Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
R.  Deo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
March is the month of Saint Joseph since 1855;
2024
23,658  Lives Saved Since 2007
http://www.haitian-childrens-fund.org/

For the Son of man ... will repay every man for what he has done.

The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”,
showing us that a life of Christian perfection is not impossible.

We pray for the strength to love those who do not love us.

 Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.
-- St. Basil, Adversus Eunomium III

Pope Francis  PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR MARCH 2024

 March – We pray that those with a terminal illness, and their families, receive the necessary physical and spiritual care and accompaniment.
“If Children Are Seen as a Burden, Something Is Wrong”
A society that does not like to be surrounded by children and considers them a concern, a weight, or a risk, is a depressed society.  
“When life multiplies, society is enriched, not impoverished.”
Children are a gift of society, never a possession. Pope Francis
ABORTION IS A MORAL OUTRAGE
 Marian spirituality: all are invited.

March 1 – Our Lady of Machaby (Italy, 1800) – 12th apparition of Lourdes (France, 1858)
 The spot chosen by Our Lady
The Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows is located in Machaby, in the Aosta Valley, Italy. It is one of the most important shrines in the region. According to tradition, a wooden statue of the Madonna was originally found there. The shepherds who noticed it lying by a bush immediately carried it to the oratory of the hamlet upstream, but the next day the statue was found again near the same bush. So the locals decided to build a shrine on that spot.
The shrine dates back to 1503, but has been enlarged since. The walls inside are lined with ex-votos, mostly crutches. The feast of Our Lady of the Snows is celebrated every year on August 5th.
Sanctuaire Notre Dame des Neiges

492 ST. FELIX III Pope helped to get the Church in Africa on its feet
 977 St. Rudesind  Benedictine abbot bishop performing miracles 
1367 Bd Roger Le Fort, Archbishop Of Bourges tomb a place of pilgrimage many miracles worked.
1484 Bd Christopher Of Milan the apostle of Liguria great success in evangelizing that part of Italy, Dominican  endowed with the gift of prophecy
1796 Bd Peter Rene Roque, Martyr ordained 1782 professor of theology in his native town Vannes refused the Constitutional Oath On being sentenced to death, Father Roque fell on his knees and gave fervent thanks to God guillotined on March 1, 1796

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

Acts of the Apostles

Nine First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
 How do I start the Five First Saturdays?

Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary

March 1 – Our Lady of Machaby (Italy, 1800) - 12th Apparition of Lourdes (France, 1858) 
"Use that one instead"
On Monday, March 1st, Bernadette's father accompanied her to the Grotto for the first time. There were 2,600 people already there waiting. They would experience a profound sense of joy for the next 45 minutes during the heavenly apparition whose beauty was reflected in Bernadette's face.
On that day, the Lady gave Bernadette and the entire crowd this unforgettable lesson: to love your own rosary—no matter how humble it may seem—and to carry it on you at all times. As the visionary was using someone else's rosary, the Lady asked her: "What happened to your rosary?" Bernadette took it out of her pocket and showed it to the Lady. The Virgin smiled and said: "Use that one instead."
 Cf Yvonne Estienne, in Lourdes et La Salette
and dieu-sauve.chez-alice.fr

Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary
March 1st - Our Lady of Della Croce (Italy, 1873) - 12th apparition in Lourdes
Hail, Holy Queen
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our Life, our Sweetness, and our Hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.
To thee do we send up our sighs mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of Mercy toward us, and after this our exile show us the
Blessed Fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Pray for us O Holy Mother of God
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.
In Latin: Salve, Regina
Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae; vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae. Ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte.
Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genitrix.
Ut digni efficamur promissionibus Christi. Amen.
This hymn is said to be a favorite of our Lady herself by testimony of those who have reportedly seen her in visions. One account concerning this claim relates a vision St Dominic had. He was entering a corridor of the monastery to resume his midnight prayer vigil when he chanced to raise his eyes and see three beautiful ladies approach him. He knelt before the principle lady and she blessed him. Even though St Dominic recognized her, he begged her to tell him her name. The Lady replied: "I am she whom you invoke every evening: and when you say, 'Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of Mercy toward us,' I prostrate myself before my Son, entreating Him to protect this Order."
See http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/BVM/SalveRegina.html

 Popes General Prayer Intention in the Month of March Lovingly Helped
Special Prayer Intention of Missions
Institutes of Consecrated Life in Mission Countries Rediscover the Missionary Dimension
and Generously Proclaim Christ to the Ends of the Earth
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.
  290 St. Hermes and Adrian Martyrs with 24 companions
       St. Eudocia, martyr in the persecution of Trajan
 300 St. Lupercus Martyred bishop near Lourdes  
       St. Antonina, martyr.  For deriding the gods of the heathen, in the persecution of Diocletian, she
 492 ST. FELIX III Pope helped to get the Church in Africa on its feet
       St. Monan martyred  monk at St. Andrew's under St. Adrian
 549 St. Herculanus Bishop of Perugia, Italy marthred by Ostrogoths
 550  St Albinus, (Aubin), Bishop Of Angers many miracles attributed during life but more particularly after his death
 589 ?  St. David of Wales missionary priest monk dove lift him high above the people
 713 St Swithbert (Suidbert) 1 of band 12 missionaries headed by St Willibrord, started in 690 evangelize Friesland
 900 St. Leo Luke Basilian monastery Abbot of Corleone  
 977 St. Rudesind  Benedictine abbot bishop performing miracles 
1367 Bd Roger Le Fort, Archbishop Of Bourges after death tomb a place of pilgrimage many miracles worked.
1375 Bd Bonavita A Blacksmith by trade and a Franciscan tertiary
 Apud Cenómanos, in Gállia, sancti Siviárdi Abbátis.       At Le Mans in France, St. Siviard, abbot.
1484  Bd Christopher Of Milan the apostle of Liguria great success in evangelizing that part of Italy, Dominican  endowed with the gift of prophecy
1796 Bd Peter Rene Roque, Martyr ordained 1782 professor of theology in his native town Vannes refused the Constitutional Oath On being sentenced to death, Father Roque fell on his knees and gave fervent thanks to God guillotined on March 1, 1796
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). 
March 1st - Our Lady of Della Croce (Italy, 1873) Our Lady’s Messenger (II)

