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;
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As the Holy Eucharist enters their bodies from the Sanctified hands of Priests.
"The prayer of the heart is the source of all good, which refreshes the soul as if it were a garden."

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

  Goodbye Vern Bartholomew 1917-2017 on All Saints/All Souls day Requiescat in pace
Thanks for being a great Dad and friend to all.

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

--Saint Gregory Palamas

November 14 – Our Lady of Pasenika or the Victory of Mary (Constantinople) - Saint Gregory Palamas 
 
"The Virgin was shining brightly for 48 hours"
 On September 8, 2015, the day of the Nativity of Mary, the city of Yabrud, Syria, celebrated the installation of an imposing statue of the Virgin Mary, in the presence of the Bishop of the Archeparchy of Homs, the Apostolic Nuncio and the Catholic Greek-Melkite Patriarch. For Father Georges Haddad, a local priest, this statue is an answer to the jihadists who destroyed many statues and icons during their occupation of the city.

Nonetheless, some people went back to their homes few days after the liberation of this small town in the spring of 2014, which they often found destroyed or looted. Several parishioners then reported to Father Georges that a statue of the Virgin was weeping in the chapel next to the cathedral. The following day, some children came running to him with the message that the Virgin was weeping again. "I saw tears in the corners of her eyes. The Virgin was shining brightly for 48 hours," the priest explained.

Was the Virgin crying because of all the suffering? Was it out of joy because her children had returned? "Of course, we don’t know," Father Georges said, “but we chose to put her in a place of honor and entrust the parish to her,” he added, proud of this new statue placed in the church yard that had been relentlessly targeted by jihadists.
 
fr.aleteia.org


November 14
St. Nicholas Tavelic, OFM, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs (Memorial)

November 14 
1180 St. Lawrence O'Toole Augustinian archbishop of Dublin 1172 convened a synod at Cashel; General Lateran Council in Rome in 1179; unbounded charity; Corpus on the Crucifix before the kneeling prelate spoke; papal legate; many miracles reported at tomb; fought King Henry II.
Apostle Philip The Holy and All-praised profound knowledge of Holy Scripture, rightly discerning meaning of the Old Testament prophecies, he awaited the coming of the Messiah
November 14 – Our Lady of Pasenika or the Victory of the Virgin Mary (Constantinople)
The Vivifying Spring of Constantinople
The apparitions of Mary in Constantinople (today's Istanbul) have been numerous, notably at the Shrine of the Vivifying Spring, still very famous, on the west side of the city, just outside the walls, near the Gate of Silivri. This church has witnessed a multitude of miracles over the past fifteen centuries, obtained through the intercession of Our Lady, the “Spring of Life.” The Byzantine historian Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulos (13th-14th century) wrote that Emperor Leo I the Thracian (5th century) discovered the spring and built a church there around 474.

1180 St. Lawrence O'Toole Augustinian archbishop of Dublin 1172 convened a synod at Cashel; General Lateran Council in Rome in 1179; unbounded charity; Corpus on the Crucifix before the kneeling prelate spoke; papal legate; many miracles reported at tomb; fought King Henry II
November 14 - Our Lady of the Grotto (Lamego, Portugal)  The Blessed Virgin’s Predestination (III) 
"In this instant was decreed first of all, that the Divine Word should assume flesh and should become visible.
The perfection and the composition of the most holy humanity of Christ our Lord was decreed and modelled in divine intelligence.  Secondarily, also were formed the ideals of the rest of men in imitation of the First.  The divine mind prearranged the harmony and adornment of the human nature composed of an organic body and a vivifying soul, endowed with faculties to know and enjoy its Creator, to discern between good and evil, and with a free will to love that same Lord. "
Excerpts from City of God or the Divine History and Life of the Virgin Mother of God
(Part 1, chapter II) manifested to Mary of Agreda
"Lord, you have granted me your secret friendship by opening the sacred ark of your divinity, your deified heart, to me in so many ways as to be the source of all my happiness; sometimes imparting it freely, sometimes as a special mark of our mutual friendship. You have so often melted my soul with your loving caresses that, if I did not know the abyss of your overflowing condescensions, I should be amazed were I told that even your Blessed Mother had been chosen to receive such extraordinary marks of tenderness and affection" (Adapted from The Life and Revelations of Saint Gertrude).

Like Mary, the Docile Handmaid of the Divine Word November 14 - Our Lady of the Grotto (Lamego, Portugal) 
This attitude of religious listening is the typical attitude of Mary Most Holy exactly as shown in the emblematic image of the Annunciation: The Virgin receives the heavenly messenger while meditating on the sacred Scriptures, represented generally with a book that she holds in her hands, or on her lap, or on a lectern. This is also the image of the Church offered by the Council itself, in the constitution "Dei Verbum" (No. 1).

Let us pray that, like Mary, the Church may be a docile handmaid of the Divine Word and proclaim it always with firm confidence so that "the whole world, hearing, will believe in the proclamation of salvation; in believing will hope, and in hoping will love" (ibid.). 
His Holiness Benedict XVI November 6, 2005: Angelus Address

God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique, for each is the result of a new idea.  As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike. It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints. Dear Lord, grant us a spirit that is not bound by our own ideas and preferences.  Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves. O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory.
Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.  Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.   God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heaven:  only saints are allowed into heaven. The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.
November 14 – Our Lady of Pasenika or the Victory of the Virgin Mary (Constantinople)
The Vivifying Spring of Constantinople
The apparitions of Mary in Constantinople (today's Istanbul) have been numerous, notably at the Shrine of the Vivifying Spring, still very famous, on the west side of the city, just outside the walls, near the Gate of Silivri. This church has witnessed a multitude of miracles over the past fifteen centuries, obtained through the intercession of Our Lady, the “Spring of Life.” The Byzantine historian Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulos (13th-14th century) wrote that Emperor Leo I the Thracian (5th century) discovered the spring and built a church there around 474.

After the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans (1453), the church and its monastery were destroyed, but the sick continued to come to the spring, where many miracles and healings took place (…).

In the 19th century, the church was rebuilt as it exists today, along with another smaller one sheltering the spring. Since 1824, all the patriarchs of Constantinople have been buried in that monastery. The healing water still flows and cures physical and spiritual illnesses.
The MDN Team http://www.msvie.com/web/menuHistoriquedetails1.do

Apostle Philip The Holy and All-praised profound knowledge of Holy Scripture, rightly discerning meaning of the Old Testament prophecies, he awaited the coming of the Messiah
Eméssæ, in Phœnícia, pássio plurimárum sanctárum mulíerum, quæ, sub sævíssimo Arabum duce Mady, ob Christi fidem, crudelíssime tortæ atque necátæ sunt.

    At Emesa in Phoenicia, the martyrdom of many holy women, who were barbarously tortured and massacred for the faith of Christ under Mady, a savage Arabian chief.
         St. Clementinus Martyr with Theodotus and Philornenus in Heracle
2nd v. St. Venaranda Virgin martyr of Gaul
   252 St. Serapion Egyptin Martyr during anti-Christian riots
   275 Saint Venerandus of Troyes M (RM)
   325 St. Hypatius Martyred bishop of Gangra in Paphlagonia  prominent defender of the divinity of Christ
   485 St. Jucundus of Bologna Bishop
   545 St. Dubricus One founder of monastic life in Wales
   690 Saint Sidonius of Saint-Saëns, OSB Abbot (AC)
         St. Modanic Scottish bishop avid scholar reformer
   784 St. Alberic Benedictine Bishop missionary
1180 St. Lawrence O'Toole Augustinian archbishop of Dublin 1172 convened a synod at Cashel General Lateran Council in Rome in 1179 unbounded charity Corpus on the Crucifix before the kneeling prelate spoke papal legate many miracles were reported at his tomb fought against King Henry II
1180 St. Lawrence abbot sanctity
1240 Saint Serapion of Algiers converted moors with help of Peter Nolasco and Saint Raymond Nonnatus, O. Merc.
1302 St. Gertrude the Great
Benedictine nun great mystic “nuptial mysticism,” SEE NOV 16
1359 Saint Gregory Palamas Gregory's cause, Hesychasm triumphed teaching declared Oorthodox by church of Constantinople in 1351; after death declared 'Father and Doctor of the church.' As well as being a speculative theologian of importance, Saint Gregory Palamas was a devoted teacher and pastor.
1391 Saints Nicholas Tavelic and Deodat, Peter of Narbonne and Stephen of Cuneo are the only Franciscans martyred in the Holy Land to be canonized
1511 Blessed John Liccio, Dominican habit 96 years; cured the sick when he was a baby; reciting daily Office of the Blessed Virgin Office of the Dead, and the Penitential Psalms as a child frequently in ecstasy withered hand made whole; cured 3 people whose heads were crushed by accidents OP (AC
        Saint Montan of Lorraine, Hermit B
1623 ST JOSAPHAT, ARCHBISHOP Of Potomic, MARTYR 

St. Clementinus Martyr with Theodotus and Philomenus in Heraclea in Thrace
Heracléæ, in Thrácia, natális sanctórum Mártyrum Clementíni, Theodóti et Philómeni.
    At Heraclea in Thrace, the birthday of the holy martyrs Clementinus, Theodotus and Philomenus.

Clementinus, Theodotus & Philomenus MM (RM) Martyrs of Heraclea in Thrace. (Benedictines).

Apostle Philip The Holy and All-praised profound knowledge of Holy Scripture, rightly discerning meaning of the Old Testament prophecies, he awaited the coming of the Messiah
A native of the city of Bethsaida in Galilee. He had a profound depth of knowledge of the Holy Scripture, and rightly discerning the meaning of the Old Testament prophecies, he awaited the coming of the Messiah. Through the call of the Savior (John 1:43), Philip followed Him. The Apostle Philip is spoken about several times in the Holy Gospel: he brought to Christ the Apostle Nathaniel (i.e. Bartholomew, April 22, June 30, and August 25. See John. 1:46). The Lord asks him where to buy bread for five thousand men (John. 6: 5-7). He brought certain of the Hellenized Jews wanting to see Jesus (John. 12:21-22); and finally, at the Last Supper he asked Christ to show them the Father (John. 14:8).

