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

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.
November is the month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory since 1888;
2022
22,050 lives saved since 2007

 
Goodbye Vern Bartholomew 1917-2017 on All Saints/All Souls day
 Requiescat in pace;
Thanks for being such a great Dad
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin (Memorial)

CAUSES OF SAINTS

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


November 13 – Our Lady of Nanteuil (France) - Beatification of Charles de Foucauld (d.1910)
 I strived to imitate the Virgin Mary 
About five and a half years ago, I told you... that I was striving to imitate the Blessed Virgin in the mystery of the Visitation, by silently carrying, like her, Jesus and the evangelical virtues, not to Saint Elizabeth’s home, but among the infidels, to sanctify those unfortunate children of God by the presence of the Holy Eucharist and by the example of living a life of Christian virtue...

Seven years ago this spring I wrote to you from Akbes about what I intended to do: imitate the Virgin Mary in the mystery of the Visitation, that is to say, to sanctify the infidels in mission countries by carrying Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament among them in silence, without preaching, and practicing the evangelical virtues.
 
Blessed Charles de Foucauld (d.1916), Hermit in the Sahara, Martyr
Excerpts from his letters to his spiritual director, Father Huvelin
 
 
The Blessed Virgin's Predestination (II) November 13 - Our Lady of Nanteuil (France, 1st Century.)

His science is one, simple and indivisible, but to adjust it to our intelligence we must first divide it into acts or instants, the more so that the created things that are its object are subordinated among themselves, follow each other in succession and are linked together.
The first instant is: after God communicated ad intra or within himself, he found it worthy of his goodness to communicate himself ad extra, i.e. outwardly, by sharing his divinity and perfections with creatures in whom he would find, besides, his delights. In the second instant he decreed to execute this communication for the external glory which he would derive from the manifestation of his greatness. In the third instant he determined the order in which this communication would occur, so that the most beautiful harmony would glimmer between all his creatures.
Excerpts from City of God or the Divine History and Life of the Virgin Mother of God (Part 1, chapter I) manifested to Mary of Agreda.
 
It Makes No Sense Not To Believe In GOD 
Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin (Memorial).

November 13
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin (Memorial)
  founded schools hospitals orphanages; Patron of immigrants
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin St. Frances was born in Lombardi, Italy in 1850, one of thirteen children. At eighteen, she desired to become a Nun, but poor health stood in her way. She helped her parents until their death, and then worked on a farm with her brothers and sisters.

One day a priest asked her to teach in a girls' school and she stayed for six years. At the request of her Bishop, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children in schools and hospitals. Then at the urging of Pope Leo XIII she came to the United States with six nuns in 1889 to work among the Italian immigrants.


The measure of charity may be taken from the want of desires.
As desires diminish in the soul, charity increases in it;
and when it no longer feels any desire, then it possesses perfect charity. St. Augustine

It is not particularly difficult to find thousands who will spend two or three hours a day in exercising, but if you ask them to bend their knees to God in five minutes of prayer, they protest that it is too long.
-- Bishop Fulton Sheen
November 13 – Our Lady of Nanteuil (France)




  In our hearth be Queen!

In our hearth be Queen!  this very old popular hymn is still sung every year on Pentecost Monday, during the Pilgrimage of Our Lady of Nanteuil, and again at the beginning of September, for the Pilgrimage of Saint Gilles of Aiguevives (Montrichard, France). 

Kings Louis XI and Louis XII (who married Joan of France in the Church of the Holy Cross of Montrichard) both had a special devotion to Our Lady of Nanteuil, as did the spouse of Napoleon III, Empress Eugenie, who was also a pilgrim to Our Lady of Nanteuil and made many donations to these two churches (liturgical ornaments, chalice, pieta, etc).  Father Gerard Gouineau Foreign Missions of Paris http://romaaeterna.jp/augustin/aug1013.htm

 
November 13 - Dedication of the Abbey Our Lady of Bec Hellouin (Normandy, France)
- Beatification of Charles de Foucault
It is Normal that Children ask their Mother
An enthusiastic prayer to the Blessed Virgin is never pushed away: Jesus makes a point of showing us today, as in Cana, that He loves his Mother, always answers her prayers and enjoys seeing her invoked and honored by us.
It is normal that children ask their mother; so let us ask the Blessed Virgin. It is not possible for us to be true brothers and sisters of Jesus, to imitate him and resemble him, if we are not true children of the Blessed Virgin.
Blessed Charles de Foucault Meditation on the Holy Scriptures #429
Coptic Ss John and James, Bishops of Persia Martyrdom of; would not turn from the faith, would not cease from teaching the people and strengthening them, in spite of their torture
Coptic Ss Epimachus and Adrianus (Azarianus); Martyrdom of; admonished Maximianus for worshipping man-made idols which could neither see nor hear and wherein dwelt Satan, who led men astray by worshipping these idols
    305 St. Valentine, Solutor & Victor MM (RM)
    314 St. Mitrius martyr Slave  honorable mention by Saint Gregory of Tours
    444 St. Brice raised by St. Martin of Tours at Marmoutier
    437 St. Arcadius and Companions Protomartyrs Vandal persecution
          St. Columba martyr England
   527 St. Quintian  Bishop Africa native
   548 St. Columba abbot disciple of St. Finian Ireland
   580 St. Dalmatius Bishop of Rodez
6th v. St. Devinicus Scottish missionary bishop
 657 Saint Eugenius of Toledo gifted poet musician most zealous for all that pertained to divine worship B (RM)
7th v. St. Gredifael Welsh or Breton abbot of Whitland
  670 St. Maxellendis Virgin martyr Caudry restored sight to her murderer

7th v. St. Chillien Irish; Bishop Saint Faro of Meaux sent him to preach Gospel in the Artois, met with success
7th v. St. Caillin bishop turned Druids into stone;  when they refused to embrace the Christian faith.
7th v. St. Gredifael Welsh or Breton abbot of Whitland; accompanied Saint Padarn from Brittany to Wales
  867 St. Nicholas I, Pope served Pope Sergius II deacon under Pope Leo IV trusted adviser to Pope Benedict III elected bishop of Rome still a deacon, and occupied the see with distinguished courage and energy for nine troubled years.(RM) patron of tailors cloth workers
1004 St. Abbo Monastic abbot; leader, papal representative calming effect of year 1000.
1199 Saint Homobonus of Cremona life of the utmost rectitude integrity known for his charity concern for poor devoted profits to relief some he looked after in his own house (RM)
1230 Nicholas Tavelic, Adeodatus Aribert, Stephen of Cueno & Peter of Siardus of Mariengaarden, O. Praem
1280 Blessed Mark of Scala, OSB Abbot (AC)
1463 St. Didacus several miracles restoring patients eremite kind gentle
1568 Stanislaus Kostka, SJ (RM); known for his studious ways, deep religious fervor, mortifications. After recovered from serious illness experienced several visions, he decided to join the Jesuits; experienced ecstasies at Mass.
1917 St. Frances Xavier Cabrini founded schools hospitals orphanages; Patron of immigrants; In 1946, Pope Pius XII named her patroness of all emigrants and immigrants.


Shrine of Our Lady of Nanteuil Nov 13 - OUR LADY OF NANTEUIL (France 1st C.)


This shrine is one of the oldest in France. The first chapel was built around an oak tree in which a statue of Our Lady had been found. A parish church, later built nearby, shows late 12th century architecture, but the original shrine was already very old at that time.

The religious upheavals in 16th - century France left Our Lady of Nanteuil undisturbed, but before the French Revolution, a change came over the statue. The smiling face became sad, and many pilgrims testified to seeing tears on the cheeks. The Revolution brought sorrow to the shrine.
One of the pilgrims threw a rope around the neck of the statue and pulled it to the ground, breaking all but the head. A woman who carelessly tossed the head aside and looked for better loot was punished by almost instant death. Another woman took up the mutilated head and hid it until the destruction was over and a new body could be made to go with it.
One of the many miracles recorded of Our Lady of Nanteuil is the cure of a little boy who was completely crippled.
His mother carried him on her back for three pilgrimages, and the third time he returned home entirely cured.
The shrine was famous for cures of sick children.
This shrine had a privileged altar, highly indulgenced.
It was a favorite of the Venerable Olier and of that saintly vagabond Benedict Joseph Labre.
Sister Manetta Lamberty, S.C.C. The Woman in Orbit, 1966.

“The saints must be honored as friends of Christ and children and heirs of God, as John the theologian and evangelist says: ‘But as many as received him, he gave them the power to be made the sons of God....’ Let us carefully observe the manner of life of all the apostles, martyrs, ascetics and just men who announced the coming of the Lord. And let us emulate their faith, charity, hope, zeal, life, patience under suffering, and perseverance unto death, so that we may also share their crowns of glory” Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heaven.
1917 St. Frances Xavier Cabrini founded schools hospitals orphanages; Patron of immigrants
       

Coptic Ss John and James, Bishops of Persia Martyrdom of; would not turn from the faith, and would not cease from teaching the people and strengthening them, in spite of their torture
On this day, Sts. John and James, Bishops of Persia, were martyred by the hands of Shapur, the son of Hormuzd (Hermez), King of Persia.  When the King demanded them to worship the sun and fire, and to offer sacrifices to them, they did not obey him. Instead, they continued teaching and confirming the people in the faith of the Lord Christ, to Whom is the glory. Therefore, the King ordered them be tortured severely. When they would not turn from the faith, and would not cease from teaching the people and strengthening them, in spite of their torture, he ordered them be cast into the fire. They gave up their souls into the hand of the Lord Christ, thus received the crown of glory with all the saints.
Their prayers be with us. Amen.
Coptic Ss Epimachus and Adrianus (Azarianus); Martyrdom of; admonished Maximianus for worshipping man-made idols which could neither see nor hear and wherein dwelt Satan, who led men astray by worshipping these idols
On this day also, Sts. Epimachus and Adrianus (Azarianus), who were from the city of Rome, were martyred. Some people accused them of being Christians to the Governor, who was appointed by Maximianus the Emperor.  He brought them and questioned them about their belief. They confessed that they were Christians. Then they reproved him for having forsaken the worship of God, who created the Heaven, the Earth, and all that is therein. They also admonished him for worshipping man-made idols which could neither see nor hear and wherein dwelt Satan, who led men astray by worshipping these idols. The Governor marvelled at their audacity and commanded their necks to be cut off. Thus they received the crown of martyrdom.
Their intercession be with us and Glory be to our God, forever. Amen.
297 Antoninus, Zebinas, Germanus & Ennatha MM (RM)
Cæsaréæ, in Palæstína, pássio sanctórum Antoníni, Zébinæ, Germáni et Ennathæ Vírginis.  Hæc, sub Galério Maximiáno Imperatóre, verbéribus cæsa, igne cremáta est; illi vero, cum intrépidi ac líbera voce Firmiliánum Præsidem, diis immolántem, impietátis argúerent, cápite cæsi sunt.
    At Caesarea in Palestine, the martyrdom of the Saints Antoninus, Zebina, Germanus, and the virgin Ennatha.  Under Galerius Maximian, Ennatha was scourged and burned alive, while the others, for boldly reproaching the governor Firmilian for his idolatry in sacrificing to the gods, were beheaded.
This quartet was martyred by Galerius, to whom they had dared to preach the Gospel. The virgin Ennatha was burned alive, while the others were beheaded (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).

