Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
RDeo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
March is the month of Saint Joseph since 1855;
2023
22,600 lives saved since 2007
Haitian Help Funding Seeds Haitian Geology AND Haitian Paintings
http://www.haitian-childrens-fund.org/

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

     40 days for Life Campaign saves lives
Shawn Carney Campaign Director www.40daysforlife.com

Death by Chemical Injection to the unborn

It is a great poverty that a child must die so that you may live as you wish -- Mother Teresa


Dear Readers
Former abortion worker finds mercy

Mercy changes everything. Fulton Sheen accurately called this week "the week that changed the world."
The reason this week changed the world – and changes us – is simple: the redeeming mercy of Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross.
We and our world need His mercy ... and this week we celebrate the freedom that comes from God's merciful love. Our world longs for that freedom, but often looks for it in all the wrong places.
This week reminds us where to look if we want to see abortion end in our world – the cross.
Our Lord's passion, death and resurrection are what we nail our hopes to – not ourselves or our government or the media, but His redemptive sacrifice. His mercy is real. Just ask Jewels Green, who had an abortion and then began working in the abortion industry – at a facility that was the site of violence.
Because of her conversion, she understood the power of a 40 Days for Life campaign and "couldn't wait to join the vigil."

Be inspired by her redeeming story this Holy Week as she joins us on the 40 Days for Life podcast.
In this episode, Jewels shares the things we should do – and should never do – if we want to see more workers have a change of heart. It was a long road for Jewels, who said she "came crawling back to God, broken and humbled."
God can work with us when we are humbled. During this 40 Days for Life campaign, we saw thousands of people humble themselves to endure cold, indifference, and ridicule in front of abortion facilities to be a sign of Christ's hope and mercy.
We give thanks for the babies saved from abortion, the abortion workers who questioned their job for the first time, and the abortion facilities that closed their doors.
Your witness is a sign of His mercy ... and we pray that you and your family have a blessed Easter as we celebrate the mercy and love of God this week!
For life,

ST GABRIEL THE ARCHANGEL
Festum sancti Gabriélis Archángeli,
qui ad annuntiándum Incarnatiónis divíni Verbi mystérium a Deo missus est.

The Feast of St. Gabriel Archangel, who was sent by God
to announce the Incarnation of the Divine Word.

March 24
150 St. Mark & Timothy Roman martyrs of post-apostolic times mentioned in a letter by Pope St. Pius I
304 ST IRENAEUS, BISHOP OF SIRMIUM, MARTYR
 362 St. Pigmenius  Martyr; priest in Rome Emperor Julian the Apostate had him hurled into the Tiber

 500 St. Domangard hermit contemporary of St. Patrick
 712 717 St. Hildelitha Benedictine abbess supporter of Sts. Bede, Aldhelm, Boniface, visions
13_14th v. Saint Zachariah Faster of the Caves Often saw angels: Demons trembled at mention of his name
1381 St. Catherine of Sweden convent Wadstena desire for self-mortification devotion to spiritual things
1396 Walter Hilton von Thurgarton Er studierte besonders die Texte der Mystiker und übersetzte auch mehrere Werke aus dem Lateinischen ins Englische

16th v. Peter of Kazan Holy Martyr newly-baptized Tatar suffered converted to Christianity from Islam
18th v. "The Uncut," or "Clouded Mountain" Icon of the Mother of God
1801 BD DIDACUS, or DIEGO, OF CADIZ
1980  Oscar Romero (San Salvador) geboren 1977 zum Erzbischof von San Salvador berufen


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.

The Time of the Resurrection (III) March 24 - Vigil of the Annunciation     
Christ told Mary what He had done in hell, how He had chained up Satan, and presented to His mother the patriarchs He brought back with him. They all bowed low in front of her. I will let you ponder what the feelings of Adam and Eve were when they said to the Virgin Mary: "Blessed are you our daughter and our Lady. The Lord was thinking about you when he told the serpent, "I will place enmity between you and the woman." Eve added: "I closed paradise through my fault, but you, Full of Grace, you have opened it again."
Each Prophet told her in turn, "I have prophesied about you here and there in my book."
Then they all saluted her by saying, "You are the glory of Jerusalem, Israel's joy and the honor of our people."

And the Virgin responded with these words, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people that God has acquired to Himself to announce the praises of Him who called you from the darkness into His admirable light."
And the angels sang again: "Queen of heaven, rejoice."  Saint Vincent Ferrer  Spanish Dominican (d. 1419)


Fasting was instituted by Our Lord as a remedy for our mouth, for our gourmandizing and for our gluttony.
Since sin entered the world through the mouth, the mouth must do penance by being deprived of foods prohibited and forbidden by the Church, abstaining from them for the space of forty days. But this glorious saint adds that, as it is not our mouth alone which has sinned, but also all our other senses, our fast must be general and entire, that is, all the members of our body must fast. For if we have offended God through the eyes, through the ears, through the tongue, and through our other senses, why should we not make them fast as well?
And not only must we make the bodily senses fast, but also the soul's powers and passions-yes, even the understanding, the memory, and the will, since we have sinned through both body and spirit. -- St Bernard


March 24 – Our Lady of the Thorn (Chalons sur Marne, France, 1400) 
Like Mary, do not be afraid  
The Angel Gabriel said, “Do not be afraid, Mary.” If a new experience of God always causes a certain degree of fear—because we feel safer when we have everything under control—then these are the key words we are invited to hear: “Do not be afraid.” Not being afraid means trusting in God, believing in his Word, and counting on his faithfulness. Not only does trust give the courage to live a new experience, it also enables us to look at the invisible world (…). Mary said to the Angel: “How will this be possible?” Mary's question did not disclose any doubt, but rather revealed her desire to understand. (…) Trusting does not mean renouncing reason and intelligence.
Through this question, Mary voiced her wish to fully comprehend this event involving her, and she expressed her desire to make God's project her own, because for her reason and faith formed a whole. (…) Christian faith is not an irrational experience.
God's revelation demands efforts from our reason and our intelligence.  
Fr. François-Xavier Dumortier S.J.  Rome, October 10, 2013, Zenit.org
 
March 24 - Our Lady in Lourdes said, “I am the Immaculate Conception” (France, 1858)
Life Came Through Mary
It is fitting therefore that the holy Fathers see Mary as used by God not merely in a passive way,
but as freely cooperating in the work of human salvation through faith and obedience.
For, as St. Irenaeus says, “being obedient, she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.”
Hence not a few of the early Fathers gladly assert in their preaching, “The knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience;
what the virgin Eve bound through her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith.”
Comparing Mary with Eve, they call her "the Mother of the living," and still more often they say:
 “death through Eve, life through Mary.” Lumen Gentium Chaptire VIII 56 II Vatican Council

March 24  – Holy Thursday – Our Lady of the Thorn (Châlons-sur-Marne, France, 1400)
 
Who can teach us that?
 Let’s take a look at Jesus’ great deeds from the threshold of these holy days. What is being asked of us? Two things in particular: to believe in his love and to let him act in us.  In the prayerful silence of a faith filled with amazement, let us allow God to save us.
Let us not prevent the Lord to make his way of the Cross, which he walks without us but for us. And let us rediscover with surprise how much Jesus loves us…
Who can best teach us that? The Virgin Mary, who unlike us, had no reason to flee.
That is because she understood that there was nothing else to do... She understood that nothing was being asked of her other than to let Jesus win our salvation, and to be present, in the shadow of the Cross, to receive the salvation that her Son, from the Cross, was earning for her.

Of all the disciples, the only one who stayed is the one who espoused the movement of His heart—Saint John—who also let God act… and kept still.
At Mary’s school... nothing else is required of us during these holy days other than to believe in the love of Jesus with an astonished faith, and to let him act, with a trusting faith.
The MDN Team
Source: www.foi-et-contemplation.net

Saturday of the Akathist "Laudation of the Virgin" Akathist Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos
Saint Artemon Bishop Apostle Paul established Artemon as 1st bishop of that city
 115 St. Latinus Third bishop of Brescia, Italy
 150 St. Mark & Timothy Roman martyrs of post-apostolic times mentioned in a letter by Pope St. Pius I
     St. Romulus and Secundus suffered in proconsular Africa
     Saint Zachariah Recluse of Egypt
 300 St. Epicharis Martyred Roman priest identified with St. Pigmenius
     Romæ sancti Epigménii Presbyteri, qui, in persecutióne Diocletiáni, sub Túrpio Júdice, gládio cæsus, martyrium consummávit.
 303 St. Timolaus and Companions 8 martyrs beheaded at Caesarea Palestine
    
sancti Agapíti Epíscopi Synnadæ, in Phrygia,
     St. Seleucus Syrian saint a martyr venerated in the East
     St. Sarah the nun Departure "I am a feeble woman, and I can not conquer you {satan} except by the power of the Lord Christ" then Satan vanished
     St. Helias of Hnes
The Martyrdom of
304 ST IRENAEUS, BISHOP OF SIRMIUM, MARTYR
 

362 St. Pigmenius  Martyr a priest in Rome who ran afoul of Emperor Julian the Apostate who had him hurled into the Tiber
     St. Macartan First bishop of Clogher, Ireland
 500 St. Domangard hermit contemporary of St. Patrick
6th v. St. Cairlon The archbishop of Cashel, Ireland, restored to life by St. Dageus
     Tridénti pássio sancti Simeónis púeri, a Judǽis sævíssime trucidáti, qui multis póstea miráculis coruscávit
 635 St. Caimin Irish hermit of Inniskeltra fellow-worker with Saint Senan
 712 717 St. Hildelitha Benedictine abbess supporter of Sts. Bede Aldhelm Boniface visions
1080 St. Aldemar Abbot miracle worker called "the Wise."
13_14th v. Saint Zachariah Faster of the Caves Often saw angels: Demons trembled at mention of his name
1381 St. Catherine of Sweden head of Wadstena convent of desire for self-mortification life: devotion to spiritual things
1396 Walter Hilton von Thurgarton Er studierte besonders die Texte der Mystiker und übersetzte auch mehrere Werke aus dem Lateinischen ins Englische
1475  & 1144 SS. SIMON OF TRENT AND WILLIAM OF NORWICH
1510 St. Catherine of Genoa she and husband dedicated themselves to works of charity
1606 ST TURIBIUS, Archbishop of LIMA To those who tried to twist God’s law to make it accord with their evil practice he would oppose the words of Tertullian: “Christ said, ‘I am the truth’. He did not say, I am the custom’.” The archbishop succeeded in eradicating some of the worst abuses, and he founded numerous churches, religious houses and hospitals; in 1591 he established at Lima the first ecclesiastical seminary in the New World.