After the Ascension of the Lord, the Apostle Philip preached the Word of God in Galilee, accompanying his preaching with miracles. Thus, he restored to life a dead infant in the arms of its mother. From Galilee he went to Greece, and preached among the Jews that had settled there. Some of them reported the preaching of the Apostle to Jerusalem. In response, some scribes arrived in Greece from Jerusalem, with one of the Jewish chief priests at their head, to interrogate the Apostle Philip.

The Apostle Philip exposed the lie of the chief priest, who said that the disciples of Christ had stolen away and hidden the body of Christ. Philip told instead how the Pharisees had bribed the soldiers on watch, to deliberately spread this rumor. When the Jewish chief priest and his companions began to insult the Lord and lunged at the Apostle Philip, they suddenly were struck blind. By his prayer the Apostle restored everyone's sight. Seeing this miracle, many believed in Christ. The Apostle Philip provided a bishop for them, by the name of Narcissus (one of the Seventy Apostles, January 4).

From Greece the Apostle Philip went to Parthia, and then to the city of Azotus, where he healed an eye affliction of the daughter of a local resident named Nikoklides, who had received him into his home, and then baptized his whole family.

From Azotus the Apostle Philip set out to Syrian Hieropolis (there were several cities of this name) where, stirred up by the Pharisees, the Jews burned the house of Heros, who had taken in the Apostle Philip, and they wanted to kill the apostle. The apostle performed several miracles: the healing of the hand of the city official Aristarchus, withered when he attempted to strike the apostle; and restoring a dead child to life. When they saw these marvels, they repented and many accepted holy Baptism. After making Heros the bishop at Hieropolis, the Apostle Philip went on to Syria, Asia Minor, Lydia, Emessa, and everywhere preaching the Gospel and undergoing sufferings. Both he and his sister Mariamne (February 17) were pelted with stones, locked up in prison, and thrown out of villages.

Then the Apostle Philip arrived in the city of Phrygian Hieropolis, where there were many pagan temples. There was also a pagan temple where people worshiped an enormous serpent as a god. The Apostle Philip by the power of prayer killed the serpent and healed many bitten by snakes.

Among those healed was the wife of the city prefect, Amphipatos. Having learned that his wife had accepted Christianity, the prefect Amphipatos gave orders to arrest St Philip, his sister, and the Apostle Bartholomew traveling with them. At the urging of the pagan priests of the temple of the serpent, Amphipatos ordered the holy Apostles Philip and Bartholomew to be crucified.

Suddenly, an earthquake struck, and it knocked down all those present at the place of judgment. Hanging upon the cross by the pagan temple of the serpent, the Apostle Philip prayed for those who had crucified him, asking God to save them from the ravages of the earthquake. Seeing this happen, the people believed in Christ and began to demand that the apostles be taken down from the crosses. The Apostle Bartholomew was still alive when he was taken down, and he baptized all those believing and established a bishop for them.

But the Apostle Philip, through whose prayers everyone remained alive, except for Amphipatos and the pagan priests, died on the cross.  Mariamne his sister buried his body, and went with the Apostle Bartholomew to preach in Armenia, where the Apostle Bartholomew was crucified (June 11); Mariamne herself then preached until her own death at Lykaonia.
The holy Apostle Philip is not to be confused with St Philip the Deacon (October 11), one of the Seventy.
2nd v. St. Venaranda Virgin martyr of Gaul
In Gállia sanctæ Venerándæ Vírginis, quæ, sub Antoníno Imperatóre et Asclepíade Præside, martyrii corónam accépit.
    Also in France, the holy virgin Veneranda, who received the crown of martyrdom under Emperor Antoninus and the governor Asclepiades.
(modern France). It is possible that she is to be identified with Parasceve, a saint venerated by the Orthodox Church.

Veneranda of Gaul VM (RM)
The Roman Martyrology describes the virgin Veneranda as leaving her native Gaul to preach the Gospel and being martyred under Antoninus in Rome. It seems that Veneranda is a later corruption of Venera (from dies Veneris--Friday) the Latin counterpart of Parasceves, and that she is identical with a Parasceves, at one time venerated by the Greeks (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).

252 St. Serapion Egyptin Martyr during anti-Christian riots in Alexandria
Alexandríæ sancti Serapiónis Mártyris, quem persecutóres, sub Décio Príncipe, ita crudelíssimis affecérunt supplíciis, ut cunctas et junctúras membrórum prius sólverent, eúmque póstea de superióribus domus suæ præcipitárent; atque ille sic gloriósus Christi Martyr efficerétur.
    At Alexandria, St. Serapion, martyr, whom the persecutors under Emperor Decius subjected to torments so cruel that all his limbs were disjointed.  He became a martyr of Christ by being hurled from the upper part of the house.
He was killed during anti-Christian riots in the city when a mob which knew him to be a conspicuous Christian hurled him from the roof of his house.
Serapion of Alexandria M (RM). During the reign of Emperor Philip, mobs at Alexandria ranged the streets torturing and killing Christians. Among their victims was Saint Serapion, who was tortured and thrown from the roof of his home to his death (Benedictines, Delaney). In art this Saint Serapion is represented as being flung from a window by an angry mob. Sometimes this is changed to being flung from a rock or a housetop (Roeder).

275 Saint Venerandus of Troyes M (RM).
Trecis, in Gállia, sancti Venerándi Mártyris, sub Aureliáno Imperatóre.
    At Troyes in France, under Emperor Aurelian, St. Venerandus, martyr.  An influential citizen of Troyes in France, martyred under Aurelian (Benedictines).
325 St. Hypatius Martyred bishop of Gangra in Paphlagonia prominent defender of the divinity of Christ
Gangris, in Paphlagónia, sancti Hypátii Epíscopi, qui, a magna Nicæna Synodo rédiens, a Novatiánis hæréticis in via lapídibus impetítus, Martyr occúbuit.
    At Gangra in Paphlagonia, St. Hypatius, bishop, who on his way home from the great Council of Nicaea, was attacked with stones by the Novatian heretics, and died a martyr.
He attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 and upon his return he was slain by Arian heretics.

Hypatius of Gangra BM (RM). Bishop Hypatius of Gangra in Paphlagonia attended the council of Nicaea, where he was a prominent defender of the divinity of Christ. While on his return from Nicaea, he was attacked by a band of heretics and stoned to death (Benedictines). The Novgorod Icon Book has a Pectoral Icon of Saint Hypatius (anonymous 12th-century Russian icon).
485 St. Jucundus of Bologna Bishop.
 Bonóniæ sancti Jucúndi, Epíscopi et Confessóris.
    At Bologna, St. Jucundus, bishop and confessor.
Jucundus of Bologna B (RM) A bishop of Bologna, Italy.
545 St. Dubricus One founder of monastic life in Wales also called Dubric, Dyfrig, or Devereux.
6th v. ST DUBRICIUS, OR DYFRIG, BISHOP
MANY legends have grown up around the figure of St Dubricius, who was un­doubtedly an important person in the Welsh church of the fifth-sixth century. Among them, it is said that he was a pupil of St Germanus of Auxerre, which is chronologically unlikely, and that he was the first bishop of Llandaff, an error or invention of the twelfth century. Geoffrey of Monmouth makes him archbishop of Caerleon-on-Usk and the prelate who confers the traditional crown of Britain on King Arthur at Colchester (Dubricius is
the high saint of Tennyson’s Idylls ).
 The original and chief centre of his influence was undoubtedly in what is now called western Herefordshire, and he may have been born at Madley, some six miles from Hereford. He became a monk and made the first foundation of his own at Henilan, near Ross, where he had many disciples. Then he moved up the Wye to Moccas, and from these two centres he and his disciples are said to have founded numerous churches and monastic settlements of which many have been identified. Some of them, such as Abbey Dore, carried their monastic tradition on into the middle ages. St IlItyd came to St Dubricius to be shorn a monk, and SS. Samson and Deiniol to be consecrated bishops; and with the last named he induced St David to attend the synod of Llandewi Frefi and resigned to him the” metropolitanship “of Wales. But this last is another medieval invention.

It is stated in the Life of St Samson—a less unreliable source—that St Dubricius used to go and spend Lent on Caldey. He made Samson abbot of that ancient monastic island, in one of whose two old churches (now restored to Catholic worship) is an inscribed stone whose inscription seems to contain a reference to him, or to another Dubricius. Near the end of his life, we are told, he retired to Ynys Enili (Bardsey), and there he died and was buried. His reputed relics were translated to the cathedral of Llandaff in 1120, and he was made one of the four titulars of that church. The feast of St Dubricius iá now observed only in the archdiocese of Cardiff and on Caldey.

The so-called life of St Dubricius in the Book of Llandaff may be best consulted in the edition of Evans (1893). Kenney describes it as “a liturgical composition posterior to 1120 which deserves no trust”. The life by Benedict of Gloucester is printed in Wharton’s Anglia Sacra, vol. ii, pp. 654-661. The fact that it has incorporated various details from the developed legend of Geoffrey of Monmouth shows that it was written late in the twelfth century. See Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue (Rolls Series), vol. i, pp. 40—44; Lloyd, History of Wales, vol. i, pp. 147—148 LBS., vol. ii, pp. 359—382 but principally Canon Doble’s St Dubricius (1943), where all the evidence is expertly examined. The latest examination of the Dubrician church dedications is by E. G. Bowen in his Settlements of the Celtic Saints in Wales (1954).