(The evangelist) says: "The angel Gabriel was sent by God". His name is not without meaning to the message with which he is charged. Indeed, which angel would have been better to announce the coming of the Christ - who is God’s virtue - than the one who has the honor to be called the Force of God? Because what is force, if it is not virtue? (...)
If he is called the Force of God it is either because he has been chosen to announce the coming of this force itself, or because he was meant to reassure a naturally timid, simple and modest virgin that would have perhaps been disturbed by the news of the miracle about to be achieved in her womb. Indeed, he says to her,
"Rejoice, you who enjoy God’s favor! The Lord is with you.”
It is also possible to imagine that he came to give force and courage to the Virgin’s fiancé, this man of a humble and timorous conscience, although our evangelist does not specify this. Indeed, Gabriel says to him:
"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife."
Therefore the choice of Gabriel for the messenger is totally relevant for the mission that he was meant to fulfill, or indeed it may be that he was called Gabriel because of the mission that he was meant to fulfill.
Saint Bernard Sermon on the Missus Est
"All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him" (Psalm 21:28)

Romæ sanctórum Mártyrum ducentórum sexagínta, quos jussit primo Cláudius, pro Christi nómine damnátos, extra portam Saláriam arénam fódere, deínde in amphitheátro sagíttis mílitum intérfici.
At Rome, 2 hundred and 60 holy martyrs condemned for the name of Christ.  Claudius ordered them to dig sand beyond the Salarian Gate, then to have soldiers in the amphitheatre shoot them with arrows.
 Item natális sanctórum Mártyrum Leónis, Donáti, Abundántii, Nicéphori et aliórum novem.  
       Also, the birthday of the holy martyrs Leo, Donatus, Abundantius, Nicephorus, and nine others.
 Heliópoli, apud Líbanum, sanctæ Eudóciæ Mártyris, quæ, in persecutióne Trajáni, a Theódoto Epíscopo baptizáta et ad certámen muníta, ibídem, Vincéntii Præsidis jussu percússa gládio, martyrii corónam accépit.
       At Heliopolis, St. Eudocia, martyr in the persecution of Trajan.  She was baptized by Bishop Theodotus, and being fortified for the combat, was put to the sword at the command of Vincent the governor, and thus received the crown of martyrdom.
290 St. Hermes and Adrian Martyrs with 24 companions.  
 Massíliæ, in Gállia, sanctórum Mártyrum Hermétis et Hadriáni.
       At Marseilles in France, the holy martyrs Hermes and Adrian.
probably the Massylitan martyrs praised by St. Augustine.
They suffered in Massylis, or Marula, in Numidia.
300 St. Lupercus Martyred bishop near Lourdes.
venerated at Tarbes, near Lourdes, France. He was French or possibly Spanish and is also listed as Luperculus.
 Eódem die sanctæ Antonínæ Mártyris, quæ in persecutióne Diocletiáni, cum Gentílium deos irrisísset, ídeo, post vários cruciátus, in vase quodam inclúsa, in palúdem urbis Ceæ demérsa est.
       On the same day, St. Antonina, martyr.  For deriding the gods of the heathen, in the persecution of Diocletian, she was, after various torments, shut up in a cask and drowned in a marsh near the city of Cea.
492 ST. FELIX III Pope helped to get the Church in Africa on its feet
 Romæ natális sancti Felícis Papæ Tértii, qui sancti Gregórii Magni átavus fuit; qui étiam (ut ipse Gregórius refert), sanctæ Tharsíllæ nepti appárens, illam ad cæléstia regna vocávit.
       At Rome, the birthday of Pope St. Felix III, ancestor of St. Gregory the Great, who relates of him that he appeared to St. Tharsilla, his niece, and called her to the kingdom of heaven.
492 ST FELIX II (III), POPE  483 - 492
ACCORDING to the Roman Martyrology this Pope Felix was an ancestor (great-great-grandfather) of Pope St Gregory the Great it recalls Gregory’s statement that when his aunt, St Tharsilla, lay dying, Felix appeared in vision and summoned her to Heaven. The martyrology Calls him Felix III, through the long-standing but erroneous numeration of the antipope Felix as Pope St Felix II (see July 29).

Little Certain is known about him personally, but he was a straightforward, Courageous Roman of the type of Leo I, and he has his place in general church history in connection with the monophysite troubles. In 482 the Emperor Zero published a document called the Henotikon, which had been devised by the patriarch of Constantinople, Acacius, to placate the dissenting monophysites by ignoring the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon.
Two years later St Felix held a synod at the Lateran and excommunicated Acacius and his supporters for a betrayal of the Catholic faith. St Felix thus appears in the common role of the Roman pontiffs as an upholder of an oecumenical council against the secular power, while much of the East meekly accepted the emperor’s “line”.

But the resulting “Acacian schism” unhappily lasted for thirty-five years, and helped to pave the way for the eventual separation of the Byzantine church.

In the west, Felix helped in restoration of the African church after its long persecution by the Arian Vandals. He died in 492 after a pontificate of nearly nine years, and his feast is kept in Rome.
St. Felix II has the extraordinary distinction of being not only a pope and saint himself, but the great-grandfather of another pope and saint, Gregory the Great. Felix had been married, but his wife had died before he became a priest. He was a member of an old Roman family of senatorial rank.

No sooner was he elected pope than Felix faced the vexing problem posed by Emperor Zeno's ill-considered attempt to unify the East by compromise. One of the evils which result from politicians meddling in church matters is the tendency to make a deal. And that is just what Zeno did. Alarmed by the hold that the Monophysites had on Egypt and Syria, Zeno issued his famous Henoticon (act of union) and ordered all to subscribe to it. This Henoticon was a creed drawn up by Acacius, the hitherto orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, and Peter, the Monophysite patriarch of Alexandria. It was orthodox in what it said, but implicitly it condoned the Monophysite heresy by omitting the decision of the Council of Chalcedon and the letter of Pope Leo to Flavian. Like so many compromises it pleased few. The more ardent Monophysites refused to follow their leader, Peter, and Pope Felix denounced it. With true spiritual independence, he warned the Emperor not to interfere in theological matters and "to allow the Catholic Church to govern itself by its own laws."