16th v. Stephen of Kazan a Tatar Holy Martyr believed in Christ and received healing
16th v.
Peter of Kazan The Holy Martyr newly-baptized Tatar suffered because he converted to Christianity from Islam
18th v. "The Uncut," or "Clouded Mountain" Icon of the Mother of God
1801 BD DIDACUS, or DIEGO, OF CADIZ
1980  Oscar Romero in Ciudad Barrios (San Salvador) geboren 1977 zum Erzbischof von San Salvador berufen
18th v. "The Uncut," or "Clouded Mountain" Icon of the Mother of God
About 250-300 years ago this icon was in one of the men's monasteries of Tver and was presented by the Superior to Cosmas Volchaninov in gratitude for his fine work in the monastery church. This icon was passed on from generation to generation, but a certain impious grandson of Cosmas removed it and placed the icon in an attic.

His bride endured many insults from her husband and his relatives. In despair over her marriage she resolved to commit suicide in a deserted bath-house. On the way there a monk appeared to her and said, "Where are you going, unhappy one?
Go back, pray to the Theotokos of The Clouded Mountain, and you will live in peace."

The agitated young wife returned home and revealed everything, not concealing her interrupted intention. They searched for the monk, but they did not find him, and no one had seen him but her.
This took place on the eve of the Feast of the Annunciation to the Most Holy Theotokos.

They found the icon in the attic, cleaned off the dirt and set it up in the house in a place of honor. In the evening, the parish priest served the all-night Vigil before the icon. From that time, Vigil was served in the house every year on this day.
For more than 150 years the icon was in the Volchaninov family. Katherine, daughter of Basil, the last of the Volchaninov line, married George Ivanovich Konyaev, taking with her the icon of the Mother of God as a precious inheritance. Moliebens and all-night vigils were served in the Konyaev house on March 24 and November 7 (perhaps this was the day when the icon was transferred from the monastery to the house of Cosmas Volchaninov).
In 1863 near a cemetery church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God it was decided to build a chapel in honor of St Tikhon and St Macarius of Kalyazin. The then owner of the icon, George Konyaev (who died in 1868 at the age of 97) wanted to donate the icon of the Theotokos to the church. He asked the clergy to build another chapel for the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God of the "Clouded Mountain."

He also said, "I feel the very best place for it is the temple of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, since the place on which the church was built, in former times was called a Mount, since it was the highest place in the city. The inhabitants took their possessions to the Mount and saved themselves from ruin during a flood. Let the icon, The Clouded Mountain, remain on this mountain with your blessing, and let all who are buried here be veiled with Her mercy." On July 15, 1866 the icon was transferred into the new chapel, which was consecrated by Bishop Anthony of Staritsk the following day.
On the icon the Most Holy Theotokos is depicted standing on a semi-circular elevation, a mountain; on Her left arm, the Divine Infant blesses with His right hand. Upon the head of the Mother of God is a crown, and in Her hand a mountain, on which are seen above churches with cupolas and crosses.
This icon should not be confused with the "Stone of the Mountain not cut by Hands" Icon on the iconostasis of the cathedral of the Transfiguration at Solovki. The latter depicts the Theotokos in half-length, holding Her Son in Her left hand. In Her right hand, She holds a ladder and a stone with the image of Christ's head (the King of Kings). Instead of the usual stars on her head and shoulders are the heads of angels.
The title of the icon is derived from Daniel 2:44-45

 ST GABRIEL THE ARCHANGEL
BY a decree of the Congregation of Sacred Rites dated October 26, 1921, issued by command of Pope Benedict XV, it was directed that the feast of St Gabriel the Archangel should be kept in future as a greater double on March 24 throughout the Western church, As the question of the liturgical celebration of festivals in honour of the great archangels will be more naturally treated in connection with the older feast of St Michael on September 29, it will be sufficient here to point out that according to Daniel (ix 21) it was Gabriel who announced to the prophet the time of the coming of the Messiah, that it was he again who appeared to Zachary “standing on the right side of the altar of incense” (Luke i 10 and 19) to make known the future birth of the Precursor, and finally that it was he who as God’s ambassador was sent to Mary at Nazareth (Luke i 21) to proclaim the mystery of the Incarnation. It was therefore very appropriate that Gabriel should be honoured on this day which immediately precedes the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin. There is abundant archaeological evidence that the cultus of St Gabriel is in no sense a novelty. An ancient chapel close beside the Appian Way, rescued from oblivion by Armellini, preserves the remains of a fresco in which the prominence given to the figure of the archangel, his name being written underneath, strongly suggests that he was at one time honoured in that chapel as principal patron. There are also many representations of Gabriel in the early Christian art both of East and West which make it plain that t
his connection with the sublime mystery of the Incarnation was remembered by the faithful in ages long anterior to the devotional revival of the thirteenth century. This messenger is the appropriate patron-saint of postal, telegraph and telephone workers.

See the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. xiii (1921), and the note to Michael the Archangel on September 29.
Saint Artemon, Bishop of Seleucia Apostle Paul established Artemon as 1st bishop of this city
Artemon von Seleukia Orthodoxe Kirche: 24. März
Artemon wurde in Seleukia (Kleinasien) geboren. Als Apostel Paulus nach Seleukia kam (Apg. 14, 4), setzte er Artemon als ersten Bischof ein. Er setzte sich besonders für die Armen und Unterdrückten ein und erreichte ein hohes Alter.

In einigen Heiligenlisten wurde Seleukia abweichend geschrieben und dadurch später mit Saloniki gleichgesetzt. Im 17. Jahrhundert wurde daraufhin der Heilige Artemon (oder Artemius) von Saloniki neben Artemon von Seleukia eingeführt.


Born and lived in Seleucia of Pisidia (Asia Minor). He was pious and virtuous, therefore when the holy Apostle Paul (June 29) came to Seleucia, he established St Artemon as the first bishop of this city, since he was the most worthy. St Artemon wisely nourished the flock entrusted to him and won glory as a comforter of the poor and oppressed. St Artemon died in great old age.

[In the ancient Slavonic Lives of the Saints "Seleucian" was written as "Seleoukinian" or "Seleunian." However, in several of the Greek memorials the bishop was also called Solunian (i.e., of Thessalonica). St Artemon (or Menignus) was listed in the MENAIA as Seleucian or Solunian.
In the second half of the eighteenth century, these two names were mistakenly applied to various persons.]
Sufi Basant at the Chishti Dargahs - spring Yousuf Saeed
North India wakes up from the chilly winter. Its spring here again. The yellow of mustard flowers covers miles on end. It is now that the joyful celebration of Basant will be celebrated. There will be singing and dancing. But few of us know that Basant is traditionally celebrated not only by the Hindus, but also by many Muslims in India. It is believed that the Chishti Sufis may have begun the celebration of Basant amongst Indian Muslims in as early as 12th century.
The legend goes that Delhi's Chishti Saint Nizamuddin Aulia once so grieved because of the passing away of his young nephew Taqiuddin Nooh, that he withdrew himself completely from the world for a couple of months, either locked inside his room or sitting near his nephew's grave. His close friend, disciple and famous court poet, Amir Khusrau, could not bear with his pir's absence any longer, and started thinking of ways to brighten him up.
One day Khusrau met a few women on the road who were dressed up beautifully, singing and carrying colourful flowers. He asked them what they were up to, and the women told him it is Basant Panchmi today. They were taking the offering of Basant to their god. Khusrau found this very fascinating, and smiling he said, "Well, my god needs an offering of Basant too". Soon, he dressed himself up like those women, took some mustard flowers and singing the same songs, started walking towards the graveyard where his pir would be sitting alone. Nizamuddin Aulia noticed some women coming towards him - he could not recognize Khusrau. On close inspection, he realized what was going on, and smiled. They had all been waiting for him to smile for two months. Amir Khusrau, other Sufis and disciples started singing Persian couplets in praise of spring, and symbolically the mustard flowers were offered to the grave of Nooh.

Saturday of the Akathist "Laudation of the Virgin" Akathist Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos
commemorated on the Fifth Saturday of Great Lent, the Saturday of the Akathist.

In 625, when the emperor Heraclius was fighting the Persians, the Khan sent forces to attack Constantinople by land and by sea. Patriarch Sergius urged the people not to lose heart, but to trust in God.

A procession was made around the city with the Cross of the Lord, the robe of the Virgin, the Icon of the Savior not made by hands, and the Hodigitria Icon of the Mother of God. The Patriarch dipped the Virgin's robe in the sea, and the city's defenders beat back the Khan's sea forces. The sea became very rough, and many boats sank. The invaders retreated, and the people of Constantinople gave thanks to God and to His Most Pure Mother. On two other occasions, in 655 and 705, the Theotokos protected the city from Saracen invaders. A feastday dedicated to the Laudation of the Virgin was established to commemorate these victories. The Akathist to the Mother of God is believed to originate from this period, and its use has spread from Constantinople to other Orthodox lands.

The icon before which the Akathist was sung was given to the Dionysiou Monastery on Mt. Athos by Emperor Alexius Comnenos. There, it began to flow with myrrh. There were at least three wonderworking copies of this icon in Russia before the Revolution.
This icon shows the Mother of God seated on a throne, and surrounded by Prophets with scrolls.
115 St. Latinus Third bishop of Brescia, Italy
 Bríxiæ sancti Latíni Epíscopi.       At Brescia, the bishop St. Latinus.
He was called Flavius Latinus and was a successor of Saint Viator. Latinus was imprisoned and tortured in the anti-Christian persecutions of that era.
Latinus of Brescia B (RM) Saint Flavius Latinus, successor to Saint Viator, became the third bishop of Brescia about AD 84 and governed the see until his death: said to have suffered imprisonment and torture with other Christians (Benedictines).

150 St. Mark & Timothy Roman martyrs of post-apostolic times mentioned in a letter by Pope St. Pius I
 Item Romæ sanctórum Mártyrum Marci et Timóthei, qui martyrio coronáti sunt sub Antoníno Imperatóre.
       At Rome, the holy martyrs Mark and Timothy, who were crowned with martyrdom under Emperor Antoninus.
Mark and Timothy MM (RM)  Two Roman martyrs of post-apostolic times, who are mentioned by Pope Saint Pius I in a letter to the bishop of Vienne in Gaul (Benedictines).
St. Romulus and Secundus suffered in proconsular Africa unknown
Christian martyrs. They were brothers who were put to death in Roman Africa. In some lists, Secundus is called Secundulus.
Romulus & Secundus (Secundulus) MM (RM) Date unknown. Two brothers who suffered in proconsular Africa (Benedictines).

300 St.  Epicharis Martyred Roman priest identified with St. Pigmenius
Romæ sancti Epigménii Presbyteri, qui, in persecutióne Diocletiáni, sub Túrpio Júdice, gládio cæsus, martyrium consummávit.
At Rome, the priest St. Epigmenius, who completed his martyrdom by the sword in the persecution of Diocletian, under the judge Turpius.

