AND ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN...." V. Rev. George Florovsky, D.D.

"I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God, and your God" (John 20:17).

In these words the Risen Christ described to Mary Magdalene the mystery of His Resurrection. She had to carry this mysterious message to His disciples, "as they mourned and wept" (Mark 16:10). The disciples listened to these glad tidings with fear and amazement, with doubt and mistrust. It was not Thomas alone who doubted among the Eleven. On the contrary, it appears that only one of the Eleven did not doubt - St John, the disciple "whom Jesus loved." He alone grasped the mystery of the empty tomb at once: "and he saw, and believed" (John 20:8).

Even Peter left the sepulcher in amazement, "wondering at that which was come to pass" (Luke 24:12).

The disciples did not expect the Resurrection. The women did not, either. They were quite certain that Jesus was dead and rested in the grave, and they went to the place "where He was laid," with the spices they had prepared, "that they might come and anoint Him." They had but one thought: "Who shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulcher for us?" (Mark 16:1-3; Luke 24:1). And therefore, on not finding the body, Mary Magdalene was sorrowful and complained: "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him' (John 20:13). On hearing the good news from the angel, the women fled from the sepulchre in fear and trembling: "Neither said they anything to any man, for they were afraid" (Mark 16:8). And when they spoke no one believed them, in the same way as no one 'had believed Mary, who saw the Lord, or the disciples as they walked on their way into the country, (Mark 16:13), and who recognized Him in the breaking of bread. "And afterward He appeared unto the Eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them who had seen Him after He was risen' (Mark 16:10-14).

From whence comes this "hardness of heart" and hesitation? Why were their eyes so "holden," why were the disciples so much afraid of the news, and why did the Easter joy so slowly, and with such difficulty, enter the Apostles' hearts? Did not they, who were with Him from the beginning, "from the baptism of John," see all the signs of power which He performed before the face of the whole people? The lame walked, the blind saw, the dead were raised, and all infirmities were healed. Did they not behold, only a week earlier, how He raised by His word Lazarus from the dead, who had already been in the grave for four days? Why then was it so strange to them that the Master had arisen Himself? How was it that they came to forget that which the Lord used to tell them on many occasions, that after suffering and death He would arise on the third day?

The mystery of the Apostles' "unbelief" is partly disclosed in the narrative of the Gospel: "But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel," with disillusionment and complaint said the two disciples to their mysterious Companion on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:21). They meant: He was betrayed, condemned to death and crucified. The news of the Resurrection brought by the women only "astonished" them. They still wait for an earthly triumph, for an exernal victory. The same temptation possesses their hearts, which first prevented them from accepting "the preaching of the Cross" and made them argue every time the Saviour tried to reveal His mystery to them. "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" (Luke 24:26). It was still difficult to understand this.

He had the power to arise, why did He allow what that had happened to take place at all? Why did He take upon Himself disgrace, blasphemy and wounds? In the eyes of all Jerusalem, amidst the vast crowds assembled for the Great Feast, He was condemned and suffered a shameful death. And now He enters not into the Holy City, neither to the people which beheld His shame and death, nor to the High Priests and elders, nor to Pilate - so that He might make their crime obvious and smite their pride. Instead, He sends His disciples away to remote Galilee and appears to them there. Even much earlier the disciples wondered, "How is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" (John 14:22). Their wonder continues, and even on the day of His glorious Ascension the Apostles question the Lord, "Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). They still did not comprehend the meaning of His Resurrection, they did not understand what it meant that He was "ascending" to the Father. Their eyes were opened but later, when "the promise of the Father" had been fulfilled.

In the Ascension resides the meaning and the fullness of Christ's Resurrection.

The Lord did not rise in order to return again to the fleshly order of life, so as to live again and commune with the disciples and the multitudes by means of preaching and miracles. Now he does not even stay with them, but only "appears" to them during the forty days, from time to time, and always in a miraculous and mysterious manner.
"He was not always with them now, as He was before the Resurrection," comments St John Chrysostom. "He came and again disappeared, thus leading them on to higher conceptions. He no longer permitted them to continue in their former relationship toward Him, but took effectual measures to secure these two objects: That the fact of His Resurrection should be believed, and that He Himself should be ever after apprehended to be greater than man."
There was something new and unusual in His person (cf. John 21:1-14). As St John Chrysostom says, "It was not an open presence, but a certain testimony of the fact that He was present." That is why the disciples were confused and frightened. Christ arose not in the same way as those who were restored to life before Him. Theirs was a resurrection for a time, and they returned to life in the same body, which was subject to death and corruption - returned to the previous mode of life. But Christ arose for ever, unto eternity.

He arose in a body of glory, immortal and incorruptible. He arose, never to die, for "He clothed the mortal in the splendor of incorruption." His glorified Body was already exempt from the fleshly order of existence. "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body" (I Cor. 15:42-44).
This mysterious transformation of human bodies, of which St Paul was speaking in the case of our Lord, had been accomplished in three days. Christ's work on earth was accomplished. He had suffered, was dead and buried, and now rose to a higher mode of existence. By His Resurrection He abolished and destroyed death, abolished the law of corruption, "and raised with Himself the whole race of Adam." Christ has risen, and now "no dead are left in the grave" (cf. The Easter Sermon of St John Chrysostom). And now He ascends to the Father, yet He does not "go away," but abides with the faithful for ever (cf. The Kontakion of Ascension). For He raises the very earth with Him to heaven, and even higher than any heaven.

God's power, in the phrase of St John Chrysostom, "manifests itself not only in the Resurrection, but in something much stronger." For "He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God" (Mark 16:19).

And with Christ, man's nature ascends also.

"We who seemed unworthy of the earth, are now raised to heaven," says St John Chrysostom. "We who were unworthy of earthly dominion have been raised to the Kingdom on high, have ascended higher than heaven, have came to occupy the King's throne, and the same nature from which the angels guarded Paradise, stopped not until it ascended to the throne of the Lord." By His Ascension the Lord not only opened to man the entrance to heaven, not only appeared before the face of God on our behalf and for our sake, but likewise "transferred man" to the high places. "He honored them He loved by putting them close to the Father." God quickened and raised us together with Christ, as St Paul says, "and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephes. 2:6). Heaven received the inhabitants of the earth. "The First fruits of them that slept" sits now on high, and in Him all creation is summed up and bound together. "The earth rejoices in mystery, and the heavens are filled with joy."

"The terrible ascent...." Terror-stricken and trembling stand the angelic hosts, contemplating the Ascension of Christ. And trembling they ask each other, "What is this vision? One who is man in appearance ascends in His body higher than the heavens, as God."

Thus the Office for the Feast of the Ascension depicts the mystery in a poetical language. As on the day of Christ's Nativity the earth was astonished on beholding God in the flesh, so now the Heavens do tremble and cry out. "The Lord of Hosts, Who reigns over all, Who is Himself the head 'Of all, Who is preeminent in all things, Who has reinstated creation in its former order - He is the King of Glory." And the heavenly doors are opened: "Open, Oh heavenly gates, and receive God in the flesh." It is an open allusion to Psalms 24:7-10, now prophetically interpreted. "Lift up your heads, Oh ye gates, and be lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty...." St Chrysostom says, "Now the angels have received that for which they have long waited, the archangels see that for which they have long thirsted. They have seen our nature shining on the King's throne, glistening with glory and eternal beauty.... Therefore they descend in order to see the unusual and marvelous vision: Man appearing in heaven."

The Ascension is the token of Pentecost, the sign of its coming, "The Lord has ascended to heaven and will send the Comforter to the world'

For the Holy Spirit was not yet in the world, until Jesus was glorified. And the Lord Himself told the disciples, "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you" (John 16:7). The gifts of the Spirit are "gifts of reconciliation," a seal of an accomplished salvation and of the ultimate reunion of the world with God. And this was accomplished only in the Ascension. "And one saw miracles follow miracles," says St John Chrysostom, "ten days prior to this our nature ascended to the King's throne, while today the Holy Ghost has descended on to our nature." The joy of the Ascension lies in the promise of the Spirit.' "Thou didst give joy to Thy disciples by a promise of the Holy Spirit." The victory of Christ is wrought in us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

"On high is His body, here below with us is His Spirit. And so we have His token on high, that is His body, which He received from us, and here below we have His Spirit with us. Heaven received the Holy Body, and the earth accepted the Holy Spirit. Christ came and sent the Spirit. He ascended, and with Him our body ascended also" St John Chrysostom). The revelation of the Holy Trinity was completed. Now the Spirit Comforter is poured forth on all flesh. "Hence comes foreknowledge of the future, understanding of mysteries, apprehension of what is hidden, distribution of good gifts, the heavenly citizenship, a place in the chorus of angels, joy without end, abiding in God, the being made like to God, and, highest of all, ,the being made God!" (St Basil, On the Holy Spirit, IX). Beginning with the Apostles, and through communion with them - by an unbroken succession - Grace is spread to all believers. Through renewal and glorification in the Ascended Christ, man's nature became receptive of the spirit. "And unto the world He gives quickening forces through His human body," says Bishop Theophanes. "He holds it completely in Himself and penetrates it with His strength, out of Himself; and He likewise draws the angels to Himself through the spirit of man, giving them space for action and thus making them blessed." All this is done through the Church, which is "the Body of Christ;" that is, His "fullness" (Ephesians 1:23). "The Church is the fulfillment of Christ," continues Bishop Theophanes, "perhaps in the same way as the tree is the fulfillment of the seed. That which is contained in the seed in a contracted form receives its development in the tree."

The very existence of the Church is the fruit of the Ascension. It is in the Church that man's nature is truly ascended to the Divine heights. "And gave Him to be Head over all things" (Ephesians 1:22). St John Chrysostom comments: "Amazing! Look again, whither He has raised the Church. As though He were lifting it up by some engine, He has raised it up to a vast height, and set it on yonder throne; for where the Head is, there is the body also. There is no interval of separation between the Head and the body; for were there a separation, then would the one no longer be a body, nor would the other any longer be a Head." The whole race of men is to follow Christ, even in His ultimate exaltation, "to follow in His train." Within the Church, through an acquisition of the Spirit in the fellowship of Sacraments, the Ascension continues still, and will continue until the measure is full. "Only then shall the Head be filled up, when the body is rendered perfect, when we are knit together and united," concludes St John Chrysostom.

The Ascension is a sign and token of the Second Coming. "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11).

The mystery of God's Providence will be accomplished in the Return of the Risen Lord. In the fulfillment of time, Christ's kingly power will be revealed and spread over the whole of faithful mankind. Christ bequeathes the Kingdom to the whole of the faithful. "And I appoint unto you a Kingdom as My Father has appointed unto me. That ye may eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Luke 22:29-30). Those who followed Him faithfully will sit with Him on their thrones on the day of His coming. "To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne" (Rev. 3:21). Salvation will be consummated in the Glory. "Conceive to yourself the throne, the royal throne, conceive the immensity of the privilege. This, at least if we chose, might more avail to startle us, yea, even than hell itself" (St John Chrysostom).

We should tremble more at the thought of that abundant Glory which is appointed unto the redeemed, than at the thought of the eternal darkness. "Think near Whom Thy Head is seated...." Or rather, Who is the Head. In very truth, "wondrous and terrible is Thy divine ascension from the mountain, 0 Giver of Life." A terrible and wondrous height is the King's throne. In face of this height all flesh stands silent, in awe and trembling. "He has Himself descended to the lowest depths of humiliation, and raised up man to the height of exaltation."

What then should we do? "If thou art the body of Christ, bear the Cross, for He bore it' (St John Chrysostom).

"With the power of Thy Cross, Oh Christ, establish my thoughts, so that I may sing and glorify Thy saving Ascension."