305 Valentine, Solutor & Victor MM (RM)
Ravénnæ natális sanctórum Mártyrum Valentíni, Solutóris et Victóris; qui sub Diocletiáno Imperatóre passi sunt.
    At Ravenna, the birthday of the holy martyrs Valentine, Salutor, and Victor, who suffered under Emperor Diocletian.
Martyrs at Ravenna under Diocletian. Probably a duplicate of November 11. To both groups some martyrologies add a number of other names (Benedictines).
314 St. Mitrius martyr; Slave honorable mention by Saint Gregory of Tours
Aquis, in província Narbonénsi, beáti Mítrii, claríssimi Mártyris.
    At Aix, in the province of Narbonne, the renowned martyr, blessed Mitrius.
Beheaded by his master in Aix, Provence, France. He is also listed as Merre, Metre, and Mitre. Mitrius was abused by fellow slaves because of his Christian faith even before his martyrdom.

Mitrius of Aix M (RM) (also known as Mitre, Metre, Merre). Although no authentic acta of Saint Mitrius have survived to our time, the Greek slave of a tyrannical master at Aix-en-Provence is given honorable mention by Saint Gregory of Tours. He was savagely ill-used by his master and by his fellow-slaves, and finally beheaded during the reign of Diocletian (Benedictines, Husenbeth). In art he is shown as a layman carrying his head into Aix Cathedral. Sometimes he is portrayed giving grapes to a poor man. Saint Mitrius is venerated as the patron of Aix-en-Provence (Roeder).

437 St. Arcadius and Companions Protomartyrs Vandal persecution of the faith.
In Africa sanctórum Mártyrum Hispanórum Arcádii, Paschásii, Probi et Eutychiáni; qui, in persecutióne Wandálica, cum in Ariánam perfídiam nullátenus declináre pateréntur, hinc a Genseríco, Rege Ariáno, primum proscrípti, deínde acti in exsílium atque atrocíssimis supplíciis cruciáti, postrémum divérso mortis génere interémpti sunt.  Tunc et Paulílli puéruli, germáni sanctórum Paschásii et Eutychiáni, constántia enítuit; qui, cum de fide cathólica nullátenus posset avélli, fústibus diu cæsus est, atque ad ínfimam servitútem damnátus.
    In Africa, the holy martyrs Arcadius, Paschasius, Probus, and Eutychian, Spaniards who absolutely refused to yield to the Arian perfidy, during the persecution of the Vandals.  Accordingly, they were condemned by the Arian king Genseric, driven into exile, and finally, after being subjected to fearful tortures, were put to death in divers manners.  At that time there was also seen the constancy of the small boy Paulillus, brother of the Saints Paschasius and Eutychian.  Because he could not be turned from the Catholic faith, he was long beaten with rods and sentenced to the lowest servitude.
They were Spaniards, exiled to Africa by Geiseric, the Vandal king, who professed the Arian heresy. Paulillus and Paschasius were young boys, brothers of Eutychian. Arcadius was a married man, and Probus a believer in the faith. Paulillus was beaten until he died. The others were tortured and executed.

437 Arcadius, Paschasius, Probus, Eutychian & Paulillus MM (RM)
All of these martyrs were Spaniards, who were exiled by the Vandal Arian King Genseric to Africa, where they became the protomartyrs of the Vandal persecution. Paulillus was only a boy, the little brother of Paschasius and Eutychian. "As he could not be turned from the Catholic faith he was long beaten with rods, and condemned to the basest servitude" (Benedictines).

437 SS. ARCADIUS AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
“IN Africa”, says the Roman Martyrology, “the passion of the holy Spanish martyrs Arcadius, Paschasius, Probus and Eutychian who, in the Vandal persecution, when they absolutely refused to enter into the Arian perfidy, were first proscribed by the Arian king, Genseric, then exiled and treated with atrocious cruelty, and finally slain in various ways. At that time, too, was seen the constancy of Paulillus, the little brother of SS. Paschasius and Eutychian, who, since he could in no way be turned from the Catholic faith, was long beaten with sticks and con­demned to the lowest slavery.” The boy afterwards died of exposure. In a letter to St Arcadius in captivity, Antoninus Honoratus, Bishop of Constantine, calls him the “standard—bearer of the faith”, and we learn from it—if indeed it was addressed to this Arcadius—the martyr was married and had a family.

There seems to be no independent passio of this group of martyrs, but there is a summary account in the Chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine. The letter of Bishop Antoninus Honoratus is printed in Migne, PL., vol. I, cc. 567—570. 

444 Saint Brice of Tours B (RM)
Turónis, in Gállia, sancti Brítii Epíscopi, qui fuit discípulus beáti Martíni Epíscopi.
    At Tours in France, St. Brice, bishop, a disciple of the blessed Bishop Martin. (also known as Brictio, Britius, Brixius)
444 ST BRICE, BISHOP OF TOURS
Brice (Britius, Brictio) was brought up by St Martin of Tours at Marmoutier but for long was no credit to his master. He was badly behaved, and contemptuous towards St Martin, who refrained from degrading and dismissing Brice, only lest he should thereby be avoiding a trial sent from God. Moreover, if the story be true, he had already foreseen that the troublesome cleric would be his successor. For while Brice was yet a deacon he had characterized his master as crazy; and when St Martin asked why he thought he was mad, denied his words. But St Martin replied that he had heard them. “Nevertheless”, he said, “I have prayed for you and you shall be bishop of Tours. But you will suffer many adversities in your office.” And Brice went away grumbling that he had always said the bishop was a fool. In one of the dialogues of Sulpicius Severus, Brice is represented as holding himself up as a model because he had been brought up at Marmoutier, while St Martin had been bred in camps and was falling into superstition and folly in his old age. Then suddenly he threw himself at St Martin’s feet and begged his pardon and Martin, whose pardon it was never difficult to get, forgave him, saying, “If Christ could tolerate Judas, surely I can put up with Brice”.

St Martin died in 397 and Brice was in fact elected to his place. He did not give satisfaction as a bishop and several unsuccessful attempts were made to get him condemned, until in the thirty-third year of his episcopate a happening was alleged with a woman. St Gregory of Tours asserts that Brice cleared himself by a very astonishing miracle, but he was driven from his see and went to Rome to protest his innocence. He remained in exile for seven years, during which he became a reformed character, and when Armentius, who had administered Tours in his place, died, he returned to his see. Brice lived to govern it for some years and by his exemplary life made such amends for his past that when he died he was venerated as a saint, considerable evangelical activity being attributed to him.

Within twenty-five years of his death the feast of St Brice was kept at Tours with a vigil, and his cultus soon spread. He was very popular in England (the Anglican calendar still retains his name), but nowadays he is only associated with the Massacre of St Brice’s Day in 1002, when Ethelred the Redeless ordered the wholesale murder of Danes which provoked Sweyn’s invasion of this country. 

What we know of St Brice is almost entirely derived from Sulpicius Severus’s writings on St Martin and from the popular traditions retailed by St Gregory of Tours. There is, no doubt, much that is perplexing in the story of St Brice, but the matter should be considered in the light of what two specialists have written on the subject see Poncelet in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxx (1911), pp. 88—89, and Delehaye in the same vol. xxxviii (1920), pp. 5—136, especially pp. 105 and 135. The letters of Pope Zosimus will be found summarized in Jaffé-Kaltenbrunner, Regesta Pontificum, nn. 330—331, and the full text in Migne, FL., vol. xx, cc. 650 and 663. In the second of these he expressly declares that Lazarus, the accuser of Brice, was “pro calumniatore damnatus, cum Bricii innocentis episcopi vitam falsis objectionibus appetisset”. It was probably his close connection with St Martin which made St Brice a popular saint both in England and in Italy; in nearly every one of the early English calendars printed by F. Wormald for the Henry Bradshaw Society his name is entered under November 13.  

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.  God loves variety. And He has a remarkable sense of humor. Sometimes He seemingly takes mischievous pleasure in placing side by side two saints whose characters should make it impossible for them to get along together. No doubt God wants to teach them humility, by showing them that each represents only a small part of the mystery of saintliness; and perhaps God also wants to reassure us, by telling us that if there are many mansions in heaven, there are also many roads leading there.  And so it was in the 4th century in Touraine, France. God set the impeccable Saint Martin of Tours side- by-side with the insufferable Saint Brice. Unlike his master, Brice was a proud, ambitious, and, perhaps, even licentious cleric.

