Wednesday Saints of this Day May 10 Sexto Idus Maii  
  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.
May, the month of Mary 
2021
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.

May, the month of Mary, is the oldest
and most well-known Marian month, officially since 1724;


The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”,

showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.


CAUSES OF SAINTS


Deo grátias.
  Kiev_Bratsk_ Icon_Theotokos
   


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

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

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  .

May 10 – Our Lady of the Holy House of Nazareth (Dalmatia, 1291)

The holy house of Nazareth on the shores of the Adriatic Sea
Towards the end of the thirteenth century, the terrible news that the Holy Land was lost to the Christians reached Europe. Nonetheless, while the Church was deploring this painful loss, a new joy was given to them: the holy house of Nazareth—place of the birth of the Mother of God, of her early education and of the Annunciation by the Angel Gabriel of the wondrous news of the Incarnation of the Son of God—had been found, transported miraculously, near Tersatz in Dalmatia on May 10, 1291.

After the residents of the region talked among themselves of the remarkable little house surmounted by a bell tower, their bishop—cured from a lingering illness—suddenly appeared in their midst. He had prayed to be able to go see the prodigy for himself, and the Mother of God had appeared to him, saying,
“My son, you called me; I am here to give you powerful assistance and reveal to you the secret you desire to know. The holy dwelling is the very house where I was born. It is there that when the announcement was brought by the Archangel Gabriel, I conceived the divine Child by the operation of the Holy Spirit…”

Then, after three years and seven months spent in Dalmatia, the holy house disappeared and was again transported by angels to rest in Loreto, Italy. The exact date was December 10, 1294.
An initiative of the Association Mary of Nazareth   Adapted from: www.magnificat.ca


Called in the Gospel "the Mother of Jesus," Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the Mother of my Lord" (Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55; et al.). In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" (Theotokos).

Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, quoting the Council of Ephesus (431): DS 251.

Virtue is nothing without the trial of temptation, for there is no conflict without an enemy,
no victory without strife. -- Pope St. Leo the Great


In terra Hus sancti Job Prophétæ
In the land of Hus, the holy prophet Job, a man of wonderful patience.

Hiob (Ijob)  Orthodoxe Kirche: 6. Mai Katholische Kirche: 10. Mai
Saint Simon from Cana in Galilee 1/12 Apostles receive the Holy Spirit with others on Pentecost
 232 St Calepodius priest Roman martyr with Palmatius consular rank, Simplicius senator, Felix & Blanda a couple, & companions

6th v. St Isidora, Fool-for-Christ, struggled in the Tabenna monastery in Egypt during the VI v
 601 St Comgall Abbot teacher of St Columbanus and monks evangelized France & central Europe

 880 St Solange a shepherdess; great power over animals, gift of healing and effected many cures
1096 A.M. St. Philothaos Martyrdom; from the people of "Doronka" in the province of Assuit

1569 St John of Avila Andalusia Apostle spiritual advisor St Teresa St Francis Borgia St John of the Cross St Peter of Alcantara etc
1889 Blessed Damien of Molokai Joseph de Veuster took name of a IV v physician and martyr; caring for the leper people's physical, medical and spiritual needs

May 10 - Our Lady of the Holy House of Nazareth (Dalmatia, 1291)
 
The Holy Spirit infinitely enlarged Mary's heart
Mary was hailed by the Angel Gabriel as a creature already "filled with grace" (Lk I: 28). Then what could possibly be added to that fullness? Nothing that we can conceive of. But in God's mind, she was still on the threshold of the holiness he was calling her to (…).

Jesus Christ, from the time he was an infant, grew in wisdom and grace according to his holy humanity (Lk 2:52): it was no different for Mary. Jesus himself, by the many trials that he imposed on her, was the occasion of her ever increasing sanctification. The great sacrifice she made at the foot of the cross seems to have brought her holiness to the maximum. We cannot imagine anything beyond that.

But who are we to place limits to the perfection God intended for Mary? (…) The Holy Spirit, her spouse, wanted to enrich her beyond any measure (…) and since he is the infinite love of the Father and the Son, he somehow made the heart of Mary immense, so that she would be filled with it as much as a pure creature can be.

(…) Indeed, it was her love for her Son, and for men who are now her children, that propelled Christianity
even more than all the works of the Apostles and the ministers of the Church.
 Father Grou www.spiritualite-chretienne.com

 
May 10 - Our Lady of Saussaie (Paris, 1305)
        In One Hand a Rosary, in the Other, a Pen
The entire Rosary has the beauty of reproducing the theological thoughts concerning Mary; they are reproduced in the entire dialectic of truth and deduction. Marian theology and the Rosary are two poems that are united into one, two hymns forming one hymn, two magnificent temples, and two cathedrals of thought and piety that come together as one...
Here in the Rosary, piety speaks in the language of theologians. Here meditation rises to the heights attained by scholars. Here prayer dwells where the scholars are brought to a halt. Marian theology and the Rosary are therefore similar to two temples having at the same height their pinnacles and spires.
The people of God in the Church have found the Rosary, its Book of Psalms. The clergy have the Divine Office, the people have the Rosary. Like The Divine Comedy, the Rosary is a trilogy: it recalls the joys, sorrows, and triumphs of Jesus and in perfect symmetry, for each part has five chants, and each chant in turn is an episode.
The Rosary could very well be called the poem of human redemption. The Rosary is a poem that takes its lively but simplistic hues from the pure palette of the Gospel; while at the same time it draws its logical ties, its harmonious responses, and its entire intimate dialectic from the highest theology.
Blessed Bartolo Longo (d. 1926

May 10 - Feast of the Madonna della S. Casa Nazaretana (Dalmatia, 1291) Jesus Will Reign Through Mary (IV)
Say with the saints: De Maria nunquam satis. We have still not praised, exalted, honored, loved and served Mary adequately. She is worthy of even more praise, respect, love and service. Repeat after the Holy Spirit, "All the glory of the King's daughter is within", meaning that all the external glory which heaven and earth vie with each other to give her is nothing compared to what she has received interiorly from her Creator, namely, a glory unknown to insignificant creatures like us, who cannot penetrate into the secrets of the King.
 
Finally, we must cry out with the apostle Paul, "What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, what the mind of man cannot visualize” - the beauty, greatness and excellence of Mary, the miracle of miracles of grace, nature and glory. "If you would like to understand the Mother," a saint said, "then understand the Son. She is a worthy Mother of God." Hic taceat omnis lingua: Here let every tongue be silent.
Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort Treatise on True Devotion of the Virgin Mary #10, 11 & 12 
Saints
May
11
10
09
08
07
06
05
04
03
02
01

In terra Hus sancti Job Prophétæ
Saint Simon was from Cana in Galilee one of twelve Apostles receiving the Holy Spirit with others on Pentecost
 232 St Calepodius priest Roman martyr with Palmatius consular rank, Simplicius senator, Felix & Blanda a couple, & companions
 250 St Epimachus Martyr of Alexandria, Egypt, with Alexander
       St Quaratus and Quintus from Capua martyred during the Roman persecutions
       St Aurelian disciple of Saint Martial bishop of Limoges
 251 St Alphius Martyr one of 3 brothers from Vaste, Italy, who died with their sister, Benedicta 1517 incorrupt
        relics discovered at Leontini [Lentini]
4th v. Hesychius of Antioch The Holy Martyr  lived in Antioch during the reign of Maximian Galerius (305-311)
 362 St Gordian died in Rome a mere boy
        St. Tadros (Theodore) The Departure of, disciple of St. Pachomius.
        St Dioscorides martyr of Smyrna
        Medioláni Invéntio sanctórum Mártyrum Nazárii et Celsi
5th v. St Thais lived in Egypt pious virgin radiant light holy angels bearing her soul to Paradise
 519 Conleth of Kildare Irish recluse at Old Connell (County Kildare) B (AC) 685? ST CATALD, BISHOP OF
       TARANTO, AND 250 ST CONLETH, BISHOP OF KILDARE
6th v. St Isidora, Fool-for-Christ, struggled in the Tabenna monastery in Egypt during the sixth century
 601 St Comgall Abbot teacher of St Columbanus and monks who evangelized France & central Europe
7th v. St Cataldus Bishop of Taranto an Irish churchman
 880 St Solange a shepherdess; Besides having a great power over animals, she was endowed with the gift of healing and effected many cures
1096 A.M. St. Philothaos Martyrdom of He was from the people of "Doronka" in the province of Assuit
1192 St William of Pontoise English hermit
1226 Blessed Beatrix d'Este;  Benedictine nun OSB V (AC)
1226 St Simon, Bishop of Vladimir and Suzdal an author of the KIEV CAVES PATERIKON
1459 Saint Antoninus of Florence great soul in a frail body, and of the triumph of virtue over vast and organized wickedness OP B (RM) miracles after death uncorrupted in 1559
1569 St John of Avila The Apostle of Andalusia spiritual advisor of St Teresa St Francis Borgia St John of the Cross St Peter of Alcantara and others

1602 Vasilii (Basil), Mangazeia the Holy Martyr Wonderworker, -- was the first saint glorified in the Siberian land
1857 St Peter Van native catechist Vietnamese martyr
1889 Blessed Damien of Molokai Joseph de Veuster he took the name of a fourth-century ph
ysician and martyr caring for the leper people's physical, medical and spiritual needs
Saints
April
30
29
28
27
26
25
24
23
22
21
20
19
18
17
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6

"All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him" (Psalm 21:28)

In terra Hus sancti Job Prophétæ, admirándæ patiéntiæ viri.
 In the land of Hus, the holy prophet Job, a man of wonderful patience.
Hiob (Ijob)  Orthodoxe Kirche: 6. Mai Katholische Kirche: 10. Mai

Nach der Tradition der Ostkirche lebte Hiob zwischen 2000 und 1500 vor Christus im Land Uz im nördlichen Arabien. Er wurde 248 Jahre alt und die im Buch Hiob dargestellten Ereignisse fielen in sein 108. Lebensjahr. Hesekiel nennt Hiob als einen vorbildlichen Menschen (Hes. 14, 14/20) und es kann vermutet werden, daß Hiob schon zur Zeit der Patriarchen (ca. 1900 v. Chr) bekannt und geschätzt war. Auch in außerisraelitischen Quellen aus dieser Zeit wird ein Hiob erwähnt.

The Kiev-Bratsk Icon of the Mother of God is celebrated also on September 6, June 2, and on Saturday of the Fifth Week of Great Lent.
Saint Simon was from Cana in Galilee one of the twelve Apostles, and received the Holy Spirit with the others on Pentecost
He and was known to the Lord and His Mother. Tradition says that he was the bridegroom at the wedding where the Savior performed His first miracle. After witnessing the miracle of the water which had been turned into wine, he became a zealous follower of Christ. For this reason, he is known as St Simon the Zealot.

St Simon was one of the twelve Apostles, and received the Holy Spirit with the others on Pentecost. He traveled to many places from Britain to the Black Sea, proclaiming the Gospel of Christ. After winning many pagans to the Lord, St Simon suffered martyrdom by crucifixion.
St Demetrius of Rostov says that this St Simon is to be distinguished from the Apostle Simon Peter, and from the Lord's relative Simon (Mt.13:55), who was the second Bishop of Jerusalem.
St Simon is also commemorated on June 30 with the other Apostles.