Pope Felix sent legates to Constantinople to summon Acacius to Rome, but to his dismay the Pope discovered that his legates had approved the election of the Monophysite Peter as patriarch of Alexandria and had communicated with heretics--in short, had sold him out. Felix held a synod at Rome in 484 at which he excommunicated the untrustworthy legates. He also excommunicated Acacius, but the patriarch remained stubborn. Thus started the Acacian schism in which Constantinople was officially separated from the Roman Church over the Henoticon. Even after Acacius died, the schism dragged on until the next century.

In the last years of this pontificate Theodoric led his Ostrogoths into Italy to defeat Odovakar and take over the rule of Italy--all in the name of Emperor Zeno. Though an Arian, Theodoric treated the Church well. It was different in Africa, where in the early years of his reign Felix heard anguished cries for help from the hapless Catholics. Hunneric, the Arian Vandal, ruthlessly harried the poor African Catholics. Pope Felix got Emperor Zeno to bring his influence to bear on the fierce Vandal, but this accomplished little. After Hunneric died, the persecution slackened, and the Pope then helped to get the Church in Africa on its feet. He followed the usual papal policy of mildness towards weak brethren who had given way in the storm.
Pope St. Felix died March 1, 492. He is buried in St. Paul's on the Ostian Way.

See Duchesne's edition of the Liber pontificalis, vol. i, pp. 252-253; DCB., vol. ii, pp. 482-485, s.v. Felix III; and works of general ecclesiastical history.

549 St. Herculanus Bishop of Perugia, Italy marthred by Ostrogoths
 Perúsiæ Translátio sancti Herculáni, Epíscopi et Mártyris, qui jussu Tótilæ, Gothórum Regis, decollátus est.  Ipsíus autem corpus ita cápiti unítum atque sanum, quadragésimo post abscissiónem die (ut scribit sanctus Gregórius Papa), repértum est, ac si nulla ferri incísio illud tetigísset.
       At Perugia, the transferral of the body of St. Herculanus, bishop and martyr, who was beheaded by order of Totila, king of the Goths.  Forty days after the decapitation, Pope St. Gregory relates that the head had been rejoined to the body as if it had never been touched by the sword.
beheaded by King Totila of the Ostrogoths. He is probably the same Herculanus sent to Perugia from Syria to evangelize the region.
550  St Albinus, Or Aubin, Bishop Of Angers many miracles attributed during his life but more particularly after his death
Andégavi, in Gállia, sancti Albíni, Epíscopi et Confessóris, viri præclaríssimæ virtútis et sanctitátis.
      At Angers in France, St. Albinus, bishop and confessor, a man of most eminent virtue and piety.
THE great popularity of St Aubin appears to be due, not so much to his career, which presents no remarkable features, as to the many miracles attributed to him not only during his life but more particularly after his death.
His cultus spread over France, Italy, Spain, Germany and even to distant Poland, and he became the titular patron of an immense number of French parishes. Born in the diocese of Vannes in Brittany, the saint belonged to a family said to have originally come from England or Ireland. While still young he entered the monastery of Tincillac, about which little is known, and there he led a life of great devotion. At the age of about thirty-five he was elected abbot, and, under his rule, the house flourished exceedingly and became a garden of virtues. Consequently, when the see of Angers fell vacant in 529 the clergy and citizens of Angers turned their eyes to Aubin. Greatly against his will, but much to the joy of the bishop of Rennes, St Melanius, he was appointed bishop of Angers and proved himself a capable and enlightened pastor.
St Aubin preached daily, and whilst always generous. to the sick and needy he was specially concerned with helping poor widows who were struggling to bring up large families. The ransoming of slaves was another good work very dear to his heart, and he spent large sums of money in buying back prisoners who had been carried off in the numerous raids of the barbarians. Tradition says that one of these captives was ransomed, not from the pirates, but from King Childebert himself. This was a lovely girl called Etheria upon whom the monarch had cast eyes. He caused her to be carried off from her home and imprisoned in a fortress. As soon as this came to the ears of the bishop, he went to the castle to demand her release, and such was the respect he inspired that the guards delivered her up at once. The legend adds that one soldier tried to detain the maiden and used threats and violence, but St Aubin breathed upon him and he fell down dead. The king made no further attempt to recapture the girl, but was undignified enough to demand a ransom which, we are told, was paid by the saint. Whether or not there is any truth in the story, it is certain that King Childebert had a great veneration for the bishop, but in other quarters he was very unpopular because of the energy with which he enforced the decrees of the Councils of Orleans in 538 and 541 against incestuous marriages.
St Aubin was credited with very many miracles. Besides numerous cases of the healing of the sick and the restoration of sight to the blind, we read of a youth called Alabald who was raised from the dead by his intercession. Once, after he had pleaded in vain with a judge to release some criminals, a great stone fell during the night from the prison wall and thus enabled the prisoners to regain their liberty. They immediately came to seek the saint and assured him that they would in future lead reformed lives.

The principal source for the life of St AIbinus is a short biography by Venantius Fortuna­tus, the most critical text of which is to be found in MGH., Auctores antiquissimi, vol. iv, "opera pedestria", pp. 27-33. His name is entered in the "Hieronymianum", and St Gregory of Tours refers to the cultus paid to him. See Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. ii, pp. 347-349, 353-354; DHG., vol. v. cc. 254-255 ; and the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. i.

