ship from Barcelona, spent Easter at Rome, sailed from Venice to Cyprus, and thence to Jaffa. He went by donkey from thence to Jerusalem, with the firm intention of staying there. But after visiting and spiritually rejoicing in the scenes of the passion of Jesus, the Franciscan guardian of the Holy Places commanded him to leave Palestine, lest his reckless attempts to convert Mohammedans should cause him to be kidnapped and held to ransom.  Ignatius gave up his project and obeyed, with no knowledge of what he was going to do.
    He returned to Spain in 1524; and he now set himself to study, "as a means of helping him to work for souls", and began at Barcelona with Latin grammar, being assisted by the charities of a pious lady of that city, called Isabel Roser.  He was then thirty-three: and it is not hard to imagine what difficulties he went through in learning the rudiments of grammar at that age.  At first his mind was so fixed only on God that he forgot everything he read, and conjugating amo, for example, could only repeat to himself, "I love God; I am loved by God", and the like; but he began to make some progress, still joining contemplation and austerities with his studies.  He bore the jeers and taunts of the little boys, his schoolfellows, with patience and even amusement.
   After studying two years at Barcelona he went to the University of Alcala, where he attended lectures in logic, physics and divinity: by which multiplicity he only confounded his ideas, and learned little, though he studied night and day. He lodged at a hospice, lived by begging, and wore a coarse grey habit.  He catechized children, held assemblies of devotion in the hospice, and by his mild reprehensions converted many loose livers. Those were the days of strange cults in Spain, and Ignatius, being a man without learning or authority, was accused to the bishop's vicar general, who confined him to prison two-and-forty days, but declared him innocent of any fault at the end of it; but forbidding him and his companions to wear any singular dress, or to give any instructions in religious matters for three years. So he migrated with his three fellows to Salamanca, where he was exposed again to suspicions of introducing dangerous doctrines, and the inquisitors imprisoned him; but after three weeks declared him innocent. Ignatius looked upon prisons, sufferings and ignominy as trials by which God was pleased to purge and sanctify his soul. Recovering his liberty again, he resolved to leave Spain, and in the middle of winter travelled on foot to Paris, where he arrived in the beginning of February 1528.
He spent two years improving himself in Latin; in vacation time he went into Flanders, and once into England, to procure help from the Spanish merchants settled there, from whom and from some friends at Barcelona he received supped. He studied philosophy 3 1/2 years in college of St Barbara, where he induced many of his fellow-students to spend the Sundays and holy days in prayer, and to apply themselves more fervently to good works.  Pegna, his master, thought he hindered their studies and prepossessed Gouvea, principal of the college, against him, so that he was ordered to undergo a public flogging, that this disgrace might deter others from following him.  Ignatius offered himself joyfully to suffer all things; yet fearing lest the scandal of this disgrace should make those whom he had reclaimed fall back, he went to the principal and modestly laid open to him the reasons of his conduct. Gouvea made no answer, but taking him by the hand led him into the hall, where the whole college stood assembled. He then turned to Ignatius and begged his pardon for having too lightly believed false reports. In 1534 the middle-aged student-he was forty-three-graduated as master of arts of Paris.
At that time six students in divinity associated themselves with Ignatius in his spiritual exercises. They were Peter Favre, a Savoyard; Francis Xavier, a Basque like Ignatius; Laynez and Salmeron, both fine scholars; Simon Rodriguez, a Portuguese; and Nicholas Bobadilla. These fervent students, moved by the exhortations of Ignatius, made all together a vow to observe poverty, chastity and to go to preach the gospel in Palestine, or if they could not go thither to offer themselves to the pope to be employed in the service of God in what manner he should judge best.
    They pronounced this vow in a chapel on Montmartre, after they had all received holy communion from Peter Favre, who had been lately ordained priest. This was done on feast of the Assumption of our Lady in 1534.  Ignatius continued by frequent conferences and joint exercises to animate his companions, and a simple rule of life was adopted.
  His theological studies were soon interrupted, for he was ordered by the physicians to try his native air for the improvement of his health.  He left Paris in the spring of 1535, and was joyfully received in Guipuzcoa, where, however, he refused to go to the castle of Loyola, taking up his quarters in the poor-house of Azpeitia.

  Two years later they all met in Venice, but hostilities between Venice and the Turks had then reached an acute phase and it was impossible to find a ship to sail to Palestine.  Ignatius's companions (now numbed 10) therefore went to Rome, where Pope Paul III received them well, and granted them an indult that those who were not priests might receive holy orders from what bishop they pleased.  They were accordingly ordained and then retired into a cottage near Vicenza to prepare themselves for the holy ministry of the altar.  The rest celebrated their first Masses in September and October, but Ignatius deferred his own from month to month till he had employed over a year in preparing himself to offer the adorable Sacrifice.  There being no likelihood of their being able soon to go to the Holy Land, it was at length resolved that Ignatius, Favre and Laynez should go to Rome and offer the services of all to the pope, and they agreed that if anyone asked what their association was they might answer, "the Company of Jesus" {*This expression is still in use in France, Spain and Italy; it was altered to "Society" when the bull of foundation was drawn up. "Jesuit" was at first a rather hostile nickname, never used by Ignatius himself.} because they were united to fight against falsehood and vice under the standard of Christ.
  On his road to Rome, praying in a little chapel at La Storta, Ignatius saw our Lord, shining with an unspeakable light, but loaded with a heavy cross, and he heard the words, "Ego vobis Romae propitass ero, I will be favourable to you at Rome".
  Paul III appointed Favre to teach in the Sapienza and Laynez to explain the Holy Scriptures; Ignatius laboured by means of his spiritual exercises and instructions to reform the manners of the people and the others were likewise employed in the city- that none of them yet spoke Italian properly did not deter them.

  With a view to perpetuate their work, it was now proposed to form themselves into a religious order.  It was resolved, first, besides the vows of poverty and chastity already made by them, to add a third of obedience, the more perfectly to conform themselves to the Son of God who was obedient even unto death; and to appoint a superior general whom all should be bound to obey, who should be for life and his authority absolute, subject entirely to the Holy See.
  They likewise determined to prescribe a fourth vow, of going wherever the pope should send them for the salvation of souls.  It was agreed that the celebration of the Divine Office in choir (as distinct from the obligatory private recitation) should be no part of their duties, "lest they be withdrawn from those works of charity to which we have wholly dedicated ourselves".  In the forefront of those works of charity was put "that children or any others whosoever are to be taught the commandments of God".  Cardinals appointed by the pope to examine the affair of this new order at first opposed it, thinking religious orders already too much multiplied, but after a year changed their opinions, and Paul III approved it by a bull, dated September 27, 1540.

