In the monastery of Moutier-en-Der in Gaul, St. Becharius, abbot and martyr.
In Africa, two hundred and seventy holy martyrs, crowned together.
In the same country, SS. Martinian and Saturian with their two brothers.

In the Vandal persecution under the Arian King Genseric, they were the servants of a certain Vandal and were converted to the Catholic faith by their fellow-servant, St. Maxima, virgin. For their constancy in the Catholic faith, their master beat them with knobbed clubs even to the bones. They endured these beatings for many days but always appeared on the next day unhurt. They were then driven into exile where they converted many barbarians to the faith of Christ. They obtained from the Roman Pontiff a priest and other ministers to baptize them. Eventually, their feet were fastened to the back of chariots and they were dragged through thorny places in the woods until they died. Maxima, however, after triumphing in several contests, was delivered by a miracle, and ended her days quietly in a monastery where she was the spiritual mother of numerous consecrated virgins.

SS. Saturninus, Nereus, and 365 martyrs. At Cologne, St. Eliphius, martyr, at the time of Julian the Apostate.
St. Ambrose, Bishop of Cahors In the territory of Bourges.
St. Lullus, bishop and confessor At Mainz .
At Treves, St. Florentinus, bishop.
Near Arbon in Germany, St. Gall, abbot, who was a disciple of Blessed Columban.
At Muro in Lucania (Italy), St. Gerard Majella, confessor and professed lay-brother of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. Renowned for miracles, he was added to the list of saints by the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius X.

Longinus the Centurion, a Roman soldier, The Holy Martyr served in Judea under the command of the Governor, Pontius Pilate. When our Savior Jesus Christ was crucified, it was the detachment of soldiers under the command of Longinus which stood watch on Golgotha, at the very foot of the holy Cross. Longinus and his soldiers were eyewitnesses of the final moments of the earthly life of the Lord, and of the great and awesome portents that appeared at His death. These events shook the centurion's soul. Longinus believed in Christ and confessed before everyone, "Truly this was the Son of God" (Mt. 27:54).
According to Church Tradition, Longinus was the soldier who pierced the side of the Crucified Savior with a spear, and received healing from an eye affliction when blood and water poured forth from the wound.
After the Crucifixion and Burial of the Savior, Longinus stood watch with his company at the Sepulchre of the Lord. These soldiers were present at the All-Radiant Resurrection of Christ. The Jews bribed them to lie and say that His disciples had stolen away the Body of Christ, but Longinus and two of his comrades refused to be seduced by the Jewish gold. They also refused to remain silent about the miracle of the Resurrection.
Having come to believe in the Savior, the soldiers received Baptism from the apostles and decided to leave military service. St Longinus left Judea to preach about Jesus Christ the Son of God in his native land (Cappadocia), and his two comrades followed him.
The fiery words of those who had actually participated in the great events in Judea swayed the hearts and minds of the Cappadocians; Christianity began quickly to spread throughout the city and the surrounding villages. When they learned of this, the Jewish elders persuaded Pilate to send a company of soldiers to Cappadocia to kill Longinus and his comrades. When the soldiers arrived at Longinus's village, the former centurion himself came out to meet the soldiers and took them to his home. After a meal, the soldiers revealed the purpose of their visit, not knowing that the master of the house was the very man whom they were seeking. Then Longinus and his friends identified themselves and told the startled soldiers to carry out their duty.

The soldiers wanted to let the saints go and advised them to flee, but they refused to do this, showing their firm intention to suffer for Christ. The holy martyrs were beheaded, and their bodies were buried at the place where the saints were martyred. The head of St Longinus, however, was sent to Pilate.
Pilate gave orders to cast the martyr's head on a trash-heap outside the city walls. After a while a certain blind widow from Cappadocia arrived in Jerusalem with her son to pray at the holy places, and to ask that her sight be restored. After becoming blind, she had sought the help of physicians to cure her, but all their efforts were in vain.
The woman's son became ill shortly after reaching Jerusalem, and he died a few days later. The widow grieved for the loss of her son, who had served as her guide.
St Longinus appeared to her in a dream and comforted her. He told her that she would see her son in heavenly glory, and also receive her sight. He told her to go outside the city walls and there she would find his head in a great pile of refuse. Guides led the blind woman to the rubbish heap, and she began to dig with her hands. As soon as she touched the martyr's head, the woman received her sight, and she glorified God and St Longinus.
Taking up the head, she brought it to the place she was staying and washed it. The next night, St Longinus appeared to her again, this time with her son. They were surrounded by a bright light, and St Longinus said, Woman, behold the son for whom you grieve. See what glory and honor are his now, and be consoled. God has numbered him with those in His heavenly Kingdom. Now take my head and your son's body, and bury them in the same casket. Do not weep for your son, for he will rejoice forever in great glory and happiness."

The woman carried out the saint's instructions and returned to her home in Cappadocia. There she buried her son and the head of St Longinus. Once, she had been overcome by grief for her son, but her weeping was transformed into joy when she saw him with St Longinus. She had sought healing for her eyes, and also received healing of her soul.

4th v. St. Florentinus of Trier Bishop of Trier Germany the successor of St. Severianus or Severinus.

Tréviris sancti Florentíni Epíscopi. At Treves, St. Florentinus, bishop.

439 St. Maxima Africa slaves
Martinian, his brother Saturian and their two brothers were slaves in Africa at the time of Arian King Jenseric's persecution of Catholics.
They were converted to Christianity by another slave, Maxima. When their master insisted that Martinian marry Maxima, who had taken a vow of virginity, they fled to a monastery but were brought back and beaten for their attempt to escape.
When their master died, his widow gave them to a Vandal, who freed Maxima (she later entered a monastery) and sold the men to a Berber chief.
They converted many, petitioned the Pope Leo I to send them a priest, and were then tortured and dragged to their deaths by horses for their Faith.

654 St. Magnobodus Bishop of Angers France. Tone 3 Troparion to St Magnobodus, bishop of Angers (+654). Educated under the care of St Lezin of Angers,You received from him the clerical tonsure, And became a priest and abbot of Colonet. Upon the death of your master, you took his place
And zealously governed his church. St Magnobod, pray to God that He have mercy on us!
sometimes listed as Mainboeuf or Maimbod. A noble Frank, he was appointed bishop because of popular acclaim.

362 St. Eliphius Irish or Scottish martyr also called Eloff. He was martyred in Toul, France. His relics were enshrined in Cologne, Germany, in the tenth century.

Colóniæ Agrippínæ sancti Elíphii Mártyris, sub Juliáno Apóstata.
At Cologne, under Julian the Apostate, the martyr St. Eliphius.

450 St. Dulcidius Successor to St. Phoebadius bishopric of Agen
France. He is also listed as Dulcet and Doucis .

450 St. Saturninus & Companions 365 martyrs including Nereus
Ibídem sanctórum Martiniáni et Saturiáni, cum duóbus eórum frátribus; qui, témpore Wandálicæ persecutiónis, sub Rege Ariáno Genseríco, cum servi essent cujúsdam Wándali, et a sancta Máxima Vírgine, ipsórum consérva, ad Christi fidem convérsi fuíssent, omnes ab hærético illórum dómino, pro constántia fídei cathólicæ, primum nodósis fústibus cæsi sunt et usque ad ossa laniáti. Sed, cum tália multo témpore pateréntur, et sequénti die nihilóminus redderéntur semper incólumes, exsílio tandem relegántur; ubi, cum multos barbarórum ad Christi convertíssent fidem, et a Románo Pontífice Presbyterum aliósque minístros, qui eos baptizárent, obtinuíssent, novíssime, vinctis pédibus post terga curréntium quadrigárum, inter spinósa loca silvárum jussi sunt páriter interíre. Máxima vero, post multos superátos agónes divínitus liberáta, in monastério, multárum Vírginum Mater, sancto fine quiévit.
Likewise, the Saints Martinian and Saturnian, with their two brothers. While the persecution of the Vandals was raging in the reign of the Arian king Genseric, they were slaves to a man of that race. They were converted to the faith of Christ by Maxima, a slave like themselves, and they manifested their attachment to the truth with such courage that they were beaten with rough clubs and lacerated in all parts of their bodies to the very bones. Although this barbarous treatment was continued for a considerable period, their wounds were each time healed overnight. They were at length sent into exile where they converted many barbarians to the faith, and obtained from the Roman Pontiff a priest and other ministers to baptize them. Finally there were condemned to die by having their feet tied behind running chariots and being dragged through thorns. Maxima, after enduring many tribulations, was miraculously delivered and became the superior of a large monastery of virgins, where she ended her days in peace.

In Africa sanctórum Mártyrum ducentórum septuagínta, páriter coronatórum.
In Africa, two hundred and seventy holy martyrs, crowned together.