Born to a noble family of Brittany. Pious child. Monk from his mid-20's into his 60's at Timcillac, which later renamed itself Saint Aubin's in honor of him. Abbot for 25 years, beginning in 504. Bishop of Angers c.529. His episcopacy was known for his charity to the poor, widows and orphans, for his ransoming of slaves from their owners, his personal holiness, and the miracles he worked.
Custom of the day permitted consanguinity marriage. Albinus decried this as incest, and fought against it, making enemies in many powerful families who practiced it. Called councils at Orleans in 538 and 541, which condemned this and other morals offenses.
  Legend says that when he visited Etheria, a woman imprisoned by King Childebert for bad debts, the woman threw herself at Albinus' feet, and pled for help. A guard made a move to strike her, but Albinus breathed in the man's face, and he fell dead. Etheria was soon released.
  Another time Albinus passed a prison tower in Angers, and heard the cries and moans of badly treated prisoners. He pled with the local magistrate for their release, but was refused. He returned to the tower and prayed in front of it; after several hours, a landslide brought down part of the tower, the prisoners escaped, followed Albinus to the church of Saint Maurichies, reformed their ways, and became model citizens and Christians.
   The abbey of Saint Aubin in Angers was erected in his memory. Born:  469 at Vannes, Brittany, France Died:  1 March 549 of natural causes; relics at the Cathedral of Saint Germanus in Paris Canonized:  Pre-Congregation
589 ?  St. David of Wales missionary priest monk dove lift him high above the people
David is the patron saint of Wales and perhaps the most famous of British saints. Ironically, we have little reliable information about him. It is known that he became a priest, engaged in 589 ?  St. David of Wales David, cousin of Cadoc and pupil of Illtyd.
David is the patron saint of Wales and perhaps the most famous of British saints.
Many stories and legends sprang up about David and his Welsh monks. Their austerity was extreme. They worked in silence without the help of animals to till the soil. Their food was limited to bread, vegetables and water.

In about the year 550, David attended a synod where his eloquence impressed his fellow monks to such a degree that he was elected primate of the region. The episcopal see was moved to Mynyw, where he had his monastery (now called St. David's). He ruled his diocese until he had reached a very old age. His last words to his monks and subjects were: "Be joyful, brothers and sisters. Keep your faith, and do the little things that you have seen and heard with me."

St. David is pictured standing on a mound with a dove on his shoulder. The legend is that once while he was preaching a dove descended to his shoulder and the earth rose to lift him high above the people so that he could be heard. Over 50 churches in South Wales were dedicated to him in pre-Reformation days.

Comment:  Were we restricted to hard manual labor and a diet of bread, vegetables and water, most of us would find little reason to rejoice. Yet joy is what David urged on his brothers as he lay dying. Perhaps he could say that to them—and to us—because he lived in and nurtured a constant awareness of God’s nearness. For, as someone once said, “Joy is the infallible sign of God’s presence.” May his intercession bless us with the same awareness! work and founded many monasteries, including his principal abbey in southwestern Wales. Many stories and legends sprang up about David and his Welsh monks. Their austerity was extreme. They worked in silence without the help of animals to till the soil. Their food was limited to bread, vegetables and water.

In about the year 550, David attended a synod where his eloquence impressed his fellow monks to such a degree that he was elected primate of the region. The episcopal see was moved to Mynyw, where he had his monastery (now called St. David's). He ruled his diocese until he had reached a very old age. His last words to his monks and subjects were: "Be joyful, brothers and sisters. Keep your faith, and do the little things that you have seen and heard with me."

St. David is pictured standing on a mound with a dove on his shoulder. The legend is that once while he was preaching a dove descended to his shoulder and the earth rose to lift him high above the people so that he could be heard. Over 50 churches in South Wales were dedicated to him in pre-Reformation days.

Comment:  Were we restricted to hard manual labor and a diet of bread, vegetables and water, most of us would find little reason to rejoice. Yet joy is what David urged on his brothers as he lay dying. Perhaps he could say that to them—and to us—because he lived in and nurtured a constant awareness of God’s nearness. For, as someone once said, “Joy is the infallible sign of God’s presence.” May his intercession bless us with the same awareness!

St. David According to tradition was the son of King Sant of South Wales and St. Non. He was ordained a priest and later studied under St. Paulinus. He was involved in missionary work and founded a number of monasteries. The monastery he founded at Menevia in Southwestern Wales was noted for extreme asceticism. David and his monks drank neither wine nor beer - only water - while putting in a full day of heavy manual labor and intense study.
Around the year 550, David attended a synod at Brevi in Cardiganshire. His contributions at the synod are said to have been the major cause for his election as primate of the Cambrian Church. He was reportedly consecrated archbishop by the patriarch of Jerusalem while on a visit to the Holy Land. He also is said to have invoked a council that ended the last vestiges of Pelagianism. David died at his monastery in Menevia around the year 589, and his cult was approved in 1120 by Pope Callistus II. He is revered as the patron of Wales. Undoubtedly, St. David was endowed with substantial qualities of spiritual leadership. What is more, many monasteries flourished as a result of his leadership and good example. His staunch adherence to monastic piety bespeaks a fine example for modern Christians seeking order and form in their prayer life.

David of Wales B (AC) also known as Dewi 5th or 6th century. There is no certainty about the date though we know that St. David was a real personage, son of King Sant, a prince of Cardigan in far western Wales. All the information we have about him is based on the unreliable 11th century biography written by Rhygyfarch, the son of Bishop Sulien of St. David's. Rhygyfarch's main purpose was to uphold the claim of the Welsh bishopric to be independent of Canterbury, so little reliance can be placed on the document.
David, who may have been born at Henfynw in Cardigan, lived during the golden age of Celtic Christianity when saints were plentiful, many of them of noble rank--kings, princes, and chieftain--who lived the monastic life, built oratories and churches, and preached the Gospel.

Saint Cadoc founded the great monastery of Llancarfan. Saint Illtyd turned from the life of a soldier to that of a mystic and established the abbey of Llantwit, where tradition links his name to that of Sir Galahad. But greatest among them was David, cousin of Cadoc and pupil of Illtyd, who was educated in the White House of Carmarathen and who founded the monastery of Menevia in the place that now bears his name.

According to his biography, David became a priest, studied under Saint Paulinus, the disciple of Saint Germanus of Auxerre, on an unidentified island for several years. He then engaged in missionary activities, founded 12 monasteries from Croyland to Pembrokeshire, the last of which, at Mynyw (Menevia) in southwestern Wales, was known for the extreme asceticism of its rule, which was based on that of the Egyptian monks.

