2nd v. Saint Sophia and her Daughters Faith, Hope and Love The Holy Martyrs were born in Italy. Their mother was a pious Christian widow who named her daughters for the three Christian virtues. Faith was twelve, Hope was ten, and Love was nine. St Sophia raised them in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. St Sophia and her daughters did not hide their faith in Christ, but openly confessed it before everyone.

An official named Antiochus denounced them to the emperor Hadrian (117-138), who ordered that they be brought to Rome. Realizing that they would be taken before the emperor, the holy virgins prayed fervently to the Lord Jesus Christ, asking that He give them the strength not to fear torture and death. When the holy virgins and their mother came before the emperor, everyone present was amazed at their composure. They looked as though they had been brought to some happy festival, rather than to torture. Summoning each of the sisters in turn, Hadrian urged them to offer sacrifice to the goddess Artemis. The young girls remained unyielding.

Then the emperor ordered them to be tortured. They burned the holy virgins over an iron grating, then threw them into a red-hot oven, and finally into a cauldron with boiling tar, but the Lord preserved them.

The youngest child, Love, was tied to a wheel and they beat her with rods until her body was covered all over with bloody welts. After undergoing unspeakable torments, the holy virgins glorified their Heavenly Bridegroom and remained steadfast in the Faith.

They subjected St Sophia to another grievous torture: the mother was forced to watch the suffering of her daughters. She displayed adamant courage, and urged her daughters to endure their torments for the sake of the Heavenly Bridegroom. All three maidens were beheaded, and joyfully bent their necks beneath the sword.

In order to intensify St Sophia's inner suffering, the emperor permitted her to take the bodies of her daughters. She placed their remains in coffins and loaded them on a wagon. She drove beyond the city limits and reverently buried them on a high hill. St Sophia sat there by the graves of her daughters for three days, and finally she gave up her soul to the Lord. Even though she did not suffer for Christ in the flesh, she was not deprived of a martyr's crown. Instead, she suffered in her heart. Believers buried her body there beside her daughters.

The relics of the holy martyrs have rested at El'zasa, in the church of Esho since the year 777.

130 St. Ariadne slave Martyr of Phrygia miracle her tomb provided, a chasm in a ridge
In Phrygia sanctæ Ariádne Mártyris, sub Hadriáno Imperatóre.
In Phrygia, St. Ariadne, martyr, under Emperor Hadrian.
Ariadne was a slave in the household of a Phrygian prince. When pagan rites were performed in honor of the prince's birthday, she refused to take part. Hunted by the authorities, she entered a chasm in a ridge. The chasm opened miraculously before her and closed behind her, providing her with a tomb.

Ariadne The Holy Martyr was a servant of Tertillos, a city official of Promyssia (Phrygia) during the reign of the emperor Hadrian (117-161). Once, when on the occasion of the birth of a son, the master made a sacrificial offering to the pagan gods, the Christian Ariadne refused to participate in the impious ceremony.

They subjected her to beatings and lacerated her body with sharp iron hooks. Then they threw the martyr into prison and for a long while they exhausted her with hunger, demanding that she worship their gods. When they released the saint from prison, she left the city, but Tertillos sent pursuers after her. Seeing that they were chasing her, she ran, calling out to God to defend her from her enemies. Suddenly, through her prayers, a fissure opened in the mountain, and St Ariadne hid in it. This miracles brought the pursuers into confusion and fear. In their depravity of mind they began to strike one another with spears.

2nd v. St. Flocellus a boy Martyr of Autun, France
Augustodúni sancti Flocélli púeri, qui, sub Antoníno Imperatóre et Valeriáno Præside, multa passus, demum, a feris discérptus, martyrii corónam adéptus est.
At Autun, under Emperor Antoninus and the governor Valerian, St. Flocellus, a boy, who, after many sufferings, was torn to pieces by wild beasts, and thus won the crown of martyrs.
in the reign of Marcus Aurelius {161-180}. While a young man, Flocellus was tortured almost to the point of death and thrown to wild beasts.

3rd v. The Holy Martyr Theodota, a native of Cappadocia; through the prayer of the saint, the idols fell and were shattered
She suffered in the city of Nicea during the reign of the emperor Alexander Severus (222-235). At this time the governor of Cappadocia was a certain Symblicius. They told him that a rich woman named Theodota was confessing Christ. The governor summoned Theodota and for a long time urged her to turn from the true Faith. Seeing the futility of his attempts, he gave Theodota over to torture. They suspended her and began to rake her with iron hooks, but she did not feel any pain. Then they put her in chains and led her away to a prison cell. After eight days, when they led the saint out for new tortures, only faint traces of the tortures already endured remained on her body. The governor was amazed and asked, "Who are you?" The saint answered: "Your mind is darkened, but if you were sober, then you would have realized that I am Theodota."

Symblicius commanded the martyr to be cast into a red-hot furnace. Flames shot out from the furnace and scorched those standing nearby, while those remaining unharmed shut the furnace and scattered in fright. After a certain while, pagan priests came and opened the furnace to scatter the ashes of the martyr, but they too were burned by the flames. Those remaining unhurt saw St Theodota unharmed. She stood in the midst of the flames between two youths in white raiment, and was glorifying the Lord. This apparition so terrified the pagans that they fell down as if dead. Later, they returned the saint to prison.

The invincibility of the martyr gave Symblicius no peace. He made a journey to Byzantium, on the return trip he stopped over at Ancyra and tried to get the better of Theodota. He gave orders to throw her all at once onto red-hot iron, but again the martyr remained unharmed.

Then Symblicius gave orders that the saint be taken to Nicea. There, in a pagan temple he wanted to compel her to offer sacrifice to the idols, but through the prayer of the saint, the idols fell and were shattered. The outraged governor gave orders to stretch the martyr out and saw through her body, but here also the power of God preserved the saint. The saw caused Theodota no harm, and the servants became exhausted. Finally, they beheaded the saint. Bishop Sophronius of Nicea buried her body.

230 The Holy martyr Agathocleia; Tradition states that she was a virgin Christian slave owned by two people who had converted to paganism from Christianity, named Nicolas and Paulina. They subjected Agathoclia to regular physical abuse, including whipping and other violence, in an effort to get Agathoclia to renounce her faith. She repeatedly refused to do so.
A servant in the home of a certain Christian named Nicholas. His wife Paulina was a pagan. For eight years Agathocleia underwent abuse from her mistress because of her faith. Paulina fiercely beat the servant, and made her walk barefoot over sharp stones.

Eódem die sanctæ Agathoclíæ, quæ, cum esset ancílla cujúsdam mulíeris infidélis, a dómina sua longo témpore verbéribus aliísque ærúmnis est vexáta ut Christum negáret; demum, obláta Júdici ac sævius laniáta, et nihilóminus in confessióne fídei persístens, ídeo, post excisiónem linguæ, in ignem projécta est.
On the same day, St. Agathoclia, servant of an infidel woman, who was for a long time subjected by her to blows and other afflictions that she might deny Christ. She was finally presented to the judge and cruelly lacerated, but since she persisted in confessing the faith, they cut off her tongue and threw her into the flames.

Once in a fit of nastiness, Paulina broke her rib with a blow from a hammer, and then cut out her tongue. Nothing could make the saint give in to the demand of her mistress to worship idols. Then Paulina locked the martyr in prison and exhausted her with hunger. But Agathocleia did not perish: birds brought her food each day. Finally, in a fit of evil, Paulina went to the prison and murdered the holy martyr.
Tradition states that she was a virgin Christian slave owned by two people who had converted to paganism from Christianity, named Nicolas and Paulina. They subjected Agathoclia to regular physical abuse, including whipping and other violence, in an effort to get Agathoclia to renounce her faith. She repeatedly refused to do so.

