1st v. St. Barypsabas Hermit martyr of Dalmatia Yugoslavia
He was from the East originally, suffering martyrdom. Tradition states that Barypsabas took a vial of Christ's blood to Rome.
There is a legend, that during the suffering of the Savior on the Cross, a certain Jacob received the blood and water flowing from the side of the Savior in a bowl (tikva) and kept this holy relic for himself. As if he didn't know, he poured olive oil over the blood in the bowl, and through the olive oil performed many healings. After the death of Jacob, this holy relic passed to two desert-dwellers, and on their death to Barypsabas. Adding olive oil to the blood of Christ, Barypsabas performed many healings.

Evil people from self-interest killed the holy desert-dweller, took the bowl, but did not find in it what they expected.

250 St. Nemesian, Felix, and Companions
In Africa natális sanctórum Episcopórum Nemesiáni, Felícis, Lúcii, altérius item Felícis, Littéi, Polyáni, Victóris, Jadéris, Datívi et aliórum; qui, sub Valeriáno et Galliéno, exsurgénte persecutiónis rábie, ad primam confessiónis Christi constántiam gráviter fústibus cæsi sunt, deínde, compédibus vincti et ad fodiénda metálla deputáti, gloriósæ confessiónis agónem consummárunt.
In Africa, the birthday of the holy bishops Nemesian, Felix, Lucius, another Felix, Litteus, Polyanus, Victor, Jader, Dativus, and others. Because a violent persecution was breaking out under Valerian and Gallienus, they were at their first courageous confession of Christ beaten with rods, placed in irons, and sent to dig in the metal mines where they completed their combat with a glorious confession.

In October, 249, Decius became emperor with the ambition of restoring the ancient virtue of Rome. A group of Nicomedian martyrs condemned to labor in the marble quarries of Sigum. They all died in this arduous servitude. The group was comprised of nine bishops from Numidia, along with other clergy and laity. The bishops include Lucius, Litteus, Polyanus, Victor, Jader, Dativus, and a second Felix. St. Cyprian wrote to them from his place of exile.

257 SS. NEMESIAN AND MANY COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
IN the first year of the eighth general persecution, raised by Valerian in the year 257, St Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, was banished by the proconsul of Africa to Curubis. At the same time the president of Numidia proceeded with severity against the Christians, tortured many, and afterwards put several to barbarous deaths and sent others to work in the mines, or rather quarries. Out of this holy company some were taken at intervals to be tormented afresh or inhumanly butchered, whilst others continued their lingering martyrdom in hunger, nakedness and filth, exhausted with hard labour, persecuted with daily blows, hardships, and insults. St Cyprian wrote from the place of his banishment to comfort and encourage these sufferers for their faith.

Those to whom his noble letter was addressed thanked St Cyprian for it through their leader, Bishop Nemesian. It had, they said, eased the pain of their blows and sufferings, and made them indifferent to the stench and filth of their prison. They tell him that by gloriously confessing his faith in the proconsul’s court, and going before them into banishment, he had animated all the soldiers of God for the conflict. They conclude by begging his prayers, and say, “Let us assist one another by our prayers, that God and Christ and the whole choir of angels may send us help when we shall most want it”. This glorious company is commemorated on this day in the Roman Martyrology, nine of them being mentioned by name, all bishops; but there also suffered, as St Cyprian tells us, lower clergy and lay-people of all ages and states of life. Some were deliberately put to death, a few survived, but the most part died of exposure, hardship, ill treatment or sickness brought on by their captivity.

The mention of SS. Nemesian, Felix and Companions in the Roman Martyrology on this date seems to be due to a confusion. There was a martyr, Nemesius, who suffered with companions at Alexandria, and he, as the “Hieronymianum” bears witness, belongs to this day, being probably identical with a martyr who in the Syriac breviarium appears as “Menmais”, also on September 10. Dom Quentin has shown that Florus, the martyrologist, has identified this group of martyrs of Alexandria with those to whom St Cyprian’s letter is addressed (see Martyrologes historiques, p. 289). We have no evidence beyond Cyprian’s letter that the bishops to whom it was addressed were honoured subsequently as martyrs. The Carthaginian calendar names a Nemesian on December 23, but this may be a boy martyr of whom St Augustine speaks. The text of St Cyprian, with comments, is quoted in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. iii.

Sosthenes and Victor At Chalcedon, in the persecution of Diocletian, the holy martyrs . Under Priscus, proconsul of Asia, they were loaded with fetters and exposed to the beasts, after which they were condemned to be burned. But while they were saluting each other with a holy kiss and praying, they expired.
Chalcédone sanctórum Mártyrum Sósthenis et Victóris, qui, in persecutióne Diocletiáni, sub Asiæ Procónsule Prisco, post víncula et béstias superátas, jussi sunt incéndi; at illi, salutántes se ínvicem in ósculo sancto, in oratióne pósiti emisérunt spíritum.

Apellius, Luke, and Clement. Also the holy martyrs
Item sanctórum Mártyrum Apélli, Lucæ et Cleméntis

St. Peter, bishop At Compostella, who was celebrated for his many virtues and miracles.
Compostéllæ sancti Petri Epíscopi, qui multis virtútibus et miráculis cláruit.

St. Agapius, bishop At Novara
Nováriæ sancti Agápii Epíscopi.

Constantinópoli sanctæ Pulchériæ Augústæ, Vírginis, religióne et pietáte insígnis.
At Constantinople, St. Pulcheria, empress and virgin, distinguished by her piety and zeal for religion.

St. Candida the Younger, At Naples in Campania, famed for miracles.
Neápoli, in Campánia, sanctæ Cándidæ junióris, miráculis claræ.

306 St. Menodora Martyr with her sisters, Metrodora & Nymphodora
In Bithynia sanctárum Vírginum sorórum Menodóræ, Metrodóræ et Nymphodóræ; quæ sub Maximiáno Imperatóre et Frontóne Præside, ob intrépidam in Christi fide constántiam martyrio coronátæ, pervenérunt ad glóriam.
In Bithynia, the holy virgins Menodora, Metrodora and Nymphodora, sisters. Under Emperor Maximian and the governor Fronto, they were crowned with martyrdom, and went to eternal glory.

304? Ss. Menodora, Metrodora and Nymphodora, Virgins and Martyrs
THE “acts” of these martyrs are known only in the tenth-century version of Simeon Metaphrastes, wherein they are represented as having been three orphan sisters who lived a life of solitude and good works in Bithynia, “near the Pythian baths”. During the persecution under Diocletian. and Maximian they were reported to Fronto, governor of the province, who had them brought before him. The beauty and modest carriage of the three girls touched his heart, and when they made a profession of Christianity he offered to be their protector if they would submit themselves to his gods. They gently refused his offer, asking instead that as they had lived so might they die, all together. When he was unable to make them change their minds, Fronto had Menodora beaten in barbarous fashion before the two others to shake their constancy, but even the sight of her mangled and dead body putrefying in the fierce sun did not move them. “We are three branches of the same good tree”, said Metrodora, “nor will we disgrace the root from which we are sprung by doing as you wish.” Then she was tortured with fire after she had been beaten, and was at last beheaded. But Nymphodora, the youngest, died under the blows of the scourges.

The Greek passio, so called, is printed in Migne, PG., vol. cxv; Latin translation in Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. iii.

They were orphans of Bithynia, in Asia Minor, who were denounced as Christians and taken before the local Roman governor, named Fronto. They refused to worship the pagan gods, and Menodora was beaten to death, as was Nymphodora. Metrodora was tortured, burned, and beheaded.

The Holy Virgins Menodora, Nymphodora, and Metrodora (305-311), were sisters from Bithynia (Asia Minor). Distinguished for their special piety, they wanted to preserve their virginity and avoid worldly associations. They chose a solitary place for themselves in the wilderness and spent their lives in deeds of fasting and prayer.

Reports of the holy life of the virgins soon spread, since healings of the sick began to occur through their prayers. The Bithynia region was governed at that time by a man named Frontonus, who ordered that the sisters be arrested and brought before him.

At first he tried to persuade them to renounce Christ, promising great honors and rewards. But the holy sisters steadfastly confessed their faith before him, rejecting all his suggestions. They told him that they did not value the temporal things of this world, and that they were prepared to die for their Heavenly Bridegroom, for death would be their gateway to eternal life.

Flying into a rage, the governor took out his wrath on St Menodora, the eldest sister. She was stripped of her clothes and beaten by four men, while a herald urged her to offer sacrifice to the gods. The saint bravely endured the torments and cried out, "Sacrifice? Can't you see that I am offering myself as a sacrifice to my God?" Then they renewed their torments with even greater severity. Then the martyr cried out, " Lord Jesus Christ, joy of my heart, my hope, receive my soul in peace." With these words she gave up her soul to God, and went to her Heavenly Bridegroom.