He was born in Madley, Wales, and he founded monasteries at Henllan and Moccas. These served as motherhouses for other abbeys in Herefordshire, Gwent, and the Wye Valley.Dubricus also ruled Caldrey Island. He appointed St. Samson abbot and ordained him as a bishop. Dubricus spent the last years of his life at Ynys Enlli. He is believed to have been the arch-bishop of Caerleon. He died and was buried on the island of Bardsey.

Dubricius B (AC) (also known as Dubritius, Dubric, Dyfig, Dyfrig, Devereux)
Born at Madley (?), near Hereford. Saint Dyfrig was an important church leader, probably a monk, in southeast Wales and western Herefordshire. His earliest foundation was Ariconium (Archenfield, Hereford), but his most important centers were at Hentland (Henllan) and Moccas in the Wye valley. Dyfrig attracted numerous disciples to the two monasteries, and from them founded many other monasteries and churches.  He was associated with Saint Illtyd and, according to the 7th-century vita of Saint Samson, with the island of Caldey for whose monastery he appointed Saint Samson (July 28) abbot. Later he consecrated Samson bishop. An ancient, but incomplete, inscription at Caldey reads Magl Dubr ("the tonsured servant of Dubricius").  Dyfrig and Saint Deinol (Daniel) were the two prelates who convinced Saint David to attend the synod of Brefi. Dyfrig spent the last years of his life at Ynys Enlli (Bardsey) and died there.

In later medieval legends he becomes the 'archbishop of Caerleon' (Caerlon-on-Usk) and, according to the unreliable Geoffrey of Monmouth, crowns 'King' Arthur at Colchester (he is the high saint of Idylls of a King), and the ecclesiastical politics of the 12th century claimed him as founder of the Normans' see of Llandaff, where he was one of the four titular saints of the cathedral.

The later vita written by Benedict of Gloucester claims that Dyfrig was a disciple of Saint Germanus of Auxerre, but this is unlikely. Legend also inaccurately states that Saint David resigned in his favor as metropolitan of Wales.
The reputed relics of Saint Dyfrig were translated from Bardsey to Llandaff in 1120. He is the 'Dubric the high saint, Chief of the church in Britain' of Tennyson's Coming of Arthur, and the place-name Saint Devereux in Herefordshire is a corruption of the saint's name.  Church dedications to him at Gwenddwr (Powys) and Porlock (Somerset) suggest that his disciples were active in the expansion of Christianity to the west and southwest, possibly in association with the multitudinous children Saint Brychan of Brecknock (Attwater, Benedictines, Doble, Delaney, Farmer). In art Saint Dubricius is depicted holding two croziers and an archiepiscopal cross. He is venerated in Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, and Caldey Island (Roeder).
8th v. St. Modanic Scottish bishop avid scholar reformer
traditionally venerated in Aberdeen. Hewas an avid scholar and reformer in a troubled era.
Modanic of Aberdeen B (AC) (also known as Modan) possibly 8th century. The feast of the Scottish bishop Modanic was kept at Aberdeen and Philorth (Fraserburgh), but of whom we have no reliable particulars. His silver head-relic at Philorth was previously carried in procession to invoke rain or otherwise improve the weather. He is principally associated with the foundation at Timhood (Benedictines, Farmer).

690 Saint Sidonius of Saint-Saëns, OSB Abbot (AC)
(also known as Saëns)
Saint Sidonius, an Irishman, became a monk at Jumièges (an offshoot of the Irish foundation of Luxeuil) under Saint Philibert in 644. Later Sidonius was appointed by Saint Ouen, one of the three brothers Saint Columbanus blessed in their childhood, to be the first abbot of a small monastery which that bishop had founded near Rouen: this monastery was later called Saint-Saëns (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Gougaud, Kenney, Montalembert, Tommasini).

784 St. Alberic Benedictine Bishop missionary
nephew of St. Gregory of Utrecht and a friend of the great scholar Alcuin. Little is known of his life before his entrance into the Benedictine Order at Utrecht, Netherlands. He served as prior of the cathedral of Utrecht, and was known for his piety and preaching. In 775 he was made bishop of Utrecht, succeeding St. Gregory, who had administered the area without being a prelate. Alberic spent the rest of his life preaching to the Teutons who populated the region. Alberic died on August 21, 784.

784 Saint Alberic of Utrecht, OSB B (AC)
Nephew of Saint Gregory of Utrecht, Alberic was prior of Saint Martin's cathedral, and on his uncle's death in 775 succeeded to the see of Utrecht. Perhaps because he himself was a highly educated man, Alberic was a great friend of Blessed Alcuin. His apostolate among the pagan Teutons was exceedingly fruitful (Benedictines).

Adaltrude Mother of Saint Geraud Oct 13 (Encyclopedia).
1180 St. Lawrence O'Toole Augustinian archbishop of Dublin 1172 convened a synod at Cashel General Lateran Council in Rome in 1179 unbounded charity Corpus on the Crucifix before the kneeling prelate spoke papal legate many miracles were reported at his tomb fought against King Henry II
Ireland. He was born at Leinster, the Son of Murtagh, chief of the Murrays, in Castledermot, Kildare. Taken hostage by King Dermot McMurrogh of Leinster in a raid, Lawrence was surrendered to the bishop of Glendalough. Lawrence became a monk, and in 1161 was named archbishop of Dublin. He was involved in negotiating with the English following their invasion of Ireland, and in 1172 convened a synod at Cashel. He also attended the General Lateran Council in Rome in 1179, and was named papal legate to Ireland. While on a mission to King Henry II of England, Lawrence died at Eu, Normandy, France. He was canonized in 1225.

Laurence O'Toole, OSA B (RM) (also known as Lorcan O'Tuathail) Born at Castledermot, Kildare, Ireland, 1128; died at Eu, Normandy, France, on November 14, 1180; canonized 1225 by Pope Honorius III.

Born Lorcan O'Tuathail (or ua Tuathail), his mother was an O'Byrne and his father Murtagh O'Tuathail, a Leinster chieftain of the Murrays--both sides were of princely stock. In the 2nd century, the Celt Tuathail was one of the great Irish kings. Another of the line reigned in 533. One of the seven churches of Glendalough served as the burial site for many generations of O'Tuathails.

When Lorcan was born his family had been ousted from their ancient throne and Dermot MacMurrough was the representative of the usurping line. Dermot was a large, violent, war-loving, vocal man hated by strangers and feared by his own people. (It was he who invited King Henry of England to come and take possession of Ireland.) Nevertheless, Lorcan's father had many soldiers, servants, land, and cattle.


At age 10 Lorcan was sent to Dermot as a hostage to guarantee his father's fidelity to the new order. For a time Lorcan lived in Dermot's castle, until the day his father refused to obey an order. Lorcan was taken to a stony, barren region, to be punished for his father's sin. At the end of the journey was a miserable, dilapidated hut with a leaky roof. There he forced to practice austerity because he was given only enough bread and greens and water to keep him alive, no clothes, and no companionship except a guard. For two years he lived in this desolate manner until threats restored him to his father.

The bishop of Glendalough was the mediator between Dermot and O'Tuathail and young Lorcan was sent across the hills to him. The bishop first introduced Lorcan in Saint Kevin's sanctuary to the quiet recollectedness of Christian life and studies. His father arrived a few days later and, in thanksgiving for the safe return of his son, proposed dedicating one of his sons--to be chosen by casting lots--to the service of God and Saint Kevin. Lorcan laughed for the only time in his dolorous life, telling his father that he would most willingly choose God as his inheritance.

So, he became a student at the school for novices in Glendalough, where he stayed for 22 years as novice, monk, then abbot. Lorcan's character was annealed in the ascetic training of the early Irish Church whose austerities would seem fabulous if they were not well authenticated. He stood in the direct descent of Saint Kevin and the early anchorites of Glendalough, spending each Lent throughout his life in lonely, but joyful, contemplation on the rocky shelf beneath Saint Kevin's monastery, and practicing austerities as a normal part of his life.

The tall, extremely thin Lorcan was elected abbot in 1153 at the age of 25. His tenure of office gave him the widest exercise of ruling men (abbots in Ireland even overruled bishops). Within the household he had to reckon with the envy and malice provided by his early elevation; outside the enclosure he had distress to alleviate in the mountainous lands that gave precarious support to the population, and he had to ensure peace and order along roads harassed by robbers.

Lorcan's unbounded charity first became evident during a famine that marked the beginning of his office. He used the resources of the monastery and also his father's fortune to minister to the poor as a servant, rather than a prelate. He spent freely on church building, and from this period dates the beautiful priory of Saint Saviour's at the eastern end of the valley.

After four years of service as abbot, his spiritual stature was so plainly evident that men sought to make him bishop of Glendalough. He refused stating that he was not of canonical age. For 10 years the administration of the monastery engaged his full zeal and charity; he was in touch with the great reform synod of Kells in 1152. His name is inscribed on the 1161 charter of the new Augustinian foundation at Ferns, where years later the fugitive King Dermot, its founder, sought a monk's disguise when he was deserted by his kinsmen and friends.

In 1161 Gregory, archbishop of Dublin, died and Lorcan was unanimously elected to succeed him by Danish and native clergy and laity, including the High King O'Loughlin and even his former captor, Dermot McMurrough, who was now married to Lorcan's sister Mor.

Momentously for the Irish Church, Lorcan was consecrated the following year in the Danish Christ Church, Dublin, founded by Sitric, which had never seen a native prelate. And the sacrament was conferred by Gelasius of Armagh, the primate, in the presence of his suffragan bishops. Dublin had been a Norse town for 300 years, and, because the Norse were evangelized by Anglo-Saxons, the Irish Church had always looked to Canterbury rather than Armagh. The vicissitudes of his immediate predecessor are evidence of the racial and ecclesiastical jealousies that his election allayed and the manner of his consecration (at the hands of the Irish primate, rather than the English one) is signal testimony to the new consolidation of the Irish hierarchy, which was a principal object of the Irish Reform movement in the 12th century.

