Mary Mother of GOD
Vigília sanctórum Apostolórum Petri et Pauli.
The vigil of the holy apostles Peter and Paul.

Saint of the Day June 28 Quarto Kaléndas Júlii
Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”,
showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.
Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary

The Constitutional Convention deadlocked over how large and small states could be represented equally.
Some delegates gave up and left. Then, on JUNE 28, 1787, 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin spoke and shortly after, the U.S. Constitution became a reality. As recorded by James Madison, Franklin stated:
"Groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights." Franklin continued:
"In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending Providence in our favor...
And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance?" Franklin concluded:
"We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that 'except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.'...
I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed...no better than the Builders of Babel."
Bill Federer http://www.amerisearch.net/June 28

Tuesday, June 28, 2011
St. Irenaeus, Bishop, Martyr (Memorial)

Genesis 19:15-29
Psalm 26:2-3, 9-12
Matthew 8:23-27

My little children, your hearts are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of Heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the souls and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the sun. -- St. John Vianney

June 28 - 1919: Treaty of Versailles on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
The Beginnings of the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary In September of 1911, Jesus told Bertha Petit, the Belgian mystic, that he wished "mankind to turn to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart" of Mary.  A few years later, on May 31, 1915, Pope Benedict XV also asked the faithful to have recourse to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. On September 28, 1915, the pope amplified this request by granting a 100 days indulgence for the invocation of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.
On March 7, 1916, Cardinal Draper announced his intention to consecrate his diocese
and all of Belgium to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.
On Christmas Day 1917, Cardinal Bourne, Primate of England, solemnly consecrated his Fatherland.

After the Virgin first appeared in Fatima (May 13, 1917), she declared on July 13th (showing a vision of the souls in hell to the three children): "To save souls, God wants to establish in the world the devotion to my Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart." She also promised: "In the end, my Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart will triumph."

The Treaty of Versailles, putting an end to the First World War,
was signed on June 28, 1919, the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.


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.

June 28 - Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (d. 202) Bishop, Father of the Church and Martyr.
Take Me As Your Servant!
O very tender Virgin and Mother of the Savior of all Times, take me as your servant starting from this very day and for ever more. From now on, in all circumstances, be my merciful advocate; come unceasingly to my rescue. Indeed, after God, I do not want to prefer anybody else to you any more and, of my own free will,
I devote myself to you as your servant for eternity.
Martyrdom of St. Timothy of Memphis (El-Masry)   (Coptic}
95  Departure of St. Cedron (Kardonos), the Fourth Patriarch of Alexandria This father was baptized by the hand of St. Mark the apostle, and the evangelist of the land of Egypt   (Coptic}
First Church for The Virgin Mary in the city of Philippi. Commemoration of  (Coptic}
 202 Saints Plutarch Martyrs of Alexandria, Egypt With brother, Heraclides, and group of fellow students Marcella
        and her daughter Potamioena soldier
Bailides
 202  Saint Irenaeus writings of Saint Irenaeus entitle him to a high place among the fathers of the Church, for they not only laid the foundations of Christian theology but, by exposing and refuting the errors of the gnostics, they delivered the Catholic Faith from the real danger of the doctrines of those heretics:  He was most influenced by Saint Polycarp who had known the apostles or their immediate disciples
  St. Papius, martyr, Also during the persecution of Diocletian, scourged with knotted cords, cast into a cauldron of
       seething oil and grease, and after other horrible torments was beheaded, and thus won an eternal crown.

 412 Cyrus and John from the city of Konopa, near Alexandria Transfer of the Relics of the Holy Martyrs,
       Unmercenaries and Wonderworkers many miracles, healings of the sick and infirm

5th v. Saint Crummine Bishop and disciple of Saint Patrick of Ireland. Saint Patrick placed Crummine over the church
      in Lachan County, Westmeath.

6th v. Saint Austell Confessor and disciple of Saint Newman of Cornwall, England.
6th v. Saint Benignus Bishop and martyr. mentioned in Pope Pelagius II's decretal concerning his resignation from his
     see. Benignus retired to Utrecht, Netherlands; listed in the Roman Martyrology, relics found in Utrecht, in 996.

 660 Saint Theodichildis She served as first abbess Benedictine house of Jouarre, Meaux, France.
 683 SAINT LEO II Pope he accomplished good works which cause his name blessed by all succeeding generations
 767 Saint Paul I, Pope {Pope from 757-767}. The brother of Pope Stephen II and a Roman, he was educated in the Lateran Palace, became a deacon under Pope Zachary, and wielded considerable influence in his brother’s administration. Elected to succeed Stephen, he took as his primary concern the threat posed to Rome and the Papal States by the Lombards.
9th v.St. John of Damascus "Of the Three Hands" The Icon of the Mother of God, Mary reattached his hand John
       placed on the icon a hand fashioned of silver, from which the icon received its name

  858 Saint Argymirus Martyr of Spain, native of Cabra, Spain, he held a high position in one of the Islamic domains in the peninsula. Fired because of his Christian faith, Argymirus became a monk. made a public statement of his beliefs and was behead
 875 Saint Egilo abbot of Prum, near Trier, Germany founder, also called Egilo and Eigil. He was abbot of Prum, near Trier, Germany. There he gave the habit to Saint Humphrey. In 860, he was directed by Emperor Charles the Bald to restore Flavigny Abbey in Dijon, France. He then founded the abbey of Corbigny, in Yonne.
 976 Gero von Köln 971 holte Gero die byzantinische Prinzessin Theophanu als Braut für Oto II. nach Deutschland.
       Dabei brachte er auch Reliquien von Pantaleon nach Köln mit

1019 Saint Heimrad Benedictine hermit and pilgrim. He was a monk at various abbeys before beginning his ceaseless pilgrimages to Rome and Jerusalem. He was considered a lunatic by many until he setteld as a hermit at Wolfhagen, Hesse Nassau. His tomb there drew many pilgrims.
     Saint Paul the Physician, from the city of Corinth, in his youth took monastic tonsure at one of the monasteries.
     Here the saint toiled much and became an experienced ascetic.
1262 Saint Xenophon of Robeika a student of St. Barlaam of Khutyn head of the Khutyn monastery after the igumen
       Isidore founded the Trinity Monastery on the banks of the Robeika River (not far from Novgorod)

1270 Saint Almus Cistercian abbot monk at Melrose when he was elected abbot of Scotland's Balmerino monastery,
       founded by Ermengardis, the widow of William I of Scotland.
1353 Saints Sergius and Herman settled on the island of Valaam in 1329. The brethren gathered by them spread the light of Orthodoxy in this frontier land. The Karelian people began to regard Christianity with renewed suspicion, with its authority in the 14th century being undermined by Swedes, who sought to spread Catholicism by means of the sword.
1654 Saint John Southworth became a priest in 1619 in Douai One of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales relics
        are in Westminster Cathedral in London, discovered there in 1927. Pope Paul VI canonized him in 1970.
1847 Saint Vincenza Gerosa Co-foundress of Sisters of Charity native of Lovere, Italy gave her life to aiding the poor

Mary the 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!)

The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
St. Irenaeus, Bishop, Martyr (Memorial)

Genesis 19:15-29
Psalm 26:2-3, 9-12
Matthew 8:23-27

My little children, your hearts are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of Heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the souls and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the sun. -- St. John Vianney
BENEDICT XVI'S Holy Father's Prayer Intentions For 2011  June 2011
General Intention: That priests, united to the Heart of Christ,
may always be true witnesses of the caring and merciful love of God.

Missionary Intention: That the Holy Spirit may bring forth from our communities numerous missionary vocations, willing to fully consecrate themselves to spreading the Kingdom of God.