Four days later, they brought the two younger sisters Metrodora and Nymphodora to the court. They showed them the battered body of their older sister to frighten them. The virgins wept over her, but remained steadfast.

Then St Metrodora was tortured. She died, crying out to her beloved Lord Jesus Christ with her last breath. Then they turned to the third sister, Nymphodora. Before her lay the bruised bodies of her sisters. Frontonus hoped that this sight would intimidate the young virgin.

Pretending that he was charmed by her youth and beauty, he urged her to worship the pagan gods, promising great rewards and honors. St Nymphodora scoffed at his words, and shared the fate of her older sisters. She was tortured and beaten to death with iron rods.

The bodies of the holy martyrs were to be burned in a fire, but a heavy rain extinguished the blazing fire, and lightning struck down Frontonus and his servant. Christians took up the bodies of the holy sisters and reverently buried them at the so-called Warm Springs at Pythias (Bithynia).

Part of the relics of the holy martyrs are preserved on Mt. Athos in the Protection cathedral of the St Panteleimon Russian monastery, and the hand of St Metrodora is on the Holy Mountain in the monastery of the Pantocrator .

453 St. Pulcheria Empress of the Eastern Roman Empire, eldest daughter of the Emperor Arcadius; opposition to the doctines of Nestorius and Eutyches; she built churches, hospitals, houses for pilgrims, and gave rich gifts to various churches
b. 19 Jan., 399; d. in 453.

453 ST PULCHERIA, VIRGIN
IT is characteristic of the important part played in religious and ecclesiastical affairs by the Byzantine Roman emperors and of the influence of women at the imperial court (an influence not always, perhaps not even generally, for good) that the fathers of the epoch-making Council of Chalcedon should have hailed the Empress Pulcheria as “Guardian of the faith, peacemaker, religious right-believer, a second St Helen”—for these were not simply the flowery compliments of oriental bishops who knew from experience the importance of keeping the good-will of the imperial sovereign.

Pulcheria was granddaughter to Theodosius the Great and daughter to the Emperor Arcadius, who died in the year 408. She was born in 399, and had three sisters, Flacilla, who was the eldest but died soon, and Arcadia and Marina, who were younger than Pulcheria. Arcadius left a son, Theodosius II, who was mild, humane and devout, incapable in public affairs, and not sufficiently strong for his position; he was more interested in writing and painting than in the art of government, and was nicknamed “the Calligrapher”. In the year 414 Pulcheria, though only fifteen years of age, was declared, in the name of her young brother, augusta and partner with him, and charged with the care of his instruction.

Under Pulcheria’s control the court was an improvement on what it had been in the days of her mother, who had incurred the wrath of St John Chrysostom. On becoming augusta, Pulcheria made a vow of perpetual virginity and induced her sisters to do the same. Her motive for doing this was probably not even primarily, much less wholly, religious: she was a realistic young woman of affairs, and she did not want her political administration upset and perhaps her brother to lose his throne through the aspirations of ambitious men to marry her or the princesses her sisters.

But neither was the vow devoid of religion; she had called on God to be her witness and she did not take His name in vain: she kept her vow, even after she was in fact married. But to represent the court at this time as a sort of monastery is an exaggeration: the spectacle of the young princesses spending much time spinning and embroidering and in church was nothing out of the ordinary and if Pulcheria forbade men access to her own and her sisters’ apartments that was a measure of elementary prudence—tongues will wag and Byzantine court officials were not consistently well behaved. We get the impression of a united and busy family, of which the main domestic concern was the education and training of the young Theodosius. Unfortunately, like so many more than ordinarily capable people, Pulcheria was too self-sufficient, and she (perhaps unconsciously at first) took advantage of her brother’s lack of enthusiasm for public affairs: the result was that he grew up virtuous and scholarly but no ruler. As it has been caustically put, “ His incapacity for business was so great that he is hardly accused of having augmented the misfortunes of his reign by his own acts”—or the predominant good fortunes either, which can mostly be put down to St Pulcheria. Both her thoroughness and her brother’s indifference are illustrated by the story that on one occasion, in order to test him, Pulcheria drew up and presented to him a decree of death against herself. He signed it without reading it.

When the time came for Theodosius to marry, Pulcheria had again in view the avoidance of political complications and, it must be admitted, perhaps the safeguarding of her own ascendancy, which. certainly in the circumstances was for the good of the state. Her choice fell on Athenais, the beautiful and highly accomplished daughter of an Athenian philosopher, who was still a pagan.* [* The story of Athenais being sent to Constantinople to seek her fortune throws an interesting sidelight on Greco-Roman society at this period, but to retell it would be out of place here. For a summary, see Finlay’s Greece Under the Romans, ch. ii, sect. xi.]

She was acceptable to Theodosius and had no objection to becoming a Christian, so in 421 they were married.

Two years later Theodosius declared Athenais, or Eudokia as she had been christened, augusta. It was inevitable that the Augusta Eudokia should sooner or later attempt to undermine the influence of her sister-in-law, the Augusta Pulcheria, and she worked on her feeble husband till at length Pulcheria was forced into exile at Hebdomon. This lasted for some years. We may well believe that, as Alban Butler says, St Pulcheria “looked upon her retreat as a favour of Heaven and consecrated all her time to God in prayer and good works. She made no complaint of her brother’s ingratitude, of the empress who owed everything to her, or of their unjust ministers”. And no doubt she would have been glad “both to forget the world and to be forgotten by it”, but for the fact that she had responsibilities in respect of that great part of the world whose metropolis was at Constantinople. For a time things went fairly well, but about the year 441 came the fall of Eudokia. She was accused, probably unjustly, of infidelity with a handsome but gouty officer named Paulinus, +[+t For the fantastic story of the Phrygian apple, see Finlay, loc. cit.] and she was exiled to Jerusalem, under the guise of a pilgrimage. She never came back. There was a general shuffling of offices at court, and Pulcheria was recalled; but not to her old position of control: this was now held by Chrysaphius, an old supporter of Eudokia. Under his administration the Eastern empire went from bad to worse for ten years.

Under pressure from this man, and with a fine disregard for theological consistency seeing that he had formerly favoured Nestorius, Theodosius gave support to Eutyches and the monophysite heresy. In 449 Pope St Leo the Great appealed to St Pulcheria and to the emperor to reject Monophysism, and the answer of Theodosius was to approve the acts of the “Robber Synod” of Ephesus, and to drive St Flavian from the see of Constantinople. Pulcheria was firmly orthodox, but her influence with her brother had been weakened. The pope wrote again, and the archdeacon of Rome, Hilarus, wrote, and the Western emperor, Valentinian III, with Eudoxia his wife (Theodosius’s daughter) and Galla Placidia, his mother—and amid all these appeals Theodosius suddenly died, killed by a fall from his horse while hunting.

St Pulcheria, now fifty-one years old, nominated as emperor a veteran general of humble origin, seven years older than herself. His name was Marcian; he was a native of Thrace, and a widower. Pulcheria, judging it would be of advantage to the state and secure his title to the purple, proposed to marry him, on condition she should be at liberty to keep her vow of virginity. Marcian agreed, and these two governed together like two friends who had in all things the same views and sentiments, which centred in the advancement of religion and the public weal.

They welcomed the legates sent by St Leo to Constantinople, and their zeal for the Catholic faith earned the highest commendations of that pope and of the Council of Chalcedon which, under their protection, condemned the monophysite heresy in 451. They did their utmost to have the decrees of this synod executed over all the East, but failed lamentably in Egypt and Syria. St Pulcheria wrote herself two letters, one to certain monks, another to an abbess of nuns in Palestine, to convince them that the Council of Chalcedon did not (as was averred) revive Nestorianism, but condemned that error together with the opposite heresy of Eutyches.

Twice already, in 414 and 443, Pulcheria had been responsible for remissions of arrears of unpaid taxes, covering a period of sixty years, and she and her husband followed a policy of low taxation and as little warfare as possible. The admirable spirit in which they undertook their duties was expressed by Marcian in his dictum, “It is our business to provide for the care of the human race”. But the excellent partnership lasted only three years, for in July 453 St Pulcheria died.

This great empress built many churches, and among them three in honour of the all-holy Mother of God, namely, those of Blakhernae, Khalkopratia and the Hodegetria, that were among the most famous Marian churches of Christendom. In the last she placed a famous picture of the Blessed Virgin, which had been sent from Jerusalem as the reputed work of St Luke the Evangelist.

