Mary Mother of GOD
Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
RDeo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
May, the month of Mary, is the oldest
and most well-known Marian month, officially since 1724;

 2022
22,600   Lives Saved Since 2007

Solemnity of Pentecost, the Pope recalls the fact that this year marks the 51st anniversary of Servant of God Pius XII's Encyclical "Fidei donum,"
which "promoted and encouraged cooperation between Churches for the mission 'ad gentes'."




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

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

CAUSES OF SAINTS

The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”,
showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.

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
1st v. St. Andronicus 1/70 Disciples received Holy Spirit in Upper Room on day of the Pentecost:  Romans 16:7: "Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me."  preached the Gospel in many cities in the company of Junia, and they guided many to the Christian faith, and performed many miracles, healed the sick, and transformed the temples of idols to churches.
  189 ST ELEUTHERIUS, POPE
383 St Isaac received monastic tonsure pursued ascetic labors in the desert Isaac left the wilderness went to Constantinople to console/encourage the Orthodox, fight heretics prophet miracles helped laypeople and the poor
 628 St. Anastasius XV Bishop convert from the heresy of Arianism, appointed bishop of Pavia in Lombardy, Italy
 714 St. Hubert Benedictine monk at the age of twelve at the abbey of Bretigny, near Noyon, France
1016 St. Walstan Penitent and model of charity and intense personal goodness, spending his life in prayer gave away his goods and worked as a farmhand
1085 St. Gregory VII Hildebrand directed his reformer’s attention, first as counselor to the popes and later (1073-1085) as pope The Gregorian Reform, a milestone in the history of Christ’s Church, was named after this man who tried to extricate the papacy and the whole Church from undue control by civil rulers. Against an unhealthy Church nationalism in some areas, Gregory reasserted the unity of the whole Church based on Christ and expressed in the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter.
1431 St. Joan of Arc the patroness of soldiers and of France voices "of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret" told Joan to go to the King of France and help him reconquer his kingdom
1582 Bl. William Filby Martyr of England studied at Oxford converted to Catholicism  ordination as a priest in 1581 Reims, France arrested with St. Edmund Campion executed at Tyburn
1612 Bl. Richard Newport English martyr studied in Rome and was ordained in 1597 arrested banished twice returned each time martyred after third arrest
1933 Apolo Kivebulaya 1972 wurde der erste Bischof nach Boga entsandt und heute gibt es eine große anglikanische Kirche in Zaire.

May 30 – Our Lady of Europe (Gibraltar) – 4th Apparition of Tre Fontane (Italy)
- Saint Joan of Arc (d. 1431)   
Every Saturday, Joan of Arc used to bring flowers to the Madonna
Because she had a special devotion to the Virgin Mary, Joan went to the Bermont Hermitage every Saturday, since she did not have to work that day. She would bring candles or bouquets of flowers to the 14th-century Madonna that is still visible today.
(…) Joan had a particular devotion to the Virgin in the mystery of the Annunciation, whose feast was on the first day of the year in Lorraine, France. When she was at the head of the army, she kept her dear banner dedicated to Christ the King at her side, which was a pennant representing the Annunciation that she “loved 40 times more than her sword.”
In this, she was unknowingly imitating the official cult of the diocese of the Duchy of Lorraine whose national flag was the great standard of Lorraine called “The Nunciade” because it depicted the scene of the Annunciation on the white muslin.

www.amis-jeanne-darc.org


May 30 – 4th apparition at Tre Fontane (Rome, Italy, 1947), approved 
 
Two white hands “removed something from his eyes”
 Bruno Cornacchiola was born on May 9, 1913 in a poor agnostic family of five children. He became a Christian in an Adventist church, which was hostile to the pope.
As a radical Protestant, he intended to kill Pope Pius XII, until the Virgin Mary appeared to him at Tre Fontane (Rome) on April 12, 1947. Tre Fontane is where Saint Paul (whose name was Saul before his conversion) was beheaded.
On April 12, 1947, Bruno had taken his three children to play ball on a field near Tre Fontane; the ball was lost, a search began. Then one of the children, Gianfranco, suddenly knelt at the entrance of a grotto, saying: "The beautiful lady!" The other children came and knelt too, repeating: "The beautiful lady!" Their father tried to pull them away but they had become extremely heavy and he could not move them.

Entering the grotto, Bruno Cornacchiola had the sensation that two white hands "removed something from his eyes," and after a moment of darkness, he saw her too ... The beautiful Lady said: "You are persecuting me, stop now! Return to the holy fold. Ask the people to pray, and to recite the Rosary daily for the conversion of sinners,
the unbelievers, and for the unity of Christians."  Françoise Breynaert


May 30 - Our Lady of Europe (Gibraltar)
Now Mary Said (I)
Now Mary said: "You see before you the Lord's servant, let it happen to me as you have said." The inner calm of Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, proceeds from her unconditional surrender to God. Her whole being concentrates on Him as Creator and Redeemer, just as she exults in the Magnificat: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; because He has looked upon the humiliation of his servant."

That is Mary all over: in her awareness of her littleness expecting all from God with a boundless confidence.
A deep, imperturbable silence flows through her, because she has given full space to God to solemnize the immense miracle of the incarnation of His Son in her virginal womb. I use the word 'solemnize' rather than 'execute' for its deeper meaning, because the word is used for espousals. In fact Mary is the bride of the Holy Spirit. She wondered, however, how this would come about, to which the angel answered: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. And I tell you this too: your cousin Elizabeth also, in her old age, has conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God." The same Elizabeth calls her blessed, because: "(...) blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord w ould be fulfilled."
By Nicolaas Maria Peeters (artist, 2002).

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

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

1st v. St. Andronicus 1/70 Disciples received Holy Spirit in Upper Room on day of the Pentecost:  Romans 16:7: "Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me."  preached the Gospel in many cities in the company of Junia, and they guided many to the Christian faith, and performed many miracles, healed the sick, and transformed the temples of idols to churches.
IV v.  Natalia and Salonus  beheaded by the sword for confessing faith in Christ
   Saint Euplos died a martyr's death sewn up in an ox skin beneathe the harsh rays of the sun.
       Isaiah and Nikanor of Arkhangel'sk Monks glorified in the exploit of wilderness-dwelling on the banks of the River Rucha in the Arkhangel'sk frontier region.
  189 ST ELEUTHERIUS, POPE
XV v.  Monk Yakov (James) of Galich pursued asceticism in the
 274 St. Felix I Pope from 269-274
            Gabíni et Críspuli Túrribus, in Sardínia, sanctórum Mártyrum  where they had preached the Gospel
            Syci et Palatíni Antiochíæ sanctórum endured many torments for the name of Christ
 383 St Isaac received monastic tonsure pursued ascetic labors in the desert Isaac left the wilderness went to Constantinople to console/encourage the Orthodox, fight heretics prophet miracles helped laypeople and the poor
  370 St Basilíi et Emméliæ uxóris  Cæsaréæ in Cappadócia parents of St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Peter of Sebastopol, bishops, and St. Macrina, virgin lived in exile in the deserts of Pontus after the persecution they died in peace, leaving their children as heirs of their virtues.
 400 St. Venantius Hermit brother of St. Honoratus Both lived on an island near Cannes, France, until they departed to embrace the monastic life in the Eastern Empire.Venantius died at Medon, in Morea (modern Greece).
 410 St Isaac of Constantinople bravely defended the Catholic faith against Arian Emperor Valens whom he publicly denounced Abbot
  418  Exsuperántii, Epíscopi et Confessóris Ravénnæ sancti
 628 St. Anastasius XV Bishop convert from the heresy of Arianism, appointed bishop of Pavia in Lombardy, Italy
 655 St. Madelgisilus (Mauguille) disciple of St Fursey hermit disciple of St Fursey hermit with St Pulgan
 714 St. Hubert Benedictine monk at the age of twelve at the abbey of Bretigny, near Noyon, France
1016 St. Walstan Penitent and model of charity and intense personal goodness, spending his life in prayer gave away his goods and worked as a farmhand
1085 St. Gregory VII Hildebrand directed his reformer’s attention, first as counselor to the popes and later (1073-1085) as pope The Gregorian Reform, a milestone in the history of Christ’s Church, was named after this man who tried to extricate the papacy and the whole Church from undue control by civil rulers. Against an unhealthy Church nationalism in some areas, Gregory reasserted the unity of the whole Church based on Christ and expressed in the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter.
1252 St. Ferdinand III of Castile extremely devoted to the Blessed Virgin Patron of engineers conquered the city of Cordoba from the Moors founded the Cathedral of Burgos University of Salamanca a great administrator and a man of deep faith. He founded hospitals and bishoprics, monasteries, chuches, and cathedrals during his reign. He also compiled and reformed a code of laws which were used until the modern era. Ferdinand rebuilt the Cathedral of Burgos and changed the mosque in Seville into a Cathedral. He was a just ruler, frequently pardoning former offenders to his throne. buried in the habit of his secular Franciscan Order
1401 Blessed Andrew Franchi bishop of Pistoia, an office he filled with distinction and holiness for 23 years good religious and an able administrator served as prior in three convents while still quite young, OP B (AC)
1431 St. Joan of Arc the patroness of soldiers and of France voices "of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret" told Joan to go to the King of France and help him reconquer his kingdom
1483 Blessed James Bertoni At nine James joined Servites serving as procurator of the friary from the time of his ordination till death, Miracles wrought at his tomb in the church of St John at Faenza led to a popular cultus, formally approved in 1766OSM (AC)
1582 Bl. William Filby Martyr of England studied at Oxford converted to Catholicism  ordination as a priest in 1581 Reims, France arrested with St. Edmund Campion executed at Tyburn
1582 Bl. Thomas Cottam English martyr raised as a Protestant and studied at Oxford University convert to Catholicism ordination at Douai and Rome Jesuit
1582 Bl. Lawrence Richardson Martyr of England educated at Oxford. Converting to the faith, ordained in 1577 at Douai  worked in Lancashire until martyrdom at Tyburn
1582 St. Luke Kirby 1/40 martyrs of England and Wales Educated at Cambridge converted and studied in Rome and in Douai martyred at Tyburn
1612 Bl. Richard Newport English martyr studied in Rome and was ordained in 1597 arrested banished twice returned each time martyred after third arrest
1612 Bl. Maurus Scott Benedictine martyr of England studied law at Cambridge where he became Catholic converted by Blessed John Roberts ordained in Sahagun Spain St. Facundus Benedictine Abbey banished returned again and again exiled each time finally martyred
1933 Apolo Kivebulaya 1972 wurde der erste Bischof nach Boga entsandt und heute gibt es eine große anglikanische Kirche in Zaire.
Solemnity of Pentecost, the Pope recalls the fact that this year marks the 51st anniversary of Servant of God Pius XII's Encyclical "Fidei donum,"
which "promoted and encouraged cooperation between Churches for the mission 'ad gentes'."
Mary the Mother of God