Ibídem pássio beáti Pigménii Presbyteri, qui, sub Juliáno Apóstata, pro fide Christi, præcipitátus in Tíberim, necátus est.       Also at Rome, in the time of Julian the Apostate, the passion of blessed Pigmenius, a priest, who was killed for the faith of Christ by being drowned in the Tiber
303 St. Timolaus and Companions 8 martyrs beheaded at Caesarea Palestine
 Cæsaréæ, in Palæstína, natális sanctórum Mártyrum Timolái, Dionysii, Páusidis, Rómuli, Alexándri, altérius Alexándri, Agápii et altérius Dionysii; qui, in persecutióne Diocletiáni, sub Urbáno Præside, secúris ictu percússi, vitæ corónas meruérunt.       At Caesarea in Palestine, the birthday of the holy martyrs Timolaus, Denis, Pausides, Romulus, Alexander, another Alexander, Agapius, and another Denis.  They merited the crown of life by being beheaded in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Urban.
Agapitos der Bekenner
Orthodoxe Kirche: 18.Februar Katholische Kirche: 24. März

Agapitos (oder Agapetus) wurde um 300 in Kappadozien geboren. Seine Eltern waren Christen. Er wollte schon als junger Mensch Mönch werden und trat in ein Mönchskloster ein. Hier wurde ihm die Gabe der Heilung verliehen. Kaiser Licinius (307-324) presste Agapitos in den Militärdienst, da er sehr stark war. Er wurde dann mit Viktor, Dorotheos, Theodoulos und Agrippa gefangengesetzt und zum Tode verurteilt. Die anderen vier erlitten den Märtyrertod, Agapitus wurde von einem Speer verwundet, blieb aber am Leben. Nach dem Tod des Kaisers Licinius schickte ihm Konstantin (306-337) einen kranken Diener, den Agapitos auch heilte.. Der Kaiser befreite als Belohnung Agapitos vom Militärdienst und Agapitos konnte in sein Mönchskloster zurückkehren. Kurze Zeit später wurde Agapitos vom Bischof von Synnada (Phrygien) zum Presbyter bestellt. Nach dem Tod des Bischofs wurde er zum Bischof von Synnada gewählt. Er führte seine Gemeinde treu und gewissenhaft und durch seine Gebete ereigneten sich zahlreiche Wunder vor. Agapitos starb friedlich. Nach anderen Berichten war Agapitos Bischof in Synnada und erlitt unter Licinius mit Viktor, Dorotheos, Theodoulos und Agrippa den Märtyrertod.

Agapios und Gefährten Orthodoxe Kirche: 15. März

Agapios, sein Diener Dionysios, der Subdiakon Romilos und die jugendlichen Christen Alexander, Alexander, Dionysios, Puplios und Timolaus erlitten um 305 gemeinsam den Märtyrertod in Caesarea. Als mehrere Christen gefoltert und hingerichtet wurden (genannt werden Timotheus, Agapius und Thekla - Gedenktag 19.8.), bekannten sich die Jugendlichen mit Romilos öffentlich vor dem Gouverneur Urban zu Christus. Sie wurden zu Agapios und Dionysios in das Gefängnis gebracht und dann gefoltert und geköpft.

during the reign of Emperor Diocletian. According to the historian Eusebius of Caesarea, the names of the other martyrs were: Dionysius (two by this name), Alexander (two by this name), Romulus, Pausis, and Agapius.
304 ST IRENAEUS, BISHOP OF SIRMIUM, MARTYR
AN account of the sufferings and death of St Irenaeus, Bishop of Sirmium, is contained in the acts of his martyrdom which, while untrustworthy as to details, seem undoubtedly to be based on some authentic historical records. Sirmium, then the capital of Pannonia, stood on the site of the present Mitrovica, forty miles or more to the west of Belgrade, and St Irenaeus, quite apart from his position as leader of the Christians, must have been a man of considerable local importance. It was during the persecution of Diocletian that he was apprehended as a Christian and brought before Probus, governor of Pannonia. When commanded to, offer sacrifice to the gods he refused, saying, “He that sacrifices to the gods will be cast into hell-fire!” “The edicts of the most clement emperors require that all should sacrifice to the gods or suffer under the law”, replied the magistrate. “The law of my God bids me rather to suffer all torments than to sacrifice to the gods”, is said to have been the saint’s retort. He was put to the rack, and whilst being tortured was again urged to sacrifice, but his resolution remained unshaken. All the bishop’s relations and friends were greatly distressed. His mother, his wife and his children surrounded him. His wife, in tears, threw her arms round his neck and begged him to preserve his life for her sake and for that of his innocent children. His sons and daughters cried, “Father, dear father, have pity upon us and upon thyself”, whilst his mother sobbed aloud, and servants, neighbours and friends filled the court-house with their lamentations.

The martyr steeled himself against their appeals for fear that he might seem to offer to God a divided allegiance. He repeated those words spoken by our Lord, “If anyone renounce me before men, him will I renounce before my father who is in Heaven,” and he avoided making any direct answer to their entreaties. He was again committed to prison, where he was detained a long time, suffering still more hardships and bodily torments, by which it was hoped to shake his constancy. A second public examination produced no more effect than the first, and in the end sentence was passed that for disobedience to the imperial edict he should be drowned in the river. Irenaeus is said to have protested that such a death was unworthy of the cause for which he suffered. He begged to be given an opportunity to prove that a Christian, strong in his belief in the one true God, could face without flinching the persecutor’s most cruel torments. It was conceded to him that he should first be beheaded and that then his body should be cast from the bridge into the river.

The narrative of the martyr’s death, drawn up originally in Greek, has been included by Ruinart in his collection of Acta sincera. But, as Delehaye has pointed out, the documents which Ruinart has brought together under this head vary greatly in value, and it cannot be maintained that the Passion of St Irenaeus represents the highest type of such acts see Delehaye, Les Légendes hagiographiques (1927), pp. 114—116. The text may also be read in the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. iii, the Greek original being printed in the appendix.
 Synnadæ, in Phrygia, sancti Agapíti Epíscopi.       At Synnadas in Phrygia, Bishop St. Agapitus.
Saint Zachariah Recluse of Egypt
because of his concern for the poor and homeless was called "to the outcast."
In the printed MENAION he is known as "our Monastic Father Zachariah," and so he has been identified erroneously with St Zachariah the Monk.

In Mauritánia item natális sanctórum fratrum Rómuli et Secúndi, qui pro Christi fide passi sunt.
     In Morocco, the birthday of the saintly brothers Romulus and Secundus, who suffered for the faith of Christ.

362 St. Pigmenius  Martyr. Pigmenius was a priest in Rome who ran afoul of Emperor Julian the Apostate who had him hurled into the Tiber.
Pigmenius of Rome M (RM) (also known as Pigmentius) Died 362. A Roman priest, friend of Bibiana (Viviana), martyred under the same Emperor Julian the Apostate by being thrown into the Tiber River, although Julian had initially spared him in remembrance of his earlier tutelage (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).

St. Seleucus Syrian saint possibly a martyr venerated in the East
 In Syria sancti Seléuci Confessóris.       In Syria, St. Seleucus, confessor.
In some accounts, he is associated with the martyrdom of St. Elias and four companions.

The Departure of St. Sarah the nun "I am a feeble woman, and I can not conquer you {satan} except by the power of the Lord Christ" then Satan vanished.
On this day departed the righteous and ascetic St. Sarah the nun who was a native of Upper Egypt. Her parents, who were exceedingly rich, were Christians and had no other children. They raised her in a christian manner and taught her reading and writing. She was always reading the books of the church and especially the biography and sayings of the fathers the monks. She was influenced by their lives and desired the ascetic life. She went to one of the convents of Upper Egypt and dwelt there for many years serving the virgins.

Then she put on the monastic garb, persisting on fighting the lust of Satan for thirteen years until Satan was weary of her. When Satan was exasperated from her steadfastness and purity, he wished to overthrow her by the sin of pride. He appeared to her while she was standing praying on the roof of her cell and said to her: "Rejoice for you have overcome Satan." She replied: "I am a feeble woman, and I can not conquer you except by the power of the Lord Christ" and then Satan vanished.

This Saint had many useful sayings that she used to say to the nuns. One of her sayings: "I never set my foot upon the step of the ladder, and I never go up to the next step without thinking I may die before I raise my leg so that the enemy might not entice me with the hope of a long life." And she also said: " IT is better for a man to show mercy even to satisfy men for the time will come that it will be to satisfy God." She also had many other sayings written in the Paradise of the Fathers. She stayed on the banks of the river in a cave for sixty years fighting a great fight and no one saw her until she departed to the eternal bless and she was eighty years old.
May her prayers be with us. Amen.

The Martyrdom of St. Helias of Hnes. On this day also St. Helias of Hnes was martyred.
May his prayers be with us and Glory be to God forever. Amen.
St. Macartan First bishop of Clogher, Ireland  many spectacular miracles
also called Aedh MacCairthin, Macartin, and Maccarthen. He may have been consecrated by St. Patrick. He was possibly abbot of Dairmis Abbey before becoming a bishop. Macartan performed many spectacular miracles.

500 St. Domangard hermit contemporary of St. Patrick
Patron of Maghera, County Down, Ireland, sometimes called Donard. He was a contemporary of St. Patrick and a hermit. The site of his hermitage, a mountain, now bears the name SlieveDonard.

Domangard of Maghera, Hermit (AC) (also known as Donard) Died c. 500. The patron saint of Maghera, County Down, Ireland, lived as a hermit on the mountain now called after him Slieve- Donard (Benedictines, Montague).

6th v. St. Cairlon The archbishop of Cashel, Ireland, restored to life by St. Dageus
Cairlon, also called Caorlan, was an abbot when St. Dageus brought him back to life. When he was appointed to the see of Cashel, Dageus and his monks placed themselves under his rule.

Cairlon of Cashel B (AC) (also known as Caorlan). Saint Cairlon was an Irish abbot who is said to have died and been raised again to life by Saint Dageus. Afterwards, when Saint Cairlon had been made archbishop of Cashel, Saint Dageus placed himself and his monks under his rule (Benedictines).

Tridénti pássio sancti Simeónis púeri, a Judǽis sævíssime trucidáti, qui multis póstea miráculis coruscávit
       At Trent, the martyrdom of the boy St. Simeon, who was barbarously murdered by the Jews, but who was afterwards glorified by many miracles.

635 St. Caimin Irish hermit of Inniskeltra fellow-worker with Saint Senan
He lived on an island in Loughberg, founding a monastery and a chapel on the island of the Seven Churches with St. Senan. A fragment of his psalter still remains.