Reform was necessary because the monastic system had been corrupted under the Norse rule during which the abbot or comarba who ruled the monastery as heir of the saintly founder was commonly a layman. The vices of laicisation were rampant, even in the primatial see of Armagh which was in lay hands for generations. There was a collateral necessity to organize according to the hierarchy of the Catholic Church; the authority of the bishop, archbishop, and primate had to be defined and established upon a territorial basis.

Behind every reform movement there is a saint. In Ireland that person was Saint Malachy, having as precursors Cellach of Armagh and Gilbert of Limerick. Their movement carried on from synod to synod beginning with Rath Bresail in 1111, achieved its main purpose in the synod of Kells in 1152, when among other decisions the sees of Dublin and Tuam were erected to archbishoprics and the number and limits of the present dioceses were substantially fixed. Minor outstanding disciplinary reforms were completed in synods held in 1162, 1167, and 1172--all of which were attended by Lorcan.

After his consecration Lorcan had to move from being an 'other worldly' man to a man of the world. He might have lamented like Saint Bernard: "I am become the chimaera of my century, neither cleric nor layman." Nevertheless, Lorcan managed with saintly charm to integrate his inner and outer life. Tall, graceful Lorcan wore the bishop's vestments with dignity, and a hairshirt underneath, for example.

He dispensed discreetly liberal hospitality to rich and poor in his home beside his cathedral; among rich foods choosing for himself the plainest and coloring water with wine for courtesy and company's sake. Each day at his table 30 to 60 of the poor dined among his other guests that the rich may be encouraged to do the same. From the day he donned the white Augustinian robes he never ate meat, and on Fridays he fasted on bread and water.

Three times daily he used the discipline (self-flagellation); his nights were lonely vigils or spent in the choir. Assiduous in attendance at Divine Office, when at dawn the canons left the choir for their cells, he remained in solitary prayer. Twice during his long periods of adoration, the Corpus on the Crucifix before the kneeling prelate spoke. When day came he regularly went out to the cemetery to chant the office of the dead. His life was what the old Irish homily calls the "white martyrdom" of abnegation and labor.

The bull of his canonization recites his constancy in prayer and his austere mortification. These were the secret springs of his energy and profuse charity. This white-robed figure of whose speech hardly four sentences remain is seen always in the gracious gesture of giving and with the gravity of silence about him.

Crowds depend upon him, recognizing in him a source of supernatural power. The records of his canonization attest to his miracles. He lived through two famines and two sieges and saw the city of his adoption sacked. He moves through hardships with the equilibrium of the saint and a saint's equal mind. But also with the saint's energy.

He had hardly taken his episcopal seat when his zeal turned to the reform of his clergy. His predecessors had been trained in a milder climate and under laxer monastic rules. The service of the cathedral had suffered. Looking abroad for a model he persuaded his secular canons to join him in community life as Augustinian regulars of the Arroasian Rule and converted the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity into a priory. His community became a school for bishops: Albin of Ferns, Marianus of Cork, and Malachy of Louth who were subsequent witnesses to his sanctity.

In the Irish monasteries psalmody occupied a central place in the monk's life. Lorcan raised the Gregorian chant, still so little heard in Irish churches, to its proper place about the altar and restored its appropriate splendor to the Divine Office. He commended the rebuilding of the cathedral and added to the number of parish churches.

During a famine which afflicted the city that destitute flocked to his doors. He exerted himself in the public relief, not merely by prodigally multiplying his personal charities but by organized assistance, quartering the city poor upon the abbey lands of his cathedral--Swords, Lusk, and Finglas. When these were filled and the famine still continued, he sent others farther afield throughout Ireland, recommending them to the popular charity and chartering a vessel at great cost to convey others to England.

King Dermot McMurrough is often associated with Lorcan in these charities, but Dermot's later actions invited the Anglo-Normans into Ireland. Dermot abducted Dervorgilla, wife of Prince Tiernan O'Rourke of Brefni. In 1166, O'Rourke and his allies reduced Dermot to ruin. He sailed to England for help, taking with him his daughter Eva, Bishop O'Toole's niece, whose beauty and nobility made her a desirable as a potential spouse. Although King Henry II of England was still engaged in his conflict against Saint Thomas Becket and Aquitaine, he saw the revolt and Dermot's arrival as an opportunity to realize his designs to possess Ireland.

Then came the scourge of war in 1170, King Henry promised Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke ("Strongbow"), the hand of the beautiful Eva and succession to the throne of Leinster. He dispatched Strongbow at the head of an army of nobles and his Anglo-Norman adventurers landed in Ireland and took Waterford. Richard de Clare married Lorcan's niece Eva in Waterford Cathedral before marching on to Dublin.

The rest of Lorcan's episcopate was conditioned by events that followed. He was in the very act of negotiating terms with Dermot, when the city was seized by Strongbow's sudden, treacherous irruption, and the peacemaker turned to save the wounded, to bury his dead, to guard ecclesiastical property from spoliation, and to recover the looted Church vessels and books.

Thoroughly aroused for his country, the saint urged a united front under King Roderick (Rory, Ruaidri) O'Connor. Henceforth he had to double as both a Mercier soldier and a Saint Vincent de Paul. The princes of Ireland were moved to action by the patriotic zeal of the archbishop, who joined with Ruaidri in rallying the country and its allies, sending missives abroad to Gottred of Man and to the other lords of the Isles.

When Dermot died suddenly, the Earl of Pembroke declared himself king of Leinster, but was recalled to England by Henry. Before Pembroke could return, the Irish united behind O'Connor, and the earl barricaded himself in Dublin as the Irish forces attacked. While Lorcan was trying to effect a settlement, Pembroke suddenly attacked and won an unexpected victory.

The rest of Lorcan's political life was busied with embassies of peace. When Henry II came to Dublin in October 1171. Although his real purpose was to receive the submission of the Irish princes, he publicly denounced the misconduct of the English in Ireland, portraying a benevolent king on a mission of welfare. His overture was rejected by Bishop Gelasius, the high king, and the northern princes, but the princes of the south took King Henry at face value. The patriot Lorcan journeyed to Connaught to call forth the dissident nobility.

Henry arranged with the papal legate, Christian of Lismore, for the convocation of a synod at Cashel. The English king's decrees presented nothing not already observed in Ireland, except the celebration of the Divine Office according to the English usage. At this time, Armagh was recognized as the primatial see of Ireland under the submission of no see but that of Rome. This was the beginning of the Irish "troubles" with England that were to endure for another eight centuries. On the strength of such fair assurances the leaders of both Church and State accepted Henry.

Then Henry began to distribute Crown lands, until he was forced to leave Ireland in April 1172 in the face of threatened excommunication for the murder of Thomas Becket. In the meantime, Henry's envoys reached Rome with the news of his success in Ireland. Henry was pardoned by Pope Alexander III after walking through the streets barefoot in penance.

In 1175 the situation is reversed; Lorcan is Ruaidri's (Rory O'Connor) envoy to King Henry II, sent to negotiate the Treaty of Windsor, a mission that required the high qualities of skill and statesmanship, where the contracting parties represented the feudal system opposed to Irish law and custom.


The task was not made easier by a mischance that occurred. While saying Mass at the shrine of Saint Thomas at Canterbury, a madman who had heard of Lorcan's reputation for sanctity, thought that he would meritoriously make another martyr and felled the saint to the ground with a club before the high altar. The traces of this blow on the head were verified by the Cardinal Archbishop of Rouen in 1876 on examining the body. Unlike the martyred Becket, Lorcan was able to finish the Mass.

Meanwhile synods had been held at Armagh, Cashel, and Dublin, which Lorcan attended in his subordinate place. None of them shows any trace of his leadership or statesmanship.

In 1178, Henry II provided his son John with the title "Dominus Hiberiae," which was not as exalted as the royal title allowed by Rome in order to ensure Ireland's subordinate position. That same year, the papal legate to Scotland and Ireland, Cardinal Vivian, arrived in Ireland. He was indignant at the incursions and slaughter of the invading de Courcy, whom he admonished to withdraw. When his command was unheeded, the cardinal exhorted King MacDunlevy of Ulster to defend his country.

In 1179, Lorcan left for Rome to attend the Third General Lateran Council with five other Irish bishops, more than attended from Scotland and England combined. On their passage through England, Henry compelled them to promise not to seek anything at the council that was prejudicial to the king or his kingdom.

Some 300 bishops attended the council, and from that great assembly Lorcan passed into the closest confidence of the Holy See. He obtained from Alexander III a bull confirming the rights and privileges of the see of Dublin. Jurisdiction was conferred over five suffragan sees and the pope took the archbishop's church in Dublin and all its possessions under Saint Peter's protection and his own, defining and confirming its possessions and ensuring it and the property of his suffragans by strictest penalties against any lay or ecclessial interference. Finally, on his return home Alexander gave him the supreme mark of his confidence in naming Lorcan as papal legate.

In the brief space of life that was left to him, Lorcan exercised his new powers with exemplary decision. With the invaders new abuses had crept amongst his clergy. Some abuses he refused to forgive and dispatched at least 140 clerics to Rome.

Henry was not pleased with the steps Lorcan had taken in Rome. A new Thomas Becket had touched his authority. And, therefore, on a final peace mission for Ruaidri, when Lorcan crossed the Irish Sea to take the king's son as a hostage to Henry, he found the Channel ports closed against his return by royal edict. After three weeks of virtual imprisonment in the monastery of Abingdon, Lorcan followed the king to Normandy. He landed near Treport at a cove which still bears his name, Saint-Laurent. There the saint fell ill and was taken to Saint Victor's abbey at Eu, where he was received by the monks and where his bones still rest.