1st v. St. Andronicus 1/70 Disciples received Holy Spirit in Upper Room on day of the Pentecost:  Romans 16:7: "Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me."  preached the Gospel in many cities in the company of Junia, and they guided many to the Christian faith, and performed many miracles, healed the sick, and transformed the temples of idols to churches.
On this day, St. Andronicus departed. This disciple was chosen by the Lord to be among the seventy disciples whom He sent before Him to preach the kingdom of God. He received the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room on the day of the Pentecost. St. Paul mentioned his name in (Romans 16:7) saying: "Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me."

He preached the Gospel in many cities in the company of Junia, and they guided many to the Christian faith, and performed many miracles, healed the sick, and transformed the temples of idols to churches. When they completed their course, and the Lord willed to take them from this world, Andronicus became ill for a short time and departed in peace. Junia buried him in a cave, and he prayed to the Lord to take him also. He departed on the next day.

IV v. Natalia and Salonus The Holy Martyrs beheaded by the sword for confessing faith in Christ, not later than the IV Century.
Saint Euplos died a martyr's death sewn up in an ox skin beneathe the harsh rays of the sun.
Monk Yakov (James) of Galich pursued asceticism in the XV Century and was buried in the Galich Starotorzhsk monastery, beneathe the altar of the church in honour of the holy Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb. The holy saint of God was glorified by miracles after his death.
Monks Isaiah and Nikanor of Arkhangel'sk glorified in the exploit of wilderness-dwelling on the banks of the River Rucha in the Arkhangel'sk frontier region.

189 ST ELEUTHERIUS, POPE

As in the case of all the other early Roman pontiffs, we have very little reliable information concerning Pope Eleutherius. It is stated that he was a Greek by origin. In his time Montanism was causing uneasiness in both West and East, and St Irenaeus came to Rome with a letter about it from the Christians of Lyons but it is not clear what action the pope took.

Eleutherius is now chiefly remembered from his supposed correspondence with the British king, Lucius, who was believed to have written to ask his warranty to be admitted into the Christian fold, thus bringing about the first preaching of Christianity in Britain (see St Lucius, December 3). This legend is no longer credited, but on the strength of it a feast of St Eleutherius is observed in the dioceses of Westminster and Portsmouth on May 30.

See the Liber Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, vol. i, pp. cii—civ, 58 and 136 and J. P. Kirsch in the Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. v, pp. 378—379.
383 St Isaac received monastic tonsure pursued ascetic labors in the desert Isaac left the wilderness went to Constantinople to console and encourage the Orthodox, fight heretics prophet miracles helped laypeople and the poor
Isaak vom Dalmatus-Kloster
Orthodoxe Kirche: 30. Mai (auch 22. März und 3. August) Katholische Kirche: 27. März (auch 30. Mai und 3. August)

During the reign of the emperor Valens (364-378), a zealous adherent of the Arian heresy, there was a persecution of the Orthodox, and churches were closed and destroyed.
Hearing of the persecution, St Isaac left the wilderness and went to Constantinople to console and encourage the Orthodox, and to fight against the heretics.
At that time, barbarian Goths along the River Danube were making war against the Empire. They seized Thrace and advanced toward Constantinople.

When emperor Valens was leaving the capital with his soldiers, St Isaac cried out, "Emperor, unlock the churches of the Orthodox, and then the Lord will aid you!"

But the emperor, disdaining the words of the monk, confidently continued on his way. The saint repeated his request and prophecy three times. The angry emperor ordered St Isaac to be thrown into a deep ravine, filled with thorns and mud, from which it was impossible to escape.
St Isaac remained alive by God's help, and he emerged, overtook the emperor and said, "You wanted to destroy me, but three angels pulled me from the mire. Hear me, open up the churches for the Orthodox and you shall defeat the enemy. If, however, you do not heed me, then you shall not return. You will be captured and burned alive." The emperor was astonished at the saint's boldness and ordered his attendants Saturninus and Victor to take the monk and hold him in prison until his return.

St Isaac's prophecy was soon fulfilled. The Goths defeated and pursued the Greek army. The emperor and his Arian generals took refuge in a barn filled with straw, and the attackers set it afire. After receiving news of the emperor's death, they released St Isaac and honored him as a prophet.

Then the holy Emperor Theodosius the Great (379-395) came to the throne. On the advice of Saturninus and Victor, he summoned the Elder, treating him with great respect. Obeying his instructions, he banished the Arians from Constantinople and restored the churches to the Orthodox. St Isaac wanted to return to his desert, but Saturninus and Victor begged him not to leave the city, but to remain and protect it by his prayers.  Saturninus built a monastery for the saint in Constantinople, where monks gathered around him. St Isaac was the monastery's igumen and spiritual guide. He also nourished laypeople, and helped many of the poor and suffering. When he had reached an advanced age, St Isaac made St Dalmatus (August 3) igumen. The monastery was later named for Dalmatus.
St Isaac died in the year 383, and his memory is also celebrated on March 22.
Isaak vom Dalmatus-Kloster
Orthodoxe Kirche: 30. Mai (auch 22. März und 3. August) Katholische Kirche: 27. März (auch 30. Mai und 3. August)

Isaak stammte aus Syrien und lebte im 4. Jahrhundert als Einsiedler. Unter Kaiser Valentius (364-378), der den Arianern anhing, wurden die Athanasianer verfolgt und ihre Kirchen geschlossen oder zerstört. Als Isaak von der Verfolgung erfuhr, verließ er seine Einsiedelei und ging nach Konstantinopel, um hier die Gemeinden zu unterstützen. Als die Goten Thrakien eroberten und auf Konstantinopel vorrückten, beschwor Isaak dreimal den Kaiser, die Kirchen der Athanasianer wieder zu öffnen, sonst würde er keine Hilfe von Gott erhalten. Der Kaiser ließ Isaak daraufhin in einen Sumpf werfen, aber Isaak kam unversehrt wieder aus dem Sumpf hervor und prophezeite dem Kaiser, er werde im Feuer umkommen, wenn er nicht die Kirchen öffne. Valentius übergab Isaak den Gefängnisaufsehern Saturninus und Viktor und zog gegen die Goten. Er wurde mit seinen Generälen von den Goten in einer Scheune, in die er sich geflüchtet hatte, verbrannt. Isaak wurde daraufhin freigelassen und als Prophet verehrt. Der neue Kaiser Theodosius (379-395) öffnete die Kirchen der Athanasianer und verbannte die Arianer aus Konstantinopel. Isaak ließ sich auf Wunsch von Saturninus und Viktor nahe Konstantinopel nieder. Aus seiner Einsiedelei entstand ein Kloster, in dem er 383 starb. Das Kloster wurde später nach seinem Gefährten und Nachfolger Dalmatus benannt. Das Gedächtnis Isaaks wird auch am 22. März und am 3. August (mit Dalmatus und Faustus) begangen.