Her owners then subjected her to a public trial by a local magistrate. There too, she refused to renounce Christinaity, which subjected her to savage mangling from the authorities. When she was found guilty, her sentence included having her tongue cut out, a nonfatal injury.

There is some disagreement about how Paulina met her death. Some sources say that her mistress Paulina poured burning coals on her neck. Other sources say that she herself was cast into fire.

259 St. Justin Martyred priest condemned for burying the remains of Pontiff Sixtus II, of Lawrence, Hippolytus, and many other saints Christian martyrs
Romæ, via Tiburtína, natális sancti Justíni, Presbyteri et Mártyris; qui, in persecutióne Valeriáni et Galliéni, ob confessiónis glóriam fuit insígnis. Hic beáti Pontíficis Xysti Secúndi, Lauréntii, Hippólyti aliorúmque plurimórum Sanctórum córpora sepelívit, ac demum, sub Cláudio, martyrium consummávit.
At Rome, on the road to Tivoli, the birthday of St. Justin, priest and martyr, who distinguished himself by a glorious confession of the faith during the persecution of Valerian and Gallienus. He buried the bodies of the blessed Pontiff Sixtus II, of Lawrence, Hippolytus, and many other saints, and finally completed his martyrdom under Claudius.

He was executed and his relics were translated to Frisingen, Germany.

305 St. Theodora Roman martyr ease the suffering of the Christians
Romæ sanctæ Theodóræ matrónæ, quæ, in persecutióne Diocletiáni, sanctis Martyribus sédulo ministrábat.
At Rome, St. Theodora, a matron who zealously ministered to the martyrs in the persecution of Diocletian.
A wealthy woman of noble birth, she contributed freely of her fortune to ease the suffering of the Christians during the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305). She died, perhaps by martyrdom, while the persecutions were still ongoing.

4th v. Ss. Peleus and Nilus, Bishops of Egypt, Presbyter Zeno, Patermuthius, Elias and another 151 The Holy Martyrs suffered during the reign of the emperor Maximian Galerius (305-311). The majority of them were Egyptians, but there were also some Palestinians among them. Firmilian, the governor of Palestine, arrested 156 Christians. They gouged out the eyes of the holy martyrs, cut the tendons of their feet, and subjected them to all manner of tortures. They beheaded 100 of the martyrs, and burned the rest.

376 St. Satyrus Confessor and brother of Sts. Ambrose and Marcellina
Medioláni deposítio sancti Sátyri Confessóris, cujus insígnia mérita sanctus Ambrósius, ejus frater, commémorat.
At Milan, the death of St. Satyrus, confessor, whose distinguished merits are mentioned by his brother, St. Ambrose.
Born at Trier, Germany, he moved to Rome with his family and was subsequently trained as a lawyer. Appointed prefect to one of the Roman provinces, he resigned his post when Ambrose became archbishop of Milan in order to assume administration of the secular affairs of the archdiocese. He died unexpectedly at Milan and was eulogized by his brother with the funeral sermon, "On the death of a brother."

379 St Satyrus
Satyrus was the elder brother of St Ambrose, born sometime before the year 340, probably at Trier. The sister, St Marcellina, was the eldest. When their father, who was prefect of the praetorium of the Gauls, died about 3-4 the family moved to Rome, where the two boys were well educated under the watchful eyes of their mother and sister. Satyrus undertook a public career, practised as a lawyer, and became prefect of an unnamed province. When St Ambrose was elected bishop of Milan in 374, Satyrus resigned his post to undertake the administration of the temporal concerns of the see for his brother. He made several voyages to Africa, on the last of which he nearly lost his life through shipwreck, and in consequence took the first opportunity to receive baptism, having hitherto been only a catechumen. Before jumping overboard from the wrecked vessel he was given a particle of the Blessed Sacrament by one of his fellow voyagers, which he wrapped in a scarf and fastened about his neck. He died suddenly at Milan, in the arms of his sister and brother, who distributed his estate among the poor in accordance with his wish that they should deal with it as they thought best. St Ambrose eulogized the mighty merits of St Satyrus, his integrity and his kindness, in his funeral sermon, in the course of which he asks God mercifully to accept the priestly sacrifices, which he offers for his dead brother.

The passages in the writings of St Ambrose, upon which all our knowledge of St Satyrus is based, are printed in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. v.

4th v. Ss Socrates and Stephen, MM. perhaps in Wales

In Británnia sanctórum Mártyrum Sócratis et Stéphani. In England, the holy martyrs Socrates and Stephen.

Ss. Socrates And Stephen, Martyrs
Nothing whatever is known of these martyrs and they are only of interest because the Roman Martyrology, following the “Martyrology of Jerome”, says that their passion took place in Britain. Dom Serenus Cressy refers to them in his Church History as “two noble British Christians”, disciples of “St Amphibalus”. They are supposed to have suffered in the persecution of Diocletian, and Monmouth is put forward as the place because, it is said, there were churches dedicated in their honour in that neighbourhood, but these churches have not been identified. The Britannia of the martyrologists may have been a mistake for Abretannia, in Asia Minor, or it may have been Bithynia.

Fr Delehaye has discussed this entry in a paper printed in the Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. xvii (1932). He abandons the suggestion made by D. Serruys that “Britannia” has been written by mistake for Abretannia, and suggests that the original reading was probably Bithynia.

St. Valerian, Niacrinus, & Gordian martyrs
Noviodúni, in Gálliis, sanctórum Mártyrum Valeriáni, Macríni et Gordiáni.
At Noyon in France, the holy martyrs Valerian, Macrinus, and Gordian.
A group of who were put to death at Noviodonum, in Lower Moesia on the Danube, although the site of their martyrdom may have been in Rhaetia, modern Switzerland.

St. Narcissus and Crescentio Roman martyrs
Item Romæ sanctórum Mártyrum Narcíssi et Crescentiónis.
Also at Rome, the holy martyrs Narcissus and Crescentio.
mentioned in the Acts of St. Lawrence the Martyr. According to that generally authentic source, Narcissus owned a house at which Lawrence distributed alms to the poor and cured Narcissus of blindness. Cemetery on Via Salaria named after Crescentio

7th. century St. Brogan Abbot author of a hymn to St. Brigid
Abbot of Ross Tuirc, Ossory, Ireland, he is called the author of a hymn to St. Brigid. Others of the name (Broccan, Bracan, Brogan) and of the sixth or seventh century are venerated on Jan. 1. Apr. 9, June 27, July 8 and Aug. 25.

7th v. St. Rodingus Benedictine abbot; successful preacher converting local pagans; founded Beaulieu community

also listed as Rouin and Radingus. Originally from Ireland, he went to Germany and found much success preaching and converting the local pagans. After spending time in the monastery of Tholey, near Trier, Germany, he pursued a hermit’s life in the Argonne forest, France, where he soon attracted followers and founded the community which was later called Beaulieu.

709 St. Lambert of Maastricht Bishop, martyr, and patron of St. Willibrord’s missions
Apud Leódium, in Bélgio, beáti Lambérti, Epíscopi Trajecténsis, qui, cum régiam domum zelo religiónis increpásset, a nocéntibus ínnocens occísus est, sicque aulam regni cæléstis perpétuo victúrus intrávit.
    At Liege in Belgium, blessed Lambert, bishop of Maestricht. Through his zeal for religion he rebuked the royal family, and was undeservedly put to death by the guilty, and thus he entered the court of the heavenly kingdom, to enjoy it forever.
He was the son of a noble family of Maastricht, Flanders, Belgium, educated by St. Theodard and succeeding him as bishop of Tongres-Maastricht in 668 when Theodard was murdered. He was driven from his see by Ebroin, the tyrannical mayor of the royal palace, and lived as a Benedictine in Stavelot until 681, when he was reinstated.
Lambert denounced the Mayor of the Palace Pepin of Heristal for adultery, was murdered in Liege, Belgium.