She and Theodosius were the first rulers of Constantinople who were Greek rather than Latin she encouraged the establishment of a university there, with an emphasis on Greek literature and the recognition of Greek as an official language, which her brother carried out; and she gauged the needs of rulers and people for fixed principles of law which were met by the Code of Theodosius. If we consider her actions and virtues we shall see that the commendations which St Proclus, in his panegyric on her, Pope St Leo, and the Council of Chalcedon, bestowed on this empress were, so far from being compliments or mere eloquence, thoroughly well deserved. St Pulcheria is named on this day in the Roman Martyrology, having been inserted by Cardinal Baronius, a happier and more worthy addition than some that we owe to that venerable and learned scholar; her feast is kept by the Greeks, and at one time she had a certain cultus in the West, her feast being observed, e.g. throughout Portugal and the kingdom of Naples.

Pulcheria played a prominent part in the ecclesiastical history of her time, but she has no separate biography. See the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. iii, and also vol. iv, pp. 778—782; Hefele-Leclercq, Conciles, vol. ii, pp. 375—377, etc., and the usual reference books. Even Gibbon speaks well of Pulcheria: cf. Decline and Fall..., ch. xxxii.

   After the death of Arcadius (408), her younger brother, Theodosius II, then only seven, became emperor under the guardianship of Anthimus. Pulcheria had matured early and had great administrative ability; she soon exerted salutary influence over the young and not very capable emperor.
   On 4 July, 414, she was proclaimed Augusta (empress) by the Senate, and made regent for her brother. She made a vow of virginity and persuaded her sisters to do the same, the imperial palace thus becoming almost a monastery (Socrates, "Hist. eccl.", VII, xxii). At the same time she fulfilled all her duties as a ruler for about ten years jointly with her brother. After the marriage, brought about by Pulcheria, of Theodosius II with Eudoxia, the new empress sought to weaken Pulcheria's influence over the emperor, and, with the aid of some courtiers, succeeded for a time. Nevertheless, Pulcheria had always a powerful position at Court, which she used in behalf of ecclesiastical orthodoxy, as shown by her opposition to the doctines of Nestorius and Eutyches. Eudoxia supported Nestorius.
   St. Cyril of Alexandria sent Pulcheria his work, "De fide ad Pulcheriam", and wrote her on behalf of the true Church doctrine, to which she held unwaveringly (letter of Cyril in Mansi, "Concil. coll.", IV, 618 sqq.). He also wrote to Eudoxia (ibid., 679 sq.).
   Theodosius allowed himself to be influenced by Nestorius to the prejudice of Cyril, whom he blamed for appealing to the two empresses (ibid., 1110). Pulcheria, however, was not deterred from her determination to work against Nestorius and to persuade the emperor to espouse Cyril's party which favoured the definition of the Council of Ephesus. In the further course of the negotiations over the Council of Ephesus, the Patriarch of Alexandria sought to gain Pulcheria's zeal and influence for the union and sent her presents as he did to other influential persons at the Court (Mansi, loc. cit., V, 987 sq.).
   There is no doubt that the final acknowledgement by the emperor of the condemnation of Nestorius was largely due to Pulcheria. The Nestorians, consequently, spread gross calumnies about her (Suidas, s. v. Pulcheria). Court intrigues obliged her (446) to leave the imperial palace and retire to a suburb of Constantinople, where she led a monastic life. When the Empress Eudoxia went to Jerusalem, Pulcheria returned (about 449) to Court. At the emperor's death (28 July, 450) she was proclaimed empress, and then married the able general, Marcian, but with the condition that her vow of virginity should be respected. At her order Marcian was proclaimed Augustus.

Meantime, at Constantinople, Eutyches had announced his heresy of the unity of the natures in Christ, and the Patriarch Flavian had expressed his opposition, as did also Pope Leo I. Once more Pulcheria took up the cause of the Church. On 13 June, 449, the pope had written both to Pulcheria and to Theodosius, requesting them to end the new heresy ("Leonis epist.", xxx, in Migne, LVI, 785 sq.). Nine other letters followed. Theodosius II confirmed the decisions of the Robber Synod of Ephesus (449) and the pope, who had rejected them, sought to bring the emperor back to orthodox opinions. On 13 Oct., 449, he wrote again to the emperor and also to Pulcheria (Epist. xlv), begging the latter for aid. The Roman Archdeacon Hilarius also wrote with the same object (Epist. xlvi in "Leonis Epist."), and at Leo's entreaty Valentinian III of the Western Empire, with Eudoxia and Galla Placidia, wrote to Theodosius and Pulcheria (Epist. lviii). Another letter to Pulcheria was sent by Leo on 16 July, 450 (Epist. lxx).
After the death of Theodosius, conditions were at once changed. Marcian and Pulcheria wrote to Leo (Epist. lxxvii). She informed him that the Patriarch Anatolius had expressed his approbation and had signed the papal letter to Flavian concerning the two natures in Christ. She requested the pope to let it be known whether he would attend personally the council that had been summoned.
The empress was influential in the Council of Chalcedon (451) and with the emperor attended the sixth session (25 Oct., 451). Leo in his letter of 13 April, 451 (Epist. lxxix), wrote Pulcheria that both the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies had been overcome largely by her efforts. He thanked her for the benefits she had bestowed on the Church, for her support of the papal legates, for the recall of the banished Catholic bishops, and for the honourable burial of the body of the Patriarch Flavius.

Pulcheria showed no less zeal in promoting other interests of the Church. She built three churches in Constantinople in honour of Mary the Mother of God; one, erected after the condemnation of the Nestorian heresy, was exceedingly beautiful. In other places also she built churches, hospitals, houses for pilgrims, and gave rich gifts to various churches (Sozomen, 'Hist. eccl.", IX, i). She had the bones of St. John Chrysostom, who had died in exile, brought back to Constantinople and buried in the church of the Apostles on 27 Jan., 438; this led to the reconciliation with the Church of the schismatic party of the Johannines (Socrates, "Hist. eccl.", VII, xlv). Pulcheria had the relics of the forty martyrs of Sebaste, which were found near Constantinople, transferred to a church (Sozomen, "Hist. eccl.", IX, ii). She is venerated as a saint in the Greek and other Oriental Churches as well as in the Latin Church.

Her feast given under 10 Sept. the Roman Martyrology and the Greek Menaia; in the other Oriental calendars under 7 Aug.

480 St. Veranus Bishop of Vence; He served his Alpine see for many years after a period as a monk.
Gaul (modern France). He was the son of St. Eucherius of Lyons. He served his Alpine see for many years after a period as a monk.

579 St. Finian Irish abbot disciple of Sts.Colman & Mochae miracles including moving a river
also called Winin. He was born in Strangford, Lough, Ulster, in Ireland, a member of a royal family. Studying under Sts. Colman and Mochae, he became a monk in Strathclyde and was ordained in Rome. Returning to Ulster, Finian founded several monasteries, becoming abbot of Moville, in County Down, Ireland.
He became embroiled with St. Columba, a student, over a copy of St. Jerome’s Psalter. St. Columba had to surrender that copy to Finian. He also founded Holywood and Dumfries in Scotland. Finian was known for miracles, including moving a river.

579 ST FINNIAN OF MOVILLE, BISHOP
ULSTER is a name which now has unhappy associations for many Catholics, but its history is no less glorious than that of any other part of Ireland, and one of its greatest Sons was this Finnian. He was said to be of royal race, born in the neighbourhood of Strangford Lough, and he was sent when young to be educated by St Colman at Dromore and St Mochae on Mahee Island. From thence he went across the sea to Whitern in Strathclyde, and stayed at the monastery founded by St Ninian. There is a story told that here he attracted the love of a Pictish princess, who for a time was made ill by his indifference. When she realized that Finnian really meant to be a monk, the young woman quickly recovered and transferred her affections to another youth, and Finnian acted as a go-between between them. Whether by accident, treachery or as a practical joke, he brought about a meeting between the girl and a third young man, and a scandal was raised which made it desirable for Finnian to leave Whitern. Anyway, he is supposed to have gone to Rome, where he was ordained priest, and then returned to Ulster, bringing with him, perhaps, among other treasures, a copy of the Old Testament. On his way he is said to have preached in various places, including Anglesey, and to have there founded the church of Llanfinnan. He established a monastery at Moville (Maghbile) in county Down, and another at Dromin in Louth;

Moville was and continued to be one of the great schools of Ireland, and some of its chief influence was through St Colmcille, who was a disciple of St Finnian. The incident of the dispute between the saints concerning the copy made by Colmcille of Finnian’s psalter is referred to under St Columba on June 9; but, as Father John Ryan puts it, “There is something about all this tale that smacks of the inventor’s art”.

Finnian found that the observance of his community was considerably hampered by the long distance from the monastery of the mill in which many worked. He therefore built another mill nearer at hand, and, as there was no stream to work it, prayed beside a stream on a nearby hill which altered its course so as to make a convenient mill-race. Such a miracle is easily “rationalized “, but is of interest because of its resemblance to the story told in the Dialogues of St Gregory of the diverting of the course of the river Serchio by St Frigidian (Frediano) of Lucca.