Caimin of Lough Derg, Abbot (AC) (also known as Camin or Cammin of Inniskeltra) Died 653; in some places his feast is celebrated on March 25. The Irish Saint Caimin was half-brother to King Guaire of Connaught and Cumian Fada, and himself a distinguished scholar. But he retired from the vanities of the world to live as a hermit on Inish-Keltra (Caltra) in Lough Derg near Galway.
Although Saint Columba of Terryglass had founded a monastery on the island a century earlier, Saint Caimin is the reason the people call it "Holy Island" after many disciples were drawn there because of his reputation for holiness. Later in life he founded a monastery and church, named Tempul-Cammin, on the island of the Seven Churches.
The monastery on Inish-Keltra thrived through 1010 (when its last recorded abbot died) despite its being in the direct path of the Danish invaders. The abbey was plundered c. 836 and again in 922. Brian Boru restored the church c. 1009. Now, however, only ruins recall the grandeur of Inish-Keltra's past: the 80-foot tall round tower, early grave markers, and ivy-covered church ruins.

Saint Caimin was a fellow-worker with Saint Senan. A fragment of the Psalter of Saint Caimin, claimed by some to have been copied by his own hand, still exists in the Franciscan library at Killiney, County Dublin. He is also credited with authorship of the Commentary on the Hebrew Text of the Psalms (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Healy, Husenbeth, Montague, Muirhead, Neeson).

712 717 St. Hildelitba Benedictine abbess supporter of Sts. Bede, Aldhelm, Boniface visions
An Anglo Saxon princess, she became a nun at Chelles or Farmoutier. France, but was recalled by St. Erconwald to train her sister, Saint Ethelburga, at Barking, England. When Saint Ethelburga died, Hildelitha succeeded her. She is also called Hildilid and Hideltha.

Hildelid of Barking, OSB Abbess (AC) (also known as Hildelitha, Hildeltha, Hildilid, Hildelida) Died c. 717; other feasts are on December 22, September 3, March 7 (translation), and September 23 (translation).
Though English, the young Anglo-Saxon princess Saint Hildelid was raised in France. She took the veil there either at Chelles or Faremoutier. Saint Erconwald recalled her to England to train her sister, Saint Ethelburga, to be abbess of Barking. It seems, however, that her association as Ethelburga's sister is in the religious, rather than familial, sense, even though Barking was a family monastery that belonged to Erconwald.
When Saint Ethelburga took the reins as abbess, Hildelid remained there as one of her nuns, and eventually succeeded her about 675.
She ruled well for many years, enlarged the rather cramped monastic buildings, and translated the relics of holy nuns from the cemetery to the church. Hildelid won the admiration of Saints Aldhelm, Bede, and Boniface;
Saint Aldhelm
dedicated his book On Virginity to her and her sisters. The work presupposed advanced Latin reading skills, which indicates the erudition of the nuns.
Boniface mentions one of her visions that she described to him. In the diocese of Brentwood, her feast is kept together with that of
Saint Cuthburga (Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Gill).

1080 St. Aldemar Abbot miracle worker called "the Wise."

1080 ST ALDEMAR, ABBOT God had bestowed upon him the gift of miracles
CAPUA was the birthplace of the holy priest and monk Aldemar, surnamed the Wise. His parents sent their son to be educated and trained at the abbey of Monte Cassino, where he was raised to the diaconate. Princess Aloara of Capua asked that he might become the director of the convent which she had built in Capua. Here it soon became evident that God had bestowed upon him the gift of miracles, and these gave rise to so much talk that the abbot recalled him to Monte Cassino. The princess, however, would not consent to his removal and, the quarrel between them growing bitter. Aldemar, to bring it to an end, made his escape to Boiano, where he joined three brothers who lived like canons attached to the church. However, he did not find the peace he sought, for one of the brethren took an intense dislike to him which developed into hatred. He actually tried to kill Aldemar with a cross­bow, but either through his own clumsiness or by a miraculous interposition of Providence, the missile pierced his own arm, and he was only cured through the prayers of his intended victim.

St Aldemar then withdrew from the little company and built the monastery of Bocchignano in the Abruzzi, the first of several religious houses, all of which remained under his direction. He had a very great love of animals, and when a swarm of bees made a hive of one of the cupboards in his monastery, he would not allow them to be disturbed. It was whilst he was making a visitation of the houses he had founded that he was stricken with a fever which proved fatal.

A short Latin life by Peter, a deacon of Monte Cassino, has been edited by Mabillon, and by the Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum see also Michael Monachus, Sanctuarium Capuanum.

Born in Capua, Italy, he became a monk in Monte Cassino and was called to the attention of a Princess Aloara of the region. When she built a new convent in Capua, Alder became the director of the religious in the established house. He performed many miracles in this capacity.

Aldemar was reassigned by his abbot to Monte Cassino, a move that angered the princess. As a result, Aldemar went to Boiana, Italy, where a companion involved in the dispute tried to kill him. Aldemar fled into the region of Bocchignano, Abruzzi, where he founded several more religious houses.

Aldemar the Wise, OSB, Abbot (AC) Born at Capua, Italy; died c. 1080. Saint Aldemar became a monk at Monte Cassino. From there he was sent to Saint Laurence's convent, Capua, as spiritual director but he became so popular because of the miracles he performed that he was recalled to Monte Cassino. Aldemar founded the Abbey of Bocchignano in the Abruzzi and several other houses that he ruled with much success.
He was also a great lover of animals (Attwater2, Benedictines).
1381 St. Catherine of Sweden head of the convent of Wadstena desire for a life of self-mortification and devotion to spiritual things
In Suécia sanctæ Catharínæ Vírginis, quæ fuit fília sanctæ Birgíttæ.
In Sweden, virgin St. Catherine, daughter of St. Bridget.
1381 ST CATHERINE OF VADSTENA, VIRGIN
ST CATHERINE (Karin) ULFSDOTTER was the fourth of the eight children of St Bridget, who with Catherine is commonly called “of Sweden”, though they were not of the royal house. In that religious family she first learned to love God, and at an early age she was entrusted to the care of the abbess of Risaberga. Catherine was betrothed by her parents to a devout young nobleman, Eggard von Kürnen (Kyren), who was of German descent, and the wedding was solemnized in due course; but St Catherine is celebrated with the office of a virgin, for it is said that the young couple agreed from the outset to live together in perpetual continency. In her new position the young wife led a life of austerity which Eggard countenanced if he did not actually encourage, but her brother Charles was greatly incensed when she tried to induce his own wife to follow her example. After the death of her husband Ulf, St Bridget went to live in Rome, and Catherine afterwards told her namesake of Siena that on the day her mother left Sweden she, her daughter, forgot how to smile. In 1350 she got Eggard’s leave to visit her mother in Rome, whereupon brother Charles wrote a violent letter to Eggard forbidding him to allow her to go. The letter came into Catherine’s hands, but she was not deterred and set out under protection provided by one of her uncles. She was then about nineteen years old.
St Bridget had long desired a companion, and when her daughter, after a few weeks’ stay, proposed to return home, she besought her earnestly not to go but to work with her in Rome for the cause of Christ. What followed is not altogether clear or easy to understand, seeing that Catherine was under obligation to her

The fourth child of St. Bridget and her husband, Ulf Gudmarsson, born 1331 or 1332; died 24 March, 1381. At the time of her death St. Catherine was head of the convent of Wadstena, founded by her mother; hence the name, Catherine Vastanensis, by which she is occasionally called. At the age of seven she was sent to the abbess of the convent of Riseberg to be educated and soon showed, like her mother, a desire for a life of self-mortification and devotion to spiritual things. At the command of her father, when about thirteen or fourteen years, she married a noble of German descent, Eggart von Kürnen. She at once persuaded her husband, who was a very religious man, to join her in a vow of chastity.
  Both lived in a state of virginity and devoted themselves to the exercise of Christian perfection and active charity. In spite of her deep love for her husband, Catherine accompanied her mother to Rome, where St. Bridget went in 1349. Soon after her arrival in that city Catherine received news of the death of her husband in Sweden. She now lived constantly with her mother, took an active part in St. Bridget's fruitful labours, and zealously imitated her mother's ascetic life. Although the distinguished and beautiful young widow was surrounded by suitors, she steadily refused all offers of marriage. In 1372 St. Catherine and her brother, Birger, accompanied their mother on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; after their return to Rome St. Catherine was with her mother in the latter's last illness and death.


In 1374, in obedience to St. Bridget's wish, Catherine brought back her mother's body to Sweden for burial at Wadstena, of which foundation she now became the head. It was the motherhouse of the Brigittine Order, also called the Order of St. Saviour. Catherine managed the convent with great skill and made the life there one in harmony with the principles laid down by its founder.
The following year she went again to Rome in order to promote the canonization of St. Bridget, and to obtain a new papal confirmation of the order. She secured another confirmation both from Gregory XI (1377) and from Urban VI (1379) but was unable to gain at the time the canonization of her mother,
husband, to whom she appears to have been deeply attached. But remain in Rome she did, though not without moments of great unhappiness: “I lead a wretched life, caged up here like an animal, while the others go and nourish their souls at church. My brothers and sisters in Sweden can serve God in peace”; for owing to the disorders of the city her mother, when she went out, made Catherine stop at home indoors. In the circumstances it may be reasonably supposed that her dream of our Lady reproaching her for her discontent was a product of nervous depression, though poor Catherine took it very seriously. Bridget, however, believed it to be revealed to her that her daughter’s husband was about to die, as indeed he did before the year was out; and Catherine then seems to have lost all desire to go back to Sweden.

When it became known that this beautiful girl was a widow, she began to be importuned for her hand, and some of her suitors, in spite of her emphatic refusals, went so far as to lay plans for kidnapping her. One day, as she was on her way to worship at the church of St Sebastian, a Roman count, Latino Orsini, was actually lying concealed with his servants in a vineyard beside the road. Suddenly a stag made its appearance, and so diverted their attention that St Catherine passed by unobserved. *[ * Gf. a somewhat similar story told of the English St Osyth (October 7).]

On another similar occasion, the same would-be abductors were temporarily blinded—so at least the leader of the party afterwards testified in the presence of the pope. But the outward beauty of the saint was only a mirror of the inward graces of her soul. Her charity was so great, extending beyond deeds to words, that she was never heard to say an angry or impatient word or to utter an unkindly criticism. Years later she prayed that the Bridgettine Order might always be kept from the poisonous venom of detraction, and she warned her niece Inge­gerda, afterwards abbess of Vadstena, against uncharitable judgements, saying that both the backbiter and the listener carried the devil in their tongues. She shunned all display and wore her clothes until they were threadbare; yet she is stated to have cast a kind of radiance over her material surroundings, so that the very cover of her bed and the curtain behind her head seemed to be of gorgeous texture and hue.