Here in this lovely and lonely outpost he gathered his followers.
The Rule was strict, with but one daily meal, frequent fasts, and hours of unbroken silence. Their days were filled with hard manual labor and no plough was permitted in the work of the fields. "Every man his own ox," said St. David. Nor did David exempt himself from the same rigorous discipline: he drank nothing but water and so came to be known as David the Waterman; and long after vespers, when the last of his monks had retired to bed, he prayed on alone through the night.

We are told that he was of a lovable and happy disposition, and an attractive and persuasive preacher. It was perhaps his mother, the saintly Non, who had nurtured him carefully in the Christian faith, that he owed so many of his own fine qualities. It was not surprising, therefore, that when the time came for the appointment of a new archbishop of Wales the choice fell upon him.

At Brevi, in Cardiganshire, a great synod had been convened about 550, attended by a thousand members, but David, who kept aloof from temporal concerns, remained in his retreat at Menevia. The synod, however, insisted on sending for him. So great was the crowd and so intense the excitement that the voice of the aged and retiring archbishop Saint Dubricius could hardly be heard when he named David as his successor. David, who at first refused, came forward reluctantly, but when he spoke his voice was like a silver trumpet, and all could hear and were deeply moved; and in that hour of his succession a white dove was seen to settle upon his shoulders as if it were a sign of God's grace and blessing.

Without any facts to support the event, it is said that David was consecrated archbishop by the patriarch of Jerusalem while on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. But he loved Menevia and could not bring himself to leave it for Caerleon, the seat of the archbishopric, which he transferred to his own monastery by the wild headlands of the western sea, and which to this day is known by his name and remains a place of pilgrimage.

Again according to unsubstantiated legend, David convened a council, called the Synod of Victory, because it marked the final demise of Pelagianism, ratified the edicts of Brevi, and drew up regulations for the British Church.

"He opened," we are told, "many fountains in dry places, and across the centuries his words spoken in the hour of death still reach us: "Brothers and sisters, be joyful and keep your faith."

He died at Menevia and his cultus was reputedly approved by Pope Callistus II about 1120. Even his birth and death dates are uncertain, ranging from c. 454 to 520 for the former and from 560 to 601 for the latter (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Gill, Wade- Evans).

In art, St. David is a Celtic bishop with long hair and a beard, and a dove perched on his shoulder. He may be shown preaching on a hill, or holding his cathedral. He is the patron saint of Wales and especially venerated in Pembrokeshire (Roeder). No one seems to have a satisfactory explanation regarding the association of leeks with St. David's Day as in Shakespeare's Henry V, IV, 1 (Attwater).

589 ST DAVID, OR DEWI, BISHOP IN MYNYW, PATRON OF WALES      
IT is certainly unfortunate that we have no early history of St David (as we anglicize his name Dewi), the patron of Wales and perhaps the most celebrated of British saints. All the accounts preserved to us are based on the biography written about 1090 by Rhygyfarch (Ricemarch), son of Bishop Sulien of Saint Davids. Rhygyfarch was a learned man and his claim to have drawn on old written sources is probably justified; but he was concerned to uphold the fabulous primacy of the see of Saint Davids and he appears incapable of distinguishing historical facts from the wildest fables.

According to the legend David was the son of Sant, of princely family in Ceredigion, and of St Non (March 3), grand-daughter of Brychan of Brecknock ; and he was born perhaps about the year 520. "The place where holy David was educated ", says Rhygyfarch, "was called Vetus Rubus [Henfynyw in Cardigan] and he grew up full of grace and lovely to behold. And there it was that holy David learnt the alphabet, the psalms, the lessons for the whole year and the divine office; and there his fellow disciples saw a dove with a golden beak playing at his lips and teaching him to sing the praise of God."
Ordained priest in due course, he afterwards retired to study for several years under the Welsh St Paulinus, who lived on an island, which has not been identified. He is said to have restored sight to his master, who had become blind through much weeping. Upon emerging from the monastery, David seems to have embarked upon a period of great activity, the details of which, however, are at least for the most part pure invention. To quote again from his biographer: "He founded twelve monasteries to the glory of God: first, upon arriving at Glastonbury, he built a church there; then he came to Bath, and there, causing deadly water to become healing by a blessing, he endowed it with perpetual heat, rendering it fit for people to bathe in; afterwards he came to Croyland and to Repton; then to Colfan and Glascwm, and he had with him a two-headed altar; after that he founded the monastery of Leominster. Afterwards, in the region of Gwent, in a place that is called Raglan, he built a church; then he founded a monastery in a place which is called Llangyfelach in the region of Gower." Finally, and here we are on surer ground, he settled in the extreme southwest corner of Wales, at Mynyw (Menevia), with a number of disciples and founded the principal of his many abbeys.

The community lived a life of extreme austerity. Hard manual labour was obligatory for all, and they were allowed no cattle to relieve them in tilling the ground. They might never speak without necessity, and they never ceased praying mentally, even when at work. Their food was bread, with vegetables and salt, and they drank only water, sometimes mingled with a little milk. For this reason ancient tradition begun upon an honourable respect", but no adequate explanation of the usage is forthcoming. There is no mention of leeks in St David's life. Pope Callistus II is said to have approved the cult of St David about the year 1120 and to have granted an indulgence to those who should visit his shrine-" two visits to Menevia being reckoned equal to one visit to Rome" -but this is doubtful. There can, however, be no question that he was a highly popular saint in his own country. More than fifty pre-Reformation churches in South Wales are known to have been dedicated in his honour. Moreover, even in England, Archbishop Arundel in 1398 ordered his feast to be kept in every church throughout the province of Canterbury. His feast is now observed in Wales and in the dioceses of Westminster and Portsmouth.