Originally published in St Vladimir's Seminary Quarterly, Vol. 2 # 3, 1954. Used with permission.

1st v. Andronicus and Junias liturgically honored among the Greeks referenced by Saint Paul in Romans 16:7 "Salute Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow- prisoners, who are of not among the Apostles, who also were in Christ before me." MM (AC)

Andronicus_Atanasias_of_Christianoupolis_Junia

Andronikus und Junia Orthodoxe Kirche: 17. Mai Andronikus auch 30. Juli
Andronikus und Junias werden in Röm 16, 7 von Paulus genannt. Nach dieser Stelle waren er und Junia (oder Junias) Verwandte und Mitgefangene des Paulus. Andronikus wurde von Paulus zum Priester geweiht und war dann Bischof von Pannonien (Ungarn).
Junia(s) war sein Helfer bzw. seine Helferin (Nach dem griechischen Text ist beides möglich). Beide heilten Kranke, trieben Dämonen aus und erlitten das Martyrium.

Saint Andronicus Apostle of the Seventy and Saint Junia were relatives of the holy Apostle Paul. They labored much, preaching the Gospel to pagans. St Paul mentions them in his Epistle to the Romans: "Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and fellow prisoners, who are of note among the Apostles, who also were in Christ, before me" (Romans 16:7).

St Andronicus was made Bishop of Pannonia, but his preaching also took him and St Junia to other lands, far from the boundaries of his diocese. Through the efforts of Sts Andronicus and Junia the Church of Christ was strengthened, pagans were converted to the knowledge of God, many pagan temples closed, and in their place Christian churches were built. The service in honor of these saints states that they suffered martyrdom for Christ.

In the fifth century, during the reign of the emperors Arcadius and Honorius, their holy relics were uncovered on the outskirts of Constantinople together with the relics of other martyrs at the gate of Eugenius (February 22).

It was revealed to the pious cleric Nicholas Kalligraphos that among the relics of these seventeen martyrs were the relics of the holy Apostle Andronicus. Afterwards, a magnificent church was built on this spot.
Saint Andronicus Apostle of the Seventy and Saint Junia were relatives of the holy Apostle Paul. They labored much, preaching the Gospel to pagans. St Paul mentions them in his Epistle to the Romans: "Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and fellow prisoners, who are of note among the Apostles, who also were in Christ, before me" (Romans 16:7).
St Andronicus was made Bishop of Pannonia, but his preaching also took him and St Junia to other lands, far from the boundaries of his diocese. Through the efforts of Sts Andronicus and Junia the Church of Christ was strengthened, pagans were converted to the knowledge of God, many pagan temples closed, and in their place Christian churches were built. The service in honor of these saints states that they suffered martyrdom for Christ.
In the fifth century, during the reign of the emperors Arcadius and Honorius, their holy relics were uncovered on the outskirts of Constantinople together with the relics of other martyrs at the gate of Eugenius (February 22).
It was revealed to the pious cleric Nicholas Kalligraphos that among the relics of these seventeen martyrs were the relics of the holy Apostle Andronicus. Afterwards, a magnificent church was built on this spot.
1st century; liturgically honored among the Greeks. These saints are referenced by Saint Paul in Romans 16:7: "Salute Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow- prisoners, who are of not among the Apostles, who also were in Christ before me." This is all that is known about them (Benedictines).

One of the Seventy, he was a kinsman of the Apostle Paul, as Paul wrote (Rom. 16:17), remembering also St Junia, Andronicus's helper. Andronicus was made Bishop of Pannonia, and did not stay in one place, but preached the Gospel throughout the whole of Pannonia. With St Junia, he was successful in bringing many to Christ and in demolishing many temples of idolatry. Both of them had the grace of wonder-working, by which they drove out demons and healed every sort of sickness and disease. They both suffered for Christ, and thus received a twofold crown: of apostleship and of martyrdom. Their holy relics were found in the excavations in Eugenius (see Feb. 2nd).

St. Adrio Victor & Basilla Martyrs of Alexandria Egypt MM (RM)
Alexandríæ sanctórum Mártyrum Adriónis, Victóris et Basíllæ.
At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Adrion, Victor, and Basilla.
Martyr of Alexandria, Egypt, with Basilla and Victor. No details of their suffering are extant.
Adrio, Victor & Basilla MM (RM). Martyrs of Alexandria, whether at the hands of pagans or Arians is unknown (Benedictines).

255 St. Restituta Virgin martyr maiden in Africa died for Christ
Eódem die sanctæ Restitútæ, Vírginis et Mártyris; quæ, in Africa, Valeriáno imperánte, a Próculo Júdice várie torta, et in navículam pice et stupa refértam, ut in mari comburerétur, impósita, tandem, cum in incensóres, immísso igne, flamma converterétur, in oratióne spíritum Deo réddidit. Ipsíus corpus cum eádem navícula, Dei nutu, ad Ænáriam ínsulam, prope Neápolim, in Campánia, devéctum est, et a Christiánis magna veneratióne suscéptum; ac póstmodum in ejus honórem Constantínus Magnus Basílicam in ipsa urbe Neápoli erigéndam curávit.
Also St. Restituta, virgin and martyr, who was subjected to various kinds of tortures in Africa by the judge Proculus, in the reign of Valerian, and then put in a boat filled with pitch and oakum, to be burned to death on the sea. But the flame turned on those who kindled it, and the saint yielded her soul to God in prayer. Her body was, by Divine Providence, carried in the boat to the island of Ischia, near Naples, where it was received by the Christians with great veneration. A church was afterwards erected in her honour at Naples by Constantine the Great.
She was put to death during the Roman persecutions at Carthage. Her date of death has been set at 255, which would mean she was martyred under Emperor Valerian; there is a possibility that she was executed at a later date, under Emperor Diocletian. Her relics are in Naples, Italy.

Restituta of Carthage VM (RM) Died 255 or 304. An African girl who died for Christ during the persecution of Valerian or Diocletian, probably at Carthage.

Her relics are housed in the cathedral of Naples (Attwater2, Benedictines).

300 Saint Solochon, a native of Egypt imperial army in regiment of tribune Campanus
Chalcédone sanctórum Mártyrum Solochónis et Sociórum mílitum, sub Maximiáno Imperatóre.
At Chalcedon, the holy martyrs Solochan and his companions.
Suffered for Christ during the reign of the emperor Maximian (284-305). The holy martyrs Pamphamirus and Pamphalon also gave their lives for Christ at the same time. All of them served in the imperial army in the regiment of the tribune Campanus.
During the persecution against Christians by the emperors Maximian and Diocletian, Campanus was sent to the city of Chalcedon with his soldiers. All the soldiers of his regiment were required to offer sacrifice in a pagan temple. The three soldiers, Sts Solochon, Pamphamirus and Pamphalon, refused to offer sacrifice to idols, explaining that they worshiped only the true God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
On the orders of Campanus they were subjected to terrible tortures, during which the holy martyrs Pamphamirus and Pamphalon died. St Solochon survived the torture and remained alive, glorifying Christ. In great anger, the torturer gave orders to open St Solochon's mouth and force him to drink blood offered to idols. But St Solochon clenched his teeth so strongly, that they could not open them even with iron. The sword bent, and the saint broke his bonds and stood before the torturer, continuing to glorify Christ.

St Solochon heard a voice from the heavens encouraging him to persevere to the end.

The saint endured a merciless beating, after which they dragged him over sharp stones, demanding that he renounce Christ, but the holy martyr remained steadfast. Then he was hung up by one hand, with a heavy weight tied to his leg. St Solochon remained in this position for about three hours. When finally they cut the ropes, then to everyone's surprise, St Solochon stood upright on his feet, like a healthy man. Insane with anger, Campanus took a stylus and thrust it into the martyr's ear.
The sufferer fell down, and Campanus and the soldiers departed, casting him aside. Christians carried the martyr to the house of a certain pious widow and placed him on a cot. The saint ate some food and conversed with the Christians, exhorting them to stand firmly for the Faith, and then after he prayed and lifted up his eyes to heaven, he surrendered his soul to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He was an Egyptian by birth, and a Roman soldier under the commander Campanus, in the reign of the wicked Emperor Maximian. When the imperial command that all soldiers offer sacrifice to idols arrived, Solochon revealed that he was a Christian. Two of his friends, Pamphamir and Pamphylon, also did the same. The commander ordered that they be beaten and tortured with great harshness, under which St Pamphamir and St Pamphylon breathed their last. Solochon remained alive, and was put to new torture: the commander ordered the soldiers to force his teeth open with a sword and stuff his mouth with food sacrificed to idols. The martyr broke the iron with his teeth and did not receive the foul, idolatrous sacrifice. Finally, they stabbed him with a quill through both cars and left him thus to die. Christians took the martyr and carried him to the home of a widow, where he gained a little strength with food and drink, and continued to give counsel to the faithful to be steadfast in their faith and in torture for it. After this, he breathed a thanksgiving to God, finished his earthly course and went to the Kingdom of heaven, to the Lord whom he had served so faithfully, in the year 298.

303 St. Heradius Martyr with Aquilinus Paul and 2 companions. They were put to death at Nyon on Lake Geneva, Switzerland
Noviodúni, in Gálliis, sanctórum Mártyrum Herádii, Pauli et Aquilíni, cum duóbus áliis.
At Noyon in France, the holy martyrs Heradius, Paul, and Aquilinus, with two other

Heradius, Paul, Aquilinus & Companions MM (RM). This group of five martyrs was put to death at Nyon (Noviodunum) on the lake of Geneva under Diocletian (Benedictines).

305 Solochon and Companions Egyptian soldiers in the imperial army at Chalcedon died for their faith MM (RM)
Chalcédone sanctórum Mártyrum Solochónis et Sociórum mílitum, sub Maximiáno Imperatóre.
At Chalcedon, the holy martyrs Solochan and his companions.

Solochon was one of three Egyptian soldiers in the imperial army at Chalcedon, who were clubbed to death for the faith under Maximian (Benedictines).

545 St. Madern Hermit of Cornish descent St. Madern’s Well, is still popular many cures are said to have been performed

6th v. ST MADRON, OR MADERN
THIS saint, who has given his name to a large parish in the extreme south-west of England and to its unusually interesting church (the mother church of Penzance) has not been satisfactorily identified and nothing is known for certain about his life. Alban Butler does not venture beyond connecting him with Brittany. Some claim him to be the Welsh St Padarn; others say he is the same as St Medran, brother of St Odran, a disciple of St Kieran of Saighir—on the assumption that the last named was identical in his turn with St Piran. Professor Loth inclined to the view, and Canon Doble agreed, that Madron was Matronus, a disciple of St Tudwal who went with his master to Brittany and was buried close to him at Tréguier.
In any case St Madron is of interest because of the persistence of a cultus associated with his well and chapel. This well is out among the fields three-quarters of a mile north-west of Madron churchtown. Close by is the chapel or baptistery, of which the remains are of great interest: water from the spring flows through it at the west end, where there is a sort of tiny structural baptistery in the angle of the south and west walls. The repute of this sanctuary for miraculous occurrences did not end with the Reformation: and if John Norden the topographer wrote in 1584 that Madron was “coye of his cures”, less than sixty years later a happening there caused widespread interest. The Anglican bishop of Exeter, Dr Joseph Hall, himself examined it in 1641, and wrote in a treatise On the Invisible World:

The commerce which we have with the good spirits is not now discerned by the eyes, but is, like themselves, spiritual. Yet not so, but that even in bodily occasions, we have many times insensible helps from them: in such manner as that by the effects we can boldly say: “Here hath been an angel, though we see him not.” Of this kind was that (no less than miraculous) cure which at St Madern’s in Cornwall was wrought upon a poor cripple, John Trelille, whereof (besides the attestation of many hundreds of neighbours) I took a strict and personal examination in that last visitation which I either did or ever shall hold. This man, that for sixteen years together, was fain to walk upon his hands, by reason of the close contraction of his legs (upon three admonitions in a dream to wash in that well) was suddenly so restored to his limbs that I saw him able to walk and get his own maintenance. I found here was no art nor collusion: the thing done, the author invisible.