458 SS. MARTINIAN AND OTHER MARTYRS, AND MAXIMA
AFTER referring to the passion of 270 martyrs who suffered together in Africa, the Roman Martyrology records the martyrdom in the same country of SS. Martinian and Saturian and their two brothers, “who, in the time of the Vandal persecution under the Arian King Genseric, were slaves of a certain Vandal and were converted to the faith of Christ by their fellow slave, the holy maiden Maxima. For their constancy in the Catholic faith they were first beaten with knotted whips, which bit to their very bones, by their heretical master. Then, when they had suffered such things for a long time and always appeared unhurt on the next day, they were forced into exile, where they converted many barbarians to the faith of Christ and obtained from the Roman pontiff a priest and other ministers who baptized them. Then lastly they were made to pass over thorny places in the woods, with their feet tied to the backs of moving chariots. Maxima, however, after triumphing in several contests, was set free by the power of God and made a good and peaceful end in a monastery, the mother of many virgins.”

Victor of Vita in his history of the Vandal persecution gives an account of these confessors. Martinian, he says, was an armourer, and his master wanted to marry him to Maxima. She dared not refuse, though she had made a vow of virginity, but Martinian respected her vow and they all ran away to a monastery, from whence they were brought back and savagely beaten because they would not receive Arian baptism. On the death of their master they were given by his widow to another Vandal, who released Maxima and sent the three men to a Berber chief. It was here that they made converts and sent for a priest, and in consequence Genseric ordered them to be dragged to death.

This group of martyrs is dealt with in the Acta Sanctorum for October, vol. vii, Pt 2. The only evidence of value is that of Victor of Vita.

A group who were put to death in Africa during the persecution of the Church by the Arian Vandals who had conquered the region under their king, Geiseric. It is considered possible that they are to be identified with the martyrs who died under the leadership of Sts. Martinian and Saturian
. Item sanctórum Saturníni, Nérei et aliórum trecentórum sexagínta quinque Mártyrum.
Also, the Saints Saturninus, Nereus, and three hundred and sixty-five other martyrs.

5th v.St. Junian Hermit at Sainte-Junien Haute Vienne France
He was revered as an eremite of extreme piety and compassion.

460 St. Conogon Bishop in Brittany
France, also called Gwen or Albinus. He was the successor of St. Corentin in the see of Tuimper.

680 St. Baldwin Martyr son of St. Salaberga
He was also the brother of St. Anstrude. Baldwin was the archdeacon of León, Spain. His murder led to his status as a martyr for the faith.

680 St. Kiara Irish virgin disciple of St. Fintan Munnu
Kiara, who is also listed as Chier, lived near Nenagh, in Tipperary, Ireland.

686 St. Mummolinus Benedictine bishop called Mommolenus
In monastério Dervénsi, in Gállia, sancti Berchárii, Abbátis et Mártyris.
In the monastery of Moutier-en-Der, in France, St. Bercharius, abbot and martyr.
686 ST MOMMOLINUS, Bishop of NOYON
HE was a native of the territory of Coutances, and became a monk at Luxeuil. He was sent with SS. Bertram and Bertinus to St Omer among the Morini in Artois, and was appointed superior whilst they lived in their first habitation, called the Old Monastery (now Saint-Momelin). Here he laboured tirelessly with his brethren for the conversion of the heathen, and removed with them to the New Monastery, St Peter’s, at Sithiu. Upon the death of St Eligius in 660 he was consecrated bishop of Noyon, and constituted Bertram abbot of the monastery of Saint-Quentin, which he erected in that town. This abbey afterwards became a famous collegiate church. St Mommolinus governed his extensive see for twenty-six years; his name occurs in the subscriptions to the Testament of St Amand and to several charters of that age.

There are two short Latin lives of this saint, the more important of the two being printed in the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. vii, Pt 2. See also Van der Essen, Etude critique sur les Vitae des saints merov. (1907), pp. 375—384.

Mommolinus. Born in Constance, Switzerland, he resided at Luxeuil, St. Omer, and Saint-Mommolin. He then went to Sithin, founded by St. Bertimus. In 660, Mummolinus was consecrated the bishop of Noyon-Tournai .

7th v.St. Balderic Abbot prince
brother of St. Bova. Balderie, or Baundry, and his sister were the children of Sigebert II, King of Austrasia. He became the abbot-founder of a convent at Reims and Montfaucon Abbey in France.

7th v. St. Gall
Apud Arbónam, in Germánia, sancti Galli Abbátis, qui fuit discípulus beáti Columbáni.
At Arbon in Germany, St. Gall, abbot, a disciple of blessed Columban.
(GALLUS; in the most ancient manuscript he is called GALLO, GALLONUS, GALLUNUS, and sometimes also CALLO, CHELLEH, GILLIANUS, etc.).

635 ST GALL

AMONG the eminent disciples which St Columban left to be imitators of his heroic life, none seems to have been more famous than this St Gall. He was born in Ireland and educated in the great monastery of Bangor under the direction of the holy abbot Comgall and of Columban. Studies, especially of sacred learning, flourished in this house, and St Gall was well versed in grammar, poetry and the Holy Scriptures, and was ordained priest there, according to some accounts. When St Columban left Ireland St Gall was one of those twelve who accompanied him into France, where they founded the monastery of Annegray and two years afterwards that of Luxeuil. St Gall lived here for twenty years, but the only incident recorded of that period is that, being sent to fish in one river, he went to another. On his return with an empty basket he was reproved for his disobedience, whereupon he went to the right river and made a big catch.
When Columban was driven thence in 610 St Gall shared his exile and, after they had in vain tried to return to Ireland, they eventually found themselves in Austrasia, and preached around Tuggen, on Lake Zurich. The people did not receive their new teachers gladly, and they soon left “that stiff-necked and thankless crowd, lest in trying to fertilize their sterile hearts they should waste efforts that might be beneficial to well-disposed minds”, as St Gall’s biographer says. Then one Willimar, priest of Arbon near the lake of Constance, afforded them a retreat. The servants of God built themselves cells near Bregenz, converted many idolaters, and at the end of one of his sermons Gall broke their brazen statues and threw them into the lake. The bold action made as many enemies as it did converts, but they stayed there for two years, made a garden and planted fruit, and St Gall, who was evidently a keen fisherman, occupied his spare time in knotting nets and fishing the lake. But the people who remained obstinate persecuted the monks and slew two of them; and on his opponent King Theoderic becoming master of Austrasia St Columban decided to retire into Italy, about 612. St Gall was unwilling to be separated from him, but was prevented from bearing him company by sickness. St Columban, however, says one legend, did not believe Gall was so ill as all that and thought he was malingering, wherefore he imposed on him never again to celebrate Mass during his (Columban’s) lifetime. This unjust sentence St Gall obeyed. After his master and brethren had departed, Gall packed up his nets and went off by boat to stay with Willimar at Arbon, where he soon recovered his health. Then, directed by the deacon Hiltibod, he selected a suitable spot by the river Steinach (that it had a good fishing-pool is expressly mentioned; also that they had trouble with water-sprites therein), and settled down there to be a hermit. He soon had disciples, who lived under his direction according to the Rule of St Columban, and the fame of Gall’s holiness continued to grow year by year until his death, between 627 and 645, at Arbon, whither he had gone to preach.

St Gall’s biographers give several more particulars of his life, some of doubtful authenticity, others certainty mistaken. The week after he established himself with the deacon Hiltibod he had to go, very unwillingly, to the duke Gunzo, whose demoniac daughter had been exorcized in vain by two bishops. Gall was successful, and the evil spirit went out of the girl in the form of a black bird issuing from her mouth. King Sigebert, the betrothed of this Fridiburga, offered Gall a bishopric in thankfulness, but he refused it and moreover induced Fridiburga to become a nun at Metz instead of marrying the king. However, this did not abate Sigebert’s goodwill,* and it was afterwards claimed, erroneously, by the abbey of Saint-Gall that the king had given their land to Gall’s community and exempted it from the jurisdiction of the bishop of Constance. This see was again offered to the saint, who again refused but nominated one of his own disciples, the deacon John, at whose consecration he preached. St Gall learned in a vision of the death of St Columban at Bobbio, whose monks at his direction sent Gall their dead abbot’s pastoral staff as a token of his forgiveness for not accompanying his master into Italy. At the death of St Eustace, whom Columban had left abbot of Luxeuil, the monks chose St Gall; but that house was then grown rich in lands and possessions, and the humble servant of God understood too well the advantages of poverty in a penitential life to suffer himself to be robbed of it. Instead he continued to be taken up in the apostolic labours of the ministry. He only left his cell to preach and instruct, chiefly the wildest and most abandoned among the inhabitants in the mountainous parts of the country: and returning to his hermitage he there often spent whole nights and days in prayer and contemplation before God.