   Ignatius was chosen the first general superior, but only acquiesced in obedience to his confessor. He entered upon his office on Easterday, 1541, and the members all made their religious vows in the basilica of St Paul-outside-the-Walls a few days later.
  For the rest of his life Ignatius lived in Rome, fled there by the immense work of directing the activities of the order which he ruled till his death.  Among the establishments which he made there, he founded a house for the reception of converted Jews during the time of their instruction, and another for penitents from among women of disorderly life. When one told him that the conversion of such sinners is seldom sincere, he answered,
 "To prevent only one sin would be a great happiness though it cost me ever so great pain".
Already in 1540 Rodriguez and Francis Xavier had been sent to Portugal, and under the protection of King John III Xavier went into the East Indies where he began to gain a new world to the faith of Christ.  Fathers Gonçalves and John Nunez Barreto were sent into Morocco to instruct and assist the Christian slaves; four others to the Congo; others to Ethiopia; and others into the Portuguese settlements in South America. Pope Paul III commissioned Fathers Laynez and Salmeron to assist as his theologians at the Council of Trent. Before their departure St Ignatius instructed them to visit the sick and poor, and in all disputations to be careful to preserve modesty and humility, and to shun all confidence, contentiousness, or empty display of learning.
Among the first disciples of St Ignatius who distinguished themselves in Europe, there was none with greater reputation for learning and piety than St Peter Canisius, now venerated as a doctor of the Church. St Francis Borgia in 1550 gave a considerable sum towards building the Roman College for the Jesuits; St Ignatius made this the model of all his other colleges and took care that it should be supplied with able masters and all possible helps for the advancement of learning. He also directed the foundation of the German College in Rome, originally intended for scholars from all countries seriously affected by Protestantism.
   Other universities, seminaries and colleges were established in other places; work of education for which the Jesuits are so famous was a development that only came by degrees, though well established before the founder's death.

   Two Jesuits sent to the British Isles landed in Ireland so early as 1542, but the first efforts of the Society were not successful.  Ignatius ordered prayers for the conversion of England (still said by his sons "for all Northern nations "), and of the English and Welsh martyrs of penal times who have been beatified, twenty-six were Jesuits.  The activity of the Society in England was characteristic of the tremendous part played by St Ignatius and his religious in the work of the so-called Counter-Reformation: by reformation and consolidation within the Church, and by opposing Protestantism without.
  "It was exactly what was wanted at the time to counteract the revolt of the sixteenth century.  The revolt was disobedience and disorder in the most aggressive form.  The Society was obedience and order in the most solid compactness. It may be said, with historical truth, that the Jesuits charged, threw back and defeated the Lutheran revolt. They also won back souls by their preaching and spiritual guidance. They preached `Jesus Christ and Him crucified'. This has been their central message, and by it they have deserved and won the confidence and obedience of souls " (Cardinal Manning).
  In this connection may be noted Ignatius's instructions about relations with Protestants, given to fathers going to found a college at Ingolstadt:
"Great care must be taken to show forth orthodox truth in such a way that if any heretics happen to be present they may have an example of charity and Christian moderation. No hard words should be used nor any sort of contempt for their errors be shown."
  And he wrote in the same spirit to Father Broet and Father Salmeron before they set out for Ireland.
   One of the most famous and fruitful works of St Ignatius was the book of his Spiritual Exercises, begun at Manresa and first published in Rome in 1548 with papal approval.  The spirit which reigns in this book was that of all the saints. Frequent religious retirement had been practised in imitation of Christ from the beginning, and the use and method of spiritual meditation were always known; but the excellent order of these meditations, prescribed by Ignatius, was new  and, though the principal rules and maxims are found in the lessons and lives of the ancient Fathers, they are here judiciously chosen, methodically digested, and clearly explained.
  The particular scope and object of "The Exercises" is to induce a state of interior calm and disinterestedness in order that the retreatant may be able to make a choice, "either as to some particular crisis or as to his general course of life, unbiased by any excessive like or dislike and guided solely by the consideration of what will most conduce to the one end for which he was created-the glory of God and the perfection of his own soul."
   In the words of Pope Pius XI, the Ignatian methods of prayer "lead a man by the safe paths of self-abnegation and the removal of bad habits up to the suprente heights of prayer and divine love ".
   The prudence and charity of St Ignatius in his conduct towards his religious won him all their hearts. He always showed the affection of the most tender parent towards his brethren, especially towards the sick, for whom he procured every spiritual and temporal succour and comfort, which it was his great delight to give them himself.  Though he was superior, he submitted to inferiors with meekness, when he could do it without prejudice to necessary authority.  In things of which he was not certain, he readily acquiesced in judgement of others, and was a great enemy to positiveness and the use of superlatives in discourse.  He received rebukes from anyone with cheerfulness; but would not from a false delicacy abstain from rebuking others who clearly stood in need of it.  He particularly reprimanded those whom learning had made conceited, tiresome, or lukewarm in religion, but at the same time he encouraged every branch of learning and would have the fathers in his Society applied to that work, whether in teaching, preaching or the missions, for which God seemed chiefly to qualify and destine them by their genius, talents and particular graces.  Charity, the most ardent and pure love of God, was the crown of all his virtues.  He had often in his mouth these words, which he took for his motto,
 "To the greater glory of God"
-to which end he referred himself, his Society, and all his actions.  He often said,
"Lord, what do I desire, or what can I desire, besides thee?"
  True love is never idle; and always to labour for God, or to suffer for His sake, was all his happiness.
  The "military spirit" and inspiration of St Ignatius and the Society of Jesus has perhaps been exaggerated.  On the other hand, in admiring the grandeur of his strength and his achievements it is not uncommon to overlook the attractiveness
of Ignatius's character and his great gift of friendship.
   In the 15 years that he directed his order St Ignatius saw it grow from 10 members to 1000, in 9 countries and provinces of Europe, in India and in Brazil.  And in those 15 years he had been ill 15 times, so that the 16th time caused no unusual alarm. But it was the last. He died suddenly, so unexpectedly that he did not receive the last sacraments, early in the morning of July 31, 1556. He was canonized in Rome, and by Pope Pius X1 he was declared the heavenly patron of spiritual exercises and retreats.
   From the love of God sprang the enthusiasm of St Ignatius for the salvation of men, for which he undertook so many and so great things, to which he devoted his watchings, prayers, tears and labours. To gain others to Christ he made himself all thngs to all men, going in at their door, and coming out at his own. He received sincere penitents with greatest sweetness, often taking upon himself part of their penance, and endeavouring to bring them to make the perfect sacrifice of themselves to God, telling them that it is not to be expressed what precious treasures God reserves for those who give themselves to Him with their whole heart. He proposed to them for their model this prayer, which he used often to recite:

  "Receive, Lord, all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole
will.  You have given me all that I have, all that I am, and I surrender all to your divine will, that you dispose of me.   Give me only your love and your grace.  With this I am rich enough, and I have no more to ask."