370 Basilíi et Emméliæ uxóris ,Cæsaréæ, in Cappadócia, sanctórum Basilíi et Emméliæ uxóris , qui fuérunt paréntes beatórum Basilíi Magni et Gregórii Nysséni ac Petri Sebasténsis Episcopórum, atque Macrínæ Vírginis.  Hi vero sancti cónjuges, témpore Galérii Maximiáni, extórres facti, Pónticas solitúdines incolúere; et post persecutiónem, fíliis suárum relíctis virtútum herédibus, in pace quievérunt.
    At Caesarea in Cappadocia, the Saints Basil and his wife Emmelia, parents of St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Peter of Sebastopol, bishops, and St. Macrina, virgin.  They lived in exile in the deserts of Pontus during the reign of Galerius Maximian, and after the persecution they died in peace, leaving their children as heirs of their virtues.

Basil and Emmelia (RM)
Died c. 370. Saint Basil and Saint Emmelia were the parents of Saints Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Peter of Sebaste, and Macrina the Younger. They were exiled for their Christianity during the persecution of Galerius Maximinus but were later allowed to return to Caesarea, Cappadocia, where they lived the rest of their lives. Saint Basil was educated at home by his mother (Benedictines, Delaney).

418 Exsuperántii, Epíscopi et Confessóris Ravénnæ sancti
    At Ravenna, St. Exuperantius, bishop and confessor.
Exuperantius of Ravenna B (RM)
Died 418. Bishop of Ravenna, Italy, 398 to 418 (Benedictines).
418 ST EXSUPERANTIUS, BISHOP OF RAVENNA

THE successor of St Ursus as metropolitan of Ravenna was St Exsuperantius, or Superantius—a holy man who did much to promote the temporal as well as the spiritual welfare of his flock. He lived during the reign of the Emperor Honorius, and when Stilicho invested Ravenna with his army, St Exsuperantius prevailed upon him to restrain his soldiers from desecrating and looting the cathedral. The bishop built the town of Argenta—so-called because it paid a tribute in silver to the church of Ravenna. After a peaceful and uneventful episcopate of twenty years St Exsuperantius died in 418 and was buried in the church of St Agnes. His relics now rest in the cathedral of Ravenna.

There is a short account in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. vii, but the ultimate authority seems to be the not very trustworthy Liber pontificalis seu vitae pontificum Ravennatum of Andreas Agnellus. This may conveniently be consulted in Migne, PL., vol. 106 cc. 525-528 but a better text is provided by Holder-Egger in MGH., Scriptores Rerum Langobardicarum, pp. 265 seq.

Antiochíæ sanctórum Syci et Palatíni, qui, pro Christi nómine, multa torménta passi sunt.
    At Antioch, Saints Sycus and Palatinus, who endured many torments for the name of Christ.

Túrribus, in Sardínia, sanctórum Mártyrum Gabíni et Críspuli.
    At Torres in Sardinia, the holy martyrs Gabinus and Crispulus.

274 St. Felix I Pope from 269-274
Sancti Felícis Primi, Papæ et Mártyris, cujus dies natális tértio Kaléndas Januárii recensétur.
    Pope St. Felix I, martyr, whose birthday is commemorated on the 30th of December.

St. Felix inherited from Dionysius the problems associated with the deposition of Bishop Paul of Samosata. Although he had been deposed legitimately, he refused to allow Domnus to succeed him. Emperor Aurelian helped to insure that Domnus was allowed to rule the see.

Date of birth unknown; d. 274. Early in 269 he succeeded Saint Dionysius as head of the Roman Church. About this time there arrived at Rome, directed to Pope Dionysius, the report of the Synod of Antioch which in that very year had deposed the local bishop, Paul of Samosata, for his heretical teachings concerning the doctrine of the Trinity (see Antioch).
A letter, probably sent by Felix to the East in response to the synodal report, containing an exposition of the doctrine of the Trinity, was at a later date interpolated in the interest of his sect by a follower of Apollinaris (see Apollinarianism). This spurious document was submitted to the Council of Ephesus in 431 (Mansi, "Coll. conc.", IV, 1188; cf. Harnack, "Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur", I, 659 sqq.; Bardenhewer, "Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur", II, 582 sq.).
The fragment preserved in the Acts of the council lays special emphasis on the unity and identity of the Son of God and the Son of Man in Christ.
The same fragment gives Pope Felix as a martyr; but this detail, which occurs again in the biography of the pope in the "Liber Pontificalis" (Ed. Duchesne, I, 58), is unsupported by any authentic earlier evidence and is manifestly due to a confusion of names. According to the notice in the "Liber Pontificalis", Felix erected a basilica on the Via Aurelia; the same source also adds that he was buried there ("Hic fecit basilicam in Via Aurelia, ubi et sepultus est"). The latter detail is evidently an error, for the fourth century Roman calendar of feasts says that Pope Felix was interred in the Catacomb of St. Callistus on the Via Appia ("III Kal. Januarii, Felicis in Callisti", it reads in the "Depositio episcoporum").

The statement of the "Liber Pontificalis" concerning the pope's martyrdom results obviously from a confusion with a Roman martyr of the same name buried on the Via Aurelia, and over whose grave a church was built. In the Roman "Feriale" or calendar of feasts, referred to above, the name of Felix occurs in the list of Roman bishops (Depositio episcoporum), and not in that of the martyrs.

The notice in the "Liber Pontificalis" ascribes to this pope a decree that Masses should be celebrated on the tombs of martyrs ("Hic constituit supra memorias martyrum missas celebrare"). The author of this entry was evidently alluding to the custom of celebrating the Holy Sacrifice privately, at the altars near or over the tombs of the martyrs in the crypts of the catacombs (missa ad corpus), while the solemn celebration of the Sacred Mysteries always took place in the basilicas built over the catacombs. This practice, still in force at the end of the fourth century (Prudentius, "Peristephanon", XI, vv. 171 sqq.), dates apparently from the period when the great cemeterial basilicas were built in Rome, and owes its origin to the solemn commemoration services of martyrs, held at their tombs on the anniversary of their burial, as early as the third century.

Felix probably issued no such decree, but the compiler of the "Liber Pontificalis" attributed it to him because he made no departure from the custom in force in his time. According to the above-mentioned detail of the "Depositio episcoporum", Felix was interred in the catacomb of St. Callistus, 30 December. In the present Roman Martyrology his name occurs 30 May, the date given in the "Liber Pontificalis" as that of his death (III Kal. Jun.); it is probably an error which could easily occur through a transcriber writing Jun. for Jan.

274 ST FELIX I, POPE 

ACCORDING to the Roman Martyrology and the Liber Pontificalis, Felix I (a Roman by birth) ended his life as a martyr. This is almost certainly a mistake due to confusion with a certain Felix, a martyr who was buried on the Via Aurelia. The same confusion has led to the undoubtedly incorrect state­ment in the Liber Pontificalis (second edition) that Pope Felix “built a church on the Via Aurelia where he was also buried “. Very little is known of Felix, though he seems to have sent some reply to the report of the Synod of Antioch—announcing the deposition of Paul of Samosata—which had been brought to Rome in the time of his predecessor, Pope St Dionysius. On the other hand the quotation from what purported to be Felix’s letter which was read at the Council of Ephesus is declared by such scholars as Duchesne, Bardenhewer, Harnack and others to have been an Apollinarian forgery. The statement that Pope Felix “decreed that Masses should be celebrated on the tombs of the martyrs” may possibly refer to some practice initiated by him of placing an obstruction to block the hollow space (arcosolia) left above the tombs in the catacombs, exception only being made for tombs which were known to be those of martyrs. Thus the decree would mean that the Mysteries should be celebrated (only) on the tombs of martyrs. The true date of his death was December 30 (111 kal. Jan.), but a misreading of Jun. for Jan. has led to its being assigned to May 30. The Depositio Episcoporum which reveals this error also informs us that Felix was buried in the cemetery of Callistus.