When still very young, Brice entered the monastery that Martin had founded at Marmoûtier, just outside Tours. At first he was just an ordinary, boisterous young monk, but soon he grew up. By the time he was 18, he had become a deacon and had his own stables and slaves.  Martin, whose enemies reproached him for his excessive poverty and for what Gaston Boissier has called his 'rather democratic' outlook, was worried about the way the young deacon was behaving and remonstrated him like a father.
Brice bristled and answered the bishop with biting sarcasm. How could a barbarian from the wilds of Hungary tell him, who had been born on the banks of the Loire, how to behave? Was he, who had been educated properly, to take instruction from an improperly educated old legionary? Anyone who has ever dealt with teenagers can imagine the encounter.
Unlike most adults, however, Martin listened calmly and replied gently. He even predicted that Brice would one day become bishop, but that his episcopate would not be a peaceful one. The vicars- general and the canons of Tours, who didn't relish the idea of one day being ruled by this spitfire, urged Martin to send him packing. But Martin replied, "If Christ put up with Judas, then surely I can put up with Brice."
Brice continued to hold Martin in contempt, but despite Brice's attitude Martin dealt patiently with him, and eventually Brice repented with great remorse and begged Martin's forgiveness.

When Martin died, Brice succeeded him in 397 as bishop of Tours-- not by tricks or intrigue but by the regular open vote of the people. For 30 years Brice taught, baptized, confirmed, administered, and fulfilled all his duties as bishop. Several times Brice was accused of laxness but nothing really extraordinary happened, none of those miracles or scandals that were as dear to the hearts of the chroniclers then as they are to journalists today.  Nevertheless, Brice slept badly; he couldn't forget that Martin had predicted that he would be put to the test, and with a man like Martin there wasn't the slightest hope that the prediction would prove false. It might be late coming, but come it would. And every day for 30 years Brice waited for the fulfillment of the prophecy. It was uncomfortable but God had chosen it as a way of deflating the excessive conceit of youth.

Then it happened. One morning the rumor ran through the streets of Tours that a seamstress belonging to the bishop's palace had borne him a son. What a windfall for the town's gossips!  The accusation was false, but how to prove it? Since blood tests for paternity hadn't been discovered, Brice had to find another way. He had the infant brought to him, and, in his most episcopal voice, said, "I admonish you in the name of Jesus Christ to say, in the presence of everybody, if I am the man who fathered you." To which the baby replied, "You are not my father."

Such precociousness seemed suspicious to those present, and they thought that there must be some trick (unless it is we who have been tricked by Saint Gregory of Tours, who recorded the story). At any rate Brice's people were so far from being convinced that they expelled their bishop by physical force.  Brice didn't resist, for he realized that Martin's prophecy was now being fulfilled. About 430, he used his free time to make a journey ad limina, which took him seven years. During his 'exile' Brice had an opportunity to repent of his ways and completely changed his lifestyle. On his way back home he founded several new Christian centers.  When the seven years had passed, Brice returned to Tours. Just as he was coming into sight of the town, a providential fever killed the bishop who had been elected his successor. Not wanting to be lacking in politeness, Brice quickened his step and arrived in time to perform the funeral rites for this most tactful of bishops. He then resumed the episcopate himself for the remaining years of his life and ruled with humility, holiness, and ability.

At his death he was held to be a saint, and rightly so, such was the change of his manners after his conversion in Rome. He was buried in the same church as Saint Martin, for now that they were both saints there was no reason why they shouldn't sleep side-by- side. God had destined them to be together and to serve as foundations for the church of Tours. By joining the serenity of Martin to the vigor of Brice, harmony was ensured for a town where the Loire and Vouvray meet (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia).

In art Saint Brice carries hot coals in his vestments. Sometimes he is pictured as (1) carrying fire in his hand; (2) with a child in his arms or near him; or (3) with Saint Martin of Tours (because he was a disciple of Saint Martin) (Roeder).

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.

 St. Brice raised by St. Martin of Tours at Marmoutier
and also known as Britius. He became a vain, overly ambitious cleric, holding Martin in great contempt. Despite Brice's attitude, Martin was most patient with him, and in time, in great remorse, he asked Martin's forgiveness for his attitude toward him. He succeeded Martin as Bishop of Tours in 397 but reverted to his old ways, neglected his duties, was several times accused of lackness and immorality. Though cleared of the latter charge, he was exiled from his See. He went to Rome and in the seven years of his exile there, repented and completely changed his life style. When the administrator of his See, in his absence died, he returned and ruled with such humility, holiness, and ability, he was venerated as a saint by the time of his death.
6th v. St. Devinicus Scottish missionary bishop also called Denick or Teavneck.
He was a companion of Sts. Columba and Machar in evangelizing Caithness. Other details of his life no longer exist.
Devinicus of Caithness B (AC) (also known as Denick, Teavneck)  6th century. In his old age this native of northern Scotland associated himself with the missionary work of Saints Columba and Machar and evangelized Caithness. He is reputed to have been a bishop (Benedictines).

527 St. Quintian  Bishop Africa native
 Arvérnis, in Gállia, sancti Quinctiáni Epíscopi.     In Auvergne in France, St. Quinctian, bishop.
He was forced to leave his homeland during the invasion of Africa by the Arian Vandals. These Arians began a persecution of orthodox Christians. Settling in Gaul, he served the Church and was eventually appointed bishop of Clermont as successor to St. Euphrasius.
Quintain of Rodez B (RM). An African by birth, he fled to Gaul to escape the Arian-Vandal persecution. Eventually he became bishop of Rodez, but was driven thence, this time by Arian Visigoths, and went to Auvergne, where Saint Euphrasius made him successor in the see of Clermont (Benedictines).

548 St. Columba abbot disciple of St. Finian Ireland
He ruled the monastery of Tydaglas in Munster, Ireland.
580 St. Dalmatius Bishop of Rodez
France, ruling from 524 until his death. King Amalaric, the Visigoth ruler who embraced the heresy of Arianisni, persecuted Dalmatius because of his orthodoxy.
Dalmatius of Rodez B (AC). Bishop Dalmatius of Rodez, France, (524-580) suffered much at the hands of the Arian Visigoth King Amalric (Benedictines).

St. Columba martyr England
The patroness of two parished in Cornwall, England. The heather king there put her to death. Columba of Cornwall VM (AC)
Columba, the patron saint of two parishes in Cornwall, is said to have been a Christian maiden put to death by a heathen king of Cornwall (Benedictines).

657 Saint Eugenius of Toledo gifted poet musician most zealous for all that pertained to divine worship B (RM).
Toléti, in Hispánia, sancti Eugénii Epíscopi.    At Toledo in Spain, St. Eugene, bishop.
Eódem die natális sancti Eugénii, Epíscopi Toletáni et Mártyris; qui fuit beáti Dionysii Areopagítæ discípulus, et in território Parisiénsi, consummáto martyrii cursu, beátæ passiónis corónam percépit a Dómino.  Ipsíus autem corpus Tolétum, in Hispánia, póstea fuit translátum.
Also, the birthday of St. Eugene, bishop of Toledo and martyr, disciple of blessed Denis the Areopagite.  His martyrdom was completed near Paris, and he received from our Lord a crown for his blessed sufferings. 
His body was afterwards translated to Toledo in Spain.
(also known as Eugene II) Born in Toledo, Spain. Eugenius, a Spanish Goth, was successively a cleric under Saint Helladius, a monk of Saint Engracia at Saragossa, and then the archdeacon of Saint Braulio in Toledo. Finally, in 646, he was raised to the primatial see of Toledo. He was a gifted poet and musician, and most zealous for all that pertained to divine worship (Benedictines).
657 ST EUGENIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF Toledo
IT is said there was an Eugenius who occupied the see of Toledo and was an astronomer and mathematician his successor, St Eugenius, was a musician and poet. He was a Spanish Goth, a monk at Saragossa, and to avoid ecclesiastical promotion he hid himself in a cemetery. But he was forced to return and receive episcopal consecration. Some of the writings of St Eugenius, in prose and in verse, are extant; and we are told that he was a good musician, who tried to improve the poor singing of which he heard so much. He governed his see with great edification, and was followed therein by his nephew, St Ildephonsus. Alban Butler refers to another St EUGENIUS, called “of Toledo”, who is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on November 15. He is said to have been a martyred associate of St Dionysius of Paris, but he had nothing to do with Spain. The martyrology also names, on the 17th, a third ST EUGENIUS, deacon to St Zenobius of Florence and a disciple of St Ambrose. 
There has been confusion in the early episcopal lists of Toledo, and the existence of Eugenius I is questionable. The story printed in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. ii, is probably a myth. But there can be no question about the real existence and the literary activities of the Eugenius who died in 657. St Ildephonsus gives a short account of him in his De viris illustribus, cap. xiv (Migne, PL., vol. xcvi, c. 204). His poetical writings, with notes, etc., have been edited in MGH., Auctores Antiquissimi, vol. xiv. See on this the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxiv (1905), pp. 297—298. See also J. Madoz in Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique, vol. xxxv (1939), pp. 530—533.
7th v. St. Chillien Irish; Bishop Saint Faro of Meaux sent him to preach Gospel in the Artois, met with success
7th v. ST KILIAN
THIS Kilian (Chilianus), a native of Ireland, was said to be related to St Fiacre whom, returning from a pilgrimage to Rome, he visited at his hermitage in Brie, staying some time with him there. St Aubert having asked for some missionaries for Artois, St Faro of Meaux induced St Kilian to leave his solitude and undertake the work. It is related that, coming to the house of a nobleman near the banks of the Aisne, the weary traveller asked for something to drink, and was told by the mistress of the house that the river was just behind him, whereat he could quench his thirst at his leisure she had nothing for him to drink. “May it be to you as you have said”, replied Kilian, and walked off. When the nobleman came home from hunting, he also called for a drink, and was annoyed to find that all his barrels, full in the morning, were now empty. There was a hue and cry for Kilian, and when he was found profuse apologies were made to him, and the barrels were found again to be full. This nobleman had another house at Aubigny, and here St Kilian eventually made his headquarters, building a church on a piece of land given him near the Scarpe and preaching the gospel zealously throughout Artois until the day of his death.