The Rosary html Mary Mother of GOD -- Her Rosary Here
Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary
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.
“The Blessed Virgin was eternally predestined, in conjunction with the incarnation of the divine Word, to be the Mother of God. By decree of divine Providence, she served on earth as the loving mother of the divine Redeemer, an associate of unique nobility, and the Lord's humble handmaid. She conceived, brought forth, and nourished Christ.”
 (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 61).
breviary.net/martyrology/mart0628  stlukeorthodox.com/html/saints/  usccb.org  ewtn.com  St Patricks 0628
domcentral.org/life/martyr June  syriac   oca.org   glaubenszeugen.de/tage/June/28 Serbian   http://www.copticchurch.net  Melkite
Monthly Saints with pics here http://www.stfrancisenid.com/memorials.htm  antiochian.org/AW-WomenSaints--wonderful icons
Lutheran Saints  One Saint per day stthomasirondequoit.com/SaintsAlive/index.htm    stjohndc.org  God's Humourous Saints

Join Mary of Nazareth Project help us build the International Marian Center of Nazareth.

http://www.worldpriest.com/
THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY TO BE BELIEVED POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI
Morning Prayer and Hymn    Meditation of the Day    Prayer for Priests    Our Bartholomew Family Prayer List  Here
How to Stay Out of PURGATORY -- How to Get others Out     POPES html    Parents of Saints html   
The_Litany_of_the_Blessed_Virgin.html
   We are called upon with the whole Church militant on earth to join in praising and thanking God for the grace and glory he has bestowed on his saints. At the same time we earnestly implore Him to exert His almighty power and mercy in raising us from our miseries and sins, healing the disorders of our souls and leading us by the path of repentance to the company of His saints, to which He has called us.
   They were once what we are now, travellers on earth they had the same weaknesses, which we have. We have difficulties to encounter so had the saints, and many of them far greater than we can meet with; obstacles from kings and whole nations, sometimes from the prisons, racks and swords of persecutors. Yet they surmounted these difficulties, which they made the very means of their virtue and victories. It was by the strength they received from above, not by their own, that they triumphed. But the blood of Christ was shed for us as it was for them and the grace of our Redeemer is not wanting to us; if we fail, the failure is in ourselves.
   THE saints and just, from the beginning of time and throughout the world, who have been made perfect, everlasting monuments of God’s infinite power and clemency, praise His goodness without ceasing; casting their crowns before His throne they give to Him all the glory of their triumphs: “His gifts alone in us He crowns.”
Miracles 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000  
 
1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800   1900 Lay Saints
The POPES HTML
“The answers to many of life's questions can be found by reading the Lives of the Saints. They teach us how to overcome obstacles and difficulties, how to stand firm in our faith, and how to struggle against evil and emerge victorious.”  1913 Saint Barsanuphius

Popes mentioned in articles of Saints today
683 SAINT LEO II Pope he accomplished good works which have caused his name to be blessed by all succeeding generations
"Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you shall receive it, and it shall come to you. St. Mark 11:24"
767 Saint Paul I, Pope {Pope from 757-767}. The brother of Pope Stephen II and a Roman, he was educated in the Lateran Palace, became a deacon under Pope Zachary, and wielded considerable influence in his brother’s administration. Elected to succeed Stephen, he took as his primary concern the threat posed to Rome and the Papal States by the Lombards.
Romæ sancti Pauli Primi, Papæ et Confessóris.    At Rome, Pope St. Paul I, confessor.

Christianity is not a moral code or a philosophy, but an encounter with a person -- Benedict XVI

Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction on the Contemplative Life includes this passage:  
 To withdraw into the desert is for Christians tantamount to associating themselves more intimately with Christ’s passion, and it enables them, in a very special way, to share in the paschal mystery and in the passage of Our Lord from this world to the heavenly homeland(#1).
Benedict_XVI_Patriarch_Bartholomew






Benedict XVI_Archbishop_Hilarion
Benedict XVI receives Orthodox Archbishop Hilarion n September 18th, Pope Benedict XVI;  Archbishop Hilarion, president of the Department for External Church Affairs of the Patriarchate of Moscow.
The Orthodox Archbishop is currently visiting the Vatican at the invitation of Cardinal Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
This Pontifical Council underlined that the visit will confirm the ties of friendship between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, with a view to closer collaboration and to favor the presence of the Church in the lives of the peoples of Europe and the world.
In addition, a further step in ecumenical relations is scheduled for the month of October in Cyprus: the meeting of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, which will address the theme of Petrine Primacy.
Benedict XVI met with Aram I Catholicos of Cilicia, the highest authority of the Orthodox Church.  The Pope remembered the martyrs of the Armenian Church and the Armenian genocide, without explicitly mentioning it, and denounced the persecution of Christians in modern times.  Benedict XVI
That testimony culminated in the twentieth century, which proved a time of Unspeakable suffering for your people. Most recently we have all been saddened by the escalation of persecution and violence against Christians in parts of the Middle East and elsewhere.
The Catholicos is based in Lebanon. That is why, the Pope said, he prays every day for peace in this country and throughout the Middle East. Benedict XVI said there will only be peace in the region when each country is free to decide its own destiny and when every ethnic and religious group accepts and respects the others. Aram I emphasized that the churches must be means for peace and to achieve that they must recognize all genocides, even the Armenian.. The Catholicos recalled his meeting with John Paul II, adding that this visit represents a new step for ecumenical dialogue.
Aram I Catholicos
Our meeting is an opportunity to pray and reflect together, and to renew our commitment and efforts for Christian unity.
Armenian church members from all over the world join with Catholicos in making pilgrimages to Rome.
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. Patron_Saints.html

THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 101

O Lady, hear my prayer: and let my cry come unto thee.
Turn not thy sacred countenance away from me: nor hate me because of my uncleanness.
Forsake me not in the thought and counsel of mine enemies: and permit me not to fall in their wicked attacks.
Those who trust in thee, will not fear the tortuous snake:
and those who exalt thee in praises will escape the hand of Acheron.
By thy virginal conception give me a good confidence in thee: and by thy admirable delivery rejoice my soul.

Glory be to the Father who created the Universe, and the Son who gave up His life so that we may live forever,
and the Holy Spirit the Lord giver of life, Who proceeds from the Father and Son, with the Father and Son He is Worshiped and Glorified, and He has spoken through the prophets:  Amen.

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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.
Nine First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
DECREES OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE CAUSES OF SAINTS
VATICAN CITY, 2 APR 2011 (VIS)
Today, during a private audience with Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Pope authorised the congregation to promulgate the following decrees:
MIRACLES
 - Venerable Servant of God Serafino Morazzone, Italian diocesan priest (1747-1822).
 - Venerable Servant of God Clemente Vismara, Italian professed priest of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (1897-1988).
 - Venerable Servant of God Elena Aiello, Italian foundress of the Minim Sisters of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1895-1961).
 - Venerable Servant of God Maria Catalina Irigoyen Echegaray (Sr. Maria Desposorios), Spanish professed nun of the Congregation of Servants of Mary, Ministers of the Sick (1848-1918).
 - Venerable Servant of God Enrica Alfieri (nee Maria Angela), Italian professed nun of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of St. Jeanne-Antide Thouret (1891-1951).

MARTYRDOM
 - Servant of God Peter Adrian Toulorge, French professed priest of the Premonstratensian Regular Canons, killed in hatred of the faith at Coutances, France (1757-1793).
 - Servants of God Francisco Esteban Lacal, Spanish professed priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and twenty-one companions, and Candido Castan San Jose, Spanish layman, killed in hatred of the faith in Spain in 1936.

HEROIC VIRTUES
 - Servant of God Thomas Kurialacherry, Indian, first bishop of Changanacherry and founder of the Sisters of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (1873-1925).
 - Servant of God Adolphe Chatillon (Br. Theophanius-Leo), Canadian professed religious of the Brothers of Christian Schools (1871-1929).
 - Servant of God Maria Chiara of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus (nee Vincenza Damato), Italian professed nun of the Order of St. Clare (1909-1948).
 - Servant of God Maria Dolores Inglese (nee Maria Libera Italia), Italian professed nun of the Congregation of Sisters Servants of Mary Reparatrix (1866-1928).
 - Servant of God Irene Stefani (nee Aurelia), Italian professed nun of the Institute of Missionary Sisters of the Consolata (1891-1930).
 - Servant of God Bernhard Lehner, German layman (1930-1944).
CSS/   VIS 20110404 (340