See J. P. Kirsch in the Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. vi, pp. 29—30; Duchesne in Liber Pontificalis, vol. i, p. 158; CMH., pp. 14—16 ; Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchilchen Literatur, vol. ii, pp. 645—647.

1933 Apolo Kivebulaya 1972 wurde der erste Bischof nach Boga entsandt und heute gibt es eine große anglikanische Kirche in Zaire.
Anglikanische Kirche: 30. Mai

10 Jahre nach dem Tod der Märtyrer von Uganda bat das Stammesoberhaupt von Boga, einem Ort in Westuganda, erneut um Missionare, die aber nach kurzer Zeit wieder fortgesandt wurden, da sie zu energisch gegen Zauberei, Vielehe und Alkoholismus vorgingen. 1896 wurde ein junger Soldat, Apolo Kivebulaya, nach Boga gesandt, der sich kurz zuvor bekehrt hatte und als Katechet ausgebildet war. Auch er konnte sich in dem Dorf kaum behaupten und wurde schließlich des Mordes an der Schwester des Stammeshäuptlings angeklagt. Er verbrachte eine Zeit im Gefängnis der britischen Verwaltung, wurde dann aber freigelassen und kehrte nach Boga zurück. Hier predigte er weiter das Evangelium und konnte mehrere Menschen bekehren. 1915 wurde Boga Belgisch-Kongo zugeschlagen und die kleine Gemeinde war nunmehr von Uganda isoliert. Aber Apolo bildete viele der Bekehrten aus, so daß die Gemeinde sich selbst erhalten konnte. Als er am 30.5.1933 starb, bestand eine blühende Gemeinde in Boga, die außerhalb des kleinen Gebietes kaum bekannt war. 1969 fand ein amerikanischer Offizier eine Gemeinde von 25.000 Mitgliedern vor und drängte die anglikanische Kirche, diese Gemeinde zu unterstützen.
1972 wurde der erste Bischof nach Boga entsandt und heute gibt es eine große anglikanische Kirche in Zaire.
1612 Bl. Richard Newport English martyr studied in Rome and was ordained in 1597 arrested banished twice returned each time martyred after third arrest
Also called Richard Smith. Born at Harringworth, Nothamptonshire, England, he studied in Rome and was ordained in 1597. Returning to England, he worked in London for a number of years before being arrested and banished twice, but he returned each time. His third arrest was with Blessed William Scott. Both were hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tybum for being Catholic priests.
1612 Bl. Maurus Scott Benedictine martyr of England studied law at Cambridge where he became Catholic converted by Blessed John Roberts ordained in Sahagun Spain St. Facundus Benedictine Abbey banished returned again and again exiled each time Finally martyred.
1612 BB. WILLIAM SCOTT AND RICHARD NEWPORT, MARTYRS
WILLIAM Scott, of Chigwell, was studying law at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, when he was converted by reading Catholic literature. He went abroad, and took the Benedictine habit in the abbey of St Facundus, assuming in religion the name of Maurus. After his ordination he was sent on the English mission. As he entered London he saw Bd John Roberts, the monk who had received him into the Church, being hurried to execution, and three days later he was himself arrested and cast into prison where he remained a year. He was then deported, but soon made his way back to England. According to a contemporary he was imprisoned and exiled more than once and on each occasion he returned. After his final arrest, as he was being conveyed by boat from Gravesend to London he threw into the river a bag containing his breviary, his faculties and some medals and crosses. The bag was caught in a fisherman’s net and figured at the trial. In prison he had as his companion a secular priest called Richard Newport, a Northamptonshire man by birth, who after having been trained in Rome, had laboured very successfully in England. He also had been several times imprisoned and twice banished. The two prisoners were brought up at the Old Bailey before the Lord Mayor, the Bishop of London, the Lord Chief Justice, and other magistrates. They made a bold defence, but their condemnation was a foregone conclusion and they were sentenced to death as traitors. They suffered at Tyburn with great fortitude on May 30, 1612.

See Challoner, MMP., pp. 323—329, and B. Camm, Nine Martyr Monks (1931), pp. 180-237.

Born William Scott in Chigwell, Essex, England, he studied law at Cambridge, where he became a Catholic. Maurus was converted by Blessed John Roberts, the Benedictine, and was sent to Sahagun, in Spain, to St. Facundus Benedictine Abbey He was ordained there, taking the name Maurus. When he returned to England he was arrested, imprisoned for a year, and then banished. He returned again and again, being exiled each time. Finally, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn on May 30 with Blessed Richard Newport.
1582 Bl. William Filby Martyr of England studied at Oxford converted to Catholicism  ordination as a priest in 1581 Reims, France arrested with St. Edmund Campion executed at Tyburn
Born in Oxfordshire, he studied at Oxford. After graduation, William was converted to Catholicism and went to Reims, France, where he received ordination as a priest in 1581. He returned to England immediately and was arrested with St. Edmund Campion. William was executed at Tyburn with three companions on May 30. He was beatified in 1886.
1582 Bl. Thomas Cottam English martyr raised as a Protestant and studied at Oxford University convert to Catholicism ordination at Douai and Rome Jesuit
Born at Dilworth, Lancashire, England, in 1549, he was raised as a Protestant and studied at Oxford University before undergoing a conversion to Catholicism. Leaving England to prepare for ordination at Douai and Rome, he was ordained and joined the Jesuits going home in 1580. Arrested at his landing at Dover, he was taken to the Tower of London and eventually hanged, drawn, and quartered with three companions.
1582 Bl. Lawrence Richardson Martyr of England educated at Oxford. Converting to the faith, Lawrence went to Douai ordained in 1577 worked at Lancashire until his martyrdom at Tyburn
He was born in Great Crosby, Lancashire, England, and was educated at Oxford. Converting to the faith, Lawrence went to Douai, France, and was ordained in 1577. He returned to Lancashire and worked there until his martyrdom at Tyburn. He was beatified in 1886.
1582 St. Luke Kirby 1/40 martyrs of England and Wales Educated at Cambridge converted and studied in Rome and in Douai martyred at Tyburn
Educated at Cambridge, England, he converted and studied in Rome and in Douai, France. In 1580, he returned to England, only to be arrested two years later. Luke was imprisoned in the Tower of London and subjected to the infamous device “Scavenger’s Daughter.” a hideous form of torture. He was then martyred at Tyburn.
1483 Blessed James Bertoni At nine James joined Servites serving as procurator of the friary from the time of his ordination till death, Miracles wrought at his tomb in the church of St John at Faenza led to a popular cultus, formally approved in 1766 OSM (AC)
Born in Faenza, Italy, c. 1444; cultus confirmed 1766. At the age of nine, James joined the Servites, whom he served as procurator of the friary from the time of his ordination till his death (Benedictines).
1483 BD JAMES BERTONI tall, thin and very pallid: Miracles wrought at his tomb in the church of St John at Faenza led to a popular cultus, which was formally approved in 1766
AT the age of nine, Bd James Philip Bertoni was placed in the Servite priory of Faenza in fulfilment of a vow which his father had made during a dangerous illness, and in later years as a professed Servite he proved himself a most holy religious. So great was his horror of sin that he made his confession every day. In appearance he was tall, thin and very pallid. After his ordination he became procurator of the priory of Faenza and held other responsible offices. He died on May 25, 1483, at the age of thirty-nine. Miracles wrought at his tomb in the church of St John at Faenza led to a popular cultus, which was formally approved in 1766. Soon after his death, in recognition of his son’s sanctity, his father was declared a burgher of Faenza and was granted exemption from all taxes.

A short Latin life written by Nicholas Borghesi was printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. vi, as also in the Monumenta Ordinis Servorum B.V.M., vol. iv (1901), pp. 63—67. There is also a modem sketch by L. Trebbi (I867).
1431 St. Joan of Arc the patroness of soldiers and of France voices "of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret" told Joan to go to the King of France and help him reconquer his kingdom
Rotómagi sanctæ Joánnæ Arcénsis Vírginis, Puéllæ Aurelianénsis appellátæ, quæ cum fórtiter pro pátria dimicásset, tandem, in hóstium potestátem trádita, iníquo judício condemnáta est et igne combústa; atque a Benedícto Décimo quinto, Pontífice Máximo, Sanctórum fastis adscrípta.
    At Rouen, St. Joan of Arc, virgin, called the Maid of Orleans.  After fighting heroically for her fatherland, she was at the end delivered into the hands of the enemies, condemned by an unjust judge, and burned at the stake.  The supreme Pontiff Benedict XV placed her name on the canon of the saints.