Apostel Simon der Zelot  Orthodoxe Kirche: 10. Mai  Katholische, Anglikanische und Evangelische Kirche: 28. Oktober

Apostel Simon
Apostel Simon wird im neuen Testament lediglich in den Apostellisten genannt. Matthäus und Markus nennen ihn Kananäus. Daraus wird geschlossen, dass Simon aus Kana stamme und er wird mit dem Hochzeiter aus Johannes 2, 1 ff. oder mit dem Apostel Bartholomäus gleichgesetzt. Das zugrundeliegende hebräische Wort bedeutet aber das gleiche wie das griechische Zelotes: Eiferer. So wurden die Angehörigen einer religiösen Gruppierung bezeichnet. Über das weitere Wirken von Simon gibt es keine gesicherte Überlieferung. Nach orthodoxer Tradition war Simon ein Sohn aus der ersten Ehe Josefs. Deshalb wird Simon Zelotes mit dem Herrenbruder Simon gleichgesetzt. Ebenso sieht die orthodoxe Tradition in ihm auch mit dem Hochzeiter von Kana (d daß Jesus in Kana als Familienangehöriger an der Feier teilnahm). Den Beinamen Zelotes soll Simon auch erst erhalten haben, nachdem er sich für die Sache Jesu begeistert einsetzte. Simon missionierte nach Pfingsten in Judäa, Ägypten, Libyen, Kyrenaika und Britannien. Bei Abchasia wurde er gefangengenommen und gekreuzigt. Simon soll auch als Einsiedler auf dem Athos (?) in einer Höhle gelebt haben. Dorotheus berichtet, Simon habe in Mauretanien und Afrika missioniert und sei dann in Britannien gekreuzigt worden.
232 St. Calepodius priest Roman martyr with Palmatius consular rank, Simplicius senator, Felix & Blanda a couple, & companions
Romæ beáti Calepódii, Presbyteri et Mártyris; quem Alexánder Imperátor gládio fecit occídi, et corpus ejus per civitátem trahi, atque in Tíberim jactári, quod invéntum Callístus Papa sepelívit.  Decollátus est étiam Palmátius Consul cum uxóre et fíliis et áliis promíscui sexus quadragínta duóbus de domo sua, Simplícius quoque Senátor cum uxóre et sexagínta octo de famila sua, item et Felix cum uxóre sua Blanda; quorum cápita suspénsa sunt per divérsas portas Urbis, ad exémplum Christianórum.
 At Rome, the blessed priest and martyr Caleposius, who was killed with the sword by order of Emperor Alexander.  His body was dragged through the city and thrown into the Tiber.  It was afterwards found and buried by Pope Callistus.  The consul Palmatius was also beheaded with his wife, his sons, and forty-two of both sexes belonging to his household; likewise the senator Simplicius with his wife, and sixty-eight of his house; Felix also with his wife Blanda.  The heads of all these martyrs were exposed over different gates of the city in order to terrify the Christians.
They suffered under Emperor Severus Alexander in the pontificate of St. Callistus I. Calepodius was a priest and the first of the group to suffer. His name is honored by a Roman catacomb. St. Palmatius was of consular rank, and he died with his wife, children, and household. St. Simplicius was a senator who suffered death with sixty-five members of his family and household. Sts. Felix and Blanda were husband and wife.
222 ST CALEPODIUS, MARTYR
THE reputed founder of the Roman cemetery which bears his name, St Calepodius was a Roman priest who, according to the legendary Acts of Pope St Callistus, suffered martyrdom during the reign of Alexander Severus as the result of a fanatical attack by the populace upon the Christians. He was decapitated and his body cast into the Tiber, from whence it was rescued and brought to Pope Callistus by a fisherman who had caught it in his net. Amongst a number of companions who are said to have perished in the same outbreak were the consul Palmatius, his family and forty-two members of his household, the senator Simplicius, with sixty-eight of his dependents, and a couple named Felix and Blandina. The reputed relics of St Calepodius are to be found in the Roman churches of Santa Maria in Trastevere and San Pancrazio, as well as in the cathedral of Taranto.
There was undoubtedly a small catacomb which bore the name of Calepodius situated on the Via Aurelia, three miles from the city, and there is early and trustworthy evidence that Pope St Callistus I was buried there. Beyond that we know very little. See Duchesne, Liber Pontificalis, vol. i, pp. 141—142; CMH., pp. 555—556; and Dam Leclercq in DAC., vol. ii, cc. 1593--1595.

Calepodius, Palmatius, Simplicius, Felix, Blanda & Comp M (RM)
Died 222 to 232; feast day formerly May 16. This entry in the Roman Martyrology includes a number of Roman martyrs who suffered under Alexander Severus during the pontificate of Callistus I. Calepodius, a priest, was the first to suffer; he has given his name to a Roman catacomb. Saint Palmatius, of consular rank, died with his wife and children and 42 members of his household. Saint Simplicius, a senator, was martyred with 65 of his family and dependents. SS. Felix and Blanda were husband and wife. All were victims of an outburst of fury on the part of the heathen mob (Benedictines). In art, these martyrs are represented as a priest and companions being thrown into the Tiber. Calepodius is dressed as an early Christian priest in Mass vestments with a book. They are venerated in Rome, particularly at Santa Maria in Trastevere
(Roeder).
250 St. Epimachus Martyr of Alexandria, Egypt, with Alexander
Romæ, via Latína, natális sanctórum Mártyrum Gordiáni et Epímachi, quorum prior, pro confessióne nóminis Christi, témpore Juliáni Apóstatæ, diu plumbátis cæsus et ad últimum cápite truncátus, noctu a Christiánis sepúltus eádem via fuit in crypta, in quam beáti Epímachi Mártyris relíquiæ paulo ante translátæ fúerant ab Alexandría, ubi ipse, pro Christi fide, martyrium compléverat prídie Idus Decémbris.
 At Rome, on the Via Latina, the birthday of the holy martyrs Gordian and Epimachus.  In the time of Julian the Apostate, the former was a long time scourged and finally beheaded for confessing the name of Christ.  He was buried at night by the Christians, in a crypt to which, shortly before, the remains of the blessed martyr Epimachus had been transferred from Alexandria, where he had been martyred for the faith of Christ on the 12th of December.

From Lives of Saintes by Alban Butler
SS. GORDIAN AND EPIMACUS, MM.
THESE two holy martyrs are named in all calendars of the western church since the sixth age.  St. Epimachus suffered at Alexandria under Decius, in the year 250, with one Alexander.   They had been long detained in a hideous dungeon, were beaten with clubs, their sides were torn with iron hooks  lastly, they were both burnt in lime.  This is related by St. Dionysius of Alexandria, quoted by Eusebius, (h. vi. c. 41.)

  St. Gordian was beheaded at Rome for the faith, under Julian the Apostate, in the year 362.   His name occurs in the ancient Martyrologies.  His body was laid in a cave, in which was deposited that of St. Epimachus, which was brought from Alexandria to Rome a little before St. Gordian's martyrdom.  The relics of both these martyr, are now possessed by the great Benedictine abbey of Kempton, in the diocese of Augsburg.




250 SS GORDIAN AND EPIMACHUS, MARTYRS
Practically speaking, all the martyrologies, etc., of the Western church from the sixth century onwards make mention of SS. Gordian and Epimachus, who are also commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on this day. Epimachus is said to have been thrown into a lime kiln at Alexandria in 250 with a certain Alexander, after they had endured cruel tortures for the faith. The body of St Epimachus was subsequently taken to Rome. St Gordian was beheaded in Rome and his body was placed with that of St Epimachus in the same tomb. The greater part of their remains were afterwards given by St Hildegard, Charlemagne’s wife, to the abbey of Kempten, in Bavaria, which she had restored.

The so-called “acts” of these two saints are spurious. in contrast to the martyrs last mentioned, the historic existence and cult of SS. Gordian and Epimachus can raise no doubts. The epitaph of Pope Damasus on St Gordian is still preserved to us, and describes the martyr as little more than a boy, whereas the legendary “acts” present him as having been the vicarius, the responsible minister, of the Emperor Julian.

See on the whole matter the text and notes of CMH., p. 244. The acts are printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. ii. There seems no sufficient reason to suppose, as Butler did, that the two martyrs were separated by a century in time. Cf. J. P. Kirsch, Der Stadtrömische Christliche Festkalender, pp. 54—55.

Four women suffered the same martyrdom with Epimachus: Ammonaria, Mercuria, Dionisia, and a second Ammonaria. Epimachus and Alexander were burned to death after being imprisoned and cruelly tortured.
   250 Epimachus Epimachus was a martyr of Alexandria, Egypt His relics were brought to Rome, and those of Gordian were placed in his tomb. This cult is now confined to local
calendars.
St. Quaratus and Quintus from Capua martyred during the Roman persecutions
Item Romæ, via Latína, ad Centum Aulas, natális sanctórum Mártyrum Quarti et Quincti, quorum córpora Cápuam transláta sunt.
 Also at Rome, on the Via Latina, the birthday of the holy martyrs Quartus and Quinctus, whose bodies were translated to Capua.
 
Two Italian martyrs. Originally from Capua, Italy, they were put to death in Rome at some time during the Roman persecutions. Their remains were later taken to
Capua.
St. Tadros (Theodore) The Departure of , the disciple of St. Pachomius.
On this day also St. Tadros (Theodore) the disciple of St. Pachomius, the father of the spiritual monastic communal life (Coenobitic system), departed. He became monk at a young age under the guidance of Anba Pachomius and showed great asceticism, with extraordinary obedience, so that St. Pachomius loved him and he delegated him to preach to the brethren.

When St. Pachomius departed, St. Tadros replaced him. He was a good example in meekness and patience. When he completed his course, and finished his strife, he departed to the Lord whom he
loved.
St. Aurelian disciple of Saint Martial bishop of Limoges 1st or 3rd century
Bishop of Limoges in France. He was a disciple of St. Martial.

Aurelian of Limoges B (AC) 1st or 3rd century. Saint Aurelian was a disciple of Saint Martial and eventually succeeded him as bishop of Limoges
(Benedictines).
251 St. Alphius Martyr one of 3 brothers from Vaste, Italy, who died with their sister, Benedicta; in 1517 their incorrupt relics were discovered at Leontini [Lentini]
Apud Leontínos, in Sicília, sanctórum Mártyrum Alphii, Philadélphi et Cyríni.   At Lentini in Sicily, the holy martyrs Alphius, Philadelphis, and Cyrinus
251 SS. ALPHIUS AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
THE principal patrons of Vaste in the diocese of Otranto, and of Lentini, in Sicily, are SS. Alphius, Philadelphus and Cyrinus, who were martyred at the latter place and were probably natives of the former. The various accounts of them which have come down to us are conflicting and quite unreliable. According to one legend, they and their sister St Benedicta, after being well instructed in the Christian faith by their father and a certain Onesimus, were apprehended with a number of companions during the Decian persecution and were taken to Rome. There they endured severe torture and were then removed to Pozzuoli, near Naples, where Onesimus and some of the party suffered martyrdom. The rest were transferred to Sicily and again tried and tortured. Their bold confession of faith caused the conversion of many spectators, including twenty soldiers. Eventually Alphius, who was twenty-two, died as the result of having his tongue torn out, Philadelphus, who was twenty-one, was roasted to death, and Cyrinus, who was nineteen, was boiled to death in a vessel full of hot pitch. In 1517 three bodies were discovered, and being identified with these saints, were elevated with great pomp at Lentini, a town seventeen miles south-west of Catania.

Although these alleged martyrs are duly entered in the Roman Martyrology, and their story occupies altogether some sixty folio pages in the Acta Sanctorum (May, vol. ii), there is no reliable evidence of early cultus. Their “acts” must be regarded as nothing better than a pious Greek romance. See DHG., vol. ii, c. 676.

The details concerning these martyrdoms are traditional, considered by some scholars as unreliable. Alphius, Philadeiphus, Cyrinus, and Benedicta were arrested during the persecutions conducted by Emperor Trajanus Decius(Trajan Decius 249-251 AD and Usurpers During His Reign). They were tortured in Rome and then taken to Pozzuoli, near modern Naples, where one of the Christians, Onesimus, was executed. The brothers went on to Sicily, where they were martyred at Lentini. Alphius had his tongue torn from his mouth. Philadelphus was burned to death and Cyrinus was boiled to death. The brothers ranged in age from nineteen to twenty-one years of age at the time of their martyrdom. No details of execution are given extant for Benedicta.
Alphius, Cyrinus, and Philadelphus MM (RM). These three Sicilian brothers appear to have suffered under Decius. They are highly venerated among the Greeks and in Sicily, especially at Lentini, of which they are patrons (Benedictines).
The Holy Martyrs Philadelphus, Alphaeus, Cyprian, Onesimus, Erasmus and 14 others with them, lived during the third century and came from Italy. Alphaeus, Philadelphus and Cyprian were sons of a governor in Italy, named Vitalius. They were enlightened by faith in Christ and baptized by St Onesimus.
During this period the emperor Licinius issued orders to seek out and hand over the Christians for torture. The brothers went to Rome together with Onesimus, Erasmus and fourteen other Christians. At Rome they crushed the chest of St Onesimus with a heavy stone, which killed him. Erasmus and the fourteen Martyrs were beheaded.
The brothers Alphaeus, Philadelphus and Cyprian suffered in the city of Mesopolis Leontii in Sicily, where they had been sent from Rome. St Philadelphus was burned over an iron lattice in the year 251, in the reign of the emperor Decius.
In the year 1517 their incorrupt relics were discovered at Leontini [Lentini]. Sts Alphaeus, Philadelphus and Cyprian appeared to St Euthalia (March 2) and told her that she would be healed of an affliction after she was
baptized.
Hesychius of Antioch; The Holy Martyr  lived in Antioch during the reign of Maximian Galerius (305-311)
He occupied a high official position. Maximian issued an edict by which all Christians were to be deprived of military rank and expelled from military service. Those who would not renounce Christianity were stripped of their soldier's belt and military insignia, and degraded to the level of hired servants. St Hesychius was one of these.

Maximian ordered Hesychius to remove his robes of office, put on common attire, and to be placed among the women servants. After several days he summoned Hesychius and asked, "Are you not ashamed to remain in such dishonor?" St Hesychius answered, "The honors which I had from you were only temporal."