A more detailed description of the same cure is given by another writer, Francis Coventry, in a book entitled Paralipomena Philosophica de Mundo Peripatetico (Antwerp, 1652).* [* Francis Coventry was none other than Christopher Davenport, better known as Francis a Sancta Clara, the Franciscan Recollect who was chaplain to Queen Henrietta Maria and sought to interpret the Thirty-Nine Articles in a Catholic sense. Apparently on the strength of a statement by Alban Butler, the judicious Dr Oliver states in his Collections (1857) that Father Francis “lived in Cornwall before the civil wars”. This seems to be a mistake.]
It appears that the story of the miracle came to the ears of King Charles I, who caused further inquiries to be made, from which it was ascertained that:

A certain boy of twelve years old, called John Trelille as they were playing at football, snatching up the ball ran away with it: whereupon a girl in anger struck him with a thick stick on the back-bone, and so bruised or broke it that for sixteen years after he was forced to go creeping on the ground. In this condition he arrived to the twenty-eighth year of his age, when he dreamed that if he did but bathe in St Madern’s well, or in the stream running from it, he should recover his former strength and health.

This is a place in Cornwall from the remains of ancient devotion still frequented by Protestants on the Thursdays in May, and especially on the feast of Corpus Christi; near to which well is a chapel dedicated to St Madern, where is yet an altar, and right against it a grassy hillock (made every year anew by the country people) which they call St Madern’s bed. The chapel roof is quite decayed; but a kind of thorn of itself shooting forth of the old walls so extends its boughs that it covers the whole chapel and supplies as it were a roof. On a Thursday in May, assisted by one Berriman his neighbour, entertaining great hopes from his dream, thither he crept, and lying before the altar, and praying very fervently that he might regain his health and the strength of his limbs, he washed his whole body in the stream that flowed from the well and ran through the chapel: after which, having slept about an hour and a half on St Madern’s bed, through the extremity of pain he felt in his nerves and arteries, he began to cry out; and his companions helping and lifting him up, he perceived his hams and joints somewhat extended and himself become stronger, in so much that, partly with his feet, partly with his hands, he went much more erect than before. Before the following Thursday he got two crutches, resting on which he could make shift to walk, which before he could not do. And coming to the chapel as before, after having bathed himself he slept on the same bed, and awaking found himself much stronger and upright; and so leaving one crutch in the chapel, he went home with the other. The third Thursday he returned to the chapel and bathed as before, slept, and when he awoke rose up quite cured: yea, grew so strong that he wrought day-labour among the hired servants; and four years after listed himself a soldier in the king’s army, where he behaved himself with great stoutness, both of mind and body; at length in 1644 he was slain at Lyme in Dorsetshire.

For a long time the local Wesleyan Methodists have met annually for a service at St Madron’s chapel on the first two Sundays of May, and since about 1920 the Anglicans do the like on St John’s day in summer. A child was baptized there in June 1951. On the other hand, the custom, especially during May month, of passing children through the spring water to alleviate skin affections has also been observed within living memory, and young people still visit the well and drop pins and little crosses therein, though no doubt “more from the pleasure of each other’s company than from any real faith” in its power of divination. But those customs go back in all probability to long before St Madron may have built his chapel and hermitage here, to a time when no child in these islands had yet been christened.

See Canon H. R. Jennings, Historical Notes on Madron . . . (1936); LBS., vol. iii, pp. 396—398; W. Scawen in an appendix to D. Gilbert’s Parochial History of Cornwall (1838); R. Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England (1903), pp. 294—295; A. K. H. Jenkin, Cornwall and Its People (1945), pp. 309—310.

Nothing is known of his life, but he was of Cornish descent and connected with Brittany, France. Numerous churches in England bear his name, and the reputed site of his hermitage,

Madron of Cornwall, Hermit (AC) (also known as Maden, Madern) Died near Land's End, Cornwall, c. 545. Saint Madron, a hermit in Brittany of Cornish descent, is the patron of many churches, including the site of his hermitage at Saint Madern's Well in Cornwall and two parishes in Saint-Malo. Many miracles are ascribed to Saint Madron, including one experienced, investigated, and attested to by the Protestant bishop of Exeter, Dr. Joseph Hall, a strong opponent of Catholicism who wrote Dissuasive from popery to W. D.. In On the invisible world he wrote of the miraculous cure at Saint Madern's Well:

"The commerce that we have with the good spirits is not now discerned by the eye, but is, like themselves, spiritual. Yet not so, but that even in bodily occasions we have many times insensible helps from them; in such manner as that by the effects we can boldly say: Here hath been an angel, though we see him not. Of this kind was that (no less than miraculous) cure which at Saint Madern's in Cornwall was wrought upon a poor cripple, John Trelille, whereof (besides the attestation of many hundreds of neighbors) I took a strict and personal examination in that last visitation which I either did or ever shall hold. This man, that for sixteen years together was fain to walk upon his hands, by reason of the close contraction of the sinews of his legs (upon three admonitions in a dream to wash in that well), was suddenly so restored to his limbs, that I saw him able to walk and get his own maintenance. I found here was neither art nor collusion: the thing done, the author invisible."

Another writer of the same period gives a fuller account of the same miraculous cure:

"I will relate one miracle more done in our own country, to the great wonder of the neighboring inhabitants, but a few years ago, viz., about the year 1640. The process of the business was told the king when at Oxford, which he caused to be further examined. It was this: a certain boy of twelve years old, called John Trelille, in the county of Cornwall, not far from the Land's End, as they were playing at football, snatching up the ball ran away with it; whereupon a girl in anger struck him with a thick stick on the backbone, and so bruised or broke it, that for sixteen years after he was forced to go creeping on the ground.

"In this condition he arrived to the twenty-eighth year of his age, when he dreamed that if he did but bathe in Saint Madern's well, or in the stream running from it, he should recover his former strength and health. This is a place in Cornwall from the remains of ancient devotion still frequented by Protestants on the Thursdays in May, and especially on the feast of Corpus Christi; near to which well is a chapel dedicated to Saint Madern, where is yet an altar, and right against it a grassy hillock (made every year anew by the country people) which they call Saint Madern's bed. The chapel-roof is quite decayed; but a kind of thorn of itself shooting forth of the old walls, so extends its boughs that it covers the whole chapel, and supplies as it were a roof.
"On a Thursday in May, assisted by one Periman his neighbor, entertaining great hopes from his dream, thither he crept, and lying before the altar, and praying very fervently that he might regain his health and the strength of his limbs, he washed his whole body in the stream that flowed from the well, and ran through the chapel: after which, having slept about an hour and a half on Saint Madern's bed, through the extremity of pain he felt in his nerves and arteries, he began to cry out, and his companion helping and lifting him up, he perceived his hams and joints somewhat extended, and himself become stronger, insomuch, that partly with his feet, partly with his hands, he went much more erect than before.
"Before the following Thursday he got two crutches, resting on which he could make shift to walk, which before he could not do. And coming to the chapel as before, after having bathed himself he slept on the same bed, and awaking found himself much stronger and more upright; and so leaving one crutch in the chapel, he went home with the other.
"The third Thursday he returned to the chapel. and bathed as before, slept, and when he awoke rose up quite cured; yea, grew so strong, that he wrought day-labor among other hired servants; and four years after listed himself a soldier in the kings army, where he behaved himself with great stoutness, both of mind and body at length, in 1644, he was slain at Lime in Dorsetshire."

The author emphasizes notice that Thursday and Friday were the days chosen out of devotion to the blessed Eucharist and the Passion of Christ.

This well-attested miracle aroused interest in Saint Madron, but still little is known about the saint except for the dedications in Cornwall and Brittany. He has been identified as Saint Medran, the disciple of Saint Kieran, the Welsh Saint Padarn, or a local man when accompanied Saint Tudwal to Brittany (Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson, Husenbeth).

596 St. Dodo of Gareja ("Mamadavitoba" in Tbilisi, An admirer of poverty and solitude, he labored as a hermit at Ninotsminda in Kakheti.
A companion of St. Davit of Gareji, St. Dodo belonged to the royal family Andronikashvili. He was tonsured a monk while still an youth, and was endowed with every virtue.

Having heard about the miracles of Davit of Gareji, St. Dodo set off for the Gareji Wilderness to witness them himself. The venerable fathers greeted one another warmly and began laboring there together. After some time, St. Davit became deeply impressed with Dodo’s devotion to the Faith, and he proposed that he take with him some of the other monks and begin to construct cells on the opposite mountain.

The brothers built cells and began to labor there with great ardor. Before long the number of cells had reached two hundred. St. Dodo isolated himself in a narrow crevice, where there was barely room for one man. Day and night, winter and summer, in the heat and the cold, he prayed with penitent tears for the forgiveness of his sins, the strengthening of the souls of his brothers, and the bolstering of the true Faith throughout the country.

Once St. Davit miraculously healed the son of Prince Bubakar of Rustavi. In return, the grateful prince donated food and other necessities to the monks of Gareji Monastery. St. Davit took part of his contributions and sent what remained to St. Dodo. He advised Bubakar to have St. Dodo baptize him, and St. Dodo joyously baptized Bubakar, his sons, and all his suite.
St. Dodo labored to an advanced age in the monastery he had founded and reposed peacefully.
His spiritual sons and companions buried him in the cave where he had labored, and a church was later built over his grave.

650 St. Cathan Bishop of the isle of Bute, in Scotland called Kil-Cathan in his honor. A tomb bearing his name was found near Londonderry, Ireland, but Scottish scholars claim his remains are at Kil-Cathan.

Cathan B (AC) (also known as Catan, Cadan) 6th or 7th century. According to the Scots, the relics of Bishop Saint Cathan rest on the Isle of Bute, where he may have been bishop. They were so famous that the land was often called Kilcathan. His tomb is also shown at Tamlacht near Londonderry. There is the possibility that there were two saints by this name (Benedictines, Husenbeth).

673 Maildulf of Malmesbury Abbot spread the Gospel in England community of scholars known as Malmesbury (AC)

(also known as Maeldubh) Died at Malmesbury Abbey, England, in 673.

The Irish monk Saint Maildulf left his homeland to spread the Gospel in England. He settled in the lonely forest country that in those days lay in the northeast of Wiltshire. After living for a time as a hermit, he gathered the children of the neighborhood for instruction. In the course of time his hermitage became a school, where he had Saint Aldhelm among his disciples. The school and foundation flourished even after his death, acquiring fame as a community of scholars known as Malmesbury (Benedictines, Husenbeth, Montague).

Saint Maw Born in Ireland name in Cornish means "a boy."
Only Husenbeth mentions this saint, whose name in Cornish means "a boy." He appears to have left his homeland in search of solitude in Cornwall. In his hermitage on the sea near Falmouth, he lived a life of prayer and austere penance at Saint Mawes. A church, chair of solid stone in the churchyard, and a holy well still bear his name. Leland writes that Maw had been a teacher and later a bishop in Britain (Husenbeth).

893 Saint Stephen, Patriarch of Constantinople concerned himself with widows and orphans, and distinguished himself by his temperance younger son of Emperor Basil the Macedonian brother of Emperor Leo the Wise
He was ordained to the priesthood under Patriarch Photius. When St Photius was compelled to resign the patriarchal throne in the year 886, St Stephen was elevated to the See of Constantinople. The saint vigilantly stood watch over his spiritual flock, he was merciful and interceded for the defenseless, he concerned himself with widows and orphans, and distinguished himself by his temperance. He died peacefully in the year 893 and was buried in the Sikellian monastery.