705 St Lambert, Bishop of Maestricht, Martyr
St Landebet, called in later ages Lambert, was a native of Maestricht, and born of a noble and wealthy family between the years 633 and 638. His father sent him to St Theodard to perfect his education. This holy bishop had such an esteem for his pupil that he spared no trouble in instructing and training him in learning and Christian virtue, and he was a credit to his master: his biographer, who was born soon after Lambert’s death, describes him as, “a prudent young man of pleasing looks, courteous and well behaved in his speech and manners; well built, strong, a good fighter, clear-headed, affectionate, pure and humble, and fond of reading”. When St Theodard, who was bishop of Tongres-Maestricht, was murdered, Lambert was chosen to succeed him.
But the tyrannical Ebroin was reinstated as mayor of the palace when the Austrasian king, Childeric II, was slain in 674, and he at once began to revenge himself on those who had supported Childeric. This revolution affected St Lambert, who was expelled from his see. He retired to the monastery of Stavelot, and during the seven years that he continued there he obeyed the rule as strictly as the youngest novice could have done. One instance will suffice to show how he devoted his heart to serve God according to the perfection of his temporary state. One night in winter he let fall his shoe, so that it made a noise. This the abbot heard, and he ordered him who was responsible for that noise to go and pray before the great cross, which stood outside the church door. Lambert, without making any answer, went out as he was, barefoot and covered only with his shift; and in this condition he prayed, kneeling before the cross, three or four hours. Whilst the monks were warming themselves after Matins, the abbot inquired if all were there. Answer was made that he had sent someone to the cross who had not yet come in. The abbot ordered that he should be called, and was surprised to find that the person was the Bishop of Maestricht, who made his appearance almost frozen.
   In 681 Ebroin was assassinated, and Pepin of Herstal, being made mayor of the palace, expelled the usurping bishops and, among other exiled prelates, restored St Lambert to Maestricht. The holy pastor returned to his flock animated with redoubled fervour, preaching and discharging his other duties with wonderful zeal and fruit. Finding there still remained many pagans in Kempenland and Brabant he applied himself to convert them to the faith, softened their barbarous temper by his patience, regenerated them in the water of baptism, and destroyed many superstitious observances. In the neighbourhood of his own see he founded with St Landrada the monastery of Munsterbilzen for nuns.
   Pepin of Herstal, after living many years in wedlock with St Plectrudis, entered into adulterous relations with her sister Alpais (of whom was born Charles Martel), and St Lambert expostulated with the guilty couple. Alpais complained to her brother Dodo, who with a party of his followers set upon St Lambert and murdered him as he knelt before the altar in the church of SS. Cosmas and Damian at Liege.
   That is the later story of the circumstances of St Lambert’s death, but his earliest biographers, writing in the eighth and tenth centuries, tell a quite different tale. According to them, two relatives of Lambert, Peter and Andolet, killed two men who were making themselves obnoxious to the bishop. When Dodo, a kinsman of the men thus slain, came with his followers to take revenge, Lambert told Peter and Andolet that they must expiate their crime. They were killed on the spot; and when the bishop’s room was found to be barred, one of Dodo’s men climbed to the window and cast a spear which killed Lambert too, as he knelt in prayer. This took place at a house where is now the city of Liege.
Lambert’s death, suffered with patience and meekness, joined with the eminent sanctity of his life, caused him to be venerated as a martyr. His body was conveyed to Maestricht. Several miracles, which ensued, excited the people to build a church where the house stood in which he was slain, and his successor, St Hubert, translated thither his relics. At the same time he removed to the same place the episcopal see of Tongres—Maestricht, and around the cathedral that enshrined the relics of St Lambert the city of Liege grew up. He is to this day the principal patron of that place.

There are several medieval lives of St Lambert, and most of them may be found printed in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. v. The earliest in date, and much the most important, has been critically edited by Bruno Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. vi, the text being supplemented by notable extracts from the later biographies written by Stephen, Sigebert of Gembloux and Nicholas. The long-standing controversy regarding the precise cause which brought about the assassination of St Lambert has been very well stated in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxiii (1914), pp. 247—249; but see also pp. 219—347 in the second volume of Kurth’s Études franques (1919). This last scholar many years before, in the Annales de l’Académie archéol. de Belgique, vol. xxxiii (1876), had set the whole controversy in a new light. Cf. further Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, vol. i, pp. 400—401, and J. Demarteau, Vie la plus ancienne de S. Lambert (1890).

St. Agathoclia abused slave who suffered for the faith
Virgin martyr, a patroness of a region in Aragon, Spain. Agathoclia was an abused slave who suffered for the faith in a public trial. She was last of all brought before the judge and treated with even greater cruelty, and as she persisted in the confession of the faith, her tongue was cut out and she was cast into the fire.

853 St. Columba Spanish virgin martyr of Cordoba; nun at Tabanos; refused to deny the faith and was beheaded.
Córdubæ, in Hispánia, sanctæ Colúmbæ, Vírginis et Mártyris.
At Cordova in Spain, St. Columba, virgin and martyr.
She served as a nun at Tabanos until the Moorish persecution started in 852. Going to Cordoba, she refused to deny the faith and was beheaded.

853 ST COLUMBA, VIRGIN Martyr
This Columba was one of the victims of the persecution of Christians in Spain begins by the Moors in the year 850. According to St Eulogius, who wrote an account of those who suffered, called The Memorial of the Saints, and then himself gave his life for the faith, Columba was a native of Cordova. Her brother Martin was an abbot and her sister Elizabeth had, with her husband Jeremy, founded a double monastery at Tabanos, whither they both retired with their children. Inspired by these examples Columba determined to give herself to God in the cloister, but was hindered by her widowed mother, who wished her to marry. The mother tried to prevent her visiting her sister, where she knew Columba got her encouragement to persevere, but her efforts were fruitless and the girl became a nun at Tabanos.

In the year 852 the persecution drove the religious away from this place, and the nuns took refuge in a house at Cordova, near the church of St Cyprian. In spite of the fact that in the same year a council at Cordova had forbidden Christians to provoke persecution, Columba secretly left this house, presented herself before the Moorish magistrate, and openly and deliberately denied Mohammed and his law. She was beheaded for her temerity, and her body thrown into the river Guadalquivir, whence it was recovered and buried.

The notice of St Columba in the Acts Sanctorum, September, vol. v, reproduces all that St Eulogius has recorded concerning her history.

936 St. Uni Bishop and missionary; evangelized Denmark and Sweden, enjoying considerable success in his efforts.
Also called Huno and Unno. Originally a Benedictine monk at New Corvey in Saxony, Germany. He received appointment in 917 to the post of bishop of Bremen-Hamburg. As bishop. he strove to evangelize Denmark and Sweden, enjoying considerable success in his efforts.