This saint has often been identified with St Finnian of Moville—and still is in Ireland and in the breviary of the Canons Regular of the Lateran—but it is difficult to reconcile what is known of the lives of either of them. Finnian’s death took place about the year 579. The Breviary of Aberdeen says that he founded a monastery and set up a cross of St Brigid at Holywood in Dumfries, and he is supposed to have changed the course of a river in Scotland as well, namely, the Garnock. In Ireland the feast of St Finnian of Moville is not observed separately from that of St Frigidian in March.

For any connected life of Finnian we have to turn to such unreliable sources as Capgrave and the Aberdeen Breviary. But there are several passages which refer to him in such books as Gougaud, Christianity in Celtic Lands, and J. Ryan, Irish Monasticism. All admit the confusion between the legends which attach to this Finnian and those belonging to other holy men who bear this and similar names. In the Félire of Oengus under this day, September 10, we read “A kingpost of red gold and purity, over the swelling sea he came with law, a sage for whom Ireland is sad, Findbarr of Mag Bile.” This seems to endorse the idea of foreign travel and the bringing of some important text from beyond the seas. Most probably it is this Finnian who was credited with the authorship of the Paenitentiale Vinniani; see Esposito, Latin Learning, vol. i, pp. 236—240. Under the name “Wynnin” in KSS. there is (p. 465) an interesting note by Dr Reeves who also identifies Finnian of Moville with Frigidian of Lucca.

584 St. Salvius of Albi Bishop of Albi friend of Pope St. Gregory I the Great; ransomed prisoners and brought King Chilperic back to orthodox teachings

In civitáte Albigénsi, in Gállia, sancti Sálvii, Epíscopi et Confessóris.
In the city of Albi, St. Salvius, bishop and confessor.

Also called Sauve, he was a native of Albi and, originally a lawyer, he entered a monastery and served for a time as a monk before receiving election as abbot. Then, after, living as a hermit, he became a bishop, serving as shepherd of Albi from 574-584. He reportedly died while caring for the sick during an outbreak of some epidemic. He also ransomed prisoners and brought King Chilperic back to orthodox teachings.

584 ST SALVIUS, BISHOP OF ALBI
ST SALVIUS (Salvy) belonged to a family of Albi in France, and was at first a lawyer and magistrate; but his love for retirement and the desire of being freed from distractions induced him to become a monk, and his brethren afterwards chose him for their abbot. He chiefly confined himself to a cell at a distance from the rest, and here, being seized by a violent fever, he grew so ill that he was dead in the opinion of all about him. Indeed the saint himself was always persuaded that he really died, was vouchsafed an experience of Heaven before due time, and then was restored to life; be that as it may, he was in the year 574 taken from his retreat and placed in the see of Albi.

He lived as austerely as ever; if anything were forced upon him, he on the spot distributed the whole among the poor. The patrician Mommolus having taken a great number of prisoners at Albi, Salvius followed him and ransomed them all. The king of Soissons, Chilperic, fancied himself as a theologian and was responsible for an unorthodox treatise; Salvius, together with his friend St Gregory of Tours, succeeded in bringing the monarch back to orthodoxy. In the year 584 an epidemic made great havoc among his flock. It was in vain his friends advised him to be careful of his health; animated, unwearied, undaunted, he went everywhere he thought his presence necessary. He visited the sick, comforted them, and exhorted them to prepare for eternity by such good works as their condition admitted. When he knew that his own hour was near, he ordered his coffin to be made, changed his clothes, and prepared himself to appear before God, to whom he was called on September to, 584.

Nearly all we know of St Salvius is contained in the Historia Francorum of Gregory of Tours. See also the Bollandists, September, vol. iii.

586 St. Candida the Younger Miracle worker
who was a model wife and mother of Naples, Italy. The Roman Martyrology states that she was famed for her miracles.

670 St. Theodard Bishop and martyr confiscatory policies of King Childeric II after his death was renowned for the gift of miracles.
Leódii, in Bélgio, sancti Theodárdi, Epíscopi et Mártyris; qui ánimam suam pósuit pro óvibus suis, et miraculórum signis post mortem illúxit.
At Liege in Belgium, St. Theodard, bishop and martyr, who laid down his life for his flock, and after his death was renowned for the gift of miracles.
A disciple of St. Remaclus in the Benedictine abbey of Malniely. Stavelot, Belgium, he succeeded him as abbot in 635, receiving appointment as bishop of Maastricht, Netherlands, in 662. He was murdered by a band of robbers in the forest of Bienwald, near Speyer, Germany, while on his way to defend the rights of the Church against the harsh confiscatory policies of King Childeric II (r. 662-675) of Austrasia.

670 ST THEODARD, BISHOP OF MAESTRICHT
ST THEODARD was an energetic bishop of Tongres-Maestricht and a man of cheerful and sympathetic disposition, but little of interest is told of his life except his manner of leaving it. Some unscrupulous nobles having taken possession of lands which rightly belonged to his church, he made up his mind to go personally to Childeric II of Austrasia to ask that justice might be done. While passing through the forest of Bienwald near Speyer he was set upon by robbers and killed. His biographer informs us that St Theodard made a long speech to his murderers, to which they replied with a quotation from Horace. As his death was occasioned by a journey undertaken in defence of the rights of the Church he was venerated as a martyr, and his successor, St Lambert, translated his body to the church of Liege. The Roman Martyrology, too, speaks of St Theodard as a martyr “who lay down his life for his sheep and after his death was resplendent with significant miracles”.

There is an anonymous life written in the eighth century, and another, of later date, perhaps by Heriger, Abbot of Lobbes. The former is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. iii. See also G. Kurth, Étude critique sur St Lambert (1876), pp. 67 Seq., and L. van der Essen, Étude critique . . . (1907), pp. 135—143.

725 St. Autbert Bishop and founder of Mont St. Michel
also called Aubert. As the bishop of Avranches, France, Autbert had a vision of St. Michael the archangel, bidding him to found the now famous monastery of Mont St. Michel on the Normandy coast.

725 ST AUBERT, BISHOP OF AVRANCEES
NOTHING definite is known of this saint except that he was the founder of the church of Mont-Saint-Michel early in the eighth century. Tradition says that an apparition of St Michael the Archangel told St Aubert to build a church on the Rocher de la Tombe on the sea-board of his diocese, which the bishop undertook to do. The undertaking was beset with great and unexpected difficulties, and it was not until he had received two more visions of the archangel and a divine rebuke for his want of energy that St Aubert was able to carry it through.

The church was dedicated in 709, in honour of St Michael for those in peril on the sea, and it was entrusted to a chapter of canons. These in later ages were replaced by Benedictines. On October i6, the traditional anniversary of the dedication of the church, a feast of St Michael in Monte Tumba is kept in the diocese of Coutances and at St Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough.

Some slight materials for the history of this saint are provided by the Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum on June 18, vol. iii. See also Motet in Mém. Soc. archéol. d’Avranches, 1847, pp. 28 seq.; and C. Claireux, Les reliques de S. Aubert (1909).

933 St. Frithestan Benedictine bishop
disciple of Sts. Grimbald and Plegmund. Frithestan was bishop of Winchester, England, for almost a quarter of a century.

Saint Paul the Obedient was an ascetic in the Far Caves at Kiev. Upon assuming the monastic schema at the monastery of the Caves, the monk underwent very burdensome obediences without a murmur, on which the monastery's Superior had sent him.

He was never idle, and when he was not at an obedience, he ground the grain under the millstone, wearing down his body by this heavy work and attaining ceaseless inner prayer. The Church honors his memory on September 10, on the day of his namesake St Paul, Bishop of Nicea .

1160 St. Cosmas bishop and martyr

born in Palermo, on Sicily. He was named bishop of Aphrodisia, ordained by Pope Eugene III. When the Saracens captured his see, Cosmas was seized and died as a result of harsh abuse. His cult was approved by Pope Leo XIII.