The son of the Emperor Basil the Macedonian and brother of Leo the Wise, he came to the patriarchal throne after Photius, and governed the Church of God from 886 to 893. He died peacefully, and went to the Lord whom he had greatly loved.

953 Blessed Rasso of Grafrath man of great stature brave warrior against invading Hungarians founder monk OSB (AC) (also known as Ratho).
953 BD RATHO OF ANDECUS
THE famous pilgrimage-place of Grafrath in Bavaria derives its name from Bd Ratho, Graf von Andechs, who is buried there and whose intercession is sought at his shrine by countless invalids, especially by those suffering from hernia and stone. The beatus, whose name is also written Ratto, Rasso, Rago and Rapoto, is popularly known as St Grafrath. His father was count of Diessen and Andechs, and he had one brother who died on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and a sister, Halta, who became the mother of St Conrad of Constance.
He himself was remarkable for his great stature and for his prowess in all knightly exercises; he also distinguished himself in battle as leader of the Bavarians against the Hungarians. Peace having been restored, about 948 he laid aside his weapons to undertake pilgrimages to Rome and to the Holy Land from which he brought back numerous relics, the greater part of which are now at Andechs. On what was then an island in the Amper, under the shadow of the height crowned by the castle afterwards known as the Rassoburg, he built a monastery for Benedictine monks to which he gave the name of Worth. The church was consecrated by St Ulric on May 1, 951. The following year Ratho assumed the habit at Worth and in 953 he died there. Although shortly after his death the monastery and church were destroyed by the Hungarians, the relics of Bd Ratho were saved, and his tomb escaped the ravages of that period.

It is very difficult to decide what historical value attaches to the narrative compiled by I. Keferlocher from earlier materials. There has been of late a reaction against the complete discredit into which all the Andechs story had fallen. The text is in the Acta Sanctorum (for June 19). See also Rader, Bavaria Sancta, vol. i, pp. 161—165; Blattmann, Der hl. Rasso (1892) R. Bauerreiss, Fuss-Wallfahrt zum hl. Berg Andechs (1927

Count Rasso of Andechs (Bavaria), a man of great stature, was a brave warrior. He led the Bavarians in several campaigns against the invading Hungarians. After a midlife pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Rome, he founded a Benedictine abbey at Wörth (now Grafrath) in Bavaria where he himself became a monk. Saint Rasso gives his name to the healing shrine of Grafrath in Bavaria (Attwater2).

1045 Saint Bruno of Würzburg bishop spent his private fortune on building the cathedral of Saint Kilian and other churches B (RM)
1045 ST BRUNO, BISHOP OF Würzburg
ST BRUNO of Wurzburg was the son of Conrad, Duke of Carinthia, and of Baroness Matilda, niece of St Bruno Boniface of Querfurt, the second apostle of Prussia, after whom his great-nephew was named. Having entered the, ecclesiastical state, the younger Bruno became bishop of Wurzburg in 1033 and ruled his diocese successfully for eleven years. The whole of his patrimony he spent in building the magnificent cathedral of St Kilian and in restoring other churches under his rule. A wise man and a profound scholar, he became the counsellor of two emperors and wrote various books, including commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed and the Creed of St Athanasius. He accompanied his kinsman, Conrad II, to Italy, and is said to have persuaded him to abandon the siege of Milan and to make terms with its inhabitants, as the result of a warning he received in a vision from the great St Ambrose of Milan. When the Emperor Henry III, “the Black”, marched against the Hungarians in 1045, he took St Bruno with him. On their way through Pannonia the royal party put up for a night at the castle of Bosenburg, or Porsenberg, on the Danube, opposite the present town of Ips in Upper Austria. The building seems to have been in a dilapidated condition, for, while the court was at dinner, the banqueting gallery suddenly collapsed. By grasping at a window the emperor escaped disaster, but all the rest were more or less injured, several of them being killed outright. St Bruno, though dying, lingered on for seven days. His body was taken back to Würzburg, where it was buried in the basilica he had erected.

There seems to be no proper biography, but there is a notice in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iv. See also H. Bresslau, Jahrbiicher der deutsche Geschichte unter Konrad II (1884); and J. Baier, Der hl. Bruno von Würzburg (1893).

Feast day formerly May 27. Saint Bruno, great-nephew of Saint Bruno of Querfurt, was consecrated bishop of Würzburg in 1033. He spent his private fortune on building the cathedral of Saint Kilian and other churches in the diocese. The saint was killed by the collapse of a gallery while dining with Emperor Henry III at Bosenburg on the Danube (Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson).

1100 Silaus of Lucca Irish monk abbot of Saint Brendan's monastery zealous and charitable bishop B (AC)
(also known as Silave, Silanus, Sillaeus, Sillao, Siollan) Born in Ireland; died at Lucca, Italy, in 1100; canonized by Pope Lucius III in 1183; feast day sometimes shown as May 21. Saint Silaus, an Irish monk and the abbot of Saint Brendan's monastery, was a zealous and charitable bishop. He spent the end of his life in Italy, where he was known as the "father of the poor." He died at Lucca on his return home from a pilgrimage to Rome. He is the subject of many extravagant tales (Benedictines, Husenbeth).

1152 St. Thethmar missionary among the Wends
Premonstratensian canon and missionary. He labored to convert the Wends, a tribe in modern Germany. A co-worker of St. Vicelinus, Thethmar is also called Theodemar in some accounts.
Thethmar of Neumuenster (AC) (also known as Theodemar) Born at Bremen, Germany; died at Neumünster, 1152. Saint Thethmar was a missionary among the Wends and a disciple of Saint Vicelin. He was probably a a Premonstratensian (Attwater2, Benedictines).

1407 Saint Euphrosyne The holy princess was tonsured as a nun builder of churches founded Ascension women's monastery in the Moscow Kremlin patronage the famous icon of the Archangel Michael
in the world Eudokia, was the daughter of the Suzdal prince Demetrius Constantovich (+ 1383), and from 1367 was the wife of the Moscow Great Prince Demetrius of the Don. Their happy union was for Russia a pledge of unity and peace between Moscow and Suzdal. St Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow, and even St Sergius of Radonezh, who baptized one of the sons of Demetrius and Eudokia, had a great influence upon the spiritual life of Princess Eudokia. St Demetrius of Priluki (February 11) was the godfather of another son.

Archangel_Michael

The holy princess was a builder of churches. In 1387 she founded the Ascension women's monastery in the Moscow Kremlin. In 1395, during Tamerlane's invasion into the southern regions of Russia, the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was transferred to Moscow upon her advice, miraculously defending the Russian land. During Lent, the princess secretly wore chains beneath her splendid royal garb. By her patronage the famous icon of the Archangel Michael was painted, and later became the patronal icon of the Kremlin's Archangel Cathedral.

After raising five sons (a sixth died in infancy), the princess was tonsured as a nun with the name Euphrosyne. She completed her earthly journey on July 7, 1407 and was buried in the Ascension monastery she founded.

An old Russian church poem has survived, the lament of the princess for her husband, who had died at the age of thirty-nine. St Euphrosyne is also commemorated on July 7.

1450 BD ANDREW ABELLON distinguished for his piety and the zeal with which he enforced regular observance; he exercised his talents as an artist in many of the Dominican churches of the south of France.
THE birthplace of Bd Andrew Abellon was Saint-Maximin, the ancient Provençal town which for the last seven hundred years has claimed to possess the relics of St Mary Magdalen and has been visited by countless pilgrims. Andrew received the Dominican habit in his native town and became prior of the royal monastery of St Mary Magdalen at a time when the great church which is supposed to enshrine the head of its holy patroness was slowly approaching completion; it was begun in 1295, but not finished until 1480. Bd Andrew was distinguished for his piety and the zeal with which he enforced regular observance. In addition to labouring as a missioner, he exercised his talents as an artist in many of the Dominican churches of the south of France. He died in 1450.

Not much seems to be known about the life of Bd Andrew. The decree of confirmation of cultus is printed with some other matter in the Analecta Ecclesiastica, vol. x (1902), pp. 443—448; but most of this space is taken up with the proof that the beatus after his death was held in great veneration. There is also an account of Bd Andrew by Father H. Cormier (1903), and sundry references in Fr Mortier’s Histoire des Maitres Generaux O..P., vol. iv. It need hardly be pointed out that the sanctity of Bd Andrew is in no way prejudiced by the fact that historical evidence is lacking to establish the genuineness of the relics in which he so devoutly believed. On this question of the authenticity of the St Mary Magdalen legend, see herein under July 22.

1592 St. Paschal Baylon Franciscan lay brother mystic labored as shepherd for father performed miracles distinguished for austerity spent most of his life as a humble doorkeeper rigorous asceticism deep love for the Blessed Sacrament defended the doctrine of the Real Presence against a Calvinists born and died on Whitsunday
Apud Villam Regálem, in Hispánia, sancti Paschális, ex Ordine Minórum, Confessóris, miræ innocéntiæ et pæniténtiæ viri; quem Leo Papa Décimus tértius cæléstem eucharisticórum Cœtuum et Societátum a sanctíssima Eucharístia Patrónum declarávit.
At Villareal in Spain, St. Paschal of the Order of Friars Minor, confessor. He was a man remarkable for innocence of life and the spirit of penance, whom Pope Leo XIII declared to be the heavenly patron of Eucharistic Congresses and of societies formed to honour the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Patron of shepherds, the Eucharist and Eucharistic guilds, societies and congresses

1592 ST PASCHAL BAYLON

THE notice of St Paschal Baylon in the Roman Martyrology tells us not only that he was a man of wonderful innocence and austerity of life, but also that he has been proclaimed by the Holy See patron of all eucharistic congresses and confraternities of the Blessed Sacrament. It is a striking fact that a humble friar, of peasant birth, who was never even a priest, whose name in his own day was hardly known to any but his townsfolk in a corner of Spain, should now from his place in Heaven preside over those imposing assemblies of the Catholic Church.
Thanks mainly to his fellow religious, superior and biographer, Father Ximenes, we are well informed regarding Paschal’s early days. He first saw the light at Torre Hermosa, on the borders of Castile and Aragon, on a Whitsunday, and to that accident he seems to have owed his Christian name, for in Spain, as well as in Italy, the term Pascua is given to other great feasts of the year besides Easter. So the little son born to Martin Baylon and his wife Elizabeth Jubera was called Pascual, just as we are told that the famous Cervantes was christened Miguel because he came into the world on St Michael’s day.

The pious couple possessed little in the way of worldly goods, but they owned a flock of sheep, and from his seventh to his twenty-fourth year Paschal, first as the deputy of his own father, and then serving other employers, led the life of a shepherd. Some of the incidents ascribed to that time are probably legendary, but one or two certain facts stand out: for example, that this shepherd lad, who never had any schooling, taught himself to read and write, being determined to recite the Little Office of our Lady, the central feature of the Howe B. Mariae Virginis, then the prayer-book universally in use among lay-folk. It was noticed with surprise that he went barefoot despite the briars and stony mountain tracks, lived on the poorest fare, fasted often, and wore under his shepherd’s cloak some sort of imitation of a friar’s habit. He could not always get to Mass, but when he was unable to leave his charge in the early morning he knelt for long spaces of time absorbed in prayer, his eyes fixed upon the distant sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de Ia Sierra where the holy sacrifice was being offered. Fifty years afterwards an aged shepherd who had known Paschal in those days deposed that on such occasions the angels more than once brought to the lad the Blessed Sacrament suspended in the air above a chalice, that he might gaze upon and venerate It. He is also alleged to have had a vision of saints, identified by conjecture with St Francis and St Clare, who directed him to offer himself to God in the Order of Friars Minor. More convincing than this testimony is the evidence given of his scrupulous sense of justice. The damage which his beasts occasionally caused to the vines or growing crops was to him a continual source of worry. He insisted that compensation should be made to the owners and often paid for it out of his own slender wage. In that matter his fellows, though they respected him for it, thought he went to absurd lengths.
When Paschal, seemingly about the age of eighteen or nineteen, first sought admission among the barefooted Friars Minor, St Peter of Alcantara, the author of the reform, was still living. The austerity of the rule which he had revived was only equalled by the fervour of those who practised it. Probably the friars of the Loreto convent, knowing nothing of the young shepherd who came from a district two hundred miles away, doubted his fortitude. At any rate, they put him off, but when they admitted him some few years later, they soon realized that God had committed a treasure to their keeping.