Then Maximian gave orders to drown St Hesychius in a river, with a millstone tied about his neck. The exact year of the martyr's death is not
known.
362 St. Gordian died in Rome a mere boy
  Gordian died in Rome in 362, and was described by Pope Damasus as a mere boy.
250 Epimachus Epimachus was a martyr of Alexandria, Egypt, in 250. His relics were brought to Rome, and those of Gordian were placed in his tomb. This cult is now confined to local calendars
.
St. Dioscorides martyr of Smyrna
Smyrnæ sancti Dioscóridis Mártyris.   At Smyrna, St. Dioscorides, martyr.
The Acts of his martyrdom are not extant.
5th v. Saint Thais lived in Egypt pious virgin radiant light holy angels bearing her soul to Paradise
In the fifth century, she was left an orphan after the death of her wealthy parents, she led a pious life, distributing her wealth to the poor, and she gave shelter to pilgrims on her estate. She decided that she would never marry, but would devote her life to serving Christ.

After spending all her inheritance, Thais was tempted to acquire more money by any means, and began to lead a sinful life. The Elders of Sketis near Alexandria heard of her fall, and asked St John the Dwarf (November 9) to go to Thais and persuade her to repent. "She was kind to us," they said, "now perhaps we can help her. You, Father, are wise. Go and try to save her soul, and we will pray that the Lord will help you."

The Elder went to her home, but Thais's servant did not want to allow him into the house. St John said, "Tell your mistress that I have brought her something very precious." Thais, knowing that the monks sometimes found pearls at the shore, told her servant to admit the visitor. St John sat down and looked her in the face, and then began to weep. Thais asked him why he was crying.

 "How can I not weep," he asked, "when you have forsaken your Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, and are pleasing Satan by your deeds?"

The Elder's words pierced the soul of Thais like a fiery arrow, and at once she realized how sinful her present life had become. In fear, she asked him if God would accept the repentance of a sinner like her. St John replied that the Savior awaited her repentance. That is why He came, to seek and to save the perishing. "He will welcome you with love," he said, "and the angels will rejoice over you. As the Savior said Himself, one repentant sinner causes the powers of Heaven to rejoice (Luke 15:7).

A feeling of repentance enveloped her, and regarding the Elder's words as a call from the Lord Himself to return to Him, Thais trembled and thought only of finding the path of salvation. She stood up and left her house without speaking to her servants, and without making any sort of disposition of her property, so that even St John was amazed.

Following St John into the wilderness, she hastened to return to God through penitence and prayer. Night fell, and the Elder prepared a place for Thais to lay down and sleep. He made a pillow for her from the sand, and he went off somewhat farther, and went to sleep after his evening prayers.

In the middle of the night, he was wakened by a light coming down from the heavens to the place where Thais was at rest. In the radiant light he saw holy angels bearing her soul to Paradise. When he went over to Thais, he found her dead.

St John prayed and asked God to reveal to him whether Thais had been saved. An angel of God appeared and told him, "Abba John, her one hour of repentance was equal to many years, because she repented with all her soul, and a compunctionate heart."
After burying the body of the saint, St John returned to Sketis and told the monks what had happened.
All offered thanks to God for His mercy toward Thais who, like the wise thief, repented in a single moment.
Medioláni Invéntio sanctórum Mártyrum Nazárii et Celsi, in qua beátus Ambrósius Epíscopus corpus sancti Nazárii recénti adhuc sánguine conspérsum réperit, atque ad Basílicam Apostolórum tránstulit, una cum córpore beáti Celsi púeri, quem idem ipse Nazárius nutríerat, et Anolínus, in Nerónis persecutióne, simul cum eo feríri gládio jússerat quinto Kaléndas Augústi; quo die festívitas gloriósi eórum martyrii celebrátur.
    At Milan, the finding of the bodies of the holy martyrs Nazarius and Celsus.  The blessed bishop Ambrose found the body of St. Nazarius covered with blood still fresh, and transferred it to the Basilica of the Apostles, together with the body of the blessed Celsus, a youth whom Nazarius had taken care of, and whom Anolinus, in the persecution of Nero, had ordered to be slain with the sword on the 28th of July, on which day their martyrdom is commemorated.
519 Conleth of Kildare Irish recluse at Old Connell (County Kildare) B (AC) 685? ST CATALD, BISHOP OF TARANTO, AND 250 ST CONLETH, BISHOP OF KILDARE
(also known as Conleat) feast day formerly on May 3. Conleth was a metal-worker and very skilled as a copyist and illuminator. Saint Brigid, according to her vita by Cogitosus, came to know him and invited him to make sacred vessels for her convent and asked him to be the spiritual director of her nuns at Kildare. Eventually, he became the first bishop of Kildare, which the Annuario Pontificio quotes as being founded in 519.
685? ST CATALD, BISHOP OF TARANTO, AND 250 ST CONLETH, BISHOP OF KILDARE
THESE two saints, far apart in time and space, but both sons of Ireland, are to-day celebrated together by the Church in that country. St Catald (Cathal) was a learned monk who for some time taught in the great school of Lismore. Resigning his post with a view to seeking greater retirement, he undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On his way home he was chosen bishop of Tarentum or Taranto, not in the sixth century as certain Italian writers have asserted, much less in the second, but towards the close of the seventh. He is said to have been an excellent prelate and several miracles were attributed to him. St Catald is titular saint of Taranto cathedral, being reckoned the second bishop of the diocese, and his cultus is very widely spread in Italy.

   History has preserved few reliable details concerning St Conleth (Conlaed), who was, like many of the early Irish ecclesiastics, a clever worker in metals. He was living the life of a solitary at Old Connell on the Liffey when he came into touch with St Brigid, who at once formed a very high opinion of him. Their intercourse ripened into friendship. A gloss on the Félire of Oengus calls St Conlaed “St Brigid’s chief artificer”; but, if she knew how to utilize his artistic talents in making sacred vessels, she knew still better how to employ his spiritual gifts, for she obtained his help as bishop over her people at Kildare.
  A leaf appended to the Martyrology of Donegal describes St Conlaed as “brazier of Brigid, first bishop of Celldara and archbishop also”—meaning, perhaps, that he became head over the regionary bishops and abbots in that district of Ireland. Tradition ascribes to St Conlaed the fashioning of the crozier afterwards owned by St Finbar of Termon Barry and now preserved in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy.
   In the gloss upon the Félire of Oengus the curious statement is made that St Conlaed was devoured by wolves when he persisted in undertaking a journey to Rome against St Brigid’s wishes. This seems to be an attempt to explain the name Conlaed, i.e. “half (leth) to wolves (coin)”, and the gloss states further that his previous name was Roncenn.

St Catald is another of those cases in which we know next to nothing of the life of the saint, but have long accounts of the veneration paid to what were believed to be his relies. See the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. ii; O’Hanlon LIS., vol. v, p. 185 and Ughelli, Italia Sacra, vol. ix, cc. 162—168 with A. Tommasini, Irish Saints in Italy (1937), pp. 401--432. He was honoured also at Seurre and Auxerre in France (where he is called “St Cartault”) because some portion of his relics are said to have been brought there. On the obscure question of the date at which he lived, consult J. F. Kenney, The Sources for the Early History of Ireland (1929), vol. i, p. 185. There are no materials apparently for the life of St Conlaed except casual allusions in Cogitosus’s account of St Brigid and other similar sources. See, however, Healy, Ireland’s Ancient Schools and Scholars, pp. 112—118 Gougaud, Christianity in Celtic Lands; and Kenney, op. cit.

Conleth, Tassach of Elphin (Saint Patrick's craftsman), and Daigh (craftsman of Kieran of Saigher were acclaimed the "three chief artisans of Ireland" during their period. Conleth, who was the head of the Kildare school of metal-work and penmanship, is traditionally regarded as the sculptor of the crozier of Saint Finbar of Termon Barry, which can now be seen in the Royal Irish Academy. He also created the golden crown that was suspended over Brigid's tomb.  A gloss in Irish martyrology says that he was devoured by wolves on his way to Rome--a journey undertaken against the wishes of Brigid. This could be an explanation of his name: coin "to wolves" and leth "half"
(Benedictines, Curtayne, D'Arcy, Farmer, Montague, Neeson).
6th v. Saint Isidora, Fool-for-Christ, struggled in the Tabenna monastery in Egypt during the sixth century
Taking upon herself the feat of folly, she acted like one insane, and did not eat food with the other sisters of the monastery. Many of them regarded her with contempt, but Isidora bore all this with great patience and meekness, blessing God for everything.

She worked in the kitchen and fulfilled the dirtiest, most difficult tasks at the monastery, cleaning the monastery of every impurity. Isidora covered her head with a plain rag, and instead of cooked food she drank the dirty wash water from the pots and dishes. She never became angry, never insulted anyone with a word, never grumbled against God or the sisters, and was given to silence.

Once, a desert monk, St Pitirim, had a vision. An angel of God appeared to him and said, "Go to the Tabenna monastery. There you will see a sister wearing a rag on her head. She serves them all with love, and endures their contempt without complaint. Her heart and her thoughts rest always with God. You, on the other hand, sit in solitude, but your thoughts flit about all over the world."

The Elder set out for the Tabenna monastery, but he did not see the one indicated to him in the vision among the sisters. Then they led Isidora to him, considering her a demoniac. Isidora fell down at the knees of the Elder, asking his blessing. St Pitirim bowed down to the ground to her and said, "Bless me first, venerable Mother!"

To the astonished questions of the sisters the Elder replied, "Before God, Isidora is higher than all of us!" Then the sisters began to repent, confessing their mistreatment of Isidora, and they asked her forgiveness. The saint, however, distressed over her fame, secretly hid herself away from the monastery, and her ultimate fate remained unknown. It is believed that she died around the year 365
.
601 St. Comgall Abbot teacher of St. Columbanus and monks who evangelized France & central Europe
He was born about 516 in Ylster, Ireland, and studied under St. Fintan at Cluain Eidnech Monastery. After living under a harsh rule as a hermit, Comgall founded a monastery in Bangor. He was abbot for eight thousand monks. Comgall also accompanied St. Columba on a mission to Inverness, Scotland, and founded a monastery at Heth. He died at Bangor.

From Lives of Saintes by Alban Butler
AD 601 ST. COMGALL ABBOT.
One of the most illustrious founders of monastic orders in Ireland.
 He was born of noble parents in the north of Ulster, in 516, and was brought up under St. Fintan, in his monastery of Cluain-Aidhnech at the foot of the Bladmahills, from whence arise two rivers, the Barrow and Nore, in the Queen's County.  He came out of that school of piety and monastic discipline an accomplished master, and founded, about the year 550, the great abbey of Benchor or Bangor, in the county of Down, which was the most numerous and most celebrated of all monasteries of Ireland, as that of Bangor, in North Wales, was the most considerable among the Britons, which was in a flourishing condition soon after the death of St Dubritius about the middle of the sixth century. Camden is mistaken when he writes that St. Comgall first instituted monks in Ireland it being certain that Saint Patrick himself had founded monasteries there, having perhaps learned the monastic rule of St. Martin in France.   But St. Comgall exceedingly propagated that suite in Ireland.
     He is said to have governed in Benchor and other houses three thousand monks all which religious men were employed in tillage or other manual labor.  Columban, who was his disciple at Benchor; settled his rule in Britain, France, and Italy and many of her abbots, bishops, and saints, came out of his nursery.  All the holy men of that age sought his friendship and acquaintance, and the ancient writers highly extol his sanctity and prudence.   Notker says, he was, in an extraordinary manner the heir of the virtues and merits of St. Columba, or Columb-Kille.  Jonas, in the life of St. Columban and St. Bernard and that of St Malaki, are very profuse in his commendations. The latter says that the monastery of Benchor having been long before destroyed by pirates St. Malachi restored it, because the bodies of many saints reposed there.  Usher thinks St. Comgall to have been the same with St. Congellus.  Seven years after he had founded Benchor, he went to Wales, and there built a monastery in a place then called the Land of Heth.   On his return to Ireland he founded another monastery called Cell-Comgail, now Saynkille, at present annexed to the archbishopric of Dublin.   He died on the 10th of May, in 601.  See Usher, Ant. Brit excel Led., pp. 236, 237, 452, 472, 473, 475, 476, 494. Also the Chronicles of Inisfallen and Kilkenny, quoted by Colgan in MSS.


Saint Comgall (Comhghall), "the Father of Monks," was born in Ireland at Dalaradia, Co. Ulster sometime between 510 and 520. Unlike many of the early Irish saints, St Comgall was not of noble birth. He served as a soldier, then studied with St Finnian of Moville (September 10). He was ordained to the holy priesthood by Bishop Lugaid before the age of forty.