There is a Latin life of late date, which was printed for the first time in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xx (1901), pp. 431—444. It has since been edited by B. Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. v. On this Kenney (Sources, vol. i, pp. 494—495) remarks “the extant life contains much that is absurd” but Hildegaire (c. 889) speaks of a Life of Kilian in his possession, so that it is possible there may have been some foundation in authentic materials. See also A. Perret, Histoire de S. Kilien d’Aubigny (1920), and L. Gougaud, Les Saints irlandais hors d’Irlande (1936).  

Relative of St. Fiacre. Chillien worked in Artois, France, to spread the faith. He is buried in Aubigny. Kilian of Aubigny (RM)(also known as Chillianus, Chillien, Chillen)
Born in Ireland; 7th century. Saint Kilian, kinsman of Saint Fiacre, became a missionary in France almost by accident. On his return from a pilgrimage to Rome, Kilian stopped to visit Fiacre in his solitude in Brie. There he joined his near relative in his contemplation and evangelizing efforts. Then Bishop Saint Faro of Meaux sent him out to preach the Gospel on his own in the Artois, where he met with success. His body was enshrined at Aubigny, near Arras, in the monastery church he established, where he is the object of great veneration. Styled a bishop in Colgan's manuscript, Kilian is said to have been the only Irishman to have been offered the papacy--which he declined (Benedictines, Husenbeth, Montague).

7th v. St. Gredifael Welsh or Breton abbot of Whitland; accompanied Saint Padarn from Brittany to Wales
in Dyfed, Wales. He accompanied St. Paternus from Brittany to Wales.
Gredifael of Wales (AC)
7th century. A Breton or Welsh saint who accompanied Saint Padarn from Brittany to Wales. He is said to have been abbot of Whitland in Pembrokeshire (Benedictines).

7th v. St. Caillin bishop turned Druids into stone;  when they refused to embrace the Christian faith.
associated with St. Aidan of Ferns, Ireland. Legends claim that Caillin turned Druids into stone when they refused to embrace the Christian faith.
Caillin of Ferns B (AC) 7th century. Caillin is associated with Saint Aidan (Maidhoc) of Ferns. It is said that Caillin turned certain unbelieving Druids into stones (Benedictines, Montague).

670 St. Maxellendis Virgin martyr Caudry restored sight to her murderer.
670 St Maxellendis, Virgin And Martyr
The diocese of Cambrai observes today the feast of St Maxellendis, the maiden daughter of the noble Humolin and Ameltrudis of the town of Caudry. Many young men, among whom her parents favoured a certain Harduin of Solesmes, sought her hand in marriage but Maxellendis said she did not wish to be married. When her father pointed out that God could be served well in the married state and that many saints had been wives as well, she asked for time to think it over. During the night she dreamed that an angel confirmed her resolution, and the next day she told Humolin that she was quite determined to take no other bridegroom but Christ. But her parents were equally determined that she should be the bride of Harduin, and when preparations for the wedding were going forward Maxellendis fled from the house. She took refuge with her nurse near Cateau­-Cambrésis, but her hiding-place was discovered and Harduin and his friends broke into the house. Maxellendis could not be seen anywhere, but in ransacking the place a large clothes-chest was thrown open, and the girl found therein. Disre­garding her cries and struggles they carried her off, but she broke loose and tried to run away, so that Harduin in his anger drew his sword and struck her with such force that she was killed on the spot. The men ran away in horror, all except Harduin himself, who was seized with blindness. St Maxellendis was buried in a neighbouring church, where she was the occasion of many marvels, so that St Vindician, Bishop of Cambrai, about the year 673 translated her body solemnly to Caudry. On this occasion the repentant Harduin asked to be led out to meet the procession. When he was brought near the coffin he fell on his knees, loudly accusing himself of his crime and asking God for pardon: and at once his sight was restored.

She was the daughter of Humolin and Ameltrudis, and she fled a proposed marriage with Harduin of Solesmes. Maxellendis wanted to become a nun, and when she was discovered by Harduin and his escort, she fought to escape him. Harduin killed Maxellendis with his sword and was struck blind. His sight was restored when he knelt for forgiveness beside Maxellendis’ coffin when her remains were retumed to Caudry in 673.
177—187.
670 Saint Maxellendis of Caudry VM (AC)
Saint Maxellendis was stabbed to death at Caudry, near Cambrai, by Lord Hardouin of Solesmes, to whom she was betrothed by her parents. Having paid the bride-price then traditional, he killed her in a fit of rage when she told him she wanted to be a nun (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
The passio of the saint has been printed in Ghesquière, Acta Sanctorum Belgii, vol. iii, pp. 580—589. The details are quite untrustworthy, but there were translations of her relics and an active cultus, especially at Cambrai where the greater part were eventually enshrined. See C. J. Destombes, Vies des Saints de Cambrai et Arras (1887), vol. iv, pp. 177-187
867 Nicholas I, Pope served Pope Sergius II deacon under Pope Leo IV trusted adviser to Pope Benedict III elected bishop of Rome still a deacon, and occupied the see with distinguished courage and energy for nine troubled years. (RM)
Romæ sancti Nicolái Papæ Primi, vigóre apostólico præstántis.
    At Rome, Pope St. Nicholas, distinguished for the apostolic spirit.
867 St Nicholas I, Pope
When Nicholas I died on this day in the year 867 after a pontificate of nine years all men of goodwill bewailed his loss, and heavy rains at that time were looked on by the Romans as testimony to the grief of the very heavens, for the dead pope had well deserved the titles “Saint” and “the Great” which succeeding ages bestowed on him.

 “Since the time of Blessed Gregory [the Great]”, writes a contemporary, “no one comparable with him has been raised to the papal dignity. He gave orders to kings and rulers as though he were lord of the world. To good bishops and priests, to religious lay-people, he was kind and gentle and modest; to evil­doers he was terrible and stern. It is rightly said that in him God raised up a second Elias”, and the greatest pope between Gregory I and Hildebrand.

He was a scion of a good Roman house, and Sergius II attached him to the papal household. St Leo IV and Benedict III used his talents, and on the death of the last-named in 858 Nicholas, then a deacon, was elected to the supreme pontificate. The new pope was at once confronted with the troubled state of affairs in the second see of Christendom, Constantinople. It has been related in the notice of St Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople (October 23), how that Bardas Caesar and the Emperor Michael III removed hierarch from his see, and Photius put in his place.

Other important matters were soon involved, and St Nicholas was engaged in very difficult and delicate relations with Constan­tinople throughout his pontificate. During the course of them he received a letter from the newly baptized ruler of the Bulgars, Boris, asking a number of questions Nicholas’s reply was “a masterpiece of pastoral wisdom and one of the finest documents of the history of the papacy”. It also reproved Boris for his cruelty to pagans, forbidding their “conversion” by force, and told the Bulgars to be less superstitious, less ferocious in war, and not to use torture. Naturally St Nicholas wished these new Christians to belong to his Patriarchate, but Boris eventually submitted his people to Constantinople.

 
St Nicholas I stands out as a firm defender of the integrity of marriage, of the weak and oppressed, and of the equality of all before the divine law. He had to uphold the matrimonial sacrament not only against King Lothair of Lorraine but also against the complaisant bishops who had approved his divorce and remarriage and when Charles the Bald of Burgundy obtained from the Frankish bishops the excommunication of his daughter Judith for having married Baldwin of Flanders without her father’s consent, Nicholas intervened in favour of freedom of marriage, recommending less severity and urging Hincmar of Rheims to try and reconcile Charles with his daughter.*{* The lady was a widow, having been the wife of Ethelwulf of Wessex and also united to her stepson Ethelbald. From her marriage with Baldwin was descended Matilda, the wife of William the Conqueror.}

This Hincmar was a prominent figure among early medieval bishops, but he was proud and ambitious, and Nicholas, like other popes, had to force him to acknowledge the right of the Holy See to take cognizance of all important causes, one of Hincmar’s suffragans having appealed to Rome against the sentence of his metropolitan. St Nicholas also twice excommunicated Archbishop John of Ravenna, for his intolerance towards his suffragans and other clergy and open defiance of the pope. People turned to this strong and just judge from all over Europe and beyond.
The Church in the West was in a bad way at the time when St Nicholas was called to govern it after the collapse of Charlemagne’s empire. Young, inexperi­enced and even vicious bishops received and lost sees at the will of secular nobles. Excommunication was used (and for long after) as a daily weapon in the most unsuitable circumstances. Contempt for the persons of the clergy led to disrespect for their office; evil living had followed on the degeneration and disuse of canonical penance. The great pope did his utmost against thronging ills during a short reign: injustice and wickedness he denounced unsparingly, whether in high or low, clergy or laity. Certainly he did not lack ambition, but it was the ambition to consolidate for the Apostolic See a position in which the maximum amount of good could be done for souls. +{+He has been accused of deliberately making use of those documents known as the False Decretals, knowing them to be false. Whatever limited use he may have made of them he certainly did not know they were forged: nobody did before the fifteenth century. They were brought into Italy from France.}

“If, wrote the Anglican Dean Milman, “he treated the royal dignity of France with contempt, it had already become contempt­ible in the eyes of mankind; if he annulled by his own authority the decree of a national council, composed of the most distinguished prelates of Gaul, that council had already been condemned by all who had natural sympathies with justice and with innocence.” When any scandal or disorder arose, “he gave no rest to his frame or repose to his limbs “till he had tried to remedy it.”