The community lived at the level of the first fervour of the reform, but Brother Paschal even in this ascetical atmosphere was recognized as being eminent in every religious virtue. One is apt to regard with some distrust the extravagant eulogiums of hagiographers, but no discerning reader can make himself acquainted with the description which Father Ximenes has left of his friend without feeling that we have here no conventional panegyric, but a straightforward statement of his own inmost conviction. In charity towards all, Paschal was a marvel even to those mortified men who shared the same hard external conditions and were bound by the same rule. In what he deemed to be matters of conscience he was inflexible. There is the story of the ladies who, when Paschal was porter, came to the door to ask the father guardian to come down to hear their confessions. “Tell them”, said the guardian, “ that I am out.” “I will tell them”, amended Paschal, “that your Reverence is engaged.” “No”, the guardian insisted, “tell them that I am not at home.” “Forgive me, Father”, objected the brother very humbly and respectfully, “I must not say that, for that would not be the truth and would be a venial sin”; and thereupon he returned to the door in perfect peace of mind. It is such little flashes of independence which relieve the monotony of the catalogue of virtues, and enable us to see something of the human element in a soul so exalted and purified.
It is pleasant, too, to read of the little devices by which Paschal schemed to secure special delicacies for the sick, the poor, and those whom he regarded as exceptionally deserving, as well as of the tears sometimes seen in the eyes of this austere man, who normally repressed all signs of emotion, when he was brought into contact with some pathetically hard case. Although, it seems, he never laughed, still he was gay, and there was nothing gloomy about his devotion or even his spirit of penance. Ximenes tells us how on one occasion when Paschal was refectorian and had shut himself in to lay the tables, another friar, peeping through the buttery-hatch, caught sight of the good brother executing an elaborate dance, like a second jongleur de Notre-Dame, leaping high and moving rhythmically backwards and forwards, before the statue of our Lady which stood over the refectory door. The intruder withdrew noiselessly, but coming in again a few minutes later with the customary salutation, “Praised be Jesus Christ”, he found Paschal with so radiant a countenance that the memory of the scene was a spur to his devotion for many days afterwards. It is no small tribute that Father Ximenes, who was himself a minister provincial of the Alcantarines within little more than half a century of their inauguration, says of St Paschal: “In no single case do I remember to have noted even the least fault in him, though I lived with him in several of our houses and was his companion on two long journeys; such journeys being commonly an occasion when a man, worn out with fatigue and the monotony, allows himself some indulgence which is not entirely free from blame”.
It is, however, as the Saint of the Eucharist that St Paschal is best remembered outside his own country. Many years before the great work of annual eucharistic congresses was instituted and our saint was nominated its patron, the title-page of Father Salmeron’s Spanish biography bore the heading Vida del Santo del Sacramento S. Pascual Bailon. The long hours which he spent before the tabernacle, kneeling without support, his clasped hands held up in front of, or higher than, his face, had left a deep impression upon his brethren. No wonder that he was for them the Saint of the Blessed Sacrament”. The recognition of this special characteristic goes back to his earliest biographer. Ximenes tells us how the good brother, whenever he had a moment free from his other duties, invariably made his way to the church to honour the presence of our Lord, how it was his delight to serve Mass after Mass in succession beginning with the very earliest, how he stayed behind in choir when after Matins and Lauds the rest of the community had retired again to sleep, and how the dawn found him there still on his knees, eager as soon as the bell rang to visit the altars at which the Holy Sacrifice was to be offered.
Father Ximenes prints some specimens, too lengthy to quote, of the simple heartfelt prayers recited by Paschal at the time of communion. Whether they were his own composition, as his biographer supposes, is not so clear. The saint had long kept what he himself calls a cartapacio (a home-made scrap-book, formed, it seems, out of odds and ends of paper which he had rescued from the rubbish-heap) a and in this he noted down in a beautiful handwriting certain prayers and reflections which he had either come across in his reading or had composed himself. One at least of these books—there seem to have been two—is still preserved. Shortly after Paschal’s death some of these prayers were brought to the notice of Bd John de Ribera, then archbishop of Valencia. He was so impressed that he begged to have a relic of this holy lay-brother who, it seemed to him, had achieved so perfect an understanding of spiritual things. When a relic was brought him by Father Ximenes, the archbishop said to him, “Ah Father Provincial, what are we to do? These simple souls are wresting Heaven from our hands. There is nothing for it but to burn our books.” To which Ximenes answered, “My Lord, it is not the books that are in fault, but our own pride. Let us burn that.”
St Paschal, the Saint of the Eucharist, had, it appears, some experience in his own person of the ferocity with which Protestant reformers sometimes manifested their dislike of the sacraments and of faithful sons of the Church. He was on one occasion sent into France as the bearer of an important communication to Father Christopher de Cheffontaines, the very learned Breton scholar who at that time was minister general of the Observants. For a friar wearing the habit of his order the journey across France at that time, when the wars of religion had reached their most acute phase, was extremely dangerous, and the choice for such an errand of a simple lay-brother, who certainly did not know any French, remains a mystery. Perhaps his superior believed that his simplicity and trust in God would carry him through where more diplomatic methods would fail. He succeeded in his mission, but was very roughly handled; on several occasions barely escaping with his life. At one town in particular, where he was stoned by a party of Huguenots, he seems to have sustained an injury to his shoulder which was a cause of suffering for the rest of his days. At Orleans, we are told by most of his biographers, even by Ximenes, he was questioned as to his belief in the Blessed Sacrament, and when he unhesitatingly made profession of his faith, his opponents instituted a sort of formal disputation in which they were worsted by the good brother, who was preternaturally aided from on high. Here again in their fury the Huguenots stoned him, but he escaped, because all their missiles fell wide of the mark. It seems, however, a little difficult to believe in such a disputation in argumentative form with citation of authorities.
St Paschal died, as he was born, on a Whitsunday, in the friary at Villareal. He was fifty-two years old. It was held to be significant of his life-long devotion to the Blessed Sacrament that, with the holy name of Jesus on his lips, he passed away just as the bell was tolling to announce the consecration at the high Mass.
He had long been honoured as a saint, partly owing to the miracles of all kinds attributed to him in life, especially in his dealings with the sick and poor, and these miracles were multiplied beside his bier. There can be little doubt that the unusually great number of remarkable cures, reported then and later, influenced ecclesiastical authorities to take unwontedly speedy action in the matter of his beatification. He was in fact beatified in 1618, before St Peter of Alcantara, the author of the reform to which he belonged, though Peter had died thirty years earlier than he. Perhaps a bizarre factor which intervened in the case, causing considerable popular excitement, contributed to this. It was universally believed that curious knockings (golpes) proceeded from Paschal’s tomb, which knockings were invested with portentous significance. This phenomenon is said to have continued for a couple of centuries, and his later biographers devote much space to the golpes and their interpretation. St Paschal’s canonization took place in 1690.
Our information concerning St Paschal comes almost entirely from the life by Father Ximenes and the process of beatification. A Latin version of Ximenes’ biography, somewhat abridged, is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iv. Lives in Spanish, Italian and French are numerous, e.g. those by Salmeron, Olmi, Briganti, Beaufays, Du Lys and L. A. de Porrentruy this last has been translated from the French by O. Staniforth, under the title of The Saint of the Eucharist (1908). See also O. Englebert’s French sketch (1944), and Leon, Aureole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. ii, pp. 177—197. Probably the best modern life is that written in German by Father Grötcken (1909).

Born to a peasant family at Torre Hermosa, in Aragon, on Whitsunday, he was christened Pascua in honor of the feast. According to accounts of his early life, Paschal labored as a shepherd for his father, performed miracles, and was distinguished for his austerity. He also taught himself to read. Receiving a vision which told him to enter a nearby Franciscan community, he became a Franciscan lay brother of the Alcantrine reform in 1564, and spent most of his life as a humble doorkeeper.
He practiced rigorous asceticism and displayed a deep love for the Blessed Sacrament, so much so that while on a mission to France, he defended the doctrine of the Real Presence against a Calvinist preacher and in the face of threats from other irate Calvinists. Paschal died at a friary in Villareal, and was canonized in 1690. In 1897 Pope Leo XIII declared him patron of all eucharistic confratemities and congresses. Since 1969, his veneration has been limited to local calendars.

Paschal Baylon, OFM (RM) Born in Torre Hermosa, Aragon, Spain, in 1540; died Villareal, Spain, 1592; beatified in 1618; canonized in 1690; declared patron of all Eucharistic congresses and confraternities in 1897.
Saint Paschal Baylon, son of the peasants Martin Baylon and Elizabeth Jubera, received his name from the day on which he was born: Whitsunday. He worked as a shepherd for his father and others until the age of 24. At 18, after a vision, he had applied to join the Franciscans at Loreto, 200 miles away, but the monks turned him down, knowing nothing of him personally. He applied again, a few years later (1564), and was accepted, and he lived a strict life according to the recently initiated reforms of Saint Peter of Alcantara.
He served primarily as a doorkeeper at various friaries in Spain. His intense devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is obvious from the long hours he spent kneeling before the tabernacle, with his clasped hands outstretched.
He was sent to France with a message to Father Christopher de Cheffontaines, the minister general of the Observants, and travelled wearing his habit during a dangerous time of religious wars. He was accosted several times and once narrowly escaped with his life, after he defended the doctrine of the Real Presence of the Holy Eucharist to a Calvinist preacher and a crowd. He was stoned by a party of Hugenots and suffered from the injury for the rest of his life.

This miracle worker died on a Whitsunday, just as the bell was tolling to announce the consecration at the high Mass.

Saint Paschal Baylon is the patron of shepherds, the Eucharist and Eucharistic guilds, societies and congresses, and of Italian women (there seems no obvious explanation of this except that his name-- "Baylonna," in Italian--rhymes with "donna"). He is portrayed in art in the act of adoration before the Host; or watching sheep (Attwater2, Benedictines, White).
Thursday, May 17, 2012 St. Paschal Baylon (1540-1592)
In Paschal’s lifetime the Spanish empire in the New World was at the height of its power, though France and England were soon to reduce its influence. The 16th century has been called the Golden Age of the Church in Spain, for it gave birth to Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Peter of Alcantara, Francis Solano and Salvator of Horta.
Paschal’s Spanish parents were poor and pious. Between the ages of seven and 24 he worked as a shepherd and began a life of mortification. He was able to pray on the job and was especially attentive to the church bell which rang at the Elevation during Mass. Paschal had a very honest streak in him. He once offered to pay owners of crops for any damage his animals caused!
In 1564, Paschal joined the Friars Minor and gave himself wholeheartedly to a life of penance. Though he was urged to study for the priesthood, he chose to be a brother. At various times he served as porter, cook, gardener and official beggar.
Paschal was careful to observe the vow of poverty. He would never waste any food or anything given for the use of the friars. When he was porter and took care of the poor coming to the door, he developed a reputation for great generosity. The friars sometimes tried to moderate his liberality!
Paschal spent his spare moments praying before the Blessed Sacrament. In time many people sought his wise counsel. People flocked to his tomb immediately after his burial; miracles were reported promptly. Paschal was canonized in 1690 and was named patron of eucharistic congresses and societies in 1897.