1431 ST JOAN OF ARC, VIRGIN
ST JEANNE LA PUCELLE, or Joan of Arc as she has always been called in England, was born on the feast of the Epiphany 1412, at Domrémy, a little village of Champagne on the bank of the Meuse. Her father, Jacques d’Arc, was a peasant farmer of some local standing, a worthy man, frugal and rather morose; but his wife was a gentle affectionate mother to their five children. From her the two girls of the family received a good training in household duties. “In sewing and spinning I fear no woman”, Joan afterwards declared; reading and writing, however, she never learnt. Impressive and often touching testimony to her piety and exemplary conduct appears in the sworn depositions of her former neighbours presented in the process for her rehabilitation. Priests and former playmates amongst others recalled her love of prayer and church, her frequent reception of the sacraments, her care of the sick, and her sympathy with poor wayfarers to whom she often gave up her own bed. “She was so good”, it was stated, “that all the village loved her.” A happy childhood hers seems to have been, though clouded by the disasters of her country as well as by the dangers of attack to which a frontier town like Domrémy, bordering on Lorraine, was specially exposed. On one occasion at least before she began her great undertaking Joan had been obliged to flee with her parents to the town of Neufchatel, at eight miles distance, to escape a raid of Burgundian freebooters who sacked Domrémy.

She had been but a very young child when Henry V of England invaded France, overran Normandy and claimed the crown of the insane king, Charles VI. France, in the throes of civil war between the contending parties of the Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans, had been in no condition from the first to put up an adequate resistance, and after the Duke of Burgundy had been treacherously murdered by the Dauphin’s servants the Burgundians threw in their lot with the English, who supported their claims. The death of the rival kings in 1422 brought no relief to France. The Duke of Bedford, as regent for the infant King of England, prosecuted the war with vigour, one fortified town after another falling into the hands of the allies, while Charles VII, or the Dauphin as he was still called, seems to have regarded the position as hopeless and spent his time in frivolous pastimes with his court.
St Joan was in her fourteenth year when she experienced the earliest of those supernatural manifestations which were to lead her through the path of patriotism to death at the stake. At first it was a single voice addressing her apparently from near by, and accompanied by a blaze of light: afterwards, as the voices increased in number, she was able to see her interlocutors whom she identified as St Michael, St Catherine, St Margaret and others. Only very gradually did they unfold her mission: it was a mission which might well appal her: she, a simple peasant girl, was to save France!  She never spoke about these Voices in Domrémy she was too much afraid of her stern father. By May 1428 they had become insistent and explicit. She must present herself at once to Robert Baudricourt, who commanded the king’s forces in the neighbouring town of Vaucouleurs. Joan succeeded in persuading an uncle who lived near Vaucouleurs to take her to him, but Baudricourt only laughed and dismissed her, saying that her father ought to give her a good hiding.
At this time the military position was well-nigh desperate, for Orleans, the last remaining stronghold, had been invested by the English and was in danger of falling. After Joan’s return to Domrémy her Voices gave her no rest. When she protested that she was a poor girl who could neither ride nor fight, they replied; “It is God who commands it”. Unable to resist such a call she secretly left home and went back to Vaucouleurs. Baudricourt’s scepticism as to her mission was somewhat shaken when official confirmation reached him of a serious defeat of the French which Joan had previously announced to him. He now not only consented to send her to the king but gave her an escort of three men-at-arms. At her own request she travelled in male dress to protect herself. Although the little party reached Chinon, where the king was residing, on March 6, 1429, it was not till two days later that Joan was admitted to his presence. Charles had purposely disguised himself, but she identified him at once and, by a secret sign communicated to her by her Voices and imparted by her to him alone, she obliged him to believe in the supernatural nature of her mission. She then asked him for soldiers whom she might lead to the relief of Orleans. This request was opposed by La Trémouille, the king’s favourite, and by a large section of the court, who regarded the girl as a crazy visionary or a scheming impostor. To settle the matter it was decided to send her to be examined by a learned body of theologians at Poitiers.
After a searching interrogatory extending over three weeks this council decided that they found nothing to disapprove of, and advised Charles to make prudent use of her services. Accordingly after her return to Chinon arrangements were pushed forward to equip her to lead an expeditionary force. A special standard was made for her bearing the words “Jesus: Maria”, together with a representation of the Eternal Father to whom two kneeling angels were presenting a fleur-delis. On April 27 the army left Blois with Joan at its head clad in white armour, and in spite of some contretemps she entered Orleans on April 29. Her presence in the beleaguered city wrought marvels. By May 8, the English forts which surrounded Orleans had been captured and the siege raised, after she herself had been wounded in the breast by an arrow. All these events with their approximate dates she had prophesied before starting the campaign. She would fain have followed up these successes, for her Voices had told her that she would not last for long; but La Trémouille and the archbishop of Rheims were in favour of negotiating with the enemy. They persisted in regarding the relief of Orleans merely as a piece of good luck. However, the Maid was allowed to undertake a short campaign on the Loire with the Due d’Alençon, one of her best friends. It was completely successful and ended with a victory at Patay in which the English forces under Sir John Fastolf suffered a crushing defeat. Joan now pressed for the immediate coronation of the Dauphin. The road to Rheims had practically been cleared and the last obstacle was removed by the unexpected surrender of Troyes.
But the French leaders dallied, and only very reluctantly did they consent to follow her to Rheims where, on July 17, 1429, Charles VII was solemnly crowned, Joan standing at his side with her standard. That event, which completed the mission originally entrusted to her by her Voices, marked also the close of her military successes. A boldly planned attack on Paris failed, mainly for lack of Charles’s promised support and presence. During the action Joan was wounded in the thigh by an arrow and had to be almost dragged into safety by Alençon. Then followed a truce which entailed on the Maid a winter of inaction spent for the most part in the entourage of a worldly court, where she was regarded with thinly veiled suspicion. Upon the resumption of hostilities she hurried to the relief of Compiègne which was holding out against the Burgundians. She entered the city at sunrise on May 23, 1430, and that same day led an unsuccessful sortie. Through panic or some miscalculation on the part of the governor, the drawbridge over winch her company was retiring was raised too soon, leaving Joan and some of her men outside at the mercy of the enemy. She was dragged from her horse with howls of execration, and led to the quarters of John of Luxembourg, one of whose soldiers had been her captor. From that time until the late autumn she remained the prisoner of the Duke of Burgundy. Never during that period or afterward was the slightest effort made on her behalf by King Charles or any of his subjects. With the basest ingratitude they were content to leave her to her fate. But the English leaders desired to have her if the French did not: and on November 21 she was sold to them for a sum equivalent to about £23,000 in modern money. Once in their hands her execution was a foregone conclusion. Though they could not condemn her to death for defeating them in open warfare, they could have her sentenced as a sorceress and a heretic. In an age when fear of witchcraft was general the charge would not seem preposterous, and already the English and Burgundian soldiers attributed their reverses to her spells.
In the castle of Rouen to which she was transferred two days before Christmas Joan was confined at first—we are told, but this is doubtful—in an iron cage, for she had twice tried to escape. Afterwards she lay in a cell where, though chained to a plank bed, she was watched day and night by soldiers. On February 21, 1431, she appeared for the first time before a tribunal presided over by Peter Cauchon, bishop of Beauvais, an unscrupulous man who hoped through English influence to become archbishop of Rouen. The judges were composed of dignitaries and doctors carefully selected by Cauchon, as well as of the ordinary officials of an ecclesiastical court. During the course of six public and nine private sessions the prisoner was examined and cross-examined as to her visions and “voices”, her assumption of male attire, her faith and her willingness to submit to the Church. Alone and undefended she bore herself fearlessly, her shrewd answers and accurate memory astonishing and frequently embarrassing her questioners. Only very occasionally was she betrayed into making damaging replies, through her ignorance of theological terms and lack of education. Nevertheless, at the conclusion of the sittings a grossly unfair summing-up of her statements was drawn up and submitted first to the judges, who on the strength of it declared her revelations to have been diabolical, and then to the University of Paris, which denounced her in violent terms.
In a final deliberation the tribunal decided that she must be handed over to the secular arm as a heretic if she refused to retract. This she declined to do, though threatened with torture. Only when she was brought into the cemetery of St Ouen before a huge crowd, to be finally admonished and sentenced, was she intimidated into making some sort of retractation. The actual terms of this retractation are uncertain and have been the occasion of much controversy. She was led back to
prison but her respite was a short one. Either as the result of a trick played by those who thirsted for her blood or else deliberately of her own free-will, she resumed the male dress which she had consented to discard; and when Cauchon with some of his satellites visited her in her cell to question her concerning what they chose to regard as a relapse, they found that she had recovered from her weakness. Once again she declared that God had truly sent her and that her voices came from God. “Be of good cheer” Cauchon is reported as having exclaimed exultingly to the Earl of Warwick as he left the castle, “we shall get her again.” On Tuesday, May 29, 1431, the judges after hearing Cauchon’s report condemned her as a relapsed heretic to be delivered over to the secular arm, and the following morning at eight o’clock Joan was led out into the market-place of Rouen to be burned at the stake. Joan’s demeanour on that occasion was such as to move even the most hardened to tears. When the faggots had been lighted, a Dominican friar at her request held up a cross before her eyes, and as the flames leaped up she was heard to call upon the name of Jesus before surrendering her soul to God.
She was not yet twenty years old. After her death her ashes were contemptuously cast into the Seine, but there must have been many amongst the spectators to echo the remorseful exclamation of John Tressart, one of King Henry’s secretaries “We are lost: we have burned a saint!” Twenty—three years later Joan’s mother and her two brothers appealed for a reopening of the case, and Pope Callistus III appointed a commission for the purpose. Its labours resulted, on July 7, 1456, in the quashing of the trial and verdict and the complete rehabilitation of the Maid. Over four hundred and fifty years later, on May 26, 1920, she was canonized with all the solemnity of the Church.
This canonization was the occasion in England, as elsewhere, of a renewed and widespread interest in Joan of Arc; and there has been, almost inevitably, a tendency for various “Joan-legends” to grow up. There is the “Joan the Protestant” legend, popularized by George Bernard Shaw. Granted an inadequate understanding of Catholicism, this mistake is understandable it is nevertheless a mistake. As an accidental by-product of the same, there is the “theatre St Joan” legend, stereotyped as a pert Lancashire mill-girl with experience of festival religious drama a figure partly attractive, partly tiresome, wholly untrue. Then there is “Joan the nationalist”. A great patriot she certainly was; but when she said “France” can her supernatural Voices have meant anything else but Justice? There is “Joan the feminist”, in some ways the most foolish of these legends, both historically and in sentiment; and, of course, there is the Joan of the repositories, who may fitly be typified by the statue in Winchester cathedral. Moreover, there is the common error that the Church venerates her as a martyr.
What then was St Joan? Quite simply, a peasant girl, full of natural ability, good sense, and the grace of God; who knew, amongst other things, the story of the Annunciation, and when the will of God was made known to her, astounding as it was (though less so to her simplicity than to our sophistication), she faced it intelligently, welcomed it and submitted to it. That is what emerges from every page of the text of the original documents of her trial.  Other things as well can be learned from them, some of them little gratifying to Catholics; for though the tribunal that condemned her was not the Church, nevertheless it, and the ecclesiastics who upheld its decisions, included some honest and representative churchmen. It also included others who were not. The dealings with the Maid are an ineffaceable blot on the history of England. The Englishmen concerned were not the only people who earned disgrace.  No adequate bibliography of St Jeanne d’Arc is possible within these narrow limits. The list made in 1906 by Canon U. Chevalier contains some 1500 entries, and this was before she was even beatified. Innumerable books and articles have been written since then.