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.
Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac
The exact date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa {Armenian Ourhaï in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name} is not known. It is certain, however, that the Christian community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legend, King Abgar V, Ushana, was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples. In fact, however, the first King of Edessa to embrace the Christian Faith was Abgar IX (c. 206) becoming official kingdom religion.
  Christian council held at Edessa early as 197 (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., V,xxiii).
In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed (“Chronicon Edessenum”, ad. an. 201).
In 232 the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written.
Under Roman domination martyrs suffered at Edessa: Sts. Scharbîl and Barsamya, under Decius; Sts. Gûrja, Schâmôna, Habib, and others under Diocletian. 
In the meanwhile Christian priests from Edessa evangelized Eastern Mesopotamia and Persia, established the first Churches in the kingdom of the Sassanides.  Atillâtiâ, Bishop of Edessa, assisted at the Council of Nicæa (325). The “Peregrinatio Silviæ” (or Etheriæ) (ed. Gamurrini, Rome, 1887, 62 sqq.) gives an account of the many sanctuaries at Edessa about 388.
Although Hebrew had been the language of the ancient Israelite kingdom, after their return from Exile the Jews turned more and more to Aramaic, using it for parts of the books of Ezra and Daniel in the Bible. By the time of Jesus, Aramaic was the main language of Palestine, and quite a number of texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls are also written in Aramaic.
Aramaic continued to be an important language for Jews, alongside Hebrew, and parts of the Talmud are written in it.
After Arab conquests of the seventh century, Arabic quickly replaced Aramaic as the main language of those who converted to Islam, although in out of the way places, Aramaic continued as a vernacular language of Muslims.
Aramaic, however, enjoyed its greatest success in Christianity. Although the New Testament wins written in Greek, Christianity had come into existence in an Aramaic-speaking milieu, and it was the Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac, that became the literary language of a large number of Christians living in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and in the Persian Empire, further east. Over the course of the centuries the influence of the Syriac Churches spread eastwards to China (in Xian, in western China, a Chinese-Syriac inscription dated 781 is still to be seen); to southern India where the state of Kerala can boast more Christians of Syriac liturgical tradition than anywhere else in the world.
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
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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, SOLT Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Site http://www.fathercorapi.com
As we watch the spectacle of the world seeming to self-destruct before our eyes, we can’t help but be saddened and even frightened by so much evil run rampant. Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Somalia, North Korea—It is all a disaster of epic proportions displayed in living color on our television screens.  These are not ordinary times and this is not business as usual. We are at a crossroads in human history and the time for Catholics and all Christians to act is now. All evil can ultimately be traced to its origin, which is moral evil. All of the political action, peace talks, international peacekeeping forces, etc. will avail nothing if the underlying sickness is not addressed. This is sin. One person at a time hearts and minds must be moved from evil to good, from lies to truth, from violence to peace.
Islam, an Arabic word that has often been defined as “to make peace,” seems like a living contradiction today. Although it is supposed to be a religion of peace, Islam has been hijacked by Satan and now operates in the dark space of international terrorism.  As we celebrate the birthday of Our Lady, I am proposing that each one of us pray the Rosary for peace. Prayer is what must precede all other activity if that activity is to have any chance of success. Pray for peace, pray the Rosary every day without fail.  There is a great love for Mary among Muslim people. It is not a coincidence that a little village named Fatima is where God chose to have His Mother appear in the twentieth century. Our Lady’s name appears no less than thirty times in the Koran. No other woman’s name is mentioned, not even that of Mohammed’s daughter, Fatima. In the Koran Our Lady is described as “Virgin, ever Virgin.”
Archbishop Fulton Sheen prophetically spoke of the resurgence of Islam in our day. He said it would be through the Blessed Virgin Mary that Islam would be converted. We must pray for this to happen quickly if we are to avert a horrible time of suffering for this poor, sinful world. Turn to our Mother in this time of great peril. Pray the Rosary every day. Then, and only then will there be peace, when the hearts and minds of men are changed from the inside.
Talk is weak. Prayer is strong. Pray!  God bless you, Father John Corapi
A New Series by Fr. Corapi! The Moon Under Her Feet CD-Audio Set: $39.00 DVD-Video Set: $45.00  call 1-888-800-7084 or go to Site http://www.fathercorapi.com

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.

Since his ordination to the priesthood in 1991 Fr. Corapi has traveled over 2,000,000 miles preaching the Gospel. He has preached in 49 of the 50 states, all of the Canadian provinces except NewFoundland, and several other foreign countries. He is currently engaged in preaching and teaching the Catholic faith by way of the means of social communication: television, radio, the internet, and various other multi-media formats.

In this four part series 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 this four part series on topics more timely than ever.
The four titles are:  1. The Real War We Fight 2. The Battle for Hearts & Minds 3. Leadership: Essential for Victory 4. With the Moon Under Her Feet.

About Father John Corapi, S.O.L.T.
Father Corapi is a perpetually professed priest member of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity:  S.O.L.T.
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

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_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates

First Church for The Virgin Mary in the city of Philippi. Commemoration of
On this day, the church celebrates the commemoration of the first church to be built in the name of the Virgin Lady, the All pure St. Mary, the Theotokos (Mother of God), through whom the salvation of Adam and his posterity was fulfilled. When the two apostles Paul and Silas preached among the gentiles, many believed of them in the city of Philippi. They built a church there in the name of the Virgin, the Mother of God, and its consecration was on that day. It is meet for us to celebrate for her a spiritual festival, for she has borne the Savior of the world.  May her intercession be with us. Amen.

95  Departure of St. Cedron (Kardonos), the Fourth Patriarch of Alexandria This father was baptized by the hand of St. Mark the apostle, and the evangelist of the land of Egypt
This day also (June 15th, 16 A.D.) marks the departure of St. Cedron (Kardonos), the Fourth Patriarch of Alexandria. This father was baptized by the hand of St. Mark the apostle, and the evangelist of the land of Egypt. He learned the doctrines and the books of the Church. After the departure of Pope Melius, he was ordained a Pope for the See of St. Mark in the 7th day of Tute (September 5th, 95 A.D.). He shepherded his people with the best of care, by preaching, teaching, and instructing them for eleven years, one month, and twelve days, then departed in peace.  May his prayers be with us and Glory be to God forever. Amen.

Martyrdom of St. Timothy of Memphis (El-Masry).
On this day also, St. Timothy of Memphis (El-Masry) was martyred. He was one of the soldiers of Arianus, governor of the city of Ansena. When he read the Edict of the Emperor Diocletian, which commanded the worship of idols, this soldier rose up in the middle of the people, seized the Edict, and tore it up saying, "There is no God except Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God." The Governor became enraged. He seized Timothy by the hair of his head, and cast him down on the ground. He commanded him to be beaten until his flesh was mangled. The Saint cried out, saying, "O my Lord Jesus Christ, help me for there is no God but You." God considered his endurance, and sent His angel, who healed his wounds. The Saint returned to the Governor crying, "There is no God except Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God." The Governor tortured him severely again, and finally he cut off his head and thus St. Timothy received the crown of martyrdom.  May his prayers be with us. Amen.

202 Saint Plutarch Martyr of Alexandria, Egypt With brother, Heraclides, and group of fellow students Marcella and her daughter Potamioena; soldier Bailides
Alexandríæ, in persecutióne Sevéri, sanctórum Mártyrum Plutárchi, Seréni, Heraclídis catechúmeni, Herónis neóphyti, et altérius Seréni, Rháidis catechúmenæ, et Potamiœnæ cum ipsíus matre Marcélla; inter quos præcípue enítuit Potamiœna Virgo, quæ, primo imménsos innumerósque agónes pro virginitáte desudávit, deínde étiam exquisíta et inaudíta torménta pro fide sustínuit, ad últimum, simul cum matre, igne consúmpta est.
    At Alexandria, in the persecution of Severus, the holy martyrs Plutarch, Serenus, Heraclides, catechumen, Heron, a neophyte, another Serenus, Rhais, a catechumen, Potamioena and Marcella her mother.  Among them the virgin Potamioena is particularly distinguished.  She first endured many painful trials for the preservation of her virginity, and then cruel and unheard-of torments for the faith, after which both she and her mother were consumed with fire.