Walafrid Strabo adds to his life of the saint a second book, of nearly equal length, relating the miracles which took place in connection with his tomb and relics. The same writer remarks that St Gall had “ plenty of practical sense” and he was certainly a principal missionary of Switzerland (his feast is kept there as well as in Ireland), but his own fame has been exceeded by that of the monastery bearing his name which grew up on the site of his hermitage on the Steinach, where is now the town of Saint-Gall in the canton of the same name. In the eighth century it was organized by Otmar, and during the middle ages it rendered incalculable service to learning, literature, music and other arts; its library and scriptorium were among the most famous of western Europe. It was secularized after the Revolution, but happily a large part of the library remains, adjoining the rebuilt abbey church, now the cathedral of the diocese of Saint-Gall.

Much painstaking research has been spent upon the history of St Gall. Apart from the casual references which occur in the Life of St Columban by Jonas, we have three main documents dealing with Gall in particular. The first, unfortunately preserved only in a fragmentary state, was written about a century after the saint’s death, the second by Abbot Wetting dates from the early years of the ninth century, and the third by Walafrid Strabo must be another twenty years or so later. All three have been edited by B. Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. iv, pp. 231—337. There is also a metrical life by Notker. See further 3. F. Kenney, The Sources for the Early History of Ireland, vol. i, pp. 206—208; Gougaud, Christianity in Celtic Lands (‘932), pp. 140—144, and Les saints irlandais hors d’Irlande (1936), pp. 114—119; and M. Joynt, The Life of St Gall (1927).

* When he had himself handed his bride over to be the bride of Christ, he “went out of the church”, says Walafrid Strabo, “and wept secretly for his beloved.”

An Irishman by birth, he was one of the twelve disciples who accompanied St. Columbanus to Gaul, and established themselves with him at Luxeuil. Gall again followed his magister, in 610, on his voyage on the Rhine to Bregenz; but he separated from him in 612, when Columbanus left for Italy; and he remained in Swabia, where, with several companions, he led the life of a hermit, in a desert to the west of Bregenz, near the source of the river Steinach. There, after his death, was erected an "ecelesia Sancti Galluni" governed by a “presbyter et pastor”. Before the middle of the eighth century this church became a real monastery, the first abbot of which was St. Otmar. The monastery was the property of the Diocese of Constance, and it was only in 818 that it obtained from the Emperor Louis the Pious the right to be numbered among the royal monasteries. and to enjoy the privilege of immunity. At last, in 854, it was freed from all obligation whatever towards the See of Constance, and henceforth was attached only by ties of canonical dependence. Called "Abbey of St. Gall”, not from the name of its founder and first abbot, but of the saint who had lived in this place and whose relics were honoured there, the monastery played an illustrious part in history for more than a thousand years .

Apart from this authentic history, there exists another version or tradition furnished by the Lives of St. Gall, the most ancient of which does not antedate the end of the eighth century. A portion of the incidents related in these Lives is perhaps true; but another part is certainly legendary, and in formal contradiction to the most ancient charters of the abbey itself. According to these biographies, Gall was ordained a priest in Ireland before his departure for the Continent, therefore before 590. Having reached Bregenz with Columbanus, he laboured in the country as a missionary, and actively combated the pagan superstitions. Prevented by illness from following Columbanus to Italy, he was placed under interdict by the displeased Columbanus, and in consequence could not celebrate Mass until several years later, after the death of his old master. Gall delivered from the demon by which she was possessed Fridiburga, the daughter of Cunzo and the betrothed of Sigebert, King of the Franks; the latter, through gratitude, granted to the saint an estate near Arbon, which belonged to the royal treasury, that he might found a monastery there. Naturally the monastery was exempt from all dependence on the Bishop of Constance; moreover, Gall twice refused the episcopal see of that city, which was offered to him, and having been instrumental in securing the election of a secular cleric, the deacon John, the latter and his successors placed themselves in every way at the service of the abbey. Gall also declined the abbatial dignity of Luxeuil, which was offered him by the monks of the monastery after the death of St. Eustace. Shortly afterwards he died, at the age of ninety-five, at Arbon, during a visit; but his body was brought back to the monastery, and God revealed the sanctity of his servant by numerous miracles. His feast is celebrated on 16 October, the day ascribed to him in some very ancient martyrologies, while Adon, it is not known for what reason, makes it occur on 20 February. The saint is ordinarily represented with a bear; for a legend, recorded in the Lives, relates that one night, at the command of the saint, one of these animals brought wood to feed the fire which Gall and his companions had kindled in the desert.
The most ancient Life, of which only fragments have been discovered till the present date, but otherwise very important, has been remodelled and put in the better style of the ninth century by two monks of Reichenau: in 816-24 by the celebrated Wettinus, and about 833-34 by Walafrid Strabo, who also revised a book of the miracles of the saint, written somewhat earlier by Gozbert the Younger, monk of St. Gall. In 850 an anonymous monk of the same abbey wrote, in verse, a Life which he published under the name of Walafrid; and others after him further celebrated the holy patron in prose and verse.

696 St. Bercharius Benedictine abbot founder
In monastério Dervénsi, in Gállia, sancti Berchárii, Abbátis et Mártyris.
In the monastery of Moutier-en-Der, in France, St. Bercharius, abbot and martyr.
696 ST BERCHARIUS, ABBOT
WHEN St Nivard, Bishop of Rheims, was travelling in Aquitaine, some time just before the middle of the seventh century, he made the acquaintance of the parents of young Bercharius and, much impressed by the boy’s openness and promise, urged them to do their best to have him educated for the priesthood. This they did, and in due course he was ordained and became a monk at Luxeuil. When St Nivard founded the monastery of Hautvillers St Bercharius was its first abbot. From it he established in the forest of Der a new monastery called thence Montier-en-Der, and he also founded a convent of women, known as Puellemontier, of which the first six nuns are said to have been slaves whom the abbot had ransomed. There was in his monastery a young monk named Daguin, who was by no means a satisfactory religious. For some misdemeanour the abbot imposed a sharp penance on this Daguin who, furious at the continual reproofs that he brought on himself, slipped into the cell of Bercharius and stabbed him while he slept. Seized with remorse and immediately after, he rushed to the church and rang the bell, which brought the community running to the abbot’s cell, where they found him dying. Daguin was found and miserably confessed his guilt. He was brought before Bercharius, who freely forgave him St Bercharius lingered for two days and died on March 26, Easter day, in 685 or 696.

He is sometimes represented in art with a barrel. This has reference to a story told at Luxeuil, that, being called by the abbot while he was drawing wine or beer, Bercharius hurried off obediently but without turning off the tap. When he returned the liquid had not overflowed but was standing up in a column above the jug.

A Latin life of this “martyr” was written by Abbot Adso a hundred years after his death. It has been printed both by Mabillon and in the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. vii, Pt 2.

Martyred at Moutier-en-Der, France. He was a native of Aquitaine who became a monk at Luxeuil and was ordained. Bercharius became the first abbot at Hautvilliers, founded by St. Nivard. He also founded the monastery at Moutier-en-Der and a convent at Puellemontier. Bercharius was stabbed by Dagnin, a deranged monk whom he had disciplined, died two days later on March 26.

740 St. Vitalis Benedictine hermit
An Anglo-Saxon by descent, he became a Benedictine monk at Noirmoutier, France, later embracing the eremitical life on Mont Scobrit, near the Loire River.

752 St. Ambrose Bishop of Cahors, in France

In território Bituricénsi sancti Ambrósii, Epíscopi Caturcénsis. Near Bourges, St. Ambrose, bishop of Cahors.

He resigned his office and made a pilgrimage to Rome. Living as a hermit, Ambrose died in Saint-Ambroisesur-Arnon, once called Ernotrum, in Berry.

787 St. Lull Benedictine bishop relative of St. Boniface

Mogúntiæ sancti Lulli, Epíscopi et Confessóris.
At Mainz, St. Lullus, bishop and confessor.

786 ST LULL, BISHOP of MAINZ

LULL was an Englishman, doubtless a native of the kingdom of the West Saxons. The foundation of his education was laid in the monastery of Malmesbury, where he remained as a young man and was ordained deacon. Hearing the call of the foreign missions when he was about twenty years old, he passed into Germany, and was received with joy by St Boniface, who is thought to have been related to him. From this time Lull shared with that great saint the labours of his apostleship, and the persecutions which were raised against him. St Boniface promoted him to priest’s orders and in 751 sent him to Rome to consult Pope St Zachary on certain matters which he did not care to commit to writing. Upon his return, St Boniface selected him for his successor he was consecrated as coadjutor, and when Boniface departed on his last missionary journey into Frisia St Lull took over the see of Mama.