The earliest surviving mention of St David's name occurs in the Catalogue of Saints of Ireland (c. 730?) and in the Martyrology of Oengus (c. 800), but no details are added. The text of Rhygyfarch's Life has been accurately edited by A. W. Wade-Evans in Y Cymmrodor, vol. xxiv, and the same scholar has published a translation in English, abundantly annotated, together with some other relevant documents, in the Life of St David (1923); the Latin text is printed also in his Vitae Sanctorum Britanniae (1944). The adaptation of Rhygyfarch by Giraldus Cambrensis may be found in vol. iii of his works in the Rolls Series. See also LBS., vol. ii, pp. 285-32; J. E. Lloyd, History of Wales (1939), vol. i, pp. 152-159; S. M. Harris, St David in the Liturgy (1940); J. Barrett Davies in Blackfriars, vol. xxix (1948), pp. 121-126. For David's influence on the Irish church, see J. Ryan, Irish Monasticism (1931), pp. 113-114, 160-164 and passim; and on the alleged canonization, Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xlix (1931), pp. 211-213. An extremely full bibliography of all materials relating to St David has been published by Wyndham Morgan in connection with the Cardiff Public Library. See also the very beautiful volume printed at the Gregynog.Press in 1927, Ernest Rhys, The Life of St David; and Diana Latham, The Story of St David (1952).
St. Monan martyred  monk at St. Andrew's under St. Adrian
Monan worked as a missionary in the Firth of Forth area in Scotland until he and a large number of Christians were murdered by marauding Danes.
713 St Swithbert (Suidbert) was 1 of a band of 12 missionaries who, headed by St Willibrord, started in 690 evangelize Friesland
 Apud civitátem Werdam sancti Suitbérti Epíscopi, qui, témpore sancti Sérgii Papæ Primi, apud Frísones, Bátavos et álios Germániæ pópulos Evangélium prædicávit.
       At Kaiserswerdt, Bishop St. Swidbert, who, in the time of Pope Sergius, preached the Gospel among the Frisians, Batavians, and other Germanic peoples.

713 ST SWITHBERT, BISHOP

ST SWITHBERT (Suidbert) was one of a band of twelve missionaries who, headed by St Willibrord, started in 690 to evangelize the pagans of Friesland. A Northumbrian by birth, and brought up as a monk near the Scottish border, Swithbert, like so many other Englishmen of his period, had crossed over to Ireland in search of higher perfection. Here he had come under the direction and influence of St Egbert, who, though long consumed with zeal for the conversion of Lower Germany, had been restrained by divine command when he prepared a ship and was on the point of embarking in person. His place had then been taken by his disciple and devoted friend St Wigbert, but the mission was a complete failure, and after labouring for two years Wigbert returned home. Egbert, however, refused to be discouraged and never slackened in his appeal for volunteers, until he succeeded in collecting and training this second mission which he despatched. By this time the conditions had become much more favourable. The missionaries landed at the mouth of the Rhine and, according to Alcuin, made their way as far as Utrecht, where they set to work to preach and to teach.

Swithbert laboured mainly in Hither Friesland, which comprised the southern part of Holland, the northern portion of Brabant and the provinces of Guelderland and Cleves. His efforts were successful and multitudes were converted to the faith by his eloquence and zeal. His fellow labourers pressed him to obtain consecration that he might the better preside over his converts, and he returned to England for that purpose and also probably to collect more workers. There in 693 he was consecrated regionary bishop by St Wilfrid who, banished from his own see of York, was preaching the faith in Mercia.
Bede tells us that this took place at the time when the see of Canterbury was still vacant after the death of St Theo­dore, and doubtless St Swithbert was well known to St Wilfrid, who hailed from his own country of Northumbria. The newly appointed bishop then returned to his flock, but did not long remain with them-possibly because Pepin of Herstal was not satisfied at his election, but more likely simply to extend the missionary field.
After settling the churches he had founded, he left them in the care of St Willibrord and his companions and penetrated further into the country, up the right bank of the Rhine, where he converted to the faith a considerable number of the Boructuari, who inhabited the district between the Ems and the Lippe. A few years later, however, the Saxons invaded the country, which they devastated and occupied, and the saint, finding his work undone, withdrew into Frankish territory where he resolved to retire from the world and prepare his soul for death. Pepin, at the request of his wife Plectrudis, bestowed upon him a small island in the Rhine where he built a monastery which flourished for many years. Round this monastery grew up the town of Kaiserswerth, six miles north of Dusseldorf, but it is now united to the mainland, a channel of the Rhine having changed its course.

St Swithbert died in his abbey about the year 713, and has ever since been held in great veneration in Holland and the other places where he laboured. He is joint patron of St Peter's, Kaiserswerth, where his relics, which were found in 1626 in a silver shrine, are still preserved and honoured. Many miracles were ascribed to him and he is appealed to as a patron against angina. He is sometimes spoken of as St Swithbert the Elder, to distinguish him from St Swithbert the Younger, Bishop of Werden, with whom he was formerly often confused.
One very interesting memorial of St Swithbert which still survives is a manuscript of Livy now preserved in Vienna. This codex of fifth-century date seems to have belonged to him, for it bears his name and he is described in it as bishop of Dorostat, now Wijk-bij-Duurstede on the Rhine.

The principal source for the life of St Swithbert is Bede's Ecclesiastical History (bk v, chs. 1)-11) with Plummer's notes, but see also Alcuin, De Sanctis Ebor. (v, 1073, in Jaffe's edition). The life by Marcellinus, printed in Surius, is a shameless fabrication. A panegyric and hymn by Radbod, Bishop of Utrecht, may be consulted in Migne, PL., vol. cxxxii, cc. 547-559. Cf. also the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. i, and Bouterwek, Der Apostel des Bergischen Landes; BHL., 7939-7942; Van der Essen, Étude sur les saints mérovingiens, pp. 428.seq.; and W. Levison, England and the Continent .. (1946), pp. 57-58
900 St. Leo Luke Basilian monastery Abbot of Corleone.
on Sicily. He spent eight decades as a monk.
977 St. Rudesind  Benedictine abbot bishop performing miracles listed also as Rosendo. Born in Galicia, Spain, in 907 to a noble family, he was appointed bishop of Mondonedo at the age of eighteen and against his personal wishes. Soon after, he was given the duty of replacing the dissolute bishop of Compostela, his cousin Sisnand.
He distinguished himselfwith his military skills by leading armies in the field against invading Norsemen and Moors. When Sisnand escaped from imprisonment, he drove Rudesind from his office as bishop under threat of murder. Rudesind retired to the monastery of St. John Caveiro which he had built, and founded the abbey of Celanova at Villar, where he lived as a monk. He built several other monastic communities, installing in each strict observance of the Benedictine rule. Elected abbot of Celanova to succeed the first abbot, Franquila, he became a leading figure of his time, receiving visits from Church leaders throughout Portugal who sought his spiritual advice. A relative of St. Senorina, Rudesind earned a reputation for performing miracles. He died at Celanova and was canonized in 1195