202 SS. PLUTARCH, POTAMIAENA AND THEIR COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
THE catechetical school of Origen at Alexandria was a training ground in virtue: for the master, not content with lecturing on the sciences, made a great point of inculcating upon his pupils the loftiest principles of Christian perfection. The school furnished some illustrious martyrs in the persecution of Severus which raged with great fury from 202-the year before Origen was appointed catechist-until the death of the emperor in 211.
The first to suffer was St Plutarch, brother of St Heraclas, afterwards bishop of Alexandria. The two brothers had been converted to the faith together, through listening to the lectures of Origen. Being a prominent personage Plutarch was arrested at an early stage of the persecution. He was visited and encouraged in prison by Origen, who accompanied him to the place of execution and who was nearly lynched by the mob because they held him responsible for Plutarch's death. Serenus, another of the master's disciples, was burnt alive; Heraclides, a catechumen, and Hero, a neophyte, were beheaded. A second confessor of the name of Serenus was also decapitated after undergoing torture. Women as well as men attended the catechetical school, and three of them suffered martyrdom. Herais, a maiden who was still a catechumen, was baptized by fire-to quote Origen's own words.
The other two, Marcella and Potamiaena, were mother and daughter. Attempts were made to induce Potamiaena to purchase her freedom at the expense of her chastity, for she was young, accomplished and beautiful, but she rejected the proposals with scorn. She was then condemned to be stripped and cast into a cauldron of boiling pitch. Upon hearing her sentence, she said to the judge, "I beg of you, by the life of the emperor whom you honour, not to oblige me to appear unclothed; rather suffer me to be slowly lowered into the cauldron fully dressed, that you may see the patience which Jesus Christ, whom you know not, bestows upon those who trust Him." The magistrate granted her request and charged Basilides, one of the guards, to lead her to execution. The man treated her with respect, protecting her from the insults and pressure of the crowd. She thanked him for his courtesy and told him that after her death she would obtain his salvation from God. The cruel sentence was then carried out. Her mother suffered at the same time.
Shortly afterwards Basilides surprised his fellow soldiers by refusing to take an oath when called upon to do so: he was a Christian, he said, and could not swear by false gods. At first they thought he was joking, but when he persisted they took him to the prefect, who consigned him to prison. In reply to the inquiries of Christians who came to visit him in gaol, he told them that Potamiaena had appeared to him after her martyrdom and had placed on his head a crown which she said she had won for him by her prayers. He received baptism in prison and, having made a glorious confession of faith before the magistrate, was beheaded. Several other persons in Alexandria are said to have been converted to Christianity as the result of visitations from St Potamiaena who came to them in their dreams.
The authority for this narrative is the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, bk vi, ch. 5· See also Delehaye, in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xl (1922), pp. 9, 23, 89; and Augar, in Texte und Untersuchungen, N.F., vol. xiii, part 4 (1905), pp. 17 seq.
Plutarch studied in the famed Catechetical School of Alexandria. Like his brother, he was converted to Christianity by Origen and was arrested by Roman officials during the persecution launched by Emperor Septimius Severus. Plutarch, along with the others, was executed. The two women, Marcella and her daughter Potamioena, also died; the latter was lowered into a cauldron of boiling pitch. According to custom, the soldier Bailides, who had led Potamioena to her execution, was converted through a vision of the girl and was baptized in prison just before his beheading.
202  Saint Irenaeus writings of Saint Irenaeus entitle him to a high place among the fathers of the Church, for they not only laid the foundations of Christian theology but, by exposing and refuting the errors of the gnostics, they delivered the Catholic Faith from the real danger of the doctrines of those heretics:  He was most influenced by Saint Polycarp who had known the apostles or their immediate disciples
Lugdúni, in Gállia, sancti Irenæi, Epíscopi et Mártyris; qui (ut scribit sanctus Hierónymus) beáti Polycárpi, Smyrnénsis Epíscopi, discípulus fuit, et Apostolicórum témporum vicínis.  Is, cum advérsus hæréticos verbis ac scriptis plúrimum decertásset, tandem, in persecutióne Sevéri, cum omni fere civitátis suæ pópulo, coronátus est glorióso martyrio.
    At Lyons in France, St. Irenæus, bishop and martyr.  St. Jerome relates that he was the disciple of blessed Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, and lived near the time of the apostles.  After having strenuously opposed the heretics by word and by writing, he was crowned with a glorious martyrdom along with almost all the people of his city, during the persecution of Severus.

203 ST IRENAEUS, BISHOP OF LYONS
July 25, 1960, this feast was In a Motu Proprio of John XXIII dated transferred to 3 July.
THE writings of St Irenaeus entitle him to a high place amongst the fathers of the Church, for they not only laid the foundations of Christian theology but, by exposing and refuting the errors of the gnostics, they delivered the Catholic faith from the real danger it ran of being leavened by the insidious doctrines of those heretics. Of his parentage nothing is recorded. He was born, probably about the year 125, in one of those maritime provinces of Asia Minor where the memory of the Apostles was still cherished and where Christians were numerous. He received what must have been an exceptionally liberal education, for it gave him a thorough knowledge of the text of Holy Scripture and a good general acquaintance with Greek philosophy and literature. Moreover, he had the inestimable privilege of sitting at the feet of men who had known the Apostles or their immediate disciples. Of these the one who influenced him the most was St Polycarp. So profound indeed was the impression made upon him by the holy bishop of Smyrna that throughout his after life, as he told a friend, he could recall every detail of St Polycarp's appearance, the sound of his voice, and the very words he used when describing his intercourse with the evangelist St John, and others who had seen the Lord, or when he was expounding the doctrine he had learnt from them. St Gregory of Tours asserts that it was St Polycarp who sent Irenaeus as a missionary to Gaul, but there is no evidence to support this statement.
Commercial relations had existed from early times between the ports of Asia Minor and Marseilles, and in the second century of our era Levantine traders were regularly conveying their wares up the Rhone as far as Lyons, which became in consequence the chief mart of western Europe and the most populous city in Gaul. In the train of the Asiatics, many of whom settled in Lyons, came their priests and missionaries who brought the Gospel to the pagan Gauls and founded a vigorous local church. To this church of Lyons Irenaeus came to serve as a priest under its first bishop, St Pothinus, an oriental like himself; to it he was to remain permanently attached. The high opinion held of him by his brother clergy was evinced in the year 177, when he was dispatched on a somewhat delicate mission to Rome. It was after the outbreak of the terrible persecution, which is dealt with at some length under June 2 in this volume [Butlers Lives of the Saints], and already some of the leaders of the church of Lyons were in prison. Their captivity, however, did not prevent them from continuing to take a deep interest in their fellow Christians in Asia Minor. Conscious of the sympathetic hearing to which they were entitled as confessors in imminent peril of death, they sent to Pope St Eleutherius, by the hands of Irenaeus, what is described by Eusebius as "a most religious and most orthodox" letter, in which they appealed to him-in the interest of the peace and unity of the Church to deal leniently with their Montanist brethren in Phrygia. They commended the bearer of the letter to his notice as a priest" filled with zeal for the testament of Christ", and as one who was, as his name implied, a lover of peace.
This mission, entailing as it did absence from Lyons, explains how it was that Irenaeus was not called upon to share the martyrdom of St Pothinus and his fellowsufferers, and does not seem to have witnessed it. How long he remained in Rome we do not know, but when he returned to Lyons it was to occupy its vacant bishopric. By that time the persecution was over and the twenty or more years of his episcopate were years of relative peace. Information about his activities is scanty, but it is clear that in addition to his purely pastoral duties he did much to evangelize the neighbouring lands. He is said to have sent SS. Felix, Fortunatus and Achilleus as missionaries to Valence, and SS. Ferrutius and Ferreolus to Besançon. A small indication of the extent to which he identified himself with his flock is supplied by the fact that he habitually spoke the Celtic language instead of his native Greek. It was the spread of Gnosticism in Gaul, and the ravages it was making amongst the Christians of his diocese, that inspired him to undertake the task of exposing its errors. He began by mastering its tenets-no easy matter, since each gnostic master was inclined to introduce variations of his own. Fortunately for Irenaeus he was, Tertullian tells us, “a curious explorer of all kinds of learning", and he found the work not uncongenial. He then produced a treatise in five books in which he sets forth fully the inner doctrines of the various sects, and afterwards contrasts them with the teaching of the Apostles and the text of Holy Scripture.
A good example of his method is provided by his treatment of the gnostic doctrine that the visible world has been created, preserved and governed by angelic beings and not by God, who remains unconnected with it, aloof, indifferent, and incapable of activity in the Pleroma (the invisible spiritual world). Irenaeus states the theory, develops it to its logical conclusion, and by an effective reductio ad absurdum proceeds to demonstrate its fallacy. The true Christian doctrine of the close relationship between God and the world He has created Irenaeus sets forth in the following terms: "The Father is above all, and He is the head of Christ, but the Word is through all things and He is Himself the head of the Church, whilst the Spirit is in us all; and His is the living water which the Lord gave to those who believe in Him and love Him and know that there is one Father above all things and through all things and in all things." Concerned as he is to convert rather than to confound, Irenaeus writes with studied moderation and courtesy, but now and then humorous comments escape him. Referring, for instance, to the attitude of the newly “initiated" he says: "As soon as a man has been won over to their way of salvation he becomes so puffed up with conceit and self-importance that he imagines himself to be no longer in Heaven or on earth, but to have already passed into the Pleroma, and with the majestic air of a cock he goes strutting about-as if he had already embraced his ange1." Irenaeus was firmly convinced that a great part of the attractiveness of Gnosticism lay in the veil of secrecy with which it surrounded itself, and he was determined to "strip the fox", as he expressed it. The event proved him to have been right. His work, written in Greek but quickly translated into Latin, was widely circulated and succeeded in dealing to second century Gnosticism what appears to have been its death-blow. At any rate, from that time onwards, it ceased to offer a serious menace to the Catholic faith.
Thirteen or fourteen years after his mission to Pope Eleutherius, Irenaeus again acted as mediator between a pope and a body of Christians in Asia Minor. Because the Quartodecimans refused to keep Easter in accordance with the Western use they had been excommunicated by Victor III, and there was in consequence a real danger of schism. Irenaeus intervened on their behalf. In a singularly beautiful letter addressed to the pope he pleaded with him to raise the ban, pointing out that they were only following their old tradition, and that a difference of opinion on that very point had not prevented Pope Anicetus and St Polycarp from remaining in communion. The outcome of his representations was the restoration of good relations between the two parties and a peace which proved permanent. After the Council of Nicaea in 325, the Quartodecimans voluntarily conformed to the Roman usage without any pressure from the Holy See.
The date of the death of St Irenaeus is not known: it is usually assigned approximately to the year 202. According to a later tradition he suffered martyrdom, but this is highly improbable. The treatise against the gnostics has come down to us, entire in its Latin version; and an Armenian translation of an exposition of apostolic preaching has comparatively lately been discovered. Though the rest of his writings have perished, in these two works alone may be found all the elements of a complete system of Christian theology.
The bodily remains of St Irenaeus, as we learn from Gregory of Tours, were buried in a crypt under the altar of what was then called the church of St John, but what was later known by the name of St Irenaeus himself. This tomb or shrine was destroyed by the Calvinists in 1562, and all trace of his relics seems to have perished. It is remarkable that though the feast of St Irenaeus has long been observed in the East (on August 23), it has been general in the Western church only since 1922.
We possess nothing in the nature of an early biography of St Irenaeus, but there is a vast literature dealing with his importance as a witness to early traditions, and as a teacher of orthodox belief. The evidence for and against the supposition that he suffered martyrdom is briefly but clearly summarized by Fr Delehaye in his CMH., pp. 341-342. Much interest was roused in 1904 by the discovery of an Armenian version of a work of which little more than the name was previously known, viz., "Proof of the Apostolic Preaching". It is mainly an appeal to the prophecies of the Old Testament, and not much fresh information regarding the mind and thought of the author is to be derived from it. A fuller discussion of the theology of Irenaeus would be out of place here; see the very complete article of F. Vernet (nearly 150 columns) in DTC., vol. vii (1922), cc. 2394-2533, with copious bibliography. There are also good articles in Bardenhewer, and DCB. The originality of St Irenaeus was called in question by T. Loofs in Texte und Untersuchungen, vol. xlvi, part II (1932). A convenient little study of St Irenaeus is that of A. Dufourcq in the series “Les Saints"; and see F. R. M. Hitchcock, Irenaeus of Lugdunum (1914).