A priest companion was sent to find Henry. He brought back word that Henry would again meet with King Rory. Saint Lorcan had done all that he could.
Only two sentences are recorded of his last hours. Asked by the abbot to make his will: "God knows, I have not a penny under the sun." A little later a farewell in his native tongue, thinking of his own people.
A good and just man, Giraldus calls him; he died in exile--an exile and a fugitive, the Abbot Hugues wrote to Innocent III, pro libertate ecclesiae --an exile as well, he might have written, of charity and patriotism. 

So many miracles were reported at his tomb that less than five years after his death, his remains were enclosed in a crystal case and translated to a place of special honor before the high altar of the church at Eu. The canons and faithful of that city forwarded his formal canonization.

His life was written and rewritten at Eu from information eagerly gathered by the canons from the saint's disciples and other pilgrims from Ireland who journeyed to his shrine; from his nephew Thomas, Abbot of Glendalough; his intimates Albin, bishop of Ferns, Marianus of Cork, and Malachy of Louth; and from Jean Comyn, who succeeded him in the see of Dublin. In 1225, 45 years after his death, he was canonized by Honorius III and thereupon became patron of the archdiocese of Dublin (Attwater, Curran, Curtayne, Curtis, D'Arcy, Delaney, Healy, Kenney, Legris, Messingham, O'Hanlon, Plummer, Sullivan).

1180 ST LAURENCE O'TOOLE, ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN 
LORCAN UA TUATHAIL was born in x 1128, probably near Castledermot in co. Kildare, son of Murtagh, chieftain of the Murrays.   When Laurence O'Toole (as his name is commonly anglicized) was ten years old, the king of Leinster, Dermot McMurrogh, made a raid on his neighbour's territory, and Murtagh was forced to deliver up his son as a hostage.  For two years Laurence was badly treated, in a stony and barren region near Ferns, till his father heard of it and by threats of reprisals forced Dermot to give the boy up to the bishop of Glendalough.   Murtagh hurried thither and asked the bishop to cast lots which of his four sons he should destine to the service of the Church. Laurence cried out with laughter, "There is no need to cast lots.  It is my desire to have for my inheritance the service of God in the Church."      Hereupon his father, taking him by the hand, offered him to God by delivering him to the bishop, in whose hands he left him.
  Laurence when but twenty-five years old was chosen abbot of Glendalough and soon after avoided episcopal dignity only by alleging the canons that require in a bishop thirty years of age. He governed his community with virtue and prudence, and in a great famine which raged during the first four months of his administration was the saviour of the countryside by his boundless charities. Outside the ecclesiastical enclosure he had to cope with the outlaws and robbers who infested the Wicklow hills, and within it there were false brethren, who could not bear the regularity of his conduct and the zeal with which he condemned their disorders, and attacked his reputation by slander, to which he opposed no other arms than silence and patience.  
   In 1161 died Gregory, the first archbishop of Dublin. Laurence was elected in his place, and consecrated in Holy Trinity (later Christ Church) cathedral by Gelasius, archbishop of Armagh. This was significant of the new unity of the Irish church since the Synod of Kells in 1152, before which the bishops of Dublin had depended on Canterbury. But the new state of affairs was not fully to outlast St Laurence's own lifetime.
  His first care was to reform his clergy and to furnish his church with worthy ministers.  He bound the canons of his cathedral to receive the rule of the regular canons of Arrouaise, an abbey which was founded in the diocese of Arras in 1090 and had such reputation for sanctity and discipline that it became the pattern of numerous other houses. Laurence himself took the religious habit, ate with the religious in the refectory, observed their hours of silence and assisted with them at the midnight office.  Every day he entertained at table thirty poor persons, and often many more, besides those which he maintained in private houses.  All found him a father both in their temporal and spiritual necessities, and he was indefatigable in preaching and the due ordering of public worship. King Dermot had preferred to the church of Glendalough one so unworthy that he was in a short time expelled, and Thomas, a nephew of the saint, was canonically elected. By the care of this young abbot-bishop discipline and piety again flourished and from that time St Laurence frequently made choice of Glendalough for his retreats from the noise and turmoil of Dublin, staying in a rock-hewn cell in the cliff above the Upper Lake.
  The enormities of Dermot McMurrogh caused him at length to be driven from Ireland, and in order to regain his position he asked the help of Henry II of England, who was only too glad to permit any of his nobles to join an expedition that jumped with his own ambitions.     The chief of these volunteers was Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke (" Strongbow "), who in 1170 landed at Waterford, overran part of Leinster, and marbhed on Dublin.   St Laurence was sent to negotiate with the invaders, but during the discussions Dermot's Anglo-Norman allies seized the city and gave themselves over to massacre and rapine.  Laurence returned to succour the sufferers and defend the survivors, and to be a centre of strength in the new danger. Dermot died in his moment of success, and Strongbow claimed Leinster, as Dermot's heir and husband of his daughter Eva (who was St Laurence's niece). Thereupon King Henry recalled his vassal to England, the Irish united under the high king, Rory O'Conor, and Strongbow shut himself up in Dublin.  Again Laurence conducted negotiations: they failed, but Strongbow made a sudden rally of desperation and unexpectedly routed the Irish forces. St Laurence saw the end of his patriotic hopes, and the “Irish problem
had begun.
  Some fifteen years earlier King Henry II had obtained from Pope Adrian IV a bull (“Laudabiliter”) authorizing him to proceed to Ireland in order “to subject its people to the rule of law and to root out therefrom the weeds of vice”.*{
* And also to provide for the collection of “Peter's pence”. The authenticity of this bull has been contested, but not very convincingly.  Among those who favour its authenticity is Dorn Gougaud, who writes in his Christianity in Celtic Lands, p. 408 “Although the bull is not drawn up in strict conformity with the rules followed at the time by the papal chancery, it can nevertheless be proved that in substance it is in accord with other contemporary and uncontested witnesses.”}
   Henry now went to Ireland for this beneficent purpose, and in 1171 received at Dublin the submission of all the Irish chiefs, except those of Connaught, Tyrconnel and Tyrone. In the following year he convened a synod at Cashel. Here for the first time the Irish bishops were confronted by the bull of Adrian IV, provision was made for clerical discipline, the English form of the Roman liturgy (i.e. the use of Sarum) was adopted, and Pope Alexander III was asked to confirm their decisions, which in due course he did.  At this meeting St Laurence accepted the papal bull, concurred in the synodal proceedings, and from that time on was in frequent request as a go-between and peacemaker between King Henry and the Irish princes. In 1175 he travelled to Windsor and successfully negotiated a treaty between the English sovereign and the high king, Rory O'Conor. While in England he visited Canterbury and was received by the monks at Christ Church with the honour due to his repute and rank, and that whole night he spent in prayer before the shrine of St Thomas Becket. On the day following, as he was going up to the altar to officiate, a madman who had heard much of his sanctity and had a wild idea of making so holy a man a martyr and another St Thomas, gave him a violent blow on the head with a staff.   He fell senseless, but quickly recovered, asked for the wound to be bathed, and proceeded to sing the Mass.*{* When Cardinal de Bonnechose, archbishop of Rouen, examined the saint's relics at Eu in 1876 he found that the effects of this blow were observable on the skull.}
     The king ordered the would-be assassin to be hanged, but Laurence interceded in his favour and obtained his pardon.
   The third general council of the Lateran was held at Rome in 1179, and St Laurence went to Rome, with five other Irish bishops.  Before they were allowed to leave England, King Henry extracted an oath that they would make no representations to the Holy See likely to prejudice his position in Ireland.  Laurence explained to Alexander the state of the Irish church, and begged that effectual remedies might be applied to many disorders in the country and care taken for preserving the liberties of its church.  The pope was pleased with his proposals, confirmed all the rights of his see, adding to them jurisdiction over five suifragan dioceses, and appointed him his legate in Ireland.  As soon as the saint was returned home he began vigorously to execute his legatine powers. But King Henry remembered Becket, and he was nervous at the authority which had been given Laurence in Rome; and accordingly when in 1180 the archbishop had met him in England to negotiate further on behalf of Rory O'Conor, the king afterwards forbade him to return home. After waiting for three weeks at Abingdon Laurence determined again to seek Henry, who was in Normandy. He got a passage across the Channel and landed near Le Trdport, at a spot still called Saint-Laurent.  The king gave him permission to go back to Ireland, but on the way he was taken very ill. As he approached the abbey of the canons regular of St Victor at Eu, he murmured, "Haec requies mea in saeculum saeculi"      St Laurence was ready for death.