Though his responsibilities were conterminous with Christendom, Nicholas had a deep personal solicitude for his own episcopal flock. For example, he had drawn up a list of all the disabled poor in Rome, who were fed daily in their homes, while the able-bodied were given food at the papal residence. Each person on the register had a particular day of the week on which to fetch it, and was provided with a sort of tally to remind him which was his day. St Nicholas was worn down by ill health, as well as by his own ceaseless energy. “Our heavenly Father”, he wrote, “has seen good to send me such pain that not only am I unable to write proper replies to your questions, but I cannot even dictate them, so intensely do I suffer,” He died at Rome on November 13, 867.   Pope St Nicholas the Great, whose feast is kept each year by the Romans, “was patient and temperate, humble and chaste, beautiful in face and graceful in body. His speech was learned and modest, illustrious though he was by great deeds. He was devoted to penance and the Holy Mysteries, the friend of widows and orphans, and the champion of all the people”. (Liber Pontificalis). Yet whilst he lay dying he was robbed by one of his officials of money that he had set aside for the poor.   St Nicholas I belongs to general church history and there is nothing which can be regarded as an early hagiographical life of this great pope, The account in the Liber, Pontificalis (see Duchesne’s edition, vol. ii, pp. 151—172) is somewhat less of an inventory than other preceding notices and is probably due to Anastasius the Librarian himself. A very good biography is provided in Mann, Lives of the Popes, vol. iii (1906), pp. 1148, and in the little volume of Jules Roy, St Nicholas I (Eng. trans., 1901) both these furnish a full list of sources and works to be consulted. But since they wrote additions have been made. The important correspondence of Pope Nicholas is accessible not only in Migne, PL., vol. cxix, but in MGH., Epistolae, vol. vi, on which see E. Perels in the Neues Archiv, vol. xxxvii (1912) and vol. xxxix (1914), as well as the book of the same scholar, Papst Nicolaus I und Anastasius Bibliothecarius (1920). See also Duchesne, Les Premiers Temps de l’État pontifical (1911) ; F. Dvornik, Les Slaves, Byzance et Rome au IXeme siècle (1926), and The Photian Schism (1948); F. X. Seppelt, Das Papsttum im Früh-Mittelalter (1934), pp. 241—284. On the question of the Forged Decretals, see especially P. Fournier and G. Le Bras, Histoire des Collections caroniques en Occident, vol. (1931), pp. 127—233, and J. Hailer, Nikolaus 1 und Pseudo-Isidor (1936).  Born in Rome between 819-822; died there in 867. Born into a distinguished Roman family, Nicholas served in the Curia under Pope Sergius II, became a deacon under Pope Leo IV, and was a trusted adviser to Pope Benedict III. Nicholas was elected bishop of Rome on April 22, 858, while still a deacon, and occupied the see with distinguished courage and energy for nine troubled years.
Among the matters with which he had to deal was the long dispute about the patriarchal see of Constantinople, the turbulence of Archbishop John of Ravenna and the ambition of Hincmar of Rheims, in addition to the matrimonial troubles of several important persons. He insisted on the sanctity and indissolubility of marriage, despite the threat of the invasion of Rome, when he denounced the bigamous marriage of the emperor's nephew, King Lothair II of Lorraine. This precipitated a struggle during which Nicholas deposed two German archbishops and Lothair's army threatened Rome.
He also insisted on the freedom to marry when he forced King Charles the Bald of Burgundy to accept the marriage of his daughter Judith to Baldwin of Flanders without the king's consent and compelled the Frankish bishops to withdraw the excommunication they had imposed on her for marrying without her father's consent.
In 861 Nicholas compelled Archbishop Hincmar of Rheims to accept papal appellate jurisdiction in important cases when he obliged Hincmar to restore Bishop Rothad of Soissons, whom he had deposed.
Twice he excommunicated recalcitrant and powerful Archbishop John of Ravenna, who counted on imperial support, for infringing on the rights of the Holy See and for abuses of his office, and made him submit to papal authority.
Nicholas was also involved in controversy with Constantinople throughout his pontificate over the illegal deposition of Ignatius and the appointment of Photius as patriarch of Constantinople by Emperor Michael III. Nicholas excommunicated Michael in 863; the matter was not finally resolved until newly crowned Emperor Basil I expelled Photius, who had declared the pope deposed, on the day Nicholas died.
Faced by disorder or scandal, Nicholas could not rest until he had dealt with it; but he sometimes invoked the aid of persons considerably less moderate and reasonable than himself.
He encouraged missionary activities, sending Saint Anskar as papal missionary to Scandinavia and bringing about the conversion of Bulgaria with missionaries he sent there. A letter (Responsa Nicolai ad consulta Bulgarum) he sent to the newly baptized Khan Boris of the Bulgars has been characterized as 'a masterpiece of pastoral wisdom and one of the finest documents of the history of the papacy.' The letter summarizes Christian faith and discipline.
A champion of papal primacy and the ascendancy of the Church over emperors, kings, and other secular authorities in matters concerning the Church, he was responsible for restoring the papacy to the highest prestige.
Nicholas's generosity made him beloved by the people and his defense of justice and virtue earned the respect of his contemporaries generally. He was famous for the reforms he instituted among the clergy and laity, was a patron of the arts and learning, and was a man of the highest personal integrity. Saint Nicholas is one of the three popes to whom the epithet 'the Great' is given (Saint Leo I and Saint Gregory I being the other two) (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney).
1004 St. Abbo Monastic abbot; leader, papal representative calming effect of year 1000.
sometimes called Abbo of Fleury and Abbon.
1004 St Abbo Of Fleury, Abbot
Abbo Of Fleur was a monk among the most conspicuous for learning in his time and one, moreover, associated for a short period with our own country. About the year 971 St Oswald of York, then bishop of Worcester, founded a monastery at Ramsey in Huntingdonshire. Oswald had received the Benedictine habit at Fleury-sur-Loire, and about 986 he received from that monastery the services of Abbo as director of the school at Ramsey.

   He filled this office for two years, having himself studied in the schools of Paris, Rheims and Orleans, and then returned to Fleury to resume his own studies in philosophy, mathematics and astronomy. He was not allowed to pursue these in quietness, for on the death of the governing abbot he was elected to take his place. But the election was disputed, and a contest ensued which spread far beyond the walls of the monastery. It was eventually decided in favour of Abbo, with the help of Gerbert, who a few years later was to become pope as Silvester II.

Abbo’s career as a prelate was very lively, for he threw himself into the affairs of his time with great energy: he strove for the exemption of monasteries from episcopal control he made himself conspicuous at synods, and failed to get King Robert II’s very irregular second marriage recognized at Rome. He is perhaps better remembered for his writings, notably a collection of canons and, in England, his Life of St Edmund, king and martyr.

We learn from Abbo’s letters that he was much in request for restoring peace in disturbed monastic communities, and it was his zeal for discipline that brought about his violent death, for which he was venerated as a martyr. In 1004 he set out to restore order in the monastery at La Réole in Gascony. A brawl broke out between some monks and their servants, and Abbo in trying to pacify them was stabbed. He staggered to his cell, and there died in the arms of one of his monks. A feast of St Abbo is kept in one or two French dioceses, but it has been questioned whether this recognition is altogether appropriate on the evidence available.There is a reliable life of Abbo by his contemporary Aimoin. This and the circular letter, sent round to announce the tragedy of his death and to ask prayers for his soul, are printed in Mabillon, vol. vi, pt i, pp. 32—52. Some of Abbo’s writings and a collection of his letters will be found in Migne, PL., vol. cxxxix, but no complete edition of his works exists. His interest in mathematics and science has attracted attention, see, e.g. M. Cantor, Vorlesungen über d. Geschichte der Mathematik (1907), vol. i, pp. 845—847. Abbo, despite statements to the contrary, had no connection with the forged Decretals see Sackur, Die Cluniacenser, vol. I, pp. 270—299 and cf the work of Fournier and La Bras mentioned in the preceding note. Dom P. Cousin published S. Abbon de Fleury, un savant, un pasteur, un martyr, in 1954.
He was born in the region of Orléans, France, circa 945, and entered the Benedictine order at Fleury-sur-Loire after studying at Orléans, Paris, and Remis. St. Oswald of Worcester, England, brought Abbo to Ramsey, Huntingdonshrine, England, in 986. Abbo worked with Oswald but was elected abbot of Fleury in 988. This election was contested by a monk with the patronage of the bishop of Orléans and with royal favor. Gerbert, who became Pope Sylvester II in 999, had to resolve the issue, deciding on Abbo. As abbot of Fleury, Abbo attended the Synod of Basel and assisted Pope Gregory V, who had been expelled by the antipope John XVI. Abbo was also instrumental in calming thousands who believed the world would come to a catastrophic end at the start of the year 1000. Monastic affairs were also in turmoil in that era. In 1004, Abbo tried to reform the monastery of La Reole, in Gascony, France. He was caught in a severe confrontation between competing groups and was stabbed. He died as a result of his wound on November 13. Abbo was noted as a philosopher and scholar, especially in the fields of astronomy and mathematics, and wrote a life of St. Edmund.
1004 Abbo of Fleury OSB, Abbot M (AC)
Born near Orléans, France, c. 945; Saint Abbo studied in Paris, Rheims, and Orléans. Finally, he settled at the monastery of Fleury-sur-Loire (Saint-Benoît-sur- Loire). In about 986, Saint Oswald of Worcester invited him to became director of the monastery school in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire, England. Two years later Abbo returned to Fleury to resume his studies.

In 988, Abbo was elected abbot of Fleury, where he introduced the Cluniac observance; however, the election was disputed. The results were not finally accepted until quite some time later through the help of Gerbert, who later became Pope Sylvester II in 999.
  Abbo fought for monastic independence of bishops, was mediator between the pope and the king of France, and was active in settling disputes in various monasteries. He was murdered while attempting to settle a dispute among the monks at La Réole in Gascony. Abbo was widely known as a scholar in astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy, wrote a Life of Saint Edmund, and edited a collection of canons (Benedictines, Delaney).
1199 Homobonus of Cremona, lay saint; life of the utmost rectitude integrity; known for his charity concern for poor devoted profits to relief some he looked after in his own house. (RM)
Cremónæ, in Insúbria, sancti Homobóni Confessóris; quem, miráculis clarum, Innocéntius Papa Tértius in Sanctórum númerum rétulit.
    At Cremona, in the duchy of Milan, St. Homobonus, confessor, renowned for miracles, whom Innocent III placed among the saints.