From Lives of Saintes by Alban Butler
SAINT CATALDUS BISHOP OF TARENTUM IN ITALY
HE was a learned Irish monk, who was for some time regent of the great school of Lismore, soon after the death of its founder St. Carthag. To this nursery of learning and virtue prodigious numbers flocked both from the neighboring and remote countries   St. Cataldus at length resigned his charge in quest of some closer retirement, and travelled to Jerusalern and, on his return into Italy, was chosen bishop of Tarentum, not in the sixth century, as some Italian writers have imagined, much less in the second, but in the decline of the seventh.  He is titular saint of the cathedral, the only parish-church of the city, though it is said to contain eighteen thousand inhabitants, St. Cataldi is counted the second bishop.  Colgan gives an epitaph placed under an image of St. Cataldus at Rome, which declares his birth, travels, and death, as follows
Me tulit Hiberne , Solymae traxere, Tarentum
Nunc tenet: huic ritus, dofnata, juta dedi.

Which are thus Englished by Harris in his edition of Ware’s Irish Bishops
Hibernia gave me birth:  thence wafted o’er,
I sought the sacred Solymean shore.
To thee, Tarentum, holy rites I gave,
Precepts divine; and thou to me a grave.

  See his life written by three Italians, Bartholomew Moronus, Alexander
  ab' Alexandro, end Antony Caraccioli     see also Colgan, t. 1, p. 656, et
  MSS. ad 10 Maij     and Harris's Ware, p. 549.




603 Comgall Abbot warrior as a young man priest founder he taught Saint Columban (AC)
603 ST COMGALL, ABBOT OF BANGOR
ST COMGALL, one of the founders of Irish monasticism, was born in Ulster about the year 517, and spent some years under the direction of St Fintan in the monastery of Cluain Eidnech or Cloneenagh at the foot of the Slieve Bloom range. He was ordained priest by a certain Bishop Lugid, who is said to have deterred him from dedicating himself to missionary work in Britain. For a time he retired to an island in Lough Erne where he and some companions practised such austerities that seven of them died of hunger and cold. In response to the remonstrances of Bishop Lugid, Comgall relaxed his rule for his disciples, though not for himself. Emerging from his retreat, he founded the great abbey of Bennchor, or Bangor, which became the largest and most famous monastery in Ireland. No less than three thousand monks are said to have lived under the government of St Comgall at Bangor and in its daughter houses.
The holiest men of the age sought the friendship of the Abbot of Bangor and great saints owed their training to him—notably St Columban, who afterwards carried the tradition of Bangor to France and Italy. St Comgall seems to have carried out his early missionary aspirations by accompanying St Colmcille on an expedition to Inverness, where they preached the Gospel to a Pictish chieftain called Brude, and he is stated to have founded a monastery in a place called the Land of Heth (Tiree). St Comgall continued to rule Bangor until his death, although during the last years of his life he endured terrible sufferings, apparently as the result of his great austerities. He also became totally deaf. He died in 603, and his feast is kept throughout Ireland.
A curious alphabetical hymn in honour of the saint (“Hymnus sancti Comgalli abbatis nostri”) occurs in the Bangor Antiphonary. The D stanza runs thus:
Doctus in Dei legibus: divinis dictionibus,
Ditatus sanctis opibus, Deo semper placentibus,
Dedicatus in moribus Dei Stephanus hagius
Docebat sic et caeteros Dicta docta operibus.

The date of this manuscript can be accurately fixed as between A.D. 680 and 691. One living word of St Comgall’s seems to have been preserved in a gloss upon the Félire of Oengus; in reference to the death of his confessor, he remarked: “My soul-friend has died and I am headless, and ye, too, are headless, for a man without a soul-friend is a body without a head”.

There is a Latin life of St Comgall which is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. ii, and also in C. Plummer’s VSH., vol. ii, pp. 3—21. The rule attributed to St Comgall, or what purports to be a metrical version of it, has been edited by J. Strachan in the periodical Eriu, vol. (1904), pp. 191—208. See also J. Ryan, Irish Monasticism (1931), and Dom Gougaud, Christianity in Celtic Lands (1933), in both of which works many references to St Comgall and his monks will be found in the index. In Forbes, KSS., there is a lengthy account of St Comgall (pp. 308—31) drawn largely from the legends of the Aberdeen Breviary. See also Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lii (1934), pp. 343—356. For the hymn referred to, see Henry Bradshaw Society publications, vol. ii (1895), pp. 6—19 and notes.

St Comgall and several companions lived for a time on an island in Lough Erne in the county of Ulster, where they lived a very strict ascetical life. Although his desire was to be a missionary in Scotland, Bishop Lugaid asked him to stay in Ireland and establish a monastery at Bangor (Bennchor) on the southern shore of Belfast Loch (in modern Co. Down). The monastery was founded sometime between 552-555. It is believed that over four thousand monks were trained by St Comgall at Bangor, including St Columbanus of Luxeuil (November 21, or 23) and St Moluag (June 25). St Comgall often prayed while standing in the water for several hours. Sometimes at night his cell seemed to be ablaze with a heavenly radiance.
Later St Comgall did visit Scotland, where he became very close to St Columba of Iona (June 9), by whose prayers Comgall was once saved from drowning.  St Comgall lived to an advanced age, then suffered from a prolonged illness. He completed the course of his earthly life at Bangor on May 10, 602, after receiving Holy Communion from St Fiacre
(August 30).
7th v. St. Cataldus Bishop of Taranto an Irish churchman
Apud Taréntum sancti Catáldi Epíscopi, miráculis clari.     At Taranto, St. Cataldus, a bishop renowned for miracles.
 
7th century, in southern Italy, an Irish churchman. He was born in Munster, Ireland, and became a student and then headmaster of Lismore, the monastic school in his home region. On his return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he was elected to the see of Taranto. He is patron of Taranto.

Catald of Taranto B (RM) (also known as Cataldus, Cathaluds, Cattaldo, Cathal) Born in Munster, Ireland, 7th century. Saint Cataldus was a pupil, then the headmaster of the monastic school of Lismore in Waterford after the death of its founder, Saint Carthage (Born at Castlemaine, Kerry, Ireland; died near Lismore, Ireland, on May 14, c. 637;) Upon his return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he was shipwrecked at Taranto in southern Italy and chosen by the people as their bishop. He is the titular of Taranto's cathedral and the principal patron of the diocese. This epitaph if given under an image of Saint Catald in Rome:

Me tulit Hiberne, Solyme traxere, Tarentum Nunc tenet: huic ritus, dogmata, jura dedi.
Which has been loosely translated as: Hibernia gave me birth: thence wafted over, I sought the sacred Solymean shore. To thee Tarentum, holy rites I gave, Precept divine; and thou to me a grave.

It is odd that an Irishman, should be so honored throughout Italy, Malta, and France, but have almost no recognition in his homeland. His Irish origins were discovered only two or three centuries after his death, when his relic were recovered during the renovation of the cathedral of Taranto. A small golden cross, of 7th- or 8th- century Irish workmanship, was with the relics. Further investigations identified him with Cathal, the teacher of Lismore.

Veneration to Catald spread, especially in southern Italy, after the May 10, 1017, translation of his relics when the cathedral was being rebuilt following its destruction at the hands of Saracens in 927. Four remarkable cures occurred as the relics were moved to the new cathedral. When his coffin was open at that time, a pastoral staff of Irish workmanship was found with the inscription Cathaldus Rachau. There is a town of San Cataldo in Sicily and another on the southeast coast of Italy (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Farmer, Husenbeth, Kenney, Montague, Neeson, Tommasini).

Saint Catald is depicted in art as an early Christian bishop with a miter and pallium in a 12th century mosaic at Palermo (Roeder). He is the subject of a painting on the 8th pillar of the nave on the left in the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem (D'Arcy, Montague). There are also 12th-century mosaics in Palermo and Monreale depicting the saint (Farmer). Catald is invoked against plagues, drought, and storms
(Farmer).
880 St. Solange a shepherdess Besides having a great power over animals, she was endowed with the gift of healing and effected many cures
880 ST SOLANGIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR
ST SOLANGIA (Solange), who is sometimes called the St Genevieve of Berry, is also the patroness of that province of France. The child of vine-dressers, poorly endowed with this world’s goods, she was born at Villemont, near Bourges. She dedicated herself to God from early childhood and took a vow of chastity at aft early age. Her occupation was to mind her father’s sheep as they grazed on the pasturages. It is said that she was attended by a guiding star which shone over her head with special brilliancy as the hour of prayer approached. Besides having a great power over animals, she was endowed with the gift of healing and effected many cures.
   Reports of her beauty and sanctity reached the ears of Bernard, one of the sons of the count of Poitiers, and he came on horseback to make advances to her as she was alone with her flock. When she resisted, he caught her up and set her in the saddle before him, but she succeeded in slipping from his horse, sustaining serious injury in her fall. The young man then despatched her with his hunting-knife. According to the legend, the girl afterwards arose and carried her head in her hands as far as the church of Saint-Martin-du-Cros, in the cemetery of which an altar was erected in her honour about the year 1281. A field near her home in which she liked to pray received the name of “Le Champ de Sainte Solange.”
That St Solangia has enjoyed much popular veneration in Bourges and surrounding districts is made clear by the number of devotional brochures published about her. See, for example, the Vie de Sainte Solange, written by Joseph Bernard de Montmélian, which has appeared in more than one edition. There is an account of this martyr in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. ii, but the evidence there furnished is very unsatisfactory. See Ombline P. de Ia Villéon, Sainte Solange, protectrice du Berry (1948).

St. Solange, Born of a poor family of vineyard workers near Bourges, France, she became a shepherdess whose beauty attracted the lustful attention of a noble in Poitiers. He kidnaped her, but when she leaped from the horse on which he was carrying her off, he pursued and killed her.

1096 A.M. St. Philothaos Martyrdom of; He was from the people of "Doronka" in the province of Assuit
On this day also, St. Philothaos was martyred. He was from the people of "Doronka" in the province of Assuit. He was tortured without denying his faith and finally he received the crown of martyrdom in the year 1096
A.M.
1192 St. William of Pontoise English hermit
He resided at Pontoise, in France, having gone there to take up the eremetical life. His hermitage became popular in the region. He may have been a Benedictine at St. Martin's Abbey
.
1226 Blessed Beatrix d'Este; Benedictine nun OSB V (AC)
Born in 1206; cultus confirmed in 1763. Beatrix was the daughter of the Marchese Azzo d'Este, who died when she was six years old. At age 14 the orphan secretly left her home and, against the wishes of her relatives, became a Benedictine nun at Solarola, near Padua. Shortly afterwards she was transferred to Gemmola, where she died a victim of loving self-immolation
(Benedictines).
1226 BD BEATRICE OF ESTE, VIRGIN
THE childhood of Bd Beatrice of Este cannot have been a happy one. Her mother died when she was an infant, her father, the Marquis Azzo of Este, when she was six; and her elder brother, Aldobrandino, her natural protector, was poisoned when she was ten. The charge of the little girl devolved partly on her stepmother and partly on a paternal aunt.
   From the time of her father’s death Beatrice would only wear the simplest clothes, absolutely refusing to put on the adornments which belonged to a girl of her rank. As she approached a marriageable age her relations, desirous of extending the power of the great house of Este, began to consider a suitable match for her, in spite of her protestations that she wished to live the religious life. Despairing of overcoming the opposition of her surviving brother, Beatrice secretly left home and made her way to the Benedictine abbey of Solarola, where she received the habit at the age of fourteen. A year and a half later, she and ten other sisters were transferred to Gemmola, a quiet place less exposed to warlike attacks and worldly interruptions. There Beatrice spent the remainder of her short life, dying when she was in her twentieth year. In 1578 her relics were translated to Padua, where they are held in great veneration. Her cult was approved in 1763.
A life by a contemporary, one Albert, a religious at Verona, was printed for the first time by G. Brunacci in 1767. The narrative in the Acta Sanctorum is translated from the Italian of Bishop Tomasini, who wrote in the middle of the seventeenth century. See also P. Balan, La B. Beatrice d’ Este (1878).
1226 Saint Simon, Bishop of Vladimir and Suzdal an author of the KIEV CAVES PATERIKON.
He became a monk at the Monastery of the Caves, sometime in the second half of the twelfth century. In the year 1206 he was appointed igumen of the Vladimir Monastery of the Nativity of the Theotokos, and in 1214, at the wish of Prince George Vsevolodovich (+ 1238), he was made the first bishop of Vladimir-on-the-Klyazma and Suzdal.

In 1218 he consecrated a church at the Nativity monastery, and in the year 1225, a cathedral church at Suzdal. The Great Prince deeply respected St Simon and was prepared to establish a new bishop's See at Suzdal for his friend, the monk Polycarp of the Kiev Caves monastery, who sought after spiritual glory. St Simon, seeing that Polycarp was not yet ready to assume such an office, talked the Great Prince out of his idea, and he wrote a deeply moving letter to Polycarp, in which he offered his friend advice on overcoming his spiritual shortcomings. St Simon's own inner life, character, and virtue are also revealed in the epistle.
St Simon was known as a learned teacher, and his epistle to Polycarp was placed at the beginning of the KIEV CAVES PATERIKON. On the eve of his repose in 1226, the saint received the schema.
Initially his body was buried at Vladimir, but later, in accordance with the saint's last wishes, his body was transferred to the Kiev Caves Lavra, where it rests in the Antoniev Caves.
1459 Antoninus of Florence; great soul in a frail body, and of the triumph of virtue over vast and organized wickedness miracles after death body was found uncorrupted in 1559 OP B (RM)
Sancti Antoníni, ex Ordine Prædicatórum, Epíscopi Florentíni et Confessóris, cujus dies natális sexto Nonas mensis hujus recensétur.
 St. Antoninus of the Order of Preachers, confessor and archbishop of Florence, whose birthday is the 2nd of May.
 