St. Irenaeus (130?-220)
The Church is fortunate that Irenaeus was involved in many of its controversies in the second century. He was a student, well trained, no doubt, with great patience in investigating, tremendously protective of apostolic teaching, but prompted more by a desire to win over his opponents than to prove them in error.

As bishop of Lyons he was especially concerned with the Gnostics, who took their name from the Greek word for “knowledge.” Claiming access to secret knowledge imparted by Jesus to only a few disciples, their teaching was attracting and confusing many Christians. After thoroughly investigating the various Gnostic sects and their “secret,” Irenaeus showed to what logical conclusions their tenets led. These he contrasted with the teaching of the apostles and the text of Holy Scripture, giving us, in five books, a system of theology of great importance to subsequent times. Moreover, his work, widely used and translated into Latin and Armenian, gradually ended the influence of the Gnostics.
The circumstances and details about his death, like those of his birth and early life in Asia Minor, are not at all clear.
Comment:    A deep and genuine concern for other people will remind us that the discovery of truth is not to be a victory for some and a defeat for others. Unless all can claim a share in that victory, truth itself will continue to be rejected by the losers, because it will be regarded as inseparable from the yoke of defeat. And so, confrontation, controversy and the like might yield to a genuine united search for God's truth and how it can best be served.
He was probably born about the year 125, in one of those maritime provinces of Asia Minor where the memory of the apostles was still cherished and where Christians were numerous.
Many Asian priests and missionaries brought the gospel to the pagan Gauls and founded a local church. To this church of Lyon, Irenaeus came to serve as a priest under its first bishop, Saint Pothinus, an oriental like himself. In the year 177, Irenaeus was sent to Rome. This mission explains how it was that he was not called upon to share in the martyrdom of St Pothinus during the terrible persecution in Lyons. When he returned to Lyons it was to occupy the vacant bishopric. By this time, the persecution was over.

It was the spread of gnosticism in Gaul, and the ravages it was making among the Christians of his diocese, that inspired him to undertake the task of exposing its errors. He produced a treatise in five books in which he sets forth fully the inner doctrines of the various sects, and afterwards contrasts them with the teaching of the Apostles and the text of the Holy Scripture. His work, written in Greek but quickly translated to Latin, was widely circulated and succeeded in dealing a death-blow to gnosticism. At any rate, from that time onwards, it ceased to offer a serious menace to the Catholic faith.

The date of death of Saint Irenaeus is not known, but it is believed to be in the year 202. The bodily remains of Saint Irenaeus were buried in a crypt under the altar of what was then called the church of Saint John, but was later known by the name of Saint Irenaeus himself. This tomb or shrine was destroyed by the Calvinists in 1562, and all trace of his relics seems to have perished.
Eódem die sancti Pápii Mártyris, qui, in persecutióne Diocletiáni Imperatóris, flagris cæsus, atque in lebétem, óleo et ádipe fervénti plenum, immíssus, áliaque horrénda supplícia perpéssus, demum, datis cervícibus, coronátur.
   
St. Papius, martyr, Also during the persecution of Diocletian, who was scourged with knotted cords, cast into a cauldron of seething oil and grease, and after other horrible torments was beheaded, and thus won an eternal crown.

412 Cyrus and John from the city of Konopa, near Alexandria Transfer of the Relics of the Holy Martyrs, Unmercenaries and Wonderworkers many miracles, healings of the sick and infirm
(where they suffered in the year 311) to the nearby village of Manuphin, took place in the year 412. This Egyptian village prompted fear in everyone, since in a former time there was a pagan temple inhabited by evil spirits. Patriarch Theophilus (385-412) wanted to cleanse this place of demons, but he died. His wish was fulfilled by his successor in the See of Alexandria, the holy Patriarch Cyril (412-444). He prayed fervently in carrying out this project. An angel of the Lord appeared in a vision to the hierarch and commanded the venerable relics of Sts Cyrus and John be transferred to Manuphin. His Holiness Patriarch Cyril did the angel's bidding and built a church at Manuphin in the name of the holy martyrs.

From that time this place was purified of the Enemy's influence, and by the prayers of the holy Martyrs Cyrus and John there began to occur many miracles, healings of the sick and infirm. An account Sts Cyrus and John is located under January 31.
 Orthodoxe und Katholische Kirche: Cyrus und Johannes - Übertragung der Gebeine - 28. Juni
   Cyrus wurde in Alexandria geboren. Er war Arzt und Christ und behandelte alle Armen unentgeltlich an Leib und Seele. Er konnte durch sein Bekenntnis zu Christus viele heiden bekehren. Während der diokletianischen Verfolgung floh er in die arabische Wüste. Auch hier wirkte er weiter als Arzt und Heiler, wobei er auch viele Kranke durch Gebet und Handauflegung heilen konnte.
   Johannes war ein Soldat und lebte in Edessa. Auf einer Pilgerreise nach Jerusalem hörte er von Cyrus, ging zu ihm in die Wüste und wurde sein Schüler. Beide gingen nach der Legende dann nach Canopis in Ägypten, um Athanasia und ihren Töchtern Theoktista, Theodotia und Eudoxia, die verhaftet worden waren, beizustehen. Cyril und Johannes wurden ebenfalls verhaftet und hingerichtet. Beide werden zu den heiligen Ärzten gezählt. Im 5. Jahrhundert wurden ihre Reliquien von Cyrill von Alexandria nach Menuthis übertragen (Festtag 28. Juni). Cyrill wollte dem Kult der Isis, die als heilende Göttin verehrt wurde, begegnen. Am Grab der Märtyrer sollen sich nach dem Bericht des Patriarchen Sophronios über 79 Wunderheilungen ereignet haben. Da über Cyrus und Johannes nichts weiter bekannt ist, könnte ihre Lebensgeschichte auch eine Legendenbildung zur Begründung der Heilkraft ihrer Reliquien sein.
5th v. Saint Crummine Bishop and disciple of Saint Patrick of Ireland.
Saint Patrick placed Crummine over the church in Lachan County, Westmeath.
6th v. Saint Austell Confessor and disciple of Saint Newman of Cornwall, England.
Modern scholars believe that Austell was a woman named Hoystill, a daughter of Brychan of Wales
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6th century Saint Benignus Bishop and martyr. He is mentioned in Pope Pelagius II's decretal concerning his resignation from his see. Benignus retired to Utrecht, in the Netherlands. He is listed in the Roman Martyrology, and his relics were found in Utrecht, in 996.
Trajécti sancti Benígni, Epíscopi et Mártyris.    At Utrecht, St. Benignus, bishop and martyr.
660 Saint Theodichildis She served as the first abbess of the Benedictine house of Jouarre, Meaux, France. In some lists she is called Telchildis.
683 SAINT LEO II Pope he accomplished good works which have caused his name to be blessed by all succeeding generations
"Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you shall receive it, and it shall come to you. St. Mark 11:24"

The pontificate of this great Pope was very brief but very fruitful, since in the ten months of his reign he accomplished good works which have caused his name to be blessed by all succeeding generations. Born in the seventh century in Sicily, he had been a Canon Regular, that is, an ecclesiastical dignitary who resided in his bishop’s palace, was charged with recitation of the Office in the cathedral, and was relied upon to serve as the auxiliary of the Ordinary. Saint Leo was a devout student of Holy Scripture, and was well versed in the Greek as well as the Latin language.