It is generally believed that the mission of St Lull to the Holy See had been to obtain exemption from episcopal jurisdiction for St Boniface’s abbey of Fulda (where, in accordance with his wish, St Lull buried the body of the martyr, to the discontent of Mainz and Utrecht). A long dispute now began concerning this exemption between Lull, as bishop of Mainz, and St Sturmi, abbot of Fulda, in the course of which the abbot was deposed in favour of a nominee of the bishop. But King Pepin intervened and recognized the independence of Fulda, whereupon Sturmi was restored and St Lull refounded the monastery of Hersfeld. He was a most energetic pastor, and during the space of thirty years that he governed the diocese of Mama he assisted at several councils in France and elsewhere.

It appears by the letters which were addressed to him from Rome, France and England that St Lull had a reputation for learning. His answers to these are lost, and only nine of his letters are published, among those of St Boniface. The contents are interesting. In the fourth, we notice his zeal to procure good books from foreign countries, and in the others we meet with examples of his firm attachment to his friends, his pastoral vigilance, and his zeal for the observance of the canons. One is an episcopal mandate to order prayers, fasts, and Masses, “those which are prescribed to be said against tempests”, to obtain of God that the rains might cease which were then ruining the harvest. St Lull announces in the same the death of the pope, for whom he orders the accustomed prayers to be said. Cuthbert, abbot of Wearmouth, in a letter to St Lull mentions that he had ordered ninety Masses to be offered for their deceased brethren in Germany, for they sent to each other the names of those that died among them, as also appears from several letters of St Boniface, e.g. in one to the abbot & Monte Cassino and several to his brethren in England. Towards the end of his life St Lull retired to his abbey at Hersfeld, where he died.

The main authority for the history of St Lull is the life by Lambert, Abbot of Hersfeld, though this, written two centuries after the death of Lull, is not very reliable. This document is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. vii, pt 2, but the best text is that edited among the works of Lambert by Holder-Egger (1894), pp. 307-340. The letters of Lull should be consulted in the edition of M. Tangl, Bonifatiusbriefe 1915 See also H. Hahn, Bonifaz und Lul (1883) Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, vols. i and ii; and M. Stimming, Mainzer Urkundenbuch (1923), vol. i.

He was a native of England and was educated at Malmesbury. He joined St. Boniface in Germany but was sent to Rome in 751. When St. Boniface died, Lull succeeded him as bishop of Mainz, Germany, although he never achieved the fame of his relative.

1085 St. Anastasius Hermit papal legate
1085 ST ANASTASIUS OF CLUNY
This Anastasius was a native of Venice and a man of considerable learning who, by the middle of the eleventh century, was a monk at Mont-Saint-Michel. The abbot there was not a satisfactory person—he was accused of simony—and Anastasius eventually left the monastery in order to live as a hermit on Tombelaine off Normandy. About the year 1066 St Hugh of Cluny induced him to join the community at Cluny. After seven years there he was ordered by Pope St Gregory VII to go into Spain, perhaps to help in inducing the Spaniards to give up their Mozarabic liturgy for the Roman, an undertaking begun by Cardinal Hugh of Remiremont (rather inappropriately called Candidus), who was then legate in France and Spain. St Anastasius was soon back at Cluny, where he lived quietly for another seven years, and then went to be a hermit in the neighbourhood of Toulouse. Here he preached to the people of the countryside (and is said to have shared his solitude with Hugh of Remiremont, who had been deposed and excommunicated for repeated acts of simony) and lived in contemplation until he was recalled to his monastery in 1085. On his way he died and was buried at Doydes.

His life by a certain Galterius is printed by Mabillon and in the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. vii, pt a. He may have been the author of an “Epistle to Geraldus” on the Real Presence see DTC., vol. i, c. 1,66.

Anastasius was born in Venice about 1020. He became a monk in Mont St. Michel, in France, but then moved to a hermitage on the island of Tombelaine, off the coast of Normandy. In 1066, Anastasius was invited to enter Cluny Monastery by St. Hugh. Seven years later, known for his sanctity, Anastasius was commissioned by Pope St. Gregory VII to undertake a special mission in Spain. Anastasius returned to Cluny and remained there for seven years before becoming a hermit again near Toulouse. He was returning to Cluny when he died in 1085.

1123 St. Bertrand of Comminges Bishop A number of miracles are related of St Bertrand

1123 ST BERTRAND, Bishop of COMMINGES
IN its more than a thousand years of existence before it was suppressed the see of Comminges (now included in Toulouse) was governed by several men well known in history, but no one of them is more famed locally than St Bertrand, who was bishop for fifty years in the eleventh—twelfth century. At first he had no other aim than to be a military lord like his father, but he soon turned to the ecclesiastical state, received a canonry at Toulouse, and became archdeacon: it was remarked that he owed his dignities neither to requests nor bribes. About 1075 he was called to govern the diocese of Comminges, and having rebuilt both the temporal and spiritual fortifications of his episcopal city he proceeded to a thorough reformation of the whole diocese, living with his canons under the Rule of St Augustine as an example for the secular clergy. His zeal was not always acceptable. When he went to preach in the Val d’Azun he met with a very hostile reception, and it required all his efforts to calm the people. However, they afterwards were so sorry for the way they had received their bishop that they promised to give in perpetuity to the see of Comminges all the butter that was made in Azun every year during the week before Whitsunday. This tribute was rendered, not always willingly, up to the time of the Revolution.

St Bertrand several times had to face violent opposition even out of his own territory: in 1100 he was at the synod at Poitiers when King Philip I was excommunicated and the synodal fathers were stoned, and at the consecration of the cemetery of St Mary at Auch, when the aggrieved monks of Saint-Orens tried to set fire to the church.

A number of miracles are related of St Bertrand, one of which gave rise to the “Great Pardon” at his church in Comminges. In a feud between the counts of Comminges and Bigorre, Bertrand’s diocese was overrun by the troops of Sans Parra of Oltia, who carried off all the cattle they could lay their hands on. To save his people from ruin the bishop implored their leader to restore the booty, but he refused unless he was paid its value. “All right”, said St Bertrand. “Bring them back. I’ll pay you before you are dead.” Some time after Bertrand himself was dead, Sans Parra was captured by the Moors in Spain. One night he had a dream in his dungeon of Bertrand, who said he had come to redeem his promise and led him out of prison to a spot near his home. This happening is commemorated locally on May 2 every year, and Pope Clement V, who had been bishop of Comminges, granted a plenary indulgence to be gained at the then cathedral church of St Bertrand every year that the feast of the finding of the Holy Cross falls on a Friday. St Bertrand was canonized some time before 1309, probably by Pope Honorius III.

In the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. vii, Pt 2, is printed a life said to be the work of Vitalis, a notary of Auch, who was a contemporary. See also P. Bedin, St Bertrand de Comminges (1912).

Bishop of Comminges in the diocese of Toulouse, France. The son of a military officer, he became a canon in Toulouse. About 1075, he became bishop of Comminges, a role he would have for almost half a century. He managed the affairs of the faithful and was known for miracles. It is believed that he was canonized before 1309.

1243 St. Hedwig Duchess widow Cistercain patroness of Silesia Miracles

Cracóviæ, in Polónia, natális sanctæ Hedwígis Víduæ, Polonórum Ducíssæ, quæ, páuperum obséquio dédita, étiam miráculis cláruit; et a Cleménte Quarto, Pontífice Máximo, Sanctórum número adscrípta est.
At Cracow in Poland, St. Hedwig, duchess of Poland, who devoted herself to the service of the poor, and was renowned for miracles. She was inscribed among the saints by Pope Clement IV.

1243 ST HEDWIG, WIDOW

HEDWIG (Jadwiga) was a daughter of Berthold, Count of Andechs, and was born at Andechs in Bavaria about the year 1174; through her sister Gertrude she was aunt to St Elizabeth of Hungary. She was placed when very young in the monastery of Kitzingen in Franconia, and taken thence when twelve years old to marry Henry, Duke of Silesia, who was then eighteen. They had seven children, of whom only one, Gertrude, survived her mother, and she became abbess of Trebnitz. Her husband succeeded to his father’s dukedom in 1202, and he at once at Hedwig’s persuasion founded the great monastery of Cistercian nuns at Trebnitz, three miles from Breslau. To construct the building it is said that all malefactors in Silesia, instead of other punishments, were condemned to work at it. This was the first convent of women in Silesia,*{* It was suppressed and secularized in 1810, and the estate came to Prince Blucher after Waterloo.} and the first of a large number of monastic establishments by the foundation of which the duke and duchess both aided the religious life of their people and spread a Germanic culture over their territories. Among them were houses of Augustinian canons, Cistercian monks, Dominican and Franciscan friars. Henry established the hospital of the Holy Ghost in Breslau and Hedwig one for female lepers at Neumarkt, in which they took a close personal interest. After the birth of her last child in 1209 Hedwig engaged her husband to agree to a mutual vow of continence, from which time they lived to a considerable extent in different places. Her husband, we are told, for the thirty years that he lived afterwards, never wore gold, silver or purple, and never shaved his beard, from which he was named Henry the Bearded.