No adequate bibliography of St Jeanne d’Arc is possible within these narrow limits. The list made in 1906 by Canon U. Chevalier contains some 1500 entries, and this was before she was even beatified. Innumerable books and articles have been written since then. The most important sources were first published in Quicherat’s Procès de Condamnation et Réhabili­tation, 5 vols. (1841—1849); these are in Latin, but may be read in translations, e.g. by P. Champion in French and T. D. Murray in English, and the record of the trial only, by W. P. Barrett (1931). There is also a vast collection of materials, mostly translated, in the five volumes of Fr Ayroles, La Vraie Jeanne d’Arc (1890—1901), but it is unfortunate that the polemical note is here so much emphasized. The same exception may also be taken to the otherwise excellent books of Canon Dunand, Histoire complete de Jeanne d’Arc, 4 vols. (1912) and Etudes Critiques, 4 vols. (1909). Consult further Denifle’s Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, with its supplement; and C. Lemire, Le Procès de Jeanne d’Arc; and for biblio­graphies see the Cambridge Medieval History, vol. viii, pp. 871 seq., and J. Calmette, La France et l’Angleterre en Conflit (1937), pp. 405 seq. The following biographies and studies in French may be mentioned by L. H. Petitot (1921); M. Gasquet (1929); P. Champion (1934); Funck-Brentano (1943); J. Cordier (1948). No one has written more convincingly on the subject in English than Andrew Lang, The Maid of France (1908), especially in his criticism of Anatole France’s misleading Vie. Other English works are by Hilaire Belloc (1930), C. F. Oddie (1931) and V. Sackville West (1937). For a consideration of Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, see Fr Bede Jarrett in Blackfriars, May 1924, pp. 67 seq., and cf. E. Robo, St, Joan (1948), which includes a letter from Shaw. Fr Paul Doncoeur’s La minute française des interrogatoires de Jeanne Ia Pucelle (1952) is important. There is a highly recommended assessment of evidence, literature and general judgement on St Joan in La Vie Spirituelle, January 1954, pp. 84—98.

St. Joan of Arc is the patroness of soldiers and of France.  On January 6, 1412, Joan of Arc was born to pious parents of the French peasant class, at the obscure village of Domremy, near the province of Lorraine. At a very early age, she heard voices: those of St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret.  At first the messages were personal and general. Then at last came the crowning order. In May, 1428, her voices "of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret" told Joan to go to the King of France and help him reconquer his kingdom. For at that time the English king was after the throne of France, and the Duke of Burgundy, the chief rival of the French king, was siding with him and gobbling up evermore French territory.
After overcoming opposition from churchmen and courtiers, the seventeen year old girl was given a small army with which she raised the seige of Orleans on May 8, 1429. She then enjoyed a series of spectacular military successes, during which the King was able to enter Rheims and be crowned with her at his side.

In May 1430, as she was attempting to relieve Compiegne, she was captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English when Charles and the French did nothing to save her. After months of imprisonment, she was tried at Rouen by a tribunal presided over by the infamous Peter Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, who hoped that the English would help him to become archbishop.

Through her unfamiliarity with the technicalities of theology, Joan was trapped into making a few damaging statements. When she refused to retract the assertion that it was the saints of God who had commanded her to do what she had done, she was condemned to death as a heretic, sorceress, and adulteress, and burned at the stake on May 30, 1431. She was nineteen years old. Some thirty years later, she was exonerated of all guilt and she was ultimately canonized in 1920, making official what the people had known for centuries
1401 Blessed Andrew Franchi bishop of Pistoia, an office he filled with distinction and holiness for 23 years good religious and an able administrator served as prior in three convents while still quite young, OP B (AC)
1401 BD ANDREW, BISHOP OF PIST0IA
Bd ANDREW was a member of the noble family of the Franchi Boccagni of Pistoia, his native city, and early entered the Dominican Order. A great preacher, he was also endowed with administrative powers which led to his being made prior of three convents in Italy. In 1378 he was appointed bishop of Pistoia. For twenty-three years he ruled his diocese wisely and well, promoting peace and spending his revenues on the restoration of churches and the relief of the poor. As a bishop he led a life of extreme simplicity, striving as far as possible to observe the rule to which he had been bound as a simple friar. A year before his death he resigned his office and retired to his old convent in Pistoia, where he prepared himself for the end. He died on May 26, 1401. In 1921 Pope Benedict XV sanctioned his cultus for the Dominicans and for the diocese of Pistoia.

In the decree confirming the cultus (see the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. xiv, 1922, pp. 16—19) there is a short biographical summary. A longer account will he found in the Année Dominicaine, vol. V (1891), pp. 689—693; and in 1922 Fr Taurisano published a brief life in Italian.

Born in Pistoia, Italy, in 1335; beatified in 1921. Blessed Andrew was born into the noble dei Franchi Boccagni family. He entered the Dominican Order at Pistoia about 1351, when the Italian peninsula was still under the shadow of the plague and was deeply involved in fratricidal wars. Another theory has it that he entered at Florence in 1348, which was the year the plague reached its peak. Whichever date he entered, he did so to give attention to his immortal soul, at a time when the world around him was apparently falling to pieces.