In his day grave difficulties frequently arose between the Holy See and the emperors of Constantinople, whose representatives at Ravenna tried to control the bishops of that see; the latter had been striving to become autonomous. Saint Leo published a decree ordering that in the future no bishop of Ravenna could enter into function before being consecrated for that office at Rome, by the Roman Pontiff.

He built three churches in Rome, to honor Saint Paul the Apostle, Saint Sebastian, and Saint George. Saint Leo was highly gifted in the domain of music, and he renovated the Gregorian literature or library, then in a state of confusion; he also composed new hymns, still conserved by the Church. He took special care of widows and orphans and the poor in general, relieving their sufferings with a truly apostolic charity.

Saint Leo confirmed the Acts of the Sixth Ecumenical Council which his predecessor had convoked at Constantinople against the Monothelite heresy, and translated its acts into Latin for the benefit of the Occidentals. When he died in July of 683, his death was deeply regretted by all the faithful. He was interred according to established custom in the church of Saint Peter. He is ordinarily pictured embracing a beggar or holding a book of music. Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 7
767 Saint Paul I, Pope {Pope from 757-767}. The brother of Pope Stephen II and a Roman, he was educated in the Lateran Palace, became a deacon under Pope Zachary, and wielded considerable influence in his brother’s administration. Elected to succeed Stephen, he took as his primary concern the threat posed to Rome and the Papal States by the Lombards.
Romæ sancti Pauli Primi, Papæ et Confessóris.    At Rome, Pope St. Paul I, confessor.
ST PAUL I, POPE (A.D. 767)
THE immediate successor of Pope Stephen III in the chair of St Peter was his younger brother Paul. They had been educated together at the Lateran school, they had been made deacons together by Pope St Zachary, and Paul remained closely associated with his brother, whom he tenderly nursed in his last illness and whose policy he continued to pursue. A contemporary, writing in the Liber Pontificalis, pays an eloquent tribute to Paul's personal character, emphasizing his kindness, his clemency and his magnanimity. He was always ready to help those in distress and never did he return evil for evil. Often, under cover of the night, he would visit the sick poor in their homes or in hospitals. Sometimes he would enter the prisons and redeem poor debtors: occasionally he would release prisoners under sentence of death. If he erred, it was always on the side of leniency.
Paul's pontificate of ten years was relatively peaceful abroad, owing to his good relations with King Pepin, and peaceful at home owing to his own firm government: "firm" is hardly a strong enough word-the severity of Paul's administration is in marked contrast with the kindness of character attributed to him by the Liber Pontificalis. At the same time the record of his pontificate is chiefly one long tale of political diplomacy; in the words of Monsignor Mann: "By unceasing diplomatic effort Paul prevented the Lombards on the one hand and the Greeks on the other from effecting anything of moment against the newly acquired temporal power of the supreme pontiff; he caused great events never to get beyond the eve of happening." He kept on the best of terms with Pepin, sending him exceedingly polite letters, presents (including an organ) and relics of the martyrs. In Rome itself the pope's activities took a more concrete form. From catacombs, reduced to ruin by the ravages of time or of the barbarians, he transferred the relics of many saints to churches in the City. Amongst others the remains of St Petronilla, the supposed daughter of St Peter, were brought to a restored mausoleum which became known as the Chapel of the Kings of France. He built or rebuilt a church of SS. Peter and Paul; he also erected in St Peter's an oratory in honour of our Lady. In his paternal mansion, which he converted into a monastery under the dedication of the popes St Stephen I and St Silvester, he placed Greek monks, refugees from the iconoclast persecution. The adjoining church, entirely rebuilt by him for them, received the name of San Silvestro in Capite, from the head, reputed to be that of St John Baptist, which the monks had brought from the East. Eleven hundred years later that same church (but long since again rebuilt) was given by Pope Leo XIII to the Catholics of England.
Pope Paul was staying at St Paul's outside the Walls, whither he had gone to escape the summer heat in Rome, when he was seized with a fever which proved fatal. He died on June 28, 767.
The Liber Pontificalis, in Duchesne's edition (vol. i, pp. 463-467), is the most reliable source for an estimate of the pope's personal character. The letters of Paul I may be studied in MGH., Epistolae, vol. iii, in the edition of Gundlach. For English readers, the painstaking account given in Mgr Mann's Lives of the Popes (vol. i, part II, pp. 331-360) is the most satisfactory, and easily accessible. See also the Acta Sanctorum, June; vol. vii; Duchesne, Les premiers temps de l’État Pontifical (1904), pp. 79-94; M. Baumont in Mélanges d’archéologie et d'histoire, 1930, pp. 7-24; F. H. Seppelt, Das Papsttum im Früh-Mittelalter (1934), pp. 137-146; Fliche and Martin, Histoire de l'Église, t. vi (1937), pp. 17-31.

Paul secured an alliance with the Frankish king Pepin the Short, thereby cementing the relationship between the Holy See and the Frankish Empire which culminated with the historically significant alliance between Pope Leo III and Charlemagne. Paul also opposed the Iconoclast policies of the Byzantine emperor Constantine V, thereby exacerbating further the deteriorating relationship between the papacy and the Byzantine Empire. He died on June 28 at Saint Paul’s Outside the Walls, in Rome
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9th v.St. John of Damascus "Of the Three Hands" The Icon of the Mother of God, Mary reattached his hand John placed on the icon a hand fashioned of silver, from which the icon received its name
In the ninth century during the time of the Iconoclasts, St. John of Damascus (December 4) was zealous in his veneration of holy icons. Because of this, he was slandered by the emperor and iconoclast Leo III the Isaurian (717-740), who informed the Damascus caliph that St. John was committing treasonous acts against him. The caliph gave orders to cut off the hand of the monk and take it to the marketplace. Towards evening St. John, having asked the caliph for the cut-off hand, put it to its joint and fell to the ground before the icon of the Mother of God. The monk begged Our Lady to heal the hand, which had written in defense of Orthodoxy. After long prayer he fell asleep and saw in a dream that the All-Pure Mother of God had turned to him promising him quick healing.

Before this the Mother of God bid him toil without fail with this hand. Having awakened from sleep, St. John saw that his hand was unharmed. In thankfulness for this healing St. John placed on the icon a hand fashioned of silver, from which the icon received its name "Of Three Hands." (Some iconographers, in their ignorance, have mistakenly depicted the Most Holy Theotokos with three arms and three hands.) According to Tradition, St. John wrote a hymn of thanksgiving to the Mother of God: "All of creation rejoices in You, O Full of Grace," which appears in place of the hymn "It is Truly Meet" in the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great.

St. John Damascene accepted monasticism at the monastery of St. Sava the Sanctified and there bestowed his wonderworking icon. The Lavra presented the icon "Of Three Hands" in blessing to St. Sava, Archbishop of Serbia (+ 1237, January 12). During the time of an invasion of Serbia by the Turks, some Christians who wanted to protect the icon, entrusted it to the safekeeping of the Mother of God Herself. They placed it upon a donkey, which without a driver proceeded to Athos and stopped in front of the Hilandar monastery. The monks put the icon in the monastery's cathedral church (katholikon). During a time of discord over the choice of igumen, the Mother of God deigned to head the monastery Herself, and from that time Her holy icon has occupied the igumen's place in the temple. At the Hilandar monastery there is chosen only a vicar, and from the holy icon the monks take a blessing for every obedience
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858 Saint Argymirus Martyr of Spain, native of Cabra, Spain, he held a high position in one of the Islamic domains in the peninsula. Fired because of his Christian faith, Argymirus became a monk. He made a public statement of his beliefs and was beheaded.
Córdubæ, in Hispánia, sancti Argymíri, Mónachi et Mártyris, qui in persecutióne Arábica, pro Christi fide, in equúleo pósitus et ense transfóssus est.