To the abbot who put him in mind to make a will, he answered with a smile, “God knows I have not a penny in the world”.  Then, his last thoughts on his flock, he exclaimed in Irish, “Alas! you stupid, foolish people, what will you do now? Who will look after you in your misfortunes?  Who will help you.”
   St Laurence O'Toole died on Friday, November 14, 1180, and he was canonized in 1225.   His relics still rest principally in the crypt of the church of our Lady at Eu. The feast of St Laurence is observed throughout Ireland, by the Canons Regular of the Lateran, and in the diocese of Rouen, in which Eu is situated.
By far the most important of the ancient lives of St Laurence is that edited from the Codex Kilkenniensis in Dublin, forming part of the Marsh library, by C. Plummer. The text, with a valuable introduction, appeared in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxiii (1914), pp. 121-186.  There are other Latin lives, notably one printed by the Bollandists in their Catalogus Cod. Hagiogr. Latin. Paris., vol. iii, pp. 236-248, but this, white probably based upon the same materials as the former, has recounted the incidents in a different order and expanded them with rather tedious moral reflections.  It does not make so good an impression of trustworthy history.   Some useful comments on the manuscript sources which have contributed to our knowledge of the saint will also be found in the preface of Plurnmer's VSH., pp. xv-xxiii.  The life printed in Surius, so far as regards its first portion, is in close agreement with that which Pluinmer has edited, but Surius, according to his wont, has amended the Latin phraseology. A certain amount of information regarding St Laurence is also obtainable from the chroniclers of the period. There is a good short life in French by A. Legris (1914) that by O'Hanlon (1857) is perhaps now hardly adequate.  See further, J. F. O'Doherty, Laurentius von Dublin und das irische Nonnannentum (1933), and Born Gougaud, Les Saints irlandais hors d'Irlande (1936), pp. 130-131. A Life in Irish was published by Fr Benedict, O.D.C., in 1929. Cf. also M. V. Ronan in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 1926 and 1936 ; and Fr A. Gwynn on the saint as legate in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lxviii (1950), pp. 223-240.  P. Carpentier's S. Laurent O'Toole (1953) is a shortened rewriting of Legris, above; unfortunately it has not been brought up to date.-- {Circa 1964}
1180 St. Lawrence abbot sanctity.
Augæ, in Gállia, tránsitus sancti Lauréntii, Epíscopi Dublinénsis.    At Eu in France, St. Laurence, bishop of Dublin.
St. Lawrence, it appears, was born about the year 1125. When only ten years old, his father delivered him up as a hostage to Dermod Mac Murehad, King of Leinster, who treated the child with great inhumanity, until his father obliged the tyrant to put him in the hands of the Bishop of Glendalough, in the county of Wicklow. The holy youth, by his fidelity in corresponding with the divine grace, grew to be a model of virtues. On the death of the bishop, who was also abbot of the monastery, St. Lawrence was chosen abbot in 1150, though he was only twenty-five years old, and governed his numerous community with wonderful virtue and prudence. In 1161 St. Lawrence was unanimously chosen to fill the new metropolitan See of Dublin.
   About the year 1171 he was obliged, for the affairs of his diocese, to go over to England to see the king, Henry II, who was then at Canterbury. The Saint was received by the Benedictine monks of Christ Church with the greatest honor and respect. On the following day, as the holy archbishop was going to the altar to officiate, a maniac, who had heard much of his sanctity, and who was led on by the idea of making so holy a man another St. Thomas, struck him a violent blow on the head. All present concluded that he was mortally wounded; but the Saint came to himself, asked for some water, blessed it, and having his wound washed with it, the blood was immediately stopped, and the Archbishop celebrated Mass. In 1175 Henry II of England became offended with Roderic, the monarch of Ireland, and St.Lawrence undertook another journey to England to negotiate a reconciliation between them. Henry was so moved by his piety, charity, and prudence that he granted him everything he asked, and left the whole negotiation to his discretion. Our Saint ended his journey here below on the 14th of November, 1180, and was buried in the church of the abbey at Eu, on the confines of Normandy.
1240 Saint Serapion of Algiers converted moors with help of Peter Nolasco and Saint Raymond Nonnatus, O. Merc. M (RM)
Algáriæ, in Africa, beáti Serapiónis, qui, primus ex Ordine beátæ Maríæ de Mercéde redemptiónis captivórum, pro captívis fidélibus rediméndis et Christiánæ fídei prædicatióne actus in crucem et membrátim disséctus, martyrii palmam méruit obtinére.
    At Algiers in Africa, blessed Serapion, of the Order of Our Blessed Lady of Ransom.  For the redemption of the faithful in captivity and the preaching of the Christian faith, he was the first of his Order to merit the palm of martyrdom, being crucified and torn limb from limb.
Born in England; cultus confirmed in 1728. Serapion left his homeland to battle against the Moors in Spain, but instead, with the help of Peter Nolasco and Saint Raymond Nonnatus, converted them. While in Spain he joined the Mercedarian Order and surrendered himself as a hostage at Algiers, where he was crucified for preaching the gospel while awaiting his ransom (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). In art Saint Serapion is shown as a young Mercedarian hanged on a cross with his arms tied above his head. Serapion is venerated in Spain (Roeder).

1240 BD   SERAPION, MARTYR
IN 1728 Pope Benedict XIII approved the cultus of this little-known martyr, who is said to have been born in England. The story goes that he became a soldier in the service of Alfonso IX of Castile, and then joined the newly founded Mercedarian Order for the redemption of captives.   He is supposed to have visited the British Isles to gain recruits for it, but without much success.  He went among the Moors of Murcia and obtained the release of some Christian slaves, and then went to Algiers to negotiate for more.  Here he was kept as hostage for the payment of the balance of the ransom, and employed his time in preaching to the Mohammedans, among whom he made several conversions. This angered the Moors, and after cruel ill-treatment Bd Serapion was nailed to a cross and cut to pieces. Pope Benedict XIV added his name to the Roman Martyrology, wherein is also mentioned on this day, “The passion at Alexandria of ST SERAPION, martyr, whom the persecutors under the Emperor Decius..threw off the roof of his own house and so he became a glorious witness for Christ.”
It has been pointed out more than once in these pages that both for the Mercedarian and the Trinitarian `Orders the historical records of their early years are very scanty and of most unsatisfactory quality cf. for example, St Peter Nolasco on January 28. The story of Bd Serapion's connection with England, etc., cannot be depended on, but there seems to have been a cultus of long-standing date. The case and documents are cited by Prosper Lambertini (Pope Benedict XIV) in his De beatificatione et canonizatione, bk 2, ch. 24, § 42.
1302 St. Gertrude Benedictine nun great mystic “nuptial mysticism,”
(b. 1256?)
Gertrude, a Benedictine nun in Helfta (Saxony), was one of the great mystics of the 13th century. Together with her friend and teacher St. Mechtild, she practiced a spirituality called "nuptial mysticism," that is, she came to see herself as the bride of Christ. Her spiritual life was a deep personal union with Jesus and his Sacred Heart, leading her into the very life of the Trinity.
This was no individualistic piety. Gertrude lived the rhythm of the liturgy, where she found Christ. In the liturgy and Scripture, she found the themes and images to enrich and express her piety. There was no clash between her personal prayer life and the liturgy.
Comment: Gertrude's life is another reminder that the heart of the Christian life is prayer: private and liturgical, ordinary or mystical, always personal.
Quote: "Lord, you have granted me your secret friendship by opening the sacred ark of your divinity, your deified heart, to me in so many ways as to be the source of all my happiness; sometimes imparting it freely, sometimes as a special mark of our mutual friendship. You have so often melted my soul with your loving caresses that, if I did not know the abyss of your overflowing condescensions, I should be amazed were I told that even your Blessed Mother had been chosen to receive such extraordinary marks of tenderness and affection" (Adapted from The Life and Revelations of Saint Gertrude).
1359 Saint Gregory Palamas Gregory's cause, Hesychasm triumphed teaching declared Oorthodox by church of Constantinople in 1351 after death declared 'Father and Doctor of the church.' As well as being a speculative theologian of importance, Saint Gregory Palamas was a devoted teacher and pastor.

In recent years there has been a revival of interest in Hesychasm M
(also known as Gregory of Sinai) Probably born at Constantinople c. 1296; died at Salonika, 1359; canonized by the Orthodox Church, 1368.
 "The prayer of the heart is the source of all good, which refreshes the soul as if it were a garden." --Saint Gregory Palamas
Gregory Palamas was the foremost exponent and upholder of an ascetical and mystical doctrine, practice, and technique that caused great controversy in the Orthodox Church during the 14th century. It is called Hesychasm, or sometimes, after Gregory, Palamism.
Together with the monks of Mount Athos, he believe that by perfect quieting of a person's body and mind, the Christian may be granted an extraordinary vision of God's uncreated light. It is a gift from God bringing purity and deep spiritual insight.

St. Gregory Palamas

In 1333 his teaching involved him in a controversy that lasted ten years with an able Greek monk from southern Italy, Barlaam. Barlaam and other members of the Eastern church believed that these mystics (known as 'hesychasts') were wrong. Barlaam said that this 'uncreated light,' the light that surrounded Jesus at his transfiguration, was part of God's essential unity and transcendence, and that no human being could experience it.

Hesychasm would almost certainly have been condemned at the Council of Constantinople in 1341 had it not been vigorously defended by Gregory Palamas. He had the powerful support of the Athonite monks, but his writings were condemned and he was excommunicated.
Gregory Palamas insisted that for true meditation a Christian must take a mentor, never forget the supremacy of the Eucharist and, if possible, be attached in some way to a monastic community. Nevertheless, two synods condemned his views, although the monks of Mount Athos never ceased to support him.

Gregory Palamas was restored to the sacraments and appointed bishop of Thessalonica in 1347, when John Cantacuzenus seized the imperial throne and sought the support of the monks of Athos, whose influence among the people was immense. His appointment, however, reopened the controversy.

Finally Gregory's cause triumphed and his teaching was declared to be orthodox by the church of Constantinople in 1351; but by then he was worn out and his health was seriously impaired. In 1368, eight years after his death, a synod declared him 'Father and Doctor of the church.' As well as being a speculative theologian of importance, Saint Gregory Palamas was a devoted teacher and pastor.

In recent years there has been a revival of interest in Hesychasm and it has been the subject of considerable study in both the East and West (Attwater, Bentley, Meyendorff).

1391 Saints Nicholas Tavelic and Deodat, Peter of Narbonne and Stephen of Cuneo are the only Franciscans martyred in the Holy Land to be canonized
Nicholas and his three companions are among the 158 Franciscans who have been martyred in the Holy Land since the friars became custodians of the shrines in 1335.
Nicholas was born in 1340 to a wealthy and noble family in Croatia. He joined the Franciscans and was sent with Deodat of Rodez to preach in Bosnia. In 1384 they volunteered for the Holy Land missions and were sent there. They looked after the holy places, cared for the Christian pilgrims and studied Arabic.
In 1391 Nicholas, Deodat, Peter of Narbonne and Stephen of Cuneo decided to take a direct approach to converting the Muslims. On November 11, 1391, they went to the huge Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem and asked to see the Qadi (Muslim official). Reading from a prepared statement, they said that all people must accept the gospel of Jesus. When they were ordered to retract their statement, they refused. After beatings and imprisonment, they were beheaded before a large crowd.