1197 ST HOMOBONUS: lay saint; honest merchant, prayer accompanied all his actions; not content with giving his tenths to the distressed members of Christ, he seemed to set no bounds to his alms; he sought out the poor in their homes and, whilst he relieved their corporal necessities, he exhorted them to a good life;

COMMERCE, as Alban Butler justly remarks, is often looked upon as an occasion of too great attachment to the things of this world and of too eager a desire of gain, as well as of lying, fraud and injustice. That these are the vices of men, not the faults of the profession, is clear from the example of this and other saints. Homo­bonus was son of a merchant at Cremona in Lombardy, who gave him this name (which signifies “good man”) at baptism. Whilst he trained his son up to his own mercantile business without any school education, he inspired in him both by example and instruction a love of probity, integrity and virtue. The saint from his childhood abhorred the very shadow of untruth or injustice. To honesty Homobonus added economy, care and industry. His business he looked upon as an employment given him by God, and he pursued it with diligence and a proper regard to himself, his family and the commonwealth of which he was a member. If a tradesman’s books are not well kept, if there is not order and regularity in the conduct of his business, if he does not give his mind seriously to it, he neglects an essential and Christian duty. Homobonus was a saint by acquitting himself diligently and uprightly, for supernatural motives, of all the obligations of his profession.

In due course St Homobonus married, and his wife was a prudent and faithful assistant in the government of his household. Ambition, vanity and ostentation are no less preposterous than destructive vices in the middle classes of society, whose characteristics should be modesty, moderation and simplicity. Whatever exceeds this in dress, housekeeping or other expenses is unnatural and affected, offensive to others, and uneasy and painful to the persons themselves. A man of low stature only becomes frightful by strutting upon stilts. The merchant may be an honour and support of society, but an ostentatious parade least of all suits his character or conduces to the happiness of his state. St Homobonus avoided such common rocks on which so many traders dash. And, moreover, not content with giving his tenths to the distressed members of Christ, he seemed to set no bounds to his alms; he sought out the poor in their homes and, whilst he relieved their corporal necessities, he exhorted them to a good life. The author of his life assures us that God often recognized his charity by miracles in favour of those whom he relieved. It was his custom every night to go to the church of St Giles, for prayer accompanied all his actions and it was in its exercise that he gave up his soul to God. For, on November 13, 1197, during Mass, at the Gloria in Excelsis he stretched out his arms in the figure of a cross and fell on his face to the ground, which those who saw him thought he had done out of devotion. When he did not stand up at the gospel they took more notice and, coming to him, found he was dead. Sicard, Bishop of Cremona, went himself to Rome to solicit his canonization, which Pope Innocent III decreed in 1199.

A short Medieval Latin life was printed in 1857 by A. Maini under the title S. Homoboni civis Cremonensis Vita antiquior, but besides this we have little more information than is provided by a few breviary lessons. St Homobonus is, however, mentioned by Sicard of Cremona, his contemporary, and he was canonized (Potthast, Regesta, vol. i, p. 55 less than two years after his death. As patron of tailors and cloth workers his fame spread not only over Italy, but into Germany (under the name “Gutman”) and into France. A volume of quite imposing dimension, was published about him in 1674 by 0. Belladori under the title of Il trafficante celeste, oceano di santità e tresoriero del cielo, Huomobuono iI Santo, cittadino Cremonese. More modern popular booklets have been written by F, Camozzi (1898), D. Bergamaschi (1899), R. Saccani (1938) and others. Marco Vida, the sixteenth-century neo-classical poet (who disapproved the “low style” of Homer), was a native of Cremona and honoured St Homobonus with a hymn, of which Alban Butler quotes four stanzas. He greatly admired Vida and here calls him “the Christian Virgil”.

(Also known as Homobonius) Born in Cremona, Lombardy, Italy; died November 13, 1197; canonized on January 12, 1199, by Pope Innocent III. Son of a wealthy merchant, Homobonus Tucingo was prophetically baptized Uomobuono, 'good man.' His father taught him the business and he successfully managed it after his father's death. He married and led a life of the utmost rectitude and integrity. Homobonus was known for his charity and concern for the poor because he devoted a large part of his profits to the relief of those in want, some of whom he looked after in his own house. Morning and evening he could be found in Saint Giles Church in Cremona, where, in fact, he died suddenly on November 13 while attending Mass. His virtues were not appreciated by his wife until after his death, when the people of Cremona clamored for his canonization which was decreed two years later by Pope Innocent III (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Schamoni).

In art he is a merchant surrounded by beggars and the sick. At times there is a flask of wine near him or angels are shown making garments for him. He is the patron of burghers, merchants, smiths, tailors, clothworkers, and shoemakers. Venerated at Cremona (Delaney, Roeder).

1197 St. Homobonus Confessor patron of tailors cloth workers
He was born in Cremona, Italy, where he became a merchant. Married, he was a model of virtue beloved by all. Homobonus died on November 13 while attending Mass at St. Giles Church in Cremona. His fellow citizens petitioned the Holy See for his canonization, which was performed in 1199.

1280 Blessed Mark of Scala, OSB Abbot (AC).
A Benedictine abbot of Sant'Angelo di Scala of the Congregation of Montevergine (Benedictines).

1463 St. Didacus several miracles restoring patients eremite kind gentle
Complúti, in Hispánia, natális sancti Dídaci Confessóris, ex Ordine Minórum, humilitáte célebris; quem Xystus Quintus, Póntifex Máximus, Sanctórum catálogo adscrípsit.  Ipsíus autem festum sequénti die celebrátur.
    At Alcala in Spain, the birthday of St. Didacus, confessor, a member of the Order of Friars Minor well known for his humility.  Pope Sixtus V included him in the catalogue of the saints and his feast is celebrated today.
Sancti Dídaci, ex Ordine Minórum, Confessóris; cujus dies natális recólitur prídie hujus diéi.
    St. Didacus, confessor of the Order of Friars Minor, whose birthday occurred on the preceding day.

1463 ST DIDACUS, OR DIEGO
In the United States of America the feast of St Frances Xavier Cabrini is celebrated on this date. See Vol. IV, p. 593ff.

DIDACUS was a native of the little town of San Nicolas del Puerto in the diocese of Seville, and his parents were poor folk. Near that town a holy priest led an eremitical life. Didacus obtained his consent to live with him and, though very young, he imitated the austerities and devotions of his master. They cultivated together a little garden, and also employed themselves in making wooden spoons, trenchers and such-like utensils.

   After having lived thus a recluse for some years he was obliged to return to his home, but he soon after went to a convent of the Observant Friar Minors at Arrizafa, and there took the habit among the lay brothers. After his profession he was sent to the mission of his order in the Canary Islands, where he did a great work in instructing and converting the people. Eventually, in 1445 he, though a lay brother was appointed guardian of the chief convent in those islands, called Fuerteventura. After four years he was recalled to Spain, and lived in several friaries about Seville with great fervour and recollection. In the year 1450 a jubilee was celebrated at Rome and, St Bernardino of Siena being canonized at the same time, very many religious of the Order of St Francis were assembled there. Didacus went thither with Father Alonzo de Castro, and at Rome he had to attend his companion during a dangerous illness. His devotion in this duty attracted the notice of his superiors and he was put in charge of the many sick friars who were accommodated in the infirmary of the convent of Ara Caeli. St Didacus was thus engaged for three months, and is said to have miraculously restored some of his patients. He lived for another thirteen years after his return to Spain, chiefly at the friaries of Salcedo and Alcala in Castile. 

In 1463 he was taken ill at Alcalà, and in his last moments asked for a cord (such as the friars wear); he put it about his neck and, holding a cross in his hands, begged the pardon of all his brethren assembled about his bed. Then, fixing his eyes on the crucifix, he repeated with great tenderness the words of the hymn on the cross, “Dulce lignum, dulces clavos, dulce pondus sustinet”, and peacefully died on November 12. Several miracles were attributed to him in his lifetime, and many more through his intercession after his death. King Philip II, out of gratitude for one in favour of his son, solicited the saint’s canonization, which was decreed in 1588.

There is apparently no medieval life of St Didacus, but the various Franciscan chronicles of later date supply copious information. For example, Father Mark of Lisbon (d. 1591) devotes a long section to San Diego see the Italian translation (1501), vol. iii, fol. 155 seq. Among separate biographies may be mentioned Moreno de la Rea, Vida del S. Fray Diego (1602) and two slight sketches in more modern times, by Berguin and Chappuis in French (1901) and by A. Gioia in Italian (1907). The canonization of St Didacus (1588) was an occasion for rejoicing in Spain one or two of the booklets with panegyrics delivered at the time are in the British Museum.  

Didacus was a native of the little town of San Nicolas of del Puerto in the diocese of Seville, and his parents were poor folk. Near that town a holy priest led an eremitical life. Didacus obtained his consent to live with him and, though very young, he imitated the austerities and devotions of his master. They cultivated together a little garden, and also employed themselves in making wooden spoons, trenchers and such like utensils. After having lived thus a recluse for some years he was obliged to return to his home, but he soon after went to a convent of the Observant Friar Minors at Arrizafa, and there took the habit among the lay brothers.
After his profession he was sent to the mission of his Order in the Canary Islands, where he did a great work in instructing and converting the people. Eventually, in 1445, he, though a lay brother, was appointed chief guardian of a chief convent in those islands, called Fuerteventura. After four years he was recalled to Spain, and lived in several friaries about Seville with great fervor and recollection. In the year 1450 a jubilee was celebrated at Rome and, St. Bernardine of Siena being canonized at the same time, very many religious of the Order of St. Francis were assembled there. Didacus went there with FAther Alonzo de Castro, and at Rome he had to attend his companion during a dangerous illness. His devotion in this duty attracted the notice of his superiors and he was put in charge of the many sick friars who were accommodated in the infirmary of the convent of Ara Caeli.
St. Didacus was thus engaged for three months, and is said to have miraculously restored some of his patients. He lived for another thirteen years after his return to Spain, chiefly at the Friaries of Salcedo and Alcala in Castille. In 1463 he was taken ill at Alcala and in his last moments asked for a cord (such as the Friars wear); he put it about his neck and, holding a cross in his hands begged the pardon of all his brethren assembled about his bed. THen, fixing his eyes on the crucifix, he repeated with great tenderness the words of the hymn on the cross, "Dulce lignum, dulces clavos, dulce pondus sustinet", and peacefully died on November 12. Several miracles were attributed to him in his lifetime and many more through his intercession after his death.
King Philip II, out of gratitude for one in favor of his son, solicitated the saint's canonization which was decreed in 1588.