Andrew proved to be a good religious and an able administrator. He served as prior in three convents while still quite young. In 1378, he was appointed bishop of Pistoia, an office he filled with distinction and holiness for 23 years.

It is written of Andrew that he devoted himself to the poor, and spent his revenues to relieve their misery and to rebuild the ruined churches. He had a great personal devotion to Our Lady, to the Holy Childhood, and to the Three Holy Kings. As bishop, he lived a life of extreme simplicity, retaining his religious habit, and as much as he could of the rule. A year before his death, he resigned his office and retired to die at his old convent of Pistoia (Benedictines, Dorcy).
1252 St. Ferdinand III of Castile extremely devoted to the Blessed Virgin Patron of engineers conquered the city of Cordoba from the Moors founded the Cathedral of Burgos University of Salamanca a great administrator and a man of deep faith. He founded hospitals and bishoprics, monasteries, chuches, and cathedrals during his reign. He also compiled and reformed a code of laws which were used until the modern era. Ferdinand rebuilt the Cathedral of Burgos and changed the mosque in Seville into a Cathedral. He was a just ruler, frequently pardoning former offenders to his throne; buried in the habit of his secular Franciscan Order
Híspali, in Hispánia, sancti Ferdinándi Tértii, Castéllæ et Legiónis Regis, ob virtútum præstántiam cognoménto Sancti; qui, fídei propagándæ zelo clarus, tandem, devíctis Mauris, ad cæléste regnum, terréno relícto, felíciter evolávit.
    At Seville in Spain, St. Ferdinand III, king of Castile and Leon.  He was surnamed the Saint on account of his eminent virtues; he was celebrated for his zeal in spreading the faith.  After conquering the Moors he left his kingdom on earth to pass happily to that of heaven.
1252 ST FERDINAND III OF CASTILE
THE father of Ferdinand III was Alfonso IX, king of Leon, and his mother was Berengaria, who was the elder daughter of Alfonso III, king of Castile: her mother was a daughter of Henry II of England, and her sister Blanche became the mother of St Louis of France. The death of her brother Henry in 1217 left Berengaria heiress to the throne of Castile, but she resigned her rights in favour of her eighteen-year-old son Ferdinand. Two years later he married Beatrice, daughter of King Philip of Swabia, and they had seven sons and three daughters.
Ferdinand was severe in the administration of justice, but readily forgave personal injuries. His wisdom showed itself particularly in the choice he made of governors, magistrates and generals; the archbishop of Toledo, Rodrigo Ximenes, was chancellor of Castile and his principal adviser for many years. In 1230, on the death of his father, Ferdinand became king also of Leon, but not without strife, for there were those who supported the claim of his two half-sisters.
King Ferdinand was the real founder of the great University of Salamanca; but it is as the tireless and successful campaigner against the Moors that he impressed himself on the minds and hearts of Spaniards. For twenty-seven years he was engaged in almost uninterrupted warfare with the oppressors. He drove them out of Ubeda in 1234, Cordova (1236), Murcia, Jaen, Cadiz and finally Seville itself (1249). It was at the battle of Xeres, when only ten Spanish lives were lost, that St James was said to have been seen leading the host on a white horse, in thanksgiving for his victories, Ferdinand rebuilt the cathedral of Burgos and turned the great mosque of Seville into a church. Unlike some warriors he was a forbearing ruler: it is remembered of him that he said that he “feared the curse of one old woman more than a whole army of Moors”; and he fought primarily not to extend his territories but to rescue Christian people from the dominion of infidels.
On the death of Queen Beatrice, Ferdinand married Joan of Ponthieu, who bore him two sons and a daughter: that daughter was Eleanor, who became the wife of Edward I of England. He himself died on May 30, 1252, and was buried in the cathedral of Seville in the habit of the Friars Minor. Ferdinand was declared a saint by Pope Clement X in 1671.
The Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. vii, have translated into Latin those portions of the chronicle of Rodrigo Ximenes, archbishop of Toledo (referred to above), which refer to St Ferdinand. With this we have also the summary account of Luke, bishop of Tuy, who was likewise a contemporary, and other miscellaneous documents. Further, there is preserved a narrative by the Franciscan, Giles of Zamora (c. AD. 1300). This will be found in the Detain de la real Academia de la Historia, vol. v (1884), pp. 308—321. St Ferdinand, of course, plays a conspicuous part in all Spanish histories which cover this period. Among modern biographies may be mentioned those by J. Laurentie in French (1910), F. Maccono in Italian (1924), and a popular life in Spanish by J. R. Coloma (1928).

Ferdinand III of Castile was the son of Alfonso IX, King of Leon, and Berengaria, daughter of Alfonso III, King of Castile (Spain). He was declared king of Castile at age eighteen. Ferdinand was born near Salamanca; proclaimed king of Palencia, Valladolid, and Burgos; his mother advised and assisted him during his young reign.
He married Princess Beatrice, daughter of Philip of Suabia, King of Germany and they had seven sons and three daughters. His father (the king of Leon) turned against him and tried to take over his rule. The two reconciled later, and fought successfully against the Moors. In 1225, he held back Islamic invaders; prayed and fasted to prepare for the war; extremely devoted to the Blessed Virgin. Between 1234-36, Ferdinand conquered the city of Cordoba from the Moors. Queen Beatrice died in 1236, and he overtook Seville shortly thereafter. He founded the Cathedral of Burgos and the University of Salamanca; married Joan of Ponthieu after the death of Beatrice. He died on May 30th after a prolonged illness, and buried in the habit of his secular Franciscan Order. His remains are preserved in the Cathedral of Seville and was canonized by Pope Clement X in 1671. Ferdinand was a great administrator and a man of deep faith. He founded hospitals and bishoprics, monasteries, chuches, and cathedrals during his reign. He also compiled and reformed a code of laws which were used until the modern era. Ferdinand rebuilt the Cathedral of Burgos and changed the mosque in Seville into a Cathedral. He was a just ruler, frequently pardoning former offenders to his throne.
1085 St. Gregory VII Hildebrand directed his reformer’s attention, first as counselor to the popes and later (1073-1085) as pope The Gregorian Reform, a milestone in the history of Christ’s Church, was named after this man who tried to extricate the papacy and the whole Church from undue control by civil rulers. Against an unhealthy Church nationalism in some areas, Gregory reasserted the unity of the whole Church based on Christ and expressed in the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter.

b.-1020 The tenth century and the first half of the eleventh were dark days for the Church, partly because the papacy was the pawn of various Roman families. In 1049, things began to change when Pope Leo IX, a reformer, was elected. He brought a young monk named Hildebrand to Rome as his counselor and special representative on important missions. He was to become Gregory VII.

Three evils plagued the Church then: simony (the buying and selling of sacred offices and things), the unlawful marriage of the clergy and lay investiture (kings and nobles controlling the appointment of Church officials). To all of these Hildebrand directed his reformer’s attention, first as counselor to the popes and later (1073-1085) as pope himself.

Gregory’s papal letters stress the role of bishop of Rome as the vicar of Christ and the visible center of unity in the Church. He is well known for his long dispute with Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV over who should control the selection of bishops and abbots.
Gregory fiercely resisted any attack on the liberty of the Church. For this he suffered and finally died in exile. He said, “I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile.” Thirty years later the Church finally won its struggle against lay investiture.

Comment: The Gregorian Reform, a milestone in the history of Christ’s Church, was named after this man who tried to extricate the papacy and the whole Church from undue control by civil rulers. Against an unhealthy Church nationalism in some areas, Gregory reasserted the unity of the whole Church based on Christ and expressed in the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter. Quote:  Gregory has much to say to our age in which civil or national religion is making subtle demands: “In every country, even the poorest of women is permitted to take a lawful husband according to the law of the land and by her own choice; but, through the desires and evil practices of the wicked, Holy Church, the bride of God and mother of us all, is not permitted lawfully to cling to her spouse on earth in accordance with divine law and her own will” (A Call to the Faithful).
1016 St. Walstan Penitent and model of charity and intense personal goodness, spending his life in prayer gave away his goods and worked as a farmhand
Born at Bawburgh, near Norwich, England, he was renowned for his charity and intense personal goodness, spending his life in prayer. Wealthy, he gave away his goods and worked as a farmhand at Taverham and Costessey. Walstan became a popular saint in the area of Norwich and became the hero of various legends. His shrine at Bawburgh was much visited until the English Reformation of the sixteenth century when it was destroyed.