1179 St. Hildegarde visions and prophecies works written called Scivias; the first of the great German mystics as well as a poet, a physician, and a prophetess.
Apud Bíngiam, in diœcési Moguntinénsi, sanctæ Hildegárdis Vírginis.
    At Bingen, in the diocese of Mainz, St. Hildegard, virgin.
Hildegarde at Bockelheim, Germany, in 1098. Afflicted with fragile health as a child, she was placed in the care of her aunt, Blessed Jutta, who lived as a recluse.
Jutta eventually formed a community of nuns, and Hildegarde joined the group, becoming prioress of the house when Jutta died in 1136. Hildegarde moved the community to Rupertsburg, near Bingen on the Rhine, and she established still another convent at Eibengen around the year 1165, overcoming great opposition on many occasions. Hildegarde was known for visions and prophecies, which at her spiritual directors request, she recorded. They were set down in a work called Scivias {written between 1141 and 1151, relating twenty six of her visions} and approved by the archbishop of Mainz and Pope Eugenius III at the recommendation of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
   Living in a turbulent age, Hildegarde put her talents to work in quest for obtaining true justice and peace. She corresponded with four popes, two emperors, King Henry II of England, and famous clergy. Her pronouncements attracted the fancy of the populace-drawing down upon her both acclaim and disparagement. Hildegarde wrote on many subjects. Her works included commentaries on the Gospels, the Athanasian Creed, and the Rule of St. Benedict as well as Lives of the Saints and a medical work on the well-being of the body.
   She is regarded as one of the greatest figures of the 12th century the first of the great German mystics as well as a poet, a physician, and a prophetess. She has been compared to Dante and to William Blake. This remarkable woman of God died on September 17, 1179. Miracles were reported at her death, and she was proclaimed as a Saint by the multitudes.

She was never formally canonized, but her name was inserted in the Roman Martyrology in the fifteenth century.

St Hildegard, Abbess of Rupertsberg, called in her own day the “Sibyl of the Rhine”, was one of the great figures of the twelfth century and one of the most remarkable of women. She was the first of the great German mystics, a poet and a prophet, a physician and a political moralist, who rebuked popes and princes, bishops and lay-folk, with complete fearlessness and unerring justice. She was born in the year 1098 at Böckelheim, on the Nahe, and when she was eight years old her parents confided her to the care of Bd Jutta, sister to Count Meginhard of Spanheim, who was living as a recluse in a cottage adjoining the church of the abbey founded by St Disibod on the Diessenberg close by her home.
   The child was sickly, but she continued her education, learning to read and sing Latin and other things appertaining to a nun, as well as those domestic accomplishments, which adorned all medieval women, from queens to peasants. By the time Hildegard was old enough to receive the veil of a nun the hermitage of Bd Jutta had received several recruits so that it had become a community, following the Rule of St Benedict. She was clothed when she was fifteen, and continued for another seventeen years to lead an uneventful life exteriorly uneventful only, for she grew in the grace of God, unusual experiences which she had known from very early years continued, and “it became habitual with me to foretell the future in the course of conversations. And when I was completely absorbed in what I saw I used to say many things that seemed strange to those who heard me. This made me blush and cry, and often enough I would have killed myself had that been possible. I was too frightened to tell anyone what I saw, except the noble woman to whom I was entrusted, and she told a little to a monk whom she knew.”
    In 1136 Bd Jutta died, and Hildegard became prioress in her place.
Her revelations and visions pressed more and more upon her. There was a continual interior urging that she should write them down, but she feared what people would say, their mockery, and her own inadequate Latin. But the voice of God seemed to say to her: “I am the living and inaccessible Light, and I enlighten whomever I will. According to my pleasure I show forth through any man marvels greater than those of my servants in times past.” At last she opened her heart fully to her confessor, the monk Godfrey, and authorized him to refer the matter to his abbot, Conon, who after careful consideration ordered Hildegard to write down some of the things she said God had made known to her. They dealt with such matters as the charity of Christ and the continuance of the kingdom of God, the holy angels, the Devil and Hell. These writings Conon submitted to the archbishop of Mainz, who examined them with his theologians and gave a favourable verdict: “These visions come from God.” The abbot then appointed a monk named Volmar to act as secretary to Hildegard, and she at once began the dictation of her principal work, which she called Scivias, for Nosce vias [Domini]. In the year 1141, she tells us, “a shaft of light of dazzling brilliancy came from the opened heavens and pierced my mind and my heart like a flame that warms without burning, as the sun heats by its rays. And suddenly I knew and understood the explanation of the psalms, the gospels, and the other Catholic books of the Old and New Testaments, but not the interpretation of the text of the words or the division of the syllables or the cases and tenses.”
   This book took ten years to complete, and consists of twenty-six visions dealing with the relations between God and man by the Creation, the Redemption and the Church, mixed with apocalyptic prophecies, warnings, and praises expressed in symbolical fashion. She reiterated time and again that she saw these things in vision, and they were the inspiration of all her active work.
   In 1147 the pope, Bd Eugenius III, came to Trier and the archbishop of Mainz referred St Hildegard’s writings to him. Eugenius appointed a commission to examine both them and her, and on receiving a favourable report he read and discussed the writings himself with his advisers, including St Bernard of Clairvaux, who wished him to approve the visions as genuine. The pope then wrote to Hildegard expressing wonder and happiness at the favours granted her by Heaven, and warning her against pride; authorizing her to publish, with prudence, whatever the Holy Ghost told her to publish; and exhorting her to live with her sisters in the place she had seen in vision in faithful observance of the Rule of St Benedict. St Hildegard wrote a long letter in reply, full of parabolic allusions to the troubles of the times and warning Eugenius against the ambitions of his own household.
   The place to which Bd Eugenius referred was the new home that Hildegard had chosen for her community, which had outgrown its accommodation at the Diessenberg. The monks of St Disibod’s, whose abbey owed much of its importance to the neighbouring convent, with its relics of Bd Jutta and the growing reputation of Hildegard, stoutly opposed the migration. The abbot accused her of acting from pride, but she claimed that God had revealed to her that she should move her nuns and the place to which they should go. This was the Rupertsberg, an exposed and unfertile hill above the Rhine, near Bingen.
   During the dispute with the monks of St Disibod’s Hildegard was reduced to a very bad state of weakness and ill-health. Abbot Conon, perhaps doubting the reality of her illness, visited her and, when he saw she was “not putting it on”, he told her to get up and prepare to visit the Rupertsberg. Immediately she was cured and got ready to obey. This was enough for Conon, who withdrew his objections; but the strong feeling of his monks in the matter was by no means allayed, though the leader of the opposition, one Arnold, was won to Hildegard’s side by being cured of a painful malady in her church. The move was made some time between 1147 and 1150, the nuns exchanging their convenient house on the vine-clad Diessenberg for a dilapidated church and unfinished buildings in a deserted spot.
   The energy of St Hildegard was responsible for the building of a large and convenient monastery, with “water piped to all the offices”, we are told, which housed a community of fifty nuns. For the recreation of these the versatility of Hildegard provided a large number of new hymns, canticles and anthems, of which she wrote both the words and the music, and a sort of morality play, or sacred cantata, called Onto Virtutum, and for reading in the chapter-house and refectory she composed fifty allegorical homilies.
Her Lives of St Disibod and St Rupert were claimed to be revelations (in common with a good deal else that was probably a purely natural production), gratuitously, for they bear the marks of local traditions. Among the diversions of her leisure hours—though it is hard to believe that St Hildegard ever had any leisure—is the so-called “unknown language”, a sort of Esperanto, of which nine hundred words and a made-up alphabet have come down to us. These words seem to be simply assonant versions of Latin and German words with a liberal addition of final zeds.
   From the Rupertsberg St Hildegard conducted a voluminous correspondence, and nearly three hundred of her letters have been printed, though doubt has been thrown on the authenticity of some of them and of the letters she received. Except when writing to one or other of the numerous abbesses that consulted her, the letters are rather in the nature of homilies, prophecies and allegorical treatises. They were addressed to popes and emperors, to kings (including Henry II of England, before he had slain Becket), to bishops and abbots. She wrote once to St Bernard and received a reply, to St Eberhard of Salzburg, and frequently to the Cistercian mystic, St Elizabeth of Schönau. In two letters to the clergy of Cologne and Trier she rates the carelessness and avarice of so many priests, and foretells, in what are for her unusually clear terms, the scourges that will follow.
   Her letters are very full of these prophecies and warnings, and they soon made her notorious. On the one hand people of all kinds came from all parts to consult her on the other she was denounced as a fraud, a sorceress, a demoniac. Though her meaning was often wrapped up in difficult symbolism, she always made it quite clear when she was reproving, which she most frequently found occasion to do.
   Henry, Archbishop of Mainz, wrote rather brusquely requiring St Hildegard to allow one of her nuns, Richardis, to become abbess of another monastery. She replied: “All the reasons given for the promotion of this young woman are worthless before God. The spirit of this jealous God says: Weep and cry out, ye pastors, for you know not what you do, distributing sacred offices in your own interest and wasting them on perverse and godless men…As for yourself, arise!— for your days are numbered.” He was in fact deposed and died soon after.
    To the bishop of Speyer she wrote that his deeds were so evil that his soul was scarcely alive, and told the Emperor Conrad III to reform his life lest he have to blush for it. But she did not pretend to make these judgements on her own. “I am a poor earthen vessel and say these things not of myself but from the serene Light”, she writes to St Elizabeth of Schönau. Nevertheless such a disclaimer could not save her from criticism, and she had trouble even with some of her own nuns, highborn German girls in whom personal pride and vanity were still strong. “Some of them persist in regarding me with an unfavourable eye, pulling me to pieces with malicious tongues behind my back, saying that they cannot stand this talk about discipline that I keep on dinning into them, and that they won’t let themselves be ruled by me.”
   In spite of all her work and continual sickness the activities of St Hildegard were not confined to her convent, and between 1152 and 1162 she made numerous journeys in the Rhineland. She founded a daughter-house at Eibingen, near Rudesheim, and did not hesitate roundly to rebuke the monks and nuns of those monasteries whose discipline she saw to be relaxed; indeed, her expeditions were rather in the nature of the progress of an “abbess visitor”.
   At Cologne, Trier, and elsewhere, she addressed herself to selected representatives of the clergy, imparting to them the divine warnings she had received, and exhorted bishops and lay folk with equal ease and straightforwardness. Probably the first of these journeys was the one she made to Ingelheim to meet Frederick Barbarossa, but what took place at that interview is not known. She also visited Metz, Wurzburg, Ulm, Werden, Bamberg and other places, and with all this travelling, penetrating in spite of her weakness and the bad conditions into inaccessible spots to visit remote monasteries, she continued to write.
Among other works she wrote two books of medicine and natural history. One of these treats of plants, elements, trees, minerals, fishes, birds, quadrupeds, reptiles and metals, and is distinguished by careful scientific observation; the other treats of the human body, and the causes, symptoms and treatment of its ailments. Some modem methods of diagnosis are at least adumbrated, and she came near to certain later discoveries, such as the circulation of the blood.
She deals with normal and morbid psychology, refers to frenzy, insanity, dreads, obsessions and idiocy, and says that “when headache, vapours and giddiness attack a patient simultaneously they make him foolish and upset his reason. This makes many people think that he is possessed by an evil spirit, but that is not true.”