1305 Saint Nicholas of Tolentino Patron of Holy Souls in Purgatory, and, with St. Joseph,

Patron of the Universal Church hundreds of miracles
Tolentíni, in Picéno, deposítio sancti Nicolái Confessóris, ex Ordine Eremitárum sancti Augustíni.
At Tolentino in Piceno, the departure from this life of St. Nicholas, confessor, of the order of the Hermits of St. Augustine.
B, 1245
Italian Augustinian monk with visions of Purgatory, miracle-worker, resurrected over 100 children, Patron of Holy Souls in Purgatory, and, with St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church. The two arms incorrupt.
His middle-aged parents, were childless until a prayerful visit to a shrine of the original Saint Nicholas at Bari, Italy. In gratitude, they named their son Nicholas.
1305 ST NICHOLAS OF TOLENTINO
THIS saint received his surname from the town which was his residence for the most considerable part of his life, and in which he died. He was a native of Sant’ Angelo, a town near Fermo in the March of Ancona, and was born in the year 1245. His father lived many years in happiness with his wife, but when both had reached middle age they were still childless. Nicholas was the fruit of their prayers and a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Nicholas at Ban, in which his mother especially had earnestly begged of God a son who should faithfully serve Him. At his baptism he received the name of his patron. In his childhood he would go to a little cave near the town and pray there in imitation of the hermits who then lived among the Apennines. People now go to pray there in honour of St Nicholas of Tolentino. While still a boy he received minor orders, and was presented to a canonry in the collegiate church of St Saviour at Sant’ Angelo; and there were not wanting those who were willing to use their influence for his promotion within the ranks of the secular clergy. Nicholas, however, aspired to a state which would allow him to consecrate his whole time and thoughts directly to God, and it happened that he one day went into the Augustinian church and heard a friar preaching on the text: “Love not the world nor the things which are in the world...The world passeth away...” This sermon finally determined him absolutely to join the order of that preacher. This he did so soon as his age would allow, and he was accepted by the Augustinian friars at Sant’ Angelo. He went through his novitiate under the direction of the preacher himself, Father Reginald, and made his profession before he had completed his eighteenth year.

Friar Nicholas was sent to San Ginesio for his theology, and he was entrusted with the daily distribution of food to the poor at the monastery gate. He made so free with the resources of the house that the procurator complained and reported him to the prior. It was while discharging this labour of love that his first miracle was recorded of St Nicholas, when he put his hand on the head of a diseased child, saying, “The good God will heal you”, and the boy was there and then cured. About 1270 he was ordained priest at Cingoli, and in that place he became famous among the people, particularly on account of his healing of a blind woman, with the same words which he had used to the child above. But he did not stay there long, for during four years he was continually moving from one to another of the friaries and missions of his order. For a short time he was novice-master at Sant’ Elpidio, where there was a large community which included two friars who are venerated as beati among the Augustinians today, Angelo of Furcio and Angelo of Foligno. While visiting a relative who was prior of a monastery near Fermo, Nicholas was tempted by an invitation to make a long stay in the monastery, which was comfortable and well off compared with the hard poverty of the friaries to which he was accustomed. But while praying in the church he seemed to hear a voice directing him: “To Tolentino, to Tolentino. Persevere there.” Shortly after to Tolentino he was sent, and stopped there for the remaining thirty years of his life.

This town had suffered much in the strife of Guelf and Ghibelline, and civil discord had had its usual effects of wild fanaticism, schism and reckless wickedness. A campaign of street-preaching was necessary, and to this new work St Nicholas was put. He was an immediate success. “He spoke of the things of Heaven”, says St Antoninus. “Sweetly he preached the divine word, and the words that came from his lips, fell like burning flame. When his superiors ordered him to take up the public ministry of the gospel, he did not try to display his knowledge or show off his ability, but simply to glorify God. Amongst his audience could be seen the tears and heard the sighs of people detesting their sins and repenting of their past lives.”

His preaching aroused opposition among those who were unmoved by it, and a certain man of notoriously evil life did all he could to shout down the friar and break up his audiences. Nicholas refused to be intimidated, and his perseverance began to make an impression on his persecutor. One day when the man had been trying to drown his voice and scatter the people by fencing with his friends in the street, he sheathed his sword and stood by to listen. Afterwards he came and apologized to St Nicholas, admitted that his heart had been touched, and began to reform his ways. This conversion made a strong impression, and soon Nicholas had to be spending nearly whole days in hearing confessions. He went about the slums of Tolentino, comforting the dying, waiting on (and sometimes miraculously curing) the sick and bed-ridden, watching over the children, appealing to the criminals, composing quarrels and estrangements: one woman gave evidence in the cause of his canonization that he had entirely won over and reformed her husband who for long had treated her with shameful cruelty. Another witness gave evidence of three miracles due to the saint in his family. “Say nothing of this” was his usual comment after these happenings (and they were numerous), “give thanks to God, not to me. I am only an earthen vessel, a poor sinner.”

Jordan of Saxony (not the Dominican beatus, but an Austin friar) in his Life of St Nicholas, written about 1380, relates a happening which has the distinction of being referred to by the Bollandists as the most extraordinary miracle which they find attributed to the saint. A man was waylaid by his enemies at a lonely spot on Mont’ Ortona, near Padua, and, disregarding his entreaties in the name of God and St Nicholas [of Ban] for mercy, or at least a priest to shrive him, they killed him and threw his body into a lake. A week later his body was recovered by one wearing the habit of an Austin friar, who led him back alive and well to his family. He asked for a priest, received the last sacraments, and then, declaring that he had been brought back to make a good end in response to his desperate appeal to St Nicholas, he again died. His flesh at once shrivelled up and dropped off, leaving only his bare bones for Christian burial. Many of the marvels attributed to the intercession of St Nicholas are in connexion with the bread blessed on his feast by the friars of his order. In his later years when he was ill and weak his superiors wished him to take meat and other strengthening food, and St Nicholas was troubled between the obligation of obedience and his desire not to give in to his body. One night it appeared to him that our Lady was present and that she told him to ask for a small piece of bread, to dip it in water and eat it, and he would recover. So it fell out, and Nicholas in grateful memory would afterwards bless pieces of bread and give them to the sick, thus originating the Augustinians’ custom.*[ * The spirit in which the Church desires her children to make use of such things, is illustrated by the prayer to be said by those who use St Nicholas’s bread: “Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that thy Church, which is made illustrious by the glory of the marvels and miracles of blessed Nicholas, thy confessor, may by his merits and intercession enjoy perpetual peace and unity, through Christ our Lord. Amen.”]

The final illness of St Nicholas lasted nearly a year, and in the last months he got up from bed only once, to absolve a penitent who he knew intended to conceal a grievous sin from any priest but himself. The end came quietly on September 10, 1305. His last words to the community gathered round his bed were: “My dearest brethren, my conscience does not reproach me with anything—but I am not justified by that.” A commission was appointed which at once began to collect evidence for his heroic virtues and miracles, but the transfer of the papacy to Avignon intervened and canonization was not achieved till 1446.

There is a life of St Nicholas by a contemporary, Peter of Monte Rubiano. This is accessible in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. iii. Of the later lives none seem to have treated this work and the other materials there provided in a very critical spirit. The most copious biography is that of Philip Giorgi, Vita del taumaturgo S. Niccolô da Tolentino (1856—1859, in 3 vols.). The others are for the most part of a popular character: for example, two in French, by A. Tonna-Barthet (1896), and by “H.P.” (1899). At Tolentino itself, in view of the centenary kept in 1905, a sort of periodical was brought out, beginning in 1899, under the title of Sesto Centenario di San Nicolâ da Tolentino. This includes copies of certain documents preserved in the archives of the city, but it is mainly interesting for the information it provides concerning the later cultus of the saint. It must be remembered that the accounts of miracles and wonders belong for the most part to a very uncritical age. Several little booklets, notably one by N. G. Cappi (1725), were published in Italy concerning the alleged bleeding of St Nicholas’s severed arms. A short English biography by E. A. Foran was issued in 1920. See also a life in Italian by N. Concetti (1932).

Augustinian Friar at age 18, and a student with Blessed Angelus de Scarpetti. Monk at Recanati and Macerata. Ordained at age 25. Canon of Saint Saviour's. Had visions of angels reciting "to Tolentino"; he took this as a sign to move to that city in 1274, where he lived the rest of his life.

Worked as a peacemaker in Tolentino, a city torn by civil war. Preached every day, wonder-worker and healer, and visited prisoners. He always told those he helped, "Say nothing of this." Received visions, including images of Purgatory, which friends ascribed to his lengthy fasts. Had a great devotion to the recently dead, praying for the souls in Purgatory as he traveled around his parish, and often late into the night.

The "Seven Tolentine Masses" come after an apparition of Virgin Mary who told him to offer them for the Souls of Purgatory. In the first Mass he had a vision of thousands of people in Purgatory suffering horrible torments. In the the seventh Mass he had the same vision but the thousands of people were in Heaven, very joyful singing the glories of God

Once, when severely ill, he had a vision of Mary, Augustine and Monica. They told him to eat a certain type of roll that had been dipped in water. Cured, he began healing others by administering bread over which he recited Marian prayers. The rolls became known as Saint Nicholas Bread, and are still distributed at his shrine.

Holy Mass and Purgatory
Reported to have resurrected over one hundred dead children, including several who had drowned together.
Legend says that the devil once beat Nicholas with a stick; the stick was displayed for years in the his church.
A vegetarian, Nicholas was once served a roasted fowl; he made the sign of the cross over it, and it flew out a window.
Nine passengers on ship going down at sea once asked Nicholas' aid; he appeared in the sky, wearing the black Augustinian habit, radiating golden light, holding a lily in his left hand; with his right hand he quelled the storm.
An apparition of the saint once saved the burning palace of the Doge of Venice by throwing a piece of blessed bread on the flames.