1016 ST WALSTAN

NOT much can be stated with any certainty regarding St Walstan. There is no notice of him in the Dictionary of National Biography, and Sir T. D. Hardy in his Materials relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland refers only to the account given in Capgrave, Nova Legenda Angliae. But it is possible that Alban Butler had before him a copy of some manuscript materials which have now perished, perhaps in the fire which so seriously damaged the Cottonian collection. He wrote at any rate of St Walstan as follows, appealing, besides Capgrave and Blomfield’s history of Norfolk, to “an old manuscript Life”

“St Walstan was formerly much honoured at Cossey and Bawburgh, commonly called Baber, two villages four miles from Norwich. He was born at Baber, and of a rich and honourable family. The name of his father was Benedict, that of his mother Blida. By their example and good instructions he, from his infancy, conceived an ardent desire to devote himself to God, with the greatest perfection possible. In this view, at twelve years of age, he renounced his patrimony, left his father’s house, and entered as a poor servant at Taverham, a village adjoining to Cossey. He was so charitable that he gave his own victuals to the poor, and sometimes even his shoes, going himself barefoot. He applied himself to the meanest and most painful country labour in a perfect spirit of penance and humility; fasted much, and sanctified his soul and all his actions by assiduous, fervent prayer, and the constant union of his heart with God. He made a vow of celibacy, but never embraced a monastic state.

“God honoured his humility before men by many miracles. He died in the midst of a meadow where he was at work, on the 3oth of May in 1016. His body was interred at Baber it was carried thither through Cossey or Costessey, where a well still bears his name, as does another which was more famous at Baber, a little below the church. These places were much resorted to by pilgrims, especially to implore the intercession of this saint for the cure of fevers, palsies, lameness and blindness. His body was enshrined in the north chapel of that church, which chapel was on that account pulled down in the reign of Henry VIII though the church is still standing. All the mowers and husbandmen in these parts constantly visited it once a year, and innumerable other pilgrims resorted to it, not only from all parts of England, but also from beyond the seas. The church is sacred to the memory of the Blessed Virgin and of St Walstan.”

Father Joseph Stevenson, s.j., in certain manuscript notes he has left concerning the English saints, adds these details “ St Walstan, after giving away his shoes, loaded thorns in a cart without suffering any injury. His master offered to adopt him, but he refused, accepting, however, the gift of a cow, which produced two calves at one birth. When his approaching death was notified to him in a vision, he ordered his body to be placed on a cart drawn by two oxen who should be suffered to go on until they stopped of their own accord. They proceeded towards Costesheya (Cossey), and, though they passed through some water, the wheel-tracks then made are said to remain to the present day. The oxen came to a stop at Bawburgh, and there his body is buried.”

In the British Martyrology, compiled by Bishop Challoner with the title, A Memorial of Ancient British Piety (1765), there is a brief mention of St Walstan under May 30. On the other hand, the name is apparently not to be found in any surviving pre-Reformation calendar, nor does it figure in the “Martiloge” of R. Whitford (1526) nor in that of Father Wilson (1608 and 1640). The Bollandists, writing in the seventeenth century, would seem never to have heard of St Walstan, for he is not mentioned even among the “ Praetermissi”of May 30. Fr Paul Grosjean, Bollandist, suggests that the old life of the saint known to Butler may be identified with the English life in 75 stanzas now at Lambeth see Proceedings of the Norfolk and Norwich Arch. Soc., vol. xix, p. 250. It is a transcript from a parchment affixed to a triptych at the saint’s shrine in Bawburgh church.
714 St. Hubert Benedictine monk at the age of twelve at the abbey of Bretigny, near Noyon, France
Sometimes called Hugbert. He became a monk at the age of twelve at the abbey of Bretigny, near Noyon, France. 
655 St. Madelgisilus (Mauguille) disciple of St Fursey hermit disciple of St Fursey hermit with St Pulgan
Born in Ireland, he was disciple of St Fursey. After some years of monastic life at St Riquier in France, he went to live as a hermit with St Pulgan near Monstrelet.
Irish monk and companion of St. Fursey. Also known as Mauguille, Maguil, or Mauguil, he accompanied St. Fursey from Ireland to England and then to France. He became a monk at Saint-Riquier when St. Fursey died. He then left the monastery to avoid the adulation of his fellow monks and became a hermit at Monstrelet with St. Vulgan.

655 ST MADELGISILUS, OR MAUGUJLLE

ST MADELGISILUS, or Mauguille, is said to have been an Irishman and the com­panion of St Fursey, with whom he went to England and afterwards to Gaul. After the death of St Fursey, Madelgisilus joined the monks of Saint-Riquier or Centula. Dismayed at finding himself regarded with veneration by his brethren, he obtained leave from the abbot to retire into the solitude of Monstrelet, on the river Authie. Here he lived an austere life of contemplation alone until he was visited by a holy English recluse named Vulgan who, finding him very ill, nursed him back to health. A great friendship sprang up between them and they continued to practise the eremitic life side by side until Vulgan’s death. St Madelgisilus did not long survive his friend. He was buried in the hermitage chapel, but his relics were afterwards removed to a church of his name built near Saint-Riquier.

A life by Hariulphus, who, though he wrote as late as the beginning of the twelfth century, was a painstaking compiler, is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. vii. See also Corbiet, Hagiographie du diocese d’Amiens, vol. iii, pp.226 seq., and cf Gougaud, Gaelic Pioneers of Christianity, pp. 19 and 134.
628 St. Anastasius XV Bishop convert from the heresy of Arianism, appointed bishop of Pavia in Lombardy, Italy
Papíæ sancti Anastásii Epíscopi.      At Pavia, St. Anastasius, bishop.
Sometimes listed as Anastasius II. He was a convert from the heresy of Arianism, appointed bishop of Pavia in Lombardy, Italy Anastasius served from 668 to 680.
410 Saint Isaac of Constantinople bravely defended the Catholic faith against the Arian Emperor Valens, whom he publicly denounced Abbot (AC)
Saint Isaac bravely defended the Catholic faith against the Arian Emperor Valens, whom he publicly denounced. Isaac narrowly escaped death, and became a monk, then abbot, of a large monastery in Constantinople (Benedictines).

410 ST ISAAC OF CONSTANTINOPLE, ABBOT

WHEN the Arian Emperor Valens was persecuting his Catholic subjects, a hermit named Isaac was inspired to leave his solitude in order to remonstrate with the monarch. Coming• to Constantinople he warned the emperor several times that unless he ceased his oppression and restored to the Catholics the churches which he had given to the Arians, a great disaster awaited him and a miserable end. Valens treated these warnings with scorn and on one occasion when the hermit seized the bridle of his horse as he was riding out of the city, he gave orders that the prophet should be thrown into a neighbouring swamp. Isaac escaped— miraculously as it seemed—but on repeating his prophecy he was put in prison. His words were fulfilled shortly afterwards, for the emperor was defeated and killed at the battle of Adrianople. St Isaac was released by the successor of Valens, Theodosius, who always held him in great veneration. The holy man attempted to resume the solitary life, but soon found himself surrounded by disciples who A refused to leave him. For them he founded a monastery which is said to have been the oldest in Constantinople. From St Dalmatus, one of St Isaac’s disciples and his successor, it was afterwards called the Dalmatian monastery. St Isaac took part in the first Council of Constantinople — usually described as the second ecumenical council of the Church; and he died at an advanced age.

A Greek life of St Isaac is printed in the seventh volume for May of the Acts Sanctorum, from the last paragraph of which it has been inferred that the saint died in 383. This, however, is a mistake, as J. Pargoire has shown in Échos d’Orient, vol. ii (1899), pp. 138-145 the one reliable life of St Dalmatus proves that Isaac must have lived at least until 406. See the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xviii (1899), pp. 430—431.
400 St. Venantius Hermit brother of St. Honoratus Both lived on an island near Cannes, France, until they departed to embrace the monastic life in the Eastern Empire.Venantius died at Medon, in Morea (modern Greece).



THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 21

Praise Our Lady in her saints: praise her in her virtues and miracles.

Praise her, ye bands of Apostles: praise her, ye choirs and patriarchs and prophets.

Praise her, ye army of martyrs; praise her, ye bands of doctors and confessors.

Praise her in the college of virgins and the chaste: praise her, ye orders of monks and holy anchorites.

Praise her, ye monasteries of all religious: praise her, all the souls of all heavenly dwellers.

Let every spirit praise Our Lady

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

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

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

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

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

Mary the Mother of Jesus Miracles_BLay Saints  Miraculous_IconMiraculous_Medal_Novena Patron Saints
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1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800   1900 Lay Saints

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

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


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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