    At Cordova in Spain, St. Argymirus, monk and martyr, slain for faith of Christ during the persecution by Arabs.
875 Saint Egilo abbot of Prum, near Trier, Germany founder, also called Egilo and Eigil. He was abbot of Prum, near Trier, Germany. There he gave the habit to Saint Humphrey. In 860, he was directed by Emperor Charles the Bald to restore Flavigny Abbey in Dijon, France. He then founded the abbey of Corbigny, in Yonne.
976 Gero von Köln 971 holte Gero die byzantinische Prinzessin Theophanu als Braut für Oto II. nach Deutschland. Dabei brachte er auch Reliquien von Pantaleon nach Köln mit
Orthodoxe Kirche und Katholische Kirche: 28. Juni

Gero, Sohn des thüringischen Markgrafen Christian war Kaplan von Kaiser Otto I.. Als er 969 zum Erzbischof von Köln gewählt wurde, widersetzte sich Otto der Ernennung. 971 holte Gero die byzantinische Prinzessin Theophanu als Braut für Oto II. nach Deutschland. Dabei brachte er auch Reliquien von Pantaleon nach Köln mit. Gero gründete die Abteien Dammersfeld und Gladbach. Er starb am 28.6.976
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1019 Saint Heimrad Benedictine hermit and pilgrim. He was a monk at various abbeys before beginning his ceaseless pilgrimages to Rome and Jerusalem. He was considered a lunatic by many until he setteld as a hermit at Wolfhagen, Hesse Nassau. His tomb there drew many pilgrims.
ST HEIMRAD (A.D. 1019)
THE cultus of St Heimrad is a purely popular one; it has never received any official sanction. It arose from reports of miraculous happenings at his tomb, which accordingly became a place of pilgrimage. His career casts a curious light upon social conditions of the age in which he lived. His parents were serfs, attached to a great estate in Swabia; but Heimrad himself was trained for the priesthood, and appointed chaplain to the great lady on whose property he had been born. The post proving to be one for which he was quite unfitted, he was released at his own request. He then went on pilgrimages, first to Rome and then to Jerusalem, begging his bread as he went, and sharing with other wayfarers whatever he received from charity. After his return, he took to a life of vagrancy, and wandered about, mainly in Thuringia, Hesse and Westphalia. At one time, indeed, he seemed disposed to settle down in the abbey of Hersfeld, where he was allowed to stay on, though he refused to take the habit or to submit to the rule. Before long, however, the old restlessness returned. One day, when the community were at chapter, he flung himself down dramatically in their midst and asked leave to depart. He was sure, he declared, that he could never find his salvation there. Far from wishing to detain him, the abbot seems to have been glad to be relieved of his presence, and the malcontent was rather unceremoniously turned out of the monastery.
Heimrad was, or pretended to be, aggrieved, and bewailed aloud the treatment that had been meted out to him. It was very wrong, he declared, of the abbot and monks to subject him, an emperor's brother, to such indignity. His biographer insinuates, let us note, that he only meant that he, like the rest of mankind, was a brother of Jesus Christ. The preposterous claim however, highly amused the bystanders, but the abbot, when he heard of it, took the matter more seriously, and directed that Heimrad should be whipped. While a kindly brother was administering a not too severe castigation, the victim, we are told, recited the first half of the Miserere. Afterwards he resumed his nomad existence, and in the course of his peregrinations came to Kirchberg and to Detmold in Westphalia. Here the parish priest allowed him to take over a disused church, but soon had reason to regret the concession. For he found himself abandoned by his congregation, who preferred the ministrations of the newcomer, whose abnegation and eccentric ways they, rightly or wrongly, took for sanctity, and transferred to him their customary offerings. Insult seemed to be added to injury when Heimrad refused a gift from the priest's wife-this was before the strict enforcement of celibacy in the West on the ground that she was living an immoral life. This was too much for the incumbent; he set the dogs at his rival, and hounded him out of the place.
Wherever Heimrad went, his gaunt form, emaciated countenance and strange utterances could not fail to attract notice; but whilst in some quarters he was honoured as a saint, in others he was treated as an impostor or a demoniac. St Cunegund, when she came to Paderborn with the Emperor St Henry, sentenced him to a flogging, and he fared no better at the hands of St Meinwerk, Bishop of Paderborn, before whom he subsequently appeared. For the prelate, recognizing him at once, began the proceedings by treating him as an energumen, and inquiring where that demoniac had sprung from now. Then, when Heimrad asserted that he had not a devil, but was a priest and had offered Mass that day, Meinwerk told him to produce the books he had used. Heimrad obeyed; but their dirty and dilapidated condition so scandalized the bishop that he consigned them to the flames, and condemned their owner to be beaten.
Heimrad's wanderings came to an end before long-possibly as the result of advancing years and increasing infirmities. He made a retreat for himself in a wood near the modern town of Wolfhagen in Hesse-Nassau, and there leading an existence of great austerity and destitution, he remained unmolested until his death in the year 1019. Many miracles are said to have followed, and half a century later, in fulfilment, it is stated, of one of his prophecies, a monastery was erected over his last resting-place, which was dedicated under the names of SS. Peter and Paul and St Heimrad.
The medieval life which relates this strange story was written, seemingly, not much more than fifty years after Heimrad's death, by Egbert, a monk of Hersfeld. The author claims to have learnt details from his own father, and from others who had known the recluse personally. The life is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. vii, and also in MGH., Scriptores, vol. x, pp. 598-607. Egbert seems to suggest that many of the extravagant things recorded of Heimrad were deliberately done by him to draw contempt upon himself. We must remember that a similar purpose at times animated St Francis of Assisi and his first companions, and may probably be recognized in St Benedict Joseph Labre, who was a sort of professional vagrant nearer our own day, while such a form of ascesis is almost a commonplace in Eastern hagiology. 
Saint Paul the Physician, from the city of Corinth, in his youth took monastic tonsure at one of the monasteries. Here the saint toiled much and became an experienced ascetic.

Once Paul, through demonic malice, was slandered by a woman. She came to the monastery with a newborn infant and said, that St. Paul was the father. The Elder with humility and joy endured the slander, he did not deny it and he took the infant, as though it were his own son. When they began to reproach the saint for breaking his monastic vows, St. Paul said, "Brethren, let us ask the infant who his father is!" The newborn, pointing his hand at the blacksmith, said, "Here is my father and not the monk Paul." Seeing this miracle, people bowed down to the Elder, asking forgiveness. From this time St. Paul received from God the gift of healing the sick, whereby he received the name physician. St. Paul died at age 70
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SS. SERGIUS AND GERMANUS OF VALAAM, ABBOTS
SS. SERGIUS and GERMANUS (Herman) are venerated as Greek monks who founded the great Russian monastery of Valaam (Valamo), on the island of that name in the huge lake called Ladoga in the south-eastern corner of Finland, from whence they evangelized the heathen Karelians on its shores. This event is commonly put between the years 973 and 992, at the time when the evangelization of the Russians was beginning around Kiev, but there is no solid ground for accepting so early a date. The monastery was certainly founded before the fifteenth century and it was re-established by the Tsar Peter the Great in 1718; but before then it had been an unoccupied ruin for a century, because of the wars between Sweden and Russia. Accordingly both written and oral tradition has been broken, and there are only uncertain or obviously mistaken suppositions about the foundation of the house.
A more likely date than 992 is 1329, when Russian monasteries were being planted in the Ladoga region as part of a political consolidation against the Swedes in western Karelia. There is a story that at this time St Sergius took up his abode in the Vaaga cave, an old site of heathen worship: he was a stranger, from Novgorod or from Byzantium, and according to one version he had been at the head of the powerful trading community in the first-named city. From his cave he tended the souls and bodies of the people, and for his living and recreation he carved in stone. As well as becoming head of a monastic community, he was looked on as head-man of the neighbourhood in civil affairs.
There is a legend that St Sergius baptized a Karelian called Munga, who became his successor under the name of Germanus. It seems that this legend has arisen from confusion with a seventeenth-century Hans Munck, who was a local Swedish governor and a Lutheran, and certainly did not end his days in a monastery. All that is known about Germanus is that he was a contemporary of St Sergius and his collaborator. At any rate until the war of 1939, the shrines of the two saints were venerated in the katholikon of the Valaam monastery.
SS. Sergius and Germanus are among the Russian saints mentioned under St Sergius of Radonezh on September 25. Their history is extremely elusive, and for the above notes the writer is principally indebted to Mr Ragnar Rosén, formerly director of the Finnish state archives at Viborg and now director of the municipal archives at Helsinki. The Valaam monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church is one of those recognized by the Soviet authorities since 1943. For an account of it before World War II, see an article by Father S. M. Quandalle, in Russie et Chrétienté, no. 1 (1938); see also C. F. L. St George in Eastern Churches Quarterly, vol. iii, no. 3 (1938).
1262 Saint Xenophon of Robeika a student of St. Barlaam of Khutyn head of the Khutyn monastery after the igumen Isidore founded the Trinity Monastery on the banks of the Robeika River (not far from Novgorod)
St. Barlaam of Khutyn (+ 1192, November 6). He was the head of the Khutyn monastery after the igumen Isidore (+1243). Resigning as igumen, St. Xenophon founded the Trinity Monastery on the banks of the Robeika River (not far from Novgorod). Here he reposed blessedly on June 28, 1262
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1270 Saint Almus Cistercian abbot monk at Melrose when he was elected abbot of Scotland's Balmerino monastery, founded by Ermengardis, the widow of William I of Scotland.
Also called Alme and Alanus. He was a monk in the English Cistercian monastery at Melrose when he was elected abbot of Scotland's Balmerino monastery, founded by Ermengardis, the widow of William I of Scotland
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1353 Saints Sergius and Herman settled on the island of Valaam in 1329. The brethren gathered by them spread the light of Orthodoxy in this frontier land. The Karelian people began to regard Christianity with renewed suspicion, with its authority in the fourteenth century being undermined by the Swedes, who sought to spread Catholicism by means of the sword.