Their children were the occasions of a good deal of trouble for them. For example, in 1212 Duke Henry made a partition of his estates between his sons Henry and Conrad, but on terms dissatisfying to them. The two brothers with their factions came to an open rupture, and, notwithstanding their mother’s efforts to reconcile them, a battle was fought, in which Henry routed his younger brother’s army. This was one of those crosses by which the duchess learned more bitterly to deplore the miseries and blindness of the world, and more perfectly to disengage her heart from its slavery. After 1209 she made her principal residence near Trebnitz monastery, often retiring into that austere house, where she slept in the dormitory and complied with all the exercises of the community. She wore the same cloak and tunic summer and winter, and underneath them a hair-shift, with sleeves of white serge that it might not be seen. With going to church barefoot over ice and snow her feet were often blistered and chilblained, but she carried shoes under her arm, to put on if she met anyone. An abbot once gave her a new pair, insisting that she should wear them, which she promised to do. When he met her some time after she was still unshod, and he asked what had become of them. Hedwig produced them from under her cloak, brand-new. “I always wear them there“, she said.

In 1227 Duke Henry and Duke Ladislaus of Sandomir met to plan defence against Swatopluk of Pomerania. They were unexpectedly attacked by Swatopluk, and Henry was surprised in his bath, barely escaping with his life. St Hedwig hurried to nurse him, but he was soon in the field again, fighting with Conrad of Masovia for the territories of Ladislaus, who had been killed. Henry was successful and established himself at Cracow, but he was again surprised, this time while at Mass, and was carried off by Conrad to Plock. The faithful Hedwig followed, and induced the two dukes to come to terms, her two grand-daughters being promised in marriage to Conrad’s sons. Thus the intervention of Henry’s forces was rendered unnecessary, to the great joy of St Hedwig, who could never hear of bloodshed without doing all in her power to prevent it. In 1238 her husband died, and was succeeded by his son Henry, called “the Good”. When the news was brought, the nuns at Trebnitz shed many tears. Hedwig was the only person with dry eyes, and comforted the rest: “Would you oppose the will of God? Our lives are His. Our will is whatever He is pleased to ordain, whether our own death or that of our friends.” From that time she put on the religious habit at Trebnitz, but she did not take the corresponding vows, in order that she might be free to administer her own property in her own way for the relief of the suffering. Hedwig once got to know a poor old woman who could not say the Lord’s Prayer, and was very slow at learning it. Hedwig went on patiently teaching her for ten weeks, and even had her into her own room to sleep, so that at every spare moment they could go through it together, until the woman could both repeat and understand it.

In 1240 the Mongol Tartars swept through the Ukraine and Poland. Duke Henry II led his army against them and a battle was fought near Wahlstadt, in which, it is said, the Tartars used a sort of poison-gas, for “a thick and nauseating smoke, issuing from long copper tubes shaped like serpents, stupefied the Polish forces”. Henry was killed, and his death was known to St Hedwig three days before the news was brought to her. “I have lost my son”, she told her companion Dermudis. “He has gone from me like a bird in flight, and I shall never see him again in this life.” When the messenger arrived, it was she, the old woman, who comforted the younger ones, Henry’s wife Anne and his sister Gertrude. The example of her faith and hope was honoured by God with the gift of miracles. A nun who was blind recovered her sight by the blessing of the saint with the sign of the cross, and her biographer gives an account of several other miraculous cures wrought by her and of several predictions, especially of her own death. In her last sickness she insisted on being anointed before any others could be persuaded that she was in danger. She died in October 1243, and was buried at Trebnitz. St Hedwig was canonized in 1267, and her feast added to the general Western calendar in 1706.

There is a Latin life or legend of St Hedwig which seems to have been compiled towards the close of the thirteenth century by an unknown writer who claims to have based his narrative in the main upon memoirs provided by a Cistercian, Engelbert of Leubus. There is a shorter as well as a longer form of the story, which is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. viii, as well as elsewhere. A manuscript copy written in 1353 and preserved at Schlackenwert is of great interest on account of the miniatures with which it is decorated they have often been reproduced, as for example in the book of H. Riesch, Die hi. Hedwig (1926). There are several lives in German, e.g. by F. H. Gorlich (1854), F. Becker (1872), E. Fromnitz (1926), K. and F. Metzger (1927), and a few in French, notably that by G. Bazin (1886). See also G. Morin in the Revue Bénédictine, vol. vii (1890), pp. 465—469; and H. Quillus, Konigen Hedwig von Polen (1938). There is a popular American account of St Hedwig, with a fancy title, The Glowing Lily, by E. Markowa (1946).

Silesia a region of eastern Europe. Also called Jadwiga in some lists, she died in a Cistercain convent, having taken vows. Hedwig was born in Andechs, Bavaria, Germany, the daughter of the Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia. She was the aunt of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. At the age of twelve, Hedwig was marrie to Duke Henry of Silesia, the head of the Polish Royal family. She bore him seven children, and they had a happy marriage. Henry founded a Cistercain convent at Trebnitz, as well as hospitals and monasteries. Henry died in 1238 and Hedwig became a Cistercain at Trebnitz. She had to leave her prayers to make peace among her offspring, and she buried a child who was killed fighting against the Mongols. She died in the convent on October 15.Many miracles were reported after her death, and she was canonized in 1266.

(1174?-1243) We have a right to expect noble deeds from a member of the nobility. This does not always happen, to say the least. But St. Hedwig (in Polish, Jadwiga) was not only of noble blood, she was outstanding for her noble deeds.

Hedwig was of Bavarian origin, the daughter of the Count of A-ndechs, and the aunt of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Having received her elementary training as a boarding student at the Monastery of Kitzingen, she was wedded at the age of twelve to the 18-year-old aristocrat Henry, who shortly fell heir to the dukedom of Silesia, an area then and today part of western Poland.

Duke Henry I and Duchess Hedwig proved to be ideally matched. He was an earnest ruler and she an admirable counselor. Through her influence Church life in the duchy was promoted. On her recommendation, for instance, Henry, in one of his first official acts, founded the great Cistercian monastery of Trzebnica (Trebnitz) near Wroclaw (Breslau), the pioneer convent for woman in Silesia. Through her persuasion also, other religious houses were founded or supported, and the new mendicant religious orders, the Dominicans and Franciscans, and other religious communities were encouraged to establish themselves in the country. Henry opened a hospital in Wroclaw; she, a lazaretto for women lepers in Neumarkt.

Nor was this beneficence a mere show. Both Hedwig and Henry were themselves devout Christians. After the birth of their seventh child in 1208, the couple took a solemn vow of continence. After that, she engaged even more actively in penitential practices; and it is said of him that he never shaved thereafter nor wore gold, silver or purple.
Hedwig's children caused her grief at one point. In 1212, the duke divided his estates between their sons Henry and Conrad. The sons, disappointed at the amount of land, declared war on each other. Despite their mother's efforts at reconciliation, young Henry defeated Conrad; but the quarrel only further convinced Hedwig of the evils of the world's way.
Later on, her efforts as a peacemaker were more successful. When her husband, engaged in armed conflict with Duke Conrad of Masovia, was taken captive, she followed him to his place of detention and persuaded him and Conrad to come to terms. The agreement included a pledge to allow two of Hedwig's granddaughters to marry the sons of the Duke of Masovia.
Henry I died in 1238. All mourned him. But his widow's eyes were dry. “Would you oppose the will of God?” she asked. "Our lives are His. Our will is whatever He is pleased to ordain, whether our own death or that of our friends.”
After that, Duchess Jadwiga spent even more time than before at the Cistercian monastery of Trzebnica. She followed its rule. She wore the habit of its nuns. But she did not take vows, since that would have deprived her of the right to administer her own property for the benefit of those in need.
A touching and typical story about her solicitude for the poor dates from this period. Hedwig got acquainted with an impoverished old woman who did not know the Our Father, and was too slow of wit, it seems, even to learn it. The duchess took on the task of teaching her the prayer. For ten weeks she worked at it patiently. Indeed, she had the woman sleep in her own room, so that they could spend every waking hour praying it together. Finally this disciple was able to master the Lord's Prayer.