During the last year of her life St Hildegard was in great trouble on account of a young man who, having been at one time excommunicated, died and was buried in the cemetery at St Rupert’s. The vicar general of Mainz ordered that the body be removed. St Hildegard refused, on the grounds that the man had received the last sacraments and that she had been favoured with a vision justifying her action. Thereupon the church was put under an interdict; and Hildegard wrote to the chapter of Mainz a long letter about sacred music—“A half-forgotten memory of a primitive state which we have lost since Eden”—“symbol of the harmony which Satan has broken, which helps man to build a bridge of holiness between this world and the World of all Beauty and Music. Those therefore who, without a good reason, impose silence on churches in which singing in God’s honour is wont to be heard, will not deserve to hear the glorious choir of angels that praises the Lord in Heaven.”
   Apparently she was doubtful of the effect of her touching eloquence on the canons of Mainz; for at the same time she wrote very energetically to the archbishop himself who was in Italy. He thereupon removed the interdict, but, in spite of a promise, he did not fulfil Hildegard’s other request, to leave fighting and intriguing and come and govern his diocese. St Hildegard was now broken by infirmity and mortifications; she could not stand upright and had to be carried from place to place. But the broken instrument, in the phrase of her friend and chaplain, Martin Guibert, still gave out melody; to the last she was at the disposition of everybody, giving advice to those that sought it, answering perplexing questions, writing, instructing her nuns, encouraging the sinners who came to her, never at rest. She survived her trouble with the chapter of Mainz a very little time, and died peacefully on September 17, 1179. Miracles, of which a number are recorded of her during her life, were multiplied at her tomb, and the process of her canonization was twice undertaken. It was never achieved, but she is named as a saint in the Roman Martyrology and her feast is kept on this day in several German dioceses.
   The visions and revelations claimed by or for St Hildegard are among the best known in this class of phenomena, and her actualization of ideas in symbols and images has provoked comparison both with Dante and William Blake. She thus describes the fall of the angels “I saw a great star, most splendid and beautiful, and with it a great multitude of falling sparks which followed it southward. And they looked on Him upon His throne as it were something hostile, and turning from Him they sought rather the north. And suddenly they were all annihilated and turned into black coals…and cast into the abyss, so that I could see them no more.”
   In the drawings which illustrate some of the manuscripts these fallen angels are shown as black stars with points of white in the centre and a gold disc surrounded by white points in one of them, while above the horizon other stars still shine in golden light. In many of them “a prominent feature is a point or a group of points of light, which shimmer and move, usually in a wave-like manner, and are most often interpreted as stars or flaming eyes. . . Often the lights give that impression of working, boiling, or fermenting, described by so many visionaries from Ezekiel onwards.” “These visions which I saw”, wrote St Hildegard, “I beheld neither in sleep nor dreaming nor in madness nor with my bodily eyes or ears, nor in hidden places; but I saw them in full view and according to God’s will, when I was wakeful and alert, with the eyes of the spirit and the inward ears. And how this was brought about is indeed hard for human flesh to search out.”
   The visions recorded in the Scivias received the guarded approbation of Pope Eugenius III, but this and similar approvals of private revelations impose no obligation of belief. The Church receives them only as probable, and even those most worthy of faith may be prudently rejected by individuals.

A great part of our information concerning the life of St Hildegard is derived from her own correspondence and writings, but there are also two or three formal biographies, as biography was understood in the middle ages. The most noteworthy is that by two monks, Godefrid and Theodoric, printed in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. v. Another, by Guibert of Gembloux, was edited by Cardinal Pitra in his Analecta Sacra, vol. viii. Also there are remnants of an inquisition made in 1233 with a view to her canonization, most of which has been published by the Bollandists. Moreover, in recent times, a considerable literature has grown up dealing with this remarkable mystic. See in particular J. May, Die hl. Hildegard von Bingen (1911); and for a fuller bibliography DTC., vol. vi, cc. 2468— 2480. But now almost every aspect of St Hildegard’s activities is being independently studied. Her work as a pioneer in science has attracted attention in England, as may be noted in C. Singer, Studies in the History and Method of Science (1917). A number of monographs have appeared in Germany and France, dealing not only with her medical speculations, but also with her musical and artistic compositions. The illustrations, for example, which adorn the codex minor of the Scivias have been reproduced by L. Baillet in Monuments et Mémoires publiés par l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, vol. xix (1911). A short popular account of St Hildegard is provided in F. M. Steel’s Life and Visions of St Hildegarde (1914). See also J. P. Schmelzeis, Das Leben und Wirken der hi. Hildegardis (1879) and J. Christophe, Ste Hildegarde (1942).