By publication of the Monumenta Historica Societatis Jesu an immense mass of documents has been rendered accessible which includes practically everything which can throw light upon the biography of the founder of the order.  More particularly important are the twelve volumes which contain his correspondence, both private and official, and also all the written memorials of a personal nature which have been discovered.  Chief amongst these is the account of his early life which, with great reluctance but at the earnest solicitation of his spiritual sons, he was persuaded in his last days to communicate in a sort of dictation. A Latin version of this "autobiography" was printed in the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. vii, but it has now been edited in the Monumenta in the original Spanish and Italian, and it has also been translated into English. French, German, and other languages. By the publication of so much new material in the Monumenta, the older lives by Orlandini, Maffei, Bartoli, Genelli, etc., are in some sense superseded, though that written by Father Pedro Ribadeneira retains its value as the personal appreciation of one who was in an especially close relation with the saint. Father Astrain's Historia de la  Compafila de Jesis en la Arsistencia de España, vol. (1902), is from the nature of the case almost a history of the founder's career and activities, but Father Astrain also published a valuable little summary, translated into English by Fr H Hull. The accounts by Fr J. H. Pollen (1922) and Christopher Hollis (1931) are in their different ways excellent, and an admirable life in French by Fr de Grandmaison appeared in 1930. Among more recent publications may be mentioned Inigo de Loyola (Eng. trans.), in which Fr Leturia studies the saint's conversion; Fr H. Pinard de Ia Boullaye, St Ignace de Loyola, directeur d'âmes (1947); an English translation of Fr P. Dudon's standard life (1949); and a new edition of the biography by the poet Francis Thompson (1950). For those who do not want a formal biography, Fr J. Brodrick's Origin of the Jesuits (1940) is a splendid work.  The same writer says of the lives of the saint by H. D. Sedgwick (1923) and P. van Dyke (1926), "The two books are easily the fairest Protestant accounts of Ignstius ever written, and, as history, are far superior to many Catholic accounts". A new English version of the Spiritual Exercises was published by Fr J. L. Puhl in U.S.A. in 1950, and another by W. H. Longridge in England.
Ignatius of Loyola, Priest Founder (RM) Born in Loyola Castle, Azpeitia, Guipuzcoa, Spain, c. 1491; died July 31, 1556;  canonized in 1622; declared by Pope Pius XI to be the patron of spiritual exercises and retreats.
"We were created to praise, to reverence and to serve God. And everything else on the face of the earth
was created for our sake, to help us to achieve the goal for which we were created."
    "In a time of desolation, never forsake the good resolutions you made in better times.
Strive to remain patient--a virtue contrary to the troubles that harass you--and remember that you will be consoled."
"Prefer neither health nor sickness, neither riches nor poverty, neither honor nor ignominy, neither a long life nor a short one."
    "We must put aside all judgment of our own, and keep the mind ever ready and prompt to obey in all things
the true Spouse of Christ our Lord, our holy Mother, the hierarchical Church." --Saint Ignatius
Every saint is unique (although these biographies might not always make them seem so). They are saints because they fulfilled the unique purpose for which God created them. Too many of us are seeking to be that which our peers or families want us to be, rather than allowing the Master Artist to mold us. The man we know as Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, is among the most unique.
He was the most brilliant or erudite or holy of men--in fact, one who knew him wondered why he was canonized. He was, of course, zealous and devout, but so are many that we know. But, perhaps, this is why he was singled out for the distinction of canonization: He was a man who recognized that ordinary gifts can be used in spectacular ways by God, when an individual allows the Master Artist to use His powers and creativity in them.
He took a group of ordinary men, put them under the power of God, taught them how to listen to His voice, and formed a new sword for the Church of unequalled sharpness and strength. The daring projects of the Jesuits were carefully considered, using the virtue of prudence or wisdom, before drawing upon an almost superhuman courage and endurance to implement the designs they believed were planned by God.
Iñigo de Recalde de Loyola (the name is actually a copyist error that was accepted by the Bollandists because it was so pervasively used) was the youngest of twelve children.
He was a page at the court of the provincial governor before he began his career as a soldier in the army of the Duke of Nagara. At the siege of Pamplona in 1521, he was so seriously injured that he needed to convalesce for months. During this time he read a life of Jesus and other lives of the saints. "Since these men were as human as I am," he noted, "I could be as saintly as they were." After his recovery, instead of re-enlisting as a soldier, he exchanged his military dress for the clothing of a beggar, and at Montserrat in Barcelona visited the famous portrait of the Virgin in the Benedictine monastery; there he hung his sword before her.
Ignatius then retired to a place called Manresa, and in deep prayer and discipline wrote the first draft of his famous Spiritual Exercises, a manual for training the soul to grow daily nearer to God.
The saint now went on a pilgrimage to Rome and to Jerusalem, riding from Jaffa to the Holy City on a donkey. He returned to Europe, and for the next seven years--at Spanish universities and at Paris- -devoted himself to study. In Paris he laid the foundation for the great Society of Jesus. Six students joined him in vowing poverty, chastity, ad obedience, in joining themselves altogether by means of the Spiritual Exercises and in determining once their studies were over to preach Christianity in Palestine.
War in the Middle East made this last plan impossible. Instead Ignatius and his followers offered their services to Pope Paul III. In 1540, the pope formally approved the Society of Jesus. Ignatius lived sixteen more years. During which he tirelessly watched over the development of the Jesuits which grew from a handful of men to over 1,000 throughout Europe, working as missionaries and in universities and other schools (Bentley).
In art, Saint Ignatius is a bearded Jesuit, often with a book of the Jesuit Rule, kneeling before Christ. He may also be shown (1) with Christ bringing him a Cross; (2) with Christ as the Good Shepherd; (3) with Christ and Saint Peter before him (Feed My lambs); (4) holding the Rule, with Saint Francis Xavier or other Jesuit saints (IHS on his breast); (5) in Mass vestments, his hand resting upon his Rule, light in the heavens; (6) with a dragon under his feet; (7) holding the Rule, IHS, and Heart pierced by three nails (Roeder).
   