Jadwiga's son Henry had succeeded his father as Henry II of Silesia. He held the dukedom only two years, for in 1240 he died in combat against the Tartar invaders. His mother knew of his death three days before the tidings were brought to her. Prophetically, she said to a companion, “He has gone from me like a bird in flight, and I shall never see him again in this life." When the news broke, it was she who comforted the others. Miracles as well as prophecies were attributed to the Dowager Duchess during her lifetime. Dying at Trzebnica on October 15, 1243, she was canonized in 1267. She has continued to be one of Poland's favorite saints.
St. Hedwig, it seems to me, represents the ideal wife. She was perfectly complementary to her husband in both private and public life. He was the strong arm of the family; she was its heart. --Father Robert F. McNamara

1243 Saint Eupraxia, Princess of Pskov
In the world Euphrosyne, was the daughter of the Polotsk prince Rogvolod Borisovich, and an aunt to the holy Prince Dovmont-Timothy (May 20).
She was the wife of the Pskov prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich. Prince Yaroslav fled from Pskov to Livonia and there married a German. Together with the Teutonic knights he made incursions several times upon the Russian lands, and in 1231 he seized Izborsk. After the departure of her husband, Euphrosyne turned to deeds of piety. In the year 1243, she built a monastery on the banks of the River Velika named for St John the Forerunner, and became its abbess.
Invited to Livonia for a meeting with her former husband in the city of Odenpa (Bear's Head), she was murdered (May 8, 1243) by a stepson, more accurately, the son of Yaroslav by his German wife. She was buried at the cathedral of the monastery she founded. Ten days after the death of St Eupraxia, a miracle occurred over her grave, when myrrh issued from an icon of the Savior. The icon was called “The myrrh-bearing Savior”. The countenance of the righteous princess was preserved on two icons. On the one she is depicted at prayer with St John the Forerunner and the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. The other icon with her likeness is beside the wonderworking icon of the Savior.

1399 Queen St. Jadwiga of Poland cultural institutions to both state and church Pope John Paul II canonized Blessed

Jadwiga
Sanctæ Hedwígis Víduæ, Polonórum Ducíssæ, quæ prídie hujus diéi obdormívit in Dómino.
      St. Hedwig, widow, duchess of Poland, who went to her rest in the Lord on the day previous.
(1371-1399)
There are two Polish women of royal blood who have long been venerated by Polish Catholics. Up to 1997 they were referred to as Saint Jadwiga and Blessed Jadwiga. (Hedwig is the form of their name in German.) Now both are called saints, for in June 1997, on a solemn visit to Krakow, where he had formerly been archbishop, Pope John Paul II canonized Blessed Jadwiga.
     Jadwiga of Krakow was a ranking figure in the history of Poland and Lithuania. She was the youngest daughter of King Louis of Poland, the last member of the Piast dynasty. After Louis' death in 1382, Jadwiga's counselors urged the thirteen-year-old princess to accept the hand of Jagiello, Duke of Lithuania, who aspired to the Polish throne. Jagiello was still a pagan; but he was ready not only to become a Christian if Jadwiga would have him, but to bring all of Lithuania into the Church.
     The princess faced a crisis of conscience. She would have preferred another suitor, yet this one presented great advantages both to the Polish nation and the Church. In her dilemma, it is said that she donned a black veil and walked to the cathedral of Krakow. There she knelt for three hours in prayer before the crucifix in a side chapel. Finally she decided to renounce her own will and accept the offer; and rising, she draped the crucifix with her veil as a symbol of her openness to God's will. Even today, we are told, the veil covers “Jadwiga's Crucifix” in the cathedral chapel.
     Jagiello seems to have been sincere. He was baptized with the Christian name Ladislaus, and the wedding was celebrated, and he was crowned, thus beginning the Jagiellonian dynasty. He did indeed see to the conversion of Lithuania, which was thereafter united with Poland, extending its boundaries far to the east. The conversion of the Lithuanians was also slowly but effectively accomplished.
Jadwiga was not a mere queen-consort. She wielded a moderating influence on the governance of the turbulent double-kingdom, tempering her husband's tendency to jealousy and extreme measures. The people found in her a protector, and the nation and the Church a far-sighted benefactor. She was a good wife to Ladislaus, who really loved her deeply but also looked upon her with a certain awe. Her only fault seems to have been a lack of prudence in penance and prayer.
     Not content with expanding Poland and Christianizing it, Ladislaus II and Jadwiga made Krakow a leading intellectual center by refounding its university. The Jagiellonian University has since then made Krakow “a bridge between the Christian West and East.” So declared Pope John Paul, one of its most distinguished alumni. At the canonization he praised Jadwiga's appreciation of the value of cultural institutions to both state and church.
     The queen was long unable to bear a child to her husband. When she finally did conceive, Ladislaus made enthusiastic plans to surround the birthing with jewels and rich drapes. Jadwiga took no stock in such splendor. She had long since renounced the pomps of the world. Now she simply wanted to thank God for the gift of a child by making His will her own. She now revisited the Jadwiga chapel of the cathedral on the anniversary of her “great renunciation” and was discovered several hours later in an ecstasy or perhaps a swoon. The child, a girl, was born shortly afterward, but lived only a few days. Its birth also cost the Queen her life. However, her good influence on the King continued even after her death.
     Devotion to their model queen inspired crowds to visit her tomb, and miracles were recorded through her intercession. Although the process for her beatification foundered, she was popularly referred to as “Blessed.” Pope John Paul II made her formal beatification unnecessary by canonizing her. Poland has had few more influential religious, political and cultural leaders.

1771 St. Marguerite d'Youville Canada “Mother of Universal Charity.”
We learn compassion from allowing our lives to be influenced by compassionate people, by seeing life from their perspective and reconsidering our own values.
Born 1701 in Varennes, Canada, Marie Marguerite Dufrost de Lajemmerais had to interrupt her schooling at the age of 12 to help her widowed mother. Eight years later she married Francois d'Youville; they had six children, four of whom died young. Despite the fact that her husband gambled, sold liquor illegally to Native Americans and treated her indifferently, she cared for him compassionately in the two years before his death in 1730.
Even though she was caring for two small children and running a store to help pay off her husband's debts, Marguerite still helped the poor. Once her children were grown, she and several companions rescued a Quebec hospital which was in danger of failing. She called her community the Institute of the Sisters of Charity of Montreal; the people called them the “Grey Nuns” because of the color of their habit. In time, a proverb arose among the poor people of Montreal, “Go to the Grey Nuns; they never refuse to serve.” In time, five other religious communities traced their roots to the Grey Nuns.

The General Hospital in Montreal became known as the Hotel Dieu (House of God) and set a standard for medical care and Christian compassion. When the hospital was destroyed by fire in 1766, she knelt in the ashes, led the Te Deum (a hymn to God's providence in all circumstances) and began the rebuilding process. She fought the attempts of government officials to restrain her charity and established the first foundling home in North America.

Pope John XXIII, who beatified her in 1959, called her “the Mother of Universal Charity.” She was canonized in 1990.

Comment: Saints deal with plenty of discouragement, plenty of reasons to say, “Life isn't fair” and wonder where God is in the rubble of their lives. We honor saints like Marguerite because they show us that, with God's grace and their cooperation, suffering can lead to compassion rather than to bitterness.
Quote: "More than once the work which Marguerite undertook was hindered by nature or people. In order to work to bring that new world of justice and love closer, she had to fight some hard and difficult battles" (John Paul II, canonization homily) .

1755 St. Gerard Majella professed lay brother Redemptorists patron of expectant mothers gift of reading consciences
Muri, in Lucánia, sancti Gerárdi Majélla, Confessóris, Láici proféssi Congregatiónis a sanctíssimo Redemptóre nuncupátæ, quem, miráculis clarum, Pius Décimus, Póntifex Máximus, Sanctórum albo accénsuit.
At Muro in Italy, St. Gerard Majella, confessor and professed lay brother of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. Renowned for miracles, he was added to the list of the saints by Pope Pius X.

1755 ST GERARD MAJELLA

GERARD, said Pope Pius IX, was a perfect model for those of his own condition, lay brothers Leo XIII referred to him as “one of those angelic youths whom God has given to the world as models to men” and in his short life of twenty-nine years he became the most famous wonder-worker of the eighteenth century. He was born at Muro, fifty miles south of Naples, the son of a tailor.

His mother testified after his death: “My child’s only happiness was in church, on his knees before the Blessed Sacrament. He would stop there till he forgot it was dinner-time. In the house he prayed all day. He was born for Heaven.”