For the next twenty-five years, Catherine’s life was almost identified with that of her mother, in whose good works she took an active part. Besides the vocal prayers to which she had always been addicted, the daughter now spent four hours of every day in meditation on the Passion. She was praying in St Peter’s one day when she was accosted by a woman in a white dress and a black mantle, whom she took to be a Dominican tertiary. The stranger asked her to pray for one of her fellow-countrywomen, from whom she would presently receive valuable assistance and who would set a crown of gold upon her head. Shortly afterwards came tidings of the death of a sister-in-law, who bequeathed to her the golden headdress which—like other women of her rank and country—she wore on great occasions. The tiara was broken up and on the proceeds of the sale St Bridget and her daughter lived for two years. From time to time they made pilgrimages to Assisi and elsewhere, and at last St Bridget resolved to pay a final visit to the Holy Land. She was accompanied by Catherine. Bridget herself did not long survive her return to Rome, and her body was that same year conveyed back to Sweden to be buried in her convent church at Vadstena.

The monastery had not yet been canonically erected, its religious living with­out vows and without habit.
To St Catherine now fell the task of forming the community according to the rule which her mother had laboured so long to get approved; but a year later she returned to Rome to forward the cause of Bridget’s canonization. Not till the end of five years did she come back to Sweden, with the canonization still not accomplished—the “Great Schism” had broken out mean­while—but with a ratification of the Bridgettine rule from Pope Urban VI (
1378-89). During this time in Italy, St Catherine Ulfsdotter formed a friendship with St Catherine Benincasa of Siena, and Urban wished to send them together on a mission to Queen Joanna of Naples, who was supporting the claimant pope who called himself Clement VII. Catherine is said to have refused to go to the court of the woman who had seduced her brother Charles, as is mentioned in the notice herein of St Bridget on October 8. But Bd Raymund of Capua in his life of Catherine of Siena explains it otherwise: he himself, he says, dissuaded the pope from sending the two Catherines into so dangerous a milieu.

It seemed as though Catherine’s work was now done, for immediately after her final retirement to Vadstena her health began to fail. She continued the prac­tice she had long observed of making a daily confession, but the gastric trouble from which she suffered made it impossible for her to receive the Blessed Sacrament. She used therefore to ask that the Body of the Lord might be brought to her sick­room that she might adore It and offer up her devotions in Its presence. Com­mending her soul to God in a final prayer, she passed away peacefully on March 24, 1381. It was remarked that a bright star appeared over the house at the moment of her death and remained until the funeral. Her obsequies were attended by all the bishops and abbots of Scandinavia, as well as by the son of the king and by the whole neighbouring population. St Catherine has never been formally canonized, but her name was added to the Roman Martyrology and her feast is observed in Sweden and elsewhere as well as by the Bridgettines. She is said to have written a book entitled The Consolation of the Soul, consisting of extracts and maxims from Holy Scripture and various devotional works, but no copy has been preserved to us.

There is a short Latin biography of St Catherine which was written in the first quarter of the fifteenth century by one of the monks of Vadstena, Ulf Birgersson. It may be found in the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. iii, and it was one of the first books printed in Sweden. A more critical text appears in the Scriptores rerun Suecicarum, vol. iii. Some of the docu­ments and collections of miracles connected with her projected canonization have also been printed in both the works just named. The full text of the canonization documents has been edited by I. Collijn, Processus seu Negocium Canonizaczonis b. Katerinae de Vadstenis (1942-1946). St Catherine’s life was so intimately bound up with that of her mother, that perhaps the best account of the daughter will be found in the biographies of St Bridget, for whom see under October 8.
Gregory XI (1377) Urban VI (1379) confusion caused by the Schism delayed the process.
When this sorrowful division appeared she showed herself, like St. Catherine of Siena, a steadfast adherent of the part of the Roman Pope, Urban VI, in whose favour she testified before a judicial commission.
Catherine stayed five years in Italy and then returned home, bearing a special letter of commendation from the pope. Not long after her arrival in Sweden she was taken ill and died. In 1484 Innocent VIII (1492) gave permission for her veneration as a saint and her feast was assigned to 22 March in the Roman martyrology.

Catherine wrote a devotional work entitled "Consolation of the Soul" (Sielinna Troëst), largely composed of citations from the Scriptures and from early religious books; no copy is known to exist.
Generally represented with a hind at her side who came to her aid when unchaste youths sought to ensnare her.
13_14th v. Saint Zachariah Faster of the Caves Often saw angels;  Demons trembled at mention of his name
Zacharias der Klausner Orthodoxe Kirche: 24. März
Zacharias lebte im 13./14. Jahrhundert in den Kiewer Höhlen. Er führte ein steng asketisches Leben und aß nur einmal am Abend rohes Gemüse. Er führte Gespräche mit Engeln über den Himmel, den er gerne erreichen wollte. Näheres ist aus seinem Leben nicht bekannt.


 An ascetic in the Far Caves in the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries.
He fasted so strictly that he ate nothing baked nor boiled, and he consumed only greens once a day at the setting of the sun.

Demons trembled at the mere mention of his name.

Often the monk saw angels, with which he deserved to live in Heaven.

The identification of St Zachariah, Faster of Caves, with Zachariah the son of John of Kiev, who had given all his inheritance for the adornment of the Caves temple and became a monk at the monastery, is unfounded.

Before his death, John had transferred his property to his friend Sergius. This was when the igumen was St Nikon (March 23). Zachariah was five years old at the time. At age fifteen, i.e., not later than the year 1098, he obtained his inheritance from Sergius, in order to give it to the monastery. However, St Zachariah the Faster of the Caves lived approximately 200 years later.

1396 Walter Hilton von Thurgarton Er studierte besonders die Texte der Mystiker und übersetzte auch mehrere Werke aus dem Lateinischen ins Englische
Anglikanische Kirche: 24. März Walter Hilton (oder Hylton) wurde um 1330 geboren. Er studierte Theologie und Jura, lebte dann einige Jahre als Einsiedler, bevor er um 1380 bei den Augustinerchorherren in Thurgarton (Nottinghamshire) eintrat. Er studierte besonders die Texte der Mystiker und übersetzte auch mehrere Werke aus dem Lateinischen ins Englische. Er schrieb selber mehrere Werke in Latein und Englisch, unter denen die Scala perfectionis (The scale of perfection) eines der bedeutendsten Andachtsbücher seiner Zeit war. Dieses Werk ist - wie auch andere seiner Werke - eine Anleitung zur Kontemplation, die die vita activa und die vita contemplativa darstellt. Dabei legt Hilton dar, daß auch die Christen in der Welt außerhalb des Klosters ein kontemplatives spirituelles Leben führen können. Hilton starb wahrscheinlich am 24. März 1395 oder 1396.

1475  & 1144 SS. SIMON OF TRENT AND WILLIAM OF NORWICH

IN accord with the Roman Martyrology, which on this day commemorates “the passion of St Simeon, a boy, most cruelly slain by Jews at Trent and afterwards glorified by many miracles”, Alban Butler devotes some little space to two alleged cases of ritual child-murder for which the Jews were held responsible. Of the many reputed examples of this crime, the truth of which was universally credited in the middle ages, only that of St Simon, or Simeon, finds recognition in the martyrology. According to the statement drawn up at Trent shortly after the tragedy, a Jewish physician decoyed and kidnapped a little Christian child, two and a half years old, in view of the celebration of the Jewish pasch. After crucifying the boy and draining his blood, the officials of the synagogue hid the body for a short time and eventually threw it into the canal. The crime was discovered; and those suspected, under torture, admitted their guilt. Horrible punishments were inflicted after conviction, while on the other hand a profusion of miracles followed beside the tomb of the infant. In the case of William of Norwich, which occurred more than three centuries earlier, the victim was twelve years old. Here again it is alleged that the boy was enticed away, gagged, bound and crucified. The body was carried in a sack by two Jews to Mousehold Wood for the purpose of burying it there, but being surprised apparently before their task was completed they left it hanging on a tree.

It is to the credit of Butler’s sober judgement that even while he accepts without question the traditional belief that the various child victims were really put to death by Jews in hatred of the Christian faith, he adds that
“it is a notorious slander of some authors, who, from these singular and extraordinary instances, infer this to have been at any time the custom or maxim of that people”.
Butler’s protest is certainly well-founded. No scrap of serious evidence has ever been adduced which would show that the use of Christian blood formed any part of Jewish ritual. There is little room for doubt that in each of these cases a child had been deliberately killed by somebody; and it is possible that such child-murders may occasionally have been committed by Jewish maniacs, or as an act of private vengeance, or by necro­mancers who wished to use the blood for some magical rite. This is not the place for a discussion of the problem which, in some instances—notably in that of “el santo Nino de la Guardia”, the official records of which have been published in the Spanish
Boletin de la real Academia de Ia Historia, vol. xi—presents many perplexing features, but even medieval and eastern Jews must, as a people, unquestionably be acquitted of any participation in, or sympathy with, such crimes. Moreover, if we confine our attention to the two martyrs here in question, there is no conclusive evidence—that of confessions under torture being worthless—that the guilt was brought home to those who were really the culprits.

For Simon of Trent the more important documents will be found in the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. iii; in Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. xx, pp. 945 seq.; and in G. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento (1902), but cf. the critical discussion of the last-named work in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxiii (1904), pp. 122—124. For William of Norwich the only real authority is Thomas of Monmouth, whose manuscript was edited for the first time by Dr A. Jessopp and M. R. James in 1896. On the general question of these alleged Jewish ritual murders, the English reader may be referred to H. L. Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice (Eng. trans.), and to Father Thurston in The Month, June 1898, pp. 561—574, and November 1913, pp. 502—5 13. A number of cases of such alleged martyrdoms are discussed also by W. H. Hart, Cartularium of Gloucester (Rolls Series), vol. i, pp. xxxix to ii. Concerning the similar case of St Wernher, at Trier in 1275, the Bollandists have printed the greater part of the documents which were prepared for the canonical process. See the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. ii, where the very unsatisfactory nature of the evidence must strike every reader. The vindication of the Jews by Cardinal Ganganelli (afterwards Pope Clement XIV) in 1759, has been translated by C. Roth, The Ritual Murder Libel and the Jews (1935), and cf. Dr Roth’s History of the Jews in England (1941).
1510 St. Catherine of Genoa; Widow; she and husband dedicated themselves to works of charity
b. 1447
1510 St Catherine (Caterinetta) of Genoa, Widow; blood from her stigmata gave off exceptional heat; "He who purifies himself from his faults in the present life, satisfies with a penny a debt of a thousand ducats; and he who waits until the other life to discharge his debts, consents to pay a thousand ducats for that which he might before have paid with a penny." Saint Catherine, Treatise on purgatory. (RM)
Génuæ sanctæ Catharínæ Víduæ, contémptu mundi et caritáte in Deum insígnis.
    In Genoa, St. Catherine, a widow, renowned for her contempt of the world and her love of God.
Born in Genoa, Italy, 1447; died there, September 14, 1510; beatified in 1737 and equipollently canonized by Pope Benedict XIV (
1758) a few years later (others say she was canonized in 1737); feast day formerly on March 22.