Comment: Prayer before the Blessed Sacrament occupied much of St. Francis’ energy. Most of his letters were to promote devotion to the Eucharist. Paschal shared that concern. An hour in prayer before our Lord in the Eucharist could teach all of us a great deal. Some holy and busy Catholics today find that their work is enriched by those minutes regularly spent in prayer and meditation.

Quote: "Meditate well on this: Seek God above all things. It is right for you to seek God before and above everything else, because the majesty of God wishes you to receive what you ask for. This will also make you more ready to serve God
and will enable you to love him more perfectly" (St. Paschal).

1549 The MonkMartyr Adrian of Ondrosov uncovering of the relics of the saint
(+ 1549 , 26 August). On this day is celebrated the uncovering of the relics of the saint, which occurred in the year 1551. The account about him is located under 26 August.

1616 Georgian martyrs of Persia are commemorated on Ascension.

Throughout history Georgia has frequently been forced to defend what St. Ilia the Righteous called its “threefold treasure”— language, fatherland, and Faith. In this regard, the events of the 17th century are some of the most tragic in all of Georgian history.

In 1616 the bloodthirsty Persian ruler Shah Abbas I invaded Georgia with a massive army. His goal was to level the country completely, to leave not a single building standing. The shah’s army kidnapped hundreds of thousands of Kakhetian Georgians and then sent them to Persia to be sold as slaves. They settled Turkmen in the newly depopulated Georgian regions. In collaboration with the shah, many Lezgin peoples from the mountainous North Caucasus moved south to occupy the homes of the exiled Georgians.

The 17th-century Italian traveler Pietro della Valle described the Georgian exile in Persia: “It would be too long to narrate all that has passed in this miserable migration, how many murders, how many deaths caused by privation, how many seductions, rapes, and acts of violence, how many children drowned by their own parents or cast into rivers through despair, some snatched by force from their mother’s breasts because they seemed too weak to live and thrown down by the wayside and abandoned there to be food for wild beasts or trampled underfoot by the horses and camels of the army, which marched for a whole day on top of dead bodies; how many sons separated from their fathers, wives from their husbands, sisters from their brothers, and carried off to distant countries without hope of ever meeting again. Throughout the camp, men and women were sold on this occasion much cheaper than beasts, because of the great number of them.” (Quoted in David Marshall Lang, Lives and Legends of the Georgian Church (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1956), p. 170.)

The Georgian exiles in Persia included a large number of clergy. Many of them celebrated the divine services in secret and inspired the people to remain faithful to God. Those discovered were punished severely. Many Georgians were martyred for the Christian Faith during the Persian exile. Not only Georgian researchers, but historians and travelers of other nationalities attest to the truth of this. Furthermore, ethnic Georgians currently residing in formerly Persian territories continue to commemorate their fallen ancestors to this day. They make pilgrimages to the sites where their ancestors were martyred and prepare feasts there in honor of their memory. One of these sites has been called “Ascension.”

Of language, fatherland, and Faith, only language remains alive among Georgians in the formerly Persian territories. Most have lost touch with both their fatherland and the Christian Faith. Those fortunate enough to be able to return to Georgia often convert to Orthodox Christianity. In 2001, when Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II visited the ethnic Georgians in Iran, he presented them with a mound of Georgian soil. With great emotion the Georgians scattered the soil over the ground where their ancestors were martyred.

On September 18, 2003, the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church prayerfully considered the martyric contest of the Georgians in Persia. The Synod declared all those martyred at the hands of Muslims in the 17th and 18th centuries worthy to be numbered among the saints. Their commemoration day was set on the feast of Holy Ascension, in honor of the place where many of them were martyred.

To Save A Life is Earthly; To Save A Soul is Eternal

THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 7

Give praise to the Lord, for He is good: give praise to His Mother, for her mercy endureth forever.

The love of her driveth out sin from the heart: and her grace purifieth the conscience of the sinner.

The way to come to Christ is to approach her: he who shall fly her shall not find the way of Peace.

Let him who is hardened in sins, often call upon her: and light shall arise in his darkness.

He who is sad in his heart, let him cry out to her: and he will be inebriated with a sweet-flowing dew.

Let every spirit praise Our Lady

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

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

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

There are over 10,000 named saints beati from history
and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources
Patron_Saints.html Widowed_Saints html Indulgences The Catholic Church in China
LINKS: Marian Shrines India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East Lourdes 1858 China Marian shrines 1995
Kenya national Marian shrine Loreto, Italy Marian Apparitions (over 2000) Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
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 Uniates Chalcedon

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

The great psalm of the Passion, Chapter 22, whose first verse “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Jesus pronounced on the cross, ended with the vision: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him” For kingship belongs to the LORD, the ruler over the nations. All who sleep in the earth will bow low before God; All who have gone down into the dust will kneel in homage. And I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you. The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.

Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China {whole article here} 2000 years of the Catholic Church in China
The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.

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Saint Frances Xavier Seelos Practical Guide to Holiness

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

My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love Thee. I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not

O most Holy trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the Tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended, and by the infite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I beg the conversion of poor sinners, Fatima Prayer, Angel of Peace

The voice of the Father is heard, the Son enters the water, and the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove.

THE spirit and example of the world imperceptibly instil the error into the minds of many that there is a kind of middle way of going to Heaven; and so, because the world does not live up to the gospel, they bring the gospel down to the level of the world. It is not by this example that we are to measure the Christian rule, but words and life of Christ. All His followers are commanded to labour to become perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect, and to bear His image in our hearts that we may be His children. We are obliged by the gospel to die to ourselves by fighting self-love in our hearts, by the mastery of our passions, by taking on the spirit of our Lord.

These are the conditions under which Christ makes His promises and numbers us among His children, as is manifest from His words which the apostles have left us in their inspired writings. Here is no distinction made or foreseen between the apostles or clergy or religious and secular persons. The former, indeed, take upon themselves certain stricter obligations, as a means of accomplishing these ends more perfectly; but the law of holiness and of disengagement of the heart from the world is general and binds all the followers of Christ.

God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique each the result of a new idea.

As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike.
It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints.
Dear Lord, grant us a spirit not bound by our own ideas and preferences.
Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves.
O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory.
Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.

Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.

The 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary ) Revealed to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan)

1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces. 2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. 3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. 4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that soul would sanctify them by this means. 5. The soul that recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish. 6. Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying themselves to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise them in His justice, they shall not perish by an unprovided death; if they be just, they shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. 7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church. 8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise. 9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. 10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven. 11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. 12. I shall aid all those who propagate the Holy Rosary in their necessities. 13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. 14. All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ. 15. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.

His Holiness Aram I, current (2013) Catholicos of Cilicia of Armenians, whose See is located in Lebanese town of Antelias. The Catholicosate was founded in Sis, capital of Cilicia, in the year 1441 following the move of the Catholicosate of All Armenians back to its original See of Etchmiadzin in Armenia. The Catholicosate of Cilicia enjoyed local jurisdiction, though spiritually subject to the authority of Etchmiadzin. In 1921 the See was transferred to Aleppo in Syria, and in 1930 to Antelias.

Its jurisdiction currently extends to Syria, Cyprus, Iran and Greece.

Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac

The exact date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa {Armenian Ourhaï in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name} is not known. It is certain, however, that the Christian community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legend, King Abgar V, Ushana, was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples. In fact, however, the first King of Edessa to embrace the Christian Faith was Abgar IX (c. 206) becoming official kingdom religion.

Christian council held at Edessa early as 197 (Eusebius, Hist. Ecc7V,xxiii).

In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed (“Chronicon Edessenum”, ad. an. 201).

In 232 the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written.

Under Roman domination martyrs suffered at Edessa: Sts. Scharbîl and Barsamya, under Decius; Sts. Gûrja, Schâmôna, Habib, and others under Diocletian.

In the meanwhile Christian priests from Edessa evangelized Eastern Mesopotamia and Persia, established the first Churches in the kingdom of the Sassanides. Atillâtiâ, Bishop of Edessa, assisted at the Council of Nicæa (325). The “Peregrinatio Silviæ” (or Etheriæ) (ed. Gamurrini, Rome, 1887, 62 sqq.) gives an account of the many sanctuaries at Edessa about 388.

Although Hebrew had been the language of the ancient Israelite kingdom, after their return from Exile the Jews turned more and more to Aramaic, using it for parts of the books of Ezra and Daniel in the Bible. By the time of Jesus, Aramaic was the main language of Palestine, and quite a number of texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls are also written in Aramaic.

Aramaic continued to be an important language for Jews, alongside Hebrew, and parts of the Talmud are written in it.

After Arab conquests of the seventh century, Arabic quickly replaced Aramaic as the main language of those who converted to Islam, although in out of the way places, Aramaic continued as a vernacular language of Muslims.

Aramaic, however, enjoyed its greatest success in Christianity. Although the New Testament wins written in Greek, Christianity had come into existence in an Aramaic-speaking milieu, and it was the Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac, that became the literary language of a large number of Christians living in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and in the Persian Empire, further east. Over the course of the centuries the influence of the Syriac Churches spread eastwards to China (in Xian, in western China, a Chinese-Syriac inscription dated 781 is still to be seen); to southern India where the state of Kerala can boast more Christians of Syriac liturgical tradition than anywhere else in the world.

680 Shiite saint Imam Hussein, grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad Known as Ashoura and observed by Shiites across the world, the 10th day of the lunar Muslim month of Muharram: the anniversary of the 7th century death in battle of one of Shiite Islam's most beloved saints. Imam Hussein died in the 680 A.D. battle fought on the plains outside Karbala, a city in modern Iraq that's home to the saint's shrine. The battle over a dispute about the leadership of the Muslim faith following Muhammad's death in 632 A.D. It is the defining event in Islam's split into Sunni and Shiite branches. The occasion is the source of an enduring moral lesson. "He sacrificed his blood to teach us not to give in to corruption, coercion, or use of force and to seek honor and justice." According to Shiite beliefs, Hussein and companions were denied water by enemies who controlled the nearby Euphrates. Streets get partially covered with blood from slaughter of hundreds of cows and sheep. Volunteers cook the meat and feed it to the poor. Hussein's martyrdom recounted through a rich body of prose, poetry and song remains an inspirational example of sacrifice to many Shiites, 10 percent of the world's estimated 1.3 billion Muslims.

Meeting of the Saints walis (saints of Allah)

Great men covet to embrace martyrdom for a cause and principle.