At the age of ten he was allowed to receive holy communion every other day, which a time when the influence of Jansenism was yet not purged away argues that his confessor was sensible of what manner of child Gerard was. When his father died he was taken away from school and apprenticed to a tailor, Martin Pannuto, a man who understood and respected his apprentice. Not so his journeyman, a rough fellow who ill-treated young Gerard and was only exasperated by the boy’s patience. When he had learned his trade, which he did very efficiently, he offered himself to the local Capuchins, of whom his uncle was a member, but they refused him as too young and delicate. He then became a servant in the household of the Bishop of Lacedogna. Humanly speaking this was an unfortunate experience, for this prelate was a man of ungovernable temper who treated Gerard with a great lack of consideration and unkindness. Nevertheless he served him faithfully and uncomplainingly till the bishop died in 1745, when he returned home to Muro and set up as a tailor on his own. He lived with his mother and three sisters, and one-third of his earnings he handed over to her, another third was given in alms to the poor, and the rest in stipends for Masses for the souls in Purgatory. He had already begun to discipline himself with severity and several hours of the night were passed in prayer in the cathedral.

When Gerard was twenty-three a mission was given in Muro by some fathers of the newly-founded Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. He offered himself to them as a lay-brother, but again his delicate appearance was against him and his mother and sisters were not at all anxious to let him go. But he persisted, and at length Father Cafaro sent him to the house of which he was rector at Deliceto, with the written message: “I send you a useless brother.” When Father Cafaro returned thither he found he had been mistaken in his judgement, and at once admitted Gerard to the habit. Working first in the garden and then in the sacristy he was so industrious, punctual and self-effacing that it was said of him, “Either he is a fool or a great saint”. St Alphonsus Liguori, founder of the Redemptorists, knew which he was and deliberately shortened his novitiate for him. Brother Gerard was professed in 1752, adding to the usual vows one always to do that which should seem the more pleasing to God. Father Tannoia, who wrote the lives both of St Gerard and of St Alphonsus and who was healed by Gerard’s intercession after his death, tells us that when Gerard was a novice he one day saw him praying before the tabernacle. Suddenly he cried aloud, “Lord, let me go, I pray thee I have work that I must do.” Surely one of the most moving stories in the whole of hagiology.

During his three years as a professed lay-brother Gerard was engaged as the community tailor and infirmarian, in begging for the house, and in accompanying the fathers on their missions and retreats because of his gift of reading souls. There are over twenty examples of his having brought secret sinners to repentance by revealing their own wickedness to themselves. This was the period, too, of the principal supernatural phenomena: ecstatic flight (he is said to have been carried through the air a distance of half a mile), “bilocation”, and power over inanimate nature and the lower animals are recorded of him, as well as prophecy and infused knowledge. In his ecstasies an appeal to his obedience was the only force that could recall him to his surroundings before the appointed time. At Naples he knew of the murder of the Archpriest of Muro at the time it happened fifty miles away, and on several occasions he was apprised of and correctly acted on the mental wishes of persons at a distance. He read the bad conscience of the secretary of the Archbishop of Conza with such accuracy that the man completely changed his life and was reconciled to his wife, so that all Rome was talking of it. But it is for the phenomenon called bilocation that St Gerard is most famous in this connection. He was alleged to have been with a sick man in a cottage at Caposele at the same time as he talked with a friend in the monastery at the same place. Father Tannoia states, among other examples, that he was seen at Muro on a day when he certainly did not leave Caposele. Once the rector looked for him in his cell and he was apparently not there, so when he saw him in the church he asked where he had been. “In my cell”, was the reply. “What do you mean?” asked the rector, I have been there twice to look for you”. Pressed, Gerard explained that as he was in retreat he had asked God to make him invisible, lest he be disturbed. “I forgive you this time”, said the rector. “But don’t make such prayers again.”*{* Examples of bilocation, when proved, are usually explained either by the imagination of the beholder being impressed by the image of a person not physically present, or by the production by God of a real external image of an absent person, or by the person being seen through all the intervening space as though he were present.}

It is not, however, for these marvels that St Gerard Majella is canonized and revered they were simply an effect of his surpassing holiness which God in His wisdom could have withheld, without abating thereby one jot of that goodness, charity and devotion which made him that model which Pius and Leo declared him to be. One of the most surprising results of his reputation was that he was allowed to be, in effect, the spiritual director of several communities of nuns—an activity not usually associated with lay-brothers. He interviewed individuals and gave community conferences at the grille, and wrote letters of advice to superiors, religious and priests. Some of these are extant. There is nothing remarkable in them plain, straightforward statements of a Christian’s duty in whatever state it has pleased God to call him; urging gentleness to a prioress, vigilance to a novice, tranquility to a parish priest, conformity with the divine will to all.
In 1753 the young divines at Deliceto went on an expedition to the shrine of St Michael at Monte Gargano. They had the equivalent of twelve shillings all told to cover their expenses, but they also had St Gerard with them, and he saw to it that they wanted nothing the whole time; their nine days’ holiday was a succession of marvels. But just a year later he was brought under suspicion, and underwent a terrible trial. A young woman whom he had befriended, Neria Caggiano, who was of wanton conduct, accused Gerard of lechery and St Alphonsus at Nocera sent him for. Believing it to be in accordance with his vow to do the more perfect thing, he did not deny the charge, and thereby placed his superior in a quandary, for it was difficult to believe that Gerard was really guilty. So he was forbidden to receive Holy Communion or to have any dealings with the outside world. “There is a God in Heaven. He will provide”, said Gerard. For some weeks suspicion rested on him, and then Neria and her accomplice voluntarily confessed that they had lied and trumped-up the charge. St Alphonsus asked St Gerard why he had not protested his innocence. “Father”, he replied, “does not our rule forbid us to excuse ourselves?” A provision which, of course, was never intended to apply to circumstances such as these. Soon after this St Gerard was sent with Father Margotta to Naples, where his reputation and miracles caused the Redemptorist house to be beset day and night by people who wanted to see him; so at the end of four months he was removed to the house at Caposele and made porter there.

This was a job after his own heart, and “our house at this time”, wrote Father Tannoia, “was besieged with beggars.” Brother Gerard had the same concern for their good that a mother has for her children. He had the knack of always sending them away satisfied, and neither their unreasonableness nor cunning dodges ever made him lose patience. During the hard winter of that year two hundred men, women and children came daily to the door and received food, clothes and firing; nobody but the porter knew where it all came from. In the spring he went again to Naples where, and at Calitri, Father Margotta’s home, several miracles of healing were attributed to him. On returning to Caposele he was put in charge of the new buildings, and one Friday when there was not a penny in the house wherewith to pay the workmen, his prayers brought an unexpected sum of money sufficient for their immediate needs. He spent the summer questing for funds for these buildings, but the effort in the south Italian heat was too much for him, and in July and August his consumption made rapid advance. He was a week in bed at Oliveto, where he cured (or as he put it, “gave effect to obedience“) a lay-brother who had been sent to look after him and was himself taken ill, and then dragged himself back to Caposele. He was able to get up from bed again only for a few days in September, and his last weeks were a compound of physical suffering and spiritual ecstasy, in which his gifts of infused knowledge and prevision seemed more powerful than ever before. He died on the day and at the hour he had foretold, just before the midnight of October 15—16, in the year 1755. St Gerard Majella was canonized in 1904.

The best authority for the story of St Gerard is the biography by Father Tannoia. This was translated into English for the Oratorian Series and was printed in the volume Lives of the Companions of St Alphonsus (1849), pp. 243—453. Besides this we have in English: 0. Vassall-Phillips, Life of St Gerard Majella (1914) Saint-Omer, Life, Virtues and Miracles of St Gerard Majella (1907); and J. Carr, To Heaven Through a Window (1946). The best German biography is that by Father Dilgskron (1923).

He was born at Muro {meaning wall outside the town}, Italy, in 1726 and joined the Redemptorists at the age of 23, becoming a professed lay brother in 1752. He served as sacristan, gardener, porter, infirmarian, and tailor. However, because of his great piety, extraordinary wisdom, and his gift of reading consciences, he was permitted to counsel communities of religious women.

Gerard brought tasty bread to his mother for three days in a row saying it came from his friend. At this time he was a child. His mother sent his older sister on the third day to follow Gerard and see who was this friend with the tasty bread. His sister followed him into the church and saw him crawl through the communion railing and began playing on the floor with another child his age and size. After a while they quit playing and his friend gave bread went back up to the statue of Mary and reposed into her arms.

He decided to become a Capuchin and left his home through his bedroom window leaving a note to his mother about his calling to God. They rejected him. Then he came back home and became a tailor. One day the Redemptorists came to his town. These were “Giants who walked the earth”, hearing confessions and great preaching. A current day Redemptorist described Gerard, “...visuzlize this as Gerard looking like death warmed-over riding a bicycle.” They too rejected him at first, but relented upon his insistance and sent him to a friary with a note, “here comes a poor soul who wishes to join us.”