Three hundred and one miracles were recognized during the process.
His tomb has become renowned by many more, despite the fact that his relics have been lost, save for the two arms from which blood still exudes when the Church is menaced by a great danger. This occurred, for example, when the island of Cyprus was taken over by infidels in 1570.
Like Saint Joseph, virginal father of Jesus, has been declared a Patron of the Universal Church.

Born 1245 at Sant'Angelo, March of Ancona, diocese of Fermo, Italy Died 10 September 1305 at Tolentino, Italy following a long illness; relics rediscovered at Tolentino in 1926; in previous times they were known exude blood when the Church was in danger Canonized 5 June (Pentecost) 1446 by Pope Eugene IV; over 300 miracles were recognized by the Congregation.

1453 Saint Joasaph of Kubensk, Wonderworker of Vologdae gracious meekness and humility
Baptized with the name Andrew. His parents, Prince Demetrius Vasilievich of Lesser Zaozersk (a descendant of holy Prince Theodore Rostislavich, of Smolensk and Yaroslavl), and Princess Maria, were known for their deep piety, which they imparted to the future ascetic. At twenty, Prince Andrew accepted tonsure at the Kamenny Monastery of the Savior at Kubensk with the name Joasaph, in honor of St Joasaph, the Prince of India (November 19).

St Joasaph gained a good reputation for himself by complete obedience, keeping the fasts, by his zeal in prayer, and love for books. The brethren of the monastery were amazed at the gracious meekness and humility of the young ascetic. Under the spiritual nurture of the experienced Elder Gregory, afterwards Bishop of Rostov, St Joasaph progressed in virtue. He led the life of a hermit in his cell and attained to a high spiritual level. St Joasaph lived an ascetic life at the Kamenny Monastery of the Savior for five years.

In the final year of his life, he partook of food only once during the week and received the Holy Mysteries each Sunday. Before his death, St Joasaph took leave of the brethren, consoling and admonishing the monks not to grieve over his departure. When the brethren gathered in his cell, the venerable one asked that the Prayers for the Departure of the Soul from the Body be read. He prayed to the Lord and to His All-Holy Mother, not only for himself, but for all the brethren of the monastery. Then he lay down upon his bed and died with prayer on his lips, on September 10, 1453 .

1555 St. Thomas of Villanova
St. Thomas born 1488 was from Castile in Spain and received his surname from the town where he was raised. He received a superior education at the University of Alcala and became a popular professor of philosophy there.
After joining the Augustinian friars at Salamanca he was ordained and resumed his teaching, despite a continuing absentmindedness and poor memory. He became prior and then provincial of the friars, sending the first Augustinians to the New World. He was nominated by the emperor to the archbishopric of Granada, but refused. When the see again became vacant he was pressured to accept. The money his cathedral chapter gave him to furnish his house was given to a hospital instead. His explanation to them was that "our Lord will be better served by your money being spent on the poor in the hospital. What does a poor friar like myself want with furniture?"
He wore the same habit that he had received in the novitiate, mending it himself. The canons and domestics were ashamed of him, but they could not convince him to change. Several hundred poor came to Thomas's door each morning and received a meal, wine and money. When criticized because he was at times being taken advantage of, he replied, "If there are people who refuse to work, that is for the governor and the police to deal with. My duty is to assist and relieve those who come to my door." He took in orphans and paid his servants for every deserted child they brought to him. He encouraged the wealthy to imitate his example and be richer in mercy and charity than they were in earthly possessions.
Criticized because he refused to be harsh or swift in correcting sinners, he said, "Let him (the complainer) inquire whether St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom used anathemas and excommunication to stop the drunkenness and blasphemy which were so common among the people under their care."
As he lay dying, Thomas commanded that all the money he possessed be distributed to the poor. His material goods were to be given to the rector of his college. Mass was being said in his presence when after Communion he breathed his last, reciting the words: "Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit."
Thomas of Villanova was already called in his lifetime "the almsgiver" and "the father of the poor." He was canonized in 1658.
Comment: The absent-minded professor is a stock comic figure. This absent-minded professor earned even more derisive laughs with his determined shabbiness and his willingness to let the poor who flocked to his door take advantage of him. He embarrassed his peers, but Jesus was enormously pleased with him. We are often tempted to tend our image in others’ eyes without paying sufficient attention about how we look to Christ. Thomas still urges us to rethink our priorities.

1622 Bb. Apollinaris Franco, Charles Spinola and Their Companions, Martyrs In The Great Martyrdom In Japan

IN 1867, the same year in which persecution began again in Urakami, though not to blood, Pope Pius IX beatified 295 of the martyrs of Japan, of whom the Franciscan Martyrology today refers to eighteen members of its first order and twenty-two tertiaries. Owing to various causes—among them it seems we must sadly recognize national jealousies and even religious rivalries between the missionaries of various orders—the shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa in 1614 decreed that Christianity should be abolished, and these Franciscan beati suffered between the years 1617 and 1632. The persecution gradually increased in intensity until in 1622 took place the “great martyrdom”, in which BD APOLLINARIS FRANCO was one of the principal victims. He was a Castilian of Aguilar del Campo, who after taking his doctor’s degree at Salamanca became a Friar Minor of the Observance. In 1600 he went on the Philippine mission and thence to Japan, where after the persecution began he was named commissary general in charge of the mission. While he was at Nagasaki in 1617 he heard that there was not a single priest left in the province of Omura, where Christians were numerous, and he went thither without disguise to minister to them. He was thrown into a filthy prison, where he was left for five years. Father Apollinaris never ceased to comfort his flock by messages and letters, and ministered to those who were able to make their way into the gaol.

A number of other Christians were confined with him, and a fellow-religious, BD RICHARD-OF-ST-ANNE, wrote to the guardian of his friary at Nivelles: “I have been for nearly a year in this wretched prison, where are with me nine religious of our order, eight Dominicans, and six Jesuits. The others are native Christians who have helped us in our ministry. Some have been here for five years. Our food is a little rite and water. The road to martyrdom has been paved for us by more than three hundred martyrs, all Japanese, on whom all kinds of tortures were inflicted. As for us survivors, we also are all doomed to death. We religious and those who have helped us are to be burnt at a slow fire; the others will be beheaded…If my mother is still alive, I beg you to be so kind as to tell her of God’s mercy to me in allowing me to suffer and die for Him. I have no time left to write to her myself.”

Early in September 1622, twenty of the prisoners were removed to Nagasaki. On the 12th Bd Apollinaris and the seven remaining with him at Omura were there burnt to death, including BB. FRANCIS-OF-ST-BONAVENTURE and PAUL-OF-STCLARE, whom he had clothed with the Franciscan habit while in captivity. Two days previously those who had been removed to Nagasaki had there met the same death. Prominent among the Franciscans were Bd Richard, mentioned above, and BD Lucy DE FREITAS. The last-named was a Japanese of high birth, widow of a Portuguese merchant who had died many years before. She became a Franciscan tertiary and devoted the rest of her life to the cause of the poor and the encouragement and help of persecuted Christians. She was afflicted with this cruel death when she was over eighty years old, because it was in her house that Bd Richard had been captured.

Among the confessors who were taken from prison at Omura to Nagasaki, as mentioned above, were BD CHARLES SPINOLA and BD SEBASTIAN KIMURA of the Society of Jesus. Bd Charles was an Italian by birth who, after a first abortive attempt to reach Japan, landed there in the first years of the seventeenth century and laboured as a missionary for eighteen years. At this time the Jesuits (and after them the Lazarists) in the Far East made a special study and practice of astronomy, which recommended them to the favour of the Chinese and Japanese. Bd Charles was a keen mathematician and astronomer, and in 1612 wrote a technical account of a lunar eclipse as seen from Nagasaki. When he was arrested six years later there was imprisoned with him at Omura Bd Sebastian Kimura, an early Japanese to be ordained priest and a descendant of a Japanese baptized by St Francis Xavier. When on September 10, 1622, these, two Jesuits and their companions reached the place of execution, on a hill outside Nagasaki, they had to wait an hour for the arrival of another body of confessors, from Nagasaki itself.

It was a moving moment when in the presence of a huge crowd of Christians and pagans these two groups of dedicated ones met and gravely greeted one another. Among the new corners was BD ISABEL FERNANDEZ, a Spanish widow who was condemned for sheltering Bd Charles, whose son he had baptized. “Where is my little Ignatius?” he asked. “Here he is”, replied the mother, picking up the four-year-old child from amongst the crowd. “I brought him with me to die for Christ before he is old enough to sin against Him.” And the boy knelt down for Father Spinola to bless him. He watched his mother’s head struck off without flinching, and with his own hands loosed his collar to bare his neck to the sword.