    "We should not wish for anything but what comes to us from moment to moment," Saint Catherine told her spiritual children, "exercising ourselves none the less for good. For he who would not thus exercise himself, and await what God sends, would tempt God. When we have done what good we can, let us accept all that happens to us by Our Lord's ordinance, and let us unite ourselves to it by our will. Who tastes what it is to rest in union with God will seem to himself to have won to Paradise even in this life."

The biography of Saint Catherine of Genoa, who combined mysticism with practicality, was written by Baron Friedrich von Hügel. She was the fifth and youngest child of James Fieschi and his wife Francesca di Negro, members of the noble Guelph family of Fieschi, which had produced two popes (Innocent IV and Adrian V). After her birth, her father later became viceroy of Naples for King René of Anjou.

From the age of 13 Catherine sought to became a cloistered religious. Her sister was already a canoness regular and her confessor was the chaplain of that convent. When she asked to be received, they decided that she was too young. Then her father died and, for dynastic reasons, her widowed mother insisted that the 16-year-old marry the Genoese Ghibelline patrician, Guiliano Adorno. Her husband was unfaithful, violent, and a spendthrift. The first five years of their marriage, Catherine suffered in silence. In some ways it seems odd that he did not find her attractive, because Catherine was a beautiful woman of great intelligence, and deeply religious. But they were of completely different temperaments: she was intense and humorless; he had a zest for life.

Then she determined to win her husband's affection by adopting worldly airs. As it turns out, this only made her unhappy because she lost the only consolation that had previously sustained her-- her religious life. Ten years into her marriage, Catherine was a very unhappy woman; her husband had reduced them to poverty by his extravagance. On the eve of his feast in 1473, Catherine prayed, "Saint Benedict, pray to God that He make me stay three months sick in bed." Two days later she was kneeling for a blessing before the chaplain at her sister's convent. She had visited her sister and revealed the secrets of her heart. Her sister advised her to go to confession.

In following her sister's advice, Catherine experienced a sort of ecstasy. She was overwhelmed by her sins and, at the very same time, by the infinite love of God for her. This experience was the foundation for an enduring awareness of the presence of God and a fixed attitude of soul. She was drawn back to the path of devotion of her childhood. Within a few days she had a vision of our Lord carrying His cross, which caused her to cry out, "O Love, if it be necessary I am ready to confess my sins in public!" On the Solemnity of the Annunciation she received the Eucharist, the first time with fervor for ten years.

Thus began her mystical ascent under very severe mortifications that included fasting throughout Lent and Advent almost exclusively on the Eucharist. She became a stigmatic. A group of religious people gathered around Catherine, who guided them to a spirit- filled life.

Eventually her husband was converted, became a Franciscan tertiary, and they agreed to live together in continence. Catherine and Giuliano devoted themselves to the care of the sick in the municipal hospital of Genoa, Pammatone, where they were joined by Catherine's cousin Tommasina Fieschi. In 1473, they moved from their palazzo to a small house in a poorer neighborhood than was necessary. In 1479, they went to live in the hospital and Catherine became its director in 1490. The heroism of Catherine's charity revealed itself in a special way during the plagues of 1493 and 1501. The first one killed nearly 75 percent of the inhabitants. Catherine herself contracted the disease. Although she recovered, she was forced to resign due to ill health three years later.

After Giuliano's death the following year (1497), Catherine's spiritual life became even more intense. In 1499, Catherine met don Cattaneo Marabotto, who became her spiritual director. Her religious practices were idiosyncratic; for instance, she went to communion daily when it was unusual to do so. For years she made extraordinarily long fasts without abating her charitable activities. Catherine is an outstanding example of the religious contemplative who combines the spiritual life with competence in practical affairs. Yet she was always fearful of "the contagion of the world's slow stain" that had separated her from God in the early years of her marriage.

Her last three years of life were a combination of numerous mystical experiences and ill health that remained undiagnosed by even John-Baptist Boerio, the principal doctor to King Henry VII. In addition to her body remaining undecomposed and one of her arms elongating in a peculiar manner shortly before her death, the blood from her stigmata gave off exceptional heat.

A contemporary painting of Catherine, now at the Pammatone Hospital in Genoa, possibly painted by the female artist Tomasina Fieschi, shows Catherine in middle age. It reveals a slight woman with a long, patrician nose; pronounced, cleft chin; easy smile of broad but thin lips (and, surprisingly, deep laugh lines); high cheekbones; and large dark eyes punctuated by thin, graceful eyebrows.

Dialogue between the soul and the body and Treatise on purgatory are outstanding works in the field of mysticism, which were inspired by her and contain the essence of her, but were actually composed by others under her name. She is the patron of Genoa and of Italian hospitals (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer, Harrison, Schamoni, Schouppe, Walsh).
Of interest may be The Life and Doctrine of Saint Catherine of Genoa.
1510 ST CATHERINE OF GENOA, WIDOW   
The Fieschi were a great Guelf family of Liguria, with a long and distinguished history. In 1234 it gave to the Church the vigorous Pope Innocent IV , and in 1276 his nephew, who ruled for a few weeks as Adrian V. By the middle of the fifteenth century it had reached the height of its power and splendour in Liguria, Piedmont and Lombardy.  One member was a cardinal, and another, James, descended from the brother of Innocent IV, was viceroy of Naples for King René of Anjou. This James Fieschi was married to a Genoese lady, Francesca di Negro, and to them was born at Genoa in the year 1447 the fifth and last of their children, Caterinetta, now always called Catherine.
Her biographers give particulars of her premising childhood which may perhaps be dismissed as common-form panegyric, but from the age of thirteen she was undoubtedly strongly attracted to the religious life. Her sister was already a canoness regular and the chaplain of her convent was Catherine’s confessor, so she asked him if she also could take the habit. In consultation with the nuns he put her off on account of her youth, and about the same time Catherine’s father died. Then, at the age of sixteen, she was married. It is alleged of many saints, both male and female, that, though wishing to enter a monastery, they married in obedience to the will of those in authority over them, and of some of them these circumstances are only doubtfully true. But about St Catherine of Genoa there is no question.
The star of the Ghibelline family of the Adorni was in decline, and by an alliance with the powerful Fieschi they hoped to restore the fortunes of their house. The Fieschi were willing enough, and Catherine was their victim. Her bridegroom was Julian Adorno, a young man with too poor a character to bring any good out of his marriage as a marriage. Catherine was beautiful in person (as may be seen from her portraits), of great intelligence and sensibility, and deeply religious; of an intense temperament, without humour or wit. Julian was of very different fibre, incapable of appreciating his wife, and to that extent to be commiserated; but if he failed to win more than her dutiful submission and obedience it was either because he did not try, or because he set about it in the wrong way. He was, on his own admission, unfaithful to her; for the rest, he was pleasure-loving to an inordinate degree, undisciplined, hot-tempered and spendthrift. He was hardly ever at home, and for the first five years of her married life Catherine lived in solitude and moped amid vain regrets. Then for another five she tried what consolations could he found in the gaieties and recreations of her world, and was little less sad and desperate than before.