977 St Rudesind, Or Rosendo, Bishop Of Dumium     
St Rudesind, or San Rosendo as he is called by his Spanish fellow countrymen, came of a noble Galician family. According to his biographer, Brother Stephen of Celanova, his mother was praying in St Saviour's church on Mount Cordoba when the birth of this son was divinely foretold to her. Rudesind grew up a serious and saintly youth, and when the see of Dumium (now Mondofledo) fell vacant, the people demanded that he should be appointed. In vain did he plead that he was only eighteen and quite unsuitable: they insisted, and eventually he had to accept consecration. As a bishop he was a great contrast to his cousin Sisnand, Bishop of Compostela, who neglected his duties and spent all his time in sports and dissipation. This caused such scandal that King Sancho put him in prison, and requested Rudesind to take over the diocese, which he did very reluctantly. On one occasion, when King Sancho was away, the Northmen descended upon Galicia, whilst at the same time the Moors invaded Portugal. Bishop Rudesind gathered together an army and, with the battle-cry, "Some put their trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will call on the name of the Lord", he led his men first against the Northmen whom he drove back to their ships, and then against the Moors whom he forced to retire into their own territories.
But at the death of King Sancho in 967 Sisnand broke out of prison and on Christmas night attacked Rudesind, whom he threatened with death unless he Vacated the see.
The holy man made no resistance and retired into the monastery of St John of Caveiro which he had founded, and here he remained until he was instructed in a vision to build another abbey in a place that would be shown him. To his joy he found the place of his dream at Villar-a valley owned by his forefathers-"full of springs and streams and suitable for flowers, grain and herbs, as well as for fruit trees". Here he began to build and in eight years he completed the monastery, which he called Celanova. Over it he placed a saintly monk named Franquila, under whose obedience he chose to serve. With the help of this abbot he continued to build more monasteries as well as to enforce in those already founded a stricter observance of the Rule of St Benedict. After the death of Franquila, he was elected abbot, and so great was his influence that bishops and abbots came to him for advice and instruction and other religious houses placed themselves under his jurisdiction.
Many miracles are related by his biographer Stephen as having been wrought through St Rudesind-demoniacs and epileptics were healed, the blind cured, stolen property restored and captives liberated; and he prefaces his catalogue with a simple little personal experience of his own. "When I was at a tender age", he says, "my parents delivered me over to study letters. In order to escape from the toil of study and also from canings (which are the common lot of boys) I used to hide in the woods. As I could not be made amenable, even when I was securely tied up, my master, moved by a divine inspiration, went to the tomb of St Rudesind, lit a candle and prayed that if I were destined by the Just Judge for the order of the clergy, He would constrain me by the bonds of His virtue and would open my heart to learn. After this I became more docile, as I have often heard him say, and not so very long afterwards I received the religious habit in that very monastery." St Rudesind was canonized in 1195.

It is not certain whether the life attributed to the monk Stephen was really written by him, and in any case he lived nearly two centuries after the saint he commemorates. By far the greater part of the documents printed in the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum are taken up with the miracles after Rudesind's death. Much obscurity envelops his connection with the two sees, Dumium and Compostela, and whether he did not retire to Celanova before he was called away to take his cousin's place. See A. Lopez y Carballeira, San Rosendo (1909); and Gams, Kirchengeschichte Spaniens, vol. ii, pt 2, pp. 405-406. In Antony de Yepes, Coronica General de la Orden de San Benito, vol. v, pp. 14-16, is printed a Spanish translation of the bulls of beatification and canonization of San Rosendo. Ano Cristiano, by Justo Perez de Urbel (5 vols., 1933-1935) is useful for this and other Spanish saints, but it makes no claim to be a critical work.
1367 Bd Roger Le Fort, Archbishop Of Bourges immediately after death tomb a place of pilgrimage many miracles worked.
Roger Le For finds recognition in the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum on this day, though his cult has never been formally approved. He is said to have owed his elevation to the bishopric of Orleans to a jest. On the day of the election he had been criticizing the unseemly eagerness of the canons in pushing their claims without any thought of the responsibilities and difficulties involved in such a dignity. In mock earnest he said to one of those who were entering the chapter-house, " I hope the electors will think of me on the present occasion, for I too should like to be a bishop!" The canon, taking the words seriously, informed the rest, and the whole gathering acclaimed the name of the new candidate. The presiding prelate then rose and said, " Brethren, Heaven and earth are witnesses that you have made choice of Messire Roger for your bishop. Concurring as I do with your judgement, I declare that he upon whom your votes have fallen is the preordained pontiff of this city, for he is a man of eminent sanctity and wisdom. Assuredly this is the decision of the Holy Spirit, whom we cannot resist without guilt." Thereupon Roger was unanimously elected. It was in vain that he protested that he had only spoken in jest and that he had neither the desire nor the ability to undertake such a charge: the voice of the people came to ratify the choice of the clergy, and he was compelled to submit. On his entry into Orleans at his consecration an ancient custom was revived and all the prisoners in the city prison were released.
Roger was afterwards translated to Limoges, and in 1343 he became archbishop of Bourges. He is perhaps best remembered in connection with the feast of the Conception of our Lady, which he established in his diocese and which he did much to popularize. When he died, at the age of ninety, it was found that he had left all his possessions to enable poor boys to receive a good education. The archbishop's unsullied reputation and piety had caused him to be greatly venerated during his life, and immediately after his death his tomb became a place of pilgrimage where many miracles were said to be worked.
See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. i, and Cochard, Saints de l'É glise d'Orléans, pp. 487-495.
1375 BD BONAVITA A BLACKSMITH by trade and a Franciscan tertiary
Bd Bonavita lived and died in the little town of Lugo, fourteen miles west of Ravenna. It is recorded of him that whether walking or sitting, at work or at leisure, indoors or out of doors, he was liable to become so rapt in contemplation as to be oblivious to all that was round about him. He had the true Franciscan spirit, and when one bitter winter's day he found a poor wretch half frozen outside the church he stripped and gave the man his own clothes. The little urchins of the town pursued the nearly naked blacksmith with abuse and stones, but he reached home unhurt and unperturbed. Upon another beggar he bestowed his newly-mended shoes, and he made it his regular practice not only to feed the hungry, but to visit the prison and to help bury the dead.
A disastrous fire broke out which destroyed many of the houses in Lugo, but although nearly the whole population turned out in the hope of arresting its progress, Bonavita appears not even to have noticed it. When his attention was at last aroused he proceeded to the spot where the conflagration was raging, and as soon as he made the sign of the cross the fire was totally extinguished. We are told that through the same holy sign he also wrought many other wonders, but it must be admitted that the evidence for these marvels is not very satisfactory. The cult of this good tertiary seems never to have been formally approved.