                    
From Lives of Saintes by Alban Butler                          
AD 1459 ST. ANTONINUS. ARCHBISHOP OF FLORENCE, CONFESSOR. MAY X.
From the bull of his canonization, his exact life by Castiglione, a contemporary priest, canon of Florence and other authors of that age, collected by F. Touron. T. 3, p. 319 .  See Papebroke, Act. Sanct. T.1, Maij p 311.  And the history of his chapel in the Dominicans church of St. Mark of Florence, and of the translation of his body into the same in 1580, printed at Florence in Fol. 1728.  Also S. Antonini Summa Theologica cum annotationibus et vita auctoris per Fratres Ballerinos, Petrum et Hieronimun, sacerdotes Veronensae 4 vol. in folio, Veronae 1740.

  St. Antoninus or little Antony was born at Florence in 1389.  His parents, named Nicholas Pierozzi and Thomassina, were noble citizens of that place, and he was the only fruit of their marriage.  From the cradle he was modest, bashful, docile, and had no inclination but to piety, being even then an enemy both to sloth and to the amusements of children. It was his only pleasure to read the lives of saints and other good books, to converse with pious persons, or employ himself in prayer, to which he was much given from his infancy. Accordingly if he was not at home or at school, he was always to be found at St. Michael's church before a crucifix, or in our Lady's chapel there.  And whether he applied himself to that holy exercise in his closet or the church, he always kneeled or lay prostrate, with a perseverance that astonished everybody.  By the means of a happy memory, a solid judgment, and quick penetration, assisted by an assiduous application, be became an able master at an age when others scarce begin to understand the first elements of the sciences.  But his passion for learning was not equal to his ardor to perfect himself in the science of salvation.  In prayer, he begged nothing of God but his grace to avoid sin, and to do his holy will in all things.  F. Dominick, a learned and holy preacher of the order of St. Dominick, afterwards made cardinal, archbishop of Ragusa, and legate of the Holy See, was then employed in building a convent at Fiesoli, two miles from Florence.  Antoninus was wonderfully delighted with the unction of his sermons, and never went out of Florence but to converse with that apostolic man, to whom he applied at last for the Dominican habit. The father judging him as yet too young, and his constitution too tender for so strict a lifer of perpetual abstinence, frequent fasts, long watching’s, and other rigors, advised him to wait yet some years, and bid him first study the canon law, adding, that when he should have learned Gratian's decree by heart, his request should be granted. So dry and difficult a task would have seemed to another equivalent to an absolute refusal. However, Antoninus set about it, and joining prayer and severe mortifications with his studies, made an essay of the life to which he aspired; and in less than a year presented himself again to the prior of Fiesoli; and by answering his examination upon the whole decree of Gratian, gave him a surprising proof of his capacity, memory, and fervor.  The prior hesitated no longer, but gave him the habit, he being then sixteen years of age.  The young novice was most exact in complying with every point of the rule, and appeared the most humble, the most obedient, most mortified, and most recollected of his brethren. Being advanced to the priesthood, he augmented his exercise of piety; he was never seen at the altar but bathed in tears.   Whether sick or well, he lay always on the hard boards; and so perfectly had he subjected the flesh to the spirit that he seemed to feel no reluctance from his senses in the service of God.   He was chosen very young to govern the great convent of the Minerva in Rome; and after that was successively prior at Naples, Cajeta, Cortona, Sienna, Fiesoli, and Florence: in all which places he zealously enforced the practice of the rule of St. Dominick, and more by his actions than words.  Besides his domestic employments he preached often, and with great fruit.   The works which he published increased his reputation. He was consulted from Rome, and from all quarters, especially in intricate cases of the canon law. The learned cardinal de Lucca reckons him among the most distinguished auditors or judges of the Rota, though we do not find at what time he discharged that office.   He was chosen vicar or general superior of a numerous reformed congregation in his order.  He would not remit anything in his austerities or labors when exhausted by a decay, of which however he recovered.  Pope Eugenius IV called him to the general council of Florence;   and he assisted in quality of divine at all its sessions, and at the disputations with the Greeks.  During his stay at Florence he was made prior of the convent of St. Mark in that city, for which Cosmos of Medius, called the father of martyrdom.  The relics of both these martyr, are now possessed by the great Benedictin abbey of Kempton, in the diocese of Ausbourg.  His country, was then building a sumptuous church, which pope Eugenius IV consecrated. After having established in this house the true spirit of his order, he visited his convents in Tuscany and Naples.
  While employed in introducing the primitive discipline of his order in the province of Naples the see of Florence became vacant by the death of its archbishop.   The intrigues of several candidates protracted the election of a successor. But pope Eugenius IV no sooner named F. Antoninus to the Florentines, as possessed of the qualities they had desired in their future bishop, namely, sanctity, learning, and experience, and his being a native of their own city, than they all acquiesced in his choice. Antoninus, who had then been two years absent from Florence, employed in the visitation of his monasteries, was equally surprised and afflicted that he should have been thought of for so eminent a dignity. And that he might escape it, he set out with the design of concealing himself in the isle of Sardinia, but being prevented in the execution, he was obliged to go to Sienna, whence he wrote to the pope, conjuring his holiness not to lay that formidable burden on his weak shoulders, alleging his being in the decline of life, won out with fatigues and sickness ; enlarging also upon his great unworthiness and want of capacity and begging that he would not now treat him as an enemy whom he had honored with so many marks of friendship.
       He could not close his letter without watering it with his tears. The pope, however, was inflexible, and sent him an order to repair without delay to his convent at Fiesoli.  He wrote at the same time to the city of Florence, to acquaint them that he had sent them an archbishop to their gates. The principal persons of the clergy and nobility, with Cosmus of Medicis at their hear went out to compliment him on that occasion; but found him so averse to the dignity, that all their entreaties to take it upon him were to no purpose, till the pope, being again applied to in the affair, sent him an order to obey, backing it with a threat of excommunication if he persisted in opposing the will of God.   After many tears, Antoninus at last complied; he was consecrated and took possession of his bishopric in March, 1446.   His regulation of his household and conduct was a true imitation of the primitive apostolic bishops.    His table, dress, and furniture showed a perfect spirit of poverty, modesty, and simplicity.  It was his usual saying that all the riches of a successor of the apostles ought to be his virtue.  He practiced all the observances of his rule as far as compatible with his functions.   His whole family consisted off six persons, to whom he assigned such salaries as might  hinder them from seeking accidental perquisites, which are usually iniquitous or dangerous.   He at first appointed two grand vicars, but afterwards, to avoid all occasions of variance, kept only one; and remembering that a bishop is bound to personal service, did almost everything himself but always with mature advice.  As to his temporalities, he relied entirely on a man of probity and capacity, to reserve himself totally for his spiritual functions. He gave audience every day to all that addressed themselves to him, but particularly declared himself the father and protector of the poor.  His purse and his granaries were in a manner totally theirs; when these were exhausted, he gave them often part of his scanty furniture and clothes. He never was possessed of any plate, or any other precious moveable’s, and never kept either dogs or horses; one only mule served all the necessities of his family, and this he often sold for the relief of some poor person; on which* occasion, some wealthy citizen would buy it, to restore it again as a present to the charitable archbishop.  He founded the college of St. Martin, to assist persons of reduced circumstances, and ashamed to make known their necessities, which establishment now  provides for above six hundred families.   His mildness appeared not only in his patience in bearing the insolence knee and importunities of the poor, but in his sweetness and benevolence towards his enemies.   One named Ciardi, whom he had cited before him to answer certain criminal accusations, made an attempt on his life; and the saint narrowly escaped the thrust of his poniard, which pierced the back of his chair.  Yet he freely forgave the assassin, and praying for his conversion, had the comfort to see him become a sincere penitent in the order of St. Francis.
   The saint wanted not courage whenever the honor of God required it he suppressed games of hazard; reformed other abuses in all orders; preached almost every Sunday and holiday, and visited his whole diocese every year, always on foot.  His character for wisdom and integrity was such, that he was consulted from all parts, and by persons of the highest rank, both secular and ecclesiastical: and his decisions gave so general a satisfaction, that they acquired him the name of Antonito’s the counsellor.
 Yet this multiplicity of business was no interruption of his attention to God.
 He allowed himself very little sleep.  Over and above the church office, he recited daily the office of our Lady, and the seven penitential psalms; the office of the dead twice a week, and the whole psalter on every festival.   In the midst of his exterior affairs he always preserved the same serenity of countenance, and the same peace of mind, and seemed always recollected to God.  Francis Castillo, his secretary, once said to him, bishops were to be pitied if they were to be eternally besieged with hurry as he was. The saint made him this answer, which the author of his life wished to see written in letters of gold: "To enjoy interior peace, we must always reserve in our hearts amidst all affairs, as it were, a secret closet, where we are to keep retired within ourselves, and where no business of the world can ever enter."  Pope Eugenics IV falling sick, sent for Antoninus to Rome, made his confession to him, received the viaticum and extreme-unction from his hands, and expired in his arms on the 23d of February, 1447. Nicholas IV succeeded him. St. Antoninus having received his benediction, hastened to Florence, where a pestilence had begun to show itself, which raged the whole year following. The holy archbishop exposed himself first, and employed his clergy, both secular and regular, especially those of his own order, in assisting the infected; so that almost all the friars of St. Mark, St. Mary Novella, and Fiesoli were swept away by the contagion, and new recruits were sent from the province of Lombardy to inhabit those houses.

        The famine, as is usual, followed this first scourge. The holy archbishop stripped himself of almost everything; and by the influence of his words and example, many rich persons were moved to do the like.  He obtained from Rome, particularly from the pope, great succors for the relief of the distressed. Indeed, the pope never refused any thing that he requested; and ordered that no appeals should he receive at Rome from any sentence passed by him.  After the public calamity was over the saint continued his liberalities to the poor; but being informed that two blind beggars had amassed, the one' two hundred, and the other three hundred ducats, he took the money from them, and distributed it among the real objects of charity; charging himself, however, with the maintenance of those two for the rest of their lives.
    Humility made him conceal his heroic practices of penance and piety from others, and even from himself; for he saw nothing but imperfections even in what others admired in him, and never heard anything lending to his own commendation without confusion and indignation.  He formed many perfect imitators of his virtue.  An accident discovered to him a hidden servant, of God.   A poor handicraftsman lived in obscurity, in the continual practice of penance.  Having no other object of his desires but heaven.  He passed the Sundays and holidays in the churches, and distributed all he gained by his work, beyond his mean subsistence, among the poor, with the greatest privacy; and kept a poor leper, serving him and dressing his ulcers with his own hands.   Hearing the continual reproaches and complaints of the ungrateful beggar, not only with patience, but also with joy.  The leper became the more morose and imperious, and carried complaints against his benefactor to the archbishop, who, discovering this hidden treasure of sanctity in `the' handicraftsman, secretly honored it, while he punished the insolence of the leper. Florence was shook by frequent earthquakes during three years, from 1453, and a large tract of land was laid desolate by a violent storm.   The saint maintained, lodged, and set up again the most distressed, and rebuilt their houses:   But he labored most assiduously to render these public Calamities instrumental to the reformation of his people's manners.   Cosmus of Medicis used to say, that he did not question but the preservation of their republic, under its great dangers, was owing chiefly to the merits and prayers of its holy archbishop.  Pope Pins II has told us, in the second book of his Commentaries, a most edifying history of the eminent virtues of our saint, and the strongest testimonies of his sanctity.  The love of his flock made him decline a secular embassy to the emperor Frederic III.  God called him to the reward of his labors on the 2d of May, 1459, in the seventieth year of his age, the thirteenth of his archiepiscopal dignity.  He repeated on his death-bed these words, which he had often in his mouth during health, "To serve God is to reign."  Pope Pius II hearing then at Florence assisted at his funeral.  His hair-shirt and other relics were the instruments of many miracles.  He was buried, according to his desire, in the church of St. Mark, among his religious brethren, and was canonized by Adrian VI in 1523.  His body was found entire in 1559, and translated with the greatest pomp and solemnity, into a chapel prepared to receive it in the same church of Sr. Mark, richly adorned by the two brothers Salflati.* whose family looks upon it as their greatest honor that this illustrious saint belonged to It.   Nor is it easy to imagine anything that could surpass the rich embellishments of this chapel, particularly the shrine; nor the pomp and magnificence of the procession and translation, at which a great number of cardinals, bishops, and princes from several parts assisted, who all admired to see the body perfectly free from corruption, one hundred and thirty years after it had been buried.
 The venerable Achard, bishop of Avranches, in his excellent treatise on Self-denial reduces the means and practice of Christian perfection to seven degrees of self-renunciation, by which he is disposed for the reign of love in his soul.  These degrees lie otherwise calls seven deserts of the soul, the first is the desert of penance.   The second of solitude, at least that of the heart.  The third of mortification.   The fourth of simplicity of faith.  The fifth of obedience.   The sixth of the pure love of God.    The seventh of zeal for his honor in the salvation of our neighbor.     For a man, first, is to renounce sin by sincere repentance.    Secondly the world by solitude. Thirdly, the flesh by the mortification of his senses.   Fourthly, though reason is man's roost noble excellency, yet this being obscured and often blinded by the passions, easily incomes the seat of pride, and leads into the most dangerous precipices and errors.    Man is therefore bound to humble his reason by keeping it in duo subordination, and in a certain degree to renounce it by simplicity of heart and sincere   humility.    And this is so far from being against reason, that it is the sovereign use of reason.   Fifthly-, a man moreover obliged to renounce his own will by perfect obedience. Sixthly he must moreover renounce all that he is by the pure love of God, which ought to have no bounds.   Seventhly, none but one who has tasted the sweetness of heavenly contemplation, knows how incomparable an advantage he renounces who deprives himself of it.  Yet zeal for our neighbor’s salvation, and tender compassion for his spiritual miseries, moves the saints some times to prefer toils and sufferings to its pure delights and charms.  By these rules we see by what degrees or means pious pastors attain to the apostolic spirit of their state, and how heroic their sacrifice is.