July 31, 2010 St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) 
The founder of the Jesuits was on his way to military fame and fortune when a cannon ball shattered his leg. Because there were no books of romance on hand during his convalescence, he whiled away the time reading a life of Christ and lives of the saints. His conscience was deeply touched, and a long, painful turning to Christ began. Having seen the Mother of God in a vision, he made a pilgrimage to her shrine at Montserrat (near Barcelona). He remained for almost a year at nearby Manresa, sometimes with the Dominicans, sometimes in a pauper's hospice, often in a cave in the hills praying. After a period of great peace of mind, he went through a harrowing trial of scruples. There was no comfort in anything—prayer, fasting, sacraments, penance. At length, his peace of mind returned.

It was during this year of conversion that he began to write down material that later became his greatest work, the Spiritual Exercises.

He finally achieved his purpose of going to the Holy Land, but could not remain, as he planned, because of the hostility of the Turks. He spent the next 11 years in various European universities, studying with great difficulty, beginning almost as a child. Like many others, he fell victim twice to the suspicions of the time, and was twice jailed for brief periods.

In 1534, at the age of 43, he and six others (one of whom was St. Francis Xavier) vowed to live in poverty and chastity and to go to the Holy Land. If this became impossible, they vowed to offer themselves to the apostolic service of the pope. The latter became the only choice. Four years later Ignatius made the association permanent. The new Society of Jesus was approved by Paul III, and Ignatius was elected to serve as the first general.


When companions were sent on various missions by the pope, Ignatius remained in Rome, consolidating the new venture, but still finding time to found homes for orphans, catechumens and penitents. He founded the Roman College, intended to be the model of all other colleges of the Society.

Ignatius was a true mystic. He centered his spiritual life on the essential foundations of Christianity—the Trinity, Christ, the Eucharist. His spirituality is expressed in the Jesuit motto, ad majorem Dei gloriam—"for the greater glory of God." In his concept, obedience was to be the prominent virtue, to assure the effectiveness and mobility of his men. All activity was to be guided by a true love of the Church and unconditional obedience to the Holy Father, for which reason all professed members took a fourth vow to go wherever the pope should send them for the salvation of souls.

Comment: Luther nailed his theses to the church door at Wittenberg in 1517. Seventeen years later, Ignatius founded the Society that was to play so prominent a part in the Counter-Reformation. He was an implacable foe of Protestantism. Yet the seeds of ecumenism may be found in his words: "Great care must be taken to show forth orthodox truth in such a way that if any heretics happen to be present they may have an example of charity and Christian moderation. No hard words should be used nor any sort of contempt for their errors be shown." One of the greatest twentieth-century ecumenists was Cardinal Bea, a Jesuit. 
Quote: Ignatius recommended this prayer to penitents: "Receive, Lord, all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. You have given me all that I have, all that I am, and I surrender all to your divine will, that you dispose of me. Give me only your love and your grace. With this I am rich enough, and I have no more to ask."

1859 Blessed Emmanuel Phung  native catechist and Peter Qui priest MM (AC)
Died at Chaudoc in West Cochin-China; beatified in 1909. Emmanuel Phung, born at Dan-nuoc, Cochin-China (Vietnam) about 1796, was a native catechist. Peter, born at Bung, was ordained to the priesthood. Both died for the faith: Emmanuel was garrotted and Father Peter was beheaded (Benedictines)
.
1859 St. Emmanuel Phung Martyr of Vietnam; born in Dannuoc Vietnam became a Christian catechist. Emmanuel was strangled to death near Chaudoc. He was canonized in 1988.
1859 St. Peter Quy Vietnamese martyr; native of Vietnam, Peter was a devoted Christian and received ordination as a priest. Arrested for being a Christian priest by anti-Catholic forces, he was beheaded. Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1988.
1860 St. Justin de Jacobis; first prefect and vicar apostolic to the new Catholic mission at Adua, Ethiopia; Vincentians
Justin was born in 1800 at San Fele, Italy on October 9th. He was taken to Naples when a child by his parents, joined the Vincentians when 18, and was ordained. After helping found a Vincentian house at Monopoly, he served as superior at Lecce and in 1839 was sent as the first prefect and vicar apostolic to the new Catholic mission at Adua, Ethiopia. His efforts to evangelize met with great opposition. 
In 1841 he was included in a delegation of Ethiopian prelates to Cairo to request the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria to appoint one of his monks Abuna (patriarch) of the Ethiopian church.
In Cairo, the patriarch denounced the presence of Father de Jacobis on the delegation and intrigued to appoint one Salama as Abuna. Some of the delegation then accompanied Father de Jacobis to meet the Pope in Rome. On his return, Father de Jacobis founded a college and seminary at Guala, and in 1846 a vicariate apostolic of the Galla was established, with William Massaia as its first bishop.
These developments caused Salama to launch an anti-Catholic campaign. The college was closed, Catholicism was proscribed, and bishop Massaia was forced to return to Aidan. In 1848, he secretly consecrated Father de Jacobis, now a fugitive, bishop at Massawa, with authority to administer the sacraments in the Ethiopian rite. By 1853, the new bishop had ordained some twenty Ethiopians, was ministering to 5000 Catholics, and was able to reopen the college.
In 1860, Kedaref Kassa became king as Theodore II and in return for the backing he had received from Abuna Salama, launched a persecution of the Catholics. Bishop de Jacobis was arrested and after several month's imprisonment was released and managed to find his way to Halai in southern Eritrea. He spent the rest of his life in missionary work along the Red Sea coast and died in the valley of Alghedien on July 31 of fever he contracted while on a missionary trip. He was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1975.