The priests and some of the others were reserved for a more terrible death. They were tied to stakes and large fires lit around them at a distance of some twenty-five feet; when the heat was seen to gain too quickly on its victims, the fires were damped down. Some died within a few hours, suffocated by the atmosphere, and of these were Fathers Charles and Sebastian; others lingered on in the fiercest agony until well into the night or even till the next morning. Two young Japanese wavered and begged for mercy: but they did not ask for life at the price of apostasy, only for an easier and quicker death. It was denied them, and they died with the others.

The scene on this occasion was perhaps the most dramatic and impressive in all the annals of martyrdom.

Among the Japanese victims were BD CLEMENT V0M and his son, BD ANTONY; BD DOMINIC XAMADA and his wife, BD CLARE; the catechist BD LEO SATZUMA; five women named MARY, viz., TANAURA, TANACA, TOCUAN, XUM and SANGA, the last four with their husbands; the children BB. PETER NANGAXI, PETER SANGA and the five-year-old MICHAEL YAMIKI, with his father; the aged BD THOMAS XIQUIR0; and a Korean, BD ANTONY, with his wife and young son. These were all beheaded.

Five days later there suffered by fire at Firando BD CAMILLO COSTANZO, an Italian Jesuit from Calabria. He was a missionary in Japan for nine years till he was exiled in 1611. From Macao he wrote several treatises in Japanese defending Christianity from pagan attacks, and in 1621 got back into the country disguised as a soldier. He was captured in the following year. The Society of Jesus keeps his feast on September 25, and joins in it BD AUGUSTINE OTA and BD CASPAR COTENDA, Japanese catechists, BD FRANCIS TAQUEA, aged twelve, and Bn PETER KIKIEMON, aged seven, all of whom were slain from hatred of the faith within a few days of one another. Another distinguished Jesuit, BD PAUL NAVARRO, was burned alive at Shimabara on November 1 in the same year. He was an Italian and was in India before coming to Japan, where he mastered the language perfectly and was a zealous missionary at Nagasaki and elsewhere, being rector of the Jesuit house at Amanguchi for twenty years. Some very noble letters written by Father Navarro on the eve of his martyrdom are printed in volume ii of L. Pages, Histoire de la religion chrétienne au Japon (1869).

In such ways was consummated the “great martyrdom” of 1622. An English skipper, Richard Cocks, testified to having seen about this time fifty-five persons martyred together at Miako. “Among them little children five or six years old burned in their mothers’ arms, crying out, ‘Jesus, receive our souls.’ Many more are in prison who look hourly when they shall die, for very few turn pagan.”

And it was in the face of such happenings that certain English and Dutch sailors, having seized a Japanese vessel off Formosa and found missionaries aboard, handed them over to the authorities at Nagasaki to save themselves from a charge of piracy.

There is an interesting association between Bd Charles Spinola and England. While at sea in 1597 his ship was captured by an English vessel, and he was landed at Topsham in Devonshire on November 6. “There he continued for several days; but was not permitted to extend his excursions beyond one mile from the place. Some, professing themselves Catholics, presented him with money; others invited him to their houses.” (Cf. Dr Oliver’s Collections, p. 3.) For other martyrs in Japan, see under February 5 and June I.

See the bibliography for the martyrs of Japan herein on June 1. And also Marcellin de Civezza, Histoire universelle des Missions franciscaines (1890), t. ii, pp. 343 seq. and 381 seq. H. Leclercq, Les Martyrs, t. ix; Analecta Bollandiana, vol. Vi (1887), pp. 53—72, and Léon, Auréole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. i, pp. 524—578. For Spinola, see the biographies by E. Séguin, Broeckaert, and the short sketch in English by D. Donnelly, A Prisoner in Japan (1928). Cf. C. R. Boxer, The Christian Century in Japan (1952).

1622 St. Francis de Morales Spainish Dominican martyr of Japan
A native of Madrid, Spain, he served in the Dominican mission in Satsuma, Japan, for two decades. In 1608, he went to Fushima and in 1614 to Nagasaki. He was burned alive with Blessed Charles Spinola and companions: beatified in 1867.

1622 St. Gundislavus Fusai, Blessed Japanese martyr court official
who converted and aided the Jesuits. Placed in a prison in Omura, Japan, he entered the Society of Jesus, received by Blessed Charles Spinola. They were buried alive at Nagasaki. He was beautified in 1867.
Held high office in the Japanese imperial court. Convert to Christianity. After baptism, he quit his position to work for Jesuit missionaries. Imprisoned in Omura, and while in prison he joined the Jesuits, received into the society by Blessed Charles Spinola. Martyr. Born 1582 in Japan .

1622 Bl. Hyacinth Orfanel Spainish Martyr of Japan
He was born in Valencia, Spain, and became a Dominican in Barcelona. Sent to Japan, Hyacinth worked there until his arrest by Japanese officials. He was burned alive at Nagasaki. Pope Pius IX beatified him in 1867.

1622 Bl. John Kingoku native Japanese martyr catechist
brought into the Jesuits while in prison at Omura by Blessed Charles Spinola. Born in Amanguchi, he was arrested while serving as a catechist and beheaded at Nagasaki.

1622 Bl. John of Korea 12 yr old Martyr of Japan
The son of Blessed Anthony of Korea and Blessed Mary, he was beheaded at Nagasaki at the age of twelve.

1622 Bl. Joseph of St. Hyacinth Dominican martyr of Japan
He was born in Villareal, Spain. The provincial vicar of the Dominicans in Japan, he spoke perfect Japanese. Joseph was burned alive at Nagasaki. He was beatified in 1867.

1619 Bl. Mary Tokuan & Mary Choun Native Martyrs of Japan
They were slain with their husbands for refusing to give up the Christian faith.

1622 Bl. Leo Satsuma Martyr of Japan Franciscan tertiary
he was burned alive in Nagasaki, Japan, with Blessed Charles Spinola.

1622 Bl. Louis Kawara Martyr of Japan page in the court of Arima
Louis became a Jesuit with Blessed Charles Spinola and was burned alive in Nagasaki, Japan. He was beatified in 1867.

1622 Bl. Lucy de Freitas native Martyr of Japan
the widow of Philip de Freitas. Lucy, a Franciscan tertiary, was arrested for sheltering Blessed Richard of St. Anne, a Franciscan priest. Although advanced in age, Lucy defended the faith before the authorities and was burned to death for it at Nagasaki, Japan, on September 10. She was beatified in 1867.

1622 Bl. Richard of St. Ann Martyr of Japan Spanish descent
he was born in Flanders and worked as a tailor in Brussels until joining the Franciscans as a lay brother. He was sent first to Mexico as a missionary and then to the Philippines where, at Cebu, he received ordination. In 1613, he went on to Japan, working there until his arrest by Japanese authorities and his execution at Nagasaki. He was beatified in 1867.

1622 Bl. Mary Tanaura Native Martyr of Japan
with Mary Tanaka and Magdalen Sanga. Mary and her companions were beheaded at Nagasaki. Mary Tanaka was married to Blessed Paul Tanaka. Magdalen Sanga was the wife of Blessed Anthony Sanga. They were beatified in 1867.

1622 St. Dominic Shamada Japan Martyr with wife Clare
They were beheaded in Nagasaki and beatified in 1854.
To av de 205 salige martyrene av Japan
Den salige Dominikus Shamada [Xamada] var en japansk kristen legmann som ble arrestert og halshogd sammen med sin hustru Klara og 28 andre i Nagasaki den 10. september 1622 - den store martyriumsdagen, da også 22 andre under ledelse av den salige jesuitt pateren Karl Spinola ble brent levende i Nagasaki.
Dominikus og Klara ble saligkåret den 7. juli 1867 av den salige pave Pius IX (1846-78) som to av 205 salige martyrer av Japan (nr 83 og 84 på listen). Dokumentet (Breve) er datert 7. mai 1867. Gruppen heter offisielt: «Alfonso Navarrete og hans 204 ledsagere, martyrer i Japan mellom 1617 og 1632».
De enkelte martyrene har sine egne minnedager, stort sett på sine dødsdatoer, men for gruppen som helhet har vi valgt 10. september, datoen for den store massakren i Nagasaki i 1622, da 22 ble brent levende og 30 ble halshogd. Dominikus' og Klaras minnedag er også dødsdagen 10. september.

1622 Bl. Dominic Nakano Martyr of Japan
the son of Blessed Matthias Nakano. He was beheaded at Nagasaki and beatified in 1854.

1622 Bl. Damien Yamiki layman martyr of Japan
executed with Blessed Charles Spinola and companions. Japanese layman citizen beheaded in Nagasaki.