Born in Florence, Italy, in 1389 (or 1384?); died there on May 2, 1459; canonized in 1523.
The story of Antonino Pierozzi is that of a great soul in a frail body, and of the triumph of virtue over vast and organized wickedness. His father, Niccolo Pierozzi, had been a noted lawyer, notary to the Republic of Florence. He and his wife Thomassina had their only child baptized as Antonio, but because the saint was both small and gentle people called him by the affectionate diminutive 'Antonino' all his life.
1459 ST ANTONINUS, ARCHBISHOP OF FLORENCE
OF all the prelates who through many centuries have ruled the diocese of Florence, no one has gained so great and lasting a hold upon the loving veneration of the Florentines as St Antoninus. His father, a citizen of good family, who was notary to the republic, was called Nicholas Pierozzi, and he himself received in baptism the name of Antony. The diminutive Antonino, which clung to him all his life, was given him in childhood because of his small stature and gentle disposition. A serious boy, much addicted to prayer, he loved to listen to the sermons of Bd John Dominici, then prior of Santa Maria Novella, and when he was fifteen he asked the friar to admit him to the Dominican Order. The saintly John, judging him too weakly for the life, tried to put him off by bidding him study for a time and learn the Decretum Gratiani; but when, within a year, the lad returned, having committed the whole of the treatise to memory, he was received without further hesitation. He was the first postulant to take the habit in the new priory at Fiesole, which Bd John Dominici had built. For the novitiate Antonino was sent to Cortona, where he had as novice master Bd Laurence of Ripafratta and as companions Bd Peter Capucci and the future great artist Fra Angelico da Fiesole.
Antoninus early gave evidence of exceptional gifts as a scholar and as a leader. He was chosen when very young to govern the great convent of the Minerva in Rome; and afterwards he was successively prior at Naples, Gaeta, Cortona, Siena, Fiesole and Florence. As superior of the reformed Tuscan and Neapolitan congregations, and also as prior provincial of the whole Roman province, he zealously enforced the measures initiated by Bd John Dominici with a view to restoring the primitive rule. At Florence in 1436 he founded the famous convent of San Marco in buildings taken over from the Silvestrines, but practically rebuilt by him after designs by Michelozzi and decorated with the frescoes of Fra Angelico.
The adjacent late thirteenth-century church was rebuilt with great magnificence by Cosimo de' Medici to serve the new Dominican house. In addition to his official duties, St Antoninus preached often and wrote works which made him famous among his contemporaries. He was consulted from Rome and from all quarters, especially in intricate cases of canon law. Pope Eugenius IV summoned him to attend the general Council of Florence, and he assisted at all its sessions. He was occupied with reforming houses in the province of Naples when he learnt to his dismay that the pope had nominated him to be archbishop of Florence. In vain did he plead incapacity, ill-health and advancing years; Eugenius was inflexible and left him no freedom of choice. He was consecrated in March 1446 amid the rejoicings of the citizens.
In his new capacity St Antoninus continued to practise all the observances of his rule, as far as his duties would permit. The most rigid simplicity reigned where he resided: his household consisted of six persons only; he had no plate or horses; even the one mule which served the needs of the whole establishment was often sold to assist the poor, but as often bought back by some well-to-do citizen and restored to its charitable owner. He gave audience daily to all corners, whilst declaring himself especially the protector of the poor, at whose disposal he kept his purse and granaries. When these were exhausted he gave away his furniture and his clothes. To assist the needy who were ashamed to beg, he had established a sort of “S.V.P.”, under the patronage of St Martin, which has been the means of supporting thousands of families in reduced circumstances.
Although naturally gentle, the saint was firm and courageous when circumstances demanded it. He put down gambling in his diocese, was the determined foe of both usury and magic, and reformed abuses of all kinds. In addition to preaching nearly every Sunday and festival, he visited his whole diocese once a year, always on foot. His reputation for wisdom and integrity was such that he was unceasingly consulted by those in authority, laymen as well as ecclesiastics; and his decisions were so judicious that they won for him the title of “the Counsellor”. When Pope Eugenius IV was dying he summoned Antoninus to Rome, received from him the last sacraments and died in his arms. Nicholas V sought his advice on matters of church and state, forbade any appeal to be made to Rome from the archbishop’s judgements, and declared that Antonino in his lifetime was as worthy of canonization as the dead Bernardino (da Siena), whom he was about to raise to the altars. Pius II nominated him to a commission charged with reforming the Roman court. in no less esteem was he held by the Florentine government, who charged him with important embassies on behalf of the republic and would have sent him as their representative to the emperor if illness had not prevented him from leaving Florence.
During a severe epidemic of plague which lasted over a year, the saintly archbishop laboured untiringly to assist the sufferers, inspiring by his example the clergy to do the same, very many of the friars of Santa Maria Novella, Fiesole and San Marco were carried off, and as usual famine followed upon the heels of the epidemic. The saint stripped himself of almost everything and obtained substantial relief for the victims from Pope Nicholas V, who never refused him any request. For two or three years from 1453 Florence was shaken by frequent earthquakes and a violent storm wrought havoc in one quarter of the city. St Antoninus maintained the most distressed of the victims, rebuilt their houses and gave them a fresh start. He also cured a number of sick persons, for all knew that he possessed the gift of miracles. Cosimo de’ Medici publicly asserted that the preservation of the republic from the dangers which threatened it was largely due to the merits and prayers of the holy archbishop. St Antoninus was canonized in 1523.

In the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. i, there is printed a life of St Antoninus by Francis Castiglione, one of his household, together with a supplement by Leonard de Seruberti, and some extracts from the process of canonization. There are a good many other sources of information in the chronicles, correspondence, diaries, etc., of the period, few of which were accessible in the seventeenth century. By far the best attempt to utilize these materials is that made by the Abbé Raoul Morçay in his substantial work, Saint Antonin (1914). This is a very satisfactory biography, embodying many details which were recorded by the arch­bishop’s notary, Baldovino Baldovini, in a memoir which has only come to light in recent years. A shorter account has been contributed to the series “Les Saints” by A. Masseron (1926). See also the many references to St Antoninus in vol. i of Pastor’s Geschichte der Päpste (vol. ii of the English translation) and also in Mortier’s Histoire des Maîtres Généraux O.P. On the literary work of the saint see DTC., vol. i, cc. 1451—1453, and also J. B. Walker, The Chronicles of St Antoninus (1933), who covers rather more ground than Schaube, the first and more scholarly explorer in this field. For a fuller bibliography dealing with the early literature see Taurisano, Catalogus Hagiographicus OP. St Antoninus is important as a practical moralist, and in Social Theories of the Middle Ages (1926) Fr Bede Jarrett throws light on his moral and social teaching for the general reader; see also the same writer’s little book in Jack’s People’s Books series, Medieval Socialism (1913), and his St Antonio and Medieval Economics (1914).

The world in which he lived was engrossed in the Renaissance; it was a time of violent political upheaval, of plague, wars, and injustice. The effects of the Great Schism of the West, over which Saint Catherine (Born in Siena, Italy, March 25, 1347, in Florence, Italy; died there on April 29, 1380; canonized in 1461; declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970) had wept and prayed a generation before, were still tearing Christendom apart when Antoninus was born--in the same year as Cosimo de'Medici. The fortunes of Florence were largely to rest in the hands of these two men.

There are only a few known details about the early life of Antoninus, but they are revealing ones. He was a delicate and lovable child. His stepmother, worried over his frailty, often gave him extra meat at table. The little boy, determined to harden himself for the religious life, would slip the meat under the table to the cats. Kids! From the cradle his inclination was to piety. His only pleasure was to read the lives of saints and other good books, converse with pious persons, or employ himself in prayer. Accordingly, if he was not at home or at school, he was always to be found at Saint Michael's Church before a crucifix or in our Lady's chapel there. He had a passion for learning, but an even greater ardor to perfect himself in the science of salvation. In prayer, he begged nothing of God but His grace to avoid sin, and to do His holy will in all things.
Antoninus hitched his wagon to the star of great austerity and, at 14, discovered the answer to all his questions in the preaching of Blessed John Dominici (Born in Florence, Italy, 1376 (or 1350?); died in Hungary 1419), who was then the prior of Santa Maria Novella and later became cardinal-archbishop of Ragusa and papal legate. Antoninus went to speak with the preacher and begged to be admitted to the order.  At the time, Blessed John was reforming the Dominican priories of the area according to the wishes of Blessed Raymond of Capua (Born 1330 at Capua, Italy as Raymond delle Vigne Died 5 Oct 1399 at Nuremberg Germany of natural causes). John planned to build a new and reformed house at Fiesole (near Florence), which he hoped to start again with young and fervent subjects who would revivify the order. It declined under the plague and effects of the schism. As yet, he had no building in which to house the new recruits. Even were the monastery completed, it was to be a house of rigorous observance, and Antoninus looked far too small and frail for such an austere community. John Dominici, not wishing to quench the wick of youthful eagerness, had not the heart to explain all this. He told Antoninus to go home and memorize the large and forbidding book called Decretum Gratiani, supposing that its very bulk would discourage the lad.
{It was about 1150 that the Camaldolese monk, Gratian, professor of theology at the University of Bologna, to obviate the difficulties which beset the study of practical, external theology (theologia practica externa), i. e. canon law, composed the work entitled by himself "Concordia discordantium canonum", but called by others "Nova collectio", "Decreta", "Corpus juris canonici", also "Decretum Gratiani", the latter being now the commonly accepted name.

In spite of its great reputation the "Decretum" has never been recognized by the Church as an official collection. It is divided into three parts (ministeria, negotia, sacramenta).
The first part is divided into 101 distinctions (distinctiones), the first 20 of which form an introduction to the general principles of canon Law (tractatus decretalium); the remainder constitutes a tractatus ordinandorum, relative to ecclesiastical persons and function.
The second part contains 36 causes (causœ), divided into questions (quœstiones), and treat of ecclesiastical administration and marriage; the third question of the 33rd causa treats of the Sacrament of Penance and is divided into 7 distinctions.

The third part, entitled "De consecratione", treats of the sacraments and other sacred things and contains 5 distinctions. Each distinction or question contains dicta Gratiani, or maxims of Gratian, and canones. Gratian himself raises questions and brings forward difficulties, which he answers by quoting auctoritates, i. e. canons of councils, decretals of the popes, texts of the Scripture or of the Fathers. These are the canones; the entire remaining portion, even the summaries of the canons and the chronological indications, are called the maxims or dicta Gratiani. It is to be noted that many auctoritates have been inserted in the "Decretum" by authors of a later date. These are the Paleœ, so called from Paucapalea, the name of the principal commentator on the "Decretum". The Roman revisers of the sixteenth century (1566-82) corrected the text of the "Decree" and added many critical notes designated by the words Correctores Romani.}

Antoninus, however, was possessed of an iron will. He went home and began to read the book straight through. By the end of the year, he had finished the nearly impossible task set before him, and returned to Blessed John to recite it as requested. There was now no further way to delay his reception into the order, so he was received into the Dominican Order "for the future priory of Fiesole" in 1405 by Blessed John.
Due to the unsettled state of the Church, the order, and Italian politics, the training of the young aspirants was conducted at several different locations, including Cortona, and, for a time, the regular course of studies could not be pursued. Antoninus, nothing daunted, studied by himself. He was happily associated during these years with several future Dominican saints and beati, including Lawrence of Ripafratta, the novice master; Blessed Constantius of Fabriano (Born in Fabriano, Marches of Ancona, Italy, 1410; died at Ascoli, Italy, 1481); Peter Capucci (Born at Città di Castello (the ancient Tifernum), in 1390; died 1445;) and his great friend, the artist, Saint Fra Angelico (Born in Mugello near Florence, Italy, in 1386 or 1387; died in Rome, Italy, in 1455).