     She had, however, never lost trust in God, or at least so much of it as was implied in the continued practice of her religion, and on the eve of the feast of St Benedict in 1473 she was praying in a church dedicated in his honour near the sea-shore outside Genoa. And she asked that saint, “St Benedict, pray to God that He make me stay three months sick in bed”. Two days later she was kneeling for a blessing before the chaplain at her sister’s convent when she was suddenly overcome by a great love of God and realization of her own unworthiness. She repeated over and over interiorly, “No more world!  No more sins!” and she felt that “had she had in her possession a thousand worlds, she would have cast them all away”. She was able to do nothing but mumble an excuse and retire, and within the next day or two she had a vision of our Lord carrying His cross which caused her to cry out, “0 Love, if it be necessary I am ready to confess my sins in public!” Then she made a general confession of her whole life with such sorrow “as to pierce her soul”. On the feast of the Annunciation she received holy communion, the first time with fervour for ten years, and shortly after became a daily communicant, so remaining for the rest of her life—a most rare thing in those days, so that she used to say she envied priests, who could receive our Lord’s body and blood daily without exciting comment.
   At about this time his luxury and extravagance had brought Julian to the verge of ruin, and his wife’s prayers, added to his misfortunes, brought about a reformation in his life. They moved from their palazzo into a small house, much more humble and in a poorer quarter than was necessary agreed to live together in continence and devoted themselves to the care of the sick in the hospital of Pammatone. Associated with them was a cousin of Catherine, Tommasina Fieschi, who after her widowhood became first a canoness and then a Dominican nun. This went on for six years without change, except in the development of St Catherine’s spiritual life, till in 1479 the couple went to live in the hospital itself, of which eleven years later she was appointed matron. She proved as capable an administrator as she was a devoted nurse, especially during the plague of 1493, when four-fifths of those who remained in the city died. Catherine caught the distemper off a dying woman whom she had impulsively kissed, and herself nearly died. During the visitation she first met the lawyer and philanthropist Hector Vernazza, who was soon to become her ardent disciple (and also the father of the Venerable Battista Vernazza) and to whom is due the preservation of many precious details of her life and conversation.
   In 1496 Catherine’s health broke down and she had to resign the control of the hospital, though still living within the building, and in the following year her husband died after a painful illness. “Messer Giuliano is gone”, she said to a friend, “and as you know well he was of a rather wayward nature, so that I suffered much interiorly. But my tender Love assured me of his salvation before he had yet passed from this life.” Julian provided in his will for his illegitimate daughter Thobia, and her unnamed mother, and St Catherine made herself responsible for seeing that Thobia should never be in want or uncared for.
   For over twenty years St Catherine lived without any spiritual direction whatever, and only rarely going to confession. Indeed, it is possible that, having no serious matter on her conscience, she did not always make even an annual confession, and she had, without fussiness, found no priest who understood her spiritual state with a view to direction. But about 1499 a secular priest, Don Cattaneo Marahotto, was made rector of the hospital, and  “they understood each other, even by just looking each other in the face without speaking “. To him she said, “Father, I do not know where I am, either in soul or body. I should like to confess, but I am not conscious of any sin.” And Don Marabotto lays bare her state in a sentence “ And as for the sins which she did mention, she was not allowed to see them as so many sins thought or said or done by herself. She was like a small boy who has committed some slight offence in ignorance, and who, if someone tells him, ‘You have done wrong’, starts and blushes, yet not because he has now an experimental knowledge of evil.”  We are also told in her life  “that Catherine did not take care to gain plenary indulgences. Not that she did not hold them in great reverence and devotion and consider them of very great value, but she wished that the selfish part of her should be rather chastised and punished as it deserved....” In pursuance of the same heroic idea she but rarely asked others, whether on earth or in Heaven, to pray for her; the invocation of St Benedict mentioned above is a very notable exception and the only one recorded as regards the saints. It is also noteworthy that throughout her widowhood St Catherine remained a laywoman. Her husband on his conversion joined the third order of St Francis (and to become a tertiary of any order was in those days a far more serious matter than it is now), but she did not do even that. These peculiarities are mentioned neither for commendation nor reprobation; those to whom they appear surprising may be reminded that those who examined the cause of her beatification were perfectly well aware of them the Universal Church does not demand of her children a uniformity of practice compatible neither with human variousness nor the freedom of the Holy Spirit to act on souls as He wills.
   From the year 1473 on St Catherine without intermission led a most intense spiritual life combined with unwearying activity on behalf of the sick and sad, not only in the hospital but throughout Genoa.
   She is one more example of the Christian universality which those who do not understand call contradictions complete “other-worldliness” and efficient “practicality”; concern for the soul and care for the body; physical austerity which is modified or dropped at the word of authority, whether ecclesiastical, medical or social; a living in the closest union with God and an “all-thereness” as regards this world and warm affection for individuals in it.
   The life of St Catherine has been taken as the text of a most searching work on the mystical element in religion—and she kept the hospital accounts without ever being a farthing out and was so concerned for the right disposition of property that she made four wills with several codicils.
   Catherine suffered from ill health for some years and had to give up not only her extraordinary fasts, but even to a certain extent those of the Church, and at length in 1507 her health gave way completely. She rapidly got worse, and for the last months of her life suffered great agony; among the physicians who attended her was John-Baptist Boerio, who had been the principal doctor of King Henry VII of England, and he with the others was unable to diagnose her complaint. They eventually decided, “it must be a supernatural and divine thing”, for she lacked all pathological symptoms, which they could recognize. On September 13, 1510, she was in a high fever and delirium, and at dawn of the 15th “this blessed soul gently breathed her last in great peace and tranquillity, and flew to her tender and much-desired Love”. She was beatified in 1737 and Benedict XIV added her name to the Roman Martyrology, with the title of saint. St Catherine left two written works, a treatise on Purgatory and a Dialogue of the soul and the body, which the Holy Office declared were alone enough to prove her sanctity. They are among the more important documents of mysticism, but Alban Butler says of them very truly that “these treatises are not writ for the common”.
Apart from a short notice by Giustiniano, Bishop of Nibio, in his Annali di Genova (1537), the earliest biographical account of St Catherine seems to be preserved in manuscripts varying considerably in their Italian text and belonging to the years 1547—1548. From these in the main was compiled the first book concerning her which was printed in any detail. It is commonly known as the Vita e Dottrina, and was issued in 1551. This work, which has been often reprinted, is our principal source of information concerning the saint, and it contains also a collection of her sayings and meditations. The many problems connected with its text have been discussed in great detail by Baron Friedrich von Hügel in his important work, The Mystical Element of Religion (2 vols., 1908); see especially vol. i, pp. 371—466. His conclusions are beyond doubt justified in the main, but there is room for some difference of opinion as to details, as noted, e.g. in The Month, June, 1923, pp. 538—543. See also the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. v. The numerous modern lives of St Catherine are based on the Vita e Dottrina; among the more recent are Lili Sertorius, Katharina von Genua (1939), and L. de Lapérouse, La vie de Ste Catherine de Gênes (1948). A new translation of the Purgatory treatise and the Dialogue was published in 1946, made by Helen Douglas Irvine and Charlotte Balfour.
Going to confession one day was the turning point of Catherine’s life.
When Catherine was born, many Italian nobles were supporting Renaissance artists and writers. The needs of the poor and the sick were often overshadowed by a hunger for luxury and self-indulgence.  Catherine’s parents were members of the nobility in Genoa. At 13 she attempted to become a nun but failed because of her age. At 16 she married Julian, a nobleman who turned out to be selfish and unfaithful. For a while she tried to numb her disappointment by a life of selfish pleasure. One day in confession she had a new sense of her own sins and how much God loved her. She reformed her life and gave good example to Julian, who soon turned from his self-centered life of distraction.  Julian’s spending, however, had ruined them financially. He and Catherine decided to live in the Pammatone, a large hospital in Genoa, and to dedicate themselves to works of charity there. After Julian’s death in 1497, Catherine took over management of the hospital. She wrote about purgatory which, she said, begins on earth for souls open to God. Life with God in heaven is a continuation and perfection of the life with God begun on earth. Exhausted by her life of self-sacrifice, she died September 15, 1510, and was canonized in 1737.
Comment:  Regular confessions and frequent Communion can help us see the direction (or drift) of our life with God. People who have a realistic sense of their own sinfulness and of the greatness of God are often the ones who are most ready to meet the needs of their neighbors. Catherine began her hospital work with enthusiasm and was faithful to it through difficult times because she was inspired by the love of God, a love which was renewed in her by the Scriptures and the sacraments.
Quote:  Shortly before Catherine’s death she told her goddaughter: "Tomasina! Jesus in your heart! Eternity in your mind! The will of God in all your actions! But above all, love, God’s love, entire love!" (Marion A. Habig, O.F.M., The Franciscan Book of Saints, p. 212).
1606 ST TURIBIUS, Archbishop of LIMA To those who tried to twist God’s law to make it accord with their evil practice he would oppose the words of Tertullian: “Christ said, ‘I am the truth’. He did not say, I am the custom’.” The archbishop succeeded in eradicating some of the worst abuses, and he founded numerous churches, religious houses and hospitals; in 1591 he established at Lima the first ecclesiastical seminary in the New World.
ST TURIBIUS is, equally with St Rose of Lima, the first known saint of the New World. It is true that he was not born on the American continent, and not canonized until fifty-five years after her; but they lived in the same place at the same time, Turibius died first, and it was he who conferred the sacrament of confirmation on Rose. His memory is held in great veneration throughout Peru, for although he did not plant Christianity in that land he greatly promoted it, and cleansed the Church there from grave abuses which were sapping its vitality and bringing discredit upon its name; his feast is, moreover, observed throughout South America.
Turibius, Toribio Alfonso de Morgobejo, was born in 1538 at Majorca in Spain. His childhood and youth were notably religious, but he had no intention of becoming a priest and was, in fact, educated for the law. He was so brilliant a scholar that he became professor of law in the University of Salamanca, and while there he attracted the notice of King Philip II (widower of Mary I of England), who eventually made him chief judge of the ecclesiastical court of the Inquisition at Granada. This was a surprising position for a layman to hold, and it was not a pleasant or easy post for anyone, lay or cleric. But it led to an even more surprising development. After some years the archbishopric of Lima in the Spanish colony of Peru became vacant. Turibius had carried out his judge’s duties so well, and displayed such a fine missionary spirit, that it was decided to send him to Peru as archbishop:  he seemed to be the one person who had force of character sufficient to remedy the serious scandals which stood in the way of the conversion of the Peruvians.
Turibius himself was shocked by the decision, and he wrote forthwith to the royal council, pleading his incapacity and appealing to the canons which forbade the promotion of lay men to ecclesiastical dignities. His objections were overruled he received all the orders and episcopal consecration, and immediately afterwards sailed for Peru. Arriving in Lima in 1581, it did not take him long to realize the arduous nature of the charge which had been laid upon him. His diocese stretched for some 400 miles along the coast, and inland amongst the spurs of the Andes, a most difficult country to traverse. Far more serious, however, than the physical difficulties were those created by the attitude of the Spanish conquerors towards the native population. With few exceptions the officials and colonists had come there to make their fortunes, and they made the Indians serve that purpose by every sort of extortion and tyranny. Communications with the central authority at home were incredibly slow. The most flagrant abuses might continue for years without the possibility of redress and, the Spaniards quarrelling continually among themselves and sending home contradictory reports, it was often impossible for the supreme Council of the Indies to know whom to believe. Worse than all the sense of religion seemed to be completely lost, and the example given to the natives was one of almost universal rapacity and self-indulgence.
   The clergy themselves were often among the most notorious offenders, and it was the first care of Turibius to restore ecclesiastical discipline. He at once undertook a visitation of his diocese, and was inflexible in regard to scandals amongst the clergy. Without respect of persons, he reproved injustice and vice, using his authority always to protect the poor from oppression. He naturally suffered persecution from those in power, who often thwarted him in the discharge of his duties, but by resolution and patience he overcame their opposition in the end. To those who tried to twist God’s law to make it accord with their evil practice he would oppose the words of Tertullian: “Christ said, ‘I am the truth’. He did not say, I am the custom’.” The archbishop succeeded in eradicating some of the worst abuses, and he founded numerous churches, religious houses and hospitals; in 1591 he established at Lima the first ecclesiastical seminary in the New World.

      Right on into old age St Turibius continued to study the Indian dialects so that he could address the people in their own speech and not through an interpreter. Thus he succeeded in making many conversions. In order to teach his flock he would sometimes stay two or three days in a place where he had neither bed nor sufficient food. Every part of his vast diocese was visited, and when danger threatened from marauders or physical obstacles he would say that Christ came from Heaven to save man and that we ought not to fear danger for His glory.
The archbishop offered Mass daily, even when on a journey, and always with intense fervour, and every morning he made his confession to his chaplain.
Among those St Turibius confirmed, as well as St Rose, are said to have been Bd Martin Porres and Bd John Massias. From 1590 he had the help of another great missionary, the Franciscan St Francis Solano, whose denunciations of the wickedness of Lima so alarmed the people that the viceroy had to call on the archbishop to calm them. The charities of St Turibius were large, and he had feeling for the sensitive pride of the Spaniards in his flock. He knew that many were shy of making their poverty or other needs known, that they did not like to accept public charity or help from those they knew: so he did all he could to assist them privately, without their knowing from whom their benefactions came.

   St Turibius was in his sixty-eighth year when he fell ill at Pacasmayo, far to the north of Lima. Working to the last, he struggled as far as Santa, where he realized
the end was at hand. He made his will, giving his personal belongings to his servants and all the rest of his property for the benefit of the poor. He asked to be carried into the church to receive viaticum, and was then brought back to bed and anointed. While those about him sang the psalm, “I was glad when they said unto me, We will go into the house of the Lord”, St Turibius died on March 23, 1606. In 1726
(Benedict XIV 1724 - 1758) he was canonized.

The four volumes compiled by Mgr C. G. lrigoyen, Santo Toribio Obra escrita con motivo del tercer centenario de la muerte del Santo Arzobispo de Lima (1906) are of the first importance, most of the documents being previously unpublished. But see also the less exhaustive biographies by Fr Cyprian de Herrera and A. Nicoselli, and in French that by T. Bérengier (1872).
16th v. The Holy Martyr Stephen of Kazan a Tatar believed in Christ and received healing
For more than twenty years, he suffered from a weakness of the legs. After the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible (1552), he believed in Christ and received healing. The saint was baptized by Archpriest Menignus of the Moscow cathedral, who had brought a letter from Metropolitan Macarius to the Russian army.