Didacus of Alcalà, OFM (RM) (also known as Diego, Diaz) Born near Seville, Spain, c. 1400; died at Alcalà de Henares, 1463; canonized 1588. Born of poor parents, the young Diego lived for a time as a solitary and then joined the Franciscans as a lay brother at Arrizafa.  Although remaining a lay brother, Diego was appointed doorkeeper of Fuerteventura friary in the Canary Islands because of his ability and goodness. Here he did great work among the poor, and earned such a reputation for holiness that in 1445 he was chosen as superior of the house for a term.  Later he was recalled to Spain, and passed the last 13 years of his life in humble duties at various houses of his order in Spain. After a pilgrimage to Rome in 1450, died at the friary of Alcalà in Castile. Diego's chief devotion was to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
1568 Stanislaus Kostka, SJ (RM); known for his studious ways, deep religious fervor, and mortifications. After he recovered from a serious illness during which he experienced several visions, he decided to join the Jesuits; experienced ecstasies at Mass.

1568 ST STANISLAUS KOSTKA
THE Roman Martyrology, in referring to him on August 15, the day of his death, truly says of St Stanislaus Kostka that he “was made perfect in a short while and fulfilled many times by the angelic innocence of his life”. He was the second son of John Kostka, senator of Poland, and Margaret Kryska, and was born in the castle of Rostkovo in 1550. The first elements of letters he learned at home under a private tutor, Dr John Bilinsky, who attended him and his elder brother, Paul, to the college of the Jesuits at Vienna when the saint was fourteen years old.

   From the first Stanislaus gave as much of his time as possible to prayer and study, and he was notably sensitive to any coarseness of talk. “Don’t tell that story before Stanislaus”, his father would say to his free-spoken guests, “he would faint.” When he arrived at Vienna and was lodged among the pupils of the Jesuits, everyone was struck by the recollection and devotion with which he lived and prayed. Eight months after their arrival the Emperor Maximilian II took from the Jesuits the house which Ferdinand I had lent them for their students. Paul Kostka, two years older than his brother, was a high-spirited youth, fond of amusement, and he prevailed on Bilinsky to take lodgings in a Lutheran’s house in the city. This did not at all please Stanislaus, but Paul treated his brother’s devotion and reserve with contemptuous amusement. One day when Paul had been ill-treating him Stanislaus rounded on him with the boyish taunt, “This will end in my running away and not coming back. And then you’ll have to explain to father and mother.” Meanwhile he communicated every Sunday and holy day, always fasted the day before his communion, and when he was not at church or college he was always to be found at his devotions or studies in his own room. He dressed quietly, practised bodily mortifications, and particularly disliked having to attend dancing classes. Paul’s lack of sympathy became downright bullying and Dr Bilinsky himself, though not unreasonable, was far from being sufficiently sympathetic.

After nearly two years of this Stanislaus was taken ill and wished to receive viaticum; but the Lutheran landlord would not allow the Blessed Sacrament to be brought to his house. The boy in extreme affliction recommended himself to the intercession of St Barbara (to whose confraternity he belonged), and he seemed in a vision to be communicated by two angels. The Blessed Virgin is said to have appeared to him in another vision, told him that the hour of his death was not yet come, and bade him devote himself to God in the Society of Jesus. He had already entertained such a thought, and after his recovery petitioned to be admitted. At Vienna the provincial, Father Maggi, dared not receive him, for fear of incurring the anger of his father. Stanislaus therefore determined to walk if necessary to Rome itself to ask the father general of the Society in person. He stole away on foot to Augsburg and thence to Dillingen, to make the same request first to St Peter Canisius, provincial of Upper Germany. He set out on his 350-mile walk, dressed in coarse clothes, and immediately his flight was discovered: Paul Kostka and Bilinsky rode off in pursuit. Various reasons are given to account for their failure to overtake or recognize him. St Peter Canisius received him encouragingly and set him to wait on the students of the college at table and clean out their rooms, which he did with such respect and humility that the students were astonished, though he was utterly unknown to them. Canisius, after having kept him three weeks, sent him with two companions to Rome, where he went to St Francis Borgia, then general of the Society, and earnestly renewed his petition. St Francis granted it, and Stanislaus was admitted in 1567, when he was seventeen years old. He had received from his father a most angry letter, threatening that he would procure the banishment of the Jesuits out of Poland and abusing Stanislaus for putting on “contemptible dress and following a profession unworthy of his birth”. Stanis­laus answered it in the most dutiful manner, but expressed a firm purpose of serving God according to his vocation. Without disturbance or trouble of mind he applied himself to his duties, recommending all things to God.

It was the saint’s utmost endeavour, declared his novice-master, Father Fazio, to sanctify in the most perfect manner all his ordinary actions, and he set no bounds to his mortifications except what obedience to his director prescribed. His faults he exaggerated with unfeigned simplicity, and the whole life of this novice seemed a continual prayer. The love, which he had for Jesus Christ in the Holy Sacrament, was so ardent that his face appeared on fire as soon as he entered the church, and he was often seen in a kind of ecstasy at Mass and after receiving communion. But his model novitiate was not destined to last more than nine months. The summer heat of Rome was too much for St Stanislaus, he had frequent fainting-fits, and he knew that he had not long to live. On the feast of the dedication of St Mary Major, talking with Father Emmanuel de Sa about the Assumption of our Lady, he said: “How happy a day for all the saints was that on which the Blessed Virgin was received into Heaven Perhaps the blessed celebrate it with special joy, as we do on earth. I hope myself to be there for the next feast they will keep of it.” No particular significance was attached to this remark at the time, but ten days later it was remembered. On St Laurence’s day he found himself ill and two days later, when taken to a better bedroom, he made the sign of the cross upon his bed, saying he should never more rise from it. Father Fazio jokingly rallied him on his physical weakness. “0 man of little heart” he said. “Do you give up for so slight a thing?” “I am a man of little heart”, replied Stanislaus, “but it is not so slight a matter, for I shall die of it.” Early in the morning of the Assumption he whispered to Father Ruiz that he saw the Blessed Virgin accompanied with many angels, and quietly died a little after three o’clock in the morning.

A month later Paul Kostka arrived in Rome with instructions from his father to bring back Stanislaus to Poland at all costs. The shock of finding him dead made Paul carefully consider his own behaviour with regard to his brother, and during the process of beatification he was one of the principal witnesses. Dr Bilinsky was another. He said among other things that, “The blessed boy never had a good word from Paul. And we both knew all the time the holiness and devotion of all that he did.” Paul was bitterly remorseful all his life, and at the age of sixty himself asked for admission to the Society of Jesus. St Stanislaus was canonized in 1726, and is venerated as a lesser patron of his native country.

The depositions of witnesses and other documents presented in the cause of the beatifica­tion have been in great measure utilized by the saint’s biographers, but some of these materials have only been printed entire in recent time. An account by S. Varsevicki, who lived in the same Jesuit house with the saint, only saw the light in 1895 and perhaps the fullest early narrative, that of Father Ubaldini, after remaining in manuscript for more than two centuries, was published in installments in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. ix (1890), and following volumes. But St Stanislaus had long before found many biographers to recount from their different points of view the story of his short life, beginning with the Latin booklet of Father Sacchini in 1609. Father Bartoli and Father d’Orléans in the seventeenth century wrote lives which went through many editions. Fathers Michel, Gruber and Goldie have presented the same facts in a more modern setting. From a literary point of view the booklet of Fr C. C. Martindale, Christ’s Cadets (1913), and that of Mother Maud Monahan, On the King’s Highway (1927), make a great appeal. Cf. also the Life of St Peter Canisius, by Fr James Brodrick (1935), pp. 674—676.  

Born in Rostkovo Castle, Poland, October 28, 1550; died 1568. Son of a Polish, Stanislaus was educated by a private tutor and then sent to the Jesuit college in Vienna when he was 14. He was soon known for his studious ways, deep religious fervor, and mortifications. After he recovered from a serious illness during which he experienced several visions, he decided to join the Jesuits.
Stanislaus Kostka
Image of Saint Stanislaus Kostka courtesy of Saint Charles Borromeo Church

Opposed by his father he was refused admission by the Vienna provincial, who feared the father's reaction if he admitted the youth, Stanislaus walked 350 miles to Dillengen where Saint Peter Canisius, provincial of Upper Germany, took him in and then sent him to Rome to Francis Borgia, father general of the Society of Jesus, who accepted him into the Jesuits in October 1567, at age 17. He practiced the most severe mortifications, experienced ecstasies at Mass, and lived a life of great sanctity and angelic innocence. He died in Rome on August 15, only nine months after joining the Jesuits, and was canonized in 1726. He is one of the lesser patrons of Poland (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney).

Saint Stanislaus is generally rendered in art as a very young Jesuit in adoration before a monstrance.
Sometimes (1) two angels and Saint Barbara bring him the Eucharist; (2) the Virgin and Child appear to him; or (3) there is a pilgrim's staff and hat near him (Roeder).

Venerated in Poland. Patron of young people (because of his youth). Invoked against broken limbs, eye troubles, fever, and palpitation. Also when in doubt (Roeder).

1917 St. Frances Xavier Cabrini founded schools hospitals orphanages Patron of immigrants; In 1946, Pope Pius XII named her patroness of all emigrants and immigrants.
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin St. Frances was born in Lombardi, Italy in 1850, one of thirteen children. At eighteen, she desired to become a Nun, but poor health stood in her way. She helped her parents until their death, and then worked on a farm with her brothers and sisters.

One day a priest asked her to teach in a girls' school and she stayed for six years. At the request of her Bishop, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children in schools and hospitals. Then at the urging of Pope Leo XIII she came to the United States with six nuns in 1889 to work among the Italian immigrants.