St Hildegard, Virgin;

1224 St. Francis, imprinting of the holy Stigmata

In monte Alvérniæ, in Etrúria, commemorátio Impressiónis sacrórum Stígmatum, quibus sanctus Francíscus, Ordinis Minórum Institútor, in suis mánibus, pédibus et látere, mirábili Dei grátia, impréssus fuit.
The commemoration of the Impression of the Sacred Stigmata which St. Francis, founder of the Order of Friars Minor, received through a wonderful favour of God in his hands, feet, and side, at Mount Alverina in Etruria.

1. At Mount Alvernia in Tuscany, the commemoration of the St. Francis, imprinting of the holy Stigmata with which the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, was marked in his hands, feet and side by the wondrous favour of God.

1224 The Impression of The Stigmata Upon St Francis

In the month of August 1224 St Francis of Assisi withdrew himself from the world for a while to commune with God on the summit of La Verna, a lonely mountain in the Apennines. He was accompanied by Brother Leo and five or six others, but he chose a hut apart, under a beech tree, and gave instructions that no one was to come near him except Leo when he brought him food or other ministrations. About the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Francis, being in prayer on the side of the mountain, raised himself towards God with seraphic ardour and was transported by a tender and affective compassion of charity into Him who out of love was crucified for us. In this state he saw as it were a seraph, with six shining wings, bearing down from the highest part of the heavens towards him with a most rapid flight, and placing himself in the air near the saint. There appeared between his wings the figure of a man crucified, with his hands and feet stretched out, and fastened to the cross. The wings of the seraph were so placed that two he stretched above his head, two others he extended to fly, and with the other two he covered his body. At this sight a sudden joy, mingled with sorrow, filled Francis’s heart. The close presence of his Lord under the figure of a seraph, who fixed on him His eyes in the most gracious and loving manner, gave him great joy, but the sorrowful sight of His crucifixion pierced his soul with compassion. At the same time he understood by an interior light that, though the state of crucifixion in no way agreed with that of the immortality of the seraph, this wonderful vision was manifested to him that he might understand he was to be transformed into a resemblance with Jesus Christ crucified, not by the martyrdom of the flesh, but in his heart and by the fire of love. Suddenly, in a moment of great pain, the seraph smote him as it were in body and soul, and Francis had great fear, till the seraph spoke and made plain many things, which had hitherto been hidden, from him. Then, after a moment, which seemed an age, the vision vanished.
   But the saint’s soul remained interiorly burning with ardour, and his body appeared exteriorly to have received the image of the crucifix, as if his flesh had received the marks of a seal impressed upon it. For the scars of nails began to appear in his feet and hands, resembling those he had seen in the vision of the man crucified. His hands and feet seemed bored through in the middle with four wounds, and these holes appeared to be pierced with nails or hard flesh; the heads were round and black, and were seen in the palms of his hands and in his feet in the upper part of the instep. The points were long, and appeared beyond the skin on the other side, and were turned back as if they had been clinched with a hammer. There was also in his right side a red wound, as if made by the piercing of a lance, and this often shed blood, which stained the clothes of the saint.
   This wonderful miracle was performed whilst Francis’s understanding was filled with the most vivid ideas of Christ crucified, and his love employed in the utmost strength of its will in directing its affections on that object and assimilating them to his Beloved in that suffering state; so that in the imaginative faculty of his soul he seemed to form a second crucifix, with which impression it acted upon and strongly affected the body. To produce the exterior marks of the wounds in the flesh, which the interior love of his heart was not able to do, the fiery seraph, or rather Christ Himself in that vision, by darting piercing rays from His wounds represented in the vision, really formed exteriorly in St Francis those signs which love had interiorly imprinted in his soul.

Whether or no St Francis was the first person to be thus marked with the stigmata (Gk. marks) of our crucified Lord, his is unquestionably the most famous example, and the best authenticated until we come to recent and contemporary times; moreover, it is the only occurrence of the sort to be celebrated by a liturgical feast throughout the Western church. The happening and general nature of the phenomenon are beyond doubt. It is referred to by Brother Leo in the note which he wrote with his own hand on the “seraphic blessing” of St Francis, a document preserved by the Conventual friars at Assisi, and in announcing the death of their patriarch to the friars of France Brother Elias wrote in 1226: “From the beginning of ages there has not been heard so great a wonder, save only in the Son of God who is Christ our God. For a long while before his death, our father and brother appeared crucified, bearing in his body the five wounds which are verily the Stigmata of the Christ; for his hands and feet had as it were piercing made by nails fixed in from above and below, which laid open the scars and had the black appearance of nails ; while his side appeared to have been lanced, and blood often trickled therefrom.”
   In the earliest life of the saint, written between two and four years after his death, the stigmata are described thus “ His hands and feet seemed pierced in the midst by nails, the heads of the nails appearing in the inner part of the hands and in the upper part of the feet and their points over against them. Now these marks were round on the inner side of the hands and elongated on the outer side, and certain small pieces of flesh were seen like the ends of nails bent and driven back, projecting from the rest of the flesh. So also the marks of nails were imprinted in his feet, and raised above the rest of the flesh. Moreover his right side, as if it had been pierced by a lance, was overlaid with a scar, and often shed forth blood…” The Book of Miracles, probably written by the same eyewitness about twenty years later (Thomas of Celano), adds that the crowds who flocked to Assisi “saw in the hands and feet not the fissures of the nails but the nails themselves marvelously wrought by the power of God, indeed implanted in the flesh itself, in such wise that if they were pressed in on either side they straightway, as if they were one piece of sinew, projected on the other”. The statement, repeated above by Alban Butler from the Fioretti, that the points of the nails were “bent back and clinched on such wise that under the clinching and the bend, which all stood out above the flesh, it would have been easy to put a finger of the hand, as in a ring”, can be traced back to before 1274, but the most careful critics are inclined to reject its truth as a literal statement; nothing of the like kind is reported of any other well-attested cases of stigmata. There is not, of course, any suggestion that the “nails” referred to were other than fleshy or sinewy substances, and that they were even this (rather than part of the appearance and shape of the wounds or raised scars) is hardly warranted by the evidence, and not at all by comparison with the stigmata of others.
   The fact of stigmatization has been confirmed by modern examples; the stigmata often bleed periodically, especially on Fridays, and in no recorded case do the wounds suppurate. It would appear then that God singles out certain noble souls to be united more closely with the sufferings of His Son, souls who are willing and in some degree worthy to expiate the sins of others by bearing before the world the form of Jesus crucified, “not portrayed upon tables of stone or wood by the hand of an earthly artist but drawn in their flesh by the finger of the living God”. In the large number of reported stigmatizations in the past seven hundred years only some fifty or sixty are at all well attested, and some of these are explainable by fraud or other natural means, so the valid phenomenon remains a rare and remarkable indication by God of some of those who are heroically His servants. With some few exceptions the best-known stigmatisés were friars, nuns or tertiaries of one or other of the mendicant orders, and nearly all of them women.