Justin de Jacobis B (AC) Born at San Fele, Lucania, Italy, on October 9, 1800; died in the Valley of Alghedien, Ethiopia, on July 31, 1860; beatified in 1939; canonized in 1975 by Pope Paul VI.
Saint Justin was a great apostle of Africa and the true founder of the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) mission. Even during his youth in Naples, he was known for his extreme piety. At the age of 18, he joined the Congregation of the Mission, which is also known as the Vincentians after the founder Saint Vincent de Paul. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1824 and excelled at preaching, especially to the rural poor because he had a special gift of making the faith attractive to both the scholar and the ignorant. After he helped to found a Vincentian house at Monopoli, he served as superior at Lecce (Apulia). In 1836-1837, Father Justin served the sick with heroic charity in the cholera epidemic in Naples. Then he was chosen by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith as Prefect Apostolic for Ethiopia.
In 1839, he left for his mission field with a few companions. Upon his arrival at Adua, Father Justin found no warm welcome. Abyssinia was an unhappy country politically. Most of the country was Islamic or Coptic Christians who had been in schism from the Church for many centuries. Adding to the difficulties, the "Franks," i.e., Western foreigners, had gained a reputation for being arrogant and heretical. Following the Portuguese intransigence in the 16th century, all Catholic missionaries had been excluded for 200 years. But Saint Justin's attitude of courtesy as an expression of his truly Christian love for each individual he encountered, helped him in the long, slow work he had accepted.
He adopted the whole culture of the country, including the language, and amid persecution, prison, and hardship labored with indefatigable zeal that led to success in improving relations with the local churches. In 1840 or 1841, he was invited by the Coptic clergy to participate in a delegation of Ethiopian prelates to Cairo. Their mission was to request that the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria appoint one of his monks as Abuna (patriarch) of the Ethiopian Church. In Cairo, the patriarch denounced the presence of Father de Jacobis and intrigued to appoint one Salama, a very young and not very capable man, as patriarch. Justin persuaded some of the delegation to accompany him to Rome to meet with the pope and seek reunion with the Holy See. The venture failed but Justin gained credit and confidence.
While he did not overcome the enmity of the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria, nor the Metropolitan Salama, head of the Ethiopian church, he did found missions, a school and a seminary at Guala, and named native clergy. In 1846, a vicarate apostolic of the Galla was established with the Capuchin William Massaia as its first bishop. Additionally, his converts are estimated at 12,000, among them Blessed Michael Ghebre (Gara Mika'el).
The arrival of a Western bishop and the growth of the mission led to an outbreak of persecution at the instigation of Salama who issued instructions "to kill Abba Jacob and all his people. . . . to kill one who follows their religion is to earn seven heavenly crowns hereafter." The college was closed, Catholicism was proscribed, and Bishop Massaia was forced to return to Aden. Father Justin barely escaped the martyrdom that claimed the life of Blessed Michael, who died in captivity.
In 1848 or 1849 at Massawa, Father Justin, now a hunted man, was constrained to accept the title of Vicar Apostolic and secretly receive episcopal consecration at the hands of Bishop Massaia in order to help his scattered flock. Although he remained a priest of the Latin rite, he was also given faculties to celebrate Mass and administer the sacraments according to the ancient Ethiopic rite to enhance his ministry.
By 1853, he had ordained some 20 Ethiopians, was ministering to 5,000 Catholics, and was able to reopen the college. But in 1860, Kedaref Kassa became king as Theodore II and in return for the support of Abuna Salama launched another persecution of Catholics.
In due course, Saint Justin was arrested in an attempt to make him "disappear." But, after several months' imprisonment at Gondar, his guards released him in a wild area from which he was able to make an agonizing journey to Halai in southern Eritrea. He tried to return to his flock at Tigrai, but had to remain on the coast of the Red Sea. Bishop Justin's work was now circumscribed to the area along the Red Sea; but this still meant exhausting journeying.
He was again imprisoned for extending hospitality to a French political mission. This time he was forced to endure long marches, rapid changes of climate, and a fatal fever. Again he was released and attempted to return to Halai on horseback, accompanied by a priest, and a group of monks and students. When he found he could ride no further, he knew that it was time to give up his spirit. He was anointed, his head supported by a rock in the desert, and spoke his last words: "Pray hard, little ones, for I am going to die. I won't forget you...I am dying." Thus, Saint Justin died of a fever on the roadside near Halai.
He is buried in a church at Hebo, in the far north of the country, where his shrine is carefully preserved, and his memory is still very much alive among the people who feel that he was one of them. Saint Justin was an impressive pioneer of ecumenism as well as of missionary achievement. Cardinal Messaia wrote of this man of enormous tact, "God chose him to be a teacher even more by example than by words" (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer, White).

Ethiopia (the proper name of the country commonly called Abyssinia) has a population of which about half is Christian and the rest Mohammedan, Jewish and heathen.  The Ethiopians were first evangelized in the fourth century, from Syria and Egypt, and ever since then their church has had a certain dependence on the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria.  When, therefore, most of the Egyptians and Syrians followed the monophysite schism after 451 the Ethiopians also were involved.   For centuries, and even still in a measure, they were the most isolated and neglected of all Christian bodies.
   During the sixteenth century, however, Portuguese military- trading expeditions -were active in the Red Sea, and eventually, early in the seventeenth century, the Ethiopian negus (king), Susneyos, entered into communion with the Catholic Church.    But this promising movement was completely spoiled by the irreligious methods used by Susneyos to impose the reunion on his people; these methods were, unhappily, not repudiated by the Portuguese clergy of the Society of Jesus in the country, who indeed made matters worse by their clumsiness and unnecessary intransigence. The upshot was a violent counter-persecution began in 1632, and for two hundred years no Catholic priest was allowed to enter Ethiopia.   Some did, from time to time, and paid for their courage with their lives; among them were the two Capuchins, BB. Agathangelo and Cassian (August 7).
   In the nineteenth century things got a bit easier, and in 1839 the Irish-French travellers, Arnauld and Antony d'Abbadie d'Arrast, used their influence to get a Catholic mission established at Adua. It was entrusted to the Congregation of the Mission, founded by St Vincent de Paul and hence often called Vincentians in English, but more commonly known as Lazarists from their college of St Lazarus in Paris.
   The first prefect and vicar apostolic of this mission was Justin de Jacobis, who was born in the year 1800 at San Fele in the Basilicata, the seventh of the fourteen children of his parents, and while still a child was taken to live in Naples.  His mother was a religious woman, and no doubt it was partly due to her example and care that young Justin offered himself to the Congregation of the Mission at the age of eighteen.  A fellow student at the seminary, who himself was to become archbishop of Smyrna, has left a testimony to the virtue of Justin's life at this time and the high regard in which he was held by all who came in contact with him: he was "beloved of God and man ".
   After his ordination he was in constant demand as a mission preacher and confessor, and he concerned himself particularly with the poor people of the countryside.  He was chosen to help in the establishment of a new house of his congregation at Monopoli, and a few years later was made superior at Lecce, after he had been subjected to very unkind treatment by a new superior at the first-named house.
  There is good evidence that already at this period Father de Jacobis was distinguished by happenings outside the ordinary course of nature. During the short time stationed in Naples there was an outbreak of cholera, where he devoted himself with tireless energy and courage to the care of the sufferers.  "Everybody loved him ", says a contemporary, and when he was appointed to take charge of the new Ethiopian mission a Neapolitan newspaper wrote, "Mr de Jacobis is one of those evangelical workers who knows how to bring the works of nature under the dominion of religion and to attract to Jesus Christ the wise man and the scholar no less than the ignorant and simple ".