Filled with a deep trust in God and endowed with a wonderful administrative ability, this remarkable woman soon founded schools, hospitals, and orphanages in this strange land and saw them flourish in the aid of Italian immigrants and children. At the time of her death, at Chicago, Illinois on December 22, 1917, her institute numbered houses in England, France, Spain, the United States, and South America. In 1946, she became the first American citizen to be canonized when she was elevated to sainthood by Pope Pius XII.
Frances Xavier Cabrini V (AC)
Born at Sant'Angelo Lodigiano (diocese of Lodi), Lombardy, Italy, on July 15, 1850; died in Chicago, Illinois, on December 22, 1917; beatified in 1938; canonized on July 7, 1946; feast day was December 22.
The life of Saint Frances is another remarkable story that teaches us the value of persistence in hope. I've seen a photograph of her--she was absolutely gorgeous with her dark hair, broad mouth, and shining, deep eyes. She was said to be small of stature and big of spirit. Naturalized in 1909, she is the first U.S. citizen to be canonized, but Francesca Maria was the Italian born 13th child of Augustine Cabrini, a farmer, and his Milanese wife Stella Oldini.

On the day she was born, a flock of white doves flew down to the farm where her father was threshing grain. Several times in her later life flocks of white birds appeared. Francesca loved them and compared them to angels or souls she would help save, or to new sisters coming to join her community.

Her parents baptized her Maria Francesca Saverio after the missionary saint Francis Xavier. Wittingly or not, it seems that her destiny was mapped out early. Because her mother's health was delicate, Francesca was taught mainly by her elder sister Rosa, a school teacher, and was encouraged by her uncle, Father Oldini, to become a foreign missionary. He knew her secret childhood game of filling paper boats with violets and setting them loose in the river as she pretended that the violets were missionaries going to convert people in far-off lands. Her parents wanted her to be a teacher, however, and sent her to a convent boarding school at Arluno.

As a child she learned to pray well by the example of her family. Her mother rose early to pray for an hour before going to Mass, and at the end of the day she prayed for another hour. Francesca would frequently steal away from her schoolmates to pray by herself in some quiet spot.

In 1863, at the age of 13, Francesca entered the convent of the Sacred Heart at Arluna, where she made a vow of virginity. When she graduated with honors at age 18, she was fully qualified as a teacher. At 20 she was orphaned, and felt called to be a nun. Like several saints before her, however, no one seemed to want her because her health was so poor that no one thought she would live very long, and rather discounted her as far as being of much use to her order.

By the time Francesca was 21, she had suffered much: in addition to the loss of her parents, 10 of her siblings died. From 1868 to 1872, she worked hard nursing the sick poor in her hometown, including a woman who died of cancer. She also had to deal with her own illness (smallpox) in 1871. These hardships combined to teach her that everyone in this world has a cross to carry.

After her recovery (1872) she began to teach in the public school of Vidardo. In 1874 after being turned down by the Sacred Heart nuns who taught her and another congregation, Don Serrati, the priest in whose school she was teaching, invited Francesca to help manage a small orphanage at Codogno in the diocese of Lodi. The House of Providence had been mismanaged by its foundress the eccentric Antonia Tondini.

Msgr. Serrati and the bishop of Todi, recognizing her intense love of God and bold holiness, and her deep love for the poor, invited her to turn the institution into a religious community. Reluctantly, she agreed. From Antonia, Francesca received only trouble and abuse, but she persisted. With seven recruits, she took her first vows in 1877. The bishop made her superioress.

Antonia's behavior became worse--she was thought to have become unbalanced--but Francesca persevered for another three years. Then the bishop himself gave up hope and closed the institution. That was according to Francesca's desires--more than anything else, she wanted to be a missionary to China. Thus, in 1880, the bishop counselled her to found a congregation of missionary sisters, since that was what she wanted to be and he didn't know of any such order. Francesca moved to an abandoned Franciscan friary at Codogno, and drew up a rule for the community. Its main object was to be the Christian education of girls in Catholic schismatic or pagan countries under the title of Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart.

Francesca and her sisters placed their complete trust in God. When there was no money to provide food, money miraculously appeared. When there was no milk for the orphans, a formerly empty container brimmed with milk. When a nun was again sent to an empty breadbox, the box was again full. God can never be outdone in his generosity. He promised that He would provide for our needs and He does for those who trust Him.

The same year the rule was approved, a daughter house was opened at Grumello. The sisters of the Sacred Heart soon spread to Milan. Francesca was a demanding mistress. She got up very early, an hour before the sisters who also got up early. Four hours daily were spent in prayer by each sister regardless of what else needed to be done.

In 1887, Francesca went to Rome to gain approbation of her congregation and permission to open a house in Rome. After an initially unsuccessful interview with the cardinal vicar--the congregation was deemed too young for approval--Francesca won him over. She asked to open two houses in Rome, a free school and a children's home, and the first decree of approval of the Missionary Sisters was issued in 1888.

Bishop Scalabrini of Piacenza, who had established the Society of Saint Charles to work among Italian immigrants in America, suggested that Francesca travel there to help these priests. Francesca longed to evangelize China, but realized that Italian immigrants in the U.S.--50,000 in New York alone--needed all the help that her order could give them. Archbishop Corrigan of New York sent her a formal invitation, so she decided to consult with the pope. In 1889, Pope Leo XIII gave his blessing to the enterprise. Despite her fear of water caused by a childhood accident, she set off across the Atlantic, landing in New York in 1889 (age 39) with six of her sisters.

Things did not get off to a good start, even with the archbishop's patronage and warm welcome. Apparently, the orphanage she was to have managed was abandoned because of a dispute with the benefactress. There was much to be done: A whole nation of orphans and elderly to be comforted--a daunting task with no money and no hope of any in sight. The archbishop suggested that she return home. Francesca replied that the pope had sent her to America and so she must stay. Within a few weeks Francesca had mended the rift, found a house for the sisters, and started the orphanage.

As with every difficulty she encountered throughout her life, with each new trial she would ask, "Who is doing this? We?--or Our Lord?" Even so, she encouraged her sisters to use efficiency and business acumen in the cause of charity, which won the respect of the most hard-headed and hard-hearted Americans.

Later that year she revisited Italy, as she would almost every year to bring back new missionaries. This trip she took with her the first two Italo-American recruits to the congregation. Nine months later she returned, bringing reinforcements to take over West Park, on the Hudson, from the Society of Jesus. The orphanage was transferred to this house, which became the motherhouse and novitiate of the order in the U.S.

In addition to the 24 times she crossed the Atlantic, Francesca travelled throughout the Americas for 28 years--from coast to coast in the U.S. by train and on muleback across the Andes. First she went to Managua, Nicaragua, where under sometimes dangerous circumstances she took over an orphanage and opened a boarding house. On her way back, she visited New Orleans, and there made another new foundation.

Francesca was slow in learning English, but she had great business acumen. She was sometimes overly strict and self-righteous-- rejecting illegitimate children from her fee-paying schools, for example--and she was slow to recognize that non-Catholics could truly mean well.

In 1892 one of Francesca's greatest undertakings--Columbus Hospital--was opened in New York. After another visit to Italy, she travelled to Costa Rica, Panama, Chile, and Brazil. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, she opened a school for girls.

In 1900 Francesca visited Pope Leo XIII again. He was then 90 years old. One day he said to her, "Let us work, Cabrini, let us work, and what a heaven will be ours!" Then after he had passed, he turned around and looked at her again. "Let us work, Cabrini!" he said, his kind old face all wreathed in smiles.

After her next trip to Italy, she travelled to France, opening her first European houses outside Italy. By 1907, when the order was finally approved, there were over 1,000 members in eight countries (including Britain, Spain, and Latin America), founded more than fifty houses, and numerous free schools, high schools, fifty hospitals (including four of the greats), and other institutions. At the time of her death, the congregation had grown to 67 houses with over 4,000 sisters.

This sickly woman's health finally began to fail in 1911, but she kept going even through the war. On December 21, 1917, fearing that the children in one of her schools might miss their usual treat of candy for Christmas, Francesca began to make up little parcels with her own hands. "Let's hurry," she said to her sisters, "the time is short, and I want to be sure that the children will have their treat." The time was indeed short for she died of malaria the very next day in the Chicago convent.

At first her relics were placed at West Park, Illinois. Her body now rests in the chapel of the Mother Cabrini High School in New York City, where you can see it in a state of marvellous preservation in its glass casket. The work begun for Italian immigrants was carried on for all without distinction (including convicts in Sing-Sing prison) (Attwater, Bentley, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Girzone, Melady, Schamoni, Stanbrook, White).

Because she was open to God, He used her to fulfill His purpose. We never know how God is going to use us; therefore, we have to wait expectantly, openly to see what He has planned. We can be sure that He won't disappoint us. God has a way of turning each attentive life into an adventure that brings joy and satisfaction and peace to His servant and those around him.
In 1946, Pope Pius XII named her patroness of all emigrants and immigrants.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 115

Preserve me, O Lady, for I have hoped in thee: do thou bestow on me the dew of thy grace.

Thy virginal womb has begotten the Son of the Most High.

Blessed be thy breasts, by which thou hast nourished the Savior with deific milk.

Let us give praise to the glorious Virgin: whosoever ye be that have found grace and mercy through her.

Give glory to her name: and praise forever her conception and her birth.

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

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


Rejoice, ye Heavens, and be glad, O Earth: because Mary will console her servants and will have mercy on her poor.
 
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost as it was in the beginning and will always be.

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

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

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

Mary the Mother of Jesus Miracles_BLay Saints  Miraculous_IconMiraculous_Medal_Novena Patron Saints
Miracles by Century 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000    1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800  1900 2000
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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 Paqualina Addatis), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Addolorata, Servants of Mary (1845-1900);
– Servant of God Maria of the Incarnation (née Caterina Carrasco Tenorio), founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of the Flock of Mary (1840-1917);
– Servant of God , founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Family of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1851-1923);
– Servant of God Ilia Corsaro, founder of the Congregation of the Little Missionaries of the Eucharist (1897-1977);
– Servant of God Maria Montserrat Grases García, layperson of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1941-1959).
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