Nearly all the many published Lives of St Francis give prominence to the stigmata. The contemporary evidence, notably that of Brother Elias, of the document called the “Blessing” of Brother Leo, and of the Vita prima by Thomas of Celano, is quite conclusive as to the existence of these wound marks. Paul Sabatier, Dr J. Merkt (The Wundmale des Franzithus von Assisi, (1910), and others have propounded a naturalistic explanation, on which see Bihl in Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, July, 1910, and Königer in the Historisches Jahrbuch, 1910, pp. 787 seq. In the collection Studi Francescani (1924) a volume was devoted to the seventh centenary of the stigmatization. This contains an important article (pp. 140—174) by A. Gemelli on “Le Affirmazione della Scienza intorno alle Stimmate di S. Francesco”. Cf. also V. Facchinetti, Le Stimmate di S. Francesco (1924); and Faloci Pulignani, Miscellanea Francescana, vol. xv, pp. 129—137. For stigmatization in general see H. Thurston, The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism (1952) and Douleur et stigmatisation (1956) in the series “Etudes carmelitaines”. This contains an excellent article by Fr P. Debongnie on stigmatization in the middle ages; he sharply criticizes the work of Dr Imbert-Gourbeyre (La stigmatisation…2 vols., 1894), following, among others, Fr Gemelli and Fr Thurston. See also F. L. Schleyer, Die Stigmatisation mit den Blutmalen (1948), who examines the very frequent coincidence of stigmatization and serious nervous disorders.

1442 The Makariev "Directress" Icon of the Mother of God On September 17, 1442 at about the third hour of the morning, when St Macarius was finishing his usual morning Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos, his cell was illumined suddenly by an unknown light. The monk became confused in spirit and fervently began to pray.

The Icon appeared during the reign of Prince Basil the Dark (1425-1462) to St Macarius the Wonderworker, who labored in asceticism on the desolate shores of the River Unzha. Beyond the cell walls he heard the angelic refrain: "Hail, Full of Grace, O Virgin Mother!" With fear and astonishment the monk went out from his cell and on the northwest horizon he saw the icon of the Mother of God, surrounded by a luminous radiance.

The icon approached towards the cell of the ascetic. With joyful trembling the monk fell to the ground and cried out: "Hail, Mother of God! Hail, Ever-Flowing Fountain issuing salvation to all the world and assuring protection and intercession to all the land of Galicia!"
He reverently took up the icon and placed it in his cell, thus it also came to be named the "Cell-Icon." Afterwards, the disciples of the monk gave it the title of "Makariev." On the place of the appearance of the holy icon a monastery was founded, and was also named Makariev. Copies of the Makariev Icon of the Mother of God were made, which are renowned as the original.

1485 St. Peter Arbues; Augustinian inquisitor; a master of Canon Law at the University of Bologna
Cæsaraugústæ, in Hispánia, sancti Petri de Arbues, primi in Aragóniæ regno Quæsitóris fídei; quem, a relápsis Judæis ob eándem, quam pro múnere suo strénue tuebátur, cathólicam fidem, immániter trucidátum, sanctórum Mártyrum catálogo Pius Papa Nonus adjúnxit.
    At Saragossa in Spain, St. Peter of Arbues, first inquisitor of the faith in the kingdom of Aragon, who received the palm of martyrdom by being barbarously massacred by apostate Jews for courageously defending the Catholic faith, according to the duties of his office. He was added to the list of martyr saints by Pius IX.

1485 ST PETER ARBUES, MARTYR
ONE of the chief problems of church and state in medieval Spain was how to deal with the Jews and the Mohammedans who were so numerous in the country: a problem complicated by the active hatred against them displayed by the common people, who shared neither the Christian sentiments of the more tolerant ecclesiastics nor the material interest involved for the civil authorities. During the fourteenth century Jews in particular had acquired great influence, not only the underground influence of finance but also the open power of high secular and even ecclesiastical offices. This had been attained, could be attained, only by profession of Christianity, a profession to a considerable extent false, and when genuine often superficial and unreliable. Two classes who gave particular trouble and were regarded as especially dangerous were the Maranos and the Moriscos, Jews and Moors respectively who, having for one reason or another, good or bad, been converted to Christianity and received baptism, subsequently relapsed, either openly or secretly.
    In the year 1478 Pope Sixtus IV, at the urgent request of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, issued a bull empowering them to appoint a tribunal to deal with Jewish and other apostates and sham converts. Thus was established the institution known in history as the Spanish Inquisition. It may be noted in passing that, though primarily an ecclesiastical tribunal, it acted, independently and often in defiance of the Holy See; and that though it was undoubtedly often brutal, harsh and cruel in its methods, yet its theoretical basis was not indefensible. It was not concerned with bona-fide Jews and Mohammedans, and those who voluntarily confessed apostasy and promised amendment were reconciled, with a light penance.

A few years before the establishment of this Inquisition there was professed with the canons regular at Saragossa a certain Peter Arbues. He had been born at Epila in Aragon about the year 1440, and had graduated brilliantly in theology and canon law in the Spanish College at Bologna. His virtue and enthusiasm had turned him to the religious life, but the reputation of his learning and zeal caused him to be called from his cloister some years after his profession. The organization of the nascent Inquisition was in the hands of the Dominican friar Thomas Torquemada, and he, looking about for a provincial inquisitor for the kingdom of Aragon, selected Peter Arbues, who took up his appointment in 1484.
   During the few months that he discharged this office Peter preached and worked unwearyingly against the sham Christians and apostates, and their characteristic vices of perjury, usury and sexual immorality. His zeal made him many enemies, who traduced his character and started the legend of his cruelty, a legend familiar to many, who have not otherwise heard of Peter Arbues, from the picture painted by Wilhelm von Kaulbach, in which the forty-four-year-old canon is represented as an aged and sadistic tyrant. Apart from the fact that in St Peter’s day the Spanish Inquisition was still more or less in the control of the more humane spirit of Rome, no sentence of death or torture has been proved against him.
   But the Maranos were determined to get rid of him. St Peter was aware of what was going on, but refused to take any extraordinary precautions, even after an unsuccessful attempt had been made on his life. But on the night of September 14—15, 1485, three men entered the cathedral of St Saviour at Saragossa and stabbed the canon as he knelt in prayer. He died two days later, and was at once acclaimed throughout the land as a martyr; as such he was canonized in 1867.

A sufficient account of St Peter is given in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. v. We have no formal biography of early date, but a good deal of information is provided by the chronicles of the time. See also G. Cozza, Della vita, miracoli e culto del martire S. Pietro de Arbues (1867).

1621 St. Robert Bellarmine; important writings, works of devotion and instruction; spiritual father of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, helped St. Francis de Sales obtain formal approval of the Visitation Order, and in his prudence opposed severe action in the case of Galileo; Pope Pius XI bestowed on him honours of the Saints, declared him a Doctor of the Universal Church, and appointed May 13 as his festival day.

Saint Robert Bellarmine's feast day is on 17 September, the day of his death; but some continue to use pre-1969 calendars, in which for 37 years his feast day was on 13 May. The rank attributed to his feast has been "double" (1932-1959), "third-class feast" (1960-1968), and since 1969 an "optional memorial", all of them equivalent.

Romæ natális sancti Robérti Bellarmíno, Confessóris, e Societáte Jesu, atque Cardinális et Capuáni olim Epíscopi, sanctitáte, doctrína, et plúrimis ad cathólicæ fídei et Apostólicæ Sedis defensiónem suscéptis labóribus claríssimi; quem Pius Undécimus, Póntifex Máximus, Sanctórum honóribus auxit et universális Ecclésiæ Doctórem declarávit, ejúsque festum tértio Idus Maji recoléndum indíxit.
At Rome, the birthday of St. Robert Bellarmine of the Society of Jesus, confessor and cardinal, and also formerly bishop of Capua. He is noted for his holiness, learning, and the many great tasks he performed in defence of the Catholic faith and the Apostolic See. Pope Pius XI bestowed on him the honours of the saints, declared him to be a doctor of the universal Church, and appointed 13th of May as feast day.