After the Russian army withdrew from Kazan, the Tatars chopped the martyr Stephen into pieces, scattered his body and plundered his house, because he remained faithful to Christ.

The Holy Martyr Peter of Kazan was a newly-baptized Tatar who suffered because he converted to Christianity from Islam.

After the Russian army left Kazan, the inhabitants dragged Peter from his home by force, and addressed him by his former Moslem name, hoping that he would deny Christ. But to all flattery and persuasion St Peter answered, "My father and mother is God Who is glorified in Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If you believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, then you are my family. I was named Peter in holy Baptism, and I will not answer to the name by which you address me."

Seeing that he would remain steadfast in the Faith, his family had him tortured. He endured fierce torments, but he did not cease to confess the Name of Christ, saying, "I am a Christian." The holy martyr was buried in Kazan on the site where the church of the Resurrection of Christ later stood, at the Zhitny-Grain marketplace.

For the Lives of the holy martyrs Stephen and Peter of Kazan see: "Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate," 1977, No. 9, p. 79-80.

1801 BD DIDACUS, or DIEGO, OF CADIZ  

Bd DIDACUS JOSEPH OF CADIZ was popularly called “the apostle of the Holy Trinity”, because of his devotion to the mystery of the Three Divine Persons and the ingenuity with which he contrived to make the theological dogma of the Blessed Trinity the subject of his eloquent and most fruitful sermons.
He was born on March 29, 1743 in Cadiz, and was baptized Joseph Francis. His parents brought him up devoutly, and he preserved throughout his life his baptismal innocence. As a child he liked to construct and decorate little altars, and the same instinct led him when he was older to wait at the church doors in the early morning that he might offer his services to any priest who wanted a server. Constant attendance at the Capuchin church where he made his communions, and the reading of the lives of Capuchin saints, led Diego to desire to enter the Order of St Francis, but he was refused at first as he seemed to be insufficiently educated. However, he overcame this obstacle, and on being at last accepted began his novitiate at Seville as Brother Diego or Didacus. In due course he was raised to the priesthood and sent to preach. From the first it became evident that he was endowed with gifts of no mean order, for his sermons wherever he went brought conviction of sin and amend­ment of life. Throughout Spain, but more particularly in Andalusia, the holy man journeyed, teaching and preaching in remote villages and crowded towns, shrinking from no fatigue or hardship so long as there was work to do for souls. He was content simply to preach the gospel, indulging in no rhetorical artifices or flowery language. A wonderful intuition or sympathy seems to have brought him into touch with his hearers, so that he won the hearts alike of the poor and of the well-to-do, of young students in schools and of professors in universities. His work in the tribunal of penance was complementary to his preaching, for it enabled him to direct and strengthen those whom his sermons had touched. Any free time during the day was spent in visiting prisons and hospitals or in similar works of charity, whilst a great part of the night was given to prayer.

It is related that in preaching about the love of God, there were occasions when Father Diego was raised supernaturally into the air so that he required assistance to regain the floor of the pulpit. Sometimes the largest churches could not contain the crowds who flocked to hear him, and he would preach in a square or in the streets, whilst the crowds stood for hours entranced. At the close of his sermons he had to be protected from the people, who tried to tear pieces from his habit as relics. Popularity, however, could not injure one so humble as Bd Diego: slights and insults might serve, he thought, as a very inadequate expiation for his sins. He shunned all presents, and, if obliged to accept them, he immediately distributed them to the poor: money he absolutely refused. Immediately his death became known in 1801 he was acclaimed as a saint, and Pope Leo XIII proclaimed his beatification in 1894.

See C. Kempf, The Holiness of the Church in the Nineteenth Century; Analecta Ecclesiastica, 1894, pp. 151 seq.; Damase de Soisey, Le bx Diego Joseph de Cadiz (1902).

1980  Oscar Romero in Ciudad Barrios (San Salvador) geboren 1977 zum Erzbischof von San Salvador berufen.
Katholische Kirche: 24. März
Oscar Arnulfo Romero wurde am 15. August 1917 in Ciudad Barrios (San Salvador) geboren. 1937 begann er seine Ausbildung im Priesterseminar von San Salvador. Nach dem Abschluß an der Gregoriana in Rom wurde er 1943 Priester in San Salvador. 1970 wurde er zum Weihbischof und 1977 zum Erzbischof von San Salvador berufen. Oscar Romero setzte sich auch als Erzbischof für die unterdrückte Bevölkerung ein und prangerte die Verbrechen der Militärdiktatur offen an.
Am 24. März 1980 wurde er während des Gottesdienstes am Altar stehend ermordet.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 294

Give praise to Our Lady and call upon her name: sing gloriously unto her, declaring her virtues.

Praise and exalt her, O Virgins, daughters of Sion: because she will espouse to you the King of Angels.

Honor ye the Queen full of all grace: and contemplate with reverence her most holy countenance.

Eternal salvation is in thy hand, O Lady: those who honor thee worthily will receive it.

Thy clemency will not fail in the eternal years: and thy mercy is from generation to generation.


Let every spirit praise Our Lady

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

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

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

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

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

Mary the Mother of Jesus Miracles_BLay Saints  Miraculous_IconMiraculous_Medal_Novena Patron Saints
Miracles by Century 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000    1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800  1900 2000
Miracles 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000  
 
1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800   1900 Lay Saints

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

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Saint Frances Xavier Seelos  Practical Guide to Holiness
1. Go to Mass with deepest devotion. 2. Spend a half hour to reflect upon your main failing & make resolutions to avoid it.
3. Do daily spiritual reading for at least 15 minutes, if a half hour is not possible.  4. Say the rosary every day.
5. Also daily, if at all possible, visit the Blessed Sacrament; toward evening, meditate on the Passion of Christ for a half hour, 6.  Conclude the day with evening prayer & an examination of conscience over all the faults & sins of the day.
7.  Every month make a review of the month in confession.
8. Choose a special patron every month & imitate that patron in some special virtue.
9. Precede every great feast with a novena that is nine days of devotion. 10. Try to begin & end every activity with a Hail Mary

My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love Thee.  I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not
O most Holy trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly.  I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the Tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended, and by the infite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  I beg the conversion of poor sinners,  Fatima Prayer, Angel of Peace
The voice of the Father is heard, the Son enters the water, and the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove.
THE spirit and example of the world imperceptibly instil the error into the minds of many that there is a kind of middle way of going to Heaven; and so, because the world does not live up to the gospel, they bring the gospel down to the level of the world. It is not by this example that we are to measure the Christian rule, but words and life of Christ. All His followers are commanded to labour to become perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect, and to bear His image in our hearts that we may be His children. We are obliged by the gospel to die to ourselves by fighting self-love in our hearts, by the mastery of our passions, by taking on the spirit of our Lord.
   These are the conditions under which Christ makes His promises and numbers us among His children, as is manifest from His words which the apostles have left us in their inspired writings. Here is no distinction made or foreseen between the apostles or clergy or religious and secular persons. The former, indeed, take upon themselves certain stricter obligations, as a means of accomplishing these ends more perfectly; but the law of holiness and of disengagement of the heart from the world is general and binds all the followers of Christ.
God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique each the result of a new idea.
As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike.
It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints.

Dear Lord, grant us a spirit not bound by our own ideas and preferences.
 
Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves.

O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory.
 
Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.
Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.
The 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary ) Revealed to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan)
1.    Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces. 2.    I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. 3.    The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. 4.    It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things.  Oh, that soul would sanctify them by this means.  5.    The soul that recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish. 6.    Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying themselves to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune.  God will not chastise them in His justice, they shall not perish by an unprovided death; if they be just, they shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. 7.    Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church. 8.    Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise. 9.    I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. 10.    The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.  11.    You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. 12.    I shall aid all those who propagate the Holy Rosary in their necessities. 13.    I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. 14.    All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ. 15.    Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
His Holiness Aram I, current (2013) Catholicos of Cilicia of Armenians, whose See is located in Lebanese town of Antelias. The Catholicosate was founded in Sis, capital of Cilicia, in the year 1441 following the move of the Catholicosate of All Armenians back to its original See of Etchmiadzin in Armenia. The Catholicosate of Cilicia enjoyed local jurisdiction, though spiritually subject to the authority of Etchmiadzin. In 1921 the See was transferred to Aleppo in Syria, and in 1930 to Antelias.
Its jurisdiction currently extends to Syria, Cyprus, Iran and Greece.
Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac
The exact date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa {Armenian Ourhaï in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name} is not known. It is certain, however, that the Christian community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legend, King Abgar V, Ushana, was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples. In fact, however, the first King of Edessa to embrace the Christian Faith was Abgar IX (c. 206) becoming official kingdom religion.
Christian council held at Edessa early as 197 (Eusebius, Hist. Ecc7V,xxiii).
In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed (“Chronicon Edessenum”, ad. an. 201).
In 232 the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written.

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

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

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Mother Angelica saving souls is this beautiful womans journey  Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament
Colombia was among the countries Mother Angelica visited. 
In Bogotá, a Salesian priest - Father Juan Pablo Rodriguez - brought Mother and the nuns to the Sanctuary of the Divine Infant Jesus to attend Mass.  After Mass, Father Juan Pablo took them into a small Shrine which housed the miraculous statue of the Child Jesus. Mother Angelica stood praying at the side of the statue when suddenly the miraculous image came alive and turned towards her.  Then the Child Jesus spoke with the voice of a young boy:  “Build Me a Temple and I will help those who help you.” 

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

Brief History of our Beloved Holy Priest Here and his published books of Catholic History in North America
Reardon, J.M. Archbishop Ireland; Prelate, Patriot, Publicist, 1838-1918.
A Memoir (St. Paul; 1919); George Anthony Belcourt Pioneer Catholic Missionary of the Northwest 1803-1874 (1955);
The Catholic Church IN THE DIOCESE OF ST. PAUL from earliest origin to centennial achievement
1362-1950 (1952);

The Church of Saint Mary of Saint Paul 1875-1922;
  (1932)
The Vikings in the American Heartland;
The Catholic Total Abstinence Society in Minnesota;
James Michael Reardon Born in Nova Scotia, 1872;  Priest, ordained by Bishop Ireland;
Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.
Affiliations and Indulgence Litany of Loretto in Stained glass windows here.  Nave Sacristy and Residence Here
Sanctuary
spaces between them filled with grilles of hand-forged wrought iron the
life of our Blessed Lady After the crucifixon
Apostle statues Replicas of those in St John Lateran--Christendom's earliest Basilica.
Ordered by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, Popes' cathedral and official residence first millennium of Christian history.

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

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


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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