Nicholas and his companions were canonized in 1970. They are the only Franciscans martyred in the Holy Land to be canonized.
Comment: Francis presented two missionary approaches for his friars. Nicholas and his companions followed the first approach (live quietly and give witness to Christ) for several years. Then they felt called to take the second approach of preaching openly. Their Franciscan confreres in the Holy Land are still working by example to make Jesus better known.
Quote: In the Rule of 1221, Francis wrote that the friars going to the Saracens (Muslims) "can conduct themselves among them spiritually in two ways. One way is to avoid quarrels or disputes and 'be subject to every human creature for God's sake' (1 Peter 2:13), so bearing witness to the fact that they are Christians. Another way is to proclaim the word of God openly, when they see that is God's will, calling on their hearers to believe in God almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Creator of all, and in the Son, the Redeemer and Savior, that they may be baptized and become true and spiritual Christians" (Ch. 16).
1511 Blessed John Liccio Dominican habit 96 years cured the sick when he was a baby reciting daily Office of the Blessed Virgin Office of the Dead, and the Penitential Psalms as a child frequently in ecstasy withered hand made whole cured 3 people whose heads were crushed by accidents OP (AC) (also known as John Licci) Born in Sicily in 1400; beatified in 1733.

The man who holds the all-time record for wearing the Dominican habit--96 years-- was also a person about whom some delightful stories are told. Perhaps only in Sicily could so many wonderful things have happened to one man.

John was born to a poor family. His mother died at his birth and his father, too poor to hire a nurse for the baby, fed him on crushed pomegranates and other odds and ends. He was obliged to leave the baby alone when he went out to work in the fields, and a neighbor women, who heard the child crying, took the baby over to her house and fed him properly.

She laid the baby in bed beside her sick husband, who had been paralyzed for a long time. Her husband rose up--cured, and the woman began to proclaim the saintly quality of the baby she had taken in. When John's father came home, however, he was not only unimpressed by her pious remarks, he was downright furious that she had interfered in his household. He took the baby home again and fed it more pomegranates.

At this point, the sick man next door fell ill again, and his wife came to John's father and begged to be allowed to care for the child. Begrudgingly, the father let the wonderful child go. The good woman took care of him for several years, and never ceased to marvel that her husband had been cured a second time--and that he remained well.
Even as a tiny baby, John gave every evidence that he was an unusual person. At an age when most children are just beginning to read, he was already reciting the daily Office of the Blessed Virgin, the Office of the Dead, and the Penitential Psalms. He was frequently in ecstasy, and was what might be called an "easy weeper"; any strong emotion caused him to dissolve in floods of tears.

At the age of fifteen, John went to Palermo on a business trip for his father, and he happened to go to confession to Blessed Peter Geremia, at the church of Saint Zita. The friar suggested that he become a religious. John believed himself quite unworthy, but the priest managed to convince him to give it a try. The habit, which he put on for the first time in 1415, he was to wear with distinction for nearly a century.
Humble, pure, and a model of every observance, Brother John finished his studies and was ordained. He and two brothers were sent to Caccamo to found a convent, and John resumed his career of miracle-working, which was to bring fame to the order, and to the convent of Saint Zita.
As the three friars walked along the road, a group of young men began ridiculing them and finally attacked them with daggers. One boy attempted to stab John, but his hand withered and refused to move. After the friars had gone on, the boys huddled together and decided that they had better ask pardon. They ran after the Dominicans and begged their forgiveness. John made the Sign of the Cross, and the withered hand was made whole.

The story of the building at Caccamo reads like a fairy tale. There was, first of all, no money. Since the friars never had any, that did not deter John Liccio, but he knew it would be necessary to get enough to pay the workmen to begin the foundations.
John went into the parish church at Caccamo and prayed. An angel told him to "build on the foundations that were already built." All he had to do was to find them. The next day, he went into the woods with a party of young woodcutters and found the place the angel had described: foundations, strongly and beautifully laid out, for a large church and convent. It had been designed for a church called Saint Mary of the Angels, but was never finished.
John moved his base of operations to the woods where the angel had furnished him with the foundations. One day, in the course of the construction, the workmen ran out of materials. They pointed this out to John, who told them to come back tomorrow anyway. The next day at dawn a large wagon, drawn by two oxen, appeared with a load of stone, lime, and sand. The driver politely inquired where the fathers would like the material put; he capably unloaded the wagon, and disappeared, leaving John with a fine team of oxen--and giving us a fascinating story of an angel truck-driver.


These oxen figured at least once more in the legends of John Liccio. Near Christmas time, when there was little fodder, a neighbor insisted on taking the oxen home with him "because they were too much care for the fathers." John refused, saying that they were not too heavy a burden, and that they had come a long way.
The man took them anyway, and put them into a pasture with his own oxen. They promptly disappeared, and, when he went shamefacedly to report to the fathers, the man found the team contentedly munching on practically nothing in the fathers' yard. "You see, it takes very little to feed them," John said.
During the construction, John blessed a well and dried it up, until they were finished with the building. Whereupon, he blessed it again, and once more it began to give fine sweet water, which had curative properties.
Beams that were too short for the roof, he simply stretched. Sometimes he had to multiply bread and wine to feed his workers, and once he raised from the dead a venturesome little boy who had fallen off the roof while watching his uncle setting stones.
Word of his miraculous gift soon spread, of course, and all the neighbors came to John with their problems. One man had sowed a field with good grain, only to have it grow up full of weeds. John advised him to do as the Scriptures had suggested--let it grow until the harvest. When the harvest came, it still looked pretty bad, but it took the man ten days to thresh the enormous crop of grain that he reaped from that one field.
John never let a day pass without doing something for some neighbor. Visiting a widow whose six small children were crying for food, John blessed them, and he told her to be sure to look in the bread box after he had gone. Knowing there had been nothing in it for days, she looked anyway; it was full, and it stayed full for as long as the need lasted.
Once when a plague had struck most of the cattle of the vicinity, one of John's good friends came to him in tears, telling him that he would be ruined if anything happened to his cattle. "Don't worry," John said, "yours won't get sick." They didn't.
Another time a neighbor came running to tell him that his wife was dying. "Go home," said John. "You have a fine new son, and you shouldn't waste any time getting home to thank God for him."

John was never too famous as a preacher, though he did preach a good deal in the 90 years of his active apostolate. His favorite subject was the Passion, but he was more inclined to use his hands than his speech. He was provincial of Sicily for a time, and held office as prior on several occasions.
John Liccio is especially invoked to help anyone who has been hit on the head, as he cured no less than three people whose heads were crushed by accidents (Dorcy).


JOHN'S mother died in giving him birth, and his father, whether through poverty or malice against the innocent child, provided no proper care, so that he would have died had not a kind woman made herself responsible for him. John was eventually brought up by an aunt and the boy soon showed signs of unusual devotion.  When he was about fifteen he met Bd Peter Geremia at Palermo, and was fired by him to take the habit of St Dominic; in due course he became a good preacher. Bd John was sent to establish a house of his order at Caccamq, his native town, which he did under great difficulties.  It was built on the foundations of an unfinished and forgotten building, which, as nobody remembered them, were attributed to supernatural provision. John became prior there in 1494, his administration being marked by great virtue and many marvels. The lessons of his office state that he was one hundred and eleven years old when he died, but even if he were a personal disciple of Bd Peter Geremia he was probably not much more than seventy-five. The cultus of Bd John Liccio was approved in 1753

See the Monumenta Ord. Praedic. Historica, vol. xiv, pp. 229-230  Procter, Dominican Saints, pp. 318-321  and lives by M. Ponte (1853) and G. Barreca (1926).  For a fuller bibliography consult Taurisano, Catalogus Hagiographicus O.P.
  1623 ST JOSAPHAT, ARCHBISHOP OF Potomic, MARTYR 
Sancti Jósaphat, e sancti Basilíi Ordine, Epíscopi Polocénsis et Mártyris, cujus dies natális recensétur prídie Idus Novémbris.
    St. Josaphat, of the Order of St. Basil, archbishop and martyr of Poland, whose birthday was observed on the 12th of November.

IN the month of October 1595 at Brest-Litovsk in Lithuania (a town which three hundred and twenty-two years later again became talked of throughout Europe but in a quite different connection), the dissident Orthodox metropolitan of Kiev and five bishops, representing millions of Ruthenians (to-day called Byelorussians and Ukrainians), decided to seek communion with the HolySee of Rome.