So was the case with Hazrat Ali. He could have made a compromise with the evil forces of his time and, as a result, could have led a very comfortable, easy and luxurious life. But he was not a person who would succumb to such temptations. His upbringing, his education and his training in the lap of the holy Prophet made him refuse such an offer.
Rabia Al-Basri (717–801 C.E.) She was first to set forth the doctrine of mystical love and who is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets. An elderly Shia pointed out that during his pre-Partition childhood it was quite common to find pictures and portraits of Shia icons in Imambaras across the country.
Shah Abdul Latif: The Exalted Sufi Master born 1690 in a Syed family; died 1754. In ancient times, Sindh housed the exemplary Indus Valley Civilisation with Moenjo Daro as its capital, and now, it is the land of a culture which evolved from the teachings of eminent Sufi saints. Pakistan is home to the mortal remains of many Sufi saints, the exalted among them being Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, a practitioner of the real Islam, philosopher, poet, musicologist and preacher. He presented his teaching through poetry and music - both instruments sublime - and commands a very large following, not only among Muslims but also among Hindus and Christians. Sindh culture: The Shah is synonymous with Sindh. He is the very fountainhead of Sindh's culture. His message remains as fresh as that of any present day poet, and the people of Sindh find solace from his writings. He did indeed think for Sindh. One of his prayers, in exquisite Sindhi, translates thus: “Oh God, may ever You on Sindh bestow abundance rare! Beloved! All the world let share Thy grace, and fruitful be.”
Shia Ali al-Hadi, died 868 and son Hassan al-Askari 874. These saints are the 10th and 11th of Shia's 12 most revered Imams. Baba Farid Sufi 1398 miracle, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki renowned Muslim Sufi saint scholar miracles 569 A.H. [1173 C.E.] hermit gave to poor, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti greatest mystic of his time born 533 Hijri (1138-39 A.D.), Hazrat Ghuas-e Azam, Hazrat Bu Ali Sharif, and Hazrat Nizamuddi n Aulia Sufi Saint Hazrath Khwaja Syed Mohammed Badshah Quadri Chisty Yamani Quadeer (RA) 1236-1325 welcomed people of all faiths & all walks of life.

801 Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya Sufi One of the most famous Islamic mystics
(b. 717). This 8th century saint was an early Sufi who had a profound influence on later Sufis, who in turn deeply influenced the European mystical love and troubadour traditions. Rabi'a was a woman of Basra, a seaport in southern Iraq. She was born around 717 and died in 801 (185-186). Her biographer, the great medieval poet Attar, tells us that she was "on fire with love and longing" and that men accepted her "as a second spotless Mary" (186). She was, he continues, “an unquestioned authority to her contemporaries" (218).
Rabi'a began her ascetic life in a small desert cell near Basra, where she lost herself in prayer and went straight to God for teaching. As far as is known, she never studied under any master or spiritual director. She was one of the first of the Sufis to teach that Love alone was the guide on the mystic path (222). A later Sufi taught that there were two classes of "true believers": one class sought a master as an intermediary between them and God -- unless they could see the footsteps of the Prophet on the path before them, they would not accept the path as valid. The second class “...did not look before them for the footprint of any of God's creatures, for they had removed all thought of what He had created from their hearts, and concerned themselves solely with God. (218)
Rabi'a was of this second kind. She felt no reverence even for the House of God in Mecca: "It is the Lord of the house Whom I need; what have I to do with the house?" (219) One lovely spring morning a friend asked her to come outside to see the works of God. She replied, "Come you inside that you may behold their Maker. Contemplation of the Maker has turned me aside from what He has made" (219). During an illness, a friend asked this woman if she desired anything.
"...[H]ow can you ask me such a question as 'What do I desire?' I swear by the glory of God that for twelve years I have desired fresh dates, and you know that in Basra dates are plentiful, and I have not yet tasted them. I am a servant (of God), and what has a servant to do with desire?" (162)
When a male friend once suggested she should pray for relief from a debilitating illness, she said,
"O Sufyan, do you not know Who it is that wills this suffering for me? Is it not God Who wills it? When you know this, why do you bid me ask for what is contrary to His will? It is not well to oppose one's Beloved." (221)
She was an ascetic. It was her custom to pray all night, sleep briefly just before dawn, and then rise again just as dawn "tinged the sky with gold" (187). She lived in celibacy and poverty, having renounced the world. A friend visited her in old age and found that all she owned were a reed mat, screen, a pottery jug, and a bed of felt which doubled as her prayer-rug (186), for where she prayed all night, she also slept briefly in the pre-dawn chill. Once her friends offered to get her a servant; she replied,
"I should be ashamed to ask for the things of this world from Him to Whom the world belongs, and how should I ask for them from those to whom it does not belong?" (186-7)
A wealthy merchant once wanted to give her a purse of gold. She refused it, saying that God, who sustains even those who dishonor Him, would surely sustain her, "whose soul is overflowing with love" for Him. And she added an ethical concern as well:
"...How should I take the wealth of someone of whom I do not know whether he acquired it lawfully or not?" (187)
She taught that repentance was a gift from God because no one could repent unless God had already accepted him and given him this gift of repentance. She taught that sinners must fear the punishment they deserved for their sins, but she also offered such sinners far more hope of Paradise than most other ascetics did. For herself, she held to a higher ideal, worshipping God neither from fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise, for she saw such self-interest as unworthy of God's servants; emotions like fear and hope were like veils -- i.e., hindrances to the vision of God Himself. The story is told that once a number of Sufis saw her hurrying on her way with water in one hand and a burning torch in the other. When they asked her to explain, she said:
"I am going to light a fire in Paradise and to pour water on to Hell, so that both veils may vanish altogether from before the pilgrims and their purpose may be sure..." (187-188)
She was once asked where she came from. "From that other world," she said. "And where are you going?" she was asked. "To that other world," she replied (219). She taught that the spirit originated with God in "that other world" and had to return to Him in the end. Yet if the soul were sufficiently purified, even on earth, it could look upon God unveiled in all His glory and unite with him in love. In this quest, logic and reason were powerless. Instead, she speaks of the "eye" of her heart which alone could apprehend Him and His mysteries (220).
Above all, she was a lover, a bhakti, like one of Krishna’s Goptis in the Hindu tradition. Her hours of prayer were not so much devoted to intercession as to communion with her Beloved. Through this communion, she could discover His will for her. Many of her prayers have come down to us:
       "I have made Thee the Companion of my heart,
        But my body is available for those who seek its company,
        And my body is friendly towards its guests,
        But the Beloved of my heart is the Guest of my soul." [224]

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Mother Angelica saving souls is this beautiful womans journey

Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament

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

Thus began a great adventure that would eventually result in the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, a Temple dedicated to the Divine Child Jesus, a place of refuge for all. Use this link to read a remarkable story about The Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament

Father Reardon, Editor of The Catholic Bulletin for 14 years Lover of the poor; “A very Holy Man of God.”

Monsignor Reardon Protonotarius Apostolicus
Pastor 42 years BASILICA OF SAINT MARY Minneapolis MN

America's First Basilica Largest Nave in the World

August 7, 1907-ground broke for the foundation

by Archbishop Ireland-laying cornerstone May 31, 1908

James M. Reardon Publication History of Basilica of Saint Mary 1600-1932

Index to Part I and Part II 1932

James M. Reardon Publication History of the Basilica of Saint Mary 1955 {update}

Brief History of our Beloved Holy Priest Here and his published books of Catholic History in North America
Reardon, J.M. Archbishop Ireland; Prelate, Patriot, Publicist, 1838-1918.
A Memoir (St. Paul; 1919); George Anthony Belcourt Pioneer Catholic Missionary of the Northwest 1803-1874 (1955);
The Catholic Church IN THE DIOCESE OF ST. PAUL from earliest origin to centennial achievement 1362-1950 (1952);
The Church of Saint Mary of Saint Paul 1875-1922; (1932)
The Vikings in the American Heartland;
The Catholic Total Abstinence Society in Minnesota;

James Michael Reardon Born in Nova Scotia, 1872; Priest, ordained by Bishop Ireland;

Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.

Affiliations and Indulgences Litany of Loretto in Stained glass windows here. Nave Sacristy and Residence Here
Sanctuary spaces between them filled with grilles of hand-forged wrought iron the life of our Blessed Lady After the crucifixon

Apostle statues Replicas of those in St John Lateran--Christendom's earliest Basilica.
Ordered by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, Popes' cathedral and official residence first millennium of Christian history.

The only replicas ever made: in order from west to east {1932}.

Saints Simon (saw), Bartholomew (knife), James the Lesser (book), John (eagle), Andrew (transverse cross), Peter keys), Paul (sword), James the Greater (staff), Thomas (carpenter's square), Philip (serpent), Matthew (book), and Jude sword

Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel
It Makes No Sense Not To Believe In GOD

THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi.

June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.

By Father John Corapi
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi.

June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.

By Father John Corapi

Among the most important titles we have in the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom. The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.

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

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

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

Talk is weak. Prayer is strong. Pray! God bless you, Father John Corapi

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

About Father John Corapi.

Father Corapi is a Catholic priest .

The pillars of father's preaching are basically:

Love for and a relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary
Leading a vibrant and loving relationship with Jesus Christ
Great love and reverence for the Most Holy Eucharist from Holy Mass to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
An uncompromising love for and obedience to the Holy Father and the teaching of the Magisterium of the Church

God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis will beatify these martyred Greek-Catholic bishops in Romania
May 30, 2019 - 03:01 pm .- On Sunday in Blaj, Pope Francis will beatify seven Greek-Catholic bishops of Romania who were killed by the communist regime between 1950 and 1970.

Woman who served Brazil’s poorest to be canonized
May 14, 2019 - 06:53 am .- Pope Francis Tuesday gave his approval for eight sainthood causes to proceed, including that of Bl. Dulce Lopes Pontes, a 20th-century religious sister who served Brazil’s poor.

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

Pope advances sainthood causes of 17 women
Jan 15, 2019 - 11:12 am .- Pope Francis approved Tuesday the next step in the canonization causes of 17 women from four countries, including the martyrdom of 14 religious sisters killed in Spain at the start of the Spanish Civil War.

Nineteen Algerian martyrs beatified
Dec 10, 2018 - 03:08 pm .- Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, were beatified Saturday during a Mass in Oran.

The Algerian martyrs shed their blood for Christ, pope says
Dec 7, 2018 - 10:02 am .- Ahead of the beatification Saturday of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, Pope Francis said martyrs have a special place in the Church.
Algerian martyrs are models for the Church, archbishop says
Nov 16, 2018 - 03:01 am .- Archbishop Paul Desfarges of Algiers has said that Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, are “models for our lives as disciples today and tomorrow.”

Francesco Spinelli to be canonized after healing of a newborn in DR Congo
Oct 9, 2018 - 05:01 pm .- Among those being canonized on Sunday are Fr. Franceso Spinelli, a diocesan priest through whose intercession a newborn was saved from death in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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

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

Pope Francis creates new path to beatification under ‘offering of life’
Jul 11, 2017 - 06:22 am .- On Tuesday Pope Francis declared a new category of Christian life suitable for consideration of beatification called “offering of life” – in which a person has died prematurely through an offering of their life for love of God and neighbor.

Twentieth century Polish nurse among causes advancing toward sainthood
Jul 7, 2017 - 06:14 am .- Pope Francis on Friday approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Hanna Chrzanowska, a Polish nurse and nursing instructor who died from cancer in 1973, paving the way for her beatification.

Sainthood causes advance, including layman who resisted fascism
Jun 17, 2017 - 09:22 am .- Pope Francis on Friday recognized the heroic virtue of six persons on the path to canonization, as well as the martyrdom of an Italian man who died from injuries of a beating he received while imprisoned in a concentration camp for resisting fascism.

Solanus Casey, Cardinal Van Thuan among those advanced toward sainthood
May 4, 2017 - 10:47 am .- Pope Francis on Thursday approved decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints advancing the causes for canonization of 12 individuals, including the American-born Capuchin Solanus Casey and the Vietnamese cardinal Francis Xavier Nguen Van Thuan.

Pope clears way for canonization of Fatima visionaries
Mar 23, 2017 - 06:44 am .- On Thursday Pope Francis approved the second and final miracle needed to canonize Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the shepherd children who witnessed the Fatima Marian apparitions.
Surgeon and father among sainthood causes moving forward
Feb 27, 2017 - 11:03 am .- Pope Francis recognized on Monday the heroic virtue of eight persons on the path to canonization, including an Italian surgeon and father of eight who suffered from several painful diseases throughout his life.