See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. i, where the details given are derived mainly from Wadding, Annales, s.a, 1375.

1484  Bd Christopher Of Milan the apostle of Liguria great success in evangelizing that part of Italy, Dominican  endowed with the gift of prophecy
Bd Christopher who is called the apostle of Liguria because of his great success in evangelizing that part of Italy, received the Dominican habit at Milan, early in the fifteenth century. Soon after his ordination he began to be known as a great preacher, and his fame afterwards spread far and wide. His biographers record that his sermons, which brought about conversions and improvement of morals wherever he went, were always based on the Bible, the theology of St Thomas and the writings of the fathers, and that he denounced those preachers who, in their attempts to be popular and up-to-date, aired new-fangled notions and scorned to preach on the gospel for the day. Like a true missionary he wandered fearlessly and untiringly over dangerous passes and difficult country in his labours for souls. At Taggia, where he was particularly successful, the grateful inhabitants built Father Christopher a church and a monastery of which he became prior. He was endowed with the gift of prophecy. One day, as he was watching the people of Castellano dancing in the square, he exclaimed, ."You are now dancing merrily, but your ruin is nigh and your joy will be changed into sorrow" -a forecast which was fulfilled a few years later when the plague carried off most of the inhabitants. He also foresaw the destruction of Trioria by the French, and he warned the population of Taggia that they would flee from their city though not pursued, and that their river would leave its banks and destroy their gardens-prophecies which came true in every particular. When his last illness came upon him, he was preaching the Lent at Pigna. He had himself carried to his beloved Taggia and there breathed his last. His cult was confirmed in 1875.
See L. Brétaudeau, Un Martyr de la Revolution á Vanne, (1908) M. Misermont, Le bx P. R. Rogue (1937), and the decrees in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. xxi (1929), pp. 564—567, and vol. xxvi (1934), pp. 304-308 and 292—296, which include a biographical summary.

1796 Bd Peter Rene Roque, Martyr ordained 1782 professor of theology in his native town Vannes refused the Constitutional Oath On being sentenced to death, Father Roque fell on his knees and gave fervent thanks to God guillotined on March 1, 1796
This devoted Breton priest was born at Vannes in 1758. After his studies in the seminary of that city he was ordained in 1782, and for a while became chaplain to the Dames de la Retraite; but four years later he made his way to Paris to join the Lazarists, or Congregation of the Mission of St Vincent de Paul.
Even before his noviceship was completed he was sent to act as professor of theology in his native town, and there when the Revolution broke out he showed the utmost heroism in devoting himself to every form of apostolic work.
He refused to take the Constitutional Oath which was tendered him and for some time lived disguised and in hiding. In the end, having been betrayed by some miscreant, he was arrested by the revolutionaries; but even confinement in gaol did not put an end to his activities, for he found means to write in defence of religion and to render numberless services, both bodily and spiritual, to his fellow-prisoners. On being sentenced to death, Father Roque fell on his knees and gave fervent thanks to God. He was guillotined on March 1, 1796, and as soon as peace was restored to the Church an episcopal process was begun with a view to his beatification. This came about in 1934, and in the same year his remains were enshrined in Vannes cathedral.

See L. Brétaudeau, Un Martyr de la Revolution à Vannes (1908); M. Misermont, Le bx P. R. Rogue (1937), and the decrees in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. xxi (1929), pp. 564-567, and vol. xxvi (1934), pp. 304-308 and 292-296, which include a biographical summary.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 281

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

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

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

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

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

Let every spirit praise Our Lady

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

Thunder, ye heavens, from above, and give praise to her: glorify her, ye earth, with all the dwellers therein.

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

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost as it was in the beginning and will always be.
God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique, for each is the result of a new idea. 
As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike. It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints. Dear Lord, grant us a spirit that is not bound by our own ideas and preferences. 
Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves. O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory. Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.  Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.   God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heaven:  only saints are allowed into heaven.
The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.
There are over 10,000 named saints beati  from history
 and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources
Patron_Saints.html  Widowed_Saints html  Indulgences The Catholic Church in China
LINKS: Marian Shrines   India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes 1858  China Marian shrines 1995
Kenya national Marian shrine  Loreto, Italy  Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
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Widowed Saints  html
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Mary the Mother of Jesus Miracles_BC  Lay Saints  Miraculous_Icons  Miraculous_Medal_Novena Patron Saints
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The great psalm of the Passion, Chapter 22, whose first verse “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Jesus pronounced on the cross, ended with the vision: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him” For kingship belongs to the LORD, the ruler over the nations. All who sleep in the earth will bow low before God; All who have gone down into the dust will kneel in homage. And I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you. The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.
Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China {whole article here} 2000 years of the Catholic Church in China
The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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