1622 Bl. Sebastian Kimura Japanese martyr grandson of first Japanese convert baptized by St. Francis Xavier
he entered the Jesuits at the age of eighteen and worked as a catechist. Arrested by authorities, he spent two years in prison before being burned alive with Blessed Charles Spinola.

1622 Bl. Thomas Shikuiro Japanese martyr native 70 layman
he was seventy at the time of his beheading at Nagasaki with Blessed Charles Spinola.

1622 Bl. Thomas of the Holy Rosary Japanese martyr native catechist
he assisted Dominican missionaries until being seized by authorities. He was beheaded with several Dominicans at Nagasaki.

1622 Bl. Thecla Nangashi native Japanese martyr
The wife of Blessed Paul Nangashi, she was martyred by beheading at Nagasaki for refusing to deny Christ.

1622 Bl. Bartholomew Shikiemon layman martyrs of Japan
dying with Blessed Charles Spinola. Bartholomew was a Japanese layman. He was beheaded at Nagasaki.

1622 Bl. Apollinaris Franco Franciscan martyr of Japan
He was born in Aquilar del Campo, in Old Castile, Spain. Educated in law at Salamanca, Apollinaris entered the Franciscans and was sent to Japan in 1614. He served as superior of the Franciscan mission until his arrest in 1617. Confined in the prison of Omura until 1622, Apollinaris was burned alive on September 10 of that year.

1622 Bl. Anthony Vom Japanese native martyr

the son of Blessed Clement Vom. They were native Japanese and part of the group that was martyred with Blessed Charles Spinola in Nagasaki.

1622 Bl. Anthony Sanga catechist native One of 23 martyrs
Arrested, he was burned alive because he would not deny his faith. Anthony died with Blessed Charles Spinola and twenty-three other companions in Nagasaki. He was beatified in 1867.

1622 Bl. Anthony of Korea martyr of Japan
Anthony was a Korean who served as a catechist with the Jesuits of Japan. Arrested by the authorities, he was beheaded in Nagasaki.

1622 Bl. Anthony Kiun Japan Jesuit martyr native
of Mikata Province, Japan, Anthony became a Jesuit in Omura and began missionary work. Arrested by the authorities, he was burned alive in Nagasaki.

1622 Bl. Angelus Orsucci Martyr of Japan/Dominican missionary
Angelus was born in Lucca, Italy. He entered the Dominican Order, studying at Valencia, Spain, and prepared for the foreign missions. He was sent to the Philippines and then to Japan. Taken in the persecution of Christians conducted by the Japanese government, Angelus spent 4 years in prison in Omura. He was then burned to death in Nagasaki, one of the Martyrs of Japan.

1622 Bl. Agnes Tsao-Kouy Martyr of China
Agnes was a widow when she faced persecution for being a missionary catechist. She was executed by being placed in a cage at Sy-Lin-Hien. She was beatified in 1900.

1622 Bl. Agnes Takea Martyr of Japan
She was the wife of Blessed Cosmas Takea. They were martyred with Blessed Charles Spinola by beheading at Nagasaki. Agnes was beatified in 1867.

1641 BD AMBROSE BARLOW, MARTYR

IN the year 1611 Benedictine monks of the reviving English congregation moved into the monastery which the beneficence of Abbot Philip de Caverel had provided for them at Douay, and three years later there offered himself to them as a novice a young cleric who had already been imprisoned in London for his faith. This was Edward Barlow, son of Sir Alexander Barlow of Barlow, near Manchester. He was born, the fourth of fourteen children, in 1585; and after ecclesiastical studies abroad and a year’s confinement at home he went to St Gregory’s, where his brother, Dom Rudesind, was prior, and was clothed with the habit, taking the name of Ambrose. He was ordained priest in 1617, and sent on the mission to work in his native Lancashire.

Father Ambrose’s principal headquarters was at Morleys Hall in the parish of Leigh, “where”, wrote Mr Knaresborough at the beginning of the next century, “his memory is held in great esteem to this day by the Catholics of that county, for his great zeal in the conversion of souls and the exemplary piety of his life and conversation.”

His stipend at this mission-centre was £8 a year, of which three-quarters went in board and lodging, though his duties called him away for three months in the year.

A penitent of his wrote of him: “Although God had put into his hands (as I think) enough wherewithal to have played the housekeeper, he chose rather to subject himself, and become a sojourner with a poor man and his wife, to avoid thereby (as I did conceive) distracting solicitude and dangerous dominion, and to expose sensuality to be curbed with the simple provision of poor folks. . . . Notwithstanding his infirmities, I never knew him to tamper with the physicians, surely he was to himself Dr Diet, Dr Quiet and the only Dr Merriman that ever I knew.” *[ * He consulted a doctor once, and was told to “Go into your own country and for your physic drink in the morning a mess of new milk and eat a roasted apple at night…"]

He was so “mild, witty, and cheerful in his conversation, that of all men that ever I knew he seemed to me the most likely to represent the spirit of Sir Thomas More... Neither did I ever see him moved at all upon occasions of wrongs, slanders, or threats which were frequently raised against him: but as one insensible of wrong, or free from choler, he entertained them with a jest, and passed over them with a smile and a nod.”

The writer gives a vivid description of Father Ambrose celebrating Mass of Christmas at Morleys, in a venerable vestment “that came out on great days” at a poor, clean altar, whereon great candles he had himself helped to make. And afterwards they sang carols round a “fair coal fire”. Bishop Challoner from other sources gives a similar account of the work, emphasizing his piety, humility, and temperance at table and in company. “He always abstained from wine, and being asked why he did so, he alleged the saying of the wise man: ‘Wine and women make the wise apostatize.’”

In 1628, according to Challoner, Father Ambrose ministered the last sacraments in prison to Bd Edmund Arrowsmith, who after his martyrdom appeared in sleep to Father Ambrose (who knew not he was dead) and said to him, “I have suffered and now you will be to suffer. Say little, for they will endeavour to take hold of your words.” And so the monk laboured on for thirteen years in daily expectation of his hour. Four times he was in prison and four times released, till in March 1641 the House of Commons bullied King Charles I into ordering that all priests should leave the realm or incur the penalties of traitors. Six weeks later, the vicar of Leigh, a Mr Gatley, celebrated Easter by leading his congregation, armed with weapons of offence, to Morleys Hall, where they seized Ambrose Barlow while he was preaching to his flock after Mass. They carried him off to a justice of the peace, who committed him to Lancaster Castle. After four months imprisonment he was brought for trial before Sir Robert Heath, and at once acknowledged he was a priest.

When asked why then had he not obeyed the order to leave the kingdom, he replied that the decree specified “Jesuits and seminary priests”, whereas he was neither, but a Benedictine monk; moreover, he had been too ill to travel far at the time. To the judge’s question as to his opinion of the penal laws he replied that he held them to be unjust and barbarous, and those who condemned the innocent were in danger from the divine judgement. Sir Robert Heath was surprised at his boldness, but said he would be set free if he undertook “not to seduce the people any more.”—“I am no seducer, but a reducer of the people to the true and ancient religion…I am in the resolution to continue until death to render this good office to these strayed souls.”

On September 8 he was condemned in the usual form. Five days before a general chapter of the English Benedictine Congregation in session at Douay had accepted the resignation by Father Rudesind Barlow of the titular cathedral-priorship of Coventry, and elected his brother, Father Ambrose, in his place. On that day week, a Friday, Bd Ambrose Barlow, monk of St Benedict and prior of Coventry, was drawn on a hurdle from Lancaster Castle to his place of execution, where, after pacing three times round the gallows saying the psalm Miserere, he was hanged, disembowelled and quartered.

The mortuary notice of Bd Ambrose sent round to his brethren contained the request that instead of requiem Masses and prayers for the dead they should offer Masses of the Holy Trinity, Te Deum, and other prayers of thanksgiving. At Wardley Hall, which must have been familiar to the martyr and is now the episcopal residence of the diocese of Salford, is preserved a skull said to be his, and his left hand is at Stanbrook Abbey in Worcestershire.

See MMP., pp. 392—400; and, especially, B. Camm, Nine Martyr Monks (1931), pp. 258—292.

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

THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 61

Set before me for a law, O Lady, the holy of holies of thy will: and I shall always seek after it.

Lead me into the path of thy tender mercies, O most beautiful of women: for this same have I desired.

Incline my soul to the love of those above, O Lady: and not to unchasteness.

Behold I have coveted thy chastity from my youth up: in thy mercy strengthen me.

And I will keep the way of thy testimonies forever:
and I will search out the commandments of thy Son, which I have loved.

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.

Join us on CatholicVote.org. Be part of a new movement committed to using powerful media projects to create a Culture of Life. We can help shape the movement and have a voice in its future. Check it out at www.CatholicVote.org

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]

To Save A Life is Earthly; Saving A Soul is Eternal Donation by mail, please send check or money order to:

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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, 61 2022