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis will beatify these martyred Greek-Catholic bishops in Romania
May 30, 2019 - 03:01 pm .- On Sunday in Blaj, Pope Francis will beatify seven Greek-Catholic bishops of Romania who were killed by the communist regime between 1950 and 1970.

Woman who served Brazil’s poorest to be canonized
May 14, 2019 - 06:53 am .- Pope Francis Tuesday gave his approval for eight sainthood causes to proceed, including that of Bl. Dulce Lopes Pontes, a 20th-century religious sister who served Brazil’s poor.

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

Pope advances sainthood causes of 17 women
Jan 15, 2019 - 11:12 am .- Pope Francis approved Tuesday the next step in the canonization causes of 17 women from four countries, including the martyrdom of 14 religious sisters killed in Spain at the start of the Spanish Civil War.

Nineteen Algerian martyrs beatified
Dec 10, 2018 - 03:08 pm .- Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, were beatified Saturday during a Mass in Oran.

The Algerian martyrs shed their blood for Christ, pope says
Dec 7, 2018 - 10:02 am .- Ahead of the beatification Saturday of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, Pope Francis said martyrs have a special place in the Church.
Algerian martyrs are models for the Church, archbishop says
Nov 16, 2018 - 03:01 am .- Archbishop Paul Desfarges of Algiers has said that Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, are “models for our lives as disciples today and tomorrow.”

Francesco Spinelli to be canonized after healing of a newborn in DR Congo
Oct 9, 2018 - 05:01 pm .- Among those being canonized on Sunday are Fr. Franceso Spinelli, a diocesan priest through whose intercession a newborn was saved from death in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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

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

Pope Francis creates new path to beatification under ‘offering of life’
Jul 11, 2017 - 06:22 am .- On Tuesday Pope Francis declared a new category of Christian life suitable for consideration of beatification called “offering of life” – in which a person has died prematurely through an offering of their life for love of God and neighbor.

Twentieth century Polish nurse among causes advancing toward sainthood
Jul 7, 2017 - 06:14 am .- Pope Francis on Friday approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Hanna Chrzanowska, a Polish nurse and nursing instructor who died from cancer in 1973, paving the way for her beatification.

Sainthood causes advance, including layman who resisted fascism
Jun 17, 2017 - 09:22 am .- Pope Francis on Friday recognized the heroic virtue of six persons on the path to canonization, as well as the martyrdom of an Italian man who died from injuries of a beating he received while imprisoned in a concentration camp for resisting fascism.

Solanus Casey, Cardinal Van Thuan among those advanced toward sainthood
May 4, 2017 - 10:47 am .- Pope Francis on Thursday approved decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints advancing the causes for canonization of 12 individuals, including the American-born Capuchin Solanus Casey and the Vietnamese cardinal Francis Xavier Nguen Van Thuan.

Pope clears way for canonization of Fatima visionaries
Mar 23, 2017 - 06:44 am .- On Thursday Pope Francis approved the second and final miracle needed to canonize Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the shepherd children who witnessed the Fatima Marian apparitions.
Surgeon and father among sainthood causes moving forward
Feb 27, 2017 - 11:03 am .- Pope Francis recognized on Monday the heroic virtue of eight persons on the path to canonization, including an Italian surgeon and father of eight who suffered from several painful diseases throughout his life.

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

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

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

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

Sunday, November 23 2014 Six to Be Canonized on Feast of Christ the King.

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

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

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

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

October 01, 2015 Vatican City, Pope Authorizes following Decrees
(ZENIT.org) By Staff Reporter
Polish Layperson Recognized as Servant of God
Pope Authorizes Decrees
Pope Francis on Wednesday authorised the Congregation for Saints' Causes to promulgate the following decrees:

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

HEROIC VIRTUES
- Servant of God Giovanni Folci, Italian diocesan priest and founder of the Opera Divin Prigioniero (1890-1963);
- Servant of God Franciszek Blachnicki, Polish diocesan priest (1921-1987);
- Servant of God Jose Rivera Ramirez, Spanish diocesan priest (1925-1991);
- Servant of God Juan Manuel Martín del Campo, Mexican diocesan priest (1917-1996);
- Servant of God Antonio Filomeno Maria Losito, Italian professed priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (1838-1917);
- Servant of God Maria Benedetta Giuseppa Frey (nee Ersilia Penelope), Italian professed nun of the Cistercian Order (1836-1913);
- Servant of God Hanna Chrzanowska, Polish layperson, Oblate of the Ursulines of St. Benedict (1902-1973).

March 06 2016 MIRACLES authorised the Congregation to promulgate the following decrees:
Pope Francis received in a private audience Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, during which he authorised the Congregation to promulgate the following decrees:
MIRACLES

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

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

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

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

LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000) India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858
China Marian shrines May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
Links to Related Marian Websites Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles Roman Catholic Popes Purgatory Uniates, PSALTER BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 7 2022

Tuesday Saints of this Day May 17 Septimo Kaléndas Junii Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum. And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins. Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас! (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!) R. Deo grátias. R. Thanks be to God. May, the month of Mary 2022 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. CAUSES OF SAINTS April 2016 Our Lady of Guadalupe's Eyes May 17 Mary Auxiliatrix (Turino, Italy, 1903) In 1951, an artist, Carlos Salinas Chavez, noticed a bearded man in the Virgin's right eye using a simple magnifying glass. Later examination of the eyes found several representations of people in the Virgin's eyes. According to the phenomenon of Purkinje-Samson, the images are threefold- the reflection of the image, its size and orientation that are found in the glare of a real pupil. When light is approached, one sees the same reflections as on the human eye: the cornea, the edge of the pupil and the lens move when the light source is moved (a phenomenon that can be seen in the human eye, but has never been painted on canvas or opaque surfaces that have no reflection). "This is pure folly. But the images are there and we can't pretend they don't exist," several scientists have observed. May 17 – Ville-Marie (Mary’s City), the original Montreal, founded 1642 by Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve (d. 1676) Montreal, Canada: a Marian mission Ville-Marie is now a district of the city of Montreal, Canada. The name Ville-Marie comes from the city’s origins as a Marian city. Its founders, who came from France in the 17th century, devoted themselves to charitable works, beginning with hospitals for the native Indians. They lived an intense Marian spirituality inspired by the French school, which was a spirituality of the Incarnation and union with Jesus through Mary. These pioneer missionaries actually created a new type of mission because they were lay people who envisioned a unique type of Marian mission. Over a short period, 248 men, 45 women and children left France for the New World. The first travelers reached the island of Montreal on May 17, 1642, the official date of the founding of Ville-Marie. Quite simply, they came there to live a life of prayer and charity. Today, Canada's principal Marian shrine is that of Our Lady of the Cape in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, dedicated to the Holy Rosary and visited by Saint John Paul II who entrusted Canada to Mary. In fact the city of Montreal still has many churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as well as a well-known oratory dedicated to Saint Joseph. www.mariedenazareth.com 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 . 1592 St Paschal Baylon Franciscan lay brother mystic labored as shepherd for father performed miracles distinguished for austerity spent most of his life as a humble doorkeeper rigorous asceticism deep love for the Blessed Sacrament defended doctrine of the Real Presence against Calvinists born and died on Whitsunday He who does not meditate, acts as one who never looks into the mirror; and so does not bother to put himself in order, since he can be dirty without knowing it. The person who meditates and turns his thoughts to God who is the mirror of the soul, seeks to know his defects and tries to correct them, moderates himself in his impulses and puts his conscience in order. -- Saint Pio of Pietrelcina		Saints May 18 17 16
May 17 - Ascension Day The Fiat of the Ascension Everything that happened on the day of the Ascension, Mary kept in her heart. She was educated by her Son's example, so Mary understood the Father's will for her. "Thy will be done" - the Fiat of the Annunciation and the Fiat of the Cross took Mary to the Fiat of the Ascension. Jesus disappeared before her eyes of flesh. She was forced to accept this mystery of separation, which made her detachment purer and more perfect than all those that she had experienced up to that point. Marie Benoite Angot See: www.mariedenazareth.com/index.php?id=367&L=1 May 17 – Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve (d. 1676) founds the city of Ville-Marie (Montreal, Canada, 1642) My Immaculate Heart will triumph: What does this mean? “Finally, I would like to revisit another key message of the secret made quite rightly famous: ‘My Immaculate Heart will triumph.’ What does this mean?” Cardinal Ratzinger asked. He answered: the triumph of one who leaves everything to God like Mary did, and in imitation of Mary: “The heart that is open to God, purified by the contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and arms of all kinds.” The victory of Mary's Heart therefore is an appeal to the freedom of each Christian to enter into God's loving plan for us on a daily basis. And he also explained: “Mary's fiat, the word of her heart, changed the course of history, because she introduced the Savior into the world – since, thanks to her 'yes,' God could become man in our world and remain so for ever. The devil has some power over this world, we can see it and experience it continually; he has some power because our freedom accepts to be diverted from God.” May 13, 2013 (Zenit.org)
There are over 10,000 named saints beati from history and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources	Monsignor James M. Reardon Basilica of Saint Mary Minneapolis, MN
AND ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN 1st v. Andronicus and Junias liturgically honored among the Greeks referenced by Saint Paul in Romans 16:7 "Salute Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow-prisoners, who are of not among the Apostles, who also were in Christ before me." St Adrio Victor & Basilla Martyrs of Alexandria Egypt MM (RM) 255 St Restituta Virgin martyr maiden in Africa died for Christ 300 Saint Solochon, a native of Egypt imperial army in regiment of tribune Campanus 303 St Heradius Martyr with Aquilinus Paul and 2 companions died at Nyon on Lake Geneva Switzerland 305 Solochon and Companions Egyptian soldiers in the imperial army at Chalcedon died for their faith MM (RM) 545 St Madern Hermit of Cornish descent St. Madern’s Well, is still popular many cures are said to have been performed 596 St. Dodo of Gareja ("Mamadavitoba" in Tbilisi, An admirer of poverty and solitude, he labored as a hermit at Ninotsminda in Kakheti. 650 St Cathan Bishop of the isle of Bute, in Scotland 673 Maildulf of Malmesbury Abbot spread the Gospel in England community of scholars known as Malmesbury (AC) Saint Maw Born in Ireland name in Cornish means "a boy." 893 Saint Stephen, Patriarch of Constantinople concerned himself with widows and orphans, and distinguished himself by his temperance Blessed Rasso of Grafrath man of great stature brave warrior against invading Hungarians founder monk OSB AC 1045 St Bruno of Würzburg bishop spent his private fortune on building the cathedral of Saint Kilian and other churches B (RM) 1100 Silaus of Lucca Irish monk abbot of Saint Brendan's monastery zealous and charitable bishop B (AC) 1152 St. Thethmar missionary among the Wends 1407 Saint Euphrosyne The holy princess was tonsured as a nun builder of churches founded Ascension women's monastery in the Moscow Kremlin patronage the famous icon of the Archangel Michael 1450 BD ANDREW ABELLON distinguished for his piety and the zeal with which he enforced regular observance; he exercised his talents as an artist in many of the Dominican churches of the south of France. 1549 Adrian of Ondrosov The MonkMartyr uncovering of the relics of the saint 1551 1592 St Paschal Baylon Franciscan lay brother mystic labored as shepherd for father performed miracles distinguished for austerity spent most of his life as a humble doorkeeper rigorous asceticism deep love for the Blessed Sacrament defended the doctrine of the Real Presence against a Calvinists born and died on Whitsunday 1616 Georgian martyrs of Persia are commemorated on Ascension.