   Father de Jacobis arrived in Ethiopia in September 1839 & two other priests with him. He stationed them at the Amharic capital, Gondar, settling himself at Adua, capital of the Tigrai.  The ruler of this province, Ubia, was quite well disposed towards him, but among the clergy and people at large the events of the sixteenth century were not forgotten and the name Catholic was bitterly detested.  For two years Father de Jacobis set himself to learn about the country, its people and its languages, and to break down prejudice by kindness and quiet humility. Early 1840 he ventured his first conference with some dissident clecgy, whom he addressed with beautiful simplicity, emphasiing that he came among them as a friend and a servant, because he loved them and wanted to help them. Then and thereafter he did not fail to make a deep impression: but the obstacles in his way were huge- not least, human respect and a widespread corruption of life -and those who asked to be reconciled with the Catholic Church were very few indeed.
  At this time the notables of Ethiopia were arranging to send a deputation to Egypt to ask the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria to appoint, according to custom, one of his monks as primate (abuna) of the Ethiopian Church: the sole episcopal see had been vacant for twelve years.  And it occurred to them to ask Father de Jacobis to accompany this deputation, so that the presence of a respected European might make a suitable impression in Egypt.  This proposal produced some qualms of conscience in Father de Jacobis-could a Catholic priest associate himself quasi-officially with such a mission?  But he agreed to do as he was asked on condition that Ubia furnished him with a letter to the patriarch urging reunion with the Catholic Church and that the deputation should go on to Rome as an official mission from Ethiopia to the Holy See.  This was agreed to, and early in 1841 the party set out, the other principal members being a lay minister of state, a priest and a monk of the Ethiopian Church, and a secretary.   The monk was Abba Gabra Mika'el.  It would have been a hardy speculator who could have surmised that this dissident monk was to die a martyr for unity and be raised to the altars of the Church thirteen years before another of the deputation, Father Justin himself.
  At first his companions were inclined to ignore Father Justin as a "Frank" and a heretic; but his courtesy and consideration won them over, and the testimony of the chief secretary shows that they had not been in Cairn long before they were comparing him favourably with the Coptic patriarch.
 This prelate flatly and rudely refused to have anything to do with the Holy See, threatened deputies with excommunication if they did not dissociate themselves from Father de Jacobis; he then presided over an election at which flagrant intrigue conferred the Ethiopian see on a young and ignorant monk who was below the canonical age. At his consecration he took the name of Salama-we shall meet him again.
  Meanwhile it looked as if the visit to Rome would fall through. But some of them, including Gabra Mika'el, defied the patriarch & accompanied Father de Jacobis. They were warmly received by Pope Gregory XVI, assisted at Mass in St Peter's on the Assumption, and came away exceedingly impressed.   Only one of them had yet repudiated schism, on the way back at Jerusalem, but Father de Jacobis was sowing good seed.  And so the deputation returned home.  As Bd Justin said, "That visit to Rome altered the ideas of my poor Ethiopians: it was the best possible course of theology for them ".

  For a time at this period the outlook for the mission in Ethiopia was not unfavourable, in spite of grave difliculties presented by misunderstanding, ignorance and slander.  A nucleus of indigenous Catholics was formed, and it included such influential and respected men as the monks Gabra Mika'el and Takla Haimanot.  Even from the Galla country, where a European priest had never been seen, Antony d'Abbadie sent an encouraging report to Montalembert in Paris. Father de Jacobis experienced the need for a college to educate and train a future generation of clergy; in a letter to the superior general of the Congregation of the Mission he described how for a year he had been looking for a site towards Massawa (which is on an island in the Red Sea) that would be suitable both for a religious centre and as a place of refuge for the faithful in the event of persecution.  Eventually he obtained a suitable property on land belonging to the monastery of Gunda-Gunda: several of the monks of this house had become Catholics and its abbot was well disposed towards Abba Jacob, as Father de Jacobis was called. Here, at Guala, near Adigrat, the college was begun in 1845.  Bd Justin had as his staff his colleague Father Biancheri, three Ethiopian priests and two monks, and an Italian laybrother; and an Ethiopian layman in charge of the boys' school. The seminary had soon made sufficient progress for Bd Justin to represent to Rome the need for a bishop, and before the end of 1846 a vicariate apostolic "of the Galla" had been set up.   It was. entrusted to the Capuchin friars minor, and the first bishop was Mgr (afterwards Cardinal) William Massaia.
  Popularity of "the Frank Jacob"and his activities at Guala had not escaped the notice of the head of the national church, Abuna Salama {* It is common form in some hagiography to represent the persecutors of the saints to have been as wicked in all respects as their victims were virtuous,  Of course they weren't always. But this Salama was a very bad lot.}, and he published an excommunication of all who should "give him food and drink when travelling, or accept money from him".  This had no particular effect; but the arrival of a Catholic bishop excited Salama to more effective action. Making use of the political situation and the parties to which his own unpopularity had given rise, he brought about a state of open persecution.  The college and groups of faithful were dispersed, Catholicity was proscribed, Mgr Massaia had to withdraw to Aden, and Bd Justin was a hunted man: Salama's patron, Subagadis, wrote to his chiefs, "Kill Abba Jacob and all his people.  To kill only one who follows his religion is to earn seven heavenly crowns hereafter..."
   In such conditions Father de Jacobis, whose prefecture had been made a vicariate, received episcopal consecration, secretly at Massawa, at the hands of Mgr Massaia in 1848.  Though remaining a priest of the Latin rite he was given faculties to celebrate Mass and administer the sacraments, especially holy orders, according to the Ethiopic rite whenever that should be desirable.
The first priest he ordained was Bd Gabra Mika'el, who was sixty years old at the time.
  Not all those who had been reconciled with the Catholic Church were constant under persecution, others were constant to death: and in spite of all, Bd Justin's work developed, a little here and a little there.  By 1853 there were a score of Ethiopian priests and 5,000 other faithful, and for a time Bd Gabra Mika'el was able to reopen the college, at Alitiena.  Among those who befriended Mgr de Jacobis at this time was a young Scot named John Bell, who was in the service of the viceroy of Beghemeder, Ras Mi.  It is said to have been Bell's intention to become a Catholic, but in the disturbed state of the country he was killed in a skirmish, in 1860, before putting his determination into effect.   These disturbances were brought about when the commander of Ru All's troops, Kedaref Kassa, began the conquests which were to bring him to the throne of Ethiopia as Negus Neghesti (King of Kings) Theodore II.
   Kassa bought the support of Abuna Salama by promising to banish all Catholic clergy, and again persecution flared up.