Ordained and set to preaching, Antoninus soon won his place in the hearts of the Florentines. Each time he said Mass, he was moved to tears by the mercy of God, and his own devotion moved other hearts.
He was given consecutively several positions in the order. While still very young, he was made prior of the Minerva in Rome (1430). He served the friars in various priories in Italy (including Cortona, Fiesole (1418-28), Naples, Gaeta, Siena, and Florence). As superior of the reformed Tuscan and Neapolitan congregations, and also as prior provincial of the whole Roman province, Antoninus zealously enforced the reforms initiated by John Dominici with a view to restoring the primitive rule. Antoninus became a distinguished master of canon law and assisted popes at their councils. There is evidence that at some point he served as a judge on the Rota. Pope Eugenius IV summoned him to attend the general Council of Florence (1439), and he assisted at all its sessions.
In 1436, he founded the famous priory of San Marco in Florence with the financial aid of Cosimo de'Medici in buildings abandoned by the Silvestrines. Under his guidance and encouragement, the San Marco's monastery became the center of Christian art. He called upon his old companion, Saint Fra Angelico, and on the miniaturist, Fra Benedetto (Angelico's natural brother), to do the frescoes and the choir books which are still preserved there. He also ensured that an outstanding library was collected. Antoninus is still remembered today in the exquisite 'Cloister of Saint Antoninus' with its wide arches and beautiful ionic capitals, designed in the saint's lifetime by Michelozzo for San Marco. In the lunettes of the cloister Bernardino Poccetti and others painted scenes from Antoninus's life. (When Giambologna restored and altered the church of San Marco in 1588, he built for the saint's body a superb chapel.)
To his horror, Antoninus's wisdom and pastoral zeal made him a natural choice by Pope Eugenius IV for archbishop of Florence in 1446. Although Tabor reports that the pope had first chosen Fra Angelico, whose purity and wisdom had become known when he was painting in Rome. The artist entreated the holy father to choose Fra Antoninus instead, who had done great service by his unworldliness and gentle but irresistible power.  Antoninus's appointment as bishop was a genuine heartbreak to a scholar who could never find enough time to study; in fact, he had been in Naples for two years reforming the houses of the province when he received word of the nomination and confirmation by the Florentines. For a time he tried to escape accepting the dignity by hiding himself on the island of Sardinia. That did not work. So he tried begging the holy father to excuse him because of his weak physical constitution. The pope would accept no excuses; he commanded Antoninus to proceed immediately to Fiesole under the pain of excommunication for disobedience.
While he obeyed with trepidation, it was a blessing for the people of Florence that he was consecrated bishop in March 1446; they were not slow in demonstrating their appreciation of their good fortune. He was the 'people's prelate' and the 'protector of the poor' for he discharged his office with inflexible justice and overflowing charity. His love extended to the rich, too. The next year, the dying Pope Eugenius summoned Antoninus to Rome in order to receive the last sacraments from the holy bishop before dying in his arms on February 23, 1447.
For the remainder of his life, Antoninus combined an amazing amount of active work with constant prayer. He allowed himself very little sleep. In addition to the church office, he recited daily the office of our Lady, and the seven penitential psalms; the office of the dead twice a week; and the whole psalter on every festival. His prayer life allowed him to exhibit an exterior of serenity regardless of the situation.
Francis Castillo, his secretary, once said to him, bishops were to be pitied if they were to be eternally besieged with hurry as he was. The saint made him this answer, which the author of his vita wished to see written in letters of gold:
"To enjoy interior peace, we must always reserve in our hearts amidst all affairs, as it were, a secret closet, where we are to keep retired within ourselves, and where no business of the world can over enter."

Because of his reputation for wisdom and ability, Antoninus was often called upon to help in public affairs civil & ecclesiastical. Pope Nicholas V sought his advice on matters of church and state, forbade any appeal to be made to Rome from the archbishop's judgements, and declared that Antonino in his lifetime was as worthy of canonization as the dead Bernardino of Siena (Born in Massa Marittima (near Siena), Tuscany, Italy, on September 8, 1380; died in Aquila, Italy, May 20, 1444;), whom he was about to raise to the altars.
Pius II nominated him to a commission charged with reforming the Roman court. The Florentine government gave him important embassies on behalf of the republic and would have sent him as their representative to the emperor if illness had not prevented him from leaving Florence. Yet he also busied himself with the beauty of the chant, and personally attended the Divine Office at his cathedral.
A distinguished writer on international law and moral theology, his best known work is Summa moralis, which is generally thought to have laid the groundwork for modern moral theology. He was conscious of the new problems presented by social and economic development, and taught that the state had a duty to intervene in mercantile affairs for the common good, and to give help to the unfortunate and needy. He was among the first Christian moralists to teach that money invested in commerce and industry was true capital; therefore, it was lawful and not usury to claim interest on it (combine this information with the fact that he was a staunch opponent of usury). All his many books were of a practical nature, including guidance for confessors (Summa confessionis) and a chronicle of the history of the world.  His first concern, however, was always for the people of his diocese, to whom he set an example of simple living and inflexible integrity. He preached regularly, made a yearly visitation of all the parishes in the diocese on foot, put down gambling, opposed both usury and magic, reformed abuses of all kinds, and served as the example of Christian charity. Each day he held an audience for anyone who wished to speak with him. No one appealed for his help, material or spiritual, in vain.
Antoninus was probably best known for his kindness to the poor, and there were many in the rich city of Florence. He pulled up his own flower garden and planted vegetables for the poor. He drove his housekeeper to distraction by giving away even his own tableware, food, clothing, and furniture. He never possessed any small precious objects, such as plates or jewels. His stable generally housed one mule, which he often sold to relieve some poor person. When that happened, some wealthy citizen would buy the animal and offer it as a present to the charitable archbishop. He kept in personal contact with the poor of the city, particularly with those who had fallen from wealth and were ashamed to beg. For their care he founded a society called the "Goodmen of Saint Martin of Tours," who went about quietly doing much-needed charitable work--much in the fashion of our modern Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. His particular establishment now provides for about 600 families. His charity did not end with the poor, but also extended to his enemies. A criminal, named Ciardi, who was called before the bishop to answer accusations, attempted to assassinate the archbishop. The saint narrowly escaped the thrust of his poniard, which pierced the back of his chair. Yet Antoninus freely forgave the potential assassin and prayed for his conversion. God answered his prayers so that he had the comfort of seeing Ciardi become a sincere Franciscan penitent.
When the plague again came to Florence in 1448, it was the saintly archbishop who took the lead in almsgiving and care of the sick. Many Dominicans died of the plague as they went about their priestly duties in the stricken city; sad but undaunted, Antoninus continued to go about on foot among the people, giving both material and spiritual aid. During the earthquakes of 1453-1455, he was similarly self-giving. The example of his own charity led many rich persons to likewise provide for the afflicted.  Antoninus's was a role model in other ways, too. When he learned that two blind beggars had amassed a fortune, he took the money from them and distributed it to others in dire necessity. Was this an injustice? No, he provided for all the needs of the two for the rest of their lives. The bishop tried to hide his virtue from others and himself, until he would see reflections of them in his flock. By accident he discovered one such flame that he had sparked in a poor, obscure handicraftsman who continually practiced penance. The man spent Sundays and holidays in the churches, secretly distributed to the poor all he earned beyond that needed for subsistence, and kept a poor leper in his home, joyfully serving the ungrateful beggar and dressing his ulcers with his own hands. The leper, increasingly morose and imperious, carried complaints against his benefactor to the archbishop, who, discovering this hidden treasure of sanctity in the handicraftsman, secretly honored it, while he punished the insolence of the leper.
Cosimo de'Medici, who did'n always have compliments for Dominicans, admitted frankly, "Our city has experienced all sorts of misfortunes: fire, earthquake, drought, plague, seditions, plots. I believe it would today be nothing but a mass of ruins without the prayers of our holy archbishop."
After 13 years as bishop, Antoninus died surrounded by his religious brothers from San Marco and mourned by the whole city. His whole life was mirrored in his last words, "to serve God is to reign." Pope Pius II assisted at his funeral, when he was buried in San Marco's church. Pius eulogized Antoninus as one who "conquered avarice and pride, was outstandingly temperate in every way, was a brilliant theologian, and popular preacher."

His hairshirt and other relics were the vehicle for many miracles. It is significant that the canonization of Saint Antoninus was decreed by the short-lived Pope Adrian VI (August 31, 1522, to September 14, 1523), whose ideas for church reform were radical and drastic. His body was found uncorrupted in 1559, when it was translated with pomp and solemnity into a chapel richly adorned by the two brothers Salviati (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Dominicans, Dorcy, Farmer, Husenbeth, Jarrett, Tabor, Walsh).

Antonius of Florence is generally portrayed in art as a Dominican bishop with scales. He might be shown (1) weighing false merchandise against the word of God; (2) as a Dominican with a pallium; (3) as a young man giving alms; (4) drifting down a river in a boat; or (5) holding a book in a bag (Roeder). The likeness of the archbishop was recorded by contemporary artists, as in the bust at Santa Maria Novella and a statue at the nearby Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Antonio del Pollaiuolo's painting of him at the foot of the Cross survives at San Marco, as does a series of scenes from his life in its cloister of San Antonino (Farmer) and a portrait by Fra Bartolomeo (Tabor).
1569 Saint John of Ávila ; The Apostle of Andalusia, spiritual advisor of St. Teresa, St. Francis Borgia, St. John of the Cross, St. Peter of Alcantara and others
1569 BD JOHN OF 
ÁVILA
AMONGST the great religious leaders of sixteenth-century Spain, one of the most influential and most eloquent was Bd John of Avila, the friend of St Ignatius Loyola and the spiritual adviser of St Teresa, St John of God, St Francis Borgia, St Peter of Alcantara and of Louis of Granada, who became his biographer.
He was born in New Castile at Almodovar-del-Campo of wealthy parents, who sent him at the age of fourteen to Salamanca University to prepare to take up law. This career, however, had no attraction for the boy and he returned home, where for three years he gave himself up to devotional exercises and austerities. Then, at the suggestion of a Franciscan who was greatly impressed by his piety, he went to Alcalà to study philosophy and theology. There he had as his master the celebrated Dominic Soto; there also he laid the foundation of a life-long friendship with Peter Guerrero, afterwards archbishop of Granada.
   His parents died while he was still at Alcalà, leaving him their sole heir, but no sooner had he been ordained priest than he distributed the proceeds of his inheritance to the poor. From the moment he began to preach it was clear that he possessed extraordinary oratorical powers, and when he expressed a desire to go as a missionary to Mexico, the archbishop of Seville bade him remain in Spain and evangelize his fellow countrymen. Appointed missioner for Andalusia, he laboured indefatigably for nine years in this great province. Rich and poor, young and old, learned and unlearned, saints and sinners—all flocked to hear him. Countless souls were brought by him to penance and amendment of life, whilst many were led into the path of perfection under his direction. When he preached, he spoke like one inspired and, indeed, the only preparation he ever made for his sermons was his daily meditation of four hours. To a young priest who asked him how to become a good preacher, he replied that the only way he knew was to love God very much.
By his fearless denunciation of vice in high places, he made for himself some bitter enemies who actually succeeded in obtaining his imprisonment by the Inquisition at Seville on a charge of preaching rigorism and the exclusion of the rich from the kingdom of Heaven. The accusation could not be substantiated, and his first public appearance after his release was made the occasion for an extraordinary popular ovation. When his time in Andalusia was completed, Bd John devoted himself to giving what were practically missions, in all parts of Spain but especially in the cities. Moreover, he kept up a vast correspondence with his spiritual children and other persons who desired his advice. For the last seventeen years of his life he was in constant pain which he bore with unflinching patience. Of his writings the most celebrated are a collection of his letters and a treatise entitled Audi Filia, which he drew up for Doña Sancha Carillo, a rich and beautiful young woman who under his direction had given up great worldly prospects at court to lead a life of prayer and solitude under her father’s roof.
Ever since his beatification in 1894 the Society of Jesus has kept John of Avila’s feast almost as that of one of her own members, and indeed, as Don Vincente Garcia shows, Bd John had fully determined at the age of fifty-nine to enter the Society, but was deterred by the rigorism and rather extravagant attitude of Father Bustamente, the then provincial of Andalusia. His devotion to the order and its founder, however, did not in any way slacken. He was attended by a Jesuit in his last hours and left his body to be buried in their church at Montilla.