While working in the chapel a sacristan came into the room quite upset about losing the church's key down the nearby well. Worried he would occur the rath of the pastor he went to Gerard and told him the problem. Gerard said, “take the Jesus child statue by the front door and lets go to the well.” Of course, that also worried the sacristan, but did as Gerard said. Together they lowered the statue down the well, waited a few minutes and pulled the statue back up. Gripped firmly in little Jesus's hand was the key.

This humble servant of God also had the faculties of levitation and bi-location associated with certain mystics. His charity, obedience, and selfless service as well as his ceaseless mortification for Christ, made him the perfect model of lay brothers. He was afflicted with tuberculosis and died in 1755 at the age of twenty-nine.

This great saint is invoked as a patron of expectant mothers as a result of a miracle effected through his prayers for a woman in labor. This is still happening as evidenced by any search on the internet of people who prayed to Gerard and received children.

Prayer: O Great Saint Gerard, beloved servant of Jesus Christ, perfect imitator of your meek and humble Savior, and devoted Child of the Mother of God: enkindle within my heart one spark of that heavenly fire of charity which glowed in your heart and made you an angel of love. O glorious Saint Gerard, because when falsely accused of crime, you did bear, like your Divine master, without murmur or complaint, the calumnies of wicked men, you have been raised up by God as the Patron and Protector of expectant mothers. Preserve me from danger and from the excessive pains accompanying childbirth, and shield the child which I now carry, that it may see the light of day and receive the lustral waters of baptism through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(1726-1755) Gerard Majella came to be invoked particularly as patron saint of pregnant women, for reasons hard to discern. He was only a humble Redemptorist lay brother. Yet he did have a strong spiritual influence on women as well as men, something unusual for one who was not a priest.
Gerard was born at Muro Lucano in southern Italy. He grew up a very pious child. Perhaps because of his goodness he was often ill-treated by the fellow craftsmen with whom he studied tailoring, and even by the choleric Bishop of Lacedogna, in whose service he spent some time.
Actually, Majella aspired to join a religious order, but when the Capuchins rejected him as too young and of too uncertain health, he returned to his fatherless family and set up on his own as a tailor. Meanwhile, he devoted an increasing amount of time to prayer and self-denial. He earned enough, but two thirds of his earnings went to the poor or to Masses for the souls in purgatory.
Around 1749, when he was 23, the young tailor was deeply impressed by a mission preached by priests of a new religious order, the Redemptorists. He asked that community if he might join them as a lay brother. The Redemptorists, too, hesitated because of his poor health, but finally they accepted him. The founder of the Redemptorists, St. Alphonsus de Liguori, was impressed by the young man, and shortened the required novitiate. Gerard made his profession as a lay brother in 1752, adding to the three usual vows one that bound him always to do what seemed most pleasing to God.
His career as a lay brother was brief but brisk. For the first three years his chief tasks were tailoring and working in the infirmary. But he also became noted for the spiritual contacts that he made while he accompanied the missionary fathers on their rounds. It seems that he had unusual charismatic abilities. Thus he could read the hearts of people, and brought a score of them back to God through this insight. He had the gift of prophecy. He had the gift of levitation as well: he could be lifted into the air in the midst of ecstatic prayer. Most extraordinary of these gifts, however, were his “bilocations”. He could be, or seem to be, in two places at the same time.
Not only did the Redemptorist superiors recognize Brother Gerard's singular gifts, they even named him spiritual director to several communities of nuns - an appointment seldom given to a non-priest. He also carried on correspondence with priests and religious superiors, giving them sound advice. Furthermore, he won a reputation for working miracles. When the crowds seeking cures became too great at one house where he was stationed, he had to be transferred to another house. There he was appointed to tend the door, but soon he was feeding and clothing countless beggars. Nobody knew where the food and clothing came from, except him.

We have mentioned Brother Gerard's illness that had twice deferred his admission to a religious order. It was tuberculosis, and it overtook him after only three years as a Redemptorist. He announced that he would die on the night of October 15-16, 1755, and he did precisely that.
Pope Pius IX would call him “a perfect model for… lay brothers.” In 1904 Pope St. Pius X canonized this “most famous wonderworker of the 18th century.”
It was shortly after his death that St. Gerard became the popular patron of the pregnant. A story is told that suggests why this patronage may have developed.
On one occasion a young woman named Neria Caggiano, whom Gerard had befriended but who was of wanton disposition, accused him of immoral behavior. St. Alphonsus, incredulous, summoned Brother Gerard to Nocera for questioning. In keeping with his vow to do the more perfect thing, the Brother neither affirmed nor denied the charge. St. Alphonsus, therefore, punished him by forbidding him to receive Holy Communion and to have further dealings with outsiders.
This situation went on for several weeks. Then Neria confessed that she and her accomplice had lied in preferring the charge.
“Why didn't you protest your innocence?” Liguori then asked Brother Gerard. “Father, Gerard replied, “doesn't our rule forbid us to excuse ourselves?”

St. Gerard Majella Catholic Encyclopedia

Born in Muro, about fifty miles south of Naples, in April, 1726; died 16 October, 1755; beatified by Leo XIII, 29 January, 1893, and canonized by Pius X, 11 December, 1904. His only ambition was to be like Jesus Christ in his sufferings and humiliations. His father, Dominic Majella, died while Gerard was a child. His pious mother, owing to poverty, was obliged to apprentice him to a tailor. His master loved him, but the foreman treated him cruelly. His reverence for the priesthood and his love of suffering led him to take service in the house of a prelate, who was very hard to please. On the latter's death Gerard returned to his trade, working first as a journeyman and then on his own account. His earnings he divided between his mother and the poor, and in offerings for the souls in purgatory. After futile attempts first to become a Franciscan and then a hermit, he entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer in 1749. Two years later he made his profession, and to the usual vows he added one by which he bound himself to do always that which seemed to him more perfect.

St. Alphonsus considered him a miracle of obedience.
He not only obeyed the orders of superiors when present, but also when absent knew and obeyed their desires. Although weak in body, he did the work of three, and his great charity earned for him the title of Father of the Poor. He was a model of every virtue, and so drawn to Our Lord in the tabernacle that he had to do violence to himself to keep away. An angel in purity, he was accused of a shameful crime; but he bore the calumny with such patience that St. Alphonsus said: “Brother Gerard is a saint”. He was favoured with infused knowledge of the highest order, ecstatsies, prophecy, discernment of spirits, and penetration of hearts, bilocation, and with what seemed an unlimited power over nature, sickness, and the devils. When he accompanied the Fathers on missions, or was sent out on business, he converted more souls than many missionaries. He predicted the day and hour of his death. A wonderworker during his life, he has continued to be the same since his death.

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

THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 97

Praise the Lady, for a psalm is good: let the praise of her be pleasant and beautiful.

For she heals the broken-hearted: and she refreshes them with the ointment of piety.

Great is her power: and her clemency has no end.

Sing to her in jubilation: and in her praise sing a psalm to her.

Those who hope in the Lord are a good pleasure to her: and those who hope in her mercy.

Thy word shall uphold the feeble soul: and thy lips shall refresh the thirsty soul.

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 heaven: only saints are allowed into heaven. The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.

There are over 10,000 named saints beati from history
and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources
Patron_Saints.html Widowed_Saints html Indulgences The Catholic Church in China
LINKS: Marian Shrines India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East Lourdes 1858 China Marian shrines 1995
Kenya national Marian shrine Loreto, Italy Marian Apparitions (over 2000) Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
Links to Related MarianWebsites Angels and Archangels Saints Visions of Heaven and Hell
Widowed Saints html
Doctors_of_the_Church Acts_Of_The_Apostles Roman Catholic Popes Purgatory Uniates Chalcedon

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

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

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

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Saint Frances Xavier Seelos Practical Guide to Holiness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meeting of the Saints walis (saints of Allah)

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

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

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

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Mother Angelica saving souls is this beautiful womans journey

Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament

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

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

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

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

America's First Basilica Largest Nave in the World

August 7, 1907-ground broke for the foundation

by Archbishop Ireland-laying cornerstone May 31, 1908

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

Index to Part I and Part II 1932

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

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

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

Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.

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

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

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

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

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

THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi.

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

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

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

By Father John Corapi

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

About Father John Corapi.

Father Corapi is a Catholic priest .

The pillars of father's preaching are basically:

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

God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia 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).

LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000) India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858
China Marian shrines May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
Links to Related Marian Websites Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles Roman Catholic Popes Purgatory Uniates, 97 2023