  Bd Justin was arrested in Gondar and jailed for several months with common criminals.  He was then dispatched under escort to the frontier post of Senaar, where it was intended that he should either "disappear" or fall a victim to Mohammedan fanaticism. Instead, his guards set him at liberty.  After undergoing great suffering and in continual danger he arrived safely at Halai, towards the coast in southern Eritrea, from whence he wrote to his superiors referring to his "almost miraculous deliverance".  On the very day, August 28, 1855 Bd Justin wrote this letter, Bd Gabra Mika'eI died in chains (see September 1).
  Mgr de Jacobis tried to get back to his harried little flock in the Tigrai province, but in vain; for the few remaining years of his life he had to confine his ministry to the Red Sea coast. Towards the end of 1859 the French government sent an envoy extraordinary, Count de Russel, on a political mission to Negusie, ruler of the Tigrai. This action provoked considerable excitement in Ethiopia; Russel's position was very awkward, and Mgr de Jacobis gave the mission shelter in his house at Halai.  The action was prompted by charity and not by political considerations; but Bd Justin was seized when about to celebrate the Holy Mysteries, and kept shut up for over three weeks in a stable or beast house.  Russel ransomed him in March 1860; but the imprisonment, forced marches and change of climate from the mountains at Halai to low-lying Emkullo had been too much for a body already worn out by twenty years of grinding toil in Ethiopia.
  On July 19 he was seized by a fever.  He knew it meant the end, but insisted on setting out on the difficult journey of return to Halai on July 29, accompanied by Father Delmonte, several monks, and a dozen young students.   On the 31st they reached the valley of Aighedien, but BEd Justin could no longer keep in the saddle.  Lying on the ground, surrounded by his weeping disciples, he was anointed; then, sitting up, with his head leaning against a rock, he spoke to them for the last time: "Pray hard, little ones, for I'm going to die.    I won't forget you... I am dying."   He drew his cloak over his face, and so died.
  St Vincent de Paul once said to the priests of his congregation, "Suppose a missionary were to be found worn out with toil and weakness, having nothing of his own, sitting under a hedge.  And that he were asked, `Poor priest, what has brought you to this state?'  And that he were able to reply, `Love'. What a happiness that would be!"  Justin de Jacobis was certainly that priest, even to the detail of sifting on the ground; and Father Delmonte's letter to his superiors from Emkullo, dated August 3, began, "I have to announce the death of a saint".
    Yet his devoted and self-sacrificing life can be paralleled over and over again in the lives of missionaries whom no one has ever suggested canonizing: the difference between him and them is not in their external lives and experiences, but in the man himself, what he was. Reading a long memorandum written by Mgr Massaia, it is Bd Justin's humility that keeps on cropping up and that seems to have been the characteristic of his heroic virtue: not simply a gentlemanly modesty or a creaking adherence to copybook maxims, but an ingrained virtue that enabled him to be as it were "one of themselves" among the people to whom he was sent- and they were not a people with any surface attractiveness about them. Over and over again priests and monks and notables, who had been told that he was an emissary of the arrogant "Franks" and the even more arrogant Pope of Rome, found that he talked and behaved as if he looked on himself as their servant-which of course is exactly what he did.
  Mgr Massaia wrote, "He was chosen by God to be a teacher, not only in words but even more by example; and to be a model of the perfection that is possible to mortal man, amid a people terribly corrupted by falsehood, pride, lasciviousness and every kind of wickedness. And God raised this great figure of human perfection on a base of humility, to be a lesson to Ethiopia, and to the apostles who should carry on the work he began, for ever after."

   Bd Justin was buried in the church at Hebo, which had to be enlarged to accommodate the tomb; it has ever since been regarded as the shrine of a saint by the people, both Catholic and dissident, of the neighbourhood, who have never forgotten Abuna Jacob. And on May 14, 1939, the Church put her seal on their tradition by declaring Justin de Jacobis blessed.
In 1866 there was published in Paris an anonymous [A. Devin] life of Justin de Jacobis, L'Abyssinie et son apâtre; it is somewhat disconnected and has awkward gaps, but it is a most valuable work since it consists almost entirely of verbatim passages from the letters of Antony d'Abbadie d'Arrast, Mgr Msssaia and other contemporaries and from the letters and journals of Bd Justin himself.  See also Massais's Trenta anni in Abissinia; Coulbeaux, Vers la Lumière, a biography of Bd Gabra Mika'el (1926); Arata, Vita del B. Giustino de Jacobis (1939); and the biographies in French by M Demimuid (1906) and J. Baeteman (1939). For background, Archbishop Mathew's Ethiopia (1947) is excellent; see also Attwater, Christian Churches of the East, vol. i, cap. v (1947).  The John T. Bell mentioned above married an Ethiopian princess; their daughter married a Swiss missionary, and their daughter, Princess Ada Yilma, wrote an account of the negus Haile Salassie in English,  published in 1936. See also C. Korolevsky in Rotna e l'Oriente, July 1919, pp. 23-36, January 1920, pp. 35-52; and for Salama, J. B. Coulbeaux in Revue anglo-romaine, vol. i (1896), pp. 625-636, 673-696.
1922 Benjamin (Kazansky) The New Hieromartyr one of the few people in Russia with no interest in politics. He was more concerned with caring for his diocese and his flock; did not resist turning over the Church's valuables to the Communists confiscating Church treasures, for he believed it was his duty to help save people's lives; He wanted this sacrifice to be voluntary; dressed in rags so that the firing squad would not know that they were shooting members of the clergy.
Appointed Metropolitan of Petrograd in the summer of 1917. During those tumultuous times, he was one of the few people in Russia with no interest in politics. He was more concerned with caring for his diocese and his flock. In 1922, the Communists began confiscating Church treasures. They professed that they wanted to sell them in order to buy food for the starving population. When the people protested, there were bloody reprisals. Metropolitan Benjamin did not resist turning over the Church's valuables, for he believed it was his duty to help save people's lives.
He wanted this sacrifice to be voluntary, however, and not a plundering of church property by the government.