The controversies which followed this event were disfigured by deplorable excesses and violence, and the great upholder of Christian unity whose feast is kept today was called on to shed his blood for the cause, whence he is venerated as the protomartyr of the reunion of Christendom.   At the time of the Union of Brest he was still a boy, having been born at Vladimir in Volhynia in 1580 or 1584, and baptized John.  His father, a Catholic, was a burgess of a good family called Kunsevich, who sent John to school in his native town and then apprenticed him to a merchant of Vilna.   John was not particularly interested in trade, and employed his spare time in mastering Church Slavonic in order that he might assist more intelligently at divine worship and recite some of the long Byzantine office every day; and he got to know Peter Arcudius, who was then rector of the oriental college at Vilna, and the two Jesuits, Valentine Fabricius and Gregory Gruzevsky, who took an interest in him and gave him every encouragement.
  At first his master was not favourably disposed towards John's religious preoccupations, but he did his work so well that eventually the merchant offered him a partnership and one of his daughters in marriage.    Both offers were refused, for John had decided to be a monk and in 1604 he entered the monastery of the Holy Trinity at Vilna.  He induced to join him there Joseph Benjamin Rutsky, a learned convert from Calvinism who had been ordered by Pope Clement VIII to join the Byzantine rite against his personal wishes, and together the two young monks concerted schemes  for promoting union and reforming Ruthenian monastic observance.
  John Kunsevich, who had now taken the name of Josaphat, was ordained deacon and priest and speedily had a great reputation as a preacher, especially on behalf of reunion with Rome.   He led a most austere personal life and added to a careful observance of the austerities of easteril monastic life such extreme voluntary mortifications that he was often remonstrated with by the most ascetic.   At his beatification the burgomaster of Vilna testified that "there was not a better religious in the town than Father Josaphat ".
  Meanwhile, the abbot of Holy Trinity having
developed separatist views, Rutsky was promoted in his place and the monastery was soon full, so Father Josaphat was taken away from his study of the Eastern fathers to help in the foundation of new houses in Poland. In 1614 Rutsky was made metropolitan of Kiev and Josaphat succeeded him as abbot at Vilna.  When the new metropolitan went to take possession of his cathedral Josaphat accompanied him and took the opportunity of visiting the great monastery of The Caves at Kiev.
The community of two hundred monks was relaxed, and they threatened to throw the Catholic reformer into the river Dnieper. He was not successful in his efforts to bring them to unity, but his personality and exhortations brought about a somewhat changed attitude and a notable increase of good-will.  The archbishop of Polotsk at this time was a very old man and a favourer of the dissidents, and in 1617 Abbot Josaphat was ordained bishop of Vitebsk with right of succession to Polotsk. A few months later the old archbishop died and Josaphat was confronted with an eparchy which was as large in extent as it was degraded in life. The more religious people were inclined to schism through fear of arbitrary Roman interference with their worship and customs; churches were in ruins and benefices in the hands of laymen; many of the secular clergy had been married two and three times *{
*Though according to Eastern canon law a married man may be ordained to the priesthood, if his wife dies he cannot marry another  and if ordained a bachelor he must remain single and the monks were decadent.
   Josaphat sent for some of his brethren from Vilna to help him and got to work.  He held synods in the central towns, published a catechism and imposed its use, issued rules of conduct for the clergy, and fought the interference of the   squires " in the affairs of the local churches, at the same time setting a personal example of assiduous instructing and preaching, administration of the sacraments and visiting of the poor, the sick, prisoners and the most remote hamlets.
     By 1620 the eparchy was practically solidly Catholic, order had been restored, and the example of a few good men had brought about a real concern for Christian life. But in that year a dissident hierarchy of bishops was set up in the territory affected by the Union of Brest, side by side with the Catholic one; and Meletius Smotritsky was sent as archbishop to Polotsk, who began with great vigour to undo the work of the Catholic archbishop.
    He zealously spread a report that St Josaphat had "turned Latin", that all his flock would have to do the same, and that Catholicism was not the traditional Christianity of the Ruthenian people.  St Josaphat was at Warsaw when this began and on his return he found that, though his episcopal city was firm for him, some other parts of the eparchy had begun to waver; a monk called Silvester had managed to draw nearly all the people of Vitebsk, Mogilev and Orcha to the side of Sniotritsky. The nobility and many of the people adhered strongly to the union, but St Josaphat could do little with these three towns; and not only at Vitebsk but even at Vilna, when the proclamation of the King of Poland that Josaphat was the only legitimate archbishop of Polotsk was publicly read in his presence, there were riots and the life of St Josaphat was threatened.
   Leo Sapieha, the chancellor of Lithuania and a Catholic, was fearful of the possible political results of the general unrest, and lent too willing an ear to the heated charges of dissidents outside of Poland that Josaphat had caused it by his policy. Accordingly in iózz Sapieha wrote accusing him of violence in the maintenance of the union, of putting the kingdom in peril from the Zaporozhsky Cossacks by making discord among the people, of forcibly shutting-up non-Catholic churches, and so on.
These and similar accusations were made in general terms, and their unjustifiability was amply demonstrated by contemporary ad hoc testimony from both sides  the only actual fact of the sort is the admitted one that Josaphat invoked the aid of the civil power to recover the chinch at Mogilev from the dissidents. Thus the archbishop had to face misunderstanding, misrepresentation and opposition from Catholics as well.
There is no doubt that some of the easy reversion to schism was due to the firm discipline and reform of morals that had been inaugurated under Catholic auspices, and St Josaphat did not receive the support he was entitled to from the Latin bishops of Poland because of the uncompromising way in which he maintained the right of the Byzantine clergy and customs to equal treatmónt with those of Rome.
   He continued doggedly and fearlessly on his way and, Vitebsk continuing to be a hot-bed of trouble, he determined in October 1623 to go there in person again. He could neither be dissuaded nor would he take a military escort. “If I am accounted so worthy as to deserve martyrdom, then I am not afraid to die”, he said.
He went accordingly, and for a fortnight preached in the churches and visited the houses of all without distinction. He was continually threatened in the streets, and his opponents tried to pick quarrels with his attendants in order that he might be killed in the ensuing fracas.  On the feast of St Demetrius the Martyr he was surrounded by an angry mob, and exclaimed:
“You people of Vitebsk want to put me to death. You make ambushes for me everywhere, in the streets, on the bridges, on the highways, in the market-place. I am here among you as your shepherd and you ought to know that I should be happy to give my life for you.  I am ready to die for the holy union, for the supremacy of St Peter and of his successor the Supreme Pontiff.”
Smotritsky was fomenting this agitation, his object doubtless being no worse than to drive his rival from the diocese.  But his followers got out of hand, and a plot was laid to murder St Josaphat on November 12, if he could not be induced to give excuse for violence before then. A priest named Elias was put up to go into the courtyard of the archbishop's house and to use insulting words to his servants about their master and their religion, and after several complaints St Josaphat gave permission for him to be seized if it happened again.  On the morning of the 12th, as the archbishop came to the church for the office of Daybreak, he was met by Elias, who began to abuse him to his face; he therefore allowed his deacon to have the man taken and shut up in a room of the house.
  This was just what his enemies were waiting for: the bells of the town-hall were rung and a mob assembled, demanding the release of Elias and the punishment of the archbishop.   After office St Josaphat returned to his house unharmed, and let Elias go with a warning, but the people broke in, calling for their victim and striking his attendants. St Josaphat went out to them.
“My children”, he asked, “what are you doing with my servants?  If you have anything against me, here I am: but leave them alone”-words remarkably reminiscent of those of another archbishop, St Thomas Becket, on a similar occasion. Amid cries of
'Kill the papist!' he was brained with a halberd and pierced by a bullet. The mangled body was dragged out and contemptuously cast into the river Dvina.
St Josaphat Kunsevich was canonized in 1867, the first saint of the Eastern churches to be formally canonized after process in the Congregation of Sacred Rites.  Fifteen years later Pope Leo XIII gave his feast to the whole Western church for this date.  The Ukrainians and others keep it on November 12, or the Sunday following, according to the Julian calendar. An immediate result of the martyrdom was a revulsion in favour of Catholicity and unity; but the controversy continued to be carried on with an unholy bitterness, and the dissidents too had their martyr, Abbot Athanasius of Brest, who was put to death in 1648. 
On the other hand, Archbishop Meletius Smotritsky himself eventually was reconciled with the Holy See, and the great Ruthenian reunion persisted, with varying fortunes, until after the partition of Poland the Russian sovereigns forcibly aggregated a majority of the Ruthenian Catholics to the Orthodox Church of Russia. To the afflictions with which a repetition of history has visited the remainder in our own time.
 Pope Pius XII bore sufficient witness, in his encyclical letter
Orientales omnes” issued at the 350th anniversary of the Union of Brest in 1946.

In 1874 Dom Alphonse Guepin published two stout octavo volumes, amounting altogather to more than a thousand pages, under the title Saint Josaphat, archevêque martyr, et i'Eglise grecque unie en Palogne.  In the preface he speaks of the sources upon which his work is based.   He thanks Father J. Martynov in particular for placing at his disposition a copy of the beatification process and a number of other papers transcribed from the Roman archives.   He also makes appeal to a vast collection of documents formed by the Basilian hieromonk Paul Szymansky, and to another great manuscript library of similar character which Bishop Naruszewicz had accumulated with a view to his own work as a historian.  All these had been entrusted to Dom Guepin, and they were put to such good use that most of the Western writers who have since then touched upon the subject have been largely dependent upon his researches. Attention should, however, be called to the very useful little books of Father G. Hofmann, nos. 6 and 12 of the series “Onientalia Christiana”. When St Josaphat was put to death the news spread quickly throughout Europe, and the British Museum possesses a copy of a tract, Relacion verdadera de la Muerte y Martirio de Yosafat;  it was printed at Seville in 1625. See also 0. Kozanewyc, Leben des hl. Josaphat (1931) and the periodical Rome e l'Oriente, vol. X (1920), pp. 27-34. The background of the events narrated above may be read in the Cambridge History of Poland, vol. i (1950), pp. 507 seq.  St Josaphat and the Metropolitan Rutsky were the initiators of that movement in Ruthenian monasticism which eventually became the organized Order of St Basil, and accordingly these monks have been officially known since 1932 as the Basilians of St Josaphat. In 1952 they published at Rome the first volume of the Latin text, of the beatification documents of St Josaphat.
Saint Montan of Lorraine, Hermit B.
Saint Montan may have been a bishop or an actor. It is difficult to establish the truth of the various traditions (Encyclopedia).



THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 116

Hear, O Lady, my justice and my love: remove from me my tribulations.

I will give praise to thee in the voice of rejoicing: when thou shalt magnify thy mercy in me.

Imitate her, ye holy virgins of God: as Agnes, Barbara, Dorothy, and Catherine have done.

Give honor to her by the voice of your lips: thus have Agatha, Lucy, Margaret, and Cecilia received her grace.

She will give you as your Spouse the Son of the Father: and a crown incomparably radiant with the lilies of Paradise.

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
 
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Widowed Saints  html
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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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