Born 1542 at Montepulciano, Italy, October 4, the third of ten children. His mother, Cinzia Cervini, a niece of Pope Marcellus II, was dedicated to almsgiving, prayer, meditation, fasting, and mortification of the body.

Robert entered the newly formed Society of Jesus in 1560 and after his ordination went on to teach at Louvain (1570-1576) where he became famous for his Latin sermons. In 1576, he was appointed to the chair of controversial theology at the Roman College, becoming Rector in 1592; he went on to become Provincial of Naples in 1594 and Cardinal in 1598.

This outstanding scholar and devoted servant of God defended the Apostolic See against the anti-clericals in Venice and against the political tenets of James I of England. He composed an exhaustive apologetic work against the prevailing heretics of his day. In the field of church-state relations, he took a position based on principles now regarded as fundamentally democratic - authority originates with God, but is vested in the people, who entrust it to fit rulers.

This saint was the spiritual father of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, helped St. Francis de Sales obtain formal approval of the Visitation Order, and in his prudence opposed severe action in the case of Galileo. He has left us a host of important writings, including works of devotion and instruction, as well as controversy .

St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621)
When Robert Bellarmine was ordained in 1570, the study of Church history and the Fathers of the Church was in a sad state of neglect. A promising scholar from his youth in Tuscany, he devoted his energy to these two subjects, as well as to Scripture, in order to systematize Church doctrine against the attacks of the Protestant Reformers.

He was the first Jesuit to become a professor at Louvain.

His most famous work is his three-volume Disputations on the Controversies of the Christian faith. Particularly noteworthy are the sections on the temporal power of the pope and the role of the laity.
He incurred the anger of both England and France by showing the divine-right-of-kings theory untenable.
He developed the theory of the indirect power of the pope in temporal affairs; although he was defending the pope against the Scottish philosopher Barclay, he also incurred the ire of Pope Sixtus V.

Bellarmine was made a cardinal by Pope Clement VIII on the grounds that "he had not his equal for learning." While he occupied apartments in the Vatican, Bellarmine relaxed none of his former austerities. He limited his household expenses to what was barely essential, eating only the food available to the poor. He was known to have ransomed a soldier who had deserted from the army and he used the hangings of his rooms to clothe poor people, remarking, "The walls won't catch cold."

Among many activities, he became theologian to Pope Clement VIII, preparing two catechisms which have had great influence in the Church.

The last major controversy of Bellarmine's life came in 1616 when he had to admonish his friend Galileo, whom he admired. Bellarmine delivered the admonition on behalf of the Holy Office, which had decided that the heliocentric theory of Copernicus was contrary to Scripture. The admonition amounted to a caution against putting forward—other than as a hypothesis—theories not yet fully proved. It was an example of the fact that saints are not infallible.

Bellarmine died on September 17, 1621. The process for his canonization was begun in 1627 but was delayed for political reasons, stemming from his writings, until 1930. In 1931 Pius XI declared him a Doctor of the Church.

Comment: The renewal in the Church sought by Vatican II was difficult for many Catholics. In the course of change, many felt a lack of firm guidance from those in authority. They yearned for the stone columns of orthodoxy and an iron command with clearly defined lines of authority. Vatican II assures us in The Church in the Modern World, "There are many realities which do not change and which have their ultimate foundation in Christ, who is the same yesterday and today, yes, and forever."

Robert Bellarmine devoted his life to the study of Scripture and Catholic doctrine. His writings help us understand that not only is content of our faith important, it is Jesus' living person—as revealed by his life, death and resurrection—source of revelation.
The real source of our faith is not merely a set of doctrines but rather the person of Christ still living in the Church today.

When he left his apostles, Jesus assured them of his living presence:
"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth" (see John 16:30).

Quote: "Sharing in solicitude for all the Churches, bishops exercise this episcopal office of theirs, received through episcopal consecration, in communion with and under the authority of the Supreme Pontiff. All are united in a college or body with respect to teaching the universal Church of God and governing her as shepherds" (Decree on the Bishops' Pastoral Office, 3).

1798 St. Emmanuel Trieu Vietnam Martyr ordained priest native
He joined the army but was ordained and worked under the auspices of the Foreign Mission of Paris. While visiting his mother, he was arrested in the anti-Christian persecution and martyred by beheading. Emmanuel was canonized in 1988.

1866 ST FRANCIS CAMPOROSSO laybrother the best-known and most welcome questor in Genoa (Transferred to September 25) He was beatified in 1929 and canonized in 1962.
CAMPOROSSO is a small town on the coast of Liguria, and there was living there at the beginning of the last century a family called Croese, who were farmers and olive-cultivators in a small way. To the master and mistress was born in 1804 a son, whom they had baptized John. He was one of four children and had a simple and religious upbringing, and as a matter of course began to work on his father’s farm. When he was about eighteen, however, John met a lay-brother of the Conventual Friars Minor, who gave him the idea of the same vocation. John presented himself at the friary at Sestri Ponente and was accepted as a tertiary and given the name of Antony. He spent two years in the service of that house, and then, desiring a life of greater austerity, he offered himself to the Capuchin Friars Minor. He was sent to their novitiate at Genoa and in 1825 was clothed as a lay-brother, with the names Francis Mary. In the following year he was professed and set to work in the infirmary, from whence he was taken to be questor, whose office it is to beg food from door to door for the community. This was a new experience for Brother Francis, and he disliked it so much that he thought of asking to be relieved of it. But instead, when the guardian asked him if he would undertake to beg in the city of Genoa itself, he accepted with alacrity. The Genoese were not invariably well disposed towards the religious, and Brother Francis sometimes received stones instead of bread, but he persevered for ten years and became the best-known and most welcome questor in the place.

He was a particularly familiar figure in the dockyard, where people would come to ask of him news of their friends and relatives overseas, for he was reputed to be able to give correct information about people in distant lands, whom he had never seen. Miracles of healing too were attributed to him and, though there were some still who insulted and jeered at him, to the majority he was known as “Padre santo”. It was in vain that he protested that he was a lay-brother and not a priest—” good father” he remained, and he was indeed a father to the poor and afflicted who flocked to him.

During two years Brother Francis suffered from varicose veins, of which he told nobody till his limp betrayed him, and he was found to be in a most shocking state. By the time he was sixty he was nearly worn out, and his leg had to be operated on, without much effect.

In August 1866 Genoa was devastated by cholera. The Capuchins and other religious of the city were out among the sufferers at once, and Bd Francis was so moved by all he saw around him that he solemnly offered his own life to God that the epidemic might cease; and he accurately predicted the circumstances of his approaching death. On September 15 he was himself smitten by the disease, and two days later he was called to God. From that time the cholera began to abate. The tomb of St Francis became famous for miracles. He was beatified in 1929 and canonized in 1962.

The decree of beatification, printed in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. xxi (1929), pp. 485—488, includes a biographical sketch of his life. Several biographies were issued or republished at the same time. The most considerable is one in Italian by Fr Luigi da Porto Maurizio; another, also of some length, is in French, by Fr Constant de Pélissanne (1929).

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

THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 68

Wonderful are thy testimonies, O kind Mother: and by thy words my heart is enlightened.

All the rich of the people shall entreat thy countenance: and the daughters of kings shall praise thy face.

The word of thy lips is burning exceedingly: He who shall make haste to come to thee, shall share in it.

I am as a trembling reed before thee: hold me, Lady, under thy yoke, and I shall not be confounded.

The dragons of hell attack thy servants above all others: but do thou, O Lady, defend us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:

Eternal Word Television Network 5817 Old Leeds Rd. Irondale, AL 35210 USA
Catholic Television Network Supported entirely by donations from viewers help spread the Eternal Word, online Here

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, 68 2023