On March 6, 1922 Metropolitan Benjamin met with a commission which had been formed to help the starving. They agreed to his request that the dispersal of funds from voluntary contributions should be controlled by the parishes. Newspapers of that time praised the Metropolitan and his clergy for their charitable spirit.
Party leaders in Moscow did not approve of the decision made by the Communists of Petrograd allowing voluntary contributions to be administered by the parishes, and declared that the confiscation of Church property would continue. Protesters gathered in Petrograd, shouting and throwing stones at those who were stealing from the churches.

On March 24, 1922 "Pravda" printed a letter from twelve priests who broke ranks with the other clergy, referring to them as "counter-revolutionaries" and blaming them for the famine. Most of these twelve would later be active in the "Living Church." They called for unconditional surrender of all Church valuables to the Soviets.
The clergy of Petrograd were outraged by the letter from the twelve. Metropolitan Benjamin, hoping to avoid confrontations between the people and the Communists, tried to calm his priests. He also asked for a meeting with the authorities. Vvedensky and Boyarsky, two of the twelve, were delegated to talk with Soviet leaders, and came to an agreement.
Parishes would be permitted to keep their sacred vessels if they substituted other property of equal value. This program seemed to work well for a time.

Vvedensky, Boyarsky, and others tried to wrest control of the Church from Patriarch Tikhon and the bishops. They informed Metropolitan Benjamin of the new state of affairs, declaring that Vvedensky had been appointed as the Petrograd representative of the new Church administration.  The Metropolitan could not accept this threat to Church order, so he proclaimed that Vvedensky would be regarded as being outside the Church until he repented of his error. This decree was published in the newspapers, and served to enrage the Soviets.
Vvedensky and the Petrograd commandant Bakaev went to see the Metropolitan and ordered him to rescind his decree. If he did not, they told him, he and others close to him would be placed on trial. They warned Metropolitan Benjamin that he and others would be put to death if he made the wrong choice. He refused to submit.  The courageous archpastor began meeting with his friends in order to say farewell.
 He also gave instructions for the administration of the diocese. A few days later, the Metropolitan was placed under house arrest. Not long after that, he was taken to prison.   As his trial began, the Metropolitan entered the courtroom with Bishop Benedict and other clergy. When everyone stood up for him, Metropolitan Benjamin blessed them. The judges tried to get the Metropolitan to renounce the idea of the parishes voluntarily contributing church valuables in order to feed the hungry, or to provide the names of those who had conceived this idea. It would suit their purposes very well if he could be made to "repent" or back away from his previous statements and submit to the authorities.

The other clergy and civilians on trial with Metropolitan Benjamin did not try to ingratiate themselves with the court, and did not accuse others in order to win leniency for themselves. The trial lasted for two weeks, and the prosecutors presented witnesses who had been hired to bring false accusations against the defendants.
Many witnesses were called, and their testimony seemed to support Metropolitan Benjamin and to weaken the government's case against him. A certain professor of the Technological Institute named Egorov angered the court by his testimony. He was accused of being a follower of the Metropolitan, so he was arrested on the spot.
In spite of all the evidence, the defendants were found guilty. Government supporters and members of the Red Army in the court broke into applause. The defense attorney addressed the court, saying that he knew that any pleas he might offer would be useless. "Political considerations come first with you, and all verdicts must favor your policy," he declared. Even though everyone understood that the trial was a farce, the Soviet government could not afford to make a martyr out of Metropolitan Benjamin. The example of history, he pointed out, should warn them against such a course.
When the defense attorney had finished, there was loud clapping. The judges tried to restore order, but found that many Communists in the audience had also joined in the applause.

The defendants were given a chance to speak, and the Metropolitan stood to address the court. He said it grieved him to be called an enemy of the people, for he had always loved the people and dedicated his life to them. The rest of his comments were a defense of the others on trial with him. When the presiding judge asked him to say something about himself, he said that no matter what sentence the court decreed he would thank God by saying, "Glory to Thee, O Lord, glory to Thee for all things."
At 9:00 P.M. on July 5, the chairman of the tribunal announced that ten defendants, including the Metropolitan, were to be shot.
St Benjamin and those with him (Archimandrite Sergius, George and John of Petrograd) were executed on July 31, 1922. They had been shaved and dressed in rags so that the firing squad would not know that they were shooting members of the clergy.
1922 Archimandrite Sergius (Shein) was executed along with Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd on July 31, 1922; "Does this tribunal imagine," he said, "that severing this thread which connects me with life could frighten me? Do your deed. I pity you, and I pray for you."
During his trial, he explained that as a monk he had renounced the world in order to dedicate himself to God. Only the flimsiest of threads still connected him with the outside world, he asserted.
"Does this tribunal imagine," he said, "that severing this thread which connects me with life could frighten me? Do your deed. I pity you, and I pray for you."
After a short deliberation, the chairman of the tribunal announced that Metropolitan Benjamin and ten others were to be shot. The prisoners were taken from jail and executed a few miles from Petrograd.
The New Martyr Yuri (George) was executed along with Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd, Archimandrite Sergius, and the layman John on July 31, 1922. They were taken to a place a few miles from Petrograd and shot. These saints are also commemorated at the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia (January 25 or the Sunday after the 25th)
.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 12

God is in the congregation of Jews: from whom, as a rose, has come forth the Mother of God.

Wipe away my stains, O Lady: thou who art ever resplendent in purity.

Make the fountain of life flow into my mouth: whence the living waters take their rise and flow forth.

All ye who thirst, come to her: she will willingly give you to drink from her fountain.

He who drinketh from her, will spring forth unto life everlasting: and he will never thirst.


For thy spirit is kind: thy grace fills the whole world.

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

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

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

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

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

Mary the Mother of Jesus Miracles_BLay Saints  Miraculous_IconMiraculous_Medal_Novena Patron Saints
Miracles by Century 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000    1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800  1900 2000
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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 Indulgence Litany of Loretto in Stained glass windows here.  Nave Sacristy and Residence Here
Sanctuary
spaces between them filled with grilles of hand-forged wrought iron the
life of our Blessed Lady After the crucifixon
Apostle statues Replicas of those in St John Lateran--Christendom's earliest Basilica.
Ordered by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, Popes' cathedral and official residence first millennium of Christian history.

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

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


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia 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 12 2023