Sts Sergius and Herman died about the year 1353.
They are also commemorated on September 11 (The translation of their holy relics).

Many scholars consider Rublev's Trinity the most perfect of all Russian icons and perhaps the most perfect of all the icons ever painted. The work was created for the abbot of the Trinity Monastery, Nikon of Radonezh, a disciple of the famous Sergius, one of the leaders of the monastic revival in the 14th-century Russia. Asking Rublev to paint the icon of the Holy Trinity, Nikon wanted to commemorate Sergius as a man whose life and deeds embodied the most progressive processes in the late 14th-century Russia.

From the earliest times, the idea of the Trinity was controversial and difficult to understand, especially for the uneducated masses. Even though Christianity replaced the pagan polytheism, it gave the believers a monotheistic religion with a difficult concept of one God in three hypostases -- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Not only the uneducated population but many theologians had difficulties with the concept of the triune God; from time to time, a heretical movement, like Arianism, questioned the doctrine, causing long debates, violent persecutions, and even greater general confusion. Trying to portray the Trinity, but always aware of the Biblical prohibition against depicting God, icon painters turned to the story of the hospitality of Abraham who was visited by three wanderers. In their compositions, icon painters included many details -- the figures of Abraham and Sarah, a servant killing a calf in preparation for the feast, the rock, the tree of Mamre, and the house (tent) -- trying to render as faithfully as possible the events described in the text:
Rublev's Trinity the most perfect of all Russian icons
"And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said. And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter, and milk, and the calf that he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat" (KJV, Genesis, 18: 1-8 and passim).

Very few artists before Rublev dared to eliminate all the narrative elements from the story, leaving only the three angels; usually those who did so had to deal with limited space. The results of their efforts did not find general acceptance or many copyists. Rublev was the first to make a conscious decision not to include in his composition the figures of Abraham and Sarah because he did not set out to illustrate the story of the hospitality of Abraham, as did many painters before him, but to convey through his image the idea of the unity and indivisibility of the three persons of the Trinity.

The doctrine of the Trinity, difficult to explain logically, found various interpretations. Some thought that the Trinity consisted of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Others believed that it was just God and two angels. In the 14th and 15th-century Russia, in the period of many heretical movements, the idea of the Trinity was often questioned. The heretics in Novgorod claimed that it is not permissible to paint the Trinity on icons because Abraham did not see the Trinity but only God and two angels. Other heretics rejected the idea of the three hypostases of God altogether. The church fought the heresies with all the means it had -- usually with polemical treaties, but also with force, if necessary.  Russian icon painters before Rublev subscribed to the same point of view that Abraham was visited by God (in Christ's image) and two angels. Hence, Christ was represented in icons of the Trinity as the middle angel and was symbolically set apart either by a halo with a cross, by a considerable enlargement of his figure, by widely spread wings or by a scroll in His hand.
1654 Saint John Southworth became a priest in 1619 in Douai One of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales relics are in Westminster Cathedral in London, discovered there in 1927. Pope Paul VI canonized him in 1970.
BD JOHN SOUTHWORTH, MARTYR 1654)
INTEREST in Bd John Southworth was quickened by the discovery of his remains at Douai in 1927, and by their enshrining in the chapel of St George and the English Martyrs in Westminster cathedral. The Southworths were a Lancashire family which remained staunch to the Catholic faith throughout the penal days, although it suffered much persecution and became greatly impoverished by heavy fines. John, a member of the younger branch of the house, was sent to Douai College in 1613 at the age of twenty-one to be trained for the priesthood. After his ordination five years later he tried his vocation for a short time with the Benedictines, but finding that he was not called to the monastic life he decided to remain a secular priest. On December 13, 1619, he was sent on the English mission. All that is known of his whereabouts and activities during the next few years is that he was living in or near London in 1623. The following year he was back in Belgium, first at Douai and then in Brussels, where he was confessor to the Benedictine nuns. Before long, however, he returned to England-this time to his native Lancashire. He laboured there until 1627, when he was arrested and tried on the charge of being a priest and of exercising his sacerdotal functions on English soil. Though condemned to death he was reprieved, and from the window of his cell in Lancaster castle he was able to give absolution to Bd Edmund Arrowsmith as that martyr was being carried to execution.
After three years Mr Southworth was transferred to London and there released, together with some fifteen other priests, at the instance of Queen Henrietta Maria. All of them were ordered to leave the country. Whether Bd John obeyed the injunction is doubtful. He was certainly living in England soon afterwards, and in 1632 he was a prisoner in the Clink. We learn, however, from a complaint made by the Puritan, Prynne, that “he had full liberty to walk abroad at his pleasure as most priests had during their imprisonment". Of that licence he made full use during a virulent outbreak of plague in 1636. Relief granted to poor sufferers through parish officials was withheld from households known to be Catholic, and their fate would indeed have been tragic had it not been for the devotion of John Southworth and of his fellow martyr, Bd Henry Morse. The two priests visited daily the stricken houses of the Westminster area, distributing the alms provided by the queen and other charitable persons, besides administering the consolations of religion. Some four hundred families were thus assisted. When Morse fell a victim to the prevailing epidemic Southworth carried on alone, until he found himself strictly confined within the prison walls as the result of representations made by the curate of St Margaret's, who had seen him emerge from an infected house and who asserted that he was seducing the people and had recently reconciled two dying men to the Catholic faith. However, an appeal made to the queen led to a restoration of his former privileges; and not long afterwards, through her influence and that of Windebank, the secretary of state, he was released from captivity.
"Any other particulars relating to Mr Southworth's missionary labours I have not been able to find", writes Bishop Challoner, "for want of proper memoirs, or any more of him till his final apprehension in 1654 when, upon information of one Jefferies, a pursuivant...he was taken out of bed at night by Colonel Worsley, and upon his own confession of having exercised his functions since his reprieve, he was condemned and dragged to Tyburn upon a sledge, between two coiners. "Efforts had been made to save him by the foreign ambassadors and even by his judges, who urged him to plead “not guilty"; but he would not appear to disavow his priesthood, and they had no option but to pass upon him the sentence of death. His martyrdom took place on the eve of the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, 1654, when he was sixty-two years of age. His body was bought by the Spanish ambassador and transported to the chapel of the English College at Douai, where it remained until the confiscation of the establishment by the revolutionary authorities in 1793. To save the martyr's relics from profanation his coffin was secretly removed by four of the students and buried inside the building. In 1927 it was discovered by a workman when he was excavating the foundations of what had once been the college. The contents were identified and Bd John Southworth's partly desiccated remains were brought back to England to rest at St Edmund's College, near Ware, which carries on the work of the old Douai seminary. Four months after the 1929 beatification of English martyrs it was removed to Westminster, and on May I, 1930, it was solemnly translated to its present place in the cathedral.
Everything that is known concerning Bd John seems to have been brought together in the volume published in 1930 by Fr A. B. Purdie, The Life of Bd John Southworth. See also Challoner, MMP., pp. 504-510.
He was born in Lancashire and became a priest in 1619 in Douai. Sent to England that same year, he was arrested but released through the intercession of Queen Henrietta Maria. He joined Saint Henry Morse, subsequently working diligently during the plague of 1636. Arrested again, he was martyred by being hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tybum. His relics are in Westminster Cathedral in London, discovered there in 1927. Pope Paul VI canonized him in 1970.
1847 Saint Vincenza Gerosa Co-foundress of the Sisters of Charity native of Lovere, Italy gave her life to aiding the poor
Lúere, in diœcési Brixiénsi, sanctæ Vincéntiæ Gerósa Vírginis, Institúti Sorórum a Caritáte una cum sancta Bartholomǽa Capitánio Fundatrícis, quam Pius Papa Duodécimus albo sanctárum Vírginum accénsuit.
    At Lovere, in the diocese of Brescia, St. Vincenza Gerosa, virgin, who co-founded the Institute of the Sisters of Charity with St. Bartolomea Capitanio, and whom Pope Pius XII added to the list of holy virgins.
Originally named Catherine, orphaned in her youth and ever after gave her life to aiding the poor. About 1824, she and Saint Bartolomea Capitanio founded the Sisters of Charity of Lovere to help the poor and sick and educate children, Following the passing of Bartolomea in 1833, Vincenza assumed the directorship of the Order and expanded its efforts until her death after a long illness on June 29. She was canonized in 1975 by Pope Paul VI (r. 1963-1978)
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