Our best sources of information are the summarium de virtutibus in the process of beati­fication, the writings of Bd John himself and the sketch of his life written by his friend and contemporary, Louis de Granada. His writings may most conveniently be consulted in the bulky work—there are 2199 pages—Obras del B. Maestro Juan de Avila, published at Madrid in 1927. His spiritual letters are one of the classics of Spanish literature and were reprinted in the series of Classicos Castellanos in 1912. The preface of this volume, by Don V. Garcia de Diego, is also a valuable contribution, especially from the point of view of chronology, to the biography of this master of the spiritual life. His life by Father degli Oddi, has been translated into English (1898). A more recent life, by Father J. M. de Buck, appeared at Louvain in 1927 and a small collection of his letters was translated by the Benedictine nuns of Stanbrook and published in 1904, with a preface by Cardinal Gasquet. Bd John’s gifts as a preacher cannot fairly be judged by his extant sermons, which for the most part are merely imperfect reports taken down by his auditors.
He was born on January 6, 1499, at Almodovar del Campo, Spain. After studying law at the University of Salamanca, he left the university to be a hermit. He then went to Alcala, where he was ordained. John drew great crowds with his fiery denunciations of evil and his many sermons. A brief imprisonment by the Inquisition in Seville made him even more popular. His missionary efforts were centered on Andalusia, and his letters and other writings have become Spanish classics. John was canonized in 1970.
1602 Vasilii (Basil), Mangazeia the Holy Martyr Wonderworker, -- was the first saint glorified in the Siberian land
He accepted a martyr's death on 4 April 1602, and from the mid-XVII Century he is deeply venerated for manifold manifestations of grace in help of infirmities, in sorrow and in desperate straits.

Blessed Vasilii was the son of a not-rich inhabitant of Yaroslavl', Feodor by name, and was taken by a certain rich Yaroslavl' merchant to a place for the selling of his wares in sub-polar Mangazeia -- one of the first Russian cities in Siberia.
Vasilii strictly fulfilled the Christian commandments. From his early years his integrity was obvious to all. Meekness and humility were his finery, and his heart was filled with faith in God and by piety. Love for prayer impelled him during time of Divine-services to leave off with mundane concerns and to go to the holy church.
The devout youth just barely turned age 19, when the All-Supreme, "looking out for his virtue, did intend to summon him to eternal blessedness, the which to attain from this temporal life is impossible otherwise, than by the narrow and afflicted path of an external testing".
As the Church tradition testifies, one time, when Blessed Vasilii was at prayer in church during the Paschal matins, thieves plundered the wares of his master. An explanation was demanded of Vasilii. Despite the many shouts of his master, Righteous Vasilii remained in church until the end of the Divine-services. His money-loving master, at the instigation of the devil, suspected Vasilii of being an accomplice in the crime and upon his return from the church he was subjected to insults and beatings. The guiltless youth answered his tormentor: "I have in truth taken none of thine goods". Then the master led Vasilii off to the city military-commander, who subjected the sufferer to new cruel torments. The merchant, enraged at the patient silence of Vasilii, in anger struck him with a ring of ware-house keys, and from this blow Blessed Vasilii died.
The body of the innocent martyr was put in a grave and without Christian burial was committed to the earth, "where it is duly moist from water". But the All-Mighty Lord after the passage of 47 years willed for it to appear from the bosom of the earth and to be glorified by many miracles.
Saint Vasilii many a time helped lost and danger-threatened travelers and fur-hunters; he healed palsy, blindness, and various other maladies; through the prayers of mothers he healed children, and preserved the despondent from suicide. There have been preserved copies of the Life of Saint Vasilii (XVII-XIX Cent.) that testify about the abundant manifestations of grace through prayers to the Mangazeia wonderworker.
In 1659 with the blessing of the Tobolsk metropolitan, Simeon, there was made an inspection of the relics of the saint, and from that time there began to spread veneration of him as one truly God-pleasing. In 1670 with the construction of the Turokhansk monastery of the Holy Trinity, priestmonk Tikhon transferred the relics of Righteous Vasilii into the monastery founded by him. In 1719 this monastery was visited by the great Siberian missionary -- the Tobolsk metropolitan, Philothei (Leschinsky), and he venerated the relics of the saint and compiled a canon to him. Towards the end of the first third of the XVIII Century there were compiled three services and several discourses on the day of memory of Righteous Vasilii.
The veneration of the God-pleasing saint contributed not a little to the conversion from paganism to Orthodoxy of the Tungus, Evenki and Yurak peoples. The peoples of the North turn to Saint Vasilii as a patron saint for the fur-hunter tradesmen.
One of the first icons of Saint Vasilii was written by a novice of the Tobolsk metropolitan Pavel -- the painter Luke, on the occasion of his miraculous deliverance from death. On the holy icons Saint Vasilii is depicted "with a boyish face, and small of stature", "in image of reverence, eyes having a sparkle, gazing intently, and the hair of his head dark blond". On several of the icons of the saint the Trinity Turukhansk monastery is depicted, and over it on a mount is Vasilii praying -- in but a shirt and without footwear. Sometimes also on the icons was depicted the suffering of the saint at the hands of the merchant and military-commander. Depictions of Saint Vasilii of Mangazeia are known of at the Vladimir cathedral in Kiev, at Novgorod, and at Moscow.
One of the first days of memory of the saint was on 22 March, when Holy Church remembers a saint of same name with him -- the PriestMartyr Basil of Ancyra. Afterwards, at the Turukhansk Trinity monastery his memory began to be celebrated on 10 May, in honour of remembrance of the transfer of his relics from Mangazeia to Turukhan. An earlier commemoration of Righteous Vasilii of Manganzeia was done under 6 June, on the day of appearance of his relics.
1857 St. Peter Van native catechist Vietnamese martyr.  
He was arrested by authorities and beheaded. Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1988. 
1889 Blessed Damien of Molokai Joseph de Veuster he took the name of a fourth-century physician and martyr caring for the leper people's physical, medical and spiritual needs
(1840-1889)
When Joseph de Veuster was born in Tremelo, Belgium, in 1840, few people in Europe had any firsthand knowledge of leprosy (Hansen's disease). By the time he died at the age of 49, people all over the world knew about this disease because of him. They knew that human compassion could soften the ravages of this disease.

Forced to quit school at age 13 to work on the family farm, six years later Joseph entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, taking the name of a fourth-century physician and martyr. When his brother Pamphile, a priest in the same congregation, fell ill and was unable to go to the Hawaiian Islands as assigned, Damien quickly volunteered in his place. In May 1864, two months after arriving in his new mission, Damien was ordained a priest in Honolulu and assigned to the island of Hawaii.  In 1873, he went to the Hawaiian government's leper colony on the island of Molokai, set up seven years earlier. Part of a team of four chaplains taking that assignment for three months each year, Damien soon volunteered to remain permanently, caring for the people's physical, medical and spiritual needs. In time, he became their most effective advocate to obtain promised government support.
Soon the settlement had new houses and a new church, school and orphanage. Morale improved considerably. A few years later he succeeded in getting the Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse, led by Mother Marianne Kope, to help staff this colony in Kalaupapa.

Damien contracted Hansen's disease and died of its complications. As requested, he was buried in Kalaupapa, but in 1936 the Belgian government succeeded in having his body moved to Belgium. Part of Damien's body was returned to his beloved Hawaiian brothers and sisters after his beatification in 1995.

When Hawaii became a state in 1959, it selected Damien as one of its two representatives in the Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol.
Comment:   Some people thought Damien was a hero for going to Molokai and others thought he was crazy. When a Protestant clergyman wrote that Damien was guilty of immoral behavior, Robert Louis Stevenson vigorously defended him in an "Open Letter to Dr. Hyde."
Quote:   During the beatification homily, Pope John Paul II said: "Holiness is not perfection according to human criteria; it is not reserved for a small number of exceptional persons. It is for everyone; it is the Lord who brings us to holiness, when we are willing to collaborate in the salvation of the world for the glory of God, despite our sin and our sometimes rebellious temperament ."
A Miracle for the Apostle of the Lepers
Cure Leads to Father Damien's Canonization on Sunday
By Carmen Elena Villa
HONOLULU, Hawaii, OCT. 6, 2009 (Zenit.org).- "No one has survived this cancer. This illness will take you," said Doctor Walter Chang to Audrey Toguchi in 1997 since, scientifically, there was nothing that could be done for her.  But Toguchi didn't die from her cancer and her cure turned out to be the decisive miracle for the canonization of Father Damien de Veuster. Father Damien will be canonized this Sunday during a Mass celebrated by Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Square.
 
Father Damien, also known as the apostle of the lepers, was born in Belgium in 1840. At 33 he went to the island of Molokai, Hawaii, where lepers were sent and lived in isolation.  Depriving himself of everything, the priest stayed there serving, catechizing and administering the sacraments to those who had contracted this disease.
He himself contracted it and died in 1899. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1995.
 Terminal cancer 
In 1996, Audrey Toguchi, native of the Island of Oahu in Hawaii, was 69. "I had no idea I had cancer," she told ZENIT.
 "My husband noticed I had a lump after a fall -- I had slipped some days earlier while cleaning the floor of my house. The family doctor said it was a bruise."  The following year, the bruise had not disappeared, but had grown. After additional exams, a tumor was found in her left thigh. It was malignant cancer.  She underwent surgery a year later, but the cancer had already spread. "It was the surgeon who discovered on removing it that it was a very rare and aggressive terminal cancer," she explained. 
"Other oncologists who studied the case said that nowhere in the world was it recorded that a person survived this type of sickness," Toguchi continued.
 
After another examination in September of 1998, the X-rays showed that the cancer had metastasized in her lungs. The doctors gave her three months to live.  Toguchi relates that she felt weak. She did not want any more chemotherapy or medical interventions. But she took up a devotion she had practiced from her childhood, as a good Hawaiian: "I have always loved Father Damien," Toguchi explained.
 
"I have prayed to him all my life. That is why I visited Kalawao (where his tomb is located),
Molokai and our churches over many years," she said.
No doubt 
In November of 1998, Toguchi began to feel much improved. Medical examinations revealed that the cancer was receding. Six months later, X-rays showed a complete regression of the metastasis, though she had had no therapy. The cancer disappeared entirely.  While for her doctors, there is no explanation -- her own doctor, who is not a Catholic, affirms this -- for Toguchi there is no doubt that it was the hand of Damien from heaven, interceding before God. Many prayers were said for years, both by her and her relatives, to this blessed apostle. 
"When I was completely cured by the Lord's love and Father Damien's intercession, I felt very honored and grateful," she said.
 
On Oct. 18, 2007, medical experts from the Congregation for Saints' Causes examined the clinical documents. As is always the case for a canonization, believers and non-believers concluded with moral certitude that the cure was not only exceptional but "extra-natural." 
Then, the Commission of Theologians determined that it was a miracle, obtained by Father Damien's intercession -- an indispensable requisite to receive the title of saint.

Ordinary 
Toguchi spoke about how Father Damien's witness still makes an impression in her village. "He left Belgium when he was very young. He was the pastor of Hawaiians of all religions, because we are all children of God. He learned and respected Hawaiian culture. His person is much venerated among us. Now, after 120 years, he is still much loved here."
 
Toguchi today is 82. With white hair and glasses, her face and voice are serene; she is full of vitality. She affirmed that she would certainly be traveling to Rome for the canonization.  She ended her conversation with ZENIT saying that "in 1860, President Lincoln said that God loves ordinary people because he became one of them."
 
"I am a very ordinary person," Toguchi said. "In his compassionate mercy God cured me, and Father Damien, who showed great love for the most rejected of humanity, interceded for me."



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 PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 1

O Lady, I have cried to thee, hear me: incline unto my prayer and to my supplication.

Let my supplication be directed as incense before thy face: both in the time of the evening sacrifice and in the morning.

Let not my heart turn aside into spiteful words: and let not the thought of wickedness upset my mind.

Make me submissive to the good pleasure of thy heart: and let me be conformed to thy actions.

With the sword of understanding pierce my heart: and with the dart of charity inflame my mind.


Let every spirit praise Our Lady

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

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.

Join us on CatholicVote.org. Be part of a new movement committed to using powerful media projects to create a Culture of Life. We can help shape the movement and have a voice in its future. Check it out at www.CatholicVote.org

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Save A Life is Earthly; Saving A Soul is Eternal Donation by mail, please send check or money order to:
Eternal Word Television Network 5817 Old Leeds Rd. Irondale, AL 35210  USA
  Catholic Television Network  Supported entirely by donations from viewers  help  spread the Eternal Word, online Here
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

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).
LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858 
China
Marian shrines
May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798  
Links to Related
Marian Websites  Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates, PSALTER OF BLESSED VIRGIN MARY  1  2022